Several statements have appeared:
From the Primate of Nigeria: A STATEMENT ON THE RESPONSE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH TO THE DAR ES SALAAM COMMUNIQUÉ
From South Carolina: A Report on the New Orleans House of Bishops from Bishop Edward Salmon
The BBC reports that: Gay bishop move rejected by Kenya
There is a quote from the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church in this press release about an Inclusive Church event.
37 CommentsUpdated Tuesday morning
Chicago Tribune Anti-gay Anglican archbishop speaks in Wheaton
Chicago Sun-Times ‘God wants unity’ but doesn’t get it
Northwest Herald Critic of Episcopal support for gay clergy speaks in Wheaton
Associated Press Nigerian archbishop, foe of gay clergy, visits church gathering
Update
The Chicago Tribune also has a video report linked from this page.
Episcopal News Service has David Skidmore Followers, protestors greet Akinola at Wheaton chapel.
14 CommentsEpiscopal News Service has published the Archbishop of Canterbury’s opening remarks at today’s news conference:
10 Comments…It has been a valuable opportunity to listen carefully to the thinking of the bishops here on the problems that face the Communion; and also for us to share with the House some perspectives from elsewhere in the Communion. I think that in the light of the conversations we have come to a better understanding of the House in response to the questions and proposals of the Dar es Salaam Primates’ Meeting. I hope that the House, equally, has understood more fully what those questions and proposals were meant to achieve. The House will continue to reflect on them over the weekend.
Despite what has been claimed, there is no “ultimatum” involved. The Primates asked for a response by September 30 simply because we were aware that this was the meeting of the House likely to be formulating such a response. The ACC and Primates Joint Standing Committee will be reading and digesting what the bishops have to say, and will let me know their thoughts on it early next week. After this I shall be sharing what they say, along with my own assessments, with the Primates and others, inviting their advice in the next couple of weeks. I hope these days will result in a constructive and fresh way forward for all of us.
The Church Times published an article written by me in last week’s issue in which I made an attempt at counting the number of parishes breaking away from the Episcopal Church in the US.
This is now available on the web at Global South reaches into the United States.
This article was written and printed before the announcement made last week by CANA concerning additional bishops and additional congregations.
28 CommentsLambeth Palace has issued this:
10 CommentsBriefing note from Lambeth Palace
Thursday 20th September 2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has spoken of his relief at receiving assurances over news agency reports attributing offensive remarks to the Bishop of Uyo, Nigeria, the Rt Revd Isaac Orama.
” As I said last week, these reports were very concerning and it is a great relief to have had full assurances that the stories were false and should never have appeared. I am grateful that the prospect of the severe offence that would have been caused has now abated”.
Comment is free has a column by Andrew Brown Communing with Dostoevsky.
Fulcrum has a column by Graham Kings titled The Edge. For some followup comment on this, see also here.
4 CommentsThe Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, has said that, while he supported the principle of an Anglican Covenant, he could not endorse the proposed version currently on the table.
See press release, Archbishop of Wales warns proposed Anglican Covenant could lead to exclusion.
See full text of his address, Talk to the Governing Body, September 2007. Here is an extract:
41 CommentsThree of the primates have also ordained bishops specifically to exercise ‘pastoral oversight’ in North America, and this has won the approval of a fourth primate, the Chair of the Covenant Design Group who has said that their consecrations could lead “towards a creation of a viable, stable and orthodox Anglican presence in the USA”. To intervene in the internal affairs of another province in this way has hitherto been regarded by the Communion as totally unacceptable. The Windsor report condemns such activities as did previous Lambeth resolutions. Although the primates in Tanzania also condemned these actions, they seemed to accept the fact that some primates did not feel able to refrain from such actions, until sufficient provision had been made, for what are regarded as faithful Anglicans in North America. That totally subverts the polity of the province concerned and Anglican ecclesiology in general, (if it happened in this province, we would not find it acceptable), but the primates seem to give it passive acceptance. The implementation of the Covenant will be in their hands, and they seemingly condone ‘the breaking of the bonds of affection’ in a very substantial way by some of their number. As they said in their press statement at Tanzania , “Those who have intervened believe it would be inappropriate to bring interventions to an end until there is change in the Episcopal Church”. They then go on to propose pastoral strategies with a pastoral council and a primatial vicar for the Episcopal Church to be in place by the end of September. That would possibly end interventions by individual primates but it would be a massive intervention in the affairs of the Episcopal Church by the primates as a body and all of this before a Covenant is even in place.
