Latimer: November 2006 Archives

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November 22, 2006

UK - Christian Union under Threat, Students Prepare for Legal Action

Christian Unions across Britain are preparing to take legal action as they face increasing persecution from university authorities which deem them 'too exclusive'.
www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.union.under.threat.students.prepare.for.legal.action/8379.htm

Posted by latimer at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2006

Preparing for the Lambeth Conference 2008

In addressing the seminar, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Rowan Williams, expressed his hope that the Lambeth Conference would lead to a recovery of structural self confidence in the Anglican Communion to make it a more effective agent of God's mission.

14 NOVEMBER 2006

Preparing for the Lambeth Conference 2008

A Message from the St Augustine's Seminar, 2006 - Lambeth Conference Press Release No. 4

As agreed by the Seminar on Friday 10 November at Lambeth Palace, London:

At the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury and in the context of prayer and worship, we, the members of the St Augustine's Seminar gathered to prepare an agenda for consideration by the Design Group of the Lambeth Conference. We met in a spirit of openness where the views and opinions of each participant could be sympathetically heard.

We see the Lambeth Conference 2008 as a great opportunity where bishops of the Anglican Communion gather to celebrate their fellowship in Jesus Christ. We see it as an occasion when the bishops can listen to and discuss the challenges that are facing the Communion. By respectfully listening to each other in the spirit of reconciling love, bishops will be enabled to address controversial issues.

We pray that through the open sharing of their experiences and concerns, the bishops will return to their dioceses better informed and equipped for their role as leaders of the Church for God's mission to the world, and with a clearer understanding of the Communion today.

To ensure full participation and to enable each voice to be heard, the bishops will meet for prayer and Bible study in groups of eight, and, later, move to groups of forty for wider discussions. In addition there will be a number of plenary sessions and presentations.

Seeking a revitalised Communion, the Conference will help the bishops to develop their skills of leadership and their understanding of their ministry and to be newly inspired for God's mission as outlined in the Five Marks of Mission :

a.. proclaiming the Good news
b.. teaching, baptising and nurturing
c.. responding to human need by loving service
d.. seeking to transform the unjust structures of society
e.. striving to safeguard the integrity of creation

Lambeth is a very special time for bishops to meet together and share their concerns. There are a number of bishops on the Design Group which is officially responsible for setting the agenda for the Lambeth Conference and as they draw up a final agenda, they will take account of any relevant idea or suggestion. Bishops, especially, are invited to forward any ideas or suggestions to the Lambeth Conference Design Group sueparks@lambethconference.org Fax +44 (0)207 313 3999

We share with the Archbishop of Canterbury the prayer that the 2008 Lambeth Conference will lead to a reconciled Communion through renewed commitment to God's mission .

Notes for Editors

1. The Seminar was attended by participants from the following
provinces/churches/dioceses:
Aotearoa, Polynesia and New Zealand
Australia
Canada
Central Africa
Church of North India
Cyprus & the Gulf
Congo
Egypt
England
Indian Ocean
Jerusalem and the Middle East
Nigeria
Church of Pakistan
Southern Africa
Sri Lanka
Tanzania
USA
West Indies

2. The Design Group next meets in December 2006 for its next meeting with the Archbishop of Melanesia as the chair with an international membership.

3. Mrs Jane Williams met with a group of bishops' spouses in London and Canterbury 10-13 November, to look at the separate and unique Spouses Programme for 2008.

Photographs for this article are available here:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/42/00/acns4211.cfm

___________________________________________________________________
ACNS: published by Anglican Communion News Service, London,

Posted by latimer at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2006

Auckland Bishop in Hot Water

According to a New Zealand newspaper this weekend, the Bishop of Auckland, the Rt Revd John Paterson has licensed a former Priest of the diocese who is not only a celebrant for same-sex Civil Unions, but is also about to be "married" in a civil union himself.

It is little surprise to conservatives in the Anglican Church that such a story should appear on the very weekend that the Bishop of Dunedin ordained a man who he openly admitted was in a same-sex union. For there are already signs that an orchestrated campaign is beginning to emerge which seeks to take the New Zealand church out of the Anglican Communion and align itself instead with the radical American Episcopal church.

The case, reported in the Sunday Star Times, will only deepen the crisis into which the New Zealand Anglican has been plunged by the Dunedin ordinations and will have further international ramifications.

For the Bishop John Peterson is currently serving as Chairman of
the Anglican Consultative Council (one of the international "insturments of unity" within the Anglican Communion), was on the commission that poduced the Windsor Report (2004) and was the New Zealand Archbishop who was part of the Dromantine Statement (2005) produced by the Primates of the Anglican Communion.

Although the Bishop Paterson has previously declared that no Priest in his Diocese should either register as a Civil Union Celebrant or conduct same-sex blessings, he as refused to discipline at least two Priests to have conduct such blessings in what the Bishop calls their "private" capacity.

This has been met with astonishment in many quarters of the church who find it hard to believe that the public and private duties of a Priest can ever be separated according to Anglican Church rules.

In the case reported this weekend, the former Anglican Priest, Keith King, who left his Auckland parish in 1999 when he came "out" as a gay man (leaving his wife of 30 years and 3 children) has made a "part-time return to parish duties" as assistant priest in the Grey Lynn parish. In between times he has been living in the Waikato Diocese, where the Diocesan Bishop, Archbishop David Moxon, had refused to grant him permission to officiate.

However, his return to Auckland marks a return to licensed ministry as
assistant Priest. The Vicar of the parish is the Revd Hugh Kempster, who embarrassed his Bishop previously by declaring that he was going to "test the church" by publicly conducting Civil Unions of gay couples.

