Nigerian election violence pre-planned, archbishop charges: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 7. May 31, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.comments closed
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The post election pogroms against Christians in Northern Nigeria were part of an orchestrated campaign to discredit the country’s democratic institutions and open the door for the return of military rule, the Archbishop of Nigeria has claimed.
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh urged Nigerians not to give up on democracy in the face of violence. “I wish to commend Nigerians for their sense of duty in turning out in large numbers, first to register, and later to cast their votes. And they did it peacefully! In the three elections already held, the people were determined to get it right,” he said.
On April 19 President Goodluck Jonathan was returned to office beating his main challenger Gen. Muhammadu Buhari by about 10 million votes. On May 23 the Commonwealth Secretariat in London stated that last month’s general election—the third since the end of military rule— had “met the national, regional and international standards for democratic elections” and were “credible and creditable.
However, after the polls closed, more than 800 people were killed and 65,000 were driven from their homes, Human Rights Watch said on May 16. The violence in Northern Nigeria was focused on the Christian minority the Barnabas Fund reported, noting that 194 churches had been destroyed.
However, the violence was not a spontaneous reaction to the Jonathan victory, Archbishop Okoh charged. “I wish to say clearly that the recent killings, looting, burning, harassment of Nigerians in the North have no bearing with the largely peaceful, transparent and credible elections just conducted. It seems that the crisis had been planned to take place irrespective of the credibility and integrity of the elections and their results.”
The archbishop called on the government “not to gloss over the crisis, but to establish the root cause, the instigators, perpetrators and active participants and their motives and intensions, with a view to bringing justice upon them.”
Human Rights Watch echoed the archbishop’s call. “The April elections were heralded as among the fairest in Nigeria’s history but they also were among the bloodiest,” the NGO said in a statement released by its West Africa office.
“The newly elected authorities should quickly build on the democratic gains from the elections by bringing to justice those who orchestrated these horrific crimes and addressing the root causes of the violence,” the NGO said.
Archbishop Okoh urged political leaders to place the needs of the country ahead of party interests. “I wish to plead with all winners to show restraint and humility in victory. I wish to appeal to all those who lost in the elections to take it in the spirit of sportsmanship and hope for another opportunity. We call upon all winners and losers as well as the generality of Nigerians to pray for a new dawn in our nation,” the archbishop said.
Jerusalem hearing for Bishop Dawani cancelled: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 8. May 30, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Israel.comments closed
Bishop Suheil Dawani
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The May 18 court hearing to review the Israeli government’s refusal to renew the residency permit of the Bishop in Jerusalem has been postponed, following a motion by the Attorney General of Israel to move the case to the country’s Supreme Court.
Bishop Suheil Dawani reports the original hearing was to have been held in the Jerusalem District Court last week. However, government prosecutors filed a motion for a change of venue.
In August 2010, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior declined to renew the bishop and his family’s residency papers. The government claimed the bishop had been engaged in fraudulent land deals on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Bishop Dawani and his family were ordered to leave the country, “immediately.”
The bishop has denied the allegations, protesting his innocence. After the Ministry of the Interior declined to respond to the bishop’s letters, his lawyers initiated legal action in February.
International and domestic political pressure has been brought to bear in support of the bishop. On April 6, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, the umbrella organization for the Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops of the Armenian Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Maronite, Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Churches released a statement in support of Bishop Dawani.
The Heads of Churches said they “strongly support the religious freedom rights” of Bishop Dawani, adding they were “deeply concerned by the precedent of the attempt to deny residency in Jerusalem by the Israeli authorities to a leader of one of the Churches of this Holy City.”
In a written statement released on March 28, Foreign Office minister Lord Howell stated the government was “very concerned” by the revocation of Bishop Dawani’s residency permit, adding that Foreign Secretary William Hague had “raised this with the Prime Minister of Israel.”
Private representations have also been made on the bishop’s behalf by the US government, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi of Israel and other Anglican leaders with the Prime Minister’s office, but so far have had no effect on the dispute.
No date has yet been scheduled for the Supreme Court hearing.
Mugabe regime pulling back from Dr Kunonga?: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 7. May 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa.comments closed
Dr. Nolbert Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
British agents are out gunning for him the breakaway bishop of Harare, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga, told his supporters last week, seeking to kill him in retaliation for his support for Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe.
However, the government may be tiring of the controversial bishop, as an article in the state-run Sunday Mail printed on May 22 predicted a rapprochement between Dr. Kunonga and the Anglican Church may be in hand, a sign Zimbabwe-watchers note, that some in the ruling party believe that their continued support for the breakaway bishop may be inexpedient.
Speaking at an ordination service at St Mary and All Saints Cathedral on May 14 in Harare, Dr. Kunonga told the congregation that threats had been made against his life. In an interview with Sunday Mail, Dr. Kunonga said “my family and I have been receiving death threats over the telephone from unknown elements that, I believe, to be among those calling for my ouster from the church.”
He believed the threats arose from his support for the government and were made by those “calling for me to tone down my stance against homosexuality and sanctions or risk being ‘silenced’.”
“The very same people who have been attempting to resist the indigenisation of our industries and churches are behind these heinous acts,” he told the government newspaper.
“I understand that Britain and her Western allies are behind this campaign,” he said, adding that he would not be silenced by those “unscrupulous elements that are bent on reversing the gains we have made as a country and as a church.”
However, the breakaway bishop had not filed a formal complaint with the police, as “I have nothing to fear because it has never been in me to bow to empty threats.”
Dr. Kunonga’s report of death threats appears to be the first reported by the state press against a leading clergy supporter of the regime. But a week after publishing Dr. Kunonga’s protestations of support and his courting death on behalf of the regime, the Sunday Mail published an unsigned article undercutting the bishop. It announced that the “warring Anglican Church factions are on the brink of crucial reconciliation talks.”
According to unnamed sources “privy to the long-running squabble, there is renewed impetus for the faction leaders to re-engage,” the Mail reported, noting that a “high-ranking official close” to Dr. Kunonga stated there “are even muffled calls for an amicable solution to be reached. Talk of reunification abounds within the corridors of power and I think there maybe an arrangement on the horizon.”
The source further commented that “there is fear that the much-anticipated reunification could suffer a stillbirth as the feuding factions have set preconditions as a prelude to any meaningful engagement”—a statement indicating the government wants this issue out of the way before the September 2011 constitutional referendum, speculated a source in Harare in an email to the CEN.
Gay unions are ‘God’s will’, Brazilian archbishop says: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 6. May 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Marriage.comments closed
Archbishop Maurício de Andrade
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Anglican leaders in Brazil have divided sharply over that country’s Supreme Court ruling recognizing same-sex unions. On May 5 the Federal Supreme Court (STF) held the right to freedom of expression should be construed to include the choice of sexual conduct, and authorized gay civil unions.
On May 16, the primate of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, (IEAB), Archbishop Maurício de Andrade lauded the decision as an “important advance in our society” for “equality and citizenship.” The ruling was part of God’s plan for Brazil, he noted, and should be seen as the “gradual and subtle inspiration of the Holy Spirit in transforming our society.”
However, the breakaway Bishop of Recife, Robinson Cavalcani, along with leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, denounced the ruling, saying that reducing sexual conduct to a choice of expression undermines traditional marriage.
The justices of the STF voted 10 to zero to give legal sanction to gay civil unions. The decision grants gay couples many of the rights enjoyed by married couples, including pension benefits and inheritance. ”The freedom to pursue one’s own sexuality is part of an individual’s freedom of expression,” said Justice Carlos Ayres Britto, the author of the ruling, in explaining the decision.
The ruling has raised legal as well as moral qualms in South America’s largest country. Brazil’s constitution does not touch upon the subject and the ruling is drawn from language governing free speech and expression. It has also been denounced as anti-democratic as it takes the issue out of the hands of legislators.
Archbishop Andrade said the ruling “poses serious challenges to all Christians of all churches because it requires openness to recognize that [homosexual] relationships are part of the way of being of the society and of the human nature.”
Bishop Cavalcanti, however, sharply denounced the decision. “Immorality was legalized. Sin was legalized. Brazil is in mourning.”
The evangelical leader predicted the “next step is the criminalization of heterosexuals who do not recognize the normalcy of homosexuality.” He noted that an act pending before the Brazilian Senate, PLC 122, seeks to curtail freedom of religion and freedom of speech of those who see homosexual conduct as sinful in deference to the right of freedom of expression to those who promote it as a moral good.
However, Bishop Cavalcanti stated the new ruling would not change church teaching, and he called Evangelicals and Anglicans across Brazil to remain faithful to Scripture and to the moral teachings of the church.
Church leaders defend China’s record on religious rights: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 8. May 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in China, Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON, Persecution.comments closed
Wang Zuo'an, Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs in China
The China Christian Council has challenged the conclusions of a US government report that found the Communist regime in Peking engaged in “ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom” against its citizens.
These “irresponsible remarks” were “strongly subjective, full of prejudices and not true to reality” said the leaders of the country’s state sponsored Protestant Church—the China Christian Council/Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM)—in a statement joined by representatives of the other state sponsored religious groups: Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims and Catholics.
The US critique of the lack of religious freedom comes at a fluid moment in China. While émigré groups report heightened government pressure on congregations and arrests of religious leaders, the CCC/TSPM has also been strengthening ties with Christian groups in countries that are of growing international interest to the Chinese state.
On May 13, the government minister for the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), Mr. Wang Zuo’an, met in Nairobi with the leader of the Gafcon movement, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala. According to a statement released by the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Chinese delegation met with the Gafcon leader to learn about the relationship between church and state in Kenya and to forge links with the Global South coalition in the Anglican Communion.
In its April 28 report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) attacked China, saying it found violations of religious freedom in the country.
“Unregistered religious groups or those deemed by the Chinese government to threaten national security or social harmony continue to face severe restrictions,” the USCIRF report stated.
“Religious freedom conditions for Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims remain particularly acute,” while “over five hundred unregistered Protestants” have been jailed in the past year, and there have been “stepped up efforts to destroy churches and close illegal meeting points.”
“Falun Gong adherents continue to be targeted by extralegal security forces and tortured and mistreated in detention. The Chinese government also continues to harass, detain, intimidate, disbar, and forcibly disappear attorneys who defend the Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uighurs, and unregistered Protestants,” the report found.
However, the state church leaders said “what has been described about China in the report is entirely different from what we have observed and experienced.”
“China is a country under the rule of law and its citizens fully enjoy the freedom of religious beliefs. The development of various religions in China is now better than ever,” the CCC said, adding that “religious people in China have not been suppressed nor been restricted from normal religious activities.”
While it was true the government had taken action in some cases, there were “evil cults that are against society and humanity are a desecration to religion. Separatist activities under the disguise of religions have nothing to do with religious freedom,” it said.
“The Chinese government has dealt with evil cults and cracked down on separatist forces according to law, and such actions are in line with the aspiration of the Chinese religious community,” the state church leaders said, justifying the government’s crackdown.
However, the CCC and other state religious groups said they would be “willing to conduct further exchanges on issues of common concern with people from the religious community in the United States on the basis of equality, friendship and mutual respect.”
In his trip to Nairobi, Mr. Wang told reporters that while “Christianity was treated as a foreign religion” in the past, now “we treat it as ours.”
Clergyman denies role in Trinidad coup attempt: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 8. May 27, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies, Politics.comments closed
Canon Knolly Clarke (center)
An Anglican priest has denied any responsibility for Trinidad’s abortive 1990 coup that left 24 dead.
In testimony before a government commission this month in Port-of-Spain, the Rev. Canon Knolly Clarke conceded that while he had denounced the government in a series of fiery sermons preached in the weeks before the coup, the July 27, 1990 uprising by the Islamist Black Power group Jamaat al Muslimeen had come as a complete surprise as his call for revolution had not been meant to be taken as a call to arms.
Dr. Clarke, a well known social activist and one time dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port of Spain, was in 1990 a leader of the Summit of the People’s Organisation (SOPO), an umbrella organization seeking an end to government corruption and economic injustice. One of the members of the coalition was Jamaat al Muslimeen.
Lawyers for the government commission that has been investigating the 1990 coup, read portions of a speech given by Dr. Clarke at a June 19, 1990 Labour Day rally. SOPO “will call upon [Trinidad’s poor] on an appointed day and that they will speak with a clear voice,” he said, according to a transcript of the speech read to the commission by its attorney on May 5.
