LONDON: ACNA Debate Will Focus On Listening to Historic Biblical Anglicanism
New Province should be recognized, says Winchester Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt

By David W. Virtue in London
www.virtueonline.org
2/9/2010

When Synod members sit down to debate a resolution recognizing the Anglican Church of North America tomorrow they will not be requesting a formal process of acceptance, it will be about fellowship and communion for the sake of the gospel, says Lorna Ashworth, lay delegate to Synod who has put forward the motion as a lay Anglican delegate.

“In proposing this motion, my desire is that the members of Synod would have the opportunity to express their own view on the consequences of the behavior of those in authority in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada,” said Ashworth.

“Most lay members, like myself, have little understanding of the technical ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of canon law with it uses and misuses. What is clear however is the shocking, unjust treatment of historical/biblical Anglicans as they seek to continue living out their faith within these provinces.

“Doctrinal innovations have been imposed on these churches leaving bishops, clergy and lay people uncertain as to where they belong in the Anglican family.

LONDON: Archbishop of Canterbury Delivers Presidential Address to General Synod

February 9, 2010

In the last few weeks we've seen a number of topics coming up in public discussion, all centring on one set of questions - a set of questions which I think reflects painfully accurately some of the problems we face in our church, locally and internationally. The heated debates around the Equality Bill brought this out in one way, some of the renewed flurries of pressure and anxiety about euthanasia and assisted dying in other ways. And as we look forward to our own debates later in the year on women bishops and on the Anglican Covenant, we may see the parallels. And in the middle of all the frustration that many feel about deferring the debate on women bishops, perhaps we can at least ask how we can spend the intervening time constructively, looking again at whether we might learn anything from the way our culture is moving that will help us maintain some level of health or maturity in our church. That is the task I'm going to attempt, with some trepidation, today.

So what are the questions that link these apparently diverse issues? I'd say that the main thing is something to do with the nature of freedom in society - and thus also with how we talk about our 'rights'. Of course, this was most in evidence in the Equality Bill debates, though it was obscured by fantastic overstatements from zealots on both sides. The basic conflict was not between a systematic assault on Christian values by a godless government on the one side and a demand for licensed bigotry on the other. It was over the question of how society identifies the point at which one set of freedoms and claims so undermines another that injustice results. As in fact the bishops' speeches in the Lords made quite clear, (despite the highly-coloured versions of the debate that were manufactured by some) very few Christians were contesting the civil liberties of gay and lesbian people in general; nor should they have been. What they were contesting was a relatively small but extremely significant point of detail, which was whether government had the right to tell religious bodies which of the tasks for which they might employ people required and which did not require some level of compliance with the public teaching of the Church about behaviour. Government had difficulty seeing that this was not just about clergy and official teachers of the faith; the Church had difficulty explaining that there might be positions, not covered by the neat definitions offered by the government, which had some kind of semi-official standing such that it would be very strange for someone to hold such a position when they were manifestly in dispute with some aspects of the Church's teaching. But - as our own ongoing discussions about office-holders in the Church and membership of the BNP and similar organisations demonstrates, it is by no means easy to define at what point you want to identify the posts that have such a public and symbolic character that you need to require some kind of compliance.

Dr. Rowan Williams to challenge infighting over gays and women bishops

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7019963.ece
February 9, 2010

Dr Rowan Williams is to challenge Church infighting

The Archbishop of Canterbury will fight threats of disintegration in the Church of England with what is expected to be a forceful intervention at the General Synod today.

Dr Rowan Williams is determined to challenge the increasingly bitter infighting sparked by disagreements over women bishops in England and gay ordinations in the US.

Reform Open Letter to Synod on Women Bishops

50 Church of England ministers, who have links with Reform, have written an open letter to Synod members to say why they believe the consecration of women bishops would be a mistake:

Monday 8th February 2010

'Dear Bishops and Synod members,

As 50 incumbents of Church of England churches we are writing to say why, in our view, the consecration of women bishops would be a mistake and would raise for us great difficulties of conscience and practice, as well as being wrong for our Church as a whole.

Our concern is derived from Scripture. It seems to us that the Apostolic teaching on male headship in church and family (as in 1 Corinthians 11-14, Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3) is clear enough in its principles: overall leadership in the church is to be exercised by men.

