At the core of the present fragmentation in the life of the Anglican Communion has been an avoidance of the conciliar process beyond the national level and an elevation of provincial autonomy over catholic consensus through the councils of the wider church. The conciliarist principle holds that local option must submit to the consensus of the wider church, which represents the whole church, not just a segment of it. Lesser synods must submit to the decisions of greater synods. Though the Anglican Communion has the structures in place that could promote conciliarism as a way of addressing current controversies, particularly the Lambeth Conference of Bishops and the Primates’ Meeting, these instruments of unity have been prevented from functioning in an effective way.

The Windsor Report (2004) proposed a conciliar approach to addressing the crisis prompted by the Robinson consecration and the blessings of same sex unions in North America. However, the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to discipline offending bishops by not inviting them to participate in the Lambeth Conference. The Primates’ Meeting was prevented from following through on the moratoria demands they had made of the Bishops of The Episcopal Church in their Dar es Salaam Communiqué (2007), and the 2008 Lambeth Conference was carefully orchestrated to prevent the Bishops from acting as a council of the church to address the sexuality crisis that has so deeply divided us.

Until the Anglican Communion addresses the prevailing system of elevating provincial autonomy over all else, we will be unable to function as a conciliar church and address controversy as a truly catholic body. Any claim to autonomy must be understood within the context of what it means to be a part of the larger body of the church catholic. There are limits to provincial autonomy that fall short of independence from the rest of the church and the principle of common consent. When we speak of autonomy, it is always autonomy in communion and interdependence. This has been made more difficult to address in light of the fact that the Lambeth Conferences have intentionally been designed to act merely as conferences, without legislative or canonical authority. They have not been seen as councils or synods of bishops with anything but a certain kind of moral authority. And when Lambeth resolutions are rejected or ignored, as in the last decade, there are no consequences, no discipline, and no accountability. Instead of discipline for American and Canadian bishops who openly rejected the teaching of the 1998 Lambeth Resolution 1:10 and refused to comply with the recommendations of the Windsor Report, Archbishop Williams and his planning committee decided that Lambeth 2008 just would not adopt any resolutions or make any recommendations. We would simply have carefully orchestrated indaba groups and times for honest sharing of feelings.

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Some of the high-flying icons of the prosperity gospel””the belief that God rewards signs of faith with wealth, health, and happiness””have run into financial turbulence.

Not all of their troubles can be blamed on the nation’s economic crisis, say critics of the name-it-and-claim-it theology found in some charismatic churches.

“I believe the charismatic movement, of which I am a part, is in the midst of a dramatic overhaul,” said J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine. “God is shaking us.” Grady predicts the movement will look much different in a few years as it refocuses on evangelism and overcoming what he calls the distraction of “materialism, flashy self-promotion, and foolish carnality.” But Scott Thumma, a Hartford Seminary sociologist who studies megachurches, is not so certain.

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As the… [Episcopal] Church in the United States of America… [TEC] has moved further into theological liberalism and away from biblical fidelity, many evangelical American Anglicans have ventured out in search of faithful church structures. In a special broadcast from the Mere Anglicanism Conference in Charleston (SC), Dr. Mohler welcomes Rev. Dr. William Dickson””rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Forth Worth, TX–to the program to discuss the significance of these developments not only for Anglicans, but for evangelicals at large.

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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel announced late Saturday night that the Israeli military would begin a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza within hours while negotiations continued on how to stop the resupply of Hamas through smuggling from Egypt.

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Barack Obama talked a lot in his election campaign about a change of strategy in foreign policy. He said he was willing to talk to America’s enemies. The list includes Cuba and Venezuela as well as North Korea; more controversial still was his proposal to talk to Iran. But it also includes a list of Middle Eastern enemies, such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria.

Whether his new policy stretches to opening a dialogue with the Taliban he hasn’t said. But the change of tone is clear. Hard power, force projection, hasn’t achieved much. In many case it’s made matters worse. That is his argument for trying something else. Many of his foreign affairs appointments will start being ratified by the Senate this week, where his fresh approach will be on display in detail.

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There is no sound and the plane is off in the distance but you get to see the beginning of the landing and the end if you look carerfully.

