The Global Anglican Future Conference is taking place in Jerusalem from the 22nd to 29th of this month. More than 1000 Anglican leaders from 17 provinces, including 280 bishops, will be taking part. With a stress on prayer and pilgrimage, to the holy sites of Our Lords incarnation, it will focus on mission, and be an important (and interesting, one might also say) precursor to the Lambeth Conference.

For many within the Anglican Communion it will be a valuable corrective to the liberal compromise that threatens to engulf Lambeth; for others it will be an alternative.

Forward in Faith throughout the world is joining the other organizations within the Common Cause Partnership, such as the Anglican Communion Network and Anglican Coalition in Canada, in a forty day cycle of prayer and fasting preceding this meeting of bishops and representatives from the worldwide Anglican Churches.

It began at the end of May, and will continue through to the conclusion of the Jerusalem conference.

In the words of the Bishop of Quincy, the Rt Revd Keith Ackerman SSC:

Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to extend his Kingdom and to keep his commandments. GAFCON brings our focus upon the implications of the Great Commission; we come together as ministers to carry out our Lord’s directive. I hope every member of Forward in Faith will be part of lifting up each body and each person who will be coming to Jerusalem that we be ‘moving in the Power of God’.

The bishops have specified that the Daily Office, the Great Litany, and the Psalms of Ascent (120-134) be used during this season. The Psalms of Ascent were chosen because of the impact they had on the Global South meeting in Nairobi out of which GAFCON was born. The Common Cause Partnership is posting these resources along with reflections, Scripture readings and collects at .

As Archbishop Akinola said earlier in the development of GAFCON,

The conference is called by those members of the Anglican Family who see themselves as orthodox Anglicans, who are upholding the authority of Scriptures, and believe that the time has come to come together to fashion the future of our Anglican family. This has to be done within a theological framework.

What are the challenges? Why are some people deviating from the orthodox faith? Why are they allowing modern culture to overwhelm the word of God? The conference will be highlighting the Lordship of Jesus Christ over his church and over the world.

We must also look at the Church of God in our time and the whole area of its mission: what is God doing in our time, responding to the needs of our time, e.g. Aids, poverty, corruption, good and bad governance. We are going to use that conference to address all these issues.