Why it’s a great day to be a traditional Anglican
“Barely two months after lots of indabaing with 617 fellow Anglican Communion bishops… Katherine Jefferts Schori and her advisors had two choices. They could violate the canons flagrantly and hang ’em high now, further shattering TEC’s global reputation… or they could attempt to follow the canons scrupulously. They chose the former…”
– Sarah Hey writes at Stand Firm. (Photo: ENS.)
The historical fiction of The Episcopal Church
It is troubling to note the shift of TEC from an institution centered around a long religious tradition to one centered around rules, regulations, and real estate. Even more troubling is watching the leadership of the Episcopal Church act more and more like this is the way it ought to be – the way it has always been – and to watch them feign indignation at those who cling to an historic faith as the proper object of Christian loyalty. …
It is sobering to watch the bishops and clergy of TEC pretend a new history into existence and then equate conformity to this fabrication with faithfulness to the gospel.
– Canon Gary L’Hommedieu comments at VirtueOnline.
Apologise to Charles Darwin?
A senior cleric of the Church of England wants his church to apologize to Charles Darwin in time for the observance of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth next year. …
Dr. Brown’s apology, offered on the official Web site of the Church of England, and in his role as Director of Mission and Public Affairs, may be ‘pointless,’ but it certainly makes a point about the Church of England. As a matter of fact, it might go a long way toward explaining how a church that once formed the backbone of British life now holds the attention of less than five percent of British citizens on any given Sunday.
People come to church hungry for the Gospel and in order to fear God, not for an apology offered to a self-described enemy of the faith – who believed that faith in God is akin to a monkey’s fear of a snake.…
– Al Mohler on the proposed apology to Charles Darwin.
‘Not to Destruction, but to Salvation’
The most senior California bishops of the Episcopal Church came out in favour of same-sex marriage in the state on Wednesday. The bishops then called on voters to defeat Proposition 8 – the constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. …
Those beautiful words [in the Prayer Book Consecration service], “not to destruction, but to salvation,” take on a deadly significance in the case of these bishops. They are leading their own church to destruction, and encouraging in the larger society what the Bible condemns as sin. These are shepherds who are leading their own flocks right off a cliff.
– Al Mohler writes on the Diocese of California’s stand in favour of same-sex marriage.
(Photo of Bishop Marc Andrus: Diocese of California.)
Tearfund and Archbishop Tutu
“Some of us may be wondering what exactly is happening here. According to Tearfund’s site, AB Desmond Tutu (with Tearfund Director, Matthew Frost, left) gave a stirring speech which encouraged radical Christian commitment and care for the poor, the suffering, the dispossessed, those close to God’s heart. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
That is not all the good bishop said, however. According to BBC’s account, Desmond Tutu reiterated what has become one of his classic lectures on the evils of homophobia in the church and how issues of human sexuality are not that important in the Big Picture…”
– Dr Lisa Severine Nolland writes at Anglican Mainstream.
See the BBC’s report: Church obsessed with gays – Tutu. (Photo: Tearfund.)
TEC and the Anglican Communion a ‘Post-Modern Fantasy’
The problem with Indabbaing your way through life without addressing the crises that are strangling life (and members) out of the church is that it is based on a post-modern fantasy that the atmosphere is more important than the true state of things.
In the emerging train wreck, it is like focussing on the musical program in the ballroom of the Titanic. In the case of our crisis, there are plenty of life boats available for the people. The problem is that they are being lulled into thinking that the crisis is exaggerated. …
– Bishop Bill Atwood, missionary bishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya, writes at VirtueOnline. (GAFCON photo: Russell Powell.)
Whirlwind tour of the Anglican world
David Virtue’s weekly summary of goings-on in the Episcopal and Anglican world makes sobering reading –
“It was not a good week for The Episcopal Church especially in the Diocese of Virginia. For the third time, a judge ruled in favor of 11 churches in that diocese who had decided to depart for greener spiritual pastures. …
The next big speed bump for the House of Bishops is the deposition of the Rt. Rev. Bob Duncan at the HOB meeting in Salt Lake City Sept 16-19. Mrs. Jefferts Schori is planning on installing her bishop within days after the vote…”
– from VirtueOnline.
Test Revival with Doctrine
“Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma, one of the main charismatic magazines, has written a lament and critique of the Lakeland ‘revival’ which is now in a tailspin over the leader’s announced separation from his wife.
Grady’s summons to pray for the church and our nation is right, and among his commendable questions and observations are these…”
– Read John Piper’s comments at Desiring God.
And from the Charisma article to which he refers –
“Why did God TV tell people that ‘any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic’?
This ridiculous statement was actually made on one of God TV’s pre-shows. In fact, the network’s hosts also warned listeners that if they listened to criticism of Bentley, they could lose their healings.”