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Barack Obama’s decision to select the same Bible for his inauguration that Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration in 1861 forges an intriguing connection between these two presidents. It’s the latest in a series of purposeful associations, from Obama announcing his run for the White House from the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., (where Lincoln gave his “House Divided” speech), to a photo-op last week at the Lincoln Memorial.

As with all symbols, the use of the Lincoln Bible — gilt-edged, covered in burgundy-colored velvet — does much more than physically link two administrations. Lincoln made surprising and controversial use of the Bible and faith as president. Will Obama, whose religious beliefs have already played a role in American politics, do the same?

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Reverend DONNA JONES (Senior Pastor, Cookman United Methodist Church): For this bi-racial guy with an immigrant father, with roots in community organizing, with an African American wife and two black kids to move into the White House ”” what kind of country we have today that that can happen is such a testament of hope and a testament to the sacrifice of Martin Luther King.

[KIM] LAWTON: Philadelphia United Methodist pastor Donna Jones says Obama’s election has ignited a new sense of optimism in her community and in communities across the country.

Rev. JONES: What this campaign has done in its entirety, and this is beyond Barack Obama, is it let us know that the process can work to effect change, but it didn’t necessarily change anything.

[KIM] LAWTON: And, indeed, amid all the talk of hope, some religious leaders are also cautioning that much work still needs to be done before King’s full social vision may be realized.

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Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet Saturday night to declare a cease-fire in Gaza and will keep its forces there in the short term while the next stage of an agreement with Egypt is worked out.

“It looks as if all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together,” Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Friday. “There will be discussions tomorrow morning, and it looks like a cabinet meeting will take place tomorrow night. Everyone is very upbeat.”

Meanwhile, Israeli tank fire killed two boys at a United Nations-run school on Saturday in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, a U.N. official told Reuters. Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, said two brothers had been killed and 14 people had been wounded in the attack, including the boys’ mother. An Israeli army spokesman said that he was checking the report.

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William Murchison’s “Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity” (Encounter Books).

The atheist slogan, “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life,” may soon be coming to subways and buses in Canada’s largest city.

The Toronto-based Freethought Association of Canada, inspired by a campaign that has plastered British buses with the phrase, has contacted the private firm that handles ads on the Toronto Transit Commission to see if the message would violate any rules. Organizers plan to launch a fundraising page on the website atheistbus.ca in the next few days.

The British campaign, which has inspired similar moves in Washington, Barcelona and Madrid, has sparked complaints to the country’s advertising authority and a backlash from the evangelical group Christian Voice, which has proclaimed that Britain is in “deep sin.”

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Praying together, singing hymns together, even when we cannot (yet) take Communion together, is perhaps the best form of conversation, where we listen to the Lord to whom we pray and to whom we give our hearts in worship, trying to discern what he requires of us as Christians in the time in which we live. Fr. Neuhaus was a determined and bracing leader in that Great Conversation, who will be missed.

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“Dr. King had come face to face with what he felt to be his eventuality. He was prepared,” [Jim] Clyburn said in remarks at a University of South Carolina breakfast commemorating King.

Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and the son of a minister, said the election of Barack Obama 40 years after King’s assassination is the same period of time the Bible describes between Moses’ message to the Israelites of a promised land and their arrival there.

“I don’t know, but it seems ordained to me.”

Read it all from the local paper.

MARK SHIELDS: He speaks so well there’s a temptation always to speak long. But I hope he speaks briefly.

But I think it’s just a remarkable, remarkable time in the country. And I think it is shared across party lines. Fifty-nine percent of Republicans now like Obama. I mean, that is rather remarkable.

JIM LEHRER: Remarkable time in our country, David?

DAVID BROOKS: It is. Even as the economic mood goes down, the political mood really does go up.

—From last night’s Lehrer News Hour which I happened to catch on the morning run

Few voices in the Church of England have stood more boldly for biblical authority than the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester. In a special broadcast from the Mere Anglicanism Conference in Charleston (SC), Dr. Mohler welcomes Bishop Nazir-Ali to the program for a broad conversation about the most pressing issues facing the Church of England.

You can either download it as a podcast or listen to it by following the links here.

For years, Republicans have been trying to create a large investor class with policies like private Social Security accounts, medical savings accounts and education vouchers.

