Gaf!

There is an interesting entry on the GAFCON website:

Pilgrims help draft GAFCON statement

The purpose of this is to obviously counter Ruth Gledhill's report, and subsequent comment, that GAFCON will provide the means of a Fellowship that will run by a primates etc. committee probably chaired by Bishop Robert Duncan that will be the basis of international oversight.

Against this the statement says:

There is no advance text of a final statement of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), nor prepared plans for future organization and action...

"The final statement is going to emerge as the work of all the participants of GAFCON," said Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya and chair of the Statement Committee.

So we are being led to believe that they have gone all that way, with key intentions to cause a revolution, with plans to avoid the problems in the past with gatherings such as NEAC, to this time overcome the dither of the Anglican Communion Instruments, and with all that money sunk into the Conference, and there is no outcome?

The report did include interviews and the leading participants did seem to agree about the way forward. They were quite excited about it. Perhaps the "pilgrims" feel a bit miffed as turning up to a virtual show in a religious tourist backdrop, the real show being behind the scenes.

Yes, the final statement. Of course it will have reflections back from the Conference, but come off it: the leadership has done the main work and has shown its attitude already to others in the Global South who have decided to stay with the Canterbury Communion. It is hardly going to (again?) march troops to the top of the hill and then down again. The principles of Religious Trotskyism say otherwise.

They'll let us know, of course, if they get cold feet.