Revolutionary movements in Eastern Europe in the 1980s and 1990s headed for the TV stations. In the revolution in the Anglican Communion last week, the Anglican Network in Canada launched its parallel Anglican entity in a TV Station in Burlington, Ontario.

260 leaders of congregations across Canada gathered at short notice. Nothing could be finalised until the Province of Southern Cone synod on 5-7 November had re-elected Gregory Venables as Presiding Bishop and permitted North American churches to affiliate with the Province.

Bishop Don Harvey, retired Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador who takes his retreats at Mirfield, led from the front. He resigned his orders in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) on November 15, and one minute later was licensed as a Bishop in the Province of the Southern Cone. He spoke of sorrow, not regret: “The most hurtful thing was to hear the letter (from the Primate of Canada) read in church last Sunday (November 18) which declared that my basic right to celebrate the Holy Communion has been stripped from me. There was no ‘I regret to have to do this’ in the letter. Will all the Southern Cone bishops will be ostracised in Canada as well?”

Bishop Harvey declared the revolution in his Pastoral Charge to the newly launched Church: “There is no reference in the Bible to a diocese, border, or boundary. I have heard ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel’. We have lawyers and doctors and engineers without borders. We are launching bishops without borders.”

Bishop Venables addressed the gathering by video and letter. “The division which has led to these moves is a severance resulting from a determined abandoning of the one true historic faith delivered to the saints.”

“Schism is a sinful parting over secondary issues. This separation is basic and fundamental and means that we are divided at the most essential point of the Christian faith. The sin here is not one of schism but of false teaching which is not at its root about human sexuality but about the very nature of truth itself.”

Dr James (J.I.) Packer, now 82, underlined that this was not schism, despite the protestations of his own (former) Bishop Ingham of New Westminster in the press.

Dr Packer said “Schism means unjustifiable dividing of organized church bodies, by the separating of one group within the structure from the rest of the membership. Schism is sin, for it is a needless and indefensible breach of visible unity. But withdrawal from a unitary set-up that has become unorthodox and distorts the gospel in a major way and will not put its house in order as for instance when the English church withdrew from the Church of Rome in the sixteenth century, should be called not schism but realignment, doubly so when the withdrawal leads to links with a set-up that is faithful to the truth, as in the sixteenth century the Church of England entered into fellowship with the Lutheran and Reformed churches of Europe, and as now we propose gratefully to accept the offer of full fellowship with the Province of the Southern Cone. Any who call such a move schism should be told that they do not know what schism is.”

“The present project is precisely not to abandon Anglicanism but to realign within it, so as to be able to maintain it in its fullness and authenticity”

Dr Packer set out the identity of Anglican Network in Canada: “We are a community of conscience, — committed to the Anglican convictions — those defined in our foundation documents and expressed in our Prayer Book.

The historic Anglican conviction about homosexual behaviour contains three points:

o It violates the order of creation. God made the two sexes to mate and procreate, with pleasure and bonding; but homosexual intercourse, apart from being, at least among men, awkward and unhealthy, is barren.

o It defies the gospel call to repent and abstain from it, as from sin. This call is most clearly perhaps expressed in 1Cor. 6: 9-11, where the power of the Holy Spirit to keep believers clear of this and other lapses is celebrated.

o The heart of true pastoral care for homosexual persons is helping them in friendship not to yield to their besetting temptation. We are to love the sinner, though we do not love the sin.

Second, we are a community of church people, committed to the Anglican Communion.

More than 90% of worshipping Anglicans worldwide outside the Old West are solidly loyal to the Christian heritage as Anglicanism has received it, and we see our realignment as enhancing our solidarity with them. We are not leaving Anglicanism behind.

Third, we are a community of consecration, committed to the Anglican calling of worship and mission, doxology and discipling. Church planting will be central to our vision of what we are being called to do.

Fourth, we are a community of courage, heading out into unknown waters but committed to the Anglican confidence that God is faithful to those who are faithful to him.”

By contrast “Liberal theology as such knows nothing about a God who uses written language to tell us things, or about the reality of sin in the human system, which makes redemption necessary and new birth urgent. Liberal theology posits, rather, a natural religiosity in man (reverance, that is, for a higher power) and a natural capacity for goodwill towards others, and sees Christianity as a force for cherishing and developing these qualities. They are to be fanned into flame and kept burning in the church, which in each generation must articulate itself by concessive dialogue with the cultural pressures, processes and prejudices that surround it. The church must ever play catch-up to the culture, taking on board whatever is the “in thing” at the moment; otherwise, so it is thought, Christianity will lose all relevance to life.

In an interview with 100 Huntley Street, a TV station, Dr Packer elaborated:

“The basic liberal attitude to human wisdom and liberal theology is poison. Poison is a vivid word. It shocks people awake. Poison takes the strength and life out of a system and if not contained is terminal. Liberal theology takes people away from the real knowledge of the real God to imaginary knowledge of an imaginary God. Their imaginary God is dumb. He does not speak. This is a different God. Liberal theology leads people astray and undermines their health. The real God is not taken seriously and is kept out of the picture.”

Bishop Malcolm Harding, who after retirement led Anglican Renewal Ministries in Canada, was appointed a second Bishop of the Southern Cone for Canada. Rev Canon Charlie Masters, the Director of Anglican Essentials Canada was appointed Archdeacon and Mrs Cheryl Chang from Vancouver as Chancellor. Bishop Harvey’s pastoral charge affirmed that “Women have the same status as men in all ministries in ANiC. We have adopted the same rule and policy as Common Cause. There is no second class citizen. We are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Two congregations not currently part of the Anglican Church of Canada, St John’s Richmond and the Church of the Resurrection, Hope, both in British Columbia, were received into the ANiC. Congregations which belong to ACC have to vote as congregations to transfer. Ownership of the properties has yet to be tested in law. But 8 clergy have already been summoned to appear before their bishops, and the Rev Charlie Masters, the Director of Essentials, expects to be deposed this week.

On Saturday December 2 ordinations have been arranged in Vancouver. Dr. Ingham has sent threatening letters to Bishop Donald Harvey, not to ordain priests for conservative parishes in New Westminster, to the potential ordinands (asserting that only his ordinations are recognized in the Anglican Church of Canada and, speaking imperially, the world-wide Anglican Communion), and to conservative priests in his Diocese (not to support any irregular ordinations). The official launch of the Church will be April 25-27 in Vancouver and the first Synod will be held in November 2008.

Revolutions are legitimized through recognition by others. Supportive greetings and recognition were sent to Bishop Harvey and the new entity by the Primates of Uganda, West Africa, Kenya, Central Africa, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, and by Bishop Mouneer Anis (Egypt), Archbishop Peter Jensen (Sydney), Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti (Recife) and from Bishop Bob Duncan (Pittsburgh), Bishop John Guernsey (Uganda) and Bishop Martyn Minns (CANA) from the USA.

From England greetings were sent from Bishop Michael Nazir Ali (Rochester) and by Bishop Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes & President of Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) and leaders from CEEC, Reform, New Wine, Church Society, Anglican Mainstream, Forward in Faith, the Covenant Group for the Church of England, Crosslinks and the 1990 Group of General Synod.

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I greatly regret the necessity for this step, but I am glad that an agreed way has been found for biblically minded and orthodox Anglicans to receive appropriate primatial oversight from the province of the Southern Cone and episcopal care from Bishop Don Harvey. I pray that this arrangement will be a blessing for many.

Bishop Michael Nazir Ali of Rochester

To the Essentials Meeting

We want to assure you of our prayers and fellowship in our shared Anglican heritage as you take your stand on the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures as the rule and ultimate standard of faith, contrary to those innovators both here and elsewhere who wish to give primacy to the demands of contemporary culture.

We rejoice in our fellowship as Churches in communion with the Risen Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Linked together by the apostolic ministry, our communion is expressed by the fellowship and mutual commitment of local churches, congregations faithful to the apostolic tradition, led by faithful clergy, and gathered around their bishop, however expressed, for example on a geographic or non-geographic basis.

With you we are committed to faithful biblical orthodoxy. This orthodoxy is defined by and centred on the classic formularies (foundational principles) of the Anglican tradition. Anglican doctrine is grounded in the supremacy of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, the catholic creeds and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as agree with the Holy Scriptures. In particular, it has confessed this faith in the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (our Anglican standard for worship) and the 1662 Ordinal, including its preface (our Anglican standard for the making of bishops, priests and deacons). This commitment does not mean we are perfect: we need constantly to reform our lives in accord with the scripture to learn and grow with the help of the Spirit and one another.

With you we are committed to maintaining and propagating the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ to make and grow disciples who will themselves make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and plant churches. Proclaiming the biblical gospel of the Kingdom of God transforms and renews us and the whole creation. It produces life-giving and life-transforming mission, holiness of life and unity in the Holy Spirit to the end that people are drawn into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ, and become members of the Body of Christ engaged with the challenges of their time and agents of transforming their communities and creation.

Although we regret that it has become necessary, we have been encouraged by the action of Presiding Bishop Greg Venables and the Province of the Southern Cone in offering oversight to some orthodox Anglican Dioceses in the United States. This interim provision is a sensible way forward. Extension of this oversight to Bishop Don Harvey in Canada with parishes and people gathered around him is a welcome expression of the proper duty of orthodox Anglicans to secure the provision of godly leadership and oversight.

We hope that this recognition given to your network will further benefit the recognition of those who have been given similar oversight in the United States and Latin America.

We share with you the goal Jesus himself gave us of making all nations disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. We share with you, in obedience to Christ, his call to teach them to observe all that he has commanded. We share with you, and with the exalted Lord who now sits at the right hand of the Father, the call to pray for the world which he created and the people for whose salvation he died and rose again.

“To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.” (Ephesians 3.21)

Signatories

“signed with pleasure and delight”

+Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes & President of Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC); Dr Philip Giddings, Convenor, Anglican Mainstream; Paul Boyd-Lee, Chair of the 1990 Group in General Synod; Rev John Coles, Director of New Wine; Canon Andy Lines, General Secretary of Crosslinks; Stephen Parkinson, Director, Forward in Faith; Revd Paul Perkin, Convenor of the Covenant Group for the Church of England; Revd David Phillips, Director of Church Society Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Executive Secretary, Anglican Mainstream; Rev Dr Richard Turnbull, Chairman and for the Executive of the Church of England Evangelical Council; Rev Roderick Thomas, Chairman of Reform

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Snow: Episcopal split just an ‘ecclesiastical’ dispute (WorldNetDaily, 070104)

Controversy over ownership of millions in property doesn’t get comment

The developing disagreements in the United States over “gay” marriage are “ecclesiastical,” according to a spokesman for President Bush, and he won’t comment on them.

“The president is not going to comment, nor am I, on ecclesiastical disputes,” Bush spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday.

He was responding to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND’s correspondent at the White House.

“This concerns the president’s oath to support and defend the Constitution … [and its] freedom of religion,” Kinsolving asked. “Does the president believe that national religious leaders should be able to confiscate all the property of local churches who vote to leave their denomination because they agree with the president’s expressed conviction, and now the Massachusetts legislature’s two votes that marriage is between one man and one woman?”

Snow said there would be no comment on the issue that is wracking the Episcopal Church USA right now. He also noted that the Massachusetts legislature voted on whether to vote on the issue.

The ECUSA, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion worldwide, has been beset by controversy since 2003 when the church approved a self-proclaimed homosexual, V. Gene Robinson, as a bishop in New Hampshire.

Various churches and church organizations within the ECUSA protested, and some have made decisions to withdraw from the American denomination. They have chosen to remain part of the Anglican Communion, however, by affiliating with other branches of that 77 million member worldwide group.

Several large churches in the Washington, D.C., area recently voted – overwhelmingly – to take that step, and one of the leaders of the Truro, Va., church, Martyn Minns, was consecrated as a bishop by Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, a strong supporter of biblically-based marriage between one man and one woman, in order to lead the churches in the U.S.

Akinola has described the acceptance of homosexual “couples” in the Christian church as a “satanic attack.”

Most recently, it was the Truro and Falls Church church members who found themselves opposed to “gay” marriage being endorsed by their Christian church, and left. Now, however, under its rules of incorporation, the denomination, not the individual churches, claims ownership of the millions of dollars worth of property the congregations have acquired over their lengthy existences.

That issue remains unresolved, and likely will deteriorate into a court proceeding, observers have said.

The new affiliation between U.S. churches and Akinola’s church hierarchy in Nigeria is being called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. Congregations formerly affiliated with the ECUSA from British Columbia to California now are realigning their associations, officials said.

The two Virginia churches were founded in British colonial times and are two of the oldest and largest Episcopal congregations in the nation. But with the decision by the church members came a warning from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia that the two parishes do not own their buildings.

The Massachusetts legislature this week vote to allow a voter initiative that would define marriage in that state as being between one man and one woman to go forward. Under the state’s lengthy process for amending the state Constitution, another legislature must vote the same way, and then the initiative signed by 170,000 people could be placed on a statewide election ballot, possibly as early as 2008. Massachusetts was the first state to “recognize” homosexual marriages after its supreme court ruled they could not be banned.

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Virginia Diocese Calls Off Pledge with Breakaway Anglicans (Christian Post, 070110)

Leaders of Anglican breakaway churches expressed profound disappointment when the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia announced Tuesday that it would not renew an agreement to avoid litigation over property.

Nine congregations in Virginia that voted last month to split from the Episcopal Church had agreed to a 30-day standstill period with the diocese in an attempt to reach amicable property settlements. The agreement, which expires next Wednesday, was set to automatically renew for another 30 days unless one party opted not to renew.

