The Today programme this morning carried an interview with Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch (see here for review of his latest book).
The interview was not however about his book, but about the current debate on sexuality. In this interview DM noted that a paranoic hatred of homosexuals started in the 11th or 12th centuries and has continued to the present day, uniting the Pope and Ian Paisley. He compared the current dispute to the Reformation itself.
You can hear the whole interview, using Real Audio here.
1 CommentThe Archbishop of Armagh and Senior Primate of the Anglican Communion, the Most Revd Robin Eames, examines some of the questions currently facing the worldwide Anglican Communion prior to the forthcoming special meeting of Primates at Lambeth Palace.
Read What Price Unity from the Church of Ireland Gazette.
Part of what he says:
In the blitz of opinion and counter argument over the election to New Hampshire I believe we need to be clear what we are talking about.
This election undoubtedly challenges the Resolution 1.10 of the last Lambeth Conference. It is clearly in breach of the majority opinion of the bishops in 1998. It is clearly contrary to the view of a large number of Anglicans. But the question still remains: Is there a tangible manner within the structures of our Communion as present constituted to do more than express concern and criticism and adopt attitudes within our own Provinces towards those others with whom we disagree?
To put it plainly – if no constitutional or legal rules exist for what constitutes membership of the Anglican Communion there are no rules for expulsion of a member Church.
0 CommentsSome news about INCLUSIVECHURCH.NET is available on this page.
Key points from this release:
ACNS has published the full text of a letter, released on 22 September, from Archbishop Akinola to Archbishop Ndungane. The letter is in response to the report in the Guardian dated 8 September, which included an interview with Archbishop Ndungane.
0 CommentsThe Guardian report by Stephen Bates, Evangelicals side with church rebels says that senior evangelicals meeting in Blackpool ignored pleas for tolerance and patience from the archbishops of Canterbury and York yesterday to send a message of support to parishes in the US and Canada which have fallen out over the issue of blessings for same sex couples and the election of an openly gay bishop.
Both this report and Ruth Gledhill’s in The Times, Liberal tolerance of gays in Church ‘is just paganism’ quote these remarks of Gordon Wenham:
“(Paganism) is raising its head again. Other examples are religious pluralism, abolition of Sunday as universal rest day, abortion, cremation, easy divorce … we should not be intimidated by the charge of being old fashioned: it is the so-called liberals who are really taking us back to the dark ages.”
The Telegraph report by Jonathan Petre strikes a less negative note, Evangelicals ‘must learn from gays’ and reports that “they were also told to counter criticism that they lack compassion by listening to and learning from the experiences of homosexuals.”
3 CommentsThe anatomy of schism: A battle of biblical tyranny discusses the current ECUSA difficulties from an American historical (and liberal) perspective.
Dr L William Countryman, professor of New Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif. has written an essay entitled Dealing with Conflict as Anglicans which is available in pdf format and can be downloaded from here.
The views expressed in both of these are, I would judge, in conflict with much of what is being said at NEAC. What we in the CofE call Conservative Evangelicalism (see Graham Kings’ discussion) has until quite recently been unknown inside ECUSA.
There is one point made in the first article on which all can agree:
“The Internet has made all the difference,” says the Rev. John Kater, professor of ministry development at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. “Thirty years ago it would have taken African Christians weeks or months to even hear what happened at General Convention, and another six months to have a response. Now it’s done instantly. It’s much easier to organize because we have websites, chat rooms, and instant emails.”
The Archbishop of York has attracted plenty of newspaper attention this morning:
in The Times, Gay debate tearing heart out of Church, archbishop says
in the Telegraph, Infighting is wrecking Church’s image, says archbishop
in the Guardian, Evangelicals told to pipe down and listen
which also has Church report reinforces gay policy
The BBC radio programme Sunday has a 7 minute audio report available here (Real Audio needed). Includes quotes from Francis Bridger (about Fulcrum) and from Christina Rees.
And here is the ACNS news release about Rowan Williams at NEAC.
0 CommentsThe Church Times, in an article entitled Groups vie to represent Evangelical mainstream reports on the formation of Fulcrum, a new Evangelical grouping which “aims to give a voice to those who identify with Evangelicalism’s centre ground, but who feel that their views are not adequately heard in the public arena”.
Fulcrum has its own website here with more about its aims and objectives. This is well worth a read.
There are also two articles (in pdf format) of some interest.
One is a longer version of the article in this week’s Church Times by Graham Kings. Canal, River and Rapids: Contemporary Evangelicalism in the Church of England can be downloaded here.
The other is English Evangelicals and the Archbishop’s Theology by Andrew Goddard, downloadable here.
