Well, I wish you joy of your new Anglican Communion, and thank God that the US churches will not be a part of it.

Nothing like reassuring one another of ones Godliness when personal character and self-searching has failed the test of moral integrity in REAL LIFE and beyond.

Savi links to a very informative article on Christian/Islamic issues in Nigeria (by Eliza Grizwold) - a worthwhile read.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/nigeria

I am seriously worried by attitudes to Islam n the West - no I don't like all of its teaching, yes I want to challenge its attitudes. But making it into an enemy - it is uncomfortably like attitudes to Judaism before the Second World War.

If jusdementalism, self-righteousness, bigotry, and exclusion are to be the hallmarks of the Anglicanism left to the world by the Gafconers and Jensenists, the legacy of Rowan Williams will be the destruction of the Communion. For this mess of potage he sacrifices his intellect and career. What the world doesn't need now is another intolerant, arrogant, religious body bent on destroying all who don't fit its flawed and harmful view of the Christian Faith. If the conservatives prevail, I would be happy to be part of the remnant that continues to see Anglicanism as compassionate, inclusive, and not given to extremes. That has been Anglicanism's way in the past and, especially in today's world, must not be lost. The insecurity, lust for power and lack of any real empathy or conscience on the part of the conservatives is just what the world doesn't need. Their obsession with sex and especially gay sex (as opposed to peope who happen to be gay) speaks volumes. It's interesting that their world-view, theology, and political views all seem to coincide, so that they are nothing more than another right wing extremist group. They are really fundmentalists and Calvinists dressed up as Anglicans-and they do like to dress up! Apart from the usual nuts (who care nothing for the poor, the environment, or those who differ from them), the world is moving on. The rich, white, older and (supposedly) straight men who run this farce by co-opting opportunistic but naive third world bishops and wooing the angry, fearful and gullible have had their day and they desperately are trying to hold on. But despite this last gasp, however long it lasts, their time will eventually be over. A Church built on hate and exclusion will eventually turn on itself.

In the end, the issue will be which Churches and their decision making bodies sign the Covenant and which do not.

What puzzles me is this. The Church of England cannot sign on to anything that directs it from without. The Covenant is set up in language of voluntary association, in terms of autonomy etc., but makes its membership - it decides - dependent on observing its restrictions. So it says to the C of E, you can do this if you like but if so you will lose membership, and thus you must do as we say to keep membership. Is this legal? Will there be lots of legal action if the C of E signs up to the Covenant?

Pluralist, that's for the Church of England to decide, but yes, I expect the consequences for the C of E will be disestablishment as well as lots of legal action. Since it's already been determined that the North American churches will not be part of the Communion, it's not something I am directly invested in, however.

The balms in this new conservative Anglican visionary Gilead are either poison themselves, or unseemly in being laced with toxins. Some toxins are fatal right away; others are slow acting, and need to accumulate to criteria levels before their toxicities can be inferred from their death-dealing spiritual effects.

There is no more reliable way to kill any local congregation than to get everybody judging everybody, about nearly everything. Then overlay top down policing and punishment. Mean habits of antigay church will not suddenly be peace making.

If getting rid of the queer folks was never really the point, since queer folks are so small statistically; and are even denied to exist outside the western democracies - then surely the realignment business is all about gaining power, and making sure that a top-down power arrangment newly takes hold, globally, for all Anglicans.

This sounds plausible to believers on the Anglican rights, rather like the USA neocon agendas for a new vigor in global hegemony sounded plausible - provided one did not ask questions about the assumptions involved, and provided one believed that only good was involved in the conservatisms that spawned the thinking, and laid out the grand plan.

A car crash is all too predictable, as the effort to conform and collapse big tent Anglican church life collides with CoE as an institution of wider British society which is palpably growing more pluralistic, and taking pains to lay down guidelines for fair social life across many differences, differences that can indeed become quite heated.

The basic question is one of global discernment for and among Anglican believers. Is collapsing big tents the gospel mandate of the hot moment?

Yes, sadly, antigay stuff is transforming into anti-world-religions stuff with Islam as the hot target; and this revives pretty much the noxious Anti-Semitism of much of the west, especially among believers. A Spirit, Scapegoating? Do we need an exorcism?

We hoped Anti-Semitism was at least in a discreet coma in the west, if not on the verge of passing away, gently, into some good night. Yet USA rightist believers particularly hold middle eastern conflicts and war, dear and close to their hearts as sign of Jesus Coming Soon. Alas. Surely these grievous offenses must come, and woe to those who claim they are gospel, and woe to those of us who hear and see and wait and watch. Lord have mercy.