The diocese, however, thinks that “there isn’t an interest from the other side on working on a compromise or amicable agreement,” spokesman Patrick Getlein told The Washington Post.

Bishop Peter James Lee of the Diocese of Virginia will meet with the Standing Committee and the Executive Board after the agreement expires to settle the property dispute.

The diocese probably “will move to retain property at all the separated churches” while still considering each church’s situation case by case, said Getlein, according to the Post.

“We are greatly saddened by this regrettable decision by the Diocese,” said the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, one of the largest churches that left the diocese. “We urge the Diocese and the Episcopal Church to return, with all the Christian charity each of us can muster, to the important work of reaching amicable settlements.”

The Virginia congregations had overwhelmingly voted to leave the national body, which was experiencing widening rifts since the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003. They decided to place themselves under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria.

Leaders of the Falls Church, another large church that voted to leave, recently clarified their reasons for severing ties with the Episcopal Church.

“The core issue is theological: the intellectual integrity of faith in the modern world. It is thus a matter of faithfulness to the lordship of Jesus, whom we worship and follow. The American Episcopal Church no longer believes the historic, Orthodox Christian faith common to all believers,” Yates and Os Guinness, a parishioner of the church, said on The Washington Post.

Tensions mounted since the breakaway when some leaders decreed that people who voted against the split could not hold services and meetings in the church, according to the Post.

“Each church welcomes anyone who wants to worship as individuals but not as an Episcopal Church group,” said Pierobon. “These are Anglican churches now.”

One of the churches enforcing the decree was St. Stephen’s Church in Heathsville. Congregants who voted against the majority said they want to continue to operate as an Episcopal Church and are confident of property ownership, arguing that it is only held in trust for the denomination. In the meantime, the Post reported that the congregants have been holding worship services at a nearby church.

In a meeting on Monday, the Episcopal Church indicated that it intends to intervene in the Virginia matters, according to Pierobon.

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Episcopal or Anglican? Something schismatic this way comes (townhall.com, 070112)

By Ross Mackenzie

The conflict unfolding in the Episcopal Church in Virginia typifies not only the bitter disputes plaguing Protestant denominations nationwide but also the mean ideological struggles in key sectors of the culture generally.

Aside from religion, those sectors are entertainment, politics, the academy and the press. Under various banners bearing the words conservative or liberal, battles — verily, whole wars — grind on. And the liberals tend to hold the clear advantage, as they long have.

Perhaps in the entertainment industry they are most clearly dominant: Few males in Hollywood, and practically no females, boast their conservative views of things. Not far behind is the mainstream press, which voted 92% for George McGovern 35 years ago and hasn’t changed much despite the challenge of talk-radio, talk-television and the Internet.

In the academy — notably in law, economics and political philosophy — conservatives have notched important gains, but the combatants fight ever on. And in politics, ideology’s ground-zero, conservatives carried the field for a generation, but now Joans of Arc Pelosi and Clinton are leading the left out of exile — pushing conservatives into what could be a long, dark night.

Which leaves religion, typified by the Episcopalians. The four most establishment denominations — Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist and Lutheran — all have squabbled internally for years over liturgies, hymnals, ordination, scripture, church doctrine and the like.

They have also squabbled over secular issues, upon which church hierarchs have seen fit to express their opinions privately or from the pulpit: abortion, homosexuality, capitalism, federal regulation, manifestoes on faddish irrelevancies, and parishioner monies for Leninist guerrillas slitting the throats of innocents in the name of a vague, deconstructed “liberation theology.”

In society, the basic debate is nature vs. nurture — heredity vs. environment, genes vs. education. In religion, as the Episcopalians are demonstrating, it’s reason vs. revelation — culture vs. scripture, interpretation vs. faith.

With about 77 million communicants, the Worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, subsumes the Episcopal Church U.S.A. with about 2.2 million communicants in 111 dioceses. The largest of those dioceses is the Diocese of Virginia, until last month with about 90,000 communicants in 193 congregations (or parishes).

But in December, parishioners comprising about 7% of Virginia’s Episcopal communicants voted to leave the diocese and the national church to become Anglican outright — or to go one step short of a break and join an Anglican confederation within the ECUSA, pending further developments.

The breakpoint came partly with the elevation to bishop of New Hampshire of a practicing homosexual. When he entered the clergy, he had vowed (1) his loyalty to and belief in — as stipulated by the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer — “the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments” as “the Word of God,” and (2) his determination “to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church.”

Yet the homosexuality of the new bishop was less the cause of the Episcopal schism than his violation of his vow to live by a code higher than that embraced by the everyday rest of us. In ratifying his lifestyle and promoting him to bishop, did the sitting primates thereby elevate culture — cultural interpretation — over scripture?

The departing churches say, lopsidedly, yes. Next week a 30-day moratorium — ceasefire — on litigation expires, but surely litigation will come. The diocese claims ownership of all church property within its domain — even in those cases, as in Virginia, relating to churches formed before the Diocese of Virginia was a glint in its daddy’s eye. Almost certainly the coming litigation will be expensive, bitter and long.

All the while proclaiming its inclusiveness, the hierarchy will seek to palliate yet insist it owns the churches of the disaffected. The formerly Episcopal Anglicans will protest any hierarchical definition of inclusiveness that excludes them, and will wish for the hierarchy the same adherence to faith and scripture as its adherence to property — tangible and real — for which it has paid hardly anything, if anything at all.

Perhaps seemingly insignificant to others, this is schismatic war, happening in Virginia and across the landscape — and around the globe. As in other realms — entertainment, politics, the academy and the press — it derives from what people think, from their religious beliefs. And history reminds that conflict grounded in religious controversy is perhaps the most bruising and consequential of all.

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Episcopal Rifts: ‘Issue is Orthodoxy, Not Homosexuality’ (Christian Post, 070111)

“When even President Gerald Ford’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral is not exempt from comment about the crisis in the Episcopal Church, we believe it is time to set the record straight as to why our church and so many others around the country have severed ties with the Episcopal Church,” stated the Rev. John Yates and Os Guinness of The Falls Church in The Washington Post. The Falls Church is one of the largest Virginia churches that voted last month to leave the Episcopal Church.

Even prominent evangelical leader Chuck Colson stepped into the argument to point out a “much broader” issue than the matter of homosexuality.

Since the 2003 consecration of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, conservative Episcopal parishes began to sever ties with the Episcopal Church. Divisions escalated with the latest bunch of Virginia congregations, including two of the most historic and largest churches in the diocese, which voted in December to leave the church and place themselves under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria.

Yates and Guinness asserted that is not the “leftward drift in the church” or an ethical issue that pushed the conservative congregations to split, but the departure from Christian orthodoxy.

“When the great truths of the Bible and the creeds are abandoned and there is no limit to what can be believed in their place, then the point is reached when there is little identifiably Christian in Episcopal revisionism,” they stated among four other reasons.

Congregations have left the Episcopal Church, risking financial loss and public scorn, “because, in conscience, they must remain true to Scripture and their convictions,” Colson stressed in his column Wednesday.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is also wracked with divide but on a less public scale. The 217th General Assembly had opened the way for the ordination of active homosexuals, causing protest within the denomination.

But the controversial issue, much like the Episcopal Church, was not homosexuality. Rather, it was an abandonment of the Word of God.

“The true church is tied to the Word of God. When the Christian faith is abandoned, there is no Christian church,” said James C. Goodloe, IV, pastor of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Va., at a meeting with “Constitutional Presbyterians” in November.

Just a couple years into the division in the Episcopal Church, a BBC reader in England had expressed support to congregations that chose to leave national body.

“Churches that differ in their doctrine should go their separate ways,” he said. “A church that constantly changes to conform with modern thinking is not demonstrating a healthy flexibility, it is confirming that it has lost its way.”

While the ordination of a practicing homosexual and expressed support of it drove many of the congregations to finally decide on a split, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., offered clarification on the church’s stance shortly after the December vote, stating that their separation did not constitute an “anti-gay” vote.

The bottom line? As Colson wrote: “The issue is orthodoxy, not homosexuality.”

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Bigotry or Obedience? The Media and the Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070112)

By Chuck Colson

As you have, no doubt, read in the newspaper or seen on television, the Episcopal Church in the United States seems to be breaking up. Just last month, several prominent Virginia parishes voted to leave the church.

Why? Well, the media would have you believe that the sole issue driving the split is homosexuality, or even more narrowly, the ordination of a homosexual bishop in New Hampshire: “There they go again, those anti-gay bigots.”

But the issues behind the Episcopal Church’s disintegration are much broader and deeper than just the matter of sexual behavior. They have to do with acceptance of scriptural authority. But characteristically, sexuality is the aspect of the matter on which the media has chosen to focus.

On Christmas Day, for example, the New York Times ran a front-page attack on Anglican Bishop Peter Akinola. Bishop Akinola is a Nigerian bishop under whom many former Episcopal churches are now uniting. The Times made its agenda clear in the article’s subhead, which referred to Bishop Akinola as “an anti-gay Nigerian.”

Let’s face it: This is not front-page news because the New York Times editors are concerned about church splits. I doubt they would have covered Martin Luther if the Reformation were going on today. This is front-page news because the Times can use it to make Christians look bigoted. Why else would they lead off the article with a description of how Bishop Akinola was once taken aback to find that he had just shaken hands with a homosexual? As one who has ministered to homosexual prisoners and AIDS victims for twenty-five years, I do not endorse his reaction, but it sounds like naïveté and inexperience.

What I do take issue with is the Times and other critics telling us we are bigots. I have been in those prisons and seen our people ministering to AIDS victims over the years. I don’t see these critics there. I see our people doing this day in and day out.

In any event, it’s telling that the Times would choose to draw attention to something like this rather telling you what is really behind it. In leaving the Episcopal Church, many of these congregations are enduring public scorn and potentially devastating financial loss—including the loss of their church buildings, pastors’ pensions, and so forth. Why? Because, in conscience, they must remain true to Scripture and their convictions. The issue is orthodoxy, not homosexuality.

Bishop Akinola gets to the heart of the matter in a profound and thought-provoking essay: “The point here,” he writes, “is not of separating from sinners . . . but objecting strongly to yielding to the . . . worldly spirit of a materialistic, secularist and self-centered age, which seeks to mould everyone into its own tainted image.

“Our argument,” the bishop continues, “is that if homosexuals see themselves as deviants who have gone astray, the Christian spirit would plead for patience and prayers to make room for their repentance. When Scripture says something is wrong and some people say that it is right, such people make God a liar.”

That’s the real issue here, and that’s the issue Christians must continue to focus on. There’s certainly room for discussion of Bishop Akinola’s views and how he relates to homosexuals. But let’s not forget why he and the U.S. churches now under his oversight are doing what they’re doing: It is because they choose orthodoxy. They believe in the Word of God, and they will obey it. That’s what we all need to be concerned about, whether the media gets it right or not.

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Anglican Churches Request Alternative Diocese in America (Christian Post, 070117)

More than 17 Anglican churches across the South requested the Church of Kenya to form a diocese in America.

After three-and-a-half years of oversight from the Anglican Church of Kenya, St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Memphis, Tenn., along with other congregations, put in the request to Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, who visited the church over the weekend.

There were 17 churches represented at the weekend meeting, according to the Rev. Stephen Carpenter, founding priest of St. Peter’s. An additional congregation in Boston, Mass., not present at the meeting, also backed the request.

The 18 U.S. churches, presently affiliated with the Church of Kenya, join a growing number of congregations that are establishing a conservative alternative to the Episcopal Church.

Nine conservative churches in Virginia recently joined the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which was established as an outreach initiative of the Church of Nigeria. Nigerian bishops expressed delight over the continual growth of the splinter group.

Similarly, Anglican dioceses in the South and the Northeast are hoping to build its own province with approval from the Archbishop of Kenya.

Nzimbi said he will discuss the request at the February Primates meeting which will gather representatives from around the world. He hopes to have an answer by April.

“We must go slowly and assure that in every step we are giving honor and glory to God,” said Nzimbi at the weekend meeting, according to Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal.

Congregations began to split from the Episcopal Church when the 2an openly gay bishop was consecrated in 2003. While homosexuality triggered the exodus of churches from the national body, the conservative groups have emphasized that the Episcopal Church’s departure from Scriptural authority caused their breakaway.

Early this week, Bishops in Nigeria warned the worldwide Anglican Communion that they would go separate ways if the Episcopal Church does not repent of its apostasies.

“Christian unity must be anchored on Biblical truth,” the Most. Rev. Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria stressed.

As conservative Anglicans in the U.S. patiently await a response from the Archbishop of Kenya, Carpenter said their goal is “for the Episcopal Church to sort of see the error of its ways and reunite with all of us,” according to the local newspaper.

Otherwise, they hope to establish a single Anglican communion in America, said Carpenter.

“Establishing an Anglican diocese with a bishop here in America would give all of us a new home.”

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Future of Anglican Communion Unpredictable (Christian Post, 070122)

Weeks remain before Anglicans from around the globe meet at the Primates table, and conservative Anglicans say they are ready to “act together,” even if they are seated next to Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

“In Africa whether you are a friend or [enemy] normally we welcome you, but welcoming you does not mean we agree with what you are doing,” said Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi at an Anglican Mission in America conference last week. “When you are called to a meeting you don’t say ‘no,’ but you can say ‘no’ to the agenda for that meeting.

“We can begin the meeting, but the agenda itself will tell whether we can continue with everybody or not.”

Global South Anglican leaders had stated earlier that they would not be able to recognize Jefferts Schori as a representative of the Episcopal Church at the mid-February Primates meeting in Tanzania.

Although Indian Ocean Archbishop Gerald James Ernest said they would work together on this issue, many say they cannot predict the outcome of the upcoming meeting.

