Have you ever heard of GAFCON? I thought I had when I heard the name mentioned earlier. It was a kind of medicinal compound for sorting out what we medical types call “problems with wind”. “Can’t stop farting,” says the advert (in my imagination, anyway), “Then have a dose of GAFCON!” But GAFCON is not a cure for breaking wind: it’s a religious organisation full of old farts.
In the interests of fairness, allow me to quote directly from their website under the section called, “About”:
“The GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) movement is a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion. Our mission is to guard the unchanging, transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ and to proclaim Him to the world. We are founded on the Bible, bound together by the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration of 2008, and led by a Primates Council, which represents the majority of the world’s Anglicans.
GAFCON works to guard and proclaim the unchanging, transforming Gospel through biblically faithful preaching and teaching which frees our churches to make disciples by clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ in all the world.
The GAFCON journey began in 2008 when moral compromise, doctrinal error and the collapse of biblical witness in parts of the Anglican communion had reached such a level that the leaders of the majority of the world’s Anglicans felt it was necessary to take a united stand for truth. A crowd of more than one thousand witnesses, including Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, clergy and lay leaders gathered in Jerusalem for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).
The second conference, GAFCON 2013, was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013, at which over 1,300 delegates from 38 nations and 27 Provinces of the Anglican Communion were present. The gathering gave the Primates a mandate, through the Nairobi Communiqué and Commitment, to take forward the work of the GAFCON movement. We look for the prayer and financial support of Anglicans around the world who long for a clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ as Lord.”
That’s clear enough, then. GAFCON exists to ensure that the bible, which was written at different times when no one really knew what was going on, is literally true and its meanings, no matter how absurd and contradictory they are, can never be changed. In terms of those who are in the LGBT community, GAFCON preaches the hatred only religion can bring. God hates gays.
The Bishop of Durham, one Nicholas Chamberlain, revealed on Friday he was gay. I am not quite sure why this is necessary since I am not compelled to come out as straight, but a Sunday newspaper was about to “out” him and he decided to move first. I cannot begin to express my sheer apathy about the good reverend’s sexuality or that he also declared himself to be celibate. What business is that of anyone? I am sorry to have even raised this aspect of the non-story but I feel I have to since other less enlightened people (bigots to you and I) do feel it matters.
Even amongst so-called moderates in the Church of England, the idea that a gay man could possibly have a sexual relationship is a step too far. The conservatives, or extremists as they should be known, feel different.
GAFCON have now issued a statement which I shall reprint word for word, again for fairness:
“We note with prayerful concern the revelation that Nicholas Chamberlain, Bishop of Grantham, is in a same sex relationship.
Our understanding is that the nature of his relationship conforms to the guidelines set out by the Bishops, and that he has not been campaigning publicly for a change in the church’s teaching on sex and marriage. We do not doubt that he has many gifts as a leader and pastor.
However there are aspects of this appointment which are a serious cause for concern for biblically orthodox Anglicans around the world, and therefore we believe that this appointment is a major error.
In 2003, Jeffrey John’s candidacy for the post of Bishop of Reading caused deep divisions within the Diocese of Oxford and beyond, and this news about Nicholas Chamberlain will exacerbate the same divisions within the Church of England and throughout the wider Anglican Communion.
In this case the element of secrecy in the appointment to the episcopacy of a man in a same sex relationship gives the impression that it has been arranged with the aim of presenting the church with a ‘fait accompli’, rather than engaging with possible opposition in the spirit of the ‘shared conversations’.
We remain opposed to the guidelines for clergy and Bishops, permitting them to be in same sex relationships as long as they publicly declare that the relationship is not sexual. This creates confusion in terms of the church’s teaching on the nature of sex and marriage, and it is not modelling a helpful way to live, given the reality of our humanity, and temptation to sexual sin.
This news story will be seen by many orthodox Anglicans as yet more evidence that the clear biblical teaching in the Church of England on sin and salvation, human personhood, singleness, sex and marriage is being eroded and conformed to the values of secular society. While we pray for Bishop Chamberlain, our confidence in the processes by which he was appointed in are sadly, further diminished.
GAFCON UK exists to provide fellowship and if necessary, an alternative oversight for Anglicans committed to biblical orthodoxy in England, Scotland and Wales, from a range of ecclesial traditions, evangelical and catholic, with special focus on those who are losing confidence in local and national church structures to maintain faithfulness to doctrinal and ethical norms.”
With no respect whatsoever, this is pure gobbledegook. They note not just with concern, but with “prayerful concern”. What does that mean? That if God has a few minutes of time to spare, he will magically turn the Rev Chamberlain from a gay man to a straight man? That he will strike him dead? (God killed enough people in the bible so I suppose another random murder wouldn’t hurt anyone, except the Bishop, that is.) And all this drivel about “sexual sin”?
These religious fanatics are obsessed with sex. They are constantly fretting about the temptation of others, but never their own. They invent their own morals and cast judgement on others on the basis of words that were written when men lived in caves and spoke in grunts. For these people, the good reverend cannot be a gay bishop even if he is celibate. They did not make reference to him bashing the bishop, but presumably that’s not allowed either. I suspect they are the ones with the sexual hang-ups and insecurities, not gay people who are certain of their sexuality as straight people are usually certain about theirs.
“The clear biblical teaching in the Church of England on sin and salvation, human personhood, singleness, sex and marriage is being eroded and conformed to the values of secular society,” prattle GAFCON in yet another incomprehensible, impenetrable rant, but if the “values of a secular society” really are making inroads into the realms of religious privilege then let’s have much more of it.
Nicholas Chamberlain sums it up best himself: “I never thought that I would be on the front page of a newspaper or indeed in the news in this way, because my sexuality is part of who I am, rather than the whole of who I am.”
Well, he shouldn’t have been on any page in a newspaper on account of being who and what he is.
Finally, I will defend the right of crackpot organisations like GAFCON to voice opinions that offend. By the same token, religious bigots must accept that they too will be on the end of scrutiny, ridicule and comments that may offend them.
You may have guessed that I am both an atheist and secularist. I would certainly want nothing to do with a God who held such disgusting views about the lives of others which are none of their business.
