icCheshireOnline Call for moral crusade as Church heads for split
Anthony Howard in The Times The Church should be about doctrine, not majority votes
Chris McGillion in the Sydney Morning Herald Anglicans must accept moral diversity to protect universality
Muriel Porter in the Melbourne Age Anglicans postpone their schism
Boston Globe Bishop says gap is closing over gays in Anglican church
New Vision Uganda Orombi okays gay debate in Church
Colin Slee in the Guardian The price of unity is too high
New Orleans Times-Picayune Bishop urges new route out of crisis
Simon Jenkins in The Times Schism would be better than giving way to intolerance
1 CommentAddition
Comments by House of Bishops, Nippon Sei Ko Kai
The responses from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are now available online as PDF files from the LGCM website.
1 CommentMy own analysis of The Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting Communiqué, February 2005
can be found on Anglicans Online at The Primates Meeting at Dromantine, February 2005.
Canon Michael Kennedy has sent us this full report on the service of Evensong which was held in Armagh Cathedral on Tuesday at the second day of the Primates’ Meeting:
A service of Choral Evensong was held in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, on Tuesday 22 February 2005 to mark the visit of the primates of the Anglican Communion at which the preacher was the Archbishop of Canterbury…
2 CommentsPress coverage continues…
Associated Press Nigerians, Anglicans Clash Over Gays
Telegraph Clifford Longley It’s independence day – again
Observer Will Hutton A schism that threatens us all
BBC Anglican split ‘a matter of time’
The BBC World Service has an interview with Josiah Idowu-Fearon (about 27 minutes, starts about 30 seconds into the recording)
…In this week’s edition of The Interview, Owen Bennett-Jones goes to the heart of the matter in his conversation with Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Archbishop of Kaduna state in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Anglican church – one of the biggest communities in the communion – has led the criticism over the appointment of homosexual clergy. The row began in 2003 when the American Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay bishop…
The BBC radio programme Sunday which has a larger audience than many Sunday newspapers sell copies carried this:
Primates Meeting listen here with Real Audio (14 minutes)
Was it a fudge, the beginning of the end, or a step back from the brink? I refer to the communique issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion at the end of their crisis meeting in Northern Ireland this week. One observer said “The Primates have handed the North Americans a pearl handled revolver”. The communique dealt almost exclusively with the split between the North American churches, which have consecrated as bishop someone who has a homosexual partner and which have blessed same sex marriages, and conservative Christians in the rest of the world who believe practising homosexuality is a sin, and who have called for the liberal North Americans to repent. Caught in the middle is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Roger hears from the conservative Archbishop of the West Indies, Drexel Gomez, and the Presiding Bishop of Ecusa, Frank Griswold, and then talks live to The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, from Lambeth Palace.
Press Association report on the above radio interview, Williams Admits Gay Row has Caused Serious “Fractures”
BBC report of the interview Williams admits church ‘fracture’
BBC World Service Divine division? listen here
Graham Kings and Stephen Bates interviewed about the Primates’ Meeting on BBC World Service World Update (hat tip KH)
Some other items not reported earlier:
BBC interview of a spokesman for Peter Akinola, on Saturday’s Today Programme: listen here (3.5 minutes)
CNEWS Gay debate divides Anglican faith
Toronto Globe and Mail Top cleric faces rift among Anglicans
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steve Levin Anglicans push U.S. church off key council
Two Church of Ireland press releases:
Irish Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) members comment on recent devlopments in the Anglican Communion
Bishop of Cork asks: “Has Anglican Primates’ Meeting exceeded its powers?”
Ruth Gledhill wrote up the Armagh Evensong for the regular Times Saturday feature At Your Service which can be compared with the account of this service from an insider published exclusively here.
3 CommentsPress coverage of the meeting continues.
Updated Saturday 9 a.m.
Church Times has updates to the paper edition:
Pat Ashworth Primates speak of ‘miraculous’ unanimity
and an editorial Fall-out from the Primates’ Meeting
(earlier report Let Christ unite you, Primates advised)
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Americans must admit gay error, says Church
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made it clear yesterday that the Anglican churches of the US and Canada will have to admit that they are in the wrong over homosexuality if the unity of the Anglican Church is to be preserved.
Dr Williams, speaking in Northern Ireland at the end of the week-long primates’ discussions of the crisis that has brought the Church to the brink of schism, said: “There is no painless solution.
