Relay Trust at the GSFA First Assembly
Relay Trust has major funding commitments in eight of the poorest Anglican Provinces of Africa because we are passionate about serving grassroots leaders I the most disadvantaged situations, but in an episcopally led global Communion, the wider context cannot be ignored. Like many others, we are grieved by the compromise of many Anglican Churches in the West with secular ideologies, now including the Church of England itself, and we recognise that the leadership role of the Global South Churches is crucial to the long-term health of the whole Communion.
For this reason, Relay Trust last year became one of what are now fourteen Mission Partners of the GSFA (the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches) and we were invited to send representatives to the First Assembly of the GSFA held at St Mark’s Retreat Centre in Khataba, Egypt, from 11th-15th June 2024. Charles Raven (CEO) and Daniel Magagnin (Deputy COO and Regional Relationship Manager for Lusophone Africa) attended in this capacity while Doug Ingram (COO) also attended to support the Assembly administration team.
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Although the GSFA traces its origins back to the first ‘South to South’ Encounter held in Kenya thirty years ago and had held eight previous Assemblies (known as ‘Trumpets’), this was the first Assembly to be held according to the ‘Cairo Covenant’ of 2019 which gives the GSFA an orthodox doctrinal basis and creates formal leadership structures, primarily a Council of Primates and an elected Board of the Assembly including laity, clergy and bishops. Geographically, the GSFA has had an informal membership of some 25 Provinces, but voting for the Board of the Assembly is limited to a more formal membership, currently 11 Provinces, which must be supported by each member Province’s Provincial Synod.
So, while the First Assembly was a rich time of worship, teaching and fellowship, involving some 200 participants from 40 countries, the elections that took place under the terms of the Cairo Covenant established the basis for an historic reset of Communion governance. The Covenant provides a wholesome and credible alternative to the legacy colonial era leadership structures in which Western interests predominate, not only for the Global South (which contains some 85% of practising Anglicans) but also for those orthodox Anglicans in the West who find themselves marginalised in Churches that have departed from the historic faith.
Partnership with the GSFA is therefore a way in which we seek ensure that in generations to come, the false teaching embraced by the West does not infiltrate the Global South and jeopardise the continued growth of those Churches. We were also very encouraged by the GSFA’s renewed commitment at the First Assembly to its three ministry Tracks, Leadership & Ministerial Formation, Economic Empowerment and Mission Partnerships, all of which are vital if the Churches of the Global South are to thrive and maintain a confident witness to Jesus Christ.
