[Ed. Note:  The second hot topic of the past 8 days is the meeting in London of the GAFCON (Global Anglican Fellowship Conference held last June in Jerusalem).  These 7 Primates met at a hotel near Heathrow airport, London:

Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda; along with the Rt. Rev. Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney (Australia).  There has been a great deal of discussion about how the GAFCON meeting should be followed.  The Anglican Mainstream in the UK, in conjunction with these primates, has announced a Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans that will be a world-wide organization, based on Creeds and commonly held beliefs about Jesus, God the Father  and the Holy Spirit.  Anglican-Mainstream has announced a date for this meeting, which coincides with the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, in July, 09.

I will be at General Convention.  Many others will have to make similar choices.  The three articles that follow talk about this Fellowship meeting and the first report of the GAFCON archbishops' meeting.  Cheryl M. Wetzel]

http://www.evangelicals.org/news.asp?id=986

UK Launch of Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA)
Anglican Mainstream has issued the below statement about the UK launch of FCA in July:

“The launch in the UK and Ireland of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), an orthodox Anglican movement for mission at global and local level, is to take place on July 6 in London.

The Fellowship is the outworking of last year’s GAFCON conference in Jerusalem, at which 1200 delegates signed up to the Jerusalem Statement. Those attending Gafcon 2008 represented some 40 million Anglicans world-wide, 70% of the total active membership of 55 million.

The launch event, entitled ‘Be Faithful! – Confessing Anglicans  in Global and Local Mission’ will be held at Westminster Central Hall from 10.30am-5.30pm.  The aim is to encourage and envision Anglicans who are committed to the orthodox teachings of the Anglican Church and who are passionate about global and local mission.  It will be the first of regular ‘fellowship’ events both in the UK and across the world.

Speakers at the July 6 gathering, where around 2,300 bishops, clergy and laity are expected, will include contributors from across the Anglican Communion, including Bishops Keith Ackerman (President of Forward in Faith North America), Wallace Benn (Bishop of Lewes), John Broadhurst (Chairman of Forward in Faith UK) and Michael Nazir-Ali, Dr Chik Kaw Tan plus Archbishop Peter Jensen (secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans www.fca.net).  They, and others yet to be announced, will also lead gatherings in London churches on Sunday July 5th. the day before the launch.

Regional meetings, in the run up to the London event will also be held on:-

* May 14, St Batholomew’s,Bath
* May 15, Christ Church, Virginia Water
* May 18, Holy Trinity, Platt, Manchester
* May 19, St Andrew’s, Newcastle-under-Lyme
* May 20, Christ Church, Fulwood, Sheffield

The Revd Paul Perkin, vicar of St Mark’s, Battersea Rise, London, and Chairman of the event planning team, said: “The fellowship is just that, a spiritual movement of brothers and sisters across the nation and the world. It is not a separatist party, nor is it an organisation, but a spiritual fellowship issuing from a concern for truth and unity. It is a renewal of our confessing Anglican roots and convictions, and will be forward-looking in gospel mission locally, and in solidarity globally with Anglicans throughout the world, especially those suffering through poverty or discrimination”.

For further information about the event, email: befaithfulanglicans@gmail.com

For further information:

Revd Paul Perkin, Be Faithful, Event Chairman: 020 7326 9412

Canon Dr Chris Sugden (Anglican Mainstream): 01865 883388

Click here for statement

Click here for F. C. A. website

(Source: Anglican Mainstream website, 03/04/09)

Filed: 6 Apr 2009

http://fca.net/

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus.

On 29th June 2008, the Global Anglican Future Conference, GAFCON, issued the Jerusalem Declaration and announced the establishment of “a fellowship of confessing Anglicans for the benefit of the Church and the furtherance of its mission.”

With the formation of FCA, Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, that dream has become a reality. In the words of the Jerusalem Statement, we are a fellowship of people united in the communion of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray together in the common mission of Christ. It is a ‘confessing fellowship’ in that its members confess the faith of Christ crucified, stand firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican context, and affirm a contemporary rule, the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide the movement for the future. We are a fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces, dioceses, churches, missionary jurisdictions, para-church organisations and individual Anglican Christians whose goal is to help reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world. The Jerusalem Declaration is the basis of our fellowship. We invite all who assent to that declaration and support the goals of the FCA to join us as we await what God will do in the Global Anglican Future.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/4/14/north-american-bishops-meeting-with-gafcon-primates-in-london

North American Bishops Meeting with GAFCON Primates in London

Posted on: April 14, 2009

Eight archbishops are meeting in closed-door session at a London hotel this week to review plans for the creation of a new Anglican Communion province to be known as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

Seven primates: Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda; along with the Rt. Rev. Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney (Australia) began talks on April 14 at hotel near Heathrow airport.

Joining the archbishops in the three-day meeting are the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and the archbishop-designate of the ACNA; the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth in the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone; the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy; the leader of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA); the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America and one of his bishops suffragan, the Rt. Rev. David Anderson; the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey, Provincial Bishop Suffragan for the Anglican Church of Uganda; the Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood, Bishop of All Saints Diocese in the Anglican Church of Kenya; and the Rt. Rev. Don Harvey, leader of the Anglican Network in Canada.

Details of the meeting will be made public at a press conference on April 16, according to a spokesman for the archbishops, but participants told The Living Church the group, which is meeting as the GAFCON (Global Anglican Futures Conference) primates’ council, will discuss the formation and strengthening of the Fellowship of Confession Anglicans (FCA), the formation of the ACNA, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s proposed Anglican Covenant, and the on-going divisions within the Anglican Communion.

(The Rev.) George Conger