updated late Friday
More from Jerusalem
Riazat Butt in The Guardian At Gafcon, who calls the shots? subtitled “White conservative Anglican clergy are beginning to pull the strings, squeezing their African brothers out of the picture”
Damian Thompson in the Telegraph There is no Anglican schism
and Dr Nazir-Ali is being exploited at Gafcon
George Conger in Religious Intelligence Anglican traditionalists set to form a ‘church within a church’
Paul Handley in the Church Times blog GAFCON: Keeping the final communiqué under wraps
6 CommentsJohn Bryson Chane (Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC) writes in The Guardian The framing of mutual joy where he argues that “Our church’s evolving attitude has led us to the point where we must consider gay marriage”.
5 CommentsToday’s Church Times has these four reports from Paul Handley.
GAFCON Churches ‘will stay in the fold’
Akinola: Lambeth betrayed us
Dr Nazir-Ali: ‘Inculturation has limits’
It’s conscience, say Lambeth absentees
There is also his latest blog entry posted last night.
Will a new structure emerge from GAFCON?
There is also this leader.
The GAFCON Reformation
We linked to official reports of this month’s meeting of the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church here, here and here.
The Church Times now has this report Bishops in Scotland defeat membership proposal by Margaret Duggan. Although the title refers to one particular item before the synod, the article is a full report of all three day’s business.
0 Commentsupdated late Thursday evening
Reports of GAFCON itself
George Pitcher in the Telegraph Anti-gay bishops are after power, not truth
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Gafcon: Orthodox Anglicans feel betrayed by church structure
George Conger in Religious Intelligence Israel Minister welcomes Gafcon ‘pilgrims’ to Jerusalem
Judith Sudilovsky at Episcopal Life Online Nazir-Ali to boycott Lambeth Conference as ‘matter of conscience’
Ruth Gledhill in The Times Formation of a ‘church within a church’ for conservative Anglicans
And a comment from someone who has been reporting from GAFCON but today attended a different event in Jerusalem.
Iain Baxter in the Guardian comment is free section Marching with pride in Jerusalem
3 CommentsMore from Jerusalem
Riazat Butt in The Guardian writes about yesterday’s comments by Canon Vinay Samuel and other matters in Anglican conservative accuses ‘relic’ Williams of colonial mindset
Robert Pigott at the BBC Bishops turning back on Lambeth
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Liberals are tearing apart church, says Anglican bishop [The bishop is Wallace Benn, the Bishop of Lewes.]
George Conger in Religious Intelligence writes that American conservatives ‘are not bank-rolling Gafcon’.
And an article on the background to some of the current disputes.
The BBC has Anglican rift: Conservative v Liberal in which “a conservative and a liberal – Paul Eddy, of the Conservative Anglican network in the UK and Bishop Marc Andrus of the Episcopal diocese of California – spell out their views on six key points of disagreement.”
22 CommentsMore again from Jerusalem
Paul Handley in his Church Times blog writes about going to Herod’s Temple with the GAFCON pilgrims GAFCON: At Herod’s temple.
Ruth Gledhill reports in her blog at The Times What’s going on at Gafcon that Howard Ahmanson has been seen at GAFCON with a delegate’s badge around his neck.
Riazat Butt writes in her blog at The Guardian on Gafcon’s plans for the future of the Anglican Communion.
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph reports what Canon Vinay Samuel said Gafcon: Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams branded ‘a historical relic’.
Damian Thompson in his Holy Smoke blog in the Telegraph writes about Dr Nazir-Ali in The alternative Archbishop of Canterbury.
David van Biema writes in Time Threat of Anglican Schism Fizzles.
2 CommentsMore from Jerusalem
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph Conservative Anglicans aim to avoid split
and Gafcon: Hardline Anglicans to form new church over homosexual clergy
Paul Handley in the Church Times blog GAFCON: ‘It’s the beginning of a movement’
and GAFCON security
Riazat Butt writes in The Guardian about last night’s speech by the Bishop of Rochester: Christians must recover nerve, says Nazir-Ali.
A 38-minute recording of the bishop’s speech is now available in the AnglicanTV GAFCON archives or directly here.
9 CommentsRuth Gledhill in her Times blog reports that the Bishop of Guildford has said Give trads their own diocese. This refers to an open letter from the bishop which is online here and is copied here below the fold.
35 CommentsRiazat Butt in The Guardian has Cracks begin to show at summit discussing gay clergy rift and an audio report Church summit: ‘For them it’s all about homosexuality’.
Matthew Davies at Episcopal Life Online writes Conservative Anglicans meeting in Jerusalem struggle to find a united voice.
Ruth Gledhill writes in The Times Anglican Church schism recedes over gay issue with African leaders and on her blog Gafcon: ‘There will be no split’.
The bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke to GAFCON this evening; please see our article below for details of this.
Paul Handley writes in the Church Times blog What will come out of GAFCON?.
Stephen Bates writes in the Guardian’s Comment is Free page Vicious hot air currents.
The first leader in today’s Guardian is Clerical errors.
