Archbishop Stanley Ntagali of Uganda has criticised the Pilling report in his Christmas Message:
…We believe the Bible is the authoritative Word of God and trustworthy to tell us the Truth. Unfortunately, some in the Anglican Communion members no longer believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God. That’s why I and other Archbishops from the Global South, Sydney, and the Anglican Church in North America organized the second Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in October in Nairobi. We were altogether 1358 delegates worldwide. These included 169 delegates from Uganda. We are so determined to refuse anything that contradicts the Biblical authority without fear or compromise. I appeal to all Ugandans to join us in this struggle to protect our God given rights.
We are very concerned that our mother Church of England is moving in a very dangerous direction. They are following the path the Americans in the Episcopal Church took that caused us to break communion with them ten years ago.
The Church of England is now recommending that same-sex relationships be blessed in the church. Even though they are our mother, I want you to know that we cannot and we will not go in that direction. We will resist them and, with our other GAFCON brothers and sisters, will stand with those in the Church of England who continue to uphold the Bible as the Word of God and promote Biblical faith and morality…
There is a series of articles on the Pilling report on the Oak Hill Blog which can be accessed from this page.
Forward in Faith North America has issued this Statement on the Pilling Report.
Unlike the English FiF, whose congregations are members of the Church of England, FiF North America is a rag-bag of congregations from a number of schismatics groups, to whom the Pilling report should be of no interest whatever. Virtually none of its members are affiliated with TEC.
It’s the season of Christmas. Emmanuel, God-with-us, Alleluia.
But all I can say in response to this, is KYRIE ELEISON. Lord Jesus, CONVERT all hate-filled hearts!
African Archbishops and Bishops like those of Nigeria and Uganda can continue to comment and make press statements about the internal affairs of the mother Church, the Church of England, denouncing and rebuking them for trying to fulfil the gospel by attempting to offer some welcoming space to lgbt people. The Pilling report in my understanding is not even recommending full marriage or civil partnership rights in the church? Yet the homophobic and divisive African bishops are crying a river and threaten to say we will not accept it as if they are been asked to. My worry and anger… Read more »
This cleric attacks the Church of England over the Pilling Report, as he sees it, from a matter of principle. He is doing what he thinks is right. However much I think he is wrong, he has the courage of HIS convictions. Are there any English bishops who have courageous convictions that would cause them to speak out as a matter of principle? The silence over the recent Ugandan anti-homosexual law and the support given to it by Anglican bishops is deafening. No doubt it will be whispered that there are actions being taken by the Archbishop of Canterbury behind… Read more »
I suspect that one of the reasons for the silence of Church of England bishops is a misplaced sense of colonial guilt which they feel precludes them from comment . What a shame that the C of E doesn’t have a bishop or archbishop of Ugandan origin who could look these African bishops directly in the eye and ….. oh, I forgot , we do have such an Archbishop. Cutting up your collar on TV in a ” spontaneous ” gesture is easy. Words are what are needed now, and silence could so easily be taken for tacit agreement, which… Read more »
It is indeed most unfortunate that CoE leadership had much to say about ++Gene Robinson, and nothing to say about egregious violations of human rights.
It puts CoE leadership tacitly in league with the human rights violators. And that is all wrapped up in the name of Christianity somehow.
What is happening in Uganda and Nigeria with “Jail the Gays” is appalling. If the church can’t respond to injustice, what can it respond to?
As Davis Mac-Iyalla and Cynthia note above, these comments are coming at the exact moment that the Church of Uganda (and Nigeria, for that matter) are supporting, in the name of Jesus Christ, tyrannical and repressive laws. Their “moral” condemnation of the Pilling Report, or of my Episcopal Church for that matter, carries not a gram of weight with me. Perhaps they are right to demand schism, and to claim that we do not follow the same Lord. I believe in the Jesus who warned us to judge not, that we be not judged. I am finding it very, very… Read more »
But, Lapinbizarre, Forward In Faith North America’s November 2013 newsletter (on their website) says: “…we, along with all of the jurisdictions represented by our membership, are rapidly becoming the only game in town, and in the world, to interact and promote the historic catholic faith.”
That puts the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, and the rest of us, firmly in our place, no?
That being so, badman – if it is so – serves to underline the irrelevance to them of the Pilling report.
“…We believe the Bible is the authoritative Word of God and trustworthy to tell us the Truth. Unfortunately, some in the Anglican Communion members no longer believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God.”
I wonder what translation of the Bible they are using? Really? Scholarship that goes to the original languages and culture have a very different perspective on the “infallible word.” They are taking poor translations and using them to influence laws that are human rights violations.
“The infallible Word of God’ is securely located, not in any book – holy as it might be – but rather in the Incarnate Son of God, the eternal Word-made-flesh, whose Naming we celebrate today.
I have met ++Stanley Ntagali and respect his ministry hugely but he is allowing his dioceses to be distracted by second order issues.