International Briefing
Episcopal News Service. October 28, 2005 [102805-04]
BAHAMAS: Haitian-Bahamian relationships in focus at Provincial Synod
EGYPT: Conservative Anglicans meet in Cairo; Williams urges continuing dialogue
ENGLAND: Archbishop of Canterbury delivers Richard Hooker lecture
ENGLAND: Britain's first black archbishop chooses to feed the multitude
ENGLAND: Archbishop of Canterbury appoints acting public affairs secretary
EUROPE: Silver jubilee marked by Europe diocese
PANAMA: Translated text of declaration available
WORLDWIDE: Ecumenical movement's future seen as vital
BAHAMAS: Haitian-Bahamian relationships in focus at Provincial Synod
[ENS, Source: Anglican Communion News Service] Anglicans attending the 105th session of the Synod of the Diocese of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands were informed about four major areas of concern in the Bahamas, including HIV/AIDS and Bahamian-Haitian relations. In his charge on Monday, October 17, at the opening of the week-long synod, Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the Province of the West Indies said the Church must play an integral role in awareness building. "If the Church is to serve credibly in this role of 'awareness building,' the Church must ensure that she speaks from an informed position with a clear grasp of the issues," Gomez said.
Full article: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/40/50/acns4060.cfm
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EGYPT: Conservative Anglicans meet in Cairo; Williams urges continuing dialogue
[ENS, Source: Anglican Communion News Service, Reuters] About 120 delegates, representing 20 provinces within the Anglican Communion -- from Africa, Asia and Latin America -- began meeting October 25 in Egypt for their third South/South Encounter.
The meeting, which includes dialogue on Islam and fighting poverty, will bring together some of the leading opponents of liberalizing trends.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who is attending part of the meeting, called October 28 for traditionalist and liberal camps to keep talking, Reuters reported.
Williams also told Reuters he had urged traditionalist church leaders "not to create new church structures even though existing arrangements might have left many feeling ignored."
The conference, taking place at the Red Sea, concludes October 30.
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ENGLAND: Archbishop of Canterbury delivers Richard Hooker lecture
[ENS, Source: Anglican Communion News Service]
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, delivered the Richard Hooker lecture at the Temple Church, London, October 26.
Richard Hooker (c1554-1600): The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity Revisited
"You have to admit that The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity is not a title calculated to attract a mass readership; and it is still rather difficult to explain just why a book with such a title is a classic of doctrinal reflection, not just a dissertation on how to run churches. As to the first, it has long been recognised that Hooker's many gifts did not include what a modern audience would regard as the popular touch; as to the second, what we have to try and grasp is that for Hooker the question of how to run churches, a matter of literal life-and-death significance in his day, could only be rationally thought through on the most fundamental of theological principles. He is reacting, essentially, to a twofold claim by his opponents, the militant puritan wing of the English Church in the last decades of the sixteenth century. The English state had determined that the reshaping of the Church after the breach with Rome had gone far enough, and that controversy over further reform should stop: challenging the rights of bishops or the survival of certain practices and ceremonies in public worship was not admissible. The puritan position was, first, that the Bible specifically laid down the rules for running churches, so that it wasn't possible to treat certain matters as open to dispute or local variation, and second, that the state had no authority to decide how the Church was to be run unless it specifically subjected itself to the Bible; indeed, it would be very desirable if the entire system of Old Testament law could be enshrined in the law of the state. These are the positions that Hooker sets out to challenge; and he can challenge them effectively only by looking at the very nature of law and what that implies for our understanding of Church and Bible."
Full lecture: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/40/50/acns4059.cfm
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ENGLAND: Britain's first black archbishop chooses to feed the multitude By Martin Revis
[ENS, Source: Ecumenical News International] John Sentamu, Britain's first black archbishop, has chosen to offer refreshment to the whole congregation, instead of providing a hot meal for a few notables, following his enthronement that will take place at York Minister on November 30.
The Anglican archbishop's spokesperson Martin Shepherd told Ecumenical News International that snackpacks had been ordered from clothes and food retailer Marks and Spencer, for consumption by up to 3,000 people seated after the service in the Minster. Drinks will also be provided, but it had not been decided whether alcohol will be available.
"It is the tradition to provide a lunch or dinner for a few invited guests after an enthronement," Shepherd said. "The archbishop wanted to continue this tradition of providing hospitality, but to extend it to everybody rather than the select few."
