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March 18, 2008
Chch's controversial new bishop
A controversial Canadian woman has been elected Christchurch's next Anglican bishop.
A Canadian Bishop who is part of a high-level advisory group to the worldwide Anglican Communion has been elected Bishop of Christchurch.
The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews is currently bishop-in-residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto. She was Bishop of Edmonton for 10 years from 1997 to late last year, and Suffragan (Assistant) Bishop of Toronto from 1994-97.
She narrowly missed being elected Primate of Canada last year.
Announcing the appointment today, the Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia, Archbishop Brown Turei, said he looked forward to welcoming Bishop Matthews into the church of these islands.
"I'm sure that, with all her experience, she will make a good contribution to our life and witness," he said.
Bishop Matthews, 54 and unmarried, is only the second woman to become a diocesan bishop in New Zealand. The first was the Rt Revd Dr Penny Jamieson, Bishop of Dunedin from 1989-2004.
Bishop Matthews chairs the Canadian Primate's Theological Commission, and has just been appointed to the Windsor Continuation Group, which will look at crucial questions about the shape of Anglican common life around the world.
She is in high demand as a retreat leader and guest lecturer, enjoys leading youth pilgrimages to holy places such as Iona and Taize, and has served as a trustee of Yale University in the USA.
In 2004 Bishop Matthews underwent major surgery for breast cancer. She walked the 800km pilgrimage trail to Santiago De Compostela in northern Spain last year to celebrate a clean bill of health.
In her spare time she enjoys hiking and walking her Anatolian shepherd dog Jethro, swimming, and reading history and theology.
Her installation as the eighth Bishop of Christchurch will take place in ChristChurch Cathedral on August 30. The present Bishop, the Rt Revd Dr David Coles, takes up the position of Vicar of Wakatipu in Queenstown on April 12.
'To visit and to listen'
Bishop Matthews is no stranger to Christchurch. She hiked through New Zealand in the 1980s and was smitten. "Your country is so beautiful,"
she said from her home in Toronto this week.
"I've long admired your (Anglican) prayer book, your commitment to the stewardship of creation, and the leadership of Maori in the church. I'm excited about the move and look forward to forming relationships and making Christchurch my home."
Bishop Matthews' personal priorities on arrival here are "to visit and to listen." And then? "My priority for the diocese would be to call the people of God to excellence in all that they do," she says. "I hate mediocrity, and I despair of sloppiness."
She describes herself as "catholic evangelical" and is widely respected for her quiet authority and her ability to sit comfortably with all theological mindsets. However, she worries that in recent years the churches have moved away from "waiting on God," and believes that a call to prayer is "essential at all levels of our church."
She was educated at Bishop Strachan School in Toronto and has a Master of Divinity degree from Yale. She says she is a great fan of church schools, "especially if they are not only for the wealthy. I wish Canada had more of them."
Although only 44 at the time, Bishop Matthews was invited on to the communications committee for the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops in England. She is involved again in the planning of the Lambeth Conference this July, and will attend as Christchurch's Bishop-elect.
Despite media speculation, Bishop Matthews is careful and moderate on controversial issues such as the blessing of same-sex relationships.
Indeed, she is known internationally for her theological orthodoxy and her resolve to maintain unity.
Last year, during the Canadian General Synod, she was reported as saying that same-sex blessings did not conflict with core doctrines of the Canadian church.
Her comment arose from a Canadian study called the St Michael Report, which identified core doctrines as those relating to the person and work of God.
"Speaking personally, I think a number of things stand in the way of blessing same-gender marriages or unions," Bishop Matthews says.
"First and very importantly, the church needs to decide whether same-gender marriage is a faithful development of the Christian doctrine of marriage. This work is well under way in Canada and, I hope, other provinces of the Anglican Communion.
"Secondly, our church needs to find a way forward whenever the cause of church unity meets the cry of personal and corporate conscience head-on.
Who and how will we decide? The Anglican Covenant Design Group is addressing this."
Bishop Matthews says it is essential, albeit difficult, for churches of the first world to be patient and to listen carefully to churches of the two-thirds world.
"We (in the first world) have been dominant and bossy and arrogant for far too long and the time is right for patience and humility.
"Secondly, by taking the time to do the theology thoroughly and well, we will ease the acceptance of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. To be impatient is to risk even further hate and violence against those we have ignored for too long."
Ends
ACNS - Anglican Communion News Service, London
Chch's controversial new bishop
Sunday, 16 March 2008
A controversial Canadian woman has been elected Christchurch's next Anglican bishop.
The Right Reverend Victoria Matthews, who is bishop-in-residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto, will become the eighth Bishop of Christchurch at a ceremony on August 30.
Bishop Matthews, a former bishop of Edmonton, Canada, has signalled support for blessing gay marriages, but is not expected to break with tradition.
She has twice been in the running to be Primate of the Anglican Church in Canada, the highest post in the country.
In 2004, Bishop Matthews chaired the Task Force on Alternate Episcopal Oversight which looked at the issue of same sex-marriage in Canada.
At the 2007 General Synod of the Canadian church Bishop Matthews voted in favour of a resolution stating "the blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church" but voted against permitting those blessings.
Christchurch MP Tim Barnett told The Press newspaper earlier this month he understood the appointment was "a very exciting choice".
Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia, Archbishop Brown Turei said he looked forward to welcoming Bishop Matthews into the church in New Zealand.
"I'm sure that, with all her experience, she will make a good contribution to our life and witness."
Bishop Matthews, 54 and unmarried, is only the second woman to become a diocesan bishop in New Zealand.
The first was the Rt Rev'd Dr Penny Jamieson, Bishop of Dunedin from 1989-2004.
Bishop Matthews chairs the Canadian Primate's Theological Commission, and has just been appointed to the Windsor Continuation Group, which will look at crucial questions about the shape of Anglican common life around the world.
In 2004 Bishop Matthews underwent major surgery for breast cancer.
She walked the 800km pilgrimage trail to Santiago De Compostela in northern Spain last year to celebrate a clean bill of health.
In her spare time she enjoys hiking and walking her Anatolian shepherd dog Jethro, swimming, and reading history and theology.
The present Bishop, the Rt Rev'd Dr David Coles, takes up the position of Vicar of Wakatipu in Queenstown on April 12.
- NZPA
Posted by latimer at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2007
John Stott's Final Public Address
'Incarnational Evangelism' - the way to turn the wold upside down. 'The model – becoming more like Christ.'
Close to the end of his own journey John Stott calls for “incarnational evangelism” as the way to turn the world upside down.
Walking slowly and clutching a sturdy wooden cane, 86 year old Rev. Dr. Stott looks every bit the statesman that, in 2005, Time magazine called “One of the 100 most influential people on the planet today”. Echoing that accolade he also received a CBE in 2006 shortly before completing his 50th, and possibly his last, book “The Living Church” launched in 2007.
Having successfully passed the baton of leadership for the international church growth ministry he founded, the LANGHAM PARTNERSHIP (John Stott Ministries in the U.S.) to the current International Director, the Rev. Dr. Chris Wright; John Stott is now enjoying a well earned retirement in leafy Sussex. However, the opportunity to speak again at the Keswick Convention 2007 was enough to draw out another one of those memorable sermons so many have come to expect from this grand orator.
Walking slowly to the podium, and assisted by his research assistant, Chris Jones, John Stott was met by a standing ovation from a Convention tent filled to overflowing, on this warm summer evening on the 17th of July 2007. He began by thanking those who had introduced him in such glowing terms and then, in typically self-deferential fashion, he smiled and added, “But actually I thought I might be listening to my own obituary”.
John Stott clearly explained that the essence of what God is doing in the church today is the work of transforming His people into the image of His Son. Leading his audience from the past reality of predestination (Romans 8:29) through to the present work of transformation (2 Cor 3:18) and culminating in a glorious future (1 John 3:2) when we will discover that ‘we will be like Christ’.
In vintage Stott style, John took the Keswick Convention along a clear and well crafted journey through the evidence for this central purpose of God – to turn the world upside down by transforming His people into the image of His Son. But, he added, it’s the church’s lack of cooperation with this central purpose of God for His people that has been so damaging to our world.
Incarnational evangelism or entering into other people’s worlds with Christ-likeness, Stott noted, is essential to the church’s walk in the 21st century. However, our evangelistic efforts often lead to failure simply because we fail to look like the Christ we are proclaiming. Quoting John Poulton, Stott noted that, “The most effective preaching comes from those who embody their message. What communicates now are people, not words or ideas but rather personal authenticity, that is, Christ-likeness”.
John Stott Address at Keswick
Dr. John Stott – ‘The model – becoming more like Christ.’
Sermon delivered at the Keswick Convention July 17th 2007.
