Recently I was talking with some Episcopalian friends of mine about the rather vacuous, primer-like articles that their bishop (Diocese of East Tennessee's Charles von Rosenberg) had written (and had been spread around the Anglican world by Kendall Harmon) in anticipation of and in the wake of the Lambeth 2008 conference. Needless to say, they …
The Woman Who Outed the Archbishop of Canterbury
I was honoured to receive the following comment from my piece Rowan Williams and the High Price of Riding the Fence: I have been catching up with stuff on the Web concerning the letters the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote me. My reply to Dr. Williams’ first letter ran to more than six pages, and I …
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Disliking Hierarchy: Why Women Leave the Church of England
This seems to be my topic these days, now this from the BBC: Dr Aune, co-author of Women and Religion in the West, said: "In short, women are abandoning the church. "Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church." She said many women …
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Women in Ministry: Starting Something You Can’t Finish
This is a "blast from the past," originally written 20 July 2006 between the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Columbus, OH and the Church of God General Assembly in Indianapolis, IN. I'm reproducing it to make it more accessible; thanks to Jonathan Stone for his interest in this; Jonathan Martin also made a strong statement …
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The Un-Protestant Jonathan Edwards?
On the other hand, Edwards, the greatest Reformed theologian between Calvin and Barth, systematically integrates justification and sanctification, faith and works, election and perseverance, forensic righteousness and mystical participation. This is significant not only for relations between Reformed and Catholic theology, but also for evangelicals and Catholics. Evangelicals have had their own problems putting asunder …
Maybe That’s Why Christianity is Becoming a Non-Western Religion
Robert Easter (who is sorely dissappointed that I'm not planning on formally reverting to Anglicanism any time soon) made a very good point in his comment on my piece Is Charismatic Culture African? Your source on the “Sola Panel” scares the bejabbers out of me. A parallel statement would be, “This whole business of an …
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Rowan Williams and the High Price of Riding the Fence
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is back in trouble again, this time for his "real" position on same sex relations: However, in an exchange of letters with an evangelical Christian, written eight years ago when he was Archbishop of Wales, he described his belief that biblical passages criticising homosexual sex were not aimed at people …
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A Problem of America: For what fills the heart will rise to the lips, and Is Charismatic Culture African?
Some interesting tidbits from Lambeth. Let's start with the following comment from the Rt Rev Catherine Roskam, Suffragan Bishop of New York: She said some of the 670 Anglican bishops gathered in Canterbury for the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference probably beat their wives, and added that it is difficult to discuss it with them because they …
Davis Mac-Iyalla: Living What He Advocates
Just when I thought I'd seen everything on the Internet, we have this: I am pleased to note that the United Kingdom has granted the asylum petition of Davis Mac-Iyalla, the Nigerian Anglican Gay activist, with whom I’ve had frequent dealings... I know Mr. Mac-Iyalla better than anyone else in the United States, having served …
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Internationalisation with a Vengeance
From this piece on Virtue Online: While the members of St. Timothy's originally joined AMiA as what Hassett describe as "a lifeboat" away from an Episcopal Church they perceived to be increasingly errant in its leftward drift while still maintaining their connection to the larger Anglican Communion through the archbishop of Rwanda, she found that …
Positive Infinity 