2. We are consciously mindful of the absence of our fellow Episcopal colleagues from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and elsewhere, who, for principled reasons could not be present at this Lambeth Conference. We thank God for their costly faithfulness and vigilance. We acknowledge the issuing of the Jerusalem Declaration which deserves careful study and consideration. At the same time, we also stand in solidarity with all the faithful Bishops, Clergy and Laity in the United States and Canada and elsewhere who are suffering recrimination and hostility perpetrated upon them by their dioceses and/or national churches which have not unequivocally complied with the specific Windsor proposals required of them in full.
3. We rejoice that the fellowship of orthodox episcopal leaders continue to grow in maturity in common faith and witness. Early in the Conference we, some 200 bishops, were greatly blessed when we met at a special gathering on Jul 22 for fellowship and sharing, co-hosted by seventeen Global South Provinces. We were very encouraged by the presence of three Bishops of the Oriental Orthodox churches and for their words of encouragement and challenge to faithfulness. We were encouraged to learn and endorsed the reaffirmation of the “total and collegial commitment to the solemn vocation of the Global South” in the Statement of the Global South Primates Steering Committee Meeting on 13-15 March 2008. We are greatly inspired by and endorsed the Statement of the Sudanese Bishops to this Lambeth Conference on the ECS Position on Human Sexuality which was issued at great cost. The Final Report of the Global South Anglican Theological Formation and Education Task Force Anglican Catechism in Outline: A Common Home Between Us was also warmly received. Since the historic “Red Sea Encounter” of 2005, Global South provinces have moved forward in close fellowship and partnership in ministry and mission, in theological reflection and formation, and sharing of human, skills and material resources.
4. We gather at a critical time when the Anglican Communion as a communion of ordered churches is at the probable brink of collapse. We are encouraged by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s First Presidential Address, and the related presentations by the Anglican Covenant Design Group and the Windsor Continuation Group to the Conference at the opening evening of the Conference. We expect all attending this Conference at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the words of his Advent 2007 Letter, to be willing and accepting “to work with those aspects of the Conference’s agenda that relate to implementing the recommendations of Windsor, including the development of a Covenant”.
————
UPDATE:
Terry Wong, the administrator of the Global South Anglican blog asked us to let readers know this statement has been updated in several places and now includes a list of signatories among the Global South Primates.
Finally, something worth reading coming out of Lambeth. If you add these 200+ bishops of the Global South to the 250 bishops who refused to participate in this Lambeth, you begin to get a picture of where things REALLY stand in the Communion — which is precisely what this Lambeth Conference was intended to obscure. Increasingly these Global South bishops will move as a block into GAFCON as they grasp the futility of working though the instruments of Communion, all of which are controlled by the Global North.
I thought this was a great statement until I got to the bottom and discovered that no signatures were attached. Releasing a statement that claims to represent some specific bishops who go unnamed is a bit odd and deflates the power of the document. Hopefully this will be rectified soon.
Early on you asked for leads on blogging or comments from the Communion voices outside the West. Here is what you would be looking for–and note that it comes as a united voice. Add this together with Bp Mark Lawrence’s most recent comments…and then the ABC last press conference.
It appears that key voices see this just concluded meeting as the last major event dominated by the liberal theology. There appears, if I am reading between lines correctly, a consensus that the “Global South” will stay united, part of the Communion, growing, and focused on biblical, orthodox mission in evangelical, catholic and charismatic expressions. Western liberalism is a nuisance, but the future is with the orthodox majority. Let the West play its games, while the rest get on with real mission. TEC has shrunk from 3 million to less than 2–in ten years, barring major conversion, it will likely be less than one million persons.
The ABC held everybody together possibly because he could not face the prospects of a showdown, or quite possibly because he could see the momentum and the direction of the communion as a whole. Personally, I would appreciate it if he said so directly. I believe it would be healthier for all involved. But then again I do not sit in his seat or stand in his shoes.
The Communion will grow and thrive. What happens to the American Church, re-asserting and re-appraising, remains unclear. But this statement makes it clear that we are not the center of the communion nor the center of the communion’s attention. We are like the child in a tantrum, whose parents quietly say, “When you’re ready to calm down, we’ll be over here doing what we need to do.”
I am warmly encouraged by this statement from our Global South brothers in Christ. And all their members, brothers and sisters, will follow their bishops’ lead. Thanks be to God for the Church Catholic.
This document establishes that the revisionists of North America are the true numerical minority.
The only thing that empowers this minority is the bequested money of dead persons who were orthodox Anglicans. This was money bequested in trust and the revisionists are wilfiully betraying that trust.
When an orthodox Anglican primacy is established in North America, there will be no “cross border interventions.”
