Bishop Idris Jones, in an address to his Diocesan Council, speaks of what he believes happens and didn’t happen at this summer’s Lambeth Conference. While he rhetorically overstates the condition of the Communion, he rightly points out that the Communion is in a phase of rapid transformation.
The Primate of Nigeria is featured in a new interview this week. In the interview Abp. Akinola talks about his national role in Nigeria and his sense of how Anglicanism is failing in England.
The fact is we don’t know what God looks like. We haven’t a clue. Scripture certainly gives us lots of images of God. But I can’t really tell the boys that God is a rock or a whirlwind or fire. We’re told that we’re made in the image of God but that doesn’t really help us too much. Is that literal or metaphorical? And getting into an existential debate with a four-year old is a road to nowhere. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Let a regard for the honour of the Church, and for the glory of God who delights in order in his worship, awaken the zeal of every member of the Church. Let him preserve silence in the parts of the service performed by the minister, joining in them not with his voice, but with sincerity of mind and heart.
The questions were phrased so as to suggest what the appropriate answer would be for Warren and most of his constituency. “At what point does a baby get human rights?” “Define marriage.” “Would you insist that faith-based organizations forfeit [the right to hire people who share their beliefs] to access federal funds?”
CNN has the details. Let’s hope this ends the persecution of the Anglican Church in that country. Pray for Bishop Sebastian Bakare of Harare, who
“Although the Anglican Communion has its various formed galaxies, or Churches, it is increasingly full of vacuous space and meaningless drivel in between and within. The distance between one galaxy and another is growing at an ever more rapid rate. Indeed the galaxies are becoming more incoherent themselves and could spiral into oblivion.”
The nomination of Sarah Palin changed Southern Baptist fundamentalism quicker than Eve tempted Adam to eat the apple in the Garden of Eden, metaphorically speaking. The Republican Party’s first woman caused Republican Party’s first-line male clergy to revise their theology about women, while claiming they never meant what they said earlier.
September 11 is a good day to remember the late Father Mychal Judge, the Franciscan chaplain of the New York Fire Department who died when the twin towers fell. Judge was gay, a fact that writer Mike Kelly says aroused little concern–or even interest in the fire department. The Vatican, however, is not equally enlightened. Can the church accept a gay saint?
In his farewell Sightings column, distinguished scholar Martin Marty takes a look.