Nobody knows anything about what is happening at the meeting of 12 American bishops and an Irish canon in New York City, but that does not prevent continuing speculation about it.
Ruth Gledhill’s newspaper report in The Times provoked a rather worried response from Matt Kennedy, to which Ruth responded in her blog article.
Meanwhile, Lionel Deimel wrote this detailed analysis, which found approval from Fr Jake. The latter also wrote his own response to Ruth.
2 CommentsUpdated Monday
The Living Church reports on the consolidated appeal for alternative oversight in Bishops’ Appeal Seeks to Prevent Further Incoherence and Fracturing.
The original diocesan statements can be found here:
Central Florida
Dallas
Fort Worth
Pittsburgh
San Joaquin
South Carolina
Springfield
Statements of dissent:
Central Florida
Dallas
Fort Worth
Pittsburgh
San Joaquin
South Carolina
Update Monday
The Times has a news report: Clergy seek ‘two-church solution’.
Fr Jake has a comprehensive summary of events leading up to today, in Episcopal Leaders to Discuss AlPO.
Tobias Haller compares it all to a lost episode of Yes, Minister.
National Public Radio has a 3.5 minute audio item about the meeting. John Yates, Jack Iker, Gene Robinson, Peter Lee, are all interviewed. Link to it from this page.
The Telegraph also has a story: ‘Adoption’ plan for anti-gay dioceses.
47 CommentsLink updated August 2012
I was recently asked this question.
The answer is in an earlier article, which quoted directly from Jim Naughton’s articles published in April this year Following the Money: Donors and Activists on the Anglican Right. Here it is again (refer to page 3 of the original for the footnotes):
16 CommentsBy 2004, the AAC was a well-established advocacy group, not unlike others that flourished in Washington . It spent just under $600,000 that year on employee compensation, $124,000 on travel, and $114,000 in printing and publications. 39
It was also developing a global reach. Summarizing its expenditures for that year, the AAC says it spent more than $361,000 on “advocacy and diplomatic efforts with international partners on issues surrounding Anglican communion.” Three of those partners-the British evangelical organizations Anglican Mainstream ($60,000), the Church Missionary Society ($27,000) and the Oxford Center for Mission Studies ($7,000)-received gifts from the AAC during 2003-04. 40
The AAC was not the only Ahmanson-funded organization aiding conservative Anglicans in the United Kingdom . The International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians (INFEMIT), which is based at the Oxford Center for Mission Studies (OCMS), pursues philanthropic activities beyond the scope of an advocacy organization. 41 However, it plays a significant role in the Anglican controversy.
From 2000 to 2004, its American branch, INFEMIT USA , which lists the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Institute as its U. S. mailing address, contributed $357,414 to OCMS and $262,000 to the Network for Anglican Mission and Evangelism, (NAME.)
NAME held an international conference in Africa in 2004 which produced papers justifying the actions of foreign bishops who had claimed Episcopal churches as their own, or announced plans to found a missionary church in the United States. 42
According to IRS Forms 990, INFEMIT USA raised more than $2.75 million from 2000-2003. More than $2.6 million was contributed by an unnamed donor or handful of donors. It is not clear how much of this money was donated by Ahmanson, but he listed INFEMIT 14th on the list of charities to which he has given the most money. 43
Simon Barrow has written a detailed analysis of the recent Rowan Williams Dutch interview: Why Rowan Williams helps stem the drift to idiocracy.
Geoffrey Rowell reports on what he found in Nicaragua this summer: Searching for the Garden of Eden in a remote corner of Nicaragua.
There’s been a lot of criticism of the decision of the Washington Cathedral to host a talk by Mohammed Khatami the former president of Iran. What he actually said can be read here. Almost as interesting is the involvement of President Bush in granting his visa. The cathedral’s reasons for doing this are explained here. Bishop Chane’s concluding remarks are here.
6 CommentsThe Connecticut Six website has published in PDF format the full text of:
AN APPEAL TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
By the Bishops of Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, South Carolina, and Springfield (20 July, A.D. 2006).
This is the consolidated document previously mentioned.
It consists of a main document (4 pages, reproduced in full below the fold here) and several appendices:
APPENDIX A (pages 5 and 6) html copy here
Functions and authority of the Presiding Bishop of ECUSA under Title I of Canons
Appendix B (pages 7 and 8) html copy here
Theological Commitments of the Petitioning Bishops
APPENDIX C (pages 9-13)
Concerns about the Presiding Bishop-elect html copy here.
