From here:
Archbishop Ian Ernest, primate of the province of the Indian Ocean, said decisions by the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada on issues involving homosexuality have torn the fabric of communion.
“These are sad events,” he said. “Things will never be the same again.”
Another primate, Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, launched a harsh critique of the communion leadership’s unwillingness to deal with issues. Successive archbishops of Canterbury have tried to hold the communion together, but failed to use their influence to bring cohesion to autonomous provinces, he said.
Anis said the recommendations of primates meetings have not been carried out. The Lambeth Conference in 2008 was characterized by what he called “divide and rule” tactics, with no decisions being made.
Justin Welby appears to be determined to turn a blind eye to the disintegrating Anglican Communion and places his hope in “mission and in reconciliation”. Oddly, he seems to entirely miss the point that those who are “focusing on one or two sins” are not conservatives but liberals: when a faction in a church – North American Anglicanism in this case – decides to bless something that is sinful – and Welby is acknowledging it is sinful – it is the faction that is doing the focussing.
In a brief address, Welby said that in every generation, church members have thought their problems were “terminal.”
“Churches are sinful,” said Welby. “None of us are right. The trouble with the Anglican Communion will not be solved by focusing on one or two sins. All of us need to come to the cross.”
He said in different contexts the problems may be different — sexuality, persecution, corruption, abuse of power, complacency, poverty.
Welby said Anglicans are called to be bridge builders, who will “find ourselves struggling with unity.” He sees the future growth of the communion in mission and in reconciliation.
Bishop Patrick Yu, a tame faux-conservative Toronto bishop, in what can only be a case of genetic predisposition to obstinate optimism in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, thinks: “Our problems are not so intractable”. He also can’t understand why the ACoC is “lumped” with TEC; I can’t understand why someone political enough to be a bishop can’t understand the implication of inviting Katharine Jefferts Schori to the last few ACoC general synods.
“We are always lumped with the Americans,” he said. In the Diocese of Toronto people are not “judged or driven out” on the basis of being traditional in their theology. “We do not persecute conservatives.”
Yu said in spite of differences in the communion, there is hope for reconciliation and a new commitment of resources to mission and evangelism. “Our problems are not so intractable,” he said.
Incidentally, Rev Bob Bettson, the author of the article, thinks AS purveys an “endless stream of ridicule and sophmoric [sic] humour more suited to a fraternity newsletter than anywhere else.” That must be why he reads it.
Welby was never really an ‘oilman’, at least not in the sense of being a hard-drinking, womanizing roughneck who worked insane hours in harsh conditions searching for black gold. Rather, Welby was a smooth talking, white collar accounting type who presided over vast amounts of money and minimal ethics in an industry that would make the Vatican Bank look positively honest or the managers and vice presidents of RBC seem like good people.
Somewhere along the line, he ‘got religion’; here I have compared him tongue in cheek to Paul of Tarsus and his spectacular epiphany on the road to Damascus, albeit that Oilman’s epiphany happened on the road to Houston…
Welby’s connections have worked for him thus far: Halliburton have designed and delivered to Lambeth Palace a special down-hole tool designed to remove an archbishop’s high-button boots from his mouth and adjacent airways when he makes definitive statements in the absence of simple facts, and yet unlike politicians who the cartoonists characterize demonically, nobody has made sport of the fact that adorned with a miter his thin, tapering face and pointed chin resembles some sort of alien visage more at home in a space odyssey than a damp old British cathedral.
Having made a fool of himself thus far, it appears that he has suddenly awakened to the problem facing Anglicanism [at least as he sees it]. In a sermon delivered during an expensive, charitable-dollar-funded vacation in Monterey, Mexico, Oilman made headlines by warning us that,”the Anglican church is tottering on the brink of disintegration amid disputes between liberals and traditionalists.” No kidding? We all thought that it was just a storm in a teacup!
[… …]
Talking down to us lesser folk who lack his greatness and knowledge, Justin Welby condescendingly confides that: “Many of the issues over which different factions in the Church were fighting were ‘incomprehensible’ to people outside it.”
Unlike my lord archbishop, who never soiled his lily-white hands, I worked in the offshore oil and gas industry for many years. In the search for black gold I saw many things: greed; misery; death; the total absence of ethics; decency and justice. Nothing mattered except drill, drill, drill; the more hole that was made the closer the prize [or disappointment], Americans by-and-large were the worst, but the rest came fawning after them, greedy for a share of the spoils. In Europe the churches, big business and the governments invested; in Canada organized crime bought in with so-called respectable front men in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland; in Brazil, Mexico, Asia and Africa the industry thrived as did corruption, violence, narcotics, child prostitution and abject poverty. I listened to the propaganda and downright lies that spewed from the press offices of the oil companies and their satellites [I am sure that you, archbishop Welby, are familiar with them at least] all of which bore little or no resemblance to what was happening on the oil patch.
The culture of lying and deceit coupled with greed-dominated secrecy and paranoia led to disaster after disaster where the butcher’s bill in human life was frequently hidden from public view. But guess what Oilman, I and many others knew full well what was going on, and I personally predicted disaster and then worked to rescue rig crews whose greed, ignorance and stupidity had left them at Our Savior’s mercy, with no other hope. I am sure that names like Piper Alpha and the Ocean Ranger mean nothing to your lordship.
