Thinking Anglicans

Archbishops' letter to primates: GAFCON responds

From the GAFCON website:
A response to the statement by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York

A response to the statement by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York of 29th January 2014

This week, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York sought to remind the leadership of the Anglican Communion and the Presidents of Nigeria and Uganda of the importance of friendship and care for homosexual people.

Christians should always show particular care for those who are vulnerable, but this cannot be separated from the whole fabric of biblical moral teaching in which the nature of marriage and family occupy a central place.

The Dromantine Communiqué from which the Archbishops quote also affirmed (Clause 17) the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10 which states that ‘homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture’ and that the conference ‘cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions’.

Yet earlier this week, the English College of Bishops accepted the recommendation of the Pilling Report for two years of ‘facilitated conversation’ because at least some of the bishops could not accept the historic teaching of the Church as reaffirmed in the Lambeth resolution.

Indeed, in making the case for such a debate, the Pilling Report observes ‘In the House of Lords debate on same sex marriage, the Archbishop of York commended that the Church needed to think about the anomalies in a situation where it is willing to bless a tree or a sheep, but not a faithful human relationship.’ The anomaly only exists of course if it really is the case that a committed homosexual union can also be Christian.

The good advice of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York would carry much more weight if they were able to affirm that they hold, personally, as well as in virtue of their office, to the collegial mind of the Anglican Communion. At the moment I fear that we cannot be sure.

Regrettably, their intervention has served to encourage those who want to normalize homosexual lifestyles in Africa and has fuelled prejudice against African Anglicans. We are committed to biblical sexual morality and to biblical pastoral care, so we wholeheartedly stand by the assurance given in the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution that those who experience same sex attraction are ‘loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.’

May God in his mercy grant that we may hold to the fullness of his truth and the fullness of his grace.

The Most Rev’d Dr Eliud Wabukala
Archbishop, Anglican Church of Kenya and Chairman, GAFCON Primates Council.
30th January 2014

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Interested Observer
Interested Observer
10 years ago

“Christians should always show particular care for those who are vulnerable, but”

No. Christians, like everyone else, should always show particular care for those who are vulnerable. There is no but.

Tobias Stanislas Haller
Tobias Stanislas Haller
10 years ago

“the whole fabric of biblical moral teaching in which the nature of marriage and family occupy a central place” — Eliud Wabukala Well, this is hardly true, for a start. Marriage and the family play virtually no role at all in the Gospel, at least in the ordinary biological sense, to which the Incarnation itself might well be taken as a rebuttal. Just why did God choose to become Incarnate apart from the normal order of family life, if not to say that the “new creation” is not simply a recapitulation of the old? It seems that the Global South… Read more »

Pluralist
10 years ago

The Western writers of this response are a little ‘too clever’ when they write:

“has fuelled prejudice against African Anglicans”

Really? In what sense? That this form of religion is vile? I’d have thought this view is not prejudice but a fairly obvious and reasonable response. It doesn’t matter who says it, the bibliolatry of GAFCON that puts selective people’s lives at such risk from the State and the mob is simply vile.

Martin Reynolds
Martin Reynolds
10 years ago

Whoever drafted this just didn’t even want to consider the question being raised.
I think there is no doubt that these people have been completely captured by the white quasi-fundamentalists. Any further conversation has been ruled out by them, this is just another bargaining chip in the political game for power.

For the time being there is little or no hope of unfettering these people from their controllers, they are lost. One sort of guesses that in his heart Welby already knows this and has decided not to completely destroy any credibility he may have by pandering to their agenda.

JCF
JCF
10 years ago

Predictable reaction is predictable. [But no less disturbing thereby.]

Whenever the response to VIOLENCE against human beings is “Yes, but…” you can be sure we’re dealing w/ idolatry. Anathema!

Andrew Wilshere
Andrew Wilshere
10 years ago

If only the Christian character of gay relationships were all Gafcon were interested in debating. Then perhaps there would be greater scope for respectful disagreement.

Sadly, what they really call into question is the very humanity (rights, dignity, liberty) of gay people. This should be countenanced by no-one, least of all Christians.

Father Ron Smith
10 years ago

” We are committed to biblical sexual morality and to biblical pastoral care, so we wholeheartedly stand by the assurance given in the 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution that those who experience same sex attraction are ‘loved by God and that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.’ ” – Eliud Wabakula – One wonders how ++Eliud can appeal to ‘biblical’ seuxal morality, which he insists on being anti-Gay; while at the same time affirming the pro-Gay assertion made in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution. There appears to be some double-talk… Read more »

Tim
Tim
10 years ago

Whatever aspect of this fellow’s witness is defined by truth and grace, he has demeaned by the rest of the message.

dr.primrose
dr.primrose
10 years ago

As far as I know, trees or sheep are not considered Christian. So his argument that we don’t bless non-Christian things immediately falls apart.

