First, Jean Mayland of MCU wrote Holding together but going nowhere.
Second, two people from Inclusive Church have written personal reflections:
Clare Herbert “Beyond the Fringe” and
Greg Tucker Reflections on the Lambeth Conference.
3 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today sent a letter to the bishops of the Anglican Communion, setting out his personal reflections on the Lambeth Conference. You can read the full text of it at Archbishop’s Pastoral Letter to Bishops of the Anglican Communion.
39 CommentsReaders will recall this item.
Several contributors to Covenant-Communion have written an open letter, which you can read at A Word in Time: An Open Letter to the Anglican Communion Also available as a PDF here.
It starts out:
28 CommentsWe the undersigned contributors to www.Covenant‐Communion.com believe that “a word in time” is now needed in order to assist the Communion to move forward in a constructive manner following the Lambeth Conference. We would like to speak such a word by specifically addressing the points Bishop Bob Duncan raises in his email to Bishop Gary Lillibridge, which has now been made public with Bp. Duncan’s permission…
Many of the papers from the 2008 Modern Churchpeople’s Conference, Saving the soul of Anglicanism: the nature and future of the Anglican Communion are now available on the MCU website.
Here are the links to the PDF files. More detail and links to Word files are available here.
The Most Rev Dr Barry Morgan
Questions not Answers: A way forward for the Anglican Communion?
The Right Rev Michael Jackson
Anglicanism, blessing or curse – the Irish experience
The Right Rev Trevor Mwamba
A Holy Mess and the Grace of Ambiguity
Revd Dr Marilyn McCord Adams
The proposed Anglican Covenant and its implications for the Communion
Revd Dr Janet Wootton
A Dissenter’s view of Anglicanism and Establishment
Andrew Brown
A Journalist’s view of Anglicanism
See here first.
The Church of Ireland Gazette has an editorial today, Lambeth Conference Funding which says:
…However, should the Church of Ireland be approached to contribute some funds towards the £1.2m shortfall, it should not rush to join in footing the bill because what the shortfall points to is a serious level of mismanagement. It is the height of financial irresponsibility to run a massive international conference venture without being sure that the necessary finance is in place…
The Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council is a priest of the Church of Ireland.
8 CommentsThe Church of Ireland Gazette has now completed publication of its three-part series:
What is Canon Law? by Simon Doogan
Canon Law of Communion and Inter-Anglican Relations: the draft Anglican Covenant by Kenyon Homfray
Ecclesiastical courts and disciplinary jurisdiction by Terence Dunlop
2 CommentsEphraim Radner published at Covenant an article titled True Christian Unity? Reflections on the Lambeth Conference.
Graham Kings published at Fulcrum an article that will also appear in this week’s Church of England Newspaper titled Patience and Urgency Lambeth Conference 2008.
Adrian Worsfold has commented on both these pieces at Fawning and Imagining and there are several useful links to discussions of them on conservative blogs at this Fulcrum forum thread.
30 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
The Archbishop of Uganda writes in the East African Business Weekly:
Church cannot heal this crisis of betrayal
So, why did the bishops of the Church of Uganda and I decide not to attend the present Lambeth Conference? Because we love the Lord Jesus Christ and because we love the Anglican Communion. St Francis of Assisi said: “Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words.” We believe that our absence at this Lambeth Conference is the only way that our voice will be heard. For more than ten years we have been speaking and have not been heard. So maybe our absence will speak louder than our words…
From New Vision we have Museveni backs church against gays:
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has praised Anglican bishops for resisting homosexuality.
“I salute the Archbishop and bishops of Africa for resisting disorientation and a decadent culture, which he said was being passed by Western nations.”
Describing homosexuality as mtumbavu (Swahili for stupid), the President said: “Don’t fear, resist and do not compromise on that. It is a danger not only to the believers but to the whole of Africa. It is bad if our children become complacent and think that people who are not in order are alright…”
And earlier in the month, New Vision had Canterbury hits back at Archbishop Orombi:
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has dismissed a suggestion by the Archbishop of Uganda that his position as head of the worldwide Anglican Communion is a left-over from British colonialism…
Update Thursday evening
There is a further report by Ecumenical News International via Episcopal Life Online UGANDA: Anglican leaders support president’s speech on homosexuality by Fredrick Nzwili:
…Some Ugandan Anglican church leaders have expressed support for a statement by President Yoweri Museveni in which he commended the denomination’s bishops for resisting homosexuality.
