Episcopal Café has a major article by Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane:
The Primate of the Anglican Church of South Africa delivered a long and thorough address at St. Saviours Church this past Tuesday.
In his address, the Archbishop shares his concerns about the present state of the Anglican Communion, how the Church of South Africa came to be a part of the Communion and talks about the present roles of the “Instruments of Unity” as described by the Windsor Report. He speaks about what future course the Anglican Communion might take, both in terms of the roles of the Instruments of Unity and in terms of the relationships of the various provinces to each other.
Read the full address here.
Three other articles:
In response to the most recent ACI, Inc. article by Ephraim Radner, Vocation Deferred: The Necessary Challenge of Communion, Tobias Haller has written Rearranging the Chairs.
Christopher Seitz has written another article for the Anglican Communion Institute, Inc. this one titled Possibilities for an Anglican Future?
64 CommentsGiles Fraser writes in the Church Times this week about a church planting in West London: Beating the bounds into the bishop. He writes:
56 Comments…the Vicar of All Saints’, Fulham, the Revd Joe Hawes, was hopping mad at the leaflet popped through his parishioners’ doors last week. Bearing the C of E logo, it proclaimed “a new church for Fulham”. The back of the glossy flyer had a map showing half of his parish.
It was the first he had heard of this new church. He phoned the Area Dean, who also hadn’t heard that any service was starting. He phoned the Central Fulham Churches forum. It was completely in the dark, too. We are always being told that church-planting requires extensive consultation. This one was parachuted in under the cover of darkness.
As usual, the story is complicated. It seems that Fr Hawes’s neighbouring parish — St Etheldreda’s, a small Anglo-Catholic outfit — has made room for a church plant from the Co-Mission Initiative. This is a nominally Anglican organisation that has proved itself indifferent to parish and diocesan boundaries.
It is the same team that secretly flew over a bishop from the Church of England in South Africa to perform its own ordinations, because it refused to submit its candidates to the diocesan selection procedures (News, 11 November 2005). The imported bishop wasn’t even in communion with the C of E. It’s the same lot that goes in for lay presidency. And will they pay a parish share? It looks unlikely.
“I believe this initiative seriously undermines the Church of England’s ministry in this area,” said Fr Hawes. He is right to be concerned. Despite the fact that he runs a growing church, with more than 600 on the electoral roll, the Co-Mission Initiative wouldn’t regard him as a proper Christian. He is a liberal Catholic, and therefore fair game for poaching…
Geoffrey Rowell writes in The Times that Ascension raises more than a cordial for drooping spirits.
Christopher Howse writes from Spain in the Daily Telegraph about A ploughman who was Chaucer’s ideal.
Christina Rees writes in the Guardian about Li Tim-Oi in Face to faith. See also this site.
Two earlier columns from Ekklesia:
Simon Barrow asked last week Is religion the new parliamentary belief divide?
Even earlier Jonathan Bartley asked Is ‘Christian nation’ rhetoric aiding the far right?
The previous TA report on Zimbabwe is here.
Last week’s Church Times contained an article by Bishop Nick Baines entitled The real situation in Zimbabwe:
…Given this dire situation, which the Mugabe regime blames on everyone except itself, why does the Anglican Church appear to be silent? In contrast with the recent Pastoral Letter from the Roman Catholic bishops, which called for an end to bad governance and corrupt leadership, the statement issued after the (Anglican) Episcopal Synod of the Province of Central Africa, held in Harare on 12 April, appears typically bland and timid. That is how it has been caricatured in the world’s media. I think, however, that to say this would be to miss the point…
This week, there is a letter in response to the article (link available next week) which severely criticises this piece. The letter refers to the way the statement was interpreted in the government-controlled Herald in this article dated 20 April Anglican Bishops Rap Sanctions starting thus:
THE Anglican Church Province of Central Africa has added its voice to the growing condemnation of the illegal Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and called for their scrapping, urging Britain to honour its obligations to fund land reforms in the country.
In their Pastoral letter issued at the end of their Episcopal Synod in Harare last week, the 14 bishops and one canon, among them the head of the Province of Central Africa, the Most Rev Bernard Amos Malango, acknowledged that the economic situation in Zimbabwe stemmed from illegal sanctions.
