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Peter Jensen: The Anglican Crisis is Over.

1:44am Thursday, 29th April 2010

The leader of Sydney’s Anglicans, Archbishop Peter Jensen, has declared the crisis in the Anglican communion over. Jensen attended a meeting of the Anglican “Global South” group, which represents an overwhelming majority of the world’s Anglicans in Singapore in April.

The Anglican Communion has been fracturing since the election of Bishop Gene Robinson, a partnered gay man in the USA in 2003.

Jensen has in effect declared the war over. “The crisis moment has now passed” he says. “Many of the Global South provinces have given up on the official North American Anglicans (TEC and the Canadian Church) and regard themselves as being out of communion with them. They renew the call for repentance but can see that, failing something like the Great Awakening, it will not occur.

“The positive side to this is that they are committed to achieving self-sufficiency so that they will cease to rely on the Western churches for aid. That is something the Global South has been working on for some time, with success.”

The Anglican Communion has quietly, and politely split apart. There will still be Communion meetings, attended by varying numbers of member provinces, but the Global South will set up its own structures and seek financial independence.

The 20 Global South provinces account for at least 40 million of the 60 million membership of the Anglican communion. (Higher figures sometimes quoted include 3.5 million Australians and 20m British that check “Anglican” or “CofE” on their census form).

The Global South conference is orthodox and includes a range of styles of Christian from Sydney Anglican to West African charismatic and high church.

In their comminque the conference vision includes “the absolute necessity and priority for the Church to disciple her members under the authority of the inspired Scriptures so that they may transform their societies and reach the nations with the Gospel.”

“ The fresh call upon the Church’s leadership, from the Servant of the Lord’s costly obedience (Is 50: 4-9), is to be courageous and fully confident of the Lord’s sustaining grace and final vindication.”

The conference pledged to make te next 10 years a “Decade of Mission” especially in expanding mission sending between Global South provinces.

http://www.gafcon.org/news/fca_general_secretary_responds_to_the_global_south_to_south_encounter/