After the greatest weekend ever of rugby - four absolutely cracking quarter finals in the Rugby World Cup, unparalleled in my view by previous quarter final weekends - we need to turn from the heavenly game to earthly matters. Two posts catch my eye because they offer clarity, at least as much clarity as the All Blacks provided when they walloped France: they are the best team in the universe!
Bosco Peters has a very helpful post here about sacramental matters on which some of us, including myself, tend to get a bit confused.
Titus One Nine posts part of the latest Global South communique here. What the post clarifies is that the Global South Primates WILL GO TO THE PRIMATES MEETING. (Note that this includes some but not all GAFCON Primates. We are yet to hear from the GAFCON Primates who do not belong to Global South).
A couple of comments on this GS conference which was VERY hastily relocated to Cairo after a threat against the hotel where they planned to stay in Tunisia:
ReplyDelete- It's interesting that they state they will attend but don't state publicly the issues they would like to see on the agenda. Perhaps a good thing to keep tensions down before the meeting.
- There were a couple of notable absences among the participants. These may be due to visa issues or the changed venue but 2 of them are from the more onservative GAFCON countries - Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, from the Church of Nigeria; Abp Jacob Chimeledya from Tanzania; Abp Stanley Chama from Central Africa; Abp Thabo Makgoba from Southern Africa; Abp Daniel Sarfo from West Africa.
- The Global South was originally meant to be a group with a geographical mandate, ie partnering in ministry to the non-Western parts of the Communion. Apart from the point re its working groups, there was little in the communique focused on that region. It seems to be morphing into a "centrist" grouping between GAFCON and the liberal groupings in the Communion, whether that is its intent or not, despite the cross-over in GAFCON and GS membership.
Does anyone know if GAFCON have scheduled a meeting of their Primates' council before the January meeting?
" We are yet to hear from the GAFCON Primates who do not belong to Global South)." - Dr. Peter Carrell -
ReplyDeleteAs Andrew has suggested (above) Peter, one might expect another of their inconic 'Trumpet Sounds' from the GAFCON Primates - before the upcoming Primates' Meeting convened by the ABC.
Regarding Andrew's comment, it has been noted that both pro- and anti-Unity Primates managed to exclude themselves from the G.S. Meeting. I don't thnk Archbishop MakGoba would have been comfortable with the anti-TEC/Anglican Church of Canada sentiments expressed. And probably the foremost Primates involved with GAFCON's anathema against Gays would not have liked the possibility of a G.S. eirenic accord with Lambeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
One thing that will be very difficult for the ABC, in the present circumstances, will be to persuade GAFCON/ACNA to share Eucharistic Fellowship with all the other Primates present at Canterbury in January. And that is where the 'rubber hits the road' as they say.
Meantime, we'll 'keep on truckin' with the Good News of OLJC to ALL.
Behold, The Trumpet sounds again! The latest, unctuous, statement by the Chair of Gafcon, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala - direct from his breath-taking Visitation to his daughter-Church (the schismatic ACNA) in North America) - has hit the headlines in all the obvious places: Virtue-on-line, the Gafcon Newsletter (to All 'Othodox Anglciansl) and the ACNA website.
ReplyDeleteThe content of the Letter sounds very much like a Papal-BULL, that even Rome takes great care to restrict to the announcement of doctrinal changes in the Roman Catholic Church. With the way Gafcon's challenge for leadership in the Anglican Communion is going, this latest foray into dogmatic pronouncements from Gafcon may yet prove to be the straw that breaks the back of the world-wide Communion.
The implied threats to present a fait accompli to the gathered Primates at the Canterbury Meeting, claiming the moral highground in Anglican 'orthodoxy', ought warn the more liberal Primates of the Church of the takeover bid for the soul of Anglicanism to move from its origins to the regions of the Global South.
Whatever actually takes place at the Primates' Meeting, Anglicanism will likely not change much in other parts of the world. We will just be carrying on with the Inclusive message of the Gospel to ALL people - in the areas where we have local jurisdiction.
Hi Ron
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your perspective but there is another perspective, that the 'takeover' of the Communion is coming from another angle, from the angle of 'independence' (in respect of deciding doctrine, the Roman synod has eschewed that path, so GAFCON has good catholic company, though you do not see that yourself as an exponent of Anglo-Catholicism). GAFCON resists that spirit. We may or may not appreciate the tone of the trumpet they sound but their point actually is of some comfort to your own position: if we are to move beyond controversy then at some point a 'showdown' may be required, in which a decision is taken about which 'takeover' will shape the direction of the Communion into the future. You do not actually know whether that direction might prove satisfying to your own hopes and wishes!
