GAFCon 4

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8475

An Address to the Global Anglican Future Conference - Suheil Dawani

Posted by David Virtue on 2008/6/23 7:10:00 (328 reads)

An Address to the Global Anglican Future Conference

The Right Rev'd Suheil S. Dawani
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saint George's Anglican Cathedral, Jerusalem

"The glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me." (St. John 17: 22-23).

A warm welcome to our beautiful Cathedral built in 1898 and dedicated to St. George the Martyr, whom Palestinian Christians consider to be their Patron Saint - his mother was from Lydda and his body was buried in the sacred soil of the Holy Land.

The Anglican Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East sees our Lord's high priestly prayer for the mission of the Church "that the world may know that thou hast sent me" as the very essence of our life and mission. As a biblically rooted people-a people of the Book-this passage from scripture has been the hallmark of our life and mission as an Anglican family here since 1841 as we have faithfully born witness to the gospel in this Holy Land, having been given the mantle to represent and speak for the Anglican Communion in the Holy City as partners and conciliators with the historic Oriental and Armenian Churches of the East, with our sister Lutheran Church, as the Custodian of the Holy Places in the Franciscan Order since the 1840s, and through our warm and active relationship with the Latin Patriachate that returned to the Holy City in the 1890s.

The greatest gift that Anglicanism has offered to the Middle East in the last one hundred and sixty seven years and indeed today is a ministry of reconciliation, the same mission given to the disciples in the Johannine imperative "that they may be one even as we are one." As a Christian community, we are a voice of moderation in a region of turmoil. We work with humility and in a spirit of servanthood to Him who died on the Cross to build and strengthen relationships among Christians, Moslems, and Jews and to work together with other Christian bodies here. We do so, as our Lord reminds us in St. John's gospel, that "we may have life and have it abundantly."

We are a people who know what it is to live faithfully and with humility in a pluralistic society, facing many challenges, without losing our hold on the biblical faith "once delivered to the Saints." In a region marked by division and conflict we work for peace and unity. We do so not for the sake of appearance but so that the image of the one God, the God of peace, may be revealed to the world.

From the dawn of Christianity with the first Pentecost, our indigenous Arab Christian community has been rooted here in this Holy Land and in this, the "City of Peace." We remain a living, vibrant and serving Christian community. The witness and mission of the Church here is carried out through the ministry of our thirty-seven institutions in the fields of health, education, and rehabilitation in which we serve the community at large. Our work here is the very presence of Christ among the needy, offered without differentiation based on religion, gender, or nationality.

In this diocese, we regard our relationships across the Anglican Communion as a crucial network of bridges on the international scene that bring together Anglicans of 164 countries and 38 provinces worldwide, all of which support and strengthen our witness and mission. We are grateful for our relationships across the breadth of the Anglican Communion, and we have the utmost respect for the Archbishop of Canterbury in his role as our spiritual leader.

I look forward to the Lambeth Conference which is so important to our ongoing life together and for the mission of the Church. Since its inception in 1867, the Lambeth Conference has been the setting for invaluable dialogue about many aspects of our Church's life, particularly in relation to the changes in the world around us. Together, we have dialogued at Lambeth about war and peace, about industrialization and ecumenism, about poverty and disease, about the faith and order of the Church, and about how together we can overcome the injustices of our world. Throughout its history, the Lambeth Conference has dealt with many difficult issues. At times these issues looked as if they might divide us, but they did not because we persevered in prayer and fellowship, together, with respect and patience.

It is in that same spirit that I welcome you here to this Cathedral Church.

The very stones of this holy city of Jerusalem teach us patience and humility. This city has seen tragic events throughout the centuries, at times leveled to the ground, at times raised again to new life. We are on holy ground.

So all Christians must come here first and foremost as pilgrims-and I note that you say your coming here to Jerusalem is a "pilgrimage." Pilgrims here do not bring decisions with them. They come here to seek prayerfully the decisions God wants them to make. And God will always surprise us. God has not finished with us or with our Church yet. God the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth, and we who come here as pilgrims must be open to the Spirit's leading, open to God's surprising revelation to us.

