We aspire at Christianity Today to advance the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God. The basic question that animates our work is What does it look like to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ in our time? We hope to be for a new generation what we were for Moore himself when he came across Christianity Today at the age of 15: a capacious and compelling vision of Christian life that opens a path through a fallen world and into the kingdom of God.

That’s why appointing Moore to this position is so important. As president and CEO, I have held the editor in chief position in stewardship for a brief time, but it needs someone to inhabit it fully, and Moore exhibits that way of following Jesus that is deeply rooted, beautifully orthodox, thoughtful and compassionate, and committed to serving the kingdom even at great cost to ourselves.

Significantly, we are also bringing longtime communications and publishing veteran Joy Allmond onto our team to serve as editorial chief of staff. One of the primary charges for Moore will be to continue advancing the Public Theology Project. Allmond will work alongside him to see that project flourish. With an extensive background at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Decision magazine, and Lifeway, Allmond will bring considerable editorial, executive, and interpersonal gifts to the smooth functioning of our publishing enterprise as well as forthcoming events and programs.

Ours is an era of great peril and great promise for the church. We are determined at Christianity Today to do everything we can to serve the church in a turbulent and divisive time, and to love the world God made. We were honored to bring Russell Moore onto the team a little over a year ago. Now we look forward to what he, Allmond, and our extraordinary editorial team can accomplish in the years ahead.

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Russell Moore will become CT’s editor in chief Sept. 1.

“Talent alone isn’t the reason for our excitement,” writes CEO @TimDalrymple_. “@drmoore has demonstrated, time and again, the courage to express his convictions and the integrity to live by them.” https://t.co/hNtAlh3JVZ

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) August 4, 2022

The rewording is part of their attempt to achieve precisely this end. For them the shift from talking about ‘the mind of the Communion as a whole’ in the original Call to ‘some say, this and others say that’ in the revised version is intended to shift the Call towards the idea that departing from historic position of the churches of the Anglican Communion as Lambeth resolution 1.10 can be acceptable within Anglicanism.

Secondly on the issue of process, the archbishop promises the bishops that their feedback will be ‘submitted to the Chair of the Lambeth Calls Working Group,’ but he leaves unclear what will happen to that feedback subsequently. On such an important and divisive issue, what will happen next ought to have been clearly explained in a way that would give everyone confidence in the integrity of the next step in the process.

Thirdly, in his remarks at the session, he wrongly separates out what resolution 1.10 says about pastoral care from the rest of the resolution. The resolution does say that ‘all baptised, believing and faithful persons, regardless of sexual orientation are full members of the Body of Christ.’ However, these words have to be read in the context of the resolution’s declaration that ‘in view of the teaching of Scripture,’ the Lambeth conference ‘upholds faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those not called to marriage.’

This context means (a) that being a ‘believing and faithful’ person who belongs to the body of Christ involves accepting the traditional Christian sexual discipline of absolute sexual fidelity within marriage and absolute sexual abstinence outside it, (b) that this discipline applies to all people whatever the nature of their sexual desire and (c) that ministering ‘pastorally and sensitively to all’ has to involve helping everyone to live in the way just described.

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Orthodox bishops attending this year’s Lambeth Conference have published a Communique with their assessment of the health and future of the Anglican Communion.

Primates leading the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA)[1], representing some 75% of Anglicans across the globe, told a press conference (AUG5) that they will positively respond to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s invitation for primates to bring forward proposals for the future basis and discipline of the Anglican Communion, but started with their passion for world mission.

Archbishop Justin Badi, Chairman of the GSFA said: “The world is suffering in so many ways, right across the globe. Many of the human needs focused on in this Conference, ranging from climate change to human dignity, to sustainable development, are felt most acutely in Global South provinces. We will take action and reflect further on the ‘Calls’ we have received so that we can apply them to our own national and regional contexts.”

