Updated
Religious Intelligence has this: More staff leave under-fire Anglican college:
THREE senior members of academic staff are leaving an under-fire Oxford theological College, it has been revealed today.
In the latest blow to Wycliffe College, which has come under mounting criticism in recent months for adopting a more conservative evangelical stance, its Principal the Rev Dr Richard Turnbull confirmed that three staff members are to leave, following another five academics have already left the institution in recent months.
The doctrinal change has coincided with the appointment of the new Principal, whose management style also been criticised.
In May one anonymous staff member claimed the college had become ‘openly homophobic’ and ‘hostile to women priests’ since his appointment.
The three staff members are Dr Elaine Storkey, formerly senior research fellow in social philosophy, the Rev Dr Andrew Goddard, tutor in Christian Ethics, and his wife, the Rev Lis Goddard, who was tutor in Ministerial Formation…
Update
A feature film about this saga has been made, see this review of it here.
23 CommentsLambeth Palace has issued this:
10 CommentsBriefing note from Lambeth Palace
Thursday 20th September 2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has spoken of his relief at receiving assurances over news agency reports attributing offensive remarks to the Bishop of Uyo, Nigeria, the Rt Revd Isaac Orama.
” As I said last week, these reports were very concerning and it is a great relief to have had full assurances that the stories were false and should never have appeared. I am grateful that the prospect of the severe offence that would have been caused has now abated”.
Episcopal News Service announces that Eight bishops agree to serve as ‘episcopal visitors’.
The Living Church has Bishops, Archbishop of Canterbury Begin Private Sessions.
The Chicago Tribune has Presiding bishop asks church to set aside ‘abundant disdain’ for differences.
From London, Ruth Gledhill of The Times reports that Pro-gay agenda pushes Church closer to schism and has an interview with Archbishop Akinola.
12 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
Rachel Zoll of Associated Press has Episcopal Bishops in Key Meeting on Gays.
Mary Frances Schjonberg of Episcopal News Service has House of Bishops meeting set to open and also CHICAGO: Persell criticizes Akinola’s anticipated visit.
There is an article written by Gregory Cameron over here.
The Chicago Tribune has Anglican gay-bishop stance is put to the test in Chicago and U.S. church receives deadline.
The BBC has US Anglicans meet over gay clergy.
Rebecca Trounson Los Angeles Times Episcopal bishops meet to discuss future
Kendall Harmon has an article at titusonenine Honesty or Obfuscation in New Orleans?
Raleigh News-Observer Bishop in full support of gays
Thursday evening update
Jonathan Petre Daily Telegraph Anglican Church in crisis talks to avert schism
USA Today Anglicans meet amid growing discord
Lakeland (Florida) Ledger Episcopal Bishop Joins Meetings
24 CommentsComment is free has a column by Andrew Brown Communing with Dostoevsky.
Fulcrum has a column by Graham Kings titled The Edge. For some followup comment on this, see also here.
4 CommentsThe Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, has said that, while he supported the principle of an Anglican Covenant, he could not endorse the proposed version currently on the table.
See press release, Archbishop of Wales warns proposed Anglican Covenant could lead to exclusion.
See full text of his address, Talk to the Governing Body, September 2007. Here is an extract:
41 CommentsThree of the primates have also ordained bishops specifically to exercise ‘pastoral oversight’ in North America, and this has won the approval of a fourth primate, the Chair of the Covenant Design Group who has said that their consecrations could lead “towards a creation of a viable, stable and orthodox Anglican presence in the USA”. To intervene in the internal affairs of another province in this way has hitherto been regarded by the Communion as totally unacceptable. The Windsor report condemns such activities as did previous Lambeth resolutions. Although the primates in Tanzania also condemned these actions, they seemed to accept the fact that some primates did not feel able to refrain from such actions, until sufficient provision had been made, for what are regarded as faithful Anglicans in North America. That totally subverts the polity of the province concerned and Anglican ecclesiology in general, (if it happened in this province, we would not find it acceptable), but the primates seem to give it passive acceptance. The implementation of the Covenant will be in their hands, and they seemingly condone ‘the breaking of the bonds of affection’ in a very substantial way by some of their number. As they said in their press statement at Tanzania , “Those who have intervened believe it would be inappropriate to bring interventions to an end until there is change in the Episcopal Church”. They then go on to propose pastoral strategies with a pastoral council and a primatial vicar for the Episcopal Church to be in place by the end of September. That would possibly end interventions by individual primates but it would be a massive intervention in the affairs of the Episcopal Church by the primates as a body and all of this before a Covenant is even in place.
