(Church of Uganda News)

The Most Rev’d Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of Uganda, with the consent of the House of Bishops of the Church of Uganda, given in December 2006 and reaffirmed today, will consecrate the Rev. John A.M. Guernsey, an American priest canonically resident in North Kigezi Diocese, Church of Uganda, as a Bishop in the Church of Uganda. He will be consecrated in Mbarara on 2nd September 2007, together with Rev. George Tibesigwa, Bishop-elect of Ankole Diocese.

Bishop-elect Guernsey will provide local episcopal oversight to the 26 congregations in the United States that are part of the Church of Uganda, on behalf of the ten Ugandan Bishops currently providing episcopal care to Biblically orthodox American congregations. He will also continue to serve as Rector of All Saints Church, Dale City, Virginia.

Archbishop Orombi said, “Rev. Guernsey has a long history with the Church of Uganda, including many short visits to Uganda for teaching and preaching missions. He is highly respected by clergy and Bishops in the Church of Uganda, and has also been a pastoral and strategic leader in the Anglican Communion Network as Dean of the Mid-Atlantic Convocation. He is the ideal candidate to pioneer this new ministry.”

Archbishop Orombi’s fellow Primates, who are also providing episcopal oversight to Biblically orthodox congregations in the United States, are supportive of the move. Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of the Anglican Church of Kenya also recently announced the consecration of the Rev. Canon Dr. Bill Atwood, an American priest, as a Bishop in the Church of Kenya, a decision applauded by Archbishop Orombi.

Archbishop Nzimbi said, “It is a new day for the pastoral and episcopal care of the orthodox congregations in America. We look forward to working with our Ugandan neighbours in mutual collaboration in providing apostolic and missional support to our orthodox brothers and sisters in America.”

The election and consecration of Rev. Guernsey as a Bishop in the Church of Uganda has the support of the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network and Convener of Common Cause.

“John Guernsey’s consecration is an answer to our prayers,” said Duncan, “that we would be able to provide a domestic bishop for the Ugandan churches that are part of the Network’s International Conference.”

Duncan added, “In my capacity as the Convener of Common Cause, we will enthusiastically welcome him to the Council of Bishops meeting in September.”

For many of the millions of Americans who depend on their pastors, ministers and spiritual leaders, a full-time minister is becoming an out-of-reach luxury. To keep small churches open ”” and to provide individual care at big churches ”” religious groups are increasingly relying on part-time, or bivocational pastors.

Worship is just one of the many expectations being placed on these part-timers. There are church council meetings, Bible studies, suppers and other gatherings, and ”” most important ”” being there for believers.

“A bivocational minister can be a lot of things, but he can’t be lazy,” says Ray Gilder, national coordinator of the Southern Baptist Bivocational Ministers Association.

When such a hectic schedule is added to the demands of work and family, the results can tax even the hardiest person.

“Sometimes it means I don’t sleep,” the Rev. Alton Dillard says with a laugh, “but I make myself available.”

Read it all.

Howard Smith, the diocese’s chief financial officer and canon for administration, finance and communication, said individual parishes are formed, overseen and dissolved by an Episcopal convention.

“Episcopal churches can’t wake up one day and decide that they’re going to be Methodist,” Smith said. “All of these churches were built when they were part of the Diocese of Los Angeles, so there were contributions from the Episcopal Diocese to build these Episcopal churches.”

Officials at the Fallbrook and Oceanside breakaway parishes and the attorney for the parishes said, however, that the deeds to the property are in the names of the local congregations and the property belongs to them.

“Our view is that that is our church,” said Rick Crossley, the lay administrator of missions and ministry at St. John’s parish. “We’re the ones that paid for it and maintained it. It’s in our name and always has been, and in our view, they (the diocese) have no claim to the property.”

Read it all.

Preserving unity in a church divided over issues such as same-sex unions will be a major challenge for the next leader of the Canadian Anglican Church, says a local bishop nominated for the top job.

Rev. Bruce Howe, bishop of the Anglican diocese of Huron, will find out today in Winnipeg if he’s been elected primate of the church — a job that would thrust him into leadership of the nation’s 800,000 Anglicans.

More than 300 delegates who have travelled to Winnipeg for the church’s general synod — where they’ll debate the contentious issue of whether to bless same-sex unions — will elect the new primate today.

