Reform initial response to ‘Apostolic Constitution’ announcement
Posted on October 21, 2009
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MEDIA STATEMENT 20th October 2009
Revd Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, makes four points as an initial response to today’s announcement from the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster:
“Anglicans concerned about protecting the basic Christian faith need not go to Rome, because we now have the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA (UK)) which holds together those who want to stop the orthodox faith being eroded. We can remain Anglican. Furthermore, the FCA Primates have recognised that problems with episcopal oversight are arising here in the UK. They have expressed the hope that these will be solved locally, but if not, they are willing to step in.”
“This development highlights the need for robust legislative provision to cater for those who cannot agree to women bishops, such as that recently suggested by the Revision Committee.”
“If priests really are out of sympathy with the C of E’s doctrine (as opposed to the battles we are having over women’s ministry and sexuality), then perhaps it is better they make a clean break and go to Rome. However, when they do, they will have to accommodate themselves to Rome’s top-down approach to church life, whereas the C of E has always stressed the importance of decision making at the level of the local church.”
“It is illusory to pretend that this development is an outcome of ecumenical dialogue. It illustrates the difficulties the C of E faces and the need for stronger leadership, rather than the ‘softly softly’ approach so far taken to those holding liberal views who are splitting the church.”
— from Reform.
What does it mean to be Anglican? IV
Posted on October 21, 2009
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Mark Thompson continues his series –
“Anglicanism is both genuinely catholic and unambiguously Protestant. But what type of Protestantism is embedded in the Anglican formularies — Lutheran, Reformed or Anabaptist?…”
– read it all at Mark’s blog, Theological Theology.
Rome welcomes unhappy Anglicans
Posted on October 21, 2009
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The Vatican has announced a structure to ‘bring home’ Anglicans dissatisfied with the liberalism rampant in many parts of the Anglican Communion –
“With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion.
In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”
– Full statement from the Vatican website.
The Archbishop of Canterbury approves. So does Forward in Faith UK.
Update: And Bishop Bob Duncan of ACNA.
Compass on Sydney Anglicans
Posted on October 20, 2009
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Sunday night’s Compass from ABC TV is now online – watch on the website or download the 100MB MPEG4 or WMV file.
Also on the website is an extended version (16 minutes) of the interview with Archbishop Peter Jensen.
2009 Sydney Synod Presidential Address
Posted on October 20, 2009
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See a 9.5 minute video excerpt of Archbishop Peter Jensen’s 2009 Synod Presidential Address.
Full audio (18MB mp3 file) here.
PDF file here. (All courtesy of SydneyAnglicans.net)
‘Jesus saves, but shattered Anglicans regret not having that luxury’
Posted on October 20, 2009
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“The shaken Anglican Archbishop of Sydney admits he has wondered whether God had decided to punish his diocese.
Peter Jensen confessed yesterday to being grief-stricken by the size of the diocese’s $160 million financial loss and called on his faithful not be panicked or paralysed by the money crisis but to turn to God in ‘active faith’…”
– Linda Morris reports for The Sydney Morning Herald.
To see just what the Archbishop said, and how he said it, stay tuned for the audio and video of his Presidential Address to Sydney Synod. The text of his address is available here as a PDF file and includes a great deal of encouragement about Connect09.
And see also Archbishop gets personal by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.
Theological Education: the Next Battlefield
Posted on October 20, 2009
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Mark Thompson, Academic Dean of Moore College and also President of the ACL, writes about a challenge we need to be aware of –
“Strategic thinking, generous support and courageous initiatives are needed now.”
It should come as a surprise to no-one that theological education has emerged as a new battleground in the war against liberal revisionism. The leaders of liberal churches such as The Episcopal Church in America, reeling at the resistance their program of revision has encountered from the Global South and conservative elements in the West, have embarked on an ambitious plan to win the long term struggle by taking charge of the agenda for Anglican theological education and infiltrating seminaries in the two-thirds world. Read more
Diocese of North West Australia prayer notes
Posted on October 19, 2009
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Keeping the people of North West Australia in your prayers? These prayer notes and letter from Bishop David Mulready will help – 630kb PDF file.