“Changing governments, democratically or otherwise, does not help people make decisions that will change their lives,” he said. The masses “must take things into their own hands” and “power belongs to the people.”
Six weeks later 114 members of Jamaat al Muslimeen stormed Trinidad’s Parliament, the Red House, and the broadcasting studies of Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT). Prime Minister Arthur Robinson was taken hostage, and at 6:00 pm on July 27, Abu Bakr appeared on television to announce the overthrow of the government.
The army and police quickly surrounded the Red House and TTT, and the acting president declared martial law. The army took control of TTT’s transmitter that night, knocking the station off the air, and laid siege to the Red House.
Negotiations ensued and Dr. Clarke was asked by the Islamist group to be its representative. After six days of negotiation, the Muslimeen surrendered on August 1, and were taken into custody. They were tried for treason, but the Court of Appeal upheld the amnesty offered to secure their surrender, and they were released.
Testimony presented to the commission by Muslimeen members stated they believed SOPO would back their coup and bring the masses out in support. However, Dr. Clarke said he “was not aware an armed revolution was on the cards. It came as a surprise.”
“SOPO could not mobilise popular support [for the coup] because we did not know about it. As far as I know no one talked about armed revolution.”
While he had been opposed to government economic and social policies at the time of the coup, this did not translate into support for violent revolution. “I never saw ousting a government from the barrel of a gun,” he told the commission, according to press reports of the session.
West African Archbishop to retire: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 7. May 27, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of West Africa.comments closed
Archbishop Justice Akrofi
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of West Africa has called for the election of a bishop-coadjutor and has announced his intention to retire as primate.
However, Archbishop Justice Akrofi’s announcement was coupled with a warning against politicking amongst the clergy for the post. It was “an open secret that already there is jockeying for the position.,” he said, but called such maneuverings vulgar and “unsavory”.
The West African archbishop, a member of the Gafcon primates’ council, who also had been elected as alternate representative from Africa to the Primates Standing Committee before resigning in protest last year, broached the topic of his coming retirement during his presidential address to the Diocese of Accra Synod held at St Paul’s Church in Accra on April 30.
Archbishop Justice Akrofi reported the diocese had purchased a new residence for the bishop, but added “the incumbent is not moving into it, clearly in preparation for my successor. My experience has left me in no doubt that it is psychologically, physically and emotionally unhealthy for the Diocesan to live on the same premises as the work place.”
“Let me now turn to a very important issue which is an open secret. In accordance with the Diocesan and Provincial Constitutions, I shall have to retire at the age of 70,” on Oct 29, 2012, he said. The archbishop announced a special session of synod for Jan 21, 2012 to elect a co-adjutor, who would be consecrated on June 24.
Archbishop Akrofi stated he had informed the Provincial Synod at its March meeting in Conakry, Guinea of his pending retirement, and “by this announcement it has now become official that the search for the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Accra is on.”
The question of campaigning for high office in the church was also discussed at the provincial synod, the archbishop noted. His fellow bishops asked “for a pastoral letter from the Primate to go out, admonishing that politics may not be allowed to hijack authentic, essential spirituality that should characterize such quest” for a new bishop.
“While Scripture itself says, ‘it is good to aspire to the bishopric’, we should nevertheless allow God the Holy Spirit to guide the process and that, in any event, the process, style and atmosphere surrounding the search shall be consistent with the standards of ‘fruit of the Spirit’ and values of the Kingdom of God. That is a task laid on each one of us. May God the Holy Spirit lead us to the candidate after His own heart,” Archbishop Akrofi said.
Trouble for Swaziland bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011, p 7. May 27, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Iowa.comments closed
Bishop Meshack Mabuza
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Swaziland has been presented on misconduct charges by his clergy.
While the allegations leveled against Bishop Meshack Mabuza have not been made public, they are understood to centre round the use of funds donated to the church in Swaziland from the Dioceses of Iowa and Brechin. The financial misconduct charges follow upon the bishop’s February arrest for drink-driving.
The divisions within the church in Swaziland come at an especially inopportune moment in the life of the country, which is in the midst of a political and constitutional crisis over the powers of King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Last week the Times of Swaziland published reports of a dispute between Bishop Mabuza and the Rev. Bhekubuhle Mbatha, vicar of St. Augustine’s church in Mpaka. The newspaper stated that a “team of investigators” sent by the Archbishop of Cape Town were reviewing charges of “mismanagement of moneys from the Anglicans of Iowa in the United States for the construction of a church hall, classrooms for orphans and a church structure.”
Control of the project appears to have been at issue between the bishop and the vicar. According to an extract of a letter from the vicar to the bishop, Fr. Mbatha demanded the bishop stop “frustrating, embarrassing, and insulting” him in public or else he would “spill the beans” about the bishop’s conduct.
“I don’t want to embarrass the Anglican Church in Swaziland, outside Swaziland and overseas.” Fr. Mbatha wrote, but “I have reported to my brothers in South Africa and the Swaziland police and in the King’s Office that if I die mysteriously they will know whom to investigate.”
In November, Bishop Mabuza suspended Fr. Mbatha from office–a move the vicar charged was unlawful. The bishop has declined to comment on the case pending an adjudication of the dispute by the Archbishop of Cape Town and is on a leave of absence.
The dispute over the alleged misuse of Scottish and American donations presents a second issue for review by Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, as Bishop Mabuza was arrested earlier this year for driving while intoxicated.
On the evening of Feb 21, traffic officers from the Lobamba police station stopped the bishop while he was driving along the Manzini-Mbabane freeway.
The bishop’s erratic driving prompted the police to give him a breathalyzer test to assess the level of alcohol in his bloodstream. After the test was administered, the bishop was taken under arrest to the Lobamba police station where he spent the night. The following morning he appeared before the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court, and as a courtesy the bishop’s case was conducted in a closed session in the judge’s chambers. While the outcome of the proceedings is not known, under Swazi law a first drink-driving arrest is most often punished by a fine and an admonishment.
In Africa drinking is frowned upon by most sections of the church. A local Swazi media storm centering round Anglicans and alcohol erupted after the Southern African House of Bishops meeting in 2010, when local newspapers reported on the size of the bishops’ bar bill during their five day meeting in February.
Asked to comment on the propriety of imbibing bishops, Bishop Mabuza told the Times of Swaziland the church does not require its clergy to be teetotalers but took a dim view of public intoxication. “Kitsi nawutinatsela kute licala kepha kulicala nase udzakwa” (To us, it is not a crime when you take alcohol, but getting drunk is a vice), the bishop explained.
MP’s fear that Jerusalem will become a ‘gay’ hymn: The Church of England Newspaper, May 27, 2011 p 3. May 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Hymnody/Liturgy, Marriage.comments closed
Chris Bryant MP
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Government regulations on same-sex marriages will lock the hymn Jerusalem into a gay ghetto, a Labour MP told the House of Commons last week. On May 19 the member for Rhondda, Mr. Chris Bryant, asked that time be set aside for a debate on the Government’s policy of singing Jerusalem at weddings.
In his question to the leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young, Mr. Bryant said, “If a heterosexual couple get married in church, many clergy will refuse to allow it to be sung, because it is not a hymn addressed to God; if a straight couple get married in a civil wedding, they are point blank not allowed it, because it is a religious song; if, however, a gay couple have a civil partnership, under Government plans they will be allowed to sing it.”
A number of cathedrals and parish charges have banned Jerusalem as being xenophobic, nationalistic, and because the words written by William Black over 200 years ago do not praise God.
In 2008 the Very Rev Colin Slee, the late Dean of Southwark Cathedral, forbad its singing during a private memorial service. A spokesman for the Cathedral explained, “The Dean of Southwark does not believe that it is to the glory of God and it is not therefore used in private memorial services.”
The Bishop of Peterborough, the Rev. Rev. Donald Allister, when serving as Vicar of Cheadle in 2001 refused to allow the hymn to be played at a parish wedding as it was a “nationalistic song that does not praise God,” while St Margaret’s Westminster had banned the hymn because the words “dark satanic mills” was discriminatory.
However, Jerusalem remains one of the most popular hymns in the Church of England and was played at the Royal Wedding on April 29.
In his speech to the House last week, Mr. Bryant asked the leader of the Commons for assurances that “Jerusalem is not just reserved for homosexuals?”
The Speaker of the House interjected “I want to hear the Leader’s reply!”
Sir George responded, “I think that Jerusalem should be sung on every possible occasion.”
Christian children indispensable for church schools, bishop declares: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 p 5, May 25, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Education.comments closed
Bishop Michael Langrish
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church of England Schools must have a “critical mass” of Christian students and teachers to maintain their distinctive ethos, the Bishop of Exeter has told his diocese. Diluting the Christian element of church schools would no longer leave them Christian and would rob them of their unique character.
In a letter released to coincide with the start of term for Devon’s 131 Church of England schools, Bishop Michael Langrish said the church had “always been committed to the education of all children.”
However, the “work of all our Church Schools is grounded in a Christian understanding of the nature of human beings and their relationship both with other people and with God. This understanding finds expression in teaching, in pastoral care, in worship and in the total school ethos” the bishop said in his April 28 letter.
The Exeter statement follows upon a letter published last month in the Times Educational Supplement by the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt. Rev. John Pritchard, who called for church schools to offer more places to unchurched pupils.
“Every school will have a policy that has a proportion of places for church youngsters … what I am saying is that the number ought to be minimised because our primary function and our privilege is to serve the wider community.”
“Ultimately, I hope we can get the number of reserved places right down to 10 per cent. It goes back to what we see the mission of the Church as being. I don’t think the mission generally is about collecting nice Christians into safe places,” the Bishop of Oxford said.
However, the Bishop of Exeter stated in his letter, a church school “is about far more than explicit Christian teaching and also encompasses a whole ethos which is usually quite apparent to any visitor to the school even before religion gets a mention.”
The educational philosophy propounded by Church of England schools had at one time been “shared by the country and schools as a whole. However, over the years, both Government policy and an increasingly secular agenda have diverged significantly from this understanding.”
These changes had led Christian parents to look “increasingly to Church schools to provide the education for their children that they cannot get elsewhere.”
“Given changes in popular culture,” the bishop said “it becomes increasingly important for schools to ensure that there are sufficient numbers among staff, parents, pupils and governors to provide that critical mass by which the school’s ethos is maintained.”
Bishop Langrish questioned the need for a national policy on the proportion of places set aside for Church of England students in Church of England schools, saying “it is up to each of our schools and its local Governing Body, in consultation with the Diocesan Board of Education, to make their own judgement on how best to meet the needs of its local community.”
Faith, not fear, the key to Uganda’s future: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 p 6. May 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda.comments closed
Archbishop Henry Orombi
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
“Ugandans, your faith is under test,” Archbishop Henry Orombi has warned, as spiralling food and fuel prices have led to political and economic unrest in the East African nation.
Prices for basic foodstuffs and fuel have risen sharply over the past year in Africa. Following weeks of demonstrations, riots erupted in the centre of Kampala on April 29, the day after opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested by police for protesting the sharp increase in food and fuel prices.
The World Bank’s “Food Price Watch” for April 2011 reported the price of basic commodities had risen sharply due to a rise in fuel costs, poor harvests in key grain exporters and rising consumption.
The report found that over the past 12 months the cost of maize (corn) had risen 114 per cent in Uganda, 65 per cent in Somalia and 48 per cent in Rwanda. The price of rice had risen 26 per cent in Malawi, and wheat had risen by 87 per cent in the Sudan. In the past three months maize prices rose 27 per cent in Nairobi and 25 per cent in Kampala, at the same time as fuel costs rose 21 per cent.
Reports from Kampala state that between six and ten protestors were killed by the police during clashes with the security forces following Mr. Besigye’s April 28 arrest. Accompanied by approximately 100 supporters, police smashed the windscreen of the opposition leader’s car and sprayed him with tear gas when they arrested him.
In his Easter address, Archbishop Henry Orombi said Ugandans were right to be concerned “when food and fuel prices are soaring; when our young ones remain unemployed; and when our mothers, wives and sisters die during child birth.”
