This is the last day of a jam-packed global Anglican futures conference in Kigali, Rwanda. There will be big news, but later at around 7:30 Eastern Australian time. That is when the conference statement will be unveiled.
The Other Cheek can reveal that the statement is the fruit of “very careful negotiation,” according to one of the key members of the multinational drafting group. We will cover the reaction to the statement through the Heart of gafcon live stream. But the statement will be read in the lower window, which will also carry the final conference holy communion and Bible teaching.
The impact of – and the reason for gafcon was outlined by Sydney’s Archbishop Kaniska Raffel. “Let’s be clear, there are hundreds in this room and hundreds more not here but whom we represent who could not be here, who would not be recognized as Anglicans, churches that may not have even come into existence if it were not for the determination of GAFCON as a movement to promote the gospel, uphold mission and welcome orthodox Anglicans whoever and wherever they are,.
“And the effect of this is to strengthen provinces, to increase our joy in communion, to see the church built, to see many communities blessed and the Lord honoured through the proclamation of his gospel, not only in the face of theological and moral liberalism but in the face of religious extremism, in the face of poverty and pandemic. In all of this, the GAFCON Primates and GAFCON branches have been attacked and ridiculed and criticized but they have stood up and stood alongside those who were defamed and isolated for the sake of holding to the truth of God’s word.
“This is the legacy of GAFCON.”
Reaction to the Conference statement will run in this this window from 8:15 pm Eastern Australian time but we’ll have other stories earlier. We will have a great line-up of significant leaders in the reaction slot.
The official reading of the statement will be in the conference sessions feed below. It will be read at 7 pm Eastern Australian Time.
A bonus video: Go out with the word.
Alongside the statement, a key message was for us to promote healthy evangelism. It’s a good note on which to finish our Kigali coverage.
Rico Tice (of Christianity Explored) and Richard Borgonon (of the word one to one), both evangelism advocates, came to Kigali to call the church to go out with the word. “The power is in the word,” said Borgonon. “God is active outside the churches, and we have an entire army of Christian believers who should be taking the weight off those in ministry – and spreading it out into the world.”
“I think the material Richard has produced, the word One to One, is an amazing tool for people to go and tell. says Tice. “They can just get John’s gospel to ope…. It’s a very safe way to get to know Jesus in the gospel.”
Asked to tell stories of people coming to Christ, Tice begins, “ I think of an older guy called Andrew who started coming with his son, who got married at All Souls, and who said when he got baptised at all souls, ‘Gosh my eyes got opened to Jesus’ That is, as he had Christ presented, particularly by his son and daughter-in-law, his eyes were opened. It the miracle: he says ‘I was blind but now I see.’”
Get the Bible open, and God will do a miracle is the message of this video.
There’s some strong words fron Rico Tice on the Church of England Bishops “I think that the Bishops – a lot of the – have thought that if we cut the oprice more will buy. So we have to give way on human sexuality. To which our response is, if you do that, do blessings just to be more acceptable, ewhat happens is that the holy Spirit departs. and as we know in evangelism we are totally dependent on him.”