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Latest Anglican News, Volume 4, Number 8 15 July, 2010
“The ultimate issue in relation to Jesus Christ is not one of semantics (the meaning of words) but of homage (the attitude of the heart), not whether our tongue can subscribe to an orthodox formulation of the person of Jesus, but whether our knee has bowed before his majesty. Besides, reverence always precedes understanding. We shall know him only if we are willing to obey him.” ----- From "The Authentic Jesus" John R.W. Stott
“…The fact that the church (the Church of England [CoE])… has historically been a place of love and assurance for homosexual people is conveniently forgotten… The fact that we are taught to be very gentle in the confessional with those who sin (which is all of us) is conveniently forgotten… Why bust the myth if you are endorsing liberal thinking when it can be used to unseat traditionalists and make them look mean. Hence this church (St. Barnabas) which we know is loving and welcoming, and myself in particular, must live with the reputation of being ‘bigoted and intolerant’ simply because we uphold the biblical line. The liberals love to tag us as ‘gay haters’, ‘homophobics’ and ‘misogynists’ – even though every woman and homosexual in this congregation is loved, valued and – I hope- always treated with respect.” ----- From by the Reverend Edward Tomlinson, rector of St. Barnabas Parish, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and England
“Is the Archbishop of Canterbury muddle headed, or is it simply Anglicanism which is muddle headed? I think I have actually been imprecise in charging the ABC with being muddle headed, when it fact, it is not him as much as Anglicanism as a whole. How could anyone hope to be clear headed and clearly spoken when he has to head up such a denomination? Here's the real situation. Anglicans have liberals who deny the existence of God, the supernatural, any vestige of a traditional understanding of the Christian faith and they also have conservative Evangelicals who are virtually Biblical fundamentalists. They have Anglo Catholics who believe in the real presence… have monks and nuns… and whose liturgy is more Catholic than the Catholics. On the other hand they have priests who deny all Catholic doctrines, put leftover communion bread out for the birds and proudly bear the name of Protestant. They have proponents of homosexual marriage and those who think homosexuals should be put in jail. Some would die to have lady bishops some would die if they didn't have lady bishops. All of this is held together under the banner of 'unity', but how can anyone hope to hold any of it together at all without being totally muddle headed? …Why is 'inclusivity' necessarily a virtue and how on earth can the Christian Church be totally inclusive? It cannot. By definition it excludes people. It excludes all those who are not baptized and have not faith in Christ.” ---- From a CoE priest, Fr. Dwight Longenecker
The Latest Anglican News (LAN) report for this week will address the results of the Church of England Synod that concluded on Tuesday, July 13. But first we try to answer a question we have received from several of our loyal readers about the ecumenical efforts of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
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The question raised is why should the ACNA, just a year old and in its formative stage, expend energy in meetings with other Christian church organizations trying to find out how we may come to closer cooperation and even, in some cases, address eventual unity. The answer that best describes why this should be was contained in the report given by Ecumenical Task Force, led by Bishop Sutton, at the ACNA Provincial Council’s annual meeting. To quote from that report:
“The search for unity (between Anglican and other Christian organizations) means going back to Christ, not just to the Reformation. We stand together in that search not because secularism is coming or Islam is coming, but… because Christ is coming and, He wills it.”
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What is happening to the Church of England (CoE) and, for that matter, the Anglican Communion (AC), both under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams (ABC), as the results of the CoE Synod become known? As David Virtue, of VirtueOnLine reported, “If anyone had any doubt that the spiritual and ecclesiastical trajectory of the CoE is towards The American Episcopal Church (TEC), their doubts were erased this past weekend in York. The Synod voted to consecrate women to the episcopacy. They also voted summarily not to allow any sort of delegated episcopal pastoral oversight for Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics who in conscience do not want to have a woman bishop reign over them. Women bishops will sink the Church of England as they have done in the Episcopal Church.”
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From the UK Daily Telegraph:
The General Synod of the Church of England, meeting in York last weekend, reaffirmed its intention to ordain women bishops. That in itself is no surprise. What was extraordinary about the scenes in Synod… was the damage done to the authority of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury - self-inflicted damage, for the most part.
…Worried by the prospect of an exodus to Rome (the Roman Catholic Church), the ABC devised yet another, even messier, scheme - the one rejected on Saturday. Under it, women bishops would agree not to exercise their authority over certain parishes, ceding it to designated male bishops who would not ordain women. How long this arrangement could have survived is anyone's guess; probably not for very long.
The main problem for Dr Williams is not that his last-minute compromise was rejected; it is that he allowed so much of his authority to be invested in it…
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A comment from an English priest, Fr. John Richardson, who, on his blog calls himself ‘the ugly vicar’, comes the question: “After women bishops, what next? …I was having a discussion with some of our own folks on Thursday night, where I observed that the introduction of women bishops is by no means the end of the line, for there are explicit indications amongst the chief supporters of the consecration of women that our theology and liturgy are also in line for changes.” What does he mean, what’s next? Are they going down the path that TEC has gone…afraid so.
