March 1, 2026 • 18 mins
Dominic Steele reports from Abuja, Nigeria, as nearly 500 Anglican leaders gather for GAFCON 2026 in what many believe could prove a decisive moment in the reshaping of the Anglican Communion.
Delegates have arrived from across Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australasia, despite significant travel disruption caused by the US–Iran conflict and Middle Eastern airspace closures. For many Australians, flights were cancelled only hours before departure.
This preview episode of The Pastor’s Heart sets out what is expected in the coming days: proposals for the structure and operation of a new Global Anglican Communion, distinct from Canterbury.
The story stretches back through the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008 and the strong Kigali statement of 2023, in which leaders representing the majority of the Communion expressed no confidence in the existing Instruments of Communion. This week, foundations for a renewed and confessionally orthodox global fellowship are anticipated to be agreed.
Steele outlines the program for the week, including plenary sessions, presentations and votes on doctrine, fellowship and leadership structures. Particular attention will be given to the biblical basis of communion, the failures of current Canterbury-centred mechanisms and how future alignment will be defined. Questions around governance, canonical relationships and financial partnerships are also expected to be addressed.
Over the next five days, The Pastor’s Heart will release daily 30-minute reports with interviews from primates and key leaders, alongside full-length conversations on YouTube. Coverage is brought in partnership with Anglican Aid. This episode provides essential background to what may become a defining chapter in modern Anglican history.
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SPEAKER_07 (01:17):
It is Dominic Steele here from Abuja, Nigeria, where
the big global Anglicans launchthe big GAFCON conference
involving almost 500 delegatesfrom all around the world will
get underway tomorrow.
Our pastor's heart coverage iscourtesy of AnglicanAid.
You can go to anglicanAid.org.
And there are leaders here fromArgentina, from Australia, from
Brazil, from Burundi, fromCanada, from Chile, from
(01:40):
Ethiopia, from Germany, fromIndia, Kenya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda,Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda,
the UK, the USA, and Zambia.
On the plane here, I met abishop from Kenya and another
from South Africa.
For us coming from Sydney, itwas a long and difficult trip to
get to Abuja, made much morecomplex by the uh USA-Iran war
(02:04):
and the consequential shutdownof air travel through the Middle
East.
Um, for many of us coming fromAustralia, our flights were
cancelled just hours before wewere about to leave and we've
had to reschedule, and somedelegates didn't actually make
it here.
Now, to give you the headline,in the next few days, I
anticipate there will be anagreement reached on the detail
(02:26):
of the way the new globalAnglican communion will operate.
My read between the lines isthat some of the organizers here
are probably a littledisappointed that some of the
key global south leaders are nothere in Abuja in the way that
they were present in Kigali twoyears ago.
But what's going to happen hereis the foundations of the new
(02:49):
global Anglican Communion willbe agreed on this week by the
people in the room, and thenwhen others see what it is and
reflect on the alternative beingoffered by Canterbury, I think
many more provinces will signup.
I'm going to give you thebackground, then what's planned
for the week, and then some ofthe elephants in the room
(03:10):
that'll need to be dealt with.
So first, background.
The origins of this week'sgathering go, in a sense, back
to 1988.
It was at that point that theAnglican Lambeth Conference
passed Resolution 110, aresolution that affirmed
traditional Christian teachingthat sexual activity was to be
(03:31):
confined to heterosexualmarriage.
Now, what happened was theAmerican Episcopal Church made a
man in a homosexualrelationship, Gene Robinson, a
bishop.
And the leadership of theAnglican Communion took no
disciplinary action against theAmerican Episcopal Church.
(03:55):
And really, since then, theleadership of the Communion on
this flash issue of sexualityhas been hopelessly compromised.
And Orthodox provinces, leaders,dioceses, who've called for
repentance, who've drawn linesin the sand, have had those
lines smudged over, ignored, andfrequently flagrantly violated
(04:21):
by the various liberal leaders.
GAFCON itself came into being in2008, a meeting in Jerusalem,
and the formation of acontemporary statement of
Christian Orthodoxy known as theJerusalem Declaration.
