Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says he prays 'in tongues' every day

From the Daily Mail-

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that God communicates with him through letters sent by people with a gift for divine prophecy.

As well as receiving divine intervention from believers the clergyman also said he prays 'in tongues' daily, meaning he speaks unknown languages as part of a spiritual experience.

Speaking to Christian radio website Premier Justin Welby, the most senior clergyman in the Church of England, said he reads letters sent to him daily from people who feel God has given them a message to pass onto the archbishop.

More here-

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6613903/Archbishop-Canterbury-Justin-Welby-says-prays-tongues-day.html

also here-

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/21/i-pray-in-tongues-every-day-says-archbishop-of-canterbury

How a Christian movement is growing rapidly in the midst of religious decline

From RNS-

INC Christianity is led by a network of popular independent religious entrepreneurs, often referred to as “apostles.” They have close ties, we found, to conservative U.S. politicians, including Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry and, more recently, President Donald Trump.

Charismatic Christians emphasize supernatural miracles and divine interventions, but INC Christianity is different from other charismatics – and other Christian denominations in general – in the following ways:

It is not focused primarily on building congregations but rather on spreading beliefs and practices through media, conferences and ministry schools.

It is not so much about proselytizing to unbelievers as it is about transforming society through placing Christian believers in powerful positions in all sectors of society.

More here-

http://religionnews.com/2017/03/18/how-a-christian-movement-is-growing-rapidly-in-the-midst-of-religious-decline/

Would Jesus be a gentrifier? How Christianity is embracing urban renewal

From The Guardian-

In the 1990s, the Bristol neighbourhood of Stokes Croft was a hub of unchecked creativity. The vast Victorian façades, many of which had been abandoned to the elements, were a ready-made canvas for street artists such as Banksy and Robert Del Naja (also known as 3D), who became household names. Sound systems piled into squats while the police turned a blind eye, fostering global stars such as Tricky and Massive Attack.

Two decades on, and Stokes Croft is increasingly home to artisan coffee shops, burger bars and craft ale pubs that signify urban modernity. The graffiti, once a marker of lawlessness, is now consigned to council-sanctioned tourist sites.

More here-

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/mar/07/spiritual-gentrification-christianity-regeneration-game-stokes-croft-bristol

In Uganda, Anglicans Are Casting Out Demons

From Charisma-

Last Friday in the dusty town of Kabwohe, Uganda, more than 5,000 people crammed into an enclosed field to worship Jesus. They stayed from 7 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. for an all-night celebration that included dancing, singing, shouting, speaking in tongues and an altar call that resulted in dozens of conversions. A few times during the evening, someone was set free from demons.

You might expect this in Africa, where Pentecostal churches have been growing for decades. But this event, which happens in Kabwohe once a month, is sponsored by All Saints Anglican Church. Right after a demonized woman was carried away from the rickety wooden stage, Rev. Gordon Karuhanga led the congregation in the Apostles' Creed. Then he and other robed clergy served Communion.

More here-

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/55237-in-uganda-anglicans-are-casting-out-demons

Neither an Invasion, Nor Surprising: Lambeth Palace, Chemin Neuf, and Anglican Charismatics

From First Things-

In December Peter Berger wrote a brief reflection on Archbishop Justin Welby’s inviting four members of the Catholic Charismatic community Chemin Neuf to live and pray at Lambeth Palace. His reflection was based on a story in The Tablet. For Berger, this development was a pleasant surprise and represented a kind of invasion by global Pentecostalism into the heart of Anglicanism. I have a strong appreciation for Berger’s sympathetic interest in the dynamics and spread of Pentecostalism, which he uses as a short hand for the entire Pentecostal and charismatic movement. As I have said before, Pentecostals need friends like Berger who combine sensitivity with constructive dialogue.

Having said that, from my vantage point the event at Lambeth was neither an invasion nor surprising. It was, instead, a natural extension of a growing charismatic movement within the Church of England. In some ways, it could be seen as the fruition of a relationship between Pentecostals and Anglicans forged in 1907 when the Anglican vicar Alexander Boddy invited Thomas B. Barratt to speak at his parish, All Saints’ Church in Sunderland just outside of Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England. Boddy had already been impacted by the Welsh Revival (1904-1905) and the preceding conventions at Keswick. Barratt, on the other hand, was a Methodist who had experienced a Pentecostal-type Spirit baptism at the Azusa Street Revival (1906-1909). From Barratt’s ministry, Boddy had his own Pentecostal experience. Beginning in 1908, he sponsored annual Whitsundtide Conferences at All Saints’, which became the epicenter of early Pentecostalism in England. He also began publishing Confidence, a periodical that served as the voice of British Pentecostalism.