A Channel Four television programme with this title, lasting two hours, airs in the UK on Saturday at 7.15 pm. The presenter is Mark Dowd. The official publicity blurb reads:
Former Dominican friar Mark Dowd travels the world to explore the origins of and reasons for religious fundamentalism. Examining five different faiths and a century of history, Dowd strives to discover who fundamentalists are, what their common attributes might be, and why a literalist approach to the religious text is so important to them.
Mark Vernon who has seen the programme, has written this preview:
50 CommentsThe Fundamentalists – Channel 4, Saturday 9th Sept
Would you know a fundamentalist if you met one? A black hood and Kalashnikov might rouse your suspicion. But what of the peaceful sort, in regular clothes. What would give them away?
Four individuals featured in Mark Dowd’s film, ‘The Fundamentalists’, shatter preconceptions. For one thing they are women – a Hindi nationalist in India, a settler wife in Israel, an evangelical grandma in the US, and a Palestinian mum in Gaza. These four are also of four different religions – Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Fundamentalists are as likely to be Buddhist too, particularly if you live in Sri Lanka where they wear saffron robes. You needn’t go abroad for fundamentalism either. I recently spent the day with a fundamentalist from the home counties. He is white, middle class and a minister in the Church of England. We drank tea as he told me homosexuals are at risk of burning for all eternity.
From its origins in America, modern media have given the word fundamentalist global recognition in a few short decades, as Dowd shows when it is instantly recognised by people across four continents. Inspired by American fundamentalists, all sorts of people who feel politically embattled and/or personally unsure now turn to it for security. What fundamentalists have in common is breaking with the past: they do religion without tradition; something written or spoken two or three thousand years ago can be directly and unproblematically applied to today.
How should liberals respond to fundamentalism? Dowd shows how it is partly a political problem but it is also a spiritual problem. This leads him to make some pertinent suggestions. First, recognising that fundamentalism is here to stay, it is important to be savvy about their sense of the sacred to ensure that peaceable fundamentalists stay peaceable. Second, and more aggressively, it is important to challenge them religiously, particularly on the break with tradition: for example, as Jonathan Sacks puts it, God’s word without interpretation is like nuclear fuel without insulation. Third, we must strive for more spirituality enlightened times: the spiritual crudity of fundamentalism is a reflection of the spiritual crudity of materialism. As Dowd concludes, ultimately, only towering spiritual figures can lead fundamentalists away from their fears.
George Conger reports in the Living Church reports that the Primate of Uganda Proposes Altering Constitution:
11 CommentsThe Most Rev. Henry Orombi, Primate of the Church of Uganda, has proposed altering the provincial constitution to clarify its “biblical and evangelical character” within the Anglican Communion. If approved, the measure would become effective in 2008 and would formalize the 2003 declaration of “broken communion” with The Episcopal Church, extending the breach to encompass the entire progressive wing of the Communion.
In his presidential address to the biennial assembly of the Church of the Province of Uganda held Aug. 30 at Uganda Christian University in Mukono, Archbishop Orombi asked the assembly to revise its constitution to state the Church of Uganda “shall be in full communion with all churches, dioceses and provinces of the Anglican Communion that receive, hold and maintain the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God written.”…
Updated Friday
From the Telegraph a report by Peta Thorneycroft Mugabe bishop accused over ‘spree’:
The Anglican Bishop of Harare has cancelled church services on Sunday to mark the occasion of his wedding anniversary and instructed clergy and congregations to contribute gifts and food to his party…
The Church Times has a more detailed report on this by Pat Ashworth Kunonga tells churches to close on his anniversary.
5 CommentsTwo reports, both by George Conger, have appeared:
Living Church Archbishop of York to Represent England at Primates’ Meeting
The five-member committee recommended to Archbishop Rowan Williams last spring that Archbishop Sentamu represent the interests of the Church of England at the annual gathering of the 38 archbishops, presiding bishops and moderators of the Anglican Communion. The rationale is that Archbishop Williams would then be freed to exercise a presidential role within the meetings, the committee said…
…The next scheduled meeting is Feb. 14-19, 2007, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Church of England Newspaper Primates role for York?
5 Comments…The proposal was made by the members of the five members of the Primates’ Standing Committee earlier this year to the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, the final decision to add Dr Sentamu to the primates’ ranks lies with Dr Williams. A spokesman for the Anglican Consultative Council confirmed the proposal was under active consideration stating: “”There have been suggestions that would include the Archbishop of York, but as of August 24, the invitations, to my knowledge, have not gone out.”
Two reports: first from San Diego (not a Network diocese) there is this article on the St Paul’s Cathedral site, by Catherine Thiemann: By Their Fruits Shall You Know Them: An Analysis of AAC and Network Activities.
