U.S. Ordinariate announced: The Church of England Newspaper, November 25, 2011 p 7. November 30, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ordinariate, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Msgr Keith Newton
The Vatican has set 1 January 2012 as the start date for the Anglican Ordinariate in the United States. The announcement was made by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington on 15 November 2011 during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) fall plenary meeting in Baltimore.
The creation of the American ordinariate follows the formation of the first personal ordinariate, Our Lady of Walsingham, established on 15 Jan 2011 for England and Wales. Led by the former Church of England Bishop of Richborough, Monsignor Keith Newton, it has approximately 1000 members in 42 congregations. Plans for ordinariates for Canada and Australia are also underway.
Created in response to requests from Anglicans seeking union with the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Ordinariate was formed in November 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI following the promulgation of Anglicanorum coetibus. While Anglicans had always been welcomed as individual converts to Roman Catholicism, the Anglican Ordinariate provided a way for groups of Anglicans to enter in “corporate reunion” with Rome.
Members of the ordinariates would be Roman Catholic, but would retain elements of their Anglican liturgy and heritage. They would be overseen by an ordinary appointed by the Vatican who would have a role akin to that of a bishop.
Two American Anglican congregations have already been received into the new ordinariate. In September an independent congregation in Fort Worth, Texas joined followed last month by the members of St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Bladensburg, Maryland.
The ordinariate differs from the pastoral provision established by Pope John Paul II in 1980. Under the pastoral provision, individual Episcopal priests, including those who were married, could be re-ordained to serve as Catholic priests for dioceses in the United States. It also allowed three “Anglican Use” parishes to become Catholic parishes within existing dioceses.
Members of the ordinariate will not be received into existing Catholic dioceses, but will join the new entity that preserves their Anglican liturgical traditions.
In a statement released with the announcement, the USCCB stated the Roman Catholic Church recognized multiple groups in the United States as being Anglican. It stated that “parishes that are part of the Episcopal Church belong to the worldwide Anglican Communion, under the spiritual direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. Thus, they are both Episcopalian and Anglican.”
“However, other Christians in the United States identify themselves as Anglican, but are not part of the Anglican Communion. These Christians therefore are Anglican, but not Episcopalian,” the USCCB said.
The Catholic statement the Episcopal Church was under the spiritual authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury is not one that would be accepted by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The U.S. Episcopal leader has long argued her church had a unique polity that gave Canterbury no authority over its doctrine or discipline.
Bishop arrested in anti-nuclear protests in India: The Church of England Newspaper, November 25, 2011 p 6. November 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Environment.Tags: Diocese of Thoothukudi-Nazareth, Koodankulam nuclear power station, nuclear power
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders are among those arrested by police in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu in a crackdown against activists protesting the construction of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Tuticorn along with clergy from the Church of South India’s (CSI) diocese of Thoothukudi-Nazareth were booked by police on charges of unlawful assembly, creating a public nuisance, “spreading rumours” and blocking civil servants from the lawful performance of their duties. They have been released on bail pending hearing and a formal investigation.
Construction has slowed to halt at the power station in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and the Russian state corporation Atomstroyexport are building two 1 Gigawatt reactors at a projected cost of £2.2 billion. When completed the water cooled reactors will be the largest atomic power plant in India.
However, local residents have opposed the programme and for three months have blocked access to the site to construction traffic and have stated hunger strikes to halt the building.
In September the CSI General Synod issued a statement expressing “her deep solidarity” with the protestors and warned it was a mistake to build a nuclear reactor in a “tsunami-prone and quake-prone area,”
The risk of ecological damage was great, the CSI stated. “We fear that the reactor effluents would kill the fish and further, that the other life inside the sea would be affected by the water discharged from the nuclear reactor into the Bay of Bengal.”
On 27 Oct 2011, the CSI Bishop in Thoothukudi-Nazareth joined protestors outside the plant and pledged his solidarity in stopping construction. However, local government leaders have charged the bishops with crossing the line between religion and politics.
The indictment charges the protestors with having used places of worship to organize political protests – a practice forbidden by Indian law. Police have also begun an investigation of the churches’ bank accounts to see if they were funding the protests.
A police spokesman told the Indian press the churches’ involvement in the protests was bad for local businesses. “Some are asking the people to revolt against the government and against the plant. This is unfair. The shops are closed, the life is not normal…this cannot be allowed to go on indefinitely,” the spokesman told the New Indian Express.
Church backing for proportional representation referendum in New Zealand: The Church of England Newspaper, November 25, 2011 November 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.Tags: mixed member proportional voting
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Anglican Church leaders in New Zealand have given their backing to the proportional voting system for electing members of Parliament and have urged voters to register their support in this week’s national referendum.
In 1993 New Zealand adopted a mixed member proportional (MMP) voting system modeled upon the German Bundestag’s system for electing Members of Parliament to the New Zealand House of Representatives. Voters were asked to choose between the MMP system and the traditional first past the post (FPP) used by most Commonwealth countries. MMP won the 1993 referendum, polling 54 per cent to FPP’s 46 per cent.
A non-binding referendum is scheduled for this week’s general election, the sixth under the MMP system, asking voters if they wish to keep MMP or adopt another system. An MMP election in New Zealand gives voters two votes: one for a party and one for a candidate. The party votes determine what share of the 120 seats each party gets in Parliament, while votes for MP’s from the country’s 70 electoral districts are determined by a FPP method.
In a statement released last week, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia endorsed the MMP system, saying it had worked for the Anglican Church in New Zealand and should work for the national government.
“We believe that the referendum on MMP offers an opportunity for affirmation of the principle that, in a democracy like ours, there needs to be provision for minority groups to be included in the formation and exercise of government. The voices of all significant political groups in this country need the opportunity to work in various forms of partnership and collation following the electoral process. We hold this view because we have valued this kind of power sharing and partnership within our own constitution and church government.”
“We strongly encourage consideration of the various proportional representation models available in the referendum, acknowledging the democratic value of MMP as it has developed so far in New Zealand,” the church said.
Advocates for the MMP system, led by the Campaign for MMP group, have argued the system promotes minority representation and allows parliament to reflect the makeup of the community.
Opponents led by the Vote for Change coalition have urged voters to rescind MMP. They argue the current system promotes inefficient government and gives more power to political parties who are not answerable to voters.
The vote on MMP is scheduled for 26 November 2011.
Rowan Williams is a liar, Dr. Kunonga charges: The Church of England Newspaper, November 25, 2011 p 7. November 27, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Zimbabwe.Tags: Diocese of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is responsible for the pain felt by the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe, Dr. Nolbert Kunonga has declared.
In a statement released in response to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s tour of Zimbabwe last month, the former Bishop of Harare denied charges he was leading a campaign of violence and intimidation against loyal Anglicans. The Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) had “deliberately lied to the President of Zimbabwe and the entire world at the instruction of their troubled Rowan Williams.”
Dr. Williams “has come and gone”, Dr. Kunonga said, and his passing has gone unnoticed as the problems dividing the church remain. “This is chiefly because the Archbishop is responsible for problems rocking the church, not only in Zimbabwe, but the worldwide Anglican Communion,” he charged.
On 10 Oct 2011, Dr. Williams presented a dossier to President Robert Mugabe chronicling the oppression of Zimbabwe’s Anglicans at the hands of the security services and thugs in the pay of the breakaway bishop. Accompanied by the Archbishops of Southern Africa, Central Africa and Tanzania Dr. Williams urged President Mugabe to halt the attacks.
In a statement released after their meeting, the archbishops said the dossier “gives a full account of the abuses to which our people and our church has been subject. We have asked, in the clearest possible terms, that the President use his powers as Head of State to put an end to all unacceptable and illegal behaviour.”
In his rebuttal, Dr. Kunonga questioned the veracity of the charges. “It boggles the mind why Zimbabwean bishops would wait for so long to appraise their own President of the alleged ‘abuses’ and ‘persecution’,” he declared, arguing that the delay in informing the president constituted an admission the charges were false.
The breakaway bishop said he was the victim of a campaign of harassment. The “CPCA is well known for their love of litigation,” he said, and had “dragged Bishop Kunonga to court on numerous occasions on fabricated and petty charges.”
Dr. Kunonga charged the dossier and Dr. Williams visit to Zimbabwe was part of a wider political scheme to destabilize the Mugabe regime. They were “well calculated moves to provide a world stage to demonise Zimbabwe, targeting the judicial system and the security forces. The so called ‘litany of abuses’ is nothing but brilliant fiction. Interestingly, their unsubstantiated claims and allegations are very similar in word and fashion, to those made by some political players in Zimbabwe.”
He recounted his disputes with the CPCA noting that he had been proclaimed innocent during an ecclesiastical trial that investigated him for theft, heresy and attempted murder. No verdict was returned in the 2005 trial, the Church of England Newspaper reported at the time, as the judge adjourned the proceedings after the witnesses declined to return to Zimbabwe for fear of their lives. The other claims made by the breakaway bishop about the status of his legal cases and his role in the campaign of violence and intimidation waged against loyal Anglicans cannot be reconciled with reports received from the diocese by CEN over the past 12 years.
Dr. Kunonga also claimed the Zimbabwe courts had confirmed him in his position as Bishop of Harare and trustee of the church’s properties. However, the courts have not ruled on this point and have only given him temporary custody of the church properties pending a final adjudication.
He also denied barring Anglicans from their churches. “Churches are always open. Those who choose to worship under trees, in classrooms or in bushes do that in their own volition,” he declared.
He also denied having ordered the murder of an 80-year old woman “because she belonged to CPCA.” What reason would he have to order that murder and “spare the likes of [Bishops] Bakare and Gandiya,” he asked.
Harare’s Anglicans had only themselves to blame for “clashing with the Police, because they always choose to ignore court orders. When the police intervene to enforce court orders, they cry foul. They claim harassment and persecution when in fact, they are persecuting themselves by refusing to accept any court ruling against them.”
Dr. Kunonga argued the CPCA were hypocrites. “For them, the rule of law only applies where their interests are concerned. The courts are competent only when they win. The police are impartial when they do their wishes rather than enforce court orders.”
By bringing his crimes to the notice of the president, Dr. Williams and the CPCA were asking Robert Mugabe to “violate the rule of law which they preach so much when white interests are concerned.”
He called upon the CPCA and the Anglican Communion to “repent, be responsible and retract their shameful request. They took Bishop Kunonga to the courts and should therefore abide with court rulings and stop seeking political interference in matters that are before the courts.”
Marian Mission to Moscow and the New York Times: Get Religion, November 25, 2011 November 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism, Russian Orthodox.Tags: Belt of the Virgin Mary, New York Times, Thucydides, Vladimir Putin
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Who was the first journalist? Who was the first to adopt the intellectual and moral code that guides the craft of reporting? My vote would be for the Athenian historian, Thucydides, who wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War in around 420 BC.
In his account of the war between Athens and Sparta, Thucydides became the first writer to set himself apart from his own political system to examine critically the past. He recounted equally the virtues of Athens and its vices and stepped outside his culture, abandoning the notion that the gods controlled the destiny of men. The study of history was no longer explained by reference to myth and legend, but by the pursuit of truth about the past.
A modern journalist employs Thucydides’ methodology and is expected to stand outside his own political system, culture and religion, to criticize his own society and to pursue the truth. Even Robert Fisk, the doyenne of ideological journalists will state that the reporter’s job is to tell it like it is: “My job is to report what I have seen.”
When a reporter allows ideology or cultural biases to color a story this ideal is not met. A recent New York Times report entitled “In Russian Chill, Waiting Hours for Touch of the Holy” printed on page A8 of the 24 Nov 2011 issue illustrates this point.
A religious relic — the belt of the Virgin Mary — has been brought from the Vatopedi Monastery on Mt Athos in Greece to Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral by the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation. In the week that it was on display over a half million Russians lined up to gaze upon and perhaps kiss the glass case that enclosed the camel-hair jewel-encrusted relic. At times the queue stretched almost three miles with tens of thousands waiting in sub-zero temperatures. The faithful believe the relic was given by Mary the Mother of God to St Thomas before her Assumption. It is reputed to have miraculous powers and has helped women to conceive. The Itar-Tass and Novosti wire services provide a quick summary of events.
The Telegraph and the Washington Post focused on the phenomena of the size of the crowds and the public display of piety. The Telegraph called the spectacle an “extraordinary display of the strength of Orthodox Christianity in post-Soviet Russia,” and observed:
Russia’s Orthodox Church had an incredible surge of influence and power in recent years as millions of Russians began to practice religion in the 1990s after decades of state-dictated atheism in the Soviet Union.
We heard from members of the crowd.
“I am 74, and I have suffered a heart attack. I am handicapped in my arm and leg,” said another man, identifying himself as Vladimir, after exiting the imposing white cathedral and leaning on his wife’s supporting arm. “Maybe it will help?” he said, tears welling up in his eyes.
The Post story ran with equally strong quotes that focused also on faith.
On the other side of the cathedral, Alexei Bogdanov, a 32-year-old truck-parts salesman, had seen the relic and was waiting for his wife. Tears came to his eyes when he touched the box, he said.“We lived in our country for almost 70 years without faith,” he said. “And now we have found it again.”
The New York Times took a different approach. It covered the crowd story, but also raised the political dimensions of the relic’s mission to Moscow. However, the flip and knowing way this was done, and its smirking condescension towards the ignorant peasants as they stood in the cold, left me cold as well.
After it reported on the crowd, the New York Times raised the political angle.
As befits his status as the arbiter of most things Russian, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin was the first to greet the holy relic when it arrived … [The crowds] wait here, within view of the Kremlin, snaking past the hulking Ministry of Defense building and billboards in support of United Russia, the pro-Putin governing party.
The story offers a “why we’re here” quote from one member of the crowd and then resumes its arch tone.
Moscow’s city government closed streets around the cathedral — causing those Muscovites not so inclined to venerate relics to rant about the even-worse-than-usual traffic jams.
The article at this stage seemed ready to break away from its self-conscious cuteness and take a serious stab at explaining what is going on. The man responsible for the Moscow sojourn is named: “Vladimir Yakunin, president of the Russian Railroads, who is close to Mr. Putin.”
Yakunin states:
“The belt of the Most Holy Virgin Mary possesses miraculous power,“ he said. “It helps women and helps in childbirth. In our demographic situation, this is in and of itself important.”
The story does not follow up on the political angle, however, and the sarcastic tone returns.
The blogs and Facebook pages of Russian Orthodox intellectuals have overflowed with debates about whether hysteria over the belt was a disturbing sign that many Russians’ faith is based on superstition. Many noted that Christ the Savior Cathedral and the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra near Moscow, one of the most important monasteries in the Orthodox Church, have relics of the Virgin Mary that are just as precious.
At a bustling coffee shop near the cathedral that this week became an impromptu pit stop for the faithful, an excited young woman rushed in to tell waiting friends that she had venerated the Virgin Mary’s belt. Then she told them about her visit to a fortune teller.
Characterizing the response to the icon’s visit to Moscow by a half million Russian Orthodox Christians as hysteria, and the gratuitous fortune teller line is unfortunate. The attempt to bring politics into the story also fails because there is no context or explanation as to why this matters. What relationship does Vladimir Putin have to the icon’s visit? Who is Vladimir Yakunin and why is it important to know that he is a friend of Putin?
Yes, there is a political story here, but the New York Times misses it. Yakunin is a close political ally of Putin and has brought the relic to Moscow in the run up to the national elections. Putin is running as Mr. Orthodox, wrapping himself in the mantle of Russian Orthodoxy and his critics have charged that the miracle of the Virgin’s Belt will be his re-election.
The [St. Andrew the First-Called] Foundation, chaired by the head of Russia’s state railways and long-time Putin associate Vladimir Yakunin, said the relic’s arrival shortly before the parliamentary election was coincidental.
“It is absolutely not related. We wanted it to come in the summer, but the entire process, the discussions, took a long time,” spokesman Alexander Gatilin said.
For a detailed look at the religious and political cross-currents surrounding this story, go to Batholomew’s Notes on Religion.
The Telegraph and Washington Post played this straight and focused on the religious angle, giving the pilgrims who braved the cold to stand in line to venerate the relic a sympathetic hearing. The New York Times took a different line offering faithful voices and fortune tellers and enclosing the whole in a box marked hysteria. It also sought the secular angle and gave us Vladimir Putin. But it neglected to explain why we needed to hear from Putin or of the political significance of the relic’s mission to Moscow.
But the bottom line for me was the snarky attitude. Instead of standing outside of its culture and attempting to report faithfully and fairly on what was going on in Moscow, it stood squarely within the jaded and hip mindset of Manhattan. What we got from the New York Times was a travelog with attitude.
First printed in GetReligion.
Kashmir priest arrested for baptising Muslims: The Church of England Newspaper, November 25, 2011 p 7. November 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Evangelism, Persecution.Tags: Chander Mani Khanna, Diocese of Amritsar, Michael Nazir-Ali, Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, Srinigar
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Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy of Amritsar
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A priest has been arrested in the Indian state of Kashmir and charged with promoting religious enmity and outraging religious feelings after he baptised 15 Muslim young men who had converted to Christianity.
The Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, rector of All Saints Church in Srinigar in the Church of North India’s Diocese of Amritsar was jailed on 19 Nov 2011 by police following complaints laid against him by a local Muslim leader.
While India does not have a law forbidding religious conversions, a police official told the Hindustan Times Mr. Khanna had been booked for having violated laws against offering “allurements” to converts and for breaching the peace by having baptised the young Muslims.
The Bishop in Amritsar, the Rt. Rev. Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy denied claims lodged against Mr. Khanna. The “allegations were fabricated and no material benefits were offered to anyone desirous of baptism,” he said, according to the website Christian Today.
“The Muslim youths were coming to Church for more than one year and they had voluntarily expressed their desire for baptism. The converts in detention have denied the allegation that they were forced to become Christians,” Bishop Samantaroy said.
The Christian Messenger reported that Mr. Khanna said he had not proselytized the young men, but would not turn away those who wanted to know more. “It is my responsibility to preach God’s Word. I can’t refuse anyone. The house of God is open for all.”
According to Indian press accounts the 15 young men had been attending services at the church for some months. When they asked to be permitted to receive Holy Communion, Mr. Khanna said that they would have to undergo a course of instruction and be baptized. The young men agreed and were received into the church after they completed their catechetical training.
After a film of the baptism ceremony appeared on YouTube, the local Sharia court – which has no civil or criminal jurisdiction over non-Muslims – summoned Mr. Khanna to appear to answer charges that he had forcibly converted the young men. According to AsiaNews, witnesses claim that police beat the converts to make them give evidence against the pastor.
The former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali stated that he knew Mr. Khanna “and he is a respected parish priest of the Church of North India who would never use underhand methods to evangelise.”
“I am astonished that such a person can be arrested by an India committed to religious freedom and democracy. I call not only for his immediate and unconditional release but also for protection for him and his family. Let us pray that freedom and justice will prevail in Kashmir for everyone: Muslim, Christian and Hindu,” Bishop Nazir-Ali said.
Egyptian unrest causing Christian exodus, bishop warns: The Church of England Newspaper, November 25, 2011 p 6. November 25, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East.Tags: Diocese of Egypt, Mouneer Anis
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Bishop Mouneer Anis
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Four days of protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square have left an estimated 33 dead and 1750 injured as demonstrators call for an end to military rule in Egypt. Crowds estimated at over 100,000 have gathered in the central Cairo square, scene of the protests that brought down the government of Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.
Television footage of the demonstrations show protestors hurling fire bombs and paving stones at police, who have responded with tear gas and batons to clear the square. On 21 Nov 2011, Egypt’s civilian cabinet offered its resignation to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in protest to the army crackdown.
The bloodshed comes only a week before Egypt’s parliamentary elections are set to begin. Reuters has reported that while the army stated the riots would not postpone the elections, the unrest could deter voters from going to the polls in Cairo.
The Cairo newspaper al-Masry al-Youm reported on Monday that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had met with the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and have agreed to speed up the process towards civilian rule. The Muslim Brotherhood urged protesters to show restraint, and said it would not participate in the demonstrations. However, other Islamist groups have stated that they will join democracy activists and Copts in the protests against military rule.
The Bishop of Egypt, Dr. Mouneer Anis has asked for prayer for his country. In a 16 Nov 2011 letter sent to the Jerusalem and Middle East Church Association in Britain – before the latest riots – Dr. Anis wrote the unrest had many causes.
“Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, Syrians, Jordanians, Iraqis, Moroccans, Yemini, and
Bahrainis are rising up, calling for freedom, transparency and democracy. Many of these people of the Middle East have suffered under oppressive and corrupt governments. They feel that the time has come to determine their own destiny.”
“On one hand, this is very hopeful and encouraging,” the bishop wrote. But “on the other hand, this brings concern, apprehension and even fear. There are those who rode the waves of these uprisings and have called for Islamic (not secular, nondemocratic) governments.”
“Many moderate Muslims and Christians are concerned because they see the examples of Islamic states like Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.”
He added that almost 60 per cent of the population of the Middle East is less than 30 years of age. “The problem of unemployment, the rise in the cost of food, and the lack of good education hits them hard. This is a major reason for these uprisings.”
Dr. Anis added that in the “last ten months we also experienced a rise in fanaticism. This was manifested in demolishing and burning of churches, as well as protesting for the appointment of a Christian local governor. Egyptian Christians, overcoming the barrier of fear in which they lived for so many years, are now bold to demonstrate against injustice. As a result of this the clashes at Maspero happened and resulted in the death of 27 and over 318 injured.”
The unrest had also led to many Christians leaving Egypt, Palestine and Iraq for the West. “I cannot imagine the Middle East, where Jesus lived and walked, being without Christians. It would never be the same. The future can be dim, but it can also carry hope for the church.”
“We trust that God is in charge and we are in His hands. His promise is that ‘the gates of hell will never overcome’ His Church,” Dr. Anis said.
Central Florida elects Greg Brewer: Anglican Ink, November 19, 2011 November 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ink, Central Florida.Tags: Gregory Brewer
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Bishop-elect Gregory O. Brewer
First published in Anglican Ink.
The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida has elected a New York rector as its fourth bishop. The Rev. Canon Gregory O. Brewer was elected on the fourth ballot from among seven candidates to succeed the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe at a special convention held at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park on 19 Nov 2011.
The only clergyman from outside the diocese on the ballot, Canon Brewer led the voting from the first ballot and received a majority of lay votes by the third ballot, and won the election in the fourth round.
Speaking from New York via cell phone to the Central Florida special convention Bishop-elect Brewer thanked the convention for its support. “I’m just very excited to return to Central Florida and will pray for God’s blessings on our work together there,” he said.
A native of Richmond, Virginia, Canon Brewer was educated at Lynchburg College and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained a deacon at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lynchburg VA, by the Bishop of Southwestern Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Henry Marmion in 1976 and priest at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL by the Bishop of Central Florida, the Rt. Rev. William Folwell.
He has served his curacy in the Diocese of Central Florida and later taught at the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. He was rector of the 1800-member Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, PA in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, before moving to Calvary-St. George’s Church in downtown Manhattan. Canon Brewer is married to the former Laura Lee Williams of Orlando and they have five sons: Charles, James, Todd, Lee and Mark.
Bishop Howe presided at the opening Eucharist and Dr. Woody Anderson, Professor of New Testament at Nashotah House, gave the sermon. In his address, Dr. Anderson spoke to the charism of leadership necessary to fulfill the office of bishop and asked God’s protection for the new bishop.
In a break from past voting practices, delegates to the convention were given 20 numbered ballots. The ballots were machine readable, Canon to the Ordinary, the Rev. Ernest Bennett told the convention, and instructions were provided on how to mark the ballot so that it could be scanned.
The convention chaplain, the Rt. Rev. James Adams, resigned Bishop of Western Kansas and rector of Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church in Lecanto, FL, led the convention in prayers and hymn singing between ballots and regaled the diocese with jokes, anecdotes and puns as the ballots were counted.
There was a noticeable lack of tension in the air, clergy and lay delegates told AI. Mrs. Anneke Bertsch – a member of St John’s Episcopal Church in Melbourne – appeared to speak for many present when she said that she had been praying for some time about the election and was at peace, confident the Holy Spirit would guide the delegates.
Of the seven candidates, only Canon Brewer came from outside the diocese. The sole woman priest on the ballot – the Rev. Mary A. Rosendahl, rector of the Church of the Nativity in Port St Lucie – drew her support the liberal wing of the diocese.
The five other candidates: the Very Rev. Anthony P. Clark, dean of the Cathedral Churc of St Luke in Orlando, the Rev. R. Jonathan Davis, vicar of the Church of the Incarnation in Oviedo, the Rev. Charles L. Holt, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Lake Mary, the Rev. Timothy C. Nunez, rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary in Belleview, and the Rev. James A. Sorvillo, Sr., rector of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Orlando were affiliated with the “Faith Received” group – a coalition of conservative clergy and lay members of the diocese.
On the first ballot, with 249 lay and 188 clergy delegates voting, Canon Brewer polled first among both orders. The five Faith Received affiliated candidates divided the conservative vote amongst themselves. Though their combined total was enough to elect a bishop, individually their vote counts fell short with only Mr. Nunez within striking distance of the leader.
| Ballot 1 | Lay | Clergy |
| Gregory Brewer | 99 | 54 |
| Anthony Clark | 18 | 10 |
| Jonathan Davis | 12 | 9 |
| Charles Holt | 26 | 24 |
| Timothy Nunez | 45 | 33 |
| Mary Rosendahl | 25 | 35 |
| James Sorvillo | 24 | 23 |
| Total Voting | 249 | 188 |
| Needed to Win | 125 | 95 |
The second round saw a weakening of the individual totals for the Faith Received candidates, with only Mr. Nunez showing an increased vote count. After the totals were announced Mr. Davis and Dean Clark withdrew.
| Ballot 2 | Lay | Clergy |
| Gregory Brewer | 111 | 73 |
| Anthony Clark | 10 | 2 |
| Jonathan Davis | 4 | 7 |
| Charles Holt | 25 | 19 |
| Timothy Nunez | 59 | 42 |
| Mary Rosendahl | 15 | 25 |
| James Sorvillo | 21 | 22 |
| Total Voting | 245 | 190 |
| Needed to Win | 123 | 96 |
The third ballot saw Canon Brewer pass the 50 per cent mark among the lay delegates as support for the local liberal and conservative candidates moved to his corner. Following the third ballot Mrs. Rosendahl withdrew.
| Ballot 3 | Lay | Clergy |
| Gregory Brewer | 132 | 91 |
| Anthony Clark | - | - |
| Jonathan Davis | - | - |
| Charles Holt | 20 | 11 |
| Timothy Nunez | 76 | 55 |
| Mary Rosendahl | 6 | 13 |
| James Sorvillo | 15 | 15 |
| Total Voting | 249 | 185 |
| Needed to Win | 125 | 93 |
The fourth ballot saw Mrs. Rosendahl’s support move to Canon Brewer, with Mr. Nunez strengthening his totals at the expense of the remaining Faith Received candidates. However, the swing to Canon Brewer of the Rosendahl voters was enough to put him over the top.
| Ballot 4 | Lay | Clergy |
| Gregory Brewer | 141 | 110 |
| Anthony Clark | - | - |
| Jonathan Davis | - | - |
| Charles Holt | 12 | 9 |
| Timothy Nunez | 80 | 62 |
| Mary Rosendahl | - | 1 |
| James Sorvillo | 8 | 10 |
| Total Voting | 241 | 192 |
| Needed to Win | 121 | 97 |
Pending reception of the required consents from a majority of bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees of the Episcopal Church, Canon Brewer will be consecrated on 24 March 2012.
Reporting on the Episcopal wars in South Carolina: Get Religion, November 23, 2011 November 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism, South Carolina.Tags: Mark Lawrence, Post and Courier
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Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.
Vice-President Joseph Biden
I have a soft spot for the vice-president. I speak not of politics, but of the man when I say I like him. I find him entertaining and always quotable. He was down here in Florida recently speaking to a gathering of the party-faithful, encouraging the troops before they enter what looks to be a hard fought political battle for Florida in 2012. One line in the Gannett newspapers account of his speech caught my eye:
Biden quoted former Boston Mayor Kevin White, who liked to tell critics, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” He said Obama will be re-elected when voters focus on policies voiced by the current crop of GOP presidential contenders, and compare them to Obama’s.
The vice-president has used this line before and President Obama has added it to his repertoire. I’ve not seen much commentary on this quip — MSNBC’s “Last Word” with Larry O’Donnell showed an excerpt of the speech, including the Almighty quote, but none of the panel participants found it worthy of remark.
Speaking before Democrat party activists, the vice-president’s words had a certain meaning. For the Democrat faithful the line meant voters should not compare the Obama Administration to an idealized government — “We’re not God, but we’re better than the Republicans.” Were Mr. Biden to say this before a different crowd — say religious conservatives — the audience would come away with a different meaning. “Don’t compare the Obama Administration to God, compare it to Satan.”
Now I would dearly love to write a story whose opening line read: “The Obama Administration is an agent of the Devil, Vice-President Joe Biden told Democrat leaders in Florida yesterday, resolving lingering questions about the president’s religious views by coming out as a Satanist.” Alas, integrity prevents interpreting the vice-president’s quip along those lines. The Gannett report places the quote in context and identifies the audience and historical meaning of the trope. There was no need to find a contrary voice to address the Almighty line, as its meaning was made clear.
When crafting a news report, a journalist must address the question of balance — giving both sides of an argument. This can be taken too far at times, but a good reporter knows when and when not to provide opposing views and provide the amount of background necessary to place the story in context. A report in Monday’s Post and Courier, the Charleston, South Carolina daily provides an example of how not to do this.
Before I dive in to the story, let me offer a disclaimer. I have knowledge and an interest in these issues but am not personally involved.
The article entitled “S.C. Episcopal Diocese releases property claim” fails on several levels. It manages to be credulous and one-sided. It does not examine the veracity of claims put forward by one party in the dispute, and neglects to mention the opposing arguments. It lacks context while the narrative arc of the story is so slanted as to make it appear to be a press release. Let me be clear that I am not commenting on the issue being reported in this story. I am writing about the failure of the Post and Courier to do this story justice. The article opens with:
The distance between The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina widened last week when the diocese relinquished its legal oversight of all church property, sending what’s called a quitclaim deed to each parish.
The move merely formalizes an arrangement already in place, according to Bishop Mark Lawrence. “A quitclaim deed isn’t giving someone something they don’t have if they already own the deed,” he said.
Some observers say the move could heighten the risk of litigation or other challenges by national church authorities and provide additional evidence to a disciplinary committee now evaluating allegations that Lawrence has abandoned his responsibilities.
The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina sent quitclaim deeds to each of its congregations — that is the fact being reported. The meaning of this action is contrasted by placing a statement made by the Bishop of South Carolina against that of a lawyer associated with a dissident faction in the diocese. And it is here we have the breakdown. What follows is the privileging of one view over another.
“This kind of action, along with participating in the conventions that severed legal ties to the national church, I think those are real problems,” said Melinda Lucka, an attorney critical of recent diocese actions. “On a diocesan level, this further opens the door to parishes that are considering leaving the Episcopal Church.”
But it is the duty of parish and diocese leaders to uphold the canons of the national church, she said. When those laws are cast aside or ignored, it can trigger a response from the church. “Though the church might not want to, it sort of has to,” Lucka said.
The quitclaim deed effectively ends any obligation of the diocese to hold property in trust for The Episcopal Church, as required by a controversial church law.
The Dennis Canon was introduced in 1979 to codify the authority of the national church body over property and has mostly been upheld as valid by civil courts in California, Texas, Virginia, Connecticut and other states in recent years. In 1987, the diocese amended its governing documents to include the Dennis Canon, then removed the law in 2010.
Who is Melinda Lucka? A little context here would be helpful as would the information that Ms. Lucka has been working with officials from the national church office in New York in their fight with the diocese. (It would be nice to have had some background to explain why there is a fight also.) By treating her as an observer and not as an antagonist, the Post and Courier distorts the picture. It may well be true, as Ms. Lucka suggests, that this move by the diocese may provoke a response from the national church offices in New York. But not to mention that Ms. Lucka and her associates might be the ones bringing the response is unfortunate.
The story then moves to a summary of the Episcopal Church canon, or rule, that is in dispute. I do not find the Post and Courier’s characterization of the Dennis Canon to be accurate nor its review of the litigation complete. If these words had been left in Ms. Lucka’s mouth then what the Post and Courier wrote would pass muster as it would be presented as her opinion — but the article presents it as a fact. The history of the disputes in South Carolina follows as does an analysis of the law, but they too are offered from a particular perspective — that of Ms. Lucka’s camp.
Bishop Mark Lawrence speaks, but his words are interspersed with the reporter’s opinion as to the meaning of the facts and law so as to leave the impression the bishop is a bit of a crank and that he and the diocese are the aggressors. This may be the view of one party, but it is far from being settled as fact.
Take a look at this:
This summer, the national church nullified the resolutions that obligated the diocese to follow church laws only when they are consistent with local rules (though, by virtue of those same resolutions, the diocese does not recognize the church’s nullification). Since the diocese is a sovereign body, “the executive council has no canonical or constitution authority to speak on behalf of the church about that,” Lawrence said.
Again we have the diocese painted as the aggressor and opinions offered as facts. This is followed by:
Though a majority of the diocese’s 75 parishes and missions appear to support the bishop, at least five parishes and hundreds of individuals have declared their intention to remain part of The Episcopal Church.
The quitclaim deeds could heighten scrutiny of Lawrence by the Disciplinary Board for Bishops, whose president is the Rt. Rev. Dorsey Henderson, retired bishop of Upper South Carolina. The board currently is considering allegations of abandonment filed by local parishioners.
Barbara Mann, chairwoman of the Episcopal Forum of South Carolina, a group loyal to the national church, said this latest move could influence the board’s evaluation.
“I think this is going to be perhaps the deciding point,” Mann said. “If (Lawrence) says The Episcopal Church doesn’t belong in South Carolina at all, then he is abandoning The Episcopal Church.”
