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GAFCON III: Ugandan Archbishop says he will not attend Welby's Lambeth Conference in 2020
Primate Stanley Ntagali says 15-year boycott still stands because nothing has changed
By David W. Virtue in Jerusalem
www.virtueonline.org
June 20, 2018
The Archbishop of Uganda Stanley Ntagali says he and his fellow bishops will boycott the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Conference in 2020 because nothing has changed. The 10-year gathering brings together 80 million Anglicans worldwide.
Ntagali confirmed his province's position at a GAFCON plenary session here and said; "As a house of bishops, because things have not changed we will not attend Lambeth 2020."
"Unless godly order is restored within the Anglican Communion, we shall not attend other meetings invited by Canterbury."
Orthodox Anglican churches have taken a stand against pansexuality, specifically same-sex marriage and say that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have "torn the fabric" of the Anglican Communion and thus they remain in "impaired communion" with these theologically liberal provinces.
GAFCON has affirmed that the Anglican Church in North America, Anglican Mission in England and the new Anglican Church in Brazil, are legitimate Anglican provinces even though they are not recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Consultative Council.
In a keynote address the archbishop of All Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh, said: "We do not accept that the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury necessarily defines Anglican identity and belonging. Canterbury occupies a privileged position in the spread of the gospel around the world. She should not distort the gospel in order to take away offence, for the gospel without offence is an empty gospel."
He criticized the pledge pushed by Welby to "walk together" in a communique from Anglican Communion primates in a meeting last year that both Ntagali and Okoh refused to attend.
"If we walk together with those who deny the orthodox faith in word or deed, we have agreed that orthodoxy is optional," he said.
"But 'good disagreement' is like a slow acting solvent which gradually dissolves the convictions of the orthodox, while all the time they still think that they hold to the apostolic faith. We must be ready to challenge the denial of the gospel wherever it is manifested in word or deed."
In forthright criticism of the West and the Church of England in particular Okoh said: "Tragically, the gospel has virtually been lost in the nations of the West because the churches have lost the essence of the gospel."
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