TEC and Friends: Inclusion with Attitude

“Although TEC’s Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, avoided an explicit attack on Rowan Williams in her sermon at Southwark Cathedral yesterday, it is clear that TEC and its allies are becoming more militant and that far from suggesting that the Windsor Covenant process has at last found teeth, the Archbishop’s attempt to discipline TEC only underlines its ineffectiveness…”

– Charles Raven comments.

Divorced Bishops in the C of E: another nail in the coffin?

“One of the most depressing experiences I ever had in a Diocesan Synod was the morning on which ours debated the proposals to change the Church’s regulations on the remarriage of divorcees.

Until 2002, considering the many other ‘easings’ of the Church of England’s doctrinal adherences, its position on divorce and remarriage had remained remarkably consistent with a traditionalist understanding of Scripture…”

– John Richardson wonders what else can happen once Biblical teaching is ignored.

The Amazing Technicolor Multifaith Theology School

“The leftward march of liberal Protestantism is hardly news, but on occasion a development arises that serves as something of a parable of that trajectory. Such is the case this week with news from California that the Claremont School of Theology, a school historically related to the United Methodist Church, is transforming itself into a multifaith center for the training of clergy…

What this implies, of course, is that ministers, priests, rabbis, and imams, along with Buddhist and Hindu spiritual leaders, are just different varieties of clergy…”

– Albert Mohler’s latest column. (Photo: This sign on a Sydney church last week reflects similar sentiments.)

Confusion reigns

Canterbury’s continuing chaos: does anyone know what is going on?

“The fallout for the Anglican Communion following the consecration of Mary Glasspool is, for many of us, becoming more confusing by the day…”

– John Richardson’s post is worth reading in full.

Leadership: Casting the Right Vision

In some Christian circles at the moment there is quite a deal of talk about leadership and vision. It is the language of international politics with aspiring Prime Ministers and Presidents seeking to position themselves as genuine leaders with expansive (and yet still economically responsible) vision. As so often happens, churches then echo the concerns and the rhetoric of the community at large.   Read more

Gifted Individualism is not Leadership — Church Record editorial

Editorial from the June 2010 Australian Church Record –

One of the great privileges of being part of the Lord’s people is rubbing shoulders with so many gifted people. Paul’s image of ‘the body’ (1 Corinthians 12) displays such a beautiful picture of the organic unity that exists amongst God’s people. Here we find the Spirit of God has baptised all of us into the body-life of the congregation, and God has richly gifted his people. This is so that the body-life can function well, with security and stability, thus promoting the movement towards ‘growing up into the head (Christ)’, our ultimate maturity (Ephesians 4).

At least two factors in the last half-century have placed ‘giftedness’ firmly on the agenda, especially when it comes to discussions of ‘leadership’. The first is within ‘Christian culture’, namely, the influence of neo-pentecostalism. This has made it almost axiomatic for Christians to wonder about the gifts the Spirit may have distributed to them. The second (and related) factor comes from general culture, namely, the so-called ‘sixties revolution’, a phenomenon which simmered across the decade, came to a head in 1968, and then continued to bring massive cultural transformation across the seventies and beyond.   Read more

Disorganised Doubt

Charles Raven:

“It seemed to me that pretty much all that needed to be said about Rowan Williams’  Pentecost letter ‘Renewal in the Spirit’  had been said, with general agreement that his rebuke of the American Episcopal Church for proceeding with the consecration of Mary Glasspool was little more than a token gesture. Although his admission that the Communion has not ‘found a way of shaping our consciences and convictions as a worldwide body’ was surprisingly frank, he had nothing new to offer for the future beyond a plea for diversity and ‘mutual exploration’ within the framework of the now widely discredited Covenant process.

Yet when I heard the first of this years’ BBC Radio 4 Reith lectures by the eminent cosmologist and astrophysicist Professor Martin Rees, his description of the scientific enterprise as ‘organised doubt’ set in motion a train of thought which led me to think that the term ‘disorganised doubt’ could shed some light on why Dr Williams and the other ‘instruments of unity’ are incapable of restoring coherence to an increasingly disordered Communion…”

– read it all at SPREAD.

Some thoughts for Trinity Sunday

“In the Church of England’s calendar, today is Trinity Sunday, but time was when the Church of England seemed to become a bit embarrassed about this.

