GAFCON

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) was a seven-day conference of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the Anglican Communion, the rise of secularism. as well as concerns with HIV/AIDS and poverty. As a result of the conference, the Jerusalem Declaration was issued and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans was created. The conference participants also called for the creation of the Anglican Church in North America, as an alternative to the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada, and declared that recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury is not necessary to Anglican identity.

GAFCON occurred one month prior to the Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly gathering of Anglican Communion bishops. GAFCON stated the movement rose because a "false gospel" is being promoted within the Anglican Communion, which denies the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and "promotes a variety of sexual preferences and immoral behaviour as a universal human right". This is commonly considered a result of the consecration in 2003 of openly non-celibate homosexual bishop Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church and more generally from the perception that some parts of the Anglican Communion might be departing from biblical teaching.

The leading participants of GAFCON included seven Anglican primates, Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda, Valentino Mokiwa of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, and Presiding Bishop Greg Venables of the Southern Cone; Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia, Bill Atwood of Kenya, Bishops Wallace Benn and Michael Nazir-Ali of England, Don Harvey of Canada, Bishops Robert Duncan and Martyn Minns of the United States; Canon Vinay Samuel of India, Hugh Pratt and Canon Chris Sugden of England. GAFCON was attended by 1148 lay and clergy delegates, including 291 Anglican Bishops, from 29 countries. The identities of those attending have not been published and may have included bishops and clergy outside the Anglican Communion, including some from the Continuing Anglican Movement. Hugh Pratt was also Treasurer, responsible for security, accommodation and the implementation of the Conference.

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