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| Rowan Williams preaches at Eucharist during a Sept. 24 clergy day in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Source: Diocese of Los Angeles/Janet Kawamoto |
Addressing a gathering of clergy and laity in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Anglican communion is "fractured but still a family":
“I am saying ‘Anglican family’ rather than ‘Anglican Communion’ because we’re a very fractured communion but we’re still family – like so many families, quarreling till the cows come home. What gives us our family solidarity is, of course, that dependence on God’s call, God’s welcome. We are, at the moment, in the middle of a period of colossal uncertainty in the life of our Anglican family. There is uncertainty, division, a measure of suspicion still and a sense that our conventional and inherited ways of being Anglicans together across the world have come under almost unmanageable strain."
In fewer words, we are no longer a body of Christians with a common faith and discipline. Our Anglican family is dysfunctional. It is dominated by expressions of intolerance and vengefulness. As the Archdeacon of Llandaff bluntly put it, anyone who could not accept the new order would have to make their own arrangements.
Wikipedia describes Anglicanism as "a Western Christian tradition which has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation."
In recent times the Church of England, instead of leading by example, has followed the 'madness' of the Episcopal Church of the United States ((ECUSA) endeavouring to make the Church more relevant to society's perceived needs, liberalism has replaced tradition as described in my previous entry.
Abp Williams acknowledged that as Archbishop of Canterbury he had to make 'uncomfortable adjustments at both ends of the spectrum, liberal and conservative, north and south' to keep everyone at the table but he believes a problem-solving-by-committee approach no longer effectively addresses current challenges.
Too late anyway. The damage has been done. Self governing Provinces like the Church in Wales have voted for disunity. Family members who, in common with the vast majority of Christians, strive to remain loyal to the faith of the Anglican Church as received have been marginalised or excluded, divorced from the Church they lovingly cared for before it was ripped from them.
The bride of Christ has been torn apart by those who would stand in the person of the Bridegroom. Rowan is right when he compares Western Anglicans to families, quarreling till the cows come home. But the quarreling is now amongst the liberal rump deciding how far the revisionists can go.
There are parallels with society. The nuclear conjugal family traditionally comprised a family group consisting of a (female) mother, a (male) father and their children. As a consequence of formalising same sex relationships and the acceptance of genders differing from the biological sexes of male and female primary school children are to be taught that some children have two mothers or two fathers.
This has gone so far as to compel a transgender man who gave birth with the help of fertility treatment to attempt to register himself as the child's father. Although he lost his court battle the ruling was attacked by campaigners and lawyers including the judge as a blow to the rights of trans parents and their children with calls for legislative reform.
In another case a Christian doctor has been told that his belief in the Biblical view of what it is to be male and female is "incompatible with human dignity".
An NHS A&E doctor for 26 years, he was forced out of his job working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after refusing to identify clients by their chosen gender instead of their biological sex as explained in this video:
One might have thought that the Church would stand for truth but Western Anglicanism has confounded the truth by supporting divergence. The family is fractured.
Not content with fracturing our own family, feminists are intent on fracturing the Roman Catholic Church to advance their political agenda.
The Llandaff Diocese of the Church in Wales is embarking on an 'ambitious Year of Pilgrimage' to reinvigorate its work and worship as part of the Church’s 2020 centenary celebrations. Traditionally the Cathedral Church of St David in Pembrokeshire has been a place of pilgrimage but it has been turned into a feminist enclave making it difficult for orthodox pilgrims to participate fully.
This WomensOrdinationConf tweet was 'liked' by St Davids Cathedral staff:
"They don't just want a seat at the table. They want to rearrange the seating, in sense, by reducing clerical privilege, by focusing on ordination as more a call to serve than a pathway to power". The Women's Ordination Conference describes itself as "A voice for women's equality in the Catholic Church".
Mutual flourishing in the Church goes out of the window after women take power. The Bridegroom and His bride become tools for revisionists to help overturn convention no matter who is hurt.