I remember very vividly, some years ago, that the question which perplexed me as a younger Christian (and some of my friends as well) was this: what is God’s purpose for His people? Granted that we have been converted, granted that we have been saved and received new life in Jesus Christ, what comes next? Of course, we knew the famous statement of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: that man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever: we knew that, and we believed it. We also toyed with some briefer statements, like one of only five words – love God, love your neighbour. But somehow neither of these, nor some others that we could mention, seemed wholly satisfactory. So I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth and it is – God wants His people to become like Christ. Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God.
So if that is true, I am proposing the following: first to lay down the biblical basis for the call to Christlikeness: secondly, to give some New Testament examples of this; thirdly, to draw some practical conclusions. And it all relates to becoming like Christ.
So first is the biblical basis for the call to Christlikeness. This basis is not a single text: the basis is more substantial than can be encapsulated in a single text. The basis consists rather of three texts which we would do well to hold together in our Christian thinking and living: Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 1 John 3:2. Lets look at these three briefly.
Romans 8:29 reads that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son: that is, to become like Jesus. We all know that when Adam fell he lost much – though not all – of the divine image in which he had been created. But God has restored it in Christ. Conformity to the image of God means to become like Jesus: Christlikeness is the eternal predestinating purpose of God.
My second text is 2 Corinthians 3:18: ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’ So it is by the indwelling Spirit Himself that we are being changed from glory to glory – it is a magnificent vision. In this second stage of becoming like Christ, you will notice that the perspective has changed from the past to the present, from God’s eternal predestination to His present transformation of us by the Holy Spirit. It has changed from God’s eternal purpose to make us like Christ, to His historical work by His Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Jesus.
That brings me to my third text: 1 John 3:2. ‘Beloved, we are God’s children now and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he appears, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ We don’t know in any detail what we shall be in the last day, but we do know that we will be like Christ. There is really no need for us to know any more than this. We are content with the glorious truth that we will be with Christ, like Christ, for ever.
Here are three perspectives – past, present and future. All of them are pointing in the same direction: there is God’s eternal purpose, we have been predestined; there is God’s historical purpose, we are being changed, transformed by the Holy Spirit; and there is God’s final or eschatalogical purpose, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All three, the eternal, the historical and the eschatalogical, combine towards the same end of Christlikeness. This, I suggest, is the purpose of God for the people of God. That is the biblical basis for becoming like Christ: it is the purpose of God for the people of God.
I want to move on to illustrate this truth with a number of New Testament examples. First, I think it is important for us to make a general statement, as the apostle John does in 1 John 2:6: ‘he who says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way as he walked.’ In other words, if we claim to be a Christian, we must be Christlike. Here is the first New Testament example: we are to be like Christ in his Incarnation.
Some of you may immediately recoil in horror from such an idea. Surely, you will say to me, the Incarnation was an altogether unique event and cannot possibly be imitated in any way? My answer to that question is yes and no. Yes, it was unique, in the sense that the Son of God took our humanity to himself in Jesus of Nazareth, once and for all and forever, never to be repeated. That is true. But there is another sense in which the Incarnation was not unique: the amazing grace of God in the Incarnation of Christ is to be followed by all of us. The Incarnation, in that sense, was not unique but universal. We are all called to follow the example of His great humility in coming down from heaven to earth. So Paul could write in Philippians 2:5-8: ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God some thing to be grasped for his own selfish enjoyment, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.’ We are to be like Christ in his Incarnation in the amazing self-humbling which lies behind the Incarnation.
Secondly, we are to be like Christ in His service. We move on now from his Incarnation to His life of service; from His birth to His life, from the beginning to the end. Let me invite you to come with me to the upper room where Jesus spent his last evening with His disciples, recorded in John’s gospel chapter 13: ‘He took off his outer garments, he tied a towel round him, he poured water into a basin and washed his disciples’ feet. When he had finished, he resumed his place and said, “If then I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example’ – notice the word – ‘ that you should do as I have done to you.’
Some Christians take Jesus’ command literally and have a foot-washing ceremony in their Lord’s Supper once a month or on Maundy Thursday – and they may be right to do it. But I think most of us transpose Jesus’ command culturally: that is just as Jesus performed what in His culture was the work of a slave, so we in our cultures must regard no task too menial or degrading to undertake for each other.
Thirdly, we are to be like Christ in His love. I think particularly now of Ephesians 5:2 – ‘walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.’ Notice that the text is in two parts. The first part is walk in love, an injunction that all our behaviour should be characterised by love, but the second part of the verse says that He gave Himself for us, which is not a continuous thing but an aorist, a past tense, a clear reference to the cross. Paul is urging us to be like Christ in his death, to love with self-giving Calvary love. Notice what is developing: Paul is urging us to be like the Christ of the Incarnation, to be like the Christ of the foot washing and to be like the Christ of the cross. These three events of the life of Christ indicate clearly what Christlikeness means in practice.
Fourthly, we are to be like Christ in His patient endurance. In this next example we consider not the teaching of Paul but of Peter. Every chapter of the first letter of Peter contains an allusion to our suffering like Christ, for the background to the letter is the beginnings of persecution. In chapter 2 of 1 Peter in particular, Peter urges Christian slaves, if punished unjustly, to bear it and not to repay evil for evil. For, Peter goes on, you and we have been called to this because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example – there is that word again – so that we may follow in His steps. This call to Christlikeness in suffering unjustly may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increases
in many cultures in the world today.
My fifth and last example from the New Testament is that we are to be like Christ in His mission. Having looked at the teaching of Paul and Peter, we come now to the teaching of Jesus recorded by John. In John 20:21, in prayer, Jesus said ‘As you, Father, have sent me into the world, so I send them into the world’ – that is us. And in his commissioning in John 17 he says ‘As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you.’ These words are immensely significant. This is not just the Johannine version of the Great Commission but it also an instruction that their mission in the world was to resemble Christ’s mission. In what respect? The key words in these texts are ’sent into the world’. As Christ had entered our world, so we are to enter other people’s worlds. It was eloquently explained by Archbishop Michael Ramsey some years ago: ‘We state and commend the faith only in so far as we go out and put ourselves with loving sympathy inside the doubts of the doubters, the questions of the questioners and the loneliness of those who have lost the way.’
This entering into other people’s worlds is exactly what we mean by incarnational evangelism. All authentic mission is incarnational mission. We are to be like Christ in his mission. These are the five main ways in which we are to be Christlike: in His Incarnation, in His service, in His love, in His endurance and in His mission.
Very briefly, I want to give you three practical consequences of Christlikeness.
Firstly, Christlikeness and the mystery of suffering. Suffering is a huge subject in itself and there are many ways in which Christians try to understand it. One way stands out: that suffering is part of God’s process of making us like Christ. Whether we suffer from a disappointment, a frustration or some other painful tragedy, we need to try to see this in the light of Romans 8:28-29. According to Romans 8:28, God is always working for the good of his people, and according to Romans 8:29, this good purpose is to make us like Christ.
Secondly, Christlikeness and the challenge of evangelism. Why is it, you must have asked, as I have, that in many situations our evangelistic efforts are often fraught with failure? Several reasons may be given and I do not want to over-simplify but one main reason is that we don’t look like the Christ we are proclaiming. John Poulton, who has written about this in a perceptive little book entitled A today sort of evangelism, wrote this:
‘The most effective preaching comes from those who embody the things they are saying. They are their message. Christians need to look like what they are talking about. It is people who communicate primarily, not words or ideas. Authenticity gets across. deep down in side people, what communicates now is basically personal authenticity.’
That is Christlikeness. Let me give you another example. There was a Hindu professor in India who once identified one of his students as a Christian and said to him: ‘If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow.’ I think India would be at their feet today if we Christians lived like Christ. From the Islamic world, the Reverend Iskandar Jadeed, a former Arab Muslim, has said ‘If all Christians were Christians – that is, Christlike – there would be no more Islam today.’
That brings me to my third point – Christlikeness and the indwelling of the Spirit. I have spoken much tonight about Christlikeness but is it attainable? In our own strength it is clearly not attainable but God has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to change us from within. William Temple, Archbishop in the 1940s, used to illustrate this point from Shakespeare:
‘It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it – I can’t. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it – I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like this. And if the Spirit could come into me, then I could live a life like His.’
So I conclude, as a brief summary of what we have tried to say to one another: God’s purpose is to make us like Christ. God’s way to make us like Christ is to fill us with his Spirit. In other words, it is a Trinitarian conclusion, concerning the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Posted by latimer at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
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)
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)
August 31, 2007
US Anglicans join Kenyan Church
Kenya's Anglican Church has consecrated two US bishops in a move likely to deepen a bitter row over homosexuality.
