From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 12
Jul 30, 2008
"Living under Scripture: The Bishop and the Bible in Mission"
Why is there so much division and tension in the Communion?, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall asked as he opened today's press conference. "A lot of it", he said, "is about Scripture". The Lambeth Conference's discussion topic today is "Living under Scripture: The Bishop and the Bible in Mission".
Hermeneutics Proposal
Archbishop David Moxon of the New Zealand Diocese, one of the authors of the "Hermeneutics Proposal", asserted that the issue of homosexuality "comes down to an issue about the Bible". Underneath that presenting issue "is the question, how do we use the Bible? how do we understand texts...?".
The church in New Zealand has experimented with a means of getting at this question. Four principles have emerged from that effort, which Archbp. Moxon described in terms of "trying to build a large house".
The floor, Archbp. Moxon said, is the recognition that "Jesus Christ is the living Word of God", and that the inspired word of the Bible reveals Him as that Living Word.
The entrance, he continued, is the world in which the writers of its various books lived - what that world was, and what God said to that world.
The walls are the world in which we live.
And the roof, the archbishop concluded, is that which covers it - that is, the church in which it is received and read.
The "Hermeneutics Proposal" suggests that the New Zealand experiment be extended across the Anglican Communion, in order to find "the high moral ground, the high spiritual ground". If it is successful, it will provide a way to address together the issue of what the Bible says about homosexuality.
Four Elements
Prof. Gerald West of the University of Kwa-Zulu, Natal, in South Africa, asserted that four elements (not unrelated to the four parts of Archbp. Moxon's house, he noted) make up the process of Biblical interpretation. All of them are shared throughout the Anglican Communion, but elements of each of them are emphasized in different ways.
The first element, Prof. West said, is a common commitment "to be shaped by Scripture in some way". The variable lies in the different ways different people think they shape them, or are willing to be shaped by them.
The second element is an interest in the details of Scripture. But these details are got at in different ways: the socio-historical (which would ask if there was such a thing as homosexuality in the ancient world), the literary (which would look at the shape of a narrative such as that of Sodom and Gomorrah, and might in that case see it in relationship to the story of Abraham's hospitality to the three angels and conclude that it is about inhospitability, expressed in male rape), and the thematic (which would ask to what extent there is a line of teaching in the two Testaments dealing with homosexuality).
The third element, Prof. West stated, is a common commitment "to bring our contexts into engagement with Scripture". For him in South Africa at this time, the primary context is HIV/AIDS; and he spoke of his disappointment at the low attendance at a self-select group he had attended on that subject.
The fourth element of Biblical interpretation, Prof. West said, is the "ecclesio-theological framework" in which in is received, "what gives coherence" to the various things the Bible teaches, "what holds us all together". But this framework varies within the Communion, he said, suggesting that peoples who received the Gospel through the evangelical Church Missionary Society (CMS) have a different framework than those evangelised through the United Societies for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG).
At this Lambeth, given its "participatory" processes, Prof. West concluded, Anglicans are "able to share with each other where they stand in each of these four areas": that is to speak not only of the conclusions they have reached, but of how and why they have reached them.
International Set of Principles
Asked if the process he'd outlined implied that any interpretation is equally valid, and thus represented an overturning of Lambeth 1998's resolution I.10 on human sexuality, Archbp. Moxon said his study was meant to work out an international set of principles as the basis for discussion issues, not to take a position on any issue. Archbp. Aspinall further reminded the press that Archbp. Williams' letter inviting the bishops to Lambeth had said this Conference would not reconsider the 1998 resolution.
The next question had to do with Jude 7, which reads "just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire". Had the author of Jude misunderstood the Genesis account? Every reference to Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible, Prof. West responded, refers to inhospitality: this text is not about homosexuality, but male rape.
Citing the Archbishop's words about pushing the boundaries in last evening's presidential address, a reporter asked the presenters were asked if this Conference had equipped bishops to do so. Prof. West suggested that insofar as the bishops had been helped to hear one another, it should enable the church to open its boundaries and listen. Archbp. Moxon cited the model of Acts 15, as "what we are doing here": waiting upon the Holy Spirit to shape and fill the envelope.
Asked about the absence of references to Tradition in relation to the interpretation of the Scriptures, Archbp. Moxon acknowledged that was "a very valid point"; he would include Tradition, he said, as part of the "roof" of his "house". Prof. West said that Tradition is what he meant by the "ecclesio-theological framework". This Lambeth, he suggested, has allowed that framework to be "interrogated" by a different framework which has emerged in missionary contexts.
Responding to another question, Prof. West said that it is claimed that there are widely different ideas of the authority of Scripture in the Communion, but there really aren't. While the processes of interpretation vary, all are committed to be under and shaped by Scripture. Archbp. Moxon, citing the 39 Articles, said that the Scriptures are the "generic or prime or key source" for all Anglicans.
Noting that in 1998 Archbp. Carey had said that the onus is on those proposing change, a reporter asked where the consensus of the New Zealand study left us. Archbp. Moxon reiterated in the response that the process was about "going back to first principles about the way we use the Bible".
Asked directly what he thought of the 1998 sexuality resolution, Prof. West said he doesn't "have a clear position on Lambeth I.10 personally".
Responding to a question about whether disparities in theological education had contributed to conflicting ways of interpreting the Bible, Archbp. Moxon suggested that the issue was the uniqueness of theological education in different provinces and their distance from one another, rather than quality. Prof. West noted that people in South Africa know that the meaning of Scripture is not self-evident, and that they must struggle to understand it, since the Scriptures had been used to support both apartheid and the liberation struggle.
Reflections Document
Copies of the second draft of the Reflections document were distributed to the press today. What had in large part been a listing is now becoming a coherent text, organized by topic and presented under subheadings. But the draft remains incomplete, with further material promised on seven additional topics. A second hearing session on the document will be held this afternoon.
Cardinal Kasper
The Self-Select Session at which Cardinal Kasper is to speak this afternoon is reported to have been moved to a larger room. However, the press office is unsure when his text, which must first be published in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, can be released to the Lambeth press.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Lambeth Report Canterbury: Tuesday, July 29th
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 11
Jul 30, 2008
"Power … is Like Fire"
Today is a special day for the Conference. Today the Bishops and the spouses are meeting together to take up the topic "Equal in God's Sight: When Power is Abused".
Lambeth Spouses
Dr. Jane Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury's wife, said the spouses "have been having a most fantastic time", "resourcing ourselves" by listening to one another's stories from "all around the world".
The respective planning committees for the bishops and the spouses agreed that the issue of how power is used and abused was one they wanted to address together, Dr. Williams reported. The spouses' committee was asked to plan the day; this is "an area", she said, "where bishops need to listen and learn before they can take a lead".
The theological foundation for this conversation, Dr. Williams said, is "deeply countercultural": "the spectacular power of God at work" in Jesus Crucified. The story of the Melanesian martyrs, which the spouses had heard yesterday, was "an immensely powerful witness of what Christians can accomplish against violence".
This subject is not a "distraction" from equipping for mission: rather, it is vital for effective witness. "Unless we use power to free other people", Dr. Williams concluded, "no one will see that Jesus is Lord".
In response to a question, Dr. Williams noted that the importance of this issue to the church was shown by its giving a whole day at the Lambeth Conference to it.
Responding to another question (which she described as a "campaign speech"), about the need for the entire Communion to say that the abuse of power against women must stop, Dr. Williams noted the applause with which the plenary responded to the assertion that such violence "should be right at the top of the church's agenda".
Abuse of Power
Dr. Jenny Te Paa, Principal of St. John's Theological College in Aotearoa (New Zealand) spoke to the methodology of the day's discussion. The issue of the abuse of power, she observed, is complex and multilayered. To make it manageable in the time available, the planners chose to look at the subject through "one specific lens, the lens of physical violence".
The plenary program began with a drama presenting Jesus' attitudes to women in the Gospel. Many, including men, Dr. Te Paa said, were in tears at its end: this was a moment in which they had heard the Scriptures afresh.
Then the story of the rape of Tamar was read from II Samuel 13. That narrative, Dr. Te Paa said, opened up "myriad questions" about the way men behave, and about the way women behave; it is "a story about all of us". The plenary divided into discussion groups, which dealt with scripted questions presented in seven languages. There has been "grizzle in the groups", she noted, when time was called. In response to a question, Dr. Te Paa said that men and women met in separate, facilitated groups, which asked both how the story speaks to us, and who Tamar is in our communities. The goal was to ask how the church experiences the abuse of power, and how it will address it.
Ministry begins with scrutinizing our own household, Dr. Te Paa concluded. Many participants had approached the organizers during breaks to "express their profound gratitude".
Social Transformation
Dr. Maria Akrofi from Accra, Ghana, the wife of the Primate of West Africa, said that the church is "one of the best agents for social transformation": but in order to be effective, those in the church need to be trained for it. People do not necessarily jettison their own baggage when they enter the fold; therefore it is important to engage a subject like domestic violence on both the personal and global levels.
"Power, for me, is like fire", Dr. Akrofi continued: it "can be used destructively, or constructively". Because power can be misused, "it needs to be contained". And when the person who perpetrates it is also her pastor, to whom can the woman look for help?
Domestic violence can be verbal, physical, psychological, or spiritual. It is a global phenomenon. While in the West it most often occurs behind closed doors, in Africa the whole village knows when a couple has argued.
Dr. Akrofi asserted that women were often other women's worst enemies, that often another woman was behind men's problems. It is women who raise both boys and girls, and it is the different ways in which they are raised which often gives rise to abuse. Dr. Akrofi called for change "at the level of parenting".
Women who have been abused experience a downward spiral, Dr. Akrofi observed, even in First World countries: who can help them? In Ghana, the government has initiated programs for intervention, and for the provision of legal representation of women. But women need to be taught about their rights, in ways that help them overcome their hesitation, embarrassment and fear at report someone they love. Asked how men are responding to the government initiative, Dr. Akrofi said "they are toeing the line", but that there is much abuse that remains hidden.
Rape is a major problem in Africa, Dr. Akrofi noted, especially in war-torn areas. "And where are we?", Dr. Akrofi concluded.
Dr. Akrofi said in response to a question that all those who have resources for dealing with domestic violence had been asked to check in, so that a list could be made, and that each Province would be given assignments.
Responding to another question, Dr. Akrofi acknowledged the causative and consequential connections between HIV/AIDS and mental illness: the mentally ill are vulnerable to exploitation and consequent infection, while HIV/AIDS may lead to mental illness. The church, she said, is a little pasture. The sheep must go out from it, to interact with the world, but when they do there is danger that they will be dispersed. There is a need, she said, for training programs to counteract the taboo against talking about sex.
Asked about the impact of the day on the African bishops, Dr. Akrofi observed that "some have not thought deeply about these issues", for it was generally assumed that their wives would deal with women's and children's matters. The day will not easily be forgotten, she commented, and networking links are being formed.
One reporter asked if this lack of awareness might be part of the difficulty of African bishops with regard to gay issues. Dr. Akrofi answered, "possibly", but went on to say that the church has the Bible as the center of its message, and that it is not wrong to tell people to tell people that this is wrong. But "we have to show Christian love and charity", she insisted, " - and that has not come through". A hundred years ago gays were persecuted in the West, she noted, but that has never been the case in Africa.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 11
Jul 30, 2008
"Power … is Like Fire"
Today is a special day for the Conference. Today the Bishops and the spouses are meeting together to take up the topic "Equal in God's Sight: When Power is Abused".
Lambeth Spouses
Dr. Jane Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury's wife, said the spouses "have been having a most fantastic time", "resourcing ourselves" by listening to one another's stories from "all around the world".
The respective planning committees for the bishops and the spouses agreed that the issue of how power is used and abused was one they wanted to address together, Dr. Williams reported. The spouses' committee was asked to plan the day; this is "an area", she said, "where bishops need to listen and learn before they can take a lead".
The theological foundation for this conversation, Dr. Williams said, is "deeply countercultural": "the spectacular power of God at work" in Jesus Crucified. The story of the Melanesian martyrs, which the spouses had heard yesterday, was "an immensely powerful witness of what Christians can accomplish against violence".
This subject is not a "distraction" from equipping for mission: rather, it is vital for effective witness. "Unless we use power to free other people", Dr. Williams concluded, "no one will see that Jesus is Lord".
In response to a question, Dr. Williams noted that the importance of this issue to the church was shown by its giving a whole day at the Lambeth Conference to it.
Responding to another question (which she described as a "campaign speech"), about the need for the entire Communion to say that the abuse of power against women must stop, Dr. Williams noted the applause with which the plenary responded to the assertion that such violence "should be right at the top of the church's agenda".
Abuse of Power
Dr. Jenny Te Paa, Principal of St. John's Theological College in Aotearoa (New Zealand) spoke to the methodology of the day's discussion. The issue of the abuse of power, she observed, is complex and multilayered. To make it manageable in the time available, the planners chose to look at the subject through "one specific lens, the lens of physical violence".
The plenary program began with a drama presenting Jesus' attitudes to women in the Gospel. Many, including men, Dr. Te Paa said, were in tears at its end: this was a moment in which they had heard the Scriptures afresh.
Then the story of the rape of Tamar was read from II Samuel 13. That narrative, Dr. Te Paa said, opened up "myriad questions" about the way men behave, and about the way women behave; it is "a story about all of us". The plenary divided into discussion groups, which dealt with scripted questions presented in seven languages. There has been "grizzle in the groups", she noted, when time was called. In response to a question, Dr. Te Paa said that men and women met in separate, facilitated groups, which asked both how the story speaks to us, and who Tamar is in our communities. The goal was to ask how the church experiences the abuse of power, and how it will address it.
Ministry begins with scrutinizing our own household, Dr. Te Paa concluded. Many participants had approached the organizers during breaks to "express their profound gratitude".
Social Transformation
Dr. Maria Akrofi from Accra, Ghana, the wife of the Primate of West Africa, said that the church is "one of the best agents for social transformation": but in order to be effective, those in the church need to be trained for it. People do not necessarily jettison their own baggage when they enter the fold; therefore it is important to engage a subject like domestic violence on both the personal and global levels.
"Power, for me, is like fire", Dr. Akrofi continued: it "can be used destructively, or constructively". Because power can be misused, "it needs to be contained". And when the person who perpetrates it is also her pastor, to whom can the woman look for help?
Domestic violence can be verbal, physical, psychological, or spiritual. It is a global phenomenon. While in the West it most often occurs behind closed doors, in Africa the whole village knows when a couple has argued.
Dr. Akrofi asserted that women were often other women's worst enemies, that often another woman was behind men's problems. It is women who raise both boys and girls, and it is the different ways in which they are raised which often gives rise to abuse. Dr. Akrofi called for change "at the level of parenting".
Women who have been abused experience a downward spiral, Dr. Akrofi observed, even in First World countries: who can help them? In Ghana, the government has initiated programs for intervention, and for the provision of legal representation of women. But women need to be taught about their rights, in ways that help them overcome their hesitation, embarrassment and fear at report someone they love. Asked how men are responding to the government initiative, Dr. Akrofi said "they are toeing the line", but that there is much abuse that remains hidden.
Rape is a major problem in Africa, Dr. Akrofi noted, especially in war-torn areas. "And where are we?", Dr. Akrofi concluded.
Dr. Akrofi said in response to a question that all those who have resources for dealing with domestic violence had been asked to check in, so that a list could be made, and that each Province would be given assignments.
Responding to another question, Dr. Akrofi acknowledged the causative and consequential connections between HIV/AIDS and mental illness: the mentally ill are vulnerable to exploitation and consequent infection, while HIV/AIDS may lead to mental illness. The church, she said, is a little pasture. The sheep must go out from it, to interact with the world, but when they do there is danger that they will be dispersed. There is a need, she said, for training programs to counteract the taboo against talking about sex.
Asked about the impact of the day on the African bishops, Dr. Akrofi observed that "some have not thought deeply about these issues", for it was generally assumed that their wives would deal with women's and children's matters. The day will not easily be forgotten, she commented, and networking links are being formed.
One reporter asked if this lack of awareness might be part of the difficulty of African bishops with regard to gay issues. Dr. Akrofi answered, "possibly", but went on to say that the church has the Bible as the center of its message, and that it is not wrong to tell people to tell people that this is wrong. But "we have to show Christian love and charity", she insisted, " - and that has not come through". A hundred years ago gays were persecuted in the West, she noted, but that has never been the case in Africa.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Lambeth Report Canterbury: Monday, July 28th
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 10
Jul 29, 2008
"A Daily Business"
The Lambeth bishops' topic today was "Engaging with a Multi-Faith World - The Bishop, Christian Witness and Other Faiths".
Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark in England observed that "no subject will have changed so dramatically" since the last Lambeth Conference. Interfaith relations are no longer "interesting and theoretical", but a matter of dealing with the society in which we live.
The bishop noted that his diocese, which covers the southern half of greater London, is multi-faith and multi-cultural. The majority of those of other faiths, he observed, are good and devout, "wonderful citizens", and proved to be "allies in trying to build community" in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war.
A study entitled "Generous Love: An Anglican Theology of Interfaith Relations" has been sent to all the Communion's bishops, Bp. Butler reported. It sets out an Anglican approach, based on experience around the globe: "being there, being a presence in whatever community", both to witness and to work together for the common good, for instance by providing education and health care.
Bp. Butler pointed to the bishops' London day, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury had been joined on the dias by the leaders of all major faiths and denominations in England, as illustrating how an interfaith witness has "much greater authority" than that of a single group.
