Virtue Online - Bishops Betrayal

Parading the first female bishop of the Church of England.
Not long ago they had a problem with this in America.
And the next step is...

'Bishops' Betrayal': The Church of England Bishops' Pastoral/Political Letter

'Bishops' Betrayal': The Church of England Bishops' Pastoral/Political Letter
Rev. Dr. Gavin Ashenden
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
February 22, 2015

There are moments in a nation's political history when there might come a time for a College of bishops to make a stand against some political extremism of either the left or the right, in the name of a humanity that is made in God's image; a theological intervention as a matter of holy principle.

But that is not the case in England, now. There is an election coming with political power up for grabs, and the bishops have entered the electoral fray. The have however dressed their intervention up in a lofty way, suggesting they are helping along a conversation that they alone can facilitate.

They have based their 52-page letter on the supposition that they have an angle to bring to elections discussions that no one else can provide. But their presentation of neutrality is false. Behind a cosmetic front, crafted with care in the first few pages, their real political prejudices seep out.

In their haste to attack the present Government, they present figures that are false.

Seemingly unable to bear to tell the truth about the real fall in the numbers of the unemployed under this Government, they disguise the fact; they appear to want to believe that in-work poverty has fallen -- so they say, contrary to other facts that it has risen.

They choose to attack aspects of globalisation the Left typically decries, and are silent on the advantages the Right celebrates.

They have views on the complexity of nuclear deterrent. They choose to attack the Trident programme which the Left has always done, without any accompanying analysis of wider or compensating defence issues.

They claim the poor are being discarded as the Left always does, and ignore the claims of the Right to have defended the poor from a dysfunctional Welfare system, and to have made substantial improvements.

It was clumsy take such trouble attempting to present the appearance of an even handed and apolitical approach, only to allow the soft socialism which has been endemic amongst Anglican clergy and particularly Anglican bishops, to emerge without restraint as the text develops.

When they were taken to task for this surrender of their spiritual credentials in order to play party politics, two bishops, Norwich and Leicester, writing in The Times newspaper, claimed that the C of E's daily ministry in partnership with schools, universities, hospitals and mother and toddlers groups gave them a right to make comments. That sounds quite impressive. But it is a piece of self congratulation that sits awkwardly with the real truth, the facts on the ground.
There is scarcely a vestige of Christianity left in the Church of England Schools where Christian identity and the articulation of any element of the Gospel have been abdicated for decades.The universities accept chaplaincies on the condition the chaplains submit to the authority of secular multiculturalism; hospitals mainly put up more or less ungraciously with Christian chaplains -- just; and Mother and Toddlers groups tend to be grateful for cheap premises but are seldom presented with the Gospel in any direct way; there is no flood of Mothers and Toddlers seeking baptism and membership of the Electoral roll. This list of agencies with which the Church interacts for their mutual benefit does not provide a platform for dispensing sophisticated political guidance...

More at this link...

Fourteen Months of Incompetence - And He Gets His First Biography

Archbishop Justin Welby: Risk-taker and Reconciler
The first major biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury, including detailed analysis of his first 14 months in the role

By Andrew Atherstone
July 14, 2014

‘I am going to make a lot of mistakes, necessarily… Pray for wisdom for me to know what to do, for patience to know when to do it, and for courage to do it properly and not holding back.’
Justin Welby, to friends at Holy Trinity Brompton (July 2013)

Writing in The Guardian in April 2014, Andrew Brown described Welby as ‘the hard-nosed realist holding together the Church of England’, commenting that, ‘Justin Welby now looks like the best archbishop of Canterbury the Church of England could possibly have… His first year in the job has been marked by tremendous energy and rather more physical and moral courage than is expected of an archbishop.’ John Bingham wrote in The Daily Telegraph in a similar vein that ‘a year after enthronement, the Archbishop of Canterbury has proved many doubters wrong’ while Rowan Williams admitted in an interview with Welby’s biographer Andrew Atherstone that, ‘Justin is, frankly, immeasurably better than I ever was at prioritising. He clearly knows where he wants to put his primary energies.’

