Archbishop—Covenant Adoption Limited to Provinces: TLC 9.30.09 September 30, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Archbishop of Canterbury, Central Florida, Living Church.comments closed
The Archbishop of Canterbury has welcomed an endorsement of the first three sections of the Anglican Covenant by the Diocese of Central Florida’s board and standing committee, but said only provinces can officially adopt the covenant.
On Sept. 17, the diocesan board and standing committee adopted a resolution stating that they “affirm sections one, two and three of the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the Anglican Covenant, as we await the final draft of section four.”
Central Florida also asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to “outline and implement a process by which individual dioceses, and even parishes, could become members of the Anglican Covenant, even in cases where their provincial or diocesan authorities decline to do so.”
In a Sept. 28 letter to the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe, Bishop of Central Florida, Archbishop Williams called the diocesan bodies’ endorsement a step in the right direction. However, he stated, “as a matter of constitutional fact, the [Anglican Consultative Council] can only offer the covenant for ‘adoption’ to its own constituent bodies (the provinces).”
The archbishop added that “I see no objection to a diocese resolving less formally on an ‘endorsement’ of the covenant.” Such an action would not have an “institutional effect” but “would be a clear declaration of intent to live within the agreed terms of the Communion’s life and so would undoubtedly positively affect a diocese’s pastoral and sacramental relations” with the wider communion, he said.
The resolution was offered to the board by the dean of Southeast Central Florida, the Very Rev. Eric Turner, rector of St. John’s Church, Melbourne, Fla. Originally titled a “Resolution in Response to General Convention,” the first two clauses backed Bishop Howe’s endorsement of the Anaheim Statement issued at the close of General Convention, and reaffirmed the “teaching of the Anglican Communion” on “matters of human sexuality.”
The second half of the resolution drew upon the Sept. 7 call by the bishops of Albany, Dallas, North Dakota, Northern Indiana, South Carolina, West Texas and Western Louisiana for “dioceses, congregations and individuals” to “pray and work for the adoption” of the covenant, and asked that they “endorse [its] first three sections.”
Objections to adopting Dean Turner’s resolution came over the question whether it was wise to endorse the covenant absent completion of its final section. However, when put to a vote, there were only two objections among the diocesan board; the standing committee passed it unanimously.
Bishop Howe said that as “chair of the meeting I did not vote, but I fully support those who did.” The committee resolutions will now go to the diocese’s January convention for further action.
Hindu converts to Christianity to keep Caste status: CEN 9.25.09 p8. September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Politics.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in India have welcomed the call by the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly for India’s federal government to allow Hindu Dalits who convert to Christianity to keep their protected status as members of a Scheduled Caste (SC). On Aug 25 the legislature of the southeastern Indian state passed a resolution presented by the state’s chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy that petitions the national government to amend the Constitution to confer SC status on Dalit Christians. |
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The Indian Constitution allows quotas in educational institutions and government jobs for members of castes once considered “untouchable,” to support their social and economic advancement. According to the 1950 Presidential Order however, SC privileges are meant only for Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists, but not Christians.
Members of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, opposed the resolution saying it would lead Dalits to convert to Christianity. But the governing Congress Party with the support of the rest of the legislature’s members, save for a single deputy, backed the resolution. The chief minister told the assembly that Dalit Christians faced the same levels of discrimination as Hindu Dalits and needed government assistance.
Granting Christian Dalits SC status was only just, Fr Anthoni Raj Thumma, executive secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Federation of Churches, said as the 1950 Presidential Order had been amended in the past to extend SC status benefits to Dalit Sikhs and Dalit Buddhists.
The All India Christian Council on Aug 27 hailed the resolution as an “undoing of a historical error on the Dalits and on their freedom of choice and conscience.”
Last week the Church of North India said it welcomed “the decision of the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly in taking the first step towards removing the 50-year-old deprivation of the Dalit Christians and Muslims.”
Christian Dalits “have been facing discrimination like other Dalits” the CNI said, and the vote recognized the “gravity of genuineness in the struggle for justice of Dalit Christians.”
Homosexuality debate grips South African Church: CEN 9.18.09 September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A second South African diocese will take up the question of pastoral care for gays and lesbians when the False Bay synod meets from Sept 23-26. Carved out of the eastern half of the Diocese of Cape Town in 2005, the Diocese of False Bay will debate a resolution akin to last month’s Cape Town request for an official church policy on gay marriage in light of the country’s gender-neutral marriage laws. The South African general synod in 2002 endorsed a resolution that “acknowledges and gives thanks to God for the role played by lesbian and gay members of the CPSA and encourages the welcoming and affirmation of all members regardless of their sexual orientation, in all the Churches of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.” However, the church forbids its clergy from performing gay marriages or blessing same-sex unions in churches. |
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The False Bay resolution states that it affirms a “pastoral response to same-sex partnerships of faithful commitment in our parish families; notes the positive statements of previous Provincial Synods that Gay and Lesbian members of our Church share in full membership as baptised members of the Body of Christ, and are affirmed and welcomed as such;” and affirms the call to “prayerful and respectful dialogue” on this issue.
The resolution asks synod to give “serious and prayerful consideration to the acceptance of gays and lesbians in their committed relationships as valued members of our parish, bearing in mind the long standing tradition within the Anglican Communion of respect for individual conscience, in seeking to be faithful disciples of Jesus;” and asks Bishop Merwyn Castle to “request the Synod of Bishops to provide pastoral guidelines for those of our members who are in covenanted partnerships as faithful members of our parish families.”
Bishop Castle, a former suffragan to Archbishops Desmond Tutu and Njongonkulu Ndungane, has supported the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the church. In 1996 the US pressure group Integrity identified Bishop Castle as one of three “out” gay bishops in the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Ndungane affirmed that Bishop Castle was gay in an Aug 5, 2003 interview, but celibate. In his 2007 charge to the diocesan synod, Bishop Castle noted South Africa’s constitution “abhors any discrimination and the Civil Unions Act makes it possible for people of the same gender to enter a civil union.”
Anglican opinions were divided, he said, as the American Episcopal Church “has consecrated a practicing homosexual bishop in a relationship and together with the Canadian Anglican Church and the Church of England allows the blessing of same-sex unions.”
While opinions were divided, the church should not forget “our gay and lesbian Christian brothers and sisters” whom “we talk about and continue to reject and ridicule and fail to offer a safe space to talk to find out what its like to be patronized and demonized.”
Last week the South African House of Bishops convened a commission to study the question of pastoral care for same-sex couples, but reaffirmed its long-standing position that “clergy unable to commit to another in Christian marriage partnership are called to a life of celibacy.”
Former Archbishop of the Sudan dies: CEN 9.28.09 September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The former Archbishop of the Sudan, Dr Joseph Marona has died in Khartoum after a long illness on Sept 18. His body will be taken to Juba and laid to rest at the cathedral. Elected the third Primate of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan and Archbishop of Juba in 1999 during a meeting of the House of Bishops in Limeru, Kenya, Dr Marona’s eight-year tenure as primate saw the end to the 22-year civil war between the Muslim-Arab north and Christian-African south, and the prospects for the first sustained period of peace in South Sudan since the end of Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956. |
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The church has also weathered the spectre of tribalism and the schism of the former Bishop of Rumbek, Gabriel Roric Jur, who, after being defrocked as bishop, established the rival Reformed Episcopal Church of the Sudan with the backing of the Islamist government in Khartoum.
Born in 1941 in the Western Equatoria province of Sudan, Dr Marona was educated at the Yei Teachers Training College and taught Arabic in Talia and Lui primary schools from 1962 to 1966. In 1966 he went into exile in Uganda and continued his education at Makere University.
Following the signing of the Addis Abba Peace Agreement he returned to the Sudan and served as a school headmaster in South Sudan from 1975 to 1978 when he entered the Bishop Gwynne College for his theological training. Ordained in 1982, he was appointed head of department of Christian education at Maridi Teachers Training Institute and in 1984 was appointed the first bishop of Maridi. In 1999 he was elected Primate of the Sudan and translated to Juba, but retired due to ill health on Dec 31, 2007.
Court rules Bishop must step down: CEN 9.25.09 p 8. September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Madras High Court has backed the Synod of the Church of South India (CSI), and ordered the Bishop of Madras to step down. On Sept 18 the court overturned an appellate ruling that held the Bishop of Madras, Dr V Devasagayam, could not be compelled to retire until he reached the age of 65. However the High Court last week ruled the 10-year term of office for Bishops of the CSI could be enforced by the church’s synod, even though the bishop had not reached the age for mandatory retirement. |
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Justice M Chockalingam and Justice R Subbiah held that under Chapter IX clause 13 of the CSI constitution the Synod was the supreme governing and legislative body of the CSI, and it was the final authority in all matters pertaining to the church.
Lay members of the diocesan synod brought suit against Bishop Devasahayam this year, seeking an order compelling him to retire on May 1. The Synod and Moderator of the CSI Bishop John Gladstone backed the lay petition and removed the bishop from office. In June the lower court dismissed the suit, saying the 60-year-old Bishop of Madras could stay in office until he turned 65.
The CSI was a voluntary association under Indian law and was governed by its by-laws, or canons. No group or individual within the CSI could curtail, annul, amend or modify the canons, except in accordance with the terms of canon law, the lower court held, ruling the Synod’s decision to remove the bishop was a “manifest illegality.”
The Madras High Court reversed the lower court’s ruling, saying in 1999 the CSI Synod “made the appointment for only 10 years, and this was also approved subsequently and informed to Bishop Devasahayam. He also gave his consent in writing.”
“Having accepted the appointment for a period of 10 years, now he cannot be permitted to say that he would continue till 65 years of age,” the High Court held, affirming the dismissal of the bishop.
Under agreement with the synod the court said Bishop Devasahayam may continue as caretaker bishop until a new appointment is made.
Paksitani President promises support to Christian minority: CEN 9.25.09 p 8. September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
President Asif Ali Zardari has promised the Archbishop of Canterbury and the former Bishop of Rochester that his government will crack down on those who abuse Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to persecute Christians. Meeting on Sept 18 at the Churchill Hyatt Regency Hotel in London, President Zardari said his government was aware of the misuse of the blasphemy laws to persecute Christians, and promised Dr Rowan Williams and Dr Michael Nazir-Ali that those responsible for the Gojra massacre would be brought to justice. |
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Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government was committed to interfaith harmony. The security and liberty of all Pakistani citizens, regardless of religion, was a priority for the Zardari government, he said.
On Sept 19 Lambeth Palace released a statement describing the meeting as a “constructive discussion” where all “agreed on the fundamental importance of mutual respect between religions and the responsibility of governments to ensure the safety of all citizens and especially of vulnerable groups.”
Dr Williams spoke of his sadness at the violence that had claimed the lives of so many Pakistani citizens and offered his deep condolences at the murder of Benazir Bhutto, the President’s wife. He said: “I pray that her death will not be in vain and that Pakistan will emerge from the present troubles to take its place as an example of a nation in which all are safe and respected.”
He also urged Pakistan to institute legislative reforms to protect the rights of religious minorities. President Zardari told Dr Williams his government had created a “quota for the minorities in the Government service, Senate, National and Provincial Assembly and appointed a Christian as Minister for Minorities to ensure appropriate representative of minorities,” Lambeth Palace reported.
President Zardari also extended an invitation to Dr Williams to visit Pakistan, and welcomed the work of the Christian Muslim Forum in the UK in addressing sectarian tensions.
Australian Prime Minister welcomes Poverty and Justice Bible: CEN 10.02.09 p 8. September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Popular Culture.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bible Society’s Poverty and Justice Bible received the endorsement of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week at the launch of the Australian edition of the anotated edition of the Holy Scriptures that highlights in orange over 2,000 passages addressing questions of “social justice.” Joined by Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull at Parliament House in Canberra, Mr Rudd said the new Bible h elped focus Christian efforts on promoting social justice. It was an “extraordinary’ work which draws attention to the “challenge facing us all,” he said on Sept 18. |
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The new Bible highlights over 2,000 passages that address social justice issues and comes with a 32-page study guide that looks at issues of fair trade, farming and equality in education.
Bible Society’s Chief Executive, James Catford stated: “When we dreamt up the idea we never imagined that it would get picked up around the world. Gordon Brown got to have a copy when I visited Downing Street earlier this year. Now the Australian Prime Minister has spoken at its launch. People who work for the aid charities are really interested in it.”
