Pat Ashworth reports in today’s Church Times that Anxiety about Zimbabwe diocese grows. An excerpt:
FEARS of a crisis similar to the one in Harare are being voiced about the election of a new Bishop of Manicaland, the largest diocese in Zimbabwe. The Archbishop of Central Africa, the Most Revd Bernard Malango, has called on church members to “desist from rigging elections and doctoring documents”.
Archbishop Malango was in Mutare last weekend for the election of members to the elective assembly, the body that will choose the new bishop. The election was cancelled at the last minute in June, after allegations of vote-rigging were confirmed ( News, 14 July). Documents had been tampered with to remove two names and substitute others who had not been elected to the assembly. The election was presided over by Mr Justice Kailaile, the judge who abandoned the trial of the Bishop of Harare, the Rt Revd Nolbert Kunonga, last year.
Insiders say that four of the six members on the assembly are interested in becoming Bishop. A source said on Tuesday: “How are they going to be able to do their assignment in a just, righteous, dignified, transparent, and professional manner when they are interested parties? Another problem, like the one in Harare diocese, is likely to occur.”
The earlier report is here.
2 CommentsThe candidates were announced earlier.
The Right Reverend Dr Philip Freier has been elected by an overwhelming majority as the new Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne.
Diocesan press release, and ACNS copy of it.
Three newspaper reports in the Melbourne Age from Barney Zwartz:
Church pursues quest for leader
NT bishop favoured as Anglican leader
City’s Anglican bishop named
Updated twice Monday
The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) has a report, with pictures, of the episcopal consecrations which took place there today: Consecration: ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP CHARGES CHRISTIANS TO DEFEND THE FAITH.
Click on the pictures there, for larger versions.
Update Here is a Nigerian Sun newspaper report, dated Monday though apparently written prior to the service.
Gay bishop controversy: Church of Nigeria moves to save Nigerians in the US:
…According to Akinola: “The Anglican Church in America has been torn apart by the controversial ordination of an open gay Priest, Gene Robinson as a bishop of new Hampshire in 2003. The years following that unfortunate incident have been traumatic for the entire Anglican Communion. The recent decisions of TEC’s general convention held in June, has put US Anglican Churches on a seeming disintegration and a major re-alignment.
“Already seven dioceses in TEC depressed by the dangerous voyage of the Episcopal church, have requested for an immediate alternative primatial oversight and pastoral care. They include the dioceses of Central florida, Fort Worht (Texas) Pittsburgh, Springfield. (Illinois), san Joaquin (California) South California and Diocese of Dallas. Indications are that many more are itching to leave the Episcopal Church” the primate added.
Akinola who leads about 20 million of the 77 million Anglicans worldwide pointed out that “with the establishment of CANA in April 2005, and the sending of a missionary Bishop to Congo in October 2005, and the commencement of a non – geographic nomadic mission in August 2006, the power of God is working his purpose out.
“CANA was first announced after full consultation with the Nigerian congregations in America, with the enthusiastic endorsement of the Episcopal Synod and standing committee of the Church of Nigeria. The intention is not to challenge or intervene in the Churches of Ecusa and in Anglican Church of Canada, but rather to provide a safe harbour for those who can no longer find their spiritual home in those churches” he maintained.
Akinola stated that the church of Nigeria had deliberately held back from this action (sending a bishop for CANA) until now, because as according to him, “It hoped that the Episcopal church of USA would heed the cry of the Anglican Communion as expressed in the essential elements of the Windsor report and the dromantine communique, which recommended that the US Church halt the further election of openly gay Bishops. “But the actions of their (ECUSA) last convention held in June 2006 showed that they were far from turning back. Infact, they are even more committed to pursuing their unbiblical revisionist agenda. That is why a Bishop to America has become inevitable you cannot serve God and Mammon,” he asserted…
The NACDAP/ACN has a press release:Network Welcomes Consecration of Bishop Minns.
The American Anglican Council now also has a press release with pictures from Abuja of yesterday’s event: Nigeria Consecrations in Abuja Include Bishop Martyn Minns of U.S. The wording is the same as here, but the pictures are different.
