The BBC Parliament Channel will show recordings of last week’s General Synod sessions on Friday 20 February. A schedule is available here.
BBC Parliament is shown on UK digital terrestrial television (Freeview) channel 81, on digital cable and on satellite at channel 504, as well as on the broadband media player. More information here.
0 CommentsThe Anglican Church in North America has previously claimed:
“The movement unites 700 orthodox Anglican congregations, representing roughly 100,000 people…”
Today, a file entitled How many Anglicans are there in the Anglican Church in North America? has been published at this Fort Worth website.
How many Anglicans are there in the Anglican Church in North America?
On every Sunday morning, some 81,311 people worship at the 693 congregations of the Anglican Church in North America. These people and parishes are already outside of The Episcopal Church and The Anglican Church in Canada. The large majority are temporarily under the oversight of six separate Anglican provinces.
The Anglican Church in North America will unify the parishes and membership of a number of jurisdictions:
• The Anglican Mission in the Americas (Rwanda) reports an average Sunday attendance of 21,600 in 180 congregations (40 of which are churches in formation called “networks”).
• The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (Nigeria) has 69 congregations with a average Sunday attendance of 9,828.
• The Reformed Episcopal Church has 150 parishes and an average Sunday attendance of 13,000.
• There are 51 parishes under the temporary oversight of Uganda with an average Sunday attendance of 7,000.
• There are 55 parishes in The United States under the temporary oversight of the provinces of Kenya and the Southern Cone with an average Sunday attendance of 10,000.
• Four entire dioceses separating from The Episcopal Church, with a combined 163 parishes and an average Sunday attendance of 16,483 (The Episcopal Church congregations and members having been excluded from this count) are temporarily dioceses of the province of the Southern Cone.
• The Anglican Network in Canada (Southern Cone) is composed of 24 congregations with an average Sunday attendance of 3,400.
• One congregation is under the temporary oversight of West Africa.
Based on a firm Sunday attendance average of 81,311 people, it is reasonable to very conservatively project that more than 100,000 Anglicans in North America are active members of a congregation of the proposed province (In many cases, total membership often runs at two to three times average Sunday attendance. For instance, The Episcopal Church reports an average Sunday attendance of 768,476 in 2007 and an active baptized membership of 2,116,749.)
While each individual group is small, as a united body, the Anglican Church in North America stretches from one end of North America to the other and has as many or more (in some cases, significantly more) members than 12 of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces (Bangladesh, Brazil, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, Indian Ocean, Japan, Jerusalem & Middle East, Korea, Mexico, Myanmar, Scotland, Southern Cone, Wales)
See the PDF file for further comparison of ACNA with numerous provincial statistics.
38 CommentsUpdated Tuesday
The Church Times has two articles available without subscription. (There will be many more in the next two weeks as detailed reports become available to non-subscribers.)
Approval of women bishops clears its latest hurdle
Also, the Church Times blogger Dave Walker has some “behind the scenes” pictures.
Justin Brett now blogging as The Dodgy Liberal has written here about the debate on the Uniqueness of Christ last Wednesday.
Martin Beckford wrote at the Telegraph Synod: The temple of money and the altar of multi-faith dialogue.
George Pitcher at the Telegraph wrote Whittam Smith predicts Armageddon.
Tuesday updates
Justin Brett wrote a further article, see Synodical Ruminations Part 1 (Covenant) and see also the MCU document produced for this debate, at Briefing Paper for General Synod Members February 2009 (PDF).
And also another one on Synodical Ruminations Part 2 (BNP Etc.)
1 CommentIn my Saturday roundup of opinion pieces I included the article that Archbishop Sentamu wrote in the Daily Mail. One of the cases that he referred to there was the case of Jenny Cain and her daughter. The Telegraph reported this under the headline Primary school receptionist ‘facing sack’ after daughter talks about Jesus to classmate.
