Yet another example–as if one was needed–of the importance and value of blogging. Watch it all.

The Lambeth Conference brings questions of identity forward in our lives. We are with people of many different ethnicities, cultures, and languages. In the presence of great diversity our easy assumptions of identity are unsettled, and deeper ways to ground our identity can emerge. We can begin to see our life in Christ as the ground of our being, our identity.

As we are drawn deeper and deeper into relationship with one another we find that the descriptors that may catch our attention at first, those associated with ethnicity and culture, rich and capable of being explored in depth as they are, do not begin to sum up human life. Gender, sexual orientation, economic status, all these are important too. And then we begin to learn the personal histories of people, certainly conditioned and connected to all the above, but articulated in unique ways having to do with the inner life of people, their gifts and aspirations.

At some point we may come to understand, as we perceive the deepest aspirations of another person, their courage and hopefulness in the face of their own life challenges, that we are seeing Christ in that person. Christ speaks I AM from within all life, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.

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The Indaba groups met today, twice, for the first time. We are considering the Windsor report, not with the idea of decision but with the idea of discussion. I anticipate that the discussions may be frank, direct, challenging and difficult as we listen hard to those with whom we might disagree, recognizing that we are all children of God and people loved by God. The early reviews seem to show that the conversations will vary from group to group. I pray that in all these activities God will be present and will be with us to lead the way.

Dinner provided a change of pace, as a Maori group from New Zealand celebrated a birthday of one of their members with great singing in the dining hall. The Australians, with whom they are clearly friends, offered some good natured gibes and the Maoris responded with what appeared to be an animated battle song. The dining hall erupted with laughter and applause – a welcomed respite from the serious matters under discussion during the day.

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(ENS) The second Indaba group was held in the afternoon. The conversation was focused into four sections: Scripture, Worship, Order, and Mission. Each Indaba group divided into four smaller subgroups to discuss one of those areas. After that, there was a sharing of information.

The conversations were rich and full, everyone participated, no one was disengaged, and a great deal of respectful listening and good interchange occurred.

And, in our Provisional Meeting, we were thrilled to have greeting from EYE (Episcopal Youth Event) which concluded with a rousing “May the Peace of the Lord Be With You.” The bishops responded with enthusiastic applauds and cheers!

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On the last day of spring, Tom Wheeler left home in Southern California with his wife, his two kids and two audacious dreams.

As a civil engineer, he hopes to bring standard, nicely paved sidewalks to a city with almost none.

As a follower of Rick Warren, the evangelist who wrote the bestseller The Purpose Driven Life, Wheeler dreams of making Rwanda the world’s first “purpose-driven nation.” That means spreading the Gospel and helping this tiny African country, which 14 years ago endured the worst genocide since the Holocaust, continue its unlikely journey toward peace and prosperity.

“Rick challenged us all to go out,” Wheeler says. He and his wife, Lori, “wanted to serve God, and we wanted to be part of something big.”

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Something needs to be done ”” we need to get this right. This is not a job for commissions and programmes, but for example and engagement. This generation is increasngly orphaned by the manifest failures of conventional religion, science, government, technology, consumerism. We can reorientate our actvities towards our neighbours ”” bring good news, hope, gentleness, creativity and respect.

I am impressed by the logic of Brian’s argument. It sheds light on why the fastest growing Church of England congregations, by and large, are Cathedrals. Following it up would involve reimaging our context in a more realistic, low-key, creative and rooted direction. I think I’m up for it.

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Archbishop Gregory Venables, the Primate of the Southern Cone, said he doubted whether the traditionalist and liberal wings of the 80 million-strong church could even achieve a “peaceful separation”.

He is one of the few church leaders to attend both the breakaway Gafcon summit in Jerusalem last month, at which a new church within a church was launched for orthodox Anglicans who believe the Bible teaches that homosexuality is wrong, and the ongoing Lambeth Conference in Canterbury.

A quarter of the worldwide Anglican Communion’s 880 bishops are boycotting the once-a-decade Lambeth gathering in protest at liberal American and Canadian churches which tolerate gay clergy and bless same-sex unions.

