Row over gay clergy threatens to divide a Synod still reeling over Sharia furore
The row over the Church of England’s attitude to homosexuality revives this week, posing another headache for the Archbishop of Canterbury as he tries to reduce the temperature over his remarks about Islamic law. …
Story from Times Online.
See also “Synod turns on Rowan Williams in sharia row” from The Telegraph.
(Photo: Church of England.)
Episcopalians support break from church
Nearly 100 leading laity in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh have signed an open letter expressing their “strong support for the godly direction” of Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. in removing the diocese from the national church and realigning it with a more biblically conservative province of the worldwide Anglican Communion. …
Story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read the letter.
See also this pastoral letter to his congregation – dated 2nd February 2008 – from the Rector of Church of the Ascension Pittsburgh, The Rev. Jonathan Millard. He writes, in part –
“What about us? Will we be steadfast? I want to exhort you not to lose heart, not to give up, not to waiver. Please remember that the real issues facing us are rooted in the authority of God’s Word as revealed in Holy Scripture. We are not arguing about human sexuality, or the minutiae of canon law, but the timeless truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is life and hope and salvation to those who are perishing. Because of this we cannot just agree to differ and carry on as if nothing has changed.”
New Westminister: Leave? You can’t
Bishop Michael Ingham sat down with a group of 17 Anglicans from parishes across the Diocese to talk about several issues facing the Church and answer questions they had. …
The Bishop stressed that Anglicans belong to a diocesan Church. Dioceses establish parishes — and not the other way round. …
Read the report and other material from the New Westminister website.
See also “Neighbouring Bishop warns separatists in his diocese”.
(Photo: Diocese of New Westminister.)
Williams ‘shocked’ at Sharia row
“The Archbishop of Canterbury is said to be overwhelmed by the ‘hostility of the response’ after his call for parts of Sharia law to be recognised in the UK. Friends of Dr Rowan Williams say he is in a state of shock and dismayed by the criticism from his own Church. …” – BBC News report.
Reactions to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments continue – Anglican Mainstream has the text of a BBC interview with Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Archhbishop of Jos in Northern Nigeria. (This is apparently not yet available on the BBC website.)
Related: Liberal Christianity Intensifies Radical Islam Threat in Christian Post.
Disputed parts of Covenant redrafted
The design group in charge of steering the Anglican Covenant through its various stages has produced a new draft …
Pat Ashworth in Church Times reports on the changes.
(Photo: Anglican Communion News Service.)
Statement from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney on comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury regarding Sharia law
A media release from the Diocese of Sydney:
The Sydney Diocesan spokesman on this issue is the Bishop of South Sydney Robert Forsyth –
“We do not agree with the Archbishop’s comments. In the case of Australia, we are thankful for freedom of religion, but would oppose the idea of different systems of law for different people groups.”
Sharia law in UK is ‘unavoidable’ – Williams
The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK “seems unavoidable”. …
– Report from BBC News.
To see what was actually said, read the press release from the Archbishop’s website – and also a transcript of the BBC interview. For one reaction and links to others, see Ruth Gledhill’s blog.
(Photo credit: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.)
Orthodox attendance at Lambeth would give wrong impression
Dr. Chik Kaw Tan, a member of the Church of England’s General Synod, has written to the Church of England Newspaper –
“If orthodox bishops really believe that Anglicanism as practised in many parts of the Western world is a denial of Scripture and is inconsistent with apostolic teachings, then they cannot, indeed must not, share communion with the leaders of that new pseudo-Christian religion. On that count, I cannot but express my highest regard for those primates and bishops who choose, at great personal cost, not to attend Lambeth 2008. …”
Text of the full letter is worth reading at Anglican Mainstream.
(Photo credit: Jim Rosenthal, Anglican World.)
