Anglican Communion: it's all over but the shouting

And there's going to be a lot of shouting. Peter Akinola is behind GAFCON, the Global Anglican Future Conference, which is to be held parallel to Lambeth Conference. Lambeth is a time for bishops to consult, and it is one of the four instruments of the Communion. Pete wants to hold it in Jerusalem. The Bishop of Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, strongly opposes this. The Episcopal News Service has an article. Here is the first half:

[Episcopal News Service] 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?"

Single-issue Christians will end up disgracing their faith. Peter and his brethren are going to throw gasoline on the fire, and they do not know what they are doing. Please pray that they see the error of their ways. In the Anglican tradition, bishops control their own diocese ... and other bishops always ask permission before coming.

Suheil said that Peter and co would be welcome as pilgrims, but please go elsewhere to hold the conference. Perhaps if they are willing to humble themselves as pilgrims, they will learn.