Archbishop Orombi clarifies The Times letter
After The Times newspaper printed a letter from Archbishop Orombi, AnglicanTV contacted His Grace for further clarification. Specifically we wanted to know if the Archbishop was implying he wanted Rowan to resign. Below is Archbishop Orombi's response.
Kevin Kallsen (AnglicanTV) "Does your letter in The Times this week imply that you are calling for the resignation of the ABC?"
Archbishop Henry Orombi: "No. I am not suggesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury should resign. And, for the record, it was The Times (of London) that approached me about writing an essay on why the Church of Uganda Bishops were not attending Lambeth.
"It seems to me that the maturing of the global nature of the Anglican Communion, beyond its colonial beginnings, would involve separating the role of the spiritual leader of the Communion from that of the Primate of All England. The Primate of All England should still retain the title primus inter pares, for he does retain a significant place of honour and historical significance. I would not want to diminish that in any way. We are very grateful for the British missionaries who came to us in Uganda and brought to us the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall never forget that and never cease giving thanks.
"However, I do think it's time to realise that the Anglican Communion is no longer an extension of the Church of England. The Church of England is, of course, free to elect or appoint their Primate in whatever way they deem appropriate. But, should the Primate of All England necessarily or automatically be the spiritual leader of a world-wide, global Communion? That's the question I am asking.
"And, may I just add, that I agree with Archbishop Rowan (and others) when he says that "the overwhelming concern of most Africans is clean water, food, employment, transparent governance." To that, I would also add quality education, adequate health services, and freedom from the power of sin and oppression by demonic spirits. We do, in fact, spend much more of our time focused on these issues, along with evangelism, than on homosexuality – despite the imbalance portrayed by the press.
"But, what we in the Global South have strongly maintained is this: When you are known to be the "Gay Church" and a church that can't discipline itself, that severely hinders our ability to engage our communities on such issues as clean water, food, employment, and good governance. That is why we must resolve this conflict. It is not a matter that we can "agree to disagree" about homosexuality (and the underlying theology that leads one to the acceptance of homosexuality) and still pursue together the Millennium Development Goals. Our credibility and integrity as a church are seriously undermined because of the lack of resolution of the current crisis. It is not enough to be able to say that the official position of the Anglican Communion is Lambeth 1.10, because the lack of enforcement of that resolution seems to, in fact, render it null and void.
"The crisis in the Communion is about authority – biblical authority and ecclesiastical authority. Regrettably, all the proposals coming out of the Windsor Continuation Group have been tried in the past five years and failed. However, even before we begin a re-examination of the Instruments of Communion and, in particular, the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, we do have within our structures the ability to bring order out of the present chaos. Sadly, though, the Archbishop of Canterbury missed his biggest window of opportunity. If, in the end, the only means of discipline is through his power of invitation, he has, through his decision to invite the persistent violators of Lambeth 1.10 to the Lambeth Conference, blessed the deviations of the American and Canadian Churches, which have been consistently condemned by the other three Instruments of Communion.
"It seems to me that the functions proposed for the Pastoral Forum are exactly what the Primates of the Communion have been charged to do. The 1988 Lambeth Conference urged the Primates' Meeting to "exercise an enhanced responsibility in offering guidance on doctrinal, moral and pastoral matters" and the 1998 Lambeth Conference reaffirmed this. Are not Primates, duly elected from the various Provinces, in a better position than a "Commission" or "Forum"? We do not need the proliferation of more groups, committees, commissions, etc. to resolve this crisis. What we need is the enforcement/implementation of matters that have already been widely agreed."
Covental churches are accountable to uphold what it is we say we believe.
Otherwise, we are not related. It is the Truth that binds.
We anglicans cannot use that line of argumentation with a straight face. We owe our existence to young clerics who moved the
Ancient faith from "a" historical foundation (Rome). Orombi is simply re- stating that the foundations of anglicanism lie in Holy
Scripture and the historic reading of those scriptures (Councils and Church Fathers) .
