The Archbishop of York wrote about Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe last Sunday in the Observer newspaper.
John Sentamu Saving Zimbabwe is not colonialism, it’s Britain’s duty
Nicholas Watt Archbishop hits out at policy on Zimbabwe
See also:
BBC Tackle Zimbabwe, archbishop urges
Press Association Archbishop discusses Mugabe with PM
Updated Monday evening
As the Archbishop of Canterbury prepares to go to the USA and visit New Orleans, there is a website established by the Diocese of Louisiana devoted specifically to his visit. (h/t DL)
There are also various press reports about what may happen next.
Christopher Landau reports for the BBC What future for Anglicanism?
Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports for the Sunday Telegraph Archbishop fears split over gay clergy
Robert Barr reports for the Associated Press Anglican Leader in U.S. Over Gay Bishop
Neela Banerjee reports for the New York Times Episcopal Church Faces Deadline on Gay Issues
Daniel Burke reports for Religion News Service Episcopal Church faces same-sex deadline
Updated links
The Sunday programme on BBC radio had an item about this:
Go here (6 minutes long).
Archbishop Peter Akinola, and journalist Stephen Bates are interviewed.
For a longer version of the Peter Akinola interview go here ( URL valid this week only).
The Episcopal News Service has a new monthly video programme. The first programme, available to watch here, has fascinating material about the situation in Louisiana and Mississippi following Katrina.
ENS also has a report on the responses made across the Episcopal Church to “a study document aimed at helping the House of Bishops respond to the requests made to them by the Primates of the Anglican Communion”: One third of dioceses respond to Bishops’ communiqué study document.
The Living Church reports on two other aspects:
Modified Primatial Vicar Plan to Be Proposed to Bishops
Bishop Henderson Withdraws Report Endorsement; Doug LeBlanc has a succinct summary of this report here.
54 CommentsThinking about the meaning of Ramadan has made me a better Christian, says Chris Chivers in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
Reconciliation offers greater rewards than revenge writes Roderick Strange in the Credo column of The Times.
Christopher Howse says Jews fast, Muslims fast, so should Christians in the Daily Telegraph.
Giles Fraser writes about New York, where all our compulsions meet in the Church Times.
In the Washington Post Mary Jordan writes that In Europe and U.S., Nonbelievers Are Increasingly Vocal. (The article is in fact mostly about Europe and in particular the UK.)
Update
In today’s Guardian there is a book review, under the headline Holy Order, by Jonathan Bartley of Stephen Bates’ latest work, God’s Own Country: Tales from the Bible Belt.
The full interview, by Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson is available here: ‘Is our society broken? Yes, I think it is’.
News report: Archbishop: Pushy parents damaging children
Leader: A commonsense cleric
21 CommentsThe Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has published the following OPEN LETTER TO ABP. ROWAN WILLIAMS:
An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria meeting in Osogbo, Osun State
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the one and only Lord Jesus Christ.
We write to you out of profound love for our beloved Anglican Communion and recognition that this current crisis in our common life together is an unrelenting source of anguish for you and for all concerned.
We have reviewed the paper “A Most Agonizing Road to Lambeth 2008” that was made available to us by our primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola. We found it to be a compelling summary of many of the key events and meetings of the past ten years. It highlights the intractability of our current crisis.
We are persuaded that a change of direction from our current path is urgently needed and write to assure you of our willingness and commitment to work towards that end. We have noted your desire that the proposed Lambeth Conference be a place for fellowship and prayer and an exploration of our shared mission and ministry – all of these are of course commendable aims.
We all know, however, that the pressures of the present situation would adversely affect the outcome of the conference unless there is a profound change of heart; for how can we as bishops in the Church of God gather for a Lambeth Conference when there is such a high level of distrust, dislike and disdain for one another? How can we meet as leaders of the Communion when our relationships are so sorely strained and our life together so broken that we cannot even share together in the Lord’s Supper? It would be a mockery and bring dishonour to the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ.
We are also concerned about the abuse directed towards those who hold to traditional views on matters of Human Sexuality. The spate of hostility in the UK is alarming.
