AnglicansUnited.com

[Ed. Note: The Atheist Wars are waging again in England, as Steven Hawking has released another paper proving that God is redundant and not necessary. As soon as I find that paper, I will post it. Cheryl M. Wetzel]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1308599/Stephen-Hawking-wrong-You-explain-universe-God.html

By Professor John Lennox
Last updated at 10:47 AM on 3rd September 2010

According to Stephen Hawking, the laws of physics, not the will of God, provide the real explanation as to how life on Earth came into being

There’s no denying that Stephen Hawking is intellectually bold as well as physically heroic. And in his latest book, the renowned physicist mounts an audacious challenge to the traditional religious belief in the divine creation of the universe.

According to Hawking, the laws of physics, not the will of God, provide the real explanation as to how life on Earth came into being. The Big Bang, he argues, was the inevitable consequence of these laws ‘because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.’

Unfortunately, while Hawking’s argument is being hailed as controversial and ground-breaking, it is hardly new.

For years, other scientists have made similar claims, maintaining that the awesome, sophisticated creativity of the world around us can be interpreted solely by reference to physical laws such as gravity.

It is a simplistic approach, yet in our secular age it is one that seems to have resonance with a sceptical public.

But, as both a scientist and a Christian, I would say that Hawking’s claim is misguided. He asks us to choose between God and the laws of physics, as if they were necessarily in mutual conflict.

But contrary to what Hawking claims, physical laws can never provide a complete explanation of the universe. Laws themselves do not create anything, they are merely a description of what happens under certain conditions.

What Hawking appears to have done is to confuse law with agency. His call on us to choose between God and physics is a bit like someone demanding that we choose between aeronautical engineer Sir Frank Whittle and the laws of physics to explain the jet engine.

Hawking’s argument appears to me even more illogical when he says the existence of gravity means the creation of the universe was inevitable. But how did gravity exist in the first place? Who put it there? And what was the creative force behind its birth? Read more…

[Ed. Note: The Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa Bishop's meeting has begun outside of Entebbe, Uganda. The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke to the assembled and I expect the full transcript of his text to be released sometime today. The snippet included in this piece puts him at odds with the bishops assembled, as he urges them NOT to assume they have the "right answers and know better" about any given situation. Should His Grace continue to take this tack, it will be a long, hot week in Uganda. The argument is not about homosexuality; it is about the Authority of Scripture over every human deviance and contrivance. Cheryl M. Wetzel]

Read here http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/African%20bishops%20say%20Anglicans%20in%20West%20strayed%20from%20God/-/1066/995948/-/6q5wyx/-/

August 24th, 2010 Posted in News
www.anglican-mainstream.net

African bishops say Anglicans in West strayed from God

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams arrives to a past Lambeth Conference in Cantebury. The Anglican church in the West no longer adheres to the word of God, African bishops said Tuesday

The Daily Nation
By AFP
Posted Tuesday, August 24 2010 at 15:19
ENTEBBE, Uganda

The Anglican church in the West no longer adheres to the word of God, African bishops said Tuesday at a continental conference attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rowan Williams, the head of the world-wide Anglican Communion, has been criticised by some African church leaders for his tolerant stance on homosexuality.

“Today, the West is lacking obedience to the word of God,” Reverend Ian Ernest of Mauritius, the head of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, told journalists. “It is for us (Africans) to redress the situation,” he said, adding that he has severed all ties to the Episcopalian churches in Canada and the US that have allowed gays to
enter the clergy.

The conference host, the Archbishop of Uganda Henry Luke Orombi, said African leaders would use the six-day meeting to voice the concerns about the “ailing church” to Williams. “Homosexuality is incompatible with the word of God,” Orombi said. “It is good (that) Archbishop Rowan is here. We are going to express to him where we stand. We are going to explain where our pains are.”

Orombi also said that disputes over homosexuality had already divided the global Anglican community. “There is already a break. It doesn’t need to be announced. It is in the way people act,” he said. Read more…

[Ed. Note: Anglican Mainstream, our counterpart in England, has requested urgent assistance in supplying aid to the 4 million people in Pakistan displaced by floods. To make a donation, you can go to their website and click on donate. http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/ Gifts are fully tax deductible. Cheryl M. Wetzel]

August 19th, 2010

Bishop Azad Marshall, the President of the National Council of Churches of Pakistan, is appealing for funds to assist in bringing relief to flood victims. He told AM today: “Christians want to play their part in helping people in the flood affected areas alongside Muslims, the Government and others.

TOTAL RAISED SO FAR FROM THIS APPEAL £1630

Our teams are operating from three centres.

In the former North West Frontier Province around Peshawar we are working closely with Bishop Peter of the Diocese of Peshawar to bring help to 1500 families of an average of 6 people a family, 9000 people.

In the Southern Punjab we are bringing help to 2000 families in close cooperation with the Diocese of Multan and in the Sind to 3000 families in close co-operation with the Diocese of Sind. We are seeking to help upwards of 40,000 people.

£75 will provide food and utensils to ensure basic survival for one family of six people for a month – excluding transport costs.

Three medical camps are being set up to meet emergencies to cope with water borne diseases. We have three doctors working there.

Already one delivery of supplies has been sent and got through. We will have reports and photographs available next week”

Bishop Michael Nazir Ali said: “I strongly support this appeal made by the President of the National Council of Churches of Pakistan. It is good that churches are working together to relieve the needs for food, clean water and medical assistance where it is most urgent to do so. As always the churches minister to people regardless of their ethnicity, religion or social position. I am certain that giving to this appeal will ensure timely and efficient delivery at the points of greatest need.”

