Williams offers ambiguous response to sexuality question
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams offered an ambiguous response to a direct question posed to him about sexual behaviour saying that sexual sin is defined as “any relationship outside a public covenant of mutual support and love in the presence of God,” seeming to endorse committed same sex arrangements. …
– David Virtue reports from the Lambeth press conference.
Lambeth: bishops divided over opening Eucharist
The opening Eucharist service of the 2008 Lambeth Conference exemplified everything that is wrong with the Communion and the Conference, with substance given a second place to ceremony, one Global South primate told ReligiousIntelligence.com. …
The tensions have led to three primates and an undisclosed number of bishops declining to receive the sacraments during the opening Eucharist, highlighting the tensions lurking beneath the surface of the every ten year gathering of the bishops of the Anglican Communion. …
– Report by George Conger at Religious Intelligence. (Photo: Lambeth Conference media.)
Archbishop Kolini speaks out on Lambeth
The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, Emmanuel Kolini, has spoken out on their refusal to attend the Lambeth Conference, saying that they cannot sit to deliberate on wicked issues.
The Archbishop claimed that it was not a boycott since they had declined the invitation. He said that their stand was based on strong Biblical views yet Canterbury had ignored the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality. …
Asked whether by refusing to attend the meeting, the members were not deepening the rift in the church, Kolini said this year’s conference could not be the platform for unifying them because they had always spoken against gay marriages but the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has always ignored their advice. …
– from The New Times, Rwanda. (Photo: Joy Gwaltney)
The shindig begins…
The 14th Lambeth Conference had everything befitting a party that has been ten years in the planning: bouncers, paparazzi, an international guest list of thousands, in Canterbury Cathedral the most well-established venue in the city, world-renowned musicians and even half-naked dancers.
It also had everything you might expect at an awkward family party: unspoken feuds, some people refusing the invitation, others not asked to come, the host looking a little nervous and speeches entreating everyone to get along. …
The Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Right Rev Bob Duncan, said: “It was a glorious service, it was a gathering of the family, but there were troublesome elements – the Buddhist chant, for example, and the sermon had a few challenges. A number of our brothers didn’t make their Communion.”… (emphasis added)
– Comment by Joanna Sugden at Times Online. (Photo: Lambeth Conference.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…