I pray that as you meet in this holy place, you will all be open, in real humility, to the Spirit's guidance and that you will continue here in a spirit of peace, reconciliation and goodwill. It is crucial to the Anglican witness here in Jerusalem and to the wider world that this is so. It is my fervent prayer that you will actively work for the peace of Jerusalem and for the peace of all the world. We must all seek God's peace, which is beyond all understanding. I pray God's blessing on you, on the Archbishop of Canterbury and on our Anglican Communion.

Amen.

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2a.

http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=63&Itemid=29

Pilgrims help draft GAFCON statement

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There is no advance text of a final statement of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), nor prepared plans for future organization and action. And there won’t be one until the 1,200 bishops, priests and laity meeting in Jerusalem June 22 – 29 has had a chance to seek God’s guidance and contribute their thoughts to the Statement Committee.

“The final statement is going to emerge as the work of all the participants of GAFCON,” said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya and chair of the Statement Committee.

To make that intent a concrete reality, the Statement Committee’s first step is to ask pilgrims to return a short feedback form on Tuesday, June 24. The form asks pilgrims:

· what their hopes and expectations are for GAFCON,

· how GAFCON should be developed as a movement,

· what potential dangers are there for GAFCON as a movement, and

· how the work of GAFCON could help pilgrims in their own country or province.

Archbishop Nzimbi said that the committee is especially interested in hearing what peoples’ concerns and fears are about GAFCON. “We are looking for the weaknesses so that we can deal with them at the very beginning…unless we give people a chance to evaluate us…we have a problem,” he added.

The participant feedback form is just one way that information will be collected to be used by the drafting committee. The committee also will be paying attention to what conference small groups discern in prayer and discussion throughout the week. All this information will be passed onto the drafting committee every day through Thursday, June 25.

Archbishop Nzimbi expects the statement committee to then begin creating the first draft of the statement. That first draft will come before GAFCON’s plenary session on Friday and continue to be open to prayer, discussion and discernment until a final version comes before the conference, on Saturday or Sunday.

“This way is the best way to have proper listening. This way we can be assured of hearing everyone,” said Archbishop Nzimbi.

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2b.

http://www.acn-us.org/archive/2008/06/gafcon-guernsey.html

Reflections on GAFCON from Bishop John Guernsey

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7).

“What is going to come out of GAFCON?” I was asked again and again in the months leading up to Jerusalem. I didn’t presume to know, but since arriving here, it has become quite clear why we have not yet known the answer to that question.

Over the years, I have seen the all too common Western pattern of leaders effectively deciding in advance what the outcome of a meeting will be. But from the very first conversation at the preliminary meeting planned for Jordan, the leadership has reminded us again and again that there would be no advance decisions made, only prayer and discussion of what we believe the Lord Jesus Christ wants of us in GAFCON.

Here in Jerusalem, I spoke to a member of the Statement Committee, the team responsible for drafting the document through which the Conference will speak about its work. I learned that this group, chaired by Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, is operating in a wonderfully non-Western way. They are not crafting an advance text of a final statement; they are only preparing to receive and pray over the insights and reflections from the conference participants.

From the outset, the focus is to be on seeking the Lord through worship and Bible study, followed by small group prayer and discussion. Our task is discernment, seeking the Lord’s direction, not arguing our own bright ideas. Then there will be a plenary address and workshops, then more time for prayer and discussion in our groups of what we have heard. Each group will put forward key points we believe the Lord is giving us as part of the outcome of GAFCON. The points from the many groups will all be fed to the Statement Committee through this process daily through Thursday.

On Friday, having prayerfully considered on all that has been raised up by the groups, the Statement Committee will present a draft statement to the whole conference. That draft will be the subject of further prayer and reflection in our groups, which then give yet more feedback to the Statement Committee, enabling them to revise the draft and present a final statement to the Conference on Sunday.

