By Bishop FitzSimons Allison (This article comprised one of the Papers given at this year’s Prayer Book Society Conference in Savannah in February, 2018) Part I There are an unlimited number of ways that the biblical and PrayerBook teachings on Justification can be distorted or denied. However, they all share one factor, sin. God’s righteousness, Luther thought, was the righteousness that condemned the unrighteousness and Luther knew himself to be a sinner and thus God’s … [Read more...]
Papal toe kissing and the Chinese kowtow…
(European emissaries kowtow before the Chinese Emperor c. 1800) Has Pope Francis too rashly kissed the proffered toe of President Xi Jinping ? When it comes to extravagant postural gestures from those seeking to treat with them, the Papacy and the Imperial Chinese Court have long histories replete with a perhaps surprising degree of symmetry.Chinese Emperors were honoured with the kowtow (kau tauin Cantonese or koutouin Mandarin) which was a form of prostration in which … [Read more...]
A Response to ACNA’s Proposed 2019 Prayer Book * (PART I)
By Drew Nathaniel Keane (*This article was first published online on Covenant, the weblog of The Living Church) The Anglican Church in North America has been preparing a new revision of the Book of Common Prayer for several years. Its Liturgy and Common Worship Task Force began gathering feedback once working drafts were made available for use in 2013. The task force is near the end of the work, and the texts now available can be found … [Read more...]
On the Three Legged Stool of the Anglican Via Media
The Anglican Via Media upholding a real Anglican continuity from Richard Hooker to Charles Gore and beyond…. A.M-RIt is striking that Richard Hooker is so often spoken of by Anglicans even though there is often a want of attention to what exactly he actually said. The one thing almost always attributed to him illustrates this point: namely the image of Anglicanism’s “three legged stool” whereby Anglicanism is deemed to rest upon Scripture, Tradition and Reason. Charming as the image of … [Read more...]
The under reported story of militant Fulani attacks on Christians in Nigeria
Since 2001, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies has estimated that up to 60,000 Nigerian have been killed in violence between Fulani herdsmen and farmers.According to statistics provided by the Institute for Economics and Peace, 1,229 people were killed in 2014, up from 63 in 2013 and Benue State seems to be the hardest hit in recent times. Barely five days to the end of Governor Gabriel Suswam’s administration in May 2015, over 100 farmers and their family members were … [Read more...]
Is the Prayer Book Evangelistic ? – Part I
Is the historic Prayer Book an evangelistic liturgy? Can a church that uses one of the classical Prayer Books (England 1662, USA 1928, Canada 1962) fulfill the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations”? By the Rev. Gavin Dunbar It is a mark of our time that many Anglican and Episcopalian Christians would answer these questions in the negative. The Prayer Book may be good for some things - but not evangelism. So runs the current wisdom. So prevalent is this view, … [Read more...]
A Labor Day divertissement…. the ecclesial feline phenomenon
Felix in fide An ecclesial feline, review….. (Far from obscure Jude of St John's Savannah with Fr. Dunbar) The subject and domain of the cat is dangerous, even though it be a common one in the life of churches. In large part this is consequent upon the very strong but deeply divergent views that the cat can arouse. Moreover, as Lynne Truss once pointed out (the sometime literary Editor of the BBC’s now defunct journal The Listener), in an article in The Guardianof London (7thDecember, … [Read more...]
A New Prayer Book Emerges:
It is not just TEC that has been looking at Prayer Book revision: ACNA is about to launch a completely new Prayer Book of its own. A.M-R Recent months have seen much attention focused on the plan for a “comprehensive revision” of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer in the Episcopal Church, although in the end, the General Convention of this summer – to the relief of many who feared just how radical the results might have been-- decided not to pursue this option but instead to develop a range … [Read more...]
Three Key Resolutions of the 2018 General Convention in Austin
Among the plethora of resolutions passed at the Convention, the following three stand out as being of particular note:A068 Plan for the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer which, despite its title, actually does NOT initiate a comprehensive revision but instead provides for the development of more alternative and trial liturgies.B012 Marriage Rites for the Whole Church, which extends the authorization of "continued trial use" of the liturgies for same-sex unions and that they be … [Read more...]
Two Statements Issued before and after the TEC General Convention: from Communion Partners and Province IX Bishops
The first of the two statements made in regard to provisions for same-sex partnerships and the relation of these to the Anglican Communion was issued by the Communion Partners of the Episcopal Church following the 79th General Convention, meeting in Austin, TX, The second Statement below was issued earlier by the Province IX Bishops and in it they draw attention to their resolve to walk apart if need be in order to uphold their fidelity Scripture. (At the very end below will also be found the … [Read more...]
Why have so few Middle East Christians been accepted as refugees?
It is a startling fact that not a single Christian has been accepted by the United Kingdom among the 1,112 refugees from Syria resettled in the country in the first three months of 2018. This prompts some wider questions and reflections . But in regard to this particular statistic, it seems that just four Christians were even put forward by United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for consideration by the UK where in the end only Muslims were accepted.This data only … [Read more...]
Is being Brassic-odule to be guilty of molecular aggression?
In an age of encouraging awareness of the dangers of micro-aggression it is important to be ever-vigilant for the new frontiers of danger, and it was no doubt in this spirit that the following exchange was forwarded for general edification.Names have of course been changed for the protection of all involved in this clearly very delicate, and as they say now, "ongoing" situation.The Revd. Dr. Chrysostom Malificus wrote first, in response to a pre-dinner intimation from his … [Read more...]
Options for Prayer Book Revision put forward by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to the General Convention
In response to the mandate from the previous General Convention to prepare a plan for the “Comprehensive Revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer , the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) first identified four options:(1) initiating the process of full Prayer Book revision at the 79th General Convention;(2) spending the upcoming triennium (2019-21) gathering and analyzing data so that the 80th General Convention could make an informed decision in 2021 regarding … [Read more...]
