The Church Times has a splendid 12 page pull-out section of articles relevant to the forthcoming Primates Meeting next week. Most of these are not on the web, so it is well worth buying or borrowing a copy. Not online are articles by David Edwards, Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia, and a major piece on Homosexuality in Africa by Kevin Ward, plus four other items.
Update for several more of these items online see newer entry here
Major items online are:
A primer for the Primates: Reflections on the choices that will face Anglican leaders editorial overview
1 Commentwww.inclusivechurch.net Surround them with prayer
Leading anti-apartheid Archbishop to preside at inclusivechurch service.
1 CommentLambeth vigil supported by 6000 Anglicans prays for inclusive church
PRESS RELEASE Tuesday, October 7, 2003 For immediate release
The leaders of the Anglican Church will be literally surrounded by prayer as a network of over 6000 Anglicans organizes a vigil in churches around Lambeth Palace on 15th October. At 11 am, grassroots church-goers will assemble at the parish churches of St Matthew’s Westminster, St John’s Waterloo and St Peter’s Lambeth – the three parishes that immediately surround Lambeth Palace – to pray for the future of the church. The vigil has been organised by Inclusivechurch.net.
1 CommentStephen Bates has an article in the Guardian this morning, Church’s gay activists beg to be heard reporting on a letter (about which more anon) that LGCM (not named in the article) has sent to all those coming to the Primates Meeting.
But later in the article he also mentions that “in a stern counterblast in the religious journal New Directions, the leading evangelical Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, insisted that the time for listening was over”.
For more from Australia about Jensen’s article, see also News from Melbourne, and Expel US, Canadian Anglicans, says Jensen in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Additional note: Also this, Gay issue a ‘contest for soul of the west’, says Jensen published later from the same paper.
Also, Australia’s ABC radio has transcribed this interview with Jensen.
It’s a pity that Sydney diocese’s normally splendid website Anglican Media Sydney has been unable to update since 24 September. I expect the full text of this article will be available from FiF soon.
Update: it is now available in full, but in PDF format, download from here. FiF press release is here.
Friday 3 October update: AMS website came back to life and here is the full text of the article as a web page.
Oh yes, and another set of advice from Church Society can be found here.
0 CommentsThe Archbishop of Armagh and Senior Primate of the Anglican Communion, the Most Revd Robin Eames, examines some of the questions currently facing the worldwide Anglican Communion prior to the forthcoming special meeting of Primates at Lambeth Palace.
Read What Price Unity from the Church of Ireland Gazette.
Part of what he says:
In the blitz of opinion and counter argument over the election to New Hampshire I believe we need to be clear what we are talking about.
This election undoubtedly challenges the Resolution 1.10 of the last Lambeth Conference. It is clearly in breach of the majority opinion of the bishops in 1998. It is clearly contrary to the view of a large number of Anglicans. But the question still remains: Is there a tangible manner within the structures of our Communion as present constituted to do more than express concern and criticism and adopt attitudes within our own Provinces towards those others with whom we disagree?
To put it plainly – if no constitutional or legal rules exist for what constitutes membership of the Anglican Communion there are no rules for expulsion of a member Church.
0 CommentsSome news about INCLUSIVECHURCH.NET is available on this page.
Key points from this release:
ACNS has published the full text of a letter, released on 22 September, from Archbishop Akinola to Archbishop Ndungane. The letter is in response to the report in the Guardian dated 8 September, which included an interview with Archbishop Ndungane.
0 CommentsThe 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
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