At the launch of the UK edition in 2008 the president of the Bible Society, Bishop NT Wright of Durham said whilst poverty and injustice were “two of the biggest issues of our day,” the new Poverty and Justice Bible, shows that in “speaking out” on these questions, “God got there first.”
“Before the Make Poverty History movement, before Sir Bob Geldof’s Live 8 and before politicians began debating these issues, the Bible spoke loudly and clearly on poverty and justice,” he said.
“The Poverty and Justice Bible opens our eyes to that. It highlights – literally – that the Bible has something to say about issues that resonate today. This Bible connects with the very fabric of today’s world, with all its problems and messiness – and has something powerful to say,” Bishop Wright said.
Cuba relaxes ban on religion: 9.25.09 p 7. September 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Cuba, Persecution.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Cuban government has relaxed its ban on organized worship in the island nation’s prisons, saying it will allow Protestant and Roman Catholic churches to hold regularly scheduled worship services. The announcement came on Sept 10 in a meeting with officials of the religious affairs section of the Cuban Communist Party and the Cuban Council of Churches (CIC). The opening of Cuba’s prison system to organized Christian ministry has been lauded by the country’s religious leaders, but it also comes amidst a crackdown by the state on religious freedoms. |
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On Sept 1 Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that “over the past two years there has been a sharp increase in reported violations of religious freedom, including harassment and imprisonment of church leaders and the forced closure, confiscation or destruction of church buildings.”
The CSW report found that while there have been a “few positive developments in regard to religious liberty for a small number of religious groups, they are not reflective of any overall improvement in the general religious liberty situation.”
The arrest of church leaders who have protested against state interference in church affairs or who have “refused to work on behalf of the government as informers or by publicly endorsing government initiatives” was Cuban “government policy,” CSW charged.
In the wake of the 1959 revolution, the state closed religious schools, confiscated church properties and expelled or jailed clergy and religious leaders. The communist regime’s constitution stated Cuba was an atheist state.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the government of Fidel Castro relaxed its anti-religious campaign and removed references to atheism from the constitution. Pope John Paul II’s 1998 visit to Cuba, analysts note, saw a further relaxation of state antipathy to the church.
Cuba’s current policy towards churches is akin to that of China’s: registered religious bodies are tolerated by the state, but those outside government recognized structures are subject to severe repression.
Since the mid-90s Cuban prisoners, who have been granted visitor privileges, have been allowed to receive visits from priests or pastors. The new rules announced last week, come in response to a 2007 request by the Roman Catholic Council of Latin American Episcopates for the right to celebrate Mass in Cuban prisons, and will allow chapels to be organized in jails and prison camps.
The executive director of the CIC, the Rev Pablo Oden Marichal of the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba, told the ALC press agency his organization accepted the challenge of being an instrument of God’s blessings and restoration for those stigmatized by society. Prison ministry would not just be for convicts, he added, but for their families and society as a whole, so as to help prisoners reintegrate into the community once their sentences are served.
Bishop attacks aid agency over Honduras demands: CEN 9.18.09 September 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Honduras, Politics.comments closed
| First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Tearfund has come under sharp criticism from church leaders for its lobbying of the British government to support ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. On Sept 11, Tearfund called for an end to all trade and aid with Honduras. Tearfund’s Advocacy Director Paul Cook stated the agency was asking Foreign Secretary “David Miliband to put pressure on the interim government to restore democracy.” |
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“Everyone is affected by the political instability in Honduras but the poorest people in society are really suffering,” Mr Cook said, as Tearfund invited “supporters and churches to call upon Mr Miliband to publicly condemn the coup and denounce human rights violations, the repression of peaceful protests and media censorship.”
However, church leaders in the Central American country have overwhelming backed the removal of President Zelaya from office. The Bishop of Southeast Florida, the Rt Rev Leo Frade told The Church of England Newspaper he was “amazed” at the incoherent and illiberal agenda endorsed by Tearfund and other pressure groups “that claim to help the poor people of Honduras calling for boycotts and pressure on a government that dared to kick out a corrupt and abusive President that was violating the Honduran Constitution.”
Bishop Frade, who served as Anglican Bishop of Honduras for 17 years before his move to Miami, noted that the Tearfund had not “bothered to check the Honduras Constitution that President Zelaya promised to obey and follow” before commenting on the situation.
“Hondurans were not going to permit their country being overtaken by tyrants” he said. The removal of President Zelaya had been lawful and followed “the guidelines of their Constitution that doesn’t call for impeachment but for an arrest of the President for violating their Constitution.
“Today the Roman Catholic Cardinal and the Episcopal Bishop of Honduras as well as the Association of Evangelical Churches have called for international governments and non-governmental agencies not to suspend or curtail the assistance that a poor country like theirs needs,” Bishop Frade said.
“I beg for an agency like Tearfund and others to cease this destructive policy that will only penalize the poor people of Honduras,” he said. “Be informed before you speak and don’t repeat like parrots things that you have not fully checked.”
US dioceses free to ‘secede’: CEN 9.23.09 September 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Episcopal Church’s property canons have no legal force in South Carolina that state’s Supreme Court has held. The Sept 18 decision in the case of In Re: All Saints Parish, Waccamaw ends nine years of litigation over the mother church of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA), and is the second major legal defeat for the Episcopal Church in a week. |
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While the ruling only affects the state of South Carolina, the legal analysis the court used in rejecting the ‘Dennis Canon’ — the 1979 property canon that states that parish property is held in trust by congregations for the diocese and national church — will likely have an unfavourable impact upon the dozens of other pending parish property suits prosecuted by the Episcopal Church across the nation.
It also supports the efforts of the Dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy, Pittsburgh and San Joaquin to quit the Episcopal Church and backs the statements of a Fort Worth judge who last week said there is nothing in the national constitution and canons that prohibits a diocese from leaving.
The South Carolina Supreme Court held that there is nothing in the Constitution or Canons of the Episcopal Church, or Diocese of South Carolina that requires a parish to seek the approval of a third party in order to disaffiliate, if it complies with relevant state codes governing non-profit institutions. And if that parish holds clear title to its property, it may secede with its property. The Dennis Canon has no legal effect in South Carolina as the Episcopal Church did not have the authority to impose a trust interest in property not its own when it passed the rule in 1979.
A spokesman for the Episcopal Church said they were studying the ruling. However, AMiA Bishop Chuck Murphy told The Church of England Newspaper: “In addition to being a complete victory for all of us here at All Saints, Pawleys Island, it is a profoundly important legal decision repudiating the ‘authority’ of the Dennis Canon.” Canon lawyer Mark McCall of the Anglican Communion Institute noted the “significance of this decision for churches outside of South Carolina lies in the clarity of its reasoning.
“Independent legal scholars have long urged courts to move to a true neutral principles analysis in order to avoid the complexities inherent in a deference to hierarchy approach,” he said, and the South Carolina court appears to have heeded this advice.
A colonial era parish that has been in continuous use since 1767, All Saints held title to its property through a 1903 quit-claim deed, whereby the Diocese of South Carolina transferred any interest it had to the parish.
In 1987, the diocese amended its constitution and canons so as to include the “Dennis Canon.” In 2000 the diocese recorded a notice in the county recorder’s office that it held a trust interest in the parish property.
Litigation ensued and in 2003 the congregation amended its bylaws to delete reference to the national church or diocese, and the following year voted by a supermajority to secede. The diocese responded by recognizing a minority vestry as the true vestry, which in turn brought suit to gain control of the property. A lower court found in favour of the loyalists, but the Supreme Court reversed the trial court and awarded the property to the secessionists.
The court held that a review of the historical record and the 1903 quit-claim deed under the “neutral principals of law approach” had made it “clear that title to the property at issue is currently held by the congregation’s corporate entity – All Saints Parish.”
The court also held that neither the notice of lien filed by the diocese in 2000 “nor the Dennis Canon has any legal effect on title to the All Saints congregation’s property.
“It is an axiomatic principle of law that a person or entity must hold title to property in order to declare that it is held in trust for the benefit of another or transfer legal title to one person for the benefit of another. The Diocese did not, at the time it recorded the 2000 Notice, have any interest in the congregation’s property. Therefore, the recordation of the 2000 Notice could not have created a trust over the property,” the court held.
The General Convention could not unilaterally create a trust interest in the parish property without the consent of the parish, and “the Dennis Canons had no legal effect on the title to the congregation’s property,” it concluded.
There was “nothing” in the parish by-laws, of “the Constitution and Canons of the ECUSA or Diocese [which] requires third-party approval for amendments to the congregation’s corporate charter,” the court ruled, holding that the secessionist “vestry are the true officers of All Saints Parish.”
Presiding Bishop criticizes ‘two-track’ Communion plan: CEN 9.18.09 September 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s ‘two-track’ Anglican Communion was neither inevitable nor desirable, US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told an American newspaper last week, as Dr Rowan Williams did not have the authority to impose his views on an autonomous Episcopal Church. The presiding bishop’s remarks have effectively called Dr Williams’ bluff, putting him on notice that the Episcopal Church will not kowtow to his call for an Anglican Covenant that goes against American interests. In an interview published on Sept 8 in the York, Pennsylvania Daily Record, the presiding bishop stated Dr Williams’ call for a two-tier Anglican Communion was neither new nor persuasive. The idea of a two-tier Communion, with an inner circle of provinces that have endorsed an Anglican Covenant had “found some traction in some parts of the worldwide Anglican Communion but not a great deal of traction in other parts,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. |
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In the aftermath of the 2006 General Convention, Dr Williams stated that the “best way forward” through the Communion’s difficulties was the adoption of a covenant.
“It is necessarily an ‘opt-in’ matter. Those Churches that were prepared to take this on as an expression of their responsibility to each other would limit their local freedoms for the sake of a wider witness; and some might not be willing to do this,” Dr Williams wrote in “The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today: A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion.
“We could arrive at a situation where there were ‘constituent’ Churches in covenant in the Anglican Communion and other ‘churches in association’, which were still bound by historic and perhaps personal links, fed from many of the same sources, but not bound in a single and unrestricted sacramental communion, and not sharing the same constitutional structures. The relation would not be unlike that between the Church of England and the Methodist Church, for example,” he wrote in 2006.
On July 27 following the 2009 General Convention, Dr Williams said the widening divisions within the communion could lead to a “two-tier model, or, more disparagingly, a first- and second-class structure” of the communion, based on endorsement of a covenant.
“Perhaps we are faced with the possibility rather of a ‘two-track’ model, two ways of witnessing to the Anglican heritage, one of which had decided that local autonomy had to be the prevailing value and so had in good faith declined a covenantal structure. If those who elect this model do not take official roles in the ecumenical interchanges and processes in which the ‘covenanted’ body participates, this is simply because within these processes there has to be clarity about who has the authority to speak for whom,” Dr Williams stated in his “Reflections” upon the 2009 convention.
Asked to comment on the two-track model, Bishop Jefferts Schori noted each of the communion’s 38 provinces were “autonomous.”
A province “governs itself. It’s in relationship with other members of the Anglican Communion because of our shared heritage, because of our shared form of worship and to a large degree to our shared theology and understanding of Scripture and tradition,” and had remained united in the face of differing views on the ordination of women and other issues.
“We don’t all believe everything in the same way. We never have and never will. There are parts of the Anglican Communion that don’t ordain women and think it wrong to do so, yet we remain in communion and relationship and in mission partnerships together.”
A two-track communion was not inevitable, she said. “It’s an idea that he has promulgated. He doesn’t have the authority to impose it. No individual body in the Communion really has the authority to impose a structure like that. It simply is his theorising about what he thinks the future may hold.”
Cuba fails to elect bishop: CEN 9.18.09 September 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Cuba.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Cuba was unable to elect a bishop last week, making it the fifth time in the past 10 years its synod has been unable to choose a bishop for the Caribbean island. Delegates to the Sept 5 meeting in Havana deadlocked after 12 rounds of voting with the Rev Emilio Martin, the Rev Alfredo Sierra, and the Rev José Angel Gutierrez unable to garner the requisite two-thirds majorities from the lay and clergy delegates. On June 20 the Cuban Synod was also unable to agree on a candidate, with the election ending in a stalemate after 10 rounds. |
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The general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Ven Michael Pollesel, told the Episcopal News Service that while Fr Gutierrez withdrew after the fourth and Fr Sierra after the sixth ballot, Fr Martin was unable to receive a two-thirds majority from both the clergy and laity.
The rancour among the delegates was such that on the 12th ballot, Fr Martin polled 16 of 31 clergy votes, and 22 of 36 lay votes with 14 blank clergy and 13 blank lay votes were submitted.
