English bishops speak up
Update
related news story by Ruth Gledhill Break-away bishops could undermine truce on gays
One of the signatories, the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Right Rev John Packer, said: “This is a strong statement of support for listening to the experience of lesbian and gay Christians.
“Many lesbian and gay Christians, rightly or wrongly, feel that the primates’ statement did not emphasise the need to emphasise them in the same way that the bishops of the Church of England did at our recent General Synod. We wanted to make it clear that we had in no way reneged on that promise. Sometimes I feel that people are saying they want to listen, when in fact they have already made their minds up.”
The following letter appears in Monday’s edition of The Times, signed by the bishops of Salisbury, Chelmsford, Leicester, Ripon & Leeds, St Albans and Truro.
10 CommentsSir, We are encouraged by the commitment of the primates of the Anglican Communion to “the underlying reality of our communion in God the Holy Trinity” whilst engaging in dialogue and listening, in relation to the issues which have “obscured” that communion. The communiqué issued at the end of their week-long meeting in Newry (report and leading article, February 26) recommends actions which will allow that dialogue to continue and articulates the deep bonds of affection which continue to unite us.
We do not believe that the different responses of our sister churches to lesbian and gay people are of such significance that we should break the bonds of communion. We welcome the positive steps which will now be taken to engage in dialogue with lesbian and gay people. This call has been repeated by successive Lambeth conferences and we will do all that we can to facilitate that mutual listening throughout the Communion. We assure lesbian and gay Christians of our commitment to the principle of the Lambeth conference that all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation, are full members of the Body of Christ.
We remain in full sacramental fellowship with all the churches of the Anglican Communion, including those of Canada and the US, and we seek to remain in full communion with all of them. We also clearly state our continuing solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the global south.In a world ravaged by the effects of poverty, war and disease our communion must seek to serve the whole human family.
We assure the Archbishop of Canterbury of our support for him in the ministry with which he has been entrusted and we offer him our love, our fellowship and prayers.
other weekend news
Bishop David Sheppard has died. Many newspaper stories on this:
Observer Former bishop of Liverpool dies and Appreciation: David Sheppard, 1929-2005
Sunday Times Sheppard the cricketing bishop dies after cancer battle, aged 75
BBC Online Cricketing bishop dies of cancer and Obituary: Lord Sheppard
Telegraph Former Bishop of Liverpool David Sheppard dies
David Hope has started his new job as a parish priest at St Margaret’s Ilkley
Sunday Times From palace to bin duty: an archbishop downsizes
This follows an earlier story in The Times Former Archbishop starts new life at grass roots
Yesterday, The Times editorialised that Richard Chartres was the best person to become Archbishop of York: Balanced ticket and there was an accompanying news story New favourite emerges for York archbishopric. As no sources are cited in the latter, it is unclear whether the editorial came first or the other way around.
Nor were any sources at all cited in this article: Liberal and weak clergy blamed for empty pews but for those who want to know where this comes from the answer is http://www.churchsurvey.co.uk/. Readers can judge the validity of the survey for themselves.
Addition a helpful comment about the survey by Dale Rye is here on titusonenine.
And the Church Times reports that Clerics second happiest at work but they do provide a clue as to the source of this claim which is to be found at Hairdressers are cutting it in the league table happiest jobs
1 Commentart and religion meet
Today, the Observer carries a report by Jamie Doward that fills page 3 of the paper:
Anti-gay millionaire bankrolls Caravaggio spectacular
This concerns a current special exhibition at the National Gallery in London, but is concerned not with the content of the exhibition but with the identity of the financial sponsor who is Howard Ahmanson. The illustrations for the article include a picture of him. An excerpt:
But it is clear Rushdoony’s influence – and the legacy bequeathed by Ahmanson’s generosity – lives on at the foundation which continues to argue homosexuality is sinful. Ortiz said: ‘I would categorise homosexuality, as the Bible does, with necrophilia and bestiality and bigamy and the rest of it. It’s obviously not the way, physically, things were designed to work and morally it’s not what God has permitted.’
And though Ahmanson may distance himself from the foundation his money continues to fund anti-gay causes. In 2000, Ahmanson gave at least $310,000 to the Knight Initiative, for its campaign against the granting to homosexuals in California of the same legal rights as heterosexuals.