“We, the bishops, are concerned and pained at the distressing occurrences that have been taking place in Zimbabwe; the deteriorating economy has rendered the ordinary Zimba-bwean unable to make ends meet.
“This, we note, has been exacerbated by the economic sanctions imposed by the Western countries, these so-called targeted sanctions (presumably) aimed at the leadership of the country have affected the poor Zimbabweans who have borne the brunt of the sanctions . . .
“We, therefore, call upon the Western countries to lift the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, we further call upon the British government to honour its obligation of paying compensation to the white farmers.”
The Anglican Bishop’s pastoral letter exposes the patently political nature of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishop’s Conference that released its own letter ahead of the Easter holidays, accusing President Mugabe and the Government of corrupt governance and human rights abuses…
Another opinion article dated 11 May, from the Zimbabwe Independent and titled Diabolic is the Perfect Description includes this:
…And we have now the shocking scandal of Anglican prelates who are happy to identify themselves with tyranny and brutal repression.
The Rt Revd Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, who was reported in the Herald as accusing the British media of “peddling lies” about Zimbabwe during a meeting with Cephas Msipa, has now clarified his position.
At no point did he say the British press had lied about Zimbabwe, he said.
“What I said was that they shouldn’t complain about poor reporting of Zimbabwean affairs if journalists were banned from the country and had to rely on second-hand information,” he told a British-based weekly paper.
A man calling himself a journalist from the Herald approached him, he said, and claimed to have evidence that Church of England groups supported the MDC.
“Of course I denied the assertion and asked him why on earth anyone would wish to recolonise Zimbabwe.”
All rather different from the Herald version isn’t it!
Meanwhile, Anglican bishops have complained that their church’s episcopal letter, condemning sanctions and framed in language which mirrors that of the ruling party, was penned by the Bishops of Harare and Manicaland (Nolbert Kunonga and Elson Jakazi) and two others in Central Africa.
The Bishop of Masvingo, the Rt Revd Godfrey Tawonezvi, says he didn’t even get to see it.
“I did not sign the statement and I know that most bishops did not sign since the statement was written after the bishops had left Zimbabwe,” he said…
Episcopal News Service and others carry the report by Trevor Grundy that Rowan Williams speaks on failed bid to help starving Zimbabweans:
3 Comments…At a May 1 meeting held at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London, Williams was asked why Anglican church funds were not used to fill trucks with food and send them across Beit Bridge from South Africa to Bulawayo in southern Zimbabwe where people are starving.
Williams surprised those attending the meeting by saying that four years ago he held discussions with Southern Africa Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane of Cape Town about the best approach to help Zimbabwe.
A year ago, Williams again held talks with central and southern African Anglicans — a meeting that did not include Bishop Nolbert Kunonga of Harare, a staunch ally of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe. Again, he asked what sort of intervention from outside could be useful.
“The message I had from them was any intervention under the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury would instantly be branded in Zimbabwe as the British government by another name,” Williams said.
Williams met with Kunonga in March “to ask him whether he would contemplate not only rediscovering his soul, so to speak, in relation to the Mugabe government, but whether he would contemplate an arrangement which we would willingly broker with the World Food Programme administered through the Anglican church in Zimbabwe. The answer was ‘No’!”…
Updated Friday
The BBC radio programme Sunday had this:
Breakaway Anglican church in Virginia
A British man, Martyn Minns, was installed as bishop of the breakaway Convocation of Anglicans in North America, which is a mission of the Church of Nigeria. The Nigerian Archbishop, Peter Akinola, led the service in Virginia, having ignored pleas not to go from both the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, as well as the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori. Critics see it as an unwelcome form of Anglican colonialism. Julia Duin of the Washington Times reports.
Listen (3m 39s)
Michael Conlon at Reuters wrote Anglican church turmoil over gay issues deepens in which Bishop Mark Sisk is interviewed.
Andrew Brown wrote on Comment is Free about The end of communion. His article concludes like this:
…What Dr Akinola did was an act of unequivocal ecclesiastical aggression: it has been a recognised principle among Christians since the fourth century that there is only ever one bishop governing every diocese. So where you have two bishops claiming jurisdiction over the same territory, you have two churches. Dr Akinola’s actions show beyond any shadow of doubt that he does not consider himself to be part of the same church as the liberals. He is, in fact, in schism with them.
