What is Gafcon?
A meeting held in Jerusalem 22–29 June 2008. Present were about 1,200 people including 300 bishops and archbishops, mainly from churches in the southern hemisphere – Africa, Asia, Australia, South America and a contingent from the US, Canada and the British Isles. Gafcon now seems set to become an ongoing movement and has been dubbed the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA). Church of England people are being invited to sign the Gafcon petition.
What do they want?
Related links
CMS statement on Gafcon
General Secretary's comment
External links
Gafcon Final Statement
Archbishop of Canterbury's responseThe Gafcon statement insists it is not advocating schism. The organisers are forming an alternative global network of people and churches which are unhappy with liberal or “revisionist” agendas in the life of the Church.
Is it just about sexuality?
The consecration of Gene Robinson as bishop in New Hampshire in 2003 and decisions of Dioceses in the USA and Canada to celebrate same-sex unions have become the presenting issues. Gafcon leaders however insist this is only the tip of an iceberg and at stake is the missionary integrity and orthodoxy of Anglicanism.
What is the CMS position?
CMS broadly agrees that events in the USA and Canada are a serious challenge for Anglicanism and its integrity. The
CMS Ethos Statement
is unequivocal about where CMS stands on the presenting issue.
What does this mean for the Church of England?
The Church of England has not made decisions like those which The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada have taken over sexuality, so even though parishes are being invited to sign up in favour of the Jerusalem Declaration the likely practical outworkings are still unclear. Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, who has assumed a very high profile in the movement has said, “English problems require English solutions.” That does not rule out the possibility that some English parishes will appeal to the Gafcon Council of Primates for assistance, or that some Churches from the Gafcon movement might intervene or begin missionary projects in England.
What does this mean for CMS relationships with Churches in Africa and Asia?
CMS is utterly committed to its historic relationships in the Anglican Communion. Over many years it has supported them in evangelistic mission and leadership training. As a mission organisation CMS is working towards each of our former regions of Africa, Asia and Europe being replaced by local mission movements. They will run their own mission programmes based on locally agreed policies. CMS will continue as a network in which evangelistic mission is a priority and through which we will both send and receive people in mission across the world.