Moreover the primates at Tanzania went further. They said, “Pastoral needs are not limited to the Episcopal Church alone. Until a Covenant is secured, it may be appropriate for the Instruments of Communion to request the use of this or a similar scheme in other contexts should urgent pastoral needs arise”. In other words, there could be wholesale intervention by the primates in any province until a Covenant is in place and then obviously intervention by them again if any province was deemed to have breached the terms of that Covenant. Not surprisingly the Episcopal Church has refused such requests. In an attempt however to be irenic the Episcopal Church says, “The proposed pastoral scheme is injurious to the Episcopal Church but we pledge ourselves to find ways of meeting the pastoral concerns of the primates compatible with our own polity and canons”. In other words, before a Covenant is even established the primates are imposing deadlines and demands. What will happen if a Covenant were to be in place?
Updated again Wednesday evening
Jim Naughton has some advice to readers and also to journalists. He also reports that Archbishops Akinola and Orombi “both happen to be in the country this week”.
George Conger reports in the Living Church on who exactly will be accompanying the Archbishop of Canterbury, and what other meetings are scheduled this week. Joint ACC, Primates Committee to Meet Sept. 24.
Episcopal News Service recaps the Nigerian letter to the archbishop and other Nigerian developments in Bishops urge postponing Lambeth Conference, call for special Primates’ Meeting.
Updates Wednesday morning
Stephen Bates reports in the Guardian Williams in showdown with US church over gay bishops:
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will demand concessions from the bishops of the US Episcopal Church tomorrow at a crisis meeting aimed at staving off the most damaging split in the church’s modern history, over the issue of homosexuality.
They will be asked to give guarantees that they will not allow the election of any more openly gay bishops or authorise public blessing services for same-sex couples and will create a structure for separate episcopal oversight for conservative congregations who disagree with the church’s liberal leadership…
Jane Lampman Christian Science Monitor Tension as Episcopal bishops meet
Christopher Quinn Atlanta Journal-Constitution Episcopalian church beginning to divide
Michael Conlon Reuters U.S. Episcopal church faces another showdown on gays
Bruce Nolan New Orleans Times-Picayune N.O. backdrop for meeting to save the Anglican communion and a later version on the front page of today’s paper: N.O. becomes the accidental backdrop for a high-stakes meeting to save the world’s Anglican communion. This contains an interview with Bishop Jenkins, conveniently excerpted here.
The Canadian Anglican Journal has a report by Solange de Santis with a different focus: Episcopal meeting brings helping hands to New Orleans
Wednesday evening
Church of England Newspaper has a report by George Conger Three Questions for the USA
11 CommentsSister Joan Chittister, OSB has written a column titled We all need the Anglicans right now. Here’s an extract:
12 Comments…So the question the Anglican communion is facing for us all right now is a clear one: What happens to a group, to a church, that stands poised to choose either confusion or tyranny, either anarchy or authoritarianism, either unity or uniformity? Are there really only two choices possible at such a moment? Is there nowhere in-between?
The struggle going on inside the Anglican Communion about the episcopal ordination of homosexual priests and the recognition of the homosexual lifestyle as a natural state is not peculiar to Anglicanism. The issue is in the air we breathe. The Anglicans simply got there earlier than most. And so they may well become a model to the rest of us of how to handle such questions. If the rate and kinds of social, biological, scientific and global change continue at the present pace, every religious group may well find itself at the breakpoint between “tradition” and “science” sooner rather than later.
Theological questions driven by new scientific findings, new social realities, new technological possibilities abound. How moral is it to take cells from one person for the treatment of another if all human cells are potentially life generating? Is that the destruction of life? If homosexuality is “natural,” meaning biologically configured at birth, why is it immoral for homosexuals to live in homosexual unions — even if they are bishops? After all, isn’t that what we said — in fact, did — when we argued “scientifically” that blacks were not fit for ordination because blacks weren’t quite as human as whites? And so we kept them out of our seminaries and called ourselves “Christian” for doing it. Without even the grace to blush.
