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Global South Fellowship of Anglicans Assembly
June 11, 2024
Introductions
The Coptic Orthodox Church, China Christian Council chair Reverend Zhou and
delegates from China, bishops, all provincial delegates delegates from different church
groupings, mission partners, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the
Global South Steering Committee, I warmly welcome you all to this first Global South
Assembly under the covenantal structure here in Egypt. And I want to say a special
welcome to our dear brother, the new primate of Southeast Asia, that is the Most
Reverend Doctor Titus Chung. You are welcome to this fellowship. We are grateful to
the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros the second and his people for
warmly extending to us the use of this beautiful retreat centre. Their hospitality and love
reminds us of the unity we can have in Christ Jesus our Lord. So if there are [members]
of the Coptic Church here, we are grateful and we say thank you. Once again, let me
acknowledge the presence of our dear father, the former Archbishop of Kenya, Elliot
Wabukala, and your dear wife.
You are most welcome.
I also want to recognize the former Archbishop of ACNA, Robert Duncan. As was earlier
said by my brother Steven Tan, this man has served a lot, and those who are not here
with us. And again, I want to say thank you to my dear father, Doctor Munir Anis, who
has made a significant contribution to the life of Global South Fellowship of Anglican
churches. So, dear father, thank you.
So the foundation, the current foundation where we are building, almost the stones,
were brought together by Doctor Munir Anis and therefore we want to just give a small
token of our appreciation to you just to tell you, we recognize and we thank you. Can
you just come forward?
Main Text
Brothers and sisters, we have chosen to call this assembly here in Egypt because this
is, so to speak, the center of the world. It is at least the place of the ancient historical
sites recorded in the Old Testament. It was a place of refuge to the Blessed Mary with
the baby Jesus. Some of you who are here, you may go and see that cave if you like.
We thank the Province of Alexandria for allowing us to come to Egypt. So, my dear
brother, Archbishop Simon, thank you for opening the door to us. As Prophet Hosea
chapter one verse one reminds us that out of Egypt I have called my son. Furthermore,
we are meeting in the desert, which was where our Lord himself received his final
[unknown] before launching his public ministry.
This retreat center is therefore a fitting venue because Global South Fellowship of
Anglicans is seeking to follow in the footsteps of God’s faithful Son.
Our commitment to biblical truths.
The Global South first started as a regional grouping of the Anglican provinces that was
likely south of the equator. Its first meeting, known as the First Trumpet, was in 1994, in
Nairobi, Kenya. Their stand for Orthodoxy in the communion led them to issue the Kuala
Lumpur statement in 1997, which fed into the historic 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10,
but this has never been taken seriously by the revisionist provinces. In the year 2016,
the Global South appointed a study committee team to find ways of addressing the
problem of an ecclesial deficit in the life and structure of the communion as the problem
identified in 2008 by the Communions in Bristol Continuation Group. The team drafted a
covenantal structure, which was adopted in 2019 by the Seventh Global South
Conference in Cairo. It was agreed that the basis of membership in the Global South
Fellowship would change from geography to doctrine and acceptance of the covenantal
structure by the Provinces, Synod, or Standing Committee. Provinces who joined the
fellowship covenant with each other, and to stay faithful to the plain and canonical
teaching of God’s Word, and to be mutually accountable to each other in matters of faith
and order. The Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches now becomes a home to
all Orthodox Anglicans within the Anglican Communion. I am happy to let you know that
in this assembly we have 200 participants coming from 40 countries around the world.
They represent the holy remnants in the communion. They hold fast to God’s word as
faith once delivered and seek to obey in their lives. They are those who have resisted
bowing to the demands of revisionism. They have committed themselves to proclaim
and live out the authentic gospel truth. Again, I say to all of you who have decided to
remain faithful to the historic biblical faith expressed in the Anglican formularies, that is,
the 39 articles, the Book of Common Prayer, the ordinal and the Book of Homilies and
applied to the Matter of Marriage and Sexuality in Lambeth Resolution 1.10 of the 1998
Lambeth Conference, I say welcome to GSFA as a form of orthodoxy. Though
Canterbury says, let us work together, listen to each other and have a good
disagreement, the Global Sout primates and I myself as the Chair, I say to you, we
cannot walk together in sin. Unless there is repentance by those who have gone astray,
we cannot have unity at the expense of God’s life giving truth. In this assembly, which is
the Ninth Trumpet of the Global South, we will blow the trumpet together to remind, to
warn, and to gather the faithful remnants across the Anglican Communion in mission for
the Authentic Gospel.
Our commitment to global mission.
