CANDIDATE FOR CANTUAR: A passionate proponent of mission and evangelism, Bishop Stephen Cottrell´s inclusive attitude and charm might be just the right prescription for the Anglican Communion and Church of England at this juncture? Lay Anglicana

Bishop Stephen, ¨I too have been drawn in to the group of his followers´ Lay Anglicana (me too, and we can see his face and look him in the eye. Leonardo Ricardo)

The Rt. Reverend Stephen Cottrell,   Bishop of Chelmsford

¨I have never met Bishop Stephen, but I too have been drawn in to the group of his followers. I became hooked one August, when researching a ‘thought for the day‘ for a service of Matins which I was due to take. I came across Bishop Stephen’s ‘Do Nothing to Change Your Life: Discovering What Happens When You Stop‘. I was entranced. Realising that I needed to quote a large chunk of it for full effect, I thought I had better ask the bishop whether he minded. So I, the smallest of small fry, emailed the Bishop of Reading, as he then was. I don’t know what I expected – a standard reply from a minion perhaps – but instead I had the most charming personal reply from Bishop Stephen himself, wishing me (I don’t think he used the word ‘luck’) as a lay worship leader...¨ please read it all, by Lay Anglicana, HERE

Bishop Stephen http://www.stephencottrell.org/ index.php has his own website, though I don’t think he has yet been persuaded to blog or twitter. His Wikipedia page is HERE

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¡CUIDADO, UNA CURVA! Don´t let ¨good manners¨ stand in the way of common sense at the TEC General Convention!

‘If It’s Not Pleasant, It Doesn’t Exist’
By Lay Anglicana

My grandmother never actually said this to me. But it was the leitmotiv of her life, thanks to which she lived to be 99 years old. I know half a dozen other nonagenarians, and they all have this in common: they do not dwell on the global economic downturn, global warming, or why that Mrs Jones down the road is such a bitch has a less than sunny disposition. They pour themselves another gin, play another rubber of bridge or go for a walk. They live without passion of any sort (well, they are in their nineties) but this includes love and hate. They are not passionately for or passionately against anything. They do not discuss politics, religion or sex, or indeed any other topic about which anyone might feel strongly. They do not show feelings in public (the mantra of this class is ‘No PDA’ – no Public Display of Affection). To do so would be bad form. They do not weep in public, or ever evince any pain or self-pity. They offer no sympathy (beyond the most formal expression), and they shudder at the thought of sympathy being shown to them. By definition, they are not needy.



Of course, by the time my grandmother and her kind are in their nineties, they probably are needy, if only physically. For them this is the hardest part of old age, that they have to accept help from others and allow chinks to appear in their armour.


I sometimes think my kind of Anglican is like this. I have just learned that I am technically a liberal Anglo-Catholic – I have always thought of myself as plain old CofE but now see that there are many strands of worshippers who all self-identify as Church of England but whose worshipping style – and beliefs- are very different. Yesterday I attended (and will post about separately) a communion service led by a Charismatic Evangelical. My knee-jerk reaction was to wince at the emotional incontinence, but a part of me – normally severely repressed- also responded.

I think I could happily make the transition to The Episcopal Church (TEC) and feel at home. I was brought up to think that good manners are all-important, and TEC is above all the home of good manners: ‘After you’; ‘No, after you’. ‘No cake until you have had the bread and butter’. And so on.


But word reaches me that these good manners may stand in the way of common sense at the TEC General Convention to be held from July 5-12 in Indianapolis: agreeing with me that the current ‘sorry state of things entire’ of the Anglican Covenant is such that it definitely counts as unpleasant, and being unwilling to intrude on private grief, some say it might be best not to discuss it all, and simply sweep it under the carpet.

Siren voices! Please, fellow Anglicans, do not listen to them! We have managed in the Church of England, diocesan synod by painful diocesan synod, to reject it. But the Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion regards this as merely a little local difficulty. Is he burying his head in the sand like the man in the YouTube video which illustrates this post? That is a matter of opinion.

