By Cheryl M. Wetzel, Editor, The Anglican Voice According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones, reporter, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH newspaper, London, 27 August, 2006, “The Archbishop of Canterbury has told homosexuals that they need to change their behaviour if they are to be welcomed into the church, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.”
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"Archbishop of Canterbury says Change your Behaviour to Gays"
The Most Rev. Rowan Williams, once a champion of the gay cause in Great Britain, has again disavowed this issue. He has repeatedly distanced himself from this issue since his institution as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under persistent pressure from the Queen that the Anglican Communion not be allowed to disintegrate, and pressure from the Primates of the orthodox “Global South”, Williams has been forced to put aside his advocacy of the gay cause and act to preserve the Communion. The story cites the following comments:
-The tradition and doctrine of the Church has not changed because of the precedent of Robinson’s consecration.
-“Inclusive” as a church label is not a goal in itself. Williams prefers the word welcoming.
-Williams has rebutted the idea that gays should be included in the church "unconditionally."
-Williams is determined to preserve the Church from being torn apart over this issue and has questioned the tactics used by both sides.
"I don't believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is. We don't say 'Come in and we ask no questions'. I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviours, ideas, emotions," Williams stated. "Ethics is not a matter of a set of abstract rules, it is a matter of living the mind of Christ. That applies to sexual ethics."
Cherie Wetzel, Editor, THE ANGLICAN VOICE Two important news items have surfaced. The first is from Anglican Communion Office, London: ACNS 4177 | ACO | 18 AUGUST 2006 Statement from the ACO Following consultation with the Presiding Bishop the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a small group of bishops from the Episcopal Church (USA) to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions. Along with Bishop Griswold, those invited include Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Bob Duncan, and Bishop Jack Iker . The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion will also attend. The first meeting will be taking place in New York in the first half of September. This is important because it accentuates that Griswold realizes that the break-up of ECUSA will now proceed at a much more rapid rate than after 2003 consecration of V. Gene Robinson. He has enlistted The Archbishop of Canterbury's help in trying to resolve problems and the meeting is on a fast-track for early September, several weeks before the Global South Primates' meeting in late Sept/October in Kigali, Rwanda .
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"BREAKING NEWS ON 8-18-06"
by Douglas LeBlanc | posted 07/26/2006 09:30 a.m. In her inaugural sermon as the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop-elect, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada turned to images used by church mystics such as Julian of Norwich. "That sweaty, bloody, tear-stained labor of the Cross bears new life," Jefferts Schori preached during the church's triennial General Convention, which met in June in Columbus, Ohio. "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation—and you and I are his children."
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"Controversial decisions at the recent General Convention have accelerated the break-up of the Episcopal Church."
For Jefferts Schori, this language was "straight-down-the-middle orthodox thinking," according to The Washington Post.
For David Roseberry, founding rector of the 4,500-member Christ Episcopal Church in Plano, Texas, it was the final outrage.
Jefferts Schori preached her sermon on June 21. Three days later, Christ Church's vestry (its governing board) voted to leave the denomination. Roseberry's bishop, James Stanton of Dallas, has shown openness to letting Christ Church leave with its property. "They bought it. They paid for it," Stanton told The Dallas Morning News.
"When the presiding bishop–elect had a chance to build consensus, she chose to interweave the Cross with radical feminism. It seemed gnostic," Roseberry told Christianity Today, adding that he's aware of English mystic Julian's 14th-century writings.
Roseberry and Jefferts Schori attended the same seminary, Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, but they were separated by 12 years (Roseberry graduated in 1982, Jefferts Schori in 1994) and plenty of theological differences. For one, Roseberry is an evangelical who emphasizes vigorous parish growth. Starting with a group of 240 people in August 1985, he helped Christ Church become one of the largest parishes in the nation. (The average Sunday attendance at Christ Church is about as large as the whole of Jefferts Schori's current diocese.)
Roseberry has been active in conservative Episcopal movements since the early 1990s. But the latest General Convention convinced him that the denomination has destroyed its ability to preach a transforming evangelical gospel in American culture.
"There will always be a niche for a liberal catholic chaplaincy," Roseberry said. "Our bellwether is that we have to get out of [the Episcopal Church] and into a more direct relationship with the Anglican Communion."
Seeking Refuge
Roseberry and Christ Church are not alone. Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Texas, and his diocesan standing committee announced during the General Convention that they had asked Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, for oversight from another of the worldwide Anglican Communion's 38 primates. Globally, there are more than 70 million Anglicans.
