Bishops Back U.K. Launch of Orthodox Anglican Fellowship

By Jennifer Gold, Christian Today Reporter Sunday, June 28, 2009

LONDON – Five English bishops are set to join the launch of a new fellowship for orthodox Anglicans who say they want to stay true to Scripture and get on with the Great Commission of sharing the Gospel with the world.

The Fellow of Confessing Anglicans will be launched in Westminster on July 6 in the presence of the Bishops of Fulham, Lewes, Chichester and Rochester. The Bishop of Chester has sent greetings.

The gathering will also hear video and personal greetings from international guests including Nigerian Archbishop Nicholas Okoh and Archbishop Henri Orombi from Uganda.

Event spokesman and London vicar, the Rev. Paul Perkin, commented, "Some are staying in the Church, but failing to stand for Christian truth and practice; others are standing firm for Christian truth and practice, but are not staying. We are standing, and we are staying."

The FCA is being launched just weeks after U.S. and Canadian orthodox Anglicans held the inaugural assembly of a new conservative province called the Anglican Church in North America in Bedford, Texas.

The ACNA is comprised of around 700 orthodox Anglican congregations that broke away from The Episcopal Church in the U.S. over its departure from Christian orthodoxy and Anglican tradition and the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003.

The ACNA is headed by Bishop Bob Duncan, who told the assembly that much of mainline Protestantism was "finding itself adrift from its moorings" but that there was also a great Reformation underway in the Christian church that North American Anglicans were "very much in the midst of."

Keith Ackerman, president of Forward in Faith in the U.S., was at the ACNA assembly and will join the FCA launch, where he will lead a main session on why he believes the FCA is a catalyst for united mission, ministry and focus for orthodox Anglicans, both evangelical and Anglo Catholic.

"One of the reasons I am really looking forward to being with my friends in England is so that I might be able to share with them the anointing of the Holy Spirit that has occurred at this gathering here in Texas," he said. "The time is right for us right now not to lose sight of what he is calling his entire Church to. The entire Anglican Communion is being called to stand up and be faithful at this very time.

"Luke-warmness has gone and we are now ready to talk about the light of the world, Jesus Christ who is ready to ignite the work he has placed before us at this time. I cannot wait to see everyone."