The Vanguard reports:
12 CommentsAnglican bishops reject Akinola’s voluntary retirement
Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) yesterday rejected a notice of voluntary retirement from Archbishop Peter Akinola, as Primate of the Church.
They requested him to complete his tenure, which ends in 2010.
The Dean of the Church, the Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, said yesterday in Abuja that the bishops prevailed on Akinola to rescind his decision to retire by January 2009.
Anikwenwa, who spoke at a consecration service, said the bishops took the decision after they received the Primates retirement notice on Saturday.
He said the veto by the bishops was pre-empted by wide consultations with other Anglican leaders, particularly from the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON)…
Guardian
Riazat Butt Church of England: Gay bishop accuses church leaders of mistake over invitation snub
Stephen Bates Repent! Biker’s blast at bishop
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Gay American Bishop Gene Robinson accuses opponents of ‘idolatry’
Telegraph
Martin Beckford Gay bishop Gene Robinson criticises Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
Daily Mail Steve Doughty ‘Heretic’: The first openly gay bishop is pilloried in the pulpit by a long-haired heckler
Episcopal News Service Church need not be afraid, New Hampshire bishop tells Putney gathering
Jim Naughton Live: The sermon, the press, the protestor, etc.
Integrity Fear Not! Gene Robinson preaches at Putney
BBC Heckle that symbolises Church split
Earlier reports are here.
10 CommentsPress Association Protester hits gay bishop’s sermon
BBC Protest disrupts bishop’s sermon
Channel 4 News Katie Razzall Protestor disrupts the sermon by the world’s first openly gay bishop
This video report includes fragments of an interview made earlier today before the service, and summarises the background events leading up to the Lambeth Conference.
Riazat Butt writes at the Guardian that Ian McKellen accuses Anglican church of homophobia.
Watch the entire interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC website here.
13 CommentsUpdated Sunday lunchtime
The Associated Press reports that Pope prays for end to rifts in Anglican church.
The Telegraph has several articles:
Jonathan Wynne-Jones writes Church of England should appoint Britain’s first gay bishop, says Archbishop of Wales and
US gay cleric Gene Robinson ‘received death threats’ from England and also
Dr Rowan Williams’ Anglican power to be tested at Lambeth Conference
and the Telegraph’s list of the 50 most influential figures in the Anglican church (sic) starts here
while George Pitcher writes Dr Rowan Williams: Robust in the face of torment.
The Independent has Gay bishop defies his Lambeth Conference ban.
Theo Hobson wrote in The Tablet It’s good to talk:
The average family gathering relies on certain truths being left unspoken, carefully skirted around. As the bishops and their spouses travel to Canterbury for this decade’s Lambeth Conference, which begins on Wednesday, they resemble members of a large family congregating for a wedding. All are uneasily aware that at the last such event something went wrong: things were said that should not have been said, and a row ignited that has resulted in one branch of the family staying away. Should they try to return to the old friendly atmosphere, or has a new spirit of brutal honesty made that impossible?
Until recently, few British Anglicans gave much thought to the Lambeth Conference, which (in theory) brings all Anglican bishops together once a decade. It was a reminder that Anglicanism was thriving in the colonies and former colonies. It was an insight into the exotic issues that faced native evangelists in sunnier climes. It was a way of discovering what help they needed in spreading Canterbury’s light through the globe…
The Observer has The gospel on being gay.
The BBC has Gay bishop will preach in London.
Updates at lunchtime
The BBC has more reports: Archbishop’s gay ordination offer and Archbishop’s position ‘untenable’ (these two articles refer to different archbishops) and also Bishop supports gay row boycott (this is not an English bishop).
The Press Association has Gay bishop calls decision a mistake and Gay bishop to deliver UK sermon.
40 CommentsThe Sunday Times has an article by John Sentamu Britain’s cruel snub to exiled Zimbabweans.
1 CommentGene Robinson writes in the Guardian about The God I know is alive and active in the church, not locked up in scripture.
In The Times Muhammad Abdul Bari writes that British Muslims plan a summer vision.
Christopher Howse writes about a forthcoming TV documentary in Koranic verses on the duty to kill.
Alan Wilson wrote about Church of Navel-Gazers?
‘Facebook Generation’ Faces Identity Crisis, according to Medical News Today (hat tip Mark Vernon).