Has Bishop Lawrence said he wants to leave the Episcopal Church? No, he has adamantly denied that he wants to leave. That is not being reported by the Post and Courier. Nor has the newspaper appeared to have been able to find the diocese’s lawyers to ask their opinion of the assertions made by Lucka and Mann. Nor have we heard from any of the recognized canon law experts in this field. It is the belief of some members of the Diocese of South Carolina that the national church wants to kick Bishop Lawrence and 70 of the 75 congregations and 28,000 of the 29,000 Episcopalians in the diocese out of the Episcopal Church. Am I saying this is a fact? No, it is a view and has been the experience of some (and rather more than the Lucka/Mann camp) in the diocese.
So what has this to do with Joe Biden? The Post and Courier article under review has the same degree of professionalism and journalistic integrity as would an article about Joe Biden being a Satanist in light of his Almighty line. One could make the argument that the alternative to the Almighty is the Devil, and that is the standard to which the vice-president aspires. But to do that would be a partisan rant — not journalism. One could construe the words of Bishop Lawrence and the actions of the Diocese of South Carolina to make them out to be cantankerous schismatics who have brought this upon themselves. But such a construction would not be journalism either.
One test of balance is whether both sides can see their point of view described. Can they recognize the reality the article paints as being true to their experiences? A conflict entails differing truths, but a good story provides space for the issues to be heard. This story fails that test.
First published in GetReligion.
Natal nuns arrested for abuse: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011, p 6. November 23, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.Tags: Community of Jesus' Compassion, Diocese of Natal
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Three sisters of the Community of Jesus’ Compassion (CJC) – an Anglican religious order based in Natal, South Africa – have been arrested for child abuse and assault charges.
On 9 Nov 2011 Mother Dumazile Manqele, Sister Thokozile Zondo and Sister Thelma Ngobese were arraigned before the New Hanover Magistrates Court after five children in their care lodged complaints with the social services department that they had been beaten by the nuns.
The religious order, which operates an orphanage and has a convent in New Hanover near Pietermaritzburg in Natal, has been closed by the government while an investigation is under way into charges the nuns abused the 27 children, aged between 9 and 15, in their care.
The KwaZulu-Natal social services department has removed the children from the home and suspended the convent’s licence. A member of the Natal executive council, Dr. Meshack Radebe visited the convent after the arrests and told a local radio station he was shocked by the conditions in the home.
“When we checked inside, we discovered that there are no bedrooms, there is no kitchen, and you don’t even have a dining hall. When you look at the size of the rooms, you’ll find they can’t even house 10 children, but there are 27 here. I can imagine, if it was my child, or your child … to find them living in this state is shocking,” Dr. Radebe said.
Founded in 1993, the CJC is a religious order recognized by the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. According to the Anglican religious orders yearbook, the CJC has a mission to educate and support children. The Episcopal Visitor for the order, Bishop Rubin Philip of Natal, did not respond to questions about the oversight of the facility.
The sisters have been cautioned and ordered to appear before the court on 23 November 2011 to answer the charges.
Anglican Unscripted, November 21, 2011 November 23, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, AMiA, Anglican Church of Rwanda, Anglican.TV, Church of England.Tags: 39 Articles, Bede Parry, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Mark Lawrence
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Kevin and George discuss Dr. Jeffert-Shori’s denial letter and AMiA’s role the 2008 Rwanda Canons. Also in this week’s episode Peter Ould discusses the on going saga of the Church of England and women Bishops; and AS Haley gives his time slot to the latest news from Georgia and the Diocese of South Carolina. Oh… and there is important news at the end of Episode 19 too.
Cutting fuel subsidies will devastate Nigeria warns bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 p 7. November 22, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Development/Economics/Govt Finances, Politics.Tags: Ephraim Ikeakor
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Nigeria have urged the government to cancel plans to cut the country’s national fuel subsidy, warning it will cause massive social unrest. However, the government’s proposal to remove price controls on refined petroleum products has won the backing of anti-corruption activists and foreign aid donors, who say the policy serves to distort the economy and enrich corrupt officials.
While Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest oil producer, the country’s four refineries are incapable of meeting consumer demand. Approximately 85 per cent of Nigeria’s refined petroleum must be imported from abroad, with the federal government spending an estimated £4.5 billion to subsidize fuel purchases.
Successive Nigerian governments have kept diesel prices low as most small businesses and many private homes rely on generators to provide electricity as the national power grid is antiquated and unreliable.
In a paper released last week, Chatham House stated the “idea behind the subsidy – to keep fuel cheap at the point of sale to the ordinary consumer, regardless of location in the country – makes sense” politically, but it encourages corruption as “much of the money” spent by the government on fuel subsidies “does not benefit ordinary Nigerians, and is instead funneled off during the lengthy import process.”
“Former President Yar’Adua was candid about the long-term impacts of the subsidy: ‘There is a very strong cartel in this country that is benefiting from the issue of subsidies and it has introduced colossal corruption within the system’,” Chatham House said.
However, church leaders have urged the government not to cut the subsidies. In a speech given on 26 October 2011, Anglican Bishop Ephraim Ikeakor of Amichi stated “in Nigeria we do not create the enabling environment before we bring in new policies. Fuel subsidy should be removed when certain measures have been put in place to cushion the effects.”
According to an account of his speech published in the Vanguard newspaper, Bishop Ikeakor said Nigeria “cannot boast of functional refineries … we have great problems of insecurity, terrible dilapidation of our infrastructures, collapse of education, industry, teachers and civil servants not properly remunerated” and the failure of the government to enforce minimum wage laws, “yet some people want to remove the fuel subsidy.”
“The timing for removing fuel subsidy is very wrong,” the bishop said. “Removing it is a time bomb that is waiting to explode,” he warned.
Chatham House noted that Nigerians did not trust their government to “fully and successfully deregulate the downstream sector and reinvest money saved in infrastructure development.”
The future may see “major protests across the country if people do not feel any sense of participation in this process and see a damaging increase in the cost of their diesel,” Chatham House said.
Bishop Ikeakor offered a blunt message to the government. While the elites in Abuja were “living flamboyantly” the “poor masses are suffering” … “yet they want to add to their suffering. Mr. President, no removal of fuel subsidy for now, as it will be counterproductive and do more harm than good.”
Bishop calls for regime change in Swaziland: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 p 7. November 22, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.Tags: Diocese of Swaziland, King Mswati III, Meshack Mabuza
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Bishop Meshack Mabuza
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Swaziland has called up King Mswati III to relinquish power to prevent the political and economic collapse of the Southern African kingdom.
The last absolute monarch in sub-Saharan Africa, King Mswati has ruled the landlocked mountain kingdom since 1986. Mismanagement of the economy and a public image as a profligate ruler unconcerned with his subjects’ poverty has led to calls for political reform.
Bishop Meshack Mabuza, who steps down from office at the end of the year, told the BBC’s “Focus on Africa” programme Swaziland “has really reached the point of collapse.”
While he did not call for the King to abdicate, the Bishop said “the answer really lies in regime change in terms of the traditional, feudalistic, archaic form of government,” and “has to be replaced with multi-party democratic rule.”
Neighboring South Africa has offered to loan £218 million to pay its immediate obligations – the Swazi press has reported that the salaries of civil servants will not be paid this month due to the cash shortage. However, Pretoria has demanded political and economic reforms from the King in exchange for the loan which the king’s ministers have so far refused to accept.
Government claims that the cash crisis had been caused by the global economic slowdown, were merely “excuses”, the bishop said.
“The economic constraints were here even before the global economic meltdown because there has hardly been any economic growth,” Bishop Mabuza said.
Chinese church demolition condemned: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 p 6. November 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in China, Church of England Newspaper, Persecution.Tags: ChinaAid, Three Self Patriotic Movement
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Return our church building! Religious discrimination! Destroying Century-Old Historical Landmark!” : Photo courtesy ChinaAid
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Real estate developers in league with local government officials have begun tearing down a 125-year old former Anglican mission church in China’s Shantung province. However, the North China Mission church in Tai-an was designated a national historic landmark in 1994 and is currently an approved congregation of the Three Self Patriotic Movement [TSPM] – China’s official Protestant Church.
The battle in Tai-an is part of a larger struggle between developers and conservationists in China’s booming Eastern coastal provinces. It also highlights the precarious state of China’s property laws as local governments seek to profit from the property boom at the expense of a Chinese Christians.
Built in 1886 by missionaries from the Church of England’s North China Mission society – an auxiliary of the SPG – the Tai-an mission church and school was confiscated from the Diocese of Shantung following the Communist seizure of power. In the 1950’s the congregation was merged into the Three Self Patriotic Movement, but was closed during the Cultural Revolution and its buildings seized by the government.
In the wake of the Chinese government’s liberalizations of the early 1990’s towards Christianity, four buildings of the mission compound were designated historical landmarks and turned over to the TSPM.
ChinaAid reported that last year workmen began tearing down the outer wall of the compound. However, on 16 Nov 2010 approximately 40 members of the congregation stated a sit in at the church, and halted demolition.
Last month demolition started again. When elderly members of the church tried to stop the work, they were beaten by members of the work crew. The physical attack on the members of the congregation has led to an appeal to the national government for help.
“We sincerely hope that the central government’s policy on religion can be carried out in reality, so as to win the trust of the people and bring a resolution to the Tai-an Church’s long-standing property dispute,” the appeal read. “All the members of the Tai-an Church have full confidence in the God whom we believe and in his words. Jesus said, ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.’ …”
ChinaAid condemned the demolition saying it “demonstrates that it is not just house churches … that face government persecution. Even the legitimate rights of government-approved churches that are part of the [TSPM] can be arbitrarily trampled.”
Indian Supreme Court rejects bid to unseat Madras bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011, p 6. November 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Diocese of Madras, V Devasahayam
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Bishop V Devasahayam
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Madras High Court has blocked a lower court ruling that suspended the Bishop in Madras. Last week’s decision by Justice K Venkataraman supersedes a 2 Nov 2011 ruling by a Madras City Civil Court judge that blocked Bishop V. Devasahayam from presiding over the diocesan synod or attending the January 2012 Church of South India (CSI) General Synod.
The lawsuit to strip the bishop of his authority was politically motivated, critics charged, as Bishop Devasahayam is expected to stand for election as moderator of the CSI in January.
The dispute over Bishop Devasahayam has its roots in a 2009 lawsuit. When appointed Bishop in Madras at age 50, Bishop Devasahayam agreed to remain in office for ten years. When he reached the age of 60, the bishop declined to retire citing church rules that set the age of retirement at 65. Lay members of the diocese brought suit against the bishop, backed by the Executive Committee of the CSI’s General Synod that sought a court order forcing the bishop to retire.
The trial court ruled in favour of the bishop, which held the CSI was a voluntary association under Indian law and was governed by its by-laws. No one could curtail, annul, amend or modify the canons, except in accordance with the terms of canon law, the lower court held, ruling the ten year term rule imposed upon the bishop was a “manifest illegality.”
However the Madras High Court overturned the lower court decision, holding the CSI Synod “made the appointment for only 10 years, and this was also approved subsequently and informed to Bishop Devasahayam. He also gave his consent in writing.”
“Having accepted the appointment for a period of 10 years, now he cannot be permitted to say that he would continue till 65 years of age,” the High Court held, affirming the dismissal of the bishop.
The bishop filed an appeal to the Indian Supreme Court and in September 2011 it affirmed the original ruling, the Indian Express reported. The General Secretary of the CSI declined to respond to questions from The Church of England Newspaper about its views on the controversy.
Attorneys for Bishop Devasahayam argued the new lawsuit sought to re-litigate matters adjudicated by the Supreme Court. The High Court accepted this argument and blocked the lower court’s suspension.
Pelagius still a heretic: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 November 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Diocese of Atlanta, Pelagius
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The Rev. Benno Pattison
Pelagius could not muster enough votes last week at the Diocese of Atlanta’s annual meeting of synod to overturn his condemnation by the Council of Carthage. For now, he remains a heretic.
On 4 Nov 2011 delegates to the diocesan convention were asked to reverse the condemnation of Pelagius, and to explore whether the Fifth century heretic’s brand of “Celtic” Christianity may inform the theology of the Episcopal Church.
The motion submitted by the Rev. Benno D. Pattison, Rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Atlanta stated in part:
“Whereas the historical record of Pelagius’s contribution to our theological tradition is shrouded in the political ambition of his theological antagonists who sought to discredit what they felt was a threat to the empire, and their ecclesiastical dominance, and whereas an understanding of his life and writings might bring more to bear on his good standing in our tradition;”
“And whereas his restitution as a viable theological voice within our tradition might encourage a deeper understanding of sin, grace, free will, and the goodness of God’s creation, and whereas in as much as the history of Pelagius represents to some the struggle for theological exploration that is our birthright as Anglicans, Be it resolved, that this 105th Annual Council of the Diocese of Atlanta appoint a committee of discernment overseen by our Bishop, to consider these matters as a means to honor the contributions of Pelagius and reclaim his voice in our tradition.”
A British monk, Pelagius rejected the doctrines of original sin, substitutionary atonement, and justification by faith. Mankind possessed an unconditioned free will and was able to obtain his own salvation through personal betterment rather than grace, he argued. The Council of Carthage in 416 condemned Pelagius’ teaching.
When the motion was brought forward for debate, amendments were offered from the floor that softened its language. The language calling for the Diocese to “honor” his contributions and “reclaim his voice” was changed to “understand” his voice.
However, the amendments were insufficient to satisfy critics of the proposal and the motion went down to defeat.
Plymouth fraud arrest: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 p 5. November 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Devon & Cornwall police have arrested a former church worker at St Boniface Church, St Budeaux in Plymouth on suspicion of stealing over £10,000 from church coffers.
An unnamed 47-year old woman was taken into custody on 9 Nov 2011 following an investigation by detectives of the Asset Recovery Team. A review by a forensic accountant engaged by the Diocese of Exeter found that cash had gone missing from the church’s accounts. The diocese turned over the results of its investigation to the police, who began their inquiries.
The suspect was questioned by detectives at the Charles Cross Police Station and was released on bail until her 2 Feb 2012 hearing.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Exeter said: “We are doing all we can to support the church community while this police inquiry is underway.”
AMiA in rebellion, Rwanda charges: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 p 7. November 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in AMiA, Anglican Church of Rwanda, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Chuck Murphy, John Rucyhana, Onesphore Rwaje
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has come under sharp criticism from the Church of Rwanda over its plans to pull away from the oversight of the African church.
On 31 Oct 2011 Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje directed AMiA Bishop Charles “Chuck” Murphy to suspend work on a proposal that would change its oversight from a “personal prelature” under the Rwandan primate to a missionary society overseen by an independent “college of consultors”.
Founded by Evangelicals in response to what it saw as the abandonment of the classical Anglicans in the United States, Bishop Murphy and Bishop John Rodgers were consecrated on 29 January 2000 at St Andrews Cathedral in Singapore by the Archbishop of Southeast Asia and Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. It has grown rapidly under the leadership of Bishop Murphy, but has begun to witness internal tensions as well as stresses in its relationship with Rwanda.
Citing personal disagreements with Bishop Murphy, the Rt. Rev. Terrell Glenn, an assistant bishop, last week announced his resignation. Questions have also been raised over the transparency of the AMiA’s finances and leadership structure. Criticisms have also been raised over new canons prepared by a former Roman Catholic clergyman now serving in the AMiA that have incorporated a Roman Catholic ecclesiology and sacramental theology.
The AMiA is not synodicaly governed but operates under the sole authority of its leader, Bishop Murphy, who acts as a primatial vicar for the archbishop. Rwanda’s Title II Canon 15 hold there are seven sacraments of two kinds, while Canon 17 teaches the doctrines of Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass – a stance that puts the church at odds with Articles XXV and XXVIII. The canons also follow the Roman Catholic teachings on confirmation, penance, matrimony, ordination, holy unction as well as baptism.
At its 2011 Winter Conference, Bishop Murphy indicated there would likely be a change in the AMiA’s relationship with Rwanda in light of the retirement of Archbishop Kolini. Only two Rwandan bishops had been in office when the AMiA had been formed and the “institutional memory” was fading away, he noted.
A June 2011 meeting in Rwanda brought matters to a head. The Rwandan Church asked for an accounting of funds collected by the AMiA and designated for the East African province. Questions were also raised about the degree of accountability the AMiA had towards the Rwandan House of Bishops. The Rwandan bishops also declined to approve Bishop Murphy’s assistant bishop nominations.
Bishop Murphy noted that the AMiA had no canonical obligation to send money to Rwanda – it had however, contributed an average of 12 per cent of its income over the last seven years to Rwanda’s general fund. However, no public accounting of the disbursements has been made so far.
He also charged the Rwandan bishops with “reverse colonialism” – seeking to oversee a church half a world away. This had not worked during the age of colonial expansion when London missionary societies oversaw African churches and could not work today, he argued.
At a 27 Sept 2011 meeting, Bishop Murphy unveiled the reorganization strategy to the Rwandan bishops. The new arrangement would provide stability and continuity for the Pawleys Island, South Carolina-based organization by moving oversight to a self-perpetuating college of consultors, initially led by Archbishop Kolini. While Bishop Murphy told CEN he believed the meeting went well, the Rwandan bishops were left nonplussed.
