• Calls On Church Of England, Others To Stop Blessing Sin, Return To Sanctity/Holiness Of Marriage

The Chairman of Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), Most Reverend Foley Beach has said that GAFCON IV will not continue to bemoan the failures of the Church of England, but will focus its attention on recalling the wider Anglican world to renewal, revival and reform.

Beach disclosed this during his presidential address held at the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda, where the opening session of the April 2023 meeting took place between 17 and 21. He lamented the disruption of COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties their ministries passed through five years ago when GAFCON meeting held in Jerusalem.

Beach, who is happy that GAFCON survived the pandemic said: “COVID-19 pandemic shut down our ministries and many faced persecution, as well as famine, drought, flooding, war and civil unrest.” He stressed that when God ordains something he sees it through, adding that GAFCON IV “may be one of the most important church gatherings in our time.”

Beach declared: “God had his hand on GAFCON and was blessing the movement for “standing against those who conveniently or culturally stand against the word of God.” The Archbishop who spoke on four marks of a continuing church such as a repenting church, a reconciling church, a reproducing church, and a relentlessly church , said: “We, Anglicans can go on playing church, being religious, and even making statements that make no spiritual impact on our world.” He urged Anglicans to ensure that there is revival and spread of the gospel to every part of the world, which according to him, is the desire of Christians today.

Describing a repenting church as one that modeled the Lord’s call for all people to repent of their sins, Beach said: “It served no purpose to call out the sins of others if we ignored our own sins and shortcomings.”

According to him, “The Holy Spirit reveals to a believer their sins, giving you a choice to turn away or to continue in sin.” Commenting on the situation facing the Church of England, not as a rallying cry for action, but as an example of reprobate behaviour, Archbishop Beach stated: “In recent days, we have seen the Church of England led by the Archbishop of Canterbury walk away from the plain teaching of scripture. We call on them to repent, to return to the teaching of the word of God. We call on them to stop blessing sin and return to the sanctity and holiness of marriage.” He called on the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales, the Episcopal Church of Brazil, the Anglican Church of New Zealand, the Church of Australia, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Episcopal Church of the USA to “repent and turn to the teachings of Holy Scripture.” He also called on the Archbishop of Canterbury to repent or else “we can no longer recognise him as the first among equals and the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion.”

Beach said: “It is time for the whole Anglican establishment to be reformed and why does the secular government of only one of the nations represented in the Anglican Communion still get to pick the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion? This makes no sense in today’s post-colonial world.”

Speaking on personal and corporate holiness, the Archbishop said: “Our provincial sins, our church’s sins, our personal sins,” as “some things we do are not of God. We must repent.”

In conclusion, Beach noted that a reconciling church was not a church that was reconciled to the world, or to sin, but first to God “based on the truth of the Scriptures,” arguing that “real reconciliation” needs to “remove the source of the quarrel, the root cause” of the hostility and anger between people. There could be “no reconciliation, without repentance,” he added.

He also noted that a reproducing church was a church that consciously sought to make disciples and tell the whole world about the saving grace and love of Jesus Christ. A relentlessly compassionate church was one driven by the love of God to love one’s neighbour. “The love of God compels me” to love my neighbour, he argued.

While some of his examples touched upon the dysfunction within the Church of England, the tenor of the archbishop’s address dealt with the overarching call of repentance, renewal and revival. The agenda set out by the conference is likely to include a statement or call for action in response to the February decision by General Synod to bless same-sex marriage. However, Archbishop Beach made it clear the Anglican world had moved beyond England and was now focused on all peoples, cultures and races around the globe. 

The opening session featured entertainment from a local choir, dancers, and addresses by the host, Archbishop of Rwanda, Most Reverend Laurent Mbanda, General Secretary of GAFCON, Most Reverend Ben Kwashi, Prime Minister of Rwanda, Édouard Ngirente and Archbishop Foley Beach.