Another paper, entitled "The Common Word", was a response from the Archbishop to the letter from 135 Muslim scholars, and grew out of a conference he had convened. In that paper he stated that Christianity and Islam have many things in common, but also that many things divided them. He urged the need for discussion without any loss of integrity, so that both parties would have a clear understanding.
Asked about Bp. Nazir-Ali's assertion that there are "no-go" areas in Britain, Bp. Butler responded that he has not experienced anything like that in the dioceses in which he has served.
Commenting on the degree to which political exigencies shape interfaith relationships, as for instance with respect to freedom of worship in Saudi Arabia, Bp. Butler said that the situation there was extremely difficult, but not typical. He described areas where Muslims and Christians are cooperating, for instance in joint efforts to address HIV, as "far more typical"
The bishop was asked if he fears the repercussions of decisions by the Communion - or the Communion tempering its decisions in reaction to extremism. He responded that he did not see that as a major problem, citing the British experience in Northern Ireland. The way forward, he said, is to build up the influence of mainline, mainstream faith leaders.
United Church of Pakistan
The Moderator of the United Church of Pakistan, Bp. Alexander Malik of Lahore, began his presentation to the press conference by urging that interfaith dialogue should extend to all faiths, and indeed that there should be dialogue with the secularist West as well. But his remarks today, he said, would focus on relations with Islam.
Bp. Malik offered four primary observations. First, he said, 9/11 created both difficulties and opportunities for dialogue. Second, "all Muslims are not terrorists, nor are all Christians Westerners". Third, he observed that the interfaith dynamic changes depending on whether Muslims were in the minority or the majority. Fourth and finally, he maintained, dialogue is difficult but not impossible in the context of religious extremism.
People look at interfaith dialogue in many different ways, the bishop observed: some see it as a betrayal, others as a debate, yet others as a compromise. But after twenty-eight years as a bishop, he saw it as "an excellent way" to express the love of God in Christ.
Interfaith dialogue, Bp. Malik continued, is an excellent way to build relationships and connect with each other. And in his context, it is "a daily business", as people of different faiths encounter one another and interact in everyday life.
Interfaith dialogue, the bishop said, has helped Christians in Pakistan help other people by providing education, health care, and poverty alleviation without respect to creed, caste or colour. He noted that most Pakistani leaders had studied in schools and colleges founded and run by the church.
Sometimes Western policies generate misconceptions and cause clashes, Bp. Malik observed, citing the publication of the Danish cartoons, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But dialogue has helped build relationships, with some success.
Asked what advice he would give the Muslim minority in Great Britain, Bp. Malik noted that when in a majority, Muslims were not so much interested in dialogue. He therefore urged them to go ahead with dialogue, and to assimilate into those values of the larger society which they think it right to embrace.
Responding to a question about the blasphemy laws and kidnappings and forced conversions, the bishop noted that the church in Pakistan is actively protesting that nation's blasphemy laws, which he described as "like a hanging sword on the minorities", and encouraged the church elsewhere to join in its protests.
Bp. Malik, responding to another question, said that he had referred questions from the press about Pope Benedict XIV's lecture in Regensburg to the (Roman) Catholic authorities. At the same time, he has defended the Pope's position in private conversations.
Responding to further questions, Bp. Malik observed that Muslims feel the same with respect to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "They feel the western countries are unfair". He further noted that, in supporting the mujahadeen after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the "West had a part in producing that extremism and terrorism".
Melanesian Brotherhood
The conference ended with a very different and deeply moving presentation by Fr. Richard Carter, an English priest who for 17 years has served with the Melanesian Brotherhood.
Meleitans had settled on the island of Guadalcanal after World War II. For years they prayed together, played together, and intermarried with that island's population. But their success, and in particular their ownership of land, Fr. Carter said, gave rise to a bitterness which surfaced in 1999, when an insurgency demanded their repatriation and the independence of Guadalcanal.
Gradually the conflict spread, Fr. Carter continued: young Meleitan children were told to go home, villages were burnt down, and incomers were tortured and murdered. Some 20,000 people were left homeless. The church was seen as a place of sanctuary: thousands of these displaced persons came to the Brotherhood seeking protection. The Brothers offered them temporary shelter and sought to arrange their transfer to the capital, while banning anyone with guns and ammunition.
Twenty-five Brothers went to work in the no-man's land between the warring parties, where they ferried back the wounded and the dead, and spoke out against the culture of violence. In the end, people looked more to them than to the authorities for help.
A peace agreement was signed in 2000 in Townsville. But young militants were still present and armed, and fighting continued. While the community was uneasy about what might be considered political involvement, it resolved in 2002 by broadcasting on the radio their willingness to visit those willing to surrender their weapons for destruction, and pray with them, and ask for their forgiveness - all confidentially.
The Brothers were bombarded by calls. People came to them because they were traumatised: they had blood on their hands, and wanted to start again. The Brothers' Reconciliation House was filled with guns, rifles and hand grenades, which were eventually taken to sea and sunk before witnesses. Even though some accused them of collusion with the government, the Brothers continued their ministry of reconciliation.
One group refused to surrender its weapons. Several brothers visited them. When one was taken hostage, six others went out to search for him. They were also taken hostage, and accused of being spies.
Just after the Bali bombings, Australia and other nations in the region finally sent in an "army of intervention". That force, which never fired a bullet, found the tortured, murdered bodies of these seven Brothers..
Fr. Carter said that going to speak with their families was "the worst moment of my life". The martyred Brothers had made the choice every Christian must make, he observed, the choice to stand up for peace and live the Gospel they proclaimed. Their funeral in November stopped the whole nation, calling it to its senses. The Brothers were "standing up for the truth we believe in" against the "culture of revenge, of payback".
Asked why he did not give up and return to England, Fr. Carter said he could not, because there was no alternative: "if I got out", he asked, "what about the other people?" The Brothers were many people's only source of hope.
The seven martyred Brothers will be enrolled in the Chapel of the Twentieth-Century Martyrs at Canterbury Cathedral at the Conference's closing Eucharist this Sunday evening.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 10
Jul 29, 2008
"A Daily Business"
The Lambeth bishops' topic today was "Engaging with a Multi-Faith World - The Bishop, Christian Witness and Other Faiths".
Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark in England observed that "no subject will have changed so dramatically" since the last Lambeth Conference. Interfaith relations are no longer "interesting and theoretical", but a matter of dealing with the society in which we live.
The bishop noted that his diocese, which covers the southern half of greater London, is multi-faith and multi-cultural. The majority of those of other faiths, he observed, are good and devout, "wonderful citizens", and proved to be "allies in trying to build community" in the wake of 9/11 and the Iraq war.
A study entitled "Generous Love: An Anglican Theology of Interfaith Relations" has been sent to all the Communion's bishops, Bp. Butler reported. It sets out an Anglican approach, based on experience around the globe: "being there, being a presence in whatever community", both to witness and to work together for the common good, for instance by providing education and health care.
Bp. Butler pointed to the bishops' London day, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury had been joined on the dias by the leaders of all major faiths and denominations in England, as illustrating how an interfaith witness has "much greater authority" than that of a single group.
Another paper, entitled "The Common Word", was a response from the Archbishop to the letter from 135 Muslim scholars, and grew out of a conference he had convened. In that paper he stated that Christianity and Islam have many things in common, but also that many things divided them. He urged the need for discussion without any loss of integrity, so that both parties would have a clear understanding.
Asked about Bp. Nazir-Ali's assertion that there are "no-go" areas in Britain, Bp. Butler responded that he has not experienced anything like that in the dioceses in which he has served.
Commenting on the degree to which political exigencies shape interfaith relationships, as for instance with respect to freedom of worship in Saudi Arabia, Bp. Butler said that the situation there was extremely difficult, but not typical. He described areas where Muslims and Christians are cooperating, for instance in joint efforts to address HIV, as "far more typical"
The bishop was asked if he fears the repercussions of decisions by the Communion - or the Communion tempering its decisions in reaction to extremism. He responded that he did not see that as a major problem, citing the British experience in Northern Ireland. The way forward, he said, is to build up the influence of mainline, mainstream faith leaders.
United Church of Pakistan
The Moderator of the United Church of Pakistan, Bp. Alexander Malik of Lahore, began his presentation to the press conference by urging that interfaith dialogue should extend to all faiths, and indeed that there should be dialogue with the secularist West as well. But his remarks today, he said, would focus on relations with Islam.
Bp. Malik offered four primary observations. First, he said, 9/11 created both difficulties and opportunities for dialogue. Second, "all Muslims are not terrorists, nor are all Christians Westerners". Third, he observed that the interfaith dynamic changes depending on whether Muslims were in the minority or the majority. Fourth and finally, he maintained, dialogue is difficult but not impossible in the context of religious extremism.
People look at interfaith dialogue in many different ways, the bishop observed: some see it as a betrayal, others as a debate, yet others as a compromise. But after twenty-eight years as a bishop, he saw it as "an excellent way" to express the love of God in Christ.
Interfaith dialogue, Bp. Malik continued, is an excellent way to build relationships and connect with each other. And in his context, it is "a daily business", as people of different faiths encounter one another and interact in everyday life.
Interfaith dialogue, the bishop said, has helped Christians in Pakistan help other people by providing education, health care, and poverty alleviation without respect to creed, caste or colour. He noted that most Pakistani leaders had studied in schools and colleges founded and run by the church.
Sometimes Western policies generate misconceptions and cause clashes, Bp. Malik observed, citing the publication of the Danish cartoons, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But dialogue has helped build relationships, with some success.
Asked what advice he would give the Muslim minority in Great Britain, Bp. Malik noted that when in a majority, Muslims were not so much interested in dialogue. He therefore urged them to go ahead with dialogue, and to assimilate into those values of the larger society which they think it right to embrace.
Responding to a question about the blasphemy laws and kidnappings and forced conversions, the bishop noted that the church in Pakistan is actively protesting that nation's blasphemy laws, which he described as "like a hanging sword on the minorities", and encouraged the church elsewhere to join in its protests.
Bp. Malik, responding to another question, said that he had referred questions from the press about Pope Benedict XIV's lecture in Regensburg to the (Roman) Catholic authorities. At the same time, he has defended the Pope's position in private conversations.
Responding to further questions, Bp. Malik observed that Muslims feel the same with respect to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "They feel the western countries are unfair". He further noted that, in supporting the mujahadeen after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the "West had a part in producing that extremism and terrorism".
Melanesian Brotherhood
The conference ended with a very different and deeply moving presentation by Fr. Richard Carter, an English priest who for 17 years has served with the Melanesian Brotherhood.
Meleitans had settled on the island of Guadalcanal after World War II. For years they prayed together, played together, and intermarried with that island's population. But their success, and in particular their ownership of land, Fr. Carter said, gave rise to a bitterness which surfaced in 1999, when an insurgency demanded their repatriation and the independence of Guadalcanal.
Gradually the conflict spread, Fr. Carter continued: young Meleitan children were told to go home, villages were burnt down, and incomers were tortured and murdered. Some 20,000 people were left homeless. The church was seen as a place of sanctuary: thousands of these displaced persons came to the Brotherhood seeking protection. The Brothers offered them temporary shelter and sought to arrange their transfer to the capital, while banning anyone with guns and ammunition.
Twenty-five Brothers went to work in the no-man's land between the warring parties, where they ferried back the wounded and the dead, and spoke out against the culture of violence. In the end, people looked more to them than to the authorities for help.
A peace agreement was signed in 2000 in Townsville. But young militants were still present and armed, and fighting continued. While the community was uneasy about what might be considered political involvement, it resolved in 2002 by broadcasting on the radio their willingness to visit those willing to surrender their weapons for destruction, and pray with them, and ask for their forgiveness - all confidentially.
The Brothers were bombarded by calls. People came to them because they were traumatised: they had blood on their hands, and wanted to start again. The Brothers' Reconciliation House was filled with guns, rifles and hand grenades, which were eventually taken to sea and sunk before witnesses. Even though some accused them of collusion with the government, the Brothers continued their ministry of reconciliation.
One group refused to surrender its weapons. Several brothers visited them. When one was taken hostage, six others went out to search for him. They were also taken hostage, and accused of being spies.
Just after the Bali bombings, Australia and other nations in the region finally sent in an "army of intervention". That force, which never fired a bullet, found the tortured, murdered bodies of these seven Brothers..
Fr. Carter said that going to speak with their families was "the worst moment of my life". The martyred Brothers had made the choice every Christian must make, he observed, the choice to stand up for peace and live the Gospel they proclaimed. Their funeral in November stopped the whole nation, calling it to its senses. The Brothers were "standing up for the truth we believe in" against the "culture of revenge, of payback".
Asked why he did not give up and return to England, Fr. Carter said he could not, because there was no alternative: "if I got out", he asked, "what about the other people?" The Brothers were many people's only source of hope.
The seven martyred Brothers will be enrolled in the Chapel of the Twentieth-Century Martyrs at Canterbury Cathedral at the Conference's closing Eucharist this Sunday evening.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Lambeth Report Canterbury: Monday, July 28th
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 9
Jul 28, 2008
"How do we Get from Here to There?"
The first draft of the Conference Reflections document - "a very preliminary scoping document", in the words of Archbp. Aspinall - and the third set of preliminary observations from the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG) were presented at a special press conference held this evening.
Indaba Groups
The scoping document is an as yet inchoate collection of input from the Bible studies, the sixteen indaba groups, and the other elements of the Conference. The chairman of the drafting group, Archbp. Roger Herft of Perth, Australia, said that the goal was that "every single bishop should have a voice". The present draft is incomplete, in that input had not been received from several indaba groups, and some feedback has already been received. Asked, for instance, about a section which called for "support those who are isolated in their dioceses by initiatives such as that by Gafcon [sic]", the archbishop noted that the group from which it came had indicated that didn't say what it meant to say.
A fuller draft will be released on Tuesday, and feedback will be received both from the indaba groups and from three hearings before the whole Conference.
The goal of the document, Archbp. Herft stated, is to provide "a living, breathing narrative" of "what is happening" as the bishops engage together, a narrative faithful to the Bible, the indaba process, the Anglican Communion, and the bishops gathered here.
The WCG
The WCG had offered the Conference its observations on three questions: where are we? where do we want to be? and how do we get there?, in order to stimulate conversation; and that effort, its chairman, Bp. Clive Hanford, said, is beginning to pay off.
The goal, the third observation paper states, is "to restore the sense of trust, fellowship and communion on which we thrive". Until a covenant is in place, however, "there are urgent issues which need addressing if we are going to be able to get to the point where such a renewal of trust even becomes possible".
The Group notes that the Windsor Report calls for three moratoria, and that this call has been repeated by the Primates at Dromantine and Dar es Salaam. It observes the requests "have been less than wholeheartedly embraced on all sides", in part because there has been some confusion about what the word "moratorium means, and whether it applied to future actions only or was to be retrospective.
The WCG therefore states that what is being requested is "the complete cessation" of "the celebration of blessings for same-sex unions", "consecrations of those living in openly gay relationships", and "all cross border interventions and inter-provincial claims of jurisdiction". "Cessation", Bp. Hanford clarified in response to a question, means the action must cease.
If these three moratoria are not observed, the Group suggests, "the Communion is likely to fracture". "The patterns of action currently embraced with the continued blessings of same-sex unions and of interventions could lead to irreparable damage". Therefore, the WCG states, the call for the moratoria "poses the serious question of what response should be made to those who act contrary to the moratorium during the Covenant process and who should make a response".
Asked if this meant that Bp. Gene Robinson should resign, Bp. Hanford stated that there was "no intention" of implying that he should resign; he had, after all, been elected in accordance with his church's processes. The Group is not saying that Bp. Robinson should be "defrocked", but "simply saying that there shouldn't be any more" such consecrations.
The WCG proposes two ways of responding: through a Pastoral Forum, and by creating a "safe space" for dioceses and congregations which have left their provinces, until such time as they can be reconciled.
Pastoral Forum
The Group proposes "the swift formation of a `Pastoral Forum' at Communion level to engage theologically and pastorally with situations of controversy...or divisive actions". This proposal, the WCG notes, draws upon earlier proposals for a Council of Advice (Windsor), a Panel of Advice (Dromantine) and a Pastoral Council (Dar es Salaam), and the Episcopal House of Bishops' statement "acknowledging `a useful role for communion wide consultation with respect to the pastoral needs of those seeking alternative oversight'".
The President of the Forum would be the Archbishop of Canterbury, who would appoint its episcopal chair and other members "representative of the breadth of the life of the Communion as a whole". This referred both to its geography and its character, Bp. Hanford noted.
In practice, the Group suggests, some members of the Forum, "having considered the theological and ecclesiological issues of any controversy or divisive action", might "travel, meet, and offer pastoral advice and guidelines".
The WCG proposes that "the Pastoral Forum should be empowered to act in the Anglican Communion in a rapid manner to emerging threats to its life". It would address "those anomalies of pastoral care arising in the Communion against the recommendations of the Windsor Report". And it would "offer guidance on what response and any diminishment of standing within the Communion might be appropriate where any of the three moratoria are broken".
Responding to an observation that this seemed "punitive" compared to the Response draft's language about partnerships, Bp. Hanford said that it was "not intended to be punitive", but to get the conflicting parties to "pull back", to "exercise a bit of restraint...so that we can talk to one another". This is an ongoing process, "and relationships are at its heart".
Bp. Hanford indicated, in response to another question regarding the failure of the Panel of Reference, that while many details remain to be worked out, the Pastoral Forum is meant to "respond speedily", and would work by relationships rather than written reports.
The proposed Forum might, the WCG suggested, be included in an Anglican Covenant "as a key mechanism to achieve reconciliation".
