Dr. Farran declared that GAFCON is a theological politically conference designed to act as a 'counter-conference' to the 2008 Lambeth Conference and has the potential to damage or lessen the moral authority of it.
"GAFCON is being organized because its proponents are dissatisfied with the breadth of the Archbishop of Canterbury's invitation list to Lambeth. It is therefore a theologically political conference. It will cause embarrassment whether intended or not to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the rest of the Anglican Communion," the bishop said.
Bishop Farran said the Catholic Anglicans in Australia – those who seek to research and theologize by the parameters of classic Anglicanism – were 'dismayed' at the Global South 'rigid' approach in constantly returning to the homosexual agenda. The classical Anglican method is to seek consensus on controversial issues.
He defined theology as a conversation not so much with perceived adversaries as with others who with integrity seek the truth as it is found in Jesus Christ.
What was more concerning for him on GAFCON was the lack of consultation to inform the Bishop in Jerusalem that it would be held in the Bishop's diocese. In a rebuke against the conservatives organising GAFCON, he described their selection process of where to hold the conference as an 'imperious' decision indicative of their 'impositional' mind-set.
GAFCON is held immediately prior to the Lambeth Conference and has been hailed by its proponents as giving strength and support to those attending the Lambeth.
The homosexual agenda has overshadowed the Lambeth, once again, where conservatives in Canada and the Episcopalian Churches are leaving their respective national provinces to join the orthodox-align Global South movement within the Communion.
Those leaving stated, emphatically, the blessing of same-sex union and the ordination of homosexual bishops were fundamentally in violation of the Scripture which had described homosexual as a sin both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.