“It was great of the president to speak about the issue,” Anglican Bishop Stanley Ntagali of Masindi–Katara told Ecumenical News International on August 20. “We have been inspired by the president’s positive comments.”
and
69 Comments“When he speaks in this manner to the bishops, it will energise the resolve against homosexuality,” said the secretary of Uganda’s Anglican church, the Rev. Aaron Mwesigye, in an interview with ENI. “The Uganda church has been very bold against homosexuality.”
Bishop Pierre Whalon, who is Bishop in Charge, Convocation of American Churches in Europe has written On polygamy, homosexuality, and generosity.
34 CommentsThe Bishop of Ely, Anthony Russell has written On returning home from Lambeth.
Paul Richardson, Assistant Bishop of Newcastle, has written Analysis: Will the Lambeth Conference bring peace to the Anglican world?
The Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard has written Bishop John reflects on Lambeth.
12 CommentsThis time from the Bishop of Gloucester, Michael Perham.
Read Bishop Michael’s account of the Lambeth Conference.
Earlier entries in this series:
Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford.
Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester.
All of these are from last week’s paper edition.
It would be foolish to let such a gift fall apart, say bishops
What happened? No one quite knows by Pat Ashworth
Spouses tell their stories by Margaret Sentamu
Lambeth bishops in their own words by Simon Sarmiento
The Readers Digest Church Times version of Reflections from the Lambeth Conference 2008 (PDF)
Leader The story of Lambeth ’08
IT IS TROUBLING that, five days after the close of the Lambeth Conference, many people are asking: what did the bishops do? We suspect that some bishops fall into this group, and not just those who stayed away. Part of the reason for the uncertainty is that the bishops did many things. We hope that our digest of the long Reflections document will help readers to pick out the most important of these.
They did talk about sexuality. They did talk about the threat of schism and the means of heading it off. The two-and-a-half weeks in Canterbury were not an avoidance exercise; for it was known beforehand that the Conference by itself had no authority to resolve the crisis over homosexuality, even had the GAFCON bishops been present. For this reason, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his team devised a programme that emphasised conversation rather than resolution.
We have no quibble with the Lambeth Conference conceived as a means of enlarging bishops’ vision and enabling them to serve their dioceses better. We should not mind, even, if in 2018 the Archbishop (it might be Dr Williams: he would be only 68) clears the programme completely of meetings and turns the whole thing into a bishops’ holiday — just so long as the Conference has no executive function…
Do read all of this.
15 CommentsThe Church of Ireland Gazette has an editorial in its issue of 15 August, which is titled Anglican Governance.
It concludes with this:
30 Comments… It is also important to emphasize that the Anglican Communion is not, as Dr Williams did at least suggest in his statement, a Church. It is a communion of autonomous Churches. If the Lambeth Conference were empowered to speak for the Anglican Communion as a whole, it would have been astounding that, at its recent two and a half week meeting – at a cost of some £5m – it did not issue any resolution and was reportedly boycotted by between one-fifth and one-quarter of its members.
However, as a conference, it is appropriate not to have resolutions, and members of a conference are free to attend or not to attend or to ‘boycott’, as they wish. If one has a role in governance, however, one does not have that choice.
Certain current proposals in the Anglican Communion would tend to lead towards a ‘global Church’ model. However, any such proposals will need to be the subject of very careful consideration and scrutiny, and cognisance will need to be taken of the fact that, according to our Preamble and Declaration, the General Synod is the chief legislative and administrative body in the Church of Ireland (BCP, p.777, Section IV). It should remain so.
Savitri Hensman has written an article on Comment is free which is titled Too big a tent with the strapline:
Rowan Williams preaches tolerance, but the Anglican church would rather pander to bigots than fight homophobia.
Her article concludes:
36 CommentsMeanwhile, at the Lambeth conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury appealed for a “covenant of faith” that would “promise to our fellow human beings the generosity God has shown us”, and suggested “a Pastoral Forum to support minorities”. But to him, those needing greater generosity and pastoral care were mainly Christians with strong objections to same-sex partnerships. While he is a humane man, his priorities seem strange. If Anglicans are to remain relevant, and a force for good, bishops need to listen more carefully to people like Michael Causer’s family.
This one is from the Bishop of Guildford, Christopher Hill.
Read the transcript of his audio interview in this PDF file: Lambeth Conference 2008 Mark Rudall talks to Bishop Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford.
The audio itself is linked from this page.
2 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
Today, the Bishop of Winchester has published a lengthy article, The Lambeth Conference 2008 – and the future of the Anglican Communion A Report to the Diocese of Winchester although I cannot at present find it on the Winchester diocesan website, but only on the Global South Anglican website, and, in part, on the Anglican Mainstream website.
