What should the Melbourne Anglican response to Bp Bob Duncan be?

[jwhkuan]

If you're paying attention to the newsfeeds and the crisis in the wider Anglican Communion, it will not be news to you that the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church has just deposed the orthodox Bp Bob Duncan.

http://www.globalsouthanglican.org/
http://www.pitanglican.org/

Several Anglican leaders from around the world have responded by releasing strong public statements of support for Bob, condemning the actions of TEC HOB.  

http://www.pitanglican.org/news/local/egyptsydneysupport
http://support-duncan.blogspot.com/

My question for this forum is:
What should the Melbourne Anglican response to the deposition of Bob Duncan be?

A couple of options are:
a. do and say nothing
b. offer a statement of regret over the general situation and say it's a matter of internal TEC discipline
c. offer a statement of support for Bob Duncan and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and call for the HOB to reverse their decision on the basis of the Windsor process
d. recognise the issue of theological difference and battle between orthodox Anglican faith and the heterodox ungodly ungracious il-liberal-liberalism of the HOB; and support Duncan strongly on this basis.  

My gut feeling is that we'll see and hear only a. or b. unless there is a serious groundswell of opinion from the Melbourne Anglican rank and file to have our bishops come out strong on this issue.

[Alex Milner]

Hi Wei-Han,

The response should be that:

(a) Melbourne Diocese considers the purported 'deposition':

- is uncharitable and unloving
- does not appear to accord with TEC's Canon's (the extent of the unlawful nature of the deposition is outlined in detail by AS Haley (aka the Anglican Curmudgeon))
- is evidence of the depth of spiritual and moral decay within the TEC
- will further inflame tensions amongst the Communion (an orthodox province in North America now seems inevitable)

(b) Bishop Duncan (now resident of South Cone) remains an Anglican Bishop in good order and continues to be recognised by the Melbourne Diocese

I would protest loudly if all that is done is (a) or (b).

Kind regards
Alex

[Andrew Stagg]

Good question Wei-Han. This is a big story and it's been getting extensive coverage all around the world. Only down here in Melbourne it doesn't appear to have happened yet - when you visit the Melbourne Anglican website - there is no mentioned of it (as of the time of this post).

You'd have to wonder if the "windsor process" has been completely discredited - oddly enough a lot of folks didn't bother going to Lambeth because they said this sort of thing would come out of it. A lot of energy would get wasted in talk and then TEC would go home and carry on doing exactly what they had been doing before. Only down here in Melbourne we were told a few short weeks ago "windsor" was a great success and everything was going to be just fine.
http://www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/main.php?pg=news&news_id=17312&s=17278
http://www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/main.php?pg=news&news_id=12404&s=1040

Based on all this I'd guess that options A) or B) look pretty likely at this stage.


It's interesting to compare this against the coverage that you get in Sydney. Their anglican newspaper is really on the ball with this sort of thing. And from what I've seen their stories always much up well with the news feeds that I too have been reading from around the world.  It's well worth visiting their newspaper for the sort of coverage that you just never hear about down here. Folks can find it at.
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/

Armed with the sort of information that folks have access to in sydney options A) and B) are therefore out of the question. So I'm was really encouraged to read Peter Jenson's clear leadership on this issue.

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/mediareleases/archbishop_jensens_statement_on_bishop_duncan/
Statement from the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, on the deposition of Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh by the Episcopal Church House of Bishops.

“The unfolding tragedy of the Episcopal Church starkly reveals the folly of the original decision to break with the Bible and centuries of historic Christianity on the issue of human sexuality.

We grieve for Bishop Duncan but are encouraged by his courageous witness.

I welcome the statements of the many significant figures in the Anglican world who have expressed grave concern at this act towards a man who remains in good standing with the majority of the communion.”

[Will Briggs]

jwhkuan wrote:

A couple of options are:
a. do and say nothing
b. offer a statement of regret over the general situation and say it's a matter of internal TEC discipline
c. offer a statement of support for Bob Duncan and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and call for the HOB to reverse their decision on the basis of the Windsor process
d. recognise the issue of theological difference and battle between orthodox Anglican faith and the heterodox ungodly ungracious il-liberal-liberalism of the HOB; and support Duncan strongly on this basis.  

Hi Wei-Han,

My thoughts: http://god-s-will.blogspot.com/2008/09/communion-ications-deposition-of-duncan.html

My initial pragmatic view is that the "official" response would have some efficacy if it was slightly b-wards of your c).  In other words - express specific and ongoing recognition for Bp. Duncan as a Bishop of a Diocese (the fundamental unit of Anglican polity).  The voices that are doing that are broad, respected, well-recognised (Gomez, Anis in particular) and you would be on safe territory.  This would be an implied criticism of the HOB decision without getting distracted by tertiary messinesses as to how the primary situation can be rectified.

W.

[Danny Saunders]

Motions in Synod can be accepted at the start of Synod even if they're not in the initial business paper (check the Standing orders, it's in there somewhere). Others have used this section in the past to 'sneak in' controversial motions that no-ones ready for because effectively no notice is actually given unless your at Synod on the day and actually listening to what's going on. Maybe a good response would be for such a motion in support of Bp Duncan to find its way onto the agenda of Synod this year?  

[Andrew Moody]

Yep, mum's the word ;-)
Hey, nobody tell that guy Peter.