“Even the Archbishop of Canterbury might not know and even he may be deceived,” said retired Southeast Asian Primate Moses Tay when describing the challenges that Primates will soon face.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said he feared schism within the Anglican Communion and the situation slipping out of his control. The Church of Nigeria had warned of going separate ways from the worldwide communion if the Episcopal Church did not repent of its apostasies.

At a meeting with heads of 38 Anglican provinces, there may be a little witnessing to the controversial Episcopal head. Tanzanian Archbishop Donald Mtetemela requested for prayers “so that I may have the wisdom to bring God’s word to Katharine as I know it in my heart.”

“This is a good opportunity to bring what I believe about Jesus Christ, to bring it to Katharine,” he added.

Before her investiture as head, Jefferts Schori had told Time magazine that Jesus is not the only way to God and to heaven. Her remarks fueled more protest that began with her showing support for same-sex marriage and the consecration of gays. Nevertheless, she went on to become the first woman presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in November.

Fearful of anger bursts and the meeting going out of control, Mtetemela urged prayers for the Primates to remain controlled and “mindful ... of what the people left behind are expecting of us.”

The annual winter conference saw its largest turnout ever of some 1,600 Anglicans in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Anglican Mission in America has grown to more than 100 churches, half of which are newly planted churches. Congregations began to split from the Episcopal Church and formed their own conservative Anglican groups when openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was consecrated in 2003.

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Episcopal Diocese ‘Inhibits’ 21 Dissident Clergy from Duties (Christian Post, 070126)

Clergy attached to the Virginia congregations that left the Episcopal Church were warned Tuesday that if they do not reverse their decision to “abandon” the church, they will be removed from the Episcopal ministry.

Virginia Bishop Peter Lee agreed to a determination that inhibited 21 clergy canonically resident in the Diocese on Monday, meaning the leaders that voted to split from the Episcopal Church were barred from performing any priestly duties in the Diocese. The breakaway Anglican leaders received the warning in a letter on Tuesday and were given six months to reverse their decision.

When congregations from 15 churches voted overwhelmingly in December to sever ties with the Episcopal Church, they had already removed themselves from the Episcopal ministry and identified with the Church of Nigeria.

The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns of Truro Church, one of the largest churches that voted to leave, now heads the Convocation of Anglicans in North America - an outreach initiative of the Church of Nigeria.

Although the Episcopal diocese warned clergy, including six more in other dioceses, of their current “inhibited” status, Jim Pierobon, spokesman for the breakaway churches, says that the clergy and other church leaders are still acting in all of their same roles within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“[The Rev.] John Yates is still the rector of The Falls Church, Rick Wright is still the associate rector, and so on. We’re simply not doing that inside the Episcopal Church anymore,” said Pierobon.

The Diocese had declared last week the Virginia churches that broke ties “abandoned” and is now taking steps to recover church properties - a move that halted negotiations.

Tuesday’s letter brought other efforts by the Anglican churches to a halt. Pierobon said that at The Falls Church, a megachurch that split, they were preparing a proposal to Lee in which the church would provide a means for an Episcopal service through a senior clergy member who had disagreed with the majority vote.

Last week, Lee had called for the pastoral care of the small number of parishioners who did not vote to leave and remained in the Episcopal Church.

“But you know what? The letter yesterday ended that and made that effort moot,” Pierobon told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

“It’s very frustrating.”

The Diocese defended its latest decisions by stating that the majority membership of the 15 churches voluntarily chose to sever their ties with the Diocese and thus renounced the doctrine of the Episcopal Church. “In doing so, they abandoned the property for the purposes for which it was set aside, namely the mission of The Episcopal Church and The Diocese of Virginia.”

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Texas Megachurch Joins New Anglican Body (Christian Post, 070129)

A former Episcopal Texas megachurch has announced its new home – the Anglican Mission in America.

In an announcement last week, the Rev. Canon David H. Roseberry, pastor of Christ Church in Plano, excitedly told congregants of their “historic” step in joining as mission partners with the AMiA.

“It is an Anglican mission in that it is thoroughly Anglican, respected all around the world within the Anglican Communion,” said Roseberry in a message to his church.

Christ Church split from the Episcopal Church last summer in disagreement with the national body’s controversial decisions that indicated a “departure from biblical truth and historic faith of the Anglican Communion,” the church’s leaders had said in a statement last year.

The departure came a week after the Episcopal Church elected Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female presiding bishop. Jefferts Schori supports the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Christ Church joined a recent AMiA conference with nearly 1,600 people. There, Anglican leaders expressed their preparedness to “act together” at the February Primates meeting which will bring head representatives from provinces around the world, including Jefferts Schori, to the same table.

Roseberry expressed joy about the new alignment with the North American Anglican group.

“Frankly, in a deep and abiding sense, it felt to me that I was coming home ... at long last,” he said.

The Anglican Mission in America, according to Roseberry, is growing in leaps, adding a new congregation every two to three weeks.

And the new partnership of the Texas megachurch is a major addition to AMiA. The Plano church is one of the largest Anglican churches in the nation, drawing about 2,200 worshippers each weekend.

“Christ Church is in itself a major work that God has purposed ... to be the largest Anglican church in North America,” said the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, chairman of AMiA, “and that’s a clue to what I believe God’s going to do with the Anglican Mission in America and Christ Church.”

The Most Rev. Emmanuel Kolini, archbishop of Rwanda, also gladly welcomed Christ Church to their new home.

Confirming the church’s new place to carry out their mission, Roseberry said, “We have a home, we’re part of a family – a broad worldwide Anglican family.”

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Homosexuality Not the Problem, Says Va. Episcopal Bishop-Elect (Christian Post, 070129)

Va. Episcopal Diocese Elects Next Bishop

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia has selected the Very Rev. Shannon Johnston of Tupelo as next in line to become its bishop.

Johnston, who has served the All Saints’ Episcopal Church congregation since 1994, was elected Friday as bishop coadjutor, the title given successor bishops.

A bishop coadjutor is a bishop in the Roman Catholic or Anglican churches who is designated to succeed the current bishop of a diocese. The bishop is its spiritual and administrative leader.

Johnston was elected on the third ballot during the 212th Annual Council of the Diocese of Virginia in Richmond. He received 269 votes. The Rev. Gay C. Jennings, one of the five nominees, took the next highest total at 108.

“To see that level of consensus is overwhelming. It’s terribly humbling because of the level of expertise and the very fine national reputations of the other nominees. I myself have no such reputation,” Johnston told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal newspaper of Tupelo shortly after the vote.

Johnston, 48, will follow the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee as bishop upon his retirement. Bishop Lee has not yet announced when his tenure will end, but by church law, it must be within three years of the election of a bishop coadjutor.

Eleven churches have voted since late last year to part ways with The Episcopal Church, citing disagreements with the American denomination’s liberal views on homosexuality.

Johnston said during the nomination and election process, people in Virginia’s diocesan leadership seemed to connect with him on his stance that the Episcopal Church needs to reclaim its middle way.

Johnston said the Episcopal Church has been a very big tent allowing for a broad range of ways to live out Scripture.

“Anglicans simply don’t break apart from each other,” he said. “The fact we now have that going on for the first time in our history says we need to come back to that middle ground.

“The problem is not homosexuality,” he said, “but the way the right and left are treating each other. That has to stop.”

Albert White, an All Saints’ lay leader, said the Rev. Dr. Michael Lippard, recently appointed priest associate, likely will step into as leader of the church while they begin to search for a new rector. The Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray III, bishop of Mississippi, will decide whether to appoint an interim rector.

The Diocese of Virginia is the oldest and largest Episcopal diocese. It descends from the first Anglican parish in North America and will celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2007.

Johnston will be installed May 26 at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

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Anglican Archbishop Invites Other U.S. Bishops to Primates Table (Christian Post, 070129)

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams invited two other Anglican representatives other than the head of the Episcopal Church from the United States for a worldwide meeting in February.

The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson, bishop of Western Louisiana and president of the Presiding Bishop’s Council of Advice, and the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh and moderator of the conservative Anglican Communion Network, will join Anglican leaders from around the world as “the other voices” from the Episcopal Church at the Primates meeting.

The invitation by the archbishop comes as some Global South Anglican leaders said they would not recognize Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church as a representative of the U.S. body. Jefferts Schori supports the ordination of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Also, the departure of numerous churches from the Episcopal Church since the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003 has resulted in a number of separate conservative groups in the United States, including the Anglican Communion Network and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – an outreach initiative of the Church of Nigeria.

“The Episcopal Church is not in any way a monochrome body and we need to be aware of the full range of conviction within it,” said Williams in an Advent letter to the primates. “There are many in TEC (The Episcopal Church) who are deeply concerned as to how they should secure their relationships with the rest of the Communion; I hope we can listen patiently to these anxieties.”

MacPherson said the impact of the upcoming gathering could be significant on the worldwide church body.

“The outcome of this gathering of the primates could have a significant impact on not only Episcopal Church, but the Communion as a whole. I ask that you hold this meeting in your prayers,” he wrote in a letter to his clergy.

Among issues being addressed at the meeting, scheduled to open Feb. 14 in Tanzania, is the response to the Windsor Report which calls parties to the controversy to express regret over their actions and calls for restraint to be exercised in the consent process for bishops while failing to address the matter of same-sex blessings.

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Bono’s Songs Replacing Hymnals in Churches (Christian Post, 070130)

U2’s songs are sung by millions around the world, and lately, the rock band has drawn a new score of fans – Christian clergy.

The U.S. church phenomenon “U2-charist” is now hitting the Church of England for the country’s first Holy Communion service using U2’s best-selling songs.

Already, 150 churches in 15 U.S. states and seven countries have had or plan to have U2 Eucharists. The service stems from an Episcopal church in York Harbor, Maine, where the Rev. Paige Blair displayed U2’s lyrics next to the altar in the summer of 2005.

Blair said much of U2’s songs are explicitly Christians and perfectly suitable for worship service, according to USA Today. She also noted that some people might need time to get used to the idea.

One Lutheran author justified the replacement of hymns with the rock band’s lyrics and a church’s decision to choose Bono over today’s contemporary Christian music (CCM).

“U2 is good at the art, using language like a poet would, like the classic hymn language,” said the Rev. Christian Scharen, director of the Faith as a Way of Life Project at Yale Divinity School and author of One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God, according to USA Today.

Much of the CCM songs, largely sung in evangelical churches and in youth and young adult services, are not as artistic as the hymnal or even Bono’s songs, Scharen indicated. He said a lot of the songs instead have “locked-down, straightforward meaning.”

But rather than going with the traditional hymnals, the bishop organizing the U2-charist in England in May is hiring a live band to sing U2 classics in a bid to attract youth.

“We are hoping the service will be a fresh way to look at worship, less formal, and less rigid,” said the Rt. Rev. Timothy Ellis, bishop of Grantham, according to the London Telegraph. “This is not designed to replace traditional services but to enhance the worship provision of the Church.

“We need to try new expressions. If we don’t try to update and refresh our thinking we will die.”

Since its debut, there has been little criticism of U2 Eucharist within the Anglican body, reported USA Today. Ellis said the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, will be kept informed about the service.

U2-charist in England comes closely after Williams announced a push towards engaging new generation believers through the popular social networking site YouTube.com. Williams said he plans to YouTube his sermons and have other parishes get involved.

Meanwhile, the U2 Eucharist will not just be about singing U2’s “Pride” (In the Name of Love) or other hits but a key part of the service is the Millennium Development Goals. Bono is at the forefront of the ONE campaign to eradicate extreme poverty.

He is also a major influence in the churches in the cause against AIDS and has gained the respect of many church leaders including megapastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church and Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church who see Bono leveraging his rock star influence for the sake of the poor and sick. Video messages from the Irish rock star were sent to Hybel’s and Warren’s latest conferences on leadership and AIDS, respectively, to encourage Christians to be where the sick are.

Ellis said he does not expect Bono to attend the U2-charist in person, according to the Telegraph, but was hoping he might send a message.

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Anglican Meeting May Make or Break Communion (Christian Post, 070201)

The upcoming global meeting of Anglican archbishops can be a make or break time for the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, reportedly the largest province in the worldwide communion, says the issue of homosexuality must be resolved before the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Otherwise, Akinola is counting his church out.

The bishop told the Guardian newspaper of Lagos that the conference is not worth attending if it will “not be able to guide the church in a way that the church will embrace” and “comply.”

Division in the global body escalated when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003. Last November, the church invested its first female bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The recent actions of the Episcopal Church were seen as a violation to a 1998 Lambeth Resolution where Anglican heads worldwide agreed on the rejection of homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture. Earlier this month, the Church of Nigeria had warned that they cannot walk together with provinces that do not repent of such violation.

Sending more than 100 Nigerian bishops to the 2008 Lambeth Conference would not be an “act of prudent stewardship,” said Akinola, “if the conference was simply going to be an expensive Episcopal jamboree.”

“The American Church rejected this (Lambeth Resolution), saying its approval of homosexual behavior is their business and not ours,” said Akinola, according to Virtue Online, the self-claimed voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism. “They said it is good for them. That is why we are saying in Nigeria and indeed in Africa that if the Lambeth Conference resolutions and consensus-building will be of no use to some people, it is not worth attending.”

Akinola said he will rather use that money for mission and evangelism in Nigeria. And if the Nigerian bishops pull out of the conference, they plan to hold their own Lambeth meeting, a gathering held every 10 years.

While some Anglican leaders and media have blasted Akinola for being “anti-gay,” Akinola clarified that the Church of Nigeria teaches the truth of Scripture and understands that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation “is made in the image of God, loved by God, and deserving of the utmost respect.”

