Homily on Theodore of Tarsus ~ Archbishop of Canterbury ~ 690 ce

The Collect

Almighty God, you called your servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the see of Canterbury, and gave him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in your Church, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Timothy 2:1–5,10

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier's aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

John 3:16–21

Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

Homily preached at Bishop William White Lodge, Cathedral Village, Philadelphia

Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury - 690 c.e.

John’s gospel reminds us that God is the ultimate giver, who gives us life, who gives us all we have, and who gave the world Jesus, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”  The gifts of God are given in love, so that the world might be transformed into the beloved community.  God constantly surprises us with his boundless love, but also with his creativity.  When John writes, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that be saved through him. “  Those who take up the cross and follow Jesus are a part of this saving action.  

Today we remember Theodore of Tarsus who was one who took up his cross, and followed Jesus, and was quite a surprising figure in the history of the church. Theodore was a monk living in Rome when word came that there needed to be a new Archbishop of Canterbury.  The English elected the next Archbishop, Wighard, and sent him to Rome to be consecrated, but before he could be consecrated by the Pope, he died.

Pope Vitalian chose the next Archbishop, and surely surprised many by choosing a 65 year old monk from Tarsus in the Holy Land, who had not even been ordained a priest to go to England.  This surprising choice turned out to be a very good one. Theodore was "the first archbishop whom all the English obeyed" (Bede).  

“Theodore filled the vacant bishoprics and in 672 presided over the first council of the entire English Church, at Hertford. He established definite territorial boundaries for the various dioceses, and founded new dioceses where needed. He found the Church of England an unorganized missionary body, and left it a fully ordered province of the universal Church. The body of canon law drawn up under his supervision, and his structure of dioceses and parishes, survived the turmoil of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and are substantially intact today.

He also founded a school at Canterbury that trained Christians from both the Celtic and the Roman traditions, and did much to unite the two groups.”

                   (from http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/250.html )

This monk from the Holy Land, living and working in Rome, was plucked from his life to serve a particular purpose, a challenging mission to England.  God chose this surprising figure to find a way to spread the Gospel of love, and build up the Church.  God also pours out his surprising love on us, and blesses us with his surprising love.  May we each be as ready and willing as Theodore to take up God’s gospel of love, and proclaim it to the world.

Consecration of the Virginia Theological Seminary chapel - Immanuel Chapel

I was glad to hear that the "new" chapel at my seminary, Virginia Theological Seminary, was consecrated today with the help of our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and also Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.  It looks like a glorious new space, and I am thankful that the seminary has retained the shell of the "old" chapel and made it into a meditation garden.  That chapel held a special place for me as I worshipped there every day for three years, and many significant moments happened there including the funerals of several VTS community members, the baptism of my son, and where I heard wonderful preaching, and where I myself gave my senior homily (with great trepidation).  Blessings on the entire VTS Community! May Immanuel Chapel be a place of deep holiness, prayer, and peace.

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

“Peace be to this house, and to all who enter here…”

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori opened the doors of Immanuel Chapel yesterday morning in a service of consecration and dedication; Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, preached. The service leaflet is available as a pdf here, and the VTS press release can be found here.

A 4:00 Evensong, with the Archbishop officiating, and the 25th Presiding Bishop,Frank T. Griswold III, blessing the change ringing bells.

The coming year will be a continued celebration of the chapel, which replaces the chapel that burned in 2010, with events including exhibits, a hymn sing with Alice Parker among others, organ recitals, a storytellers class by Donald Davis, lectures and talks by speakers including Katharine Jefferts Schori and other events: the schedule can be found here.

The morning service can be viewed here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fj-arSLQps

Rowan Williams to step down in 2012

Rowan Williams will step down as Archbishop of Canterbury at the end of 2012 to become head of Magdalene College at Cambridge.

Lambeth Palace has a news release. An extract:

"It has been an immense privilege to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, and moving on has not been an easy decision. During the time remaining there is much to do, and I ask your prayers and support in this period and beyond. I am abidingly grateful to all those friends and colleagues who have so generously supported Jane and myself in these years, and all the many diverse parishes and communities in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion that have brought vision, hope and excitement to my own ministry. I look forward, with that same support and inspiration, to continuing to serve the Church’s mission and witness as best I can in the years ahead."
Dr Williams will continue to carry out all the duties and responsibilities of the Archbishop of Canterbury, both for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, until the end of the year.
The Crown Nominations Commission will consider in due course the selection of a successor.

