Canadian Synod to offer product placement to corporate sponsors: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 6. April 30, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Product placement and corporate sponsorships have come to the Anglican Church of Canada. Under a scheme announced last week corporations are being invited to display their logos and distribute advertising materials for a fee at the church’s General Synod.
The top spot, for a “visionary” sponsor includes a private lunch with Archbishop of Canada Fred Hiltz, a “passport” to Synod for two, “branding opportunities” with “visionary level signage” throughout the conference including an hour’s advertising over the course of the convention’s video streaming and “company logo flags prominently displayed on every dining hall table.”
All this can by yours at the June 3-11 General Synod at St. Mary’s University in Halifax for only £20,000.
Three “supporter” tier sponsors will get a half-page advertisement in the synod directory, signage throughout the convention space, web-cast commercials and a “passport” to Synod for one, for only £5000, while “friends,” valued at £1650 will see their company’s name printed in Acts of Faith, the church’s gift guide.
“This event not only presents an opportunity for you to get your message out to delegates from across Canada, and it is also an opportunity for you to support a faithful group of community and not-for- profit leaders from across the country and their guests from around the world,” Archbishop Hiltz said.
The investment was worthwhile, he noted as the “delegates to General Synod are some of the most committed, dedicated and tireless volunteers in our country.”
The March 31 circular and letter from Archbishop Hiltz said the synod agenda would be “timely, relevant and important and includes debates, resolutions and presentations on major global issues such as poverty, human sexuality, the rights of indigenous peoples and the care of the environment.”
The Anglican Church of Canada has seen a precipitous decline in attendance and giving over the past quarter century. In November the Council of General Synod approved a £6.5 million budget that included an estimated £320,000 deficit. Expenses have exceeded income for the past ten years, however the Synod has pledged to eliminate deficits by 2012 and has cut costs and is seeking novel methods of raising income to support the national church’s operations.
Mugabe calls upon Anglicans to end “un-Christian” land dispute: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 8. April 30, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
President Robert Mugabe speaking on April 18 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Robert Mugabe has condemned the violent dispute between Dr. Nolbert Kunonga and the Church of the Province of Central Africa, urging church leaders to end the “un-Christian” split that has embarrassed the nation.
In a speech on April 18 at the National Sports Stadium in Harare marking the 30th anniversary of black majority rule, President Mugabe condemned Britain, the US, Germany and other western countries for imposing economic sanctions. He also denounced the political, religious and criminal violence plaguing his country.
However, the president’s peace plea is not expected to halt the breakdown of law and order in Zimbabwe, as Robert Mugabe has made similar pleas in the past, and then has unleashed the security services on his political opponents in violent campaigns of repression.
A political ally of the Zimbabwean-strongman, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga’s hold on church property in Harare rests solely upon the armed might of the police. Attracting less than ten per cent of Anglican worshippers to his breakaway Anglican Church of Zimbabwe, Dr. Kunonga has been propped up by the police, who have ignored orders from the country’s courts and the Minister for Home Affairs to back off from the dispute.
“As Zimbabweans, we need to foster an environment of tolerance and treat each other with dignity and respect irrespective of age, gender, race, ethnicity, tribe, political or religious affiliation,” President Mugabe told the crowd in the newly rebuilt stadium—a gift to the regime from the Chinese government.
“Your leadership in the inclusive Government urges you to desist from any acts of violence that will cause harm to others and becomes a blight on our society,” he said.
Mr. Mugabe chastised Dr. Kunonga and the Bishop of Harare Dr. Chad Gandiya for fighting for control of church property in the city, saying their behaviour was un-Christian. He also called for an end to domestic violence, urging men to stop abusing their wives and girlfriends.
Bishops to lose the vote in a reformed House of Lords: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 4. April 30, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, House of Lords, Politics.comments closed
Justice Minister Jack Straw
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Bishops will have a voice but no vote in a reformed House of Lords, a leaked government paper has proposed.
The number of bishops in the reformed second chamber will be cut from 26 to 12, Justice Minister Jack Straw has proposed according to extracts of the report published by the Guardian on April 19.
If Labour, or Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition government takes power after the May General Election, the proposed reforms will see the first substantive change in the membership and authority of the “Lords Spiritual” in almost 500 years.
Throughout its history the Lords Spiritual have had voice and vote. However, under Jack Straw’s plan the “Lords Spiritual who remain in the House after the end of the transitional period will have speaking rights, and will be able to vote on Church legislation but not on other legislation.”
The proposed reformed second chamber would have 300-seats. Its members would be elected by an open list, proportional system designed to ensure “no single party should dominate the second chamber and members should be able to bring independence of judgment to their work”.
The transition from the current House of Lords to an elected reformed second chamber “would not take place in one step, but in three stages over three elections,” the paper said.
“The government proposes that in the parliament of the second stage (when two-thirds of members of the second chamber will have been elected) there should be a review of the final stage in order to provide parliament with the opportunity to consider and ratify the removal of the last appointed element from the second chamber.”
The number of bishops seated in the reformed second chamber would be reduced over the next three Parliaments. “Up to 14 of those 21 who are in the House of Lords at dissolution immediately before the first second chamber elections may be selected to remain as Lords Spiritual in the first transitional period. At the time of the second election up to 7 of these Bishops may be selected to remain as Lords Spiritual in the second (and final) period of transition,” the paper said. Five of the 12 seats will be set aside by right for the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester.
The loss of voting rights would occur after the transition had been completed the paper said.
The Lords Spiritual “have always held a special and different position in the House of Lords,” the paper said. “They do not sit for life, but only for their period as a Bishop or Archbishop of their diocese,” and “they sit as independent members of the Lords where they are widely regarded as representatives of the Church of England.”
However, Lords reform was not a stalking horse for disestablishment of the Church of England, the government said.
“The Government is and remains committed to the establishment of the Church of England, with the Sovereign as its Supreme Governor, and the relationship between Church and State. None of these reforms should or are meant to diminish establishment. The Established Church has for centuries played a seminal role in our national life and has played a major part in helping to shape the constitutional, legal and social fabric of the nation.”
However, the “nature of Establishment has changed down the years to reflect changing
circumstances, but a presence in the Lords has been a constant manifestation. Bringing this to an end would therefore herald a significant change to a constitutional arrangement that binds Monarchy, Church and State together in a variety of ways. These include the fact that the Church of England’s own legislation is subject to Parliamentary scrutiny, and it is the Bishops who speak to that legislation in the House of Lords.”
The “continued role of the Church would be guaranteed” in “commenting on legislative proposals” the Labour government said.
The rules governing the conduct of the Lords Spiritual would be controled by the Church of England, and not by Parliament. However, bishops could be expelled from the House for treason or mental illness.
Prior to the dissolution of England’s monasteries by Henry VII, abbots and bishops comprised the Lords Spiritual and were a majority of members of the House of Lords. Following Henry’s reforms and his creation of new dioceses, the number of Lords Spiritual in Parliament was fixed at the number of Bishops of the Church of England: 26.
Following the Act of Union in 1801 with the Church of Ireland, four Irish bishops were entitled to a seat in the House of Lords at any one time. However, with its disestablishment in 1871 these seats were eliminated.
Although new dioceses were created following the passage of the Diocese of Manchester Act in 1844, the number of Lord Spiritual was fixed at 26, with places allotted by seniority. The Bishoprics Act of 1878 refined the Lords Spiritual further, giving the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester a seat as of right. The disestablishment of the Church in Wales in 1920, removed its bishops from consideration for a place in the Lords.
Once the transition is completed, the seven open seats while be filled by the Church of England. “Those appointed to the fully reformed chamber or as replacements during the transitional periods may be selected freely from the bishops of dioceses in England,” the government said.
The new Lords Spiritual would “not be entitled to a salary or pension in the reformed second chamber,” and would be “exempt from the attendance requirement.” However, they would be permitted to “claim allowances” for expenses in attending Parliament the document said.
Ottawa pedophile arrest: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 6. April 29, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Anglican Church of Canada, Abuse.comments closed
John Gallienne (in red) with members of the St John the Evangelist Church choir in Ottawa
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The choirmaster at the center of one of the most notorious cases of pedophilia in the Anglican Church of Canada has been re-arrested by police in Kingston, Ontario and is being held on charges of indecent assault.
John Gallienne, (65), of Ottawa was arrested on April 16 for allegedly assaulting a boy between 1980 and 1982. The former choirmaster at St. George’s Cathedral in Kingston, Gallienne pleaded guilty in 1990 to 20 sex crimes against 13 choirboys from the church. Two of his victims later committed suicide.
In an account of the Gallienne case, author Judy Steed wrote in Our Little Secret: Confronting Child Sexual Abuse in Canada, in a chapter entitled, “Kingston: Corruption in the Cathedral” that Gallienne was popular and well-respected member of the Cathedral staff.
She reported that two years after the Cathedral engaged Gallienne, in 1976 Henrik Helmers quit the boys’ choir, telling his parents he had been molested. Helmers took his life a few months later. Helmer’s parents informed the Cathedral of the charges, and were assured Gallienne would be watched.
In 1985 Gallienne molested a choir boy on a trip. The boy told someone outside the church, who informed the police. Gallienne confessed to the assault but expressed remorse for his actions and was allowed to seek counseling for what the dean said was “a one-time thing.”
In 1987 Tim Franks, who had been molested by Gallienne, went to the police about his abuse. Franks latter committed suicide, and Steed noted that Gallienne led the choir for the funeral service.
Gallienne was released from prison in 1994 after serving four years of a six-year sentence. The Diocese of Ontario and the cathedral reached an out of court settlement in 1995 with 11 of the victims and agreed to pay £1.4 million. In 1994, Gallienne was convicted of abusing a choirboy at St. John’s Anglican Church in Victoria, B.C., where served as choirmaster in the early 1970’s.
Shortly before his release from prison, the Bishop of Kingston, the Rt. Rev. Peter Mason visited Gallienne and formally notified him that he was banned from serving in a leadership position in the diocese or participating in a church music programme. When Gallienne moved to Ottawa on his release, Bishop Mason told the Kingston Whig-Standard Bishop John Baycroft of Ottawa had extended the ban on Gallienne to his diocese as well.
“Leadership is not a right, it’s a privilege,” Bishop Mason said. “John Gallienne can belong to a church. He can get up on a Sunday morning. He can go to church. He can pray to God. He can participate in the life of the church as a member. He can belong to a Bible study.”
“But as for leadership, particularly leadership where he can exercise leadership over people and potentially take advantage of them, that is not a right, that is a privilege and the two are completely different,” he said.
However, in 2004 the Kingston Whig-Standard reported the Diocese of Ottawa had lifted the ban, and Gallienne was active in the music ministry of St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Ottawa. The parish website stated it was “blessed with the talents of John Gallienne as assistant organist.”
In a statement given to The Church of England Newspaper, a spokesman for the Diocese of Ottawa said that in 2004 the Bishop Peter Coffin conferred with his chancellor and agreed to allow Gallienne to participate in the music ministry of St John the Evangelist Church, but “we tightened the leash.”
In addition, “St. John’s operates Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) in which teams of volunteers work with released sex offenders. Gallienne was a member of one of those circles,” the diocese said.
The diocese weighed the risks of Gallienne’s reoffending, noting “these circles are funded by the Correctional Services of Canada chaplaincy branch and studies show that sex offenders who participate in COSA have significantly lower rates of reoffending than those who do not participate,” the spokesman said.
“The current charge that Gallienne faces is said to have occurred 30 years ago and, as The Ottawa Citizen reported today, there is no indication that Gallienne has broken the law since his release from jail 16 years ago,” the diocesan spokesman said.
The parish website currently notes that Gallienne “is our endlessly patient leader” of its recorder ensemble.
A Canadian study published in October 2009 in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology found that the recidivism rate for sexual crimes for pedophiles was 22.8 per cent, for violent crimes 33.9 per cent, and for all crimes 45.6 per cent, while a 1993 American study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found that 42 per cent of offenders committed a subsequent sex crime or violent crime.
Angry Anglicans chase vicar from pulpit: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 8. April 29, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Poor preaching has led a South African congregation to chase its vicar from the pulpit on Sunday, forcing the Rev. Warren Bada to flee from the wrath of angry Anglicans.
On April 18, police were called out to St Andrew’s Church in Mdantsane in the Diocese of Grahamstown when displeasure with Mr. Bada brought a swift end to the morning Eucharist.
According to a report printed in the Dispatch newspaper, Mr. Bada, who started at St Andrew’s in December, told his parishioners they must pledge R70 (£6)per year to be considered a member of the parish. Those who did not pledge would not be allowed to receive the Eucharist he is alleged to have said.
Disgruntled members of the congregation have accused their vicar of tyranny, while parish secretary Nolundi Vangani said Mr. Bada used rude language during services to quiet talking teenagers.
Matters reached a head on Sunday, when 100 parishioners protested during the service, forcing Mr. Bada to flee. They followed him out the door and down the road, shouting, Hamba Bada, hamba (Go, Bada, go).
The police were called, but left after finding there were no threats of violence. The vicar has declined comment on the incident, and the matter is understood to have been forwarded to the Bishop of Grahamstown for resolution.
Dr Williams’ plea for patience falls on deaf ears in Singapore: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 7. April 29, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Global South.comments closed
Dr. Rowan Williams addressed the 4th South to South conference in Singapore on April 20 via video
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged patience and forbearance upon church leaders attending the Fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore, asking them not to take any hasty decisions over the future of the Anglican Communion.
However, the reception accorded Dr. Rowan Williams’ pleas for restraint from the leaders of the Evangelical wing of the Communion was muted, with no applause or outward show of appreciation from the delegates at the close of his address. For most of those present, his words were too little, too late.
Delegates tell The Church of England Newspaper that Dr. Williams has exhausted his political and personal capital with the overseas church in the wake of successive disappointments in his leadership over the past few years. While the Global South continues to honour the office, Dr. Williams’ stock has reached a nadir with many of those present.
In a video address broadcast on April 20 at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore to the 150 archbishops, bishops, clergy and lay leaders gathered from 20 provinces of the Communion, Dr. Williams conceded that the American and Canadian churches were a source of turmoil within the Communion.
There was “tension within our Anglican family – a brokenness and a tension that has been made still more acute by recent decisions in some of our Provinces,” he said, adding that the “election and consecration of Mary Glasspool in Los Angeles” was of concern.
“All of us share the concern that in this decision and action the Episcopal Church has deepened the divide between itself and the rest of the Anglican family,” he said.