Geoff
10 years ago

“If only the Christian character of gay relationships were all Gafcon were interested in debating. Then perhaps there would be greater scope for respectful disagreement.”

Not much, though.

Jeremy
Jeremy
10 years ago

This is good:

“As far as I know, trees or sheep are not considered Christian. So his argument that we don’t bless non-Christian things immediately falls apart.”

Or houses, or ships, or food . . . .

Concerned Anglican
Concerned Anglican
10 years ago

It is both sad and disturbing that this release has obviously been written by Western ‘minders’, probably American. Some years ago a similar release by Peter Akinola when he was Archbishop of Nigeria was analysed and turned out to have been overwhelmingly composed by Martyn Minns ‘Bishop’ of one of the Nigerian breakaway factions in the Diocese of Virginia.

Anyone fancy doing a form criticism on it?

Martin Reynolds
Martin Reynolds
10 years ago

Much is made of the persecution of Christians, and as I said on an earlier thread we shared our Christmas with a family who had just escaped a life threatening environment, people are really dying for our faith in pitiless circumstances. Then there are the awful stories from Christian Concern pedaled as persecution which should, and do, make those who suffer genuine persecution angry and hurt by their rhetoric. But what strikes me is that what would be counter cultural in these places is for the Church to speak out for gay people (even as sinners) and to advocate their… Read more »

James Byron
James Byron
10 years ago

Excellent observations, Martin, particularly your observation about the lack of a bloodbath over Gene Robinson’s consecration. It was a bluff. Put simply, Williams was conned. The “blood on the streets” prophecy of doom was the crudest emotional blackmail. He should have said, plainly, that neither he nor Jeffrey John were responsible for the actions of murderous sectarians, and he would not allow a bunch of street thugs to dictate Anglican policy. The bluff could easily have been called with an offer to postpone John’s appointment for, say, a week, in order to allow the relevant churches to secede from the… Read more »

Cynthia
Cynthia
10 years ago

Excellent points, Martin. If I thought that my inclusion in the human family, both in civil human rights and inclusion within my church, was truly at the cost of blood in the streets elsewhere, it would give me pause. However, what we have in liberation history is the example of Martin Luther King (Gandhi before him, but he wasn’t a Christian leader) and how his movement, in the name of Christ, has served to liberate many beyond his movement. Upholding the idea of all of us as members of the human family and all of us as created in the… Read more »

James Byron
James Byron
10 years ago

“If I thought that my inclusion in the human family, both in civil human rights and inclusion within my church, was truly at the cost of blood in the streets elsewhere, it would give me pause.”

No person’s human worth should be hostage to a mob. You are worth so much more than that. We all are.

Interested Observer
Interested Observer
10 years ago

“He should have said, plainly, that neither he nor Jeffrey John were responsible for the actions of murderous sectarians, and he would not allow a bunch of street thugs to dictate Anglican policy.” But having done so, unfortunately he gave away the pass, and made it harder for his successors to grow a backbone. Chamberlain is unfairly traduced over “peace in our time”. The UK was launching a capital ship every few months, building Spitfires, installing radar, designing strategic bombers, re-equipping the army with modern tanks, re-establishing a crypto and signals intelligence capability and so on. There is an argument,… Read more »

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
10 years ago

There is blood in the streets. Despite Britain not consecrating any gay bishops or blessing civil partnerships the situation for gay people in Africa has got immeasurably worse.
Those who now counsel against speaking out should ask themselves just how much worse it could possibly get.
And they should also be aware that gay people in Nigeria have asked why the West has not loudly supported them and they have welcomed the Archbishops’ speaking out last week.

James Byron
James Byron
10 years ago

Chamberlain’s realpolitik cred. would be higher if he hadn’t managed to lead Britain into a disastrous continental war in 1939-40 on the basis of a foredoomed guarantee to Poland, which resulted in the nation’s army in retreat and most of its military equipment being abandoned. Chamberlain *thought* he was a calculating statesman. That was his tragedy, much like it was Williams’.

But I digress!

Erika’s right, there’s already blood on the streets. This was never about the welfare of LGBT Africans. Williams, regardless of his isolated competence in theology, failed to see that.

robert Ian williams
robert Ian williams
10 years ago

You can be anti-homosexuality, but not supportive of legislation which is unnecessarily cruel. If they are conscious of the Muslims (and in Uganda, Christians are the overwhelming majority) why not allow sharia? If the Anglican hierarchies of Uganda and Nigeria are to be believed let them clamp down on heterosexual abuses like polygamy, widespread amongst their congregations, and also neo-paganism.