Communion Partners
The Group welcomed "the planned setting up of the Communion Partners initiative in the Episcopal Church as a means of sustaining those who feel at odds with developments taking place in their own Province but who wish to be loyal to, and to maintain, their fellowship within the TEC and within the Anglican Communion".
With regard to those dioceses and congregations which have left their original provinces and joined themselves to others, the Group recommends that the Pastoral Forum "develop a scheme in which existing ad hoc jurisdictions could be held `in trust' in preparation for their reconciliation within their proper Provinces". Such a scheme might reflect the way religious orders relate to the wider Church, or the way an extended family cares for children from a dysfunctional nuclear family, or the way escrow accounts hold monies in trust for their original owners.
In his prepared remarks, Bp. Hanford explained that the groups which had pulled apart might be placed in a "holding-bay" not dependent on any other Province, but linked to the Pastoral Forum. In response to questions, he explained that this provision is meant to deal only with those who are already out, not for further withdrawals. Asked if this might take the form of provincial oversight from Canterbury, Bp. Hanford stated that this possibility "will doubtless be considered".
"Ways of halting litigation must be explored", the Group asserts, "and perhaps the escrow concept could even be extended to have some applicability here". In response to a question about whether this meant those who had pulled out might get their property back, Bp. Hanford replied that this "would require working out".
In response to a question about the fairness of providing a safe space for conservatives, but not for lesbian and gay people like the Nigerian man recently given asylum, Bp. Hanford said that he heard what was being said, but noted that this is a preliminary report, and drew attention to the final section. Reaffirm Commitments
Finally, the WCG calls upon the bishops to "reaffirm the commitments expressed" in two statements. The first is Lambeth 1998's call for "all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex". The second is the Primates' statement at Dromantine that "the victimisation or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex is anathema to us. We assure homosexual people that they are children of God, loved and valued by him, and deserving of the best we can give of pastoral care and friendship".
The WCG further invites the Lambeth bishops "to be committed to challenging such attitudes where they may exist in the societies, churches and governments of the nations in which they proclaim the Gospel as good news for all without exception".
Why bother with all this?
"Why bother with all this?", the WCG asked in the "coda" to its observations.
First, because "much faithful witness continues - converts are baptised; disciples are nurtured; vocations are encouraged; the scriptures are studied; the Gospel is proclaimed.
Second, because "Anglicanism as [sic] a distinctive global expression of Reformed Catholicism: not only in its content, but in its processes - diverse, patient, hospitable and tolerant".
And third, because "we believe in this Communion; a Communion which contributes to the wider life of the Church in the ecumenical community, and gives witness in a world of many faiths".
Bp. Hanford was asked if the reception of these observations might be affected by the fact that no member of the WCG supports the ordination of gays and lesbians. He expressed his hope that the paper would be accepted "as an early stage" for continued dialogue. He indicated that the next step in the Group's timetable is the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in May 2010. Archbp. Aspinall added that the Conference will continue to have input through the indaba groups.
The bishop was also asked if the observation paper rightly described Reformed Catholicism, and in particular if such a Reformed Catholicism could ever say `no'. He replied that "there must be limits" to the Communion's unity in diversity, and affirmed that the words "diverse, patient, hospitable and tolerant" come "close to the heart" of his experience of Anglicanism.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 9
Jul 28, 2008
"How do we Get from Here to There?"
The first draft of the Conference Reflections document - "a very preliminary scoping document", in the words of Archbp. Aspinall - and the third set of preliminary observations from the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG) were presented at a special press conference held this evening.
Indaba Groups
The scoping document is an as yet inchoate collection of input from the Bible studies, the sixteen indaba groups, and the other elements of the Conference. The chairman of the drafting group, Archbp. Roger Herft of Perth, Australia, said that the goal was that "every single bishop should have a voice". The present draft is incomplete, in that input had not been received from several indaba groups, and some feedback has already been received. Asked, for instance, about a section which called for "support those who are isolated in their dioceses by initiatives such as that by Gafcon [sic]", the archbishop noted that the group from which it came had indicated that didn't say what it meant to say.
A fuller draft will be released on Tuesday, and feedback will be received both from the indaba groups and from three hearings before the whole Conference.
The goal of the document, Archbp. Herft stated, is to provide "a living, breathing narrative" of "what is happening" as the bishops engage together, a narrative faithful to the Bible, the indaba process, the Anglican Communion, and the bishops gathered here.
The WCG
The WCG had offered the Conference its observations on three questions: where are we? where do we want to be? and how do we get there?, in order to stimulate conversation; and that effort, its chairman, Bp. Clive Hanford, said, is beginning to pay off.
The goal, the third observation paper states, is "to restore the sense of trust, fellowship and communion on which we thrive". Until a covenant is in place, however, "there are urgent issues which need addressing if we are going to be able to get to the point where such a renewal of trust even becomes possible".
The Group notes that the Windsor Report calls for three moratoria, and that this call has been repeated by the Primates at Dromantine and Dar es Salaam. It observes the requests "have been less than wholeheartedly embraced on all sides", in part because there has been some confusion about what the word "moratorium means, and whether it applied to future actions only or was to be retrospective.
The WCG therefore states that what is being requested is "the complete cessation" of "the celebration of blessings for same-sex unions", "consecrations of those living in openly gay relationships", and "all cross border interventions and inter-provincial claims of jurisdiction". "Cessation", Bp. Hanford clarified in response to a question, means the action must cease.
If these three moratoria are not observed, the Group suggests, "the Communion is likely to fracture". "The patterns of action currently embraced with the continued blessings of same-sex unions and of interventions could lead to irreparable damage". Therefore, the WCG states, the call for the moratoria "poses the serious question of what response should be made to those who act contrary to the moratorium during the Covenant process and who should make a response".
Asked if this meant that Bp. Gene Robinson should resign, Bp. Hanford stated that there was "no intention" of implying that he should resign; he had, after all, been elected in accordance with his church's processes. The Group is not saying that Bp. Robinson should be "defrocked", but "simply saying that there shouldn't be any more" such consecrations.
The WCG proposes two ways of responding: through a Pastoral Forum, and by creating a "safe space" for dioceses and congregations which have left their provinces, until such time as they can be reconciled.
Pastoral Forum
The Group proposes "the swift formation of a `Pastoral Forum' at Communion level to engage theologically and pastorally with situations of controversy...or divisive actions". This proposal, the WCG notes, draws upon earlier proposals for a Council of Advice (Windsor), a Panel of Advice (Dromantine) and a Pastoral Council (Dar es Salaam), and the Episcopal House of Bishops' statement "acknowledging `a useful role for communion wide consultation with respect to the pastoral needs of those seeking alternative oversight'".
The President of the Forum would be the Archbishop of Canterbury, who would appoint its episcopal chair and other members "representative of the breadth of the life of the Communion as a whole". This referred both to its geography and its character, Bp. Hanford noted.
In practice, the Group suggests, some members of the Forum, "having considered the theological and ecclesiological issues of any controversy or divisive action", might "travel, meet, and offer pastoral advice and guidelines".
The WCG proposes that "the Pastoral Forum should be empowered to act in the Anglican Communion in a rapid manner to emerging threats to its life". It would address "those anomalies of pastoral care arising in the Communion against the recommendations of the Windsor Report". And it would "offer guidance on what response and any diminishment of standing within the Communion might be appropriate where any of the three moratoria are broken".
Responding to an observation that this seemed "punitive" compared to the Response draft's language about partnerships, Bp. Hanford said that it was "not intended to be punitive", but to get the conflicting parties to "pull back", to "exercise a bit of restraint...so that we can talk to one another". This is an ongoing process, "and relationships are at its heart".
Bp. Hanford indicated, in response to another question regarding the failure of the Panel of Reference, that while many details remain to be worked out, the Pastoral Forum is meant to "respond speedily", and would work by relationships rather than written reports.
The proposed Forum might, the WCG suggested, be included in an Anglican Covenant "as a key mechanism to achieve reconciliation".
Communion Partners
The Group welcomed "the planned setting up of the Communion Partners initiative in the Episcopal Church as a means of sustaining those who feel at odds with developments taking place in their own Province but who wish to be loyal to, and to maintain, their fellowship within the TEC and within the Anglican Communion".
With regard to those dioceses and congregations which have left their original provinces and joined themselves to others, the Group recommends that the Pastoral Forum "develop a scheme in which existing ad hoc jurisdictions could be held `in trust' in preparation for their reconciliation within their proper Provinces". Such a scheme might reflect the way religious orders relate to the wider Church, or the way an extended family cares for children from a dysfunctional nuclear family, or the way escrow accounts hold monies in trust for their original owners.
In his prepared remarks, Bp. Hanford explained that the groups which had pulled apart might be placed in a "holding-bay" not dependent on any other Province, but linked to the Pastoral Forum. In response to questions, he explained that this provision is meant to deal only with those who are already out, not for further withdrawals. Asked if this might take the form of provincial oversight from Canterbury, Bp. Hanford stated that this possibility "will doubtless be considered".
"Ways of halting litigation must be explored", the Group asserts, "and perhaps the escrow concept could even be extended to have some applicability here". In response to a question about whether this meant those who had pulled out might get their property back, Bp. Hanford replied that this "would require working out".
In response to a question about the fairness of providing a safe space for conservatives, but not for lesbian and gay people like the Nigerian man recently given asylum, Bp. Hanford said that he heard what was being said, but noted that this is a preliminary report, and drew attention to the final section. Reaffirm Commitments
Finally, the WCG calls upon the bishops to "reaffirm the commitments expressed" in two statements. The first is Lambeth 1998's call for "all our people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation and to condemn irrational fear of homosexuals, violence within marriage and any trivialisation and commercialisation of sex". The second is the Primates' statement at Dromantine that "the victimisation or diminishment of human beings whose affections happen to be ordered towards people of the same sex is anathema to us. We assure homosexual people that they are children of God, loved and valued by him, and deserving of the best we can give of pastoral care and friendship".
The WCG further invites the Lambeth bishops "to be committed to challenging such attitudes where they may exist in the societies, churches and governments of the nations in which they proclaim the Gospel as good news for all without exception".
Why bother with all this?
"Why bother with all this?", the WCG asked in the "coda" to its observations.
First, because "much faithful witness continues - converts are baptised; disciples are nurtured; vocations are encouraged; the scriptures are studied; the Gospel is proclaimed.
Second, because "Anglicanism as [sic] a distinctive global expression of Reformed Catholicism: not only in its content, but in its processes - diverse, patient, hospitable and tolerant".
And third, because "we believe in this Communion; a Communion which contributes to the wider life of the Church in the ecumenical community, and gives witness in a world of many faiths".
Bp. Hanford was asked if the reception of these observations might be affected by the fact that no member of the WCG supports the ordination of gays and lesbians. He expressed his hope that the paper would be accepted "as an early stage" for continued dialogue. He indicated that the next step in the Group's timetable is the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in May 2010. Archbp. Aspinall added that the Conference will continue to have input through the indaba groups.
The bishop was also asked if the observation paper rightly described Reformed Catholicism, and in particular if such a Reformed Catholicism could ever say `no'. He replied that "there must be limits" to the Communion's unity in diversity, and affirmed that the words "diverse, patient, hospitable and tolerant" come "close to the heart" of his experience of Anglicanism.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Lambeth Report Canterbury: July 26th, 2008
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 8
Jul 27, 2008
"The Body of God"
Bp. George Browning of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn in Australia, chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network led off today's press conference as the bishops took up the topic, "Safeguarding Creation: The Bishop and the Environment".
Some, Bp. Browning observed, wondered why the church was so concerned about environmental issues when its work is saving souls. But the care of the total environment, he countered, is a fundamental part of the Christian tradition, "the Biblical base on which we stand". For that reason, the church has "no option but to take up" environmental issues.
Bp. Browning stated that he is "absolutely convinced by the moral argument of climate change", and believes that engagement with it as a moral issue is key to progress, since political and economic arguments will not drive it sufficiently. The church, he said, "must lend its weight".
Many political leaders, the Bishop stated, have become hesitant to take environmental steps because of their concern with present economic pressures. But God gives His gifts within a timescale of opportunity: some choices that are now available will not be available later on. "The present generation", he declared, "has no right to steal [the next's] inheritance".
Bp. Browning noted that Australia has the highest carbon footprint of the world's nations. Its government has set targets for reducing it, but in his opinion they are not high enough.
Responding to questions, Bp. Browning commented that the church is strongest locally, and weakest nationally and internationally. He therefore suggested that the church could best reach outside itself by trying to resource local congregations in both the developed and developing worlds.
The Bishop noted that a significant number of bishops are pressing to issue a statement on the environment, which he hopes might be available next week.
The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church
Katherine Jefferts-Schoori, the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and formerly a scientist, began her presentation on the environment by listing the various parts of the world outside North America in which her church has dioceses of that church. The Episcopal Church is an international church, she said, so that the very context of her ministry reminds her that "we are all interconnected".
The Presiding Bishop spoke of "creation as the body of God": not just human beings, she said, but the whole of creation, reflects God.
"Climate change is of ultimate importance", Dr. Jefferts-Schoori said, and the poor, such as those in the South Pacific islanders whose island homes are sinking and refugee in the Sudan who return home only to find their land become desert, are suffering most from it. Inattention to the health of all creation, she declared, will render issues of no importance in the face of "this looming disaster, this disaster already begun".
"Salvation", the Presiding Bishop concluded, "is about healing and wholeness and holiness" - each word comes from the same root. Not to engage all three is "not to engage our Christian duty".
Asked how the primates could collaborate in working with government and industry to fulfill the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the Presiding Bishop stated that each primate is responsible for advocacy with government and industry in his or her own nation, and that the primates were working collectively on the international level, for instance to address the world leaders who will gather to discuss progress on the MDGs in New York in September.
"Issues of life and death are most significant" for most dioceses represented at the Lambeth Conference, the Presiding Bishop stated. She neither confirmed nor denied rumours that a compromise on sexuality might be sought in order provide unified moral leadership on larger issues: such issues, she said, "seem to override" other concerns.
The Presiding Bishop said that, while she had not been present, she had heard that women at the 1998 Lambeth Conference had been called names, avoided, and subjected to "quite rude behaviour". She said that she has seen nothing of that sort of behaviour at Lambeth 2008.
Asked about the injustice of allowing bishops who represent the Old Catholic churches, which ordain gay and lesbian persons and bless their relationships, to participate fully in the Conference, while Bp. Robinson of New Hampshire is excluded, Dr. Jefferts-Schoori responded that this was "an awareness that is not widely shared", noting that the Swedish Lutheran Church, which is likewise represented here, does the same.
When asked if she would ask Bp. Robinson to resign in order to unify the church, the Presiding Bishop responded, "that's certainly not within my purview", stating that it is a matter between him and his diocese.
In response to a question about disinformation (both about global warming and about TEC) from the religious right, Dr. Jefferts-Schoori responded that "personal contact is absolutely essential". Jesus worked face-to-face: "that is the way the Gospel spreads". "It's a conversation, she said: the US bishops are being heard, as are others.
Asked how the "interconnectedness" of creation related to discussions on sexuality, the Presiding Bishop noted that "these discussions are still at a very early stage", with fuller discussion scheduled next week. The concept of interconnectedness, she said, grows out of the Pauline theology of the Body of Christ: as with the church, so with creation, every part is affected by the other parts, and they all need to work in harmony for the body to be whole.
The Presiding Bishop said she had not seen the recent Common Cause Partnership statement regarding the creation of a North American province by GAFCON. Neither had she seen any proposals that an Anglican `faith and order commission' be set up as a clearinghouse for the Communion.
A `Green' Lambeth Conference
The Conference's communicator, Archbp. Aspinall, noted that questions had arisen about how `green' the Lambeth Conference is. One indaba group, for instance, has asked for recycling bins. A "lack has been noted" by bishops and their spouses, and "some initiatives are underway".
Bp. Browning passed on an Indian bishop's comment, that whatever Americans or Englishmen may think, from his perspective "the menus here are five-star". He also noted that yesterday those taking part in the Conference had been asked to contribute to offset the carbon footprint of their travel, which for Australians would come to about UK£ 25, and expressed the hope that contributions would exceed a mere offset.
Dr. Schoori added that people here are walking a great deal, and that there are recycling receptacles in the housing unit kitchens.
Lambeth Bishops: Smile Please!
The Lambeth bishops had their picture taken just after the press conference.
In 1998, in deference to those who could not recognize women as bishops, those present dressed in the cassock, a cleric's historic street dress, rather than in the white rochet, red chimere, and black scarf which serve as choir dress for the order of bishops. This time, the bishops were asked to wear choir dress.
Two of the Church of England's Provincial Episcopal Visitors, however, appeared for the picture in cassocks, in order to witness to their understanding of the nature of the Apostolic ministry. However, they were not the only bishops to be photographed out of uniform: some bishops' regalia were lost in transit, and at least one other's were accidentally taken home by his wife.
Archbp. Aspinall had earlier reported that some bishops who did not wish to publicize their presence at Lambeth for various reasons (including complications with hostile governments) had chosen not to be photographed.
List of Bishops
The long-awaited list of those bishops willing to have their presence known to the press has not been distributed. It is not terribly useful, in that it seems to list them by indaba groups, does not include their first names, and sometimes does not give, or cuts off, the name of the bishop's diocese. Who, one might ask, is "Duncan,II - TEC"?
A considerable number of names were blacked out. Some bishops have remarked that others had asked not to be listed in solidarity with bishops who could not let their names be listed publicly.
Although Archbp. Aspinall had promised to provide the number of those not included because they were absent from their indaba groups at the time consent was requested and the number who were unwilling to be listed, those data were not provided.