A one-time member of the American church, the diocese withdrew from the Episcopal Church in 1967 in the wake of the political dissension between the US and Cuba. A Metropolitan Council composed of the Archbishops of Canada and the West Indies and the US Presiding Bishop have exercised jurisdiction over the diocese.
In 2003 the US General Convention voted to re-admit Cuba to the US Church, but the Cuban diocesan synod narrowly rejected the invitation.
In January 2004, the Metropolitan Council appointed the former Dean of Havana’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, Bishop Miguel Tamayo of Uruguay, to serve as interim bishop of the diocese after the diocese failed to elect a bishop, and in 2007 two suffragan bishops were appointed by the Metropolitan Council to help bridge the theological and political divide within the diocese.
The matter has now been referred back to the Metropolitan Council for further action.
Muslim mob attacks Pakistani Christians for a fourth time: CEN 9.21.09 September 22, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan, Persecution.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Muslim mob torched a church and the homes of a number of Christians in the Punjab last week, following claims that local Christians had committed blasphemy by desecrating the Koran. The Sept 11 attack in the village of Sambrial, approximately 20 miles west of the city of Sialkot near Pakistan’s border with Kashmir, marks the fourth time in two months that Muslim mobs have attacked Christian neighbourhoods over alleged insults to the Koran, reports Aftab Mughal of Minorities Concern of Pakistan. |
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Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have condemned the attack and have asked Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to investigate the incident. Press reports from Pakistan report that President Zardari has called for calm, and promised the government would rebuild the church.
However, the Church of Pakistan’s Bishop of Sialkot and other Christian leaders have called upon the government to track down and arrest those responsible for the sectarian attacks.
Local press reports have presented conflicting accounts of the attack. Muslim leaders claim that a 15-year-old Muslim girl returning home from a Koran class at a mosque was accosted by five Christian boys. The boys allegedly stole her Koran and threw it into a ditch.
The police, however, say the girl dropped her Koran and was teased for her clumsiness by a Christian boy. The girl complained to her mother, whom police claim shouted at the boys for insulting the Koran. The cry was taken up by the local imam. Using a loudspeaker to address worshippers at Friday prayers, he called upon the village’s 100 Muslim families to exact revenge on the 30 Christian families. A mob gathered at the mosque and marched to the church, set it and two adjacent homes on fire.
Politicians representing Punjab’s Muslim political parties have demanded the police arrest the Christian boys for blasphemy, while the Pakistan Press Association (PPI), stated Bishop Samuel Pervaiz of Sialkot and Pastor Javaid Silvestre demanded the government intervene and protect the Christian minority and arrest the arsonists.
The National Commission for Justice and Peace reported that in the last fortnight two similar incidents have taken place in the Punjab. A three-day anti-Christian pogrom last month left 10 Christians dead and destroyed over 100 homes in the town of Gojra.
Fighting began on July 30 in the village of Koriyan after a Christian wedding. As confetti was tossed over the bride and groom as they left the church, local Islamists took offence, claiming the shredded paper had come from pages of the Koran. Rocks were thrown and a fight ensued, leading to the burning of several Christian homes.
The following day members of the banned extremist Muslim organization, Sipah-e-Sahaba, gathered near the railway station in Gojra and marched towards the Christian quarter of the town, and began throwing petrol bombs and shooting at the fleeing Christians. Ten Christians were killed either by the gunfire or were burned to death by the mob in their homes.
Bishop Pervaiz and other Christian leaders in Sialkot called on the government to amend the Blasphemy Laws, which they claim foster sectarian violence. On Sept 8 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams gave his endorsement to a petition to change the blasphemy legislation in Pakistan presented to the Pakistan High Commissioner in London.
The Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Rev Michael Jackson, chairman of the Network for Inter Faith Concerns (NIFCON) of the Anglican Consultative Council and Dr Musharraf Hussain, chairman of the Christian Muslim Forum, initiated the online petition in response to the Gojra attack.
The attacks on Christians “have frequently been associated with false accusations of blasphemy or desecration of the Koran which have been used to stir up mob violence. The law on blasphemy has provided a ready excuse for those who are motivated to use it for their own ends,” the petition said.
The petition called upon “the political and religious leadership of Pakistan to unite in condemning these attacks and murders in the strongest terms as an evil and a crime.”
Cursillo movement branches out in USA: CEN 9.11.09 p 8. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Fears of litigation from the Episcopal Church have prompted the have prompted the formation of an independent Cursillo movement for members of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
At an Aug 29 meeting in Bedford, Texas, alumni of the National Episcopal Cursillo and the Canadian Anglican Cursillo formed ‘Anglican 4thDay’ to serve breakaway Anglicans in North America.
The weekend renewal movement was first organized by Roman Catholic laymen in Spain in the 1940’s, and was introduced into the Episcopal Church in 1970. A Cursillo weekend is a three-day retreat led by lay people with clergy serving as spiritual advisors. The organization’s literature states the weekend is not intended to be a “conversion experience but an enriching and deepening of what is already there.”
“The weekend begins Thursday evening spent in the Chapel with meditations, discussions, and Compline. Then blessed silence is kept until after the worship on Friday morning. After breakfast participants are assigned to table groups for the weekend. The three days are filled with talks and group discussions with emphasis on the doctrine of Grace, the Sacraments, and the great Cursillo tripod: Piety, Study, and Action,” its literature states.
The Cursillo weekend is “not an end to itself,” But a “starting point that lasts the rest of your life” or the “Fourth Day”, where the lessons learned are lived out.
The name Anglican 4thDay was selected as it best symbolizes the Cursillo experience, Kathleen Adams, one of the organizers said. “Though we are changing our name, we will be continuing the traditions passed down to us in the Cursillo experience.”
4thDay spokesman the Rev. John Nuzum told The Church of England Newspaper said legal considerations prompted the formation of the new group. “Cursillo is a registered trademark licensed to the Episcopal Church,” he said, adding that “legal counsel” recommended the formation of the new entity in light of the hostile climate of North American Anglicanism.
At its 2009 meeting, the Canadian House of Bishops stated “diocesan bishops have the authority to decide who may serve on Cursillo leadership teams. The House, with regret, is of the opinion that clergy and laity who are members of the [ACNA affiliated] Anglican Network in Canada (ANIC) should not be given permission to exercise a leadership role in the Cursillo Movement of the Anglican Church of Canada.”
Ncube says he is receiving death threats: CEN 9.11.09 p 6. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Persecution, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Democracy activist and former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube reports that he is under threat of death from agents of the regime of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe.
In a letter published Sept 2 in the South African Catholic weekly the Southern Cross, Archbishop Ncube states that his telephone and fax lines are being tapped, his mail intercepted and that he is under surveillance by the police for his criticism of the Mugabe regime’s human rights violations.
Forced to resign in 2007 after admitting to having had an affair with a married woman, Archbishop Ncube had been the country’s leading human rights activist.
In his letter to the Southern Cross, Archbishop Ncube stated he had been the intended victim of a car bombing. While travelling abroad in 2008, the government “made an arrangement to kill me,” he wrote.
“They planted a bomb in my car.” However, the archbishop was out of the country and a fellow priest borrowed his car. Approximately 12 miles outside Bulawayo the priest noticed he was being followed by two cars.
Archbishop Ncube wrote that government agents “detonated a bomb” placed under the passenger’s side of the car and it “car swerved and fell into the ditch.”
“Had the bomb been directed to the driver, this priest would have died instantly,” the archbishop said.
The following cars raced passed the scene of the accident, but a “third car, driven by a Chinese man, stopped nearby,” Archbishop Ncube wrote, adding the Chinese man began to take photos of the scene.
“The priest asked why he did not help him rather than photograph him, since he was injured,” he wrote, adding the Chinese man “nervously scurried away and drove off fast,” leaving the injured priest by the roadside.
“My attitude is that the government of Zimbabwe has no right to hound me and get me out of Zimbabwe,” the former archbishop said. So far, “in compliance with the suggestions from the Vatican,” Archbishop Ncube said he had been silent.
However, “I do not agree with quiet diplomacy when people are suffering,” he said as those harassing him “are not more powerful than God and our spiritual mother Mary.”
“I ask the people of God to help me by their prayers for my protection,” Archbishop Ncube wrote, saying he will “continue to pray for the delivery of Africa from tyranny.”
Church urged to promote condoms: CEN 9.11.09 p 6. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in CAPA, Church of England Newspaper, Health/HIV-AIDS.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Abstinence and prophylactics are key ingredients to combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, government and civic leaders told a gathering of the Anglican Archbishops of Africa to coordinate the church’s response to HIV/AIDS. The Sept 1-2 meeting at the Panafric Hotel in Nairobi brought together church and NGOs leaders with government ministers and was organized by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) as part of the organizations five-year AIDS awareness programme launched in 2007. |
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The Vice President of Kenya, Kalonzo Musyoka lauded abstinence as the best method for stopping the spread of the disease. This meant a return to the “strict observance of our values as Christians,” Mr Musyoka said, adding HIV/AIDS could be stopped if “we keep the promise of fidelity.”
The chairman of CAPA, Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Indian Ocean, said the church should offer both pastoral and practical support to its 40 million members. “For example, the use of condoms can help to check the spread of AIDS. So preventive measures have to be courageously presented, and this should be accompanied by appropriate teaching on human sexuality and reproductive health,” he said, according to local press reports.
The Anglican support for condoms as a prophylactic against the transmission of HIV/AIDS is not shared by the Catholic Church in Africa, which has repeatedly denounced their use as immoral. However, the Anglican support for condom use to control disease was first enunciated almost 90 years ago. After initial protests, the Church of England acquiesced to the distribution of condoms to soldiers to control the spread of venereal diseases during the First World War. The 1920 Lambeth Conference condemned all “unnatural means of conception avoidance,” but the 1930 Conference relaxed this ban.
According to a statement released by CAPA, the conference was designed to “create the space in which the two groups of leaders” could build the “leadership required to overcome the pandemic;” work towards providing “universal access to HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care through social community mobilization strategies;” and “spread and strengthen the network of leaders committed to advocating for the behaviors and resources needed to halt and reverse the pandemic.”
African churches to debate same-sex issue: CEN 9.11.09 p 6. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.comments closed
The House of Bishops and Provincial Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa will begin debate at their annual meeting this week in Gauteng on the request for “pastoral guidelines for ministering to those who are in committed same-sex relationships,” reports Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town.
Writing to the Province on Sept 5, Archbishop Makgoba said the request for guidelines from the Cape Town synod will be part of a busy agenda that also includes proposed canonical amendments, finances and “to more practical matters of how we live the life to which we are called.”
In 2006 the South African Parliament voted to allow same-sex couples to “solemnize and register a voluntary union by way of either a marriage or a civil partnership,” after the South Africa’s Constitutional Court mandated recognition of gay marriage in a 2005 ruling.
This was the “reality we face in South Africa” Archbishop Makgoba wrote. “Some of those who have entered into such unions come, sometimes with their children, to our churches, and are found within our parishes. We must face this new reality with honesty.”
Last month’s request by the Cape Town synod for guidance was supported by supporters and opponents of church rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, he said, “out of concern to make an appropriate pastoral response to those in their care.”
However, South Africa would not follow the Episcopal Church of the United States or Anglican Church of Canada in unilaterally approving rites for the blessing of same-sex unions. “Let me underline that in our debate, and in [the Cape Town] resolution, there was a clear commitment to affirm the stance of the wider Anglican Communion on matters of human sexuality. There was certainly no desire to promote division on this matter. “
The resolution had “arisen as a result of government legislation,” and the need to “provide clergy and parishes with clear guidance,” the archbishop said.
Religious groups divided over marital rape bill: CEN 9.11.09 p 7. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies, Politics.comments closed
A proposed bill to criminalize “marital rape” has divided public opinion in the Bahamas with church leaders coming down on both sides of the debate.
Revising the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act to criminalize non-consensual sexual relations within marriage was contrary to God’s word and would create a “society of rapists,” the Rev. Cedric Moss of Kingdom of Life Church in Nassau told the Tribune. But the Archdeacon of the Bahamas, the Rev. James Palacious said that a wife should have the right to say ‘no’ to the sexual demands of her husband once the marriage has collapsed.
Under Bahamian law, rape is defined as “having sex with another person who is not his spouse without the consent of that other person.” In July Minister of State for Social Development Loretta Butler-Turner proposed an amendment to the Act that would omit the phrase “who is not his spouse,” bringing non-consensual sexual relations within marriage under the scope of the Act. The government has also sponsored a series of nationwide forums to gather comments on the proposed revisions.