12 CommentsRachel Zoll of the Associated Press has interviewed Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and her report of that can be read here.
The Bishop of Arizona, Kirk Smith was interviewed in the Arizona Daily Star and his views are reported in this article: Ariz. Episcopal bishop: Gay’s exclusion ‘insult’.
The Bishop of New Hampshire spoke this week at the conference of the Modern Churchpeople’s Union and what he said is summarised in this article: Lead, don’t manage.
6 CommentsRuth Gledhill reports in As Lambeth beckons, Anglican rebels don’t know if they are coming or going that:
A Nigerian bishop has broken ranks to fly to Britain to attend next week’s Lambeth conference. More than a dozen other Nigerian bishops have telephoned the organisers privately to say that they wish they could come but dare not disobey their archbishop, who has ordered all his 100 bishops to stay away in protest at the liberalisation of the Western Church.
The Right Rev Cyril Okorocha, the Bishop of Owerri, will defy Dr Peter Akinola, the Nigerian primate, when he arrives at his host parish in Oxshott, Surrey, this weekend. He will be the only Nigerian bishop at the Lambeth conference when it opens on Wednesday.
A source close to the bishop, who used to be on the staff at Lambeth Palace, where he looked after mission, said that he was coming because he believed strongly in the unity of the Anglican Communion.
Martin Beckford writes in the Telegraph: Anglican Communion: More than one in four bishops to boycott Lambeth Conference, and says this about English bishops:
As The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last month, the Bishops of Rochester, Lewes and Willesden are boycotting Lambeth because pro-gay bishops will be there.
But following the controversial decision of the Church of England’s ruling body this week to ordain women as bishops without compromise measures, several Anglo-Catholic bishops may also stay away.
The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, who is likely to become the first English bishop to convert to the Roman Catholic church over female bishops, has said he is unlikely to attend while the Bishop of Richborough is still considering whether he can go.
The Bishop of Europe, the Rt Rev Geoffrey Rowell, said he would attend but could not take part in a Eucharist service held by the female head of the Episcopal Church of the USA, the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori.
He added that he was “astonished” that so little information about events at Lambeth had been given out so far.
“We know the themes for each day and that we shall be in study groups of eight, but not much else.”
The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, added: “I too am very surprised that we have had little more than a sketchy outline. I’ve never been to a conference before where we have had such little information.”
The Times also has a series of comments from individual bishops printed under the headline In search of the wisdom between the extremes.
13 CommentsNew Vision has published this “clarification” of the earlier article:
Gays not after Orombi’s head
Kampala
Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi yesterday clarified that he did not say gays were planning to kill him or that he fears for his life over his campaign against the practice. This followed reports that the bishop had told Christians at Kitunga in Ntungamo district that he feared for his life over his anti-gay stance. Orombi noted that gays were not only in the church, but were a big movement and some of them were drug addicts, who could kill anybody.
The Daily Monitor reports Archbishop Orombi re-affirms anti-gay stand by Paul Aruho
Bushenyi
The Archbishop of Uganda has rallied Christians to stand by him in his fight against homosexuality in the Anglican Church. He said his life was under threat from the gay community.
“The team of homosexuals is very rich, Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi said, “They have money and will do whatever it takes to make sure that this vice penetrates Africa. We have to stand out and say no to them.”
Archbishop Orombi, on a week-long tour of the western region said the advocates of homosexuality, a crime under the Uganda code act, are taking advantage of the abject poverty in Africa to lure people into their club.“As a Church, we want to worship the living God; we want to obey God and we have to submit ourselves to God so you pray for us; we shall remain faithful to God,” Archbishop Orombi said.
Homosexuality has been a sticky issue in the Anglican Church lately, with the climax happening last week when the Church of Uganda and other Anglican provinces in Africa, South America and Australia formed a new movement which is not under the authority of Canterbury at the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem, Israel.
The conference criticised the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for failing to discipline the errant Episcopal Church of the US and the Anglican Church of Canada, which promote same-sex marriages. The two churches supported the consecration of a homosexual, Gene Robinson, as bishop in 2003.
Meanwhile, New Vision also reports this: Bishop Ssenyonjo invited to Lambeth but see comment below which contradicts this.
