Updated
The following comment from Lambeth Palace has been issued:
“It should be understood that the Archbishop’s response to Bishop Howe was neither a new policy statement nor a roadmap for the future but a plain response to a very urgent and particular question about clergy in traditionalist dioceses in TEC who want to leave TEC for other jurisdictions, a response reiterating a basic presupposition of what the Archbishop believes to be the theology of the Church.
The primary point was that – theologically and sacramentally speaking – a priest is related in the first place to his/her bishop directly, not through the structure of the national church; that structure serves the dioceses. The diocese is more than a ‘local branch’ of a national organisation. Dr Williams is clear that, whatever the frustration with the national church, priests should think very carefully about leaving the fellowship of a diocese. The provincial structure is significant, not least for the administration of a uniform canon law and a range of practical functions; Dr Williams is not encouraging anyone to ignore this, simply to understand the theological priorities which have been articulated in a number of ecumenical agreements, and in the light of this not to increase the level of confusion and fragmentation in the church.”
Update
The Living Church has a report by George Conger that elaborates a little on this: Archbishop Williams’ Letter ‘Not a Roadmap for the Future’
Second Update
Episcopal News Service has issued a report on the whole episode: CENTRAL FLORIDA: Howe letter quotes Canterbury; Lambeth issues clarification.
Updated Monday evening
The letter from Rowan Williams to John Howe of Central Florida (full text here) has already caused quite a stir in the blogosphere. Here are some of the early reactions:
Covenant Ephraim Radner with Chris Seitz and Philip Turner: A Statement Regarding Upholding the Ministry of Faithful Bishops (also on the ACI site)
The Anglican Scotist A Glimpse into Williams’ Ecclesiology
Fr Jake More Confusion From Canterbury
Episcopal Café Think before you leap
Ruth Gledhill Rowan tells Orthodox: ‘Stay loyal to sacramental communion’
Dan Martins A Sudden Burst of Fresh Air
Adrian Worsfold National Anglican Churches Demolished…
Nigel Taber-Hamilton The Great Betrayal – Rowan Williams and the end of the Anglican Communion as we know it
Living Church Archbishop of Canterbury Discourages Separatist Solution
Updates
Covenant Doug LeBlanc Interpreting the First Epistle to Central Floridians
The Anglican Centrist The Letter from Canterbury to Orlando
89 CommentsAmended
The Diocese of Central Florida has reported that a number of its parishes are discussing leaving the Episcopal Church.
See the Living Church report, Central Florida Parishes, Church Plants Plan to Disaffiliate.
Or this from the Lakeland Ledger Episcopal Leaders in Separation Talks
Bishop John Howe has issued a pastoral letter to be read today in churches. You can read the full text of it here on No Claim to Sainthood: The Bishop speaks.
The following paragraph (emphasis added) is of particular interest beyond Florida:
I have said repeatedly that it is my desire to remain both an Episcopalian and an Anglican. In that regard, let me share something with you that the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to me just this past week: “Any Diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such…. I should feel a great deal happier, I must say, if those who are most eloquent for a traditionalist view in the United States showed a fuller understanding of the need to regard the Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the “National Church.”
Addendum On some other blogs, the direct quote from the archbishop has been extended to the end of the paragraph, but this is clearly not so in the source from which I have quoted.
Amendment Bishop Howe has now released the full text of his letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury and it can be read in full here. This text shows that the quotation should indeed go to the end of the paragraph, and not as previously indicated above stop at the word “such”. However, there was a very substantial section between the two sentences which was omitted, as indicated in the correct version by an ellipsis. The source from which I originally quoted has now also been corrected (and the error there explained).
I do strongly recommend reading the full text of the archbishop’s letter, which I have reproduced below the fold.
73 CommentsIn the Sunday Telegraph Jonathan Wynne-Jones has a report that:
Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.
Read C of E child abuse was ignored for decades.
And also, Giles Fraser has an accompanying analysis: The truth must out.
4 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has an article today in the Observer, Britain’s abortion debate lacks a moral dimension.
There is a related news article, British women treat abortion as the easy option, claims angry Archbishop.
41 CommentsThe full text of the talk given by retired Swedish bishop Christina Odenberg, at a lunchtime meeting during the York General Synod sessions last July, can be found on the InclusiveChurch website.