We are all witnesses to:
In truth anyone who does not embrace revisionist views is a potential target. We know it is possible to provide some security to minimize such occurrences but is the additional cost justifiable? Would the resultant atmosphere of fear and uncertainty be conducive to the goals of such a large gathering of bishops?
These are all matters of concern but in our opinion there is a way forward.
The proposed Anglican Communion Covenant is the one way for us to uphold our common heritage of faith while at the same time holding each other accountable to those teachings that have defined our life together and also guide us into the future. It has already received enthusiastic support from the majority of the Communion. Therefore we propose the following action plan:
As a matter of utmost urgency, call a special session of the Primates Meeting to:
a) Receive the responses made by The Episcopal Church to the Dromantine and Dar es Salaam Communiqués and determine their adequacy.
b) Arrive at a consensus for the application of the Windsor Process especially in Provinces whose self-understanding is at odds with the predominant mind of the Communion.
c) Set in motion an agreed process to finalize the Anglican Covenant Proposal and set a timetable for its ratification by individual provinces. This cannot be done at the Lambeth Conference because it is simply too large and, we all know, the Anglican Covenant requires individual provincial endorsement and signature.
Postpone current plans for the Lambeth Conference (as has been done before). This will:
a) Allow the current tensions to subside and leave room for the hard work of reconciliation that is a prerequisite for the fellowship we all desire.
b) Confirm that those invited to the Lambeth Conference have already endorsed the Anglican Covenant and so are able to come together as witnesses to our common faith.
We make these proposals in good faith believing that they provide an opportunity for us to reunite the Communion consistent with our common heritage and give us a way forward to engage the world with the holistic Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
Sincerely,
Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
September 13th, 2007
Since the earlier reports, there has been an email, which TA received only as a comment from elsewhere, but which various other blogs have published, that reads as follows:
From: Emeka Samuel
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 6:00 AM
To: nanabuja@nannigeria.org
Subject: REJOINDERFROM: EMEKA OGENYI, NAN, UYO
REJOINDER: HOMOSEXUALS, LESBIANS ARE INSANE– BISHOP
This is to inform the agency and the general public that the report on the above subject credited to the Anglican Bishop of Uyo Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama was untrue.
I wish to state here that the report was not a true reflection of what the interview he granted journalists while Bishop Orama never made any statement at any time to condemn perpetuators of such unbiblical acts to such an extent as was reflected in the report.
The Bishop was wrongly misrepresented and misquoted and I hereby render my apologies to him, the Anglican Diocese of Uyo and the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) for embarrassment caused them by the report.
While I apologize for the mistake and to state that the report was not written in bad faith I wish to express my commitment to the evangelization of the gospel through this medium.
The Church of Nigeria has also issued the full Powerpoint file containing Bishop Orama’s synod presentation, the content of which Stand Firm has republished here. Although as the above email states, that presentation was not the source of the original article but rather an interview with journalists.
There has not so far been any statement relating to this email from the Church of Nigeria.
There has not been any statement from the News Agency of Nigeria.
Nor has there been any further statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
47 CommentsFormer primate of Canada Michael Peers has written “An Amplification of the Brooks Document” supplementing the earlier article Who has the power? by Robert Brooks.
See Archbishop Peers on the Primates and the ACC at Episcopal Majority.
5 CommentsI reported earlier about the Church of England’s response to the government review of current legislation.
Today, the Church Times has both a news article and a leader column about the response.
News: C of E queries Government’s new ideas for equality laws (this also includes a report of the Northern Ireland judicial review of SORs).
Leader: My right’s better.
On the Northern Ireland judicial review, Jonathan Petre had this in the Daily Telegraph: Judge squashes part of UK gay rights laws.
On the government consultation, the Roman Catholic bishops of England and Wales have also filed a response. It can be found here.
6 CommentsLast week’s Church Times had this comment article by Pat Ashworth: Pushing Anglicanism to the precipice.
1 CommentSPIN-doctoring overreached itself — and fell flat on its face — two weeks ago with the publication of a pastoral letter purporting to be from the Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, to his flock in Abuja (News, 24 August). Should it matter that the bulk of it was written in the United States from the computer of Bishop Martyn Minns, and that revision, editing, and formatting took place over four days?