“If God wants me to take on that piece of work . . . I will be more than happy to do what I can,” said Howe, who’s up against three other nominees.

Read it all.

Anderson summarized the work of both the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion and the special legislative committee that was appointed to deal with the commission’s proposed resolutions in response to the Windsor Report for the 75th General Convention, which met in June 2006.

She also explained the five resolutions passed by the Convention. The resolutions Anderson discussed were A160 Expression of Regret, A165 Commitment to the Windsor and Listening Processes, A166 Anglican Covenant Development Process, A167 “Full and Equal Claim” for all the Baptized, and B033 On Election of Bishops.

Anderson reminded the groups that the Episcopal Church has not authorized a public rite for blessing same-gender relationships. Such blessings were one of the concerns of the Windsor Report.

Read it all.

Most of the world’s Anglicans are theological conservatives who believe [noncelibate] gay relationships violate Scripture. More liberal Anglicans emphasize social justice teachings in the Bible, leading them to support full acceptance of same-sex couples.

“We recognize we’re at a crossroads for the church,” said Rev. Canon Charlie Masters, head of the conservative Canadian group Anglican Essentials. “But the way to help this is to align ourselves with what the bible says, not what society says.”

Chris Ambidge, who leads the Toronto chapter of Integrity Canada, an Anglican gay advocacy group, argued that gays have been allowed to marry in Canada for four years “and the sun has come up bang on time every morning since then.”

“Canadians as a whole are prepared to live with it. Why can’t the Anglican church?” Ambidge said. “We need to progress if we’re going to remain relevant.”

Read the whole article.

Now on to A183 (full text follows below under “read more”–KSH). Report of the Windsor Report Response Group. Talking about the report. Talking about process now”¦.unity is the key”¦how do we deal with questions that are disuniting? Windsor report is about unity and communion in Christ”¦purpose furtherance of Gods mission to the world”¦..response came from committee 2005 to coordinate reponse”¦long process of consultation”¦..this report through CoGS Mar 2007. Three major sections of report”¦.ecclesiaology, listening, diversity”¦identify further work and consultation”¦what does reception mean, how to we understand authority of scriture, what is the meaning of is (sorry, editorial addition). Need to look at pp33-34 conclusion”¦need to look at this (forever?)”¦.part of a process and pilgramage….

Meaning of passed A183 – ACC passes a watered down acceptance of the WR – i.e. we will accept what we want to accept, in the way we want to accept it.

Read it all.

Resolution Number: A183

Subject: Report of the Windsor Report Response Group
Moved by: The Rt. Rev. Colin Johnson, Diocese of Toronto

Seconded By: The Ven. Peter Fenty, Diocese of Toronto

Note: The mover and the seconder must be members of the General Synod and be present in the House when the resolution is before the synod for debate.

BE IT RESOLVED:

That this General Synod endorse the report of the Windsor Report Response Group, as adopted by the Council of General Synod (March 2007), and that the following be forwarded, along with the report, to the Anglican Communion Office and the Provinces of the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Church of Canada:

1. reaffirms its commitment to full membership and participation in the life, witness and structures of the Anglican Communion;
2. reaffirms its commitment to the Lambeth Quadrilateral, as received by our church in 1893;
3. expresses its desire and readiness to continue our participation in the ongoing life of the Communion through partnerships and visits, theological and biblical study, in order to foster Communion relationships, including the listening process and the development and possible adoption of an Anglican covenant;
4. reaffirms its mutual responsibility and interdependence with our Anglican sisters and brothers in furthering the mission of the church;
5. notes that, in response to the Windsor Report, the Diocese of New Westminster expressed regret, and the House of Bishops effected a moratorium on the blessing of same-sex unions;
6. calls upon those archbishops and other bishops who believe that it is their conscientious duty to intervene in Provinces, dioceses and parishes other than their own to implement paragraph 155 of the Windsor Report and to seek an accommodation with the bishops of the dioceses whose parishes they have taken into their own care; and
7. commits itself to participation in the Listening Process and to share with member churches of the Communion the study of human sexuality which continues to take place, in the light of Scripture, tradition and reason.

Read it all.