“Any lasting solution will require people to say, somewhere along the line, that they were wrong, wrong about something. What, I do not know. That is for them to determine. It is perfectly possible to take a decision in good faith and afterwards to think, ‘I had not counted the cost’.” …
and an editorial article Come on all ye faithful
…Were God to focus on the question of elevating homosexuals to the Anglican episcopate, He would, presumably, distinguish at once between disagreement based on genuine respect for Scripture, and the contortion of Scripture in order to camouflage mere prejudice. There seems little doubt, however, that the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church in Canada have undervalued unity in their precipitate and unilateral moves in favour of same-sex unions and gay bishops. Neither development is necessarily incompatible with Anglican harmony in the long term, but in the short term the suspension of both churches from the Anglican Consultative Council is wise. Time has been bought, and, God willing, sanity and sanctity will prevail.
Guardian
Stephen Bates Church schism feared despite deal on gays
Owen Bowcott ‘Punishment is for doing what we are all meant to do’
Mark Lawson His only ‘ism’ is schism
and an editorial Divided they stand
Telegraph
Jonathan Petre Church remains at risk of schism on homosexuality, warns Williams
and an editorial Anglicans must fight to keep their Communion
Independent
No easy solution to Anglican split, says Williams
and an editorial (text below the fold).
Scotsman
Archbishop of Canterbury can’t rule out schism over gay clergy
Financial Times
Deal averts split over gay bishops
New York Times
Move to Halt Delegations Is Challenging Episcopalians
Washington Post
Episcopalians Affirm Pro-Gay View
Sydney Morning Herald
Anglican leaders split over gays
National Public Radio
Gay Issues Cause Dischord Within Anglican Union
PBS Television
Anglican Primates Meeting
Episcopal News Service has a page of material, including audio of the press conference and an interview with Frank Griswold:
Primates Meeting 2005 – News and Resources
The BBC has done a major write-through of the story at this URL now titled Lasting split looms for Anglicans which also includes links to a substantial video clip of the press conference and a BBC TV news report.
Belfast Telegraph
Gay row move not a mere fudge, warns Eames
This Life: Finding right way in the sex maze
updated Friday evening
ACNS picture of the press briefing here
BBC
Anglican rift grows over gay row (This story has now been updated to reflect the briefing)
Anglicans deny gay clergy split
Q&A: Anglican church split
Associated Press
Anglican Leaders Ask U.S. to Leave Council
and, later Archbishop: Anglicans Could Face Division
The Times
Archibishop acknowledges the Church may split
Should the Anglican Church split over homosexuals?
Guardian
Lesbian and gay Anglicans deny schism
Belfast Telegraph
Gay issue widening Anglican divisions
Reuters
Anglican Church Divisions Over Gays Widens
North American Anglicans Defend Gay Policies
Beliefnet
In Anglican Report, There’s Something for Everyone, Once Again
Further American responses from ENS
A word from the Presiding Bishop
Anglican primates uphold unity in response to Windsor Report
CTV No ruling on Anglican church withdrawal: official
Further Canadian response via Anglican Journal
Church sanctions could have been worse: primate
Request from Primates’ Meeting is not an enforceable decision – Bishop of Cork
Reports filed before the briefing:
Press Association Church Warned over Stance on Homosexuality
Sydney Morning Herald Sex drives wedge in Anglican ranks
Associated Press Anglican Leaders Seek Split Over Gay Issue
Due to the early issuance of the Primates Meeting Communiqué the press briefing at Dromantine has been rescheduled to 2 30 pm.
ACO press release Explanatory note: The Anglican Consultative Council
The ACO website has (or will have) additional material relating to the primates’ Windsor Report discussions (these are mentioned in the footnotes to the communique itself):
PRESENTATION OF THE WINDSOR REPORT 2004 by Archbishop Robin Eames – this is 5 pages on the web
Reception Process Report Given by Primus Bruce Cameron at the Primates Meeting 2005 – this is 8 pages on the web and leads to Powerpoint slides and PDF files#
Photographs from the Primates Meeting, February 2005
0 CommentsBritish press coverage this morning:
Press Association Church Tells Pro-Gay Anglicans to ‘Consider Position’
Reuters Anglicans Face Temporary Split in Gay Row
Guardian Church faces schism today
The Times Anglicans ready to split over gay bishop
Independent Gay row forces split with North American Anglicans
Telegraph Anglicans give ultimatum to pro-gay liberals
Audio of first report on BBC Today Programme at 0632 listen here (3 minutes)
Second report at 0709 listen here (6 minutes) – interviews with Steven Charleston and Philip Giddings
Third report at 0810 listen here (6 minutes) interview with Peter Carnley
BBC reports
Anglican rift grows over gay row
BBC Analysis: Anglican schism nears reality
Can Anglican rift be resolved? invites comments from the public. Thinking Anglicans encourages you to comment to the BBC.
