Anglican Mainstream

Exclusive interview with David Virtue, VOL

VOL: What is your overall take on this gathering of African Bishops from 12 African nations?

DUNCAN: This, the Second All African Bishops Conference has lacked the clarity of the first All African Bishops' Conference. What I believe we learn from this conference six years later is that Anglicanism without a confession is in a troubled place. The contrast between the spirit of GAFCON and this conference was striking. The prayerful, joyful always aware that God-is-right -here attitude of the African Church was present only when we worshipped or shared relationally. The sessions at the conference were dominated by Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and social solutions where the gospel of Jesus is not the driving force.

By and large, the folks in Entebbe were the same folks at Lagos and many of the same folks in Jerusalem, but this conference lacked that great enthusiastic spirit that the joy of Jesus invariably displays. Conference presenters were more often good-hearted NGO's, but what exuded and continues to exude from the bishops of Africa was not so often on the podium since bishops were not so often on the podium. The agenda, apart from worship and Bible studies, was far more dominantly social than spiritual. Nevertheless and as always, the Lord did great things for many who shared in the conference and He is able to work all things together for good. (Rom. 8:28)

VOL: Did you feel accepted and affirmed as the new Anglican boy on the block?

DUNCAN: Over and over again, bishops all across Africa expressed to me their affection and respect for the stand that I and all of us have made and their sense absolute oneness in the gospel.

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From Church Times

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has called on African bishops to listen more to the people they lead, and to put themselves at risk for the sake of their flock, as he addressed the first All Africa Bishops’ Conference to be convened in six years.

In his sermon at the opening eucharist on Tuesday, at the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) gathering in Entebbe, Uganda, Dr Williams said: “We listen to Jesus, and then we must learn to listen to those we lead and serve; to find out what their own hopes and needs and confusions are. We must love and attend to their humanity in all its diversity, so that we become better able to address words of hope and challenge to them. We cannot assume we always know better.”

Although he did not mention homosexuality, many of his audience interpreted his words in that context.

Afterwards, the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Revd Henry Orombi, who is hosting the confer­ence, said that he welcomed Dr Williams’s attendance. “We are going to express to him where we stand. Homosexuality is incompatible with the word of God.” The Anglican Com­munion was already broken, he said.

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By David W Virtue in Entebbe

[.....] Social issues are featured high on the agenda. The environment, poverty, HIV/ADIS and diseases of one sort or another are being addressed. However, one wonders if some of the speakers, many of whom are bureaucrats who struggle with resources, are adopting UN language to get UN dollars. Every Anglican province has an HIV office as well as development offices with huge staffs.

One of the criticisms of Episcopal Church bishops like John Chane of Washington and Tom Shaw of Massachusetts is that Africa is more concerned with homosexuality than the pressing issues of Africa. It is a lie, of course. It is the North American churches that are obsessed with homosexual behavior, not the Africans. Africans have no interest in the subject at all. They are being forced to address it precisely because it is being thrust upon them by the West's Culture Wars.

This conference is not shying away from addressing the subject, but this conference has dispelled forever the African church's alleged lack of interest on social issues that are tearing people apart including war and disease. Whole lectures have been devoted to HIV/AIDS, the environment, poverty, disease, war and the need for clean water and what local churches should be doing about it. One African bishop says he hopes to plant one million trees before he dies. (Has US Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori planted a single tree?) The Africans have the resources. What they need is help to mobilize and strategize them.

The problems are immense and the need is great. Many African nations have had a series of corrupt political leaders, which has made change difficult. Uganda is a case in point. The country has gone from Idi Amin to a solid Christian Anglican president today. Things can change. The church even has a provident fund for retiring clergy. No, it is not in the same league as the Church Pension Fund, but the African Anglican world is growing and changing. Constant whining about Western pansexuality will not hold them back. The evidence is in. The total Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) for the whole of North America wouldn't be one decent sized Nigerian diocese. So the question is: who should be listening to whom?

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By David W Virtue in Entebbe

In the heavily nuanced world of verbal gymnastics inhabited by Dr. Rowan Williams there lies a single truth: He is not on the same page with the vast majority of Anglicans in the Anglican Communion most notably in the Global South.

This was evident this past week when he made a guest appearance at the All Africa Conference of Bishops known as CAPA in Entebbe, Uganda.

In his address to some 400 Anglican bishops from a dozen African nations, Williams used his sermon to allude to the difficulties in the Communion, saying bishops have a "special responsibility to show the world the preciousness of those who are hated or neglected by others or by society at large".