The Episcopal Church went against the clearly stated mind of the Communion and against the statement of which then-PB Griswold signed, that said that to consecrate +Robinson would be "an act that would tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest levels". Hubris, individualism? Apparently they must have been revealed as previously hidden founding principles of TEC in the Canons and Constitution!
Keri, you claim that the (to use your smearing buzz-words) "socially-regressive", "third-world" evangelism of +Orombi hinders winning people in the developed world and that people join TEC in the US because it is not seen as regressive. TEC has in fact LOST some 30,000 members PER YEAR since +Robinson's consecration in 2003. Dioceses in the US are being forced fincially to sell cathedrals and diocesan buildings, to cut staff (recently St. John the Divine Cathedral Wall Street, DioNY laid off 15% of its staff), cut mission efforts, and 3 liberal Episcopal seminaries have closed outright or ceased to function, with many more seminaries struggling. On the other hand, the 2 reliably orthodox remaining Episcopal seminaries, Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry and Nashota House, are at capacity, though many bishops refuse to send candidates for ministry there or to consider them for rectors even when a congregation calls them enthusiastically. Nevertheless, on the whole, liberal dioceses ( the overwhelming mojority of all TEC dioceses) continue to shrink in members and orthodox churches and dioceses continue to grow. Falls Church Truro (that TEC is busily suing with millions in legal fees that could feed quite a few hungry poor) is larger alone than many entire TEC dioceses. The membership stats would be even worse if adjusted to reality. Many of the dozens of congregations that have left TEC, with or without their buildings, are still kept on diocesan membership rolls with figures from 5 years ago simply carried over intact year-to-year in utter denial of reality. But of course, Keri, no one YOU know thinks there is a problem, so this must all be rabid repressive conservative propaganda. Very well. Continue to tell yourself that over the years as you drive past several large new Anglican churches on your way to the large, echoing, mostly empty cathedral at which your like-minded friends gather.
The American Episcopal Church--like all mainline American churches, including the more evangelical ones--has lost members. It’s happening all over the developed world. And it’s not surprising, when folks think that people you and Orombi represent “Christianity.”
However, with the plethora of different ideas on how worship is to be conducted, and on the value of the sacraments, the new member tribes of the Bible Church enthusiasts will find it hard to get along together. If you have problems with the inclusiveness of the Anglican Communion - which is it's particular genius, in a world that longs for signs of the God of Love, how do you think you will all get along together in your new constituency which wants everyone to follow a narrow and totally unreformed Christianity. There are a lot of prelates who are longing to take over the spirituality of the developed world, and Orombi and Akinola are just two of them.
Fr. Ron, as you condescend to offer me your contempt from your superior enlightened lofty peak, from which the focus apparently is as blurred as the distortions of believing mere Christianity, let me adjust the focus of your lens/ filter a little. Inerrancy is not Biblical literalism, not in the sense of expecting animals to fall from the sky if someone says it's raining cats and dogs, or discounting a weather forecast because it refers to sunrise and sunset when we know the sun does neither. Again, you might deign to spend a few moments actually reading the Chicago Statment on Biblical Inerrancy if you want to know what most orthodox traditional Christians mean when they say that they believe the Bible. Or you can refuse to have your made-up mind confused by the facts.
St. Paul, who once put all his stock in Jewish legalism, wrote that not all Israel is Israel, meaning the same thing as both Jesus and John the Baptist (don't hold the name "Baptist" against him) meant when they told the Pharisees that God could raise up descendants to Abraham from the stones that lay around them when they claimed rioghteousness based on their bloodline. I care not what a small minority declare truly Anglican or not, even when the ABC is de facto part of that minority. I care to follow the faith and practice received from men who gave their lives for their faith, like Latimer and Ridley, and to follow the Jesus and the Gospel of the Scriptures in that same faith, not the recent hijacking of it into utter apostasy by revisionists, even if the ABC goes along to get along. We shall apply the Gamaliel test and see which work God chooses to honor.
