25 June 2008
Jerusalem and GAFCON
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1000 Conservative Anglican leaders in Jerusalam at the Global Anglican Futures Conference have avoided wider schism, but restated the depth of the crisis in the international Communion
Transcript
This transcript was typed from a recording of the program. The ABC cannot guarantee its complete accuracy because of the possibility of mishearing and occasional difficulty in identifying speakers.
Stephen Crittenden: Welcome to the program.
Peter Jensen: What we're seeing I think is an evolution of the Anglican communion, similar to the evolution of the British Empire into the British Commonwealth of Nations. I don't see the end of the Anglican communion, but I see a renewed and different Anglican communion arising from this.
Stephen Crittenden: Archbishop Peter Jensen speaking on the BBC this week.
And this week in Jerusalem, a thousand conservative Anglican leaders including 280 bishops, many of them from the so-called global south, are meeting at the Global Anglican Futures Conference in Jerusalem. Journalist David Marr suggested the other day that what's afoot in Jerusalem is the destruction of the Anglican communion, but the conference began with Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria stating that they weren't intending to broker a schism: 'We have no other place to go, nor is it our intention to start another church', he said.
Well there is a certain ambiguity about the role that the Sydney Anglicans are playing at this Jerusalem conference, a certain disingenuousness even.
In his public pronouncements, Archbishop Jensen seems to alternate between playing the agent provocateur who declares that the communion is broken, and the reconciler who says he wants to find new ways for the Anglican communion to live together; as you just heard there, he talks about an extended rather than a nuclear family. But it shouldn't be forgotten that Peter Jensen is the Chairman of the organising committee for this GAFCON conference.
Well in the interview you're about to hear, the Bishop of South Sydney, Rob Forsyth, he says there are three types of people at the GAFCON conference: dynamic Asians and Africans, Americans who feel utterly persecuted and alienated, and groups like the Sydney Anglicans who come from a position of relative calm and are only really there to help.
I spoke late yesterday to Bishop Rob Forsyth who was out and about in the streets of Jerusalem with his mobile phone and I began by asking whether it was any clearer after these first few days at GAFCON, what the future Anglican communion would look like.
Rob Forsyth: No, Stephen, I think the question of what will GAFCON mean is still very much an open question. In fact only today have we entered effectively the third day, having been asked to start engaging in our small groups with that question. It's been a kind of getting to know each other, hearing some marvellous speeches, wandering up and down very hot scenery in Jerusalem so far.
Stephen Crittenden: I gather that some participants were planning to spend a few days together in Jordan before the beginning of the main conference, but Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria couldn't get a visa. Did that pre-conference conference end up taking place elsewhere? Because it had been reported, hadn't it, that Jordan is where the real talking was going to take place.
Rob Forsyth: Jordan was kind of a pre-conference of basically those running everything together - a get-together; a look at where we were going, just to clarify and also to talk to some bishops who it was thought would not be able to enter the state of Israel because of the countries where they were from. But Archbishop Akinola who's got a diplomatic passport of some kind, found himself stopped at the border, unable to go anywhere, eventually decided after a number of hours, to come back, and also I believe there was some difficulty for the bishops to have any kind of Christian meeting. I'm not sure of the details, but talking to one of them I said, 'You weren't allowed to sing or to gather together', so they came back to -
Stephen Crittenden: But you Sydney Anglicans wouldn't have been planning on doing any singing, would you?
Rob Forsyth: No, well I think we were supporting the band - no, that's not true. Well I wasn't there, but it's obviously there's some anxiety about a Christian gathering in the city. You can imagine the kind of situation in the Middle East.
Stephen Crittenden: The conference opens with a pretty direct attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury for failing to discipline the Episcopalians that came from some of the African bishops. Where does the office of Archbishop of Canterbury stand now, Bishop Forsyth? There are some suggestions that this conference is looking for some kind of alternative focus of power. In other words, by-passing Canterbury.