Last year saw the publication of Justin Welby: The Road to Canterbury by Andrew Atherstone. The first biography of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the book was researched and written in 10 weeks – starting on the day Welby’s nomination was announced in November 2012 - and published in time for Welby’s enthronement in March 2013. Drawing on archival research, interviews with the archbishop’s friends and colleagues, and various articles and interviews by Welby, Atherstone analysed Welby’s formative relationships, his leadership style and his priorities for the church, as well as his unsettled childhood, his education and his early years of marriage and family life before ordination, to provide a succinct introduction to this fascinating man.

Now - in Archbishop Justin Welby: Risk-taker and Reconciler - Atherstone tells the story of Welby’s life and ministry in much more detail, drawing on further research and including in-depth analysis of the Archbishop’s first year in office from a number of sources. He examines Welby’s conversion to Christianity as a student at Cambridge University, his career as a treasurer in the oil industry and his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Church of England after his ordination at the age of 36 – as a rector in Warwickshire, director of international reconciliation ministry at Coventry cathedral, dean of Liverpool and bishop of Durham. The (mis)adventures of his playboy father who was once engaged to Vanessa Redgrave, Welby’s unsettled childhood after his parents’ separation when he was just a toddler, the secret Bible smuggling activities of Welby and his wife in their early married life, the tragic death of his first daughter in a car accident at the age of 7 months, the impact on family life (and income) of Welby’s move from the oil industry to theological training, his brushes with near-death while in Africa and Iraq – all of these aspects help to present a fully rounded and very human portrait of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The book includes significant material from new interviews with many people close to the Archbishop, including Lady Williams of Elvel - Welby’s mother, who also gave Atherstone access to previously unseen family archives - Rowan Williams and Jackie Pullinger. Other additional material includes a whole chapter on Welby’s formative gap year in Kenya, more details about his work at Elf and his Bible smuggling adventures, a detailed account of his public debate on homosexuality with Adrian Daffern (at Coventry Cathedral, 2004) and more information about Welby’s role as an envoy to dissatisfied African bishops on behalf of Rowan Williams.

Welby’s first 14 months in office have seen him face a number of thorny issues head-on. The man who told the Radio Times in May 2013 that religion was not a private matter but ‘stitched into our public life’ has not been afraid to enter into political and social wrangles, challenging the government on proposed welfare reforms and launching a fierce verbal attack on pay day lenders (notably Wonga). At the same time, he has been drawn into the ongoing debates over women bishops and same sex marriage – the latter of which he described as ‘unbelievably difficult, unbelievably painful and unbelievably complicated’. Atherstone’s critique of Welby’s first year in office looks in detail at his statements and position on all of these topics.

He examines how Welby’s willingness to put himself at risk and his determined desire for reconciliation – as seen in his Bible smuggling days and his work with Andrew White – is demonstrated in his aim to visit every primate in person during his first 18 months in office, including war-stricken South Sudan in January 2014 against all travel advice. He considers the significance of the changes Welby has made to his inner circle of staff as well as various other developments at Lambeth. And he explores the Archbishop’s interactions with GAFCON, his mission-based principles, his model of leadership and authority, his economic and social theory, his relations with Pope Francis, his interactions with liberal campaigners such as Peter Tatchell, the emphases he has announced for his work and comparisons with previous Archbishops of Canterbury. The book includes a 16-page colour photo section.

