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​​​​LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Widening the growing global Anglican rift over homosexuality, Anglican bishops in Africa said Monday they would stop theological training of African clergy in Western institutions. Bishops also were studying creation of a separate, "African" theology rejecting gay clergy and same-sex marriages, they said. The African Anglican leaders, ending a six-day meeting, stopped short of calling for an outright split in the Anglican church as some had feared. Africa accounts for about half of the world's 76.5 million Anglicans -- and Nigeria's 17.5 million Anglicans are the biggest congregation outside England, where the church has its origins....

If this weren't so hysterical, it would just be sad. According to this article in The Living Church, ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold named six Episcopalians as agents of 'the devil.' The devil is a liar and the father of lies and the devil was certainly moving about Dromantine, the site of the primates’ meeting in Northern Ireland, the presiding Bishop said, according to accounts from several bishops who spoke to THE LIVING CHURCH on the condition that their names not be revealed. The primates were "out for blood," Bishop Griswold told them. In a Stand Firm exclusive, we...

Dear Dick Kim, Never have I had such negative thoughts and feelings about the international Anglican Family of Churches as I do now, and never have I thought and felt that the task of uniting faithful American Anglicans is and will be such a difficult -- maybe virtually impossible -- task. Looking back to the Press Conference in Northern Ireland at the end of the Primates' Meeting, and recalling the claims made for the Communiqué, especially by Dr Carnley of Australia (its primary author), I see more and more that the 'conservative' Primates made a very major mistake in agreeing...

A Statement from the President of the American Anglican Council on Communications Issued by the Episcopal Church House of Bishops The Covenant Statement and the Word to the Church issued by the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops is insulting to the Primates of the Anglican Communion.  While it aims at specific requests of the 2004 Windsor Report and the 2005 Primates Communiqué, it fails to fulfill clear expectations outlined therein. The House claimed to affirm the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1888, and yet they failed to repent of their decisions and subsequent actions contrary to Scripture as well as Anglican faith and order....

Now that I’m somewhat over yesterday’s utter amazement at ++Griswold’s rant at the House of Bishops meeting, I have some thoughts. This confirms my past suspicions posted here that Griswold and his allies don’t give a flip about unity. If he did, why would he make such a statement? I think this is an important point. If you don’t want to get wiped out in a conflict, you must know your enemy. Before that, you must know who is your enemy. ++Griswold is not interested in unity with the orthodox. All his talk about reconciliation blah blah blah is a...

Judging from the following press release in response to the House of Bishops' statement, Integrity is pretty clear about a couple of things: 1. If everyone can't get on board with its agenda, then everyone should be made to suffer.2. There will be no moratorium on same-sex blessings.In other words, they no longer wish to remain part of the Anglican Commuinion.The Windsor Report and the Dromantine Communique make it crystal clear: The Anglican Communion requests that ECUSA, in the interest of maintaining unity in the communion, cease developing or performing same-sex blessings. It's unlikely that a lady as smart as...

An important result of this week’s Hayride to Hell (particularly ++Griswold’s literal demonizing of key conservatives?) is that significant orthodox leaders are talking more openly of a split with ECUSA. David Roseberry, rector of Christ Church Plano, yesterday wrote: Christ Church has been making disciples since 1985. God has blessed us with growth, strength, and a clear vision. We are committed to making disciples of Jesus Christ. We will be 20 years old this June. But what is increasingly clear to me is that we are no longer able to make disciples on behalf of the Episcopal Church. It is...

The leading conservative body in the US Episcopal church has given warning of a "leadership crisis" over the American bishops' decision to halt all consecrations. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, whose group claims 300 congregations as members, said that the covenant statement issued this week by the Ecusa's bishops was "insulting" to the 38 primates of the worldwide Anglican communion. The bishops agreed to a moratorium on all consecrations, gay and straight, until at least June next year in response to a demand from the primates at their recent meeting in Northern Ireland for a moratorium...

A Statement from the President of the American Anglican Council o Communications Issued by the Episcopal Church House of Bishops The Covenant Statement and the Word to the Church issued by the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops is insulting to the Primates of the Anglican Communion. While it aims at specific requests of the 2004 Windsor Report and the 2005 Primates Communiqué, it fails to fulfill clear expectations outlined therein. The House claimed to affirm the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral 1888, and yet they failed to repent of their decisions and subsequent actions contrary to Scripture as well as Anglican faith and...