[Tim Patrick]

I would like to think that our Diocese could make a loud, clear, open statement about Bp Duncan. This is a completely scandalous situation and I would hope that everyone in Melbourne would want to stand up against it.

Tim

[Andrew Stagg]

Katharine Jefferts Schori officially sacked Bob Duncan today - completing the final link in the chain that she initiated.
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9063
Bob joins a very long and rather illustrious list of people who seem to have fallen prey to Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Sydney Diocese have now joined their bishop in issuing a support statement for Duncan.
http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/sydneystories/sydney_supports_duncan/
The following quote from that article sums up the situation nicely.

Because of his stand on biblical authority and the historic teachings of the church, it was claimed that Bishop Duncan’s “actions over recent months and years constitute ‘abandonment of the communion of this church’”.
Bishop Duncan is one of the foremost conservative leaders in the North American wing of the Anglican communion and the Sydney standing committee commended him “as he stands firmly for the authority and teaching of the Bible.”

[Alex Milner]

Danny, there's also a provision in the Synod Act (or Standing Orders) about lodging a petition. Would take some time running around to organise. Worth checking.
I think the better approach is to seek a statement to be made by the AB (and perhaps the regional bishops - who might be interested to know there are even fewer safeguards for their jobs ;) ).
Kind regards
Alex

PS for a tongue-in-cheek response, check: http://redstickrant.blogspot.com/2008/09/and-in-related-story.html

[Andrew Stagg]

Tim Patrick wrote:

I would like to think that our Diocese could make a loud, clear, open statement about Bp Duncan. This is a completely scandalous situation and I would hope that everyone in Melbourne would want to stand up against it.

No one in Melbourne knows about this issue (unless they have been following it on the internet). Melbourne Anglican has just updated their website today with three new articles (one of them about Phillip Huggins blessing some bicycles) - but none of their articles touch on this issue. Given the fact that this event has created shock waves all around the world, given their recent glowing coverage of Lambeth's achievements (which have just failed spectacularly), this silence by the Melbourne Anglican stretches credulity.

Obviously if no one in the pews know this event occurred (let alone the details) any chance of any "loud, clear, open statement" coming from Melbourne is small.

[wei-han]

ok, here are the options then:

1. write to your bishop and archbishop asking them to lead us in making a public response
2. write to TMA noting the event and putting forward your opinion
3. something at synod
4. something to help your local church members to appreciate what's happening in the wider church

i'd encourage you to act on all 4 if you can!

[Steve Weickhardt]

I'm not an apologist for TMA (The Melbourne Anglican) and admittedly I have a bit of inside knowledge on navigating the website, but this page does contain a direct link to Bp Bob Duncan's Pastoral letter and other issues within the Anglican Communion:

http://www.melbourne.anglican.com.au/main.php?pg=blogs&story_id=17400&blog_id=1603

Please note that the media is very understaffed and while they don't make editorial decisions that I and most of those on this forum would appreciate, they are under great pressure to do many things in very little time. They are quite simply human and hard working ones at that. So I guess I am an apologist for the people, not the editorial content.

I fully endorse Wei-Han's thoughts on writing letters to those who can speak up an be heard. I will certainly be doing so.

[Andrew Stagg]

Thanks Steve for the link.  I agree it's really hard to navigate sometimes!!!

The letter that the link links to, is dated 13 September is a part of the 'general news feeds' and it predates Bob Duncans show trial. And because it's only one posted link to an external news service I think it's fair to say that they haven't yet given this issue any coverage themselves.

His disposition occurred last friday - so personally I'd have hoped that it would have received some brief front page coverage by the paper already (to date it has received none). It's such a big story that has received extensively coverage in other anglican media feeds around the world. Since then numerous Bishops have come out in support of Duncan, several have demanded Rowan Williams institute a new american province to protect the persecuted faithful and another has (apparently) demanded that Rowan Williams suspend the TEC. And Rowan Williams has fled for Lourdes!! It's hard to make sense of it all, but by any measure its a big story.

I can understand that the staff are under resourced, and like yourself I'd agree that I am frequently baffled by the editorial decisions that occur there. I guess the question I've been asking myself in the last six months is can I rely on their coverage to get an accurate picture of the current events in our church.

The Melbourne Anglican's lack of coverage on this issue is helping me to formulate that answer.

[Steve Weickhardt]

Yep, fair call.
I regularly look further afield for information on the Communion than Melbourne Anglican media stuff.

Thanks for the gracious response.

[Andrew Stagg]

TMA has today finally put a link page to external articles highlighting Bob Duncan's disposition. My personal thoughts are that the articles are pretty selective - in that they don't really show the backlash against what happened - and they've linked in that garbage article where Murial Porter gets confused and attacks Gafcon as 'subversive' (she probably meant to attack TEC :) - but at least TMA have at last acknowledged this event on their website.

Hmm, I wonder if any of this it will make it into the print edition...


Now our diocese needs to swing into action and offer Bishop Duncan some support!!!

[Andrew Stagg]

Diocese of Pittsburgh (Robert Duncans 'former' diocese) has voted overwhelming last night to leave the TEC behind.

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9135
 

"We deeply value our shared heritage and years of friendship with those still within that denomination, but this diocese could not in good conscience continue down the road away from mainstream Christianity that the leadership of The Episcopal Church is so determined to follow," said the Rev. Peter Frank, director of communications for the diocese