The KJV and a Church Divided

Reflections on the 400^th Anniversary of the Authorized Version

By C. Peter Molloy

AT THE DAWN of the 17^th century the Church of England was at odds with itself. Church leaders were fighting over the jurisdiction of bishops, appropriate liturgies for use, and the nature of communion.  At the heart of it was the question: What are the matters of doctrine and discipline that all must observe, and which are matters indifferent (dare we say adiaphora?) which could be decided locally? It is not so hard for us to imagine a church riven by such acrimonious debate. 

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Stained Glass and Climate Change

Dark colours in the stained glass at Chartres CathedralFOR ONE OF my business trips this year, I attended the annual congress of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna in early May.  This meeting offers an eclectic assortment of papers and posters on earth and planetary sciences, presented by over 8,000 scientists and students from around the world.  There are always interesting and unusual items that crop up, but this time I did a double-take when I came across a poster with the intriguing title, “Stained glass and climate change: How are they connected?”

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40% of primates absent from Primates’ Meeting

ONLY 23 OF 38 primates attended the Primates’ Meeting in Dublin Jan. 25^th-31^st. The absent Primates represent 41.5 million of the Communion’s 55 million active Anglicans. In fact the Dublin meeting attracted only a 30 percent representation of the global Anglican Communion.

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Words from Archbishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt

ALTHOUGH EGYPTIAN Christians are a minority group of ten percent in Egypt, they constitute the largest Christian population in the Middle East.  Mark Green of the Barnabas Fund said that as a minority, the political upheaval leaves Egyptian Christians even more vulnerable. 

Archbishop Mouneer Anis (Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa; President Bishop of the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East) is quoted extensively in a Christianity Today article on Egypt.  He says, “Like Jesus… We also need to… do good. Heal the sick and feed the hungry and preach the gospel. And I think that is our mission whatever happens. We should not be passive, we should be active, we should participate in the selection and election of our new president and we should cooperate with the new government. We need to do our part and God will do his part… We are not afraid.  Whatever the outcome, the church is his, and we belong to him, and whatever he will allow, we will go through.”

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New Year’s bomb attack

A suicide bomber killed 21 people and wounded 97 outside a Coptic church in the Nile delta city of Alexandria just after a New Year’s midnight service. The explosion ripped through the crowd, leaving the entranceway to The Church of the Two Saints covered with blood and severed body parts. The brutal attack has turned global attention to the Copts’ complaints that they face discrimination and persecution in the Muslim-majority nation. Christian rioters in Cairo burnt tires and threw stones at police, as they accuse the government of failing to protect them.

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Christmas bomb attacks in Nigeria

At least 38 people were killed in deadly bomb attacks in northern and central Nigeria over the Christmas weekend.

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Canadian Muslim population to triple

The Muslim population worldwide is forecast to grow at about twice the rate of the non-Muslim population over the next two decades.

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Ten Primates to boycott Dublin

AT LEAST ten Primates from the Global South are now expected to boycott the Primates’ Meeting in Dublin in late January.

In a statement released on Nov. 24^th, five African Primates, members of the GAFCON Primates’ Council, confirmed that they would not attend the meeting which is held every two years. It is also understood that the Primate of South-East Asia, Dr John Chew; the Primate in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Dr Mouneer Anis; and the Primate of the Indian Ocean, the Most Rev. Ian Ernest, will not go to Dublin.

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Baghdad church hostage drama ends in bloodbath

ON THE EVE of All Saints’ Day, 53 hostages and police were killed when an attempt by Iraqi security forces to free 120 Syriac Catholics held in a Baghdad church by al Qaeda-linked gunmen turned into a bloodbath.

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Province of Southern Cone elects new Primate

Uruguay votes to leave Southern Cone over women’s ordination 

THE TENTH SYNOD of the Province of the Southern Cone of America, meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Nov. 1-5, has elected Bishop Hector "Tito" Zavala of Chile as its next Primate, replacing Bishop Gregory Venables. Zavala becomes the province's first Primate of Chilean extraction. The role of Primate is a three-year renewable term in the Cone. Venables is not retiring, but will maintain his present position as Bishop of Argentina and Northern Argentina.

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