Irish Bishop co-chairs Anglican-Methodist International Commission; Presiding bishop to attend enthronement of archbishop of Canterbury ; China should recognise Dalai Lama as religious leader; Archbishop Tutu meets Suu Kyi; Cardboard cathedral; Sometimes ‘The Lord Seemed To Sleep,’ Pope Says In Farewell; Bible distributed in Syria’s war zone
Irish Bishop co-chairs Anglican-Methodist International Commission
Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore was co-chair of the Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission which held its Final Meeting in Ocho Rios, Jamaica 22 February – 1 March February 2013
The Commission issued the following statement –
The final meeting of the Anglican-Methodist International Commission for Unity in Mission (AMICUM) took place 22 February to 1 March 2013, in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, hosted by the Anglican Communion. Members of the Commission worshiped together morning and evening, and the Eucharist was celebrated according to both traditions.
The Commission has after five years completed the phase of work mandated to it by the World Methodist Council and the Anglican Communion, and has now prepared a report for both bodies. As the last three words in its title suggest (Unity in Mission), AMICUM aims to foster the unity of the Church so that the Church can engage more fully in God’s mission of love to the world. The report begins and ends with biblical reflections, on our Lord’s prayer for the unity of his people that all might believe, and on the radical nature of Jesus’ ministry as a mandate for mission.
AMICUM has set out key points of agreement concerning the interchangeability of ordained ministries, and the awareness of each Communion’s need of the other. It sees a common, interchangeable ministry as crucial in making the unity of the Church visible.
The report analyses the place of the apostolic tradition and the nature of the oversight (episkope) in the life of the Church. It explores the history of oversight, and the way it has been exercised in the Methodist and Anglican traditions, and the way it is exercised today.
AMICUM has closely monitored dialogues and agreements around the world, and has drawn lessons and recommendations from these which it now offers to both Communions. The report shows that each tradition has affirmed the authenticity of the other’s ministries, and encourages churches that have not yet entered into mutual agreements to do so.
A toolkit is provided for churches wanting to move into closer co-operation, giving questions for consideration to enable this process to advance.
AMICUM is recommending that the World Methodist Council and the Anglican Consultative Council establish an Anglican-Methodist International Coordinating Committee to oversee and foster relationships between Methodist and Anglican member churches.
The Report will be published during 2014.
The Commission is grateful for the warm hospitality given by the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, at the Parish of St John’s Ocho Rios, by the United Theological College, where the Commission worshiped, and by Bishop Howard Gregory. At this meeting AMICUM met the President of the Jamaica Methodist Church, the Rev Everard Galbraith, and the Rev Dr George Mulrain who gave a lecture on Anglican and Methodist relationships in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Present at the meeting were,
Methodists
The Revd Professor Emeritus Robert Gribben (Uniting Church in Australia) (Co-Chair)
Dr Elizabeth Amoah (Methodist Church, Ghana)
The Revd Dr Wong Tik Wah (Methodist Church in Malaysia)
The Revd Professor Sarah Lancaster (The United Methodist Church)
The Revd Gareth Powell (The Methodist Church) (Co-Secretary)
Anglicans – The Rt Revd Harold Miller (The Church of Ireland) (Co-Chair) The Revd Canon Professor Paul Avis (The Church of England) The Revd Garth Minott (The Church in the Province of the West Indies) The Rt Revd Dr P Surya Prakash (The Church of South India)
Lutheran World Federation Observer The Rt Revd Walter Jagucki (Great Britain)
Presiding bishop to attend enthronement of archbishop of Canterbury
At the invitation of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop and Primate Katharine Jefferts Schori will attend the enthronement celebration on March 21 at Canterbury Cathedral.
“I look forward to joining with other primates of the Anglican Communion for the investiture of the next Archbishop of Canterbury,” Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori said. “It is a particular delight to welcome Justin Welby in this role, as we have come to know him over the last several years, both in The Episcopal Church and among the primates. He enters this role at a time of opportunity and challenge, when many people hope for continued growth and maturation within the Communion.”
During the trip, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori will attend the Anglican Communion Primates Standing Committee, of which she is an elected member. The Archbishop of Canterbury is considered one of the four instruments of Communion of the Anglican Communion; the others are the Lambeth Conferences, the Primates Meetings and the Anglican Consultative Council.
China should recognise Dalai Lama as religious leader
The Archbishop of York has asked the Government to raise with China the recognition of the Dalai Lama as a religious leader.