More here-

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2014/01/07/neither-an-invasion-nor-surprising-lambeth-palace-chemin-neuf-and-anglican-charismatics/

Understanding the Charismatic Movement

From Christianity Today

Dennis Bennett had been considering spiritual growth with a small group of Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, CA. Some were unsure of the direction that Bennett was leading. Tensions grew volatile in his large church in Van Nuys, CA, when he declared to the congregation on Easter Sunday of 1960 that he had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The news was not well received by all and Bennett later resigned. Both Time and Newsweek ran articles on Bennett and the church later that year, and the story appeared on local and national television. In a sense, Pentecostalism was entering the mainline (the Episcopal Church, no less) and this was news. This began the mainsteaming of continualist practices (like speaking in tounges, praying for healing, etc.) that were primarily found in Pentecostal churches that, up until now, were often on the fringe of Protestantism.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2013/october/charismatic-renewal-movement.html

Writer Julia Duin traces rise and fall of Graham Pulkingham and Houston's Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

From Oregon-

Intentional Christian communities, rooted in the first-century faith experience, come and go. Some fade quietly, others disband dramatically, a few endure.

Writer Julia Duin, who lived in two such communities in Portland from 1979 to 1981, will discuss her new book, which focuses on a third that she encountered as a religion reporter for the Houston Chronicle in 1986. Duin will speak at 6:45 p.m. Sunday, April 17, at Metanoia Peace Community, 2116 NE 18th Ave.

"Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community" tells the story of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston's East End, led by the Rev. Graham Pulkingham. As Duin learned more about the community known for its music and charismatic worship, she discovered Pulkingham's double life -- he died in 1993 after being named in adultery and homosexual scandals -- and the darker side of the modern charismatic movement.

More here-

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2011/04/writer_julia_duin_traces_rise.html

The Right Reverend Richard Hare

From The London Telegraph-

During the 1950s and 1960s he was no more than an effective and popular bishop’s chaplain, cathedral canon and Cumbrian archdeacon.

Shortly after he became Bishop of Pontefract, however, this respectable High Churchman was caught up in the fast-developing Charismatic movement, and this changed everything.

Father Bernard Chamberlain of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield had urged him to take notice of the emerging new element in the Church. This Hare did, and — to his own great surprise and that of the Bishop of Wakefield and his other colleagues and friends — soon became the first episcopal participant in the renewal.

His personality altered, and he became an overflowing extrovert whose enthusiasm knew no bounds. Hallelujah was often on his lips and he spoke of “a release of joy and praise within me that I would not have thought possible”.

Such “revelling in the joy of the Lord” was too much for the traditionalists, however, which probably explains why he never moved to a diocesan bishopric.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/8000585/The-Right-Reverend-Richard-Hare.html

Abuses are possible in charismatic communities, author contends

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

As a young religion journalist 25 years ago in Houston, Julia Duin joined an Episcopal charismatic community that was repairing ruined buildings and ruined lives.

But, after following the Community of Celebration to Beaver County, where she attended Trinity School for Ministry, she became disenchanted. Her 1992 master's thesis documented abuse of authority within the community, and the role of its founder, the Rev. Graham Pulkingham, in spreading a highly authoritarian theology to other charismatic communities nationwide. Months later she amended it to include evidence of sexual misconduct by Father Pulkingham, who was under suspension from ministry when he died suddenly in 1993.

Now Ms. Duin has written a book, "Days of Fire and Glory" (Crossland Press $24.95) which weaves a tale both soaring and sordid of the community's rise and fall. She will speak Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in St. Thomas-in-the-Field Church (Anglican), in Richland.

"I'm not trashing [the idea of] community," said Ms. Duin, who covers religion for The Washington Times. "But I would like the book to be a template so that if people do try to live out the New Testament vision of community again, they don't repeat the same mistakes."

Father Pulkingham achieved national prominence after reviving a dying Houston parish in 1963. An early leader of the charismatic movement, which brought Pentecostal practices such as speaking in tongues into liturgical worship, he began taking in street people who became the nucleus of the Community of Celebration. At its height it had 400 resident members, who lived together and shared resources. They founded a medical clinic and other neighborhood programs. Its traveling music ministry, Fisherfolk, achieved international acclaim.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10151/1062034-44.stm#ixzz0pVa9NLOv

Ardor and Order The charismatic renewal has disappeared like yeast into bread dough.

From Christianity Today-

April 3 marked exactly 50 years since Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett resigned from his post as rector of St. Mark's Church in Van Nuys, California. He knew that his glowing talk about baptism in the Holy Spirit had provoked fear and resentment among some members of his congregation. He didn't know that he was about to become the central character in a new movement—the charismatic renewal of the mainline denominations. Soon, Bennett and his message were the subjects of stories in Newsweek and Time and the objects of international attention.