It is not so much how moral we think we are that is the test of a church. Perhaps the measure of our own morality is how certain we have been of our immoral morality across the ages. That should give us caution. We said, at one time, that it was gravely immoral to charge interest on loans, that it was mortally sinful to miss Mass on Sunday, that people could not read books on the Index, that the divorced could not remarry. And we brooked no question on any of these things. People were either in or out, good or bad, religious or not, depending on whether they stood at one end or another of those spectrums…
The Archbishop of York wrote about Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe last Sunday in the Observer newspaper.
John Sentamu Saving Zimbabwe is not colonialism, it’s Britain’s duty
Nicholas Watt Archbishop hits out at policy on Zimbabwe
See also:
BBC Tackle Zimbabwe, archbishop urges
Press Association Archbishop discusses Mugabe with PM
Updated Monday evening
As the Archbishop of Canterbury prepares to go to the USA and visit New Orleans, there is a website established by the Diocese of Louisiana devoted specifically to his visit. (h/t DL)
There are also various press reports about what may happen next.
Christopher Landau reports for the BBC What future for Anglicanism?
Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports for the Sunday Telegraph Archbishop fears split over gay clergy
Robert Barr reports for the Associated Press Anglican Leader in U.S. Over Gay Bishop
Neela Banerjee reports for the New York Times Episcopal Church Faces Deadline on Gay Issues
Daniel Burke reports for Religion News Service Episcopal Church faces same-sex deadline
Updated links
The Sunday programme on BBC radio had an item about this:
Go here (6 minutes long).
Archbishop Peter Akinola, and journalist Stephen Bates are interviewed.
For a longer version of the Peter Akinola interview go here ( URL valid this week only).
The Episcopal News Service has a new monthly video programme. The first programme, available to watch here, has fascinating material about the situation in Louisiana and Mississippi following Katrina.
ENS also has a report on the responses made across the Episcopal Church to “a study document aimed at helping the House of Bishops respond to the requests made to them by the Primates of the Anglican Communion”: One third of dioceses respond to Bishops’ communiqué study document.
The Living Church reports on two other aspects:
Modified Primatial Vicar Plan to Be Proposed to Bishops
Bishop Henderson Withdraws Report Endorsement; Doug LeBlanc has a succinct summary of this report here.
54 CommentsThinking about the meaning of Ramadan has made me a better Christian, says Chris Chivers in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
Reconciliation offers greater rewards than revenge writes Roderick Strange in the Credo column of The Times.
Christopher Howse says Jews fast, Muslims fast, so should Christians in the Daily Telegraph.
Giles Fraser writes about New York, where all our compulsions meet in the Church Times.
In the Washington Post Mary Jordan writes that In Europe and U.S., Nonbelievers Are Increasingly Vocal. (The article is in fact mostly about Europe and in particular the UK.)
Update
In today’s Guardian there is a book review, under the headline Holy Order, by Jonathan Bartley of Stephen Bates’ latest work, God’s Own Country: Tales from the Bible Belt.
The full interview, by Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson is available here: ‘Is our society broken? Yes, I think it is’.
News report: Archbishop: Pushy parents damaging children
Leader: A commonsense cleric
21 CommentsThe Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has published the following OPEN LETTER TO ABP. ROWAN WILLIAMS:
An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria meeting in Osogbo, Osun State
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the one and only Lord Jesus Christ.
We write to you out of profound love for our beloved Anglican Communion and recognition that this current crisis in our common life together is an unrelenting source of anguish for you and for all concerned.
We have reviewed the paper “A Most Agonizing Road to Lambeth 2008” that was made available to us by our primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola. We found it to be a compelling summary of many of the key events and meetings of the past ten years. It highlights the intractability of our current crisis.
We are persuaded that a change of direction from our current path is urgently needed and write to assure you of our willingness and commitment to work towards that end. We have noted your desire that the proposed Lambeth Conference be a place for fellowship and prayer and an exploration of our shared mission and ministry – all of these are of course commendable aims.
