Updated Saturday morning
The Diocese of South Carolina today approved six resolutions that the diocese said represent “an essential element of how we protect the diocese from any attempt at unconstitutional intrusions into our corporate life in South Carolina.”
See the ENS report SOUTH CAROLINA: Convention approves ‘protective’ resolutions.
[The Presiding Bishop said:] “I grieve these actions, but I especially grieve Bishop Lawrence’s perception of my heartfelt concern for him and for the people of South Carolina as aggression. I don’t seek to change his faithfully held positions on human sexuality, nor do I seek to control the inner workings of the diocese. I do seek to repair damaged relationships and ensure that this church is broad enough to include many different sorts and conditions of people. South Carolina and its bishop continue in my prayers.”
The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the South Carolina diocese, told ENS that the convention’s action is “significant … in that it enables us to pursue the bishop’s vision of making biblical Anglicans for a global age while resisting the national leadership’s attempts to change our polity in violation of own constitution and the basic principles of justice and due process.”
See the diocesan news release about this: Diocese Votes Overwhelming in Favor of Resolutions; Lawrence remarks on Opportunities and Challenges
And the full text of Bishop Lawrence’s address is here.
For background on this, see the earlier article today, and also this previous report.
The diocese also announced the appointment of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali as an Assisting Bishop in the diocese. TA understands that this is not a full-time appointment, but rather that Bishop Michael will spend periods of time in residency in the diocese, where he has been a regular visitor in the past. He will be “Visiting Bishop for Global Anglican Relations”.
Here is the text from the diocesan website:
19 CommentsMichael Nazir-Ali—Visiting Bishop in South Carolina for Anglican Communion Development
In May of this year, the Reverend Dr. Kendall Harmon and I traveled to Nashotah House to meet with the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, retired Bishop of Rochester in England and one of the most respected figures in the Anglican Communion. We discussed the possibility of forming a relationship between him and the Diocese of South Carolina. Then in September the Reverend Jeffrey Miller and I met with Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali in Washington D.C. to clarify the details of such a relationship. It is my great pleasure to announce at this Reconvened Annual Convention that he has agreed to be Visiting Bishop in South Carolina for Anglican Communion Relationships. Thus along with periodic visits here in the diocese for teaching and relational support, he will represent this diocese on his travels around the world. This creative and vital relationship will give us further opportunities to strengthen existing and form new and abiding missional relationships with others in the emerging Anglicanism in the 21st Century. It gives legs to our vision.
Updated yet again Sunday morning
According to the Catholic Herald Bishop of Fulham to take up Ordinariate
The Anglican bishop of Fulham and the chairman of Forward in Faith International has announced he will resign before the end of the year to join an Ordinariate.
Speaking at Forward in Faith’s National Assembly today, Bishop John Broadhurst, who is a senior figure in the Anglo-Catholic movement, said he intended to tender his resignation before the end of the year and join the Ordinariate in Britain when it is established. He has said that he will remain the chairman of Forward in Faith, which he says is not an Anglican organisation.
Bishop Broadhurst is a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of London. He said the Bishop of London would likely appoint someone new to fill the post Bishop Broadhurst is vacating.
He is the first senior Anglo-Catholic to announce publicly that he will join an Ordinariate when it is founded.
Two “flying bishops”, or bishops who are appointed to provide pastoral care for Anglicans who cannot in good conscience accept women priests, are also likely to tender their resignations before the end of the year in order to join an Ordinariate…
The Tablet also has a report on this, see Anglican bishop announces move to ordinariate
Bishop of Fulham has become the first Anglo-Catholic bishop to formally announce he will join an ordinariate. As predicted in The Tablet (News from Birtain and Ireland, 2 October) Bishop John Broadhurst told the annual assembly of Forward in Faith, the largest Anglo-Catholic group in the Church of England, that he will resign as bishop and enter the new church structure, set up by Pope Benedict XVI last year to enable disaffected Anglo-Catholics to join the Roman Catholic Church en masse. The ordinariate is due to be established in Britain in January 2011, and this week The Tablet reported that the Anglican parish, St Peter’s Folkestone, had made the first formal request to join.
Various speeches, including that of Bishop Broadhurst, from the Forward in Faith Assembly can be listened to via this page.
Subsequent reports and comment:
Telegraph Damian Thompson Earthquake in Anglo-Catholicism: Bishop of Fulham to convert to Rome; Forward in Faith ‘not part of Church of England’
Sunday Telegraph Jonathan Wynne-Jones and David Harrison Church of England is fascist and vindictive, says bishop defecting to Rome
This report also covers the story of St Peter’s Folkestone:
St Peter’s Church in Folkestone, Kent, has decided to join the Ordinariate, a system designed by the Vatican to allow Anglicans to convert while maintaining parts of their heritage…
…That time has come for the church of St Peter’s in Folkestone, where the Parochial Church Council (PCC) voted unanimously to move to the Catholic Church because of its fierce opposition to the decision to create women bishops.
