St. John’s Shaughnessy has voted to join Southern Cone
Members of what is described as the largest congregation in the Anglican Church of Canada voted strongly Wednesday to split with Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham over his support for same-sex blessings.
“It means that the community speaks with one mind,” said St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church spokeswoman Lesley Bentley, after a preliminary count showed that out of 495 ballots cast, only 11 opposed the split and nine abstained. …
The vote means the church, which has more than 700 members, will break with Ingham and join with the conservative Anglican bishops of the Diocese of the Southern Cone, which includes Argentina and Paraguay. …
Report from The Vancouver Sun.
ABC Religion Report on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments
From ABC Radio National’s The Religion Report on 13th February 2008:
“The Archbishop of Canterbury’s suggestion that some form of sharia law is inevitable in Britain has provoked public outrage – The Times has labelled him a traitor and there have been calls for his resignation. Now Rowan Williams says he has been misunderstood – he never intended to suggest there should be parallel legal jurisdictions. We speak to the author of Londonistan, Melanie Phillips, about why Britain’s elites seem so strangely reluctant to defend the idea of a common culture.”
Transcript and audio from the ABC website.
Uganda not going to Lambeth either
Church of the Province of Uganda
Statement by the Provincial Assembly Standing Committee on Lambeth Conference 2008
1. The Lambeth Conference is a gathering that brings together the Bishops of the Anglican Communion from all 38 Provinces of the Communion at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The conference is usually held every ten years. It provides Bishops with an opportunity for “worship, study, and conversation,” discussing and making resolutions that affect the Anglican Communion. Read more
St. John’s Shaughnessy to vote today on breaking with church
“The fate of what is described as the largest congregation in the Anglican Church of Canada hangs in the balance tonight.
Members of St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church, a neo-Gothic landmark in the heart of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhood, are gathering for an expected vote on breaking with Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham over same-sex blessings … Read more
Statement from the Archbishop of Sydney on the Government’s apology to the Stolen Generations
The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen, welcomes the government’s apology.
Dr Jensen says, “As Christians, we know that repentance and forgiveness liberates people to serve one another.”
“I hope the apology will help to reconcile indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and that it will make a real difference in the lives of those affected.”
– Media release from Sydney Diocese.
UK Anglican Bishop Fined £47,345 and Sent for ‘Re-Education’
The Anglican bishop of Hereford has been ordered by a court to undergo “equal opportunities training” and pay a fine of £47,345.00… for refusing to hire an active homosexual for a position of trust with young people. The ruling also stated that Hereford diocese staff “involved in recruitment should receive equal opportunities training”.
Story from Life Site. (Photo: Diocese of Hereford.)
General Synod updates from Church Society
For those interested, the Church Society is posting updates on the progress of the Church of England General Synod at Evangelicals.org.
Thinking theologically about the UK debate
“But there is a second reason why Rowan Williams was theologically wrong, and that is that the Christian approach to Muslims should surely be neither to bring them further under the laws of Islam, nor to offer them the scraps from the table of modern secularism, but to offer them the gospel.”
John Richardson gets to the heart of the issue on
The Ugley Vicar.
Presidential Address to the opening of C of E General Synod
“Some of what has been heard is a very long way indeed from what was actually said in the Royal Courts of Justice last Thursday. But I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity in either that text or in the radio interview, and for any misleading choice of words that has helped to cause distress or misunderstanding among the public at large and especially among my fellow Christians. …”
From the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Presidential Address to the Church of England General Synod last night Australian time.
(Photo: Jim Rosenthal, Anglican Communion News Service.)
Book to be launched in UK: “God, Gays and the Church”
Anglican Mainstream has an item about “God, Gays and the Church”, a new book to be launched on Wednesday to coincide with the Church of England’s General Synod meeting –
“Orthodox Anglicans make a new contribution to the homosexuality debate within the Church of England, by launching a book containing testimonies of Christians who once believed they had a homosexual orientation …”
See Anglican Mainstream for the article and Latimer Trust to order copies.
Elections for two new NZ bishops
The Anglican Church in New Zealand is in the process of choosing two key leaders – new bishops for the Dioceses of Waiapu and Christchurch.
The Diocese of Waiapu Electoral College gathered in Havelock North last Friday evening (February 8) and ran through until the following evening. And the Christchurch Electoral College convenes in Christchurch this coming Friday evening (Feb 15) and runs through till Sunday Feb 17. …
– from a press release from the Anglican Church of New Zealand.
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.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…