First, Martyn Minns has responded to last weekend’s Washington Post article by Bishop John Chane. His response is in a Word document on his own parish website, but an html copy can be seen here. As you would expect, he is strongly critical of Bishop Chane.
Second, Andrew Carey has interviewed the Archbishop of Kaduna, Josiah Idowu-Fearon about the violence in Nigeria, in this week’s Church of England Newspaper, Why should a cartoon bring us to civil war? His views are very interesting.
5 CommentsUpdate Tuesday
Malawi Daily Times Anglican bishop’s offices still closed
The Province of Central Africa issued a press release on 25 February. This can be found on the Anglican Mainstream site, where it was posted on 2 March. The press release starts out:
The office of the Church of the Province of Central Africa would like to categorically refute some of the information masqueraded as facts that appeared in both The Nation and The Daily Times newspapers of Friday’s edition which is not only incorrect but misleading…
Those reports are linked from this TA news article of 24 February.
The pastoral letter mentioned further on in the press release was linked here.
Nevertheless the Church of England Newspaper published this further report on 3 March, Archbishop forced to flee following Malawi protest.
0 CommentsUpdated again Tuesday 14 March
Updated Friday evening
The Church of Nigeria’s official website has published an article, titled The Absurdity Of Same Sex Union. The article is written by The Rt. Rev. David Onuoha, M.A. (Bishop of Okigwe South).
I think it is reasonable to assume that the views expressed in this article are shared by other Nigerian Anglican leaders.
Update
A long article has appeared in the Vanguard, dated Saturday, which is titled WAR AGAINST GAYS, LESBIANS: We must use all we have to chase ‘em away, say clerics. This contains quotes from many religious leaders in Nigeria. Scroll down to the end for the comments by the Anglican Bishop of Lagos, Dr. Ephraim Adebola Ademowo under the heading Judiciary must ensure there’s no breach:
It is crazy, abnormal and is not promoted by any religion known to man. Islam condemns it, Christianity loathes it and there is no known religion that accommodates the practice. If you are asking the position of my church, I think it is very well known all over the world and we have not changed.
As a matter of fact, we commend the Federal Government for the bold step it has taken thus far on the issue and we hope it will go the whole hog to make the National Assembly complete the process by enacting it into law which will be completed to the letter.
It is an unhealthy practice and every normal human being will boldly tell you it is not part of the traditional African culture. But above all, the Bible is very clear on the issue. It described it as an abberation and should not be seen among men who are called of by the name of God.
So, we totally commend the Federal Government for its initiatives and we will continue to pray that the National Assembly will enact the law and the judiciary will follow suit to interprete the laws when the time comes in order to forestall any breach of the law.
Update 14 March
A response to the first item above has been published by Changing Attitude Nigeria and can be read at The Truth of same-sex unions in the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
The Church Times has an exclusive news report this morning. In Dr Williams asked to censure Akinola over riot reaction Rachel Harden reports that:
A COALITION of volunteers in Nigeria has written an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury asking him to denounce last week’s “irresponsible” statement by the Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter Akinola, on the current Christian-Muslim riots…
…The volunteers say this “aggressive and inflammatory rhetoric” will incite further violence…
…The writers, a group of mixed nationalities and religions, all believed that the statement issued by the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria, which appealed for calm, was far more effective…
The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria website has two reports related to this: a statement here and this earlier one.
UPDATE 10 March
Belatedly, I have found a link to the actual STATEMENT OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF NIGERIA ON THE MAIDUGURI RIOTS.
The website of the Diocese of Lake Malawi has not been updated since last July. But today the following appeared on the blog of the American Anglican Council:
Pastoral Letter from the Bishops of the Province to the Diocese of Lake Malawi.
The letter is dated 15 February.
On the one hand, the American Church Pension Group has announced plans to make significant increases in USA clergy pensions that they pay out.
See:
ENS Pension benefit formula to get adjustment
TLC Pension Group Enhances Benefits
A detailed announcement will be made soon, but Sullivan said the change means a “meaningful across-the-board increases” in benefits. Clergy with a history of very low compensation will see the biggest increases, averaging 18 percent. Those with the highest earning history will have an average 12 percent increase.
