As a sharing arrangement between break away congregation and the Diocese of Niagara broke down in court, the interpretation of a 1900 year old tradition of episcopacy as the visible sign of unity is being questioned. Which leaves one to ask: what would Ignatius do?
Father Jake has beaten us to the punch with an essay on Eliza Griswold’s cover story in this month’s Atlantic Monthly in which Archbishop Peter Akinola declines to distance himself from a retributive rampage in Yelwa, Nigeria, in which more than 650 Muslims were killed by Christians.
The Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl, new rector of All Saints Church in Chevy Chase, Md., was once a partisan in the struggle for the control
Simon Sarmiento, speaking at a conference in Northern Wales, has an excellent review of the events that have led up to the present situation in the Anglican Communion. The conference is call the “Rebuilding Communion Course” and is being covered by Walking with Integrity, Integrity USA’s official blog.
Packer, a widely known Anglican theologian, is an associate of one of the break-away Canadian parishes and is in danger of having his ministerial license suspended as a result. This situation may make a difficult situation more complicated because of the possible reactions around the Communion to this action.
Episcopal Church leaders from various dioceses tell me that two important reasons for lawsuits to retain title to the property of parishes and dioceses that wish to leave the Church are fairness to the faithful remnant and to deter other parishes from leaving. Neither rationale withstands careful scrutiny from a Christian perspective.
Lambeth Palace has been careful to avoid sending Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire any of the mail that goes out to bishops invited to
Bishop Pierre Whalon, of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, has just returned from a visit to the Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Du Congo.
While doing research for my doctorate, I interviewed three Christian ministers. There was a traditionalist Catholic Anglican, a strong evangelical Anglican and a liberal Methodist. On every issue they sometimes took completely opposing positions. With this and other research I concluded in 1989 that the old denominations were increasingly meaningless, and new ones were emerging inside the old.
There have been a number of reports in the last 24 hours that a new plan is being developed to manage the conflict within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Bishop John Howe, in response to what he describes as “inaccurate” presentations of the details, has written a public letter laying out the details of plan as it now stands.