And from that time on it's beenpossible, using the Jerusalem
Declaration, to discern withclarity the faithful and the
(04:44):
unfaithful within the AnglicanCommunion.
And pretty much the Africans andthe Global South have lined up
on the side of the angels, andthe Canadians, the Americans,
then the New Zealand provinces,and most recently the English,
have led the charge intoapostasy.
Most distressing of all has beenthe leadership of the unfaithful
(05:08):
bishops of the English Churchaway from Orthodoxy and towards
apostasy, most noticeably underthe leadership of Justin Welby
and Sarah Millale.
So much so that when the leadersrepresenting 85% of the Anglican
Communion gathered in 2023 inRwanda, there were
extraordinarily strong thingssaid about the English and the
(05:32):
communion leadership.
Here's a line from the KigaliConference.
We have no confidence that theArchbishop of Canterbury, nor
the other instruments ofcommunion, the Lambeth
Conference, the AnglicanConsultative Council, and the
Primates Meetings, are able toprovide a godly way forward that
will be acceptable to those whoare committed to the
(05:53):
truthfulness, clarity,sufficiency, and authority of
Scripture.
SPEAKER_05 (05:57):
I thank Anglican Aid for the sponsorship that you
gave me.
I studied diploma in theology atBunda Bible College.
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Reverend David is one of 2,000 pastors trained
with support from Anglican Aidin the last five years.
When you give to Anglican Aid'sGlobal Anglican Communion Fund,
you'll help resource the world'spoorest diocese to preach Christ
faithfully and care for peoplein need.
Visit Anglicanaid.org.
SPEAKER_07 (06:27):
Now, those of us who were delegates at that Kigali
conference, I think we're prettymuch expecting the Global South
people to work closely with theGAFCON leadership to take the
initiative in drawing up plansfor a revitalized, faithful
Anglican communion independentof Canterbury.
(06:49):
And so it was a disappointmentto see that although there were
positive words at last year'sGlobal South conference in
Cairo, that initiative wasn'ttaken.
I think, in a sense, theybalked.
I mean, I wasn't there, Ihaven't got a sense of the why,
but the output of that meetingwas nowhere near as strong as
(07:11):
the statements made by theGlobal South leadership to me
just 12 months earlier inRwanda.
SPEAKER_04 (07:19):
What do you see in the future between the GAFCON
and the Global South?
SPEAKER_03 (07:25):
GAFCON and Global South two institutions that uh
overlap and what they do, and uhin the future, it is my hope and
primary that the two may becomeone.
SPEAKER_06 (07:43):
There was a a moment in the um I'm I'm sure I'm sure
you were in the Primates meetingor the bishop's meeting at the
time, but in the um the laityand clergy auditorium where we
were yesterday afternoon, umwhen they were taking input
ideas for the statement, onedelegate from the floor said um
something similar to that.
And there was big applausearound the auditorium.
(08:05):
And uh Richard Condy, who waschairing the meeting, said, uh,
look, I just want you to knowI'm gonna take that feedback
back to the uh to the primatesand to the to the bishop's
group.
SPEAKER_03 (08:15):
Yeah.
We are planning for that, we aredreaming that, and we are moving
towards that.
And uh it is all our prayer thatwe will see something new within
the Anglican Communion in thenearest future.
SPEAKER_02 (08:35):
The good thing is primates of global south,
primates of GAFCO, we are comingtogether.
Um, and uh the vision um we aregoing to develop it will be
approved by the assembly of uhglobal south and by the primary
council of uh GAFCON movement.
(08:57):
So we are going to meet togetherand we are going to move in a
direction that we will agree.
Perhaps a bit of a timeline.
Um uh definitely we will have toagree before the next uh
assembly of Global South, whichwill be in May next year.
SPEAKER_01 (09:19):
Oh Specific, I wonder if I can ask.
Um, and and this this idea ofunity between uh GAFCON and the
Global South has been a bigtheme of this conference and
quite clearly a great desire ofthe delegates.
