Sadly, I cannot escape the conclusion that this gathering was a missed opportunity and I endorse the report ”˜What really happened in Auckland NZ at ACC-15′ released today by the ACC representatives from Kenya and Nigeria. It is clear that those controlling the agenda were very reluctant to face the real ecclesiological and theological challenges thrown up by the undisciplined rejection of historic Anglican faith and order by certain Provinces.

In particular the continued treatment of the Episcopal Church of the United States as a Province in good standing, despite its leading role as an advocate for teaching and practice contrary to Scripture, undermines the claim to be allowing the Bible in the life of the Church to actually speak as the Word of God.

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8. We close with an observation from the Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali on the limits of biblical interpretation: “We cannot, because of a process of inculturation, produce forms of the Christian faith that are entirely opaque to Christians elsewhere.” We are grieved that the Anglican Consultative Council continues to tolerate, and even honour, The Episcopal Church USA, the Anglican Church of Canada and other provinces who continue to produce revisionist forms of the Christian faith that are unrecognizable to the majority of Anglicans worldwide, contrary to a plain reading of God’s Word and in violation of Anglican Faith and Order.

9. We call upon all Anglicans to pray that our beloved Communion will stand firm in honouring the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ as the Son Of God, and the authority of God’s Word written over all contexts, and in every matter of faith and practice.

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He is an interesting appointment. His ministry has London roots: he is, in part, a product of the evangelical approach favoured by Holy Trinity Brompton, which has its critics as well as admirers. In that sense he will be quite different from the scholarly, liberal-catholic Williams. He has real-life experience, having worked in the oil industry, where his work included dealing with disputes in oil-rich Nigeria. He has been deployed by the Church to engage in Christian-Muslim dialogue in Africa, an urgent matter, given the targeting of Christians in Nigeria by Islamists. He has a background that should equip him to deal with the different challenges of being head of the 77 million-strong Anglican communion and the Church of England.

So far as London is concerned, he will bring a bracing familiarity with the business world to bear on his moral critique of Mammon….

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The Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby, is set to succeed the Most Reverend Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.

The new archbishop becomes head of the Anglican Communion at a time when major divisions exist over issues such as the ordination of women bishops and same-sex marriage.

Here are the opinions of some observers of the Church and people within it about what his priorities should be as he starts the job….

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The meteoric rise of the Bishop of Durham is expected to be confirmed on Friday when he is officially unveiled as the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Right Reverend Justin Welby, an Eton-educated former oil industry executive, will become the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the 77 million strong Anglican Communion.

He said he was unable to comment on reports of the appointment as he sat on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards in London, of which he is a committee member. When asked if he was to take on the role, he replied: “I am not able to comment, only Lambeth Palace can.”

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Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby, will take over a church divided about women bishops, and, even more potently, about sexuality.

In the last decade secularism has taken a deeper hold in England, starting to erode the influence of the established, state, church.

It has also become more assertive, no longer content to see the Church of England – or other religious institutions – exercise traditional privileges.

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The confirmation that the 56-year-old is the choice to take over as head of the established Church comes after months of tortured deliberations and less than a year after Dr Welby took up his first appointment as a bishop.

The long delay – Dr Welby has been widely named as the leading contender for the job for the past three months – has led to charges that the leadership of the CofE is hopelessly divided.
It has even exposed the Church to mockery from bookmakers who stopped taking bets over the appointment, saying they were worried that clerics are trying to stage a betting coup.

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Bishop Welby came to God late, being baptised as an adult in Holy Trinity, Brompton, an evangelical church in London whose vicar, Nicky Gumbel, has pioneered the evangelical Alpha courses.

After reading law and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, he drifted into a career in business, working for Elf in Paris and rising to become a group treasurer in a company called Enterprise Oil.

[After 11 years in the Oil industry he experienced a sense of God’s call to him to enter ordained ministry]…

The turning point in his life had come four years earlier. In 1983, he and his wife suffered the tragic loss of their oldest child, Johanna, in a car crash in France at the age of seven months.

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A former oil executive he gave up a highly paid career after feeling a “call” to the priesthood in the late 1980s.