Having told in one of his early interviews for ordination that ‘there is no place for you in the modern Church of England’, Welby now holds a post which Rowan Williams described as requiring ‘the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros’. A regular Tweeter with a heart for interfaith issues, this most modern of church leaders has already shown that he is not afraid to step into the political arena or to face media scrutiny - of which there has been plenty since his nomination in 2012. Atherstone’s critical in-depth biography sheds new light on the man behind the newspaper headlines, exploring how Welby’s personality and priorities have already begun a change of direction for the Anglican Communion - and considering where this might lead in the future.
The book can be purchased at this website: www.dltbooks.com

Virtue Online - Women Bishops Post

YORK: BREAKING NEWS...Synod Votes in Favor of Women Bishops
The votes were as follows:
Bishops for 37 against 2 abstentions 1
Clergy for 162 against 25 abstentions 4
Laity for 152 against 45 abstentions 5
Women Bishops: Statement from Forward in Faith

Forward in Faith thanks its members who serve in the Catholic Group in General Synod for their faithful witness, and for the hard work that has secured the provision that enables us to look to the future with confidence.

We note that resolutions under the 1993 Measure and Act of Synod remain in force. We are preparing advice for parishes on replacing them after November with new resolutions under the House of Bishops’ Declaration.

We welcome the statement issued today by the Council of Bishops of The Society:

http://www.sswsh.com/fullposts.php?id=117

Church of England Approves Women Bishops

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/women-bishops-church-of-england-_n_5584266.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000051

The General Synod of the Church of England voted today that women can be consecrated as bishops, two years after a similar measure was controversially voted down.

The vote required passage by a two-thirds majority in the synod's three houses of bishops, clergy and laity. The House of Bishops approved of women bishops 37 to 2 with one abstention, the House of Clergy approved 162 to 25 with four abstentions, and the House of Laity approved 152 to 45 with five abstentions.

In an interview with BBC prior to the vote, Archbishop of Canterbury Rt. Rev. Justin Welby, who supported consecrating women bishops, said there's a "good chance of the first woman bishop being announced very early in 2015, possibly been chosen before that."

In 2012, a vote to approve allowing women bishops passed among bishops and clergy but failed by six votes among lay members.

Like the vote that year, more traditional Anglicans, including evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics, argued in front of the synod that having women as bishops would go against the teachings of Jesus. If Jesus intended women to be among the top church leaders, he would have had a woman among the Twelve Apostles, some of the traditionalists said.

A higher number of more conservative Anglicans were swayed to vote for women bishops this year, ending two decades of controversy over the role of women in leadership since the church started allowing women priests in 1994. Currently, about a third of clergy in the Church of England are women. Women can also be canons and archdeacons.

According to The Guardian, frontrunners to become the first woman bishop include Rev. Vivienne Faull, dean of York Minster; Rev. Jane Hedges, dean of Norwich cathedral; Rev. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, a chaplain for the House of Commons and Queen Elizabeth II; Rev. June Osborne, dean of Salisbury cathedral; Rev. Lucy Winkett, rector of St. James's Piccadilly and Rev. Rachel Treweek, archdeacon of Hackney.

The Church of England, which is the considered the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, counts among it 80 million members in more than 160 countries. The church traces its history to Henry VIII, under whom the church split from Roman Catholics. All Anglicans share the same basic tenets of faith but views on gender, sexuality, worship style and other issues vary widely by region.

For example, the communion includes the two-million member Episcopal Church in the United States, one of the most liberal denominations in the country and as well as in the Anglican communion. Its current top leader, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, is a woman. Episcopalians also ordain gay priests, bless same-sex marriages and voted in 2012 to ordain transgender priests. In 2003, the church voted to elect its first gay bishop.

Anglican Communion members in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand also consecrate women bishops.

The Outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury. VirtueOnline - News

VirtueOnline - News:

AUCKLAND, NZ: Analyzing Rowan

By David W. Virtue in Auckland 
www.virtueonline.org 
November 7, 2012

In his final presidential address Sunday evening, the Archbishop of Canterbury told the Anglican Communion not to accept second best, but to seek a balance between "corrective authority" and "enabling authority" while still doing God's work.