Your contempt and arrogance (not a very Christian combo) are matched only by your ability to hurl stereotypes in utter defiance either of reality or actual observation. "Church of the Sinless" - that's a laugh! Jesus said He came to call sinners, not the righteous, so He is certainly calling me there, and any committed Christian I know would say the same about themselves. "financed by a small collection of billionaires" ROTFL!!! Names, please! Now we knopw where to get the money to replace the church buildings from which TEC congregations have been sued and evicted after their priests were deposed, and where to get the help needed for poor African congregations whose MDG money would have been a pittance or nothing after Lambeth's debts are finally paid.
"turn thousands away from the Gospel of a loving God" Please define the elements of this Gospel to which you refer. "Anything goes"? "Go and sin some more"? "Hath God really said?" "You will be as gods"? Such a "gospel" offers no hope to the many who have come to the end of their or any human strength and face only despair until they find the crucified and risen Jesus calling to forgiveness and new life and strength and grace, witnessed to by the transformed lives of myself and many other individual believers who I have met personally or read or heard their testimony. Only the rescued hopeless know where the only true hope is found.
No doubt there will be issues to be worked out. But GAFCON's Jersulam Declaration creates a gracious space for Anglo-Catholics (who were betrayed at CoE's General Synod) and Evangelicals to worship in one broad church. And A. W. Tozer wrote something that I have seen personally played out many times over - "A thousand grand pianos all tuned to the same tuning fork must necessarily also be in tune with each other." (The Pursuit of God) Where the Holy Spirit is, there is true unity in His truth, not surface unity in the ABC and a meaningless, result-free conference. By the way, +Orombi et al don't have to "take over the spirituality of a developed world", just to sow good seed alongside its stunted stalks with bitter fruit and see the good seed multiplied an hundred-fold and more. May the best Gospel win! (souls for Christ and glory for God, that is!)
At the Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury remarked that liberals and conservatives seem to be ready, if not willing, to each accuse the opposing faction of not following Christ. When, Milton, you say that "I care to follow the faith and practice received from men who gave their lives for their faith, like Latimer and Ridley," I say 'Amen!" And Laud, and More, and Cranmer, and Beckett, and all the heroes of the English Church throughout the ages, the great cloud of witnesses that is forever around us. I do not like the way some conservatives claim the martyrs and heroes of the faith for themselves; I like even less the claim of some conservatives that liberals and Catholics do not care about Scripture. If we did not care about Scripture, we would not be having this debate in the first place. The Bible does not belong to you alone, and your interpretation is not the only valid one. I do not like the liberality with which the words 'orthodox' and 'apostate' are thrown around by those who deem themselves to fall into the former category, as though any human has the right to decide who is and who is not a 'real' Christian.
This, of course, cuts both ways. Much as I might like to say that self-professed conservatives are less Christ-like than my more 'liberal' friends, in faith I can only say "God have mercy on me, a sinner." I assume that all Anglicans (of whatever stripe) are genuinely and sincerely attempting to find out the best path, relying not on their own merits but on the grace of God. This has been the historical assumption underlying our broad Church ever since the settlement of 1559. We Anglicans disagree on many things: the sacraments, the Mass, the intercession of saints, Purgatory, prayers to Our Lady, the existence of Hell, the number of canonical books in the Bible, predestination, and - quite incidentally - homosexuality. But "we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread." Long may we be so.
The only Episcopal cathedral that I know of being sold was that of the Diocese of Western Michigan last year. The diocese is headquartered in Portage, Michigan, a small city located in the outback of rural Michigan. It’s a 34-county area of only 60 parishes and 3 summer chapels. The cost-benefit ratio of having the new cathedral (it was completed in 1969) was not worth it to this little, out of the way diocese. So they sold it and went back to their old Cathedral Church, and applied the savings to their current work. Makes sense to me.
For your future reference, Milton, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is not located on Wall Street, but rather on Morningside Heights. You must be thinking of historic Trinity Church, founded by Royal Charter in 1697. Trinity has significant investments in real estate (the result of the generosity of Queen Ann). Given the tanking of the real estate market recently, it makes sense that they lay of staff connnected to this business, doesn’t it?