There would be action, he said, stating “and as I speak to you now, I am in discussion with a number of people around the world about what consequences might follow from that decision, and how we express the sense that most Anglicans will want to express, that this decision cannot speak for our common mind.”
However, he urged the Global South leader to stay on-side and proceed with caution. “But I hope also in your thinking about this and in your reacting to it, you’ll bear in mind that there are no quick solutions for the wounds of the Body of Christ,” he said.
“It is the work of the Spirit that heals the Body of Christ, not the plans or the statements of any group, or any person, or any instrument of communion.”
“Naturally we seek to minimize the damage, to heal the hurts, to strengthen our mission, to make sure that it goes forward with integrity and conviction. Naturally, there are decisions that have to be taken,” he said, adding that “we must all share in a sense of repentance and willingness to be renewed by the Spirit.”
Dr. Williams urged those present to endorse and participate in the Anglican Covenant process, arguing that it was the best way forward under the current circumstances.
Supporters of the archbishop’s approach in Singapore understood him to say that patience was not an absence of a response. Time would allow the American Church to come to its own decision that it did not want to be part of the Anglican Communion, one bishop explained in an email to CEN.
However, other leaders, including former Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola, told the conference that the time for talk was done, and action was needed now to ensure the communion’s survival.
A participant in the Third South to South Conference in Egypt in 2005, Dr. Williams had been expected to attend the Singapore meeting. However, last month his office informed the planning committee that he would not be attending the meeting do to calendar conflicts. Were he free to attend, however, Dr. Williams would have missed the first three days of the five day gathering due the fallout from the Iceland volcano. Uganda’s Archbishop Henry Orombi, one of the key speakers and organizers of the meeting, is not present at the meeting as he was in London when the volcano’s ash closed British airspace.
Christians and Communists rally for Dalit rights in India: The Church of England Newspaper, April 23, 2010 p 8. April 28, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Politics.comments closed
Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church and Communist Party leaders shared a platform in India last week, calling upon the Union government to end caste discrimination against Christians and Muslims.
On April 14, Christian Dalits (untouchables) gathered in Tirunelveli in Southern India’s Tamil Nadu state to rally for equal protection under the law. The Church of South India’s Bishop in Turnelveli, the Rt. Rev. J.J. Christudoss along with the city’s Catholic bishop Msgr. Jude Paulraj called upon the Indian government to accept the recommendations of the Ranganath Misra Commission and end government sanctioned discrimination against Christians.
In 2004 the Indian government’s ministry for minorities commissioned a study on the plight of Christian and Muslim Dalits. In 2007 the Ranganath Mishra Commission submitted its findings and recommended extending employment and education quotas set aside for Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist Dalits to Christian and Muslim Dalits.
However, the BJP and other Hindu political parties have blocked the release of the report, which calls for a 15 per cent quota for government jobs and university placements for Dalits. The Indian Constitution calls for government quotas for members of Scheduled Castes, the official name for Dalits, but has excluded Christians and Muslims because those religions reject the caste system.
The Ranganath Mishra Commission concluded that the exclusion of Christian and Muslim Dalits from the statutory benefits was religious discrimination.
At last week’s rally, Brinda Karat, a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo and member of India’s Parliament from West Bengal told the Christian rally the Party supported their demands for equal treatment. She called for state wide Dalit protests on May 6 and applauded Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi for backing the call for equality. Mrs. Karat urged Christians and Communists to form a united political front and work together to end injustice and social inequality in India.
Push in US for third ‘gay’ bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 7. April 23, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Anglican Church of Canada, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Southern Ohio, Utah.comments closed
Bishop Thomas Breidenthal of Southern Ohio waiting to address the House of Bishops
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The ‘gay agenda’ in the US and Canada continues to pick up steam, as approval for gay blessings spreads and another diocese shortlists a gay priest to stand for election as bishop.
At its 93rd annual synod the Diocese of British Columbia adopted a resolution authorizing same-sex blessings. While the focus of last month’s meeting was on closing 19 of its 52 congregations in response to a drastic decline in membership, the synod also approved a motion requesting Bishop James Cowan “grant permission for clergy whose conscience permits to bless duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-sex couples, where one party is baptized,” and further asked him to authorize rites for gay marriage.
Last month’s vote reverses the decision taken at the 2008 British Columbia synod not to “entertain motions related to the approval of same-sex unions until the matter has been considered and decided upon by General Synod.” The Canadian General Synod is expected to take up the matter at its June meeting in Halifax.
On April 10, the Diocese of Southern Ohio celebrated its first official same-sex blessing, when Michael Harbin (56) and Warren MacPherson (59) exchanged vows at St. Stephen’s Episcopal
The next day two women exchanged vows at Church of Our Saviour in Cincinnati. For the Church of Our Saviour congregation, where the two women are “a wonderful presence and a blessing to the community” because of their active involvement and ministries, the blessing was a time of great joy and celebration, said the Rev. Paula Jackson, rector, who officiated at the Spanish-English bilingual service.
“It was an evangelical moment,” the Rev. Paula Jackson told the Episcopal News Service. The two women were “deeply moved by the blessing. They are people who believe in God but who have been hurt by the church and who are not in church. But they were grateful that the Episcopal Church recognized and blessed godly unions.”
At the diocese’s November convention the Rt. Rev. Thomas Breidenthal announced he would lift the ban on same-sex blessings after Easter. The bishop told the convention that the decision by General Convention last July to lift the ban on same-sex blessings and gay clergy permitted the diocese to proceed.
On April 9 the Diocese of Utah announced that four candidates had been short listed to stand for election as bishop on May 22. Among the four is Canon Michael Barlowe, canon for congregational ministries of the Diocese of California.
A partnered gay priest, Canon Barlowe has had two previous runs for episcopal office in the dioceses of Newark and California. If elected, he would be the church’s third openly gay bishop.
Concerns over the fallout of electing further gay bishops in contravention to the requests of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primates, and the Anglican Consultative Council is slight among American church leaders.
At a press conference held at the close of last month’s House of Bishops meeting in Texas, The Church of England Newspaper asked whether the bishops had discussed the election of Canon Mary Glasspool as suffragan bishop of Los Angeles, or the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letter warning of consequences for this action.
The Rt. Rev. Kenneth Price, interim Bishop of Pittsburgh, said there had been no discussion, as this had not been on the agenda and had “not come up” in the bishops’ conversations.
Bermuda meeting for Gafcon primates: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 7. April 23, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON, Global South.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Anglicanism isn’t working, the leaders of the Gafcon movement said last week at the close of the Primates Council of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (GAFCON/FCA).
Meeting from April 5-9 in Bermuda, the Archbishops of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Southern Cone, Sydney, Tanzania, West Africa as well as Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America and a representative bishop from the Church of Uganda released a statement of highlighting their concern with the direction taken by the Archbishop of Canterbury in resolving the splits within the Communion.
“We recognise that the current strategy in the Anglican Communion to strengthen structures by committee and commission has proved ineffective. Indeed we believe that the current structures have lost integrity and relevance.”
The way forward for Anglicanism was to pursue a “theologically grounded, biblically shaped reformation such as the one called for by the Jerusalem Declaration that God’s Kingdom will advance. The Anglican Communion will only be able to fulfill its gospel mandate if it understands itself to be a community gathered around a confession of faith rather than an organization that has its primary focus on institutional loyalty.”
The meeting discussed common areas of interest concerning Christian education, mission and evangelism, and also discussed the rise of persecution faced by many Christians. “We are mindful of those who live with the threat of violence because of their Christian faith, such
as Nigeria, Iraq and Sudan,” and noted that in a “number of nations, such as Kenya, Uganda and now the United Kingdom” the voice and views of Christians were “marginalized or ignored. We stand with all those in such circumstances and assure them of our continued prayers,” they said.
The primates also observed the election of a partnered lesbian priest as suffragan bishop of Los Angeles had made “clear to all” the Episcopal Church was not serious about being part of the Communion and had “formally committed itself to a pattern of life which is contrary to Scripture.”
The election of Mary Glasspool ended “any pretence that there has been a season of gracious restraint,” they said, urging “all orthodox biblical Anglicans, both in the USA and around the world, to demonstrate a clear and unambiguous stand for the historic faith and their refusal to participate in the direction and unbiblical practice and agenda” of the Episcopal Church.
The primates thanked Archbishop Peter Akinola for his leadership of the Gafcon movement and wished him well in retirement. The Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina was elected chairman of the primates’ council, and Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and Eliud Wabukala of Kenya were elected as vice-chairmen. The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Peter Jensen continues as General Secretary.
Church-wide census begins in India: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 8. April 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India.comments closed
Indian President Pratibha Patil
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of North India has initiated a church-wide census, conducting the first formal count of communicants and members in its 40 year history.
The church’s census, which began on Feb 15 and is scheduled to conclude on Oct 15, with the results released in time for the church’s anniversary celebrations on Nov 29, is being conducted alongside India’s national census.
On April 1 Indian President Pratibha Patil completed the first national census form. The Union Government has hired 2.5 million officials who are tasked with visiting every household in the country of 1.2 billion people. The census will be conducted in two parts.
The first round will gather data on each household, and the second round will collect individual demographic information on age, sex, place of birth, marital status, education, family history, language, religion, literacy, and employment.
Christian leaders have expressed concerns over the reliability of past census results. In 2001 the government’s census reported there were over 24 million Christians in India. However, that same year the Roman Catholic Church claimed 17 million members, while the National Council of Churches in India, an association of the country’s 29 mainline Protestant and Orthodox Church groups, claimed 13 million members.
Church leaders believe that many Dalit Christians will tell the government that they are Hindus. 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, scheduled caste privileges are meant only for Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists, but not Christians or Muslims.
The majority of Indian Christians come from the scheduled castes, and church officials fear the current laws give an incentive for underreporting the strength of Christianity in India. The 2001 census found that Hindus comprise 80.5 per cent of the Indian population, Muslims 13.4 per cent, Christians 2.3 per cent, Sikhs 1.9 per cent, Buddhists 0.8 per cent and Jains 0.4 per cent.
“The first phase of the census covers only the household questions,” the General Secretary of the CNI synod the Rev. Enos Das Pradhan told UCA news, adding that church leaders were concerned with how the second stage of the census would be conducted.
Each of the CNI’s 27 dioceses is responsible for collecting data and forwarding it to the synod offices in New Delhi for the CNI’s census. “Through this exercise, we will come to know what kind of people we have,” Mr. Das Pradhan said, adding that “we want to know about our size and situation in the 40th year of our journey.”
Having hard numbers of its own membership will also assist the church in pressing the claims of Dalit Christians for equal treatment under the government’s scheduled caste programmes, Indian sources tell The Church of England Newspaper.
Bishop fined £25 for drink-driving: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 8. April 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Melanesia, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Charles Koete of the Central Solomon Islands
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Melanesian bishop has been fined £25 and bound over to keep the peace after a magistrate found him guilty of driving while intoxicated.
Whilst driving home from a New Years day party, the Rt. Rev. Charles Koete, Bishop of the Central Solomon Islands drove his truck into the ocean. After being pulled from the sea, the bishop was charged with driving under the influence and driving without a licence.
At a hearing before the Tulagi Magistrates Court last month, the police presented evidence that the Bishop, his son, and a group of friends were celebrating New Years day with a party at the bishop’s home.
When the alcohol ran out, the bishop’s son offered to purchase more. The bishop declined this suggestion, believing his son was intoxicated. Other guests at the party attempted to dissuade the him, but Bishop Koete insisted that he was capable of driving to the store.
Whilst driving back from the liquor store, the court heard evidence that the bishop’s pickup truck weaved from side to side on the road. He failed to navigate a curve and ended up in the sea.
The bishop pled guilty as charged, however the court discharged Bishop Koete with a fine and a warning. The magistrate stated he was inclined towards leniency as the bishop had admitted his mistake, now possessed a driver’s licence, and was a clergyman.
The Solomon Star newspaper reported the bishop has the option of spending 30 days in jail if he declines to pay the fine.
American arrogance leads to schism with African church, archbishop says: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 8. April 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean.comments closed
Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Indian Ocean
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Province of the Indian Ocean has broken with the Episcopal Church (TEC) and the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) in the wake of the affirmation of the election of a lesbian priest as suffragan bishop of Los Angeles.
In a letter dated April 12, Archbishop Ian Ernest, the Bishop of Mauritius and Chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) told the Archbishop of Canterbury that he would “forthwith suspend all communication both verbal and sacramental with both the TEC and the ACC – their Primates, bishops and clergy until such time as they reverse their theological innovations, and show a commitment to abide by the decisions of the Lambeth Conference.”
The decision by Archbishop Ernest to break with the US and Canadian churches represents a significant shift within the political calculus of the primates. Last week’s letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the Archbishop of Uganda, while expressing similar exasperation with the US church, reiterated Uganda’s long-standing concerns.
Archbishop Ernest, however, had served as a bridge from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the African primates, and he had held back from confronting the North American churches in response to Dr. Williams’ pleas. With his defection to the anti-American camp, Dr. Williams has suffered a significant setback in his bid to keep the Global South churches on-side while he attempts to broker a solution to the American crisis.
It was the arrogance of the Episcopal Church as displayed in Presiding Bishop Katharine Jeffert Schori’s March letter to the primates that pushed him over the edge, Archbishop Ernest said.
Addressing Dr. Williams, he wrote, “you have yourself been amazingly patient with TEC, we as Primates have made our position abundantly clear on occasions without number, some of us going so far as to declare broken or impaired communion with both the TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada. This it seems has been to no avail, as the recent letter to the Primates from the Presiding Bishop of TEC makes clear that a deliberate course has been irrevocably chosen by that church.”
Bishop Jeffert Schori’s letter stated it was TEC’s “intention to proceed with the consecration of a second person living in an actively homosexual partnered relationship and thereby to disregard the mind of the rest of the Communion.”
The break with TEC and the ACC was not complete, however, as the Indian Ocean would remain in fellowship with those Anglicans who had disavowed the North American rejection of “gracious restraint.”
The archbishop also backed the call by the Primates of Uganda and the Middle East for an emergency primates meeting to respond to the Glasspool election. He further endorsed their request that the agenda for the meeting be distributed in advance and that the US and Canada not participate in the discussions over their place in the Communion.
