Updated to add second Riazat Butt article
Some more news items from around the world
Riazat Butt in The Guardian Conservative Anglicans form global network
Riazat Butt and Toni O’Loughlin in The Guardian Conservative Anglicans form breakaway church in revolution led from the south
[an updated and expanded version of the above]
Linda Morris in the Sydney Morning Herald Anglicans’ new group denounces liberalism
Dina Kraft and Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times Anglicans Face Wider Split Over Policy Toward Gays
and an opinion article from Australia
Michael Kirby in The Age [Melbourne] Religious condemnation of homosexuals denies human rights
17 CommentsUpdated to include four Church Times blog entries
The final statement (as approved rather than leaked) is now available on the GAFCON website.
Statement on the Global Anglican Future.
For the convenience of our readers we have copied the statement below the fold.
Here are some initial press reports.
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Anglican Church offshoot founded by traditionalists in Jerusalem
Ruth Gledhill in the Sunday Times Anglicans form ‘new church’ in gay clergy row
Nick Mackenzie in Religious Intelligence Gafcon plans a future distant from the Archbishop of Canterbury
BBC Anglican conservatives form group
George Conger in Religious Intelligence Conservatives to split — but only from Episcopal Church
Timothy C Morgan at Christianity Today Anglicans Birth Global Confessing Movement
Rachel Zoll at Associated Press Anglican conservatives launch liberal challenge
Four items from Jerusalem by Paul Handley of the Church Times
A first look at the GAFCON statement
Is it a split?
Delegates endorse GAFCON final statement
Jerusalem declaration thoughts
Two more reports on the Church Times blog from Paul Handley in Jerusalem.
GAFCON: Galilee
The miracle of GAFCON
Robert Pigott of the BBC reports from Jerusalem that Anglican rift is about more than sex.
3 CommentsThese sites are carrying the text of the final statement from GAFCON.
Fulcrum
Episcopal Café
StandFirm
The StandFirm version refers to a correction that the other two sites do not have at present.
Update
It is also here.
TitusOneNine
This appears to have the correct version of the correction.
A trial court in Virginia has given a ruling in favour of parishes in Virginia that argued they could leave the US Episcopal Church and retain their property. Note that there are still two more levels of court in Virginia (an intermediate appeal and then the state’s highest court) that could hear this matter and decide differently, and it’s possible this might go all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Episcopal Life Online
Virginia court rules application of ‘Division Statute’ is constitutional
Associated Press
Va. judge: church secession law is constitutional
The Washington Times
Virginia judge affirms parish property rights
Reuters
U.S. Episcopal Church dissidents win court ruling
Chicago Tribune
Va. judge sides with breakaway Episcopal churches
This last article starts:
A Civil War-era law that lets Virginia churches keep their property when leaving a denomination where a “division” has occurred is constitutional, a county judge ruled Friday (June 27), siding with 11 former Episcopal parishes.
Fairfax County Judge Randy I. Bellows’ ruling on the 1867 law stops short of awarding the property to the parishes, but it hands them a major legal win. “It’s a resounding victory and very broad,” said Steffen Johnson, lead counsel for several of the congregations. “There are just a few loose ends to tie up.”
Dave Walker in the Church Times blog has Judge sides with breakaway Episcopal churches in Virginia. This includes links to two earlier Church Times articles which give the background to this case.
Here is the response of the Diocese of Virginia to the court’s ruling.
Court Issues Opinion on Division Statute Constitutionality and Other Statutory Issues
This includes links to the texts of the rulings.
Giles Fraser in the Church Times Family love is a model of injustice
Robert O’Neill asks in The Guardian Do we need a global Anglican communion?. His answer is a resounding and heartfelt “yes”.
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah in a Face to faith article in The Guardian Judaism has had to evolve to survive, and Anglicanism must too. She asks “Is Anglicanism a form of progressive Christianity – and if so, what are its progressive credentials?”
Roderick Strange in the credo column at the Times Genuine conversion unveils our hidden depths
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph that the bees are back at Lambeth Palace. The riddle of the golden syrup tin
Stephen Bates in The Guardian Barack Obama and the Jesus Machine – “Televangelist James Dobson has come out against Obama. But the Democrat might just carry religious voters with him anyway.”
16 Commentsupdated late Friday
More from Jerusalem
Riazat Butt in The Guardian At Gafcon, who calls the shots? subtitled “White conservative Anglican clergy are beginning to pull the strings, squeezing their African brothers out of the picture”
Damian Thompson in the Telegraph There is no Anglican schism
and Dr Nazir-Ali is being exploited at Gafcon
George Conger in Religious Intelligence Anglican traditionalists set to form a ‘church within a church’
Paul Handley in the Church Times blog GAFCON: Keeping the final communiqué under wraps
6 CommentsJohn Bryson Chane (Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC) writes in The Guardian The framing of mutual joy where he argues that “Our church’s evolving attitude has led us to the point where we must consider gay marriage”.
5 CommentsToday’s Church Times has these four reports from Paul Handley.
GAFCON Churches ‘will stay in the fold’
Akinola: Lambeth betrayed us
Dr Nazir-Ali: ‘Inculturation has limits’
It’s conscience, say Lambeth absentees
There is also his latest blog entry posted last night.
Will a new structure emerge from GAFCON?
There is also this leader.
The GAFCON Reformation
We linked to official reports of this month’s meeting of the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church here, here and here.
The Church Times now has this report Bishops in Scotland defeat membership proposal by Margaret Duggan. Although the title refers to one particular item before the synod, the article is a full report of all three day’s business.
