Saturday June 28

Pretty tough being here today and not in Calgary. Brett has the Canada Day Tournament for Lacrosse in Calgary and the last for the season. They've merged a pretty good team together and stand a shot at kicking some @$$. Go Lethbridge Power!

The Conference is winding to a close Sunday. I miss the last morning on Sunday as tonight I will shuttle to the Airport in Tel Aviv to fly out at 1:00 a.m. through Addis Ababa Ethiopia to Kampala Uganda. This has been a truly historic conference and will be shaping much of the future for the Anglican churches of the world for years to come. It is humbling and a tremendous honour to have been part of shaping this outcome. The "Jeruslalem Declaration" will be released to the media tomorrow and will have a significant impact on the Anglican witness in the world. You can read a good story on the conference that David Virtue published on http://www.virtueonline.org/

posted yesterday under NEWS and then Viewpoints: GAFCON Pilgrims...

I am going to try and post more photos but it seems to take quite some time to upload. I have a 3 minute video I took in the Conference that I am trying to post but it takes quite some time as well. It is a clip of the Mother's Union Choir of Nigeria singing in the morning service. It was awesome.

Today I will connect hopefully with 2 or 3 more African clergy on my list, with Stephen Noll of Uganda Christian University (on behalf of my son Carlin), and Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone (latin america).

For now from the Shalom Hotel in Jerusalem, here are some more photos:

One of the Conference morning worship services

Here's a group of us that hung out together for aspects of the Conference. Left to right; me (Alberta Canada), Jerry (Spokane Washington), Ken Harding (Alberta Canada), Paul Oritt (Washington State), Marty Foord (Perth Australia).

Jerry, Paul and I talked about meeting together every few months in Whitefish Montana where Jerry is planting a new Church. He has another colleague in Butte MT who will join us. Jerry is quite seperated geographically from other clergy and was thrilled to learn how close we are from the planned church in Whitefish / Kalispell. He has a vision for several congregations for the upper Northwest USA including Montana. this will afford opportunities to gather regularly for support. I really enjoyed Jerry's company and sensed in him a gifted apostolic calling to plant churches. Paul of course.... well some of you may know Paul and he is simply one of a kind!!! Marty has the theological mind of a steel trap and is on his way to Cambridge in the UK for a 6 month study sabbatical. Ken has an interesting story. He is awaiting God's next assignment as his last one has come to a close in a difficult and trying manner but you wouldn't know it given the peace he has as he trusts God for the next step.

To the left here is my small group that met together after the main morning Plenary session for discussion and prayer. The 8 African folks in the group represent Nigeria (of course!), Uganda, and Kenya, while the caucasians represent the U.S. and me of course the Maple Leaf.

Well, more to come so stay tuned...