These policies were based on the belief that investors are careful, rational actors who make optimal decisions. There was little allowance made for the frailty of the decision-making process, let alone the mass delusions that led to the current crack-up.

Democrats also have an unfaced crisis. Democratic discussions of the stimulus package also rest on a mechanical, dehumanized view of the economy. You pump in a certain amount of money and “the economy” spits out a certain number of jobs. Democratic economists issue highly specific accounts of multiplier effects – whether a dollar of spending creates $1.20 or $1.40 of economic activity.

But an economy is a society of trust and faith. A recession is a mental event, and every recession has its own unique spirit. This recession was caused by deep imbalances and is propelled by a cascade of fundamental insecurities.

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One just stands in awe of what this pilot was able to accomplish.

This week, banks ran into yet deeper crisis: the sector is in more trouble than was feared. As Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, noted in a speech in London this week, however, economic recovery will not begin until the financial sector recovers its health. Governments must act.

In October, following a British lead, governments around the world recapitalised their banks. This drastic measure saved the sector from collapse. But, as the events of this week have demonstrated, the banks are still on the ropes….

Governments must now act swiftly to move ahead of the crisis. Ad hoc nationalisation of insolvent banks and recapitalisation of impaired ones is simply not enough. Governments must act to draw out the poisonous uncertainty caused by the toxic assets held by solvent banks.

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State Controller John Chiang announced today that his office would suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, as a result of the state’s cash crisis.

Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state’s nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.

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The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican), is involved in “an unanticipated series of consultations with the primates who originated the call” for a new Anglican province in North America, participants in an Anglican theology conference have been told.

Bishop Duncan had been scheduled to address “North American Anglicanism After GAFCON and Lambeth” at the Mere Anglicanism conference in Charleston, S.C. Instead, the Very Rev. William McKeachie, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul which is the conference location, read a letter from Bishop Duncan. He said that following consultations about the proposed new province between Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and members of the GAFCON primates’ steering committee in London last month, Archbishop Williams had asked that a paper be prepared setting out the situation and the hopes for a new structure. The Archbishop invited the primates to forward the case to the Anglican Consultative Council along with their comments.

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[I see] particular evidences arise every day that demonstrate not only a lack of mitigation, but further retrenchment of polarization and division.

For example, yesterday my bishop in Colorado (where I remain canonically resident), the Rt. Rev. Robert O’Neill, ordained to the transitional diaconate a publicly known partnered homosexual. As we know, such an ordination in itself is no longer news in parts of North America. Why should anyone care? What made this news in Colorado (and this is where I heard about it first, in the newspaper) was that Bp. O’Neill has, since becoming bishop in 2003, made a public commitment to refuse such ordinations. He did this, not on the basis of his personal views, but ”“ frequently referring to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s own distinction between personal and episcopal teaching roles ”“ on the basis of his desire to abide by the Communion’s stated teaching and discipline for the sake of common life. He frequently emphasized his affirmation of the Windsor Report, both in its underlying theology and in upholding its specific recommendations. To be sure, he did not vow any time-frame for these commitments; but the purposes were clear enough.

Yet yesterday, he changed course. The issue here is not to lodge a complaint. Furthermore, we know there are no legally binding Communion policies that somehow limit his choices on this or any matter. Bishop O’Neill has made his decision, he has done so on the basis of convictions that were long-known, and he does so in concert with many of his American colleagues. Nonetheless, he does so in the known context of TEC’s and the Communion’s own difficult grappling with what has now turned into a horrendously destructive matter, and he does so deliberately. This is the issue worth pondering.

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The government moved early Friday morning to shore up Bank of America with an additional $20 billion from the bailout fund. The government is still spending the first half of the bailout money. The Senate released the other half of the $750 bailout package Thursday. David Wessel of The Wall Street Journal talks with Renee Montagne about how well the plan is working.

Listen to it all from NPR

Vatican officials this week revealed the inner workings of the Apostolic Penitentiary, a “tribunal of conscience” that has been shrouded in mystery for more than eight centuries.

As the Vatican’s highest court, the tribunal deals with confessions considered so grave only the Pope himself has the authority to absolve them.

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The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the federal government, charging that it allows the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to use taxpayer dollars to impose its religious doctrines on victims of human trafficking.

