A good discussion with helpful charts of the current credit crisis.

The Lambeth Conference Design Group, meeting one last time to review last summer’s gathering of Anglican bishops, was unanimous in its assessment that the 2008 conference was an overwhelming success, says the Rev. Ian Douglas, the group’s only U.S.-based Episcopal Church member.

Underscoring the missiological focus of the July 16-August 3 Lambeth Conference, Douglas said that the design group’s work had been “led by the Holy Spirit” as its members “asked prayerfully what God wanted us to do ”¦ It gave the group a fortitude of spirit and confidence that sustained us throughout the planning.”

“The design group felt that the vision they had, along with that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, had played out well,” said Sue Parks, Lambeth Conference manager, who noted that the group was “very conscious of all the people around the communion who had held the Lambeth Conference in prayer and the prayerful way the bishops had approached the gathering.”

The design group, which has met regularly since February 2004, held its final meeting November 4-6 at the Anglican Communion Office in London to measure the effectiveness of the conference theme, “Equipping bishops for God’s mission,” assess whether the bishops’ identity as Anglicans had been strengthened, and to discuss the nature and worth of the Indaba process.

Read it all.

Fallout from the weekend decision by the Diocese of Quincy, Ill., to leave the Episcopal Church of the United States may include litigation over millions of dollars’ worth of property and assets.

“We pray there will be no litigation,” the Rev. Ed den Blaauwen said Monday. Den Blaauwen, the rector of Christ Church in Moline, is also the newly appointed vicar general of the diocese that is now aligned with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, based in Argentina.

Church resources would be better used for Christian activities than in the courts, he added.

Read it all.

The nation’s Catholic leaders, fresh from the defeat of many of their most urgent abortion opposition issues in addition to the election of a president who supports abortion rights, came back swinging on Monday at their annual fall meeting in Baltimore.

“The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,” said Cardinal Francis George, drawing applause in his opening address to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be president of the United States. Today, as was the case 150 years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good.”

Read it all.

On Saturday 8th November 2008 the Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) reburied the remains of its first Archbishop, the late Most Rev. Elinana J. Ngalamu, in a grave behind All Saints’ Cathedral, Juba, Southern Sudan. The first Archbishop’s coffin, originally buried in Khartoum in October 1992 following his death there on 29th September 1992, was exhumed on Thursday 6th November 2008 and flown to Juba with an accompanying delegation on Friday 7th.

On the morning of Saturday 8th a brief burial ceremony was conducted by the current Archbishop, the Most Rev. Dr. Daniel Deng Bul, accompanied by the bishops of Khartoum, Rokon, Lainya, Rumbek, Ibba, Rejaf, Mundri and Lui, the assistant bishops of Torit, Bor and Juba, and the retired bishop of Mundri. Archbishop Daniel, sighting Moses’ reburial of Joseph’s bones in Canaan after his return to the Promised Land from exile in Egypt, prayed that Archbishop Elinana’s “homecoming” be symbolic in the hearts of Sudanese Anglicans in all marginalised areas as a final homecoming. He pleaded that never again should the Church have to flee from these areas as Archbishop Elinana fled from Juba to Khartoum in the 1980s to die in exile in 1992. He thanked God for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the 21-year civil war in 2005 and allowed the homecoming of the first Archbishop.

Read it all.

A Disestablished Church is not part of a truly liberal society, the British MP Sir Alan Beith has said.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum’s inaugural Gladstone Lecture, Sir Alan told members of the Liberal Democrat party that “disestablishment is not a necessary feature of a diverse and multi-cultural society.”

He said: “I know of no evidence that significant numbers of Muslims, Jews, Hindus or Sikhs are at all interested in getting the Church of England disestablished, and it is no longer a popular view with nonconformists or Catholics as it was a century ago.”

Read it all.

Gov. Mark Sanford urged residents Monday to make their voices heard before Congress makes any more decisions about how to deal with the ailing economy.

Sanford said that ordinary taxpayers are being hoodwinked and that he believes using more government money to push the nation out of a financial mess is a big mistake.

“The federal government, and by extension taxpayers, are being gamed. I think it’s dangerous over the long run the way that taxpayers are being sapped, and this dynamic is playing out in South Carolina,” Sanford wrote in a letter Friday to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to alert him to unintended consequences in South Carolina.

