The bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke to GAFCON this evening on “The Nature and Future of the Anglican Communion”.
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph reports on his speech Western world is losing Christian values, says leading bishop.
Ruth Gledhill in her Times blog writes Nazir-Ali: there must be development in terms of doctrine.
The Diocese of Edinburgh has launched a new website today. It contains a lecture given by the Bishop of Edinburgh on 17 June concerning current conflicts in the Anglican Communion.
The prefeace to the address reads:
This address was given to members of the Diocese of Edinburgh on 17 June 2008. Drawing upon earlier addresses and Bible studies given in the diocese, it argues that the church should allow the category of ‘the tragic’ to shape its perspective on the world, and should place more emphasis on what is highlighted as ‘ethical transcendence’ in its understanding of God. Doing this creates the possibility of articulating a circumscribed and limited pluralism, totally different from simple relativism. The paper concludes by suggesting that much in current approaches to Anglican difficulties rests upon a too limited approach to the doctrine of the Trinity. The heart of the paper is a plea that Anglicanism recaptures elements in the traditions which lie at the heart of its life, brings them to the fore and addresses our current disputes in their light.
The address appears in the ‘News’ section of the website. Or you can download it directly as a pdf or Word file.
8 CommentsDave Walker continues to round up the links about GAFCON at the Church Times blog.
Andrew Brown wrote about it, at Comment is free in The Anglican culture wars.
Jonathan Wynne-Jones wrote at the Telegraph that The conservative Church’s desperation to stop the liberal tide could be damaging.
Martin Beckford wrote there also, from Jerusalem, Gafcon: Hardline Anglicans to split church over homosexual clergy.
Iain Baxter’s latest report is below the fold.
Ruth Gledhill has written about him here, in a post with an improbable title.
7 CommentsIain Baxter has provided a full transcript of the responses of Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda, and also of Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia to questions concerning homophobia asked at the GAFCON press conference yesterday. This is reproduced below the fold.
33 CommentsComment is free has published An unheavenly silence on homophobia by Riazat Butt.
…Last night, the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, said the Gafcon movement would liberate people from religious bondage and would offer a spiritual haven for those who could not live under a “revisionist leadership”. It sounds appealing to the millions of Anglicans disillusioned with western churches. But a press conference revealed acute differences of opinion between the bishops, especially, and most worryingly, on the subject of raping and torturing homosexuals.
A question from Iain Baxter, a media representative from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, aroused expressions of disbelief and outright denial from the primates. The name of his organisation raised a discomfiting titter. Homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya and is punishable by a fine, imprisonment or death.
Archbishops from these countries were on the panel. They said they could not influence government policy on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) legislation, nor could they condone homosexual behaviour because their churches would be shut down. They added one could not break the taboos of African society without suffering the consequences.
Presumably, these cultural constraints justify the punishment meted out to Prossy Kakooza, Baxter’s example of someone tortured because of her sexual orientation. She was arrested, marched naked for two miles to a police station, raped and beaten.
Akinola did not condemn these acts. Neither did the other African archbishops. Orombi said he had never heard of people being tortured because of their homosexuality, that when he learned about incidents – from the western media – he was at a loss to understand why he had not heard of them. He refused to accept that persecuting and torturing gay people was done openly in Uganda…
Read the whole article.
23 CommentsRuth Gledhill reports from Jerusalem that:
43 CommentsThe eight men and women pictured here are on the official list of those to be denied entry to Gafcon shouldthey try to show up. They are Colorado Bishop Robert O’Neill, Nigerian gay activist Davis MacIyalla being embraced by the Church of England’s Rev Colin Coward, Louie Crew, Susan Russell, Scott Gunn and Deborah and Robert Edmunds…
Read the full entry and see the picture.
There are numerous reports from GAFCON. The official GAFCON site has: Archbishop Akinola’s Opening Address in full.
The subsequent news conference is reported in “We Have No Other Place to Go” – Akinola confims there is no break away. An audio clip is available. And Stand Firm has a fuller record of questions and answers.
And there is also GAFCON Leadership Meets Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem. Another version of this encounter can be found in the ENS report, Jerusalem bishop calls GAFCON participants to reconciliation, not division.
