[Bishop Matthews]…stressed that it was not the work of IASCUFO to promote the Covenant, but rather to monitor its reception.
“As we have sought to do that,” she told delegates in Auckland, “I have often thought that the document people discuss and the actual Anglican Covenant are two different documents.
“One is the document that people have in their mind and the other is the Anglican Communion Covenant on paper….”
Starting every day with Eucharist and Bible Study from now on. The Bible Studies are prepared by a team of scholars from this diocese and they are working with 2 Corinthians. Today we had 2 Corinthians 3: 1-6. I find it very moving to be part of a small group of 6 people from all over the globe sharing our faith journeys by considering the Scriptures each day.
Then we moved on to our final workshop with a Network. I chose the Peace and Justice Network in which we were asked to list the issues in our country. We heard about war, internal fighting, interfaith strife, destruction of environment by transnational companies, lack of drinkable water, and many other problems. This network is now resetting its agenda for future work. After morning coffee, we changed our seating to be in regional groups, to listen to the work of the Anglican Alliance. The alliance was formed by the ACC three years ago at the meeting in Jamaica. It is headed by Sally Keeble, a very able person with background in development and government.
Read it all and check out the Anglican Church of Canada ACC blog for other material.
While there is much to commend in this message on the extravagant love of God, the world’s desperate need to know this love and our need to share his love with the world, the message was confusing. Was the Archbishop of Canterbury suggesting that everyone will be saved by the mysterious love of God which embraces all from the beginning? Would this not be offensive to those who reject Jesus Christ and his way, to be co-opted against their will? And how does this square with our identity as Anglican followers of Jesus Christ, who in the same Gospel of John makes it clear that he alone is the way, the truth and the life and that salvation is through Him alone? (John 14:6)
Currently, the work of the Anglican Communion appears to be driven by a new, non-Biblical global ethic that focuses on the needs of communities rather than the person and power of Jesus Christ. As I have written recently, the work of the Anglican Alliance on economic empowerment continues to focus on the secular development of skills for “inclusion,” “consultation and governance,” “protection of vulnerable people,” and “principles of financial planning”– all from their report today, all very worthy efforts and all utterly lacking in any Biblical and universal truths rooted in the person and power of Jesus Christ.
While the ACC is not due to discuss the current status of the Anglican Covenant until Oct. 31, a document handed out today shows that nine provinces have made a final decision on the covenant with one rejecting the covenant, six accepting it as is and two making modifications as part of their acceptance….
The U.S.-based Episcopal Church is one of eight provinces sorted into Category B, which is described as including provinces that have made “partial decisions” about the covenant.
Archbishop Rowan Williams believes the Anglican Communion needs to change its approach to mission. He also thinks young Anglicans will lead the way ”“ which is why he was so excited about a book launch in Holy Trinity Cathedral on Sunday.
The Communion’s mission maps were drawn, Dr Williams said, “largely by men, largely by ordained men over 55, and largely by ordained men over 55 with a slightly paler complexion than the average Anglican”.
And then, in a gesture of delight, he swung the book high over his head to launch a brand-new road map: “Life-Widening Mission ”“ Global Anglican Perspectives” by seven young Anglican leaders.
In his opening speech to the 15th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion celebrated the depth, richness and variety of the worldwide Anglican family.
Speaking at the first plenary session of ACC15, the Canon Kenneth Kearon told delegates assembled in Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, that Anglicanism at its best “reaches out to those with whom we differ, recognising that together we will come to a deeper and far richer understanding of God than any of us could do on our own or if we only share the company of like-minded people.”
“Each of us will, I hope, bring of our best to this meeting, but what each of us brings will at best represent an incomplete apprehension of the gospel of God; the fullness of our faith will only be expressed when together with our fellow Christians we seek to ”˜give an account of the faith that is in us’ (1 Peter 3:15).
The Archbishop of Canterbury has thrilled his New Zealand followers on what will be his last international engagement as the head of the Anglican Church.
The Most Reverend Rowan Williams – the 104th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Saint Augustine of Canterbury – today preached to some 1300 people at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland’s Parnell.
The Anglican Consultative Council, which is chaired by Dr Williams, began its two-week New Zealand meeting in Manukau yesterday. It is the biggest and most influential international Anglican gathering ever to be held in this country, the church said in a statement…
After a rousing Maori welcome to TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau, New Zealand, Archbishop Rowan Williams’ responded by celebrating thanking his hosts and celebrating the place of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia in the Communion’s past and present.
He asked the assembled gathering to pray “for a Pentecostal experience [for the ACC], that divided tongues of fire will touch us all in the days ahead, that we shall learn to listen to one another’s languages and experiences and insights with all the enthusiasm and eagerness with which we would listen to God’s own word.”