Read it all.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

—Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918). It is just so moving and powerful you find yourself coming back to it again and again–KSH.

P.S. the circumstances which led to the poem are well worth remembering:

It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915 and to the war in general. McCrea had spent seventeen days treating injured men — Canadians, British, French, and Germans in the Ypres salient. McCrae later wrote: “I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days… Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.” The next day McCrae witnessed the burial of a good friend, Lieut. Alexis Helmer. Later that day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the field dressing station, McCrea composed the poem. A young NCO, delivering mail, watched him write it. When McCrae finished writing, he took his mail from the soldier and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the Sergeant-major. Cyril Allinson was moved by what he read: “The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene.” Colonel McCrae was dissatisfied with the poem, and tossed it away. A fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915. For his contributions as a surgeon, the main street in Wimereaux is named “Rue McCrae”.

There is a fabulous resource for this courtesy of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. There are many themes from which to choose, and various letters to see the text of and listen to. Take a moment a drink at least one in, and, if you have a moment, tell us your thoughts in the comments.

God of peace,
we pray for those who have served our nation
and who laid down their lives
to protect and defend our freedom.

We pray for those who have fought,
whose spirits and bodies are scarred by war,
whose nights are haunted by memories
too painful for the light of day.

We pray for those who serve us now,
especially for those in harm’s way.
Shield them from danger
and bring them home.

Turn the hearts and minds
of our leaders and our enemies
to the work of justice and a harvest of peace.

Spare the poor, Lord, spare the poor!

Let the peace you left us,
the peace you gave us,
be the peace that sustains,
the peace that saves us.

Christ Jesus, hear us!
Lord Jesus, hear our prayer!

Army veteran David Platt used to sleep in abandoned houses in North Charleston, after his alcohol-fueled descent into homelessness.

He was among the roughly 300,000 veterans the government estimates are homeless during the course of each year in the United States. But a growing network of services in the Charleston area has helped him change his life.

“Four years ago, I was a homeless drunk on the streets, picking cigarette butts out of ashtrays,” said Platt, 51, formerly of Mount Pleasant. “When I finally got honest with myself, this is where I came.”

Platt is living at the Good Neighbor Center in North Charleston, one of several transitional housing facilities for homeless veterans in the region. He’s nearly completed an associate’s degree in horticulture at Trident Technical College, and is looking forward to living independently.

Read it all.

Veterans Day isn’t just a special day for America’s military veterans. It’s a day for all who rightly recognize the indispensable contributions our veterans have made to freedom not just for our nation but for the world.

Col. John “Red” Millander, commander of the 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base, correctly points out on this page that the courageous folks of today’s armed forces are still making such contributions.

Americans in military uniforms have sustained a noble ”” and constant ”” tradition of duty, honor and country for more than two centuries. The venues, reasons, terms of engagement, and popularity of the bloody conflicts in which they have fought have continually changed.

Yet their brave devotion to our nation has remained steadfast.

Read it all.

Old habits die hard.

In a small room at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center on Monday, a dozen old soldiers sat in wheelchairs to one side of the podium. It took awhile to get everyone situated, and politicians to talk. But these guys learned the finer points of “hurry up and wait” a long time ago.

Soon, the Veterans Day ceremony began. A color guard of JROTC students from San Francisco’s Washington High School brought in the American flag.

Michael O’Neal pushed up from his chair and stood on his only remaining foot.

After a bit, everyone sang the national anthem. O’Neal raised his hand to his face and held the salute. A tear formed at the corner of his only remaining eye.

Read the whole article.

It is Veteran’s Day–please take the time to watch it all.

Traditionalist Anglicans, smarting over the General Synod’s vote on women bishops, were urged on Saturday [Nov 1] not to become insular and “keep themselves to themselves”.

The appeal was issued by “flying bishop” Martyn Jarrett at a traditionalists’ Northern Festival in York Minster attended by thousands of Anglo-Catholics from all parts of the York province and beyond.

Bishop Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley, was preaching almost four months after July’s synod vote on women in the episcopate which traditionalists see as giving them no protection when females don mitres, possibly by 2013.

Read it all.