I believe it does. After our news story (24 August) we were accused by the Nigerian director of communications of being “insulting and racist”. It has nothing to do with race but everything to do with language and politics, in a climate where the word “decision” is now drip-fed into every missive…
Updated Friday evening
CANA announces: 4 New Bishops Elected to Serve CANA:
September 13, 2007
(Herndon, VA) — The House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) met in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, on the 12th day of September 2007. They received a report from the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria in the USA. Acknowledging the significant growth of CANA that is taking place in the USA, the House of Bishops considered a request for additional bishops to further the work of CANA and the extension of God’s Kingdom.
After the meeting, the Primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, announced the election of four suffragan bishops and appointed them to serve in the USA. The bishops-elect are the Rev’d Canon Roger Ames (Akron, OH), the Rev’d Canon David Anderson (Atlanta, GA), the Ven. Amos Fagbamiye (Indianapolis, IN), and the Rev’d Canon Nathan Kanu (Oklahoma City, OK). The consecrations will take place in the USA before the end of 2007, at a date and place yet to be determined. These four bishops-elect will join Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns and Suffragan Bishop David Bena in providing an indigenous ecclesiastical structure for faithful Anglicans in this country.
CANA currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states. About a quarter of the congregations are primarily expatriate Nigerians. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of some 70 million, through various pastoral and missionary initiatives.
Update
The Living Church has a report which explains at least in part how the new number of 60 CANA congregations mentioned above now arises: in the report AAC’s Anderson Among Four New CANA Bishops by George Conger and Steve Waring it says:
16 CommentsIn an interview with The Living Church, Fr. Ames said all of the parish leadership and the congregation of St. Luke’s left The Episcopal Church about two years ago for the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone, but because the Diocese of Ohio has not to date included the departure in its parochial report filings with the national church, he and the congregation continue officially to be designated members in good standing of The Episcopal Church.
Fr. Ames said there are currently about 50 former Episcopal congregations affiliated with the Diocese of Bolivia. These are in the process of being transferred to CANA by mutual agreement of Bishop Minns and the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia. According to a press release published on CANA’s website, the convocation now has 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states.
Updated Thursday morning
Changing Attitude sent somebody to Uyo, Nigeria, to find out more about what the bishop had or had not said.
There is a report here: Changing Attitude Nigeria investigates Bishop Orama of Uyo.
Thursday morning
First, the Nigerian provincial website has published: BISHOP ORAMA CALLS FOR YOUTH RE-ORIENTATION TO CURB VIOLENCE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION. This includes:
Also, speaking on the recent publication in some dailies on homosexual issue in the North America as he expressed in the last synod of Uyo Diocese, Rt. Revd. Isaac Orama lamented over what he called a false statement published on the internet and called on the media to desist from publishing wrong statements for public consumption.
According to him, what he said was that CANA is the offshoot of the Church of Nigeria’s response to the unbiblical agenda of the Episcopal Church of United States of America in supporting same sex marriage and consecrating in the year 2003 the publicly acknowledged gay priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop.
Second, I received an email yesterday from The Venerable AkinTunde Popoola which is reproduced in full below the fold.
30 CommentsThe Diocese of Pittsburgh, a member of the Anglican Communion Network, has an annual convention (think diocesan synod) coming up on 2-3 November. A number of official documents have been published in relation to this.
For an alternative view of Pittsburgh, try reading either the website of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh or the most recent entries of Lionel Deimel’s weblog:
Agreeing to Agree
“… the bishop didn’t say that.”
Something Dramatic
The Courts Service of Northern Ireland has now published the full text of yesterday’s judgement by Mr Justice Weatherup.
The document can be read as an html page here.
0 CommentsJohn Wilkins, former editor of The Tablet, writes at great length in the American National Catholic Reporter about Anglican schism?
This is the cover story for the issue dated 14 September. There is an annoying subscription offer that you have to push past to get to the article but it’s well worth reading in full.
Update Also see this accompanying page: The Anglican crisis in brief.
7 CommentsThe BBC reports on the outcome of the judicial review of The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006:
New legislation banning discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals is lawful with just one exception, a High Court judge has ruled.
