Tackling climate change a ‘moral imperative’

“The Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a meeting of faith leaders and faith-based and community organisations at Lambeth Palace to discuss the response of faith communities to the environmental crisis. With 40 days to go before the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit the participants have pledged to work together to raise awareness about the effects of ‘catastrophic climate change’ on the world’s poor…

In the first statement of its kind, signed by leaders from every faith community (including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Baha’i, Jain and Zoastrian) the signatories recognise ‘unequivocally that there is a moral imperative to tackle the causes of global warming’…”

– Press release from the Anglican Communion Office.

(For a summary of contrary views on global warming, see this article from The Telegraph. Here’s a greater imperative. Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.)

The latest from the national capital

Stuart Robinson, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, has released his latest ‘StuTube’ video.

He speaks of the encouragement of Back to Church Sunday and exhorts the churches of his diocese to continue to be ‘missional, engaging, and loving’.

He also commends the book “Facing the Future: Bishops Imagine a Different Church”, edited by Bishops Stephen Hale and Andrew Curnow, and reads an extract. (Related.)

See also “Starting Mission-Shaped Churches” by Stuart Robinson. (Moore Books, Gospel Outreach Ministries, Ridley Bookshop.)

The video runs for 8:38 at YouTube.

Sydney welcomes ACNA

sydney-welcomes-acna “On the final night of the 2009 Synod, the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has passed a resolution embracing the new Anglican province, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

In the words of the resolution, ‘Synod welcomes the creation of the Province of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) under the leadership of Archbishop Bob Duncan and notes the GAFCON Primates’ Council recognition of the ACNA as genuinely Anglican and its recommendation that Anglican Provinces affirm full communion with the ACNA. Synod therefore expresses its desire to be in full communion with the ACNA.’…”

– Russell Powell writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.

The Resolution reads –

Synod –

(1) welcomes the creation of the Province of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) under the leadership of Archbishop Bob Duncan and notes the GAFCON Primates’ Council recognition of the ACNA as genuinely Anglican and its recommendation that Anglican Provinces affirm full communion with the ACNA and –

(a) therefore expresses its desire to be in full communion with the ACNA, and

(b) furthermore, requests that Standing Committee seek to have a motion brought to the General Synod affirming that the Anglican Church of Australia be in full communion with the ACNA,

(2) welcomes Archbishop Duncan’s assessment that the recent Vatican offer of a Personal Ordinariate ‘will not be utilised by the great majority of the Anglican Church in North America’s bishops, priests, dioceses and congregations’ and urges all Anglicans to reject the Vatican’s proposal, and

(3) asks the General Synod Standing Committee to –

(a) bring the Anglican Covenant to the September 2010 General Synod in such a manner as to enable each diocesan synod to consider the document, and

(b) bring a motion to the General Synod noting the publication of the Jerusalem Declaration and to encourage its study as a means to Anglican identity and cohesion.

Global South Primates: Pastoral Exhortation

The Global South Primates Steering Committee has issued this “Pastoral Exhortation” —

“The Vatican announcement on Apostolic Constitution… gives us an occasion in making the following pastoral exhortation.”

A Pastoral Exhortation to the Faithful in the Anglican Communion

1. We, under-shepherds of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ, bring greetings to the faithful in the Anglican Communion. Read more

‘Battle of the Bishops’

‘Battle of the Bishops’ is the title of tonight’s edition of Compass on ABC-TV at 9:40pm AEDT.

“Follows the head of the Anglican Church in Nigeria as he leads a boycott of the once-a-decade Anglican leaders meeting in London, to hold a rival summit in Jerusalem. Archbishop Peter Akinola and other disaffected Anglicans, including Sydney’s Archbishop Peter Jensen, want to “restore traditional family values” and remain “faithfully committed to the scriptures”. Will this split the church in two?”

Sixteen months after GAFCON, how will it be portrayed? Since people may be discussing it tomorrow, it’s worth having a look.

(Archbishops Henry Orombi, Uganda and Peter Akinola, Nigeria, at the GAFCON closing session. Photo: Joy Gwaltney.)

Adelaide Synod Presidential Address

Archbishop of Adelaide Jeffrey Driver The Synod of the Diocese of Adelaide meets this weekend (October 23–25 2009).

Archbishop Jeffrey Driver gave his Presidential Address on Friday. The text is available here (PDF file).

Synod Business Paper. (PDF)

Better Gatherings — new look

The recently-launched Better Gatherings website, produced by the Archbishop of Sydney’s Liturgical Panel, has had a makeover.

“This site is designed to equip service leaders to craft meetings that by their shape, their contents and their tone proclaim the gospel of Christ, build his body in the unity of the spirit and bring honour and glory to God.

On this website we would like to help you reflect biblically and historically on just how good church can be, and give you the resources you need to put this vision into practice.”

At bettergatherings.com.

New Social Issues website

The website of the Social Issues Executive of the Diocese of Sydney is now up and running. Lots of helpful resources.

Latest on their site: Who are the disabled?

The sin of GAFCON? (updated)

Did Archbishop Peter Jensen wonder out loud if the diocesan financial losses were the Lord’s punishment for going to GAFCON?

From an Anglican Media Melbourne story (22 October 2009):

“The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, has admitted questioning whether his diocese’s financial losses were a result of God chastising the Church for unethical behaviour, arrogance in handling its endowment or as punishment for its bishops going to the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem rather than Lambeth.” (emphasis added.)

AMM is not alone in reporting this seemingly out-of-character remark.

So what did Archbishop Jensen really say? From his prepared text: Read more

ANiC responds to Vatican announcement

The Anglican Network in Canada’s Bishop Don Harvey:

“I need not become a Roman Catholic to be a Catholic Christian. As an Anglican, I am a Catholic Christian.”

Glebe board sorry for losses

“The 2009 Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney has accepted an apology from the board which administers more than one hundred million dollars in church funds, for large losses associated with the Global Financial Crisis…”

– Russell Powell wrote this report for SydneyAnglicans.net.

Reform initial response to ‘Apostolic Constitution’ announcement

MEDIA STATEMENT 20th October 2009

Revd Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, makes four points as an initial response to today’s announcement from the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster:

“Anglicans concerned about protecting the basic Christian faith need not go to Rome, because we now have the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA (UK)) which holds together those who want to stop the orthodox faith being eroded. We can remain Anglican. Furthermore, the FCA Primates have recognised that problems with episcopal oversight are arising here in the UK. They have expressed the hope that these will be solved locally, but if not, they are willing to step in.”

“This development highlights the need for robust legislative provision to cater for those who cannot agree to women bishops, such as that recently suggested by the Revision Committee.”

“If priests really are out of sympathy with the C of E’s doctrine (as opposed to the battles we are having over women’s ministry and sexuality), then perhaps it is better they make a clean break and go to Rome. However, when they do, they will have to accommodate themselves to Rome’s top-down approach to church life, whereas the C of E has always stressed the importance of decision making at the level of the local church.”

“It is illusory to pretend that this development is an outcome of ecumenical dialogue. It illustrates the difficulties the C of E faces and the need for stronger leadership, rather than the ‘softly softly’ approach so far taken to those holding liberal views who are splitting the church.”

— from Reform.

Rome welcomes unhappy Anglicans

The Vatican has announced a structure to ‘bring home’ Anglicans dissatisfied with the liberalism rampant in many parts of the Anglican Communion –

“With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion.

In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”

– Full statement from the Vatican website.

The Archbishop of Canterbury approves. So does Forward in Faith UK.

Update: And Bishop Bob Duncan of ACNA.