Sunday Schedule
The bishops have no working sessions scheduled tomorrow. They will be visiting churches around the Canterbury diocese in the morning, and then attend a civic reception at St. Augustine's Abbey in the afternoon.
The next press conference will be held on Monday afternoon.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 8
Jul 27, 2008
"The Body of God"
Bp. George Browning of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn in Australia, chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network led off today's press conference as the bishops took up the topic, "Safeguarding Creation: The Bishop and the Environment".
Some, Bp. Browning observed, wondered why the church was so concerned about environmental issues when its work is saving souls. But the care of the total environment, he countered, is a fundamental part of the Christian tradition, "the Biblical base on which we stand". For that reason, the church has "no option but to take up" environmental issues.
Bp. Browning stated that he is "absolutely convinced by the moral argument of climate change", and believes that engagement with it as a moral issue is key to progress, since political and economic arguments will not drive it sufficiently. The church, he said, "must lend its weight".
Many political leaders, the Bishop stated, have become hesitant to take environmental steps because of their concern with present economic pressures. But God gives His gifts within a timescale of opportunity: some choices that are now available will not be available later on. "The present generation", he declared, "has no right to steal [the next's] inheritance".
Bp. Browning noted that Australia has the highest carbon footprint of the world's nations. Its government has set targets for reducing it, but in his opinion they are not high enough.
Responding to questions, Bp. Browning commented that the church is strongest locally, and weakest nationally and internationally. He therefore suggested that the church could best reach outside itself by trying to resource local congregations in both the developed and developing worlds.
The Bishop noted that a significant number of bishops are pressing to issue a statement on the environment, which he hopes might be available next week.
The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church
Katherine Jefferts-Schoori, the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and formerly a scientist, began her presentation on the environment by listing the various parts of the world outside North America in which her church has dioceses of that church. The Episcopal Church is an international church, she said, so that the very context of her ministry reminds her that "we are all interconnected".
The Presiding Bishop spoke of "creation as the body of God": not just human beings, she said, but the whole of creation, reflects God.
"Climate change is of ultimate importance", Dr. Jefferts-Schoori said, and the poor, such as those in the South Pacific islanders whose island homes are sinking and refugee in the Sudan who return home only to find their land become desert, are suffering most from it. Inattention to the health of all creation, she declared, will render issues of no importance in the face of "this looming disaster, this disaster already begun".
"Salvation", the Presiding Bishop concluded, "is about healing and wholeness and holiness" - each word comes from the same root. Not to engage all three is "not to engage our Christian duty".
Asked how the primates could collaborate in working with government and industry to fulfill the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the Presiding Bishop stated that each primate is responsible for advocacy with government and industry in his or her own nation, and that the primates were working collectively on the international level, for instance to address the world leaders who will gather to discuss progress on the MDGs in New York in September.
"Issues of life and death are most significant" for most dioceses represented at the Lambeth Conference, the Presiding Bishop stated. She neither confirmed nor denied rumours that a compromise on sexuality might be sought in order provide unified moral leadership on larger issues: such issues, she said, "seem to override" other concerns.
The Presiding Bishop said that, while she had not been present, she had heard that women at the 1998 Lambeth Conference had been called names, avoided, and subjected to "quite rude behaviour". She said that she has seen nothing of that sort of behaviour at Lambeth 2008.
Asked about the injustice of allowing bishops who represent the Old Catholic churches, which ordain gay and lesbian persons and bless their relationships, to participate fully in the Conference, while Bp. Robinson of New Hampshire is excluded, Dr. Jefferts-Schoori responded that this was "an awareness that is not widely shared", noting that the Swedish Lutheran Church, which is likewise represented here, does the same.
When asked if she would ask Bp. Robinson to resign in order to unify the church, the Presiding Bishop responded, "that's certainly not within my purview", stating that it is a matter between him and his diocese.
In response to a question about disinformation (both about global warming and about TEC) from the religious right, Dr. Jefferts-Schoori responded that "personal contact is absolutely essential". Jesus worked face-to-face: "that is the way the Gospel spreads". "It's a conversation, she said: the US bishops are being heard, as are others.
Asked how the "interconnectedness" of creation related to discussions on sexuality, the Presiding Bishop noted that "these discussions are still at a very early stage", with fuller discussion scheduled next week. The concept of interconnectedness, she said, grows out of the Pauline theology of the Body of Christ: as with the church, so with creation, every part is affected by the other parts, and they all need to work in harmony for the body to be whole.
The Presiding Bishop said she had not seen the recent Common Cause Partnership statement regarding the creation of a North American province by GAFCON. Neither had she seen any proposals that an Anglican `faith and order commission' be set up as a clearinghouse for the Communion.
A `Green' Lambeth Conference
The Conference's communicator, Archbp. Aspinall, noted that questions had arisen about how `green' the Lambeth Conference is. One indaba group, for instance, has asked for recycling bins. A "lack has been noted" by bishops and their spouses, and "some initiatives are underway".
Bp. Browning passed on an Indian bishop's comment, that whatever Americans or Englishmen may think, from his perspective "the menus here are five-star". He also noted that yesterday those taking part in the Conference had been asked to contribute to offset the carbon footprint of their travel, which for Australians would come to about UK£ 25, and expressed the hope that contributions would exceed a mere offset.
Dr. Schoori added that people here are walking a great deal, and that there are recycling receptacles in the housing unit kitchens.
Lambeth Bishops: Smile Please!
The Lambeth bishops had their picture taken just after the press conference.
In 1998, in deference to those who could not recognize women as bishops, those present dressed in the cassock, a cleric's historic street dress, rather than in the white rochet, red chimere, and black scarf which serve as choir dress for the order of bishops. This time, the bishops were asked to wear choir dress.
Two of the Church of England's Provincial Episcopal Visitors, however, appeared for the picture in cassocks, in order to witness to their understanding of the nature of the Apostolic ministry. However, they were not the only bishops to be photographed out of uniform: some bishops' regalia were lost in transit, and at least one other's were accidentally taken home by his wife.
Archbp. Aspinall had earlier reported that some bishops who did not wish to publicize their presence at Lambeth for various reasons (including complications with hostile governments) had chosen not to be photographed.
List of Bishops
The long-awaited list of those bishops willing to have their presence known to the press has not been distributed. It is not terribly useful, in that it seems to list them by indaba groups, does not include their first names, and sometimes does not give, or cuts off, the name of the bishop's diocese. Who, one might ask, is "Duncan,II - TEC"?
A considerable number of names were blacked out. Some bishops have remarked that others had asked not to be listed in solidarity with bishops who could not let their names be listed publicly.
Although Archbp. Aspinall had promised to provide the number of those not included because they were absent from their indaba groups at the time consent was requested and the number who were unwilling to be listed, those data were not provided.
Sunday Schedule
The bishops have no working sessions scheduled tomorrow. They will be visiting churches around the Canterbury diocese in the morning, and then attend a civic reception at St. Augustine's Abbey in the afternoon.
The next press conference will be held on Monday afternoon.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: July 25th, 2008
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 7
Jul 26, 2008
Lambeth Report
Canterbury: Friday, July 25th
Today’s theme is ecumenism, under the heading:
“Serving Together – The Bishop and the Churches”
At this afternoon’s press conference, the Most Revd Paul Sayah, the Maronite Archbishop of Haifa (who is a member of the delegation of the Holy See but said he was speaking in his own name) noted the “warmth” of the relationships between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.
Archbp. Sayah outlined the history of the dialogue between these churches since the historic meeting between Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI in 1966. He noted that the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commissions (ARCIC) had given rise to a number of agreements on the basis of Scripture and “our common ancient traditions”. The dialogue was not without difficulties, he said, it showed that it is still possible for the two communions to grow together.
But how might this work be put to practical use? A second phase in the relationship began at the initiative of Archbp. Carey and Cardinal Cassidy in 2000, with the creation of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) as a means of seeing how the fruits of the ARCIC dialogues could be used “so as to witness jointly to the unity and mission of the Church”.
Prayer is “vital” for the ecumenical task, Archbp. Sayah concluded, since unity is a gift from above. He stated that “we are very eager to see this Conference succeed”, and expressed the hope that the two communions will address ecclesial and ethical issues together, “that the world may believe”.
Asked how long it would be before the ordination of women and gay rights became major issues in the (Roman) Catholic Church, Archbp. Sayah said that the issues are already there, in different ways in different countries. The Church was not shying away from these issues, but is discussing them “calmly”, and developing mechanisms to deal with them.
Another query had to do with Anglicans who would like to become a “rite” within the (Roman) Catholic Church. The archbishop noted that the Maronites were the only Eastern Rite that did not have an Orthodox counterpart, since all of them had entered into communion with the Holy See. He said that his church’s operating principle is that “the Anglican and Roman communions “are partners in dialogue, we respect each other greatly”, but that it must likewise “respect each and every person who inquires” as “an issue of conscience”.
Asked about Cardinal Diaz’s remark about “spiritual Altzheimer’s”, Archbp. Sayah said that while the culture thinks the past is something we can do without, for the church it is not an embarrassment, but “the charismatic memory of the church”, out of which we grow.
The Archbishop
Archbishop Rowan Williams began the second of his three scheduled presentations to the press by reviewing the process of the Conference.
After the initial days of the retreat, the Archbishop said, the conference had begun to grapple with business. He noted that the Windsor Continuation Group had held its first hearing, at which “anyone and everyone” could “lay out their feelings and their thoughts” on Wednesday last. It will reflect on that input, and bring the fruits of its reflection to its next hearing. Meanwhile, copious material is coming in from the indaba groups, four-fifths of which, he estimated, were working as had been hoped after some simplifications of the process.
The London march, Archbp. Williams observed, was a “watershed”, “part of a rather remarkable occasion” on which the Church said something “clear and straightforward” to the government, and heard something “clear and straightforward” back.
Next week the Conference will turn to more contentious issues, the Archbishop noted, and in consequence engage in “more intensive work”.
Turning to ecumenical relationships, Archbp. Williams noted the progress made by IARCCUM, and by the Anglican-Orthodox Doctrinal Commission – which presented a “lively” self-select session, he said, in which Anglican argued with Anglican, and Orthodox with Orthodox.
Eight Lutheran bishops, eight Orthodox bishops, 4 Oriental Orthodox bishops, eight Roman Catholic bishops, and eighteen representatives of non-episcopal churches were participating in the Conference, the Archbishop reported.
The overall message he was hearing from the ecumenical participants, he said, was that “your issues are everyone’s issues”, and that we need to be part of each others’ discussions.
Faith and Order Commission
Archbishop Williams was asked about proposals to create a `faith and order commission’ for the Communion. He responded that he had observed a strong feeling within the Conference that there is a need for another “clearinghouse” structure to sort out the kinds of issues which presently confront the Communion.
In response to another question, the Archbishop noted that a delegation of young people from the Leicester conference had challenged him to make specific two specific promises: to meet with a group people within the year, and to take up the issue of including young people’s representatives on the (Church of England) Archbishops’ Council. He had done so, noting that for some years about a hundred young people had been invited to Lambeth Palace for an annual youth day.
Observing that the Anglican Communion is not a church and that the Lambeth Conference has no authority, one reporter queried what value the Windsor Continuation process might have. The Archbishop responded, as he had said before, “I’m looking for consent, not coercion” – for something to which everyone can consent as a basis for recognizing one another and managing our relationships. He noted, however, that “some may consent, and others won’t”, and that that would have “implications”. But he queried the reporter’s assertion that the Anglican Communion is not a church: it is not the (Roman) Catholic Church, he said, but neither is it the Lutheran World Federation.
While declining to talk about what he hoped would the Conference’s reflection document would say, Archbp. Williams expressed the hope that the bishops would leave Lambeth with “a sense that it is worth working at staying together”, that the unity and cooperation of the Communion is “not a small thing, and its loss is not to be taken lightly”.
Tomorrow’s theme will be “Safeguarding Creation – The Bishop and the Environment”.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 7
Jul 26, 2008
Lambeth Report
Canterbury: Friday, July 25th
Today’s theme is ecumenism, under the heading:
“Serving Together – The Bishop and the Churches”
At this afternoon’s press conference, the Most Revd Paul Sayah, the Maronite Archbishop of Haifa (who is a member of the delegation of the Holy See but said he was speaking in his own name) noted the “warmth” of the relationships between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.
Archbp. Sayah outlined the history of the dialogue between these churches since the historic meeting between Archbishop Michael Ramsey and Pope Paul VI in 1966. He noted that the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commissions (ARCIC) had given rise to a number of agreements on the basis of Scripture and “our common ancient traditions”. The dialogue was not without difficulties, he said, it showed that it is still possible for the two communions to grow together.
But how might this work be put to practical use? A second phase in the relationship began at the initiative of Archbp. Carey and Cardinal Cassidy in 2000, with the creation of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) as a means of seeing how the fruits of the ARCIC dialogues could be used “so as to witness jointly to the unity and mission of the Church”.
Prayer is “vital” for the ecumenical task, Archbp. Sayah concluded, since unity is a gift from above. He stated that “we are very eager to see this Conference succeed”, and expressed the hope that the two communions will address ecclesial and ethical issues together, “that the world may believe”.
Asked how long it would be before the ordination of women and gay rights became major issues in the (Roman) Catholic Church, Archbp. Sayah said that the issues are already there, in different ways in different countries. The Church was not shying away from these issues, but is discussing them “calmly”, and developing mechanisms to deal with them.
Another query had to do with Anglicans who would like to become a “rite” within the (Roman) Catholic Church. The archbishop noted that the Maronites were the only Eastern Rite that did not have an Orthodox counterpart, since all of them had entered into communion with the Holy See. He said that his church’s operating principle is that “the Anglican and Roman communions “are partners in dialogue, we respect each other greatly”, but that it must likewise “respect each and every person who inquires” as “an issue of conscience”.
Asked about Cardinal Diaz’s remark about “spiritual Altzheimer’s”, Archbp. Sayah said that while the culture thinks the past is something we can do without, for the church it is not an embarrassment, but “the charismatic memory of the church”, out of which we grow.
The Archbishop
Archbishop Rowan Williams began the second of his three scheduled presentations to the press by reviewing the process of the Conference.
After the initial days of the retreat, the Archbishop said, the conference had begun to grapple with business. He noted that the Windsor Continuation Group had held its first hearing, at which “anyone and everyone” could “lay out their feelings and their thoughts” on Wednesday last. It will reflect on that input, and bring the fruits of its reflection to its next hearing. Meanwhile, copious material is coming in from the indaba groups, four-fifths of which, he estimated, were working as had been hoped after some simplifications of the process.
The London march, Archbp. Williams observed, was a “watershed”, “part of a rather remarkable occasion” on which the Church said something “clear and straightforward” to the government, and heard something “clear and straightforward” back.
Next week the Conference will turn to more contentious issues, the Archbishop noted, and in consequence engage in “more intensive work”.
Turning to ecumenical relationships, Archbp. Williams noted the progress made by IARCCUM, and by the Anglican-Orthodox Doctrinal Commission – which presented a “lively” self-select session, he said, in which Anglican argued with Anglican, and Orthodox with Orthodox.
Eight Lutheran bishops, eight Orthodox bishops, 4 Oriental Orthodox bishops, eight Roman Catholic bishops, and eighteen representatives of non-episcopal churches were participating in the Conference, the Archbishop reported.
The overall message he was hearing from the ecumenical participants, he said, was that “your issues are everyone’s issues”, and that we need to be part of each others’ discussions.
Faith and Order Commission
Archbishop Williams was asked about proposals to create a `faith and order commission’ for the Communion. He responded that he had observed a strong feeling within the Conference that there is a need for another “clearinghouse” structure to sort out the kinds of issues which presently confront the Communion.
In response to another question, the Archbishop noted that a delegation of young people from the Leicester conference had challenged him to make specific two specific promises: to meet with a group people within the year, and to take up the issue of including young people’s representatives on the (Church of England) Archbishops’ Council. He had done so, noting that for some years about a hundred young people had been invited to Lambeth Palace for an annual youth day.
Observing that the Anglican Communion is not a church and that the Lambeth Conference has no authority, one reporter queried what value the Windsor Continuation process might have. The Archbishop responded, as he had said before, “I’m looking for consent, not coercion” – for something to which everyone can consent as a basis for recognizing one another and managing our relationships. He noted, however, that “some may consent, and others won’t”, and that that would have “implications”. But he queried the reporter’s assertion that the Anglican Communion is not a church: it is not the (Roman) Catholic Church, he said, but neither is it the Lutheran World Federation.
While declining to talk about what he hoped would the Conference’s reflection document would say, Archbp. Williams expressed the hope that the bishops would leave Lambeth with “a sense that it is worth working at staying together”, that the unity and cooperation of the Communion is “not a small thing, and its loss is not to be taken lightly”.
Tomorrow’s theme will be “Safeguarding Creation – The Bishop and the Environment”.
Picture worth a thousand words? Mandating ultrasound before abortions
Catholic Explorer - Romeoville,IL,USA
By Nancy Frazier O'Brien (Catholic News Service)
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- State by state, Catholics and others in the pro-life community are accomplishing a mission that they hope will give pregnant women considering an abortion the clearest proof yet that their action would still an unborn child's beating heart. more
By Nancy Frazier O'Brien (Catholic News Service)
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- State by state, Catholics and others in the pro-life community are accomplishing a mission that they hope will give pregnant women considering an abortion the clearest proof yet that their action would still an unborn child's beating heart. more
Friday, July 25, 2008
From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: July 24th, 2008
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 6
Jul 25, 2008
“BEARING FALSE WITNESS”
Today is the day the Lambeth bishops go to Buckingham Palace for tea, as the guests of Her Majesty, the Queen.
