OPEN THREAD: Offer Your Research, Intel & Analysis of the Players on the Reflections Group Here

Andrew Proud:

USPG Mission partner; Chaplain of St Matthew’s Anglican church, Addis Ababa and Bishop of Egypt’s Assistant for the Horn of Africa.

Favorite Movies: Lord of the Rings, Matrix series, Das Boot

Favorite Music: Jimmy Hendrix, Death in Vegas, Ali Toure, Frank Zappa, Orthodox Chant, Medieval music, Mahler’s 2nd, Mozart operas.

Favorite Books: “The Roots of Christian Mysticism” by Olivier Clement, The Barchester chronicles, Conn Iggulden’s “Emperor” series

Blog: aratkilo (Arat kilo refers to a square in Addis Adaba with a monument celebrating defeat of the Italian fascists by Haile Selasse.)

See also blog entry here

Most important essay seems to be here, written for the Global South Anglican website. Two excerpts:

There is rather more at stake here than the issue of sexual politics. If the Church adopts such a radically politicised reading of the Scriptures, it will be in danger of losing its moorings entirely and all credibility in the global South. One also has to wonder to what extent, if any, such a Church would be regarded, here in Ethiopia, as part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ.

and in the Personal Conclusion section of the essay, Bp Proud concludes:

The Anglican Communion is now as much their Church as ours. The voices of the global South [lxx] will make uncomfortable listening for many in the North, but we should all listen. For, as Kwame Bediako suggests, the global South might indeed be in a position to secure the future of Christianity in the North. Africa has changed my own discipleship and renewed within me the sense of call and commitment I felt as an ordinand. It is my prayer, for the sake of the land and people of my birth, that Bediako will be proved to have been right.

It would be very interesting to know which bishops were nominated and not selected.  Might give an indication of how fair (or not) the process was.

James Ochiel: Bishop of Southern Nyanza (Kenya) served as the bishop for two Kenyan parishes in Massachusetts and, on at least one occasion, visited these parishes prior to the consecration of Bishop Bill Murdoch.

Michael Perham: Bishop of Gloucester.

with Just one look at his Diosisce’s website had me in fits of laughter, and then i realised he was serious.

One thing that has struck me particularly is that, contrary to the view of many that the Episcopal
Church of the United States does what it wants without great reference to others, I have found
the Americans among the most open and gentle in their approach. There is a very real humility
about them and a real sadness that what they have done in the consecration of Gene Robinson
has caused such dismay in some other parts of the Communion.
I have to confess that my own hope for the Conference is, almost above everything else, that we
can find a way of allowing the Episcopal Church to be able to continue to walk alongside those
who believe that their action in consecrating Gene Robinson was utterly wrong. We have so
much in common with them and our Communion would be so lopsided

<a >Oh dear</a>

he sat on the archbishops council, and supports a code of practice.

And looking at his voting record on that Black Monday in Synod…
Against the amendments by the Bishops of Winchester, Exeter, Ripon and Leeds.

But apart from that, he’s as orthodox as the rest of us.

[Sorry for the double; I posted this to the report of the list]

Let’s hope Bishop Wolf of R.I. asserts the fairness and positive regard she has shown for Lambeth 1.10 as the standard of the Communion. She signed on to that at one of the Camp Allen Bishops meetings (not that that movement ever went anywhere).

See: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_78017_ENG_HTM.htm

Michael Perham. Bishop of Gloucester. Former Dean of Derby. Former Canon of Norwich Cathedral.

Liturgist. Personally liberal catholic. Institutional man. Keen to avoid damaging split with evangelicals.

Louis Tsui: Bishop of Eastern Kowloon (Hong Kong) (under ++Paul Kwong, see picture of them here and article describing ++Kwong disagreeing with GAFCon for boycott.

Description of a graduation sermon here (not very informative).

Member of the Compass Rose Society which is a social work organization of the ACC.

Signatory to the
Statement of East Asian Bishops on the Crisis and Future of the Anglican<a href=“http://www…”> Communion.

Cherie Wetzel had this to say about Bill Godfrey:

The next stop was Bishop Bill and Judith Godfrey, from Lima, Peru. Bp. Bill has been very ill for almost a year and has spent a great deal of time in hospital. It was a happy reunion. They are part of the Southern Cone and expect the Conference to affirm orthodox Christianity without a departure from the historic faith we share.

I should say that Bishop Michael Perham will also be keen to see TEC kept on board and one suspects knows Bishop Alexander well - as he was a liturgist too.

Our commenters are unbelievable.  Thanks all and keep it up!

