GAFCON Chairman's 2014 Advent Letter

During this Advent Season we shall be preparing for the joyful celebration of the first coming of our Lord Jesus, but let us also rejoice that we have the promise of his second coming in glorious majesty as Lord, Saviour and Judge, and be willing to stake our lives on what we do not yet see, the fulfilment of the promises of God.

It was this confidence that kept the Apostle Paul from despair despite all the setbacks and suffering of his apostolic ministry and with deep insight he cuts right through earth bound ways of thinking when he writes ‘For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal’ (2 Corinthians 4:18).

This is a truly radical perspective. It brings our lives into line with what is ultimately real and gives us a hope that is not defeated by immediate challenges and loss. This is true whatever the crisis that confronts us and we must continue to pray for those whose lives have been devastated by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, but the difference biblical hope makes is seen most clearly when persecution and violence are unleashed. Read more

In his Advent Letter Archbishop Wabukala is critical of the irresolution of his fellow Anglican Primates and Bishops who argue that the maintenance of “visible unity” within the Anglican Communion is more important than the upholding of doctrinal unity. Yet Archbishop Wabukala and the Global South Primates who participated in the investiture of ACNA Archbishop Foley Beech and recognized Beech as “a fellow Primate of the Anglican Communion” did exactly what he is criticizing his fellow Anglican Primates and Bishops of doing—putting the maintenance of visible unity—in their particular case, with the Anglican Church of North America—before the upholding of doctrinal unity. The Anglican Church in North America in a number of key areas in its official doctrinal statements falls short of the “clear confessional basis in the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration” to which Archbishop Wabukala refers in his Advent Letter. The Jerusalem Statement and its official commentary Being Faithful: The Shape of Historic Anglicanism Today emphasize the importance of the historical Anglican confessional formularies as doctrinal and worship standards for Anglicans. The Anglican Church in North America in these key areas in its official doctrinal statements deviates significantly from these standards. While Archbishop Wabukala is to be applauded for calling his wavering fellow Primates and Bishops to order, his action loses its moral force in light of his own wavering and that of his fellow Global South Primates in regard to the doctrines and practices of the Anglican Church in North America.