Word: anglican
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...schism long forecast for the Anglican Communion over the church's liberal stand on homosexuality may be getting closer. A document released by a group of conservative churchmen called the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFcon) made it clear that the more than 250 bishops who belong to the group intend to transform the 77-million-member global Communion, the world's third-largest affiliation of churches, because of their differences over the church's stance on gay priests and other issues...
Just days before the group's conference is set to begin in Jerusalem, GAFcon's leader, Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, declared in a 94-page theological statement: "There is no longer any hope, therefore, for a unified Communion ... Now we confront a moment of decision ... We want unity, but not at the cost of relegating Christ to the position of another wise teacher, who can be obeyed or disobeyed. We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion, but not at the cost of rewriting the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend. We have arrived...
...caution against too much doomsaying. The GAFcon statement, they point out, does not necessarily mean that Communion will break in half in the near future. For one thing, the document expresses the GAFcon bishops' intention to break specifically with churches like the Episcopal church in the U.S. and the Anglican Church of Canada, which make gay bishops or support such decisions - and does not call for secession from the worldwide group. Indeed, the conservatives say they would prefer that the Communion either become a looser confederation than it currently is or be "realigned" along more conservative principles, possibly with...
...Monday, Minns will jump on a plane for Jerusalem to help prepare a meeting of conservative Anglican bishops in two weeks called the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCon) that he claims will attract Anglican bishops from 27 countries...
...things that might shift it could be the goading from the bishops gathered at GAFCon. Although observers have accused conservatives like Akinola of trying to force an Anglican schism, Minns, who acknowledges occasionally polishing Akinola's prose, says "schism will not happen." Instead, he predicts a Communion "realignment" with the conservatives as the new center, possibly catalyzed by the articulation in Jerusalem of a "new revised version of 'this is who we are'" featuring traditionalist positions on Christ's divinity, his virgin birth and a conventional understanding of marriage." Asked whether such a statement could prove exclusionary to liberal Anglicans...