CENTRAL AFRICA PRIMATE CONDEMNS GRISWOLD FOR PREACHING FALSE GOSPEL

Virtuosity ^ | 3 December 2003 | David Virtue

[ahadams2]

CENTRAL AFRICA PRIMATE CONDEMNS GRISWOLD FOR PREACHING FALSE GOSPEL

EXCLUSIVE REPORT

Submitted by David W. Virtue

The Church of the Province of Central Africa, The Anglican Church in Zambia, Botswana, Malawi & Zimbabwe ,The Most Rev. Bernard A. Malango, Archbishop and Primate, Private Bag 1, Chilema, Malawi

November 12, 2003-12-03

The Most Revd Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Dear Frank,

Mercy grace and peace be unto you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Please know that this comes with my prayers and deepest concern.

I cannot begin to tell you the depth of grief and of betrayal your actions have caused. All of us were conscious of a great movement of the Holy Spirit in the Primates meeting at Lambeth Palace. What seemed an impossible situation suddenly became filled with hope as all of us-including you-agreed on the Pastoral Letter.

It was unbelievable to me to receive reports that you walked out of the meeting and told people that you did not agree with the statement. There may be some clever way of describing it in your mind so that you can live with it. We have ways of describing it as well. It was dishonest, false, and a great betrayal. How can there be any hope for a shared future when communications and commitments mean nothing?

In meeting after meeting, you have either stayed silent or have protested that ECUSA and your bishops are overwhelmingly orthodox, that you believe the Bible and the Creeds and the faith of the church. In fact, you leave me mystified. What could possibly be considered sin? What needs redemption? Where is judgment, atonement, and where is the cross of Christ?

Now, not only have you signaled your disapproval of what all the primates agreed to at Lambeth Palace, you proceeded to be the chief consecrator at the act which has devastated the Anglican Communion and disrupted centuries of common witness and ministry. Circumstances could not be more clear that it has happened.

The false "gospel" you are promoting by your actions is not saving anyone, but it is an illusion. Calling "sin" "righteousness" does not make it so. It is leading people away form Christ. I can think of no greater betrayal for a Bishop or an Archbishop. In charity and heartbreak, I call you to repent. Until that time, you have broken our fellowship. To sit with you and meet with you would be a lie. We are not one. We do not share the same faith or Gospel. You should resign and let someone else lead; someone who shares the faith of the Communion-the faith of the church catholic.

Despite this pain, the Bible is clear that there is welcome for the repentant. There is forgiveness for those who turn to the Lord. Nothing would give me greater joy than to see you restored. For now, you must know that that you have separated yourself from the great majority of Anglicans (and other Christians as well).

The Holy Spirit is not "doing different things in different parts of the world." He is doing the same thing everywhere: exalting Jesus Christ and bringing people to Him. Come to the Lord and bring your friends. You don't have to stay away, there is room in His arms for everyone who comes to Him.

Yours in Christ,

The Most Rev. Bernard Amos Malango

Archbishop and Primate of Central Africa

Cc: the Most Revd. Rowan Williams

[ahadams2]

Ping.

[VRWC_minion]

To sit with you and meet with you would be a lie. We are not one. We do not share the same faith or Gospel. You should resign and let someone else lead; someone who shares the faith of the Communion-the faith of the church catholic.

These are not the words of an Anglican Bishop I'm used to hearing, thank God.

[bobjam]

This just adds to the pressure Archbishop Williams is under..

[r9etb]

This just adds to the pressure Archbishop Williams is under..

Based on some other stories I've seen, concerning his apparent unwillingness to make any decisions, it would appear to me that he's trying to theologize his way out of this.

I see from Williams' biography that he has spent most of his time being an academic.

He's never been rector of a parish, and thus probably does not recognize that there comes a point where theologizing is pointless: he has to make some decision, and go with it.

[xzins]

This is an amazing letter.

How can there be anything other than scism after this letter?

[r9etb]

How can there be anything other than scism after this letter?

I've heard it better described as the excision of a tumor....

[xzins]

schism.....spell check, spell check, spell check....sheesh....they even have one now

[ahadams2]

I have it on fairly good authority that the various reactions to frank, vicki and company by the conservative primates have acted as a significant wakeup call for Rowan the fuzzy. By now he's realized he can't theologize his way out of the situation, but he's also realized that no matter what he does to hold the Anglican Communion together, most all of his personal favorite left-of-center elements will get trashed...so his choices are either let the Communion fly apart, or hold it together while punishing those folks who were his allies on the way up (i.e. homosexual 'rights' activists, various syncretist theologians, etc, etc.). Oh yes, and his friend QE II (the real one, not the ship!) is also applying pressure on him to keep the Communion together as well.

I'll bet he's running through antacids by the case, at this point.

[ahadams2]

oh no kidding - this is schism and has been for a while - right now the real battle is who will be declared schismatic, and that's the one frank, vicki gene, and company are terrified of losing.

[freedomcrusader]

And given the clout and numbers of those groups who disagree with them, it's definitely one they can lose, although I can't put odds on it right now.

[r9etb]

I'll bet he's running through antacids by the case, at this point.

The only reason for that being that he's fighting against the obvious and correct choice.....

[ahadams2]

You wrote "And given the clout and numbers of those groups who disagree with them, it's definitely one they can lose, although I can't put odds on it right now."

From everything I've seen the odds are strongly in favor of ecusa at least being sidelined (moved to observer only status) and possibly even being completely excommunicated. However, as recently as today (5 Dec 03) frank the heretic has released a letter to the house of bishops claiming everything is just fine and no one outside of ecusa will be doing anything Anglican in the United States. I've got to wonder who is buying this line of garbage at this point in time - even the most heretical elements in ecusa know that things are NOT going their way either nationally or internationally. So I'm left wondering if frank the heretic is really that delusional, or is this simply a little game to try to negotiate a better outcome by pretending to be blindsided when everything else falls down?

[ahadams2]

You wrote "The only reason for that being that he's fighting against the obvious and correct choice....."

No argument there - but remember for Rowan the fuzzy this whole concept of absolute Good and evil, Right and wrong, etc, is totally new - something he entirely avoided dealing with as an academic. Because of that I expect he's experiencing a learning curve steep enough to be just about vertical.