"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."                                                Luke 4:8 KJV

• Dr. Vinay Samuel Responds to Bishop Tom Wright
• Jerusalem Bishops Trade Charges
• Anglican Covenant Design Group Meets in London
• Bishop Howe: Church Litigation a Travesty
• Pittsburgh: Some Clergy Want to Remain Episcopal

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Dr Vinay Samuel Responds to Bishop Tom Wright  

Source: Church of England Newspaper
Date: January 31, 2008

Sir, Since I am now 65 and have not been active in Church of England affairs for some time, my letter needs an introduction to your readers. I was General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion between 1986 and 1989. I acted as consultant to the Lambeth Conference on Mission in 1998. For many years I have been secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians which included mission scholars from the "south" and the "west", for example Dr Ron Sider. I also helped to found and led an institution in Oxford which has produced significant scholars for the non-western world. 

I have read the concerns raised in the press by Bishop Tom Wright of Durham about the emerging network of orthodox Anglican primates, bishops and mission activists, especially in Africa and the "western" world who are calling a Global Anglican Future Conference. He has suggested in particular that that this whole movement is now following the lead and the agenda of three white men, Bishop Martyn Minns, Archbishop Peter Jensen and Canon Chris Sugden. 

I am part of the leadership team of this movement. I have known and worked with Archbishops Akinola, Kolini, Mtetemela, Nzimbi and Orombi and Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali for many years. I have to say that if the scenario were as BishopWright imagines it to be, neither I nor any leader of Christians in the non-western world who have stood for years for the identity, self-respect and dignity of Christians from the "global south" and their right to self-theologize and organize their own networks independent of influence from the former metropolitan centers of power, would have anything to do with it.

I have worked for years in global Christian networks, and more recently in the global corporate world. In these two worlds, the equal partnership and interaction of people from different cultures and economic backgrounds is a daily reality. If there were any sniff of cultural superiority that assumed that the involvement of white people meant that they would inevitably take the leadership role, or exercise dominant power, these movements would have died. Those who display that spirit have no place in the new global realities. That spirit is one of the reasons for the demise of the British Empire... 

Read the rest of the article by clicking here. 

Read Bishop Wright's original article by clicking here.

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Jerusalem Bishops Trade Charges

Source: Religious Intelligence 
Date: January 29, 2008 
By: The Rev. George Conger

Charges of fraud and misconduct are being traded between the current and former Anglican Bishops in Jerusalem.

Already internally conflicted over its relationship with the diocese of Los Angeles, and the political implications of the June GAFCON conference, the civil war between current Bishop Suheil Dawani and former Bishop Riah Abu Al-Assal (pictured) adds a further burden to the weakened Anglican presence in the Holy Land.

On Jan 20, Bishop Riah's office released an "urgent" petition calling for Bishop Suheil to "step down" after he allegedly colluded in the beatings of two Nazareth Anglicans... 

Read the rest of the article by clicking here. 

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Anglican Covenant Design Group Meets in London

Source: Anglican Communion News Service
Date: January 30, 2008 

The Anglican Covenant Design Group, chaired by the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev'd Drexel Gomez, is currently meeting at the Anglican Communion Office in London. Provinces represented on the Covenant Design Group are: Wales, Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean, USA, Canada, West Africa, Southern Africa, West Indies, England, as well as the Diocese of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), as well as Anglican Communion and Lambeth Palace staff.

Canon Gregory Cameron of the Anglican Communion Office, Secretary of the Covenant Design Group said today, "The focus of this week's meeting is to examine responses to the draft Covenant from the provinces and to prepare a subsequent text to move the process forward to the Lambeth Conference and beyond." 

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Bishop Howe: Church Litigation a Travesty

Source: The Living Church
Date: January 29, 2008
The Rev. George Conger 

The Diocese of Central Florida is "poised for a new round of significant growth," after three months of tense negotiations with clergy and lay leadership from nine congregations seeking to leave The Episcopal Church, according to Bishop John W. Howe.

At the conclusion of the diocesan convention Jan. 25-26 at St. James' Church, Ormond Beach, Bishop Howe told a reporter for The Living Church that though exhausted, he was pleased with the negotiations. 

"We are on the best of terms with all those leaving," he said. "And we are committed to rebuilding where there have been losses."

In his address to convention, Bishop Howe said the last three months had been the worst period of his life. However, amicable solutions had been reached with the members of the eight congregations who sought to withdraw from the diocese.

"There are those who simply have to leave The Episcopal Church for conscience sake," he said. "I understand that. I don't agree, but I don't believe we should punish them. We shouldn't sue them. We shouldn't depose the clergy. Our brokenness is a tragedy. The litigation that is going on in so many places is a travesty. And although some seem to be trying to do so, I don't think you can hold a church together by taking everybody you disagree with to court."...
 

Read the rest of the article by clicking here. 

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Pittsburgh: Some Clergy Want to Remain Episcopal

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 
Date: January 30, 2008
By: Steve Levin

In the first public sign of disagreement among theologically conservative clergy in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh over the leadership of Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr., 12 such rectors and priests told him this week they disapprove of his effort to remove the diocese from the Episcopal Church and will, instead, remain with the denomination.

The 12, including the president of the diocese's clergy association and its longest-tenured rector, mailed a signed, one-paragraph letter yesterday to the diocese's 66 churches saying that while they supported the "reformation of the Episcopal Church ... we have determined to remain within, and not realign out of" it. 

Three members of the group, including the Rev. Scott Quinn of the Church of the Nativity in Crafton and the Rev. Jay Geisler of St. Stephen's in McKeesport, met Monday with Bishop Duncan at his Downtown office for about an hour to tell him they were going public...