Beloved in Christ Jesus: Greetings in the name of the crucified, risen, and ascended King, our Lord Jesus Christ!
As I write this, my first letter to you all as Chairman of the Gafcon Primates Council, I want to begin by giving my heartfelt thanks to God for the work of my friend and predecessor, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh. His courage, clarity of vision, godly wisdom and love for the Lord have been so essential to the growth of Gafcon in recent years.
I am very aware of the weight of responsibility entrusted to me, but I am also excited about the adventure of faith ahead as we continue to step out together in obedience to Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. The Church is his, bought by the price of his shed blood, and we dare not compromise it by sin, neglect, or false teaching. The Church is also commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations, and the desire of my heart is to see the Anglican Communion become a mighty instrument of God for reaching the lost.
It is estimated that there are 2.1 billion people on the earth who have no contact with any Christian witness, and therefore, above all else, I want to see Gafcon uniting and equipping Anglicans around the world to be a missionary movement. As the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration affirms, the reason we first gathered in Jerusalem in 2008 was ‘to free our Communion for a clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ’ and this remains our great purpose.
Earlier this month I was in Sydney for the Gafcon Primates Council meeting and afterwards Archbishop Ben Kwashi, our General Secretary, and I were able visit a number of Australian cities where we were much encouraged by the warm welcome we received and strong attendances. Our time in Australia was marked by wonderful fellowship, unity of purpose and solid progress on many areas as set out in the Primates Council Communique, but I would like to highlight four especially significant outcomes.
Firstly, we elected the Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda as the deputy chairman. Archbishop Mbanda is a tremendous man of God who has a proven track record of leadership in the cause of Jesus Christ. He replaces Archbishop Stanley Ntagali who has served with humility and grace; a powerful example of Christian leadership to us all.
Secondly, we recognised a new extra provincial diocese for faithful Anglicans in New Zealand. I was privileged to meet many of their leaders on a trip there just before the Primates Council meeting, and I thank God for their courage and vision in taking this historic step to secure the future of Anglican witness in New Zealand. Just this past week, these leaders held their first Synod that approved their Constitution and Canons, and elected the Rev. Jay Behan, vicar of St. Stephen’s, Christchurch, as their first bishop. His consecration is scheduled for October. Pray for him as he continues to lead!
Thirdly, we endorsed the formation of a tenth network to help us share the burdens of the Suffering Church, a reality brought home to us recently by the terrible loss of life caused by the Easter Sunday attacks on three churches in Sri Lanka. Coming out of our G19 Gathering in Dubai, this network will help us all serve the Lord with these sisters and brothers living in challenging contexts.
Fourthly, we announced a Global Bishops Conference to run from 8th-14th June 2020. This gathering, to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, has been made necessary by the fact that the 2020 Lambeth Conference is being conducted in violation of its own previous resolutions, especially Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Conference, which reaffirmed the biblical teaching on marriage and human sexuality. We will gather for excellent Bible teaching, worship, training, fellowship and counsel together regarding the challenges facing our sheep.
The Global Anglican Future Conference remains committed, as members of the Anglican Communion, to proclaiming Jesus Christ faithfully to the nations. Let us, as followers of Jesus, conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ: daily remaining filled with the Holy Spirit, with repentant hearts and wills obeying His Holy Word, serving as His ambassadors to the rest of the world, and earnestly praying for revival and spiritual awakening in all nations of the earth!
Your brother in Jesus Christ,
The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach
Chairman, Gafcon Primates Council
Praise God for godly, biblical leadership in GAFCON. May God protect them from temptation!
Amen to that!
I have always supported Gafcon, which did not take root in my former Diocese of Rupert’s Land of-many-ills. My path has taken me elsewhere.
Again we go back to experiences and the track record the likes of The Episcopal Church. Delegates to General Convention were often the product of networking with laity and priests with specific agendas (not necessarily those of Jesus). ACNA came into being with the idea a College of Bishops would be through increasing discernment above the fray and noise of the rabble beneath. Bishops should be of higher calibre and accountability.
