As participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) began their gathering, a number of conference organizers and others sought to correct several published reports about the direction and purpose of the conference .
Approximately 1,000 attendees, including nearly 300 bishops, have registered for the conference, including a number of current and former Episcopalians.
“I’m not hearing anything about breaking up the Anglican Communion, or anything of the sort,” Bishop Martyn Minns told The Living Church. Bishop Minns, formerly rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Va., is the founding Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an outreach of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.
“We are not focusing all of our attention on human sexuality,” he added. “The workshops are designed to get us moving forward with emphasis on evangelism, church planting, the Bible, family and marriage, and also on developing a better understanding of our Anglican identity.”
Bishop Minns said a booklet titled “The Way, The Truth and the Life: Theological Resources for a Pilgrimage to a Global Anglican Future,” released by GAFCON organizers at a press conference June 19, has been mischaracterized in some reports as conference planners’ declaration of independence from the Anglican Communion. He noted that the booklet is a historical summary of the recent past, and does not contain specific recommendations for the future.
“The purpose of the conference is not to call people away from either the Lambeth Conference or the Anglican Communion,” he said. “Certain things of monumental importance have changed about Anglicanism within the past 10 years. Those things have irreversibly reshaped the landscape. We must get together and work out what to do about our future in light of the facts that have occurred.”
full article at The Living Church
As a bit of a side note, it is difficult to get a news article on this topic (the "Gafcon" gathering) which is not heavily invested in rhetoric and jockeying for position in the court of public opinion. There is a related article at the Anglican Journal with the headline: Rival Anglican conference begins in Jerusalem. I think one of the most helpful quotes is this:
Conference leaders on June 19 released a book, “The Way, The Truth and the Life” at a press conference in Jerusalem...
“At a time when the fabric of the communion has been torn apart, the entire drive of the book is to hold together what is meant by ‘Anglican.’ How can we claim this identity?” said Rev. Vinay Samuel, co-ordinator of the book. “This is not to exclude anyone but in a confused situation this says, ‘This is where we are’.” (emphasis added)
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