Bishop Mouneer Anis on Lambeth so far...

From the Times Online:

I find that many of our North American friends blame us and criticise us for bringing in the issues of sexuality and homosexuality but in fact they are the ones who are bringing these issues in. Here at Lambeth, you come across many advertisements for events organised by gay and Lesbian activists which are sponsored by the North American Church. If you visit the marketplace at the conference, you will notice that almost half the events promoted on the noticeboard promote homosexuality and are sponsored by the North Americans. And in the end, we, the people who remain loyal to the original teaching of the Anglican Communion, which we received from the Apostles, are blamed. They say that we talk a lot about sexuality and that we need to talk more about poverty, about AIDs, and injustice. They are the ones who are bringing sexuality into this conference. It’s not us. We want to talk about the heart of the issues which divide us, not only sexuality. That is just a symptom of a deeper problem.

The Pointy Hat Club

This piece from Dean Munday is excellent. Read it all here.....

Once upon a time in a far away place called Dar Es Salaam there was a party attended by boys and girls who liked to wear pointy hats, including one girl who liked to wear a pointy hat, but who sometimes wore a rainbow-colored oven mitt on her head instead. The other boys and girls were very polite and never used the words "oven mitt" in front of the one girl because they knew it would make her very cross.

Some of the folks at the party weren't having a very good time. It seems that in some places there were boys who wanted to live with other boys (the way Mommy and Daddy live together) who had been allowed to join the Pointy Hat Club. The people at the party murmured as how this wasn't a good thing, and agreed that boys who wanted to live with other boys and girls who wanted to live with other girls (the way Mommy and Daddy live together) shouldn't be allowed to join the Pointy Hat Club. The girl who sometimes liked to wear an oven mitt nodded her head and said that was all right with her too.

When all the boys and girls got home from the party, the girl who sometimes wore an oven mitt said that she had not nodded her head along with the others who wore pointy hats and that, furthermore, she thought there ought to be more boys who lived with other boys and girls who lived with other girls (the way Mommy and Daddy live together) in the Pointy Hat Club.......

Nobody expects the Anglican Inquisition

From George Conger

Lambeth: Is Inquisition on the cards?
Friday, 25th July 2008. 7:45pm

By: George Conger,

Chief Correspondent



Canterbury: A “bombshell” report is expected to be delivered to bishops attending the 14th Lambeth Conference on July 28 that is expected to call for the Episcopal Church to abandon its push for gay bishops and blessings.

The request is expected to come in the third presentation of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG) to the bishops at Lambeth and follows a call for the creation of an Anglican Holy Office to police the boundaries of the faith.

Backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican “Faith and Order Commission” will be a fifth instrument of unity for the Anglican Communion.

Plans for were disclosed on July 23 during the second of three briefings on the work of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG) chaired by the former Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Bishop Clive Handford.

In its briefing paper to the bishops, the WCG commended the creation of an “Anglican Communion Faith and Order Commission that could give guidance on the ecclesiological issues raised by our current ‘crisis’.”



Okay, I can't resist.......



But it will probably be more like this......

Off to the Great American Irish Festival

We're off to the Great American Irish Festival! I think I will ignore Lambeth for the weekend and tune back into the continuing day-time drama on Monday.

A little music to travel by:

BARLEYJUICE

Taking a break from the Anglican Turmoil

The Glengarry Bhoys

Bishop Vader

Brilliant!


From the blogger jerusalemanglican:

Among the many controversial individuals attending Lambeth this year is, of course, Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, seen left processing with his fellow bishops (h/t: Stand Firm). Although Lord Vader's status as a bishop of the Anglican Communion is, in the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury , Dr. Rowan Williams, "Unclear", he did receive an invitation to the Lambeth Conference, and has been very willing to talk to the press. In a recent interview Lord Vader was asked to comment on the absence of the many conservative bishops, Like Yoda, from this Lambeth Conference, he simply said that he "Found their lack of faith disturbing."
Conservative Anglican leaders from around the world, such as Yoda, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, and Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, met recently in a conference of their own in Jerusalem last month.
Regarding Lord Vader's presence at the Lambeth Conference, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Primate of The Episcopal ...Church said:
"Anglicanism has always been broader than some people are comfortable with. We need to have some serious discussions in the Anglican Communion about The Empire, and about the Dark Side. These are topics some in the Anglican Communion are not comfortable discussing in public." She also went on to say that "Darth Vader is not the only Sith Bishop in the Anglican Communion, he is just open about it."

Lambeth

I have not been posting anything about Lambeth because there is so little that has been reported yet and what has been reported is disheartening.

Take, for instance, this:

"Lambeth Eucharist Ends in Buddhist Chant"

"Anglican Communion Set to Disintegrate"


"Conservative Bishops Guilty of Greater Sin"


"Anglican Communion Like a Slow Moving Train Wreck"

But the most disheartening of all is the ongoing, never ending, perpetual, "It's all about how I feel" Gene Show.

Prayer for Bishop Love

Please pray for our Bishop.