There was almost we're almostwaiting for all the primates to
meet together on Tuesdayafternoon, I think it it was.
Um, and you're obviously in aunique position being in both
(09:41):
those groups.
Are we allowed to ask what wasthe what was the mood and the
sentiment in that meeting?
SPEAKER_02 (09:48):
Love, friendship, focus on the future.
You know, if you look at the thedifferent primates, the the
outgoing chair of GAFCO is thetreasurer of global south.
The president of uh global southis also a primate of uh the
(10:11):
GAFCO movement.
So um uh we are alreadytogether, but we need now to
define the structure for thefuture.
And the the definition, the newdefinition of the Anglican
Communion, then it's going to beratified by the Assembly of
Global South and by the um uhPrimates Committee of uh GAFCO.
SPEAKER_07 (10:36):
So the bottom line is where we are is that it's
come back to GAFCO to lead onthe implementation of the
recasting of the AnglicanCommunion.
And this week it's expected tohappen.
There's every reason to expectthat this week will be written
about in church history books inhundreds of years' time.
It marks the shift of AnglicanChristian leadership from
(10:59):
Canterbury to Abuja.
Now, I'll tell you our Pastor'sHeart program for the next few
days and then give you theoverall program.
We'll be bringing you a30-minute report each evening
for the next five days.
Everything you need to knowabout the GAFCON conference, the
Global Anglican CommunionConference, um, in 30 minutes.
(11:22):
We'll hear from primates fromaround the world who are here,
plus thought leaders and thedetails of the controversies and
the outcome of the votes.
Plus, we'll put up on thePastors Heart YouTube channel
all the raw interviews that wedo so you can tune in and hear
from each guest in slightly moredetail.
Now, the programme itself of theconference in Abuja.
(11:43):
Tuesday night, it's openingceremony.
Then Wednesday and Thursday,it's a pretty much identical
format.
After morning prayer and Biblereading, there'll be two
90-minute plenary sessions, onein the late morning, one in the
early afternoon.
Each of those plenaries willinclude three presentations and
then buzz groups, and theneveryone giving feedback and
(12:07):
voting really via an app.
Let me work through the contentof the presentations.
In the first block on theWednesday morning, there'll be a
looking back section, the roadto that Martyr's Day statement
last year, when the leaders ofGAFCON said, Enough's enough,
we're finally done withCanterbury.
(12:28):
Then the future has arrived, andthe key issue that the Bible is
to be at the center of the heartof the restored, revitalized
communion, that our communion isbased on our shared trust of the
Bible.
Then in the second block onWednesday, we'll note together
the failure of the Canterburystructures, that communion
(12:50):
requires confession, that wethat's confessional belief, that
we can't be in communiontogether if we don't share the
same belief.
And this session is expected torefute the ongoing lie of the
liberals that we're walkingtogether.
(13:10):
When in fact we're not walkingtogether, we're walking in
opposite directions.
One is on a path to trusting inChrist, and the other is on a
path to apostasy and judgment.
And then the last presentationon the Wednesday will be an
introduction to the revitalizedglobal Anglican Communion.
Each time there's apresentation, there'll be
(13:33):
feedback and voting.
I'll give you the Thursdaypresentations in more detail in
our preview tomorrow, but inbroad terms, they relate to
where the lines will be drawn,what meetings we'll attend, who
we'll accept money from, and howwill we count ourselves in
fellowship with who, how we willalign or not align canonically,
(13:57):
how we'll differentiateourselves.
And then there's how leadershipof this new revitalized
communion might work goingforward.
I don't think I've heard anyonesuggest that the current
structure, where a British PrimeMinister who isn't a Christian,
gives a name to a British kingwho isn't a Christian, and
together they decide on who thenext Archbishop of Canterbury
(14:20):
will be, and then the Archbishopof Canterbury goes through with
the pretense that the king andthe prime minister are
Christian, and it's just limpedalong in that way until the
Prime Minister was a publicHindu.
But how could you have a Hinduor an atheist appoint the chief
shepherd of the Church of God?