“It is true that at the moment, the cost of living in Uganda is very high. The levels of disgruntlement are manifested in the headlines of our papers and on the screen. The growing number of street children, high morbidity rates, poor nutrition and social abominations like child sacrifice rage on.”
However, faith not fear was the answer. “In the act of dying on the cross” Jesus “catered” for our needs. “At the cross we find freedom from the power of sin and death. Through Jesus we find much needed peace to carry us through the storms of life and only through Jesus do we actually get the wisdom to find solutions to our troubles,” Archbishop Orombi said.
The archbishop asked “all Ugandans to continually adopt peaceful, lawful, and unifying strategies to address their challenges.”
The government had its job to do as well, the archbishop said. In a sermon preached at the consecration of Bishop Rueben Kisembo of Ruwenzori before a congregation that included President Yoweri Museveni, Archbishop Orombi urged the appointment of a cabinet that would serve the people, not just politicians.
“I request you, Your Excellency to surround yourself and create space for new thinking, new blood, new brains, and new people who will contribute to your manifesto and strengthen your ability to deliver your mandate to the people of Uganda,” the archbishop said on May 7.
Wage spiritual war against polluters, bishop urges: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 p 6. May 23, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Environment.comments closed
Bishop Mark MacDonald
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Church of Canada’s bishop for indigenous or “first nations” peoples has lent his support to environmental and ethnic minority groups fighting the exploitation of their lands by multi-national mining companies.
Speaking to approximately 150 delegates representing native peoples from 20 American, Asian and African countries at an ecumenical conference on mining held May 1-3 in Toronto, Bishop Mark MacDonald said resistance to the despoliation of the land was a form of “a spiritual warfare.”
Bishop MacDonald told delegates to the mining justice conference the issue was “not about the quality of life but the way of life and life itself.”
“God placed us on this earth to have a unique relationship with it. It is irreplaceable,” the bishop said.
Representatives from Guatemala, the Philippines and other developing nations, spoke of the environmental degradation of their ancestral lands by Western multi-nationals. They also charged local governments with abetting the destruction of the environment, seeking quick tax revenues at the expense of the displacement of native peoples and the destruction of their communities.
Bishop MacDonald, who served as the Episcopal Church’s Bishop of Alaska before accepting the position of bishop for Canada’s First Nations peoples, noted that even after centuries of colonization, indigenous people have “refused to sever the connection between land, culture and meaning, which have lost meaning in the developed and developing world.”
According to an account of the meeting published by the Anglican Journal, Bishop MacDonald urged Christians to stand in solidarity with the rural poor, whose way of life and lands were being destroyed to support Western consumption. While the cost of solidarity was high, “it is God’s future for us,” the bishop said.
“The key purpose of the gathering is to develop alliances between church leaders from the North and South in their efforts to achieve mining justice around the world,” conference organizers said in their closing communiqué.
“As churches, we recognize our internal contradictions and complicity with respect to resource extraction, and the urgent need to practice responsible consumption and citizenship. Therefore as people of faith who are members of local church congregations, we need to further develop our theological understandings of the issue, address our individual and collective lifestyles, develop an alternative economic model, and challenge the political and economic powers that drive the resource extraction industry,” the communiqué declared.
Ireland backs Anglican Covenant: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 p 7. May 22, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
Bishop Michael Burrows of Cashel and Ossory and Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore before the introduction of Motion 6 (Anglican Covenant) on May 13 at the Church of Ireland General Synod in Armagh (Church of Ireland photo)
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The General Synod of the Church of Ireland has adopted a motion subscribing to the Anglican Covenant.
Following the 13 May vote by delegates to the annual meeting of Synod held in Armagh, Ireland joins Mexico, the West Indies, and South East Asia in giving their assent to the pan-Anglican agreement to set the limits of doctrine and discipline for the Communion.
Styled as Motion 6, the Covenant resolution was proposed by the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory and seconded by the Bishop of Down and Dromore and stated that “Seeing that the Anglican Covenant is consonant with the doctrines and formularies of the Church of Ireland, the General Synod hereby subscribes the Covenant.”
A paper submitted to Synod by the Church’s Standing Committee urged adoption of the Covenant, noting that the “glue” which once had held the Communion together had dissolved. The Covenant would not impinge on the autonomy of national Churches, but would set the parameters of church order, they said.
“Undoubtedly there have been contentious events within Anglicanism that have raised questions about the extent to which individual provinces in their own cultural settings may act unilaterally in great matters when their actions impinge on their relationships with others, and hence deserve reflection and evaluation in a wider context. Autonomy of its nature is textured in any communion by mutual commitment and to some extent discipline.
“No province can be deprived of its freedom of action, but all provinces have to agree upon a means of recognising and addressing the relational consequences of their actions,” the standing committee said.
The Covenant was a “noble attempt to walk a tightrope” that made it “absolutely clear that each Province must be governed by its own independent canonical procedures and that there is no hidden agenda to centralise Anglicanism.”
It also “demonstrates that in communion, as in any family, the actions of one member have consequences for others and that – following due process – individual provinces may have to acknowledge, at least for a time, that actions which they have decided to take could lead to a situation in which their full participation in the instruments that bind Anglicanism together may become compromised,” the Synod report said.
Bishop Michael Burrows of Cashel and Ossory explained the Covenant should be understood as a “useful tool to order its external relationships” or a “midwife of unity”, rather than an instrument of change to the essence of the Church of Ireland.
Bishop Burrows noted that Synod was being asked to ‘subscribe’ rather than ‘adopt’ the Covenant in order to show the Church of Ireland had given the agreement its approval, but had not subordinated the Church’s constitution and canons to the agreement.
Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore said he hoped the Covenant would become a “meaningful instrument of unity,” but also acknowledged that some provinces might balk at adopting the agreement.
During the debate, concerns that the disciplinary provisions in section 4 of the Covenant might unintentionally deepen divisions within the church were raised, as was disquiet with the role of the proposed Anglican standing committee. Supporters argued that by setting agreed standards of conduct, the fellowship or ‘koinonia’ of the Church would be strengthened.
Following a short period of reflection and prayer, a vote was taken and the motion to subscribe to the Covenant was passed by a wide margin.
New deanery for Wolverhampton: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 p 5. May 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Lichfield has announced plans to create a new deanery of Wulfrun, dividing the present Staffordshire deanery of Wolverhampton in half.
In an address to the Diocesan synod, the Archdeacon of Walsall, the Ven Chris Sims stated the proposed division of the existing deanery has been put to a formal consultation among the churches in Wolverhampton. At the conclusion of the consultation process, Bishop Jonathan Gledhill will take the final decision on whether to divide the deanery.
A spokesman for the diocese, Gavin Drake, told The Church of England Newspaper the present Wolverhampton Deanery was thought to be “too large to be sustainable,” and the Diocese had had difficulty in finding “anybody who was prepared to serve as rural dean because of its size.”
The former Bishop of Wolverhampton, the Rt Rev Mike Bourke, had created a system of “covenanted mini-deaneries as an experimental solution” to the problem, Mr Drake explained.
These groupings had been “geographic” with a further “covenanted area for those parishes who look to the Bishop of Ebbsfleet for pastoral support and episcopal oversight.”
The Diocese has now proposed the creation of two “proper” deaneries in their place. The new Deanery of Wolverhampton will consist of: Bradley St Martin, Ettingshall Holy Trinity, Heath Town Holy Trinity, The Bilston Team Ministry, Central Wolverhampton Team Ministry, and the Wolverhampton parishes of St Andrew, St Jude, St Luke, St Matthew, St Martin and St Stephen.
The new deanery of Wulfrun, named after an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who was granted “10 hides of land” by King Ethelred II in 994 to endow a church at Heatun, will consist of: Bushbury Team Ministry, Emmanuel Bentley and Holy Trinity Willenhall, Oxley the Epiphany, Wednesfield St Gregory, Wednesfield Team Ministry and the Willenhall parishes of St Anne, St Giles and St Stephen.
The Diocese noted that the name Wolverhampton was thought to have come from Wulfereeantun (Wulfere’s farm). Lady Wulfrun also founded a convent in Tamworth, the capital of Mercia, where it is believed she was buried.
US backing for communion without baptism: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 May 20, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Hymnody/Liturgy, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Episcopal Church’s national office has given a backhanded blessing to the practice of allowing those not baptized to receive Holy Communion—a practice forbidden by canon law.
Supporters of Communion without Baptism (CWOB) have argued that relaxing the church’s Eucharistic discipline will serve as a recruiting tool for those outside the faith. However, traditionalists have rejected the practice as uncanonical and contrary to church teaching.
Last month the Episcopal Church Office of Congregational Vitality posted a video to the national church’s website highlighting the ministry of parish of St Paul & the Redeemer in Chicago. The congregation “exemplifies transformative work,” the Rev. Bob Honeychurch, the Episcopal Church’s officer for congregational vitality, said, adding that the parish “sees its primary point of contact with the wider community through its Sunday morning experience. The worship becomes its witness to the world.”
“What we do is the Episcopal liturgy,” said parish rector the Rev. Peter Lane. “We just do it in creative ways.”
St Paul & the Redeemer welcomes “everybody. Orthodox believer or skeptic, gay or straight, black or white, rich or poor, everybody is invited to eat at God’s table” Mr. Lane said.
The video features a parishioner who relates his love of the “diversity” and “inclusion” of the Episcopal Church. At his first visit to the congregation he received Holy Communion, and was led to join the church. When his young son was baptized three years later, he also decided that it was time to become baptized.
A study released in 2005 by the Diocese of Northern California estimated that a majority of dioceses had congregations that practiced Communion without Baptism. (CWOB) Of the church’s 110 dioceses, 48 responded to the Northern California survey: 24 reported they had parishes who practiced CWOB while a further 7 dioceses were reported to “probably allow CWOB.”
A spokesman for the national church told The Church of England Newspaper in response to the query about the video, “The canons of the Episcopal Church expect that baptism precede the receiving of Communion. The Episcopal Church does not, however, inquire of each person coming to receive Communion if he or she has been baptized. If a newcomer is discovered not to have been baptized, then the most appropriate response is to prepare and baptize that person, welcoming her or him into the body of Christ.”
Episcopal Church Canon I.17.7 is unambiguous. It states “No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church.
“From the earliest centuries, it has been the universal practice of the Christian Church that one must first be baptized before being admitted to Holy Communion,” Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker told CEN.
The issue is one of canon law, Prayer Book rubrics and Scripture, the Anglo-Catholic leader said.
In Romans 6:3-11 “St. Paul explains that the unbaptized remain under the dominion of sin and death and have not been reconciled to God by faith in the saving death of Jesus Christ. Thus they are not eligible to receive the benefits of Holy Communion,” Bishop Iker explained.
“The unbroken tradition and practice of orthodox believers is clear: first baptism, then communion – not the other way around,” he said.
Newcastle bishop accused of misconduct: The Church of England Newspaper, May 19, 2011 May 20, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Brian Farran
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Misconduct charges have been leveled against the Bishop of Newcastle (Australia) for his handling of the disciplinary proceedings against clergy found by the diocesan Professional Standards Board to have engaged in misconduct.
On May 12 nine complaints were lodged with the office of the General Synod in Sydney against Bishop Brian Farran. The charges will now be passed to the Episcopal Standards Commission for review. If the commission finds that a prima facie case exists, the complaint will then be forwarded to the church’s Special Tribunal for adjudication.
Under canon law, the charges and the commission’s proceedings are not to be made public. At the conclusion of its investigation, which could take up to a year, the commission will file a formal public complaint against the accused, or report that the charges were unproven.
Press reports from Newcastle along with sources in the diocese tell The Church of England Newspaper center around the bishop’s handling of the divisions within the cathedral that led to his dismissal of a warden, and his oversight of the diocesan professional standards commission.
On Dec 15, the diocesan professional standards commission held that the former cathedral dean, the Very Rev. Graeme Lawrence and his partner—church organist Gregory Goyette—had engaged in sexual relations with a 17 year old boy at a church camp in 1984. A second priest, the Rev. Graeme Sturt was found to have observed the incident, but did not report the abuse.
The board recommended Dean Lawrence and Mr. Sturt be defrocked and Mr. Goyette prevented from working in the church. The two clergyman responded by filing suit against the board in civil court, saying its proceedings were arbitrary and capricious. They have denied all charges and the dispute is set for hearing later this month.
