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September 25, 2007
Anglican Church could split by end of year
25.09.07 The worldwide Anglican Church is expected to split radically by the end of the year under plans being drawn up by a leading conservative archbishop to "adopt" a breakaway group of American dioceses, the [UK] Daily Telegraph has learned.
Anglican Church could split by end of year
By Jonathan Petre, Telegraph.co.uk Religion Correspondent, in New Orleans Last Updated: 25/09/2007
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/25/wchurch125.xml
The worldwide Anglican Church is expected to split radically by the end of the year under plans being drawn up by a leading conservative archbishop to "adopt" a breakaway group of American dioceses, the Daily Telegraph has learned.
Under the unprecedented proposals, the archbishop would allow the conservative dioceses to opt out of the liberal American branch of the Anglican Church and affiliate with his province thousands of miles away.
It is understood that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been informed of the plans.
But Dr William's advisers fear that they could create fresh chaos and accelerate the widespread fragmentation of the Anglican Communion even in the Church of England.
Conservatives believe, however, that Dr Williams is now openly siding with the liberals and allowing the Communion to fall apart by default, leaving conservatives stranded.
Until now, only parishes have left the American Episcopal Church and affiliated with overseas provinces in Africa, often amid acrimonious and costly disputes over property.
But under the new plans, whole dioceses will for the first time transfer their allegiances, a significant escalation of the conflict which will be seen as highly provocative by American liberals.
There have already been extensive secret consultations between the American conservative bishops and the bishops of the province that is preparing to adopt them.
The leader of the conservative Network bishops in America, the Bishop of Pittsburg, the Rt Rev Bob Duncan, predicted that up to five dioceses could make the leap, which he characterized as a "modern-day Reformation".
He said that at least three had plans to vote on the issue in their diocesan synods in the coming months to legitimize their decision.
But the Episcopal Church is almost certain to declare such dioceses vacant and appoint new bishops, leaving two rival Anglican entities running parallel with each other within the same geographical area.
Bishop Duncan said that Dr William's efforts to keep the worldwide Church together at all costs had undermined his own authority as Archbishop of Canterbury.
"The attempt to hold everything together may prove a fatal mistake for Anglicanism and his office," said Bishop Duncan.
He also said that the "victory" of Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop whose consecration in 2003 sparked the crisis, had "come at a tremendous cost."
"The Episcopal Church which formed me and which I have served all my life is almost unrecognizable," he added. "Yet I haven't changed, nor have so many of us."
Meanwhile, Anglican Church officials and a coalition of liberal and conservative American bishops have been working on a compromise aimed at keeping the Episcopal Church within worldwide Anglicanism.
The proposals, which were discussed by the whole House of Bishops yesterday, will fall short of conservative demands for unequivocal assurances that they would end same sex blessings and further appointments of gay bishops indefinitely.
But they are likely to be seized on by Dr Williams as evidence that the Americans have modified their pro-gay agenda sufficiently to prevent their expulsion from the worldwide Church.
The Americans are also expected to suggest the creation of a new pastoral council made up of members from across the worldwide Church representing a spectrum of opinions to sort out disputes and preempt conflicts.
Posted by latimer at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2007
Archbishop sees vibrant future for Anglican church
"...we need to share this [church] relationship with a lot more people in the community and be very welcoming to other people".
ABC Stimon Santow
Archbishop sees vibrant future for Anglican church
Monday, 17 September , 2007
Reporter: Simon Santow
www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s2035770.htm
MARK COLVIN: More drum kits and fewer stained glassed windows. That's the future of the Anglican Church through the eyes of the leader of Australia's biggest Anglican community. Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen has used the Church's annual Synod or parliament to attack his own church as forbidding and unnecessarily old-fashioned.
But there's a definite limit to Dr Jensen's appetite for change. He says there's still no need for women to become priests in his diocese or for the Church to embrace the openly gay.
Simon Santow reports.
SIMON SANTOW: At a time when there are fears of a split in the worldwide Anglican communion over homosexuality, Dr. Peter Jensen's message to the faithful is about making the Church more accessible to outsiders.
PETER JENSEN: At the present moment, our way of doing things cuts us off from the community somewhat and makes us a bit forbidding. We want people who would like to know what we're on about, and like to share it to find an easy way into our fellowship.
SIMON SANTOW: When pressed, the leader of Sydney's Anglicans says the sense of intimidation often starts at the Church front door.
PETER JENSEN: Entering a new building, coming to a whole group of people you've never met before can be daunting for anybody. In fact, I find it a bit daunting sometimes, and if I'm on holidays, going to a new church.
