The Guardian report by Stephen Bates, Evangelicals side with church rebels says that senior evangelicals meeting in Blackpool ignored pleas for tolerance and patience from the archbishops of Canterbury and York yesterday to send a message of support to parishes in the US and Canada which have fallen out over the issue of blessings for same sex couples and the election of an openly gay bishop.
Both this report and Ruth Gledhill’s in The Times, Liberal tolerance of gays in Church ‘is just paganism’ quote these remarks of Gordon Wenham:
“(Paganism) is raising its head again. Other examples are religious pluralism, abolition of Sunday as universal rest day, abortion, cremation, easy divorce … we should not be intimidated by the charge of being old fashioned: it is the so-called liberals who are really taking us back to the dark ages.”
The Telegraph report by Jonathan Petre strikes a less negative note, Evangelicals ‘must learn from gays’ and reports that “they were also told to counter criticism that they lack compassion by listening to and learning from the experiences of homosexuals.”
3 CommentsThe Archbishop of York has attracted plenty of newspaper attention this morning:
in The Times, Gay debate tearing heart out of Church, archbishop says
in the Telegraph, Infighting is wrecking Church’s image, says archbishop
in the Guardian, Evangelicals told to pipe down and listen
which also has Church report reinforces gay policy
The BBC radio programme Sunday has a 7 minute audio report available here (Real Audio needed). Includes quotes from Francis Bridger (about Fulcrum) and from Christina Rees.
And here is the ACNS news release about Rowan Williams at NEAC.
0 CommentsThe Church Times, in an article entitled Groups vie to represent Evangelical mainstream reports on the formation of Fulcrum, a new Evangelical grouping which “aims to give a voice to those who identify with Evangelicalism’s centre ground, but who feel that their views are not adequately heard in the public arena”.
Fulcrum has its own website here with more about its aims and objectives. This is well worth a read.
There are also two articles (in pdf format) of some interest.
One is a longer version of the article in this week’s Church Times by Graham Kings. Canal, River and Rapids: Contemporary Evangelicalism in the Church of England can be downloaded here.
The other is English Evangelicals and the Archbishop’s Theology by Andrew Goddard, downloadable here.
Choose your medium:
The Telegraph says Evangelicals warn Williams on gay issue
The Times has Church is infected by sin, Williams tells evangelicals
The BBC says Evangelicals warm up in gay row
The Guardian says No room in the church: archbishop finds himself cast out by evangelicals together with ‘Most churches just want to help people’
NEAC itself offers A defining moment for Anglican evangelicals by Andrew Goddard, reproduced from the CEN.
The Governing Body of the Church in Wales is meeting this week. In his presidential address yesterday, the Archbishop of Wales (the Most Rev Dr Barry Morgan) outlined the background against which the same sex relations debate needs to be conducted within the Anglican communion in the months and years ahead. He addresses these five general issues
1. The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture
2. The nature of Anglicanism
3. Decision making within the Anglican Communion
4. The place of Lambeth Resolutions
5. The sexual issue in a wider context
and it’s all well worth reading.
There is a press release here and links to the full text here.
The British national newspapers do not appear to have covered this, but the icNetwork in North Wales has this story.
0 CommentsThe Observer carries a major news story today, headlined Anglicans face schism over gay row, and subtitled Conservative US bishops prepare to take on liberal British wing in bitter struggle for Church’s soul.
This article refers to money spent outside the USA by the American Anglican Council. In connection with this, an item I reported on 6 August in my personal blog under the heading of American Imperialism may be of interest as it mentions that some of this money is channelled through British institutions.
As usual, other news stories today are listed here.
1 CommentGraham Bowley has written a long piece in the Financial Times, of all places, on our current controversies, under the title Jesus Loves Me which is well worth reading.
Later Note: this article was reposted by the FT on 15 September with major errors in the original fixed. Worth reading it again if you only saw the first version.
Further Note: on Saturday 19 September, the FT printed this letter commenting on the article from an American reader.
The Church of Ireland bishops yesterday issued this pastoral letter on Human Sexuality.
2 CommentsTo sign the following letter, go here.
To: Manchester Cathedral Authorities
We regret the inhospitable action of Manchester Cathedral, in withdrawing permission for an act of worship for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, to be held at the Cathedral. We invite the Cathedral authorities to explain their action clearly, and to consider seriously the message that their action gives to lesbian and gay people.
Sincerely,
To see a little of the background to this petition, go here and follow the links there.
1 CommentThis article in The Guardian last Thursday (4 September 2003) asks the question ‘why do so many scientists believe in God?’ Why not, you might reasonably answer, but the writer talks to a number of scientists who combine their profession with religious practice and belief.
Also discussed is the Science and Religion Forum, meeting this week in Birmingham.
To paraphrase one of those interviewed: doubt is important to both science and religion.