Choose your medium:
The Telegraph says Evangelicals warn Williams on gay issue
The Times has Church is infected by sin, Williams tells evangelicals
The BBC says Evangelicals warm up in gay row
The Guardian says No room in the church: archbishop finds himself cast out by evangelicals together with ‘Most churches just want to help people’
NEAC itself offers A defining moment for Anglican evangelicals by Andrew Goddard, reproduced from the CEN.
The Observer carries a major news story today, headlined Anglicans face schism over gay row, and subtitled Conservative US bishops prepare to take on liberal British wing in bitter struggle for Church’s soul.
This article refers to money spent outside the USA by the American Anglican Council. In connection with this, an item I reported on 6 August in my personal blog under the heading of American Imperialism may be of interest as it mentions that some of this money is channelled through British institutions.
As usual, other news stories today are listed here.
1 CommentGraham Bowley has written a long piece in the Financial Times, of all places, on our current controversies, under the title Jesus Loves Me which is well worth reading.
Later Note: this article was reposted by the FT on 15 September with major errors in the original fixed. Worth reading it again if you only saw the first version.
Further Note: on Saturday 19 September, the FT printed this letter commenting on the article from an American reader.
The Church of Ireland bishops yesterday issued this pastoral letter on Human Sexuality.
2 CommentsTo sign the following letter, go here.
To: Manchester Cathedral Authorities
We regret the inhospitable action of Manchester Cathedral, in withdrawing permission for an act of worship for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, to be held at the Cathedral. We invite the Cathedral authorities to explain their action clearly, and to consider seriously the message that their action gives to lesbian and gay people.
Sincerely,
To see a little of the background to this petition, go here and follow the links there.
1 CommentThe Manchester Cathedral Chapter, with the support of the Bishop’s Senior Staff, has reluctantly withdrawn its permission for LGCM to use Manchester Cathedral for a conference service on October 26th 2003. The press release says:
“It has done so in the light of sensitivities and timing in relation to the current debates in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.”
full text of cathedral press release here
Details of the conference here
1 CommentThe full text of this article is now on the Forward in Faith website, so far only as a pdf file.
The location to download the file is here.
Addition: it is now available as a normal html web page here at Trushare.
The announcement of it is reproduced below.
0 CommentsThis story about the attempt to expel ECUSA from the Anglican Communion (or at least punish it in some way) is growing.
Today’s Telegraph contains two more pieces by Jonathan Petre:
Anglican conservatives fight to expel US liberals over gay issue and
Williams says Church faces disintegration
while Ruth Gledhill in The Times has
Archbishop gives warning of Church split over gays
Part of this comes, it seems, from an article authored by RW in the new issue of New Directions, the monthly Forward in Faith magazine. This issue of ND is not yet on the web.
Question
Do British Anglicans care about this? Or will it be a rerun of the JJ debacle when the majority of English bishops were supportive but kept silent? One bishop who has spoken about this is John Gladwin, whose statement on the New Hampshire election can be found here.
First, Jonathan Petre had another Anglican story on Friday, headlined Attempt to expel US Anglicans at summit which reports that ‘Conservative archbishops are increasingly confident that they can force the expulsion of the American Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion over its liberal line on homosexuality’.
And today’s Sunday Times has this by Christopher Morgan, Church revolt against Williams over gay bishop which says much the same thing. But also that LGCM is seeking to have Peter Akinola barred by David Blunkett from entry to the UK. on the grounds that he might incite hatred…
Second, if you didn’t hear this morning’s Sunday programme on Radio 4, go here to find out what was said by Steven Croft of Cranmer Hall. His views differed somewhat from those of the guy from Reform (in Hull). Andrew Brown the journalist was also interviewed in this piece. The Beeb’s intro starts:
Evangelicals
Not all publicity is good publicity, as the Church of England found out recently when it got a thorough battering in the press over the Jeffrey John Affair. But one group who may disagree are the evangelical Anglicans who so vocally opposed the gay cleric’s appointment as bishop. They have been loud and proud in their attempts to show they are a force to be reckoned with
Writing in today’s Telegraph, Jonathan Petre reports on a new study by Peter Brierley of Christian Research. He says this suggests that, if current trends continue, evangelicals will make up more than half of all Sunday church worshippers in 10 years’ time, up from about a third now. Moreover, all but a tiny proportion of the new breed of evangelicals will be theologically conservative, viewing sex outside marriage, including homosexuality, as outlawed by Scripture.
Petre’s full article here does contain some criticisms of the research by Gordon Lynch of Birmingham University. TA will seek more information too.
2 CommentsToday the Church Times breaks the news that somebody has produced a handbook to help organisations avoid having to employ non-Christians.
Bill Bowder’s story is headlined How to employ only Christians – a guide.
I’m sending off for a copy of this book immediately.
Here is some more background in a 6 June press release from the Evangelical Alliance.