Reform asks: Why is the C of E celebrating 20 years of the ordination of women?
Director of Reform Susie Leafe today asked, “What exactly are we celebrating? Women have been ministering in the church for 2000 years, not 20. The very fact that this event is taking place begs some serious questions about how some people view ministry in the Church of England. It seems we have forgotten that we follow Christ, who came to serve and not be served…”
– full press release from Reform in the UK.
Latimer Fellowship engages with ‘Ma Whea?’
NZ General Synod members will gather in the Bay of Islands for the General Synod of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, May 10–15.
The recently-published report of the ‘Ma Whea?’ [Where to?] Commission on Same-Gender Relationships, Ordination and Blessing will be a topic for discussion.
The Latimer Fellowship has published some brief reflections to help Synod members think through the issues raised in the report.
“To aid General Synod representatives, and to encourage evangelical thinking and engagement with the Report and the issues contained within it, various members of the Fellowship have written short reflections on it. Our prayer is that these pieces might strengthen confidence in God’s word revealed in Scripture, and be widely disseminated.”
Communiqué from the GAFCON Primates Council, April 27 2014
The GAFCON Primates Council has been meeting in London, and at the conclusion of the gathering released a Communiqué, which addresses current issues in the Anglican Communion.
On The Church of England:
“We are particularly concerned about the state of lay and clerical discipline. The House of Bishops’ guidance that those in same sex marriages should be admitted to the full sacramental life of the church is an abandonment of pastoral discipline. While we welcome their clear statement that clergy must not enter same sex marriage, it is very concerning that this discipline is, apparently, being openly disregarded.”
Read the full Communiqué here.
‘Supreme Court of Canada deals final blow to Anglican parishioners’
“A breakaway group of Anglican parishioners has been dealt a deathblow in their legal battle over ownership of a Riverside church.
The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to grant St. Aidan’s parishioners leave to appeal, dismissing their case with costs.”
– report from The Windsor Star, Ontario. (h/t Anglican Essentials Canada blog.)
GAFCON Easter Message 2014
“What a wonderful truth we celebrate at Easter! The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead assures us that our sins are atoned for and death is defeated. This is the reason we can be confident that despite failure, frustration and the things that perplex us, God’s saving purposes will certainly be fulfilled…”
– Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council, with the GAFCON Easter Message 2014.
Anglican Network in Canada Easter Message
“Imagine someone announcing that:
- The problem of death has been dealt with completely.
- The power of sin has also been broken so that complete forgiveness is available to all and so that guilt is gone and the power to live a new and worthy life is now possible.
- Satan and all his demonic realm – who have long ruled this dark world wreaking evil havoc, cruelty, violence, all sorts of injustice and abuse, filling the world with lies – has received a death blow that guarantees his and their condemnation.
This, of course, is exactly the message we bring and would remind you of …”
– Bishop Charlie Masters’ Easter Letter.
More congregations leave the Church of Scotland
“Two of the wealthiest Church of Scotland congregations are quitting the Kirk just weeks before the General Assembly over the issue of gay ordination. The move is a new cash blow with the two congregations contributing £315,000 between them to the Church…”
– Report from The Herald Scotland.
Tweet #Eastermeans, says Church of England
“Theologian and religious commentator @vickybeeching said: ‘I’m excited about the #EasterMeans campaign – it encourages Christians to give the world a window into their personal faith; why Easter matters to them and how the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection have impacted their life.’…”
– Good idea, via the Anglican Communion News Service.
‘First gay clergyman to wed plunges Church into crisis’
“A senior Church of England clergyman yesterday became the first to enter into a gay marriage – in direct defiance of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby – plunging the Church into a fresh crisis.
Canon Jeremy Pemberton tied the knot with Laurence Cunnington under new laws allowing same-sex marriages pushed through by David Cameron in the face of bitter opposition from backbench MPs and the Church…”
– from Mail Online.
Church Society gives thanks for John Richardson
Church Society’s Director Lee Gatiss has penned this note of thanksgiving for John Richardson.
He includes this detail: “At the National Evangelical Anglican Congress in Blackpool (2003) he famously donned a purple (ish) clerical shirt, and delighted in telling us how he was ushered into all kinds of places as a result!” – Read it here.
And here is a 70 second audio clip (280kb) where John speaks about going to Moore College (from a ‘weekend away’ talk on Marriage and Singleness for St. Peter’s Harold Wood).
Niagara Bishop to get public apology from blogger
“The legal squabble between Niagara Bishop Michael Bird and an Oakville blogger who criticized him is over. The Diocese of Niagara says the pair has reached a settlement. …”
– Story from The Hamilton Spectator.
Apology and Timeline from David Jenkins (Anglican Samizdat).
(Photo of Bishop Michael Bird from the Diocese of Niagara.)
Also from Anglican Samizdat, The Diocese of New Westminster sells a church to make way for a mosque.
NZ Report on same sex blessings and ordinations released
“The long-awaited report of the Ma Whea? Commission into the question of same-gender blessings and ordinations has been released.
The report, which is the fruit of 15 months’ work by five eminent New Zealand citizens, lists 10 options to inform the General Synod debate at Waitangi next month.”
– The Ma Whea? (Where to?) Report can be downloaded from this page.
Photo Anglican Taonga.
Thank you, Lord, for John Richardson
Adrian Reynolds at the Proclamation Trust, adds his thanks to the Lord for John Richardson.
And Canon David Banting has a substantial tribute at Anglican Mainstream.
“I met John first through his writings, while I was a vicar in Oldham. Get into the Bible (1994) was a brilliant overview of the Bible, from first creation to new creation, and introduced many to Biblical theology at its best. It was 1998, when I moved to be an incumbent in Chelmsford diocese, that I first met the lanky John face-to-face. It was the beginning of a lasting friendship and partnership in the ‘proclamation and defence of the gospel’. I can think of few people I have come to respect more than John…
John’s earlier years were shaped in part by Anglo-Catholic traditions, and he never lost his love and passion for the Church’s health and calling. But his theological grounding was evangelical. It was first outlined at St John’s Theological College, Nottingham, and later, after the typically mixed Anglican experience of a confusing curacy and an unhappy foray into incumbency, crucially galvanized and cemented by a ‘first-class’ year at Moore College, Sydney.”
(The talks on marriage David mentions in the full article may be found here – search for ‘Richardson’.)
Other labourers in The Lord’s Vineyard
Sometimes we may forget we have brothers and sisters labouring in other parts of the Lord’s Vineyard. Here’s the latest from The Presbyterian Inland Mission (PDF) and Australian Presbyterian World Mission (PDF).
The Ugley Vicar — with the Lord
Lee Gatiss in the UK shares some very painful news:
“I’m sorry to be the bearer of sad news, but our good friend and faithful minister of the gospel, John Richardson, died this morning after recent illness.”
John was a good friend of many and a very able defender of the gospel. There will be many tears.
From a poem John wrote last year, entitled “The Lifeguard”:
When Jordan’s verge I someday tread,
These words I’ll hear inside my head,
“If you would see the Promised Land,
To call the lifeguard, raise your hand.”So if you see my hand go up,
Don’t hand to me the water cup,
Or fetch the bedpan, next of kin —
These cannot save me from my sin.And do not think that I am calm,
That’s not why I lift up my arm!
It’s just this thing (you’ll understand),
“To call the lifeguard, raise your hand.”For he’ll be looking for that wave,
That says, “Saviour, come now to save,”
My anxious fears he’ll bid subside,
He’ll land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Read it all and you will understand why John’s friends can rejoice, amidst the tears.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…