Updated again Tuesday
Monday
Richard Ostling of the Associated Press has written this report on the first item below: African Branch Criticizes Anglican Plan.
Tuesday
Both the Telegraph and the BBC have now caught up with Monday’s story. So has Reuters.
Tuesday’s Nigerian story is here.
First the Nigerian House of Bishops has issued this response to Rowan Williams: Re: THE CHALLENGE AND HOPE OF BEING ANGLICAN TODAY. It deserves to be read in full.
Second this newspaper headline has appeared in The Tide : Anglican communion to restore Nigeria’s glory. This of course refers not to the “Anglican Communion” but rather to the “Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)” which is the name by which the Anglican Church of Nigeria is known locally. For background on the conference being held, see here and also the full text of the press briefing. For other news reports, see here, and also here.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious, if it was not obvious to begin with, that RW’s plan is no panacea for the ills besetting the communion. However, I am actually somewhat heartened by the fact that it fails to please either side completely. This is the sure sign of an actual compromise position. What remains to be seen is whether anyone is any longer willing to accept a compromise. Do the positives outweigh the negatives for the putative “associate” groups? There is certainly lots of grumbling from some here at TA. Do they likewise outweigh the negatives for the projected “constituent” groups?… Read more »
>>>A cancerous lump in the body should be excised if it has defied every known cure.
Ah, Christian love, Nigerian style.
Sorry, but I don’t want any part of the new Akinolan Communion. If that means a split, then it can’t happen soon enough.
The Episcopal Church (and Canada, and perhaps Scotland and part of England) is a “cancerous lump in the body” to be excised? I guess the harshness of tone is to be expected from a Province whose Primate has supported such vicious anti-gay legislation.
If there’s one thing I hate it’s the wanton throwing-around of Scripture. The three passages mentioned there have *no* direct applicability. For example, the road to Emmaus: are we supposed to say `”abide with us”? Yes, that’s a good idea, that means we should hold firm to the traditional conservative doctrines”, or are we supposed to notice that Jesus *didn’t* abide with them but moved swiftly on, in which case is the application “we should move swiftly apart”? This abiguous meaninglessness does not serve a Bible-revering attitude well. And: “as redeemed, reconciled and transformed people of God who have a… Read more »
The Tide article fits my speculation that Bishop Akinola’s interest in annexing the Truro and Falls churches from the Diocese of Northern Virginia is as much an attempt to gain influence in Republican Washington as it is to join with like-minded Anglicans. Homosexuality is a real issue for the AU, but it is also being used as a stalking horse by the “traditionalists.” The attacks on Bishop Jefferts Schori as a woman and a supporter of full inclusion for GLBT persons in the church mask a fear greater than sexism and homophobia: fear of losing money. As a former oceanographer… Read more »
An extremely interesting analysis, Susan.
Lord have mercy!
The Nigerian House of Bishops describe the Archbishop of Canterbury as “a leader who wants to preserve the unity of the Church by accommodating every shred of opinion no matter how unbiblical, all because we want to make everyone feel at home”. This is the language of contempt. And the suggestion that The Episcopal Church should be “reprimanded” for non compliance with Windsor is clearly a diversionary tactic from a Province which has just thumbed its nose at paragraphs 154 and 155: “154. The Anglican Communion upholds the ancient norm of the Church that all the Christians in one place… Read more »
Well, this statement is in keeping, isn’t it, with statements from Archbishop Akinola and the Anglican Church (Nigeria) in the past. I find it disheartening, but nothing new. I’m more interested in the many, various responses that are moderate and reflective, advocating patience while a process for reflection is developed. Certainly, Archbishop Williams suggested that a covenant would be useful, if not necessary, and that the covenant may include provision for choices for involvement. However, no actual process for developing a covenant has been proposed. No real discussion, much less negotiation, has happened. No process for reception of any such… Read more »
“The Tide article fits my speculation that Bishop Akinola’s interest in annexing the Truro and Falls churches from the Diocese of Northern Virginia is as much an attempt to gain influence in Republican Washington as it is to join with like-minded Anglicans.” Slight correction [unless the writer is writing tongue in cheek]: the state of Virginia is divided among three TEC dioceses: The Diocese of Virginia, which runs from the northern Va suburbs of DC south to the James River in Richmond and west to the Shenandoah Valley; The Diocese of Southern Virgnia, which runs south of the James and… Read more »
Wrote Ms. Gilliatt: “And it is true that some of the most conservative advisors to the present regime attend some of these churches – I’ve lost count of who goes where. I think Rove may be one of them.” The present regime whose distinguishing mark is the breach of international conventions and torture/outsourcing of torture of enemy combatants. Are they being taught the Gospel at the Truro and/or Falls Church? Perhaps the Gospel a la ++Abuja, describing progressive churches like TEC, the Anglican Church in Canada, and many C of E dioceses as a “cancerous lump that needs to be… Read more »
“This is the sure sign of an actual compromise position.”
Turning the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral Anglican Communion of churches into a confessional church is not compromise; it’s innovation.
Not to say sect.
“”as redeemed, reconciled and transformed people of God who have a witness to a lost and broken world[?]””
