DCNY

The Americans know this will end in schism

2009-07-14T15:31:00.001-07:00

From The Times of London via Stand Firm:

July 15, 2009

Support by US Episcopalians for homosexual clergy is contrary to Anglican faith and tradition. They are leaving the family

Tom Wright

In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.

Both the bishops and deputies (lay and clergy) of TEC knew exactly what they were doing. They were telling the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other “instruments of communion” that they were ignoring their plea for a moratorium on consecrating practising homosexuals as bishops. They were rejecting the two things the Archbishop of Canterbury has named as the pathway to the future — the Windsor Report (2004) and the proposed Covenant (whose aim is to provide a modus operandi for the Anglican Communion). They were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level”. In Windsor’s language, they have chosen to “walk apart”.

Granted, the TEC resolution indicates a strong willingness to remain within the Anglican Communion. But saying “we want to stay in, but we insist on rewriting the rules” is cynical double-think. We should not be fooled.

Of course, matters didn’t begin with the consecration of Gene Robinson. The floodgates opened several years before, particularly in 1996 when a church court acquitted a bishop who had ordained active homosexuals. Many in TEC have long embraced a theology in which chastity, as universally understood by the wider Christian tradition, has been optional.

That wider tradition always was counter-cultural as well as counter-intuitive. Our supposedly selfish genes crave a variety of sexual possibilities. But Jewish, Christian and Muslim teachers have always insisted that lifelong man-plus-woman marriage is the proper context for sexual intercourse. This is not (as is frequently suggested) an arbitrary rule, dualistic in overtone and killjoy in intention. It is a deep structural reflection of the belief in a creator God who has entered into covenant both with his creation and with his people (who carry forward his purposes for that creation).

Paganism ancient and modern has always found this ethic, and this belief, ridiculous and incredible. But the biblical witness is scarcely confined, as the shrill leader in yesterday’s Times suggests, to a few verses in St Paul. Jesus’s own stern denunciation of sexual immorality would certainly have carried, to his hearers, a clear implied rejection of all sexual behaviour outside heterosexual monogamy. This isn’t a matter of “private response to Scripture” but of the uniform teaching of the whole Bible, of Jesus himself, and of the entire Christian tradition.

The appeal to justice as a way of cutting the ethical knot in favour of including active homosexuals in Christian ministry simply begs the question. Nobody has a right to be ordained: it is always a gift of sheer and unmerited grace. The appeal also seriously misrepresents the notion of justice itself, not just in the Christian tradition of Augustine, Aquinas and others, but in the wider philosophical discussion from Aristotle to John Rawls. Justice never means “treating everybody the same way”, but “treating people appropriately”, which involves making distinctions between different people and situations. Justice has never meant “the right to give active expression to any and every sexual desire”.

Such a novel usage would also raise the further question of identity. It is a very recent innovation to consider sexual preferences as a marker of “identity” parallel to, say, being male or female, English or African, rich or poor. Within the “gay community” much postmodern reflection has turned away from “identity” as a modernist fiction. We simply “construct” ourselves from day to day.

We must insist, too, on the distinction between inclination and desire on the one hand and activity on the other — a distinction regularly obscured by references to “homosexual clergy” and so on. We all have all kinds of deep-rooted inclinations and desires. The question is, what shall we do with them? One of the great Prayer Book collects asks God that we may “love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise”. That is always tough, for all of us. Much easier to ask God to command what we already love, and promise what we already desire. But much less like the challenge of the Gospel.

The question then presses: who, in the US, is now in communion with the great majority of the Anglican world? It would be too hasty to answer, the newly formed “province” of the “Anglican Church in North America”. One can sympathise with some of the motivations of these breakaway Episcopalians. But we should not forget the Episcopalian bishops, who, doggedly loyal to their own Church, and to the expressed mind of the wider Communion, voted against the current resolution. Nor should we forget the many parishes and worshippers who take the same stance. There are many American Episcopalians, inside and outside the present TEC, who are eager to sign the proposed Covenant. That aspiration must be honoured.

Contrary to some who have recently adopted the phrase, there is already a “fellowship of confessing Anglicans”. It is called the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is now distancing itself from that fellowship. Ways must be found for all in America who want to be loyal to it, and to scripture, tradition and Jesus, to have that loyalty recognised and affirmed at the highest level.

Tom Wright is Bishop of Durham

GC2009: General Convention Dumps Evangelism Resolution

2009-07-14T15:21:00.001-07:00

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org

7/13/2009

At GC2000 in Denver, The Episcopal Church passed a resolution urging the church to double its baptized membership by 2020.

Following the doomed 1990's 'Decade of Evangelism' , things went from bad to worse with the consecration of Gene Robinson to the episcopacy in 2003. TEC has been steadily going downhill ever since. In 2007 alone it lost more than 50,000 active Episcopalians.

When setting up the 2020 Vision for the church in 2000, objections were raised to the setting of a numerical target goal at that time. However, the number was set at doubling membership by 2020 because other deputies argued that the lack of such a goal was what "doomed" the Decade of Evangelism, which began with great fanfare in 1990 and actually saw a decline in the number of Episcopalians for most of its ten-year span.

Now at GC2009 once again General Convention was called upon to Affirm Christ in a Multi-Faith and Non-Faith society (C069). The resolution was brought to the floor by the Rev.Peter Cook Ph.D, clergy deputy for Western Louisiana. Without so much as a by-your-leave the House of Deputies voted to accept the Evangelism Committee's recommendation to discharge the resolution submitted by the deputies from Western Louisiana.

It was a sad blow for Cook, a British-born evangelical and a priest for nearly 25 years in TEC. He told VOL that if the Church of England House of Bishops could pass in February 2009 a similar resolution affirming the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a multi-faith world, then why couldn't the Episcopal Church do the same?

The Evangelism Committee objected strongly to the resolution and said they thought it was the language of proselytism and exclusivism, and they objected to any talk of Christianity superceding Judaism. " I was blown away," Cook told VOL, "It made absolutely no sense."

Cook said his bishop, Bruce McPherson, was "very comfortable" with the resolution, he being one a handful of remaining orthodox bishops in The Episcopal Church.

When he rose to speak in the House of Deputies, Cook said he wanted to put TEC on the same page as the Church of England, who in February's 2009 General Synod asked their House of Bishops to report back on "their understanding of the uniqueness of Christ in Britain's multi-faith society, and offer examples and commendations of good practice in sharing the gospel of salvation through Christ alone with people of other faiths and of none."

Cook went on: "The U.S. is fast becoming what Britain admittedly now is, a society of many failed faiths and of none. We need resolution C069. We need to get US bishops on the same page as their English counterparts.

"We live in a spiritually hungry and needy world. I, and many here, ought to feel most embarrassed if we cannot address this resolution and were to accept the Evangelism Committee's recommendation to discharge it out-of-hand. Many former Episcopalians and Anglicans around the world are fast coming to the conclusion that the future of Anglicanism in the US lies not with TEC but the newly formed province of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA). The 20/20 vision of doubling the membership of TEC by 2020 is already an abysmal failure.

"If the Episcopal Church is not to continue to be a declining member of the Body of Christ, it needs to take seriously resolutions on evangelism such as C069. It needs to start thinking "outside of its own box." It needs to ask the hard questions of truthfulness the Archbishop of Canterbury put to us last week. Why do we keep on coming every three years to General Convention? Speaking personally, it is so that I might better understand how, as an Episcopalian, I can preach more gracefully and more intelligently the good news of Christ crucified.

"If the English House of Bishops can seek to address how better to 'Affirm Christ in a multi-faith society', why do we think that the House of Bishops of TEC is incapable of doing the same? I urge you to reject the recommendation that we discharge resolution C069."

Debate was then cut off and the HOD voted overwhelmingly to reject any discussion on C069. In view of all that has happened, and continues to happen at this General Convention even more Episcopalians, and even more Anglicans throughout the wider Communion, will indeed conclude that the future of Anglicanism in North America lies with the newly formed Anglican Church of North America.

END

GC2009: FROM MY EAR TO YOURS...

2009-07-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

By David W. Virtue in Anaheim
www.virtueonline.org

7/12/2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, at a press conference today, made the point that The Episcopal Church is not a national church, but an international church with 16 dioceses scattered around the world. (Dioceses can be found in Latin America, Central America, Asia and Europe). Now this begs the question that as we live in a post-colonial world, why are these dioceses still attached to TEC and why have they not been released to the local Anglican province where they are located? Why is the Diocese of Taiwan not affiliated to the Province of Southeast Asia? Furthermore, if TEC can have its offshore dioceses, why is it so wrong for the Anglican Province of Nigeria to have CANA on North American soil? Consistency is apparently the hobgoblin of small minds.

A question I had hoped to ask TEC's fearless leader, but was not able to, is this: Is TEC prepared for the consequences of passing a rite for same-sex marriage that could be seen as the final straw for global south Anglican leaders, as it makes a mockery of the Windsor Report and may deep six any hope of a Covenant being ratified? I shall ask it on another occasion to a couple of liberal bishops who will undoubtedly find the question offensive.

An Integrity reporter asked how the message of inclusion can be disseminated post GC2009. Jefferts Schori opined that she hopes that what happens here will energize people in their local congregations to get out and spread the message of full inclusion for absolutely everybody.

Another astute reporter asked about current ASA statistics indicating that TEC's numbers have shown a decline. What is the plan to reverse this trend? The Presiding Bishop replied that 19,000 more Episcopalians die every year than are born into this tradition. "We kept up statistically until the late 90's. We have not attended well to conversions from "none of the above" category of church goers. There is a hunger in the society around us for spiritual things. Everywhere I go, I talk with people about this. They come to me and ask me about spiritual matters. We didn't do an adequate job of evangelism. We have to learn to not wait for them to come to us. As Episcopalians, we are learning how to do that: to go out and find them. Part of the work of the public narrative is to prepare people to do that when they go home and teach people in their parishes and dioceses to do that."

Asked about the advent of the new North American Anglican province and how ABC Williams should approach the subject as the CofE Synod in York is wrestling with recognizing ACNA, Jefferts Schori said she couldn't really comment because she didn't know the details. "I hope and expect that the Archbishop and other visitors to this Convention will go home and talk about the departures and the pain they have caused this church; the pain to those who have stayed; the pain felt by those who were shut out of their former dioceses and the pain of the broken relationships between those who have gone and those who have stayed. The recognition of ACNA is likely to encourage more departures. Schism is not a Christian act."

Jan Mahood of Episcopalians for Traditional Faith (ETF) said there have been statements for several years that there are no outcasts in this Church. What about the traditionalists and those who prefer to use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer? If there are no outcasts will there be room for us at the table? The Presiding Bishop said the use of the '28 Prayer Book was a diocesan decision. "We have adopted a number of other rites," she opined. "It is an individual contextual decision."

Cheryl Wetzel of Anglicans United asked about consents for Northern Michigan wannabe Bishop Thew Forrester. The Presiding Bishop said the process isn't finished yet and until the final date (July 19 for Standing Committees and July 25 for Bishops), anyone is free to change their vote. The process isn't finished yet.

*****

Attended a Virginia Theological Seminary dinner last night, an inclusive event that saw TEC Presiding Bishop and the Sudan Primate, Deng Bul in the same room together. No, they did not come to blows. Outgoing VA Bishop Peter James Lee was honored for his service to the diocese while a young Black graduate gave a long sermonic rant about racism in Virginia. Dr. Ian Markham is a brilliant young Englishman who heads VTS and kept the ball rolling throughout the evening.

I chatted with the Sudanese Primate who is still adamant that Gene Robinson should be tossed out of the church, a position he advocated at Lambeth 2008. He was happy to reiterate it, again. He also extended a personal invitation to this reporter to come to the Sudan. He feels that international political pressure should be brought to bear to end the crisis in the Sudan which has seen millions displaced and killed. He is not convinced a two-country solution is the right way to go for his country.

Bumped into a high level muckety- muck from 815 at the dinner who assured me that Charles E. Bennison, the deposed Bishop of Pennsylvania, is truly finished even though procedures drawing out the pain have to be followed. Bennison can still appeal to the full HOB. For Bennison, who is still drawing a salary, fighting his deposition is all about salvaging his ego, if not his episcopacy. He will never resign, but he has no future either. He will never darken the headquarters of the Diocese of PA that much seems certain.