The move is backed by most of the congregation, which averages 35 to 40 for the main Sunday Mass. St Peter’s has become a magnet for traditionalist Anglicans – in Folkestone and beyond – who oppose the Church of England’s liberalism….
Bishop Nick Baines Ups and downs and downs and ups
The Bishop of Fulham has announced he is to resign and join the Ordinariate (i.e. become a Roman Catholic). His announcement speech used extraordinary language, claiming ‘persecution’ of ‘traditionalists’. Someone should do a linguistic textual analysis of this stuff – for a start it cheapens the word and concept of ‘persecution’. But, the notions of ‘they are forcing us out’ and ‘we have no responsibility- it is all being done to us’ has reminded me of the posts I wrote about ‘future foreshortening’ and the hierarchies of victimhood.
As I have often expressed here, I understand something of the dilemma facing those who oppose the ordination of women; but they need to take responsibility for their decisions about the future and not do the unhealthy thing of simply identifying themselves as a victim of other people’s decisions. I know from personal experience something of the cost of such demanding dilemmas (twice: once in secular employment and once in the church) – and how important it is to stop blaming other people (or ‘the evil institution’ as the Bishop of Fulham puts it). The language is the give-away in all this and it will repay careful examination one day. Meanwhile we continue to pray and try to support those facing these dilemmas – everyone loses in processes such as this one.
Damian Thompson (again) Bishop Broadhurst is not helping the Ordinariate with his ridiculous attack on the ‘fascist’ Church of England
BBC Anglicans’ regret over bishop’s conversion to Rome
46 CommentsA traditionalist Anglican group has voiced regret after an Anglo-Catholic bishop said he would convert to Rome…
The Catholic Group on the CofE’s General Synod said it deeply regretted the decision by Bishop Broadhurst…
First, the Bishop of South Carolina, Mark Lawrence wrote this article in the Living Church: A Conservationist among Lumberjacks
…There is much axe swinging these days in the Episcopal Church. I have grown sad from walking among the stumps of what was once a noble old-growth Episcopalian grove in the forest of Catholic Christianity. It may surprise some, but I write not to bemoan the theological or moral teaching that is in danger of falling to the logger’s axe. I have done that elsewhere. My concern here is that as the church’s polity is felled only a few bother to cry “timber.”
I have space to raise three concerns, and these briefly: the presiding bishop’s threat to our polity —litigious and constitutional; the revisions to the Title IV canons; and, finally, a passing word about inhibitions and depositions to solve our theological/spiritual crisis…
Second, the Bishop of San Diego, James Mathes wrote a response for Daily Episcopalian: Nullification revisited
12 Comments…Bishop Lawrence feigns great sorrow at the changing landscape of the Episcopal Church. He writes, “I have grown sad from walking among the stumps of what was once a noble old-growth Episcopalian grove in the forest of Catholic Christianity.” Donning the mantle of ecclesial conservationist, Bishop Lawrence even quotes environmentalist, Aldo Leopold, “a conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke [of the ax] he is writing his signature on the face of his land.” The bishop adds, “far too many leaders in our church have never learned this lesson.” Indeed.
All of this is prelude to his main premise that the presiding bishop is threatening the polity of the Episcopal Church. He wants you to believe that the threat is manifested in three ways: because her chancellor has retained a South Carolina attorney to represent the wider Episcopal Church’s interests should they diverge from the Diocese of South Carolina’s interests; through the Title IV revisions from the 2009 General Convention; and by the manner in which the House of Bishops has dealt with bishops who have left the Episcopal Church…
The Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council, Dr Kenneth Kearon, has issued the following statement, published today by ACNS:
The Secretary General writes: ‘Many of you will have read the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter to the Anglican Communion issued at Pentecost last (28 May 2010). Part of that letter addresses the current and ongoing tensions in the Anglican Communion – these tensions cluster around the three moratoria referred to in the Windsor Report.
‘In that letter the Archbishop made the following proposals:
“I am therefore proposing that, while these tensions remain unresolved, members of such provinces – provinces that have formally, through their Synod or House of Bishops, adopted policies that breach any of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion and recently reaffirmed by the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) – should not be participants in the ecumenical dialogues in which the Communion is formally engaged. I am further proposing that members of such provinces serving on IASCUFO should for the time being have the status only of consultants rather than full members”.
‘At that time I wrote to the Primate of the Southern Cone, whose interventions in other provinces are referred to in the Windsor Continuation Group Report asking him for clarification as to the current state of his interventions into other provinces. I have not received a response.
‘Consequently, I have written to the person from the Province of the Southern Cone who is a member of the Inter Anglican Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order (IASCUFO), Bishop Tito Zavala, withdrawing his membership and inviting him to serve as a Consultant to that body.
‘These decisions are not taken easily or lightly, but relate to the gracious restraint requested by successive meetings of the Instruments of Communion and the implications for Communion bodies when these requests are not honoured.’