And he is a generous supporter of the conservative American Anglican Council (AAC) which has unleashed chaos upon the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, by threatening to break away from the 70-million strong Anglican Communion over the ordination of gay bishops.
Liberals in the Anglican church in Britain said there was an absurd paradox that the National Gallery had to seek funding for an exhibition of a painter, whose work scandalised the church, from the deeply religious Ahmansons.
‘It’s ironic that one of the major funders of the exhibition – about which there has been such interesting comment about Caravaggio’s realism, use of real life models and homo-erotic content – should also be one of the major funders of the AAC,’ said Reverend Nicholas Holtam, vicar at St Martin-in-the-Fields church next to the National Gallery.
History, suggested Holtam, was repeating itself. ‘Ahmanson’s support seems to be an example of Caravaggio drawing the contemporary conservative church into a reality they want officially to deny – just as he did in his own day.’
Sidebar to the article:
Howard F Ahmanson Jr: the man and the money
0 CommentsBorn: Los Angeles 1950. Inherited a fortune from his father’s savings and loans company.
Funds: a number of right wing causes and charities through his own private company Fieldstead and Company Inc, which describes itself as ‘a private philanthropy working in national and international relief and development, education, the arts, family and children’s concerns’. Gave financial backing to RJ Rushdoony, high priest of a religious movement known as ‘reconstructionism’ which calls for government based on the literal word of God. Has given millions to the Discovery Institute, the Seattle-based centre which attempts to prove Darwin’s theory of evolution was wrong and the Claremont Institute, a right wing think-tank which promotes family values. Has additionally given money to right-wing intellectual Marvin Olasky, credited by Newt Gingrich as the intellectual author of ‘compassionate conservatism’, the ideology espoused by George W Bush.
Bishop Duncan reports to his diocese
Episcopal Church to Decide Whether to “Walk Apart” from Communion
By Lionel Deimel, President, Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh
Monroeville, Pennsylvania — February 28, 2005 — Following a service of Evening Prayer, Bishop of Pittsburgh and Moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, offered a perspective on the recent Primates meeting at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Monroeville. He took questions from the mostly friendly audience after his presentation.
The message of Duncan’s presentation was that the U.S. and Canadian churches have fractured the Anglican Communion, and, that unless they repent of their “innovations,” they, but not him or the diocese he leads, will be outside of it.
Duncan began by reading his statement of February 25, in which he called the clarity of the communiqué from the Primates “breath-taking.” The bishop, who had traveled to Northern Ireland to be able to hear from the Primates directly about their meeting, said that his remarks were based on meeting with 17 of the 35 attending Primates over three days. The church leaders pressed five points, he said. (Audio of the bishop’s presentation, though not of the question period, can be found on the diocesan Web site, along with a description of it.)
First, the teaching in Network dioceses, the teaching of the Anglican Mission of America, and that of other Anglican traditionalists, is the teaching of the Anglican Communion. “There is no other,” Duncan asserted. Both on matters of Scripture and on human sexual behavior, the present teaching of the Anglican Communion is represented in the 1998 Lambeth resolution 1.10 on Human Sexuality.
Secondly, Duncan reported that the Primates told him to “go back to North America and help people make the choice.” The synodical bodies of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada have been given time to accept or reject the Windsor Report. It is clear “that to hold the innovations of the General Convention of 2003 or the innovations of the General Synod of Canada in 2004 is to make a decision to walk apart from the Communion.”
According to Duncan, his supporters were encouraged to “flood the system” embodied in the “panel of reference” the Archbishop of Canterbury is urged in the Primates’ communiqué to establish. The task of this panel, he said, is “to guarantee adequacy of protection for orthodox minorities in places where they have been on the run or under duress.” Some 70 congregations are presently attempting to put themselves under conservative, non-Episcopal-Church bishops, and Duncan indicated that he plans to turn these cases over to the Archbishop immediately.
Duncan’s fourth point was that the Primates with whom he met insisted that all groups representing “missionary Anglicanism” in North American must be united under his leadership. The Primates are tired of dealing with the “alphabet soup” of AAC, AMiA, REC, FiFNA, etc.
Finally, the Bishop of Pittsburgh reported that the conservative primates wanted to send the message to the American orthodox to “grow up.” Conservatives, like progressives, want their own way and complain when they fail to get it. Duncan told his flock that it is in a “spiritual battle of immense proportion.” Referring to 2 Timothy 4:3–7, he said, “We’d like to keep the faith, but we have a harder time running the race and fighting the fight.” Summarizing, the five instructions, Duncan said simply, “Expect to suffer.”
