Posted on 08/26/2006 5:13:49 PM PDT by sionnsar
THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury has issued a warning to the liberal wing of the Anglican Church saying that not every controversial issue facing the Communion is negotiable. Speaking in an interview with the Dutch evangelical daily newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, the Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams said that ‘boundaries are determined by what it means to be loyal to Jesus Christ’ when questioned on unity in the church and the row over homosexuality.
He also explained his decision to write an essay while a professor of Divinity at Oxford in which he argued for a revision of Christian teaching and held open the possibility of same-sex unions. When asked if he had to compromise his personal views now he was Archbishop (pictured), he said: “Twenty years ago I wrote an essay in which I advocated a different direction. That was when I was still a professor, to stimulate debate. “It did not generate much support, and a lot of criticism – quite fairly on a number of points. “What I am saying now is: let us talk this through. As Archbishop I have a different task. I would feel very uncomfortable if my Church would say: this is beyond discussion, forever. Equally I have to guard the faith and teaching of the Church. My personal ideas and questions have to take second place.”
He also pointed to the letters of Paul and said that boundaries are determined by what it means to be loyal to Jesus Christ. He said: “You reflect the loyalty of God in Christ. It also concerns the international arena. Christians will always have reconciliation as a priority and refuse to retaliate. “By no means everything is negotiable for me. I would not be happy if someone said: Let us discuss the divinity of Christ. That to me seems so constituent of what the Church is.’’ The Archbishop also said he feared the divisions taking place in the American Episcopal Church could be repeated in the UK at some stage in the future.
He said it was a nightmare of his that churches could go to court over property but said he was hopeful lawsuits could be prevented if ‘there was enough co-operation in the central mission of the Church’.
–Church of England Newspaper
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Source: Nederlands Dagblad
August 19, 2006
by Wim Houtman, Religion Editor
The Church is Not Inclusive
Since February 2003, Rowan Williams has been Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest leader of the Anglican Church. He is unlikely to have expected to preside over a split in the Church. He doesn't want that, but the controversies seem to spiral out of his control. How does he see the future and what makes him tick, what does he believe in?"
The Anglican Church gets a spiritual leader who actually looks like one'', the British newspaper The Observer observed in 2002. His loose grey hair and beard betray his growing up in the sixties (and the fact that he is a poet too). When Rowan Williams was called to the highest office in his Church, he was highly renowned as intellectual en theologian; he was praised for his clarity en persuasive power and he seemed soft-spoken, but not afraid to speak. Even then some evangelicals already opposed him, because he seemed to accept homosexual relations in the Church, also among priests. It is precisely this issue that now takes up most of his time. He is busy studying, talking, pondering, praying. It is the most serious crisis in the Anglican Church, which has never suffered a split since the Reformation. Rowan Williams is in danger of going into the history books as the Archbishop of Canterbury who presided over a split in the Church, and who for all his trying to prevent it lost everybody's confidence - of the 'orthodox' side because he didn't draw a clear enough biblical line, and of the 'radical' side because he didn't subscribe to their struggle for equal rights for homosexuals.
Rowan Douglas Williams (1950) was born into a Welsh-speaking family in Swansea. He was a university lecturer and professor in Cambridge and Oxford until 1992, and after that Bishop and Archbishop in Wales. He wrote books on, among other topics, the heretic Arius and contemporary Russian-Orthodox theology. The Archbishop is married, to a theologian; they have an eighteen-year old daughter and a ten-year old son.
Do you in your heart of hearts ever despair that Anglican unity can be saved?
Despair is a very strong word, but there are moments that I really don't know whether it is still possible. I just know that I have been given the task to preserve what unity and integrity there is.''
Continue reading "Text of Interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury by Nederlands Dagblad"
"I would feel very uncomfortable if my Church would say: this is beyond discussion, forever."
I feel very uncomfortable in a Church that says sexual morality is open for discussion--particularly something as abominable as sodomy.
This issue should not be whether bishops or priests should be active homosexuals--but whether active homosexuals should be barred from communion (like any other persons actively persuing sin...).
As Dean Reed of St. Vincents, the Ft Worth cathedral, has said, "There are two groups in the ECUSA, one that says we need Jesus and the other that says Jesus needs us." At this time the second group controls the ECUSA, but they will never change Jesus or the Word of God.
A direct shot across the bow of a certain newly elected Presiding Bishop.
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