The Revd Canon Dr. Kenneth Kearon.
Episcopal Café has a list of all the other members of IASCUFO, with notes on their status, see Southern Cone stonewalls Kearon over interventions (scroll down)
ENS also has a report, Ecumenical sanctions imposed on Southern Cone province, which also lists the other provinces that are still engaged in cross-border interventions, but have not yet been affected by this policy of sanctions:
15 CommentsNigeria and Uganda, which have members on IASCUFO
Kenya and Rwanda, which do not.
An announcement was made a few days ago of the names of those who are to serve on the group charged with drafting the new Code of Practice to accompany the legislation on Women in the Episcopate.
The Church Times reports today: Traditionalists unhappy with new working group
THE Catholic Group in the General Synod was described on Wednesday morning as “incandescent” about Tuesday’s announcement of the membership of the group that will prepare the draft code of practice to accompany the women-bishops Measure…
… Prebendary David Houlding, a leading member of the Catholic Group, said on Wednesday: “We are all so angry and dismayed. It’s clear from the compilation of this group that there is to be no honoured place in the Church of England for traditionalists — that we are not wanted. This group is set up to fail before it begins. It’s one [Bishop Martin Warner] against seven.
This is slightly odd, as the list also includes The Reverend Angus MacLeay, Vicar of St Nicholas Sevenoaks, who is certainly opposed to women bishops, though for rather different reasons.
There is a second report in the Church Times available at the same URL, but SCROLL DOWN for Flying bishops deny quick move to Rome, which updates the web-only story of last Friday:
…A report published in the parish magazine of All Saints’, Clifton, of a meeting of the Ebbsfleet Lay Congress, which took place in Somerset on 25 September, described Bishop Newton as saying that he “hopes to join the Ordinariate”, as “I no longer believe it is possible to be a Catholic in the Church of England.” He was reported as saying that he “expects . . . that the Ordinariate could start in January 2011”.
The report also said that Bishop Burnham favoured joining the Ordinariate, and was not optimistic about the new Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda for Catholic clergy and laity (News, 1 October).
Earlier this year, Bishop Burnham and Bishop Newton, with the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd John Broadhurst, travelled to Rome to meet members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (News, 7 May).
Bishops Burnham and Newton said in a statement to The Catholic Herald last week that the offer of the Ordinariate was not dependent on any action by the C of E’s General Synod. “The initiative should be judged on its own merit. It will require courage and vision on the part of those who accept the invitation, particularly among the first to respond.”
Meanwhile, Damian Thompson in the Telegraph continues to worry about SSWSH, see The mystery of SS Hinge & Bracket: is it something to do with married bishops?
53 CommentsAnd so the SS Hinge & Bracket sails on, stately as a galleon, captained by the “catholic” bishops of the Church of England, though it’s not clear who else is on board…
Last week’s Church Times press column contained an analysis by Andrew Brown of the interview by Ginny Dougary. See There are no rewards for honesty.
4 Comments…Yet there was one new and revealing thing that he said about the whole gay bishops business. “When I mention the statements that have been made about civil liberties and so forth, I think it’s important. It does mean that any local church that supports illegal discrimination or persecution of homosexuals is actually going against the Anglican Communion, and I have said that publicly.” One does wonder who is supposed to hear this, and who is supposed to believe it…
Updated
The Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda which sponsors AMiA recently elected a new primate.
ACNS Bishop Onesphore Rwaje elected Archbishop of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.
A news story in The New Times was headed Anglican Archbishop-Elect Vows to Fight Gay Marriage.
George Conger writes about it today in the Church of England Newspaper: Rwandan revamp of Anglican ecclesiology.
The paper by Kevin Donlon mentioned in the above can be found as a PDF over here. (Paul Bagshaw commented on it in 2008.)
Meanwhile, one of the largest AMIA congregations, Christ Church Plano is switching to ACNA, see Christ Church Making Canonical Transfer to ACNA.
Update see also Christ Church, Plano, TX Transfers to Anglican Church in North America, Joins Diocese of Pittsburgh
5 CommentsSupport for the Anglican Covenant (at least in its present form) is becoming increasingly hard to find.
The latest commentary from Ephraim Radner is titled Can the Instruments of Unity Be Repaired? includes this passage:
…Instead of the Primates’ Meeting, the leaders of the Global South – whether they are Primates or not — along with their mutually supportive colleagues, need to order their lives according to some other provisional gathering point: the Covenant sits there waiting. Its adoption in some form under the auspices of a definable group would allow other non-Global South Anglicans in the world in less coherent or even friendly settings to join in and have some visible linkages and mutual relations that formally sustain their continued witness and mission. Should the current text be revised? In an obvious sense, yes: Section 4 is no longer rational, given the role it gives to the ACC and through it a now clouded “Standing Committee”. But a gathering on the basis of Sections 1-3 is possible (altering little), with a view to revising Section 4 in a simple manner by replacing the Standing Committee with some provisional group representative of the Covenanting churches’ leadership, however that is determined. Those who have already adopted or confirmed the current Covenant text have shown their ability to deal expeditiously with any such simple revisions…
Bishop Christopher Epting of the Episcopal Church USA has written an article To “Covenant” or Not to “Covenant”.