17 CommentsThe full reports of General Synod debates in this week’s newspaper are subscriber-only until next week.
The following news reports by Bill Bowder are available:
Will Catholics stay? The answer is in code
And, there is a leader column: Not the time for hasty reactions:
2 CommentsTHERE ARE, of course, no women bishops in the Church of England; nor will there be for several years. This means that there is a long time in which to reflect on the outcome of Monday’s vote in the General Synod. It is clear that the mind of the majority in Synod was against introducing a legally separate body for those unable to accept the ministry of women bishops, and who is to say that this does not reflect the mind of the Church at large? Apart from the wish to represent generally the view of those in the pews, it is probable that last week’s talks of splits relating to the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) made the Synod even warier than it might formerly have been of anything that looked as if it encouraged formal division. At issue now is whether the manner in which women bishops will be introduced will lead to just such a division in any case…
The Economist weighs in with When compromise fails.
Time magazine has Could the Pope Aid an Anglican Split?
The New Statesman has Doing the splits by Stephen Bates:
…Like Mr Rochester’s first wife, the misogyny and homophobia of its factions keep leaping out of the attic to scare off decent folk. No use conservative evangelicals and high church Anglo-Catholics insisting the Church’s interminable internal rows are all about obedience to scriptural authority and the protection of tender consciences. What the public sees is arcane debates, conducted with a ferocity more in keeping with the 1980s Labour Party than an institution founded on hope and charity…
The Spectator has A Very English Coup — And The End Of Our National Church by Theo Hobson.
The Telegraph has a report by Martin Beckford saying that US Anglican leader Katherine Jefferts Schori wades into women bishop row.
Andrew Carey wrote for the Church of England Newspaper a column (republished at Stand Firm) titled Walking on Broken Glass:
…Observers reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury was visibly discomfited at times by the tone and direction of the debate. His deputy in Canterbury, the Bishop of Dover, Stephen Venner, was reduced to tears. Yet while Dr Williams has often given traditionalists hope that he would back a structural solution to their problems of conscience, he seems to have completely ruled out strong leadership on theological and ecclesial issues. Wearing permanently now, it seems, the persona of the mediator, Dr Williams was seen by Synod trying to have it both ways. “I am deeply unhappy with any scheme… which ends up structurally humiliating women.” But he was equally unhappy about marginalising traditionalists. He therefore came “not very comfortably to the conclusion”, we needed a “more rather than less robust form of structural provision”…
Ruth Gledhill asks Will Rome really take our trads?
41 CommentsNew Vision reports that Gays want to kill me, says Orombi. The article is copied below in full.
Update There is a further article in New Vision which shows that Orombi is not alone in his views, see Canterbury should not tolerate gayism.
Gays want to kill me, says Orombi
Wednesday, 9th July, 2008
By Chris Ahimbisibwe
Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi yesterday said he fears for his life because of the campaign he has waged against homosexuals.
“Nowadays, I don’t wear my collar when I am in countries which have supporters of homosexuals,” he said while addressing Christians at Kitunga archdeaconry, West Ankole diocese in Ntungamo district.
“I am forced to dress like a civilian because those people are dangerous. They can harm anybody who is against them. Some of them are killers. They want to close the mouth of anybody who is against them.”
Orombi is among the Anglican archbishops who have led the boycott against the Lambeth Conference, which takes places later this month, over the issue of homosexuality.
The Global Anglican Future Conference, which was held in Jerusalem last month, resolved to form a new movement and broke ties with the authority of Canterbury over the consecration of gay bishops.
Despite the threats, Orombi yesterday continued his anti-gay campaign, asking Christians to pray for him and others who are against homosexuals.
“Homosexuals are agitating that it is a human right. But how can it be a human right for a man to sleep with another man or a woman to marry a woman?” he asked.
“What we need is to wake up and protect our church and children against this practice.”
He argued that God created men and women so that they could have children and fill the world so that the generations could continue. “So where do the homosexuals want to get their children?” he asked.
Orombi noted that homosexuals were trying to take advantage of Africa’s poverty by making donations, building schools and offering scholarships.
“We should not accept any donation that comes our way and has strings attached. Some people have already fallen victims in Uganda and we need to stop it,” the archbishop said.
Bishop Yona Katonene, the bishop of West Ankole diocese, who accompanied the archbishop, said he had received a report that a male teacher in Bushenyi had married a male student.