Many of the queries during the question period involved “what ifs” and explanations of the mechanics of the decision-making that will be taking place as a result of the Primates’ decisions.
The first speaker, like most of those raising the more difficult issues, was a member of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh. She spoke of being a casualty of the battle the bishop is leading and of being a “pariah” because she attends a church not supportive of his goals. Not all Primates, she asserted, share the views of those to whom Duncan spoke. The bishop, in response, pointed out that all Primates in attendance, including Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, subscribed to the Primates’ communiqué.
Duncan was asked if he, like the Primates, would pledge to neither cross diocesan boundaries without permission nor encourage others to do so. He replied that the Primates believe that the work of the panel of reference would make such actions unnecessary. He warned, however, “I can say to you that what I will encourage is that the orthodox throughout this country are honored and given a place, and I will do whatever I have to do to see that they are given a place.” According to Duncan, the Primates agreed not to interfere in existing arrangements involving foreign bishops overseeing churches in the U.S. Duncan cited parishes in the Dioceses of Oklahoma and Los Angeles as being part of this agreement. It is unclear how this reputed agreement might affect the lawsuit brought by Bishop of Los Angeles Jon Bruno against three congregations in his diocese claiming now to be in the Ugandan Diocese of Luweero.
Asked what he would do as Bishop of Pittsburgh if the Episcopal Church were to do as he anticipates it will and chooses “to step outside the Communion,” Duncan replied, “I intend to serve the [conservative] majority here,” raising questions about the relationship of the diocese to General Convention in such an eventuality.
Supporters and opponents of the bishop’s position each expressed frustration that mission suffers when the church is taken up with internal divisions. Duncan agreed that this was inevitable, in spite of his best efforts, and blamed the American churches for diverting the Primates from issues of HIV/AIDS, debt relief, etc., at their recent meeting.
Duncan said that he would support all congregations, even those progressive ones who saw their views as prophetic and opposed to those of the Communion. He spoke of believing that all congregations should be “free,” while noting that he no longer believes that about property—alluding to the ongoing lawsuit that resulted from his attempt to have the diocese declare that parish property is owned by individual congregations. In all dioceses, we should operate out of charity, he suggested.
Duncan criticized Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold for discouraging the House of Bishops from acting on the Windsor Report before it was received by the Primates. The Church of England, on the other hand, saw no barrier in the timing to acceptance of the report. He called the Presiding Bishop’s action a delaying tactic and complained of the members of the House of Bishops that “we talk gracefully but act in power.” Duncan suggested that the action of the Primates might have been less harsh had the House of Bishops been more forthcoming with a conciliatory response at their recent Salt Lake City meeting. According to Duncan, Primates saw the North American churches as arrogant and considered the positions of the leaders of the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada as “startling.”
In response to other questions, Duncan described the church as being on a path of “mutually assured destruction.” “The majority,” he said, is “working to eliminate the minority, and the minority has sufficient power to resist the majority until it is eliminated.” He described the election of the next Presiding Bishop as a “plebiscite on which direction the church will go.”
2 CommentsFriday press reports
Updated 2 pm – new items at bottom
Stephen Bates reports in the Guardian what a “not normally noted as a liberal” primate told him, but only on condition of anonymity. Anglican leaders divided and defiant after gays pact
The primate, who is not normally noted as a liberal, was speaking on condition of anonymity. He said: “Some primates were personally offensive towards Rowan and gratuitously rude about him behind his back. They had no respect for him and said: ‘He’ll do what we tell him to.’ If I wasn’t a Christian, I would walk away from this right now. I believe a split in the church is inevitable.”
…The anonymous primate said that the conservative archbishops had ignored a direct appeal by the Archbishop of Canterbury for them to attend a service at which he was to preside at Dromantine. Twenty of the 35 attended a “celebration” dinner hosted by Nigeria’s Archbishop Peter Akinola but paid for by American Episcopalian traditionalists opposed to their liberal church leadership following the end of the meeting.
