Skip to main content

Chairman's Letter June 2020

Chairman's Letter June 2020

29th June 2020
Archbishop Foley Beach

Beloved in Christ Jesus: Greetings in the name of our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Our world continues to be rocked by crises. Hard on the heels of the Covid -19 pandemic, which continues to cause massive disruption to social and economic life, the appalling death of George Floyd has sent shock waves around the world. Despite the disorder it has triggered, his murder has rightly led to deep heart searching and a new awareness amongst Christians of the evil of racism in denying a person’s fundamental identity as made in the image of God.
I have recently addressed this with the our ACNA Provincial Council,  and I urge the whole Gafcon movement to take this to heart, especially the call to reach out with the love and mercy of Jesus Christ to minorities in your community, whatever that means in your situation.  
These sudden crises can be disorientating. Many voices clamor for our attention and we can be overwhelmed by the immediacy of the need, so it is even more necessary for us to be paying attention above all to our calling and the words of Jesus himself.
                                                                                                                                                                                        
One of the most well-known of Jesus’ parables of the kingdom of God is that of the mustard seed, which appears in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In Luke’s gospel, (Luke 13:18,19) it comes in the context of opposition from the religious authorities, just after Jesus has freed a woman from a debilitating disability on the Sabbath.  Here, Jesus’ emphasis is not on the smallness of the mustard seed, but the size to which it grows, such that the birds nest among its branches. Despite the crises, catastrophes and turmoil of this age, within both churches and nations, God’s kingdom is growing and growing. It grows supernaturally by the power of the Spirit and will assuredly be fulfilled when Jesus returns. This should be a great encouragement to us. 

Earlier this month, I chaired a meeting of the Gafcon Primates Council. Although we could not meet face to face, there was a remarkable joy in our time together and a strong sense that God is building his kingdom as our Churches seek to proclaim Christ faithfully to the nations. We were especially encouraged by the continued growth of Gafcon’s global networks, as well as the Gafcon Branches that act as a Confessing Anglican presence in the provinces not represented by the Primates Council. We also recognised the need for gathering and equipping faithful leaders so we are planning to hold the deferred Kigali Conference for bishops and their wives in the summer of 2021.
As I write, we are just a few days from Gafcon Sunday, 28th June. It is our hope that the Gafcon family around the world will respond in God-honoring prayer and great generosity.  Please join me in celebrating before the Lord all that He has accomplished through Gafcon, and petition Him to do more to honor His Name. Let us pray, as Jesus taught us, that the kingdom will indeed come on earth as it is in heaven! The special video produced for Gafcon Sunday gives us a wonderful sense of what a global church seeking the kingdom looks like. If you have not yet seen it please do! It can be downloaded here.
Your brother in seeking first the kingdom of God, 
The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach 
Chairman, Gafcon Primates Council

P.S. You can subscribe to Archbishop Beach’s daily audio one-minute devotional (comes to your email) at www.awordfromthelord.org

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu Enthroned as 9th Archbishop of Uganda 5th March 2020 GAFCON

Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu Enthroned as 9th Archbishop of Uganda 5th March 2020 GAFCON On Sunday March 1st, the Most Rev'd Stephen Kaziimba was enthroned as the 9th Archbishop of the Church of Uganda at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Namirembe. More than 3,000 people attended the ceremony, including His Excellency the President, political leaders, the Nnabagereka and Katikkiro of Buganda and other cultural leaders, business leaders, and all the Bishops of the Church of Uganda.  Primates from Brazil, Congo, North America, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania and Burundi were present. Archbishop Laurent Mbanda brought his greetings from Rwanda, Archbishop Miguel Uchoa brought greetings from the Americas and Bishop Malcolm Richards spoke on behalf of Gafcon Deputy General Secretary and Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies. Gafcon Chairman Archbishop Foley Beach preached from John 20.19-31 noting that the first thing ...
Post a Comment
Read more

AKINDE URGES BUHARI TO JUSTIFY NIGERIANS’ CONFIDENCE IN HIM.

BISHOP of the Anglican Diocese of Lagos Mainland and Archbishop of the Province of Lagos, Most Rev Adebayo Akinde has urged the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, not to betray the confidence and trust reposed on him by Nigerians. In his address at the opening ceremony of the third session of its Third Synod at All Saints Church, Yaba, Lagos, yesterday, Akinde urged Buhari and the Vice President-elect, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to justify the people’s faith in them. According to him, “our expectations from you are far higher than what you can imagine.
Post a Comment
Read more

CMS ANNIVERSARY: BISHOP ORJI ADMONISHES CHRISTIANS TO EVANGELIZE THE WOR...

Every member of our Diocese is a missionary in North America because God has called us to salvation and sent us to proclaim his word. This is urgent partly because our culture is no longer Christian, in fact it is openly hostile to the Christian Faith. Our goal is to tell the good news of the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus to our pagan relatives, friends, colleagues and society with gentleness and respect so that they might repent of sin, believe in Christ and be sav ed. That is the mission of our Diocese. This entails sacrifice and shame and suffering. The CMS missionaries suffered and many died to give the gospel to Africa. Let us be willing to suffer to give this gospel to our nations again. We are not here to spread our version or your version of Anglicanism as wonderful as you may think it is. Rather we are here to spread the gospel primarily and hopefully in the process teach a godly expression of Anglicanism. Since we are Anglican missionaries sent by God to evangeliz...
Post a Comment
Read more