Anglican bishops from 38 provinces are scheduled to meet at a key Primates meeting mid-February in Tanzania. Although the meeting is limited to head representatives of each province, Archbishop Rowan Williams invited three other U.S. bishops, in addition to Jefferts Schori, to the gathering. The three bishops representing the more conservative Anglican groups in the United States will reportedly present their voices during a recess of the meeting.

The Primates gathering is being viewed as a key meeting that may determine the unity or the break of the worldwide communion. “We are hoping that after the primates’ meeting in Tanzania next month, we will have a clearer vision of what we have,” said Akinola. “If the Lambeth Conference is worth attending, we must put this problem behind us.”

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Breakaway Anglicans Call Lawsuits over Property ‘Act of Betrayal’ (Christian Post, 070202)

Anglican churches that voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church called lawsuits filed against them over property issues “an act of betrayal.”

The Diocese of Virginia took the church property issue to court on Wednesday, suing 11 congregations and ordering a restraint against the further occupancy of the dissident Anglicans on the property. Anglican leaders who broke away only learned of the civil lawsuits Wednesday night from the media, according to a released statement.

“We receive this news as an act of betrayal,” said a statement by the Board of the Anglican District of Virginia, consisting of leaders from the departed churches, now affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).

While the diocese reportedly stated that the Virginia congregations that overwhelmingly voted to split from the Episcopal Church in December took the first step into court, the CANA leaders argued that they did not file lawsuits.

“Our only action has been to record our parish votes in December and January for the public record,” said the board.

Following the December vote, the breakaway congregations filed reports in the circuit courts of their respective counties, “complying” with Virginia law, as the churches had stated then. The law states that if a division occurs in a church, congregants may determine by vote which branch to belong to and report it to the circuit court of the county. And if approved by the court, it “shall be conclusive as to the title to and control of any property held in trust for such congregation.”

The Diocese of Virginia was said to have been informed of the congregations’ actions before the reports were filed.

The CANA leaders further stated that their volunteer lay leaders “diligently followed the steps outlined in the Diocese of Virginia’s ‘Protocol for Departing Congregations’ trusting that the diocese would honor its own protocol.”

However, “the actions taken [Wednesday] show that we were betrayed by that trust,” said the statement.

Two weeks earlier, Virginia Bishop Peter Lee said the diocese had made numerous attempts to accommodate the views of the dissident Anglican leaders. But it became clear to them that the dissident congregations would hold no other position than the diocese relinquishing its claim to the church properties. Lee thus announced that the diocese would cut off negotiations and take steps to recover church property.

Despite the disagreements, the board of Anglican leaders stated, “We still believe that there are better ways to settle our differences than by the unprecedented actions the Diocese of Virginia took [Wednesday] against lay volunteers and their clergy. We request that the Diocese of Virginia step back from this precipitous behavior and resolve to find an amicable and reasonable way forward that will honor Christ and be a blessing to His Church.”

The conservative Anglicans had made a similar call before the lawsuits were filed, asking the diocese to return to the negotiating table to reach an amicable agreement.

The clergy in charge and lay leadership of the 11 congregations being sued were named as defendants in the actions, the Episcopal News Service reported. The diocese did not ask the courts to impose any personal liability on any of the named individuals at this time.

Leaders on the Board of the Anglican District of Virginia who issued the statement are: Tom Wilson, senior warden of The Falls Church; Jim Oakes, senior warden of Truro Church; and David Allison, senior warden of Church of the Apostles.

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Episcopal Head Comments Ahead of Critical Anglican Meeting (Christian Post, 070205)

Despite the rifts leading up to a global Anglican meeting next week, the woman causing much of the controversy remains calm.

“She’s unflappable,” New York Bishop Mark Sisk said of Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, according to USA Today.

Jefferts Schori, who was invested last year as leader of the Anglican Communion’s U.S. wing, will be attending next week’s Primates meeting as the first and only female head among 38 primates. But not all invited bishops are willing to recognize her at the same Primates table because of her controversial stance on biblical faith and morality, some Global South Anglican leaders said.

Before her installment last November, Jefferts Schori had questioned Jesus Christ as being the only way to God and told the Associated Press that she does not believe that “one person can have the fullness of truth in him or herself.” She also expressed her support for the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The presiding bishop further told USA Today that more important than atonement and repentance is living like Jesus in this world.

“[Sin] is pervasive, part of human nature,” but “it’s not the centerpiece of the Christian message. If we spend our time talking about sin and depravity, it is all we see in the world,” said Jefferts Schori in the interview.

Her views have drawn criticism from conservative U.S. Anglicans, but Sisk believes she is faithful to the central claims of the Scriptures, according to the national publication.

Anglican leaders overseas believe otherwise. In a September 2006 communiqué, some of the Global South leaders proposed for another bishop representing the U.S. body to be present at the Primates meeting, saying they would not recognize Jefferts Schori.

Still, the female head remains calm. “We can work on these together,” she said referring to the broader issues of poverty, war and disease that will be discussed at the meeting.

“Human need is so overwhelming that it seems incredibly sinful to spend time” on church politics, she said, according to USA Today.

Her comments come after New Hampshire’s V. Gene Robinson – the openly gay bishop whose consecration in 2003 outraged conservative Anglicans – also alluded to the debates within the church as a “waste of our time and energy” amid the global AIDS crisis and the widening gap between the rich and poor.

Robinson believes the scope of the rift is small yet exaggerated in the media.

Only “one-half of one percent of the 7,200 congregations” in the United States has left the Episcopal Church since the election of Jefferts Schori in June, the U.S. head said.

The latest exodus of churches came out of the Diocese of Virginia where two of the most historic and largest churches in the state overwhelmingly voted to split among others. The Diocese recently filed lawsuits against the breakaway congregations to recover and secure the multi-million dollar church properties.

Although sad about their departure, Jefferts Schori said the congregations, now aligned with the Church of Nigeria, cannot take “what doesn’t belong to them.”

The Primates meeting on Feb. 14-19 is scheduled to devote four hours to discussing the Episcopal Church, which will include a response from Jefferts Schori during the meeting and the opinions of three other U.S. bishops in an extra-curricular session. Many believe the global Anglican meeting may determine the continued unity or break of the Communion.

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Anglican Agenda Laid Out for Upcoming Meeting (Christian Post, 070205)

The Church of England newspaper released the agenda for the global Anglican meeting that may determine the continued unity or break of the Communion.

According to the released report, the 2007 Primates meeting will devote four hours to discussing the Episcopal Church and its response to the Windsor Report – the 2004 compiled report that called for a moratorium on the consecration of homosexual candidates and for repentance by the parties who attended the ordination of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson in 2003.

Among the three sessions devoted to the Episcopal Church, U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is reportedly scheduled for two of the sessions to respond to criticisms against the U.S. body for not honoring the recommendations of the Windsor Report.

Throughout the six-day meeting, Feb. 14-19, bishops representing the 38 Anglican provinces are scheduled to partake in a daily Eucharist. The Eucharist services are optional, according to the report, as they cater to some of the members of the Global South coalition who stated in a September 2006 communiqué that they would not break bread with Jefferts Schori, who supports the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The document had stated, “Some of us will not be able to recognize Katharine Jefferts Schori as a Primate at the table with us. Others will be in impaired communion with her as a representative of The Episcopal Church.”

The Global South leaders proposed for another bishop representing the Episcopal Church to attend the Primates meeting. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams invited three other U.S. bishops to hear their voices.

The invited bishops are Christopher Epting, the presiding bishop’s deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations and the former bishop of Iowa; Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the conservative Anglican Communion Network; and Bruce McPherson of Western Louisiana, president of the Presiding Bishop’s Council of Advice. The three bishops are said to represent the different theological stances of the Episcopal Church. They are scheduled to make presentations at an extra-curricular session during a recess of the Primates meeting.

One session, the Church of England newspaper noted, has been set for a time of “listening” to the experience of homosexual persons – a process that was envisioned by the 1998 Lambeth Conference where all Anglican bishops had agreed that homosexual practice is incompatible to Scripture while calling the church to minister to homosexuals. The “Listening Process” will also serve to assure homosexual persons that they are loved by God and are full members of the Body of Christ.

Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria said earlier that the issue of homosexuality must be resolved before the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Otherwise, the church will walk separate ways and hold its own Lambeth 2008.

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Orthodox Episcopalians Present Solution for ‘the American Problem’ (Christian Post, 070207)

In quest for a solution to “the American problem” within the Anglican Communion, a group of Orthodox Episcopalians have proposed a new compact that called for no further delay in resolving the divide.

In the “Interim Compact of Anglican Loyalty,” Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion (LEAC) urged for a new orthodox Anglican structure in North America that would operate independently from the worldwide Anglican body until the Communion formally rids the American continent of the Episcopal Church and charters a reliable replacement province for orthodox Anglicans.

The compact was presented over the weekend to each of the 38 primates who are scheduled to meet at the annual Primates meeting on Feb. 14 in Tanzania and also in support of Pittsburgh Bishop Robert W. Duncan, head of the Anglican Communion Network. Duncan was invited to attend the Primates meeting as a representative of orthodox U.S. interests.

More than anything, the LEAC called for an immediate solution to “the American problems.”

Since the 2003 consecration of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, more than 100 U.S. parishes, according to LEAC, have departed from the Episcopal Church and aligned themselves with provinces overseas to remain in the Anglican Communion. Breakaway congregations felt the Episcopal Church theologically abandoned the Communion, departing from scriptural authority and the Windsor Report.

The Windsor Report had affirmed the global church’s stance on homosexuality as incompatible with Scripture and called parties that violated the doctrine to repentance.

Lay Episcopalians described the divide among Anglicans the “bleeding in America.”

“A prompt American solution is imperative,” stated the compact.

An LEAC spokesman said they cannot wait for a resolution until the next international meeting and urged for action at the Primates meeting. Further delay would precipitate further “balkanizing” of the American Anglican body, the LEAC compact stated

“We believe irreparable harm will be done to the prospects of restoration and renewal of a unified, robust orthodox Anglican presence if action is delayed until the scheduled decennial Anglican bishops’ conference in 2008, or beyond.”

Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria had also called for a prompt resolution to the issue of homosexuality before the 2008 Lambeth Conference, particularly at the Primates meeting. If the issue is not resolved, Akinola warned that his church would walk separate ways from the worldwide Communion.

Meanwhile, an immediate activation of the proposed independent orthodox structure in America, or what the LEAC called a “province-in-waiting,” could be in operation as soon as All Saints Day, Nov. 1.

The new federation would undertake a “pan-Anglican” role bringing faithful dioceses together into a “mosaic.” Churches aligned with foreign provinces, however, would likely be required to discontinue those relationships and rejoin the new organization, the LEAC stated.

The Primates meeting is said to be a make-or-break gathering amid a growing divide over homosexuality. During the six-day meeting, only four hours are scheduled to be devoted to discussing the Episcopal Church and its response to the Windsor Report. Other than U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, three other U.S. bishops besides, including Duncan, will present their views during an extra-curricular session.

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Bishop: Anglican Communion Finally at Critical Point: ‘Something Has Got to Happen Soon’ in the Anglican Communion (Christian Post, 070208)

By this time next year, the Anglican Communion will “certainly” not be where it is now, said the Bishop of Durham ahead of the critical Primates meeting.

Tom Wright, bishop of one of the oldest dioceses in England, told UK’s The Times online edition that every meeting has looked like a “make-or-break” one for the last three years, since the consecration of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. This time around, however, the global Anglican church seems to have finally come to its critical point.

“We are closing in on the fact that something has got to happen soon,” said Wright in the interview with the UK news agency.

Invitations are already out for next week’s global meeting with the head bishops of each Anglican province and soon the Archbishop of Canterbury has to send out invitations for the 2008 Lambeth Conference – a decennial meeting that could see the absence of the Church of Nigeria and conservative Anglicans in the United States if the Communion does not resolve the issue over homosexuality soon.

“That is a way of saying that by this time next year, we will certainly not be where we are now,” said Wright. “Some lines will have hardened, one way or another. There is so much sound and fury in many different directions that it is a matter of several different pressures from several different corners – trying to hear them and listen to the voice of God in the middle of it all and make some sense of it.”

Amid divisions across the globe over scriptural authority and the issue over homosexuality, Wright said it is “clear that the split is coming from those in the American church who are insisting on doing something that the Lambeth Conference and the rest of the Communion had asked them not to do.”

A Lambeth resolution approved in 1998 states that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture and a later Windsor Report had called parties that violate the Anglican doctrine to repent - a report that Wright said has held the global body together after the Episcopal Church consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003. The U.S. Anglican arm has yet to fully respond to the Windsor Report.

The Primates meeting scheduled four hours to discuss the Episcopal Church and its response to the Windsor Report.

Less than a week away from the key meeting, U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the people of the Episcopal Church on Wednesday to remember the mission that is their reason for being as the Anglican Communion – “God’s mission to heal this broken world.”

“The ability to know each other and understand our various contexts is the foundation of shared mission,” the controversial female head further stated.

Four U.S. bishops will be attending the Primates meeting that opens Feb. 14 in Tanzania. Although only Jefferts Schori will be at the Primates table, the other three bishops were invited to present their stance as representatives of the widely varying views among Anglicans in the United States.

“The more sharp-edged question is who is seen to be speaking for the American evangelicals,” Wright posed.

One of the invited U.S. bishops is Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh. Although still an Episcopal bishop, Duncan is a Windsor bishop and heads the Anglican Communion Network which is comprised of parishes opposed to the Episcopal Church’s actions supporting homosexual ordination.

Wright says Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will listen to everyone and think and pray through everything he hears.