Second, from South Carolina which is a Network diocese, An Open Letter to Episcopalians in the Diocese of South Carolina from The Episcopal Forum of South Carolina.
There is a related news report here on the South Carolina episcopal election.
15 CommentsFirst, Anglican Mainstream has just republished another older document. It was prepared in May 2004 and submitted to the Windsor Commission on behalf of the Global South. It is titled Called to Witness and Fellowship.
Second, the Anglican Communion Institute website has published an article What Are We Meeting About? The Current Shape of our Common Discussions in the Episcopal Church.
30 CommentsUpdated Monday and again Thursday and Friday
Monday Concerning the document below: there was an article in Christianity Today in November 2005, that discussed an earlier version in some detail, Anglicans ‘Severely Wounded’ (hat tip AG).
Thursday And there is now an interview with Bishop Rodgers, about this document in the Christian Post here.
Friday The Church Times carries a news report also: Root out tares from Anglican wheat, says Rwandan bishop.
Rwanda is where the Global South primates will be meeting later this month. The Province of Rwanda also sponsors the Anglican Mission in America.
The Rt. Rev. John K. Rucyahana is bishop of Shyira diocese, in Rwanda. He has recently published a large document which can be found at the website of The Society for the Propagation of Reformed Evangelical Anglican Doctrine (SPREAD). This body has an HQ address in Illinois, and its chairman is The Rt Rev John H. Rodgers,Jr. He is a former dean of TESM and a retired bishop of AMiA.
The document, which is in PDF format, can be downloaded here (650K). The covering letter includes this:
…This document is not written to compel or demand any action. Rather, we seek to clarify the state of the Anglican Communion and advise what actions we may need to take to defend the Anglican faith and promote the Gospel. We want to “know the times” and “understand what we should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32) as faithful followers of Jesus in the Anglican Church.
I hope this record will help us to be aware and alert as we engage in covenants with others in the Communion, so that we know fully who and what we are covenanting with.
This document is meant to help assess the level of contagiousness of the apostasy, heresy, and denial of the Bible which may be imported into our churches from the wider Communion. I am thankful to the Society for the Propagation of Reformed Evangelical Anglican Doctrine for their research and work on this document.
The petition is 44 pages long but starts out this way:
PETITION TO THE THIRD GLOBAL ANGLICAN SOUTH TO SOUTH LEADERSHIP TEAM AND PRIMATES ADVISORY GROUP
TO: The Leadership Team under the presidency of the Most. Rev. Peter Akinola and the Primates Advisory Group elected at the Third Global Anglican South to South Encounter held in Egypt on October 25-30, 2005.
The petitioner, The Society for the Propagation of Reformed Evangelical Anglican Doctrine, is a society dedicated to the spread of faithful, Biblical theology, as found in the historic Anglican Formularies and such other information as will support the same, to all people and all churches, particularly to those who are members of the Anglican Communion. The petitioner wishes to thank the Primates of the Global South for their orthodox leadership, and to share with your Graces the results of some of our research and analytical thought so that we may be equipped for whatever action the Lord graciously calls us to undertake…
The document argues at great length (emphasis and words in square brackets added) that:
38 Comments…II. What the Global South upholds is true and historic Anglicanism. At one time the whole Anglican Communion was united in the Anglican faith, which is defined by the Articles of Religion and the doctrinal tenets contained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, and which holds as a central tenet that the Church is subordinate to the sovereign authority of Scripture.
III. The controversy over whether the Church should approve of same gender sexual relations shows that the Anglican Communion is no longer united in the Anglican faith, but is divided over whether the Church is subordinate to the sovereign authority of Scripture.
IV. Our research and reflection indicates that the churches and bishops of the Anglican Communion are divided into three groups concerning whether the Church should approve of same gender sexual relations and whether the Church is subordinate to the sovereign authority of Scripture.
V. The view of the authority of Scripture held by the revisionist [Rowan Williams] and traditionalist/pragmatist [George Carey] groups is irreconcilably contrary to the view thereof held by the Anglican [Peter Akinola] group.
VI. The revisionist and traditionalist/pragmatist groups can go together in the Anglican Communion because they share the fundamental belief that the Church is not subordinate to the sovereign authority of Scripture.
VII. Since the members of the Anglican group believe that the Church is subordinate to the sovereign authority of Scripture, they cannot go together with the members of either the revisionist group or the traditionalist/pragmatist group.
VIII. Scripture gives clear direction on how faithful Anglicans should deal with the revisionist and traditionalist/pragmatist groups, who are essentially false teachers in the Biblical sense.
