Q & A from the Covenant Design Group
A Lambeth Commentary: The Reflections on the St Andrew’s Draft for an Anglican Covenant by the bishops gathered at the 2008 Lambeth Conference together with responses from the Covenant Design Group has now been made available from the Anglican Communion Office.
It’s a 200kb PDF download (direct link).
Bishop John Harrower reports on Lambeth
Bishop of Tasmania, John Harrower, shares his experience of the Lambeth Conference –
“One of the saddest moments of the Conference for me personally occurred in our Indaba when a bishop spoke earnestly of his views on same sex issues with a brief and solemn conclusion.
Some minutes after I saw him surreptitiously pass a sheaf of the TEC briefing notes to the TEC bishop seated in front of him. He had parroted one of the ‘sample narratives’. I wanted to shout and to cry. Any idea of transparency and trust through Indaba had been tragically thrown in our face. Set piece parroting surreptitiously orchestrated was poisoning our communion. God have mercy on us!…”
– Read Bishop Harrower’s full report on the Diocese of Tasmania website.
(Photo of Bishop John and Mrs Gayelene Harrower: Samuel Dow.)
Anglican Church of Canada slashes budget
Directors at the General Synod office have been asked to slash $1.3 million from the 2009 budget, a move designed to break a recurring pattern in recent years of huge budget deficits. …
Archbishop Hiltz … cautioned against looking at the situation negatively, saying, “The ship is not sinking; rather it’s moving in another direction…”
– Report from The Anglican Journal of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The Seinfeld Conference: A Reflection on Lambeth 2008
“Lambeth 2008 was about nothing, said nothing, and achieved nothing, and by its inaction, the Anglican Communion was left in a worse place than if it had never taken place at all, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda said…”
– George Conger writes for the Institute on Religion & Democracy. (Photo: Lambeth Conference media.)
Tibetan monks at Louisville cathedral
“Visiting Tibetan Buddhist Monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in South India are once again at Christ Church Cathedral to create a Sacred Sand Mandala for Compassion and World Peace…”
– from the Diocese of Kentucky.
(Hat tip to Greg Griffith at Stand Firm.)
Dr Martin Dudley responds
The Rector of The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, the Rev Dr Martin Dudley, has responded to the statement, made last week, by members of the Diocese of London Deanery. Read it at Anglican Mainstream.
And then read a critque of his response – “Martin Dudley mishandles Donatism” – by Peter Ould:
Is he arguing that we should simply ignore sin in the church? Or is he arguing that we shouldn’t discipline him, “because we’re all sinners”?
(Photo: Church of St Bartholomew the Great.)
Sydney Synod overwhelmingly endorses GAFCON Jerusalem Declaration
Tonight a packed meeting of the Synod of the Diocese of Sydney very strongly supported the Jerusalem Declaration.
Read the Media Release by Russell Powell. See also this story.
Related: The Jerusalem Declaration.
Reform pledges support for GAFCON movement
Reform, the 1,700-strong conservative evangelical network, has pledged support for the initiatives of GAFCON at its annual conference in London.
Revd Rod Thomas, Reform’s chairman, welcomed the clear Biblical leadership given by the GAFCON Primates at the Jerusalem meeting in June 2008, saying that there “we saw what an Anglicanism united in the Gospel and dedicated to mission could look like.”…
– Read the full Reform statement here.
Update: The Anglican Mainstream steering committee has released a statement of support for the Jerusalem Declaration.
Bp David Mulready’s Presidential Address to the Synod of North West Australia
Bishop David Mulready’s Presidential Address to the Synod of the Diocese of North West Australia last weekend has now been made available.
“Our Diocese is committed to the Bible as The Word of God. We are committed to teaching God’s Word and obeying it, living it out in our lives. As the Bible is taught during sermons and at Bible Studies, our teachers consistently seek to bring God’s Word to impact on every area of our lives.