… Where’s the divine forgiveness in that?”
More to the point: Where is redemption, reconciliation and transformation in reproducing the Ways of the World?
““Change and decay in all around I see; Oh Thou who changest not, abide with meâ€?”
This is the Credo of Neo Platonism, the intellectual inheritance from ancient Alexandria which dominated 2nd Millennium European Academia: only that which does not change is real…
But if one reads the Good Book without neo-platonist colouring, which the Holocaust made the Church do again, change is God’s way of interacting with and through his Creation.
Re Karl Rove’s church affiliation: yes, he is Episcopalian, no he does not attend Falls Church, but a church in NorthWest Washington, D.C. I know this because i work for an organization based in that church’s parish office. And the church in question is actually middle-of-the-road, not in the least rabidly conservative. Nor is the NW church at which Don Rumsfeld attends and whose Rector is serving in Iraq.
I’ve got to disagree with badman.. Everyone from the ABofC to the Primates (and even the ACC), now agree that ECUSA is the breaker of Communion. And ECUSA has failed to take the [rather minimalistic] “Windsor” medicine properly. If ECUSA had complied they would be right to ask for their churches back. Even then I personally would have wanted some sort of process, to see whether ECUSA really meant what they said. But ECUSA GC clearly showed that didn’t want to comply, and hasn’t. Effectively they are now no longer a Province *in* the Communion – though the formal paperwork… Read more »
Dave, why should ECUSA apologise or be punished for acting according to their own procedures? It may be that they elect their bishops differently from the way its done (e.g) in England, but one seldom hears rumblings about the processes of putting bishops in cathedrals there. Is there to be an ultimatum to England to ‘take the medicine’ because certain persons don’t like the method of appointing, as distinct from genuinely electing, bishops? The fact is that the conservatives got all the result they were likely to get out of ECUSA at the Convention last month. ECUSA is acting out… Read more »
The traditionalists are in a bad way if they have to embrace the likes of Akinola as their effective leader.
I think in the end both sides will embrace Canterbury, and learn to live with their mutual unease.
Sorry SoV, I think that’s wishful thinking. There is no mutual unease. There is a sustained, highly organised campaign to turn the Anglican Communion into an ultra-Protestant confessing church; and some fairly disorganised, fairly desperate and ultimately fruitless attempts to resist this. At the end of the day, we are being asked to sacrifice Anglicanism for the sake of the Anglican Communion. I think that’s a price not worth paying. I don’t need a new covenant to make me an Anglican. I am one. I am one by virtue of the promises made at my baptism; by virtue of the… Read more »
“Re Karl Rove’s church affiliation: yes, he is Episcopalian, no he does not attend Falls Church, but a church in NorthWest Washington, D.C. I know this because i work for an organization based in that church’s parish office. And the church in question is actually middle-of-the-road, not in the least rabidly conservative. Nor is the NW church at which Don Rumsfeld attends and whose Rector is serving in Iraq.”
Thanks for the clarification. I think I got the idea about Rove and The Falls Chruch from a profile of him [titled ‘Bush’s Brain’] in The New Yorker.
Goran and JBE: Why is it verbotten to “expand” the basics required for membership beyond the rudimentary tenets of the Lambeth Quad? You act as if the quad was put down in sacred writ somewhere rather than being a rather loose definition for a communion that initially needed very little structure to hold it together because it was already united by the extremely strong definition provided by the Anglican formularies (including the 39 Articles–which is not as detailed as the WCF, but is certainly confessional) and scripture. Changing times have shown that something more is required to keep the communion… Read more »
“the only thing to be regretted is the departure from the Faith handed down once to the saints that necessitates such measures.”
Didn’t Tertullian say something like that (grin)?
Dave, If I understand you right, ECUSA is guilty of breaking the communion by ignoring Windsor (+/- Lambeth ’98?). Could you indicate how the Nigerian Church has been obedient? Specifically, how is jailing someone for councilling a gay person “listening to homosexuals”? You seem to be unable to conceive that any of the blame goes to the “reasserters”. This confuses me, since, while I see fault on both sides, I confess to seeing the lion’s share of it in those who you seem to think blameless. I do not see that loudly claiming to be “faithful” to the gospel while… Read more »
In context, as the Bishop of Rochester has pointed out, there are now effectively two relgions in the church. This is a statement that is widely supported as evident, and not just one bishop’s idea. These comprise the historic gospel once delivered and a modern cultural religion or religious liberalism. To accept religious liberalism the church would have to abandon the historic faith once delivered, so such a religion could be seen as a cancer. To assume, as one comment does, that this is something to do with Christian love is probably true, if another gospel is no gospel at… Read more »
Steven wrote: “Why is it verbotten to “expand” the basics required for membership beyond the rudimentary tenets of the Lambeth Quad?” Just saw this, sorry. No it is not Verboten, what I said was that it was Innovation. However, it would be very difficult to achieve, because going from loose to strict is not the same thing as going from strict to loose (which comes with Time, automatically ;=) Moreover, it requires approval from all 38 Provinces. So far no Province has shown any interest in a “covenant” (fudge apart), on the contrary, they seem very interested in imposing their… Read more »