It’s all part of the Lord’s blessing to us in the West, to learn from the leadership of our brothers and sisters in the Global South as we encounter the Lord in worship, in the Word and in prayer. Please pray for us, that together we may truly and humbly submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the future of His Church.

Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey
Church of Uganda Bishop for Congregations in America

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http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=29

Pilgrims Go to Mount of Olives, Gethsemane

One thousand two hundred Global Anglican Future Conference pilgrims visited the Mount of Olives on Monday, June 23.

Traveling on close to 30 tour buses, the pilgrims worshipped, prayed together, and had their picture against the backdrop Jerusalem's Old City. The Rev. David Pileggi, rector of Christ Church, Jerusalem, reminded pilgrims that it was on the Mount of Olives, which separates Jerusalem from the desert, that Jesus wept over the city. Pilgrims took time to pray for their own cities, provinces, dioceses, congregations, and families.

Pilgrims also walked down the valley slope to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus wrestled with God's will and was arrested the night before his crucifixion.

The Rev. Martin Foord, from Perth, Australia, said of the experience: "It has revolutionised my reading of scripture. I can't read the Bible the same way again. I can now visualise Jesus weeping over Jerusalem."

His compatriot, the Rev. Gary Nelson, concurs: "I got this sense of history, being in the very place where real events happened. I got a feel for the distances. It has helped me visualise portions of scripture. You can understand how news (2,000 years ago) spread so quickly."

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http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=12

Dr. Os Guinness Focuses Pilgrims on ‘The Gospel and Secularism”

Dr. Os Guinness, noted lecturer, academic and author of some 25 books, spoke to Global Anglican Future Conference Pilgrims on “The Gospel and Secularism.

“The whole modern world represents the greatest opportunity for the Gospel since the apostles. It also represents the greatest challenge to the Gospel since the apostles,” said Guinness.

The good news is that in the midst of great upheaval in how people live, prophecies of the death of religious faith have not borne out. “Religion is as furiously alive as ever,” said Guinness. The bad news is that the assumptions of modernism and other secular philosophies that now reign unquestioned in much of the western world and are migrating to other areas of the globe, are in many ways toxic to discipled and discipling Christians.

“Never under-estimate the profound anti-Christian assumptions of secularity,” said Guinness. Those assumptions have infected evangelicals as well as others in the church. At one time, what a person believed shaped how they lived. That day is gone. In its place, is a division between believing and behavior that has hobbled the transforming power of the Gospel.

“Never have evangelicals had higher, sharper views of the authority of scripture, but never on the ground has evangelical behavior been more chaotic and permissive than it is today… the link between belief and behavior has been broken,” said Guinness.

Christians, he continued, are called to meet the challenge of modernity, not by defying the world, nor by surrendering to the world, but by practicing “cognitive and cultural discernment” in our relationship to the world.

To defy the world at every turn runs the risk of turning Christians into religious fundamentalists. “Today fundamentalism has become a modern reaction to the modern world,” said Guinness.

To surrender to the world is at least as dangerous. Those who look to contemporary culture to guide their faith decisions lose the authority of scripture and “cut themselves off from Christianity around the world.”

The only path open to Christians is to discern step by step how best to share the Gospel, guard the faith and disciple new Christians in a world shaped by modernism and secularism. Speaking specifically to Christians from the Global South, Guinness said, “Those further behind are in many ways better off, but only if you use the time-lag to make your people prepared for what is coming.”

“I would say to you from the bottom of my hearts sisters and brothers, dare to look at the full challenge of the secular world. But when you have [looked], have faith in God, have no fear."

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http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=12

Healing of the Paralytic

“The Anglican Communion is in need of healing, and the antidote is Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Henry Orombi told delegates Monday. Delivering a keynote address at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem, Orombi, Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, called on the delegates to examine both themselves and the Church and submit both to divine healing.