The Church Times also reports on the atmosphere in which the meeting was conducted:
Pat Ashworth Yes, they’re united, but only just: Primates’ response
Other Church Times reports:
Americans and Canadians face tough decisions
Primates’ meeting: the ACC response
Over at the Telegraph Jonathan Petre reports Primate attacked for stance over gays and refers to this letter.
George Conger in the Church of England Newspaper has the most detailed account of events at Dromatine, the article is in two parts:
Behind the scenes at the Primates’ Meeting, part 1
Behind the scenes at the Primates’ Meeting, part 2
Here is his account of the Thursday afternoon:
Matters took a quick turn when at 2pm when an independent journalist announced that he was getting ready to break the story of the agreement over the internet. The Primate of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, telephoned the journalist asking him not to proceed as the details had not been completed nor signed.
Though delayed, an incomplete story announcing the deal broke at approximately 4.30pm causing anger among the global south primates who were fearful that publication of the proposal would wreck negotiations.
As problems unfolded over the leak, Bishop Griswold became perturbed after witnessing the departure of a number of global south primates with their American supporters to dine off-campus.
Bishop Griswold spoke with Dr Williams, who then dressed down the Primates upon their return for sneaking away. In rebuking the Primates, Archbishop Williams committed his first gaffe of the meeting, as his infelicitous tone offended the African leaders.
In the midst of the turmoil over absent primates, exaggerated news reports, and bruised egos, the Primates voted to junk the evening’s agenda and finish the communiqué.
Sources at Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Consultative Council told us the next day that the determination to finish the report and regain control of the agenda from the press unified the Primates as nothing else had over the week.
The drafting committee presented its work to the Primates and after only a few readings the communiqué was adopted — breaking with past practice of arguing over each jot and tittle. At 10.22pm the communiqué was released to the press.
The expression of repentance from the Episcopal Church found in earlier drafts did not materialise due, in part, to the rush to finish. Archbishop Peter Carnley explained: “At the beginning of our meeting we did talk about an expression of regret”, however “I think we lost sight of that particular issue in the course of the meeting”.
The endorsement of the communiqué, however, did not return harmony to the Primates. After the deal was done, Archbishop Williams announced he was going to lead the noonday Eucharist on Friday and invited all the Primates to attend as a gesture of unity. The global south primates declined.
Other CEN report: North American Churches suspended from Communion
and editorial which will disappear next week, but another copy is here
An American report from yesterday, by David Steinmetz in the Orlando Sentinel Negotiating truce in Anglican civil war
Associated Press report by Richard Ostling
And for those who thought Orombi okays gay debate in Church was too good to be true, well, it isn’t: No debate on gays, says Orombi.
1 Commentecclesiastical autonomy
A very interesting legal paper has been published by Dr Augur Pearce concerning the ecclesiastial autonomy of the Church of England.
There is a summary of the key points (and a biographical note) on this page: English Ecclesiastical Autonomy and the Windsor Report by Dr Augur Pearce.
and the full 12 page article can be downloaded in PDF format from here.
The last two summary points read as follows:
- Reflecting that the Windsor Report’s proposed ‘communion law’ (subordinating national ecclesiastical autonomy for the future to an international agreement and arbiters) could only be effected in England by primary legislation, the paper mentions two existing approaches to self-obligation in the legislative field (in the European Communities Act and Human Rights Act). Given that either approach would affect radically the tradition of independence that formed the English Church as now known, and that a possible consequence could be to narrow the national church’s broad popular appeal, Parliament may think very carefully before approving such legislation while leaving the Church of England its national status and associated endowment.
- Being no expert in the history of the North American churches’ involvement with the Lambeth Conference, the writer does not seek to apply his conclusions directly to their situation. It is recognised that as voluntary rather than national churches, the conceptual basis for their autonomy is quite different. However it is suggested that if the Church of England is indeed presently not bound by Lambeth Conference majorities, the North American churches should consider whether it can be right for them either to own such an obligation.
primates meeting: more documentation
First, Anglican Mainstream has very helpfully provided a transcript of the interview that Rowan Williams gave to Roger Bolton on last week’s BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme.
Interview with Rowan Williams – Transcription
Second, Bob Duncan gave a speech in Pittsburgh about the Primates Meeting, and there is an audio file of the speech on this page and a summary of his remarks on this page.
