Anglican Conference Warren calls for 'new reformation' to spread the Christian faith By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Monday, November 14, 2005 PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Rev. Rick Warren told more than 2,000 participants Friday at the first-ever international conference "Hope and a Future" to join a "new reformation" to spread the Christian faith throughout the world. Warren, the best-selling author of The Purpose-Driven Life and the pastor of Saddleback Church in California, said, "History is in the making here. You know it and I know it. I am privileged to be here to watch it." The conference was sponsored by the Anglican Communion Network, which was created by conservative bishops after the Episcopal Church USA's decision in 2003 to accept an openly gay bishop and give tacit approval to same-sex blessings. The two-year-old movement is made up of 10 Episcopal dioceses and more than 800 parishes, constituting about 10 percent of the Episcopal Church USA's 2.3 million members. Warren later told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he was praying for "God to bring good out of bad" in the troubles besetting the Episcopal Church. He expressed support for the theologically conservative participants at the conference, saying they were standing for Biblical truth, but he called for all Christians to work together despite their differences. "It really doesn't matter what your label is. If you love Jesus, we're on the same team," he said, adding that that God uses many churches and traditions to meet broad and varied spiritual needs. "Now I don't agree with everything in everybody's denomination, including my own. I don't agree with everything that Catholics do or Pentecostals do, but what binds us together is so much stronger than what divides us," he said. "I really do feel that these people are brothers and sisters in God's family. I am looking to build bridges with the Orthodox Church, looking to build bridges with the Catholic Church, with the Anglican Church, and say, 'What can we do together that we have been unable to do by ourselves?'" In his plenary address, Warren also urged the participants to use the resources of "the universal, worldwide church of Jesus Christ in all of its local expressions" to help the poorest of the poor. Warren said he had completely missed the importance that the Bible places on the care of the poor until after his book became a bestseller and he asked God what to do with the money in generated. That's when he learned about the importance of caring for the poorest of the poor, Warren said. "How did I miss this thing on poverty?" he asked. "I went to Bible school and seminary and got a doctorate. How did I miss 2,000 verses in the Bible?"

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