A Letter from Alan in Nairobi: Dear Church of the Redeemer family and friends, I hope and trust you are doing well. Angela Kaye and I are in Nairobi, Kenya for a historic conference for the Anglican church family and I wanted to give you an update. I apologize for the length, but I think it is extremely worthy to report this information. First of all, the Anglican Church is a global church family with 80 Million (or so) members in more than 165 countries around the world. GAFCON (The Global Anglican Future Conference) represents a gathering from various parts of the Anglican church. More than 1400 delegates from 40 countries are in attendance. It is the second gathering of GAFCON. The last gathering was in 2008 where the Anglican Church in North America was formed. We are a congregation affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America. Second, when you worship in a room full of anglos, africans, asians, and many other cultures it is a foretaste of the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I love this facet of the Anglican Church. The fellowship has been rich and authentic. It is also one of the reasons I believe strongly in our sister church partnership in Rwanda. The more we gather, the more I am convinced that we need the Global Church influence and they need us. We are stronger together. We are weaker when we try and stand on our own. Third, the level of persecution is immense on Christianity especially in the Middle-East, Africa, and Euro-asia. At one point, one leader describe how villages of Christians are targeted and persecuted and murdered on a daily basis. We are meeting miles from the Mall here in Kenya where militant terrorists committed evil atrocities recently. The Bishop of South Sudan remarked that over the 50 years of civil war and Christian persecution in Sudan, the church has doubled. A nigerian bishop and his wife were brought on stage. By the grace of God, they were released from 9 days of captivity after being taken on their way to a church service. The message was loud and clear, that serving Christ truly will mean a level of opposition and persecution. Fourth, I attended a conference on Evangelism and Western Culture. It was fascinating and I have many thoughts about this topic. But what I left convinced of is two-fold: a. Multi-ethnicity is a powerful powerful apologetic to an increasingly secular culture. In the East African Revival [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa_Revival] really exploded when whites and blacks began to hold hands and tell the old old story. I hope and pray that COTR will see nations present in the life of our church family. b. That we need a greater boldness to witness. Boldness is not arrogant or obnoxious, but confident that the Gospel (which we have been studying in community groups and hearing about in Sunday services) is the POWER of God. Do not fear. The Global South Christians are modeling for us that boldness in the Gospel (which may be very costly) that has an affect on peoples lives and communities. On Sunday AK and I will attend a church in Nairobi that is profoundly affecting the massive slums outside this huge city. Thank you so much for your prayers while we are away. Also, please be in prayer about coming with us to Rwanda next late spring to experience the amazing reality of our fellowship with brothers and sisters from the Global church. Fifth, we had a meeting today re-affirm that the GAFCON movement is a significant movement within the global Anglican family. Ill be sharing more about this soon. I would commend to you the following sources for your review: gafcon.org Great message about ministry In the West: gafcon.org/news/the-grace-of-god-or-the-world-of-the-west From my friend, Rev. David Hanke in Washington DC restorationarlington.org/2013/10/nairobi-2/ Blessings, Alan
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:43:45 +0000