VOL: That's a bit like driving the family limo into a lake and then denying you did it. The NT makes no such distinction. If Jesus had told the woman caught in adultery "go and sin no more" (corrective authority) without the first part "neither do I condemn thee" (enabling authority), He would have only gotten it half right. He didn't. Williams did.

Speaking in St Mary's Church, Auckland, Williams opined that the fellowship of Anglican churches worldwide needs to "be aware of the danger of becoming less than we aspire to be as a Communion. I think that we do aspire to be a consensual catholic and orthodox family." 

VOL: About the only thing consensual in Anglicanism is the western half of the communion approving of consensual sex between people of the same sex. We are not remotely catholic except in the generic sense of being universal, but certainly not in theology and we are not (laughably) orthodox. About 90% of the folk here at ACC-15 are liberals and revisionists with at least two homosexuals (one male the other female). Only a small handful is orthodox. They put out a statement condemning this whole event. You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/auh4fbm. What "orthodox family" is he talking about? It is laughable to think that Katharine Jefferts Schori is orthodox in ANY sense of the word.

RW: I believe we do aspire to be a family that lives in mutual respect and recognition. And to step back from that simply into a federal model ... doesn't seem to me to be the best and the greatest that God is asking from us as an Anglican family.

VOL: Mutual respect... How much respect does he think Katharine Jefferts Schori has for the dwindling orthodox in The Episcopal Church? Is he being serious? She has just inhibited South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence, (with deposition to follow). She has issued summons, notices, and what amounts to cease and desist orders to nine other orthodox bishops in TEC demanding conciliation, whatever that means? This is "mutual respect and recognition". What world is Rowan living in?

Archbishop Williams said he believed Anglicans have a message to give the Christian world about how they can be "both catholic and orthodox and consensual, working in freedom, mutual respect and mutual restraint, without jeopardizing the important local autonomy of our churches."

VOL: That all depends on who is delivering the message. The message from the Global South who make up 75% to 80% of the communion is solidly evangelical - a message of sin and grace. The Western (read northern) Liberal Anglican part of the communion has no discernible gospel. It is about inclusion, diversity, interfaith, social action and much more. It has nothing to do with the Great Commission and fighting for lost souls. There are TWO very distinct and different messages coming forth from the Anglican Communion: one comes from the Bible and the other comes a combination of the New York Times, The Advocate (world's leading gay magazine), and National Public Radio. The two are not remotely connected.

Williams stressed that the Anglican Communion needs to work on the convergence of the different schemes and systems across member churches and find "a legal spirit, an ethos that they share by consent and exploration and discovery rather than by kicking the whole issue upstairs to some higher legal authority."

VOL: What the blazes does that mean? If Scripture is not the church's final authority in all matters of faith and life, "kicking the whole issue upstairs" sounds like a transcendent answer, but it is not what Rowan is looking for. He wants a humanist one where we muddle around and stir the pot in community of course, till something emerges out of the Communion cauldron that looks vaguely like the answer. If that is true, where does that leave his Covenant?

Rowan Williams returned to the theme of authority time and again. He suggested that the Instruments of Communion should not only have reactive or corrective authority, but also enabling authority. "When people say of Jesus he speaks with authority ... I don't think they mean he's just a good problem-solver; those words occur when Jesus has performed spectacular acts of liberation. The authority in question is an authority to act and an authority to make a difference, an authority that enables and empowers."

VOL: What authority does the fourth Instrument of Unity really have or the arechbishop for that matter? There were less than 80 people here. The handful of orthodox in attendance did not believe much of what came out of here. Witness their statement here: http://tinyurl.com/auh4fbm.They said the meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council avoids the real crisis in the Anglican Communion. "Since Lambeth Conference 1998, the ongoing conflict in our beloved Communion continues to be a crisis of Gospel truth, not only regarding matters of human sexuality but the authority of Holy Scripture as the Word of God written and the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ the Son of God."

