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June 26, 2007
Canada Resolution from General Synod
The motion read: ...
... Same-sex blessings not in conflict with core doctrine ...
Resolutions from the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada
Blessing of same-sex unions defeated
The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada has narrowly defeated a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions.
Lay delegates voted 78 to 59 in favour of the motion and clergy voted 63 to 53 in favour But the House of Bishops voted 21-19 against it. As a result the motion was defeated, since it required approval by each of the three orders to pass.
The motion read:
"That this General Synod affirms the authority and jurisdiction of any diocesan synod, with the concurrence of the diocesan bishop, and in a manner which respects the conscience of the incumbent and the will of the parish, to authorize the blessing of committed same-sex unions."
Same-sex blessings not in conflict with core doctrine
Members of the Anglican Church of Canada's General Synod in Winnipeg agreed Sunday that the blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with the church's core doctrine, in the sense of being credal.
Debate resumed Sunday morning after being suspended late Saturday.
The motion carried reads: "That this General Synod resolves that the blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with the core doctrine (in the sense of being credal) of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The motion was carried by a vote of 152 for, 97 against in the house of clergy and laity and by a vote of 21 for and 19 against in the house of bishops.
__________________________________________________________________
ACNSlist, published by Anglican Communion News Service, London
Posted by latimer at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
Canada's bishops veto synod on gay blessings
The incoming primate of the Canadian church, Archbishop-elect Fred Hiltz, who had voted in favour of the move, said: "We have a very divided church. There will be many people who are very disappointed."
Canada's bishops veto synod on gay blessings
www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2110618,00.html
· Lay Anglicans and clergy agree but yes motion falls
· World communion hears primate admit divisions
Stephen Bates in Winnipeg
Monday June 25, 2007
The Guardian
Canadian Anglicans failed by the narrowest of margins last night to agree to allow their churches to bless the committed relationships of same-sex couples.
In a tense vote after nearly two days of debate at the church's synod in Winnipeg, lay and clergy members voted in favour of a motion that would have allowed dioceses in Canada officially to authorise blessings. But the church's bishops voted against the move by 21 votes to 19, meaning that the motion failed, because it needed to be passed by all three groups.
There were warnings last night that some dioceses might press ahead anyway to authorise such services. Canada is one of the few countries that allows gay couples to marry.
The incoming primate of the Canadian church, Archbishop-elect Fred Hiltz, who had voted in favour of the move, said: "We have a very divided church. There will be many people who are very disappointed."
The vote came hours after the 300 delegates attending the church's three-yearly synod earlier took a significant step towards endorsing gay partnerships by saying they did not believe that they were in conflict with core church doctrine.
The debates saw repeated attempts by Canadian conservatives to delay such moves, or to change the size of the majority required under church rules to pass the motions, which were headed off.
The bishops last night nevertheless reissued a statement saying: "While not all bishops can conceive of condoning or blessing same-sex unions, we believe it is not only appropriate but a Gospel imperative to pray with the whole people of God, no matter their circumstances ... to refuse to pray with any person is to suggest God is not with them."
The outcome of the blessings vote, despite its close margin, will be welcomed at Lambeth Palace, where the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been struggling to hold the communion together in the face of opposition particularly among developing world church leaders to any accommodation with same-sex partnerships. They and many evangelicals in western churches hold that gay partnerships are sinful, unbiblical and, therefore, will always be against church doctrine.
The sister US Episcopal Church is already facing a deadline of the end of September to comply with communion demands that it should not authorise same-sex blessings or elect gay clergy and bishops and that it should set up a separate church structure for conservative parishes. It has so far refused to do so.
At the Canadian synod, speakers from both sides argued passionately either that the church would be condoning sin if it recognised gay partnerships, or that it was time to affirm them.
Some clergy in Canada's cities, such as Toronto, where the demand has been strongest, may defy the church and conduct such services clandestinely anyway, as many clergy already do in Britain and the US. One Canadian diocese, New Westminster in Vancouver, authorised gay blessings services four years ago, the first in the world to do so.
A Toronto priest, Andrew Asbil, who said 30% of his congregation were gay, urged the synod to vote in favour: "God is calling us to move. The time is coming and it is now. We don't need more time."
Posted by latimer at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2007
Churches of Global South Represented at National Latimer Conference
The Warden of the Latimer Fellowship and Vicar of the parish of Bryndwr, the Revd Malcolm Falloon, welcomed the participation of the wider Anglican Church at the Latimer Conference, “We can no longer pretend that what is happening on a global scale has no impact on the local church, and vice versa.”
Churches of Global South represented at National Laitmer Conference
Last year, the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen was the guest speaker at the Conference of the Latimer Fellowship, a national association of Anglican Evangelicals.
This year two international speakers will attend the National Latimer Conference for 2007 to be held from Monday 2 to Tuesday 3 July at St Christopher's Anglican Church, Avonhead. The Revd David Short from Vancouver, Canada and the Revd Terry Wong from Singapore.
