Dissident Anglicans to Set Their Own Agenda
In a conference, more than 1,000 conservative leaders will call for restoring identity to their church
Reader Comments
Greetings From Poland
Hello to all ! Greetings From Poland. very Good Page !
Anglican Conference in Jerusalem
I hope and pray that the Anglican people who're meeeting in Jerusalem will rely strongly on the Holy Scriptures as they have stated to do so. In regards to the purity of a moral (straight lifestyle) is important as well. As for the issue of, shall we say, "peacefully co-existing" with Islam? Those who still believe the words of Jesus, "I am the Way and the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6), has best stick to your convictions. When it comes to the matter of salvation, we must be like the Apostles Peter and John, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
In light of these lliving spirityal facts, dare anyone even attempt to compromise God and HIS WORD? Many people, including Muslims and other religions may think this sounds too narrow. HOWEVER, the Lord God is the God of love and is all inclusive, HE does not play favorites; nor does HE discriminate. Humbly, I must confess, there is absolutely no other way, save the ONE and ONLY. Hey, those Scriptures are God's Words, not mine. Please give more than consideration to this brief letter. Your eternal destiny is at stake. Respectfully, and thanks for this valuable moment while we yet have time to do so.
Interpretation or invention?
Kirkpatrick: "They do not call for homosexuals to be stoned to death. They choose to follow some passage from the Bible and not others. So, clearly, they are interpreting."
Traditionalist Anglicans do not shy away from biblical interpretation, nor from the use of logic and reason. It is admittedly a challenge to both understand what scripture is saying, and figure out how it applies to our present ciscumstances. (It's even harder sometimes to conform to those parts that are clear!)
However, it is not as if the bible has just been discovered in an Essene cave, and we're all taking a shot at deciphering it! We do have 2000 years of apostolic teaching and church practice to help with the interpretation. The burden of proof ought to be on those who wish to alter the teaching and practice, not on those who would defer to the apostles.
Uncharitable Rhetoric
The article and the comments posted thus far are, for the most part, akin to a a "reader's digest" condensed version of the magnum opus of uncharitability that has characterized Anglican controversies in recent years. Litigation and citations of canon law have usurped painstaking "discernment of spirits," a charism for which Christians are supposedly empowered. Name-calling and label-ization have become the new rhetorical devises. A deeply intimate and self-disclosing conversation in which we all come before God and one another in the charitable posture of repentance seems no longer on anyone's agenda; "that would take too long, and we've waited long enough!"
What is needed is a "truth & reconciliation commission" for the very church that claims the ministry of "reconciliation" now reduced to the latest buzz-word. Some are saying: "Stop the church, I want to get off" while others press ahead with institutional survival tactics driven by "happy talk" (Eg. re-naming ECUSA, TEC in order to suggest an international field of influence). "Shame and blame" have replaced "see how they love one another" (Tertullian's sound-bite, rarely quoted in context, yet consistent with a media & mammon-driven church. ["Vide", inquiunt, "ut invicem se diligant" - ipsi enim invicem oderunt - "et ut pro alteruto mori sint parati"; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt. {Apologeticum ch. 39, 7) "Look," they say, "how they love one another" (for they themselves hate one another); "and how they are ready to die for each other" (for they themselves are readier to kill each other).]
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem yet again, while raging, sniping and depositons
drain the life and energy out of real mission and evangelism in Christ's name. Many look on, saying, "why would we want to join that bunch; they don't even "do conflict" well!" Jesus knew how to "do conflict" very well and all the tools for doing it as well ("greater things than these shall you do...John 14:12ff) are within the church's reach. We're all in need of redemptive healing, the fruit of repentance and forgivness. Do we have the will for it? I, for one, have grown tired of the self-aggrandizing pundits and punishing voices from all (and there are many more than the current polarization would suggest) sides of our controversy. Maranatha!
Can two rivers, in two valley's continue to have one name?
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wished to know just how far a river needed to be outside of the bedrock and its original banks before the name of the river would need to be changed. Today, within the Anglican Church, there are two streams with different banks flowing over very different bedrock; however, they are both professing to be the “river” known as Anglican Theology. One voice travels from the high mountain stream of such thinkers as William Perkins, William Cartwright and William Travers. The other river is from the waters of the thought of Richard Hooker. Both thought driven rivers have flowed constantly down stream for almost five centuries. Each has traveled through open flat, sunny pools and off deep, dark, cascading river walls. For reasons, which sadly have included a very human desire for power and control, the two rivers have never been able to merge. Therefore, they have flowed in parallel, yet separate valleys. However, today the two rivers are being "asked" to become one. However, which theological underpinnings will be the bedrock upon which a single river will now flow? Perhaps this is as far as this analogy should go for the time being; however, it does offer a picture regarding the future of the Anglican Church. Which bedrock will be tomorrow’s foundational thought regarding Anglican Theology? Chances are it will be those who truly follow the Spirit of God’s Law and never abdicate God’s great and powerful gift of human reason as it is informed, nurtured and shaped by God the Holy Spirit.
CANA
It is stunning that American Churches would actively seek oversight from a Bishop (Peter Akinola) from Nigeria, a country whose human rights abuses are well-documented. Gays, in fact, commonly face arrest and punishment of stoning,
a practice Jesus denied to Jews 2000 years ago.
Gafcon
Well, robroy, Jesus did not say lets not make adulterers bishops (if that's what you would call the the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson is - and I might point out, casting the first stone). As a matter of fact, Jesus would probably gloried in such a selection. Jesus didnt do away completely with stoning... it still happens in Bishop Akinola's Nigeria. He is disturbingly quiet on this important issue - where is his outrage on this? As for Fr. Minns, this is somewhat akin to a person becoming an Osteopath because he couldn't make it into medical school. He would never have been a Bishop in TEP.
Anglican split
"Conservative Christian" is an oxymoron! It is easy to argue the issues that divide us. Jesus and the prophets taught: feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked, comfort those in prison, minister to those in need. These conservatives, primarily african, have an excess of illness, hunger, unjustly imprisoned not to mention those persecuted because of their ethnic origin. If they followed Jesus teaching they would have no time or energy to worry about other peoples sex lives.
I do not believe that Gene Robinson is fit to be a bishop. We just have more pressing issues.
Who is being disingenuous?
Kirkpatrick writes, "They do not call for homosexuals to be stoned to death. They choose to follow some passage from the Bible and not others. So, clearly, they are interpreting."
Well, Jesus pretty much put an end of stoning to death adulterers, BUT he did not say let's make adulterers bishops (or clergy) and bless their adulterous relations.
GAFCon symbolic with no substantive content? Well, Bp Duncan has produced an important document and the Church of Nigeria has already produced an important 80 page document on how to move forward out of the morass created by politically not theological based decisions of the Episcopal church.
This, unfortunately, is very typical of the shallow thinking presented liberals.
