Update The Toronto Star had a third article: Gay rights, church’s `defining moment’
Retired Connecticut Bishop Arthur Walmsley can only watch from the sidelines as his beloved Anglican church rips itself apart over gay rights – and he couldn’t be more proud, however much the process saddens him…
and
…Retired Toronto archbishop Terry Finlay echoed Walmsley’s comments and called on the Canadian church to endorse same-sex blessings despite dire warnings about the consequences…
——
On the eve of Archbishop Rowan Williams’ visit to Canada, the Toronto Star had two articles:
Anglican heat on eve of prelate’s visit
On the eve of a visit to this country by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Canada’s Anglican leader is trying to defuse fallout from a story in the British press in which he accuses the head of the church of being “indecisive” and failing to lead through a crisis over gay rights that threatens to split the church worldwide.
Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, primate of the Canadian church, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph this week that Rowan Williams’s handling of the homosexuality crisis had been “disappointing and lacking” at critical points…
OTTAWA–Choosing his words carefully, the longtime former leader of the Canadian Anglican Church opened a conference on gay rights in the church last night with a gentle, but deliberate, nudge toward acceptance and a rejection of rigid doctrine.
“Matters of doctrine become matters of control,” Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1986 to 2004, said, breaking three years of public silence…
The Hamilton Spectator has Archbishop will hear all issues
Technically, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican church, is coming to our diocese to lead bishops in prayer, not to discuss the fractious business of gay clergy and same-sex blessings.
“But I don’t think he’ll be praying through dinner,” says the Right Rev. Ralph Spence, bishop of the Diocese of Niagara and the official host for the whirlwind 48-hour visit next week by the Most Rev. Rowan Williams.
“You can’t get bishops together and not have them share their thoughts on everything,” Spence said in an interview this week…
The Edmonton Journal has Anglican primate visits Canadian church on brink of schism
“One of the most difficult jobs in Christendom.”
That’s how Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for the Times of London, describes the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a position of high expectations and heavy responsibility, but little or no power.
Archbishop Dr. Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 70 million Anglicans, comes to Canada Sunday for a three-day visit, his first since assuming the Chair of St. Augustine, as the office is more loftily known, in 2002…
Alberta has a reputation as the most, um, “ethically-challenged” (re civil rights) part of Canada, and the Edmonton Journal has done nothing to change that rep, w/ their coverage:
“”blessing” same-sex unions, contrary to Anglican orthodoxy”
“their pro-gay agenda”
Spare me. :-/
[In contrast, fine work by the Toronto Star]
God bless the Anglican Church of Canada!
And then he arrived in Canada to “address” the Bishops…odd, just days after a inspiring pro-inclusive LGBT meeting and shortly before the Anglican Church of Canada Synod meets on blessing LGBT partnerships…I wonder if +Wright or ++York were unavailable “lobbying” for exclusion/outcasting this time…someone has to do the dirty work when the others have failed so miserably. ABC, we’re still waiting at The Episcopal Church for your spiritual leadership/interest in our Anglican “mission” to include ALL Christians at every level of Church life…you know, loving one another as thyself…you’ve got a date with destiny even if you refuse to keep… Read more »
Initially it struck me as odd that the ABC should visit Canada, but decline the offer to cross over the Niagara Falls.
On reflection though, it seems the TEC HoB’s rebuttal of ABC’s Pastoral Council proposal is more wounding to the ABC than either province’s pro-gay agenda.
Doesn’t seem odd to me at all that he’s not coming to the U.S. How many times since the 2003 election that ignited this smoldering mess has the U.S. HOB declared that the Archbishop has no control over them? That no outside members of the communion have any rights within the area controlled by TEC? Did not the HOB’s response to Tanzania make it perfectly plain that nothing and no one was going to change the direction or attitude of TEC? Now they want him to come and listen to them because he hasn’t listened before. I doubt Williams is… Read more »
This coment from Peers is pertinent: “Generally speaking, the tradition in the church has been, I don’t like what is happening in my church, so I must leave. Not, I don’t like what is happening – you must leave.” What we are seeing is a layer wanting to bring in the authoritative top-down decreeing that is seen in some other institutions. The world is coming to understand that one solution does not fit all situations, and that we need to find solutions that will work at a local level (e.g. ways to produce energy and reduce energy loss). Global companies… Read more »
There are so many unanswered questions. One is: Why will the ABC not see the US bishops?
If it is that he is offended by the rejection of his Pastoral Council, why did he not say so? He is leaving the page blank for every kind of interpretation.
Cheryl, “So God might let them win one battle, but will then turn and smite them for rejoicing in the others’ suffering in the next battle.” Do you really believe that God actively intervenes in the outcomes of battles according to what he thinks of those waging them? What happened to free will, total freedom combined with total responsibility and human accountability before God? Otherwise we’re back at a view where a tyrant God directs life on earth according to his own will, ignoring this suffering, responding to that – totally unpredictable, totally unknowable and, in the final analysis, not… Read more »
While I have much admiration for TEC in the way it has handled the whole Dar es Salaam thing, there is a very different polity south of the border. Canadians are much more “British” in our understanding of things. Pierre Burton once said the main difference between Americans and Canadians is that Americans are in love with liberty, Canadians are in love with order. We are far less likely to lay claim to our own autonomy than we are to seek ways we can be seemly. Think British Empire. I keep saying, we didn’t mind paying our taxes 200 years… Read more »
nonanglican doesn’t get it. No one has denied that the Archbishop has the authority he has. What the Americans (and implicitly the Canadians, and anyone who actually understands Anglicanism) has denied is the accretions of authority being claimed by the Primates, both for themselves and for the Lambeth Conference. (But not, it must be noted, for the person of Cantuar, and certainly not for the Anglican consultative Council.) You see, nonanglican, the Archbishop has never had and never claimed authority over the American Church. The Anglican Communion is not a top-down heirarchy. Cantuar’s primacy is a primacy of honour, not… Read more »
Erika I think God can and does intervene in SOME battles. The bible tells us that is the case. Ridiculous victories when failure was the only sure thing, amazing faux pas when a sure thing crumbles into nothing. Also, when you read the Jewish prayer books (which I’ve been doing in the synagogues the last few weeks), their prayer books specifically call for not gloating over your enemies’ suffering lest Hachem turn and smite you too. Some of the recent postings on Thinking Anglicans are targetted not just at Anglicans, but are also gentle reminders to others (including Jews or… Read more »