Naviget: GAFCON Unfurls its Sails

‘Divine Summons’ an article by theologian Gilbert Meilaender, is a profound reflection on the biblical nature of calling. He notes that in Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid, Aeneas as ‘the man whom heaven calls’ to be the founder of Rome, must not only persevere through great difficulties, but also resist the temptation to settle down. Driven by a storm on to the shore of North Africa, Aeneas and his weary Trojans find respite in Carthage and he falls deeply in love with its Queen, Dido. He is happy and content, but Jupiter sends Mercury to remind Aeneas of his calling, summed up in one Latin word, Naviget! - ‘the man should sail’. Meilaender comments ‘it is only by hearing and answering the divine summons, by participating in my calling, that I can come to know who I am. We are not who we think we are; we are who God calls us to be’.

I sense that the GAFCON Primates’ Nairobi Communiqué issued this week has about it this quality of divine summons; it is an expression of obedience to the call of the gospel. The GAFCON Primates who met in Nairobi last month have plenty to occupy them in their own backyards. They have growing vibrant churches which need vigilant oversight, many have to grapple with pressing issues of poverty, some of their Provinces are on the frontline of militant Islam and in an African context they are also often called to act as statesmen too.

The temptation to focus on their own immediate challenges and disengage from a Communion which is in a crisis not of their making must be very powerful. But it has been determined that GAFCON must unfurl its sails for the sake of the gospel and I see the Nairobi Communiqué unfolding the vision established at Jerusalem in 2008 in two areas which are vital to the re-evangelisation of the West.

To read more, click here.