In a statement released on May 12, Bishop Farran said that it was “within the rights of those who feel aggrieved” to file a complaint. He added that he would “welcome the transparency that this process will afford.”
“As previously stated, I wish to make it clear that I am very aware of the concerns of some members of the Cathedral community and I wish to assure everyone involved that I continue to take these concerns seriously,” the bishop said.
New bishop for Colombo: The Church of England Newspaper, May 20, 2011 p 6. May 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of Ceylon, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Dhiloraj Canagasabey of Colombo
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has given his assent to the election of the Ven. Dhiloraj Canagasabey as Bishop of Colombo in the Church of Ceylon.
At a meeting of the diocesan synod held at the Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour in Colombo on March 5, Archdeacon Canagasabey received a plurality of votes from the 91 priests and 242 lay delegates taking part in the meeting. He was the sole candidate standing for election.
The new bishop currently serves as Archdeacon of Nuwara Eliya and is Chaplain of St. Thomas’ College, Bandarawela. Educated at the Jesuit-run St Michael’s College in Batticaloa, Archdeacon Canagasabey trained at the Theological College of Lanka, and earned Bachelor’s degrees in Theology and Divinity from the University of Serampore.
The new bishop was consecrated on May 14 in Colombo. Dr. Williams appointed the Moderator of the Church of Bangladesh, Bishop Paul Sarkar of Dhaka, to serve as chief consecrator, and will be assisted by the outgoing Bishop of Colombo Duleep de Chickera and the Bishop of Kurunegala Greg Shantha Francis. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the Metropolitan of the Church of Ceylon and his assent is required for the election to be affirmed.
“My wife is a Sinhalese. I am a Tamil. I can see the common identity in my children. It would be strengthening to do work such as reconciliation and healing with different communities in our Church,” the new bishop told reporters.
Religious leaders plea for peace as Cairo burns: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 1. May 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Persecution, Politics.comments closed
Fire gutted St Mary's Coptic Church in Giza after Islamist fundamentalists stormed the church on May 8 : Photo courtesy of Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt
The Bishop of Egypt writes that he and the other heads of the Christian churches in Egypt have met with the country’s Muslim leaders to head off the sectarian clashes erupting across the country.
On May 9, Bishop Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, wrote to supporters in the West, describing the formation of the Beth el-Elia group (House of the Family), composed of senior Muslim and Christian clerics that seeks to end the religious violence plaguing Egypt.
The bishop’s letter recounted the attack the previous day on the Mar Mina (St Mary’s) Coptic Church in the Imbaba neighborhood of the Cairo suburb of Giza that left 12 dead and more than 232 injured and the church gutted by fire.
The “clashes started because of a rumour that a Christian woman who converted to Islam was being hidden” in St Mary’s Church, the bishop reported. “As a result” a crowd gathered around the church composed of “Muslim fundamentalists that belong to the Salafi sect.”
The mob demanded entry into the church to search for the woman, however members of the congregation refused them entry as the were “afraid that they may burn the church.” Last month a Muslim mob set fire to a Coptic church in the Sole neighborhood of Giza.
A stand-off ensued, with the mob shouting “Islamic, Islamic,” the bishop reported, adding the Christian defenders responded “with our spirit and blood, we are ready to defend the cross.” Attempts by “moderate Muslims” and the church’s priest to calm the demonstrators failed, and “some of the demonstrators started shooting and throwing Molotov cocktails.”
The army responded to the fighting, Bishop Anis said, “and things became quieter. However, early the next morning, some extremists came and burned several blocks of flats and shops owned by Christians.”
Bishop Anis reported that he was a member of the committee sent by the Beth el-Elia group to visit St. Mary’s. “The damage we saw was indescribable. The area looked as if it was a battlefield, because of the many tanks and soldiers. I was moved by the story of one of the guards of St. Mary’s Church, who refused to denounce Jesus Christ and as a result, his throat was slit.”
Writing on his return from a tour of Iraq, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali stated that “what happened in Egypt on May 8 shows even more clearly that there is a worrying extremist radical Islamist element to the unrest in the Arab and Islamic world at this time. This will affect not only Christians but secular and moderately-minded Muslims as well – and may affect the future political shape of the Middle East.”
“Since the revolution, all credible observers say the attacks on Christians have increased markedly at the hands of Wahhabi-Salafi groups. Their agenda is an Islamic state built on their extreme beliefs. The West is also vulnerable to this kind of extremism,” Bishop Nazir Ali said.
The attack on St Mary’s was the fifth church burning since the January terror attack in Alexandria the Bishop Anis stated, adding the Beth el-Elia group was urging the government to bring those responsible for the attack “to justice.”
While there was “no doubt that inter-religious tension is growing”, Bishop Mouneer noted that “previous clashes between Christians and Muslims have always been solved through community reconciliation.”
The Beth el-Elia group was seeking to find “a real strategic plan” to combat sectarian violence, to “transform this difficult situation.”
Archbishop to intervene in Australian abuse case: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 8. May 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Anglican Church of Australia, Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia has been granted leave to intervene in the New South Wales Supreme Court case reviewing the legality of the church’s clergy discipline canons.
On May 9, the court permitted Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane to be joined as an additional defendant in the lawsuit brought by two Anglican clergymen who had been disciplined by the Diocese of Newcastle’s Professional Standards Board.
On Dec 15, the diocesan board held that the former Dean of Newcastle, the Very Rev. Graeme Lawrence and his partner—church organist Gregory Goyette—had engaged in sexual relations with a 17 year old boy at a church camp in 1984. A second priest, the Rev. Graeme Sturt was found to have observed the incident, but did not report the abuse.
The board recommended Dean Lawrence and Mr. Sturt be defrocked and Mr. Goyette prevented from working in the church. The two clergyman responded by filing suit against the board, saying its proceedings were arbitrary and capricious. They have denied all charges.
In his pleading, Dr. Aspinall said an adverse ruling had the potential to force the church to re-write its clergy disciplinary code in order to comply with civil law.
Five days of oral argument have been scheduled by the court for this month. However, the hearing may have come too late for one of those censured. On April 29, the ABC reported that Mr. Goyette was asked to show cause why he should not resign from his job at Merewether High School where he served as head music teacher. The Department of Education has since confirmed Mr. Goyette, who has also denied the accusations of misconduct, is no longer working at the school.
Primus congratulates Alex Salmond and the SNP: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 4. May 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
ishop David Chillingworth, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and Dr. Rowan Williams speaking to the press at the close of the February primates meeting in Dublin
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church has offered his congratulations to Alex Salmond and Scottish National Party (SNP) following their victory in the May 5 elections to the Scottish Parliament, but urged the new government to use its majority to serve all the people of Scotland.
The SNP won 68 of the 129 seats at Holyrood, giving it an outright majority. Party leader Alex Salmond said he would hold a referendum on independence for Scotland within five years.
“Just as the Scottish people have restored trust in us, we must trust the people as well,” he declared. “Which is why, in this term of the parliament, we will bring forward a referendum and trust the people on Scotland’s own constitutional future.”
Prime Minister David Cameron said he would not block the SNP’s call for an independence referendum, but would campaign against the dissolution of the Union.
On May 7, Bishop David Chillingworth of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane offered his “warm congratulations” to Mr. Salmond and the SNP, adding that the church valued “greatly the close relationships which have developed between the Scottish Government, members of the Scottish Parliament and faith groups.”
The bishop reminded the SNP leader that “public representatives are people with a calling to serve the whole community. We respect that commitment and support them with our prayers and our good will.”
“This is an important time in Scotland. We are shaping a new future. We are trying to lay to rest the sectarianism of the past,” the bishop said.
“As churches, we look forward to working with the new Scottish Government to shape the values which will define our community. Scottish society carries forward from the past a distinctive character and particular strengths. We look forward to being part of the work of re-fashioning that distinctive character for the future,” the primus said.
Church condom split ends: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 8. May 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Tanzania, Church of England Newspaper, Health/HIV-AIDS.comments closed
Bishop-elect Stanley Hotay of Mount Kilimanjaro
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A schism within the Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT) over the propriety of using condoms as a prophylactic against the spread of HIV/AIDs has been healed following the retirement and election of a new bishop.
On April 15, the Mount Kilimanjaro synod elected the Rev. Stanley Hotay as the third bishop of the diocese that covers the Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions.
The general secretary of the ACT, Dr. Dickson Chilongani, told reporters after the vote, the elections had been a “testimony” that the diocese was “now more united than before.”
The Bishop of Leicester, the Rt. Rev. Tim Stevens, is scheduled to attend the June 12 consecration in Arusha, as Leicester has had a link to Mount Kilimanjaro for several years. The new bishop is pastor of two churches in Arusha and serves as diocesan missioner. In 2010 he was awarded a BA in Theology from the University of Gloucester.
The election of a new bishop ends a ten year split within the diocese between the former bishop Simon Makundi and his clergy that mirrored a wider fight within the province over the morality of condom use.
In 2001, Bishop Makundi along with several other bishops and the church’s HIV/AIDs ministries endorsed condom use as a prophylactic against disease, and in 2002 the Tanzanian delegation to the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) AIDs summit in Nairobi stated their church had “openly discussed the efficacy of condom use and endorsed such use in order to save lives.”
However, St. James Parish in Arusha denounced this new policy as immoral, and when Bishop Makundi attempted to visit the congregation he was ejected.
In 2004, the dispute was brought to a special meeting of the House of Bishops, which agreed to accept jurisdiction over the parish until the controversy was settled. Bishop Simon Chiwanga of the Mpwapwa, the former chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council, was sent to the parish by the House of Bishops and confirmed that the church’s stance was that the use of condoms as a prophylactic against disease was immoral.
In 2010 St James parish relented in its opposition to Bishop Makundi, who had recanted his views on condom use, and accepted his jurisdiction. The election of a new bishop, church leaders tell CEN, should end the dispute.
Bible by the Beach in Eastbourne: The Church of England Newspaper, May 11, 2011 May 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Wallace Benn of Lewes (left) during a break at last week's Bible By The Beach conference in Eastbourne
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A weekend Bible convention drew over a thousand participants to Eastbourne last weekend for the third annual “Bible By The Beach” conference led by the Bishop of Lewes, Rt. Rev. Wallace Benn.
“This is a flagship event for lively Bible teaching in the south-east,” Bishop Benn told those attending the four day gathering that concluded on May 2.
The theme for the weekend was “Resurrection People” with a range of speakers including Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, Baroness Caroline Cox, Oxford University Prof. John Lennox, American author R. Kent Hughes, the Rev. Rico Tice from All Souls, Langham Place, and Andrew Wilson, a popular expositor and writer from the Kings Church, Eastbourne.
Camille B. Kampouris, one of Jim Henson’s Muppeteers, who now helps head up an international Christian online teaching initiative, also shared something of her journey to faith at the event and briefly reprised her role as the voice of some of Sesame Street’s best-known characters.
Bishop Venables, who attended the seaside gathering following the close of the Gafcon primates meeting in Nairobi, told participants not to be discouraged. “These are new days and God is working in wonderful ways around the world.”
Church push for pesticide ban in India: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 8. May 15, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Environment.comments closed
Bishop Thomas K Oommen of Central Kerala
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in India have called upon the government to ban the pesticide Endosulfan, saying its health hazards far outweigh its benefits to farming.
However, India’s agriculture ministry — which manufactures the pesticide via the government-owned Hindustan Insecticides Ltd — claims there is no scientific evidence the chemical agent is harmful to humans, and has so far resisted local and international pressure to stop production.
In a 20April statement Bishop Thomas K Oommen of Central Kerala, the chairman of the Church of South India’s Ecological Concerns Committee, urged the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests to ban Endosulfan.
While the pesticide is still used in India and China, over 80 countries, including the EU, Australia and New Zealand, have banned its manufacture and use in response to concerns over potential for accumulation in the soil its acute toxicity.
In 2001, aerial spraying of Endosulfan was suspected in a rash of birth defects in Kerala. The state government banned the use of the substance, but under pressure from industry the ban was rescinded. In 2006, the state government paid compensation of Rs 50,000 (£700) to the next of kin of 135 people identified as having died from Endosulfan exposure in Kerala. In December 2010 the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recommended banning the chemical, but the agriculture ministry declined to act.
