The Australian reports this: Anglican conference ‘is wrong time, wrong place’:
WHEN the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, meets his ecumenical colleague the Bishop of Jerusalem this week for an informal afternoon tea, even lashings of cream and jam for the scones won’t be able to cover the chill in the air…
…Bishop Dawani, visiting Australia this month to speak to local congregations, was not consulted about GAFCON and believes the meeting will have a negative impact on efforts to create peace in his diocese, which covers Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan…
Archbishop Jensen spoke to his diocesan standing committee about not attending Lambeth, and the full text of his remarks is in a PDF file here. The standing committee issued this press release endorsing his decision.
“Anglican conference ‘is wrong time, wrong place’”
…though Rowan’s face is lovely, it’s the wrong face.
😉
[Apologies to Cole Porter! (whose “manner of life would present a challenge to the wider communion” :-/)]
I don’t see how the first two relate to the third. If it has bee irreversibly affected, why be thoroughly committed to it and why stay in it? Perhaps, because, effectively they will be outside of it, extracting from it.
“First,we remain thoroughly committed to the Anglican Communion, its good health and its future.
Second, our non-attendance at Lambeth does not remove us from the Anglican Communion, or damage our continued participation and standing
Third, the Anglican Communion has been irreversibly changed by these developments and this Lambeth Conference is not able to turn the clock back.”
If Christian bishops cannot sit down with each other to discuss contentious issues and meet at the Lord’s table, I cannot see that they really WANT to remain in the Anglican Communion. I think they want to found a new ‘confroming Church.’ So why not let them, and allow the rest of us to get on with spending money and energy on the torments that challenge the whole human race. Lambeth will be a farce. Should we rally support for such an huge project at a time when our brothers and sisters in the world are locked into issues that… Read more »
Three points from Jensen’s paper that deserve further exploration – Conscientous decisions made on 2 Timothy 1:13-14 – Their concern for “an authority which was put aside by novel teaching”. – They want to provide pastoral care for those who have been hurt. Continuing to read the remainder of 2 Timothy demonstrates that Paul was a Jew who was well grounded in the concept of Moshiach ben David and the Cherubim of the glory, or the two angels of the tabernacle of the ark. Most succinctly expressed in 2:8-10 “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This… Read more »
I agree with Una Kroll up to the notion of canceling Lambeth — I think it should go ahead with everybody invited & let the chips fall where they may (the first Lambeth attendance was just over 50% of those invited)
The Primate of Brazil (who has been ejected from Global South meetings by the other primates) has issued a very interesting statement:
http://www.ieab.org.br/ieab/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=76&Itemid=27&lang=en
Steven Bates has offered a summary of the current WWAC crisis (proposing a divorce):
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/anglican_communion/a_fractured_faith_is_schism_in.html#more
Caliban http://ducknoodlegang.blogspot.com/ draws our attention to a petition in Sydney Diocese asking Jensen to think again about Lambeth. Well worth reading.
The letter itself is at: http://brianaralph.blogspot.com/2008/02/letter-to-archbishop-jensen.html