Anglicans and Lutherans took a pause on June 21 from their respective annual conventions to flow together for a day of worship that celebrated their six-year-old Full Communion relationship and was centered on the theme and imagery of water.

Since the date was National Aboriginal Day, indigenous peoples’ relationship with the land was acknowledged throughout and leaders of major Canadian denominations re-committed their churches to a covenant of support for natives.

“It is a day to be gentle with one another, to share in the bread broken and the wine poured,” said Rev. Richard Leggett, a member of the joint Anglican-Lutheran commission implementing the Full Communion agreement.

Read it all.

The Steve Jobs story is one of the classic narratives””maybe the classic narrative””of American business life. Its structure has been rigorous, traditional, and symmetrical: three acts of ten years each. Act One (1975”“1985) is “The Rise,” in which Jobs goes into business with his pal, Steve Wozniak; starts Apple in his parents’ Silicon Valley garage; essentially invents the personal-computer industry with the Apple II; takes Apple public, making himself a multimillionaire at age 25; and changes the face of technology with the Macintosh. Act Two (1985”“1996) is “The Fall”: the expulsion from Apple, the wilderness years battling depression and struggling to keep afloat two floundering new businesses, NeXT and Pixar. Act Three (1997”“2007) is “The Resurrection”: the return to Apple and its restoration, the efflorescence of Pixar and its sale to Disney, the megabillionairehood, the sanctification as god of design and seer of the digital-media future.

Read it all.

With seven days of meetings running from 6.30 A.M. to 9.00 P.M., the patience and stamina of delegates seemed likely to be tested to the maximum. With a strictly controlled agenda and the rather directive stance taken by the Council of General Synod in presenting its own motions on some of the most contentious issues, it was also questionable how much time and opportunity delegates would ultimately have to work through the implications of very significant decisions.

—John Oakes at Canada’s General Synod

Watch it all. It includes comments from Bishop Tony Burton of Sasketchewan, Archbishop John Sentamu, and Archbishop Andrew Hutchison.

One persepective on some of what is occurring at Canada’s General Synod. I especially liked the pictures.

From the Integrator:

In late May, the first invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference were issued. Gene Robinson, the openly gay and partnered bishop of New Hampshire, was pointedly not invited. That snub is shameful. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the person making the invitations, is clearly willing to sacrifice gay and lesbian people to appease the most strident conservative voices. The Lambeth Conference will certainly be talking about gay people in the church, and yet the Archbishop is deliberately excluding the openly gay voice. Once again, leaders in the church talking about gays and lesbians, not with us.

From the other direction, the bishops of Nigeria and Uganda have said that they will not attend if some are not invited too, or if other unacceptable-to-them bishops are at Lambeth.

If there is a silver lining to be found in the cloud, it is that the invitations come before the June meeting of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada at which resolutions about homosexuality will be discussed.

“This certainly takes some of the pressure off the Canadian Church,” said Steve Schuh, president of Integrity Vancouver. “We’ve been threatened for years with the possibility that Canadian bishops might not receive invitations to Lambeth if the Canadian Church failed to uphold the traditional discrimination against gay and lesbian people. The invitation announcement suggests that supporting same-sex unions – as has been done in Vancouver and many dioceses in the USA – is no bar to making the Lambeth Conference guest list.”

General Synod delegates will still need to stand up against other bullying tactics and calls for delay if they want to allow parishes to bless covenanted same-sex unions, but now they can discuss same-sex unions and vote their conscience without the threat of exclusion from Lambeth hanging over their heads.

The Winnipeg Synod will have significant impact – no matter what it decides – on the lives of LGBT Anglicans in their church. Please keep the synod, and the Integrity representatives there, in your prayers.

Read it all.

Bill Cosby tells us that there is a difference between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Mothers, he says are much better organized. They give their children a list of the things they would like. They then ask their children to go and ask their father for the money needed. With money in hand “go buy me something nice from this list and come home and surprise me.”

Fathers on the other hand do not have it so good. Cosby says that before Father’s Day he gives each of his kids $20.00. They then pool the money and spend $10.00 on two, three pair packages of underwear. They each wrap a pair separately and give the sixth pair to the Salvation Army. After Father’s Day, Cosby’s kids have done their duty and are then walking around with $90.00 of his money in their pocket. I think Bill Cosby was short changed by his kids.