First media reports:
Reuters Ari Rabinovitch Conservative Anglicans to discuss Communion split
Jerusalem Post Matthew Wagner Anglicans gather in Jerusalem to protest secularization
BBC Robert Pigott Rival meeting deepens Anglican rift
Telegraph Martin Beckford Primate of Nigeria vows to rescue Anglican church from crisis over sexuality
In a rallying cry to the hundreds of traditionalists who have gathered in Jerusalem for a critical summit, the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, said many in the Communion were “apostates” who were going against their religion by tolerating homosexuality.
He poured scorn on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for his “misleading” comments on Islamic law and claimed he was not interested in what he and other African leaders had to say.
But Archbishop Akinola pledged that he would help Anglican worshippers break free from the spiritual “slavery” they had been placed in by the liberal West, and said the Gafcon conference would answer important questions about what should happen next in the church.
The Times Ruth Gledhill Rebel Anglican bishops plan refuge for orthodox views
Anglican bishops meeting in Jerusalem are planning to form a “church within a church” to counter Western liberalism and to reform the Church from within.
Senior sources told The Times that the most likely outcome of the divisions over homosexuality and biblical authority was an international “Anglican Fellowship” that would provide a home for orthodox Anglicans…
…The new fellowship could have a leadership of six or seven senior conservative bishops and archbishops, such as the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Right Rev Bob Duncan — who chairs the US Common Cause partnership that acts as an umbrella for American conservatives — Archbishop Henry Orombi, Primate of Uganda, and the Church of England’s Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.
The aim is not to split the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has 80 million members in 38 provinces, but to reform it from within. Formal ties would be maintained with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, but fellowship members will consider themselves out of communion with the US and Canada…
The Church Times blog has a good roundup of links here.
And Iain Baxter has emailed us a summary of the first day, which is below the fold.
15 CommentsUpdated again Saturday evening
The latest official bulletin is this: Still laughing, despite GAFCON trials.
More news reports this morning:
New York Times Laurie Goodstein Conservative Anglicans Plan Rival Conference as Split Over Homosexuality Grows.
This report says that Archbishop Drexel Gomez also had a visa problem:
…The news conference was called in haste, after the conservatives abandoned a preliminary strategy session in Jordan because two of their most influential members, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, and Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, were denied visas…
The Telegraph has Orthodox sect justified by gay clergy row, say Conservative Anglicans By Tim Butcher and Martin Beckford.
The Times has a much shorter article: Anglican conference moves to Israel after Archbishop of Nigeria ban by Ruth Gledhill.
The ENS report is headlined Conservative Anglicans, former Episcopalians arrive in Jerusalem for GAFCON.
Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press filed this: Anglican Bible conservatives hold strategy summit.
The Telegraph has another swing at GAFCON, in Hard-line bishops make a mess of it in the Holy Land by George Pitcher
And the Guardian had this in the People column.
David Van Biema in Time has Are the Anglicans About to Split? He ends up with this:
What’s more, the GAFcon conference itself has been a bit of a Keystone Kops affair. Several key conservative bishops who were slated to appear chose not to travel to the Mideast, leaving open the possibility that they will attend Lambeth instead. The group even had trouble finding a location for its conference. At first it was scheduled for Jerusalem, but then the Anglican bishop there said he had enough problems without a divisive conference on his turf. The site was switched to Jordan, but on Wednesday the Jordanian border authorities delayed Akinola and another bishop from entering the country. The reasons were not stated, but opponents suggest that the Jordanians finally caught up with some of the remarks Akinola made in Nigeria a few years ago that may have contributed to violence between Christians and Muslims.
James Naughton, a Canon with the Episcopal diocese of Washington and one of his church’s more outspoken liberals, says, “I don’t think these guys have the juice to pull off a genuine schism. I don’t think Archbishop Akinola speaks for Africa. The coalition he once touted as the ‘global south’ has shrunk to three hard-line provinces [Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda] and [some] Western culture warriors.”
Observers will be counting very carefully the number of bishops who actually shown up in Jerusalem for the conservative conference on Monday. But even if the group does not manage to force Williams’ hand in Lambeth, its statement marks a seemingly irrevocable step toward either a split or a redefined Communion that could have a huge impact on the already turbulent state of Anglican religion in the U.S.
And yet again (is this a record) the Telegraph has an article, this one is headlined Archbishop of Canterbury’s control over Anglicans ‘is ending’ by Martin Beckford.