I continue to be of two minds about the wisdom of the proposed Anglican Covenant. On the one hand it could be helpful, ecumenically, and otherwise, to have a fairly accessible summary of “the Anglican ethos” and what binds us together as members of this Communion. I don’t think there is a real threat here of us becoming a “confessional Church” in the ways Anglicans have not been in the past. The proposed Covenant falls far short (thankfully) of a Westminster or Augsburg Confession. The first three sections are not perfect, but I could certainly live with them as a short-hand way of stating who we have been and are historically.
On the other hand, I have a good deal of sympathy with those who remind us that Anglicans have been loathe to state that we hold or teach anything other than the creedal Faith of the “undivided” Church and that the Creeds, the Baptismal Covenant, and perhaps the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral should be all we need by way of “confessional” statements. But are they today?
Obviously, the most problemmatic portion of the proposed Anglican Covenant is Section Four which deals with processes and procedures should one Province or “instrument” of the Communion feel that another Province has failed to live into the implications of the Covenant and caused serious stress and strain for sisters and brothers elsewhere, stretching or even breaking the bond of Communion the Covenant is supposed to enhance…
Meanwhile, scepticism rules in English comments. See for example The Covenant: Antarctic Study Guide by Paul Bagshaw or Not a Coward by Adrian Worsfold.
And there is The Guide to the Anglican Covenant for Dummies at Lesley’s Blog, along with The Anglican Covenant – Monty Python Style?
Today’s Church Times has the headline If Jefferts Schori is at meeting, I won’t come, says Primate.
15 CommentsPRIMATES from the Global South are contemplating a boycott of the next Primates’ Meeting because the US Presiding Bishop, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, will be present.
The Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, the Most Revd Ian Ernest, has confirmed that he will not attend the meeting, due to take place in Dublin, 25-31 January…
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Christopher Thomas James Chessun, MA, Area Bishop of Woolwich, for election as Bishop of Southwark, in succession to the Right Reverend Thomas Frederick Butler, BSc, MSc, PhD, on his retirement on the 5th March 2010.
Notes for Editors
The Right Reverend Christopher Chessun (aged 54) studied for the ordained ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge. His first curacy was at St Michael and All Angels, Sandhurst in Oxford Diocese between 1983 and 1987, and he become a Senior Curate at St Mary, Portsea in Portsmouth Diocese from 1987 to 1989. He then became Minor Canon and Chaplain of St Paul’s Cathedral from 1989 to 1993 and between 1991 and 1993 he was also a Vocations Adviser in the Diocese of London. From 1993 to 2001 he was Rector of St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney and Area Dean of Tower Hamlets from 1997 to 2001. He became Archdeacon of Northolt in 2001. Since 2005 he has been Area Bishop of Woolwich. In May 2010 the Archbishops of Canterbury and York appointed him Bishop for Urban Life and Faith in addition to his other Episcopal responsibilities.
Christopher Chessun has an identical twin, and his interests include music, history, travel, deaf – hearing integration, reconstruction in Zimbabwe and links with Churches overseas.
From Southwark: Tenth Bishop of Southwark is announced includes more details
Bishop Nick Baines writes: Bishop of Southwark
30 CommentsNEWS from the Church of England
PR 87.10
05/10/2010
For immediate release
Women in the episcopate: working group for preparation of draft statutory code of practice
The membership has been announced today of a working group established by the House of Bishops’ Standing Committee to advise the House on the preparation of a draft statutory code of practice.
The members, three of whom served on the former Revision Committee on the legislation, are:
The working group has been asked to conclude its report for the House by next autumn having consulted the House and the legislative Steering Committee first.
The expectation is that the House will bring a draft of the code to Synod in February 2012, though the final version of the code cannot be drawn up by the House and approved by Synod until the legislation itself has received Royal Assent (which cannot in practice be before 2013).
ENDS
16 CommentsAccording to a report from Catholic News Service by Simon Caldwell English Catholic adoption agency appeals Charity Commission’s decision:
The last remaining Catholic adoption agency in England has filed an appeal against a decision by the Charity Commission for England and Wales forbidding it to turn away same-sex couples as potential adopters and foster parents.
Catholic Care lodged the appeal with the charity tribunal against a ruling by the commission rejecting its application to change its constitution so it could comply with church teaching prohibiting gay adoption and civil laws stopping it from discriminating against same-sex couples.
The agency, which serves the dioceses of Leeds, Middlesbrough and Hallam in northern England, had sought to continue its policy of assessing married heterosexuals and single people as potential adopters, which means it will not deal with gay couples.