So, I can imagine the ordinary person finds it so. The building are often rather old-fashioned, and sometimes too they give the air of being, you know, you mustn't speak above a hushed whisper and that sort of stuff, whereas really I think they ought to be more like our family homes, where people feel free to enter and are able to relax and find relationships.
So, even at the local level I think we can be less forbidding and more welcoming than we are.
SIMON SANTOW: His speech to Synod goes on to bemoan a lack of contact with people unconnected to the Anglican Church. And he complains of an abyss separating his flock from the wider community.
PETER JENSEN: The quality of life in the churches is good, and there's a tendency therefore to just enjoy the relationship in the Church rather than to want to share that with others. It's a funny thing about all sorts of organisations, and churches are no exceptions, that you get to a certain size, for example, and people feel comfortable, they like it there and instinctively they don't want it really to grow much. It's counter-intuitive.
So, I need to challenge our churches and say, "No, that's not good enough, we need to share this relationship with a lot more people in the community and be very welcoming to other people".
SIMON SANTOW: Dr Jensen has huge ambitions for the Church. He says under his watch, it's added an extra 5,000 adult members, donations taken at the plate have risen by a third to $56-million dollars, the average age of parishioners has dropped, and there's been a significant boost to the number of active licensed clergy.
Ultimately, the Archbishop wants to count 10 per cent of the population as Anglicans, a figure well beyond the current estimate of around two per cent. He says he can get close to his goal by resisting pressure to go the way of other states; states which allow women to become fully ordained ministers.
PETER JENSEN: It may come up, there is a motion about it, I'm not sure how much time we will spend on it.
SIMON SANTOW: So, there's no mood for change as far as you've been hearing?
PETER JENSEN: No.
SIMON SANTOW: And there's a similar dismissal of the issue of openly gay priests and parishioners.
PETER JENSEN: We've talked about it many times in the past, and there's nothing in this Synod that will necessarily bring that to the surface. We often get on well together, even though we come up with different answers, but there come boundary moments when we can no longer really work closely together.
So, that's why we have Baptist and Anglicans, for example, we just disagree on a certain key issue, but we get on personally well, although we can't cooperate at the same level.
SIMON SANTOW: But there's an irony that at a time when votes will be cast and numbers counted in the Church's own parliament, Dr Jensen is a little reluctant to get too involved in federal politics, so close to polling day.
PETER JENSEN: We're very lucky to be living in Australia, that we have … the possibility of secret voting, that they are as Christians, entirely free to cast their ballot in the way that they think God wants them to, and I have no influence over that whatsoever.
MARK COLVIN: The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, ending Simon Santow's report.
Posted by latimer at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
Archbishop fears split over gay clergy
The Archbishop of Canterbury fears the Anglican Church will finally split if his warnings over promoting gay bishops are not heeded.
UK Telegraph, 17.09.07
Archbishop fears split over gay clergy
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/16/nrowan116.xml
The Archbishop of Canterbury fears the Anglican Church will finally split if his warnings over promoting gay bishops are not heeded.
Dr Rowan Williams has confided in his closest aides that he believes his visit to a summit of Church leaders in America this week is critical to the survival of the Anglican Communion.
In one of the most crucial weeks of his tenure as Archbishop, he will fly to New Orleans on Wednesday to urge American bishops to heed the recommendations of the Windsor Report, which called on liberals to refrain from making further pro-gay moves.
They have been given the "deadline" of September 30 to introduce a moratorium on electing gay bishops.
Dr Williams's efforts to keep the warring factions within the fold of the Anglican Communion will effectively be rendered meaningless if the American Church refuses to comply with the demands of the global church leaders.
"He's in no uncertainty as to the importance of this meeting," said one of his closest aides.
"The meeting is a major step in deciding whether the Anglican Communion can stay together as a global family. The Archbishop will try to find out whether the Episcopal Church is prepared to seek a way forward."
The Anglican Communion - which has 70 million members worldwide - was plunged into the present crisis by the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric, to be Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
advertisementDr Williams has spent much of the past four years trying to find a solution to the apparently intractable problems of reconciling the conservative wing - who believe homosexuality is a sin - and the liberals.
He also faces a potential "civil war" in the Church of England because parishes are divided in their support for the Americans and Africans who are opposed to gay clergy.
At the General Synod in July, the Church agreed to proceed with plans for a covenant - or book of beliefs - despite claims that this could jeopardise the traditional freedom of churches.
Dr Williams has no jurisdictional power in the American Church, which is one of the Communion's 38 autonomous provinces, but hopes they will heed his plea for restraint.
"He will talk to them about the current affairs in the Communion and explain his concerns to them," the aide said. "It is up to them to decide whether to act on it."
