Anglicans United & Latimer Press

http://mcj.bloghorn.com/2285 Midwest Conservative Journal Webster Groves, Missouri Christopher S. Johnson The speech recently given by Michael Langrish, [Bishop of Exeter, England; referred to in this article as My Lord Exeter] the Anglican Bishop of Exeter, to ECUSA's House of Bishops (March 17-22, Kanuga, NC) a week ago is now online in its entirety. It's very long so I'm only going to quote parts of it. Responding to the set of proposals outlined by Arizona Bishop Kirk Smith which may form the basis of ECUSA's official response to the Windsor Report, the most important of which were these: 3. An expression of “repentance” (and that is the word used rather than “regret”) for actions of our church, which have caused pain to the wider Communion. 4. An encouragement of “very considerable caution” in electing future bishops whose “acceptability poses a challenge” to the Communion, until a wider consensus emerges. 5. A call for a wide breadth of responses and pastoral care to the needs of homosexual people. However, the authorization of same sex unions is to be put on hold “until a broader consensus emerges in Communion.” Bishops who have authorized such are to apologize for their actions. Langrish sounds considerably ....Continue reading, "NEEDS IMPROVEMENT"

Episcopal News Service March 26, 2006 By Mary Frances Schjonberg [ENS] Two of the three dioceses hoping to elect bishops on March 25 did so, but the third recessed its electing convention for the second time without choosing a bishop. The Very Rev. Canon William H. Love, 48, rector, St. Mary's, Lake Luzerne, New York, was elected bishop coadjutor by the Diocese of Albany, while the Rev. David Mitchell Reed, 49, rector, St. Alban's Church, Harlingen, was elected bishop suffragan by the Diocese of West Texas. The Diocese of Tennessee will reconvene on May 6 to try again to elect a successor to Bishop Bertram Herlong. The first meeting of the electing convention on March 18 recessed after 14 ballots. The lay and clergy electors returned to Christ Church Cathedral in downtown March 25. They cast 11 more ballots without success. In Albany, Love was elected from out of a field of 11 nominees on the fourth ballot. With an election requiring 54 votes in the lay order and 80 in the clergy order, Love was elected with 62 lay votes and 84 clergy votes. The electing convention met at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany, New York. Love ....Continue reading, "Albany diocese elects bishop coadjutor; West Texas elects suffragan. But Tennessee election recessed until May 6"

http://mcj.bloghorn.com/2282 Midwest Conservative Journal Webster Groves, Mo. Copyright by Christopher S. Johnson Bishop of Arizona Kirk Smith, wrote, "Sitting in the airport, waiting to catch a plane back to Phoenix from the North Carolina House of Bishops meeting gives me a chance to add my own unofficial “Word to the Church” as an introduction to the official published document, which I have included below in case you have not already seen it. There were several large and important issues we dealt with at this meeting. We were very much aware that many in our own country, not to mention the wider Anglican Communion, were waiting to see how we would react to the Windsor Report on the eve of our June General Convention. You will note the mention, in the “Word to the Church” document, of the Special Commission on the Anglican Communion. Although this Commission did not give us a written report (that will be published in a few weeks), it did outline several recommendations, which will take the form of resolutions at General Convention. From my perspective, these resolutions represent an endorsement of the Windsor Report and express a clear desire not to do anything that would further ....Continue reading, "STRATEGIC WITHDRAWAL? Has ECUSA blinked?"

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent THE TIMES March 25, 2006 THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has invited senior bishops and advisers to a private meeting in London in the clearest indication to date that Anglican church leaders are braced for a schism. The Times has learnt that the meeting at Lambeth Palace next month is intended to examine the crisis in the Church over homosexuality. It is being held in the run-up to the General Convention in June of the US Episcopal Church. Speculation is mounting that the US Church will then ratify the election of a lesbian as Bishop of California. The Rev Bonnie Perry, 43, is one of five shortlisted candidates standing for election on May 6. Her girlfriend of 18 years, Susan Harlow, is a professor of religious education at the nearby Meadville Lombard Theological School and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. The ratification would follow the choice of the gay cleric Gene Robinson to be Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. A further top-secret consultation is to take place after June, at St George's House, Windsor Castle, to debate the implications. This consultation, on sexuality and to be conducted under ....Continue reading, "LONDON: Archbishop holds talks over fear of a schism"

By Dr. P.D.M. TURNER prisca@nwnet.org Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada It is never wrong to love another human being; but we all know that particular expressions of that love may be wrong, and that the wrongness is independent of the depth, intensity and permanence of love. That some kinds of genital expression, for instance between parent and child, two siblings, close friends of the same or different sex, are displeasing to God is the united witness of the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Old Greek version (which adds an allusion to lesbian relations in Ezekial 16), the Intertestamental literature, the Fathers, the Reformers and all Jewish and Christian ethicists until perhaps thirty years ago. The differentium of same-sex 'unions' and of Gene Robinson's relationship with his close friend is a case in point. In biblical Greek and language derived from it (for instance in Philo) such kinds of physical expression are frequently called porneia (rendered "fornication" in older English versions, "unchastity" or "sexual immorality" in more modern ones): at least twice in the Lord's teaching according to Matthew, in I Cor. 6-7 and in Gal. 5 (where it stands at the head of the list of the 'Works of the ....Continue reading, "HOMOSEXUALITY -- CALLING RIGHT WHAT CHRIST CALLED WRONG"