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1a) http://coolcommentary.blogspot.com/ Thursday, March 03, 2005 Island Celebration with Bishop Johnston, Missionary Bishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda
At 7 pm on Tuesday 8th March Bishop Johnston and his wife Rees will be joining the three ACiC congregations on Vancouver Island for a celebration of Holy Communion. This is the first time our bishop has led a service on the Island.
The service will be downstairs at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Nanaimo (just north of the turnoff to the Departure Bay ferry on the service road next to the old Island highway).
1b) http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/newsletter.htm 18th Annual Renewal Mission 2005 with Bishop TJ Johnston Theme: "Transformed for Mission" Dates: Friday evening March 11th, 2005; Saturday March 12th Location: Lions Gate Christian Academy, Maplewood School 420 Seymour River Place, North Vancouver (phone Adele Easto to register 604-929-0542 or delea@shaw.ca ($30) For the brochure: just click on http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/2005%20Renewal%20Mission%20Brochure.pdf
Anglican Communion in Canada Celebration Service (ACiC) Where: Richmond Emmanuel Church 7451 Elmbridge Way (off Westminster Hwy & No. 3 Rd.) Richmond, BC When: Sunday March 13th, 2005 Time: 5:00 pm Celebrant: The Rt. Rev. TJ Johnston Jr. Theme: "Transformed for Mission" Please join us and bring your friends For the flyer, just click on http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/March%2013th%20Celebration%20Service%20with%20Bishop%20TJ.pdf
2a) http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050305/NEWS/503050334/1018/FEATURES10 Extended debate on gays sets course for Episcopalian churches Barre Montpelier Times Argus - Barre,VT,USA By Richard N. Ostling Associated Press (...)Around that time, Williams will be deciding what bishops to invite to the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Vancouver's Bishop Michael Ingham says Williams will "provoke schism in the Communion" if he bars any of the North Americans, but Ingham sees no indication Williams has such intentions(...)
Mar. 5, 2005. 01:00 AM Anglican divide becomes a chasm Talk of schism pervades church's global circle Blessings of same-sex unions at heart of dissent LYNDA HURST, FEATURE WRITER, Toronto Star Newspaper
When there's a will, there's a way?
Not necessarily.
The desire of the international Anglican Church to stay together is strong, but a profound and bitter division over homosexuality is wrenching the world's oldest Protestant denomination apart.
The word schism is being uttered aloud in church circles here and abroad; the prospect of a split is unofficially, if sorrowingly, being prepared for.
"Our hope is that we don't have to leave," says Archdeacon Paul Feheley, principal secretary to Canadian Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, "but we did talk about it hypothetically before going to the primates' meeting."
Feheley is referring to last week's highly charged conference of senior church leaders in Northern Ireland, which hovered on the brink of expelling the North American churches.
Specifically, the crisis centred on the blessing of same-sex unions, as has occurred in one Canadian diocese since 2002, and the ordination of practising gay clergy, as happened last year in the United States. Both took place despite the vehement opposition of the wider church(...)
Last week, Canada and the U.S. were asked to "voluntarily withdraw" from the Anglican Consultative Council, a key international liaison group, until the next meeting of the world's bishops at the 2008 Lambeth Conference.
Both were requested to appear at a special hearing in June to explain the actions of their churches; in effect to justify them theologically. They were also asked to halt further same-sex blessings and gay ordinations.
As one observer bluntly described it: "The primates have handed the North Americans a pearl-handled revolver."(...)
"I cannot imagine a conversation saying, `We got it wrong,' " said Rt. Rev. Frank Griswold, head of the American Episcopal Church.
Griswold outraged many Anglicans in the U.S. and worldwide last year when he appointed Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest living in a same-sex relationship, as bishop of New Hampshire.
Conservative primates were equally angry that the New Westminster, B.C., diocese has been performing same-sex blessings since 2002. They were somewhat mollified when its General Synod decided last year not to approve them but to study the issue for another three years.
But that move was immediately undermined when the synod followed it up with a statement affirming "the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships."
The word "sanctity" was a scarlet-red flag, implying divine approval(...)
Feheley says there are several forms that could take. Canada could remain linked to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but not the other provinces. It could leave altogether and then rejoin in, say, 10 years. Or the Communion could simply become a looser federation, for which there are different models.
Others argue a looser federation would mean a balkanized church united in name only.
Feheley says the first thing Hutchison did in Northern Ireland was to explain to the other primates the environment the Canadian church is living in; that same-sex marriage laws exist in seven provinces and may soon be legal nationwide, that Canada's Charter of Rights prohibits sexual discrimination(...)
Still, Feheley remains optimistic. "The cultural differences are very real, but accommodation has always been the way of the church."
Indeed, it has survived rancorous battles in recent decades over the remarriage of divorced persons and the ordination of women clergy, losing some priests and parishioners in the frays, but enduring as a whole.
But conservatives say the same-sex issue - and how Canada and the U.S. have handled it - can't be "accommodated." It is different.
"The changes with divorce and female clergy were done inside the process, not outside," says Lesley Bentley, an orthodox Anglican in Vancouver, whose church walked away from its New Westminster diocese over same-sex blessings.