The rest of the churches which once constituted the Anglican communion will now have to choose whether they want to belong to any international body at all, and if so, who will head it. Here it seems that Dr Williams may have played a subtle game, because Dr Akinola’s ambition has repelled a great many of his potential supporters. The American, liberal line on homosexuality is not popular around the world; at one stage it seemed that 22 or more of the 38 Anglican primates would demand the Americans be expelled. But the more it became obvious that they would have to choose between being globally led by Dr Akinola or followed round the world by Dr Williams, the more popular the prospect of Dr William’s non-leadership became.
The number of primates supporting Akinola has steadily diminished from 22 to about eight. Even among the American conservatives, it is only a minority who are prepared to join up with him and his new enterprise. Installing Bishop Minns may prove to be the moment when he decisively over-reaches himself. Even if it does not, it is decisive for Dr Williams, too. Nothing that he now does or says can be justified on the basis that it preserves the unity of the Anglican communion. That unity has now been shattered. There is no communion, and no good reason for anyone to pretend otherwise.
Update Friday
The Church Times report by Rachel Harden is titled Akinola installs US bishop, despite appeals.
ACO reports:
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference met in the offices of the Anglican Communion Secretariat during the week beginning 30 April 2007. In its meeting, it reviewed its work so far and discussed how best to follow up the work that had already been undertaken. It has currently completed outstanding work on all the references made to it by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Panel also reviewed the Report which the Chairman, the Most Revd Dr Peter Carnley AO, had made to the Primates’ Meeting in Dar es Salaam in February, and authorised him to release an updated version. The Panel also set dates for future meetings in late 2007 and in 2008.
The Review of the Work of The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference can be found here as a tiny PDF.
Earlier reports on Florida, Fort Worth and New Westminster, together with other material about the POR can be found here.
18 CommentsArchbishop Peter Akinola has replied to Rowan Williams’ letter to him concerning his US visit.
The full letter is contained in a press release on the Nigerian provincial website. (The full text of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter has not been released so far.)
The reply letter is reproduced here below the fold.
Episcopal News Service reports on the weekend at Nigerian Primate proceeds with CANA installation.
138 CommentsNeela Banerjee New York Times U.S. Bishop, Making It Official, Throws in Lot With African Churchman
…The hope among leaders of the new diocese, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, is that it will eventually be recognized by the communion as its rightful representative in the United States, replacing an Episcopal Church they say has strayed from traditional Anglican teachings.
“I see it as a building block for that,” Bishops Minns said in a news conference preceding his installation ceremony. He said the convocation would work with other groups of disaffected congregations to create a successor to the Episcopal Church…
Michelle Boorstein Washington Post Conservative N.Va. Priest Installed as Anglican Bishop
…Even some conservatives who theologically agree with Minns still disapprove of the way his group was created — without seeking consensus among U.S. conservatives or other Anglican leaders.
“This isn’t the right way, setting this up and then claiming it. It’s unilateralist. It creates distrust,” said the Rev. Ephraim Radner, a senior fellow at the conservative Anglican Communion Institute in Colorado.
Akinola initially said he created the group to serve Nigerians in the United States who were turned off by the U.S. church, but the group quickly shifted last year toward serving all conservatives and possibly being in position to became another branch of the communion — if communion leaders approve such a dramatic change.
And still, the number of U.S. congregations that have left for other branches is only a few dozen, according to the Episcopal Church. There are more than 7,400 Episcopal congregations.
Today, Minns said, one-third of his 34 congregations are ethnically Nigerian. One-third are in Virginia, the rest elsewhere in the United States.
Radner said he sees other conservative groups declining and hears “well-founded rumors” that several U.S. bishops are looking hard at joining Minns.
Among those present for yesterday’s ceremony was Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, who leads a group of U.S. parishes that remain in the Episcopal Church but are critical of it…
Associated Press Nigerian Anglican Installs U.S. Bishop
Julia Duin Washington Times Fairfax rector designated head of Anglican offshoot
…The congregation then gave a standing ovation to Archbishop Akinola for establishing CANA as the American offshoot of his 18.5 million-member Anglican Church of Nigeria, the largest province within the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.