*****

Spent some time with Robert W. Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief and Development. I probed him about ERD being used as a political tool for pushing The Episcopal Church's gay agenda. He assured me that that was not the case. He said ERD is a separate non-profit organization. When he is in the field, it never comes up and he never raises TEC's stance on issues. "I stay strictly on focus about relief and development and we go into provinces regardless of what they think about TEC. We work in the Congo, Sudan and South Africa to name but a few countries. If there is a need we can meet, we meet it." I asked him about Trinity Wall Street's funding and why the need for both organizations. He opined that TWS focuses more on communication needs while ERD focuses on agricultural projects. Oddly enough, I found him both engaging and believable.

*****

Overheard, the wife of a prominent African American East Coast liberal clergyman speaking to a Convention goer:

Convention Goer: It's great that we send a guilt offering to foreign countries but we're not prepared to face up to the ghettos in our own cities.

Clergy Wife: Right, we pass the peace, but don't want to touch each other.

A downcast Bishop of Dallas, James Stanton left Sunday's Eucharist early, while congregants were receiving communion. VOL reporter Michael Heidt managed to ask a few questions:

VOL: A retired Bishop was asked yesterday about "how far" this Convention "would go." He answered, "As far as they can go."

Do you think they will? Stanton: I think they will. VOL: Bishop William Love (Albany) testified in favor of the Covenant resolution at a hearing of the World Mission Committee. He said that if the Convention adopts one of the LGBT resolutions and rejects the Covenant resolution, it will "rip the Communion to shreds." He received little or no comment from the Committee, why was that? Stanton: The Communion's already broken - they don't care. *****

The Integrity crowd is very visible here and they are politicking like crazy. They are leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit of full inclusion for people with abnormal sexual behaviors. Their presence is solidly in the media room.

*****

Gene Robinson is worried. He wrote, "It seems likely the Deputies may come down overwhelmingly in support of faithful LGBT Christians, and the bishops will come firmly down against us. I recognize that's a short-hand way of putting the issue. It seems to me that the Deputies may ... recognize that Scripture does not forbid the faithful relationships we experience ... see and perceive the blessedness within same-sex relationships ... see the need for the church to participate in our covenants ... see that faithful Christians may serve (and, in fact, already are serving) in all orders (as bishops, deacons, and priests) in our church.

"And the bishops - some of whom personally see the same thing - notwithstanding all that - may decide to block any action for the sake of the Anglican Unity Tea they drank at Lambeth.

"Make no mistake: If the House of Bishops block the action of the House of Deputies, they will be telling me personally that they care more for the Archbishops of Nigeria, Uganda, etc. than they are about me. Yes, I will take it personally."

END

NYT: Episcopal Church Moves to End Ban on Gay Bishops

2009-07-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Let's see, we've got the New York Times, Integrity and the ABC Rowan Williams all agreed as to what the passing of DO25 means. On the other hand we have Bishop Stacy Sauls insisting that the ABC is misinformed on what the passing of DO25 means.

Could it be that Sauls is either the one who is misinformed or the one who is presenting this action of GC09 in a dishonest way? ed.

From the New York Times via BabyBlue:

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 14, 2009

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The bishops of the Episcopal Church voted at the church’s convention on Monday to open “any ordained ministry” to gay men and lesbians, a move that could effectively undermine a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops that the church passed at its last convention three years ago.
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The resolution passed on Monday was written in a way that would allow dioceses to consider gay candidates to the episcopacy, but does not mandate that all dioceses do so.

A similar measure was passed on Sunday by the church’s other legislative body, the House of Deputies, which is made up of laypeople and clergy. On Tuesday, the bishops’ version will probably go back to the House of Deputies for reconsideration.

The resolution, if approved, would probably add to the strife in the Anglican Communion, the world’s third largest family of Christian churches, of which the Episcopal Church is the American branch.

The battle over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church has been watched closely by other mainline Protestant churches that are also divided internally on the issue. Many are looking to the Episcopal Church as a bellwether that could foretell whether their denominations can survive the storm over homosexuality intact.

Conservative provinces in the Anglican Communion, especially some in Africa, have broken off their ties with the Episcopal Church in recent years after the church consecrated Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the communion, who was elected in the diocese of New Hampshire six years ago.

The moratorium that the Episcopal Church had passed at its convention three years ago was an attempt to calm conservatives in the communion and in the Episcopal Church. While not explicitly labeled a moratorium, it urged Episcopal dioceses to refrain from consecrating bishops whose “manner of life” posed a challenge to the rest of the Anglican Communion. In fact, a few openly gay candidates were considered for election in the last three years, but none of them won sufficient support, and the moratorium was never tested.

In the end the moratorium pleased no one: neither conservatives who observed that some in the church did not really intend to abide by it, nor liberals who saw it as a codification of discrimination and injustice to gay clergy members who otherwise were qualified to be considered as bishops.

The Rev. Susan Russell, a priest in Los Angeles who is the president of Integrity USA, an advocacy group for gay men and lesbians in the church, said in a statement late Monday, “There is no question that today’s vote in the House of Bishops was an historic move forward and a great day for all who support the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ.”

The Episcopal News Service reported that Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama, who voted against the resolution on Monday, said it would be interpreted overseas as a rejection of the moratorium, even though he thinks it is more nuanced.

“I long for us to be an inclusive church, but not a polarized church,” he said. “We need to be a part of the larger Anglican Communion in what we do in this matter. I think it will be interpreted internationally as a rejection of B033,” the legislation that instituted the moratorium on gay bishops three years ago.

The moratorium had done little to forestall the fracturing both within the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. Conservatives in both bodies have formed their own alliances in the last three years, asserting that they represent the true Anglican tradition.

In the United States, four dioceses — Fort Worth; Pittsburgh; Quincy, Ill.; and San Joaquin, Calif. — have voted to split from the Episcopal Church (although some parishes within those dioceses elected to remain). Last year, they joined with other disaffected parishes and groups that had splintered from the Episcopal Church over many years to form the “Anglican Church in North America.” That group held its first convention, in Texas, last month. They claim 100,000 members, while the Episcopal Church claims about 2 million.

The new group says that Scripture clearly prohibits homosexual relationships. Church liberals, meanwhile, insist that the Anglican tent is large enough to tolerate multiple approaches.

The debates at the convention in Anaheim over the last few days have made it clear that the liberals increasingly have the upper hand within the Episcopal Church. At a debate over whether to develop formal rites for same-sex blessings, 50 people testified in favor and 6 against.

A committee on Monday overwhelmingly approved a measure that would permit same-sex blessings, and the House of Bishops will take that up later this week.

The debate before the House of Deputies voted on Sunday to overturn the moratorium on gay bishops sometimes grew emotional. Sally Johnson, a lay delegate from Minnesota, who had supported the moratorium three years ago, proclaimed that she had decided now to support D025, the measure to overturn the moratorium, because it is a more accurate reflection of where the Episcopal Church stands.

“I stand before you now asking us to give D025 to the church and the communion as a gift, reflecting our messiness in our church but an authentic, truthful statement about who we are as the Episcopal Church,” she said.

But speaking in opposition, the Rev. Ralph Stanwise, from the diocese of Quincy, said, “If we overturn the B033 moratorium we will in effect be urging many remaining conservatives and moderates among us and in our home dioceses, especially our most fragile ones, to search for the exit signs.”

Told of the vote to undo the moratorium by the House of Deputies, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who as head of the Church of England is considered “first among equals” among the communion’s archbishops, said that he regretted the move because it could further fracture the communion, which he has been struggling to keep intact.

Dr. Williams addressed the General Convention in Anaheim as it opened last week, saying, “Along with many in the communion, I hope and pray that there won’t be decisions in the coming days that will push us further apart. If we — if I — had felt that we could do perfectly well without you, there wouldn’t be a problem.”

Rebecca Cathcart contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

The conservative wing has become a few feathers

2009-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Observers from the left and right have observed how few conservatives are part of the General Convention. GC09 operates in a post-ACNA world where most of the conservatives who were once part of pecusa have now left for the new Anglican province in North America. What this means for pecusa was noted months if not years ago - there is little push-back as pecusa moves further and further away from the Anglican Communion. More centrist bishops like the Bishop of West Virginia can point out that the passing of DO25 is a clear statement of repudiation of the Windsor Report guidelines and the express will of the Communion, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that pecusa liberals have very little to restrain them. So, liberals like the Bishop of Central New York will vote for DO25 and let the chips fall where they may. The conservative wing is now just a few feathers and they can flap as loudly as they are able but it is futile to stop GC09 from flying further and further away from the Anglican Communion.

GC2009: Archbishop Rowan Williams Misinformed, Says Stacy Sauls

2009-07-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

As Kendall Harmon points out, ABC Williams and Integrity understand the resolution in the same way which would seem to indicate that Williams is not misinformed. I'll add the conclusion that Harmon politely omits - Sauls is speaking untruthfully. ed.

By Michael Heidt
Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
7/13/2009

In a characteristically bold statement to the press, Bishop Stacy Sauls, of Lexington Kentucky, said that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, is "laboring under a misconception."

Speaking to the Church of England's General Synod in York, Archbishop Williams stated that he "regrets" yesterday's decision to overturn TEC's moratorium on unrepentant homosexual consecrations. Responding to a question from Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, the Archbishop said, "I regret the fact that there is not the will to observe the moratorium in such a significant part of the Church in North America but I can't say more about that as I have no details."

This hasn't happened, according to Stacey Sauls. The outspoken Bishop of Lexington said that "it (D025) changes nothing about the situation" the "situation" being that The Episcopal Church exercises "restraint... by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church." as specified in resolution B033, passed at the 75th General Convention in response to the Windsor Report.

Sauls went on to say that D025 confirmed TEC's existing canonical process of ministerial discernment and stated that the "restraint" urged by B033 would continue. "I'm sure that that restraint will continue to be on their minds." When questioned by Cheryl Wetzel of Anglicans Online, about the Archbishop's response to D025, Sauls stated, "Where we end up with it remains to be seen. I can't get inside the Archbishop's mind but I can only hope that he reads the actual language and reflects... on it."

Dr. Williams is known for his scholarly and reflective quality of mind. It would be surprising if he hasn't read and reflected on the resolution in question, which states that "same-sex couples" possess "holy love" which reflects "the image of God." It also recognizes "that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries". Not only that, D025 states that homosexual practice is no bar to the discernment process for ministry in TEC. The penultimate Resolve reads:

"Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church, which call is tested through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church."

Being an educated man, Archbishop Williams reads this to mean homosexual lifestyle is no obstacle to persons seeking ministry in any of the three ministerial orders of The Episcopal Church. Or, in other words, that D025 effectively overturns the moratorium put in place by B033.

No amount of Lexingtonian doublethink can change that, but perhaps the "bonds of affection" that exist between TEC's House of Bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury will prevent D025's passage through the Episcopal House of this year's general Convention. If so, TEC will have to live with the hypocrisy of refusing candidates for the episcopacy on the grounds of a lifestyle it considers canonical and, in the words of the resolution in question, "holy."

The text of D025 follows below:

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 76th General Convention reaffirm the continued participation of The Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion; give thanks for the work of the bishops at the Lambeth Conference of 2008; reaffirm the abiding commitment of The Episcopal Church to the fellowship of churches that constitute the Anglican Communion and seek to live into the highest degree of communion possible; and be it further

Resolved, That this the 76th General Convention encourage dioceses, parishes congregations, and members of The Episcopal Church to participate to the fullest extent possible in the manyinstruments, networks and relationships of the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That this the 76th General Convention reaffirm its financial commitment to the Anglican Communion and pledge to participate fully in the Inter-Anglican Budget; and be it further

Resolved, That this the 76th General Convention affirm the value of "listening to the experience of homosexual persons," as called for by the Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988, and 1998, and acknowledge that through our own listening the General Convention has come to recognize that the baptized membership of The Episcopal Church includes same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships "characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God" (2000-D039); and be it further

Resolved, That this the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church over the centuries and are currently doing so in our midst, and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church, which call is tested through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church; and be it further Resolved, That the 76th General Convention acknowledge that, members of The Episcopal Church as of the Anglican Communion, based on careful study of the Holy Scriptures, and in light of tradition and reason, are not all of one mind, and Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters.