When mutual flourishing is allowed the results can be remarkable as illustrated by a tweet following a recent Confirmation service at Llandaff Cathedral presided over by the Bishop of Burnley, Philip North: "Standing room only in the Cathedral for a Diocesan Confirmation @LlandaffDio and the most candidates I think I have ever seen. What utter joy. Thank you @BishopJuno and @BpBurnley. God is good!"
Rowan Williams is reported to have said that as it is the Church in Wales has no future. The Church of England is not far behind.
Postscript [08.10.2019]
'Pick your own sex' plans are shelved: Equalities minister Liz Truss abandons drive to relax laws around changing gender.
Rowan Williams was an instigator of women's ordination with his friend Barry Morgan. He is now discovering the gates he has opened to gay marriage/gender neutrality/transgender priests/LGBT/female dominance, in the Anglican Church. These attack its very foundations.
ReplyDeleteThank you Rowan.
Stoppit
If by "instigator" you mean the Archbishop, then you are incorrect. Alwyn Rice-Jones was the Archbishop at the time when women were ordained to the priesthood in Wales. At that time, both Rowan and Barry were on the bench, but Alwyn was Archbishop. In point of fact, the real "instigators" of the ordination of women were the members of the Governing Body in September 1996 (passed by two thirds majority in the Houses of Laity, Clergy and Bishops). And even though Barry was the Archbishop when a Bill was passed enabling women to be ordained to the episcopate in 2013, it was the Governing Body who passed it.
DeleteThere's something I don't quite understand here. You draw a connection between the number of people being confirmed (which, inter alia, will also bring in a good congregation of supporters and well-wishers) and the fact that the service was performed by +Philip. But would those candidates have known who would be presiding when they started their preparation for confirmation? And would they have particularly cared?
ReplyDeleteThe candidates would have probably been from Congregationists who wanted a 'Society' bishop to confirm. Which l assume was the reason for his invitation, along with +Llandaff's generosity.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear about the Llandaff confirmation and the large congregation in attendance supporting the candidates. I'm sure that Bishop Philip was in good form as ever. For God's sake and for the future sake of the Church of England - GIVE THAT MAN A DIOCESE.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear!
DeleteDid the young candidates get any say as to who confirmed them? Where they aware that it had something to do with gender? I do hope so, as some young people - probably all - would be deeply disturbed to learn they had been hoodwinked into something so misogynistic.
DeleteThe problem for the Church in Wales, and for Western Anglicanism as a whole, is that for far too long we have had antinomian bishops, who have said "To hell with moral law! We will encourage sin that grace might abound." Dare I say, Rowan Williams was part of that. Instead of coming down like a tonne of bricks on ECUSA, he played the appeasement game. As those who can remember will remember it resulted in the formation of GAFCON, and the disintegration of the Anglican Communion. More than that, whilst Rowan wrung his hands over what to do to solve the situation, other liberal bishops seeing that ECUSA could get away it, decided to join in; and as a result, Anglicanism is in the mess it is in. Rowan should have done what the early Church would have done. He should have convened a Council and drummed the renegade bishops out of office.
ReplyDeleteSeymour
When does a dysfunctional family cease to be a family?
ReplyDeleteOnly on this blog would you find such sweeping comments that begin 'the problem for the Church in Wales, and for Western Anglicanism as a whole...' and proceed to pass theoretical judgement on an Archbishop. As novel as this may sound, I recommend Seymour puck up a bible and proceed to Matthew 7:1ff. You are in for a shock. I have little doubt as to the response this post will elicit - boasting all the characteristics of a child who has been chastised. But then, you have to smile. LS.
ReplyDeleteFar from being a child chastised, LS, you do not address the issue of antinomianism in Western Anglicanism or the Church in Wales. The reason that Western Anglicanism is dying on its feet is because the Church and its bishops will not proclaim the very message that people need to hear. It no longer stands for anything, but it is very good at jumping on every bandwagon that comes along.
