Anglican weekly review; Responses in the USA to the Episcopal Church’s decision on same-sex blessings
Anglican Weekly Review 7 – 13 July
A roundup of the week’s Anglican Communion news plus opinion, reviews, photos, profiles and other things of interest from across the Anglican/Episcopal world.
⁃ This week’s Anglican Communion news
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• • Anglican Life – Christian renewal occurring in aboriginal communities
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• • Anglican Life – Welsh Bible joins collection in Rome
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• • Anglican Life – Shakespeare’s Holy Trinity Church ‘treasure’ revealed
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⁃ Anglican Life – Cuba bishop’s visit to Niagara diocese in Canada
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• • Anglican Life – USPG sends emergency grant after Ghana floods destroy homes
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• • Anglican Life – Landmark decision on assets
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• • Anglican Life – Sierra Leone’s Radio Shalom prepares peace message
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• • Comment – One bishop’s views on the women bishop’s debate
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• • Video – Bp Jefferts Schori: “We won’t all agree before the Second Coming…”
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• • And finally – Tanzanian Lion King wins two prizes in the UK
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• • The coming week’s Anglican Cycle of Prayer.
http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2012/7/13/ACNS5149
Reaction mixed to Episcopal Church’s approval of same-sex rites
ENI – Gay and lesbian Episcopalians are celebrating their church’s approval on 10 July of liturgical rites for blessing same-sex couples. But conservatives are threatening to take “drastic” steps to distance themselves from the Episcopal Church.
http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5793
Southern Carolina Episcopal bishop blasts national church
The Sate – Letter to congregations outlines leader’s opposition to national church’s stance on gender issues
The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina circulated a letter to his Lowcountry congregations today condemning the actions of the national Episcopal church on same-sex blessing and gender issues and said he would open talks this week about the future of the diocese in the U.S. church.
The letter from the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence is the clearest indication yet that he does not believe the conservative diocese can tolerate the latest changes in church doctrine approved at the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church that just concluded in Indianapolis.
In the letter addressed to “Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,” Lawrence said “the actions taken mark a significant and distressing departure from the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them.” He asked that the letter be read at today’s services and copies provided to parishioners.
In probably the most public of its adopted resolutions, the General Convention that concluded July 12 endorsed a liturgy that can now be used for same-sex blessings. The U.S. Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, but the American church’s more liberal stance on same-sex issues has created the greatest rift within the 77-million strong Communion and provoked the biggest challenge to its top leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“It hardly needs to be said, but for the record let me say clearly, I will not authorize the use of such rites in the Diocese of South Carolina,” Lawrence wrote in the two-page letter. “Such rites are not only contrary to the canons of this diocese and to the judgment of your bishop, but more importantly I believe they are contrary to the teaching of Holy Scripture; to two thousand years of Christian practice; as well as to our created nature.”
http://www.thestate.com/2012/07/15/2354442/lowcountry-episcopal-bishop-blasts.html#RSS=local#storylink=cpy
What Ails the Episcopalians
Wall Street Journal – Its numbers and coffers shrinking, the church votes for pet funerals but offers little to the traditional faithful.
Episcopalians from around the country gathered here this week for their church’s 77th triennial General Convention, which ended Thursday. Although other Protestant denominations have national governing councils, the Episcopal Church’s triennial gathering stands apart. For starters, it’s one of the world’s largest such legislative entities, with more than 1,000 members.
General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines.
During the day, legislators in the lower chamber, the House of Deputies, and the upper chamber, the House of Bishops, discussed such weighty topics as whether to develop funeral rites for dogs and cats, and whether to ratify resolutions condemning genetically modified foods. Both were approved by a vote, along with a resolution to “dismantle the effects of the doctrine of discovery,” in effect an apology to Native Americans for exposing them to Christianity.
But the party may be over for the Episcopal Church, and so, probably, its experiment with democratic governance. Among the pieces of legislation that came before their convention was a resolution calling for a task force to study transforming the event into a unicameral—that is, a one-house—body. On Wednesday, a resolution to “re-imagine” the church’s governing body passed unanimously.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303919504577520950409252574.html
Blessed Anglicans
by The Rev. Dr. Caroline J.A. Hall President of Integrity USA
In Christ we are free. Free to live in a new way, and free to disagree. I am grateful for a Church that includes both Kendal Harmon and me. We have much to learn from one another. But I have to disagree that blessing same-gender relationships is “unbiblical, unchristian, unanglican and unseemly”…..
Harmon knows my position even better than I know his, so I won’t rehearse once again the argument against unbiblical and unchristian. I suspect that “seemly” or “unseemly” is in the eye of the beholder, or at least in the gut of the onlooker. Recent ethical theory suggests that we often have a gut response to something for which we then construct a rationale. “Seemliness” is surely a matter of the gut – was it seemly for David to dance naked before the ark? Was it seemly for Jesus to overturn the tables of the moneychangers?
But unanglican (sic) I will push back against. The Church of England was born in the middle of social upheaval and political controversy. “Anglicanism” has been contextualized wherever it has gone and has generated new understandings of God, humanity and the work of the Trinity. We are a thoughtful, passionate people. We have major disputes regularly. It is probably more normal for us to be disagreeing than to be peacefully in sync with one another.
There are many Anglicans who agree with our siblings in South Carolina. There are many other Anglicans who agree with me. (Some of them may live in South Carolina and may need the resources Integrity can offer.) There are even more Anglicans who don’t need to take a position. I’m sorry that you “need to differentiate to stay loyal to Christ” but I understand it. “We” also need to differentiate to stay loyal to Christ. We need to differentiate ourselves from those who preach religious oppression, from those who would put LGBTQ people out of the church, those who would put people like me in prison, or even to death. Their voices resonate loudly in the ears of LGBTQ people and their allies.
Our world needs to hear loud and clear that God loves everyone, no exceptions, and that God doesn’t expect or even want, cookie-cutter holiness.
http://gc12.integrityusa.org/Home/announcments/blessedanglicans