Moreover the primates at Tanzania went further. They said, “Pastoral needs are not limited to the Episcopal Church alone. Until a Covenant is secured, it may be appropriate for the Instruments of Communion to request the use of this or a similar scheme in other contexts should urgent pastoral needs arise”. In other words, there could be wholesale intervention by the primates in any province until a Covenant is in place and then obviously intervention by them again if any province was deemed to have breached the terms of that Covenant. Not surprisingly the Episcopal Church has refused such requests. In an attempt however to be irenic the Episcopal Church says, “The proposed pastoral scheme is injurious to the Episcopal Church but we pledge ourselves to find ways of meeting the pastoral concerns of the primates compatible with our own polity and canons”. In other words, before a Covenant is even established the primates are imposing deadlines and demands. What will happen if a Covenant were to be in place?
Sister Joan Chittister, OSB has written a column titled We all need the Anglicans right now. Here’s an extract:
12 Comments…So the question the Anglican communion is facing for us all right now is a clear one: What happens to a group, to a church, that stands poised to choose either confusion or tyranny, either anarchy or authoritarianism, either unity or uniformity? Are there really only two choices possible at such a moment? Is there nowhere in-between?
The struggle going on inside the Anglican Communion about the episcopal ordination of homosexual priests and the recognition of the homosexual lifestyle as a natural state is not peculiar to Anglicanism. The issue is in the air we breathe. The Anglicans simply got there earlier than most. And so they may well become a model to the rest of us of how to handle such questions. If the rate and kinds of social, biological, scientific and global change continue at the present pace, every religious group may well find itself at the breakpoint between “tradition” and “science” sooner rather than later.
Theological questions driven by new scientific findings, new social realities, new technological possibilities abound. How moral is it to take cells from one person for the treatment of another if all human cells are potentially life generating? Is that the destruction of life? If homosexuality is “natural,” meaning biologically configured at birth, why is it immoral for homosexuals to live in homosexual unions — even if they are bishops? After all, isn’t that what we said — in fact, did — when we argued “scientifically” that blacks were not fit for ordination because blacks weren’t quite as human as whites? And so we kept them out of our seminaries and called ourselves “Christian” for doing it. Without even the grace to blush.
It is not so much how moral we think we are that is the test of a church. Perhaps the measure of our own morality is how certain we have been of our immoral morality across the ages. That should give us caution. We said, at one time, that it was gravely immoral to charge interest on loans, that it was mortally sinful to miss Mass on Sunday, that people could not read books on the Index, that the divorced could not remarry. And we brooked no question on any of these things. People were either in or out, good or bad, religious or not, depending on whether they stood at one end or another of those spectrums…
The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has published the following OPEN LETTER TO ABP. ROWAN WILLIAMS:
An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria meeting in Osogbo, Osun State
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the one and only Lord Jesus Christ.
We write to you out of profound love for our beloved Anglican Communion and recognition that this current crisis in our common life together is an unrelenting source of anguish for you and for all concerned.
We have reviewed the paper “A Most Agonizing Road to Lambeth 2008” that was made available to us by our primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola. We found it to be a compelling summary of many of the key events and meetings of the past ten years. It highlights the intractability of our current crisis.
We are persuaded that a change of direction from our current path is urgently needed and write to assure you of our willingness and commitment to work towards that end. We have noted your desire that the proposed Lambeth Conference be a place for fellowship and prayer and an exploration of our shared mission and ministry – all of these are of course commendable aims.
We all know, however, that the pressures of the present situation would adversely affect the outcome of the conference unless there is a profound change of heart; for how can we as bishops in the Church of God gather for a Lambeth Conference when there is such a high level of distrust, dislike and disdain for one another? How can we meet as leaders of the Communion when our relationships are so sorely strained and our life together so broken that we cannot even share together in the Lord’s Supper? It would be a mockery and bring dishonour to the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ.
We are also concerned about the abuse directed towards those who hold to traditional views on matters of Human Sexuality. The spate of hostility in the UK is alarming.
We are all witnesses to:
In truth anyone who does not embrace revisionist views is a potential target. We know it is possible to provide some security to minimize such occurrences but is the additional cost justifiable? Would the resultant atmosphere of fear and uncertainty be conducive to the goals of such a large gathering of bishops?
