(c) Breakdown of Trust

* There are real fears of wider agenda ”“ over creedal issues ( the authority of scripture, the application of doctrine in life and ethics and even Christology and soteriology); other issues, such as lay presidency and theological statements that go far beyond the doctrinal definitions of the historic creeds, lie just over the horizon. Positions and arguments are becoming more extreme: not moving towards one another, relationships in the Communion continue to deteriorate; there is little sense of mutual accountability and a fear that vital issues are not being addressed in the most timely and effective manner.
* Through modern technology, there has been active fear-mongering, deliberate distortion and demonising. Politicisation has overtaken Christian discernment.
*Suspicions have been raised about the purpose, timing and outcomes of the Global Anglican Future Conference; there is some perplexity about the establishment of the Gafcon Primates’ Council and of FOCA which, with withdrawal from participation at the Lambeth Conference, has further damaged trust.
* There are growing patterns of Episcopal congregationalism throughout the communion at parochial, diocesan and provincial level. Parishes feel free to choose from whom they will accept Episcopal ministry; bishops feel free to make decisions of great controversy without reference to existing collegial structures. Primates make provision for Episcopal leadership in territories outside their own Province.
* There is distrust of the Instruments of Communion and uncertainty about their capacity to respond to the situation.
*Polarisation of attitudes in the Churches of the Communion, not just n the current situation ”“ felt and expressed by conservative and liberal alike.

Read it all and please note the caution toward the top.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

After the second day of “Indaba” groups, there seems to be an incipient revolt stirring among us. Many of the Africans are saying, “This isn’t ‘Indaba’ at all! First of all, we are not a village, and we don’t know each other. And secondly, we are not attempting to solve a problem; we are talking in small groups about minor issues of little consequence.”

The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu (himself an African, I believe from Uganda) is reported to have said, “If Indaba is such a great idea, why is Africa in such a mess?” There seems to be the beginning of some rumbling that we need to get to a decision-making moment in the life of the Conference.

Nevertheless, I found my two “Indaba” conversations today somewhat more interesting than yesterday’s. The first one discussed the Church’s (the Bishop’s) ministry to young people. And, from across extremely different social and cultural contexts, in many different parts of the world, there were a few key points held in common. First, the Bishop’s personal involvement in meeting with young people can be enormously significant. Secondly, the high priority of training youth leaders, and providing opportunities for young people to meet together beyond their local congregations. And thirdly, the need to provide numerous opportunities for young people to hear and encounter the Gospel, and be given opportunities and encouragement to respond with personal commitment to Christ.

I thought this was a pretty resounding confirmation of what we are attempting to do in Central Florida.

In the second conversation, once again, across extremely different local contexts, there was remarkably deep agreement that most of the implementation of the Church’s mission is at the congregational and diocesan levels, and that there is very little significant support – of any kind – that comes from the Provincial (national) or international levels of the Communion.

There was a general acknowledgement that one of the best things in the Communion is the encouragement of companion relationships between far-flung dioceses, and the proliferation of new forms of companionship at many different levels. It seemed to be agreed among the Americans that we do a few things very well at the national level: specifically, military and prison chaplancies were mentioned, along with the work of Episcopal Relief and Development. Apart from that there was not much enthusiasm for the mission efforts beyond the diocesan level.

This afternoon there was a meeting sponsored by the “Global South” (even though three of its most prominent Provinces are absent). Approximately 150 bishops attended. The history of how the Global South has come to have a life of its own within the larger Communion was recounted, and a brief update on the Anglican Covenant was presented (much more on this to come), and then Bruce MacPherson and Bob Duncan were each invited to speak, Bruce about the work of the Communion Partners, and Bob about the Network, and its evolution into Common Cause.

It was very clearly recognized that these two approaches are complimentary, CP is an “inside” strategy, and CC an “outside” strategy to attempt to maintain and further an orthodox witness and ministry in North America.

It was also clear that the phrase “Global South” no longer accurately names the configuration of Bishops represented, as all parts of the Communion were strongly in evidence. I found this a very encouraging session.

I also had a brief conversation with the Russian Orthodox Bishop who is in my Bible Study (and Indaba Group). I asked him two questions. First, how have things changed for the Church, and for you, since the dismantling of the Soviet Union? “Drastically! Before there were 6,000 parishes in my area, today over 30,000. Before there were 18 monasteries, today over 750. Today I am free to teach religion in the public schools.” Secondly, we in the West were often told that the Soviet government used to place its own people in positions of authority in the Orthodox Church. Was that true? “Yes, but we always knew who those persons were. Usually they were placed there so that, after a time, they could publicly renounce the Faith and embrace atheism.”

I think that if God isn’t finished with the Russian Orthodox, he may not be finished with the Anglican Communion, either!