Since 2002, eight conservative parishes have left in protest, several to join the Anglican Communion Network, a year-old evangelical movement, but three to link up with the Anglican Church of Rwanda. Its leader has appointed an American bishop to oversee them. (In the U.S., some churches have aligned with the Ugandan church.)
A few parishes remain "orphans," including hers, says Bentley, who is also a spokeswoman for the conservative organization Anglican Essentials. Her church has had no bishop and therefore can't hire needed clergy since it stopped recognizing the authority of New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham.
The controversial Ingham says the call to voluntarily withdraw, agreed to by Archbishop Hutchison, should not be approved by the Canadian synod. Likewise, the request to justify at a special hearing why "homosexual Christians should receive equal treatment."
He further believes that the primates "don't have the authority to kick us out."
Bentley vehemently disagrees. If the Canadian church doesn't "repent" at the June hearing, she says it won't be invited to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, "and when the Archbishop of Canterbury stops inviting you, you're no longer Anglican."
Bentley calls the crisis "the biggest thing that's happened in the history" of the almost 500-year-old church, but she, too, says it is not only about homosexuality. "The issue is that there are two different branches of theology and they can't live under the same umbrella. Unity is a primary thing, but not unity at all costs. Unity is not God. I want to see the church stand up for God."
No, the issue is power politics, counters New Westminster Dean Peter Elliott, who has officiated at six blessings of civilly married gay couples. He is himself in a committed same-sex partnership. He is also the vice-chair of the Council of the General Synod, the governing body of the Canadian church(...)
He shares Bishop Ingham's view that the Canadian church should not withdraw as requested. Not to defy the primates, but to stay and "talk across our differences" for as long as it takes(...)
He can try, but it will be difficult, says David Reed, theology professor at the University of Toronto and former member of Archbishop Hutchison's theology commission. The meeting in Northern Ireland made it clear the church is now weighted toward the conservative Global South.
"They are closer to historical Anglicanism than we are," he says. "Before, they were in colonial mode and things were fine as long as they never spoke up."
Today, there are 18 million members in Nigeria alone, more than North America, Australia and New Zealand combined, he says. The strength of the Central African and Asian churches is partly fuelled by their minority status, says Reed. Several exist within Muslim-majority countries.
"In the West, the Anglican Church is the establishment church and it never wants to be outside the prevailing culture. They don't have to worry about that, because they're already outside the culture."
Reed believes the June meeting will be a watershed. If the Canadian church doesn't pass muster there, then at the Lambeth Conference in 2008, it will have to face hundreds of angry Global South bishops.
At the last, emotional meeting in 1998, they passed, by 80 per cent, a resolution saying homosexuality was not compatible with scripture(...)"It's hard for the liberal West," says Reed, "to understand how repugnant our sexual practices are to them."(...)
North American Churches suspended from Communion Number: 5758 Date: March 4, 2005 The American and Canadian Churches were effectively suspended from the Anglican Communion last week for their refusal to repent of actions that have taken the Communion to the brink of schism(...)
The two provinces have been asked to withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council, one of the Instruments of Unity, until the next Lambeth Conference in 2008(...)
While the Communion has not formally split, it is assumed that the American and Canadian Churches will be expelled if they do not take action to abide by the call for a moratorium on appointing homosexual bishops and issuing same-sex rites.
Dr Williams said that it was important to make "space" for reflection, but added that there needed to be a clearer expression of repentance(...)
Changing Attitude, a pro-gay organisation in the Church, urged the American and Canadian Churches not to agree to a temporary withdrawal but to continue to participate fully in the Anglican Consultative Council.
4) http://dfms.org/3577_59326_ENG_HTM.htm World Anglican leaders send North Americans into the cold London by Cedric Pulford , ENI-05-0126 Friday, February 25, 2005 [Ecumenical News International] Leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion have agreed to temporarily isolate the U.S. and Canadian churches from a key denominational body following a rift over the issue of homosexuality. The leaders, known as primates, of 35 of the communion's 38 autonomous provinces asked the North American churches to "voluntarily withdraw" from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the main coordinating body of the 78-million communion, for at least three years)(...) The rift between the two wings of Anglicanism was precipitated by actions in 2003 of the Episcopal Church, USA, and the Diocese of New Westminster of the Anglican Church of Canada. The U.S. church consecrated the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, while New Westminster introduced a rite of blessing for same-sex unions(...) 5) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2146 Viewpoints : ECUSA ISOLATED...COMMUNIQUE CLEAR...FULL SUSPENSION WILL HAPPEN...more news Posted by dvirtue on 2005/3/2 21:06:00 "The ECUSA and Canada have been given a long rope to hang themselves. They have been asked to consider withdrawing themselves from all representations. If your officer asks you to consider resigning from his position, what does that mean? For me it means go away, I don't want you." - Archbishop Bernard Malango, Province of Central Africa.
