Posted on 07/29/2008 7:48:37 AM PDT by sionnsar
from here
The Pastoral Forum to be headed by Dr Rowan Williams is a last-ditch attempt to bring rebel Anglican provinces into line and prevent a total split in the 80 million-strong Communion.
It is designed to provide a rapid response to crises, by offering guidance either to liberal churches that break guidelines by ordaining gay clergy or blessing same-sex unions, and also traditionalist churches that cross borders to ordain bishops in other provinces. A halt to all these practices has been demanded.
The forum will allow parishes that have defected from their national churches to be looked after in a "holding bay" until they can be returned to their previous home.
But it will also have the power to "diminish the standing" of rebel churches, which could mean their heads being thrown off the Primates Meeting of worldwide Anglican leaders, or being barred from the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade gathering of bishops that is taking place in Canterbury this week.
...more
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Oh yes, and those who consecrated +Gene weren’t supposed to be at Lambeth without repentance, and SSB are not “authorized” in TEC or AoC.
Oh yes, the orthodox must give up, but the TEC can not be asked to repent of its heresy. RSB
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Well, the family analogy is kind of skewed. Although I could see it like this: because your parents are never home, usually wasted, can’t keep a job and are generally struggling to stay alive, you go live with your grandparents? The courageous folks who have placed our amazing church under Uganda are my heroes. I will never go back to a TEC church. I never knew what I mas missing before. Like, um...Jesus.
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I see where the thought police are going to punish the border crossers extensively but to what exrent are the dioceses that have started rites to same sex blessings going to be punished, no back rubs at the palace when gatherings are in place?!?!. I am one who has left TEC for CANA. I do not see going back to the “mother “ church as prescribed. I have never been happier in my adult Christian life as now as I no longer have to be a watchdog of the former leadership. I do not have to wonder what my bishop is following. I do not have to watch what my priest is preaching. I will have to have a separate AC over here as I will not follow a religious? body who no longer knows what it is here for which is supposed to be winning lost souls to Christ. The In community religion no longer upholds the great commandment of witness. I would appreciate minds of greater insight to tell me where this new statement will take us.
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Roy, we in Florida we have been delivered from all this and I don’t know one single parishioner who would go back. The difference in worship, mission, EVERYTHING is night and day. I am forever in debt. Life with Uncle is wonderful. I’m not going “home.” It would be nice to see Mom and Dad get their lives in order, but life is too short to give them another chance with my salvation.
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I’m packing my beach towel now. In fact am in Florida 19-25th September giving some teaching on my book, “Zion’s Christian Soldiers: The Bible, Israel and the Church (IVP). More at http://www.sizers.org |
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This “Pastoral Forum” would seem to have nothing in it for those parishes who have lost their buildings that 815 or the representative bishop has sold. There is NOTHING in any content that would provide for any discipline. The language of the documents provided so far is so vague, alike many other documents that have surfaced over the recent past. It still continues to be only about talk and NO action. The Tec-Schori group has continued to be deceitful. I cannot conceive ANY group that the ABC is involved in providing a rapid response to ANYTHING, let alone a crisis. He is in one now and does NOTHING about it! It all sounds like a lot of don’t ask, don’t tell trash & garbage.
I simply pray that the Evangelical and Orthodox and Anglo-Catholics can simply be of a mind to move on in the Spirit lead direction away from the heretic, vacuous place called Tec (Be it The Episcopal Church or The Episcopal Communion ...) RW would seem to be wanting to continue receiving his “Happy Meals” from the coffers of 815. Let’s all keep up the prayers for the primates and Bishops who continue to strive for a God inspired direction, not those who continue to be driven by the feigning of the GLBT secular agendas. Praise Jesus, our Christ who is the only way to a heavenly home! |
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I think this seems to be the best solution so far to prevent the Anglican Communion from fracturing any further. Let’s be honest with ourselves: Who is it that truly wants schism? Unity will involve a give and take from all sides. Lets look for ways to achieve peace - and preserve unity. I think we can take a cue from Roger Schutz, founder of the Taize community in France. Schutz once said of the persistent divisions in the Body of Christ: “I was astonished to see how Christians - who nevertheless live from a God of love – use so much energy to justify their separations.