And if you haven’t yet booked for Drenched in Grace in November, go here for details.
26 CommentsAlister McGrath writes an article in the Church of Ireland Gazette under the title: Focus on Anglican Identity – Anglicanism and Protestantism.
You can read it all here.
This appears to have been provoked by this article from the Church Times some months ago:
Ecumenical spring is already here by Gregory Cameron.
The Times has Peter Mullen writing that Wealth creation can atone for the sins of Mammon.
The Guardian has Paul Oestreicher writing about Franz Jägerstätter.
The Daily Telegraph has Christopher Howse reviewing books: In and out of Hitler’s Reich.
Giles Fraser in the Church Times wrote about a film: This move hands the atheists a PR coup.
7 CommentsUpdated Friday evening
Pat Ashworth reports in the Church Times that Harare Anglicans are urged to stand up to Kunonga.
George Conger reports in the Church of England Newspaper that Central Africa Issues Ultimatum to Kunonga.
And he also has Provincial Leaders Tell Harare Bishop to Resign in the Living Church.
Episcopal News Service reports CENTRAL AFRICA: Provincial dean declares two Zimbabwe dioceses of Harare and Manicaland vacant.
See also these reports on Episcopal Café Harare chancellor warns diocese and Kunonga must go, say provincial leaders.
19 CommentsUpdated again Thursday evening
Reform, “a 1,700-strong evangelical network”, which was in the news earlier with this report, held an annual conference in central London this week. See announcement, and the detailed agenda (PDF file).
Media coverage of this:
The Times Conservative clergy told to leave care of bishop if he’s a liberal and later, Call to ignore ‘liberal’ CofE bishops and another version headlined Evangelicals told to defy bishops
Daily Telegraph Anglican Parishes To Ordain Own Clergy (Telegraph website temporarily unavailable, see copy here)
BBC Church makes threat over gay row
Update
The Church of England Newspaper also has coverage, headlined Reform warns of further actions: copy of it here.
And Religious Intelligence now also has More irregular action ‘highly likely’- Reform by Ed Beavan.
Second Update
The motions passed by the conference can be found at Anglican Mainstream, Motions from Reform Conference.
Dr Joseph Cassidy of St Chad’s College, Durham gave a talk on the place of humility and grace within the Anglican Communion, to the Inclusive Church day conference held at St Matthew’s Westminster on 22 September.
The full text of his talk can be found here.
9 CommentsIn another live webcast, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has talked about the New Orleans meeting of the House of Bishops. She then answered many questions, both from a studio audience and submitted by email.
You can read her introductory remarks here.
You can watch the entire programme here.
An ENS report on the programme is here: ‘There will be no outcasts in this Church,’ Presiding Bishop tells live webcast audience.
Why can’t the Church of England have this kind of event?
31 CommentsThe Archbishops of Canterbury and York have published a press release and a consultation document.
The press release is here: Archbishops consult on Crown Appointments.
The consultation document to which it refers is published as a word processing file here.
An html copy of it is available here.
Here is the Introduction:
32 CommentsIntroduction
1. On 3 July the Government published a Green Paper, The Governance of Britain. It contained a wide range of proposals for constitutional renewal. Paragraphs 57 to 66 (copy attached at Annex A) signalled the Government’s wish for some change in the role that Ministers and civil servants play in relation to some Church appointments.
2. In particular, the Green Paper proposed that the Prime Minister should no longer use the royal prerogative to exercise choice in recommending appointments in senior ecclesiastical posts. In consequence, the Church would in future be asked to forward one name for the Prime Minister to convey to the Queen in relation to diocesan bishop appointments. The Government also committed itself to discussing with the Church how changes could be made in relation to cathedral, parish and other Crown appointments (excluding those to the Royal Peculiars) so that the Prime Minister no longer played an active role in the selection of individual candidates.
3. The scheduled General Synod debate on 9 July on the Pilling Report, Talent and Calling, provided the opportunity for the Church to give an initial response to the Government’s proposals. Attached at Annex B is a copy of the motion that the Synod passed by 297 votes to 1.
4. The Synod noted that there would now need to be a process of discussion both within the Church and between the Church and the Government in order to develop new arrangements that would command a wide measure of support. It invited us to report back to the Synod in February.
