press release from InclusiveChurch:
“Global Centre” Comes To UK
InclusiveChurch is delighted to announce that the Most Revd Dr Idris Jones, Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway, has agreed to join the Archbishop of Mexico as a Patron of InclusiveChurch.
Bishop Idris is Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and a Primate of the Anglican Communion. He said:
“It is a privilege to be associated with Inclusive Church. The Anglican Communion is seeking how it may develop and deepen its life today – what better way could there be than working to keep our church as welcoming and encouraging to everyone who wants to follow Jesus so that everyone of us can be challenged by God’s love.”
We also announce that the Archbishop of Mexico, Bishop Carlos Touché-Porter, will be in England in September 2007. Bishop Carlos was a co-signatory of the Declaration by the Global Centre released in May 2007 which reaffirmed the call of Latin American bishops to preserve the “participative, diverse, ample and inclusive” nature of the Communion.
During his visit the Archbishop will take part in two major conferences:
These conferences will inform discussions at “DRENCHED IN GRACE”, InclusiveChurch’s first residential conference to be held in Derbyshire on 21st – 23rd November. “Drenched in Grace” will be a celebration and restatement of broad and inclusive Anglicanism. A discount of £20 applies for bookings received before the end of June. For further information go here.
For further information or advance registration contact InclusiveChurch here.
Well, we now seem to have a growing formation of the traditional Anglican Communion, in its historical diversity, involving Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and now Scotland.
Will Wales or Ireland be next?
Will New Zealand also acknowledge the need to retain that blessed diversity of believers who do not exclude, even when they may disagree?
I see a bright light on the horizon, and feel a fresh wind blowing throughout the global Anglican Communion, and I thank God for that.
The Abuja putsch may well be failing, and faster than I would have expected.
DON’T FORGET the GLOBAL CENTER of Central America, The Dominican Republic, American Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Equador…which is, by far, the hugest chunk of Latin America (including Brazil and Mexico of course as mentioned)…REAL is wonderful, it’s just that reality sometimes takes some getting used to…when you add Canada and the United States there really is very little territory that isn’t loving and Christian “willing” to “love oneanother!” Peace from the Global Center of INCLUSIVE Anglicanism…let’s get on with the business of being of loving service to one another at… Read more »
I do hope the Episcopal Church of the Philippines join this one. After all, underneath our norteamericano exterior, we’ve been Latin American all along! Besides, if (and I hope this is true) the Global Center really stand for keeping the conversation open and for the hope that, in the end, we can still be in communion, then I am all for it. I wish though that liberals do not paint this as a victory. Being this inclusive has a price–the acceptance of minimum doctrinal standards is a compromise everyone can and should live with. Freedom is not license to do… Read more »
I’ve not seen a reference elsewhere on this site, but note that the Episcopal Church in Cuba concecrated the first woman bishop in the developing world yesterday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6738749.stm
Jerry’s comment about holding onto disagreeing believers is instructive in view of the apparent disarray in one of the more peculiar ‘traditional’ Anglican (TM) set-ups. The Anglican Independent Communion has just apparently excommunicated its archbishop-designate. woe to those who use religion as a power-factory…
Christopher Seitz has posted some thoughts on the statement of the Scottish Primus on T19. His comment on the Scottish church? “It is a tiny church”. Could it be that “NP” was actually a cover for Dr. Seitz? Seitz’s comment is the second on this page; read also #4 by Doug Martin, which is very much to the point.
http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/3553/
CUBA is inclusive and engages in INCLUSIVENESS at encourages it at ALL levels of Churchlife.
“…the acceptance of minimum doctrinal standards” is not the basis for foundations of a church. That might be the criteria for being employed as a priest within any particular organisational structure, but that does not apply to the laity. God calls to each and everyone of us as and when God is ready. No human can intervene in that process and no human can tell someone that they are not allowed to talk to God. Hebrews 11, the cornerstone is faith, not butt licking. Read the scriptures e.g. James 2:9-10 “…if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by… Read more »
We can applaud inclusiveness, but without clear reference to Christian identity it is self-defeating in the end. What is unity without Christian identity? So there is a unity within diverstity but Christian unity finally is grounded in the gospel or it is not Christian unity anymore. I pray God will enble that kind of faith and faithfulness in the church.
The question, Ben, is what do we mean by the Gospel? How would you interpret it? Would it be the Gospel that transforms our world–even I dare say the permissive, liberal, “justice-oriented” one–or the one that affirms our lifestyles?
I’d address this to everyone here, because Ben does have a point.
What do you suggest then, Ben Wiebe? Turning up each week and participating in the Christian liturgy?
