December 1 -- morning posts
‘Asian Tiger’ to discuss Anglican missions in U.S.
December 1st, 2006 posted by kendall at 9:02 amThe Most Rev. Datuk Yong Ping Chung, a co-founder of the Anglican Mission in America, will speak at Roger Ludlowe Middle School on the significance of sending Anglican missionaries to America and on what it means to live as a devoted Christian in Malaysia, a country dominated by Muslims who cannot legally convert to other religions.
Chung, 65, affectionately known as the “Asian Tiger,” retired as archbishop of the Anglican Province of Southeast Asia in February after serving for five years. In 2000, he and Anglican Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda started a missionary organization to offer an alternative to members of the Episcopal Church disillusioned with the denomination’s acceptance of homosexuals, and to recruit millions of Americans who do not attend church. They also established another North American organization, the Anglican Coalition in Canada.
The Fairfield conference will be Chung’s first visit to southern Connecticut.
“This is a dramatic moment in some ways for Anglicanism in New England,” said the Rt. Rev. Thaddeus Barnum, a bishop and senior pastor of Church of the Apostles, an Anglican Mission congregation in Fairfield that is hosting the event. “Here’s a man from Southeast Asia who looked at the Episcopal Church and said, ‘No. What you’re doing is wrong. We need to set up an Anglican presence in America and recognize the historical Christian faith.’ ”
Anglican urges freedom in dialogue with Rome
December 1st, 2006 posted by kendall at 9:00 amThe chairperson of the governors of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Bishop Stephen Patten, has invited the Roman Catholic church to allow more freedom of expression in theological dialogue. “Catholics say Anglicans do not have a clear enough structure on authority, and I agree that there are areas it ought to be better. But I also believe the Catholic church should exercise its authority in a much more collegial way,” said Bishop Patten, the Anglican bishop of Wakefield in England. “Many Anglicans would be pleased to have a central figure – just like the Pope – in the church, but they want its role to be more collegial also.”
During a two-day visit to Hong Kong on Oct. 20-21, Bishop Patten held a seminar at the Anglican Cathedral of St. John, briefing some 50 Anglicans and Catholics about the ecumenical mission of the Rome centre.
The bishop emphasized there were many positive factors in Anglican-Catholic dialogue, but there are also some difficulties.
“I believe the tradition of faith could be better understood if people were allowed to have reasonable dialogue theologically in the Christian community,” Bishop Patten said. He had a feeling that outside the confines of the church, dialogue among Catholics was not encouraged. “We would like to see much more freedom of expression.”
Episcopal diocese in Fresno ponders break with church
December 1st, 2006 posted by kendall at 6:27 amDifferences over the Bible and sexuality within the Anglican faith may push the Diocese of San Joaquin to become the first in the nation to split with the Episcopal Church.
Bishop John-David Schofield, who refuses to ordain women and gays, has publicly accused the church’s newly elected female leader of promoting “heresy.” Under his leadership, the Fresno-based diocese has already stopped sending most funds to the national church and has considered a plan to affiliate with an Anglican diocese in Argentina.
Should delegates decide to formally break with the national church at a convention Saturday, all parties expect a protracted legal battle over the diocese’s millions of dollars in real estate.
“The sentiment of many of the pastors is Christ first, property second,” said the Rev. Van McCalister, a spokesman for the diocese, whose lush, mission-style headquarters sits at a busy city intersection. “If we’re successful in defining who we are as Anglicans and keeping our diocese intact, I think it’s going to be encouraging to other dioceses in the Episcopal Church that are looking to do the same thing.”
On Thursday, leaders of the national church offered conservatives more independence through the creation of a leadership position called a “primatial vicar,” who would work with dioceses and perform functions that normally fall to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, including consecrating local bishops. It was unclear how the move would effect San Joaquin’s decision.
The Anglican Communion Institute’s Proposal for an Interim Arrangement While Awaiting a Conciliar Communion Covenant
November 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:41 pmIntroduction
The new Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and a group of like minded bishops have just released a proposal to address an appeal by a number of dioceses for Alternative Primatial Oversight/Relationship.
It must be pointed out that this appeal was originally to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and thereby to the Primates of the Communion, and not to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, she herself symbolizing the very problems necessitating such alternative arrangements.
Further, any solution that leaves the new Presiding Bishop giving alternative relationships and oversight as her gift is highly problematic. Such a solution leaves her fully at the table and has the effect of appearing to establish the very commitments and authority that drove some of the bishops to make this request for APO in the first place.
Any solution that leaves the Episcopal Church in an undiminished capacity also has the effect of behaviorally overturning the Primates decisions at Dromentine and thereby establishing the decisions of General Convention as viable options within the Anglican Communion.
For these reasons, the Anglican Communion Institute makes this our own proposal, that has previously been circulated among some of the leadership of the Anglican Communion, a public document.
Following is the proposal:
A Pastor’s Heart Takes Benedict XVI to Turkey
November 30th, 2006 posted by kendall at 11:39 pmAs the papal visit to Turkey grew closer, it seemed that the Turkish tug-of-war between the Vatican and the media intensified.
Newspapers, television and radio harped on the significance of Benedict XVI’s visit to a Muslim country, stridently announcing the protests and politics of the trip. The Vatican, on the other hands, kept gently repeating that the “trip” was really a pilgrimage, and that long before the European Union or even Islam existed, Constantinople was established as the first Christian city.
If one pays attention to the historical and cultural context of this papal voyage, the dates and places will reveal more about the Pope’s plans than any sensationalizing headline.
Constantinople, or “Secunda Roma” (the second Rome), was founded by Emperor Constantine in 330 on the site of an earlier Greek city, Byzantium. Constantine, after uniting the empire and legalizing Christianity, had built six churches in Rome, but soon realized that he would never be able to realize his dream of a Christian city in a town still dominated by pagan gods.
So he founded this new city on the Bosporus. Ideally situated at the juncture of Europe and Asia, Constantinople also linked the northern and southern areas of the empire through the Black Sea on one coast and the Mediterranean on the other. This great crossroads of the known world geographically exemplified the universality of the Christian Church.
Constantine conceived of the city as a new Rome, and an even better Rome, because it would be Christian. Like Rome itself, Constantinople was spread across seven hills.
The visit of the Roman Pontiff to Turkey, the center of the world in which Christianity was born, represents a papal agenda concerned more with his own flock than the media might imagine.
posted by t19elves at 9:10 AM
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