The next big question

“Taking stock after the American Episcopal Church has consecrated its second bishop  in a same sex relationship, and doubtless not the last, certain things seem to be clear; the North American revisionists are striking out regardless of the rest of the Communion, the Anglican Covenant has been effectively abandoned by the Global South as a means of restoring order and the Archbishop of Canterbury is an increasingly peripheral figure, as underlined by his silence on the Glasspool consecration this past weekend and his inaction beforehand.

But these clarifications bring to the foreground a question which many have so far been reluctant to face. According to Archbishop Peter Jensen, reflecting on last month’s Fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore, the Communion is now in a ‘post crisis phase’, but where does that leave the Church of England, the mother church of the Communion?…”

– Charles Raven wonders about the future of the Church of England.

“For the sake of God” — Must we surrender sexual morality?

“One problem faced by the communion is the habitual hesitation and tepid leadership of its leaders, starting with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop has continually spoken of his concern and fears for the unity of Anglicans worldwide, and he has even spoken of his disappointment and frustration with the American church. What is missing from Canterbury is a clear demand that the Episcopal Church correct its unbiblical practices, repent, and submit to the faithful consensus of the global Anglican family.

But now, a most interesting and provocative argument has come from a very different quarter. Columnist Ruth Gledhill of The Times, one of the most seasoned observers of the Anglican scene, now calls for Christians to just stop arguing over homosexuality and get on with whatever the churches are supposed to be doing. Liberals and conservatives, she argues, must now ‘put their differences behind them, for the sake of God, themselves and the common good.’

That is quite a startling argument, but is also an argument that is certain to gain traction in the liberal landscape of Europe and North America. Ruth Gledhill’s argument bears a closer look.”

– Albert Mohler asks if Ruth Gledhill has a valid argument.

Why nobody seems to care

“Revisionist bloggers and some in the mainstream press are atwitter over the lack of interest in yesterday’s consecration. They seem to think that this signals some kind of breakthrough–that consecrating a non-celibate lesbian is the new normal…”

– Matt Kennedy writes at Standfirm on why nobody seems to care about the consecration of Mary Glasspool.

Budget: A restraint too far

“The Treasurer’s zeal for a ‘fiscally responsible’ budget has seen Australians living at the margins largely forgotten yet again”, says Anglicare Sydney CEO Peter Kell.

– See the Anglicare website.

The Silence has been Deafening

“We are now less than six days from ECUSA’s “consecration” of a partnered lesbian to the (ECUSAn, at any rate) episcopacy. As I wrote in this earlier post, in so consecrating Canon Mary Glasspool, ECUSA will shoot itself in the foot. Even so, the silence from Lambeth Palace over the past weeks has been deafening…”

– A S Haley writes at Anglican Curmudgeon.

A marriage which is no longer a marriage

Bishop Gregory Venables:

“First of all although the Covenant is a wonderful effort it looks as if it’s not going to succeed because it doesn’t really get to grips with what the problem is. There are two versions of Christianity: the original version and the new version which isn’t true Christianity. It does not address and we are not going to resolve it. Really the Covenant seems to be a way of holding together a marriage which is no longer a marriage.

Also even if we sign the Covenant and believe that there is enough there to work through the problems, the Anglican Church does not have a structure to implement how it would be worked out. We haven’t got a leadership, we haven’t got anybody who can say right now that we’ve done this, this is what’s going to happen.

And the worst thing about it is that now it looks as if there is going to be a standing committee which could fulfil that role but the standing committee is representative of the problem rather than the solution so it doesn’t look very hopeful.”

– Archbishop Venables sees the proposed Anglican Covenant as dead in the water.

(Quoted by A S Haley in his commentary, The Silence has been deafening. Photo from an Anglican TV video.)

On shooting oneself in the foot

A.S. Haley last week reflected on the consequences of the imminent consecration of Mary Glasspool –

“The image of a ham-fisted gunslinger, unable to keep from pulling the trigger before he can draw his Colt .45 from its holster, fits ECUSA to a T. It has recklessly ridden into the middle of the Anglican Communion and proceeded to shoot the place up, just as in a Hollywood grade-B Western. While everyone else ducks and runs for cover, ECUSA whoops it up, gets drunk on its cheap imitations of Scripture, and tosses its collective miter in the air to celebrate its raucous belligerence. It is still big and powerful enough to do considerable damage, but it is the rest of the Communion who will have to pick up the pieces.

Meanwhile, the local sheriff hides away in his home, and announces that just as soon as the bully has left, he will sponsor another round of indaba at the local saloon. Talk will go on, accomplishing nothing, but what the sheriff has not noticed is that there are fewer and fewer people at the table.”

– read it all at The Anglican Curmudgeon.