RW: When I look back over ten years in this office, it does seem to me that every attempt we've made to pin down exactly how reactive or corrective authority works in our Anglican family has run into the sand in one way or another. We've tried to pin it down clearly here or there ... but that frustration, that discovery that it's actually very hard to find absolutely clear sources of authority, has to do of course with the fact that we are a family of churches, each one of which has its own ways of reacting, correcting and setting boundaries."

VOL: The Global South thinks the church has a clear source of authority: HOLY SCRIPTURE. The Global South did set boundaries with Lambeth 1:10 and a number of books on the state of the Anglican Communion, including To Mend the Net, all of which were ignored. The "family of churches" argument is disingenuous. The "family" in Nigeria under Archbishop Okoh has the same authority as the "family" in Pittsburgh under Bishop Duncan. It's the other families who are out of step with them as they have no authority but themselves, their feelings and "my pain" of exclusion. The liberals have no objective authority and neither does Rowan Williams.

Admitting that the Instruments of Communion are "less than they might be," Archbishop Williams said examples of their desire to enable included such proactive projects as the Anglican Alliance, the Bible in the Life of the Church Project, Continuing Indaba, and promoting theological education. These are, he said, attempts by the Instruments to change a situation by being creative. Archbishop Williams also suggested that younger Anglicans seemed more interested in one kind of authority over another.

VOL: This is all smoke and mirrors. None of the above will ever hold the communion together. Continuing Indaba is all about "relationships", "process" and "context" but never about conclusion because that would mean someone was right and someone was wrong and Indaba won't allow that, according to Philip Groves who heads The Listening Process. In the words of St. Paul to Timothy, "...ever seeking but never coming to a knowledge of the truth." (2 Tim. 3:7) Theological education is being done by and for liberals, there are virtually no orthodox voices doing the kind of theological education the orthodox west or Global South will accept or buy into. The very fact that most TEC dioceses will not permit graduates from Trinity School for Ministry (TSM) into their dioceses says it all. Some liberal TEC bishops openly despise evangelicals even though they are the only priests capable of making churches grow. Witness the birth and growth of the Anglican Church in North America. 

RW: So we stand at a very interesting and, I would dare to say, in spite of everything a very promising moment in our Communion, when we are thinking again about how our Instruments of Communion assist us to be the Church ... how to be the Body of Christ. That's what the Instruments have to serve. "In other words, the Instruments of Communion are there so that our Anglican family and Anglican faithful will show to the world that the new creation truly is new, that the Church truly is different." 

Archbishop Williams gave thanks to God for the flourishing of Anglican Communion Networks, which were represented at this 15th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council.

VOL: That's a fiction. The Global South is not buying any of this. They smell a skunk in the room. They are totally fed up with the Instruments of Unity they are now baying at the gates of Lambeth palace and the Houses of Parliament saying they want an orthodox Primate to run the Communion. They don't want another archbishop handpicked by liberals from the Crown Nomination Commission and the PM to decide who should be their next leader. The Truth is the Anglican Communion is standing on the cliff edge and unless a solid evangelical takes the helm of the Church it will tumble right over the edge.

RW: I believe that the creativity of those networks at the moment is a sign that God is stirring up in our Communion deeply different ways of working which will not, of course, immediately solve the problems I began with, the problems that require the reactive or the corrective, but which at least tell us that God does not necessarily wait until we've solved our problems to enable us to be effective disciples.

VOL: Yes. The Communion is being stirred up and it is God working through men like Archbishop Okoh, Orombi, Zavala, Anis and others like Bishop Nazir Ali and Lord George Carey who are doing it. The latter two are on the front edge of the Culture Wars in England. Yes, God is working through his disciples however weak they might be, but even the weakest disciple who loves Jesus has the gospel in his or her bones while the liberals have no message at all to proclaim.

