Updated 11:59 pm.EST, Sun November 22, 2009

World|Tue, Apr. 14 2009 11:38 AM EDT

Conservative Anglicans Insist New Fellowship is Not Separatist

By Lillian Kwon|Christian Post Reporter

Orthodox Anglicans from around the world are scheduled to gather in London in July to launch a spiritual movement within the global Anglican Communion.

Some 2,300 people are expected to attend the "Be Faithful! - Confessing Anglicans in Global and Local Mission" event, which organizers insist is not the start of a new church or organization for conservative Anglicans.

"The fellowship is just that, a spiritual movement of brothers and sisters across the nation and the world," said the Rev. Paul Perkin, vicar of St. Mark's Battersea Rise in London and chairman of the event planning team, in a statement. "It is not a separatist party, nor is it an organization, but a spiritual fellowship issuing from a concern for truth and unity.

"It is a renewal of our confessing Anglican roots and convictions, and will be forward-looking in gospel mission locally, and in solidarity globally with Anglicans throughout the world, especially those suffering through poverty or discrimination."

Called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, the emerging movement comes out of an invitation by conservative Anglican bishops from mainly the Global South. Last summer, leaders at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) who believe some in the Anglican Communion are preaching a "false gospel" affirmed Christian orthodoxy and invited like-minded Anglicans to establish a separate fellowship.

Organizers of the upcoming Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans event deny that it is a "separatist" movement.

"We are not seceding, this is not schismatic," said Perkin, according to Religious Intelligence.

"It is precisely the opposite of separation, the purpose is unity and mission," he continued. "The focus of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is of unity, solidarity, and support of the majority of the Anglican Communion."

According to the communiqué issued by GAFCON primates last year, the fellowship will function as a means of sharing in the task of recognizing "the acute spiritual dangers of a compromised theology" and aiming "to be a resource and inspiration for those who wish to defend and promote the biblical gospel."

GAFCON primates are meeting in London this week and are expected to discuss the formal recognition of the Anglican Church in North America, a new province of some 100,000 Anglicans who split from The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada.

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  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:56 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 1

    mickey, but your absolutely right there will come a time when all true believers will disappear, it's called the Rapture!

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:54 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

    mickey, "when in doubt insult", but that gets real old and just shows your inability to support your unbiblical points of view.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:50 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 1

    "mickey, from a spiritual perspective I will support those who do their best to stay true to the Word of God as opposed to those like yourself who promote the willful violation of the truths taught in God's Word!"

    You support those who do YOUR will, not God's? Why do you continue to pretend that you care anything about God when it's been clear for a long time that you care only for your own misguided agenda. Fortunately, people like you are disappearing which will hopefully stem the tide of people leaving the church.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:12 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 1

    mickey, from a spiritual perspective I will support those who do their best to stay true to the Word of God as opposed to those like yourself who promote the willful violation of the truths taught in God's Word!

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:53 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 1

    This issue is not about numbers:one with G-D and His WORD
    IS the majority. To repeat:the recently resigned UK Bishop of Rochester clearly has diagnosed the West's underlying ill - 'Christian' homage to Western 'culture', now seeking an ethical escape hatch with the President's characterization of it as 'secular';hence (as ID4234's post makes clear by geography) the European and (North) American
    promotion of un-Biblical values and lifestyles.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:12 pm Agree: 4   Disagree: 1

    "mickey, isn't it odd that only the liberals who support the unbiblical ordination of practicing homosexuals, unbiblical same-sex marriage, and other unbiblical practices are the only ones who are having a problem with them stepping out of the episcopal "church" in America!"

    And isn't it odd that you support the Nigerian's who murder and torture people on a daily bases because of religion. I guess those in your cult are not much different. Hardly Christians though. Of course prostitution and polygamy are wide spread in Nigeria so I can see how you would also support such people.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:08 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 1

    "Also, the liberal Anglicans are in the minority. In Nigeria, there are 18 million Anglicans, conservatives like the ones meeting soon."

    A country where murder of people is a daily way of life is not much of a Christian place. Those are not "anglicans" they have just hi-jacked the name. People who support them are no better.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:55 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 2

    Unbiblical, unbiblical, unbiblical. Driving a car is unbiblical, but we all do it. That phrase is so overused, distorted and misunderstood that it's become meaningless. How about if we concern ourselves with not being un-Christian? If we do that, the rest will take care of itself.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:51 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 1

    There is a story out there, as well, that these conservative Anglicans were entertaining the idea of a reproachment with the Mother Church, returning to Catholicism because the Anglican church had been slipping into liberalism. Who knows? The Church would bless the Anglican's return as it welcomes back all of it's prodigal children. The Orthodox left and were accepted back into the Church many times before finally leaving for good in the 11th century - so it could be a possibility. Stranger things have happened.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:48 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 4

    mickey, isn't it odd that only the liberals who support the unbiblical ordination of practicing homosexuals, unbiblical same-sex marriage, and other unbiblical practices are the only ones who are having a problem with them stepping out of the episcopal "church" in America!

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:09 pm Agree: 3   Disagree: 3

    Also, the liberal Anglicans are in the minority. In Nigeria, there are 18 million Anglicans, conservatives like the ones meeting soon. Kenya has millions more. South American millions more. It's the Americans and Europeans (Anglicans) that have the weird, unbiblical views. It is they who are in the minority. And they have lost much of their influence since they have chosen to stand against the authority of God's Word. That will continue as the apostasy metastisizes in America and Europe.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:06 pm Agree: 2   Disagree: 3

    The church left them, not vice versa. They simply want to stand on Biblical values, not political correctness.

  • Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:05 pm Agree: 5   Disagree: 3

    They can claim all they want but they are schismatic and leaving the church. I don't know why they don't just join some other denomination that supports their agenda of hate. Lord only knows there are enough of them out there. Why must the use the name "Anglican" when they so clearly aren't?

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