In this column last month, Chris Sugden and Vinay Samuel helpfully answered the question ‘Why GAFCON ?’. This month, as the full significance of the third GAFCON conference held in June becomes clearer, I want to offer a personal reflection on the question of where GAFCON is going.
The short answer is nowhere! The appeal in GAFCON’s Letter to the Churches to the Archbishop of Canterbury to restore godly leadership has been ignored and there can be no doubt now that it is through GAFCON that the faithful Anglican tradition will be continued. The powers-that-be seem determined that the Communion should embrace the optional orthodoxy of ‘good disagreement’.
New is old and old is new
The longer answer follows from the first. Paradoxically, what looks new is actually old and what looks old is actually new. If GAFCON remains faithful, it will eventually just be the Anglican Communion. In fact we should look for the day when the name ‘GAFCON’ becomes effectively synonymous with the Communion and therefore unnecessary.
