The Pointy Hat Club
Once upon a time in a far away place called Dar Es Salaam there was a party attended by boys and girls who liked to wear pointy hats, including one girl who liked to wear a pointy hat, but who sometimes wore a rainbow-colored oven mitt on her head instead. The other boys and girls were very polite and never used the words “oven mitt” in front of the one girl because they knew it would make her very cross. …
– Robert S. Munday, Dean of Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin, has written this little story. You might enjoy it – but it has a serious side.
(Photo: Episcopal Life Online / Richard Schori.)
On the Windsor Continuation Group
John Richardson, just back from his honeymoon (congratulations John and Alison), has some refreshingly honest words about the preliminary observations of the Windsor Continuation Group at the Lambeth Conference.
The executive summary of his analysis?
“as much use as a chocolate ladder at a house fire”
Read John’s post here.
John recently appeared as a spokesman for Reform on the UK’s Christian channel – Premier TV – in a programme (‘The Gay Christian debate’) about Lambeth and Gene Robinson. It may now be seen here.
See also Ruth Gledhill’s “Lambeth Diary: ‘Pastoral Forum’ proposed” in Times Online.
Blame Africa? The Anglicans and their troubles
The Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is meeting in Britain, even as the worldwide Anglican communion is about to tear itself asunder over issues of homosexuality, gender, and biblical authority. Over 200 conservative bishops are boycotting the conference, and the global media are trying to figure out how to report the meeting.
One of the most creative and revealing attempts at an explanation comes now from The Economist. …
– Al Mohler comments on some classic spin.
How many CHURCHGOING Anglicans does Lambeth represent?
A lot of things have been said over the last few months about just who represents whom in the Anglican world. GAFCON, for example, is pilloried by the media and the leadership at Lambeth as a “breakaway” movement. But, is this right?
Already some journalists are beginning to realise that while the Lambeth Conference might have a large number of bishops in attendance, those bishops actually represent a SMALL MINORITY of the world’s Anglicans. …
– Bishop David Chislett, of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, looks at the numbers.
(Bishop Chislett served as a Rector in the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane until 2005.)
All but unmentioned
The Lambeth Conference 1998 famously adopted a resolution on human sexuality, resolution I.10. The failure of the American and Canadian churches to honour that resolution are at the centre of the conflict which overshadows Lambeth 2008.
The Lambeth Conference 1998 also adopted a resolution, numbered III.2 calling on Provinces “to make such provision, including appropriate episcopal ministry”, as will enable those who dissent from and those who assent to the ordination of women to live “in the highest degree of Communion possible”.
The patent failure of the American and Canadian churches to honour this resolution has gone all but unmentioned at Lambeth 2008. …
– Warren Tanghe writes from an Anglo-Catholic perspective at the Forward in Faith website.
A rival Global South movement?
“A rival Global South movement is being set up here in Canterbury in an attempt to divide and conquer the Global South movement. A Lambeth compliant ‘Communion Partners’ movement is being encouraged in an effort to isolate mainstream evangelical and Anglo-Catholics who number 40 million of the 55 million church-going Anglicans throughout the world. …”
– David Virtue wonders where this might lead.
Who’s a traditionalist?
I am sick of being placed in the category of “traditionalist”.
Here are some examples, all from the same news article:
“persecuting clergy who wanted to stick to a traditionalist line”;
“distorting traditional Anglican beliefs”;
“how much influence a powerful traditionalist lobby could have inside the Communion”.
Tradition has nothing to do with it; the word has become the latest euphemism for “Christian”.
– Our friends at the Anglican Essentials Canada blog have articulated what others have been thinking.
A visit to Hillsong
Over at The Sola Panel, Gavin Perkins describes a recent visit to Hillsong (the church, not the music label).
At the end of the night, following the calls from the mosh pit for encores and some good old early-90s-style crowd surfing (I’m serious), one of the song leaders declared that “This was the best weekend we’ve ever had at Hillsong”.
So, how good was it? Read Gavin’s notes at the Sola Panel.
(It’s also worth noting that Joel and Victoria Osteen will be speaking at the 2009 Hillsong Conference. See this broadcast from The White Horse Inn.)
Photo: Brian Houston at Hillsong.
