Brisbane removes barrier to women bishops
“The Anglican Diocese of Brisbane has cleared the way for Queensland to have its first woman bishop.
The synod of the diocese, which held its annual meeting in Brisbane this weekend, removed an obstacle in the church canon that stopped women from becoming assistant bishops, and therefore, bishops. …”
– Report from The Sydney Morning Herald. (See also this story from 25 May 2008.)
(Photo of Abp Phillip Aspinall: Diocese of Brisbane.)
Anglican TV to stream GAFCON sessions live
The main GAFCON sessions in Jerusalem will be streamed live on the Internet by Anglican TV.
They can be seen via this link.
Attendees set for GAFCON
Attendees have been streaming into Jerusalem ahead of this evening’s opening session.
Matt Kennedy, who is now in Jerusalem, comments at Standfirm on the first media reactions to the meeting –
It is fascinating to read the various leftist and mainstream accounts of the “failure” of GAFCON since, in fact, it hasn’t started yet. Many key leaders have only just arrived. I was on the bus with many of them this afternoon and on an airplane with them earlier in the day.
I do not know whether GAFCON will be “successful”. I do not know what measure to apply to assess that. I do think, especially now that we are here, that it was a good thing to come to Jerusalem.
If you have not read the “The Way, The Truth, and the Life” I encourage you to do so. It is not, as some have said, simply a regurgitation of previously published material.
– See also Official GAFCON study document released.
(Photo: The queue for GAFCON registration on Saturday – by Joy Gwaltney / GAFCON.)
Where the responsibility for schism lies
Dr Peter Jensen addresses British press reports that claimed GAFCON leaders were planning “schism” –
“What the Americans did in 2003 and what the Canadians did was to rip the Communion. If we’re talking about schism and the breakup of the communion – that’s where it starts and that is where the responsibility is. What GAFCON is doing is saying that given that new state of affairs, how now can we live together and how can we sustain the highest level of communion and work well together. My way of putting it is to say that the British Empire has now ceased to be and the British commonwealth of nations has come into existence or the nuclear family has turned into an extended family. This is the new reality. I don’t hear GAFCON saying or GAFCON being a further cause for schism. …”
– from Archbishop Peter Jensen’s remarks to the press – via the GAFCON website. You can listen to the 4 minute excerpt in this 3.6 MB mp3 file (direct link). (Photo: GAFCON.)
‘Sun sets on Church of England’
“The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has declared a formal split in the worldwide Anglican communion over the consecration of openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions. …”
– Jason Koutsoukis in The Age reports on the press conference at which Dr Jensen actually spoke of an effective – but not a formal (in the sense of “officially sanctioned”) – split in the Anglican Communion.
(Photo: Abp Peter Jensen at the BBC’s Amman bureau last week – by Russell Powell.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…