Anyway you can read it all here.
Update
Jonathan Wynne-Jones has written about this letter, see Senior bishop predicts Anglican battle ahead.
The Church of England issued this press release today:
13 CommentsLambeth Conference: Funding
11 August 2008The Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners, and the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England have both met within the past few days to discuss an approach from the Lambeth Conference Company* for financial help. The Board met this morning (August 11th) and the Council on Thursday August 7th.
The Company has assured the Board and the Council that it is continuing to make further approaches throughout the Anglican Communion to meet the full cost of this year’s Conference. It cannot, however, be confident that these will generate funds sufficiently quickly for it to meet all of its obligations as they fall due over the coming weeks and months.
The Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners and the Archbishops’ Council have therefore each agreed to make available to the Company up to £600k as required to enable the Company to honour its commitments while fundraising efforts continue. At this stage both bodies regard these amounts as interest free loan facilities.
They will be considering these matters again at their September meetings when they expect a further report from the Company about the progress of its fundraising efforts.
Notes
There has already been generous support from the Church of England for the Lambeth Conference. Parishes and dioceses have made donations towards the costs of overseas bishops attending and the Church Commissioners have met the fees of the English bishops and their wives attending the Lambeth Conference, the costs of some of the conference organising staff, and some of the hospitality offered by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
More information about the Lambeth Conference is available at www.lambethconference.org.
*The Lambeth Conference Company is the body given responsibility for managing the finances and administration of the Lambeth Conference 2008.
Katie Sherrod has written on her own blog, That Wild Uncontrollable Force.
Watching Lambeth unfold was like watching one of those foreground/background optical illusions where, as you stare at the picture, either the profile of a beautiful young woman moves to the foreground or the image of an old woman moves forward while the young woman’s image disappears. It is almost impossible to see them both at the same time.
Lambeth was the same-there were two Lambeths occurring simultaneously, one out in front, the other in the background.
The Lambeth of the Indaba and Bible Study groups was the one in the foreground most of the time. But at key points, the Lambeth of the Windsor Continuation Group [WCG] and the group writing the Reflections documents moved out of the background into sight…
Jim Naughton has written at Comment is free The archbishop’s hands are tied, not ours.
52 CommentsThe politics of the church make Rowan Williams act against his beliefs on gay marriage. We don’t have to do the same.
Extensive research has proven that I am not the Archbishop of Canterbury. Neither, in all likelihood, are you. These facts, in hand for some time now, acquired new significance yesterday with the revelation that Rowan Williams, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury, believes, what a great many Anglicans believe, namely: “that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might … reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness.”
Bishop David Rossdale asks this question: If resolution 1.10 is important, what about resolution 19?
21 CommentsThe more I read the final Lambeth Document, “Capturing Conversations and Reflections”, the more I rejoice that we did not go down the road of resolutions and votes. To have a ’snapshot’ of the engagement between the Bishops is probably of far more worth, than adding to the fossilised remains of earlier conferences, which leave skeletal resolutions disconnected from the tissue of conversation lying behind them as some sort of guide to the heart and mind of the church.
Much has been made of Resolution 1.10 from the 1998 Conference, as though this is an enduring and unerring piece of truth. It has become almost a test for orthodoxy. But if this resolution has such enduring status, then all resolutions of the Lambeth Conference must be given the same status. So what about Resolution 67 from 1908? Very importantly it states…
Updated Sunday morning
Daniel Burke of Religion News Service interviewed Bishop Eugene Sutton of Maryland. The Washington Post carries this story at Raising Issues Of Race in Anglican Rift.
The Times had interviews with seven bishops by Bess Twiston Davies in The Anglican balancing act, in a church near you.
The Los Angeles Times had an unsigned opinion article, Adding to division.
Martin Beckford reports in the Telegraph that Archbishop may be forced to do fundraising tour to solve £1m Lambeth financial crisis.
Related to this is the ACNS press release, Finances and the Lambeth Conference 2008.
The webcast press conference held by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Mark Sisk is reported for Episcopal Life Online by Solange de Santis here.
Sunday morning update
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote for Comment is free The road from Lambeth.
I wrote a second column for Wardman Wire Lambeth Conference: Sex or Power?
More about the Lambeth financial deficit in the first few minutes of the BBC Sunday programme, listen here (URL for one week only). See also this BBC report, Church considers £1.2m shortfall.
76 Comments