Posted on 11/23/2007 12:06:06 PM PST by Huber
signers are members of the Church of England General Synod and leaders of Forward in Faith/United Kingdom
The letter was issued on Nov. 20, 2007
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Dear Bishop Jack,
We write to assure you of our support and prayers in the face of the letter you have received recently from Presiding Bishop Schori.
We fully applaud the stand you have taken for scriptural and traditional Faith and Order, the departure from which of The Episcopal Church (TEC) has been deeply damaging and divisive within the Anglican Communion, and in our relationships with major ecumenical partners. The leadership of TEC’s use of litigation against faithful congregations and clergy is nothing short of a scandal, recalling St. Paul’s strictures about the letter of the law which kills, in contrast to the Spirit of God which gives life and freedom. Bishop Peter Forster of Chester was quite right when he said last week that the use of legal procedures was not an appropriate way to address this kind of situation.
We are delighted by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement in response to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida that any diocese compliant with Windsor remained in communion with the See of Canterbury and the mainstream of the Anglican Communion, and trust that you and your diocese will be encouraged thereby.
We hope and pray that you, your clergy and people will find an appropriate way to remain true to the faith and order of the universal Church within the fellowship of the Anglican Communion. We look to the Church of England to give a lead in modelling better ways of handling disagreement to TEC and the rest of the Communion.
Signed by the following members of General Synod (dioceses in brackets)
Simon Killwick (Manchester) Eric Armitstead (Bath & Wells) Jonathan Baker (Oxford) Barry Barnes (Southwark) Anneliese Barrell (Exeter) Paul Benfield (Blackburn) Tom Benyon (Oxford) Paul Boyd-Lee (Salisbury) Mike Burbeck (Salisbury) Graeme Buttery (Durham) Graham Campbell (Chester) Nigel Chetwood (Gloucester) John Cook (London) Martin Dales (York) Ian Dobbie (Rochester) Paul Farthing (Lichfield) Sarah Finch (London) Emma Forward (Exeter) Vivienne Goddard (Blackburn) Ian Gooding (Derby) John Hanks (Oxford) Jamie Houghton (Chichester) David Houlding (London) Peter LeRoy (Bath & Wells) Angus MacLeay (Rochester) Joanna Monkton (Lichfield) Gill Morrison (Peterborough) Rob Munro (Chester) Mary Nagel (Chichester) Gerald O’Brien (Rochester) Ian O’Hara (Coventry) David Mills (Carlisle) Elizabeth Paver (Sheffield) Paul Perkin (Southwark) Sam Philpott (Exeter) John Pope (Chichester) Andrew Presland (Peterborough) Colin Randall (Carlisle) Jonathan Redden (Sheffield) Clive Scowen (London) Penny Stranack (Truro) Chik Kaw Tan (Lichfield) Fr. Thomas Seville, CR (Religious Communities) Mark Sowerby (Ripon & Leeds) Mike Streeter (Chichester) Chris Sugden (Oxford) Carol Ticehurst (Lincoln) David Waller (Chelmsford) Glyn Webster (York) Anne Williams (Durham) Ruth Whitworth (Ripon & Leeds)
and Bishops Bishop of Richborough Bishop of Ebbsfleet
and leading members of Forward in Faith Stephen Parkinson (Director) Geoffrey Kirk (National Secretary) Anne Williams (Vice-Chair; also on General Synod as above) Nicholas Turner (Editor, New Directions) Len Black (Forward in Faith, Scotland)
Catholics write to back Iker
by Pat Ashworth
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=47778
Catholic support: the Rt Revd Jack Iker (left) and the Rt Revd Robert Duncan outside the General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, last summer THE LIVING CHURCH
THE Catholic Group on the General Synod has initiated a letter of support for the Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt Revd Jack Iker. He has been warned by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, of disciplinary action if his diocese changes its constitution to effect secession from the Episcopal Church.
The letter has 51 signatories. It applauds Bishop Iker’s “stand for scripture and traditional Faith and Order” and describes the Episcopal Church’s “departure” from this as “deeply damaging and divisive within the Anglican Communion and in our relationships with major ecumenical partners”. It describes the leadership’s use of litigation as “nothing short of a scandal”.
It continues: “We are delighted by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s statement in response to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida that any diocese compliant with Windsor remained in communion with the See of Canterbury and the mainstream of the Anglican Communion, and trust that you and your diocese will be encouraged thereby.”
The signatories “look to the Church of England to give a lead in modelling better ways of handling disagreement to the Episcopal Church and the rest of the Communion”.
Thirty-four of the 51 names are common to an earlier letter sent by conservative Evangelical members of Synod in support of the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt Revd Bob Duncan, who received an identical letter from Dr Jefferts Schori. Prebendary David Houlding, who signed the letter to Bishop Iker, confirmed that the Catholic Group had had no involvement in the letter to Bishop Duncan.
That letter described the leadership of the Episcopal Church as “unitarian and universalist in theology, and coercively utopian in social practice”. It also expressed the signatories’ “disturbance” that the Episcopalian leadership was to be invited to the Lambeth Conference, but not “faithful Anglican bishops”.
Prebendary Houlding said on Tuesday that he would not have felt able to sign the Duncan letter, even if he had been asked.
“The concerns are slightly different. There is a general concern about the use of secular courts to try and solve what is an ecclesial problem, and that would be shared by a lot of people who didn’t support either Iker or Duncan,” he said. “Threatening secular legislation, as far as we are concerned in the Church of England, is an unthinkable way of going about things.”