In April 1960, I was a seventh grader in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, culturally and religiously as distant from Southern California Episcopalians as an American could be. But by 1974, I had a newly minted M.Div. and became pastor of a church near San Diego. There I became friends with Frank Maguire, an Episcopal priest who featured prominently in Dennis Bennett's autobiographical Nine O'Clock in the Morning.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/may/15.53.html

BOOK REVIEW: How an ecstatic movement failed

I read this several months ago. It is fascinating-

Gin was the "quickest way out of Man-chester," the Marxist historian Eric Hobs-bawn observed in "The Age of Revolution." Flight from the difficult and dreary often found its wings in alcohol or narcotics, while ecstatic religion could also provide the opiate that relieved the pains of life.

It has been ever thus. Religious movements that release the believer from his trials through connection with the divine can be found in most faiths: Sufism in Islam, the Hasidic movement in Judaism and Pentecostalism in modern Christianity are but a few examples. Some ecstatic movements flower under the guidance of a charismatic leader then fade upon his passing.

But from its roots in working-class Los Angeles 100 years ago, Pentecostalism has flourished in Africa, South America and in parts of Asia. It has become the fastest-growing segment of American religious life - even moving into the political spotlight with Sarah Palin and the 2008 presidential race.

In the early 1960s, the Christian charismatic renewal movement of signs and wonders made the jump into the "mainline" - and Julia Duin, religion editor of The Washington Times, deftly chronicles its meteoric rise and collapse in the Episcopal Church, focusing on the saga of the Rev. Graham Pulkingham and Houston's Church of the Redeemer.

More here-

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/03/how-an-ecstatic-movement-failed/

Obituary: Father Michael Harper

From The London Telegraph-

He left the Anglican Church in 1995 however after its decision to ordain women priests. Received into the Antiochian Orthodox Church, he became Dean of its communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland and held the office of archpriest.

Harper embraced the Anglican evangelical tradition following an intense conversion experience while attending a service in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge during his first undergraduate year at the university. He decided to seek Holy Orders, and spent six years as a curate at All Souls, Langham Place, in London's West End; the rector there, John Stott, was leading the revival of evangelicalism in the Church of England.

Between 1958 and 1964 Harper was chaplain to the Oxford Street stores, and in 1962 he had another dramatic experience while reading the Epistle to the Ephesians. "It was earth-shattering," he said, "everything leapt off the page." As a result he concluded that he had received "Baptism in the Spirit", which linked him with the so-called neo-Pentecostal movement that was then spreading rapidly in North America. This involved "speaking in tongues", healings, casting out demons and other unusual events.

John Stott was unhappy about this development in a member of his staff, as he regarded the movement as "unbalanced and unhealthy", and Harper was asked not to preach on the subject in All Souls. Their personal relationship was affected for a time, but harmony was eventually restored.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/7158633/Father-Michael-Harper.html

DUIN: 'Baptism in the Holy Spirit'

From The Washington Times-

Nearly 50 years ago, an Episcopal priest shocked his listeners during a Palm Sunday sermon at St. Mark's Church in Van Nuys, Calif. On April 3, 1960, the Rev. Dennis Bennett announced he had received a personal Pentecost or "baptism in the Holy Spirit;" an infusion of spiritual power that brought with it the gift of speaking in tongues.

His congregation took the news calmly but some of his fellow clergy and vestry members did not, and Mr. Bennett resigned that very day. His story hit the local media, then Time and Newsweek, then national TV. A sympathetic Episcopal bishop invited him to pastor a dying church in the Seattle suburb of Ballard and in short order St. Luke's/Ballard was turned around, eventually attracting guests from around the world to its famous Friday night meetings.

Modern-day Pentecostalism had been around since 1901, but Mr. Bennett was the grandfather of the charismatic renewal, which brought Pentecostal practices into mainline Protestantism and the Roman Catholic Church. Today, about 500 million Christians are pentecostal or charismatic worldwide.

More here-

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/04/baptism-in-the-holy-spirit/?feat=home_columns

Book Recomendation Julia Duin "Days of Fire and Glory"

I'm reading this and finding it fascinating especially since I know many of the characters.


It was the late summer of 1986 when Julia Duin moved to Houston as the new religion writer for The Houston Chronicle. At the invitation of friends, she visited the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Houston's blighted East End and fell in love with its gorgeous music and charismatic worship. After she met Graham Pulkingham, the spellbinding priest who had led Redeemer into a powerful renewal starting in 1964, Duin became convinced the world needed to know the story of this gifted man and his church. As she began investigating the story, many warned her there was a darker history behind Pulkingham. Now the journalist who first broke that story reveals the details of the scandal that rocked the charismatic and Christian community movements, and the Episcopal Church. Duin provides a fascinating portrait of the glorious days of the renewal and its sister movements within Catholic and Pentecostal churches. Book includes 8 pages of photos.

http://www.amazon.com/Days-Fire-Glory-Charismatic-Community/dp/0979027977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256655398&sr=8-1