Gafcon a rescue mission
In a hard-hitting opening address to the first session of Gafcon in Jerusalem, Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of all Nigeria, declared that Gafcon is a ‘rescue mission’ to the Anglican Communion. Highlighting the patience of the Primates of the Anglican Communion in calling TEC to repent of its gay agenda, and the American church’s complete disregard of such pleas, Archbishop Akinola declared that the Anglican Communion needs to be rescued from the manipulation of those who have denied the Gospel and its power to transform. Indeed, it needs rescued from the ’spiritual and religous dungeon’ that the liberal gay agenda has imposed.
He stressed that GAFCON was no independent ‘breakaway’ from the Anglican Communion, rather it ‘is a tool of God’ for preserving Anglicanism: and not only preserving, but ensuring its perseverance in the faith once delivered to the saints so that future generations can inherit the legacy of the Gospel.
The Communion he said ‘is already in a state of brokeness’ because of the actions of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada. These provinces have already decided to walk apart from the rest of the Communion. Furthermore, this brokeness has been underlined by the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to TEC to the Lambeth Conference. He declared that Anglican ‘instruments of unity’ in continually giving way to TEC and its agenda has become the ‘instruments of disunity’. Now is the time to insist on righteousness in God’s church.
Gafcon wants to proclaim God’s Word, believing that this is the only viable future of Anglicanism. Archbishop Akinola issued a challenge to the GAFCON conference to explore how this new future might look as they listen and discuss together in the days to come.