Issued by the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) 2008
Press Release
For Immediate Release
12 May 2008
1,000 Christian leaders, 280 bishops to GAFCON in Jerusalem
Over 1000 senior leaders from seventeen provinces in the Anglican
Communion, representing 35 million church-going Anglicans, have
registered for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in
Jerusalem at the close of the online registration process. They include
280 bishops, almost all accompanied by their wives. Final attendance
figures will depend on smooth processing of requested visas, and other
factors.
GAFCON leaders have met in the period leading up to Pentecost with the
leaders of Anglican, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic
churches and Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews in Jerusalem to
brief them on the nature and purpose of GAFCON. GAFCON is concerned to
affirm the continuing presence of the Church in the Holy Land.
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, the chair of the Programme Committee
re****ts that the programme is almost complete. "Our programme will focus
on the transforming love of Christ. We will be drawing from the
scriptures of the Old and New Testament in our pilgrimage, and their
relevance to the challenges facing the church globally today. These
include secularism,
other religions, poverty and HIV/Aids as well as moral and theological
issues."
Pilgrims will visit traditional sites in Jerusalem during the pilgrimage
June 22 29, 2008 including Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane
and the Ophel Gardens and Temple steps where at the first Pentecost
Peter preached and people of all nations responded. The 1000 pilgrims
will travel to Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity and Shepherds'
Field, and then to Galilee.
The goals of the GAFCON conference in Jerusalem are to:
1. Provide an op****tunity for fellow****p as well as to continue to
experience and proclaim the transforming love of Christ.
2. Develop a renewed understanding of our identity as Anglican
Christians.
3. Prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised
and Christ-centered mission a top priority.
--
Charles Hohenstein (to reply, remove Gene Robinson)
"The sad huddle of affluent bedwetters, thumbsuckers,
treehuggers, social climbers, homophiles, quavery ladies,
and chronic petition signers that makes up the current
Episcopal Church . . ." -‹Thomas Lipscomb
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