Rob Forsyth: I think at the moment there's a multitude of expectations. It was interesting because the one that gave the speech was Archbishop Peter Akinola and it was a strong call, and it reflected something which I hadn't realised coming from Australia, how the Africans, certainly the Central Africans, how they've felt marginalised and belittled right from the end of last Lambeth and comments made by the Episcopalians, and there's a way in which I think for them it's we Aussies are just used to playing our role but I think some of the African Christians have felt far more not listened to in a very much more personal way than others. What they'll be planning in its place I think there are three type of people at this conference Stephen, there are those like myself and us in Sydney who are keen to be part of it and to help, but from a position of relative calm. There are those like the Africans who I just mentioned, very large, very dynamic, and who although in great numbers, still I think feel very concerned about their place in the communion. But the key people are people from places like America and elsewhere who are feeling utterly persecuted and alienated and oppressed, and are looking for the conference tp provide real relief. And those recruits will have different kind of goals I suspect.
Stephen Crittenden: What's your response to those African bishops who are really saying that Western society and the Western church is apostate.
Rob Forsyth: It's not quite that big. They're saying parts of the Western church are apostate . Part of this process for me is learning to understand the different cultures. We have a great deal in common, and yet there are times when a 21st century Australian Christian does have a different experience of the world than a 21st century Nigerian bishop. And I think we are learning there are quite big differences. At the same time, I think they're seeing our world, or rather helping us as Westerners, to see our world in a sense slightly more critically than we're used to. And I think that we're seeing from Africa especially, a critique of the West and a critique of those who once brought them the Gospel that does sting. Some of them are speaking in very strong rhetoric but of course what would expect at a conference like this?
Stephen Crittenden: I'm interested in the role that the Sydney Anglicans are playing in GAFCON. The other day The Sun-Herald had Archbishop Jensen basically declaring a formal split in the Anglican church, saying 'If we're talking about schism and the break-up of the communion, it's the gay clergy who caused it, that's the start of it, that's where it ends.' Then on the BBC, just the other day, talking about the nuclear family having split and saying 'Perhaps we can now talk about an extended family.' You know, it does seem that the style the Sydney Anglicans are adopting is one of confrontation on one hand, and reconciliation, all at the same time.
Rob Forsyth: Yes, and you must realise that Peter Jensen is a key player here as you say, and Glen Davies is also involved in the group that will be producing the statement. I'm just wandering around doing what I'm doing now, enjoying myself, and talking to people like you Stephen, but at the press conference last night when one of Peter Jensen's comments was put to Bishop Orombi, from Uganda, he said, 'Well that's Peter's view, but we'll see what we think.' In other words, I don't think the Africans are waiting for even a Down Under Westerner to tell them what to do, as much as they value our partnership. So we may have views, we may be right, we be wrong, but I think it's not a case of Sydney calling the tune.
Stephen Crittenden: Some people might say that for the Sydney Anglicans, there's nothing ecclesiological or theological at stake if the Global Anglican Communion fractures, because you don't actually believe in the universal Episcopal communion to start with. Broughton Knox's brand of theology was all about the church is a gathered local community.
Rob Forsyth: Yes I've heard that many times and I can see there is even a bit of truth in that. However for us in Sydney, this experience, which started with Archbishop Goodhew by the way, not with Jensen, Harry Goodhew was the first to start forming significant links, and he did send some Sydney bishops over to America in his time, to do confirmations for rebel Episcopal churches. I think for Sydney, this is a rediscovery of the importance and the value of Christians, especially Christian Anglicans, and even if I may use the word of Archbishop Akinola: "Anglicans by conviction" who are biblical and orthodox around the world. The great fun here is that there are all kinds of Anglicans you see but there are us Low churches, but there are Charismatics, there are High Church, one man was wearing a purple biretta yesterday wandering around Jerusalem. It's all happening, and I think for us in Sydney it's a kind of reminder that we can't be complete unto ourselves.
Stephen Crittenden: The Bishop of South Sydney, Rob Forsyth, speaking on his mobile phone there from Jerusalem.
Guests
Robert Forsyth +
Anglican Bishop of South Sydney
Further Information
Global Anglican Futures website
What Is Anglicanism? by Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi
Archbishop Peter Akinola in TIME
Anglican Communion official website
Fr Jake stops the world (blogspot)
Presenter
Stephen Crittenden
Producer
Noel Debien
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