EXPLANATION

This resolution provides clarification in light of the Windsor Report (2004) and subsequent discussions in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

The first resolve reaffirms resolution A159 adopted at the 75th General Convention General Convention, in 2006. While much attention has been focused on official statements and resolutions from the primates meetings, Lambeth Conference 2008, and Anglican Consultative Council meetings in 2005 and 2009, our participation in the Anglican Communion consists of a much richer tapestry of ministries and networks as well as personal relationships. Hence the second resolve encourages Episcopalians, individually and in dioceses and parishes, to build relationships with our sisters and brothers around the Anglican Communion by participation in these networks and ministries.

Another sign of the Episcopal Church's commitment to the Anglican Communion is financial. In 2007, The Episcopal Church budgeted $661,000 for the Inter-Anglican budget, which sustains the work of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Anglican Communion offices in London. The 2007 financial report of the Anglican Consultative Council (the latest available on the Anglican Communion website) reports a total income from Inter Anglican Budget contributions as £1,134,745 ($1,864,574.36, using 2009 currency rates). In other words, The Episcopal Church contributes a substantial portion of the Inter Anglican Budget. This resolution reaffirms our financial commitment.

Our relationships in the Anglican Communion have been tested by the question of the ordination to the episcopate of individuals living in a same-sex partnership. Resolution D-039 of the 73rd General Convention, in 2000, acknowledged that the membership of the Episcopal Church includes persons living in same-sex relationships; established an expectation that "such relationships will be characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God"; and further denounced "promiscuity, exploitation, and abusiveness in the relationships of any of our members." Three years later, the 74th General Convention reaffirmed this expectation. These standards thus provide guidance for access to the discernment process for ordination to the episcopate.

The acceptance of the ministry of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons is not settled in The Episcopal Church or in the Anglican Communion. While the church continues to discern God's will in these matters, it is important to remind ourselves that sacramental theology since the time of Augustine of Hippo has affirmed that the validity of sacraments does not depend on the character of the ordained person celebrating those sacraments.

END

GC2009: Resolution D025 adopted two to one by liberal clerics in HOB

2009-07-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

By Michael Heidt
Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
7/13/2009

At 5.55 p.m. the vote was called on amended resolution D025 in the House of Bishops. The results were conclusive: ninety-nine bishops in favor of the resolution, 45 opposed, with two abstentions.

During initial discussion on D025, it become clear that the mind of the House of Bishops was against its watered down variant as amended by Bishop Dorsey Henderson to remove permissive language from the sixth Resolve of the resolution.

The well-known Blues drummer, Bishop Chane of Washington D.C. spoke passionately against the Dorsey Amendment, "B033... has caused great pain, it really has... inhibiting the Church from the breath of the Spirit. It's been discriminatory." After testifying that "Gene Robinson (is) a breath of fresh air, a breath of the Spirit," he went on to say, "There is no winner, there is no loser here. There is only the breath of the Holy Spirit." Such pathos may have moved an amendment to the amendment.

The House changed Bishop Henderson's original wording, putting back the words "affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church" and adding "God's call" is "a mystery" from the text of Dorsey's original amendment.

This was popular, prompting the Bishop of Iowa to state that, "You bring us to transparency and remove any attempt at evasion, this is who we are." Bishop Lamb of the pro-TEC diocese of Quincy concurred. For him, the amendment to the amendment made it "very clear that this process (discernment for ministry) is open." The honesty refrain was taken up by several other prelates, Bishop Steven Charleston of California felt that "we got into a lot of this mess because we said one thing and did another."

However, some bishops appeared confused. The Bishop of Eastern Michigan, Edwin Leidel testified, "I have no idea what will happen... I don't have any clue." With that, the question was called on the amendment to the amendment, which was carried by the House. The bishops then discussed the newly amended resolution.

The Bishop of Arkansas The Rt. Rev. Larry R. Benfield reminded his fellow bishops of the mystery of God's love in the Trinity and argued that we shouldn't limit that love according to "human chromosonic make up." He believed that anything other than supporting the resolution would be "unfaithful to our ordination vows." After several more testimonies, a further amendment was made and the words "as a constituent member" (of the Anglican Communion) was added to the first Resolve.

Then Bishop David B. Reed, retired of Kentucky, asked the chair if it would be possible to divide the resolution. Jefferts Schori told him that he could offer a motion that the House could vote on the resolution by Resolves. Bishop Reed did not appear to understand this and was told to return to his seat, "I'm gonna ask you to sit down" said the Presiding Bishop to Reed, allowing discussion to continue. The monk bishop of Massachusetts, Thomas Shaw, described his calling of celibacy and then said, "now is the time" to pass the resolution, "the scales are falling from our eyes." More testimony followed, most of it for the resolution with some against.

The bishop of West Virginia objected, "We need to face the fact that this is a repudiation of B033... now we're shooting the gap..." and will, he felt, do the very things that the Communion has asked The Episcopal Church not to do. Peter Beckwith, Bishop of Springfield, agreed, "I do not believe it is right... sex outside marriage is inappropriate" and more importantly, he thought that what was at stake was "a perceived justice issue" over and against the "integrity of the Communion." The Bishop of Albany Bill Love spoke in the same vein, stating that "If this resolution passes, The Episcopal Church will cease to be what its always been." For him, passing amended D025 would "totally shred" the Communion... a loss to us and the wider Church."

Others, notably Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina and Bishop John W. Howe of Central Florida spoke powerfully against the resolution. But the tide of the House was against them and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had warned against such legislation earlier that day at General Synod.

The amended resolution now returns to the House of Deputies for final ratification and with it a clear signal to the Anglican Communion, that The Episcopal Church has no legislative regard for Lambeth 1:10 or the moratorium on gay consecrations suggested by the Windsor Report.

END

Integrity Press Release on the HOB Passage of Slightly Amended D025

2009-07-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

From TitusOneNine:

By a nearly 2-1 margin, the bishops of the Episcopal Church passed an amended version of resolution D025, which effectively ends the "BO33 Era" and returns the church to relying on its canons and discernment processes for the election of bishops. "While concurrence on the amended resolution by the House of Deputies is necessary before it is officially adopted by the church as a whole," said Integrity President Susan Russell, "there is no question that today's vote in the House of Bishops was an historic move forward and a great day for all who support the full inclusion of all the baptized in the Body of Christ."

"It was a tremendous privilege to be a witness to the courage and candor of the bishops who spoke truth to each other and to us--and who called the Episcopal Church to speak our truth to our Anglican Communion brothers and sisters and to the world.

"The truth is we are a church committed to mission--we are a church committed to the full inclusion of all the baptized in that mission--and we are a church committed to creating as broad a place to stand as possible for ALL who wish to be part of this great adventure of being disciples of Jesus.

"In this carefully constructed and prayerfully considered resolution, our Presiding Bishop got what she both asked for and voted for: a positive statement about where we are as a church in 2009--a church striving to actually become the church former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning called us to be nearly 20 years ago now...a church where there are no outcasts."

"The debate on the floor of the House of Bishops made it VERY clear that our bishops knew exactly what they were doing when they passed this by a nearly 2-1 margin. The resolution passed today by the House of Bishops was another step in the Episcopal Church's 'coming out' process--and it sends a strong 'come and see' message to anyone looking for a faith community where God's inclusive love is not just proclaimed but practiced."

Bishop Adams votes for schism

2009-07-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

You'll have to connect the dots on this one. Bishop Adams voted in favor of resolution DO25 which you can read about in earlier posts. Read the Times of London post below to see what effect this resolution and its aftermath is expected to have on the place of pecusa in the Anglican Communion. This post is from Episcopal Cafe via TitusOneNine. ed.

Amended D025 passes House of Bishops 99-45-2

An amended version of Resolution D025 has passed the House of Bishops. It must now be re-passed by the House of Deputies because it has been amended. I don't think the amendments will present a problem to the deputies.

Here is the amended resolution.

A relatively complete roll call follows. The Presiding Bishop voted yes.

Reed No

Fry No

Charles Yes

Mc Al No

Kimsey Yes

Donovan Yes

Long Island Yes

SE Fl Yes

VA Yes

Wimberly

Griswold

Laddahoff Yes

Skinner Yes

Williams A Yes

Gray Francis

Rowthorne No

Long ISalnd Yes

Borsch Yes

Ecumenical Yes

Turner Franklin

Harris Yes Barbara

Quincy Yes

Johnson Yes

Hampto Yes

Central Fl No

Asst LA Yes

Aslmon No

Kaisar Yes

Williams H Yes

Suffragan LA Yes

Asst Chgo Abstain

CA Asst Yes

Prov San Joaquin Yes

Marlbo0 Yes

Dominica

Springfield No

Dallas No

Haiti No

Pastoral

Payne Cl

MINN Yes

Kentucy Fort Worth YES

Fon Du Lac NO

Mass Yest

Litoral No

Suff S. Ohio Yes

GA No

Upper SC Yes

VA No?

NY Suff Yes

RI- No

Dominican No

CT- Yes

Utah- Yes?

Bethlehem Yes

E. Carolina Yes

Alabama No

W Mass Abstain

SW VA Yes

Chane Yes

Michel Yes

Indanapolis Yes

Ole-

McDonald

Qyoming Yes

LA (Jenkins, I think) No

W MO Yes

Knudesn Yes

NYC- Yes

Delaware Yes

Maryland Suff NO

E Tn Yes

Percell Yes

W NY- Yes

Asst Atlanta- Yes

W LA No

Michigan Yes

Suff Chap No

N Indiana No

LA (Bruno, I think) Yes

NC Yes

MS No

Asst NC Yes

Lexington Yes

Suff CT Yes

Central Yes

Spokane

Taiwant No

PB Yes

Mass Suff Yes

VT Yes

CGC No

W TN- yes?

Atlanta Yes

Colombia No

W VA No

Honduras No

C NY Yes

Europe Yes

CA Yes

MO Yes

W Kansas No

Wash Yes

Mass Suff Yes

Easton No

Iowa Yes

Puerto Yes

Nebraska Yes

Montana Yes

Texas Sff No

Colo Yes

NJ Yes

Milkwaukee No

FL No

NH Yes

Kansas Yes

W Texas No

Arizaona No???

Ohio Yes

N Dakota No

W NC Yes?

Olympia Yes

San Diego Yes

Virgin Islands- No?

W Texas Suff No

E Michigan Yes

Albany No

N Calif Yes

Suff Texas No

C PA Yes

Arkasas Yes

Newark Yes

TN No

SW FL No

Hawaii Yes

S Ohio Yes

Coadjutro VA No

Conneticut Yes

Nw PA No

Oklahoma No

Olympia Yes

El Camino Yes

Nevada Yes

Suff ALA No????

SC No

Chicago Yes

Asst NJ Yes

Maine Yes

Rochester Yes

Maryland yes

Dallas Suff No

Idaho Yes

Texas No

S VA Yes

NW Texas-????

99 yes 45 no 2 abstain passes House of Bishops.

Evening presser has begun. Hoping to have the roll call soon.

Ernie Bennet of Central Florida: The bishop of Ecuador Central was confirmed after passionate discussion about whether the process was fair.

Sally Johnson on Minnesota: The deputies passed Title Iv, based on nine years of work. very, very solid majority without amendment. This is a very big deal to clergy.

On to the questions.

Kim Lawton of PBS: what message does D025 send in US and around world.

Bishop Michael Smith: hesitating because exhausted. Have come straight from the floor. Hope people will understand we are struggling with a difficult issue. Hard to know what to do when people of two different minds. But we are staying together to work this out.

Bishop Stacy Sauls: That the Episcipal Church is serious about including all people and that when we say we welcome everybody we mean it. But that our Anglican partners will understand we are struggling to be faithful to them as well.

Bishop Sauls: The thing that I know about Anglicanism, which I am sure the Archbishop of Canterbury knows (per the question) that there is not a centralized authority. That's one of the key things about Anglicanism.

Bishop Smith: there is a fundamental disconnect between our different understandings of what it means to be Anglican. Does autonomous mean independent or self-governing, but interdependent.

Bishop Sauls: this resolution doesn't open the door for GLBT people to become bishops because the door has never been closed. B033 hasn't changed, but it never had the power to prohibit. (My two cents, it was a reflecton of a political reality, that given events in the Communion, a GLBT candidate simply wans't going to get confirmed. That may still be true, but an iimpediment to changing that reality has been removed. So now--horrors--we have to trust the judgement of our dioceses, bishops and standing committees to do the right thing.