Under current law marital rape can only occur after a legal separation or if the couple is in the process of getting a divorce—with the courts holding that if there is no separation or dissolution of the marriage, a rape cannot be said to have occurred.
Speaking for many traditional Bahamians, Pastor Moss argued it was impossible for rape to take place within marriage, because the parties to a marriage contract had already agreed to open-ended sexual consent.
“It is not right and it can never be right to bring all married couples under this definition of rape whereby moment by moment consent is required for every stage of every act of sexual intercourse,” Pastor Moss told a the Rotary Club of West Nassau last month.
However, other church leaders have given their support to the new law. The President of the Bahamas Conference of Seventh Day Adventist Churches, Pastor Leonard Johnson said the new law “deserves consideration and support. Essentially, if couples respect each other there is no need to have concern about the proposed amendment.”
But when relations break down and “when the spirit of selfishness and anger or hate is at work, problems can be expected” that call for legal protections, he said.
Archdeacon Palacious told the Rotary Club forum the new “law seeks to discourage men who are in very strained relationships with their wives even if they are still living together from forcing their wives to have sex.”
“In other words, such relationships are already dead and they only need a formal burial to be performed by the courts,” he said.
“As societies evolve” they recognize “obvious imperfections of existing laws in light of new understanding of the character and inherent worth of each individual and move to change such laws,” the archdeacon said according to local press accounts of the meeting.
Citing slavery as a precedent, Archdeacon Palacious said that changing attitudes had led to a change in laws that viewed slaves as chattel property of their masters. A wife was no more the property of her husband as was a slave to his master, he argued, stating that it was proper for society “to grant either more rights and/or protection to any number or categories of person” traditionally excluded from its protections.
London service for Taliban victims: CEN 9.11.09 p 8. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.comments closed
The Church of Nigeria’s London chaplaincy in conjunction with the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria has organized services of remembrance for the victims of the Boko Haram, the Nigerian Taliban.
On Sept 11 services will be held at St. Marylebone parish in London and the Abuja Ecumenical Centre in Nigeria to commemorate those who died in last month’s anti-Christian violence in Northern Nigeria.
Twenty churches, including Immanuel Anglican Church, Gamboru-Ngala in the Diocese of Maiduguri were destroyed in the uprising by members of the militant Muslim sect and almost 1000 people died in five days of fighting that ended on Aug 6 after the sect’s leader Ustaz Muhammed Yusuf was killed while attempting to escape from the police.
Among the dead were 12 Christians who were martyred for their faith. Seized by Boko Haram and commanded to renounce their faith and convert to Islam or die. Nine laymen and three Evangelical ministers: Pastor Sabo Yakubu, the Rev. Sylvester Akpan and the Rev. George Orji refused. They were then beheaded.
Canon Ben Enwuchola, the organizers of the London service said “in 1987, I ferried victims of religious violence from the university in Kano to hospital. It is shocking that over twenty years later, Nigeria’s cyclical religious violence has neither been recognised nor adequately addressed.”
“We hope by this event to raise greater awareness of the suffering of the Christian community of northern and central Nigeria, and are asking Christians in the UK to join us in prayers for the victims of the recent violence, and for lasting peace and reconciliation between the religious communities of northern and central Nigeria,” he said.
Stuart Windsor, National Director of CSW said his organization was “privileged to stand in solidarity with the victims of violence in Nigeria and recognizes that their suffering has been compounded by the lack of national and international attention.”
Americans urged to sign up to the Covenant: CEN 9.11.09 p 7. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Traditionalist dioceses, congregations and individual Episcopalians should not wait for the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in 2012 to endorse the Anglican Covenant, but make their views known now, seven American bishops have declared following a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury last week.
On Sept 1, the Bishops of Albany, Dallas, North Dakota, Northern Indiana, South Carolina, West Texas and Western Louisiana met with Dr. Rowan Williams and key aides to discuss concerns over the “recent actions of General Convention” in ending the Windsor moratoria, and with the nomination of gay clergy to stand for election to the episcopate in Minnesota and Los Angeles.
The 76th General Convention in Anaheim, California rejected the Anglican Communion’s common teachings on human sexuality making it highly unlikely that the Episcopal Church will adopt the Anglican Covenant, seven American bishops told the Archbishop of Canterbury at a private meeting at Lambeth Palace.
Details of the meeting between the seven conservative bishops—members of the Communion Partners group who produced the Anaheim Statement of dissent to the actions of General Convention—have not been made public, however, those present tell The Church of England Newspaper there had been a frank exchange of views and an honest evaluation of the current state of Anglican affairs.
On Sept 7 the seven bishops released a general statement expressing their gratitude for having met with Dr. Williams and detailed their plans for moving forward within the structures of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
The American bishops stated they had expressed their “appreciation” for Dr Williams’ “post-Convention reflections,” noting with interest his statement whether “elements” in provinces who reject the Anglican Covenant “will be free … to adopt the Covenant as a sign of their wish to act in a certain level of mutuality with parts of the Communion.”
“We are encouraged by our meeting with the Archbishop,” they said, and affirmed their desire to be part of a “Covenanted global Anglican body in communion with the See of Canterbury.”
However, “we also shared our concern” that the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in July had rejected the communion’s teachings on human sexuality as expressed in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1.10, and “raise a serious question whether a Covenant will be adopted by both Houses at General Convention 2012.”
However, General Conventions commendation of the Anglican Covenant for “study and comment” and invitation to “consider the Anglican Covenant proposed draft as a document to inform their understanding of and commitment to our common life in the Anglican Communion,” gave them hope that a way forward could be found for Episcopalians who wished to remain faithful to the Anglican Communion.”
The seven bishops encouraged “dioceses, congregations and individuals of the Episcopal Church to pray and work for the adoption of an Anglican Communion Covenant” and asked them to lobby for its adoption at the next General Convention.
They also asked “dioceses, congregations and individuals” to “endorse the first three sections” of the Covenant and “record such endorsements on the Communion Partners website.”
Conservative dioceses and congregations were encouraged to link with like minded entities, and liberal bishops were asked to “call upon us for service in needed cases of Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight” for traditionalist congregations.
No reprieve for Bendigo Cathedral: CEN 9.11.9 p 8. September 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Australian Federal government has declined to step in and save St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, the Bishop of Bendigo reports. In January the Diocese of Bendigo’s cathedral was closed as a public safety hazard and a fence erected around its perimeter after a slab of concrete sheeting fell from the roof during a wind-storm. A survey of the 140-year-old building in February found it needed almost £2.6 million in repairs before it could be reopened. |
“The inside of the bell tower is unsafe and even if we were back in the building, we can’t ring the bells again,” Dean Peta Sherlock said after the building was closed, as “every piece of adornment on the roof needs to be removed, that includes all cement crosses, towers and pinnacles.”
The cathedral’s website reports that in addition to the roof repairs “all our stained glass windows will need restorative work and the pinnacles on the tower need to be removed because their mortar has almost entirely eroded.”
Pleas for support to the local and state governments have so far yielded no results. Municipal finances were set back by February’s bushfires, which killed 128 people in Victoria and destroyed over 750 homes, while the downturn has stretched diocesan and government finances.
Last week the Bishop of Bendigo, the Rt Rev Andrew Curnow told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that pleas to the government for assistance had failed. “At the present time we’ve reached the end of the road, we’ve tried every possible avenue to receive assistance from the Federal Government,” he said, adding the diocese had written to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who responded by forwarding the letter to Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.
“So at this point in time we’ve reached a dead end,” the bishop said.
US Churches are free to secede, rules judge: CEN 9.17.09 September 17, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, Property Litigation.comments closed
| First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
There is nothing in the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church that prevents a diocese from seceding from the national church, a Texas judge declared on Sept 16. On Wednesday Judge John Chupp of Texas’ 141st District Court handed the Episcopal Church a major setback in its campaign to seize the assets of breakaway dioceses, stating that of the two entities holding themselves out as the “Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth”—Bishop Jack Iker and his diocese affiliated with the Province of the Southern Cone and Bishop Edwin Gulick and his Episcopal Church-affiliated diocese—Bishop Iker’s diocese was the lawful holder of that name, corporate seal and property. |
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The court’s actions were not a total victory for Bishop Iker, as it did not dismiss as illegitimate the loyalist’s Feb 2009 convention called by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, nor quash their property suit. However, in his comments to the parties Judge Chupp rejected the Episcopal Church’s central legal premise that while people may leave the Episcopal Church, dioceses may not.
The 80 per cent of the delegates who voted to at the 2008 diocesan convention to quit the Episcopal Church for the Province of the Southern Cone “took the diocese with them,” Judge Chupp said.
With the backing of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, a loyalist faction within the diocese held a special convention on Feb 7, electing officers and inviting the Bishop Edwin Gulick of Kentucky to serve as interim bishop of Fort Worth. On April 14, the loyalists, styling themselves as the “Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth” brought suit against the secessionists seeking possession of the diocese’s assets.
On Aug 19 the secessionists filed a Rule 12 motion asking the court to require the attorneys for the loyalists to show that they had the legal authority to bring suit in the name of the “Episcopal Diocese of Forth Worth.”
“Those individuals” bringing the lawsuit “claim to hold offices in the Diocese to which they have never been legally elected,” Bishop Iker argued.
The loyalists responded on Sept 3, filing a motion for partial summary judgment arguing that as “Texas authority establishes that a constituent part of a hierarchical church is comprised of those remaining loyal to the hierarchical denomination” it was the true diocese. They then argued the court should resolve the Rule 12 motion by first deciding upon their request for summary judgment.
At the Sept 9 hearing Judge Chupp denied the loyalist’s plea to place their motion ahead of the secessionist’s Rule 12 motion. Arguments were presented to the court and the hearing was continued until Sept 16, with the judge asking each side to present briefs on the question whether a diocese had the legal authority to withdraw from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
At the Wednesday hearing, Judge Chupp declined to accept legal precedents offered by the Episcopal Church that held a parish could not withdraw from a diocese and keep its property, saying this argument was not germane to the question of diocesan secession. He also declined to follow the Fresno, California court ruling in favor of the national church in its suit with the breakaway diocese of San Joaquin.
Instead he charged the parties to “find a place” in the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church “where it says the diocese cannot leave.” Unable to point to such language, loyalist attorney Kathleen Wells told the court that just because the prohibition is not explicit it does not mean it is not there.
Judge Chupp was not persuaded and ruled that the loyalist attorneys had “not discharged their burden of proof that they were hired by individuals holding positions” of legal authority within the diocese and ordered they be “barred from appearing in this suit as attorneys for The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and The Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth that is associated with Bishop Iker.”
In a statement issued after the hearing Bishop Iker said, “we are pleased that Judge Chupp has recognized the legitimacy of the vote of our Diocesan Convention in November 2008 to withdraw from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church and has ruled that we had the legal right to amend our Constitution in order to do so.”
Conservative activists lauded the ruling also. The Rev Phil Ashey of the American Anglican Council said the decision was a “victory of reason and common sense of the constitution and canons over against the over-reaching of Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori.”
Canon lawyer Mark McCall of the Anglican Communion Institute told The Church of England Newspaper, “The judge was absolutely correct when he concluded that there is nothing in the Episcopal Church constitution that prohibits a diocese from withdrawing from General Convention. And the law in the United States is clear that members of religious associations have the right to withdraw from membership.”
The “members” of the General Convention “are dioceses since they are the parties that accede to membership. The oft-stated slogan ‘only individuals can leave’ actually has it backwards. It is a diocese that joins; therefore it is a diocese that has a constitutional right to withdraw,” he noted.
However, the communications director of the loyalist diocese Katie Sherrod dismissed the secessionist’s claims of victory, saying they appear to have been “misinformed.”
The “judge did indeed rule that Jonathan Nelson and Kathleen Wells do not represent Bishop Iker and others associated with him,” and he also declined to dismiss the lawsuit, but “made no other rulings,” she said.
“He made some offhand comments in court. He asked some questions. But he made no other rulings. Every other assertion about any such rulings are simply not factual,” Ms Sherrod told CEN.
The parties return to court on Oct 15.
New Archbishop for Nigeria: CEN 9.16.09 September 16, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The Church of Nigeria has chosen a new primate to succeed Archbishop Peter Akinola. On Sept 15 the House of Bishops meeting at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Umuahia, elected the Rt. Rev. Nicholas Okah, Bishop of Asaba and Archbishop of Bendel to a ten year term as primate of the largest church in the Anglican Communion. The Dean of the Church of Nigeria, Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa reported the new primate received over two thirds of the votes of the 149 diocesan bishops present in a secret ballot, and the registrar of the Church of Nigeria, Mr. Abraham Yisa certifying the results of the election. |
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Archbishop Okoh will be translated as Bishop of Abuja, Archbishop of the Province of Abuja, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria in March upon the retirement of Archbishop Akinola.
