April 29, 2015
It has been a week since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. Today the churches in Nepal meet to worship but it will never be the same again. Many have lost their loved ones, friends, colleagues, classmates, and fellow acquaintances. Today also marks the last day of search-and-rescue efforts. All those still buried under rubble will be presumed dead.

Today is a very sad day for the Anglican Church in Nepal and for our Diocese as we mourn the death of 78 Anglican members in the district of Dhading (this number will rise, as many are still buried under rubble). The report we have just received also stated that in the fourteen villages of the Dhading district, thirteen Anglican church buildings have been destroyed, 30,000 villagers have been displaced, with more than 5,000 families affected. They are without shelter, food and aid. Many are having to brave the cold wet nights of the monsoon season. Some villagers have woken up to find their young children dead from exposure to the extreme cold.

The people in the mountains are cut off from aid and supplies due to severe damage to roads and mountain tracks. We thank God for brave souls like young Pastor Beg who, despite the dangers, have been trekking the mountains the last 4 days to check on the well-being of his Tamang people

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it is clear that many Christians died in their churches.

“I am getting reports of entire Christian families being wiped out in Kathmandu and outside,” Simon Pandey, chairman of the National Christian Fellowship of Nepal, told CT in an interview from his concrete house in a Lalitpur suburb.

If the quake had occurred half an hour earlier, he noted, the casualties in churches would have been much higher. (Many Hindus died during worship services also.)

Of Nepal’s Christians””which comprise just over one percent of the country’s 30-million population””Protestants were disproportionately affected by the disaster, a Catholic leader told CT.

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In October this year (2014), I drove to Desaru on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia for such a time. The haze over the western sector of Singapore and the second link was particularly bad. There was a dull grayness and fogginess that enveloped everything. But as I drove eastwards, the sky began to clear up and soon the sun came shining through in all its brightness. The experience was not without significance for me.

It seems to me that there is a growing fog over the moral landscape of the world. On the one hand, many nations (& the Church sadly following suit in some instances) are entertaining revisionist views on moral issues. On the other hand, another type of fogginess is caused by the thick cloud of dust and ashes as bombs and gunfire explode between warring groups in several parts of the world. Yet, God in His mercy will break through the present engulfing darkness. His shining brightness will usher in a panel of light where man is restored in his true humanness as he learns to love & fear the living God. How will the Lord’s brightness come shining upon the world’s moral & spiritual landscape? Primarily in and through His people (Mic 4:1-3; Is 60: 1-3).

Notwithstanding the present tide of dark, destructive and depressing forces, I believe we are headed towards the day of Christ’s unsurpassable brightness (Acts 26:13)…

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Until his recent conversion to Anglicanism, the broadcaster and author Michael Coren was one of Canada’s best known Catholics. He has a Catholic wife and four Catholic children and is the author of books that include “Why Catholics Are Right.” So when he was formally welcomed into an Anglican congregation in Toronto the other day, after worshipping with them privately for a year, the news caused a stir in the Catholic world. False rumours were circulated about his motives. Old scandals from a career in punditry were dredged up. The uproar cost him several speeches to conservative American Catholic groups, and his regular column in the Catholic Register was pulled. As he tells the National Post”˜s Joseph Brean, he was driven to Protestantism by a growing sense of hypocrisy….

Q: You say Anglicanism is similar to Catholicism, with many shared beliefs, but the split between the Vatican and the Church of England is longstanding, deep and wide. How did you come to cross it?

A: Yes, of course, otherwise, logically, why would I have bothered? ”¦ My father was Jewish, I was raised in a very secular home, sort of semi-culturally Jewish, but no religion. I became a Christian in 1984 and I’ve never wavered. I was received into the Catholic Church in 1985 when I was 26. I’d been interested in Christianity since I was a teenager, actually, and I think I just kept on crawling further and further. It was sort of two feet forward and one foot back the whole time. There was a certain inevitability about it. There was no bunker experience, there were no bullets flying over my head. I think I’d achieved quite a bit early. I’d always wanted to be in literary London, and have books published, and I had all that by about age 24. They were very bad books, but they were published. I was in literary London and there was a certain emptiness.

Read it all from the National Post.

One of Morley’s most distinguished churches is set to close forever next month after serving the community for more than a century.

All Saints Parish Church in Churwell will celebrate its final service on May 10, bringing to an end 114 years worth of history.

The church is one of many being shut down by the Church of England across the country, as it grapples with the challenges of dwindling attendances to traditional Sunday services.

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Investment in women’s services could double or even triple, but Australia would still require a major attitude shift in order to stem the increasing rate of domestic violence, say anti-domestic violence advocates.

