In the Bible, the desert, or wilderness, is a spot where God teaches and forms his people. Moses led the Israelites through the desert for forty years before they entered the Promised Land, Jesus spent forty days within the desert before he began his formal ministry.
Yesterday, in a monastery within the Egyptian desert, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) met for his or her first Assembly, under their latest covenantal structures. Their purpose? To reset the Anglican Communion.
In his keynote address, the present Chair of the GSFA, the Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Archbishop Justin Badi, set out their plan.
Under the Cairo Covenant, provinces, dioceses and other networks of churches will “covenant with one another to remain faithful to the plain and canonical teaching of God’s word and to be mutually accountable to one another in matters of Faith and Order.” In effect they may form a “holy remnant” throughout the divided and theologically diverse Anglican Communion.
Archbishop Badi made clear that this remnant won’t “walk together” or have “good disagreement” with Canterbury and other revisionist provinces. He repeated the message he first gave on the Lambeth Conference in 2022, “The GSFA Primates and I say, ‘We cannot walk together in sin, unless there’s repentance by those that have gone astray, we cannot have unity on the expense of God’s life-giving truth.'”
And it is that this life-giving truth which is the main focus of all that has taken place to date in Egypt. The GSFA is preparing for mission – even in places where evil dominates. Archbishop Badi offered hope to those facing “suffering, injustice and chaos”, saying, “But our God is rarely late. As we pray and work for his renewing kingdom, He will even harness the work of the forces of evil to realize his salvation purposes. In the midst of darkness, the glory of God will shine on his people; and thru his folks that light will bring life and hope to all who call on the Lord. The nations will see and experience the salvation that only God can bring.”
It was a message exemplified by Archbishop Stephen Than of the Church of the Province of Myanmar, who held out a wood cross engraved with two whips representing natural and man-made disasters, and edged with silver. Holding it up, he said, “These disasters pressure and force us to share our tears and blood. In the center of the cross, brothers and sisters, every cloud has a silver lining … Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ is our silver lining.”
The Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has waited twenty-five years for the Instruments of the Anglican Communion to bring order to the divided church community, but they may wait not. They may respect the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Seat of Augustine, but Archbishop Badi had a message for the present incumbent: “We deeply lament the present situation within the Church of England and in revisionist provinces. We pray that they may ‘come out of Babylon’ (Isaiah 48:20) and return to obeying God’s word.”
As the bishops of the Church of England meet today to debate plans for introducing standalone services of same-sex blessing, they will probably want to consider the voice of the GSFA. If they do not, they could find themselves being evicted, because Archbishop Justin was very clear what should occur to the liberal teaching within the Church: “I at all times say, in Africa we live in tukuls. When a snake enters your tukul you do not run away, it’s the snake – you chase it away. So, we’ll struggle. The liberals, we’ll chase them out of our beloved Communion.”
The Assembly of the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans is being livestreamed. Details will be found on their Facebook page.
Susie Leafe is director of Anglican Futures, which supports orthodox Anglicans within the UK.
