The Bishop of Sheffield’s Twitter feed is rather full of his visit to the Anglican Diocese of Argentina. The Diocese of Sheffield has a friendship link with it, so what is there to report about a Church of England bishop enjoying a bit of a jolly in his link diocese in South America?
Normally this would be a ‘so what?’ story but it is the characters in this one that make it worthy of comment.
The Bishop of Argentina is also the Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of South America, Greg Venables. Archbishop Venables is a member of the GAFCON Primates Council.
The Bishop of Sheffield is Pete Wilcox. In November last year Bishop Wilcox issued the following statement opposing the US evangelist Franklin Graham’s planned gospel proclamation event in Sheffield in June 2020:
‘I’m afraid I cannot support the Graham Tour mission event at the FlyDSA Arena on 6 June next year, at which Franklin Graham is due to speak, and so will not be encouraging parishes in the Diocese of Sheffield to support it either. Mr Graham’s rhetoric is repeatedly and unnecessarily inflammatory and in my opinion represents a risk to the social cohesion of our city.’
As Anglican Unscripted observed at the time, Bishop Wilcox’s statement seemed to menace a thinly veiled threat of disciplinary action against parochial clergy who chose to support the Graham mission. Such clergy, the statement implied, would be guilty of encouraging Mr Graham’s inflammatory rhetoric and thus risking the social cohesion of Sheffield.
So, the parish vicar had better steer clear of the nasty Mr Graham or else.
Several arenas around the UK, including the one in Sheffield, have now cancelled bookings by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association after successful campaigns by LGBT activists against Franklin Graham because of his politically incorrect opinions on homosexuality. The BGEA is now taking legal action to get the bookings reinstated.
So why did a GAFCON Primate appear in a photoshoot outside a church school in Buenos Aires with a CofE bishop who colluded with LGBT campaigners to get Franklin Graham banned?
Is GAFCON getting into the habit of putting institutional relationships within the Anglican Communion ahead of loyalty to the biblical standards set out in the Jerusalem Declaration?
If so, it has not merely become a ‘ginger group’, as the Archbishop of Canterbury once rather patronisingly called it. It has turned into a waffle shop.
Franklin Graham is seen as “violently” and “militantly” anti-LGBT. He is also anti-Islam. Thats why the bishop of Sheffield took this action against him. I don`t think that he is a dissident concerning the official Church of England stance on human sexuality.
Really? Seems like he’s reaching pretty hard to me. A Bishop befriending another Bishop who happens to oppose Graham, a multi millionaire, non denomination mega churcher who believes in the prosperity gospel and conversion therapy. Who has (and obviously wrongly) predicted the end times. The guys bad news, seem less that this has anything to do with the Jerusalem Declaration and more like just another talking point to take a stab at GAFCON for whatever reason.
You intrigue me Roy. Could you quote something that confirms Graham’s belief in the prosperity gospel?
I think you mean Code, who replied to Roy!
Yes- My mind isn’t quick enough to read codes. Thank you.
Graham is not the pastor of a Megachurch. I am not sure where you get his financial information to show he is a multi-millionaire, I have never seen it published. And if you mean by “conversion therapy” that a person who receives Christ is a new creation in Christ and therefore can indeed be delivered from the sin of the Homosexual life style…then every Christian should most definitely believe in conversion therapy. Being converted to Christ is the best therapy ever!
This is a debatable one. If the bishop of Sheffield is doing something neutral or even positive, and it happens to involve bishop Venables’ diocese, then meeting him during that visit is both good manners and possibly an opportunity to challenge his bone-headed attitude to Franklin Graham. It certainly doesn’t signal support for him over events in England.
On the other hand any picture is susceptible to malicious interpretation; so a bit of serpentine wisdom may be needed in deciding with whom you are prepared to be seen in public.
We should, however, remember how indifferent Jesus was to being seen in ‘bad’ company. The world was his (and everyone in it would one day be subject to his judgement); what right had others to place boundaries around him? And so it should be for Christians engaged in God’s work.
The real danger is when we start trimming what we say according to the reception we might get. In that respect it’s the bishop of Sheffield who probably has a great deal more to learn than bishop Greg Venables. He could start by listening to Franklin Graham: I’d suggest he attend some of his evangelistic meetings – wherever the venue turns out to be.
“Is GAFCON getting into the habit of putting institutional relationships within the Anglican Communion ahead of loyalty to the biblical standards set out in the Jerusalem Declaration?”
I am struggling to see anything in Fr Mann’s article that would justify such an accusation.
I assume +Wilcox is pretty liberal (it seems almost an essential requirement in order to become a CofE diocesan these days) and I know ++Venables is not. But that is hardly a basis for one not to meet the other. Orthodox leaders do talk to liberal leaders from time to time and that mere fact doesn’t per se mean the former are endorsing any of the latter’s beliefs.
To answer the question in the headline- No. Of course not. Negative. Non. Tidak.