This case has given rise to criticism of the school, for example, according to the Telegraph:
John Sentamu said it was an “affront to the sensibility” of Christians everywhere that Jennie Cain is being investigated for alleged professional misconduct after she sent a private email to 10 friends asking for prayer.
And there was also Christian school receptionist row: More bishops speak out in support of Jennie Cain.
George Pitcher followed up with an opinion piece headed Christians need protection in law.
Other reports of the incident give a rather different picture. See for example:
Exeter Express & Echo Girl, 5, told off at school for talking of God followed the next day by Parents back head’s stance in storm over ‘go to hell’ comment
BBC School row over pupil’s God talk
Ekklesia School defends stance on girl who told classmate she would “go to hell”
Simon Barrow has written this comment article at Ekklesia Scaring the hell out of kids?
29 Comments… Perhaps those Christians who object to the school wanting to maintain a non-threatening environment should ask themselves how they would feel if a son of theirs ended up crying after being told by an atheist pupil that religious people are nuts and should be locked up? Or if their daughter was upset by a Muslim telling her she would suffer eternally for not believing in Allah and his Messenger?
In both these cases, there would be an outcry if the school did nothing, or if it said that that their kids would have to put up with being frightened, because trying to stop this would amount to “not showing respect for beliefs”…
Updated again Tuesday evening
Although there is no report of this as yet on Episcopal Life Online, nor at the The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) – which despite former claims to the contrary now appears to have slightly changed its name – there is now confirmation from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of a report from Lionel Deimel that Episcopal Church Asks to Join Calvary Lawsuit.
The actual court filing can be seen here as a PDF.
Deimel wrote:
An objection that the defendants have raised more than once in the lawsuit filed by Calvary Church against now-deposed bishop Robert Duncan and other (now former) leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is that Calvary had no right to sue without The Episcopal Church’s being a party to the suit. Well, Archbishop-in-Waiting Duncan seems about to get his wish. Papers were filed today in the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas on behalf of Bishop John C. Buchanan, Retired Bishop of West Missouri and parliamentarian of the House of Bishops. In a “petition to intervene,” Buchanan, representing The Episcopal Church, asks the court to become a plaintiff in the case…
The diocese wrote:
Today, Friday, February 13, 2009, attorneys representing The Episcopal Church filed a Petition to Intervene in the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s Request to Special Master now pending in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
The following statement was issued by the Standing Committee, the current leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh:
“We approve of and welcome The Episcopal Church joining our legal effort to regain control of diocesan assets that are still held by former diocesan leaders. Our request before the court is based on an agreement those former leaders made in court, namely, that diocesan property would unconditionally remain with a diocese that is defined as being part of The Episcopal Church of the United States. We believe the participation of The Episcopal Church in the case will help clarify beyond question who is and who is not rightfully the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh identified in that court agreement.”
Update
Lionel Deimel has published a second article, Further Analysis. In this he notes that the PDF document linked above contains two items. The second document, titled complaint-in-intervention, is analysed in detail by him. He summarises the concluding paragraph as follows:
In particular, The Episcopal Church asks that the court:
a. Declare that the people recognized by The Episcopal Church are the proper authorities to control the assets of the diocese.
b. Declare that property held by and for the Diocese of Pittsburgh may only be used for the mission of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, subject to the rules of each.
c. Order the defendants to relinquish all diocesan assets to the proper authorities of the diocese.
d. Require defendants to submit an accounting of all assets held on October 4, 2008,
e. Provide such further relief as may be proper.
Tuesday evening update
ENS now has a report, PITTSBURGH: Episcopal Church petitions to join property case, wants Duncan to vacate offices.
8 CommentsI wrote recently about a Theos report on Rescuing Darwin. Andrew Brown has now written at Comment is free about Science vs superstition, not science vs religion.
Last week in the Church Times Andrew Davison wrote that The C of E should nurture theology. For more about the Returning to the Church conferences, go here.
