The pro-democracy Occupy protests last year divided Hong Kong and violence has become more frequent, Archbishop Paul Kwong said on Sunday.
…..
“Our city has been divided and fragmented after the Occupy Movement and the dispute over political reform last year. When dealing with people and social issues, we begin to see a more frequent use of violent language and behaviours rather than mutual trust, tolerance, objectivity and rationality.”

The Archbishop ended his message by calling for an accepting and tolerant attitude, as it was the only way a society of mutual trust,
….
Paul Kwong has made controversial remarks in the past. Last year, he said that some of the protesters at the July First march joined out of a herd mentality. He also asked why the arrested demonstrators “didn’t bring their Filipino maids to the march,”

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Members of the Anglican Consultative Council, meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, will elect a new chair tomorrow and will have the choice of two candidates with significant knowledge of global Anglicanism: Professor Joanildo Burity from Brazil and Archbishop Paul Kwong from Hong Kong.

Read it all and AB Kwong may be seen here at the Primates Gathering Press Conference

In a rare interview, his second since taking over the helm at the church in 2007, the Most Reverend Paul Kwong told the Post that, contrary to accusations, he was not a government yes-man. He claimed he had, behind closed doors, urged officials to communicate with different sectors and explain their policies more clearly and frequently.

Kwong declined to say if he supported Leung’s re-election, but he said he believed the chief executive “loves Hong Kong”.

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Top Anglican official in Hong Kong defends multi-million dollar flat and past comments critical of Occupy protesters

In rare interview, Most Reverend Paul Kwong explains to Post his comments generating media attention two years ago and today
In a rare interview, Most Reverend Paul Kwong spoke with the Post on questions raised in the media about his political stances and why he resided at upscale Pacific View complex on Tai Tam Road. It was reported that the apartment cost the church HK$13.4 million in 2006. The latest public records involving Pacific View flats indicated transactions in recent months ranging from HK$19 million to HK$38 million.

When asked why he did not follow his predecessors’ example of staying at Bishop House in Central, Kwong said the building, built in 1851, was too spacious for an unmarried bishop like him.
………
In July 2014, Kwong talked about “peace of mind” in a sermon and questioned why Hongkongers “speak up so much”. He asked at the time why protesters who complained about being denied water after they were arrested at a sit-in in Central did not “bring along their Filipino maids”.

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..the report ignores entirely the teaching of the Anglican Communion about marriage and human sexuality as set out in Lambeth 1.10 and what impact any change in the doctrine and practice of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia would have on its relations with other churches in the Communion. It also ignores entirely the question of what effect such a change would have on wider ecumenical relationships. Just as it ignores the witness of the Church down the ages the report also ignores the wider Church today.

Eighthly, the final problem about the report is about what it might portend for the future. If the only criteria for marriage is love, union, covenant, gift and household it is difficult to see on what grounds polygamous marriages (which already get a favourable mention in the report as examples of marital constancy[49] ), or incestuous marriages would be ruled out as candidates for blessing if they meet the criteria laid down in the report of being permitted by state law. On what theological grounds would the report rule them out?

IV. The significance of the report for the wider Anglican debate about same-sex relationships

The significance of this report for the wider Anglican debate about same-sex relationships is that it shows that no church can have it both ways when it comes to the doctrine of marriage. It is impossible for a church to consistently uphold a traditional Christian view of marriage while at the same time being willing to bless same-sex relationships as an alternative form of marriage. The path taken by the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is therefore one that other Anglican churches (including the Church of England) should not go down.

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It is clear that in coming years in a number of Anglican provinces, including the Church of England, there will be pressure to seek to find a way that authorizes practices (especially in relation to ordination and public rites) that embody the belief that same-sex sexual unions are consonant with Scripture, while maintaining unimpaired communion under Scripture and doctrine with those who believe such unions are contrary to Scripture. The report’s ultimate lack of consistency speaks eloquently, if unknowingly, to this problem: it gives strong supporting evidence that it is simply impossible to reconcile these two positions with any theological or ecclesiological coherence, especially if one is also committed to uphold the Christian doctrine of marriage in a society that rejects it and accepts same-sex marriage.

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In the ’90s we millennials heard stories about a time when kids performed plays at home and families gathered around their pianos, but we consumed our entertainment from TVs that kept growing in size and programming.