Bishop Gregory of Montego Bay seems to be a moderate revisionist.  Scroll to the bottom here:

http://www.bahamasissues.com/archive/index.php/t-7022-p-2.html

or a moderate conservative; definitely a fence sitter; he is close to John Sentamu, according to other sources I am reading.

Andrew Proud went to Ethiopia as a missionary with USPG, a British missionary organization, according to its website.  From its Annual Conference last month (conference statement, not +Proud personally):

‘But we have also been saddened by some recent statements, including those from GAFCON last week, which can only deepen the divisions in our Communion, and particularly those which have attacked your own leadership.

‘We know that among our partners around the world, and among our supporters here in Britain and Ireland, there is a wide variety of views, held with integrity, on the issues which currently threaten the unity of our Communion. But we also believe that these partners and supporters have an overwhelming commitment to stay travelling together

If Proud agrees with the organization, he is a conservative with a strong institutionalist leanings; however, his article quoted in #1 above indicates his views may have been changed by the work in Ethiopia and Eritrea into conservative without the caveat.

Sue Moxley is a revisionist through and through.  Took over from Red Fred in Nova Scotia which is pretty indicative of her beliefs.  I have no personal knowledge of her - only what I have read.

Alan Abernethy, Bishop of Connor:
He was appointed Bishop in April 2007, after their Electoral College failed to be able to choose a new bishop.  He is from Belfast, ordained in 1981, was rector of Ballyholme Parish for 17 years prior to being chosen Bishop. 
Here’s a link to his first “presidential address”:
http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=news&newsid=1519
Here’s a link to his C.V.:
http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=news&newsid=802

I don’t see any of the usual revisionist-speak in any of this.  In his presidential address, he wants to emphasize spirituality through a renewed priority of prayer and he wants to try to incorporate children and the elderly more in ministry.  He does talk about taking care of the Earth, but he doesn’t go overboard.  And apparently Connor has a diocesan link with the Diocese of Yei in Southern Sudan, and their “Bishop Jeremiah” was at Alan Abernethy’s consecration. 

He just looks like a hard-working guy to me.

+James Ochiel is my bishop!  I spent some time in his diocese (Southern Nyanza) and he ordained me to the diaconate 2nd Advent, 2007, in Homa Bay, Nyanza.  He provided oversight to us at Servants of Christ Anglican Church, Gainesville, FL after our departure from the Episcopal Diocese of Florida and made two episcopal visits.

I can vouch for his general theological orthodoxy, his traditional understanding of Christian morality, and the strength and integrity of his character.

He is well-educated, with degrees in theology and community health.  His diocese is in one of the poorest parts of Kenya and he is consumed with both church planting and providing health care through church agencies. 

In the murderous disaster following the Kenyan Elections last December and January, +Ochiel spoke up boldly against both the violence and against what he saw as inaction from Archbishop Nzimbi in addressing the political crisis.  He is his own man and not easily intimidated.

He did not have funds to attend both Lambeth and GAFCON but blessed the attendance of my rector, Alex Farmer+, at GAFCON, saying he was pleased to have the diocese represented at both. 

I attended his diocesan synod in Nyanza and was very much impressed with his leadership.  I don’t at all exaggerate when I say I believe he will be the next Archbishop of Kenya.

Perhaps driver8, who has personal experience in South India, could look at the Mission Statement of the Diocese of East Kerala, CSI, and give us a better insight.  At first glance it appears to be short on evangelization and long on the social gospel:

We have a responsibility to continue the wonderful work of liberation through God’s love started by the missionaries in bringing the marginalized poor in remote areas to the light of Gospel. By identifying new mission fields, especially for the benefit of oppressed people, we have a living evangelism that pays due respect to other religions in our multi-faith society.

However, in India, where the poverty is extreme and where Christian evangelists are sometimes beaten or murdered, it may be unfair to make a call based on a public website.

I believe this is relevant: +Sue Moxley’s Lambeth blog: http://bishopsue.blogspot.com/

Oh, and this isn’t a Chris Johnson parody.  It’s her real blog:

After all of us had arrived, ++Rowan addressed us briefly and introduced the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. It was wonderful to hear a Prime Minister speak with passion about caring for the people struggling with poverty around the world. When he was finished, Helen Wangusa, the Anglican Observer at the UN thanked him and started by saying, “If I had the authority to ordain you, I would do it right now!” to a huge round of applause…..

The Indaba group today was called “Transforming Society – the Bishop and Social Justice. We had the Millenium development Goals as a focus and a short DVD of Helen Wangusa (the Anglican Observer at the United Nations) talking about how much or little progress has been made on each goal as we move toward 2015. It was the best session of this sort we have had so far. This is a place where almost all of us agree that we can work together from the context of the Gospel to transform the world. We wrote a piece that I hope will become a statement from Lambeth listing the work that the Communion is already doing to move us toward reaching the MDGs by 2015. [emphasis added] ...