Ian Douglas: I don't think it is appropriate to look at D025 separate from the choices before the committe. Repeal? No. Re-state or strengthen the canons? no. say simply where we stand. Yes.

Sally Johnson: the version passed by the bishops will go back to the world mission committee of the house of deputies. The committee will recommend concur, defeat, further amend. It will be on our floor with all the options open to us.

Bishop Sauls: hopes D025 clarifies some of the misinterpretations of B033, which was never a moratorium but was portrayed as one, and, therefore, in some respects began to function as one.

Bishop Sauls again on a question about the response of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which, at least initially, has been negative. Says he isn't sure the ABC knows what the resolution says.

Ian Douglas: He says that while the Archbishop of Canterbury's initial public reacton was negative, there has been some communication with the ABC about what the resolution really means. Adds: In order to be in full communion we need to be honest. Honesty leads into communon and not a facile understanding of church relationships.

Ernie Bennett: remebers the nine clergy and their wardens who came to him as canon to the ordinary in Central Fla to say they were leaving. That hurt, so that is part of the reality, too.

Of local interest from GC09

2009-07-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

The local story from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church thus far is the denial of press credentials to Fr. Matt Kennedy. This makes sense since Fr. Kennedy is not a journalist except that he was granted press credentials for GC06. Furthermore, press credentials were granted to the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, another non-journalist. Kaeton and Kennedy are both parish priests and bloggers, one is a pecusa priest and the other is not. For GC06, both were pecusa priests. Was this the deciding factor in not granting credentials this time around? We don't know because we have not been given the rationale for the denial.

Heresy: That Horrible Word

2009-07-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

By Rob Smith
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org

7/12/2009

It may seem odd to approach the problem of heresy with some observations about falling in love, but it is precisely here that the descent into heresy begins. In his Outlines of Romantic Theology, Charles Williams says, "The experience of love is here followed to its distant and dreadful end in a complete betrayal of itself.

The descent starts with "the prolongation of the self-indulgent moments...The next step to preferring oneself in 'the two of us' against all else, is to prefer oneself alone. And this leads, inevitably, on that lost and secret path, to the hatred of others who have their own desires," or in the context of heresy, the hatred of those who hold other views ... For every mistake made on the Way of Romantic Love there is pardon and grace; for the deliberate and continued perversion of it, there can be, by the nature of things, no pardon-'neither here nor in the world to come....The greater mystery deepens....What is heresy? (It is) the clinging to a particular thought or idea because it is one's own, although it is against the known decision of the Church-the disintegrity of the intellect, the justification to oneself of error and evil. Here that self-indulgence has gone very far."

C. S. Lewis remarks that errors come in pairs of opposites in a malign mockery of balance. We hear these days equal weight being put on two decisions from a past Lambeth Conference; one the call for a moratorium on same-sex marriages and the ordination of homosexuals and lesbians, and the other, on the insistence there be no cross-border incursions of conservative dioceses and provinces in the dioceses or provinces of the revisionists who are going on full steam ahead with their sexual agenda.

These are not two equal and opposite errors. The two things are not moral equivalents. The first involves a clear departure from Holy Scripture and the moral stance of the Church for the last two thousand years; the other a tradition voiced periodically in the Church but not uniformly held semper et ubique et ab omnibus even in the history of the Anglican Communion or in the history of the founding of The Episcopal Church.

Nothing caused St. Augustine of Canterbury to cease from consecrating bishops among the Celts where Celtic bishops already were in place; and nothing stopped Samuel Seabury from receiving consecration from non-juring Scottish bishops in Scotland in defiance of the English Church. One might be tempted to cry foul at offences to courtesy in the incursion of African bishops in the United States, but that is not nearly the moral equivalent of the defiance of some in the leadership of The Episcopal Church regarding what has been believed always, everywhere, and by all; not only in some of the General Convention Resolutions of 2009, but more importantly in the clear, continual disavowal of the authority and teaching of Scripture and two thousand years of Christian tradition and history.

The revisionists in the Episcopal Church have been told quite clearly that they are in defiance of Scripture and tradition. I don't think stupidity is the issue, but rather willfulness. They know what the large majority of the Anglican Communion thinks about these things, but they really don't care. Theirs is the deliberate twisting of truth in favour of their own self-satisfaction; they suffer the disintegrity of the intellect, the justification to oneself of error and evil.

As St. Paul says, "Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." They willingly and gladly believe the lie that they have made because it is their lie and precious to them. George MacDonald observes that "the more a man is a beast, the less he knows it."

As one begins to fall ever more deeply into heresy there is a hardening of the heart; a dulling of the mind, a fettering of the imagination, that ends not only in alienation from God, but also in alienation from others, especially those who take opposing views; and those that fall into heresy no longer have the capacity to hear others and often are quick to accuse or mock those who adhere to timeless truths.

A sterling example of this is the Barbara Harris quip regarding her fellow bishops at Lambeth, "It assholes had wings this place would be an airport." Now that's theology The most recent salvo to be fired by our revisionists is of course the General Convention Opening Address of our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in which she decries what she calls "the great Western heresy."

This heresy, according to Jefferts Schori is "that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It's caricatured in some quarters by insisting that that salvation depends on reciting some specific verbal formula about Jesus." In saying this she commits two errors.

The first is perhaps a willful misunderstanding that this acceptance of Jesus as Saviour is somehow separate from becoming united to the Body of Christ. The second misunderstanding is the failure to grasp that this is the very heart of our baptismal vows. Here, and here only in The Book of Common Prayer the decision is decidedly personal, and it is that decision that unites us to the Body of Christ.

The personal decision for Christ happens in a variety of ways, some slow and subtle, some quick and blunt, it matter's not how, but the essence of the matter is in these questions which all the faithful embrace, not only in their baptisms, but also in the renewal of the baptismal vows in Confirmation.

Question Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?
Answer I do.
Question Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?
Answer I do.
Question Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?
Answer I do

I have up to this point been treating those who are spiraling down into heresy as though they all understood or had even worked out the issues theologically. That of course is ridiculous; there is every expectation that not only will there be mindless conservatives, but there will also be mindless revisionists. The former may cling to their conservatism out of habit or fear, but such habits and fears are not necessarily fatal in the spiritual realm, but the latter place themselves and others in peril, not that they believe there is any such thing.

Those who embrace revisionism without theologically working through the issues often seem to embrace their heresy with no moral compass other than that change is in itself good, and that liberalism does not go as far as it needs to in order to create change. What is the standard against which this need for change is measured? The model for change is revealed by Saul Alinsky who wrote: "From all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom (was) - Lucifer."

Far from being a shining morning star Lucifer is a black hole, a no-thing, but the no-thing can be very powerful in a negative sort of way. Ultimately such a press onward and downward into the no-thing is itself the end goal of destructive heresies within the Church. The no-thing hates created order and the Creator of order, and seeks to tear down and destroy.

The no-thing puts on justice, fairness, compassion, and the fulfillment of the millenium goals like a stolen cloak for their usefulness in bringing down order into chaos. It should go without saying, but it usually doesn't, that justice, fairness, compassion, and the fulfillment of the millenium goals are a legitimate outworking of Christian faith, but these things are a fruit, not the cause of faith, and they are not just a means to an end for creating change. What complicates things is not the incursion of African bishops in an increasingly apostate church, nor even the flight of the faithful from dioceses where they are clearly not welcome unless they apostatize.

But while that extreme circumstance does exist in some dioceses, it is not reflected everywhere in The Episcopal Church. What we do see, even in a basically conservative and orthodox diocese is the flight of some, but not all Evangelicals, Charismatics, and Anglo Catholics, from the faithful Body of Christ of which they were previously a part. This new but by nature shallow coalition signals the rising of an old, but perhaps lesser heresy in a new garb.

It is the failure to understand the nature of the Church, the Body of Christ; and this failure and flight may well be a departure from the Head Who will not Himself be separated from His Body. On the surface this new conservative coalition confesses the words of a common faith, but a serious question must be raised as to whether or not they all understand those wonderful words in the same way; certainly they don't when they confess that they "believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church," and at the same time in practice take an essentially congregationalist stance on a practical level.

That is to say they confess one holy catholic and apostolic church and immediately break it up into pieces that agree, or don't agree with their views. Even conservatives need to hear Jeremiah, "Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.' But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'"

There is a deep and perhaps more significant failure, the failure to understand the call to commitment to one's roots. We are after all to be rooted and grounded in Love Himself and that rootedness runs down through all of the history of The Episcopal Church, through Canterbury, through the Early Church Fathers, through the Apostles themselves, all under the unction of the Holy Spirit of God who has called this church into being.

It is a dangerous thing to cut oneself off from one's roots whether you are a revisionist or a conservative in reactionary flight. G. K. Chesterton points out in his book Orthodoxy that, "A man belongs to this world before he begins to ask if it is nice to belong to it ... to put shortly what seems to be the essential matter, he has a loyalty (to this world) long before he has any admiration ... it is a matter of primary loyalty."

We are a people with particular histories, the stories of our origins, both genetically and spiritually. But here in the West we are an adolescent people in the sense of the long history of our heritage, and here in the West we have suffered the struggles for independence at times needlessly cutting off the very branch of the family tree we have been sitting upon.

There is a way for mature humans to be independent and at the same time affirm and live out our heritage, our genetics, our very rootedness in our particular histories with joy and integrity. I find in my seniority of years that I laugh like my father, but that is no very bad thing. I am his son, but also very much an independent son who after adolescent rebellion has had to go back to affirm just who I am by affirming my roots. Again Chesterton says, "We say there must be a primary loyalty to life: the only questions is ... shall it be a reasonable or unreasonable loyalty."

As Chesterton applies this to his own historical context, so I apply this to ours as Anglicans Christians. Chesterton says, "The man who is most likely to ruin the place he loves is exactly the man who loves it with a reason. The man who will improve the place is the man who loves it without a reason ... the worst jingoes do not love England, but a theory of England ...Thus also only those will permit their patriotism to falsify history whose patriotism depends on history.

A man who loves England for being English will not mind how she arose." There are many these days who have left our roots as Anglicans because it is not Evangelical enough, or not Charismatic enough, or not Catholic enough.

It is not unusual that an age marked by the failure to understand the bond of marriage should also fail to understand the ineradicable bonds that tie us to our roots whether or not we like it. The failure to remain in a marriage, or to stay rooted in our own particular history is not an affirmation of either independence or faith. What we have is a failure to affirm identity itself and to deny the ongoing redemptive activity of the Christ who still actively works to redeem the Episcopal Church that is. We live in a rootless age, and that is not a good thing, but rather a tragedy.

This has a direct application to our historical roots through Canterbury and the English Church. What Chesterton, and I, would ask is, can you hate the Anglican Communion enough to change it, and yet love it enough to think it worth changing; but bear in mind that Anglicanism historically, for good or ill, has been and remains rooted through Canterbury. There is in this apparent rejection and desired divorce from Canterbury a failure to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in the long history of the Anglican Communion and in our own particular branch of it.

The flight from Canterbury is a denial of the unction of Spirit on the sinful and glorious history of the church. It is not a mere matter of the succession of hands laid on heads, some dirty and some clean, but rather the principle of the Incarnation of the Spirit resting on an historical people that despite everything is still an ongoing work of the Spirit. What those who have departed from the church have failed to appreciate is that coming out from among doesn't guarantee doctrinal purity or holiness of life.

Like the east coast evangelical college that advertised itself as twenty miles from any known form of sin, they carry their humanity and imperfections with them. It is my conviction that you either accept the Body of Christ as you find it, or in rejecting that Body you will fail to recognize that the Life of Christ is still being lived out in the midst of that Body.

END

Schism closer as US Anglicans vote to overturn ban on gay ordinations

2009-07-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

From Times Online (London) via TitusOneNine:

July 13, 2009

The Archbishop of Canterbury said comparisons with the Nazis should be used sparingly

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

The Archbishop of Canterbury today expressed "regret" over a decision by Anglicans in the US that could result in the Church consecrating more gay bishops.

Dr Rowan Williams made clear his concern after clergy and laity in The Episcopal Church voted at the General Convention in California to overturn a moratorium on gay ordinations.