US Anglicans join Kenyan Church
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6970093.stm
Kenya's Anglican Church has consecrated two US bishops in a move likely to deepen a bitter row over homosexuality.
Bill Murdoch, of Massachusetts, and Bill Atwood, of Texas, will be answerable to the Kenyan Church, although they will serve in the US.
They left the US branch of the Anglican Church - the Episcopal Church - after it consecrated an openly gay bishop.
There are growing tensions within the Anglican denomination around the world, mainly over the issue of homosexuality.
Strong opposition
The two Americans were consecrated at a service at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi by Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi.
They vowed to "serve the international interests of the Anglican Church of Kenya, to serve clergy and congregations in North America under the Kenyan jurisdiction".
The ceremony was watched by a huge congregation of Kenyans, by archbishops and bishops from across Africa, and by the men's friends and supporters from the US.
"We need to love them [gay people], we need to preach to them, but not to make them lay readers, pastors, bishops" Archbishop Nzimbi
Earlier, Archbishop Nzimbi said the consecration was not intended to widen the gulf in the church, but was a Christian response to a plea for help and pastoral care from Anglicans in the United States.
Gay people, he said, did not have a place as leaders in the Anglican communion.
"We need to love them, we need to preach to them, but not to make them lay readers, pastors, bishops," he said.
African authority
Last year two US churches, unhappy with the Episcopal Church's stance on homosexuality, voted to place themselves under the authority of the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria.
Much of the Anglican Church in Africa is conservative and deeply opposed to the ordination of gay priests.
In February, Anglican bishops meeting in Tanzania issued an ultimatum to the American church, demanding an end to the appointment of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex couples.
US bishops have until 30 September to respond.
Meanwhile, the Episcopal diocese of Chicago on Tuesday included a lesbian priest among five nominees for bishop.
Posted by latimer at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
Lesbian priest among nominees for Episcopal bishop
The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago included an openly lesbian priest [The Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, who has a female partner] among five nominees for bishop Tuesday, as fellow Anglicans demand that the church bar gay bishops.
Lesbian priest among nominees for Episcopal bishop
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago included an openly lesbian priest among five nominees for bishop Tuesday, as fellow Anglicans demand that the church bar gay bishops.
The Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, who has a female partner, will be on the November 10 ballot.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/08/28/episcopal.bishop.ap/index.html
Posted by latimer at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
July 30, 2007
John Stott Ends Public Ministry with Call for Christ-Like Efforts
The Rev. Dr. John Stott concluded his final public engagement this past week, asking evangelical Christians in England, "What is God's purpose for his people?”
John Stott Ends Public Ministry with Call for Christ-Like Efforts
The Rev. Dr. John Stott concluded his final public engagement this past week, asking evangelical Christians in England, "What is God's purpose for his people?”
Sun, Jul. 22, 2007 Posted: 13:27:26 PM EST
www.christianpost.com/pages/print.htm?aid=28528
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rev. Dr. John Stott concluded his final public engagement this past week, asking evangelical Christians in England, "What is God's purpose for his people?”
Giving his last major address before retiring from public ministry, the man whom many regard as one of the most celebrated evangelists of the modern era told the crowd at this year’s annual convention in Keswick, England: “I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth.
“God wants His people to become like Christ,” Stott said, as he was greeted with a standing ovation. “Christ-likeness is the will of God for the people of God.”
Stott, who has been called by the Rev. Billy Graham as “the most respected clergyman in the world today,” spoke Wednesday night as his last speaking engagement before he is to retire from public ministry at the age of 87, moving to a retirement community for Anglican clergy.
His decision in April was made “with the strong belief that it is God’s provision for him at this stage.”
Building his sermon on three texts – Romans 8:29, 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 1 John 3:2 – Stott affirmed Wednesday night that “if we claim to be a Christian, we must be Christ-like.”
He went on to stress the five main examples in the New Testament of how Christians should seek to imitate Christ.
“We are to be like Christ in his Incarnation,” he said. “It was unique, in the sense that the Son of God took our humanity to himself in Jesus of Nazareth, but the amazing grace of God in the Incarnation of Christ is to be followed by all of us. We are to be like Christ in his Incarnation in the amazing self-humbling which lies behind the Incarnation.”
Stott warned his audience that being Christ-like in “patient endurance...may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increases in many cultures.”
The Anglican evangelist urged believers “enter other people's worlds …. [a]s Christ had entered our world.”
"This entering into other people's worlds is exactly what we mean by incarnational evangelism. All authentic mission is incarnational mission,” he said.
“Why is it, you must have asked, as I have, that in many situations our evangelistic efforts are often fraught with failure?” Stott continued. ”[O]ne main reason is that we don't look like the Christ we are proclaiming.”
Explaining his comments, Stott referred to a “perceptive little book” by John Poulton, entitled “A Today Sort of Evangelism.”
“The most effective preaching comes from those who embody the things they are saying,” Stott cited from the book. “They are their message. Christians need to look like what they are talking about. It is people who communicate primarily, not words or ideas. Authenticity gets across. Deep down inside people, what communicates now is basically personal authenticity.”
To illustrate the impact that a Christ-like church could have on the world, Stott noted the words of non-Christians such as a Hindu professor in India who said one of his Christian students: ”If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow.“
From the Islamic world, Stott noted the words of the Rev. Iskandar Jadeed, a former Arab Muslim, who said: “If all Christians were Christians – that is, Christ-like – there would be no more Islam today.”'
Rallying a captivated congregation, Stott asked the question: “Is Christ-likeness attainable?”
He concluded: “In our own strength it is clearly not attainable but God has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to change us from within ... God's way to make us like Christ is to fill us with His Spirit.”
Commenting on the evening, Keswick Convention Council Trustee and preacher Jonathan Lamb said: “He may be known as one of the greatest Christian leaders of the 20th century, but few of us could remain unmoved by the sight of a stopped figure, now quietly spoken, calling us to become more like Jesus Christ.
“Emotions were high amongst the thousands present, each with memories of the power and clarity of John Stott's writing and preaching, and thankful for a life of godliness, integrity and humility. How fitting that his final visit to Keswick should deliberately point to the Lord Jesus, whom he has served so faithfully.”
Stott, who served as chaplain to the Queen from 1959 to 1991, has now officially retired from public ministry and returns to a retirement community for Anglican clergy in the south of England, which his representatives have said will be able to provide more fully for his present and future needs.
Daniel Blake
Christian Post Correspondent
Posted by latimer at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
This is a critical time - A Statement from the Global South Steering Committee
This is a critical time - A Statement from the Global South Steering Committee
Global South Steering Committee
London, July 16-18, 2007
1. We are grateful for the prayers and witness of the millions of Anglicans around the world who live out their Christian faith in complex and sometimes hostile situations. Their lives and witness offer hope to a world that is in desperate need and we have been greatly encouraged by their testimony. Their commitment to the ‘faith once and for all delivered to the saints’ deepens our determination to stay true to the biblical revelation and our historic tradition.
2. We reaffirm our dedication to the vision of the church that has a passion to reach all those who have not yet come to a saving knowledge of Christ and one that is truly good news for the poor and freedom for those who are oppressed. We are saddened that the actions of a small part of our Communion family have caused such division, confusion and pain and we are grieved that our witness to the oneness of Christ and his Church has been sorely compromised.
3. We in the Global South remain committed to the underlying principles and recommendations of the Windsor Report and the various Communiqués that we have issued, especially the statement that was produced during the most recent Primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam. It was the result of enormous effort and heart-felt prayer and we remain convinced that it offers the best way forward for our beloved Communion. In particular, we are hopeful that the development and endorsement of an Anglican Covenant will help us move past this debilitating season into a new focus of growth and missionary zeal.
4. We were distressed by the initial response of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church USA issued on March 20th, 2007, reaffirmed by the Executive Council on June 14th, 2007, in which they rejected the underlying principles and requests of the Dar es Salaam Communiqué. We urge them, once again, to reconsider their position because it is their rejection of the clear teaching of the Church and their continuing intransigence that have divided the Church and has brought our beloved Communion to the breaking point. Without heartfelt repentance and genuine change there can be no restoration of the communion that we all earnestly desire and which is our Lord’s clear intent.
5. We have also been pained to hear of the continuing and growing resort to civil litigation by The Episcopal Church against congregations and individuals which wish to remain Anglican but are unable to do so within TEC. This is in defiance of the urgent plea agreed to by all of the Primates in the Dar es Salaam Communiqué. This approach to use power and coercion to resolve our current dispute is both enormously costly and doomed to failure and again, we urge the immediate suspension of all such activities and a return to biblical practices of prayer, reconciliation and mediation.