These are all matters of concern but in our opinion there is a way forward.
The proposed Anglican Communion Covenant is the one way for us to uphold our common heritage of faith while at the same time holding each other accountable to those teachings that have defined our life together and also guide us into the future. It has already received enthusiastic support from the majority of the Communion. Therefore we propose the following action plan:
As a matter of utmost urgency, call a special session of the Primates Meeting to:
a) Receive the responses made by The Episcopal Church to the Dromantine and Dar es Salaam Communiqués and determine their adequacy.
b) Arrive at a consensus for the application of the Windsor Process especially in Provinces whose self-understanding is at odds with the predominant mind of the Communion.
c) Set in motion an agreed process to finalize the Anglican Covenant Proposal and set a timetable for its ratification by individual provinces. This cannot be done at the Lambeth Conference because it is simply too large and, we all know, the Anglican Covenant requires individual provincial endorsement and signature.
Postpone current plans for the Lambeth Conference (as has been done before). This will:
a) Allow the current tensions to subside and leave room for the hard work of reconciliation that is a prerequisite for the fellowship we all desire.
b) Confirm that those invited to the Lambeth Conference have already endorsed the Anglican Covenant and so are able to come together as witnesses to our common faith.
We make these proposals in good faith believing that they provide an opportunity for us to reunite the Communion consistent with our common heritage and give us a way forward to engage the world with the holistic Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
Sincerely,
Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
September 13th, 2007
Since the earlier reports, there has been an email, which TA received only as a comment from elsewhere, but which various other blogs have published, that reads as follows:
From: Emeka Samuel
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 6:00 AM
To: nanabuja@nannigeria.org
Subject: REJOINDERFROM: EMEKA OGENYI, NAN, UYO
REJOINDER: HOMOSEXUALS, LESBIANS ARE INSANE– BISHOP
This is to inform the agency and the general public that the report on the above subject credited to the Anglican Bishop of Uyo Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama was untrue.
I wish to state here that the report was not a true reflection of what the interview he granted journalists while Bishop Orama never made any statement at any time to condemn perpetuators of such unbiblical acts to such an extent as was reflected in the report.
The Bishop was wrongly misrepresented and misquoted and I hereby render my apologies to him, the Anglican Diocese of Uyo and the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) for embarrassment caused them by the report.
While I apologize for the mistake and to state that the report was not written in bad faith I wish to express my commitment to the evangelization of the gospel through this medium.
The Church of Nigeria has also issued the full Powerpoint file containing Bishop Orama’s synod presentation, the content of which Stand Firm has republished here. Although as the above email states, that presentation was not the source of the original article but rather an interview with journalists.
There has not so far been any statement relating to this email from the Church of Nigeria.
There has not been any statement from the News Agency of Nigeria.
Nor has there been any further statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
47 CommentsFormer primate of Canada Michael Peers has written “An Amplification of the Brooks Document” supplementing the earlier article Who has the power? by Robert Brooks.
See Archbishop Peers on the Primates and the ACC at Episcopal Majority.
5 CommentsLast week’s Church Times had this comment article by Pat Ashworth: Pushing Anglicanism to the precipice.
1 CommentSPIN-doctoring overreached itself — and fell flat on its face — two weeks ago with the publication of a pastoral letter purporting to be from the Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, to his flock in Abuja (News, 24 August). Should it matter that the bulk of it was written in the United States from the computer of Bishop Martyn Minns, and that revision, editing, and formatting took place over four days?
I believe it does. After our news story (24 August) we were accused by the Nigerian director of communications of being “insulting and racist”. It has nothing to do with race but everything to do with language and politics, in a climate where the word “decision” is now drip-fed into every missive…
Updated Friday evening
CANA announces: 4 New Bishops Elected to Serve CANA:
September 13, 2007
(Herndon, VA) — The House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) met in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, on the 12th day of September 2007. They received a report from the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria in the USA. Acknowledging the significant growth of CANA that is taking place in the USA, the House of Bishops considered a request for additional bishops to further the work of CANA and the extension of God’s Kingdom.
After the meeting, the Primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, announced the election of four suffragan bishops and appointed them to serve in the USA. The bishops-elect are the Rev’d Canon Roger Ames (Akron, OH), the Rev’d Canon David Anderson (Atlanta, GA), the Ven. Amos Fagbamiye (Indianapolis, IN), and the Rev’d Canon Nathan Kanu (Oklahoma City, OK). The consecrations will take place in the USA before the end of 2007, at a date and place yet to be determined. These four bishops-elect will join Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns and Suffragan Bishop David Bena in providing an indigenous ecclesiastical structure for faithful Anglicans in this country.