But my fellow members of the Church of England and I are looking for a lead on this from The Episcopal Church. Please do not let us down!¨  HERE  (emphasis added)

·  Thanks to Lay Anglicana, sidebar
·  Thanks to Laura Sykes
·  No Anglican Covenant Coalition

ROWAN WILLIAMS GOES TO ROME TO PRAY WITH THE POPE ON SATURDAY (the rest of Anglicandom will be watching six English diocese synods vote pro Anglican Covenant or Against and praying with one another)

¨The Archbishop of Canterbury saw fit to upload a video on 5 March in which his usual charm is nowhere to be seen.¨

The Right Hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election is he?… Afraid? Frightened? Frit? Couldn’t take it? Couldn’t stand it?*

¨...The most exciting spectator sport on offer this Saturday, 10 March 2012, is the Pro Anglican Covenant v Anti Anglican Covenant encounter being played out in another six diocesan synods across the land. These are exceptional times we live in – it has been said (rather rudely) that a deanery synod is a collection of people waiting to go home, and I have not heard that diocesan synods are any more gripping. But, if you have any imagination at all, this contest should have you on the edge of your seats with excitement.


Let us recap the current state of play (since we seem to be stuck in sporting metaphors). Voting on whether the Church of England should or should not adopt the Anglican Covenant has been rolling out in the dioceses since 12 March 2011 when (we hope prophetically) Wakefield rejected it. Since then, a further 20 dioceses have voted. The tally is currently 13 against the Covenant, 8 in favour.


I think it is probably fair to say that the results so far have been a great surprise to everyone. The Church of England hierarchy has certainly been taken aback by the strength of feeling in the country against it. The Archbishop of Canterbury saw fit to upload a video on 5 March in which his usual charm is nowhere to be seen. This feels like being reprimanded in the headmaster’s study: HERE

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http://blog.noanglicancovenant.org/

* ”Prime Minister’s Question Time, House of Commons (19 April, 1983). The use of ‘frit’, an unusual Lincolnshire dialect abbreviation of ‘frightened’ which Mrs Thatcher evidently recalled from childhood, was missed by MPs in a noisy chamber but heard very distinctly on the audio feed from the chamber” (Wikipedia)

THE NO ANGLICAN COVENANT BRIGADE SENDS IN THE DREADED FINAL OPTION: ¨The Dowager Countess of Grantham Invites the Primate to Tea¨ Lay Anglicana

¨The No Anglican Covenant Brigade, in an attempt to halt the Covenant juggernaut, has tried reasoned analysis, expostulation, satire and mockery. This blog alone has invoked, inter alia, Cassandra, Elizabeth I, Trollope and inter-galactic law. Though some members have been tempted, the group has not yet resorted to sabotage or blackmail. Although the time may yet come for the dreadful final option of the Charge of the NAC Brigade, there remains another possibility.

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury ought ¨quake in his shoes¨

It is time to send in a Great British Battleaxe. Surely even Archbishop Rowan would quake in his shoes if faced with one of these in full sail? Margaret Thatcher in her prime perhaps? But no real woman can truly match the great battleaxes of fiction: Mrs Proudie, Lady Bracknell, Lady Catherine de Bourgh or, her latest triumphant incarnation, Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham, the real star of Julian Fellowes’ latest entertainment, Downton Abbey

From this impressive list, let us choose the Dowager Countess for this important role. She is so clearly a woman of unshakeable self-confidence, at her prime in the Edwardian era when her class was at its most supremely confident. After many years of practice in bending the local clergy to her will, (as is apparent from this scene requiring her to persuade the vicar to perform what he regards a dubious marriage), she is surely as ready as anyone to take on the Archbishop...¨  please see, read, hear and enjoy it all, by Lay Anglicana, HERE

Elizabeth I has been ¨involked¨ by Lay Anglicana

·  Thanks to Lay Anglicana, HERE
·  Thanks to No Anglican Covenant Coalition (Brigade), HERE

THE ´PUNATIVE´ ANGLICAN COVENANT ACCORDING TO ++DREXEL GOMEZ: ¨Warnings and intentions¨

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, retired, remains ¨available if needed¨ to rework and strengthen the Anglican Communion Covenant for the Gafcon/Global South schismatics

A covenant mandated ´house cleaning´ at the Anglican Family?

“...in many families, you remain in the family but you can’t stay in the house because your presence in the home is a bad example to other young people, and so you are forced to move out because what you are doing is an offense to the integrity of the family.” 

Drexel Gomex, cochairman (along with now promoted to Bishop, Gregory Cameron) of the Anglican Covenant Design Group

¨In the most recent St. Andrews Draft of the covenant, provinces would pledge to uphold historic Christian faith inherited by Anglicanism and to promote and proclaim the Biblically-based Gospel through mission.

