The world, both rich and poor countries, is clearly facing multiple crises. Unfortunately it is poor people who suffer the most, suffering immensely from food price increases. We expected this year’s G-8 summit to reflect the gravity and urgency of the situation; but rather we got more and more talk and zero practical, measurable and tangible commitments with set timelines.
The Telegraph’s recent interview with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is a classic example of an ideologically-motivated newspaper writing conflict-mongering headlines that the text of the story cannot support.
If what is happening in the Province of Central Africa–where people are being denied the bishops that they want and having other candidates forced upon–were happening in the Episcopal Church, how many emergency meetings of the Primates would have been convened? How many border crossings justified? How many stories about imminent schism written?
Like Mr Rochester’s first wife, the misogyny and homophobia of the Church of England’s factions keep leaping out of the attic to scare off decent folk, writes Stephen Bates. Desperate in its search for relevance, the Established Church could not have chosen two issues more likely to make it appear institutionally decrepit among those it wishes to proselytise than its perceived discrimination against women and gay people.
The immediate future of General Seminary is not imperiled. Decisive action, however, is not simply called for but demanded. At our May board meeting, the trustees of GTS committed to a three-year plan to address the challenges the Seminary now faces.
– Dean Ward B. Ewing
The simple reality is that the majority of African Anglicans, about 37 million of them, are frankly not bothered with the debate on sexuality. A bishop from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told me that the people in his diocese were not in the least interested in the issue. This is just the tip of the iceberg because in my own Province the debate on sexuality is also not an issue.
The next installment in the Sunday Telegraph’s list of the 50 most influential Anglicans (31-40) is online. Who do you think should make the list?
There is something to this argument, but in what sense are parishes who put themselves under a foreign bishop seeking to escape any episcopal oversight while remaining nominally Anglican; and when African archbishops spout 19th century theology in speeches written for them by American conservatives, is that an example of globalization enabled or globalization coopted?
Beginning sometime in the next few days, the Café’s editor Jim Naughton will be reporting from England on the Lambeth Conference and related events. You can expect dispatches daily–at least. Meanwhile the Café’s other news bloggers will continue to round up and synthesize coverage of the events shaping the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
For both theological and practical reasons, the Episcopal Church is moving toward a “nonprofessional” ministry of part-time or unpaid clergy. And an increasing amount of pastoral, spiritual, and educational work is being carried out by lay volunteers. By some estimates, between 60,000 and 100,000 lay people have been trained in Bible, church history and theology in an intensive four-year program called Education for Ministry.