That's not a formula forsuccessful faithfulness or
(14:44):
mission.
That's a formula that will giveus the compromised mess that we
currently have.
Anyway, proposals will be madeon the way forward for selecting
leadership, and they'll be votedon on Thursday afternoon.
Friday morning, there'll be adraft statement reading, and
then final feedback before theconference's decisions are
(15:05):
announced Friday afternoon.
Then Saturday, there'll be ameeting of the leaders to put it
all into practice.
Two of the flashpoint issuesthat are bubbling around in the
background, kind of elephants inthe room.
Well, first, what's therelationship going to be going
forward between GAFCON and theGlobal South?
There was a real call for aunited working together at
(15:29):
Kigali.
But then the Global South reallystopped walking and stalled.
I'll be pushing over the nextcouple of days to get some of
the leadership here to speak tome on the record on that topic.
But um before they do that,here's how I'm putting the
jigsaw pieces together.
(15:51):
A few years ago I was talking toNew Zealand Bishop Jay Bean, and
he said, We all agree on theproblem, but we disagree on what
to do.
Now, my read is there are stillquite a few in the global south
who, despite what they said atthe Kigali meeting, want to
continue to work with or walkwith within the Canterbury-led
(16:17):
structures and Canterbury-ledmeetings, to attempt to reform
from within.
But, and this is the GAFCONview, that gives continued
credence to the lie that it ispossible to keep walking
together.
It allows one to maintain theline of walking together when
(16:38):
that's clearly not the case.
And now, interestingly, thereare some here who are leaders in
both groups, and we will put thequestion to them on that in the
next few days.
The second elephant in the roomthat needs to be resolved, and
it's really the two extremeproblems of what do you do with
(16:59):
um people who are with GAFCON orwith the Global Anglicans
theologically, they're with theJerusalem Declaration, but they
want to stay linked toCanterbury.
And what do you do with thediocese that is uh with GAFCON
on doctrine, but can'tdisconnect legally from the
(17:19):
Anglican Communion?
And an example of that is theSydney Diocese.
It seems to me to get a legalchallenge or a legal change to
the constitution of theAustralian Anglican Church is
pretty well impossible.
So there's some of the elephantsin the room of the next few
days.
I'm really looking forward tothem, to hearing from brothers
and sisters from around theworld about their work and
(17:40):
service in Jesus Christ, tobeing encouraged by them, to be
encouraged in the Word of God,and to be encouraged in the
standing firm to guard thegospel and to preach Christ
faithfully.
Thanks for being with us on thislittle pastor's heart special
from Abuja, Nigeria.
We'll look forward to startingour coverage for you properly
tomorrow.
(18:01):
My name is Dominic Steele.
We're here for anglicanaid.org.
See you tomorrow.
It is Dominic Steele here from Abuja, Nigeria, where
the big global Anglicans launchthe big GAFCON conference
involving almost 500 delegatesfrom all around the world will
get underway tomorrow.
Our pastor's heart coverage iscourtesy of AnglicanAid.
You can go to anglicanAid.org.
And there are leaders here fromArgentina, from Australia, from
Brazil, from Burundi, fromCanada, from Chile, from
(01:40):
Ethiopia, from Germany, fromIndia, Kenya, Madagascar,
Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda,Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda,
the UK, the USA, and Zambia.
On the plane here, I met abishop from Kenya and another
from South Africa.
For us coming from Sydney, itwas a long and difficult trip to
get to Abuja, made much morecomplex by the uh USA-Iran war
(02:04):
and the consequential shutdownof air travel through the Middle
East.
Um, for many of us coming fromAustralia, our flights were
cancelled just hours before wewere about to leave and we've
had to reschedule, and somedelegates didn't actually make
it here.
Now, to give you the headline,in the next few days, I
anticipate there will be anagreement reached on the detail
(02:26):
of the way the new globalAnglican communion will operate.
My read between the lines isthat some of the organizers here
are probably a littledisappointed that some of the
key global south leaders are nothere in Abuja in the way that
they were present in Kigali twoyears ago.