Speaking shortly after the 1,200 delegates had completed a symbolic visit the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem, Orombi likened the Church, and the individuals who comprise it, to the paralytic in the Biblical account in John 5.

"Like that paralytic at the pool, the Church is living but is powerless. That man could see, but he could not recognise Jesus.

Jesus asked him,"Do you want to get well." "Friends, in our Anglican Communion, I sense that the Lord is asking us the same question," said Orombi. "Do you want to be healed?"

The Anglican Communion, Christianity's third-largest denomination that brings together 82 million believers on all continents, has been increasingly divided as some of its member churches have strayed from mainstream Christian beliefs.

"Many times we beat about the bush, complicating things," Orombi said. "But Jesus told the paralytic three simple things: ‘Get up; pick your bed; walk'" As the paralytic obeyed Christ's word, he was healed. The Word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword. It brings meaning to meaningless situations. Let us be a church that obeys the Word of God. Do know your Healer?"

Sin is deadly... The Church that does not run from sin will be destroyed by it," Orombi said, appealing to the delegates to heed Christ's warning to the healed paralytic to not sin any more.

"I come from a church (Uganda) where you testify how Jesus has touched you," said Orombi, urging delegates to testify to God's healing, transforming power.

The thousand-strong group listened attentively in a room that was suffused with the symbolism of the Church yesterday, today and tomorrow. A modern, carpeted auditorium, with overhead projector, controlled lighting and multi-watt public address system was tempered by foot-long candles, made in Bethlehem, a five-foot cross from the Via Dolorosa (where Jesus carried His cross on the way to crucifixion) in Jerusalem's Old City, and Middle Eastern chalices making up a makeshift alter.

"Restoration is divine activity. Even today God sorts out families and cultures. Jesus is saying here in Jerusalem that, ‘I am working in the Anglican Communion.'" He added that it will not be our genius, nor the conference communique that will sort us out, nor the wisdom of the Archbishops. It will be the "Archbishop of archbishops" - God Himself..

"Jesus is Lord over the Anglican Communion. He will bring life to our paralysis. His power will be on us when we walk out of GAFCON. This is the time to wait upon God, and be filled with His Spirit. Jesus is saying, ‘rise up and go'."

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http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/13639/

DAVID OULD

GAFCON: the view from Sydney, err… Jerusalem

Monday, June 23, 2008 • 6:28 pm

Woke up this morning here in Sydney to see a number of posts from local pilgrims, writing about yesterday's events in Jerusalem.

First, from the Sola Panel (catchy name for the Protestants) comes "GAFCON Day 1: A second Reformation?":

It's the Africans. Cascading down the hotel staircase in a riot of colour and noise and smiles, the bishops in vivid purple and their wives in even more gorgeous dresses, laughing and greeting each other, hugging, flowing on, in a joyful Christian river.

Of the 1200 delegates here at GAFCON, somewhere between a third and a half are from Africa. I've already met Bishop Bernard and Bishop Paul from Sudan, who gravely informed me that if I wanted to know what ministry was really like where they lived, we would have to sit, we would have to sit. Some things can't be said in small talk in a corridor. Discussing what it is like to be a Christian bishop in Sudan is clearly one of them. I'm looking forward to sitting with them.

Tony Payne goes on to write about Akinola's opening address.

Media darling (trust me on this one) Bishop Rob Forsyth is awestruck by "The audacious undertaking":

After only one exhausting day at GAFCON in Jerusalem I have been struck by two strong impressions. One is how audacious or courageous this conference is and secondly how this is excitingly Anglican in a way I’d never experienced before.

The conference is audacious in both its scale and ambition.

Putting together a conference of 1000 people in the middle east after only some five months of preparation might seem impossible but they have done it. And not only that, they’ve not held back in quite ambitious programs. This morning’s gathering of all the delegates on the Mount of Olives to be photographed including bishops in convocation robes and a helicopter with a photographer on board would have made the most ambitious event organiser quake. But they did it! There is so much about this conference that is large and difficult and yet it is working remarkably well.