Warmest regards in our Lord,

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

Watch it all.

Fr. Eric L. Bergman, chaplain of the Thomas Moore Society in Scranton and chaplain of the Anglican Use Society, explained some of the changes that have been made in the Anglican Use.
“The Anglican Use and the Pastoral Provision are now open to Continuing Church Anglicans as well as members of the Episcopal Church,” he said. “The [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] said the Pastoral Provision can apply to men in Continuing Churches and their communities.”

Fr. Bergman also said a community in Kansas City is forming because of the new opportunities, but the Anglican Use remains in the United States only, for now.
“Whether it will be expanded to other countries is anybody’s guess,” he said.

Archbishop Myers suggested those who have benefited from the Pastoral Provision over its 28 years of existence should remember that it was granted “for an indefinite period of time.”
“Catholic faithful who worship according to the Anglican Use must never see themselves as different from other Catholics or somehow privileged among other Christian communions,” he said. “We are Catholics together, obedient to the Holy Father, to those bishops in communion with him and ever faithful to magisterial teaching.”

“We long for an expansion of the Anglican Use that would welcome a body into communion,” said Bishop David Moyer, a bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion and rector of The Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont. “The Traditional Anglican Communion petitioned for that in October. Any move toward expansion of the Anglican Use by the Vatican is very welcomed.”

Read it all.

Press was admitted to the plenary session (yes! Inside the big blue tent) to hear Brian McLaren, an American from Maryland who is an expert in evangelism and has written 10 books about it. He was specifically invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury to speak three times at this conference. He talks about the emerging church, which I did not detect as syncretism of an emerging “Unitarian” type of church. His opening line was “I love Jesus Christ and have come to break open our models for Evangelism. We must proclaim the way of Jesus Christ. You are leaders in this church and this is one of your primary jobs, not being drained by the complex demands of institutional maintenance. You must speak on behalf of those who are not in your churches, people Jesus described as harassed and helpless; those without a shepherd.”

“Evangelism is disciple formation. Nothing else is worthy of that trust beyond Christ. You are here to save the church from division, implosion and exhaustion.”

Pretty good start, right? I did not doubt his commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But I must admit that it was a very “slick” presentation, a graphically rich Power Point that showed his points on three large screens behind him. The weakness with the presentation was in naming particular countries, continents and cultures as pre-modern, modern and post-modern. The ”˜tsunami’ of change that accompanies a culture going from pre-modern to modern, for example, could lead one to believe that the amazing numbers of conversions in Africa are not authentic; they are superficial and concentrate on how to go to heaven, not how to live on earth. Couple this with the increase in Aids/HIV that we have seen in this “newly Christianized” continent and you may have substantive proof of this shallow discipleship. This information alone may give the Americans more reason to dismiss the Africans and their requests to this conference.

McLaren has two additional sessions today and tomorrow for those who want more specific information on how to go about being evangelists in their local contexts.

Read it all.

Frustration is rising among members of the media here who have been barred from attending a majority of events at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, including the daily eucharist, and who have not been furnished a list of bishops who are present or absent for unspecified “security reasons.”

“All I can say is that all provinces are represented except Uganda,” said Archdeacon Paul Feheley, principal secretary to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who is acting as a conference spokesperson. “There were nearly 750 bishops at the 1998 Lambeth. This year, 670 are registered at this point.”

In a press conference, Mr. Feheley said it was not possible to release the names of the bishops present for “security reasons.” He would not elaborate.

Read it all. There is a balance to be struck here but so far Lambeth 2008 has not found the right mix between openness and confidentiality and security–KSH.

Canterbury: The push to seat Gene Robinson at Lambeth Conference failed yesterday after the American bishops declined to force the issue. At their July 21 provincial meeting at the Lambeth Conference the American bishops declined to take action on a request by liberal members of their caucus to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to seat the New Hampshire bishop.

Bishops attending the closed meeting tell ReligiousIntelligence.com that some bishops pushed for Bishop Robinson to be extended an invitation. There followed a substantive discussion of the Robinson issue with several bishops expressing their anger and hurt over his exclusion.

However, the American leadership declined to take up the issue and a growing number of bishops appear to be distancing themselves from the controversial New Hampshire cleric in a bid to avoid conflict with the conference organizers.

Bishop Robinson was forbidden to attend the meeting of his own House of Bishops, writing on his blog the conference organizers do not consider the American meeting to be a meeting of the American House of Bishops but a meeting of American bishops at Lambeth.

Read it all.