This report from Voice of America Anglican Church of Nigeria Installs Bishop From America
10 CommentsThe XVI International Aids Conference has just concluded in Toronto.
The Anglican Journal has extensive coverage of this including:
In the age of AIDS, can theology kill?
Faith communities call for action on AIDS
The Diocese of Toronto also has coverage that includes:
Faith communities can eradicate HIV/AIDS stigma
Religious leaders who are HIV-positive share stories
Here in the UK, Ekklesia had Zimbabwean HIV+ woman helps young people Choose Life and there is more at Tearfund.
1 CommentUpdated Saturday
The Anglican Communion Office has issued this statement:
Following consultation with the Presiding Bishop the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a small group of bishops from the Episcopal Church (USA) to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions. Along with Bishop Griswold, those invited include Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Bob Duncan, and Bishop Jack Iker . The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion will also attend. The first meeting will be taking place in New York in the first half of September.
Update
This statement from Bishop Jack Iker indicates that others will be attending: including Bishops Salmon (South Carolina, retired but now acting bishop until the new election occurs) and Stanton (Dallas):
…In accordance with the Archbishop’s instructions, we are each to bring along another Bishop to share in these deliberations, and we have asked Bishop Ed Salmon of South Carolina and Bishop James Stanton of Dallas to join us. All four of us are member Bishops in the Anglican Communion Network and our dioceses have requested alternative primatial oversight from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
We are grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his efforts to broker a cease fire in our current conflicts and to assist us in finding a way to work through the impasse we have reached. If things go well at this initial meeting, additional dates have been set aside to continue our deliberations in the future. Your prayers are asked for the participants as we seek a way forward for a church in crisis.
Update
Episcopal News Service has issued this news report by Mary Frances Schjonberg Communion representative to confer with some Episcopal Church bishops:
…The meeting has been in the works since the Episcopal Church’s 75th General Convention in June, according to Canon James M Rosenthal, director of communications in the Anglican Communion Office.
The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, attended the convention. At the time he commended the Episcopal Church for the “very careful way they have taken seriously the requests of the Windsor Report, and you see this seriousness in the way that business is being conducted on this particular issue at Convention.”
Rosenthal said that Kearon will be “facilitating” the meeting in September.
He added that the Anglican Communion Office is a “very proper and appropriate place to begin” a conversation of this importance.
“The Anglican Communion Office has been responsible for many of the meetings and committees that have been given the portfolio for concerns of church unity in the midst of our diversity,” Rosenthal said. “This meeting could well be an important step in that continuing work…”
Update
Rachel Zoll of Associated Press managed to speak to Bishop Lee:
…Virginia Bishop Peter Lee, who is among the six U.S. invitees, said the participants “have agreed not to talk at length with the press” about the gathering.
“The archbishop of Canterbury is encouraging American bishops to try to work on these questions,” Lee said in a phone interview. “We’re trying to hold together people who have differing views and to respect those differing views.”
Update Saturday
The Living Church has a report: Bishop Iker: Bishops’ Summit May Provide Clarity:
“Obviously I have my reservations about how productive a meeting like this can be,” Bishop Iker told The Living Church. “I think it is significant that I have heard nothing from either the Presiding Bishop or Katharine Jefferts Schori since General Convention. To me this indicates that he [Archbishop Williams] is trying to respond to a pastoral situation and they are trying as hard as they can to ignore it.”
Bishop Iker said he was first contacted by Lambeth Palace more than two weeks ago and asked if he would be willing to participate in a meeting designed to “facilitate a solution” to the current controversy and division within The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. In addition to bishops Iker, Lee and Lipscomb, invitations to the mid-September meeting in New York have been extended to Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, Dallas Bishop James Stanton, the Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr., acting Bishop of South Carolina, and the Rt. Rev. Don E. Wimberly, Bishop of Texas.
Bishop Wimberly previously called for a consultation in Texas of all bishops who are willing to stand firmly with the recommendations of the Windsor Report. The consultation is scheduled to begin after the meeting in New York City.