Clergy and laity in the US backed a motion that "acknowledges that God has called and may call any individual in the church to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, in accordance with the discernment process set forth in the Constitution and Canons of the church."

This means that anyone can be ordained regardless of sexuality.

If the US bishops back the move when they vote on it later today or tomorrow, a formal split in the Anglican Communion seems inevitable.

The vote represents a snub to Dr Williams who last week flew to the convention and pleaded in a sermon on Thursday for the Episcopalians not to do anything to "push us further apart" and thereby jeopardise the fragile Church unity that he has struggled so hard to maintain.

Dr Williams has found his time as Archbishop dominated by having to deal with the fall-out from the consecration of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, which has already taken the worldwide church to the brink of schism.

Only last month, conservative Episcopalians launched a new province, the Anglican Church in North America, which is seeking recognition from Dr Williams and the General Synod of the Church of England.

Anglican leaders requested the moratorium five years ago in an attempt to prevent schism. The Episcopal Church General Convention three years ago urged "restraint" over the election of bishops whose "manner of life" would cause offence to the wider Anglican Communion.

But Dr Williams's hopes of maintaining unity seemed increasingly futile as The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, warned the Church of England that it should not recognise the new Anglican Church in North America, arguing: "schism is not a Christian act".

About a quarter of General Synod members, including four diocesan and two suffragan bishops, are backing a private member's motion calling on the Church of England to declare itself "in communion" with the new conservative province in the US.

Earlier, Bishop Jefferts Schori "threw a hand grenade" into the proceedings, as USA Today's Faith and Reason blog put it, when she said that the tendency to focus on individual salvation in the debate over sexual ethics was "heresy" and "idolatry".

The Unique Polity of the Episcopal Church?

2009-07-12T06:14:00.001-07:00

From the Anglican Communion Institute via TitusOneNine:

Written by: Rev. Professor Christopher Seitz

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The President of the House of Deputies, in remarks made in an internet-viewable report of a private meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed the view that the polity of the Episcopal Church is unique (‘anomalous’)and must be appreciated as such (9 July 2009). This opinion appeared to be directed at an account of the church that has given and gives significant and prioritized room for communications and directives to be made from Bishop to Bishop. Another spokesperson present indicated that the Archbishop was told that communications from the Communion ought to be made to the General Convention, as the only authority able to respond, and not the Bishops.

We can leave to the side whether this account from the President and others is in reality fair, insofar as the Presiding Bishop of this church is a Bishop and is elected by the body presumably seen as unique, and other provinces of the communion could likewise ask for a special appreciation of this or that feature of their polity. Lambeth Conference is an Instrument of Communion and it is comprised of Bishops; the ACC has lay and clerical representation; and so forth. TEC’s polity has never been viewed as a hindrance to involvement in these Instruments before, and it is difficult to see how the General Convention is in some special position of senior authority above the Bishops (see below), or that laity and clergy in this church have ‘equal authority’ (so the President of the House of Bishops).

But what does it mean to argue that the polity of TEC is unique? If the emphasis is on significant discontinuity with the character of that polity otherwise seen to be representative of Anglicanism, is the danger not in cutting TEC off from the Communion at large? Surely the continuity of the Anglican Communion—whatever the special features of this or that polity—is to be grasped in the Episcopal Office. No specialness can alter that feature without at the same time creating a truly national denomination. If this is what the President of the House of Deputies is calling for, let her indicate that she realizes that and wishes it to be so and means to make it so.

At the founding of the Episcopal Church in this country efforts were made to create a polity that constrained the office of Bishop, and held it accountable to a second House. Does the President of the House of Deputies mean that uniqueness lies in this sort of understanding? If so, it bears recalling that at precisely this point the new church had to defer to the spirit of recommendations of the Church of England, and the pleadings of Seabury, if she was to remain a branch of the catholic expression of Anglicanism. So the General Convention that then emerged did not in the least preempt or constrain the special responsibility of Bishops, and it is exactly that reality that serves to give proportion to any idea of special features.

It is important as well to keep comments like this in perspective given other recent trends. In the legal submissions made by the national church, we have seen a different argument for the ‘special polity’ of this church. The fact that there are similarities but also differences suggests that these arguments serve the purpose chiefly of aiding in a cause, and less in the accuracy of their historical claims, or the consistency of their logic and presentation.

In these submissions it is being held that bishops are at the bottom of a sort of ‘amalgam of hierarchy,’ consisting of General Convention, the Presiding Bishop, and the Executive Council, and then the ‘subordinate units’ of bishops/dioceses. It is however difficult to see this understanding as an expression of egalitarianism, if that was what the President of the House of Deputies was suggesting was ‘unique’ about TEC in remarks to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Indeed, it points to a hierarchy quite unlike even the one that obtains in the Church of England, but one which is quite at home in business and commercial affairs or in some denominations in this country. But the loser in both models is precisely that office which traces back to the Apostles, has a biblical warrant, and has been the hallmark of Anglican polity throughout time and space.

It is therefore to be hoped that cooler heads will prevail in these heady times. It is all well and good to speak of special features of the polity of TEC, but if the idea is to make facts on the ground, or create a national denomination, then the concomitant should be to allow those in the church who treasure the polity we do have, and wish to abide by its plain sense, to do so. Precisely those features of our polity that make us who we are, make us Anglicans and Episcopalians both. If some want only the latter, they must create a new polity and not claim the one we have is the one they are defending.

GC 09

2009-07-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is this week and DCNY will be taking the week off. I'm sure that other sites like VirtueOnline, TitusOneNine and Stand Firm will be covering the action. As a priest who left pecusa over two years ago I have little interest in the Episcopal Church and the pecusa political machinations. I believe that the Anglican Church in North America is the future of Anglicanism in North American and with the leadership of Archbishop Robert Duncan we have the best leadership in North America. It is sad that pecusa will continue to walk further and further apart from the Anglican Communion, but after six years we all need to face the future with a firm grasp of the present reality. I don't see any way that pecusa will stem the annual losses unless she repents and there looks to be little chance of that. So, the ACNA is the future of Anglicanism in North America and pecusa will continue to decline. It is sad, but we will move forward in faith, confident in God's leading and empowerment.

LONDON: Anglican Communion Is Fragmenting, Says Southern Cone Archbishop

2009-07-06T03:55:00.000-07:00

Most Rev. Gregory Venables calls for a return to biblical essentials at London parish church service

By David W. Virtue in London
www.virtueonline.org
July 5, 2009

In a surprise appearance at a London parish church, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone, The Most Rev. Gregory Venables told parishioners at St. Michael's, Chester Square, that these are "crucial moments," in the life of the Anglican Communion. He also stated that the "church is being lulled into relativism."

The archbishop cautioned his listeners about the danger of drifting away from the central tenets of the faith urging Anglicans to reclaim the gospel of God's redemptive love in Christ. The Cross is central to that message, he said.

"The one unspoken word is sin. As bishops and archbishops at Lambeth '98 we were told not to talk about sin. It was like one flew over the cuckoo's nest. The word was taboo. God loves us so much that he doesn't want us to self destruct. Sin will finish you off," said the evangelical prelate.

Venables said that God sending his Son to die for us all is not child abuse, as Jack Spong former Bishop of Newark argues.

"The Church of England is not about good taste, it is about God calling us to take the initiative in God's world to bring the gospel to everyone. God is calling you to do something you can't do. If so, don't be afraid."

The appearance of Archbishop Venables was a surprise appearance at the conference. He thrilled the London parish with stories of faithfulness urging them to read the Bible; saying that clever people did not come up with the Bible, but it is God's revealed Word. "Let's go back to God. God is calling us, it is His initiative in God's world."

Venables flew into London, yesterday, to attend the Be Faithful conference at Westminster Central Hall as part of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) where he will speak on Monday.

More than 1000 people have registered to attend the conference of Confessing Anglicans in Global and Local Mission, taking place in Central Hall Westminster.

Among the bishops attending are:

Bishop Michael Langrish, Exeter
Bishop David Urquhart, Birmingham
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, Rochester
Bishop John Hind, Chichester
Bishop Wallace Benn, Lewes
Bishop Colin Fletcher, Dorchester
Bishop Keith Sinclair, Birkenhead
Bishop John Broadhurst, Fulham
Bishop Andrew Burnham, Ebbsfleet
Bishop Keith Newton, Richborough
Bishop John Ball (Retd - Assistant in Chelmsford)
Bishop Colin Bazley (Retd - Assistant in Chester)
Bishop John Ellison (Retd - Assistant in Winchester)
Bishop Maurice Sinclair (Retd - Assistant in Birmingham)

Bishop Peter Forster of Chester, the Bishop-elect of Southwell and Nottingham, Paul Butler, and Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt of Winchester have sent public messages of support.

Archbishop Peter Akinola is also sending Archbishop Nicholas Okoh and Bishop David Onuoha from Nigeria to bring his personal message of greeting and support.

Today (Sunday) speakers from the event are speaking in thirteen pulpits from the Birmingham area to South London addressing thousands of people, most of whom would not be coming on Monday.

The focus of the event will be on fellowship, celebration, and a reaffirmation of the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, say conveners.

END

Comments on Anglican Covenant

2009-07-06T03:52:00.000-07:00

Kendall Harmon at TitusOneNine links to a page of comments to two opinion pieces in Episcopal Life concerning the Anglican Covenant. This one is particularly good:

Christopher Ashmore • Jacksonville, Illinois

I do not believe I have seen an article which shows more ignorance of what the proposed Anglican covenant purports to accomplish, or which attempts to dismiss it and those who support it with such broad, vitriolic and unsupported strokes. To cite several examples: the attribution of "thoroughly mistaken" to any thought of re-affirming our Anglican roots via the essential doctrines of Christianity; the idea that the "so-called conservatives'" embrace of the covenant "is driven by hopes for punitive powers"; the relegating to mythical status of a "distinct Anglican theology or a singular Anglican ethos" just because it is not "singular" (used twice in the same sentence); and the accusations that certain primates (those "whose rancor disturbed Lambeth Palace as far back as 1998") "are now spinning further and further from anything that can be identified as Anglican"; and that they exhibit an "utter lack of interest in participating honestly and collegially with (some) fellow primates."

The writer seems to know what "Anglican" is; but he never lets us in on it. He speaks of distracting the Episcopal Church (and others) from "the genuine mission of the church," but he gives us no clue as to what that mission is or how that mission is discerned. He asks about the relevance of the covenant to the church's mission and ministry, apparently assuming that he knows what that is, to the exclusion of those he has ridiculed and dismissed (see above).

I would suggest that the writer step back for a moment, and realize that his facile and generalized volleys do little to promote advancement in mission and ministry, which is precisely what the proposed covenant attempts to do. His lack of connection with the story of Anglicanism through the years (yes, as haphazard and untidy as it has been), and his inability to see that mutual submission to one another just might bear a more godly discernment about mission and ministry than that which is myopically grounded in the so-called "freedom" of the Episcopal Church, does no service to anyone in the church.

There are some of us who are sincerely trying to see how we can move forward in what is "our" church too - the Episcopal Church. We are distressed by the blatant politicization which falls at the feet of such idols as "rights" and "social action and advocacy." We are dismayed that those who do not fall in step with the "progressive" and "revisionist" agenda are marginalized more and more as time goes on. We sit in utter wonder that those who have left the Episcopal Church are demonized, and yet we who have stayed are discounted, disparaged, and counted as ignorant among the all-knowing elite.

The proposed Anglican covenant seeks a way to get beyond this toxic culture of mistrust and misuse of power. If honored, it will call for deeper reflection and humility from all sides. It is not about "enforcing unity"; it is about seeking the mind of God in all its evangelical and catholic fullness.

I fear the writer has taken the extremes and thrown a large net over many who are seeking a way forward in these trying times. A more thoughtful approach would be helpful to us all.

A Question for Progressive Episcopalians

2009-07-05T03:00:00.001-07:00

Via VirtueOnline:

by Rev. Dr. Philip Turner
The Anglican Communion Institute
http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.com/2009/06/a-question-for-progressive-episcopalians/

June 30th, 2009

Chief among the claims now made by The Episcopal Church (TEC) is that it is an inclusive church that is open to a variety of opinions and practices. This self-definition is an updated version of the traditional claim that Anglicanism represents a via media between extremes of one sort or another-Catholic/Protestant, liberal/conservative, modern/traditional, etc.