The appointment of the Uganda-born Archbishop Sentamu, 56, to the second most senior post in the Church of England, has provoked some racist abuse. He told an interviewer on BBC's "Today" programme that he had received hate mail, which included items smeared in excrement. While he found this distressing, he realized that it came from a tiny minority for whom he now prayed.. He had also received countless letters of support.
Sentamu came to Britain to study theology in 1974 after it became impossible for him to function as a High Court judge in Uganda following a 1971 coup that brought Idi Amin to power as a military dictator.
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ENGLAND: Archbishop of Canterbury appoints acting public affairs secretary
[ENS, Source: Lambeth Palace] The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has appointed Janet Lewis-Jones as his acting public affairs secretary.. The post, based at Lambeth Palace, is an interim one which will cover the period until the current vacancy is permanently filled.
Lewis-Jones trained as a barrister before holding a number of appointments in the Civil Service. In the 1990s she was a public affairs consultant to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and served as secretary to the Archbishops' Commission on the Organisation of the Church of England.
She will take up the part-time post with immediate effect.
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EUROPE: Silver jubilee marked by Europe diocese
[ENS, Source: Anglican Communion News Service] A festive Eucharist October 23 marked the 25 years of the Church of England's Diocese in Europe.
In 1980 the Sees of Fulham (London) and Gibraltar, were combined to become the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. The service also marked the 100th anniversary of establishing the Deanery at Gibraltar by Bishop William Collins in 1905.
The Rt. Rev. Geoffrey Rowell, bishop of the diocese, presided at the concelebrated liturgy along with Bishop Suffragan David Hamid.
Roman Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian representatives attended along with the regular congregation and many guests.
In his sermon, Hamid stressed the need for the churches of the diocese to be places where people can have "a living encounter," as people today are "craving" mystery, tradition and spirituality. He spoke of the appeal of the "distinctive flavour of Anglicanism" and called upon the churches to live out Anglicanism with "conviction and joy."
Full story: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/40/50/acns4056.cfm
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PANAMA: Translated text of declaration available
[ENS, Source: Anglican Communion News Service] An English translation of the Declaracion de Panama is now available. The statement was issued at the end of the Latin America Anglican Theological Congress meeting in Panama City October 5-10. The English translation can be found at http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/40/50/acns4054.cfm
A majority of the bishops attending the meeting signed the statement calling for the Anglican Communion to regain what they call the participatory and tolerant character that Anglicanism has always offered as the middle way within Christianity.
The bishops criticized what they see as an effort to polarize biblical and theological discussions with labels that assign people to the Global North or the Global South. They said they feel they are being pressured to choose sides when, in fact, neither alternative fits their views.
The theological conference is a new initiative coordinated by a sub-commission of the Commission on Theological Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (CETALC).
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WORLDWIDE: Ecumenical movement's future seen as vital
[ENS, Source: National Council of Churches USA] The Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church joined with other church leaders in a special symposium October 22 to predict a vital future for the ecumenical movement, although not necessarily in the form of councils and commissions.
"Being church means being ecumenical," said His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Great House of Cilicia) and two-term moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee. "Being ecumenical means being part of that ecclesial body represented by the Lord Jesus Christ."
But "the ecumenical movement is facing many challenges," Aram said, among them the search for "a new identity, a new self understanding."
Institutional ecumenism, Aram said candidly, "is in stagnation. The challenge is how can we go beyond institutional ecumenism and make it a healing reality."
The ecumenical movement is no longer "a private club for conference-goers and church hierarchs," he said. "Laity are asking where we are in ecumenism.."
The Symposium on the Ecumenical Movement in the 21st century, sponsored by the Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the U.S. Office of the WCC and the National Council of Churches USA, was held in honor of Aram's pastoral visit to the U.S.
Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church's ecumenical officer, attended on behalf of the Presiding Bishop. Epting also attended the Armenian Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Catholicos, Aram I, and hosted by St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City.
"The Armenian choir was superb and His Holiness' sermon on 'The Cross of Christ' deeply moving, considering the history and faithfulness of the Armenian people throughout the centuries,' he said.
The Rev. Canon J. Robert Wright, professor of ecclesiastical history at General Theological Seminary, and the Rev. Ralph Peterson also represented the Episcopal Church. Wright preached the homily at Armenian Morning Prayer on October 22.
In concluding remarks, Aram I reflected on the pluralistic world in which the ecumenical movement functions. "Our theology, our education, our methodology, our Christian ways of life must be developed to respond" to pluralism, he said. "This is a great challenge. We can no longer live in isolation."
But the Patriarch concluded with a note of confidence.
"The ecumenical movement should be a sign of hope in a world of hopelessness," he said. "We are on the way toward visible unity."