Indeed the calendar was re-written so that Sundays after Trinity, which run from now until the run-up to Christmas became Sundays after Pentecost. Pentecost seemed much more in keeping with the new mood of the Church. Pentecost was about experience — present experience of the Spirit in the life of the Church and the believer. Trinity seemed to be about an obscure doctrine rooted in the Church’s past…”

– John Richardson writes.

Time to end the Nanny Church?

“In our area… we have been told to come up with a deanery mission strategy. But we cannot control our budget and we cannot control our staff — the ‘quota’ we pay to diocesan central funds is set by the diocesan centre, and is increasingly beyond the reach of dwindling congregations of elderly people. But we are rated as a ‘rich’ area, so the level is set accordingly.

At the same time, however, the number of clergy we are allowed to deploy is restricted to what we are allowed by the bishops, so we cannot increase the workforce who might increase the membership…”

– John Richardson also wonders about the future of the Church of England.

The next big question

“Taking stock after the American Episcopal Church has consecrated its second bishop  in a same sex relationship, and doubtless not the last, certain things seem to be clear; the North American revisionists are striking out regardless of the rest of the Communion, the Anglican Covenant has been effectively abandoned by the Global South as a means of restoring order and the Archbishop of Canterbury is an increasingly peripheral figure, as underlined by his silence on the Glasspool consecration this past weekend and his inaction beforehand.

But these clarifications bring to the foreground a question which many have so far been reluctant to face. According to Archbishop Peter Jensen, reflecting on last month’s Fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore, the Communion is now in a ‘post crisis phase’, but where does that leave the Church of England, the mother church of the Communion?…”

– Charles Raven wonders about the future of the Church of England.

“For the sake of God” — Must we surrender sexual morality?

“One problem faced by the communion is the habitual hesitation and tepid leadership of its leaders, starting with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop has continually spoken of his concern and fears for the unity of Anglicans worldwide, and he has even spoken of his disappointment and frustration with the American church. What is missing from Canterbury is a clear demand that the Episcopal Church correct its unbiblical practices, repent, and submit to the faithful consensus of the global Anglican family.

But now, a most interesting and provocative argument has come from a very different quarter. Columnist Ruth Gledhill of The Times, one of the most seasoned observers of the Anglican scene, now calls for Christians to just stop arguing over homosexuality and get on with whatever the churches are supposed to be doing. Liberals and conservatives, she argues, must now ‘put their differences behind them, for the sake of God, themselves and the common good.’

That is quite a startling argument, but is also an argument that is certain to gain traction in the liberal landscape of Europe and North America. Ruth Gledhill’s argument bears a closer look.”

– Albert Mohler asks if Ruth Gledhill has a valid argument.

Why nobody seems to care

“Revisionist bloggers and some in the mainstream press are atwitter over the lack of interest in yesterday’s consecration. They seem to think that this signals some kind of breakthrough–that consecrating a non-celibate lesbian is the new normal…”

– Matt Kennedy writes at Standfirm on why nobody seems to care about the consecration of Mary Glasspool.

Budget: A restraint too far

“The Treasurer’s zeal for a ‘fiscally responsible’ budget has seen Australians living at the margins largely forgotten yet again”, says Anglicare Sydney CEO Peter Kell.

– See the Anglicare website.

The Silence has been Deafening

“We are now less than six days from ECUSA’s “consecration” of a partnered lesbian to the (ECUSAn, at any rate) episcopacy. As I wrote in this earlier post, in so consecrating Canon Mary Glasspool, ECUSA will shoot itself in the foot. Even so, the silence from Lambeth Palace over the past weeks has been deafening…”

– A S Haley writes at Anglican Curmudgeon.

A marriage which is no longer a marriage

Bishop Gregory Venables:

“First of all although the Covenant is a wonderful effort it looks as if it’s not going to succeed because it doesn’t really get to grips with what the problem is. There are two versions of Christianity: the original version and the new version which isn’t true Christianity. It does not address and we are not going to resolve it. Really the Covenant seems to be a way of holding together a marriage which is no longer a marriage.

Also even if we sign the Covenant and believe that there is enough there to work through the problems, the Anglican Church does not have a structure to implement how it would be worked out. We haven’t got a leadership, we haven’t got anybody who can say right now that we’ve done this, this is what’s going to happen.

And the worst thing about it is that now it looks as if there is going to be a standing committee which could fulfil that role but the standing committee is representative of the problem rather than the solution so it doesn’t look very hopeful.”

– Archbishop Venables sees the proposed Anglican Covenant as dead in the water.

(Quoted by A S Haley in his commentary, The Silence has been deafening. Photo from an Anglican TV video.)

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