Since September 2 I have been on the road and out of country in Uganda, Wales and Kenya.  I’d like to share just a few thoughts and highlights of what the Lord has taught me along the way.

First, I have learned that God’s word applies across many different cultures to Anglican leaders everywhere.  From September 2-12, I was privileged to serve on a joint SOMA/AAC team to help develop leaders among the Church of Uganda – first in Kampala, for the Provincial Secretariat (or “staff” as we would call them, to the Archbishop and Church), and then to the bishop and clergy of the Diocese of Northern Uganda, in Gulu.  One of our defining biblical verses came from I John 1:6-7:  “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”  In Uganda itself, the social, educational, tribal and cultural differences between Kampala and Gulu are significant.  Yet in both cases the leaders we worked with found God’s word timely, challenging and with up to the minute relevance.  They were able from their own experience as leaders to readily identify attitudes and behaviors that witness to “walking in the light” with each other – as well as those that do not, those that destroy trust.  It was a great joy to see that many of the biblical principles we teach in our AAC Clergy Leadership Training Institute readily transferred to their context – especially those on what it means to be a “well defined leader,” how to recognize when we as leaders are operating out of the woundedness from our own past, how to avoid “personalizing” conflict, and how we can stay focused as Jesus was on mission even in the face of conflict, resistance and cultural challenges.
One Holy Spirit moment stood out for me especially when we were in Gulu.  Gulu is a city in the heart of Northern Uganda where civil war raged for almost 20 years.  Gulu saw unspeakable atrocities perpetrated by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army.  The toxicity of unprocessed pain hung over the leaders we served like a pall.  The Holy Spirit moved in our hearts and minds to address the deeper issues that many of these leaders – bishop, clergy and laity alike – were wrestling with:  “How can I even begin to talk about trust building and team building with others when the atrocities we have experienced raise questions about trusting God?”  By allowing those questions and hurt to be raised, we saw breakthroughs in prayer and repentance – especially as their Bishop, Johnson Gakumba, stepped forward as their chief Shepherd to lead them into those places of confession, repentance and forgiveness!

Secondly, in my first of eight extended weekends at Cardiff University to study Canon Law, I was reminded again that it’s all about God.  As one of our lecturers pointed out, from the Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law (1983), the canons are not about individual rights for those within and without the Church.  Canons serve the purpose of the Church – which is the salvation of souls (see our Lord’s Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20).  In other words, canon law and the governing structures that canons create must always serve the mission of the church.  The same lecturer quipped that “canon law seems sometimes like the dark side of the Good News.  But the Good News is that the Good News is still the reference point!”

It was both challenging to absorb all the material we received and a great joy to share how our ACNA Constitution and Canons have been deliberately drafted to serve our Lord’s Great Commission.  They are not ends in themselves.  The Church of England has had over a thousand years of history in developing its canon law.  I found both instructors and fellow students interested in understanding how, as a new Anglican body, we are beginning to face into, develop and even adjust our ACNA canons to the same challenges they have faced.

Finally, the Lord reminded me on the plane from Wales to Nairobi that our call to mission comes out of a place of confession and repentance in the presence and understanding of the holiness of God.  You know the story from Isaiah 6:  Isaiah had a vision of the presence of God in the temple at a critical point in the life of the nation (the death of King Uzziah, Isaiah 6:1).  As R.C. Sproul once observed, lifeless, inanimate objects – the doorposts and thresholds of the temple – had the good sense to shake in the presence of God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:4).  So did Isaiah.  As he pronounced woe upon himself and the nation for their “unclean lips,” it was the atoning fire of the angel’s coal that touched his lips and cleansed them (6:5-7).  Only then was he able to respond to God’s call to mission (“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”) “Here am I, send me!” (6:8).

In that context I shared with the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Kenya “Why the GAFCON II gathering in Nairobi October 21-27 is so important.”  For it is GAFCON and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans that enables us to model how the Anglican Communion should be in response to God’s call to mission.  It is not “indaba, indaba, indaba,” nor “compromise, compromise, compromise,” that forms the foundation for missionary efforts, but “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD.”  I shared about our observations of ACC-15 in Auckland New Zealand last year and the work the American Anglican Council has done over many years responding to the inability of official Anglican structures to deal with theologies and practices that are both contrary to the Bible and the received teaching of the Anglican Communion.  This meeting of GAFCON II in Nairobi is an opportunity to gather Christ-following, mission-minded, God fearing Anglicans from all over the world to chart a future for Anglicans in fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission.  I hope you will join me in praying for GAFCON II and all the preparations that are going into it – that like Isaiah we will be overcome by the greatness of our God, and that like Isaiah we will leave with the same cry on our lips – “Here am I LORD; send me!”

Yours in Christ,
Phil+

The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council