It is ambitious in that the conference has a goal none other than to rescue the Anglican Communion in the face of the perceived failure of its present leadership. GAFCON is not for those wishing to hide away from the challenges of the Anglican Communion today.

Something of this energetic confidence flows from the strong African Anglicanism which is so dominant with its expressive joyful and openly Christ-centred Christianity.

Having skyped another delegate this morning, the same story is repeated - it's the Africans who are making this such a joy for the Sydneysiders. They are simply bowled over by being amongst such whole-hearted followers and lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm thinking they're going to come back infectious with it. At least, that's Forsyth's hope:

GAFCON is just the beginning of a process that will continue long after this conference and Lambeth are over. It will be important for the movement to embrace many more than those who have had the privilege of being here in Jerusalem.

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B. LAMBETH

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8473

LONDON: Archbishop on the forthcoming Lambeth Conference

Posted by David Virtue on 2008/6/23 6:30:00 (753 reads)

LONDON: Archbishop on the forthcoming Lambeth Conference

June 19, 2008

The following article appeared in Outlook, the Canterbury Diocesan Newsletter

What's actually going to happen at the Lambeth Conference? Well, I have no crystal ball to tell me exactly what the outcomes will be. But what I most hope and pray is that we emerge from the quite intensive programme with the two main goals taken forward - having gained more confidence about our Communion and having helped to give bishops more resources for their primary work of serving the Church in mission.

But what we can say a bit about is the way in which the business is going to be done. The programme, devised by a very gifted and dedicated international team, responds to the widely felt concerns that we ought to get away from too 'parliamentary' and formal a style. It's going to be important that no-one goes home feeling they haven't ever been listened to. So it's important to devise structures that guarantee everyone has a chance to be heard. It's also crucial to build the sort of trust that allows deep and passionate differences to be stated and explored together, with time allowed for getting past the slogans and the surface emotions.

So the new thing about Lambeth this time is that the whole body of the bishops will be divided into middle-sized groups, called 'indaba' groups, from a Zulu word describing community discussion and decision-making. In these groups of forty or so, expert facilitators will be enabling the kind of discussion in which everyone has a chance to speak; and people will be given the responsibility of reporting on behalf of each group, so that over the two weeks of work there will be a lot of attention given to how what comes out of the groups can be woven together in a final statement. This work by the 'reporters' will be offered for public discussion at a number of points in the Conference so that anyone who wishes can give some feedback as the Conference works towards its final reflections.

Each 'indaba' group brings together a number of smaller Bible study groups, who will be studying John's Gospel each day. And the hope is that through these small and medium-sized groups, which will stay together throughout the Conference, real relationships will be formed across various boundaries. We've also tried to make sure that there is proper provision in groups for the various languages represented among the Bishops and their wives.

The whole event begins with a couple of days' retreat, based in the Cathedral. We learn how to listen to each other by listening to God, quietly and patiently and thankfully; and I pray very earnestly that this opening experience will set the tone for the work that follows.

Of course it will be a profoundly challenging time for us all. Much depends on our willingness to work hard and to be ready to move closer to each other instead of staying in our own familiar territory. The Church always seeks a common commitment, not just an assortment of individual beliefs. And that isn't a sort of tyranny; it's a reminder that in biblical terms the truth we come to know is known in and through the Body of Christ, not by any of us in isolation. That's the truth that will set us free.

I'm delighted and very grateful indeed that the people of this diocese have been so generous and enthusiastic about Lambeth. As I wrestle with so many of the organisational and other problems, it's a great gift to go to a parish at the weekend and see the posters about Lambeth and hear people being encouraging about help and hospitality. I feel that the diocese, including in a special way the Cathedral, is really modelling for the Communion a positive and welcoming spirit, and I must say a very heartfelt than you for this.

Please go on praying; may God help us all to meet and work and pray together in a way that gives him glory and offers hope and good news to his world.

With my love always

+Rowan

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