The shindig begins…
The 14th Lambeth Conference had everything befitting a party that has been ten years in the planning: bouncers, paparazzi, an international guest list of thousands, in Canterbury Cathedral the most well-established venue in the city, world-renowned musicians and even half-naked dancers.
It also had everything you might expect at an awkward family party: unspoken feuds, some people refusing the invitation, others not asked to come, the host looking a little nervous and speeches entreating everyone to get along. …
The Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Right Rev Bob Duncan, said: “It was a glorious service, it was a gathering of the family, but there were troublesome elements – the Buddhist chant, for example, and the sermon had a few challenges. A number of our brothers didn’t make their Communion.”… (emphasis added)
– Comment by Joanna Sugden at Times Online. (Photo: Lambeth Conference.)
GAFCON and England: Judgment and Mercy
Just three weeks after the announcement of the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration, it is already clear that GAFCON has irrevocably changed the Anglican Communion. The majority of the world’s Anglicans now no longer look to Canterbury.
Structures that stifle spiritual life will eventually find themselves bypassed and this is exactly what was expressed in the courteous but firm response of the GAFCON Primates Council to Rowan Williams’ criticisms, declaring in the final paragraph that ‘We assure the Archbishop of Canterbury of our respect as the occupier of an historic see which has been used by God to the benefit of his church and continue to pray for him to be given wisdom and discernment.’ …
– Charles Raven writes for VirtueOnline.
(Charles is Senior Minister of Christ Church Wyre Forest in the UK. From the files: a press statement from 2002.) Photo: GAFCON media team.
Cavalcanti on ‘Anglicanism: The System in Crisis’
Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, Bishop of the Diocese of Recife, now under Primatial Authority of the Province of the Southern Cone of America, writes on ‘Anglicanism: The System in Crisis’ —
What has become evident to the global media is the fact that the leadership of the Anglican Communion is unwilling to accept things as they really are, that the hegemonic Anglo-Saxon centre is unwilling to lose its hegemony, and that the only objective is the maintenance of the institution, whatever the cost…
No other Name – The uniqueness of Christ for Salvation
David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society, wrote this before the recent Church of England General Synod –
A survey conducted by Christian Research six years ago asked Clergy whether they believed without question that Jesus is the only way of salvation. Only 51% of the Clergy questioned could agree. …
there is good reason to think that less than a half of the Bishops believe that Christ is the only way of salvation.
The issue of the uniqueness of Christ for salvation has been bubbling up for some time and has shown every sign of erupting in the last few months. Many are now trying furiously to prevent any such eruption for fear of the consequences. Read more
Why Wright is wrong and Rodgers is right
Two very distinct and contrary views of the recent Global Anglican Future Conference have emerged following the Jerusalem gathering where some 1,200 world class Anglican leaders from 38 countries, including more than 300 bishops met to contemplate the crisis in the Anglican Communion.
The first view is from former seminary dean and now a Bishop with the Anglican Missions in the Americas, John H. Rodgers Jr. He was present at the gathering and observed the conference first-hand. …
– Commentary from David Virtue at VirtueOnline.
(Bishop Rodgers’ photo: Trinity School for Ministry.)
Why Traditionalists must not wait to act
… it is an undeniable fact that it is radical principled action which changes the Anglican church, not debate and dialogue. The Oxford Movement demonstrated this in the nineteenth century, the churches of North America have shown it in the last and in this, first by illegally ordaining women, then by ignoring the pleas of the Communion not to consecrate Gene Robinson. …
– John Richardson calls for decisive action at the Ugley Vicar.
See also David Virtue’s post at VirtueOnline –
“Church of England traditionalists got their single biggest wake-up call, yesterday, when the Synod decided to consecrate women bishops, rejecting compromise proposals for new ‘super bishops’ that would have offered a safety net for those opposed to women’s ascent to the episcopacy. …”
The Women Bishops debate: much vexation without representation
Late on Monday evening, the General Synod of the Church of England voted to take away my bishop. Not only mine, of course — they voted to take away all the Provincial Episcopal Visitors from the parishes which have enjoyed their ministry in the last few years. …
We must not forget that the Church of England has regularly in the past been on the side of oppressing those who wanted to express their religion freely. As one writer observed (I cannot locate the quotation, but remember it well), it was the Church of England which, due to its intransigence, virtually single handedly created Nonconformity. …
– John Richardson writes at The Ugley Vicar.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…