Sullivan said the decision is one of many the pension fund has made in recent months in response to its excellent financial picture. As of the end of 2005, Sullivan said, the fund had an all-time high of $7.6 billion available for pension benefits plus sizable additional reserves.
This bottom line is unlike that of the top 100 pension funds in the United States. Most of those funds have liabilities that far outstrip their assets and the federal government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation says the U.S. faces a $450 billion such gap, Sullivan said.
On the other hand, the Church of England today made this announcement:
Church launches consultation on pensions policy
In common with private companies and public bodies, the Church of England is to review its pensions policy.
Like other defined benefit pension schemes, the Church’s pension schemes are under pressure because of the long-term reduction in returns from stock exchange investments, and the increasing life expectancy of members.
Recent government moves designed to make pension schemes more secure for their members are also likely to have an adverse impact on the cost of the Church’s pension schemes.
…Taken together, the impact of the new regulations could prompt an increase in the contribution rate paid into the Clergy Pensions scheme from the present 33.8 per cent of the pensionable stipend to between 46 per cent and 57 per cent.
It seems ECUSA has got something right 🙂
Full text of the CofE report is here (RTF). Annex is here (contains key facts).
2 CommentsThe Living Church has published a report on what Bishop Chane said, Washington Bishop Condemns Proposed Nigerian Law, Primate’s Role. The article contains two separate further pieces of information:
What Rowan Williams said about this in Brazil:
…Speaking to delegates at the World Council of Churches on Feb. 17, the Archbishop of Canterbury declined to defend or condemn the proposed Nigerian legislation, saying “there is a difference between what might be said theologically about patterns [of behavior] and what is said about human and civil rights.”
It is a “real challenge” to “give effect to the listening process in situations where gay people are actively persecuted,” the Most Rev. Williams said. However, “the primates have said, more than once, that they deplore such activities, corporately.”
The “question is whether their churches” can find “ways of acting on that recognition on the wrongness of persecution,” he said…
What Canon Popoola said about this to TLC:
38 Comments…A spokesman for the Church of Nigeria, Canon Akintunde Popoola, disputed this characterization, arguing Bishop Chane misconstrued the text of the bill and Archbishop Akinola’s role in the legislative process. “Archbishop Peter to my knowledge is yet to comment [publicly] on the bill. I have said we welcome it because we view homosexuality as ‘against the norm’.”
While banning ‘gay clubs’ in “institutions from secondary to the tertiary level or other institutions in particular” and “generally, by government agencies,” the proposed law is silent as to the status of private gay clubs.
The proposed law should also be seen in light of the wider conflict between civil law and Shariah law in Nigeria, Canon Popoola said. Under existing “Islamic law” in effect in “some parts of the country,” the acts covered by the proposed law currently “stipulate the death penalty,” he said.
Last December, TA reported briefly on the Welsh bishops statement on civil partnerships, and on Andrew Goddard’s response to it.
Then in January, TA reported on the Bishop of Bangor’s forthright response to Andrew Goddard.
Since then, Andrew Goddard responded by republishing an earlier essay entitled Semper Reformanda in a Changing World: Calvin, Usury and Evangelical Moral Theology.
Now, the bishop, Anthony Crockett, has published this further article. It’s quite long, but does come back eventually to the original topic:
8 Comments…The Welsh Bishops, to get back to my original paper, tried in their statements on homosexuality and civil partnerships to indicate their perception of where Christians who read the Bible with integrity are, like Calvin in his day. Some of the views they mentioned are undoubtedly revisionist, in terms of the biblical and traditional material – as revisionist, but not more so, as Calvin’s in relation to usury – and on the same grounds, namely the principle of equity and the application of the Golden Rule ‘on which hang the law and the prophets’. The Bishops might have taken the trouble to produce ‘a form of moral argumentation and an appeal to Scripture’, to say nothing of tradition, social change and the ‘way in which our current situation is different from that of the biblical writers’. But those arguments are already much in the public domain. The Bishops appreciated the need, felt by some, to reconceptualise the phenomenon of homosexuality (cf Calvin’s identical argument on p12), and now Dr Goddard, in posting his paper on the Fulcrum website, has done them the favour of reproducing that argumentation for all to see, and to make up their minds. The Bishops will welcome his willingness to apply Calvin’s method based on equity and the Golden Rule, for like Calvin, they do not want to ‘turn (their) back on Scripture. Rather (they want to) let Scripture shape (their) thinking at the level of moral and theological principles’ (p10).