One of the most important exhortations in the Scriptures is for God’s people to make God known to those who do not know Him. So we know that God is a ‘missional God’ and we are to be ‘a missional church’. At every opportunity and in a great variety of ways our churches are to be reaching out with the Good News of Salvation found only in Jesus Christ and His atoning death. …
There are many worthy causes to which our Church could turn our attention: climate control, improving the environment, justice for refugees to name just three. These are important matters and I hope that some members of our Churches are involved with a Christian voice. However, they are not the ‘core business’ of the church.
We must keep our minds and our energies on the main event: The Gospel. It is by proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and repentance and faith in Him as the means by which people are rescued from hell and come into friendship with God. This is the main event. This is our core business. This is why we exist. Let’s do all that we can in our local Churches to be calling people from darkness into God’s wonderful light.…”
If only every Anglican bishop could affirm these things!
Download Bishop Mulready’s full text as a PDF file. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
Sydney Synod set to support GAFCON
This evening, Sydney’s Synod will vote on whether or not to endorse the Jerusalem Declaration, a statement overwhelmingly supported by those who attended GAFCON in June. …
This week, as some GAFCON churches continue to be targeted by the liberal dioceses in which they find themselves, Sydney Synod is likely to uphold the historic communiqué…
– Report by Nathasha Percy at SydneyAnglicans.net. (GAFCON photo: Russell Powell.)
Anglican TV interviews J I Packer
Kevin Kallsen at Anglican TV has posted an interview with Dr J I Packer.
Topics include the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the problems in the Anglican Communion; the ‘episcopal autocracy’ in the Canadian dioceses; and the so-called ‘Instruments of Unity’.
Recorded at the Anglican District of Virginia second annual Synod Council earlier this month. The video interview runs for 16 minutes and is available at Anglican TV.
The Essential Jesus – a preview
As part of Connect09, The Essential Jesus, a translation of the Gospel of Luke, will be mass produced for distribution throughout Sydney.
The Connect09 website now has a preview as a 412kb PDF file (direct link). Sydney parishes want to have their orders in by the end of October.
Invitation to members of all Anglican Churches globally to sign Vancouver petition
Ahead of expected action by the Diocese of New Westminster against the churches of Good Shepherd and St. John’s Shaughnessy, a new petition has been made avialable, so that members of the Anglican Communion worldwide (and not just C of E members as on the previous petition) can express their support.
This new petition reads,
We, the undersigned, as active clergy and lay members of the Anglican Communion, stand with those parishes in Vancouver that are part of the Anglican Network on Canada, affirming that they are authentically Anglican.
Please consider adding your support. Helpful background here.
Dr Phillip Aspinall re-elected Primate
“The Anglican Church of Australia has re-elected Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall as the Primate of the Church for a further term of six years.
A meeting of the Primate Board of Electors in Sydney today re-elected Dr Aspinall following his election in 2005 for three years…”
– Full press release (PDF) from the General Synod Office.
(Note: The Primate’s main role is to chair meetings of General Synod. Unlike, for example, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church of Australia does not have a ‘head’, other than Christ. Each diocese operates largely independently. Dr. Aspinall is Archbishop of Brisbane.) Photo: General Synod Office.
Joint Statement made at City of London Deanery Synod
The latest from London –
“All of us who sign this statement are sinners and celebrating any of our sins would have just the same serious consequences.”
Joint Statement from the City of London Deanery Synod representatives from St Helen Bishopsgate, St Peter-upon-Cornhill, and St Botolph-without-Aldersgate, made at the Deanery Synod on 16th October 2008.
On 31 May 2008 at The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great the Revd Dr Martin Dudley conducted a service of blessing for the Revd Peter Cowell and the Revd Dr David Lord, subsequent to their civil partnership ceremony. We are grateful that the Bishop of London has called for an investigation, but given that our Deanery Synod meets on Thursday 16th October 2008 for fellowship and prayer we want to explain the degree to which that fellowship has been fractured. Read more
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…