Updated again Tuesday evening
Archbishop Peter Akinola has published A Wake Up Call to the People of God. It includes this:
…All through our gathering at the recently concluded Primates’ meeting I kept wondering whether we were the ones to whom John was writing. We have a glorious reputation – a worldwide communion of millions with a glorious history and beautiful heritage, fluid structures, grand cathedrals, “infallible” canons, historical ecclesiology and ‘flexible’ hermeneutics – but we are in danger of forgetting what we have received and heard and replacing it with the seemingly attractive gods and goddesses of our age. We are in danger of becoming the ‘living dead’ by giving the outward appearance of life but in reality we are no more than empty and ineffective vessels. In parts of our Communion some have merged the historical gospel message of Jesus the Christ with seductive ancient heresies and revisionist agendas, which have resulted in an adulterated and dangerous distortion of the gospel. The call to obedience and repentance is one that we must declare but we refuse and instead we replace it with a polite invitation to empty tolerance and endless conversation. Sometimes we think that we can replace the need for repentance with activities, programmes, endless meetings, conventions and communiqués —- we are wrong!
Bonnie Anderson President of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, has released a statement on the communiqué from the recently-completed Primates Meeting and on the report of the Windsor Continuation Group, available here.
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada has published a letter to Canadians, see A Reflection by our Primate.
…My observation is that in those dioceses where resolutions have been passed requesting the authorizing of rites for blessing same-sex unions the Bishops have shown gracious restraint. They have called for continuing discernment in some cases through the drafting and testing of such rites in a limited manner and have advised the House accordingly. I am of the opinion that while our church struggles to honour the call for gracious restraint in blessing same-sex unions, those who are the proponents of cross-border interventions have and continue to show no restraint. I have endeavored to address this situation since the Lambeth Conference and I regret to say that to date a conversation with the pertinent parties has not been possible. I am disappointed and dismayed. My feelings are grounded in my care and concern for the Bishops and dioceses most adversely affected by these cross-border interventions…
However, I am encouraged by the call in the Windsor Continuation Report for the Archbishop of Canterbury to initiate professional mediated conversations in conflicted situations. In supporting this call, the Primates were unanimous. I personally assured the Archbishop of Canterbury of my commitment on behalf of our Church to this initiative and expressed my hope that all other parties would also come to the table in a spirit of “honest exchange and mutual challenge” for the sake of the unity of the Church.
Tuesday updates
Steve Waring at the Living Church has published Analysis: Primates Offer Support, Warnings to Both Sides.
Bishop Jack Iker Fort Worth Reflections on the Alexandria Communiqué (PDF)
The call to obedience and repentance is one that ¨…we must declare but we refuse and instead we replace it with a polite invitation to empty tolerance and endless conversation. ¨ Peter Akinola I really think it is time for Bishop Akinola to drop the ¨we¨ attempt at a guilt trip and get ¨rightsized¨…his tolerance for others has been running on empty for a very long time and the ¨endless conversations¨ he has been having were not at Lambeth but at Gafcon…¨impolite¨ is a word that comes to mind when I think of +Akinola and his remarks about LGBT Christians… Read more »
“However, I am encouraged by the call in the Windsor Continuation Report for the Archbishop of Canterbury to initiate professional mediated conversations in conflicted situations. In supporting this call, The Primates were unanimous. I personally assured the Archbishop of Canterbury of my commitment on behalf of the Church to this initiative and expressed my hope that all other parties would also come to the table in a spirit of “honest exchange and mutual challenge” for the sake of the unity of the Church. – Archbishop Peter Akinola – There may yet have been a miracle wrought at the Primates’ Conference.… Read more »
Dear ++ Peter, Why is it that it is always other people’s “activities, programmes, endless meetings, conventions and communiqués” that are wrong and other people who need to repent?
The lyrical opening of the piece accredited to Archbishop Akinola took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting him to be the author of such prose; although the style does change as the piece progresses.
Father Ron Smith you attribute words to Peter Akinola that come in fact from Fred Hiltz. Now we know other people write Akinola’s material but there is a consistency about it that cannot be confused with that from Fred Hiltz!
‘“infallible” canons’
What are these? What does he think he’s talking about?
No – don’t answer. I don’t really want to know.
Of course, the “words of Peter Akinola” in all likelihood come in large part from someone else. Who is the ghost in the machine this time? The text appears to be heavily edited by other hand[s].
Of course, it does reflect Akinola’s view; but why the need to mask his authentic voice with such smooth rhetoric?
“Father Ron Smith you attribute words to Peter Akinola that come in fact from Fred Hiltz.”
– Pluralist –
Oh, what a chump I am! Mea Maxima Culpa!
I cannot even claim ‘a Freudian slip’ Forgive me!
“The Communion is going to have to respond to the reality that there are going to be two jurisdictions in the USA and Canada, one that complies with the rest of the Communion and the other that does not.” – Bp Iker, Virtue on line – This really does seem like an ultimatum from the former Bishop of Fort Worth – in response to the Primates’ Communique from Alexandria. With this attitude firmly entrenched in the minds of the ACNA folks – at least, those who choose to comment on the V.O.L web-site – it seems that no reconciliation will… Read more »