But on July 21, the Charity Commission turned down its application on the grounds that it was discriminatory toward homosexuals and in breach of European and British equality and human rights laws.
Catholic Care lodged an appeal against the decision Sept. 28, arguing that commissioners ignored the opinion of a High Court judge, Sir Michael Briggs, who in March ruled in favor of the agency when it first appealed against the commission’s decision.
Benjamin James of London-based Bircham Dyson Bell Solicitors, representing Catholic Care, told Catholic News Service Oct. 4 that the “commission is wrong in its decision.”
He said, “We have lodged an appeal with the charity tribunal and the charity tribunal will request that the Charity Commission responds within 28 days.
“Once the commission has responded, there will be a directions hearing deciding how the case will be managed going forward,” he said.
“The actual appeal is whether the Charity Commission correctly interpreted Sir Michael’s (Briggs) judgment,” he added…
Previous TA reports on this subject are here and also here.
19 CommentsBenny’s Blog has The Sin of Honesty.
…So the Archbishop’s now famous phrase from last week’s interview in the Times that “He has no problem with gay bishops’ clearly needs another caveat placed alongside celibacy – the caveat that “He has no problem – as long as no-one knows!”
This is clearly a major issue for the CofE and the Anglican Communion. At a meeting of candidates for the current General Synod elections last week, 2 of the candidates openly noted that the Church of England has been ordaining gay priests and consecrating gay bishops for years, and that we need to stop living a lie!
Indeed, when I served on General Synod several years ago, I remember being part of a conversation in which a serving Bishop’s name was mentioned as being gay. The reaction was remarkable – there was shocked silence for a moment before one senior churchman (they were both men) for whom this was news, said “He’s not gay, is he?” while at the same moment another (who already knew of the Bishop’s sexuality) said, “He’s not gone public, has he?” Which was the greater crime, I wondered – being gay or being honest?
Lesley’s Blog has Balm in Gilead and the interview with Rowan Williams
…I have been musing about the pain Rowan Williams expressed in his recent interview with the Times. I had no idea that Jeffrey John and Rowan Williams were so close. I do hope that there is some Balm in Gilead to cover some of the pain that has been felt by so many people discussing the issue of homosexuality and the church. It will be my prayer…
Significant Truths has a little poem, see Nonsense.
Changing Attitude continues from its earlier posts with How to make a difference – but first, examples of dysfunction and abuse in the Church.
…How do we work towards changing this culture of secrecy and dishonesty? I maintain that it is corrosive of healthy church life, together with the behaviour of closeted LGBT people and the impact of lobby groups which are unhealthily obsessed with other people’s sexuality.
Take small steps
There are many small ways in which we can be doing something that changes the dynamic of our church life. Becoming aware, having courage to initiate conversations, remembering to question what doesn’t feel right, learning to listen to your inner voice.Perspective
Getting the current state of affairs into a better perspective, ++Rowan, ++John, House of Bishops, General Synod, would be a dramatically significant first step. The behaviour of many in the Communion (independent of their views about homosexuality) is a disgrace which is infecting and corrupting the Church.Build relationships
Create networks, relationships and friendships at every level of church life – and across difference – don’t allow others to marginalise us in their attempt to portray themselves as victims. It’s more difficult to be secretive, to organise conspiracies and to project onto others when you are in relationship with people rather than in denial of their presence and when you allow a holy light to shine on the encounters.Pray
Well, obviously, for a gay activist, prayer comes first, 7am every morning! Pray openly, reflectively, trustingly, quietly attentive, yearning and listening to the loving, gentle, tender, intimate presence of God in your heart and soul. Trust – trust God, trust God’s infinite variety and complexity and simplicity in creation. Tune in to your own experience of God and trust, and pray for imagination, vision and enlightenment.
And two American views:
An Inch at a Time The Promised Rowan Williams Rant
In a Godward direction Rowan’s Job Description
20 CommentsColin Coward has followed up on his earlier post and written more on this topic at Changing Attitude.
An extract:
…The culture of secrecy and dishonesty, the inability to be open and transparent and to communicate effectively affects Lambeth Palace, Church House, the Crown Nominations Commission, the Anglican Communion Office, General Synod, dioceses and parishes. It means that people either second-guess information or are left in ignorance. The culture is rampant and is corrupting the life of the Christian community. Every dimension of Church life is affected. People are intimidated by those who I might sometimes want to describe as prejudiced, loud mouthed bigots but whose self-image is as defenders of orthodoxy and tradition. They intimidate the ability of the Archbishop of Canterbury to speak and act freely and they intimidate me – but I have far less to lose…
And he concludes:
29 Comments…Until the culture of fear and secrecy in the Church of England changes, the bigotry is challenged and our Church becomes a place which is free from prejudice against LGBT people, the Episcopal Church will remain the only place where LGBT people can come out and be elected as bishops. I’m tempted to start a new campaign. The culture of secrecy, intimidation and abuse in the Church of England has got to be challenged, undermined and changed.