The innovations of the past decade in the structures of the Anglican Communion were not working, he said. He asked for an “overhaul of the structures of the Communion to bring them into line with the changed demographics which are the reality of our church today. If over 80% of Anglicans live in the global south, why is this not reflected in communion structures?” he asked.
Archbishop Ernest supported Dr. Williams’ plans for an Anglican Covenant, but stated the “credibility of the structures which are meant to oversee the process needs to be addressed.”
Unless swift action was taken, Archbishop warned Dr. Williams the future would see “the Communion falling into deeper chaos and disintegration.”
Place justice over economics when voting, Welsh Bishops say: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 7. April 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishops of the Church in Wales have issued a pastoral letter urging its members to vote for candidates who support a progressive social agenda in the General Election.
“For Christians, voting at the time of elections is not only a privilege but a duty and we write to urge you to take this responsibility seriously,” the bishops said on April 6.
They urged voters to resist the “temptation” to “vote for the party that will best serve their own interest,” asking them instead to “focus on gospel values and consider the ‘common good’.”
Christians, they said, should strive to follow the example of Jesus and work towards supporting the “marginalised” and “strive to establish a more just society.”
The bishops called upon voters to consider issues “such as the sanctity of life, the care and sustainability of creation, freedom of belief, family life, child poverty, care of the elderly and building local communities” when voting on May 6.
“We urge you to pray for those who are standing for the General Election and where possible for churches to hold meetings to question candidates. Above all we urge you to use your vote; it can make a difference,” the bishops said.
Real IRA bombing will not stop the peace process say Irish bishops: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 6. April 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Terrorism.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Shaun Woodward.
The bombing of MI5’s Belfast headquarters by a republican terrorist group will not derail the Northern Ireland peace process, vowed church and government leaders.
In the early hours of April 12, a car bomb exploded outside the Holywood Barracks in Belfast, home to the Northern Ireland branch of Britain’s domestic security agency. The Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA), a paramilitary group that split off from the Provisional IRA in 1997, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Initial reports indicate RIRA terrorists kidnapped a taxi driver and holding his family at gun point, forced him to drive his bomb-laden car to the barracks located in a Belfast suburb. The attack damaged the exterior of the building, but caused no casualties.
The bombing appears timed to coincide with the devolution of police and justice powers to the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly at Stormont. On April 12 the Legislative Assembly assumed responsibility for policing, 38 years after Parliament assumed jurisdiction in the midst of the ‘Troubles’.
The Assembly also elected David Ford of the Alliance Party as justice minister. The Alliance Party, which draws support from both the Catholic and Protestant communities, had been excluded from government by the Unionist-Sinn Fein coalition government. However, Mr. Ford was chosen as a compromise candidate as neither of Ulster’s major parties were willing to see other have control over the police services and courts.
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Shaun Woodward MP stated the RIRA’s attempts to reignite sectarian tensions were doomed to failure. “Today Northern Ireland will complete devolution with the transfer of policing and justice powers,” said Mr. Woodward.
“That democratic transition stands in stark contrast to the activity of a criminal few who will not accept the will of the majority of people of Northern Ireland. They have no support anywhere,” he said.
The Rt. Rev. Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore noted the bombing was “shocking because no warning was given, and the lives of many people were put at risk.”
The attack, “timed to coincide with the day when Policing and Justice is devolved to Northern Ireland, reveals for all to see the barrenness of violence in our community,” he said.
The overwhelming majority in Northern Ireland were determined to “walk confidently into the future and to create a community of justice and wellbeing for all. That is the desire of all but the few dissidents and we will never allow them to deflect us from the ways of peace and prosperity,” Bishop Miller said.
Forgive but never forget, Rwandan bishops say on the 16th anniversary of the Genocide: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 6. April 21, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Rwanda, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop-elect Louis Muvunyi of Kigali and his wife, Winnie.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders across Rwanda have marked the 16th anniversary of the 1994 Genocide with a call to forgive, but never forget.
The Bishop-coadjutor of Kigali, the Rt. Rev. Louis Muvunyi urged his countrymen to seek the truth and support the investigations of the descent into murder and madness that nearly destroyed their country. But he urged them also to follow Christ and forgive. In the 100 days following the assassination of President Juvénal Habyarimana on April 6, 1994 an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered by militant Hutus.
Preaching to a congregation gathered on the shores of Lake Muhazi, the Tutsi bishop recounted how his three brothers were murdered on the second day of the Genocide by their Hutu neighbors and their bodies, and later the bodies of his parents, were dumped into the lake by their killers. “I only survived because I had gone to study in Tanzania. So, when I sit close to this lake, I try to come to terms with what happened,” the new bishop said on April 10.
He called upon Hutus and Tutsis to live in peace, to set aside hatreds and the desire for revenge and work together to build a new Rwanda. Elected by the Rwandan House of Bishops to succeed Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, Bishop-elect Muvunyi was archdeacon of Kigali and acting dean of the Kigali Anglican Theological College at the time of his election on March 27. The Primate of Rwanda, Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini will retire as Bishop of Kigali on his 65th birthday later this year.
The Bishop of Butare, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Gasatura told students and faculty at a ceremony marking the anniversary held at the National University of Rwanda that without forgiveness, the pains of the Genocide would continue to scar the country.
“Failure to forgive is like keeping a heavy burden on your heart, but to forgive is to liberate yourself from trauma which leads to healing of a broken heart and building hope for the future,” Bishop Gasatura said, according to the New Times of Kigali.
Ugandan archbishop calls for action from Canterbury: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 1. April 21, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda.comments closed
Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Church of Uganda has given the Archbishop of Canterbury a vote of no confidence in his management of the American crisis that stands ready to fracture the Anglican Communion.
On April 9, Archbishop Henry Orombi wrote to Dr. Rowan Williams voicing his objections to the structural changes implemented by Dr. Williams that have marginalized the primates and the bishops of the Anglican Communion in favor of the London-based Anglican Consultative Council and its staff.
He urged Dr. Williams to convene an emergency primates meeting to address the divisions within the Communion. However at this meeting he asked that the agenda be distributed before hand, and the US and Canadian primates—whose churches would be the subject of discussion—not be invited.
Within minutes of the announcement the US church’s 2003 General Convention had affirmed the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, Dr. Williams faxed a letter to the then US Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and the primates, calling an emergency meeting at Lambeth Palace to discuss the Robinson consecration. While Dr. Williams has warned the US church would face “consequences” for violating the Communion’s call for “restraint” on electing a second “gay” bishop, no action has thus far materialized.
Nor has Dr. Williams’ warning perturbed the US church. In response to a question from The Church of England Newspaper at the close of last month’s House of Bishops’ meeting in Texas, a spokesman for the bishops said there had been no discussion of the consequences of the Glasspool election. It was “not on the agenda” and did not “come-up” in discussion, Bishop Kenneth Price told CEN.
“We cannot carry on with business as usual until order is brought out of this chaos,” Archbishop Orombi said.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told CEN that Dr. Williams was “out of the office” when the letter was received, and as of our going to press no formal response had been made. However, Archbishop Orombi’s concerns will not come as a surprise to Dr. Williams, as the Ugandan archbishop raised them in private correspondence and conversation with Dr. Williams, as well as in a letter to the Times, published during the 2008 Lambeth Conference—which the Ugandan bishops boycotted, as did a majority of African bishops, due to the presence of the US bishops.
In his letter, Archbishop Orombi commended the President Bishop of the Middle East and Jerusalem’s decision to quit the Joint Standing Committee. The Ugandan leader said he stood in solidarity with Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt “in his courageous decision,” noting that many primates were in a “state of resignation as we see how the Communion is moving away further and further into darkness.”
He stated that he was perturbed by the “shift in the balance of powers among the Instruments of Communion” that had taken place under Dr. Williams’ watch.
It had been the primates who commissioned and received the Windsor Report, and it was the primates who presented the “appropriate ‘hermeneutic’ through which to read the Windsor Report. That “hermeneutic,” however, has been obscured by the leadership at St. Andrew’s House who somehow created something we never envisioned called the ‘Windsor Process’,” he said.
The Windsor Report was not a “process” but a “report” which contained “specific and clear requests” of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. However, in the aftermath of the 2007 Primates Meeting, the primates found they had been cut out of the “very process they had begun.”
“The process was mysteriously transferred to the Anglican Consultative Council and, more particularly, to the Joint Standing Committee,” Archbishop Orombi said. The Joint Standing Committee had this past year evolved into the “Standing Committee” which by year’s end had taken to calling itself the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.
This was an illegitimate usurpation of authority, Archbishop Orombi said, as there is no Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. Such an entity had “never been approved in its present form by the Primates Meeting or the Lambeth Conference. Rather, it was adopted by itself, with your approval and the approval of the ACC.”
This rogue entity had been given “enhanced responsibility” and the Primates “diminished responsibility” over the life of the Communion, he said, adding that he could not lend legitimacy to an entity “that has taken upon itself authority it has not been given,” and in his capacity as the African representative to the primates standing committee, would boycott the meetings of the new standing committee.
The way forward was clear, Archbishop Orombi said. “There is an urgent need for a meeting of the Primates to continue sorting out the crisis that is before us, especially given the upcoming consecration of a Lesbian as Bishop in America. The Primates Meeting is the only Instrument that has been given authority to act, and it can act if you will call us together” he said.
Congo bishop attacked: The Church of England Newspaper, April 16, 2010 p 6. April 21, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of the Congo, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Bahati Balibusane of Bukavu
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Bukavu narrowly escaped death last week when gunmen invaded his home and threatened to kill him unless he paid a ransom for his life.
According to an email sent by the diocese to overseas mission partners, a gang entered the home of Bishop Bahati Balibusane on the evening of April 8/9. They assaulted a guard, then ransacked the house and tied up the bishop’s family.
Held at gunpoint, the bishop was told by the gunmen they had been paid £15,000 to kill him. The bishop pled for his life and the gunmen said they would spare him if he paid a ransom. The bishop gave the bandits the money he had, and his attackers withdrew, taking their booty with them.
The amount of the ransom is unknown, and attempts to corroborate the story with the bishop have so far been unsuccessful.
Over a 5.4 million people have died in the eastern Congo since 1998, the International Rescue Committee reports, as rival militias and Congolese troops fight for control of the region. Tribal jealousies, battles for control of the region’s mineral wealth, and unresolved disputes from the 1994 Rwandan genocide have fueled the fighting.
In a 2008 statement released through the Congo Church Association, Bishop Bahati warned that “over one million people” have been displaced by the fighting. “Men, women, children are living outside, in schools, in Churches and in some hospitable families. They don’t have water, food, materials, clothes, utensils and latrines. These people living in hardship are exposed to hunger, illness and death of some fathers, mothers and children,” he wrote in a call for “urgent spiritual, material and financial support.”
Church aid agencies report the fighting between Congolese troops and the rebels has led to widespread atrocities. The Barnabas Fund stated “ young men [have been] killed, women raped by retreating government troops, children kidnapped and forcibly recruited as child soldiers to fight a war that is not their own, soldiers and militias [are] pillaging and looting, and hundreds of thousands of displaced people [are] fleeing for their lives.”
Aid agencies report the situation has stabilized over the last two years, but the Congo remains a lawless and unstable region. In a bid to call the world’s attention to the fighting in the Congo, the World Council of Churches will bring together “high-level representatives of government, churches and international organisations” in Kinshasa this week.
“There has been limited improvement in the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo, over the last couple of years,” the WCC’s Christina Papazoglou said.
The April 14-17 meeting hopes to “provide a space where national and international stakeholders can discuss the major challenges the country is facing and the role the Churches can play in order to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights,” she said.
Dr. Williams’ comments ignorant and unhelpful, Irish Anglicans claim: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9. 2010, p 3. April 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
Dr. John Neill, Archbishop of Dublin
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Irish Anglican leaders have scolded the Archbishop of Canterbury for telling the BBC that the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland had “lost all credibility” following revelations of child abuse among the clergy, saying his remarks were ignorant, thoughtless and unhelpful.
The Church of Ireland has distanced itself from Dr. Williams’ remarks stating they were overly broad and had the potential to set back ecumenical relations. The comments may also have had the perverse effect of diverting the issue from child abuse, causing Irish Catholics to rally in the face of criticism from the head of the English Protestant Church.
In a statement issued on April 3, the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Neill expressed his “deep regret” over Dr. Williams’ remarks.
“As one who with so many of my colleagues in ministry shares with that Church in a joint proclamation of the Gospel, and who acknowledges the pain and deep suffering of the victims of abuse, I also feel for the countless priests and bishops who daily live out their Christian vocation,” Dr. Neill said.
The Archbishop of Dublin added that he extended his support to his Roman Catholic counterpart Archbishop Diarmuid Martin “as he works for the proclamation of the Gospel and the healing of hurt, including that of the faithful and their clergy whose ministry has been undermined by those guilty of the abuse of children.”
The head of the Church of Ireland’s Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue, Bishop Richard Clarke of Meath and Kildare on April 3 stated Dr. Williams was speaking from ignorance about the Irish scene.
“Whereas it is clearly true that the Roman Catholic Church in this country is facing deep and serious challenges to its authority as a consequence of clerical abuse scandals, this careless and reckless use of language by Archbishop Williams is extremely unfortunate,” Dr. Clarke said.
“As those of us who live in this country know very well, most bishops, priests and religious of the Roman Catholic tradition minister faithfully and selflessly under very difficult conditions with the love and support of their people.”
“All credibility has most certainly not been lost to the Church, and it is deeply hurtful to Roman Catholic clergy and laity alike, and indeed to those of other Christian traditions, that such a thoughtless remark should be made by Archbishop Williams,” he said.
“It should be remembered that the archbishop has neither experience of Irish life nor any direct ecclesiastical authority in this country. I hope that he will reflect on his comments, and I deeply regret the hurt that he has caused,” Dr. Clarke said.
Scottish Churches call for voters to back anti-Trident candidates: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010 p 6. April 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Scotland have released a joint Easter letter urging voters to support candidates who will oppose funding for a new generation of Trident nuclear missiles.
On April 1, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Right Rev William Hewitt, Cardinal Keith O’Brien and the leaders of five other denominations stated that funds allocated for Britain’s nuclear weapons systems would be better spent on the poor.
Britain’s nuclear force is based upon four Vanguard class submarines based at HMNB Clyde on the eastern shore of Gare Loch, 25 miles west of Glasgow. Britain is believed to possess 200 nuclear weapons and each submarine is armed with 16 Trident II ballistic missiles. In 2006 the Ministry of Defence released a White Paper recommending that Trident be upgraded through the purchase of four new submarines. The estimated costs for the next generation of missiles and submarines were £20 billion, with an additional annual operating cost of £1.5 billion.