In a debate in the House of Lords on Tibet, Dr John Sentamu noted that the Dalai Lama was not only a spiritual and religious leader for the people of Tibet, but recognised the world over.
“Will the Government nevertheless impress upon the Chinese Government that they should recognise and respect the Dalai Lama as a religious leader and not as a political leader?
“If they did that, it is possible that they would then have a dialogue,” he said.
A similar suggestion was made by Lord Steel of Aikwood, who said that dialogue between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader could bring an end to dozens of self-immolations by pro-Tibet protesters.
Baroness Warsi, Senior Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, said the UK Government was “deeply concerned” about the high number of self-immolations in Tibet and that its concerns were being raised “regularly” with the Chinese authorities.
She said Tibet had been discussed in the last round of the annual UK-China human rights dialogue in January 2012, although she was unable to confirm whether the Government had raised the suggestion of China recognising the Dalai Lama as a religious leader.
Baroness Warsi said the UK Government was concerned about the “lack of meaningful dialogue” with Tibet to address the underlying grievances in a “clearly worsening situation”.
“We continue to encourage all parties to work for a resumption of substantive dialogue as a means to address the Tibetan concerns and to relieve tensions,” she said.
“Of course, we continue to make the case to China that any economic progress can be sustained only if there is social progress as well.”
Archbishop Tutu meets Suu Kyi
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has met Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tutu beamed as he met the fellow Nobel laureate and “total icon” at her home in Rangoon.
He said he was “thrilled” to be in the country and added that he wished to return “when it is really and truly free”.
“The potential of this country is immense and we want to see that potential fully realised when we don’t have ethnic strife,” he said.
The Archbishop encouraged the Burmese government to continue with pro-democratic reforms.
According to the Irrawaddy newspaper, Tutu said he had no plans to meet government officials during his visit.
Cardboard cathedral
Two years after a magnitude-6.3 earthquake decimated Christchurch, New Zealand, and its suburbs on Feb. 22, 2011, the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch helped the community remember the 185 people who died and look to the future.
The building under construction that has been dubbed the Cardboard Cathedral was the backdrop to the ecumenical civic memorial service in Latimer Square.
A possible glimpse of the future of the city and the diocese, the six-story building earned its nickname because it is being made of cardboard tubes about 23.5 inches wide and as long as 75.5 feet, timber, steel and plastic. It sits on a concrete pad or raft embedded with about 131,000 feet of steel that is designed to keep the building solid if the land underneath becomes compromised during a quake.
Sometimes ‘The Lord Seemed To Sleep,’ Pope Says In Farewell
Bidding an emotional farewell to a huge crowd gathered in The Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI indirectly acknowledged Wednesday that his nearly 8 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church have not always been easy.
Sometimes “the Lord seemed to sleep,” the pope said during the last general audience before his resignation takes effect Thursday. Benedict, whose years as pope have included further revelations about sexual abuse scandals involving priests and have been marred by questions about his management skills, said that while “the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us.”
He also, as Reuters reports, told the faithful that he’s convinced the decision to retire because of his age (85) and fragile health is the right thing to do. “I took this step in the full knowledge of its gravity and rarity but with a profound serenity of spirit,” Benedict said. And, he added, loving the church means “having the courage to take difficult and anguished choices, always having in mind the good of the church and not oneself.”
According to The Associated Press, “tens of thousands of people toting banners saying ‘Grazie!’ — ‘thank you’ — jammed the piazza to bid farewell to the pope at his final general audience — the appointment he has kept each week to teach the world about the Catholic faith.”
The Whispers in the Loggia blog that follows Vatican news closely says as many as 200,000 people may have been gathered in the square. It has the Vatican’s English translation of “B16’s last word as Pope.” In conclusion, Benedict said:
“Dear friends! God guides His church, maintains her always, and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the way of the church and the world. In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that He does not abandon us, that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His love.”
Bible distributed in Syria’s war zone
Hundreds of thousands of Scripture calendars and comics about the life of Jesus have been distributed in Syria’s beleaguered cities.
A Bible Society spokesman in Beirut said, ‘When you face death, there are so very few things that are really important. During these last two years of troubles we have come to believe more and more in the message contained in the Word of God and realising that God, he himself wants to communicate to us and that he’s got something very important to tell us Syrians at this very time.
He said that Bible Society volunteers, who also distributed food to families affected by the violence ‘have told us that family after family have told them that the Scriptures meant much more to them than the food’.
To date, some 100,000 Scripture calendars and 150,000 comics have been distributed.