5. The purpose of this document is to set out some thoughts on a possible way forward and to invite comments from around the Church. The time-scale is necessarily challenging. Those wishing to respond to this consultation document are asked to do so not later than Friday, 7 December, preferably by emailing or by sending written comments to Dr Colin Podmore at Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ (crown.appointments@c-of-e.org.uk).
ABC Radio in its Sunday Profile programme has Monica Attard interviewing the Archbishop of Sydney.
There is a full transcript here. A lot of it is about why he is against women in the episcopate.
22 CommentsRod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News spoke to Josiah Idowu-Fearon Bishop of Kaduna, Nigeria, and until recently the archbishop for that region.
Read the whole interview here: Josiah Idowu-Fearon: At the heart of two flashpoints.
5 CommentsAlan Wilson, who is Bishop of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford, has written on his blog:
What kind of party spirit am I on? Someone asked me if I’m going to the Lambeth conference.
Read it all…
58 CommentsA Canadian diocese has voted in its diocesan synod in favour of authorising same-sex blessings. As the Anglican Journal explains:
The synod of the diocese of Ottawa, by an overwhelming vote of 177 to 97, today approved a motion requesting its bishop to allow clergy “whose conscience permits, to bless duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-sex couples, where at least one party is baptized” and to authorize rites for such blessings.
But despite what he called a “strong majority” (65 per cent in favour) and “a clear directive,” the diocesan bishop, John Chapman, cautioned that the approved motion was only “a recommendation and is not binding on the diocese or bishop.”
Read the Anglican Journal report in full here.
Earlier, this story was published: Embrace differences, regardless of outcome of vote, says Ottawa bishop.
The Ottawa Citizen reports Anglicans back same-sex blessings and includes the wording of the motion:
‘Be it resolved that this Synod requests that the Bishop grant permission for clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-sex couples, where one party is baptized; and that he authorizes an appropriate rite and guidelines for its use in supportive parishes.
The Toronto Star reports this as Synod backs gay rights.
26 CommentsThe Times Credo column last week had Jonathan Sacks on Religion and science are twin beacons of humanity.
This week it has Peter Selby on It’s time to stop giving credit to our culture of debt.
Guardian Face to Faith column: Fasting is not just about giving up food, but trying to be a better person for it, writes Hamza Yusuf.
Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse has The flowering of Exeter’s carvings.
Church Times Giles Fraser wrote about When the real question is: ‘Are you saved?’
12 CommentsSee below for CAPA speaks.
The Church Times has two reports:
AIDS heads African agenda
Council resists sexuality debate
16 Comments… How sad, though, that the fractures of the Communion’s struggles over sexuality kept appearing, in an attempt to persuade the meeting to adopt an entrenched line in response to the US Bishops’ statement from New Orleans (News, 28 September). How sad that whenever we looked at a document, we found it had been drafted by a Western pen. How sad that paragraphs appeared in the draft communiqué that spoke of matters that had not even been debated. And how encouraging it was that the meeting roundly threw them out, and left the issue of sexuality to the Primates.
How rich an experience it was to share the diversity of fellowship across the continent and beyond. How humbling to see the concerted attempts by many delegates to build a sense of community across the traditional lines of high or low church, pro- or anti-Lambeth 2008 — delegates younger and older, female (well, a few), and male.Here was a mature Church, in creative dialogue with itself, on matters of importance.
While there was a concerted attempt to get both the Council and the CAPA Primates to take a firm stand with the “Global South” and against Lambeth, this was clearly not the mood of the meeting. Their concern was an African agenda. Yes, the majority take a conservative view on the sexuality debate, but there was much talk over coffee and tea about the pressure being exerted by the US conservatives (who were very visibly present at the meeting) to “keep CAPA on board”.Many resented this, even those who would sympathise with the position…
…Yet the mood of the meeting was expressed most strongly when the final communiqué, hich, it appeared, had been drafted largely by the Rt Revd Martyn Minns, was discussed. Its many references to the sexuality debate, which had simply not been discussed, were voted off…
Updated
See here.
The Church of England Evangelical Council has published a Statement on The Episcopal Church’s Response to the Primates and the Lambeth Conference.
You can read that here.
To understand who the members of the CEEC are, read this page. To understand how members get to become members, see over here.
The Daily Telegraph has reported this in C of E faces boycott over gay priests row by Jonathan Petre.
19 Comments