I want to show you in this essay how we have shortchanged the Father by the way we have reduced the Gospel and its message. He has given us his resources and we have often used them for our self-serving ends.

I will do three things in this essay:

i) Give a Historical Context that will show us how we have over the past 110 we have been short-changing the Father;

ii) Illustrate how the teaching of Bishop Michael Ingham exemplifies this;

iii) Show how we within Essentials are called to recognize this and return to the Father what is rightfully his due.

Read it all.

“No scenario could emerge” from this week’s Anglican General Synod that would lead to the Archbishop of Canterbury expelling the Canadian church from the 76-million-member global Anglican denomination, says Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion.

The right-hand man to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in a face-to-face Thursday interview:

“There’s no question the Anglican Church of Canada is a valued member of the Anglican communion. There’s never been a scenario considered that would lead to the exclusion of the Anglican Church of Canada.”

Read it all.

From ACC News:

For his part, Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion urged Canadian Anglicans to “take time to stand back from the Anglican Communion,” where the focus has been on schism over the issue of human sexuality, and look instead at its value.

“We do need to take time, stand back and celebrate our membership of that part of the body of Christ which we call the Anglican Communion; to rejoice in the wonderful family of which we are all part and to celebrate the wonderful ministry that is being done in many parts of the world,” said Canon Kearon.

Archbishop Sentamu urged delegates to re-examine “if we aren’t being challenged in our application of canon (church) law and gracious magnanimity in relation to the question of human sexuality.”

God, said Archbishop Sentamu, is “the supreme example of the one who is graciously magnanimous and who deals with others with gracious magnanimity.” He offered the example of the adulterous woman who was brought before Jesus. “He could have applied the letter of the law according to which she should have been stoned to death; but he went beyond justice,” he said. “As far as justice goes, there isn’t one of us who deserves anything other than the condemnation of God, but God goes far beyond justice.”

For a church to be “graciously magnanimous,” he added, it must have “a responsibility to both affirm moral standards and to ensure that its rules don’t seem rigorous to the point of inhumanity.”

Read it all.

The executive order on stem cells issued by President Bush yesterday seeks to reorient research in new directions that may or may not pay off. But make no mistake, it is no substitute for the bill expanding embryonic stem cell research that Mr. Bush vetoed at the same time because it would involve the destruction of microscopic entities ”” smaller than the period at the end of this sentence ”” that the president deems a nascent form of life.

Both the Senate and the House, which passed the embryonic stem cell bill by comfortable but not veto-proof margins, need to summon the strength to override Mr. Bush’s veto, so that important research into possible cures for Parkinson’s, diabetes and other serious ailments can move ahead.

Mr. Bush knows that most Americans support embryonic stem cell research ”” while his political base does not ”” so yesterday he sought to at least blunt their dismay by touting new scientific studies focused on deriving potent stem cells from amniotic fluid, placentas and the skin of laboratory mice. Some of the alternative work is indeed promising. But almost all scientists in the field consider embryonic stem cell research the most promising. It is foolish to crimp that research by withholding federal funds to placate a minority of religious and social conservatives, including Mr. Bush, who deem the work unethical.

Read it all.

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them,” Jesus told his disciples. But should that include taking Communion?

A lot of people in the Christian Reformed Church think so, but a lot don’t. So now a committee will help the church decide at what age young people should be able to partake of the Lord’s Supper.

The Faith Formation Committee has five years to come up with a statement on when youths should take Communion. At issue: whether children first must make a profession of faith, as now required, or whether being baptized is sufficient.

Those who feel any baptized child should have a place at the table got no support from the CRC’s recent Synod meeting here. Delegates soundly rejected a proposal to allow congregations that freedom while the study is under way.

Read it all.

“Biblezines come from contemporary culture ”” what attracts kids,” Artl says, referring to research that includes focus groups. “Are they going to carry around a black leather Holy Bible or will they be more apt in their peer group to carry around a Biblezine? … As it turns out, that worked out very well.”

In theory, that’s a noble idea, says Stephen Chapman, a Duke Divinity School religion professor.