Perhaps Dr Goddard would agree that it would have been better if he had applied his analysis of Calvin’s hermeneutical method to our Statements, before he reached for his pen. Then his precipitate response and unhelpful tone might have been avoided. But all’s well that ends well. We should be glad that his lucid presentation of Calvin’s rationale for his revision of the consistent, unwavering, ‘clear’ biblical and traditional veto on usury is now in the public domain. I should like to suggest that we should all apply it consistently and conscientiously to the issue of same-sex relationships, refusing to confuse the issue with that of promiscuity, as Gagnon – he of the unpleasant tone – does. Instead of condemnation, we should admit that when homosexual people talk of permanent, loving, same-sex relationships, they are speaking of something which ‘is in fact significantly different in practice from Scriptural concerns and so cannot simply be subsumed in the standard moral descriptions and condemnations’, as Dr Goddard himself recognises could be the case (p12). Who knows, we might even consent to listen ‘to homosexual people, welcoming them into our homes and sitting down to eat with them’, as Stephen Fowl (p6) recommends.
The Living Church has published another article, which summarises what the archbishop said at a meeting of Anglican delegates to the Assembly:
Archbishop Williams Urges Shared Sacrifice, Continued Dialogue
This gives a lot more detail than was in the earlier ACNS report linked previously here. Read it all, please. The concluding paragraphs are:
5 CommentsThe “challenge to every single member of the Communion” therefore is “together [to] rediscover a sense that we are all under the judgment of God; that we are all called to holiness; that we are all called to sacrifice.”
It will not do to present the problem “as a matter in which one side would win and the other lose” as “we need each other desperately. And that is my deepest conviction about the Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Williams said.
“We need therefore to go on meeting and listening,” he said, “where people listen and look, not in great political assemblies, but in fellowship between parishes, dioceses, and projects.”
That is the way forward to an “Anglican future that is not completely polarized, that is not completely divided culturally, ideologically, theologically. Where we can share with one another patterns of obedience of Christ without expecting them to be always the same everywhere, but at least trying to be recognizable to each other.”
From the Church of Nigeria official website:
Anglican Leaders seek end to religious crisis
Ibadan, Feb. 24, 2006- The carnage of violence that has besieged the nation this past week has led many religious leaders to ask the reason behind the avoidable mayhem.
In separate interviews, Anglican Bishops, whose areas of jurisdiction witnessed religious riots, called for an immediate cessation to further killings.
They also want government to address the issue of religious intolerance. …
Bishop of Gombe, the Rt. Rev Henry Ndukuba, Bishop on the Niger in Anambra state the Rt. Rev Ken Okeke, In Niger Delta, Bishop Edafe Emamezi of the Missionary Diocese of Western Izon, are all quoted.
6 CommentsFrom the Sunday programme on BBC Radio 4
Religious riots in Nigeria
Religious riots in Nigeria have claimed more than 100 lives this week.
Nigeria’s 120 million people are roughly equally divided between northern Muslims, and Christians and animists in the south.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in communal violence since 1999. For the latest news Roger Bolton was joined by the BBC’s Alex Last in the Niger Delta.
bbc.co.uk/news – Nigeria country profile
Listen (3m 51s) (Real Audio)
Updated Saturday 4 March
The Washington Post carries this article by John Chane Bishop of Washington, A Gospel of Intolerance, which will appear in the Sunday edition of the newspaper. It is strongly critical of Archbishop Akinola:
…Archbishop Peter J. Akinola, primate of the Church of Nigeria and leader of the conservative wing of the communion, recently threw his prestige and resources behind a new law that criminalizes same-sex marriage in his country and denies gay citizens the freedoms to assemble and petition their government. The law also infringes upon press and religious freedom by authorizing Nigeria’s government to prosecute newspapers that publicize same-sex associations and religious organizations that permit same-sex unions…
… Surprisingly, few voices — Anglican or otherwise — have been raised in opposition to the archbishop. When I compare this silence with the cacophony that followed the Episcopal Church’s decision to consecrate the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives openly with his partner, as the bishop of New Hampshire, I am compelled to ask whether the global Christian community has lost not only its backbone but its moral bearings. Have we become so cowed by the periodic eruptions about the decadent West that Archbishop Akinola and his allies issue that we are no longer willing to name an injustice when we see one?…
Update Saturday 4 March
Martyn Minns has responded to this article.