The simple fact is, however, that the policies and actions of the progressive leadership of The Episcopal Church have exposed the false nature of these claims, at least as in so far as they are applied to TEC.

The false nature of the claim is easy to see. The logic used by progressive Episcopalians to explain and justify TEC's "inclusive" agenda is in point of fact necessarily "exclusive" of contrary opinion. How so? The standard justification for the inclusive agenda is almost without exception stated in terms of justice. That is, behind efforts to change church practice in respect of the blessing of unions between persons of the same gender and the ordination in persons in faithful and permanent same sex unions is a firm belief that the rights of these brothers and sisters in the Lord are being violated by antiquated church practice-a practice that rests upon misinformation, fear, and prejudice. "It's a justice issue" is a statement made again and again, and it is made in a way that is meant to end all argument and cast aspersions on the moral state of anyone defending a contrary opinion.

In the minds of progressive Episcopalians, to acquiesce in matters of injustice and to allow ignorance, fear, and prejudice to go unopposed is a betrayal of what to their mind is central to the Gospel message. Jesus in fact came "to preach good news to the poor...to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed..." (Lk. 4:18) The mission of the church in each age is to follow Jesus in this ministry.

One or another version of the progressive view summarized above has been stated repeatedly by none other than our Presiding Bishop, and it appears repeatedly on liberal blogs like Preludium and Episcopal Café. Indeed, claims that the Gospel is, almost without remainder, one of inclusive justice appears now to be beyond question in the minds of TEC's leadership. The problem is many Episcopalians are made quite uneasy by a version of the Gospel that does not in all ways cohere with the one they received through Baptism and from the larger Anglican Communion. It seems to them that the Gospel of inclusion ironically excludes them.

In response to questions and objections that reflect this discomfort progressive Episcopalians might seek to reduce anxiety and blur the exclusive rather than inclusive logic now regnant among them by pointing to the actions of General Convention when a decision was taken to ordain women.

A "conscience clause" was inserted into the legislation that allowed bishops to refuse women entry into these orders. So progressives might suggest that this action shows The Episcopal Church under their leadership to be indeed a broad and pluralistic church. They might say such a thing and even on occasion act upon it. However, the life of the conscience clause proved to be relatively short, and as a result at least two Episcopal Bishops have felt it necessary to lead their diocese out of The Episcopal Church. The reason given for this reversal of policy was "It's a matter of justice." Progressive logic in reality precludes allowance for any significant length of time for diversity in respect to the matters that lie at the heart of their agenda.

The very logic of the progressive position at best allows only for temporary measures of expediency designed to provide space and time to establish just practices without unduly disturbing the broad membership of the church. Time and space must be given for those slow of step to "catch up." Nevertheless, those not in agreement with the progressive agenda of inclusion, after observing the present scene, will see the actions of progressive Episcopalians as shaped by a combination of a principled commitment to the justice agenda that can allow no compromise, and a pragmatic set of tactics designed to buy time and so make sure that they have sufficient power to enforce (as soon as expedient) what they hold to be the requirements of justice.

This admixture of principle and pragmatism is clearly evident in the course of action now being followed in respect to the internal governance of The Episcopal Church and in respect to its relations with other provinces of the Anglican Communion. The domestic agenda is to centralize power in the Office of the Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council and in so doing locate the dioceses of TEC as units subordinate to General Convention, the Executive Council, and the Office of the Presiding Bishop.

This argument is precisely that being made by the Office of the Presiding Bishop in the present litigation in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. It is also a strategy abundantly obvious in the use now being made of the "Abandonment Canon." These moves are in the one case unconstitutional and in the other un-canonical. Both open the way to enforce conformity in respect to justice issues TEC's progressive leadership deem central to the Gospel.

Domestically, progressive Episcopalians seek more centralized authority, particularly in the Office of the Presiding Bishop. Internationally, however, they plead for pluralism in the form of a polycentric communion that allows for wide variations in belief and practice. It is on this level that they still plead for pluralism, but not, in any credible sense, on a domestic level. The plea for pluralism on an international level is but a tactic to protect moves toward centralization and uniformity domestically.

Despite the fact that there is a logical contradiction in arguing for increased centralism on the one hand and increased diversity on the other, this strategy was clearly evident at the recent meeting of The Anglican Consultative Council where TEC's representatives sought to derail the fourth section of the draft covenant that provides for consequences if Provinces act in ways other members of the Communion believe not in accord with Christian belief and practice.

Nevertheless, given the logic of a Gospel of justice, one can only view TEC's pleading for pluralism as tactical-a prudential adjustment until such time as TEC has accrued sufficient power within the councils of the Communion to gain acceptance, or at least tolerance, of its views about these matters of justice.

For the moment I will leave aside the many problems that attach to TEC's press for a polycentric communion. It is enough to say that their argument will work only if communion excludes common belief and practice but focuses instead on cooperation in good works and mutual aid. (Though even here, because of conflicting theological commitments, "good works" can be construed quite differently) Of more immediate importance is the logic of inclusive justice. The logic of inclusion employed by progressive Episcopalians excludes meaningful opposition from the start.

This exclusion is of such importance that it must not go unchallenged. It is a matter that concerns all Episcopalians.

Exclusion of meaningful opposition in respect to the matters now before The Episcopal Church in the end will produce a niche church rather than a catholic church. Progressive claims to inclusivity are in fact false. The logic of their position drives relentlessly toward an increasingly constricted identity.

The question progressive Episcopalians must answer is why members of the Episcopal Church that do not share their views ought to think otherwise.

To put the issue more directly, progressive Episcopalians need to show the membership of their church and the rest of the Anglican Communion why their position does not end in an exclusive form of church life rather than a diverse one. This observation leads to a direct question.

The question is what reason can be given from the point of view of progressive Episcopalians to a traditional Anglican for being a member of The Episcopal Church.

I certainly have my own reasons and have stated them on many occasions. But progressive Episcopalians have claimed something that both their words and actions belie, and it seems only right for them to confront and explain this inconsistency to the rest of us.

END

A New Declaration of Independence

2009-07-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

Via VirtueOnline:

By A.S. Haley
http://accurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-declaration-of-independence.html

JULY 4, 2009

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has now organized, and nine of the 38 Provinces in the Anglican Communion have given it recognition, without waiting for the Anglican Consultative Council to act. (The Episcoleft still pats its collective back with the fact that the number of Provinces so recognizing ACNA is in a numerical minority, because they know that they control --- for the time being, at any rate --- the majority of Provinces in the ACC. The fact that those Provinces which have thus far recognized ACNA constitute nearly half of the world's Anglicans carries no weight whatsoever with them, because in their elitist liberal eyes, the people who make up those Provinces are "people who never were English, [and who] don't speak English as their native tongue", to quote one prominent member of ECUSA's Executive Council.)

Almost a year ago, when it appeared that everything was falling into place for the creation of what has since become ACNA, I put up a post in which I took the text of Mr. Jefferson's immortal Declaration of Independence and modified it ever so slightly to make it into a Declaration of Religious Independence. Using his descriptions of the tyrannical acts committed with respect to the Thirteen Colonies by the British sovereign, I provided links to descriptions of equivalent acts by ECUSA and its leadership. Just as His Excellency George III would not allow any dialogue or tolerate negotiations with the colonials, so has the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori refused to negotiate with those she regards as thieves and apostates who presume to cart off the parish silver at the same time as they refuse to recognize her authority. As is inevitable with the Internet, many of the links in that earlier post no longer work, and need updating.

Accordingly, now that ACNA has just finished its initial organizing convocation at Bedford Texas, and we are celebrating a real Fourth of July, it is timely to provide an update of that earlier post. I therefore dedicate the following remake of my earlier post to those who throughout the Anglican world, whether "in communion" with Canterbury or not, are steadfast in their resistance of the divisive and ruinous campaign in ECUSA and in ACoC to force the Anglican Communion to recognize and acquiesce in the tenet that all lifestyles are created equal, while all men and women are not. (Those who disagree are definitely homophobic and inferior, both mentally and culturally, and must therefore be hounded, derided, vilified and ultimately excluded from true Anglican society --see elitist remarks quoted above.) We are now at a watershed in the history of the Anglican Communion --- a time when the forces resisting the heterodoxy rampant within the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church of Canada can no longer be confined to the one-way mazes erected and maintained by those who demand from the Church a form of secular justice that is not its own to dispense. (As I so often have to remind those who come here, there are no civil rights which one can demand from God, who owes us sinners nothing.)

The forces of resistance are now more powerful than before, because they have organized into a single body. (And already those who have thus far not shied from disruption to achieve their ends are gloating that ACNA's "unity in diversity" cannot last.) The result is, for the first time in Anglican history, a genuine threat to the exclusivity of the franchises thus far held by ECUSA and ACoC. The new Province is a fact on the ground, and those who make gibes to the effect of "a Province of what Communion?" would do better to look to their own fading ties. The Church of England, on which ECUSA and ACoC have thus far leaned, is torn between the Scylla of ordaining women to the episcopate and the Charybdis of accommodating gays and lesbians while avoiding all forms of legislatively defined discrimination. Because it, too, cannot be all things to all Anglicans, it may split apart in the near future. Meanwhile, the stress on all the ties that bind Anglicans will be increased to the breaking point by the 76th General Convention that starts next week.

A Church that once turned all manner of backwards somersaults in order to be seen as faithful to its English origins (so that the bishops of the Church of England would not be dissuaded from consecrating bishops for them) now arrogantly presumes to call the tune to which all others must dance. Well, the dancers are leaving the floor in droves, and soon the orchestra may do so, too. ECUSA may own the dance floor, but after this next General Convention may find itself with few partners, and be forced to act as its own disc jockey.

A similar watershed was reached in times past, at a momentous point in the history of our country, and a document was created to memorialize the irrevocable resolve of its founders. That document---the Declaration of Independence---chronicled the abuses and misrule that led to the decision to throw off the King's yoke, and declared to all the world why George III had, by his actions, forfeited his exclusive franchise over the thirteen colonies.

There is no reason why a similar Declaration cannot be drafted now. In just the same way as King George's insults and abuses led our forefathers to declare themselves forever free of his polity, so the constituent members of the Anglican Church of North America, with the support of the Global South and the likewise newly organized Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, can declare themselves free of the polity of the Episcopal Church (USA) and of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Some of the members of ACNA, like the Reformed Episcopal Church, declared themselves free more than a century ago, while others, likeCANA and Forward in Faith North America, have from their beginnings been free of ECUSA and the ACoC. However, because of their hitherto exclusive Anglican franchises in North America, ECUSA and ACoC have been able to date to keep these outside organizations from being recognized as constituent members of the Anglican Communion. Thus the chief purpose of a modern Declaration would be to state the reasons why the franchises of those two churches can no longer be regarded as exclusive, and should be declared forfeit for their betrayal of the trust which the Communion extended to them at the outset. At the same time, a new Declaration can lay the foundation, if need be, for a new and independent Communion which will not have to be defined through the aimless dithering of the ACC and Canterbury.

In putting together the following exercise, I was constantly surprised at how Thomas Jefferson's words could be applied with very little change (once the document had been adapted as a religious, rather than a secular, declaration) to the offenses committed by the leadership of The Episcopal Church. (ACoC readers can easily substitute their own indictments.) Not all of the links below are serious, but most are, and as a whole they bear out the fact that the time has now come to begin the separation that must inevitably occur following the carefully pre-orchestrated outcome of General Convention 2009. Accordingly, with Mr. Jefferson's classic text as a model, here is what such a contemporary "Declaration of Independence" looks like:

The unanimous Declaration of the Anglican Church of North America

WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the religious bands which have connected them with another, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these religious truths to be self-evident, that all Christians are baptized equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, which is Salvation by Grace through Faith.-That to secure these rights, Churches and their Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from God and from the consent of the governed.-That whenever any Form of Church Polity becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it; and to institute a new Church, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most conducive to their Salvation and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Churches long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Church, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-Such has been the patient sufferance of these who are now united as Members of the Anglican Church of North America; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Church Polity. The history of the Presiding Bishop and General Convention of The Episcopal Church is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over Anglicans in America. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have refused their Assent to Resolutions affirming the basic Tenets of the Christian Faith, the most wholesome and necessary for the good of the body religious.