HERE are some of the posts that I have had about Rowan Williams

World AIDS Day - message from Rowan Williams

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has released his 2009 World Aids Day video, in which he speaks with the Revd Patricia Sawo, a church leader and mother from Kenya, about her experiences of living with HIV. The video highlights the plight of expectant mothers who are HIV positive and the support they need to prevent the transmission of HIV to their babies.

William Temple, archbishop and theologian, November 6

The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.

~William Temple

O God, who by your Holy Spirit give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant William Temple, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

from James Keifer:

William Temple, October 27, 1944

Temple's admirers have called him "a philosopher, theologian, social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical movement of his generation," "the most significant Anglican churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation," "Anglican's most creative and comprehensive contribution to the theological enterprise of the West." One of his biographers lists him (along with Richard Hooker, Joseph Butler, and Frederick Denison Maurice) as one of the Four Great Doctors of the Anglican Communion.

Ronald Knox described him thus:

A man so broad, to some he seem'd to be

Not one, but all Mankind in Effigy.

Who, brisk in Term, a Whirlwind in the Long,

Did everything by turns, and nothing wrong.

Bill'd at each Lecture-Hall from Thames to Tyne,

As Thinker, Usher, Statesman, or Divine.

more HERE 

Anglican Prayers - "Take our minds," by Donald Coggan

Take our minds, and think through them.
Take our lips, and speak through them.
Take our hearts, and set them on fire with love for thee.
What we know not, teach us.
What we have not, give us.
What we are not, make us.
For Jesus sake.



A prayer by Donald Coggan (1909-2000), who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1974. From "Give us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers" compiled by Christopher Webber, Morehouse, 2004

The Archbishop of Canterbury reflects on Holy Week on Youtube

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, gave these reflections on Holy Week last year, they are well worth watching again if you can spare 8 minutes...


...The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, gives his thoughts on Holy Week, which took place between 16th and 23rd March (2008). Holy Week is 'a week when we discover in a way we don't at any other time just who we are and just who God is'.

Lent - Archbishop Rowan Williams' reflections on Lent

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, reflects on Lent as a time to: "Sweep and clean the room of our own minds and hearts so that the new life really may have room to come in and take over and transform us at Easter".

Lent: Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent book for 2009

from the archbishopofcanterbury.org site...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has chosen 'Why Go To Church?' by Timothy Radcliffe, as his Lent Book for 2009

'Why Go To Church?' by Timothy Radcliffe

Archbishops of Canterbury have commissioned an 'Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book' for decades, collaborating with a Christian publisher. The books concentrate on theological or devotional Christian themes relevant to Lent, in preparation for the celebration of the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ in Holy Week and Easter. The Archbishop commissions the author, and always writes the foreword.

The foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury:

'The unobserved drama is in the core of our humanity': this striking phrase occurs early on in Timothy Radcliffe's engaging and penetrating book. And it tells us that the answer to the question in his title is going to be about how 'church' allows us to be human in ways we shan't find anywhere else.

He draws on an exceptionally wide experience of ministry. When he writes about what it is like to give voice to gratitude and praise in the middle of conditions of the most extreme danger and poverty, he knows what he is talking about; and one of the moving and distinctive things in the book is the way in which he brings in the insights of his Dominican brothers and sisters across the globe in their diverse and often very costly ministries.

As he leads us through one of the two most important events that ever occur in church—the celebration of Holy Communion—he shows us how the journey into the heart of Jesus' self-giving is also a discovery of who we are and who we might become in Jesus. The drama at the core of our humanity is about our reluctance to be human; and the gift that the Church offers is the resource and courage to step into Jesus' world and begin the business of being human afresh – again and again, because our reluctance keeps coming back. But if we do take such a step, the look of the country changes: strangers are less threatening, it becomes possible to live more with our own failure and humiliation, and we may even be able to have a faint idea of what it means to claim that human life is created for joyful sharing in God's life. And more – we become ambassadors for this new world, seeking wherever we are to let men and women know that violence and death do not have the last word where humanity is concerned.

It is a great delight to be able to introduce the work of one of the most lively and creative preachers of the gospel in the Roman Catholic Church today; and I hope that these pages will remind us all that, whatever tensions and unfinished business still lie between the historic churches, the basic commitment is one and the same. It is to let God the Holy Trinity, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, touch the core of our humanity and, as Timothy writes at the very end of the book, 'free us to be sent' in God's name, to announce healing and joy to all creation.

