We reported on the proposed agreement between the Church of Scotland and the Church of England set out in the Columba Declaration here and on the response of the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church here.
This week’s Church Times carries an article by Tim Wyatt on the agreement and the controversy it has provoked: Scottish Episcopalians query Columba Declaration. To this is attached an article by the Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, who was the Church of England co-chair of the study group that produced the declaration. In it he sets out the background to the study group’s report and the declaration.
Dr Forster’s article is also available on the Church of England’s blog: Growth in communion, partnership in mission.
It has been widely noted in Scotland that Dr Forster’s article makes it clear that it was known by the Church of Scotland and the Church of England a couple of years ago that this was going to cause serious difficulties for the Scottish Episcopal Church and yet they went ahead anyway.
This seems to me to be an extraordinary moment in modern “ecumenism”.
There is a profound irony in this sorry state of affairs in that next week the Primates will meet with Justin Welby. Some of them are serial crossers of boundaries unilaterally setting up agreements and jurisdictions without consultation or agreement in provinces other than their own. Look at the trouble and heartache they have caused.
Isn’t Peter Forster a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a body which denies the reality of human induced global warming?
I’m sorry, Kelvin.
It hurts when one has to wonder whether a slight could have been intentional.
Then when one learns that yes, it is intentional, the pain becomes greater.
Thoughts and prayers with the Scottish Episcopal Church!
Perhaps someone can clarify. From what +Forster writes here, the SEC objected to discussions which included reformed and Lutheran bodies and withdrew. The parties then continued their discussions and asked that a member of the SEC attend for the purpose of full disclosure.