A former Lieutenant Colonel in the Nigerian Army, Archbishop Okoh was ordained priest in 1979, appointed Bishop of Asaba in 2001 and elected Archbishop of the Province of Bendel in 2005.
“I am grateful to God and to the Church of Nigeria, particularly our laymen, clergy and House of Bishops” for their confidence in me, the primate-elect told the House of Bishops after the vote was announced.
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, the general secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) told The Church of England Newspaper he was pleased with the choice.
Archbishop Okoh “was present at the foundation of GAFCON and has played a leading part in the movement,” Dr. Jensen said. “Archbishop Okoh has made a significant contribution as the Chairman of the Theological Resource group. He is an able and committed Christian leader and we warmly welcome his appointment.”
“Archbishop Okoh is a Godly leader and CANA is delighted that he will be leading the Church of Nigeria,” Bishop Martyn Minns of CANA said.
The new primate was a “strong supporter” of the Nigerian Church’s American arm and of the Anglican Church in North America, he said. “Archbishop Okoh is committed to spreading the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is a personal friend, and I’m pleased that he is stepping into this leadership role during this crucial time in the life of the worldwide Anglican Communion,” Bishop Minns said.
Maoris deserve place in Government, says church: CEN 9.11.09 p 8. September 16, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The state should set aside places in government for Maori representatives, the Diocese of Auckland said last week at its annual synod, as white majority rule does not always serve the best interests of minorities. “We are not simply all New Zealanders. We are one nation, made up of a number of differing peoples,” Bishop John Paterson told the synod meeting at Holy Trinity Cathedral on Sept 3, urging the government to make a provision for Maori representation in a reorganized Auckland regional council. |
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“One of the keys to a successful future for this region of the nation lies in its ability to be inclusive of all its citizens, and not in supposing that the majority will always know what is best for the minority groups,” Bishop Paterson said.
In his last synod before retirement in March, Bishop Paterson called upon the government to honour the provisions of the Local Government Act 2002 that requires for Maori to “contribute to decision-making processes.”
Until his election as Bishop of Auckland in 1995, Bishop Paterson had served the majority of his ordained ministry in Maori congregations and schools, and in 1986 was appointed provisional secretary, helping oversee the adoption of A New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa – and the 1992 church constitution which divided the Church of New Zealand into three racial/cultural divisions for Maori, Pacific Islanders and New Zealanders of European heritage: the Tikanga Maori, Tikanga Pakeha and Tikanga Pasefika.
Bishop Paterson served as primate of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia from 1998 to 2004 and as chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council for the past seven years.
Prayers requested for former primate: CEN 9.11.09 p 6. September 16, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba has urged South African Anglicans to pray for retired Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane and his estranged wife Nomahlubi Vokwana-Ndungane following newspaper reports of the breakdown of their marriage. On Aug 30 South Africa’s Sunday Times reported that Archbishop Ndungane had been summoned before the Cape Town Family Court to respond to charges that he had deserted his wife of 22 years — a claim disputed by attorneys for the archbishop in a statement printed in the Cape Town Star on Sept 1. |
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The newspaper accounts prompted Archbishop Makgoba the following day to issue a statement noting that “this is a difficult family and pastoral matter that has long been before us. We want to affirm the integrity of both Archbishop and Mrs Ndungane as well as offer our pastoral support to both at this time.”
“Unfortunately, all the previous interventions within the church over a period of time, did not resolve this matter,” Archbishop Makgoba wrote, stating he hoped the couple would be able to resolve “this matter, through appropriate legal means, and move on with their own lives.”
On Sept 3 the attorneys for the archbishop served papers initiating divorce proceedings against his estranged wife, claiming they had not lived together as husband and wife for over 10 years. The archbishop’s lawyer, Kaamilah Paulse, said the couple had been in divorce talks for “over a year and a half”. The Sunday Times story was “deliberately aimed at tarnishing [the archbishop’s] image and casting aspersions on his integrity,” Ms Paulse charged.
“People know of the exemplary leadership of the Archbishop within the church and in championing many causes which aim to improve the lives, not only of South Africans, but of people in other parts of Africa and the world. Since this story appeared on Sunday, he has received countless messages of support from those who know him, and who know that he is incapable of the behaviour of which he is accused,” she said.
However, the archbishop’s wife told the Sunday Times she had been “betrayed and humiliated” by the divorce action, and charged the archbishop had hidden assets from her, including a home he purchased six years ago.
The archbishop’s divorce petition seeks to enforce a pre-nuptial financial agreement separating their estates, but Mrs Ndungane has alleged that she financially supported her husband during the early years of their marriage, and was now being abandoned. “I still stayed where my husband had left me, even when he did not return. When they marry you in church they say for better or for worse, do they not?” she said.
The New International Bible gets a makover to mark KJV debut: CEN 9.04.09 p 8. September 12, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Popular Culture.comments closed
A revised edition of the world’s best selling English-language version of the Bible, the New International Version (NIV), will be released in 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Authorized Version, or King James Version, of the Bible.
At a press conference held Sept 1 at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois, the board of directors of Biblica—formed from the merger of the International Bible Society and Send the Light Publishing—announced that a team of 15 scholars known as the Committee on Bible Translation (CBT) would publish the first full revision of the NIV since 1984. With over 300 million copies in print, the NIV Bible is the most widely used English language Bible.
“We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand,” said Keith Danby of Biblica. “This is why we are recommitting ourselves today to the original NIV charter, complete with its charge to monitor and reflect developments in English usage and Biblical scholarship by regularly updating the NIV Bible text.
The chairman of the translation committee, Professor Douglas Moo of Wheaton College said the goal of the CBT was to “articulate the words of God” in a “form of English that is comprehensible to the broadest possible audience.”
“Just as the New Testament is written in ‘Koine’ or ‘common’ Greek, our aim with the NIV Bible is — and has always been — to translate the Bible into what you might call ‘Koine’ or ‘common’ English,” Prof. Moo said.
The NIV Bible arose in the wake of American Protestant dissatisfaction with the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The project was launched in 1965 at a meeting at Trinity Christian College that formed the CBT. The NIV’s New Testament was released in 1973 and the full Bible in 1978, with the minor revision issued in 1984.
In 1987 a gender neutral language version of the NIV was released and marketed in the UK. Evangelicals in Britain and the US were sharply critical of the substitution of gender-neutral pronouns for masculine pronouns, and the version was withdrawn from circulation, but later marked in 2002 as Today’s New International Version (TNIV).
In the press conference, broadcast over the internet, Biblica’s Keith Danby stated the 1987 release of the gender-neutral version had been unwise.
“We fell short of the trust that was placed in us,” Danby said. “We failed to make a case for the revisions, and we made some important errors in the way we brought the translation to publication. We also underestimated the scale of public affection for the NIV and failed to communicate the rationale for change in a manner that reflected that affection.”
However, “freezing the NIV” would not do. If the text were not revised it “shackled the NIV to a language and scholarship of a quarter a century ago.”
Prof. Moo added the translation committee would be as “careful as we can, while recognizing those influences, to do our work in a sincere and open way so that we honestly reflect what we think God’s unchanging Word is saying to the English-speaking world in our day.”
Religious leaders condemn Lockerbie bomber release: CEN 9.04.09 p 7. September 12, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, New York, Terrorism.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
US religious leaders have denounced as “horrific” Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill’s decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. In a series of interviews broadcast by NBC on Aug 25, New York’s Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders were united in denouncing the return of al-Megrahi to Libya saying it was a mockery of justice and false compassion. “It seems to me to be a truly terrible misunderstanding of what compassion is,” the Episcopal Bishop of New York, the Rt Rev Mark Sisk, said, as “it truly undercut the sensibilities of those who are the survivors. And in that sense, it is, I think horrific.” |
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On Aug 20 the Scottish government released al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, alleging that a medical evaluation suggested the Libyan intelligence officer who in 2001 was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed the 259 passengers and crew of the London to New York flight and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.
The US government denounced the decision as a capitulation to terrorism, while subsequent British newspapers reports and opposition leaders have raised questions as to whether the release was part of a quid quo pro to secure lucrative oil contracts for Britain with the regime of Col. Muammar Gadaffi.
In an emergency session of the Scottish parliament on Aug 24, Mr MacAskill defended his actions, saying he felt “bound by Scottish values” to return al-Meghari to Libya under the 1993 Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings Act, Scotland allows for a compassionate release of prisoners who have a terminal illness with less than three months to live.
Scotland’s religious leaders endorsed the government’s actions. On Aug 20 the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth lauded Mr. MacAskill’s “brave political choice,” which sent “to the world an important and positive message about our values.
The Rev Ian Galloway, convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, concurred saying the release had sent a “message to the world about what it is to be Scottish,” while on Aug 25 Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow said the show of compassion was “one of the principles inscribed on the mace of the Scottish parliament by which Scotland’s government should operate.”
However, the compassion pleas promoted by political and church leaders persuaded few Americans.
The leader of New York’s 2 million Roman Catholics, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, called the release of al-Megrahi a “sad and perplexing mistake.”
“While as a follower of Jesus Christ I believe in mercy, I also believe that mercy must always be tempered with justice,” Archbishop Dolan said.
“Mercy can be demonstrated in ways other than by releasing a man responsible for so much pain, suffering, and death. Those who lost loved ones also deserve mercy and justice,” he said.
The release of the Lockerbie bomber would likely lead to further acts of murder, Archbishop Dolan added. “We must consider that the release of this man could encourage others to engage in similar acts of terrorism in the future which would be a tragic result,” he said.
The leader of New York’s largest mosque told NBC “Terrorism is terrorism, and we want terrorism to be stopped in any way and in any means possible.”
Imam Mohammed Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York said he feared the release of the Lockerbie bomber could become a “signal or gesture to the other criminals around to say at the end of the day you will be a heroic one.”
The head of the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik , said “it’s almost as if you are killing the people again because now these families having gone through so much horror are reliving the tragedy.”
The Scottish decision to release the bomber “just isn’t’ fair, it isn’t right,” he said.
Bishop Sisk was deeply troubled by the decision. “This is a man that according to the courts was found guilty of masterminding a horrendous crime. He was given a life sentence with a minimum of 27 years.”
“He should have had to abide by that sentence and to abridge that does not seem to have been a just thing to have done,” the bishop said.
Concern over new charity law in Zambia: CEN 9.04.09 p 8. September 8, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church and civil society leaders in Zambia have protested against last week’s signing of the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill by President Rupiah Banda and have vowed to mount a court challenge to the new laws that regulate the activities of the nation’s charitable organizations. Passed in mid-August by the Central African country’s National Assembly and signed into law last week by President Banda, the bill calls for the “the registration and co-ordination of NGOs, to regulate the work, and the area of work, of NGOs operating in Zambia.” |
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NGOs are now required to provide to the government yearly reports on their activities, sources of income, bank balances, and the incomes and personal wealth of their officers. A 16-member government board will oversee the activities of NGOs and “provide policy guidelines to NGOs for harmonizing their activities to the national development plan of Zambia.”
Failure to abide by the registration rules or the new “code of conduct” would permit the government to shut down an NGO.
Finn Petersen of the Danish NGO, MS Zambia Action Aid told the IRIN news service the bill would likely cause some foreign NGOs to pull out of Zambia, and close small local agencies unable to comply with the regulatory burdens imposed by the new laws.
“The bill is rather restrictive than facilitative in championing the development agenda,” he said, and “imposes serious restraints on the work and functioning of the NGOs, which will ultimately be detrimental to Zambian society as a whole and to development work in particular.”
Parliament declined to endorse a similar bill in 2007, in the wake of protests from the country’s Roman Catholic Church, opposition leaders and NGOs. Sources in Zambia tell The Church of England Newspaper the government’s latest push to enact an NGO bill may be driven by its growing battle with the Roman Catholic Church.
Catholic leaders have supported the NGO protests and have long opposed the expansion of state oversight of church-run hospitals and schools — and under the terms of the new NGO law, many church-run charities would now fall under direct government supervision.
The Catholic Church has also been at loggerheads with the government over censorship. On July 18 the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Zambia released a statement calling on the government to “clamp down on violence against the media” and turn its energies from fighting the opposition to tackling corruption, improving health care, responding to widespread poverty, and addressing the nation’s crumbling system of roads and utilities.