But in a sense, the tea party will be anticlimactic: for at this Lambeth, the bishops – joined by politicians, diplomats, and leaders of other British faith communities – will first have marched from Whitehall to Lambeth Palace in support of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Archbishop Williams and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke at the rally in Lambeth Palace gardens. During that rally, the Archbishop presented a letter to the Prime Minister, addressed to him but also through him, to the leaders of the First World.
In his letter, Dr. Williams speaks of the MDGs as a promise that has been made to the world, and states the Lambeth bishops belief that failing to fulfill them “amounts to bearing false witness not only to our neighbors, but to ourselves and to our God”.
Noting the British government’s leadership, the Archbishop commends the progress which has been made toward halving extreme poverty by the year 2015, the end which the MDG’s are intended to attain. But “regrettably”, he says, “...these goals will not be met for millions of people for whom we have pastoral care”. That pastoral care, Archbp. Williams writes, extends beyond prayer and advocacy to the provision of direct services, including education, health care, emergency relief, and counselling.
It is because of this direct involvement that the bishops recognize and “pay tribute to the inspiring lives lived by countless people as they seek to know and love God amidst the cruelties of poverty...”.
But “Christian pastors and other faith leaders”, the Archbishop writes, “cannot stand by while promises are not kept, when nations are tempted by the easier path of preserving their own wealth at the cost of other people’s poverty”. The problem, he asserts, is not a lack of resources, “but a lack of global political will”.
On behalf of the bishops of the Anglican Communion, representing millions of people in 75 nations, the Archbishop of Canterbury therefore calls on the political leaders who will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 25th to:
make a “greater political commitment to addressing poverty and inequality”;
adopt “a timetable for achieving the MDGs by 2015".
invest in and strengthen “partnerships with the Church worldwide” to make full use of its extensive delivery network, and those of other faith communities.
But the Bishops of one of the Communion’s neediest Provinces, one wracked by starvation, poverty, displacement and homelessness and violence, and thus likely to benefit more than most from their fulfillment, chose to issue a statement, not on the MDGs, but on human sexuality.
“We reject homosexual practice as contrary to biblical teaching”, the Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) wrote in an undated statement issued over their Primate’s signature, “and can accept no place for it within ECS”. Affirming that human sexuality is rightly ordered “only when expressed within the life-long commitment of marriage between one man and one woman”, the Bishops state that they “require all those in the ministry of the Church to live according to this standard and cannot accept church leaders whose practice is contrary to this”.
The contradictory developments in the US and Canadian churches, the bishops state, “has not only caused deep divisions within the Anglican Communion but it has seriously harmed the Church’s witness in Africa and elsewhere, opening the church to ridicult and damaging its credibility in a multi-religious environment”.
The Bishops express the importance of the “precious unity” of the Anglican Communion (witnessed in their decision to attend the Conference), and their commitment to uphold its four instruments of communion. They call upon all Provinces to act in such a way as to uphold “the unity and well-being of the Church”.
But for the sake of this unity they “appeal to the Anglican Church in the USA and Canada, to demonstrate real commitment to the requests arising from the Windsor process”, by taking the following steps:
“To refrain from ordaining practicing homosexuals as bishops or priests;
“To refrain from approving rites of blessing for same-sex relationships;
“To cease court actions with immediate effect;
“To comply with resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference;
“To respect the authority of the Bible.”
Tomorrow’s theme will be ecumenism – “The Bishop and Other Churches”. Archbp. Rowan Williams and some of the ecumenical participants at the Conference are scheduled to speak at the daily press conference.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 6
Jul 25, 2008
“BEARING FALSE WITNESS”
Today is the day the Lambeth bishops go to Buckingham Palace for tea, as the guests of Her Majesty, the Queen.
But in a sense, the tea party will be anticlimactic: for at this Lambeth, the bishops – joined by politicians, diplomats, and leaders of other British faith communities – will first have marched from Whitehall to Lambeth Palace in support of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Archbishop Williams and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke at the rally in Lambeth Palace gardens. During that rally, the Archbishop presented a letter to the Prime Minister, addressed to him but also through him, to the leaders of the First World.
In his letter, Dr. Williams speaks of the MDGs as a promise that has been made to the world, and states the Lambeth bishops belief that failing to fulfill them “amounts to bearing false witness not only to our neighbors, but to ourselves and to our God”.
Noting the British government’s leadership, the Archbishop commends the progress which has been made toward halving extreme poverty by the year 2015, the end which the MDG’s are intended to attain. But “regrettably”, he says, “...these goals will not be met for millions of people for whom we have pastoral care”. That pastoral care, Archbp. Williams writes, extends beyond prayer and advocacy to the provision of direct services, including education, health care, emergency relief, and counselling.
It is because of this direct involvement that the bishops recognize and “pay tribute to the inspiring lives lived by countless people as they seek to know and love God amidst the cruelties of poverty...”.
But “Christian pastors and other faith leaders”, the Archbishop writes, “cannot stand by while promises are not kept, when nations are tempted by the easier path of preserving their own wealth at the cost of other people’s poverty”. The problem, he asserts, is not a lack of resources, “but a lack of global political will”.
On behalf of the bishops of the Anglican Communion, representing millions of people in 75 nations, the Archbishop of Canterbury therefore calls on the political leaders who will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on September 25th to:
make a “greater political commitment to addressing poverty and inequality”;
adopt “a timetable for achieving the MDGs by 2015".
invest in and strengthen “partnerships with the Church worldwide” to make full use of its extensive delivery network, and those of other faith communities.
But the Bishops of one of the Communion’s neediest Provinces, one wracked by starvation, poverty, displacement and homelessness and violence, and thus likely to benefit more than most from their fulfillment, chose to issue a statement, not on the MDGs, but on human sexuality.
“We reject homosexual practice as contrary to biblical teaching”, the Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) wrote in an undated statement issued over their Primate’s signature, “and can accept no place for it within ECS”. Affirming that human sexuality is rightly ordered “only when expressed within the life-long commitment of marriage between one man and one woman”, the Bishops state that they “require all those in the ministry of the Church to live according to this standard and cannot accept church leaders whose practice is contrary to this”.
The contradictory developments in the US and Canadian churches, the bishops state, “has not only caused deep divisions within the Anglican Communion but it has seriously harmed the Church’s witness in Africa and elsewhere, opening the church to ridicult and damaging its credibility in a multi-religious environment”.
The Bishops express the importance of the “precious unity” of the Anglican Communion (witnessed in their decision to attend the Conference), and their commitment to uphold its four instruments of communion. They call upon all Provinces to act in such a way as to uphold “the unity and well-being of the Church”.
But for the sake of this unity they “appeal to the Anglican Church in the USA and Canada, to demonstrate real commitment to the requests arising from the Windsor process”, by taking the following steps:
“To refrain from ordaining practicing homosexuals as bishops or priests;
“To refrain from approving rites of blessing for same-sex relationships;
“To cease court actions with immediate effect;
“To comply with resolution 1.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference;
“To respect the authority of the Bible.”
Tomorrow’s theme will be ecumenism – “The Bishop and Other Churches”. Archbp. Rowan Williams and some of the ecumenical participants at the Conference are scheduled to speak at the daily press conference.
Common Cause Partnership Welcomes Jerusalem Declaration
The Common Cause Partnership leaders issued a statement today welcoming the Jerusalem Declaration and the statement on the Global Anglican Future and pledging to move forward with the work of Anglican unity in North America.
We, as the Bishops and elected leaders of the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) are deeply grateful for the Jerusalem Declaration. It describes a hopeful, global Anglican future, rooted in scripture and the authentic Anglican way of faith and practice. We joyfully welcome the words of the GAFCON statement that it is now time ‘for the federation currently known as the Common Cause Partnership to be recognized by the Primates Council.’
The intention of the CCP Executive Committee is to petition the Primates Council for recognition of the CCP as the North American Province of GAFCON on the basis of the Common Cause Partnership Articles, Theological Statement, and Covenant Declaration, and to ask that the CCP Moderator be seated in the Primates Council.
We accept the call to build the Common Cause Partnership into a truly unified body of Anglicans. We are committed to that call. Over the past months, we have worked together, increasing the number of partners and authorizing committees and task groups for Mission, Education, Governance, Prayer Book & Liturgy, the Episcopate, and Ecumenical Relations. The Executive Committee is meeting regularly to carry forward the particulars of this call. The CCP Council will meet December 1-3, 2008.
The Common Cause Partnership links together nine Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America. Together, the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas, Forward in Faith North America and the Reformed Episcopal Church represent more the 1,300 Anglican parishes in the United States and Canada. The Common Cause Partnership Executive Committee is: The Rt. Rev’d Robert Duncan, Moderator; The Venerable Charlie Masters, General Secretary; Mrs. Patience Oruh, Treasurer; The Rt. Rev’d Keith Ackerman, Forward in Faith North America; The Rt. Rev’d David Anderson, American Anglican Council; The Rt. Rev’d Donald Harvey, Anglican Network in Canada; The Rt. Rev’d Paul Hewett, Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas; The Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Convocation of Anglicans in North America; The Rt. Rev’d Chuck Murphy, Anglican Mission in the Americas; The Rt. Rev’d Leonard Riches, Reformed Episcopal Church; The Rt. Rev’d Bill Atwood, Anglican Church of Kenya and The Rt. Rev’d John Guernsey, The Church of Uganda.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted 2008-07-24 10:08:32
We, as the Bishops and elected leaders of the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) are deeply grateful for the Jerusalem Declaration. It describes a hopeful, global Anglican future, rooted in scripture and the authentic Anglican way of faith and practice. We joyfully welcome the words of the GAFCON statement that it is now time ‘for the federation currently known as the Common Cause Partnership to be recognized by the Primates Council.’
The intention of the CCP Executive Committee is to petition the Primates Council for recognition of the CCP as the North American Province of GAFCON on the basis of the Common Cause Partnership Articles, Theological Statement, and Covenant Declaration, and to ask that the CCP Moderator be seated in the Primates Council.
We accept the call to build the Common Cause Partnership into a truly unified body of Anglicans. We are committed to that call. Over the past months, we have worked together, increasing the number of partners and authorizing committees and task groups for Mission, Education, Governance, Prayer Book & Liturgy, the Episcopate, and Ecumenical Relations. The Executive Committee is meeting regularly to carry forward the particulars of this call. The CCP Council will meet December 1-3, 2008.
The Common Cause Partnership links together nine Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America. Together, the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas, Forward in Faith North America and the Reformed Episcopal Church represent more the 1,300 Anglican parishes in the United States and Canada. The Common Cause Partnership Executive Committee is: The Rt. Rev’d Robert Duncan, Moderator; The Venerable Charlie Masters, General Secretary; Mrs. Patience Oruh, Treasurer; The Rt. Rev’d Keith Ackerman, Forward in Faith North America; The Rt. Rev’d David Anderson, American Anglican Council; The Rt. Rev’d Donald Harvey, Anglican Network in Canada; The Rt. Rev’d Paul Hewett, Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas; The Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Convocation of Anglicans in North America; The Rt. Rev’d Chuck Murphy, Anglican Mission in the Americas; The Rt. Rev’d Leonard Riches, Reformed Episcopal Church; The Rt. Rev’d Bill Atwood, Anglican Church of Kenya and The Rt. Rev’d John Guernsey, The Church of Uganda.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted 2008-07-24 10:08:32
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Catholic News Website Launches in Dallas/Ft. Worth
MCKINNEY, Texas, July 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- MetroCatholic, Inc. recently launched its first electronic news site at www.DFWCatholic.org. MetroCatholic websites provide the outlet for daily Catholic news occurring around the world from the Vatican to the local parish while supplementing the periodic print publications offered by diocesan newspapers. MetroCatholic plans to launch similar sites in Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi, TX over the next year and then expand their concept to major markets throughout the U.S.
www.DFWCatholic.org
Please contact Chad Simpson at chad@dfwcatholic.org or (972) 400-2423 for additional information.
Christian Newswire
www.DFWCatholic.org
Please contact Chad Simpson at chad@dfwcatholic.org or (972) 400-2423 for additional information.
Christian Newswire
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: Wednesday, July 23rd
From www.forwardinfaith.com
Lambeth Conference - 5
Jul 23, 2008
Transforming Society: the Bishop and Social Justice
This was theme for today’s indaba groups.
Helen Wangusa, the Anglican Observer at the United Nations, met with the press to speak about the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). She said that the most important thing is that, with the goals, “all governments have a collective objective” that is “realistic, achieveable”.
The Church has ever fed the hungry and clothed the poor, she observed; now, organizations, governments and societies are engaging with us in that work.
“Water is the mother of all MDGs”, Ms. Wangusa declared. But next after that, in her opinion, the empowerment of women is central to the analysis and implementation of the MDGs.
Tomorrow’s march in London is a statement of our committment to keep our promises, and will ask governments to redouble their efforts to keep theirs. For while progress has been made, it has not been sufficient to meet the agreed targets in 2015.
In response to a question, Ms. Wangusa indicated that her office is concerned about the effect of climate change on small island states, which are sinking or losing population, and is looking at working with various governments to generate a resolution in the General Assembly.
Bp. David of Highfeld in South Africa spoke to the same issue, but with a more local reference-point.
He related the story of a young man who died some six months after being confirmed, holding his confirmation photo, for “he believed the enabled him” by his confirmation to be recognized “as a real person”.
The people Bp. David serves live on the edge, struggling to survive. Urban unemployment in his diocese is 45%; rural unemployment runs to 80%. The diocese has trained 1,100 people to serve as home care workers: the hospitals can’t cope with the number of persons with AIDS.
The MDG’s, Bp. David said, “have helped to focus the ministry of the church” as it says to government that people matter more than arms or bureaucracies, that “people matter most”.
Governments seem increasingly willing to work with faith-based communities, because they are established local institutions: “we have a place in every community where we meet with the people every week”. And through the MDGs, “the church has shown that it is willing to cooperate”.
The church has the capacity, government has the funds: together they can see that church facilities are used between Sundays to provide counselling, testing, care, and a safe place for people under threat.
As to tomorrow’s walk, Bp. David said “there’s a huge significance to symbolic acts” for anyone who sees it – a world leader, or a hungry person. It will show “we’re taking the MDGs seriously”. Asked about the results of the recent G-8 meeting, he said he was disappointed that certain commitments hadn’t been met, but believes that the major governments still intend to honor their promises.
Cheryl Herft, wife of the Bishop of Perth, reported that the spouses’ sessions continued to be “absolutely inspirational” and “diverse”. One speaker today, an ordained woman whose husband is now a Bishop in a province that does not ordain them, for instance, had spoken of her decision to return to Kenya to work in the slums.
The spouses, Mrs. Herft observed, are “at the point of being family”.
In order to protect those bishops who do not wish their presence here to be made public, Archbp. Aspinall announced, the leadership of the Conference had decided to each bishop attending an indaba group to indicate whether or not his or her name could be provided to the press. The list of those who agreed, together with the number of those who did not and the number of those who were absent will, he hopes, be available later today.
With respect to the invitation to the former (and now excommunicate) Bishop of West Buganda to address a self-select group, Archbp. Aspinall reported that the Bishop of Newark in the US and others had indeed invited him, but that at the request of the Conference leadership that invitation had been withdrawn. The group was listed in the program in error, and in fact the planned session did not take place.
A member of the press reported although that he had made a request through the press office last Sunday to interview a particular bishop, that bishop said in a chance encounter with the reporter earlier today that he’d heard nothing of the request. The reporter further noted that several other members of the press had indicated that they, too, had filed requests to which there had been no answer over a period of days. Noting that he himself had spent much of the morning trying to locate a particular bishop, Archbp. Aspinall accepted that the present system is not working, and undertook to come up with a one which would be effective.
Lambeth Conference - 5
Jul 23, 2008
Transforming Society: the Bishop and Social Justice
This was theme for today’s indaba groups.
Helen Wangusa, the Anglican Observer at the United Nations, met with the press to speak about the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). She said that the most important thing is that, with the goals, “all governments have a collective objective” that is “realistic, achieveable”.
The Church has ever fed the hungry and clothed the poor, she observed; now, organizations, governments and societies are engaging with us in that work.
“Water is the mother of all MDGs”, Ms. Wangusa declared. But next after that, in her opinion, the empowerment of women is central to the analysis and implementation of the MDGs.
Tomorrow’s march in London is a statement of our committment to keep our promises, and will ask governments to redouble their efforts to keep theirs. For while progress has been made, it has not been sufficient to meet the agreed targets in 2015.
In response to a question, Ms. Wangusa indicated that her office is concerned about the effect of climate change on small island states, which are sinking or losing population, and is looking at working with various governments to generate a resolution in the General Assembly.
Bp. David of Highfeld in South Africa spoke to the same issue, but with a more local reference-point.
He related the story of a young man who died some six months after being confirmed, holding his confirmation photo, for “he believed the enabled him” by his confirmation to be recognized “as a real person”.
The people Bp. David serves live on the edge, struggling to survive. Urban unemployment in his diocese is 45%; rural unemployment runs to 80%. The diocese has trained 1,100 people to serve as home care workers: the hospitals can’t cope with the number of persons with AIDS.
The MDG’s, Bp. David said, “have helped to focus the ministry of the church” as it says to government that people matter more than arms or bureaucracies, that “people matter most”.
Governments seem increasingly willing to work with faith-based communities, because they are established local institutions: “we have a place in every community where we meet with the people every week”. And through the MDGs, “the church has shown that it is willing to cooperate”.
The church has the capacity, government has the funds: together they can see that church facilities are used between Sundays to provide counselling, testing, care, and a safe place for people under threat.