He went on to promise that ACC-15 would in turn pray that the “experiments” of the country of Aotearoa New Zealand and the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia “will be marks and signs of work of the Holy Spirit in the world today and be signs of hope for a world in which by God’s purpose and by God’s promise one of these days all the islands will rise and sing.”
The first thing the Archbishop of Canterbury will face at …[today’s] Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) opening ceremony will be a guttural challenge from the young people of this country.
On entering the Telstra Events Centre in Manukau, Dr Rowan Williams and ACC members will be greeted with a wero (challenge) from a young Maori Anglican brandishing a taiaha (spear).
Welcome to Aotearoa, Archbishop; we do things differently here.
Get ready for a once in a lifetime event.
That’s what Auckland Anglicans were hearing in the leadup to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit, and the meeting in the Parnell Cathedral of the Anglican Consultative Council.
This, they were being told, was the first and last chance for Kiwis to see and hear Dr Williams, and the only chance most would ever get to sample the ACC.
The group that has taken the Anglican Church court in an attempt to save ChristChurch Cathedral says the decision to demolish the building is breaches an Act of Parliament.
The Great Christchurch Building Trust is arguing at the High Court in Christchurch the significant national and international interest in the cathedral’s future means it should be subject to judicial review.
Anglican leaders from throughout Otago and Southland are in Dunedin,,,discussing a draft plan which will result in major changes for congregations.
The plan proposes reducing the number of parishes in the two regions from 32 to 15, congregations and parishes sharing paid vicars, more pooling of resources, more co-operation with other denominations, and cutting the number of paid vicars from 20 full-time equivalents to about 17, Anglican Diocese of Dunedin Bishop the Rt Rev Dr Kelvin Wright said yesterday.
Some church buildings would also close, although how many and where would not be known until the diocese completed earthquake strengthening inspections, he said.
Child poverty in New Zealand is drawing attention from several denominations after a recent report outlined legislative plans to help children through tax and welfare changes.
The New Zealand government has cited difficulties with measuring child poverty, due to some families’ fluctuating income levels, but clergy from seven denominations said accurate measurement is urgently needed.
“It is essential that this is done,” the Salvation Army’s Major Campbell Roberts told ENInews. “Otherwise you don’t know what you are dealing with.”
Anglicans in Christchurch are talking about sharing a cathedral with the Catholics, a move that would have worldwide ramifications….
Rebuilding Christchurch’s two wounded cathedrals into one ‘unprecedented’ Anglican-Catholic super-cathedral is under discussion at top levels in the Anglican Church.
The Sunday Star-Times understands the possibility of an ecumenical, or joint, cathedral to unify the two churches has been discussed behind closed doors for months.
The Anglican Church also has a moratorium against the ordination of people living in openly gay relationships. Now it is tackling the issue head-on, establishing a commission to summarise the biblical and theological work done by the church on the ordination of gay priests and same-sex civil unions during the past 30 years.
The commission’s report on options and implications of change will be discussed at the 2014 Anglican general synod.
The Rev Dr James Harding, assistant priest at All Saints Anglican Church, North Dunedin, and a senior lecturer in Old Testament studies at the University of Otago, said the debate going on in Parliament was unlikely to influence the views of anyone in the church.
While most church leaders agreed that the Bible was the authority on marriage, they disagreed on how to interpret scripture, he said.
In a rare move the former head of the Anglican Church in Wellington has surrendered his licence as a priest.
Bishop Tom Brown told The Dominion Post yesterday he voluntarily gave up his right to officiate earlier this month “to be loyal to the church and maintain the church’s integrity”.
The announcement comes amid speculation surrounding the 69-year-old’s split with wife Dwyllis Brown.
Members of the church community are said to be “deeply shocked and feel a bit let down” at Dr Brown’s decision, which comes only six months after he retired as Bishop of Wellington, a position he held since he was elected in 1998.
The Anglican diocese of Christchurch says it could be a couple of weeks before it decides whether to act on a report outlining how ChristChurch Cathedral can be saved.
The engineers’ report, released last week by the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, concludes the church is safe for workers to restore, which contradicts the basis for its current demolition order.
From Anglican Taonga, an update on this earlier post Anglican leader calls for an end to Bible study in schools
The two New Zealand-based Archbishops have publicly declared that the Anglican Church stands four-square behind the Bible in Schools programme.
Archbishop David Moxon and Archbishop Brown Turei were moved to comment following televised remarks made yesterday by St Matthew-in-the-City priest Clay Nelson, who has joined the atheist run-Secular Education Network in a bid to get the religious education programme out of the country’s primary and secondary schools.
