Chuck Collins Writes His Parish: Realignment update
Posted by Kendall Harmon at TitusOneNine:
Baroness Caroline Cox, several times this past weekend, quoted Archbishop Ben Kwashi: "We have a message worth living for; we have a message worth dying for; don't you [in the West] compromise the message we are dying for."I heard from a friend in England several weeks ago that an announcement was imminent that would be very good news for the orthodox in the U.S. I learned from others that it would involve a plan for churches to connect to the Anglican Communion apart from the Episcopal Church - this is what we have been waiting for since the vestry letter September 2006. It was reported that this would have the blessing of the Presiding Bishop and the Archbishop of Canterbury. I hoped that this would allow Christ Church and churches like ours to disassociate from the Episcopal Church with the blessing of Canterbury, yet still remain a member of the Anglican Communion.
This is the news I've been waiting for but, I'm sad to say that it is not good news.
It turns out that the four U.S. bishops have only resurrected an old idea that was earlier rejected as inadequate by orthodox Episcopalians, i.e. the Presiding Bishop's plan for alternate episcopal oversight. The plan of the four Windsor bishops is unworkable on every level. It will not help orthodox churches in hostile dioceses because it depends on the good will of revisionist bishops towards their orthodox congregations. For no reason at all bishops can say "no" to episcopal visitors (Communion Partners), and can still require churches to financially support the Episcopal Church (in their lawsuits against conservative congregations!). How is this good news for traditional churches? And for churches like Christ Church, it provides no way to connect to the Anglican Communion apart from the Episcopal Church. No wonder the Presiding Bishop endorsed it; it's her plan and she gives up nothing! The plan of these four bishops is a last gasp from a dying institution.
Not only does this plan fail to address any real issues, it threatens to change the focus of discussion in dangerous ways. Instead of calling the Episcopal Church to repentance for breaking the trust of the Anglican Communion, these four (and other Windsor bishops?) are now figuring out ways to let the Episcopal Church continue with what it is doing now and in the future. The problem for these four bishops is not the Episcopal Church, but orthodox churches and dioceses that threaten the unity because they can no longer associate with the Episcopal Church. The strategy is to blame Peter Akinola and Bob Duncan for the disunity we face, rather than the Episcopal Church who repeatedly refused to respond positively to the pleas of the Anglican Communion.
Everything in this discussion hinges on the "pendulum." Windsor bishops are 100% invested in the idea that the Episcopal Church, that has swung wildly to the liberal side, will one day swing back to a moderate centrist theology. But there is no indication in recent history or church history in general that there will be such a swing. There is no pendulum. Instead, I believe, the Episcopal Church is set on a trajectory away from mainstream Christianity that will never again intersect with mainstream Christianity. There are simply two churches within the Episcopal Church today with two totally different theologies and agendas. My concern is that we might get 5, 10, 20 years down this road before realizing that the likes of Louie Crew, Presiding Bishop Schori and Bishop Jon Bruno (and the next generation of revisionists that will control the Episcopal Church) will never concede to anything like a more balanced view of theology and morals.
Bishop Lillibridge gave a forceful address at the Diocesan Council last Friday for the essentials of the faith (See the next blog entry--KSH. It was heartening to hear him so strongly upholding the core teachings of the faith as nonnegotiables. As he attends the meetings of the Windsor Continuation Group in the months proceeding Lambeth we need to be praying for him. I will ask him to take to their meetings our concerns (and of many in West Texas from the feedback we've received) that churches who cannot in conscience submit any longer to the Episcopal Church be given a way to continue being "Anglican." Hopefully this Continuation Group will uphold some of the disciplinary portions of the Windsor Report, something that hasn't happened to date.
I am thoroughly energized by what God is doing at Christ Church these days. Our effort at Council last week was a remarkable witness to the vitality and life we are experiencing in the Holy Spirit. Leslie Kingman and Linda Camp, and the over 200 volunteers, deserve a huge thanks for showing our bishops and diocese that we are positive about our future and that we want to help guide and influence our diocese. Caroline Cox was overwhelmed by the spirit of our worship and fellowship on Sunday. I also appreciate the work the vestry and others are doing to collect information on the areas pertaining to the realignment.
The following is offered with the unanimous support of our parish leaders (meeting at the vestry retreat a few weeks ago) to assure our congregation that we continue steadfast in our mission and core values: As the Vestry of Christ Church
»We remain firmly committed to Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture.
»We are prayerfully seeking God's wisdom and direction in light of the dilemma within the national Episcopal Church.
»We are preparing for our future, valuing our community and our rich heritage.
--The Rev. Chuck Collins is rector, Christ Church, San Antonio, Texas
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Realignment News from Canada
From the Toronto Globe and Mail:
More Anglican parishes to leave the fold
Bishop's prediction follows on the heels of seven new congregations joining breakaway traditionalist movement
JILL MAHONEY
February 19, 2008
More conservative Anglican congregations will join those that have already cut ties with the Anglican Church of Canada, the head of a breakaway group predicts.
In the past week, seven parishes voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada to seek the authority of a South American archbishop in a long-running dispute over theological issues, including the blessing of same-sex marriages, which they oppose.
So far, six Anglican parishes in Ontario, eight in British Columbia and three in Alberta have decided to operate outside the jurisdiction of the Anglican Church of Canada and joined the recently formed Anglican Network in Canada. Ten of the 17 breakaway parishes have voted to align themselves with the more orthodox, traditional Province of the Southern Cone, which covers most of South America. More are expected to consider the issue in the following week.
"I'm quite confident that this is just a beginning," said Bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the recently formed Anglican Network in Canada, a "haven" for breakaway congregations that is under the jurisdiction of the South American archbishop, Gregory Venables.
Print Edition - Section Front
Section A Front Enlarge Image
More National Stories
* Aneurysm lands man in health-care nightmare
* 295,000 new arrivals add twist to Tory dynasty
* More Anglican parishes to leave the fold
* Dion hints Liberals willing to let budget stand
* Ontarians mark new winter holiday by making it up as they go
* Veterans go to court over atomic tests
* Go to the National section
The Globe and Mail
Bishop Harvey said parishes across the country are considering the issue - and they are on his organization's mailing list - although he doesn't know of any others that have votes planned.
"It's at a discussion level. I think that what has happened in the last week will give those who were hesitant some courage to know that if they do make this [step], they won't be alone, that there are other parishes right across the country who have made similar moves," he said in an interview from his home in St. John's.
In voting to leave the Anglican Church of Canada, conservative Anglicans will retain ties with other Anglicans who share their traditional views. The congregations plan to seek episcopal oversight under Bishop Harvey, who is under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Venables of the Province of the Southern Cone.
Vianney Carrière, a spokesman for the Anglican Church of Canada, noted that despite the recent departures, there are still almost 2,300 congregations in the Canadian fold.
The congregations' decisions to break ties could lead to battles over church buildings, which at least some want to keep using. Before they voted, parishioners were told that the buildings belong to the Anglican Church of Canada, not to the congregations, and that they may be locked out.
"Our position, and I guess this is where the controversy is likely to come in, is that they cannot take property with them," Mr. Carrière said.
In the United States, the Anglican Episcopal diocese of Virginia fought several congregations in court over ownership of church buildings. The congregations voted to quit the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church in Nigeria.
As well, two priests of St. Mary's of the Incarnation in the Victoria suburb of Metchosin, which voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada on Sunday, were disciplined. *****
Divisions in the church
Turmoil in the Anglican Church, as presented by the Anglican Network in Canada, an alternative group working outside the Anglican Church of Canada:
1998: An international meeting of leadership in the Anglican Church, held once a decade, endorses a non-binding resolution that states homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture and that it "...could not advise the legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions."
June, 2002: The Diocese of New Westminster ignores the so-called Lambeth Resolution 1.10 and becomes the first Anglican diocese in the world to formally authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.
June, 2007: The Canadian General Synod resolves that same-sex blessings are "not in conflict" with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada and rejects a motion upholding Lambeth Resolution 1.10 as the current standard of Anglican teaching.
November, 2007: The Province of the Southern Cone synod votes to welcome North American Anglicans into membership.
February, 2008: More than a dozen parishes across Canada vote on whether to request episcopal oversight of Donald Harvey of Newfoundland, a bishop within the Province of the Southern Cone under Archbishop Gregory Venables.
More Anglican parishes to leave the fold
Bishop's prediction follows on the heels of seven new congregations joining breakaway traditionalist movement
JILL MAHONEY
February 19, 2008
More conservative Anglican congregations will join those that have already cut ties with the Anglican Church of Canada, the head of a breakaway group predicts.
In the past week, seven parishes voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada to seek the authority of a South American archbishop in a long-running dispute over theological issues, including the blessing of same-sex marriages, which they oppose.
So far, six Anglican parishes in Ontario, eight in British Columbia and three in Alberta have decided to operate outside the jurisdiction of the Anglican Church of Canada and joined the recently formed Anglican Network in Canada. Ten of the 17 breakaway parishes have voted to align themselves with the more orthodox, traditional Province of the Southern Cone, which covers most of South America. More are expected to consider the issue in the following week.
"I'm quite confident that this is just a beginning," said Bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the recently formed Anglican Network in Canada, a "haven" for breakaway congregations that is under the jurisdiction of the South American archbishop, Gregory Venables.
Print Edition - Section Front
Section A Front Enlarge Image
More National Stories
* Aneurysm lands man in health-care nightmare
* 295,000 new arrivals add twist to Tory dynasty
* More Anglican parishes to leave the fold
* Dion hints Liberals willing to let budget stand
* Ontarians mark new winter holiday by making it up as they go
* Veterans go to court over atomic tests
* Go to the National section
The Globe and Mail
Bishop Harvey said parishes across the country are considering the issue - and they are on his organization's mailing list - although he doesn't know of any others that have votes planned.
"It's at a discussion level. I think that what has happened in the last week will give those who were hesitant some courage to know that if they do make this [step], they won't be alone, that there are other parishes right across the country who have made similar moves," he said in an interview from his home in St. John's.
In voting to leave the Anglican Church of Canada, conservative Anglicans will retain ties with other Anglicans who share their traditional views. The congregations plan to seek episcopal oversight under Bishop Harvey, who is under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Venables of the Province of the Southern Cone.
Vianney Carrière, a spokesman for the Anglican Church of Canada, noted that despite the recent departures, there are still almost 2,300 congregations in the Canadian fold.
The congregations' decisions to break ties could lead to battles over church buildings, which at least some want to keep using. Before they voted, parishioners were told that the buildings belong to the Anglican Church of Canada, not to the congregations, and that they may be locked out.
"Our position, and I guess this is where the controversy is likely to come in, is that they cannot take property with them," Mr. Carrière said.
In the United States, the Anglican Episcopal diocese of Virginia fought several congregations in court over ownership of church buildings. The congregations voted to quit the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church in Nigeria.
As well, two priests of St. Mary's of the Incarnation in the Victoria suburb of Metchosin, which voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada on Sunday, were disciplined. *****
Divisions in the church
Turmoil in the Anglican Church, as presented by the Anglican Network in Canada, an alternative group working outside the Anglican Church of Canada:
1998: An international meeting of leadership in the Anglican Church, held once a decade, endorses a non-binding resolution that states homosexual practice is incompatible with scripture and that it "...could not advise the legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions nor ordaining those involved in same gender unions."
June, 2002: The Diocese of New Westminster ignores the so-called Lambeth Resolution 1.10 and becomes the first Anglican diocese in the world to formally authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.
June, 2007: The Canadian General Synod resolves that same-sex blessings are "not in conflict" with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada and rejects a motion upholding Lambeth Resolution 1.10 as the current standard of Anglican teaching.
November, 2007: The Province of the Southern Cone synod votes to welcome North American Anglicans into membership.
February, 2008: More than a dozen parishes across Canada vote on whether to request episcopal oversight of Donald Harvey of Newfoundland, a bishop within the Province of the Southern Cone under Archbishop Gregory Venables.
Friday, February 15, 2008
CANA Quadruples Congregational Membership in One Year
HERNDON, Va. (February 12, 2008) – The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) has experienced momentous growth in one year, quadrupling its congregational membership.
“CANA is leading the way for the new era of American Anglicanism. CANA is modeling the unifying presence for which many of us have longed,” said CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns.
In November 2006, CANA began with 19 clergy and 14 congregations. By March 2007, the number of clergy grew to 47 and the number of congregations totaled 34. By November 2007, CANA was comprised of 118 clergy and 61 congregations. Overall, CANA clergy have increased by 621% and congregations have increased by 436%.
Bishop Minns attributed several factors to CANA’s growth, including the 10 congregations that Bishop Francis Lyons of Bolivia (Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America) recently transferred to CANA.
“Also, among CANA’s clergy we currently count no less than three bishops or archbishops from other continuing Anglican bodies who have humbly laid down their Episcopal positions in order to join CANA as priests. These clergy recognize CANA as a key part of the emerging orthodox Anglican ecclesiastical structure in North America,” Minns continued.
“CANA’s mission is to reach and serve the least, the last, and the lost. Our growth is a testament to committed orthodox Christians who want to be transformed by the Good News of Jesus Christ and to then transform our culture for Christ through evangelism, discipleship and church planting.”
The Convocation of Anglicans in North America currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 100 clergy in 20 states. About a fifth of the congregations are primarily expatriate Nigerians. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of some 70 million, through various pastoral and missionary initiatives. For more information, please visit CANA at www.CanaConvocation.org.
To schedule an interview with a CANA representative, please contact Kelly Oliver at 703–683–5004 (ext. 140) or Caitlin Bozell (ext. 119)
“CANA is leading the way for the new era of American Anglicanism. CANA is modeling the unifying presence for which many of us have longed,” said CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns.
In November 2006, CANA began with 19 clergy and 14 congregations. By March 2007, the number of clergy grew to 47 and the number of congregations totaled 34. By November 2007, CANA was comprised of 118 clergy and 61 congregations. Overall, CANA clergy have increased by 621% and congregations have increased by 436%.
Bishop Minns attributed several factors to CANA’s growth, including the 10 congregations that Bishop Francis Lyons of Bolivia (Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America) recently transferred to CANA.
“Also, among CANA’s clergy we currently count no less than three bishops or archbishops from other continuing Anglican bodies who have humbly laid down their Episcopal positions in order to join CANA as priests. These clergy recognize CANA as a key part of the emerging orthodox Anglican ecclesiastical structure in North America,” Minns continued.
“CANA’s mission is to reach and serve the least, the last, and the lost. Our growth is a testament to committed orthodox Christians who want to be transformed by the Good News of Jesus Christ and to then transform our culture for Christ through evangelism, discipleship and church planting.”
The Convocation of Anglicans in North America currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 100 clergy in 20 states. About a fifth of the congregations are primarily expatriate Nigerians. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of some 70 million, through various pastoral and missionary initiatives. For more information, please visit CANA at www.CanaConvocation.org.
To schedule an interview with a CANA representative, please contact Kelly Oliver at 703–683–5004 (ext. 140) or Caitlin Bozell (ext. 119)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
DoFW: Second Report on Possible Realignment
Second Report
on the possibility of re-aligning with the Province of the Southern Cone
In this second report from the Bishop and Standing Committee on the possibility of re-aligning with the Province of the Southern Cone, we would like to offer a brief analysis of some of the basic differences between the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church as compared with those of the Province of the Southern Cone (PSC). An English translation of the Constitution and Canons of the PSC can be found elsewhere on this Web site.
In our Preliminary Report of January 9, 2008, we arrived at the following conclusion:
Based on our review, we have concluded that the structure and polity of the Province of the Southern Cone would afford our diocese greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. This autonomy would be evident most specifically in the areas of property ownership, liturgy, holy orders, and missionary focus.
One fundamental principle underlying the Constitution and Canons of the PSC is that “the Dioceses are at liberty to provide necessary selection and training of clergy, liturgical use, finances and possessions, and other affairs related to the local situation, provided they are not in conflict with other Anglican norms and this Constitution.” (See item 3, Rules, on page 2)
Specifically, we note the following:
Ordination Standards
Each local diocese has the responsibility for the ordination process and makes its own determination as to the eligibility and the qualifications for ordination to Holy Orders. There are no requirements imposed upon dioceses by the Province regarding gender or sexual orientation.