By a margin of just 16 votes, delegates to the Diocese of Pennsylvania’s annual convention decided Nov. 8 to sell all the property of Camp Wapiti. The camp has been the subject of debate at previous conventions.

Camp opponents have argued that the Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison Jr., the diocese’s recently deposed bishop, misled diocesan leadership about the true cost of diocesan funds to support the camp. After the diocese’s standing committee filed a complaint regarding diocesan funds and Camp Wapiti, the Title IV Review Committee advised against prosecuting Bishop Bennison. By then Bishop Bennison already was in church court on other charges that ultimately led to his being deposed by the House of Bishops.

The convention received two resolutions regarding the camp. One was to sell the camp whole, and the other was to keep the property and develop it more fully. Under the special-order rules, the convention chose to debate and vote on the first resolution, and to debate the second only if first failed. The rules said that approval of either resolution rendered the other resolution moot.

Read it all.

Reporting from Washington — In a move sure to increase pressure on the Bush administration to extend financial help to automakers and other ailing industries, federal officials this morning announced an overhaul of the government’s bailout of insurance giant American International Group. The new plan increases the cost to about $150 billion and amounts to a tacit admission that the earlier effort fell short.

In a pre-dawn announcement before AIG announced a $24.5-billion third-quarter loss, the Treasury Department said it would spend $40 billion to buy an equity share in AIG “as part of a comprehensive plan to restructure federal assistance to the systematically important company.” The money comes from the $700 Troubled Asset Relief Program approved by Congress to try to rescue the financial system.

Read it all.

Next Saturday, November 15th, sees the convening of a National Evangelical Anglican Consultation (NEAC) at All Souls, Langham Place in London. It has been called by the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC). In contrast to the large-scale NEACs of Keele (1967), Nottingham (1977), Caister (1988) and Blackpool (2003), where the C stood for “Congress”, this is a one-day consultation (similar events have been organised be CEEC in the past) with a very specific focus: Anglican evangelicalism post Lambeth and GAFCON with a view to ”˜shaping the future’. What, then, is the ”˜state of the party’ on the eve of this NEAC and what are the issues to be addressed and possible outcomes?

Opportunities

NEAC offers a number of real opportunities at a crucial time in the life of the Anglican Communion:

a) Genuine consultation: There are, sadly, few opportunities for genuine consultation and face-to-face conversation along the full spectrum of Anglican evangelicals. Our growth over the last forty years, combined with the lack of recognised unifying leadership that used to be provided by John Stott, has led to greater diversification and fragmentation into different groups with various emphases. This has, particularly in recent years (arguably since women’s ordination in 1992 and certainly since the appointment of Rowan Williams in 2002), led to increasing tensions and fracture lines. These have sometimes been compounded by the desire of various evangelical sub-groups to define the centre or the boundaries and limits of evangelicalism in a way which alienates others.
b) Building great unity: One of the benefits of NEAC and ongoing consultation will be clearer recognition of the many areas of agreement and consensus across the different strands of Anglican evangelicalism.
c) Constructive engagement with difference: NEAC also provides the opportunity for an honest and constructive identification of the areas of disagreement and potential division that are found among evangelical Anglicans. These particularly focus on issues relating to women in church leadership, how to respond to the crisis in the Anglican Communion, and the extent to which the Church of England and elements of its leadership are already compromised in relation to orthodox biblical sexual ethics. It also could provide a catalyst for the renewal and/or creation of structures and procedures that will help us in the future both to build on areas of agreement and to address areas of tension in a godly, Christian manner rooted in strong personal relationships.

Threats

There are, however, a number of threats that must also be clearly acknowledged. One is that the meeting next Saturday does not achieve anything and is seen as a wasted opportunity and a failure to consult genuinely. Another, more serious threat, is that the meeting itself and its outcome (either on the day or as developed by CEEC subsequently) fuels further division, most likely through a confrontation between the more conservative evangelicals (linked to groups such as Reform, Church Society, Fellowship of Word and Spirit) who are supportive of GAFCON and other, particularly more open evangelicals (represented by most evangelicals bishops and groups such as Fulcrum), who have been cautious or hostile to GAFCON.

