Yesterday, our opening message was a wide-ranging prayer for all the bishops (many of whom acknowledge that they are now very tired people).

Today, we ask you, once again, to focus prayer on Archbishop Rowan.

Monday looks as though it could be a pivotal day in the Conference. Rowan will have heavy responsibility in delivering another Presidential address to the bishops.

Pray that he will be endued with wisdom and courage - and the right words to express his message to the Conference.

You will also find a profile of Rowan Williams, to enlarge your understanding of this leader, in this Bulletin.

Perhaps you could bear in mind the principle of upholding leaders at critical times, as illustrated in Exodus 17:8-13 'Moses said: Tomorrow I will take my stand on top of the hill holding God's staff.'  Joshua did what Moses ordered in order to fight Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill.

It turned out that whenever Moses raised his hands, Israel was winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, Amalek was winning. But Moses' hands got tired. So they got a stone and set it under him. He sat on it and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on each side. So his hands remained steady until the sun went down. Joshua defeated Amalek and its army in battle.

Thanks for your fellowship in this intercessory teamwork.

John Simons (on behalf of the team)

Monday's Agenda:

Pray: Please feel free to use the agenda in whatever way you like to prompt your prayer cover over the day's proceedings.  Click the more link to the right to find further information from the main Lambeth Conference website.

More: http://www.lambethconference.org

A Complex Man tries to hold Anglicans Together

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. Photographed at Lambeth Palace.

A description of the man, and his office, in the Washington Post.

Rowan Williams leads an international fellowship of 77 million Anglicans but doesn't like to travel first class. He is the successor of Saint Augustine and Thomas Becket but counts himself a fan of "The Simpsons."

"Without a doubt, he is one of the most theologically astute archbishops of Canterbury that there has ever been," said the Rev. John L. Peterson, who, as former secretary general of the Anglican Communion, worked closely with Williams. But Williams actually has minimal power over the communion, a family of 38 autonomous national churches that grew out of the Church of England. Unlike a pope, he cannot silence dissenters or excommunicate critics. . 'I'm looking for consent, not coercion,'

The son of a mining engineer in Wales, Williams was known from an early age as a theological wunderkind, earning prominent professorships at England's most prestigious colleges while still in his 30s. His wife, Jane, is a well-regarded theologian in her own right. Despite his powerful position, Williams, 58, said he appreciates those "on the edges of the church, people in the world of arts, medicine and psychology."

In Britain, Williams is spiritual leader of the established Church of England, a position that is appointed by the prime minister and approved by the monarch. He holds a special seat in the House of Lords, serves as patron to hundreds of organizations and, like his predecessors, has his every word parsed by the British media. And yet, Williams lives humbly, in part of his HQ at Lambeth Palace.

Williams is the first archbishop of Canterbury in some time with two 20-something children - daughter Rhiannon and son Pip - making Lambeth less a palace than an average middle-class home. "He lives pretty simply for someone invested with the kind of privilege he has."

Pray: for this Welsh Christian leader, who never aspired to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury - and sought to avoid it.  Pray for all the bishops, but especially for Rowan, as he navigates the Anglican ship through troubled waters, with an somewhat unruly crew. Pray that he may 'hang in there' and be an effective instrument of God's will for the welfare of Anglican believers everywhere.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072503006.html

Are you confused by Anglican Acronyms yet?

The kaleidoscope of Anglican fragmentation is hard to follow from the sidelines. Here, for the sake of balance, is another perspective on North American divisions of the Episcopal Church. Yesterday’s Bulletin 10 focused prayer on an influential American Anglican bishop, Robert Duncan, now facing expulsion from his position. Bishop Duncan has been a doughty warrior for Biblical orthodoxy within TEC.  He heads up ACN (The orthodox Anglican Communion Network) as its Moderator.

This week, his Episcopal colleague, the Bishop of central Florida, John Howe, has withdrawn from ACN.  Instead, Bishop Howe has decided to align his diocese with ACI  (Anglican Communion Network) a group that wishes to stay inside TEC (the Episcopal Church—but to seek to change it from within.  The Board of ACI includes the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

Bishop Howe has become critical of the secessionist direction of ACN, some members of which have left TEC to join the Province of the Southern Cone, while others have sought Episcopal oversight from African bishops in the GAFCON group.

Bishop Howe has decided to oppose such attempts to shape a new ecclesial structure in North America, though respecting their reasons. For himself, and his diocese, he wants to distance himself from further splits and disaffiliations, so that he can remain committed to working within TEC and in full communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

This change of direction by a respected leader of the conservative, traditionalist constituency of American bishops, links with the resignation from ACN last year of the Rev Dr Ephraim Radner, a founder member of ACN.   In an explanatory statement at the time, he said ‘I have no choice but to disassociate myself from this group, whom I had once hoped might prove an instrument of renewal, not of destruction, of building up, not of tearing down.