Saturday
The Living Church has Anglican Leaders Gather for Mideast Conference, in which it says:
20 Comments…A conference spokesman said that contrary to some reports, Jordanian authorities did not bar two archbishops from entering the kingdom from Israel to participate in a pre-meeting planning session. The Rev. Arne Fjeldstad told the Jordan Times that Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria was not denied entry into Jordan on June 18, but that Archbishop Akinola gave up and returned to Jerusalem after remaining in bureaucratic limbo for several hours at the border.
“They claimed that, as a diplomatic passport holder, he had to give advance warning that he was coming,” Fr. Fjeldstad said, as quoted by Reuters.
Because of the densely-packed agenda, leaders decided not to delay the start of the meeting until all participants were cleared to enter Jordan, but decided to move the planning meeting to Jerusalem after they learned that additional rooms had become available there.
Peter Frank, director of communications for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said that Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh is one of several members of the GAFCON leadership team who chose to remain in Jordan. Bishop Duncan and a handful of other participants to the Jordan portion of the meeting have decided to remain in Jordan until the scheduled end of that meeting on June 22.
“This was really not a big deal,” Mr. Frank said. “For most it meant that they went on a five-hour bus ride on one day rather than on another.”
Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone also did not attend the planning session in Jordan because he was remaining with his wife after her recent surgery. He is hoping to join the conference later in Jerusalem, Mr. Frank said.
Reuters reports that Rebel Anglican summit hit by leader’s visa problem.
Fjeldstad said Akinola was not denied entry into Jordan but gave up after several hours’ delay at the border.
“He was kept in bureaucratic limbo,” he said. “They claimed that, as a diplomatic passport holder, he had to give advance warning that he was coming. He decided to go back to Jerusalem.”
Planned for four days, the Amman meeting “wound up early” when GAFCON leaders learned “that previously granted permission for the Jordan consultation was deemed insufficient”, Fjeldstad said in a statement late on Wednesday announcing the move.
Laurie Goodstein has Rival Conferences for Anglican Church in the New York Times. In her view, the cause of the split is not Robinson but Minns:
The conservatives decided to hold their own meeting after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced last year that he would not send an invitation for the Lambeth Conference to a leading conservative leader, Bishop Martyn Minns, a rector in a Virginia church who was ordained a bishop in the Church of Nigeria. The role of Bishop Minns is to minister to conservatives alienated from the Episcopal Church, but his ordination was seen by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a violation of established boundaries.
In a recent interview, Bishop Minns said of his exclusion by the Archbishop: “I didn’t’ feel it was a well-informed political move. Instead of removing the distraction, as he claimed to do, he’s actually created a massive distraction.”
The Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, declared that if Bishop Minns could not attend the Lambeth Conference, then none of his bishops would attend.
The Telegraph has a leader: The Anglican Church is divided, but not fatally.
On paper, therefore, the moment of schism in worldwide Anglicanism has arrived. Many of Gafcon’s members will boycott Lambeth, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will therefore preside over a ruptured communion. But, before Dr Rowan Williams runs up the white flag, he should take a closer look at the reality of Gafcon, as opposed to its self-important pronouncements. The truth is that the conference has so far been a shambles. Its leader, the belligerent Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, has been denied entry to Jordan. Other conservative church leaders are missing because they have chosen not to attend. Significant absentees at Gafcon include the Rt Rev John Chew, Primate of South-East Asia, and Dr Mouneer Anis, Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East and treasurer of the “Global South” group of conservative provinces. And even those leaders who are attending the conference make up a volatile compound. Gafcon, in other words, is far from the united force it claims to be, and it does not fully represent Anglicanism in the developing world.
And it also has this article by Tim Butcher in Jordan and Martin Beckford Anglican church schism declared over homosexuality.
The GAFCON document to which reference is made, entitled The Way, The Truth and The Life, is available as a PDF from this location.
Episcopal Café has some comments, on the book contents, and other aspects in GAFCON gaffes continue.
Paul Handley has a detailed discussion of this book in the Church Times at GAFCON and the parting of the ways.
And the full text of the opening plenary address that was to have been given in Jordan by Bishop Robert Duncan is available in a PDF over here.
14 CommentsRuth Gledhill reports in Akinola ‘barred’ from Jordan that Archbishop Akinola was err, barred from entering Jordan.
Sources at the conference tell me that the Nigerian delegation landed in Tel Aviv and went to the northern crossing point. Archbishop Akinola was travelling on his diplomatic passport. After being questioned for four hours, he was turned back, although the rest of the Nigerian delegation was allowed in. He got his passport back, and apparently was told that they needed a particular clearance on a diplomatic passport which he did not possess.
