The Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, says Nigeria will not attend Lambeth 2020.
This declaration is contained in a statement signed by Mr James Stileman, the Operations Manager, Gafcon, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.
Stileman explained that the decision followed the recommendation of Gafcon3 after a three days meeting at St Peter’s Cathedral in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.
He said that the committee agreed that unless the Anglican Church of North America and the Anglican Church of Brazil were invited and those provinces which continue in their rejection of Scriptural teaching on sexuality would not be invited.
The operations manager commended the courage and faithfulness of the Church of Nigeria and called for other members of the Gafcon movement to continue to be faithful to God’s Word.
He recalled the address at Jerusalem 2018 Archbishop Stanley Ntagali of the Church of Uganda who said he made no apologies that his bishops had taken this position.
Stileman expressed optimism that with the bishops of the two largest Anglican Provinces now withdrawing, others were likely to follow.
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“It is clear that unless the Archbishop of Canterbury is prepared to change course, he can no more expect to gather the Anglican Communion than his predecessor recorded in 2008.
Lambeth 2020 will merely expose the continued failure of the Canterbury based ‘instruments of communion,” he stressed.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme for the Lambeth Conference in 2020 is to be “God’s Church for God’s World: walking, listening and witnessing together”.
The Lambeth Conference will take place from July 24 to Aug. 3, 2020, at the University of Kent in Canterbury. More than 900 bishops from around the world are expected to attend the event along with their spouses.