However on 29 April, the agriculture ministry expressed its inability to clamp down on the pesticide to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) at a high-level meeting. The NHRC had recommended its ban in December 2010.
The Conference of Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants agreed to a ban on Endosulfan to take effect by mid 2012. In 2006 India signed the global environmental treaty and is bound by last week’s decision. However, certain uses of the chemical have been granted an exemption for five years, and enforcement of the ban is problematic.
In a letter read out to churches across his diocese on Easter Sunday, Bishop Oommen asked Christians to join him in implementing as 12-point programme of environmental stewardship.
He outlined a plan for rainwater harvesting projects for Church schools and institutions, the planting of vetiver grasses around church properties to control soil erosion and water loss, a ban on plastic cups and bags at all church functions, the encouragement of “eco-clubs” among school children, and encouraging farmers in the diocese to end the use of pesticides and hormones and switch to organic farming.
Bishop denies treason charges: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 8. May 13, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of South East Asia, Politics.comments closed
Bishop Moon Hing Ng of West Malaysia
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Treason charges leveled against the leaders of the Christian churches of Malaysia by a national newspaper are a “lie”, the Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia tells The Church of England Newspaper.
“Without a shred of evidence and referring only to supposed postings on a blog, these rumor-mongers, assisted by certain elements in the mainstream media, are seeking to play up lies and falsehoods in order to artificially create religious conflict,” Bishop Moon Hing Ng said on May 10.
“By so doing they are attempting to raise tensions so as to engineer a clamping down by the authorities.”
Last week the Malay-language newspaper, Utusan Malaysia, in a front page story claimed that on April 7 a cabal of Christian leaders meeting in Penang plotted to install a Christian prime minister for the majority Muslim country, and to make Christianity the official religion of the state.
Bishop Moon told CEN that there were two meetings in Penang, “but Utusan Malaysia has lumped them together as one meeting which is a lie.”
The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) had organized a seminar entitled “Unashamedly Ethical” dealing with a Christian response to corruption and bribery. The second meeting, held in a “different location and on different date,” organized by the Democratic Action Party (DAP – a multi-racial, non-sectarian opposition party in Malaysia) was to “welcome some pastors from Sarawak” visiting Penang.
The NECF and DAP “have come out strongly denying this allegation,” the bishop said.
Other church and civil leaders have denounced the accusations of treason in strong terms. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur Murphy Pakiam called the report “baseless and highly irresponsible.”
“It is clear that such reporting has the effect of creating religious disharmony, inciting hatred and heaping odium on Christians,” Archbishop Pakiam said, while DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the newspaper report was designed to undermine the government’s ‘1 Malaysia’ campaign to promote racial harmony.”
“Utusan wants to set 1 Malaysia on fire… it is the most evil and dangerous element in our country right now,” Mr. Guan Eng said.
Sectarian tensions have been high in Malaysia, and in recent months have focused on the government ban on importing or printing of Malay copies of the Bible, the al-Kitab. After impounding, then requiring the registration of imported Bibles, the government last month backed down and allowed unrestricted entry of Bibles into the country, provided a message stating the book was for the use of Christians was stamped on copies distributed in West Malaysia.
Bishop Moon said the Utusan report was designed to “artificially create religious conflict,” and was politically motivated. Christians were loyal citizens of Malaysia, the bishop said, and had always sought to “promote, protect and uphold the provisions of the Federal Constitution” and had “consistently sought dialogue with other stakeholders as a means to avoid and resolve conflicts or misunderstandings.”
“Targeting the Christian community and their legitimate concerns serves as a convenient bogeyman and a rallying cry to unite in the face of a common ‘enemy’,” the bishop said.
“Such partisan machinations should be exposed for what they are – sheer lies and falsehoods,” Bishop Moon told CEN.
South East Asia endorses the Anglican Covenant: The Church of England Newspaper, May 13, 2011 p 7. May 12, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of South East Asia.comments closed
Bishop Albert Vun of Sabah, Archbishop John Chew of Singapore, Bishop Bolly Lapok of Kuching, and Bishop Ng Moon Hing of West Malaysia
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of the Province of South East Asia has endorsed the Anglican Covenant, stating the pan-Anglican agreement was necessary for the church “to express our communion with the Triune God and with one another,” to guard the boundaries of the faith, and to be “faithful witnesses of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
South East Asia now joins Mexico and the West Indies in formally endorsing the Anglican Covenant—reports that the Province of Myanmar (Burma) has endorsed the covenant have appeared, but could not be independently confirmed.
On May 7, the Diocese of Singapore’s website reported the province had released a 3000 word statement detailing the historical background and theological and ecclesiological rationale for its endorsement.
The province noted that “our accession” to the covenant was based on the understanding “that those who accede” to the agreement “will unequivocally abide by Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10 in its spirit and intent,” and would honour the moratorium on gay bishops and blessings.
Churches that accede to the covenant should also “bear authentic witness to the orthodox faith by an unequivocal commitment to the standards of moral and ethical holiness as set by Biblical norms in all aspects of their communal life.”
And South East Asia stated that it saw the primates as the body to oversee the implementation of the covenant, as it was the group “responsible for Faith and Order” in the Anglican Communion.
The language of the covenant that called for “common commitments and mutual accountability” among Anglicans to “hold each Church in the relationship of communion one with another,” echoed the “closing appeal” of the Kuala Lumpur statement. The 1997 statement called call for new structure to “guard the internal unity of our Communion,” and “strengthen the bonds of affection between our provinces, and especially, make for effective mutual accountability in all matters of doctrine and polity throughout the Communion.”
The province said the “similarities” between the documents were “not accidental” as the covenant was “the culmination of a decade of intense disputes over ethical teaching and church order in the Communion. The Kuala Lumpur Statement, in fact, marked the beginning of a united stand, spearheaded by churches in the southern continents, for the faith that was once delivered to the saints across the Communion.”
The covenant “offers a concrete platform in ordering” Anglicans as a communion “with a clear ecclesial identity,” the said, and begins the process of “overcoming” the “ecclesial deficit” within the structures of the church.
The Anglican Communion should adopt more uniform processes in the election and appointment of bishops, to ensure that such processes are not held hostage to local politics and to parochial understandings of the episcopal office.
“Churches that accede to the Anglican Communion Covenant need to subject their common life to the reforming and transforming work of the Holy Spirit,” the Church of the Province of South East Asia said, “so that the Communion may be built up until all ‘reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph 4: 13).”
Gafcon throws down gauntlet to Dr. Williams: The Church of England Newspaper, May 11, 2011 May 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ordinariate, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The formation of the Anglican Ordinariate was a natural consequence of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s mismanagement of the crisis facing the Anglican Communion, the leaders of the Gafcon movement said in a statement released on May 10.
In a strongly worded communiqué summarizing the work of their April 25-28 meeting in Nairobi, the archbishops of the Gafcon movement, representing a majority of the church’s members, voiced their displeasure with the usurpation of authority by Dr. Williams and the staff of the Anglican Consultative Council and laid upon their door responsibility for the de facto schism within the communion.
While the 13-point communiqué touched on administrative issues for the Anglican reform movement, including the creation of a Nairobi and London offices, the appointment of Bishop Martyn Minns as Deputy Secretary, and the calling of a second Jerusalem conference in 2013, the heart of the letter came in a sustained attack on the actions taken by London-based instruments of the Anglican Communion.
While Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of an Anglican Ordinariate was “a gracious gift” to those Anglican clergy and congregations “alienated by recent actions in the Communion,” it should not have been necessary, the archbishops said.
“Our own Communion has failed to make adequate provision for those who hold to a traditional view of the faith. We remain convinced that from within the Provinces that we represent there are creative ways by which we can support those who have been alienated so that they can remain within the Anglican family,” they said.
The tone of the Nairobi statement from the Gafcon archbishops: Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, West Africa, the Southern Cone, Rwanda, Sydney and Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA, speaks to the mounting frustration the reform movement’s leaders feel with the course of events taken by the London-based instruments of the communion, one insider told The Church of England Newspaper.
Given the African church’s historic deference to the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and their cultural predisposition not to air their differences in public, the Nairobi letter was a remarkably frank document, CEN was told.
In their communiqué, the archbishops objected to the hijacking of the church’s agenda by Western interests in the face of natural disasters and political upheavals facing the world. They urged all Christians to join them in “prayer for our world and especially for those who are suffering because of natural disasters as well as those who struggle to live under violent and oppressive governments.”
“We are distressed that, in the face of these enormous challenges, we are still divided as a Communion,” they said, adding that until the issues that divide the church are addressed full on “we will remain weakened at a time when the needs before us are so great.”
The bishops were frustrated and “disappointed that those who organized the Primates meeting in Dublin not only failed to address these core concerns but decided instead to unilaterally reduce the status of the Primates’ Meeting.”
Such a move was taken in “complete disregard” of the organizing resolutions for the primates conference set down by Lambeth 1978 and 1988 that gave the primates an “enhanced role in ‘doctrinal, moral and pastoral matters’.”
Those who wrote the script for Dublin that gelded the primates “were seriously misled and their actions unacceptable,” the Gafcon archbishops said.
The modernist “promotion of a shadow gospel that appears to replace a traditional reading of Holy Scriptures and a robust theology of the church with an uncertain faith and a never ending listening process” was “troubling,” they said.
Such a “faith masquerades as a religion of tolerance and generosity and yet it is decidedly intolerant to those who hold to the ‘faith once and for all delivered to the saints’.”
The ecclesiological principle of concentrating authority into the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury and an unaccountable bureaucracy were un-Anglican. The basic unit of the church in Anglicanism was not a London-based curia, but the local church. “We were mindful of the importance of letting scripture speak directly to the nature of the church and not simply let our current experience delimit our doctrine,” they said.
The Scriptural witness and the Anglican formularies held that the “local church is the fundamental expression of the one true church here on earth and is bound together with other local churches by ties of love, fellowship and truth.”
“From such networks have come denominations, national churches and global communions,” they said, adding that “we believe, however, that we are fully the church in our various settings, created and sustained by Word and Sacrament, and marked by obedience that results in faith, hope and love.”
The archbishops urged a return to the Scriptural and doctrinal principles enunciated in the 2008 Jerusalem Statement, and called for the renewal and reform of the church. “The Lord’s call to discipline demands from us a commitment to unity, holiness, apostolicity and catholicity. All of these are aspects of what it means to be church,” they said.
High Commissioner expelled by Malawi: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 7. May 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Politics.comments closed
Foreign Secretary William Hague
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Malawi have distanced themselves from their government’s expulsion of the British High Commissioner, saying the diplomatic spat between Britain and the Central African nation will only harm the country’s poor.
Last week the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered High Commission Fergus Cochrane-Dyet to leave the country after the Nation newspaper in Blantyre, the country’s capital, published extracts of British diplomatic cables critical of the president.
However, the Bishop of Southern Malawi, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga—who also serves as chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council—said the diplomatic tiff was “really painful” for Malawians and not the best way forward for his country.
“It would be good for the President and all people in power to begin to think like responsible people and restore responsibility. Seeking advice and common wisdom is not a bad thing and that is what the country needs,” the bishop said.
In the leaked cable, Mr. Cochraine-Dyet wrote: “President Mutharika is becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism. In a public speech on 6 March, he called for his supporters to go to the streets to fight his critics to bring discipline in this country…”
The High Commissioner also noted that the collapse of authoritarian regimes in North Africa had unnerved President Mutharika. “There is evidence that the Middle East people power has emboldened civil society activists and made the Government more paranoid.”
Diplomatic relations were worsening, the cable noted. “Some ambassadors have been summoned by the Foreign Minister for a dressing down, others (including me) have been summoned by the President’s brother for gentler delivery of the same message: stop supporting civil society to destabilise the government…”
Malawi’s government ordered Mr. Cochrane-Dyet to leave after the cables were made public on April 15. On April 27, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the expulsion of the High Commissioner was “totally unacceptable and unwarranted.”
He added the Foreign Office had asked Malawi’s high commissioner to “leave the UK at the earliest opportunity. I have also asked my officials, working closely with their colleagues elsewhere in government, to review rapidly the full range of our wider relationship with Malawi.”
