Bishop speaks of ‘Interfaith relations’ with members of the TEC House of Bishops
Bishop Peter Beckwith of Springfield spoke of his own Christian faith and responded to questions from the media during a 45-minute session at the Lambeth Conference on July 30.
It was one of the few unscripted moments that the media have been able to observe to date at this event, and Bishop Beckwith drew a large group that delayed the start of an official Episcopal News Service media briefing…
[Speaking of some of his TEC episcopal colleagues, he said –]
“It’s not just that we’re not on the same page,” he said. “We are not in the same book. We are in different libraries. I am dealing with interfaith relations within The Episcopal Church.” …
– Report from The Living Church. (Photo: Diocese of Springfield.)
… it’s knowing they’re foreign that makes them so mad
I was reminded of this line from the Flanders and Swann piece of gentle self-mockery, A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, when I discovered that in a cross post to my little article on Thirty-two years of women’s ordination in the American context someone on the Stand Firm website had listed a whole string of similar words and actions which we in England might find bizarre, but which are quite common, it would seem in TEC. …
– from John Richardson at the Ugley Vicar.
Why we need an ACL
– That’s not the title of the Rev. Todd Wetzel’s report from Canterbury, but the American experience shows what can happen when committees and synods take on a life of their own, not representing the local churches.
In 2000, I called the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson the most dangerous man in the Episcopal Church.
Before you jump to conclusions, let me say that I was very clear that it was not because I considered him a “bad” person. Quite the contrary, he was (and is) very articulate, a capable and well liked priest, intelligent, reasonably good looking, a skilled consultant who was (and is), by his own admission, non-celibate and a person of homosexual orientation. As a member of the diocesan staff, he was well known locally. I called him ‘dangerous’ because he was elect-able. And, if elected, and consecrated, chaos would emerge within the Episcopal Church and the Communion. …
Read his full post at Anglicans United. (See also the ACL’s Policy Objectives.)
The Pointy Hat Club
Once upon a time in a far away place called Dar Es Salaam there was a party attended by boys and girls who liked to wear pointy hats, including one girl who liked to wear a pointy hat, but who sometimes wore a rainbow-colored oven mitt on her head instead. The other boys and girls were very polite and never used the words “oven mitt” in front of the one girl because they knew it would make her very cross. …
– Robert S. Munday, Dean of Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin, has written this little story. You might enjoy it – but it has a serious side.
(Photo: Episcopal Life Online / Richard Schori.)
Archbishop Mouneer Anis spells it out
“I find that many of our North American friends blame us and criticise us for bringing in the issues of sexuality and homosexuality but in fact they are the ones who are bringing these issues in. Here at Lambeth, you come across many advertisements for events organised by gay and Lesbian activists which are sponsored by the North American Church.
If you visit the marketplace at the conference, you will notice that almost half the events promoted on the noticeboard promote homosexuality and are sponsored by the North Americans. And in the end, we, the people who remain loyal to the original teaching of the Anglican Communion, which we received from the Apostles, are blamed. They say that we talk a lot about sexuality and that we need to talk more about poverty, about AIDS, and injustice. They are the ones who are bringing sexuality into this conference. It’s not us. We want to talk about the heart of the issues which divide us, not only sexuality. That is just a symptom of a deeper problem. …”
– Archbishop of Egypt, Dr Mouneer H. Anis in “Lambeth Voices: a panel of Anglican bishops share their views with Faith Online” at TimesOnline. (Photo: ENS.)
Sydney Standing Committee endorses Jerusalem Declaration
The Standing committee of the Diocese of Sydney has overwhelmingly endorsed the Jerusalem Declaration from GAFCON, with the Bishop of North Sydney calling it a “great moment in defining Anglicanism”. …
– Report by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.
What will Lambeth 08 say?
‘What is Lambeth ’08 going to say?’ is the question looming larger all the time as this final week unfolds. But before trying out any thoughts on that, I want to touch on the prior question, a question that could be expressed as ‘Where is Lambeth ’08 going to speak from?’. I believe if we can answer that adequately, we shall have laid some firm foundations for whatever content there will be. …
– Archbishop Rowan Williams’ second address to the Lambeth Conference. (Photo: Lambeth Conference media.)
On the Windsor Continuation Group
John Richardson, just back from his honeymoon (congratulations John and Alison), has some refreshingly honest words about the preliminary observations of the Windsor Continuation Group at the Lambeth Conference.
The executive summary of his analysis?
“as much use as a chocolate ladder at a house fire”
Read John’s post here.