“It’s part of a well-intentioned effort to get the Bible out to people,” Chapman says. “But when the emphasis becomes so much on marketing, the Bible becomes just another commodity in the marketplace and this practice can reinforce a kind of commercialism that is in a deep sense at odds with a lot of what the Bible is trying to communicate.”

On one hand, he says, Biblezines like “Revolve” are great if it’s getting the targeted audience of young girls to read the Bible. But beauty tips and advice about boyfriends? Others are aimed at young boys.

“None of these things is bad but it’s a question in my mind about whether it belongs in the Bible,” Chapman says. “The danger is it can trivialize what Christians and Jews and others would see as a sacred text.”

A personal dislike of Chapman’s is a translation that personalizes biblical text ”” the 23rd Psalm’s “The Lord is my shepherd,” would be, “The Lord is Mike’s shepherd.”

“That just seems so extreme to me ”¦ it would be laughable if it wasn’t so extreme.”

Read it all.

The pattern of donations, with nearly nine out of 10 giving to Democratic candidates and causes, appears to confirm a leftward tilt in newsrooms ”” at least among the donors, who are a tiny fraction of the roughly 100,000 staffers in newsrooms across the nation.

The donors said they try to be fair in reporting and editing the news. One of the recurring themes in the responses is that it’s better for journalists to be transparent about their beliefs, and that editors who insist on manufacturing an appearance of impartiality are being deceptive to a public that already knows journalists aren’t without biases.

“Our writers are citizens, and they’re free to do what they want to do,” said New Yorker editor David Remnick, who has 10 political donors at his magazine. “If what they write is fair, and they respond to editing and counter-arguments with an open mind, that to me is the way we work.”

The openness didn’t extend, however, to telling the public about the donations. Apparently none of the journalists disclosed the donations to readers, viewers or listeners. Few told their bosses, either.

Read the whole article.

The more than 300 delegates to this week’s Anglican General Synod will be deciding whether to follow the lead of Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham, who drew both global praise and censure in 2002 when he first blessed same-sex couples.

With outspoken African Anglican leaders threatening to try to shove the Canadian denomination out of the 77-million-member global Anglican communion, the decisions Canada’s Anglicans make this week are being closely watched.

At a Fraser Valley meeting this month, Ingham told Anglicans he disagreed with the Canadian House of Bishops’ “surprising” vote in May to recommend a further delay, for three years, of a decision over whether to allow same-sex blessings to be approved by local dioceses.

However, the bishops did recommend Anglican priests offer communion to homosexual couples who had undergone civil unions.

Whatever the case, the bishops’ vote is not ultimately binding on delegates to the denomination’s once-every-three-years synod, a governing body with more authority than the bishops alone.

On Wednesday, both Ingham and Stephen Schuh, a gay Anglican from Vancouver, put forward a motion calling on the synod to affirm that it will still be acceptable for him to continue to sanction same-sex blessings in his diocese — no matter what delegates decide this week, probably on Saturday, to do nationally.

Read it all.

From the New York Times:

The presidents of dozens of liberal arts colleges have decided to stop participating in the annual college rankings by U.S. News and World Report.

The decision was announced Tuesday at the end of an annual meeting of the Annapolis Group, a loose association of liberal arts colleges. After two days of private meetings here, the organization released a statement that said a majority of the 80 presidents attending had “expressed their intent not to participate in the annual U.S. News survey.”

The commitment, which some college presidents said was made by a large majority of participants, represents the most significant challenge yet to the rankings, adding colleges like Barnard, Sarah Lawrence and Kenyon to a growing rebellion against the magazine, participants said.

U.S. News says it provides a valuable service to parents and students in its yearly evaluations, which are based on factors that include graduation and retention rates, assessments by competitors, selectivity and faculty resources. Critics say the ranking system lacks rigor and has had a harmful effect on educational priorities, encouraging colleges to do things like soliciting more applicants and then rejecting them, to move up the list.

“We really want to reclaim the high ground on this discussion,” said Katherine Will, the president of Gettysburg College and the incoming president of the Annapolis Group. “We should be defining the conversation, not a magazine that uses us for its business plan.” The association did not take a formal vote and each college will make its own decision, Dr. Will said.

Read it all.

From Frank Newport:

Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.

This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.

Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup’s annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs.

Read it all.