Government ministers have responded by accusing the church of meddling in political affairs, and of giving their tacit support to the opposition. The Zambia Anglican Church, however, has called for church and state leaders to talk through their differences. In an Aug 27 interview with the Times of Lusaka, the general secretary of the ZAC, the Rev Rogers Banda said church and state served the same constituencies.
“We, the Church and the Government need to sit down and talk every time we have differences,” Fr Banda said. “We should not attack each other because we have the same objective, to serve our people,” he said.
Archbishop of Cape Town ‘abandoned’ wife: CEN 9.04.09 p 6. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The family court proceedings of the former Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane have spilled into South Africa’s newspapers, creating a tabloid sensation. On Aug 30 South Africa’s Sunday Times reported Archbishop Ndungane was summoned before the Cape Town Family Court to respond to charges that he had deserted his wife of 22 years, Nomahlubi Vokwana-Ndungane. Mrs Ndungane is asking the court to order the archbishop to provide financial support to his “abandoned” wife. Lawyers for the archbishop responded in the Cape Town Star on Sept 1 that the accusations levelled by Mrs Ndungane were untrue, and that their client would not respond to allegations levelled through the newspapers. |
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In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mrs Ndungane said that when her husband stepped down from office as Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, he told her he would be leaving for 10 days to go on retreat to “meditate.”
The retreat has now stretched into two years, Mrs Ndungane said, with news of her husband coming only through his appearances in the newspapers in connection with his work with African Monitor, an NGO that follows western efforts to implement the Millennium Development Goals.
“I was still living in Bishopscourt [the archbishop’s residence] when he left,” Mrs Ndungane said. “When it was time for the new archbishop to move in, I got a call from Rob Rogerson, the diocesan secretary, to ask me where I’d be moving to. I told him that I’d move to an apartment that I owned in Bantry Bay.
“I never thought I’d be undergoing things like this at this age. One wants to retire without any stress,” she said.
At the time of their marriage in 1987, Mrs Ndungane said she provided the majority of income for the family through a supermarket she owned, left to her by her first husband. In 1991 her husband was elected Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, and the market was sold in 1996 when her husband was elected Archbishop of Cape Town.
“When I married him in 1987, he was still a provincial executive officer to Archbishop Tutu. My business was doing excellently and I carried the brunt of payment for every household cost. He would say: ‘When I take retirement from the church, I’ll be the one to take care of you’,” Mrs Ndugane told the Sunday Times.
However, she was not destitute since her husband had abandoned her, and asked the court to order the archbishop to support her.
On Sept 1, Archbishop Ndungane’s attorney Kaamilah Paulse told the Star the Sunday Times article was “deliberately aimed at tarnishing [the archbishop’s] image and casting aspersions on his integrity.”
“The court proceedings initiated, without notification, by his estranged wife, Mrs Nomahlubi Vokwana-Ndungane, have arisen from a difficult and strained situation which the Ndungane family has been trying, for some time, to resolve,” the attorney said.
“The legal process will now be taken further in an appropriate manner,” she said.
New Bishop of Guyana finally appointed, paving the way for new primate: CEN 9.04.09 p 6. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The West Indian House of Bishops has appointed the Archdeacon of the Northern Bahamas as Bishop of Guyana, a move that permits the election of a new primate for the province. On Aug 30 the Rt Rev Errol Brooks, Bishop of the Northeast Caribbean and Aruba and the senior bishop of the province announced that at their Aug 25-27 meeting, the House of Bishops had appointed the Ven Cornell Moss to succeed the Rt Rev Randolph George. Archdeacon Moss will be consecrated on Dec 8 at St George’s Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana, and on the following day the Provincial synod will meet at the cathedral to elect a successor to Archbishop Drexel Gomez, who retired last year. |
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A native of the Bahamas, Archdeacon Moss (50) was educated at St James College in Nassau, and trained for the ministry at Codrington College, Barbados, and earned an STM degree from Nashotah House in 1997. Ordained in 1983, he served parishes in Abaco from 1986 to 1992, and in 1993 was appointed rector of the Church of the Ascension, in Freeport, Grand Bahama. In 1996 Archbishop Drexel Gomez appointed Fr Moss Archdeacon of the Northern Bahamas.
On Feb 12 delegates to a special meeting of the Guyana synod held in Queenstown were unable to elect a bishop to succeed Bishop George, who retired in December after 29 years as bishop. The failed Guyana election has also postponed the selection of a new archbishop for the province as the canons require a full House of Bishops to select the new primate.
The Rt Rev Santosh Marray, a Guyanese native who served as Bishop of the Seychelles from 2005 to 2008 won two-thirds of the clergy vote, while the rector of St Philips, Georgetown, the Rev Andy Carto, won two-thirds of the lay vote. A two-thirds majority was required in both houses for election, and after rounds of balloting the vote was cancelled due to the deadlock.
In February, diocesan chancellor Desiree Bernard wrote to the House of Bishops asking that they appoint a bishop, a course open to the diocese under the provincial canons in the event of a failed election.
New Zealand refuses to overturn ‘smacking’ ban: CEN 9.04.09 p 8. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper, Youth/Children.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A referendum to overturn a 2007 law criminalizing corporal punishment has won the support of an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders, however Prime Minister John Key stated his government will not change the current laws that allow police to arrest parents for “smacking” their children. The leaders of the Anglican and Methodist churches in New Zealand had urged voters to support the current laws, while the Roman Catholic aid agency Caritas also urged a “yes” vote on the Aug 21 referendum, saying the current law was working. However, following a three-week postal ballot that saw 54 per cent of eligible voters participate, only 11.81 per cent of voters followed the advice of the country’s mainstream church leaders, with 87.6 per cent of voters, 1.42 million people, responding “No” to the question: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?” |
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Opponents of the 2007 law claimed the corporal punishment ban improperly insinuated the state into an area of responsibility reserved for the family. The current law forbids parents from using force to discipline their children but gives police the discretion not to prosecute complaints “where the offence is considered so inconsequential there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution.”
On Aug 23 the Dean of Auckland’s Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the Very Rev Ross Bay said those who turned to the Old Testament to support corporal punishment were ill-informed. He disputed the contention that the Bible grants parents the right to exercise unfettered control over their children and that it is a “God-given right to use corporal punishment in the discipline of their children.”
The “Christian image of God is what we find in the New Testament of the Bible, and is the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ,” he said, noting “this is the God who does not wield power to force human beings to conform to divine purposes.”
The Old Testament “approach founded in the ancient proverb of ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’” had “too often been characterised as ‘the’ Christian view,” he argued, urging Christian parents to model their behaviour on the image of the God of love and mercy revealed in Jesus Christ.
The current law was working, Dean Bay said, urging the government to stay the course.
However “No” campaigners have disputed their opponents’ contentions claiming there had been six prosecutions of “good parents” in the courts for smacking their children. Family First director Bob McCoskrie said the “evidence is there” the law is not working.
“We’ve sent evidence of families being referred to Child Youth and Family and children being removed while investigations are taking place just for smacks. “In fact, there’s a case today in the Lower Hutt District Court of a father trying to get his son on to the rugby field and giving him a few shoves and he’s being prosecuted for common assault.”
Kiwi Party leader and “No” campaigner Larry Baldock said the vote sent a clear message to the Prime Minster. “They want the authority back in the home and he is foolish to suggest this law is working,” he said.
Archdeacon shot at altar: CEN 9.04.09 p 6. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Terrorism.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An attack on the village of Wernyol in the Jonglei State in South Sudan has left 47 dead, including the Archdeacon of Wernyol, the Ven Joseph Mabior Garang. On the morning of Aug 28 approximately 1,000 gunmen attacked the village “coming to take the cattle, and to loot and steal,” Maj Gen Kuol Diem Kuol of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) told Al-Jazeera. “There was only a small police force based in Wernyol, and they were soon overrun, but nearby SPLA platoons heard the shooting and rushed to the area” and restored order, Gen Kuol said. |
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The SPLA speculated the attack was a revenge killing mounted by Lou Nuer tribesmen against the Dinka residents of Wernyol. The two tribes sporadically have fought over cattle and grazing rights, but the fighting has escalated since the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ending Sudan’s 22-year civil war, with women and children now targeted by gunmen.
However, because the “attackers were well armed with new automatic weapons, dressed in army uniforms, and appeared well organized and properly trained,” the Primate of the Sudan, Archbishop Daniel Deng, said he doubted the fight was merely a tribal raid.
“Instead of attacking a cattle camp, this was an attack on a Payam headquarter town. Consequently in the view of the church, this was not a tribal conflict as commonly reported, but a deliberately organized attack on civilians by those that are against the peace in Southern Sudan,” the archbishop said.
Eyewitness accounts of the attack printed in the New Sudan Vision (NSV) reported that 40 villagers and seven SPLA soldiers were killed. “It appears that these people are not raiding for children as they were indiscriminately killing both women and children and not kidnapping as usual”, said the newspaper.
Archdeacon Garang was “shot at the altar of the church in Wernyol during a service of Morning Prayer,” according to a statement from Archbishop Deng posted on the internet. NSV reported the archdeacon died en route to hospital in a neighboring town.
The attack in the Eastern Jonglei State comes with a return of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Southwestern Sudan. Archbishop Deng said he had received news of an Aug 12 LRA attack on Ezo “in which three people, including an Episcopal Church lay reader, had been murdered.”
“Continuing violence such as this is not only a crime against the innocent people killed and injured, it is a crime against the peace of the Sudan and if left unchecked will do great damage to the smooth implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)” and the scheduled 2010 elections, the archbishop said.
Archbishop Deng called upon the diplomatic community “to urge your countries’ governments to do more to guarantee the implementation of the CPA at all levels.”
“So long as all violence such as that in Jonglei and that perpetrated by the LRA continues — violence which is preventable by better use of security personnel — there is no hope of conducting free and fair elections in these areas in 2010 and no hope of a fair referendum on Southern secession in 2011,” Archbishop Deng said.
Little hope for renewed deal to end Sudan strife: CEN 8.28.09 p 6. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan.comments closed
The US-brokered deal signed last week to revive the stalled Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is being greeted with skepticism by Sudanese church leaders.
“To sign a piece of paper is not a sign to the people” that a lasting peace is at hand, the Primate of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Archbishop Daniel Deng of Juba told The Church of England Newspaper in an Aug 22 email.
Representatives of Southern Sudan’s Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Khartoum government’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) on Aug 19 endorsed an agreement resolving disputed issues arising from the 2005 CPA that ended twenty-two years of civil war between the Arab Muslim North and the African Christian South.
U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Maj. Gen. Scott Gration witnessed the initialing of the bilateral agreement in Juba that according to the US State Department “commits the NCP and SPLM to a series of timed benchmarks for implementing key aspects of the CPA, including border demarcation and election preparation.”
On July 22, an international tribunal in The Hague redefined the borders of the disputed oil-rich Abyei region, but other areas along the 2000km border remain in dispute.
The US State Department stated that “despite the significant progress made to date, the parties have been unable to reach agreement on several issues, namely a final determination on the use of census data,” noting that General Gration would return to Juba next month to continue the trilateral talks.
The London based Arabic-language newspaper, Al-Sharq al-Awsat, stated the dispute centers around the use of census data. The NCP has insisted that data from the 2008 census be used to determine election districts. The SPLM has dismissed the 2008 census as untrustworthy and has insisted that the pre-independence 1956 census be used.
The SPLM has charged the Khartoum-government of attempting to derail a 2011 independence referendum for Southern Sudan. On July 29 the Secretary General of the SPLM, Pagan Amum said the North had intentionally “delayed the demarcation of the north-south border.”
“Whether Sudan will become one peaceful and free country or separate into two countries peacefully co-existing shall be decided in large degree by how we, the two parties – SPLM and NCP – implement the CPA,” he said in a press statement.
However, “attempts to renege from the CPA shall lead to a catastrophic disaster of war again,” the SPLM leader warned.
Archbishop Deng told CEN that although the NCP and SPLM had signed many agreements, “nothing changed.”
“Since the CPA was signed four years ago the situation in the Sudan never changes. To sign a paper is not a sign to the people,” Archbishop Deng said.
“In the north [Khartoum government] has been doing this for more than fifty years,” he said, “warning the Western world to let them know dealing with Muslim [governments] is no simple matter.”
Primus backs Scottish decision to free bomber: CEN 8.28.09 p 1. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church, Terrorism.comments closed
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church has lauded Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill’s decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, allowing the convicted Lockerbie bomber to return home to Libya to die.