Support which will all be forwarded to support this work can be sent to Anglican Mainstream (a charity) or Anglican International Development ( awaiting charitable registration) at 21 High Street, Eynsham, OX29 4HE or donations can be made through the Anglican Mainstream website and clicking on donate. Gift Aid forms can be emailed on request from office@anglican-mainstream.net.

UN officials say that the area covered by the floods is the size of England. Read here. 4 million people are estimated to be homeless and 8 million reliant on aid.

Friday August 6 2010

By George Conger for the Church of England Newspaper

THE ANGLICAN Consultative Council (ACC) failed to follow its rules in soliciting approval for its new Constitution, critics of the London-based ‘instrument of communion’ tell The Church of England Newspaper.

Some provinces were never asked to approve the ACC’s new Constitution, while others were asked to approve “in principle” a draft version that differed from the final document lodged with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on July 10, 2010, while a third group reported that the draft it approved was substantially similar to the one adopted.

The resulting uncertainty has likely resulted in two Anglican Consultative Councils under law: a limited corporation created under English law on July 12, 2010, and an English charitable trust registered in 1978.

The Anglican Communion News Service reported that ACC legal adviser John Rees told the Standing Committee at its London meeting on July 24 the new Articles of Association had been drawn up between 2002 and 2005, before submission to the Provinces between 2005 and 2009. “In all essentials the content of the new Constitution is as circulated to the provinces between 2005 and 2009,” ACC spokesman Jan Butter said.

However, Global South leaders tell CEN the claim of inconsequential revisions advanced by the ACC was misleading. Citing the Anglican Communion Institute’s analyses, they note the new Constitution engages in a power grab that makes the delegates subordinate to the Standing Committee, while also encroaching
upon the authority and prerogatives of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates’ Meeting.

It is also unclear if all of the provinces were consulted about the changes introduced by the new Constitution, including the subordination of the ACC to the European Union’s equality laws.

The Archbishops’ Council and the House of Bishops Standing Committee endorsed the revised articles of association in early 2009, a spokesperson for the Church of England said, adding that “we do not consider there to be any significant differences between the drafts considered by the Archbishops’ Council and House of Bishops Standing Committee in 2009, and the articles adopted this year.”

A spokesperson for the Church of Uganda told CEN that in 2008 a letter asking for comments on the draft bylaws was sent to Archbishop Henry Orombi, which stated that unless an answer was received, this would be interpreted as the Church’s consent for the revisions, which were described as inconsequential changes to facilitate the ACC’s metamorphosis into a limited liability corporation.

However, “we were never sent an actual copy of the new by-laws to review,” the Church of Uganda spokesperson said.

In 1969 the special session of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention “acceded and subscribed to the Proposed Constitution of the said Anglican Consultative Council,” but spokesman Neva Rae Fox stated
“the General Convention did not act on the revisions to the ACC Constitution proposed by ACC-13.”

On July 27, the Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina he had “no
recollection of this Province having been consulted on these changes”. Read more…

[Ed. Note: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori spent last weekend in England, prior to a meeting of the Standing Committee, a group of 15 that advises the Archbishop of Canterbury and has other planning functions for the communion. since the Presiding Bishop preached and did not celebrate the Eucharist, there was no "Mitre Gate" involved in this public event. Cheryl M. Wetzel]

released by: The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

[July 25, 2010] “The search for dignity is work that all members of Christ’s body share,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in her sermon at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, on July 25. “We’re invited to join the band of prophets, share the meal and drink the cup. It can be dangerous work, but most prophets I know are also filled with joy.”

The following is Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori’s sermon.

_________________________________________________

Feast of St. James

25 July 2010

St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church

There’s an institution in New York City called the Doe Fund. Its motto is Ready, Willing and Able. Early in the morning, trucks bearing that logo can be found on the streets of Manhattan, and out of those trucks come workers with garbage cans, brooms, and equipment for collecting litter. Some of the trucks disgorge workers with pumps and containers for collecting used cooking oil to be recycled into biodiesel. The Doe Fund takes its name from John Doe, the traditional moniker for a person whose name is a mystery. Its founder is a Roman Catholic layman who’s convinced that employment and learning personal responsibility are the key to ending homelessness. The Fund assists people who are trying to leave homelessness by providing jobs, support in sobriety, and help with developing employment skills and a sense of their basic human dignity.

Each year the Doe Fund helps several hundred people transform their lives. Those people are overwhelmingly from minority populations, more than half have been in prison, and most have substance addiction issues. That motto, Ready, Willing and Able, is a proud witness to dignity gained.

That’s also pretty much what we hear when Jesus asks James and his brother John if they are able to drink the cup that he will drink. Yep, they say, “we’re ready, willing, and able.” Their journey in some sense moves in the opposite direction, but it is about the same kind of vocation. James’ and John’s charge to fish for people is about serving whoever turns up, and following a leader who has nowhere to lay his head. They are becoming workers without a permanent home because they’re focused on world-wide cleanup and the transformation of all communities. The goal is a healed society where all have the dignity that comes of right relationship with God and neighbor. We usually call it the Reign of God, or the common weal of God.

That commonweal of God work is a prophetic vocation, often deeply unpopular and challenging, and born of the dream that dignity for all is a deeply divine warrant. That kind of prophetic witness, in both word and deed, is what made Jesus so offensive to the powers at hand. The same kind of prophetic witness got James executed by Herod, the first of the inner circle of disciples to be martyred. It is what Jesus himself pointed to when he said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37).

But prophetic work is not primarily about death and homelessness, even though either may be a byproduct. Prophetic work is about more abundant life for the whole world, and it is about a home everywhere, a home for all.
Read more…