Ben There are a multiplicity of Christian identities. Some are anglican, some catholic, some orthodox. They are all parts of the body of Christ. There are two choices, enshrine a sermon schedule and content that is to be repeated on an ongoing annual program with no variation (this is what some Jews have been doing for centuries), or accept that part of finding a parish is finding one that you are comfortable with. Some people will like ultraorthodox and conservative interpretations. Others will enjoy a mish mash of different interpretations and find it rather pleasing that they all still end… Read more »
Ren Aquila’s question, “what do we mean by the Gospel?” is the biggie that probably should have been asked long ago — except that there would probably have been coherent Anglican answer (or at least not one that would satisfy the puritans — surely they seem never to have heard what I understand to be the Gospel).
Respecting Prior Aelred’s comment: You’re right about that, there is no (I think that’s the missing word) single Anglican answer to my question. Indeed, even among Catholics, there is some disagreement on that point too.
That’s because, as the scholastics say, “quidquid recipitur per modum recipientis recipitur.” (whatever is received is received in the recipient’s way)
We call it hermeneutics. But if we can sit down and discuss what we have received without the temptation to reject them out of hand, and then to let what we have received speak for itself, then we are getting somewhere.
Ren A., You do call us to focus! That was my intent. To begin, gospel is what the NT says it is (e.g. 1Cor 15:3ff.). As is clear in context that means our basic confession as Christians is “Jesus is Lord” (see Rom 10:8-13). Since he comes as the fulfillment of God’s purpose as spelled out in the story of scripture as a whole we can follow the direction of scripture and discern his will. On slavery for instance there are compexities – God delivers his people from bondage and calls them to set people free (at certain points), at… Read more »
So your answer then, Ben, is precisely that:
a.) nothing in the Gospel justifies homosexual relationships as right, even if the parties can claim a committed relationship; and
b.) as I surmised from the tone of your answer, you believe in the Gospel as transforming, rather than “affirming.”
Thanks for clearing that up. I am sure that readers will have their own views on this matter, hysterical or otherwise.
Ren, Interesting that what Jesus affirms – the sexual union of a man and woman – we would contrue in negative terms! The issue is, what does Jesus affirm? That gives us the direction for God’s good purpose in this. I am not against “difference,” that is one thing missing in a same-sex relationship. I also understand there is reason for confusion in our culture about sex, there are a whole range of distortions (perhaps beginning with Christians not being able rightly to affirm the goodness of this creation gift). So I do not accept your distinction between “transforming” and… Read more »
Why do I always feel excluded when I read ‘inclusive’ or hear the ‘inclusive’ drum being beaten. It’s as much a party label or slogan as any other church grouping. When I was a parish priest in the UK I noticed that conservative evangelicals were expected to be invisible – at Cathedral events,and rarely if ever appointed to cathedral staff. The only place such evangelicals were expected to be included and visible was at the top of the quota paying parishes lists. Inclusive meant ‘pay up and shut up’. Inclusive means including all who think the way our party thinks… Read more »
Ben, Just to clarify what I mean by “transforming and affirming.” The distinction between transforming and affirming I use is actually from a friend of mine who’s quite on the conservative end. He would say that the conflict between the Global South and the Global North leadership could be seen as two approaches to the Gospel. Those in the Global South, who are generally younger and have a stronger missionary impetus, would see the Gospel as world-transforming. It throws into question societies like those in the West who have succumbed in their view to the temptation to throw morality out… Read more »
Ben is correct that the identity of Jesus is central. Particular interpretations of obscure and highly contextual texts, often overlayed with centuries of commentary, are not central. “The issue” is not central. What is central is that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” And while their may be a range of understanding of what this means (even among those who proclaim themselves “orthodox,” I have yet to see any evidence that this central thing is being denied in any significant way by the Episcopal Church in the US or by any other Province. But it appears that this is not what is… Read more »
Malcom, Your reflection is at least in part accurate. We can lose our focus because we are anxious about some secondary matter. But it is too general, what is central for conservatives? Or for liberals? (individualism wrapped in Enlightenmaent rationalism may be affecting all sides in this). That “Jesus is Lord” is being directly denied by people like bishop Spong on any understanding of the NT in accord with its own intended sense (of course we can make up our own meanings as we go along). In the NT sense this is not a little isolated statement but relates to… Read more »
Malcolm – yes, his identity is central….and we have to be faithful to him and not pretend he said “go and carry on sinning, it is fine” when he always says “go and sin no more”
When I encounter an individual who will say “go and sin no more” as forcefully to those who are divorced and/or remarried, as he or she will say it to gays & lesbians, I will concede that that individual’s views, however mistaken, might be based in scriptural belief, rather than purely in personal prejudice.