Only a vision like this can get us out of bed on Sunday mornings, as he rightly reminds us! 'Our duty and our joy' need to be held together, so that we come to worship in the confidence that this is where we are most completely at home with our Maker and Redeemer – and so with ourselves as well.

+ Rowan Cantuar:

Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Message

read it HERE

Monday 15 December 2008

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams' Christmas Message to the Anglican Communion

Human beings, left to themselves, have imagined God in all sorts of shapes; but – although there were one or two instances, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, of gods being pictured as boys – it took Christianity to introduce the world to the idea of God in the form of a baby: in the form of complete dependence and fragility, without power or control. If you stop to think about it, it is still shocking. And it is also deeply challenging.

God chose to show himself to us in a complete human life, telling us that every stage in human existence, from conception to maturity and even death, was in principle capable of telling us something about God. Although what we learn from Jesus Christ and what his life makes possible is unique, that life still means that we look differently at every other life. There is something in us that is capable of communicating what God has to say – the image of God in each of us, which is expressed in its perfection only in Jesus.

Hence the reverence which as Christians we ought to show to human beings in every condition, at every stage of existence. This is why we cannot regard unborn children as less than members of the human family, why those with disabilities or deprivations have no less claim upon us than anyone else, why we try to makes loving sense of human life even when it is near its end and we can hardly see any signs left of freedom or thought.

And hence the concern we need to have about the welfare of children. As we look around the world, there is plenty to prompt us to far more anger and protest about what happens to children than we often seem to feel or express. In the UK this year there have been several public debates about childhood, as research has underlined the lack of emotional security felt by many children here, the high cost of divorce and family breakdown, the disproportionate effect of poverty and debt on children, and many other problems. We look forward to the publication here in the New Year of a nationwide survey about what people think is a 'good childhood' – sponsored by the Children's Society, with its long association with the Anglican Church.

Elsewhere we see far more horrendous sights – child soldiers still deployed in parts of Africa and in Sri Lanka, the burden laid on children in places where HIV and AIDS have wiped out a whole generation, leaving only the old and the young, the fate of children in areas of conflict like Congo and the Middle East and the insensitive treatment that is so often given to child refugees and asylum seekers in more prosperous countries.

'Though an infant now we view him, He shall fill his Father's throne' says the Christmas hymn. If it is true that the child of Bethlehem is the same one who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, how shall we stand before him if we have allowed his image in the children of the world to be abused and defaced? In the week I write this, the British public is trying to cope with the revelation of the shocking killing of a very small child. Recently I accompanied a number of students and British faith leaders on a pilgrimage to the extermination camps at Auschwitz, where some of the most unforgettably horrifying images have to do with the wholesale slaughter of Jewish children – their toys and clothes still on display, looted by their killers from their dead bodies.

Christmas is a good time to think again about our attitudes to children and about what happens to children in our societies. Christians who recognise the infinite and all-powerful God in the vulnerability of a newborn baby have every reason to ask hard questions about the ways in which children come to be despised, exploited, even feared in our world. We all suspect that in a time of economic crisis worldwide, it will be the most vulnerable who are left to carry most of the human cost. The Holy Child of Bethlehem demands of us that we resist this with all our strength, for the sake of the one who, though he was rich, for our sake became poor, became helpless with the helpless so that he might exalt us all through his mercy and abundant grace.

With every blessing and best wish for Christmas and the New Year.

+Rowan Cantuar:

Text of Advent Reflection by Archbishop Rowan Williams

Transcript

I suppose if you did one of those word association tests on 'Advent', the other word you'd come up with straight away would be 'calendar'. That's all that most people these days are really aware of where Advent is concerned. Advent is a time when you have calendars, and the Advent calendar is a countdown to Christmas, and it means daily sweets and chocolates.

It's a slightly thin and rather inadequate account of what has been for a long time been one of the most important and significant times in the Church's year - a time of waiting we sometimes say. But once we've said waiting, of course that's not a very attractive word. We're not a culture that's very used to waiting. 'Take waiting out of wanting' - that's a slogan that was very popular some decades ago - and it still governs a great deal of the way we behave. We'd quite like to have things when we decide we want them. And so waiting seems negative, waiting seems perhaps passive, unexciting, the boring bit before we get to the exciting bit. So if there is a period of waiting, getting ready for Christmas, we pad it out with the daily chocolate, to make sure that we're not feeling too miserable.