But what's going to happen hereis the foundations of the new
(02:49):
global Anglican Communion willbe agreed on this week by the
people in the room, and thenwhen others see what it is and
reflect on the alternative beingoffered by Canterbury, I think
many more provinces will signup.
I'm going to give you thebackground, then what's planned
for the week, and then some ofthe elephants in the room
(03:10):
that'll need to be dealt with.
So first, background.
The origins of this week'sgathering go, in a sense, back
to 1988.
It was at that point that theAnglican Lambeth Conference
passed Resolution 110, aresolution that affirmed
traditional Christian teachingthat sexual activity was to be
(03:31):
confined to heterosexualmarriage.
Now, what happened was theAmerican Episcopal Church made a
man in a homosexualrelationship, Gene Robinson, a
bishop.
And the leadership of theAnglican Communion took no
disciplinary action against theAmerican Episcopal Church.
(03:55):
And really, since then, theleadership of the Communion on
this flash issue of sexualityhas been hopelessly compromised.
And Orthodox provinces, leaders,dioceses, who've called for
repentance, who've drawn linesin the sand, have had those
lines smudged over, ignored, andfrequently flagrantly violated
(04:21):
by the various liberal leaders.
GAFCON itself came into being in2008, a meeting in Jerusalem,
and the formation of acontemporary statement of
Christian Orthodoxy known as theJerusalem Declaration.
And from that time on it's beenpossible, using the Jerusalem
Declaration, to discern withclarity the faithful and the
(04:44):
unfaithful within the AnglicanCommunion.
And pretty much the Africans andthe Global South have lined up
on the side of the angels, andthe Canadians, the Americans,
then the New Zealand provinces,and most recently the English,
have led the charge intoapostasy.
Most distressing of all has beenthe leadership of the unfaithful
(05:08):
bishops of the English Churchaway from Orthodoxy and towards
apostasy, most noticeably underthe leadership of Justin Welby
and Sarah Millale.
So much so that when the leadersrepresenting 85% of the Anglican
Communion gathered in 2023 inRwanda, there were
extraordinarily strong thingssaid about the English and the
(05:32):
communion leadership.
Here's a line from the KigaliConference.
We have no confidence that theArchbishop of Canterbury, nor
the other instruments ofcommunion, the Lambeth
Conference, the AnglicanConsultative Council, and the
Primates Meetings, are able toprovide a godly way forward that
will be acceptable to those whoare committed to the
(05:53):
truthfulness, clarity,sufficiency, and authority of
Scripture.
SPEAKER_05 (05:57):
I thank Anglican Aid for the sponsorship that you
gave me.
I studied diploma in theology atBunda Bible College.
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00 (06:07):
Reverend David is one of 2,000 pastors trained
with support from Anglican Aidin the last five years.
When you give to Anglican Aid'sGlobal Anglican Communion Fund,
you'll help resource the world'spoorest diocese to preach Christ
faithfully and care for peoplein need.
Visit Anglicanaid.org.
SPEAKER_07 (06:27):
Now, those of us who were delegates at that Kigali
conference, I think we're prettymuch expecting the Global South
people to work closely with theGAFCON leadership to take the
initiative in drawing up plansfor a revitalized, faithful
Anglican communion independentof Canterbury.
(06:49):
And so it was a disappointmentto see that although there were
positive words at last year'sGlobal South conference in
Cairo, that initiative wasn'ttaken.
I think, in a sense, theybalked.
I mean, I wasn't there, Ihaven't got a sense of the why,
but the output of that meetingwas nowhere near as strong as
(07:11):
the statements made by theGlobal South leadership to me
just 12 months earlier inRwanda.
SPEAKER_04 (07:19):
What do you see in the future between the GAFCON
and the Global South?
SPEAKER_03 (07:25):
GAFCON and Global South two institutions that uh
overlap and what they do, and uhin the future, it is my hope and
primary that the two may becomeone.
SPEAKER_06 (07:43):
There was a a moment in the um I'm I'm sure I'm sure
you were in the Primates meetingor the bishop's meeting at the
time, but in the um the laityand clergy auditorium where we
were yesterday afternoon, umwhen they were taking input
ideas for the statement, onedelegate from the floor said um
something similar to that.
