What
Way Ahead?
by The Rev. Doctor Ephraim
Radner, Senior Fellow (Mar 22, 2007)
To a certain kind of faithful Episcopalian, things
may indeed look bleak. The recent House of Bishops meeting in Texas
seems to put a seal of finality to the fraying hopes many of us had
for the renewal of our common life. To be realistic, however, is not
to lose hope; rather, it is see more clearly where our true hope
must lie. (read
more)
Making
Promises: the Proposed Anglican Covenant in the life of communion
by The Rev. Doctor Ephraim
Radner,
Senior Fellow (Mar 2, 2007)
The Proposed Covenant recently commended by the
Primates to the Communion for study and response deserves serious
discussion, not only with regards to its particulars, but more
importantly, with regard to its larger purpose and character.
However critical may be the recommendations of the Primates with
regard to TEC in their Tanzania Communiqu?, it is essential to see
these as but the outline for an ?interim? arrangement until the
Covenant itself will be finalized and accepted or rejected by
individual churches. It is possible, of course, that Lambeth ?08
will choose a different path forward, but I believe this is
unlikely. For the present it appears clear: the Covenant frames the
Communiqu?. This is crucial to understand, because it tells us
something about how we are invited to approach the entire calling as
a Communion that we have been given in this difficult
time. (read more)
Commentary
on Sub-Committee's Report
by The Rev. Dr. Andrew
Goddard (Feb 17, 2007)
The Report of the Communion Sub-Group of the Joint
Standing Committee of the Primates’ meeting and the Anglican
Consultative Council produced instant responses of horror from those
committed to Lambeth I.10 and delight from those wishing to see The
Episcopal Church (TEC) remain fully integrated in the life of the
Communion. It is not difficult to see why these were the initial
reactions but it may be that a more measured judgment needs to be
made which, while highlighting the serious flaws in the report’s
analysis, also recognises its potential significance in shaping a
reconfiguring of the relationship of TEC to the Communion, the
Communion’s development and the ongoing Windsor
process. (read
more)
ACI'S
PROPOSAL FOR AN INTERIM ARRANGEMENT WHILE AWAITING A CONCILIAR
COMMUNION COVENANT:
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Nov 30, 2006)
Introduction
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. (read more)
Theological
resources for Anglican ?communion? issues
(Nov 25,
2006)
Theological resources for Anglican ?communion?
issues Three documents produced at the recent meeting of the
Inter-Anglican Doctrinal and Theological Commission (ACNS 4189, 15
September, 2006) have been commended by the Archbishop of Canterbury
for study throughout the Anglican Communion. In common with other
commissions and networks, the IATDC considered the proposal of the
Windsor Report for the creation of an Anglican covenant which could
express the way in which Anglicans in different parts of the world
live together. ?Responding to the Proposal of a Covenant? reflects
on the biblical and ecclesiological background to the idea of
covenant, and observes ways in which the concept of covenanting may
be fruitfully employed to demonstrate a way in which Anglicans seek
to stay together in times of controversy. (read
more)
The Panel of
Reference & New Westminster Diocese
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Oct 18, 2006)
Origins For over three years now, most of the
Communion?s attention has been focussed on the Episcopal Church of
the USA due to its decisions at the 2003 General Convention. It is
easily forgotten that the current crisis was really triggered a year
earlier when, in June 2002, the Diocese of New Westminster decided
to authorise same-sex blessings through a synodical vote (the third,
following similar votes in 1998 and 2001) and the consent of its
bishop, Michael Ingham. This action was not only clearly in
opposition to Lambeth 1998 Resolution 1.10 but also to the 1979
statement of the Canadian House of Bishops that they ?do no accept
the blessing of homosexual unions?. In response to the Synod?s
decision, eight parishes left the Synod and took various actions to
distance themselves from the diocese. (read
more)
ACI
Response to the Presiding Bishop's Letter
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Oct 4, 2006)
We appreciate the Presiding Bishop's reference to
papers published on our web-site in his most recent letter to his
own House of Bishops. As he comes to the end of his tenure, we only
regret that he has not chosen to engage the Anglican Communion
Institute until this point and now only in this manner. In this
case, we fear he may not have read very thoroughly or accurately.