“Four of the seven bishops who asked for APO will be there,” Bishop Iker said. “I believe everyone should see the consolidated APO request before the meeting and I would hope we could come away with a clear statement of what APO should look like as well as an assurance that it will be provided.”
The Diocese of Southwest Florida has two related reports:Bishop: Ties to American church, Canterbury to remain and High-level meeting called to discuss resolutions to ‘difficult issues’
31 CommentsThere are no new reports relating to the Minns consecration in today’s Church Times but Paul Handley’s interview with Bishop Peter Lee that I mentioned last week, is now on the web: ‘Lawsuits would be unbiblical’ says Bishop Lee.
The Church of England Newspaper also has no further news about the consecration on its website but it does have an interesting story about the Nigerian church by George Conger: Nigeria’s Hezbollah fears. See the original press release here.
But the most interesting report is on the Nigerian provincial website itself: Coming Over to America to Help:
36 CommentsComing Over to America to Help
A Background to the Nigerian Mission to America.
CONN/0530806
Thousands of Anglicans in North America have long watched with dismay as their much loved Churches slid from the known teachings of the Bible to that which seems to conform more to the ideas of civil society groups.
Questionable doctrines include teachings that;
- Imply the Creator God is unable to decide whether he wanted to make a person male or female.
- Portray Jesus the Christ as only ‘a way’ out of ‘many paths’ to God instead of THE WAY. John 14:6
- Love of a person means acceptance and love of the person’s sins.
- The Holy Spirit stopped convincing of sin (John 19: 8 ) and became a dispensable adviser.
- The Holy Scriptures lost relevance as the ‘developed industrialized world’ could respond to many human problems.
- Different people could propound any new teaching as long as it makes the listeners feel good. 2Tim 3:3-4
- Heaven and hell are figurative languages used in the bible as it is wrong to frighten people with such old ideas in the modern world.
- Mission and ministry assumed new meanings.
Many Nigerians in the US found it increasingly difficult to identify with the Anglican communities, and thus found themselves worshiping in other denominations.
When a Canadian diocese approved church ceremonies to allow homosexuals exchange marital vows and The Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) followed by consecrating a practicing homosexual as a bishop, the spiritual life of many got threatened, and the Church of Nigeria became concerned.
“For us it is crucial and most urgent that we find ways of providing alternative avenues for the thousands of Nigerian Anglicans who live and work beyond our shores,” said Archbishop Peter Akinola, at the Standing Committee meeting of the Church in Ilesa, March 2004.
What started as an outreach to provide a safe harbour for Nigerians soon became overwhelmed with requests for participation and the Convocation for Anglicans in North America (CANA) was born. Announcing the formation of the Convocation in April 2005, Archbishop Akinola wrote:
“Our intention is not to challenge or intervene in the churches of ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada but rather to provide safe harbour for those who can no longer find their spiritual home in those churches”
In September 2005 at the 8th General Synod of the Church of Nigeria, the necessary constitutional changes were made to permit the formal establishment of the Convocation in the USA and by November the necessary legal framework to establish CANA as a recognized Anglican Church structure in the USA was completed. Abraham N. Yisa, Esq., Registrar of the Church of Nigeria was appointed chairman of the board of trustees, Chief Gboyega Delano of Chicago, the secretary and Mrs. Patience Oruh of Maryland, the treasurer for CANA. The Rev. Canon Nathan Kanu was appointed the interim communicator, and some Nigerian bishops were delegated to give Episcopal oversight.
In November, the Church of Nigeria entered into a covenant agreement with the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of America. These are two Churches spread over the US that had also separated from ECUSA on doctrinal issues. Though their bishops and some other faithful bishops in the US continued to be very supportive of the Nigerian initiative, the need to have a US- based Bishop for the growing convocation became more apparent over time, as the ECUSA remained unwilling to change course.
In June 2006, the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria met to among other things, elect bishops to fill vacant Sees after which the names of four new bishops-elect including that of the first CANA bishop was announced. Also a committee led by the Rt. Rev Benjamin Kwashi, Bishop of Jos and including the Rt. Rev Segun Okubadejo, bishop of Ibadan North and the Rt. Rev Ikechi Nwosu, bishop of Umuahia, was appointed to supervise the CANA mission.