The fight is for good priests and good bishops. I can understand why the voice of laity is relegated to commenting on blogs and parish flight. On the other hand, there is a time when shadow entities such as what I named ‘The House of Wives’ need the light of day.
‘The House of Wives’?
Egad!, that’s brilliant.
Alpha: take note, your input is not appreciated nor welcome.
alphaTomega,
To me, you sound like a knowledgeable Christian. I am wondering where you ‘hang your hat’… or, where do you worship?
alphaTomega, Thank you for the brief “not a bio”- it is helpful to have an idea of where you are coming from. Not too unlike my own situation, in terms of age, education, lay status, etc., although I have retired. I can certainly attest to the threat to one’s job (in my own case, although many years ago, literally phone calls late at night). And adopting a “pen name” also helps insulate one’s friends and associates who might be held as guilty of orthodoxy by association.
In short, “AtoO”, I support these ministries as well. Thanks for your response. We all have our own reasons for choosing on-line monikers (mostly for privacy, which is rapidly shrinking in this troubled world of ours).
Where I come from, ANiC, a part of the global Gafcon, was planted in my city about 6 or so years ago, by me, my spouse, and one friend. The closest supervision was 2 hrs away. Most orthodox minded Anglicans chose to remain where they were in a very sinful diocese. Our group never grew beyond 15 or so people.
Even my former Rector attempted to siphon off interested parties at our meet and greet by passing out his own business cards at a function where he was a guest. About a year later ANiC found a newly ordained priest for our group who turned out to be a megalomaniac.
What remained of our Vestry later connected with a reformed Lutheran body where my wife and I remained for about 3 yrs, before we [seperately] discerned a call to Rome and started researching for some 3 months before I entered an RCIA class… a sad story with a happy ending!
Alright… I’d like to comment, as I see misunderstanding arising from your comments and at least in how they may be perceived by others.
*Discernment* is at the heart of divisions within the church today. It is (to me) clear that the level of apostasy in the church is becoming a weighty issue for some, and the scales are tipped in favor of departure for a more clearly defined orthodoxy [vs.innovation].
I hold a minority view compared to my former peers, but in other locales the majority have formed newer communities.
I feel quite differently than the majority of those who I have left behind… my conscience could not remain where I was.
Yet what you are suggesting seems untenable to me: that you support ACNA/Gafcon but remain (in TEC, I presume) because the truths and history and practise of Anglicanism remain. I find them to be torn or fractured beyond repair. This former stance is likely shared by the majority of bloggers here.
Thanks. For you I don’t presume anything. I am not trying to make anything out of Anglicamism at all, except that the revisionist church will spiral toward extinction and orthodox church will continue is growth forward, by the mercy of God.
My burden for Anglicanism is becoming past tense, although I wish Godspeed for all who remain.
Spiral toward extinction? Is that the mind of Christ? You speak so arrogantly. In a world beset with atheism, aggressive secularism, militant islam, all you can hope for is the extinction of a wing of the Church? Praise Jesus, God is not man. His wish is not your wish. We must all pray that the church in our modern world finds a way to settle its internal matters and be enabled to share the gospel to a secular world.
It is others who do not appreciate your input.
alphaTomega,
Beyond attempting to spread discord by asking rhetorical questions, do you have a point?
What in ++Foley’s letter is objectionable from your point of view? No action taken or proposed by Gafcon is in any way out of line with the ACNA constitution. At the Gafcon conferences, bishops are a relatively small minority. Gafcon is already a conference for all orders of the church.
Are you intimating that the Nicene Creed (decided by bishops) has no authority when you say “Keeping the decision-making among the primates and bishops seems to be substituting one kind of clerical infallibility for another. It is conformity of all to the example and teachings of Jesus which bestows any kind of validity and authority.”
Given that everything Gafcon, its primates and bishops are doing appears consistent with the processes established at Jerusalem in 2008 (and for that matter, generally consistent with the processes established in Jerusalem circa 33), what changes to the Jerusalem Declaration and the ACNA constitution are you proposing to make the church more to your liking?