As to tomorrow’s walk, Bp. David said “there’s a huge significance to symbolic acts” for anyone who sees it – a world leader, or a hungry person. It will show “we’re taking the MDGs seriously”. Asked about the results of the recent G-8 meeting, he said he was disappointed that certain commitments hadn’t been met, but believes that the major governments still intend to honor their promises.
Cheryl Herft, wife of the Bishop of Perth, reported that the spouses’ sessions continued to be “absolutely inspirational” and “diverse”. One speaker today, an ordained woman whose husband is now a Bishop in a province that does not ordain them, for instance, had spoken of her decision to return to Kenya to work in the slums.
The spouses, Mrs. Herft observed, are “at the point of being family”.
In order to protect those bishops who do not wish their presence here to be made public, Archbp. Aspinall announced, the leadership of the Conference had decided to each bishop attending an indaba group to indicate whether or not his or her name could be provided to the press. The list of those who agreed, together with the number of those who did not and the number of those who were absent will, he hopes, be available later today.
With respect to the invitation to the former (and now excommunicate) Bishop of West Buganda to address a self-select group, Archbp. Aspinall reported that the Bishop of Newark in the US and others had indeed invited him, but that at the request of the Conference leadership that invitation had been withdrawn. The group was listed in the program in error, and in fact the planned session did not take place.
A member of the press reported although that he had made a request through the press office last Sunday to interview a particular bishop, that bishop said in a chance encounter with the reporter earlier today that he’d heard nothing of the request. The reporter further noted that several other members of the press had indicated that they, too, had filed requests to which there had been no answer over a period of days. Noting that he himself had spent much of the morning trying to locate a particular bishop, Archbp. Aspinall accepted that the present system is not working, and undertook to come up with a one which would be effective.
From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: Monday, July 22nd
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 4
Jul 23, 2008
“APOLOGISTS, NOT APOLOGISERS”
Cardinal Ivan Dias, sometime Catholic Archbishop of Bombay and now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, addressed a plenary session of the Lambeth Conference this evening on the subject, “Mission, Social Justice, and Evangelization”.
Evangelisation is not an option, but a command of the Lord to every Christian, and especially to “the leaders of the people of God”, the Cardinal affirmed. God wills all men and women to be saved through Jesus Christ, he said: “A Christian must, therefore, consider himself as on a `mission’ to proclaim the sacred person and saving mission of Jesus Christ at all times and without any compromise whatsoever, and to spread Gospel values to every heart and home and culture”.
The ultimate context of evangelisation, the Cardinal continued, is “the spiritual combat, described in the Books of Genesis and Revelation”. That spiritual conflict is manifest in our times, he said, in “secularism, which seeks to build a Godless society”; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel”. All of these, he said, foster a culture of death: “abortions (the slaughter of innocent unborn children), divorces (which kill sacred marriage bonds blessed by God), materialism and moral aberrations (which suffocate the joy of living and lead often to profound psychic depression), economic, social and political injustices (which crush human rights), violence, murders and the like...”. The family and youth, the Cardinal stated, are particularly vulnerable to this culture.
How is this mission to be pursued? First and foremost, the Cardinal declared, by “exemplary Christian living”. Pagans were attracted to the Christian faith, he noted, because of the way Christians behaved – and in particular, by their love for one another. Quoting at length from the second-century Letter to Diognetus, he spoke of how ordinary Christians’ lives appeared – and yet how extraordinary they were, in that these citizens lived as transients and aliens, living not after the flesh but as citizens of heaven, not exposing their infants, holding the marriage-bed inviolate, keeping the laws but in their own lives transcending the laws.
“This”, Cardinal Dias asserted, “is, in short, what Christian witness is all about, and what the world needs today”:
“It needs the credible witness of simple Christians who live in the world, with its joys and sorrows, its hopes and tribulations, but are not of the world. In fact, our contemporaries believe more willingly in witnesses, than in teachers; and if they do believe teachers, it is because they are witnesses....The world today needs Christian apologists, not apologisers: it needs persons like John Henry Cardinal Newman, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc and others, who brilliantly expose the beauty of the Christian faith without blushing or compromise”.
Evangelism by the witness of Christian lives, the Cardinal suggested, is complemented by inculturation and inter-religious dialogue.
Inculturation “incarnates” the Gospel message into cultures and local contexts, “so that it is meaningful to the members of a given Christian community and is easily understood by those outside it”. The Gospel purifies the culture, but at the same time it needs to be expressed within the culture so that its message can be heard and embraced.
Inter-religious dialogue is based upon the recognition that “the Holy Spirit works outside the visible confines of the Churches”, the Cardinal stated. Thus, there are “elements which are true, good and holy” in other religious and cultural traditions. These should be regarded “with sincere reverence” as “seeds of the Word”, “a ray of the Truth which enlightens all human beings”. “For a Christian then”, the Cardinal asserted, “a dialogue of religions entails the discovery of the relationship between the working of the Holy Spirit in the Christian faith and His persevering action in other religious traditions”.
This dialogue can be pursued in action – in day-to-day contacts with persons of other faiths and in concrete deeds of love in such fields as education and healthcare, and “initiatives in favour of the poor and the marginalised”. It can also be pursued in conversation – “a frank exchange of of notions on God and religion-related topics”, and learning “about each others’ spiritual practices and mystical encounters.
For “Christ Our Lord did not come to abolish, but to fulfill”, the Cardinal reminded the Lambeth bishops, citing Matthew 5.17 – “to bring to fruition the seeds planted by the Holy Spirit in the various religious traditions”. “We must pick out those values in non Christian traditions which are compatible with Christian thought and behaviour and use them as starting points for a fruitful inter-religious dialogue leading to an explanation of their fulfillment in the divine person of Our Lord Jesus Christ”.
The Cardinal then turned to the ecumenical thrust of evangelisation. He recognized that a “united effort would certainly strengthen the implementation of Christ’s mandate to preach the Gospel to every creature”. Citing the work of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, he stated that “The more Anglicans and Catholics are able to study issues together and to discern an appropriate Gospel response, the stronger will be the impact of their mission endeavors”. But, he cautioned, this will require unity among the faithful, between them and their pastors, and above all, among those pastors themselves.
“...a unity which binds them together in the apostolic faith is intrinsic to the Church’s mission of speaking and spreading the Gospel. Hence, when they are of one mind and heart notwithstanding their diversity, their missionary thrust is indeed enhanced and strengthened. But, when the diversity degenerates into division, it becomes a counter-witness which seriously compromises their image and endeavours to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
The Cardinal went on to speak of a “spiritual Altzheimer’s”, in which we are “oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions”, and of an “ecclesial Parkinson’s”, in which we go “whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community”.
Cardinal Diaz concluded his address by speaking of Mary as the “Star of the New Evangelization”. She teaches us “how to be truly Spirit-filled and Spirit-led” by her fiat, “saying `yes’ to God; by her Magnificat, praising God; by her stabat, faithful to the very end. “As, in God’s Providence, the Blessed Virgin Mary had the unique privilege of giving the Saviour to all mankind, her assistance would be indispensable to evangelizers who seek to continue her mission of giving Christ to the world”. And indeed the reverence in which Mary is held by persons of other faiths make her “an important point of reference for inter-religious dialogue as well”.
Returning to his theme of spiritual warfare, the Cardinal asserted that their role as bishops requires shepherds continuously to “discern whether their pastoral endeavours are inspired by God, or motivated by human criteria, or prompted by the Evil one” [sic]. Citing Joyce Kilmer’s the poem, The Robe of Christ, he noted how easy it is to recognize the devil when he “comes in his proper form”, but how difficult when He comes in the guise of the man of sorrows. But “Christ’s Mother knows her Son”: she recognizes “the Man of Lies, disguised with fearful art; he has the wounded hands and feet, but not the wounded heart”.
In your correspondent’s view, Cardinal Diaz presented a positive and orthodox exposition of the new evangelisation. Yet in doing so, he took the opportunity to speak pointedly yet gently and with obvious affection to issues and concerns within the Anglican family which impede both its ability to pursue that work, and its relations with the (Roman) Catholic Church.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 4
Jul 23, 2008
“APOLOGISTS, NOT APOLOGISERS”
Cardinal Ivan Dias, sometime Catholic Archbishop of Bombay and now Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, addressed a plenary session of the Lambeth Conference this evening on the subject, “Mission, Social Justice, and Evangelization”.
Evangelisation is not an option, but a command of the Lord to every Christian, and especially to “the leaders of the people of God”, the Cardinal affirmed. God wills all men and women to be saved through Jesus Christ, he said: “A Christian must, therefore, consider himself as on a `mission’ to proclaim the sacred person and saving mission of Jesus Christ at all times and without any compromise whatsoever, and to spread Gospel values to every heart and home and culture”.
The ultimate context of evangelisation, the Cardinal continued, is “the spiritual combat, described in the Books of Genesis and Revelation”. That spiritual conflict is manifest in our times, he said, in “secularism, which seeks to build a Godless society”; spiritual indifference, which is insensitive to transcendental values; and relativism, which is contrary to the permanent tenets of the Gospel”. All of these, he said, foster a culture of death: “abortions (the slaughter of innocent unborn children), divorces (which kill sacred marriage bonds blessed by God), materialism and moral aberrations (which suffocate the joy of living and lead often to profound psychic depression), economic, social and political injustices (which crush human rights), violence, murders and the like...”. The family and youth, the Cardinal stated, are particularly vulnerable to this culture.
How is this mission to be pursued? First and foremost, the Cardinal declared, by “exemplary Christian living”. Pagans were attracted to the Christian faith, he noted, because of the way Christians behaved – and in particular, by their love for one another. Quoting at length from the second-century Letter to Diognetus, he spoke of how ordinary Christians’ lives appeared – and yet how extraordinary they were, in that these citizens lived as transients and aliens, living not after the flesh but as citizens of heaven, not exposing their infants, holding the marriage-bed inviolate, keeping the laws but in their own lives transcending the laws.
“This”, Cardinal Dias asserted, “is, in short, what Christian witness is all about, and what the world needs today”:
“It needs the credible witness of simple Christians who live in the world, with its joys and sorrows, its hopes and tribulations, but are not of the world. In fact, our contemporaries believe more willingly in witnesses, than in teachers; and if they do believe teachers, it is because they are witnesses....The world today needs Christian apologists, not apologisers: it needs persons like John Henry Cardinal Newman, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc and others, who brilliantly expose the beauty of the Christian faith without blushing or compromise”.
Evangelism by the witness of Christian lives, the Cardinal suggested, is complemented by inculturation and inter-religious dialogue.
Inculturation “incarnates” the Gospel message into cultures and local contexts, “so that it is meaningful to the members of a given Christian community and is easily understood by those outside it”. The Gospel purifies the culture, but at the same time it needs to be expressed within the culture so that its message can be heard and embraced.
Inter-religious dialogue is based upon the recognition that “the Holy Spirit works outside the visible confines of the Churches”, the Cardinal stated. Thus, there are “elements which are true, good and holy” in other religious and cultural traditions. These should be regarded “with sincere reverence” as “seeds of the Word”, “a ray of the Truth which enlightens all human beings”. “For a Christian then”, the Cardinal asserted, “a dialogue of religions entails the discovery of the relationship between the working of the Holy Spirit in the Christian faith and His persevering action in other religious traditions”.
This dialogue can be pursued in action – in day-to-day contacts with persons of other faiths and in concrete deeds of love in such fields as education and healthcare, and “initiatives in favour of the poor and the marginalised”. It can also be pursued in conversation – “a frank exchange of of notions on God and religion-related topics”, and learning “about each others’ spiritual practices and mystical encounters.
For “Christ Our Lord did not come to abolish, but to fulfill”, the Cardinal reminded the Lambeth bishops, citing Matthew 5.17 – “to bring to fruition the seeds planted by the Holy Spirit in the various religious traditions”. “We must pick out those values in non Christian traditions which are compatible with Christian thought and behaviour and use them as starting points for a fruitful inter-religious dialogue leading to an explanation of their fulfillment in the divine person of Our Lord Jesus Christ”.
The Cardinal then turned to the ecumenical thrust of evangelisation. He recognized that a “united effort would certainly strengthen the implementation of Christ’s mandate to preach the Gospel to every creature”. Citing the work of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, he stated that “The more Anglicans and Catholics are able to study issues together and to discern an appropriate Gospel response, the stronger will be the impact of their mission endeavors”. But, he cautioned, this will require unity among the faithful, between them and their pastors, and above all, among those pastors themselves.
“...a unity which binds them together in the apostolic faith is intrinsic to the Church’s mission of speaking and spreading the Gospel. Hence, when they are of one mind and heart notwithstanding their diversity, their missionary thrust is indeed enhanced and strengthened. But, when the diversity degenerates into division, it becomes a counter-witness which seriously compromises their image and endeavours to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
The Cardinal went on to speak of a “spiritual Altzheimer’s”, in which we are “oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions”, and of an “ecclesial Parkinson’s”, in which we go “whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community”.
Cardinal Diaz concluded his address by speaking of Mary as the “Star of the New Evangelization”. She teaches us “how to be truly Spirit-filled and Spirit-led” by her fiat, “saying `yes’ to God; by her Magnificat, praising God; by her stabat, faithful to the very end. “As, in God’s Providence, the Blessed Virgin Mary had the unique privilege of giving the Saviour to all mankind, her assistance would be indispensable to evangelizers who seek to continue her mission of giving Christ to the world”. And indeed the reverence in which Mary is held by persons of other faiths make her “an important point of reference for inter-religious dialogue as well”.
Returning to his theme of spiritual warfare, the Cardinal asserted that their role as bishops requires shepherds continuously to “discern whether their pastoral endeavours are inspired by God, or motivated by human criteria, or prompted by the Evil one” [sic]. Citing Joyce Kilmer’s the poem, The Robe of Christ, he noted how easy it is to recognize the devil when he “comes in his proper form”, but how difficult when He comes in the guise of the man of sorrows. But “Christ’s Mother knows her Son”: she recognizes “the Man of Lies, disguised with fearful art; he has the wounded hands and feet, but not the wounded heart”.
In your correspondent’s view, Cardinal Diaz presented a positive and orthodox exposition of the new evangelisation. Yet in doing so, he took the opportunity to speak pointedly yet gently and with obvious affection to issues and concerns within the Anglican family which impede both its ability to pursue that work, and its relations with the (Roman) Catholic Church.
From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: July 22nd, 2008
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 3
Jul 23, 2008
“A Diminishing Sense Of Communion”
The Windsor Continuation Group is one of the two bodies which have been tasked to deal with the issues facing the Communion. The chairman of the Group is Bp. Clive Hanford, the retired Primate of the Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
Bp. Hanford met with the press at today’s press conference to outline the “preliminary observations” describing “where we are” which the Group presented to the Lambeth Conference on Sunday evening. The Group recognizes that the presenting issues “are not always the issues that we are actually dealing with”. It recognizes “that there has been an inconsistency between what has been agreed and what has been done”. It recognizes that there has been “a breakdown of trust”, rooted in “real fears of a wider agenda” over doctrine and polity. It recognizes that the divisions in The Episcopal Church will likely “play out in the wider Communion”. All of this, the Group states, has led to “a diminishing sense of Communion” (sic), and increasing pressure on the instruments of unity.
All of this, the Group concluded, has caused the Communion’s ecumenical partners to ask questions about Anglican identity.
“We believe in the Anglican Communion”, Bp. Hanford stated: God called it into being, God has given it a work to do, and God is doing that work through it. Many good things are happening in it: evangelization, catechesis, service. It may be an “inclusive Communion” in which “all are welcome”, he said, but “that is not the same thing as `anything goes’”.
The indaba session on Friday, August 1st, will look at “The Bishop, the Anglican Covenant, and the Windsor Process”. The Continuation Group has suggested that the session take up two questions:
What might mutual accountability under God in life and mission look like at its best in the period between now and the completion of the Covenant process?
What personal sacrifices might that involve for each of us?
At a hearing tomorrow, the bishops will have an opportunity to describe “where we would like to be”; and at another hearing next Monday, they will talk about how they might get there. The Group’s goal, Bp. Hanford said, is to continue its work “in conversation with, in principle, the whole Communion”. And this dialogue, Bishop Hanford emphasized, will not end with the Conference: the Group wishes to explore ways in which those who have absented themselves from Lambeth can all join in.
Tuesday’s second presenter was Mr. Tom Behr, spouse of Bp. Wolfe of Rhode Island. He said that the spouses’ gathering was hearing about the power of love and of the Gospel on cultures around the world. In Uganda, for instance, it was the Gospel that made possible the reconciliation of 273 warring tribes. The spouses also heard “heartrending” stories about persecution.
Mr. Behr concluded by saying that “it would be a tragedy of great proportions if this Communion fell apart”. Amplifying this in response to a question, he said he did not think it had already come apart: “there are apparent differences”, he recognized, but “God can intervene”.
Bp. Sebastian of Harare, Zimbabwe, spoke of the urgent issues facing his people: the need for peace and security, for the availability and affordability of basic necessities, for the rule of law, for respect for human dignity. Religious freedom is denied under the present system, he said. The police have surrounded the church buildings and denied the priests and people access to their them since November at the instigation of Dr. Kanunga, the former and now excommunicate diocesan, who is an ally of Mr. Mugabwe. When people gather elsewhere to worship, the police interrupt their worship, even pulling communicants away from the altar rail.
But denied access to their churches and opportunities to meet, Bp. Sebastian, has strengthened his people’s commitment to the Gospel. His lay people have an increased sense of ownership of their church – and an increased willingness to call evil by its name, even in the face of a gun.
