The spiritual battle for the soul of Anglicanism
Article from the Times:-
Greg Venables, primate of the Southern Cone, has just spelled out the issues at stake in the launch at Central Hall of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.
‘In North America and here, true orthodoxy is being outlawed’ warned Bishop Greg who has taken many congregations and even a diocese or two fleeing liberal episcopalianism under his conservative wing. ‘We must remember we are not fighting flesh and blood. This is about principalities and powers.’
‘Orthodoxy proclaims one truth at a time when that is unacceptable in western culture,’ said Bishop Greg. ‘Truth has become relative. ‘To believe in one truth which excludes others is to be intolerant, bigoted and dangerous.’ He also said there was a ‘false view of institutional loyalty.’ ‘And sadly there is a great fear of being marginalised and blackballed.’ Speaking of the different responses to what FoCA is preaching, he said, ‘To the one we are the fragrance of death. To the other, the fragrance of life.’ He predicted that the structures of the Anglican Communion will seek to accommodate incompatible and antithetical traditions, but ‘if the system is given its head it will push the liberal agenda forward.’
Baroness Caroline Cox spoke movingly about the plight of persecuted Christians in Sudan who she said could not receive some forms of aid, such as medical help, without concerting to Islam. And the Anglo-Catholic bishop Keith Ackerman has had a little go at the media. ‘If you write that this is about homosexuality and the ordination of women, I will want to meet with you afterwards. What a misrepresentation. This is not a coalition of affirming catholics who are neither affirming nor catholic, nor liberal evangelicals who seem to be uncertain about just how certain is the gospel of Christ.’ John Broadhurst Bishop of Fulham is now on the platform, about to introduce Archbishop Bob Duncan, pictured left.
Broadhurst said he did not believe in the devil when he was first ordained. ‘I now believe Satan is alive and well and he resides at Church House.’
There is this from the Supreme Governor of the Church of England:
Her Majesty the Queen
After the Jerusalem conference we wrote to her Majesty the Queen expressing our concerns for the Anglican Communion, our loyalty to her as the Supreme Governor of the CofE, and the pressing need for the Anglican Church to remain faithful to the biblical gospel. She replied that she
‘understands the commitment to the Anglican Church that prompted you and your brethren to write as you did’. She sent us another message last week, expressing her encouragement for our meeting today, and her (quote) ‘good wishes to all concerned for a successful and memorable event’.
The Most Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury:
‘I shall be glad to hold all of you in my prayers for the occasion’.
Which prompted this from gay campaigner Peter Tatchell today:
“The Queen has made a serious error of judgement. Her letter of support for the breakaway anti-gay faction of the Church of England is collusion with prejudice. She has insulted lesbian and gay people and breached royal protocol by embroiling herself in an issue of religious and political controversy.
“It is very alarming to see the Queen endorse a homophobic grouping within the Church of England. She is taking sides, against gay equality,” added Mr Tatchell.
“Her Majesty is aligning herself with a Christian fundamentalist grouping that is founded almost entirely on its opposition to gay priests and gay human rights. Homophobic prejudice and discrimination is central to its religious ethos.
“Many leading members of FCA believe the civil and criminal law should discriminate against gay people. They do not believe that we are entitled to equal rights.
“That is why they opposed the gay law reforms of the last decade, including an equal age of consent, civil partnerships, protection against discrimination, the repeal of Section 28, fostering and adoption by same-sex couples, and access to fertility treatment for lesbian partners.”
The speeches including a rousing call to Christian arms by the Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen, who seemed slightly astonished to find himself sharing a platform with some of Britain and the US’s most eminent Anglo-Catholics.
He said: ‘In this country, the Christian foundations have been shaken. In this and the next generation there will be fought what may amount to the last battle for the soul of the nation. It will be an ideological war, a war of ideas. But great issues will hang upon the outcome: the fate of a culture and the eternal fate of souls. Many look to you for guidance and resource and inspiration. Can we do so any longer?
‘How can we test your resolve to evangelize your people? Unless you develop a deep confidence in the gospel of the saving work of God through Jesus Christ, a willingness to work together for Christ, and a determination to submit to the teaching of scripture, it will not be done. The culture will swallow you alive.
‘With persuasive power, the culture of the West has adopted and promulgated anti-Christian belief and practice. It confronts every Christian with the choice of submission or harassment. It pretends to be the true heir of the Christian faith, that it now possesses all that was worthwhile of Christianity, and that the entire structure of Christian thought can disappear into the receding past.’
Tags: Christian Life, Christianity, Church Life