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Dr. Packer opened his remarks with a statement explaining why this issue is of such great importance in the Anglican Church today. “In brief,” he said, “because it involves the denial of something that’s integral to the Christian Gospel.

“That is, whereas the Bible says that same-sex unions are off limits as far as God is concerned, and that the Gospel requires any who have been involved in them to repent of that involvement and to abandon it, this point of view against which we are standing, treats gay unions…as a form of holiness, and encourages, affirms and blesses them, rather than saying, as we believe the Gospel requires us to say, that this is the wrong track.”

“You are required to abandon it and we, in the Christian fellowship, will help you to”¦walk chaste, not yield to your besetting temptations,” he continued. “And that is God’s way for you. We are obliged by the Gospel to say that because the apostle Paul, proclaiming the Gospel to the Corinthians, says explicitly that they mustn’t be deceived”¦and those living in homosexual relationships will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

“In other words, they don’t qualify for Christ’s salvation in terms of the Gospel that God has revealed.”

Dr. Packer asserted that the blessing of same-sex unions is a direct contradiction of Scripture and there can be no compromise on the issue.

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It feels like the summer of 1931. The world’s two biggest financial institutions have had a heart attack. The global currency system is breaking down. The policy doctrines that got us into this mess are bankrupt. No world leader seems able to discern the problem, let alone forge a solution.

The International Monetary Fund has abdicated into schizophrenia. It has upgraded its 2008 world forecast from 3.7pc to 4.1pc growth, whilst warning of a “chance of a global recession”. Plainly, the IMF cannot or will not offer any useful insights.

Its “mean-reversion” model misses the entire point of this crisis, which is that central banks have pushed debt to fatal levels by holding interest too low for a generation, and now the chickens have come home to roost. True “mean-reversion” would imply debt deflation on such a scale that would, if abrupt, threaten democracy.

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We reject homosexual practice as contrary to biblical teaching and can accept no place for it within ECS. We strongly oppose developments within the Anglican Church in the USA and Canada in consecrating a practicing homosexual as bishop and in approving a rite for the blessing of same-sex relationships. This has not only caused deep divisions within the Anglican Communion but it has seriously harmed the Church’s witness in Africa and elsewhere, opening the church to ridicule and damaging its credibility in a multi-religious environment.

The unity of the Anglican Communion is of profound significance to us as an expression of our unity within the Body of Christ. It is not something we can treat lightly or allow to be fractured easily. Our unity expresses the essential truth of the Gospel that in Christ we are united across different tribes, cultures and nationalities. We have come to attend the Lambeth Conference, despite the decision of others to stay away, to appeal to the whole Anglican Communion to uphold our unity and to take the necessary steps to safeguard the precious unity of the Church.

Out of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, we appeal to the Anglican Church in the USA and Canada, to demonstrate real commitment to the requests arising from the Windsor process. In particular:
– To refrain from ordaining practicing homosexuals as bishops or priests
– To refrain from approving rites of blessing for same-sex relationships
– To cease court actions with immediate effect;
– To comply with Resolution 1:10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference
– To respect the authority of the Bible

We believe that such steps are essential for bridging the divisions which have opened up within the Communion.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today was the first full day of the Lambeth Conference per se, and for me, it was a less than auspicious beginning. Following the morning Eucharist and breakfast we had our Bible Study, as usual (our group was joined today by a Bishop from the Russian Orthodox Church, who seems, on first acquaintance, a great addition).

Then we went to the first Indaba meeting, in which the members of five Bible Study groups came together in a large room. Our group had 43 or 44 members. During the first session, about fifteen people introduced themselves and their Dioceses: the non-English speaking Bishops (through interpreters), and the Ecumenical guests, as well as three or four other Bishops. The only American included in that introduction was Jon Bruno from Los Angeles, who spoke glowingly of his being a “totally inclusive” Diocese that has approximately a 20% membership of gay and lesbian people, and in a state that has opened the door to same-sex marriages, “that we are trying to come to grips with.”