The Department of Health and Human Services awarded the bishops’ conference $6 million in grants from 2006 to 2008 to aid victims of human trafficking, many of whom are female prostitutes, according to the ACLU.

In accordance with Catholic beliefs, the bishops’ conference requires subcontractors to pledge not to use the grant money to pay for contraceptives or abortion referrals.

“Everything we do has to be consistent with our beliefs,” said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “We do all these social services, and we do it better than anyone else.”

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For the last few centuries Christianity and Enlightenment views have formed western culture. The contribution of Christianity has been downplayed by modern secular thought, but it has been seminal in area after area: personal formation, economics, social life, politics, art, music, learning, science and healing, yet its influence has receded.

In the 20th century the secular movements of Fascism, Marxism, Modernism and State Socialism flourished. The Fascist belief in the pure power to shape history glorified militarism. Marxismsought salvation in the proletariat and Modernism posited belief in the human ability to capture and control the future without faith. They all tried to write Christianity out of the script, but failed, partlybecause the fruits of these movements were political evils like the Holocaust, the Stalinist Gulag and Fascist self-belief. The costs of these failures were enormous, and Europe forfeited the right to cultural leadership. Its self-congratulation was expressed in imperial movements of conquest around the globe and these too faltered as the self-glorification of empire turned out to be hollow and destructive. By contrast the Christian missionary movements, often self-sacrificial and largely committed to local language and culture (for example, with the Wycliffe Bible Translators), produced fruit that has flowered in every continent of the globe.

Not only political but also economic leadership passed to the United States. It was more explicitly Christian than Europe, but the Christianity was increasingly formed by secular forces. The United States adopted the role of superpower, taking on board some of the characteristics of Fascism, both in its militarism and support of military dictators, and in its trust of leaders who turned out to be footloose to justice, peace and truthfulness. In its economic policy the United States worshipped the so-called free market as a self-validating and supreme economic instrument, supposedly incapable of wrong. They also worshipped capitalism as the self-directing power of the entrepreneur to shape human economic history whether in the form of General Motors or McDonald’s.

This economic faith had already been challenged in 1929 by theWall Street Crash and the subsequent recession, but the advent of World War II and the assertion that State Socialism was the only alternative saw the model through. In the late 20th century it asserted worldwide influence and spread. The culture that the United States has conveyed to the world in the decades since has been a long way from Christianity. Especially in the era of Reagan and Thatcher a further recrudescence of laissez-faire capitalism and individualism spread round the world, accompanied by an individualistic consumerism that triumphantly proclaimed the creation of wealth.

It was feted, because it produced servility in other nations to its way of operating. But that way was dramatically divergent from the Christian way. It ignored the truth that most of what has value is initially given by God in the creation ‘energy, food, bodies, water’ and we merely add value to what we have been given, mainlythrough labour. It also ignored the fact that markets are human communities requiring fairness, good products and services and trust in transactions.

There are good and bad markets, and apart from arms, drugs, prostitution and alcohol, there have been many other addictive and destructive markets or ones that operate unfairly. For
decades people have been flattered and bribed into overspending through adverts and credit. This has created a bankrupt culture in which government debt, national trade debt and a personal credit crisis will require years of adjustment. Moreover the global warming crisis, again led by the United States’ levels of consumption, hangs over this profligate
consumer culture in judgment on all of us.

The United States therefore faces a point of cultural judgment, and it is especially one which requires the dissociation of Christian norms and culture from those of a terminal western indulgent individualism. This will not be easy. The Gospel of peace has been locked in the same room with superpower militarism. American nationalism has been dressed in borrowed Christian clothes that do not fit. The proclamation of self-gratification and self-worth has drowned out self-denial and the acknowledgement of sin. The good life has moved from righteousness to affluent consumption. Piety has become entertainment, and selflessness the promotion of personalities.

As a result of this antimony, the United States has been losing cultural authority in the Christian world, as is much of the west. This larger problem of compromised Christianity dwarfs the problems of the Episcopal Church in the States, but supplies much of its context. This dissociation will require decades and be very painful, but Christian ways are the decisive alternative to this bankrupt westernism.

We in Britain will also face a similar process, but the Kingdom of God insists on coming on its own terms and for that we should all rejoice.

