The Path to GAFCON

	Some helpful background	Richard Condie is vicar of St Jude's Carlton and Archdeacon of Melbourne. September 2008.
	Anglicans are not a worldwide "church" with strong authority lines like the Roman Catholic Church, but a communion of churches: Provinces (countries) Dioceses, and Parishes. We are a loose federation held together by four "Instruments of Communion*" which include:
	Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury
	10 Yearly Lambeth Conference
	Primates Meeting (leaders of provinces)
	Anglican Consultative Council
	*All references to the Instruments of Communion in this document are made with *.
	Each of these help to oversee and "govern" the life of the Communion.
	The Path to GAFCON
	In 1997 the Leaders of global south Anglican provinces (ie the Anglican Churches in Africa and South America) had a sense that things were starting to go awry in the Communion and held a meeting in Kuala Lumpur focussing on the theme of the place of scripture in the Mission of the church in 21st century. They were anticipating some of the changes afoot in Nth America where the plain teaching of the scriptures was being put aside for other sources of authority. They issued the "Kuala Lumpur Statement on Human Sexuality".
	1998 – Lambeth Conference.* Among other things this conference in its official dealings affirmed the place of the scriptures in the church. They passed a resolution (1.10) which affirmed that human sexuality was to be expressed in faithful marriage and chastity outside of marriage:
	Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10 'Human Sexuality'
	This Conference:
	commends to the Church the subsection report on human sexuality;
	in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage;
	recognises that there are among us persons who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation. Many of these are members of the Church and are seeking the pastoral care, moral direction of the Church, and God's transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of relationships. We commit ourselves to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and we wish to assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ;
	while rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, calls on all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex;
	cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions;
	July 2000 – General Convention ECUSA (Episcopal Church of the USA) – approved a resolution acknowledging committed relationships other than marriage (including homosexual relationships) in the body of Christ and His church.
	2001 – Primates Meeting* acknowledged the changes that had taken place and called on all provinces of the Communion to "avoid actions which might damage our relationships and the credibility of mission in the world".
	2002 – Primates Meeting* called all Bishops to articulate the fundamentals of faith and to maintain Christian truth.
	2002 – Diocese of New Westminster (Canada) voted to approve the blessings of same-sex unions.
	2002 – ACC (Anglican Consultative Council)* met and then urged Dioceses not to make unilateral actions that hurt the communion.
	2003 – ECUSA General Assembly met, and rejected a resolution that affirms the primacy of scripture and the Lambeth Quadrilateral.
	The resolution, in part, states: "Resolved, ... that this 74th General Convention affirms that 'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation' as set for in Article VI of the Articles of Religion established by the General Convention on Sept. 12, 1801; and be it further
	"Resolved, that this 74th General Convention re-affirms that 'it is not lawful for the Church to ordain (that is, establish or enact) any thing that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another," as set forth in Article XX of the Articles of Religion established by the General Convention of Sept. 12, 1801; and be it further
	"Resolved, that this 74th General Convention affirms that every member of this Church is conscience-bound first of all to obey the teaching and direction of Our Lord Jesus Christ as set forth in Holy Scripture in any matter where a decision or action of this Church, or this General Convention, may depart from that teaching."
	The motion failed
	2003 – ECUSA Gen Assembly approved the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, with full knowledge that he lived in a homosexual relationship, thus rejecting Lambeth 1.10 and the urgings of the Primates and the ACC – the instruments of communion.
	2003 – Primates Meeting* condemned ECUSA's actions saying that they "threaten the unity of the Communion", and that these actions "would tear at the fabric of the Communion". They pleaded with ECUSA to provide adequate pastoral care of those 'dissenting' minorities (ie those who hold to Lambeth 1.10 and traditional Anglican Doctrine).
	2004 saw a number of blessings of same-sex unions in Canada and the USA.
	2004 (Sept) – The Windsor Report was issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury* and it reaffirmed Lambeth 1.10* and called for a moratorium on same-sex blessings.
	2004 – The Archbishop of Canterbury* attempted to establish a panel of reference to provide Episcopal care of "dissenting parishes in the US" but to no avail. These parishes wanted to be Anglicans but realised their bishops had departed from Anglican doctrine and teaching at this time, and had not provided any other means of Episcopal care. As a result, some of these parishes in the US and Canada removed themselves from the oversight of their local bishop and sought care from bishops from Global South Dioceses.
	2004 – In response The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) was established by Nigeria, as a mechanism for supporting the traditional parishes.
	2004 – The African Bishops called on the Bishops of North America to repent from their actions.
	2005 – The Bishops of the Global South called for an Anglican Covenant to deal with the crisis, as a way of expressing our unity in doctrine.
	2006 – ECUSA expressed regret for the hurt their actions had caused the Communion, but did not change their course of action. They also passed a motion at their General Convention promoting homosexual behaviour. They elected Katherine Jefferts Shori as presiding Bishop, knowing that she does not uphold or adhere to the view expressed in Lambeth 1.10, nor does she consider Jesus as the only way to salvation.
	2006 – Nigeria elected Martyn Minns to be Bishop to CANA to oversee the Episcopal care of the traditional parishes in North America.
	2007 – The Primates Meeting* in Dar es Salaam in February reaffirmed Lambeth 1.10 and called ECUSA to consider taking actions to heal the Communion and provide pastoral care to the disaffected. The gave a Sept 30 deadline for response. By June it became clear that TEC (the Episcopal Church – new name for ECUSA) and ACC (Anglican Church in Canada) were unwilling to act as requested.
	2007 July – (well before the September deadline for action in TEC and ACC) the Archbishop of Canterbury* issued invitations to the Lambeth 2008 Conference* to all bishops in the communion with two exceptions: The Bishop of New Hampshire, and the Nigerian Bishops serving in North America.
	2007 – Later that year some bishops of the Global South decided that given all that had transpired, they could not in good conscience accept the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to Lambeth. They felt that the Instruments of Communion had manifestly failed in keeping the Unity of the Communion. The split had clearly already occurred, and they felt that to attend would be against their conscience.
	2007 – Several bishops then gathered to consider a way forward and a conference of bishops, clergy and laity was proposed, the purpose of which was to consider the future of the global Anglican Communion in the light of these events. The Global Anglican Futures Conference – GAFCON was called.

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