Musings of an Anglican/Episcopal Priest

Month: August 2004 (Page 2 of 3)

VA hospitals seen as potential

VA hospitals seen as potential terrorist targets

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Veterans hospitals in the United States are potential targets of al Qaeda terrorists and other Islamic militants reluctant to attack more-heavily defended U.S. military installations, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security said.
In a new nationwide terrorism bulletin sent this week to law enforcement officials and security personnel, the two federal agencies said that while there was no specific credible evidence that Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals had been targeted, there was intelligence data — including persistent reports of “suspicious activity” at medical facilities nationwide — to issue the alert.

[Listening to: This Time – Uncle Kracker – Seventy Two & Sunny (3:42)]

Carey tour adds to US fears of gay schism

Telegraph %7C News %7C Carey tour adds to US fears of gay schism: “Carey tour adds to US fears of gay schism%0D%0ABy Jonathan Petre%2C Religion Correspondent%0D%0A%28Filed%3A 23%2F08%2F2004%29 %0D%0A%0D%0ALord Carey%2C the former Archbishop of Canterbury%2C will provoke a fresh storm over homosexuality in the Church next month by blessing hundreds of American traditionalists who are boycotting their own pro-gay bishop.%0D%0AThis high-profile intervention by Lord Carey will highlight the growing polarisation in the worldwide Anglican community over the issue and will be criticised as %22back-seat driving%22 by supporters of his successor at Canterbury%2C Dr Rowan Williams.%0D%0A %0D%0ALord Carey will bless the traditionalists %0D%0AIt will also raise the temperature of the debate weeks before the publication of the final report by the Lambeth Commission%2C the body set up last year by Dr Williams to try to avert schism.%0D%0ADr Carey is to confirm several hundred adults and children from 11 conservative parishes in Virginia which have rejected the ministry of their diocesan bishop%2C the Rt Rev Peter Lee%2C because of his support for the Rt Rev Gene Robinson%2C Anglicanism%27s first active homosexual bishop.”

I wonder. . . Could

I wonder. . . Could this:

7/07/04

Australian Anglicans back orthodox in Global South, U.S.

From Anglican Media Sydney

The Sydney Standing Committee has bolstered the heavyweight pressure being put on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Commission to penalise the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA) over the controversial appointment of Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

After a lengthy debate in late May, Standing Committee resolved to support the conservative primates of the Global South – representing two-thirds of the Communion – in their call to the Lambeth Commission to urge ECUSA to turn back to God and withdraw from their election of openly gay Bishop Robinson.

Standing Committee also supported the Primates’ call to the Commission to invoke disciplinary action, if necessary, that could involve ECUSA’s expulsion from the Communion.

It supported the Primates’ view that such extreme action was necessary because Bishop Robinson’s appointment in the Diocese of New Hampshire last year demonstrated that ECUSA had ‘abandoned’ the teaching of Scripture as it relates to matters ‘necessary to salvation’.The Standing Committee therefore believes they need ‘to repent, and to rescind and revoke their election of Bishop Robinson’.

It also supports the maintenance of those parishes and dioceses ‘who are seeking to uphold the historic faith of the Anglican Communion as set forth in Holy Scripture’.

and this:

Anglicans drop lay presidency laws
By Paul Osborne
August 15, 2004

THE Sydney Anglican diocese has backed down on a move to pass laws to allow lay people to administer the bread and wine during church services.

But the diocese’s executive, the standing committee, has said it would not discipline any deacons or lay people who administered communion.
The Sydney diocese’s parliament, or synod, was expected to vote on legislation in October to allow non-priests to administer communion.

The standing committee last week made its decision not to press ahead with the laws after considering a report on attitudes to lay administration and the current legal situation.

But it will present a motion to the October synod setting out its support for lay administration. The motion states that “we believe there are good biblical, theological and practical grounds for introducing lay administration”.

It also says the law should allow that which the Bible allows and that until the law is changed, or it was determined no legal change was needed, “no disciplinary or other action should be taken against any person in relation to deacons or lay persons administering the Lord’s Supper (communion).

“Lay or diaconal administration is a legitimate expression of Anglicanism,” the motion says.

The issue has been hotly debated within the church for decades.

The Anglican Church’s highest legal body, the Appellate Tribunal, found by a majority in 1997 that lay presidency was consistent with the church’s constitution.

But it also found by a majority that a decision of the national church’s parliament, the General Synod, was needed before individual dioceses could go ahead with it.

Some sections of the church believe allowing lay people to administer the bread and wine removes elitism and could help sustain congregations in rural and remote areas where priests are unavailable.

But opponents say the Bible and tradition make it clear that only a priest or bishop should be able to preside.

AAP

be linked? My guess is that Sydny moved on lay presidency because it is as devisive as Vicki Gene and they recieved pressure from orthodox Bishops indicating that thier case and their support would be more clearly heard without this attendant conflict.

Bishop Duncan testifies before the

Bishop Duncan testifies before the Lambeth Commission:

Thank you for allowing me and the Network team to join you this morning. It is good to see so many friends and acquaintances; and it is always good to be among brothers and sisters in Christ. I am pleased to have the opportunity to address you and the matters of theology and ecclesiology, of faith and order, that are before you in this Commission, before us in the Episcopal Church (USA), and that are before our entire Anglican Communion.