However, the compassion exhibited by the Justice Minister may have been for British industry not for the dying, opposition leaders have charged in the wake of Libyan statements that the release of the terrorist was a part of a trade deal.
Church leaders gave their blessing last week to the Scottish government’s decision to release Mr. al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer sentenced in 2001 to 27 years imprisonment for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed the 259 passengers and crew of the London to New York flight and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland. On Aug 20, the government released Mr. al-Megrahi after a medical evaluation indicated the terrorist had less than three months to live due to cancer of the prostate.
The release has sparked outrage from the United States government and raised questions in Westminster and the Scottish parliament about secret deals with Libya.
In a statement released by the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Primus, Bishop David Chillingworth of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, said the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber was “a brave political choice taken in the face of strong pressure from outside Scotland.”
“We respect and honour the courage which the Scottish Government has shown,” he said in light of US lobbying to block Mr. al-Megrahi’s release.
“On one side of the balance is the suffering caused by this appalling act of terrorism and the need to sustain public confidence in our system of justice. On the other side is the need to consider whether, in circumstances such as these, justice should be tempered with mercy and compassion,” he said on Aug 20.
“This decision sends to the world an important and positive message about our values,” Bishop Chillingworth said.
While the Scottish Roman Catholic’s Bishops’ Conference had not taken a position on the matter, the Rev Ian Galloway, convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council, concurred with the Primus, saying the release of the Lockerbie bomber “has sent a message to the world about what it is to be Scottish. We are defined as a nation by how we treat those who have chosen to hurt us.”
“We have gained something significant as a nation by this decision. It is a defining moment for all of us,” Mr. Galloway said.
However, opposition leaders have charged the gain to Scotland is more than moral, and have questioned whether the release was part of a quid pro quo in the 2007 £450m exploration deal signed by BP and the Libyan government.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has denied the release of Mr. al-Megrahi was a secret protocol in the 2007 oil deal, while Lord Mandelson last week stated the accusations were “wrong, completely implausible and quite offensive”.
These comments came after the son of Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddaffi, Saif al-Islam, told Libyan television the release of Mr. al-Megrahi was part of the trade deal reached with the British government. Col. Gaddafi also appeared on state television with Mr. al-Megrahi at his side after the agent’s return to Tripoli thanking “my friends in Scotland, the Scottish National Party, and Scottish prime minister, and the foreign secretary.”
Conservative shadow foreign secretary William Hague has asked the government to release all documents surrounding Mr. Blair’s and Lord Mandelson’s meetings with the Libyan leader and his son to dispel the Libyan claims the release of the terrorist was not part of the commercial deal.
The Scottish Labour Party is expected to call for a debate on Mr. MacAskill’s handling of the affair when the Scottish Parliament reconvenes next month. “The Scottish Parliament has a responsibility to take action to repair some of the damage done,” former First Minister Jack McConnell said.
“We owe it to the victims to make clear that this mistake does not have the support of the nation as a whole,” Mr. McConnell told Scotland on Sunday.
The “deal in the desert” has also drawn protests from the US government, and in an unprecedented move the US FBI director Robert Mueller on Aug 21 denounced Mr. MacAskill’s decision as a mockery of the rule of law.”
“Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the world,” Mr. Mueller charged, adding that the Scottish government’s compassion for a murderer who had never sought forgiveness “rewards a terrorist even though he never admitted to his role in this act of mass murder.”
More bishops back Anaheim statement: CEN 8.28.09 p 7. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Two more American bishops have endorsed the Anaheim Statement of dissent from the actions of the 76th General Convention, which voted to walk apart from the Anglican Communion by ending the ban on gay bishops and blessings.
The Rt. Rev. Charles Jenkins, Bishop of Louisiana, and the Rt. Rev. Harry Shipps, retired Bishop of Georgia have raised the total number of bishops who have pledged their loyalty to both the Anglican Communion and to the Episcopal Church to 36.
The Communion Partners group, the “loyal opposition” of parishes within the Episcopal Church has also grown in recent weeks and as of Aug 11 represents nearly 60,000 at worship on Sunday. The Rev. Russell Levenson, Jr., rector of St Martin’s Episcopal Church told The Church of England Newspaper the group’s members now number 66 parish rectors, whose congregations range in size from his Houston parish of 8500 members to the Church of the Incarnation in Lafayette, Louisiana with 20 members.
The Rev. R. Leigh Spruill, rector of St George’s, Nashville, Tennessee, and the group’s new administrator told CEN the Communion Partners were not a protest group, but a “missional fellowship committed to reviving classical Christianity” within the Episcopal Church.
The weeks following the Anaheim General Convention had produced a “heightened anxiety” among many clergy, Mr. Spruill said. The Communion Partners provided a refuge for those “committed to remaining within the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church,” while also offering “theological and spiritual support.”
“We are not just another group poised to split off,” Mr. Spruill said. “Because of our ecclesiology” as clergy committed to the Anglican way, we believe that working towards the Archbishop of Canterbury’s goal of building an Anglican Covenant is a “reasonable” and “solid theological place to stand.”
The “Anglican Communion is not an idol for us, but a gift from God,” he said. The Communion Partners “offers us a way forward for us” to be faithful to “our vows” as priests, and to our faith, Mr. Spruill said.
‘Common sense’ urged over chalice: CEN 8.28.09 p 5. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Health/HIV-AIDS, Hymnody/Liturgy.comments closed
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa has urged calm and common sense in the wake of fears of infection of the H1N1 ‘swine’ flu from a common chalice at communion.
On Aug 20 Archbishop Thabo Makgoba reported that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York “recommended the suspension of the sharing of the chalice at communion” upon the advice of the government not to “share ‘common vessels’ for food and drink.”
The Archbishops’ July 22 letter to the English bishops recommended suspension of the “administration of the chalice” during the flu pandemic, citing clause 8 of the 1547 Sacrament Act, which allowed administration of communion in one kind in times of plague or “except necessity otherwise require.”
“For those who still wish to offer in both kinds,” the archbishops wrote, “we recommend the practice” of priestly intinction of the bread in the chalice “before placing them in the hands of communicants.”
In South Africa, the clergy should “observe prudence in maintaining good hygiene and in taking care to reduce exposure to infection,” Archbishop Makgoba said, noting that six people had died so far in the epidemic.
While all “life is sacred and we regret the loss of this precious life,” the archbishop wrote “we should not panic, but rather be prudent about our health.
“If you are not well, it makes sense to behave as you would with any of the other strains of flu that we experience each year,” he said, and “take care not to expose others needlessly to the virus.”
Intinction, the practice of dipping the wafer or bread in the chalice, is practiced by Anglicans in Africa, the West Indies and North America. In the West Indies the priest commonly instincts the wafer and places it directly in the mouth of the communicant in the Roman Catholic fashion. Intinction was authorized by the Episcopal Church during the global influenza epidemic of 1920 and has developed in different ways, with some churches practicing priestly intinction, while in other churches the communicant receives the wafer in his hand and intincts or dips it in a chalice held before him.
A paper released by the Anglican Church of Canada on “Eucharistic practice and risk of infection” however, notes that “modes of intinction used in parishes do not diminish the threat of infection, and some may actually increase it.”
“Hands, children’s and adult’s, are at least as likely to be a source of infection (often more so) as lips,” Dr. David Gould wrote on behalf of the Canadian Church. “Retention of the wafer in the hand of the recipient then intincting it means that the wafer, now contaminated by the hand of the recipient, is placed in the wine, thus spreading the infection to it,” he noted.
“If a priest retains the wafer, intincts it, and places it on the tongue of the communicant there is the possibility of his/her hand coming in contact with the tongue, and thereafter spreading the contamination. Meticulous technique would avoid this however, and it would seem better to trust in the technique of one individual (the priest) than in the individual techniques of the communicants should they do the intinction themselves,” he noted.
“Communion in only one kind (the bread) is the best option for those fearful of the cup,” Dr. Gould wrote, but the “present use of the common cup is normative for Anglican churches, and poses no real hazard to health in normal circumstances.”
CANA unveils campaign on Islam: CEN 8.28.09 p 7. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, CANA, Church of England Newspaper, Islam.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of Nigeria’s American wing, CANA—the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, have rolled out an education campaign to assist American churches engage with Islam. The “Church and Islam Project” led by the Rev Canon Julian Dobbs — the former US director of the Barnabas Fund — seeks to encourage the evangelization of Muslims in the US, while also “exposing the truth about so-called moderate Islam,” a handout from CANA stated. |
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“Countless pastors and churches are being drawn into discussions on Islam and Christ, but we cannot let polite multi-faith dialogue substitute for the truth of the Gospel message,” Canon Dobbs said.
He lambasted the approach taken by some “Episcopal bishops and other leaders who confuse parishioners about the theological irregularities of Islam and champion ‘open pulpits’ where mullahs are invited to teach from lecterns once dedicated to the proclamation of the historic Christian faith.”
“CANA is committed to providing resources to help Christians deepen their understanding of Islam and to develop the appropriate Biblical response,” Canon Dobbs said.
Muslim outreach was an important mission for the church in America, the Rt Rev Martyn Minns said.
“The Gospel message does not exclude a fifth of the world’s population who are Muslims. We are called to love our neighbour – no matter what religion they practise – because the Christian faith has a distinctive message which brings the salvation and love of God to a needy and broken world through the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.
US Lutherans vote to overturn their denomination’s ban on gay clergy: CEN 8.28.09 p 7. September 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Delegates to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s (ELCA) 2009 ‘Churchwide Assembly’ have voted to overturn the denomination’s ban on gay clergy. A church in “full communion” with the Episcopal Church of the United States, the ELCA will likely follow the Episcopal Church in breaking apart over the issue of homosexuality. On Aug 21 delegates to the national assembly of America’s largest Lutheran Church voted 559 to 451 to change its teachings on human sexuality, moving homosexual relations from the sin to blessing side of the moral ledger. |
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The assembly also adopted a “social statement” that recognized the concept of “bound consciences” that allow differing interpretations of Scripture concerning homosexuality to exist within the church, while also opening the door for congregations to “recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same-gender relationships.”
In support of the changes, Bishop Gary Wollersheim of the Northern Illinois Synod told the assembly: “It’s a matter of justice, a matter of hospitality, it’s what Jesus would have us do.”
Conservatives were adamant in their opposition. The ELCA had “departed from the teaching of the Bible as understood by Christians for 2,000 years,” retired Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod Bishop Paul Spring said after the vote. “I am saddened that a Lutheran Church that was founded on a firm commitment to the Bible has come to the point that the ELCA would vote to reject the Bible’s teaching on marriage and homosexual behaviour. It breaks my heart,” Bishop Spring said.
The 4.6 million-member ELCA was formed in 1987 by the merger of the American Lutheran Church (ALC) — a church serving Norwegian and Danish and southern German immigrants, the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) — a predominantly Swedish and Danish church, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) — a predominantly Northern German immigrant church.
The 2.4 million member Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the smaller 400,000 member Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), also of German heritage, are not part ELCA.
The ELCA votes were hailed by allies in the Episcopal Church. “Today’s action in Minneapolis is not just good news for gay and lesbian Lutherans, it is good news to all who strive for peace and justice and are committed to respecting the dignity of every human being,” said the Rev Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA.
“For decades the faithful have prayed for justice to roll down like waters for the LGBT baptized in the Lutheran and Episcopal churches. The summer of 2009 has become that watershed moment we have prayed for,” Ms Russell said. Conservative ELCA members will meet next month in Indianapolis to discuss how to respond to last week’s vote, with defections to other Lutheran churches likely to be announced in the coming months.
ACNA consecrates bishop: CEN 9.03.09 September 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| Published in The Church of England Newspaper’s Religious Intelligence section.
The ACNA has consecrated and elected two bishops for its dioceses, which represent the full span of its theological spectrum, while also highlighting the fragility of the new province-in-waiting’s theological boundaries. On Aug 22, the Rt Rev William Ilgenfritz was consecrated Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of All Saints by Archbishop Robert Duncan. The new diocese consists of 13 congregations across the United States, and is part of the wider ACNA. In 2002 FiFNA elected Fr Ilgenfritz and the Rev David Moyer to be consecrated as bishops in order to fulfill an episcopal ministry in the US similar to that exercised by the ‘flying bishops’ of the Church of England. Their names were then “lain on the table” pending their consecration at the hands of sympathetic Anglican bishops. |
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In 2007 FiFNA reaffirmed its nomination of Fr Ilgenfritz as its preferred bishop to oversee Anglo-Catholic congregations, and at the June meeting of its College of Bishops, the ACNA formally endorsed the election.