No mention was made during the service of a private letter Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams sent to the Nigerian archbishop asking him not to preside at a ceremony that elicited heated protests last week from the U.S. Episcopal Church. By the time the letter was sent, Archbishop Akinola already had arrived in the United States.
Clad in brilliant white, red and gold vestments, the archbishop has built an international reputation for his outspokenness and opposition to homosexuality. He kept a low profile all weekend, first failing to show at a scheduled appearance Friday at Church of the Apostles, another CANA congregation in Fairfax.
He also did not appear at a press conference yesterday and did not preach, celebrate Communion or deliver the kind of informal remarks typically given by visiting prelates during an installation…
Nick Mackenzie Religious Intelligence Archbishop rejects call to stay away
Lillian Kafka Richmond Times-Dispatch Bishop installed to lead breakaway Episcopalians
86 CommentsJonathan Sacks writes in The Times about the new exhibition at the British Library in The peoples of the Book need to find a new ‘convivencia’.
Christopher Howse writes about a new book Heresies and How to Avoid Them in the Daily Telegraph: Heresy and the good press that now goes with it.
In the Guardian Bishop Paul Richardson writes about links between religion and good health, in Face to Faith.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about Paul v. Jesus — a bid to take over?
Also in the Church Times this week Peter Doll writes about the history of the Episcopal Church in the USA, When a founding myth becomes a weapon.
In the Tablet Peter Kavanagh interviews the Canadian philosopher and Templeton Prize winner Charles Taylor in Called to question.
10 CommentsBoth the New York Times and the Washington Post report the news that the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to ask Archbishop Akinola not to go to Virginia:
Michelle Boorstein Archbishop Angry About Minister Becoming Bishop
Neela Bannerjee Anglican Church Intercedes as an Episcopal Rift Widens
Update
According to Anglican Mainstream here both David Banting and Gerry O’Brien are attending this event, and further, both the bishops of Rochester and Southwell & Nottingham have sent messages of greeting.
Jim Naughton has written some commentary about who are the intended audiences for Archbishop Peter Akinola’s visit to Virginia today at Daily Episcopalian: Who’s watching?
Dave Walker has a picture of The Contents of Archbishop Peter Akinola’s Waste Paper Basket.
11 CommentsAnglican Mainstream has reproduced a report in the Church of England Newspaper which says, among other things:
The CEN Daily Edition for May 3 reports that around 30 members of the Church of England General Synod have signed a message of support for the new head of a breakaway Anglican denomination who is due to be installed this weekend.The Synod group, which is made up of members from over 20 different dioceses, include lay member GerryO’Brien from the Diocese of Rochester, who will be attending the service of installation in Virginia for the Rev Martyn Minns on Saturday…
…Lambeth Palace today confirmed the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to the African Primate asking him to cancel his trip to Virginia to carry out the service. A spokesman for Dr Rowan Williams confirmed a letter had been sent to the Archbishop of Nigeria… But Mr O’Brien said he would be giving the greeting to Mr Minns to show solidarity with orthodox Anglicans inNorth America.
He said: “We’re wanting to stand together with orthodox Anglicans who find themselves under intense pressure. We wish it hadn’t come to this but we want them to know that they haven’t been abandoned.”
Episcopal News Service has a report on this also: Archbishop of Canterbury urges Nigerian Primate to cancel plans to install bishop by Matthew Davies:
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has written to Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola asking him to cancel his plans to visit the United States and install Bishop Martyn Minns as head of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a conservative missionary effort in the U.S. sponsored by the Anglican Church of Nigeria…
…Anglican Communion communications director Canon James M. Rosenthal confirmed that Williams’ letter had been sent to Akinola. “Many people have noted that such an action would exacerbate a situation that is already tense,” Rosenthal said, “especially as we look forward to the September 30 deadline outlined by the Primates at their meeting in Tanzania and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s planned visit to the House of Bishops…”
Episcopal Café reports on a press conference held on Thursday by Bishop Martyn Minns.
And there is an official press release from the Anglican Communion Network: Bishop Duncan to Attend Minns’ Installation.
