Since TEC's response to the Windsor Report has so far been less than satisfactory, the primates, in a communiqué issued at the end of their recent meeting, decided upon an interim plan to deal with the Episcopal Church until an Anglican Covenant is solidified. Among the items in this plan is a request that TEC unequivocally refrain from blessing same-sex unions:
Read moreFor a century or two a notion has been fostered by this movement and allowed to develop by much of the remainder of the Anglican church to the point of becoming the reigning theological motif of the leadership of many Anglican churches and of the leadership at the upper levels of the Anglican Communion.
Read moreThe polity of the Episcopal Church is one of shared decision making among the laity, priest and deacons and bishops. The House of Bishops does not make binding, final decisions about the governance of the Church. Decisions like those requested by the Primates must be carefully considered and ultimately decided by the whole Church, all orders of ministry, together.
Read moreThere were moments in the meeting of Anglican leaders in Tanzania when I guess most of those present felt a bit like this. The fact that they weren't prepared simply to leave things there suggests, though, that more needs to be said. There remains a strong belief that this kind of worldwide Christian institution means we all agree to take responsibility for each other in some way, and to recognise that none of us has ultimate interests and concerns that are exclusively local or personal.
Read moreThe more liberal among us fear irrelevancy. The process of de-coupling the Episcopal Church from historic Anglicanism coincides pretty closely with the revolutionary attitudes of the 1960s, when our benign trust in leadership was shattered by governments that did a lot of bad things behind our backs. The next generation didn't want the same old church as their parents. Church enrollment dropped; fear took root that the institution would decline and perhaps disappear.
Read moreOver the weekend one orthodox leader told my colleague, Dr. David Virtue, "Go home and tell all your people to abandon ship. Leave TEC. It's over. We lost." This morning at the cashier's window at the White Sands Hotel that same orthodox leader, who asked not to be named or quoted directly, said that the orthodox had won.
At breakfast Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, Primate of Rwanda and head of the AMiA, said with a tired grin to a crowd of friendly inquirers, "It's a new dawn."
Read moreI knew the term reconciliation needed to be reclaimed. In typical Anglican Communion Newspeak a biblical term (reconciliation) has been snatched from its original context, assigned a different meaning and redeployed as a biblical mandate for an unbiblical agenda. The orthodox Anglican Primates appear to be in danger, once again, of falling for it.
Read moreAdmittedly, mature adults cannot be dominated by other people's "concerns", that is, by a psychological compulsion to please. Such compulsion shows not strength but weakness of character. We may succeed in pleasing most of the people most of the time, but our need to please others is driven by a deeper need to please ourselves. While Jefferts Schori can be counted on for charm, she certainly is not dominated by any compulsion to please.
Read moreConversion
Janani Luwum spoke of when he surrendered his life to Christ:
Read moreForty five years ago I was brought to faith largely through the human agency and mentorship of holy priests, many of whom were of homosexual orientation but who had no inclination whatsoever to confuse their condition of fallenness with the agenda of social justice.
Quite the contrary.
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