What does it mean to be Anglican? III
Posted on October 19, 2009
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“The Anglican inheritance in both doctrine and church practice is irrevocably tied to the cause of the Protestant Reformation. For all its insistence that it is genuinely catholic, that it was not another church set up as an alternative to that existing at the time but rather the true church reformed, the English church from which worldwide Anglicanism has grown was unambiguously Protestant. …”
– ACL President Dr Mark Thompson continues his posts on What does it mean to be Anglican?
Charles Raven on Burying the Bad News
Posted on October 17, 2009
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This week a spokesman for Fulcrum, the ‘open’ evangelical’ grouping the in the Church of England, has claimed that the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will fragment the Church of England, weaken its structures and polarise debate. Many might think that as far as the first two charges are concerned, the Church of England has been managing to bring these about quite effectively on its own without any help from the FCA in Great Britain and Ireland, but Kuhrt claims that the FCA needs to ‘bury good news’ and to substantiate this he buries the bad news. Read more
Why I praise God for the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
Posted on October 17, 2009
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“The launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (UK and Ireland) on 6 July was an answer to my prayers.
I had feared that orthodox Anglicans, who share a common commitment to the essentials of our faith and a concern about departures from it within the Church of England and wider Anglican Communion, would spend more energy disagreeing over their different strategies for the defence and proclamation of the gospel than in supporting one another and working together for Christ in our church and nation. GAFCON gave me a glimpse of another possibility:…”
– Vaughan Roberts, Rector of St Ebbe’s Church in Oxford, writes in The Church of England Newspaper – reproduced at Anglican Mainstream.
(GAFCON photo by Joy Gwaltney.)
Missionary Diocese
Posted on October 17, 2009
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“In Tasmania in 2000, the question was asked, ‘Bishop, what would you like from the diocese as you commence your episcopate?’ – The answer, ‘A website for the diocese.’ The diocese obliged. A new openness to change was evident. However, the much deeper challenge came when the bishop shared the vision of ‘Every Tasmanian committed to Jesus Christ’, declared that the diocese be known as ‘The Missionary Diocese of Tasmania’, and challenged every Anglican to live as a ‘missionary disciple’.
Bishop of Tasmania John Harrower has made available a chapter he wrote (PDF, Word) for the book “Facing the Future: Bishops Imagine a Different Church”, edited by Stephen Hale and Andrew Curnow.
“In Tasmania in 2000, the question was asked, ‘Bishop, what would you like from the diocese as you commence your episcopate?’ – The answer, ‘A website for the diocese.’ The diocese obliged. A new openness to change was evident. However, the much deeper challenge came when the bishop shared the vision of ‘Every Tasmanian committed to Jesus Christ’, declared that the diocese be known as ‘The Missionary Diocese of Tasmania’, and challenged every Anglican to live as a ‘missionary disciple’.
These strong statements of missional intent highlighted the commencement of intentional deep change in the Anglican Church in Tasmania…”
(h/t and photo: Diocese of Tasmania.)
Anglicans: Sydney Style
Posted on October 16, 2009
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With Sydney’s Synod starting on Monday, ABC TV’s Compass is looking at the diocese on Sunday night at 9:55pm. Might be worth checking out.
“Sydney is home to a third of Australia’s Anglicans. The Diocese is well known for being staunchly evangelical, for opposing the ordination of women and for its emphasis on the Biblical and personal conversion. This programs looks at the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, its spiritual battle against modernising trends and the evangelical ministry at the heart of its identity.”
Newcastle Synod this weekend
Posted on October 16, 2009
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The Synod of the Diocese of Newcastle meets this weekend and will discuss the first ever Strategic Plan for the diocese –
Bishop Brian Farran said, “With more than 500 people across the Diocese involved in the development of the Diocesan Strategic Plan it is worthy of celebration. The consultation process has been broad and judicious. The Diocesan Strategic Plan provides us with a language with which to express our hopes and dreams to be a missional church.”
– from the Diocese of Newcastle website. PDF file. Doubtless, members of the Synod would appreciate prayer for their meeting.
William Tyndale and his New Testament
Posted on October 16, 2009
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Church Society has republished a 1976 Churchman article by Gervase Duffield on Bible translation pioneer William Tyndale. (PDF file.)
As Reformation Sunday approaches (most observe it on the Sunday closest to October 31), it’s a good time to give thanks for the New Testament in English and those who helped make it possible.
Related: The open Bible in England, by F.F. Bruce.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…