See also ‘Alternative Lambeth’ conference forced to move to Jerusalem.
The other main Global South leader, Archbishop Gregory Venables, is also not in Jordan because his wife is in hospital after complications following a hip operation. He is hoping to join Gafcon in Jerusalem.
US evangelical blogger David Virtue, who is in Jordan, said the Gafcon leaders were thrown into “dismay” because of Dr Akinola’s role as a key player in the conservative bid to reform the Anglican church from within.
The official GAFCON explanation of this event is here.
The pre-GAFCON preparatory consultation in Jordan wound up early, and the participants moved to Jerusalem on Thursday, 19th June. Hotel and meeting rooms previously unavailable in Jerusalem became available at the same time GAFCON leaders learned that previously granted permission for the Jordan consultation was deemed insufficient.
The time in Jordan was very valuable for prayer, fellowship, and networking. The group made pilgrimages to Mt. Nebo and the Baptism Site of Jesus. GAFCON Chairman Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, and Archbishop Greg Venables of Southern Cone, were for different reasons unable to be in Jordan. Both are, however, expected to play significant roles at GAFCON in Jerusalem.
Dave Walker reminds us of why they went to Jordan in the first place: GAFCON moves to Jordan after row.
Jim Naughton reminds us of one reason why this might have happened.
Those attending GAFCON will have this additional opportunity while in Jerusalem 🙂
40 CommentsA recent press release from Uganda has now been followed by another, What is GAFCON?
An excerpt:
20 Comments…Are the Bishops from the Church of Uganda going to Lambeth?
No. The Church of Uganda Bishops decided together not to go to Lambeth this year. Their decision has been supported by the governing body of the Church of Uganda, the Provincial Assembly Standing Committee. The reason the Church of Uganda is not going to Lambeth is because the purpose of Lambeth is for fellowship among Bishops, and our fellowship has been broken with the American church. We broke fellowship with them for three reasons:
1. In direct violation of the Bible and historic Christian teaching, they consecrated as a Bishop a gay man living in a same-sex relationship
2. After five years of pleading with them, listening to them, and giving them many opportunities, they have not repented of that decision.
3. The Archbishop of Canterbury did not follow the advice given to him by his own appointed Commission to not invite to Lambeth those responsible for the confusion and disobedience in the Anglican Communion. The Bible says, “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” We have not been in fellowship with the Americans who have violated the Bible since 2003, so we are not going to pretend by going to Lambeth that we are in fellowship. We are not. What they have done is a very serious thing, and what the Archbishop of Canterbury has done in inviting them is grievous and we want them to know that.
Is the Church of Uganda seceding from the Anglican Communion?
No. We are simply not going to the Lambeth Conference. We are still part of the Anglican Communion, and the vast majority of the Anglican Communion opposes what the American Church has done and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s tacit support for it…
The Church of England Newspaper has this week published an article by Graham Kings. This is at Religious Intelligence under the title Reading and Reshaping the Anglican Communion.
This is a shorter version of a paper on the Fulcrum website, the long version can be found here.
The article has two parts: a “Reading” which involves a diagram.
The Religious Intelligence copy has an illegible version of this. Go here for a large version.
The other part is a “Reshaping” proposal, which may provoke some interesting discussion.
12 CommentsThis one is in Time and is shared with another bishop. Read Gay Bishop vs. Straight Bishop by David Van Biema.
The other interview can be found here.
0 CommentsThe Sydney Morning Herald carries a report by David Marr titled The archbishop says No. It starts out:
The Anglican Church faces a modern Great Schism, with gay-tolerant Christians on one side and radical “Bible-believers” on the other. And at the forefront of the hardliners is Australia’s outspoken evangelist Peter Jensen.
Pilgrims to the mount of olives late this month may be startled to see a couple of hundred Anglican divines kitted out in purple toiling up the slope. Most of the faces will be black. Back home these men are princes of the church; their followers run into tens of millions. But somewhere among the bishops, dressed incongruously in civvies, will be the humble, smiling face of Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney.