It’s getting dangerous out there — a preacher is arrested in Britain

“We have seen this coming for some time now. The public space has been closing, especially when it comes to Christian speech — and especially when that speech is about homosexuality.

Now, a Christian preacher has been arrested in Britain for the crime of saying in public that homosexuality is a sin. This arrest is more than a news event — it is a signal of things to come and an announcement of a new public reality…”

– Albert Mohler on the wider significance of the arrest of street preacher Dale McAlpine.

The AAC’s Bishop Bill Atwood on GSE4

30 April 2010

“And it shall be, on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you,that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime. You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you.” – Deuteronomy 27:2-3

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Clearly, when the Jews left the wilderness and crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land, their struggles were not over. They still had many challenges and battles to fight, but the passage of crossing the Jordan was a tremendously important one, and the Lord called them to mark it with large stones.

The Fourth Global South Encounter (GSE4) that was just held in Singapore was a huge passage for many, but particularly so for the Anglican Church in North America. I have noted with interest that some people have expressed great disappointment with the lack of “action,” but I’d like to suggest that they may have missed some points of tremendous significance.   Read more

‘Why we always lose this debate’

“I’m convinced that we continue to lose the argument about homosexuality and Christianity because the traditionalist almost always makes his case within a conversation that has been framed by the opposing viewpoint. The Christian doesn’t lose the argument at the micro-level. The argument is lost from the beginning because of how the discussion is framed…”

– Trevin Wax, author of Holy Subversion, reflects on an appearance on Larry King Live on CNN last week. (h/t Tim Challies.)

Singapore: Shadow and Substance

Charles Raven writes on the significance of GSE4 – at SPREAD.

“Although not attended by great fanfare and ceremony, something quite remarkable seems to be happening in Singapore at the fourth Global South to South Encounter. We are seeing the emergence of a global Anglicanism of substance, displacing the shadow Anglicanism of institutional pragmatism.

Institutions which until recently had the appearance of substance – the Anglican Consultative Council, the Lambeth Conference, the Primates meeting and the Archbishop of Canterbury himself – are now taking on an unreal quality as shadows of a discredited past while the GAFCON movement, dismissed by many at its inception in 2008, is turning out to have foreshadowed a fundamental realignment which is now beginning to express itself in new structures…” (more.)

(Note: Charles Raven has updated the text of his commentary slightly on his website.)

Why the National Curriculum Must include the Bible

“Dousing the fire and brimstone of politics for a moment, the question has to be asked: Why?

Why shouldn’t elements of the Bible be taught in public schools? It has had an unparalleled impact on Western culture, history, music, the arts, politics, morality, law and literature.

Are we embarrassed about our country’s foundations or, worse, have we become intellectual cowards?…”

– Scott Monk in a thoughtful opinion piece in Quadrant Online. (h/t Andrew Cameron.)

Rowan Williams on the uniqueness of Christ

“On 2 March Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury delivered a lecture in Guildford, England entitled ‘The Finality of Christ in a Pluralist World’. It presents as a meditation on John 14:5–6 and Acts 4:8–13…”

– So, exactly what does the Archbishop of Canterbury say about the uniqueness of Christ? See what ACL President Mark Thompson thinks – at Theological Theology.

‘Canonically Permissible Graciousness’

“…on May 15 the Presiding Bishop intends to do the very thing that the Joint Standing Committee — on which she serves — urged the Episcopal Church not to do. …

… even a rudimentary grasp of Jesus’ admonition to “let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’” (Matt. 5:37) highlights a conflict between the Episcopal Church’s rhetoric of reconciliation and autonomous actions.”

– from an editorial in The Living Church.

(Photo taken at the November 2008 Joint Standing Committee meeting: ACNS Rosenthal.)

Where do we go from here? — Fulcrum

The leadership team of Fulcrum, the Church of England’s ‘open evangelical’ group seems to have accepted the reality of the situation in the Anglican Communion in a post on their website –

“The bishops and Standing Committees of The Episcopal Church (USA) have consented to the election of Mary Glasspool as bishop suffragan in the diocese of Los Angeles. That consent sadly confirms that TEC is determined to ignore all the repeated appeals of the wider Communion and, in the closing words of The Windsor Report, ‘walk apart’…

It is important that this is not simply a matter of disagreement about biblical interpretation and sexual ethics although these are central and important. It is now very clearly also a fundamental matter of truth-telling and trust.”

– Read the full article.

And John Richardson comments: ‘Fulcrum: their challenge to Canterbury and the challenge they must face’.

“Understandably, the statement is at pains to recognise Rowan Williams’s past efforts. Yet it is remarkably frank in the call it now makes upon him…”

(Photo courtesy ACNS/Rosenthal.)

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