The Very Reverend Tracey Lind, a lesbian cleric, has already been nominated for the Bishopric of Chicago and is one of the front-runners to get the job.
She would have to withdraw from the election if the Episcopal Church chooses to halt its liberal agenda.
Presented with a similarly explosive situation last year when the Canadian Church was considering authorising same-sex blessings, Dr Williams was successful in persuading it to back down.
Dr Williams will sit in two three-hour sessions with the American bishops and will be accompanied by other Primates and members of the Anglican Consultative Council - the Communion's executive body.
The American bishops will not announce their decision until next Monday.
Posted by latimer at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)
Postpone Lambeth Say Nigerian Bishops in Letter to Archbishop Williams
We have reviewed the paper “A Most Agonizing Road to Lambeth 2008″ ... We found it to be a compelling summary of many of the key events and meetings of the past ten years ...
Open letter to Archbishop Williams from Bishops of the Church of Nigeria
An open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria meeting in Osogbo, Osun State
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the one and only Lord Jesus Christ.
We write to you out of profound love for our beloved Anglican Communion and recognition that this current crisis in our common life together is an unrelenting source of anguish for you and for all concerned.
We have reviewed the paper “A Most Agonizing Road to Lambeth 2008″ that was made available to us by our primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola. We found it to be a compelling summary of many of the key events and meetings of the past ten years. It highlights the intractability of our current crisis.
We are persuaded that a change of direction from our current path is urgently needed and write to assure you of our willingness and commitment to work towards that end. We have noted your desire that the proposed Lambeth Conference be a place for fellowship and prayer and an exploration of our shared mission and ministry - all of these are of course commendable aims.
We all know, however, that the pressures of the present situation would adversely affect the outcome of the conference unless there is a profound change of heart; for how can we as bishops in the Church of God gather for a Lambeth Conference when there is such a high level of distrust, dislike and disdain for one another? How can we meet as leaders of the Communion when our relationships are so sorely strained and our life together so broken that we cannot even share together in the Lord’s Supper? It would be a mockery and bring dishonour to the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the King.
We are also concerned about the abuse directed towards those who hold to traditional views on matters of Human Sexuality. The spate of hostility in the UK is alarming.
We are all witnesses to:
- The presence of placard carrying and leaflets distributing campaigners at the last Lambeth Conference distracting Bishops who travelled thousands of miles for fellowship. These protesters effectively shifted the focus of the conference to human sexuality - as if that was all that mattered.
- The physical assaults against clergymen with opposing view, such as your predecessor attacked in his own Cathedral pulpit, and a Kenyan bishop assaulted by two people dressed as clergymen.
- The occasion when your own General Synod was disrupted by protestors angry over the handling of the Canon Jeffery John issue.
- Recent attempts to mandate unbiblical views in the UK through force of law and the protests and attacks by activists determined to disrupt and intimidate any group that seeks to uphold biblical teaching.
In truth anyone who does not embrace revisionist views is a potential target. We know it is possible to provide some security to minimize such occurrences but is the additional cost justifiable? Would the resultant atmosphere of fear and uncertainty be conducive to the goals of such a large gathering of bishops?
These are all matters of concern but in our opinion there is a way forward.
The proposed Anglican Communion Covenant is the one way for us to uphold our common heritage of faith while at the same time holding each other accountable to those teachings that have defined our life together and also guide us into the future. It has already received enthusiastic support from the majority of the Communion. Therefore we propose the following action plan:
As a matter of utmost urgency, call a special session of the Primates Meeting to:
a) Receive the responses made by The Episcopal Church to the Dromantine and Dar es Salaam Communiqués and determine their adequacy.
b) Arrive at a consensus for the application of the Windsor Process especially in Provinces whose self-understanding is at odds with the predominant mind of the Communion.
Set in motion an agreed process to finalize the Anglican Covenant Proposal and set a timetable for its ratification by individual provinces. This cannot be done at the Lambeth Conference because it is simply too large and, we all know, the Anglican Covenant requires individual provincial endorsement and signature.
Postpone current plans for the Lambeth Conference (as has been done before).
This will:
a) Allow the current tensions to subside and leave room for the hard work of reconciliation that is a prerequisite for the fellowship we all desire.
b) Confirm that those invited to the Lambeth Conference have already endorsed the Anglican Covenant and so are able to come together as witnesses to our common faith.
We make these proposals in good faith believing that they provide an opportunity for us to reunite the Communion consistent with our common heritage and give us a way forward to engage the world with the holistic Gospel of Salvation in Jesus Christ.
Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
September 13, 2007
Posted by latimer at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2007
Archbishop calls secret service for gay clergy to halt slide towards schism
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to hold a secret Communion service for gay clergy and their partners in London. By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent of The Times 18 September 2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to hold a secret Communion service for gay clergy and their partners in London.
Full Story:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2476972.ece
Dr Williams will celebrate the eucharist at St Peter’s, Eaton Square – the Church of England parish that is known as the spiritual home to some of the country’s most liberal and wealthy Anglican elite. There he will give an address titled “Present realities and future possibilities for lesbians and gay men in the Church”.
The event has been organised under Chatham House rules, which prevent any disclosure of the discussions. The event will take place at 10am on November 29. A list of the names of those who will be present will be seen only by Dr Williams. It will be shredded afterwards.
Among those attending will be the convenor, Chris Newlands, the chaplain to the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Rev John Gladwin. Also present will be the Vicar of St Peter’s, the Rev Nicholas Papadopulos, and the former chaplain to the Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Rev David Stancliffe.
Dr Williams’s mission to maintain the unity of the Anglican Communion, rent with schism since the 2003 ordination of the gay Bishop Gene Robinson in the US, has never appeared less likely to succeed. The disclosure of the event could not have come at a time more likely to destabilise him. This week he is due to attend a meeting of US Episcopal bishops to discuss the crisis. He has returned from three months on holiday and sabbatical, working on a study of the Russian writer Dostoevsky. His return has been marked by a Church in disarray.
African archbishops from the Global South group of churches have been consecrating like-minded evangelical bishops from the US to pastor parishes alienated by the Episcopal Church’s liberal drift. A new structure is in place to facilitate a breakaway province in the US. There is speculation that at least one African province could be close to consecrating a missionary bishop in England.
The Rev Richard Kirker, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, criticised Dr Williams for trying to hold a Communion service in secret.
“I don’t think it is a good thing in many ways. The conditions of secrecy are quite at variance with the openness of his meetings with a panoply of antigay church leaders. We are astonished at the attempts to make the meeting clandestine when it would be far better to have this in the open. The fact that he wants to go there without anyone knowing he’s going there makes it quite clear that he has an attitude towards the event that he doesn’t have at any other meetings.”
Details of the event were published on a website of the Church Society, evangelical.org. The Rev David Phillips, its general secretary, said: “The secretive nature and circumstances of the meeting suggest they have something to hide. Moreover, as is well known, there are clergy in the Church of England who have refused to give assurances that they are celibate and bishops who, contrary to their own agreed policy, apparently refuse to ask for such assurances.
“The Archbishop might have defended the meeting with such a group on the grounds that he is engaged in a listening process. However, by leading the Communion service he is clearly doing far more than just listening.”
Chris Sugden, of the evangelical group Anglican Mainstream, said: “It is understandable that the Archbishop of Canterbury would wish to express support and understanding for people who struggle with same-sex attraction. Many Christian churches and organisations do that.” He said that to do so in the context of a service of Holy Communion was “problematic”. He said: “The teaching of the Bible, of the Anglican Communion and of the Church of England is that active same-sex behaviour is contrary to the will of God for human behaviour.”
A spokesman for Dr Williams said: “It should come as no surprise that the Archbishop is meeting pastorally with clergy and others affected by the current debates in the Church. Such encounters extend right across the range of opinions within the Church. Few of these encounters ever reach the public domain. That is as it should be.”
Posted by latimer at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
Christian converts risk Muslim attack
The issue of apostasy from Islam is beginning to receive mainstream media attention in Britain
UK Times Online
From The Sunday Times September 16, 2007
By Abul Taher
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/tls_selections/religion/article2461314.ece
Christian converts risk Muslim attack
ONE of Britain’s most senior bishops has warned that a sustained campaign by Muslim extremists to intimidate and attack converts to Christianity risks ending in a murder.
Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, says that the persecution of Christian converts from Islam is so widespread that it may be only a matter of time before there is an “honour killing” of a convert by family or relatives.
He spoke out as the Barnabas Fund, a charity that looks after persecuted Christians around the world, estimated that there are more than a thousand attacks each year against former Muslims across Britain.
Nazir-Ali, speaking on the Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast tomorrow, said: “We have seen honour killings have happened and there is no reason why this kind of thing cannot happen.” Asked if somebody would be killed soon, he said: “I think it is entirely possible.”
He blamed Muslim leaders for not teaching their followers about the importance of freedom of religion in Britain: “It’s not for me to put words into their mouths [Muslim leaders], but I would look to them to uphold basic civil liberties, including the right for people to believe what they wish to believe and even to change their beliefs if they wish to do so.”