In 2007 Parliament backed the Government’s plans to renew the Trident nuclear submarine system, by a vote of 409 to 161—with 95 Labour MPs breaking ranks to vote against the proposal.
Before the vote Defence Minister Des Browne said in a speech at King’s College, London that nuclear weapons were not “inherently evil. In certain circumstances, they can play a positive role – as they have in the past.”
Concerns over the morality of nuclear weapons were misplaced and naïve, he said. “Are we prepared to tolerate a world in which countries which care about morality lay down their nuclear weapons, leaving others to threaten the rest of the world or hold it to ransom?”
In their Easter letter the Scottish church leaders disputed Mr. Browne’s claims saying that national security would not come from “any human creation” but from “faith in the vulnerability of God in Christ.”
Nuclear weapons were immoral, they argued. “The indiscriminate nature of nuclear weapons makes it impossible to justify them as weapons of war as their effect cannot be considered as either limited or proportionate. Therefore, the very possession of nuclear weapons is unjust and thus wrong.”
“Nuclear weapons by their very existence undermine the security of the whole world and are inconsistent with the traditional theories of just war,” they argued, adding that “tackling injustice, poverty and inequality would lead to a safer world for all.”
The church leaders stated that Britain faced a “political choice in the next few weeks. We call upon all people of goodwill to make it clear to candidates of all parties that we should choose life over death and the alleviation of poverty over the replacement of Trident.”
Archbishop issues call for calm following the murder of Boer leader in South Africa: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010, p 8. April 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Eugene Terre'Blanche
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Cape Town has denounced the murder of radical Afrikaner leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, and has added his voice to President Jacob Zuma’s plea for racial calm in South Africa.
On April 4, the SAPA press agency reported that the 69-year old leader of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB), which had waged a violent campaign against the end of Apartheid in 1994 but in recent years had fallen to the political margins, was found dead at his farm.
Terre’Blanche had been murdered in his bed, struck on the head by a knobkerrie and stabbed in the face and neck by an assegai. Leaders of the AWB called his death a political killing and blamed African National Congress (ANC) leaders for instigating the murder.
Andre Visagie, one of Terre’Blanche’s top lieutenants said his death was a “declaration of war from the black community of South Africa to the white community.”
Over 3000 white famers have been murdered since the end of the Apartheid regime in 1994, and hostilities remain close to the surface among some blacks and whites. The ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, led supporters last month in a song at a political rally that included the refrain, “Kill the Boer.” When directed by ANC Party leaders to desist from singing the anthem from the anti-Apartheid struggle, Mr. Malema refused and again led supporters in the song before a rally.
However, police spokesman Adele Myburgh reported that the death resulted from a pay dispute. “A 21-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were arrested and charged for his murder,” she said.
“The two told the police that the argument ensued because they were not paid for the work they did on the farm,” the police reported.
Shortly after news of the murder was made public, President Zuma sought to head off celebratory statements and calls for revenge from black and white extremists groups. “I would like to call for calm as I have done earlier to the nation,” he said.
“It has been shocking news indeed that he has been murdered. This is one of the sad moments for our country that a leader of his standing should be murdered by people. And those who have committed this terrible act must face the law and face the punishment that they deserve.”
Archbishop Makgoba said he “heard the shocking news of his killing as I was leaving Cape Town Cathedral in the early hours of Easter Sunday, having just celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
The Archbishop said “I condemn the murder of Mr Terre’Blanche, and extend my deepest condolences to his family, whom I hold in my prayers. No child of God, no matter who they are, no matter what their views, should end their lives in this way.”
Anglicans caught in bitter property dispute in Hyderabad, amidst Hindu Muslim riots: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010 p 8. April 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Property Litigation.comments closed
St George's, Hyderabad
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A week of communal clashes in the Southern Indian city of Hyderabad has left two dead and over 100 injured. However, the fighting between Hindus, Christians and Muslims has not been motivated by religion, church leaders claim, but is being fueled by political rivalries.
The fighting comes as the city’s Anglicans find themselves divided over the control of St George’s Church, with lawsuits and charges of criminal trespass and fraud leveled by the rival factions.
Clashes between Hindus and Muslims that erupted on March 27 led to the imposition of martial law in the old city and a curfew, along with the banning of gatherings of more than five persons. Roman Catholic Archbishop Marampudi Joji told the UCA news agency that because of the violence he had “requested police protection to conduct Holy Week services within our churches.”
The archbishop said he believed the sectarian clashes were politically motivated. The police have detained two municipal councilors affiliated with extremist Hindu parties in connection with the riots, while Police Commission AK Khan reported that 243 people had been arrested.
The clashes came as the city’s principal Anglican Church, St George’s, split into competing factions, with lawsuits and threats of criminal complaints lodged by the Bishop of Medak against the parish council.
In a March 21 news conference, the Rt. Rev. T.S. Kanaka Prasad said he had asked the courts for an order banning members of the church’s parish council from trespassing on the property.
Church warden Paul David had been “expelled” from St. George’s “due to his illegal activities against the Church” and arrested following a complaint from the diocese. However, Mr. David had been released “on bail and is making all efforts to take over its properties with the help of some influential officers,’’ the Bishop told reporters.
The split within the 166-year old Church has led to the padlocking of the church outside of service hours, and litigation over who controls the property—the parish or the diocese.
Built on land given to the Church of England by the Nizam of Hyderabad, title to the property had traditionally rested with the parish council, rather than the Church of England in India, as Hyderabad was a princely state outside the territories of the British Raj.
At independence in 1947, the Nizam—the state’s hereditary prince—declined to join either the Union of India or the Dominion of Pakistan and declared his state’s independence. However, in 1948 the Indian government incorporated Hyderabad into the Union of India by military force, and deposed the Nizam, Osman Ali Khan.
Attorneys for the Bishop of Medak argue that in 1983 title to the property was transferred from the Calcutta Diocesan Trust to the Church of South India. However, the parish council has argued that there is no documentary evidence for this transfer, or that title had ever been held by any entity other than the parish council on behalf of the Nizam. A third possible claimant to the church could be the Union government, as it succeeded in interest to the claim of the Nizam upon the incorporation of Hyderabad into India.
In 1987 a court held that the parish council was responsible for the church administration and stated that the CSI bishop’s role would be limited to appointing pastors who would have charge of worship but would not take part in the administration of the parish.
The latest round of fighting arose after a new pastor was appointed by Bishop Prasad, who ended the traditional Church of England liturgies celebrated in the church, substituting them with CSI liturgies. The parish council responded by evicting the new pastor from his vicarage and stopping his pay. Bishop Kanaka Prasad responded by asserting his authority and claiming control over all aspects of the church’s life and governance.
The litigation is expected to last several years before a final decision is reached.
Irish warning to Episcopal Church over Glasspool election: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010 p 6. April 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Archbishop Alan Harper of Armagh, Primate of All-Ireland
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of All-Ireland has expressed his exasperation with the Episcopal Church, writing in the April 1 issue of the Church of Ireland Gazette that the affirmation of the election of Canon Mary Glasspool has the potential to wreck the Anglican Communion.
The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Alan Harper also sent a shot across the Episcopal Church’s bow, warning that the Church of Ireland would be in communion with those churches with whom it shares a common doctrine and discipline, as outlined in its Declaration of 1870.
Dr. Harper wrote that he had received a letter from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori announcing the affirmation of the election of Canon Glasspool as suffragan bishop in Los Angeles. He noted that in her letter, the presiding bishop declared that “this is not the decision of one person, or a small group of people. It represents the mind of a majority of the elected leaders in The Episcopal Church, lay, clergy and bishops, who have carefully considered the opinions and feelings of other members of the Anglican Communion as well as the decades-long conversations within this Church.”
This action violated the recommendations of the Windsor Report and the requests of the Primates Meetings in Dar es Salaam and Alexandria that the Episcopal Church exercise “gracious restraint” over the issues of gay bishops and blessings, Dr. Harper said.
“The decision of The Episcopal Church in respect of the confirmation of an election and subsequent consecration of a partnered gay person to the episcopate has clearly signalled the end of ‘gracious restraint’,” he said.
“This is a development which I deeply regret. Whatever may be ‘the mind of a majority of the elected leaders in The Episcopal Church’, it does not reflect the mind of a majority of those in positions of leadership in the Anglican Communion and it is bound to create even greater stresses within the Communion at a time when consultations on an Anglican Covenant are at an advanced stage,” Dr. Harper said.
The Glasspool vote would strain the “bonds of affection within the Communion” and lead to further “extraterritorial interventions by other provinces in the life of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.”
The call for restraint on the “authorization of public rites of blessing for same-sex unions” and for a halt to “extraterritorial interventions” had not been heeded, he noted. And now the Communion was witnessing the “setting up of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), an overtly extra-territorial province-in-embryo, embracing the national integrities of both the United States of America and Canada.”
Dr. Harper said that it was “very hard to see” where this would lead, but noted the position of the Church of Ireland “in respect of the Churches with which it may be said to be ‘in communion’ will be determined, first and foremost, in light of the provisions of the Preamble and Declaration prefixed to the Statutes of the Church of Ireland passed at the General Convention in 1870. It will also be governed by the response of the Church of Ireland to any future Anglican Covenant.”
“Communion” for the Church of Ireland is not defined by a relationship with the office or person of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but by common doctrine and discipline articulated in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the Articles of Religion, and “professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds.”
Section III of the Declaration states the Church of Ireland “will maintain communion with the sister Church of England, and with all other Christian Churches agreeing in the principles of this declaration.”
CSW backs pro-democracy group’s election boycott in Burma: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010, p 7. April 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Myanmar, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
General Than Shwe
First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The leaders of Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD) have voted to boycott the country’s forthcoming General Elections, claiming the military junta’s voting rules are “unfair” and “unjust.”
On March 29 the NLD said it would sit out the country’s first elections in two decades after the government announced that political prisoners would be banned from standing for election. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years, and many of the pro-democracy movements leaders were declared ineligible after the army announced the new election rules last month.
No firm date has been set for the General Election, but Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported that the election will be held on Oct 10, as the regimes leaders believe that it is an auspicious date and will prove lucky for the junta: the 10th day of the 10th month of the year 2010.
A spokesman for Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) told The Church of England Newspaper the new election laws had “forced the NLD into an impossible position.”
“The NLD, which won the 1990 elections with 82 per cent of the parliamentary seats and is therefore the legitimate representative of the people, would have to expel its leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners who are members of the party, and accept the new constitution, if it wished to participate in the elections. Such an ultimatum completely violates even the most basic standards of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and as such left the NLD with no option but to refuse to register or participate in the regime’s fake elections,” CSW said.
Critics charge the new constitution is “inherently undemocratic” and offers “little prospect of meaningful transition to federal democracy, protection of ethnic rights or respect for human rights.”
CSW stated it “completely understands and fully respects the decision” taken by the NLD and urged the international community to reject the “sham” elections. It asked the UN Security Council to impose a universal arms embargo against the regime and establish a commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
On March 24 Britain’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Mark Lyell Grant, said government would support an investigation of the regime by the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, as Burma is not a party to the ICC, “it would require the Security Council to make a reference, and I don’t think the Security Council is sufficiently unanimous in its view to allow such a reference to happen,” Mr. Lyell Grant said.
CSW’s East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said: “We are delighted that the United Kingdom is showing leadership on this issue,” and urged the government to “devote energy and resources to building an international coalition to take this forward, working with countries such as Australia which have already expressed support. It is vital that in the run-up to the regime’s fake elections, its crimes against humanity and the prevailing culture of impunity in Burma are addressed by the United Nations, and action is taken to end the regime’s campaign of rape, forced labour, torture, destruction, killing and terror.”
Buddhist riot over Akon concert in Sri Lanka: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010 p 8. April 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Buddhism, Church of Ceylon, Church of England Newspaper, Popular Culture.comments closed
Akon
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Buddhist extremists have forced the cancellation of a concert tour in Sri Lanka by the pop singer Akon, after a mob ransacked the offices of his booking agent in Colombo for insulting the Buddha.
On March 31, the Anglican Bishop of Colombo denounced the failure of the police to stop the riot, and also condemned the arrest by the police of a Buddhist convert to Islam for allegedly defaming Buddhism.
On March 22, Buddhist extremists attacked the offices of Sirasa Media, who in cooperation with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau was organizing the tour for Akon, the stage name of Aliaune Badara Akon Thiam, an American pop singer of Senegalese extraction.
The protesters were offended by Akon’s latest video “Sexy Chick,” which shows bikini-clad women dancing at a pool party, while in the background stands a statue of the Buddha. Jathika Bhikku Sansadaya, a Buddhist monk organization affiliated with the Sinhala nationalist party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) demanded the government cancel the concert stating Akon had insulted Buddhism.
After the riot, Tourism Minister Achala Jagoda met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and on March 23 the government announced that it would not issue Akon a visa, forcing the cancellation of the tour.
Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo upbraided the police for their inaction. “Reports that the police failed to prevent the attack and did not object to some of the perpetrators of this offense being released on bail the same day, are worrying,” he said.
“Such behavior implies political patronage in the attack and political interference in the investigations. When some who frame the laws of the land and some of those responsible for the enforcement of the law disregard the law, the plight of the people is critical,” he said in a statement given to the media.
Bishop de Chickera also criticized the detention of Malini Perera, a Sri Lankan expatriate living in Bahrain who had written two books describing her conversion from Buddhism to Islam. Police arrested the 38-year old author while she was on holiday in Sri Lanka, charging that her books offended the religious sensibilities of Buddhists.
“The detention of Malini Perera, a Sri Lankan who converted to Islam, reportedly on the grounds of defamation of Buddhism, needs clarification,” the bishop said.
“It will help to know exactly how the contents of the books she wrote defame Buddhism. If not, it would appear that she is being punished for either converting to Islam or for publishing her religious experiences; both of which cannot be considered offenses and are well within her rights,” the bishop said.
Dr Kunonga rejects government mediation in Harare split: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010 p 7. April 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Zimbabwe VP John Nkomo
Attempts at mediation in the Harare church split by the Vice President of Zimbabwe have been rebuffed by Dr. Nolbert Kunonga.
On Easter Sunday the former Bishop of Harare led services for 100 worshippers under heavy police guard at St Mary’s and All Saints Cathedral, while outside the cathedral over a 1000 Anglicans loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya celebrated Easter.