0 Commentsupdated late Thursday evening
Reports of GAFCON itself
George Pitcher in the Telegraph Anti-gay bishops are after power, not truth
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Gafcon: Orthodox Anglicans feel betrayed by church structure
George Conger in Religious Intelligence Israel Minister welcomes Gafcon ‘pilgrims’ to Jerusalem
Judith Sudilovsky at Episcopal Life Online Nazir-Ali to boycott Lambeth Conference as ‘matter of conscience’
Ruth Gledhill in The Times Formation of a ‘church within a church’ for conservative Anglicans
And a comment from someone who has been reporting from GAFCON but today attended a different event in Jerusalem.
Iain Baxter in the Guardian comment is free section Marching with pride in Jerusalem
3 CommentsMore from Jerusalem
Riazat Butt in The Guardian writes about yesterday’s comments by Canon Vinay Samuel and other matters in Anglican conservative accuses ‘relic’ Williams of colonial mindset
Robert Pigott at the BBC Bishops turning back on Lambeth
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Liberals are tearing apart church, says Anglican bishop [The bishop is Wallace Benn, the Bishop of Lewes.]
George Conger in Religious Intelligence writes that American conservatives ‘are not bank-rolling Gafcon’.
And an article on the background to some of the current disputes.
The BBC has Anglican rift: Conservative v Liberal in which “a conservative and a liberal – Paul Eddy, of the Conservative Anglican network in the UK and Bishop Marc Andrus of the Episcopal diocese of California – spell out their views on six key points of disagreement.”
22 CommentsMore again from Jerusalem
Paul Handley in his Church Times blog writes about going to Herod’s Temple with the GAFCON pilgrims GAFCON: At Herod’s temple.
Ruth Gledhill reports in her blog at The Times What’s going on at Gafcon that Howard Ahmanson has been seen at GAFCON with a delegate’s badge around his neck.
Riazat Butt writes in her blog at The Guardian on Gafcon’s plans for the future of the Anglican Communion.
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph reports what Canon Vinay Samuel said Gafcon: Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams branded ‘a historical relic’.
Damian Thompson in his Holy Smoke blog in the Telegraph writes about Dr Nazir-Ali in The alternative Archbishop of Canterbury.
David van Biema writes in Time Threat of Anglican Schism Fizzles.
2 CommentsMore from Jerusalem
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Conservative Anglicans aim to avoid split
and Gafcon: Hardline Anglicans to form new church over homosexual clergy
Paul Handley in the Church Times blog GAFCON: ‘It’s the beginning of a movement’
and GAFCON security
Riazat Butt writes in The Guardian about last night’s speech by the Bishop of Rochester: Christians must recover nerve, says Nazir-Ali.
A 38-minute recording of the bishop’s speech is now available in the AnglicanTV GAFCON archives or directly here.
9 CommentsRuth Gledhill in her Times blog reports that the Bishop of Guildford has said Give trads their own diocese. This refers to an open letter from the bishop which is online here and is copied here below the fold.
35 CommentsRiazat Butt in The Guardian has Cracks begin to show at summit discussing gay clergy rift and an audio report Church summit: ‘For them it’s all about homosexuality’.
Matthew Davies at Episcopal Life Online writes Conservative Anglicans meeting in Jerusalem struggle to find a united voice.
Ruth Gledhill writes in The Times Anglican Church schism recedes over gay issue with African leaders and on her blog Gafcon: ‘There will be no split’.
The bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke to GAFCON this evening; please see our article below for details of this.
Paul Handley writes in the Church Times blog What will come out of GAFCON?.
Stephen Bates writes in the Guardian’s Comment is Free page Vicious hot air currents.
The first leader in today’s Guardian is Clerical errors.
On his blog Mark Russell (Chief Executive of Church Army and a member of the Archbishops’ Council) writes about the need for leaders to talk to those with whom they disagree in Countdown to Lambeth.
Anglican TV is in Jerusalem and has both live and archived video. The live video is also carried on GAFCON’s own website here.
There is a gallery of photos at Gafcon’s Public Gallery.
25 CommentsThe bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke to GAFCON this evening on “The Nature and Future of the Anglican Communion”.
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph reports on his speech Western world is losing Christian values, says leading bishop.
Ruth Gledhill in her Times blog writes Nazir-Ali: there must be development in terms of doctrine.
The Diocese of Edinburgh has launched a new website today. It contains a lecture given by the Bishop of Edinburgh on 17 June concerning current conflicts in the Anglican Communion.
The prefeace to the address reads:
This address was given to members of the Diocese of Edinburgh on 17 June 2008. Drawing upon earlier addresses and Bible studies given in the diocese, it argues that the church should allow the category of ‘the tragic’ to shape its perspective on the world, and should place more emphasis on what is highlighted as ‘ethical transcendence’ in its understanding of God. Doing this creates the possibility of articulating a circumscribed and limited pluralism, totally different from simple relativism. The paper concludes by suggesting that much in current approaches to Anglican difficulties rests upon a too limited approach to the doctrine of the Trinity. The heart of the paper is a plea that Anglicanism recaptures elements in the traditions which lie at the heart of its life, brings them to the fore and addresses our current disputes in their light.
The address appears in the ‘News’ section of the website. Or you can download it directly as a pdf or Word file.
8 CommentsPat Ashworth writes in today’s Church Times Synod urged in two different directions on women bishops. Two quotes from this article:
The chairman of the Catholic Group on the General Synod, the Revd Canon Simon Killwick, has described as “insulting” and “offensive” the motion on women bishops which the House of Bishops will put forward at the July sessions.
Christina Rees, who chairs Women and the Church (WATCH), described “dire predictions” of an exodus of 500 clergy if the Measure were passed unamended as “unfounded and untrue” on Tuesday.
Also in the Church Times (as already noted here) Glyn Paflin writes Women bishops issue may dominate Synod.
2 Comments