A House Divided?
“Rowan Williams’ proposal for a ‘two-track’ Anglican Communion is a theological disaster. Beyond this, it is almost certainly unworkable.
The reason for this is simple — both sides in this controversy see the question of homosexuality as both unavoidable and fundamental. Both sides see the question as far too important to remain unsettled. Neither side can accept the permanent disagreement of the other. …”
– Albert Mohler writes at his blog.
See also, “Are we about to go to war?” by Peter Ould and some comments by John Richardson. (Photo: ACNS.)
NT Wright on GC09 and the Archbishop of Canterbury: Unpacked or Repackaged?
“It has been said of the great twentieth century theologian Karl Barth that his was ‘a maverick ego that never lost the sense of continuity with itself’.
Whether the Bishop of Durham, one of Anglicanism’s most heavyweight theologians, has a maverick ego could be an interesting debate, but a strong ego is undoubtedly an asset to any theologian. In his ‘unpacking’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s reflections on TEC’s recent General Convention, he clearly demonstrates continuity with himself, but there is a worrying discontinuity in the image we are given of Rowan Williams. …”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD comments on Bishop Tom Wright’s “Rowan’s Reflections: Unpacking the Archbishop’s Statement” at Fulcrum.
Christian Missions in the Third Millennium
“The impulse of the missionary conviction is drawn from the assurance that God saves sinners, and that He is glorifying Himself by creating a new people through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we have the glad opportunity to glorify God by declaring the Gospel to all the peoples of the earth. …” (emphasis added.)
– Albert Mohler’s comments are a world away from this earlier story.
Canterbury, you’ve missed the point!
“Archbishop Rowan Williams’ Reflections on the 2009 TEC General Convention has so incensed me that I am compelled to respond with a second post for today. …
The row is about the authority of Scripture which declares the practice of homosexuality to be a sin.”
– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
Moratoria dashed
“Sad to say, just one year after the affirmations of Anglican Church unity made at the Lambeth Conference of 2008, the USA Anglicans have decided that one year was enough of a wait.
Their recent decision to affirm same sex relationships will deepen the split in the world-wide communion. All the Lambeth conversation groups (‘indabering’) bought only one year’s reprieve…”
– Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower laments the dashed hopes of Lambeth.
Schori declaration a sad milestone
‘That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.’ Neil Armstrong’s words come readily to mind for those who watched (on television) the first ‘man on the moon’. That was 40 years ago. …
– Robert Tong writes at SydneyAnglicans.net
The spirit of Jezebel
Bishop David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council, reflects on the TEC General Convention –
Dearly beloved in Christ,
As I have been reading my way through 1st and 2nd Kings, I have been almost bogged down in the depressing history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel – how they went further and further away from the Lord God, and more and more into the worship of the pagan deities, even to the sacrificing of their own children. Prominent in this journey was Ahab, the king, and Jezebel, the queen. Read more
The Bishop discovers heresy?
“The bishop is simply not concerned with seeing persons come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. She has made this clear over and over again and her convictions were well-known when she was elected as the denomination’s Presiding Bishop. …”
– Albert Mohler on last week’s pronouncement by Katherine Jefferts Schori. (Photo courtesy ACNS/Rosenthal.)
After B033, can English Evangelicals unite?
“It is a sad fact that throughout a period when Traditionalist Anglicans should have been united, they have been bitterly at loggerheads, sometimes over policies, but often, one suspects, over personalities. …”
– John Richardson writes about the English reaction to the TEC vote this week – at the Ugley Vicar.
The Americans know this will end in schism
“In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion. …”
– Bishop Tom Wright in The Times.
Canterbury must say ‘enough’!
Last weekend we learned that the House of Deputies (clergy and lay representatives of the convention) effectively recommended an end to the moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops, established by Resolution B033 in 2006 in response to a recommendation of the Windsor Report, calling upon Bishops and Standing Committees to ‘exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.’
This week we now learn that the House of Bishops followed that lead by a 2/3 majority (99 to 45 with 2 abstentions) by passing resolution D025 …
– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
Two Rival Religions?
“On November 3, 1921, J. Gresham Machen presented an address entitled, “Liberalism or Christianity?” In that famous address, later expanded into the book, Christianity & Liberalism, Machen argued that evangelical Christianity and its liberal rival were, in effect, two very different religions. ”
See also three talks, ‘Christianity and the Tolerance of Liberalism’ by Lee Gatiss.
(Image of J. Gresham Machen: The Theologian.)
The Chicago Consultation: read it and weep
“One of the things I’ve been reading recently is the Study Guide prepared for The Episcopal Church by the Chicago Consultation, titled Christian Holiness and Human Sexuality. …
… the document must presumably be regarded as the ‘best of’ arguments for changing the Church’s traditional teaching and practice on same-sex relationships.”
– John Richardson writes at The Ugley Vicar.
John Dickson pays tribute to Martin Hengel
“As the music world farewells Michael Jackson, the king of pop, academia mourns the loss of a don of truly biblical proportions. Martin Hengel was Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism at Germany’s prestigious University of Tübingen from 1972 until (as Professor Emeritus) his death last Thursday (July 2). …”
– John Dickson pays tribute to Professor Martin Hengel – at Sydney Anglicans.net
Welcome the FCA
“Andrew Goddard, perhaps the best-informed and most thoughtful critic of FCA, argues: ‘There is, at present, no widespread sense that this new initiative is a necessity for Anglicans to be faithful and maintain fellowship within the Church of England and with the churches of the Communion.’
… So why should anyone support FCA and why should it be launched now?”
– Andrew Carey gives some good reasons why the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is needed now.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…