BB NOTE: You know what's sort of odd about this? It appears that Lambeth Palace is playing this down, it's just a blip in a story entitled "Archbishop to convene the 7th Building Bridges seminar in Rome." The very last line of the article - and we mean, the very last line of the article says (oh, by the way) this: "During the visit the Archbishop will meet privately with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI."We'll get to that story in a minute. In the meantime, Reuters seems to understand what is actually the real news here, especially since the Presiding Bishop had other things to do on the other side of the country when the Pope made his official visit to the United States. He visited both the city that is the headquarters of The Episcopal Church - New York City - and the city that is home to the Episcopal National Cathedral - Washington, D.C.
She went to Utah.
More on that in a minute. In the meantime, here's the story of the visit tomorrow between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict is expected to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Monday in only the second official meeting between the two religious leaders, a Vatican source said on Sunday.VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict is expected to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Monday in only the second official meeting between the two religious leaders, a Vatican source said on Sunday.Read the rest here. Note that the story comes from the Vatican, not Lambeth Palace. Why is that? Well, because Lambeth buried the news in this article:
Archbishop to convene the 7th Building Bridges seminar in RomeNow is that a pip or what? We can't even make this stuff up. It's not even mentioned at the Anglican Communion Office website. What's up with this?
Friday 02 May 2008
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is to convene the 7th Building Bridges Seminar in Rome next week. This is a unique annual series which brings together a range of internationally recognised Christian and Muslim scholars for an intensive study of relevant Biblical and Qur'anic texts.
The seminar, which is organised in partnership with Georgetown University, will run from Tuesday to Thursday (May 6th to 8th). The theme for this year's seminar is 'Communicating the Word: Revelation, Translation and Interpretation in Christianity and Islam', and builds on from similar events in London, Doha, Sarajevo, Washington DC and Singapore.
On Wednesday 7th May, the Archbishop will preach and preside at the service for the Inauguration of his new Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, the Revd David Richardson.
During the visit the Archbishop will meet privately with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
Perhaps Lambeth is worried about the juxtaposition between Rowan's meeting with Benedict tomorrow and Katharine Jefferts Schori's lack of even a wave when the Pope was here.
She choose instead to fly to the other side of the country to Utah (not exactly known for an abundance of Episcopalians) who's former bishop just happens to be Otis Charles. Remember him?
Oops.
No wonder Lambeth Place wants us to focus on Rowan's seminar, The fact remains, however, that the Archbishop of Canterbury, two months before Lambeth, is meeting with the Pope, not exactly something he does every day. Perhaps we should keep that meeting in prayer. Despite all the missteps, intentional or unintentional as they may be, hope does still spring eternal. Yes, even now.
6 comments:
Perhaps the conversation will be a reprise of this Catholic news service article:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0802148.htm
Warren
Wow, thanks for the link, Warren. In a Roman Catholic news article we have these pointed comments about the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church:
"While the pope did not offer specific examples, he has in the past questioned Christian communities that have decided to ordain women to the priesthood and episcopacy or to bless homosexual unions and ordain openly gay men and women.
The pope's concerns obviously extend to the Anglican Communion and its troubled relations with the U.S. Episcopal Church and some dioceses in Canada.
The Anglican Communion is attempting to find ways to strengthen its structures for ensuring that one national member does not take actions that make other members of the communion uncomfortable. At times, bishops have been named to oversee pastoral care of members who do not go along with the changes."
Canterbury may well be listening.
Second street is clearly not.
Br_er Rabbit
BB, Please!!!! From now on, when posting links to Otis Charles, etc. (or any of those distorting God's Word and His definitions of truth and love) provide a link to something beautiful and edifying and true (like the most recent sermons of +Gregory Venables, for example).
(BB NOTE: we slightly edited your comment, it's a bit too early in the morning for cream pies in the air - okay?)
They may have more to talk about than just that. It has been clear for some time that the Vatican, with the active approval of the pope, has been preparing a "structure" to enable Catholic Anglican groups and others (such as the "catholicizing" Lutherans opposed to the "ordination" of women in Scandinavia) to enter the communion of the Catholic Church and to retain various elements of their patrimonies and practices. I understand as well that at their first meeting RW appealed to the pope to defer the approval and implementation of any such scheme until after the Lambeth Conference. Perhaps the two will be able to discuss future prospects in the light of those developments.
Invicta Veritas
What a contrast, the Pope is powerful, not just in the number of Catholics or the wealth and influence, but spiritually powerful in that the RC church has preserved Truth and makes clear the distinction between Love and lust and has continued to hold firm on the value of human life.
On the other hand, RW personifies the liberal Western protestant church that has mistaken justice and pity for discernment and kindness, has relinquished Biblical truth for man-made concepts and philosophies, has abandoned love for lust, has devalued life, has sold her soul for a mess of pottage and is now spiritually corrupt and bankrupt.
Reuters reports the private meeting this way.
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