New York Times Anglican Leaders Seek Move to Avoid Schism
Los Angeles Times U.S., Canada Churches Urged to Leave Key Anglican Council
Canadian responses:
A Statement from the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
Anglican Journal Primates move to sanction North American churches
American response:
Primates’ Meeting Communiqué – From the Presiding Bishop:
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Frank Griswold, has issued this statement about the communiqué:
“The primates of the Anglican Communion and Moderators of the United Churches have just completed their work on the attached communiqué which gives some sense of our meeting this week in Northern Ireland. These days have not been easy for any of us and the communiqué reflects a great deal of prayer and the strong desire to find a way forward as a Communion in the midst of deep differences which have been brought into sharp relief around the subject of homosexuality.
“Clearly, all parts of the communiqué will not please everyone. It is important to keep in mind that it was written with a view to making room for a wide variety of perspectives. I continue to have faith and confidence in the many ways in which the mystery of communion is lived among us, and am grateful that bonds of understanding and affection to bind us together and call us to an ever deeper and more costly living out of the reconciliation brought about by Jesus through the Cross. Again this week it was revealed that so much more unites us than divides us.”
“The Presiding Bishop will make a further comment tomorrow.”
0 CommentsThe Primates, meeting in Northern Ireland, have issued this communiqué
The main points seem to be:
updated Thursday afternoon
News from Northern Ireland today is in fact non-existent, but tomorrow there will be a press conference at 5.30 pm
Primates Meeting Press Briefing
and The Living Church reports
Team to Prepare Final Statement of Primates
The BBC Radio 4 Today Programme has this report followed by a discussion with Peter Jensen and Colin Slee: listen here (Real Audio)
BBC Gay priest row ‘threatens Bible’
Press Association Church ‘May Have to Split over Homosexuality’
Reuters Sydney primate warns of church split on gays
Toronto Globe and Mail Anglican churches battle over conflicting beliefs
The Church of England Newspaper has these reports, related to the Northern Ireland meeting:
Primates take first step to implement Windsor
Synod backs Windsor as liberals receive warning
Primates Meeting: the key players
Later reports
Belfast Telegraph Gay row: Anglican leaders prepare update
0 Comments
Updated Wednesday afternoon
Morning reports from British journalists in Northern Ireland:
Stephen Bates in the Guardian
Bishops pray together amid rumours of split
Tolerance is absent from their lexicon
Ruth Gledhill in The Times
Church plea for unity over gays
BBC
Call for peace in gay bishops row
Belfast Telegraph Church should be a place of sanctuary: Archbishop – Let us keep doors open, says Williams
Primates Meeting 2005: Photographs from Armagh
Later reports
BBC Will Africa split the Anglican Church?
Reuters Archbishop pleads for calm over gays
3 CommentsThe Church of Ireland had a press release Church of Ireland welcomes Primates to Dromantine.
The Belfast Telegraph published St Patrick’s to welcome church heads.
The Episcopal News Service which earlier had Anglican Primates: An Overview, and Presiding Bishop preaches at Belfast Cathedral has also published the report of Cedric Pulford from Ecumenical News International Anglican leaders meet to debate division on gay bishop consecration.
Jane Lampman wrote in the Christian Science Monitor that Mainline churches struggle over gay policy.
A related story from Canada is Anglican position on same-sex marriage has not changed, Primate says which refers specifically to the internal position of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Reuters Global rifts emerge as Christianity moves south
1 CommentUpdated Monday afternoon
The Associated Press issued Expectations low for Anglican meeting
Reuters has Anglicans could face schism over gay priests
Monday’s editorial in The Times (extract reprinted below the fold) is headed
Faith and hope
The Anglican Church needs to be firm but not inflexible on homosexuality
Ruth Gledhill provides a related news report in Anglican world leaders face walk-out at summit on gays
The Telegraph has several stories by Jonathan Petre:
Separate Communions for primates in gay clergy row
Archbishop is facing lost cause as he tries to prevent split in world Church
Liberals want to interpret the Bible their way
The Guardian’s Stephen Bates has two stories:
Archbishop fights to prevent split
Anglicans in tense effort to avoid split
BBC Northern Ireland has Anglican leaders meet in province
Toronto Globe and Mail has Anglicans grapple with rift over homosexuality
My own report for Anglicans Online can be read here:
The General Synod, the Windsor Report and the Primates Meeting
BBC Today Programme Real Audio segment: listen (4 minutes)
0744 The leaders of the world’s 38 Anglican churches begin a meeting today in Newry in which they’ll try to find a way of preventing a permanent split over homosexuality.