Bishop Duncan has, in the end, decided to start a new church. He may call it 'Anglican' if he wishes, though I do not recognize the name in these kinds of actions that break communion rather than build it up.

It is all very confusing for friends of TEC, ACN and ACI who wish our American brothers and sisters well as they work through these frictions and fragmentations.

As we pray, let us ask that the bishops stay motivated by guarding the truth, and are not deflected by ecclesiastical ‘empire building’ (which has such a long Christian history).  The current situation of the Anglican Church has almost unlimited tempting scope for power games, by churches young and old.  Let’s hope it is only a coincidence that ‘Indaba Groups’ happens to be an anagram of ‘Pious and grab’!

Pray: that the final week of the conference will be constructive and fruit-bearing.  Another picture from intercessors was of Lambeth being like a garden which needed both weeding and watering.

Today’s Acronym ........ is W C G

The acronym refers to a body called the Windsor Continuation Group.  The WCG has been addressing the many outstanding questions arising from the Windsor Report (2004) and the various formal responses from provinces and instruments of the Anglican Communion. The Chair is Clive Handford, former Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East.  The WCG is due to report to the bishops at Canterbury today (Monday).  The Conference awaits expectantly the content of the WCG’s statement, which may be controversial (depending on who you are).   In 2004, in his foreword to the Windsor Report, Robin Eames (Archbishop of Armagh) wrote: What do we believe is the will of God for the Anglican Communion?

That question has never been far from the minds of the members of the Lambeth Commission during the exacting work they have undertaken in the past year.

Since the 1970s controversies over issues of human sexuality have become increasingly divisive and destructive throughout Christendom. Within the Anglican Communion the intensity of debate on these issues at successive Lambeth Conferences has demonstrated the reality of these divisions.

The decision by the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church (USA) to give consent to the election of bishop Gene Robinson to the Diocese of New Hampshire, the authorising by a diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada of a public Rite of Blessing for same sex unions and the involvement in other provinces by bishops without the consent or approval of the incumbent bishop to perform episcopal functions have uncovered major divisions throughout the Anglican Communion. There has been talk of crisis, schism and realignment. Voices and declarations have portrayed a Communion in crisis.

Those divisions have been obvious at several levels of Anglican life: between provinces, between dioceses and between individual Anglican clergy and laity. The popular identification of 'conservatives' and 'liberals', and 'the west' as opposed to 'the global south', has become an over-simplification - divisions of opinion have also become clear within provinces, dioceses and parishes. Various statements and decisions at different levels of leadership and membership of the Church have illustrated the depth of reaction. Among other Christian traditions, reactions to the problems within Anglicanism have underlined the serious concerns on these issues worldwide. Comparison has been made with the controversies on women's ordination years ago. But the current strengths of expression of divergent positions are much greater. Questions have been raised about the nature of authority in the Anglican Communion, the inter-relationship of the traditional Instruments of Unity, the ways in which Holy Scripture is interpreted by Anglicans, the priorities of the historic autonomy enshrined in Anglican provinces, and there are also issues of justice. Yet the Lambeth Commission has been aware that consideration within its mandate of any specific aspect of inter-Anglican relationships overlaps and relates to others and has a clear bearing on the sort of Anglican Communion which should enhance the life and worship of our diverse worldwide church family.

What could be termed 'the human face' of these divisions has become clear to the Commission. Within provinces, dioceses and parishes, where individual Anglican Christians have experienced degrees of alienation and exclusion due to differences of opinion between leadership and members, there has been much pain and disillusionment. Further questions have surfaced about episcopal oversight within a diocese where significant groups of Anglicans have become alienated from their bishop. The Commission has seen and heard those emotions.

During its work the Lambeth Commission has recognised the existence within the Anglican Communion of a large constituency of faithful members who are bemused and bewildered by the intensity of the opposing views on issues of sexuality. This group embraces worshippers who yearn for expressions of communion which will provide stability and encouragement for their pilgrimage. At times they have felt their voices eclipsed by the intensity of sounds on opposing sides of the debate.

Pray: with thanksgiving for the thought, prayer and work that has gone into the tasks entrusted to the WCG.  Pray that the delegates to Lambeth may have grace and discernment to perceive 'what the Spirit is saying to the churches' through this document (or not) as they listen to, discuss and weigh the recommendations.

More: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/windsor2004/

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