Dissident Anglicans to Set Their Own Agenda

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/06/20/dissident-anglicans-to-set-their-own-agenda.html

[US News & World Report] 21 Jun 2008--In a further sign that the global Anglican Communion may be heading toward schism, more than 1,000 leaders of a growing movement of conservative Anglicans and Episcopalians will meet in Jerusalem June 22-29 to set forth their ideas for restoring what they believe is the true identity and mission of their church. Called the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), the meeting of dissident clergy and laypeople is expected to reassert the authority of Scripture, particularly on matters of marriage and sexuality. It will also explore specific ways of applying biblical teachings to global challenges, including coexistence with Islam and the rising price of food.

Divisive as it all may sound, conference organizers are quick to reject the charge that they are trying to upstage the upcoming Lambeth Conference, the official meeting of Communion bishops held in England every 10 years under the auspices of the archbishop of Canterbury, now the Most Rev. and Right Hon. Rowan Williams.

But many attending the Jerusalem meeting, including the Most Rev. Peter Akinola of Nigeria, have said that they will not attend the Lambeth gathering in mid-July. And GAFCON attendees admit they have lost patience with Anglican and Episcopal church leaders, who conservatives say have refused to take clear or decisive stands on such issues as gay marriage and openly gay clergy.

"The traditional power brokers of the Communion are being challenged," says the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a group of about 60 American congregations that have cut ties with the U. S. Episcopal Church and are now incorporated under Archbishop Akinola's Nigerian province. Minns charges that the Communion's leadership in the global north continues to ignore demographic and theological reality: that the church in the global south is not only the largest part of the Communion (with more than 40 million of the 70 million Anglicans and Episcopalians) but also the most committed to orthodox Christian teaching.