"Someone is going to have to say, yes, we were wrong." - Archbishop Rowan Williams.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Anglican Communion took its first tentative steps this past week to isolate, and in time, separate itself from the moral apostasy and theological heresies of both the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church in Canada(...)
THOSE WEDDING BELLS ARE BREAKING UP THAT OLD ANGLICAN COMMUNION OF MINE Posted by: RevSusan on Sunday, February 27, 2005 - 02:41 PM PST By John Gibson
Do not count me among those who are disappointed or even particularly surprised by the word out of the Primates' meeting this past week. Indeed, this Episcopalian's belief is that the ECUSA should treat it as an opportunity - an opportunity to quit pretending that the Anglican Communion can be saved or is worth saving; an opportunity to begin to form a communion of shared views amongst Christians who cannot find a happy spiritual home between Roman authoritarianism and fundamentalist glorification of ignorance(...)
John is an attorney in southern California and a member of St. James (Wilshire) parish
7a) -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Hijacking your church Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 06:57:11 -0800 From: kempling@telus.net To: ed_hird@telus.net
Ed: I've been enjoying your posts over the past few months. I was interested to hear that Mark Lemon was appointed to replace your counterpart (The Rev Barclay Mayo, Christ the Redeemer) on the Sunshine Coast. We had Mark here in Quesnel. He refused to join the ministerial because we insisted everyone agree to the Apostle's Creed! He also convinced his church, the oldest religious building in Quesnel, to install a stain glass window of his own design--a Buddhist lotus flower. There it sits over the large cross attached to front of the building, a permanent affront to the cross of Christ. Chris Kempling
7b) http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/bc.cgi?bc/bccn/0305/01unity Anglican unity hanging in the balance BC Christian News, March 2005 AS ANGLICANS debate the future of their communion, rifts between key members are growing wider(...)
Meanwhile, Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster has revoked the licenses of four priests Paul Carter, Ed Hird, Barclay Mayo and Silas Ng maintaining that they failed, after three months, to respond to a notice of presumption of abandonment of ministry. The bishop said he was "left with no alternative" but to confirm that they had, indeed, abandoned their ministry within the Anglican Church of Canada. The four priests announced their departure from the Canadian church last spring, and formed the Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC).
According to the Anglican Journal, Ed Hird responded that he and the other priests are now "canonically resident" in the Anglican province of Rwanda, and licensed by Rwandan primate Emmanuel Kolini and thus belong to "another provincial jurisdiction" within the Anglican church.
David F. Dawes
8a) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2149 LOS ANGELES: FIVE PRIESTS DEPOSED FROM HOLY ORDERS
Former priests, deacon, led parishes that declared separation from diocese
Bishop J. Jon Bruno has announced to the clergy of the diocese that acting according to the canons of the national Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles, he has deposed Praveen Bunyan, Richard Menees and Kathleen Adams (former rector, associate rector and deacon assistant at St. James' Church, Newport Beach), William Thompson (former rector of All Saints' Church, Long Beach) and Jose Poch (former rector of St. David's Church, North Hollywood), permanently removing them from ordained ministry in the Church.
The four priests and one deacon were inhibited, or suspended, from their ministries in August 2004 when they attempted to transfer their canonical residence to the Diocese of Luwero, Uganda (Africa) and declared that their three parishes were part of that diocese.
Bishop Bruno inhibited the clergy on the grounds that they had broken their ordination vows of obedience to their bishop and abandoned the doctrine and discipline of the Episcopal Church. Canon law requires that clergy who have been inhibited must be deposed after six months unless they repent and make restitution within that time. In this case, none of the inhibited clergy responded to attempts by Bishop Bruno's office to contact them in hopes of reconciliation(...)
8b) http://www.dailypilot.com/front/story/4836p-6805c.html Published March 3, 2005 Church crew back from Africa *Seven from St. James Church spend time in Uganda for spiritual gathering, ordinations. By Elia Powers, Daily Pilot
Pastor Praveen Bunyan and six of his St. James Church congregants returned earlier this week from a nearly three-week trip to Uganda, where they attended a spiritual renewal conference and visited leaders in the Diocese of Luwero, which they recently joined.
"It was a wonderful trip," Bunyan said. "It was nice to be there with our people. It was an incredible blessing to be with our bishop and our clergy."
Two members of the church were ordained as ministers in special ceremonies there, Bunyan said. He and the St. James congregants joined two members of All Saints Church in Long Beach on the trip.
In August, both churches disassociated themselves from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and announced they would join the Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican Province of Uganda.
The churches broke away because they disagreed with the Episcopal Church's more liberal views on homosexuality, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the supremacy of the Bible.
St. James Church, located on Via Lido in Newport Beach, removed "Episcopal" from its name and announced it would become part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Bunyan said once the church became part of the Diocese of Luwero, it was only a matter of time before he took members to visit Uganda.
"It's a natural thing for a group to visit its diocese," he said. "We were very much at home there."
Bunyan said the trip was organized through Sharing Of Ministries Abroad, an organization within the Anglican Communion that connects members. Bunyan said the group went to a variety of churches, prayed with local leaders and celebrated Communion(...)