Bp. Sebastian is cautiously hopeful for the discussions between Zimbabwe’s rival parties which had just been announced. But he is mindful that an earlier “memorandum of understanding” between Mr. Mugabwe and Joshua Nkomo ended with the former’s party swallowing up the latter’s.
Bp. Sebastian denied out of hand Dr. Kanunga’s assertion that he is a “puppet”, noting that he does not belong to any political party, and that the people of his diocese belong to all the parties.
The bishop was not concerned that sexuality, and not persecution, seemed to command the Conference’s attention. Every nation or group of people has different issues, he said. That does not mean they should have nothing to do with issues affecting others.
Asked about a description of the church in Africa as teaching the prosperity Gospel and holding a dualistic belief in heaven, Bp. Sebastian noted that there was not one African church, but many – and said he had not come across the one described.
A nineteen-year-old with no vision beyond this world is doomed to end in the grave. As an inner-city parish priest, Bp. Michael Curry of North Carolina in the United States conducted the funeral of a young man killed in a drive-by shooting. He was arrested to hear another young man say as he touched the casket, “see you soon”. It was that experience which gave him a passion for evangelism, sharing “a way of life that can give life” and enable the best that is in us. “For some in this world”, Bp. Curry said, “that is life and death”.
There is something compelling about sharing the life of Jesus in the lives of individuals and in the life of the world, Bp. Curry said.
Evangelism begins with the Word, the call and summons of the Gospel. But while Bp. Curry believes passionately in Jesus, he does not embrace the exclusivity of the claim that no one can come to the Father except by Jesus. He is not God, he said, and therefore he doesn’t have the answers. “Let’s let God be God”, he said, “and let us be who God has called us to be”, and let Him sort out the rest. Our job, he said, is to share what we know with generosity and compassion.
The press are here to report the news, not to be the news. But there was something of a verbal tussle at the end of the press conference over the press office’s refusal to provide a list of the bishops present. The request arose from rumors that bishops from Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda had come, despite their Provinces’ decisions not to take part.
Archbp. Aspinall reported that a Nigerian bishop had sent a FAX saying that he planned to come, but had not yet registered; that five Kenyan bishops had registered; and that he did not know if any Rwandans were present.
The tussle resulted from conflicting statements about why the list could not be provided – security concerns, or privacy rights. That conflict was never satisfactorily answered. The archbishop stated that he would put the request for the list to the Conference leadership, and report back its decision.
The tussle revealed some of the frustration of the press here. We were accredited, and presumably vetted. But despite Archbp. Aspinall’s assertions that we are “free to walk around the campus and speak to any of the bishops” there are in fact restrictions on our movements. We cannot walk inside the enclosure surrounding the Big Top. Only a limited number of us can be admitted (under supervision) to the plenary sessions. Members of the press who wished to worship at the Conference services have been turned back. We are allowed to attend “fringe events”, but only if its organizers notify the conference authorities of the names of those they are willing to admit at least 45 minutes in advance of the event, Archbp. Aspinall announced yesterday – and he was unable to tell us how those “authorities” could be contacted.
Asked directly about the cost of the Conference, Archbp. Aspinall said he did not know the cost, and that since expenses were still being incurred it would not be known until the books were closed. He did confirm that there is a shortfall, but could not say how large it is. Some forty per cent. of the bishops and spouses present, he noted, are receiving full or partial subsidies. Money is still come in, he said, as a result of the appeal to the people of the Communion.
Archbp. Aspinall could not confirm that a deposed Ugandan bishop had been invited to speak to one of the self-select groups. He did note that the members of the group would be free to extend such an invitation: the process is in the hands of the bishops.
On a lighter note, it appears that a group of German-speaking Evangelicals decided that the bishops could use a little help with their Bible studies. Wearing colored lanyards tucked into their pockets, they did manage to get on campus on Saturday, but were duly escorted away. One of them was arrested the next day in Canterbury.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 3
Jul 23, 2008
“A Diminishing Sense Of Communion”
The Windsor Continuation Group is one of the two bodies which have been tasked to deal with the issues facing the Communion. The chairman of the Group is Bp. Clive Hanford, the retired Primate of the Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.
Bp. Hanford met with the press at today’s press conference to outline the “preliminary observations” describing “where we are” which the Group presented to the Lambeth Conference on Sunday evening. The Group recognizes that the presenting issues “are not always the issues that we are actually dealing with”. It recognizes “that there has been an inconsistency between what has been agreed and what has been done”. It recognizes that there has been “a breakdown of trust”, rooted in “real fears of a wider agenda” over doctrine and polity. It recognizes that the divisions in The Episcopal Church will likely “play out in the wider Communion”. All of this, the Group states, has led to “a diminishing sense of Communion” (sic), and increasing pressure on the instruments of unity.
All of this, the Group concluded, has caused the Communion’s ecumenical partners to ask questions about Anglican identity.
“We believe in the Anglican Communion”, Bp. Hanford stated: God called it into being, God has given it a work to do, and God is doing that work through it. Many good things are happening in it: evangelization, catechesis, service. It may be an “inclusive Communion” in which “all are welcome”, he said, but “that is not the same thing as `anything goes’”.
The indaba session on Friday, August 1st, will look at “The Bishop, the Anglican Covenant, and the Windsor Process”. The Continuation Group has suggested that the session take up two questions:
What might mutual accountability under God in life and mission look like at its best in the period between now and the completion of the Covenant process?
What personal sacrifices might that involve for each of us?
At a hearing tomorrow, the bishops will have an opportunity to describe “where we would like to be”; and at another hearing next Monday, they will talk about how they might get there. The Group’s goal, Bp. Hanford said, is to continue its work “in conversation with, in principle, the whole Communion”. And this dialogue, Bishop Hanford emphasized, will not end with the Conference: the Group wishes to explore ways in which those who have absented themselves from Lambeth can all join in.
Tuesday’s second presenter was Mr. Tom Behr, spouse of Bp. Wolfe of Rhode Island. He said that the spouses’ gathering was hearing about the power of love and of the Gospel on cultures around the world. In Uganda, for instance, it was the Gospel that made possible the reconciliation of 273 warring tribes. The spouses also heard “heartrending” stories about persecution.
Mr. Behr concluded by saying that “it would be a tragedy of great proportions if this Communion fell apart”. Amplifying this in response to a question, he said he did not think it had already come apart: “there are apparent differences”, he recognized, but “God can intervene”.
Bp. Sebastian of Harare, Zimbabwe, spoke of the urgent issues facing his people: the need for peace and security, for the availability and affordability of basic necessities, for the rule of law, for respect for human dignity. Religious freedom is denied under the present system, he said. The police have surrounded the church buildings and denied the priests and people access to their them since November at the instigation of Dr. Kanunga, the former and now excommunicate diocesan, who is an ally of Mr. Mugabwe. When people gather elsewhere to worship, the police interrupt their worship, even pulling communicants away from the altar rail.
But denied access to their churches and opportunities to meet, Bp. Sebastian, has strengthened his people’s commitment to the Gospel. His lay people have an increased sense of ownership of their church – and an increased willingness to call evil by its name, even in the face of a gun.
Bp. Sebastian is cautiously hopeful for the discussions between Zimbabwe’s rival parties which had just been announced. But he is mindful that an earlier “memorandum of understanding” between Mr. Mugabwe and Joshua Nkomo ended with the former’s party swallowing up the latter’s.
Bp. Sebastian denied out of hand Dr. Kanunga’s assertion that he is a “puppet”, noting that he does not belong to any political party, and that the people of his diocese belong to all the parties.
The bishop was not concerned that sexuality, and not persecution, seemed to command the Conference’s attention. Every nation or group of people has different issues, he said. That does not mean they should have nothing to do with issues affecting others.
Asked about a description of the church in Africa as teaching the prosperity Gospel and holding a dualistic belief in heaven, Bp. Sebastian noted that there was not one African church, but many – and said he had not come across the one described.
A nineteen-year-old with no vision beyond this world is doomed to end in the grave. As an inner-city parish priest, Bp. Michael Curry of North Carolina in the United States conducted the funeral of a young man killed in a drive-by shooting. He was arrested to hear another young man say as he touched the casket, “see you soon”. It was that experience which gave him a passion for evangelism, sharing “a way of life that can give life” and enable the best that is in us. “For some in this world”, Bp. Curry said, “that is life and death”.
There is something compelling about sharing the life of Jesus in the lives of individuals and in the life of the world, Bp. Curry said.
Evangelism begins with the Word, the call and summons of the Gospel. But while Bp. Curry believes passionately in Jesus, he does not embrace the exclusivity of the claim that no one can come to the Father except by Jesus. He is not God, he said, and therefore he doesn’t have the answers. “Let’s let God be God”, he said, “and let us be who God has called us to be”, and let Him sort out the rest. Our job, he said, is to share what we know with generosity and compassion.
The press are here to report the news, not to be the news. But there was something of a verbal tussle at the end of the press conference over the press office’s refusal to provide a list of the bishops present. The request arose from rumors that bishops from Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda had come, despite their Provinces’ decisions not to take part.
Archbp. Aspinall reported that a Nigerian bishop had sent a FAX saying that he planned to come, but had not yet registered; that five Kenyan bishops had registered; and that he did not know if any Rwandans were present.
The tussle resulted from conflicting statements about why the list could not be provided – security concerns, or privacy rights. That conflict was never satisfactorily answered. The archbishop stated that he would put the request for the list to the Conference leadership, and report back its decision.
The tussle revealed some of the frustration of the press here. We were accredited, and presumably vetted. But despite Archbp. Aspinall’s assertions that we are “free to walk around the campus and speak to any of the bishops” there are in fact restrictions on our movements. We cannot walk inside the enclosure surrounding the Big Top. Only a limited number of us can be admitted (under supervision) to the plenary sessions. Members of the press who wished to worship at the Conference services have been turned back. We are allowed to attend “fringe events”, but only if its organizers notify the conference authorities of the names of those they are willing to admit at least 45 minutes in advance of the event, Archbp. Aspinall announced yesterday – and he was unable to tell us how those “authorities” could be contacted.
Asked directly about the cost of the Conference, Archbp. Aspinall said he did not know the cost, and that since expenses were still being incurred it would not be known until the books were closed. He did confirm that there is a shortfall, but could not say how large it is. Some forty per cent. of the bishops and spouses present, he noted, are receiving full or partial subsidies. Money is still come in, he said, as a result of the appeal to the people of the Communion.
Archbp. Aspinall could not confirm that a deposed Ugandan bishop had been invited to speak to one of the self-select groups. He did note that the members of the group would be free to extend such an invitation: the process is in the hands of the bishops.
On a lighter note, it appears that a group of German-speaking Evangelicals decided that the bishops could use a little help with their Bible studies. Wearing colored lanyards tucked into their pockets, they did manage to get on campus on Saturday, but were duly escorted away. One of them was arrested the next day in Canterbury.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Discussion Of Anglican Use Liturgy Dominates Conversion Speculations
07/22/2008
By: John P. Connolly , The Bulletin
As Christians around the world watch the Anglican Lambeth Conference unfold, the rifts in the Global Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have fueled speculation that some dissatisfied elements might be preparing to convert to Roman Catholicism.
The speculation has intensified with an address by Roman Catholic Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision to the Anglican Use Conference in San Antonio earlier this month. During that speech, Archbishop Myers said the Vatican is trying to expand the "Anglican Use" liturgy to accommodate converting Anglicans.
"We are working on expanding the mandate of the Pastoral Provision to include those clergy and faithful of 'continuing Anglican communities,'" he said. Continuing Churches are churches that split from Anglican Communions following the 1976 Episcopal Church decision to allow women's ordination. "We are striving to increase awareness of our apostolate to Anglican Christians who desire to be reconciled with the Holy See. We have experienced the wonder of several Episcopal bishops entering into full communion with the Catholic Church and we continue to receive requests from priests and laity about the Pastoral Provision."
In 1980, Pope John Paul II created the Pastoral Provision, allowing some parishes in the United States to celebrate a modified Anglican liturgy. While the Pastoral Provision is currently only in effect in the United States, ongoing talks between traditional Anglicans and the Vatican may include an expansion of the Anglican Use to other countries.
Fr. Eric L. Bergman, chaplain of the Thomas Moore Society in Scranton and chaplain of the Anglican Use Society, explained some of the changes that have been made in the Anglican Use.
"The Anglican Use and the Pastoral Provision are now open to Continuing Church Anglicans as well as members of the Episcopal Church," he said. "The [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] said the Pastoral Provision can apply to men in Continuing Churches and their communities."
Fr. Bergman also said a community in Kansas City is forming because of the new opportunities, but the Anglican Use remains in the United States only, for now.
"Whether it will be expanded to other countries is anybody's guess," he said.
Archbishop Myers suggested those who have benefited from the Pastoral Provision over its 28 years of existence should remember that it was granted "for an indefinite period of time."
"Catholic faithful who worship according to the Anglican Use must never see themselves as different from other Catholics or somehow privileged among other Christian communions," he said. "We are Catholics together, obedient to the Holy Father, to those bishops in communion with him and ever faithful to magisterial teaching."
"We long for an expansion of the Anglican Use that would welcome a body into communion," said Bishop David Moyer, a bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion and rector of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont. "The Traditional Anglican Communion petitioned for that in October. Any move toward expansion of the Anglican Use by the Vatican is very welcomed."
There have been no official statements from the Vatican on the results of the continuing dialogue with various Anglican groups. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is scheduled to address the Lambeth Conference this week.
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
©The Evening Bulletin 2008
By: John P. Connolly , The Bulletin
As Christians around the world watch the Anglican Lambeth Conference unfold, the rifts in the Global Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have fueled speculation that some dissatisfied elements might be preparing to convert to Roman Catholicism.
The speculation has intensified with an address by Roman Catholic Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, Ecclesiastical Delegate for the Pastoral Provision to the Anglican Use Conference in San Antonio earlier this month. During that speech, Archbishop Myers said the Vatican is trying to expand the "Anglican Use" liturgy to accommodate converting Anglicans.
"We are working on expanding the mandate of the Pastoral Provision to include those clergy and faithful of 'continuing Anglican communities,'" he said. Continuing Churches are churches that split from Anglican Communions following the 1976 Episcopal Church decision to allow women's ordination. "We are striving to increase awareness of our apostolate to Anglican Christians who desire to be reconciled with the Holy See. We have experienced the wonder of several Episcopal bishops entering into full communion with the Catholic Church and we continue to receive requests from priests and laity about the Pastoral Provision."
In 1980, Pope John Paul II created the Pastoral Provision, allowing some parishes in the United States to celebrate a modified Anglican liturgy. While the Pastoral Provision is currently only in effect in the United States, ongoing talks between traditional Anglicans and the Vatican may include an expansion of the Anglican Use to other countries.
Fr. Eric L. Bergman, chaplain of the Thomas Moore Society in Scranton and chaplain of the Anglican Use Society, explained some of the changes that have been made in the Anglican Use.
"The Anglican Use and the Pastoral Provision are now open to Continuing Church Anglicans as well as members of the Episcopal Church," he said. "The [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] said the Pastoral Provision can apply to men in Continuing Churches and their communities."
Fr. Bergman also said a community in Kansas City is forming because of the new opportunities, but the Anglican Use remains in the United States only, for now.
"Whether it will be expanded to other countries is anybody's guess," he said.
Archbishop Myers suggested those who have benefited from the Pastoral Provision over its 28 years of existence should remember that it was granted "for an indefinite period of time."
"Catholic faithful who worship according to the Anglican Use must never see themselves as different from other Catholics or somehow privileged among other Christian communions," he said. "We are Catholics together, obedient to the Holy Father, to those bishops in communion with him and ever faithful to magisterial teaching."
"We long for an expansion of the Anglican Use that would welcome a body into communion," said Bishop David Moyer, a bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion and rector of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont. "The Traditional Anglican Communion petitioned for that in October. Any move toward expansion of the Anglican Use by the Vatican is very welcomed."
There have been no official statements from the Vatican on the results of the continuing dialogue with various Anglican groups. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is scheduled to address the Lambeth Conference this week.
John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us
©The Evening Bulletin 2008
Don’t let liberals convince you that the Founding Fathers believed in a watered-down Second Amendment…
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
-- Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
-- Thomas Jefferson
When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state".
-- Claire Wolfe, "101 Things To Do Until The Revolution"
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison, The Federalist Papers
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188
"One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms."
-- Constitutional scholar and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, 1840
Men trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest.
-- From the Declaration of the Continental Congress, July 1775.
"Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue out because I might yell `Fire!' in a crowded theater."
-- Peter Venetoklis
The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
-- Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story of the John Marshall Court
Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. [...] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.
-- Senator Richard Henry Lee, 1788, on "militia" in the 2nd Amendment
"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
-- George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788
"The great object is, that every man be armed. [...] Every one who is able may have a gun."
-- Patrick Henry, speech of June 14 1788
Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.
-- "M.T. Cicero", in a newspaper letter of 1788 touching the "militia" referred to in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms...
-- Samuel Adams, in "Phila. Independent Gazetteer", August 20, 1789
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.
-- Adolph Hitler, April 11 1942.
In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment protects the "collective" right of states to maintain militias, while it does not protect the right of "the people" to keep and bear arms. If anyone entertained this notion in the period during which the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were debated and ratified, it remains one of the most closely guarded secrets of the eighteenth century, for no known writing surviving from the period between 1787 and 1791 states such a thesis.
-- Stephen P. Halbrook, "That Every Man Be Armed", 1984
I don't like the idea that the police department seems bent on keeping a pool of unarmed victims available for the predations of the criminal class.