Commitments and hopes

What follows seeks to address these opportunities and threats by identifying and exploring five areas that will be particularly pressing in the minds of many attending NEAC and then sketching something of my own personal hopes as to what might result. At the heart of these hopes is a three-fold commitment and vision as to how we need to proceed at NEAC and in the months that will follow it:
”¢ The need to build relationships that will allow the discernment of a consensus around the evangelical centre both theologically (as expressed in CEEC’s Basis of Faith) and ecclesiologically (where divergences are currently at their greatest)
”¢ The need for those claiming to speak for Anglican evangelicals as a whole to address matters of controversy in a way that all ”˜sides’ or ”˜parties’ can feel recognises their concerns. This results in a wider ownership of a way forward together as Anglican evangelicals rather than a way forward that leads to a parting of the ways as some feel they cannot agree and so must distance themselves from and even undermine what is developed post-NEAC
Ӣ The need to avoid a repetition of the tensions and divisions that occurred before, during and in the aftermath of the last NEAC, symbolised for many in the lack of ordained women on the main platform, the launch of Fulcrum and the development of Anglican Mainstream. As someone closely involved in the birth of both groupings and whose wife is on the Leadership Team of one (along with me) and on the Steering Committee of the other, my hope is that this NEAC might begin to heal some of the wounds from the past but my fear is that it might inflict new wounds and confirm and harden historic cycles of miscommunication and distrust
In thinking what this might look like there have been two models that I have found particularly helpful and encouraging. One is the EFAC Commitment of July 2008 (and CEEC is the “English agent” of EFAC (Constitution, 3.1.4)) and the other is the recent CAPA statement of Sept 2008.

The key issues

Although they would probably rank them differently and have a range of perspectives on each of them, probably the majority of Anglican evangelicals in the CofE, faced with this CEEC-sponsored NEAC on Anglican evangelicalism post Lambeth and GAFCON, would recognise five areas as particularly pressing for evangelical witness, as potential causes of tension among evangelicals and so as issues that need to be faced.
1) GAFCON, Jerusalem Declaration & Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA)
2) Anglican Covenant
3) Support for orthodox in North America
4) Covenant for CofE and evangelicals in CofE seeking alternative oversight
5) The representative nature of CEEC
Of course it is vital in focussing on these five areas not to lose sight of what unites us. There is great unity theologically on a whole range of issues, notably the centrality and supreme authority of Scripture, the representative and substitutionary death of Christ, and the priority of mission (the three themes – Bible, Cross and Mission – of the last NEAC). There is also considerable unity in relation to current tensions in the Communion where Anglican evangelicalism in the CofE is resolutely opposed to the developments in North America and any attempts to move the CofE in a similar direction, being clear that blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of those in such unions is contrary to Scripture and cannot be treated as within legitimate Anglican diversity. It is also important not to get matters out of proportion because of the focus of NEAC and lose the priority of evangelism and mission both in England and the wider Communion. Nevertheless, it is these five areas which require careful analysis and handling:

(1) GAFCON, Jerusalem Declaration & FCA
Although the Jerusalem Declaration and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans based on it are the fruit of GAFCON, it is important that these three different developments of the last six months are distinguished and not treated as a single ”˜take it or leave it’ package. If they are not distinguished, then it will be very difficult to avoid a division between those who wholeheartedly “take it”, those who wish to “leave it”, and (perhaps the majority) those who rather confused and still seeking to discern the full significance and implications of all that has happened since the summer.
”¢ GAFCON: The calling of GAFCON remains a matter of division largely between those evangelicals who were invited and/or felt represented there and those (including many evangelical bishops and ordained women in the CofE) who were uncertain or unhappy about it being called and/or were not invited (or were unable/unwilling to attend). The former are clearly convinced this is a move of God that must be warmly embraced. Many others are still cautious or sceptical. Over time a consensus may be able to emerge among evangelicals that allows the positive elements to be highlighted but that should not be pressed or forced upon the whole constituency by GAFCON’s advocates but should clearly arise from within it. As with EFAC and CAPA, therefore, at NEAC a recognition of GAFCON as a very significant fact in the life of the Communion and the value of it for all those who attended is better than a definitive stance for or against.
”¢ Jerusalem Declaration. This articulation of Anglican identity is clearly the most significant development from GAFCON. While assessment of it is coloured by assessment of GAFCON (above) and of FCA (see below), it can be taken as a statement in its own right. Here evangelical Anglicans should be able to affirm what it affirms. EFAC’s statement “We heartily endorse the fourteen points of the Jerusalem Declaration of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and, like those at GAFCON, are fully committed to remaining within the Anglican Communion, and to bearing joyful witness to evangelical distinctives” represents a helpful way of doing this that should enjoy wide support.
”¢ Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA). While the Jerusalem Declaration has received positive comments from across and beyond evangelicalism (with the Archbishop of Canterbury among those drawing attention to its wide acceptance), FCA (as the continuing institutional life of GAFCON) remains controversial and potentially highly divisive. Although its Primates’ Council has met and there are plans underway for a UK FCA, there remains much uncertainty and lack of clarity about its structure, goals and strategy and as a result a significant level of suspicion remains among many evangelicals. While NEAC should affirm FCA’s commitment to the doctrinal foundation of Anglicanism as expressed in canon A5, further institutional support at this stage from NEAC or CEEC would likely cause fractures. NEAC would therefore be best to encourage and enable further reflection on how CEEC and wider evangelicalism should relate to FCA and its developing UK structure.