Speaking at a forum hosted by Archbishop Philip Freier on 22 April, Paul Linossier, CEO of Our Watch, formerly the Foundation to Prevent Violence Against Women and their Children, said the community needed to tackle the two key drivers of domestic violence, gender inequality and cultural circumstances, for any lasting gains to be made.

“In a sense we’re all perpetrators because we’re transmitting from one generation to another this continuing position of inequality between men and women. We do that through a million interactions every day.”

He said even after his decades in the sector he has been guilty of it, recently realising that he had referred to fixing his fence and setting a new path down as “a blokey weekend”.

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The Dioceses Commission has given its approval to revive the See* of Islington paving the way for a new bishop to lead on church planting within the Diocese of London.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has written to the Commission expressing his strong support for the new See. The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, formally submitted a proposal to the Commission laying out the support of both the Diocesan Synod and the Bishop’s Council.

Most bishops exercise their ministry within a defined geographical area. The proposal to revive the See of Islington is innovative as the bishop would hold a particular brief for church-planting initiatives primarily in the Diocese of London but to provide advice for other dioceses across England as invited to do so by the local bishop.

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In an unremarkable corner of Westminster Abbey is a wooden door marked “Private”. Behind it are 78 wooden steps spiralling upwards in a narrow staircase. And at the top of those is one of the Abbey’s hidden treasures: what John Betjeman once called “the greatest view in Europe”.

More than 20 metres above the floor of the Abbey, and largely invisible to the tourists taking pictures below, is a vaulted gallery that runs the entire length of the building. This is the Abbey’s eastern triforium, a centuries-old secret expanse that is to be opened to visitors for the first time as part of a gallery and exhibition space.

The Dean, Dr John Hall, invited us, a group of reporters, to join him in a final tour around the triforium before building work begins in earnest to transform the dusty space into the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries

Read it all and make sure not to miss the slideshow.

Meeting with the members of ARCIC III, Pope Francis noted the current session is studying the relationship between the universal Church and the local Church ”“ a question central to his own reform programme – with particular reference to difficult decision making over moral and ethical questions.

These discussions, the Pope said, and the forthcoming publication of five jointly agreed statements from the previous phase of the dialogue, remind us that ecumenism is not a secondary element in the life of the Church and that the differences which divide us must not be seen as inevitable. Despite the seriousness of the challenges, he said we must trust even more in the power of the Spirit to heal and reconcile what may not seem possible to our human understanding.

Finally Pope Francis highlighted the powerful testimony of Christians from different Churches and traditions who have been victims of violence and persecution. The blood of these martyrs, he said, will nourish a new era of ecumenical commitment to fulfill the last will and testament of the Lord: that all may be one.

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The Church Commissioners and The Church of England Pensions Board have today announced the £12million divestment from thermal coal and tar sands.

From today neither body, nor the CBF Church of England funds, will make any direct investments in any company where more than 10% of its revenues are derived from the extraction of thermal coal or the production of oil from tar sands.

This announcement coincides with the adoption of a new climate change policy recommended by the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) that sets out how the three national investing bodies (NIBs) will support the transition to a low carbon economy.

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The Church of England’s lead bishop on the environment says he shares a Vatican statement’s clear view that climate change is largely caused by human activity and mitigating it is a ‘moral and religious imperative for humanity’.

The Right Revd Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury, welcomed the statement on climate change by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences after a landmark conference in the Vatican this week.

Bishop Holtam said:

“Climate change is the greatest moral challenge of our day, for people of all faiths and people of no faith. I am delighted that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences have so clearly supported the scientific consensus that the major driver of climate change is almost certainly our burning of fossil fuels.

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The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Revd Dr John Inge said: “We are delighted that the Court of Appeal has taken this view of the matter. There has been considerable consultation with the clergy on this issue as well as discussions at General Synod, and clergy have consistently said that they don’t wish to change their status as office holders. To become employees, clergy would lose the freedoms which are at the heart of the Church’s ministry and this is not something that they want to give up.

It is regrettable that UNITE fails to understand the context in which parish clergy exercise their ministry whilst the Church seeks to uphold the freedoms enjoyed by its clergy.”

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Archbishop [Eliud] Wabukala challenged leaders to practise responsible leadership guided by the principles of trust, reliability and accountability in the discharge of their duties.

The Archbishop reiterated terrorism was an international security concern and called upon the international community to address the issue instead of imposing travel advisories on Kenya. “Terrorism is not a Kenyan affair. US, UK and other countries should stop issuing travel advisories as this is a problem affecting all the countries, ” Wabukala said.