The Revd David Short is from the diocese of New Westminster, Canada, where his parish, along with others, has opposed the authorising of same-sex blessings by the bishop, which has led to a conflict that has reverberated around the Anglican Communion. In February of this year he was part of a delegation from ANiC (Anglican Network in Canada) who met with Anglican leaders prior to the Anglican Primates meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Primates meeting of Archbishops from around the world met to find a way of preventing the fragmentation of the Anglican communion due to the actions of the Canadian church and the subsequent consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop by the American Church, a man living in a same-sex relationship.
David Short says, “The issue really has nothing to do with sex. The issue underneath it has to do with Scripture and whether our faith comes from the revelation of God in Scripture.”
The Revd Terry Wong is based in Singapore and is chaplain to Archbishop John Chew, Primate of South East Asia. Archbishop John Chew is a leading Primate of the ‘Global South’, a coalition of non-western churches that make up more than 75% of the Anglican Church worldwide. The Global South leaders have consistently challenged the Western church over its departure from the teaching of the Bible in respect to sexuality. Terry Wong will present a paper at the conference giving a Global South perspective on the deepening divide within the Anglican Communion.
The Warden of the Latimer Fellowship and Vicar of the parish of Bryndwr, the Revd Malcolm Falloon, welcomed the participation of the wider Anglican Church at the Latimer Conference, “We can no longer pretend that what is happening on a global scale has no impact on the local church, and vice versa.”
Malcolm Falloon said, “The liberal wing of the Anglican Church is advocating an approach to the Bible that makes everything (and hence, nothing) provable from the Bible, robbing the Church of the very Gospel that sustains its life and mission. It is this Gospel mandate that we seek to reaffirm at this year’s conference”
Revd Malcolm Falloon
Posted by latimer at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
Anglican coalition to force through breakaway
13.06.07 - A powerful coalition of conservative Anglican leaders is preparing to create a parallel Church for conservatives in America in defiance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, provoking the biggest split in Anglican history. Dr Rowan Williams described the Anglican Church as 'very vulnerable, very fragile'
The UK Daily Telegraph has learned.
Anglican coalition to force through breakaway
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:17am BST 13/06/2007
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/13/nanglican113.xml
A powerful coalition of conservative Anglican leaders is preparing to create a parallel Church for conservatives in America in defiance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, provoking the biggest split in Anglican history, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
According to sources, at least six primates are planning the consecration of a prominent American cleric as a bishop to minister to Americans who have rejected their liberal bishops over the issue of homosexuality.
The move will send shock waves through worldwide Anglicanism and may prove to be a fatal blow to the efforts of Dr Rowan Williams to hold together what he described last month as a "very vulnerable, very fragile" Church.
The initiative is understood to have been co-ordinated by senior African archbishops, including the Primate of Kenya, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, who represent the core of the so-called Global South group of conservative primates.
But the group has a wider base and is also thought to include several relatively moderate primates from outside Africa.
The size of the group - its leaders represent well over 10 million Anglicans - will alarm Lambeth Palace as it could eventually evolve into a powerful rival Anglican Church.
Insiders said the scheme was not being led by the maverick Global South leader, the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, who has already set up a similar "missionary" Church in America headed by Bishop Martyn Minns. One said: "This enormous division has been provoked by the unilateral actions of the Americans. They have walked away and we have to care for the survivors."
Dr Williams has repeatedly appealed to his fellow primates to refrain from provocative actions while he struggles to avert what appears to be an increasingly inevitable schism.
Last month he attempted to placate the warring factions by announcing that neither Bishop Gene Robinson, the homosexual American bishop, nor Bishop Minns would be invited to next year's Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering of all the world's bishops in Canterbury. But conservative leaders were furious that Dr Williams had invited the rest of the liberal leadership of the American Church despite its reluctance to toe the line on homosexuality.
The move by the conservative primates will also dismay the liberal leadership of the Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism, which originally provoked the crisis by consecrating Bishop Robinson in 2003.
The new conservative organisation in America will create ripples in the Church of England, which has been increasingly torn over the issue of homosexuality. It is certain to surface at next month's meeting of the General Synod in York.
Posted by latimer at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2007
The Church is Flat: A New Anglicanism - Bp Martyn Minns
05.07 - "We are determined to reclaim a vision for the church that holds true to its founder’s intentions."
By Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns
May 3, 2007
www.globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/comments/the_church_is_flat_a_new_anglicanism/
In his book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how our world has shrunk. Thanks to instant information and rapid transportation, hierarchical structures have been flattened.
One global organization that should be ideally positioned for this transformation is the Christian Church. The genius of its founder was that it was designed to be “flat;” small groups with a common vision, a common language of faith, and international networks that crossed national boundaries. As often happens, initial flexibility was soon lost and replaced by more predictable and controllable structures and the early vision forgotten while waiting for another fresh wave of inspiration and creativity.