Liturgy
Each diocesan bishop determines matters of worship and Prayer Book usage in his diocese. The section on Liturgy (Canon 9) notes that “it is the responsibility of the Bishops to keep guard that the forms used in Public Worship and the Administration of the Sacraments be in accordance with Anglican Faith and Order and that nothing be established that is contrary to the Word of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.” Membership in the Southern Cone would not necessitate a change in our liturgical practices or Prayer Book. It would also protect us from experimental liturgies already authorized or under consideration by the General Convention of TEC which advocate the use of expansive language for God, the elimination of male pronouns for God, or the blessing of same-sex unions.
Property
Canon 10 states that the Province’s possessions “shall consist of the economic contributions of its Member Dioceses.” The PSC does not lay claim to any buildings, real estate or investments of its member dioceses. Thus, title to all our churches, property, and funds would remain in the Diocese of Fort Worth. TEC makes the claim that all local church property is held in trust for TEC.
Provincial Polity
Instead of having a cumbersome General Convention that meets every three years for three weeks at great expense, with four clergy and four lay deputies from each diocese in the House of Deputies and all bishops in the House of Bishops, as in The Episcopal Church, there is a Provincial Synod (Canon 5) of the Southern Cone that meets every three years for three days. It is comprised of the Bishop and one clergy and one lay delegate from each diocese in the Province. This would be a much smaller legislative body on the provincial level, producing considerable cost savings and a council of far more manageable size for conducting business. Also, as a member diocese we would have a seat on the Provincial Executive Council (Canon 6), helping to direct program and budget. Our Bishop would have the right of voice at Council meetings, even if we were already represented on the Council by a priest or lay person.
Presiding Bishop/Primate
The Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, also referred to as the Primate or Archbishop, is not a separate, full-time, salaried position, as in TEC. Instead, the Bishop elected as Primate continues to serve as a diocesan bishop, like all the other bishops of the Province. There are no “national church offices” staffed with a bureaucracy of paid church employees. This makes for a much smaller structure and budget and keeps the emphasis for mission and ministry on the local diocesan level.
Provincial Budget
The budget of the General Convention of TEC was set at just under $50 million for 2008. Most of this funding comes from an “asking” from each diocese, in the amount of 21% of its annual income. The remainder comes from investment income and other sources. The annual budget of the Province of the Southern Cone totals less than $100,000 and is funded by the member dioceses on a proportionate basis, with contributions ranging between $2,000 and $6,000. Additional support comes from overseas partners. The funds are used mostly for basic costs of administration and communications. This minimal provincial cost keeps the focus and funding for ministry in the local dioceses.
We encourage you to read the PSC Constitution and Canons for yourselves. If you have further questions or matters that require clarification, please feel free to write the Standing Committee at the Diocesan Center for Ministry. Additional concerns will be addressed in our next report.
The Bishop and Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth
Feb. 12, 2008
on the possibility of re-aligning with the Province of the Southern Cone
In this second report from the Bishop and Standing Committee on the possibility of re-aligning with the Province of the Southern Cone, we would like to offer a brief analysis of some of the basic differences between the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church as compared with those of the Province of the Southern Cone (PSC). An English translation of the Constitution and Canons of the PSC can be found elsewhere on this Web site.
In our Preliminary Report of January 9, 2008, we arrived at the following conclusion:
Based on our review, we have concluded that the structure and polity of the Province of the Southern Cone would afford our diocese greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. This autonomy would be evident most specifically in the areas of property ownership, liturgy, holy orders, and missionary focus.
One fundamental principle underlying the Constitution and Canons of the PSC is that “the Dioceses are at liberty to provide necessary selection and training of clergy, liturgical use, finances and possessions, and other affairs related to the local situation, provided they are not in conflict with other Anglican norms and this Constitution.” (See item 3, Rules, on page 2)
Specifically, we note the following:
Ordination Standards
Each local diocese has the responsibility for the ordination process and makes its own determination as to the eligibility and the qualifications for ordination to Holy Orders. There are no requirements imposed upon dioceses by the Province regarding gender or sexual orientation.
Liturgy
Each diocesan bishop determines matters of worship and Prayer Book usage in his diocese. The section on Liturgy (Canon 9) notes that “it is the responsibility of the Bishops to keep guard that the forms used in Public Worship and the Administration of the Sacraments be in accordance with Anglican Faith and Order and that nothing be established that is contrary to the Word of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.” Membership in the Southern Cone would not necessitate a change in our liturgical practices or Prayer Book. It would also protect us from experimental liturgies already authorized or under consideration by the General Convention of TEC which advocate the use of expansive language for God, the elimination of male pronouns for God, or the blessing of same-sex unions.
Property
Canon 10 states that the Province’s possessions “shall consist of the economic contributions of its Member Dioceses.” The PSC does not lay claim to any buildings, real estate or investments of its member dioceses. Thus, title to all our churches, property, and funds would remain in the Diocese of Fort Worth. TEC makes the claim that all local church property is held in trust for TEC.
Provincial Polity
Instead of having a cumbersome General Convention that meets every three years for three weeks at great expense, with four clergy and four lay deputies from each diocese in the House of Deputies and all bishops in the House of Bishops, as in The Episcopal Church, there is a Provincial Synod (Canon 5) of the Southern Cone that meets every three years for three days. It is comprised of the Bishop and one clergy and one lay delegate from each diocese in the Province. This would be a much smaller legislative body on the provincial level, producing considerable cost savings and a council of far more manageable size for conducting business. Also, as a member diocese we would have a seat on the Provincial Executive Council (Canon 6), helping to direct program and budget. Our Bishop would have the right of voice at Council meetings, even if we were already represented on the Council by a priest or lay person.
Presiding Bishop/Primate
The Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, also referred to as the Primate or Archbishop, is not a separate, full-time, salaried position, as in TEC. Instead, the Bishop elected as Primate continues to serve as a diocesan bishop, like all the other bishops of the Province. There are no “national church offices” staffed with a bureaucracy of paid church employees. This makes for a much smaller structure and budget and keeps the emphasis for mission and ministry on the local diocesan level.
Provincial Budget
The budget of the General Convention of TEC was set at just under $50 million for 2008. Most of this funding comes from an “asking” from each diocese, in the amount of 21% of its annual income. The remainder comes from investment income and other sources. The annual budget of the Province of the Southern Cone totals less than $100,000 and is funded by the member dioceses on a proportionate basis, with contributions ranging between $2,000 and $6,000. Additional support comes from overseas partners. The funds are used mostly for basic costs of administration and communications. This minimal provincial cost keeps the focus and funding for ministry in the local dioceses.
We encourage you to read the PSC Constitution and Canons for yourselves. If you have further questions or matters that require clarification, please feel free to write the Standing Committee at the Diocesan Center for Ministry. Additional concerns will be addressed in our next report.
The Bishop and Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth
Feb. 12, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Washington State: Group splits off St. Paul’s church
Episcopal pastor says national body has gone astray
MARY LANE GALLAGHER
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
BELLINGHAM — The top clergy member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is stepping down to lead a fledging congregation of former members who feel the nationwide Episcopal Church no longer represents the core of their faith.
The Rev. Kevin Bond Allen announced late last month that he was resigning from one of the city’s largest churches to become rector of St. Brendan’s Anglican Church, a new congregation launched last fall by former St. Paul’s members.
In a letter to the congregation, Allen said he has loved his time at St. Paul’s, but his dissatisfaction with The Episcopal Church made it difficult for him to continue within the organization.
“During the last few years, our (national) Episcopal Church has continued to embrace a wide range of and often conflicting teachings regarding scriptural authority, the divinity of Christ, and affirming other religions at the price of evangelism,” Allen wrote.
“Since I do not agree with their direction,” he wrote, “my leadership as a rector would become a divisive issue rather than a reconciling blessing in future parish discussions about how we should participate with and support our diocese and national church.”
Allen was away this week and unavailable for comment.
The announcement came as a surprise to many in the 1,400- member congregation, said the Rev. Charles W. Whitmore, an associate pastor who is now the church’s priest in charge. The congregation had already been dealing with the loss of members who left to start St. Brendan’s. They were few in number, but many were strong, active members involved with church leadership and hold deep friendships with those who stayed.
“There’s a lot of sadness,” Whitmore said. “‘Can’t we work this out? Don’t we have the main core things in common — our belief in Jesus? Isn’t that enough to hold us together?’ It’s a hard time.”
Episcopal congregations throughout the nation are struggling with the same questions. Some entire congregations, including at least two in Western Washington, have left the church rather than remain part of a national church they worry is straying too far from their core beliefs.
St. Brendan’s, which has about 30 members who attend Sunday services, meets in the chapel of St. Paul’s Academy.
For Moheb Ghali, one of the founders of St. Brendan’s, the dispute boils down to a few key issues, including the nature of Jesus Christ himself.
“Is he the son of God or was he just a good prophet?” Ghali asks. He worries the national church teaches that Jesus represents “a way, not the way” to salvation.
Ghali, a vice provost at Western Washington University, also believes the national church is watering down the authority of the Bible, which he feels was “written by people inspired by God and it does reflect the standards we ought to be held accountable to.”
Peg Swieringa of Custer said she and her husband, Gerry, are still close with many members of the St. Paul’s congregation. But it’s the national church they couldn’t remain a part of.
“I think the national church is leaning away from a lot of those very basic, basic beliefs,” said Peg, who attends both St. Brendan’s and Christ Episcopal Church in Blaine. “They’re becoming more and more liberal and trying to include all kinds of cultures and all kinds of religions, which then sort of detracts from our own religion. St. Brendan’s is trying to go back to that and to the basics of our faith.”
But Episcopal Church leaders say the church’s core beliefs haven’t changed.
“What I’ve heard from some people — that we no longer believe in the divinity of Christ — I don’t even know where that’s coming from,” said the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. “It’s certainly not true for me. I don’t see any real movement in that direction as they point to in the Episcopal Church, either.”
And the Bible, Rickel said, “is our authoritative text.”
But Ghali said the consecration in 2003 of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire stands out as a symptom of the national church’s drift away from the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of churches rooted in the Church of England.
The event has drawn sharp criticism from other church bodies within the Anglican Communion, who say ordaining a gay bishop goes against biblical scripture.
No one part of the Anglican Communion should take such a drastic departure without the consent of the entire body, Ghali said.
“It’s sort of like, ‘My hand cannot walk away from my body, because it discovered it’s smarter than my feet,’” he said.
Many mainline Christian denominations are struggling with the same issues, Whitmore said: inclusiveness, multiculturalism, the authority of biblical scripture, exploring the divinity of Jesus and “how do we express the truth in the Gospel for the 21st century.”
But Rickel, the bishop, worries that the Episcopal church is losing what he sees as one of its greatest attributes — its ability to hold a diversity of thought in one large religious body.
Diane Parker, a St. Paul’s member since 1984, wishes there had been more discussion among the congregation before the members left to start St. Brendan’s.
“If we’d had those conversations internally, we could have had agreement about what we were disagreeing about,” she said. “What some folks think has happened is, we’ve kind of lost some of that ability to be that forum, where it’s safe to express those ideas.”
But Allen’s departure might bring about the opportunity for the kind of talks Parker wishes took place before he left. As the congregation’s senior warden, she’ll help guide the membership through a self-examination of what they believe, and what they need in their next rector.
And she expects members of the congregation will continue to have close ties to those at St. Brendan’s.
“There’s a lot of friendships on both sides,” she said. “Our philosophy is going to be, ‘Go, God bless, and the porch lights are on.’”
Ghali hopes the new church will grow, but not at the expense of St. Paul’s membership. He hopes the growth comes from the surrounding neighborhood of people who don’t go to church now.
And members haven’t completely cut their ties to their old church. Gerry Swieringa still leads a discussion group at St. Paul’s and plans to continue.
MARY LANE GALLAGHER
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
BELLINGHAM — The top clergy member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is stepping down to lead a fledging congregation of former members who feel the nationwide Episcopal Church no longer represents the core of their faith.
The Rev. Kevin Bond Allen announced late last month that he was resigning from one of the city’s largest churches to become rector of St. Brendan’s Anglican Church, a new congregation launched last fall by former St. Paul’s members.
In a letter to the congregation, Allen said he has loved his time at St. Paul’s, but his dissatisfaction with The Episcopal Church made it difficult for him to continue within the organization.
“During the last few years, our (national) Episcopal Church has continued to embrace a wide range of and often conflicting teachings regarding scriptural authority, the divinity of Christ, and affirming other religions at the price of evangelism,” Allen wrote.
“Since I do not agree with their direction,” he wrote, “my leadership as a rector would become a divisive issue rather than a reconciling blessing in future parish discussions about how we should participate with and support our diocese and national church.”
Allen was away this week and unavailable for comment.
The announcement came as a surprise to many in the 1,400- member congregation, said the Rev. Charles W. Whitmore, an associate pastor who is now the church’s priest in charge. The congregation had already been dealing with the loss of members who left to start St. Brendan’s. They were few in number, but many were strong, active members involved with church leadership and hold deep friendships with those who stayed.
“There’s a lot of sadness,” Whitmore said. “‘Can’t we work this out? Don’t we have the main core things in common — our belief in Jesus? Isn’t that enough to hold us together?’ It’s a hard time.”
Episcopal congregations throughout the nation are struggling with the same questions. Some entire congregations, including at least two in Western Washington, have left the church rather than remain part of a national church they worry is straying too far from their core beliefs.
St. Brendan’s, which has about 30 members who attend Sunday services, meets in the chapel of St. Paul’s Academy.
For Moheb Ghali, one of the founders of St. Brendan’s, the dispute boils down to a few key issues, including the nature of Jesus Christ himself.
“Is he the son of God or was he just a good prophet?” Ghali asks. He worries the national church teaches that Jesus represents “a way, not the way” to salvation.
Ghali, a vice provost at Western Washington University, also believes the national church is watering down the authority of the Bible, which he feels was “written by people inspired by God and it does reflect the standards we ought to be held accountable to.”
Peg Swieringa of Custer said she and her husband, Gerry, are still close with many members of the St. Paul’s congregation. But it’s the national church they couldn’t remain a part of.
“I think the national church is leaning away from a lot of those very basic, basic beliefs,” said Peg, who attends both St. Brendan’s and Christ Episcopal Church in Blaine. “They’re becoming more and more liberal and trying to include all kinds of cultures and all kinds of religions, which then sort of detracts from our own religion. St. Brendan’s is trying to go back to that and to the basics of our faith.”
But Episcopal Church leaders say the church’s core beliefs haven’t changed.
“What I’ve heard from some people — that we no longer believe in the divinity of Christ — I don’t even know where that’s coming from,” said the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. “It’s certainly not true for me. I don’t see any real movement in that direction as they point to in the Episcopal Church, either.”
And the Bible, Rickel said, “is our authoritative text.”
But Ghali said the consecration in 2003 of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire stands out as a symptom of the national church’s drift away from the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of churches rooted in the Church of England.
The event has drawn sharp criticism from other church bodies within the Anglican Communion, who say ordaining a gay bishop goes against biblical scripture.
No one part of the Anglican Communion should take such a drastic departure without the consent of the entire body, Ghali said.
“It’s sort of like, ‘My hand cannot walk away from my body, because it discovered it’s smarter than my feet,’” he said.
Many mainline Christian denominations are struggling with the same issues, Whitmore said: inclusiveness, multiculturalism, the authority of biblical scripture, exploring the divinity of Jesus and “how do we express the truth in the Gospel for the 21st century.”
But Rickel, the bishop, worries that the Episcopal church is losing what he sees as one of its greatest attributes — its ability to hold a diversity of thought in one large religious body.
Diane Parker, a St. Paul’s member since 1984, wishes there had been more discussion among the congregation before the members left to start St. Brendan’s.
“If we’d had those conversations internally, we could have had agreement about what we were disagreeing about,” she said. “What some folks think has happened is, we’ve kind of lost some of that ability to be that forum, where it’s safe to express those ideas.”
But Allen’s departure might bring about the opportunity for the kind of talks Parker wishes took place before he left. As the congregation’s senior warden, she’ll help guide the membership through a self-examination of what they believe, and what they need in their next rector.
And she expects members of the congregation will continue to have close ties to those at St. Brendan’s.
“There’s a lot of friendships on both sides,” she said. “Our philosophy is going to be, ‘Go, God bless, and the porch lights are on.’”
Ghali hopes the new church will grow, but not at the expense of St. Paul’s membership. He hopes the growth comes from the surrounding neighborhood of people who don’t go to church now.
And members haven’t completely cut their ties to their old church. Gerry Swieringa still leads a discussion group at St. Paul’s and plans to continue.
“I still don’t feel like I left St. Paul’s,” he said. “I left the Episcopal Church. There’s definitely a difference.”
