We’re back from our post Holy Week hiatus and ready to go. Here’s our roundup of stories from around the Anglo-Episco-world.
Anglican Consultative Council 17
ACC17 is underway in Hong Kong
https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2019/04/seventeenth-meeting-of-the-anglican-consultative-council-begins-on-sunday.aspx
Archbishop Welby had time to visit some local ministry sites
https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2019/05/archbishop-of-canterbury-visits-jackie-pullinger-to-see-discipleship-in-action.aspx
Interesting Updates from the ACC Standing Committee including potentially recognizing Sri Lanka and Egypt as separate Provinces and moving the Anglican Center in Rome from the authority of the ABC to the ACC.
https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2019/04/anglican-communions-standing-committee-meet-ahead-of-acc-17-in-hong-kong.aspx
Here is the link to the Anglican Communion News Service’s feed dedicated to all things ACC
https://www.anglicannews.org/tag/acc17.aspx
And Simon at Thinking Anglicans has a roundup as well
https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/more-from-acc-17-in-hong-kong/
Jamaica
Abortion is being debated in Jamaica and the Anglican church there has taken a stance that there are situations where it might be the appropriate choice
https://www.stabroeknews.com/2019/news/regional/jamaica/04/29/anglican-church-in-jamaica-declares-support-for-abortion-but-not-for-convenience/
And the church’s stance elicited this editorial lauding the compassion of the church’s decision.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/if-the-church-is-without-compassion-_163519?profile=1100
USA
Tom Ferguson (Crusty Old Dean) responded to a truly daft opinion piece at the Living Church
http://crustyoldean.blogspot.com/2019/05/they-cant-help-themselves-oops-tlc-did.html
The original article is here
https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2019/05/01/michael-currys-ecumenical-moment/
This is a really interesting essay on how the modern economy might be a significant, if unacknowledged, part of the decline in church participation and arguing for a church role in labor organizing
https://www.faithandleadership.com/melissa-florer-bixler-capitalism-killing-small-church?fbclid=IwAR0k3zwYQ9M55QbJ-vMaJEDVMioODeKYAkbU5kY63UyS3VBBEd73zRPuljs
Reed College, a somewhat quirky school in Portland, OR, spotlights one senior’s linguistics thesis on the language of liturgy
https://reedquest.org/articles/2019/4/19/thesis-christ-the-language-of-liturgy?fbclid=IwAR2X7tUstxUxU1narZG3nE3ER247bftSw8CB3zIZIcZ7wyq_rvQoiMrQULo
Anglican Communion (but not ACC17)
A defense of liturgical worship and the church calendar from Church Times (CT has a paywall but does allow each visitor a handful of free article views monthly)
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/3-may/comment/opinion/liturgy-is-an-anchor-don-t-brush-it-aside
The Lutheran World Foundation thanked Anglicans for witnessing together in a fragmented world.
https://www.lutheranworld.org/news/lwf-thanks-anglicans-witnessing-together-fragmented-world
In Nigeria, the The Archbishop of Enugu, Emmanuel Chukwuma, has called for a revolution there so that “the expired and old politicians who have held Nigeria down left the stage so that we can have a new Nigeria of our dream where things work.”
https://punchng.com/prepare-for-revolution-archbishop-tells-nigerians/
Bosco Peters, at Liturgy, has a humorous post on bishops exceeding their authority (a problem not unknown in TEC)
http://liturgy.co.nz/incensing-bishops
From Canada, but a very interesting piece on post-colonialism and Western domination of Christian thought and how we might move beyond that.
https://www.anglicanjournal.com/is-the-anglican-church-of-canada-a-post-colonial-church/
In NZ, the first Maori woman has been elected as a bishop
http://www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/news/tikanga_maori/bishop_elect_wai
Other Items
On the heels of being rebuffed by the ABC over Lambeth, the ACNA announced a new agreement with CANA (the Nigerian Anglican mission in the US and Canada) which represents a rift between ACNA and at least some of their African colleagues.
http://www.anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/1840
Here’s a deliberately provocative opinion piece arguing for not rebuilding Notre Dame in Paris.
https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches/2019/04/24/the-case-against-rebuilding-notre-dame/
From Sojourners, an article talking about their upcoming conference and speaking to the possibility in the crises facing our culture for Christianity to grow
https://sojo.net/articles/our-crisis-politics-and-faith-holds-possibility-redemption
featured image: Archdeacon Waitohiariki Quayle, Bishop-elect of Upoko o Te Ika (photo by Julanne Clarke-Morris, Anglican Taong)