John recently appeared as a spokesman for Reform on the UK’s Christian channel – Premier TV – in a programme (‘The Gay Christian debate’) about Lambeth and Gene Robinson. It may now be seen here.
See also Ruth Gledhill’s “Lambeth Diary: ‘Pastoral Forum’ proposed” in Times Online.
Blame Africa? The Anglicans and their troubles
The Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is meeting in Britain, even as the worldwide Anglican communion is about to tear itself asunder over issues of homosexuality, gender, and biblical authority. Over 200 conservative bishops are boycotting the conference, and the global media are trying to figure out how to report the meeting.
One of the most creative and revealing attempts at an explanation comes now from The Economist. …
– Al Mohler comments on some classic spin.
How many CHURCHGOING Anglicans does Lambeth represent?
A lot of things have been said over the last few months about just who represents whom in the Anglican world. GAFCON, for example, is pilloried by the media and the leadership at Lambeth as a “breakaway” movement. But, is this right?
Already some journalists are beginning to realise that while the Lambeth Conference might have a large number of bishops in attendance, those bishops actually represent a SMALL MINORITY of the world’s Anglicans. …
– Bishop David Chislett, of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, looks at the numbers.
(Bishop Chislett served as a Rector in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane until 2005.)
Archbishop Mouneer’s view from Lambeth
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your prayers. God hears our prayers and in His time, answers them. The Lambeth Conference has been a time of great fellowship and strength; it has also been a time of disunity and conflict. Everything is going fairly well, but I do not believe that there is hope of a solution from this Lambeth conference.
However I hope that we would be able to come up with a road map for a final solution of the current crisis. There have been many benefits to the Lambeth Conference. One of the great strengths of the Lambeth Conference has been the statement from Archbishop Deng of Sudan calling for The Episcopal Church in the USA to repent and have Gene Robinson, the active homosexual bishop, resign for the sake of the Communion. This statement has shaken the foundation of Lambeth Conference. …
– Archbishop of Egypt, Dr Mouneer H. Anis, writes home from Lambeth. (Photo: ENS)
The Natural: You just can’t teach that in seminary
After the [Lambeth] press conference some reporters persuaded Bishop Beetge to stay and converse a bit. There were a variety of questions. The most telling came toward the end of the session when a reporter who said he was shooting a documentary for “American television” tried to nail the bishop down on the question of homosexual behaviour. …
– We missed this earlier post from Stand Firm – thanks to Anglican Essentials Canada.
(Bishop David Beetge of the Highveld. Photo: Diocese of Monmouth.)
All but unmentioned
The Lambeth Conference 1998 famously adopted a resolution on human sexuality, resolution I.10. The failure of the American and Canadian churches to honour that resolution are at the centre of the conflict which overshadows Lambeth 2008.
The Lambeth Conference 1998 also adopted a resolution, numbered III.2 calling on Provinces “to make such provision, including appropriate episcopal ministry”, as will enable those who dissent from and those who assent to the ordination of women to live “in the highest degree of Communion possible”.
The patent failure of the American and Canadian churches to honour this resolution has gone all but unmentioned at Lambeth 2008. …
– Warren Tanghe writes from an Anglo-Catholic perspective at the Forward in Faith website.
At Lambeth we need your prayers
The Rev. Todd Wetzel, of Anglicans United and Latimer Press reports from Canterbury –
To inform your prayers, here are four things we believe need serious prayer:
- Spiritual warfare is real and it is intense. Please pray for spiritual protection over Canterbury, Kent University and especially over the orthodox bishops, that they might be bold and courageous in spite of mounting opposition.
- The drain on one’s emotions is real. We are in an intense environment and it sucks the life out of you. Even when not much appears to be happening, you feel tired.
- The intellect is on overload. This is a rich environment of thought and an environment beset by controversy. So far, no matter how hard the wheels spin, no solutions have been found. The sense of frustration at least at the leadership level, is very real. Patience is wearing thin.
- Physically, at least for those from the west, we’ve all done more walking than ever required to do at home. While this is healthy, it does wear on the body. The cobblestone streets, though charming, make walking semi-perilous.
– from Anglicans United.
A rival Global South movement?
“A rival Global South movement is being set up here in Canterbury in an attempt to divide and conquer the Global South movement. A Lambeth compliant ‘Communion Partners’ movement is being encouraged in an effort to isolate mainstream evangelical and Anglo-Catholics who number 40 million of the 55 million church-going Anglicans throughout the world. …”
– David Virtue wonders where this might lead.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…