Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) is a global network of conservative Anglican churches which formed in 2008 in response to what it claimed was an ongoing theological crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Conservative Anglicans met in 2008 at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), creating the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the FCA.

Founding

Main article: Global Anglican Future Conference

The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) was held near Jerusalem in June 2008 at the initiative of theologically conservative African, Asian, Australian, South American, North American and European Anglican leaders who opposed the ordination of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions by member churches of the Anglican Communion. The meeting came as the culmination of a series of controversies in the Anglican Communion which began in 2003 when the openly non-celibate gay bishop Gene Robinson was consecrated by The Episcopal Church in the USA. GAFCON was organised as a conservative alternative to the 2008 Lambeth Conference which was boycotted by many traditionalists.

The GAFCON Final Statement recognises the Archbishop of Canterbury for his historic role in the Anglican Church but denies that his recognition is the cornerstone of Anglican identity. The statement also called for the formation of "A Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans".

The FCA was instrumental in the formation of the Anglican Church in North America in 2009. The ACNA was formed as an alternative church structure for those disaffected by the official Anglican structures in the USA and Canada. The Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America, which covers much of South America, is a key constituent of the FCA movement. The Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia played an important role in forming the FCA and its Archbishop Peter Jensen is the FCA's secretary.

Organization

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans aims to extend the goals of GAFCON into a movement, to "preach the biblical gospel ... all over the world" and "provide aid to ... faithful Anglicans" disaffected from their original churches.

FCA recognizes the Jerusalem Declaration, written at the 2008 GAFCON meeting, as a "contemporary rule".

The FCA is administered by a "Primates' Council" originally consisting of Primates from the African provinces of the Anglican Communion.

By region

• The FCA in the United Kingdom and Ireland was started on 6 July 2009, drawing together plenty but not all conservative Anglicans in the Church of England and other parts of the British Isles. The Free Church of England is also represented on the Steering Group. It has supported the Anglican Mission in England, launched at the GAFCON II, as a safe haven for orthodox Anglicans inside and outside the Church of England structures.

• The FCA in South Africa was started on 3 September 2009 by the initiative of Bishop Bethlehem Nopece, of the Anglican Diocese of Port Elizabeth. It incorporates Anglicans from three denominations: the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, the Church of England in South Africa and the Traditional Anglican Communion.

• The FCA in Australia was started on 26 March 2015 in Melbourne, in a conference that reunited 460 members, including 40 from New Zealand, attended by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, from the Anglican Church of Kenya, chairman of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, from the Anglican Church of Uganda, and Archbishop Glenn Davies, from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Archdeacon Richard Condie, from the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne became the Chairman of FCA Australia.

Criticism

In May 2010 the Bishop of Sherborne, Graham Kings wrote: "the chair of the GAFCON Primates' Council is now English: Greg Venables; the secretary is Australian: Peter Jensen; the key theologian is American: Stephen Noll; and the unofficial media secretary is English: Chris Sugden. So much for the end of neo-colonialism..."

See also

• Anglican realignment
• Homosexuality and Anglicanism

External links

• Official website
• The Jerusalem Declaration
• Constructing the boundaries of Anglican orthodoxy: An analysis of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) an article from the journal Religion on GAFCON and the evolution of FCA