The archbishops’ statement follows:
In the light of recent media comment, it is important to clarify and restate the Anglican Church’s commitment to Bible in Schools in this country.
Read it all and for more background see Rev. Peter Carrell here, here and here
[Update: See statement from New Zealand Archbishops: Archbishops affirm Bible in Schools]
An Anglican leader is urging state schools to ditch the Bible in Schools programme as he believes it is trying to create a loophole around the New Zealand Bill of Rights.
St Matthew in the City Reverend Clay Nelson has joined the atheist run-Secular Education Network in a bid to get the religious education programme out of the country’s primary and secondary schools.
Nelson said the programme is an imposition on the human rights of children….
The pause in the demolition of Christ Church Cathedral is a positive sign that the building’s fate is not sealed. Its destruction, which had seemed the inevitable outcome of the Anglican Church’s stand, is now less certain as the Government and the diocese consider the Greater Christchurch Building Trust’s report that sets out a plan for the cathedral’s conservation. The result is the sense that, for the first time, the contending parties are in dialogue.
The previous lack of serious dialogue had raised the temperature of the debate, causing unnecessary division in a city in need of unity. Positions had become entrenched, personal accusations were too common and the tone was embittered. The pause to consider eases that tension, at least temporarily. Even if the Anglican hierarchy remains committed to demolition, the advocates of retention will at least have the consolation of knowing that they were listened to.
Plans to build a cardboard cathedral in Christchurch have been dealt a financial blow.
A key Christchurch City Council committee today voted not to give the Christ Church Cathedral chapter of the Anglican Church a $240,000 grant towards the project.
Cr Jamie Gough said the decision was a tough one to make, but he believed better uses could be made of ratepayers’ money….
As expected, the General Synod said a final: ”˜No’ to the proposed Anglican covenant today.
But it did so quietly, and the original motion was amended to stress this church’s desire to remain tightly knit with the Communion.
The church has taken a step which it hopes will lead it out of the impasse over questions about the ordination and blessing of folk who are in same gender relationships.
A commission of eminent people, led by former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand, met for the first time on Saturday to begin the task of clarifying the choices the church faces over these issues ”“ and identifying the implications of those choices.
The commission’s task is to summarise the Biblical and theological work done by the church over 30 years on these matters ”“ and to present a final report to the 2014 General Synod which outlines the various options, and suggests the implications of each of those options.
Archbishop David Moxon, Archbishop Brown Turei and Archbishop Winston Halapua, on behalf of the General Synod Standing Committee, welcome the appointment of Ms Mele Tuilotolava, Professor Paul Trebilco, Justice Judith Potter and Sir Tamati Reedy, under the chairmanship of Sir Anand Satyanand to the ”˜Ma Whea? Mei Fe Ki Fe? Where To?’ Commission established to address issues related to the ordination and blessing of people in same gender relationships.
We welcome the work of the Commission: in drawing together the biblical and theological work in this area; in looking at the canons of our Church; what shape the Church might have to enable us to continue together respecting our differences; and to take into account our relationships within the wider Anglican Communion….
The Anglican Diocese of Dunedin is “two years out from a crisis” and must restructure to become sustainable, its Bishop, the Rt Rev Dr Kelvin Wright, says. He informed ministry units and clergy about the situation by letter late last month, before posting it on his blog on Friday.
“For many years, the diocese has been in decline on any parameter that could be named … attendances, numbers of families served and the real level of giving have all been steadily dropping over the years to the point where several of our parishes are on the very edge of ceasing to exist altogether,” he said in the letter.
Several thousand people have gathered in Christchurch this afternoon to protest the demolition of the city’s Anglican cathedral.
The protest rally began in Cranmer Square and saw past and present civic leaders, MPs and other high profile Christchurch residents calling on the Anglican Church to immediately halt demolition work on the quake-damaged Cathedral.
The Restore Christ Church Cathedral Group had proposed sharing restoration costs between the Anglican diocese, the Christchurch City Council and the Government. Fundraising would have provided the balance of funds.
The cathedral would be largely demolished, leaving walls about two to three metres high, Anglican leaders said in March.
A spokeswoman for the Anglican diocese said the campaigners’ proposal would not be implemented.
The Anglican Church needs to be ”dusted off” and it believes a dreadlocked, barefooted priest is the man to do it.
Justin Duckworth has been announced as the next Anglican Bishop of Wellington, replacing Bishop Tom Brown who recently retired.
The 44 year-old has been involved in christian work in Wellington since leaving school, although somewhat removed from the mainstream churches.