54 CommentsUpdated Friday
There was a third article, Ex-Anglicans will bring new life to our Church by Damian Thompson
The Catholic Herald has published two articles.
A news report by Anna Arco is titled Bishop to lead flock to Rome after synod vote:
A senior traditionalist Anglican bishop has urged the Pope and the hierarchy of England and Wales to help Anglo-Catholics convert to Rome following the General Synod’s vote to ordain women bishops.
The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, called for “magnanimous gestures from our Catholic friends, especially from the Holy Father, who well understand our longing for unity and from the hierarchy in England and Wales” as he prepares to lead his flock to Rome in the aftermath of the Church of England’s General Synod.
“Most of all we ask for ways that allow us to bring our folk with us,” he wrote in an article explaining his position in The Catholic Herald…
Bishop Andrew Burnham has written ‘Anglo-Catholics must now decide’:
34 CommentsSo we are to have a code of practice. Traditional Anglo-Catholics must now decide whether to stay in the Church of England in what, for a while, will be a protected colony – where the sacramental ministry of women bishops and priests is neither acknowledged nor received – or to leave.
Leaving isn’t quite so easy as it sounds. You don’t become a Catholic, for instance, because of what is wrong with another denomination or faith. You become a Catholic because you accept that the Catholic Church is what she says she is and the Catholic faith is what it says it is. In short, some Anglo-Catholics will stay and others will go. It is quite easy to think of unworthy reasons for staying – and there are no doubt one or two unworthy reasons for leaving.
There are also honourable reasons for staying. Like the Anglican clergy who wouldn’t swear allegiance to William and Mary at the end of the 17th century and the Catholic clergy who wouldn’t swear allegiance to the French Revolutionary government a century later, the “non-jurors” of the present day will soldier on and die out but they will be faithful to what they have believed and history will honour them for their faithfulness…
Inclusive Church has issued a press release, The vote for women bishops. A copy of the text is also below the fold.
WATCH has issued a press release. The text appears below.
10 CommentsWATCH Press Statement
WOMEN BISHOPS: A STEP CLOSER
9th July 2008 – for immediate releaseThe Church of England has been debating whether women should be ordained as deacons, priests and bishops for nearly 100 years, and today marks the beginning of what we hope is the 26th and final mile in the marathon of discussions and debates since then.
Yesterday the Church agreed to drawing up legislation for women bishops and also for a code of practice with arrangements for those who in conscience cannot accept the Episcopal ministry of a woman.
After 6¼ hours of debate, the House of Bishops Motion was passed by a substantial majority in all three houses. The Legislative Drafting Group for Women Bishops will now work on the legislation and on the contents of the code of practice, which will be debated in General Synod in February 2009.
In spite of the recent statement from the Vatican that Synod’s vote created new obstacles to unity between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, two facts remain: Rome’s official stance is still non-recognition of all Anglican orders, male and female, and the Anglican Church has had women bishops for the last 20 years. The question remains as to why the vote presents a fresh obstacle?
WATCH welcomes the outcome of the vote and rejoices that women will soon takes their place alongside men as bishops in the Church of England.
WATCH Chair and member of General Synod, Christina Rees said, “This is good news for the whole Church and for the nation we serve. Women will soon be able to bring their experience and gifts to the Episcopal leadership of our Church. We rejoice that God has led the Church to this moment.”
During the debate, Robert Key MP said that the people of England are making a judgment on us; a reference to how detached the church has become from the rest of society through refusing to make women bishops. The Bishop of Bath and Wells stressed that we need to trust each other and not have legislation.
Earlier this year, over 1,300 clergywomen signed a statement which was sent to all bishops in the Church of England, declaring that they wished the Church to proceed on a basis of trust and not law: that arrangements for those opposed to women bishops should be managed by the local diocesan bishop, be they male or female as is the case in the fifteen provinces which have already agreed to consecrate women to the episcopate. If such arrangements were enshrined in law then their response would be “thanks but no thanks”. It is to be hoped that the Statutory National Code of Practice requested by General Synod will reflect these concerns.
Contacts:
Christina Rees Chair, WATCH
Hilary Cotton Co-Vice Chair, WATCH
Updated Thursday evening
ENS has also published a news article about this, see PITTSBURGH: Parish wants court-appointed monitor to oversee possession, use of diocesan property by Mary Frances Schjonberg.
