SEWAAC: GAFCON Is Future of Anglican Communion - Bishop Wantland

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8908

[VirtueOnline] 29 Aug 2008--The GAFCON Meeting did a number of things and it dealt with a number of issues, but there are two major primary actions taken by GAFCON that have some real importance for the life of the Anglican Communion.

The first of these was a declaration to determine a structure to represent those Anglican partners present at GAFCON and those not present that would be supportive of what GAFCON was attempting to accomplish. And therefore, a Council of Primates was established, made up initially of the nine primates present at the meeting in Jerusalem. Other primates undoubtedly will come on board as they ratify the actions of GAFCON. So GAFCON, this Global Anglican Fellowship is seen as a way of bringing together a majority of all the Anglicans in the world. Depending on how you count, there are somewhere between 60 and 75 million Anglicans in the world. About 60% of those Anglicans were represented at GAFCON.

The second thing that GAFCON did after establishing a Council of Primates and a means by which this organization could continue within the Anglican Communion, they adopted a declaration of 14 points and that declaration spells out what historically Anglicans have believed and what things we can refer to as of authority to determine Anglican theology and understanding of the Christian faith. I won't enumerate all 14 of those, but I will tell you that obviously, the three creeds; the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed are held up in that document as binding on Anglicans. The articles of religion are held up as binding on Anglicans.