8c) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2150 3/3/2005 Statement from the Archbishop of Uganda on the Primates' Communique (...)In our Ireland meeting the Primates suspended the Episcopal Church of America and the Canadian Church until they repent(...) · We continue in a state of broken Communion with EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF AMERICA and CANADA because they have not repented of their actions and decisions in approving and consecrating as Bishop a man actively involved in a same-sex relationship(...)we are praying that ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada will repent and rejoin Biblical Anglicanism(...) The Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi Archbishop of Church of Uganda
9) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516378 Religion, NPR Radio Homosexual Policy Could Divide Anglican Church Day to Day, February 28, 2005 · NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, about the possible break-up of the worldwide Anglican Church over the issue of homosexuality. Canadian Episcopals recently sanctioned gay marriage, and an openly gay clergyman was recently named a bishop in the United States. Listen to this story... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4516378
10 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1430275,00.html Anglican leaders divided and defiant after gays pact Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent Friday March 4, 2005, The Guardian UK The worldwide Anglican church was heading for a new rupture over homosexuality yesterday, following the painfully achieved compromise reached by its archbishops in Northern Ireland last week, after it was disclosed that the leader of the primates' conservative faction defied the agreement within hours in order to address traditionalist parishes in Canada(...)
But the archbishops' communique - agreed unanimously - also called on conservative archbishops to refrain from intervening in the affairs of other dioceses for the same period, to safeguard the traditional autonomy of other national churches within the 78 million-strong communion, the third largest Christian de nomination. Last weekend however, the Rt Rev Gregory Venables, presiding bishop of the church in South America, flew directly from the primates' meeting to preach to conservative churches in the diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, Canada, who have fallen out with their bishop, Michael Ingham, over his decision to endorse blessing services for gay couples(...)
Bishop Ingham of New Westminster has already protested that the incursion breaches the agreement. But he himself told the Guardian that he would be pressing for the Canadian church not to agree to the voluntary withdrawal being asked of it. "We should not accede to the request," he said(...)
11a) http://www.anglican.tk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=737 CBC Radio Interview with Archbishop Andrew Hutchison http://www.cbc.ca/insite/AS_IT_HAPPENS_TORONTO/2005/2/25.html Friday February 25th, 2005 Mary-Lou Findlay
CBC: This week, leaders of the Anglican Church from around the world have been meeting in Newry,Northern Ireland. They've been trying to address the growing divide in the church over homosexuality, and in particular whether to bless same-sex marriage. The church leaders did make one decision: that the Canadian and American branches of Anglicanism should stay away the next time the Council of Communion, an influential church body, holds a meeting.
CBC: Andrew Hutchison is the primate of the Anglican Church in Canada. We reached him in Newry, Northern Ireland.
CBC: Your grace, this couldn't have come as much of a surprise. Were you surprised that you were asked to withdraw from the council?
AH: Ahhh, no I don't think I was. And by the way, we're not asked to withdraw from the council, it's a technical difference here, we've been asked to voluntarily have our members of council not attend its next meeting.
CBC: That's a difference that I don't quite see.
AH: Well the difference is that as a corpus, the Anglican Church of Canada remains a member of the council, and the Anglican Church of Canada continues to finance the council. So we're not withdrawing our membership, we're simply asking our members not to attend the June meeting.
CBC: But the suggestion, the implication, is that you're not going to be invited to attend again, until you sort things out with regard to same-sex marriages and gay bishops in our church and the Episcopal Church. Is that wrong?
AH: That isn't stated. No, it's only between now and the Lambeth Conference which is in 2008.
CBC: Well what is supposed to happen between now and then?
AH: Between now and then all of us... all of us study very carefully the questions on the Windsor Report. And the reason for the allowance of time is that the communique finally understands and fully respects the consitutional processes both in Canada and in the United States. Unlike some parts of the communion, as a primate I can't make a decision on the part of my church. There are processes to be gone through. So this creates a little space in which our due processes can be honoured, and we can make our own determination. At the same time, the rest of the provinces in the communion are invited to take a long hard look at their own commitment to the Anglican Communion and walking together or not. This gives us all sort of lots of breathing time for that between now and Lambeth.
CBC: So what will happen? Actually, here?
AH: What will happen? What will happen in Canada is that the Windsor Report will be further referred to every diocese in the country. There are 30 of them.
CBC: This was the report from the Lambeth Commission last year?
AH: Yes, that's correct, yes. And then ultimately it will come to the General Synod in 2007 and probably following that synod we will have a formal response to the rest of the communion.
CBC: The parts of the Windsor Report that you are considering, that are at the center, at the core here are "how we deal with homosexual relationships in the church", right?
AH: Yes, that's correct.
CBC: OK, alright.
AH: And we haven't yet dealt with that nationally. At the moment we're still in a process... My theological commission has been asked to give an opinion on whether this is really a matter of doctrine or simply pastoral discipline and practise. If it is a matter of doctrine, then it must be dealt with by the General Synod, and dioceses must abide by decisions of General Synods. So that's a very important determination that we're going to know about some time in the spring of this year. And if it is indeed a matter that impinges on doctrine, then it will have to be heard in 2007, and I know the bishop of New Westminster has already said that he would certainly comply with whatever the decision of the General Synod might be.
