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Some go right, some go left. We part company here and that's the end of it. Anglicans face a schism that wil destroy the Church forever.
Homosexuals are upset with the ethics of the world a it is, and they protest at a Canadian university as a woman is given an honorary degree.
Canada, too, is in this news as the UN decides its governement isn't doing enough to enable First! Nations! Native! Peoples! suffering from systemic racism, victims who require seperate but probably equal justice systems to manage their own affairs.
And the Anglicans are falling apart at the seams. But so is the whole of the Western world. the point we gain from these stories below is that we are at a stage of collapse of our cultures that will result in a new world. What's important to us? What is truly valuable to our lives? Is it Gay rights? Indian rights? Women's rights? The environment? Animal rights? Palestinian rights? Iran's right to have nuclear weapons? Or is it important that the vast conspiracy of Jooos and Right wing religious bigots takes over and installs concentration camps and imposes a theocracy after destroying the world for the sake of the multi-national oil companies?
We face a civil war. There is no turning back.
"Nobody wants a split, but if you have virtually two civilizations in a single civilization something has got to give sometime."
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A woman was last night elected as the first female leader of the American branch of Anglicanism in a historic but divisive development that could hasten the break-up of the worldwide Church.
The Bishop of Nevada, the Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is a leading liberal on homosexuality, is the first women primate in the history of Anglicanism.
Her election followed a warning by one of the Church of England's senior bishops yesterday that efforts to prevent a schism in worldwide Anglicanism were now futile as it had become "two religions".
In an outspoken interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said that divisions between liberals and conservatives were so profound that a compromise was no longer possible.
He increased the pressure on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to take firm action against the liberal American leadership.
"Anglicans are used to fudging things sometimes, but I think this is a matter of such seriousness that fudge won't do," said Bishop Nazir-Ali.
"Sometimes you have to recognise that there are two irreconcilable positions and you have to choose between them.
"The right choice is in line with the Bible and the Church's teaching down the ages, not some new-fangled religion we have invented to respond to the 21st century.
"My fear is that the Church of England has made a number of moves in the liberal, Protestant direction. That gives me concerns that the Bible will become less important and that the Church is moving away from its traditional Catholic order.
"If you move in that direction you become a kind of options Church, where you live by preferences."
Bishop Nazir-Ali said that, whatever the outcome, the Americans had already become detached from the roots of Anglicanism.
"Nobody wants a split, but if you think you have virtually two religions in a single Church something has got to give sometime," he said.
He suggested the point of no return had been passed, and effectively challenged Dr Williams to recognise the fact.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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Ryerson faculty turn backs on 'homophobic' degree
Professors, activists protest ethicist's opinions on same-sex marriage
SCOTT ROBERTS
TORONTO -- As Margaret Somerville stood to accept an honorary doctorate in science at Ryerson University yesterday, several faculty members on stage behind her turned their backs in protest.
Donning rainbow flags and necklaces, the professors lifted a banner that read "My Ryerson honours equal rights," a silent but strong message against the controversial ethicist for her opposition to same-sex marriage.
It was also condemnation of the downtown Toronto university for honouring her, one protester said.
"We were turning our backs on honouring homophobia," said image arts professor Lila Pine, one of two instructors holding the banner. "Nobody's opposed to her right to express her own views; we're opposed to honouring those views because they're really against the core values of Ryerson, which embraces human rights."
When Dr. Somerville took the stage, a lone voice yelled the only vocal condemnation heard at the convocation ceremony, "You should be ashamed of yourself."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com
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Canada wants delay to key aboriginal UN treaty
By David LjunggrenReuters
Monday, June 19, 2006; 4:29 PM
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said on Monday it wanted the United Nations to delay a vote on a key draft treaty enshrining the rights of indigenous peoples, a document which has already taken 20 years to put together.
Political opponents accused Canada's Conservative government of trying to sabotage the treaty, which is supposed to be adopted soon by the U.N's new Human Rights Council in Geneva.
[....]
Separately, officials said Canada would vote against the document unless major changes were made. The draft treaty is opposed by the United States, Australia and New Zealand, which like Canada have significant aboriginal populations.
Canada has about 1.3 million native Indians, or about 4.4 percent of the overall population. Many live in poverty and suffer from ill health and high levels of unemployment.
Some aboriginal activists complain about what they say is centuries of ill-treatment and racism at the hands of the majority population and want more control over the resources on their lands, some of which are home to rich mineral deposits.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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By Jim Leckrone
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - The U.S. Episcopal Church chose Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on Sunday as its first woman leader, a move unprecedented in the Anglican church and one likely to produce more turmoil in a faith divided over the ordination of an openly gay bishop.
Her election came 30 years after the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, approved the ordination of women to the priesthood.
The selection seemed likely to provoke controversy, since most other Anglican communities, including the Church of England, do not allow women bishops.