In an open letter to Bishop Murphy, Bishop John Rucyhana deplored the plan which would “take AMiA from its original intent.” He believed the AMiA was being ungrateful, as “this move may hurt the relationship” between the AMiA and Rwanda, “which stood alone in the whole world with AMiA in the most difficult times.”
He was also distressed by what he saw as the AMiA’s taking Archbishop Kolini out of the Church of Rwanda. “It may be extremely hard to comprehend for the retired Archbishop Kolini who led AMiA as a mission of Rwanda and now moves with AMiA out of the province during his retirement.”
On 31 Oct 2011, Archbishop Rwaje wrote to Bishop Murphy “requesting that all procedures toward the formation of the new missionary society be halted until we go through the Jerusalem moment (are of common mind).”
The AMiA also needed to address Rwanda’s concerns over the “painful visit” at the June House of Bishops meeting, the charge of “reverse colonialism” leveled by Bishop Murphy, the “assumption that the new Archbishop does not make decisions,” and to reflect on “the spirit of rebellion and lawlessness.”
Bishop Murphy told CEN it was “absurd” to suggest he was in rebellion. He denied the AMiA was seeking to withdraw from Rwanda and stated his relations with the archbishop remained strong. A meeting is scheduled next week in Washington between the AMiA and the primate to review the tensions before the 21 Dec 2011 meeting of the House of Bishops in Rwanda.
Religious conversion and athletes – Israel Folau: Get Religion, November 17, 2011 November 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism.Tags: AAP, Israel Folau, Mormonism, sports
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Reporting on sports and religion is a messy business. When these worlds collide in a news story, the finished product is often filtered through the reporter’s prism of beliefs and prejudices. The advocacy journalism common to European newspapers, but restricted to the op-ed pages of most quality American papers, tends to run riot.
But when it is done well — such as in this story from the Australian Associated Press (AAP) — you find no campaigning, no preaching, no smirking or snide remarks. The reporter is true to his task of establishing the facts and letting them dictate how the story is written. The AAP piece in question is a breaking story about Israel Folau, the Australian football star.
The 22 year-old son of immigrants to Australia from Tonga, Folau played rugby league football for the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos from 2007 to 2010 and represented the Australian and the Queensland rugby league teams in match play, becoming the youngest player to play for both teams. At the close of the 2010 season he switched sports, signing a multimillion dollar contract to play Australian rules football with the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Folau is a familiar figure to Australian television viewers as a spokesman for the Coca-Cola sports drink, Powerade, and sportswear giant Adidas.
He is also a Mormon. Folau’s image as rugby’s “Mr Clean” stood in sharp contrast to the antics of other rugby league players whose drunken debaucheries enlivened the tabloid press. This 2010 story from The Australian was typical of the attention paid to his private life.
[Mormon] Bishop Sietu said the younger members of his flock looked up to Folau. “He’s a real role model for all of the young ones,” he said. “For his (football) teammates, as well.”
Mormons are taught to abstain from alcohol, tobacco and drugs, and pre-marital sex is forbidden.
The Queensland spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Grant Pitman, said those principles had helped Mormon footballers, such as Folau, to avoid the controversy that had dogged the NRL in recent years.
“They have principles or standards in their life which basically help them to cope with the lifestyle that they live in football,” Mr Pitman said. “The health code and the moral code is helpful to them.”
Last week, however, the AAP reported that Folau had left the LDS church. While the story was the same, Australia’s newspapers titled the report in different ways, emphasizing the conversion in positive or negative tones. The Sydney Morning Herald’s title was “Folau content after ditching Mormonism”. The Australian ran with “New faith for Folau in AFL”. The Canberra Times used “Folau happy with his leap of faith.”
The lede of the AAP story written by Rob Forsaith opened with:
A change of faith has steeled Israel Folau ahead of the immense challenges awaiting him in the 2012 AFL season.
Folau was a devout Mormon since childhood but his family cut ties with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints earlier this year.
Greater Western Sydney’s code-hopping star now practises under the Assemblies of God fellowship, at a Tongan service similar to the Hillsong Church.
(Hillsong Church is a 20,000-member Sydney pentecostal AOG church.) At this stage, Folau is allowed to tell his own story.
“I had a personal experience with the holy spirit touching my heart,” Folau told AAP.
“I’ve never felt that before while I was involved in the Mormon church – until I came to the AOG church and accepted Christ.
“It’s been an amazing experience for me personally and I know a lot of people on the outside have been saying stuff about why we left.
“And some people (are) assuming that we left because of money, and all that sort of stuff.
“I know for myself that it wasn’t.
“But I guess at the moment, the people on the outside don’t really know the main reason why we left.”
I applaud Forsaith for crafting his story in this way. By getting out of the way, and allowing Folau to explain his conversion in his terms the reader is given a sense of who this young man is, and what motivates him. The AAP also answers several questions and provides background.
The 22-year-old instigated the change himself after researching the history of Mormonism, and said the move was easy to make.
Folau’s friends have been understanding and supportive for the most part, but he admits it has been hard on a few of them.
And this being a sports story, it turns the article back to the coming season and ties the conversion experience and sport together.
God will play a large role in Folau’s life as he attempts to secure a berth in the Giants’ side for their season opener against Sydney.
“He’s certainly going to help me a lot out next year (in the AFL) and throughout my whole career,” he said.
“It’s going to be very important.”
The story closes with a discussion of the coming AFL season. Given the constraints of a wire service story, this is a solid sports/religion piece. If there were more space available, I would have wanted to hear from the LDS church and the Assembly of God congregation Folau had joined. Loosing their poster boy is a hard knock for an image conscious church and I would have wanted to hear more on this point. However, this was a wire story article, not a magazine piece with the room to examine these issues.
Cudos to the AAP for this finely written story.
First printed in GetReligion.
Nigerian winter over, ACNA says: The Church of England Newspaper, November 18, 2011 p 6. November 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, CANA, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.Tags: Amos Fagbamiye, Julian Dobbs, Nicholas Okoh, Robert Duncan
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Bishop Julian Dobbs
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The chill in relations between the Church of Nigeria and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is over following a meeting of the churches’ archbishops in London, senior ACNA leaders tell The Church of England Newspaper.
A breakdown in communications was blamed for the frost in relations between Nigeria and the conservative province-in-waiting in the US, which complained it had not been consulted about the creation of a new Nigerian outreach in America.
Last month the head of CANA, the Church of Nigeria’s missionary jurisdiction in the US, Bishop Martyn Minns announced the formation of the Diocese of the Trinity, to be headed up by CANA suffragan Bishop Amos Fagbamiye. On 12 Oct 2011 Bishop Minns said Trinity had been formed “in order to strengthen our missionary focus and provide enhanced support for local clergy and congregations, especially for Nigerian Anglicans living in North America.”
While the new diocese received warm public words of welcome, its creation had come as a surprise when it was proposed earlier this year, as it had been initiated by the Church of Nigeria and not by CANA.
However, CANA suffragan Bishop Julian Dobbs denied there was any discord between the ACNA and Nigerian House of Bishops. CANA had been successful, he argued because its “members reflect a broad and complex spectrum of complimentary ethnic and racial identities and maintain a healthy equilibrium between the historic spiritual streams of Anglicanism: Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic.”
“As a missionary outreach of the Church of Nigeria, CANA maintains our unimpeachable connection with authentic Anglicanism in the Anglican Communion; with our partners in the Anglican Church in North America we are building a future for faithful Christians,” Bishop Dobbs wrote.
“Therefore, we are appalled by the suggestion that we have created a conflict,” he added.
A spokesman for the ACNA was distressed by characterizations of the Diocese of the Trinity as race-based, telling CEN the new diocese was centered-round culture and worship styles. On 31 Oct 2011 Archbishop Duncan stated there had been a “desire among many Nigerian nationals, some of whom have been part of CANA and some who have been waiting for a development like the Missionary Diocese of the Trinity, to come together as a Nigerian diocese in North America.”
The “provision for affinity dioceses” within the ACNA structure made possible the formation of the Trinity Diocese, he said.
A spokesman for Archbishop Duncan stated that Archbishops Okoh and Duncan met in London during the week of Oct 24-28 adding that relations were amicable and there was no tension between the churches.
Women bishops and the Church of England: Get Religion, November 16, 2011 November 17, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Get Religion, Women Priests.Tags: Reuters
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How knowledgeable is your audience? What can a writer assume and what must be explained. One of the arts of journalism is the ability to gauge readers’ interests and abilities — to write not too much nor too little in setting the background of a story. When I write a story for the Church of England Newspaper, the Jerusalem Post or an American newspaper, I have an idea of what needs to be said and left unsaid for that particular audience.
A wire service reporter does not have that luxury. A recent Reuters story on the controversy over women bishops in the Church of England illustrates this question. In less than 400 words Reuters had to summarize the issues and arguments and offer insights into what lies ahead. And it must do so using non-theological language that is accessible to their readers. Sometimes it works, but in the article entitled “Church regions back women bishops,” it fell short.
The opening sentences show the problem of vocabulary:
The Church of England’s dioceses, or regions, have voted in favour of consecrating female bishops, campaigners said on Sunday, clearing one hurdle in a long legislative battle to let women break through the “stained glass ceiling.”
Only two of the Church’s 44 dioceses voted against the draft legislation, easily securing the 50 percent required for it to go back to the General Synod, or parliament, for another vote, said WATCH, a group campaigning for women bishops.
Do we really need to have explained what a diocese is? And if so, does “region” explain anything? If the audience is that ignorant should not the article explain what a “bishop” is and what connection a bishop has to a diocese? Explaining that the General Synod is the Church of England’s parliament is fine — but I feel the heavy hand of an editor at work — inserting explanations that break the flow of the story. It is so much smoother to say the “church’s parliament, the General Synod” than the circumlocution offered above.
The news reported in this article is that 42 of the Church of England’s 44 dioceses have endorsed the consecration of women priests to the episcopate. But the flow of the narrative and the informational value of the story deteriorates when Reuters attempts to summarize the arguments and predict the future.
Dioceses have been balloting their members since March this year and Sunday’s result confirmed what had largely been a foregone conclusion following the Synod’s earlier backing of the motion.
Here we have a “yes, but” problem. No, the dioceses have not been balloting their members. No one has asked the people in the pews for their opinion. The members of the diocesan synods, who are not directly elected by the church’s members either, have been the ones voting.
The article reports that “traditionalist Anglo Catholics and conservative evangelicals have threatened to continue to oppose the draft legislation,” and notes that:
Other Anglican churches, including in the United States, Australia and Canada, already have women bishops.
But traditionalists and evangelicals continue to argue against it on biblical grounds.
The consecration of women bishops is one of the most divisive issues facing the church, alongside same sex marriages and the consecration of homosexuals.
The Church of England has been criticised for being obsessed with such issues at a time when families are struggling with economic hardship amid rising unemployment, higher prices and frozen wages as part of the British government’s attempts to rein in a record peacetime budget deficit.
The Church was seen as weak and confused when demonstrators protesting against the excesses of capitalism last month parked 200 tents outside one of the its most famous places of worship, St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Liberals in the Church, who say it is insulting not to admit women to positions of power, argue concessions have already been made to appease opponents.
About 50 disaffected traditionalist bishops and priests in the Church of England have decided to leave the Anglican Church and take up Pope Benedict’s offer to switch to Rome.
Others have decided to stay and fight from within. They say Jesus Christ’s apostles were all men and that there is nothing in the Bible or church history to support women bishops.
They pointed to the number of dioceses who backed a following motion, or secondary motion, calling for improved provision for opponents to support their case.
This is not evenhanded. The author’s sympathies are on display by the use of “continue”: “continue to oppose”, “continue to argue” in light of the diocesan votes and the example of the U.S., Canada and Australia. (As we have to explain what a diocese is, should we not explain that by the U.S. Anglican Church Reuters means the Episcopal Church? There are a number of churches in the U.S. who use the word Anglican in their names and none have women bishops.)
Writing a story from a press release has its perils also. This appears to have been drawn from an announcement from a group that lobbies for the approval of women bishops. The article notes that women bishops may appear as early as 2014. While this may be the goal of campaigners, it is far from being a “foregone conclusion.”
For the Church of England’s General Synod to approve women bishops, each of its three houses — bishops, clergy and lay members — must approve the measure by two-thirds super majority. The last statement in the quote above — that protections are being sought for opponents of women bishops — should be fleshed out in order for the reader to understand that this is a live political battle and that the women bishops’ measure may fail. (For those interested in a detailed discussion on this point, I would refer them to English blogger and Huffington Post contributor Peter Ould.)
The digression about the Church of England’s debates over women bishops while the poor remain with us is preaching not reporting. It confuses politics and theology. This tone deafness is sounded quiet clearly in the explanation of the positions of the two opposing camps. Setting calls for justice and access to power against the Bible is a gross caricature of the arguments.
As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams — himself a supporter of women bishops — has said, the language of human rights should not be a “show stopper”. Those in favor of women bishops make their argument out of a particular understanding of Christian Scripture and theology — as do the opponents of women bishops. To paint traditionalists as hide bound misogynists is as a mistake as calling supporters of women bishops the loonie left. Explaining the dispute in political terms misstates the issues. One might as well write that because women can’t be masons, ipso facto, they can’t become bishops of the Church of England.
Does Reuters explain too much and yet say too little? What say you GetReligion readers?
Alternative episcopal ministry in Montreal: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011 p 6. November 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Barry Clarke, Diocese of Montreal, shared episcopal ministry
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Bishop Barry Clarke
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Montreal has agreed to allow the former Bishop of Western Newfoundland to provide alternative episcopal oversight to conservative clergy and congregations in the diocese. Proposed by the Windsor Report, “shared episcopal ministry” was endorsed by the Canadian House of Bishops in 2004. However, last week’s announcement from Montreal marks its first trial use in Canada.
In his opening address to the diocesan synod meeting on 27 Oct 2011, Bishop Barry Clarke of Montreal said a tentative agreement had been reached whereby Bishop Leonard Whitten would offer episcopal ministry to conservatives . While legal jurisdiction would remain with the Bishop of Montreal, the diocese was offering a “pastoral response to a need that needs to be addressed,” Bishop Clarke said.
“I would continue to be the diocesan bishop of both the bishop and the parishes,” he explained.
Conservative clergy and congregations have been at odds with Bishop Clarke since the 2007 meeting of synod requested the bishop authorize rights for the blessing of same-sex marriages. On 31 Oct 2008, Bishop Clarke announced he would go ahead with the blessings, even though the Canadian House of Bishops had requested the church honour the wishes of the 2008 Lambeth Conference and not proceed with the innovation.
Dissension grew in 2010 after Bishop Clarke inducted as Dean of Montreal and rector of Christ Church Cathedral the Rev. Paul Kennington. The new dean described himself as “liberal in ethics, evangelical in preaching, catholic in liturgy and orthodox in his understanding of Trinitarian theology and Christology.”
The news drew protests from conservative clergy who objected to the appointment of a divorced father of three who entered into a civil union in May 2010 while serving as a priest in the Church of England. In the absence of the bishop, the dean exercises ecclesiastical oversight over the clergy in Montreal.
The shared episcopal ministry agreement was agreed at a 19 Oct 2011 meeting in Montreal between the two bishops and six clergy.
The Rev Canon Bruce Glencross told the Montreal diocesan newspaper that he and other clergy would request Bishop Whitten’s ministry in their personal capacity, while a number of congregations were expected to seek alternative oversight following a vote by the parish.
Bishop Whitten (75) retired from Western Newfoundland in 2003 after serving for six years as bishop. He has since been active in the ministries of Sharing of Ministries Abroad (SOMA) and Anglican Renewal Ministries.
150 dead in Nigerian sectarian attacks: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011 p 7. November 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.Tags: Benjamin Kwashi, Boko Haram
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Over 150 people have died in a series of sectarian attacks in Northern Nigeria. Gunmen believed to belong to Boko Haram – a militant Muslim sect – last week targeted police stations, churches and an army base in a reign of terror in Nigeria’s Yobe, Kaduna and Borno States.
The attacks occurred two days before start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and are believed to be the work of the shadowy group. Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” claimed responsibility for an August bombing on the UN headquarters in Abuja that claimed more than a dozen lives.
In an interview recorded last month by Anglican TV, Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos stated Iranian money was flowing into the north to support the militants. Equipping the militants with guns and ammunition served to destabilize the state, he said, and could pave the way for a military coup.
Barnabas Aid reports that at a church in Kaduna State, gunmen targeted a prayer meeting on 3 November 2011. As the meeting drew to a close, gunmen entered the building and sprayed the congregation with bullets. Two women died at the scene and 12 were injured.
The next day Boko Haram attacked police stations and an army base in Yobe and Borno States. Churches were also attacked, the Barnabas Fund said, with six churches bombed in Damaturu.
“Islamists have once again wreaked havoc in Nigeria, leaving a trail of devastation and destroyed lives,” stated Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Aid.