On April 5, the government-backed Harare Sunday Mail reported that the cabinet had asked Vice-President John Nkoma to mediate the dispute between Dr. Kunonga and Bishop Gandiya.
The Mail quoted co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa as stating the dispute had been discussed at two recent meetings of the cabinet.
“This infighting between the two factions has tarnished the image of the country’s police force and the Ministry of Home Affairs,” Mr. Mutsekwa said, adding the “cabinet has now agreed that Vice President John Nkomo leads the process to bring normalcy and sanity to the Anglican family.”
Comrade Nkomo “will soon summon both faction leaders in the Anglican Church and will discuss with them a raft of measures that will bring reconciliation between the two factions in the church,” the minister said, adding that he hoped the “intervention of a fatherly figure” like the 75-year old vice president “will make the parishioners united.”
However, in an April 6 interview with SW Radio Africa, Bishop Gandiya reported that the first meeting of the vice president with Dr. Kunonga and Bishop Gandiya had achieved little.
The bishop said “Vice President John Nkomo tried to talk to both of us together and asked us if we could just work in peace, obviously observing Justice Makarau’s judgement.”
Justice Makarau in 2008 had ordered the parties to share the diocese’s buildings until a final determination had been made by the courts over the ownership of the churches. However, with the backing of the police, Dr. Kunonga has refused to obey the court orders and has locked out Anglicans from their churches.
Bishop Gandiya noted that it was his belief that “the thinking of most people in government was that the law should be upheld, but to our surprise it wasn’t and again as is always the case, the police were prohibiting us” from entering Harare’s churches.
Details of the meeting were not disclosed. However Bishop Gandiya stated that the request to share the buildings was rejected by Dr. Kunonga.
Devolution of police powers a ‘historic moment’ for Northern Ireland says Lord Eames: The Church of England Newspaper, April 10, 2010 April 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, House of Lords.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont will be remembered as a “historic day for Northern Ireland,” the former Archbishop of Armagh, Lord Eames told Parliament last month.
On March 24 three amendments to the Northern Ireland Act 1988 were approved by the Lords, allowing the creation of a Department of Justice for Northern Ireland on April 12.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, speaking for the Government, said the three orders “represent the culmination of the peace process and the final working through of the plans for cross-community government in Northern Ireland that were set out in the Good Friday agreement.”
Lord Glentoran said the Conservative Party endorsed the Government’s initiatives, adding that “these orders give effect to the agreement reached between the DUP and Sinn Fein at Hillsborough Castle on Feb 5 and to the vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly on March 9.”
Following their approval by the House of Lords the “last major element of the Belfast Agreement, made almost 12 years ago to the day, will have been completed. For the first time since the powers were taken away from the Northern Ireland Government in March 1972, Stormont will once again exercise powers over policing, criminal justice, the courts and local security issues.”
“At all times our over-riding objective is a peaceful, stable and prosperous Northern Ireland where all of its people have a shared future,” Lord Glentoran said.
“Whether we remain in opposition or return to Government in a few weeks’ time, that is the approach we will continue to take.”
However, Ulster Unionist Party peer Lord Maginnis of Drumglass criticized the move. The prime minister had treated with terrorists and ignored the political middle in Ulster. Sinn Fein “has, as we all know, murdered its way to power”.
“It is led by murderers who not only will never be brought to justice in this life, but will never be publicly examined,” he charged.
Lord Eames noted that “we have heard in the speeches that we have just listened to praise for what has been achieved and genuine concerns about how it has been arrived at.”
However, he said that he had no “doubt that this House needs to send out a loud and clear message that, in terms of politics, this is a historic day for the people of Northern Ireland.”
Lord Eames reminded the House of the important contributions of John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. “I am firmly convinced from having been involved in the preparation of the Downing Street Declaration all those years ago that it was a turning point in the political progress that has brought today about. I pay tribute to those two men. Sometimes history judges them ill when they deserve more,” he said.
The vote “today should mark a point at which healing can take place and that there can be a greater sense of unity in trying to incorporate all political parties in the way ahead,” Lord Eames said.
However, “political achievement is only part of reconciliation. The real battle, the real challenge and the real problem for Northern Ireland, its Assembly and its people are the hearts and minds of its people. You cannot legislate for reconciliation. You cannot compel people to be reconciled.”
However, “you can set in place the structure that will make it more encouraging and more possible,” to achieve a last peace, he said.
The three orders were passed without votes.
Church call to investigate Army chief for collusion in the Jos massacres: The Church of England Newspaper, April 9, 2010 p 7. April 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Persecution.comments closed
Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina, GOC Nigeria's 3rd Armoured Division
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) has called upon the Nigerian government to suspend the officer commanding the country’s Third Armoured Division based in Jos and has demanded an investigation into his conduct during last month’s massacre of Christians in Northern Nigeria.
The call to suspend Major General Saleh Maina came at the close of the RLP’s meeting in Larnaca on March 31. The RLP, a coalition of 21 Christian organizations from around the world concerned with religious liberty and persecution, expressed its deep concern over the Nigerian government’s handling of the sectarian violence in the Plateau State.
It also underscored the solidarity of Christians in the West with those in the developing world, asking “all Christians worldwide” to join in “prayer and action” recognizing that all believers are part of “One Body united in Christ.”
The area’s top military commander has come under sharp criticism for his handling of the Jos crisis which has left hundreds dead. A Muslim and member of the Fulani tribe, Maj. Gen Maina has been charged with pro-Muslim bias by allowing Muslim gunmen to attack Christian villages with impunity, but using troops to protect Muslim villages from reprisals.
Last month the former chairman of the Nigerian Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Domkat Bali, accused Maj. Gen Maina of taking sides in the crisis. “[Maina] is playing games with us, and that [pro-Muslim officers] are part of the problems.”
Gen. Bali told This Day the government should “remove Maina, because he has shown bias for Islam and it is a dangerous thing not just for Plateau, but for the whole country. The moment this country is broken along religious lines, there may be no Nigeria any more. Especially as it regards the military, because the ultimate force bringing Nigeria together is the military.”
News and television broadcasts from the fighting showed that some soldiers had taken part in the attacks. However, Gen. Bali said the uniforms and equipment of these “fake soldiers” showed they were rebels from Niger and Chad. The army should have disarmed these men, he said.
“The people I saw were boys that could be stopped and their weapons collected from them. But what I saw on the screen, (the fake soldiers) and the Army were virtually operating together, and the army did not arrest or stop them,” Gen Bali said.
In its “Cyprus Statement” the RLP called upon the Nigerian government to launch an investigation into the “army’s inadequate enforcement of the curfew, and its failure to provide protection to vulnerable communities” in the North.
Maj. Gen. Maina should be relieved of his command “pending an investigation into the reasons for these failures, and into serious allegations of partisan behavior on his part,” the statement said.
Nigerian Christians should “promote and practice non-violent responses” to the attacks, the RLP said, while Christians worldwide should “stand with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria in prayer” and engage Nigerian missions abroad, challenging them to “ensure the Nigerian government takes timely and effective action” to halt these abuses.
Mervyn Thomas, head of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and RLP Chairman, said: “The Cyprus Statement calls amongst other things for the perpetrators of violence to be brought to justice.
“If these people continue to kill with impunity, the violence will escalate even further, and will eventually endanger the entire nation,” Mr. Thomas said.
Church and State in collision course over proposed Kenyan Constitution: The Church of England Newspaper April 9, 2010 p 8. April 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Kenya’s Parliament has approved a draft version of the country’s new constitution, which will now be sent to the nation for approval in a national referendum.
Last week’s vote however puts the government on a collision course with church leaders. The secretary general of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the Rev Canon Peter Karanja, said Parliament’s approval of the draft, which included a government supported Sharia law court system and omitted to outlaw abortion, was unacceptable.
“As we have stated clearly before, we will not accept a draft that promotes one religion over another. We had not anticipated a confrontation, but we are being pushed to one,” Canon Karanja told reporters, adding that the question of ‘kadhi courts’ was not a theological issue, “but rather one of justice and equality.”
An amendment offered by supporters of the churches’ position in Parliament that would add a clause stating “the State and religion shall be separate” and that “State shall treat all religions equally” failed, as did as did an amendment offered by Public Health minister Beth Mugo to delete the word ‘abortion’ from the draft. When the issues were laid before Parliament on April 1, government MPs left the chamber, preventing a quorum of 145 MPs from being reached that would allow the amendments to be put to a vote.
On Easter Sunday President Mwai Kibaki urged religious leaders to support the new constitution as being a workable compromise. He noted that the Anglican Archbishop of Kenya had broken ranks with other church leaders and supported the new constitution.
Government spokesman claimed that Archbishop Eliud Wabukala had endorsed the draft as it was an improvement over the current one. The issue of Sharia law could be addressed through the amendment process, the government said, citing Dr. Wabukala, and should not be a reason to oppose the current draft.
However, the archbishop told the congregation of All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi on Easter Sunday it was “naive to assume that because the document has been passed by Parliament Kenyans will endorse it.”
No formal decision had been made by the Anglican Church on the draft constitution, he said. “All our bishops are taking the debate to the grassroots this month. At the end of it they will be back with their findings, after which the church will give its directive.”
“We have opened the debate,” he said, and after consultation with the laity would announce the church’s united front on the vote.
The Bishop of Eldoret the Rt. Rev. Thomas Kogo explained that while Archbishop Wabukala had given his “personal opinion about the draft,” it was incorrect for the government to claim this was the “stand of all church.”
Bishop Kogo said he opposed the draft, and supported the position of Kenya’s Roman Catholic leader Cardinal John Njue. The Roman Catholic Church has vowed to campaign against the new constitution as it gives a privileged position to Islam under law, and creates a legal right to abortion.
Former Bishop told to return £1 million: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 7. April 14, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Corruption, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has asked the former Bishop in Jerusalem to return £1 million to the diocese, or explain why he is entitled to keep the money.
In a letter dated March 20, the President Bishop of the Middle East, Dr Mouneer Anis of Egypt explained he was entering the fray between retired Bishop Riah Abu al-Assal and his successor, the Rt Rev Suheil Dawani of Jerusalem in order to “clarify the situation” in light of “disturbing news” being disseminated about the dispute.
He also asked supporters of the diocese to “pray that this dispute would come to an end” as it was a cause of embarrassment and scandal for the church in Jerusalem.
Over the past three years, accusations of fraud and violence have been traded between the two bishops and their supporters over the control of a school in Nazareth.
In his letter, Dr Mouneer stated that shortly before his retirement, Bishop Riah authorized a review of the school’s finances. However, when the report was completed, Bishop Riah threatened to take the committee members to court, and accused them of slander.
The dispute was brought to the 2007 meeting of the Middle East’s House of Bishops which agreed to maintain a “dignified silence” over the matter, with the “assurance that no legal actions would be taken, and no further actions will be continued either in public or in private, and that assurance be given that [Bishop Riah's] family would not be unjustly targeted in any way.”
However, the accord broke down after Bishop Riah claimed ownership of the Nazareth school.
“I was also informed by the Diocese of Jerusalem that Bishop Riah has collected five and a half million NIS shekels (£1 million) in tuition fees from the parents while his son continued as the Principal of the school. I was also informed by the Diocese of Jerusalem that Bishop Suheil, as the newly consecrated Diocesan Bishop, was prevented from entering the school with the members of the Board.”
Dr Mouneer stated the dispute between the two bishops was brought before a civil court which awarded ownership of the school to the diocese. The ownership of the £1 million collected by Bishop Riah is currently the subject of a second lawsuit.
The dispute was brought before the October 2009 meeting of the Provincial Synod. The Diocese stated it would settle all outstanding lawsuits against Bishop Riah if he would return the £1 million. However, Bishop Riah responded on Oct 20 stating he was “dismayed at the biased decision of the Provincial Synod. Endorsing hearsay rather than valid evidence is neither just nor acceptable.”
The battle between the two bishops was a scandal for the Anglican Church in Jerusalem, Dr Mouneer said, and was “breaking the heart of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.”
At this stage, the matter must either proceed through the Israeli courts, unless settlement can be reached, Dr Mouneer said. “I understand that the Diocese of Jerusalem’s Standing Committee is insisting that Bishop Riah has the obligation to return Funds kept in his possession that rightly belong to the Diocese and the return of such funds is a condition to settling this most unfortunate matter. If Bishop Riah does not think that the claims of the Diocese of Jerusalem in regards to these funds are true, he should present the evidence of this.”
Immorality charges leveled against new bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 8. April 13, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda.comments closed
Canon Bernard Bagaba
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Allegations of gross immorality have been leveled against a bishop-elect in Uganda. The Kampala Observer reports that five clergy and 23 lay members of the Diocese of Kinkiizi have accused Bishop-elect Bernard Bagaba of fathering two children out of wedlock and refusing to provide for their care.
Canon Bagaba, the diocesan secretary of Kinkiizi at the time of his election, has denied the charges, and the matter is expected to be taken up after Easter by Archbishop Henry Orombi and the Ugandan House of Bishops.
In December, the House of Bishops elected Canon Bagaba to succeed Bishop John Wilson Ntegyereize, who retires on May 9. The rural diocese located in the Southwest of Uganda along the border of Rwanda has tripled in size in the past 15 years, and an ambitious programme to enlarge the cathedral to accommodate a thousand worshippers has been launched, as have other projects to harness the growth of the church in the region.
However, on Feb 18 a complaint against Canon Bagaba was handed to the Ugandan bishops alleging that the former diocesan secretary had fathered two illegitimate children with a former maid in his employee. The former maid told the Observer she was prepared to submit to a DNA test to confirm the children were fathered by Canon Bagaba.
Canon Bagaba has admitted to employing the women as a servant, but has denied any impropriety, stating “those people are trying to concoct things for their own benefit.”
A spokesman for the Church of Uganda stated the allegations would be investigated.
South Carolina parish defection raises US church political temperature: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 7. April 13, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, South Carolina.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
One of the largest Episcopal Churches in the United States has voted to secede from the Diocese of South Carolina and affiliate with the Anglican Church in North America.
The defection of one of the conservative Diocese’s flagship parishes will likely force a showdown between South Carolina and the national church. The diocese will not block the secession, while US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has fought bitter and expensive legal battles to prevent congregations from leaving the Church with their property. Speculation within the Episcopal Church is that Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina will be the next conservative to feel the Presiding Bishop’s legal wrath.