"It will be a great adventure," said Jefferts Schori, who holds degrees in biology and oceanography and taught religious studies at Oregon State University before her 1994 ordination.
Asked at a news briefing if her selection was designed to "send a message" to the wider Anglican community upset with the U.S. church, she said, "God welcomes all. Those who agree and disagree." She promised to "bend over backwards" to reconcile with those in the American church who are upset with its current direction.
But the Rev. David Anderson, president of the conservative American Anglican Council, criticized her selection saying she lacked experience. In terms of the divisions in the church, he added, "mom and pop are leaving" already.
[....]
A majority of U.S. bishops backed the consecration of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop in more than 450 years of Anglican history, when the church last met in convention three years ago.
Jefferts Schori was narrowly elected from a field of several candidates after five ballots and was the front-runner from the start of voting, church officials said.
[....]
GAYS PRAISE ELECTION
Jefferts Schori, 52, is the bishop of the Diocese of Nevada. She will be installed at a ceremony in Washington's National Cathedral later this year.
Her selection won immediate praise from Integrity USA, an organisation representing Episcopalian gays.
"We look forward to continuing the process of working closely with the presiding bishop towards the full inclusion of the gay and lesbian faithful in the Body of Christ," said the Rev. Susan Russell, head of the group. "The historic election ... is something for us and the whole church to celebrate."
How to address fallout from the Robinson consecration has dominated the convention.
The gathering must still act on proposals that would answer concerns raised by a report commissioned by the archbishop of Canterbury. That report advised the church to apologise for the Robinson consecration, promise not to elevate any more gays in same-sex relationships to the episcopate and take a stand against the blessing of same-sex unions.
In the worldwide Anglican church women are bishops only in Canada, the United States and New Zealand. The Robinson issue has been particularly criticized in Africa where the church has a large and growing membership and where homosexuality is often taboo.
The 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion is a broad grouping of churches across 164 countries always run by consensus.
First woman chosen to lead Episcopal Church
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Schism threat after failure of middle way
Commentary by Ruth Gledhill
THE rejection by The Episcopal Church of calls for moratoria on gay consecrations and same-sex blessings represents a failure to comply with the demands of the Windsor process. This process was set in train by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, in an attempt to resolve the crisis after the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
Whether the Anglican Communion now descends into a process of formal schism depends entirely on the response of Dr Williams.
The problem at the General Convention was that radical liberals felt that anything seen as a step backwards in their embrace of the gay agenda would be to sacrifice gays and lesbians on the altar of the Anglican Communion. This they were not prepared to do.Some new administrative structure, free of the bounds of diocese, parish and province, will have to be found to retain even a semblance of unity in the Anglican world. The most likely structure to emerge will be a form of federation, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the focus of unity.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
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There is a good chance that the coming years will show an increasing division between the Left and the normal in the West. Hostilities will increase, and the whole of our civilization will change from the muck of it today to something different, perhaps one large ghetto run by street gangs and Muslims.
Liberalism is a failure, and it continues to gain ground. When the whole of it falls like a rotten pumkin the question will be: What is to be done?
4 comments:
Remember the story of Elijah.
There are still followers of Christ out there.
Even if the Presbyterian church, the Catholic church, and the Episcopal church fall, there will still be those who follow Christ. Secular humanism and Islam may be the big names, because not all who follow Christ belong to worldwide denominations. But they are still out there, and will be there until the end of the age.
MBR, that is all well and fine in print. If Christianity is to be anything more than a vaugue memory and a hushed whisper to children, a finger discretely pointed at the old woman across the road, a story in some old book in the attic, then Christians must keep the religion alive and vibrant by acting as if their lives depend on the continuation of Christianity. Wishing and hoping and praying in catacombs won't do it. Where is Thor? Where is Wodin? Where is Fria?
The question is where are you? What great thing do you do to promote the revival of the religion?
I've written here about the Burned Over Years, about John Wesley, about Tynedale. Those words willl go donw into the depths of times to live in obscurity with the Norse pantheon if Christians don't do more than they do now.
Yes, Christianity will be with us in some form or other for centuries or more no matter what, perhaps even taking on the names of our days. But who wil care about the religion itself? What are you doing?
Yes, we know Boas and Ruth, they were the anthropologists from the turn of the 20th century. They're not forgotten. We know them well.
Dennis? "Dennis the Menace"?
This issue of the anglican communion splitting is yet another excellent proof in real life of why the church needs to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Without any final authority over issues of faith and morals and how to interpret the Bible, history will repeat itself again and again as the churches have been doing since 1517. It's Deja Vu all Over again.
People often have the worng idea that forward movement is progress. It's not, according to me, necessarily so, only being linear in some way. Nor is movement back anything we can look to as good. Our way is more of what we do right. Anglicans are walking off a cliff.
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