And there was big applausearound the auditorium.
(08:05):
And uh Richard Condy, who waschairing the meeting, said, uh,
look, I just want you to knowI'm gonna take that feedback
back to the uh to the primatesand to the to the bishop's
group.
SPEAKER_03 (08:15):
Yeah.
We are planning for that, we aredreaming that, and we are moving
towards that.
And uh it is all our prayer thatwe will see something new within
the Anglican Communion in thenearest future.
SPEAKER_02 (08:35):
The good thing is primates of global south,
primates of GAFCO, we are comingtogether.
Um, and uh the vision um we aregoing to develop it will be
approved by the assembly of uhglobal south and by the primary
council of uh GAFCON movement.
(08:57):
So we are going to meet togetherand we are going to move in a
direction that we will agree.
Perhaps a bit of a timeline.
Um uh definitely we will have toagree before the next uh
assembly of Global South, whichwill be in May next year.
SPEAKER_01 (09:19):
Oh Specific, I wonder if I can ask.
Um, and and this this idea ofunity between uh GAFCON and the
Global South has been a bigtheme of this conference and
quite clearly a great desire ofthe delegates.
There was almost we're almostwaiting for all the primates to
meet together on Tuesdayafternoon, I think it it was.
Um, and you're obviously in aunique position being in both
(09:41):
those groups.
Are we allowed to ask what wasthe what was the mood and the
sentiment in that meeting?
SPEAKER_02 (09:48):
Love, friendship, focus on the future.
You know, if you look at the thedifferent primates, the the
outgoing chair of GAFCO is thetreasurer of global south.
The president of uh global southis also a primate of uh the
(10:11):
GAFCO movement.
So um uh we are alreadytogether, but we need now to
define the structure for thefuture.
And the the definition, the newdefinition of the Anglican
Communion, then it's going to beratified by the Assembly of
Global South and by the um uhPrimates Committee of uh GAFCO.
SPEAKER_07 (10:36):
So the bottom line is where we are is that it's
come back to GAFCO to lead onthe implementation of the
recasting of the AnglicanCommunion.
And this week it's expected tohappen.
There's every reason to expectthat this week will be written
about in church history books inhundreds of years' time.
It marks the shift of AnglicanChristian leadership from
(10:59):
Canterbury to Abuja.
Now, I'll tell you our Pastor'sHeart program for the next few
days and then give you theoverall program.
We'll be bringing you a30-minute report each evening
for the next five days.
Everything you need to knowabout the GAFCON conference, the
Global Anglican CommunionConference, um, in 30 minutes.
(11:22):
We'll hear from primates fromaround the world who are here,
plus thought leaders and thedetails of the controversies and
the outcome of the votes.
Plus, we'll put up on thePastors Heart YouTube channel
all the raw interviews that wedo so you can tune in and hear
from each guest in slightly moredetail.
Now, the programme itself of theconference in Abuja.
(11:43):
Tuesday night, it's openingceremony.
Then Wednesday and Thursday,it's a pretty much identical
format.
After morning prayer and Biblereading, there'll be two
90-minute plenary sessions, onein the late morning, one in the
early afternoon.
Each of those plenaries willinclude three presentations and
then buzz groups, and theneveryone giving feedback and
(12:07):
voting really via an app.
Let me work through the contentof the presentations.
In the first block on theWednesday morning, there'll be a
looking back section, the roadto that Martyr's Day statement
last year, when the leaders ofGAFCON said, Enough's enough,
we're finally done withCanterbury.
(12:28):
Then the future has arrived, andthe key issue that the Bible is
to be at the center of the heartof the restored, revitalized
communion, that our communion isbased on our shared trust of the
Bible.
Then in the second block onWednesday, we'll note together
the failure of the Canterburystructures, that communion
(12:50):
requires confession, that wethat's confessional belief, that
we can't be in communiontogether if we don't share the
same belief.