On March 28, the congregation of St Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina, voted at a special parish meeting by a margin of 709 to 13 to amend its parish bylaws and by a vote of 707 to 15 to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and join the Anglican Church in North America.
In a statement posted on his website, St Andrew’s rector the Rev Steve Wood stated he rejoiced and gave thanks “for both the clarity of this discernment process and the unity of purpose within this parish demonstrated by this vote.”
Mr Wood added that the “departure of this parish from the Diocese of South Carolina was not hastily made nor was it an easy decision.”
However, “any sense of sadness over our separation is tempered by our joyful sense of the Lord’s forward-looking call upon our lives; by our common love for our Lord and by the common knowledge that our difficulty lay with the spiritual headship of the National Church, of which the Diocese of South Carolina remains, and intends to remain, a part, and not with the Bishop of South Carolina.”
The congregation will join the ACNA’s Diocese of the Holy Spirit under the Rt Rev John Guernsey. Litigation over the trusteeship of the parish’s property is unlikely as the South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that the Episcopal Church’s national canon governing church property, the Dennis Canon, is not valid in South Carolina. If the congregation holds title to its property, it may depart with it from the Episcopal Church, according to the South Carolina courts.
Last month Bishop Lawrence postponed his diocesan synod after the national Church engaged an attorney in South Carolina to further its interests. At its rescheduled March 26 meeting, South Carolina adopted four resolutions that affirmed the Episcopal Church’s traditional polity and teaching on diocesan autonomy.
In a rebuff to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s claims to exercise a degree of metropolitan authority in South Carolina, the diocese affirmed “its legal and ecclesiastical authority as a sovereign diocese within the Episcopal Church” and declared that the Presiding Bishop had “no authority to retain attorneys in this diocese that present themselves as the legal counsel for the Episcopal Church in South Carolina.”
The Diocesan Synod also gave Bishop Lawrence its support in providing a “generous pastoral response” to congregations “struggling with their relationship” with the Diocese or national Church.
In his synod address Bishop Lawrence compared the travails of the national Church to the situation faced by Paul in Corinth. “It would be insufferable to see this great Diocese of South Carolina come under the sway of the same false gospel that has decked so much of the Episcopal Church with decorative destruction and dreadful decline,” he said.
He stated that he had spoke with the Presiding Bishop over her hiring of an attorney to represent her interests in South Carolina. Bishop Lawrence said the Presiding Bishop “asserted once again what she has stated publicly on many occasions: that she has responsibility for the whole Church, that the property of the Episcopal Church must be protected and this is one of her duties.”
Bishop Lawrence noted the Presiding Bishop had “assumed” a duty not given her by the Church’s constitutions and canons.
“Unfortunately, after lengthy and respectful conversation, the presiding bishop and I stand looking at one another across a wide, deep and seemingly unbridgeable theological and canonical chasm,” he said, adding however that both were willing “to continue the conversation.
Lord Mandelson backs bishops in Lords: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 6. April 12, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, House of Lords.comments closed
Lord Mandelson
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The government’s plan to replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber has run into a roadblock within the Cabinet.
On March 23 the Minister for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Lord Mandelson, objected to plans put forward by Justice Secretary Jack Straw to have a wholly elected 300-member second chamber. Lord Mandelson, who is also a Church Commissioner, is understood to have expressed reservations concerning the reduced role of bishops in the restructured second chamber.
Under Mr Straw’s plan the bishops, as symbols of the established Church of England, would have voice, but no vote in the new “senate”. Other members of the Cabinet are believed to favour delaying plans for constitutional reform until the Labour Party manifesto is published.
In an interview with the Guardian published on March 29, Mr Straw said he would push ahead with Lords reform over Lord Mandelson’s objections, but would meet his Cabinet colleagues by placing the issue in the party manifesto.
“For the first time we will be able to go into the election with a clear and detailed set of proposals to replace the Lords with an elected second chamber,” he said.
“In terms of a debate which is 100 years old next year, this is a significant step, building on the way we have reformed the Lords since 1997.”
Under Mr Straw’s proposals, the second chamber would begin with the next general election, with the seats divided along European lines of proportional representation. However, voters would be allowed to choose from an “open list” from each party to fill the seats, rather than having candidates ranked by party leaders.
Labour’s first significant change to the House of Lords came in 1997 with the removal of most hereditary peers. Under a deal brokered by the government and the Conservative leader in the Lords, Lord Cranborne, a “rump” of 92 hereditary lords was kept in the upper house. Under the current plan, these remaining hereditary peers would lose their seats in the new chamber.
Mr Straw denied that the reform of the House of Lords was an electoral stunt, claiming that all parties had in principle backed an elected second chamber. David Cameron, who personally supports reform of the Lords, has not committed his party to constitutional change at this juncture.
There may not be a Conservative appetite for withdrawing the voting rights of the bishops in the second chamber, or the eventual disestablishment of the Church of England, which such a move would entail.
On Nov 25, Desmond Swayne MP told members of the Ecclesiastical Committee the Conservative Party was not in favour of relinquishing the crown’s prerogatives of choosing suffragan bishops.
According to a statement printed in Hansard, Mr Swayne said “as the Leader of the Opposition’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, I did ask him about [permitting the church to name suffragan bishops without reference to the government] this today and he is not content that this should be done.”
Mr Swayne objected to the arguments put forward by the Church of England and made clear that should the Conservative Party take power at the next election, it would not surrender the prerogatives of naming suffragan bishops. Whilst historically “two names have always been presented and the Prime Minister has chosen the first name, that does not mean that the choice was automatic,” he said.
He further dismissed objections that it was difficult for the church to present two names to the prime minister. “I fail to understand the difficulty if you have been through a selection process and an interview process and you have come up with a name and presumably someone who came close to it. I just do not accept that there is some difficulty in presenting the second name,” he said.
Police defy government minister to back Dr. Kunonga: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 8. April 11, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Dr. Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Zimbabwe’s security services have been ordered to back the former bishop of Harare, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga in his battle with the Church of the Province of Central Africa.
The decision has political ramifications within Zimbabwe, as it overrules orders issued by the Minister of Home Affairs directing the police to comply with the court rulings in the Kunonga affair.
On Palm Sunday the security services broke up an open air worship service held outside the Cathedral of St Mary’s and All Angels. Blocked from entering their churches by the police, Anglicans had been worshipping in the streets and public squares, however sources in Harare tell The Church of England Newspaper that Sunday’s services outside the Cathedral were blocked by the police.
An émigré Zimbabwe newspaper The Zimbabwe Times, which is published on the internet from the United States and edited by expatriate reporters, on March 28 reported that it had been given a copy of a directive ordering the police to permit only those clergy loyal to Dr. Kunonga to conduct services at Anglican churches in Harare.
Operational Order Number 8 of 2010 entitled “Anticipated Defiance of a High Court Order by Gandiya Faction Members” directs senior officers to deploy agents of the Police Internal Security and Intelligence (PISI) detachment to “all Anglican churches for intelligence gathering in their respective areas of policing.”
The “officer in charge” of each station is directed to “engage in dialogue with their local church leaders from both church factions to ensure that one church service is done under Kunonga.”
One station was directed to “deploy one stick of 15” police officers to “St Luke’s Greendale to barricade the entrance and ensure only the Kunonga faction is allowed to enter church.” The detachment was further order to “ensure that no other service is conducted after the Kunonga service has been conducted.”
The Church of England Newspaper could not confirm independently the veracity of the Zimbabwe Times’ report, however, our sources report that the police continue to defy a high court order directing Dr. Kunonga to share the use of church buildings with clergy and parishioners loyal to the Anglican bishop of Harare, Dr. Chad Gandiya.
In January, the Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa met with senior police officers and asked them to explain their conduct. However Mr. Mutsekwa is a member of the MDC party, a junior partner in the Zimbabwe collation government with ZANU-PF. The security services remain under the control of ZANU-PF and have so far refused to honour the rule of law and obey the courts or the government—reserving its loyalty to President Mugabe and his supporters.
In comments printed by the Zimbabwe Standard on Jan 24 before his meeting with police officials, Mr. Mutsekwa conceded that he was in a weak political position. “Remember, I issued a statement after our meeting last year but it appears nothing changed much so we will be meeting again,” the minister said.
“We are aware and concerned about what is happening,” he told the Standard and “I will be meeting with the Officer Commanding Harare Province to find out why this is still happening and also give him a directive to stop it,” he said in January. As of the end of Palm Sunday, the police have continued to ignore his authority.
Cyprus cemetery spat: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 7. April 11, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Greek Orthodox.comments closed
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew inspecting vandalized Orthodox tombs outside the Valukli Monastery in Turkey
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Claims the Church of England has been desecrating Greek Orthodox tombs to bury British ex-pats are patently untrue, the Anglican Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, the Rt. Rev. Michael Lewis declared last week.
While the claims of British colonizing of graveyards in Cyprus are false, concerns that British ex-pats are buying up property illegally confiscated from Greek Cypriots by the Turkish government following the 1974 invasion of the island appear well founded. Cypriot government leaders claim British buyers comprise over 90 per cent of the foreign buyers of property in the Turkish occupied North.
Buying land confiscated from Greek Cypriots by the Turks is a criminal offence in Cyprus and the Foreign Office has warned that British ex-pats buyers in Northern Cyprus may lose their investments once the island’s political divisions are resolved.
On March 23 the English-language Cyprus Mail reported that Dr. Charalambous Chotzakoglou, Professor of Byzantine Art and Archeology at the Hellenic Open University and director of the Kykkos Monastery Museum in Cyprus had accused the Anglican Church of desecrating Orthodox graves in a cemetery in the Turkish occupied zone.
The British had exhumed Greek bodies from the cemetery in the popular holiday resort of Kyrenia, smashing tombstones and religious monuments to bury British ex-pats “who no longer fit in the nearby British cemetery.”
“This is an unacceptable insult to the memory of the dead and an intolerable act of the Anglican Church in Cyprus, which in the free areas enjoys the full freedom and benefit of the Church of Cyprus and the Cyprus Republic,” Prof. Chotzakoglou said.
Bishop Lewis responded that “at no time, past or present, has there been any act of the Anglican Church in Cyprus that has affected the graves or bodies of faithful departed Orthodox in Kyrenia or anywhere else, by moving existing graves to bury British residents.”
“As Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, I am absolutely committed to promoting respect for the remains and memorials of the dead. They are of utmost sanctity,” he said in a written statement.
An aide to the bishop stated that in 1979 the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Kyrenia had given permission to the Church of England to bury British ex-pats in an unused portion of the cemetery. The destroyed funeral monuments cited by the professor, the aide said, were victims of the Turkish invasion of 1974. In 2005, the rubble of broken headstones was picked up and piled in a corner of the graveyard.
The aide noted that the British Cemeteries Commission, not the Anglican Church, is responsible for burying British dead in the Kyrenia cemetery.
In 2007 Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis told British MPs that 95 per cent of the sales of property illegally confiscated from Greek Cypriots in the North were to British buyers. The Foreign Office has subsequently warned British buyers to take care when investing in land in North Cyprus.
Purchase of confiscated properties “could have serious financial and legal implications,” the Foreign Office warned as the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in a number of cases that owners of property in northern Cyprus before 1974 continue to be regarded as the legal owners of that property.
The Foreign Office noted that a 2006 Cypriot law made the “buying, selling, renting, promoting or mortgaging a property without the permission of the owner,” including property confiscated from Greek Cypriots, a criminal offence.
Kenyan ‘no’ to abortion and Sharia law: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 8. April 11, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abortion/Euthanasia/Biotechnology, Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Islam.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Kenya’s church leaders have warned that any accommodation of Sharia law or abortion in the nation’s proposed constitution will lead to its rejection by the nation’s Christians at the ballot box.
On March 18 the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and other church groups released a statement saying that carving out a place for Sharia law and Kadhi Courts for Muslims within the judicial system was unacceptable.
The constitutional reform process had “consistently ignored the views of the Christian Community in Kenya” in preparing the new national charter, they said, noting that such a tactic would ensure the “draft is rejected” when put to a national referendum.
The church leader’s objections centered round Islam and abortion. The first draft of the constitution had contained two clauses: “that state and religion shall be separate,” and “that the state shall treat all religions equally.” This had been replaced by the clause “there shall be no state religion.”
Such an amendment was acceptable, provided the other two clauses were added back into the constitution. They also objected to Article 24(4) which would exempt Muslims from the protections of the Bill of Rights.
“The Church believes that no person should be denied or exempted from the provisions of the Bill of Rights whatsoever,” they said. Exempting Muslims from the protections of the Bill of Rights and giving them their own system of government-funded Khadhi Courts that were governed by Sharia law was “unacceptable.”
“If the Proposed Constitution shall contain any reference to Kadhis Courts, we shall reject the draft in total,” they warned.
“Providing for Kadhis Courts alone in a multi-religious society is a recipe for chaos, is repugnant to justice,” they said. However “in the interest of justice for all Kenyans and in consideration of the need for Kenya to get a new constitution,” Christians would agree to giving “religious courts” jurisdiction over “personal status, marriage, divorce and inheritance” when all parties to the dispute agreed to submit to their private arbitration.
Church leaders also asked that the constitution plainly state that abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia be outlawed. Speaking to the press on March 24, Cardinal John Njue has said that Christians will continue to lobby the government on these three issues.
The cardinal said this during an ecumenical meeting also attended by members of parliament at a Nairobi hotel on Wednesday March 24, 2010.
The “fight against abortion is the fight for family,” the cardinal said.
Orange Order denounces planned papal visit: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 6. April 10, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Orange Order has denounced the planned state visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain, saying that by receiving the Pope in his official capacity, the British government was recognizing the theological claims of Rome.
In a statement released on March 24, the Grand Lodge of Ireland of the Orange Order said the “Pope claims himself to be the vicar of Christ on earth, a title which assumes supreme and universal supremacy both in honour and jurisdiction over all – church, state, the world. Any who would welcome him are in danger of appearing to acknowledge his primacy and universal supremacy in all of these matters.”
The Protestant fraternal organization asked that its members “pray for a visitation to our land, not by the vicar of Christ, the holy father, as the Pope claims himself to be, but by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit.
Benedict’s visit, however, would be an opportunity for Protestants to see the errors of Rome, the Grand Lodge noted. “We take this opportunity to call on all the people of our land to examine the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, especially on the matter of eternal salvation, and to see that the teaching of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church is at total variance with the Biblical message that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone,” it said.