6. Because of the categorical rejection of the unanimously agreed Pastoral Scheme and the urgent needs of the growing number of congregations now linked to various Provinces in the Global South, we have had no choice but to provide additional episcopal oversight from the concerned Provinces. We believe that failure to do so would have resulted in many individuals and congregations lost to the Anglican Communion. The rejection of the proposed Pastoral Scheme has also had a profound impact on those dioceses that had requested alternative primatial oversight. We are aware that they are exploring various ways in which they can maintain their Anglican identity apart from The Episcopal Church. We are encouraged by this and also that they are working together within the Common Cause Partnership to avoid unnecessary fragmentation. We recognize that this is a temporary measure and look forward to the time when it is either no longer necessary or they are all part of a new ecclesiastical structure in the USA.
7. We are aware of the anticipated visit by the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and the ACC to the September meeting of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church USA. Sadly we are convinced that this decision, made jointly by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chair of the ACC, undermines the integrity of the Dar es Salaam Communiqué. We believe that the Primates Meeting, which initiated the request to the TEC House of Bishops, must make any determination as to the adequacy of their response. We strongly urge the scheduling of a Primates’ Meeting for this purpose at the earliest possible moment.
8. We have also noted the decisions of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and are dismayed by their unilateral declaration that ’same-sex blessing is not core doctrine’. While we were grateful for the temporary restraint shown in not proceeding with any further authorization, we have observed that a number of the bishops are continuing to defy the recommendations of the Windsor process. We are exploring the possibility of additional pastoral provisions for those who want to remain faithful to Communion teaching and have been affected by the continuing actions of their own bishops.
9. We are concerned for the future of our Communion as a truly global fellowship and our witness before the world as a respected ecclesial family within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. In regards to the proposed Lambeth Conference in 2008, we are concerned that the publicly stated expectations for participation have changed its character and function. It is now difficult to see it either as an instrument of unity or communion. At a time when the world needs a vision of reconciliation and unity, our failure to restore the ‘torn fabric’ of our Communion threatens to show the world a contrary example.
10. We remain committed to the convictions expressed in the CAPA report “The Road to Lambeth” and urge immediate reconsideration of the current Lambeth plans. It is impossible for us to see how, without discipline in the Communion and without the reconciliation that we urge, we can participate in the proposed conference; to be present but unable to participate in sacramental fellowship would all the more painfully demonstrate our brokenness. The polarization surrounding the Lambeth meeting has been exacerbated because we are also unable to take part in an event from which a number of our own bishops have been arbitrarily excluded while those whose actions have precipitated our current crisis are included.
11. We have received requests from around the Communion to call a gathering of Anglican Communion leaders. We expect to call a Fourth Global South Encounter to bring together faithful Anglican leaders across the Communion to renew our focus on the apostolic faith and our common mission.
12. This is a critical time for the Anglican Communion and one that will shape our future for many years to come. We are praying for all those in leadership that the decisions made and the actions taken will bring glory to God and encouragement to all God’s people. We are hopeful for the future because our confidence is not in ourselves but in Jesus the Christ who gave his life that we might have life. (see John 10:10)
Posted by latimer at 08:59 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)
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)
April 19, 2007
++Rowan Willians: Conservatives Misread Scripture on Homosexuality
Williams commented that he found "unacceptable a draft covenant presented to the senior archbishops, or primates, that would allow the communion to boot out member churches deemed to have stepped out of line doctrinally on issues such as sexuality."
Anglican Head: Conservatives Misread Scripture on Homosexuality
www.christianpost.com/article/20070418/26946_Anglican_Head:_Scripture_on_Homosexuality_Does_Not_Help_Conservative,_Liberal_Cases.htm
Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
Wed, Apr. 18 2007 12:34 PM ET
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told a group of theological students that the scriptural text conservatives use to argue against homosexuality is misread.
The Anglican spiritual leader was speaking in Toronto on Monday when he examined the practice of reading the Bible. He said the primary point of the most important single text in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality – for the majority of modern readers – is not about homosexuality. Instead, it's meant to warn Christians not to be self-righteous when they see others fall into sin.
In the first chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul lists same-sex relationships as "unnatural" relations along with other moral depravities of mankind. The text is "famously" used by conservative Christians to back their argument against homosexuality. But Williams said Paul's rhetorical gambit is not helpful to the conservative "who has been up to this point happily identifying with Paul's castigation of someone else."
"Paul is making a primary point not about homosexuality but about the delusions of the supposedly law-abiding," he stated, according to the Anglican Church of Canada.
William's comments, however, does not favor either side. He stressed the text is "not helpful for the liberal case either since Paul's point is that everyone "in his imagined readership" agrees in thinking same-sex relations is as obviously as immoral as idol-worship.
The 77-million Anglican Communion is currently wracked by debate over homosexuality and near breaking point. Anglican primates (leaders) issued a Sept. 30 deadline for the Episcopal Church to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize the blessing of same-sex unions. The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003.
Williams stressed that his comments on Monday "does nothing to settle the exegetical questions fiercely debated at the moment." Instead he was explaining a strictly theological reading of Scripture.
"Take Scripture out of this context of the invitation to sit at table with Jesus and to be incorporated into his labor and suffering for the Kingdom, and you will be treating Scripture as either simply an inspired supernatural guide for individual conduct or a piece of detached historical record – the typical exaggerations of Biblicist and liberal approaches respectively," he said.
The Anglican head warned that there is a division in the communion "and it's getting deeper and more bitter," according to The Washington Post. "If the Anglican Church divides, everyone will lose."
As the leader of the Anglican Communion, Williams said the main thing he can do "is try to maintain the level of credibility that allows him to get people around the table." He further stressed the importance of community in the Christian church.
The Anglican Communion is currently in the process of drafting an Anglican Covenant, intended to be a faith statement to foster unity among its churches. Williams commented that he found "unacceptable a draft covenant presented to the senior archbishops, or primates, that would allow the communion to boot out member churches deemed to have stepped out of line doctrinally on issues such as sexuality."
Williams announced on Monday that he intends to visit the United States in the fall in response to the invitation from the Episcopal House of Bishops.
Posted by latimer at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2007
Dialogue with people of other faiths in New Zealand
By Rev Dr Bob Robinson: The recently issued ‘National Statement on Religious Diversity’ concludes with a call for New Zealand’s faith communities “to promote mutual respect and understanding” and to “build and maintain positive relationships with each other.” This is an ideal opportunity to learn about this issue and dialogue with other Christians about it.
Dialogue with people of other faiths in New Zealand
Written by Bob Robinson
Are there persuasive biblical and theological reasons for it?
The recently issued ‘National Statement on Religious Diversity’ concludes with a call for New Zealand’s faith communities “to promote mutual respect and understanding” and to “build and maintain positive relationships with each other.” Theologically conservative Christians are, however, little interested in inter-religious dialogue. They are either indifferent to such dialogue or are even found – because of belief in the message of the Bible, especially its message about the uniqueness and finality of Christ – holding negative views about the religions, and with no time or taste for dialogue. Such Christians seem to prefer monologue to dialogue, especially in public. Now there is quasi-official pressure (in the form of this ‘National Statement,’ and presumably for pragmatic reasons such as the avoidance of social conflict) for religions to be less confrontational and more accommodating in their attitudes towards each another. And, with varying degrees of thoughtfulness, exasperation and factual knowledge, there is the often-heard question from members of the public, “Why can’t the religions get along better and stop their arguing and fighting?”
How should NZ Christians respond to such appeals to ‘get along better’ and to ‘start talking to one another’? In this writer’s experience some good reasons can be advanced to help Christians at least understand or consider dialogue and without compromising the Christocentric faith that is vital to their Christian self-understanding. In fact, these reasons could be summed up in the following suggestions and affirmations taken from the Bible and from some theological and pragmatic reasons and examples.
1. Remember our own ‘alien’ status
In the first five books of the Bible there are more than fifty references to ‘aliens’ or ‘strangers’ and how the people of God are to treat them (all followers of ‘pagan’ religions, of course) with respect and even a generous welcome. The reason: because you too were once aliens and strangers; you remember what it is like to feel strange and culture-shocked and for that very reason you are to be generous and hospitable. The label ‘alien’ or ‘foreigner’ is then repeated in the New Testament (eg 1 Peter 2.11) and applied to us as Christians – which implies that we too should treat newcomers with welcoming respect.