Third, there was a statement issued before the Dromantine meeting which is only now available. A Statement from Global South Primates meeting In Nairobi January 27th/28th, 20O5
Fourth, Australian radio ABC National has a transcript and audio files of its weekly programme The Religion Report, entitled Woes of Anglicans; Dances of Ecstasy
And finally, a newspaper report from the Montreal Gazette A communion shaken by conflict
This contains perhaps the greatest exaggeration yet about the Lambeth Conference 1998:
1 CommentThe worldwide Anglican conference in 1998 upheld traditional church teaching, which prohibits practising homosexuals from receiving communion.
primates meeting: responses from groups
UK/Ireland-based
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
Reform Ireland (no response from the English one)
US or Canadian based
Anglican Communion Network and Anglican Communion Council (2 separate organisations but one statement)
Moderator of Anglican Communion Network
Anglican Communion Institute
On Reading the Primates’ Communique
THE COMMUNIQUE IN CONTEXT
What happened at Newry?—An ACI Response
primates meeting: more newspaper articles
icCheshireOnline Call for moral crusade as Church heads for split
Anthony Howard in The Times The Church should be about doctrine, not majority votes
Chris McGillion in the Sydney Morning Herald Anglicans must accept moral diversity to protect universality
Muriel Porter in the Melbourne Age Anglicans postpone their schism
Boston Globe Bishop says gap is closing over gays in Anglican church
New Vision Uganda Orombi okays gay debate in Church
Colin Slee in the Guardian The price of unity is too high
New Orleans Times-Picayune Bishop urges new route out of crisis
Simon Jenkins in The Times Schism would be better than giving way to intolerance
1 CommentWindsor Report: provincial responses
Addition
Comments by House of Bishops, Nippon Sei Ko Kai
The responses from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are now available online as PDF files from the LGCM website.
1 Commentanalysis of communiqué
My own analysis of The Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting Communiqué, February 2005
can be found on Anglicans Online at The Primates Meeting at Dromantine, February 2005.
primates meeting: Sunday
Press coverage continues…
Associated Press Nigerians, Anglicans Clash Over Gays
Telegraph Clifford Longley It’s independence day – again
Observer Will Hutton A schism that threatens us all
BBC Anglican split ‘a matter of time’
The BBC World Service has an interview with Josiah Idowu-Fearon (about 27 minutes, starts about 30 seconds into the recording)
…In this week’s edition of The Interview, Owen Bennett-Jones goes to the heart of the matter in his conversation with Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Archbishop of Kaduna state in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Anglican church – one of the biggest communities in the communion – has led the criticism over the appointment of homosexual clergy. The row began in 2003 when the American Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay bishop…
The BBC radio programme Sunday which has a larger audience than many Sunday newspapers sell copies carried this:
Primates Meeting listen here with Real Audio (14 minutes)
Was it a fudge, the beginning of the end, or a step back from the brink? I refer to the communique issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion at the end of their crisis meeting in Northern Ireland this week. One observer said “The Primates have handed the North Americans a pearl handled revolver”. The communique dealt almost exclusively with the split between the North American churches, which have consecrated as bishop someone who has a homosexual partner and which have blessed same sex marriages, and conservative Christians in the rest of the world who believe practising homosexuality is a sin, and who have called for the liberal North Americans to repent. Caught in the middle is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Roger hears from the conservative Archbishop of the West Indies, Drexel Gomez, and the Presiding Bishop of Ecusa, Frank Griswold, and then talks live to The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, from Lambeth Palace.
Press Association report on the above radio interview, Williams Admits Gay Row has Caused Serious “Fractures”
BBC report of the interview Williams admits church ‘fracture’
BBC World Service Divine division? listen here
Graham Kings and Stephen Bates interviewed about the Primates’ Meeting on BBC World Service World Update (hat tip KH)
Some other items not reported earlier:
BBC interview of a spokesman for Peter Akinola, on Saturday’s Today Programme: listen here (3.5 minutes)
CNEWS Gay debate divides Anglican faith
Toronto Globe and Mail Top cleric faces rift among Anglicans
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steve Levin Anglicans push U.S. church off key council
Two Church of Ireland press releases:
Irish Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) members comment on recent devlopments in the Anglican Communion
Bishop of Cork asks: “Has Anglican Primates’ Meeting exceeded its powers?”
Ruth Gledhill wrote up the Armagh Evensong for the regular Times Saturday feature At Your Service which can be compared with the account of this service from an insider published exclusively here.