Signers of the covenant, Gomez explained, are called on to pledge themselves to the understanding that the Anglican Communion requires mutual accountability among provinces and that the constitutional autonomy of provinces exists within a larger framework of communion that sets limits on that autonomy.

The covenant also would provide a mechanism or process by which provinces, once they have signed the covenant, could be determined to have violated the covenant and, thus, to be deemed to have removed themselves from the Communion...¨ don´t miss a word, HERE

LIVE FREE OR DIE: ¨Where now comes the threat to our liberty? You need look no further than Lambeth Palace¨

By Lay Anglicana

¨Where now comes the threat to our liberty? You need look no further than Lambeth Palace (see previous post on ‘Countdown to the Chains of the Anglican Covenant’HERE

So what if the intention is not the enslavement of Anglicans around the world to the ‘Instruments of Communion’? – do you not think that this phrase has chillingly Orwellian tones? – our enslavement is what will be the result. The post-Covenant character of Anglicanism will be a totalitarian régime which seeks, not episcopal oversight, but archiepiscopal and episcopal thought control. If you think I am exaggerating, I invite you to look at the documents produced by the lobby in favour of the Covenant and then re-read the Newspeak of 1984,  please read it all,  HERE.

HERE

LIVE FREE OR DIE: ¨Where now comes the threat to our liberty? You need look no further than Lambeth Palace¨ Lay Anglicana

¨The phrase ‘Live Free or Die‘ has a history dating back at least to the Enlightenment, but my favourite use of it is on the licence plates for the state of New Hampshire...¨

¨Where now comes the threat to our liberty? You need look no further than Lambeth Palace (see previous post on ‘Countdown to the Chains of the Anglican Covenant’ HERE  ). So what if the intention is not the enslavement of Anglicans around the world to the ‘Instruments of Communion’? – do you not think that this phrase has chillingly Orwellian tones? – our enslavement is what will be the result. The post-Covenant character of Anglicanism will be a totalitarian régime which seeks, not episcopal oversight, but archiepiscopal and episcopal thought control. If you think I am exaggerating, I invite you to look at the documents produced by the lobby in favour of the Covenant and then re-read the Newspeak of 1984 HERE.

Anglicanism has always offered its adherents a faith less concerned with the minutiae of doctrine (holding such debate up to ridicule by characterising it as the discussion of how many angels could fit on the head of a pin) than how to lead a Christian life, informed by the creeds and 39 Articles and inspired by Hooker’s scripture, tradition and reason. The Covenant takes 5,123 words to describe future doctrine, which will be enforced by the Instruments of Communion, rather than individual conscience which has sufficed in the past...¨ please read it all, HERE

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·  Thanks to Wikipedia HERE

HERE

Sort of a Music Hall Joke: ¨What are Archbishop Rowan's thoughts on lay ministry? Archbishop Rowan doesn´t have any thoughts on lay ministry, does he? Does he? Boom-Boom¨ Lay Anglicana

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, delivered his Presidential Address today at the General Synod's July 2011 Group of Sessions, held at York University. The full text  HERE

¨Archbishop Rowan is a gifted orator, and it is clear from the twitter reactions to his speech that it was well-received overall. For the bishops and clergy present, I can see that 'heart spoke unto heart'. But what about his listeners from the House of Laity? What about other lay people, looking on? What about the LGBT community, as David Goss reminded us on twitter?

I see nothing here for any of us except a desert and waste land.

Luckily, my experience of God is more or less the opposite of what ++Rowan appears to have in mind as the 'correct' way for lay people to experience Him, and that is solely as demonstrated by the ordained. Kindly meant, no doubt, but if, after 60 years of Christian worship, I had to rely on the priesthood to explain to me what was meant by Christianity, it wouldn't say much for their effectiveness over a lifetime, now would it?... please read it all By Lay Anglicana,  HERE

...One priest who has shown, and continues to show me the way is the Revd Lesley Fellows. Here is an extract from a recent post of hers¨:

¨...The church sometimes draws me towards God and sometimes away from God. Sometimes I wonder whether there is more darkness than light in the church. However, I find myself connected to God through the Eucharist and even if it is that one sacrament alone that the church offers as light, that still leaves me committed to the church for my spiritual refreshment, however infuriated I sometimes get.¨ the Reverend Dr. Lesley Fellows, HERE

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·  Thanks to Lesley´s Blog, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Archbishop of Canterbury, HERE