In following our individual channels, choices, and pursuits, we became more isolated. We became anxious, de­pressed, and exhausted and began to wonder if bigger was really better. Now something new is happening. Farmer’s markets are springing up. People are turning off their televisions and creating their own stories on social media through status updates, blogs, and vlogs. People upcycle, knit, and quilt.

Those who grew up with big-box stores and mega­churches are longing for small, deep, and creative communities. These worshipers reject a worship service where paid professionals entertain those attending and instead are committed to making liturgy, art, music, and relationships.

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The Archbishop of Kenya has denied that he signed or approved a letter released under his signature that appeared to change Kenya’s stance on its boycott of the meeting of Anglican leaders in Zambia this week.

The Most Rev Eliud Wabukala told Anglican Ink that the forgery was a ruse to defy his authority and justify the attendance of the Kenyan delegation in Lusaka.

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It is my privilege to have received recently two Kiwi critiques of A Way Forward and I have the permission of the authors to publish their critiques to Scribd and link you to their papers. I have also discovered a third critique, UK based, to which I want to link readers here.

Note, these are not all from the same perspective, and certainly not all from “my” perspective!

Les Brighton (NZ) writes here.

Peter Lineham and Mark Henrickson (NZ) write here.

Martin Davie (UK) writes here.

What do you think?

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In the context of Motion 30 the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is facing an uncertain future. The issues of human sexuality have proven to be theologically contentious and pastorally sensitive. The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (New Zealand) invites you to its 2016 Anglican Future Conferences. We desire to gather as brothers and sisters in Christ seeking the best way to honour God and love people.

Vaughan Roberts, Dr Sarah Harris, Dr Rhys Bezzant, and other international and local speakers will teach from God’s Word and share their experiences. We will also examine our Anglican roots to help us look towards the future. Together we will explore how best to contend for the gospel once for all entrusted to the saints.

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Heavenly Father, the Father of all wisdom, understanding, and true strength: We beseech thee look mercifully upon thy servants, and send thy Holy Spirit into their hearts, that when they must join to fight in the field for the glory of thy holy name, then they, strengthened with the defence of thy right hand, may manfully stand in the confession of thy faith, and continue in the same unto their lives’ end; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.

–Colossians 2:8-15

By saying nothing about what types of violations occurred, the church heightens the risk that wrongful behavior will be repeated elsewhere as McDonald and Baumgarten move on, according to Colby Bruno, senior legal counsel for the Victim Rights Law Center, a national nonprofit that provides free legal services from its offices in Boston and Portland, Ore. The silence also discourages other victims from coming forward and saying “this happened to me, too,” she said.

“They’re glossing over what is a big problem, but what the big problem is, obviously no one is to know,” Bruno said. “All of this cover-up might not be good for the future.”

McDonald and Baumgarten have not been charged with any crime and did not respond to requests for comment. A third administrator, Chief Operating Officer Stacy Sauls, will remain on staff but will not continue as COO. The investigation found Sauls was unaware of the misconduct and violated no policies.

From December through March, independent investigators from the New York law firm Curley, Hessinger & Johnsrud pored over thousands of pages of documents and interviewed more than 40 people, according to Curry. Workplace investigations of such scope are often looking for patterns of sexual harassment, Bruno said.

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Friday's Telegraph Sport:
Unbelievable#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/ehSutsDxf9

— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) April 14, 2016

Read it all and enjoy the pictures.

Europe is the new “dark continent.” Africa now sends more missionaries to Europe than Europe sends to Africa. The health reports of the European church aren’t terribly encouraging. Churches are closing and are being converted into mosques, museums, bars, and book depositories. In most European countries, less than 5 percent of the population attend any church. In France, there are more practicing Muslims than baptized Catholics. In England, more than 70 percent have no intention of stepping into a church””ever. In Berlin, the city where we live, 95 percent of church plants fail.

Recently, I was asked two questions at a missions conference in the United States. First, what does it mean that Europe is post-Christian? Second, what hope does the church have in such an environment? The second question disturbed me. What hope does the church have? The question reflects an attitude of resignation in regard to what God is doing in Europe. I sometimes see this attitude on home ministry assignment. “Why should we support missionaries to Europe?” we are asked. “It’s expensive. We can get a better bang for our buck elsewhere. Besides, they already had their chance. God isn’t working there anymore.”