RW: When we stand before the throne of God, it will be a very poor answer if when God says 'Why did you not preach the gospel and serve the poor?' we say, 'We had too many internal problems to resolve, we couldn't quite decide who had the authority to pronounce things.' God expects us to be disciples today, not the day after tomorrow.

VOL: Good question Rowan. Your best. The truth is the mostly pro pansexual West is not preaching the gospel and that's the problem. And yes we do have scriptural authority to say, "thus saith the Lord". We have an obligation to preach the gospel, to announce Good News and judgment when that news is rejected. Thus it ever was. 

END

'via Blog this'

New ABC for Church of England

Evolving.

• Associated Press/PA, Owen Humphreys, File - FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2011 file photo, the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby. The next archbishop of Canterbury will be officially introduced Friday, …more 

Yahoo News

LONDON (AP) — A former oil executive with experience in conflict resolution has been chosen to lead a global Anglican Communion riven by sharply divided views on gay people and their place in the church.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced Friday that Justin Welby, 56, a fast-rising priest with only a year's experience as a bishop, had been picked to succeed Rowan Williams as archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans.

Welby, the 105th holder of a post that stretches back to the 6th century, will take over after Williams retires in December.

Welby said he felt privileged, and astonished, to be chosen to lead the church at "a time of spiritual hunger."

"It's something I never expected," Welby told reporters, saying he had been "overwhelmed and surprised" to be offered the job.

"My initial reaction was 'Oh no,'" he said.

Welby said he supported the ordination of women as bishops, and indicated his thinking on same-sex marriage — which he has opposed — was evolving.

"We must have no truck with any form of homophobia in any part of the church," he said, adding that he planned to "listen to the voice of the LGBT communities and examine my own thinking."

Cameron welcomed the selection of Welby, who was chosen by a church commission and formally approved by Queen Elizabeth II.

"The Church of England plays an important role in our society, not just as the established church, but in the provision of education, help for the deprived and in furthering social justice," Cameron said. "I look forward to working with the Archbishop in all of these areas and I wish him success in his new role."

Welby, appointed last year as bishop of Durham, worked for 11 years in the oil industry, rising to treasurer of Enterprise Oil, before deciding he was called to the priesthood.

Even before formally becoming archbishop, Welby could face a test of his mediation skills later this month when the church's governing General Synod votes on allowing women to serve as bishops. Welby supports that change, but the latest proposed compromise has drawn fire from activists on both sides of the issue — either as being too weak or going too far.

He was recently appointed to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which is examining possible reforms of the industry, and he serves as ethical adviser to the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Welby has denounced multi-million executive pay packages in big British companies as "obscene" and has said the Occupy movement "reflects a deep-seated sense that something is wrong."

His views on corporate responsibility, he has said, "came out of working in an extractive industry often in developing countries where ethical questions were very frequent."

Before seeking ordination, Welby spent six years with French oil company Elf Aquitaine and then as treasurer of exploration company Enterprise Oil in 1984. He resigned in 1989 to study for the priesthood.

"During my time there I came to realize there was a gap between what I thought, believed and felt was right in my non-work life and what went on at work," he said.

Following ordination in 1993 he was a parish priest for nine years before moving to Coventry Cathedral, as co-director of international ministry. In 2005, he became co-director of the cathedral's conflict reconciliation ministry in Africa, where he had experience in the oil industry.

He has spoken of having to "establish relationships with killers and with the families of their victims, with arms smugglers, corrupt officials and more."

In 2007 he was appointed dean of Liverpool Cathedral, Britain's largest church. He caused a bit of controversy there by allowing the tune of John Lennon's "Imagine" to be played on the cathedral bells.

Welby was schooled at Eton College and Cambridge University. His mother was a private secretary to Winston Churchill. But his father went to the United States during Prohibition and became a bootlegger, the Mail on Sunday newspaper quoted Welby as saying.

Welby and his wife, Caroline, have two sons and three daughters. Their first child, a 7-month-old girl, was killed in a traffic accident in 1983.

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Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.