New Westminster: Assets must be protected
Bishop Michael Ingham has told his Diocesan Council that he feels he has no option but to protect the property and assets of the Diocese of New Westminster and the Anglican Church of Canada, and warned that the diocese may find itself in the civil courts to do so. … He said the diocese had attempted to “create space” for people of differing opinions. …
– from the Diocese of New Westminster.
TEC bulletin inserts ‘explain’ Lambeth
Each week, the Episcopal Church publishes Episcopal LIfe weekly: bulletin inserts which may be used by churches across the US.
Starting this weekend, the bulletin inserts begin a nine (or is it ten?)-part series “on the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Communion”. The first insert is on how Lambeth will be “equipping bishops for mission”.
– See The Episcopal Church website.
UK women priests say price of ‘safeguards’ too high
“From: Women Clergy undersigned
… As ordained women, from amongst whom some of the first generation of women bishops may come, we wish to make our own contribution to the current debate.
We believe that it should be possible for women to be consecrated as bishops, but not at any price. The price of legal ‘safeguards’ for those opposed is simply too high …”
– Ruth Gledhill reports in Times Online on a letter sent by women priests to the Church of England’s bishops.
Gospel of Luke Introduction from the ESV Study Bible
The people behind the ESV Study Bible have made available their Introduction to the Gospel of Luke as a free download. Obviously, they hope to encourage you to order the Study Bible.
You can see the sample with this 1.1MB PDF file.
Ugandan Primate’s ‘incursion’ into Georgia
Archbishop of Uganda Henry Orombi’s actions to visit a Savannah congregation on May 14 without the invitation of Episcopal Bishop of Georgia Henry Louttit “violate the spirit and letter of the work of the Windsor Report, and only lead to heightened tensions,” Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote in a May 12 letter to Orombi. …
– from the Episcopal News Service. (Graphic: The Episcopal Church.)
An Evangelical Response to “An Evangelical Manifesto”
Who are the Evangelicals? The issue of Evangelical identity and definition has been central to the Evangelical project from its very beginning in America. Given the nature of the movement, definition is elusive and constantly contested.
The release of “An Evangelical Manifesto” on May 7 caught the attention of the national media [in the US] …
– From the blog of Al Mohler.
Don Carson addressed a related topic at a recent European Leadership Forum – “What is an Evangelical? An Assessment of the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Project” – available online as a 43MB, 3h 8m mp3 file.
Archbishop Williams writes on Lambeth
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has sent an open letter to the bishops of the Anglican Communion in advance of the 2008 Lambeth Conference, set for July 16 – August 4 at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.
“I indicated in earlier letters that the shape of the Conference will be different from what many have been used to.… At the heart of this will be the indaba groups … close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God …
The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion. And in combination with the intensive prayer and fellowship of the smaller Bible study groups, all this will result, by God’s grace, in clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done.”
– via the Episcopal News Service. (Photo credit: Jim Rosenthal, Anglican World.)
1,000 to attend GAFCON in Jerusalem
Over 1000 senior leaders from seventeen provinces in the Anglican Communion, representing 35 million church-going Anglicans, have registered for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem at the close of the online registration process. They include 280 bishops, almost all accompanied by their wives. Final attendance figures will depend on smooth processing of requested visas, and other factors. …
– Read the full press release from GAFCON.
ESV Gospel of John free audio
The publishers of the English Standard Version of the Bible are selling audio versions of the entire Bible in MP3 format read by Max McLean – downloadable from their website.
Some will find it helpful, others may not (it’s not an Australian accent – and there’s background music), but you can find out by listening to samples or by downloading the free copy of John’s Gospel – from Good News & Crossway.
Ontario churches to meet elsewhere
Members of two Anglican churches are choosing not to worship in their buildings tomorrow in the wake of a court order that they share the facilities with the diocese they have left.
A Superior Court ruling on Monday required three breakaway churches to share the property Sunday mornings until ownership is decided…
– Report from The Hamilton Spectator.
See also St. George’s Lowville and St. Hilda’s Oakville. (Photo: Rev. Charlie Masters, St. George’s Lowville)
Warning for Christian polygamists
Nigeria’s Anglican leader has told the country’s many Christian polygamists to give up their extra wives.
In a letter to the faithful, Archbishop Peter Akinola warned the issue could “make a mockery” of the church. …
– Report from the BBC.
GAFCON: 267 bishops signed up so far
Organizers of the June Gafcon meeting in Jerusalem report that as of April 25, 267 bishops have registered for the June meeting in Jerusalem. …
Approximately 150 bishops and conferees from Muslim majority countries unable to travel freely to Israel along with the Gafcon leadership team will meet at a resort on the Dead Sea in Jordan from June 18-22, while a further 600 are expected to join the self-styled “pilgrimage” in Jerusalem from June 22-29. –
– Report by George Conger for the Church of England Newspaper.
Episcopal Bishop opens old wounds
Seven years after 18 priests in the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado left the diocese and were given Letters Dimissory to the Province of South East Asia by then Episcopal Bishop Jerry Winterrowd, the present Episcopal Bishop of the diocese, Rt. Rev. Rob O’Neill, has decided to reopen old wounds. He has sent letters to the priests saying they must either renounce their orders in the Episcopal Church (TEC) or he will officially depose them. …
[The Rev. Dennis Garrou] esponded to O’Neill’s letter asking what was the “need to resolve” his status in TEC. “I am at a complete loss to guess why this unstated ‘need’ now arises for you, but hasn’t for over seven years. Has something recent occurred of which I am unaware that now arises the issue of my status to a point of concern for you?…”
– Full report from VirtueOnline. (Photo of Bishop O’Neill: Episcopal Life Online.)
Archbishop Peter Jensen in The Australian
I did something really odd the other day. I looked up the dictionary definition of marriage, just to make sure that my understanding was not too off-line. I was relieved to find that it is called the legal union of a man with a woman for life. It is a public, lifelong and exclusive relationship. There is no hint in the dictionary that the word can extend to two men or two women in a public, lifelong and exclusive relationship.
Of course, dictionaries change to mirror the times, and governments do all sorts of things with words, but changing the definition of marriage would be as fatuous as declaring that Perth is Sydney or that the moon is made of ice cream. We would then need a new word to describe the reality that occurs when a man and a woman publicly promise each other to live in lifelong and exclusive relationship, “in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others so long as you both shall live”. …
– Read the full article in The Australian.
Sin and Grace
“We can think of forgiveness as something real only when we hold that sin has betrayed us into a situation where we deserve to have God inflict upon us the most serious consequences, and that it is upon such a situation that God’s grace supervenes.
When the logic of the situation demands that He should take action against the sinner, and He yet takes action for him, then and only then can we speak of grace. But there is no room for grace if there is no suggestion of dire consequences merited by sin.”
– Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (London: The Tyndale Press, 1955). (From Firstimportance.org)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…