Belfast Telegraph Homosexuality top of the agenda at church conference
14 CommentsFirst on the Sunday programme:
Meeting of the Anglican Primates
The meeting of the 38 provincial Primates of the Anglican Communion begins in Newry on Monday. It is a showdown between the majority, who are opposed to the ordination of actively gay bishops and clergy, and ECUSA, the Episcopal Church of the United States, and its supporters in Canada, who actively support and carry out such ordinations. Such is the impasse that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams asked the Communion’s chief fixer, Archbishop Robin Eames, to chair a commission to try and resolve the issue, which threatens to tear the Communion apart. It is that commission’s so called Windsor Report that is being discussed in Newry.
Listen (7m 04s)with Real Audio to interviews with Frank Griswold and Gregory Venables.
Lots of other items in today’s issue of Sunday are also of interest to Anglicans.
A piece from the Management pages of the Business section of the Observer by Simon Caulkin:
When the devil is in the details
How would you appraise a vicar’s performance? By the number, length and quality of sermons? Attendance at church? Out of wedlock births? Ratio of marriages to divorce? Doctrinal purity?
This intriguing question was raised by proposals put forward last week by the Church of England’s General Synod to make incompetent vicars easier to sack, and to subject them to the kind of performance measures that apply to other workers.
Don’t laugh: even our box may be less satirical than you think. In one study, a Norwegian hospital chaplain had performance measures that counted not only bedside visits, but also the number of last rites he performed. In fact, the church’s measurement problem illustrates with blinding clarity the tensions inherent in all performance management.
Read it all. But don’t take it too literally. The sidebar or “box” mentioned above is at the foot of the webpage. More about the real CofE proposals for ministerial review in a while.
The Sunday Times has a report by Christopher Morgan that says: Churchgoers ordered to pray for Camilla.
This refers to the wording of the BCP prayer for the Royal Family, which can be (and periodically is) altered by Royal Warrant (not by Parliament or the General Synod) to reflect births, marriages and deaths. According to Morgan the new wording will be:
0 Comments“Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness, we humbly beseech thee to bless Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Charles, Prince of Wales, and the Duchess of Cornwall.”
Some news reports purport to tell us what some primates think about the Windsor Report:
Christian Challenge ANGLICAN PRIMATES’ PATIENCE WITH ECUSA’S “DELAYING TACTICS” LIMITED, GOMEZ WARNS
and this: ON WHAT IS OUR ANGLICAN UNITY BASED? – Statement from Five Primates (PDF file)
A number of analyses relating to the Windsor Report have been issued by people who stand on the conservative side of the presenting issue. Here are links to several of these:
Anglican Mainstream issued a Briefing Paper – Church of England General Synod
This is milktoast compared to the next two items.
Church Society, Reform and Fellowship of Word and Spirit issued a brief thunderbolt: Joint Statement on Windsor – CS, Reform and FoWS
Australian evangelicals issued a huge document,criticising the WR in detail, including a paragraph-by-paragraph commentary. Links to the document available via sydneyanglicans.net New rules needed: Aussie evangelicals respond to Windsor Report
If you want a newspaper summary of this, the Church Times had one: Eames found erring
The ACO has announced details of the forthcoming meeting in release ACNS 3939: Media Advisory on the 2005 Primates Meeting from which some extracts are:
The Primates of the Anglican Communion are to hold their regular meeting at the Dromantine Conference Centre near Newry, Northern Ireland, between 21-25 February 2005.
The meeting of the 38 provincial Primates of the Anglican Communion will be centred on Bible study, Eucharist and retreat led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams. It will include careful study of the Windsor Report – the recommendations of the Lambeth Commission on Communion published in October 2004 – and its ongoing reception process.
Chairing the meeting will be Archbishop Rowan and it will be hosted by the Primate of All Ireland and chairman of the Lambeth Commission, the Most Revd Robin Eames. The recently commissioned Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon, will act as the meeting’s secretary.