We all know, however, that the pressures of the present situation would adversely affect the outcome of the conference unless there is a profound change of heart; for how can we as bishops in the Church of God gather for a Lambeth Conference when there is such a high level of distrust, dislike and disdain for one another? How can we meet as leaders of the Communion when our relationships are so sorely strained and our life together so broken that we cannot even share together in the Lord’s Supper? It would be a mockery and bring dishonour to the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ.
We are also concerned about the abuse directed towards those who hold to traditional views on matters of Human Sexuality. The spate of hostility in the UK is alarming.
We are all witnesses to:
In truth anyone who does not embrace revisionist views is a potential target. We know it is possible to provide some security to minimize such occurrences but is the additional cost justifiable? Would the resultant atmosphere of fear and uncertainty be conducive to the goals of such a large gathering of bishops?
These are all matters of concern but in our opinion there is a way forward.
The proposed Anglican Communion Covenant is the one way for us to uphold our common heritage of faith while at the same time holding each other accountable to those teachings that have defined our life together and also guide us into the future. It has already received enthusiastic support from the majority of the Communion. Therefore we propose the following action plan:
As a matter of utmost urgency, call a special session of the Primates Meeting to:
a) Receive the responses made by The Episcopal Church to the Dromantine and Dar es Salaam Communiqués and determine their adequacy.
b) Arrive at a consensus for the application of the Windsor Process especially in Provinces whose self-understanding is at odds with the predominant mind of the Communion.
c) Set in motion an agreed process to finalize the Anglican Covenant Proposal and set a timetable for its ratification by individual provinces. This cannot be done at the Lambeth Conference because it is simply too large and, we all know, the Anglican Covenant requires individual provincial endorsement and signature.
Postpone current plans for the Lambeth Conference (as has been done before). This will:
a) Allow the current tensions to subside and leave room for the hard work of reconciliation that is a prerequisite for the fellowship we all desire.
b) Confirm that those invited to the Lambeth Conference have already endorsed the Anglican Covenant and so are able to come together as witnesses to our common faith.
We make these proposals in good faith believing that they provide an opportunity for us to reunite the Communion consistent with our common heritage and give us a way forward to engage the world with the holistic Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
Sincerely,
Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
September 13th, 2007
Since the earlier reports, there has been an email, which TA received only as a comment from elsewhere, but which various other blogs have published, that reads as follows:
From: Emeka Samuel
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 6:00 AM
To: nanabuja@nannigeria.org
Subject: REJOINDERFROM: EMEKA OGENYI, NAN, UYO
REJOINDER: HOMOSEXUALS, LESBIANS ARE INSANE– BISHOP
This is to inform the agency and the general public that the report on the above subject credited to the Anglican Bishop of Uyo Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama was untrue.
I wish to state here that the report was not a true reflection of what the interview he granted journalists while Bishop Orama never made any statement at any time to condemn perpetuators of such unbiblical acts to such an extent as was reflected in the report.
The Bishop was wrongly misrepresented and misquoted and I hereby render my apologies to him, the Anglican Diocese of Uyo and the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) for embarrassment caused them by the report.
While I apologize for the mistake and to state that the report was not written in bad faith I wish to express my commitment to the evangelization of the gospel through this medium.
The Church of Nigeria has also issued the full Powerpoint file containing Bishop Orama’s synod presentation, the content of which Stand Firm has republished here. Although as the above email states, that presentation was not the source of the original article but rather an interview with journalists.
There has not so far been any statement relating to this email from the Church of Nigeria.
There has not been any statement from the News Agency of Nigeria.
Nor has there been any further statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
47 CommentsFormer primate of Canada Michael Peers has written “An Amplification of the Brooks Document” supplementing the earlier article Who has the power? by Robert Brooks.
See Archbishop Peers on the Primates and the ACC at Episcopal Majority.
5 CommentsI reported earlier about the Church of England’s response to the government review of current legislation.
Today, the Church Times has both a news article and a leader column about the response.
News: C of E queries Government’s new ideas for equality laws (this also includes a report of the Northern Ireland judicial review of SORs).
Leader: My right’s better.