10 CommentsUpdated again Friday morning
Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia issued this letter yesterday:
…In the run up to this weekend you no doubt will read news accounts of the impending visit of the Archbishop of Nigeria the Most Rev. Peter Akinola to preside at a service of installation of the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns. This weekend’s ceremony will provide false comfort to those who seek certainty in an uncertain world. But in truth, it will serve only to inflame the differences we have been struggling with. When there is so much that brings us together as brothers and sisters in Christ, in a Church that has always celebrated and respected a wide variety of opinions, it is painful to see our shared ministry and faith overshadowed by our differences…
…The disagreements within The Episcopal Church are ours to resolve. As reaffirmed at the recent House of Bishops meeting, the Episcopal Church is a self-governing, autonomous and undivided church that cannot accept intervention in the governance of our Church by foreign prelates.
The Church of Nigeria, like The Episcopal Church, is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion with clearly defined boundaries. Bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion hold that provincial boundaries are not crossed by bishops without expressed invitation. Bishop Akinola’s effort to establish the Church of Nigeria within the boundaries of The Episcopal Church through something called the Convocation of Anglicans of North America (CANA) has occurred without any invitation or authorization whatsoever and violates centuries of established Anglican heritage. As the Archbishop of Canterbury has made clear, CANA is not a branch of the Anglican Communion and does not have his encouragement. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori also has expressed her concerns over the visit by Bishop Akinola without invitation, a violation of a centuries old practice and decorum…
Julia Duin of the Washington Times has two reports:
Episcopal bishop hits Anglican installation and Minns’ installation splits Episcopalians.
The Falls Church News Press has Nigerian Bishop Akinola Steps Into Virginia for Installation (scroll down, and there is a second item below that) and also commentary: Anything But Straight: Nigeria’s Frequent Flyer.
Update
Rachel Zoll of Associated Press has Nigerian Anglican Helps U.S. Group.
Reuters Michael Conlon Episcopal Church faces divisions over gay issues.
Episcopal News Service Nigerian Primate responds to letter from Presiding Bishop.
Los Angeles Times Rebecca Trounson Anglican Church leaders engage in a war of words.
Updated Thursday
Archbishop Akinola has responded to this letter. Scroll down for more detail.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has written to Nigerian Primate Peter J. Akinola asking him to reconsider plans to install Martyn Minns as a bishop in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), an action she says “would violate the ancient customs of the church” and would “not help the efforts of reconciliation.”
Read the Episcopal News Service article, Presiding Bishop urges Nigerian Primate to reconsider plans to install bishop.
The full text of her letter:
My dear Archbishop Akinola:
I am writing this letter with my prayers for you and for the entire worldwide Anglican Communion from a fellow child of Christ.
I understand from press reports you are planning to come to the United States to install Martyn Minns as a bishop in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. I strongly urge you not to do so.
First, such action would violate the ancient customs of the church which limits the episcopal activity of a bishop to only the jurisdiction to which the bishop has been entrusted, unless canonical permission has been given. Second, such action would not help the efforts of reconciliation that are taking place in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion as a whole. Third, such action would display to the world division and disunity that are not part of the mind of Christ, which we must strive to display to all.
I would carefully ask that you reconsider your plans to come to this country for this purpose. This request stems from the hope and vision of reconciliation which was the mind of the primates as we met in Tanzania.
Your servant in Christ,
Katharine Jefferts Schori
Thursday Update
Archbishop Akinola has replied, and the original can be found on the Nigerian provincial website:
The UK Department of Communities and Local Government has published guidance documents relating to the two sets of Equality Act regulations that came into force on Monday 30 April.
Guidance on New Measures to Outlaw Discrimination on Grounds of Religion or Belief
This document gives guidance on Part 2 of the Equality Act 2006, which comes into effect on 30 April 2007. Part 2 prohibits discrimination against a person because of their religion or belief (including lack of religion or belief) when providing goods, facilities, services, public functions, or education, and in management and disposal of premises. The guidance sets out the effect of the law and the exceptions provided. The most significant exceptions allow charities and other organisations whose purpose is related to religion or belief to serve particular communities. There are also exceptions in public functions, including education.