We were then asked to answer three questions: 1) what major thought or insight did you come away from the retreat with? 2) how does your Diocese see itself? 3) what does being an Anglican Bishop mean to you? (They were looking for “convergences” here. What we came up with was: “The Bishop is a leader in mission.” Pretty profound, huh?)
In the afternoon session we were given a two page paper entitled “The Anglican Way: Signposts on a common Journey” (produced by the Anglican Way Consultation meeting in Singapore in 2007), that suggests the Anglican Way is: “Formed by Scripture; Shaped through Worship; Ordered for Communion; and Directed by God’s Mission.”

During the break, a picture of each of these signposts had been taped up, one on each of the four walls. We were asked to gather around each of the four pictures in succession, while someone read that section of the paper to us. Then we were asked to “self select” and divide into four groups, each to discuss one of the four sections/Signposts.

My group had thirteen in it, seven of whom spoke. It was difficult to hear because there were three other conversations going on in the same room simultaneously. The statement itself wasn’t bad. If you care to read it you will find it here.

But the process was asinine. First of all, why combine five Bible Study groups, if you are then going to sub-divide them into four groups? Secondly, what is the point of this discussion of a document we are seeing for the first time? It seemed more appropriate to a junior high Confirmation Class than to a world-wide gathering of Anglican Bishops. And thirdly, why in the world were we having these conversations in the same room at the same time? (At a cost of approximately $8 million just for the Bishops’ part of the Conference!)

Well, things may improve. I remind myself of the Archbishop’s comment that, “A failure in leadership is a failure to hope in Christ.”

An hour long gathering of the American Bishops in mid-afternoon was equally disappointing. Presiding Bishop Schori called us together “just to check in with each other and share any concerns.” Fully two-thirds of our time was spent discussing Gene Robinson’s sadness – and the injustice! – over his not being allowed to be part even of this meeting of “his own House.”

(Conference organizers responded to objections that: “This is NOT a meeting of the House of Bishops; it is a gathering of American Bishops at a meeting of the Lambeth Conference, and only those invited to the Conference can be part of the gathering.”)

There was talk of possibly organizing another meeting of the American Bishops offsite somewhere so Gene can be part of it.

The day was not a complete loss! The Archbishop put on the first of three special dinners for the first third of our Conference attendees tonight, and I happened to draw an invitation to it. Quite lovely; he and Lady Jane are very gracious hosts.

But please do pray that we will make better use of our time from here on out. I am sending you as an attached file the Archbishop’s Presidential Address from last night. It sets out his hopes for what this Conference might yet produce.

Also, please pray for my wife, Karen. She told me she has finally been cleared for the surgery on her parathyroids that I mentioned to you last Spring. Only one clinic in the world does this particular procedure, and it happens to be in Tampa. The Doctor there assures her this will make a very significant improvement in her over-all condition.

Warmest regards in our Lord,

–(The Right Rev.) John W. Howe is Bishop of Central Florida

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From here:

The Council of Forward in Faith, meeting at Canterbury on 21st July, was appalled at the outcome of the recent General Synod debate of 7th July. The Council remains determined to respond to the needs of its members by securing a structural solution comprising discrete dioceses for those in conscience opposed to the ordination of women as bishops.

There are many difficulties here. We come from different places and with different experiences. What I find disheartening is the amount of misconception about the Episcopal Church. Many bishops have misconceptions about our theology as well as our responses to the discord in the Communion. We have many bridges to build in the next two weeks.

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q Gene Robinson was not invited but his consecrators were. Why? I faced that question squarely. Some of his consecrators have expressed sorrow and asked for forgiveness; some have retired. The American church through their house of Bishops asked for forgiveness and I sent their letter to each Primate. Just over 50% felt it was an adequate response, as did the Joint Standing Committee. So, they were invited.

q Follow up question: CAPA bishops said they would not come if the consecrators were invited and their voices represent the majority of Anglicans in the Communion. How did you make that decision? I told each of them that their voice matters and we need to hear from them. I can’t invite the bishops of 70 million and not invite the bishops of 2 million. We don’t have that kind of parity or power politics in the Communion. Every voice counts.

