Anglican Connection: Inaugural Conference Report

By Robert Salter

The inaugural conference of the Anglican Connection was attended by both ordained and lay-members from a diversity of churches from the eastern side of the country. It was chaired throughout by John Mason, Founding Rector of Christ Church New York City. The aspiration to pursue together a ‘Gospel-Centric Anglicanism’ was firmly established from the outset and confirmed repeatedly throughout the course of the conference in a variety of ways including exhortation from the Word of God, worship and prayer, teaching sessions, discussion, and deliberation over constitutional matters and modes of conduct and procedure as a biblically-grounded Anglican movement.

Day One: Following a welcome and introduction from John Mason, Dr. Timothy George, Dean of Beeson Divinity School, extended a warm, generous, and encouraging greeting to the assembled participants. His expression of a great synergy between Beeson Divinity School and a gospel-centered Anglicanism was a high note on which to begin.

From here we moved into the first of our times of worship kindly led by Steve Victory and Dan Peterson (St Andrew’s Church, Huntsville). Daily exposition of Scripture commenced with a study on Philippians 2:5-11 by Roger Salter.

Dr. Graham Cole, Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson led a superb plenary session, ‘The Thirty-Nine Articles Revisited’. He set out the confessional basis of Anglicanism and our affiliation was ably set out.

From doctrine we moved to worship and The Lord’s Supper with an introduction by John Mason of his, ‘A Liturgy for Today's Church’. He identified and commended key elements of Thomas Cranmer’s 1552 (second) Prayer Book which have been maintained in the English Prayer Book of 1662. John drew attention to Cranmer’s commitment to the principles of clarity and unambiguity for the sake of the gospel, especially in the liturgy of The Lord’s Supper. He noted his own commitment to these principles in ‘A Liturgy for Today’s Church.

Clark Cornelius complemented John’s paper with a lively, visual presentation of significant differences between American and English prayer books.

The evening session provided time for personal introductions, fellowship, and informal discussion of matters of pressing importance and concern to various individuals. A sense of rapport and fundamental unity in gospel priorities was cultivated in this and similar times of informality together.

Day Two: With our basis for ministry in Holy Scripture, Keith Paulus ably set the tone of the day's proceedings with a biblical exposition of Titus 2:8ff. In particular he focused on the past, present, and future dimensions of God’s grace and the need of God’s grace in our own lives and as central to our ministry.

Our need to plumb the riches of the Bible was further exemplified with John Mason’s plenary session, ‘Preaching the Lukan Parables’, based on his recently published commentary, ‘Luke: An Unexpected God’.

A recorded interview with Tim Sims, a Sydney (Australia) businessman on the subject, ‘Effective Ministry under God’ provoked robust, thoughtful interaction on the subject of ministry in today’s changing culture.

Bishop Martyn Minns of CANA preached and presided at a Service of the Lord's Supper in the early afternoon, at which A Liturgy for Today's Church was used appreciatively. Bishop Minns’ stirring sermon, ‘The Fire of the Lord’ (from Luke 12:49 – ‘I have come to bring fire on the earth’) impressed upon us the nature of the gospel as urgent and utterly essential proclamation.

Graham Cole's second plenary session provided helpful insights for ‘Preaching Christ in Modern Times’. He made us aware of the various mindsets and expectations of generations past, recent, and present.

Strategic Church Planting (panel and discussion) was the theme of the final period of the afternoon. The focus was equally upon suitable method and the specific experience of several church planters. Most of the ministers present had been involved in church-planting and we were reminded afresh of the need to ground our ministry in the Word of God as God’s unique self-revelation. Any ministry, but especially church-planting, is a daunting task and requires humility before the Lord, God’s grace, wisdom, patience and perseverance, in the face of many obstacles. It was also noted that adequate, wise and godly support and generous funding are absolutely requisite.

At the evening gathering seminary options were promoted and examined (Beeson Divinity School; Knox Seminary, FL; Redeemer Seminary, TX). Bishop Martyn Minns also had the opportunity to explain the origins, objectives, and prospects of GAFCON.

Day Three: John Mason's Bible study on Luke 10:38-11:13 opened the closing day of the conference. We were reminded again of the need to attend to God’s Word when we pray.

Following further remarks about ministry from Bishop Minns, the ministers attending the conference formed themselves as a business meeting. The need for and the future of the Anglican Connection was discussed and an interim committee of seven was elected –Clark Cornelius, Geoff Hatley, Michael Kelshaw, John Mason, Lanier Nail (clergy) and Jim Churm, Cecil Money and Dan Peterson (lay-members).

The Future: Now that the Anglican Connection has been launched, it has the necessary impetus for development under God of a unified, mutually encouraging and supporting ministry affiliation – an affiliation that we can look back to and say was the work of God’s Word and God’s Spirit in our midst. The three days in August were characterized by a robust resolve to preach and preserve a gospel-centric message. Faithfulness to Scripture affords no alternative.

Michael Gaydosh of Solid Ground Christian Books provided a well-stocked book table enabling many of us to leave the conference equipped with classics of Anglican and general Christian literature.

All would agree that the conference was exceedingly worthwhile and edifying and that it eminently served to create strong bonds of friendship between participants. All conferences eventually have to end but the rich benefits of the Inaugural Anglican Connection Conference will remain in the minds, hearts, and ministries of each person privileged to attend.