Updated Saturday morning
Since my previous report, dated 13 February, these further reports have been posted:
10 February The Nation Editorial Opinion It’s Intolerance
24 February The Nation Anglicans hold archbishop under hostage
24 February Daily Times Cracks in Anglican Church over bishop-elect worsen
Update Saturday morning
The Guardian has African rebels hail English vicar by Rory Carroll
Updated Saturday morning
The latest reports of religious strife in Nigeria are very disturbing:
New York Times Lydia Polgreen Nigeria Counts 100 Deaths Over Danish Caricatures
BBC Bodies pile up after Nigeria riot
Guardian Revenge attacks kill 20 Nigerian Muslims
Independent Five days of violence by Nigerian Christians and Muslims kill 150
IRIN via Reuters At least 123 killed as anger over cartoons fuels existing tensions
Update here is a link to the latest reports from this source.
Telegraph Sectarian killings strain the fragile unity of Nigeria
Ecumenical News International Anglican leader warns of reprisals over torching of Nigeria churches
Church Times Rachel Harden Muslim mobs murder African Christians
NB scroll down for Bishop’s wife in hospital after attack which is about the wife of the Bishop of Jos. See also CEN Mob attacks Bishops family. And also, see this letter from the bishop.
The statement made by Archbishop Akinola, in his role as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, can be found in full on the Church of Nigeria website. That statement was criticised yesterday on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
Nigeria is suffering inter-faith violence as a result of the row over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Nearly a hundred people have been killed in the last few days. Bishop Cyril Okorocha of the Owerri Diocese in south-east Nigeria, joins the programme.
Listen with Real Audio (4 minutes).
21 CommentsUpdated Friday evening
The Living Church carries a report from the WCC Assembly in Brazil in which Rowan Williams is quoted as saying, in response to a question about the moratorium on consecrating non-celibate homosexual bishops:
“I believe if there is ever to be a change in the discipline and teaching of the Anglican Communion on this matter it should not be the decision of one Church alone,”
Read the full story with further quotes: Archbishop Williams: Episcopal Church Should Maintain Consecration Moratorium .
He made this statement on Friday, 17 February.
On Monday, 20 February, the Diocese of California announced the names of five candidates for its election of a diocesan (scheduled for May). The Church of England Newspaper reports on this matter under the headline New row brewing as USA considers another gay bishop. The final paragraph reads (emphasis added):
Dr Williams stressed his opposition to the move. “If there is ever to be a change on the discipline and teaching of the Anglican Communion [on homosexuality] it should not be the decision of one Church alone. “The Church must have the highest degree of consensus for such a radical change,” he argued, adding he was very uneasy about the way in which change has gone forward in the American Church over this issue.
That first sentence is misleading insofar as the California announcement had not yet been made.
Update A further report on Rowan Williams’ WCC attendance has been published by ACNS: Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams addresses WCC General Assembly. Part of this report:
18 CommentsArchbishop Williams began the day with an open discussion for Anglicans attending the Assembly, where he talked about the life of the Anglican Communion generally, and laid out his vision for the way that we can move forward together as a world-wide group of Christians. He described how, in his view, neither of the two polarised positions taken by some in the Communion represent a good way forward, and described this by saying: ‘I would be very sad to see Anglicanism becoming either the Church of a western liberal elite or the Church of anti-intellectual post-missionary society. I am putting it very bluntly here, and I think the dangers that we face in the Communion very serious.’
He concluded by saying: ‘who knows what God has in store for the Anglican Communion? When I try to look into the future of the Anglican Communion eighteen months forward, I have no idea what might happen. But if God has a purpose for us in the Communion, then we can relax. I do not mean to say we can stop, and do nothing. I mean we can stop at least being so desperately and bitterly anxious. So often our Anglican world gives off in the media a sense of bitterness and anxiety. Well that is the last thing we want to share with the world. We need to be honest. We need to work. We need to recognise there are no short answers. We need to do all that because we believe God has something to say to us, and with us, in the context of the World Church, which is why we are here in this Assembly. That is, because we believe God is faithful to his calling and his promise.’