Giles Fraser wrote about the Credit Crunch, see The crunch needs global resolution. And don’t miss the lucid explanation of the Credit Crunch by Andreas Whittam Smith in a synod paper, The Inernational Financial Crisis and the Recession.
Earlier this week, Jonathan West asked Should I worry about the church?
The Archbishop of York wrote in the Daily Mail The intolerance towards Christians in the public sector is an affront. Another copy is on the archbishop’s own website.
Jenny Taylor wrote in The Times Let us use chastity to channel the soul’s energy.
Elizabeth Gray-King wrote in the Guardian about Valentine’s Day.
33 CommentsThe official report of Friday morning’s business is at General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Friday 13th February 2009 AM.
Press reports:
BBC Church call for asylum law change
Martin Beckford Telegraph Church of England General Synod calls asylum seeker amnesty
Ruth Gledhill General Synod Feb 09 Day Five
Nottingham Evening Post City priest’s call for asylum seeker rights
Alastair Cutting Asylum and Sanctuary
We will update this as more reports are published.
0 CommentsThe March issue of Atlantic Monthly carries an interview with Rowan Williams written by Paul Elie.
The place of gay people in the church is one of the bitterest disputes in Christianity since the Reformation. The Anglican Church is trying to have it both ways—affirming traditional notions of marriage and family while seeking to adapt its teachings to the experiences of gays and lesbians. Presiding over the debate, gently—too gently?—prodding the communion toward acceptance of gay clergy, is Rowan Williams, the brilliant and beleaguered archbishop of Canterbury. He’s been pilloried from all sides for his handling of these issues, but his distinctive theology and leadership style may offer the only way to open the Anglican Church to gay people without breaking it apart.
Read the whole thing, starting here.
Also, read an interview with the writer, at A Flock Divided.
8 CommentsPaul Elie talks about Archbishop Rowan Williams’s balancing act, and the schisms threatening the Anglican Church.
Updated Thursday lunchtime
An extremely useful paper written by Andreas Whittam Smith provided for the debate held on Tuesday is now available on the CofE website.
See GS Misc 916 THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE RECESSION.
Update We have now added this paper as a webpage.
1 CommentRevised Thursday 00.30 GMT and 12.55 GMT
The official summary of the morning’s business is at General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Wednesday 11th February 2009 PM.
The official summary of the afternoon’s business is at General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Wednesday 11th February 2009 AM.
Ruth Gledhill and Alastair Cutting (or Justin Brett) and Peter Ould have been blogging during the morning debate.
General Synod Feb 09: Day Three
and
Women Bishops: Blogging It Live
and
Live Blogging Synod
Guardian Riazat Butt Church of England will not see first female bishops until 2014
BBC Women bishops pass first hurdle
Religious Intelligence Toby Cohen General Synod vote sees women bishops take a step closer
Dave Walker has a cartoon about it, here. He also posted this.
Matthew Davies ENS Church of England inches closer to approving women bishops
Reuters Avril Ormsby Synod avoids cataclysm over women bishops
Water Bills
The same three bloggers are here, here, and here.
Martin Beckford Church ‘raintax’ is crippling parishes, admits head of Ofwat
Not actually a report from synod, but relevant is this Guardian report, Minister orders water companies to review huge ‘rainwater tax’ bills by Jenny Percival.
Waste water cartoon by Dave Walker
Ruth Gledhill The Times Churches face closure over water bills
Uniqueness of Christ
Peter Ould blogged here.
Ruth Gledhill The Times Anglicans called on to convert non-Christian believers
Martin Beckford Telegraph Christianity in decline because of political correctness
Later reports:
Guardian Riazat Butt Church throws open female bishops dispute and a sidebar, Women in the church
Church Times blog Dave Walker Video and news links from General Synod Day 4
Martin Beckford A new anti-atheist bus slogan coined at General Synod
2 CommentsJudith Maltby has written for Comment is free Women bishops now.
The Church of England cannot justify continued discrimination against its female members…
…A number of cross-party parliamentarians in both houses are making it clear that they will not vote into the law any measure from General Synod which discriminates against women. Imagine: lawmakers who do not want discrimination against women enshrined in the law of the land. Who do these people think that they are? Where is their sense of right and wrong?