Michigan: After split, Anglican church finds its way
LEXINGTON- When the faithful gather on Sunday behind Bush's Restaurant to hear the Rev. Richard Dalton speak, they are acting as a brand-new church as well as a very old one.
The congregants were, until three years ago, all Episcopalians, members of the former Trinity Episcopal Church. But now, after splitting from that church, they consider themselves Anglicans, a faith that can trace its history to the sixth century.
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Like a lightning-struck tree, the international Anglican church, which the Episcopals are part of, is splitting into irreconcilable branches.
"We're not looking much toward the Western church for leadership," Dalton said. "We're looking to the third world."
The small Christ the King church, along with about a dozen others in Michigan, is part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, which defected from the Episcopal church to join with the church of Nigeria more than three years ago.
These Michiganders now follow the leadership of Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. Akinola hews to a much more conservative view of Anglicism, and for some Americans, this brand of faith matches their own.
The trouble began in 2003 when the Episcolpalian Diocese of New Hampshire elected Gene Robinson, a gay man, as its ninth bishop. It was the first time an openly gay man was ordained, and some churchgoers felt this went against church teaching.
Robinson's ordination started what has come to be known as the Anglican realignment.
"There are about eight factions that broke away from the Episcopal church," said Dr. Dennis Smallwood, who attends the Lexington church.
Smallwood recently retired from his various jobs a public health director in all the Thumb counties.
Church secretary Janet Pigeon argued people in the movement are not judging others but doing what "God wants, not what we want to do."
"We're trying to hold to the Scripture," said Pigeon, 70, of Lexington. "We need to follow the Word."
New wave of US defections
CoE Newspaper 2.01.08 p 5:
A new wave of parish defections has washed across the Episcopal Church with congregations in Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Central Florida quitting the national church in protest to its leftward drift.
The response to American church secessions however, has differed from past battles with a premium being placed on an amicable parting of the ways.
The new wave of defections has also come from “Windsor Dioceses”—dioceses whose leaders have been opposed to the innovation in doctrine and discipline made in recent years by the national church’s leadership.
While united in their opposition to the actions of the last two General Conventions, conservatives have been divided on what tactical programme to purse. With the breakaway groups now soliciting defections from conservative dioceses, traditionalist leaders within the Episcopal Church are concerned that turf battles over the remaining conservatives may weaken the remaining Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic witness within the Episcopal Church.
In the Diocese of Tennessee the bulk of Trinity Church in Winchester on Jan 6 quit the diocese for CANA, while the rector and members of Holy Cross in Murfreesboro announced that day they had joined the Church of Uganda.
Bishop John Bauerschmidt lamented the secessions, saying they were unnecessary as “Tennessee has on several occasions committed itself to the recommendations of the Windsor Report.” He noted that he was “committed to the Camp Allen principles of compliance with the recommendations of the Windsor Report” articulated by Archbishop Rowan Williams in his Advent letter.
The Bishop of Central Florida, the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe told his diocesan convention on Jan 25 that eight congregations, including the diocese’s second and fourth largest parishes, were withdrawing from the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Howe told The Church of England Newspaper the last three months had been the most difficult of his life, and the negotiations had left him exhausted. However “we have done something that has not been accomplished anywhere else. We are on the best of terms with all those leaving. And we are committed to rebuilding where there have been losses.”
In his Convention address Bishop Howe stated he understood there were some who for reasons of conscience had to withdraw. “I understand that. I don’t agree, but I don’t believe we should punish them. We shouldn’t sue them. We shouldn’t depose the clergy. Our brokenness is a tragedy. The litigation that is going on in so many places is a travesty,” he said.
“And although some seem to be trying to do so, I don’t think you can hold a Church together by taking everybody you disagree with to court,” he said.
A new wave of parish defections has washed across the Episcopal Church with congregations in Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Central Florida quitting the national church in protest to its leftward drift.
The response to American church secessions however, has differed from past battles with a premium being placed on an amicable parting of the ways.
The new wave of defections has also come from “Windsor Dioceses”—dioceses whose leaders have been opposed to the innovation in doctrine and discipline made in recent years by the national church’s leadership.
While united in their opposition to the actions of the last two General Conventions, conservatives have been divided on what tactical programme to purse. With the breakaway groups now soliciting defections from conservative dioceses, traditionalist leaders within the Episcopal Church are concerned that turf battles over the remaining conservatives may weaken the remaining Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic witness within the Episcopal Church.
In the Diocese of Tennessee the bulk of Trinity Church in Winchester on Jan 6 quit the diocese for CANA, while the rector and members of Holy Cross in Murfreesboro announced that day they had joined the Church of Uganda.
Bishop John Bauerschmidt lamented the secessions, saying they were unnecessary as “Tennessee has on several occasions committed itself to the recommendations of the Windsor Report.” He noted that he was “committed to the Camp Allen principles of compliance with the recommendations of the Windsor Report” articulated by Archbishop Rowan Williams in his Advent letter.
The Bishop of Central Florida, the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe told his diocesan convention on Jan 25 that eight congregations, including the diocese’s second and fourth largest parishes, were withdrawing from the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Howe told The Church of England Newspaper the last three months had been the most difficult of his life, and the negotiations had left him exhausted. However “we have done something that has not been accomplished anywhere else. We are on the best of terms with all those leaving. And we are committed to rebuilding where there have been losses.”
In his Convention address Bishop Howe stated he understood there were some who for reasons of conscience had to withdraw. “I understand that. I don’t agree, but I don’t believe we should punish them. We shouldn’t sue them. We shouldn’t depose the clergy. Our brokenness is a tragedy. The litigation that is going on in so many places is a travesty,” he said.
“And although some seem to be trying to do so, I don’t think you can hold a Church together by taking everybody you disagree with to court,” he said.
CANA Grows Pulling in Archbishops and Bishops to Priestly Ranks
Leader Confident in Virginia Lawsuits. "We are moving forward"
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/29/2008
The leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a Nigerian church plant of orthodox Anglicanism in the US says his church is growing with some 60 parishes (20 more in the pipeline), 120 plus clergy, and some 8,000 in attendance all in two years, making it one of the fastest growing body of orthodox Anglicans in North America. In an interview with the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns at the Anglican Mission in the Americas Winter Conference in Dallas, David W. Virtue talked with Bishop Minns about the present state of Anglicanism in North America and CANA.
VIRTUEONLINE: Where is CANA at today?
MINNS: We are going forward and growing, adding churches, adding clergy and planting new congregations. We have 60 churches with several coming out of the Continuing Church movement, led by several archbishops and bishops from the Continuing movement. They have laid down their episcopal office to serve as priests in CANA.
VIRTUEONLINE: Are you simply monochrome or is there some diversity in your ranks?
MINNS: The episcopate and clergy is a blessed reflection of the diversity of the American populace, with significant numbers of immigrants and minorities. We are committed to modeling for American Anglicans the possibility of respecting both integrities regarding the ordionation of women within one ecclesial body.
VIRTUEONLINE: What are the distinctives of CANA?
MINNS: We are an indigenous ecclesiastical structure with representative leadership by member clergy and laity. One distinctive is that we see ourselves establishing the necessary structures for a growing church in North America along with our friends in the Common Cause Partnership.
VIRTUEONLINE: How do you differ from say the Anglican Mission in the Americas?
MINNS: It is a difference of approach, not theology or mission. We are equally committed to planting new congregations, but we are also structuring ourselves as a church fully in communion with the Province of Nigeria and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
VIRTUEONLINE: You are a church then, rather than a mission?
MINNS: We are committed to mission, but I am happy to embrace the word "church". I think the connection through Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola is seen as being positive. Those who come to us see he has taken a strong stand for the gospel. The Nigerian Church, indeed nearly all the African Anglican provinces, will not compromise in their core understanding of the gospel.
VIRTUEONLINE: So you wanted, from the beginning, to connect with an orthodox province in the Global South?
MINNS: Yes. Our desire was and is to connect with a larger structure.
VIRTUEONLINE: How long have you known Archbishop Akinola?
MINNS: We met briefly in '98 and started working closely together in the beginning of 2003.
VIRTUEONLINE: Are you pleased with what is happening in North American Anglicanism now?
MINNS: I am grieved by the brokenness of the Episcopal Church and the intransigence of the leadership in matters of faith and morals, but in the middle of this I see wonderful changes, lives are being transformed, people are offering themselves for ordination.
VIRTUEONLINE: Do you have standards for ministry comparable to the more well established educational channels and vehicles of education in Anglicanism? How well do you look after your clergy?
MINNS: All our clergy are properly educated. We have some flexibility in terms of context, but all clergy must have, at a minimum, a Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in theology. We will insist on more theological training, if necessary. We are also able to offer a comprehensive national healthcare, retirement, and insurance plan for clergy and congregational employees.
VIRTUEONLINE: In the Virginia situation, where some 12 parishes are being sued for their properties by the diocese and The Episcopal Church, the recent intervention by the Virginia Attorney General seemed to tip the scales in your favor. How do you read this?
MINNS: We are very grateful that he did intervene, and that he made it clear that the law is constitutional and that it applies to our situation.
VIRTUEONLINE: What do you hope for an outcome?
MINNS: I am hopeful, but I am still realistic. It is a complex legal case in all kinds of areas. We anticipate many appeals on a very costly, and frankly, an unnecessary journey. We had begun a process of amicable separation that could have been a model for the rest of the church, but those in power at 815 were not willing to let it happen. I am impressed by the thoroughness of the judge and his grasp of the complexities of the situation.
VIRTUEONLINE: What has happened with the lawsuits against vestries?
MINNS: My understanding is that the lawsuits have been put in abeyance and that the Episcopal Church is not proceeding with them.
VIRTUEONLINE: How are your people coping emotionally with what is going on regarding the lawsuits and their ability to minister in the midst of all this? MINNS: It is one of the hardest things going on, but they are handling it remarkably well. Some of the churches have experienced some division over this. We have lost people, but we are also planting new churches in Virginia. Our larger churches are seeing congregational growth. It is a very serious situation, but people are handling it pretty well. VIRTUEONLINE: What about the cost financially?
MINNS: There is an incredible cost financially. Our money is coming from individual parishes, churches and individuals and parishioners versus a line of credit and selling properties, which the Diocese of Virginia is doing. There is a big difference here; our people are fighting this battle. We have a lot of lawyers, some are working pro bono or giving time sacrificially, but our costs are comparable with the diocese. I think the national Church is spending a significant amount but less than the diocese.
VIRTUEONLINE: You are here in Dallas at the Anglican Mission in the Americas Winter Conference. Are you comfortable here?
MINNS: I am very comfortable and delighted to be here to see a healthy and growing Anglican mission. I am seeing lots of old friends. I have the vision of a united orthodox province that is stronger than ever. I was invited to come here and I accepted that invitation. It is important to see and experience encouragement and practical instruction going on. END ------------------------------
Editor's Note: St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Vestal is the CANA parish in Central NY.
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/29/2008
The leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a Nigerian church plant of orthodox Anglicanism in the US says his church is growing with some 60 parishes (20 more in the pipeline), 120 plus clergy, and some 8,000 in attendance all in two years, making it one of the fastest growing body of orthodox Anglicans in North America. In an interview with the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns at the Anglican Mission in the Americas Winter Conference in Dallas, David W. Virtue talked with Bishop Minns about the present state of Anglicanism in North America and CANA.
VIRTUEONLINE: Where is CANA at today?
MINNS: We are going forward and growing, adding churches, adding clergy and planting new congregations. We have 60 churches with several coming out of the Continuing Church movement, led by several archbishops and bishops from the Continuing movement. They have laid down their episcopal office to serve as priests in CANA.
VIRTUEONLINE: Are you simply monochrome or is there some diversity in your ranks?
MINNS: The episcopate and clergy is a blessed reflection of the diversity of the American populace, with significant numbers of immigrants and minorities. We are committed to modeling for American Anglicans the possibility of respecting both integrities regarding the ordionation of women within one ecclesial body.
VIRTUEONLINE: What are the distinctives of CANA?
MINNS: We are an indigenous ecclesiastical structure with representative leadership by member clergy and laity. One distinctive is that we see ourselves establishing the necessary structures for a growing church in North America along with our friends in the Common Cause Partnership.
VIRTUEONLINE: How do you differ from say the Anglican Mission in the Americas?
MINNS: It is a difference of approach, not theology or mission. We are equally committed to planting new congregations, but we are also structuring ourselves as a church fully in communion with the Province of Nigeria and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
VIRTUEONLINE: You are a church then, rather than a mission?
MINNS: We are committed to mission, but I am happy to embrace the word "church". I think the connection through Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola is seen as being positive. Those who come to us see he has taken a strong stand for the gospel. The Nigerian Church, indeed nearly all the African Anglican provinces, will not compromise in their core understanding of the gospel.
VIRTUEONLINE: So you wanted, from the beginning, to connect with an orthodox province in the Global South?
MINNS: Yes. Our desire was and is to connect with a larger structure.
VIRTUEONLINE: How long have you known Archbishop Akinola?
MINNS: We met briefly in '98 and started working closely together in the beginning of 2003.
VIRTUEONLINE: Are you pleased with what is happening in North American Anglicanism now?
MINNS: I am grieved by the brokenness of the Episcopal Church and the intransigence of the leadership in matters of faith and morals, but in the middle of this I see wonderful changes, lives are being transformed, people are offering themselves for ordination.
VIRTUEONLINE: Do you have standards for ministry comparable to the more well established educational channels and vehicles of education in Anglicanism? How well do you look after your clergy?
MINNS: All our clergy are properly educated. We have some flexibility in terms of context, but all clergy must have, at a minimum, a Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in theology. We will insist on more theological training, if necessary. We are also able to offer a comprehensive national healthcare, retirement, and insurance plan for clergy and congregational employees.
VIRTUEONLINE: In the Virginia situation, where some 12 parishes are being sued for their properties by the diocese and The Episcopal Church, the recent intervention by the Virginia Attorney General seemed to tip the scales in your favor. How do you read this?
MINNS: We are very grateful that he did intervene, and that he made it clear that the law is constitutional and that it applies to our situation.
VIRTUEONLINE: What do you hope for an outcome?
MINNS: I am hopeful, but I am still realistic. It is a complex legal case in all kinds of areas. We anticipate many appeals on a very costly, and frankly, an unnecessary journey. We had begun a process of amicable separation that could have been a model for the rest of the church, but those in power at 815 were not willing to let it happen. I am impressed by the thoroughness of the judge and his grasp of the complexities of the situation.
VIRTUEONLINE: What has happened with the lawsuits against vestries?
MINNS: My understanding is that the lawsuits have been put in abeyance and that the Episcopal Church is not proceeding with them.
VIRTUEONLINE: How are your people coping emotionally with what is going on regarding the lawsuits and their ability to minister in the midst of all this? MINNS: It is one of the hardest things going on, but they are handling it remarkably well. Some of the churches have experienced some division over this. We have lost people, but we are also planting new churches in Virginia. Our larger churches are seeing congregational growth. It is a very serious situation, but people are handling it pretty well. VIRTUEONLINE: What about the cost financially?
MINNS: There is an incredible cost financially. Our money is coming from individual parishes, churches and individuals and parishioners versus a line of credit and selling properties, which the Diocese of Virginia is doing. There is a big difference here; our people are fighting this battle. We have a lot of lawyers, some are working pro bono or giving time sacrificially, but our costs are comparable with the diocese. I think the national Church is spending a significant amount but less than the diocese.
VIRTUEONLINE: You are here in Dallas at the Anglican Mission in the Americas Winter Conference. Are you comfortable here?
MINNS: I am very comfortable and delighted to be here to see a healthy and growing Anglican mission. I am seeing lots of old friends. I have the vision of a united orthodox province that is stronger than ever. I was invited to come here and I accepted that invitation. It is important to see and experience encouragement and practical instruction going on. END ------------------------------
Editor's Note: St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Vestal is the CANA parish in Central NY.
The Global Anglican Communion and the Anglican Orthodoxy
The Rev. Prof. Stephen Noll
Vice Chancellor, Uganda Christian University
Mukono, Uganda
It is a daunting task to be asked to define orthodoxy.[1] Such a task has occupied the minds of great theologians and councils throughout Christian history, and I consider myself hardly up to the task. However, in looking to the future of Global Anglicanism, it is necessary to put one’s hand to the plough and begin a furrow.
