The Times Ruth Gledhill Bishop of Sherborne Graham Kings says new group could split Church
…Dr Graham Kings, consecrated last month as Bishop of Sherborne and founder of the moderate evangelical grouping Fulcrum, said the new fellowship represented a structure that would allow its founders to “split” from the Church of England.
Dr Kings said: “I do not see a problem with a voluntary agency.”
But he said there was evidence that the fellowship would have no more than formal links with the Church of England, and he feared that these could easily be broken.
“I think there should be deep, invigorating moral links between the new fellowship and the Church of England,” Dr Kings said.
“There should not be a split, but one of their frontline clergymen has already split from the Church of England. Another one is seeking alternative episcopal oversight, which is not encouraging. It would be disastrous if the new fellowship moves from being a voluntary agency to becoming a Church within a Church, which is what happened in America.”
…The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is opposed to the ordination of gay clergy, blessings for gay marriage or civil partnership, and the consecration of women bishops.
The new fellowship will today publish letters from the Queen, supreme governor of the Church of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, acknowledging its launch.
Buckingham Palace said that it did not comment on private correspondence. However, sources told The Times that the letters from the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury were standard acknowledgements and should not be interpreted as endorsements of the fellowship…
Guardian Riazat Butt Dissident Anglicans launch protest movement against CofE liberalism
…One of the English churchmen supporting the FCA is Michael Nazir-Ali, bishop of Rochester, who continues to draw criticism for his views on homosexuality.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, and then today from the pulpit of the Church of St Peter in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, he said homosexuality was a threat to the Christian way of life and that it had divided the Anglican communion.
In his sermon he said: “When we ignore what the Bible tells us we do so at our peril, as we continually discover.
“If we continue in God’s way then we will flourish as persons. Marriage will be strong, family will be strong and society will be strong. It’s not rocket science.”
The other danger to Christians and the Church of England was “syncretism” ‑ the attempted reconciliation of opposing principles or beliefs, he said. “It happens daily when we capitulate to the forces around us,” he warned. “The values of culture are not necessarily values of the Christian faith…”
Telegraph Martin Beckford and Jonathan Wynne-Jones Queen sends ‘supportive’ letters to leaders of church movement that has angered gay campaigners
…Leading figures in the FCA wrote to the Queen to assure her of their loyalty to the Church of England following last year’s upheavals, and a reply sent on her behalf said she understood their concerns about the future of the Communion.
The clerics wrote again recently, telling the monarch about their plans for tomorrow’s gathering, which will be attended by the bishops of Exeter and Chichester and Rochester as well as conservative archbishops from around the world.
Courtiers wrote back saying that the Queen hoped the event would be successful and memorable.
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on private correspondence. Royal sources said the Queen was not endorsing the FCA and pointed out that she corresponds with a great number of organisations.
Ruth Gledhill writes of anglocatholics and evangelicals: ‘their opposition to women is so strong that…’. ‘Opposition to women’ means the idea that women should not exist. Evangelicals are divided into those who oppose women leadership and the open and charismatic groupings who are often in favour of it. Neither group, of course, is ‘opposed to women’. A lot of the New Testament groundwork showing how women probably held various kinds of leadership roles in the earliest church has been done by scholars esteemed by evangelicals, such as Richard Bauckham and Ben Witherington. Tom Wright is not opposed to using a… Read more »
“Royal sources said the Queen was not endorsing the FCA and pointed out that she corresponds with a great number of organisations.”
Would the Queen correspond with, say, a neo-Nazi organization? With a British equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan? Why then does Buckingham Palace believe it is appropriate for her to correspond with an organization that believes in second-class citizenship for her gay subjects?
As inclined as I am to yawn at British protocol, your questions are spot on, Pat O.
These “Thank yous” to telegrams sent from various organisations in session are routine in all Monarchies in Europe.
I remember one sent and got by the Internatioal Lesbian and Gay Association meeting in Oslo in 1988…