The ACO has announced 2011 Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting to be held in Ireland, and there is a similar press release from Dublin.
The next Primates’ Meeting of the Anglican Communion will be held in Ireland between the 25th and 31st January, 2011.
Senior bishops from Churches across the Communion will be invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams to attend the meeting taking place at the Emmaus Retreat & Conference Centre in Dublin, Ireland…
Writing in the Church of England Newspaper George Conger reports:
US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stated on Sept 21 that she had received notice of the meeting, and was planning on attending. The primates of the Global South coalition will meet next month and are expected to take up the issue of whether they will attend the gathering.
Other reports have appeared suggesting that several primates may not attend.
ACNA bishop David Anderson, who serves as a suffragan bishop within CANA as well as President and CEO of the American Anglican Council, has expressed his opinions what should happen:
32 CommentsDr. Williams is being advised that numerous provinces won’t attend the Primates Meeting if Jefferts Schori attends. Having booked the venue, he might as well have the meeting since he is committed to paying for it, but without the orthodox Primates in attendance it could be a dangerous meeting, giving opinion and credence to teachings and beliefs that are not representative of orthodox Anglicanism.
If asked my opinion, I would strongly advise the orthodox Primates to 1) organize before the Primates’ meeting, and 2) attend and remove by force of numbers the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (not physically, but by either voting her off the “island,” or recessing to another room and not letting her in). The meeting is a place to gather and potentially to settle some of the issues that are pulling the Anglican Communion apart, and to begin to restore health to a most wonderful communion.
In the above case, if Dr. Williams did not go along with Jefferts Schori’s exclusion, then I would suggest having the next-door-meeting without him. I just don’t believe staying home from the field of battle helps win a war over the truth and nature of Christianity within Anglicanism. The Christian Church needs a spiritually strong and muscular Anglicanism to re-evangelize the West; are we willing to make the sacrifices in order for this to happen?
Updated Monday evening
ENS reports: SOUTHERN AFRICA: Province favors Anglican Covenant; decision to be ratified in 2013
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa on Oct. 1 voted in favor of adopting the Anglican Covenant, a decision that will need to be ratified by the next meeting of provincial synod in 2013.
A resolution adopting the covenant was passed by an overwhelming majority of the bishops, clergy and laity meeting Sept. 29-Oct. 3 in Benoni, Gauteng for the triennial meeting of the church’s provincial synod…
Update ACNS carries the exact text of the resolution:
This Synod,
1. Noting that:
1.1. The Synod of Bishops, meeting in September 2009, agreed that Provincial Standing Committee be asked to support the Covenant and that a resolution be brought to that body to that effect;
1.2. PSC passed a resolution at its September meeting that, “This PSC agrees in principle to support the adoption by ACSA of the Anglican Covenant subject to ratification by the Provincial Synod of 2010.”
2. Resolves that ACSA adopt the Anglican Covenant as approved by the Bishops; and
3. Requests that it be ratified at the next sitting of Provincial Synod.
Earlier reports from Southern Africa:
Synod of Bishops Statement issued on 29 September 2010 (this is not to be confused with the provincial synod meeting which followed immediately)
ACNS Southern Africa bishops disturbed by Swaziland’s rights abuses
Episcopal Café The continuing damage of apartheid
and
South African primate wants to consecrate women bishops
The following article appeared on pages 26 and 28 in last week’s edition of The Tablet www.thetablet.co.uk
Anglican encounters
by Simon Sarmiento
Anglicans will be wondering what Benedict himself made of his two encounters with the Church of England on day two of his papal visit, first when he went to Lambeth Palace, where the Great Hall was filled with diocesan bishops of both churches, and later in Westminster Abbey, where the ecumenical service of Evening Prayer deployed the full resources of the “Anglican Patrimony”, with glorious music and clouds of incense.
At both places, he saw a self-confident Church of England, happy to extend Benedictine hospitality to him, and eager to join with ecumenical partners to proclaim the Gospel. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, later told Vatican Radio he thought it had all been “enormously happy” and “hugely positive”, but would all Anglicans agree? One Church of England bishop that I spoke to the next day had absolutely nothing good to say about the Pope and was not the only one absent from the Abbey service.
Certainly the visit got off to a bad start, for Anglicans in particular, with the revelation that Cardinal Walter Kasper, recently retired head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, whom they had regarded as their best friend in the Vatican, was not coming. In addition to his critique of Britain (or was it just Heathrow?) as a “Third World Country”, he had told the German magazine Focus that the “Anglican Church” had nothing to offer Roman Catholics in respect of either a married clergy or the ordination of women. Clearly neither of those things represents our “patrimony”. “He is not usually so gauche,” said another C of E bishop.
The Pope’s words, however, were far more nuanced and, to assess them, one needs to lay them alongside the equally measured remarks made by Rowan Williams at Lambeth and the abbey.