The attacks have been condemned by the UN Security Council and by Pope Benedict, who on Sunday told worshippers in Rome that the violence serves only to sow hatred and create divisions. The US State Department has issued a travel warning for Nigeria’s capital, as Boko Haram has announced it will target the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels in Nigeria’s Federal capital, and have threatened foreign diplomats, politicians and the country’s business elite.
“Amid this ongoing carnage, our brothers and sisters continue to suffer,” Dr Sookhdeo said. “We must pray earnestly for peace in that troubled land and be ready to help meet the practical needs of Christians who have been affected by the violence.”
Anglican Unscripted, Episode 18, November 14, 2011 November 15, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, AMiA, Anglican Church of Rwanda, Anglican.TV, CANA.Tags: Bede Parry, Katharine Jefferts Schori
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http://blip.tv/play/g5Ijgt3_dQI.htmlhttp://a.blip.tv/api.swf#g5Ijgt3_dQI
Kevin and George bring more news from Rwanda/ Pawleys Island and shed light on Documents they have received.. They also discuss the end to the Anglican Covenant and the Parable of the Talents. Allan Haley talks about Penn State and how it is handling last weeks tragic news. Also this week there is an interview with Bishop Dobbs.
Maori synod rejects Anglican Covenant: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011 p 6. November 15, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The synod of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa – the Maori strand of the Anglican Church in Aoteaora, New Zealand and Polynesia (ANZP) – has rejected the Anglican Covenant.
The 5 November 2011 vote by the biennial runanganui (synod) meeting in Ohinemutu, New Zeland of the five Maori hui amorangi (episcopal units) passed a motion asking the 2012 ANZP General Synod: “To reject the Anglican Covenant.”
But it also asked the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) to “affirm that full membership of the Anglican Communion is not conditional on adoption of the proposed Covenant.”
Last week’s vote by the Maori churches likely sounds the political death knell for the Covenant in the ANZP. The dioceses of Christchurch, Wellington, Nelson and Waikato-Taranaki have expressed qualified support, while Auckland, Waiapu and Dunedin have rejected it. The Diocese of Polynesia has not expressed an opinion on the Covenant – an agreement sponsored by the Archbishop of Canterbury that would set the parameters of Anglican doctrine and discipline.
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 ACC on the “appropriateness of the provisions of Clause 4.2.8 of the proposed Covenant,” which excludes all provinces that have not adopted the Covenant from decision-making about exclusion of provinces. No response has been forthcoming from London, however.
The Maori church took issue with the disciplinary provisions of the Covenant, with the resolution noting that “Clause 4.2 of the proposed Covenant contains provisions which are contrary to our understanding of Anglican ecclesiology, to our understanding of the way of Christ, and to justice, and is unacceptable to this Runanganui.”
Speakers in support of the motion to reject argued the Covenant was un-Anglican. According to an account of the debate prepared by Anglican Taonga, the mover of the resolution, Archdeacon Turi Hollis said “the proposed Covenant is trying to impose on us something that should be based on relationship.”
The Rev Don Tamihere urged rejection also. “We are being asked to sign over our sovereignty, our rangatiratanga to an overseas group … to a standing committee over whom we have no choice or control. And they have the power to recommend punishment.”
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 organisational structure, each Tikanga or section of the Church: Maori, Polynesia, Church of New Zealand, has the ability to veto legislation for the whole – making it highly unlikely the Covenant will pass in light of last week’s vote.
Wisconsin merger collapses: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011 p 6 November 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac.Tags: Ed Leidel, Russell Jacobus
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The merger of two Wisconsin dioceses has been called off after a vote recount found the Synod of the Diocese of Fond du Lac Synod failed to endorse the union.
On 2 November 2011 Bishop Ed Leidel of Eau Claire wrote to his diocese stating he had received a “surprising” phone call from Bishop Russell Jacobus of Fond du Lac.
“He informed me that he had the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Fond du Lac recount the ballots from last Saturday’s vote on junctioning and found that the ballots had been mistakenly reported. The clergy did vote in favour of junctioning; but the report, I was told, on the lay vote was mistakenly reversed. The laity in Fond du Lac apparently voted against junctioning 53 to 51, according to the Standing Committee’s recount.”
“All of which is to say that the overall vote in the two clergy and two lay orders was three for, and one against; so the resolution to junction has failed,” Bishop Leidel said.
On 22 October 2011, the annual convention of the Diocese of Fond du Lac and a special meeting of the Diocese of Eau Claire convention each voted to ask the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to approve the “junction” of the two rural dioceses covering the northern two-thirds of the state of Wisconsin.
According to a Fond du Lac press statement, the amalgamation would begin next year and would be completed by 1 January 2013. Eau Claire Bishop Ed Liedel posted a note on his diocesan website last month after the vote stating: “Never before have two dioceses in the Episcopal Church ‘junctioned’ together. So, today we begin a new journey to create a new diocese in northern Wisconsin.”
In an interview with the Episcopal News Service after he informed Bishop Leidel the merger was off, Bishop Jacobus said the narrow margin in support of the merger following the first vote count had left him “really concerned about the division in the Diocese of Fond du Lac and how to deal with that.”
During a meeting held to discuss the discord, it was proposed the original vote totals be checked. Two diocesan staffers and two members of the diocesan standing committee recounted the votes and found that the tally of 53 to 51 in support of the merger among the lay delegates had been transposed. The vote of 53 to 51 had been to reject.
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
In his letter Bishop Leidel said the news, while disappointing, should be seen as a “challenging opportunity for us to continue to transform the way we do Diocese.”
Since his appointment as part-time bishop in 2010 Eau Claire had become “solvent. Structurally we have streamlined. In spirit we have grown confident and trusting,” he said.
“I sense that God really does want us to move in this direction. As a new kind of small and sustainable Diocese we can become a “salty” sign of life to a national and international communion in transition,” wrote Bishop Leidel.
Pope’s season cut short by knee injury: Get Religion, November 12, 2011 November 12, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: Benedict XVI, Daily Mail, La Stampa, Libero
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The Daily Mail has a story out that speculates the pope may resign due to ill health.
One can read this article in two ways. Either it is the silly season in the British press for articles on Pope Benedict XVI. His appearance on a rolling platform and use of a cane may have led to some recent heavy-breathing from Fleet Street. Or, this may be a continuation of the meme that began with a 25 Sept 2011 story in the Italian newspaper Libero which said the pope was thinking about retiring on his 85th birthday next April. While the Vatican press office denied the Libero story, could a painful degenerative joint condition precipitate an early exodus by Josef Ratzinger?
There may well be something in the later thesis, but the tone and style of the 11 Nov 2011 story in the Daily Mail entitled “Pope crippled by arthrosis leg pains which makes walking difficult” suggests it may be the former.
Now it isn’t quite the thing to criticize a story based on its headline as the power of naming a story is withheld from reporters. Those slack-jawed troglodytes of the newspaper industry known as sub-editors often come up with headlines that bear no relation to the story. So its not on to beat up the Daily Mail over the verb in the headline — “crippled”. But I’m afraid the rest of the story is weak. Reading this story, one would assume the pope was a professional athlete with a knee injury that threatens to end his career in mid-stride. Is this silly reporting? Take a look and tell me what you think:
The Pope is suffering from a degenerative condition in the joints of his legs which makes it painful for him to walk, according to Vatican insiders.
The onset of arthrosis means 84-year-old Benedict XVI can move only short distances before it becomes agonising to carry on.
His condition, which is related to his age, last month prompted him to request the use of a wheeled platform devised for predecessor Pope John Paul II.dence of Castel Gandolfo
Pilgrims were surprised to see the current pontiff clinging to the bar of the platform while ushers rolled it slowly down the main aisle, making it impossible for him to stop and greet well-wishers as he usually does.
At the time, the Vatican played down concerns about the Pope’s health, saying the platform was ‘solely to lighten the burden’ of processions.
The article then turns to a discussion of arthrosis before it enters the twilight zone.
The fact that it was the Pope – and not his doctors – who requested the mobile platform sparked renewed fears about the health of a man who has suffered two mild strokes and is also known to have a weak heart.
It also prompted speculation that the Bavarian-born Pope, who was elected in April 2005, might eventually resign rather than die in office.
The Daily Mail covers its bets with a closing quote from an Oxford don who says it is highly unlikely the pope would resign due to the aches and pains of age.
However, it is the bit just above the close that is problematic. Someone (we know not who) has fears about the pope using a platform — it being a sign the end is near. And someone else thinks joint pains may force the “crippled” pope to resign.
Using unnamed sources is always tricky. There are times when one must not reveal a source. When I write about the church in Zimbabwe I don’t identify some sources due to fears of retribution. At other times I withhold a name because the source is not authorized to speak on behalf of the organization or doesn’t want to lose his job. And then there is making it up as you go along.
In this case, we don’t have enough information to decide how much credence to give to these assertions. A reporter who covers the Vatican is named earlier in the story as a source for the news the pope uses a cane when moving about his private apartments, but there is no link between this insider and the allegations pushed at the close.
Yet this insider, La Stampa’s Andrea Torneilli who writes the “Vatican Insider” column, has made some cogent arguments about the pope stepping down. In his 25 Sept 2011 column, Torneilli commented with approval on the Libero article.
[T]he assumption he will resign, without any hitches, was the same thing Ratzinger talked about in an interview in the book “Luce del mondo” (Light of the World), when, in response to a question by interviewer Peter Seewald, he said: “When a Pope arrives at a clear awareness that he no longer has the physical, mental, or psychological capacity to carry out the task that has been entrusted to him, then he has the right, and in some cases, even the duty to resign.” Furthermore, in another passage, Benedict XVI wondered if he would be able to “withstand it all, just from the physical point of view.”
Torneilli also reported the Libero story said the pope was not willing to run away from a fight. In response to a question about the pedophile priests’ scandal Benedict said:
When there is a great menace, one cannot simply run away from it. That is why, right now, it is definitely not the time to resign … It is actually at moments like these that one needs to resist and overcome difficult situations. One can only resign at a time when things are calm, or simply, when nothing more can be done about it. But one cannot run away right when the threat is alive and say, “Let somebody else take care of it.”
Torneilli concluded “nothing of what Benedict XVI himself said in answer to his alleged plans to resign, seems to be materialising.”
The bottom line: There is informed speculation that the pope may step down when he believes his physical or mental capabilities have deteriorated to the point that he is not able to carry out his duties. Or, the sands of time have run out for that plucky Bavarian, Josef Ratzinger. Nobbled by a knee injury that will end his career.
My take is the Daily Mail’s focus on the illness rather than upon the pope’s published comments about the relationship between illness and his duties as Bishop of Rome means the story falls short.
Silly season … or a foundational story that will see its completion in the coming year? I’ve had my say .. what about you GetReligion readers.
Images courtesy of Natursports / Shutterstock.com
First printed in GetReligion.
Church ‘no’ to nuclear power in India: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011 November 12, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India.Tags: Diocese of Thoothukudi-Nazareth, JAD Jebachandran, nuclear power
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Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in India staged a one-day hunger strike to protest against the construction of the Koodankulam nuclear power station, saying the Russian-built plant is a danger to the community.
On 27 October 2011 the Bishop in Thoothukudi-Nazareth, the Rt Rev JAD Jebachandran and approximately 100 clergy from his diocese joined activists outside the construction site who were in the 10th day of a hunger strike. The Indian press reported the bishop told the gathering the church was there to extend its moral support to the protesters.
Construction has slowed to halt at the power station in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and the Russian state corporation Atomstroyexport are building two 1 Gigawatt reactors at a projected cost of £2.2 billion. When completed the water-cooled reactors will be the largest atomic power plant in India.
However, local residents have opposed the programme blocking highways to construction traffic and staging hunger strikes to halt the building. In September the Church of South India’s (CSI) General Synod issued a statement expressing “her deep solidarity” with the protestors.
The CSI charged that the “proper rules were not followed in the construction of the Reactor, in a place where the population density is too high.
“We fear that the reactor effluents would kill the fish and further, that the other life inside the sea would be affected by the water discharged from the nuclear reactor into the Bay of Bengal,” the CSI said.
The site chosen for the reactor was in a “tsunami-prone and quake-prone area,” they said, adding that the “huge radioactive accumulations at the plant site could become the principal causes of environmental and health hazards.”
The CSI joined with the local “struggling communities” around the plant and called upon the government to “hold a democratic and transparent national consultation on nuclear power projects in the country with proper assessment of economic, environmental and human cost of such expansion.
“It is true that energy can neither be created nor destroyed,” the CSI said, “but let us not forget that energy can destroy us.”
Appeals court win for US congregation in land battle: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011, p 6. November 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Louisiana appeals court has opened the legal door for Episcopal churches in the state to quit the national Church and keep their properties.
On 14 September 2011 the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge upheld a lower court decision allowing a Presbyterian congregation to leave its presbytery and keep its property – even though the Presbyterian Church’s constitutional documents claimed an interest in the property.
Relying upon the US Supreme Court’s decision in Jones v Wolfe, the appeals court in the case of Carrollton Presbyterian Church v the Presbytery of Southern Louisiana rejected the argument put forward by the presbytery that the addition of a trust clause in a denomination’s constitution was sufficient to create a valid and enforceable trust on property.
While the ruling addressed the Presbyterian Church’s property disputes, the legal principle articulated by the court also applies to the Episcopal Church’s Dennis Canon – which purports to create a trust interest in the property of all Episcopal congregations in favour of the Diocese and the national Church. The ruling is in line with a South Carolina Supreme Court decision, but is at odds with rulings made in California, New York and Pennsylvania.
In its opinion, the court held that “applying neutral principles of law, we find that any purported trust would be subject to the form requirements set forth in Louisiana’s Trust Code.”
The attorney for the congregation, Lloyd Lunceford told The Church of England Newspaper: “This statement [by the court] would lead one to conclude that the mere addition of an express trust clause in the Episcopal canons (the Dennis canon) would likewise be insufficient by itself to form an enforceable trust in Louisiana.”
The Presbyterian Church’s Book of Order at section 6-3 creates a trust over church property. It states that “all property held by or for a particular church … is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.”
The court wrote that although the US Supreme Court “opined that a trust in favour of a general church could be created by the constitution of the general church being made to recite an express trust provision in favour of the denominational church, “ this must be ‘embodied in some legally cognizable form’.
“We are not persuaded by the Presbytery’s contention that the requirement of a ‘legally cognizable form’ was met simply by the [Presbyterian church’s] amending its constitution.”
Mr Lunceford stated the “First Circuit’s decision is an important one, but it does not really break new ground” as it was “consistent” with the US Supreme Court’s ruling “which requires consent by the local owner and compliance with state trust law.
“The question in a case involving an Episcopal church in Louisiana would be whether the Episcopal canons that require the permission of the bishop and diocese, and a local church practice of seeking such permission, sufficed to create an implied trust (separate the express provision of the Dennis canon) that complied with ‘the form requirements set forth in Louisiana’s Trust Code.’ I believe the answer to that question would be ‘no’,” the attorney noted.
Cover up questions dog presiding bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, November 11, 2011 p 7 November 10, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Bede Parry, Diocese of Nevada, Gregory Polan, Katharine Jefferts Schori
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The president of the Catholic League – an American Roman Catholic pressure group – has denounced Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for receiving into the priesthood of the Episcopal Church a man dismissed from the Roman Catholic priesthood for having being a sexual abuser.
On 7 November 2011 Bill Donohue of the Catholic League issued a statement saying: “[Bishop] Jefferts Schori, knew about the sexual abuse activities of a homosexual candidate for the Episcopal priesthood, did nothing about it, and indeed allowed him to become a priest.”
Mr Donohue complained that it was “surreal” that activists from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) were protesting against the conduct of the Rev Bede Parry – the former Catholic turned Episcopal priest — outside the Roman Catholic Church’s Cathedral in Kansas City. “Why wasn’t it in New York City, home to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States? She’s the issue,” Mr Donohue charged.
The protests over Mr Parry came after a statement signed by the retired priest that confessed to his misconduct was posted on the Internet. The confession alleged that Parry’s superiors in the Catholic Church knew of his misconduct as did Bishop Jefferts Schori.
However, The Church of England Newspaper could not confirm the veracity of the confession. Mr Parry’s legal counsel, Joseph Paul Smith, told CEN he had no knowledge of the 7 May 2011 confession and would have to ask his client about the document.
Two charges contained in the document, however, appear to spell trouble for Bishop Jefferts Schori – the bishop who in 2004 received Parry in to the Episcopal Church. The confession states that a copy of a psychological evaluation conducted by a Catholic monastery in 2000 was given to Bishop Jefferts Schori. In his confession, Mr Parry stated the evaluation found he had a “proclivity to reoffend with minors” and was considered grounds for refusing him admission into a California monastery.
Mr Parry also stated the Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey “would later share the information with” Bishop Jefferts Schori. The Diocese of Nevada had until this time denied any knowledge of this report and has denied its relevance to Mr Parry’s reception as an Episcopal priest.
The confession also states that Parry was dismissed from the priesthood of the Catholic Church in 2002. However, in 2004 Bishop Jefferts Schori received the now laicized priest into the Episcopal Church without re-ordaining him.
A spokesman for the Presiding Bishop declined to comment on the Catholic League’s charges, and referred inquiries to the Diocese of Nevada’s July 2011 statement that a review of its files showed that all of the proper canons were followed in Parry’s process of reception into the Episcopal Church.
