The Bat in the Belfry

Gafcon, the Global Anglican Futures Conference, is often described as an international fellowship of orthodox Anglicans. In reality, it is actually the international ministry of the Anglican Church of North America – a group of Christians who left the official Anglican church in the America over disagreements about sexuality.

On Saturday, the head of ACNA / Gafcon, Archbishop Foley Beach, will be in Wales to consecrate the Revd Stuart Bell as an Assistant Bishop in the Anglican Convocation in Europe (ACE). ACE is part of the Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE), as is the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE).

Neither ACNA, Gafcon, ACE, ANiE or AMiE are part of the Anglican Communion. There are 35 churches in AMiE and ACE. These are real Christian Churches. But they, too, are not part of the Anglican Communion. The table below sets out the structure.

Why does this matter? It matters because ACNA / Gafcon and their “branches” around the world like to give them impression that they are part of the Anglican Communion. The reality is that Gafcon and its supporters are campaigning to bring about the destruction of the Anglican Communion and its structures.

After his consecration on Saturday, Stuart Bell will be the fifth bishop for Gafcon’s UK activities – alongside Bishop Andy Lines, Bishop Tim Davies, Bishop Lee McMunn and Bishop Ian Ferguson. Five bishops and 35 churches. A bishop for every seven churches.

ACNA / Gafcon / ACE / ANiE / AMiE will use the consecration to show how “orthodox Anglicanism” is growing. Most churches measure growth by the numbers of people in the pews, the number of congregations, or the spiritual development of their members. Acna / Gafcon / ACE / ANiE / AMiE measure growth by the number of bishops they consecrate.

ACNA / Gafcon claim to speak for the vast majority of Anglicans. But they aren’t Anglicans, not in the official sense of being part of the Anglican Communion. But when they “speak for the vast majority of Anglicans” they deny the right of those Anglicans to speak for themselves.

Recently, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) issued a statement saying that they no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as First Amongst Equals in the Anglican Communion. Amongst the signatories of the letter was Archbishop Foley Beach. Archbishop Foley Beach has never recognised the Archbishop of Canterbury as leader of the Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Foley Beach’s Church (ACNA) is not part of the Anglican Communion. Nor is it in the Global South. So why was he signing as letter as an “Anglican Communion Global South Primate”? The answer to that question is simple: when ACNA / Gafcon claim to speak for the vast majority of Anglicans, what they mean is that they want to take the voices away from these Anglicans and speak for them.

One of the signatories of the GSFA letter was the Archbishop of Melanesia, the Most Revd Leonard Dawea. Archbishop Leonard has made it clear that while he did attend part of the meeting, he did not see the letter before it was published, has not agreed to sign it, and he does not agree with it. No matter – ACNA / Gafcon will speak for him and put his name to the letter regardless of his own views.

This attempt to control the voice of Anglicans from the global south doesn’t stop with stealing their voices. It extends to trying to control their actions. ACNA / Gafcon had tried to organise a boycott of the Lambeth Conference, a gathering of Anglican bishops called by the Archbishop of Canterbury every 10 years. They wanted to demonstrate that it is they – ACNA / Gafcon – who now control the Anglican Communion’s Churches.

ACNA / Gafcon use blackmail to try to force their way. Wealthy Anglican institutions in Australia, linked with ACNA / Gafcon, had been provided funding to some Anglican dioceses in Tanzania. The bishops of those dioceses were instructed not to attend the Lambeth Conference. They attended anyway. And the ACNA / Gafcon bodies in Australia immediately cut their funding, harming the mission and ministry of the Church in one of the world’s poorest countries.

That is who ACNA / Gafcon are; and that is the heritage that ACE, ANiE and AMiE descend from.

The Bat in the Belfry will pray for Stuart Bell as he is consecrated on Saturday. But the Bat won’t see this as a sign of growth, as ACNA / Gafcon will try to portray it as. No. The Bat will see this for what it is: the creation of additional bishops to bolster a power base from which they will seek to undermine the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Churches of the British Isles: the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales.