George Conger: Nairobi Conference Shifts GFCA Focus to United Kingdom

The battleground for the soul of Anglicanism has passed from North America to Britain, following the adoption of the Nairobi Commitment by the 2nd Global Anglican Future Conference.

The public face of the 4-page document affirmed by delegates to the 21-26 October 2013 meeting of traditionalist Anglicans in Nairobi laid out the strategic goals of the global Anglican reform movement. However, a tactical plan to create a safe harbor for British traditionalists -- a third province for the Church of England -- was spelled out in the document as Britain awaits the Pilling Report -- a document due for release in December that will set forth the Church of England's position on human sexuality.

The Rt. Rev. Neil Lebhar, Bishop of the Gulf Atlantic Diocese of the Anglican Church in America, welcomed the statement as a "unity" document that would gather other Anglicans into the GAFCON fold.

The Rev. Rod Thomas, vicar of St Matthew's Elburton, Plymouth and chairman of Reform said "it sets a clear Gospel priority for Gafcon. It is designed to cary forward the work of encouragement and faithfulness ... I'm delighted."

The Nairobi Commitment was a product of the conference, the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey, Bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic of the Anglican Church in North America, told delegates when a draft was laid before the meeting on 25 October. The text was prepared by a writing team led by Bishop Guernsey that drew members from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the Southern Cone, USA/Canada and England and took its lead from reports prepared by the secretaries of the nine "mini-conferences" of GAFCON 2. Keep reading

Note that ACNA Bishop John Guernsey headed the team that drafted the Nairobi Communique and Commitment. This may in part explain the document's unqualified endorsement of the Anglican Church in North America. In North America Anglo-Catholicism and liberalism appear to have gained the upper hand in the battle for the soul of Anglicanism. In Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today, GAFCON's official commentary on the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration, Anglo-Catholicism and liberalism are identified as the two major challenges to the authority of the Anglican formularies and the Bible in the contemporary Anglican Church.