On the Northern Ireland judicial review, Jonathan Petre had this in the Daily Telegraph: Judge squashes part of UK gay rights laws.
On the government consultation, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales have also filed a response. It can be found here.
6 CommentsLast week’s Church Times had this comment article by Pat Ashworth: Pushing Anglicanism to the precipice.
1 CommentSPIN-doctoring overreached itself — and fell flat on its face — two weeks ago with the publication of a pastoral letter purporting to be from the Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, to his flock in Abuja (News, 24 August). Should it matter that the bulk of it was written in the United States from the computer of Bishop Martyn Minns, and that revision, editing, and formatting took place over four days?
I believe it does. After our news story (24 August) we were accused by the Nigerian director of communications of being “insulting and racist”. It has nothing to do with race but everything to do with language and politics, in a climate where the word “decision” is now drip-fed into every missive…
Updated Friday evening
CANA announces: 4 New Bishops Elected to Serve CANA:
September 13, 2007
(Herndon, VA) — The House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) met in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, on the 12th day of September 2007. They received a report from the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria in the USA. Acknowledging the significant growth of CANA that is taking place in the USA, the House of Bishops considered a request for additional bishops to further the work of CANA and the extension of God’s Kingdom.
After the meeting, the Primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, announced the election of four suffragan bishops and appointed them to serve in the USA. The bishops-elect are the Rev’d Canon Roger Ames (Akron, OH), the Rev’d Canon David Anderson (Atlanta, GA), the Ven. Amos Fagbamiye (Indianapolis, IN), and the Rev’d Canon Nathan Kanu (Oklahoma City, OK). The consecrations will take place in the USA before the end of 2007, at a date and place yet to be determined. These four bishops-elect will join Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns and Suffragan Bishop David Bena in providing an indigenous ecclesiastical structure for faithful Anglicans in this country.
CANA currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states. About a quarter of the congregations are primarily expatriate Nigerians. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of some 70 million, through various pastoral and missionary initiatives.
Update
The Living Church has a report which explains at least in part how the new number of 60 CANA congregations mentioned above now arises: in the report AAC’s Anderson Among Four New CANA Bishops by George Conger and Steve Waring it says:
16 CommentsIn an interview with The Living Church, Fr. Ames said all of the parish leadership and the congregation of St. Luke’s left The Episcopal Church about two years ago for the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone, but because the Diocese of Ohio has not to date included the departure in its parochial report filings with the national church, he and the congregation continue officially to be designated members in good standing of The Episcopal Church.
Fr. Ames said there are currently about 50 former Episcopal congregations affiliated with the Diocese of Bolivia. These are in the process of being transferred to CANA by mutual agreement of Bishop Minns and the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia. According to a press release published on CANA’s website, the convocation now has 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states.
Updated Thursday morning
Changing Attitude sent somebody to Uyo, Nigeria, to find out more about what the bishop had or had not said.
There is a report here: Changing Attitude Nigeria investigates Bishop Orama of Uyo.
Thursday morning
First, the Nigerian provincial website has published: BISHOP ORAMA CALLS FOR YOUTH RE-ORIENTATION TO CURB VIOLENCE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION. This includes:
Also, speaking on the recent publication in some dailies on homosexual issue in the North America as he expressed in the last synod of Uyo Diocese, Rt. Revd. Isaac Orama lamented over what he called a false statement published on the internet and called on the media to desist from publishing wrong statements for public consumption.
According to him, what he said was that CANA is the offshoot of the Church of Nigeria’s response to the unbiblical agenda of the Episcopal Church of United States of America in supporting same sex marriage and consecrating in the year 2003 the publicly acknowledged gay priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop.
Second, I received an email yesterday from The Venerable AkinTunde Popoola which is reproduced in full below the fold.
30 CommentsThe Diocese of Pittsburgh, a member of the Anglican Communion Network, has an annual convention (think diocesan synod) coming up on 2-3 November. A number of official documents have been published in relation to this.
For an alternative view of Pittsburgh, try reading either the website of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh or the most recent entries of Lionel Deimel’s weblog:
Agreeing to Agree
“… the bishop didn’t say that.”
Something Dramatic