Good evening all. I just received this by email from Bishop Johnston, and believe it to be the best summation of GAFCON that I have seen so far. He has give permission to share it so here goes.
The M
ission (my term to include all that the Anglican Mission in the Americas is) remains as it did before GAFCON, a full and founding member of the Common Cause Federation. This Federation respects the autonomy of its nine current members, and allows The Mission to serve the Gospel as a missionary outreach and jurisdiction of the Province of Rwanda without conceding our unique missional vision and organizational structure. As such, we have committed to engage in defining, encouraging, and shaping new structures for mission and Anglicanism in the Americas as seem good and wise to the Holy Spirit and the Primates Council (as defined by the Jerusalem Statement). In this way, the Jerusalem conference drew us back to our First Promise roots (1997) where one of our stated purposes was the formation of new provincial structures for a new day of Gospel centered mission within our Anglican tradition.
I encourage all of you to read and reflect on the Statement that came out of GAFCON and, in particular, the portion that is The Jerusalem Declaration ( www.GAFCON.org ). The implications of this statement and the Declaration will be sorted out in the months and years ahead, but I believe that they already point us to:
+ A confessional, rather than institutional, way of ordering our partnership in the Gospel and, therefore, the Communion;
+ An emerging conciliar structural model that will replace the ineffective models and leadership structures of the Anglican Communion of today;
+ A priority on Gospel faithfulness and Truth and not institutional unity as a basis of our common mission to the world; and
+ A by-passing of established Anglican Communion structures whenever and wherever they inhibit the work of Gospel proclamation and ministry
ission (my term to include all that the Anglican Mission in the Americas is) remains as it did before GAFCON, a full and founding member of the Common Cause Federation. This Federation respects the autonomy of its nine current members, and allows The Mission to serve the Gospel as a missionary outreach and jurisdiction of the Province of Rwanda without conceding our unique missional vision and organizational structure. As such, we have committed to engage in defining, encouraging, and shaping new structures for mission and Anglicanism in the Americas as seem good and wise to the Holy Spirit and the Primates Council (as defined by the Jerusalem Statement). In this way, the Jerusalem conference drew us back to our First Promise roots (1997) where one of our stated purposes was the formation of new provincial structures for a new day of Gospel centered mission within our Anglican tradition.I encourage all of you to read and reflect on the Statement that came out of GAFCON and, in particular, the portion that is The Jerusalem Declaration ( www.GAFCON.org ). The implications of this statement and the Declaration will be sorted out in the months and years ahead, but I believe that they already point us to:
+ A confessional, rather than institutional, way of ordering our partnership in the Gospel and, therefore, the Communion;
+ An emerging conciliar structural model that will replace the ineffective models and leadership structures of the Anglican Communion of today;
+ A priority on Gospel faithfulness and Truth and not institutional unity as a basis of our common mission to the world; and
+ A by-passing of established Anglican Communion structures whenever and wherever they inhibit the work of Gospel proclamation and ministry
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