-- David Mohler, 1989, on being denied a carry permit in NYC
You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.
-- Rush Limbaugh, 17 Aug 1993
According to the National Crime Survey administered by the Bureau of the Census and the National Institute of Justice, it was found that only 12 percent of those who use a gun to resist assault are injured, as are 17 percent of those who use a gun to resist robbery. These percentages are 27 and 25 percent, respectively, if they passively comply with the felon's demands. Three times as many were injured if they used other means of resistance.
-- G. Kleck, "Policy Lessons from Recent Gun Control Research," Law and Contemporary Problems 49, no. 1. (Winter 1986.): 35-62.
Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.
-- Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 US 436 p. 491
[President Clinton] boasts about 186,000 people denied firearms under the Brady Law rules. The Brady Law has been in force for three years. In that time, they have prosecuted seven people and put three of them in prison. You know, the President has entertained more felons than that at fundraising coffees in the White House, for Pete's sake."
-- Charlton Heston, FOX News Sunday, 18 May 1997
(Those) who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right (are) courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.
-- Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School
"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms."
--Aristotle
The biggest hypocrites on gun control are those who live in upscale developments with armed security guards -- and who want to keep other people from having guns to defend themselves. But what about lower-income people living in high-crime, inner city neighborhoods? Should such people be kept unarmed and helpless, so that limousine liberals can 'make a statement' by adding to the thousands of gun laws already on the books?"
--Thomas Sowell
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
-- L. Neil Smith
"Historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the Second Amendment, bears proof that the right to bear arms has consistently been, and should still be, construed as an individual right."
-- U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings, in re U.S. vs Emerson (1999).
-- Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
-- Thomas Jefferson
When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state".
-- Claire Wolfe, "101 Things To Do Until The Revolution"
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
-- James Madison, The Federalist Papers
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed."
-- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188
"One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms."
-- Constitutional scholar and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, 1840
Men trained in arms from their infancy, and animated by the love of liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy conquest.
-- From the Declaration of the Continental Congress, July 1775.
"Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue out because I might yell `Fire!' in a crowded theater."
-- Peter Venetoklis
The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
-- Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story of the John Marshall Court
Militias, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves and include all men capable of bearing arms. [...] To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.
-- Senator Richard Henry Lee, 1788, on "militia" in the 2nd Amendment
"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
-- George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788
"The great object is, that every man be armed. [...] Every one who is able may have a gun."
-- Patrick Henry, speech of June 14 1788
Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.
-- "M.T. Cicero", in a newspaper letter of 1788 touching the "militia" referred to in the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms...
-- Samuel Adams, in "Phila. Independent Gazetteer", August 20, 1789
The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.
-- Adolph Hitler, April 11 1942.
In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment protects the "collective" right of states to maintain militias, while it does not protect the right of "the people" to keep and bear arms. If anyone entertained this notion in the period during which the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were debated and ratified, it remains one of the most closely guarded secrets of the eighteenth century, for no known writing surviving from the period between 1787 and 1791 states such a thesis.
-- Stephen P. Halbrook, "That Every Man Be Armed", 1984
I don't like the idea that the police department seems bent on keeping a pool of unarmed victims available for the predations of the criminal class.
-- David Mohler, 1989, on being denied a carry permit in NYC
You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.
-- Rush Limbaugh, 17 Aug 1993
According to the National Crime Survey administered by the Bureau of the Census and the National Institute of Justice, it was found that only 12 percent of those who use a gun to resist assault are injured, as are 17 percent of those who use a gun to resist robbery. These percentages are 27 and 25 percent, respectively, if they passively comply with the felon's demands. Three times as many were injured if they used other means of resistance.
-- G. Kleck, "Policy Lessons from Recent Gun Control Research," Law and Contemporary Problems 49, no. 1. (Winter 1986.): 35-62.
Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.
-- Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 US 436 p. 491
[President Clinton] boasts about 186,000 people denied firearms under the Brady Law rules. The Brady Law has been in force for three years. In that time, they have prosecuted seven people and put three of them in prison. You know, the President has entertained more felons than that at fundraising coffees in the White House, for Pete's sake."
-- Charlton Heston, FOX News Sunday, 18 May 1997
(Those) who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right (are) courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.
-- Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School
"Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of arms."
--Aristotle
The biggest hypocrites on gun control are those who live in upscale developments with armed security guards -- and who want to keep other people from having guns to defend themselves. But what about lower-income people living in high-crime, inner city neighborhoods? Should such people be kept unarmed and helpless, so that limousine liberals can 'make a statement' by adding to the thousands of gun laws already on the books?"
--Thomas Sowell
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.
-- L. Neil Smith
"Historical examination of the right to bear arms, from English antecedents to the drafting of the Second Amendment, bears proof that the right to bear arms has consistently been, and should still be, construed as an individual right."
-- U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings, in re U.S. vs Emerson (1999).
California Youth Reprimanded for Singing National Anthem in Capitol
SACRAMENTO, July 11 /Christian Newswire/ -- Students attending a youth leadership conference were reprimanded by capitol security yesterday afternoon for singing the National Anthem and God Bless America in the state capitol rotunda. The patriotic expression was apparently so egregious that state troopers were called in to the rotunda to rebuke the students.
As the students ended their singing, several armed troopers entered the rotunda along with capitol sergeants-at-arms. They confronted conference staff and informed them that such singing is prohibited in the state capitol without a permit from the Rules Committee.
Undeterred by their shocking treatment at the hands of government officials, the students have applied for a permit to sing this Saturday, when they will visit the capitol for a mock legislative session on the Assembly and Senate floors.
The forty-five young people from all across California were at the capitol to attend the City on the Hill Youth Leadership Conference, where they learn the legislative and political processes. After spending the day meeting with lawmakers and their staff, the youth aged 14-18, engaged in a spontaneous expression of passion for their country by singing the National Anthem and God Bless America. Tourists walking through the capitol stopped to listen to the singing and clapped enthusiastically.
Among the students attending the conference were two young people whose father was held in a Communist prison in Romania. Another student is a Russian immigrant.
"This was a ghastly overreaction to some students expressing their patriotism in the seat of government," stated Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol Resource Institute and director of the youth conference. "These young leaders have sacrificed a week of their summer to come learn about our government system and this is the 'welcome' they receive from the government."
"I am deeply saddened by the treatment these young patriots received at our state capitol," stated Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Family Impact and a graduate of City on the Hill. "This invaluable program equipped me with the tools I use every day in my job working with lawmakers. Unfortunately, these future leaders have seen first- hand how we are losing our liberties-including simply expressing our patriotism in public."
Despite their treatment, the City on the Hill students have applied for a government permit to sing the National Anthem in the capitol rotunda this Saturday, July 12, at 1:15 p.m.
Christian Newswire
As the students ended their singing, several armed troopers entered the rotunda along with capitol sergeants-at-arms. They confronted conference staff and informed them that such singing is prohibited in the state capitol without a permit from the Rules Committee.
Undeterred by their shocking treatment at the hands of government officials, the students have applied for a permit to sing this Saturday, when they will visit the capitol for a mock legislative session on the Assembly and Senate floors.
The forty-five young people from all across California were at the capitol to attend the City on the Hill Youth Leadership Conference, where they learn the legislative and political processes. After spending the day meeting with lawmakers and their staff, the youth aged 14-18, engaged in a spontaneous expression of passion for their country by singing the National Anthem and God Bless America. Tourists walking through the capitol stopped to listen to the singing and clapped enthusiastically.
Among the students attending the conference were two young people whose father was held in a Communist prison in Romania. Another student is a Russian immigrant.
"This was a ghastly overreaction to some students expressing their patriotism in the seat of government," stated Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol Resource Institute and director of the youth conference. "These young leaders have sacrificed a week of their summer to come learn about our government system and this is the 'welcome' they receive from the government."
"I am deeply saddened by the treatment these young patriots received at our state capitol," stated Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Family Impact and a graduate of City on the Hill. "This invaluable program equipped me with the tools I use every day in my job working with lawmakers. Unfortunately, these future leaders have seen first- hand how we are losing our liberties-including simply expressing our patriotism in public."
Despite their treatment, the City on the Hill students have applied for a government permit to sing the National Anthem in the capitol rotunda this Saturday, July 12, at 1:15 p.m.
Christian Newswire
From the Lambeth Conference Canterbury: July 21st, 2008
From www.forwardinfaith.com
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 2
Jul 22, 2008
“NOT BY COERCION, BUT BY CONSENT”
Meeting with the press at their daily conference today, a relaxed Archbishop of Canterbury reiterated his vision of a “unity achieved not by coercion but by consent”.
In his opening remarks, Archbishop Williams spoke of Sunday evening’s plenary session as a “moment of gear change”, as the bishops moved from gathering and praying and deliberately not engaging an agenda into the work of the Conference.
The Archbishop had introduced the indaba process in his address. He observed that the methods employed at earlier Conferences hadn’t been successful in addressing tough issues; this process was worth trying, and would allow every single bishop’s voice to be heard.
In turn, the bishops’ voices will inform the two groups which are dealing directly with those tough issues, the Covenant Working Group and the Windsor Continuation Group, whose members had been introduced at the plenary.
The Archbishop stated that the issue of women’s ordination is not going to go away, especially in ecumenical discussions, but pointed to the ARCIC statements on ministry as a common resource. He recognized that the decision of the General Synod regarding the ordination of women as bishops has given rise to “alienation and grief” as well as elation, and leaves the Church of England with “a huge bit of unfinished business”. But in his opinion the decision has not hurt the Conference.
The Archbishop was asked directly what counted for him as wrong in sexual behaviour. He replied that he considered any relationship outside a public covenant of mutual support to be wrong – in other words, he said, “sex outside marriage” – and reaffirmed his acceptance of the standard set at Lambeth 1998.
Archbishop Williams was asked why ecumenical participants had been invited “to provoke and deepen the journey”, but the Bishop of New Hampshire had not. He responded that the ecumenical participants are here to represent their churches. But Anglican bishops represent both their dioceses and the worldwide fellowship of Anglicans, he continued: Bp. Robinson was not invited because of questions raised with respect to that fellowship.
Why, then, were Bishop Robinson’s consecrators invited when the CAPA bishops and others had indicated they would not come if they were? The Archbishop noted that some of the consecrators had retired, others had expressed a wish that they hadn’t taken part. More important, the American House of Bishops had asked forgiveness for the offense they had caused, and both the Joint Standing Committee and more than fifty per cent of the Provinces had said they considered that satisfactory. The constitution of the Communion is such that all primates and Provinces have an equal voice: decisions cannot be weighted for their size.
Asked what message he would like to send to those bishops who have absented themselves, Archbishop Williams, observing that it would be “helpful and healing” to have heard their voices, responded, “We’re sorry you’re not here”.
The Archbishop said that he had put to the bishops who have chosen to absent themselves the issue of how that would affect the “legitimacy” of the Conference. People will have to judge if these bishops have “a coherent alternative” to offer, the Archbishop said. But the grave disquiet and serious criticism they have expressed must be responded to.
Reflecting on the first days of the Conference, the Archbishop suggested that the bishops had achieved “a level of spiritual cohesion” by praying and talking “off agenda”, providing “a common base, a common culture” which will serve as a “building block” for what happens at the rest of the Conference.
Several questions focused on the proposed Anglican Covenant. Asked about GAFCON’s accusation that the structures of the Communion are “colonial”, the Archbishop noted that the process of framing the Covenant is still underway: “we argue...we continue to make the case”. With respect to the mutual recognition of ministries, the Archbishop observed that while some “still have questions about the nature” of women’s priesthood, they nonetheless recognize that a ministry is being exercised – a”low level recognition”.
The Archbishop asserted that conflicts based in religion were intensified by ignorance and prejudice, the failure to get into one’s own religion and others’. Speaking specifically to the Bishop of Harare’s break with the Communion, the Archbishop saw this as an “extreme example” of the way in which “unscrupulous people” in the church had used an alliance with government against other parts of the church.
Mrs. Melinda Whelan appeared with the Archbishop to talk about the spouses’ conference. She noted that most had little opportunity to interact with other bishops’ spouses, or to be formed for their ministry. Thus, the spouses’ conference is providing opportunities to learn about such subjects as management skills, microfinance, and starting prayer-groups and other ministries.
The plenary sessions offer an opportunity to hear other spouses’ stories – “remarkable stories, incredible, heartrending, fabulous stories”.
Mrs Whelan herself said that the best thing about being a bishop’s wife was the privilege of being with people at significant times in their lives and the lives of their communities, such as confirmations. The worst thing, she said, is that she never gets to see her husband.
Today the bishops met for the first time in their indaba groups; in fact, the groups met twice to talk about the bishop and Anglican identity. This topic came out of reflections on the formation of bishops by the working party set up by the primates to deliver real excellence in theological education worldwide.
In the evening plenary session, Dr Brian McClaren introduced tomorrow’s theme, the bishop and evangelism, with a presentation on what evangelism looks like “in modern, post modern, colonial and post colonial contexts”.
FiF International News
Lambeth Conference - 2
Jul 22, 2008
“NOT BY COERCION, BUT BY CONSENT”
Meeting with the press at their daily conference today, a relaxed Archbishop of Canterbury reiterated his vision of a “unity achieved not by coercion but by consent”.
In his opening remarks, Archbishop Williams spoke of Sunday evening’s plenary session as a “moment of gear change”, as the bishops moved from gathering and praying and deliberately not engaging an agenda into the work of the Conference.
The Archbishop had introduced the indaba process in his address. He observed that the methods employed at earlier Conferences hadn’t been successful in addressing tough issues; this process was worth trying, and would allow every single bishop’s voice to be heard.
In turn, the bishops’ voices will inform the two groups which are dealing directly with those tough issues, the Covenant Working Group and the Windsor Continuation Group, whose members had been introduced at the plenary.
The Archbishop stated that the issue of women’s ordination is not going to go away, especially in ecumenical discussions, but pointed to the ARCIC statements on ministry as a common resource. He recognized that the decision of the General Synod regarding the ordination of women as bishops has given rise to “alienation and grief” as well as elation, and leaves the Church of England with “a huge bit of unfinished business”. But in his opinion the decision has not hurt the Conference.
The Archbishop was asked directly what counted for him as wrong in sexual behaviour. He replied that he considered any relationship outside a public covenant of mutual support to be wrong – in other words, he said, “sex outside marriage” – and reaffirmed his acceptance of the standard set at Lambeth 1998.
Archbishop Williams was asked why ecumenical participants had been invited “to provoke and deepen the journey”, but the Bishop of New Hampshire had not. He responded that the ecumenical participants are here to represent their churches. But Anglican bishops represent both their dioceses and the worldwide fellowship of Anglicans, he continued: Bp. Robinson was not invited because of questions raised with respect to that fellowship.
Why, then, were Bishop Robinson’s consecrators invited when the CAPA bishops and others had indicated they would not come if they were? The Archbishop noted that some of the consecrators had retired, others had expressed a wish that they hadn’t taken part. More important, the American House of Bishops had asked forgiveness for the offense they had caused, and both the Joint Standing Committee and more than fifty per cent of the Provinces had said they considered that satisfactory. The constitution of the Communion is such that all primates and Provinces have an equal voice: decisions cannot be weighted for their size.
Asked what message he would like to send to those bishops who have absented themselves, Archbishop Williams, observing that it would be “helpful and healing” to have heard their voices, responded, “We’re sorry you’re not here”.
The Archbishop said that he had put to the bishops who have chosen to absent themselves the issue of how that would affect the “legitimacy” of the Conference. People will have to judge if these bishops have “a coherent alternative” to offer, the Archbishop said. But the grave disquiet and serious criticism they have expressed must be responded to.
Reflecting on the first days of the Conference, the Archbishop suggested that the bishops had achieved “a level of spiritual cohesion” by praying and talking “off agenda”, providing “a common base, a common culture” which will serve as a “building block” for what happens at the rest of the Conference.
Several questions focused on the proposed Anglican Covenant. Asked about GAFCON’s accusation that the structures of the Communion are “colonial”, the Archbishop noted that the process of framing the Covenant is still underway: “we argue...we continue to make the case”. With respect to the mutual recognition of ministries, the Archbishop observed that while some “still have questions about the nature” of women’s priesthood, they nonetheless recognize that a ministry is being exercised – a”low level recognition”.
The Archbishop asserted that conflicts based in religion were intensified by ignorance and prejudice, the failure to get into one’s own religion and others’. Speaking specifically to the Bishop of Harare’s break with the Communion, the Archbishop saw this as an “extreme example” of the way in which “unscrupulous people” in the church had used an alliance with government against other parts of the church.
Mrs. Melinda Whelan appeared with the Archbishop to talk about the spouses’ conference. She noted that most had little opportunity to interact with other bishops’ spouses, or to be formed for their ministry. Thus, the spouses’ conference is providing opportunities to learn about such subjects as management skills, microfinance, and starting prayer-groups and other ministries.
The plenary sessions offer an opportunity to hear other spouses’ stories – “remarkable stories, incredible, heartrending, fabulous stories”.
Mrs Whelan herself said that the best thing about being a bishop’s wife was the privilege of being with people at significant times in their lives and the lives of their communities, such as confirmations. The worst thing, she said, is that she never gets to see her husband.
Today the bishops met for the first time in their indaba groups; in fact, the groups met twice to talk about the bishop and Anglican identity. This topic came out of reflections on the formation of bishops by the working party set up by the primates to deliver real excellence in theological education worldwide.
In the evening plenary session, Dr Brian McClaren introduced tomorrow’s theme, the bishop and evangelism, with a presentation on what evangelism looks like “in modern, post modern, colonial and post colonial contexts”.
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