Conservative Anglicans launched on Sunday a new global fellowship charged with defending traditional Anglicanism against the “false gospel” of homosexuality being promoted within liberal western member churches of the Anglican Communion.
In a statement issued after the closure of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem on Sunday, 300 conservative Anglican leaders from some of the world's largest Anglican provinces agreed on plans for a council of primates to oversee the new GAFCON movement and for the formation of a separate province in North America.
The Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev. Peter Jensen, said that the Primates’ council would regulate the “chaos” within the 77 million-member Anglican Communion and “defend the Gospel … from revisionist or liberal theologies.”
They also stated their intention to continue offering pastoral oversight to conservative parishes stranded within liberal member churches of the Anglican Communion.
Although the volunteer “fellowship of confessing Anglicans” will maintain official ties with the Archbishop of Canterbury, leaders challenged the Communion's leadership by stating that Anglicanism was not “determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
In the statement, the leaders blamed the present crisis within the Anglican Communion on the “false gospel” being taught in liberal provinces.
“This false gospel undermines the authority of God’s Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of salvation from sin, death and judgment,” they stated.
“Many of its proponents claim that all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behavior as a universal human right,” they continued. “It claims God’s blessing for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony.”
This false gospel, the leaders added, had led to the U.S. Episcopal Church’s consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, which had widened rifts in the global Communion – the third largest church body in the world. The move was denounced last Friday by Archbishop Peter Jensen of Australia as “an extraordinary strategic blunder.”
The GAFCON statement further stated, “We grieve for the spiritual decline in the most economically developed nations, where the forces of militant secularism and pluralism are eating away the fabric of society and churches are compromised and enfeebled in their witness."
The leaders stressed, however, that they wanted to remain within the Anglican Communion.
“We cherish our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of departing from it. And we believe that, in God’s providence, Anglicanism has a bright future in obedience to our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations and to build up the church on the foundation of biblical truth (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 2:20),” they stated.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, at the forefront of the conservative Anglican movement, said that the new fellowship was not “a church within a church.”
At a news conference after GAFCON’s conclusion, he affirmed, “We are part of the worldwide church called the Anglican Communion.”
Comments
"Actually, this is good. The more the secular world hates the church, the more the church is heading in the right direction.
Christians just have to learn that it's not all love and roses."
Excellent, yes! They will hate you because they have first hated Me. Christians in the West have been too comfortable for too long. A long and strong persecution is precisely what the Church need to separate the wheat from the chafe. Watch how many have a faith only skin deep when it costs something to be Christian.
wbmoore--
Indeed. The persecution has already begun. What you see now is only the very beginning. It will not be long before the secular forces, driven by the new atheists and radical-left political ideologues, will start attacking the church in more bold and outright ways.
They will pass hate crime laws that will prohibit pastors or Christians in general from speaking out about cultural issues like homosexuality and gay marriage, and they will use the power of the State to inflict retribution and punishment on anyone and everyone that speaks out.
They will then move to tax churches, prohibitively, in the hope of putting many religious institutions out of business.
And that's only for starters. Once they've taken those two steps, then the real persecution will begin.
Edi--
We are in a sad state of affairs. The mainstream Protestant denominations are under full scale assault by secular-leftist forces externally, and radical liberal forces internally. One mainstream Protestant denomination after another has fallen or is about to fall: the Episcopalian Church in America, the United Methodist Church, the ELCA, the PCUSA, and on and on.
We are in the last days of the church, I do believe. I'm not in the LaHaye crowd, but I wouldn't readily dismiss someone who spoke about 2 Thessalonians 2 or Revelation, etc, and end times prophecy. I'm not quite ready to put on the tin-foil hat, just yet, but I don't discount those who talk about us living in the end times. The church is in rapid decline. We see "itching ears" and "false doctrine" everywhere, we see those, even the elect, ever more receptive to every new teaching and false doctrine that comes along. We see more churches than ever ready to jump, head first, into any new trend to accommodate the culture.
We're all going back to the Catholic Church, as I've said, probably within 50 years, or else we'll all be hanging out in catacombs again and conducting secret worship services and baptisms underground or in somebody's home - just like the early Christians.
As time marches toward the end, people and churches that advocate standing on the word of God will be more and more persecuted. In this way, chicago24 is correct - we will be considered to be evil - much like the church was during its first three hundred years of existance. Get ready, its coming. We will be arrested, beaten, fined, attempts at forced conversion conversion will occur, and killed. This condition currently exists in some parts of the world now, and will grow in its evil as the end approaches.