All of the instances of abuse committed by Mr Parry occurred when he was a Roman Catholic priest, the Nevada Episcopal statement said, and no evidence exists of misconduct during his service in the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.
However, canon lawyer Allan Haley said the latest revelations raised the question whether “Bishop Jefferts Schori was made aware of Parry’s cooperative dismissal from his orders in the Catholic Church? And if his prior offences were grounds enough for his dismissal from orders, why were they not likewise grounds for refusing to receive him as a priest in the Episcopal Church?”
Mr Haley noted that under the canons of the Episcopal Church in effect in 2003, Mr Parry was obliged to supply “[e]vidence of previous Ministry and that all other credentials are valid and authentic.”
“How could he have met this requirement if his credentials had been declared invalid by the Catholic Church — with his cooperation and consent,” he asked, adding the “questions for Bishop Jefferts Schori just get curiouser and curiouser.”
Die Taz on Jews and Germany: Get Religion November 10, 2011 November 10, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Press criticism.Tags: anti-Semitism, Die Tageszeitung, Germany, Islam
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„der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland sein Auge ist blau
er trifft dich mit bleierner Kugel er trifft dich genau”(Death is a Master from Germany his eye is blue
He shoots you with shot made of lead he shoots you level and true)From “Todesfuge” (“Death Fugue”) by Paul Celan
The Berlin alternative daily, Die Tageszeitung marked 9 Nov 2011– the 73rd anniversary of Kristallnacht — with three items on anti-Semitism in Germany: a front page splash, a news analysis piece on page 5, and an op-ed piece on page 14.
Founded in West Berlin in 1979 Die Taz is Germany’s newspaper for the “serious” Left — progressive socialists, feminists, ecologists and pacifists. While its circulation runs to about 60,000 its influence is far greater due to its prominence among the chattering classes (a phrase coined by Matthew Arnold).
The front page story (the one next to the photo of boxer Joe Frazier) entitled “The anti-Semites are among us” reports:
that an unpublished first report by a [government commissioned] Expert Committee on anti-Semitism found that [negative] Jewish stereotypes and anti-Semitic attitudes were deeply rooted in German culture and society … the mainstream of society had become used to anti-Jewish tirades … and there was an everyday exclusion, defamation, insult and boycott of Jews living in Germany. … up to 20 percent of the population in Germany was at least latently anti-Semitic, the report found.
The experts sobering conclusion was that “a comprehensive strategy to combat anti-Semitism in Germany does not exist.”
An editorial entitled “Far worse than swastika graffiti” argued that while swastikas can be washed away, the prejudices that motivate anti-Semitic hate speech were not as easily purged. When hate speech becomes acceptable it reinforces “stereotypes even further, so that the prejudices of the individual becomes the norm for a group.”
There is no simple answer to the verbal anti-Semitism [Die Taz argued]. But one thing is certain: There is cause for excitement. And not only on Nov 9. Anti-semitism is back again and is settling down into everyday language.
The inside news-analysis story entitled “Schoolyard epithet – ‘Jude’ (Jew)” developed the front page story reporting that:
today anti-Semitism can be observed even beyond the open Jew-hating right-wing extremist milieu: in schools and football clubs, at the volunteer fire department, in the letters columns of newspapers, in comments posted on social networking sites, but also in churches and among some leftists and globalization critics, and among immigrants.
The schoolyard taunt ”Jew” had “almost become commonplace in many places” while at German soccer games Jewish team members and their families in the stands were openly taunted.
“Sentences like ‘Jews belong in the gas chamber’, ‘Auschwitz is back” and “Synagogues must burn’ in the regional competitions are at no rarity,” says the report.
School classes that dealt with anti-Semitism focused exclusively on the Nazi period, the article found, giving students the impression that Jew-hatred was “exclusively attributable to the Nazi phenomenon, which appeared from nowhere in 1933 and then disappeared in 1945.” The newspaper reported that in addition to traditional right wing anti-Semitism in Germany, the new current of anti-Semitism arose in part from responses to the Middle East conflict and the left’s critique of capitalism with its polemics against financiers and greedy Wall Street bankers.
This is a great story and I applaud Die Taz for giving it such prominence in yesterday’s issue. November 9 marks a number of prominent events in German history: the 1918 sailor’s mutiny that precipitated the end of World War I, Hitler’s 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, and Kristallnacht. On the night of 9-10 November 1938 the Nazi regime moved away from its “legal” process of depriving Jews of their rights through restrictive laws towards the open violence of an officially sanctioned pogrom. Over 1500 synagogues were burned, 30,000 Jewish men and boys were arrested and taken to Dachau and other concentration camps, approximately 100 Jews were murdered and thousands of Jewish owned businesses were ransacked by the SA, SS and Nazi party activists.
Leading with an anti-Semitism story on the anniversary was a great editorial decision by Die Taz. However, there is a religion hole in this story. While Die Taz lays out all the pieces that fit together in the reemergence of anti-Semitism — right-wing Jew-haters, left-wing anti-capitalist polemicists, anti-Israel feeling — it tip-toes around the final, and most important component: Islam. To lump the fire brigade and churches with the Muslim immigrant community as undifferentiated sources of the new anti-Semitism is disengenous indeed.
Forward, the Jerusalem Post and a host of publications have examined the part played by Islam in the resurgent European anti-Semitism, and its omission hurts this story.
However, I may need to explain for a non-German audience the significance of Die Taz bringing up the issue of anti-Semitism — and why I am happy with so much of what they have done. In a few broad brush strokes let me give some context.
On 10 November 1988 the two Germanys convened special sessions of their parliaments to mark the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass”.
In East Berlin the Volkskammer was addressed by its president, Horst Sindermann, a Communist Party leader who spent almost a decade in Nazi prison camps. The focus of his speech to the assembly was that the DDR had been a bulwark against fascism, which itself was the highest expression of capitalism’s destructive nature. Historically there had been little public discussion of anti-Semitism in the DDR as it saw the persecution of the Jews was one of the many evils of the Nazi era.
In Bonn, the Bundestag held its first official commemoration of Kristallnacht. The ceremony began with the reading of the “Death Fugue,” a poem about the Holocaust by Paul Celan — a Romanian Jew who survived the camps. The chairman of the Bundestag, CDU leader Phillip Jenninger then rose and read a speech the New York Times subsequently printed on page A5 in its 12 Nov 1988 edition. It began with:
Today we have come together in the Bundestag … because not the victims but we in whose midst the crimes took place have to remember and account for what we did; because we as Germans want to come to an understanding of our past and of its lessons for our present and future politics.
He examined the history and read extracts from official statements of the Nazi era to illustrate the beliefs and actions of the regime. But the speech caused an uproar the New York Times reported, prompting 50 left-wing deputies to walk out. Three days later he resigned and apologized for his “insensitive” words after critics charged that he had said the right things, but at the wrong place and time.
Conservatives deputies, some of whom were photographed holding their heads in their hands during the speech, stayed seated, but were unhappy. After two decades of avoiding the topic — or claiming ignorance of the deeds done in secret by the SS –by the 1980′s the Federal Republic had found that by accepting responsibility for the past, it could rejoin the world community.
The received view of Kristallnacht among Germans had been that the Nazis had committed the crimes, while Germany watched. Their sin was one of indifference. Jenninger’s words forced Germany to remember that Germans were not only indifferent to the fate of the Jews, but they were complicit in segregating and expelling Jews from German society and in carrying out the Holocaust. German memory focused on the victims and found a national identity in response to their sufferings — not to the evils done by the perpetrators.
The reasons offered for the left’s walk out were confused and many deputies stated theirs was an emotional reaction. But the use of the word “we” — admitting that all Germans were complicit in the crimes of the Nazi era and Jenninger’s focusing on the perpetrators of the crimes was too much for the political leaders of the ’68 Generation. Activists who had condemned the continuity between the Nazi past and the West German present, believing their rejection had purified them of the crimes of the Holocaust, refused to accept culpability for their country’s anti-Semitic past.
It may have been fortuitous. It may have been unintentional. Or it may have been an editorial decision by the left wing newspaper to use the anniversary of Kristallnacht — the one event of the Holocaust which no German then living could deny knowing — to chastize the country for its slide back into evil was remarkable. Thank you Die Taz.
Now if only they weren’t shy about confronting the Muslim roots of the new hate the story would have hit a home run.
Addendum: In response to readers’ emails, here are some links to the topic of anti-Semitism in Europe and Islam. I also recommend two recent books: Walter Laquer’s book The Changing Face of anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day(NY: OUP, 2006) and Raphael Israeli, Muslim anti-Semitism in Christian Europe: Elemental and Residual anti-Semitism (NY: Transaction Publishers, 2009). This is by no means an exhaustive list, but will help start your researches.
First published in GetReligion.
Parliamentary committee urges govt to rethink aid cuts to Burundi: The Church of England Newspaper, November 4, 2011 November 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Burundi, Church of England Newspaper, Development/Economics/Govt Finances.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The House of Commons International Development Committee has urged the Department for International Development (DfID) to reverse its decision to eliminate direct financial aid to Burundi.
On 5 July 2011, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi of Burundi testified before the committee that cutting support to Burundi would make it an “aid orphan.” Burundi was one of the “poorest countries” in East Africa the Archbishop said and was “also coming out of a 15-year [civil] war.” In 2005, the country emerged from a tribal civil war that killed 300,000 people.
The conflict left the country devastated, with the lowest recorded GDP per capita in the world, at $150 in 2008. Burundi ranks 166th of 169 countries in the UN’s human development index with 81 per cent of the population living below the poverty line.
“I am worried,” the Archbishop said, as there were signs the conflict could reignite. “The people are not at peace. The signs that we see show that, if we are not careful, there might be another war in Burundi, because most of the young people who were demobilised do not have jobs.
In its report, the committee stated: “We strongly question the strategic coherence of greatly increasing UK aid to the whole region while closing DfID’s bilateral programme in Burundi.
“The money for an effective and efficient bilateral programme in Burundi could be found by very small reductions in the increases in funding of the other countries in the region,” it said.
In 2010 Britain gave £13.7m to Burundi, supporting education, health, access to justice, and regional economic integration programmes. The decision to cut support followed a review of aid programmes instituted by Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary.
In March DfID announced it would reduce the number of bilateral aid programmes from 43 to 27. Burundi was dropped, even though DfID said it had “a compelling case for aid”.
“The government has been clear from day one that our priority is to ensure that every penny of taxpayers’ assistance is directed where it has the most impact for poor people and offers best value for money,” the minister said in March when the cuts were announced.
“As part of a set of detailed reviews, we took the tough but responsible decision that Britain is best placed to help Burundi through other routes to tap into the economic growth in the region and to boost trade with its neighbours. A country-to-country programme is not always the most effective way of providing support,” Mr Mitchell said.
The director of the Anglican Alliance, Sally Keeble urged the government to accept the recommendations of the parliamentary committee.
“The Anglican Church in Burundi acted as a powerful advocate for the people, and the Select Committee has taken on board the Church’s proposals. This report makes the clear case to reinstate the programme in the interests of the people of Burundi and their security. I hope that the Government will listen to the compassionate voice of the Select Committee, and reinstate the programme.”
Reform call to ‘stand up’ for marriage: The Church of England Newspaper, November 4, 2011 November 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: gay marriage, Reform, Rod Thomas
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The Rev Rod Thomas of Reform
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Reform has called upon the leaders of the Church of England to take a public stand in support of marriage, and voice their opposition to the government’s plans to introduce gay marriage.
In an address to the evangelical group’s annual conference last month, Reform chairman the Rev Rod Thomas asked clergy and lay leaders to do “everything within their power” to oppose attempts to “redefine marriage” away from a life-long relationship between one man and one woman.
“This is a generation-defining moment,” he said. “When the history books are written we will want to be known as those who spoke up publicly for Jesus’ teaching on marriage and against any Government attempts to redefine this God-given institution.”
Reform’s call to defend marriage from government social engineering plans follows similar calls by the Roman Catholic Church and the Free Church of Scotland.
In March, the Conservative-led coalition government will begin a consultation on how to redefine marriage under law – Mr Cameron has decided that the question whether the government should institute the changes has already been settled. The Scottish Executive is currently holding a consultation on redefining marriage.
Catholic leaders have strongly opposed the government’s plans. “Marriage by its very nature is between a man and a woman and it is the essential foundation of family life,” Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark said, adding “the state should uphold this common understanding of marriage rather than attempting to change its meaning.”
The Free Church of Scotland last month joined the Catholic Church in opposing the government. It called the push to change marriage “an irrational determination to force a form of equality upon society which is not rooted in any recognised moral foundation”.
The Church of England needed to follow suit, Mr Thomas said and take “urgent and significant and steps” to support marriage.
“Our churches, our communities and especially our children need us to provide both clarity and compassion in this age of confusion surrounding sexual identity and relationships,” he said to members attending the 18-19 October 2011 meeting at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
He also read out a letter from Kenyan Archbishop Eliud Wabukala to Reform, thanking them for their faithfulness.
“I thank God for the witness of Reform as you hold unswervingly to the faith once for all delivered to the saints despite the severe erosion of orthodoxy taking place around you. As the Global South Primates acknowledged at our recent meeting in China ‘it grieves us deeply to observe many Anglican churches in the west yielding to secular pressure to allow unacceptable practices in the name of human rights and equality’.
“So I would like to assure you of my prayers and necessary support. We are building a truly global fellowship in a partnership inspired by the Holy Spirit, marked by prayer, generosity, sacrifice and genuine love. I long to see the day when faithful Anglicans can feel at home in any part of the world and share the joy of true fellowship in the Holy Spirit,” the Archbishop said.
Anglican Unscripted, November 7, 2011 November 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in AMiA, Anglican Church of Rwanda, Anglican.TV, CANA, Church of Nigeria, Connecticut, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Anglican Unscripted for November 7, 2011. Discussion of the Anglican Mission in America and the Province of Rwanda, violence in Nigeria, Episcopal Church statistics and legal developments in the Diocese of Connecticut.
Destroyer of worlds … an Indian iconoclasm: Get Religion, November 8, 2011 November 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Get Religion, Hinduism, Press criticism, Roman Catholic Church.Tags: iconoclasm, The Hindu
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Located just below the logo at the top of this page is the quote “the press … just doesn’t get religion.” This is the mantra of GetReligion, a website dedicated to critiquing religion reporting in the secular media. (Independent and denominational religion publications such as my own Church of England Newspaper fall outside our remit.)
The articles on this website examine religion “ghosts” in stories — when questions of faith, belief or religious identity animate an issue but are neglected in the article. Other GetReligion stories laud reporters or newspapers for providing context, insight or understanding of the faith issues at play. We also point out errors, false assumptions and omissions found in the in coverage of the familiar as well as the exotic.
Many answer the question “why” these mistakes are made by reference to the banishment of religion from education and the public square. But a lack of understanding of the faith is not solely a function of secularization. One need only turn to the India — a country steeped in religion — to see this.
Asian News International (ANI) — an Indian wire service — ran a story last week with the somewhat bald headline “Man attacks church in Mangalore.” It reported:
In a freak incident, a man broke into the St. Alphonsa Church in Mangalore and damaged an idol of Jesus Christ on Thursday. The man has been identified as Shiva, a resident of Jalligudde. It was learnt that he went into the priest’s private chambers, removed his clothes and tried to wear the holy vestments, before he was discovered by a couple of students staying at a hostel attached to the church. He damaged the main idol of Christ and the Holy Cross placed inside the church. He also broke both the arms of the idol.
The lede in DNA — an English-language daily broadsheet published in Bombay — opened with the damage also. “Drunk youngster damages church in Bangalore” (Some problem here with the headline. Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka and 250 km northwest of Mangalore, Karnataka’s main seaport).
Church attack returned to haunt Mangalore on Thursday night when an unemployed man, in an inebriated state, vandalised St Alphonsa Church near Kankanady Market in the south Karnataka city. In the third such incident in a fortnight, Shiva Bajal, 24, damaged the grottoes of Jesus and Mary. He also damaged the furniture in the main hall of the church and tried desecrating the altar. Further damage to the church was prevented when a group of people from the parish apprehended Bajal. The inebriated man continued his rampage and also tried to assault Shibbi, a priest.
The Daijiworld television network broadcast a report on the attack showing the wrecked church. (The report starts about 40 seconds after the video begins — following the commercial). The Hindu — one of India’s oldest (1878) and largest circulation (1.5 million) English-language newspapers — also highlighted the damage:
Between 8.30 p.m. and 9 p.m., a man entered the church, attacked the statue of Jesus with a candle stand, and went to the sacristy where he inflicted more damage. The man, since identified as Shiva, broke an idol of Jesus and threw a copy of the Bible on the floor. He threw the monstrance (a golden-coloured article about a foot in height which is used for the Adoration), and a stole that is used in a number of sacraments, Assistant Parish Priest Shibbi Puthiyara said.
But unlike the other reports, it gave some context to the attack for the non-Christian reader. It interviewed one of the parishioners who witnessed the attack, and quoted her as saying:
“The monstrance is so sacred that it is held only with the stole.” … “The man damaged the statue of Jesus, the monstrance, and the stole. All three are considered sacred,” she said.