Open Evangelicalism, NEAC 2008 and the future of the Church of England
The Church of England Evangelical Council website is now advertising ‘NEAC 2008’ – a consultation in continuity with the previous ‘National Evangelical Anglican Consultations’. Meanwhile, on the Fulcrum website, there are rumblings about whether this is going to be truly ‘representative’ of the current state of Anglican Evangelicalism in England. …
Fulcrum was founded in reaction to the direction being taken during the organizing of the last residential NEAC, at Blackpool in 2003. … Since then, Fulcrum has claimed the ‘Evangelical Centre’ and, simultaneously, has steadfastly opposed more Conservative groupings such as Reform, and initiatives such as GAFCON. In effect, therefore, it has formalized the divisions in Evangelicalism between its Conservative and Open strands.
Thus Evangelical unity in the Church of England is probably at an all-time low since the end of the Second World War. …
– John Richardson provides an insight into the state of ‘evangelicalism’ in the Church of England at The Ugley Vicar.
What seems like an age ago (1993), we published this article by John on the then state of UK Evangelicalism – in the ACL’s newsletter.
Dr Williams and his Bishops: wheels within wheels?
The ability of the Anglican Church to undergo apparently impossible convolutions has been further highlighted by the publication of, on the one hand, letters written between Rowan Williams during his time as Archbishop of Wales and a former Anglican Evangelical and, on the other, a letter supporting Dr Williams signed by nineteen bishops and published in today’s edition of The Times.
Dr Williams’ letters tell us nothing really new in terms of either his theology or his church polity. …
– John Richardson writes at the Ugley Vicar.
Reflections on Lambeth’s Reflections
We need to remind ourselves what the Lambeth Conference was convened to achieve. The answer is, nothing. …
And now a Conference called for no particular reason, holding meetings designed to reach no particular conclusions, has produced not a report but a series of reflections. Read them, if you will.
Having decided to decide nothing, it appears that the Conference felt it must comment on everything. Thus the reader who is willing may wade through page after page of good intentions about good causes ranging from disaster relief to carbon footprints. Yet, of course, nothing is (nor could be) specific — not even the gospel which, it is claimed, lies at the heart of the Communion’s concept of mission. …
– John Richardson writes at The Ugley Vicar. Worth reading in full.
GAFCON, the future and the Jerusalem Statement
The Global Anglican Future CONference held in Jerusalem at the end of June 2008 occurred not to stop a split in the Anglican Communion but because there already exists such a split. That is a sad but hard fact. …
In 2002 Rowan Williams was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Rowan Williams had publicly admitted to ordaining a man he knew had a homosexual partner …
– David Holloway, Vicar of Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, reflects on the need for GAFCON – at Anglican Mainstream. (Photo: Reform.)
Reports of Anglican demise exaggerated
There is an industry saying that people uncritically accept media reports, except in their area of expertise. Then the media gets it totally wrong. Although I have been a journalist for 30 years, my time in the GAFCON pressroom proved that old adage.
As well as being responsible for Archbishop Jensen’s media liaison, I was privileged to be a part of the GAFCON media team, a group made up of Anglican press officers from around the world: Uganda, Canada, Nigeria, the US and Kenya plus a Norwegian fellow traveller. …
– Russell Powell reflects on the media’s reporting of GAFCON at SydneyAnglicans.net.
(Russell interviews Bishop Al Stewart – with Tim Robinson filming – overlooking the Sea of Galilee . Photo: Zac Veron.)
… it’s knowing they’re foreign that makes them so mad
I was reminded of this line from the Flanders and Swann piece of gentle self-mockery, A Song of Patriotic Prejudice, when I discovered that in a cross post to my little article on Thirty-two years of women’s ordination in the American context someone on the Stand Firm website had listed a whole string of similar words and actions which we in England might find bizarre, but which are quite common, it would seem in TEC. …
– from John Richardson at the Ugley Vicar.
Why we need an ACL
– That’s not the title of the Rev. Todd Wetzel’s report from Canterbury, but the American experience shows what can happen when committees and synods take on a life of their own, not representing the local churches.
In 2000, I called the Rev. Canon Gene Robinson the most dangerous man in the Episcopal Church.
Before you jump to conclusions, let me say that I was very clear that it was not because I considered him a “bad” person. Quite the contrary, he was (and is) very articulate, a capable and well liked priest, intelligent, reasonably good looking, a skilled consultant who was (and is), by his own admission, non-celibate and a person of homosexual orientation. As a member of the diocesan staff, he was well known locally. I called him ‘dangerous’ because he was elect-able. And, if elected, and consecrated, chaos would emerge within the Episcopal Church and the Communion. …
Read his full post at Anglicans United. (See also the ACL’s Policy Objectives.)