They have forbidden their Dioceses to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till their Assent should be obtained.

They intend other Laws demanding the payment of assessments by the Dioceses, unless those Dioceses would relinquish the right of Representation in the General Convention, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

They have called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant, so that the requisite majority needed for action could not attend, for the sole purpose of fatiguing the members into compliance with their measures, adopted without the required number of assents.

They have deposed Bishops and Priests repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the rights of the Dioceses and Congregations.

They have obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing their Assent to Presentments for violation of the Church Canons.

They have made Bishops dependent on their Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

They have erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

They have established among us, in times of peace, Standing Committees without the Consent of any duly noticed Diocesan Convention.

They have affected to render the Presiding Bishop independent of and superior to the Canons that embody the Discipline of the Church.

They have combined with others to subject us to a theology foreign to our tradition, and unacknowledged by our scriptures; giving their Assentto the teaching of false doctrine.

For Quartering large bodies of clergy preaching and celebrating open sin among us:

For protecting them, by unscriptural enactments, from being excluded from ordination, or from deposition once ordained:

For cutting off our bonds with all parts of the Anglican Communion:

For imposing Immorality on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury through the abuse of the "Abandonment of Communion" Canons, and through new canons proposed for adoption:

For forcing us to look beyond the Seas for adequate pastoral oversight, and for denouncing and hindering our every attempt to do so:

For abolishing the free System of Canon law in the Diocese of San Joaquin, and establishing therein an Arbitrary Church government, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into other Dioceses:

For taking away the right freely to amend our Diocesan Constitutions,falsely construing our most valuable Canons, and thereby altering fundamentally the Forms of our Church Governments:

For suspending our own elected Ecclesiastical Authorities, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate and execute for usin all cases whatsoever:

They have forfeited and abdicated their exclusive Anglican franchise here, by declaring us out of their Protection and waging War against us.

They have squandered our reserves on wasteful proceedings at law, laid claim to our properties, seized our bank accounts, and destroyed the Lives of our people.

They are at this time plotting new resolutions and legislation for the next General Convention, to complete the works of desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a Christian religion.

They have constrained our fellow Bishops to bring charges against their Will, to become the deposers of their friends and Brethren, or to be deposed themselves by their Hands.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered onlyby repeated injury. A Primate, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free Church.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren, from whose Church we were born. We have warned them from time to time of the attempts by The Episcopal Church to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too---especially their Archbishop of Canterbury---have been deaf to the voice of justiceand of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in Oppression, in Faith Friends.-

WE, THEREFORE, the REPRESENTATIVES of the Anglican Church in North America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of our Churches, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Churches, Dioceses and their Members are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to or Dependence upon the said Churches, and that all political and canonical connection between them and those Churches, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent members of their own Anglican Communion, they have full Power to organize themselves as they deem fit, conclude Covenants, recognize and bestow Orders, establish Relationships in Communion, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Churches may of right do.-And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Religion: Walking in St. Tikhon's footsteps

2009-07-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

Via TitusOneNine:

Submitted by Scripps Howard News Service on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 14:43.

* By TERRY MATTINGLY, Scripps Howard News Service

It didn't take long for controversy to spread about the photograph taken after the consecration rites in 1900 for a new bishop in Wisconsin.

Low-church Episcopalians called it the "Fond du Lac Circus" because of all the ornate vestments. Not only was Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton, who presided, wearing a cope and miter, but so were the other bishops. Then there was the exotic visitor on the edge of the photograph -- Bishop Tikhon of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Imagine the outrage if Tikhon had, as discussed beforehand, decided to take part in the laying on of hands at the moment of consecration.

After years of service in America, the missionary later hailed as St. Tikhon returned home and became patriarch, dying in 1925 after years of tensions with the new communist regime.

St. Tikhon had "a vision, a vision of unity," said Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America, during recent events marking the birth of an alternative, conservative Anglican province in America.

Early in the 20th century, some Orthodox leaders were willing to accept the "validity of Anglican orders," meaning they believed that Anglican clergy were truly priests and bishops in the ancient, traditional meanings of those words.

"It fell apart. It fell apart on the Anglican side, with the affirmation more of a Protestant identity than a Catholic identity," said Jonah, at the inaugural assembly of the Anglican Church in North America, held in Bedford, Texas.

"We need to pick up where they left off. The question has been: Does that Anglican church, which came so close to being declared by the other Orthodox churches a fellow Orthodox church, does that still exist?"

A voice in the crowd shouted, "It does!"

"Here, it does," agreed Jonah, stressing the word "here."

Thus, the Orthodox leader announced that he is willing to walk in St. Tikhon's footsteps by opening an ecumenical dialogue with this new body of conservative Anglicans, years after similar talks collapsed after the decision by Episcopalians to ordain women as priests and then as bishops.

The Orthodox and modern Episcopalians disagree on many other issues, from the authority of Scripture to the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals as priests and bishops. These are the same issues that caused the creation of the conservative Anglican Church in North America, which has been recognized by many Anglican traditionalists in the Third World, but not by the hierarchy of the Church of England.

However, Jonah also focused attention on doctrinal issues that continue to cause tensions among the very conservatives he faced in Texas.

"I'm afraid my talk will have something to offend just about everybody," said the former Episcopalian, who was raised in an Anglo-Catholic parish before converting to Orthodoxy.

For example, "Calvinism is a condemned heresy," he said, and there are "other heresies that came in through the Reformation which have to be rejected" -- words that strike at the heart of the vital, growing Protestant wing of global Anglicanism. Jonah also stressed that, "For a full restoration and intercommunion of the Anglican Church with the Orthodox Church, the issue of ordination of women has to be resolved."

The Anglican Church in North America has agreed to allow its dioceses to reach their own conclusions on this issue.

The tension in the room was real, but so was the appreciation for this gesture by the man who, literally, is the successor of St. Tikhon, said the Rev. George Conger, a Calvinist Anglican and correspondent for The Church of England Newspaper.

"What made much of what Metropolitan Jonah said palatable to the ACNA convocation was his transparent good will, and wry sense of humor," said Conger. "The phrase 'hard words said in love' is often trite, but Jonah's remarks ... were given and heard in this vein."

One the other side of this dialogue, Orthodox leaders are more than aware of the obstacles created by decades of tumultuous change in the Anglican Communion, said the Rev. Alexander Golubov, academic dean of St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Canaan, Pa.

"Metropolitan Jonah will be trying to walk a thin line, but it is the same line that St. Tikhon tried to walk long ago," said Golubov. "Some of the issues he will face are the same. But there are issues he will face today that I do not believe anyone could have ever anticipated. We live in strange times."

(Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Contact him at tmattingly(at)cccu.org or www.tmatt.net.)

Tale of Two Churches

2009-07-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

From the American Spectator via the American Anglican Council:

Another Perspective

By Mark Tooley on 6.30.09 @ 6:07AM

Arguably the Episcopal and Methodist Churches have been America's historically most influential. Numerous American elites, including many of the Founders, were and are Episcopalian, making it often the de facto "established" church. And Methodism became America's largest church in the 19th century, creating the evangelical populist ethos that robustly survives today, if now mostly among other denominations.  

Like other Mainline denominations, Episcopal and Methodist seminaries succumbed to theological liberalism early in the 20th century, reaching radical crescendos in the 1960s, when both churches began numerically to decline, a decline that continues until this day.

But the two denominations now seem set on different trajectories, as vividly illustrated by very recent events. Last week, the newly formed Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) convened its first provincial assembly, bringing into one denomination an estimated 100,000 regular worshipers and 700 congregations. Most of these Anglicans have left the Episcopal Church since 2003, when Gene Robinson became the first openly homosexual Episcopal bishop.

"There is a great Reformation in the Christian Church underway," ACNA's new Archbishop Robert Duncan told the ACNA audience last week in Bedford, Texas. "We North American Anglicans are very much in the midst of it. While much of mainline Protestantism is finding itself adrift from its moorings (submission to the Word of God), just like Western Anglicanism, there is an ever-growing stream of North American Protestantism that has re-embraced Scripture's authority (just as we have)."  

Duncan was formerly the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, which, with several other U.S. dioceses, left the Episcopal Church and joined ACNA. "The Father truly is drawing His children together again in a surprising and sovereign move of the Holy Spirit," Duncan said. "He is again Re-Forming His Church. This also explains why there is such keen interest in what is happening here in these days among our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters."  

One Orthodox "brother" was Metropolitan Jonah of the [Russian] Orthodox Church in America, who joined ACNA last week in Bedford. So too did California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, who told approving Anglicans: "God has not called the ACNA to be a reactionary group. In the first place, you didn't leave them [the Episcopal Church]." Warren asserted that it was the old denomination that left the Anglican tradition.  

Most in ACNA see the Episcopal Church as theologically irretrievable. Its membership now stands just over 2 million, more than 90 percent of it in the U.S., and the small remainder scattered in Latin America, Taiwan and Europe. The Episcopal Church belongs to the global Anglican Communion, with nearly 80 million members, and symbolically headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has not yet recognized ACNA. But Anglican primates in Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and elsewhere in the Global South, with tens of millions of members, have recognized ACNA, with some no longer in communion with the Episcopal Church. The U.S. Episcopal Church's General Convention will meet in July in Anaheim, California. As an almost all-U.S. body, American Episcopalians can largely do as they please. Global Anglicans can threaten sanctions or ultimately ouster but have no direct juridical authority over the U.S. Episcopal Church.

United Methodists are organized very differently, hence their avoidance of schism. Nearly a third of the over 11 million member denomination lives overseas, mostly in Africa, in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Liberia. In 45 years, the U.S. church membership has fallen from 11 million to 7.9 million, while the overseas membership has surged to over 3 million and is fast growing. In two decades or less, most United Methodists will likely be African.  

Unlike the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church began enacting strict guidelines on marriage and homosexuality starting in 1972, prohibiting actively homosexual clergy and same-sex unions, while affirming sex only in marriage between man and woman. Church courts have repeatedly affirmed these policies in high profile cases. Liberal efforts to overthrow these stances at the quadrennial governing General Conference, mostly recently last year, have met defeat, especially thanks to outspokenly conservative African delegates, who were 20 percent of the delegates and will be at least 30 percent next time.  

Frustrated by the African obstacle, United Methodist liberals advocated creating a new U.S. only "regional" conference to deliberate over U.S. church business, omitting Africans and other internationals. Potentially a U.S.-only church convention could have redefined marriage and sexual standards for the U.S. church. Despite strong backing from U.S. bishops, which included a lesbian couple's testimony even at the church's Mississippi Annual Conference, this U.S. "global segregation plan" is being defeated by a nearly 2 to 1 in votes across the state-level annual conferences in the U.S. African conferences will vote later this year and almost certainly will follow suit.  

"Here's the great virtue of our church," United Methodist theologian Billy Abraham of Southern Methodist University's seminary told Virginia United Methodists a few weeks ago. "Our canon law has turned out to be extraordinarily healthy and good. And we have a universal canon law that works right across the face of the church. The Anglicans and the Episcopalians do not have that, and that has cost them dearly in dealing with the whole debate about homosexuality."  

The Episcopal Church has split, with the new ACNA looking to leadership from Anglican primates (archbishops) in Africa. United Methodism has not split, thanks to leadership from its African members. Episcopal elites and Methodist circuit riders of 200 years ago did not foresee that the spiritual spawn of U.S. missionaries in Africa would play such a role in their own U.S. churches. But they likely would have enjoyed the irony.

Syracuse: Church of the Holy Trinity

2009-07-03T13:39:00.000-07:00

The Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, now meeting at 3004 Court St. (St. Daniel's School) in Syracuse, NY

Note: We will be moving sometime in the next two weeks to
2002 Teall Ave. Syracuse, NY 13208

Sunday Holy Eucharist: 9:00 AM
(July-August hours)

Bishop: +David Bena
Rector: Jeffrey Altman +

Who we are: The Church of the Holy Trinity (formerly Westside Anglican Church) was started two years ago as a home fellowship of members seeking an expression of Anglican worship which is faithful to the Scriptures and the tradition of the church. We are a biblical, liturgical and Spirit-filled body of believers organized under CANA.