‘Global South’ Anglican Catechism in Outline
“The Anglican Catechism in Outline project was unanimously endorsed and commissioned by the Global South Primates or their representatives present at its meeting at Kigali, Rwanda, September 2006. It was agreed that an interim report should be sent to the Global South Primates by February 2008 for their comments, and the final report be submitted by June 2008.
It is a historic and important project initiated by the Global South at this very critical juncture of the life and witness of our Anglican Communion.
The Global South Anglican Theological Formation and Education Task Force submitted their Interim Report to the Global South Primates Steering Committee on 6 January 2008.
We commend the Interim Report for careful study and feedback.”
Read the 60 page ACIO Interim Report (PDF) here.
Bishop John Rodgers interviewed
Bishop John Rodgers, one of the founders of AMiA and Interim Dean and President of TSM, has been interviewed on his hopes for the Anglican Communion:
“We have assumed we are part of a global Anglicanism that is true and good and turned a blind eye to its actual condition. We have been idolatrous about the Anglican Communion. The truth is that for us to be faithful Anglicans we can no longer be simply identified with the present Anglican Communion. It must be reformed or divided.”
Read the full interview on VirtueOnline.
‘An Anglican Covenant’ – 2nd draft released
The Covenant Design Group, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Drexel Gomez, has released a second draft for the proposed Anglican Covenant.
“The Covenant Design Group met again at the end of January 2008, and produced a second report and draft – the St. Andrew’s Draft – taking into account many of the submissions to the group. This draft is being offered for further reflection, especially at this year’s Lambeth Conference.”
All the details are available on the Anglican Communion Office website.
Concerns over abortion paper
Concerns have been raised by some Melbourne Anglicans over a submission made to the Victorian Law Reform Commission on reform of the state’s abortion laws.
A think tank of eight women, by invitation from Archbishop Freier, made the submission in December. …
The Revd Tim Patrick, Associate Priest at St Jude’s Carlton, has sent a letter to parishes seeking signatories for a petition protesting against the submission. …
From this month’s The Melbourne Anglican. (The Submission is available here.)
Archbishop Peter Jensen in the Sydney Morning Herald
“On Saturday I had the pleasure of ordaining 49 men and women who were officially starting their ministries in Anglican churches in Sydney and beyond. Amid their joy and enthusiasm, I charged them to be faithful servants of the biblical message. I did so aware that I had to announce later in the day our painful decision that we will not go to the Lambeth Conference.
I have characterised this debate not just as one of sexual ethics but of faithfulness to the very message those ordinands had promised to uphold.
There has been a long road leading to this. …”
Raed the full article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
See also “Primate laments snub by bishops” in The Australian. “Dr Aspinall, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, said yesterday he failed to understand the motivation of the dissenting bishops…”
Archbishop aims to save divided Church
The Anglican archbishop in charge of drawing up the document intended to reunite his warring Church said he believes that schism can still be averted in spite of divisions over the issue of homosexuals.
The Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev Drexel Gomez, said that a new formula had been found that would allow the disciplining of errant churches while respecting the traditional autonomy of the 38 worldwide Anglican provinces. …
But he indicated that the Episcopal Church of the United States was unlikely to face discipline or any form of exclusion from the Anglican Communion … The new draft is expected to introduce greater autonomy for individual provinces to do what they believe to be right. …
Full report by Ruth Gledhill in The Times Online.
See also the earlier Draft Covenant (April 2007)
and an analysis of it by The Church Society’s General Secretary David Phillips (PDF file).
Three more AMiA bishops consecrated
Three more bishops have been consecrated into the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA), the ‘alternative province’ set up in North America for disaffected traditonalists who reject the leadership of the American Episcopal Church, particularly their liberal stance on homosexuality.
American priests Terrel Glynn, John Miller and Philip Jones were consecrated bishops into the Church of Rwanda in a ceremony at AMiA’s winter conference in Dallas, Texas, which was attended by Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and Justice Akrofi, the Archbishop of West Africa. …
Report from Religious Intelligence.
(See also these details from the AMiA website. Photo: Dick Kim.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…