All of these reports highlight the religious issues involved and treat seriously the concerns and anger of the congregation. However, the language used in the ANI article, for example, is incorrect. While I know a few hard-shell Protestants who would argue the Roman Catholic Church’s use of statues in their churches is “idolatry”, the statue of Jesus is not an “idol” in the sense that an Indian reader would understand the word.
Nor is the priority given by the Indian reports to the damaged statue or liturgical vestments over the destroyed monstrance correct. This can best be illustrated by comparing the press statement put out by the local Catholic bishop and the newspaper reports. On 5 Nov 2011 Bishop Aloysius Paul D’Souza of Mangalore wrote:
The Catholic Church dedicated to St Alphonsa in Kankanady was attacked by a miscreant on Thursday November 3 night. The holy monstrance was desecrated and statues of Jesus were damaged.
The monstrance was “desecrated” and the statues “damaged”, the bishop reported. Why the difference? Two words: Real Presence.
For the Roman Catholic the Eucharistic elements, or gifts, are transformed at the moment of consecration into the Body and Blood of Christ — not only spiritually transformed but substantially transformed, retaining only the the appearance or accidents of bread and wine. They are the Body and Blood of Christ. The elements in the monstrance were damaged and thereby desecrated or profaned. This nicety is missing from the Indian accounts save for The Hindu.
Turning the glass the other way round, while a Western reader might bristle at the idol reference would he catch the symbolism of the name of the attacker: Shiva? In the Hindu pantheon Shiva is the destroyer.
Some may recognize this through a quotation from the Bhagavad Gita made famous by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Upon witnessing the world’s first nuclear explosion in 1945, Oppenheimer — the director of the Manhattan Project — said the brought the epic Hindu poem to mind.
“Now I am become Death [Shiva], the destroyer of worlds,” Oppenheimer said citing Chapter 11 verse 32 of the Bhagavad Gita when seeing the destructive power of an atomic blast.
For an Indian audience, the irony of a man names Shiva destroying things would be obvious. For a Western audience calling a statue of Jesus an idol is thoughtless or a deliberately provocative statement — both have meanings bellow the surface. A good reporter is one who informs his readers without being didactic and who is able to catch the nuances in a story to give it shape and context. I wish there were more of them.
Image of the monstrance and of Shiva via Shutterstock.
First published by GetReligion.
Calvinism dividing Baptists in the USA: The Church of England Newspaper, November 4, 2011 p 6. November 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Calvinism, Southern Baptist Convention
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The question of Calvinism is one of the major challenges facing American Christianity today, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) said last month.
In an 18 October 2011 interview posted on the website of SBC Today, the Rev Frank Page, the chief executive of the SBC executive committee said “one of the issues which is a tremendous challenge for us is the theological divide of Calvinism and non-Calvinism.
“Everyone is aware of this, but few want to talk about this in public,” said Dr Page, who served from 2006-2008 as president of the SBC – America’s largest Protestant denomination and second largest religious group after the Roman Catholic Church.
The silence over Calvinism “is obvious. It is deeply divisive in many situations and is disconcerting in others. At some point we are going to see the challenges which are ensuing from this divide become even more problematic for us. I regularly receive communications from churches who are struggling over this issue,” Mr Page said.
A 2006 LifeWay Research survey found that 10 per cent of Baptist ministers considered themselves to be five-point Calvinists. However, a follow-up study in 2007 found that this figure rose to 29 per cent among new seminary graduates.
Baptists have traditionally rejected the tenets of Calvinism, favouring an Arminian approach to teachings about grace.
In 2000, Dr Page published Trouble with the TULIP: A Closer Examination of the Five Points of Calvinism. He described Calvinism a “man-made” doctrine not supported by Scripture. TULIP is an acronym for the five main points of Calvinism: Total depravity, Unmerited election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace and Perseverance of the saints.
The question of Calvinism within Anglican has historically been as contentious as the current American Baptist dispute – serving as a point of different between the Anglo-Catholic movement and Evangelicals for the past two centuries.
Episcopal church reports sharp decline in attendance: The Church of England Newspaper, November 4, 2011, p 6 November 6, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.Tags: church growth
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First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The US Episcopal Church reports that attendance has fallen 16 per cent over the past five years with the number of Episcopalians dropping below two million.
According to statistics released last week, the number of Episcopalians fell from 2,006,343 in 2009 to 1,951,907 in 2010. Over the last 10 years the Church lost 16 per cent of its members, while the rate of decline for the past five years was 11 per cent.
After holding steady in the 1990s membership and attendance began to drop in the wake of the controversies surrounding the consecration of the Church’s first gay bishop. Over the last 10 years attendance has fallen by 23 per cent to 657,831.
Declines are reported across the whole church. Fifty-four per cent of all congregations suffered a decline in attendance last year, while only 24 per cent saw a rise.
The national Church’s statistical office also reported a sharp disconnect between the leadership of the Church and people in the pews. While the national leadership is overwhelmingly very liberal in its views, the denomination’s members are equally divided between liberals and conservatives.
Only five per cent of congregations categorised themselves as very liberal, 24 per cent as somewhat liberal, 41 per cent as moderate, 23 per cent as somewhat conservative, and seven per cent as very conservative.
Demographically the Church remains segregated by race with 94 per cent of Episcopal congregations reporting that one racial or ethnic group predominates: 86.2 per cent of Episcopal congregations are mostly white, 5.6 per cent are multi-racial, and 4.9 per cent are predominantly Black. The large majority (69 per cent) of congregations report that more than half of their members are over the age of 50.
The ordination of gay and lesbian clergy had led to internal conflict amongst almost two-thirds of congregations (62 per cent), while financial worries afflicted 54 per cent.
The denomination, which once claimed over 3.5 million members as recently as the mid-1960s, has lost over 40 per cent of membership over the last 40 years while the US population grew by over 50 per cent during the same period.
Christ Church Cathedral coming down: The Church of England Newspaper, November 4, 2011 p 6. November 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: Christchurch earthquake, Victoria Matthews
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Christ Church Cathedral before the earthquake
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Earthquake damaged Christ Church Cathedral in New Zealand will be deconsecrated and portions of the gothic structure pulled down, Bishop Victoria Matthews announced last week.
Speaking to a press conference last week Bishop Matthews said the diocese was exploring its options, including leveling the 130-year old Gothic cathedral which will be deconsecrated on 9 Nov.
“This has been a difficult decision for all involved, as no one loves the cathedral as much as we do,” the bishop said on 27 Oct 2011. “However, this is the next step towards a decision about the future of the cathedral, which will combine the old and the new.”
The decision on how to proceed “follows a challenging and complex assessment process, including review and input by a range of involved and interested persons to identify options and risks, along with consideration of expert analysis and technical reports,” she said.
It will cost upwards of £2 million to demolish the cathedral, which was badly damaged on 22 Feb 2011 by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake and aftershock in June.
After the building has been stabilised and the rubble removed, the bishop and cathedral chapter will consider several options including demolishing the whole building or demolishing from 20 to 70 per cent of the existing structure.
Insurance will cover only 70 per cent of the rebuilding costs, the bishop said, leaving a shortfall of £15 to £25 million in the cost of rebuilding.
Dean Peter Beck stated the new cathedral will be a “mixture of old and new” styles. He added that a final decision will be made after demolition. “That gives us time to explore further options about what we will be doing to build a new cathedral,” he said.
A pedophilia gene – “The Devil made me do it”: Get Religion Nov 4, 2011 November 4, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Get Religion, Press criticism.Tags: La Stampa, pedophilia
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The Turin-based newspaper, La Stampa, has a fascinating report on the latest developments in neuroscience. Researchers have isolated a gene whose mutation they believe provides the biological basis for pedophilia.
This started my mind down a certain journalistic path, and I began to think — about television. There are times when I miss the ’70s variety shows. American Idol, the X Factor, Dancing with the Stars are good in their own way, but they don’t have the breadth of entertainment that the Carol Burnett Show, the Smothers Brothers, Sonny and Cher, Captain and Tennille and, yes, even Donny and Marie had.
But of these, my favorite was The Flip Wilson Show. I can recall quite clearly sitting with my parents watching Flip play Reverend Leroy backed by his four deacons with a ready “Amen” on their lips. (I never imagined that I would grow up to become a priest in the Church of What’s Happening Now, a.k.a. The Episcopal Church, but that is a different story.)
While I gravitated towards the Rev. Leroy, the most popular skit on the show centered around Geraldine Jones. Flip would done wig and padded dress and with a falsetto cry utter one of the catch phrases of that era: “The Devil made me do it!”
Flip’s audience would respond with laughter. And why not? He was funny and Geraldine Jones’ cry was a wonderful excuse. It’s not my fault. I had to do it. The devil made me do it.
In an article entitled “Un gene alterato scatena la pedofilia” (An altered gene triggers pedophilia), Marco Accossato reports:
Italian researchers have discovered a possible genetic origin for pedophilia, making sexually deviant behavior a potentially treatable condition. But is it an alibi for convicted pedophiles?
The article reports that a study conducted by neuroscientists at the Universities of Turin and Milan and published in the journal Biological Psychiatry found that pedophilia was caused by a defective growth factor in the brain called Progranulin (PGRN). A 50-year-old man who had begun to exhibit pedophile behavior underwent a neurological analysis and was found to have a a mutation of PGRN in his brain. Treatment of the condition led to a cessation of his pedophilia.
La Stampa wrote:
Un annuncio clamoroso … A dramatic announcement: a possible biological basis for socially unacceptable behavior can be found according to a study of patients with rare neurodegenerative disorders. The discovery, which will be presented [at a conference] in Turin, opens new research possibilities but for the first time presents a medical treatment approach to the disease. There are obvious potential ethical and legal implications to this discovery.
“Having shown that pedophilia is largely tied to a biological condition” has “extraordinary medical and social implications,”said Prof. Pinessi … [Further research is required to show however that] all pedophiles have the same genetic mutation … but having identified the cause of pedophilia as a neurobiological condition there is “a possibility of a cure” as shown in the Turin case.
“After several weeks of treatment with atypical anti-psychotic neuroleptic drugs along with antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors the patient ceased his pedophile behavior,” the researchers reported.
The La Stampa reporter also conducted a video interview with lead researcher Prof. Lorenzo Pinessi that touched upon the “ethical and legal implications” of the discovery. I was pleased to see that the moral issues were mentioned in the article and the accompanying video. But I wish the story had developed the medical ethics side a bit more. The lede suggests we will look into this: “Is it an alibi for convicted pedophiles?”, but we don’t get more.
Which is a shame in an otherwise great story for the author introduces the concept of free will and biology, but doesn’t do anything with it.
After I finished reading this story, I pulled from my bookshelf The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and turned to Book V, Chapter IV — The Rebellion.
Ivan Karamazov is going mad. He is unable to reconcile his knowledge of evil with his philosophical belief that the universe is governed by science.
[A]ll I know is that there is suffering and that there are none guilty; that cause follows effect, simply and directly; that everything flows and finds its level—but that’s only Euclidian nonsense, I know that, and I can’t consent to live by it! What comfort is it to me that there are none guilty and that cause follows effect simply and directly, and that I know it?—I must have justice, or I will destroy myself.
The conventional wisdom of our modern age is rigidly deterministic. If the devil doesn’t make you do it, it is your genes, your upbringing, sociological forces or cultural pressures. While Geraldine Jones’ excuse for buying a new dress and the discovery of a gene responsible for pedophile behavior sound very different, both presume that what we do is wholly predetermined by outside causes.
We can will what we want but we cannot will what we will. Philosophers call this argument reconciliationism, which holds that free will and determinism do not conflict. People do choose as they wish, it’s just that those choices are themselves determined. We are free to will what we are certain to do.
What then can we say about evil? Can evil, right or wrong, or justice exist in a universe that is determined? In the post-Auschwitz world, how can we not believe in evil? If history, biology or sociology determine behavior moral indignation is senseless. However, I cannot escape the conviction that some actions are just evil — pedophilia being one.
What is the journalism angle in that?
La Stampa begins to address the God question — or the ethical/meaning of life question. That’s in the story. But is seeking an answer to this question possible in a newspaper? What is the role of the journalist in this case? Is he simply a chronicler, a reporter or does the craft of journalism have a moral purpose that rises above the repetition of disparate facts? What say you GetReligion readers?
First published in GetReligion.
Irish clergy petition on gay unions: The Church of England Newspaper, November 4, 2011. November 4, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.Tags: Alan Harper, Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy, gay marriage, Michael Burrows
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy (EFIC) has launched an online petition campaign calling upon the leaders of the Church of Ireland to “uphold and submit to the authority of the Scriptures” and not follow the Episcopal Church down the path of schism over homosexuality.
The Church of Ireland could split between Ulster and the Republic of Ireland, church leaders fear, in the wake of revelations the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory permitted the Dean of Leighlin to register a same-sex civil union.
The outcry forced Bishop Michael Burrows to skip the consecration of the Bishop of Tuam and has sparked protests from evangelical clergy. The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Alan Harper, told the BBC he was “very, very concerned at the potential for division” within the church over homosexuality.
On 5 October 2011 the Irish bishops called for a moratorium on clergy entering into same-sex civil partnerships, and also asked critics of clergy civil unions to moderate their language while the Church begins debate over this issue.
In their pastoral letter, the bishops said they had been planning on reviewing their 2003 statement on human sexuality, however, “recent well–publicised events within the Church of Ireland concerning the issue of serving clergy and civil partnerships have caused considerable hurt and confusion to many. Others saw what had happened as a positive development. In the Church of Ireland as a whole, in consequence, this has led to a painful experience of disunity.”
The bishops stated they would organise “a major conference in spring 2012” to discuss the issue, but noted the meeting “is not envisaged to be an end in itself” and would not settle the issue.
Evangelical clergy in Ireland have urged their bishops to take a firm stance. The Rev Trevor Johnston, chairman of EFIC, told the Portadown Times “this issue was discussed widely [at EFIC’s 10 October 2011 meeting] and clergy from all over Ireland are opposed.
“The Bible is unequivocal throughout, and the meeting took place in a very serious mood. There was a groundswell of distress by people who do not want to see their Church divided over this issue, but it will be very difficult to hold the Church of Ireland together,” Mr Johnston said.
The petitioners stated they signed the statement to “disassociate ourselves from any implied or perceived acceptance of sexual relations outside of marriage and to reassure parishioners that Church of Ireland teaching has not been changed by this precipitous action.
“We call upon all in church leadership to undertake to ensure their lifestyles and teaching are in accordance with the historic [catholic] and faithful interpretation of the Holy Scriptures,” the said, asking that “all in church leadership uphold and submit to the authority of the Scriptures. We particularly call upon bishops to fulfil their calling and office by taking appropriate action to restore the witness and unity of the church, in the truth and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Gay civil unions had the potential to divide the Irish Church, they said, writing that “as we observe the response to the acceptance of same-sex relationships across the Anglican Communion, it is with deep regret that we are compelled to acknowledge the realities of broken or impaired communion worldwide, and the possibility of the same even within our own land.”
Mr Johnston acknowledged the church faced turbulent times as “this crisis will be very hard to resolve.”
Growing pains for ACNA: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 4, 2011 November 3, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, CANA, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.Tags: Amos Fagbamiye, Martyn Minns, Robert Duncan
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A chill has descended over relations between the Church of Nigeria and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) in the wake of the creation of a diocese for Nigerians in America by the Church of Nigeria.
While official statements from Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA and Bishop Martyn Minns of CANA – the Church of Nigeria’s American outreach — have been upbeat, sources at the top of the ACNA tell The Church of England Newspaper the situation surrounding the formation of the Diocese of the Trinity has been a “mess”.
Archbishop Duncan is understood to be meeting in the near future with the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, to seek clarification as to why the Nigerian Church believed it necessary to create a race-based diocese in America.
Questions also remain unanswered as to why Nigeria continues to hold on to its American operations after Kenya, West Africa, Uganda and the Southern Cone turned their churches and clergy over to the ACNA.
On 12 October 2011, Bishop Minns released a letter to the CANA clergy announcing the formation of the Diocese of the Trinity. At the September meeting of the General Synod, the Nigerian Church “decided to permit the establishment of dioceses within CANA, under the leadership of the CANA Missionary Bishop, in order to strengthen our missionary focus and provide enhanced support for local clergy and congregations, especially for Nigerian Anglicans living in North America.”
Bishop Minns stated that suffragan Bishop Amos Fagbamiye had been named the diocesan bishop of Trinity Diocese. These actions were “subject to the enactment of necessary canonical provisions within the Church of Nigeria’s constitution and canons and also the relevant by-laws and protocols of CANA,” he added.
The CANA leader noted that while “church structures are important and can be useful … what is most important is that we continue with the work of witness and discipleship and reaching North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ. Mission must always drive and shape our structures, not the other way around.”
On 15 April 2011 Bishop Fagbamiye met with 40 clergy and lay leaders to discuss the formation of a missionary diocese. The purpose of the diocese was to “build a Christ-centred, multicultural, multiracial, Bible-based church that believes in the apostolic teaching, and is sensitive to human needs.”