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So let me ask, given all the events to date, what outcome would change? TRUE STORY - some of us appealed to the Instruments of the Communion for help, and were told no, your Bishop assures us he is Windsor compliant. What did we learn? Windsor compliant meant he does not authorize SSB, yet sends money to TEC with no strings attached where TEC funds SSB affirmation discussions. Windsor compliant means that ‘Via Media’ can be taught in his diocese. Windsor compliant means that a published newsletter with ‘Prayers to Sophia’ is ok. Windsor compliant means that the Bishop says you can go to most seminaries - except Natosha or Trinity. Windsor compliant means that you are approved for Ordination as long as you don’t have a theological persuasion that rules out fellowship with ALL bishops in TEC. Windsor complaint means he will reduce you to ‘Missionary status’ for not paying your Diocesean allotment, you rector removed, you vestry dismissed, and a temporary liberal theology priest appointed. Windsor compliant means he will sue your parish, priest, vestry, and key members for not vacating your parish property that the parish funded and paid off - with no help from the Diocese. Being Windsor compliant means that on all of these, your appeal to the Instruments of Unity, even directly to the ABC, go unaddressed for years, then denied. So tell me, what outcomes would change, now or in the future?
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Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. I didn’t know moral relativists had hard and fast rules.
Simple solution: Shar’ia Councils.
Is the Queen still head of The Church of England?
These efforts will be fruitless, because Protestantism is a “house built on sand.” The Anglican Church is falling into the quicksand it was founded upon. The adultery of Henry VIII led to the Anglican Church led to the adultery of same-sex couples led to the fall. Five hundred years is not a long time in the Lord’s eyes.
The simple-minded Williams needs to form a group to study why, in their infinite wisdom, the Anglican Church has redefined sin as doing anything that isn’t illicit, disgraceful and is obedient to the Ten Commandments.
The notion that what is and isn’t acceptable is determined by a church council, or a church’s leader, certainly did not come from Protestantism.
Put them in the comfy chair!
interestingly, the Anglican churches have never tried to hide their divisions, their problems and weaknesses, but rather have aired them for all to see. Contrast that with the Roman Catholic and many protestant churches who manipulate and deceive.
Er..I don’t think that historical facts support your assertions here. The protestant churches are rife with factions and individuals within those factions certainly manipulate and deceive, and this factionalism has historically led to further splits into separate ecclesial bodies. The Latin church while being a single global church and having doctrines of obedience and humility, still has its self-styled “conscientious objectors” as well as rogue clergy. The Anglican Communion has traditionally been a collection of national churches with their roots in the Church of England. These churches are joined by “bonds of affection” but no real single ecclesial structure. The airing has come both across ecclesial jurisdictions and within. In all three cases, their is plenty of “air”.
The proposed approach is even more full of holes than usual.
A measure of the desperation?
An idea that might have been worth trying 5 years ago, but after the DEPO fiasco, they are wasting ink. The horse has left the barn.
And the barn has burned beyond repair. Not sure why these folks haven’t come to understand that, but I guess those who left before I did would have said the same about me.
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Lets play “Happy Families”
Bishop Clive Handford, representing the Windsor Report Group, has offered Lambeth a typically Anglican solution to the deep and serious theological errors which are leading to the breakup of the Communion - another committee or rather a Pastoral Forum.
“Oversight by the forum will be a safe space into which these bodies (which have left their own provinces) can come. They will not be dependent on primates in other provinces. They will have a real link to the pastoral forum. They are being held in trust till the day when they can return to their parent bodies.”
He said: “It’s a bit like having a member of the family who is not getting on with the family, having an aunt or uncle who can take them under their wing while they work for the restoration of the family.”
Sorry Clive - a rather patronising analogy suggesting the traditional children can’t get along with their liberal parents. If you want to use the family analogy - think child abuse - because the TEC ‘parents’ are abusing their children. That is why GAFCON and the Global South Primates have acted while the liberal establishment are in denial mode wanting to play their surreal game of Happy Families.
The Bible is very clear on what to do:
“For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception...They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain...Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. (Titus 1:10-16)
The Episcopal Church in the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada are not going to hold back from blessing same sex marriages or ordaining homosexual priests and consecrating homosexual Bishops. They will not abide by the Windsor Report Group Moratorium any more than they have with previous agreements. Indeed they will encourage their supporters within the Anglican Communion to follow their example.
GAFCON and the new Primates Council is also a reality. Unless the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lambeth Conference clearly and unequivocally repudiates the TEC and ACoC and separates from them until they repent of their errors, traditional and conservative Bishops, clergy and parishes will place no confidence in a pastoral forum. Rather they will continue to place their confidence in the Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the gospel, in the supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures, in those biblical truths and values that are the core of Anglicanism, and in their divine mandate to fulfill the Great Commission throughout the world.