Posted on 11/29/2004 5:47:25 PM PST by sionnsar
A while back, Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno, in order to reach out to three Los Angeles parishes who have broken away from ECUSA, suggested that there be some kind of international church conference including the African bishops the three parishes placed themselves under. One of those African bishops, Uganda's Henry Orombi, has now responded. His letter is reproduced here in its entirety:
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I, the Archbishop, have just returned home from three weeks of travel and have received your letter dated 3rd November requesting a meeting with Bishops Evans Kisekka, Ben Benitez, and me [regarding Bishop Benitez having delegated episcopal pastoral oversight of our three Los Angeles churches].
We have read the Windsor Report and are still thinking and praying through its observations and recommendations. The CAPA primates discussed it while we were together in Lagos at the end of October, and all the primates will consider it at our February meeting in Ireland. Accordingly, we think it would be premature to have such a meeting.
For us, the Windsor Report’s call for expressions of “regret” is not a sufficient response to the crisis ECUSA’s actions have created in the Anglican Communion. What is needed is clear repentance in both word and deed.Furthermore, even though English is our second language, we know enough to know that it does not make logical sense for one to express regret for another’s perception. Yet, that is what you have done in saying, “I wish to express my deepest regret that you … have perceived actions I have taken… as having harmed the communion we share in Christ.” We find it incomprehensible that you could have written this letter without even acknowledging the possibility that your actions have actually, in fact, created the crisis we are experiencing in this beloved Anglican Communion.
Likewise, we find it inconceivable that the warnings prior to your 2003 General Convention from the four instruments of unity – the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, the Anglican Consultative Council, the Primates of the Anglican Communion, and the Archbishop of Canterbury – to not proceed with the election as bishop of a man living in an active homosexual relationship were not sufficient. The Windsor Report does not reveal anything new about the consequences of ECUSA’s actions than were forewarned prior to your General Convention.
We are reminded of the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the 16th chapter of Luke. It appears that, to you, the Windsor Report is like Lazarus coming back to you to tell you something you have actually already heard and known. You have Moses and the prophets; you had the clear mind of the Anglican Communion’s position on sexuality and sexual behavior. And, if you will not listen to them, then we have no reason to believe that you will also listen to the Windsor Report.
Our churches in Los Angeles came to us like children who were running away from home, and we have offered them a safe place to be. So for us, the first question that must be asked is Why are they running away? We didn’t look for them or hunt for them. We are responding to a need. And, we will continue to respond to a need until the local problem is resolved; we will not relinquish them into a spiritually dangerous situation. Therefore, we see no need for a meeting until you and the Diocese of Los Angeles have repented of your participation in and promotion of unbiblical behavior and teaching.
I've said before that this meeting or that report would be where the Anglican showdown finally came and I've been burned before. But judging from the tone of this letter, it seems abundantly clear that at least some Anglican Africans recognize that the Windsor Report is a toothless sham and that the next Anglican primates meeting may well be the last. I will be the most surprised person in the world if the Anglican Communion, in its present form, endures much longer.
Beautiful!
Amen, brother. Would that any of the so-called conservative Bishops in America shared his convictions and courage. They have been very quiet since the Windsor Report.
Very sadly, I have to report that your comment sent me scrambling to ECUSA Bishop John-David Schofield's Diocese of San Joaquin (CA) page... to find... not much. Granted, I don't have an RTF reader registered on this new Linux box, but seeing a letter from Spong as one of four on the issue is not encouraging.
I would not call Schofield a "so-called" conservative, but he has been awfully quiet -- even though he's never been, in my years of acquaintance, a firebrand. If there's healing needed, this is quite your guy, IMHO. Drastic surgery, OTOH... well...
Wow!
I was thinking more of Dallas and the "Plano" crowd. He ought to announce that he will exercise primary oversight for any parish in the nation which requests it. That would shake things up.
I agree -- but for all I like him, Schofield doesn't seem to be the sort to take this on.
"Furthermore, even though English is our second language, we know enough to know that it does not make logical sense for one to express regret for another’s perception. Yet, that is what you have done in saying, “I wish to express my deepest regret that you … have perceived actions I have taken… as having harmed the communion we share in Christ.”
We find it incomprehensible that you could have written this letter without even acknowledging the possibility that your actions have actually, in fact, created the crisis we are experiencing in this beloved Anglican Communion."
I really like this guy. He is no one's fool.
In the past thirty years we have witnessed apostasy on a grand scale. It is amazing to me how so many people who call themselves religious can live in such darkness, such confusion. They can't even perceive the most fundamental elements of truth.
Up is down. Bad is good; good is bad.
Dissatisfied with the truth of God, they are creating their own "feel-good" religion.
"This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:19-21
They start with a rotten core and then clothe it will layer after layer of fallacious reasoning. But no matter how attractive the outer layer may be to the world, the core is still rotten.
Yes, I've also been thinking of the Dallas/Plano crowd & it occurs to me that the answer for these orthodox parishes that desire to remain in the Anglican Communion (and keep their property) may just lay in the the whole lot of them to seek oversight from African & Southern Cone primates. If enough parishes in each Diocese would do that, it could financially break the back of any Bishop to take them all to court. Especially now that most are experiencing huge shortfalls in their budgets, after a year of individuals & parishes withholding assessments. Instead, they've set up this goofy "network" that's just so much eyewash. It's just maintaining the status quo, as far as I can see, leaving too many individual clergy & parishes standing alone to be ravaged by the likes of Bennison & Lee. The problem, of course, is the conservative Bishops in ECUSA & the ones who support this "network" idea for no other reason than they want to defend their own turf & their positions of power. I wonder how the African or Southern Cone Primates would handled the defection of an entire ECUSA Diocese & it's Bishop....
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