The Public Affairs Committee of Malawi (PAC), an ecumenical coalition of churches and NGOs, expressed concern about the breach, saying it was writing the British Government to apologise for the expulsion of their envoy.
The Rev. MacDonald Kadawait, the acting chairman of PAC, told the Nation, “We are writing them to apologise on behalf of Malawians,” as PAC wanted Malawi to maintain its close links with Britain—the country’s largest foreign aid donor.
Government spokesmen declined to speak to the content of the cables, and have not said how the breach of cable security occurred.
“Baby bonus’ ban rejected by rejected by Australian govt: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 7. May 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Environment, Politics.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Australian government has rejected a proposal to scrap the country’s £3500 ‘baby bonus’ put forward last year by the Anglican Church of Australia’s Public Affairs Commission (PAC), rejecting the commission’s doomsday scenario that more children will lead to a collapse of the environment and the economy.
On April 28 the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, David Bradbury MP, told Sky News the ‘baby bonus’ was part of a “package of measures and they are important in providing assistance” to Australian families.
Last year the PAC submitted a discussion paper the September meeting of General Synod to help guide the church’s discussions to the government’s ‘big Australia’ debate over the optimum population for the country initiated by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“I actually believe in a big Australia. I make no apology for that. I actually think it’s good news that our population is growing,” Mr. Rudd said in an Oct 2009 television interview, and in 2010 appointed the country’s first Population Minister, Tony Burke. Mr. Rudd said it was the “responsible course of government policy” to prepare for a rise in the population. The opposition responded to the “big Australia” plan by calling for a cut in immigration, estimated at between 180,000 and 300,000 per year.
In its paper, the PAC argued that it was a Christian’s duty to consume less, spend less, and have fewer children. “Consumption and population need to be addressed, and very sensitively, given the benefits received by rich nations from their use of global resources,” the paper said, warning that “unless we take account of the needs of future life on Earth, there is a case that we break the eighth commandment – ‘Thou shalt not steal’,” the PAC paper said.
The PAC paper called for the government to eliminate the baby bonus, while also urging a relaxation of immigration restrictions.
Curbing the number of newborns was an ecological imperative, the paper suggested as the “population increases will be taking place in a finite world that has not yet been able to agree on reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid potentially catastrophic temperature increase and climate change,” the paper said.
Unless steps were taken to curb population growth, disaster loomed the paper said, offering an update to the Rev. Thomas Malthus’ 1798 prediction in an Essay on the Principle of Population. In his 1798 work, Malthus, a Church of England clergyman, argued that “population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.” It was inevitable that population would outstrip the food supply—leading to chaos.
“Out of care for the whole Creation, particularly the poorest of humanity and the life forms who cannot speak for themselves, it is not responsible to stand by and remain silent,” the PAC paper said.
However, General Synod did not endorse the PAC paper, and its recommendations were only those of its members, not of the church as a whole.
“When we do have a discussion about sustainable population we do need to acknowledge the challenges of an aging population,” Mr. Bradbury told Sky News, but the government would not act upon the PAC report.
Ceylon bishops divided over Sri Lanka war crimes report: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 6. May 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of Ceylon, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Greg Shantha Francis of Kurunegala
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Leaders of the Church of Ceylon have divided over a UN report that accused the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa of committing war crimes in the closing months of the country’s civil war.
On April 27, Bishop Greg Shantha Francis of Kurunegala told a press conference the UN paper was flawed, and would serve only to destabilize the country’s attempts at reconciliation and rebuilding in the wake of the 26 year war between the government and separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
However the former Bishop of Kurunegala, Kumara Illangasinghe, endorsed a statement calling upon Christians to “take into serious consideration the stories of our brothers and sisters contained in the report, along with its conclusions and recommendations.”
The 196-page UN report, released on April 25 found that the government and the LTTE had committed war crimes in the closing months of the war. In the five months leading up to the government’s May 19, 2009 victory over the LTTE, tens of thousands of civilians were killed, the report said.
The three-man panel set up to advise UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon found credible evidence of widespread civilian deaths due to government artillery barrages of rebel held territory. These deaths were compounded, the UN report argued, by the government’s refusal to allow aid agencies to come the assistance of the civilian population in the war zone until after the LTTE was defeated.
The LTTE, however, was also guilty of war crimes, and had used civilians as human shields to discourage government attacks, and had executed civilians who attempted to flee from rebel held territory.
“The UN Panel report is completely baseless and lacks credibility,” the Minister of Mass Media and Information, Keheliya Rambukwella, told the UN’s IRIN news agency on April 26.
However, the statement endorsed by Bishop Illangasinghe—a former member of the Anglican Consultative Council’s standing committee—said the UN report confirmed stories church leaders had heard of government war crimes and LTTE atrocities.
“We have received desperate calls, emails and messages about how the government repeatedly shelled the no fire zones in which it asked civilians to take shelter, how hospitals and food distribution centers were attacked when their locations were known and clearly marked and about people being killed and injured in these places and in bunkers they had dug with bare hands,” his statement said.
“Instead of denial and rejection that seems to be happening now, we believe all Sri Lankans should treat this report as a resource and tool” in finding justice and “reparation for victims,” his joint statement concluded.
However, Bishop Francis supported the government, saying the UN report was unhelpful. “At a time like this, what we expect from the international community is only a positive approach. On behalf of our country and our mission I condemn the action of Ban Ki-Moon. We commit all our undivided support to our President,” he said.
President Rajapaksa’s government had taken “very positive” steps to reconcile and rebuild Sri Lanka, Bishop Francis said. “It is a time all our people joined hand in hand and it is the first time in our country that such a thing has ever happened.”
Stand firm in the face of Western threats to cut aid, bishop declares: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 7. May 10, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa.comments closed
Bishop Francis Kaulanda of Lake Malawi
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Lake Malawi marked the 150th anniversary of the Anglican Church in the Central African country by declaring his independence from the doctrinal innovations on homosexuality propounded by leaders of the Episcopal Church and Church of England.
Bishop Francis Kaulanda told the congregation of All Saints Cathedral in Nkhotakota, he supported President Bingu wa Mutharik’s policies criminalizing homosexuality, and urged the government to stand firm in the face of Western donor demands for Malawi to repeal its Sodomy Laws in return for aid. Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Uganda and other African nations that have laws banning homosexual conduct have come under pressure from Western aid agencies and governments to change their laws to conform to new sensibilities in Europe and the US.
However, Malawi should not kowtow to economic or church pressure from the West to change its laws, as the normalization of homosexuality was un-Godly and contrary to the cultural norms of Malawi, Bishop Kaulanda said on May 1.
In February the Malawi parliament criminalized ‘lesbianism’, adding sexual relations between women to the list of acts forbidden by the country’s sodomy laws. The Malawi Council of Churches (MCC) with its chairman, Lutheran Bishop Joseph Bvumbe, telling reporters homosexual practices “threaten the family unit” and contradicted “Malawi’s rich traditions, culture and its spirituality as a God fearing nation.”
However, the Anglican Bishop of Upper Shire, the Rt. Rev. Brighton Malasa urged a more “generous pastoral response” towards homosexuals. While supporting the Communion’s stance that “homosexual practice was incompatible with Scripture,” he told the Church of England Newspaper the church’s mission nonetheless was “to embrace sinners, assist them to reform and move forward.”
“Let us invite gays and lesbians, because they are sinners, unto Christ; let us not chase them away to perish” he said.
While supporting the church’s call to minister to all, Bishop Kaulanda said Malawi should not be manipulated by threats of withholding foreign aid to change government policies.
“Let me thank Government for its stand on this issue and we would always support it on this particular issue because it is better for the donors to withdraw their aid than introduce to us an alien culture of same sex relations. That is against our values,” the bishop said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Etta Banda, welcomed the church’s support. “Thank you for realising that same sex relations are against our cultural and religious values and that human rights must follow the value system of the people. In formulating laws, we are supposed to anchor them with cultural and religious values,” she said, the Nyasa Times reported.
Gafcon elects Archbishop of Kenya as its new chairman: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 6. May 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON.comments closed
Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Kenya, Dr Eliud Wabukala, has been elected chairman of the Gafcon primates’ council at a meeting of archbishops in Nairobi.
In a statement released on 28 April, the new leader of the global Anglican reform movement said he was honoured by the trust given him by his colleagues. “I recognise that we have set ourselves a truly monumental task but we serve God for whom nothing, not even overcoming death itself, is impossible,” the Archbishop said.
The Rt Rev Bill Atwood, Suffragan Bishop of All Saints Diocese in Kenya and a leader of the Anglican Church in North America, told The Church of England Newspaper the “meeting was like the new chairman: resolute, clear and gracious.”
Dr Wabukala succeeds the Bishop Gregory Venables as chairman of the primates’ council. Two new archbishops also joined the primates’ council in Nairobi: Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile, the Primate of the Southern Cone, and Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje of Rwanda.
Formed at the 2008 Global Anglican Futures Conference (Gafcon) held in Jerusalem, Gafcon gathered over 1,200 bishops and church leaders drawn from the Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic wings of the Church. The conference released a confessional statement, the Jerusalem Declaration, at the end of the meeting that reaffirmed the Church’s traditional beliefs as found in the Articles of Religion, Prayer Book and historic creeds.
The organisation has also taken on political overtones, as it has emerged as a communion within the Anglican Communion, filling the vacuum left by the collapse of authority of the existing instruments of Communion: the Lambeth Conference, Primates’ Meeting, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In his 28 April letter, Dr Wabukala said he was excited about the opportunities the Gafcon movement presented for the Church. “It reminds me of my roots in the East African Revival when the renewing Spirit of God permeated the Church leading to a confession of sins, a thirst for God’s Word filling the converts with humility, a simple lifestyle and an unquestionable desire for evangelism.
“It is my conviction that this same Spirit is at work in Gafcon,” he said.
Cathedral working for peace in Bahrain: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 7. May 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Politics.comments closed
King Hamad bin al-Khalifa of Bahrain
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Anglicans in Bahrain are hoping their prayer and presence will help bring peace to the divided Persian Gulf kingdom. Western expatriates have so far kept clear of the political turmoil shaking the country, the Dean of Bahrain’s Anglican Cathedral reports, but sectarian tensions are on the rise following the imposition of martial law.
The Very Rev. Christopher Butt, Dean of St. Christopher’s Cathedral told The Church of England Newspaper the impact on the expatriate community has been “limited.”
“There are minor inconveniences, like police roadblocks which make journeys longer,” he said, but “compared to a month ago life is considerably calmer in Manama.”
Emboldened by the fall of authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, in February democracy activists called for a civil resistance campaign to win greater political freedom and civic equality from the majority Shia population from the Sunni government of King Hamad bin al-Khalifa.
Following a harsh police crackdown on Feb 17 at a protest held at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the protests intensified with some openly calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. On March 14 the government requested military assistance from the Gulf Cooperation Council to put down the revolt, and on the 15th the king declared martial law and imposed a three month state of emergency.
Dean Butt stated that at the start of the protests a “large, but peaceful and good-natured, group of protestors walked past the front of the Cathedral, which is adjacent to the Ministry of Interior, but the protest was not directed at us.”
The government also erected a “concrete and rolled razor wire barrier, which curtailed but didn’t prevent access to the Cathedral, but again, this was erected to protect the Ministry of Interior, not us.”
Dean Butt reported that “at no point have we as a community felt under threat,” however he was concerned for the “local community which is seriously divided.”
He reported that a university teacher of his acquaintance said that there were now
“very serious tensions between the Sunni and Shia students in his class and people, who had been friends for many years, now regarding one another with the deepest suspicion.”
Those “in any way involved in the protests at the Pearl Roundabout are clearly being targeted: arrested, imprisoned, or dismissed from their jobs. There are often sounds of helicopters, tear gas canisters, and gunfire in the villages near where the majority of the western expatriate population lives,” he said.
The unrest prompted Britain to issue a travel warning for the country, and on April 21 Foreign Secretary William Hague released a statement voicing concern “at events in Bahrain.”
There continue to be “many credible reports of human rights abuses,” Mr. Hague said, and the “arrests of opposition figures, the reports of deaths in custody, allegations of torture and the denial of medical treatment, are extremely troubling.”