Mr Justice Weatherup said harassment provisions in the Sexual Orientation Regulations must be removed…
…The judgement followed a five-day hearing last June when the Christian Institute and numerous churches applied for a judicial review of the regulations which they claimed were a “gay rights charter.”
… The regulations came into force last January when former secretary of state Peter Hain was accused of rushing the powers into law by limiting consultation to six weeks whereas people in the rest of the United Kingdom were given six months to examine the controversial issues.
It was on the consultation ground that Mr Justice Weatherup said the harassment provisions had to be set aside.
A harassment clause was not included in the corresponding regulations for Great Britain, as the topic was to be considered as part of the wide-ranging Discrimination Law Review. (The consultation period following that review has just closed, see here.)
The Evangelical Alliance issued a press release saying:
The Evangelical Alliance is encouraging Christians to respond respectfully and in a Christ-like manner to the decision made in today’s judicial review of Northern Ireland’s Sexual Orientation Regulations that banning discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals is lawful with one exception.
The Alliance welcomes the fact that a number of Christian organisations were able to exercise their right to call for the review. It also welcomes the removal of the harassment clause and particularly of the judge’s confirmation that the regulations do not apply to the core school curriculum. But it is also praying that following the decision, Christians’ rights do not appear bigger than their representation of Christ or their commitment to the rights of others.
For an alternative interpretation of the decision, see the Christian Institute’s press release.
7 CommentsAnglican TV has a lengthy video (over 42 minutes) in which Archbishop Henry Orombi is questioned by reporters from the BBC (Christopher Landau), the Wall Street Journal, as well as Anglican TV, about the recent consecration of an American there.
25 CommentsThe Bishop of Central Florida, John Howe has sent this letter to his diocese. Bear in mind that Central Florida is one of the Network dioceses.
The Central Florida Episcopalian for this month also contains another article which details further the position on property issues for congregations who might wish to leave the diocese. That can be found in the original PDF here, on pages 11 and 12, or there is an html copy here.
Both documents are worth reading right through. Some quotes from the letter:
…Nearly thirty of our Bishops – myself among them – have given the assurances requested, but a larger number than that have said they will never agree to these requests, and more than a third of the Bishops have yet to declare themselves. (Note: The Episcopal Church has never officially authorized the blessings, but some Bishops have done so in their own Dioceses.)
Everyone hopes that clarity and understanding will be improved on all sides when the Archbishop meets with us, but I know of no one who expects that at the end of the meeting the unequivocal assurances will have been given by the House as a whole.
Archbishop Williams will need to consult with the other Primates to consider and evaluate whatever responses we will have given them. The Archbishop has recently said he is “hopeful, but not optimistic” that the Anglican Communion will be able to stay together after that point.
What this will mean for parishes, Dioceses, and The Episcopal Church as a whole is not yet clear. There is, however, increasing talk among several of our Central Florida clergy about the possibility of their declaring their “separation from The Episcopal Church” and their seeking “realignment” with some other Province of the Anglican Communion. They would hope to take as many of their parishioners with them as possible, and they would try to retain the property belonging to those congregations.
If they decide to do this it will be extremely messy, difficult, and costly in every way imaginable.
Both the canons of The Episcopal Church and the state law of Florida stipulate that congregational properties are held “in trust” for the Diocese and the national Episcopal Church. This means that even if every single person in a given congregation wanted to leave they could not simply “take the property with them.”
…I believe that in virtually every one of our congregations, even those in which the desire to separate is widespread, there are many who do not wish to leave The Episcopal Church or the Diocese of Central Florida. If those who desire to remain can become a viable congregation, that congregation becomes the continuing body of that parish, with a claim upon the property.
So: I foresee an extremely difficult period ahead of us, in which congregations may be pulled apart, and arguments over property become horribly distracting and costly.
I am committed to being as gracious and generous as possible to those who, for conscience sake, believe they must separate. But I am pledged to stand alongside those who, for conscience sake, choose to remain, and I am committed to the rebuilding of congregations and this Diocese in the wake of any such departures…
Also, Bishop Howe recently wrote this letter in reaction to this one from retired Bishop Spong.