The organisational meeting recommended the new diocese “be under the supervision and derive authority from Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion but will be affiliated with CANA and ACNA.”
On 31 October 2011 Archbishop Duncan gave a statement to CEN stating there was a “desire among many Nigerian nationals, some of whom have been part of CANA and some who have been waiting for a development like the Missionary Diocese of the Trinity, to come together as a Nigerian diocese in North America. Created by the recent General Synod at Lagos, the plan is that the Missionary Diocese is to be part of CANA and to also apply for recognition as a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America.
“As the Constitution and Canons of the Anglican Church in North America make provision for affinity dioceses, the creation of the Missionary Diocese of the Trinity can readily be accommodated within the Anglican Church structure,” the Archbishop said.
However, affinity dioceses within ACNA have so far been constructed along doctrinal lines – with non-geographic dioceses for Anglo-Catholics. Until the formation of the Trinity Diocese the only race-based church unit was the Niobrara Sioux mission to American Indians.
A spokesman for CANA said it was a mistake to presume that Trinity Diocese was composed solely of Nigerians. “One of [Bishop] Fagbamiye’s own archdeacons is white: the Ven John Beasley. I think he also has some non-Nigerian clergy on staff at his church in Indianapolis,” said Harry Zeiders of CANA.
One ACNA leader who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak on its behalf said the creation of the Trinity Diocese had come as an unwelcome surprise. It was a retrograde step, in his opinion, for the Church of Nigeria to be creating new structures in North America on its own initiative after it had already committed itself to support the ministry of ACNA, he said.
It evidenced a lack of “trust” in ACNA, he said.
Anglican Unscripted Oct 31, 2011 November 3, 2011
Posted by geoconger in AMiA, Anglican Church of Rwanda, Anglican.TV, CANA, Church of Nigeria.Tags: Bede Parry, St Paul's Cathedral
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Anglican Unscripted examines the tensions between the ACNA and the Church of Nigeria over the new Diocese of the Trinity, unconfirmed reports about the AMiA’s future, the trouble at St Paul’s and the latest on Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bede Parry.
Erratum: In this video I stated that Christ Church Plano withdrew from the AMiA over the issue of women’s ordination. The rector of Christ Church Plano, Canon David Roseberry, kindly wrote to me and stated that this was not the case. I mentioned Christ Church as an example of the gracious way the AMiA has handled disaffiliation of parishes. I believe how that episode was resolved speaks highly of the integrity and Christian charity of the AMiA leadership and Canon Roseberry. I regret I stepped on the story by adding an extraneous statement about why the parish left—and got that bit wrong. Please excuse the error.
George Conger
Moral cowardice and Mohammad: Get Religion November 2, 2011 November 2, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Free Speech, Get Religion, Islam, Persecution, Politics, Press criticism.Tags: Charlie Hebdo, Daily Mail, Jyllands-Posten, Le Nouvel Observateur, Sharia Law
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Get ready GetReligion readers for a new round of righteous indignation, moral cowardice and sloppy reporting about Islam. There will be a cartoon of Mohammad — quelle horreur — on the cover of the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. The magazine is set for distribution on newsstands today, 2 Nov 2011.
My colleagues at GetReligion have written extensively about reporting on images of Mohammad. Articles on Everybody Draw Mohammad Day, South Park, and the Jyllands-Posten cartoons have raised questions about the quality of reporting and unwarranted suppositions about Islam. And although we are only in the first days of this news cycle, the same errors, moral cowardice and surrender to the forces of religious extremism and censorship are cropping up in this latest cartoon controversy.
The editors of Charlie Hebdo — a lowbrow political humor magazine akin to Private Eye — held a press conference on Monday in Paris to announce that the Muslim prophet Mohammed would be this week’s guest editor and the magazine renamed “Sharia Hebdo” for this issue in honor of the occasion.
The French wire service AFP filed this dispatch from the front lines following the press conference:
“In order fittingly to celebrate the Islamist Ennahda’s win in Tunisia and the NTC (National Transitional Council) president’s promise that sharia would be the main source of law in Libya, Charlie Hebdo asked Mohammed to be guest editor,” said a statement.
The weekly has been rebaptised Sharia Hebdo for the occasion, and will feature on its cover a picture of Mohammed saying: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter!”
On the back page, a picture of Mohammed wearing a red nose is accompanied by the words: “Yes, Islam is compatible with humour.”
The cover was circulating on social media such as Twitter on Tuesday, with many users incensed and describing it as “puerile”.
The weekly’s publisher, known as Charb, rejected accusations that he was trying to provoke.
“We feel we’re just doing our job as usual. The only difference is that this week, Mohammed is on the cover and that’s quite rare,” he told AFP.
Le Nouvel Observateur — a Paris-based weekly with a circulation of over half a million, it is generally considered the most prominent French-language general news magazine (think Time in its heyday) — ran a story late Monday evening (with a photo of the offending cover) on its website under the title “Quand ‘Charlie Hebdo’ devient ‘Charia Hebdo’.” This story drew upon the original AFP report for the details, and added a few color quotes from French social media sites. By the end of the day about two dozen French-language newspapers and broadcasters had their own stories up on the cartoon controversy — with most displaying the cartoon. And being France, opinions ran the gamut from praise to condemnation.
The story began to spread and at midnight Eastern Daylight Time on Monday night the Worldcrunch news service posted a translation of the Observatuer story illustrated with a copy of the offending issue. However, within hours the Mohammad cartoon disappeared. The article was now illustrated by by picture of a back issue of Charlie Hebdo. Was it copyright concerns or cowardice that led to the spiking of the cartoon?
English language stories began to appear but without the cartoon. The BBC ran a brief item by midday. The Telegraph ran first the AFP story and then its own re-write. By day’s end, the Daily Mail ran the first detailed report entitled “French satirical magazine set to spark outrage by naming Prophet Mohammed as editor-in-chief”.
The Daily Mail’s story was robust, damning both the French and radical Islam (no surprise there). It led with: “A leading French magazine is set to provoke fury around the world by calling itself Sharia Weekly and pretending that the Prophet Mohammed is editing it.”
The article set the scene well, but closed badly:
Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet, even positive ones, to prevent idolatry.There are some six million Muslims living in France – the largest group of its kind in western Europe. While many have welcomed the fall of despots like Muammar Gaddafi following the Arab Spring revolts, many fear that they will be replaced by extreme Islamist governments.
There may not have been space available to flesh out the consequences of Muslim reactions, or to touch upon the past cartoon controversies. The story would have been improved with a word or two on this point. But it too played the coward, running a cover from a back issue of Charlie Hebdo instead of the Mohammad cover to illustrate the story.
And no, Islamic law does not forbid depictions of Mohammad. As my colleagues at GetReligion have pointed out there is no one Muslim law, nor common view on this topic. Here is a gallery of Mohammad images in Western and Turkish art collections.
Silenced, a 2011 book on the collision between Western concepts of free speech and Islam by Paul Marshall and Nina Shae notes:
There are numerous representations of Muhammad in historic Muslim art. Such works are housed in the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace. Images of Muhammad appeared in illuminated manuscripts dating from as early as the thirteenth century and as late as the eighteenth century.
Sunni Islam, in modern times, has prohibitions against depicting the Prophet or his companions. Sunni theologians at Al-Azhar University continue to prohibit his portrayal, as does the Muslim Brotherhood, and iconoclastic theology has been promoted with particular vigor by the conservative Wahhabi sect, supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Shia tradition is less stringently opposed to such depictions. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq, a prominent Shia cleric, suggests on his website that portraying the Prophet is not problematic as long as the depiction is respectful. A primary reason for barring images of Muhammad is the prevention of idolatry…
Yes, I agree the Charlie Hebdo cartoons are puerile. But aesthetic considerations should not be grounds for censorship. Gustave Doré illustrations of Mohammad for Dante’s Inferno are as offensive to the Wahhabist Muslim as is Charlie Hebdo’s juvenile stunt. Nor am I persuaded that the self-censorship on display is intellectually or morally credible.
In 2009 the Yale University Press cancelled the publication of a scholarly book on the Mohammad cartoons after the school’s administration intervened. The university defended its cringing cowardice in a press release. While Yale was “institution deeply committed to free expression” publishing cartoons or “other illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad” ran “a serious risk of instigating violence.”
Writing in Slate, Christopher Hitchens deplored Yale’s mendacity and its misuse of the word“instigate”. One instigates violence by actively encouraging and abetting it, not by engaging in lawful acts of communication. Lawful or innocent actions can spark violence. But society is not subject to mob rule. Maintaining public order is why we have police forces.
This story may have legs. French President Nicolas Sarkozy will have a tough time winning reelection in 2012. The Socialist challenger François Hollande is playing on economic discontent in France, and is touted to win. However, if the latest Mohammad cartoons spark rioting in the Muslim banlieues, it will be a political gift to Sarkozy (as well as to Marine Le Pen of the National Front).
European Muslim militants have manufactured outrage about Mohammad cartoons in the past — remember it was not until a group of Danish imams toured the Middle East complaining about the Jyllands-Posten Mohammad-with-a-bomb-in-his-turban cartoon that rioting ensued. Danish embassies were attacked and a trail of murder and mayhem spread across the Muslim world that ultimately left some 200 people dead. The Assad regime and the Muslim Brotherhood, among others, have facilitated riots over past cartoons. Whether it is in their political interests to do so now is a calculation that will be made in the coming days.
In his 1946 essay, “Why I Write”, George Orwell stated, “every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism.” This is the duty of a free press. Though Stalinism and Fascism no longer have a place in Western intellectual life, the cant, hypocrisy and moral dishonesty they represented remain part of our intellectual and philosophical lives. And it is in this work, in challenging the orthodoxies of left and right, that journalism achieves its moral purpose.
Does the omission of Mohammad cartoons serve this moral good? No, it does not.
Addendum: In the hours between writing this story on Tuesday evening and publication on Wednesday morning the Charlie Hebdo story entered a new phase. The offices of the magazine were fire-bombed early this morning. No group has yet claimed responsibility or other actions against the magazine or its distributors been reported so far.
First published in GetReligion.
Sharia law for the Sudan: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 28, 2011 November 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan.Tags: Omar al-Bashir, Sharia Law
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has announced that the Sudan will become Africa’s first theocracy and will give state sanction to Sharia law.
In a 12 Oct 2011 speech to university students in Khartoum, President al-Bashir stated: “Ninety-eight percent of the people are Muslims and the new constitution will reflect this. The official religion will be Islam and Islamic law the main source [of the constitution]. We call it a Muslim state.”
Sudan’s Churches have disputed the president’s claim of a near uniform Muslim population, noting that over a million Christians reside in the North. However, their complaints are not likely to deter President al-Bashir. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 issued a warrant for the arrest of the Sudanese president on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region. President al-Bashir was the first sitting head of state to be charged by the Hague-based court with war crimes, and the first Arab leader to face the prospect of being tried for atrocities by an international tribunal.
In 2008 the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, accused Bashir of directing a campaign of mass murder that has left more than 300,000 civilians dead and driven more than 2.7 million from their homes in Darfur.
International condemnation has not halted al-Bashir and his government is currently being courted by rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia and Sudan have signed an agreement to mine the bed of the Red Sea—with the kingdom providing the financing for the project and royalties shared between the two states. Last week Iran’s President Ahmadinejad travelled to Khartoum and gave his country’s support to the embattled president.
While Sudan is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, with only a small Shia presence in Khartoum, the government of President al-Bashir has adopted a pan-Muslim domestic policy. Christians and animists have been the target of the regime’s ire.
Migrants from the southern half of the country before partition this year, Southerners are considered foreigners under laws introduced by President al-Bashir’s government, and have until the Spring of 2012 to obtain residency papers or leave the country.
Along Sudan’s unsettled border with South Sudan in South Kordufan State, Nuba Christians are being driven from their homes by government forces and have been forced to flee south for safety.
Sudanese newspapers report that the Khartoum government has begun the process of Islamisation in the North as well. Three churches in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city across the Nile, have been notified that the land upon which they were built is owned by the government. The churches have protested this claim and offered title deeds in support of their ownership, but the government has slated the buildings for demolition.
The Barnabas Fund has reported the government has increased “threats and pressure on churches.” Some pastors “have been warned not to conduct church services, on pain of death, while some churches are closing their schools and considering emigration to the South.”
“The future for non-Muslims and non-Arabs in Sudan is looking increasingly untenable, threatening the very existence of the Church there,” the Barnabas Fund said.
S.A. churches denounce government spying: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 28, 2011 p 6. November 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.Tags: African National Congress, Jacob Zuma, Wilfred Napier
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in South Africa have denounced the government of President Jacob Zuma for its attempts to spy on the country’s faith groups and turn them in to vassals of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
On 18 Oct 2011 the National Church Leaders’ Consultation issued a joint statement saying they “resent the efforts” of the ANC’s chief parliamentary whip Dr Mathole Motshekga “to muscle in on and manipulate Church Leadership Structures.”
However, the chief whip’s office rejected the charges as being “absurd,” saying this was “nothing but a storm in a teacup.”
“We are leaders in our own right and lead by Biblical mandate,” the leadership council said, stating they were “deeply offended by efforts by [Dr. Motshekga’s aides] to infiltrate our meeting in Johannesburg without invitation.”
“This is an unwarranted intrusion on our discussions and compromises our freedom of association and of religion,” they said, noting “Dr Motshekga does not enjoy our confidence” and should “back off.”
The consultation is an umbrella organization comprising the leaders of the South African Council of Churches, and the Anglican, Catholic, Reformed, Evangelical, Independent and African churches in South Africa.
The Chief Whip’s office responded that the “accusation stems from an innocent mistake today, in which the Chief Whip’s Political Advisor mistakenly walked into the hall where the National Church Leaders’ Consultation was meeting. The meeting, which the Political Advisor was due to attend, happen to be taking place at the same venue” in Johannesburg.
The Chief Whip’s office added that “after being informed by the chairman of the meeting that he was in the wrong hall, he duly apologised for the confusion caused and proceeded to the next hall, the correct venue for his meeting,” adding that “walking into the wrong meeting is a simple mistake that anyone can make.”
“We are therefore taken aback that the church leaders are turning this little, innocent incident into something major,” Dr. Motshekha’s spokesman said.
However, Cardinal Wilfred Napier told the Associated Press that three of Dr. Motshekha’s aides were discovered rifling through the church conference’s papers when they were discovered. “This is direct interference by a political party in the affairs of the church,” he said.
Long a supporter of the ANC’s leadership, relations soured in 2008 when the South African Council of Churches attempted to mediate the internal ANC leadership dispute between President Thabo Mbeki and then Vice President Jacob Zuma. During the leadership struggle, Mr. Zuma moved away from the South African Council of Churches after he accused them of backing his rival.
The break also came in a transition in leadership among the country’s churches, with alliances formed during the anti-apartheid era between the ANC and churches superseded by a new generation of leadership. The current generation of leaders has challenged the government on social and economic policies, and no longer gives their automatic support to the ruling party.
Wisconsin dioceses to merge: The Church of England Newspaper, Oct 28, 2011 p 7. November 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac.Tags: Ed Leidel, Russell Jacobus
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First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Two rural American dioceses have voted to amalgamate to form a diocese covering the northern two-thirds of the state of Wisconsin.
On 22 Oct 2011, the annual convention of the Diocese of Fond du Lac and a special meeting of the Diocese of Eau Claire convention each voted to ask the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to approve their “junction”.
According to a Fond du Lac press statement, the amalgamation would begin next year and would be completed by 1 January 2013. Eau Claire Bishop Ed Liedel posted a note on his diocesan website stating “Never before have two dioceses in the Episcopal Church ‘junctioned’ together. So, today we begin a new journey to create a new diocese in northern Wisconsin.”
Should General Convention approve the junction, Bishop Russell Jacobus of Fond du Lac, as the senior bishop of the two dioceses, would call an organizing convention for the new diocese to elect its first bishop.
The two dioceses have been in talks for over twenty years, a 20 Sept 2011 report on the merger stated, but took on a new urgency following the 2008 translation of Eau Claire Bishop Keith Whitmore to become the Assistant Bishop of Atlanta. In 2010 the retired Bishop of Eastern Michigan, Ed Liedel, was appointed to a 15-month part-time term as provisional bishop for the rural diocese.
The task force formed by the two dioceses on amalgamation, stated in its September report a merger would provide synergy. “It is hoped that a new diocese would be greater than simply the sum of its parts, the Dioceses of Fond du Lac and Eau Claire. It is hoped that there would be greater opportunities for ministry, greater vitality and energy, and greater empowerment of laity for ministry.”
The two Wisconsin dioceses are among the smallest in terms of active members in the Episcopal Church. Eau Claire has 21 congregations and one summer chapel while Fond du Lac has 34 congregations and two chapels. Twenty congregations between the two dioceses have an Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) of less than 25 people.
The merged diocese, which is scheduled to hold its organizing convention in Sept 2012, will “worship in 55 congregations. It would have an ASA of 2,967 and a baptized membership of 7, 592,” the merger report said. The majority of the state’s Episcopalians live in the Diocese of Milwaukee, which has approximately 10,000 members and an ASA of 4300.