During the first formal encounter, at Lambeth, Dr Williams welcomed the Pope, saying that “we do not as Churches seek political power or control”. He noted that no obstacles stand in the way of the bishops from both Churches seeking more ways to “build up one another in holiness”. In fact, joint meetings of Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops are already a regular occurrence in most parts of England today.
By contrast, the Pope declined to speak at all about the specific difficulties of ecumenical dialogue, while emphasising the “remarkable progress” of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (Arcic) during the past 40 years. Instead he focused on the need for Christians to co-operate with other faiths “in promoting peace and harmony in a world … at risk of fragmentation”.
However, he did say, that “the Church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth”, which Anglicans will interpret as a negative reference, not only to the ordination of women, and the place of homosexuals in the life of the Church (issues which of course still divide Anglicans) but also to a married clergy and remarriage after divorce.
On the other hand, he referred to John Henry Newman as one “nurtured by his Anglican background” who can serve as a model for modern ecumenical dialogue. As Dr Williams noted in his Vatican Radio interview, Anglicans do not object to his beatification, though some will certainly feel miffed by the decision not to follow Anglican use and adopt 11 August as his feast day, rather than institute 9 October, the day of his conversion to Rome.
What was undoubtedly reassuring to Anglicans was the joint communiqué issued later that “reaffirmed the importance of continuing theological dialogue on the notion of the Church as communion, local and universal, and the implications of this concept for the discernment of ethical teaching”.
At Westminster Abbey, it was the Pope’s turn to speak first. He chose to recall St Bede the Venerable (always a popular choice for Anglicans) who, he said, “understood … the need for creative openness to new developments”, perhaps an unexpected turn of phrase from this Pope. Dr Williams, in turn, recalled Sts Augustine of Canterbury and Gregory the Great, but also noted that “Christians have very diverse views about the nature of the vocation that belongs to the See of Rome” He went on to quote John Paul II’s encyclical Ut Unum Sint, saying that “we must all reflect together” on how the Petrine ministry may speak to all Christians. A partial agreement here perhaps between these two, but many Anglicans hold dissenting views.
Only at the very end of the visit did the Pope mention Anglicanorum Coetibus, the apostolic constitution to enable Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church through a special structure, and then to his own bishops, not those of the Church of England. In his radio interview, Dr Williams said: “A relatively small number of people in the Church of England have wanted to explore this. I hadn’t ever expected it to be a huge number.”
So, overall, did the Pope surprise Anglicans? Most people I asked said that his remarks were softer in tone than they expected. Does this mean that any fundamental changes are likely? No, but it might mean that dire predictions being made earlier for the future of ecumenical relations were not accurate. A more interesting question might be whether the image of the Church of England among Roman Catholics has been affected by the obvious warmth of feeling that Pope Benedict has displayed on this visit. Yet a concern remains for Anglicans that Rome does not perceive a need for any fundamental rethink of its own position on the divisive issues.
26 CommentsUpdated again late Friday evening
Riazat Butt at the Guardian published Divine dispatches: bonus edition.
This refers to an article in the Catholic Herald by Anna Arco Britain could have an Ordinariate by new year.
Some more opinions on this topic:
Fr Hunwicke’s Liturgical Notes The Society of SS Wilfrid and Hilda
Sevenoaks, St John the Baptist Of Ordinariates and Societies
The Anglo-Catholic SSWSH …. shhh! and What Is the End Game? and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush…
The St Barnabas Blog We need answers…
Ancient Richborough Watch it! and Bishop Andrew hits the spot
According to The Tablet as reported here:
Two Anglican bishops opposed to women’s ordination have declared they will leave the Church of England to join the personal ordinariate to be established within the Catholic Church. Bishop Edwin Barnes, the retired Bishop of Richborough, told The Tablet he would join the ordinariate “because the Anglican Church is no longer the one holy and apostolic Church it says it is”. The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham, said Pope Benedict XVI had made the offer “and I’ve decided to respond to it”.
And Damian Thompson has blogged twice about it, see here, and then also here.
The Bishop of Ebbsfleet’s October Pastoral Letter, published on the web back on 21 September is available here.
The Church Times has a report by Ed Thornton Traditionalists hope for big-society model, courtesy of St Hilda
And, there is now a later report at the Church Times Flying bishops: We’re not going yet.
Two Church of England bishops have denied reports they will resign to take up the Ordinariate before the end the year…
A further report in The Tablet by Abigail Frymann is headed Will they please make up their minds?
