As Bishops from the African Anglican churches meet in Mauritius over the next few days we recognise that they have serious and pressing issues to address such as evangelism, poverty, disease and injustice. We pray that God would prosper their efforts to proclaim Christ in Africa and elsewhere, and to transform society for His glory.
We know that many of them are disturbed by the apparent fixation of some in the western churches with promoting homosexual practice and changing the church’s traditional teaching based on Scripture. Yet we hope and pray that out of concern for their brother and sister Anglicans around the world they will find time to do the following:
Obviously, these are men of honor and spiritual integrity. The authority of the Holy Scripture, the clarity of the teachings of Our Lord, and the power of His unchanging Gospel of Truth and Holiness mean a lot to these men of God.
We join them in prayers and in working for the restoration of Anglicanism in the Americas.
The ABC, Rowan Williams, really needs to ask himself some very basic questions.
Fr. Kingsley
Arlington, TX (DioFW)
I consider myself reformed, but I think Church Society goes too far in declaring ‘that in Anglican tradition discipline is a mark of the true Church.’ This is simply not true. If we were in the PCA or another reformed body, maybe.
The Articles state clearly what the marks of the true church are: ‘The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, adn the Sacraments be duly administered according to Christ’s ordinance…(Art. XIX)” There is no mention of discipline even though the reformers could have added it, they didn’t. This does not mean that the primates should not discipline the American church, but to making discipline a mark of the church is out of step with the Articles.
The fixation is not with promotion of homosexuality, but with the inclusion of a marginalised group. It is the Church Society that has a fixation with the practice of homosexuality.
John Chilton – remember that Jesus went to the people on the margins as a doctor making house calls, not as a cheerleader for disobedient lifestyles. He wanted to include the tax collectors and “sinners” in the Kingdom, as repentant sinners.
John: “The fixation is not with promotion of homosexuality, but with the inclusion of a marginalised group”
Please answer: Did Jesus reach out to marginalized groups and not ask them to change?
Who is more fixated with sex? Those who defend the traditional teachings, or those constantly working to change them?
CAPA seems consistent. Is that unusual for bishops? We haven’t seen that type in ECUSA/TEC for a long time. Not in the Windsor bishops. Not in the Camp Allen bishops. Not even in the liberal bishops who see but don’t see SSBs, who never go backwards but won’t standup. Is lack of constancy a merely American ECUSA/TEC or General Convention church bishop trait?