Home News Delegates Call on Canterbury to Return to the Bible

Delegates Call on Canterbury to Return to the Bible

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The Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby
Delegates Call on Canterbury to Return to the Bible

Delegates at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem have agreed on a letter to the churches in the Anglican Communion which calls for the Archbishop of Canterbury as its leader, to reaffirm the clear teaching of the Bible in line with historical Anglican orthodoxy.

The conference which was attended by 1,950 representatives from 50 countries, made the passionate call this week to go to the ends of the earth to proclaim Jesus Christ to all nations.

“This is a stunning declaration of the Gospel. I believe it to be an historic moment; a defining moment in the life of the Anglican communion worldwide for the 21st century,” Andrea Minichiello Williams, the CEO of Christian Concern said in a press release.

“The letter presents as a loving and firm challenge to the official structures of the Church of England to return to the true Gospel and to discipline church leaders who refuse to teach or live in the light of that Gospel. If the Archbishops of Canterbury and York are unable to assent to the statement and take appropriate action, the consequences before God will be severe,” Williams said in the press release.

The letter points out the uniqueness of Christ and the need for repentance from sin.

But the letter also focuses on threats to the Gospel within the Anglican communion. It points out the Episcopal Church USA’s rejection of the settled teaching of the Church on sexuality and the failure of senior Anglicans to exercise necessary discipline.

“During the past twenty years, the Instruments of Communion have not only failed to uphold godly discipline but their representatives have refused to recognize our concerns and have chosen instead to demean GAFCON as a one-issue pressure group and accuse it of promoting schism, where in fact the schismatics are those who have departed from the teaching of the Bible and the historic doctrine of the Church. Slogans such as “walking together” and “good disagreement” are dangerously deceptive in seeking to persuade people to accommodate false teaching in the Communion,” Williams continued in the press release.

The letter goes on to urge the Archbishop of Canterbury to invite bishops from biblically faithful Anglican groups around the world to Lambeth 2020 and to exclude: “bishops of those Provinces which have endorsed by word or deed sexual practices which are in contradiction to the teaching of Scripture and Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, unless they have repented of their actions and reversed their decisions.”

If this does not happen, the letter urges GAFCON members “to decline the invitation to attend Lambeth 2020 and all other meetings of the Instruments of Communion.

The GAFCON movement is a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. The organization states on their website:

“We are founded on the Bible, bound together by the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008, and led by a Primates Council, which represents the majority of the world’s Anglicans.”

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