What’s afoot in Jerusalem is the destruction of the Anglican Communion, the worldwide church loosely aligned to the Archbishop of Canterbury. It spread with the empire and has so far survived, despite all its contradictions, for about 450 years, guided by the tart good sense of its founding monarch, Elizabeth I: “There is only one Jesus Christ and all the rest is a dispute over trifles…”
And it ends with this:
…The Sydney bishops had still not made up their minds to boycott Lambeth after four weeks of “agonising and struggle” – the words of Jensen’s media officer Russell Powell – when Akinola announced their decision for them in far-off Lagos, telling a press conference he was not going to Lambeth – and nor were the bishops of Uganda, Rwanda and Sydney.
Jensen scrambled. He rang the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office to say the Sydney bishops were not coming. At some point the letter was signed and sent. Then Jensen made the decision public. But senior sources in the church say two bishops remain deeply troubled: “They were told to like it or lump it.” My calls to those men were flick-passed to Jensen’s office. Powell informed me that everyone, including Jensen, was upset not to be going. “But the bishops are gladly united in the decision that has been taken.”
Jensen drove all these big decisions. Only when they were signed and sealed did he take them to the Standing Committee of his synod – the parliament of his diocese – where they were rubber-stamped by the clergy and laity. Was that the right way round? “Some would think it a failure of leadership to do it any other way,” answers Powell. The Standing Committee gave its support and “thanks to God for the unreserved commitment to biblical teaching of the Archbishop and his Bishops.”
Jensen speaks of the old Anglican Communion in the past tense. As far as he’s concerned, it’s finished. Lambeth can go on quarrelling about homosexuality, but the Archbishop of Sydney expects the subject will hardly be mentioned at GAFCON. That’s in the past. It is, after all, a bond between them. “To my mind we are just living in a new age. We’re in a different sort of organisation. Now it’s exploring the possibilities of this different organisation that is now before us.” All the way from Westminster Abbey comes the sound of Queen Elizabeth I spinning in her tomb.
The article is very long but well worth reading in full.
31 CommentsStephen Sackur of the BBC interviewed Bishop Martyn Minns for Hardtalk.
Watch the full interview here.
Read a summary of the interview at Episcopal Café.
78 CommentsUpdated Tuesday evening
The Church of Ireland has issued two press releases arising from what the Bishop of Cork, the Rt Revd Paul Colton, said at his diocesan synod on Saturday.
Bishop Colton: Anglican Covenant Raises Issues Of Canon Law
Speaking to members of the Church of Ireland in Cork, Cloyne and Ross at their annual Diocesan Synod on Saturday 7th June, the Bishop of Cork, the Rt Revd Paul Colton, said that the proposed Anglican Covenant which will be debated at next month’s Lambeth Conference raises some major issues for the Church of Ireland.
The Bishop said ‘… the proposed Anglican Covenant, if progressed through the central Anglican structures, the so-called Instruments of Unity, and if it is to be binding on the Church of Ireland, will have to come to the General Synod for ratification and incorporation into the law of the Church of Ireland.’
However, he said: ‘We already have our Preamble and Declaration. It too is a solemn document and covenantal in character: a covenant with and between ourselves formulated at a cathartic time of crisis. Drawn up in 1870 in anticipation of the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, it is for us one of our title deeds…
Bishop Colton Encourages A New Approach To Canterbury Appointment
…The Bishop warned that the proposed Anglican Covenant gives the Archbishop of Canterbury significant new powers outside of the Church of England and within other Churches. Bishop Colton said that in spite of the Covenant’s protestations to the contrary, “… agreeing to it would result in compromising the autonomy of the Church of Ireland and other parts of the Anglican Communion.”
Bishop Colton said that while what was being proposed may be necessary to preserve the unity of Anglicanism, the proposal to enhance the powers of the Archbishop of Canterbury represented a partial move “…towards universal primacy at the expense of local conciliarity.”
He argued, therefore, that if this is to happen there would have to be a new approach to the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
He said: “If the Covenant proposals and the framework for resolution of conflict are to be adopted internationally, a new approach to the appointment of future Archbishops of Canterbury will be needed as well as international involvement in those appointments. At a minimum this international involvement should involve a new process of formal and transparent consultation throughout Anglicanism.
“I realise that this will compromise the autonomy of the Church of England and raise issues of leadership, authority as well as constitutional concerns for establishment in the English context, which would in turn have to be addressed; but, equally, not to address this matter will raise ecclesial constitutional concerns throughout much of the rest of Anglicanism.”
Update
The full text of his remarks is available as a PDF file here.