Currently people are being beaten, arrested, tortured and/or killed for being Christians or preaching the word of God in Africa and Asia, in places we might expect it, such as in India, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, China, Laos, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Algeria, Jordan, Turkey, Phillipines, Indonesia, Belarus, Egypt. But people are also being threatened with arrest or beatings by officials or actually arrested in other countries where we would not expect it, such as the United States of America, England, Sweden, Canada, Norway.
Its ALREADY happened. It IS happening, even here in the states! People are being arrested or threatened for standing up and speaking God's Truth - charges vary from disturbing the peace, demonstrating without a permit, hate crime violations. But in fact these people were simply preaching in a public place, handing out flyers from a sidewalk, praying publicly, preaching the word of God from a church pulpit, evangelizing in the open air.
But even so, we need to be thankful we are reaching this time where it will be more and more dangerous to be Christ's people - it heralds HIS return! We are living in the end days.
For those of you who can not understand why people would do something to get arrested like preach or pray or hand out flyers, know that Christ came to die for our sins - HE came to buy us back from a life of sin, because God loves us. But God loves you too! God wants you know Christ came for you too! But know that the road is NOT easy. You will have to change, and trust God. Quit running your own life and let God do it. But I warn you, once you do, life will never be the same.
For those of you who claim to be followers of Christ - how surrendered are you? Have you died with Christ? If so, then why live like you have rights? We're supposed to be dead on the cross. What rights do the dead have? We're supposed to be re-born - so why hold onto or reclaim sins? We're new creations - different than who we were before re-birth. We need to live like it, and we can only do so by not trying to control us and our lives, but letting Christ and the Holy Spirit do it.
I'm not saying we are not to use political processes and rights given to citizens. I am saying we need to die to self, die to sin, die for Christ. This is an attitude that few Christians ever achieve, and we are poorer for it.
We're living in the end time.
Stand firm on God's word. Be faithful to Him who has redeemed us!
I wander what's next on clergy ordination. Maybe in 10 yrs they are going to allow preachers who have sexual relation with animals, as long as the preacher "loves" Jesus and this too has to be seen as "diversity" in the church. SHAME SHAME SHAME.
wrhalver,
amen!
Chicago24
You have said...
"I'm merely stating that as gay marriage becomes legal in more countries, the radically conservative churches will be viewed very negatively..."
Actually, this is good. The more the secular world hates the church, the more the church is heading in the right direction.
Christians just have to learn that it's not all love and roses.
Oh, and P.S. - there's nothing "radical" or "conservative" about defending the truth and the word of God. If liberals or radical gay activists find the Bible and the gospel offensive then so much the better, as the gospel is meant to confound. Paul calls it "foolishness to those who are perishing". The gospel is the gospel and the Bible says what the Bible says. There's nothing conservative about it. There's only radical liberals and homosexuals who are made uncomfortable by it.
chicago24--
Sodomy is not equivalent to skin color and the very notion is offensive to many, I would imagine, thus trying to equate segregation with gay rights is equally offensive.
John 14-6: I'm certainly not saying that anyone doesn't have a right to free speech. The "militant gays" as you put it would be the first to defend it. I'm merely stating that as gay marriage becomes legal in more countries, the radically conservative churches will be viewed very negatively, much as the churches who held onto segretation were.
chicago24--
No doubt that is what you would like to see, as would most of the militant gay movement. Fortunately for us we have this little thing called the 1st amendment and "freedom of speech", and the American people will not be silenced, nor will they allow so-called "hate crime" laws to take away their right to speak out on what they consider a moral evil.
One of the central figures causing this division - Katherine Schori, the leader of the Episcopal Church - said that this meeting in Jerusalem "will have little lasting impact." Schori said that it is "merely another chapter in a centuries-old struggle for dominance by those who consider themselves the only true believers."
Straw man (lie): These leaders who met in Jerusalem want control and claim that they are the only true believers.
Truth: These leaders are seeking to obey the Lord and don't want the denomination destroyed by those who refuse to obey the Lord.
Nice try Ms. Schori
(I flagged my first comment due to formatting problems)
Amen and amen! Thank the Lord that conservative, Bible believing members of the Anglican Communion are taking matters into their own hands to stem the tide of those who celebrate perversity as being right and good. It is time for all churches to stand up to the liberal tide that calls evil good and good evil.
Let the apostates go their separate ways.
In a few years when gay marriage prevails in most civilized countries, churches like these will only be viewed as harbingers of civil rights offenders.
boomershank -
Great call. That African Bishop stood up like a true man of God and in turn God used him mightily. WOW! Am I encouraged or what??