Changing Attitude has published a press release, concerning an Open Letter to the Most Revd Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, the Anglican Communion Office and the Anglican Consultative Council.
You can read the full text of the Open Letter here. It summarises the history of events relating to Changing Attitude (Nigeria) and the press releases from The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and then concludes:
2 CommentsOn Wednesday 18 January 2006 the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria approved a bill for an Act prohibiting marriages between people of the same sex. The Bill also prohibits the public show of same sex amorous relationships. Any person involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations in private is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a term of 5 years imprisonment. The bill received the support of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
We understand that the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council is meeting in London in March 2006. We ask that you bring this matter to the attention of the Standing Committee and the Councils of the Anglican Communion. In particular:
We ask that attention be paid to those members of the Councils who are failing to honour the documents and statements agreed by those Councils to listen to the experience of lesbian and gay people.
We ask that the Primates of the Anglican Communion respect the dignity and integrity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Anglicans and oppose legislation designed to curtail our essential right to protection and freedom of association.
We are committed to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are committed to engage with the Church in dialogue in a spirit of mutual respect, honouring difference.
Changing Attitude has issued this press release:
Changing Attitude Nigeria responds to Government proposals to outlaw same-sex marriage
A recent comment on the Nigerian government’s proposals can be found in Vanguard (Lagos) via allAfrica.com Holy Nigeria ! or a direct link here. Another comment column from the same source is Homosexuality And Its Enemies.
Mark Harris writing on his blog The Silence Continues includes a portion of the wording of the proposed legislation. The full text can be downloaded in PDF format here from okrasoup.
Andrew Carey writing in the Church of England Newspaper recently said:
38 CommentsThe fact of the matter is that evangelical Anglicans elsewhere in the Communion are badly compromised by the Nigerian Church’s attitude to the human rights of homosexuals….
Evangelicals in the west who claim to ‘love the sinner’ while ‘hating the sin’, must work to persuade Anglican leaders elsewhere that a truly pastoral approach to homosexual people must be as concerned about their human rights as it is about their all-too-human wrongs.
NIcholas Henderson, whose election as bishop of the diocese of Lake Malawi was not confirmed, is visiting Malawi.
There have been four reports recently, whose tenor suggests that considerable disquiet remains about earlier events there.
The Nation Malawi Pro-gay bishop to visit Malawi 3 Feb
The Chronicle Newspaper (Lilongwe) via allAfrica.com Anglican Christians for Bishop’s Impeachment 7 Feb
The Nation Malango okays pro-gay bishop visit 10 Feb
The Nation I’m not gay — rejected bishop 13 Feb
13 CommentsThe move by the Nigerian government which the Anglican Church there openly supports, to increase the criminal penalties for homosexuals and for their supporters, has received further coverage:
Church Times Giles Fraser Would you walk from a lynching?
The link on the CT websiteto the US State Department report on Nigerian human rights practices is incorrect at the time of writing and should really be this one.
Also both Mark Harris and Fr Jake have discussed this:
The Voice of Shame and the Shame of Silence:
Why Listen When We Can Beat, Defame and Incarcerate?
Mark has a broken link too, the Sun newspaper article to which he refers is this one.
Here’s a roundup of African comments from Sokari Ekine at Black Looks.
10 CommentsThe Bishop of Bangor, Anthony Crockett, has responded, in very strong terms, to the recent Fulcrum article by Andrew Goddard, The Bishops of the Church in Wales on Civil Partnerships: A Personal Response.
The bishop’s response is here. It starts out:
Your article The Bishops of the Church in Wales on Civil Partnerships: A Personal Response by Andrew Goddard in Fulcrum appears to be an interesting case of party zeal clouding judgement. It looks like yet another example of the inability of some either to listen to argument or to reject all forms of stigmatisation and to commit oneself to listen to people whose sexual orientation may be different from one’s own. I confess, too, to being puzzled by what seems – but surely cannot be – a lack of knowledge on Dr Goddard’s part of the history of the development of ethical teaching in the Christian Church.
The statements referred to in this exchange are:
The Bishops of the Church in Wales issue statement on homosexuality
The Bishops of the Church in Wales issue statement on Civil Partnerships