Was He sent, think you, as any man might suppose, to establish a sovereignty, to inspire fear and terror? Not so. But in gentleness and meekness has He sent Him, as a king might send his son who is a king. He sent Him, as sending God; He sent Him, as a man unto men; He sent Him, as Saviour, as using persuasion, not force: for force is no attribute of God.
On 24 September 673, he summoned the Synod of Hertford. Amongst other things, that Synod issued canons dealing with the rights and obligations of clergy and restricted bishops to working in their own dioceses and not intruding on the ministry of neighbouring bishops. The canons were based on those of the Council of Chalcedon, in 451.
The Lead can reveal that today – mere hours before he jets off for America in what could be a turning point in the future of the Anglican Communion – the Archbishop of Canterbury will celebrate a Eucharist with a rag-tag group of renegades and scoundrels.
Archbishop of Canterbury: “Following on from his visit to the United States …, Dr Rowan Williams will visit Armenia, Syria and Lebanon, from 22nd –
The attention given to the Zimbabwe government-owned Harare Herald has drawn a strong letter of correction of the paper’s reporting from the provincial secretary of the Province of Central Africa: “Contrary to The Herald’s report that the Anglican Province of Central Africa broke up on the 9th September 2007, the fact is the Church of the Province of Central Africa remains strongly intact.”
Bishop Charles Jenkins said he and 10 co-signers will offer a resolution that tracks the overseas primates’ wishes. But he said his highest priority is to hold the communion together even with its divisions. “The most devastating thing, and the thing I do not want to see happen, is that there becomes two Anglican communions in North America.”
Although the meeting has yet to begin, writers are priming their coverage with dire predictions of what the Archbishop of Canterbury will demand at his first visit to an Episcopal Church meeting. Originally invited by the Bishops to listen to the experience of The Episcopal Church (TEC), most reporters believe that the Archbishop will come to tell TEC what to do or else.
Where is the voice of the Church in mid Africa that says the Church is appalled by the level of hate-mongering in the press, by the statements of those bishops who are quoted, by the general willingness to publish without objection remarks that homosexual persons are unfit to live, deserving to be punished and an abomination?
Archbishop Rowan Williams or his staff asked to meet us confidentially, but that is normal for any invitation from the Consultation in order to protect our safety. There is a Eucharist as an integral part of every Consultation meeting and ++Rowan is simply joining us and
participating as our Archbishop in our normal programme.
According to Morgan, a member of the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, “The original intention of a Covenant to affirm the bonds of affection, was good. The indications now are that many see it as a contract, a means of ensuring a uniform view on human sexuality enforceable by the threat of exclusion from the Communion if one does not conform. I certainly do not want to sign up to that kind of Covenant.”