FCA UK launch

Some jottings on the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) UK launch, which has grown out of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON):

As I was going to the loo and grabbing a coffee, I missed most of the excerpts from a letter from Her Majesty the Queen.

There was a great deal of purple around so I may get some of this wrong, but the Archbishops of the Southern Cone and of Sydney were present. The Archbishops of Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda and the former Archbishop of Kenya sent greetings. The Bishops of Rochester, Chichester, Exeter (?), Birmigham (?), Lewes and Fulham were present and the Bishops of Chester and Winchester and the Bishop-elect of Southwell sent greetings.

It was great to have our own Bishops, John Hind and Wallace Benn there. John Hind argued for the unity of faith, morals and order and it would be worth tracking down the quotation he used about tripe and onion soup which first may perhaps have corriander added to it, with few people noticing or caring, but which can soon become beans and bacon soup and not tripe and onion at all. Wallace Benn showed what partnership (koinonia) means in the letter to the Phippians. He said he was unimpressed by some in the UK who claim the name of evangelical but are sniffy and iffy about ACNA in its stand against secularism.

Bishop Keith Ackerman of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) said that "Affirming Catholics are neither Affirming nor Catholics!". He warned against a canonical fundamentalism that puts the rules of an institution above the Bible. He criticised the trend to eliminate the fundamental "metaphors" of Scripture, such as all language of Father and Son. He argued that calling the Father alone Creator is like calling your mother on the phone and saying, "Hello, Life-giver, please may I speak with my sperm-donor". He argued that definitive, permanent, complete revelation cannot be replaced with evolution.

Bishop John Broadhurst said: "When I was ordained I didn't believe in the devil. I now believe Satan is alive and well and lives in Church House!". He claimed that too many people believe in the system and the C of E and not the gospel. What is authentically Christian is more important than what is authentically Anglican.

In a videoed interview, Canon Dr Jim Packer argued that the Prayer Book and the Articles define Anglicanism.

Archbishop Jensen stressed that the Jerusalem Declaration of GAFCON repudiates any gospel in which human merit is invoked. We take our stand on the Biblical gospel and the authority of Scripture, loyal to the Prayer Book and the articles and combating the cultural captivity of the church.

Rev'd Vaughan Roberts called for united action on the basis of the truth. He said we must resist the salami tactics of the revisionists, slice by slice creating realities on the ground.

Rev'd William Taylor spelt out an agenda of ministry (inc. church planting), ministry (selecting and training suitable candidates), and some "yes"es and "no"s in relation to money, oversight and fellowship.

A student on Cornhill Scotland who had been involved in relief work amongst the homeless said he took the course beacuse he realised "people needed more than soup and soup - the needed salvation."

Someone from the Church in Wales refered to a textbook in which the index contained the following entry: "for Wales, see England".