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‘Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.’
1 Corinthians 15:58
Dear GSFA Family and Friends,
During this season of Holy Week and Easter our hearts and minds are drawn afresh to the wonder of our salvation as our crucified King breaks the power of sin, death and the devil. The stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty and the gate to eternal life is opened.
Writing to the Church at Corinth, gifted but troubled by division and sexual immorality, we see in chapter 15 that St. Paul reminds them of the fact of the resurrection which lies at the heart of the gospel he preached, and he concludes by encouraging them to stand firm and give themselves fully to God’s work. Because of the resurrection, we can be sure that if we devote ourselves to the cause of Jesus Christ we are not throwing our lives away.
Our life together should be marked by this kind of stability and confidence and the GSFA’s Covenant is designed to enable us to be both firm and fruitful in our witness to the wider Communion.
We are stable because we covenant together to be faithful to the doctrinal foundations of historic Anglican faith, and this brings stability to our leadership as each Province or Diocese assents to the GSFA Covenant by Synodical resolutions. The latest Province to do this is the Anglican Church of Burundi which brings the number of participating Provinces to thirteen and we are delighted to welcome our brothers and sisters as full participants in our fellowship.
By God’s grace we are also active in the work of the Lord. We are committed to works as well as words and we give effect to this in our three Tracks.
The Economic Empowerment Track will have its second conference in Kuala Lumpur from 20th -24th May at which we will be encouraged by significant initiatives already underway, including support for Christian entrepreneurs in Brazil and church led early years and primary education in East Africa as well as opportunities for impact investment which helps to break patterns of dependency.
Meetings are also planned for the other two Tracks later this year. The Leadership and Ministerial Formation Track continues its focus on supporting bishops at all stages of their ministry with another Bishops Formation Retreat in Uganda, 14th-20th July while the Mission Partnerships Track, emerging as a strategic global network, will meet in Malaysia in October. It is now led by Bishop Andy Shie, Assistant Bishop of Kuching in the Province of South East Asia and has grown to sixteen partner organisations with the recent addition of the Latimer Trust in England.
During Holy Week, in heart and mind, we accompany Jesus. Hailed as a king on Palm Sunday, he is mocked as a king on Good Friday and crucified. We see the malevolence of the powers and principalities of evil and we recognise our weaknesses in the frailty of the disciples and the fickleness of the crowds, but we also see the glorious triumph of God’s love in the mighty resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
As our world faces a level of armed conflict and economic insecurity not seen for eighty years, this Easter is a time to renew our confidence in the power of the resurrection so that no calamity, in the world or the Church, leads us to despair. It is my prayer that God will give us a fresh resolve ‘to abound in the work of the Lord’ and an undiminished vision as we trust in the power of the Risen Christ, who makes all things new.
The Most Rev Dr Justin Badi Arama
Primate of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and
Chairman of the GSFA
