By SundiataPOST, Abuja
The second Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) on Friday in Nairobi resolved to expand its leadership role in supporting and recognising Anglicans in places where Biblical faith has been compromised.
A statement issued by the GAFCON secretariat in Nairobi said a meeting of bishops within the conference voted without dissent, to affirm the Primates’ Council position to recognise and oversee “theologically isolated Anglicans’’.
“This includes the expansion of the Anglican Mission in England and similar bodies around the Communion,” the statement said.
The bishops affirmed the Primates’ position that crossing ecclesiastical boundaries may also involve “ordination and consecration’’. The 331 bishops and archbishops attending GAFCON 2013 are mainly drawn from Africa, UK, U.S., South America and Australia.
They are united in their belief in the authority of the Scripture on the issue of human sexuality and opposition to homosexual practice and marriage.
The maiden conference took place in Jerusalem in 2008 in response to the appointment of actively homosexual men and women as bishops, especially in the U.S.
It was the same year that Nigerian bishops boycotted the Lambeth conference, the once-a-decade conference for all Anglican bishops.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, the Primate of Kenya and Chairman of GAFCON said on Friday at a press conference: “We came to Nairobi seeking God’s guidance for the future, should we stop? Should we slow down?
“The Bishops told us we must go on.” Also speaking, the General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Dr Peter Jensen, said:”The problems of the communion in the 21st Century were aired last weekend.
“But this conference, this movement, is not just calling attention to the dysfunction, it’s about building for the future.”
Jensen, who was the former Archbishop of Sydney, described GAFCON as a unique gathering of archbishops, bishops and clergy as well as lay men and women.
The six-day conference which attracted 1,358 delegates, engaged in group discussions on issues such as marriage and family, women, Gospel and culture, theological education and Islam.