The consecration service for the Rev. Canon Martyn Minns as Bishop in the Church of God for the CANA is on Sunday, 20th August 2006.
(Church of Nigeria News)
The American Anglican Council has issued a press release: A Statement from the President of the American Anglican Council Congratulating Archbishop Akinola on Formation of CANA:
The American Anglican Council offers its congratulations and gratitude to the Church of Nigeria and its Primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, in the establishment of CANA as Convocation for Anglicans in North America and the consecration of Canon Martyn Minns, as its first Missionary Bishop.
These are difficult times for faithful Anglicans and the AAC is especially thankful for the creative and timely response of many of the Global South primates in recognizing the danger that the Episcopal Church in the United States posed for the Anglican Communion and the offer of safe harbor that was and has been extended to congregations in the United States looking for orthodox episcopal and primatial oversight. Additionally the AAC is deeply appreciative of the clear and prophetic voice of Global South primates who have spoken up, at great cost personally and for their provinces, and called the Anglican Communion to a holy and orthodox faith consonant with the historic teachings of both Christianity and Anglicanism.
We take note of the vision and heart that the Global South has for evangelism, and in expanding the Anglican Church family, and note in particular efforts by the Global South Steering Committee members in reaching out to parts of mainland Asia and seeking closer ties and understanding. It is leadership such as this that combines pastoral concern for those churches in the United States that are under persecution by their own province, for adherence to orthodoxy of the faith, and for vision to reach fields still ripe for the harvest that marks Christian leadership that others can model their lives on.
Some of you may remember that originally CANA stood for Convocation of Anglican Nigerian Churches in America, see as evidence this statement (last April) from the official Nigerian provincial website:
After much prayer and careful discernment with appropriate colleagues and advisors over the last two years, and in full consultation with the Nigerian congregations in America, together with the enthusiastic endorsement of the Episcopal Synod and the Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) we announce the formation of the Convocation of Anglican Nigerian Churches in America.
This Convocation will function as a ministry of the Church of Nigeria in America. Our intention is not to challenge or intervene in the churches of ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada but rather to provide safe harbour for those who can no longer find their spiritual home in those churches. While it will initially operate under our Constitution and Canons, it will have its own legal and ecclesial structure and local suffragan episcopate. I will be asking the next General Synod of the Church of Nigeria, which will meet in September 2005, to make the necessary constitutional amendments.
Then in September 2005, it became Convocation of Anglican Nigerians in Americas (CANA).
Now of course it stands instead for Convocation of Anglicans in North America a term first used officially in November 2005. Corrected: hat tip to Fr Jake
As the December review of 2005 explained:
April 2005
A carefully worded statement by the Primate of Nigeria announced the formation of Convocation of Anglican Nigerians in America. (CANA)
In a pastoral letter announcing the convocation, the Primate said the ministry of Church of Nigeria in the US will provide a safe harbour for worshippers who feel estranged because of the revisionist agenda of some North American Churches.
In the same month of April, the Primate published a letter to members of the Church intimating them about the recent developments of the Anglican Communion particularly the outcome of the Primates’ February meeting in Northern Ireland. He talked about the intransigence of the North American Churches on the issue of homosexuality. He dismissed it as unfounded the alleged influence of external forces on some Primates in their decision to suspend the North American Churches.November 2005
The Church of Nigeria announced a covenant with the Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of America, signaling the implementation of the amended constitution. Chapter 1 Section 3 of the constitution states that “The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) hereinafter called “The Church of Nigeria” or “This Church” shall be in full communion with all Anglican Churches Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the Lord has commanded in His holy word and as the same are received as taught in the Book of Common Prayer and the ordinal of 1662 and in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.” With a name change, they now become part of CANA, The Convocation for Anglicans in North America.
And, in case you forgot, the Primates at Dromantine said in February 2005 (emphasis added):
15. In order to protect the integrity and legitimate needs of groups in serious theological dispute with their diocesan bishop, or dioceses in dispute with their Provinces, we recommend that the Archbishop of Canterbury appoint, as a matter of urgency, a panel of reference to supervise the adequacy of pastoral provisions made by any churches for such members in line with the recommendation in the Primates’ Statement of October 2003. Equally, during this period we commit ourselves neither to encourage nor to initiate cross-boundary interventions.