Clergy need to listen to those they lead and serve, to find out what "their own hopes and needs and confusions are". They should not pick and choose to whom they minister, he added. "We must love and attend to their humanity in all its diversity. We cannot assume we always know better, that we always have the right answer to any specific question."

The subtext in Williams' words, especially when you see the word "diversity" is not merely those in poverty or with HIV/AIDS but also to homosexuals whom he believes met the criteria of "hated and neglected".

A deeper fiction could not be found. Williams has separated this out in his mind and, by his actions, his private views on the subject from what he must uphold as the church's received teaching. Never mind that no other single group in the world is winning the Culture Wars more decisively than those pressing the case for the full acceptance of homosexual practice. Anyone who dare opposes this behavior can find themselves losing jobs, businesses and going to jail.

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From Anglican TV

By Riazat Butt, Guardian

Most Rev Henry Orombi also used Entebbe meeting of 400 bishops to reiterate opposition to homosexuality

The archbishop of Uganda yesterday urged hundreds of African bishops to shake off their fears, shame and superficial dependency and re-evangelise the "ailing" churches of the west.

In a rallying cry to the biggest constituency of the Anglican Communion, the Most Rev Henry Orombi said it was time for Africans to "rise up and bring fresh life in the ailing global Anglicanism".

His call came on the same day that US Episcopalians published a guide on liturgical and ceremonial resources for clergy and same-sex couples.

Orombi was addressing the 400 bishops who are in Entebbe, Uganda, this week for the second meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa.

He told them the "potentials" attending the conference must be free to go to Europe and the US and revive the "Mother Church desperate for the gospel".

One of those listening was the Archbishop of Canterbury, who faces an awkward week as he visits Uganda for the first time since he took office in 2002.

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by David Virtue in Entebbe, VOL

If placing means anything then you will be interested to learn that in the line up on the top platform at today's opening CAPA Eucharist where the Archbishop of Canterbury preached, the placing went like this. From left to right: Bob Duncan (ACNA), Archbishop Ian Ernest (Indian Ocean), Archbishop Rowan Williams (ABC), and Archbishop Henry Orombi (Uganda). Duncan's presence was publicly recognized by Archbishop Orombi.

The message was clear. Archbishop Robert Duncan, leader of the Anglican Church in North America, is a player whether Williams or the Anglican Consultative Council ever recognizes him or not. No such invitation was extended to Katharine Jefferts Schori who would have felt decidedly uncomfortable among 400 Evangelical African Anglican bishops who have a very different gospel from hers.

Duncan also shared in the distribution of Holy Communion. "The Anglican Church is expanding everywhere in Africa. There are now some 400 dioceses spread across the continent. As Archbishop I am here to learn and to stand in solidarity with this vigorous gospel mission," said Archbishop Duncan.

While Archbishop Williams told the gathered bishops that the 21st Century may well be the "African Century", he was met with only polite applause from the Africans who believe he has sided with Western pansexualists and does not hold fast to a biblical view of Christian morality.

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By David W Virtue, Virtueonline

Gospel and Social Justice will combine to bring needed change to the area

Some 400 African Anglican bishops including a small group of Western Anglican bishops and leaders of social service agencies, who together represent more than 80 percent of the shared faith of the Anglican Communion, are gathering here to confront Africa's pressing spiritual and social problems.

The weeklong conference will focus on issues of conflict, poverty, corruption and disease on the continent in the context of the gospel of redemption and change.

"It is a misreading of the conference agenda to suggest that we are all about social change without the gospel being at the heart of it," a Nigerian bishop told VOL. Changing peoples' outward circumstances while not addressing peoples' need for inner transformation by Christ is to misread the agenda here, a Ugandan bishop told VOL.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is here and will be the guest preacher at the opening Eucharist on Aug. 24.

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Although we have written before of our concerns over the substance of the new Articles of Association of the Anglican Consultative Council, until now we have said little about our concerns over the procedures followed by the Anglican Communion Office in managing the development of these Articles. Others voiced complaints and we remained hopeful that the ACO would respond to these complaints with transparency and by providing satisfactory answers. This has not happened.

By Ephraim Kasozi, Daily Monitor

The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi, yesterday said the Anglican Church today faces many challenges which have made it dysfunctional.

“What I can tell you is that the Anglican Church is very broken,” Bishop Orombi said.

“It (church) has been torn at its deepest level, and it is a very dysfunctional family of the provincial churches. It is very sad for me to see how far down the church has gone.”