From WCBS TV:

Parents who think their teens’ online conversations with peers are innocent may want to reconsider. A new study shows 1 in 10 of their messages discuss drugs or sex.

The messages are posted on common online message boards.

“‘Crunked’ is like the cool way of saying ‘I got drunk,'” said 19-year-old Lucky O’Donnell. “‘Scag’ is one of the harder ones to figure out and that’s heroin.”

O’Donnell knows the risks all too well. He went online to find out where to get cocaine. He’s now in recovery.

“Mostly it was, where are we going to meet up to get it,” he said in reference to scoring some cocaine.

Read it all.

From here:

There are a number of points that need to be made…

Firstly, a distinction needs to be made between a ”˜confessing’ church and a ”˜confessional’ church. A ”˜confessing’ church is any church that confesses Christ and the gospel before the world as all Christians are called to do. A ”˜confessional’ church, on the other hand, is a church that adheres to certain specific statements of belief.

Secondly, it is clear that Anglicanism is not only a ”˜confessing’ tradition but also a ”˜confessional’ tradition in the sense that there are specific statements of belief to which the churches of the Communion individually and collectively subscribe. For example, the Catholic Creeds and the three ”˜historic formularies’ (The Thirty Nine Articles, the Book of Common Prayer and the 1662 Ordinal) are accepted as doctrinal authorities by the Church of England26 and for the Communion as a whole the Lambeth Quadrilateral sets out the Anglican understanding of what the visible unity of the Christian Church involves.

In his essay ”˜Where shall doctrine be found?’ in the 1981 Doctrine Commission report Believing in the Church, NT Wright suggests that a ”˜confession’ is a document: ”˜”¦in which the Church says to God, to the world, to itself and to the next generation, ”˜This is where we stand, and what we stand for.’’27 If the term ”˜confession’ is defined in this way it is clear that there is a strong confessional element to the Anglican tradition in the sense that are some documents that are seen by the Church of England and the other churches of the Communion as declaring where they stand and what they stand for.28

The issue of whether Anglicanism is confessional in nature has been confused by a long standing debate about (a) whether the Thirty Nine Articles should be seen as a confession of faith in the same sense as the confessions of faith produced by the Lutheran and Reformed churches during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and (b) whether the Articles have the same status within Anglicanism as, for example, the Augsburg Confession has within the Lutheran tradition or the Westminster Confession has had in parts of the Reformed tradition.

The answer to (a) is that from a historical point of view the Articles should be viewed as one of the confessions of the Reformation period. Much of the material in the Articles came from the Lutheran Augsburg and Wurtemberg confessions, the Articles had the same function as other Reformation confessions (namely to make clear what the Church of England stood for both in terms of its fundamental theology and in relation to specific issues of controversy) and the Articles were regarded as the Church of England’s confessional statement at the time when they were produced.29

The answer to (b) is that the Articles have had a rather different status to that enjoyed by the Augsburg or Westminster Confessions in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions because within Anglicanism the role of the Articles as a doctrinal authority has been balanced by the doctrinal importance that has been given to the liturgy and, in many parts of Anglicanism, to the witness of the Fathers of the first five centuries.

However, acceptance of this latter point does not negate the confessional nature of Anglicanism. It remains the case that there are documents that are seen as declaring, either explicitly or implicitly, what Anglicanism stands for. This in turn means that an Anglican covenant that re-stated where the churches of the Anglican Communion stand and what they stand for would not be alien to the Anglican tradition.

Thirdly, the fact that Anglicans have been willing to say either explicitly through statements of belief or implicitly through the liturgy ”˜This is where we stand and what we stand for’ means that Anglicanism already excludes those who are not able to accept in terms of either belief or practice what Anglicanism currently stands for. Thus someone who cannot make the Declaration of Assent contained in Canon C1530 cannot serve as either an ordained minister or a Reader in the Church of England. Similarly, a church that could not accept one or more of the elements of the Lambeth Quadrilateral could not be a member of the Anglican Communion.

This means that the development of a covenant will not mean a move from a non-confessional to a confessional Anglicanism or from a situation where everyone is accepted to a position where some begin to be excluded. The Anglican Communion is already, in the way just described, a confessional body of churches and, as such, one that upholds certain specific beliefs and practices to which not everyone is able to sign up.