Earlier, the Windsor Report had recommended:
14 Comments155. We call upon those bishops who believe it is their conscientious duty to intervene in provinces, dioceses and parishes other than their own:
- to express regret for the consequences of their actions
- to affirm their desire to remain in the Communion, and
- to effect a moratorium on any further interventions.
We also call upon these archbishops and bishops to seek an accommodation with the bishops of the dioceses whose parishes they have taken into their own care.
The Diocese of Melbourne has announced its candidates for archbishop. The election is next weekend.
The candidates are
More details of the candidates available here. More information about the Melbourne election process here.
2 CommentsUpdated Tuesday
The Convocation for Anglicans in North America which is “an Anglican missionary effort in the US sponsored by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)” now has a website. There’s a video which features the Primate of Nigeria and others.
The website also includes forms, one for clergy and one for congregations, that desire to affiliate with CANA. As the forms state:
The Convocation for Anglicans in North America (CANA) meets the needs of Anglicans who have been disenfranchised by the divisive actions of the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA). CANA offers congregations and clergy an authentic connection to the Anglican Communion. CANA welcomes all who want to share in the apostolic faith and life of orthodox Christianity in the Anglican tradition.
Two of the questions asked on both forms are these:
Please explain why you are seeking to register with CANA (500 words or less). Include any reservations you may have about the uniqueness of Jesus the Messiah, about the authority of the Bible in our lives, about the fact that CANA is a mission of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), about working with people of diverse backgrounds, and about episcopal pastoral care and authority.
Please explain why you think your affiliation with CANA will or will not result in a dispute with your current bishop (100 words or less).
There is also a press release, on the Nigerian provincial website, about the consecration on the 20th.
(Hat tip to Mark Harris who has commented on the claims made by CANA.)
Update Bishop Peter Lee issued a letter on the weekend, which was referenced at the bottom of this earlier article. As it still has not appeared on the Virginia diocesan website, I reproduce it in full below the fold. Now also available here.
Update The Living Church has also reported on this letter: Bishop Lee, Bishop-Elect Minns Seek Solution.
35 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has a column in today’s Observer newspaper:
The voices of the innocent must be heard above the din of war.
Fulcrum has just published the second of a series of articles by Oliver O’Donovan. It is entitled The Care of the Churches. No doubt this will generate some discussion on Fulcrum, and perhaps even here. Entangled States chose this pull-quote:
When the Windsor Report posed, as the alternative to its own approach, that ‘we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart’, it clearly did not mean this as a choiceworthy alternative, one that the church of Jesus Christ could opt for with integrity. It was to be viewed as a horizon of total failure. Unhappily, it seems to have underestimated the capacity of Anglicans to think the unthinkable. The immediate effect of the hardening of the anti-revisionist position was to make the breach more likely; indeed, some voices, however little representative, did not hesitate to suggest that this was something to be welcomed. On the revisionist side the idea of an amicable separation of the ways had long been mooted – just another example of liberal other-worldliness, unfortunately, since the only separation ever to be looked for was bound to be far from amicable. To the anti-revisionists looking in this direction it was to be a solemn exercise of church discipline. A curious combination of ecclesiological influences, Calvinist and patristic, had already encouraged a number of bishops to raise their voices and announce the several combinations of churches and bishops with whom they were and were not in communion. The resulting untidiness in the Anglican world communion began to make some think that a shoot-out would be the desirable curtain-fall.
But this severely underestimated its difficulties. Such an occurrence would, for one thing, destroy the Anglican identity.
The previous article in the series, The Failure of the Liberal Paradigm provoked comments on various blogs, and also an article in last week’s Church Times by Giles Fraser, What true liberalism really wants. Other comments on it which I found interesting can be found here, and here, and also here.
17 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has issued this statement:
Archbishop condemns escalating violence in the Middle East.
So far, among London newspapers, only The Times has reported on this. Further discussion by Ruth Gledhill here.