A recent Church of England report suggested that the Labour government was had lost its moral compass. Might one suggest that the moral compass of these parliamentarians is working rather better than the Church of England’s? Could it be time to take the plank out of our own eye?
Religious Intelligence has Church of England’s treatment of women “shameful”, General Synod is told by Judy West.
..The Rev Dr Threlfall-Holmes, General Synod member for Durham and Newcastle Universities, said: “It is shameful that the Church of England still treats women as a problem to be solved.
“The draft legislation coming before Synod on Wednesday was always going to be a compromise between gender equality and the desire in the church to ‘protect’ those who disagree with the ordination of women. So in that sense what we have before us is about what was to be expected.
“But we will need to be very careful not to be misled into setting up a separate ‘church within a church’ in a misguided attempt to secure unity.”
The Northumberland Gazette has Church ‘tone’ on women bishops criticised.
5 Comments…Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes criticised the “tone” of legislation on women bishops to be debated on Wednesday by the General Synod, the Church’s national assembly.
She said: “I think it is a shame that we continue to give more emphasis to the people who are a very vocal minority that disagree than to the huge majority who just want to get on with it.
“It is sending a very negative impression…
The American Anglican Council has published An Open Letter from Archbishop Akinola to Archbishop Williams.
…In preparation for the meeting I asked The American Anglican Council to prepare the attached report on the continuing situation of The Episcopal Church to enable people in the wider Communion to have a fuller perspective of the circumstances in North America. I shared it with my colleagues in the Global South but did not release it more widely in the hope that we would receive assurances from the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada that they were willing to exercise genuine restraint towards those Anglicans in North America unwilling to embrace their several innovations.
Sadly that did not prove to be the case. Instead we were treated to presentations that sought to trivialize the situation and the consequences for those whose only offence is their determination to hold on doggedly and truthfully to the faith once delivered to the saints. In addition I have learned that even as we met together in Alexandria actions were taken that were in direct contradiction to the season of deeper communion and gracious restraint to which we all expressed agreement. For example, in the days leading up to our meeting, the Diocese of Virginia declared the “inherent integrity and blessedness” of same sex unions and initiated a process to provide for their “blessing”. While we were meeting, The Diocese of Toronto also announced that it will start same sex blessings within a year and The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia filed further costly legal action appealing the court’s decision in twenty cases favouring nine Virginia congregations. These and many further actions are documented within the report…
Associated with this letter are two documents prepared by the AAC, one about The Episcopal Church and another about the Anglican Church of Canada, both in PDF format. The former was prepared by the AAC, and the latter by ANiC.
28 CommentsUpdated again Tuesday evening
Archbishop Peter Akinola has published A Wake Up Call to the People of God. It includes this:
…All through our gathering at the recently concluded Primates’ meeting I kept wondering whether we were the ones to whom John was writing. We have a glorious reputation – a worldwide communion of millions with a glorious history and beautiful heritage, fluid structures, grand cathedrals, “infallible” canons, historical ecclesiology and ‘flexible’ hermeneutics – but we are in danger of forgetting what we have received and heard and replacing it with the seemingly attractive gods and goddesses of our age. We are in danger of becoming the ‘living dead’ by giving the outward appearance of life but in reality we are no more than empty and ineffective vessels. In parts of our Communion some have merged the historical gospel message of Jesus the Christ with seductive ancient heresies and revisionist agendas, which have resulted in an adulterated and dangerous distortion of the gospel. The call to obedience and repentance is one that we must declare but we refuse and instead we replace it with a polite invitation to empty tolerance and endless conversation. Sometimes we think that we can replace the need for repentance with activities, programmes, endless meetings, conventions and communiqués —- we are wrong!