Last updated on Tuesday, March 15, 2005 16:39:53 Questions On Walking Apart - A Statement from Postmodern Anglican Orthodoxy: Underground [pdf] From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and commandment, Good Lord, deliver us. "The Great Litany," Book of Common Praye

The recent ECUSA House of Bishops meeting follows the publication of the Windsor Report (TWR) from the Lambeth Commission, an earlier response by the House of Bishops in January, and finally the February Communiqué from the Primates’ Meeting in Newry. In their ‘covenant statement’, reproduced below with commentary, the House of Bishops offers their current response to the main concerns of the Windsor Report and the Primates. The House of Bishops “Covenant” comes at an “extraordinary” time in the life of ECUSA and of the Anglican Communion, a time when clearly some “extraordinary action” is required if both the church...

"Reflections On "Episcopalianism" I have come to the view, after much struggle and prayer,that the decisions of the 2003 General Convention to consent to Gene Robinson's election to the episcopate and to allow dioceses to "experience and explore" liturgies for the blessing of same-sex unions, while disastrous and fundamentally mistaken, are in some way providential. By this I mean that the General Convention's decisions have forced us to do something that Episcopalians are largely unwilling to do, and at which we are not particularly competent, which is taking a serious, unsentimental and rigorously theological look at our life as a...

“The Episcopal Church in Scotland faces a schism with the Anglican church in other parts of the world after declaring officially that being a practising homosexual is no bar to becoming a priest.The announcement will incur the wrath of some within the global Anglican Communion. The church world-wide is already in turmoil over the consecration of Gene Robinson, the gay US bishop.The statement by the College of Bishops, its leadership, that being gay and non-celibate is not a bar to being a priest, as long as a stable and long-term relationship can be shown, means the Scottish province of the...

The meeting will be to make the crucial decision about whether ECUSA will or will not choose to send its representatives to the ACC in response to the request of the unanimous Primates Communique.A reminder about Executive Council:“CANON 4: Of the Executive Council Sec. 1 (a) There shall be an Executive Council of the General Convention (which Council shall generally be called simply the Executive Council) whose duty it shall be to carry out the program and policies adopted by the General Convention. The Executive Council shall have charge of the coordination, development, and implementation of the ministry and mission...

by David Roseberry March 17, 2005 St. Patrick's Day Dear Friends, Yet another twist in the turn... At the recent House of Bishops meeting, the bishops of the Episcopal Church debated and discussed the suggestions of the Windsor Report and the details of the Anglican Communiqué. You will remember that both documents firmly criticized the American (and Canadian) churches for moving ahead with a non-Anglican teaching on human sexuality. In late February, the Anglican Primates issued a statement asking the following concerning the Episcopal Church: 1. For ECUSA to withdraw its representatives from the Anglican Consultative Council, a key interim...

“But when 35 Anglican archbishops met last month - Orombi was one who refused to take communion with offending church leaders - it was the US church that was asked to do the walking. The Americans were asked to quit a key representative body until 2008.“The language is flowery, the meaning is … we suspend you,” Orombi told the Herald yesterday. “But it’s put in the most beautiful language that the English would like to put it. It’s a polite way of saying, ‘please leave the room’.”Orombi speaks from a position of growing influence, having helped channel discontent among conservative...

Shortly after the Reformation began, in the first few years after Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg, he issued some short booklets on a variety of subjects. One of the most provocative was titled The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In this book Luther was looking back to that period of Old Testament history when Jerusalem was destroyed by the invading armies of Babylon and the elite of the people were carried off into captivity. Luther in the sixteenth century took the image of the historic Babylonian captivity and reapplied it to his era...

“The good news is that perhaps Griswold is at last getting the message about how serious the Global South is about this crisis. It won’t just go away. It’s hard to say exactly what nefarious deeds he thought a handful of Americans were up to in Newry, the little town near Dromantine. But, if he thinks these Americans could even pretend to have a major influence on the Primates, he remains clueless. Worse, if he thinks Western whites will call the shots – either of his theological ilk or mine – he is entrapped in racist assumptions that will blind...

(Special to VirtueOnline) This week our office accessed information on the position of the Diocese of Central Pennyslvania USA, concerning their position on the consent on New Hampshire Election. It reads "Yes" for the Clergy order and for the sitting Bishop. This places a theological conflict between our two Dioceses because South Rwenzori Diocese upholds the Holy Scriptures as true word of God. Consequently, all the activities we had planned to do with the Diocese of Central Pennyslvania have been postponed. Last year, we requested them to support our HIV/AIDS Programme with $352,941; this request too, is hereby withdrawn. By...

There has today been wide reporting of a statement issued by the College of Bishops in response to the Anglican Communion's Windsor Report and the meeting of the Anglican Primates in February. Press interest has focused on one small part of the overall statement. The statement was in fact issued on 4 March. It acknowledges the difficulties currently faced by the Anglican Communion and expresses the Bishops' commitment to work to preserve the unity of the Communion. In particular, the Bishops commit themselves to facilitating discussion "across difference", recognising that within the Scottish Episcopal Church there are both those of...