2. Notice that the Bible is more generous than we sometimes recall
Christians are usually well aware of the Bible’s teaching about the realities of sin and idolatry and about the unique revelation and final salvation found in Christ alone. But they often seem unaware that alongside this stream runs another that offers a rather more positive assessment of the religions. This stream points out that all humanity is made in God’s image and all human beings are the beneficiaries of God’s providential faithfulness and immense love. God’s creation and care of the whole universe (Gen 1), God’s universal presence in every corner of reality (Ps 139), God’s universally present wisdom working within human personalities and structures (Prov 8; Rom 2), God’s covenant through Noah with the entire human family (Gen 9) – all these impact on every single person in the world. There is a ‘general revelation’ available to all (God not having left himself without a witness anywhere: Acts 14.17; see also Rom 1 and Acts chapters 10 and 17) and some non-Israelite believers in the living God acknowledge and are known by him (Melchizedek (Gen 14), Jethro (Exod 18), Ruth, Naaman, the Ninevites, Job and others). In other words, even in the Bible itself there is far more recognition of universal or general revelation than conservative Christians are usually able or willing to admit. That is, there is some real knowledge of God among those who cannot be called God’s people in the Biblical (meaning covenantal) sense. From the New Testament as well one could argue (along with the early church) for some positive implications of Logos theology, including the statement in John 1.9a that describes Christ as the true light that enlightens / shines upon everyone. And attention should also be given to Acts 10 (Cornelius), eg verses 34f and Paul’s statements in Acts 17.22-31 (especially 26f) that God has planted the human search for God within all people. It is also God’s plan to re-create and restore all of creation (1 Cor 15:22-28; Eph 1:9f; Phil 1:10f). So, from this cosmic – universal – inclusive stream a case can be made for religion as including a search, even a divinely inspired search for God. Searching is not the same as finding, of course; but think of the dialogue opportunities if and when we realise that our friends of other faiths might be on some kind of God-inspired search!
3. Note that ‘dialogue’ is a Biblical idea
There are a number of clear biblical precedents for at least some kinds of dialogue. The Bible has many examples of genuine conversations in which the prophets, Jesus, Paul and even God communicate in ways that can be called dialogue in the sense of communication that moves well beyond monologue and confrontation. This is what Jesus is reported as doing in his question and answer sessions with his contemporaries, not least in the portrayal of his encounters with the relatively few non-Jewish people that he met (such as the Samaritan woman and the Syro-Phoenician woman) – as we shall see. If the Bible affirms dialogue, so should we!
4. Note further that ‘dialogue’ is even a Biblical word
In the Septuagint ( the Greek version of the Old Testament), and in the New Testament we find: dialegomai (to converse, confer), dialogizomai (to reflect on, discuss), dialogismos (consideration, discussion) which makes clear that dialogue certainly has some place in the biblical repertoire – alongside communication understood as monologue or proclamation. Some kind of ‘dialogue’ is what Paul is reported as doing in his encounters with both Jews and gentiles. In fact, the Greek verbs (from which the word ‘dialogue’ is derived) are used some ten times in the New Testament (mainly in Acts 17-24, but also elsewhere) in the sense of ponder, consider, converse, discuss or argue. For example:
“Jesus dialogued with them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?’” (Luke 24:38)
“As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he dialogued with them from the Scriptures.” (Acts 17:2)
See also examples from Athens (Acts 17:7), Corinth (Acts 18:4), Ephesus (Acts 18:19; 19: 8f; 20:7, 9), in court (Acts 24:12, 25).
Care must be taken not to exaggerate the place of dialogue as a means of communicating the Gospel in the NT. But at the same time, we can question the assumption that proclamation - in the sense of monologue - is the only Biblically-based or Biblically-approved means of communication.
5. Consider the personal example of Jesus
It is not certain whether Jesus actually met few or many people of other religions; after all, he rarely moved beyond the ancient borders of Israel. But based on an understanding of the demographics of the Israel of his time, there is as one scholar puts it, “every possibility that Jesus was in frequent contact with non-Jews …. In Jerusalem, Judea, and the countryside surrounding the Sea of Galilee, it would be almost impossible for him to avoid them.” It is true that these encounters as recorded in the Gospels are few in number: for example, the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7.24-30 // Matt 15.21-28), the centurion whose servant was healed (Matt 8.5-12 // Luke 7.1-10). But each of them is significant because of the way in which they do involve real dialogue and even appear to have Jesus changing his mind or, at least, stretching the traditional understanding of the possibility and place of gentiles within the growing Kingdom.
There are also teaching passages in the Gospels that seem to be relevant. There are, for example, parables in which Jesus refers to gentile participation in the Kingdom of God (Mark 4.30-32; Matthew 22.1-14; 25.31-36; Luke 11.29-32). There are also occasions on which Jesus praises the faith of pagan gentiles and urges his Jewish hearers to learn from them. Such gentile faith seems commendatory to Jesus – which is why a contemporary evangelical scholar can write of the examples in Luke 4, and that of the centurion whose servant is healed, that “the Gospel writers imply that we Christians can also learn from these pagans.” And, over against the attitude and actions of a priest and a Levite, Jesus also commends the attitude and the actions of the ‘good Samaritan’ (Luke 10) a phrase that is a virtual oxymoron in the minds of his hearers. Jesus also points out that it is “foreigner” - a Samaritan - who was the only leper among the ten who was “found to return and give praise to God” (Luke 17.18). Again, if Jesus engaged in genuine dialogue, so should his followers too.
6. Weigh the theological impact of Jesus’ example
Among the characteristics of these dialogue-based encounters the following might be noted as relevant.
(a) Jesus is surprised and affirms the faith of the gentiles in most of the stories examined – and this is in addition to stories where other gentiles exercise faith (eg the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5).
(b) An eschatological note is sounded, especially in the teaching passages that often follow the encounters. That is, the new age has begun in Jesus – and the gentile response is proof of this! For example, immediately after the healing of the centurion’s servant and Jesus’ commendation of the centurion’s faith, Jesus announces that “Many will come from the East and the West to feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt 8.11f). The discussion with the Samaritan woman clearly sounds an eschatological note and the arrival of the Greeks in John 12 prompts Jesus to say that “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12.23). This same eschatological note is also heard in the Temple cleansing (which is in itself a highly significant challenge to Jewish nationalism) where, according to Mark 11, Jesus echoes the Isaianic hope that God’s house “shall be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56.7). Also relevant is the parable of the great banquet (Matt 22.1-14; Luke 14.15-24).
(c) But at the same time – and in sharp contrast with most of the Jewish belief of his time – this is an eschatology without vengeance on gentiles as the further teaching of Jesus makes clear, for example in the highly significant Nazareth sermon in Luke 4.
(d) The disciples are surprised (as well as being made anxious) by the gentile response.
(e) The presence of the Kingdom is affirmed in these encounters between Jesus and the gentiles. As one writer points out, “the miracles worked by Jesus for ‘foreigners’ have the very same meaning that he gives to all of his other miracles. They mean that the Reign of God is already present and at work (cf. Mt 11.4-6; Lk 4.16-22; Mt 12.25-28).”
(f) And this leads to an even more profound point: Jesus – the fully human as well as the truly divine Son – does seem to learn from his encounters. This is the Christ who had “made himself nothing” (literally: ‘emptied’ himself (Phil 2.7)) who learns what he previously did not know in his humanity (cf Luke 2.52; and Heb 5.8).
It is not unreasonable to apply the example of Christ to our situation today: if Jesus is found to enter into genuine dialogue from which he learns, then so might his followers today.
7. Dialogue will help understanding and reduce tension
The simplest reason for entering into dialogue is the need to understand clearly why others believe and act in the ways they do, and to offer explanations in turn. This enables misunderstandings to be removed and positive understanding to be deepened. (In fact, it includes what someone has called “the art of avoiding misunderstanding.”) Division and opposition between religious communities often seem to be an unnecessary burden to add to a nation (or world) already and painfully divided by other issues. Interreligious understanding is especially important where ignorance, social isolation and prejudice can and do breed misunderstanding, fear and alienation – and dialogue can help overcome these. At the very least, the way of dialogue seems to offer a means towards a more positive coexistence in place of the self contented passivity or insecure suspicion that can be found in religious communities. No compromise is entailed in allowing and even promoting such increased understanding.
8. Common social concern is a form of dialogue
When urgent human needs are tackled together by Christians and others rather than separately this might be called a kind of ‘dialogue in action.’ Such dialogue that arises out of mutually agreed social concerns enables Christians to meet with their neighbours as national citizens and not simply as members of different religious groups. Such action adds a practical and visible dimension to a dialogue which may otherwise become both empty and unrewarding if attempts are made to confine it to discussion of religious matters alone. Whereas religion might separate, common action for social justice might unite in some way (however limited and temporary that might be). Again, no compromise is implied in allowing and even promoting such shared social concern (whether it’s helping refuges with housing or homework or any other need) - and, as agencies such as World Vision have found, people never forget those who help them in their times of need.
