It matters little what these self-appointed exclusionist pontificators have to write about, release as holy "fact" and preach as if they were honorable men...the basics of adhering to Gods Ten Commandments have slipped through their non-loving, thieving, coveting, manipulative clutches and are currently beyond their reach...these men, mostly men, loaded with false notions of right and wrong have no humility and have demonstrated no love for humanity and ALL of Gods children...their demands/threats made upon others have long since faded into death rattles that have nothing to do with the body of Christ...so be it and thanks be to God as they deceive and harm others in every way and certainly only the most ILL informed of us would give them any power and license to breed and spread their hateful pogrom disease.

Is it too far-fetched to see velvet gloves coming off revealing the brass knuckles beneath? Or were there ever velvet gloves? Oh well, better to have clarity in such a situation.

So what they want, if they could only admit to themselves, is an Anglican "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith"...or, as it was called before political correctness, the Inquisition.

Of course, this is all quite contrary to what the Covenant itself actually says. (See especially section 3.1 and even more starkly 4.1.4-5). But then, Noll and Ashey are past masters of ignoring text in search of a subtext... or a pretext.

Holy expletive deleted!

{Yawn}

King Canut-like, the AAC tries to command the ocean tide...

OK - so this is a principle that it's absolutely necessary that the Anglican Communion adhere to, but which has never, ever been put into practice? Why start now?

The AAC is more than a "body closely associated" with ACNA, it is one of its founding organizations with voice and vote in its governing body. http://acnaassembly.org/media/ACNA_-_Dioceses_and_delegates_-_June_2009_-_fact_sheet.pdf It is, in fact, a lobby, with as much voice and vote as an ACNA diocese.

So, from a quick skim, as near as I can tell, based on his dissatisfaction over the past decade plus, Noll wants to reinterpret past resolutions of Lambeth, and especially of Lambeth 1930, to argue that power in the Communion should be in the hands of the Primates, confirmed (and perhaps occasionally advised) by the bishops. I think it somehow ironic that he also wants a central document to unite the Communion. It's just that he doesn't want this Covenant, or, really, any covenant. He wants a confession, comparable to Augsburg or Westminster. Moreover, the one person he no longer trusts to put this together is Rowan Williams.

His description of three models of governance are interesting, and he makes his own opinion clear. Better scholars than I will need to take this apart. However, I question the entire exercise of focusing on an issue of "governance;" for governance is not required for communion. It's only an issue when communion isn't yielding the results you would approve.

Well, at least they've stopped pretending it's about anything other than power.

People like Ashey - absolutely mediocre, totally incompetent to perform in any other field in which results would be rewarded - feels that he must create his own rewards in the only profession that, because of its compassion, would exalt him to such a position.

There are great men and women in the ordained clergy; the mediocrities go off to form churches in which only they "articulate the faith."

Now, now, JCF - that's MOST unfair to Cnut!!

"The Global South bishops asserted their will successfully for the first time in Lambeth history in 1998. In 2008, many Global South bishops were absent and the influence of those who were present did not make a mark."
- Professor Noll, University of Uganda -

The learned professor here speaks in terms of a power struggle - that of the 'Global South' bishops with the rest of the Lambeth Conference.
Their subsequent absence from the 1998 Lambeth Conference signified their total disdain for established Anglican protocol and procedures, and the pivotal role of Canterbury as host.

This power grab continued with the Jerusalem GAFCON fiasco, which allowed certain Primates within the Communion to 'strut their stuff' while claiming to have high-jacked the authentic voice of the whole Anglican Communion - in direct defiance of their obligations to Canterbury and Lambeth. Such hubris then continued with their beefed up invasion of authentic Ptovinces of the Anglican Communion in the USA and Canada - all in defiance of the moratorium 3 of the Windsor Report, which they had helped to put in place.

Mr Noll then has the nerve to lecture the rest of the communion from his base in Uganda, where the sin of homophobia is rampant, on the need for a return to 'Anglican Orthodoxy' - a contingency which his own 'Global South' confederates have rejected by their acts of schism against the very Anglicanism they now want to be reconciled with.

Short of a new 'Church of the Global South' there would be no way in which Mr Noll's constituency can be satisfied in their lust for a return to the days of the protestant evangelical revival mentality of the Victorian era of Church life. The world has moved on, and if the Anglican way of the Gospel is to be limited to a sola-Scriptura outlook - such as the Churches of Nigeria and Uganda wish to propagate - then the GAFCON Church must seek it's own way, but it definitely will not be the Anglican Way.

Mark Brunson

I think your ad hominem remarks should have been aimed at Stephen Noll, who is the author of the document, not at Phil Ashey.

But, I would ask you to avoid ad hominem remarks entirely on this blog.

Not much sense of the provisionality of the Anglican Communion as articulated at Lambeth 1948 here...Cant really see the Church of England dancing to this tune.A loose federation of self governing Provinces here we come..

So, God never speaks through members who have not been ordained?
Do they really expect gatherings that include lay delegates/deputies to vote to be represented only by bishops?
And, not to notice that bishops are overwhelmingly male? Not that I'd agree even if the bishops were more representative of the total Body.
Columba Gilliss

Pluralist has made some perceptive comments at
http://pluralistspeaks.blogspot.com/2010/03/verbose-governance.html

Mark Harris has commented at
http://anglicanfuture.blogspot.com/2010/03/stephen-noll-declares-for-anglican-coup.html

If we ignore it, will it go away????????

When considering this work, it is important to remember who Stephen Noll is, his beliefs and contacts.

