New Anglican grouping 'will not be schismatic'

Monday, 13th April 2009
By Toby Cohen

Thousands of traditionalist Anglicans are expected to attend the July 6 launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, but organizers have emphasized that it is not schismatic.

The launch event, entitled ‘Be Faithful! – Confessing Anglicans in Global and Local Mission’ will be held at Westminster Central Hall, where 2,300 people are expected.

A statement from the organisers said: “The Fellowship is the outworking of last year’s Gafcon conference in Jerusalem, at which 1,200 delegates signed up to the Jerusalem Statement. Those attending Gafcon 2008 represented some 40 million Anglicans world-wide, 70 per cent of the total active membership of 55 million.”

The event chairman, the Rev Paul Perkin, emphasized that “this is not the start of a new Church. Everybody’s determined to cast this as a separatist movement -- this is not a separatist movement. We are not seceding, this is not schismatic. the rest