(read more)
The
Anglican Communion: Where are we now and where are we headed? A
brief analysis by the Anglican Communion
Institute
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Sep 17, 2006)
It is now nearly three months since General
Convention ended and, with the latest letter from the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the situation and difficult path in the months ahead is
becoming clearer. (read
more)
PETITION
TO THE THIRD GLOBAL ANGLICAN SOUTH TO SOUTH LEADERSHIP TEAM AND
PRIMATES ADIVSORY GROUP: SOME COMMENT & CRITIQUE FROM THE
ANGLICAN COMMUNION INSTITUTE
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Sep 16, 2006)
Who are the authors? The two signatories on behalf
of The Society for the Propagation of Reformed Evangelical Anglican
Doctrine (SPREAD) are Bishop John Rodgers Jr and Bishop John
Rucyahana from Rwanda. (read
more)
What
Are We Meeting About? The Current Shape of our Common Discussions in
the Episcopal Church
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Sep 5, 2006)
A reflection by the ACI Several important meetings,
mostly of American bishops, are soon to be held (e.g. in New York ,
in Texas , and, we are told, elsewhere). It is important to think
through, in advance, what can and cannot, or what should and should
not, be pursued at these gatherings. It is no longer possible, we
believe, to ?patch up our disagreements? within the Episcopal
Church; it is no longer possible to ?broker deals? with the
Communion or, for that matter, with this or that part of the
Communion (the Global South, Africa, South America, etc..).
(read
more)
General
Convention, The Windsor Report and ECUSA's Relationship to the
Anglican Communion
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Aug 1, 2006)
The significance of the General Convention?s
response to the Windsor Report should not be in any doubt. The
Report itself concluded We have already indicated (paragraphs 134
and 144) some ways in which the Episcopal Church (USA) and the
Diocese of New Westminster could begin to speak with the Communion
in a way which would foster reconciliation?.There remains a very
real danger that we will not choose to walk together. Should the
call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion
not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart.
We would much rather not speculate on actions that might need to be
taken if, after acceptance by the primates, our recommendations are
not implemented?.. (Paras 156 and 157) (read
more)
How
does the ACI see the present challenge in the Communion?
by The Rev. Doctor Ephraim
Radner,
Senior Fellow (Jul 13, 2006)
A response to Matt Kennedy about American Anglican
strategy in response to General Convention.
1. There is no doubt that people at certain and
varying points feel the need to leave the Episcopal Church - most
likely because of the burden they have to protect their spiritual
and emotional health. This is all quite appropriate. It is not,
however, a "strategy". It is a matter of individual discernment for
the moment. On the other hand, "separation" of Christian bodies
requires, well, a "body" to act and to act in a corporate fashion.
Our concern is that this is not happening well at present, and that
there are signs that it will not happen well in the near future. The
result will in fact not be the protection of our Anglican corporate
gifts, but their squandering.
(read
more)
Our
New Season of Anglican Maturing
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Jul 10, 2006)
Amongst conservatives in the United States , two
different understandings of Communion and how to maintain it appear
to be vying for ascendancy in our present season.
(read
more)
The
Archbishop of Canterbury?s Letter to the
Faithful
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Jun 27, 2006)
Archbishop Rowan Williams recently shared his views
regarding the current ?crisis? in the Anglican Communion and the way
forward he believes we must follow if we are to surmount it.?The
paper, entitled??The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today:
A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican
Communion?, provides a careful outline of some of the main elements
in this crisis, a summary of his sense of Anglicanism?s identity and
vocation as a Christian communion, and a proposed way forward that
Anglican churches might adopt to maintain the evangelical integrity
and vitality of this communion. (read more)
General
Convention in Review
by The Rev. Dr. Andrew
Goddard (Jun 23, 2006)
In his response to General Convention, the
Archbishop of Canterbury noted that ?It is not yet clear how far the
resolutions passed this week and today represent the adoption by the
Episcopal Church of all the proposals set out in the Windsor
Report?. What follows is an initial attempt to set out the necessary
details and possible assessments in order to gain greater clarity on
the crucial test of whether or not the Episcopal Church has adopted
?all the proposals set out in the the Windsor
Report?. (read
more)
A New
Season for Anglicanism?
by The Rev'd Professor
Christopher Seitz (Jun 22, 2006)
I wonder if what we are seeing--quite apart from
all the issues ACI and others know are at the forefront, sexuality,
etc--is the collision of deeply US instincts, borne of revolutionary
governmental deism and its Federalisms (Washington and Jay in
conflict with Madison and Jefferson) being played out, coming to
final fruition in the food fight of General Convention 2006. I am
almost dizzy from the last ten days. The last moments of General
Convention were like something out of The Twilight Zone.
