An Historic Moment for the Anglican Communion: Key Takeaways from the GAFCON IV Kigali Commitment

Apr 25, 2023 by Jill

from AAC:

The final version of the Gafcon IV Kigali Commitment (2023) will go down in history as among the historic turning points of the Anglican Communion. It was virtually everything the delegates had hoped for, and as Rev Canon Alison Barfoot and I observed in our podcast yesterday, it is substantively the same as the first draft even after the Statement Team reviewed 550+ comments submitted!

Here are some of the key takeaways. I encourage you to read and reflect upon the GAFCON Kigali Commitment (2023) for yourself. You can find the whole statement here. But let me offer the following eight take-aways and commentary on the GAFCON Kigali Commitment.

1. The call of Jesus and the response of Peter in John 6:66-69 shape the mood and the momentum of this GAFCON moment.

Gafcon leaders deliberately chose the moment in Jesus’ ministry when he had spoken some very hard and difficult words for the crowd to hear and believe. He spoke hard words about coming down from heaven as the true bread of life (6:35-51). Jesus was teaching about his identity as God’s only son, in the flesh, and that we are to find our identity in him by feeding on him as the bread of life—with the invitation to feed on his flesh as the true bread of life and to drink his blood (6:52-60). This was too much for people, and from this point many turned away from Jesus and no longer followed him (6:66).

Aware of this Jesus asks his disciples whether they, too, are going to turn away, and Peter replies, “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (6:68-69). This is a poignant sacrificial moment of sifting for Jesus and his disciples.

It is no accident Gafcon leaders chose this passage. It reflects the poignant and sacrificial moment of sifting in which the Anglican Communion finds itself—sifting between those who will remain faithful to Jesus and his teachings and those who have “betrayed their ordination and consecration vows to banish error and to uphold and defend the truth taught in Scripture.”

In the section on “The Crisis in the Anglican Communion,” the Kigali Statement notes two things. First, there have been 25 years of some Anglican leaders and churches, principally in the West, blatantly ignoring both the clear teaching of the Bible in the Lambeth Conference of Bishops Resolution 1.10 (1998) as the Anglican Communion teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and leadership in the Church. Secondly, the Kigali Statement references the decision of the Church of England, with the express leadership and support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to authorize prayers for the blessing of same sex unions as the tipping point in this crisis. “It grieves the Holy Spirit and us that the leadership of the Church of England is determined to bless sin.”

As a number of GAFCON leaders observed, this statement is not like the joyous and celebratory statements that came out of GAFCON 2008, 2013, and 2018. It is somber and full of the grief and broken-heartedness that Jesus felt when so many turned away. But the Kigali Commitment also reflects the resolve of Jesus and his disciples to journey on, no matter how many people turn away.

Read here