The Lambeth I:10 Briefing: Process and Motive, Truth and Love
“We have received inquiries about the way the Lambeth I.10 briefing was developed, the reasons behind why it was created, and its accuracy. Below is some more information about each topic …”
– Earlier this month, GAFCON UK released a briefing paper for GAFCON Primates. Its release has been criticised in some quarters. Here’s the GAFCON UK response.
Theology does matter
“Although recent attendance figures from the Church of England seem to indicate relentless decline, new research from a team of Canadian secular social scientists could offer hope if we recognise a truth that is all-too-often avoided. As George Orwell once observed, to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.
Respected new research published this week from Wilfrid Laurier University claims to have discovered that the ‘secret ingredient’ for church growth is clergy and congregations committed to the historic truths of the Christian faith as a revealed religion, while a liberal approach to belief is consistently a predictor of decline. …”
– Rod Thomas, Bishop of Maidstone (and former Chairman of Reform) responds to some recent research. Via GAFCON (Originally here – PDF file.)
GAFCON Jerusalem 2018 dates announced
GAFCON has announced that the Jerusalem 2018 Conference will be held 17th – 22nd June 2018.
Read the prayer bulletin here.
The Church of England and Lambeth 1:10
“This paper was recently presented as a briefing to the GAFCON Primates on the situation in the Church of England regarding attitudes, teaching and practice on sexual ethics, official and unofficial.
It argues that the Church of England has already ‘crossed the line’ by allowing a culture to develop where violations of Lambeth Resolution 1:10 are increasingly prevalent. It is published with permission…”
The topics covered are:
What is Lambeth 1.10?
The History of Lambeth 1.10 in the West
The Situation in England
- Clergy have officiated over same-sex unions and marriages and remained in office
- Clergy have entered into same-sex marriages and remained in office
- The Blessing of Gay Pride Parades
– from GAFCON UK.
The heart of GAFCON
“At the heart of GAFCON is communion.
When I became Archbishop of Sydney in 2001, I had a lot to learn. Even though I had been ordained for over thirty years by then, had lived in England for three years and had been the Principal of a theological College with students from many places in the world, there was so much that I did not know.
Two of the many things I had to discover through experience may sound strange and you may wonder where I had been all my life. But I suspect that many of us are in the same position…”
– GAFCON General Secretary, Dr. Peter Jensen, on The heart of GAFCON.
Bishop Greg Venables is new Primate of South America
“The Bishop of Argentina, Greg Venables, has been re-elected as the new Primate of the Anglican Church of South America. …”
– Report from the Anglican Communion News Service.
GAFCON website updated
GAFCON has a revamped website.
Cornhill Sydney moves to Moore
“In what is great news for the training of preachers and Bible teachers in Sydney and beyond, Cornhill Sydney will relocate to the Newtown campus of Moore College from the start of 2017. This new location will facilitate closer partnership, with the common goal of better equipping men and women in Bible exposition, and especially those who are charged with the critical role of preaching…” – More good news from Moore College.
Same-sex marriage plebiscite bill blocked by Senate
“The Federal Government’s bid to hold a plebiscite on whether to legalise same sex marriage has been defeated in the Senate.
The proposal was voted down a short time ago in the Upper House 33 votes to 29.”
– report from ABC News.
GAFCON Chairman’s Letter October 2016
Archbishop Nicholas D. Okoh, Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, has released this Pastoral Letter, reflecting on developments in October 2016 –
“The call to be peacemakers is also a call to evangelism because peace with one another cannot be separated from peace with God, and peace with God cannot be separated from faithfulness to the biblical and apostolic gospel of God. I therefore warmly commend the Global South Chairman, Bishop Mouneer Anis, for his bold warning about the ‘ideological slavery’ which some Western Churches seek to impose on the Global South by using their money and influence to promote teachings which overturn the bible and offer a false gospel.
Many of us were therefore deeply disturbed that the Presiding Bishop of the American Episcopal Church (TEC), Michael Curry, was a prominent member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s delegation in Rome, despite the fact that the Canterbury meeting of Primates in January this year had resolved that, among other things, TEC should not be involved in representing the Anglican Communion in ecumenical or interfaith relations.
This incident is just the most recent of many failures which the Cairo Communiqué describes as ‘the inability of the existing Communion instruments to discern truth and error and take binding ecclesiastical action’. We need alternatives. …”
– Read it all on the GAFCON website.
Light trumps darkness
“Reformation trumps Halloween. In fact it’s no contest.
For reasons unclear to me we’re being enticed by a dark festival of American origins that brings stocks of evil and bizarre to shelves where weeks before fresh food or other cheery merchandise sat. In supermarkets and $2 shops throughout Australia, the dark, the gruesome, the macabre and the scary hold sway.
Why witches hats, ghoulish masks and spider webs? As if swinging with the breeze, parents bend to accommodate this strange festival, children are attracted to it and society is the worse for it.
By strange coincidence, the same weekend as Halloween, the Presbyterian Church of Australia celebrates light. …”
– Presbyterian Moderator-General John Wilson on the light of the gospel, as rediscovered by Martin Luther.
Bishop of Egypt calls for prayer and advocacy after ‘hostile takeover’
“The Bishop of Egypt, Dr Mouneer Anis, has called on Anglicans to pray and advocate with their local Egyptian consulates and embassies after a court ruling effectively subsumed the diocese into a separate denominational body. …
Through ACNS, Dr Anis is asking for Anglicans and Episcopalians to pray for the Church in Egypt. ‘we feel deprived from our legal rights and our role as a church, and our freedom, may be compromised,’ he said. …”
– Read it all at the Anglican Communion News Service.
Encouragement from the Pressies in Queensland
The latest issue (4/2016) of Pres Life, the magazine of the Presbyterian Church in Queensland, is now available. It’s a 1.6 MB PDF file.
Rejoice with those who rejoice at the Lord’s salvation in Christ, and join with them in praying for the progress of the gospel in that state.
Russian Patriarch concerned about liberalisation in Church of England
“On October 18, 2016, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury at the Lambeth Palace in London. …
Patriarch Kirill drew Archbishop Justin Welby’s attention to the Russian Orthodox Church’s concern over the liberalization of the Church of England’s teaching on church order, particularly, the ordination of women as priests and bishops and on the family and morality. His Holiness Kirill expressed hope that the Church of England will oppose challenges of the modern world and seek to preserve the Gospel’s teaching. …”
– from The Russian Orthodox Church. Photo: Lambeth Palace.
The Open Letter from Evangelicals to C of E Bishops: a commentary
“On Wednesday 12th October a letter was sent to the College of Bishops, signed by nearly a hundred evangelical leaders, making it clear that “further changes to practice or doctrine” on sexual ethics would result in serious damage to the Church of England. The letter isn’t titled. There was no sophisticated media strategy involved in getting it out, other than asking signatories to make it more widely known.
There was initially some confusion about whether it was meant to be kept ‘in house’ among the evangelical constituency, or publicised in the wider media. The organisers, led by John Dunnett of CPAS and some of the committee of the Evangelical Group on General Synod, then let it be known that it is a public letter.
The issue is considered to be of sufficient urgency that it can’t just be a private communication with Bishops, but must also be a signal to the wider church. …”
– Andrew Syme at Anglican Mainstream, provides some commentary about that letter.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…