By Dolapo Aina
The fourth Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) held between Monday, 17th and Friday, 21st of April 2023, bringing together circa one thousand three hundred and two delegates from fifty-two countries, including three hundred and fifteen bishops, four hundred and fifty-six other clergy and five hundred and thirty-one laity.
On the opening day, the conference delegates were addressed by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente who spoke of the significance of the conference.
The conference theme for 2023 ‘To Whom Shall We Go?’ (John 6:68), along with the Bible studies in the Letter to the Colossians, focused the delegates’ attention on Jesus Christ.
GAFCON’s Chairman in his opening address encouraged delegates to be a repenting church, a reconciling church, a reproducing church and a relentlessly compassionate church. The delegates were also reminded that the purpose and mission of the church is to make known to a lost world the glorious riches of the Gospel by proclaiming Christ crucified and risen, and living faithfully together as his disciples.
In an official statement, GAFCON stated that; “Many among us are from contexts of persecution or conflict and we know that as one part of the body suffers, we all suffer. Some were unable to attend the conference because of this. We prayed for our brothers and sisters in Sudan, and for the suffering church. We also heard testimony of the power of the Gospel to transform lives even in these circumstances through the prayer, kindness and compassion of Christians.”
The fourth GAFCON conference statement titled: The Kigali Commitment 2023 focused on eight separate topics, including the current crisis in the Anglican Communion, the failure of the Archbishop of Canterbury and resetting the Communion, just to name a few.
According to Right Reverend Dr Michael Stead, Bishop of South Sydney and Chair of the GAFCON Statement Committee; “The Kigali Commitment reflects the mind of the one thousand three hundred delegates at this conference. They in turn represent most of the world’s worshipping Anglicans (estimated to be around 85%). What is clear from this conference is that most of the world’s Anglicans have lost confidence in the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide a Godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency and authority of Scripture. This grieves us, but it is they who have walked away from us.”
The Gafcon statement revealed that; “Gafcon stands ready to welcome those who feel they can no longer remain in the Church of England because of the failure of its leadership and is actively looking for ways to stand with and support faithful Anglicans who choose to remain within the Church of England. This includes churches in England, but also extends to churches all around the world where similar failures in leadership exist.”
The Kigali Commitment reads, ‘The purpose and mission of the church is to make known to a lost world the glorious riches of the gospel by proclaiming Christ crucified and risen, and living faithfully together as his disciples. The gospel of the risen Lord Jesus is our priority, and we are excited to get on with the task of proclaiming Christ faithfully to the nations,” says Bishop Stead.”
The media conference which wrapped up the fourth Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) had as guests; Bishop Michael Stead, Conference Statement Committee Chair and Bishop of South Sydney in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney; Archbishop Ben Kwashi, General Secretary of GAFCON Global and Archbishop in the Anglican Church of Nigeria; Archbishop Foley Beach, Chairman of GAFCON Global and Primate of the Anglican Church of North America and Reverend Canon Daniel Willis, GAFCON Global Operations Manager.
Aina writes from Kigali, Rwanda