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Check it out.

Lambeth resolutions have acquired an influence at times “so close to authority as hardly to be distinguishable from it,” according to Cambridge University historian Owen Chadwick in his introduction to Resolutions of the Twelve Lambeth Conferences.

We come now in our survey to the last of the Sunday bulletin inserts prepared by Episcopal Life from a longer series (Part IV of which is here, with links to the earlier parts) by the Reverend Christopher Webber which appeared on the former Episcopal Majority Website. In many ways, as we shall see, it is the worst of the lot….

The anonymous reductor(s) have let the prescribed Episcopal Life agenda completely dominate the historical reality of what happened at the 1988 and 1998 Lambeth Conferences. In short, what Episcopal Life is offering churchgoers is not history, but undisguised propaganda.

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Is there an argument for weakening the authority of Canterbury over Anglican churches in other countries? Theologian Theo Hobson and the Right Reverend Nick Baines, the Bishop of Croydon, discuss the importance of international relations within the Church.

Go here and head down to the segment for 08 40.

Indaba is a method of engagement, said Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba, primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, who added that it “comes from where I was born” in Makgoa Kloof in South Africa. Indaba is used by the village chief when he or she perceives a problem in the community and calls the villagers together to seek a solution.

“What needs to happen is not to rush to quick solutions. We need to come together to define what is this that is effecting the village,” he said. “We have borrowed that methodology and process for the Lambeth Conference.”

Makgoba said that the entire conference is an exercise in indaba. “The Bible studies, the walk from your room to the Bible studies, the fellowship when you have meals together — it’s part and parcel of the dialogue and the conversation of wanting to seek who we are and what is God calling us to be at this time,” he said.

He used the example of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well during which a conversation that began as a superficial discussion about drinking water became something more profound. “That is our hope that indaba holds for us,” he said.

The Rev. Ian Douglas, a member of the Lambeth Design Group, told the briefing that the aim of the conference is to equip bishops to be better leaders in God’s mission in the world. During this first week of the conference the bishops will to consider Anglican identity, the role of bishops in evangelism and social justice, ecumenical relations, abuse of power, and issues of sustaining the world in which God carries out God’s mission. The second week is meant to “come within the household of the Anglican Communion and deal with more inter-Anglican issues” such as biblical authority, human sexuality, the proposed Anglican covenant and the continuing processes of the Windsor Report.

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“I hope they will repent one day,” he said, likening it to a patient seeking the doctor’s help.

Kolini said this while addressing over 200 members of the Anglican Church from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda who had come to celebrate the end of 40 days of Purpose Driven life at Presbyterian Church in Kiyovu, Kigali on Thursday.

He further explained that their refusal to attend the conference was a joint resolution of Anglican leaders from Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and other countries from South America, reached at the Global Anglican Future Conference held in Jerusalem, Israel earlier.

He repeated the early criticisms of the boycotting members against Canterbury for not taking immediate action against gay supporters.

“God can’t accept this because it’s against the Bible. The norms of the Bible have been breached and therefore as a Church of God we can’t allow this,” he said.

He told churches in the region to adhere to the original doctrines of the Bible.

He cited Mathew 28: 19- 20 and said: “Go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

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The TEC memo is in fact proposing a post modern, de-centered church joined not by mutual recognition of belief and practice but by allegiance to a common mission. So the second core message of the memo is “When Anglicans work together through the power of the Holy Spirit, we change the world.” What the memo means by this statement is made clear at several points. In Supporting Idea Three of the first core message we are told, “the reconciling work of Christ is at the heart of our common life.” This statement is absolutely true. However, the supporting point that follows immediately on indicates that reconciliation is adequately described by “justice, love, mercy, the healing of creation, and the end of poverty.” It would appear that Paul’s statement that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” can be adequately rendered by the millennium goals. The memo renders reconciliation in entirely moral terms. The central issue before us is our reconciliation with God from whom we are estranged. This point is utterly missing from the memo’s account of what Anglicans do when they “work together.” Failure to address this point indicates that TEC’s leadership has failed to grasp the primary worry its critics from around the communion have. To be sure, they are offended by the consecration of Gene Robinson and by the increasingly common practice of blessing sexual unions between persons of the same gender. More fundamental, however, is a concern that TEC’s gospel message is not in the first instance one about the saving power of Christ’s death and resurrection but about a moral responsibility for the ills of the world. Their concern is that in TEC’s rendition of the gospel, the tail is wagging the dog and not the dog the tail.

