Sunday, February 10, 2013

New Archbishop of Canterbury Faces Showdown with Senior Bishops

While Canterbury was a/our home and while her Bible and Prayer Book were/are our inheritances, thankfully and gratefully, the colonialist days of Canterbury are over...done, finito, basta, gone.   We go immediately and directly to the Triune God without bishops. Justin will get a taste of that--rebuffment of overshadowing--from Global South folks, although we aren't sure there is theological depth there either. Venables? Sorry, but he uncritically bowed to Tractaholics in Orlando and "personally witnessed" it. Or, poor Jim Packer who can't and hasn't lifted a finger over Tractaholics. 19th century Romanticism, that is, Tractarianism, is for romanticists and aestheticists bowing to medieval puerilities. They are intolerable puerilities. Sorry, but Justin, theologically, doesn't rise to depth akin to the old Reformed masters. Again, we love our BCP. We are grateful for our English Bible. But, we've learned theology from better sources. Sorry, but western Anglicanism never matured, Confessionally. Although, John Bird Sumner reminds us...that once upon a time...there really was a "Reformed" and "Biblical" Pastor in Canterbury without liberalism and without the "bowers, cringers, and scrapers."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9859632/New-Archbishop-of-Canterbury-facing-showdown-with-senior-bishops.html

New Archbishop of Canterbury facing showdown with senior bishops


The new Archbishop of Canterbury is facing a showdown with senior church leaders over the Church of England’s decision to allow the appointment of gay bishops.








Photo: Keith Blundy / Aegies Associates






In the first major test of his leadership of the worldwide Anglican Communion the Most Rev Justin Welby will be warned that the Church’s move risks alienating millions of traditionalist Anglicans in Africa and Asia.
 

Leaders of churches around the world are flying to Britain for Archbishop Welby’s formal installation at Canterbury cathedral next month, when some of them will meet the Archbishop for the first time.
 

Many want the new spiritual head of the 80-million strong Communion to call for an end to “divisive” moves away from traditional church teaching on sexuality, such as the ordination of gay clergy as bishops.
 

Nine of the Communion’s 38 most senior leaders, or primates, have said bishops in the Church of England were “wrong” to approve new rules allowing gay men to become bishops at a time when the Anglican Church faces “major challenges of disunity”.
 

Leaders of the Global South - a grouping of the Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and South America - have also condemned “revisionist” moves by the Episcopal Church in the US, which has ordained openly gay bishops and blesses same-sex relationships.


The Archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean, the Most Rev Ian Ernest, who is general secretary of the Global South group, said he hoped Archbishop Welby would listen to their concerns.
 
“As a member of the Global South I strongly believe that the Church of England and the Episcopal Church have got to be able to listen to our views. One of the issues is that the Episcopal Church is not attentive to the rest of the Communion and has to be faithful to what has been decided in past years,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

The appointment of gay bishops in the US had caused “a great sense of brokenness and sadness,” he said.

He added: “I hope that in the next month the Archbishop will call for a primates’ meeting and I hope that we shall be able to talk to each other and express ourselves and to see as a Communion together how we can create a new pathway. What I have seen in the past month is a man who is attentive and also willing to listen.”

Archbishop Welby’s enthronement next month is expected to be the biggest gathering of the Communion’s 38 leaders, or primates, since their last meeting in 2011.

The last conference, which took place in Dublin, was boycotted by traditionalist bishops, including Archbishop Ernest, over the inclusion of Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, the female head of the US Church.

Dr Jefferts Schori is planning to attend next month’s ceremony as the representative of her church, amid continued criticism from traditionalist primates of her leadership.

The American bishop was elected to lead the Episcopal Church in 2006, three years after its appointment of the Rt Rev Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican bishop, caused a rift in the worldwide church.

In 2010 she faced criticism for the “provocative” appointment to the episcopate of an openly lesbian clergywoman, the Rt Rev Mary Glasspool.

Archbishop Ernest said he did not attend the 2011 meeting because the US Church had not followed decisions made by leaders at previous meetings and he thought it would have been “useless to talk again”.

Other leaders planning to travel to Britain for the service include the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Rev Stanley Ntagali, who along with Archbishop Ernest was among nine primates who issued a statement last month condemning the decision of the Church of England’s bishops to allow gay clergy to enter the episcopate.

“It does not only widen the gap between the Church of England and Anglicans in the Global South, it also widens the gap between the Anglican Communion and our ecumenical partners,” they said.

Archbishop Welby has visited Nigeria more than 70 times and traditionalist leaders hope his familiarity with African churches will make him more sympathetic to their concerns.

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