The need to define or describe Anglican orthodoxy today has an urgency about it, because of the actions of the Episcopal Church (TEC) and other Provinces of the Communion in blessing homosexuality against the clear teaching of Scripture, the historic Church and the Resolution of the Lambeth Conference 1998. Although this issue has dominated discussions, it is clear that it is symptomatic of a larger abandonment of biblical teaching and authority on fundamental matters of the faith. The fact that Bishop John Spong, a man who has denied virtually every article of the Christian faith, continues a bishop in good standing in TEC, while orthodox bishops are threatened with deposition for their witness speaks for itself.
Global Anglican Orthodoxy: A Blueprint
I have chosen to adapt an essay I wrote in 2006 titled “The Global Anglican Communion: A Blueprint.”[2] This essay sought to outline the essential elements necessary to an orthodox Anglican Communion Covenant which would serve both to correct the errors present in the Communion and to guide the Communion into the future.
The blueprint follows the framework of the Lambeth Quadrilateral. This formulary emerged from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church meeting in Chicago in 1886 and was intended as an ecumenical statement among the many American denominations and was adopted by the young Lambeth Conference in 1888 as an expression of what we now call Anglicanism.[3] In my view, it can continue to inform a worldwide fellowship of Anglicans and at the same time offer an ecumenical platform from which to seek unity with other Christian churches. Although the Quadrilateral is not a sufficient statement of Christian doctrine, it does contain the theological DNA which can guide us in articulating our ecclesial identity, along with the Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer. Together these formularies offer a kind of “branding” for Anglican bodies in their various social contexts.
Finally, let me suggest for strategic and tactical reasons that a statement of Anglican orthodoxy keep in close touch with the idea of a Covenant. Strategically the idea of a Covenant is a good one. The Quadrilateral itself was a kind of preamble to Anglican orthodoxy for the emerging Communion. Going back even further, one might suggest that the Articles of Religion were part of an Anglican Covenant before there was a Communion, as Thomas Cranmer intended the Articles to form the basis for an ecumenical consensus among the churches of the Reformation.[4]
The idea of an Anglican Covenant is also relevant in the present political context of the Communion. Those attending the Global Anglican Future Conference should maintain ties with those orthodox leaders who are working on the Communion Covenant. It seems unlikely that a final Covenant from Canterbury, filtered now through the Anglican Consultative Council, will be sufficiently crisp to deal with the present crisis. However, the opportunity may arise herafter to negotiate an ecumenical Anglican Covenant that will serve as a means of warding off heresy and will chart the future of orthodox Anglicanism.
The Role of Scripture in the Church
The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as the revealed Word of God (CLQ), containing all things necessary to salvation,” and as being the rule and standard of faith.
It hardly needs repeating that the foremost objection of the Global South churches to the homosexual agenda is the fact that it is “contrary to Scripture” (Lambeth 1.10) and that this spurning of the Bible as “God’s Word written” has infected the entire structure of authority within the most “progressive” churches of the Anglican Communion. Recovering Anglican orthodoxy must therefore include a restoration of Scripture to its rightful place of authority. I propose the following classic traits of Scripture as benchmarks of a restored biblical orthodoxy.
The Primacy of Scripture. Lambeth 1998 passed Resolutions affirming the primacy, or the primary authority, of Scripture in matters relating to Christian faith and life.[5] Primacy is not a call for bare submission to a sacred text, as in Islam, but includes several closely associated principles.
* The Word as medium of the Gospel. The Reformation began with a dynamic sense of the recovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a verbal revelation, originating in God Himself as the Word (John 1:1-18). Hence the primary medium of communication is “preaching the Gospel” (Romans 10:14).
* The self-authenticating character of Scripture. Although the Bible is an accommodated form of God’s revelation, God “lisping” to us (as Calvin put it), it is self-authenticating and cannot be “proved” by human science or Church edict.
* Scripture as a means of grace. The Word of God presented in Scripture convicts and evokes faith in hearers. The same Spirit that guided the authors testifies in the heart of readers.[6]
The Unity of Scripture. The Reformation also declared that, despite the differences within and between the Testaments, a fundamental consistency undergirds the various books of the Bible.
* Mystery and unity. As God’s triune nature is a transcendent mystery made known in the fullness of time (1 John 1:1-4), so biblical unity can include paradox and progressive development, without causing confusion in its overall message.
* Hermeneutical center. The center of the Bible is the Gospel of Christ himself. A biblical theology must be evangelical, acknowledging the role of the Old Testament as preparation and of the New Testament as fulfillment, avoiding Old Testament-based legalism or New Testament-based libertinism.
* Harmony of Scripture texts. The principle of “Scripture interpreting Scripture” is found in Cranmer’s Collect which urges ordinary Christians to “mark” i.e., compare, various passages in the Bible. As for the Church, it may not “so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another” (Article XX).
The Clarity of Scripture. The clarity of Scripture was the basis on which the Reformers insisted on a vernacular Bible that could be read and understood by the simplest “ploughboy.”
* Simplicity of Scripture. The Reformers recovered the “plain sense” (sensus literalis) of the Bible.[7] Simplicity is not anti-intellectual. In fact, it is an invitation to study original languages and historical and social context.
* External and internal clarity. Scripture is transparent, not a secret Gnostic document. External clarity is the way Scripture conveys the Word publicly to all who would come with a seeking heart. Because of the hardness of the human heart, internal clarity is required through the grace of the Holy Spirit. One must “have ears to hear.”
* Exposition. “How can I understand unless I have an interpreter?” (Acts 8:31). Bible reading must be accompanied by expository preaching and teaching. Even mature Christians move “from the truth to the whole truth” through regular Bible study.[8]
The Sufficiency of Scripture. The idea of the “sufficiency” of Scripture asserts both its unique efficacy and its limited focus.
* The End of Scripture – salvation. Sufficiency looks to the end or telos of Scripture, which is salvation in Christ alone (John 20:31). Any Church which is ashamed of this salvation cannot be using Scripture rightly.
* Appropriation by faith. Just as the Spirit gives inward clarity, so the means by which salvation is grasped is faith alone. Only then does reason interpret Scripture and works of love apply it.
* Trustworthiness of Scripture. Unlike human councils (Article XIX), Scripture cannot err in the sense that it is an infallible guide to salvation and a holy life. In this it diverges both from liberal caricatures and fundamentalist simplifications of fallibility and inerrancy.
In addition to an exposition of the nature of biblical authority, the Global Anglican Communion will need to grapple with the interpretation of Scripture. Again, we should draw on the resources of the Reformation, in its goal of recovering the “plain and canonical” sense of God’s Word, which is accessible for preaching, teaching and mission. At the same time, the contemporary crisis has raised issues of philosophical hermeneutics which must be addressed. The recent work of Kevin Vanhoozer, for instance, opens an avenue for developing a faithful mode of understanding Scripture as “God’s communicative action.”[9]
Finally, global Anglicanism needs to revisit the so-called Anglican tripod of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. While a tripod of three equal legs is an historical fiction and a theological Trojan horse, there is need for a reaffirmation and redefinition of the consonance of Scripture, tradition and reason, as articulated so pithily by Richard Hooker:
Be it in matter of one kind or of the other, what Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place both of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason; after these the voice of the Church succeedeth. (Laws V.8.2)[10]
A renewed study, and in places critique, of Richard Hooker is called for in finding a way forward.
The Church’s Historic Formularies
The Apostles’ Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol (LQ); and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
“The voice of the Church,” as Hooker put it, has always been important for an Anglican Christianity that sees itself as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church upholding “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).[11] Reformation Anglicans tended to look to particular classic periods as sources of authority, such as the first five centuries and four Councils. At the same time, they adopted confessional statements that addressed the new insights of Scripture study and the pressing needs of the day.
The present crisis in Anglicanism provides the opportunity to recover a modest and ecumenical confessionalism that takes into account the Great Tradition of Christian theology and adapts and applies its truths to the contemporary situation. Our Anglican heritage affords us rich resources in the Thirty-Nine Articles and Book of Common Prayer. At the same time, new challenges to orthodoxy have arisen requiring precise analysis and redefinition, such as the nature of marriage and human sexuality, the rise of modern science and technology and the place of other religions in God’s economy of salvation. I speak of modest confessionalism in the sense of a confession that guides without closing off legitimate dialogue and testing from Scripture, and ecumenical confessionalism as presenting an opportunity for the historic churches of West and East to seek together the mind of God as they face off against militant secularism on one flank and militant Islam on the other.
In his recent book How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind,” Prof. Thomas Oden argues that Africa – and he means ancient Alexandria down to present-day sub-Saharan Africa – provides both the best rationale of “right remembering” of the apostles’ teaching but also the best examples of martyrdom, “where ordinary believers were unwilling to release their Scriptures to governing authorities who might debase them.”[12]
The Church’s Mission and Sacraments
The two Sacraments – Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of Institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
A review and reform of Anglican doctrine should not omit the nature and role of sacraments. Sacramental theology has to some extent divided orthodox Anglicans, e.g., Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics, and one may wonder whether a renewed debate or a papering over of these differences will lead to new life. Undoubtedly renewed discussion of the nature and efficacy of the sacraments is called for among those who agree on biblical essentials.
As a small contribution to such a discussion, I would propose that sacraments should be understood within a theology of mission. The Reformation in general and the Church of England in particular seem to have been deficient in articulating a proper theology of mission. For all their virtues, the Articles of Religion have no single reference to Christ’s Great Commission to evangelize the nations.[13] Likewise, Articles neglected the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, and the Established Church often marginalized or expelled movements of “enthusiasm.” Indeed, much of the work of mission societies has been accomplished in spite of rather than with the full support of the mother Church.
In the context of state churches, the sacraments have often been regarded as rights and rites of national identity. This was not true in the apostolic church, nor does it work today (e.g., what does it mean that the Church of England claims 26 million members?). So I propose we take a dynamic approach to the Gospel sacraments, an approach which I believe is found in the Pentecostal teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:38-47). From this preaching I think we can identify the following marks of the missionary church:[14]
* The Church preaches the Gospel to its own children and to those who are far off - to the churched and unchurched, to the youth of the next generation and to those whom we today call “unreached peoples.”
* It calls people urgently to be saved from the idols of the present age in expectation of the imminent return of Christ.
* Baptism is a response to preaching, and it signs and seals individuals as members of the Body of Christ.
* It expects believers individually and the whole Church corporately to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
* It expects and experiences healing and miracles in its midst.
* It is growing in numbers, often with remarkable leaps forward.
* It is devoted to apostolic doctrine, koinonia, worship and Eucharist.
* It is committed to radical sharing of goods and hospitality.
* It respects authority (the temple) but circumscribes that authority in view of the ascension and reign of Christ.
If the Anglican Communion can orient itself to our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, perhaps it can also reorient its sacramental heritage to convey the eschatological presence of Christ with his Church.[15] Another gap in Anglican theology and practice – not unconnected with its lack of missionary zeal, I suspect – is the conviction that Jesus Christ will return, suddenly and imminently, to judge the living and the dead.[16] As eschatological signs, the sacraments should be seen as incandescent badges of Christian identity: incandescent both in the sense of aglow with the Spirit but also as antagonistic to the world. Global Anglican orthodoxy will need to look not only for faithful administration of Gospel sacraments but for signs of the Spirit and power that accompany it (Mark 16:15-18).[17]
Anglican Ecclesiology
The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.
The present crisis in the Anglican Communion has revealed a constitutional weakness in its doctrine of the Church, its ecclesiology. In response to a blatant attack on the apostolic faith, the worldwide Body and its “Instruments of Unity” have proved unable to enforce straightforward discipline of heretical members. This failure has led many to conclude that Anglicanism is fundamentally flawed, and they have departed for other bodies.
We must start by admitting that global Anglican polity has leaned far too heavily on the benevolent patriarchy of the Established Church and the British Empire. The idea that a rapidly expanding body of Global South churches must be governed from a historic See dominated by a secular Government and a compromised mother church is, to be blunt, a dangerous exercise of nostalgia.
Does this mean that the historic episcopate is itself obsolete. I do not think so. Anglicans can rightly uphold episcopal governance and the value of the historic continuity of its ministry, even as they uphold the priesthood of all believers. For all the failures of bishops, we cannot blame the office; indeed we can argue that a rightly ordered episcopacy has provided stability and faithfulness over the centuries and is often emulated by free-church leaders. The second clause of the Quadrilateral – “locally adapted” – qualifies a rigid view of prelacy and specifically relates it to global mission, “the varying needs of nations and peoples called” into the Church. As an example of the latter, one thinks of the Church of Nigeria’s strategy of sending missionary bishops into under-evangelized portions of its own dioceses, or even of another jurisdiction.[18]
The primary role of a bishop is that of a willing and apt pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:2; 2 Timothy 2:24). Bishops are to be stewards (Titus 1:7), which means they bear the final accountability for the state of the Church. To be sure, episcopal authority is not the same as episcopal totalitarianism – an attitude which many Global South churches need to address. The “household of God” which the bishop oversees (1 Timothy 3:4-5) is a “mixed regime” with subsidiary units – congregations, parishes, dioceses and officers, clergy and lay – which must be represented in its governing structures.
We must rethink the role of bishops and polity at the Communion level. Just as national politics and international politics operate on different levels, so also it is right that national churches have autonomy within an overarching framework an international covenant. Much of the work of the church should be “locally adapted,” although we should acknowledge that the electronic communications revolution has brought these local contexts much closer together than heretofore.
This pattern of episcopal governance can function at the level of worldwide Anglicanism. This will involve reform, though not total rejection, of the current Instruments of Unity, including the following elements:
* A synod of bishops should meet regularly (decennially) and have authority to address matters of doctrine, discipline and mission.
* An executive body of Primates should be authorized to carry out the will of the synod in between meetings.
* A presiding Primate should serve as a focus of unity. Canterbury or another historic see could function as a locus of unity as well. However, such a Primate should be elected by the synod of bishops.
* A secretariat should assist these Instruments, with accountability to all. The current Anglican Consultative Council and Anglican Communion Office have failed to function in this way.
In one sense, this polity is not far removed from the “Instruments of Unity” that have evolved of late in the historic Anglican Communion. The likeness may be deceptive: a diseased body may look like a healthy body, at least in the earlier stages of the illness. I am saying that the fault is not with the outward form of the Anglican Communion but with the doctrinal deviation from its apostolic and Reformation origins. Orthodoxy by its very nature must identify and renounce heresy and discipline false teachers, as a last resort, expel them.[19] If the Canterbury-based Anglican Communion continues to tolerate heresy in its midst and welcome false teachers to its councils, then the day will come when an orthodox assembly must break communion with Canterbury and set up alternative structures. Since the trend-lines seem to doom the current Communion to endless compromise or worse, the sooner the shadow structures begin take form the better.
Finally, the global Anglican Communion will need to evaluate the role of the churches in relation to the secular realm. This is classic problem of political theology. Traditional patterns, such as the Established churches are obsolete. At the same time, new models proposed by liberation theology have proved ineffective. I think the political theology of Oliver O’Donovan, while not spelling out specific solutions, offers a framework for developing a theology of church and state under the Lordship of the ascended Christ.[20]
The Spirit and Future of Anglican Orthodoxy
Like any blueprint, the above-mentioned elements of Anglican orthodoxy merely define the principles and structure of a reformed Anglican orthodoxy. Without the structure, it is unlikely that the life of the Communion will long endure. But at the same time, without the Spirit speaking to and working through the churches and their members, such a blueprint will be an empty vessel.
It is not for me to try to capture the wind of the Spirit in a bottle. But I would suggest that Anglican orthodoxy should be:
* Bold in proclamation and clever in apologetics
* Visionary in mission outreach
* Prayerful in all things
* Ecumenical in openness to brothers and sisters in Christ
* Vigilant in guarding the faith and awaiting the return of the Lord
I have attempted to sketch a blueprint of a Global Anglican orthodoxy that will embody the best elements of our tradition and mobilize Anglicans to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. I believe that if the Global South churches and their allies will take bold action at this time, we shall see a new reformation in the Anglican tradition, one which reflects the movement of the Spirit of God in our day. If these churches, like the Church of Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), remain faithful, Christ will give abundant life. Jesus Christ is Lord and His kingdom reigns over all. The gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, which is His Body. Once we lift up our eyes from our own troubles and look at the worldwide scene, we shall realize that the Gospel is not in retreat but is beckoning to the uttermost corners of the globe. As Anglicans we have a stake in the global mission of Christ, and we have something to offer it from the riches of our heritage and our worldwide fellowship of churches.
Brothers and sisters, remember Lot’s wife. The present order is passing away. Behold the Global Anglican Communion is coming.
