Miracle at GAFCON?

I am not sure that I have ever seen Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney wearing a clergy shirt. But here he is wearing one at GAFCON in Jerusalem! Perhaps, being strictly accurate, its not a miracle. But is it not a sign of hope? Archbishop Peter is accommodating his dress code to fit with the requirements of (presumably) GAFCON as a mixture of anglo-catholic and evangelicals, and GAFCON as a very public media event in the life of the Anglican Communion. Such accommodation is key to unity emerging from Anglican diversity. And diversity there is aplenty, even at GAFCON.

Ruth Gledhill is in Jerusalem reporting on GAFCON. Her posts can be followed from the sidebar of this blog. (The official GAFCON news site is here.) In this post Ruth observes that outsiders looking in may misunderstand the complexities of conservative Anglicanism. It includes those who might swim the Tiber under some circumstances and those who would rather cross the Alps to Geneva. So far signs emerging from GAFCON of what GAFCON is driving towards is not Anglican schism but a reshaped Anglican Communion in which the fact that we are effectively a reconstituted extended family rather than a pretence of a tightly knit nuclear family is named for what it is.