From The Living Church:
Posted on: September 25, 2008
The number of primates and bishops in the Anglican Communion publicly supporting Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh is growing since the House of Bishops voted to depose him from the ordained ministry of The Episcopal Church on Sept. 17.
Six diocesan bishops from the Church of England -‑ Blackburn, Chester, Chichester, Exeter, Rochester and Winchester -‑ said they continue to regard him as a bishop in good standing of the Anglican Communion.
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Schott-Joynt, has previously called for an “orderly separation” of liberal and conservative Anglicans following the Lambeth Conference last August.
The statement by the English bishops was preceded by statements of support for Bishop Duncan from the primates of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Southeast Asia, the Southern Cone, Uganda and the West Indies.
“We continue to recognize the fidelity and validity of Bishop Duncan's orders, role, and ministry. Without reservation, we continue in full sacramental communion with him as an Anglican bishop,” said archbishops Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Drexel Gomez of the West Indies, Benjamin Nzimibi of Kenya and Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone. “We thank God that by the vote of the Provincial Synod he has been given membership in the House of Bishops of the Southern Cone. Our fellowship and shared ministry with him is not disrupted.”
Shortly after his deposition from The Episcopal Church, Bishop Venables and the provincial synod of the Southern Cone, which has its headquarters in Argentina, welcomed Bishop Duncan as a member in good standing of that church’s House of Bishops. That decision was welcomed by Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda.
“Despite the shameful action taken last week by the majority of [The Episcopal Church] Bishops, nothing about our position has changed. We continue to recognize you as a bishop of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,” Archbishop Orombi said. “We continue to recognize you as a bishop in good standing in the Anglican Communion, and we wholeheartedly support the action of Archbishop Greg Venables and the House of Bishops of the Province of the Southern Cone to receive you into their House of Bishops. We continue in full communion with you and we do not recognize the action of the TEC House of Bishops to depose you.
“If the world couldn’t see it before, this vote reveals how spiritually lost TEC is and why North America needs a new province that authentically represents historic and Biblical Anglicanism," Archbishop Orombi said. "The Instruments of the Anglican Communion could have averted this crisis. Instead, institutional inertia is preferred, and meanwhile, the tear in the fabric of our Communion is now deeper and wider, the mission of the church suffers, and many people miss out on hearing the good news that a Savior has come.”
Last week the Most Rev. Colin Bazley, former primate of the Southern Cone and now an assistant bishop in the Church of England’s Diocese of Chester, wrote an open letter to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams that calls for the suspension of The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion and the creation of a new province for conservatives. In an interview with the Times of London, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester called on Archbishop Williams to create a new North American province.
“The behavior of The Episcopal Church House of Bishops shows that the promised moratorium at Lambeth is dead and their integrity in wishing to bring peace must now be questioned,” Bishop Nazir-Ali said, as quoted by the Times.
2 comments:
Bishop Duncan's episcopacy rests on the vows he made when he was priested and then consecrated. At both he vowed to be obedient to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Episcopal Church. Period. It was not the Doctrine and Discipline that he now wants it to be, but what it is!
He has clearly violated that in numerous ways, the most vile has been his continuing name-calling of TEC as "apostate" and "counterfeit." He has declared himself, by words and actions, to be repudiating his ordination -- so what is the sympathy about?
Enough has been enough for a long, long time. My wish for Bob Duncan has been that he act in accordance with integrity and resign from the church he hates with such passion. Most clergy in the Episcopal Church would not collect their salary from a church for which they had such disdain.
One of the reasons that the crisis that pecusa created has not been resolved is illustrated by thomas woodward's comment. Liberals don't see that pecusa violated their own consitution in the crisis-making acts of 2003. pecusa acted not as a responsible constituent member of the Anglican Communion, but in the manner of an indulgent, individualist American. pecusa has violated her own doctrine in allowing practices that conflict with the teaching not only of the Bible but of the prayerbook (e.g. one man/one woman in marriage).
So, in typical liberal fashion, Woodward chooses a narrow interpretation of one piece of the crisis and ignores the rest of it. pecusa has violated her own doctrine and discipline while Bishop Duncan has consistently upheld biblical teaching and the Communion teaching.
What Woodward calls name-calling is merely an accurate description of the current state of pecusa. pecusa is an apostate church led by heretic bishops. pecusa teaches a false gospel that makes it a counterfeit church. You don't have to take Bp. Duncan's word on this or mine. You that talk ad nauseum about a listening process might start by listening to the Anglican Communion.
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