Holy Spirit, be merciful to the bishops assembled at the Lambeth Conference and bless them; show them the light of Jesus' countenance and be merciful to us. Make Jesus' way known upon earth and your saving health among all the provinces of the Anglican Communion. Help us to praise you and the Father and the Son; yes, let all the peoples praise you. Let the peoples represented at Lambeth rejoice and be glad, for Jesus shall judge us all righteously and govern the nation upon earth. Let the people praise you, O God; yes, let all the people praise you. Then the earth shall bring forth its increase and you, even our own God, shall give us his blessing. (From the Deus mesereatur, Psalm 47 of Evening Prayer)

(from Albany Intercessor)

Lambeth - Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

Perhaps if the Bishops learned to Morris Dance, rather than attend Indaba groups,there might be a more authentically Anglican outcome?

From Bishop David Anderson of AAC

In my email this morning was an update from the American Anglican Council. Included was this paragraph:

A third area that concerns us as orthodox Anglicans is the invasion of Islam into supposedly solid Christian areas, and the rapidity with which Christians seem to be rolling over and not adequately responding. I used to wonder how Islam conquered North Africa so easily, suppressing such a vital Christian area and pushing the Christian faith into a small corner of the community. Watching the idiocy of many governmental leaders in the Western world today, ready to give away so much to accommodate the demands of Muslim immigrants into their land, and seeing the Christians, with only a few exceptions, fail to rise to the challenge, I think I understand a little better what happened in North Africa. One difference there was that Islam conquered cities and territories by the sword… but who needs a sword if they can accomplish the same result by making demands and through thuggery and intimidation? I am thinking especially of articles about English vicars being beaten and harassed at their churches by Muslim youths.

This week, in my small Central New York town, I saw 4, count them, 4 women in burqas. And, no it wasn't the same woman seen at four different times. They were in a group, shopping at Walmart. No one in the store seemed at all disturbed by this incursion of militant Islam.

Pray for the conversion of Muslims.

Prayer for Lambeth

A request from the Diocese of Albany - pray for Lambeth.

Almighty and everlasting Father, you have given the Holy Spirit to abide with us for ever: Bless, we pray, with his grace and presence, the bishops assembled for the Lambeth Conference in your Name, that they, as your church, being preserved in true faith and godly discipline, may fulfill all the mind of him who loved it and gave himself for it, your Son Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

"The Prayer-book is but an humble handmaid of the Scriptures"

Stopped today in one of my favorite used bookstores, Catnap Books. It's a rather tiny store, but someone in the area seems to have a lot of really interesting Anglican books in their attic. I usually find something worth buying every few months. Today was no exception. I picked up "Thoughts on the Services: Intended as an introduction to the Liturgy, and an aid to its devout use" by A. Cleveland Coxe, published in 1866. The pages are rather brown and spotted, but the binding is fairly good.

There are some delightful jems in the book. I start with this ode to the BCP:

Let us also observe that the Morning Prayer, the Litany, the Holy Communion, and the Evening Prayer, are so many distinct services, and may be used entirely apart, although the law of convenience has fogged our congregations generally to celebrate three of them together; and often to use the fourth immediately afterwards. It is only by this common abuse that our worship can be made wearisome. A stranger to the Order of worship, should be informed of these simple facts, and then invited to open the Prayer-book, where he will observe that its first pages are devoted to the most careful provision for the reading of Holy Scripture, in public and in private. The profuse employment of Scripture, as a feature of this great system, is to be specially remarked. The Psalms are to be read twelve times a year; the Old Testament once, and the New Testament twice;while over and above, there is such an arrangement of special Psalms and Lessons as forces on every mind, without a word of comment, the harmony of all the parts of Scripture, and the true law of its interpretation.The Prayer-book, then, is but an humble handmaid of the Scriptures, which nobody can use, as designed, withut becoming throughly versed in the Word of God

A series of thoughts on the Eucharist

From Anglophile,over at the blog "Jerusalem", the beginning a series on the Eucharist, as defined by the 39 Articles. I look forward to seeing how these essays develop.

"Do not act the ostrich" - J. I. Packer to Rowan Williams

From Anglican Mainstream:

Interviewer: The you were asked what you would say if you had 10 minutes with the ABC. What would you say in 2 minutes to us?

JP: Keep the faith, resist Liberalism, do not act the ostrich, hiding your head in the sand.

Interviewer: What would be your wisdom about carrying on the GAFCON process in England?

JP: At the heart of the Statement is the Jerusalem Declaration. I would like to see PCCs and, where possible, Diocesan Synod, or even central bodies, committing themselves to this as their own guiding star. I would like to see the Primates who were leaders at GAFCON meeting in a public way in January 2009, casting the Jerusalem Statement into the form of a covenantal commitment, publicly subscribing to it on the part of their provinces, and also seeing diocesans subscribe to it. I would like to see it presented to new bishops appointed in the Church of England to subscribe to it, and I would like to see it established as a basis for orthodoxy and missionary action.

The goal of the Covenant Process begun in the Windsor Report would thus be achieved in essence. Anglican provinces who didn’t come along with this would be in the outer circle of limited communion for not identifying with Anglican orthodoxy.

This would be a first step in getting Anglicanism back into proper shape.

Read the rest......