“His commitment is to work for the unity of the Church and the advancement of the Gospel,” he added. Williams, who had recently expressed fear that a schism may occur in the Anglican Communion, will be chairing next week’s Primates meeting.

Like many other bishops, Wright cannot predict the outcome of the Primates meeting. He hopes, however, that the recommendations of the Windsor Report will be followed through and that it would thus renew the Episcopal Church rather than split it, although Wright admits that not many will like the renewal.

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Who is really Anglican? Would the real Anglicans please stand up! (AAC, 070125)

A Statement by the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, AAC President and CEO

In recent pronouncements, the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, has stated that the new Anglican organization called CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) is not a part of the Anglican Communion. He says this to undermine the credibility of the northern Virginia district of CANA (the Anglican District of Virginia) in the eyes of Virginians and others. This is in part because he feels that he has a franchise right to Anglicanism in his part of the state, much as a medieval lord might have rights to his domain, his serfs, and the property located therein. Bishop Lee feels that in the Anglican world one piece of land can only have one jurisdiction, or at least one Anglican jurisdiction (since the Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists and Roman Catholics seem to have overlapping jurisdiction on land he claims).

There is, as you might guess, more to the story.

First, in the Anglican world there are often anomalies, such as is the case with Europe, where both the Church of England and the Episcopal Church USA (now called TEC) both claim the same territory, and each has churches and bishops overseeing the same geography if not the same churches. This should inform Bishop Lee’s concerns about his singular claim to the Virginia topography: Bishop, it’s time to share.

Second, Bishop Lee and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, which comprises the middle and northern portions of the state, would claim that they are a part of the Anglican Communion, even as they would deny this about CANA. In fact, Bishop Lee’s connection, and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia’s connection, to the Anglican Communion are not direct, but subsequent to being a part of the Episcopal Church USA/TEC. It is the province of TEC that has global membership, and Bishop Lee and his diocese are members through TEC. The only problem is that TEC’s membership is currently in a stand-down mode and is under critical review. Further sanctions may in fact be levied against TEC, and this would weaken Bishop Lee’s standing in the Anglican Communion as well.

CANA, on the other hand is also a part of the Anglican Communion, but through the Anglican Province of Nigeria instead of The Episcopal Church in the United States. CANA was formed legally within the Constitution and Canons of the Nigerian church, and CANA’s bishop, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, was consecrated with other Nigerian bishops at a service in the cathedral in Abuja, Nigeria, last summer. Bishop Minns sits in the House of Bishops of Nigeria as a voting member along with the other Nigerian bishops. CANA’s connection to the Anglican Communion is through Nigeria, which is not under any stand-down protocol or critical review within the Anglican Communion. It is, in fact, the largest and fastest growing of all the Anglican provinces.

The irony of Bishop Lee’s remarks is that he gets the exclusive claim wrong. The Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church (of the United States) are both tarnished at present, whereas the Province of Nigeria and her CANA mission in the United States are untarnished and in good standing. Although both the Diocese of Virginia and CANA exist as churches under their representative provinces, the status of the U.S. province is clouded; furthermore, TEC is diminishing numbers, representing just over 2 million individuals on the roles, whereas the Province of Nigeria is rapidly growing and has approximately 20 million in church on Sundays.

It finally becomes quite a study in contrasts; no wonder Bishop Lee is anxious about the future.

The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson

President and CEO, American Anglican Council

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AAC President Comments on Recent Actions by the Diocese and Bishop of Virginia Against 11 Anglican Congregations and 21 Priests (AAC, 070208)

Last week, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, filed civil litigation against 11 Virginia congregations that recently departed the diocese and joined the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). Bishop Lee also inhibited 21 priests associated with the churches under the charge of “abandonment of Communion.” The 11 parishes, which have repeatedly emphasized their desire and willingness to meet the bishop and diocesan leaders at the negotiation table rather than in court, called the legal action by the diocese an “act of betrayal” and has requested that the diocese “step back from this precipitous behavior” so that an “amicable and reasonable” resolution may be pursued.

“These actions by the Diocese of Virginia are shameful and un-Christian, and the bishop’s refusal to consider further negotiation appears to be intentionally punitive,” said the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, American Anglican Council (AAC) President and CEO. “After leading the churches to believe that their disaffiliation decisions would be respected and responded to with Christian charity and without litigation, the bishop and other diocesan officials have indeed betrayed and deceived these churches, plus attempted to shipwreck the ordained ministry of many faithful priests.”

Last fall, before the churches voted to leave the diocese and The Episcopal Church (TEC), their leaders worked together with the diocese to establish a common protocol specifying procedures for disaffiliation and subsequent property negotiation. This protocol, developed under Bishop Lee’s oversight, was received by the Standing Committee, and the churches followed it closely. In particular, the protocol stated that if a church voted by at least a 70 percent majority to retain its property, then a payment for the property by the departing church to the diocese would be determined by agreement between representatives of the church and diocese. In addition, the protocol said, “In approaching their agreement, we urge the parties to be guided by principles of fairness, equity and Christian charity.”

Despite this and other earlier indications of willingness for mutual cooperation, the bishop and Diocese of Virginia have sadly chosen to take a similar path to that of some other Episcopal bishops across the country when confronted with Episcopal congregations leaving their dioceses. Bishop Lee, in a Jan. 18, 2007 letter to his diocese, emphasized that he did not believe the move to seize the churches’ properties through litigation to be dishonorable, but rather “consistent with our mission and with our fiduciary and moral obligations to the Church.”

Canon Anderson responded: “Since when is litigation the only or even the preferred way of Christians resolving disputes over mission, fiduciary or moral obligations? Does not Matthew 18 set out a path of resolution and negotiation? Since these are two international organizations that are in dispute, the resolution needs to be decided by an international Anglican body, such as the Primates.”

Continuing, Canon Anderson said: “Unfortunately, I am not surprised by the turn for the worse in Virginia, though it grieves me deeply. Virginia is one diocese of many where the top leadership of The Episcopal Church is accelerating the promotion of its agenda to punish those who choose not to remain institutionally loyal and instead affiliate with orthodox bishops overseas. This is a trend that began several years ago and is now in full force as the national Episcopal Church attempts to fight its continued membership decline, plus faces opposition abroad that could result in the church’s expulsion from the Anglican Communion.

“Ironically, these kinds of desperate attempts to gain control of individual churches’ assets not only constitutes unbiblical behavior, but also reinforces the very reasons that the churches left the Episcopal Church to begin with, namely abandonment of Scriptural authority and the historic mission of the Church,” Canon Anderson said.

The AAC continues to offer its full support for these 11 churches in Virginia, as well as other parishes that have departed TEC.

“The Scriptures promise that those who remain faithful to Jesus Christ and His Word will ultimately prevail,” Canon Anderson concluded. “I applaud these churches’ costly faithfulness and encourage other orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans to follow their example in standing up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in whatever venue they find themselves, even in the face of opposition.”

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Anglican Heads Prepare for a Make or Break (Christian Post, 070212)

Most Anglican bishops in the Global South have already expressed their firm stance against homosexuality and made a call to resolve the issue soon. But the head of southern Africa is arguing for harmony and acceptance.

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane described the 77-million member Anglican Communion as a place of tolerance.

“The marks of our church are grace, tolerance and living with difference,” he told the New York Times. “We need to make a distinction between issues that are fundamental to the faith and second-order issues. This is not a church-dividing issue.”

Many on the African continent, however, say the issue of homosexuality must be resolved before the decennial Lambeth Conference in 2008. And the issue may soon determine the split or continuing communion of the Church of Nigeria, reportedly the largest Anglican province.

This week, bishops from the 38 Anglican provinces will convene at the Primates meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Some have said they will refuse to sit at the same table with U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports the ordination of homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions, when the meeting opens on Feb. 14.

Ndungane called it “absolute nonsense,” according to the Times, and expressed support for the new U.S. Episcopal head.

Echoing a similar concern that openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire had also raised recently, Ndungane drew attention to the sidetracked global issues of AIDS and poverty. The consecration of Robinson in 2003 had heightened the controversy within the Episcopal Church and Ndungane is the only African archbishop to argue that the Episcopal Church was within its rights to consecrate Robinson, according to the Times.

If Robinson were in most other provinces, however, he could not be bishop, said Bishop Tom Wright of Durham in an interview with UK’s The Times online edition.

Meanwhile, the U.S. arm of Anglicanism is losing members. More parishes have voted to split with the Episcopal Church over the denomination’s departure from scriptural authority.

Jefferts Schori said membership in mainline denominations overall is down and that the highly-publicized departure of the congregations that left only make up a small minority of the denomination – one-half of one percent of the 7,200 congregations.

While much of the discussions have been devoted to the Episcopal Church’s controversial actions toward the acceptance of homosexuals, the average Anglican does not “care about the lifestyles of the people in America,” said Ndungane, alluding to the larger issues of poverty and disease.

A lot of people in America’s churches, however, are not really caught up with what is going on, said Wright. “The idea of doctrinal indifferentism is a very recent idea which has sprung up in some parts of America.”

Wright does not see how the Episcopal Church can reconcile with most of the Anglican provinces which had agreed that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture in the 2004 Windsor Report. The report also called the global body to minister to all, regardless of sexual orientation. Wright hopes the U.S. body will not be cut off but instead “pruned.”

As Jefferts Schori prepares for what The New York Times called a “hostile reception” this week, Ndungane says he’s prepared to speak out if need be. And so are three other invited U.S. bishops, some of whom will be representing the conservative end of the Anglicans in the United States.

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Episcopal Church’s Lawsuit Called ‘Un-Christian’ (Christian Post, 070214)

New lawsuits filed by The Episcopal Church against the latest exodus of churches over church property did not surprise the breakaway Anglicans but one defendant called it “un-Christian.”

Weeks after the Diocese of Virginia sued 11 churches that overwhelmingly voted to break from the Episcopal Church, the American denomination joined the battle in a complaint filed Friday over the control of property.

Tom Wilson, senior warden of The Falls Church, one of the largest and most historic churches to leave the Episcopal diocese in December, said the move by the denomination is “not surprising but sadly un-Christian and heavy-handed,” in a released statement.

The 20-page complaint names the clergy and vestry in the case, arguing that they are continuing to use the real and personal property “for their own use in association with a different church,” according to the Episcopal News Service.

Dissident Anglicans, now aligned with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – an outreach initiative of the Church of Nigeria – claim that the deeds to the church properties are in the name of trustees for the congregations and not the Diocese of Virginia or the Episcopal Church. The properties are worth tens of millions of dollars.

In the complaint, the denomination cites Virginia canons that say a parish’s property is “held by and for the mission of the Church.” The canons also say that the diocese “shall” take steps to secure the property of any parish or mission that ceases to function as an Episcopal congregation.

“If the Episcopal Church were half as devoted to the Scriptures as it is to its so-called ‘canons,’ perhaps it would not find itself in these dire straits,” said Wilson.

Wilson along with the majority of the 11 congregations split over the denomination’s departure from scriptural authority, particularly in the issue of homosexuality. The 2003 consecration of the U.S. Anglican body’s first openly gay bishop and the new Episcopal head’s support of homosexual ordination and the blessing of same-sex unions left conservative Anglicans at odds with the denomination. Opposing Anglicans saw the ordination as an act of apostasy and in violation of an agreed doctrine that described homosexuality as incompatible with Scripture.

The Episcopal Church will go under scrutiny at the global Primates meeting on Wednesday where 38 archbishops are expected to meet at the same table.

At the time of the recent split, the Virginia diocese and the breakaway congregations had originally agreed to avoid litigation over property. But negotiations stopped within a month of the agreement and the Episcopal Church has since backed the diocese in the recovery of the church properties.

“This is just the latest evidence of division within the Episcopal Church,” said Jim Oakes, senior warden of Truro Church. “It’s unfortunate that anyone who sides with an orthodox branch of the Anglican Communion finds itself being sued. But we have studied the law and are prepared to respond.”

The complaint asks the court to issue preliminary and permanent injunctions ordering the defendants to relinquish control of the church property as the property is called to be used for “the Church’s ministry and mission.”

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Anglican Heads Arrive to Open Critical Meeting (Christian Post, 070214)

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams arrived in Tanzania on Tuesday for a critical Primates meeting where Anglican leaders around the globe are expecting a resolve to the Episcopal Church row.

Also on the arrival list that day was Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, controversial representative of the Episcopal Church – the U.S. Anglican arm. Primates from 38 Anglican provinces are scheduled to begin gathering at the same table on Thursday, but a group of Global South Anglican bishops have already begun to converse ahead of the official meeting.

Some of those already gathered have said that they will refuse to recognize Jefferts Schori at the Primates table over theological differences, including her support for the ordination of homosexuals and her questioning Jesus as the only way to salvation.

While the meeting agenda includes discussions on Millennium Development Goals and theological education among other issues, Anglican heads are anticipating a decision regarding the apostasies of the Episcopal Church, mainly its consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003. The Church of Nigeria called for a resolution over the issue of homosexuality soon, warning that it would otherwise walk separately from the Anglican Communion.

And Williams, who said he fears schism in the Communion, stands at the head of the meeting and is the sole person who will determine the invitation list for the 2008 Lambeth Conference. That list will contain the provinces that will continue in communion with the 77-million member denomination.

Although previous primates meetings since 2003 have been called a make-or-break time for the Anglican Communion, bishops predict that this week’s meeting will clarify the way ahead for Anglicans. And over the last three years, the Episcopal Church has had “more than sufficient warning,” said Dr. Peter Jensen, archbishop of Sydney.