–This article appeared in the Church of England Newspaper, January 15, 2009 edition, on page 9

Mr. Obama seems to share the cool rationalism of the UCC’s liberal New England roots more than the evangelistic and emotive black church tradition. Talking to the Chicago Sun-Times about his faith in 2004, he cited his “suspicion of dogma” and “too much certainty,” and said he preferred a “dose of doubt” in religion. Somewhat deflecting questions about prayer, Jesus and the afterlife, Mr. Obama defined sin as “being out of alignment with my values.”

In 2007, Mr. Obama addressed the UCC’s governing synod. “Doing the Lord’s work is a thread that’s run through our politics since the very beginning,” he told an enthusiastic audience of 9,000. Despite Mr. Obama’s resignation from Trinity after the Wright controversy, John Thomas, president of the UCC, wrote to him after his November win, speaking of the denomination’s pride and hope in the president-elect and offering him the “hospitality” of its congregations in Washington.

All this suggests that Mr. Obama could choose one of the UCC’s seven churches in the nation’s capital, two of which are predominantly black. Or, will he gravitate instead to one of the city’s historically black denominations in a majority black city? Whatever denomination attracts him, will he choose a white or racially diverse church?

Read it all from today’s Wall Street Journal.

The Church of England plans to appoint an investment director as the credit crisis cuts the value of its 5.7 billion pounds ($8.5 billion) of assets.

“It’s not essential that the successful candidate is religious,” Louis Henderson, a spokesman for the church, said in a telephone interview today. “What would be expected, though, is they are sympathetic with the aims of the Church of England.” The Church will pay the holder of the newly created post a “six-figure” salary, he added.

The director will invest money accrued since King Henry VIII broke with the Papacy in the 16th century and seized its English assets. The Church of England uses the 305-year-old fund to pay the salaries and pensions of about 16,000 clergy and workers. The investment director will coordinate the fund’s investments in stocks, bonds, private equity, and real estate.

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So what has gone wrong? Well, our expectations have risen exponentially as we have seen with the NHS. Also, the NHS success has meant that we are all living longer ”“ much longer in fact. As a result, we need far more medical services and pensions. We are victims of our own success!

The problem we face today is that things have become more complicated. The hydra has grown more heads; and sadly all of us unwittingly continue to feed it instead of starving it. It is becoming harder and harder both for those who govern and those who speak out on behalf of us to see the problems clearly or to identify the right solutions.

We have also become a more self-absorbed society. I believe that one of the key factors which has contributed to our loss of the big vision for our country, has been the loss of the Empire. I am aware that this is a controversial view. But whilst Britain had an Empire, a large merchant navy, a large manufacturing industry and commerce, and significant numbers engaged in armed forces, and an expatriate Civil Service in the colonies, it encouraged an outward-looking perspective.

As the vision for Britain became more introspective, I believe we became more self-absorbed. Hugh Montefiore, in his Installation Sermon as the sixth Bishop of Birmingham on 4 March 1978 said that, “No-one can lead a fully human life unless he has a worthy aim in life. I sometimes fear that the people of this great country, having shed an Empire, have also lost a noble vision for their future. How can we rediscover our self-confidence and self-esteem as a nation? What do we really want for our beloved land? Man cannot live by bread alone, nor yet by cash alone. We need a nobler aim in life than an annual increase in take-home pay. What we need are new ideals, a new sense of self-esteem, which will unite us, energize us and unleash those excellencies of character and creativity latent within us all. I believe it is the task of the Church not so much to condemn our failures as to help towards the acceptance of common goals which uplift the heart. Certainly there are no signs these may come from any other source ….

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It isn’t about cows or cobras, a wedding or outsourcing. It isn’t about gurus or Gandhi. “Slumdog Millionaire,” in fact, may be the first world-traveling film about India in a generation to discard the old, smudged lenses for seeing this country.

Its novelty has given it a dream run in U.S. movie theaters, and last week it won best dramatic picture at the Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles. It now is given a good shot at the Academy Awards next month, even though much of the dialogue is in Hindi.

But the film’s freshness lies not just in how the West sees India. It lies, too, in how Indians see themselves. It portrays a changing India, with great realism, as something India long resisted being: a land of self-makers, where a scruffy son of the slums can hoist himself up, flout his origins, break with fate.

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