Well it's that kind of waiting that Advent is about. We remember in Advent the time of waiting before the birth of Jesus, and we remember that time of waiting as the Bible shows it to us as a time when people were indeed longing for something that would change everything, and yet at the same time not quite knowing what that something would be.

During Advent, Christians go back to that time of waiting as the Bible shows it to us. They read again the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Old Testament. They read about how people were longing for an end to slavery, longing to be back home in some sense, longing to be at home with God again, longing for reconciliation. And all of that is expressed in the most powerful metaphors, especially in the prophesies of Isaiah, metaphors about the desert blossoming, metaphors about the rain falling, metaphors about day dawning after there's been a long, long night.

So during this four weeks before Christmas, that's what Christians are reflecting on. When Jesus comes into the life of the world with something unplanned, overwhelming, something that makes a colossal difference, we long for it and yet we don't quite know what it's going to involve. But this is a bit odd isn't it, you might say. Surely Jesus has come into the world and by now we ought to know what sort of difference he's made? But the truth is that we don't yet know the difference Jesus might make. We know some of the difference he's made to our lives as individuals, to the life of the Christian community, the Church, to the whole world. And yet there's more. We're still waiting to see what might happen if Jesus was allowed into our lives that bit more fully; that bit more radically.

So again for Christians, Advent is a time when they do a bit of self-examination. Have I allowed Jesus in yet? Has the good news really made the full impact it might make, or is my life still locked into old patterns, into darkness, into slavery, into being not at home with myself or God or with other people? It's a time of self-examination, of repentance indeed, facing myself honestly and saying sorry for the things that don't easily face the light. And it's a time of expectation and a time of hope. A time, therefore, also of quiet.

It's been said so often it hardly needs saying again, but it is rather a pity that for a few weeks before Christmas we are saturated with Christmas carols. We don't have quite the sort of quiet we need to think, 'Well what would it be if Jesus really came as if for the first time into my life? What would it be for the good news really to change me.' Because for that to happen I need some reflective time; I need some peace; I need to slow down; I need, you might say, to take my time about things. And so all those bits of our contemporary culture which are about rushing to get gratification, getting the results straight away, all those habits in our culture which so drive the crises of our culture, whether it's the credit crunch or the environmental crisis, all those things we have to cast a rather cold eye on during Advent and say slow down, take time, let yourself grow and open up, rather like a flower coming to blossom - a time of expectation, a time of excitement, a time of waiting, a time of peace, a time where we're clearing our hearts and our minds a bit so we really can see clearly when Jesus arrives, and feel fully the impact of his coming.

It's a time, as I've said, for going back to the prophecies, the foreshadowings of Jesus' comings that we find in the Bible, and a time when two figures above all are representatives of how we're thinking and how we're feeling. In the New Testament those two figures who are there right from the start of the gospel story, are John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin and forerunner, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus' mother. John the Baptist, you might say, sums up the whole drive, the whole story of the Bible so far. 'Yes,' says John the Baptist, 'something is about to happen and you've very little idea what it is and you've no idea how radical and how complete a change it will involve.' So John the Baptist can say when the Promised One arrives, 'I won't be worthy even to untie his shoe. He belongs in a different world; a different league.' So John the Baptist is pointing forward and saying, 'Everything you've always hoped for, everything you've longed for, the change, the freedom, the peace, is about to come. It will be a shock coping with that. Get yourself ready. Make straight the Lord's path,' says John the Baptist, quoting the old prophecies. And Mary, who in many icons of ancient Christian art stands on the other side of Jesus from the John the Baptist, the two of them flanking the figure of Jesus - Mary is the one who in quiet and receptivity receives into herself, into her body, heart and mind, the full reality of what's coming. She receives it so deeply that that promise actually becomes real, physically real, in her; it becomes the child that's going to be Jesus. And she has to wait with the long nine months of pregnancy, faithfully, quietly, waiting to see what comes, ready to be changed as every mother is changed by the birth of a child.

