IRIN reports: In a statement, the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) condemned the “continued abuse of the Royal Swazi Police and Umbutfo Swaziland
“I am not afraid of schism. I am afraid of a church in which leaders voted to listen to the experience of homosexual persons, but show little evidence of having acted on that promise. I am afraid of a church in which righteousness is understood to be the enforcement of a small number of biblical texts, forgetting that in the bible righteousness is realized in the practice of justice.” – Paul Gibson
Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt has issued a statement on the meeting of the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council held February 29
“[C]ommunicating Christianity well requires sensitive understanding of the particular missionary situations. Provinces are in better positions to attend to such tasks. Provinces should also make every effort to understand the social contexts of their mission. They should teach the Christian faith in creative ways…”
Christopher at Thanksgiving in All Things has this sensible bit of advice: Bishop Robinson should jolly well go to merry England. But let him be joined by Archbishop emeritus Tutu and others not at Lambeth, but in the gay districts and the economically depressed districts of major English cities. Let’s finally get on with God’s Mission, shall we?
…Rebecca Trounson’s article in The Los Angeles Times is probably the one to read. She notes that while an overwhelming majority of delegates to San Joaquin’s convention in December approved the break with the Episcopal Church, at least 2,300 of an estimated 8,800 parishioners in the diocese have chosen to remain with the national church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has written the forward for a new edition of the poetry of WH Auden. The former Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu, wrote the preface for Bishop Gene Robinson’s In the Eye of the Storm soon to be printed in the UK by Canterbury Press.
In recent days ENS has run two stories that bring unwelcome attention for the Province of Nigeria and may reflect a new willingness by ENS
In Sudan, a land that has been at war for most of the past five decades, forgiveness is an immediate issue. This is a place where religious, tribal, ethnic, language and gender differences have resulted in the deaths of millions of people. This is a place where land has been taken, families have been split, livelihoods have been destroyed.
“I represent a church that was complicit in a system that took children far from home and family, took their clothing, cut off their hair and punished them when they spoke their own language. Some of our staff abused children. The Anglican church has so much for which to be so sorry…