Ekklesia has Williams laments Lebanon vicious spiral of violence.
It has however been reported in Bahrain and in Iran, and was mentioned by the Associated Press and also in The Nation.
5 CommentsTA recently linked to a Church Times article by Vincent Strudwick. Discussion of the covenant proposals here and elsewhere suggests that not everyone has read the latest covenant document published by the Anglican Communion Office. This was linked on TA back on 22 May, but it bears repetition:
See covering note: Towards an Anglican Covenant
And the actual document The Proposal for an Anglican Covenant starts here.
PDF copies of the document in both English and Spanish can be found here.
Here’s the concluding bit:
The Provenance of this document
This document was prepared by a small working party convened by the Deputy Secretary General at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Secretary General. It was intended to inform the deliberation of JSC upon the proposal for an Anglican Covenant and was adopted by them as a basis for further consultation across the Communion. Since this is only a tentative and consultative document, the drafting group was deliberately kept small and relatively inexpensive, which meant confining membership to those who could come easily to London for two day meetings. The CDG mandated by the decision of the JSC will be a body more representative of the wider Anglican Communion.
The members of the group were:
London, 20th March 2006
41 CommentsVincent Strudwick wrote in last week’s Church Times about the proposed Anglican covenant. The strapline:
The Anglican covenant is about working together, not agreeing on doctrine. Give it a chance, argues Vincent Strudwick: ‘We need each other and our conflicting views in this task’
Please read the whole article.
17 CommentsFrom last week’s Church Times :
Pat Ashworth reports at length on an episcopal saga in Central Africa, Court pursues Primate over bishop’s aborted trial. She concludes:
0 Comments…The Archbishop of Canterbury has no jurisdiction in Central Africa. But there is a right of appeal to him in the canons on matters of law and fact. There is likely now to be a two-pronged attack on Archbishop Malango: a secular court compelling him to set the trial down for continuation, and a call for Canterbury to instruct him to resume the trial. New legal ground could be broken.
Dr Williams has already indicated that he believes Archbishop Malango — who is due to retire at some time in the next year — should suspend Bishop Kunonga. In a statement to The Sunday Times last month, he said: “In the context of a prolonged and political crisis, the diocese of Harare faces intolerable strain in the form of the very grave and unresolved accusations against Bishop Kunonga. In other jurisdictions, a priest or bishop facing such serious charges would be suspended without prejudice until the case had been closed. It is therefore very difficult for Bishop Kunonga to be regarded as capable of functioning as a bishop elsewhere in the Communion.”
Lambeth Palace said in a further statement on Monday: “The Palace has been in conversation with the Archbishop and others in the province as well as with the Bishop of Harare. It remains our view that due process and principles of natural justice must be followed for the benefit of all.”
Attempts to reach Archbishop Malango failed this week. A member of the Lambeth Commission, he has been prominent in the condemnation of the Episcopal Church in the United States over same-sex blessings, and of the Church of England over civil partnerships. He has described the implications of these as “staggering. . . It will seriously undermine our ability to reach people for Christ across the globe.”
The Nation now reports that Malango rules out Henderson return:
2 CommentsThe office of the Anglican Archbishop of Central Africa in Zomba has indicated that the decision to order Bishop James Mwenda to return to Zambia does not mean giving a chance for rejected British clergyman Paul Nicholas Henderson to head the Diocese of Lake Malawi.
Provincial Secretary Eston Pembamoyo said Monday Mwenda had to leave the country to allow for neutral discussions between Anglican bishops in Malawi and the laity of the Lake Malawi on the way forward.
Pembamoyo ruled out the possibility of reconsidering the diocese’s first choice, Henderson, who was rejected following allegations that he supported gay activities in the United Kingdom.“Henderson’s case is a closed chapter. There is no way we can start discussing him again,” said Pembamoyo…
ACNS reports that the Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, has written a lengthy reflection on the nature of Anglicanism, and what it means to be an Anglican. The reflection is addressed to his fellow Primates. Here are a few snippets from the early paragraphs:
What does it mean to be Anglican? What is it about Anglicanism that has led so many to conclude that it provides the most productive spiritual soil for living out the Christian faith? What is it that we have, which we dare not lose?