Bonnie Anderson President of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, has released a statement on the communiqué from the recently-completed Primates Meeting and on the report of the Windsor Continuation Group, available here.
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada has published a letter to Canadians, see A Reflection by our Primate.
…My observation is that in those dioceses where resolutions have been passed requesting the authorizing of rites for blessing same-sex unions the Bishops have shown gracious restraint. They have called for continuing discernment in some cases through the drafting and testing of such rites in a limited manner and have advised the House accordingly. I am of the opinion that while our church struggles to honour the call for gracious restraint in blessing same-sex unions, those who are the proponents of cross-border interventions have and continue to show no restraint. I have endeavored to address this situation since the Lambeth Conference and I regret to say that to date a conversation with the pertinent parties has not been possible. I am disappointed and dismayed. My feelings are grounded in my care and concern for the Bishops and dioceses most adversely affected by these cross-border interventions…
However, I am encouraged by the call in the Windsor Continuation Report for the Archbishop of Canterbury to initiate professional mediated conversations in conflicted situations. In supporting this call, the Primates were unanimous. I personally assured the Archbishop of Canterbury of my commitment on behalf of our Church to this initiative and expressed my hope that all other parties would also come to the table in a spirit of “honest exchange and mutual challenge” for the sake of the unity of the Church.
Tuesday updates
Steve Waring at the Living Church has published Analysis: Primates Offer Support, Warnings to Both Sides.
Bishop Jack Iker Fort Worth Reflections on the Alexandria Communiqué (PDF)
9 CommentsUpdated again Tuesday evening
The official summary is at General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Monday 9th February 2009 PM.
This includes links to audio recordings of all the sessions. (When I tried, only one of them was working properly. Dave Walker had a similar problem with the live feed.)
There is also a link to the text of the speech by Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor. The press release from his office about this speech is here.
The Questions session is pretty difficult to understand on the audio, as the Questions, which are submitted in advance, and are available to everybody on the floor as a printed document, are not read out. It’s unclear why this document is not routinely made available beforehand on the web. The prepared Answers, which are read out, are not available in written form to those on the floor, but are available to the Press Gallery!
As the summary linked above says
46 written questions were submitted by members of the Synod. The text of these questions, alongside the written responses, will be available here within the next week.
For more colourful reporting of the afternoon, try some of these:
Ruth Gledhill General Synod Feb 2009: Day One and Times Online Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor: All churches “impoverished” by Anglican divisions
Martin Beckford Telegraph General Synod Day 1: Key Church of England meeting starts with debate on Catholic church and Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor calls on Anglicans to work with Roman Catholics against secular society.
Also George Pitcher Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor: United we stand and Damian Thompson Cardinal’s General Synod speech uses the loaded phrase ‘Ecclesial Community’ – meaning ‘not a Church’
BBC Cardinal ‘regrets’ CofE divisions
Justin Brett So what do you actually do at Synod, then?
Andrew Brown Is the Church of England together enough to split?
Tuesday updates
Comment is free Giles Fraser A week of terrible headlines
Unfortunately, during this synod, the Christian spirit is likely to be overshadowed by infighting and obscurantism…
Guardian Riazat Butt Calls for ecclesial unity amid homosexuality row (scroll down for this)
The Diocese of Lichfield has reports of two items in Questions, here, and here.
5 CommentsUpdated Tuesday morning
Thinking Anglicans is not the only place on the internet for learning what happens this week at General Synod.
The official GS website pages start here.
The unofficial General Synod Blog can be found here.
Premier Christian Radio will have a live audio feed of sessions.
The Church Times Blog is here.
We will add to this list any other sources that we learn about during the week.
2 CommentsThe Church of England website wants feedback from users.
See the press release What are you surfing for?
The Church of England is increasingly using a range of new media in order to enhance its web presence. So, the webmasters of the national Church of England web-site, recognising the need to engage directly with visitors to the site, have launched an on-line survey to gather visitors’ views.
