Archbishop Makgoba criticizes Madagascar “power grab”: CEN 3.27.09 March 28, 2009
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| The Archbishop of Cape Town has issued a call to prayer to the people of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, asking that they keep the people of Madagascar in their hearts.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s March 19 letter follows a report by the Primate of the Indian Ocean, Archbishop Ian Ernest who reported on March 16 that “weeks of opposition protests and turmoil on the Indian Ocean island have killed more than 135 people” Archbishop Ernest reported that earlier that day the army had thrown “its weight behind opposition leader Andry Rajoelina and stormed a presidential palace in the heart of Antananarivo. The army also seized the central bank. Tanks and scores of soldiers are still guarding the buildings.” Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper. |
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Scenes from Alexandria: Indian Ocean and Tanzania February 21, 2009
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The Primates of the Indian Ocean and Tanzania, Archbishops Ian Ernest and Valentino Mokiwa
African call for unity: CEN 9.26.08 p 8. September 25, 2008
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The chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) has called upon the African church to put aside its differences and engage with its theological opponents within the Anglican Communion. CAPA should eschew a political solution to the divisions over doctrine and disciple Archbishop Ian Ernest said, and focus instead on the church’s transformation through Christian witness.
In his Sept 3 presidential address read to the joint meeting of primates and standing committee of CAPA in Nairobi, Archbishop Ernest, Primate of the Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean and Bishop of Mauritius, said CAPA must resist becoming one interest group among many within the Anglican Communion.
“The Church is going through trial times. This is nothing new, and it is certainly not the last time that our Communion faces challenges,” Archbishop Ernest said.
But what was new at this “critical juncture” was a “process of profound change. Our deliberations at this meeting will not only affect our lives today, but will contribute to shape the future of the Anglican Communion worldwide. Future generations will read the minutes of this meeting. These are both exciting and challenging times, and we must act with utmost responsibility,” he said.
“Our large family of love”-the Anglican Communion” had been “distressed by unilateral decisions” taken by the North American churches which “threaten the unity of our communion,” he said.
Archbishop Ernest also expressed “concern about the violence of arguments” that had so hardened positions that it raised serious concerns “about our ability to resolve such differences.”
However, he did not despair, for it “is in love, and with hope in our hearts, that we meet today, as we pray for unity and look to work together to build the church of God.”
Within the context of African Christianity, the church was facing a number of new challenges, as well as long term problems. The Church in Africa needed to face up to the challenge of militant atheism, ethnic and tribal jealousies, oppressive regimes, and sectarian divisions. While there was good news to report from Zimbabwe, the problems in Darfur remained.
To respond to these challenges, as well as to the wider divisions within the Anglican Communion, CAPA must “build up its strategy to be faithful to God’s mission.”
However, “we, unfortunately, are retreating into a collection of lobby groups that are divisive and this phenomenon runs the risk of making the Communion a federation of closed ecclesial systems.”
The proper path for CAPA was to be “transforming agents” for Christ in the world. “Jesus needs us to be his hands to serve, his feet to visit, and voice to speak for Him. This is our task. But very often as a Church we fail at this task. We belong to the Community of suffering and service, of faith, hope and love which carries saving mission to all people.”
“We can challenge the world if we abide in Christ,” Archbishop Ernest said, and “let CAPA be the prophet of its time by being different, loving but effective.”
“My appeal to you” is that we “leave aside the different opinions we may have about the present situation in the Communion. We have to seek to maintain that spirit of togetherness within the Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa, so that we may leap forward to be a witness of what it means to abide in Christ,” he said.
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“The African Continent needs us. So, it is only in our togetherness that we can demonstrate to the World how unity in spirit and deeds can transform the lives of many,” he said.
Archbishop Ernest told The Church of England Newspaper he was unable to attend the meeting, due to a back injury, and his address was read to the assembly. Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini chaired the meeting in his absence. A delayed flight prevented Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola from attending the meeting, while Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi was obliged to leave early. The conference communiqué will be released shortly, Archbishop Ernest said.
The Archbishop of the Indian Ocean July 17, 2008
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The Most Rev Ian Ernest on the opening day of the Lambeth Conference
The Bishop of Tulear (Madagascar) July 16, 2008
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The Rt Rev Todd MacGregor on the opening day of the Lambeth Conference
Easter messages cover a range of social and theological messages worldwide: CEN 3.28.08 p 2 March 31, 2008
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A spectrum of theological belief and social concerns at work within the Anglican Communion were on display in Holy Week and Easter sermons and pastoral letters this past week.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori went Green for Easter asking American Episcopalians to consider the cost of their affluence. “We cannot love our neighbors unless we care for the creation that supports all our earthly lives,” she said and could not respect “the dignity of our fellow creatures if our sewage or garbage fouls their living space.”
“When atmospheric warming, due in part to the methane output of the millions of cows we raise each year to produce hamburger, begins to slowly drown the island homes of our neighbors in the South Pacific, are we truly sharing good news?” the presiding bishop wrote in an Easter message to the church.
New Zealand’s archbishops called Christians to see Easter as the celebration of love over death. Easter was the unique event in world history where the “final suffering of the Son of God reveal how deep God’s empathy is for the world, and how far divine love will go to redeem the pain and sin of the world. Evil manifested in so many forms – political, religious, psychological, and spiritual – poured itself out completely in this event.”
“And the Easter miracle is this – these murderous forces exhausted themselves without finally exhausting the faith, hope, and love of God,” Archbishops Brown Turei, David Moxon and Jabez Bryce wrote. “The resurrection,” they said “is the place in human history where evil, injustice, and prejudice are transfigured into justice, goodness, and enlightenment.”
The Dean of Perth urged Anglicans to rid themselves of outmoded notions of Easter. “The Resurrection of Jesus ought not to be seen in physical terms, but as a new spiritual reality,” the Very Rev. John Shepherd said, noting it was “important for Christians to be set free from the idea that the Resurrection was an extraordinary physical event which restored to life Jesus’ original earthly body.”
The resurrection was a spiritual event for the disciples and not “historical records as we understand them. They are symbolic images of the breaking through of the resurrection spirit into human lives,” Dean Shepherd said.
The Archbishop of Sydney used his Easter message to warn Christians against false teaching and the occult. The popular fascination with ghosts reprented “the longing of the human heart for an existence beyond the grave,” Dr. Peter Jensen said.
Yet Christians believed death was not the end. “When you trust in Jesus Christ, you are trusting the one person who can take you through the greatest calamity of life and bring you safe to the other side. Christians don’t try to contact their dead because we know that they are with Jesus and we will join them as whole people – in fact those who belong to Jesus will be transformed people,” Dr. Jensen said as it “shows you that new beginnings are possible.”
The president of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), Archbishop Ian Ernest of the Indian Ocean, wrote he hoped the Paschal season “will instill in us an urge to seek transformation and thus empower us to work towards the making up of a society based on gospel values.”
“By his precious death and glorious resurrection, Jesus has reconciled the world to his Father. It is therefore imperative for CAPA to emerge as a reconciling body in Christ,” he said, and “facilitate conversations and dialogue in the midst of conflicts” that continue to plague Africa.