CBC: Meaning what, then?
AH: Meaning whether General Synod will choose to authorize dioceses to bless same-gender relationships, or not.
CBC: So if the General Synod determined that it was a matter of doctrine that homosexual unions not be blessed, you mean the bishop of New Westminster would change the practise then, there ?
AH: Yes he would.
CBC: Rather than cause a split in the church in Canada.
AH: Yup, we're all under discipline, and he's as Anglican as the rest of us. And certainly he indicated to me on previous occasions that he would abide by the decisions of the General Synod.
CBC: What did the Windsor Report say about doctrine?
AH: Well, it didn't, specifically. It's simply that it's a serious departure from what has been the established teaching and practise of the church.
CBC: And will all the other churches, all the other national churches be doing the same thing?
AH: I believe they will. I believe they will. They've all been asked carefully to study the Windsor Report. And another important thing that's to happen in that interim is that all the provinces of the communion are asked to take seriously the commitment they made at Lambeth to initiate or continue discussions on human sexuality, and continue to dialog with gay members. And that's something that's practised more in the breach than in reality. So we are setting up a mechanism to supervise that and be sure that all provinces do in fact take up that dialog.
CBC: If it's just a question of meeting with everybody and considering things, why have you been asked to voluntarily not attend the meetings?
AH: I'm not sure I understand the question quite.
CBC: Where we started out - when I said you'd been asked to withdraw from the council, you said no there was a difference.
AH: Yeah, no.. we're still members of the council and ...
CBC: But you've been asked not to attend meetings.
AH: We've been asked not attend the next meeting, that's correct. And all the primates can do is ask, you know, we're not a juridical body and we can't make any decisions that are binding on anyone. It's a consulation among primates of independent national churches, so all we can do is to say "our collective mind is that we would ask you to take certain actions." So it can only ask and recommend, it can't command.
CBC: OK, thank you very much for speaking to us today.
AH: Alright, thank you.
CBC: Thanks your grace. Bye bye. -END -
11b) http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/050302news News round-up (March 2005) BC Christian News Canadian, American Anglicans "invited" to withdraw from Anglican council The debate over same-sex unions within the global Anglican communion may have reached a turning point last week, as a meeting of national church leaders in Ireland culminated Thursday with an official request that the Canadian and American churches withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council, a major international decision-making body, for at least the next three years(...)
12) http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/realmedia/sequence2.ram More Interviews on BBC Listen to the interviews with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates of Southern Cone (Greg Venables), Canada (Hutchinson), Australia (Carnley), and Ireland (Eames).
13) http://www.cwnews.com/offtherecord/offtherecord.cfm?task=singledisplay&recnum=2550 Off the Record a bishop who knows how to bishop It's refreshing and even inspiring to watch Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria handle himself among his conventionally gay-friendly northern brethren, not only rejecting their patronizing pats on the head, but bringing unwelcome doctrinal clarity to a discussion they want to conduct as fuzzily as possible(...)
Primates' meeting: the ACC response By Bill Bowder and Greg Ryan
THE CHAIRMAN and secretary-general of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) are to meet in London today to decide how to respond to the Primates' request for withdrawal by the six North American ACC members, writes Bill Bowder.
Canon Kenneth Kearon, the ACC's recently appointed secretary-general, said on Tuesday that he would discuss the issue with the ACC chairman, the Rt Revd John Paterson, Bishop of Auckland.
He confirmed that the Primates' request was made without consulting the ACC. The Primates had been "most careful" only to "request" the ACC to act, not to direct it. He could not predict the ACC response. "It is perfectly possible that they could say no to the Primates' request," he said(...)
15) http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/04/nbish04.xml Primate attacked for stance over gays By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent (Filed: 04/03/2005) The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been criticised for his hardline stance on homosexuality by an influential movement he helped to found.
Affirming Catholicism, a liberal Anglo-Catholic group, says today it is "disappointed" that the North American Churches have been asked to repent for consecrating a homosexual bishop and blessing gay "marriages"(...)
The Archbishop, who chaired crisis talks in Northern Ireland last week, has led calls by Anglican leaders for the American and Canadian Churches to admit they were wrong to defy official policy.
By appearing to side with the conservative majority in the row over homosexuality, he has dismayed liberals who once hailed him as their champion.
The Dean of Southwark, the Very Rev Colin Slee, said on Tuesday he was "profoundly anxious" about the direction in which Dr Williams was taking the Church.
The Rev Giles Fraser, chairman of the liberal Inclusive Church pressure group, also expressed his disappointment at the Archbishop's stance.
Yes, they're united, but only just: Primates' response By Pat Ashworth
Accounts are emerging that the Primate's Meeting was tougher than presented at the press briefing. The Primate of the Southern Cone, the Most Revd Gregory Venables, writing in the Church Times ( Comment), tells of Primates from the global South standing up to the North Americans. "North American confidence came across to many Primates as presumptuous, and even arrogant."