The booklet can be downloaded as a PDF file here.
This document provides guidance on the practical effects of Part 3 of the Equality Act 2006, which comes into force on 30th April, 2007. Part 3 outlaws discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education, the disposal and management of premises and in the exercise of public functions. The guidance sets out the effect of the law and the exemptions provided.
The booklet can be downloaded as a PDF file here.
4 CommentsThe Canadian House of Bishops has issued a Statement from the House of Bishops to the Members of General Synod.
See press release: Bishops’ pastoral statement to go to General Synod. The full text of the statement is reproduced here, below the fold.
See also this Anglican Journal report Bishops prepare for synod aftermath. And this report Groups issue cautions on same-sex resolutions.
More on the resolutions themselves can be found in CoGS resolutions on the St. Michael Report and the blessing of same-sex unions.
The St Michael Report itself is here.
23 CommentsUpdated Tuesday evening
On the one hand, the Anglican Communion Institute Inc. has a new URL and a new website: http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com. It also has a new Treasurer and explains that “The Anglican Communion Institute is pursuing incorporation in the state of Texas”.
The most recent pronouncement from this group is A Visit From the Archbishop (dated 25 April). It is signed by Christopher Seitz, Philip Turner and Ephraim Radner.
Their previous article was Questions We Avoid At Our Peril.
On the other hand, the Living Church reports that seven bishops have issued a statement: Windsor Bishops Write Archbishop Williams, Set Meeting Dates.
See here for earlier articles on how many “Windsor bishops” there might be in total.
Update
Oh, I almost forgot: there was this article about the Anglican Communion Institute that I intended to link to once it became available to the public, and that happened last Friday: This is Andrew Brown’s press column in the Church Times dated 20 April 2007: What it takes to be an institute.
(Note: yes AB knows now (because I told him last week) that SDB is not yet a member of the clergy, so please save your comments on that.)
The Poor Man Institute site is here.
Tuesday evening
Jim Naughton has added his extended commentary on these matters, at 7 + ? =, including this:
20 Comments…The steering committee’s cause has also been damaged by one of its own members. News of what transpires inside the Primates Meeting filters slowly through the Anglican system, so descriptions of Bishop Bruce MacPherson’s pointed personal attack on Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the meeting in Tanzania is just beginning to achieve wide circulation. Observers say that MacPherson, who had been invited to the meeting to speak on behalf of the bishops who had endorsed the Camp Allen principles, characterized Bishop Jefferts Schori as the embodiment of everything that was wrong with the Episcopal Church. The comments, observers said, went well beyond the issues under consideration at the meeting and included a general condemnation of her beliefs and her ministry. MacPherson’s remarks made those of Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, who spoke on behalf of the Anglican Communion Network, seem mild by comparison, observers said.
MacPherson, who is bishop of Western Louisiana, is entitled to his opinion of the Presiding Bishop; his fellow bishops are entitled to their opinion of him. After his performance in Tanzania, he may no longer be able to lead the coalition of moderate and conservative bishops that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ACI, and Bishops N. T. Wright and Michael Scott-Joynt of the Church of England, were attempting to will into existence before the meeting in Dar es Salaam.
The success of the Primates’ communiqué hinges on the existence of such a coalition. If it doesn’t exist, the fiction that a large minority of Episcopalians is crying out for the Communion to intervene in their Church’s affairs cannot be sustained. And what was once a clever plan to undercut the authority of the Episcopal Church’s elected leadership, empower a counter-establishment, and preserve the notion that the Communion will return to health as soon as Americans give up on the gay issue, unravels.
The supporters of this plan — which include the Archbishop of Canterbury and, it would seem, at least several key members of the Anglican Communion Office — have invested much in it. For reasons best known to themselves, they have been willing to pretend that the theological opposition in the Episcopal Church is much greater than it is. But there is no Plan B, so they are unlikely to abandon their delusions — if they are deluded, and not knowingly distorting the truth — lightly…
Sarah Dylan Breuer has issued an invitation at Grace Notes.
…I’d love to see if the community of readers here and on ‘reasserter’ (a term often preferred for self-designation by people often designated as ‘conservatives’ by progressives) blogs such as TitusOneNine and StandFirm can come up with a list of important points we actually agree on.
