The Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, has welcomed statements by the Primate, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, that the GAFCON movement is not aimed at breaking away from Anglicanism.
Numerous press reports have described GAFCON as a ‘split’ and have questioned its effects on Australia.
Archbishop Peter Jensen last week made it clear he didn’t expect the Australian church to change as a result of GAFCON as events were being played out ‘on the world stage’.
Last week he had told a GAFCON news conference, “I’m hoping that my colleagues in Australia, where we don’t have these problems, will applaud this (the Jerusalem Declaration and GAFCON) and regard it as being a very useful thing indeed”.
But Dr Jensen said he thought there would be some misunderstanding, initially, in the Australian church.
That appears to have been the case with a variety of local church figures speaking of anything from breakaways to church planting.
Dr Aspinall, in an interview with ABC Radio, has calmed such talk.
“It’s one thing to support a statement which has been issued by a group and I imagine there would be quite a few people in Australia who would be supportive of the statement,” he told Monica Attard.
“It’s another thing to say they’re going to break away and cease to be part of the institutional life of the church to which they belong.
“It’s hard to see how that would happen and in fact Archbishop Jensen and others have said in GAFCON and since that this is not about a split, it’s not about creating a new church, it’s not about leaving the Anglican church behind… they’ve described it themselves in terms of a movement within the church.”
Dr Aspinall also said he thought there is respect among the bishops in Australia and that “there are issues to be faced in Australia, but as yet no-one in Australia has acted unlawfully as far as I’m aware and while the canons of the church and the constitution of the church continue to be respected by all, I think Australia will remain relatively peaceful.”
Bishop Forsyth, who was in Jerusalem for GAFCON and who is Commissary of the Diocese while Dr Jensen is away, says he’s pleased Dr Aspinall has recognised the essentials of the movement.
“Dr Aspinall understands the respect in the Australian church and the spiritual essence of the GAFCON movement. This is not about local issues, but about addressing a deeply troubled situation in North America. I’m looking forward to talking personally with bishops and others in a few weeks time to explain the situation more fully.”
Why Lambeth will be different this year
Meanwhile, the Irish evangelical bishop Harold Miller has said he’s ‘bothered’ by the agenda of the upcoming Lambeth conference.
Bishop Miller is going to Lambeth, although he admits the decision does not make sense in view of the large number of bishops who will not be there.
He says Lambeth will be different this year.
“It will be like a retreat-come-training-conference and a meeting and listening place for bishops. That bothers me….. Who is doing the "training' and how is it going to be "slanted’, or is it, or will it be neutral? and What exactly does "listening' mean - when The Episcopal Church in the USA does not seem to have listened? Does it mean "you must keep on listening till you come round to a particular point of view?”
Bishop Miller was also concerned at the exclusion of the Bishop of Recife (pictured at GAFCON with his wife Miriam) in Brazil.
“Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, with the vast majority of clergy in his diocese, was removed from the Episcopal Church of Brazil because of his conservative way of thinking.
“I had the great pleasure of visiting one of his churches in Receife a year and a half ago while on holiday. They were vibrant, growing, warm-hearted, Christian people, totally without bitterness. But their bishop will not be there.
“He, like so many others, including the theologian Jim Packer, has been "removed' by an intolerant "liberalism'. ”
