Politics
Tuesday February 20, 2007
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Anglican Hierarchy ~ US Anglicans Have Seven Months to Shape up or Ship Out
By Hilary White
DAR ES SALAAM, February 20, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The bishops of the Anglican Communion meeting in Tanzania have issued a statement of principles that they say the ultra-liberal US Episcopal Church (ECUSA) must adhere to in order to retain full membership in the Communion.
The bishops wrote that to be part of the Anglican Communion, churches and provinces must adhere to the “faith which is uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures.”
“At the heart of our tensions is the belief that the Episcopal Church has departed from the standard of teaching on human sexuality” by having ordained Robinson and “by permitting Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions,” the Primates write.
The meeting was held February 15-19 in Tanzania’s largest city and is the latest in a series to attempt to address the crisis ensuing since the ordination of an unrepentant homosexual, Gene Robinson, as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire. The statement asks the US church to cease to ordain homosexual bishops or bless same-sex liaisons and to issue a public acceptance of the 2004 Windsor Report’s recommendations by September 2007.
The draft document reiterates the Windsor Report that upheld “faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman in lifelong union, and believes that abstinence is right for those who are not called to marriage” as the standard for all Christians. The Windsor Report’s affirmation of Christian moral law was rejected by the US and Canadian churches.
The meeting also set up an alternative structure for those Episcopalians who reject the leadership of the new head of ECUSA, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports the secularized and sexually permissive trends.
Since the middle of the 20th century, the so-called “sexual revolution” has led many Anglicans of the developed countries in a direction of sexual and doctrinal permissiveness largely rejected by their southern brethren. Today the overwhelming majority of Anglicans live in the “global south”, especially in Africa.
Peter Akinola, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, and leader of the second largest community of Anglicans in the world after England, has been strongly critical of the drift towards secularism and sexual permissiveness of the church in England, the US and Canada. Akinola has demanded that the US and Canadian Anglican churches either adhere to traditional Christian morality and doctrine, or be expelled from the Anglican Communion.
In the US, nine parishes of the diocese of Virginia and a number of other groups have petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury to be “realigned” to other branches of the Anglican Communion, and the two largest of these specifically sought the oversight of the Church of Nigeria.
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- UK Bishops’ Document on Homosexuality Praised by Prominent Anti-Catholic Homosexualist
- Interview: "The Proposed Coalition Government is Very Very Scary" Says Canadian Pro-Life Leader
- Abortionist Pleads No Contest to Felonies, Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
- Catholic Bishop: "Go Right Ahead and Arrest Me" Rather than Obey Freedom of Choice Act
- Abortion Linked to Disproportionately High Rate of Black Premature Births
- Bush Interview: "I Didn't Sell my Soul for Politics"
- Unprecedented Restrictions Placed on Religious, Political Clubs at Lakehead University
- Franklin Graham, Son of Billy Graham, at California Megachurch: "Abortion is Murder"
- Author of French "Right to Die" Law Opposes Efforts to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
- Life Prizes Announces Winners of $600,000 Pro-Life Award
- Homosexualist Catholic University Students Join Protest against True Marriage
- Letters to the Editor for Tuesday, December 2, 2008
- Purchase of Christmas Music CD By Pro-Life Priest is Great Way to Support LifeSiteNews
Most Read this Week
- Behind the Scenes of Volition: Coincidences and Startling Circumstances
- Ad Showing Woman Seducing Santa Promotes Free Morning-After Pills and Condoms for Christmas
- Belgian Couple Sells Baby on EBay
- Leading Canadian Pro-Life MP Relates Shocking 20 Year Lack of Support From Catholic Clergy
- Naming the Anti-Life Appointments in the Obama Administration
- Cardinal on Biblical Condemnation of Homosexuality: We're Not Allowed the Cowardice of "Politically Correct" Silence
- Film Review: Volition
- A Painful, Disease-Ridden Death Isn’t So Bad if You’re Just a White, Heterosexual Male
- Just In Time for Christmas - Gift Cards for Abortions from Planned Parenthood
- Abortion Now Number One Cause of Death in Spain
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.