“Whether the American convictions prove to be prophetic and true, or willful and badly mistaken, they have chosen to follow them to the end,” said Jensen. “They cannot be surprised that this will cause turbulence in the communion. They had more than sufficient warning over the years.”

The current Primates agenda includes four hours of discussion on the Episcopal Church and its response to the Windsor Report, which had called parties that violate Anglican doctrine to repentance and to “express regret.”

Jensen sees the debates as a clash of “deeply held convictions” among the Anglicans and asks, “Can Anglicans continue to witness to the truth and also love those with whom we differ so significantly?”

The Primates meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15-19.

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First on Anglican Agenda: The Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070215)

The Anglican Primates meeting officially opened on Thursday reportedly heading straight into sessions on the Episcopal Church and its long awaited response to what many bishops see as violations of Scripture.

Although many of the 35 Anglican heads present say such global issues as poverty and AIDS deserve more attention than the controversy over homosexuality in the United States, the Anglican agenda placed the issue of sexuality and the Episcopal Church’s controversial views ahead of other pressing issues.

U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was scheduled to speak during the first two sessions of the nearly weeklong meeting at the White Sands Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Thursday morning. While some of the Anglican bishops from the Global South had said that they would not recognize Jefferts Schori at the same Primates table, the presence of the U.S. head was affirmed at the meeting.

“There is no question of her presence at the meeting,” said Canon James Rosenthal, director of communications for the Anglican Consultative Council, on Wednesday, according to the Living Church Foundation, a publication supporting orthodox, catholic Anglicanism within the Episcopal Church.

A 2004 Windsor Report invited the Episcopal Church to express regret over the consecration of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003 and until there was an apology, the involved parties were asked to consider withdrawing themselves from functions of the Anglican Communion. A full response to the Windsor Report by the U.S. Anglican body was not given before the global meeting but is expected this week. Rosenthal plainly stated that Jefferts Schori is “here by right” and her attendance was “confirmed [Wednesday] morning” by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who leads the world’s 77 million Anglicans as the “first among equals.”

The latest reports indicated that three other invited bishops from the United States went into an extra-curricular session with the U.S. head and Williams Thursday afternoon. The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh and moderator of the Anglican Communion Network; the Rt. Rev. C. Christopher Epting, presiding bishop’s deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations; and the Rt. Rev. D. Bruce McPherson, bishop of Western Louisiana and president of the presiding bishop’s Council of Advice, were invited by Williams as representatives of the wide beliefs held by Anglicans in the United States. They were allotted five to 10 minutes for opening remarks which were scheduled to be followed by questions posed by the primates.

Security is tight around the White Sands Resort as the Anglican heads, 13 of whom are attending for the first time, convene for the next five days until Feb. 19. Three primates are absent from the gathering.

Jefferts Schori remains calm and expressed that she welcomes the opportunity to meet new colleagues and build relationships, according to the Episcopal News Service. Meanwhile, the Global South Primates presented a letter to Williams on Feb. 14. Contents within the letter have not been officially confirmed.

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Episcopal Head ‘Will Not Waver’ on Gay Stance (Christian Post, 070216)

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) - The head of the U.S. wing of the Anglican church, who supports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, will not soften her views even as the issues threaten to break apart the Christian denomination, her aide said Thursday.

The leaders of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, who are holding a closed meeting this week in Tanzania, said they would discuss the U.S. response to a 2004 report by an Anglican panel that called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years, but became a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church — the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion — consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The problems mounted last year with the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as head of the U.S. church.

“The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here and there will be a middle way forward,” said Jefferts Schori’s aide, Robert Williams. But he said she “will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ.”

Conservative Anglicans have formed a rival network in the U.S. under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a “satanic attack” on the church. Other conservatives have called for a parallel church within the United States.

The conference was sure to be highly charged over the rift.

“The basic issue here is what to do about those who decided they don’t want to stay in the main Anglican body,” said Canon Jim Rosenthal, a spokesman for the Anglican Communion.

Akinola gave a letter this week to the spiritual leader of the communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, which is believed to demand some concessions to head off a schism. Africa is home to half the world’s Anglicans and is dominated by conservative leaders.

Rosenthal confirmed the letter but said it was private.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible’s social justice teachings take precedence over its view of sexuality. However, most Anglicans outside the U.S. believe gay relationships are sinful, and they are distancing themselves from the U.S. church.

Williams has struggled to hold off one of the biggest meltdowns in Christianity in centuries, but he lacks any direct authority to force a compromise. The Anglican Communion is the world’s third-largest family of Christian churches behind Roman Catholic and Orthodox.

Bishop Martyn Minns of Fairfax, Va. — one of the most prominent U.S. clerics to leave the American church for Akinola’s group — said Wednesday that it would be best for the U.S. church to “back off and reconsider” its stance on gays. But, he said, that was highly unlikely.

“It’s been tragic, the amount of time and energy that has been spent on this issue that was initiated by the American church,” he said.

The creation of Akinola’s group, called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, has been the most dramatic step by conservatives to encourage a breakaway Episcopal group that would be outside Jefferts Schori’s oversight.

An eventual breakup of the communion would be the most stunning fallout from struggles over gay relationships that also have gripped Roman Catholics, Lutherans and others. The Anglican fellowship was founded in the 16th century by King Henry VIII and spread worldwide by the British Empire.

Several delegates at the six-day conference, which brings together the archbishops who head the 38 provinces in the Anglican Communion, have threatened to refuse to sit with Jefferts Schori over the issue of gays.

But Rosenthal said Wednesday she is welcome and was invited by the archbishop of Canterbury.

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Episcopalians Say Alternative Oversight Poses ‘Grave Danger’ (Christian Post, 070216)

More than 900 members of the Episcopal Church, including their presiding bishop, signed a letter telling the head of the Anglican Communion that granting dissident members a new overseer would pose “a grave danger” to the worldwide denomination.

The letter was sent ahead of a closed global meeting this week in Tanzania where the Anglican archbishops of 35 provinces have convened. The invited primates are expected to hear the Episcopal Church’s response to the 2004 Windsor Report that called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

“The basic issue here is what to do about those who decided they don’t want to stay in the main Anglican body,” said Canon James Rosenthal, spokesman for the Anglican Communion, according to the Associated Press.

Conservative Anglicans in the United States and in the majority of the Global South have distanced themselves from the Episcopal Church since divisions heightened with the 2003 ordination of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The most prominent exodus from the U.S. Anglican body occurred in December when congregations in Virginia left the Episcopal diocese and joined an alternative body – the Convocation of Anglicans in North America set up by the Church of Nigeria.

Other conservative Anglicans in the United States have requested for “alternative primatial oversight,” seeking a new overseer from other countries in an attempt to realign with the Anglican Communion.

Parishes and dioceses that made the request to Williams last summer include the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Central Florida, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Joaquin, South Carolina, and Springfield. The Diocese of Quincy requested the same in September.

In opposition, Episcopal clergy and laity wrote in the recent letter that those seeking a new overseer are “in effect asking to walk away from the messiness and ambiguity of our current disputes about gays and lesbians in the church.”

Granting the diocese their request would “lead to fragmentation of the Anglican Communion rather than deeper unity in Christ,” the letter stated.

While conservative Anglicans within America and overseas believe the Episcopal Church has not responded adequately to the Windsor Report, Episcopalians in the letter stressed that they do not view the report as “an ultimatum.” Rather, the Episcopal Church views it as “part of a process.”

The letter further urged for respect for the authority of the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the “autonomy of the Episcopal Church.”

This week, as Jefferts Schori faces Anglican leaders that are varied in their backing and opposition to her support for the ordination of homosexuals, Robert Williams, aide to Jefferts Schori, said the U.S. head “will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ.”

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Alternate Primates’ Meeting Agenda Proposed (American Anglican Council, 060213)

The dismissal of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop of York John Sentamu will be among the first items under discussion in an alternate agenda proposed by the Global South coalition for the primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Following two days of meetings at a hotel near the Tanzanian capital, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria wrote to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Feb. 12 setting forth the Global South’s concerns over the agenda and structure of the Feb. 14-19 meeting of the leaders of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion.

While the text and form of the letter, which was received by Archbishop Williams shortly before he left London for Tanzania, has not been made public, its contents are understood to follow upon correspondence between the two church leaders focusing on The Episcopal Church, the primates’ meeting, the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in 2008, and the structures of the Communion.

Global South leaders have objected to Archbishop Williams’ invitation to the Archbishop of York on structural grounds. Adding a second representative from the Church of England to the primates’ roster fundamentally alters the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, changing his role of primus inter pares to that of an executive officer, they have argued.

The objections to Archbishop Sentamu come not to the person of the Ugandan-born archbishop, leaders of the coalition told a reporter, but to Archbishop Williams’ “fait accompli” of having altered the primates’ meeting membership without consulting its members.

Archbishop Williams’ position that he has no choice but to invite Bishop Jefferts Schori in deference to her office as Presiding Bishop has also received short shrift from the Global South primates, who have argued that it is improper to place protocol above truth. The objections laid against Bishop Jefferts Schori’s presence at the meeting in the Kigali Communiqué and the “Road to Lambeth” paper should be heard and not prejudged, they argued, according to sources familiar with the exchanges.

The Global South leaders will ask Archbishop Williams to adjust the agenda so as to allow an early airing of their concerns. However, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, cautioned against speculation on the outcome of the meeting, noting that the primates were not ideologically driven, but were seeking to be faithful to God’s will for the church.

He also objected to characterizations of the Global South meeting as a rival camp to the primates’ meeting, noting the Global South had accommodations where they could meet for fellowship, prayer and conversation.

Upon his arrival in Tanzania on Feb. 13, Archbishop Williams acknowledged the “many challenges and decisions ahead of us” at an airport press conference, but added that he was confident that “God’s will [shall] be done and his purposes will be set forward in the days that lie ahead of us.”

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A Statement by the American Anglican Council on the Communion Sub-Group Report (American Anglican Council, 070216)

The American Anglican Council (AAC) finds a report released today by the Anglican Communion Sub-Group highly inadequate in its assessment of the U.S. Episcopal Church’s response to requests made of the church by the Anglican Communion primates. The sub-group – which consists of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Central Africa Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan, Chancellor of the Province of West Africa Philippa Amable, and Church of England representative Elizabeth Paver – was charged with assisting Dr. Williams and Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general for the Anglican Communion, in evaluating the U.S. Episcopal Church’s response to the 2004 Windsor Report and February 2005 primates’ requests. The report was completed last fall but has just now become available to both the primates and the public.

The Communion Sub-Group’s report, through analysis of General Convention resolutions and consideration of a few selected circumstances in the U.S. province, states that The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States is in compliance with two of the primates’ three requests. The report says that, despite not using the same language as the Windsor Report, TEC has complied with the request for a moratorium on the consent to bishop-elects living in same-sex unions, as well as the request for an expression of regret for the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, a partnered homosexual, in 2003. However, the report determines that the U.S. church did not address the issue of a moratorium on same-sex blessings and that it is therefore “hard to discern exactly where the Episcopal Church stands on this issue.” Despite acknowledgement of evidence to the contrary, the report avows that it is “not at all clear” whether TEC is complying with the moratorium request and says the topic should be “addressed urgently” by TEC’s House of Bishops.

The report by the Communion Sub-Group minimizes or ignores the known existence of verifiable evidence of Windsor non-compliance by TEC. Its examination of the text of General Convention resolutions’ language is literal and gives TEC the benefit of a doubt when the resolution language is vague. In addition, the report fails to address individual diocesan resolutions that have rejected General Convention resolutions pertaining to Windsor compliance. The report confirms that Lambeth Resolution 1.10 remains the standard for sexual behavior in the Anglican Communion, yet ignores the many instances at all levels of TEC, from the presiding bishop down to diocesan and parish level, where statements and actions defy this standard.

“This report gives a ‘best-case scenario’ picture of TEC that is not only skewed in favor of TEC but quite simply fails to reflect the reality of life in the Episcopal Church,” said the Rev. Canon David Anderson, AAC president and CEO, who is on-site in Tanzania covering the Primates’ Meeting for the AAC’s Encompass publication. “This report misses the mark entirely in its analysis of TEC’s beliefs and intentions. Furthermore, the report does not indicate an understanding that the issues surrounding human sexuality are only the tip of the iceberg. The crisis in TEC goes to the very core of Christian beliefs, and many of the primates have already recognized that sexuality is only a symptom of those deeper issues, including biblical authority and the nature of who Jesus is.”

The Anglican primates heard presentations today from three other U.S. bishops who were specially invited to give an account of the situation in TEC at this week’s Primates’ Meeting; the primates are expected to make a decision on TEC’s status in the Communion, and on the requests by U.S. orthodox for alternative primatial oversight, before their meeting ends Monday, Feb. 19.

“The Episcopal Church leadership has become expert at spinning the issues in order to placate the worldwide Communion and avoid discipline for their actions, but the AAC prays that the primates will see through this deception and will recognize the urgency of the situation in the United States, especially in view of the recently stepped-up persecution and hostility experienced by orthodox in the face of revisionist bishops and dioceses,” Canon Anderson said. “Now is the time to act; we have waited too long to address the problems in the U.S. province – as the Communion Sub-Group’s report itself admits – and if the primates do not respond decisively now, it will deal a severe – perhaps fatal – blow to Anglicanism in North America and world-wide.”

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Churches back plan to unite under Pope (Times Online, 070219)

Radical proposals to reunite Anglicans with the Roman Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope are to be published this year, The Times has learnt.

The proposals have been agreed by senior bishops of both churches.

In a 42-page statement prepared by an international commission of both churches, Anglicans and Roman Catholics are urged to explore how they might reunite under the Pope.

The statement, leaked to The Times, is being considered by the Vatican, where Catholic bishops are preparing a formal response.

