Updated again Monday evening
The Church Times reports exclusively on what was said at a press conference that nobody else attended.
See GAFCON Primates hear of ‘two religions’ in the United States by Paul Handley.
See also the article, already linked yesterday, The Anglican schism widens quietly at Cif belief.
Jim Naughton disagreed with Paul’s conclusions, see GAFCON thunders. The media yawn.
And GAFCON itself had two press releases: GAFCON Communiqué issued – ACNA recognized and earlier GAFCON Primates meet in London with North American Bishops. There were some shenanigans surrounding the wording of one of these, read, Dog bites man.
Episcopal News Service had Conservative Anglican primates recognize proposed North American entity by Matthew Davies.
George Conger reported it for the Living Church under GAFCON Primates Back New North American Province.
Dave Walker has drawn a picture of this event, see the Church Times blog entry here.
‘Bishop Duncan echoed the insistence of the Primates that theirs was not a breakaway movement. “I’m a cradle Anglican. My grandfather was a boy chorister. . . The person who is our Presiding Bishop, she didn’t begin as an Anglican. I did.”‘
OK ,that’s just creepy. Now people who convert to Anglicanism are less Anglican than cradle Anglicans?
S.I.J. Schereschewsky, pray for us!
In other shocking news, Chevrolet has recognized General Motors.
exDuncan: “The majority of the Anglican Communion is saying that where the Communion has always been is where the Communion needs to be, and this group represents that view. We are the Communion. Who has the right to take the Communion from us.” It’s the old “Nevermind mind we’re 6 or 7 Primates out of 38, we’re the majority!” meme. AS IF these Prince-Primates really represent their average member in a pew (under a tree, in a slum, etc). Riiiiiight… In the dictionary under “Legend in his own mind”, there will be “I’m ‘Episcopalian’ for U.S. legal purposes, but have… Read more »
Paul Handley: “But essentially their reference points are scripture, and each other.”
But since you only get your GAFCON ticket punched if you hold to a common “Teh Gayz are BAD!” Scripture interpretation, basically it’s just the latter.
[Finally, I tend to agree w/ Jim Naughton: another tiny anti-gay sect in the US of A? {Yawn} As Warren Beatty famously once said of Madonna, “Turn the camera off [them], and [they] disappear” (I’d STILL rather see Madge than Bob though! ;-p]
“another tiny anti-gay sect” Recently the Bishop of the Anglican Church of Virginia visited Our Fair City and the religion reporter for out local paper interviewed him as if he were important. Had he googled The Anglican Church of Virginia he would have found that the church consists of the bish, two priests, and one nun, oddly enough called The Right Rev. Mother Mary Magdelene. Was it Huey Long who used the phrase “every man his own king?” In the Anglican paraworld, it’s every man his own bishop. See also the report on The Anglican Church of Arizona in Ship-of-Fools,… Read more »
“canons “that look recognisably Anglican”” But in actualy fact are anything but Anglican, most likely. “I don’t believe I have divided the Church.” You also don’t believe the science that disproves your bigotry about homosexuals, and you believe your behaviour is somehow consistent with the Gospel. So, since you seem to think whatever supports your prejudices, with complete ignorance of evidence to the contrary, what is the value of this statement? “I want to behave in a godly way towards them” Isn’t it time you started, then? “a bulwark against this false teaching and a rallying point for orthodoxy.” As… Read more »
BillyD, who is S.I.J. Schereschewsky?
Regarding Bishop Duncan’s “I’m more Anglican than she is”, didn’t St. Paul — I’m sure Bishop Duncan knows of him, especially when St. Paul is in condemnation mode — say something about in Christ Jesus there is no male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free? That all are equal?
Oh, I see … those darn liberal Episcopalians have edited the New Testament!!!
Cynthia, why settle for a priesthood of all believers when one can have an episcopate of all believers?
Samuel Isaac Joseph Shereschewski (1831-1906) was by birth a Lithuanian Jew (as I think Bishops Little and Wolff are, on at least one side of each of their families), became Episcopal Bishop of Shanghai, and worked as a translator even after he was confined to a wheelchair by Parkinson’s. Feast Day, October 14.
The Rt. Revd. S.I.J. Schereschewsky was a European Jewish convert to Christianity, who then studied theology in the USA and was eventually appointed TEC Missionary Bishop of Shanghai, China. He translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Mandarin and founded St. John’s University.
False teaching!
ACNA Adherence to the 39 articles…. tell that to Bishops Iker, Schofield and Moyer who have been defying the articles for years.
Divorce and re-marriage as easy as TEC..hidden under a facade of consultation with the Bishop.
Biblical adherence, so they cannot agree as to what it means as regards womens ordination.
No wonder Church Society puts inverted commas around the word ” orthodox.”
“Who is S.I.J. Schereschewsky?”
