Central Africa: Intact but will become three provinces

CENTRAL AFRICA: The Province is Intact But Over Time Will Become Three New Provinces

An exclusive Interview with the Most Rev. Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa. VOL reached the archbishop on his personal phone while traveling in his diocese. Read more

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Chelmsford Anglican Bible Conference 2007: The Problem of Suffering - Where is God in the Bad Times?

Book Now!

The problem of suffering affects us all. It is also a challenge to our evangelism. Radio broadcaster John Humphrys asked three key religious leaders the same question: "Why does God allow suffering?" and each time he received an answer that left him dissatisfied. The result is his new book, In God we Doubt.

The seventh Chelmsford Anglican Bible Conference takes a look at the problem of suffering through the experience of Job asking, as he did, "Where is God in the bad times?"

Christopher Ash, Director of the Cornhill Training Course, will be the main speaker, whilst Deborah Kelly of Grace Church, Wanstead, will speak from her own study of Wisdom Literature and her experience of faith and suffering in ministry.

To book, contact Lynn Marston (lynn.marston@stpetersharoldwood.org). The cost for the day is £15 (3 people £40, 5 people £60).

CABC 7
Saturday October 6th 2007
10.00am-3.30pm
Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford

Programme from 9.30am to 3.30pm

Arrivals and registration
Job 1-3: The Darkness of Grief
Coffee
Job 4-27: The Agony of Trust
Praise and Prayer
Job 28: Perplexed without Despair
Lunch
Video presentation
Testimony
Job 38-42: The God who is God
Application of CABC
Prayer and Praise

Close

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All quiet on the Central Africa front?

(Ed: Given that this report, which differs markedly from others, appears on the official TEC website, I am inclined to think (a) things probably went worse than the report below says and (b) that TEC has a stake in whatever is being played out in Central Africa.)

The recent synod of the Church of the Province of Central Africa went very well, contrary to some reports from the secular press in Harare, according to the Rev. Emmanuel Sserwadda, the Episcopal Church's Partnership Officer for Africa.

Sserwadda attended the synod at the invitation of Central Africa Archbishop Bernard Amos Malango.

"There was a very good feeling," Sserwadda said of the meeting.

Bishop of Northern Zambia Albert Chama, former provincial secretary, was elected dean of the province, he said. The election to replace Botswana Bishop Trevor Mwamba in the position came during the episcopal synod which customarily meets prior to the synod.

Press reports that Mwamba had been fired by Malango are untrue, Sserwadda said. Mwamba preached at the synod's closing Eucharist. Sserwadda and Bishop Michael Doe, general secretary of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, (USPG), vested and participated in the service. Read more

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Bishop Harold Miller: Not going where TEC is heading

(Ed: Bishop Harold Miller, of Down and Dromore, is one of the nicest and most easy-going people you could hope to meet, an Evangelical Charismatic of many years episcopal experience. So when he writes of how The Episcopal Church is going off the doctrinal rails, it is time to sit up and listen.)

[...] we need to be aware that change is incremental. It is only noticed after a period of time. I do not say this to ‘damn’ the Episcopal Church. Indeed, my own diocese is in a very happy link relationship with a diocese of the Episcopal Church. But changes are happening, and changes which are not peripheral, but central to our identity as Anglicans and indeed as Christians. The issue which we face, as has so often been pointed out, is not essentially one of sexuality but one of authority and doctrine. In so many ways, parts of the Episcopal Church have been losing deep aspects of their identity. If God is not Father, Jesus is not Lord, the Son is not unique, baptism is not necessary, the creeds are optional, repentance and sin are dated concepts and the atonement is marginalized or even rejected, where do we go from here? The faith remaining will be a very different faith from the Christian faith once delivered to the saints - and I, for one, am not going there! Read more
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Back to Church Sunday at Holy Trinity, Springfield

Yes, Holy Trinity Springfield Chelmsford is participating. We have printed the bookmarks which you produced and have encouraged people to use them to pray for the person they are proposing to ask to come back. I know that quite a number are using them for this purpose.

Bishop John Ball
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Back to Church Sunday at St George's Dagenham

St George's has sent out letters to about 30 folks whose names have come off the electoral roll for one reason or another over the past 10 years but still live locally. Already last Sunday one of them pitched up and was welcomed back. Pray he sticks (he is a simple man whose overbearing father had forbidden him to keep meeting with us, and who has recently died).

The congregation have invitation cards to invite and bring neighbours/own contacts. Publicity will go in to the local paper. We'll have a follow up card on the day.

Low key but another helpful way of keeping mission on the agenda.

thanks, Simon Smallwood
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Back to Church Sunday at Fordham and Eight Ash Green

We're doing this at Fordham and Eight Ash Green. No special extras (yet!),
but publicity around the villages.