It comes as the archbishops who lead the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in an attempt to avoid schism over gay ordination and other liberal doctrines that have taken hold in parts of the Western Church.

The 36 primates at the gathering will be aware that the Pope, while still a cardinal, sent a message of support to the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church of the US as it struggled to cope with the fallout after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.

Were this week’s discussions to lead to a split between liberals and conservatives, many of the former objections in Rome to a reunion with Anglican conservatives would disappear. Many of those Anglicans who object most strongly to gay ordination also oppose the ordination of women priests.

Rome has already shown itself willing to be flexible on the subject of celibacywhen it received dozens of married priests from the Church of England into the Catholic priesthood after they left over the issue of women’s ordination.

There are about 78 million Anglicans, compared with a billion Roman Catholics, worldwide. In England and Wales, the Catholic Church is set to overtake Anglicanism as the predominant Christian denomination for the first time since the Reformation, thanks to immigration from Catholic countries.

As the Anglicans’ squabbles over the fundamentals of Christian doctrine continue — with seven of the conservative primates twice refusing to share Communion with the other Anglican leaders at their meeting in Tanzania — the Church’s credibility is being increasingly undermined in a world that is looking for strong witness from its international religious leaders.

The Anglicans will attempt to resolve their differences today by publishing a new Anglican Covenant, an attempt to provide a doctrinal statement under which they can unite.

But many fear that the divisions have gone too far to be bridged and that, if they cannot even share Communion with each other, there is little hope that they will agree on a statement of common doctrine.

The latest Anglican-Catholic report could hardly come at a more sensitive time. It has been drawn up by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission, which is chaired by the Right Rev David Beetge, an Anglican bishop from South Africa, and the Most Rev John Bathersby, the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia.

The commission was set up in 2000 by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy, then head of the Vatican’s Council for Christian Unity. Its aim was to find a way of moving towards unity through “common life and mission”.

The document leaked to The Times is the commission’s first statement, Growing Together in Unity and Mission. The report acknowledges the “imperfect communion” between the two churches but says that there is enough common ground to make its “call for action” about the Pope and other issues.

In one significant passage the report notes: “The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the ministry of the Bishop of Rome [the Pope] as universal primate is in accordance with Christ’s will for the Church and an essential element of maintaining it in unity and truth.” Anglicans rejected the Bishop of Rome as universal primate in the 16th century. Today, however, some Anglicans are beginning to see the potential value of a ministry of universal primacy, which would be exercised by the Bishop of Rome, as a sign and focus of unity within a reunited Church.

In another paragraph the report goes even further: “We urge Anglicans and Roman Catholics to explore together how the ministry of the Bishop of Rome might be offered and received in order to assist our Communions to grow towards full, ecclesial communion.”

Other recommendations include inviting lay and ordained members of both denominations to attend each other’s synodical and collegial gatherings and conferences. Anglican bishops could be invited to accompany Catholic ones on visits to Rome.

The report adds that special “protocols” should also be drawn up to handle the movement of clergy from one Church to the other. Other proposals include common teaching resources for children in Sunday schools and attendance at each other’s services, pilgrimages and processions.

Anglicans are also urged to begin praying for the Pope during the intercessionary prayers in church services, and Catholics are asked also to pray publicly for the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In today’s Anglican Church, it is unlikely that a majority of parishioners would wish to heal the centuries-old rift and return to Rome.

However, the stance of the Archbishop of Canterbury over the present dispute dividing his Church gives an indication of how priorities could be changing in light of the gospel imperative towards church unity.

Dr Rowan Williams, who as Primate of the Church of England is its “focus for unity”, has in the past supported a liberal interpretation of Scripture on the gay issue. But he has made it clear that church unity must come before provincial autonomy. A logical extension of that, once this crisis is overcome either by agreement or schism, would be to seek reunion with the Church of England’s own mother Church.

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Anglican Heads Face Final Day of Meeting (Christian Post, 070219)

The global Anglican meeting has come to its final sessions after an intense four days and no formal talk of schism in Tanzania. Anglican leaders now await an official communiqué that is expected to reflect the agreement of the gathered primates.

As the head bishops have headed into their final meeting day on Monday, some reports indicate that a group of leading conservatives may issue a minority statement, separating themselves from the worldwide Anglican Communion.

A report last week released by the Communion sub-group, headed by the denomination’s head, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, had disappointed conservative Anglicans as it had accepted the apology of the Episcopal Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop in 2003 and felt the American Anglican body’s response of regret was “sufficient.”

Many of the conservative Anglicans in the United States and the Global South said the Episcopal Church’s response did not meet the requests of the 2004 Windsor Report, which called for a moratorium on consecrating homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions.

Still divided over theological views and the issue of homosexuality with the Episcopal Church, some conservatives are seeking a parallel church within the United States and hope the communiqué today will allow for it. Robert Williams, aide to U.S. head Katharine Jefferts Schori, however, said such a structure goes contrary to Episcopal teachings and any enclave for conservatives must remain within the Episcopal Church. It must also not include several groups with links to African provinces.

The Church of Nigeria has already set up a separate outreach arm in the United States - Convocation of Anglicans in North America - which has some of the largest breakaway congregations from the Episcopal Church.

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury is expected to draw up an invitation list to the decennial Lambeth 2008 conference. Rumors at the Primates meeting, however, indicate that there may not be a conference next year, according to VirtueOnline, a voice for global Orthodox Anglicanism, because of those who say they are in broken communion with Jefferts Schori.

The installment of Jefferts Schori as Episcopal head in November mounted controversy in the Anglican Communion. Her views on Jesus Christ, who she says may not be the only way to God, and her support for homosexual ordination and the blessing of same-sex unions left some conservatives unwilling to recognize her as the U.S. primate and asking for true repentance of the American church.

On Sunday, seven primates refused to participate in the Eucharist and the breaking of bread with Jefferts Schori. Over 600 people packed the Cathedral Church of Christ in Zanzibar to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the last sale of a slave there and the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in the British empire.

The final day of the meeting was scheduled to devote two sessions on the Episcopal Church and the approval of the final communiqué. The agenda may change for the completion of the communiqué by the meeting’s conclusion.

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Anglican Report Avoids Schism, Snubs Conservatives (Christian Post, 070216)

There has been no talk of schism at the global Anglican meeting at all, said one of the archbishops.

Rather, after its first day, the critical meeting that many predicted to be a make-or-break time avoided a split and has been described as one of “patience, graciousness, care and respect,” said Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Australia, according to the Episcopal News Service.

Before addressing other global issues, Anglican primates from 35 provinces on Thursday went into sessions on the Episcopal Church and its response to the 2004 Windsor Report, which called for a moratorium on consecrating homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions.

The long-awaited response from U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was revealed in a report by the Anglican Communion sub-group, headed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans. According to the report, the Episcopal Church expressed “regret for straining the bonds of affection in the events surrounding the General Convention of 2003 and the consequences which followed.” The 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop was at the height of the controversy, causing divisions within the Anglican Communion.

It went on to say that the Episcopal Church offers its “sincerest apology” to those offended and “ask[s] forgiveness.”

With the impression that the Episcopal Church vows not to repeat the offense, the sub-group stated that the U.S. body’s expression of regret is “sufficient” to meet the request of the primates.

Although opinions within the Episcopal Church vary widely, particularly on the issue of homosexuality, and conservative Anglicans within the United States as well as from the Global South had proposed for a separate orthodox Anglican body, the worldwide Anglican denomination indicated a continued communion with the Episcopal Church.

The report was not welcomed by some U.S. conservatives with some noting the report’s vagueness and that the world’s third largest Christian denomination is once again “hanging by a thread.”

Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of South Carolina commented, “It’s a really poor report. It is shocking that a report like this could have been written at this stage. It’s way too soft,” according to U.K.-based Guardian Unlimited.

While “too soft” to some, the report also reaffirmed Lambeth Resolution 1.10 which states that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture and that the Communion cannot advise the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of those involved in homosexual unions.

The Rev. Canon David Anderson, president and CEO of the American Anglican Council released a statement opposing the report. “This report gives a ‘best-case scenario’ picture of TEC (The Episcopal Church) that is not only skewed in favor of TEC but quite simply fails to reflect the reality of life in the Episcopal Church.”

While controversy over the issue of homosexuality is largely what has pushed conservative Anglicans to distance themselves from the U.S. church body, Anderson stressed that the problem goes deeper to scriptural authority.

“The crisis in TEC goes to the very core of Christian beliefs,” he said, “and many of the primates have already recognized that sexuality is only a symptom of those deeper issues, including biblical authority and the nature of who Jesus is.”

In recent interviews, Jefferts Schori had questioned Jesus being the only way to God.

A response from the 35 Primates gathered at the meeting and their decision on the Episcopal Church’s status in the Anglican Communion are expected before the meeting ends on Feb. 19. Dissident Episcopalians also await a response on their requests for alternative primatial oversight, which would grant them a new overseer from another country.

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Anglican Leaders Discuss Stance on Gays (Christian Post, 070216)

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — Leaders of the world’s 77 million Anglicans spent Thursday locked in discussion about the church’s American wing, whose leader is under increasing pressure to reconsider her support for ordaining gays and blessing same-sex couples.

Leaders of the global Anglican Communion are holding a closed six-day meeting and the Episcopal Church — the U.S. branch — is at the top of the agenda. They were discussing U.S. response to a 2004 report by an Anglican panel that called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

“The task before the primates now is to discern what response they want to make to the report and beyond that to the Episcopal Church itself,” said Phillip Aspinall, the Archbishop from Australia at the conference.

Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years, but reached a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated its first gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The problems only mounted last year with the consecration of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female leader of the U.S. church.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible’s social justice teachings take precedence over its view of sexuality. However, most Anglicans outside the United States believe gay relationships are sinful, and they are distancing themselves from the U.S. church.

Africa is home to half the world’s Anglicans and is dominated by conservative leaders.

The Anglican leaders discussed a report by a church committee that has been monitoring the U.S. response to the 2004 Windsor Report, which called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

The committee report, which was completed about six months ago but not released publicly, found that the Episcopal Church was taking the Windsor Report “extremely seriously” and had complied with the report’s request for a moratorium on confirming any more gay bishops.

However, the committee said the wide range of practice in American dioceses on blessing same-sex partnerships made it hard to know “exactly what has and has not been approved.”

Earlier Thursday, an aide to Jefferts Schori said she will not soften her views even as the issues threaten to break apart the Christian fellowship.

“The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here and there will be a middle way forward,” Robert Williams told The Associated Press. But Jefferts Schori “will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ.”

Conservatives have formed a rival network in the U.S., under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a “satanic attack” on the church.

Other conservatives have called for a parallel church for within the United States — an idea that Williams called contrary to Episcopal teachings. “The canons and the written laws of the Episcopal church do not provide for any sort of parallel structure,” the aide said.

Williams lacks any direct authority to force a compromise.

The Anglican Communion is the world’s third-largest Christian body behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches. The Anglican fellowship was founded in the 16th century by King Henry VIII and spread worldwide by the British Empire.

An eventual breakup of the communion would be the most stunning fallout from struggles over gay relationships that also have gripped Roman Catholics, Lutherans and others.

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Sitting At The Lord’s Table: Statement from Global South Primates (AAC, 070216)

A number of the Global South Primates have not shared in the Holy Eucharist today with their fellow primates. They include Abp. Peter Akinola, Abp John Chew, Abp. Benjamin Nzimbi, Abp Justice Akrofi, Abp. Henry Orombi, Abp. Gregory Venables, and Abp. Emmanuel Kolini. They represent more than 30 million faithful Anglicans. They have released this statement:

“We each take the celebration of the Holy Eucharist very seriously. This deliberate action is a poignant reminder of the brokenness of the Anglican Communion. It makes clear that the torn fabric of the Church has been torn further. It is a consequence of the decision taken by our provinces to declare that our relationship with The Episcopal Church is either broken or severely impaired.

Scripture teaches that before coming to sit with one another at the Lord’s Table we must be reconciled. (Matthew 5:23-26 and 1 Corinthians 11:27-29) We have made repeated calls for repentance by The Episcopal Church and its leadership with no success. We continue to pray for a change of heart.

We are unable to come to the Holy Table with the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church because to do so would be a violation of Scriptural teaching and the traditional Anglican understanding, “Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy ways; Draw near with faith” (Book of Common Prayer)

This is a painful decision for us and also for our host and brother, the Most Rev’d Donald Mtetemela. He understands our painful dilemma and accepts our decision. Pray for the Church.”

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Seven Anglican Heads Drop Out of Holy Eucharist (Christian Post, 070217)

As leading Anglican bishops consider their response to a report that accepted the apology of the Episcopal Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop, some conservative leaders on Friday refused to break bread with the head of the U.S. arm of Anglicanism.

Seven Global South Primates declared a “severely impaired” relationship with the Episcopal Church when they did not participate in the Holy Eucharist during the global Primates meeting in Tanzania.

Among those absent from the service were Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya and Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, who has expressed staunch opposition to the theological views of Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the U.S. Church’s actions supporting homosexuals.

“This deliberate action is a poignant reminder of the brokenness of the Anglican Communion,” said a released statement by the absent bishops, which together represent more than 30 million of the 77 million Anglicans in the world.

“It makes clear that the torn fabric of the Church has been torn further,” the statement continued. “It is a consequence of the decision taken by our provinces to declare that our relationship with the Episcopal Church is either broken or severely impaired.”

Coming to the same Holy Table with the U.S. primate would amount to a violation of Scripture and traditional Anglican understanding, the Global South primates further explained. They indicated that they do not believe the Episcopal Church has truly repented of its “sins.”