3 Commentsprimates meeting: Saturday
Press coverage of the meeting continues.
Updated Saturday 9 a.m.
Church Times has updates to the paper edition:
Pat Ashworth Primates speak of ‘miraculous’ unanimity
and an editorial Fall-out from the Primates’ Meeting
(earlier report Let Christ unite you, Primates advised)
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Americans must admit gay error, says Church
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made it clear yesterday that the Anglican churches of the US and Canada will have to admit that they are in the wrong over homosexuality if the unity of the Anglican Church is to be preserved.
Dr Williams, speaking in Northern Ireland at the end of the week-long primates’ discussions of the crisis that has brought the Church to the brink of schism, said: “There is no painless solution.
“Any lasting solution will require people to say, somewhere along the line, that they were wrong, wrong about something. What, I do not know. That is for them to determine. It is perfectly possible to take a decision in good faith and afterwards to think, ‘I had not counted the cost’.” …
and an editorial article Come on all ye faithful
…Were God to focus on the question of elevating homosexuals to the Anglican episcopate, He would, presumably, distinguish at once between disagreement based on genuine respect for Scripture, and the contortion of Scripture in order to camouflage mere prejudice. There seems little doubt, however, that the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church in Canada have undervalued unity in their precipitate and unilateral moves in favour of same-sex unions and gay bishops. Neither development is necessarily incompatible with Anglican harmony in the long term, but in the short term the suspension of both churches from the Anglican Consultative Council is wise. Time has been bought, and, God willing, sanity and sanctity will prevail.
Guardian
Stephen Bates Church schism feared despite deal on gays
Owen Bowcott ‘Punishment is for doing what we are all meant to do’
Mark Lawson His only ‘ism’ is schism
and an editorial Divided they stand
Telegraph
Jonathan Petre Church remains at risk of schism on homosexuality, warns Williams
and an editorial Anglicans must fight to keep their Communion
Independent
No easy solution to Anglican split, says Williams
and an editorial (text below the fold).
Scotsman
Archbishop of Canterbury can’t rule out schism over gay clergy
Financial Times
Deal averts split over gay bishops
New York Times
Move to Halt Delegations Is Challenging Episcopalians
Washington Post
Episcopalians Affirm Pro-Gay View
Sydney Morning Herald
Anglican leaders split over gays
National Public Radio
Gay Issues Cause Dischord Within Anglican Union
PBS Television
Anglican Primates Meeting
Episcopal News Service has a page of material, including audio of the press conference and an interview with Frank Griswold:
Primates Meeting 2005 – News and Resources
The BBC has done a major write-through of the story at this URL now titled Lasting split looms for Anglicans which also includes links to a substantial video clip of the press conference and a BBC TV news report.
Belfast Telegraph
Gay row move not a mere fudge, warns Eames
This Life: Finding right way in the sex maze
primates meeting: later reports
updated Friday evening
ACNS picture of the press briefing here
BBC
Anglican rift grows over gay row (This story has now been updated to reflect the briefing)
Anglicans deny gay clergy split
Q&A: Anglican church split
Associated Press
Anglican Leaders Ask U.S. to Leave Council
and, later Archbishop: Anglicans Could Face Division
The Times
Archibishop acknowledges the Church may split
Should the Anglican Church split over homosexuals?
Guardian
Lesbian and gay Anglicans deny schism
Belfast Telegraph
Gay issue widening Anglican divisions
Reuters
Anglican Church Divisions Over Gays Widens
North American Anglicans Defend Gay Policies
Beliefnet
In Anglican Report, There’s Something for Everyone, Once Again
Further American responses from ENS
A word from the Presiding Bishop
Anglican primates uphold unity in response to Windsor Report
CTV No ruling on Anglican church withdrawal: official
Further Canadian response via Anglican Journal
Church sanctions could have been worse: primate
Request from Primates’ Meeting is not an enforceable decision – Bishop of Cork
Reports filed before the briefing:
Press Association Church Warned over Stance on Homosexuality
Sydney Morning Herald Sex drives wedge in Anglican ranks
Associated Press Anglican Leaders Seek Split Over Gay Issue
primates meeting: additional material
Due to the early issuance of the Primates Meeting Communiqué the press briefing at Dromantine has been rescheduled to 2 30 pm.