The first and irrefutable conclusion that must be drawn from these two documents is the shocking inadequacy of GAFCON’s theological resource group and wider leadership. To have produced a briefing paper claiming to summarise the changes between the Nassau and St Andrew’s draft covenants but actually comparing the St Andrew’s draft to a quite different document unrelated to the covenant (and which many of the GAFCON team were involved in writing) is an astonishing error. That nobody in the group (or among the GAFCON leadership which released it) realised that the claimed removals from the Nassau draft were therefore all fraudulent suggests an inexcusable level of ignorance about the covenant process on the part of all those involved in writing and then disseminating this briefing paper to the wider Communion. The authorship is unclear but either we have a very small number of people writing what claims to be a representative document commended by seven Primates or we have a large group which failed to spot this basic and serious flaw. I am not sure which of these options is I would prefer to be reality. Unfortunately this all gives the strong impression that the conclusion ”“ “the new document is severely flawed and should be repudiated” ”“ was already decided upon on other grounds.

The second conclusion is that the other response of the same team is therefore seriously discredited, especially if it was put together on the basis of the briefing paper or by people who had seen the briefing paper and not realised its basic error.

Read it carefully and read it all. It is very disappointing that there was a basic documentation mistake of this magnitude–KSH.

The first Indaba followed on from the Bible Study which today consisted of only five of us, a Bishop from Connecticut, North America, who is our facilitator, and three Indian bishops. It was a good experience, in which I was encouraged to participate fully. It was humbling to hear the answer to the question – set in the context of the story of Jesus walking on the water and saying to the disciples in the boat, ”˜I am, do not be afraid’ ”“ what are the things that bring fear to Christians in your own context? ”˜Waiting for the church to be burnt for the third time’, ”˜Waiting for an excuse to be attacked.’ And not just for being a minority religion, but for being linked to the West. For these brothers from India expressing faith in ”˜I am’ rather than living in fear was inspiring.

And the Indaba group? Well, so far, it’s what it said on the packing. We set some ground rules and then in quietness answered three questions. We then moved into two conversations in different pairs and then formed a group of five in which we explored in more detail the question, ”˜Who am I as an Anglican bishop?’ At this point I might have felt left out, but not only was I was fully included but the group immediately offered to ordain me to the episcopacy there and then, and were already improvising for a bishop’s staff and Episcopal ring! Of course I resisted. What followed was not significantly different to the conversation I might have with my Team Leader colleagues, or indeed all Regional Ministers.

We then took our one sentence back and with the other small groups within the larger group, shared findings noting points of convergence and divergence.

Read it all.

It was the fourth meeting of our Bible Study Group and we are really relaxing into each other’s company. So far we have skirted around the gay issue, which is probably just as well as we need to secure our confidence and trust in each other before tackling it. But today was a powerful time as we talked about ”˜fear’, drawing on the story of Jesus walking on the water and the fear of disciples.

The stories of fear from members of our group who have been in the civil wars and strife of Africa were demanding. The two of us from the West really had little to contribute as, in truth, we live very safe and predictable lives. One of our number helped us understand that he fears that he would be deposed if he was known to have become soft on issues central to the thinking of his Diocese – and another piece fell into place in the jig-saw of the complexity of the issues which face the Conference.

The double dose of Indaba was clearly designed to get us in the mood for dancing together. There are certainly those who are very suspicious of this process, feeling far more at home with weighty reports, set piece speeches and a western style parliamentary approach to ordering the mind of the church – convincing them that Indaba will work may be an uphill struggle. But we all appeared willing to try and my group had a good go at establishing an ”˜Anglican Identity’. It was very much a first day at this and other groups clearly found the process frustrating.

Read it all.

The remarkable thing about the study is that a student’s ability at age four to defer gratification is correlated with better outcomes much later in life, such as academic and social competence. For example, one follow-up paper found a statistically significant relationship between how long a student waited to ring the bell and — more than a decade later — their “ability to cope with frustration and stress in adolescence.”

New York Times columnist David Brooks has cited this study and inferred that most social problems are rooted in an inability to defer gratification. He argues that for people with poor self-control “life is a parade of foolish decisions: teen pregnancy, drugs, gambling, truancy and crime.” I agree. I can find no other compelling explanation for why someone would do something as utterly ridiculous as dropping out of high school, no matter how bad the school is.

But I’ll see David Brooks and raise him one. I find myself asking an even bigger question: Is America as a nation losing its ability to wait for the second marshmallow? By that, I mean can we still muster the political will and personal sacrifice to make investments today that will make us richer and stronger 10, 20, or 50 years from now?

Read it all.

Is there any question that as the first blogged Lambeth Conference this one is more interesting as a result? I commend the bishops for their blogging, and for the time and sacrifice they are putting in to doing it–KSH.

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.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

(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!

Read it all.

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.”

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.

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

Read it all.

Read it all.

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.

Read it all.