It is important to remember that it was he who co-authored the draft of the CAPA Road to Lambeth document. This document approved by the Uganda House of Bishops, two years after Noll's arrival, was clear that the Road did not need to run through Canterbury.

It is also important to remember that Noll served as associate pastor of the charismatic Truro Episcopal Church, (a now CANA congregation and principle in the Virginia cases litigation).

It is also important to remember that, prior to moving to his current position as Vice Chancellor at Uganda Christian University, he was for several years, dean of academic affairs at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA, ...clergy in good standing with his bishop Robert Duncan. At every level, then, Noll is wired into the networks attempting to influence the theology and governance of the Anglican communion. His position at Uganda Christian, like that of his colleague in Primate Orombi's Office, Alison Barfoot, is likely funded with US dollars. Uganda Christian University Partners, a fund-raising organization whose Executive Director is Mrs. Diane Stanton (wife of Dallas bishop) clearly works with Noll.

The following, taken from the Institute for Democracy's comments on Presbyterian issues, 1999 , discusses Noll's appearances as an expert in their legal matters and his theology:

"Charismatics, some with a bent for spiritual warfare, are playing a prominent role in the conservative movement's efforts to enforce the ban on gay ordination through the church judicial system. One of the four cases backed by the Presbyterian Coalition's task force on church discipline in 1999 was brought by Rev. Samuel Schreiner, who has been active in PRMI.15   In another of the four cases, Rev. Stephen Noll, an Episcopal priest and advocate of spiritual warfare, testified as an expert witness. Noll was put on the stand by Julius B. Poppinga, counsel for the complainants in the case against the Presbytery of Hudson River, which has resolved to allow "holy unions," same-sex partnership ceremonies, in its churches.

In his recent book, Angels of Light, Powers of Darkness, Noll declares that "hedging out the demons is a particular responsibility of the church in its mission strategy and its inner discipline."16   He agrees with Peter Wagner's belief in the necessity of spiritual warfare to eliminate 'territorial spirits' in the mission field as well.17   Noll is especially interested in apocalyptic scenarios in which the 'active role in holy war' is transferred from 'the angels to the Christian believers.' He writes, '[Angels] convey our prayers and cheer us on, but it is our special calling to share in the bloody victory of the lamb.'18  

Thank you, Emily, for this - not-too-surprising revelation of the provenance of Dr. Stephen Noll now Professor at the University of uganda. One can have little doubt that his background provides him with the perfect skills to influence the Anglican Church of Uganda's current attitude toward the LGBT community - not only in Uganda, but throughout the whole Communion.

It is time Canterbury, and the Lambeth Fathers, took note of this cleric/academic's poisonous rhetoric against LGBTs; and of his charismatic reliance upon what he would call his discernment of the 'evil' within the sexual lives of those who are intrinsically ordered differently from his paradigm of God-given sexuality.

This fundamentalist pastor, if given his head - as has obviously happened in Uganda - will surely bring the Anglican Communion into disrepute among the family of Churches who believe in the love of Christ in the Gospel, and that this charism of Love (in Christ)is non-racist, non-sexist and non-discriminatory.

oh dear. Perhaps he needs to lay off Revelation and read the Sermon on the Mount / Plain each day in Lent ?

'In his recent book, Angels of Light, Powers of Darkness, Noll declares that "hedging out the demons is a particular responsibility of the church in its mission strategy and its inner discipline."16 He agrees with Peter Wagner's belief in the necessity of spiritual warfare to eliminate 'territorial spirits' in the mission field as well.17 Noll is especially interested in apocalyptic scenarios in which the 'active role in holy war' is transferred from 'the angels to the Christian believers.' He writes, '[Angels] convey our prayers and cheer us on, but it is our special calling to share in the bloody victory of the lamb.'18

Posted by: EmilyH on Thursday, 4 March 2010 at 6:46pm GMT

"What Dr. Noll is suggesting is another attempt at a coup, this time not concerning the replacement of The Episcopal Church with the Anglican Church in North America, but about the replacement of The Anglican Communion as a communion of churches with a new improved Worldwide Anglican Church, righteously led by the pure." - Mark Harris -

I think Mark has put his finger on the essence of what Prof. Noll is proposing in his essay on what he is disposed to call 'Anglican Governance'. it would appear to be nothing more nor less than the arrogant highjacking of power by the puritanical
holier-than-thou elements in the Communion.

This high-handed, and completely over-the-top misunderstanding of the innate diversity of the Anglican Tradition - based on Scripture. Tradition and Reason - is one reason why this attempted coup on the part of the Global South School of GAFCON will not prevail - UNLESS the Intruments of Communion are duped into believing that Noll and his friends Archbishop Orombi and Archbishop Akinola have the upper hand.

If the Global South Bishops want to preserve their status as Puritan Gatekeepers within the Communion, then they must look elsewhere - than to Lambeth and Canterbury - for their provenance.

The GAFCON fraternity have already distanced themselves from the sort of Anglicanism that has informed and nurtured the consciences and spiritual lives of traditional Anglicans over more than four centuries of Christendom - by declaring their ecclesial independence in Jerusalem. Any attempt now to crawl back into the womb must be seen as a source of concern to anyone who believes in the true traditions of Anglicanism - catholic and reformed.

To resile to the restrictive morality of the Victorian Age would be equivalent to the Roman Catholic Church's tragic return to pre-Vatican 2 theology. We cannot turn the clock back to the dark world of the Middle Ages, either; where Prince Bishops ruled the Church in communion with the Emperor. Orombi and Akinola, please take note