“Something in me just said ”˜this is what you should be doing’,” he recently explained.

He was later able to draw on years of experience in oil exploration in troubled areas of west Africa, when his ministry led him to work in conflict resolution in the violent Niger Delta, where he narrowly avoided being shot dead.

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The most notable thing about Justin Welby is that no one has gone round badmouthing him. There were other candidates who ”“ like him ”“ have no enemies, but none who have no critics, and the others who have no enemies were widely thought to be too dull or just too sane to take the job.

Welby, however, has praise from all corners of the church and he carries the promise of being able to talk as if the Church of England doesn’t matter very much. That may seem like an odd qualification to be archbishop of Canterbury, but it may be the essential one today. The temptation for any archbishop is to suppose he is a terribly important figure. The job would expose him to continuous attacks, but would also constantly stroke and inflate his vanity. The gap between pretension and reality is one into which far too many bishops and archbishops simply disappear. Welby appears to be grounded by a rather Etonian appreciation of the brutal realities of power.

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The reported confirmation of the Bishop Welby’s appointment as 105th Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the 77 million strong Anglican Communion will be seen as a meteoric rise in the career of the clergyman, who marks the first anniversary of his enthronement as Bishop of Durham later this month.

The Eton-educated bishop worked in the oil industry for 11 years before leaving to train for the Anglican priesthood. He was first ordained as a deacon in 1992.

“I was unable to get away from a sense of God calling,” he said in an interview.

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If his appointment is confirmed, he will also bring experience of personal tragedy and of civil conflict in Africa to his new role leading 80 million Christians in more than 160 countries.

The Bishop of Durham’s rise to being on the verge of becoming the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury has been remarkably swift. He has been a bishop for little over a year and the 56-year-old became a priest only in his mid-30s.

The father-of-five emerged as a late favourite for the Church of England’s most senior post after enjoying positive media coverage, having started the contest as an outsider.

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Bishop of Durham Justin Welby, a former oil industry worker, is set to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

It is thought the 56-year-old will be named on Friday as the replacement for Rowan Williams, who steps down in December after 10 years in the post.

Bishop Welby became a bishop only a year ago when he took up the Church of England’s fourth most senior post.

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Almighty God, who in thy wisdom hast so ordered our earthly life that we should walk by faith and not by sight: Grant us such faith in thee, that, amid all the things that pass our understanding, we may believe in thy fatherly care, and be ever led and strengthened by the assurance that underneath are the everlasting arms, and that thy mercy endureth for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. And some one said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ He will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!’ There you will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. And men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

–Luke 18:18-30

Sources have confirmed that the Eton-educated bishop will be announced as successor to Dr Rowan Williams as early as Friday, after the Crown Nominations Commission put his name forward to Downing Street.
It marks a meteoric rise for the former oil executive who has been a bishop for only a year, but insiders described Welby as “the outstanding candidate”.
Last night a spokesman refused to confirm his appointment. But it came a few hours after he pulled out at short notice from a planned appearance on the BBC Radio 4 discussion programme Any Questions due to take place in County Durham on Friday.

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We’re more affluent than we were in the 1950s (if you don’t think so, try doing without your air conditioning, microwaves, smartphones, and Internet connections). And we have used this affluence to seal ourselves off in the America of our choosing while trying to ignore the other America.

We tend to choose the America that is culturally congenial. Most people in the San Francisco Bay area wouldn’t consider living in the Dallas”“Fort Worth metroplex, even for much better money. Most metroplexers would never relocate to the Bay Area….

One America tends to be traditionally religious, personally charitable, appreciative of entrepreneurs, and suspicious of government. The other tends to be secular or only mildly religious, less charitable, skeptical of business, and supportive of government as an instrument to advance liberal causes.

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France’s main sales-tax rate will increase in January 2014 to 20 percent from 19.6 percent, while the second band on home renovations and restaurants will rise to 10 percent from 7 percent currently. A third rate that applies to food and energy will be cut to 5 percent from 5.5 percent in an effort to support the spending power of France’s poorest households, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said today.

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