Archbishop Rowan offers his own description of our distinctive Christian inheritance…
It is indeed within the territory encompassed by these strands that I find my own experience and understanding of Christianity. These describe the rich heartlands of Anglicanism — the solid centre, focussed on Jesus Christ, to which we are constantly drawn back by the counterbalancing pull of the other strands, if any one threatens to become disproportionately influential.
These Anglican heartlands are the subject of my reflections — the historic fertile middle ground, which is in danger of being forgotten amid polarising arguments and talk of schism.
The ACNS summary is included below the fold. The full reflection by Archbishop Ndungane is here.
34 CommentsThe Nation has a report by Juliet Chimwaga Mwenda kicked out, heads back home.
0 CommentsAnglican Bishop James Mwenda at the centre of a controversy over the headship of the Diocese of Lake Malawi is going back home in Zambia, the church’s Archbishop Bernard Malango confirmed Sunday.
But Malango could not give further details on the development, saying he would issue a press statement Monday…
Archbishop’s address to General Synod on the Anglican Communion ACNS copy here and Audio here
I am glad to have the opportunity of offering in these few minutes a very brief update on the current situation in the Anglican Communion, particularly in the light of the recent session of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention – which was, of course, attended by my brother Archbishop, who made an outstanding contribution to its discussions. The first thing to say is that the complex processes of Convention produced – perhaps predictably – a less than completely clear result. The final resolution relating to the consecration of practising gay persons as bishops owed a great deal to some last-minute work by the Presiding Bishop, who invoked his personal authority in a way that was obviously costly for him in order to make sure that there was some degree of recognisable response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report in this regard. I think that he – and his successor-elect – deserve credit and gratitude for taking the risk of focusing the debate and its implications so sharply.
However, as has become plain, the resolutions of Convention overall leave a number of unanswered questions, and there needs to be some careful disentangling of what they say and what they don’t say. This work is to be carried forward by a small group already appointed before Convention by the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and the ACC. And I have also written directly to every Primate to ask for a preliminary reaction from their province. The next Primates’ Meeting in February next year will digest what emerges from all this.
You will be aware of a number of developments in the public arena in the last couple of weeks, notably the request from several US dioceses for some sort of direct primatial oversight from outside the US, preferably from Canterbury. This raises very large questions indeed; various consultations are going forward to clarify what is being asked and to reflect on possible implications. There has also been an announcement from Nigeria of the election by the Nigerian House of Bishops of an American cleric as a bishop to serve the Convocation of Nigerian Anglican congregations in the US. I have publicly stated my concern about this and some other cross-provincial activities.
A working party is also being established in consultation with the Anglican Communion Office and others to look more fully at the question of what sort of ‘Covenant’ could be constructed to fulfil another significant recommendation of the Windsor Report.
Mention of this leads me to say a word about my own published reflections in the wake of General Convention. In spite of some interesting reporting and some slightly intemperate reaction, this contained no directives (I do not have authority to dictate policy to the provinces of the Communion) and no foreclosing of the character and content of such a covenant. Were any such arrangement to be proposed, it would of course have to be owned by the constitutional bodies governing Provinces. The proposal has already been dismissed in some quarters as a capitulation to fundamentalism and in others as a cunning plan to entrench total doctrinal indifferentism.
Both characterisations are nonsense. Perhaps you will allow me a word or two of clarification and further thought on all this. When I said, as I did in my reflections, that the Communion cannot remain as it is, I was drawing attention to some unavoidable choices. Many have said, with increasing force of late, that we must contemplate or even encourage the breakup of the Communion into national churches whose autonomy is unqualified and which relate only in some sort of loose and informal federation. This has obvious attractions for some. The problem is that it is unlikely to bear any relation to reality. Many provinces are internally fragile; we cannot assume that what will naturally happen is a neat pattern of local consensus. There are already international alliances, formal and informal, between Provinces and between groups within different Provinces. There are lines of possible fracture that have nothing to do with provincial boundaries. The disappearance of an international structure – as, again, I have observed in recent months – leaves us with the possibility of much less than a federation, indeed, of competing and fragmenting ecclesial bodies in many contexts across the world.