2 Commentsinclusivechurch.net announces a service of prayer for an inclusive church on 15 October, the day when the Primates of the Anglican Communion will be meeting at Lambeth to discuss the consequences of the the election of Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
2 CommentsThe Manchester Cathedral Chapter, with the support of the Bishop’s Senior Staff, has reluctantly withdrawn its permission for LGCM to use Manchester Cathedral for a conference service on October 26th 2003. The press release says:
“It has done so in the light of sensitivities and timing in relation to the current debates in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.”
full text of cathedral press release here
Details of the conference here
1 CommentThe full text of this article is now on the Forward in Faith website, so far only as a pdf file.
The location to download the file is here.
Addition: it is now available as a normal html web page here at Trushare.
The announcement of it is reproduced below.
0 CommentsThis story about the attempt to expel ECUSA from the Anglican Communion (or at least punish it in some way) is growing.
Today’s Telegraph contains two more pieces by Jonathan Petre:
Anglican conservatives fight to expel US liberals over gay issue and
Williams says Church faces disintegration
while Ruth Gledhill in The Times has
Archbishop gives warning of Church split over gays
Part of this comes, it seems, from an article authored by RW in the new issue of New Directions, the monthly Forward in Faith magazine. This issue of ND is not yet on the web.
Question
Do British Anglicans care about this? Or will it be a rerun of the JJ debacle when the majority of English bishops were supportive but kept silent? One bishop who has spoken about this is John Gladwin, whose statement on the New Hampshire election can be found here.
First, Jonathan Petre had another Anglican story on Friday, headlined Attempt to expel US Anglicans at summit which reports that ‘Conservative archbishops are increasingly confident that they can force the expulsion of the American Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion over its liberal line on homosexuality’.
And today’s Sunday Times has this by Christopher Morgan, Church revolt against Williams over gay bishop which says much the same thing. But also that LGCM is seeking to have Peter Akinola barred by David Blunkett from entry to the UK. on the grounds that he might incite hatred…
Second, if you didn’t hear this morning’s Sunday programme on Radio 4, go here to find out what was said by Steven Croft of Cranmer Hall. His views differed somewhat from those of the guy from Reform (in Hull). Andrew Brown the journalist was also interviewed in this piece. The Beeb’s intro starts:
Evangelicals
Not all publicity is good publicity, as the Church of England found out recently when it got a thorough battering in the press over the Jeffrey John Affair. But one group who may disagree are the evangelical Anglicans who so vocally opposed the gay cleric’s appointment as bishop. They have been loud and proud in their attempts to show they are a force to be reckoned with
It’s Tuesday evening (26 August) and I got back from Greenbelt last night – I think it was my fifth year of attending. Though I’ve categorised this as news, I’m not sure that Greenbelt is news for Thinking Anglicans. No dancing Archbishop Rowan this year, so it probably won’t make it to the nationals, except the Church Times. But there were connexions with what’s being discussed elsewhere on this site.
0 CommentsWriting in today’s Telegraph, Jonathan Petre reports on a new study by Peter Brierley of Christian Research. He says this suggests that, if current trends continue, evangelicals will make up more than half of all Sunday church worshippers in 10 years’ time, up from about a third now. Moreover, all but a tiny proportion of the new breed of evangelicals will be theologically conservative, viewing sex outside marriage, including homosexuality, as outlawed by Scripture.
Petre’s full article here does contain some criticisms of the research by Gordon Lynch of Birmingham University. TA will seek more information too.
2 CommentsRobin Eames and John Neill, archbishops respectively of Armagh and Dublin, have issued a press release containing a joint statement concerning the election of a bishop for the diocese of New Hampshire, USA.
The statement says that this election raises grave issues for the Anglican Communion and refers to the discussion on homosexuality in which the Irish House of Bishops is currently engaged. The archbishops say: “We regret the threat to the unity of the Anglican Communion caused by this election at a time when the Christian Church faces such grave issues in a divided world.”
This statement then refers to Clause 3 of the declaration to which all Irish clergy must subscribe. This says:
“The Church of Ireland will maintain Communion with the sister Church of England, and with all other Christian Churches agreeing in the principles of this Declaration; and will set forward, so far as in it lieth, quietness, peace, and love among all Christian people.”
The statement ends as follows:
“It is clear that what happens in another part of the Anglican Communion cannot change the Church of Ireland and that we have a duty to do all that we can to maintain as high a degree of unity as possible with those from whom we differ.
Our prayer must be that God will deepen our understanding of these issues, so that we may discern a way forward that is faithful to Christ and sensitive to the needs of the Church and of the world. In the past many issues have led to division between Christian Churches and that division has often crippled the mission of the Church. It is our task today, whilst differing on many issues, to maintain the communion to which God calls us.”
First, two newspaper columns commenting on recent ECUSA events:
When the Archbishop Calls by Colbert King in the Washington Post.
A Divided Episcopal Church? by Peter Steinfels in the New York Times.
Second, here is a pastoral letter written by the Bishop of Arizona to his diocese. (Arizona is a diocese which voted in all three orders in favour of the confirmation of the Bishop-elect of New Hampshire and in favour of the compromise resolution on same-sex blessings.)
I found all of these helpful in understanding how mainstream Americans view recent ECUSA events.
0 Comments