So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to start a list of points on which I think I and many ‘progressives’ agree with the vast majority of ‘reasserters.’ Progressives and reasserters, please use the comments either to add your own points on which you think we’d agree or to let me know if you don’t actually agree with one of the points posted up here, and I’ll periodically edit the list in light of the comments…
I invite TA readers to contribute to the discussion over there, on Dylan’s blog. Comments here are therefore closed, at least for now.
0 CommentsArchbishop Peter Akinola is going to visit Virginia USA. Read all about it in the New York Times where Neela Bannerjee reports Visit by Anglican Bishop Draws Episcopal Anger.
Here is the place where this event will occur.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has issued this statement:
51 Comments“I have only just become aware of the possible visit by the Primate of Nigeria. Unfortunately, my office has not been directly informed of his pending visit, but we will now pursue extending to him a personal invitation to see him while he is in the United States. I regret that he has apparently accepted an invitation to provide episcopal ministry here without any notice or prior invitation. That is not the ancient practice followed in most of the church catholic, which since the fourth century has expected that bishops minister only within their own churches, except by explicit invitation from another bishop with jurisdiction. This action would only serve to heighten current tensions, and would be regrettable if it does indeed occur.”
Christopher Howse in the Daily Telegraph has Rowan Williams on the side of the angels.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed writes the Face to Faith column in the Guardian and blogs at Spirit21.
The Times Credo column is written by Roderick Strange.
From the Church Times Giles Fraser writes about film-making in Quarter of a million well spent.
From the Tablet Austen Ivereigh writes about irregular migrants in Plight of the shadow people.
From the Spectator The new religious right by James Forsyth.
31 CommentsUpdated Friday
An open letter to Rowan Williams was issued by a distinguished group of Episcopal rectors and cathedral deans who had been staying at the Canterbury Cathedral.
You can read the full text of it at the Episcopal Café Letter to Lambeth:
We salute your stated desires to “keep everyone at the table.” Your recent call for a renewed reading and hearing of scripture, rooted in eucharistic fellowship and the Holy Spirit, is one that we eagerly accept. We note that such a call is what holds our own parishes and cathedrals together. Our local communities are full of people who have disagreements, but who yet share eucharist, scripture, and truly holy communion together. Thus, in our commitment to the resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit has continuing occasion to renew us. Thus, too, we celebrate Jesus Christ together in our Anglican heritage.
Toward that end, we urge you to continue our Anglican precedent of inviting all jurisdictional bishops of The Episcopal Church in the United States and of the Anglican Church of Canada to the upcoming Lambeth Conference. We certainly respect the fact such an invitation is yours to give; but we pray that your invitation will be as broad and graceful as the invitation Jesus offers all Christians to gather at table together.
From Jim Naughton, we learn news not published by Lambeth Palace: Rowan Williams to take sabbatical at Georgetown
Update The Telegraph has more about this: A glutton for Punishment. See also this Prospect magazine article (hat tip Episcopal Café)
The Presiding Bishop visited Boston and her remarks there were reported in the Boston Globe as Episcopal leader holds firm on gay rights:
Saying “I don’t believe that there is any will in this church to move backward,” the top official of the Episcopal Church USA said yesterday that the election of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire has been “a great blessing” despite triggering intense controversy and talk of possible schism.
In an interview during a visit to Boston, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori compared the gay rights struggle to battles over slavery and women’s rights, and said she believes that it has become a vocation for the Episcopal Church “to keep questions of human sexuality in conversation, and before not just the rest of our own church, but the rest of the world.”
…The Anglican Communion has been embroiled in a debate about whether and how to punish the American church for its consent to Robinson’s election, which some Anglican primates view as a violation of biblical teachings about sexuality.
“This is an issue for some clergy and a handful of bishops in our own church, and for a handful of primates across the communion, who believe that this issue is of sufficient importance to chuck us out, but the vast majority of people and clergy in this church, and I would believe across the communion, think that our common mission is of far higher importance,” Jefferts Schori said. “If we focus on the mission we share, we’re going to figure out how to get along together, even if we disagree about some things that generate a good deal more heat than light.”
And there is much more of this interview on video here.
67 Comments