Two Responses to the TEC Marriage Task Force proposals
The Revd. Canon Jordan Hylden of the Diocese of Dallas and a member of the Marriage Task Force has written his own powerful response to the latest proposals and this is set out below.The Task Force records that it had sought input from all thirty nine Provinces of the Anglican Communion over a period of five weeks and evidently was able to obtain seven of which it recorded only one as positive (from the Episcopal Church of Scotland, though it was stressed that in regard to that … [Read more...]
Proposals from the Task Force on Marriage to the coming TEC General Convention
TASK FORCE ON THE STUDY OF MARRIAGEproposals to the TEC General Convention 2018 It is important to note that the first proposed resolution from this Task Force (A085) if approved would constitute a first reading of a set of amendments to the 1979 Prayer Book itself, which means that if the General Convention approves a second reading in 2021, the changes will change the Prayer Book, and this will be so quite aside from anything undertaken or proposed by way of the … [Read more...]
Dr Samuel Bray on one example of the perils of Liturgical Revision
The following is but a summary of a most commendable and thorough article exploring the dangers of revising a classic text (in this case the General Confession of the BCP dating back to 1552) by Professor Samuel L. Bray of UCLA and Notre Dame schools of Law.For the full text of the article go tohttp://northamanglican.com/and-apart-from-your-grace-there-is-no-health-in-us/ “AND (APART FROM YOUR GRACE) THERE IS NO HEALTH IN US” WEIGHING THE MERITS OF A LITURGICAL … [Read more...]
From Brexit to Nixit – and the deeper crisis beyond
A Letter from London..... (On a different note, it is hard to be in Europe at present and not see signs of a very wide crisis across issues that range from survival of the currency, to political legitimacy and on to immigration) Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff There was a curious period known as the “phoney war” of eight months after Britain declared hostilities on Germany in September 1939 when nothing much appeared to be happening. Something faintly similar, if happily less … [Read more...]
Latest research confirms that most adults in Europe identify as Christian
A recent report of the Pew Foundation gives interesting insights into the continuing depth of the Christian identity in Europe, despite the impact of immigration and secular media and widely secular politics. Most of the adults surveyed still do consider themselves Christians. Indeed, the survey shows that non-practicing Christians (defined as people who identify as Christians, but attend church services no more than a few times per year) make up the biggest … [Read more...]
After GAFCON III – Whither Lambeth 2020 & Whither the Communion?
A further personal reflectionon some of the implications flowing from GAFCON III in JerusalemA M-RThe GAFCON conference was a thoroughly upbeat and joyful event of unprecedented scale that demonstrated most powerfully the rising organizational capacity of the movement ---and the consequent importance for Anglicanism of whether or not it is enabled to see its future, in the long-term, within the Communion. There was a deeply positive atmosphere with huge goodwill among those … [Read more...]
Anglicanism’s costly vocation and the fight to belong.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre From Jerusalem: A Personal Reflection on GAFCON 2018and its Strategic Challenges If anyone were to read the headline “2000 aesthetes gather to consider their emotional attraction to Anglicanism” it is unlikely any of those at GAFCON would recognise themselves. Surely this would describe some other more High Church congress of priestly types adorned with quantities of lace and such gorgeous robes as to be in breach of the cautionary … [Read more...]
A Letter from Bishop Mark Lawrence after the Supreme Court Decision Re: South Carolina
Feast of St. Basil June 14, 2018 Dear People of God,“Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:7I leave tomorrow for the Global Anglicans Future Conference in Jerusalem. It is a gathering of global leaders—Primates, Bishops, Priests and lay leaders—from around the Anglican Communion. I will be attending not only as a bishop of the Anglican Church in North America, but, more importantly, … [Read more...]
From Clubs to Communion: in a Different League ?
It is said that the Metropolitan Club in New York founded in 1891 –with J.P. Morgan as its first President –was launched in consequence of outrage that a certain other Club had failed to elect particular gentlemen to membership. In the world of gentlemen’s social clubs it is clear thus that, in the case of difficulty, one answer is simply to set up a new one, even if the more recent clubs tend to be looked down upon by the older or more exclusive ones. (A mischievous … [Read more...]
Jerusalem and GAFCON III
St George's Cathedral Jerusalem: A view looking towards the Nave from the Quire A Special Evensong was held today in the Cathedral for those coming to Jerusalem to attend GAFCON with Archbishop Suheil Dawani the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem and Bishop Michael Lewis of Cyprus and the Gulf as well as the GAFCON Bishops This coming week sees the convening of the Third Global Anglican Futures Conference which for the second time is being held in Jerusalem ten years after the first … [Read more...]
A View from the Tub…..
This section is is provided for occasional items that are deemed to fit within a tradition that specifically goes back to Dean Swift of Dublin Cathedral, and will comprise a series of “tales” and “digressions” (to use his terms) of what may be termed an ironic and often fanciful character, which must therefore not be taken too seriously or literally.A View from the Tub specifically references a title going back to his first major publication entitled, A Tale of a Tub which was … [Read more...]
Uganda Martyrs Observance in Uganda 2018
Thousands of Christians from Uganda and neighbouring countries are arriving this weekend in Namugongo for special services to commemorate the Ugandan Martyrs.This speaks to the astonishing history of Christian Martyrdom in the country extending fromthose beheaded or burned alive in his court by Mwanga II, King of Buganda, who also had killed Bishop James Hannington (3 September 1847 – 29 October 1885) an English Anglican missionary who was the first Anglican bishop of East Africa; … [Read more...]