(read more)
Initial
Observations on General Convention
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Jun 21, 2006)
The Windsor-related resolutions coming out of
General Convention today require, as the Archbishop of Canterbury
has noted, some time for study before their significance and import
can properly be evaluated. Such study, furthermore, must be done in
the context of the wider Communion, and not simply from the limited
perspective of our individual circumstances. However, a few initial
observations can be made. (read
more)
Statement
of the Anglican Communion Institute
by The Anglican Communion
Institute (Jun 19, 2006)
ACI hopes to respond to the Windsor-related
resolutions in the form in which they are finally accepted by the
General Convention. We will do so as soon as we are able. In the
meantime, we wish to express our deep concern over the potential
negative significance for the Windsor process of +Katherine Jefferts
Schori's election as PB. In the light of the public statements and
actions of +K. Jefferts Schori: (read more)
Wounded in
Common Mission :
The Term of Inter-Christian Divisiveness
by Christopher Wells*
(May 31, 2006)
I. Banishing Fear: ?Anglican? Evocations within
Earshot of the Church Catholic Soon after the publication of The
Windsor Report in 2004?a text embraced by the Primates of the
Anglican Communion, and subsequently the Anglican Consultative
Council, as having described ?the way in which we would like to see
the life of the Anglican Communion developed? [1] ?Archbishop Rowan
Williams reflected on the nature and purpose of the Church in what
remains his most programmatic and interesting ecclesiological essay
to date.
(read
more)
*Christopher Wells
is a Deputy to General Convention from the Diocese of Northern
Indiana, and a member of the Commission and Special Legislative
Committee charged with recommending responses to the Windsor
Report.
What It Will
Take
by The Anglican
Communion Institute
(May 24, 2006)
As General Convention approaches there is
inevitably increased attention being paid again to the Windsor
Report and ECUSA?s response to it. (read
more)
?Sooner
or Later? ? California Consents and General Convention 2006 A
Thought Experiment on the Future of ECUSA*
by The Anglican
Communion Institute (Apr 24, 2006)
What follows is not an effort at maximally accurate
speculation, but is intended as a thought experiment on where ECUSA
appears to be, in the light of its various reports and actions over
the past months. General Convention 2006 is now but 50 days away.
(read
more)
Come Up
Higher: A Response to the Report of the Special Commission on the
Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion
by The Rev. Doctor
Ephraim Radner,
Senior Fellow (Apr 8,
2006)
?One Baptism, One Hope in God?s Call:
The Report of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the
Anglican Communion? is a significant, if quite imperfect step, in
the process that ECUSA must follow if this church is to maintain its
integrity as both a witness to the Gospel and an existing and
thriving institution, and if she is to contribute constructively to
the same future for the Anglican Communion. But it is only a step,
and if allowed to function as a destination by our General
Convention, it will prove not only a disappointment, but an
ecclesial quagmire, perhaps even a disaster.
(read
more)
>OPEN LETTER TO THE
HOUSE OF BISHOPS AND THE HOUSE OF DEPUTIES...
by the
Officers and Fellows
of the Anglican Communion Institute
(Apr
4, 2006)
The General Convention of the Episcopal Church
U.S.A. meeting in Columbus Ohio in June of 2006 constitutes a
watershed in its history and in the history of the Anglican
Communion. Will the dioceses that make up ECUSA continue as
full members of the Anglican Communion or will the status of some or
all of them within that communion be radically altered? Will
Anglicanism continue as a communion or will it fragment and become
at best a loose federation held together by a rapidly fading
historical memory? (read
more)
If
there is a future for ECUSA and the Anglican Communion, then
what?
by The Rev. Doctor Ephraim
Radner, Senior Fellow (Apr 2, 2006)
What if the Episcopal church actually “turned back”
from its decisions of GC 2003 and their presuppositions – that is,
what if she “repented” on the matter of gay blessings and consents
and ordinations and consecrations? How would we start talking to
each other again, how engage the deep (some would say
irreconcilable) differences among us? (read more)
A
Commentary on the Address of the Bishop of Exeter to the American
House of Bishops
by The Rev. Dr. Andrew
Goddard, Anglican Communion Institute Fellow (Mar 31,
2006)
The content of the address of the Bishop of Exeter
to ECUSA’s House of Bishops would have made it highly significant in
its own right. The fact that he delivered it as the representative
of the Archbishop of Canterbury ‘who”, as Bp. Langrish says,
“specifically asked me to bring you this message and assure you of
his own prayers’, makes it perhaps the most important and
illuminating perspective since the Dromantine Communiqué from the
Primates on the current and future state of the Anglican Communion
