A new reflection on The Problem of Inclusiveness has been published on this website.
As political and social pressure mounts on the Church to modify our understanding of issues relating to equality and morality, many denominations are being strained to breaking point. The Church of England, with its close ties to the State, and the Anglican Communion, spread over a world full of different cultures, are particularly vulnerable, and many wonder whether these institutions can be held together as two main reactions to this pressure emerge: to go along or to resist.
Given the harm further schism would do to the cause of the Gospel, The Problem of Inclusiveness looks at the weaknesses of current arguments and seeks to offer an old solution to this newest of problems.
Read it here.
A Summer Course on Ecumenism will be held at the Centro Pro Unione in Rome from in late June and early July.
This will bring together ecumenists from many countries and should be an opportunity for discussion and establishing useful contacts to move the cause of Christian Unity forward. Please pray that it will be a success leading to improved undrstanding of each other and of the issues involved and allowing more creative ways of tackling those problems which remain.
A version of an article from this website, By What Authority? What Can Replace Infallibile Tradition, is to be published in Ecumenical Trends, the newsletter of the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute this month. This publication will bring the Editor’s understanding of authority issues to a much wider readership, and is expected to raise his profile when he attends a Summer Course on Ecumenism from a Roman Catholic viewpoint later this year.
The news came just a day after a prayer request was posted in this slot for rapid publication of the two submitted articles.
Our Editor, Ken Petrie, believes this is a significant step forward. “Thank you to all who prayed for this. I think it will make a big difference to the cause of Christian Unity. One article is to be published, and although it doesn’t say everything, it does raise the issue in a way which ought to provoke thought,” he said earlier today.
The editor will be attending a Summer Course on Ecumenism from a Roman Catholic viewpoint in June. He has also been invited to contribute two articles from this website to an Ecumenical publication, though it is by no means guaranteed that these will be printed.
However, if they were to be published in that format before the Summer Course it would greatly assist in the exchange of ideas and building of bridges, and would undoubtedly advance the cause of Christian Unity greatly in the process.
Please pray that the articles will be accepted for publication in time to be effective in this way.
EvenAs.org has entered a new stage in the Ecumenical process with the publication of “Petrie’s Postulates”, a succinct statement on the author’s understanding of the nature of the Church’s infallibility.
The postulates provide a platform for active dialogue because, unlike previous expressions on the subject, they are positive, advancing a concise argument from first principles in terms an ordinary reader can follow, rather than criticising an existing position, which can be perceived negatively, however kindly meant. As such, they form a powerful tool for the propogation of debate on an important issue which divides Roman Catholics from other Christians. The intention is to circulate them as widely as possible among Christians of both Catholic and Protestant persuasions, in the hope they will provoke useful thought.
There are six postulates, each of which is explained in simple terms in smaller print. The six postulates are:
The postulates can be read in their full form including the elucidation by clicking here.
The Perfectibility page in the ecclesiological reflection part of the EvenAs.org website now has its own dedicated area for readers to respond with their views. Readers can now add their own comments to the page and these will appear beneath the article itself, making for a more direct interaction between responses and the page in question.
This is the first page on the site to benefit from this new approach, which is intended to increase the immediacy and quality of debate.
Editor Ken Petrie sees this as a critical component in the development of doctrine which could pave the way for greater understanding of the nature of the Church, and with it greater opportunity for Protestants and Catholics to understand both themselves and each other better.
“I believe this is a key area which addresses the very heart of the problem,” he said. “The easier it is to debate this the quicker we will be able to understand the truth which has been entrusted to us and converge on it. Truth is an essential requirement if we are to move forward with integrity.”
The page can be viewed at http://www.evenas.org/ecclesly/reflect/perfecty.htm.
EvenAs.org editor Ken Petrie yesterday entered the controversial debate over proposals in Sydney Diocese to allow Lay Presidency at the Eucharist without formally authorising it, a motion which, if passed, could provoke further schism within the Anglican Communion.
In a post to the Community Forum on the Anglican Media Sydney website, he wrote of the different paradigm evidenced by the debate, from elsewhere. This paradigm was possibly reflected in the desire by the Sydney Synod Standing Committee to refer to the disputed practice as “Lay Administration”.
Lay Presidency has been an issue in the Australian diocese since 1977. Unusually for a diocese, it has its own Doctrine Commission which in 1993 published a report dissenting from the Anglican Church of Australia’s General Synod Doctrine Commission’s view linking Eucharistic Presidency to Priestly orders. In October, the Diocesan Synod will consider a motion backing Lay Presidency and recommending no action be taken against anyone who ignores the legal position.
According to its website, the Diocese of Sydney attributes its particularly Calvinist leanings to the work of Evangelical Anglican, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist missionaries who co-operated to evangelise the area in the nineteenth century. Our editor’s original post can be read on this site and the whole thread, along with other topics, is available on the AMS website.
The new EvenAs.org Forum is launched today. Who will be the first to post their comments to it?
“This extension to our range of feedback tools should prove very popular, enabling contributors to see their remarks online within seconds in most cases,” claims Editor Ken Petrie. “It will be interesting to see how quickly readers will respond to site content when they can see their remarks have been noted and published,” he added. It has always been possible for readers to respond to what they see on the site, but previously it was necessary to go to the contact page (then called Even You) and send a message to the Editor. This interposed a barrier between potential contributors and the site which the Forum is hoped to remove.
The Forum can be found at http://www.evenas.org/forum.htm.
Ken Petrie, editor of the EvenAs.org website, has been appointed as an Anglican representative on his local ecumenical body.
The Bishop of Bristol, Rt Revd Mike Hill, has nominated Ken to fill one of two Anglican vacancies on the Council of Churches Together in Greater Bristol. The Diocesan Ecumenical Officer for Greater Bristol, Canon Brian Duckett, has welcomed the appointment, describing himself as “delighted” at Ken’s acceptance of the task.
Churches Together in Greater Bristol is currently facing a time of transition as it re-evaluates its rôle and structures, and these are to be discussed at a meeting of the Council in June.
Ken says he is looking forward to learning more about the workings of the local ecumenical project, as well as to meeting contacts from other denominations for possible dialogue. “This could be a significant development.” he added.
| Designed in the UK by © 2001-2024 |  | Webmaster |