The difference between the Roman Catholics and us Anglicans, Peter, is that the Pope has the last word on matters of doctrine and associated collegiality. Not so in the Anglican Communion. I don't think the Gafcon Primates really give too much thought to the cohesion of the Church, but they would dearly like the provenance of heading up the Communion, via Canterbury if possible, in order to claim their own definitive understanding of what it means to be an 'Orthodox' Anglican - according to their 'Jerusalem Declaration' of faith.
ReplyDelete"Peter, one might expect another of their inconic 'Trumpet Sounds' from the GAFCON Primates"
ReplyDeleteFr Ron, the "Trumpets" are issued by the Global South, not by Gafcon. See for example: http://www.globalsouthanglican.org/index.php/blog/comments/fourth_trumpet_from_the_fourth_anglican_global_south_to_south_encounter
"Regarding Andrew's comment, it has been noted that both pro- and anti-Unity Primates managed to exclude themselves from the G.S. Meeting."
I suggest both you and Andrew need to calm down and stop leaping to conclusions, much as I admire your athletic dexterity. We (and more to the point, you) do not know why all Primates did not attend, but since the Cairo meeting was organised at short notice, the most likely explanation is that they already had things booked that they couldn't change.
A lot of people in the West do not appear to realise that Primates with the care of more souls than the entire western church combined do actually have busy schedules.
"I don't thnk Archbishop MakGoba would have been comfortable with the anti-TEC/Anglican Church of Canada sentiments expressed."
Then you clearly don't know much about ++Makgoba. I suggest that you read the communique issued by the meeting he hosted in South Africa in March this year: http://anglicanink.com/article/capa-cape-town-communique. There were no Gafcon leaders present. If you carefully read items 7 and 8 from that communique, you will see that it adopts the same attitude towards TEC/ACoC as you have decried in this latest Global South communique. In other words, your attempts to characterize the Global South or various parts of it miss the mark by the proverbial mile:
"7. We are deeply concerned about the divisions within our beloved Anglican Communion. These divisions emerged when some Churches in the west allowed the worldly cultures, to reshape the message of church to the society especially in the area of marriage and human sexuality. These issues not only contradict the traditional teaching of the scripture but also impede our witness to the Gospel, which is the reason of our presence in this world. We believe that the church is entrusted with the message of Gospel in order to transform the culture not the other way around. We do accept diversity but not diversity on the expense of the truth. Therefore we call upon these churches to refrain from making unilateral decisions which will further the divisions between the provinces of the Anglican Communion.
8. We, by God’s Grace, continue to uphold the traditional biblical teaching in regard to human sexuality and marriage and affirm Lambeth Resolution 1:10 in its entirety. We believe that this is the only way to safeguard the life of the Christian families and we should resist the pressures of the secular western cultures to alter God’s purpose in creating Man and woman."
[CAPA Communique 27 March 2015 Cape Town, SA]
I disagree that such comments are "anti-TEC/ACoC". They are words spoken in love, following the example of Christ when he warned: "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish".
"The Global South was originally meant to be a group with a geographical mandate, ie partnering in ministry to the non-Western parts of the Communion. Apart from the point re its working groups, there was little in the communique focused on that region. It seems to be morphing into a "centrist" grouping between GAFCON and the liberal groupings in the Communion, whether that is its intent or not, despite the cross-over in GAFCON and GS membership."
ReplyDeleteAndrew, if you were familiar with Global South communiques and other documents (many of which are easily accessible online), you would know that they remain a group with a geographical mandate.
Secondly, I suggest reading this communique on its own terms. They state clearly the focus of their concern: "We were aware that we were meeting at a critical time in the history of our Communion. A time characterised by impaired and broken relations between Provinces." In other words, they are concerned that there may not be a Communion soon - there is no point being a geographical grouping of a Communion if the Communion ceases to exist, so they are taking steps to address that issue. Note also that the Archbishop of Canterbury was present, and I somehow don't think he was there to address issues of mission in Africa or Asia at this particular meeting (even though such matters are usually covered in GS communiques).
Thirdly, I don't understand where you get the idea of a "centrist" grouping from - how does the position of the Global South differ from Gafcon in any material respect?
"There were a couple of notable absences among the participants. ... 2 of them are from the more onservative GAFCON countries"
Equally, 2 others are considered some of the least "conservative". If we focus on particular individuals we can come up with this or that theory. The most likely reason for absences is simply that they couldn't make it to the changed venue at such short notice.