(2) Anglican Covenant
Mirroring in some ways the different attitudes among evangelicals to GAFCON, there are different attitudes to the proposed Anglican Covenant. Some remain very positive, others are sceptical or opposed. Such scepticism and opposition may be in principle and/or in relation to its current draft and/or in relation to its effectiveness in dealing with the crisis in the Communion and particularly North America. Following its meeting in Singapore and helpful Lambeth Commentary, the Covenant Design Group has asked for submissions on the covenant to be made to it by March 9th and the Church of England General Synod (many of whose evangelical members will be at NEAC) will debate it in February. NEAC could therefore encourage and enable further evangelical education and discussion of this important development and ask CEEC to make an official response to the CDG as it did to the Lambeth Commission prior to the Windsor Report.

(3) North America
Orthodox Anglicans in The Episcopal Church (eg Common Cause and Windsor Bishops/Communion Partners) and the Anglican Church of Canada (eg Essentials Federation and Essentials Network) have responded in a variety of ways to the actions of their dioceses/provinces in violation of Communion teaching. Those different strategies have produced some tensions among the orthodox in North America and these are also reflected among evangelicals in the CofE. It is important therefore that NEAC does not ”˜take sides’ between these different groupings but rather ”“ like Anglican Essentials in Canada – encourages mutual conversation, understanding and support both on the ground in the US and Canada and between evangelicals here in the CofE.
Despite these differences in strategy, I believe the overwhelming majority of evangelicals in the CofE would:
Ӣ recognise as Anglicans in good standing those who have been received in good standing by other provinces of the Communion because they have been unable to remain within or have been removed from office by their former province,
Ӣ assure them of prayers and continued fellowship in ministry and mission
Ӣ urge resolution of property and other disputes without recourse to secular courts
Explicit support for the creation a new province at this time remains divisive among evangelicals (though support for that as a necessity ”“ and certainly recognition that it is inevitable – is perhaps growing). Nevertheless, it should be possible for evangelicals in the CofE to agree on the need to work for unity among all Anglicans committed to Anglican faith, order and morals and to express our desire that all such Anglicans be recognised by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the wider Communion.

(4) CofE and Covenant for Church of England
Two years ago, the Chair and President of CEEC were among those who signed the “covenant for the Church of England”, a document which came under rapid and stringent criticism from other leading evangelicals, notably Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham. Given this history, and the fact that the covenant never gained much wider support among evangelicals, explicit reference to the proposed covenant for the Church of England in any outcome from NEAC will inevitably be divisive. There remain, however, a number of situations (perhaps a few dozen) in various dioceses (eg Chelmsford and Southwark) where there are problems arising in relation to impaired communion between evangelicals and their bishops and/or church plants (eg related to Crosslinks) seeking some form of alternative episcopal oversight. Given this reality, evangelicals must find fresh ways of resolving these problems and not allow different reactions and different settings to increase pressure on potential fracture points. A number of evangelical bishops have been seeking to find ways forward in consultation with the authors of the covenant and their work needs to be given wider recognition and support and all involved urged to recognise the seriousness of this situation and so provide and seek diocesan and regional solutions to difficulties within the structures of the CofE in order to avoid importing the problem of boundary-crossing into the Church of England.