A straw in the wind: in Sudan, there is a breakaway and very aggressive Anglican body that has had support, in the past, from government in Khartoum. Among the varied grounds advanced for its separation is the ludicrous assertion that the Episcopal Church of Sudan is unorthodox in its teaching on sexual ethics. Some mischievous forces are quite capable of using the debates over sexuality as an alibi for divisive action whose roots are in other conflicts. And churches in disadvantaged or conflict-ridden settings cannot afford such distractions – I speak with feeling in the light of what I and others here in Synod know of Sudan. It helps, to put it no more strongly, that there is a global organisation which can declare such a separatist body illegitimate and insist to a local government that certain groups are not recognised internationally.
So I don’t think we can be complacent about what the complete breakup of the Communion might mean – not the blooming of a thousand flowers, but a situation in which vulnerable churches suffer further. And vulnerable churches are not restricted to Africa… But if this prospect is not one we want to choose, what then? Historic links to Canterbury have no canonical force, and we do not have (and I hope we don’t develop) an international executive. We depend upon consent. My argument was and is that such consent may now need a more tangible form than it has hitherto had; hence the Covenant idea in Windsor.
But if there is such a structure, and if we do depend on consent, the logical implication is that particular churches are free to say yes or no; and a no has consequences, not as ‘punishment’ but simply as a statement of what can and cannot be taken for granted in a relationship between two particular churches. When I spoke as I did of ‘churches in association’, I was trying to envisage what such a relation might be if it was less than full eucharistic communion and more than mutual repudiation. It was not an attempt to muddy the waters but to offer a vocabulary for thinking about how levels of seriously impaired or interrupted communion could be understood.
In other words, I can envisage – though I don’t in the least want to see – a situation in which there may be more divisions than at present within the churches that claim an Anglican heritage. But I want there to be some rationale for this other than pure localism or arbitrary and ad hoc definitions of who and what is acceptable. The real agenda – and it bears on other matters we have to discuss at this Synod – is what our doctrine of the Church really is in relation to the whole deposit of our faith. Christian history gives us examples of theologies of the Church based upon local congregational integrity, with little or no superstructure – Baptist and Congregationalist theologies; and of theologies of the national Church, working in symbiosis with culture and government – as in some Lutheran settings. We have often come near the second in theory and the first in practice. But that is not where we have seen our true centre and character. We have claimed to be Catholic, to have a ministry that is capable of being universally recognised (even where in practice it does not have that recognition) because of its theological and institutional continuity; to hold a faith that is not locally determined but shared through time and space with the fellowship of the baptised; to celebrate sacraments that express the reality of a community which is more than the people present at any one moment with any one set of concerns. So at the very least we must recognise that Anglicanism as we have experienced it has never been just a loose grouping of people who care to describe themselves as Anglicans but enjoy unconfined local liberties. Argue for this if you will, but recognise that it represents something other than the tradition we have received and been nourished by in God’s providence. And only if we can articulate some coherent core for this tradition in present practice can we continue to engage plausibly in any kind of ecumenical endeavour, local or international.
I make no secret of the fact that my commitment and conviction are given to the ideal of the Church Catholic. I know that its embodiment in Anglicanism has always been debated, yet I believe that the vision of Catholic sacramental unity without centralisation or coercion is one that we have witnessed to at our best and still need to work at. That is why a concern for unity – for unity (I must repeat this yet again) as a means to living in the truth – is not about placing the survival of an institution above the demands of conscience. God forbid. It is a question of how we work out, faithfully, attentively, obediently what we need to do and say in order to remain within sight and sound of each other in the fellowship to which Christ has called us. It has never been easy and it isn’t now. But it is the call that matters, and that sustains us together in the task.
ENDS
© Rowan Williams 2006
Today’s Church Times has several reports (and others not on the web until next week):
Nigerians set to write off Lambeth by Pat Ashworth
Requests for alternative Primatial oversight leave ECUSA guessing by Douglas LeBlanc
Leader: Is the Communion too much bother?
Columnist: A new way to silence prophecy? by Giles Fraser
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