Canada case concerns us all
“Last week I attended a fascinating talk given at St Andrew’s, Roseville by Mrs Lesley Bentley, a churchwarden at St John’s, Shaughnessy in Vancouver. Sydney Anglicans have a greater interest in St John’s than most Canadian churches because Canon David Short, a Sydney-trained minister, is the rector…”
– Bishop Glenn Davies writes at SydneyAnglicans.net. (Photo: Russell Powell.)
A grubby little incident
“In a naked display of political power, the American Episcopal Church leadership stopped the Rev Philip Ashey, the clergy representative of the Province of Uganda, from taking his place at the 14th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council held in Jamaica, because he has been among the strongest critics of their pro-homosexual policies. …”
– Over at SydneyAnglicans.net, ACL Chairman Robert Tong writes on ACC-14.
Shine, Perishing Communion
Christian lawyer A S Haley, who blogs at Anglican Curmudgeon, tries to unravel the extraordinary events at the Anglican Consultative Council’s vote on the proposed Anglican Covenant on Friday.
“The philosophy of keeping opposites at the table for discussion as long as possible works only for so long as each side can see that the table is level. If it becomes apparent that it is being tilted to favor one of the two sides, the motive for continuing to stay at the table immediately ceases.”
A long but very interesting post. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.)
See also this from The Anglican Communion Institute –
“Friday’s session of the Anglican Consultative Council is an embarrassment to Anglicans everywhere, and a sad display of procedural confusion. Members were given complex resolutions right before the vote without sufficient time to study them and understand their consequences. Resolutions that had been distributed earlier were replaced by resolutions drafted by a committee largely composed of members from provinces known to be opposed to the Ridley Cambridge Draft. …”
Photo of Abp Rowan Williams at ACC-14: ACNS.
Love in a time of Swine Flu
The history of humanity is the history of sickness, disease, and death. When sin came, death came, and sickness remains the leading agent of death. The horseman of pestilence has visited plagues and pandemics upon humanity throughout the centuries. Even in the age of modern medicine and the conquest of so many diseases, the very real risk of pandemic remains — and we feel it in our souls. …
– Albert Mohler on our need for Christ, our Physician.
Recognition for North American Anglicans
The April 16 communiqué issued by the GAFCON/FCA Primates’ Council declared the Anglican Church in North America as genuinely Anglican and recommends that Anglican Provinces affirm full communion with the ACNA.
What does this mean? …
– ACL Chairman Robert Tong writes at SydneyAnglicans.net
Church Record editorial: Diocesan Mission Midpoint Report
“We’re half way there! The half way point of the Sydney diocesan mission is a good time to take stock. We have had enough time to see whether our plans are working and it’s not too late to change. The Midpoint Report was prepared by the Mission Board Strategy Committee. …
Given the significance of this report it is surprising that there has not been more written or said about it. …”
– Thought-provoking Editorial from the current issue of The Australian Church Record.
No Truth without Love, No Love without Truth
“The church’s engagement with the culture involves a host of issues, controversies, and decisions — but no issue defines our current cultural crisis as clearly as homosexuality. Some churches and denominations have capitulated to the demands of the homosexual rights movement, and now accept homosexuality as a fully valid lifestyle. Other denominations are tottering on the brink, and without a massive conservative resistance, they are almost certain to abandon biblical truth and bless what the Bible condemns.…”
– Albert Mohler challenges in his blog.
GAFCON – Game Over or New Game?
John Richardson writes on the lack of media interest in the GAFCON Primates’ announcement of their recognition of the new Anglican Province of North America –
“Some have read this as indicating that GAFCON is washed up. Personally, I believe it is rather because the national press now recognise there is no story in the division of the Anglican Communion — not because the Communion has survived the pressures of recent years but because it quite evidently has not. As a headline, ‘Anglican Communion Faces Split’ is now entirely on a par with ‘Dog Bites Man’.”
New province is a sad reflection on Canterbury & co
“Last week the GAFCON Primates met in London to deliberate on a number of significant issues. However, the most far reaching of their decisions was to recognise the new Province of the Anglican Church in North America. … However, none of the so-called Instruments of Communion have been involved in the formation of this new province in North America.”
– Bishop of North Sydney, Glenn Davies, writes at SydneyAnglicans.net.
(Photo of Glenn on the Mount of Olives by Russell Powell.)
Re-imagining God in the Shack
“It was at a Maundy Thursday service at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, in 1984, that a four-foot bronze statue of Jesus on the cross was unveiled. But to the shock of the congregation, the image of Christ on the cross was, in fact, an image of Christa. It portrayed Christ as a woman, complete with undraped breasts and rounded hips. …”
– Mary Kassian, well known to Sydney Anglicans from her visits in the 90s, adds her concerns about The Shack. At Girls Gone Wise. (h/t/ Tim Challies)
Resurrection and Reality
“The secular world has done its best to make a mess of Christmas, but it has largely ignored our celebration of the Resurrection. Where commercialism intrudes, it comes in the forms of eggs and chicks and rabbits — none of which claim any connection with the Resurrection. The fact is, the secular world will attempt to domesticate, commercialize, and tame the babe in the manger — but it will run at breakneck speed from the cross and the empty tomb…”
– Al Mohler on the centrality of the Resurrection. (Photo: Together for the Gospel.)
Shadow Gospel: Revelation in the Theology of Rowan Williams
“it is … vital for the GAFCON movement to have a clear understanding of the Archbishop’s theological commitments. His refusal to exercise effective discipline in the aftermath of Gene Robinson’s consecration as the first actively and openly homosexual bishop in the Anglican Communion led directly to the formation of GAFCON.
Was this simply weakness, or did it stem from theological convictions? Could it possibly still be right for the GAFCON Primates to seek to work with Rowan Williams and the Windsor Covenant process, encouraging him to use his powers through the instruments of unity for the reform of the Communion? Or is that hope now futile…”
– Charles Raven at SPREAD asks why it is so difficult to pin down what the Archbishop of Canterbury really believes. Worth reading.
(Photo of Archbishop Rowan Williams in Alexandria: ACNS.)
The Empty Tomb and the Emptied Urn
“While speaking of the Christian belief in the resurrection of the flesh, I called my hearers to reconsider what their funeral plans testified about their hope for the future. I reiterated a position — long-held in the history of the church — that burial, not cremation, best pictures the imagery of death as a sleep from which one is awakened at the last trumpet.…”
– Russell Moore, Dean of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, writes at Christianity Today.
Michael Nazir-Ali on the future of Britain
“I have resigned as Bishop of Rochester after nearly 15 years. During that time, I have watched the nation drift further and further away from its Christian moorings. Instead of the spiritual and moral framework provided by the Judaeo-Christian tradition, we have been led to expect, and even to celebrate, mere diversity. …
Different faiths and traditions will not necessarily produce the values and virtues which have been so prominent in the history of this country. It is quite wrong to presume that they will…”
– Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali writes in The Telegraph (UK).
Gene Robinson — a theological ‘Rip Van Winkle’?
The latest pronouncements of Bishop Gene Robinson on the Bible and homosexuality suggest to my mind that he is a kind of theological ‘Rip Van Winkle’. …
Van Winkle’s problems stemmed from acting as if history were not history, and from being ignorant of facts of which everyone else was aware.
– John Richardson wonders ‘if Robinson is quite as naive as he sounds’ – at The Ugley Vicar. (Photo: TEC.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…