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As the debate around the sale of the St. Matthias Anglican church heats up, the future of another Anglican place of worship in the Royal City is left uncertain.

The Anglican Diocese of Niagara says the congregation at St. David and St. Patrick, at 520 Speedvale Ave. E., will move to worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church this June.

Reverend Bill Mous, director of justice, community and global ministries at the diocese, wrote in an email to the Mercury the Anglican parish has entered into a two-year “partnership agreement” with the nearby Lutheran church.

That leaves the future of the Anglican church building unclear.

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My heart skipped a beat when I heard on the radio earlier today that 10% of 12-13 year old children fear that they may have an addiction to pornography and a similar proportion have actually taken part in a sexually explicit video clip. This is the kind of statistic that should send a jolt to the adult conscience of the nation.

What worries me is that any discussion of pornography in the media seems to unquestionably accept that pornography for adults is perfectly acceptable. The problem, given its wide spread accessibility via the internet, seems uncontainable. The idea that pornography is fine for adults but we that must try and keep it away from our children is doomed to failure, both morally and practically.

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In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful,

Praise be to the Lord of the universe who has created and formed us into tribes and nations so that we may know each other, and not so that we may despise each other, Peace be upon all auspicious prophets of God, from Adam, Noah and Abraham to Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed Mustafa, who pulled humanity out of darkness into the light and became guides to peace

…
the translated succession of prophets is a comprehensible assertion of Islamic theology which errs (to put it mildly), and may cause some theological disquiet (putting it milder still). The succession of prophets “from Adam, Noah and Abraham to Moses, Jesus and Mohammed Mustafa” is chronological: the first four are common to the prophetology of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; Jesus as a prophet is common to Christianity and Islam (with disparity over priest and king); and Mohammed is a prophet of Islam alone (indeed, ”˜The Prophet’). ”˜Mustafa’ is an epithet ascribed by Muslims to Mohammed: it means ”˜The Chosen One’.

For Christians, of course, it is Jesus who is the Anointed of God; the Christ; the Messiah; the Chosen One..
…
it is not simply a benign multifaith expression of ecumenical respect in a commemorative service of reconciliation: it is a dogmatic affirmation of a perfected prophethood to which Jesus is subordinate, and His divinity thereby denied.
…
It may not be very PC or neighbourly or conducive to interfaith relations to say it, but Mohammed was a false prophet (Jer 14:14-16; 1Jn 4:1; Acts 4:12; 2Cor 11:3f). By rejecting the crucifixion and denying the resurrection of Christ (who is not the ”˜Chosen One’), Islam espouses ”˜another Jesus’, ”˜another spirit’ and ”˜another gospel’. They are and ought to remain free to proclaim their religiosity, however false and erroneous it may be. But not, please God, in The Collegiate Church of St Peter (aka Westminster Abbey), which is a Royal Peculiar of the Supreme Governor.

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As a Christian who has been living in Guelph for more than 35 years, I know from experience the impact that the Christian community has had. When this work is combined with the efforts of the other faith-based groups, there is no equal that can be found anywhere.

Certainly our city government could never fill this gap. That is why I believe Bishop Bird has confused community planning with the continuation of the Anglican Church’s role when he wrote, “We seek to serve the spiritual needs of citizens and care for those who are most vulnerable through collaborative and compassionate outreach initiatives.” That is community planning.

If a religious organization truly believes this, then they must consider it when selling property once it is no longer of use to the denomination that owns it.

Read it all from the Guelph Record.

To date, we have been relatively silent about the concerns raised by local residents in large part because of our contractual agreement with the proposed developer. But more to the point, our Diocese is in the business of nurturing and building spiritual communities in the Anglican tradition, not in the business of urban planning. For this reason we have been encouraging those with concerns to be in dialogue with the City of Guelph and the developer, both of whom have expressed a willingness to engage in substantive conversation.

For this reason, I strongly disagree with the editorial board’s characterization that there are villains in this story. The Diocese, the developer, members of city council, concerned citizens and others are each playing a role in what has become a very thorough planning process. I continue to have every confidence that the needs and well-being of Guelph citizens will be of primary concern. I am also heartened that the proposed development has sparked a worthwhile conversation about the importance of public space for community purposes, including religious ones.

Even though the story of this property will be different going forward, our ministry ”” both with the re-envisioned St. Matthias community and all our area parishes ”” will continue to further God’s loving purposes throughout the Royal City.

Read it all from the Guelph Record.

The governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, has taken steps to strengthen the existing relationship between his administration and religious organisations, especially the Anglican Communion, in the state.

Governor Obiano, at a dinner he organised for Archbishops and Bishops of the Anglican Communion at the Banquet Hall of the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, described the Church and government as partners in progress in the task of changing lives and building a virile society.

The governor expressed the belief that a healthy relationship with all denominations will avail his administration of the much-needed peace and spiritual backing to actualise its lofty dreams for the state.

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The management board of the debt-ridden Anglican Diocese of Bathurst in western New South Wales has admitted huge loans weren’t properly examined before being approved.

The Commonwealth Bank is suing the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst for outstanding debts of $40 million dating back to 2007.

The diocese is being sued in the Supreme Court in Sydney and is responsible for roughly a third of all Anglican parishes across the state ranging from Bathurst to Bourke.

The actions of three governing groups within the diocese are being examined about their roles in the massive debt.

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James Essex’s work is noted in Jonathan Foyle’s admirable new illustrated book, Lincoln Cathedral: The Biography of a Great Building. It really is a biography. In narrating the life of the cathedral since its Norman birth, the author also provides a coherent sense of the building’s anatomy. He’s good on explaining when sculpture and structure are more modern work than their setting suggests.

When he shows the wonders of the 13th-century Angel Quire, which certainly lives up to Ruskin’s praise, he brings the reader in, not through the cathedral’s “front door” at the west end, but through the Judgment portal. This is right at the other end, beyond the high altar, on the south side. It struck me that an imaginary pilgrim entering by this door must have felt like one entering the cathedral at Santiago by way of the Puerta de la Gloria, sculpted in the previous century. (There’s a plaster cast of it in the V&A in London.)

Above the doorway, Christ sits in judgment. As Dr Foyle remarks (with a glance at a painting by Hans Memling), the exuberant Gothic doorway resembles medieval artists’ idea of the gate of Heaven itself. Once inside, the pilgrim finds angels carved all about, many playing musical instruments.

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Twenty-first-century Britain still aspires to be an international player. We may no longer be kingmaker across large swaths of the globe, but we like to see our influence, and our military assets, being used to destabilise and engineer the removal of some of the more unpleasant dictators who strut the world stage.

To go on doing this, in the belief that next time round what will ensue will be a peaceful, human-rights observing, multi-party democracy is getting us close to the classic definition of madness.

The moral cost of our continual overseas interventions has to include accepting a fair share of the victims of the wars to which we have contributed as legitimate refugees in our own land.

Ironically, all the evidence is that families who come and make their homes in Britain, as asylum seekers and through the free movement of European citizens, add to our wealth, increase job opportunities for all and are not a net drain on housing, healthcare or other public resources. The positive case for a steady level of inward migration into the UK is economic as well as moral.

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Archbishop Metropolitan and Primate of Anglican Church of Nigeria, Nicholas Okoh, yesterday, called on President- elect, Muhammadu Buhari not to give any politician who has defected from any party to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), a position in his government.

Most Revd Okoh described the defecting politicians as lacking in credibility.

He said, ,“If I were the President-elect, I will not give them anything because they are not people to be trusted. They lack credibility, they are people who are destroying the country, and they did not work for the party so why are they joining the party now.”

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From Archbishop Emmanuel Egbunu on April 14th
Today completes one full week since our diocese was rattled by the shocking news of unwarranted attack by gunmen while our members were on their way from a missionary assignment in Bassa Local Government Area of Kogi State, leaving several wounded and traumatized, and two dead. One of the wounded is still in critical condition. We commiserate with the affected families.

Among the dead are Architect Mrs L.N. Alassan, General Manager in Kogi Properties and Investments Ltd (also a Layreader in our diocese); and Mr Olugbenga Kekere, a young man of rare musical ability. They have left behind a grief-stricken Mr Joe Alassan, mni, children, family members, friends and colleagues; and in the case of Mr Olugbenga Kekere, a young wife (Helen) with their nearly 3-year old little daughter (EriOluwa), elderly parents (Chief Jacob and Chief Mrs Racheal Kekere, siblings and friends. The two deceased are members of Crowther Memorial Church, Lokoja. There is no doubt about the magnitude and impact of this loss on our diocese, on the Christian Community, the state, and far beyond. These are people who would have continued to be the pride of Kogi state, now cut down in cold-blooded murder.

