Friday, January 13, 2012

Anglican Mission Winter Conference 2012 Updates: Day 2


About that Apology

The Washington Statement reported that Bishop Murphy had used the phrase reverse colonialism while meeting with the Rwandan House of Bishops:

Given these financial and ecclesiastical concerns, some of the Rwandan bishops expressed the desire to exercise greater authority over the AMiA, including the Rwandan House of Bishops electing the AMiA chairman. In response, Bp Murphy cautioned the Rwandan bishops against “reverse colonialism.” During the presentation, he claimed to have told the Rwandan House of Bishops that their “directing and shaping what happens in North America is a bad idea.” He went on to say that their increased involvement would be both “missiologically crazy and practically foolish.”

In his resignation letter to Archbishop Rwaje, Murphy said:

Let me begin by sincerely apologizing both to you and to the House of Bishops for any language that I have recently used that has caused hurt or pain to you or to any of my fellow bishops. I did not sense, nor did anyone tell me, that my reference to the dangers of reverse colonialism at the September House of Bishops meeting was received as being abusive. Since it appears that it did bring offense, then I do apologize and ask your forgiveness.

To read more, click here.

An audio and a summary of Bishop Murphy's address may also be found at the A Living Text website. Just scroll down the page.

Related articles: What I wish Chuck Murphy had said
AMIA Leaders Lay out Future of Mission Post Split

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