Conservative Anglicans, former Episcopalians arrive in Jerusalem for GAFCON
Episcopal News Service. June 19, 2008 [061908-01]
Matthew Davies
Conservative Anglicans and former Episcopalians started to arrive in Jerusalem June 19 in anticipation of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a controversial summit regarded by some critics as a rival to the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
The GAFCON event, set for June 22-29, is expected to draw 1,000 participants, including former Episcopal priests, some of whom are currently engaged in litigation concerning Episcopal Church property.
A closed-door pre-conference consultation in Amman, Jordan, was promptly wrapped up June 18 after key participants, including Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, were denied entry for lacking the necessary diplomatic paperwork, according to news reports.
GAFCON has come under fire from local Church leaders, including Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani, who expressed his concern that the conference would "import inter-Anglican conflict" into his diocese. Dawani previously called on organizers to move the conference, but his requests have not been honored.
The Most Rev. Mouneer Hanna Anis, primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, also has raised concerns about the event and acknowledged that his advice to the organizers -- that this was neither the right time nor place for such a meeting -- had been ignored.
Anis has declined an invitation to attend the conference.
Bishop Robert O'Neill of the Diocese of Colorado has traveled to Jerusalem at Dawani's invitation.
On June 19, GAFCON's organizers released a document, "The Way, The Truth and the Life," which, according to a news release on the conference website, "sets out to define authentic Anglicanism, discuss what is at stake in the conflict, and what the future holds for orthodox Anglicans."
In the document, which is critical of recent developments in the Episcopal Church, Akinola writes: "We have made enormous efforts since 1997 in seeking to avoid this crisis, but without success. Now we confront a moment of decision."
"There is no longer any hope, therefore, for a unified Communion," he adds.
GAFCON is being held one month prior to the Lambeth Conference when more than 700 of the Anglican Communion's bishops are expected to gather at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, for more than two weeks of study, prayer, learning, sharing and discerning.
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," said an earlier news release announcing the conference.
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, one of GAFCON's organizers, has said the pilgrimage is intended for those bishops who have decided they cannot attend the 2008 Lambeth Conference. However, it is understood that some of the bishops participating in GAFCON will also be attending the Lambeth Conference.
Dawani met with Jensen in January and told him that he would "prefer that all Anglicans came together at [the] Lambeth Conference to discuss their concerns there together."
GAFCON identifies its goals for the Jerusalem conference as providing "an opportunity for fellowship as well as to continue to experience and proclaim the transforming love of Christ"; developing "a renewed understanding of our identity as Anglican Christians"; and preparing "for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centered mission a top priority."
Meanwhile, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told a Diocese of Hereford conference June 18 that differences over sexuality could be resolved and denied a rift in the church, according to the Hereford Times newspaper.
Williams said he hopes the Lambeth Conference "will be a real trust-building event...The challenge is whether we manage those issues in such a way that they don't just split us apart and isolate us from one another."
Concerning GAFCON, Williams said earlier this year that before the last Lambeth Conference major international gatherings had been organized. "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," he said.