Cof E ‘forfeits leadership’ role in Communion declare Global South Anglicans
from CEN:
Global South Anglican leaders meeting in Cairo last week repeated their statement that the Archbishop of Canterbury and C of E had “forfeited” leadership and vowed to press on with creating new structures for the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Some 200 Global South Anglicans met in Cairo to hear the Archbishop of Sudan, Justin Badi Arama, state that membership of the Communion had shifted “from geography to doctrine”.
He added: “Provinces who join the fellowship covenant with each other to stay faithful to the plain and canonical teaching of God’s word and to be mutually accountable to each other in matters of faith and order.”
UK representatives at the meeting including the former Bishop of Blackburn, Julian Henderson, Canon John Dunnett of the Church of England Evangelical Council and Richard Moy of SOMA. Archbshop Badi described them as the “holy remnant”: “They are those who have resisted bowing to the demands of revisionism. They have committed themselves to proclaim and live out the authentic gospel truth.”
A Communique from the First Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) revealed that 11 provinces have become “fully covenanted members of GSFA” through Synodical processes, together with three associate member dioceses and 14 mission partners.
The Assembly included 13 Primates, 44 Bishops, 46 clergy and 36 lay leaders. Bishop Anthony Poggo, General Secretary of the Anglican Communion Office attended the Assembly as an Observer.
The communique stated, “because of our commitment to the authority of holy Scripture in its plain and canonical teaching and with guidance from historical Church counciles, GSFA has become a spiritual home for all orthodox Anglicans.”
They stated that the Cairo covenant was a “new instrument” for the Anglican Communion “to bring true unity in diversity which honours the supreme authority of Scripture”. Archbishop Badi said: “Though Canterbury says ‘let us walk together, listen to each other and have a good disagreement’, the GSFA Primates and I say to you that ‘we cannot walk together in sin… (and that) unless there is repentance by those who have gone astray, we cannot have unity at the expense of God’s life-giving truth.’”
The GSFA said that they would not“walk away” from the Anglican Communion. “Indeed,” they declared, “the Church of England’s departure from that standard has only served to strengthen our resolve to work together to reset the Communion.”
The statement revealed that GSFA would collaborate with the GAFCON movement and other orthodox groupings in “practical steps to set up GSFA as a well structured home for orthodox Anglicans worldwide”.
A newly elected Primates Steering group for the next three years until the second Assembly includes, Archbishop Justin Badi, Archbishop Samy Shehata of Alexandria, Archbishop Titus Chung of South East Asia, Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba of Uganda, Archbishop Stephen Than of Myanmar, Archbishop Titre Ande of DCR and Archbishop Miguel Uchoa Cavalcanti oftheAnglican Church in Brazil.
Church of England Newspaper June 21 2024
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