6 CommentsAn official statement from Archbishop Henry Orombi says:
107 Ugandan Anglicans going to Jerusalem
Thirty-four Bishops from the Church of Uganda and their wives will travel to Jerusalem later this month for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). Also in the delegation, there will be thirty clergy and lay leaders from around the country with experience in different areas of ministry.
1,000 people from around the worldwide Anglican Communion, including more than 280 bishops, will participate in this Pilgrimage, and the Church of Uganda will be more than ten percent…
A news report in New Vision says Orombi wants pro-gay bishops to apologise. (Another copy here.) The full text of the news article is below the fold.
11 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday convened an ecumenical gathering to discuss ways in which Christian-Muslim engagement might be strengthened and deepened.
It brought together more than 40 participants from a broad range of geographical, cultural and denominational settings.
In his welcome to the participants the Archbishop expressed his gratitude that so many had taken the “opportunity for church leaders and scholars representing something of the geographical and confessional diversity of Christianity to discuss together the current experience of dialogue with Muslims – situating the significance of the open letter A Common Word within it, and determining what degree of consensus might be possible as we look forward.”
During the discussions church representatives from around the globe, including Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, Malaysia – alongside those from Western countries where Christianity is the majority religion – shared their experience of engagement.
Dr Williams said, “It has been tremendously important to me personally … that we have heard such a range of perspectives. As well as deepening our shared understanding of the challenge before us it has, I think, renewed for us all the significance of the church’s work in this area of cooperation with other faiths for the sake of peace in our common home.”
Read the whole press release from Lambeth Palace Archbishop – Christian-Muslim engagement ‘for the sake of peace in our common home’.
See the website for A Common Word here.
3 CommentsUpdated Friday lunchtime
This press release from Lambeth Palace is headlined Archbishop unveils plans for London event to challenge global governments to reach targets on tackling poverty.
The same release from the Anglican Communion Office is headlined The Archbishop of Canterbury – plans to challenge global governments to tackle poverty.
And when released by Episcopal News Service it becomes Bishops’ London walk to underscore commitment to MDGs.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today announced plans to mount an unprecedented mass walk of bishops and other faith leaders through central London during the forthcoming Lambeth Conference to demonstrate the Anglican Communion’s determination to help end extreme poverty across the globe…
Why is this being announced today?
The announcement of this walk is being released to coincide with a meeting of faith leaders and heads of faith-based development agencies, who met at Lambeth Palace today (29th May). The group discussed how faith groups can ensure that governments honour their spending commitments towards the UN targets and make policy decisions in their support.
Not explained is why the LamPal website shows today’s date on this release as Donnerstag 29 Mai 2008. Update This has now been corrected.
The Living Church has reported the news with a snappier headline: Archbishop Plans London March with Poverty Focus.
Kent News appears to be the only secular UK news outlet so far to report on this: Bishops to march on London in name of poverty.
8 CommentsCharles Njonjo, a former Cabinet minister, and described by the paper as “a staunch member of the Anglican Church” has written a commentary article for the Daily Nation headlined Failing to attend the Lambeth Conference is cowardly.
MEMBERS OF THE ANGLICAN Church in Kenya would like to know why our bishops are not attending the Lambeth 2008 Conference.
Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi is reported as reasoning thus: “Lambeth 2008 should have been about a return to God in view of these realities, yet it’s obvious that won’t be the case. Canterbury has sanctioned homosexuality. We cannot be going there to keep up with its theological gymnastics.”
Is this not missing the point of Lambeth? Isn’t this cowardly?
And later, he writes:
14 Comments…We know that already, some bishops who do not take the same position as the Archbishop have courageously registered for the conference. Yet others, maybe from fear, are attending as observers
SHOULDN’T WE HAVE BORROWED a leaf from the House of Bishops of the province of South East Asia, who made the following resolutions:
1. Encourages the bishops of our Province to participate in the Lambeth Conference 2008, yet also fully understands and respects the decision of some who for their own principled reasons, may choose not to attend the conference;
2. We should demand of our bishops to show leadership in the Church now that we are the focus of world Christianity.
I find it impossible to keep quiet when people are frequently hounded, vilified, molested and even killed as targets of homophobia for something they did not choose — their sexual orientation.
Where is our Christian charity?
How sad it is that the Church should be so obsessed with this particular issue of human sexuality when God’s children are facing massive problems — poverty, disease, corruption and conflict!