9. Common humanity and the ideal of community are reasons for dialogue
Another starting point for dialogue can be the common humanity that is shared by people of different faiths. Common humanity, not common religion or religious experience, is the common denominator in the meeting of people of different faiths. This is a basis for dialogue that may be of particular interest or appeal to those Christians who hesitate to pursue the inter-faith encounter because of a distaste for the seemingly inevitable interreligious disputations that so quickly arise. The Christian appeal to a common humanity has a theological as well as a pragmatic basis. For example, there are the Biblical statements about humanity made in the image of God (Genesis 1.26a, 27a) and about the unity of humankind (Acts 17.26a). The idea of a shared and inter-dependent humanity also points to the distinctly personal basis of dialogue in which meetings are not meetings between, say, Christianity and Islam, or even between representatives of Christianity and Islam but, rather, an encounter of human beings - of individual Christians and individual Muslims. Dialogue is, in fact, the movement from thinking and talking about ‘them’ to thinking and talking in some way about ‘us’. This need not imply a unity between religions; perhaps the notion of potential harmony – which is less static and abstract and implies the continuing recognition of religious differences – may be a better basis for dialogue.
10. Dialogue can become a means of mission
Some have seen dialogue as a means of implementing the Christian mission in general including evangelism. Such dialogue will, of course, raise concerns for those who might be unhappy to be seen as the targets of Christian missionary interest but Christians have always wanted to share their faith and every example of such witnessing to gentiles in the NT involves dialogue. This is not the only reason for dialogue – as this paper has been arguing. But it is significant that two of the three opening paragraphs of the ‘National Statement on Religious Diversity’ strongly affirm the past and present significance of Christianity in NZ and so people of other faith will not be surprised to meet vocal and witnessing Christians. In fact, they are usually surprised not to meet more of us – and they are invariably (in this writer’s experience) open to talking about spiritual issues and even to being prayed with. Dialogue will confirm that this is true!
11. Consider some notable personal examples
In this writer’s experience, it can also be helpful and reassuring to some Christians to consider a few actual lived-out examples of the inter-religious encounter. Two examples from the meeting of Christians and Hindus come to mind. There is, for example, Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889 1929) who is said to be “perhaps the most famous Indian Christian who has yet lived, and whose influence has been widespread and prolonged.” He combined a deeply Christ-centred faith with a quite positive and creative adaptation and use of Hindu terminology. After his dramatic conversion, his life’s work was to “offer the water of life in an Indian cup.” Books, films and videos are available about this remarkable Christian. Then there is the American missionary, E Stanley Jones (1884 1973) who spoke and wrote widely on ‘The Indian Christ’ and whose ‘Round Table’ conferences enabled an unprecedented series of meetings of people of different faiths (and some of his highly readable books are still in print). The encounter between Hinduism and Christianity in these two examples can continue to inspire and challenge. They might be seen as examples of a commitment to one’s own faith that does not require the denigrating of other faiths. In a postmodern context a narrative retelling of these lived examples of a fruitful and intentional encounter across religious boundaries may be helpfully reassuring – and even inspiring – to some. Readers may know of other examples, including some notable Kiwi stories, about missionaries and others who have live on the boundaries.
12. Loving friendship is the usual (and best) place to start
Sustained ordinary friendship is both a means of and one of many conditions for fruitful dialogue. One of the simplest means of healing suspicions between religions is to take the simple step of forming and cultivating genuine friendships. Whenever there is co-operative endeavour for the common good, or joint participation in gatherings and organizations, or respectful attendance at one another’s weddings or funerals, or a serious attempt to understand (or even study in some way) the beliefs of another, then a kind of dialogue (perhaps what might be called an ‘interior’ or silent dialogue) is occurring. In other words, the most common forms of interreligious encounter are, then, the most prosaic: the everyday meetings and the often unavoidable cultural immersions of life of which conversation itself is perhaps the most basic. Too often inter-faith discussion is confined to the meeting of what might be called the elite and articulate traditions of the faiths. At least from a Christian perspective, attention is well drawn to the potential value of the simple but important casual encounters of everyday life and the importance of preparing members of congregations to make sensitive use of them in fostering understanding and co-operation when that is possible. Moreover, to start with friendship is to start with the common humanity that all people share – and not with the religious beliefs that, if begun with, may lead to disagreement.
Another way of understanding dialogue is to see it as a fruit of the Gospel. Thoughtful friendship is a witness to the love of Christ, and an expression of Christian neighbourliness. God loves every person in the world and that includes each of our neighbours. In fact, alongside love of God, this is the next great commandment according to Jesus: that we love our neighbours as ourselves. We can’t be said to love our neighbours if we don’t talk with them – and that’s dialogue!
Conclusion
Despite some problems, there are substantial reasons why Christians should enter into dialogue with others. The reasons offered are numerous. Beginning with the Bible, we have noted the use of the ‘dialogue’ word-group and the example of the apostle Paul. There is the perhaps surprisingly positive example of Jesus towards the Gentiles he met and spoke about. And then there are the pragmatic and theological reasons that have been discussed. Not all the reasons advanced will persuade all those who hesitate to engage in dialogue but, in this writer’s experience, at least some reluctant Christians are willing to consider dialogue on the basis of the biblical examples and the substantial theological and pragmatic reasons that can be given for a principled engagement with people of other faiths – reasons that do not compromise Christian beliefs about the uniqueness and finality of Christ but, in fact, build on his example.
Posted by latimer at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2007
TEAM: Three speakers put their local contexts into larger Communion's perspective
09.03.07 - Saying "our experience of the Anglican Communion is always local," the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, March 8 invited three participants in the Towards Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM) conference to connect their local contexts of mission to the entire Communion. Jenny Te Paa, the ahorangi or dean of Te Rau Kahikatea (College of St. John the Evangelist) in Auckland, New Zealand, told the conference about how she had been traveling throughout the Communion recently
TEAM: Three speakers put their local contexts into larger Communion's perspective
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
Thursday, March 08, 2007
www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_83214_ENG_HTM.htm
[Episcopal News Service] Saying "our experience of the Anglican Communion is always local," the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, March 8 invited three participants in the Towards Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM) conference to connect their local contexts of mission to the entire Communion.
Jenny Te Paa, the ahorangi or dean of Te Rau Kahikatea (College of St. John the Evangelist) in Auckland, New Zealand, told the conference about how she had been traveling throughout the Communion recently, talking to those who she called "ordinary, global Anglicans."
The first group she talked about was the theological students she has recently encountered both at her own college and those at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (the Episcopal seminary in Berkley, California) and at an ecumenical gathering in Montreal of Canadian seminarians. Those students always offer fresh insights -- if "often somewhat naïve."
Many asked her what to make of the fact that seven Primates refused to receive Communion during the recent Tanzania session of the Primates' Meeting because of the presence of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. She said that teachers and theologians sometimes have to admit that they have no understanding of events such as the "petulant politicizing" of a sacrament, a practice that she called "unconscionable."
At the recent United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) annual meeting in New York, Te Paa said the Anglican delegation prayed together each day for "peace among our people" and for the girls of the world, and they engaged in their own listening process.
They also felt the need to express their concern about how the mission of the church is being affected by distractions like the "incomprehensible" practice of boycotting Eucharist at the Primates' Meeting and the schemes of alternative primatial oversight, the reasons for which "are all but incomprehensible." So the delegation issued a statement "for the Church we love beyond calculation."
The third group Te Paa talked about was indigenous Anglicans who have been "largely polite and infinitely patient." She said that despite all that has been done to indigenous peoples, they have "exemplified what it is to be Christ-like."
In general, Te Paa said her conversations with Anglicans tell her that most people "are looking for an end to our squabbles over sexuality" so that everyone can be more focused on "transforming and deeply loving mission."
Abagail Nelson, vice president of programs for Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), said that ERD staffers see themselves as people who listen to those people like TEAM conference participants -- the people who work "where the road ends and the dirt paths begin."
In that listening, she said, "I continue to learn so much about faith" and its redemptive possibilities.
Nelson said ERD listens and then works to develop programs to support people in their work as they incarnate the church's mission. As an example she cited ERD's involvement in the NetsforLife initiative that in its current two-year Phase I has given away nearly a half million treated bed nets and trained 3,000 malaria-prevention agents.
"Everyone is being trained and training others," she said. "It's a vast underground network that's out there."
While there are other anti-malarial programs that give away bed nets, NetsforLife is among the few that includes training in malaria prevention. "Why didn't anyone ever tell us this before?" Nelson reported a young mother asking a NetsforLife worker.
"People don't use bed nets because they don't know what they're for," Nelson said, adding that lack of education is one of the kinds of chaos in which the malaria parasite thrives.
Nelson said that another important part of the NetsforLife program is the way it tracks its work and monitors its results. Those measurable results, like the benchmarks of progress built into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), make people in government and in institutions sit up and take notice
She praised and thanked mission workers whom she called the "quiet heroes in the hidden spaces living out the Gospel."