But Anglicanfirst, they are not the true minority, quite the reverse. You mislead yourself and others too perhaps by continuing to think this. They are in fact the majority of all the college educated, have-money, urban and suburban Americans, and this means their numbers are enormous. Moreover, they are now and have been in control of education, both public education and the colleges and universities. All data shows that at these institutions, the faculties are almost entirely Democratic. What is more important, they are the wielders of power, the controllers of money, and therefore exercise enormous influence. TEC has behind it power and wealth far out of proportion to their congregations. TEC will live on because they will continue to be funded by the have-money people, and the homosexuals, who themselves have now very substantial wealth and social encouragement, will comfort TEC with golden apples and the gai savoir. “Toujours gai” said Mehitibel, and this is TEC’s get out of jail card. Larry
The Global South Anglican lists these eleven Global South primates as signatories:
The Most Revd Gerald James (Ian) Ernest (Indian Ocean)
The Most Revd Bernard Ntahoturi (Burundi)
The Most Revd Dr. Dirokpa Balufuga Fidèle (Congo)
The Most Revd Archbishop John Chew (Southeast Asia)
The Most Revd Stephen Than Myint Oo (Myanmar)
The Most Revd Valentino Mokiwa (Tanzania)
The Most Revd Daniel Deng Bul Yak (Sudan)
The Most Revd Dr Mouneer Hanna Anis (Jerusalem & The Middle East)
The Most Revd Justice Ofei Akrofi (West Africa)
The Most Revd John Wilson Gladstone (South India)
The Rt Revd Donald Mtetemela (Tanzania)
One of Rowan’s goals is to split the Global South into the border crossers and the not border crossers. This document seems to be doing this effectively by calling for a moratorium in border crossing, implicitly yielding to Rowan’s making equivalent border crossing with sanctifying homosexual relationships – a really stupid but not unexpected move on Terry Wong’s part. It irks me that these knuckleheads don’t see that if not for border crossings, Rowan would be doing even less for the orthodox, i.e., he would be riding in gay pride parades, himself. It is the one card that the orthodox hold to counter the liberal left’s lucre (how’s that for an alliteration!) to which RW is even beholden, especially after his very expensive jamboree.
#3 LCF+
“TEC has shrunk from 3 million to less than 2–in ten years” – May I ask is that correct?
#7 I think you are correct and your observation seems key. On another thread it is observed that Rowan’s end game appears to be to alienate both extremes (Gene Robinson and Martin Minns?) in favor of the “center.” I can’t yet see this document as a friend of orhodoxy. I see it as a compromise position that says [i]only just enough[/i] to buy time (ten more years?) so the more patient liberals can continue the infection. I would wish that #1’s prognostications come true, but I doubt they will. Every year that these sweet men have chosen not to act makes it less likely they ever can or will. In my opinion, which is obviously worth very little, the few remaining orthodox bishops have mere hours, a few days at most, to act, or… probably nothing.
In the words of this document (without the rhetoric)
“we are at the probable brink of collapse”
therefore
committees should be formed
which might
“offer guidance on what response and any diminished standing within the Communion might be appropriate”
such actions to be recommended against
a. those who bless gay unions
b. those who ordain gay bishops
c. those who cross diocesan boundaries in support of the orthodox
The remainder of the document appears to be
1. a complaint against the patronizing attitude of the west against everyone else
2. an attempt to placate the orthodox leaders who would be harmed by this proposal, amounting to little more than “We really like you and missed you at our party. Please don’t be angry at us when this works out badly for you.”
And please note that paragraphs 5 and 6 appear to be irreconcilable with the assertion of paragraph 10
[b]5.[/b] what response and any diminished standing within the Communion might be appropriate where any of the three moratoria are broken.
[b]6.[/b] (c) all cross border interventions and inter-provincial claims of jurisdiction, as the Windsor Continuation Group rightly observed.
[b]vs 10.[/b]We are committed to work together with one another in the Global South and with all orthodox groups in the United States of America and Canada: … and to take fresh initiatives in upholding and passing on the faith once delivered to the saints.”
#3 and #8:
Membership in 1996: 2,373,649
Membership in 2006: 2,154,572 (a 9.2% drop)
Note that the percentage yearly [i]declines[/i] are:
1.22%, 0.71%, -0.09% (i.e., slight growth in 1999) , 0.05%, 0.03%, 0.34%, 1.55%, 1.59%, 1.89%, 2.30%
Most people seeing the acceleration of decline in the past five years wouldn’t be saying “All is well”.
Membership data [url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/Members_by_Prov__Diocese_96-06.pdf ]here[/url].
Thank God some are seeing with eyes that truly see.
#11 Dr Dr robroy – thankyou – it’s an eye-opener.
RE #4, 8, & 11
My apologies for writing too quickly yesterday and being sloppy:
Adjusted membership (e.g. not including members in Central America and other external dioceses) reached a peak of 3.2 million in 1966. (You can find details under “Research Reports” after clicking on the Church Statistics link on the right.)
Membership is 2006, as Robroy cited, was 2.2 million. I have heard the reference to our membership being less than 2 million several times but cannot cite a source at the moment.
The trend however remains continued dramatic losses. Remember that while the population of the country has been increasing, the Episcopal Church has been shrinking…and now San Joaquin has switched over to the Southern Cone, and rumors abound that Fort Worth and Pittsburgh are preparing to make their own switches. As Robroy pointed out, the rate of decrease has increased each year for the last five years on record.
The center of gravity has swung away from the West towards the Global South. God continues to preserve and bless His Church.
One can also look at Average Sunday Attendance with relative percentage declines for the last 10 years:
1996 836,423
1997 841,445 -0.60 <-- negative means an [i]increase[/i] in ASA 1998 842,408 -0.11 1999 841,454 0.11 2000 856,579 -1.80* 2001 858,566 -0.23 2002 846,640 1.39 2003 823,017 2.79 2004 795,765 3.31 2005 787,271 1.07* 2006 765,326 2.79* * Indicates a Christmas effect year. Going for a non-Christmas effect year to a Christmas effect year will blunt the decline, e.g., 2004 to 2005. But going from a Christmas effect year to another, e.g., 2005 to 2006 or from a non-Christmas effect year to another is comparing apples to apples.
I find this document familiarly [url=http://marrowcleaver.blogspot.com/2008/08/is-there-kool-aid-in-chalice.html]unimpressive[/url]