Free Republic

The policies of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have helped to generate a spiritual, civic and economic crisis in Britain, according to an important Church of England report. Labour is failing society and lacks the vision to restore a sense of British identity, the report says in the Church’s strongest attack on the Government for decades. It accuses the Government of “deep religious illiteracy” and of having “no convincing moral direction”. The report, commissioned for the Church of England and to be published on Monday, accuses the Government of discriminating against the Christian Churches in favour of other faiths, including...

Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests. The fall - from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today - means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers’ pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die. In contrast, the number of actively religious Muslims will have increased...

There are an estimated 1.6 million Muslims in Great Britain. By some estimates, more people attend mosque than go to Anglican churches every week. Judging by recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is easy to see why. As most of you by now know, Archbishop Rowan William said in a recent interview that the “UK has to ‘face up to the fact’ that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.” He left no doubt who those “citizens” are: British Muslims. So according to Williams, British Muslims should not have to choose between “the...

The Archbishop of Canterbury will try to put aside the row over sharia law as he makes his first public appearance since the controversy erupted. Dr Rowan Williams hit back on Friday night over criticism of his comments amid growing calls for his resignation. He made no proposals for sharia, and "certainly did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law... his core aim was "to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state". At least two Synod members have already called for Dr...

Anglicans may be heading for a court fight with a Vancouver church after the congregation voted to leave the liberal Canadian church and affiliate with a more conservative South American group. On Feb. 13, the congregation of St. John's Shaughnessy in Vancouver voted more than 90 per cent in favour of leaving the church over doctrinal issues, including the blessing of same-sex marriages. The same day, the head of the church in Canada, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, warned in a letter that Anglicans who leave the church must give up any claim to church property or assets. However, a spokeswoman for...

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Most of a congregation in Murfreesboro has left the Episcopal Church over the issue of homosexuality. The former members of Holy Cross Episcopal Church formed Faith Anglican Fellowship on Sunday, saying the national denomination has strayed from Scripture and its doctrine on the role of Christ and on homosexuality. The Rev. Frederick Richardson will lead the new church. Several other congregations have left the national denomination in the wake of the 2003 ordination of its first openly gay bishop.

To the Traditional Anglican ping list: I discovered a (fairly) new Anglican blog today, run by a fellow whose other blog I had read for a long time, and thought some of you might find this interesting. English-Speaking Christianity

For some time now, people have been asking me why I haven't written anything on the current—or, depending on your point of view, everlasting—crisis in the Anglican world. After all, I have been an Anglican for nearly twenty-five years, virtually all of my adult life. Surely I have some opinions on the mess the Anglican Communion is now in, on how it got this way, and how it might get out again? Well, yes, I do have such opinions. But they are worthless. All such opinions amount to little more than the assignation of blame for past events and predictions...

Three wise men leading us astray? By Jill Rowbotham December 21, 2007 12:00pm Article from: The Australian COULD the devil be in the detail of the Christmas story? That's what the leader of the world's Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has implied in a BBC interview. The story of the three wise men following the star to Bethlehem is a legend - stars don't behave like that, he said - it is unlikely Jesus was born in December and you can take or leave the virgin birth. He says he believes in it but that's not a pre-condition for...

THE leader of the world's Anglicans has described the Christmas story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and has said not all followers must believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has picked apart elements of the Christmas story, including how a star rose high in the sky and stood still to guide the wise men to Jesus's birth place. Stars simply don't behave like that, he told the BBC during an interview. Dr Williams said there was little evidence that the three wise men had existed at all....

The first meeting of the Common Cause Leadership Council created the structure necessary for building a federation of orthodox Anglicans in North America. Three delegates from each of the ten Common Cause partners gathered in Orlando, Florida December 17-18. The Council unanimously elected Bishop Bob Duncan as Moderator. Delegates also elected Canon Charlie Masters of Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) as General Secretary and Mrs. Patience Oruh of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) as Treasurer. The Leadership Council recognized the ratification of a statement of theology and formed the committees called for by the Common Cause articles...