28 January 2008
NOTES
[1] There is even need to justify the “orthodoxy” as the chief term of reference in this case. Clearly Anglican orthodoxy is to be differentiated from Eastern Orthodoxy. It has been chosen as being broad enough to include various groups of Anglicans – Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic and Charismatic – who agree on the essentials of the faith. At the same time “orthodoxy” recalls the position of those in the patristic period who identified and contended against its opposite, heresy.
[2] The best available version (written and oral) of this address can be found at www.mereanglicanism.com/presentations.htm.
[3] The versions of the “Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (CLQ) and the text approved by Lambeth (LQ) are slightly different.
[4] Cranmer’s design for the Church of England included reformed Articles, Common Prayer and Canons. See Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) pages 500-513.
[5] In Resolution III.1, the Conference “reaffirms the primary authority of the Scriptures, according to their testimony and supported by our own historic formularies.” In Resolution III.5, “The Authority of the Holy Scriptures,” it likewise “affirms that our creator God, transcendent as well as immanent, communicates with us authoritatively through the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; and in agreement with the Lambeth Quadrilateral, and in solidarity with the Lambeth Conference of 1888, affirms that these Holy Scriptures contain ‘all things necessary to salvation’ and are for us the ‘rule and ultimate standard’ of faith and practice.”
[6] In Uganda, the first Christian converts were called “readers” as the Bible was the first text to become authoritative in an otherwise oral culture.
[7] The meaning of “literal sense” has been revived in contemporary hermeneutics. I defended its use before the House of Bishops in 1992. See “Reading the Bible as the Word of God,” in The Bible’s Authority for Today’s Church, ed. Frederick H. Borsch (Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press International: 1993) pages 133-167.
[8] This phrase is borrowed from Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985) pages 50-51. It suggests that the biblical writers were capable of conveying a plain sense which leads the reader into a deeper consideration of its meaning without overturning its surface meaning.
[9] See esp. Is There Meaning in This Text? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), and First Theology: God, Scripture and Hermeneutics (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2002) which lay the groundwork for his dogmatic work, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005). See my review, “Post Conservatives and Post-Liberals: Reflections on Kevin Vanhoozer’s The Drama of Doctrine,” at www.stephenswitness.com.
[10] Note that Hooker’s “credit and obedience” includes both theological dogmas but also what the Articles call the “Commandments called moral.” The idea that one could affirm the Creeds while disobeying the Commandments is foreign to classic Anglicanism.
[11] Note that the oneness of the Church is based on the “once-for-allness” (hapax) of the apostolic tradition entrusted to it.
[12] How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2007) page 128. In this quotation, Oden is thinking of North Africans like Cyprian, but one cannot help but remember the Uganda martyrs as well.
[13] Granted, Article XVIII states that “Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved.” Still, the context of the Article seems to suggest doctrinal contention rather than missionary impulse.
[14] Curiously, the “Covenant for Communion in Mission” also has nine bullets. Only one of these, the sharing of goods, appears in both lists. The missio dei theology of this document emphasizes the “love, justice and joy which Jesus inaugurated” rather than His salvation from sin and death, as appears primary in Peter’s sermon.
[15] O’Donovan, On Thirty-Nine Articles: A Conversation with Tudor Christianity (Leicester: Paternoster Press, 1986), page 126.
[16] Note the omission of Cranmer’s articles on eschatology (#39-42).
[17] Even if the longer ending of Mark is not original, it indicates the linking of sacraments with mission in the early church.
[18] It is ironic that as Lambeth 2008 addresses “bishops in mission,” the one Province that has most successfully equipped bishops for mission will be absent. However, it is likely that Nigeria’s experience of missionary bishops would not be heeded any more than its lessons in the Decade of Evangelism.
[19] Note in this regard that the current crisis does not involve Bishop Gene Robinson so much as those in TEC who elected, confirmed and ordained him, knowing that his life was openly homosexual.
[20] O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Vice Chancellor, Uganda Christian University
Mukono, Uganda
It is a daunting task to be asked to define orthodoxy.[1] Such a task has occupied the minds of great theologians and councils throughout Christian history, and I consider myself hardly up to the task. However, in looking to the future of Global Anglicanism, it is necessary to put one’s hand to the plough and begin a furrow.
The need to define or describe Anglican orthodoxy today has an urgency about it, because of the actions of the Episcopal Church (TEC) and other Provinces of the Communion in blessing homosexuality against the clear teaching of Scripture, the historic Church and the Resolution of the Lambeth Conference 1998. Although this issue has dominated discussions, it is clear that it is symptomatic of a larger abandonment of biblical teaching and authority on fundamental matters of the faith. The fact that Bishop John Spong, a man who has denied virtually every article of the Christian faith, continues a bishop in good standing in TEC, while orthodox bishops are threatened with deposition for their witness speaks for itself.
Global Anglican Orthodoxy: A Blueprint
I have chosen to adapt an essay I wrote in 2006 titled “The Global Anglican Communion: A Blueprint.”[2] This essay sought to outline the essential elements necessary to an orthodox Anglican Communion Covenant which would serve both to correct the errors present in the Communion and to guide the Communion into the future.
The blueprint follows the framework of the Lambeth Quadrilateral. This formulary emerged from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church meeting in Chicago in 1886 and was intended as an ecumenical statement among the many American denominations and was adopted by the young Lambeth Conference in 1888 as an expression of what we now call Anglicanism.[3] In my view, it can continue to inform a worldwide fellowship of Anglicans and at the same time offer an ecumenical platform from which to seek unity with other Christian churches. Although the Quadrilateral is not a sufficient statement of Christian doctrine, it does contain the theological DNA which can guide us in articulating our ecclesial identity, along with the Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer. Together these formularies offer a kind of “branding” for Anglican bodies in their various social contexts.
Finally, let me suggest for strategic and tactical reasons that a statement of Anglican orthodoxy keep in close touch with the idea of a Covenant. Strategically the idea of a Covenant is a good one. The Quadrilateral itself was a kind of preamble to Anglican orthodoxy for the emerging Communion. Going back even further, one might suggest that the Articles of Religion were part of an Anglican Covenant before there was a Communion, as Thomas Cranmer intended the Articles to form the basis for an ecumenical consensus among the churches of the Reformation.[4]
The idea of an Anglican Covenant is also relevant in the present political context of the Communion. Those attending the Global Anglican Future Conference should maintain ties with those orthodox leaders who are working on the Communion Covenant. It seems unlikely that a final Covenant from Canterbury, filtered now through the Anglican Consultative Council, will be sufficiently crisp to deal with the present crisis. However, the opportunity may arise herafter to negotiate an ecumenical Anglican Covenant that will serve as a means of warding off heresy and will chart the future of orthodox Anglicanism.
The Role of Scripture in the Church
The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, as the revealed Word of God (CLQ), containing all things necessary to salvation,” and as being the rule and standard of faith.
It hardly needs repeating that the foremost objection of the Global South churches to the homosexual agenda is the fact that it is “contrary to Scripture” (Lambeth 1.10) and that this spurning of the Bible as “God’s Word written” has infected the entire structure of authority within the most “progressive” churches of the Anglican Communion. Recovering Anglican orthodoxy must therefore include a restoration of Scripture to its rightful place of authority. I propose the following classic traits of Scripture as benchmarks of a restored biblical orthodoxy.
The Primacy of Scripture. Lambeth 1998 passed Resolutions affirming the primacy, or the primary authority, of Scripture in matters relating to Christian faith and life.[5] Primacy is not a call for bare submission to a sacred text, as in Islam, but includes several closely associated principles.
* The Word as medium of the Gospel. The Reformation began with a dynamic sense of the recovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a verbal revelation, originating in God Himself as the Word (John 1:1-18). Hence the primary medium of communication is “preaching the Gospel” (Romans 10:14).
* The self-authenticating character of Scripture. Although the Bible is an accommodated form of God’s revelation, God “lisping” to us (as Calvin put it), it is self-authenticating and cannot be “proved” by human science or Church edict.
* Scripture as a means of grace. The Word of God presented in Scripture convicts and evokes faith in hearers. The same Spirit that guided the authors testifies in the heart of readers.[6]
The Unity of Scripture. The Reformation also declared that, despite the differences within and between the Testaments, a fundamental consistency undergirds the various books of the Bible.
* Mystery and unity. As God’s triune nature is a transcendent mystery made known in the fullness of time (1 John 1:1-4), so biblical unity can include paradox and progressive development, without causing confusion in its overall message.
* Hermeneutical center. The center of the Bible is the Gospel of Christ himself. A biblical theology must be evangelical, acknowledging the role of the Old Testament as preparation and of the New Testament as fulfillment, avoiding Old Testament-based legalism or New Testament-based libertinism.
* Harmony of Scripture texts. The principle of “Scripture interpreting Scripture” is found in Cranmer’s Collect which urges ordinary Christians to “mark” i.e., compare, various passages in the Bible. As for the Church, it may not “so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another” (Article XX).
The Clarity of Scripture. The clarity of Scripture was the basis on which the Reformers insisted on a vernacular Bible that could be read and understood by the simplest “ploughboy.”
* Simplicity of Scripture. The Reformers recovered the “plain sense” (sensus literalis) of the Bible.[7] Simplicity is not anti-intellectual. In fact, it is an invitation to study original languages and historical and social context.
* External and internal clarity. Scripture is transparent, not a secret Gnostic document. External clarity is the way Scripture conveys the Word publicly to all who would come with a seeking heart. Because of the hardness of the human heart, internal clarity is required through the grace of the Holy Spirit. One must “have ears to hear.”
* Exposition. “How can I understand unless I have an interpreter?” (Acts 8:31). Bible reading must be accompanied by expository preaching and teaching. Even mature Christians move “from the truth to the whole truth” through regular Bible study.[8]
The Sufficiency of Scripture. The idea of the “sufficiency” of Scripture asserts both its unique efficacy and its limited focus.
* The End of Scripture – salvation. Sufficiency looks to the end or telos of Scripture, which is salvation in Christ alone (John 20:31). Any Church which is ashamed of this salvation cannot be using Scripture rightly.
* Appropriation by faith. Just as the Spirit gives inward clarity, so the means by which salvation is grasped is faith alone. Only then does reason interpret Scripture and works of love apply it.
* Trustworthiness of Scripture. Unlike human councils (Article XIX), Scripture cannot err in the sense that it is an infallible guide to salvation and a holy life. In this it diverges both from liberal caricatures and fundamentalist simplifications of fallibility and inerrancy.
In addition to an exposition of the nature of biblical authority, the Global Anglican Communion will need to grapple with the interpretation of Scripture. Again, we should draw on the resources of the Reformation, in its goal of recovering the “plain and canonical” sense of God’s Word, which is accessible for preaching, teaching and mission. At the same time, the contemporary crisis has raised issues of philosophical hermeneutics which must be addressed. The recent work of Kevin Vanhoozer, for instance, opens an avenue for developing a faithful mode of understanding Scripture as “God’s communicative action.”[9]
Finally, global Anglicanism needs to revisit the so-called Anglican tripod of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. While a tripod of three equal legs is an historical fiction and a theological Trojan horse, there is need for a reaffirmation and redefinition of the consonance of Scripture, tradition and reason, as articulated so pithily by Richard Hooker:
Be it in matter of one kind or of the other, what Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place both of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason; after these the voice of the Church succeedeth. (Laws V.8.2)[10]
A renewed study, and in places critique, of Richard Hooker is called for in finding a way forward.
The Church’s Historic Formularies
The Apostles’ Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol (LQ); and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
“The voice of the Church,” as Hooker put it, has always been important for an Anglican Christianity that sees itself as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church upholding “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).[11] Reformation Anglicans tended to look to particular classic periods as sources of authority, such as the first five centuries and four Councils. At the same time, they adopted confessional statements that addressed the new insights of Scripture study and the pressing needs of the day.
The present crisis in Anglicanism provides the opportunity to recover a modest and ecumenical confessionalism that takes into account the Great Tradition of Christian theology and adapts and applies its truths to the contemporary situation. Our Anglican heritage affords us rich resources in the Thirty-Nine Articles and Book of Common Prayer. At the same time, new challenges to orthodoxy have arisen requiring precise analysis and redefinition, such as the nature of marriage and human sexuality, the rise of modern science and technology and the place of other religions in God’s economy of salvation. I speak of modest confessionalism in the sense of a confession that guides without closing off legitimate dialogue and testing from Scripture, and ecumenical confessionalism as presenting an opportunity for the historic churches of West and East to seek together the mind of God as they face off against militant secularism on one flank and militant Islam on the other.
In his recent book How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind,” Prof. Thomas Oden argues that Africa – and he means ancient Alexandria down to present-day sub-Saharan Africa – provides both the best rationale of “right remembering” of the apostles’ teaching but also the best examples of martyrdom, “where ordinary believers were unwilling to release their Scriptures to governing authorities who might debase them.”[12]
The Church’s Mission and Sacraments
The two Sacraments – Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christ’s words of Institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
A review and reform of Anglican doctrine should not omit the nature and role of sacraments. Sacramental theology has to some extent divided orthodox Anglicans, e.g., Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics, and one may wonder whether a renewed debate or a papering over of these differences will lead to new life. Undoubtedly renewed discussion of the nature and efficacy of the sacraments is called for among those who agree on biblical essentials.
As a small contribution to such a discussion, I would propose that sacraments should be understood within a theology of mission. The Reformation in general and the Church of England in particular seem to have been deficient in articulating a proper theology of mission. For all their virtues, the Articles of Religion have no single reference to Christ’s Great Commission to evangelize the nations.[13] Likewise, Articles neglected the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, and the Established Church often marginalized or expelled movements of “enthusiasm.” Indeed, much of the work of mission societies has been accomplished in spite of rather than with the full support of the mother Church.
In the context of state churches, the sacraments have often been regarded as rights and rites of national identity. This was not true in the apostolic church, nor does it work today (e.g., what does it mean that the Church of England claims 26 million members?). So I propose we take a dynamic approach to the Gospel sacraments, an approach which I believe is found in the Pentecostal teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:38-47). From this preaching I think we can identify the following marks of the missionary church:[14]
* The Church preaches the Gospel to its own children and to those who are far off - to the churched and unchurched, to the youth of the next generation and to those whom we today call “unreached peoples.”
* It calls people urgently to be saved from the idols of the present age in expectation of the imminent return of Christ.
* Baptism is a response to preaching, and it signs and seals individuals as members of the Body of Christ.
* It expects believers individually and the whole Church corporately to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
* It expects and experiences healing and miracles in its midst.
* It is growing in numbers, often with remarkable leaps forward.
* It is devoted to apostolic doctrine, koinonia, worship and Eucharist.
* It is committed to radical sharing of goods and hospitality.
* It respects authority (the temple) but circumscribes that authority in view of the ascension and reign of Christ.
If the Anglican Communion can orient itself to our Lord’s Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, perhaps it can also reorient its sacramental heritage to convey the eschatological presence of Christ with his Church.[15] Another gap in Anglican theology and practice – not unconnected with its lack of missionary zeal, I suspect – is the conviction that Jesus Christ will return, suddenly and imminently, to judge the living and the dead.[16] As eschatological signs, the sacraments should be seen as incandescent badges of Christian identity: incandescent both in the sense of aglow with the Spirit but also as antagonistic to the world. Global Anglican orthodoxy will need to look not only for faithful administration of Gospel sacraments but for signs of the Spirit and power that accompany it (Mark 16:15-18).[17]
Anglican Ecclesiology
The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.
The present crisis in the Anglican Communion has revealed a constitutional weakness in its doctrine of the Church, its ecclesiology. In response to a blatant attack on the apostolic faith, the worldwide Body and its “Instruments of Unity” have proved unable to enforce straightforward discipline of heretical members. This failure has led many to conclude that Anglicanism is fundamentally flawed, and they have departed for other bodies.
We must start by admitting that global Anglican polity has leaned far too heavily on the benevolent patriarchy of the Established Church and the British Empire. The idea that a rapidly expanding body of Global South churches must be governed from a historic See dominated by a secular Government and a compromised mother church is, to be blunt, a dangerous exercise of nostalgia.