I went to the Marketplace to see what I could find and had great fun helping a bishop from the Congo choose a purple cassock and cincture band at Wippell’s….

Read, mark, note, and do not inwardly digest….

Howard Gregory, before he was elected Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay, was a Lecturer and ultimately President of United Theological College of the West Indies.  I believe he would uphold the traditional view, which would be the view strongly held in the West Indies.  As a pastoral theologian with an earned doctorate, he was trying to get his diocese to speak out against the hideous violence against gay and lesbian people in the Caribbean (of which there would be more in Jamaica than in other places).

In the Caribbean 70% of babies are born out of wedlock, so this causes all sorts of social problems.

Rudy+

I don’t know CSI in Kerala. If I recall rightly Kerala has the largest proportion of christians of any state in India (about 20%). It is of course the heartland of Syrian Indian Christianity. The citizens of Kerala, as I recall, elected the first Communist Government to achieve power through the ballot box rather than revolution in 1957 and the Marxist coalition held power as recently as the early 90s.

Re: Alan Abernethy research.  Somebody should follow up on him some more.  I’ve got to go do altar guild, but if you want to take him on, google down the Ballyholme Parish trail, since he was rector there for 17 years.
And note the spelling… his name is Abernethy, not Abernathy.

Some intel on Roger Chung:
Roger Chung

In his sermon,the bishop focused on his vision of the diocese taking his inspiration from 1 Peter 2 : 9 but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. He spoke of the importance of the identity of the dynamic Christian whose witness is based on his inheritance from the One who calls, sends and empowers us by the Holy Spirit to go out in the mission field and to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ Our Lord. The Diocese of Antsiranana is indeed favoured as the Lord of the harvest sends more labourers to bring in the harvest in the vast territories of the diocese.

Sermon

UTO helps build the Pastoral and Theological Centre of Antsiranana Diocese

center

carl

Per George Conger:
http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/
Bp. Seoka was in the running for Archbishop of Capetown.  He goes on to say:

Bishop “Jo” Seoka of Pretoria was educated at the Eshowe College of Education, and earned Masters and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Chicago Theological Seminary and a Master degree from the University of Chicago. He trained for the ministry at St. Bede’s Theological College and was ordained a priest in 1975 in Natal. Following pastoral cures in Soweto and Pretoria as well as a stint as priest in charge of an Episcopal parish in Chicago, Bishop Seoka was named dean of Pretoria in 1996 and elected bishop in 1998.

Long active in the South African church’s hierarchy, Bishop Seoka is the church’s representative to CAPA, (Council of Anglican Churches in Africa) and the South African government. He has also served as a mission advisor to the USPG since 2000.

Bp. Seoka may have a unique perspective from having served both in a TEC parish and as a representative to CAPA.  He was also involved in the reconciliation commission in South Africa.  He is referred to elsewhere as a protege of ++Desmond Tutu.  From ++Rowan’s point of view, the perfect candidate to write the reflections.

Intel on Bishop Kondo.

Bishop Kondo was a candidate for Archbishop of Sudan.
link

The Rt. Rev. Deng, a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary, garnered 39 votes; the Rt. Rev. Francis Loyo, Bishop of Rokon Diocese received 21; and the <u>Rt. Rev. Ezekiel Kondo, Bishop of Khartoum Diocese received 15</u>.

Also this little interesting story from Wycliffe Bible Translators.
link

In 1985, two of those students began to share a common dream with one another. Both “wanted to translate the Bible into a language that anybody in the Nuba Mountains could read,” according to Ezekiel Kondo, current Bishop of the Khartoum Diocese of ECS. <u>Ezekiel was one of those students, from the Moro speaking community in the Nuba Mountains.</u>

His name also shows up prominently in stories relating to Muslim persecution of Christians.

carl

I really wouldn’t call Howard Gregory of Montego Bay a revisionist.  Very much a moderate.

Rudy+

Louis Tsui is conservative he signed on to this:

We unanimously reaffirm: (a) the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolutions on Biblical authority, Uniqueness of Christ and Human Sexuality; (b) the unanimous Statement of the Primates’ Meeting of Oct 15 & 16, 2003 urging no unilateral action be taken to further aggravate the critical state of fellowship within the Communion pending the Report of the Lambeth Commission under the Chairmanship of the Most Revd Dr Robin Eames.  We firmly believe these to be the clearly expressed mind of the Anglican Communion on the matters concerned.