3004 Court St. (St. Daniel's School), Syracuse, NY 13208
Contact: 315 422-4503
email: rjdague@daguelaw.com

Private meeting with Williams at convention will address sexuality, ministry

2009-07-03T03:47:00.001-07:00

Via VirtueOnline:

By Mary Frances Schjonberg,
July 01, 2009
[Episcopal News Service]

Eight members of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies are scheduled meet privately with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at General Convention in a session that is intended in part to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the church.

General Convention meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California, and Williams will be present July 7-9.

The session is not an official convention meeting and thus there has been no announcement of the plans. However, when contacted by Episcopal News Service, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of the Diocese of California confirmed the details.

Barlowe said that he and the other deputies understood the meeting was to be brief and private, but that it was not a secret.

"It's not a summit or constituted in an official way," he said. "We don't expect to issue a communiqué or anything like that."

Instead, Barlowe said, he hopes the meeting will be a chance for dialogue and a chance for Williams to hear about the ministries of eight Episcopalians whose "significant fundamental characteristic" is "our deep love for the Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion." The eight deputies' lives reflect the broad range of ministry of all Episcopalians, he said.

Barlowe set the meeting in the context of the communion-wide Listening Process, which is intended to hear all sides of the issues concerning human sexuality and the church.

Williams, Barlowe suggested, has not had a chance to hear about the broad range of ministry and leadership in which LGBT Episcopalians are involved.

There's a larger hope attached to the meeting, according to Barlowe.

"Anytime committed Christians come together, something remarkable happens," he said. "What comes to the fore is the commitment to be better bearers of the good news of Christ."

The chance to have such a meeting, he said, is typical of the way leadership in the Episcopal Church seeks ways to move the mission and ministry of the church forward by trying to form partnerships with "other passionate ministers such as Archbishop Rowan."

Barlowe, who has been a candidate in episcopal elections in the dioceses of California and Newark, said that he first raised the possibility of a meeting with the archbishop when the California deputation was discussing Anglican Communion issues. His colleagues encouraged him to pursue the idea and Barlowe says he sought the support of other LGBT deputies.

When he contacted Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori or House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson to ask for time with the archbishop, the request came with the backing of many of those deputies, he said.

Jefferts Schori and Anderson, along with their staffs, "graciously" agreed to ask Williams to meet with some deputies and Williams "graciously" agreed, Barlowe said.

Jefferts Schori's and Anderson's willingness to help bring about the meeting "is totally consistent with their leadership" of the church and their goal of fostering "serious and respectful conversation," he added.

The presiding officers did not appoint the deputies, Barlowe said. Instead, he was asked to put the group together. He said he consulted with others and sought deputies who reflected the range of geographic, age, and ministerial diversity of those people who supported the request for the meeting.

In addition to Barlowe, the deputies are:

* Louie Crew, Diocese of Newark; * the Rev. Canon Lisa Gray, Diocese of Michigan; * the Rev. Tobias Haller BSG, Diocese of New York; * Joanne O'Donnell, Diocese of Los Angeles; * the Rev. Altagracia Perez, Diocese of Los Angeles; * Rebecca Snow, Diocese of Alaska; and * Michael Spencer, Diocese of Eastern Michigan.

The Rev. Eric H. F. Law, known for his work in multicultural leadership training, has been helping the deputies prepare for their meeting, according to Barlowe, and Law may attend the session with Williams.

Because they do not all know each other, Barlowe said, the group has been presenting to each other their "ministry biographies." He called that experience "emotionally powerful."

"Once again, I've been overwhelmed by just how committed the ministers of this church are," he said, adding that hearing the deputies' stories "made me incredibly thankful yet again for being part of the Episcopal Church."

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.

Secret theology committee unmasked

2009-07-03T03:45:00.001-07:00

Via VirtueOnline:

by Simon Sarmiento
Thinking Anglicans
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003849.html
July 1, 2009

Lisa Fox has published all but two of the names of the group studying same-sex relationships. For background here is the early June report.http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003815.html

So here are eight of the ten theologians serving on the panel to study same-sex relationships.

Co-facilitators:

* The Rt. Rev. Joe G. Burnett, Bishop of Nebraska (webpage here)
* Ellen Charry, Princeton Theological Seminary (webpage here)

Members:

* Deirdre J. Good, General Theological Seminary (webpage here)
* Willis Jenkins, Yale Divinity School (webpage here)
* The Rev. Grant LeMarquand, Trinity School for Ministry (webpage here)
* Eugene Rogers, University of North Carolina, Greensboro (webpage here)
* The Rev. George Sumner, Wycliffe College, Toronto (webpage here)
* The Rev. Daniel A. Westberg of Nashotah House (webpage here; see page 3 of the newsletter)

The Chicago Consultation has issued this press release:

CHICAGO, July 1, 2009-Ruth Meyers, Hodges Haynes Professor of Liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, General Convention deputy from the Diocese of Chicago, and co-convener of the Chicago Consultation, responded to the news that the names of most members of the House of Bishops Theology Committee panel on same-sex blessings have been made public:

"Continued scholarly work, done with particular attention to the work of the Holy Spirit in committed, life-long, monogamous unions of faithful gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Episcopalians, can liberate the church to discern more fully the work of the Spirit in all life-long unions of fidelity and mutual love. We wish this panel well, and we call upon General Convention to enrich its theological work by establishing a common rite for the blessing of unions across the Episcopal Church."

"We commit to praying for each of these theologians and their co-chairs by name, and we hope that the remaining two members of the panel will choose to come forward publicly so that we may begin General Convention next week with the spirit of openness and transparency that characterizes our polity and our common life..."

END

ANGLO CATHOLIC AND EVANGELICAL BISHOPS BACK UK LAUNCH OF FELLOWSHIP OF CONFESSING ANGLICANS (FCA)

2009-07-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

Via email:

FIVE English Bishops are to take part in the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in London on July 6, expressing the breadth of support the fellowship, which had its roots in the Gafcon conference in Jerusalem last year, is experiencing.
Organisers, who booked Westminster Central Hall for the day-long event, have seen registrations from church leaders flooding in since the launch was announced just two months ago.

In addition to video and personal greetings from international guests including Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Bishop of Asaba and Archbishop of Bendel, Nigeria, and Archbishop Henri Orombi from Uganda, delegates will also learn of the depth of support and good wishes from English bishops, leaders of both the evangelical and Anglo Catholic wings of Anglicanism.

English Bishops John Broadhurst (Fulham), Wallace Benn (Lewes), John Hind (Chichester) and Michael Nazir-Ali (Rochester) are all billed to speak to the gathering, and Peter Forster (Chester) has sent greetings.
Two other diocesan bishops will attend the event. Leading Anglo Catholic Bishop, Keith Ackerman, will lead a main session on how FCA is a catalyst for united mission, ministry and focus for both orthodox Anglicans, be they evangelical or Anglo Catholic.

Bishop Ackerman, who is President of Forward in Faith in the USA, said: “One of the reasons I am really looking forward to being with my friends in England is so that I might be able to share with them the anointing of the Holy Spirit that has occurred at this gathering (of the installation of Archbishop Bob Duncan as Primate of the Anglican Church in North America at Christ Church Plano on June 24) here in Texas.
“Some people say that they really like to stand in line and have a little bit of food from here and there – a smorgasbord – other people like casseroles. At this event the Holy Spirit has brought this meal forward, he has blended together those unique contributions that each of the strains brought and while not losing its integrity is able to put forth that which is well pleasing in his sight and to God be the glory.

“The time is right for us right now not to lose sight of what he is calling his entire Church to. The entire Anglican Communion is being called to stand up and Be Faithful! at this very time. Luke-warmness has gone and we are now ready to talk about the light of the world, Jesus Christ who is ready to ignite the work he has placed before us at this time. I cannot wait to see everyone.”
Event spokesman, the Revd Paul Perkin, a vicar from London, added: “Some are staying in the Church, but failing to stand for Christian truth and practice; others are standing firm for Christian truth and practice, but are not staying. We are standing, and we are staying.”

The gathering will also hear from a personal video message from veteran evangelical and Anglican statesman, Dr. Jim Packer, before Archbishop Peter Jensen from Australia will give a 30 minute presentation on Why the Jerusalem Statement, agreed at Gafcon in 2008 is central to the fellowship’s development across the globe, and in the UK.

For more information about FCA (UK), visit www.fca.net

Special Report from the Chairman: ACNA Assembly

2009-07-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

From Bishop Charles Murphy:

Last week the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) met in provincial assembly, and delegates formally ratified both the Constitution and Canons. In a service on Wednesday night, Archbishop Robert Duncan was installed as the province's first archbishop and primate. It is important for us in the Anglican Mission to understand fully what this means for us.

The Anglican Mission has played a significant role in establishing the province, and I am including below a list of bullet points that outline the various ways we have contributed to making this new entity a reality. As a founding member of both the Common Cause Partnership and the emerging province, we will continue to fully participate in ACNA. As we have consistently explained, however, we remain a missionary outreach of the Province of the Anglican Church of Rwanda under the authority of Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. This allows us to enjoy dual citizenship, a similar relationship to that of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

ACNA's Constitutions and Canons were designed to be "generous and flexible" in order to enable membership by two countries and several jurisdictions, demonstrating flexibility for the various jurisdictions. Lead bishops, the Common Cause Leadership Council and the Governance Task Force unanimously supported a "both/and" membership for the Anglican Mission, and this design is embedded in the Canons (Canon 5, Section 4).

As a member of ACNA's Executive Committee and Governance Task Force, I attended a meeting in April with GAFCON Primates including archbishops with US jurisdictions. Those leaders in attendance agreed that each member jurisdiction would develop individual protocols outlining specifics for each group worked out between the overseas jurisdictions and the ACNA leadership.

Some of the key points of the Anglican Mission's Protocol are:
1. The Canons of the Anglican Church in North America apply to the Anglican Mission in the Americas, except in those matters addressed by the Anglican Mission's "Canonical Charter of Ministry," and therefore articles such as Article 10, Section 5 of the Constitution of the Anglican Church in North America [addressing the process for electing and approving new bishops] are not applicable to the Anglican Mission.

2. The Bishops of the Anglican Mission in the Americas are elected and consecrated in the Anglican Church of Rwanda. The names of the newly consecrated bishops are brought to the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America to be welcomed and seated.

3. The Bishops and Clergy of the Anglican Mission in the Americas are under the license and discipline of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.

4. The Archbishop of Rwanda, on behalf of the Province, exercises principal responsibility for the Anglican Mission in the Americas through his Primatial Vicar. [The Anglican Mission Charter states that the Anglican Mission remains as a missionary outreach of the Province of Rwanda, and in addition, the Mission is embedded in the Constitution and Canons of the Province of Rwanda.]

To read the Anglican Mission's Protocol in its entirety, click here. (Download PDF)

Clearly the Anglican Mission retains its identity and distinctives while remaining fully a part of ACNA. We will continue focusing on our vision and mission of evangelism through church planting. I am convinced that our best days are before us, and I look forward with great anticipation to what the Lord has in store for us as we move forward on mission for His glory.

The Rt. Rev. Charles H. Murphy III, Anglican Mission Chairman

If you have any questions regarding the Anglican Mission's relationship with Rwanda and ACNA, please email us.

Background and History:
The Anglican Mission and the Anglican Church of North America

1. In 2004, Bishop Murphy was one of six signatories to a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury (along with then Bishop Duncan and four others) informing him of their commitment to "making common cause" with other Anglicans in North America.

2. Bishop Murphy, along with Canon Mike Murphy, helped draft the Constitution and Canons of the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas in 2006. These documents were slightly revised to become the Articles of Incorporation of the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) which were adopted in September 2007 and represented the first step toward a new ecclesiastical structure in North America.

3. The Anglican Mission is a founding member of the Common Cause Partnership and has had three representatives (bishop, clergy and lay) on the Common Cause Leadership Council.

4. Bishop Murphy is a founding member of the CCP's Lead Bishops Round Table.

5. The Anglican Mission had a significant number of representatives at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON in June 2008).

6. Bishop Murphy and the Rev. Kevin Donlon of the Anglican Mission have served on the CCP Governance Task Force that developed the Constitution and Canons of the new province.

7. The Anglican Mission has given financially to support ACNA.

8. Bishop Murphy serves on the Executive Committee of ACNA.