But, importantly, the letter to Bishop Iker differed in supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury in his handling of the Communion issues, Prebendary Houlding said. “This is not a letter critical of Dr Williams. What Jack Iker has done in Fort Worth is try on the one hand to distance himself from the Episcopal Church, but also try to retain the unity of the Church with Canterbury — to retain a genuine place in the Anglican Communion. That’s what we’re supporting,” he said.
“I think our letter is slightly more positive. The other is really a hard-line Evangelical letter, and, although there may be some overlaps, I was very unhappy with it for that reason. I heard between the lines lots of criticism of Rowan Williams coming through, and lots of criticism of the Episcopal Church, and I was not comfortable with that.”
An earlier draft of the letter to Bishop Iker was rejected as too hard-hitting and too critical. Prebendary Houlding said: “We are not out to criticise the Episcopal Church as such, but to put down a marker about the way they are handling the crisis, through the secular courts.” Catholic concerns were to do with ecclesiology and authority: “the way we are Church; how we behave as a Church and make our decisions and retain our unity”.
The Catholic Group hoped that the C of E would model a better way of resolving disputes, through proper synodical means, and was encouraged that the Synod had consistently, in all the voting on women bishops, agreed that there would be proper provision for those in conscience who could not accept it.
“We don’t want to be persecuted, and we don’t want to do it by breaking away from the Church of England. We want a solution whereby the Church of England embraces everybody,” Prebendary Houlding concluded. He confirmed that Dr Williams had been informed about the letter to Bishop Iker.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Is it time to sing of TEC, “Bring in the Clowns?”
What is this “Catholic” business? Am I missing something here, H, or is this just foolishness?
I may be mistaken, but I believe that the term is being used to mean “anglo-catholicism” as expressed by the association, “Forward in Faith”. If this is the case, the fact that there is apparently at least one woman clergy among the signatories has me a bit puzzled.
What do you think the purpose of this letter was? It certainly isn’t what I would call “hard hitting” and seems to want to coddle TEC.
HI, Huber and Kolotronis,
I see one lay woman noted as a Canon, but then I note that any ordained Canons are referred to as ‘Reverend Canon’. Every one of the names I looked at are members of the house of laity. one is cloistered. This is the website: http://peterowen.org.uk/articles/gsmembers.html
Now I’m not trying to defend anyone, just to make sure we have the data correct. There are women listed in the House of Clergy, I see that, but none have signed the letter.
And in Anglicanese, this letter reads very forthrightly to me. These people are putting words to paper suggesting that Bishop Iker and perhaps by implication Schofield in San Joaquin be considered candidates to form a Communion in the US which the worldwide Communion would recognize in replacement of TEC. That’s almost rude in Anglican terms.
Well, I'm just an old Greek Orthodoxer, the simple grandson of simple Greek peasants, and unused to white folk subtlties! "...ἤτω δὲ ὑμῶν τὸ ναί, ναί, καὶ τὸ οὔ, οὔ·" :)
I hate to say so, but most of the vowels in your answer came through as boxes. If you could transliterate into the Roman equivalents, I bet I’d get the joke.
“I hate to say so, but most of the vowels in your answer came through as boxes. If you could transliterate into the Roman equivalents, I bet I’d get the joke.”
BSB, you really need to activate those Greek fonts! Maybe TEC never activated the Greek fonts and thus fell into apostasy!?
“eetoe they eemon toe neh, neh, kay toe oo, oo.”
In English, “Let your yes mean yes and your no, no.” Its much better in Greek! :)
They are supposed to know enough Greek to read the NT as written. That they make a point of not reading particular books has been a great help in studiously ignoring reality.
Your version in English is a pronunciation help. I always took ‘ai’ to be pronounced as ‘eye’. Efcharisto!
I remember my Oxford grad Greek instructor in prep school pronouncing it that way and another Greek kid and I started laughing at him...not the smartest thing to have done, in that place and in those days!
Now, how are you pronouncing "ευχαριστω" (efhareestoe)?
Just as you wrote it, though I tend to render the chi as a rough ‘kh’ type of sound. I also tend to shorten the iota, leaving the full ‘ee’ sound for eta only. Otherwise, the dipthongs are ‘ai’=’eye’, ‘ei’= ‘long a’, ‘oi’ as it looks. I guess the only question would be for the omega with the cedilla, implying an inferred trialing iota (for dative). I tend to carry the long ‘o’ sound and draw my lips together as if to whisper an ‘yeh’ at the end.
BTW, the greek text you wrote at the bottom came through quite nicely.
You are pronouncing the words with an “Oxford ancient Greek” accent. I suppose that’s as good as anyway to pronounce those words if in fact you don’t mean to actually speak the words, just sort of have a theoretical pronunciation system. In the Divine Liturgy when I chant the Epistle, for example, the pronunciation of the words is virtually the same as in modern katharevousa and not at all like Oxford style ancient Greek. At least insofar as Byzantine chant is concerned, the Oxford style pronunciation won’t work with the tones. Now that said, one of our most famous Metropolitans, +Kallistos of Diokleia, was an Oxford don and no more Greek than you are. To hear him chant, especially in English, is really funny!
Well, that description would follow as the text from which I was taught the basic sounds derived from Oxford sources. Do you have a recommendation for a guide that would render them more usefully? After all, chant in Greek might even come up. I remember once when the Pentecost Gospel was read in Greek.
Here’s a good source for transliterations of the hymnal and the Divine Liturgy with assorted other works. It should be helpful:
Here’s a tip. Listen to native Greek speakers speaking English. That’s the accent you want.
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