We are witnessing such a new wave. A prime example is the Anglican Communion - an international community of more than 75 million in 164 countries, ordered into 38 separate provinces.
In the good old days mandates, money and missionaries flowed from the traditional power base of London and, more recently, New York to their grateful recipients in the developing world. But that is all changing now and we have, as noted Penn State religion and history professor Philip Jenkins describes it, ‘A New Christendom’ where much of the energy, leadership and vision now come from the Global South. The old ways of doing church are being shaken and we are rediscovering what it means to be part of a truly global community.
One example is the birth of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA. It was first conceived as a way to provide a safe harbor for Nigerian Anglicans who no longer felt welcome in The Episcopal Church because of its deliberate distancing from traditional mainstream Christianity but now includes a growing number of other Anglican congregations from across America.
This realignment isn’t simply about issues of human sexuality but on the other much more basic questions such as the role and authority of the Scriptures and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. It is part of an emerging movement of formerly Episcopal churches and new congregations, which are breaking out of their hierarchical straightjackets and connecting directly with other parts of the Anglican Communion. What unites them is a vision for global Christianity; a commitment to a common language of faith and abiding friendships that connect across challenging cultural divides.
This movement is variously derided by the hierarchical power brokers as being either a small group of American malcontents or an example of reverse colonialism. They are missing the point - the Church got flat and they didn’t notice.
There are serious questions, however, that must be addressed. How do we make sense of our common commitment to individual human rights in such dramatically different civil and religious settings? How do we preach that every person is made in the image of God, is loved by God and is of inestimable worth when one part of the family is dieting from eating too much and others are dying of starvation? How do we demonstrate the love of God to people whose life experience is so very different from ours? In this global network how do we find a common language so that we can talk with one another about differences without demonizing those with whom we differ?
We have a long way to go and CANA is only a small part of the solution. We have no delusions of grandeur. We are merely an association of churches who love being in the mainstream of the Anglican Communion.
We are determined to reclaim a vision for the church that holds true to its founder’s intentions. We take God at His Word and are trying to live out a gospel of radical inclusion and profound transformation. Jesus of Nazareth didn’t give his life for a structure but rather for a vision of a world where every person can know that they are loved by God and given new hope for tomorrow - whether they live in Kaduna or Kansas City, in Bethlehem or Boston, in Darfur or Dallas.
The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns
Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
Posted by latimer at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)
Church of Uganda will uphold Road to Lambeth Statement
31.05.07 "Accordingly, the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda stands by its resolve to uphold the Road to Lambeth."
For Immediate Release
30th May 2007
In response to the recent announcement that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Rowan Williams, has sent out invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, made this statement:
On 9th December 2006, the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda, meeting in Mbale, resolved unanimously to support the CAPA Road to Lambeth statement, www.globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/comments/the_road_to_lambeth_presented_at_capa/ which, among other things, states, “We will definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution are also invited as participants or observers.”
We note that all the American Bishops who consented to, participated in, and have continued to support the consecration as bishop of a man living in a homosexual relationship have been invited to the Lambeth Conference. These are Bishops who have violated the Lambeth Resolution 1.10, which rejects “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture” and “cannot advise the legitimising or blessing of same sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions.”
Accordingly, the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda stands by its resolve to uphold the Road to Lambeth.
The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi
ARCHBISHOP OF CHURCH OF UGANDA.
Posted by latimer at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)
Everything has changed in the Anglican Communion - Lord Carey
31.05.07 Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, writes in today’s Church of England Newspaper
Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, writes in today’s Church of England Newspaper
Sir, Kenneth Kearon suggests (CEN May 25) that the decision not to invite AMiA bishops, or the recently consecrated CANA Bishop, to the Lambeth Conference relates to a precedent I set in 2000. This set my mind flashing back to the circumstances of that period. My opposition to the consecration of the two AMiA Bishops related to the setting up of Episcopal activity in the United States which I regarded as unconstitutional and unnecessary (at least at that period).
Although I regarded these bishops (both honourable and good men) as ‘irregularly’ consecrated, there was no question about the validity of their consecrations. This, of course, was before 2003 when the Episcopal Church clearly signalled its abandonment of Communion norms, in spite of warnings from the Primates that the consecration of a practising homosexual bishop would ‘tear the fabric of the Communion’. It is not too much to say that everything has changed in the Anglican Communion as a result of the consecration of Gene Robinson.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s prerogative to invite bishops to the Conference is a lonely, personal and important task. Before each Conference a number of careful decisions have to be taken, with the focus being on the well-being of the Communion. The circumstances facing each Archbishop of Canterbury will vary according to the needs of the hour. For these reasons, I believe, that Dr Rowan Williams should not regard the advice he has evidently received that this matter is ‘fixed’ as necessarily binding on him in the very different circumstances of 2007. He and all his colleagues will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Lord Carey of Clifton
London
Posted by latimer at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)