Read it all and please pray for those affected. There is a report from George Conger here

From the Venerable Ernest Onuoha
Ven. Captain Johnson [Ekwe] will succeed Rt. Rev. Prof. Anthony Nkwoka of West Niger Diocese, Ven. Moses [Tabwaye] will succeed Rt Rev. Philip Aduda of Gwagwalada Diocese, while Ven Isaac [Oluyamo] will succeed Rt. Rev. Titus Fajemirokun of Ijesha-North Diocese…

In Nigeria, we have been broken in various ways ranging from hardship, unemployment, insecurity, poverty and environmental degradation among others. So, we need men of God with the right word to help console and heal the wounds in the minds of our people. It is hoped that the Church of Nigeria, by this consecration service has made a monumental contribution by choosing the right persons to help bring the needed succour. As men and women of goodwill gather from all nooks and crannies of this nation to witness this consecration service, it is hoped that they will help uphold these new Bishops in their prayers.

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It’s a myth to suggest people on benefits must be scroungers. Most people in poverty in the UK are working. Of the children living in poverty, 61% have working parents.

When the Living Wage is introduced, everyone ­benefits. Morale goes up.

When work feels ­worthwhile, its quality improves. Raising pay to a living wage would reduce the benefits bill, increase tax receipts and boost the economy by stepping up workers’ spending power.

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I AM surely not alone in thinking that there is something desperately lacking in politics today. I have found much of the output from the political parties in the current election campaign deeply depressing. They seem determined to treat voters as children looking for handouts of sweets, concerned with what’s in it for them, rather than as adult human beings who are interested in the kind of world we are making, both for our own generation and for those who will come after us.

For the most part I find it very difficult to work out what people stand for, and so much of the debate is couched in intensely negative terms, focusing on instilling fear about what the other lot might do if they get into power. It is divisive and it is corrosive ”“ and somebody needs to say “Stop!” and then to try and set us off in a different direction.

Christians cannot of course (thank goodness) impose their moral and political vision on the life of our nation. But we can and must seek to contribute to the formation of a new vision for our shared life and a new way of doing politics. This needs to happen right down at the level of every local church and parish ”“ and at the level of our contribution to political debate.

Churches must seek to become beacons of hope and communities of people who are learning to live differently and to refuse the culture of fear and suspicion which so characterises much of life today.

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On Sunday evening…[Foley Beach] asked me to organize a time for him to meet with some clergy and so I organized a dinner that we might have an opportunity to talk to him about our concerns about how things are in England, and hear about how things are developing in the Anglican Church in North America.

Since that time, I have been reflecting on the difference between what is appening in ACNA, and what we are experiencing in our Diocese, and in the Church of England nationally. And what has come to me is this:

what is happening in ACNA is centripetal;

what the CofE is doing is centrifugal.

Let me explain what I mean.

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Welby’s visit was to offer condolences for Egypt’s most recent witnesses, the twenty Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian martyred in Libya in February. The word ”˜martyr’ is derived from a Greek word meaning ”˜witness.’

Symbolically, Welby delivered to Pope Tawadros twenty-one letters written by grieving British families. One is believed to have been related to David Haines, the aid worker captured in Syria and beheaded last year.

“Why have the martyrs of Libya spoken so powerfully to the world?” Welby asked. “The way these brothers lived and died communicated that their testimony is trustworthy.”

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Type ‘introvert’ into a search engine and you are offered 10.5 million web pages in just over half a second. That is mind-boggling, but it is just one example of the rapid rise of interest in introversion that there has been over the last few years. In 2003 Jonathan Rauch wrote an article in ‘The Atlantic’ which sparked wide debate. Susan Cain published ‘Quiet’ in 2012 and it rapidly became a best-seller. People have begun to recognise that not everyone is energised by being in company all the time, and this is healthy. Insights about introversion are precious to some, irritate others, and challenge society at many levels. They raise questions in businesses, education, families and leadership theory, to name but a few examples. We love shared space, and often veer towards the kind of group-work which is disabling for introverts. Most communities are challenged by hearing ‘the introvert voice’ from within.

What, though, do such insights about ‘personality type’ have to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Church? Jesus died ‘once for all’ and both introvert and extrovert need salvation just as much as each other. The world is crying out for the hope that Jesus brings, and doubtless some would argue that this gospel priority means we should not be distracted by supposed insights into the human personality. Be careful, though! People differ. Variety is part of the created order. We each engage with others and with God uniquely, and the Church responds to this. A foreign evangelist in France learns to speak French. A youth worker dresses and behaves differently to a bishop. In just the same way, we need to take account of introverts (and extroverts) in the church if we are to grow healthy community.

Introverts are ordinary people. They are not necessarily shy or awkward or self-obsessed. They are often socially able, popular people who are alert, responsive, energetic and creative members of teams.

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