Given the history of the making of the Scriptures and the millennia of critical attention scholars and others have given to the stories and injunctions in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament, to argue that something is so because it is in the Bible is more than intellectually bankrupt—it is unserious, and unworthy of the great Judeo-Christian tradition
The Sunday Tribune (Nigeria) interviewed Archbishop Peter Akinola “on how pro-homosexual Europeans are buying over weak churches in Africa to keep quiet, GAFCON and how
Ruth Gledhill reports that five Primates came to talk with the Archbishop of Canterbury about the goings-on in the Anglican Communion and, presumably, the events in Wheaton. She says nothing happened.
It is journalistically irresponsible to continue to write that the breakaway bishops represent 100,000 people and that these people have left the Episcopal Church when the bishops have provided no evidence that this is the case, and there are so many reasons to doubt the accuracy of their claim.
The incredible overreaction of The New York Times to the news that five or six percent of the members of a church that accounts for one percent of the U. S. population were leaving to found their own denomination continued to reverberate through the media world yesterday but glimmers of hope emerged for Episcopalians who are tired of the press treating their church like a punching bag.
“There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces. Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, the process has not yet begun.
What if all the conservatives accomplish is the creation of a tiny church of some 80,000 people that is recognized by a dozen Anglican primates and is invisible in most of North America? Wouldn’t the Times’ coverage look a little rash in retrospect?
Archbishop Akinola said that it was unfortunate that some people were still engaged in killing and aiming at a time when the nation should be counting the gains of democracy.
The Diocese of Mauritius became the latest diocese in the Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean to accept women’s ordination to the priesthood. The Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean is led by Archbishop Ian Ernest and includes seven dioceses throughout Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles.
In such a brave new world I hope the Episcopal Church would move swiftly to begin seeking partners throughout the world in order to sustain the possibility of broad, relational graceful, generous, inviting catholicity. One of the first steps would be a move to begin planting churches in England.