Erika Baker
Erika Baker
10 years ago

RIW, “why not allow sharia?” This not just about the law, this is about the public hatred unleashed and tolerated if not encouraged. The sharia trial of the 11 men rounded up almost immediately after the law came into force is interesting. The judge stressed that sharia law did not permit hearsay and that 5 witnesses had to be found who had seen those people have sex. The first witness had seen no such thing and so the judge dismissed his testimony. Whereupon the public outside the court house got so frustrated that they threw stones at the court, smashed… Read more »

Father Ron Smith
10 years ago

Robert. What exactly are you proposing that could change the situation with the advent of Sharia?

Interested Observer
Interested Observer
10 years ago

“If they are conscious of the Muslims (and in Uganda, Christians are the overwhelming majority) why not allow sharia?” Regrettably, there is a lot of anti-Semitism in some parts of the Muslim ummah. Without the trauma of the holocaust to force us to look at our prejudice, old tropes continue to be peddled. The situation in Palestine does not, whatever your views on the topic, make matters better. Does this mean that GAFCON should start to advance anti-Semitic narratives from the 19th century, so as to align itself with Muslims in Africa? And if not why is engaging in hate… Read more »

FD Blanchard
FD Blanchard
10 years ago

Sharia or Christian Dominionism; so what’s the difference? Both want to lock up liberals, roast gays, and reduce women to chattel.

The only meaningful difference between our fundamentalists and their fundamentalists is a shave.

Sam Roberts
Sam Roberts
10 years ago

The case that Erika mentioned. The judge seems to be bending over backwards to be fair in his enforcement of an unjust law. (he quotes Maimonides!) The bit where the witness says that the defendants must be guilty because they are well dressed notwithstanding their being out of work – says it all about the way that pure gossip fuels many of these allegations. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/anti-gay-violence-nigeria-sharia

commentator
commentator
10 years ago

I am alone in noticing that the implications in this statement is that saving the lives of Christians from persecution is important and that by implication homosexual people are NOT Christians?

Allan Ronald
Allan Ronald
10 years ago

We live in a world filled with starvation, disease, warfare and suffering on a massive scale and all that most leaders of churches can concern themselves with is what people are doing under their duvets. Criminal folly–and they wonder why the pews are emptying.

Edward Prebble
Edward Prebble
10 years ago

Does anyone think Islam is united on these matters? Yes, of course they have their fundamentalists, and yes, they have their difficulties with what the Koran teaches, but a Google search of “gay” + “Moslem” will show that debate is alive and well there too. It is possible to find gay Imams (difficult I concede, but possible) and numerous websites to help young Moslem GLBT folk. It is a safe prediction that Moslem opinion, especially in the Western world, but in Africa and the Middle East as well, will move in a liberalising direction in coming decades. Western Christians will… Read more »

Martin Reynolds
Martin Reynolds
10 years ago

It is as nothing to the absolute outrage just perpetrated by the Nigerian Catholic bishops.
Their statement of welcome for the legislation is breathtakingly evil.

Simon Sarmiento
10 years ago

Here is the Roman Catholic response mentioned above:
http://www.cbcn-ng.org/newsdetail.php?tab=287

commentator
commentator
10 years ago

Will Pope Francis be calling the Nigerian Roman Catholic hierarchy to Rome about this statement? I hope so.

Perry Butler
Perry Butler
10 years ago

Go to the ( very) conservative blog rorate coeli for a bit more on the Nigerian RC bishops statement and the reaction in Rome.

Interested Observer
Interested Observer
10 years ago

“rorate coeli” It’s a pretty frightening blog, although its triumphalism and amorality is at least refreshingly honest. The argument appears to be that it’s OK for religious leaders to support, or at least condone, violent persecution, so long as they can point to some other people who might think better of them for doing so. In other words, principles are fine, but temporary advantage is better. Presumably the authors of that blog see the Reichskonkordat as a highspot of Catholic diplomacy and a beacon of moral leadership to which other denominations can but aspire. Because I don’t see how you… Read more »

Martin Reynolds
Martin Reynolds
10 years ago

“..the authors of that blog see the Reichskonkordat as a highspot of Catholic diplomacy and a beacon of moral leadership …..” Interested Observer on Wednesday, 5 February 2014 at 8:09pm GMT

That’s probably just about smack on the mark ……

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