Speaking at the opening of a three-day provincial Assembly in Mukono, the head of the Church of Uganda noted that the church has lost credibility.

He proposed that the Church of Uganda engages church structures at a very minimal level until godly faith and order have been restored. “I can assure you that we have tried as a church to participate in the processes, but they are dominated by western elites, whose main interest is advancing a vision of Anglicanism that we do not know or recognise. We are a voice crying in the wilderness,” he said at the Church’s top assembly that convenes every two years.

The Principal Judge of the High Court of Uganda, Justice James Ogoola, noted that there was need to deeply reflect on the fear of God.

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By Robert H Lundy, AAC

The Anglican Communion Standing Committee met in London from July 23-27 for what proved to be a telling event. As the meeting progressed and information from sources inside and outside the meeting emerged, the dominance of biblical revisionists and Episcopal Church allies within the committee was made clearer and clearer.

Before the meeting began, the orthodox voice and witness on the committee had already been diminished by the resignations of the Bishop of Iran, Azad Marshall, and the Archbishop of West Africa, Justice Akrofi. These two resignations from the 14-member group only compounded the effect of the earlier resignations of Archbishops Henry Orombi (Uganda) in December, 2009 and Mouneer Anis (Jerusalem and the Middle East) in February of this year. These resignations were not the only concerns going into this meeting.

At its last meeting in December of 2009, the Standing Committee violated its own constitution in electing a priest, the Rev. Canon Janet Trisk (South Africa), as a replacement for a lay representative to the committee.

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By A S Haley

[.....] indeed, why should anyone any longer care? The Anglican Communion has devolved from a State-church led union of national churches, sharing common doctrine and worship, into a cacophony of scattered voices, the loudest of which proclaim "doctrine" which would make Archbishop Cranmer despair that his own noble witness to the Anglican cause (as it then was) had been utterly in vain. As others have observed, there is today no longer a "Communion", but a "Dysunion.

From BabyBlue Online

With Ian Douglas proclaiming that the credibility-challenged new group called the Anglican Communion Standing Committee "has pursued a course of transparency and open communication," at the same time 815 is happily reporting that "Throughout the five days of closed sessions, the 14 committee members heard about efforts to improve communication across the Anglican Communion's officially sanctioned networks. With its networks, the ACC recognizes groups of Anglicans who want to organize formally around a ministry or issue and monitors their efforts."

In five days there have been only two "official" daily reports and those "reports" raised more questions than answers (there's been no disclosure to the finances for example).  In this happy report from The Episcopal Church (while there is no report from the Anglican Communion Office yet of yesterday's activities), 815 says that while there was a "course of transparency and open communication," the meetings themselves were "five days of closed sessions."

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From ACI

The Communion seems to be converging around a position which says that while it is inappropriate to proceed to public Rites of Blessing of same-sex unions and to the consecration of bishops who are living in sexual relationships outside of Christian marriage, we need to take seriously our ministry to gay and lesbian people inside the Church and the ending of discrimination, persecution and violence against them. Here, The Episcopal Church and the Instruments of Communion speak with one voice.

By David W. Virtue, Virtueonline

Despite a proposal from orthodox Anglican leader Dato Stanley Isaacs from the Province of South East Asia that the American Episcopal Church be separated from the rest of the Anglican Communion over sexuality issues, Committee members of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (aka the Anglican Communion Office) rejected the plea, arguing it "would inhibit dialogue and … would therefore be unhelpful."

While rejecting the proposal, Standing Committee members agreed to defer further discussion on the matter until progress on a listening project had been considered. Currently, Anglicans worldwide are participating in "The Continuing Indaba and Mutual Listening Project," which is intended to open the ears of Anglicans to the experiences of homosexual persons, according to a July 26 bulletin from the Anglican Communion Office.

The committee, which included the Archbishop of Canterbury, met in closed sessions July 23-27 at the Anglican Communion Office in London.

Once more no one is prepared to exercise godly discipline on the Episcopal Church for its blatant defiance of the Windsor Report and a Covenant in the process of being ratified by all the provinces of the Anglican Communion over sexuality issues which has seen TEC defy the communion not once, but twice by electing an avowed homosexual and lesbian to the episcopacy. The open defiance of the communion's requested Moratorium is met with muted outrage as no one is prepared to put their foot down and lay down the law, largely because the communion's Instruments of Unity are stacked with liberals and token orthodox believers who get shot down if they should so much as raise their voices. Witness what happened to Isaacs.

Groaned one English cleric, "Why, oh why, oh why is TEC permitted to retain such influence in a Communion in which it is an insignificant flea on the rump of the orthodox majority?"

