Historic: The Jerusalem Declaration

Finally, after the GAFCON a Declaration was released. The full text can be found here.

8. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.

13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.

By affirming the historical and biblical teaching on human sexuality and rejecting the Ministry of those who don't even believe in the Resurrection or the uniqueness of heterosexual marriage, it seems obvious that Anglicanism is facing a split.
It seems obviuos that GAFCON Leaders do not recognize the ministry of those who uphold heretic doctrines (as the TEC or the Church of Canada). Now Lambeth ... Venables will be there as a voice from GAFCON, while the Bishop of Rochester cannot have communion with those who departed from the orthodox faith. Packer has requested Rowan William's resignation. The turmoil does not seem to pass away.

Conservatives are also 'split'. The main Orthodox scholar NT Wright has clearly expressed his opposition to the GAFCON movement. If he eventually becomes the head of the Anglican Communion as it has been suggested in the blogsphere, he or whoever inherits the Canterbury See will have to be very creative to keep the unitiy of the one Apostolic an catholic Church.

On the Anglican Communion: Reform from within!

I have been following the current events in the Anglican Communion. At this very moment, more than 250 Bishops and in total about 1000 bishops, clergy and lay leaders are reunited in Jerusalem, at the Global Anglican Future Conference 'GAFCON' , praying and listening God on His will for the future of the Anglican Communion.

What we are meeting for here is not to plan to walk away. We are meeting to renew our commitment, to renew our faith, to get a sense of direction of what we can be as Anglicans. We do not want to start a new Church. (Archbishop Orombi, Uganda)

The Anglican leaders are searching for a renewed commitment to evangelism and the proclamation of the Gospel of King Jesus, despite the growing influence of secularism in society. They are looking for a refreshed way to tell the world that King Jesus has actually never forsaken his people and God's creation.

The West is losing a Christian discourse at the very time it needs it most. Let us pray we are able to recover our Christian nerve in the West and to make sure the Gospel is not lost. (Bishop of Rochester, UK)

The Anglican leaders understood that there is indeed a need to keep the unity of the Church, and that their voices are much more important within the context of the Global Anglicanism than becoming a separate Church. What a challenge!

the agenda is now reform from within rather than starting a breakaway conservative Anglican church (Times Online)

Hakani - Against infanticide!

A YWAM minister and writer, made me aware of the campaign against infanticide in tribal societies. I could not finish watching the video suggested by the Organization HAKANI. It made me sick. The video can be found here.

Keep the most vulnerable amongst the vulnerable in your prayers. If you want to take action, visit their site. Letters and action kits are available.

Some Emergent stuff (no words, just pics)

More HERE

Psalm 56

Psalm 56
To the Chief Musician; [set to the tune of] "Silent Dove Among Those Far Away." Of David. A record of memorable thoughts when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

1 BE MERCIFUL and gracious to me, O God, for man would trample me or devour me; all the day long the adversary oppresses me.
2 They that lie in wait for me would swallow me up or trample me all day long, for they are many who fight against me, O Most High!
3 What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.
4 By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust; I will not fear. What can man, who is flesh, do to me?
5 All day long they twist my words and trouble my affairs; all their thoughts are against me for evil and my hurt.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they watch my steps, even as they have [expectantly] waited for my life.
7 They think to escape with iniquity, and shall they? In Your indignation bring down the peoples, O God.
8 You number and record my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle--are they not in Your book?
9 Then shall my enemies turn back in the day that I cry out; this I know, for God is for me.
10 In God, Whose word I praise, in the Lord, Whose word I praise,
11 In God have I put my trust and confident reliance; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
12 Your vows are upon me, O God; I will render praise to You and give You thank offerings.
13 For You have delivered my life from death, yes, and my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life and of the living.

Faith Foundation? please!

Sunday mornings I normally listen to the BBC's reporting religion. Obviously, BBC reports from a very liberal, open minded and inclusive point of view. It is nevertheless something I like to listen, since in between the paraphernalia of all roads lead to god, there are often very good testimonies of Christians worldwide that obviously shine in between the philosophical mixture.

Last Sunday, the report focused on the former UK's Prime Minister Tony Blair's Faith Foundation. He is calling to all faiths to come to a kind of concerted action to tackle hunger, poverty, malaria, etc. And this man thinks that doing "good" will eventually bring the expected era of light. What was more shocking, was that Blair would always mention devoted Christians such as Martin Luther King Jr., and fill his mouth with the examples of such Christians bringing changes to their societies. I wonder why he could not find such examples in other faiths ...

I find still odd that when it is convenient, Christians and Christianity are used as 'examples', but when it comes to actually let Christians even the option to preach the good news of King Jesus, they are silenced and prohibited to preach. But actually, the only ones who can make changes for the sake of populations and the whole creation are those who believe that Jesus is actually the King and not the ruling system or the philosophies of the world.

Anyway, Blair is not necessarily someone who has any moral authority to bring faiths into conversation. He is an apostate of the Christian (Bible believing) faith, trying to play the game of " a bit of compromise here and there cannot harm", without realising that in the practice he is asking Christians alone to compromise to better understand the others. I wonder what our forefathers in the faith would have thought of these initiatives when they were being brought to the stake ...

Good intentions Mr Blair. But forget not that good intentions with no firm foundation on certain Rock, will be sooner or later overwhelmed by the storms and winds of a fundamentalism that denies the goodness of God the Creator, and the Rule of King Jesus.