(5) CEEC
For some time there has been concern that CEEC has ceased to be as representative a body within evangelicalism as it has been in the past and CEEC has itself acknowledged that there are issues that need addressing here. Many evangelicals feel strongly that significant changes need to be made if it is to fulfil its stated aims and to accomplish the vision of John Stott and others by assisting evangelical unity. In particular,
Ӣ the relationship with evangelical bishops is apparently weak or non-existent
”¢ more conservative networks are strongly represented (eg Reform, Church Society, Latimer Trust, Fellowship of Word and Spirit) and the overlap between membership of CEEC and membership of Anglican Mainstream’s Steering Committee has gradually increased in recent years in a way few people have recognised.
Ӣ it has not been able to adapt to the growing number and diversity of evangelical networks and
Ӣ it has not faced the reality of the consequent decline or even demise of the Diocesan Evangelical Fellowships/Unions that have been the historic backbone of CEEC.
Although a new constitution was adopted in 2005, major questions remain about the reform of CEEC which should soon be undertaking its five-yearly “rigorous review of its performance and effectiveness” (Constitution 6.9) and many of whose members, including key Executive positions, are due for re-election in 2010.

What might be done?

What, then, might be more concrete hopes as to outcomes of NEAC 2008? Obviously, there is a need to be realistic: the gathering will be a large one but is a self-selected group, attending an event which has been organised by a group within CEEC and with much input from the platform but seemingly minimal scope for discussion and organised feedback. Furthermore, those attending will only receive papers on the day, not in advance (although those attending have been asked to look at the Jerusalem Declaration) and no information has been provided as to how the ”˜consultation’ with those attending will happen. Its ability to act as a body in any coherent or truly representative manner is thus minimal. Hence the first danger that the “consultation” will be ineffective and the second danger that the “consultation” will either be led to certain (perhaps majority but not consensus) conclusions or be used as a front for whatever decisions are subsequently taken by the CEEEC Executive and Council. In the light of the analysis above I think there are five elements which would represent a successful NEAC making the most of the real opportunities and minimising the real dangers:

1. Affirmations of all that can be positively and jointly affirmed by the full spectrum of evangelicals about such matters as the affirmations in the Jerusalem Declaration, the importance of contributing to the Communion covenant process and our solidarity with all the orthodox in TEC, ACC and those in North America who are now in other provinces of the Communion.
2. A request to CEEC urgently to establish ”“ in consultation with EFAC and evangelical bishops – a representative working party comprising members of the Council and others (as they are authorised to do in CEEC’s Constitution 6.10) in order to address other issues relating to the Anglican Communion and in particular to:
a) Prepare a CEEC submission on the Anglican Covenant to the CDG by Feb 2008
b) Make recommendations concerning the relationship between CEEC and FCA
This would enable the creation of new institutional structures to build relationships and seek a common mind rather than risk continuing down divergent paths with megaphone diplomacy between different evangelical networks and groups. It would also allow CEEC to make a considered response to the two main developments arising out of Lambeth and GAFCON. Deferring any decision on FCA would enable FCA’s UK structures and plans to become clearer, concerns of some evangelicals to be addressed, and the mind of evangelicals in the CofE as a whole to be discerned. In particular, it is vital to discover whether FCA is a broad body which may function something like EFAC and with which CEEC could legitimately be aligned as a member or simply another new network which may seek to be represented within CEEC but to which CEEC itself should not be affiliated or give preferential status over other groups.
3. A request to CEEC to consult widely (drawing in evangelical bishops and others currently less involved with its work) as it reviews its structures, renews its membership and seeks better to fulfil its object. In particular consideration needs to be given as to how CEEC can in future work better to “promote effective consultation between Anglican Evangelical leaders, in order that the evangelical heritage, as expressed in the Basis of Faith, may be better applied to contemporary opportunities and problems in church and nation” (Constitution, 3.1.1).
4. A request for another National Evangelical Anglican Consultation/Congress, perhaps over a weekend, by summer 2010 in order to consider these and other matters
5. A re-commitment to face our differences and disagreements among ourselves as evangelicals and as evangelical Anglicans with non-evangelical Anglicans in a godly manner shaped by Paul’s exhortation:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (Col. 3:12-16).

