The Advisory Committee of Communion Partners has issued A Response to the Pentecost Pastoral Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
(To discover who exactly the signatories are, scroll to the bottom.)
I failed to link earlier to the statement from the Chicago Consultation which doesn’t seem to have made it yet to the consultation’s own website. So I have copied it here below the fold.
Another statement comes from The Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission. That one is here: look for The Convent Station Statement on the changing ethos of the Anglican Communion Sunday, June 13, 2010
Andrew Goddard has written at Fulcrum: Reflections on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Pentecost Letter: A pathway for Anglican spiritual renewal?
CHICAGO CONSULTATION APPLAUDS PRESIDING BISHOP’S PENTECOST LETTER
CHICAGO, IL, June 4, 2010: The Chicago Consultation’s spokesperson and co-convener, the Rev. Lowell Grisham, released this statement today in response to the Presiding Bishop’s Pentecost letter:
“The Chicago Consultation applauds Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for her pastoral letter to the Episcopal Church in this season of Pentecost and thanks her for her leadership of our ‘broad and inclusive tent,’ said Grisham.
“In her letter, the Presiding Bishop has defended with grace and clarity our Church’s profound and evolving desire to accept gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Christians as full members of the Body of Christ. She has reminded Anglicans who seek to exert authority over other provinces within the Communion that true Anglicanism requires otherwise. And with gracious restraint she has explained why it is godly to honor the customs of indigenous Americans in our liturgy.
“Above all, the Presiding Bishop has soundly rejected the argument that the Anglican Communion can best be held together by breaking faith with its gay and lesbian members. In rejecting this false choice, the Presiding Bishop stands as a witness to all Episcopalians that we need not fear where God is leading us as we endeavor to do justice and seek true communion.”
The Chicago Consultation, a group of Episcopal and Anglican bishops, clergy and lay people, supports the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. To learn more about the Chicago Consultation, visit www.chicagoconsultation.org.
The Communion Partners letter is a masterpiece of toadying.
The sheer loquaciousness of Andrew Goddard’s Letter on Fulcrum has my head spinning. This man’s defence of the actions of the Global South contingency simply re-echoes the rambling of certain theologians of the ACI, who seem not to understand the piratical delinquency of their own side of the arguments (e.g. border-crossing) while yet decrying the Gospel initiatives of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada in their legitimate ordination (in their own Provinces)of women and gays into ministry. While Goddard is critical of the ABC’s part in all of this, he is trying to recruit the sympathy of the Church… Read more »
What a contrast with the Fulcrum article by Andrew Goddard. In a few short paragraphs, the Chicago Consultation members have given a clear, concise response to the action of TEC’s Presiding Bishop in her reply to the ABC’s Pentecost Letter. As time goes on, it becomes clearer how important is the prophetic determination of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada to the continuance of the founding principle of ‘Unity in diversity’ in our world-wide Anglican Communion. Whatever comes out of the present stand-off in the Communion, the parameters of the Gospel will continue to be expanded, by the openness… Read more »
There is absolutely no integrity on the part of the “Communion Partners” comprised of bishops and priests who signed this letter supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury’s very un-pastoral Pentecost Letter. None. It reflects a misogyny, homophobia and narrow-mindedness that is glaring. There is also no “spiritual renewal”. Stop the charade. This “Pastoral” letter was demeaning.
There is also absolutely no integrity on Fulcrum.
I corrected facts in a previous Andrew Goddard piece. Andrew Goddard accepted a factual inaccuracy.
The main inaccuracy has never been altered even though several months have past and the damaging disinformation continues to be on view.
Fulcrum also did not publish my comments calling them to account.
It is evident the Fulcrumites share far more with the deceiving ACI than one had hoped. In this knowledge, it is hard to take anything seriously one finds there – particularly offerings from Andrew Goddard.
Yes, yes, and yes to Martin Reynold’s post in this thread. He has nailed the situation honestly and correctly. Also, Forward in Faith may want to consider changing the title of their organization to Forward in Misinformation. Deceptions by groups such as this either by exaggeration or by reporting incorrect information seems to be geared for the purpose of confusion, which is disingenuous. These groups do not present their arguments with integrity. There are always deceptions and sometimes outright lies that are used to persuade those who are unfamiliar with their purpose and their nefarious game plan.
Alas, Andrew Goddard takes fine, expert, busy aim … but totally misses the marks. It is Fulcrum, what else did I expect? On the real human sides, Goddard simply cannot conceive of the witness now amply made … that VGR in New Hampshire, and MG in Los Angeles were weighed and called according to God’s purposes in those situations. That he or some bishop somewhere in Abuja knows better is foolish to an extreme… especially since nobody can be bothered with the real VGR or Mary G. Goddard continues to write, as does RW going before him, as if the… Read more »
Having just read through the Communion P letter, I in passing now think that belonging to the global Anglican Communion now has much, much more to do with passing through a typical old-style pseudo-military-tribal USA fratboy initiation paddling than anything else.
Whack, and Thank you Sir, can I have another? That all of this paddling is taken so seriously with such solemn analysis probably says more about the analysands and their paddlers, but …really?
The sooner we split from this police/punish/initiate sort of thing, the sooner we all grow up?