What it might mean, and this is what people are afraid of, is that as the result of the covenant process the confessional basis of Anglicanism will become more detailed, with the forms of acceptable expression of Anglican theology being more precisely defined and the number of things that have to be accepted in order to be Anglican being increased, and that this will mean that some people who are currently part of the Anglican Communion will be forced out.

However, and this is the fourth point in this connection, there is nothing inevitable about a process whereby the development of a covenant leads to a narrower definition of Anglican belief and practice than that which currently exists. The churches of the Communion will decide collectively what the covenant contains in and it is entirely possible (and indeed likely) that what they will decide to do is simply ratify existing statements of Anglican belief and practice without adding to them in any way.

In any event, nothing will be able to be imposed on the Communion without the consent of the churches of the Communion and this means that any attempt to narrow down the confessional parameters of Anglicanism could only succeed if the Communion as whole decided to go in this direction and after a process in which opponents of such a move would have plenty of opportunity to argue their case.

It should also be noted that there is also a concern about exclusion among many conservative Anglicans. They fear that unless what they see as a drift towards unacceptable theological liberalism within Anglicanism is halted by clear theological boundary markers being laid down in an Anglican covenant, such liberalism will become the norm and they will end up being excluded either because of intolerance of traditional Anglicanism by liberal church authorities or because they will be conscientiously unable to remain in churches that deny the basic tents of Christian belief and behaviour.

“Anglicanism is not a confessional church” is one of the many false mantras one hears as almost a liturgical chorus these days from numerous leaders of The Episcopal Church. It is not only false in that it is not accord with our history, as Dr. Davie shows, but it is also contradicted every week in TEC nationwide in the liturgy when those participating in eucharist confess their faith in the Nicene Creed. The question rather is: Anglicanism is a confessing church in what sense? Read it all-KSH.

Read it all.

“People certainly recognize that what happens within the Anglican community will be held up either as an example of overcoming your differences or what can happen when you divide,” said Dr. James Childs, a professor of theology and ethics at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Bexley.

“People see the debate and wonder, ‘Is this a world unraveling? Is this a disruption of the natural order? If we affirm this in the church, are we moving toward chaos?’ The answers remain to be seen.”

The governing body of his own denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is not immune. A February announcement that a popular gay minister at Atlanta’s oldest Lutheran church was being removed because he has a partner has renewed discussion about gay clergy members.

The matter is unresolved and is expected to be a focus of a meeting of the Lutherans in August.

The notion that the issue is escalating for many denominations, and that it may lead to unprecedented fracturing of churches, is well-founded, conservative Christians say.

“Individual Christians, Christian families, organizations and entire denominations must decide whether to affirm God’s word or not,” said Melissa Fryrear, director of gender issues for Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization.

“The Bible is clear on sexual behavior: It is between one man and one woman, only in marriage. There is no middle ground, and there are no loopholes.”

Read it all.

In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25, Jesus was telling his disciples that if you want to meet God face to face, the nearest you are going to come to it on this planet is to look into the faces of your brothers and sisters — and especially your sisters and brothers who have been declared unrighteous, unclean, unacceptable. It isn’t that we find God there; it is that God finds us there.

That is where our faith is nurtured and bears fruit. There, where we expect to meet monsters, we meet God instead. The opportunity to serve God lies there among the prisoners, the naked, the sick, the hungry, who have been reckoned to be least deserving of any service at all.

The vocation of the Anglican Communion is this. As Michael Ramsay said in ‘The Gospel and the Catholic Church,’ the centre of Anglicanism, her primary vocation is to witness to the perpetual passion of Christ’s body which must lead, according to the divine providence, into the heart of the gospel.

Proper penitence and a readiness to go willingly, and perhaps be lifted up, to suffer whatever sacrifices may be necessary for the visible unity of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

For this to happen we must die in order to bear fruit and be messengers of God’s redeeming love. We are called to die to the values of the world — greed for wealth, status and power; as well as our psychological tendencies: our desires and compulsions for success, to be loved, to be held in esteem, to be acclaimed by those in our group, to have, power and control over others. .It’s a call to disarm ourselves, to die to our plans and let God’s plans and ways take hold of us.

Read it all.

The draft agenda is here.