As such, we deeply regret that:

(1) ECUSA on July 2003, through its General Convention (a) passed the Resolution to approve the Blessing of Same Sex Union in ECUSA; (b) confirmed the election of a practicing homosexual to be a Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire and (c) despite the strong warning, urging and pleading of the Primates at their special meeting in London 114-15 October 2003, the Presiding Bishop and other bishops in ECUSA went ahead to consecrate Gene Robinson as Bishop Co-adjucator of the Diocese of New Hampshire on 2nd November 2003.

from here:
http://www.americananglican.org/site/c.ikLUK3MJIpG/b.564003/apps/s/content.asp?ct=3197065

Tsui also signed a petition requesting the ABC not recognize any participants in the consecration of Gene Robinson back in 2003.  It is here:

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/print.php?storyid=36

About Bishop David Njovu.  This reference is a very good sign.

The Assembly was graced by the presence of Bishop David Njovu and his wife, Noreen, from the Diocese of Zambia. “We are Anglo-Catholic and we are a diocese of young people.” We encourage you to stand for the historic
faith. He explained the great power that reprinting the Prayer Book in their
language has made in bringing young people to the Gospel; to enable them
to see the Apostolic Church made manifest, the historic Church made
present.

FiFNA
page 7

carl

Soeka from South Africa is a revisionist.  THis is from the Episcopal News service

The relationship between the CPSA and the Episcopal Church “is very compatible,” Seoka said. “The problem comes with other provinces in Africa, but that is more at the primates’ level. There are many bishops who are keen to work with the Episcopal Church—some have even told their primates this.”

Timeya reminded Church Center staff that there are some U.S.-based Episcopalians who create an environment that enables African bishops and primates to be hostile towards the Episcopal Church.

“We shouldn’t make the assumption that the opinion of the primates is the opinion of the church in general,” Seoka said, suggesting that Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria should be addressing the conflict between Christianity and Islam in his own country rather than interfering in the affairs of the Episcopal Church.

“People should not deliberately divide the church for personal agendas,” Seoka concluded. “We have a common agenda, the same God and same redeemer and we have been entrusted with the mission in the world.”

Here is the whole article from above:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_74093_ENG_HTM.htm

Kowloon (Hong Kong) and Sudan are in the same category of “theological differences over human sexuality are less essential issues than the social issues we are facing in our country.”  Because of this, they are not to be trusted to be the tie-breaking vote for orthodoxy when U.S. funding may be on the line.  Sad but true.

Alan Abernathy is a moderate revisionist.

If a relationship between homosexual males is creative of love as well as being permanent and lifelong I don’t think that I am able to say that it is intrinsically disordered. What I am very much concerned about is the problem of promiscuity which is a totally different issue. I’m not entering now into the question of whether or not a homosexual lifestyle as we see it is intrinsically more promiscuous than what we call a straight lifestyle. But I am concerned about faithfulness.”

and this

That the church has more work to do in assessing the validity of certain types of same-sex relationships, and whether those relationships are sinful would depend on “how they are conducted”. Without wishing to unpack the point any further, he suggested that a couple living in an “appropriately chaste relationship” would not be sinning, and appeared to be using the term “chaste” in this context to mean “faithful and monogamous”, rather than as a synonym for “celibate”.

from here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2007/01/interviewing_alan_harper.html

33 is from the primate of Ireland not the bishop in question. sorry for the mistake

Rt Revd Patrick Mwachiko, Diocese of Masasi

The website for the diocese.
DioMasasi

He attended this college in Canada to get his education.
usask

He attended and spoke at the 2007 Synod for the Diocese of Montreal, which synod sounded rather revisionist.  But that could have been his responsibility as a Bishop of a Partner Diocese.

No clear indications from this google search. Make of it what you will. 

google

carl

Given the 50/50 split liberal and conservative, there is zero chance for strong discipline of TEC coming out of this “reflection”.

A statement by the Tanzanian House of Bishops. 
Statement
Bishop Mwachiko was a member and so may be presumed to have supported it.  One Tanzanian bishop did repudiate this statement, and so presumably if Bishop Mwachiko had repudiated the statement, it also would have made news.

carl

New Orleans is the model for success for the revisionists.

Ensure that the report is largly written by liberal staff or activist, trained participants, ACC and Beers, create a process that ensures little substantive changes to the drafts, and then ensure you have a sprinkling of “conservative” members whose names will give the output credibility.  This has been done time nad time again.

Since there was no way the orthodox were going to control this process, it was important that they do not lend their good names to it. Those attending Lambeth who find themselves with these responsibilities should resign from the group beforet he document is published.

