GAFCON organizers challenge Jerusalem bishop's concerns for planned Holy Land event
Episcopal News Service. January 22, 2008 [012208-02]
Matthew Davies
Two organizers of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), planned for June 14-22 in the Holy Land, have held separate meetings with Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani who has been critical of the event and urged its planners to reconsider.
Bishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia, and Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola met January 12 and 15 respectively with Dawani in Jerusalem after he said he was "deeply troubled" that the GAFCON meeting, of which he had no prior knowledge, "will import inter-Anglican conflict" into his diocese.
The minutes of the meetings, which were emailed to Episcopal News Service, noted that the Most Rev. Mouneer Hanna Anis, Primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, is also concerned about the event and that his advice to the organizers -- that this was neither the right time nor place for such a meeting -- had been ignored.
GAFCON is due to be held one month prior to the Lambeth Conference when more than 800 of the Anglican Communion's bishops will descend on the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, for more than two weeks of spiritual reflection, learning, sharing and discerning.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, was asked January 21 at a Lambeth Palace media briefing what he thought of the GAFCON event. "I think it's important to remember that before the last Lambeth, and indeed on other occasions, there have been major international gatherings -- regionally or in other ways constructed -- preparing for Lambeth, and I am very happy to see such regional events going forward," he said. "But I do have real concerns that in this case there are unresolved issues for the local church, for the Church in Jerusalem, which has pinpointed some anxieties about having such a conference at this time in the Holy Land. I really hope they can be addressed."
Describing itself as "a pilgrimage back to the roots of the Church's faith," the GAFCON event is exclusive to "Anglicans from both the Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic wings of the church," a December 24 news release announcing the conference says. This release was the first Dawani had heard about the conference. He told Akinola at the January 15 meeting that the conference "would raise many issues, politically, ecumenically, and in the area of interfaith dialogue," according to the minutes of the meeting.
Akinola said he "could not see how this conference could become a 'political problem'" and stressed that "liberty was important for Africa and that he could not allow anyone to tell his community what to do and to say."
Also present at the January 15 meeting were Canon Chris Sugden, executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream and one of GAFCON's organizers, the Very Rev. Michael Sellors, coordinator to the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, and the Rev. Canon Hosam Naoum, acting dean of St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem.
Naoum, who referred to his studies in Africa and acknowledged that he has a good idea of what Africans have gone through in the past, stressed that "the indigenous Christians of the Holy Land also did not want to see themselves being told what to do and what to say. They do not want to be forced to deal with issues that are not on their agenda yet and that could create serious disputes on the level of the local churches in general and the Diocese of Jerusalem in particular, as well as ecumenically, theologically, and socially."
Responding to the question of unity within the Anglican Communion, Akinola said that in 2003 there had already been "a huge eruption leading to the divide within the Anglican Communion," referring to the election and consecration of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion. Akinola added that meeting in the Holy Land "would help them to find the road map."
Sugden posed the question "in what way is the conference imposing on the diocese?"
Naoum answered that the conference was imposing the issue of homosexuality on the diocese to which Sugden responded that GAFCON was not about homosexuality. Naoum reminded those present that Akinola had referred to the split of the Anglican Communion in 2003.
"Archbishop Akinola refrained from answering," the minutes note. "Instead, he said that he could not understand how this conference would have all these impacts on the diocese."
Sellors said such impacts "could not be fully understood unless you lived in the Holy Land and experienced the sensitivity."
Finally, Dawani suggested that Akinola either reconsiders the venue and time for the conference, or divides the program into two parts: a conference in Cyprus and a pilgrimage in the Holy Land.
"Should Archbishop Akinola be ready to accept this suggestion, Bishop Suheil would warmly welcome him and his pilgrims," the minutes said.
Dawani told Jensen three days earlier that Christians in the Holy Land "were struggling with their own issues and that issues of peace and dialogue between the different faith communities of the Holy Land were far more important at this time than issues of homosexuality," according to the minutes of that meeting. While Dawani said that he would be happy to welcome the bishops as pilgrims, he emphasized that "at this critical time, political and other leaders would exploit such a conference. It would be misunderstood by many, and would threaten ecumenism and interfaith dialogue." The conference, Dawani said, would be "disastrous for his ministry in the Holy Land."
Jensen explained that the GAFCON event was intended for those bishops who have come to the conclusion that they cannot attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference, which will be held July 16-August 4 in Canterbury, England. Although Jensen said that he would do his best to present Dawani's point of view to GAFCON's leaders, he "could not promise that this matter would change" and hopes that Dawani "would be able to contribute something to the conference."
Dawani concluded that meeting by saying that he would "prefer that all Anglicans came together at [the] Lambeth Conference to discuss their concerns there together."
On January 6, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, one of GAFCON's organizers, mailed invitations for the event, ignoring Dawani's earlier plea for its planners to reconsider.