New Anglican group forms in Britain

Thursday, 2nd July 2009
By Bishop Wallace Benn

The title for the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in Westminster Central Hall, London, at 10.30 on July 6 says it all: Be faithful. That is our calling as Anglican Christians today. The Scriptures exhort us to remain faithful to the faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints’, to the Lordship of Christ and hence to Apostolic teaching and practice.

Powerful cultural forces, exerted through social pressure, the media and legislation are forcing Christians to conform to the way of the world in matters of marriage and sexuality. The Episcopal Church in North America and the Anglican Church of Canada have embraced these forces and, often without due process and against natural justice, are forcing out those Anglicans who seek to remain faithful to Biblical teaching and practice. In the church in the West generally there is a gradual slide in the same dangerous direction.

The gathering on July 6 will express the unity of Anglican Christians in their loyalty to the teachings and commands of Jesus. A major step towards that unity was taken a year ago at the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem. Many within and without the church were unsure about what Anglicans stood for. Gafcon issued the Jerusalem Statement, which has been widely received by Anglicans around the world as expressing the heart of Anglican faith and practice. the rest