Spot the difference? Why Rowan said so much about Islam and Sharia
“Right now I’m feeling rather less sympathetic towards Rowan Williams than I was on Friday night.
The reason is this. Go to the Archbishop’s website, as I (and doubtless many others) did in the wake of the controversy in the press, for the text of his talk …”
Read the full comments from John Richardson on Ugley Vicar. See also this opinion piece from The Spectator.
(Photo: Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.)
Orthodox attendance at Lambeth would give wrong impression
Dr. Chik Kaw Tan, a member of the Church of England’s General Synod, has written to the Church of England Newspaper –
“If orthodox bishops really believe that Anglicanism as practised in many parts of the Western world is a denial of Scripture and is inconsistent with apostolic teachings, then they cannot, indeed must not, share communion with the leaders of that new pseudo-Christian religion. On that count, I cannot but express my highest regard for those primates and bishops who choose, at great personal cost, not to attend Lambeth 2008. …”
Text of the full letter is worth reading at Anglican Mainstream.
(Photo credit: Jim Rosenthal, Anglican World.)
Bishop John Rodgers interviewed
Bishop John Rodgers, one of the founders of AMiA and Interim Dean and President of TSM, has been interviewed on his hopes for the Anglican Communion:
“We have assumed we are part of a global Anglicanism that is true and good and turned a blind eye to its actual condition. We have been idolatrous about the Anglican Communion. The truth is that for us to be faithful Anglicans we can no longer be simply identified with the present Anglican Communion. It must be reformed or divided.”
Read the full interview on VirtueOnline.
Bishop Jones’ Exegesis: from here to wherever
The great thing about the knight in the game of chess is that it can jump intervening squares and pieces to get from one location to another. This is what gives the knight its attacking power. I think it was Anthony Hoekema, however, who coined the phrase ‘knight’s jump exegesis’ to describe the way some people jump from one part of the Bible to another to ‘prove’ their point.
Hoekema argued that Jehovah’s Witnesses do this with regard to, for example, the date of Christ’s return (somewhat overdue by now, on their reckoning). Unfortunately, as was reported in today’s Guardian newspaper, something like this has now also been done by the Rt Revd James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool…
Read John Richardson’s analysis in The Ugley Vicar.
Food for thought
“…even assuming that there will be a remnant of Evangelicals at Lambeth … the 70% who will be there represent a MINORITY of Anglicans worldwide, while the 30% of bishops attending GAFCON represent 70% or more…”
From a Viewpoint article by Anglican journalist David Virtue.
What is Anglicanism? – Archbishop Orombi
This 2007 essay by Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, Anglican Archbishop of Uganda is well worth reading:
“We would not be facing the crisis in the Anglican Communion if we had upheld the basic Reformation convictions about Holy Scripture: its primacy, clarity, sufficiency, and unity. Part of the genius of the Reformation was its insistence that the Word of God and the liturgy be in the language of the people — that the Bible could be read and understood by the simplest plowboy. The insistence from some Anglican circles (mostly in the Western world) on esoteric interpretations of Scripture borders on incipient Gnosticism that has no place in historic or global Anglicanism. …”
Read the full text at First Things.
Who is running the Anglican Communion?
“Readers of the Anglican Communion Office’s website might begin to wonder who is running the Anglican Communion. …
Curious… that the ACO website lists the Diocese of San Joaquin as ‘vacant’ – curious, because it isn’t. …”
John Richardson is perplexed – at Anglican Mainstream.
J I Packer on the state of the Anglican Communion
Widely respected theologian J I Packer has spoken about the current state of the Anglican Communion in an interview with VirtueOnline.
“I expect congregations in TEC and the ACIC being fed on liberal theology will continue to wither on the vine as they have done for the last half century. Liberal theology, without the gospel, proves to be the smell of death rather than of life.”
A Case Study in American Religion
Dr. Michael Horton and friends at The White Horse Inn broadcast are asking, ‘Why is Joel Osteen [Pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston] so popular?’
In their online series on ‘Christless Christianity’, this week they examine the teaching given at one of America’s largest churches. Listen online at ‘The White Horse Inn’.
Lambeth 2008: Lift-off or fizzle?
Was Rowan Williams’s speech launching the 2008 Lambeth Conference written by him or by someone else? That is the question I am asking having just read it online. …
What does one make of this, for example?
“In spite of the painful controversies which have clouded the life of the Communion for the last few years, there remains, as many people have repeatedly said, a very strong loyalty to each other and a desire to stay together. The fact that about 70% of bishops worldwide have already formally registered for the Conference, with a number of others who have signalled that they will attend, shows something of this desire.” …
John Richardson, the “Vicar of Ugley” writes on last night’s media event to launch the upcoming Lambeth Conference 2008. See also the Anglican Communion website.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…