The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.It might not have been entirely his own making, but certainly “crucified under Pontius Pilate”. The lowest ebb of this degeneration came in 2008, when there were, so to say, two “Lambeth” Conferences one in the UK, and an alternative one, GAFCON in Jerusalem. The trend continued recently when many Global South Primates decided not to attend the last Primates’ meeting in Dublin, Ireland.Since Dr. Rowan Williams did not resign in 2008, over the split Lambeth Conference, one would have expected him to stay on in office, and work assiduously to ‘mend the net’ or repair the breach, before bowing out of office. The only attempt, the covenant proposal, was doomed to fail from the start, as “two cannot walk together unless they have agreed”.For us, the announcement does not present any opportunity for excitement. It is not good news here, until whoever comes as the next leader pulls back the Communion from the edge of total destruction. To this end, we commit our Church, the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) to serious fasting and prayers that God will do “a new thing”, in the Communion.Nevertheless, we join others to continue in prayer for Dr. Rowan Williams and his family for a more fruitful endeavour in their post – Canterbury life.
+Nicholas D. OkohArchbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria
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| Azelea |
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| Shrimp plant with St Francis |
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| Petunias and gardenia |
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| Hosta plantagenia (Thanks to Bonnie) |
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| Another azalea |
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| Mock orange |
A tough old cowboy once counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live aI know. It's Lent. But it's Sunday in Lent, and we are allowed to laugh on Sundays. The joke passed my acid test - the LOL test, which is what counts.
long life, the secret was to sprinkle a little gunpowder on his oatmeal
every morning.
The grandson did this religiously, and he lived to the age of 93.
When he died, he left 14 children, 28 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren,
and a fifteen-foot hole in the wall of the crematorium.
Cheers,
Paul (A.)
...the Church has been born for mission. Two thousand years of church history tell us that the mission of God brings with it adventure and risks and takes us to new places that we never dreamed of. Right from the outset when the Jewish disciples of Jesus engaged with a Gentile world they found themselves challenged, conflicted and more importantly changed by those encounters. The Church must be free to go into all the world and to engage with new cultures enabling us all to learn Christ. As we do we will find that we too are changed by this engagement with the world. Such change lies at the heart of repentance as we continually re-think, re-assess what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in a new context. The problem with the Covenant is that it introduces a dynamic which makes the Communion essentially introspective and resistant to change. Instead of setting us free to engage with a changing world it freezes us at a given point in our formation, holding us back and making us nervous about going beyond the boundaries and reaching out to God’s world. Indeed, just at the point that the church needs to be innovative and courageous against the forces ranged against us we will find ourselves constrained by fears as to whether our bold actions might mire us in procedures of dispute resolution. There are bound to be times in mission when it is right to go out on a limb. If we hold back all bold initiatives until every Province agrees then we shackle the church in chains. The beauty of the Anglican Communion is that each Province can respond uniquely to its own cultural context within the triangle of Scripture, Reason and Tradition.And the final paragraph:
The Church of England and the Anglican Communion have over the centuries developed a generous embrace allowing seekers to taste and see the goodness of God. Within our borders, within the borders of what Cranmer described as that “blessed company of faithful people”, there is a generous orthodoxy. There is space for the seeker to breathe, to enquire, to ask questions, to doubt and to grope towards faith and to find God. That I believe is a space within the Body of Christ worth preserving. The Covenant will change the character of the Communion and, I fear, the Church of England.What a splendid and eloquent address! I urge you to read the speech in its entirety at the PDF link. All three houses of the Diocese of Liverpool voted against adoption of the covenant.
La Morte di Cesare di Vincenzo Camuccini è un quadro che si trova a Roma nella Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna
Caesar:PS: The ides refer to the approximate middle day of the month and thus do not necessarily fall on the 15th day. I did not know that until today.
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.
Caesar:
What man is that?
Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Three out of five dioceses voting March 17 voted against the Anglican Covenant. Two voted for.
Chester ForBishops For: 3, Against: 0, Abstained: 0
Clergy For: 22, Against: 14, Abstained: 5
Laity For: 26, Against: 23, Abstained: 5Ely AgainstBishops For: 1, Against: 0, Abstained: 1Liverpool Against
Clergy For: 16, Against: 23, Abstained: 1
Laity For: 19, Against: 19, Abstained: -Bishop James has spoken against the covenant in his presidential address before the covenant debate.Bishops For: 0, Against: 2, Abstained: 0
Clergy For: 10, Against: 26, Abstained: 1
Laity For: 8, Against: 28, Abstained: 5Norwich For
Bishops For: 3, Against: 0, Abstained: 0
Clergy For: 26, Against: 10, Abstained: 0
Laity For: 19, Against: 15, Abstained: 1St. Albans AgainstBishops For: 2, Against: 0, Abstained: 0
Clergy For: 21, Against: 31, Abstained: -
Laity For: 17, Against: 44, Abstained: -SummaryDioceses for the Covenant to date: 12Dioceses against the Covenant to date: 20
therefore:For the Covenant to succeed 11 more dioceses must vote in favourFor the Covenant to fail 2 more dioceses must vote against
There are 12 dioceses yet to vote.
Dioceses voting next Saturday:
- Blackburn
- Exeter
- Guildford
- Lincoln
- Oxford
- Peterborough
After that, London votes on 29 March (Thursday) and Manchester on the 31st. Southwell and Nottingham vote on Thursday 12 April, Chichester on 21st, with Newcastle and York bringing up the rear on 28 April.
Total figures for the 32 dioceses that have voted show the following breakdown:
Bishops: 80.7% for, 11.3% against, 8.1% abstentions
Clergy: 44.8% for, 50.7% against, 4.5% abstentions
Laity: 48.1% for, 47.0% against, 4.9% abstentions
Support continues to drop among the bishops. A majority of clergy is against the Covenant, and less than a majority of laity is for (though a slim plurality of laity is for).
Overall: 47.4% for, 47.8% against, 4.8% abstentions
Overall (clergy and laity only): 46.6% for, 48.7% against, 4.7% abstentions
A growing plurality of the overall vote is against the Covenant.
Dr Williams's successor will be a political appointment, with the advice of the Prime Minister playing a decisive role.
Dr Sentamu has been closely identified with Dr Williams's efforts to find a suitable compromise in the row over the status of stand-in bishops.
But in any case, by the time Dr Williams's successor takes over, the women bishops row will probably have been decided.
In the political area, Dr Sentamu has firmly opposed himself to David Cameron. He has led Anglican opposition to the proposal to allow same-sex partnerships to be designated as marriages.
Not appointing Dr Sentamu would certainly attract comments that the Archbishop of York was being set aside on political grounds.
That might or might not be justified - but appointing a bishop who was outspoken in support of gay rights as Archbishop of Canterbury would probably make it impossible to restore unity between the Anglican Communion allied to Canterbury and Gafcon.The final paragraph in the BBC quote is laughable. "...outspoken in his support of gay rights as Archbishop of Canterbury..."?! Where does the BBC get its information?
