Sharia, if introduced, would not only jeopardise community relations but also further segregate Muslim communities from the rest of the British public. Every moderate, liberal-minded Muslim like myself would resist the imposition of Sharia in Britain regardless of whether its advocate was a Church of England archbishop or a mullah from the local mosque. --- Dr. Shaaz Mahboob in Hillingdon, Middlesex

Like Joseph, the Anglican Mission has been driven by a dream, and I am convinced the Lord would have us maintain that dream for the next generation. --- The Rt. Rev. Charles H. Murphy, III, chairman of the Anglican Missions of the Americas

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
2/14/2008

The Church of England's (CofE) recent General Synod was, according to one report, a "grim occasion". There was very little to smile about. Dr. Rowan Williams' words calling for aspects of Islamic Sharia to be introduced into the British legal system rocked the Anglican Communion. Truth is, it rocked the whole Christian world.

Dr. Williams defended his recent public remarks at Synod, refusing to apologize, acknowledging that his remarks were "clumsy" and "misleading" but that was it. He was greeted with extended, thunderous applause, and a standing ovation as he entered Assembly Hall in Church House, Westminster, where the General Synod met.

Williams' comments resulted in a strong reaction in the media as well as calls for his resignation. He refused, of course, but his remarks did worry the Queen. According to a royal source, the Queen, as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, was dismayed by the controversy the remarks have generated at such a difficult period in the history of the Established Church, which faces possible schism over the issue of homosexual clergy.

Two General Synod members of the Church of England, Alison Ruoff and Edward Armitstead, called for Williams' resignation, as did a number of media pundits. But the Synod gave its overall backing to the leadership of Dr Williams.

Most British pundits viewed Williams' words from within the context of the CofE, failing to see the impact of his words on the Global South. People are going to die in northern Nigeria for what Williams has said. He has no concept of the impact of his words. Public statements have public consequences. Just ask Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos what will happen in the next few months. With a foot in the British legal system, Muslims will demand more. That is exactly what has happened in Nigeria and that is why Williams' words are dangerous, stupid and threatening. Williams hasn't figured out that you can't make statements as though you were an academic making chatter at high table at Oxford or Cambridge or writing articles for obscure journals read only by fellow scholars. He is not. He is the leader of 55 million Anglicans worldwide. What he says affects us all. It is VOL's view that his words will come back to haunt him and us.

One thing it has done is to cement the view that GAFCON organizers have it right. Their distrust of Williams has been reinforced. They will say, with greater urgency and more loudly, that orthodox Anglicans don't need to go through Canterbury to get to Jesus. GAFCON will draw a minority of bishops, but they will represent a majority of the Anglican Communion, as much as 75% or more thus, in effect, kissing off Lambeth and saying, without exactly saying it, that the Anglican Communion as we now know it is no more.

*****

But the show must go on. In an interview with the Nassau Guardian West, Indian Archbishop Drexel Gomez stated "there are at least four provinces in Africa that have either said they will not attend [Lambeth] or are still considering if they will attend, but there are three who said they will definitely not be attending." Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda have announced they will not be attending the conference, as it is currently organized. Sources in the Anglican Church of Kenya will make a decision at its House of Bishops meeting scheduled for this week.

Archbishop Gomez has urged all of the Global South provinces to attend Lambeth. "It is too difficult to say if there will be any headway at this upcoming conference but what will happen is it will be the first time that the vast majority of Bishops as leaders of the church will be in one place and be able to talk about these issues."

"His [Williams] worldview is the problem," the African bishop said. "Dr. Williams' maintains an "academic worldview that ideas don't have consequences." This "won't work" in Africa, he said.

*****

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury announced the formation of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG), this week, as proposed in his Advent Letter. The following persons were named:.

The Most Rev. Clive Handford, former Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East (chair) The Most Rev. John Chew, Primate of South East Asia The Right Rev. Gary Lillibridge, Bishop of West Texas The Right Rev. Victoria Matthews, former Bishop of Edmonton The Very Rev. John Moses, former dean of St Paul's, London The Most Rev. Donald Mtetemela, Primate of Tanzania

They will be joined as a consultant by:

Dame Mary Tanner, Co-president of the World Council of Churches who will be assisted by Canon Andrew Norman of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Staff and Canon Gregory Cameron of the Anglican Communion Office.

In this group are several identifiable conservatives including Chew, Moses and Mtetemela. Matthews is a neo conservative.