But the primate was explicit regarding the GSFA position on sexuality. He said: “We wish to be clear about our commitment to Resolution 1:10 [2] in its entirety; and that includes the commitment to listen to the experience of homosexual persons, to minister pastorally and sensitively to all and to condemn all irrational fear, homophobic behaviour and violence. We also give thanks to the Lord for the life, witness and ministry of faithful same-sex attracted Christians in our churches who practise abstinence, and we hope to pastorally support them more in our local churches.”

Read it all and make sure to read the full text there.

'The Communion is not healthy. The road to recovery will be long and must start with a decision on whether Scripture is an essential basis of our common life as one Communion.'

Read the GSFA press release from today here:https://t.co/G7iVziTQj2 pic.twitter.com/f20h2ZKyJZ

— Lambeth '22 Resource Group (@LCResourceGroup) August 5, 2022

All of the archbishops agreed that the number one problem leaving LC2022 is the unresolved divisions between Anglicans who follow what the Bible says plainly about human identity, human dignity, creation, marriage, and sexuality— and those Anglican who do not. They are disappointed by the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury who tolerates sin (“he will not call sin, sin”) and will not discipline it. They are frustrated that the Communion structures failed to provide any mechanism for addressing disobedience to Anglian teaching, and specifically Lambeth 1.10 (1998) in what is certainly an “ecclesial deficit”. Even though these Global South Anglicans represent the overwhelming majority of Anglicans, they feel themselves a minority, “a faithful remnant” because of the power imbalance that western and largely white Global North Anglicans exercise over them through the structures and processes hedging this Lambeth…[gathering] of Bishops. After the failure to even vote on the authority of Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (1998), for which they came to make a stand, they feel the rest of the program of bible study, fellowship, and “sharing of points of view” is meaningless. They affirm that they may be gathered together, “but we are not walking together,” no matter how many times the Archbishop of Canterbury proclaims otherwise.

The Bible is not the ultimate authority in this Anglican Communion gathering. Western Anglican leaders here have interpreted the Bible by reading it through their own culture (eisegesis) rather than reading it in its plain and grammatical sense, understanding its words in the context of the whole of scripture and then applying it to the culture in which one lives (exegesis). As one archbishop says, “We cannot mix culture with Christianity; we must separate culture from Christianity and then let the Bible speak to the culture.” In the words of para 1.5 of the Cairo Covenant (2019): “The authority of the Scripture is its Spirit-bestowed capacity to quicken the Church to truthful speech and righteous action. We reject therefore the hermeneutical scepticism that commits the Church to a near-infinite deferral of decisions on matters of faith and morals.”

Read it all.

Canon Phil shares the voices of three Global South bishops who bring encouragement to @The_ACNA and faithful #Anglicans everywhere. "It was a picture of the face of this new faithful remnant emerging within the Anglican Communion."https://t.co/DnnxfpYvQZ

— American Anglican (@AnglicanCouncil) August 5, 2022

We give thee thanks, O Lord, for the vision and skill of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose artistic depictions helped the peoples of their age understand the full suffering and glory of thine incarnate Son; and we pray that their work may strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Holy Trinity; who livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lamentation Over Christ, 1507 #albrechtdurer #durer https://t.co/8EwK0N1TFp pic.twitter.com/nBMll1lUvi

— Albrecht Durer (@artistdurer) August 3, 2022

Fill us, O Christ, with thine own compassion for the hungry multitudes of the world of our day; and use us now, as thou didst use thy disciples of old, as thy willing instruments to minister to their needs, through all such means as thou shalt show us; for thy mercy’s sake.

Early morning #sunrise over Sandycove pic.twitter.com/dok87vyk59

— Dr Emma Lyons (@ehlyons) August 5, 2022

Dost thou work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise thee?…Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in Abaddon? Are thy wonders known in the darkness, or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

–Psalm 88:10-12

A Red Ball of Fire. @Met_CindyFitz @StormHour @365SouthShore @ThePhotoHour @minotlight143 pic.twitter.com/fPdTkIwkay

— Brad Roberts (@DroptopGXP) August 5, 2022