Lionel Deimel reports from Pittsburgh in an article titled Calvary’s Cavalry Again Rides to the Rescue:
As the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh heads toward a “realignment” vote on October 4, 2008, when Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan plans to declare the entire diocese removed from The Episcopal Church to become a diocese of the province of the Southern Cone, loyal Episcopalians in Pittsburgh are becoming increasingly anxious about the looming apocalypse. Yesterday, however, they were given some reason to cheer, as Calvary Church attorney Walter P. DeForest rode to court on his white horse to file papers with the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County. Calvary is petitioning the court to appoint a “monitor to inventory and oversee property held or administered by the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh to assure compliance with this court’s order of October 14, 2005,” as well as to request “creation of an additional escrow account(s)” for parishes concerned about the use of their funds by the diocese for the benefit of a church other than The Episcopal Church…
The legal filing for this case is available as a PDF here.
And there is additional background from 2006 here.
9 CommentsGeorge Pitcher in the Telegraph Women win bloody battle at the Synod
Giles Fraser in the New Statesman Ending women free zones
Simon Barrow Church as Spectacle
24 CommentsLeading articles appear this morning in several London newspapers.
The Times has The Church of England: A Vote for Clarity
The Telegraph has A Church divided
The Guardian has Speaking for England
1 CommentForward in Faith has two items: General Synod Vote – Initial Reaction
Forward in Faith and the Catholic Group in General Synod note with regret that, despite the clear advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of Winchester, the Bishop of Exeter and other Bishops, the Prolocutor of the Province of Canterbury and the Chairman of the House of Laity and the obvious lack of consensus, the General Synod today resolved to make no meaningful provision for those in conscience unable to receive the ministry of women bishops.
There must now be a period of prayerful reflection. However, members of both the General Synod and of the Church of England will understand that actions always have consequences.
and General Synod vote – further reaction
The consistent behaviour of the General Synod compels Forward in Faith and the Catholic Group in General Synod to recognise that, without intervention by the House of Bishops, there is little prospect of gaining a synodical majority which would provide a structural solution that would meet the needs of those who, out of obedience to scripture and tradition, are unable in conscience to receive the ordination of women to the episcopate. We will in the coming days continue to explore all possible avenues which might secure our corporate ecclesial future and look to our bishops to facilitate this.
Vatican Radio has Vatican Regret at Anglican Vote to Ordain Female Bishops.
WATCH has this:
Synod votes in favour of women as bishops, with a Code of Practice
We are delighted that General Synod after many hours of debate, voted to proceed to the consecration of women as bishops with arrangements for those who will not accept their ministry simply in a Code of Practice. This was the stance proposed by the House of Bishops and supported by WATCH, and in the final voting there were clear majorities in each House in favour of taking this step. The voting figures were:
Bishops: 28 for, 12 against, 1 abs
Clergy: 124 for, 44 against, 4 abs
Laity: 111 for, 68 against, 2 abs
The Legislative Drafting Group will now prepare the relevant legislation, along with a Code of Practice, to be brought to the next meeting of General Synod in February next year.
Reform has a statement Reform predicts Synod vote will “further rouse the ‘sleeping giant’ of evangelical Anglicanism”
Reform members who took part in the Synod debates are very disappointed that no legal provision has been made for those who cannot in conscience receive oversight from a female bishop. We note that the opinions of four out of the five most senior bishops on both the content and timing of this measure were swept aside in the course of the debate.
We will scrutinise the proposed code of practice in February’s debate carefully, but remain very sceptical as to its usefulness.
By giving no legal provision Synod has effectively said: “We don’t want people like you in our Church of England.” This message will no doubt further rouse the ‘sleeping giant’ of orthodox and evangelical Anglicanism in the UK and around the globe.
Interfax reports Russian Church alarmed by Anglicans’ decision to ordain women.
Update A further Interfax report has Anglican Church decision to consecrate women-bishops challenges Orthodox-Anglican dialogue – Bishop Hilarion.
Episcopal News Service has Bishop gets state approval for new corporation.
Bishop Robert Duncan has established this new corporation. He initiated this action some eighteen months ago.
The Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, Harold Lewis has written all about this in his newsletter. Read the full details here (PDF).
2 Comments