According to Williams, they will assist the Communion to move forward. "A significant element of our work will be face-to-face conversation with those who have key roles in shaping the future of our common life. I believe in the Anglican Communion, and hope that our work will help it to find healing and new strength." But will it? If archbishops and bishops who represent the vast majority of the Anglican Communion are not present at Lambeth, what does that say?

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ALSO in the UK, a dangerous precedent was set this past week when a bishop was fined in a homosexual discrimination case. The Rt. Rev. Anthony Priddis, the Bishop of Hereford, was fined for discrimination and ordered to undergo equal opportunities training and to pay a homosexual youth worker nearly £50,000 for refusing him a job because of his sexuality. John Reaney, 42, had his appointment at the diocese of Hereford blocked by Priddis despite being told by his interviewers that he was the outstanding candidate for the post. By demanding that the church broker in sodomy without a fight, it is acquiescing to the culture. VOL applauds the bishop's stand, even if it means he is being ignored by his fellow bishops and vilified by a culture of promiscuity.

*****

IN UGANDA, this week Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi announced that he and his fellow bishops would not be going to Lambeth. His nine million Anglican will not be represented at the decennial gathering. Add Nigeria (18 million) and Rwanda (four million) and you have 60% of the Anglican Communion not represented at Lambeth. One hopes Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office can do the math.

*****

ON THE U.S. scene, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori accepted four bishops' renunciation of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, a senior representative of her office has confirmed. The Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop, said Mrs. Schori --- in letters dated January 23 and sent to related General Convention, diocesan, pension and deployment offices --- has accepted the renunciation made by David J. Bena, resigned bishop suffragan of the Diocese of Albany, N.Y.; Andrew H. Fairfield, resigned bishop of the Fargo-based Diocese of North Dakota; and Howard S. Meeks, resigned bishop of the Diocese of Western Michigan, based near Kalamazoo.

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A political row has erupted inside the DAUGHTERS OF THE KING by a group of disgruntled members working with a group of "progressive" Episcopalians who have the blessing of Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori. This is an effort to oust the current leadership in order to expel all the Anglicans, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics from the Order.

A letter written by the Bishop of Atlanta, the Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander and signed by the 19 diocesan bishops in Province 4 of TEC, blasts Joan Dalrymple, president of the DOK, charging her with financial irregularity and amending the constitution and bylaws without approval of the full membership. I have written a full report on this whole matter which you can read in today's digest.

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In the DIOCESE OF PITTSBURGH, the heat is rising over who speaks for the diocese. Bishop Robert Duncan recently announced there are three groups in the diocese - the orthodox who want to leave, liberals who want to stay, and 12 orthodox priests who now say they want to stay. This week more than 200 mostly lay people say they support the bishop in his efforts to leave the diocese. The light behind this effort is Dr. Edith Humphrey. an Evangelical Anglican academic who teaches at a Presbyterian seminary in Pittsburgh. It just keeps on growing more interesting by the day. What is next for the Common Cause Partnership Moderator? For the full story click here http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7669

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In the DIOCESE OF MINNESOTA, inclusiveness was taken to an absurd, and some might think, dangerous level this week. Members of the Minnesota chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have protested the involvement of two convicted child molesters in the Episcopal Diocese, one a former priest in Duluth.

The International Sexual Abuse Prevention and Advocacy Group planned to deliver a letter to Minnesota Episcopal officials to "blast" them for their secrecy regarding Mark Makowski and Lynn Bauman and ask that they disclose the names of any other known child predators working in the diocese, according to their news release.

After receiving SNAP's letter Monday, the state Episcopal Diocese issued a statement saying they would respond, after carefully considering the letter and taking it under advisement. You can read the full story in today's digest.

*****

In the DIOCESE OF SAN JOAQUIN, a steering committee has been appointed to begin to reconstitute the Fresno-based Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. "The steering committee has been formed and there are about 20 people involved," said the Rev. Canon Robert Moore, appointed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as an interim pastoral presence late last year. "It is important for people both inside and outside California to understand that this committee represents a broad spectrum of theological positions," Moore said. With a mere 20 folk involved, one wonders if this "reconstituted" diocese has a future.