CANA currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states. About a quarter of the congregations are primarily expatriate Nigerians. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of some 70 million, through various pastoral and missionary initiatives.
Update
The Living Church has a report which explains at least in part how the new number of 60 CANA congregations mentioned above now arises: in the report AAC’s Anderson Among Four New CANA Bishops by George Conger and Steve Waring it says:
16 CommentsIn an interview with The Living Church, Fr. Ames said all of the parish leadership and the congregation of St. Luke’s left The Episcopal Church about two years ago for the Diocese of Bolivia in the Province of the Southern Cone, but because the Diocese of Ohio has not to date included the departure in its parochial report filings with the national church, he and the congregation continue officially to be designated members in good standing of The Episcopal Church.
Fr. Ames said there are currently about 50 former Episcopal congregations affiliated with the Diocese of Bolivia. These are in the process of being transferred to CANA by mutual agreement of Bishop Minns and the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia. According to a press release published on CANA’s website, the convocation now has 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states.
Updated Thursday morning
Changing Attitude sent somebody to Uyo, Nigeria, to find out more about what the bishop had or had not said.
There is a report here: Changing Attitude Nigeria investigates Bishop Orama of Uyo.
Thursday morning
First, the Nigerian provincial website has published: BISHOP ORAMA CALLS FOR YOUTH RE-ORIENTATION TO CURB VIOLENCE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION. This includes:
Also, speaking on the recent publication in some dailies on homosexual issue in the North America as he expressed in the last synod of Uyo Diocese, Rt. Revd. Isaac Orama lamented over what he called a false statement published on the internet and called on the media to desist from publishing wrong statements for public consumption.
According to him, what he said was that CANA is the offshoot of the Church of Nigeria’s response to the unbiblical agenda of the Episcopal Church of United States of America in supporting same sex marriage and consecrating in the year 2003 the publicly acknowledged gay priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop.
Second, I received an email yesterday from The Venerable AkinTunde Popoola which is reproduced in full below the fold.
30 CommentsJohn Wilkins, former editor of The Tablet, writes at great length in the American National Catholic Reporter about Anglican schism?
This is the cover story for the issue dated 14 September. There is an annoying subscription offer that you have to push past to get to the article but it’s well worth reading in full.
Update Also see this accompanying page: The Anglican crisis in brief.
7 CommentsAnglican TV has a lengthy video (over 42 minutes) in which Archbishop Henry Orombi is questioned by reporters from the BBC (Christopher Landau), the Wall Street Journal, as well as Anglican TV, about the recent consecration of an American there.
25 CommentsA suburban church in Illinois which is part of the Anglican Mission in the Americas has discovered that Rwandan secular politics affects them. See this from Christianity Today: Rwandan Politics Intrudes on American Church. (hat tip Stand Firm)
A suburban Chicago church sought leadership from Rwanda amid theological disputes with the Episcopal Church. This week, it found itself in conflict with its leaders over Rwandan politics.
All Souls Anglican Church had invited Paul Rusesabagina, whose life was featured in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda, to speak during Sunday morning services. The Wheaton, Illinois, church, a member of the Rwandan-led Anglican Mission in America, invited him as part of a fundraiser to build a school in Gashirabwoba, Rwanda.
On Thursday, however, Emmanuel Kolini, the Anglican archbishop of Rwanda, asked All Soul’s pastor J. Martin Johnson to rescind the invitation.
Rusesabagina has been at odds with the president of Rwanda. The archbishop feared that the event could create a strain in the relationship between the Anglican Church of Rwanda and the government.
“Truly I am horrified that we could have such a negative impact without meaning to,” Johnson told Christianity Today. “I had no idea this was a controversial issue…”
And later this month, as the All Souls’ Anglican Church website notes there will be:
26 CommentsThe AMiA Big event
On Sunday, Sept 23rd at 10:30am, we’ll gather with other local Anglican churches for a worship service at which the Most Revd. Dr. Peter Akinola, Bishop of Abuja, and Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria will preach. We will meet in Edman Memorial Chapel on the corner of Washington and Franklin in Wheaton, IL.