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From Anglican TV

By Phil Ashey, AAC

The American Anglican Council has posted a report by the Rev. George Conger from this week's Church of England Newspaper.  The article is entitled "Rules out at ACC."  It concerns the recent resignations from and appointments to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion.  Specifically, the report focuses on the replacement of a resigned lay member from South Africa with a clerical member, the Rev. Canon Janet Trisk (also from South Africa), as well as the continued seating of Ian Douglas from The Episcopal Church (TEC), who is no longer a clerical member but is now a bishop.

The constitution and bylaws of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) govern the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates and the ACC (JSC), which has now morphed into the "Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion," with substantial powers under Section 4 of the proposed Anglican Covenant to determine membership within the Anglican Communion under the terms of the Covenant.  The very legitimacy of the "Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion" (SCAC) has been called into question, most notably by the Anglican Communion Institute and also Professor Stephen Noll, regarding the manner in which it has evolved from the JSC without constitutional warrant.  Be that as it may, both the appointment of Canon Janet Trisk and the continued seating of Bishop Ian Douglas from TEC are in clear violation of Bylaw 7 which states that "the Standing Committee itself shall have power to appoint a member of the council of the same order as the representative who filled the vacant place."  Canon Trisk, a priest and lawyer, is taking the place of Ms. Nomfundo Walaza of South Africa, a member of the lay order. Bishop Douglas was elected at ACC-14 to serve as a member in the clerical order.  As a bishop, he is now in a different order and therefore ineligible to continue to serve as such.  His continued seating without question also violates Bylaw 7.

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By Tony Seel, DCNY

The title of this post is from a lecture by Archbishop Michael Ramsey that is included in his book The Anglican Spirit. In his chapter "Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism," Ramsey explores the dynamics of the relationships of Anglicanism to Rome and to Protestants. Near the end of this lecture he speaks of Anglicanism on the Indian subcontinent. In India are the united churches of South India and North India and in Pakistan is the united Church of Pakistan. In all three instances Anglicans have united with Christians from other traditions under the principles of the Lambeth Quadrilateral.

As Ramsey says, the Lambeth Quadrilateral spells out the "basic Catholic facts and principles" regarding what constitutes the fullness of the Church: the Scriptures, the sacraments of salvation (Baptism and Eucharist), the creeds, and the historic episcopate. With these four principles in place Anglicans in India and Pakistan were willing to unite with other Christians. Could this be a model for Anglicanism worldwide?

The crisis in Anglicanism that was precipitated by and continued by the divisive actions of pecusa in 2003 and this year will reverberate through the Communion for the forseeable future. I expect that pecusa will continue to walk apart from the Anglican Communion, will continue to diminish in size and influence, and her leadership will be excluded from more and more areas of Communion life. The Anglican Communion in North America will continue to grow as an orthodox alternative to pecusa and the Anglican Church in Canada and will one day be recognized by the Archbishop of Canterbury as a province of the Anglican Communion.

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From ACI

The Reverend Canon Professor Christopher Seitz
The Reverend Dr. Philip Turner
The Reverend Dr. Ephraim Radner
Mark McCall, Esq.

We have written often about the Anglican Consultative Council and its Standing Committee over the last year. After the chaotic session in Jamaica in May 2009 we noted that the ACC had not followed its own rules in conducting the crucial vote on the Covenant with the result that the vote to defer Section 4 probably did not effectively pass the Council. And we also noted that in the confusion in Jamaica, it is doubtful that the members sufficiently understood what they were actually voting on to make that vote even morally authoritative. ACC officials suggested that a move away from western parliamentary procedures placed great weight on decisions of the chairman, who could discern the sense of the meeting, but in fact the chairman was actually corrected twice during the crucial vote—once when he ruled the controversial “Trisk amendment” out of order and then later when he ruled that a second vote was required to pass the resolution as amended. This confusion was televised over Anglican TV (and later transcribed) so the debacle is preserved for all to see. From that moment on many Communion members lost all confidence in the ACC as a viable and representative Instrument of Communion.

In the year since the ACC meeting in Jamaica, it has become increasingly clear that the problems so evident there were not isolated events but are endemic to the operations of the Council and its Standing Committee. We have written about this repeatedly in recent months, including publicly here, here, here and here. The most recent news concerning resignations from and dubious appointments to the Standing Committee, released nearly simultaneously by the ACNS and TEC’s Episcopal News Service, once again present these issues in acute form.

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