The 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 CommentsRuth Gledhill writes in The Times today that Archbishop of Canterbury backs faithful gay relationships. This story is based on the fact that Canterbury Press is to republish an earlier essay of Rowan’s in the book of essays The Way Forward: Christian Voices on Homosexuality edited by Timothy Bradshaw, due to appear in the middle of September.
A second article in the same newspaper discusses another essay and the book further.
Gay clergy need not be celibate, says Dr John.
Mary Ann Sieghart has written this article in The Times:
If all liberals left the church it would cease to be a national institution and become a narrow sect.
Thinking Anglicans has received the following press release, announcing the formation of a new movement in the Church of England.
3 Comments