Conservative Anglicans stay with Communion, launch global fellowship
by Maria Mackay
Posted: Monday, June 30, 2008, 10:12 (BST)
Conservative Anglicans launched a new global fellowship on Sunday charged with defending traditional Anglicanism against the “false gospel” of homosexuality being promoted within liberal western member churches of the Anglican Communion.
In a statement issued after the closure of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem on Sunday, 300 conservative Anglican leaders agreed plans for a council of primates to oversee the new GAFCON movement and for the formation of a separate province in North America.
The Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Peter Jensen, said that the Primates’ council would regulate the “chaos” within the 77 million-member Anglican Communion and “defend the Gospel…from revisionist or liberal theologies”.
They also stated their intention to continue offering pastoral oversight to conservative parishes stranded within liberal member churches of the Anglican Communion.
Although the volunteer “fellowship of confessing Anglicans” will maintain official ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury, leaders said that Anglicanism was not “determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury”.
In the statement, the leaders blamed the present crisis within the Anglican Communion on the “false gospel” being taught in liberal provinces.
“This false gospel undermines the authority of God’s Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of salvation from sin, death and judgement,” they stated.
“Many of its proponents claim that all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behaviour as a universal human right.
“It claims God’s blessing for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony.”
This false gospel, the leaders added, had led to the US Episcopal Church’s consecration of the gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, a move denounced last Friday by Archbishop Jensen, as “an extraordinary strategic blunder”.
The GAFCON statement continued, “We grieve for the spiritual decline in the most economically developed nations, where the forces of militant secularism and pluralism are eating away the fabric of society and churches are compromised and enfeebled in their witness."
The leader stressed, however, that they wanted to remain within the Anglican Communion.
“We cherish our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing from it. And we believe that, in God’s providence, Anglicanism has a bright future in obedience to our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations and to build up the church on the foundation of biblical truth (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 2:20),” they stated.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, at the forefront of the conservative Anglican movement, said that the new fellowship was not “a church within a church”.
At a news conference after GAFCON’s end, he affirmed, “We are part of the worldwide church called the Anglican Communion.”
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The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Monday, June 30, 2008, 20:05 (BST)
Dear Editor,
We are in the Last Days. The Church Of Christ, His Bride, is under attack from satanic forces, from all sides and this is just one aspect! Jesus warned us that there would be false Messiahs, and accompanying signs and wonders, teaching false doctrines, and that the Last Days would be as the days before the Flood.
I am sure that Jesus was far more graphic than is recorded in the Gospels, especially as early translations were done by prudish monks and regulated by the church authorities at the time! But Peter, Paul, John, Jude, et al, have were more graphic in their revelations.
If the Anglican Communion splits, then it would be a tragedy, but not one that was unforeseen. And, possibly, deliberately orchestrated by the spiritually subvertive - it's what the communists were trying to do, and now PCness is doing the same in today's world, both temporal and secular.
True Christians must take a stand and understand that we are in a (spiritual) war, and there are wolves in sheep's clothing. Scripture tells us that we need to discern the spirits, and the only Spirit that will help us do that is the Holy Spirit! If what is happening is, or not, affirmed by Scripture, then we need to respond accordingly. We can only understand this through teaching that is based on Scripture, not the unrelavent Lectionary, which does nothing to address the spiritual hunger in many church families. If the families do not get Spirit-led teaching from Spirit-led leaders, then they will either wither, listen to anyone with a pseudo-Christian message or just fall away. Still, it says in revelations that apostasy will occur in the Last Days, deespite a deep spiritual hunger in the whole world!
Do not be deceived. The CofE leadership needs to wake up and get their ears open to the Word of the Spirit! Kairos may be a worthy venture, but if the people are not fed, then it will be a waste of time, and Rowan Williams will be the Archbishop of Schism.
Also, the 'Interfaith' is a major step towards the eventual establishment of the One World Religion, that will promote the message that everyone's way to God is valid, but negating Jesus' word stating that 'No man can come to the Father EXCEPT by Me.' Interfaith is a MAJOR lie! And the Antichrist will use it to blind people to the truth. THIS IS IN SCRIPTUAL PROPHECY. Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, let them see and hear.
The Spirit says to the Church - Use the gold you have to buy balm for your eyes and white linen to wear, so you may be presentable to the Lord, lest He, you being lukewarm, spits you out of His Mouth. This was the Word to the church in Laodaecia - WE ARE LAODAECIA!!
Chris Maguire, Ventnor, IoW