On his blog Mark Russell (Chief Executive of Church Army and a member of the Archbishops’ Council) writes about the need for leaders to talk to those with whom they disagree in Countdown to Lambeth.
Anglican TV is in Jerusalem and has both live and archived video. The live video is also carried on GAFCON’s own website here.
There is a gallery of photos at Gafcon’s Public Gallery.
25 CommentsThe bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, spoke to GAFCON this evening on “The Nature and Future of the Anglican Communion”.
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph reports on his speech Western world is losing Christian values, says leading bishop.
Ruth Gledhill in her Times blog writes Nazir-Ali: there must be development in terms of doctrine.
The Diocese of Edinburgh has launched a new website today. It contains a lecture given by the Bishop of Edinburgh on 17 June concerning current conflicts in the Anglican Communion.
The prefeace to the address reads:
This address was given to members of the Diocese of Edinburgh on 17 June 2008. Drawing upon earlier addresses and Bible studies given in the diocese, it argues that the church should allow the category of ‘the tragic’ to shape its perspective on the world, and should place more emphasis on what is highlighted as ‘ethical transcendence’ in its understanding of God. Doing this creates the possibility of articulating a circumscribed and limited pluralism, totally different from simple relativism. The paper concludes by suggesting that much in current approaches to Anglican difficulties rests upon a too limited approach to the doctrine of the Trinity. The heart of the paper is a plea that Anglicanism recaptures elements in the traditions which lie at the heart of its life, brings them to the fore and addresses our current disputes in their light.
The address appears in the ‘News’ section of the website. Or you can download it directly as a pdf or Word file.
8 CommentsEpiscopal News Service has Bishop gets state approval for new corporation.
Bishop Robert Duncan has established this new corporation. He initiated this action some eighteen months ago.
The Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, Harold Lewis has written all about this in his newsletter. Read the full details here (PDF).
2 CommentsDave Walker continues to round up the links about GAFCON at the Church Times blog.
Andrew Brown wrote about it, at Comment is free in The Anglican culture wars.
Jonathan Wynne-Jones wrote at the Telegraph that The conservative Church’s desperation to stop the liberal tide could be damaging.
Martin Beckford wrote there also, from Jerusalem, Gafcon: Hardline Anglicans to split church over homosexual clergy.
Iain Baxter’s latest report is below the fold.
Ruth Gledhill has written about him here, in a post with an improbable title.
7 CommentsIain Baxter has provided a full transcript of the responses of Archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda, and also of Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, Australia to questions concerning homophobia asked at the GAFCON press conference yesterday. This is reproduced below the fold.
33 CommentsComment is free has published An unheavenly silence on homophobia by Riazat Butt.
…Last night, the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, said the Gafcon movement would liberate people from religious bondage and would offer a spiritual haven for those who could not live under a “revisionist leadership”. It sounds appealing to the millions of Anglicans disillusioned with western churches. But a press conference revealed acute differences of opinion between the bishops, especially, and most worryingly, on the subject of raping and torturing homosexuals.
A question from Iain Baxter, a media representative from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, aroused expressions of disbelief and outright denial from the primates. The name of his organisation raised a discomfiting titter. Homosexuality is illegal in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya and is punishable by a fine, imprisonment or death.
Archbishops from these countries were on the panel. They said they could not influence government policy on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) legislation, nor could they condone homosexual behaviour because their churches would be shut down. They added one could not break the taboos of African society without suffering the consequences.
Presumably, these cultural constraints justify the punishment meted out to Prossy Kakooza, Baxter’s example of someone tortured because of her sexual orientation. She was arrested, marched naked for two miles to a police station, raped and beaten.
Akinola did not condemn these acts. Neither did the other African archbishops. Orombi said he had never heard of people being tortured because of their homosexuality, that when he learned about incidents – from the western media – he was at a loss to understand why he had not heard of them. He refused to accept that persecuting and torturing gay people was done openly in Uganda…
Read the whole article.
23 CommentsRuth Gledhill reports from Jerusalem that:
43 CommentsThe eight men and women pictured here are on the official list of those to be denied entry to Gafcon shouldthey try to show up. They are Colorado Bishop Robert O’Neill, Nigerian gay activist Davis MacIyalla being embraced by the Church of England’s Rev Colin Coward, Louie Crew, Susan Russell, Scott Gunn and Deborah and Robert Edmunds…
Read the full entry and see the picture.
Religious Intelligence has Bishop of Liverpool in call to resign after tribunal ruling by Toby Cohen
Church Times has Press officer who accused bishop of lying wins case by Pat Ashworth
Earlier reports here and also here.
0 CommentsEarlier reports here.
Guardian Riazat Butt Williams accused of leading church into crisis and Profile: Michael Nazir-Ali
The Guardian has also published the full text of Archbishop Akinola’s speech.
The Times Ruth Gledhill Rebel bishop accuses Dr Rowan Williams over ‘apostasy’ and on her blog, Archbishop Akinola on error and apostasy
BBC Bishops criticise Anglican leader
7 Comments