|
Friday, June 8, 2007
"Remain in me, and
I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in
the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in
me."
John 15:4
- May Communiqué Compliance Report Available Next Week
- More Lambeth Invitations Likely
- South Carolina Reconvenes to Elect Mark Lawrence as
Bishop Again
- Rowan Williams: Anglican Schism Not Inevitable
May Communiqué Compliance Report Available Next
Week
The May report of the American Anglican Council's
Communiqué Compliance Office (CCO) will be posted online on June 13 and will
be available in PDF format at the AAC Web site.
We will also include a link to the downloadable report in
next week's Update.
In addition, for background information on the CCO and its
purpose, view this
April 13 press release
More Lambeth Invitations Likely
Source: The
Living Church
By the Rev. George Conger
June 6, 2007
The invitation list for the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops is
not complete, according to Canon James Rosenthal, communications director
for the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), who said it is possible more
invitations will be extended in the coming months.
Invitations were sent May 22. The initial invitation list
was compiled based on past precedent and the recommendations of the Windsor
Report, according to Canon Rosenthal and other aides to Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams who spoke with The Living Church.
Bishops who have not received invitations included those
whose consecrations are valid but whose jurisdictions are anomalous, bishops
not engaged in stipendiary episcopal ministry, and a handful of bishops
whose manner of life or public actions are cause for concern. Invitation
also were not extended to retired but semi-active bishops known as
“assisting bishops” in The Episcopal Church or “honorary assistant bishops”
in the Church of England.
Some previous Lambeth Conferences included bishops holding
administrative positions within their national churches, but no such
invitations have yet been extended for 2008. Episcopal bishops in this group
include the Rt. Rev. C. Christopher Epting, the Presiding Bishop’s deputy
for ecumenical and interfaith relations; the Rt. Rev. F. Clayton Matthews,
director of the Office of Pastoral Development at The Episcopal Church
Center; and the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, dean of the Episcopal Divinity
School in Cambridge, Mass. All three are actively engaged in stipendiary
church ministry and are active members of the House of Bishops, but are not
directly engaged in “episcopal ministry,” the ACC said.
In the letter of invitation Archbishop Williams said he
had reserved the right “to withhold or withdraw invitations from bishops
whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally
serious division or scandal within the Communion.”
The invitation to the Bishop of New Hampshire, the Rt.
Rev. V. Gene Robinson had been withheld due to the controversy surrounding
his consecration, and in deference to the recommendations of the Windsor
Report, Canon Rosenthal said. Paragraph 133 of the report urged Archbishop
Williams to “exercise very considerable caution in inviting or admitting”
Bishop Robinson to the conference.
The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the
ACC, stated the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of
Anglicans in North America, the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy of the Anglican
Mission in the Americas, and Bishop Murphy’s suffragans—the Rt. Rev.
Alexander Green, the Rt. Rev. Thaddeus Barnum, and the Rt. Rev. T.J.
Johnston—would not be invited because of the precedent set by Archbishop
George Carey in 2000 following Bishop Murphy’s consecration in Singapore.
After the announcement, a letter from Archbishop Carey was
published in The Church of England Newspaper urging Archbishop Williams not
to be bound by his precedent. In his letter, Archbishop Carey said
“everything has changed in the Anglican Communion as a result of the
consecration of Gene Robinson” in 2003. Aides to Archbishop Williams were
vexed by the retired Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement, but declined
public comment.
South Carolina Reconvenes to Elect Mark
Lawrence as Bishop Again
Source:The
Bakersfield Californian
By Louis Medina
June 5, 2007
...The South Carolina Diocese now plans to reconvene
Saturday in an effort to begin the election process again with Lawrence as
the sole contender...
The South Carolina Diocese's standing committee intends to
present a resolution at its convention Saturday to "suspend the canons" so
that a new search for a bishop does not have to start from scratch and
Lawrence can be nominated. The resolution has to be approved by a two-thirds
majority and the election has to be submitted for approval at the national
level all over again.
"My position is that it would be wrong for me to remove
myself from a process that is a continuation of what began in September,"
Lawrence said. "(The South Carolina Diocese) believe the Holy Spirit spoke
when I was elected," he said.
"I'm enjoying the ministry at St. Paul's as much as I ever
have," Lawrence said, but "God has knit my and my wife's hearts together
with the people of South Carolina throughout these past eight months and I'm
not going to withdraw or bail out on that."...
Read the complete story here
Anglican Schism not Inevitable, says Williams
Source: The
Scotsman (Reuters)
By Michael Conlon
June 7, 2007
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in an interview
to be published on Friday, says he is not optimistic about the future of the
Anglican Church but adds that a schism over gay issues is not inevitable.
The state of the 77-million-member global church "feels
very vulnerable. I can't, of course, deny that. It feels very vulnerable and
very fragile, perhaps more so than it's been for a very long time," Williams
told Time Magazine.
But he also said:
"I don't think schism is inevitable. The task I've got is
to try and maintain as long as possible the space in which people can have
constructive disagreements, learn from each other, and try and hold that
within an agreed framework of discipline and practice."
Asked if was optimistic, Williams said "I'm hopeful. Not
optimistic," agreeing that "hopeful" was a "safer" word...
"Regarding (Bishop) Robinson, one thing I've tried to make
clear is that my worry about his election was that the Episcopal Church
hadn't made a general principled decision about the blessing of same-sex
unions or the ordination of people in public same-sex partnerships," he
said.
"I would think it better had the church actually taken a
view on that before moving to the individual case. As it is, someone living
in a relationship not theologically officially approved by the church is
elected to a bishop. I find that bizarre and puzzling," Williams said.
Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, Anglicans are organized
as a federation of national churches without hierarchical lines of
authority, though the Archbishop of Canterbury holds a first-among-equals
leadership position.
"It's impossible to get from Scripture anything
straightforwardly positive about same-sex relationships," Williams said.
"Those theologians who've defended same-sex relationships
from the Christian point of view in recent decades have said you've got to
look at whether a same-sex relationship is capable of something at the level
of neutral self-giving that a marriage ought to exemplify. And then ask, is
that what Scripture is talking about? That's the area of dispute," he
said...
Read the entire Scotsman article here
Listen to the podcast interview
here
A transcript of the interview is
here
|