The Living Church reports in Pro-American Provincial Dean in Central Africa Ousted that the Bishop of Botswana, Trevor Mwamba has been removed as provincial dean:
…The Rt. Rev. Albert Chama, Bishop of Northern Zambia, was appointed to replace Bishop Mwamba as dean by the church’s General Synod, which began meeting on Sept. 6 in Mangochi, Malawi.
The government-backed Harare Herald reported Bishop Mwamba was “relieved of his duties” due to his “pro-gay” and pro-American lobbying, and because he misrepresented “the province’s position on the issue of homosexuals.”
From Kenya, the Nation reports New Anglican priest in dilemma over gay family.
From Rwanda, the New Times reports Country to Anoint U.S. Bishops.
Addendum
Some further comments concerning the Central Africa situation can be found here at Episcopal Café.
And Bishop Mwamba’s remarks in England last January can be found here.
Here’s another report from news24 ‘We will not indulge gays’.
15 Commentspress release
“Covenant” Web Site Launched to Aid Thoughtful Reconciliation among Anglicans and Others
Durham, NC — September 5, 2007 – A group of American Episcopalians and Anglicans who call themselves “evangelical catholic” have today launched a new website and blog, “Covenant” (http://covenant-communion.com), that will focus on “the present struggles and gifts” of The Episcopal Church and other communities in order to emphasize the need for greater humility and reconciliation among Christians.
The founders of the site, who are students, teachers, and pastors from the Episcopal Church in the United States, are frustrated with the polarization and vitriol about sexuality and other hot topics that have divided so many Episcopalians (and Anglicans throughout the world) from each other. Similar debates are dividing Lutherans, Methodists, and others in the mainline churches.
Taking St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians as their theme, the founders of the site insist that all Christians are called by God to “agree” and “unite,” which is the literal meaning of the word covenant. This requires “waiting for one another,” the website proclaims, and reflecting more carefully about what “orthodoxy” means for Christians.
Visitors to Covenant can expect to find:
To reach Covenant, visit their website at http://covenant-communion.com
23 CommentsUpdated again Saturday morning
The following announcement has been issued from the Anglican Communion Office:
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has expressed deep shock at remarks said to have been made by the Bishop of Uyo, Nigeria, the Rt Revd Isaac Orama concerning gay and lesbian people.
The Archbishop will be contacting the Archbishop of Nigeria, Dr Peter Akinola, to seek clarification. Dr Williams said “The safety of people of gay and lesbian sexual orientation is a matter of concern for us all. The Anglican Primates, along with all other official bodies in the Anglican Communion, have consistently called for an end to homophobia, violence and hatred. If these reports are correct I would urge the bishop to apologise. Such comments are unacceptable and profoundly shocking on the lips of any Christian”.
To see the original remarks go here.
To see the latest press release from Changing Attitude about this, go here.
Update Friday evening
The Living Church reports that Reporter Apologizes for Misquoting Nigerian Bishop:
… A spokesman for the Church of Nigeria, Archdeacon Akintunde Popoola, told The Living Church the quote attributed to the bishop was false.
The Bishop of Uyo “denied making such a statement,” Canon Popoola said. While the bishop’s address to his diocesan synod did speak to the issue of human sexuality dividing the Communion, and the Church of Nigeria’s position on these issues, “he did not say that [gays and lesbians] are to be hated, nor that they are insane or unfit to live.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reporter has “apologized for the misrepresentation and promised a retraction,” Archdeacon Popoola told TLC.
Later
The original UPI report has now been removed from the UPI website.
Saturday
Stand Firm has published this email from UPI:
Thank you for your enquiry about the September 2 article that attributed some highly critical comments on homosexuals to Bishop Orama of Nigeria. This story was generated by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). UPI distributes stories from NAN and other African news agencies as a pass-through service. We cannot vouch for their accuracy. The UPI tag at the start of the story was added in error.
We do note, however, that there are reports of a statement from a spokesman for the Episcopal Church of Nigeria that Bishop Orama has denied making the statements attributed to him, and that the reporter concerned has offered a verbal apology and promised to publish a retraction. You would have to contact NAN as to whether the information about the retraction is true. In the meantime, UPI is taking down the story from our site and informing our customers of this action. If a retraction appears from NAN we will run it.
Sincerely,
Michael Marshall
Editor-in-chief
UPI
Note that this is not “United Press International reporter apologises” as claimed at present in a headline here.
64 Comments