The time for talking is over and hard decisions must now be made about the future of the Anglican Communion, a senior Anglican Archbishop has warned.
In his latest pastoral letter, the head of the Global Anglican Futures Conference, or Gafcon, said: "There is now a shared realisation that the time for dialogue is over and there must be a decision that will settle the future direction of the Communion and free us from being dragged down by controversy and confusion."
Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, who is also Primate of Kenya, was commenting on the Archbishop of Canterbury's decision to summon a meeting of Anglican Primates from around the world to discuss changing the structure of the Communion in an attempt to avert schism.
The invitation has been accepted even by the leaders of the conservative evangelical Global South churches. Signigicantly, Archbishop Foley Beach of the Anglican Church in North America, or ACNA, which is recognised as Anglican by conservative provinces but is not officially part of the wider Anglican Communion, has also been invited to part of the gathering.
Archbishop Wabakula, writing after a visit to a mission conference at ACNA's Church of the Resurrection, housed in a converted disused factory in Chicago, said: "My experience of this new wineskin in North America brought home to me just how much is at stake when the Primates of the Communion meet in Canterbury at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury next January. I believe this will be an historic meeting unlike anything that has gone before."
Speaking about the recent Global South Primates in Cairo when the GAFCON Primates decided to accept the Archbishop's invitation next January, he added: "Noting the unique nature of this proposed meeting, we are agreed to go and I am confident that in doing so we will not compromise the biblical principles for which we stand."
Quoting Ezekiel 33, he said he felt called by God to be a "faithful watchman" in this "time of crisis and confusion". This ministry was "a matter of life and death".
The gospel "is not a worldly message about how to achieve prosperity or self-fulfilment." Robbed of its true meaning, the gospel is not the biblical gospel, he said.