IX. The ability of the Anglican churches to carry the faith will be weakened and finally destroyed if they wait too long to carry out the Biblical instruction on how to deal with false teachers…
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram had this report on the state of the Episcopal Church yesterday: A church in crisis.
And the Witness recently published this article by Daniel Webster Waging Fragmentation.
17 CommentsUpdated Sunday
Keith Ward writes in the Tablet about evolution and “intelligent design”: Beyond boundaries: the infinite creator. Time also has a column about The Pope and Darwin. The New Scientist has Papal summit to debate Darwinian evolution. Earlier the Guardian had Pope prepares to embrace theory of intelligent design.
Update But see what John Allen has to say about that article, here and his earlier interview with Dominique Tassot here.
In today’s Guardian Face to Faith is by Mark Pinsky who writes about American evangelicals.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about No comfort for Betjeman.
Andrew Louth writes in The Times that There is nothing untrue in the Protevangelion’s joyful, inaccurate tales.
13 CommentsThe number of congregations in the United States of America that regard themselves as “Anglican” but “outside of ECUSA” is already quite large. Some of these go back to the nineteenth century. There is an interesting map here, which shows a total of 457, although it also says that it is incomplete. These numbers include a few Canadian parishes (see comments).
This total breaks down as follows:
Groups which are directly linked to some other province of the Anglican Communion:
AMiA-113, Southern Cone-26, Uganda-23, Nigeria-15, Kenya-14, Brazil-Recife-6
The AMiA is, according to its own website “a missionary outreach of the Province of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda”.
Other Groups:
APA-71, REC-38, ACA-36, EMC-27, UEC-25, Unknown-18, CEC-17, UAC-12, , ACiC-6, APCK-4, OAC-2, DHC-2, ACCC-1, APCGS-1
More information about these groups can be found in the Anglicans Online list of ‘Not in the Communion’.
AMiA, APA, and REC are Common Cause Partners as is CANA.
Updated Friday
The CANA website has been slightly updated with the news reports already published elsewhere of the Nigerian consecration service.
However, there is more information on the Truro Church website which has published this letter from Martyn Minns. He writes:
…I am also involved in ongoing discussions with Bishop Lee and his chancellor to find a way forward that responds to the various jurisdictional and pastoral challenges that are presented by my consecration. I remain confident that we will be able to do so…
And the Bishop of Virginia, Peter Lee, has sent this letter, which I interpret to mean that he has not met his own deadline for publishing an agreed statement as he had indicated previously. He writes:
Since the election of the Rev. Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Church, Fairfax, as a Bishop in the Church of Nigeria, Martyn, the Truro vestry, the Standing Committee and I have had several discussions concerning the challenges this situation posed to the Diocese of Virginia and Truro Church.
Our discussions are continuing. And while I could wish for a more timely resolution to this situation, I am mindful that the Holy Spirit requires much of us, including patience.
As your Bishop, I have sought wise and godly counsel in this matter. In all of this, I have acted with the highest degree of pastoral concern for the congregation of Truro Church while also considering the needs of the entire Diocese.
At this time, I earnestly seek your prayers and support as we continue to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to discern a way forward that glorifies God and honors our Church.
Friday Update
The Washington Times has Virginia bishops hit impasse.
The website of the lobby group, Episcopal Majority now contains two major articles that taken together explain what the stance of this new group is:
Christopher Wilkins has written Still Remaining Faithful.
Mark Harris has written Necessary but not Sufficient.
19 CommentsThe Global South Primates meet at Kigali in September. Michael Poon in Singapore has written an interesting essay about what we all might expect from that event: Daybreak at Kigali – Horizons before the Anglican Global South Primates in September 2006.
6 CommentsUpdated
Since its original publication here the interview Rowan Williams gave to Nederlands Dagblad has attracted some attention.
The article by Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Sunday Telegraph Gays must change, says archbishop was reprinted elsewhere, e.g. in Gulf News as Archbishop does a U-turn on gay relationships.
Not everyone is convinced of that interpretation, see for instance, The Canterbury Tail.
One critique of the interview comes from William F. Coats and is reproduced below the fold. Mr Coats’ new group Episcopal Majority has its website here but it does not contain this article.
Update Wednesday
Fr Jake has more about this at Canterbury Attempts to “Hold the Center”.
Associated Press via Dallas Morning News Dallas Episcopalians consider church split
Fun Facts to Know and Tell About ALPO* by Kim Byham
Looking Again for an Episcopal/Anglican Middle by Marshall Scott
Mickey Mouse’s Dog No Longer a Planet (hat tip SR) Satire is alive and well in suburban Chicago.
4 Comments