GAFCON Day 1: A second Reformation?
It's the Africans. Cascading down the hotel staircase in a riot of colour and noise and smiles, the bishops in vivid purple and their wives in even more gorgeous dresses, laughing and greeting each other, hugging, flowing on, in a joyful Christian river.
Of the 1200 delegates here at GAFCON, somewhere between a third and a half are from Africa. I've already met Bishop Bernard and Bishop Paul from Sudan, who gravely informed me that if I wanted to know what ministry was really like where they lived, we would have to sit, we would have to sit. Some things can't be said in small talk in a corridor. Discussing what it is like to be a Christian bishop in Sudan is clearly one of them. I'm looking forward to sitting with them.
At last night's opening session, it was the leading African Archbishop, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who outlined the sad history that had brought global Anglicanism to an event like GAFCON. In the face of relentless revisionism, of which the consecration of the openly homosexual Gene Robinson as a bishop was but the most vivid expression, compromise or inaction is simply not an option:
We cannot succumb to this turmoil in our Communion and simply watch helplessly. We have found ourselves in a world in which Anglican leaders hold on to a form of religion but consistently deny its power. We have a situation in which some members of the Anglican family think they are so superior to all others that they are above the law, they can do whatever they please with impunity. As a Communion we have been unable to exercise discipline.
And why GAFCON? Here are some choice quotes from Peter Akinola:
GAFCON is a rescue mission. Our beloved Anglican Communion must be rescued from the manipulation of those who have denied the gospel and its power to transform and to save; those who have departed from the scripture and the faith ‘once and for all delivered to the saints’ from those who are proclaiming a new gospel, which really is no gospel at all (Gal 1). In the wisdom and strength God supplies we must rescue what is left of the Church from error of the apostates ...
We are here because we want to renew our commitment to our sacred duty to preserve and proclaim uncompromisingly the undistorted word of God written to a sinful and fragmented world. GAFCON is a meeting of ordained and lay leaders concerned about the mission of the Church and how best to carry it out and be poised to address the ever-present challenges of self-reliance, good governance, overcoming corruption and to prepare a strong and stable platform for upcoming generations ...
We are here because we know that in God's providence GAFCON will liberate and set participants (particularly Africans) free from spiritual bondage which TEC and its allies champion. Having survived the inhuman physical slavery of the 19th century, the political slavery called colonialism of the 20th century, the developing world economic enslavement, we cannot, we dare not allow ourselves and the millions we represent be kept in a religious and spiritual dungeon ...
We are here because we know that in spite of the fractures in our Communion, as orthodox Anglicans, we have a future and so we are here in the holy land to inaugurate and determine the roadmap to that future.
It was a rousing address, by turns passionate, indignant, pleading, gentle and resolute. At its close, Emmanuel Kolini (Archbishop of Rwanda) suggested that we were at the beginning of a second Reformation. If the courage, biblical conviction and fire of these Africans is anything to go by, he may well be right.
Tony, I hope and pray that this will indeed be a second Reformation. But I wonder if the broadness of the anti-liberal alliance will cause us difficulties down the track? As well as people who are clearly evangelical, there are, I believe, many whose doctrines regarding justification and the sacraments are far closer to Roman Catholicism than to biblical views.
Do you see this as creating a potential problem?
Hi Tony. It makes for an interesting read, particularly for someone outside the fold. It did make me wonder though, in the light our recent trialogue, where so much discussion focused on the definition and understanding of ‘church’, what are we to make of the comments by the good bishop: we must rescue what is left of the Church; GAFCON is a meeting of ordained and lay leaders concerned about the mission of the Church. When did the Anglican communion become the Church?
Thanks for the comments guys. It’s a packed programme and I’ll do my best to pop on and respond now and then, but time (and internet access) is limited.
Gordo, there may be problems, but to echo what has become almost a mantra here so far—there is no early foreclosing on what GAFCON will end up being or achieving. There is certainly a strong feeling that it doesn’t want to be a ‘single issue’ party, or a loose federation of theologically disparate cobelligerents.
I was in a workshop this morning on Anglican Identity, brilliantly led by Andrew Shead and Ashley Null, which strongly affirmed the classic Scriptural basis for Anglican identity and unity. (I think the text will soon be online at the GAFCON site; definitely worth reading). In the discussion afterwards, it was clear that the way ahead was to affirm a doctrinal and moral unity based on Scripture, while allowing for regional distinctives in matters of order and practice—this being the classic Cranmerian distinction between doctrine (including morals) on which there must be inflexibility, and discipline (including ceremonies and such things) about which there may be geographical and temporal differences.
Whether some of those regional distinctives turn out to be more than matters of discipline we will have to see.
Steve, I think the good bishop was reflecting standard terminology—although his ecclesiology may give rather more weight to the denomination (let alone communion) as church than either of us would! I am not sure.
Perhaps I can report more accurately after Thursday’s workshop on Anglican ecclesiology.
TP
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