Gafcon Meeting in Kigali Rejects All Existing Forms of Anglican Authority

CONSERVATIVE Anglicans angered by the Church of England’s partial endorsement of same-sex unions have expressed their rejection of the structures that hold the Anglican Communion together.

Lambeth Palace has responded by restating that Anglican structures can be altered only by recognised agreement.

At the conclusion of the the fourth gathering of the Global Anglican Futures Conference (Gafcon) in Kigali, Rwanda, participants released a communiqué on Friday morning dismissing the four “Instruments of Unity” of the Anglican Communion, saying that they have “failed to maintain true communion based on the Word of God and shared faith in Christ”.

It says: “We have no confidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury nor the other Instruments of Communion led by him (the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates’ Meetings) are able to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of scripture.”

The communiqué makes it clear that the dividing issue is homosexuality, about which it complains of “repeated departures from the authority of God’s Word”. It goes on: “The latest of these departures is the majority vote by the General Synod of the Church of England in February 2023 to welcome proposals by the bishops to enable same-sex couples to receive God’s blessing.

“It grieves the Holy Spirit and us that the leadership of the Church of England is determined to bless sin. Since the Lord does not bless same-sex unions, it is pastorally deceptive and blasphemous to craft prayers that invoke blessing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

At last year’s Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury was commended by bishops of all persuasions for his contention that the Communion contained people with honestly held, theologically argued views on homosexuality that differed in fundamental ways (News, 2 August 2022).

But this week’s Gafcon meeting, attended by 1300 people from around the world, dismissed the notion of “walking together in good disagreement”. The communiqué says: “We reject the claim that two contradictory positions can both be valid in matters affecting salvation. We cannot ‘walk together’ in good disagreement with those who have deliberately chosen to walk away from the ‘faith once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).”

The communiqué, which was read to the participants by the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, the Most Revd Henry Ndukuba, on Friday morning, adds that “successive Archbishops of Canterbury have failed to guard the faith by inviting bishops to Lambeth who have embraced or promoted practices contrary to scripture.

“This failure of church discipline has been compounded by the current Archbishop of Canterbury who has himself welcomed the provision of liturgical resources to bless these practices contrary to scripture. This renders his leadership role in the Anglican Communion entirely indefensible.”

The chair of the Gafcon statement committee, the Bishop of South Sydney, Dr Michael Stead, said: “It is clear from this conference is that most of the world’s Anglicans have lost confidence in the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of scripture.

“This grieves us, but it is they who have walked away from us.”

Another element in the Kigali meeting was the apparent endorsement of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which said in February that, after the Church of England’s move towards blessing same-sex couples (News, 9 February), they no longer considered Archbishop Welby to be the de facto leader of the Anglican Communion (News, 20 February).

Friday’s communiqué says that “both GSFA and Gafcon Primates share the view that . . . they can no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as an Instrument of Communion, the ‘first among equals’ of the Primates. The Church of England has chosen to impair her relationship with the orthodox provinces in the Communion.”

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/28-april/news/world/gafcon-meeting-in-kigali-rejects-all-existing-forms-of-anglican-authority