The Power of the Gospel

We miss the power of the gospel when we place problems before promises,,

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‘..what about the other ‘Easter Rising’, which for the vast majority of people in Christendom was a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It was most encouraging to note how the Easter story was commemorated by so many people of all denominations, not only in their churches but also by walking behind a cross in Belfast, Londonderry and elsewhere.

Though I did attend a Maundy Thursday service in my home church, I temporarily deserted my Presbyterian roots by participating in an Easter Morning service in St George’s Church, High Street, Belfast. For those who like theatricality, colourful liturgy, resonating language and good music, no church does it better than St George’s. It is also worth noting the preacher was Fr Tom Leydon SJ, who delivered as good a sermon as I have heard anywhere on Easter Day.

Not so very long ago, when people did not even dare to attend joint services, the reality of a Jesuit in an Anglican pulpit would not have been possible.

Some people in Northern Ireland would still object to this, but Christians elsewhere would hardly take it under their notice..

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The Anglican Church in North America desperately needs to experience an evangelical awakening. It needs to discover the Bible and the gospel of grace and commit itself wholeheartedly to the fulfillment of the Great Commission. It is not going to move forward by looking backward to an imaginary golden age of the supposedly undivided Church. We are living in the twenty-first century, not the eleventh. We are living in what is being called the post-Christian era, not the early High Middle Ages.

The Anglican Church at its best is a church of the Bible. It is a church that fully accepts the plenary authority of the Scriptures in matters of faith and practice. It is a church that recognizes the power of God’s Word to transform lives. It is a church whose confession of faith””the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion””grounded in the Holy Scriptures and is recognized as authoritative for Anglicans.

The Anglican Church at its best is a church of the gospel. It is a church that cannot hold back from telling people in every walk of life what God has done for them through his Son Jesus Christ. It is a church that proclaims the good news not only in word and deed but also in sacramental signs, in the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

The Anglican Church is at its best a church of the Reformation

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Relatives of the girls marched in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Thursday.
The BBC’s Martin Patience in Abuja says they blame the previous government for doing nothing when the abduction took place, as well as the current administration for failing to devote enough resources to the search.
Boko Haram militants attacked the government boarding school in Borno state on 14 April 2014, seizing the girls who had gone there to take exams.
As the months passed, about 57 students managed to escape but at least 219 are still missing.

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You can easily begin a deep theological and liturgical debate across ecumenical lines with one simple question: how should the Celebrant be oriented in the Eucharist? Maybe it’s based on the fact that I am an Anglican, but this simple question has churned up many strong feelings and convictions.

My main goal, here, is to provide some fodder for thinking about our Eucharistic orientation. Perhaps we (those who are the inheritors of the Reformation(s)) have gotten it wrong”¦

For the children of the Reformation(s) the answer is clear: the priest (if you have one) should face the people. This is known as versus populum and it supposedly encourages or facilitates corporate worship around a common table. The logic continues that only when gathered around a common table can any sense of “clericalism” or medieval superstition be avoided.

The other tradition is known as ad orientem. In this celebration of the Eucharist the priest faces the altar, i.e. East, and has back turned to the people. I want to unpack the thinking behind this in a bit…

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From Rev Dr Johann W H van der Bijl
Would y’all consider joining us in urgent prayer for Gambella? We simply cannot find a venue acceptable to both groups. While the students have no problem with each other, they are fearful of those who might seek to harm them if they should come into the other group’s territory”¦which is a legitimate fear. The costs involved in renting space are astronomical and therefore not an option. We have asked the local force if it would be possible to guard the compound while classes are in session. There just doesn’t seem to be an obvious or easy solution to this vexing problem, but we know that the Lord is able to change the hearts of even the most stubborn and to turn tragedy into triumph for His kingdom. So, please consider praying with us for peace.

This is something only our sovereign God can do”¦

Read it all and there is background here and here

Russian warplanes have made several “aggressive” passes near a US guided missile destroyer, according to US military sources. The jets carried no visible weapons but failed to respond when hailed, officials say.

The pilots flew “dangerously close” to the US destroyer Donald Cook in Baltic Sea, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.

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Look around. Three in 10 people you see claim they are pretty satisfied with life, happy, healthy and moral, too.