"As church partners, we will remain with you," she promised, so that everyone can see "how we can become positive globalization forces."
Bishop Munawar Rumalshah of Pakistan told the conference about the mission of reconciliation in his context, which he called "one of the most volatile regions in the world."
He began by telling a story about meeting with then-Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold just after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. During the visit he conveyed his sympathies and asked a "slightly rude question" about when the Episcopal Church had deliberately engaged the world of Islam. Rumalshah reported that Griswold reached over and patted his knee "perhaps saying, ‘my dear son, wait for the day.'"
Four years later a huge earthquake hit Pakistan and 40 percent of the area devastated is in his diocese, Rumalshah said. Diocesan staffers packed what little they had and dashed off to the ruined areas.
He and his staff knew that "this was a moment of truth when we of the church must be counted among the people," most of whom are not Christian.
The bishop said he got his answer about the Episcopal Church's involvement with the Islamic world when ERD "moved in like angels from above."
"God used a tiny church like ours to bring hope to millions of people," he said.
And fundamentalist members of Islam accepted help from Christians, Rumalshah said, recalling a visit to an Islamic area during one of their holidays when 300 men greeted him and his companions after evening prayers. Pointing to the cross on this chest, the bishop said, "this cross had never hugged 300 fundamentalists."
Later he returned to the area at Christmas and "they greeted the Christian family in a way in which we had never experienced before."
Rumalshah told the participants that the rise of suicide bombings has forced him to contemplate the bombers' belief that they hold the keys to the kingdom. He noted that the Arabic and Greek words for martyr both come from root words meaning "witness."
For some people -- both Muslims and Christians -- witnessing means dying, and for others it means serving God's people, he said. One of two "diametrically opposed, radically different paths have to be chosen," he said, contrasting Osama bin Laden and Mother Teresa.
Rumalshah said he preaches reconciliation "not just because it is fashionable" but because it is what we are called to do as Christians. "The embrace, the hug, the smelling of each other's sweat ... is what I believe the mission of reconciliation is about," he said.
The need for reconciliation applies to everyone, he said. "One day, President George Bush and Osama bin Laden must embrace each other and be reconciled."
Later in the day, Idaho Bishop Harry Bainbridge, who also serves on the ERD board of directors, hosted a conversation about best practices and shared experiences. He also invited the conference to view one DVD illustrating development stories form the provinces of the Anglican Communion and another about a visit to the Sudan by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.
More than 400 people from 30 of the Communion's 38 provinces are attending the March 7-14 TEAM conference to review the Communion's response to the MDGs and consider how the church can do more as one of the world's largest grassroots development networks. The TEAM conference is in part a follow up to the first-ever pan-Anglican conference on HIV/AIDS, which was hosted by Ndungane in Boksburg in 2001.
The conference is also meant to "encourage a prophetic articulation for an Anglican theology which supports witness and action for social justice."
More information about TEAM is available at the conference website.
-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.
Posted by latimer at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2007
2008 NZ General Synod & Hermeneutics Hui
Crunch time: The 2008 NZ General Synod is shaping as a decisive event for this church’s grappling with the Windsor Report and the issues it deals with.
The following is a report of some highlights of the meeting of the Standing Committee of the General Synod, which convened in Rotorua on February 27 and 28, 2007.
Crunch time: The 2008 General Synod is shaping as a decisive event for this church’s grappling with the Windsor Report and the issues it deals with. And if this week’s Rotorua meeting of the Standing Committee has anything to do with it, that General Synod debate will be as constructive and informed as possible.
The Standing Committee, which met on February 27 and 28 at the Kingsgate Hotel, heard a report from Archbishop Brown Turei about the recent Primates’ meeting in Tanzania. It then devoted much of its first morning to considering the ramifications of that meeting, and debating how best it could promote church discussion about the key developments to emerge from that meeting.
Those developments, of course, include the release of the much-anticipated draft covenant for the Anglican Communion – one of the key Windsor Recommendations – and the Primates’ Communiqué which, among other things, gives the Primates reading of the state of the wider communion’s relationship with The Episcopal Church.
The Standing Committee seemed satisfied with our own Province’s contribution to efforts to find a way out of the impasse triggered by Bishop Gene Robinson’s ordination. In particular, the members seemed pleased with the inclusion of clause 8 of the Primates’ communiqué – in which the Primates declare their commitment to what they’ve called: The Hermeneutics Project. That’s the brainchild of our own Archbishop David Moxon, whose proposal for this had been presented to the Primates by the Australia’s Philip Aspinall.
Archbishop David told the Standing Committee that he hoped such a study would “enrich and rationalize the debate about sexuality.” The outgoing General Secretary, Robin Nairn, was one who gave a thumbs-up to Archbishop David’s work on this. The committee seemed to feel that the particular value of the hermeneutics project was that it proposed stepping back and asking fundamental questions about how Anglicans use, read and understand the Bible in its entirety – rather than focusing first on specific texts about which there is contention.
The aim of the hermeneutics project is to seek a consensus – or at least to attempt to find a range of ways that are acceptable to most – for using, reading and understanding the Bible. If that emerges, commented one member, then the church has a new basis for actually debating what the specific texts mean.
The outcome of the Rotorua discussions? The 18 members of the Standing Committee (including our three Archbishops) have been formally requested to ask their episcopal units to pray about, debate and discuss the draft covenant and primates’ communiqué at their respective synods, and to report back to next May’s General Synod.
The Standing Committee was also brought up to speed on plans for our own Hui on Hermeneutics, which is to be held in Wellington on August 28, 29 and 30, at the Loaves and Fishes café attached to Wellington’s Cathedral.
All interested Anglicans are invited to take part, although they will have to meet their own expenses. Archbishop David said an agenda for the hui would be circulated as soon as its been prepared.
The Standing Committee heard, too, of other efforts to prepare for next year’s Windsor debate at General Synod: at a special meeting next week the Bishops will consider how they can best prepare for a fruitful and constructive debate.
And there were efforts too, to get traction for The Listening Process first advocated by Lambeth Resolution 10:1 in 1998, which committed the Provinces “to listen to the experience of homosexual persons” who are within the church.
The new General Secretary, Jackie Pearse, was asked to write to the bishops, inviting them to report to the November meeting of the Standing Committee on the progress their units have made, and the insights that have been gained from their own listening
FULL REPORT
Anglican Church - Media Office
March 3, 2007
The following is a report of some highlights of the meeting of the Standing Committee of the General Synod, which convened in Rotorua on February 27 and 28, 2007.
Crunch time: The 2008 General Synod is shaping as a decisive event for this church’s grappling with the Windsor Report and the issues it deals with.
And if this week’s Rotorua meeting of the Standing Committee has anything to do with it, that General Synod debate will be as constructive and informed as possible.
The Standing Committee, which met on February 27 and 28 at the Kingsgate Hotel, heard a report from Archbishop Brown Turei about the recent Primates’ meeting in Tanzania.
It then devoted much of its first morning to considering the ramifications of that meeting, and debating how best it could promote church discussion about the key developments to emerge from that meeting.
Those developments, of course, include the release of the much-anticipated draft covenant for the Anglican Communion – one of the key Windsor Recommendations – and the Primates’ Communiqué which, among other things, gives the Primates reading of the state of the wider communion’s relationship with The Episcopal Church.
The Standing Committee seemed satisfied with our own Province’s contribution to efforts to find a way out of the impasse triggered by Bishop Gene Robinson’s ordination.
In particular, the members seemed pleased with the inclusion of clause 8 of the Primates’ communiqué – in which the Primates declare their commitment to what they’ve called: The Hermeneutics Project.
That’s the brainchild of our own Archbishop David Moxon, whose proposal for this had been presented to the Primates by the Australia’s Philip Aspinall.
Archbishop David told the Standing Committee that he hoped such a study would “enrich and rationalize the debate about sexuality.”
The outgoing General Secretary, Robin Nairn, was one who gave a thumbs-up to Archbishop David’s work on this.
The committee seemed to feel that the particular value of the hermeneutics project was that it proposed stepping back and asking fundamental questions about how Anglicans use, read and understand the Bible in its entirety – rather than focusing first on specific texts about which there is contention.
The aim of the hermeneutics project is to seek a consensus – or at least to attempt to find a range of ways that are acceptable to most – for using, reading and understanding the Bible.
If that emerges, commented one member, then the church has a new basis for actually debating what the specific texts mean.
The outcome of the Rotorua discussions? The 18 members of the Standing Committee (including our three Archbishops) have been formally requested to ask their episcopal units to pray about, debate and discuss the draft covenant and primates’ communiqué at their respective synods, and to report back to next May’s General Synod.