So it is with the Church of England and the Anglican Church of Canada. What is happening is not “incomprehensible” at all. As the archbishop of Canterbury you are the titular head of these two institutions, both of which are tearing themselves apart and in terminal decline. Nothing you can do will change this one iota in a culture that exactly like the oil patch demonstrates greed, misery; death; the total absence of ethics; decency and justice
We see fat cat bishops; greedy, lazy priests who take their cue from the bishops; accumulated wealth; charitable dollars totally misused while the poor get poorer; a total absence of charity; sexism; blatant disregard of Holy Scripture; schism over homosexuality; aggressive panhandling and ‘fund-raising’ aimed at aging adherents; the list is endless, and your lordship wonders why nobody wants anything to do with Anglicanism?
This Justin Welby is your> ‘drunken man’ and the cliff is oblivion; I suppose it is some small thing that you recognize it; just as papa Franco recognizes the problems facing the Roman Catholic Church. But like the pope, you are totally and absolutely incapable of any form of remedial action.
Talk is cheap and furthermore it is very annoying in the absence of action. So far, like so many of your predecessors, you have done nothing but appear foolish and ineffective.
Here’s some advice from someone whom I respect very much; I am sure that He is a complete stranger to you [I judge it to be so by your actions]. His name is Jesus of Nazareth, and he said, among many other things, “Sell everything you [the church] own [assets of 5 billion pounds plus] and give it to the poor [that you so ably helped to create]; then follow me.” [The words in parenthesis are mine].
This and this alone can save the Anglican Church; otherwise Welby, you should go back to the oil patch, where greed, misery; death; the total absence of ethics; decency and justice are the accepted norm. Stop wasting charitable money that could be used to do God’s work and stop wasting everybody’s time!
“Sell everything you own”. Jesus said: “Sell your possessions and give to the poor” (Luke 12:33). It is important to feed and defend the poor. But it is far more important for the disciples to depend on God. Jesus did not tell His disciples to sell all their possessions. Nobody can survive for too long with nothing, no material resources, no food, no assistance from outside sources, etc. Indeed Jesus and His disciples had money which they used to buy food and to give alms (John 13:29). Jesus is not excluding private ownership. He is emphasizing that believers must not be dominated by their possessions.
Michael, your problem is context. You are reading your bible with twenty-first century eyes, or perhaps you worship with Creflo Dollar and his ‘prosperity’ ministry?
Jesus ministry was diametrically opposed to Welby, Hitlz and the ACoC/CoE who worship mammon and pursue the accumulation of wealth for purely selfish reasons.
Have you ever been to Africa [not a four star hotel in Cape Town] or perhaps rural China? If so, you would have to be blind not to notice people survive for a long time on next to nothing.
How does this gel with $7 billion in assets?
Good morning! I don’t believe in the Gospel of wealth, health and prosperity. No thank-you! I don’t deny that the poor Chinese churches are growing in great numbers today. Malachy, before you write again, may I suggest that you sell everything you own first please. Thanks!
My wife and I did just that, and we purchased a church. Long story: http://www.saintmarymagdalene.ca/
Enjoy your plate of crow; and don’t forget your $20 prayer request to Creflo Dollar.
And thank you too!
Thank you for your reply! Did you forget to sell your computer?
Deleted – please don’t insult other contributors.
David: you are amazing!
What do you think Mr. Li just did? Horse’s rectum too strong for you? Well, it is not a knicker fetish I suppose.
Actually , Li libeled me on this blog: There are six things that the LORD strongly dislikes, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
I think that it may have something to do with the commandments.
You don’t have the intestinal fortitude to come out from behind your blog screen and join the debate, yet you insult others with impunity.
Maybe Bishop Bird has a case after all!
Not to put too fine a point to it but…
It seems that society (the linked article is the Washington Post) is finally starting to have some awareness that the Worldwide Anglican Communion is shattering apart. There is now a situation of “us and them” within what remains of the communion, which is now little more than the tattered rags of a once favourite shirt. The ACoC, might still be looked upon with a happy recollection of better times, but when seen in the clear light of day only serves to break our hearts. Why? Because we are forced to realize just how wonderful it once was, but due to our own neglect and incompetence has now deteriorated into something more suitable for the trash heap.
But what of the “us and them”? Bishop Yu may be dumbfounded as to why the ACoC is lumped in with the TEC. But here again open eyes see will see the truth. The ACoC has followed everything the TEC has inflicted upon Anglicans for the past 50 years. It is nothing more than an echo of the TEC, and as such has chosen a bed to lie in.
Sadly the both of these organizations (I can no longer bring myself to refer to them as “Churches”) have completely forgotten that you are either with Jesus or against Him, and that if you are with those who against Jesus than you are against Him also! No-one, and no-thing, can have two masters. They have made their choice, and they chose feminism, environmentalism, social justice, and gay rights. That is not to say that a Christian cannot be concerned about the world that God entrusted to us. Neither is it to say that we can ignore our fellow man when he is in need. What is intended to be conveyed is that these Christian Charities should come forth out of us as acts of Worship and Love of/for God. Instead the ACoC and the TEC have replaced Worship and Love of/for God with these other things, and in so doing have opened themselves up to infection from secular influences. Thus and consequently the stated desire to “fit in with society” having replaced the Worshipful “doing the work of God”. The ACoC and the TEC might very well still be doing a few of the right things, but now for the wrong reasons! For they no longer do anything for God, but instead do things for society. How very sad.
I see the Reverend Bob, former editor of the Calgary
SowerSewer and the Brandon Mustard Seed has accomplished his quiet goal of having the ACoC move him back east. His resume is still on file at the National Enquirer