And this session is expected torefute the ongoing lie of the
liberals that we're walkingtogether.
(13:10):
When in fact we're not walkingtogether, we're walking in
opposite directions.
One is on a path to trusting inChrist, and the other is on a
path to apostasy and judgment.
And then the last presentationon the Wednesday will be an
introduction to the revitalizedglobal Anglican Communion.
Each time there's apresentation, there'll be
(13:33):
feedback and voting.
I'll give you the Thursdaypresentations in more detail in
our preview tomorrow, but inbroad terms, they relate to
where the lines will be drawn,what meetings we'll attend, who
we'll accept money from, and howwill we count ourselves in
fellowship with who, how we willalign or not align canonically,
(13:57):
how we'll differentiateourselves.
And then there's how leadershipof this new revitalized
communion might work goingforward.
I don't think I've heard anyonesuggest that the current
structure, where a British PrimeMinister who isn't a Christian,
gives a name to a British kingwho isn't a Christian, and
together they decide on who thenext Archbishop of Canterbury
(14:20):
will be, and then the Archbishopof Canterbury goes through with
the pretense that the king andthe prime minister are
Christian, and it's just limpedalong in that way until the
Prime Minister was a publicHindu.
But how could you have a Hinduor an atheist appoint the chief
shepherd of the Church of God?
That's not a formula forsuccessful faithfulness or
(14:44):
mission.
That's a formula that will giveus the compromised mess that we
currently have.
Anyway, proposals will be madeon the way forward for selecting
leadership, and they'll be votedon on Thursday afternoon.
Friday morning, there'll be adraft statement reading, and
then final feedback before theconference's decisions are
(15:05):
announced Friday afternoon.
Then Saturday, there'll be ameeting of the leaders to put it
all into practice.
Two of the flashpoint issuesthat are bubbling around in the
background, kind of elephants inthe room.
Well, first, what's therelationship going to be going
forward between GAFCON and theGlobal South?
There was a real call for aunited working together at
(15:29):
Kigali.
But then the Global South reallystopped walking and stalled.
I'll be pushing over the nextcouple of days to get some of
the leadership here to speak tome on the record on that topic.
But um before they do that,here's how I'm putting the
jigsaw pieces together.
(15:51):
A few years ago I was talking toNew Zealand Bishop Jay Bean, and
he said, We all agree on theproblem, but we disagree on what
to do.
Now, my read is there are stillquite a few in the global south
who, despite what they said atthe Kigali meeting, want to
continue to work with or walkwith within the Canterbury-led
(16:17):
structures and Canterbury-ledmeetings, to attempt to reform
from within.
But, and this is the GAFCONview, that gives continued
credence to the lie that it ispossible to keep walking
together.
It allows one to maintain theline of walking together when
(16:38):
that's clearly not the case.
And now, interestingly, thereare some here who are leaders in
both groups, and we will put thequestion to them on that in the
next few days.
The second elephant in the roomthat needs to be resolved, and
it's really the two extremeproblems of what do you do with
(16:59):
um people who are with GAFCON orwith the Global Anglicans
theologically, they're with theJerusalem Declaration, but they
want to stay linked toCanterbury.
And what do you do with thediocese that is uh with GAFCON
on doctrine, but can'tdisconnect legally from the
(17:19):
Anglican Communion?
And an example of that is theSydney Diocese.
It seems to me to get a legalchallenge or a legal change to
the constitution of theAustralian Anglican Church is
pretty well impossible.
So there's some of the elephantsin the room of the next few
days.
I'm really looking forward tothem, to hearing from brothers
and sisters from around theworld about their work and
(17:40):
service in Jesus Christ, tobeing encouraged by them, to be
encouraged in the Word of God,and to be encouraged in the
standing firm to guard thegospel and to preach Christ
faithfully.
Thanks for being with us on thislittle pastor's heart special
from Abuja, Nigeria.
We'll look forward to startingour coverage for you properly
tomorrow.
(18:01):
My name is Dominic Steele.
We're here for anglicanaid.org.
See you tomorrow.
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