Does this mean that the historic episcopate is itself obsolete. I do not think so. Anglicans can rightly uphold episcopal governance and the value of the historic continuity of its ministry, even as they uphold the priesthood of all believers. For all the failures of bishops, we cannot blame the office; indeed we can argue that a rightly ordered episcopacy has provided stability and faithfulness over the centuries and is often emulated by free-church leaders. The second clause of the Quadrilateral – “locally adapted” – qualifies a rigid view of prelacy and specifically relates it to global mission, “the varying needs of nations and peoples called” into the Church. As an example of the latter, one thinks of the Church of Nigeria’s strategy of sending missionary bishops into under-evangelized portions of its own dioceses, or even of another jurisdiction.[18]
The primary role of a bishop is that of a willing and apt pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 5:2; 2 Timothy 2:24). Bishops are to be stewards (Titus 1:7), which means they bear the final accountability for the state of the Church. To be sure, episcopal authority is not the same as episcopal totalitarianism – an attitude which many Global South churches need to address. The “household of God” which the bishop oversees (1 Timothy 3:4-5) is a “mixed regime” with subsidiary units – congregations, parishes, dioceses and officers, clergy and lay – which must be represented in its governing structures.
We must rethink the role of bishops and polity at the Communion level. Just as national politics and international politics operate on different levels, so also it is right that national churches have autonomy within an overarching framework an international covenant. Much of the work of the church should be “locally adapted,” although we should acknowledge that the electronic communications revolution has brought these local contexts much closer together than heretofore.
This pattern of episcopal governance can function at the level of worldwide Anglicanism. This will involve reform, though not total rejection, of the current Instruments of Unity, including the following elements:
* A synod of bishops should meet regularly (decennially) and have authority to address matters of doctrine, discipline and mission.
* An executive body of Primates should be authorized to carry out the will of the synod in between meetings.
* A presiding Primate should serve as a focus of unity. Canterbury or another historic see could function as a locus of unity as well. However, such a Primate should be elected by the synod of bishops.
* A secretariat should assist these Instruments, with accountability to all. The current Anglican Consultative Council and Anglican Communion Office have failed to function in this way.
In one sense, this polity is not far removed from the “Instruments of Unity” that have evolved of late in the historic Anglican Communion. The likeness may be deceptive: a diseased body may look like a healthy body, at least in the earlier stages of the illness. I am saying that the fault is not with the outward form of the Anglican Communion but with the doctrinal deviation from its apostolic and Reformation origins. Orthodoxy by its very nature must identify and renounce heresy and discipline false teachers, as a last resort, expel them.[19] If the Canterbury-based Anglican Communion continues to tolerate heresy in its midst and welcome false teachers to its councils, then the day will come when an orthodox assembly must break communion with Canterbury and set up alternative structures. Since the trend-lines seem to doom the current Communion to endless compromise or worse, the sooner the shadow structures begin take form the better.
Finally, the global Anglican Communion will need to evaluate the role of the churches in relation to the secular realm. This is classic problem of political theology. Traditional patterns, such as the Established churches are obsolete. At the same time, new models proposed by liberation theology have proved ineffective. I think the political theology of Oliver O’Donovan, while not spelling out specific solutions, offers a framework for developing a theology of church and state under the Lordship of the ascended Christ.[20]
The Spirit and Future of Anglican Orthodoxy
Like any blueprint, the above-mentioned elements of Anglican orthodoxy merely define the principles and structure of a reformed Anglican orthodoxy. Without the structure, it is unlikely that the life of the Communion will long endure. But at the same time, without the Spirit speaking to and working through the churches and their members, such a blueprint will be an empty vessel.
It is not for me to try to capture the wind of the Spirit in a bottle. But I would suggest that Anglican orthodoxy should be:
* Bold in proclamation and clever in apologetics
* Visionary in mission outreach
* Prayerful in all things
* Ecumenical in openness to brothers and sisters in Christ
* Vigilant in guarding the faith and awaiting the return of the Lord
I have attempted to sketch a blueprint of a Global Anglican orthodoxy that will embody the best elements of our tradition and mobilize Anglicans to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. I believe that if the Global South churches and their allies will take bold action at this time, we shall see a new reformation in the Anglican tradition, one which reflects the movement of the Spirit of God in our day. If these churches, like the Church of Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), remain faithful, Christ will give abundant life. Jesus Christ is Lord and His kingdom reigns over all. The gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, which is His Body. Once we lift up our eyes from our own troubles and look at the worldwide scene, we shall realize that the Gospel is not in retreat but is beckoning to the uttermost corners of the globe. As Anglicans we have a stake in the global mission of Christ, and we have something to offer it from the riches of our heritage and our worldwide fellowship of churches.
Brothers and sisters, remember Lot’s wife. The present order is passing away. Behold the Global Anglican Communion is coming.
28 January 2008
NOTES
[1] There is even need to justify the “orthodoxy” as the chief term of reference in this case. Clearly Anglican orthodoxy is to be differentiated from Eastern Orthodoxy. It has been chosen as being broad enough to include various groups of Anglicans – Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic and Charismatic – who agree on the essentials of the faith. At the same time “orthodoxy” recalls the position of those in the patristic period who identified and contended against its opposite, heresy.
[2] The best available version (written and oral) of this address can be found at www.mereanglicanism.com/presentations.htm.
[3] The versions of the “Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (CLQ) and the text approved by Lambeth (LQ) are slightly different.
[4] Cranmer’s design for the Church of England included reformed Articles, Common Prayer and Canons. See Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) pages 500-513.
[5] In Resolution III.1, the Conference “reaffirms the primary authority of the Scriptures, according to their testimony and supported by our own historic formularies.” In Resolution III.5, “The Authority of the Holy Scriptures,” it likewise “affirms that our creator God, transcendent as well as immanent, communicates with us authoritatively through the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; and in agreement with the Lambeth Quadrilateral, and in solidarity with the Lambeth Conference of 1888, affirms that these Holy Scriptures contain ‘all things necessary to salvation’ and are for us the ‘rule and ultimate standard’ of faith and practice.”
[6] In Uganda, the first Christian converts were called “readers” as the Bible was the first text to become authoritative in an otherwise oral culture.
[7] The meaning of “literal sense” has been revived in contemporary hermeneutics. I defended its use before the House of Bishops in 1992. See “Reading the Bible as the Word of God,” in The Bible’s Authority for Today’s Church, ed. Frederick H. Borsch (Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press International: 1993) pages 133-167.
[8] This phrase is borrowed from Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985) pages 50-51. It suggests that the biblical writers were capable of conveying a plain sense which leads the reader into a deeper consideration of its meaning without overturning its surface meaning.
[9] See esp. Is There Meaning in This Text? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), and First Theology: God, Scripture and Hermeneutics (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2002) which lay the groundwork for his dogmatic work, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2005). See my review, “Post Conservatives and Post-Liberals: Reflections on Kevin Vanhoozer’s The Drama of Doctrine,” at www.stephenswitness.com.
[10] Note that Hooker’s “credit and obedience” includes both theological dogmas but also what the Articles call the “Commandments called moral.” The idea that one could affirm the Creeds while disobeying the Commandments is foreign to classic Anglicanism.
[11] Note that the oneness of the Church is based on the “once-for-allness” (hapax) of the apostolic tradition entrusted to it.
[12] How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2007) page 128. In this quotation, Oden is thinking of North Africans like Cyprian, but one cannot help but remember the Uganda martyrs as well.
[13] Granted, Article XVIII states that “Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ whereby men must be saved.” Still, the context of the Article seems to suggest doctrinal contention rather than missionary impulse.
[14] Curiously, the “Covenant for Communion in Mission” also has nine bullets. Only one of these, the sharing of goods, appears in both lists. The missio dei theology of this document emphasizes the “love, justice and joy which Jesus inaugurated” rather than His salvation from sin and death, as appears primary in Peter’s sermon.
[15] O’Donovan, On Thirty-Nine Articles: A Conversation with Tudor Christianity (Leicester: Paternoster Press, 1986), page 126.
[16] Note the omission of Cranmer’s articles on eschatology (#39-42).
[17] Even if the longer ending of Mark is not original, it indicates the linking of sacraments with mission in the early church.
[18] It is ironic that as Lambeth 2008 addresses “bishops in mission,” the one Province that has most successfully equipped bishops for mission will be absent. However, it is likely that Nigeria’s experience of missionary bishops would not be heeded any more than its lessons in the Decade of Evangelism.
[19] Note in this regard that the current crisis does not involve Bishop Gene Robinson so much as those in TEC who elected, confirmed and ordained him, knowing that his life was openly homosexual.
[20] O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
DALLAS: Consecrations of Three Bishops to AMiA Challenge Diocesan
"We need more missionaries", says AMIA Leader
By David W. Virtue
HYPERLINK "http://www.virtueonline.org/" \nwww.virtueonline.org
1/27/2008
With more than 1,500 orthodox Anglicans watching, three Anglican Mission
in the Americas (AMiA) priests were consecrated by a cross section of
the Anglican Communion's bishops during an emotional three-hour worship
service in a ballroom of the Adam's Mark Hotel in Dallas.
The Rt. Rev. Terrell Glenn Jr. of Pawley's Island, SC; the Rt. Rev. John
Miller III of Melbourne, Fla.; and the Rt. Rev. Philip Jones from Little
Rock, Arkansas were consecrated using a service drawn from the new Book
of Common Prayer (1662 revised) and modern praise and worship music. The
service concluded the three-day winter conference of the Anglican
mission that brought together a bevy of evangelical motivational
speakers.
Present at the consecration were two sitting African Archbishops,
Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and the Most Revd Justice Ofei Akrofi of West
Africa. Two retired Southeast Asian Archbishops were on hand including
the Most Rev. Moses Tay and the Most Rev. Yong Ping Chung. A Canadian
bishop, the Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, under the authority of the Province
of the Southern Cone and 18 other Anglican bishops from the US, England,
Africa and the entire House of Bishops of the Province of Rwanda
participated. A number of Common Cause bishops participated from nine
jurisdictions including Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya as well as two bishops
from the Reformed Episcopal Church. Two retired Episcopal bishops, the
Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison and the Rt. Rev. Alex Dickson also
participated in the consecration as did the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the
Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan.
The conference itself drew clergy and lay people from across the United
States, Canada, Rwanda, West Africa, Southeast Asia and the UK. The
Rwandan Church's House of Bishops ratified the choice of the three new
bishops last year to accommodate the growing numbers of new converts and
establishing of new churches on this side of the Atlantic by AMiA.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been critical of such diocesan
incursions and has spoken out directly against them.
Rowan Williams went public with a letter to Canadian Archbishop Fred
Hiltz in condemning the incursion into Canada by the Archbishop of the
Southern Cone, but he also made it clear that he was powerless to stop
conservative Canadian and U.S. congregations upset with their national
churches' positions on homosexuality from leaving and affiliating with
orthodox branches in Latin America and Africa.
It was a frank admission by Archbishop as to the limits of his power,
even though he is opposed to cross-border ecclesiastical moves.
"I have no canonical authority to prevent these things, but I would
simply repeat what was said in my advent letter (in December), to the
effect that I cannot support or sanction such actions," Williams wrote
the Canadian archbishop.
Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, U.S. Presiding Bishop, has inhibited one
retired bishop, 87-year old William Cox, for ordaining and confirming in
Kansas and later confirming in Oklahoma, but he has since fled to the
Province of the Southern Cone for spiritual and ecclesiastical safety.
During his sermon, the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, Bishop and AMiA Chairman,
said there was an urgent need for more missionary bishops as a Second
Reformation has begun and that bodes well for his church's efforts to
reach 130 million unchurched Americans.
"We need more missionary bishops to step into the next level of growth.
The critical factor, the God given vision of this remarkable vision,
comes from the Rwandan House of Bishops and their willingness to stand
up and be a part of us from the beginning. They broke with convention in
the early days and pioneered a way forward in mission unheard of
Anglican circles," said Murphy.
"These past 10 years have been challenging. The criticisms have been
voiced and questions about the legitimacy of our existence, but with
their God given vision they have stood up and stood apart. It could not
have happened without them."
Addressing the conferees, many of whom were formerly members of The
Episcopal Church, Murphy challenged them saying, "The world wants to
know of your witness, your boldness and pioneering vision. All you need
is a God given vision, a way forward in witness to the power of God who
moves with great authority in the world and North America."
Citing a book he had recently read on the changing face of Anglicanism,
Murphy said the AMIA was a profoundly influential movement in the
Anglican Communion, pushing the boundaries in a new vigorous way.
"God promises to give us vision, again, again and again. Where there is
no vision the people perish," he said citing Proverbs 29:18. Picking up
the thread of Joel 2:28 Murphy cried out, "I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"
Murphy said the mission of AMIA was "unique" and offered a compelling
picture of a preferred future that "motivates to work, pray, and
forgive...it is a vision but then it unfolds...godly visions will flow
from the word of God.
"We must ask, is it in conformity with Scripture? Godly visions will
speak to peoples needs. We must get outside of our comfort zones. Godly
visions will ultimately unite as more and more people see and understand
what AMIA is about. Today's consecrations are yet another step in this
unfolding vision."
Murphy said the AMIA had a basis for action. "We see it, we say it and
we seize it. We cannot drift or lie in harbor. This is the challenge of
the church in this age. The trigger for this action is the call, and
that call we sense is from God.
It is also a pneumatic vision - the movement of the Holy Spirit to give
us the desire to send forth laborers into the harvest. You have got to
have an opportunity. The answer was yes. This "yes" required that
action. The good news is that God promises us the power. It fell on the
judges of the Old Testament, again at Pentecost, then St. Paul and
Timothy...it came with the Spirit of power."
Murphy acknowledged both the challenges and temptations. "There is the
challenge to burn out. Do anything you want but not everything you want.
We need margins, time for family. We should expect attacks from The Evil
One and cited the areas of sex, money and power. Satan can trip people
up in the area of relationships and attacks us in the area of self
esteem. We are made in the image of God Satan is not, but we should
never give up."
The Anglican Mission in the Americas encompasses the United States and
Canada with missions in Mexico and Bogota. Since it began in 2000, the
mission has added an average of one church every three weeks. The AMiA
now has seven missionary bishops serving more than 133 parishes with 62
more in the pipeline.
Editor's Note: The AMiA parish in central NY is St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Syracuse.
By David W. Virtue
HYPERLINK "http://www.virtueonline.org/" \nwww.virtueonline.org
1/27/2008
With more than 1,500 orthodox Anglicans watching, three Anglican Mission
in the Americas (AMiA) priests were consecrated by a cross section of
the Anglican Communion's bishops during an emotional three-hour worship
service in a ballroom of the Adam's Mark Hotel in Dallas.
The Rt. Rev. Terrell Glenn Jr. of Pawley's Island, SC; the Rt. Rev. John
Miller III of Melbourne, Fla.; and the Rt. Rev. Philip Jones from Little
Rock, Arkansas were consecrated using a service drawn from the new Book
of Common Prayer (1662 revised) and modern praise and worship music. The
service concluded the three-day winter conference of the Anglican
mission that brought together a bevy of evangelical motivational
speakers.
Present at the consecration were two sitting African Archbishops,
Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and the Most Revd Justice Ofei Akrofi of West
Africa. Two retired Southeast Asian Archbishops were on hand including
the Most Rev. Moses Tay and the Most Rev. Yong Ping Chung. A Canadian
bishop, the Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, under the authority of the Province
of the Southern Cone and 18 other Anglican bishops from the US, England,
Africa and the entire House of Bishops of the Province of Rwanda
participated. A number of Common Cause bishops participated from nine
jurisdictions including Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya as well as two bishops
from the Reformed Episcopal Church. Two retired Episcopal bishops, the
Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison and the Rt. Rev. Alex Dickson also
participated in the consecration as did the Bishop of Pittsburgh, the
Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan.
The conference itself drew clergy and lay people from across the United
States, Canada, Rwanda, West Africa, Southeast Asia and the UK. The
Rwandan Church's House of Bishops ratified the choice of the three new
bishops last year to accommodate the growing numbers of new converts and
establishing of new churches on this side of the Atlantic by AMiA.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been critical of such diocesan
incursions and has spoken out directly against them.
Rowan Williams went public with a letter to Canadian Archbishop Fred
Hiltz in condemning the incursion into Canada by the Archbishop of the
Southern Cone, but he also made it clear that he was powerless to stop
conservative Canadian and U.S. congregations upset with their national
churches' positions on homosexuality from leaving and affiliating with
orthodox branches in Latin America and Africa.
It was a frank admission by Archbishop as to the limits of his power,
even though he is opposed to cross-border ecclesiastical moves.
"I have no canonical authority to prevent these things, but I would
simply repeat what was said in my advent letter (in December), to the
effect that I cannot support or sanction such actions," Williams wrote
the Canadian archbishop.
Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, U.S. Presiding Bishop, has inhibited one
retired bishop, 87-year old William Cox, for ordaining and confirming in
Kansas and later confirming in Oklahoma, but he has since fled to the
Province of the Southern Cone for spiritual and ecclesiastical safety.
During his sermon, the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, Bishop and AMiA Chairman,
said there was an urgent need for more missionary bishops as a Second
Reformation has begun and that bodes well for his church's efforts to
reach 130 million unchurched Americans.
"We need more missionary bishops to step into the next level of growth.
The critical factor, the God given vision of this remarkable vision,
comes from the Rwandan House of Bishops and their willingness to stand
up and be a part of us from the beginning. They broke with convention in
the early days and pioneered a way forward in mission unheard of
Anglican circles," said Murphy.
"These past 10 years have been challenging. The criticisms have been
voiced and questions about the legitimacy of our existence, but with
their God given vision they have stood up and stood apart. It could not
have happened without them."
Addressing the conferees, many of whom were formerly members of The
Episcopal Church, Murphy challenged them saying, "The world wants to
know of your witness, your boldness and pioneering vision. All you need
is a God given vision, a way forward in witness to the power of God who
moves with great authority in the world and North America."
Citing a book he had recently read on the changing face of Anglicanism,
Murphy said the AMIA was a profoundly influential movement in the
Anglican Communion, pushing the boundaries in a new vigorous way.
"God promises to give us vision, again, again and again. Where there is
no vision the people perish," he said citing Proverbs 29:18. Picking up
the thread of Joel 2:28 Murphy cried out, "I will pour out my spirit
upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions"
Murphy said the mission of AMIA was "unique" and offered a compelling
picture of a preferred future that "motivates to work, pray, and
forgive...it is a vision but then it unfolds...godly visions will flow
from the word of God.
"We must ask, is it in conformity with Scripture? Godly visions will
speak to peoples needs. We must get outside of our comfort zones. Godly
visions will ultimately unite as more and more people see and understand
what AMIA is about. Today's consecrations are yet another step in this
unfolding vision."
Murphy said the AMIA had a basis for action. "We see it, we say it and
we seize it. We cannot drift or lie in harbor. This is the challenge of
the church in this age. The trigger for this action is the call, and
that call we sense is from God.
It is also a pneumatic vision - the movement of the Holy Spirit to give
us the desire to send forth laborers into the harvest. You have got to
have an opportunity. The answer was yes. This "yes" required that
action. The good news is that God promises us the power. It fell on the
judges of the Old Testament, again at Pentecost, then St. Paul and
Timothy...it came with the Spirit of power."
Murphy acknowledged both the challenges and temptations. "There is the
challenge to burn out. Do anything you want but not everything you want.
We need margins, time for family. We should expect attacks from The Evil
One and cited the areas of sex, money and power. Satan can trip people
up in the area of relationships and attacks us in the area of self
esteem. We are made in the image of God Satan is not, but we should
never give up."
The Anglican Mission in the Americas encompasses the United States and
Canada with missions in Mexico and Bogota. Since it began in 2000, the
mission has added an average of one church every three weeks. The AMiA
now has seven missionary bishops serving more than 133 parishes with 62
more in the pipeline.
Editor's Note: The AMiA parish in central NY is St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Syracuse.
Church brands draw members
From the tennessean.com:
Faiths market themselves by taking on names that define their beliefs, message
By BOB SMIETANA • Staff Writer • January 15, 2008
On Sunday morning, just past the signs for Red Roof Inn and Go USA Fun Park on Armory Drive in Murfreesboro, and in the shadow of a billboard for Verizon Wireless, 110 people met to celebrate the first worship service of Faith Anglican Fellowship.
A temporary banner, with the church's name, stood in front of Integrity House, where worshippers gathered after leaving behind their former home, Holy Cross Church.
Inside, the Rev. Frederick Richardson, Faith Anglican's rector, spoke of the mixed blessings of "new beginnings."
Frustrated that the Episcopal Church's battles over doctrine and sex were turning off newcomers, the former members of Holy Cross decided, in essence, to switch brands. No longer Episcopalians, they were now Anglicans, allied with more conservative believers in Uganda.
Once reserved for consumer products like Coca Cola or Doritos, branding has become increasingly important in the God business. Churches, old and new, are using branding to define their theology, attract newcomers and get their message out.
"There is sadness for what we left behind, for who we left behind," Richardson said. But "God will be faithful," he added.
For Faith Anglican, the brand switch went deeper than a name change, Richardson said.
"It gives us a new identity," Richardson said. "The Anglican Church does not have the baggage that the Episcopal Church has at this time. It speaks of a deeper tradition and a more biblically grounded faith."
Church member John Sorrell of Woodbury, said he was worried about "the spiritual drift" of their former denomination.
"Episcopal has come to mean something other than orthodox Christianity," he said. With the new name, added Gary Warden, the church's senior warden, "people will know exactly what to expect when they come here."
For a group of members at Trinity Episcopal in Winchester, a tipping point came in 2006, when Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Shori was asked by Time if "belief in Jesus is the only way to get to heaven?" She replied, "We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box."
"That's not the faith that I received," said the Rev. Bill Midgett, who had been rector of Trinity Episcopal since 2001. On Jan. 6, Midgett, the church staff and most members voted to leave the Episcopal Church. They formed Christ the King Anglican Church.
"It may sound like a lot of religious-speak," Midgett said, "but for us, it is central to who we are in believing the gospel.''
Branding needn't be slick
Maurilio Amorim, who runs a church-branding firm in Brentwood, says branding is a biblical activity. He points to the parable in Luke 14:16-23, about a man who threw a banquet. When none of the guests showed up, the man sent his servant to invite outsiders in.
So Amorim helps churches creates Web sites, direct mail and other forms of branding to attract newcomers. "Branding and marketing is evangelism," he said. "I don't know what the difference is. You are compelling people, you are giving people a reason to come visit you."
Amorim says that some churches mistakenly believe that branding means a slick marketing campaign. "I hate for people to waste a lot of billboard and direct mail and newspaper advertising that says nothing," he says. Church messages like "Come because we are great" or "We're friendly" don't work, he said. Instead of trying to be slick, he said, a church should find what it does well and promote that.
For Crosspoint Community Church in west Nashville, branding was crucial when the congregation moved to a new building. The church, which started meeting five years ago in a public school, now rents about two thirds of the campus of Park Avenue Baptist Church.
But with its linoleum floors and mauve carpet, the building screamed out "1970s Baptist church."
"And that," said senior pastor Pete Wilson, "is not who we are."
While Park Avenue bills itself as a "traditional church family," Crosspoint services are more rock concert than hymns and prayers.
So, Wilson and Crosspoint leaders set out to brand the building as their own. They replaced carpet, set up video screens and theater lighting in the sanctuary, and transformed the concrete block children's area into something out of Gilligan's Island.
Wilson said he realized the power of branding while watching Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock's documentary about McDonald's. During the film, Spurlock showed children a series of pictures of famous people like Jesus and George Washington and asked the kids to identify them. "These kids didn't know who any of these people were," Wilson said. "But Ronald McDonald … boom, every one of the kids knew exactly who it was."
And for a new church, he added, brands like McDonald's are the competition.
"We are not competing against other churches," said Jenni Carton, the church's executive director. "We are competing for all the other things that are vying for your attention every day."
Faiths market themselves by taking on names that define their beliefs, message
By BOB SMIETANA • Staff Writer • January 15, 2008
On Sunday morning, just past the signs for Red Roof Inn and Go USA Fun Park on Armory Drive in Murfreesboro, and in the shadow of a billboard for Verizon Wireless, 110 people met to celebrate the first worship service of Faith Anglican Fellowship.
A temporary banner, with the church's name, stood in front of Integrity House, where worshippers gathered after leaving behind their former home, Holy Cross Church.
Inside, the Rev. Frederick Richardson, Faith Anglican's rector, spoke of the mixed blessings of "new beginnings."
Frustrated that the Episcopal Church's battles over doctrine and sex were turning off newcomers, the former members of Holy Cross decided, in essence, to switch brands. No longer Episcopalians, they were now Anglicans, allied with more conservative believers in Uganda.
Once reserved for consumer products like Coca Cola or Doritos, branding has become increasingly important in the God business. Churches, old and new, are using branding to define their theology, attract newcomers and get their message out.
"There is sadness for what we left behind, for who we left behind," Richardson said. But "God will be faithful," he added.
For Faith Anglican, the brand switch went deeper than a name change, Richardson said.
"It gives us a new identity," Richardson said. "The Anglican Church does not have the baggage that the Episcopal Church has at this time. It speaks of a deeper tradition and a more biblically grounded faith."
Church member John Sorrell of Woodbury, said he was worried about "the spiritual drift" of their former denomination.
"Episcopal has come to mean something other than orthodox Christianity," he said. With the new name, added Gary Warden, the church's senior warden, "people will know exactly what to expect when they come here."
For a group of members at Trinity Episcopal in Winchester, a tipping point came in 2006, when Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Shori was asked by Time if "belief in Jesus is the only way to get to heaven?" She replied, "We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box."
"That's not the faith that I received," said the Rev. Bill Midgett, who had been rector of Trinity Episcopal since 2001. On Jan. 6, Midgett, the church staff and most members voted to leave the Episcopal Church. They formed Christ the King Anglican Church.
"It may sound like a lot of religious-speak," Midgett said, "but for us, it is central to who we are in believing the gospel.''
Branding needn't be slick
Maurilio Amorim, who runs a church-branding firm in Brentwood, says branding is a biblical activity. He points to the parable in Luke 14:16-23, about a man who threw a banquet. When none of the guests showed up, the man sent his servant to invite outsiders in.
So Amorim helps churches creates Web sites, direct mail and other forms of branding to attract newcomers. "Branding and marketing is evangelism," he said. "I don't know what the difference is. You are compelling people, you are giving people a reason to come visit you."
Amorim says that some churches mistakenly believe that branding means a slick marketing campaign. "I hate for people to waste a lot of billboard and direct mail and newspaper advertising that says nothing," he says. Church messages like "Come because we are great" or "We're friendly" don't work, he said. Instead of trying to be slick, he said, a church should find what it does well and promote that.
For Crosspoint Community Church in west Nashville, branding was crucial when the congregation moved to a new building. The church, which started meeting five years ago in a public school, now rents about two thirds of the campus of Park Avenue Baptist Church.
But with its linoleum floors and mauve carpet, the building screamed out "1970s Baptist church."
"And that," said senior pastor Pete Wilson, "is not who we are."
While Park Avenue bills itself as a "traditional church family," Crosspoint services are more rock concert than hymns and prayers.
So, Wilson and Crosspoint leaders set out to brand the building as their own. They replaced carpet, set up video screens and theater lighting in the sanctuary, and transformed the concrete block children's area into something out of Gilligan's Island.
Wilson said he realized the power of branding while watching Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock's documentary about McDonald's. During the film, Spurlock showed children a series of pictures of famous people like Jesus and George Washington and asked the kids to identify them. "These kids didn't know who any of these people were," Wilson said. "But Ronald McDonald … boom, every one of the kids knew exactly who it was."
And for a new church, he added, brands like McDonald's are the competition.
"We are not competing against other churches," said Jenni Carton, the church's executive director. "We are competing for all the other things that are vying for your attention every day."
CANA Welcomes Ten U.S. Churches
HERNDON, Va. (January 7, 2008) – The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) has welcomed ten new congregations into its membership. The Rt. Rev. Francis R. Lyons, the Bishop of Bolivia, commended these U.S. Anglican congregations and their clergy to the oversight of CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with these churches that have been blessed by the leadership in Bolivia and will continue to be blessed by the Holy Spirit. CANA is eager to welcome them on their Christ-centered and faithful mission to serve God and to honor the worldwide Anglican Communion,” said Bishop Minns.
Originally under the ecclesiastical leadership of the Church of Bolivia, the ten U.S. congregations were given CANA oversight “with a profound desire to promote unity in Jesus Christ which issues from his reconciling work on the Cross and an abiding trust in the power of God’s Word written, and with a genuine commitment to support the emerging ecclesiastical structure of faithful Anglicans in North America,” said the Rt. Rev. Francis R. Lyons of Bolivia in a letter to Bishop Minns.
The newest CANA congregations are St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Fairlawn, OH, Church of the Holy Spirit (Anglican), Akron, OH, Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan (Fairhill), Cleveland, OH, St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Bay Village, OH, St. Anne in the Fields, Madison, OH, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Milan, OH, Christ the King Anglican Church, Columbiana, OH, Christ Our King Anglican Church, Lexington, MI, St. Michael the Archangel Anglican Church, Indianapolis, IN, and The Shepherd Church, Evansville, IN.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with these churches that have been blessed by the leadership in Bolivia and will continue to be blessed by the Holy Spirit. CANA is eager to welcome them on their Christ-centered and faithful mission to serve God and to honor the worldwide Anglican Communion,” said Bishop Minns.
Originally under the ecclesiastical leadership of the Church of Bolivia, the ten U.S. congregations were given CANA oversight “with a profound desire to promote unity in Jesus Christ which issues from his reconciling work on the Cross and an abiding trust in the power of God’s Word written, and with a genuine commitment to support the emerging ecclesiastical structure of faithful Anglicans in North America,” said the Rt. Rev. Francis R. Lyons of Bolivia in a letter to Bishop Minns.
The newest CANA congregations are St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Fairlawn, OH, Church of the Holy Spirit (Anglican), Akron, OH, Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan (Fairhill), Cleveland, OH, St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Bay Village, OH, St. Anne in the Fields, Madison, OH, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Milan, OH, Christ the King Anglican Church, Columbiana, OH, Christ Our King Anglican Church, Lexington, MI, St. Michael the Archangel Anglican Church, Indianapolis, IN, and The Shepherd Church, Evansville, IN.
Bishop Allison on Anglicanism
The Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison, the former bishop of South Carolina, and former professor at three Episcopal seminaries:
"The apparently willful reluctance to face the issue of faith as the indispensable ground for Anglican unity is finally broken. The fatal flaw of the Windsor Report was substituting the breaking of "bonds of affection" for the reality of broken bonds of faith. 'Instruments of unity' have their integrity only so far as they represent the Anglican faith."
The evangelical bishop. who holds a doctorate in theology from Oxford University, said that "to object to this much needed opportunity on the grounds of its lacking precedents is fatuous. Necessity must always be allowed to trump precedence. There were no precedents for bishops in the United States after the American Revolution. There were no precedents for Seabury's consecration. Both Archbishops of York and Canterbury opposed Seabury's going to Scotland and the latter objected to Seabury's inclusion in Claggett's consecration (an objection that Bishop White ignored). There were no English precedents for missionary bishops in the 19th century. The integrity of the present Archbishop of Canterbury's role as an instrument of unity depends on his faithfulness not to the alleged 'bonds of affection' or to the genealogy of his precedents but to his adherence to the Anglican faith. The integrity of Anglicanism cannot hang merely on the thread of appointments by the prime minister of a state that is itself in an accelerating secular departure from its Anglican roots.
"To put individuals or ad hoc groups in the now inevitable position of making theological judgments on their own regarding submission to or acquiescing in what may seem to be unfaithful or apostate leadership is, in the long run, chaos. To have reputable theologians representing much, if not most, of world wide Anglicanism draw up some simple guidelines around the essentials of the Anglican faith (something the Archbishop of Canterbury has declared Lambeth will not do) and present them as a confessional movement within the Anglican Communion (not a departure from it) would be of utmost reassurance and essential to any effective unity in Anglicanism. It could be a creative contribution to the Lambeth Conference giving them something the Conference could use or amend leading to a wider and more enduring unity."
The scholarly bishop concluded with this, "Our historic unity has been founded on the faith expressed in the Prayer Book and official formularies and faithfulness to the vows to guard them. But gradually that foundation has been replaced by who gets invited to Lambeth and by exhortations not to break bonds of affection. I thank God for those leaders who have committed themselves to this endeavor to under gird our Communion with the faith that gave it birth."
From VirtueOnline
"The apparently willful reluctance to face the issue of faith as the indispensable ground for Anglican unity is finally broken. The fatal flaw of the Windsor Report was substituting the breaking of "bonds of affection" for the reality of broken bonds of faith. 'Instruments of unity' have their integrity only so far as they represent the Anglican faith."