–The Rev. Dr. Andrew Goddard Tutor in Christian Ethics at Trinity College, Bristol where he is helping develop the new Centre for Bible and Society

Half an hour later the air was clearing and the police began evacuating people on buses. The Trinity group were driven slowly up East River Drive, on Manhattan’s eastern edge, and down 32nd Street to the junction with Fifth Avenue. From there, Rowan walked to his hotel and was able to contact his secretary by phone and to leave a message for [his wife] Jane that he was all right. Over lunch and a bottle of wine, the Archbishop and Burnham began to shed tears. Burnham set off for home towards the end of the afternoon, leaving Rowan to work on a brief article for that week’s Church Times. “I’m obviously very glad to be alive,” he wrote, “but also feel deeply uncomfortable, and my mind shies away from the slaughter.”

The following day he managed to reach St John the Divine Cathedral, where he was due to give a lecture, with time to spare. He was immediately asked to celebrate an unscheduled Eucharist at the high altar and agreed to do so. Burnham was inspired.

“When [Rowan] got to the rubric for the homily he was totally surprised; he hadn’t expected to preach, so he preached off the cuff. He went back to an encounter that he had with an airline pilot on the streets at 7am that morning. The pilot said to him, “Where the hell was God?” Rowan’s answer was that God is useless at times like this. Now that’s pretty shocking, but actually what he then went on to unpack is that God didn’t cause this and God [was not] going to stop it, because God has granted us free will, and therefore God has to suffer the consequences of this like we do. So in a sense he exonerated God…”

Read it all.

The suicide of a fellow student at Oxford 33 years ago has been revealed as one of the defining moments in the life of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

A new biography describes how Hilary Watson fell secretly in love with the charismatic and deeply spiritual 24-year-old doctoral student while he was counselling her in the 1970s.

According to the book….the young theologian was unaware of how his well-intentioned support had resulted in emotional turmoil for a woman four years his senior. He was the last person to see Miss Watson before she took an overdose of sleeping pills. She then called a mutual friend and asked her to “tell Rowan that it’s not his fault”.

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Much has been written about how people all around the world are celebrating the victory of our Hussein ”” Barack of Illinois, whose first name means “blessing” in Arabic. It is, indeed, a blessing that so many people in so many places see something of themselves reflected in Obama, whether in the color of his skin, the religion of his father, his African heritage, his being raised by a single mother or his childhood of poverty. And that ensures that Obama will probably have a longer than usual honeymoon with the world.

But I wouldn’t exaggerate it. The minute Obama has to exercise U.S. military power somewhere in the world, you can be sure that he will get blowback. For now, though, his biography, demeanor and willingness to at least test a regime like Iran’s with diplomacy makes him more difficult to demonize than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

“If you’re a hard-liner in Tehran, a U.S. president who wants to talk to you presents more of a quandary than a U.S. president who wants to confront you,” remarked Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment. “How are you going to implore crowds to chant ”˜Death to Barack Hussein Obama’? That sounds more like the chant of the oppressor, not the victim. Obama just doesn’t fit the radical Islamist narrative of a racist, blood-thirsty America, which is bent on oppressing Muslims worldwide. There’s a cognitive dissonance. It’s like Hollywood casting Sidney Poitier to play Charles Manson. It just doesn’t fit.”

But while the world appears poised to give Obama a generous honeymoon, there lurks a much more important question: How long of a honeymoon will Obama give the world?

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The expression “as poor as a church mouse” is taking on fresh meaning, especially for mainline Protestant churches such as [the Rev. Michael] Gray’s, which have been grappling for decades with a drop in members and donations.

Autumn is the time of year when many churches are drawing up their budgets and asking for donation pledges for the coming year. This year, many church leaders say they are preparing for hard times.

For some churches on the edge, this could be a winter of final reckoning.

“We are all on survival mode,” said the Very Rev. Benjamin Shambaugh, dean of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland.

Like many congregations with drafty pre-energy crisis buildings, St. Luke’s is feeling the squeeze that comes from heating its soaring interiors. Shambaugh expects St. Luke’s to have spent $40,000 on oil to heat its State Street building by the end of this year, a big chunk of the church’s $578,000 annual budget.

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