*****

A VOL reader wrote to say that he and his wife were at Christ the King Church, Ocala, Florida last Sunday, where the Rev. Don Curran is rector. "Their first day in a location loaned to them by Living Waters Church was a glorious day! They had over 100 at their early service, over 300 at their 8:50 service, and hundreds more at 11:00am. They were joyous, welcoming and filled with the love of the Lord. It looked like Christmas and Easter, rolled into one."

*****

IN CANADA, the noose tightened around orthodox Anglican throats this week. Two bishops, one in the Diocese of British Columbia and the other in New Westminster, warned separatists in their dioceses not to try to take parishes out of their dioceses.

"If a person is employed by the Diocese or parish and is found to be acquiescing in or to be actively promoting such separation, this is a ground for immediate termination of employment without notice or severance," Bishop James Cowan wrote to all his clergy, churchwardens, and members of parish councils.

The letter was not directed to specific clergy or congregations, and no Diocese of BC parishes are currently listed as belonging to the Anglican Network in Canada, the group that includes congregations that have members actively seeking to come under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.

Bishop Michael Ingham, of the Vancouver-based diocese of New Westminster, wrote on Feb. 6 to four parishes that are members of the Anglican Network in Canada and are considering separation from the denomination. Ingham wrote that "no parish or congregation in the diocese ... has any legal existence except as part of the diocese, and any attempt by any person to remove a parish from the jurisdiction of the bishop and synod would be schismatic," (promoting a split in the church)." Excerpts of the letter were published on the diocesan Web site.

Former Canadian Bishop Donald Harvey, now under the authority of the Province of the Southern Cone, welcomed two more clergy and a congregation into the Anglican Network in Canada this week. He issued licenses to The Reverend William G. Campbell in Toronto, Ontario, and the Reverend Lawrence H. Winslow, in Sandy Lake, Manitoba. Their licenses and orders are effective throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion, although the Anglican Church of Canada has made it clear they will not recognize these orders. A church plant in Brandon, Manitoba, has also been welcomed by Bishop Don. The group now meets as a home Bible study, but will begin regular Sunday services on Palm Sunday, March 16.

Also in Canada, demonstrators demanding answers in residential school cases, shouted "shame on the church!" and "shame on Canada!" after 20 people picketed the Anglican Church of Canada's national office recently demanding that the church investigate the cases of children who died at or went missing from the Indian residential school system. Led by former United Church minister Kevin Annett, who has advocated on behalf of aboriginals for more than a decade, the group delivered a letter to the primate, Fred Hiltz, requesting "repatriation" of the remains of such children "to their homes for a proper burial." It also called for the church to "publicly name and surrender" people "who are responsible for or complicit in these deaths and disappearances." Demonstrators carried signs with slogans such as "Independent Inquiry Into Canada's Genocide."

THE BIG news, however, came Thursday when St. John's Shaughnessy, the largest congregation in the Anglican Church of Canada, voted to join Southern Cone. The vote was unanimous to split with Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham over his support for same-sex blessings. "It means that the community speaks with one mind," said St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church spokeswoman Lesley Bentley, after a preliminary count showed that out of 495 ballots cast, only 11 opposed the split and nine abstained. The vote means the church, which has more than 700 members, will break with Ingham and join with the conservative Anglican bishops of the Diocese of the Southern Cone, which includes Argentina and Paraguay. Watch for major repercussions to follow from this action. The parish has a significant legal team which will have been prepared for this eventuality. *****

Episcopal readers of ATLANTIC magazine will be interested to learn that a major article on Nigeria's Religious Wars was written by none other than Eliza Griswold, daughter of Frank (and Phoebe) Griswold, the former Presiding Bishop. The article is well written and well researched...and fair. Religion coverage in "The Atlantic" is typically well done. The magazine's coverage of the neutering of religion in "The Golden Compass" was interesting for the way it treated both Hollywood and the anti-religious themes of the book on which the movie was based. Though the magazine retains the secular, above the fray, attitude towards the faith of its New England founding, it also put Philip Jenkin's article on the New Christendom on the cover in October, 2002, when his book describing the phenomenal growth of non-Western Christianity debuted. Griswold writes from the town of Yelwa, where an attack, that killed Christians in church in 2004, brought on a more gruesome response against Muslims killing hundreds. Because of the 20th century explosion of Christianity in Africa, by the year 2050, Griswold writes, the demographic and geographic center of Christianity will be in northern Nigeria, where the country's Muslims live. This fact makes any tensions in the country religious ones. With 140 million people, oil revenues that never seem to help the people (half of whom live on less than a dollar a day) thanks to government corruption, and a changing regional climate that has wiped out many traditional livelihoods, the country has plenty of tensions. Still, the article, and its companions by Alan Wolfe (on how religiosity really is decreasing with modernization) and Walter Russell Mead (on American evangelical political moderation) are worth reading.