Allow me also to begin by saying how sad I am to be here. I want you to know how grieved I am to be testifying against my own Presiding Bishop, and against other leaders of my Church. I want you to know how heartbroken I am that the Church which formed me from the cradle, within which I gave my life to Christ as a teenager, and to which I
vowed service in Holy Orders more than 30 years ago has arrived at its breaking point and my own.

Introduction

Bishop Ben Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, has recently written about what he has called “the doctrinal and structural collapse of the Episcopal Church.” This is a very helpful phrase: the doctrinal and structural collapse of the Episcopal Church. Like Manhattan’s twin towers in the first hour after the unthinkable had happened, the appearance was that of steel and glass mostly intact. Yet unseen, under the façade, the inner core was inexorably melting away. That is what we who address you this morning believe is the current state of our beloved Church in this Province. Moreover, it is our contention that, as the inner skeleton of the Episcopal Church weakens and fails under the immense stress put upon it by the fatal (twin, I might add) synodical decisions of last summer, damage is threatened to all the structures around it – to the other provinces of the Anglican Communion – and to the infra-structure of the whole Communion, and of the nation, within which it has so proudly (dare I sat, dominantly?) stood.

The end of CPE and

The end of CPE and the Return to the semiHoly Mountain

Well, CPE has come to an end. It ended last friday actually, but it takes a while to come down from the experience. Unlike many people–some of whom have shared thier horror stories with me–I had a wonderful experience. My supervisor, James Pollard, was terrific. I’m glad I got to participate in this program under his direction. The fact that he encouraged us to pray with patients was very encouraging and demonstrative of the whole program. It was taxing but full of growth and learning. We were all allowed to be ourselves and see where that led us within the CPE framwork.

So now, its back to Sewanee to begin my *gasp* middler year. I can’t believe that my first year and summer have flown by so quickly. I’m ready to go back, though I wish I had more time at home without CPE to worry about. But such is life. I am looking forward to talking with my classmates about thier experiences and to begining classes. I’m signed up for two electives at the moment. I have been thinking of dropping on and just taking one elective in addition to the core–I need to work hard to get back into shape, and there are several personal projects I’d like to finish up. But, as always I am the kid in the candy store–its amazing I’m only signed up for two electives. At the moment I’m signed up for “Why did Christ Die,” a class about–you guessed it–theories of the atonement and for “Anglican Conflicts,” which will deal with a history of conflict in the Anglican church, concluding wtih the Eames report. I am going to switch from “Anglican Conflicts” to “Anglican Theologies of Ordination” on the advice of the instructor. I am considering dropping the atonement course–though if the prof. is agreeable, I may audit it. We’ll see. I have new golf clubs I want to break in!

Interesting. . . A friend

Interesting. . .

A friend from my CPE program piqued my insterest during a discussion over various ways of interpreting predesination. During our talk he made reference to the “two wills” of God. At the time I wasn’t in the appropriate frame of mind to make any connection between the idea of God’s absolute and ordained powers (which was something I had been talking about before, with which my fine Presbyterian friend disagreed). Having looked into it a bit more, I find it interesting that a Calvinst was talking to me, an Anglican about there being two wills in God as concnerns salvation. I was inclinded to defend an idea that there is actually only one will in God, which we are simply too tiny to grasp. Imagine my surrprise when I found that our own beloved Anglican father, Richard Hooker, defeneded the idea of there being two wills in God, an Antecedant and a Consequential–rather than cede a point to a calvinist theologian that God, having only one will, must therefore have willed some to damnation directly. I need to read more on this, but perhaps it could lead to a paper in my upcoming “Why Did Jesus Die” class.

Episcopal Church Demolished To Construct

Episcopal Church Demolished To Construct Condominiums

A century-old church in Glendale was demolished last Thursday, after being sold by the Episcopal Diocese to a pawnshop owner for more than a million dollars.
Community leaders and politicians tried to save the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at 71-05 Cooper Avenue, by having the city designate it as a landmark. They say they were unsuccessful because the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island wanted free rein to sell the building to developers.

Homosexuality and Catholic Priests

Homosexuality and Catholic Priests: “The widespread exposure of pedophilia within the Catholic clergy has led the church to focus on homosexuality within the clergy as a source of the problem. It has to be emphasized, however, that pedophilia and homosexuality are not the same thing. In fact, only a handful of priests technically are pedophiles (sexually involved with children under ten or eleven). More might be inclined to ephebophilia, an attraction to pubescent and post-pubescent youth. One reason for this higher percentage is the Catholic practice of encouraging very young boys to enter seminaries and cutting them off from normal adolescent development.
When it comes to homosexuality, however, a significant percentage of clergy, perhaps as high as 40 percent, might be labeled ‘homophile.’ This percentage may be even higher among seminary graduates since the 1960s and in the seminaries themselves. I use the term homophile rather than homosexual because, even though their fantasies and attractions might be for same-sex partners, they strive to remain celibate with much the same effort as their heterophilic counterparts do.
Undoubtedly the loving, caring, supportive idealized role of the priest and the male brotherhood of which this role is a part is?and has long been?highly attractive to many homophiles. The Catholic Church has long recognized this. Throughout its history there have been periods of greater and lesser toleration. In much of the medieval period, the concern about sexuality was not about the secular clergy (those who were the priests and bishops in the secular world), since until the end of the twelfth century they were allowed to marry and have families. Rather, the issue was with the regular clergy, that is, the monks, and also the nuns, who were not clergy. They follow a special rule that has always demanded abstine”

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