The Grand Lodge called upon all Orangemen to “demonstrate their opposition to the Pope’s visit to England and Scotland, and to oppose any future invitation to visit Northern Ireland.
Founded in September 1795, following a clash between Protestants and Catholics in County Armagh, in what became known as the ‘Battle of the Diamond,’ the Orange Order has attracted criticism from the Catholic community in Northern Ireland, who tend to regard its parades and annual “Twelfth of July” demonstrations to commemorate the victory of the Protestant William of Orange over the Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 as sectarian and triumphalistic.
The order’s response to its critics is that they support the same freedoms and religious liberties for others that they seek for themselves.
In a statement given to The Church of England Newspaper on March 29, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Alan Harper noted that Benedict “comes to Great Britain at the invitation of the United Kingdom government. He should therefore be accorded all the respect and courtesy customarily extended to a visiting Head of State.
“He also comes as the spiritual leader of a church with many adherents in the United Kingdom and his visit should be welcomed as offering pastoral and spiritual encouragement to the Roman Catholic community of Great Britain as well as an opportunity for renewed dialogue and spiritual reflection between Roman Catholics and other denominations, including Anglicans.”
The Primate of All-Ireland added that he was “unaware of any current plans for a papal visit to Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland but it is my prayer that mutual respect and tolerance may govern all relationships between the Churches in Ireland as we seek to build a reconciled and peaceful society.”
Indian bishop suspended over corruption allegations: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2010 April 8, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Manickam Dorai
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Executive Committee of the Church of South India (CSI) has sent the Bishop of Coimbatore on a two month leave of absence, pending an investigation by church auditors of the diocese’s accounts.
On April 7, The Hindu reported that Bishop Manickam Dorai would surrender his episcopal authority to the Rt. Rev. Paul Vasantha Kumar, Bishop of Tiruchi and Thanjavur while the investigation is underway. Last month Bishop Dorai, two of his brothers and the former diocesan secretary along with 27 others were accused of stealing over £335,000 from diocesan coffers.
On March 8 detectives arrested the former secretary of the Diocese of Coimbatore, D.S. Amirtham, charging him with diverting pensions funds. In January Mr. Amirtham came under police scrutiny after threatening to kill the Rt. Rev. William Moses, the former Moderator of the CSI and Bishop of Coimbatore after the bishop supported a complaint filed by members of the diocese charging the bishop and his cronies with looting the diocese of 30 million rupees.
Mr. Amirtham has been granted bail and has been released on parole, while Bishop Dorai last year denied all charges. The bishop has been helping the Coimbatore Criminal Branch-CID with their investigations.
Bishop Vasantha Kumar has called special meetings of the diocese’s finance committee and executive committee this month to take stock of its fiscal and legal situation. He told The Express newspaper his oversight of Coimbatore was a “stopgap” measure and asked that members of the church withhold judgment until the investigative process had run its course.
Christian Aid denies it was duped into financing the Ethiopian civil war: The Church of England Newspaper, March 31, 2010. April 8, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, NGOs.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Christian Aid has disputed claims made in BBC documentary that 95 per cent of funds sent to Ethiopia for famine relief in the 1980’s were used by rebels to purchase arms.
“We are confident that aid got to millions of people who needed it,” the aid agency said last week.
“It would be wrong to claim that no money was ever diverted in such a situation of active conflict. However, the uncorroborated allegation, made by a former rebel leader in the BBC report, that 95 percent of $100 million aid for famine victims in Tigray in 1985 was misused is grossly inflated. There is no credible evidence that this figure – or any figure remotely close to it – is accurate,” a statement released by Christian Aid said.
On March 3, Martin Plaut of the BBC reported that former rebel leaders claimed that almost all of the £63m raised by charities including Band Aid—the relief effort led by pop star Bob Geldof, was used to purchase arms. A former Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel leader, Gebremedhin Araya, who currently lives in Australia, told the BBC that guerillas tricked aid agencies into financing the Ethiopian civil war.
The BBC also cited a 1985 CIA report that concluded “some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes.”
Christian Aid, Oxfram, Save the Children and other NGOs poured millions of dollars into Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea in the mid 1980’s to combat one of Africa’s severest man-made famines. Christian Aid said that “money sent to Ethiopia in the mid eighties saved hundred of thousands of lives. The British public should feel justifiably proud of the very generous contribution they made to this.”
“We welcome public scrutiny of aid distribution and media investigations including those by the BBC,” Christian Aid said.
However, the claims made in the report were “absurd.”
“Christian Aid’s experienced emergency team on the ground imposed stringent assessment criteria and the use of all donated money was carefully monitored through progress reports and rigorous accounting,” Max Peberdy of Christian Aid said.
“These claims are outrageous and very damaging and there is far more evidence that the money was channeled to where it should have been than there is for these inaccurate allegations,” said Peberdy, whom the BBC claimed was one of the aid officials duped by rebels.
Band Aid’s Penny Jenden stated, “If this money had been diverted to rebels and not used to buy food you would have had thousands of people lying dead at the side of the road. The fact that there was no major death toll or mass migration clearly demonstrates that the money was not diverted.”
A dozen dead in new round of Nigerian sectarian clashes: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 8. April 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Persecution.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Sporadic attacks against Christians are continuing across Nigeria’s Plateau State, the Archbishop of Jos reports.
A week after 500 Christians were murdered in an attack on three villages outside of Jos, twelve Christians in the village of Byei near Jos were murdered by Muslim Fulani tribesmen during the night of March 17.
The “attackers spoke in Fulfulde, Hausa and English during the attack as they directed one another during the two deadly hours,” Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi said. Most of the victims: two men, four children and six women—two of whom were pregnant—were killed in their beds, he said.
“The attackers slashed and took out the tongues of two of the victims,” the archbishop reported, stating that “once more, villagers are left traumatized and the entire community is in mourning.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide National Director, Stuart Windsor condemned the latest round of violence stating “innocent men, women and children” have been “brutally murdered in their homes merely because of their religious affiliation.”
He questioned the Nigerian government’s ability to control the situation noting that some of the attackers in the March 17 massacre were dressed in army fatigues.
“The fact that these latest attackers were allegedly in military attire begs serious questions over whether army units currently stationed in Plateau State are truly capable of providing protection. We call on the federal government to initiate an immediate review of the army’s continuing failure to provide adequate safety for vulnerable Nigerian citizens, and to urgently investigate allegations of complicity on the part of elements of the armed forces,” he said.
Archbishop Kwashi called for prayer for the Plateau State. “People are fast losing confidence on the soldiers sent to protect them. Pray that they do not begin to take alternative measures to defend themselves and their families,” he said.
No decision on the Covenant from Australia: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 8. April 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The proposed Anglican Covenant requires careful study, the bishops of the Anglican Church of Australia concluded at their annual meeting last week in Safety Bay in Western Australia. However, the complexities of the issues involved and the unique polity of the Australian Church will prevent a quick decision.
Australia’s 40 bishops met for three days near Perth last week for the church’s annual House of Bishops meeting. Discussions ranged from the Covenant to plans for another national “Back to Church Sunday”. The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane stated the bishops were pleased with the results of last September’s “Back to Church Sunday”.
“Last year at our meeting on the Gold Coast bishops agreed to hold the event. It went ahead in September and the feedback was impressive. Australia-wide we welcomed thousands of new comers to services as well as many who decided to return after an absence.
“So strong was the support that bishops have agreed to hold the nation-wide event in September for the next three years,” Dr. Aspinall said.
The bishops believe it is a “good initiative which highlights the importance people put on being warmly welcomed to Church on a specific day. Our challenge is to ensure new and returning people feel that they can become a regular part of their local parish family and enjoy worship and fellowship on a more regular basis.”
Discussions of the needs of indigenous ministry, as well as programmes for experimenting with different ‘Models of Ministry’ were discussed, as was the Covenant. However, Australia’s federated national church structure that gives a high degree of independence to the dioceses, militates against a quick adoption of the document.
“There are implications for the Anglican Church of Australia if we sign up to the Covenant and that’s why the bishops thought that any decision should not be rushed,” Dr Aspinall said.
El Salvador archbishop survives assassination attempt: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 8. April 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, La Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America, Persecution, Politics.comments closed
Archbishop Martin Barahona of El Salvador
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Central America has survived an assassination attempt, the Diocese of El Salvador reports. The attack on Archbishop Martin Barahona comes as preparations are underway to mark the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.
According to Salvadorian press reports, the attack took place on the evening of March 17 in the Colonia Santa Mónica, a gated community in the town of Santa Tecla, some 10 miles outside of the capital San Salvador.
Archbishop Barahona had dropped off a church musician at his home at approximately 8:30 pm, when a man approached the car, which was parked across from a police station. The unidentified gunman fired a pistol at the car, wounding the chauffer but missing the archbishop. He then fled on foot. The police did not respond to the shooting.
Diocesan spokesman Susan Barrera said the bishop was in “shock, traumatized and saddened by this assassination attempt against him.”
Speculation in the Salvadorian press that the attack was a botched assassination and not merely a failed robbery centers on the location of the attack; in a walled community across from a police station; the inexplicable failure of the police to respond to the shooting; and because no robbery was attempted.
El Salvador is in the midst of gang and narcotics fueled crime spree. Over the previous weekend of March 13/14 police reported 46 murders in the country.
However, the attack on Archbishop Barahona has political overtones as it comes amidst preparations marking the 30th anniversary of the murder of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, Msgr. Oscar Romero, by gunmen linked to a right-wing paramilitary group.
On March 18 the archbishop met with the attorney general of El Salvador, Oscar Luna. Speaking to the press after his meeting, the archbishop said he asked the attorney general to “supervise” the investigation of the “attempted assassination.”
Attorney General Luna denounced the attack, telling La Prensa Grafica that while violence was plaguing the country, this attacking has a “particular connotation” as the victim as a churchman and “because we are celebrating 30 years of martyrdom of Archbishop Romero.”
The attorney general pledged to “monitor” the investigation and vowed to work closely with the police to bring the gunman to justice.
Cape Town’s corruption plea: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 7. April 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Corruption.comments closed
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Cape Town has denounced the abuse of racial set aside programmes for enriching a few politically connected blacks at the expense of the poor in a sermon commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre.
Speaking on March 21 at St Cyprian’s Church in Sharpeville, a black township outside Johannesburg and the site of one of the foundational moments in the anti-apartheid campaign, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba condemned the government for its “sweetheart” deals that enriched corrupt party leaders.
“There are reports which suggest” the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) stood to “receive vast sums, perhaps billions” in profits and kickbacks from state construction projects let under the terms of the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations, implemented in 2003 that give preference in government contracting to companies with black shareholders and management.
“The legality of this, if true, is certainly suspect at best. More than this, it is a fundamental abuse of all that good governance entails. It is completely unacceptable, and a blatant abuse of power, if government is both referee and player in such games of wheeler dealing, acting for its own self-interest,” he said.
“I feel it is my responsibility to use the opportunities the office of Archbishop gives me, to be God’s instrument for justice, especially economic freedom and equal opportunity for all, and not merely the well-connected few, in these matters.”
This blatant government corruption made a mockery of the sacrifices of the anti-apartheid campaigns, the archbishop said in his sermon commemorating the dead of Sharpeville.
On March 21, 1960 a crowd of approximately 7,000 people gathered by the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) converged upon the township’s police station, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their government mandated pass books.
As the day progressed the crowd grew to 20,000 and the 20 police on duty called for reinforcements. A police detachment of 130 arrived to assist in crowd control supported by four Saracen armoured cars. When police attempted to arrest some protesters, rocks were thrown and the crowd moved towards the police station. An investigation after the incident found that an ill-trained policeman panicked and fired his sub-machine gun, prompting other police to open fire at the sound of gun shots. When the shooting ended, 69 people lay dead.
“The events of Sharpeville, 50 years ago, are a living testimony to the truth” of God’s promise that he can bring good out of evil, the archbishop said.
“What happened that day was terrible,” he said. “Lives were lost, or shattered forever. This we must not forget.”
“Yet it was also a turning point, a milestone, on the journey towards justice, towards freedom from oppression, towards opportunity for everyone,” Archbishop Makgoba said.
Episcopal Church backs “Obamacare”: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 8. April 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Health/HIV-AIDS, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Bishop Eugene Sutton of Maryland
Episcopal Church leaders have applauded the passage of US President Barack Obama’s health care bill. The Episcopal Church had joined with other advocacy groups in backing the controversial legislation, which critics charge will nationalize the American health care system.
“For 2,000 years followers of Jesus have been at the forefront of efforts to provide for the health and well being of all people. We do this because the law of love compels us to care for everyone,” the Bishop of Maryland, the Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton told the Episcopal News Service after the vote.
Writing from the House of Bishops meeting in Texas, Bishop Sutton conceded that “people of good will” have disagreed about “some controversial” provisions of the 3000-page bill. A majority of Americans opposed passage of the bill which was passed on a party line vote.
However, “Christians everywhere should rejoice that our society has taken a major step toward ensuring that all citizens have adequate and equitable access to health care without fear that sickness will result in their financial ruin,” said Bishop Sutton.
Roman Catholic and Evangelical leaders have been harshly critical of the bill. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Denver, Msgr. Charles Chaput denounced the process by which the bill was passed as a “failure of decent lawmaking.” No Republicans in the US Senate or House supported the bill, which passed on a vote of 219-212 after a group of Catholic “pro-life” Democrat congressmen voted “yes” in the wake of intense pressure from the White House.
The legislation was “unethical and defective on all of the issues pressed by the [Catholic] bishops and prolife groups,” Archbishop Chaput said.
The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations and the Episcopal Public Policy Network had lobbied lawmakers to pass the Democrat bill, and sent emails to Episcopalians across the country urging them to contact their congressmen to back health care reform.
The Episcopal Church’s national office endorsed a Feb 24 letter prepared by the Faithful Reform in Healthcare coalition that urged legislators to “complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who are left out and left behind in our current health care system,” and pass the Democrat health care bill.
“We now stand closer than ever before to historic health care reform. Turning back now could mean justice delayed for another generation and an unprecedented opportunity lost,” they argued.
“Let us not delay health care justice any longer. This is your moment for political courage, vision, leadership and faith,” the letter said.
