[kaehurowing]

Time to kick the remaining Christians out of the Anglican church.

[the invisib1e hand]

You have The Church. And then you have that exponentially growing group of things that tried to be a Church without the Church a few hundred years ago.

But you still have The Church.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Prayers up that the righteous shall be vindicated.

[NYer]

Ping

[Peanut Gallery]

Seems this is SOP. Too bad they feel they have to pick on a man in his 80’s.

[LiteKeeper]

TEC INTREP

[r9etb]

Hate the tell you ... but the bishop is actually in the right on this. (I grant you his theological problems....)

Bishop Ingham says that Packer has "abandoned the exercise of ministry” after the church where he is a member voted to separate from the diocese and join the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone under the oversight of Anglican Archbishop Gregory Venables.

So let's look at that. Packer was ordained by the CoE. Packer belongs to a parish that has voted to disaffiliate from CoE.

As an ordained priest in the Church of England, Packer promised obedience to his bishop. The bishop has a right to expect obedience from his priests ... it's a fundamental tenet of Anglican practice. And he also has a right to expect that his priests will actually honor their vows as priests of the Church of England, and to remain as such.

So Packer has a choice: if he wants to retain his ordination within the CoE, he must distance himself from those who have removed themselves from CoE.

If he refuses to do that, and abandons the Church of England ... on what basis could he possibly expect to retain his ministry as a priest of the Church of England?

Like it or not, the Anglican church has a lot of rules governing the ordination and ministry of its priests.

It seems to me that this "controversy" stems from a bunch of folks wanting to have their cake and eat it, too. Anglican rules evidently matter only when somebody else is breaking them.

It's really kind of sad, in a way. Here is a fellow who purports to be taking a brave stand for the faith, but he's so wedded to his worldly position (ordination in the Church of England) that he can't give it up.

If Packer is really serious, then he should "Leave the dead to bury their own dead," and cease the pointless whining about Bp. Ingham doing what any bishop is required to do.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Sodom expels Lot.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

About 20 years ago my mother died and my dad invited us to come home and take anything in their house they we might want. Some of my brother and sisters took various furniture items. Since I was the last to arrive there was not much left for me. I took two items: (1) my mothers Bible and (2) the book Knowing God by J I Packer. It’s a super book especially condsidering all the watered down christianity that is taught today.