It is available now at http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/cofe/cofeweb and will be there until the end of March…
The site was designed by ILRT Bristol and launched in 2004.
TA readers are strongly encouraged to respond to the survey.
5 CommentsGeorge Pitcher wrote in his blog for the Telegraph on Why Pope Benedict is like Rowan Williams.
Giles Fraser wrote in the Church Times that Growing up is a moral business. (For background links see here.)
And he also wrote at Comment is free that Atheists should get a life and leave our slot alone. Related to this, Jonathan Bartley at Ekklesia wrote The politics of Thought for the Day.
John Packer wrote in the Guardian about the upcoming General Synod debates on various public policy issues in Face to Faith. (We shall cover these in more detail during the week.)
Roderick Strange writes in The Times: Credo: Riveted by Mark’s Gospel, in one sitting.
Jonathan Bartley wrote in last week’s Church Times about An honest, vulnerable President.
19 CommentsUpdated Sunday morning
The Convention of the Diocese of Fort Worth is due to hold a special meeting tomorrow.
The Presiding Bishop will attend tomorrow, and will preside and preach at the eucharist preceding the meeting, and again on Sunday morning. The meeting will elect a provisional bishop to replace Bishop Jack Iker.
The recommended candidate is Rt. Rev. Edwin F. “Ted” Gulick Jr., Bishop of Kentucky.
Earlier this week Bishop Jack Iker announced that he was relinquishing all claims on four of the parishes of the diocese. See this press release, Diocese Releases Four Parishes, and the associated supporting documents. See also this press release from The Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians about it. There are several more parishes not affiliated with Bishop Iker.
The Dallas Morning News carried this front page report today: Episcopal divide in Fort Worth still wide open by Sam Hodges.
Sunday morning update
ENS reports: FORT WORTH: Gulick unanimously elected provisional bishop.
A pastoral letter from Bishop Gulick can be found here (PDF).
Local newspaper reports:
Fort Worth Star-Telegram Fort Worth-area Episcopalians elect provisional bishop and Reorganized Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth elects a new bishop.
Dallas Morning News Fort Worth congregations loyal to Episcopal Church reorganize.
Meanwhile, Bishop Iker announced 23 Clergy Released from Canonical Residency.
Katie Sherrod writes about it here.
6 CommentsIt’s not only Americans who don’t believe in evolution. Pat Ashworth writes in the Church Times about recent research on this. Rescue Darwin rows from extremes, says theology think tank.
ONLY 37 per cent of people in the UK believe that Darwin’s theory of evolution is “beyond reasonable doubt”, research by Theos, a public- theology think tank, suggests.
Of those questioned, 32 per cent think that Young Earth Creationism (YEC — “the belief that God created the world some time in the past 10,000 years”) is either “definitely or probably true”, and 51 per cent say the same of Intelligent Design (which Theos defines as “The idea that evolution alone is not enough to explain the complex structures of some living things, so the intervention of a designer is needed at key stages”). The report describes the term Intelligent Design (ID) as “slippery”.
The fact that these figures do not add up shows how confused and often contradictory the population is in its opinions, say the authors of the report Rescuing Darwin, Nick Spencer, director of studies at Theos, and Denis Alexander, director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. They describe it as “a sorry state of affairs”, in an age when the theory is now incontestable in scientific circles and when advances in genetics have strengthened it.
Theos has published a press release, Half of Britons sceptical about evolution, and the report Rescuing Darwin is available as a PDF, and the research tables are available as another PDF here. From the press release:
Only half of the UK population consistently choose evolution over creationism or Intelligent Design, according to a major report published today by Theos.
The report, entitled Rescuing Darwin, published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth (February 12), draws on extensive new research conducted by the polling agency, ComRes (see tables below).
It reveals that only 25% of British adults think that evolution is “definitely true”, with another quarter thinking it is “probably true”.