36 CommentsA suburban church in Illinois which is part of the Anglican Mission in the Americas has discovered that Rwandan secular politics affects them. See this from Christianity Today: Rwandan Politics Intrudes on American Church. (hat tip Stand Firm)
A suburban Chicago church sought leadership from Rwanda amid theological disputes with the Episcopal Church. This week, it found itself in conflict with its leaders over Rwandan politics.
All Souls Anglican Church had invited Paul Rusesabagina, whose life was featured in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda, to speak during Sunday morning services. The Wheaton, Illinois, church, a member of the Rwandan-led Anglican Mission in America, invited him as part of a fundraiser to build a school in Gashirabwoba, Rwanda.
On Thursday, however, Emmanuel Kolini, the Anglican archbishop of Rwanda, asked All Soul’s pastor J. Martin Johnson to rescind the invitation.
Rusesabagina has been at odds with the president of Rwanda. The archbishop feared that the event could create a strain in the relationship between the Anglican Church of Rwanda and the government.
“Truly I am horrified that we could have such a negative impact without meaning to,” Johnson told Christianity Today. “I had no idea this was a controversial issue…”
And later this month, as the All Souls’ Anglican Church website notes there will be:
26 CommentsThe AMiA Big event
On Sunday, Sept 23rd at 10:30am, we’ll gather with other local Anglican churches for a worship service at which the Most Revd. Dr. Peter Akinola, Bishop of Abuja, and Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria will preach. We will meet in Edman Memorial Chapel on the corner of Washington and Franklin in Wheaton, IL.
Updated again Monday evening
The elected President of the House of Deputies of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church is currently a lay person, Bonnie Anderson.
She recently visited Fort Worth Texas, to address a local meeting, co-hosted by the Brite Divinity School and Fort Worth Via Media, neither of which is an official organ of the Diocese of Ft Worth. Indeed, the divinity school is associated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), another Christian denomination.
Nevertheless the Bishop of Fort Worth Jack Iker objected to her visit. He issued a press release [PDF file] in which he says:
…“This visit by Mrs. Anderson was arranged without any prior consultation with me or any of the other elected leaders of this diocese. I consider it a breach of protocol and a violation of the basic polity of The Episcopal Church. It is a clear effort on her part to recognize and empower a small group of people who dissent from the stated theological positions of this diocese and who claim that they alone are the true ‘loyal Episcopalians‘ here in Fort Worth.
“This visit by Mrs. Anderson further exacerbates an already tense, adversarial relationship that has developed between national leaders and diocesan officials. Unfortunately, she has sought to further divide the people of this diocese rather than to promote reconciliation. I regret that Mrs. Anderson has chosen to fan the flames of division and to advocate a rather one-sided view of the controversies that have overtaken The Episcopal Church in recent decades. Rather than working with me and other diocesan officials, she has chosen to go around us in a blatant attempt to work with the revisionist opposition known as the Via Media.
“I regard her visit as part of a concerted effort to undermine the existing diocesan leadership in favor of those who support the liberal agenda of the General Convention Church. It is disconcerting to see this deepened alienation fostered by one of the top leaders of The Episcopal Church. However, we will not be deterred or side-tracked from our Gospel mission by this kind of political manipulation.”
Some other recent statements by Bishop Iker can be found here:
The Realignment Moves Forward
Williams ‘set to be manipulated’ George Conger Church of England Newspaper 17 August.
Monday update
It turns out that Bishop Iker was invited to this meeting, and Bishop Iker did not indicate any displeasure over the visit in his note declining the invitation. The exchange of notes between FWVM and the bishop before the event can be read in full here: Bishop Iker is Unhappy.
For links to other blog comments about this event, go here.
Monday afternoon Episcopal News Service has a very detailed report from Mary Frances Schjonberg titled Bonnie Anderson promises support, tells Fort Worth Episcopalians to ‘saddle up’.
Monday evening
Fort Worth Via Media has issued this statement.
Jonathan Sacks writes on the occasion of the Jewish New Year that Freedom can only walk on the path of forgiveness.
Simon Rocker writes about the image of God, in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
And in the Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse writes about What Richard Dawkins makes of Jewish morals.
From the Church Times Giles Fraser asks Should the BBC allow extremist voices?
And from last week, William Whyte writes about the Deceased Wife’s Sister Act in Why did this seem like a great moral safeguard?
4 Comments