These are the two figures that Christians think about a lot in Advent. When you light Advent wreaths in churches, two of the candles represent Mary and John the Baptist. In Advent, Christians have for centuries thought about death and judgment, about heaven and hell. They've thought about the way in which when we're up against the truth for the first time, when we really see what the reality of God is like, it will be a shock to the system. It may be deeply painful as well as deeply joyful. Death and judgment, and hell and heaven. It will be that experience of confronting the truth in such a way that you're changed for good. We say yes to all of that even with the pain and the risk. Or God forbid we say no we can't cope with the truth, we'd prefer our own darkness. And so part of our self-examination during Advent is looking into ourselves and saying, 'Well can I get myself to the point where I can look at God and say well there's truth and there's beauty and light and love and it's painful for me, weak and stupid though I am, to face that, and yet I'd rather be there with the truth, however much it costs, than be locked up with myself?'

During Advent, we try to get ourselves a bit more used to the truth - the truth about ourselves, which is not always very encouraging, but the truth about God above all which is always encouraging. The One who comes will come with a great challenge. It will be like fire on the earth as the Bible says. And yet the One who comes is coming in love. He's coming to set us free. And that's something well worth waiting for.

© Rowan Williams 2008

Cantuar emerges from meditation: Lambeth Responds to new "province" of the Anglican Communion

Trying to figure out the latest episode in the drama that is unfolding in the Anglican Communion?

Ruth Gledhill, of the London Times, has some helpful links and a good article about the "Days of Our Lives" that is our Anglican Communion lately, check out her article if you want to know a bit more "As the World Turns."

It seems if you want to form a new province, you have to do more than declare it.

~Rev. Peter M. Carey

from the London Times Online

December 04, 2008

Lambeth Palace on new province as Gafcon primates fly in for summit

As we report, conservatives from The Episcopal Church 'have voted to form their own branch of Anglicanism in the United States. TitusOneNine has more details. Today Lambeth Palace, although not the Archbishop of Canterbury in person, has at last made a comment on this, and the comment at first glance seems to make it clear that this new province will not receive formal recognition any time soon. In fact it appears pretty brutal in its dismissal of the Common Cause initiative. Hong Kong, don't forget, was recognised extremely fast once its three dioceses decided to seek independence.

Lambeth Palace says: 'There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12), detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces.

'Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, no such process has begun.'

Nevertheless, it should be nopted that this resolution is just a guideline, and has never been formally incorporated into the Anglican Consultative Council constitution.

This all comes as the five Gafcon primates, Archbishops Akinola, Venables, Nzimbi, Kolini and Orombi, fly into London this afternoon and prepare to travel to Canterbury tomorrow, Friday, to meet Dr Williams to discuss the new province among other things.

The meeting has been arranged at the request of the five primates. Next month, I understand, the Gafcon primates will then meet with the primates of the Joint Standing Committee, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori of TEC and Archbishops Morgan of Wales, Aspinall of Australia, Orombi of Uganda, Anis of Egypt and Dr Williams. At this meeting they will present the plan formally to the primates for consideration at the Primates Meeting which begins in Alexandria, Egypt the following day. But it is not at all clear whether this presentation will incorporate a formal request for recognition or not.

It appears the primates are reluctant to formally request recognition because they don't want to force the Archbishop of Canterbury into a decision that might go against them.

Read the rest HERE.

Archbishop Rowan Williams' World AIDS Day Video on Youtube

Archbishop's World AIDS Day Video

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has recorded a video message to mark the 20th annual World AIDS day on December 1st 2008.

The video sees the Archbishop talk about the Church's worldwide involvement in care and education surrounding HIV and AIDS, and calls for faith leaders to 'encourage and support' what is being done by listening to those who work on the front lines.

There are currently 30 million people worldwide living with HIV.

He says "Our hope and our prayer today is that the excellent work that's done, not just in developing countries but here at home too by the Churches will continue and deepen and be strengthened by our prayer and our commitment."

"Recognising that people living with HIV is us not them, whether it's leaders and congregations, congregations and 'outsiders' - it's us. It's all of our business...Church leaders and Church congregations taking responsibility for educating the wider public."

In the video Dr Williams speaks with representatives from Tearfund, Christian Aid, NAHIP and African HIV Policy Network, Zimbabwe Womens Network UK and Rise Community Action.

---

This video, along with all other Lambeth Palace videos, can be viewed at the Lambeth Palace YouTube channel - http://youtube.com/lambethpress

If you would like to find out about some of the ways Anglican organisations are seeking to combat HIV and support and empower those living with HIV, please see the links below:

Australian Board of Mission - Fighting For Life: STOPAIDS and the Anglican Church in PNG

CHAA - The Christian HIV/AIDS Alliance - CHAA has initiated a Creed for the AIDS pandemic suitable to be read in church services for World AIDS day or any other occasion when the pandemic is remembered.

