Dr. Gerald Bray recently released an important essay in the Churchman on the significance of both GAFCON 2013 as an event, and as a movement that has the potential to restore health and unity to the Anglican Communion.  I highly commend “A Canterbury Tale” to you and encourage you to give the whole a good read.

Gerald Bray is full of praise for GAFCON as a representative gathering of the whole church – and not just a gathering of bishops as one finds in the Lambeth Conferences.  “The fact that the Lambeth Conference is exclusively episcopal is now a real weakness… Why should only bishops attend a worldwide gathering of Anglicans?” (p. 296) He has put his finger on one of the distinguishing characteristics of a church council (as I have written elsewhere) – namely that it represents all orders of the church.  In this respect, Bray notes how GAFCON 2013 stands out for its representative gathering of the whole communion: “No other group of Anglicans could stage an event with as broad a participation, and that alone ought to persuade people to take it seriously.”  (p. 291) In fact, he is bold to say that GAFCON offers the only hope forward for the Anglican Communion as it faces continuing divisions over Christian essentials:

“If the Anglican Communion is to survive, and if its witness to the developed world is to be faithful to the Gospel, its Western branches will have to eat humble pie and conform to what GAFCON sees as necessary.  If that does not happen, then GAFCON and its supporters will go their own way and the rest of the Communion will be left high and dry.  This is what the Archbishop of Canterbury needs to take on board as part of his own strategy for renewal.  Trying to balance the orthodoxy of GAFCON with the heresies of those who disagree with it will not work.  A choice must be made, and the GAFCON way, though not perfect, is still the only one that has anything to offer the church as a whole.” (p. 293)

I hope and pray that Bray’s words here are prophetic.  I hope and pray that the leadership of the Western branches of the Anglican Communion will humble themselves and return to Christian essentials.  I hope and pray that the Archbishop of Canterbury will “take on board” GAFCON as part of his strategy for renewing the Communion – rather than marginalizing GAFCON by referring to it publicly as any other of a variety of organizations within the Anglican Communion, or preferring to focus on relational reconciliation through Indaba as some kind of end in itself.

But looking at the evidence before us, it is difficult to share Gerald Bray’s hope.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s excuses for not attending GAFCON ranged from the sublime to the absurd.  Was it the previously scheduled conference in Iceland with theologians of the Porvoo churches who now affirm gay marriage?  Or was it standing in solidarity with the victims of terrorist attacks in Kenya (but not Anglicans in Peshawar, Pakistan), whom he was unable to actually visit in the hospital because his time was so short?  Or was it the suddenly scheduled baptism of Prince George?  As Bray observes, “The impression left is one of incompetence and dysfunctionality in which almost any excuse to downplay the significance of GAFCON has been eagerly seized upon form far more than it is worth.” (p. 292)

There were also his public remarks much quoted from his video message to the delegates at GAFCON.  While he pointed out the “sexual revolution” in many places where Anglicans now minister, especially in the West and specifically in the UK, he failed to mention that for Christians our response is a recommitment to holiness of life – which means abstinence in all but heterosexual monogamous marriages for life.  This was and remains the standard of Biblical teaching, and Communion teaching (Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (1998)) He failed to mention either.  “Coyness on so obvious a point as this,” notes Bray, “is not a good sign.” (Ibid.)

Then there is the Pilling Report which recommends to the Church of England the “marking” of civil partnerships between same-sex couples in a public Anglican Church service, when approved by the parish priest and parish council (PCC).  In his Advent letter, Archbishop Wabukala, Chair of the GAFCON Primates Council, warned that such action will publicly mark the “Mother Church” of England as having departed from Christian essentials to follow the same path of division set by TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada, with all the heartbreak that has brought to the Communion.  Will the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of the Church of England heed that warning when they meet next week to consider the Pilling Report and its recommendations?  Or will they seek to conform the Church of England and its rites to the “Sexual revolution” in English society?  In light of the decision to conform the new Church of England baptismal rites to a society which does not think well of “sin” and “the devil” by dropping those words altogether, it seems a vain hope that the Archbishop and the bishops will put any brake on the Pilling recommendations.

In the meantime, what should the leadership of GAFCON do – not only the Primates Council, but all those delegates and other leaders of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans?  They should press ahead with preparations for GAFCON III, wherever and whenever that may be.  They should gather in the meantime regionally to work on the ministry partnerships and networks mentioned and pledged in the Nairobi Communique.  They should continue to reach out and expand the base.  They should pray for the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of the Church of England.  They should pray for all those who may stand for election in the 2015 synodical elections who support GAFCON, the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, its programs and aims.  They should continue to proclaim the Gospel and stand firm as the Instrument of Unity that they have become for the majority of Anglicans whom they represent.

The strength of GAFCON as a movement (the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans) lies precisely in its commitment to a common confession of Christian essentials as the basis around which Anglicans can and must unite.  Gerald Bray agrees with Canterbury that Christians disagree about many things and that we have to live together. “But it is also true that there is a core of beliefs that cannot be compromised.” (Ibid.).  Yes, that is exactly what GAFCON and the Global fellowship of Anglicans stand for.  Nothing may substitute for that core of beliefs so well summarized in the Jerusalem Declaration – not liturgical universalism, not the “Millennium development goals,” and not the new religion of relational reconciliation as some kind of end in itself.

This article by The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey first appeared in the January 24, 2014 edition of the AAC’s weekly email update. Sign up for this free email.