Andy Saville

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Christian faith slices through youth crime

It's back to what works. Kids in Sunday school and worship works. Kids being shown proper home discipline works. Kids active in school programs works. This is not according to Dr. James Dobson Studies. It's according to a research just handed media from the University of Washington.

What's going on in a youth's life as related to church, home and school counts big time in that child's maturing. These are called "protective factors" by those conducting the study, according to The Washington Times' Jennifer Harper. So we're called back to "the good old days" by those scoping out youngsters' behavior.

In fact, the researchers highlight that, even in some of the worst neighborhoods, value-oriented persons should not give up all hope. There's a light shining in that section of the city. It's the church. There are those church youths who are surrounded with all sorts of temptations to do wrong but who mainly do right. It's because they attend the church activities where another lifestyle is offered than what they find in the streets. Read more
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Back to Church Sunday: Tell Bishop John

(Ed: No, not the Chelmsford Bishop John, the Oxford one.)

Have you given up coming to church?

What stopped you?

Is there anything that might bring you back again?

As the new Bishop of Oxford, I’d like to hear your stories. I know people fall out of the habit of churchgoing for all sorts of reasons, sometimes simply because of a house move or a change in family circumstances.

Please let me know why you stopped coming to church – and what might change your mind.

Many churches in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire will be taking part in ‘Back to Church Sunday’ on 30 September and people will be inviting friends and neighbours to join them at Sunday worship.

It may be that someone will invite you along. But please remember you are always welcome in church, any time. It’s an open invitation. Visit the site

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Back to Church Sunday: Bishop of Oxford wants to know why people have stopped going to Church

The new Bishop of Oxford is appealing to people in the Thames Valley who’ve stopped coming to church to tell him why – and to let him know what might bring them back again.

The Rt Revd John Pritchard, who was inaugurated as Bishop of Oxford in June, is launching the Tell Bishop John campaign today, to tie in with Back to Church Sunday on 30 September.

On Back to Church Sunday churchgoers across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire will be inviting friends and neighbours to come to church with them and see what they are missing. Last year around 600 people came back to church in the Berkshire area, thanks to Back to Church Sunday. Read more

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Back to Church Sunday: Musings of a Methodist Octogenarian

A bid to discover why people have stopped going to church – and what might draw them back – has been launched by the Bishop of Oxford The Rt Revd John Pritchard is asking residents across Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire to visit his website, or write to him, to let him know why they might be ‘avoiding’ church. Read more

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Back to Church Sunday: Service Top Tips

Hopefully you will be giving some thought to the service you will have on Back to Church Sunday.

Here are some Top Tips.

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Gene Robinson: "I heard God's voice in Scripture"

(Ed: Who's been reading my blog, then?)

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, said Sept. 10 that he has been talking with members of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s staff and will attend next year’s Lambeth Conference in whatever capacity he is permitted as long as he is given a voice.

“I’m going to do my best to be at the table,” Bishop Robinson said. “More than anything I wish I could be in the same room with Archbishop [Peter] Akinola [of Nigeria] so he could hear from my own lips how God has transformed me through scripture. The miracle is that I heard God’s voice in scripture. I am fiercely committed to it. It literally saved my life.” Read more

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Back to Church Sunday in Hornchurch

The 4 churches here in the Parish of Hornchurch are involved taking invitations to neighbours, friends, contacts etc to promote Back to Church Sunday and bring, encourage and pray them in. Each service is geared to welcome with the truth of the Good News and to proclaim the saving grace of our Sovereign Lord. Services at St Andrew's are 8 am, 9 am, 10.30 am and 6.30 pm; St George's 8 am, 10.30 am and 6.30 am; St Matthew's and Church on Sutton's Farm both at 10.30 am.

Norman Arnold

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Back to Church Sunday in Braintree

We at St Michael's Braintree are taking part in the BTCS and we are in the process of not only praying about those being invited but invitations have been/are being sent out to them.

Regards

Norma Huxter

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Back to Church Sunday in Ilford

(Ed: Took me a little while to find out via the website itself, but the blog is of the vicar of St John's Seven Kings.)

More than 17,000 people are expected to return to church in September as Back to Church Sunday expands to take in 1,700 churches across England. With 19 dioceses taking part this year, the 1,700 churches involved is a tenfold increase on the 160 churches that took up the venture when it began, in Manchester, in 2004. On past records, participating churches welcome back an average of 10 former worshippers each, meaning that 17,000 people could come back to church in one day in September; equivalent to 1% of the total monthly attendance of the Church of England. Read more

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Evangelism UK: online resource

Ed: I discovered this almost by accident:

Evangelism UK

Go take a look.

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Wiltshire: Back to Church Sunday planned

RECENT research suggests that as many as three million people would go back to church "with the right invitation".