General Synod: Church of England exodus feared unless women bishops plans changed

Conservative clergy have warned of a mass exodus from the Church of England and a sharp drop in its income unless divisive plans for the introduction of women bishops are changed.

By Martin Beckford
The Telegraph
http://tinyurl.com/yj9tkcf
February 8, 2010

On the first day of the gathering of the Church's governing body, the General Synod, Anglo-Catholics claimed that "large numbers" would leave for Rome if their demands for concessions are not met.

Meanwhile 50 serving priests belonging to Reform, the evangelical group, signed an open letter saying that the situation could force them to cut off funding for dioceses and spend their money on training new vicars outside the Church instead. The established church, which introduced women to the priesthood in 1994, is committed to ordaining female bishops as well but the process has been held up by the entrenched positions of both supporters and opponents of the historic move.

LONDON: Is the fat lady clearing her throat?

By the Revd. Fr. Edward Tomlinson SSC
http://sbarnabas.com/blog/2010/02/07/is-the-fat-lady-clearing-her-throat/
February 8, 2010

Breaking news from the Revision committee of the General Synod has appeared on Ruth Gledhill's blog. Just as predicted it spells a complete betrayal of those Anglo-Catholics who cannot in all conscience accept the ordination of women. Far from honouring the sincere promises made to us in 1992 the recommendation effectively ushers in the end game for the Catholic movement within the Church of England.

Why is this? Because after months of discussion the Revision Committee has felt unable to deliver a single proposal that would satisfy the needs of traditionalists who have grave theological doubts over the validity of women bishops. Instead these poor clergy will have to like it or lump it and swear allegiance to a Diocesan bishop whose orders they do not recognise. Without any doubt this places their integrity and own authority in profound doubt. Regardless of who visits them pastorally they will be forced to serve under someone their consciences claim to be phoney.

African bishops head to Uganda for summit

By George Conger
Church of England Newspaper
February 9, 2010

Uganda will play host to the second All-Africa Bishops Conference this year, the conference organizing committee announced last week.

Over 500 bishops from Cape Town to Cairo as well as observers from Lambeth Palace and non-African churches are expected to attend the Aug 23-28 meeting at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe, organizing committee chairman Edward Gaamuwa said.

The focus of the meeting will be on building Africa's civil social infrastructure: supporting good government, anti-corruption drives, poverty alleviation, and building peace and forging reconciliation across the continent, Mr. Gaamuwa said. The theme of the conference will be "Securing our future; Unlocking our potential."

The English General Synod: The Centre Cannot Hold

by Charles Raven
SPREAD
http://www.anglicanspread.org/
February 9, 2010

If Lorna Ashworth's Private Members Motion 'That this Synod express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America' is passed by the Church of England's General Synod tomorrow, she will have done a great service to English Anglicans as well as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) because it is as much about the English Church as the Church in North America.

She poses precisely the sort of question that the Church of England's leadership wants to avoid because the ACNA represents a choice which must be made between two incompatible forms of religion - historic biblical Anglicanism and that pseudo- Anglicanism being promoted by TEC and its allies which derives its energy from the spirit of the age rather than the Spirit of Christ.

LONDON: From My Ear to Yours. ACNA Motion Readying for Battle by Synod

By David W. Virtue in London
www.virtueonline.org
2/9/2010

Recognizing The Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) will be the subject of heated debate tomorrow when members of Synod will be asked to recognize the new North American orthodox province.

Attempts are being made to shuffle the motion to one side or to kill it by a thousand cuts. Several supporters of the ACNA motion are here in London to give it visible support. A paper, filed by Dr. Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council, tracks the Episcopal Church's history of canonical abuse and the plight of Orthodox Anglicans. You can read his full report here:
www.americananglican.org/assets/Resources/TEC-Canonical-Abuses.pdf

LONDON: Testosterone Deficit Revealed in Women Bishops Debate

Synod - Day One

By David W. Virtue in London
www.virtueonline.org
2/8/2010

In an update on the progress of women bishops in the Church of England, exasperated Synod members groaned when it was revealed that there would be no discussion of a paper delivered by the Bishop of Manchester, The Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch on the subject of women bishops.