"These Anglican “conservatives” are perhaps best-known for their hostility to same-sex partnerships. Yet some are also passionately anti-Islamic. Archbishop Peter Akinola, for instance, as well as being vocally anti-gay, appears to believe that, in the Muslim-Christian conflict in Nigeria, communal violence can sometimes be justified…" - Savi Henseman -

I think that possibly 'most' conservatives are also hostile to Islam and same-sex relationships. Surprising really, considering that Islamic fundamentalists are also hostile to same-sex relationships. Could the two parties not find some common relationship - for instance, over same-sex relationships? Akinola and Nazir-Ali seem both hell-bent on waging war. This is nothing less than militant religion.

An alliance of both Conservative Christians and Muslims would echo the current alliance between conservatives of High and Low Church - on the issue of same sex relationships. And how long will this last? Religious fundamentalism seems to be the real issue here. The more humane and moderate influence of the enlightenment has not yet had any effect on conservative religionists.

No wonder Jesus had a hard time with the Scribes and Pharisees. And no wonder the secular world has little time for organised religion.

For an insight into the future for conservative Anglicans, one needs to look at this article on the Virtue-on-line web-site about the launching of FOCA in Southern Africa:

"SOUTHERN AFRICA: Anglican Leaders Laud Launching of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
Archbishop Akinola, the Bishop of Chester, Lord Carey - www.anglican-mainstream.net
September 6, 2009 -

"Greetings from the Chairman of the GAFCON Council, and Primate of All Nigeria, the Most Rev Peter Akinola: "What a great blessing and tremendous joy to know that the mustard seed of GAFCON sown in the land of our LORD barely a year ago is already growing so fast and so big. Please convey my warm greetings and congratulations to all the brethren in Southern Africa..."

That this message should be under the heading of names like ++Akinola, ++Carey and +Chester should clearly tell us what FOCA is really all about - the fundamentalist undermining of world-wide Anglicanism as we have known and loved it in past ages.

Scripture and the Tradition of the 39 Articles seems to have kicked the application of Reason our of the nest of Faith, in a climate of rank hostility towards the ministry of women and gays in the Church. The cult of purity and Pharisaical judgement seems to have replaced the Anglican genius for honourable discussion and compromise.
Law seems to have out-bid the charism of Grace & the Liberty of Christ in the Gospels, and sinners are being chased out of our churches.

Those whom Christ died to save, and whom he calls to himself, are being abandoned and sacrificed to the cult of homogenised and Old Testament religion. We are becoming no longer a 'Hospital for Sinners', but a mausoleum for the pure and sinless. Is this what God wants?

I have to actually laugh, the first ray of light in a long while in the Anglican "war," at the idea that "exclusion" from a homophobic, sexist, self-serving, navel-gazing, smug, self-congratulatory and, most importantly, completely ineffectual communion - not "church" thanks - is a defeat. The sooner we allow Williams and his henchmen to lock the gates of Hell on themselves, the sooner we can get on with the Kingdom!

I believe the right wing conservatives will predominantly follow protestant fundamentalism and will eventually show major clashes with their Anglo Catholic allies who joined them in their condemnation of glbt people and same sex blessings along with ordinations and consecrations of gay and lesbian human beings to leadership positions. I also believe hatred and ignorance are underlying causes of their crusade against glbt people as well as women in general as it relates to ordinations to the priesthood and consecrations as bishops. This will ultimately be the catalyst for the religious right's undoing as most people do not support or approve of their hatred and violence against glbt people and women in general. Sadly, a large number of human beings will be hurt and devalued as a result of the hatred that these right wing nuts spew forth.

Chris Smith, I agree with everything you say, except:

"This will ultimately be the catalyst for the religious right's undoing as most people do not support or approve of their hatred and violence against glbt people and women in general."

That depends very much on the times. Put people into positions of hardship and watch how acceptible hate will become. Remember, Weimar Germany of the 20s was followed by Nazi Germany of the 30s and 40s. And that's just the most obvious example from the 20th century. And there are huge swaths of people who approve of their hatred and violence even now. Don't forget how many people are represented by these conservative speakers. It's a thing here to point out that just because +Akinola, for instance, claims to represents all Nigerian Anglicans, that doesn't mean all Nigerian Anglicans agree with him. Indeed, but it is a big mistake to assume that those who don't automatically agree with "us".