So members at St Andrew's Church in Chippenham are holding a Back to Church Sunday on September 30 at 10am.

Past records suggest that on average participating churches welcomed 10 people back on this occasion in the past three years.

Across the country that could mean 17,000 people could come back on the last Sunday of September.

The Reverend Simon Tatton-Brown said: "Churches can be quite daunting places the first time. You go in. Everyone else seems to know what they're doing. But you feel embarrassed and left out."

That's why members of St Andrew's Church are giving personal invitations. Read more

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Why atheists love churches

(Ed: Actually I can never understand it. Still, the article has some interest.)

In the heart of most English towns and villages is a hole. It is filled by a deserted meadow littered with incised stones and a large building, often gloomy, locked and unused except by a tiny fraternity of citizens for a couple of hours a week. Nowadays, most young people have little idea what it is for and many shudder when they pass it.

The English parish church has become the ghost in the machine of local Britain. It must be the ripest plum for a property-hungry government to pick, offering the parochial equivalent of the dissolution of the monasteries. I can hear the Treasury protesting that there are plenty of places for Christian worship, so why waste space on 20,000 underused properties?

Roy Strong, a former director of the V&A, is an Old High Romantic. When Augustine landed in Kent he would have told him to go away as the Celts were perfectly happy. He deplores the Lollards, the Reformation, Puritans, Methodists and all modernisers. In his new book, he sheds copious tears at the loss of smells, bells, relics and icons. His heroes are Pope Innocent III, Bloody Mary, the Catholic recusants and Victorian Anglo-Catholics. Nobody reading this book can doubt his point of departure. But where does he arrive?

My point of departure could hardly be more different. As an atheist of nonconformist sympathies I love churches for what I can see and read in them. Read more
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Province of Central Africa 'breaks up'

(Ed: I am conscious that the article posted below contains an allegation against Revd Nick Henderson which he denies. Linking to this article should not be seen as endorsing that allegation.)

THE Anglican Province of Central Africa broke up yesterday following the withdrawal of Harare Diocese and expressions of intent to pull out by other dioceses that accused the province of failing to censure some bishops dabbling in homosexuality.

The Diocese of Manicaland also expressed its intention to quit the province along with one other Zimbabwean diocese.

Its bishop said he needed to report to his diocese first before going public, making it three out of Zimbabwe's five dioceses.

According to the Standing Orders of the Province of Central Africa, once one diocese withdraws, the province becomes null and void and will have to be reconstituted under a new name and structure.

In highly charged presentations to the Provincial Synod that opened and ended here on Saturday, Bishop Elson Jakazi of Manicaland - who moved the motion for the dissolution of the province - and Vicar General of Harare Diocese Venerable Harry Mambo Rinashe - who seconded - took the outgoing Archbishop, the Right Reverend Dr Bernard Amos Malango, and the homosexual lobby within the province to task over the issue.

Both men described homosexuality as an unnatural abomination that had no place in the house of God. Read more
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The 'honesty' of John Shelby Spong

[...] Here's the difference. When gays were closeted in the church, no one was forced to choose between them and the Bible. Tolerance was possible even if morally it was not exactly commendable. Those who personally disapproved of the gay lifestyle could keep it to themselves and not make waves. Those who lived the gay lifestyle, while wishing they could be open, could at least practice their preferred lifestyle. In spite of the several facets of moral compromise, this may have been as close as we would ever get to a "win win" situation. Live and let live.

What would have been more honest would have been for the church to practice its own discipline, with the hope that those living a self-destructive lifestyle would be motivated to change and restored to a renewed fellowship in the church. As it happens, no one practices discipline without an agenda. There are too many other hypocrisies in the church for discipline to have any other purpose than as a random expression of vindictiveness. Besides that, the church lives in a time and place where religious competition is the norm. Any Christian who objects to his church's discipline can simply choose to buy another brand. Again there were many reasons why "live and let live" became an expedient solution to the latent contradictions of Christian sexual practice and the church's pastoral response.

Live and let live is very different when it becomes ideology. When homosexuality became politicized, people were forced to choose between the Bible and the demands of a political agenda. People were no longer permitted to be honestly confused, undecided, or ambivalent. The church had been cornered by a carefully orchestrated lobbying effort, just as the American Psychiatric Association had been a few decades earlier when, in response to disruptions to their national meetings, it voted to amend the diagnosis of homosexuality in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Read more
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Theodore Dalrymple: Why secularists hate the religious

[...] Perhaps one of the reasons that contemporary secularists do not simply reject religion but hate it is that they know that, while they can easily rise to the levels of hatred that religion has sometimes encouraged, they will always find it difficult to rise to the levels of love that it has sometimes encouraged. Read more
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