- PB Curry does not seem to want Bishop Love of Albany to be a Martyr.
- The Archbishop of Hong Kong now ‘supports’ peaceful protest.
- The Methodist don’t want Bishops and the COE requires Episcopal ordained presidency.
- Oh… and there is still a prosperity gospel problem.
- Boris
First and foremost, Gavin, do please be assured of our prayers.
On the question of the discipline/charges, or not, against Bishop Love… While I obviously don’t have a seat at the table in Canterbury, I would surmise that Archbishop Welby will do anything and everything in his power to influence Curry to do absolutely nothing until the day after the Lambeth Conference. As it is, TEC is doing everything it can to elect and consecrate as many gay bishops as possible- and this is not going unnoticed by moderates in the Global South. If, in addition, they were to depose Bishop Love, the numbers of bishops in attendance will, I think, shrink markedly. Again, while I have no personal knowledge of any conversations between Curry and Welby, I cannot imagine that the subject has not come up.
[sarcasm warning] Given that apostolic succession is pretty dicey in the Church of England, and within the Porvoo agreement, essentially, anyone who says they are a bishop is considered apostolic- the opinion of the wider church catholic notwithstanding. I am sure that a commission could be appointed that would be happy to report back to Synod. after a couple of years of meetings in restaurants with excellent wine cellars, that “supervisor” is just an alternate translation of episkopos, and while there was no laying on of hands, per se, all the supervisors did shake hands with other supervisors, so its all good. [sarcasm all clear]
And while I am here… I do think that there are some positives to the “prosperity gospel in Nigeria” story. First, that it is being recognized now, at a time when the majority of clergy, and especially bishops, remain orthodox, as opposed to coming as a shock 10 or 20 years from now, with a “prosperity gospel primate and HoB”. So let’s pray for the Church of Nigeria – Anglican Communion, and offer such other support for orthodoxy as we can muster. The second positive is that the Gafcon framework is acting as a catholic church. By which I mean, we have a case where a rector of a parish in one province has recognized false teaching in another province, reported it, and the response of the other province was to ask the rector to file a formal complaint.
Think how this would play out if it were, say, a rector in CoE, who looks at the website of a newly elected TEC bishop’s parish- and discovers that this bishop-elect has been offering Holy Communion to non-baptized persons and preaching that everyone is welcome to receive communion, baptized or not, and that Biblical injunctions and canon law do not matter. The CoE rector would recognize that this teaching and practice violates the Lambeth Quadrilateral understandings of the Sacraments, as well as Biblical instructions, as well as canons of the early Councils, as well as church tradition and TEC’s own canon law. Does anyone think that rector would receive an invitation to file a formal complaint from TEC? Or would he be ignored by TEC and likely disciplined by his own bishop for being rude to TEC when Trinity Wall Street was funding a new roof for the cathedral?
It will be a fun diversion tracking ‘never Trumper’ Kevin’s support in the 2020 election. Will he get the Bern or opt for Creepy Joe the young girl hair sniffer? We can’t rule out Willie’s strumpet. No, no not that Willie. I’m talking about Willie Brown’s strumpet from California. What do you think Kevin? Should the first female president break the glass ceiling the old fashion way?