GAFCON - The Beginning of a Movement

The Church Times Blog reports that GAFCON - the meeting of conservative Anglican bishops who are meeting in Jerusalem after being asked by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem not to do so because of tension in the Holy Land - have declared themselves to be the beginning of a movement.

In my view, this movement has no moral credibility as long as it welcomes - or even tolerates - the imprisonment of gay people for being gay. And then, of course, there were the 'unsubstantiated' death threats to gay Christian leaders.

This kind of thing is extremely frustrating. ('Extremely' doesn't even express it - bang-your-head-on-a-brick-wall frustrating, more like.) This movement purports to be a movement of gospel truth and it's condoning the imprisonment of gay people under the banner of the Gospel.

The Rt Revd Dr Nazir-Ali says he can't attend Lambeth as "...a matter of conscience. I would find it difficult to be in a eucharistic gathering around the Lord’s table with people who have, again and again, said no to the Church’s request not to do something that is contrary to the Bible and the unanimous teaching of the Church down the ages.”

Dr. Nazir-Ali and other British senior clerics should repudiate and discipline those in the conservative movement who continue to turn a blind eye to the persecution of gay people. I respect the theological position that says homosexual acts are wrong. I do not respect those who turn a blind eye to violence. Such actions have all the hallmarks of 'them-and-us' warfare rather than a desire for truth in the name of Christ.

I realise that, theoretically, I don't have a dog in this fight not being an Anglican, but sometimes you just have to say that wrong is wrong.