A 19th c. convert from Judaism. Born in Lithuania, he eventually became an Episcopal bishop . . . of Shanghai! He is the very model of the far-traveling, cosmopolitan convert, known for translating the Bible into BOTH Chinese and Japanese (even when, after being crippled, he was reduced to typing w/ one finger on one hand). Buried in Tokyo, his feast day is October 15 in TEC’s calendar.
I echo BillyD’s petition: Blessed Samuel Isaac Joseph, pray for us!
thanks everyone for the lesson about S.I.J. I guess despite having a feast day, and doing marvelous works, he’s not Anglican enough for Bishop Duncan either. I mean, being Lithuanian and having a Jewish parent. I suppose Bishop Ducan can trace his lineage all the way back to King Henry VIII, … or would Thomas Cranmer be better for his family tree?
It seems that others beat me to the punch as far as Bishop Schereschewsky is concerned. He seemed to be the best counter-argument to the caste scheme Bishop Duncan is proposing – as well as being one of my favorite saints.
And yes, Bishop Wolf of Rhode Island – my bishop – converted to Christianity from Judaism. I’ve been told by members of the local Conservative synagogue that she still attends services once a year to say kaddish for her late father.
peterpi, I think that Oliver Cromwell would be a better match for Duncan.
“As soon as Martyn Minns, Robert Duncan, etc, are no longer the scourges of the Episcopal Church, they are nothing more than the leaders of a very small American denomination that may have more bishops per square congregant than any church in Christendom. What then? The same may hold true for Peter Akinola and Henry Orombi. If they aren’t fighting the western dragon, the media will ignore them, they will become less useful to the Western conservatives who now support them, and that support will gradually dry up. (Jim Naughton) Surely Jim Naughton has a very valid point here. The… Read more »
Fr. Ron — Peter Akinola would never bend his knee to Duncan so either there will be two jurisdictions (or more!) or Duncan will bend his knee. “Pride goeth before a fall” and all that….
@Father Ron Smith:
(WARNING! Politically incorrect joke ahead!)
Well, this chess player is convinced ACNA is doomed to lose, because they may be loaded in bishops, but ECUSA’s got all the queens.
Well I for one really enjoy having the realignment high self-regard, along with the palpable sense of superiority over everybody else – all right out in the shared open. Akinola prides himself on his humility. Gomez helps draft the covenant that will police or punish believers in hot button domains. Orombi, Minns, Duncan, the whole cast of characters from the realignment campaign play book. Now, Duncan was more Anglican, earlier, and much more purely, than Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori. Priceless. I also think that in the long run the constant haranging about queer folks is a help, too. The longer… Read more »
Fr. Ron Smith and Jim Naughton, I think ++Akinola is his own man, he’s not a puppet of +Duncan or anyone else. Now, you may be right that+Duncan is trying to pull strings and throw his weight around, but ++Akinola is a master at that as well.
Peterpi, You say that the Archbishop of Nigeria is his own man, but surely you will recognise that his fame and notoriety have only come into the foreground since his being courted by the ACNA sodality. hitherto, he was just the local Archbishop in an African country – somewhat remote from western Church influence. His fiefdom in Africa is a product of where he holds sway, and until the emergence of the likes of Duncan and Minns he had very little influence in other parts of the Anglican Communion. American largesse has greatly increased his spiritual mana, but when it… Read more »
I am not arguing that Duncan pulls Akinola’s strings. I actually don’t think Duncan is the senior partner in the ACNA constellation. Nor am I arguing that ACNA pulls Akinola’s strings. I think the relationship is mutually beneficial.
“they may be loaded in bishops, but ECUSA’s got all the queens.” I wouldn’t be too sure about that. I think part of the problem with them is that they have a few too many queens masquerading as bishops, or “bishop hopefuls”. Leather and Lace clergy are not exactly unknown in some circles, after all. Besides, given the way much conservative rhetoric is for the purpose of stirring up fear in an already fearful laity and congratulating each other on the latest self-perceived version of the Mylvian Bridge, or trumped up numbers of exactly how many righteous DO make up… Read more »
Some moments, I suddenly feel that we are all living through these pesky Anglican realignment cycles and campaigns as if right in the real big fat middle of a Dickens novel all around us. Complete with ripe characters of many sorts. Plenty of local color, in any case. If you wrote up people like Duncan, Akinola, Gomez, Jensen, Radner, Seitz, Harmon, Virtue, and a whole host of others, middles to lefts, you easily would be called to account by the creative writing tutors for going off the deep ends of having extreme, impossible imaginary friends.
“extreme, impossible imaginary friends.” But, the Anglican Church is just catholicism for English eccentrics who can’t handle authority figures! It’s who we are! Where else could someone reject infant baptism, claim the Eucharist is nothing more than a pious memorial, hold congregationalist ecclesiology, reject the Christological statements of three of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, and God knows what all, and still, unchallenged, lay claim to the title “orthodox”? I mean, really, that’s like a Northern European claiming he is Chinese and no-one questioning it! And where else could a 5 year jail term be considered an act of Christian love?… Read more »