DeleteAs for Matthew 7: 1f., I don't need to pick up a Bible, I already know what it says because funnily enough, it is the favourite verse of liberals - the very people who have done everything to destroy the fundamentals of the Christian Faith. Perhaps, LS, if you had bothered to read further than Matthew 7, you would have discovered that the apostles had no problem with calling people out. So clearly, they did not understand Jesus' words in the context that liberals like to use it.
Seymour
Just a few verses later, Matthew 7:6 in The Living Bible has:
Delete"Don’t give holy things to depraved men"
Another good rule to follow!
LS I don't know what a theoretical judgment is, but there is nothing theoretical about the state of the Anglican Church, or haven't you noticed how divided it has become? Perhaps you are 'on message'.
DeleteStoppit
Two thoughts.
ReplyDelete1. I think that any Christian who insists "they've got it right" - whether Evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox or whatever - is often in grave danger of tending towards judgement of others who don't share their views (and here I'm thinking of ethical issues, or perhaps "secondary" matters of faith such as episcopacy or baptism - certainly I'm not thinking of the basic Christian story of Christ's life, death and resurrection). I know you'll say that I'm being relativistic and liberal; that's not the case as I certainly do believe that there is such a thing as Truth. But there are also matters in which Christian thinking and doctrine is still in a state of healthy evolution.
2. Don't you think that, to the Jewish religious authorities of his day, Jesus would have been considered a dangerous (and unauthorised) liberal who seemed to like nothing more than overturning established tradition and sought new understandings of the Mosaic Law? (As I understand it, there were in fact other Rabbis doing much the same thing, though I can't give you chapter and verse).
In my own tradition there is a very precious quote - often forgotten! - from Pastor John Robinson, preaching to the Pilgrim Fathers on the eve of their departure to America with the aim of setting up a new society. He said: "I charge you before God…that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveals anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as you were to receive any truth by my ministry, for I am verily persuaded the Lord hath more truth yet to break forth out of His Holy Word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of those reformed churches which…will go, at present, no further than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; whatever part of His will our God had revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it; and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented, for though they were burning and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God; but, were they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light as that which they first received". Apologies for the long quote - the core of it is the phrase about God having yet more truth to break forth from his Word. Reformada, semper reformanda.
Baptist Trainfan, don't confuse fresh revelation with heresy and backsliding. Church history is littered with those who thought the latter was the former.
ReplyDeleteOf course. The difficulty is that it's not always easy to discern the difference - I'm sure the Jewish leaders of the day regarded Our Lord's interpretation of the Law as heretical and lax, yet we see it as lifegiving and liberating.
ReplyDeleteI see your point, but I think the example of the Lord is not a good comparator since he was divine and unique in his infallibility to interpret the Hebrew Bible correctly. In many ways Jesus' interpretations were stricter, more demanding than those of the Jewish leaders. Where they seemed lax, Jesus often had a scriptural argument either directly or indirectly to defend his position.I think of his teaching on the Sabbath in particular.
ReplyDeleteI think it is abundantly clear that, from the testimony of scripture, our Lord did teach what we might call a 'traditional' view of family life tempered with all his teaching on servanthood, acceptance and love. The trouble is some are trying to apply the 'temper' to a that which has always and everywhere been understood to be sinful. It was never meant to apply to that which is forbidden. Also, look at those who are claiming this new found light. I think you'll find very few are theologians of any note, especially in Wales.
Society is desperate for a counter-culture against pushy homosexuality, transgenderism, extreme feminism and individualism. Instead the church opts to make itself even more irrelevant by promoting these very things based on slogans like, 'love wins' and 'radical inclusion'.
No, these 'novelties' are no comparison with such developments as the Reformation or the abolition of slavery which all had a sound depth of scriptural warrant.
Thanks for the discussion.
What a splendid answer, Whamab, except the group you rightly criticise are not simply pushy, but aggressive, and they exult in what they are, and would make heterosexuals second class citizens.
DeleteRob
Not being in the CinW, I can't possibly comment!
Delete