The Standing Committee was also brought up to speed on plans for our own Hui on Hermeneutics, which is to be held in Wellington on August 28, 29 and 30, at the Loaves and Fishes café attached to Wellington’s Cathedral.
All interested Anglicans are invited to take part, although they will have to meet their own expenses. Archbishop David said an agenda for the hui would be circulated as soon as its been prepared.
The Standing Committee heard, too, of other efforts to prepare for next year’s Windsor debate at General Synod: at a special meeting next week the Bishops will consider how they can best prepare for a fruitful and constructive debate.
And there were efforts too, to get traction for The Listening Process first advocated by Lambeth Resolution 10:1 in 1998, which committed the Provinces “to listen to the experience of homosexual persons” who are within the church.
The new General Secretary, Jackie Pearse, was asked to write to the bishops, inviting them to report to the November meeting of the Standing Committee on the progress their units have made, and the insights that have been gained from their own listening.
Tikanga reports
Archbishop Jabez Bryce gave an account of life in Fiji post the December 5 coup, and a report on this will be carried in the next issue of Anglican Taonga.
He also gave a report on the flooding which struck the northern Fiji island of Vanua Levu in mid February – and which wreaked havoc at Labasa, and caused considerable damage to Anglican property and mission in that city. All Saint’s Secondary School; St Mary’s Primary School; St Thomas’ church and a number of church houses and the homes of many parishioners have all been severely affected.
A week after the floods had receded all the school properties were still closed, and the church homes – including the one occupied by Bishop Api Qiliho – were still uninhabitable.
The report on damage done to the St Mary’s Hostel and church compound paints a bleak picture: At the height of the flood the warden and caretaker’s quarters, the hostel chapel and main dining hall were four feet under water, and when the waters receded workers and staff faced the task of removing hundreds of cubic metres of stinking silt.
The damage to Anglican property and plant here has been estimated at more than F$110,000. The magnitude of the disaster becomes clearer given the standard hourly rates paid to labourers hired to clean up the mess – F$1.75.
Meanwhile, at All Saints Secondary School, the flood damage has been costed at more than F$155,000.
For Tikanga Maori, Hone Kaa reported that he’d been one of 300 who had gathered at Whareponga Marae at Ruatoria on 11am on Saturday February 17 to witness Pane Kawhia’s ordination to the priesthood by the present and 14th Bishop of Waiapu, The Rt Rev John Bluck.
Pane is the great granddaughter of Raniera Kawhia – who, in 1860, at the same hour of the day, on the same day of the month, had been ordained a priest by the first and new Bishop of Waiapu, William Williams.
Hone also reported the ordination of the Rev Betty Reid, who is the sister of Bishop Muru Walters and the sixth person from the Walters/Ihaka whanau to be priested.
A radical earlier constitution
The Standing Committee also discussed the significance of an anniversary that’s soon to be commemorated in Auckland – on June 13, the 150th anniversary of the signing of the constitution of the Anglican church in New Zealand will be celebrated.
That first constitution had its deficiencies – Maori had no voice in its creation, and neither did women. Even so, the 1857 constitution was, for its day, perhaps as radical as the one adopted in 1992.
In the first place, it was the first constitution in the world to recognize that lay people had an equal place in the decision-making of the Anglican Church, alongside the clergy and the bishops.
In the second place, it affirmed that the Anglican Church was a voluntary organization in this country – and not the established state church.
The sesquicentennial will be marked with a commemoration at the tiny St Steven’s Church in Judge’s Bay, Parnell, where the 1857 signing took place – and it will followed by an evening gathering at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Progress report 1: Relocating the General Synod office to Auckland
Confirmed: The General Synod Office will be relocated to the Dean’s Lodge on the St John’s College campus in Meadowbank, and Jackie Pearse, the new General Secretary, will work from there from the end of March.
The Lodge will also be the office for the permanent secretary to Te Kotahitanga.
There are, however, some zoning difficulties. The Auckland District Plan that relates to the college property doesn’t allow the Lodge to be used solely as an office, and resource consent is now being sought to permit this.
In the meantime, however, the district plan does give the OK for the lodge to be used as a home office. So Jackie and her husband have been asked, on an interim basis, to live above the new office.
There was some discussion, too, about giving the Dean’s Lodge a new name to identify its new function.
One suggestion: Tui Tuia: The office of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
There was also discussion, about sharing facilities on the St John’s College campus with the Methodist Church’s Trinity College.
The Methodists have indicated they would like to consolidate and expand their presence at St John’s. A small working group will report back on developments in the wider Anglican-Methodist relationship, and the relationship between St John’s and Trinity College in particular.
Progress report 2: Preparing for The Charities Act
Professor Richard Sutton gave an update on the church’s preparations to be fully compliant with the 2005 Charities Act.
A small Anglican working group has been set up to advise and assist the church with registration and compliance – and episcopal units are encouraged to await the advice of that group before proceeding with any registration under the Act.
Next year’s General Synod – and the ones to follow?
The Standing Committee heard a verbal report from Robin Nairn about preparations for next year’s General Synod in the Diocese of Wellington – and it was warned that the costs of a synod held in the capital were likely to be considerably higher than the 2005 Christchurch event.
That final bill for that had been around $120,000 – and a similar event held next year in the Wellington CBD could tally $150,000. The committee members considered this, plus various options for pruning these costs – including finishing the synod a day early, on the Thursday afternoon, or changing the venue.
The Standing Committee will revisit this issue at its July meeting, once it has firm costings for a Wellington synod.
The committee also had some preliminary discussion about suggestions made in Robin Nairn’s final report that the whole business of how General Synods are run could be rethought.
Robin is concerned that general synods are becoming increasingly expensive, while the perhaps half those who attend don’t speak. Moreover, most of the representatives who go to Synod have taken five days of precious annual leave to do so. He encouraged the Standing Committee to examine the membership and timing of the synods.
Robin also floated the idea of an extended hui “where our people can articulate their visions and wishes concerning the mission of their church – leaving the legislative ‘tidy-up’ to an elected few, with written reports available for those who wish…”
The Standing Committee said its farewells to Robin on the Tuesday evening, and Bishop Kito Pikaahu arrived to pay tribute on behalf of Te Kotahitanga.
Posted by latimer at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)
UNCSW delegates proclaim a women's way forward in broken times
06.03.07 ... Jenny Te Paa, an Anglican UNCSW delegate and ahorangi, or dean, of Te Rau Kahikatea, the College of St. John the Evangelist in Auckland, New Zealand said "The women of the Communion have, I believe, moved from bewilderment to outrage at the ways in which a small cabal of leaders have continued to insist that the issues exercising them alone over human sexuality are inevitably to preoccupy us as well,"
Listening: Anglican women, pledging communion with one another, seek to model reconciliation
UNCSW delegates proclaim a women's way forward in broken times
By K. Jeanne Person and Matthew Davies
Monday, March 05, 2007
www.dfms.org/3577_83098_ENG_HTM.htm
[Episcopal News Service] As the Anglican women delegates to the 2007 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) conclude their work this week in New York City, they are pledging to take their commitment "to remaining always in 'communion' with and for one another" to the wider Anglican Communion, and especially the 38 Primates, as a model for reconciliation.
The Anglican delegation of more than 80 women, representing 34 countries in the worldwide Anglican Communion, issued a statement March 3 vowing "to remain resolute in our solidarity with one another and in our commitment, above all else, to pursue and fulfill God's mission in all we say and do."
Acknowledging the "global tensions so evident in our church today," the women delegates "do not accept that there is any one issue of difference or contention which can, or indeed would, every cause us to break the unity as represented by our common baptism. Neither would we ever consider severing the deep and abiding bonds of affection which characterize our relationships as Anglican women."
By their statement, the Anglican delegates believe they are offering a women's way forward for reconciliation within the Anglican Communion at a time when theological differences regarding issues of human sexuality are causing tensions.
On February 19, at the conclusion of a meeting near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the Primates issued a communiqué the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops to "make an unequivocal common covenant" by September 30 not to authorize same-gender blessings within their dioceses and to confirm that Resolution B033, passed at the 75th General Convention last summer, means that a candidate for bishop who is living in a same-gender relationship "shall not receive the necessary consent unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion."
"If the reassurances ... cannot in good conscience be given," the communiqué says, "the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion."
In the view of the Anglican women, the Primates' warning is inconsistent with the Christian mission of reconciliation and compassionate ministry, and a decidedly male approach to struggling with difference. All of the Primates are men of power, they note, except for Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
"The women of the Communion have, I believe, moved from bewilderment to outrage at the ways in which a small cabal of leaders have continued to insist that the issues exercising them alone over human sexuality are inevitably to preoccupy us as well," said Jenny Te Paa, an Anglican UNCSW delegate and ahorangi,