As at former meetings, the discussions held over these five days are closed. At the end of the meeting, it is expected that the Primates will issue a communiqué, and that a press briefing will be scheduled at the Dromantine Conference Centre.
A web site containing extensive information regarding the meeting, the Primates, and related material is now online and can be found here: www.anglicancommunion.org/primates/
The Lambeth Commission of Communion web site, the Windsor Report, and related material concerning the report’s reception process can be found here: www.anglicancommunion.org/commission/index.cfm
The new web pages contain inter alia the following:
0 Commentsan Introduction page which summarises the recent history leading up to this meeting.
Official statements on the Windsor Report issued by provinces
A current news page for the 2005 meeting: so far it contains only a link to ACNS 3939.
As explained in this press release dated 20 January, a meeting was held on 1 February between the Windsor Report Reception Reference Group and a coalition known as Inclusive Communion:
At the initiative of Changing Attitude, a meeting has been organised with Canon Gregory Cameron, Deputy General Secretary Anglican Consultative Council. Canon Cameron is secretary to the Reception Reference Group, appointed under the chairmanship of the Most Revd Peter Kwong, Primate of Hong Kong, to assist the primates by monitoring the way in which the Windsor Report has been received across the Anglican Communion
The meeting on 1 February will include representatives from member groups of Inclusive Communion, the international lesbian and gay Anglican body established in 2003. Groups known to be sending representatives include Changing Attitude, Integrity USA, LGCM, the Lesbian and Gay Clergy Consultation and the General Synod Human Sexuality Group. Changing Attitude Scotland and Integrity Uganda also hope to be present. Other Inclusive Communion member groups have been invited to submit written submissions.
In the event, the list of those attending was:
Michael Hopkins and Susan Russell (Integrity USA)
Colin and Sally Rogers (Changing Attitudes, England)
Kelvin Holdsworth (Changing Attitude, Scotland)
Paul Collier (General Synod Human Sexuality Group)
Giles Fraser (Inclusive Church)
Richard Kirker and Anthony Braddick-Southgate (LGCM)
Bertrand Olivier (Clergy Consultation)
The group presented this document, summarising their responses to the Windsor Report and this one summarising what Lambeth Conferences and WR have said about listening.
Susan Russell wrote this report of her experience on this trip: A California Yankee in King Arthur’s Communion.
Some other documents by individuals or groups represented are listed below.
Michael Hopkins Broken Promises Result in a Broken Church
A Scottish Response to the Windsor Report
The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement Response to the Windsor Report
Changing Attitude Recommendations for responding to the Windsor Report
Two other bloggers, Simeon in the Suburbs and Salty Vicar have noted that a Rwandan Anglican bishop who was visiting St Louis, Missouri recently compared the actions of the ECUSA GC 2003 to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The original St Louis Post-Dispatch article Rwandan bishop’s visit here underscores division reports that:
5 CommentsThe Right Rev. Josias Sendegeya, Anglican bishop of Kibungo, Rwanda, and his wife, Dorothee, were in neighboring Burundi during the genocide that took place in their country 10 years ago. Dorothee’s mother and father, brother, sister and eight nephews and nieces were all murdered by Hutu extremists.
Sendegeya draws a parallel between the atrocities committed in Rwanda in 1994 and what happened to the Episcopal Church USA in 2003, when American bishops consecrated an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire. The move was seen as a repudiation to more conservative elements of the global Anglican church who oppose the consecration of homosexuals, and it especially offended Anglican bishops in Africa.
“The Rwandan people know what it is to suffer,” said Sendegeya, speaking in French through a translator on a recent trip to St. Louis. “We experienced genocide and the horror that no one in the world came to help us. What has happened in the Episcopal church feels like a genocide, too. But it is spiritual rather than physical.”
Sendegeya believes that the Anglican diocese of Rwanda has come to the rescue of some conservative Episcopal communities in the United States through one of its arms, called The Anglican Mission in America. In 2000 the Rwandan church began establishing footholds in the United States through its mission by usurping the authority of the local American bishop who was typically considered unsatisfactorily liberal by some conservative congregations in his diocese.
Sendegeya is the provincial secretary of the Rwandan church and was in the U.S. for an Anglican Mission in America conference in South Carolina. He then traveled to Memphis and St. Louis to visit individual churches that are based in the United States but are under the authority of his country’s church.