They’re the “highly religious,” 30 percent of U.S. adults who say they pray daily and attend church at least once a week.

“Religion in Everyday Life,” a new survey from Pew Research released Tuesday (April 12), teases out the particular ways they differ from the majority of U.S. Christians who are less observant and from non-Christians, including the “nones” who claim no religious identity.

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O Lord God, we pray thee to keep us from all self-confidence and vainglory, and to bestow upon us thy great grace of humility and self-forgetfulness. To thee may we look, in all that we do, both for the will and for the power; and to thee may we ascribe with a sincere heart all the praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.

–Psalm 37:3-5

In early April, 2016, more than 100 parishioners and clergy from the Diocese of South Carolina attended the New Wineskins missions conference in Ridgecrest, NC., where they not only learned about missions but connected with Anglican missionaries from around the world. Just prior to and immediately after New Wineskins the Diocese hosted numerous visiting Anglican Bishops and leaders who spoke in Diocesan churches. On April 11, the Cathedral hosted “Voices of the Anglican Communion: a Gathering of Friends from Africa and South America” where 10 Bishops and Anglican leaders from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Bolivia, Brazil, and Chile spoke about the ongoing ministries in their own countries.

What is the impetus behind this movement?

In part it’s driven by Bishop Mark Lawrence’s vision to “Make Biblical Anglicans for a Global Age,” and his challenge for our Diocese to pursue mutually enriching missional relationships which help shape emerging Anglicanism in the 21st century.

“It’s about relationships,” said the Rev. Bob Lawrence, Chair of the Diocese’s Anglican Communion Development (ACD) Committee. “These experiences give us an opportunity to know people face-to-face, person-to-person

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..What I find most striking about these recent events is not the dysfunction and disobedience of Bishop Waweru (one would expect as much of a “bishop” involved in “dialogue” with heretics), but the political ineptitude and foolishness of Archbishop Idowu-Fearon. Does he really want to stand behind a lie or a liar? Does he really want to accept a delegation to the ACC that sits in defiance of its own province? Isn’t seating this delegation at ACC16 an open affirmation of Bishop Waweru’s deception? Isn’t the ACC now taking an active role in the subversion of a legitimately elected Anglican Communion Primate?

On what basis or foundation can any ACC official decry colonialism? One does not need to be a prophet to see that this is nothing less than a bald shameless attempt to undermine a sitting Anglican primate who does not toe the Canterbury line and replace him with a toady.

Read it all UPDATE: See also Forged Documents and Subversion

ALL Saints’ College is to be sold to help the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst repay a multi-million dollar debt to the Commonwealth Bank.

Plans to sell the school were confirmed on Saturday during the first day of a local synod meeting. Nine other unidentified church properties across the diocese have also been earmarked for sale to repay the debt.

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Boko Haram’s use of child bombers has increased over the last year with one in five suicide attacks now done by children, the UN’s child agency says.
Girls, who are often drugged, were behind three-quarters of such attacks committed by the militant Islamist group in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad.
It is an 11-fold increase with four attacks in 2014 compared to 44 the next year, including January 2016.
The change in tactics reflects the loss of territory in Nigeria by the group.

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He lived under the rafters in a small attic apartment in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, and became known to some followers as the Santa Claus of jihad. He had the bushy beard and potbelly, and generously offered money and advice to young Muslims eager to fight in Syria and Somalia, or to wreak havoc in Europe.

When the Belgian police seized the computer of the man, Khalid Zerkani, in 2014, they found a trove of extremist literature, including tracts titled “Thirty-Eight Ways to Participate in Jihad” and “Sixteen Indispensable Objects to Own Before Going to Syria.” In July, Belgian judges sentenced him to 12 years in prison for participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, and declared him the “archetype of a seditious mentor” who spread “extremist ideas among naïve, fragile and agitated youth.”

But only in the months since then has the full scale of Mr. Zerkani’s diligent work on the streets of Molenbeek and beyond become clear, as the network he helped nurture has emerged as a central element in attacks in both Paris and Brussels ”” as well as one in France that the authorities said last month they had foiled.

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O God, fountain of love, pour thy love into our souls, that we may love those whom thou lovest with the love thou givest us, and think and speak of them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brethren and sisters for thy sake, may grow in thy love, and dwelling in love may dwell in thee; for Jesus Christ’s sake.