and the decisions facing ECUSA in just under three
months. (read
more)
PRIEST AS
PRESENCE: A Meditation On The Life Of A Priest
by The Very Rev'd Dr
Philip W. Turner III
(Mar 6, 2006)
Lent is now here. We clergy are as busy as we can
be, and it will be that way until Easter. We will spend our time
helping others live a holy Lent, and in the process will in all
likelihood have little time to attend to ourselves. The following
meditation is meant to give us some help in observing Lent
ourselves. It concerns a matter that lies close to the heart of our
calling—a calling that entrusts us with what used to be called the
“the cure of souls.” That matter is at certain places within the New
Testament called “godliness.” (read
more)
|
San Antonio
Talks - Articles from the
ACI Conference -
| Lecture One: One Scripture - The Rev'd Professor Christopher
Seitz |
| Lecture Two: Cloud of Witnesses - The
Rev'd Dr George Sumner |
| Lecture
Three: Two Providences - The
Rev'd Dr Ephraim Radner |
| Lecture Five: In a Glass Darkly - The
Rev'd Dr George Sumner |
| Lecture Six: The Narrow Gate - The Very Rev'd Dr Philip W. Turner
III |
|
CD's for the below
lectures are available through
the Bishop Elliot Society
|
| Lecture Four: Cairo and Beyond - The
Rt Rev'd Edward L. Salmon, Jr |
| Friday Night Panel: Where Have We Been
as an Anglican Communion? |
| Lecture Seven: Archbishop Fearon |
| Saturday Panel: Where Are
We Going as the Anglican Communion? |
| Friday Sermon - Bishop
Frey |
Women’s
Ordination and the Church’s Order
by The Rev. Doctor
Ephraim Radner, Senior Fellow, (Nov 15, 2005)
One effect of the current struggles within
the Anglican Communion has been to bring again to the fore the
matter of women’s ordination. Not that it was ever really
marginalized as a concern – certainly not for the many
Anglicans in especially America and in Britain who have felt
betrayed and placed at odds with their own church because of
the adoption of a practice they feel is contrary to the
Church’s faith and scandalous to the healing of the Church’s
brokenness. Many, although not all, of these opponents of
women’s ordination have been from the “catholic” wing of the
church. (read
more)
"This
House believes that a homosexual lifestyle is no bar to
becoming a Bishop"
by The Rev'd Dr Andrew
Goddard, The Anglican Communion Institute (Nov 3,
2005)
On Thursday 3rd November the Oxford Union at
Oxford University debated this motion. After opening speeches
from students, the guest speakers were Richard Kirker (LGCM)
and Gene Robinson (Bishop of New Hampshire) proposing and
Andrew Goddard (Wycliffe Hall) and Colin Buchanan (former
bishop of Woolwich) opposing. The following is Anglican
Communion Institute Fellow Andrew Goddard’s prepared speech
for the debate. (read
more)
In
Theological Praise of Common Sense: A Reflection on the St.
Michael Report
by The Rev. Canon
Dr. George Sumner (Oct 23, 2005)
The St. Michael Report was produced by a
theological commission of the Primate of the Anglican Church
of Canada. Archbishop Hutchison asked the commission to answer
a single, specific question which grew directly out of the
debate at the 2004 General Synod over the blessing of same sex
unions: is this a doctrinal question? (read
more)
A Call to
Our Primates
by The Anglican
Communion Institute (Oct 14, 2005)
The proliferation of alternative oversight
arrangements in the United States (and Canada; and now in
South America) indicates that the level of discontent and
disarray within the ECUSA and the Communion is high. Some
arrangements pre-date the General Convention 2003
developments, most specifically the never regularised
‘Anglican Mission in America’ (AMiA). In addition, and in the
light of General Convention 2003, other independent examples
of alternative oversight in ECUSA have sprung up, that have
involved a number of outside provinces. (read
more)
Two
Notes on the Church of Nigeria’s Constitutional
Revisions
by The Rev. Doctor
Ephraim Radner, Senior Fellow, (Oct 12,
2005)
Graham Kings and Francis Bridger wrote a
small piece (Church Times ,Sept. 23, 2005) in which they
questioned the wisdom of recent revisions made by the
(Anglican) Church of Nigeria to its Constitution. Kings
and Bridger wondered if “deleting” references to communion
with the See of Canterbury was a helpful or even faithful step
to take in the context of the Windsor Report’s emphatic
delineation of communion interdependence in terms of the four
“Instruments of Unity”, of which Canterbury is a central
piece. A week later, Dr Philip Giddings, Canon Dr Chris
Sugden, Canon Ben Enwuchola, and Canon Martin Minns responded
with a letter taking issue with Kings’ and Bridger’s
“criticisms”. They praised the Nigerian constitutional
revisions as a welcome reassertion of “historic Anglicanism”
through a commitment to the classic English formularies as the
Nigerian Church’s sole standards of communion faithfulness. I
personally agree with aspects of both perspectives, and
believe that this kind of measured and informed exchange of
ideas about such an important matter in our common life can
only teach us things we need to know.
(read
more)
|