The
Jerusalem Declaration
Statement on the Global Anglican Future
Praise the LORD!
It is good to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise
is fitting. The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
(Psalm 147:1-2) Brothers and Sisters in Christ: We, the participants in the
Global Anglican Future Conference, send you greetings from Jerusalem!
Introduction
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which was held in Jerusalem
from 22-29 June 2008, is a spiritual movement to preserve and promote the
truth and power of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ as we Anglicans
have received it. The movement is global: it has mobilized Anglicans from
around the world. We are Anglican: 1148 lay and clergy participants, including
291 bishops representing millions of faithful Anglican Christians. We cherish
our Anglican heritage and the Anglican Communion and have no intention of
departing from it. And we believe that, in God's providence, Anglicanism has
a bright future in obedience to our Lord's Great Commission to make disciples
of all nations and to build up the church on the foundation of biblical truth
(Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 2:20).
GAFCON is not just a moment in time, but a movement in the Spirit, and we
hereby:
• launch the GAFCON movement as a fellowship of confessing Anglicans;
• publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of the fellowship;
• encourage GAFCON Primates to form a Council.
The Global Anglican Context
The future of the Anglican Communion is but a piece of the wider scenario
of opportunities and challenges for the gospel in 21st century global culture.
We rejoice in the way God has opened doors for gospel mission among many peoples,
but we grieve for the spiritual decline in the most economically developed
nations, where the forces of militant secularism and pluralism are eating
away the fabric of society and churches are compromised and enfeebled in their
witness. The vacuum left by them is readily filled by other faiths and deceptive
cults. To meet these challenges will require Christians to work together to
understand and oppose these forces and to liberate those under their sway.
It will entail the planting of new churches among unreached peoples and also
committed action to restore authentic Christianity to compromised churches.
The Anglican Communion, present in six continents, is well positioned to address
this challenge, but currently it is divided and distracted. The Global Anglican
Future Conference emerged in response to a crisis within the Anglican Communion,
a crisis involving three undeniable facts concerning world Anglicanism.
The first fact is the acceptance and promotion within the provinces of the
Anglican Communion of a different 'gospel' (cf. Galatians 1:6-8) which is
contrary to the apostolic gospel. This false gospel undermines the authority
of God's Word written and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the author of
salvation from sin, death and judgment. Many of its proponents claim that
all religions offer equal access to God and that Jesus is only a way, not
the way, the truth and the life. It promotes a variety of sexual preferences
and immoral behavior as a universal human right. It claims God's blessing
for same-sex unions over against the biblical teaching on holy matrimony.
In 2003 this false gospel led to the consecration of a bishop living in a
homosexual relationship.
The second fact is the declaration by provincial bodies in the Global South
that they are out of communion with bishops and churches that promote this
false gospel. These declarations have resulted in a realignment whereby faithful
Anglican Christians have left existing territorial parishes, dioceses and
provinces in certain Western churches and become members of other dioceses
and provinces, all within the Anglican Communion. These actions have also
led to the appointment of new Anglican bishops set over geographic areas already
occupied by other Anglican bishops. A major realignment has occurred and will
continue to unfold.
The third fact is the manifest failure of the Communion Instruments to exercise
discipline in the face of overt heterodoxy. The Episcopal Church USA and the
Anglican Church of Canada, in proclaiming this false gospel, have consistently
defied the 1998 Lambeth statement of biblical moral principle (Resolution
1.10). Despite numerous meetings and reports to and from the 'Instruments
of Unity,' no effective action has been taken, and the bishops of these unrepentant
churches are welcomed to Lambeth 2008. To make matters worse, there has been
a failure to honor promises of discipline, the authority of the Primates'
Meeting has been undermined and the Lambeth Conference has been structured
so as to avoid any hard decisions. We can only come to the devastating conclusion
that 'we are a global Communion with a colonial structure'.
Sadly, this crisis has torn the fabric of the Communion in such a way that
it cannot simply be patched back together. At the same time, it has brought
together many Anglicans across the globe into personal and pastoral relationships
in a fellowship which is faithful to biblical teaching, more representative
of the demographic distribution of global Anglicanism today and stronger as
an instrument of effective mission, ministry and social involvement.
A Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, are a fellowship
of confessing Anglicans for the benefit of the Church and the furtherance
of its mission. We are a fellowship of people united in the Communion (koinonia)
of the one Spirit and committed to work and pray together in the common mission
of Christ. It is a confessing fellowship in that its members confess the faith
of Christ crucified, stand firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican
context, and affirm a contemporary rule, the Jerusalem Declaration, to guide
the movement for the future. We are a fellowship of Anglicans, including provinces,
dioceses, churches, missionary jurisdictions, para-church organizations and
individual Anglican Christians whose goal is to reform, heal and revitalize
the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world. Our fellowship
is not breaking away from the Anglican Communion. We, together with many other
faithful Anglicans throughout the world, believe the doctrinal foundation
of Anglicanism, which defines our core identity as Anglicans, is expressed
in these words: The doctrine of the Church is grounded in the Holy Scriptures
and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as
are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular, such doctrine is to be
found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and
the Ordinal. We intend to remain faithful to this standard, and we call on
others in the Communion to reaffirm and return to it. While acknowledging
the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican
identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Building on the above doctrinal foundation of Anglican identity,
we hereby publish the Jerusalem eclaration as the basis of our fellowship.
The Jerusalem Declaration
In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: We, the
participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land
of Jesus' birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of kings,
the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of
his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom
is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In light
of the above, we agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects
the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following
tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.
1. We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace
through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God
first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing
repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.
2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the
Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The
Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain
and canonical sense, respectful of the church's historic and consensual reading.
3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as
expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the
Church agreeing with God's Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.
5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, humanity's only Savior from sin, judgment and hell,
who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By
his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of
all who come to him in repentance and faith.
6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression
of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and
authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally
adapted for each culture.
7. We recognize that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons
in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in
the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard
of clerical orders.
8. We acknowledge God's creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable
standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper
place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures
to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity
in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.
9. We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples
of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptize, teach
and bring new believers to maturity.
10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God's creation,
to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment
of the poor and needy.
11. We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and
to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognize the orders and
jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and
we encourage them to join us in this declaration.
12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global
fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to
work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.
13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied
the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent
and return to the Lord. 14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus' coming again
in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for
the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing
lives.
The Road Ahead
We believe the Holy Spirit has led us during this week in Jerusalem to begin
a new work. There are many important decisions for the development of this
fellowship which will take more time, prayer and deliberation. Among other
matters, we shall seek to expand participation in this fellowship beyond those
who have come to Jerusalem, including cooperation with the Global South and
the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa. We can, however, discern certain
milestones on the road ahead.
Primates' Council
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, do hereby acknowledge
the participating Primates of GAFCON who have called us together, and encourage
them to form the initial Council of the GAFCON movement. We look forward to
the enlargement of the Council and entreat the Primates to organize and expand
the fellowship of confessing Anglicans.
We urge the Primates' Council to authenticate and recognize confessing Anglican
jurisdictions, clergy and congregations and to encourage all Anglicans to
promote the gospel and defend the faith.
We recognize the desirability of territorial jurisdiction for provinces and
dioceses of the Anglican Communion, except in those areas where churches and
leaders are denying the orthodox faith or are preventing its spread, and in
a few areas for which overlapping jurisdictions are beneficial for historical
or cultural reasons.
We thank God for the courageous actions of those Primates and provinces who
have offered orthodox oversight to churches under false leadership, especially
in North and South America. The actions of these Primates have been a positive
response to pastoral necessities and mission opportunities.
We believe that such actions will continue to be necessary and we support
them in offering help around the world. We believe this is a critical moment
when the Primates' Council will need to put in place structures to lead and
support the church. In particular, we believe the time is now ripe for the
formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known
as Common Cause Partnership to be recognized by the Primates' Council.
Conclusion: Message from Jerusalem
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, were summoned
by the Primates' leadership team to Jerusalem in June 2008 to deliberate on
the crisis that has divided the Anglican Communion for the past decade and
to seek direction for the future. We have visited holy sites, prayed together,
listened to God's Word preached and expounded, learned from various speakers
and teachers, and shared our thoughts and hopes with each other.
The meeting in Jerusalem this week was called in a sense of urgency that a
false gospel has so paralyzed the Anglican Communion that this crisis must
be addressed. The chief threat of this dispute involves the compromising of
the integrity of the church's worldwide mission. The primary reason we have
come to Jerusalem and issued this declaration is to free our churches to give
clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ.
It is our hope that this Statement on the Global Anglican Future will be received
with comfort and joy by many Anglicans around the world who have been distressed
about the direction of the Communion. We believe the Anglican Communion should
and will be reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all
the world and present Christ to the nations.
Jerusalem
Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, 29 June 2008
