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.)
Will Canterbury follow Rochester?
“The February 2009 Primates’ Meeting was a fizz. The next ‘instrument of communion’ activity is the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in May in Jamaica. After that, nothing is in the diary. I understand that key Lambeth Palace staff have moved to other jobs.…”
– After the departure of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, Robert Tong wonders what’s next. At SydneyAnglicans.net.
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali — ‘Enough is Enough’
“Michael Nazir Ali, freed from the constraints of the English House of Bishops, could now emerge as a global Anglican leader. His resignation, far from signifying GAFCON’s demise, could be the prelude to a new level of global effectiveness…”
– Charles Raven writes at SPREAD.
The Anglican credibility crunch
“Institutional complacency is still widespread in England where the momentum of the past is especially strong. Despite the additional strains that General Synod’s move towards the consecration of women as bishops has introduced, there is a tendency to think that on the whole the Anglican crisis is something which is being played out in Africa and on the other side of the Atlantic…” – Charles Raven writes at SPREAD.
Lessons from Little Rock
On the 6th April 1998 TJ Johnston, an Episcopal priest and senior pastor of an unofficial church plant in Little Rock, Arkansas, became a missionary priest of the Province of Rwanda under the oversight of John K. Rucyahana, Bishop of Shyira. …
Though growing, the church was small and did not have much in the way of financial or social muscle, but this courageous stand set off a chain of events which was to lead to the formation of the Anglican Mission in America and create the precedent for other African jurisdictions which are now coming together in the emergent Province of the Anglican Church in North America with over 100,000 regular Sunday worshippers. …
– Charles Raven writes at SPREAD.
Breaking up hard to do
“The Anglican Church of Canada has reached the point where its bureaucracy has outlived its compassion. There. I said it. And I can speak with at least some small authority, considering that I was once an Anglican myself, although my observations led to enough disillusionment to see my departure from the Anglican Church. …”
– Walker Morrow writes in The Citizen. h/t Anglican Essentials Canada blog. (Crest: Diocese of British Columbia.)
Investing in bookshops
“A personal theological library is a vital tool for anyone serious about serving the gospel. It is important to invest in good Christian books. But have you ever considered the importance of investing in good Christian bookshops? …”
– At the Sola Panel, Lionel Windsor exhorts Christians to think about where they buy their Christian books.
Suddenly it’s over for the Anglican Communion
“Like a dam that has been under pressure for some time, the Anglican Communion has, I believe, suddenly and irrevocably broken. They think its all over? It is now. …
In short, at the structural level in North America, the revisionist ‘Liberals’ have won. …
If the election of a Buddhism-practising bishop can be accepted without a whimper both within TEC and beyond, then clearly the end of the moratorium on consecrating those in active gay relationships cannot be far off.”
– John Richardson on the state of the Communion.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…