Bishop Ilgenfritz told The Church of England Newspaper that “all congregations and clergy wishing to affiliate with this new diocese must be members of Forward in Faith North America, but some FIFNA parishes and clergy will continue, at least for the present, in the Episcopal Church or in their present continuing ecclesial structures.”
The FiFNA diocese will gather independent congregations as well as churches in the process of withdrawing from the Episcopal Church. “I will be receiving some parishes from other jurisdictions of the Continuum and we will be planting new churches,” he wrote in an email to CEN, but added that it was “important to note that the new diocese will work cooperatively with Pittsburgh, Quincy, Fort Worth, San Joaquin, AMIA, REC, CANA, etc. We condemn any spirit of competition for parishes.”
The traditional Anglo-Catholic model of episcopal ministry was placed in contrast with the Aug 30 election by the ACNA’s Diocese of the Gulf Atlantic of the Rev Neil Lebhar to oversee approximately 5,000 conservative Anglicans in 22 North Florida and South Georgia evangelical parishes.
Bishop-elect Lebhar, who brought a case before the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference for arbitration, but was rebuffed when the Bishop of Florida refused to accede to the Panel’s recommendations, told the Florida Times-Union the Gulf Atlantic Diocese had adopted a new model of episcopacy.
“With the model we’re now in, the bishop operates as clergy in his home parish and the structure is much flatter and the ministry is much more parish-oriented. Only a third of my time will be spent as bishop,” he said, adding that the term of office would be set at seven years. The office came with a time limit so as to “be able to refresh leadership on a regular basis. It’s also so that parishes do not have an indefinite burden of sharing their priests with the diocese,” Bishop-elect Lebhar said.
Presiding Bishop castigates critics of her heresy comments : CEN 9.04.09 p 7. September 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in 76th General Convention, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has castigated critiques of her July 7 heresy sermon, saying her claim that it was heretical to believe that individual believers can find salvation through Jesus Christ, had been misconstrued. Salvation “depends on love of God and our relationship with Jesus,” and is made manifest by right conduct, the presiding bishop said last week in defense of her views. However, evangelical critics of the presiding bishop note her explanations fall short, as “we are not justified by love, but rather justified by faith,” the Rev Mark Thompson, Head of Theology at Moore College in Sydney tells Religious Intelligence. |
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In her opening remarks to the Episcopal Church’s triennial synod, the Presiding Bishop stated the “crises” facing the church arose from the “great Western heresy that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God.”
This belief was “caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. This “individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of all being.”
Critics dismissed the Presiding Bishop’s remarks as theologically ill-informed and as a mean spirited attack on conservative evangelicals. On Aug 27 the presiding bishop responded to these charges in an essay published by the church’s in-house media arm, Episcopal Life.
Bishop Jefferts Schori stated there had been “varied reactions from people who weren’t there, who heard or read an isolated comment without the context. Apparently I wasn’t clear!”
Individualism, she argued, was “basically unbiblical and unchristian” as the “spiritual journey” according to “the Judeo-Christian tradition” was about “holy living in community.”
“If salvation is understood only as ‘getting right with God’ without considering ‘getting right with (all) our neighbors,’ then we’ve got a heresy (an unorthodox belief) on our hands,” she argued, adding that “salvation depends on love of God and our relationship with Jesus, and we give evidence of our relationship with God in how we treat our neighbors.”
“Salvation cannot be complete, in an eternal and eschatological sense, until the whole of creation is restored to right relationship,” Bishop Jefferts Schori concluded.
While the Presiding Bishop’s explanation of her July remarks “does properly emphasize some fundamental truths that Christians affirm,” her argument was incomplete, the Rev Ephraim Radner, Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College in Toronto told Religious Intelligence.
Dr Radner noted that presiding bishop did not address her claim that it was “heresy” to claim “we can be saved as individuals”.
“God does save us as ‘individuals’, as particular beings; and he creates us as such. We are created with and resurrected with particular bodies and beings and souls. This is a bedrock Christian conviction,” he said.
Bishop Jefferts Schori’s claim that salvation “depends” on our doing certain things, such as loving God or treating others justly are “clearly false according to Christian teaching, Dr Radner added, for “salvation ‘depends’ on only one thing, the grace of God in Christ Jesus.”
While Dr Radner noted the presiding bishop does concede this point in the close of her letter, that salvation is “ultimately the gift of a good and gracious God, not the product of our incessant striving,” her demonization of evangelicals was unwise. “It would have been helpful in her “clarification” if she had tried a little harder to exhibit some appreciation of the theological traditions that have in fact sought to maintain a clear sense of divine grace, having earlier and unjustly vilified them,” he said.
Dr. Thompson told us the presiding bishop “still does not seem to get the point that the Bible is concerned about both personal salvation and the relationships in which we operate as Christians, with each other and with the world. It is always wrong to pit one against the other, from either direction.”
Bishop Jefferts Schori “continues to caricature evangelical teaching. There is no one that I know of or have read who claims that reciting a simple formula about Jesus guarantees one’s salvation,” Dr Thompson said. Faith was not a mantra of repeated words, but the “wholehearted trust in the person of the Son of God who gave himself for our sins and this trust binds us in relationship with others God has called to himself.
He added that the presiding bishop’s “continued theological confusion is evident when she says that ‘salvation depends on love of God and our relationship with Jesus’. More care with the Bible and more intimate knowledge of the theological tradition would have enabled her to see this as a seriously flawed statement.”
“Our salvation depends on what Jesus had done in his death and resurrection,” Dr Thompson said, as “our appropriate response is to trust him and that trust flows out into our relationships with one another as love.”
It was “perfectly reasonable to complain when others deliberately twist what you are saying,” he said. However, in the presiding bishop’s case “the confusion has been caused by her own failure to confess the teaching of Scripture with clarity and her own ignorance of Christian theology.”
New Zealand refuses to overturn ‘smacking’ ban: CEN 9.04.09 p 8. September 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper, Youth/Children.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A referendum to overturn a 2007 law criminalizing corporal punishment has won the support of an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders, however Prime Minister John Key stated his government will not change the current laws that allow police to arrest parents for “smacking” their children. The leaders of the Anglican and Methodist churches in New Zealand had urged voters to support the current laws, while the Roman Catholic aid agency Caritas also urged a “yes” vote on the Aug 21 referendum, saying the current law was working. |
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However, following a three-week postal ballot that saw 54 per cent of eligible voters participate, only 11.81 per cent of voters followed the advice of the country’s mainstream church leaders, with 87.6 per cent of voters, 1.42 million people, responding “No” to the question: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”
Opponents of the 2007 law claimed the corporal punishment ban improperly insinuated the state into an area of responsibility reserved for the family. The current law forbids parents from using force to discipline their children but gives police the discretion not to prosecute complaints “where the offence is considered so inconsequential there is no public interest in proceeding with a prosecution.”
On Aug 23 the Dean of Auckland’s Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the Very Rev Ross Bay said those who turned to the Old Testament to support corporal punishment were ill-informed. He disputed the contention that the Bible grants parents the right to exercise unfettered control over their children and that it is a “God-given right to use corporal punishment in the discipline of their children.”
The “Christian image of God is what we find in the New Testament of the Bible, and is the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ,” he said, noting “this is the God who does not wield power to force human beings to conform to divine purposes.”
The Old Testament “approach founded in the ancient proverb of ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’” had “too often been characterised as ‘the’ Christian view,” he argued, urging Christian parents to model their behaviour on the image of the God of love and mercy revealed in Jesus Christ.
The current law was working, Dean Bay said, urging the government to stay the course.
However “No” campaigners have disputed their opponents’ contentions claiming there had been six prosecutions of “good parents” in the courts for smacking their children. Family First director Bob McCoskrie said the “evidence is there” the law is not working.
“We’ve sent evidence of families being referred to Child Youth and Family and children being removed while investigations are taking place just for smacks. “In fact, there’s a case today in the Lower Hutt District Court of a father trying to get his son on to the rugby field and giving him a few shoves and he’s being prosecuted for common assault.”
Kiwi Party leader and “No” campaigner Larry Baldock said the vote sent a clear message to the Prime Minster. “They want the authority back in the home and he is foolish to suggest this law is working,” he said.
Church urges university lecturers to end strike: CEN 8.28.09 p 6. September 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Nigeria have urged the country’s University lecturers to end their two-month strike and return to the classroom, but have also urged the government to negotiate in good faith with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and address the ‘sorry state’ of Nigerian higher education. In June the ASUU declared a nationwide industrial action, demanding the government implement a 2008 agreement reached by the Ministry of Education and the ASUU to raise teacher salaries and increase education spending to 25 per cent of government spending. |
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Four of the past 10 university academic years have been suspended due to industrial actions in the Federal and State university systems. During the 2007 general election the universities were closed by an ASUU strike, which ended after the union agreed to give incoming President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration a chance to honour its election pledges to address university over-crowding, crumbling infrastructures and declining academic standards.
Negotiations between the ASUU and the Department of Education reached a tentative agreement last year, but the Federal government has so far failed to honour its provisions.
The Bishop of Okigwe, Dr Edward Osuegbu, told the Anglican Youth Fellowship Conference last week that some students, idled by the strike, had turned to crime.
“The protracted ASUU strike has sadly led some of the students to resort to crime, prostitution and kidnapping,” he said according to the Vanguard. However, the strike was also an opportunity for students to shed their “social vices” and recommit themselves as “only those who look unto Jesus Christ would survive in times of trouble,” Dr Osuegbu said.
Bishop Friday John Imaekhai of Esan told the Sunday Observer that strikes were an inevitable consequence of government education policies that were imposed without consultation with the unions, urging the ASUU to return to the classroom and for the government to negotiate in good faith.
Nigeria’s endemic corruption played its part in the education mess, the Rt Rev Jonson Atere, Bishop of Awori told the Sunday Tribune. While Nigeria was a resource rich country, little of the nation’s wealth seemed to flow to its people, he said. The bishop urged the ASUU to return to the classroom, but for the government also to invest in the nation’s future by funding the universities system.
Gay question threatening Scottish church unity: CEN 8.28.09 p 5 September 2, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The question of gay clergy threatens to tear Anglicans in Scotland apart, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC), Bishop David Chillingworth, has warned. In an interview published Aug 21 in the Scotsman, Bishop Chillingworth said the gay clergy question was “an issue that has been threatening to tear us apart, and many of us live across a spectrum in which out of one side of our minds we can say there is a justice and inclusion issue here, and out of the other there is a dialogue that needs to go on with the traditional teaching of the Church and what the Bible says. |
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“You can’t wish either of those away. You have to deal with both,” he said. The Primus’ comments come as a push is underway from within the liberal wing of the Scottish church to end its ban on gay bishops and blessings, and in the wake of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement that gay clergy were outside the bounds of Anglicanism.
The current stance of the bishops of the SEC is to uphold the moratoria on gay bishops and blessings. On March 23 the former Primus, Bishop Idris Jones of Glasgow and Galloway said the Scottish College of Bishops would refrain from authorizing rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and not permit the consecration of a non-celibate gay bishop.
The bishops said “that, for the time being, all who have responsibility within the process of the election of any new diocesan bishop should seek to act within the spirit of the requested moratorium,” and that “at the current time, members of the College remain of the view that it would, certainly be premature, and some would say wrong, to authorize a rite for [same-sex] blessings.”
However one of the SEC’s leading gay clergymen, the Provost of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth last month called for the church and state to give same-sex couples equal access to marriage and to welcome gay clergy.
“Civil partnerships contain many of the same rights and privileges as marriage, but they are not the same. You can’t celebrate a civil partnership in a church and if I tried to I’d be breaking the law,” he said, adding that he wanted “every gay couple to be able to walk down the street” or “down the aisle holding hands if they want to.”
“I don’t know how long it will take before clergy can have a same-sex marriage ceremony that is acknowledged by the whole church, but I do believe it is far more likely to happen in Scotland rather than England” Dean Holdsworth told the Scotsman, adding that “in some ways Scotland is a more grown-up society than England.”
The question of the morality of homosexuality was for many Christians a “fundamental truth” not amenable to compromise Bishop Chillingworth said. On July 27 Dr Rowan Williams said the homosexual or unchaste heterosexual “chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”
The SEC was “trying to live with as much diversity as you can tolerate and hope the nature of the debate will change” and that in time the hard feelings on either side of the debate would soften, Bishop Chillingworth said.
