the gafcon obsession

The GAFCON obsession
 
GAFCON (Global Anglican futures conference) has stated its intention to establish a non-geographical diocese in Australia to serve Anglicans who can neither accept people of homosexual orientation in positions of leadership in the Church, nor countenance the blessing of same sex couples who have been married in a civil union.
 
They assert their position is premised on submission to biblical authority.
 
Let me also assert that I am committed to the authority of scripture and that my commitment to God in Christ, who has embraced humanity that humanity might embrace God, is absolute.
 
Truth is enhanced through exploration and engagement; truth is diminished through claims of certitude, refined as infallible dogma. Defining dogma based on self-appointed criteria places disciples of this dogma in a parasitical position in relation to the broader more generous Church which graces us all with the capacity to engage one another in Christ’s name. It is extraordinary that leaders of GAFCON who seek division in the Church are at the same time holding leadership positions as bishops within the Church.
 
It was a privilege to meet Morris West in the latter years of his life.  In his final book ‘A view from the Ridge’ he writes: “when I was a young Jesuit postulant I was certain of many things, now I am old I am certain of only this one thing: ‘Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so’ ”. Now that I too am ancient, I echo these words and pray that GAFCON members might also grow in faith beyond self-appointed criteria of certainty and its self-righteous cocooning.
 
On face value I could be a member of GAFCON because I consider myself an orthodox Anglican.  But I will never seek to be a member of GAFCON
 

1.  GAFCON leadership chooses gender and sexual orientation as its test of submission to biblical authority.  Why? 

 
There are many other issues of far greater significance and seriousness which are an existential threat to the fullness of life that Jesus promised.
 

1. Those who read the creation narrative in a literal manner, who teach a short history of the world and fail to grasp the truths this narrative holds are open to supporting false and dangerous inequality between males and females, a denial of human culpability in relation to the environment, and setting a false dichotomy between faith and science.  Why not make a stand on this misreading of scripture?

 

1. Scripture is clear that humans are stewards, not owners, of resources and wealth. To embrace a ‘prosperity gospel’ is to live a life that is counter to scripture and discipleship of Christ.  Why not make a stand on this misreading of scripture?

 
 

1. Scripture reveals relationship to be at the heart of divinity, a truth settled in the fourth century in the Trinitarian creeds.  Similarly, relationship, mutuality, trust, respect are central to a scriptural understanding of the creation and the human place within it. The supposed autonomy of the individual is a novel idea to be drawn from scripture. In many Christian circles the right of the individual is exhorted and subjection to one another minimized.  Examples of this trend from ‘conservative’ expressions of faith have severely impacted human life on the planet in recent decades.  Why not make a stand on this misreading of scripture?

 

1. Outside the framework of ecumenical credal affirmations, arbitrarily deciding who is in and who is out is not within the remit of Christian leadership.

 

1. The New Testament is remarkable because membership of the early Church was quickly made open and inclusive.  It was not just that Gentiles could be included as well as Jews, but restrictions about what to eat, how to wash, were relaxed. In addition, marks of identity such as circumcision and the keeping of sabbath also disappeared.   In Peter’s dream he was warned, not make unclean what God calls clean.  GAFCON is in grave danger of ascribing unclean to what God calls clean.

 

1. Division or separation is death, be that within the family, politics, or the Church.  It is all very well for GAFCON leadership to say they are not causing division; others, by their actions, have left.  But in reality, it is GAFCON that is proposing division.  Are we to see a multitude of other causes about which division is to occur?

 
 

1. The Diocese of Sydney has been central to the establishment of GAFCON.   I understand it is not possible to be licensed in that Diocese without signing a document which declares submission to the penal substitutional theory of the atonement.  This is but one way of understanding the unfathomable grace of the cross, and probably the least helpful.  Why diminish the atonement by confining it to this theory? And worse, why make this a test of membership?

 

1. What in fact does scripture say about homosexuality?

 

1. Promiscuous sexual activity is unequivocally sanctioned.  The misuse of power is utterly condemned.  Sexual activity in which power is exercised over another remains as destructive today as it was in the first century.  We know that those who perpetrate such abuses are overwhelmingly heterosexual.
2. From all the chapters and verses of scripture there are but a small handful that address homosexual practice.  But do these verses assume some people are born without the capacity for intimacy with a member of the opposite gender?  Or do the verses assume that all people are heterosexual and that examples of homosexual activity are condemned as extra indulgences of heterosexual people?  We have no means of knowing.
3. What we do know is that acknowledgment and recognition of the reality that a small percentage of the population are born homosexual is recent, indeed it has occurred in the lifetime of some of us.  Prior to that, homosexual people could not make their identity known. Families found a way of embracing their family members in a safe and respectful manner.
4. Given that overwhelmingly gender and sexual orientation are identities that are given and not chosen, it must be assumed within the sovereignty of God that homosexual people have a particular role to play within human society and should be honoured for the gifts they bring. Amongst many other gifts, creativity and a wonderful capacity for compassion are obvious.

 
Members of GAFCON, the standard you have set for judging submission to scripture and devotion to Christ is seriously flawed.  Progress as you intend, and you deny us who remain the richness and diversity of your company, while condemning yourselves to a severely diminished expression of the glorious Gospel of the Kingdom of God.