What Is Anglicanism? by Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi

Ed: This is a 'must read' article.

[...] Finally, a passion for evangelism and mission is at the heart of an apostolic and missionary church. The reason there is a global Anglicanism today is that Anglicans were compelled by the Word of God to share the gospel throughout the expanding British Empire and beyond. In the absence today of such a convenient infrastructure, the future of the Anglican Communion is found in embracing the key Reformation and evangelical principles that have had such an impact in Uganda.

Without a commitment to the authority of the Word of God, a confidence in a God who acts in the world, and a conviction of the necessity of repentance and of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we will be hard-pressed as a communion to revive and advance our apostolic and missionary calling as a church.

If, as I have suggested, the future of Anglicanism lies in a revival of the key Reformation and evangelical principles that shaped the Church of Uganda and our mother Church of England, then our instruments of communion need to find a way to serve that vision. I fear, however, that our conciliar instruments are in danger of losing their credibility and being rendered irrelevant. The resolutions of the Lambeth Conference of Bishops have always had a moral authority among the communion’s autonomous but interdependent provinces, yet some of those resolutions are now flagrantly defied and even mocked. Read more

BBC chief knew Queen footage was misleading 17 hours before apology

Ed: I suggest this matters to Anglicans because the BBC matters to the country.

Peter Fincham, the controller of BBC One, was facing a battle to save his job yesterday after the corporation’s Director-General described the edited footage of the Queen shown to the media as “incorrect and misleading”.

Mark Thompson said that he planned to introduce a series of measures to tighten standards after the error, which Mr Fincham was forced to admit having known about on Wednesday evening, although he did not apologise until Thursday.

Mr Fincham’s fate will most likely be decided by a meeting on Wednesday of the corporation’s regulator, the BBC Trust, for which Mr Thompson has been asked to provide a full report as to how pictures of the Queen walking into a photo shoot came to be presented as footage of her storming out. Read more

The case for mistrusting muslims

Ed: Discuss ...

ARRIVING IN BRITAIN by air the day after two men crashed a gasoline-laden Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal at Glasgow's international airport, and a couple of days after two car bombs were discovered in the heart of London, I was surprised by how calm everybody was.

Apart from the prohibition of passenger drop-off and pickup next to the terminal building at Birmingham Airport, everything was as usual. Men and women in Muslim garb mingled in the crowd with perfect tranquillity, expecting neither violence nor even verbal reproach.

Was this a sign of the admirable tolerance of British society, or of its bovine complacency born of an inability, or unwillingness, to make the effort to defend itself? Was it decency, cowardice or stupidity?

I really don't know anymore, which is an indication of the problem: Only time will tell, and by then it might be too late. Read more

And the people who did get ordained in Chelmsford are ...

Eighteen men and women from Essex and East London were ordained by the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Revd John Gladwin in Chelmsford Cathedral yesterday (Sunday 1 July) in two separate ceremonies attended by more than 1,200 people.

The address at both services at 11.15 and at 3pm, was given by the Vicar of St Mary’s Ilford, the Revd Jonathan Kester. The Cathedral Choir was conducted by Peter Nardone, Director of Music, and his assistant, Robert Poyser was the organist. Read more

Chelmsford ordinand blocked over dispute with bishop

AN ORDINAND in the Diocese of Chelmsford withdrew from his ordination ceremony at the eleventh hour after a theological dispute with his Bishop over homosexuality could not be resolved.

Richard Wood was due to be ordained deacon at Chelmsford Cathedral at Petertide, but stood down after he said his conscience would not allow him to share Communion with the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Rev John Gladwin, because of his patronage of the gay campaign group Changing Attitude. Read more

The Independent: Late and ludicrous on Wycliffe Hall

Ed: A demonstration, if another one were needed, that The Independent simply cannot cover Christian religious affairs seriously.

[...] Neither Turnbull nor Storkey would say anything to The Independent about the dispute. The departing staff from Wycliffe have also seemingly taken a vow of monastic silence while students there have been threatened with a latter-day Inquisition if they breathe a word of what is going on within its walls to the press.

Yet this ban on airing Wycliffe's dirty linen in public has merely added to the impression that the whole place is living under a reign of terror. Read more (of this garbage)