Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Lambeth Diary: Ecumenicals condemn 'with love'

The Archbishop of Canterbury is shown here at last night's ecumenical service chatting to Russia's Archbishop Hilarion and the Greek representative. Cardinal's Kasper and Diaz from Rome are not here yet. As we touch on at the end of our Sunday Times story today, the messages to Dr Rowan Williams from the guests were light incarnate, but this merely to sweeten the bitter pills within. Will the Anglican Communion take their medecine? I doubt it. The letters were helpfully printed at the end of the order of service, some extracts are below. See also Riazat Butt's excellent and fuller report in The Observer.

(Photo by George Conger. See his report in Christianity Today on the 'crack-up' of the Communion. Many thanks to Peter Crumpler and staff for finding a way at the final hour to get the grateful press into the service in the Big Top.)

Protestant or Catholic: Anglicans must decide

Hard words for Anglicans from the head of the Council for Christian Unity in Rome. Cardinal Walter Kasper has told the Catholic Herald that now, with Lambeth approaching, is the time for Anglicans to decide whether they are Catholic or Protestant. 'Ultimately, it is a question of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong?' he said. 'Does it belong more to the churches of the first millennium -Catholic and Orthodox - or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of the 16th century? At the moment it is somewhere in between, but it must clarify its identity now and that will not be possible without certain difficult decisions.' The genius of Anglicanism has always been its ability to straddle the divide, but maybe the Cardinal is right and the Communion's present difficulties reflect the impossibility of continuing to do this.

Photos: ACNS Rosenthal

Radical orthodoxy rising on 'the third way'

John Milbank, founder of the increasingly-influential Radical Orthodoxy movement, is here receiving communion from a Catholic Ukrainian bishop, Hlib Lonchyna, at a conference in Lviv in 2006. Check out the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at Nottingham which he heads, and you can also read the paper, Paul against Biopolitics, that he delivered at the Lviv ecumenical conference. Technically, of course, as an Anglican, he was not allowed to receive communion at a Catholic service. But perhaps that is partly what Radical Orthodoxy is about - remaining orthodox while breaking some of the rules.

(Update: Peter Carrell has written an interesting post picking up on a comment on this blog.)

Is covenant a route to Papacy?

Growing Together in Unity and Mission has been published by ACNS along with accompanying commentaries. That by Bernard Longley, an auxiliary in Westminster, is particularly interesting. He floats an idea that might explain why my (admittedly slightly over excited) reporting of this document in the midst of the Primates' meeting at Dar es Salaam back in February provoked such a flurry of hostile comment. Bishop Longley says that some Anglicans will have concerns that the proposed Covenant will need a jurisdictional framework 'and that this might fall within the pastoral care of a re-received ministry of universal primacy.' In such circumstances, he asks, how might the 'legitimate patrimony' of Anglicans be honoured, preserved and promoted? David Sims at Covenant Communion, the new Anglican body aimed at encouraging reconciliation through the covenant, has already picked up on this.

Antichrist is an ecumenist, Cardinal tells Pope

Zenit is carrying details of the Lenten meditations being delivered this week to the Pope by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, former Archbishop of Bologna. According to Zenit, Biffi told his listeners: "The Antichrist presents himself as pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist." This apparent attack on ecumenism comes as in an unprecedented move, the Orthodox have been given their own chapel in the Catholic Cathedral in Trier. The chapel will be used for both Catholic Byzantine and Orthodox services, a move which will get some Orthodox jumping up and down. Richard Owen is reporting on the Antichrist from Rome. That Pope Benedict XVI should have chosen Biffi, once himself considered possible papabile, for his Lenten meditations is of itself interesting. Biffi has in the past made quite clear what his views are about the dangers of the modern era. But that Biffi should then go straight in with a talk straight out of the Book of Revelation gives a fascinating insight into the present mindset of senior in Rome. This picture, by Durer, shows Christ and the Antichrist. Biffi also said in his meditation to the Pope and other Vatican clerics: 'He will convoke an ecumenical council and will seek the consensus of all the Christian confessions, granting something to each one. The masses will follow him, with the exception of small groups of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants.'

Pope rules ok. Or, 'Growing Together in Unity and Mission'

The headline refers to this story on the front of today's paper. It is of course with a sense of irony that beneath it I post this AP photo of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at Zanzibar, where the Primates went on the penultimate day of their Tanzanian sojourn. Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola was absent for health reasons, but it did not go unnoticed that Dr Williams and Bishop Schori sat together on the bus on the way back. More photos at Anglican Mainstream. Andrew Goddard has written a reflection on the TEC paper for Fulcrum. Although all could yet change when the Anglican Covenant materialises, and although the significance of seven Primates not communicating should not be underestimated, the schism about which so many have speculated has not yet materialised. n our leader today we predict 'bitter fudge', but the conservatives are not happy, in particular about this letter to one of the seven non-communcating Primates from a former friend of 30 year standing, cancelling an invitation to preach on Palm Sunday. (Update: Some blogs are reporting that Jim Rosenthal has claimed in Dar es that this report was out over a week ago. In fact, as the Church of England confirms in a statement, linked to below, the report is not out yet but will in due course be published in book form by the Commission. It can however be read in full via a link on Anglican Mainstream. Readers can assess it for themselves. )

Pope in Turkey

"I am worried; however, am sure that this visit is very necessary," the Pope said a few hours before leaving for Turkey, after checking his speech on Christianity and Islam, word-by-word. I've tried but failed to resist the temptation to joke that Benedict XVI must have been looking forward to this visit like a turkey looks forward to Christmas. It's the kind of joke you can put on a blog. My commentary for TimesOnline is more serious. Already things are looking more hopeful, however. Erdogan has said the Pope told him in their brief meeting that he supports Turkey's EU accession. The Pope will visit a mosque later in the four-day trip. He will also deliver a major address on Muslim-Christian relations.On 30 November, St Andrew's Day, the Pope will join in Divine Liturgy with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, primus inter pares in the Orthodox Church. Just a few days ago, I was with Rowan Williams when he prayed by the reliquary said to contain the bones of St Peter in Rome. Andrew was Peter's brother, sent to evangelise Asia Minor. Andrew was 80 years old, one year older than Benedict is now, when he made the "mistake" of converting Maximilla, wife of the ruler Aigeates, to Christianity. He was nailed upside down on an X-shaped cross. It took him three days to die. Two centuries later his remains were taken to Constantinople and in 1460 his head was given to the Pope. On 24 September 1964, in an ecumenical gesture, the head was returned to the people of Patras by the then Pope.

Archbishop says, 'Spiritually, we are all Semites'

'Spiritually, we are all Semites,' the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said yesterday. Dr Williams was quoting Pope Pius XI. In response to a question at the end of a lecture on Europe's Christian heritage, he said that some of the 'demonic forces' that were thought to have been defeated 60 years ago were once more raging destructively across the European landscape. He said: 'It is a curse and an unmitigated evil in our presence. I feel that many of the demons that some thought had been laid to rest long ago are raging across our landscape. We need, as Christians, to return to that wonderful dictum of Pope Pius 11th: "Spiritually, we are all Semites". He was saying that in the thirties and it needs saying again.'