ACO press release Explanatory note: The Anglican Consultative Council
The ACO website has (or will have) additional material relating to the primates’ Windsor Report discussions (these are mentioned in the footnotes to the communique itself):
PRESENTATION OF THE WINDSOR REPORT 2004 by Archbishop Robin Eames – this is 5 pages on the web
Reception Process Report Given by Primus Bruce Cameron at the Primates Meeting 2005 – this is 8 pages on the web and leads to Powerpoint slides and PDF files#
Photographs from the Primates Meeting, February 2005
0 Commentsprimates meeting: Friday
British press coverage this morning:
Press Association Church Tells Pro-Gay Anglicans to ‘Consider Position’
Reuters Anglicans Face Temporary Split in Gay Row
Guardian Church faces schism today
The Times Anglicans ready to split over gay bishop
Independent Gay row forces split with North American Anglicans
Telegraph Anglicans give ultimatum to pro-gay liberals
Audio of first report on BBC Today Programme at 0632 listen here (3 minutes)
Second report at 0709 listen here (6 minutes) – interviews with Steven Charleston and Philip Giddings
Third report at 0810 listen here (6 minutes) interview with Peter Carnley
BBC reports
Anglican rift grows over gay row
BBC Analysis: Anglican schism nears reality
Can Anglican rift be resolved? invites comments from the public. Thinking Anglicans encourages you to comment to the BBC.
New York Times Anglican Leaders Seek Move to Avoid Schism
Los Angeles Times U.S., Canada Churches Urged to Leave Key Anglican Council
Canadian responses:
A Statement from the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
Anglican Journal Primates move to sanction North American churches
American response:
Primates’ Meeting Communiqué – From the Presiding Bishop:
primates meeting: Thursday
updated Thursday afternoon
News from Northern Ireland today is in fact non-existent, but tomorrow there will be a press conference at 5.30 pm
Primates Meeting Press Briefing
and The Living Church reports
Team to Prepare Final Statement of Primates
The BBC Radio 4 Today Programme has this report followed by a discussion with Peter Jensen and Colin Slee: listen here (Real Audio)
BBC Gay priest row ‘threatens Bible’
Press Association Church ‘May Have to Split over Homosexuality’
Reuters Sydney primate warns of church split on gays
Toronto Globe and Mail Anglican churches battle over conflicting beliefs
The Church of England Newspaper has these reports, related to the Northern Ireland meeting:
Primates take first step to implement Windsor
Synod backs Windsor as liberals receive warning
Primates Meeting: the key players
Later reports
Belfast Telegraph Gay row: Anglican leaders prepare update
0 Commentsprimates meeting: Wednesday
Updated Wednesday afternoon
Morning reports from British journalists in Northern Ireland:
Stephen Bates in the Guardian
Bishops pray together amid rumours of split
Tolerance is absent from their lexicon
Ruth Gledhill in The Times
Church plea for unity over gays
BBC
Call for peace in gay bishops row
Belfast Telegraph Church should be a place of sanctuary: Archbishop – Let us keep doors open, says Williams
Primates Meeting 2005: Photographs from Armagh
Later reports
BBC Will Africa split the Anglican Church?
Reuters Archbishop pleads for calm over gays
3 CommentsGeneral Synod: Brian Lewis speech
This is the prepared text for the maiden speech given by Brian Lewis in the General Synod debate on the Windsor Report last Thursday. Brian is Rector of St Michael & All Angels, Little Ilford (Manor Park)in the Diocese of Chelmsford.
I felt very disappointed when I read the House of Bishops report on the Windsor Report. In his Advent Pastoral letter the Archbishop had written that one of the deepest challenges of the Windsor Report is about repentance. And in the Church we can never call on others to repent without ourselves acknowledging that we too in all sorts of ways are sinners in need of grace. We all need to be involved in this repentance, and it seems to me that this recognition that we all need to repent is missing from the Bishops’ report.
The current crisis in the Anglican Communion and the need for the Windsor report is apparently because of the different ways that different parts of the Communion approach the subject of homosexuality. For nearly thirty years now, successive Lambeth Conferences have addressed the question of homosexuality and called on us as the Anglican Communion to engage in a process of dialogue, study and listening. For nearly thirty years we have largely ignored that call, and we have totally ignored the way that other parts of the communion, specifically those parts of the Communion who have had most difficulty coming to terms with what has happened in New Hampshire, have refused to engage in that process. We do need to be repentant of how we have handled that. We have failed the wider communion when we have not used opportunities to share the dialogues we have been able to have in this country simply because it is legal to have those dialogues. You may have heard about a radio station in Nigeria broadcasting a programme which had three gay Nigerians talking about their lives. That programme was against the law. The radio station was fined for simply allowing gay people, in a secular context, to talk about their lives. We need to take account of how difficult it is for people to share their experiences in other parts of the communion and we might have done much more to help.
