This summer, the Rev. Dr. Chris Royer and I were honored to participate in the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA) Assembly as mission partners representing Anglican Frontier Missions (AFM).

Our objectives were threefold:

1. To worship the Lord and receive new strength through prayer, the Word, and the Spirit.
2. To mobilize and encourage ourselves as orthodox Anglicans to defend, live out and proclaim the gospel.
3. To prayerfully choose office-bearers according to the Covenantal Structure to lead the work of GSFA.

Since 1994, the GSFA meetings have consisted mostly of Primates. However, this Assembly included not only priests, deacons, and laity, but representatives from all over the Anglican world.

On Tuesday, June 11, we departed Cairo with 200 other participants from 40 nations to St. Mark’s Monastery in the desert, 90 minutes away by bus. We were also joined there by another AFM Board member, Mr. Jeff Walton. For the next five days, we were together in worship, prayer, and Bible study; we heard from great speakers about news from around the Anglican Provinces of the world, tracks of various topics, and workshops. It was enjoyable to greet old friends and make new ones at meals and between the meetings. We had many opportunities to share about AFM, its vision, and its CCWs.

We also visited St. Pishoy Monastery, the pyramids and the Sphinx with a high that day of about 115 Fahrenheit where I got a great photo of Abp. Foley Beach wearing a red keffiyeh!

While we rejoiced in the opportunity simply to fellowship with one another and to worship God, we also knew that we had before us a very serious matter. In the last 30 years, the global Anglican Communion has been deeply wounded by nonbiblical and heretical teaching and practices. This has happened in the Episcopal Church and in seven or so other Anglican Provinces.  Most recently, heresy has come to a crisis in the Church of England.  Many in GAFCON and more recently in GSFA have called for a reset, specifically to shift Anglican allegiance away from Archbishop Justin Welby and the primacy of the Archbishopric of Canterbury to another entity, the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA).

On the last morning, a draft communique from the leadership council of archbishops was presented to the whole Assembly. In it there was wording that vaguely indicated that the GSFA would in future be working together with other Anglican groups. The phrase, “other Anglican groups” struck a discordant note as there are many who long for GAFCON and the GSFA to work together more closely and for this to be explicitly stated because at present it seems that we would be better served in uniting the orthodox, global Anglican Communion with two cooperating groups, perhaps even eventually merging as one group.

After ongoing discussion, the Rt. Revd. Glen Davies (Australia) proposed an amendment that GAFCON be named as an Anglican group with which GSFA would work. This was voted for and passed by a large majority! Therefore, in coming months, the Most Rev. Justin Badi Arama (South Sudan), Chairman of GSFA, and the Most Rev. Dr. Laurent Mbanda (Rwanda), Chairman of GAFCON, will work out what this cooperation and forward movement for global Anglicanism will look like and how leadership replacing Canterbury will be structured. We wait with bated breath. Our hegira continues. (Hegira means a journey, especially when undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable situation.)

Reflecting on my time in Egypt, I remembered the Holy Family’s hegira to Egypt, when Jesus was probably about two years old. The story of the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt in Matthew 2:13-15 and 19-22, began when Joseph:

It seems to me that this Assembly was part of a present-day hegira of the orthodox and majority Anglican Communion – one in which we seek a way to be safe from unbiblical practices and structures and to find a new Anglican covenant centered in Christ. The impact of these decisions reaches well beyond matters of denominational titles and leadership structures. This is about the fundamental health of the church. And we know that a strong, untied, healthy, and Christ-like church is much more able to effectively reach the Unreached Peoples of the world with the love and hope of Jesus Christ our Lord. This is not only the foundational mission of AFM, but a command of God. May the Lord bless us in this hegira!

The Rev. Abbot Norman and his wife Beth Beale serve as AFM’s Pastor to Cross-Cultural Workers (CCWs). Both Norman and Beth served as CCWs in Nepal (1986-2001) and then Cambodia (2008-2010).