The previous point is crucial to an adequate evaluation both of TEC’s goals at the present gathering of our bishops in Canterbury and the theology that lies at the base of these goals. The memo contends in the last supporting idea it offers, “the church has focused on its mission rather than its disagreements in order to remain faithful.” The implication is that the mission of the church has nothing to do with the matters that now so divide the Communion””that we can do mission while in fundamental disagreement about the content of the Christian gospel. Nothing could be further from the truth! To equate the Christian gospel with the moral agenda of peace and justice is as false as it is to say that the Christian gospel has nothing to do with peace and justice. It is precisely the nature of the church’s mission that lies at the heart of our present distress. To call for the communion to join in common mission and yet pass over divergent views of the gospel is in fact incoherent.

Those of us who look to our bishops to speak truthfully about our real circumstances can only hope and pray that the incoherence of what TEC is proposing will be pointed out in no uncertain terms….

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Frankly the significant experiences for such a recently consecrated bishop as I come so fast and feverishly it is hard to keep up with it all””but between my bishop’s journal where I record daily events, and my personal journal reserved for deeper matters of the soul I’ll revisit much of this latter. I’ve met so many possible links that may provide missional relationships for the Diocese of South Carolina that my mind is running along lines of mission, strategy, and theological alignments that I belief will be mutually beneficial to our diocese and parishes and for dioceses in every direction out from South Carolina””Ireland, England, New Zealand, India, North Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, West Africa, East Africa, et al. Some of these bishops bear names you may well recognize and others humble godly servants of God who have faced incredible challenges and have kept the faith in the midst of astonishing hardship. It heartens the soul to walk with them from one venue to another, to worship alongside them, study the scriptures with them, or share a meal in the cafeteria with them.

This morning was the 10th Sunday after Pentecost. The bishops in convocation robes processed to the Choir while the spouses of the bishops along with various dignitaries””former Archbishop Carey to name one””filled much of the Cathedral nave. As we came through the Great West Door of the Canterbury Cathedral two by two, Bishop Jack Iker with whom I was paired whispered to me something to the effect””“You won’t enter through these doors very often.” It hardly needed a response from me. I trembled for a moment. Certainly not everything in the service was to my liking””and some of it more than a little disturbing. But I’ve moved beyond that for now. What lingers is the processing, seeing my wife Allison in the congregation as I processed in, going forward to receive the sacrament for resoluteness of will, and the gospel procession with the Melanesian Brothers and Sisters dressed in tribal garb dancing from the High Altar to the Compass Rose carrying the gold Gospel Book in a coracle or little boat. All I could think of was the joy that came to aboriginal people as the gospel set them free from ancient fears and now carrying the Holy Scripture as if they were carrying Jesus as their Chief and King. That is of course what the gospel did for the early Celts, Picts, Anglo-Saxons and even Vikings on these Isles, and a thousand other tribes, tongues and nations elsewhere. The gospel always needs to be inculturated into every society and every society needs to be evangelized and transformed by gospel””including ours.

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Herewith the BBC Blurb:

This weekend the talking starts in earnest at the Lambeth Conference, the global meeting of the Anglican church that takes place once every ten years.

This year’s event is being overshadowed by fears of a split in the church – between liberals who support the ordination of openly gay bishops and clergy, and more traditionalist leaders who say that homosexuality is fundamentally a sin.

Ed Butler examines the theological basis for the rift in the Anglican Communion.

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Among those heard from are Wallace Benn, Gene Robinson, Benjamin Nzimbi, Graham Kings, Colin Coward and Theo Hobson (Gene Robinson is most unhelpfully referred to as from the see city of “Boston” which will come as news to the diocese of New Hampshire).