USPG - Projects: Action on HIV

See also - AngliCORD, Episcopal Relief and Development, The Primate's World Relief and Development Fund, Christian Aid, CMS Britain, CMS Ireland

Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams reflects on Advent on Youtube

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, gives his reflections on Advent: "It is a time of expectation and a time of hope. A time, therefore, also of quiet".

Cross Christmas Cards Off Your List this Year!? says Archbishop of Canterbury!

No, not the Grinch, not Scrooge, but the Bishop of Reading and the Archbishop of Canterbury!


From England's The Daily Mail....
"They gather on the doormat, multiply in the hall and end up taking over mantelpieces, shelves and even walls.

Then, after Christmas is over, their empty promises of ‘we must catch up soon’ end up in the rubbish or at best the recycling bin.

So this year, why not give Christmas cards a miss?

That’s the suggestion from the
Bishop of Reading, the Right Reverend
Dr Stephen Cottrell, who believes the hustle and bustle, stress and strain of Christmas is clouding the real meaning of the festive season.

‘There must be another way of
celebrating Christmas,’ he said.

Dr Cottrell wants those struggling to write scores of cards to stop sending them to those they don’t really like and put their feet up and relax.

And instead of expensive presents, why not hand out a jar of home-made marmalade or pickled onions?

His advice came as the Church of England unveiled a campaign for people to cut up their credit cards this Christmas in order to ‘put the waiting back into wanting’.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is among leading clerics who are concerned at the commercialism and high spending that goes with Christmas."

read the rest HERE

Archbishop of Canterbury's Sermon at York Minster

Archbishop of Canterbury's Sermon at York Minster

Sunday 06 July 2008

General Synod, July Group of Sessions

Any congregation might be forgiven for wondering what are we going to hear about this morning. Members of Synod in particular (but perhaps members of the Church of England in general) may have the slight sense that there's rather too much to be hearing about, that we're suffering somewhat from issue fatigue. So perhaps we ought to begin where we always ought to begin, in listening to what the Word of God has to say. And scripture says, 'Rejoice greatly, o daughter of Zion. I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit". And today's scriptures say, 'Who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord'. And scripture says, 'Come to me all you who travail and are heavy laden. My yoke is easy and my burden is light'. In a way, the pivot for understanding all this is provided in the epistle today. Paul in the letter to the Romans gives us the key.

We live under law, different kinds of law. The law of God, which is for our health, and the law we make for ourselves. We long to be masters of our future, and so we become the prisoners of our past. We long to take control of the world we're in. And because we are who we are, and our histories have been what they have been, we dig ourselves deeper and deeper into unfreedom. The will that we want to use to conquer the world, is a will weakened and bruised by the legacy of self-love, going back to the very roots of the human race. The effects of that legacy work themselves out as relentlessly as any oriental karma. We want to take hold of our future and we are gripped, paralysed, by our past.

We find ourselves in that 'waterless pit' of which Zechariah speaks....

Read the rest HERE.

Rowan Williams' Pentecost Reflections on Youtube

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams has offered his reflections on Pentecost on another fine Youtube video:

"The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, gives his thoughts on Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, is 'the moment when the friends of Jesus discover that they can communicate to all sorts of people they never thought that they would be speaking to'."

Archbishop Rowan Williams writes Pentecost letter welcoming "all" voices at Lambeth

The Archbishop of Canterbury sends Pentecost Letter to Bishops of the Anglican Communion, I have a few thoughts (random and not yet well-thought-out)...

1st, I wish he had also done a Youtube video of this "letter" along with the written form ... I do like seeing his videos (but maybe that's just me)

2nd, I like that he and the design team have been listening to voices among the bishops (I guess) who have "expressed their difficulties with Western and parliamentary styles of meeting" and have come upon a process for discussion that seems more inclusive and welcoming of all voices. Kudos.

3rd, Did "all" the bishops receive the letter?

4th, It seems quite inconsistent to work to create a process where "all" have the gift of speaking when at least one bishop has been famously silenced by the Archbishop of Canterbury. What is the Archbishop's exegesis of the Pentecost passages? Does his understanding of the Greek lead him to think that some were excluded? He states that the rationale of the process is "that Pentecost moment when all received the gift of speaking freely about Christ"? On the other hand, I understand that consistency is overrated, life is full of nuance, contradiction and hypocrisy (I'm no Boy Scout and neither is Rowan Cantuar!)