In weeks after the General Convention, six other dioceses—Central Florida, Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Joaquin (based in Fresno, California), South Carolina, and Springfield (Illinois)—have asked for something similar.
The seven dioceses say they are not leaving the denomination. But they wish to disassociate themselves from the latest decisions of the General Convention. They believe the convention responded inadequately to the Windsor Report.
The Windsor Report of 2004 asked that the Episcopal Church not allow further blessings for same-sex couples and that it not consecrate another bishop engaged in a same-sex relationship. (In 2003, the church consecrated an openly homosexual man, Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.)
In response to Windsor, the convention urged bishops and standing committees to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion." The convention did not respond to the Windsor Report's request for a moratorium on same-sex blessings.
"The recent resolutions of the General Convention have not produced a complete response to the challenges of the Windsor Report," said Williams in a lengthy statement.
Even as Anglicans "give the strongest support to the defense of homosexual people against violence, bigotry, and legal disadvantage" and "appreciate the role played in the life of the church by people of homosexual orientation," the archbishop wrote, "this doesn't settle the question of whether the Christian church has the freedom, on the basis of the Bible and its historic teachings, to bless homosexual partnerships as a clear expression of God's will. That is disputed among Christians, and, as a bare matter of fact, only a small minority would answer yes to the question."
Williams wrote that he would not act unilaterally to resolve the Anglican Communion's conflicts, and he again endorsed a years-long project of developing a voluntary covenant to unite Anglicans.
"The archbishop of Canterbury presides and convenes in the communion," Williams wrote, "but he must always act collegially, with the bishops of his own local church and with the primates and the other instruments of communion."
Primates from Global South nations will meet in September, and the Anglican Communion's primates will gather as a whole in February.
Williams also stressed that this opt-in covenant may lead to "constituent" provinces, which have voting rights, and "associate" provinces, which function as observers. Williams said associate provinces would relate to the Anglican Communion as Methodists do today.
Structural Changes Likely
Robert Prichard, professor of church history at Virginia Theological Seminary, says that Anglicans usually solve conflicts more through changing structures than through theological formulae.
Prichard sees the seven dioceses' requests as one of a few structural options. (Others include a "states' rights" approach favored by liberal bishops, the two-tiered communion proposed by Archbishop Williams, or the "reverse colonialism" of Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who has established several congregations in America.)
Prichard believes the deeper debate among Anglicans is a "conflict between two authorities"—the authority of Scripture and the creeds versus the authority of "the experience of the downtrodden."
On another front, the Anglican Church of Nigeria announced on June 28 that its bishops had elected Martyn Minns, rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, as a U.S.-based missionary bishop. Minns will oversee the Nigerian province's Convocation for Anglicans in North America, under the leadership of Akinola.
Episcopal Bishop Peter James Lee of Virginia called Minns's election "an affront to the traditional, orthodox understanding of Anglican provincial autonomy." The Windsor Report asked that bishops "who believe it is their conscientious duty to intervene in provinces, dioceses, and parishes other than their own" effect a moratorium on further interventions.
Minns has been one of the most visible conservative activists in the Episcopal Church. It has become "increasingly clear that we are now confronted with a choice between being Anglican or Episcopalian," Minns wrote of telling his bishop recently. "We have no predetermined outcome, but are committed to seeking the Lord's direction for this parish family."
Similarly, conservative John Yates, rector of the Falls Church (Virginia), wrote to his congregation on June 22: "I find myself at home with the great majority of Anglicans around the world. But I feel very little kinship now, personally, with the Episcopal Church. 'Inclusive' as it has become, I do not feel welcomed or accepted anymore."
A leading conservative theologian from South Carolina, Kendall Harmon, said, "It looks increasingly likely that structural realignments will emerge," referring to conservatives' hope of aligning themselves with Anglicans in the Global South.
Harmon encouraged conservative Episcopalians to remember that obedience often is more evident in small, everyday decisions than in grand gestures. "They need to be patient and persevering and stick together with other Anglicans to work for a more hopeful future."
Harmon compared the current life of the Episcopal Church to the time when Jeremiah told the Israelites to settle in the land during a time of exile.
"This is a time of judgment, and we are in exile," Harmon said. "A different future emerges in individual acts of faithful obedience. Emotionally, people look at the devastation and think, 'I've got to do something huge.' But you need to do the exact opposite."
Douglas LeBlanc is a journalist based in Richmond, Virginia.
Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
August 2006, Vol. 50, No. 8, Page 51
By The Associated Press Thu, Aug. 03 2006 03:12 PM ET PITTSBURGH (AP) - The leader of a network of conservative Episcopal dioceses says the global Anglican Communion will unravel unless the archbishop of Canterbury helps U.S. conservatives distance themselves from the Episcopal Church. Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said that if Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams fails to address the concerns of U.S. conservatives "any hope for a Communion-unifying solution slips away, and so does the shape and leadership of the Anglican Communion as we have known them."
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"Head of Conservative U.S. Anglican Group Says Hope for Unity Depends on Williams"
Duncan made the remarks Monday at a meeting of the Anglican Communion Network, which represents 10 Episcopal dioceses and more than 900 parishes with traditional views of the Bible.
Conservatives oppose the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop — V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. They also oppose the June election of the new Episcopal presiding bishop, Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, either because they reject ordaining women or because Jefferts Schori supports ordaining gays and blessing same-sex relationships.
Seven of the 10 network dioceses have appealed to Williams as the spiritual head of the world's Anglicans to appoint another U.S. national leader for them. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. arm of the 77 million-member world Anglican Communion.
Williams has suggested that a two-tier Anglican fellowship, with traditionalists on gay clergy issues having a stronger voice, might be a way to preserve unity within the faith. But he has not appointed a leader for U.S. conservatives.
Separately, the Union of Black Episcopalians met Tuesday in Richmond, Va., with speakers telling the group that the denomination's focus on gay issues was distracting it from fighting social problems such as racism and poverty.
"We waste our time trying to figure out who's sleeping with whom, instead of being about doing the work of mission and ministry," the Rev. Sandye Wilson, the group's immediate past president, told an applauding crowd. "Don't get sidetracked."
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Fri, Aug. 04 2006 10:22 AM ET Conservative Anglicans and Episcopalians who were to decide whether or not to officially break from the Episcopal Church, USA, this week concluded an annual council meeting Wednesday still unsure of “what God is going to do.” The Anglican Communion Network convened 80 delegates together from around the United States, affirming their central need for the "reformation of behavior" as Anglicanism in the United States has been on the rocks for the last three years.
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"Conservative Anglicans Commit to Reformation of Behavior, Unsure of Unity"
"No one can any longer say that 'nothing is happening,' though some, despite all this evidence to the contrary, remain prisoners to that mantra," the Rt. Rev. Robert Wm. Duncan, moderator of the ACN, told the delegates. "These last three years have seemed interminable..."
Since the consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop – New Hampshire's Gene Robinson – in 2003, divisions within the U.S. Anglican arm broke out with most Anglican leaders worldwide saying gay relationships violate Scripture – a minority position in the U.S. church. The ACN, representing 10 conservative U.S. dioceses and more than 900 parishes within the Episcopal Church, was soon birthed and is now in the midst of dealing with the nuts and bolts of building and maintaining "an orthodox Anglican witness and ministry."
The conservative Anglican leaders have appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, for an alternative primatial oversight to affirm their strict stand with the worldwide communion and to "be that part of the ECUSA that has 'not walked apart' from the Communion – that has sacrificially and faithfully stood for what is the Communion's articulated teaching and for what are the accepted boundaries of its order," Duncan stated in his address at the council meeting.
Unless Williams addresses the concerns of U.S. conservatives to distance themselves from the Episcopal Church, Duncan said the global Anglican Communion will lose shape as a unified body.
Although the network has called on the majority of the Episcopal Church to repent, Duncan told the network's delegates, "We too, are every bit as much in need of repenting."
"Our struggle is not about sexuality," he continued, "it is about sin. The 'fix' is not about them, it is about us. The whole world is drawn to the Body of Christ when the Body of Christ looks like Jesus, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else."
The dioceses discussed what the reformation of behavior would look like in such areas as holiness in personal life, worship, constitutional and legal positions and church planting. The network is also continuing its work on a Covenant Declaration of the Common Cause Partners" to outline basic and unifying theological commitments that the dioceses join together in making. The document will be further refined at the Common Cause Roundtable meeting Aug. 16-18 in Pittsburgh.
The recent council meeting follows ECUSA's 75th General Convention in June, where the church expressed regret for straining the bonds of affection in the events surrounding the 2003 convention and decided to "exercise restraint" in the consecrating of homosexuals – a move that disappointed gay advocates and brought relief to those opposing homosexual ordination but still wanting to stay in the communion.
While acknowledging the major changes visibly occurring within the Anglican body and expressing concern over an unraveling communion, Bishop Duncan told delegates, “We don’t know what God is going to do. We do know that God is faithful to His people and that God has a purpose for Anglicanism in the World.”
