Anglicans and Lutherans join forces to produce a report

From here:

For this purpose, the report identifies a number of recommendations for concrete diaconal action at local, regional or global level. These include ways in which the churches could do more together at all levels for disaster relief, in advocating on issues relating to climate change, illegitimate debt, HIV and AIDS and other pressing social concerns.

The articles fails to make any mention of God, Jesus, evangelism or the Christian hope in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

Although I’m sure the actual report is full of profound insights into things transcendent, the ACNS prefers to concentrate on the temporal: disaster relief – a noble campaign to resuscitate Western Anglicanism; illegitimate debt – the Anglican Church of Canada’s 2013 budget; climate change – the fear that the terrestrial dwelling of North American clerics could become as hot as their eternal resting place; and HIV/AIDS, – an attempt to protract the earthly sojourn of Canadian Anglican clergy, who are now almost all gay.

Bishop Sue Moxley tries to add to the Five Marks of Mission

At the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in New Zealand, she wanted to add a sixth: “to advance peace, eliminate violence and reconcile all.”

You can always count on a Canadian bishop to come up with something sufficiently nebulously utopian that no-one can openly disagree with it. And why would they? Everyone is secretly convinced that, being manifestly unattainable, it will make few demands, yet it will distract from the more tangible woes of the Anglican Communion; and that’s what the meeting is all about, after all.  The motion was defeated, but the substance was tacked on to number four which now reads:

To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation.

Now, to paraphrase Ps 46:9, we can expect wars to cease to the ends of the earth, the bow will be broken, the spear shattered and the oceans will stop rising. Oh, hang on, that last bit has already been done.

Still, I’m very glad we are left with only five marks of mission; mainly because I think Fatuous Five has a better ring to it than Scelestious Six.

Continuing Indaba to….. continue

What a relief. For a moment I thought someone might have put it out of its misery, thereby preventing further conversations aimed at diverting attention away from the dire peril threatening to rend the Anglican Communion asunder.

From here:

The core values of the Continuing Indaba were defined in a paper  by John Mark Oduor of Kenya He summoned the community to meet under the cross of Christ,” for the healing, reconciliation and unity of the community and the world” The core values he identified are:

·       The priority of Relationship

·       The need for Conversation

·       The significance of A Place of Meeting

·       The Appreciation of our Uniqueness within a whole community

·       Forgiveness and healing

[…..]

When the time came for the ACC to vote on a proposed resolution regarding the future of Continuing Indaba, several delegates suggested further additions, including a suggestion from Bp Samson Mwalunda of Kenya, that Continuing Indaba should be a process to undergird all pan-Anglican conferences. There was another suggestion that Continuing indaba should have a commitment to the ultimate resolution of issues.

ACC Chair, Bp James Tengatenga, offered the members a motion to seek to refine the resolution, or to vote on the existing one. By a narrow margin, the ACC voted to not accept any amendments, and a majority then voted in favour of the unamended resolution.

The Anglican Consultative Council dissembling in New Zealand

From this report, it seems clear that the chief purpose of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting taking place in New Zealand is, at all costs, to steer clear of any discussion that might have some bearing on the plight of the Anglican Communion.

Even worse, the idea that God wishes to convey objective truth to us in the Bible is being replaced by a mushy relativism where no interpretation of what is written is any better than any other.

From Canon Phil Ashey in Auckland, AAC

Dear friends,

I am in Auckland, NZ, at the 15th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC15). The agenda moved into high gear today with presentations on “The Bible in the Life of the Church” (BILC), the Network for Interfaith Concerns (NIFCON) Report “Promised Land?”, an Anglican Communion resource for addressing Israeli-Palestinian relations, and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) report on The Instruments of Unity.

I believe that the discussion on BILC revealed an important major conclusion that tips the hand of the ACC’s leadership: that the process of how Anglicans interpret scripture is as important as the substance of scripture. Two conclusions will follow from this premise: (1) Context reigns supreme in how people interpret, and in the diversity of interpretations that flow from diversity of contexts NO interpretation is better than another (a point made by the preselected TEC leader of one of the small groups), and (2) There are no “limits” on faithful interpretation (point made by the preselected Church of England rep from another reflection group).

In this discussion, initial enthusiasm for the affirmation of Bible study gave way to sharp differences over the language in the proposed resolution, and then to frustration that there was not enough time to consider the resolution. Finally, the resolution commending BILC for study and use in all Anglican seminaries, parishes and dioceses was sent back to the resolutions committee. I expect they will return to it tomorrow or Monday.

The NIFCON Report on Israeli-Palestinian relations may have brought the revisionist leadership to the brink of futility. Some revisionists felt the language of the report in each of the three sections stating “What all Anglicans can and should believe about XXX” was too magisterial and simply unanglican. Other revisionists felt the report was too pro-Israel. Others felt we had to do something and not wait another three years. Archbishop Williams intervened and confused everybody. Finally, under intensive questioning, Anglican Communion Office (ACO) staff revealed that the report had already been publicly released yesterday in Ireland – so, in effect, the whole conversation was a waste of time.

The process of AAC15 is being intensively stage managed and choreographed by ACO staff. There have been few opportunities for delegates to actually address the body. Plenary sessions moved immediately into regional or reflection groups. In the reflection groups, each group responded to a different question that was designed by the ACC leadership for them to answer. During the Bible in the Life of the Church report-back from reflection groups, an ACO staff member carefully called upon what appeared to be preselected delegates from mostly Global North provinces. Resolutions were presented by PowerPoint on a screen for a vote, and not distributed in advance. There is simmering frustration among many deputies at the near Orwellian manner in which Kenneth Kearon and the ACO seem to be managing this meeting. The bottom line is that the real issues of the Anglican Communion are being completely dodged, especially the failure of the Instruments of Communion to address violations by The Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada.

And so the report on the Instruments of Communion was similar – a 10 minute plenary of nothing more than historical background and explanation of the group’s work, moving immediately into reflection groups and evening prayer.

In terms of what schemes seem to be emerging, I would respectfully suggest the following as a “pincer” movement that ACC/ACO is going to place upon confessing Anglicans:

1. Through Continuing Indaba dialogue and stories, bolstered by the work of the BILC resources, Biblical interpretation of human sexuality and its limits will be rendered value-neutral with no limits on Biblical interpretation within the Communion. Lambeth 1.10 will be declared in effect non-binding;

2. Then, through the new Code of Conduct and the Safe Church resolution, any objection to sexual expressions that are not Biblical will be deemed “harassment,” chilling any speech and bringing consequences to those who, in Anglican communion meetings, dare to raise the subject.

I pray I am mistaken, but that is my best look into the future.

Yours in Christ,

Phil+

The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council