Re:  Alan Abernethy, Bishop of Connor.
This was written about him from the woman who delivered the sermon at his consecration:

Those of us who know Alan, and who have worked and worshipped with him would want to testify to the importance of Alan’s relationship with God.  Faith really is the bedrock and foundation on which his life and ministry are built.
Revd Helen Houston said the new Bishop was also not afraid of saying I don’t know.  Like Peter he is comfortable to be seen as a man making sense of the love of God in a contrary world.  He allows you to see the struggles, the weaknesses, the joints in the jar of clay where the light seeps through untidily.
As a leader you will find Alan to be a team builder who shares ministry and allows those around him to have the space to find their own giftings.  He will support and affirm you, clergy and lay leaders alike.  He is always prepared to hear the views of others and to work with difference and conflict.  He’s fair-minded,he’s fun,he’s loyal, and treats all people with respect and without prejudice.
For also dominant in Alan’s ministry is the image of a God of lavish and unconditional love.  And it is this image which informs both his teaching and his practice as a Christian.

I can’t find anything blatantly revisionist in all the research I’ve done.  Abernethy just looks like a normal guy to me.  He’s only been a bishop for about a year.  He may be in a little over his head with this crowd.  Label him a moderate, I suppose.

OT but relevant. Here is what may be in the third paper from the Windsor Continuation Group:

The paper, “How do we get from here to there?”, stresses that it is vital that an Anglican Covenant be agreed so that churches around the world are mutually accountable and united by a common set of beliefs. This must happen as soon as possible, it says, to prevent further haemorrhaging of the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexual clergy.

Until a consensus is reached, the American and Canadian churches must refrain from consecrating more homosexual bishops and carrying out blessing services for same-sex couples, the paper says.

If they do not, they will face being pushed to the margins of the communion and find themselves excluded from the councils that are central to the governance of the Church.

The African churches, which oppose having practising homosexuals in the clergy, will be told that they must stop intervening in the affairs of other churches as their actions are deepening the rift.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2461838/Homosexual-bishops-face-Anglican-Church-ban.html

If TEC agrees to this, I hope all CANA, AMiA, Kenyan, Ugandan, and Southern Cone congregations are ready to return to TEC.

OK, so I must have spent three hours (it was either that, or mow the lawn ) trying to find something on the Bishop of East Kerala, Bishop Rev. Dr.K G Daniel.  I found a lot of revisionist smoke around the Church of Southern India but nothing conclusive, and nothing much of anything on the Bishop in question.  The best I could come up with was his own website: csieastkerala

This page doesn’t sound easy on my ears, but then I don’t live there either.  I don’t know that I am competent to judge the content of an Indian website, and so I can’t consider this conclusive.  Draw your cards and lay your bets.

carl

btw, my wife said I had to mow the lawn, anyways.  Is there no justice in this world?

11, 20 & 26

I would have to agree with Rudy. Bp. Gregory is responding to the violence against homosexuals.

While I have not spoken to him since I saw him in South Florida a few years ago, I would have to say that he is a ‘moderate’, or perhaps just left of center on social issues.

At any rate, he will be careful how he represents the Church in Jamaica - the current Bishop of Jamaica is not a young man, and Bp. Howard would certainly love that job.

So too would any of the other 2 active Bishops.

Micky, TEC can refrain from ordaining whatever or whoever they like for as long as they feel like, but the simple fact is that those that have left TEC did so because they consider TEC to be false teachers on issues ranging from abortion to religious pluralism, and for the majority are nothing short a complete overall of TEC will satisfy them.  They aren’t going to return to a church that makes a token, easily reversable promise not to ordain any more practicing homosexual clergy if the current practing homosexual clergy are still left in their orders and liberals have the freedom to teach that homosexual behavior is a thing blessed by God.

Of course, such a radical 180 in theology will cause TEC them to bleed liberal membership at least as fast if not faster than its has been bleeding conservative membership.

Gone Back to Africa (42):  I think you’re right.  It’s one thing for a bishop of the Church in the Province of the West Indies to make a liberal statement about a social issue and quite another thing to argue in favor of any kind of substantial change in CPWI itself.  CPWI is solidly against the majority view of the bishops of TEC on the matter of Gene Robinson etc.  The provincial standing committee and the house of bishops of CPWI issued a statement that CPWI was in impaired communion with TEC either shortly before or after Robinson was consecrated.  I haven’t heard of any of the 8 dioceses disagreeing with that statement.

The bigger question is who will become Archbishop of the West Indies when Drexel Gomez retires.

Rudy+