Britain believed that a “continuation of the political reform process initiated” by the king was “essential.” “Dialogue” between the Shia protestors and the Sunni government was “the pathway to meeting the aspirations of all Bahrainis. I urge all sides to engage in it,” Mr. Hague said.
Dean Butt stated that for “healing to take place there will have to be dialogue, and the Crown Prince was instrumental at an early stage of the protest in voicing that need with the support of the King, but the voices for dialogue have fallen ominously silent. “
“As a Christian community we sometimes feel we are watching from a distance,” he added, saying “we can and do pray,” and also engage with the countries religious leaders in dialogue.
The church can play a role in bringing peace to Bahrain, the dean said, “as those who are entrusted with the gospel of reconciliation, the Christian community here must ask the question how that ministry is best expressed in the context of Bahrain at this particular moment of its history.”
Revamp of Church in Wales considered: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 May 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Lord Harries
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Managing the decline of the Church in Wales calls for a fundamental re-think of its structures and finances, the Archbishop of Wales said last week.
In his presidential address to the April 27-28 meeting of the church’s Governing Body gathered at Swansea University, Dr. Barry Morgan said a three-man review commission led by Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford, and retired London Business School Professor Charles Handy would examine the church’s structures in light of declining revenues, clergy and members.
The commission would be asked to determine whether “the resources available to the Church in Wales are being deployed efficiently and effectively;” whether the “organisation of the Church in Wales is one which enables the Church to be effective in addressing the nation of Wales;” and whether the “organisation should be adapted to enable the Church to live more fully into a model of church life which is theologically and missionally coherent and sustainable in the long term.”
Declining revenues, rising expenses, aging clergy and congregations and an absence of young people were driving the reforms. Dr. Morgan noted that “average attendance had continued to fall by 2 per cent in line with the longer term trend,” while “average attendance among young people had fallen particularly sharply.”
Finances were also a concern, as the “level of total direct giving fell for the first time since the statistics began to be collected in this format in 1990” and “for the first time since 1993, total parish income was less than expenditure.” This was coupled with a rise from 28 per cent to 31 per cent of the proportion of parish funds “spent on buildings.”
Long standing polices, including a presence across all of Wales, would have to be reviewed, the archbishop noted. However, Dr. Morgan stressed the importance of the work of the church’s bishops, who would be “devoting more time at our forthcoming meetings to further defining our vision for a more ‘fit for purpose Church’ and for ensuring that we have in place the right plans and processes for providing and supporting ministry at all levels of the Church to achieve this vision.”
Dr. Morgan said that “in commissioning such a review, we will all have to be prepared to take seriously its findings and to be open to the possibility of significant change in our structures, ministry, use of buildings and other resources if it is seen to be in the best interests of the church and its mission to the people and communities of Wales as we look ahead to the next decade.”
Legality of Anglican Covenant in doubt: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 6. May 6, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Anglican Consultative Council, Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Ngarahu Katene
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The viability of proposed Anglican Covenant remains unclear, as a request by the Anglican Church of Aotaroa, New Zealand and Polynesia (ANZP) for a legal opinion as to its enforceability remains unanswered, a year after it was requested.
Delegates to the May 2010 meeting of the ANZP General Synod/Te Hinota Whanui endorsed the first three sections of the covenant, but adopted a resolution asking for an opinion from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council on the “appropriateness of the provisions of Clause 4.2.8 of the proposed Covenant,” which excludes all provinces which have not adopted the covenant from decision-making about exclusion of provinces.
On April 27, the Rev. Michael Hughes, General Secretary of the ANZP told The Church of England Newspaper that “no answer yet” had been given. The ACC Standing Committee has now met three times since the ANZP Synod, and Mr. Hughes said he would follow up”on the province’s request.
The continuing cloud over the legality of the covenant comes as the ANZP dioceses begin debating the agreement, which seeks to set the parameters of Anglican life and thought. At the 2010 synod, delegates asked the church’s ‘episcopal units’, (the seven dioceses of the Church of New Zealand, the five hiu amorangi or Maori dioceses, and the Diocese of Polynesia) to consider the full covenant and report back to the June 2012 meeting of synod.
On April 15 delegates to the hui amorangi of Te Manawa o Te Wheke synod voted to reject the Anglican Covenant. The vote was reported as having been unanimous, with Bishop Ngarahu Katene speaking in support of the motion to reject the Anglican Covenant.
Meeting in Rotorua on New Zealand’s North Island, the synod adopted a resolution that stated after “much consideration” the diocese “feels that The Anglican Covenant will threaten the Rangatiratanga of the Tangata Whenua.” (Sovereignty of the people of the land.)
The diocese believes “the Anglican Covenant does not reflect our understanding of being Anglican in these islands,” and they added they would prefer the church to focus on internal land disputes and the rights of Maoris in New Zealand rather than on the wider church.
If the 2012 General Synod adopts the Covenant, it must come before the Synod a second time in 2014 as a change to the church’s constitution for adoption. However, under the current organizational structure, each Tikanga or section of the church: Maori, Polynesia, Church of New Zealand, has the ability to veto legislation for the whole.
Bin Laden death sparks security alerts world wide: The Church of England Newspaper, May 6, 2011 p 1. May 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Terrorism.comments closed
Police are guarding St. Luke's Church in Abbottabad and other Pakistani churches to ward off revenge attacks following the death of Osama bin Laden
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani mountain redoubt has prompted security warnings and mixed feelings from Anglican leaders across the globe.
On 1 May, US Navy SEAL commandos assaulted the al-Qaeda leader’s walled compound in Abbottabad and killed bin Laden in a gun battle. While speculation that bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan had been rife for several years, most experts believed he was holed up in the rugged tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan, not in a former British hill station living in a luxury compound.
“The world would not wish Osama was alive,” Bishop Julius Kalu of Mombasa told reporters after bin Laden’s death was announced by US President Barack Obama. “We hope this is the first step to wiping out terrorism,” the Bishop said.
The killing of the terrorist leader has led to heightened security round the world. In Nairobi, scene of a 1998 al-Qaeda attack, security around government buildings and commercial centres has been raised and police spot checks introduced.
“What happened in Pakistan is totally related to Kenya and East Africa,” anti-terrorism police commander Nicholas Kamwende told the Star. “The threat of terrorism is real and everyone has to be on the look-out even as police do their work.”
In London, the Foreign Office stated the killing of bin Laden “may lead to an increase in violence and terrorist activity” and urged Britons abroad to “remain vigilant, exercise caution in all public places and avoid demonstrations, large crowds of people and public events.”
On 3 May Prime Minister David Cameron warned that Britain “will have to be particularly vigilant in the weeks ahead.”
Church leaders in Pakistan have also urged care. The Bishop of Lahore Alexander Malik said the “security of Christian institutions” had been “beefed up due to potential threats” of retaliation out of concern that terrorist rage at the death of bin Laden may blow back onto Pakistan’s Christians.
“We are a soft target as they cannot attack America,” the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lahore Lawrence Saldanha told a Catholic news agency. “We demand security. The government should control any retaliation.”
The resort town of Abbottabad, northeast of Rawalpindi, served as the headquarters for the British deputy commissioner of the Hazara District and the cantonment for the 5th Ghurkha Rifles, and remains the regimental centre for the Frontier Force of Pakistan, as well as a popular summer holiday destination.
The Association of Churches of the Hazara Division, a group of five Churches around Abbottabad including St Luke’s Church — the former British garrison chapel — have been given police protection and its leaders are staying off the streets and out of the public eye. Bishop Malik added that “many Christians are hesitant to publicly talk about Osama bin Laden’s death.”
Peter Marsden, Director of The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East (FRRME), reported that in Iraq “we are seeing massively increased security following the killing of Osama bin Laden. The security services are clearly bracing themselves for trouble. These are very dangerous times to be in Baghdad.”
“We hope and pray that al-Qaeda’s hold over Iraq’s people and politics will diminish with bin Laden’s passing,” Mr Marsden told The Church of England Newspaper, noting “for our part, we don’t see anyone’s violent death as a cause for celebration.”
American church leaders were also conflicted over the death of the terrorist leader. “As followers of Jesus Christ we believe that every life is precious, every person created in the image of God,” Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina said.
“While justice has been done it is not cause for celebration, but a call to solemn dedication of ourselves to work for a world where all may dwell in peace,” Bishop Curry said.
Writing on his Facebook page, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham said: “Osama bin Laden’s death is a military success, but he was a human being better put on trial as a criminal than killed in a way that some will call martyrdom.
“We also have to note he was in Pakistan, and known to be so. The billions spent and hundreds of thousands killed in conventional war in Iraq, and even the fourth Afghan War, seem to have had nothing at all to do with his demise,” Bishop Wilson said.
Canadian ‘no’ to communion without baptism: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 7. May 4, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Hymnody/Liturgy.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada has rejected calls to permit those not baptized to be allowed to receive the “sacrament of the holy Eucharist.”
At the close of their April 11-15 meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario the bishops reaffirmed the church’s canons and traditional practice stating only those baptized would be permitted to receive. “We do not see this as changing for the foreseeable future,” the bishops said.
The bishops’ debate follows a March 7 “Guest Reflection” published in Canada’s Anglican Journal by Dr. Gary Nicolosi who argued for a relaxation in the church’s Eucharistic discipline as a way of attracting more people to church.
“How, in our multicultural and pluralistic society, can our churches be places of hospitality if we exclude table fellowship with the non-baptized,” Dr. Nicolosi asked.
“Open communion increasingly is seen as a way to build a bridge between the church and the unchurched. If people are ‘spiritual but not religious’ as several sociological studies indicate, then the desire for transcendence experienced in sacramental worship may well draw them to church,” he argued.
He added that “open communion played a major part in the rapid growth of my parish in Southern California. I saw the same scenario repeated many times—non-Christians receiving Holy Communion and experiencing God in a powerful way, leading to a desire to be baptized. Therefore, I ask: might we not see the experience of receiving communion as a way of drawing people to faith in Jesus?”
The bishops were not convinced by this argument, however, but acknowledged that an “open table” or “open communion” was practised in some parts of the Canadian church. This deviation from canons and customs “arises out of a deep concern to express Christian hospitality,” they noted. However guidance on “Christian hospitality and mission and how these relate to the Table of Christ” would be given to the church following the bishop’s October meeting in Halifax.
In an interview with the Anglican Journal, Archbishop Fred Hiltz stated the bishops were cognizant of the potential of the sacrament of Eucharist for leading some unchurched people to baptism. “No one is dismissing that, but at the same time, a good pastoral coach can help people understand how baptism and the Eucharist complement each other.”
In the Episcopal Church the practise of open communion is more widespread, though it is also forbidden by canon law. A study conducted released in 2005 by the Diocese of Northern California, which had advocated allowing open communion, estimated that a majority of dioceses had congregations that permitted open communion.
Of the church’s 110 dioceses, 48 responded to the Northern California survey. Of those 24, reported they had parishes who practice open communion, or communion without baptism (CWOB) while a further 7 dioceses were reported to “probably allow CWOB.”
Anglican Covenant ‘un-American’, Colorado says: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 8. May 3, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, Colorado.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Colorado has urged rejection of the Anglican Covenant, stating the present draft of the document presents a vision of the church that is foreign to its understanding. The document also engages in a double standard of disciplining the Episcopal Church but takes no action against conservative churches that violate the Windsor moratorium against gay bishops, blessings and cross border violations.
The covenant was incoherent, as it acknowledges that signatories adopt the covenant “in order to proclaim more effectively in our different contexts the grace of God,” while in Section 4 it “directly contravenes” this goal by “promulgating disciplinary procedures that do not respect” localized revelations of the divine. It also begins with the assumption the American Church is in the wrong, and its polity defective.
The Colorado deputation objected to the language of the proposed covenant which “arose out of the Windsor Report in response to the actions of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada regarding consecration of a partnered gay bishop and same gender blessings. However, the proposed covenant provides no means of reconciling the relationships broken by responses to those actions.”
The “punitive” Section 4 of the Covenant “proposes relational consequences that formalize separation and suspension from participation in the life of the Communion,” the deputation said, noting such an approach would not resolve the divisions within the church.
The polity of the provinces in the Anglican Communion varies widely, and Section 4.1.3 affirms the “autonomy of governance” of each province.