Working in East London odd opportunities arise. One Sunday morning, unannounced, five Kenyan priests arrived in church for the Sunday Eucharist – they were travelling through on the way back from a conference. It was just before the Archbishop’s enthronement, they had heard that he had ordained a gay man, so we talked about what that meant in our culture. About the place of gay people in our society, about what it means to be gay in our culture. I talked about my pastoral experience, about a bereavement visit where the widow quite naturally introduced her son and his partner as her second son. My visitors were astounded, it was a revelation to them that such a thing could happen. As I talked about the place gay people have in our culture, they talked about Kenyan society, about marriage and what it is to be unmarried in Kenyan culture. They learnt from me, and I learnt from them, we learnt from each other. An isolated story – but it needn’t have been, how often might we have learnt from each other if we had used, for example, link diocesan visits and exchanges to really learn what each others cultures are about and what it is to minister in them. Perhaps we need to repent of being too frightened, or just not caring enough, to talk about the difficult issues, the things we would disagree about.
You may have heard about a retired bishop in Uganda who has tried to begin the process of dialogue and pastoral support for gay Ugandan Christians. He faced tremendous opposition from his church. He was forbidden to preach and officiate, and even told at one point he would be refused a Christian burial. Perhaps we should have more visibly offered support and encouragement, after all he is doing what successive Lambeth conferences have been asking for. When he was suspended by the Ugandan church perhaps we should have been more overt and public in our support of him and our bishops might have intervened on his behalf. Calling one another to account is part of what the Archbishop was talking about in his pastoral letter when he spoke of living in the full interdependence of love.
The Bishop of Durham has spoken to us being in a desperate state of emergency, but that ignores the fact things are still happening, our communion is still functioning – things may not be as dire as he would have us believe. On the feast of Epiphany in the Diocese of Kajo Keji in the Sudan, there was a great occasion, an ordination of thirty-four deacons and three priests. Bishop Paul Marshall of ECUSA had been due to visit the diocese but in the light of the Windsor Report had offered to cancel his visit not wanting his presence to be a cause for embarrassment. But with the support of his Primate the Diocesan Bishop not only renewed his invitation, he rescheduled the ordinations so that Bishop Marshall could ordain the thirty-four deacons and with him the three priests. It also seems to me that we are too ready to hear the stories of broken relationships and not where the communion is strong.
And a story from me, I was born in New Zealand and ordained priest there twenty five years ago, and even longer ago than that I remember a debate in my diocesan synod on the subject of homosexuality. The synod resolved not to discriminate in employment on the grounds of sexual orientation. The debate was certainly about clergy and presumably that included bishops. The sky did not fall in, no African prelates imploded. It may have been because we were all concerned about something that seemed much more controversial – rugby. Should the Allblacks play the Springboks? We were engaged with supporting the Church in South Africa’s battle with apartheid. Throughout New Zealand society and the churches were deeply divided about the sporting boycott of South Africa. Rugby is what threatened to split the church not homosexuality. How have we come to this point today?
If the Anglican Communion falls apart in the next few months, might – just might – it not be because of something that happened in New Hampshire but because for twenty five years we have ignored the call of three Lambeth conferences to talk, to listen, to study, to learn.
4 Commentsprimates meeting: Tuesday
The Church of Ireland had a press release Church of Ireland welcomes Primates to Dromantine.
The Belfast Telegraph published St Patrick’s to welcome church heads.
The Episcopal News Service which earlier had Anglican Primates: An Overview, and Presiding Bishop preaches at Belfast Cathedral has also published the report of Cedric Pulford from Ecumenical News International Anglican leaders meet to debate division on gay bishop consecration.
Jane Lampman wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that Mainline churches struggle over gay policy.
A related story from Canada is Anglican position on same-sex marriage has not changed, Primate says which refers specifically to the internal position of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Reuters Global rifts emerge as Christianity moves south
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