Ignore Col. Gaddafi, Archbishop Akinola urges Nigeria: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 6. April 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.comments closed
Archbishop Peter Akinola urged Nigerians to reject Col. Gaddafi's call for the partition of Nigeria along religious lines
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church and state leaders in Nigeria have denounced Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s call for the partition of Nigeria along sectarian lines. The Nigerian government has recalled its ambassador from Tripoli, while Archbishop Peter Akinola told reporters “I have said it many times that Gaddafi is not a reasonable person, and I want to advise that we should ignore him.”
In a March 16 speech to students, the Libyan strongman said Nigeria should emulate India and Pakistan and partition the country in order to end sectarian strife.
Dividing the country into a Muslim north and Christian south “would stop the bloodshed and burning of places of worship,” the Jana state news agency quoted him as saying.
Speaking in response to the latest round of sectarian violence that has left almost 500 people dead around the Plateau State city of Jos, Col. Gaddafi said the dispute was a “deep conflict of religious nature.”
Responsibility for the violence ultimately rested with Britain, which “made and imposed” a federated state for Nigeria “in spite of the people’s resistance to it.”
Col. Gaddafi suggested dividing the country into a two new countries: a Muslim state in the North with its capital in Abuja and a Christian state in the South centered in Lagos. Both countries could share the nation’s oil revenue (found in the South) while establishing independent sectarian and ethnic governments.
Col. Gaddafi said the 1947 partition of India was a “historic, radical solution,” that created two stable nation states and saved the lives of “millions of Hindus and Muslims.”
Estimates of the dead in the sectarian violence that followed the partition of British India ranged from 200,000 up to 1 million; with 12.5 million people fleeing their homes after finding themselves on the wrong side of the border upon independence.
On March 18, the Nigerian Foreign Ministry released a statement saying it was recalling its ambassador because of the “irresponsible utterances of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, his theatrics and grandstanding at every auspicious occasion have become too numerous to recount.”
While the Nigerian government welcomed “well-meaning comments from concerned members of the international community,” its “sovereignty” and the “territorial integrity” of Nigeria were “sacrosanct and non-negotiable.”
Speaking to reporters on March 18 following a ceremony dedicating St James Anglican Church in Ilorin, in the Diocese of Kwara, Archbishop Akinola said the Libyan leader’s comments displayed an ignorance of the Nigerian scene.
“How can you be calling for the splitting of Nigeria into separate Christian and Muslim countries when you have Christians who are indigenes of the north and Muslims who are indigenes of the south,” Punch newspaper quoted him as saying.
Col. Gaddafi was “known for making outrageous and inflammable remarks. I think it will be better if he sits down quietly,” the archbishop said.
Secession remains a sensitive political topic in Nigeria. In 1967 the Igbo-speaking southeastern region attempted to secede, sparking the three-year Biafra War that left over a million dead. With over 300 ethnic and cultural groups in Nigeria, the Church of Nigeria has supported the federated model of government, and has placed a high priority on creating a national identity for the country’s citizens that supersedes tribal or ethnicity.
Government confirms bishops may vote in general elections: The Church of England Newspaper, March 24, 2010 April 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, House of Lords.comments closed
Lord Bach, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice (Lab.)
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Bishops are free to vote in general elections, the government told Parliament last week.
The question of episcopal suffrage arose during questions in the House of Lords over the government’s plans for a reformed second chamber.
On March 16 Viscount Tenby asked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Lord Back whether the government planned to change the law to allow peers who are members of the House of Lords to vote in general elections.
Lord Bach stated the government’s 2008 White Paper on House of Lords reforms proposed that members of a “reformed second chamber should be able to vote in elections both to the House of Commons and to the reformed second chamber.”
Viscount Tenby responded that as the government was planning on restoring the vote to felons in prison, only the insane and peers would not have the right to vote in general elections.
“With so much dissension about the constitutional reform of this House across and among parties, would not the Government welcome the chance to bring in a relatively easy amendment that would command support on all sides of the House” to give peers the right to vote?, he asked.
Lord Bach responded the government was not inclined to take up the issue at this time as “provisions on voting in general elections are best dealt with in the context of a fully reformed second chamber.”
The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds rose to ask Lord Bach whether under current law, was it “in order for Lords spiritual, who are not Peers, to vote in general elections?”
Lord Bach stated “There is no bar to the Lords spiritual voting in parliamentary elections. However, I understand that it has long been the tradition that they do not do so.”
Bishops who are seated in the House of Lords “are not Peers,” but “they none the less sit in this House and can therefore participate in person in the proceedings of Parliament instead of being represented in the House of Commons. There is no legal bar to the Lords spiritual voting in a general election; it is very much a matter for them,” Lord Bach said.
Glasspool election will have consequences, Dr. Williams warns: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010, p 5. April 3, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Los Angeles.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The affirmation of the election of a second gay bishop by the Episcopal Church will have profound consequences for the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury has declared.
In a terse statement released on March 18 on behalf of Dr. Rowan Williams, Lambeth Palace said it was “regrettable that the appeals from Anglican Communion bodies for continuing gracious restraint have not been heeded.”
The Office of Public Affairs of the Episcopal Church announced on March 17 that Canon Glasspool, a partnered gay priest elected Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles on Dec 5, had received the consents, or the approval of a majority of the Episcopal Church’s 110 dioceses and diocesan bishops. Under US canon law, a bishop’s election must be endorsed by a simple majority of bishops and dioceses within 120 days of formal notice of the election.
Lambeth Palace noted the US church had acted contrary to the entireties of the wider communion in approving Canon Glasspool as bishop. “Following the Los Angeles election in December the Archbishop made clear that the outcome of the consent process would have important implications for the Communion. The Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion re-iterated these concerns in its December resolution which called for the existing moratoria to be upheld.”
“Further consultation will now take place about the implications and consequences of this decision,” the statement concluded.
US Church approves election of second gay bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010, p 1. April 3, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Los Angeles.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The bishops of the Episcopal Church have repudiated the Anglican Communion’s moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops, and have affirmed the election of Canon Mary Glasspool as Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles.
On March 17, the Episcopal Church’s Office of Public Affairs announced that Canon Glasspool had received the support of a majority of the 110 diocesan standing committees and diocesan bishops in the church. She will be consecrated on May 15 by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
A spokesman for the Presiding Bishop’s Office in New York declined to state how many bishops endorsed Canon Glasspool’s election. “There was a majority,” Neva Rae Fox told The Church of England Newspaper. “As in previous bishop elections, there are no plans to release the list of bishops.”
In a statement released through by the Diocese of Los Angeles, Canon Glasspool stated she was “profoundly grateful for the many people — in Los Angeles, in Maryland, and around the world — who have given their prayers, love, and support during this time of discernment.”
She stated she was “also aware that not everyone rejoices in this election and consent,” but added she “will work, pray, and continue to extend my own hands and heart to bridge those gaps, and strengthen the bonds of affection among all people, in the Name of Jesus Christ.”
The Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno thanked those bishops and dioceses who had endorsed the election for their support. “These historic elections bring the first women to the episcopate in the Diocese of Los Angeles. I give thanks for this, and that the standing committees and bishops have demonstrated through their consents that the Episcopal Church, by canon, creates no barrier for ministry on the basis of gender and sexual orientation, among other factors.”
One of two suffragan bishops elected at the diocese’s Dec 4-5 convention, the 120-day consent process for Canon Glasspool’s election began on Jan 5. On March 8, the diocese announced that it had received notice that 61 dioceses had endorsed her election; 56 were needed for election.
Canon Diane Bruce, the other suffragan bishop elected at last year’s convention, whose consent process was started on Jan 8, received a majority of consents from both the bishops and dioceses by Feb 17, Los Angeles reported. Canon Glasspool’s episcopal support was not as quick in coming, and a majority of votes were only received in the run up to the March 19 House of Bishops meeting in Texas.
At the time of her election, Canon Glasspool (56) served as canon to the ordinary or assistant to the Bishop of Maryland. The daughter of an Episcopal priest, Canon Glasspool was educated at Dickinson College and trained for the ministry at the Episcopal Divinity School.
Ordained to the diaconate in 1981 and priesthood in 1982, she has served as a parish priest, lecturer, and administrator in her 28 years of ordained ministry. She has lived with a partner, Becki Sander, for the past 19 years.
Archbishop calls for US conservatives to break with Episcopal Church: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 7. April 3, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Los Angeles.comments closed
Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Now is the time for the dwindling band of faithful bishops and dioceses in the Episcopal Church to distinguish themselves from those who have repudiated the Anglican Communion’s moratorium on gay bishops and blessings, the Archbishop of Sydney stated last night.
In a statement given to The Church of England Newspaper on March 17 after news of the successful election of a second gay bishop was released by the Episcopal Church’s Office of Public Affairs, Dr. Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney and Secretary of the Gafcon movement, stated that a kairos moment was at hand.
“It is now absolutely clear” the Episcopal Church had “formally committed itself to a pattern of life which is contrary to Scripture. The election of Bishop Robinson in 2003 was not an aberration to be corrected in due course. It was a true indication of the heart of the Church and the direction of its affairs,” he said.
Some reactions to the Episcopal Church’s breach of the communion’s doctrine and discipline had been “dramatic and decisive, such as the creation of the Anglican Church of North America, an ecclesiastical body recognized by the GAFCON Primates as genuinely Anglican.”
“For others, however, the counsels of patience have prevailed and they have sought a change of heart and waited patiently for it to occur,” he said. The moment of decision was fast approaching for the Communion Partners group and other moderates and conservatives remaining within the Episcopal Church.
“Those who have sought a middle course may be found both inside and outside the American Church,” he said as the affirmation of Canon Glasspool’s election was a “decisive moment for this ‘middle’ group. Their patience has been gentle and praiseworthy. But to wait longer would not be patience – it would be obstinacy or even an unworthy anxiety.”
The center and right within the Episcopal Church, and the Episcopal Church’s remaining allies outside the US, presumably including the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, need to be “clear” on two points: “First, that they are unambiguously opposed to a development which sanctifies sin and which is an abrogation of the word of the living God. Second, that they will take sufficient action to distance themselves from those who have chosen to walk in the path of disobedience,” Dr. Jensen said.
Matters may come to a head at the April 19-23 Fourth Anglican Global South to South encounter in Singapore. A majority of primates or their representatives from the communion are expected to attend the invitation-only conference at St Andrew’s Cathedral. Dr. Williams is expected to attend, though as of our going to press his office could not confirm he would be present.
At least three bishops from the American Communion partners group in the US, the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe of Central Florida, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence of South Carolina, and the Rt. Rev. Paul Lambert, Suffragan Bishop of Dallas, along with the Rev. Charles Alley, rector of St Matthews Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia have been invited to attend the gathering—as has the Most Rev. Robert Duncan, Archbishop of the ACNA.
The call for conservatives to come out or to distinguish themselves from the actions of the majority faction within the Episcopal Church will likely be a topic of discussion at the meeting.
Archbishops’ call to cancel fighter contract: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2010 p 8. April 3, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Sweden.comments closed
Gripen fighters flying over Table Mountain in Cape Town
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in South Africa and Sweden have called for an independent investigation of allegations of kickbacks and corruption in the wake of a multi-billion pound arms deal.
Archbishops Thabo Makgoba and Desmond Tutu have challenged the ANC government to suspend the deal, which they say will institutionalize a culture of corruption in South Africa that will derail the country’s transition to democracy.
The two governments are expected to sign a £3.8 billion arms agreement this month that will provide advanced military hardware to South Africa including the Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter-bomber.
However, Archbishops Makgoba and Tutu, the former Archbishop of Uppsala K.G. Hammar and the head of the Swedish Baptist Union Karin Wiborn have charged that the funds spent on arms by South Africa would be better spent on social development.
The four church leaders have also warned the arms deal would provide a further opportunity for graft and corruption in the scandal plagued ANC government in Pretoria.
The South African Air Force has already begun taking delivery of seven of the twenty-eight new generation fighters. The £1.9 billion deal for fighter aircraft had won the approval of South Africa’s parliament, which was told that 65,000 jobs would be created to support and equip the new fighters.
These claims of jobs were illusory and the moral consequences of the sale were troubling, the four church leaders wrote in letters published on March 28 in the Times of South Africa and in Stockholm’s Dagens Nyheter.
“It is disgraceful how the armaments lobby abused the goodwill created out of the many years of solidarity against the racist apartheid government to sell the Gripen fighter aircraft,” they charged.
“The absurdity of these contracts is confirmed by the reality that South Africa now even seems to lack the capacity to properly maintain the procured jet fighters. We now call for the cancellation of the remaining contracts, and for a refund of expenditures already paid,” they said.
“Unfortunately the South African government succumbed to economically absurd arguments and pressure from European governments that the arms deal would create over 65000 jobs and thus stimulate the economy. These promises have so far turned out to be mainly empty words.”
They called upon the South African government to set up an independent judicial inquiry to investigate allegations of corruption and kickbacks in the arms deal, and asked Sweden to “co-operate fully in these inquiries” and “suspend the sale of arms to South Africa until the review process is complete.”
The four church leaders challenged their governments to “reveal how public resources have been misused. Errors must be corrected and, as modern democracies, our countries must have the courage to thoroughly investigate what really happened.”
12 US Bishops reject Glasspool: The Church of England Newspaper, March 26, 2010 p 6. April 3, 2010
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Twelve US bishops have released a statement of dissociation from the confirmation of the election of Canon Mary Glasspool as Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles by the Episcopal Church.
On March 19, the “Communion Partners” group of conservative and moderate bishops and clergy released a statement of “profound sorrow” of the announcement that a majority of US bishops had backed Canon Glasspool’s election. They offered their “deepest regret” to the wider Anglican Communion “for the action of the majority of the diocesan bishops and standing committees of the dioceses of the Episcopal Church in voting to consent to the consecration as a bishop of a woman living in a sexual relationship outside Christian marriage.”
“Unfortunately, where restraint was respectfully requested by the leadership of the Communion, it has been ignored. Where the General Convention has counseled study of the Anglican Covenant, this action has rendered that counsel moot,” the twelve bishops and six clergy leaders said.
The Communion Partners would “disassociate ourselves from this action,” they said and lamented the divisions it had caused within the church.
The resulting split was “a witness to the need for the Anglican Covenant as the means through which dioceses and congregations in The Episcopal Church can affirm their commitment to the Anglican Communion,” the said.
Three of the signers of the statement, the Bishops of Central Florida and South Carolina, and the rector of St Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, will be attending the Singapore meeting of the Global South coalition, where the Glasspool election is expected to figure prominently in the debates over the future direction of the communion.