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“It is high time for us (the CoE) to place the GAFCON option alongside the Roman Ordinariate, and give each of them the careful and detailed consideration that they deserve.” --- Mike Keulemans in June issue of New Directions
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Excerpted from a long article by the Reverend Charles Raven, a traditional English priest who writes a newsletter entitled ‘the Anglican Spread’, comes the following:
“…The Church of England's direction of travel is now abundantly clear… It is entirely certain that the Church of England will soon have women bishops and not far behind will be openly gay bishops…
…So the rickety structure of the Church of England looks set for inevitable collapse as its doctrinal incoherence manifests itself in practical disorder and confusion. The pressing question for the orthodox now is to clarify that 'best thing' they can do…
...conservative evangelical Anglicans are convinced that there is no ambiguity in Scripture about homosexuality and would therefore have great difficulty being part of a structure which holds out such a lifestyle as an acceptable option.
The 'best thing' now is to take action, and form as a matter of urgency, with or without official blessing, a religious/mission society… If this were to be backed by the GAFCON Primates it would offer an unassailably Anglican alternative to the Ordinariate.
It might even be a way in which continuing Anglican bodies like the Free Church of England could engage with the Anglican mainstream as has happened with its sister Church, the Reformed Episcopal Church which is now part of the Anglican Church in North America.
However the probability must be that the Church of England will slide into further chaos and incoherence and it was precisely to bring a sense of order into a disordered Communion that the GAFCON movement was formed.
The significance of a GAFCON sponsored mission in the British Isles would therefore be not just to act as a holding structure for the marginalized, but to articulate and teach as clearly and powerfully as possible the reformed Western tradition of classic Anglicanism as we have received it, rooted in the theology of the sixteenth century reformers.
(Editor’s note:
1. The so-called “Ordinariate” is the structure created this year by the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) which offers unhappy Church of England priests and bishops a way to convert to the RCC and maintain a semblance of Anglican liturgy.
2. As you will remember, GAFCON is the informal organization formed as a result of the meeting in Jerusalem in June 2008, attended by Bishop Sutton and yours truly. It is composed of very traditional, conservative Anglicans from across the world.
3. The Free Church of England is a member organization of our Reformed Episcopal Church and Bishop Grote will be going to England later this year for an Episcopal visit.)
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Fr. Julian Mann, an obviously conservative blogger had this to offer:
"The House of Clergy in the General Synod is now dominated by politically-correct activists who are thoroughly sold to the careerist feminist agenda.
Clergy are supposed to be servants of Christ and of His people. We are not meant to be thinking about what is good for us from a career point of view.
The drive for women bishops is basically about careerism rather than about self-sacrificial Christian service that walks in the way of the cross of Christ.”
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One additional matter this week was the on-then-off proposal to nominate Dr. Jeffrey John, a homosexual, for Bishop of the CoE Diocese of Southwark. David Virtue has written: “One minute Dr. Jeffrey John, the homosexual… Dean of St. Alban’s was on the short list to be the next Bishop of Southwark. In the next minute the announcement came that he was not on the short list…
John became a hugely divisive figure in the church after he was forced to stand down from becoming the Bishop of Reading in 2003 when it emerged that he was in a homosexual, but celibate, relationship.
In a joint statement, Anglican Mainstream's Convener Philip Giddings and Secretary Chris Sugden said that clergy whose doctrine was not "fully in accord with the Church of England's teaching and formularies" should not be appointed as bishops. They also warned that if Dr John's candidacy were approved, it would split the Anglican Communion. The Church of England moved back from the brink.”
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To finish, excerpts from a report by Fr. Richard Sutter, an ACNA priest in Colorado Springs, Colorado:
“The idea that needs desperately to be conveyed to all of today’s Christians but especially to Anglicans is actually a simple one. To get there, let’s recall a few basics:
• Catholic means “according to the whole.”
• Orthodox means “right teaching” and “right worship.” That’s right, ‘both’, not ‘or’.
• The opposite of Catholic is heretic, which means “I choose.”
• The opposite of Orthodox is heterodox, which means “different teaching” and “different worship.”
Tying these together can be straightforward. To be Catholic and Orthodox, one accepts the whole Christian faith, all the right teaching and practice. By inserting one’s own rationales, preferences, and worst of all, preconceptions, one picks and chooses out of the whole faith and thereby substitutes teaching and worship that is not right, that is different from the truth.
...The truth is a reality. Reality doesn’t need my agreement in order for it to exist; likewise, truth doesn’t need anyone’s agreement in order for it to be true…”
Rudy Schenken
Church of the Holy Communion, Dallas
www.holycommuniondallas.org
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