5th, I am very interested in these "indaba" groups for discussion and coming together as equals and where all voices are given the ability to express themselves. My hope is that even though the "indaba" groups as envisioned by the Archbishop are flawed, that this process for discussion might help move the bishops into truly hearing one another, and perhaps laying the groundwork for a system of governance and practices of ecclesiology that might affirm unity while not also demanding uniformity. (and maybe in 2018 "all" voices will truly be invited).

Isn't this what the Pentecost moment was all about? (actually hearing and understanding one another's voices and approaches, but knowing that we are one in Christ, while also unique in our personhood and identity)

6th, I am interested in what "letter" Bishop Wright (not Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you ninnies), was referring to when he implied that Archbishop Rowan would be testing all bishops with a "PreLambeth Windsor Report Compliance" exam before they could set their croziers down on the ground at Lambeth. Was Bishop Wright (N.T. Wright, Tom Wright...etc) aware of some secret letter, did he make it up, did he misunderstand what the Archbishop of Canterbury might have told him, .... God only knows?


Read on, and let me know what you think....

Also posted on the Archbishop of Canterbury's website and also probably on about 50 blogs by now as well....such as here, and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and more to come!

Monday 12 May 2008

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today sent an open letter to the bishops of the Anglican Communion, in advance of the Lambeth Conference.

The full text of the letter can be found below:

The Feast of Pentecost is a time when we give thanks that God, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, makes us able to speak to each other and to the whole world of the wonderful things done in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a good moment to look forward prayerfully to the Lambeth Conference, asking God to pour out the Spirit on all of us as we make ready for this time together, so that we shall indeed be given grace to speak boldly in his Name.

I indicated in earlier letters that the shape of the Conference will be different from what many have been used to. We have listened carefully to those who have expressed their difficulties with Western and parliamentary styles of meeting, and the Design Group has tried to find a new style – a style more reflective of that Pentecost moment when all received the gift of speaking freely about Christ.

At the heart of this will be the indaba groups. Indaba is a Zulu word describing a meeting for purposeful discussion among equals. Its aim is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God's way forward. It is a method with parallels in many cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community where all are committed to a fellowship of love and attention to each other and to the word of God.

Each day's work in this context will go forward with careful facilitation and preparation, to ensure that all voices are heard (and many languages also!). The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion. And in combination with the intensive prayer and fellowship of the smaller Bible study groups, all this will result, by God's grace, in clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done.

As I noted when I wrote to you in Advent, this makes it all the more essential that those who come to Lambeth will arrive genuinely willing to engage fully in that growth towards closer unity that the Windsor Report and the Covenant Process envisage. We hope that people will not come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds. As you may have gathered, in circumstances where there has been divisive or controversial action, I have been discussing privately with some bishops the need to be wholeheartedly part of a shared vision and process in our time together.

Of course, as baptised Christians and pastors of Christ's flock, we are not just seeking some low-level consensus, or a simple agreement to disagree politely. We are asking for the fire of the Spirit to come upon us and deepen our sense that we are answerable to and for each other and answerable to God for the faithful proclamation of his grace uniquely offered in Jesus. That deepening may be painful in all kinds of ways. The Spirit does not show us a way to by-pass the Cross. But only in this way shall we truly appear in the world as Christ's Body as a sign of God's Kingdom which challenges a world scarred by poverty, violence and injustice.

The potential of our Conference is great. The focus of all we do is meant to be strengthening our Communion and equipping all bishops to engage more effectively in mission; only God the Holy Spirit can bind us together in lasting and Christ-centred way, and only God the Holy Spirit can give us the words we need to make Christ truly known in our world. So we must go on praying hard with our people that the Spirit will bring these possibilities to fruition as only he can. Those who have planned the Conference have felt truly touched by that Spirit as they have worked together, and I know that their only wish is that what they have outlined for us will enable others to experience the same renewal and delight in our fellowship.

This is an ambitious event – ambitious for God and God's Kingdom, which is wholly appropriate for a Lambeth Conference. And our ambition is nothing less than renewal and revival for us all in the Name of Jesus and the power of his Spirit.

May that Spirit be with you daily in your preparation for our meeting. As Our Lord says, 'You know him, for he lives with and will be in you' (Jn 14.17).

+ Rowan Cantuar

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