Revd Mal Falloon
Latimer Warden

Posted by latimer at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)

Bishop under-fire as gay priest ordained

The head of the Anglican Church in Dunedin is under-fire by a senior vicar, furious at yesterday's ordination of a gay man as a deacon. Bishop George Connor ordained three people as deacons at St Paul's Cathedral. One ...is in a same-sex relationship ... Outside the church, Falloon told Sunday News: "This violates the rules of our church.
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3851206a11,00.html

Posted by latimer at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2006

Today is a sad day for the Anglican Communion

"We express our strong support for the witness of the Latimer Fellowship and Anglican Mainstream New Zealand to the concern for obeying God’s will for the health and wholeness of human society and for the good ordering of his people in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia and hope others will do the same.”
Dr Philip Giddings Convenor, Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Executive Secretary -UK Anglican Mainstream:

Today is a sad day for the Anglican Communion

Saturday November 04th 2006, 8:43 pm

Filed under: Dunedin Ordination Link to: this post
“Today is a sad day for the Anglican Communion. Despite well-founded objections and protests the Bishop of Dunedin has knowingly and deliberately ordained a man in a committed same-sex relationship as a deacon into the Anglican Church of Aotearoa on Saturday November 4 in contravention of the constitution of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa.

We call on the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa to disassociate themselves from this precipitate action outside the Windsor Process which has specifically called for a moratorium on all such breaches of the agreed teaching and discipline of the Anglican Communion. By their silence the other Bishops and Archbishops of the Church in New Zealand are failing in their duty to guard the faith and drive away error. If they are giving their support to the Dunedin ordination, they would appear to be wanting to take their church out of the global Anglican Communion in the same way as the leadership of ECUSA is doing.

We express our strong support for the witness of the Latimer Fellowship and Anglican Mainstream New Zealand to the concern for obeying God’s will for the health and wholeness of human society and for the good ordering of his people in the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia and hope others will do the same.”

Dr Philip Giddings Convenor, Anglican Mainstream
Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Executive Secretary
www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=893

Posted by latimer at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2006

Bishop of Dunedin ignores protest at Ordination service

When Bishop George Connor asked the question, “Are you will that [the individuals] should be ordained deacon?” there was a loud protest from three members of the congregation, Revd Mal Falloon, Revd Wally Behan and a Dunedin layperson. They sought leave to lodge the basis of their objection but this was denied them. They then left the service followed by the press.

The Latimer Fellowship, of which the Revd Mal Falloon is the Warden, issued the following press statement. (See 'Statement of Protest' below)

See also:
Anglicans told to understand by American Dean of Dunedin
www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdetail1.asp?storyID=106859

Posted by latimer at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

Statement of Protest

04.11.06 Press Release: We have publicly expressed our protest at the actions of the Bishop of Dunedin in ordaining a man in a same-sex relationship for the following reasons.

Statement of Protest

We have publicly expressed our protest at the actions of the Bishop of Dunedin in ordaining a man in a same-sex relationship for the following reasons.

1. It ignores the clear teaching of the Bible on matters of human sexuality. We cannot call holy what the Bible does not call holy, nor can we bless behaviour that does not belong in the kingdom of God.

2. It disregards 2000 years of the Christian understanding of the Bible on which the Anglican Church is founded. The church from the very first days has insisted on either marriage or celibacy for its ordained ministers, and the Anglican Church has always affirmed this.

3. It violates the rules of our Church and denies those who disagree with the Bishop the right to a fair hearing and due process. The Bishop of Dunedin is not authorised or free to apply the rules of the Church merely subject to his own opinions.

4. It dismisses the call for a “moratorium” on such actions from the leaders of the Anglican Church worldwide and deepens the current crisis that is in the words of the Communion’s Archbishops “tearing the fabric” of the Anglican Communion.

5. It completely undermines the process of careful listening and conversation that the General Synod and our Archbishops have requested by unilaterally acting in a way that effectively shuts down all debate.

Therefore we appeal to the Archbishops of this church and the whole House of Bishops, as “guardians” of the Church’s discipline, to break their silence. As Bishops called to “promote peace and unity among all God’s people”, we ask them to “keep the Church true to its faith” by publicly dissenting from the Bishop of Dunedin’s actions. For not to do so will give tacit approval to the Bishop’s actions and will precipitate a constitutional crisis in our Church.

Revd Malcolm Falloon
Warden of the Latimer Fellowship
Vicar of Bryndwr, Christchurch

Phone: 03 351 4931
Email: mal.falloon@xtra.co.nz
Website: www.latimer.org.nz

Posted by latimer at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2006

NZ - Anglicans split over ordaining gay man

Otago Daily Times: 'The ordination of a gay man in Dunedin tomorrow by the Anglican bishop could split the church, according to those opposed.
Despite pressure from conservatives in the church, the Bishop of Dunedin, the Rt Rev George Connor, will ordain three people as deacons of the church, among them Juan Kinnear.'
www.odt.co.nz/article.php?refid=2006,11,03,1,00100,ee949c8b97e3bdefcf95d1dab1cec2bb§=0

Gay deacon a threat to church unity, say opponents
The NZ Herald:
www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10408968

New Zealand Anglicans Divide over Gay Ordination
UK: www.anglican-mainstream.net/

Posted by latimer at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

Archbishop to meet leaders seeking split from liberal Church

Conservative Anglican leaders are to flesh out plans for a formal split in the worldwide Church at a confidential meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, later this month.
By Jonathan Petre, Telegraph uk
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/02/nchurch02.xml

Traditionalists plan parallel anti-homosexual Church
Conservative Anglican leaders prepared for a formal split in the worldwide Church yesterday by announcing plans to create a parallel body for anti-gay dioceses
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/23/nchurch23.xml

Posted by latimer at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)