He also confirms stories that the Primates did not take communion together. "The refusal of a significant number of our colleagues even to attend the daily celebrations of the eucharist" forced the North Americans to "embrace the clarity of the situation"(...)
(...Archbishop Hutchinson) confirmed that "a dozen or so" Primates had refused to attend communion because of his presence and that of Bishop Griswold(...)
Did the Primates get it right? Vote here. http://churchtimes.com/80256fa1003f58e7/httppublicpages/c9faa18337c755b580256fa200200d3b?opendocument
17) http://www.affirmingcatholicism.org.uk/ Anglican Communion must engage with gays
Sir--We are disappointed that the North American Churches have been asked to repent of their actions in ordaining a gay man as a bishop and in authorising blessings for same-sex couples ( report, Feb 28)(...) Rev Canon Nerissa Jones Rev Dr Barry Norris Rev Canon Perran Gay Rev Richard Jenkins Robin Welton Lisa Martell Affirming Catholicism, London SW1
18) http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Rory_Leishman/2005/03/01/945688.html IMPENDING ANGLICAN SCHISM Same-sex issuing dividing church Rory Leishman, The London Free Press Tuesday, March 1, 2005 By Rory Leishman Following last week's closed-door meeting of Anglican primates in Northern Ireland, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, confided to the Anglican Journal that he feared the gathering would expel the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the United States from the worldwide Anglican communion.
As it is, the primates stopped just short of declaring an outright schism, by requesting that the Canadian and United States churches "voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference (in 2008)." The Council is a representative body of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion that provides advice on church policy.
Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster helped bring on this crisis of unity within the Anglican Communion in 2002, by authorizing a blessing rite for same-sex couples. In 2003, the Episcopal bishops in the United States aggravated matters, by consecrating as bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson, a man who had left his wife and children to live in a conjugal union with another man.
In taking these actions, Ingham and the United States bishops violated the teachings of the church as reaffirmed by the Lambeth Conference of bishops in 1998 that Christians are obligated to display compassion and concern for homosexuals, yet insist that sexual intercourse should be confined within marriage between a man and a woman.
In an attempt to hold the diverse Anglican Communion together, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed a special Lambeth Commission on Communion. In October, the commission asked Ingham and the United States bishops to express regret for their actions. Ingham and Griswold have refused to comply. In November, Hutchison said: "If two people want their relationship blessed, I don't have a problem with that. This isn't same-sex marriage; that's not on the radar screen. All we're talking about is just blessing same-sex relationships."
Is that right? In a report to Ralph Spence, the Bishop of Niagara, on Feb. 1, Canon Peter Scott of St. Mark's, Orangeville, observed: "Looking down the road, I think that the Anglican Church of Canada will allow for a local option to perform same-sex marriage and this, for me, would not be a reason to leave." In arriving at this flexible position, Scott was no doubt mindful that in November, the diocese of Niagara approved the blessing of same-sex unions.
Meanwhile, the orthodox primates have invited representatives of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the United States to a special meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in June to set out the thinking behind the divisive actions of their churches. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that avoiding a split in the church "will require people somewhere along the line to say, 'Yes, we were wrong'.
Will Hutchison and Griswold admit they were wrong? That's doubtful. While Griswold has reiterated his view that the ordination of Robinson was "right and proper," Hutchison has shown no sign of backing away from his support for an unprecedented resolution of the Canadian General Synod last June which affirmed "the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same sex relationships".
Nine orthodox Canadian Bishops promptly denounced this extraordinary resolution as "contrary to the teaching of Scripture and the tradition of the undivided Church, the clearly expressed conviction of the Anglican Communion at the Lambeth Conference of 1998, the overwhelming ecumenical consensus of the Church inside Canada and abroad, and the 1997 Guidelines of our own House of Bishops."
Clearly, the Anglican Church of Canada is a house divided(...)
19) http://titusonenine.classicalanglican.net/index.php?p=5229 3/5/2005 Martyn Minns: A Clear Choice
The February meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion had eagerly been awaited. Which way would they go? Would they find the power and resources of the Western Alliance impossible to resist? Or, would they embrace the Global South alliance and its commitment to traditional Anglican teaching and practice? Would the Anglican Communion shatter? Or, would they try one more .fudge.? Nobody was too sure about the outcome, including the participants themselves!
What happened, however, was a "miracle" according to several of the Primates. As the final communiqué made clear, the Primates of the Anglican Communion unreservedly embraced traditional teaching and practice on human sexuality (as described in Lambeth 1998 Conference Resolution 1.10, see TFN pg. 3). In so doing, the Primates gave the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada a clear choice. The western provinces must choose one of two options: either (1) turn back from support of same-sex blessings and the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals, or (2) no longer be a constituent member of the world-wide Anglican family of churches.
To underscore the seriousness of this choice, both provinces were asked to withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and to provide an explanation for their behavior and actions at the next meeting of the ACC. This measure - an unprecedented rebuke of both Churches - has produced a wide range of responses, including a rather truculent statement from Presiding Bishop Griswold, "I cannot imagine saying .We got it wrong…"(...)
20) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2161 http://www.anglicanessentials.ca/readarticle.php?article_id=27 Anglican Network in Canada Anglican Church of Canada Told to Make a Choice
Canadian Anglicans must choose between being a member of the global Anglican Communion or become a stand alone church, says Primate from the Anglican Communion.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 04 March 2005---VANCOUVER--- One of the Anglican world's most senior archbishops told a large Vancouver audience that the Anglican Church of Canada must either stick to the majority Anglican teaching on human sexuality, or cease to belong to the Anglican Communion.
The Most Rev'd Gregory Venables, Primate (senior archbishop) of the Southern Cone (South America), made his remarks only days after he and thirty-four other Primates issued a joint statement asking the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church in the United States to withdraw from a key Anglican body until 2008(...)
21) http://www.churchnewspaper.com/editorial.php Editorial: Thanks to our Christian leaders Saturday, 5th March, 2005 No: 5758 Church of England Newspaper
Anglicans will be deeply grateful to the Primates for their wisdom and theological faithfulness at Newry. At last they have realised that they can actually take action, they are freed from the mantra that no action could be taken against maverick elements. The Anglican family has conducted itself with exemplary courtesy towards a divergent group, but at the end of the day no family can allow one member to destroy it. The Primates have decided, and not before time, to be Primates of the global family and to remove privileges from the wayward member. In sporting terms, the yellow card has been shown to ECUSA and her Canadian sister, a time for reflection has been called. The family as a whole can breathe again and relax now that the vexatious sisters have been sent away to reconsider their future. We sincerely hope that the three years out of the Anglican Consultative Council does indeed help.
Had the Primates not taken such action, the fault lines would surely have spread further into the provinces of the Communion, notably in England. But now it is clear where mainline Anglicanism stands, and those calling for increasing sexual freedom are not mainstream(...)
22) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2160 Posted by dvirtue on 2005/3/4 22:11:00 Ethics & Religion Episcopal Church is Suspended by Anglican Communion by Michael J. McManus The words of the "Primates of the Anglican Communion,"were courteous and veiled in their meaning. "We request that the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council" until 2008.
To be asked to "voluntarily withdraw" from the Anglican Communion is a "polite way to suspend them from the Communion," as Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya put it.
Why? "There remains a very real question about whether the North American churches are willing to accept the same teaching on matters of sexual morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion," as the Primates delicately stated the issue. The leaders of 77 million Anglicans shudder to even describe the practices which they find so offensive.
The statement mutes the abhorrence felt by most Anglican bishops around the world at the U.S. consecration of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire though he is a divorced, non-celibate homosexual. In 1998 by a stunning vote of 527-69 Anglican bishops opposed "legitimatizing or blessing same sex unions" and "ordaining those involved in same gender unions."
Both Canadian Anglicans and American Episcopalians violate those injunctions by using carefully crafted rituals to bless same-sex unions and ordain gay clergy.
The Anglican Primates, Archbishops who oversee Anglican churches in scores of countries, have given U.S. and Canadian Churches three years to stop these practices and express contrition, or they will be expelled from the Anglican Commnion.
"The accused have been given a long rope to hang themselves," Archbishop Bernard Malango of Central Africa told David Virtue, who authors a widely read website, www.virtueonline.org.
Rev. David Roseberry, Rector of Christ Church in Plano, TX, the largest Episcopal Church in attendance (2,200 on Sundays) considers the outcome "miraculous," in part because the "Global South is now leading the Anglican Communion. This is where the life and vitality of the church now is. How incredible that God would give them the courage and the strength to take a strong stand."
The "Global South" refers to Latin American and African Anglicans who vastly outnumber white northern Episcopalians and Anglicans. Nigeria's 18 million Anglicans are six times that of Canada and the U.S. Africans are far more orthodox in their Christian belief, and are now standing up to their historic colonial masters, and demanding their fidelity to Scripture, if they are to remain in communion.
"It was such a wonderful way of putting the Episcopal Church in its place, as if to say to a child, 'You go to your room and think about what you have done. If you want to join the family again, recognize that there are rules, serious rules. We do have boundaries,'" asserts Roseberry(...)
But the warning is clear. If a national church goes against the historic Christian teaching that sex belongs within marriage, it will be expelled from the Communion.
Will the Episcopal Church express contrition and mend its ways? That is highly unlikely. The Episcopal House of Bishops meets in two weeks. I doubt it will reverse course.
Griswold said afterwards "I can't imagine a conversation saying we got it wrong."
END TXT Copyright 2005 Michael J. McManus
23) http://www.dioceseofsc.org/mt/archives/000085.html Bishop Salmon's Address to the 2005 South Carolina Diocesan Convention March 4th, 2005 (...)The most pressing matter in our church today is obviously the crisis in our Anglican Communion over the consecration of Gene Robinson in the Diocese of New Hampshire and the issue of the blessing of same sex unions in the United States and Canada(...)