The Barnabas Fund has uncovered widespread abuse against new converts, from being verbally abused and spat at to being assaulted by gangs of men on the street and left for dead. In some cases it believes that women converts were abducted to Pakistan.
Nissar Hussein, 41, a hospital nurse from Bradford, converted to Christianity 10 years ago after the death of his younger brother. Shortly after his conversion he also persuaded his wife Kubra, 37, to convert from Islam.
Since then the Husseins and their five children have been subjected to daily abuse and violence by local Muslims in Bradford. Their windows have been smashed, vandals have daubed “Christian dog” on their front gate and their children have been sworn at and spat at on their way home from school. The family have received death threats.
Hussein says in the programme: “They told me categorically had I been in an Islamic country, ie Pakistan, the Middle East, that they would actually be the first to chop off my head.” The Husseins moved out of their home after six years, fearing they would be killed.
Research by the Barnabas Fund indicates that there are an estimated 3,000 Muslim converts to Christianity in Britain. About 2,000 of them are Iranians, while the rest are from the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan.
Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Barnabas Fund, said: “I think the situation is worsening in the UK because we are moving towards parallel communities - I don’t like to use the workd ghettoisation. Muslims feel abandoning their religion is like a betrayal.” He added that attacks on converts was a type of Islamic extremism against a minority group.
Posted by latimer at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2007
My dream begins with the Word - ++Peter Jensen
"And so, Mr Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire?"
Posted by David Virtue on 2007/8/30
My dream begins with the Word
www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6588
Archbishop Peter Jensen
24 August 2007
"And so, Mr Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the great Chinese Empire?" asked the sceptical owner of the vessel which took the young man from the London Missionary Society to China. "No, sir," said Robert Morrison, "I expect God will." (See David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing, p36).
Morrison only won 10 converts in his lifetime, but he is known as the father of Protestant missions in China and the impact of his work has had an incalculable ongoing effect to this day.
Morrison was a gifted linguist and employed as a translator by the East India Company. What impelled him to sacrificial work was his love for Christ and his determination that others should also hear about the Saviour. He founded an important Christian college and talked to people about Jesus. But his central achievement was the translation of the Bible. The labour involved in such an enterprise is amazing. Having the Bible in your own language is an immense gift of love from those involved. We thank God for the dedicated labours of Robert Morrison and those who supported him.
Just think of the part played by the Bible in your own life. We learn at once of the fact that this is one world, created and owned by one God; we learn what it is to be human; we learn about marriage and work; we learn what pleases God; we learn about the redemption that God accomplished through Jesus; we learn how his death has saved us; we learn that history has a purpose and that Jesus will return to judge the world; we learn about the Holy Spirit and the church; we learn about the new heavens and the new earth. These are the great facts which give us our special worldview. How empty would be a world without them!
The Bible has a huge impact on the church. God's word is a public revelation of himself to us. Part of the joy is that it belongs to us all, and we can study it together.
English-speaking people have enjoyed this privilege for centuries and the Bible has shaped the English language at a profound level. More important, it has shaped the way we see the world and live in it. There are many testimonies to the power of the Bible to bring people to a knowledge of God. It is one of our chief evangelistic weapons. But knowledge - and ownership - of the Bible is growing less common, especially amongst younger people. This lack of knowledge will make the overall task of evangelism more difficult.
One of the earliest works done by Christians in Sydney in the 19th century was to go from door to door distributing the Bible. They saw this as a vital task if people were going to know God. In those days literacy was a problem and Christians were also very busy teaching people to read and write. Literacy and the Bible go hand in hand.
Today the challenge is a similar one. We want people to have access to the Word of God in their own language. Books remain an easily transportable and accessible way of communicating knowledge. But books are not alone.
Down through history many people could not read. But they could all listen as long as the Word made sense to them. If we wish to make the Word of God well-known, we may expect to use contemporary means of communication so that all will have access. For some this will mean reading, for others viewing or listening.
I have a dream - a dream to give all our fellow citizens in the Diocese a copy of the word of God. This would have to be a major Christian effort and would involve planning, training, publications, prayer. If we set aside the year of 2009 in particular (the 50th anniversary of the first Billy Graham Crusade) and worked together on such a great project, I think we would experience much joy in the Lord's service. It would also help fulfil the aim of our Diocesan Mission that all may hear his call to repent and believe on him.
Would it not be a wonderful thing if, over the years following such an effort, many people became Christians? Would it not be wonderful if some person to whom you gave a copy of the word of God read it and was saved? Such things happen and we ought to trust God and pray to him that he will bless the distribution of his word in our region.
--The Most Rev. Peter Jensen is Archbishop of Sydney, Australia
Posted by latimer at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)