CoE complaint about churches with no Bibles
“They may be found in every hotel bedroom, and are widely available in prisons and hospitals, but members of the clergy claim one of the last places you will find a Bible is in a church.
The absence of the Word of God from the pews is of such concern to the Church of England that it is to debate the issue at the next meeting of its General Synod, or “Parliament”, next month. The complaint was raised by Tim Cox, a Synod member from Blackpool, who said he had been dismayed to discover that churches he visited “all too often” had no Bibles for worshippers to follow the readings and the sermon. …”
Full story from the UK Telegraph.
Australia Day Convention at the Cathedral
On Monday January 28th, St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney is host to the first Australia Day Convention.
The Dean, Phillip Jensen, is speaking on Mark chapters 1-8.
Details are available from australiadayconvention.com.
Service celebrates 2 beliefs – Hinduism & ?
“Hindu nun Pravrajika Saradeshaprana, dressed in a saffron robe, blew into a conch shell three times, calling to worship Hindu and Episcopal religious leaders who joined Saturday to celebrate an Indian Rite Mass at St. John’s Cathedral near downtown [Los Angeles]. …
During the service, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, issued a statement of apology to the Hindu religious community for centuries-old acts of religious discrimination by Christians, including attempts to convert them. …”
Story from The Los Angeles Times. (May require free registration).
Anglican clergy asked to declare allegiances
“An Anglican diocese in Newfoundland will take the rare step Monday of requiring all of its clergy to declare their allegiances to the Church, or ‘do the honourable thing and resign’ if they support a breakaway movement that opposes same-sex unions. …
[Bishop] Cyrus Pitman issued the ad clerum in part as a response to the departure of his predecessor, Donald Harvey, who left the Anglican Church of Canada several years ago over the issue of blessing same-sex unions and is now affiliated with the more conservative Anglican Network in Canada. …”
Full story from The Canadian Press. See also this earlier story from The Western Star.
New Bishop of Nevada blessed by interfaith leaders
“Episcopal bishops, local interfaith leaders, native American ‘smudgers’ and drummers, choirs and church people from throughout the state gathered Saturday, January 5 to participate in the consecration of The Rev. Dan Thomas Edwards as the 10th bishop of Nevada. …”
Read the full report from the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.
See also this report from The American Chronicle –
“In a marvelous gesture, the new tenth Episcopal Bishop of Nevada, Right Reverend Dan Thomas Edwards, was blessed by a Catholic Bishop, Hindu chaplain, Muslim Imam, Jewish Rabbi, Bahai leader, Baptist minister, and a Native American faith leader …”
Website upgrade in progress
Friends, we are currently making some changes to the ACL website. Images and other details may be missing for a short while as we move things around. Thanks for your patience.
If you are looking for material on the old website, that is still available here.
Bishop Iker receives another letter threatening discipline
“Bishop Jack Leo Iker of Fort Worth informed The Living Church on Jan. 15 that he has received a second letter from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori threatening him with new disciplinary action.
“Unlike her November letter, it did not imply a charge of ‘abandonment of the communion of this church’, but it said that I would be liable for charges of violation of my ordination vows if I continue ‘any encouragement of such a belief’ (i.e. that parishes and dioceses can leave The Episcopal Church),” Bishop Iker said.”
Full report from The Living Church.
See also this Message from Bishop Iker to all Clergy and Convention Delegates in his Diocese.
Bid to depose Duncan Bishop backfires
“US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s bid to depose Bishop Robert Duncan before the opening of the 2008 Lambeth Conference has misfired, leaving the Pittsburgh Bishop in office pending a trial at the autumn meeting of the House of Bishops.
On Jan 15, Bishop Schori wrote to the conservative leader saying that although a secret review panel on Dec 17 had found that he had ‘abandoned the communion’ of the Episcopal Church, after four weeks of deliberations the Church’s three senior bishops were not able to agree upon suspending him from office. …”
Report by George Conger on Religious Intelligence.
Your Kingdom Come
SydneyAnglicans.net has made available, courtesy of the Church Missionary Society, the talk given by Archbishop Peter Jensen at the CMS Summer School at Katoomba on January 6th.
Peter spoke on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.
Listen and pass on to your Christian friends.
Bishop Schofield of San Joaquin ‘inhibited’
In a move which will surprise few, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Kathering Jefferts Schori has inhibited Bishop John-David Schofield –
“I hereby inhibit the said Bishop Schofield and order that from and after 5:00 p.m. PST, Friday, January 11, 2008, he cease from exercising the gifts of ordination in the ordained ministry of this Church…”
He has been given two months to ‘recant’. The inhibition will have little effect since Bishop Schofield and his Diocesan Convention have formally left the Episcopal Church and aligned with the Province of the Southern Cone, although the inhibition is seen as a precursor to legal action by Bishop Jefferts Schori.
Read a report from Episcopal Life.
See also this story – “Episcopal Church bans bishop for 2 mos. after he pushed secession” – from the San Jose Mercury.
Don Carson in Sydney this March
A reminder that Professor Don Carson will be speaking at Moore College in Sydney on Wednesday 26th March.
Details are available in this PDF file from the Moore College website.
Preliminary Report from Fort Worth on the Invitation to Join the Southern Cone
“Based on our review, we have concluded that the structure and polity of the Province of the Southern Cone would afford our diocese greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. This autonomy would be evident most specifically in the areas of property ownership, liturgy, holy orders, and missionary focus. …”
Read the full Preliminary Report from the Bishop of Fort Worth and his Standing Committee – on the Fort Worth website.
Church Society analysis of the C of E response to Draft Covenant
“The Church of England has issued its response to the Anglican Covenant first mooted by the Windsor Group and then put out by the Covenant Design Group. The General Synod unwisely gave the Archbishops authority to respond on their behalf and the fears of some in doing so have been realised. In effect the response completely re-writes the original CDG version.”
Read the Church Society’s analysis by David Phillips, Church Society General Secretary.
Church of England Response to draft Anglican Covenant
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, as Presidents of the General Synod, have submitted a Church of England Response to the draft Anglican Covenant published last year for discussion around the Anglican Communion.
All Anglican Provinces were invited to comment on the text prepared by the Covenant Design Group chaired by the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Revd Drexel Gomez.
The Response to the draft Anglican Covenant can be read here (rtf file) – linked from this page on the C of E website.
Anglican archbishop spurs opposition to gays
“Outspoken Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen is galvanising opposition to homosexuality in the church, in the lead-up to an unofficial meeting of conservative bishops in Jerusalem.
As rifts in the worldwide Anglican Church threaten to become a schism, the Sydney Archbishop said American Anglicans had become missionaries for homosexuality in defiance of the Bible and Anglican teaching. The Global Anglican Future Conference is provocatively timed just before the 10-yearly meeting of all the world’s bishops at Lambeth in London. That meeting must resolve the sexuality crisis or worldwide Anglicans will probably divide into two separate churches. …”
Read the full report by Barney Zwartz in The Age.
(Concerning the inaccurate headline – see the GAFCON FAQ.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…