Essentials of the GAFCON 2018 Letter to the Churches
by Chris Sugden:
The Gafcon 2018 Letter to the Churches is respectful and firm, said the chair of its drafting group, Archbishop Glenn Davies of Sydney. Working through the night they assessed all the comments received from the regional meetings on Thursday. After Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda read the statement, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, the chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Counci called for a voice vote. A unanimous “Aye” was followed by a call for nays.
Silence, then a standing ovation and a singing of To God be the Glory as had followed the reading of the Jerusalem Declaration in 2008.
The key points of the letter express an exposition of the biblical gospel of repentance and faith; and articulate external attacks of superstitiious sacrifices, syncretistic religion, and secularism that excludes Christian public discourse. Internal attacks are the prosperity gospel and theological revisionism that accommodates the surrounding culture.
The letter identifiers a ‘failure of leadership in our churches to address these threats’ and repents of their own failure adequately to protect the flock of God.
The letter recounts the words of Lambeth 1.10 and that the efforts of the Primates Meeting to call those provinces who rejected it in practice to repent and return to the faith were undermined by the four instruments of communion.
Those instruments also failed to recognise the concerns raised by GAFCON 2008 but rather demeaned GAFCON as a one-issue pressure group. “Slogans such as ‘walking together’ and ‘good disagreement’ are dangerously deceptive in seeking to persuade people to accomodate false teaching in the Communion.
GAFCON has claimed from the beginning: “We are not leaving the Communion, we are the majority of the Anglican Communion seeking to remain faithful fo our Anglican Heritage” “We are merely doing what the Communion leadership should have done to uphold its resolution in 1998” Archbishop Nicholas Okoh.
The letter respectfully urges the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite as full members of Lambeth 2020 the bishops of ACNA and the Anglican Church in Brazil, and not to invite bishops of those Provinces which have endorsed by word or deed sexual practices which are in contradiction to the teaching of scripture and Resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference unless they have repented of their actions and reversed their decisions.
‘In the event that this does not occur we urge GAFCON members to decline the invitation to Lambeth 2020 and all other meetings of the Instruments of Communion.’
Repenting of the times ‘ we have only preached to ourselves” and ‘not reached beyond our own cultural groups’ the letter makes a commitment to give strength to the persecuted, a voice for the voiceless, advocacy for the oppressed, protection of the vulnerable, especially women and children, generosity to the poor, and to continue the task of providing excellent education and health care.
”We call upon God that the Anglican Communion may become a mighty instrument in the hand of God for the salvation of the world. We invite all faithful Anglicans to join us in this great enterprise of proclaiming Christ faithfully to the nations.”
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