28 CommentsLast Friday a few hundred traditionalist Anglicans gathered in a charismatic church in London, a curious collection of dour-looking fellows who describe themselves with words like “pioneer” and “risk” – and heard that a breakaway group within the Church of England for clergy who don’t like the thought of women bishops was to be established. Somehow this is different from Forward in Faith, which already exists, and different again from the Ordinariate offered them by Pope Benedict XVI last autumn, which would require a leap into the Catholic Church. At first this seemed like a warm-up room for would-be leap-ers. Yet as soon as the new group, the Society of St Wilfrid and St Hilda, was announced, some senior traditionalists were nay-saying on their blogs that it wouldn’t and couldn’t work…
Updated Wednesday evening
Two American views:
BabyBlueOnline has reproduced a significant extract from the recent interview in The Times , linked it to remarks made during the Lambeth Conference in 2008, and added further commentary. Read all this at Rowan Williams tells The London Times: “It’s a question about a particular choice of life.”
… in this interview from The Times he articulates that he is not a political activist, he is the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is resisting the politicization of his office on this matter, instead taking the position that it is a matter of theology, not purely a matter of rights. He does not fall for the tactic of aligning women’s ordination with the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals since he states quite clearly, “the question about gay people is not about their dignity or the respect they deserve as gay people, it’s a question about a particular choice of life, a partnership, and what the Church has to say about that.” He does not agree that homosexuality is like another gender or race (as in the case of suffrage and civil rights), but that we all have choices about our behavior and as far as the church is concerned at this point, those choices have consequences in the matters of ordination and marriage…
Walking with Integrity has Integrity Leader Challenges Archbishop: “Enough, Double Talk”
…Maybe the Archbishop doesn’t actually think that gay (and lesbian, bisexual and transgender) people deserve respect, or that God really loves them. Or maybe, against mountains of scientific evidence, he thinks that people choose their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The most common way of making sense of the Archbishop’s argument, at least among the people who pay attention to Integrity, reflects rather badly on him as a moral leader. Perhaps he really has nothing in particular against gay (or lesbian, bisexual or transgender) people, but he simply doesn’t think that their freedom to live in loving, intimate, and committed relationships is as important as keeping the Anglican Communion together. Keeping the party going with its current guest list is the important thing, even if it means that some people need to be blocked by bouncers at the door…
And now more views from Changing Attitude in Gay bishops still don’t exist in the public domain (except in the USA)
33 Comments“Gay bishops are all right by me, says Archbishop” was the front page headline in The Times on Saturday. More accurate but far less enticing might have been the line proposed in a comment on Thinking Anglicans – “Single, celibate, preferably virgin and never-once-promoted-gay-equality bishops are all right by me.”
…If there is no problem with a celibate gay person being a bishop, why are none of the 3 gay Primates in the Anglican Communion able to be open about their sexuality and why are none of the 10 to 13 gay bishops in the Church of England able to be publicly open? Some are married, some or single and celibate, some are not, all are closeted. The recently published survey estimated that 1.5% of the UK are gay or bisexual. Eight percent of Anglican Primates are gay and 10% of Church of England Bishops…
See earlier announcement of the formation of a religious society here.
WATCH Press Statement
The Paradox of the Proposed Missionary Society of St Wilfred and St Hilda
It seems curious if not paradoxical that in proposing to form a Society for those who will not accept women bishops, the bishops concerned should choose St Hilda of Whitby as one of their patron Saints. As Abbess of a double monastery, with men and women “under her direction” (Bede), kings and bishops came to her for guidance and advice. Hilda of all people knew about discipline and loyalty to her church with her acceptance of the decision of the Synod of Whitby to follow the Roman rules and not the Celtic way which she had supported.
The “Society model” (which this proposal seems to embody), was discussed in depth by the Revision Committee when it looked at how best to provide for those who would not accept women as bishops. It was rejected because, ‘Crucially the majority of us came to believe that there was some risk of creating a society that was an even weightier body than a Diocese. This was because some of the representations made to us seemed to envisage that jurisdiction would in some way be conferred on the society itself and through it to its bishops… we therefore voted by 11 votes to 7 that we did not wish the draft Measure to be amended to give effect to a society model.’ (Report of the Revision Committee, page 22 paras 110, 115)
How sad that the example given by St Hilda in her obedience to a decision concerning the ordering of her church is ignored by those using her name, who are themselves unwilling to accept the decision made by the Revision Committee and endorsed by the General Synod.
The Revision Committee report (142 pages, as a .doc file) is available via this page.
23 CommentsUpdated again Tuesday evening
There have been a number of responses to the interview in The Times reported below.
Church Mouse as previously reported, here.
Changing Attitude TUCKED AWAY BEHIND THE PAY WALL …
and
Yearning for change in the Anglican Communion – discrimination wrong, affirmation right
Benny’s Blog Archbishop’s empty words
Lesley’s blog Why can’t Rowan Williams be candid?
and
Splitting the church over homosexuality?
Significant Truths Archbishop asks to pass…
and
Won’t say, daren’t say
Anglican Mainstream Response to Archbishop of Canterbury’s Views on ‘Gay’ Bishops in The Times
Cranmer’s Curate ARCHBISHOP’S ‘PASS’ WAS SOLD BACK IN 1991
23 Comments