*****

A BOOK "God, Gays and the Church: Human Sexuality and Experience in Christian Thinking", published by the Latimer Trust, was offered at CofE's General Synod. Orthodox Anglicans made a new contribution to the homosexuality debate within the Church of England, by launching a book containing testimonies of Christians who once believed they had a homosexual orientation, but now live happy and fulfilled lives in line with Biblical sexual ethics. These are complemented by essays in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, genetics, biblical and pastoral theology, social ethics and cultural analysis.

The book, edited by Dr. Lisa Nolland, Sarah Finch and Dr. Chris Sugden, seeks to correct the imbalance in the 'Listening Process' called for by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The editors argue that, so far, the whole listening process has been in "one direction and with one ultimate end" - the full inclusion of practicing homosexual Anglicans at the very heart of the church's establishment. The editors seek to put into the public domain, not only the views of Christians who first thought themselves homosexual, and then chose to follow Biblical teaching, but also the expert evidence and research of psychologists, counselors and theologians in the field. Further sections analyze the impact of the homosexual agenda on our culture. Copies can be pre-ordered from the Latimer Trust.

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The CHURCH OF ENGLANDS "Dennis Canon" was defeated this week when plans for a church 'land grab' got thrown out by the General Synod. Plans for the £4 billion "land grab" of thousands of rectories and vicarages ofin the Church of England were thrown out after members of the General Synod rebelled against proposals to centralize ownership of the homes of clergy. Church leaders had wanted to vest ownership of the homes of nearly half the clergy, the 4,000 incumbents and their families, into new boards set up under the dioceses. At present, when a cleric is installed into the freehold of a parish, ownership of the vicarage or rectory is vested in him or her. Although they are not allowed to sell it or take advantage of this for personal gain, they are guaranteed the house as a home for them and their family until they retire at 70. The Synod heard fears of the symbolic impact of removing ownership of the clergy house from the local parish. Members said they were concerned that the houses could subsequently be sold to pay debts, or might even be at risk if victims of child abuse by clergy sued the diocese for compensation. Full story here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3358454.ece

*****

CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA. According to revisionist bishops like John Chane Bishop of Washington, Archbishop Peter Akinola and his ilk have no social conscience, and are concerned only with saving souls. Not true. Speaking at the dedication of St. Peter's Cathedral in Asaba in the Niger Delta on Jan 19, Archbishop Akinola charged that "corruption had taken a firm root" across Nigerian society. He urged the government's anti-corruption investigators to redouble their efforts and "bring whoever is found wanting to book."

"Since independence, Nigeria's rulers had squandered its natural riches with the amount of money invested by the government would have overtaken China and India in terms of development," he declared. Our health system," he went on, "has collapsed, the educational system is dead and our roads are in deplorable shape, yet these same leaders go to church and pray to God. No amount of prayers can cover your sins. Christ obeyed God till death, why can't you obey Him in simple daily matters?" he said, according to a report published in the Vanguard newspaper of Lagos.

"The seeds of corruption began with acquiescence to small sins and petty misdeeds," he said. "Honor God in the small things and seek the good of all," Archbishop Akinola said.

*****

IN SYDNEY, a group of Christian ministers will march in next month's Sydney Mardi Gras parade to publicize their apology to the gay and lesbian community. The group, calling itself 100 Revs, issued the formal apology today, saying churches had often been "profoundly unloving" towards homosexuals and transsexuals. "As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognize that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) people," it said in a statement. "For these things we apologize. We are deeply sorry and ask the forgiveness of the GBLT community."

*****

VOL has included an unusually large number of world class columnists in today's digest. They have written brilliantly and lucidly on the words of Rowan Williams and they deserve your attention. I hope you will take time to read them.

CORRECTION: In my piece reflecting on the February "Angelus" column by +Sergio Carranza, VOL failed to identify that it was Carranza who wrote the column, which then got circulated by his clergy. It was quite clearly his own reflections and not in any way a letter from "unidentified liberal clergy." VOL apologizes for the confusion.

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