The announcement was greeted by public "no's" from some 400 Synod members. The bishop proceeded with his speech emphasizing that the Revisions Committee had met thirteen times, had received nearly 300 submissions, including 114 from Synod members.

McCulloch opined that while women bishops is likely a done deal those who had "conscientious difficulties" about women's ordination would be afforded another bishop, but such a bishop will be chosen by a delegation from the diocesan bishops including women bishops, thus leaving the situation still untenable to orthodox Anglicans.

NEW YORK: Cleaning Crew of 9 at Episcopal Church Center abruptly fired; now they need a miracle

by Albor Ruiz
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2010/02/07/2010-02-07_abruptly_fired_church_crew_needs_miracle.html
February 7th 2010

They worked for years cleaning and maintaining the Episcopal Church Center in midtown Manhattan. But after they were fired on Dec. 30, nine hard-working people are in desperate need of divine intervention.

"We came to work on Dec. 30 as every day, hoping to leave a little earlier to celebrate the new year," said Bronx native Héctor Miranda, a father of three. "But when we got to the building we were told that we no longer worked there. Just like that. They picked the date well to fire us."

LONDON: Church of England to push ahead with plan for women bishops
Women bishops could be in place by 2012

by Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7018594.ece
February 8, 2010

The Church of England is to go ahead with the plan to create women bishops without giving in to demands from traditionalists for a separate structure of bishops and archbishops untainted by the hands of a woman.

Traditionalists oppose women bishops because they argue that Jesus had no women disciples and that the apostolic succession of bishops, passed down by the laying of hands at ordination, should therefore be male.

LONDON: Women Bishops Wrong for the Church, say Reform Evangelical Anglicans
Future Ordinands could be trained outside Church of England Structures

By David W. Virtue in London
www.virtueonline.org
February 8, 2010

On the eve of the twice annual meeting of Synod here in Church House, 50 orthodox priests of the Church of England have written a letter saying that the consecration of women bishops is a mistake and raises great difficulties of conscience and practice, as well as being wrong for the Church as a whole.

"Our concern is derived from Scripture. It seems to us that the Apostolic teaching on male headship in church and family (as in 1 Corinthians 11-14, Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3) is clear enough in its principles: overall leadership in the church is to be exercised by men. The fierce debates that have surrounded the gender issue over the last twenty years or so have stimulated much careful analysis of these texts, and have only served to show that mainstream translations such as NRSV, NIV, REB and ESV are correct in their translation and may (and should) be taken as they stand."

The letter, addressed to Bishops and Synod members says that while these passages in Paul and Peter have a particular cultural setting; but to make them prisoners of that culture and thus unable to challenge our culture, seems to us implicitly to deny the authority of Scripture. It is surely the genius of the New Testament that what was spoken in a particular context is at one and the same time also God's word to us.

Suicide of the West: Will America follow Europe into anomie and atheism?

Theodore Dalrymple
www.amconmag.com/article/2010/mar/01/00014/
February 2010

In some ways, things have never been better for Europe. When my father was born, in 1909, his life expectancy was 49; if he had been born today, his life expectancy would be approaching 80. The increase in wealth and standard of living has been startling. In 1960, Sicilian peasants still slept with their farm animals, and my working-class patients remembered sharing lavatories with other households. In France, the years in which it lost its colonial empire are known as les trente glorieuses, the glorious thirty, when the French economy grew so fast that absolute poverty was eliminated and the country obtained the best infrastructure in the world. Germany's Wirtschaftswunder after the war really was a wonder, transforming a country that U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. wanted to keep forever in a state of rural pre-industrialization into the largest exporter of manufactured goods in the world.

Presiding Bishop Spins 'Talking Points' in Order to Derail Upcoming Synod Motion

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
2/7/2010

The Episcopal Church is trying to derail a motion at this week's General Synod meeting in London which could lead to the Church of England becoming an ally with the fledgling Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

In a series of "talking points" or "facts" put out by the Episcopal Church on the differences between itself and the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), VOL found the "facts" to be deliberately misleading.

TEC: The Episcopal Church is over 7400 congregations in 109 dioceses plus three regional areas in 16 countries with 2.2 million members.