CANTERBURY, England – The Archbishop of Canterbury said on Monday that the hundreds of conservative bishops boycotting the Lambeth Conference would have helped heal divisions in the Anglican Communion had they decided to take part.
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(Photo: Lambeth Conference)Dr. Rowan Williams enters Canterbury Cathedral for Sunday service in Canterbury, England, July 20, 2008. The Anglican Communion's once-a-decade Lambeth Conference officially began Sunday after several days of a private retreat.
Speaking to journalists on the first official day of business, Dr. Rowan Williams said his message to the some 210 absent bishops was: “We’re sorry you’re not here.”
“The great pity is that to have those voices in the discussion as we conceived it would have been a healing and a helpful thing,” he said.
The boycotting bishops, largely from the Global South, are angry over the attendance at Lambeth of pro-gay clergy, including some of those involved in the 2003 consecration of the openly homosexual Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
They held an alternative gathering in Jerusalem last month, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), during which they accused parts of the Anglican Communion of teaching the “false gospel.”
Williams reaffirmed the Anglican Communion’s official position on human sexuality, saying that it did not endorse sex outside of marriage and that the Anglican Communion had made its position “corporately clear” in previous Lambeth Conferences. He was referring to Resolution 1.10 agreed by bishops at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected homosexuality as incompatible with Scripture and reaffirmed marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The Archbishop of Canterbury rejected talk of a schism in the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion.
“If this is the end of the Anglican Communion, I don’t think anyone has told the rest of the people here,” he quipped.
Williams acknowledged concerns over the legitimacy of Lambeth’s outcomes in light of the bishops’ absence, but hinted that the discussion process would continue with or without them.
“It’s a point I put as strongly as I can to those who are not here, that if they want their voices incorporated in this, this is the way to do it.”
He said the anger of the provinces that have pulled out of Lambeth, including Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Sydney, would need to be addressed in the coming months and years ahead.
The wife of the Rt. Rev Pierre Whalen, Bishop of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, echoed the Archbishop’s sentiments.
Joining him at the press conference as a spokeswoman for the parallel spouses’ conference, Melinda Whalen said they missed the contribution of the wives of bishops boycotting the conference.
“We miss hearing their stories and we miss the contribution they could have made to our conference if they had joined our conference.”
Addressing controversy from a recent synod vote, Williams said he did not believe the General Synod vote reaffirming support for women bishops had caused the Church of England to enter the Lambeth Conference as a “bleeding, hunted animal with arrows in its side.”
In his opening presidential address Sunday, Williams outlined his vision of unity achieved by consent and not coercion.
“It’s my conviction that the option to which we are being led is one whose keywords are of council and covenant. It is the vision of an Anglicanism whose diversity is limited not by centralized control but by consent,” he said, elaborating on Monday that the council would take the form of an international advisory body.
“That is a vision worth working for and worth sharing with our ecumenical partners,” he told journalists at the press conference.
The once-a-decade Lambeth Conference, currently taking place at the University of Kent in Canterbury, will see more than 600 bishops tackle issues such as human sexuality, the environment and the draft Anglican Covenant, a document that attempts to bind the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces into a process of joined-up deliberation whenever disputes over contentious issues occur.
On Thursday, the bishops will march through central London to highlight the Millennium Development Goals and press world governments to do more to ensure they are reached by the target date of 2015.
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Comments
"the bedrock for allowing 2 people to have a one flesh relationship"
Actually, the bedrock is Christ. Christ said to not commit sexual immorality, refering to the illicit sex mentioned in Lev 18, 20. And then Paul said the same thing.
(in the verses below, the word for 'unchastity' is the same word translated as 'sexual immorality', 'immorality', or 'fornication' elsewhere)
Mt 5:32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the cause of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Mt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
Mt 19:9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.
Mk 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
reedit
"dearly beloved we are gather here together because of the sexual differences of this couple, and their ability to procreate. these and these alone have been the bedrock for allowing 2 people to have a one flesh relationship that is given sanction by both church and state."
so much for being led by and serving of the spirit.
From the article:
âThe great pity is that to have those voices in the discussion as we conceived it would have been a healing and a helpful thing,â
Where has Williams been? They have been discussing and discussing and discussing, but he has not been listening and nothing has come of it. Instead of pointing at the conservatives maybe some Anglican leadership should spend some quality time looking in the mirror.
From the article:
"Williams reaffirmed the Anglican Communionâs official position on human sexuality, saying that it did not endorse sex outside of marriage and that the Anglican Communion had made its position âcorporately clearâ in previous Lambeth Conferences. He was referring to Resolution 1.10 agreed by bishops at the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected homosexuality as incompatible with Scripture and reaffirmed marriage as a union between a man and a woman."
Fine, then why was Robinson ordained and why is Robinson still a Bishop? That's the $64,000 question. I also like the "politician speak" they engage in: "does not endorse" & "incompatible." Why not call it sin. It is good enough for the Bible, why not for your press conference?
From the article:
"Addressing controversy from a recent synod vote, Williams said he did not believe the General Synod vote reaffirming support for women bishops had caused the Church of England to enter the Lambeth Conference as a âbleeding, hunted animal with arrows in its side.â
Can Williams spell the word D E N I A L. Because that is what he and many in the Anglican hierarchy are squarely in right now.
I had a few more cooments on this disappointing but thought "Why?"
Until they repent, and beg for forgiveness, trying to "heal" the Anglican community would be like trying to give aspirin to a terminal cancer patient. Useless.
He's too busy advocating Muslim Sharia law. This is a denom overwhelmed by political correctness and its offspring, multiculturalism. No wonder it's falling apart. One of the big things holding it together at this point is that the church properties are owned by central headquarters. But that won't stop the erosion for too long. More power to the conservos.
Rowan *is* trying to have it both ways, and he can't. He has to choose. And the Anglican Communion has already split, Rowan is just too busy looking through his rose colored glasses. The split has already occurred even if Rowan won't acknowledge it.
Seems to me that Rowan is playing games. He avers that there is a standing regulation affirming heterosexual marriage and prohibiting homosexual activity, yet he won't impose church discipline on the very many anglican churches that flaunt that regulation.
At some point, mr. Rowan, you can't have it both ways. Either ditch the regulation or enforce it. But don't play media games with us.
We are witnessing the death of a denomination.
Since when did 210 become "hundreds"?
Only repentance from its sin will heal the Episcopalian / Anglican church.
The Anglican Church at this point does not need healing, but repentance especially the episcopal apostate church.
igh: It is VERY dangerous to speculate on the identity of the Antichrist, whether you believe in pre-Tribulation Rapture or not.
May I prayerfully suggest continuing to keep your focus on the King of Kings! The Antichrist will make himself obvious at the due time.
The faithful are staying away from a conference filled with antichrist spirits, and all manner of evil. Paul said not to associate with an unrepentant, immoral brother. Those staying away are doing what the word of God requires of them. William's is in gross error and he is encouraging the spirit of antichrist at work within the Anglican Community. The Episcopalian Church in America is there, in participation, and they are in full blown apostasy with their support and ordination of an openly gay bishop. I hope those devout and sane Anglicans left, flee this apostate body.
since this is the 'anti-christ' spirit we are seeing, and those of God are opposing it, who then is THE anti-christ? any speculations? there are those who say tony blair, or Javier solana
âThe great pity is that to have those voices in the discussion as we conceived it would have been a healing and a helpful thing" (Bishop Williams)
The presence of the faithful bishops at Lambeth would not have healed wounds. Repentance of the sin of idolatry (the idol of gay inclusiveness) of the unfaithful bishops would have healed wounds by the blood of Jesus.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1Co 3:20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.