24a) http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=5262ab91-667e-47fb-a4de-bc844566896f Liberal Minister in video against same-sex bill: The liberal convention National Post Sat 05 Mar 2005 Page: A9 Byline: Allan Woods OTTAWA - A coalition of religious groups and "pro-family" advocates will release an explosive new video today of Immigration Minister Joe Volpe telling a church congregation that he does not support gay marriage and urging them to fight against same-sex marriage legislation.
The video is intended to be the first strike in a campaign that will also target other powerful elected officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, Natural Resources Minister John Efford and Thunder Bay, Ont., MP Joe Comuzzi(...)
The Volpe video was made during a service on Aug. 8, 2003, in a campaign-style speech at Canada Christian College, a private religious school just north of Toronto.
"If we believe in something then we must promote it. If we believe in something then we must defend it," Mr. Volpe tells the congregation.
"[A court] decided that the definition [of marriage] should be changed, wrongly in my view," he says. "I need to have your support to ensure that that error does not continue."
He also urged them to defend their position -- "We are nothing if we don't hear your voice," he said -- which is what the group says it is doing(...)
24b) http://www.defendmarriage.ca/site/ Click below to view the video of Joseph Volpe delivering a speech at a Church service in August of 2003 during which he gave his views, at the time, of the issue of the definition of marriage. http://www.josephvolpe.com/ Click here to view the ad which appeared in the National Post on Saturday, March 5, 2005 http://www.josephvolpe.com/images/JoeVolpeAd.jpg The Defend Marriage Coalition alleges these and other elected officials have misled voters about their position on the same-sex debate.
24c) http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=f1f5a822-6920-4376-b398-f347367c20dc Liberal Party officially endorses gay marriage as protest heats up Sue Bailey And Joan Bryden, Canadian Press March 5, 2005, National Post OTTAWA (CP) - The Liberal Party of Canada overwhelmingly endorsed same-sex marriage Saturday in keeping with the minority Liberal government's bid to legalize gay weddings.
Similar resolutions have been voted down in the past.
But times have changed, said one delegate after another. Those who stood up in defence of traditional marriage were clearly in the minority(...)
AND THE WINNER IS.... Death, Depravity, and Dullness Charles Colson BreakPoint with Charles Colson, March 1, 2005 The great Christian thinker Francis Schaeffer once wrote that philosophy-often dismissed as irrelevant-is, in reality, a powerful engine that drives cultural change. Ivory Tower ideas filter down into popular culture, including films. There, they influence millions who often have no notion of what they're consuming along with the car chases, love scenes, and popcorn. This brings us to the Academy Awards of Sunday night. If you watched them, you already know that the films Hollywood chose to honor had little to do with quality and everything to do with philosophy and worldview(...) Several awards, including Best Picture, went to Million Dollar Baby, a film that promotes euthanasia. Five Oscars went to The Aviator, a film that celebrates billionaire Howard Hughes, the man who bedded dozens of starlets, made unwelcome advances to many others, and ultimately died of syphilis-induced insanity. Oh, and then there's the nasty little film called Sideways. This film suggests that it's fine-even funny-for a man to engage in an orgy of sex with strangers just before his wedding. That got an award, too. (...)Meanwhile, one of the greatest films ever made, one of the biggest box-office hits of the year, worldwide, and the biggest independent film in the history of the world-that is, The Passion of the Christ-was ignored(...)
25b) http://www.thepassionrecut.com ARRIVING FRIDAY MARCH 11 AT THEATRES EVERYWHERE THE PASSION RECUT: A Mel Gibson Film
A NEW VERSION FOR NEW AUDIENCES TO DISCOVER AND EVERYONE TO BE INSPIRED BY
"By softening some of its more wrenching aspects, I hope to make my film and its message of love available to a wider audience." - Mel Gibson
TO VIEW TRAILER AND WEBSITE VISIT http://www.thepassionrecut.com
26) http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en The single best way to keep up to date [to the very minute] with whatever is going on in your area of interest is to set up a google alert. To do that, go to
http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en
Put in your search terms. Set how often to "as it happens." Input your email address. Set up with your email program a filter and folder so that these alerts will be directed into a google alert folder and you will be as updated as anyone on the planet in your areas of interest.
27a) http://www.nowtv.ca/van/shows/online.asp Please keep me in your prayers as I will be interviewed live on NOWTV this Monday at 9pm on the "Online" show. I will be debating/dialoguing with Dr. Richard Leggett of VST who wrote the Diocese of New Westminster same-sex blessing liturgy. VST, which has more recently also trained Unitarians and Wiccans, is my old alma mater. 27b) http://www.vst.edu/summer/courses_week1_05.php Science, Mysticism & Faith: The Cosmic Christ in Post-Modern Times Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox Visiting Distinguished Scholar, VST July 4-8, 8:30-11:30am Much of today's post-modern science including relativity theory, quantum mechanics and chaos theory connect profoundly to the mystical or Cosmic Christ tradition of Christian and other mystical traditions. We will explore these connections in theory and practice in light of our experiences of awe, grief, creativity and justice-compassion.
Matthew Fox, a postmodern theologian and ordained priest, is president of the University of Creation Spirituality...
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