The theme for this assembly comes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 49,
verse 6B, which says, “I will make you as a light for the nations.” This was a prophecy
about the role of Israel not only to be the people of God under his rule, but Israel chosen
to be a light to the nations so that God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. It
is my prayer that from this assembly, each one of us will carry the light of the Gospel
truth to the world. Indeed, the world is in an extremely grave position suffering injustice,
conflict, chaos, spreading like wildfire. It may not be too much to say that Satan has
released the forces of evil on the world in every realm, the physical and social, moral
and spiritual realities. It is sad to see the ongoing flux and confusion in our beloved
Communion, the concerted movement towards revisionism, which is now openly
accommodated by some provinces. It is also sad to hear and see the increased hostility
and persecution of Christians in so many parts of the world. I cannot mention, we are
following and we know the names of the parts of the world where this is ongoing, but
our God is never late. As we pray and work for his renewing kingdom, he will even
harness the work of the forces of evil to achieve his salvation purposes. In the midst of
the darkness, the glory of the Lord will shine on his people and through his people. That
light brings life and hope to all who call on the name of the Lord.
The nations will see and experience the salvation that only God can bring. In this
assembly, we will activate and discuss how to sustain the three tracks, which will enable
the Global South Fellowship to move together in mission partnership, economic
empowerment, and ministerial and leadership formation in all Orthodox provinces.
There is room here for the active participation of our mission partners. This will enable
us to take the Gospel out to the lost and needy world, and to care for one another in the
Global South Fellowship of Anglicans family in a consistent way, as there is so much
hardship and conflict in several of our provinces.
Our commitment to historic communion
All those who are committed to preserving the historic Anglican doctrine and teachings
are true Anglicans. And therefore, I say, there are other groupings, and you in the
Global South call yourself the true Anglicans. We respect and relate to the seat of Saint
Augustine. It is always our prayer that the person who sits on that seat will always be
faithful to the faith we once received from the saints and faithfully transmitted. Currently,
the Communion and the world need the witness of a holy remnant. The Global South
demonstrated the spirit of a holy remnant at the Lambeth Conference of 2022, by
refusing to [serve] Holy Communion with the revisionist bishops. We will continue to
stand strong and never compromise the truth for a unity that condones sin. We deeply
lament the current situation in the Church of England and in revisionist provinces. We
pray that they will come out of Babylon and return to obey God’s Word. Though they
always say we are crazy. [Of] what will they repent? But we inconsistently say, repent of
your sins and believe the Good News. That is the message and we are praying and
waiting for them.
In the meantime, Global South Fellowship of Anglicans will continue to explore how best
to support orthodox churches in these provinces. And again in this assembly, we will
look further to how we can fulfill our responsibility to the wider communion from which
historically we have received a good inheritance in the Faith. In our Ash Wednesday
statement of 20th February 2023, we made it clear that we will not walk away from the
Communion that has so richly bless us, and for whose faithfulness to God and His Word
our forebearers have paid a costly price. What has happened in the Church of England
has only served to strengthen our resolve to work together to reset the Communion. We
will collaborate with other orthodox groupings to ensure that the reset Communion is
marked by reform and renewal. Only then will the Anglican Communion as a whole be
able to be God’s channel of light and transformation in a dark and broken world. So I
always say that in Africa we live in tukus. When a snake enters your tuku, you don’t run
away. It is the snake. You chase it away. So we will struggle [against]the liberals. We
will chase them out of our beloved Communion. But let them think and repent that they
may stay together with us.
So, my brothers and sisters, the purpose of this gathering here as a holy remnant from
around the world is to recharge ourselves in order to shine more brightly for God in a
darkening world. As the redeemed people of God, we have been commissioned to go
out to help those who are floundering in the darkness of sin, and to guide them towards
the light of God’s healing and saving power in Christ Jesus. The power to achieve this
will only come through prayer. Therefore, the objectives of our assembly are three. One,
to worship the Lord and receive new strength through prayer, word, and spirit. I think the
first objective is already started. There is a team here that has come all the way from
Uganda, and we have tasted and we have tasted the Gospel from Chile. That was
great, and we will continue to do more and listen to speakers from different parts of the
world. And the second objective is to mobilize and encourage ourselves as orthodox
Anglicans to defend, to live out, and proclaim the Gospel. Then the third objective is to
prayerfully choose office bearers according to the covenantal structure, to lead the work
of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans [moving] forward. Those are the three
objectives that in the few days ahead we shall be engaging into it. But notice that the
first objective is to be a praying fellowship, one that draws strength from God’s Word
and God’s Spirit.
So I encourage you, try to pray. We shall have prayers every morning from 630 to 730.
Before we go and eat the real breakfast, we shall have that breakfast prayer . . . That is
because the power to fulfill God’s calling comes from God Himself as the Global South
Fellowship of Anglicans family. We will need to find ways in which we can follow the
example of the early church, where all of them devoted themselves to prayer. We find
that in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter one, verse 14. Let this renewed prayerfulness
begin. At this assembly again, my brothers and sisters, let us assemble to humbly
repent of our own failings before God, to seek his face afresh, and to renew the
covenant we are making with him and with each other. May these days of the assembly
be a time of friendship and devotion, a time to offer our churches and groupings of
prayers to God, and to connect together as a global body of faithful Anglicans to
advance this glorious kingdom in the world.
So with this, I declare the Assembly open and may God bless our time together.