The remaining 50% are either strongly opposed or simply confused about the issue. Around 10% of people consistently choose (Young Earth) Creationism (the belief that God created the world some time in the last 10,000 years) over evolution, and about 12% consistently prefer Intelligent Design or “ID” (the idea that evolution alone is not enough to explain the complex structures of some living things). The remainder of the population, over 25%, are unsure and often mix evolution, ID and creationism together…
Whatever the exact numbers are, it seems pretty clear that most of the people in the UK who are “sceptical about evolution” are not active religious believers.
14 CommentsUpdated again Sunday afternoon
The meeting is now finished, but the reports continue. Earlier reports can be found here and the text of communiqués here.
Pat Ashworth Church Times Primates agree: hold the moratoriums while we talk further (this is not in the paper edition)
Living Church George Conger Conservative Bishops Laud Outcome of Meeting, Archbishop’s Leadership
Martin Beckford Telegraph Anglican church leaders to bring in ‘relationship counsellors’ over sexuality dispute
Colin Coward Changing Attitude Primates meeting – Schism or division? – and refugees
ANiC Anglican Network in Canada responds to Primates’ Communique
Integrity Integrity Responds to Primates’ Communique
Guardian (Nigeria) Anglican primates call for Mugabe’s resignation
Update 13.30 GMT Friday
George Conger Religious Intelligence Anglican Primates agree mediation programme
Update 18.00 GMT Friday
Episcopal Café has further comment, see Conservatives playing possum?
This links to the statement issued by the Chicago Consultation Chicago Consultation Rejects False Choice.
Update 23.00 GMT Friday
Statement of Bishop Robert Duncan on the Alexandria Primates Meeting
Update 0900 GMT Sunday
ENS has a comprehensive roundup of American responses to the primates meeting, in Primates’ communiqué, Windsor report draw praise, criticism. This includes:
The leader of the effort to form a new Anglican entity in North America said February 6, through a spokesman, that he is “certainly open to mediated conversations” called for by the primates of the Anglican Communion, but added that his organization “will need to see what exactly is being proposed and what ground rules can be agreed on before committing further.”
The Rev. Peter Frank said he was authorized to speak on behalf of Robert Duncan, the deposed bishop of Pittsburgh who led the majority of that diocese’s members and leadership out of the Episcopal Church. Duncan is one of a number of individuals and groups who have responded to the primates’ communiqué and an accompanying report from the Windsor Continuation Group issued February 5.
As the ENS report notes later on,
Duncan made no mention of the primates’ call for mediated talks in his official statement responding to the February 5 communiqué issued after the leaders or primates of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces ended their five day meeting in Alexandria, Egypt. Instead, in that statement, he portrayed the members of the proposed new “Anglican Church in North America” as people “who are attempting to remain faithful amidst vast pressures to acquiesce to beliefs and practices far outside of the Christian and Anglican mainstream.”
The roundup does not include:
Anglican Journal Marites N. Sison Hiltz welcomes proposed ‘mediated conversation’.
And there is another post from Colin Coward at Changing Attitude Moratoria – who agrees with all three?
Update 1700 GMT Sunday
In a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Ann Rogers Factions encouraged by Anglican leaders’ statement:
9 CommentsThe Rev. James Simons, chairman of the standing committee that governs the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, also was pleased with the statement. But he focused on a footnote that says talks with Bishop Duncan’s proposed province would require a commitment “that they would not seek to recruit and expand their membership by means of proselytization.”
“They specifically ask this new group to stop doing what it is doing so that they can enter into negotiations,” the Rev. Simons said.
“I would take that to mean that the [other] diocese would stop actively recruiting parishes and individuals to join the realignment.”
Deacon Peter Frank, spokesman for the Anglican diocese, said the diocese was not yet sure how to interpret the injunction against “proselytization.”
“We are going to have to see what the intent of the primates is and what they believe they were saying in that. Our main concern is for the tens of thousands of people that are already outside of the Episcopal Church. We are bringing those people together,” he said.