The evangelical bishop. who holds a doctorate in theology from Oxford University, said that "to object to this much needed opportunity on the grounds of its lacking precedents is fatuous. Necessity must always be allowed to trump precedence. There were no precedents for bishops in the United States after the American Revolution. There were no precedents for Seabury's consecration. Both Archbishops of York and Canterbury opposed Seabury's going to Scotland and the latter objected to Seabury's inclusion in Claggett's consecration (an objection that Bishop White ignored). There were no English precedents for missionary bishops in the 19th century. The integrity of the present Archbishop of Canterbury's role as an instrument of unity depends on his faithfulness not to the alleged 'bonds of affection' or to the genealogy of his precedents but to his adherence to the Anglican faith. The integrity of Anglicanism cannot hang merely on the thread of appointments by the prime minister of a state that is itself in an accelerating secular departure from its Anglican roots.
"To put individuals or ad hoc groups in the now inevitable position of making theological judgments on their own regarding submission to or acquiescing in what may seem to be unfaithful or apostate leadership is, in the long run, chaos. To have reputable theologians representing much, if not most, of world wide Anglicanism draw up some simple guidelines around the essentials of the Anglican faith (something the Archbishop of Canterbury has declared Lambeth will not do) and present them as a confessional movement within the Anglican Communion (not a departure from it) would be of utmost reassurance and essential to any effective unity in Anglicanism. It could be a creative contribution to the Lambeth Conference giving them something the Conference could use or amend leading to a wider and more enduring unity."
The scholarly bishop concluded with this, "Our historic unity has been founded on the faith expressed in the Prayer Book and official formularies and faithfulness to the vows to guard them. But gradually that foundation has been replaced by who gets invited to Lambeth and by exhortations not to break bonds of affection. I thank God for those leaders who have committed themselves to this endeavor to under gird our Communion with the faith that gave it birth."
From VirtueOnline
You are not alone
31 bishop's stand with Bishop Schofield and Diocese of San Joaquin
Dear Bishop John-David,
We, Episcopal colleagues from across the Anglican Communion and across the world, write to salute you on the courageous decision of the Diocesan Convention of San Joaquin to take leave of The Episcopal Church and to align with the Province of the Southern Cone. We know that decision was to a large extent the result of your tenacity and faithful leadership, and for that we give thanks to God. It has been said that you are isolated and alone. We want you and the world to know that in this decision for the faith once delivered to the saints, we stand with you and beside you. May Christ abundantly bless you and your diocese with all the gifts of the Spirit and with joy in believing.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth
and:
The Most Rev. Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney
The Rt. Rev. Matthias Medadues-Badohu, Bishop of Ho
The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester
The Rt. Rev. Gerard Mpango, Bishop of Western Tanganyika
The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh
The Rt. Rev. Ross Davies, Bishop of The Murray
The Rt. Rev. Keith L Ackerman, Bishop of Quincy
The Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith, Bishop of Springfield
The Rt. Rev. A. Ewin Ratteray, Bishop of Bermuda
The Rt. Rev. Michael Hough, Bishop of Ballarat
The Rt. Rev. John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham
The Rt. Rev. Martyn Jarrett, Bishop of Beverley
The Rt. Rev. John Goddard, Bishop of Burnley
The Rt. Rev. Keith Newton, Bishop of Richborough
The Rt. Rev. Robert Forsyth, Bishop of South Sydney
The Rt. Rev. Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet
The Rt. Rev. Lindsay Urwin, Bishop of Horsham
The Rt. Rev. Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes
The Rt. Rev. Henry Scriven, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Pittsburgh
The Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood, Province of Kenya
The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Convocation of Anglicans in North America
The Rt. Rev. David Anderson, Convocation of Anglicans in North America
The Rt. Rev. John Gaisford, lately Bishop of Beverley
The Rt. Rev. Edward MacBurney, lately Bishop of Quincy
The Rt. Rev. Roger Jupp, lately Bishop of Popondota
The Rt. Rev. David Silk, lately Bishop of Ballarat
The Rt. Rev. Nöel Jones, lately Bishop of Sodor and Man
The Rt. Rev. Edwin Barnes, lately Bishop of Richborough
The Rt. Rev. William Wantland, lately Bishop of Eau Claire
The Rt. Rev. Donald Parsons, lately Bishop of Quincy
[Diocese of San Joaquin website]
Bishop Iker reports:
Bishop Jackson Biggers (Northern Malawi retired) and Bishop John Guernsey (Province of Uganda) have asked that their names be added to the list.
+JLI
January 3, 9:52 amCT: Leaving A Church Behind
Leaving A Church Behind
Congregation Prepares For A New Beginning
By KATIE MELONE | Courant Staff Writer
December 31, 2007
WATERTOWN - - It was the last Sunday service at Christ Church. Unable to go
"further in a church that continued in a false gospel," the entire
congregation, including the rector and church leaders, will sever ties with
the national Episcopal Church and reform under a new name: New Hope Anglican
Church.
One of the "Connecticut six," the half-dozen churches in the state diocese
that disagree with national leadership on departure of scripture, including
the appointment of a gay bishop, the congregation will trade its historic
building on the town green for a free community room at the Thomaston
Savings Bank around the corner.
The Sunday service will be held at the bank, starting Jan. 6, until they
find or build another house of worship.
"We need to celebrate today, but we need to recognize there is a dying," the
Rev. Allyn Benedict said in his final homily at the church. Reading off an
overhead projector, church members sang hymns enthusiastically, clapping and
raising hands in acknowledging their faith. They hugged one another, wishing
peace.
The church was founded under the Church of England in 1764. In 2003,
Benedict and several other Connecticut rectors clashed with Connecticut
Bishop Andrew D. Smith, who supported the naming of V. Gene Robinson as New
Hampshire's bishop. Robinson is gay. Benedict and Christ Church leaders also
feel the national church is rejecting scriptural authority and traditions of
the church.
In cutting affiliation with the national leaders, the congregation has
agreed to give up its church buildings and property, estimated to be worth
$7 million, and its name, "Christ Church Parish." The congregation also
ended its participation with the other Connecticut churches in a protracted
legal battle against national leadership over church real estate, deciding
that "it's not worth living under this oppression just for the property,"
said Paul LePine, the senior warden. Four of the "Connecticut six" have also
ended their connection to the national church, LePine said.
"It's a tragedy when relationships fail," LePine said. "There's a relief of
being free of that dysfunctional relationship we've been in for many years."
LePine's daughter, Rachel, 15, commented that while leaving is the right
thing to do, "it is sad."
"That's kind of why we named it New Hope," she said.
"We're just moving on to where we're supposed to be," said Chris Varian, who
was married at the church and has been a member for three years. "It's a
transition. It's a lot of history and a lot of memories. It's bittersweet."
Congregation Prepares For A New Beginning
By KATIE MELONE | Courant Staff Writer
December 31, 2007
WATERTOWN - - It was the last Sunday service at Christ Church. Unable to go
"further in a church that continued in a false gospel," the entire
congregation, including the rector and church leaders, will sever ties with
the national Episcopal Church and reform under a new name: New Hope Anglican
Church.
One of the "Connecticut six," the half-dozen churches in the state diocese
that disagree with national leadership on departure of scripture, including
the appointment of a gay bishop, the congregation will trade its historic
building on the town green for a free community room at the Thomaston
Savings Bank around the corner.
The Sunday service will be held at the bank, starting Jan. 6, until they
find or build another house of worship.
"We need to celebrate today, but we need to recognize there is a dying," the
Rev. Allyn Benedict said in his final homily at the church. Reading off an
overhead projector, church members sang hymns enthusiastically, clapping and
raising hands in acknowledging their faith. They hugged one another, wishing
peace.
The church was founded under the Church of England in 1764. In 2003,
Benedict and several other Connecticut rectors clashed with Connecticut
Bishop Andrew D. Smith, who supported the naming of V. Gene Robinson as New
Hampshire's bishop. Robinson is gay. Benedict and Christ Church leaders also
feel the national church is rejecting scriptural authority and traditions of
the church.
In cutting affiliation with the national leaders, the congregation has
agreed to give up its church buildings and property, estimated to be worth
$7 million, and its name, "Christ Church Parish." The congregation also
ended its participation with the other Connecticut churches in a protracted
legal battle against national leadership over church real estate, deciding
that "it's not worth living under this oppression just for the property,"
said Paul LePine, the senior warden. Four of the "Connecticut six" have also
ended their connection to the national church, LePine said.
"It's a tragedy when relationships fail," LePine said. "There's a relief of
being free of that dysfunctional relationship we've been in for many years."
LePine's daughter, Rachel, 15, commented that while leaving is the right
thing to do, "it is sad."
"That's kind of why we named it New Hope," she said.
"We're just moving on to where we're supposed to be," said Chris Varian, who
was married at the church and has been a member for three years. "It's a
transition. It's a lot of history and a lot of memories. It's bittersweet."
ADV Files Brief in Case to Prevent Church Property
Source: Anglican District of Virginia Press Release (Via E-Mail)
Date: December 21, 2007
Anglican District of Virginia Churches Remain Confident
ADV Files Brief in Case to Prevent Church Property Seizure
FAIRFAX, Va. (December 21, 2007) – The 11 Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) churches filed a brief in the Fairfax County Circuit Court regarding the Multi-Circuit Property Litigation. The brief explains the validity of the Virginia Division Statute (Va. Code § 57-9) in determining that the Virginia congregations are entitled to keep their church property due to the division within The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia, and the Anglican Communion. (Case No. CL-2007-0248724)
“As our brief today explains, the evidence at the trial strongly demonstrated that our congregations have satisfied each of the core requirements of this law. There has been a ‘division’ in The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia (“Diocese”), and the worldwide Anglican Communion, and our congregations have joined a ‘branch’ of the divided body created as a result of that division,” said Jim Oakes, Vice-Chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia.
“This division occurred as a result of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese separating themselves from the historic Christian faith by deciding to reinterpret Scripture on a number of different issues. Although the reasons for the division involve important issues of biblical truth, the existence and effects of the division are plain and evident for all to see, without regard to religion.
“The evidence also showed that this law was applied no less than 29 times to recognize the legal rights of congregations to keep their property. Over the years, the Virginia General Assembly has made various amendments to the Virginia Code as it relates to religious organizations, but it has not seen fit to narrow or repeal the Division Statute. The General Assembly continues to believe that when congregations separate from a denomination, the neutral and objective principle of majority rule should govern ownership of property. In addition, The Episcopal Church admitted in its complaint that it does not hold title to any of these eleven churches, and that the churches' own trustees hold title for the benefit of the congregations.
“As the Global South Primates said in 2004, The Episcopal Church has ‘willfully torn the fabric of the communion at its deepest level and as a consequence openly cut themselves adrift.’ We are sorry that The Episcopal Church has moved away from the historic teachings of the church, but we should not be forced to go with them,” said Oakes.
The Anglican District of Virginia (www.anglicandistrictofvirginia.org) is an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia. Its members are in full communion with constituent members of the Anglican Communion through its affiliation with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary branch of the Church of Nigeria and other Anglican Archbishops. ADV members are a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a community of 77 million people. ADV is dedicated to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples while actively serving in three main capacities: International Ministries, Evangelism, and Strengthening Families and Community. ADV is currently comprised of 21 member congregations.
Date: 12/23/2007
Date: December 21, 2007
Anglican District of Virginia Churches Remain Confident
ADV Files Brief in Case to Prevent Church Property Seizure
FAIRFAX, Va. (December 21, 2007) – The 11 Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) churches filed a brief in the Fairfax County Circuit Court regarding the Multi-Circuit Property Litigation. The brief explains the validity of the Virginia Division Statute (Va. Code § 57-9) in determining that the Virginia congregations are entitled to keep their church property due to the division within The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia, and the Anglican Communion. (Case No. CL-2007-0248724)
“As our brief today explains, the evidence at the trial strongly demonstrated that our congregations have satisfied each of the core requirements of this law. There has been a ‘division’ in The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia (“Diocese”), and the worldwide Anglican Communion, and our congregations have joined a ‘branch’ of the divided body created as a result of that division,” said Jim Oakes, Vice-Chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia.
“This division occurred as a result of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese separating themselves from the historic Christian faith by deciding to reinterpret Scripture on a number of different issues. Although the reasons for the division involve important issues of biblical truth, the existence and effects of the division are plain and evident for all to see, without regard to religion.
“The evidence also showed that this law was applied no less than 29 times to recognize the legal rights of congregations to keep their property. Over the years, the Virginia General Assembly has made various amendments to the Virginia Code as it relates to religious organizations, but it has not seen fit to narrow or repeal the Division Statute. The General Assembly continues to believe that when congregations separate from a denomination, the neutral and objective principle of majority rule should govern ownership of property. In addition, The Episcopal Church admitted in its complaint that it does not hold title to any of these eleven churches, and that the churches' own trustees hold title for the benefit of the congregations.
“As the Global South Primates said in 2004, The Episcopal Church has ‘willfully torn the fabric of the communion at its deepest level and as a consequence openly cut themselves adrift.’ We are sorry that The Episcopal Church has moved away from the historic teachings of the church, but we should not be forced to go with them,” said Oakes.
The Anglican District of Virginia (www.anglicandistrictofvirginia.org) is an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia. Its members are in full communion with constituent members of the Anglican Communion through its affiliation with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary branch of the Church of Nigeria and other Anglican Archbishops. ADV members are a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a community of 77 million people. ADV is dedicated to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples while actively serving in three main capacities: International Ministries, Evangelism, and Strengthening Families and Community. ADV is currently comprised of 21 member congregations.
Date: 12/23/2007
Canada: Bishops Meet with Clergy to Discuss Separate Structure
Source: Anglican Journal
Date: December 22, 2007
Bishops meet with clergy to discuss network
Three dioceses – Ottawa, Montreal and Hamilton, Ont.-based Niagara – last fall voted to permit church blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, moves that some Anglicans oppose.
At the conference, held Nov. 22-23, leaders of the network announced that the Anglican church in South America, called the Province of the Southern Cone, would accept as members parishes that wish to leave the Anglican Church of Canada. The network moderator, Bishop Don Harvey, announced that Canon Charles Masters had been named archdeacon of the network and Rev. George Sinclair prolocutor.
Bishop Ralph Spence of Niagara, in whose diocese the Burlington, Ont. conference was held, said he met with Mr. Masters to ask “how could he hold that position and be rector of St. George’s, Lowville?”
Mr. Masters explained that, despite the announcement, he had not accepted the position. Although both Bishop Spence and Mr. Masters had legal counsel at the meeting, “in the end, we asked the lawyers to leave the room and had the conversation,” Bishop Spence said.
Subsequently, however, a U.S. group called Common Cause, which is bringing conservative Anglican/Episcopalian groups under one umbrella, at a meeting Dec.17-18 in Orlando, Fla., announced that Mr. Masters had been named general secretary of its leadership council. Bishop Spence said he intended to have another meeting with Mr. Masters in the new year.
Bishop Spence also said he and his successor, Bishop Michael Bird, met separately with a half dozen clergy who had been present at the network conference in Burlington. “We told them their ministry was highly valued. They have a prophetic voice. It may not be the majority, but it is an opinion we respect and we want them to be part of the family.”
One priest who was at the meeting, Canon Mark McDermott, said it was “a very friendly talk.” The bishops are “well aware of our conservative stance. He just wanted to make sure that nothing untoward was going to happen and called us (to the meeting) to assure us that he valued our ministry. It was a very good pastoral response on (Bishop Spence’s) part.” He declined to comment on moves parishes in Niagara might take, saying the group assured the bishops “that within the next 90 days, we were not about to do anything.”
In Ottawa, Bishop John Chapman met with Mr. Sinclair, who also told his bishop that he had not accepted the position with the network. “There was no discipline. At this point, technically, there is nothing to discipline,” said Bishop Chapman.
Mr. Sinclair’s church, St. Alban the Martyr, is listed as a member of the network, but as of late December, no active Canadian Anglican church had voted to secede and join the Province of the Southern Cone. (Two churches with former connections to the Anglican Church of Canada decided to join the South American province.)
The diocese of Ottawa’s position is that its churches cannot leave, said Bishop Chapman. “Individuals can elect to go to another church, but parishes are part of the diocese of Ottawa. Vestries are not allowed to consider (seceding) as a corporate body,” he said. If a vestry were to pass such a motion, “it would be ruled out of order,” he added. “St. Alban’s will always be part of the diocese of Ottawa,” he said.
In Montreal, Bishop Barry Clarke said there has been no discipline of priests, but several parishes have enquired about alternate episcopal oversight should he acquiesce with synod’s decision on same-sex blessings. “I plan in the new year to meet with them,” he said. As far as the blessings decision, “I am not under any pressure to go either way at the moment,” he said.
Date: 12/23/2007
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