The letter released last week has no legal standing, however, as it was prepared by the diocese’s deputies to General Convention in response to a query from the national church. Under the Episcopal Church’s constitution and canons, deputies have no authority outside the triennial meetings of General Convention, and cannot bind nor speak for the diocese. The letter does, however, give a fair assessment of the sentiment among the controlling faction in the diocese.
Colorado has been hit hard by the Episcopal Church’s internal disputes over doctrine and discipline, losing a number of congregations to breakaway groups gathered under the ACNA. In 2009 the diocese reported that the cost of lawsuits and the downturn in the stock market had consumed almost 85 per cent of its endowment.
The value of diocese’s portfolio shrank from $4.9 million in 2006 to $750,000 in Aug 2009, with over $2.9 million consumed by the costs of litigation with those leaving Grace & St Stephen’s Church in Colorado Springs, diocesan treasurer Robert Poley reported in a covering letter accompanying the diocese’s proposed 2010 budget. However, the recent market upturn has recouped some of its losses.
Tuam bishop appointed: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 8. May 3, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
Dean Patrick Rooke
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishops of the Church of Ireland have appointed the Dean of Armagh, the Very Rev. Patrick W. Rooke as Bishop of the United Dioceses of Tuam, Killala and Achonry in succession to Dr Richard Henderson, who took up a parish post in Cumbria in January.
On April 14, Dr. Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, stated he was “delighted to be able to announce that at a meeting of the House of Bishops in Portmarnock” had elected Dean Rooke.
“I very much look forward to Dean Rooke taking leadership of the Church of Ireland people in the geographically very large diocese of the West. He brings many gifts of leadership, imagination and spirituality to the task,” the archbishop said, adding that the new bishop had a long experience in helping to overcome Ireland’s sectarian troubles through the “Hard Gospel project and its emphasis upon inclusivity and the fostering of good relations amongst people of goodwill.”
On March 30 Tuam’s Episcopal Electoral College failed to elect a new bishop, passing the appointment to the House of Bishops. This followed a special meeting of the Irish General Synod on March 5 to address a bill put forward by the bishops to suspend election of a bishop for the rural diocese of 2000 active members gathered in nine parishes, or unions of congregations in County Mayo and portions of Counties Sligo and Galway in the far west of Ireland
Questions of the economic viability of the diocese were raised by the bishops. Writing after Dr. Henderson announced his resignation, Reform Ireland asked if 12 diocesan bishops were necessary to oversee Ireland’s 500 clergy. However, the Irish Synod overwhelmingly rejected the bishops’ proposal and the electoral college was called.
Dean Rooke said he was encouraged by the strong vote in support of a bishop for Tuam in the Synod. Speaking after his appointment, the dean said he would take his time to consider carefully the implications of the synod debate for himself as bishop and for the United Dioceses, and that he would encourage the clergy and people to share that journey with him.
“Having spent the past thirty-three years in Northern Ireland, returning to the Republic will be different,” Dean Rooke said. “However, I have found throughout my ministry that the experience gained growing up in a rectory family in Dublin has prepared me for most things,” he added.
Anglicans kicked out of doors again this Easter in Harare: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 8. May 2, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Dr. Nolbert Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Easter Sunday was celebrated outdoors in Harare this year, with the city’s churches closed to Anglicans who have refused to accept the authority of deposed bishop, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga.
The deteriorating political situation has heightened tensions in the Central African country. Church leaders are being pressured to declare their loyalty to the regime, or face the consequences of disloyalty. The Anglican Church’s difficulties are heightened by the presence of supporters and opponents of the regime in its ranks, and by the support given to Dr. Kunonga from the security services. Dr. Kunonga has attacked the church as a stooge for British imperialists, and has cemented his ties to the secret police by his unswerving loyalty to the regime.
Sources in the Central African church report that worshippers and clergy loyal to the Anglican bishop recognized by the wider Anglican Communion, Dr. Chad Gandiya, gathered in Africa Unity Square across from the closed Cathedral of All Saints and St Mary for Easter services. Other Anglicans gathered in private homes, pubs and in parks to celebrate Easter, as their churches remain closed to them.
Mugabe’s recent attack on Catholic Bishops is very disturbing at a time when Christians all over the world were marking the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is even more worrying are reports of police intimidation of Anglicans in Zimbabwe.
Last month the Mothers’ Union in Harare was ordered by Dr. Kunonga to join a pro-government petition campaign. On March 3 the ZANU-PF government of President Robert Mugabe launched a campaign to gather at least two million signatures on a petition protesting sanctions imposed by the UK, US and EU against the regime’s leaders—including Dr. Kunonga.
Opposition leaders who have questioned the campaign have been jailed, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) reports. The instability in North Africa has also prompted harsh reactions from the regime. On Feb 19, 46 union leaders, students and human rights activists were arrested for attending a meeting to discuss the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. They have since been charged with treason.
On April 22, the Daily News reported that President Mugabe’s ire had turned upon the Roman Catholic Church.
“Even though I was born in this church (Catholic), their bishops are all over me on a daily basis. They attack me and criticise me because they are led by the whites who have their interests and agendas. They say I am an oppressor because they are not happy that the country is being led by a black man,” President Mugabe said.
Virginia property cases back in court: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 8. May 2, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, Virginia.comments closed
Church of the Word, Gainesville Va.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Virginia property cases have returned to the Fairfax County Court this week for a retrial.
Six weeks of hearing and testimony will be presented beginning April 25 in a Northern Virginia court to determine the ownership of seven congregations that broke away from the Diocese of Virginia in 2006. Last June the Virginia Supreme Court overturned Judge Randy Bellows’ 2008 ruling that found that under the state’s “division statute” the properties belonged to their congregations. The court disagreed with the judge’s interpretation of the law and sent the dispute back for a retrial.
“We remain confident in our legal position and we continue to remain steadfast in our effort to defend the historic Christian faith,” said Jim Oakes, chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, which is the umbrella organization for the seven Anglican congregations.
Two of the nine congregations that originally participated in the lawsuit have entered into settlement agreements with the diocese. On April 18 the Church of the Word in Gainesville settled the lawsuit brought by the diocese, following in the footsteps of the Church of Our Savior, in Oatlands, which reached an agreement on Feb 20.
An unusual codicil of the two settlements is that both churches must withdraw from the Anglican Communion in North America (ACNA) and its member churches for five years. In the case of the Church of Our Savior, in Oatlands, the parish can end the restriction by giving thirty days notice, and vacating the property.
While modeled on a non-competition clause commonly found in the sale of businesses, it is questionable whether this provision is enforceable, as US state and federal law prohibits any court from enforcing any restraint on the free exercise of religion.
The Rev. Robin Adams, rector of the Church of the Word, said the requirement to temporally disaffiliate from ACNA was one of the more difficult aspects of the settlement, but he remains positive.
“Our goal is to return to the ACNA fold when the disaffiliation period is completed as a stronger Christian body,” he said. “We’ll continue to worship in our accustomed manner, and for most of our members, this provision will not even be something they’ll notice in our day-to-day church ministry.”
However, Mr. Adams, a native of Londonderry who was educated at Oak Hill Theological College and served the Church of Ireland for eleven years before taking a cure in the United States in 1990, called the disaffiliation requirement “a failure to ‘respect the dignity of every human being,’ as the baptismal covenant says, and is certainly unchristian.”
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published on April 20, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stated that negotiations with breakaway groups were governed by the principle that gifts given for the Episcopal Church “not be inappropriately disposed of. We have to recover some approximation of fair market value,” she said.
The second “is that we shouldn’t be in the business of setting up competing ecclesiastical interests with Episcopal Church resources.”
“The buildings and the bank accounts are the legacy of generations before us. I don’t have the right to give those away for other purposes. My fiduciary responsibility, my moral responsibility, is to see that those gifts are used for the ministry to which God calls us in the Episcopal Church,” she said.
Mr. Haley, who has advised the breakaway Diocese of San Joaquin in its lawsuit with the national church, was un-persuaded by the presiding bishop’s arguments, noting her words rang hollow as Bishop Jefferts Schori was “not above dipping into those same long-ago gifts to pay” her lawyers “to go after every departing parish.”
“Hypocrisy rolls off the Presiding Bishop like water off a duck’s back,” he said, adding the non-compete agreements required of departing parishes were barbaric. A church is not a business, Mr. Haley said, and to speak of “competition” from another church “is fundamentally to misunderstand the Great Commission to spread the good news of the Gospel to all the world.”
The Episcopal Church as led by the Presiding Bishop “Katharine Jefferts Schori offers nothing that is in competition with traditional churches,” Mr. Haley said.
Kampala Cathedral selling shares: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 6. May 2, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda.comments closed
An artist's drawing of All Saints Cathedral in Kampala.
The Church of Uganda is asking congregations across the country to purchase a share in All Saints Cathedral in Kampala, to help underwrite the costs of Africa’s newest and largest Anglican cathedral.
Speaking to reporters last week during a tour of the works, Archbishop Henry Orombi said “our target is to raise at least 50 per cent of the funds needed from the dioceses” to build the 4000 seat £6.6 million All Saints Cathedral. “In this way, the dioceses will enjoy a return on their investment once the project is complete.”
Construction has slowed on the cathedral, which will feature a two level underground parking garage, two galleries, two chapels, offices, two boardrooms and a 45-metre bell tower, due to a shortage of funds. Construction costs of £127,000 must be raised each month until the project is completed.
Founded in 1912 as a chaplaincy to the city’s colonial hospital, All Saints catered to Kampala’s European population for its first 50 years. Following independence in 1962 All Saints was incorporated as a parish church and its members changed from being exclusively European to include people of African and Asian origin. In 1972, the church was elevated to a Pro-Cathedral and later to a Cathedral for the newly created Kampala Diocese.
The present congregation of some 10,000 members, however, overflows the current 800 seat church. For the past seven years, the cathedral has used tents to accommodate the crowds, holding three services each Sunday that each draws in excess of 1200 people.
Speaking to the Kampala Observer, Archbishop Orombi said he was hopeful the building would be completed on schedule in the next 18 months. “I want to open this Church House before I retire in two years,” he said.
Camp Bastion crosses: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 6. May 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Afghanistan, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
A chaplain serving with the 3rd Battalion of The Parachute Regiment at Camp Bastion has found a novel way to meet the pastoral needs of his troops in Afghanistan.
The Rev. Robin Richardson, who returns to Britain on April 24 after a six month deployment hands out crosses made from the wire fencing surrounding the camp to paratroopers in Helmand Province.
“Towards the beginning of the tour, some of the lads asked me if I had some crosses I could give them,” Padre Richardson said. “I found a few at Camp Bastion, and I gave them out. I ran out very quickly.”
“So I wandered around our camp at Shahzad, trying to find something I could fashion into a cross. And I noticed some discarded Hesco wire, and I saw lots and lots of crosses.”
The wire is part of the fortified perimeter of Camp Bastion, with gravel and sand held in place by wire mesh. “I got busy with some bolt-cutters and a hammer and a drill,” the padre said, “and I started making small crosses out of the discarded wire.”
“A lot of the lads have asked if they can have one,” he said. “And they’ve been wearing them, and understanding a bit about what lies behind it.”
Improvisation has been one of the hallmarks of Padre Richardson, who has kept a blog during his deployment overseas. On April 5, the padre described a field baptism of a young soldier. “That we had no kind of font or baptistry was irrelevant. We had a big blue plastic barrel that the lads dunk themselves in after a patrol to cool down, and we had a mug cut from the container that held a mortar round.”
Friends of Adam, the young man, “those he lives alongside, and with whom he had discussed his decision, his choice, his desire to be baptized” stood with the young man beside the barrel as the padre read “words I’ve prayed with lads in CPs during the tour, words I prayed with a young man as he laid critically ill in a hospital bed and now words of promise for Adam at his baptism. Words from the book of Joshua chapter 1 that God had promised a faithful soldier thousands of years earlier.”
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
“There was silence as I baptised Adam,” Padre Richardson wrote, “until he stood and his mates, some of toughest most professional soldiers you could find, paratroopers all, clapped and stepped forward wide-armed to congratulate their friend. I needed a few moments to let it all sink in. It was quite simply one of those moments that help to remind you what it’s all about.”