Listen to it all (about 9 minutes)

But what of those who had the stamina to make it to both events? The Bishop of Wyoming, the Right Rev Bruce Caldwell, compared the two. “Both were wonderful. Both were delightful in different ways. In the cathedral there was amazing architecture and voices of the choirs and singing. And here we have got a simple field and a simple wooden cross. I think Jesus was at both of them.”

There were some niggles from party-goers, however. The Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Right Rev Bob Duncan, said: “It was a glorious service, it was a gathering of the family, but there were troublesome elements ”“ the Buddhist chant, for example, and the sermon had a few challenges. A number of our brothers didn’t make their Communion.”

One Roman Catholic present, who asked not to be named, told The Times: “It was an extraordinary service, enough to make me consider becoming an Anglican.” How many and who they were may never be known as they were all huddled in the venue’s VIP area, screened off from prying eyes.

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Anglican leader Rowan Williams has urged bishops to address the deep divisions in the Church at a summit boycotted by a quarter of them over the ordination of gay clergy.

“We must be honest about how deep some of the hurts and difficulties currently are,” the spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans said of the Lambeth conference being staged in the English cathedral city of Canterbury.

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For years, worshippers at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Livonia patiently put up with their diocese as it adopted a series of liberal changes that clashed with biblical tradition. But the breaking point came in 2003, when the Episcopal Church — with the approval of the local diocese — consecrated an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

After a testy meeting with Episcopal leaders, about two-thirds of the 300-member congregation bolted in 2006, leaving a church many of them grew up in. Two years later, they said they have no regrets.

“It just wasn’t a Christian church anymore,” explained Chris Darnell, 41, of Northville.

Those words reflect a schism playing out within the Anglican Communion — the largest Protestant body in the world — as it faces an identity crisis that threatens to split its 77 million members. Four congregations in Michigan have broken away in recent years from the Episcopal Church, the Anglican body in the United States that has 87 churches in Michigan, with about 24,000 members.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury will today spell out how he hopes a new set of rules can solve “one of the most severe challenges” in the history of the Anglican church.

In an impassioned opening speech last night to the 600 bishops gathered for the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, Dr Rowan Williams criticised both conservatives and liberals for their actions in the crisis over sexuality.

He said the “new doctrine” on homosexuality being adopted by progressive churches in America and Canada, who have elected an openly gay bishop and blessed same-sex unions in defiance of guidelines, was causing “pain and perplexity”.

But Dr Williams claimed the reaction by traditionalists, some of whom have defected from their national churches and who are now planning to create a new church-within-a-church, had also created “pressures”.

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This year’s conference will hold no formal plenary debates, and will vote on no resolutions. Working with a “design team” that included at least one representative from the American church, the Rev. Ian T. Douglas from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., Archbishop Williams devised a format that allotted three days, beginning last week, for the bishops to go into retreat at the cathedral, meeting in small groups to discuss, pray and listen to five sermons by Archbishop Williams. To limit the risks of discord, conference organizers say they have asked the bishops to take “appropriate care” in anything they say to reporters. In the second week, the bishops move into larger sessions to deal directly with the issue of gay and female clerics, in a session titled “Human Sexuality and the Witness of Scripture.”

The arrangements have led to criticism of Archbishop Williams from liberals and conservatives, who say his “stealth” approach to the most sensitive issues will do nothing to resolve them. The criticism has built on a frequent critique of the straggly-bearded Archbishop Williams, 58, as an other-worldly, Oxford-educated theologian who lacks the political skills, and perhaps the power of personality, to force compromise. His supporters say the divide is so wide that he has little choice but to play for time, and hope that Christian values of tolerance and understanding will foster a spirit of compromise.

Dr. Phillip Aspinall, the Anglican primate of Australia, acting as chief spokesman for the conference, offered a weary prognosis after Sunday’s Eucharist of what the talking might achieve. “The last Lambeth Conference didn’t resolve our differences, the one before that didn’t resolve them, and this one won’t, either,” he said. “That’s the journey of life, until the Lord returns, I’m afraid.”

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