Opening news conference, Monday 21st October 2013

The second Global Anglican Future Conference, which opens today in Nairobi, is confirmation that the churches involved in the GAFCON movement are committed to the Anglican Communion and modelling how the communion should operate in the 21st century.

Organisers say the movement has grown since the first conference in Jerusalem in 2008.

“We have exceeded the first GAFCON both in number and reach” said the General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Dr Peter Jensen. “We have also surpassed all expectations here in Nairobi.”

Although initially expecting 1100, the final total is 1,352 Archbishops, Bishops, clergy and lay people, men and women, from almost 40 countries.

The number of bishops attending is 331, of whom 30 are Archbishops.

This includes senior figures such as Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, which has 18 million active Anglicans and is sending a delegation of more than 450.

The Chairman of GAFCON, the Primate of Kenya, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala  says “I am confident this will be a decisive moment in a great spiritual movement which will help shape the future of the Anglican Communion for generations to come.”

Source: GAFCON