Although some have tried to hail his statements as a great thing, a recent letter from Archbishop Rowan Williams to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida strikes me as further muddy-ing the waters regarding the future of orthodox Anglicans in the global Communion.  Read the whole letter at StandFirm:  http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/7037/ . Abp. Williams has stated to Bp. Howe that:  "...any Diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and...

Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed. Information that could have prevented abuse has been "lost or damaged", concerns about individuals have been ignored and allegations have not been recorded. It means that the Church has no idea how many paedophiles are in its midst. Lawyers warned last night that the Church faces a crisis as catastrophic as the one that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and cost it millions of pounds in damages. Richard Scorer, a solicitor who has specialised in child abuse cases,...

The Archbishop of Canterbury's hopes of averting schism in the worldwide Anglican Church are foundering after he was accused of dehumanising gays by the openly homosexual bishop Gene Robinson. Gene Robinson said he 'had to tell the truth' Dr Rowan Williams is holding two days of crisis talks in New Orleans in an eleventh-hour effort to persuade the bishops of the American branch of Anglicanism to reverse their pro-gay agenda. But insiders said that a number of the liberal bishops were in no mood to capitulate, and any compromise that they might eventually accept was unlikely to placate conservatives who...

Insiders in the often emotive private meeting in a New Orleans hotel said that Dr Williams rapped the Americans over the knuckles for triggering the crisis by consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. He told them that they had to balance their fidelity to gay and lesbians with fidelity to their fellow members in the 77-million strong Anglican Communion, the vast majority of whom believe homosexuality is sinful and unbiblical. advertisement But Bishop Robinson, who is attending the six-day House of Bishops meeting with his partner Mark Andrews, said that though he had always publicly supported...

ABUJA, Nigeria, August 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Peter Akinola, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, released a statement indicating that traditional conservative Anglicans may have to part ways with the liberal American Church over the issue of homosexuality. Referring to the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada's move to accept same-sex "marriage," he stated, as reported in the Christian Post, "Their intention is clear; they have chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together."  Clearly indicating that faithful conservative Anglicans cannot accept a position that directly contradicts the...

WINNIPEG -- After a weekend of emotional debate, the Anglican Church of Canada has rejected a long campaign by its most liberal members to let priests bless the partnerships of same sex couples. About 300 delegates to the church's national meeting in Winnipeg voted Sunday against allowing blessing ceremonies for gays and lesbians. The decision complicates the position and future of the church because earlier in the day delegates approved a historic motion that said same-sex blessings did not violate the "core doctrines" of the church. The voting Sunday followed years of squabbling over the matter and theological study within...

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, June 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "No scenario could emerge" from any decision made by the Canadian Anglican Church this week that would prompt the church's expulsion from the World Wide Anglican Communion says a top spokesman of the Church of England. Canadian Anglicans are meeting now in Winnipeg at their General Synod and are expected to vote in favour of the blessing ceremony for homosexual partners that has already been in use in some Canadian Anglican dioceses. Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion told CanWest News, "There's no question the Anglican Church of Canada is a...

Episcopal Panel 'Dodges' Response to Moratorium http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070615/27991_Episcopal_Panel_'Dodges'_Response_to_Moratorium.htm http://tinyurl.com/35qes6 By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Fri, Jun. 15 2007 07:13 AM ET An Episcopal panel of clergy and lay people indicated on Thursday they will not give a response to the moratorium Anglican leaders requested for by September, arguing that only the General Convention has the authority to respond. The next General Convention – The Episcopal Church's primary governing and legislative body – however, meets in the summer of 2009. After a four-day meeting that ended Thursday, the Executive Council said that no governing body other than General Convention can agree...

Executive Council prepares for communiqué response http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86791_ENG_HTM.htm Two committees hear experience of gay Nigerian activist By Mary Frances Schjonberg June 11, 2007 [Episcopal News Service] The Executive Council, the Episcopal Church's governing body between General Conventions, began its four-day meeting June 11 in New Jersey learning that a draft of a response to the Anglican Communion Primates' latest communiqué was ready for their consideration. In a public plenary session, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said that Executive Council members would discuss during private conversation later in the day a draft report of the EC008 Task Group, requested by the...