A report released Thursday by the Anglican Communion sub-group, headed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the worldwide church body, revealed that the Episcopal Church expresses regret for “straining the bonds of affection” in the events surrounding the consecration of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003 and offers “its sincerest apology” to those in the Communion offended.

Although the Episcopal Church did not use the precise language of the 2004 Windsor Report, which called for a moratorium on consecrating homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions, the Communion sub-group stated that the expression of regret is “sufficient to meet the request of the primates.”

Anglican conservatives in the United States and in the Global South found the report “highly inadequate” in its assessment of the U.S. Anglican body.

And although the scheduled daily Eucharist is a celebration that the Global South primates take very seriously, they chose not to partake in it as Scripture teaches them to “be reconciled” before sitting with one another at the Lord’s Table, the absent primates stated. And they continue to call on the Episcopal Church for “repentance.”

Before the commencement of the meeting, the daily Eucharist was made optional to the primates, recognizing members who stated that they would not break bread with the U.S. presiding bishop.

Now only two days into the Primates meeting, some orthodox Anglicans remain hopeful. One unidentified orthodox bishop told VirtueOnline, a voice for global Orthodox Anglicanism, that “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings” and “think Rocky Balboa.”

Global South archbishops have yet to make a formal response. All responses to the sub-group report is expected by the end of the Primates meeting on Feb. 19.

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Anglican Head Urges Humility Amid Gay Row (Christian Post, 070218)

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) - The spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion on Sunday called for bishops to feel humility before God, as a fierce debate over homosexuality and scripture threatens to break apart the Christian fellowship.

Leaders of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, in Tanzania for a closed conference that ends Monday, traveled by boat from the mainland for a service at Zanzibar’s Christ Cathedral in this predominantly Muslim archipelago on the Indian Ocean.

“There is one thing that a bishop should say to another bishop,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told the packed Anglican cathedral, as dozens of others listened outside under white tents. “That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior.”

The worldwide Anglican Communion is divided over ordaining gays and blessing same-sex unions, which reached a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church — the American wing of the fellowship — consecrated its first gay bishop.

The problems mounted last year with the consecration of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female leader of the U.S. church.

On Friday, seven conservative Anglican archbishops, led by Peter Akinola of Nigeria, refused to take communion with Jefferts Schori in protest over her pro-gay stance. Akinola did not attend Sunday’s service; the others involved in the boycott did.

Rwanda’s archbishop was seen refusing to take communion Sunday, but it was unclear what the others did because all archbishops remained at their seats to receive communion. Several of the conservative archbishops refused to comment as they left the cathedral.

Jefferts Schori also would not comment.

Before Sunday’s Eucharist, Williams stressed the importance of taking Holy Communion, saying: “Jesus tells us to do this in memory of him. We are to remember who he is.”

Conservative Anglicans have formed a rival network in the United States, under Akinola’s leadership. Africa is home to half the world’s Anglicans and is dominated by conservative leaders.

Many conservative Anglicans believe a liberal trend could cost the fellowship significant numbers of converts — particularly in Africa, where competition for souls is fierce.

Across Africa, with a population of about 900 million people, Islam and Christianity are both estimated to have about 400 million followers, with animist religions making up most of the remainder. And as animist ranks dwindle, Muslims and Christians are increasingly competing for converts.

On Sunday, the Muslim call to prayer was heard outside during lulls in the Christian hymns.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible’s social justice teachings take precedence over its view on sexuality. However, many Anglicans outside the United States believe gay relationships are sinful, and they are distancing themselves from the U.S. church.

There is no formal structure for expulsion from the Anglican Communion. Doctrine is now based on general Christian tradition and gives great latitude on how it is celebrated.

Anglican leaders are considering the idea of an Anglican Covenant, which would for the first time set specific ground rules for membership.

The Anglican Communion is the world’s third-largest Christian body behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches.

Struggles over gay relationships that also have gripped Roman Catholics, Lutherans and others.

Williams, who lacks any direct authority to force a compromise, urged Christians to see and understand others’ suffering as Zanzibar commemorates the 100th anniversary of the last sale of a slave here and the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery in the British empire.

Sunday’s service was held in Christ Church, which was built in 1874 over Zanzibar’s biggest slave market and has an altar that stands over an old whipping post.

“It is so easy,” Williams said, “to pretend that those dark and unacceptable parts of our history do not exist.”

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Anglican Leaders Rule on Gay Bishops (Christian Post, 070220)

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) - Anglican leaders demanded Monday that the U.S. Episcopal Church unequivocally bar official prayers for gay couples and the consecration of more gay bishops to undo the damage that North Americans have caused the Anglican family.

In a statement ending a tense six-day meeting, the leaders said that past pledges by Episcopalians for a moratorium on gay unions and consecrations have been so ambiguous that they have failed to fully mend “broken relationships” in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of world Anglicanism, must clarify its position by Sept. 30 or its relations with other Anglicans will remain “damaged at best.”

“This has consequences for the full participation of the church in the life of the communion,” the leaders said.

The meeting in Tanzania was the latest of several attempts to keep Anglicans unified despite deep rifts over how they should interpret the Bible. The long-simmering debate erupted in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Anglican traditionalists believe gay relationships violate Scripture and they have demanded that the U.S. church adhere to that teaching or face discipline.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe biblical teachings on justice and inclusion should take precedence. They have accused theological conservatives of demanding a conformity among Anglicans that never before existed. The communion was founded in the 16th century by King Henry VIII and spread worldwide by the British Empire.

Discussions at the closed-door gathering this past week were so highly charged that drafting the final statement for the 38 Anglican provinces took hours longer than expected.

In 2005, Anglican leaders had asked the Episcopal Church to temporarily stop electing gay bishops and developing official prayer services for same-sex couples.

The top Episcopal policy making body, called General Convention, responded by asking church leaders to “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration” of candidates for bishop “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church.” The request is not binding.

On official prayer services, the convention rejected proposals for a churchwide liturgy for gay partners. However, a small number of U.S. dioceses have moved toward developing local prayers and some dioceses have allowed priests to conduct the ceremonies privately.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the communion, does not have direct authority to force a compromise. He said the requests contained in the document released Monday “will certainly fall very short of resolving all the disputes, but will provide a way of moving forward with dignity.”

Canon Kendall Harmon of the Diocese of South Carolina, a leader among Episcopal traditionalists, said the document “is not everything I would have wanted,” but he was encouraged that Anglican leaders “made specific calls with specific deadlines.”

However, the advocacy group Integrity, which represents Episcopal gays and lesbians, accused the leaders of bigotry, and urged Episcopalians to lobby their bishops to reject the demands.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports gay relationships, said in a brief statement after she left the meeting that talks among Anglicans must continue.

The final statement from Anglican leaders expressed worry over feuding within the Episcopal Church and the wider communion. Some U.S. parishes have left the Episcopal Church to affiliate with Anglicans in Africa. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola has set up a network for conservative U.S. parishes as a rival to the Episcopal Church. Lawsuits have been filed over Virginia-area churches that joined with Akinola and want to take their property with them.

Anglican leaders called on all sides in the conflict to end their lawsuits and recommended the creation of a pastoral council and a special vicar to oversee the minority of conservative U.S. dioceses and parishes that feel they cannot accept Jefferts Schori’s leadership. Among the goals of the plan is to create an alternative so U.S. parishes stop affiliating with overseas Anglicans — a violation of communion tradition.

Anglican leaders also released a draft set of common principles meant to allow Anglican provinces to remain independent, but recognize their actions have an impact on each other.

The proposed Anglican Covenant, which will likely be revised before it is finalized years from now, states that a church could lose full membership in “extreme circumstances” but could take steps to regain its full member status.

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Anglican Head Comments on Concluding Document (Christian Post, 070221)

Following the release of a conclusive communiqué on Monday, the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion clarified that recommendations in the document are a “package,” rather than a single proposal to help resolve divisions around the Episcopal Church.

A five-day meeting with the top bishops of the worldwide Anglican denomination’s provinces that concluded Monday was dominated by the controversy over the Episcopal Church and its response to a 2004 Windsor Report that called for a moratorium on consecrating homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions. A communiqué at the conclusion of the meeting in Tanzania called the U.S. Anglican wing to clarify its position on homosexuals by Sept. 30 as the 38 primates reasserted that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture.

“In short, the feeling of the meeting as a whole was that the response of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church to the recommendations of the Windsor report, a response made at General Convention last year, represented some steps in a very encouraging direction but did not yet represent a situation in which we could say ‘business as usual,’” said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the Anglican Communion.

The communiqué and an earlier report by the Communion sub-group, headed by Williams, had revealed that the Episcopal Church has taken “seriously” the recommendations of the Windsor Report but there also was a “lack of clarity” from the U.S. body on its stance on homosexual unions.

“The response of The Episcopal Church to the requests made at Dromantine has not persuaded this meeting that we are yet in a position to recognize that The Episcopal Church has mended its broken relationships,” stated the communiqué.

With conservative Anglicans in the United States seeking a way to realign with the Anglican Communion, arguing that the Episcopal Church has departed from Scripture and the Communion especially when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, foreign provinces such as the Church of Nigeria intervened to create a separate body for the dissident Episcopalians. Such interventions were described as exacerbating the situation, according to the communiqué.

Williams recognized the good intentions of the foreign provinces but said that those could “only be a temporary solution.”

“The preferable solution is to have some kind of settlement negotiated within the church life of the United States,” said Williams.

A proposal was made to establish a pastoral council with five members nominated by the Primates, the Presiding Bishop, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The council would provide pastoral care within the Episcopal Church for the minority.

According to Williams, Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, who had warned of a break if the Anglican Communion does not resolve the issue over the Episcopal Church and homosexuality, declared that he is prepared to support the concluding Primates meeting document.

“I’d like to put it in the context of the Covenant process which you’ve already heard a little about and to suggest to you that what it amounts to is a package,” he said, “not one single proposal, not one single scheme, but a way of encouraging and nurturing certain elements in The Episcopal Church a way of clarifying the challenge overall that the Communion wants to put to The Episcopal Church within that time frame during which the covenant will be discussed and we hope eventually accepted.”

A proposed Anglican Covenant was released Feb. 19 and is intended to articulate the common foundations and set out principles that bind the Anglican Communion. Ralph Webb, director of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, welcomed the emphasis on interdependence in the drafted Covenant to restore the Anglican Communion, but believes the Episcopal Church would choose autonomy over interdependence.

“While the covenant is only a draft, it is worth asking whether the Episcopal Church would sign it at this stage,” said Webb in a released statement. “Does the Episcopal Church want autonomy or interdependence? Put another way, will it be an agent of healing for the Communion of which it is a part? Sadly, its actions to date suggest that if push comes to shove, it will choose independence over fellowship.”

As for the invitations for the decennial Lambeth Conference in 2008, Williams said he does not “pre-empt a decision but that’ll have to be discussed.” Those invited to the Lambeth Conference would be an indication of those in continued Communion with the global Anglican Church.

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Who is really Anglican? Would the real Anglicans please stand up! (AAC, 070125)

A Statement by the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, AAC President and CEO

There is, as you might guess, more to the story.

It finally becomes quite a study in contrasts; no wonder Bishop Lee is anxious about the future.

The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson

President and CEO, American Anglican Council

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Anglican Head Reveals Efforts for Unity, Makes Homosexual Stance Clear (Christian Post, 070226)

The issue in the Anglican Communion right now has nothing to do at all with the place of the Bible, the head archbishop of the denomination said.

The current divide in the 77-million member Communion is rather due to “the fact that some people in the church, a minority, especially in the United States, have chosen to read the Bible in a new, very controversial way,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told UK’s The Guardian newspaper.

Theological differences, particularly on the issue of homosexuality, have divided the majority of the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church, which consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003 - an action that most Anglican leaders call a departure from Scripture and from Anglican teaching. As the U.S. Anglican wing faces a deadline to clarify their stance on homosexual ordination and blessing same-sex unions, Williams made it clear that the Communion has always stood against the ordination of active homosexuals.

“The stance of the Anglican Communion is clear: It has never said anything other than that. The ordination of active homosexuals is not acceptable,” Williams said in the interview. “It has never said anything other than that the marriage of same-sex couples is not to be admitted.”

Coming out of a five-day global Primates meeting in Tanzania, the Anglican Communion released a communiqué at the meeting’s conclusion last Monday reaffirming the 1998 Lambeth resolution, which states that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture and that the Communion does not advise the blessing of same-sex unions. It also gave the Episcopal Church until Sept. 30 to clarify its stance on the issues, which could determine its continued communion or break from the worldwide body.

Over the past several decades of conversation over homosexuality and especially since the controversial 2003 consecration in the United States, the Anglican Communion has tried to avoid schism and agreed in 2004 on a moratorium on those who consecrate gays or bless homosexual unions. The Tanzania agenda was dominated by the issue with the Episcopal Church as Williams gave the U.S. head Katharine Jefferts Schori and three other U.S. bishops, some conservative, a chance to present their views.

“We have worked very hard to avoid it (schism) this week [in Tanzania] by saying to the America church what the condition might be ... that we can mend the broken relations; and between them and other churches; and I think that the Primates Meeting has come out with a very clear statement that if that relationship is to be restored, there are certain things that we need to hear from them (the American Church),” said Williams.

Since the meeting’s conclusion, some Episcopal bishops have indicated that they prefer leaving the Communion over banning homosexuals from ordination and same-sex unions. Jefferts Schori commented on the demand of the Anglican Communion saying, “It’s an enormous cost and price that’s being asked of us and I don’t think we can or should pay that price.”

Williams, who said he feared schism even before heading into the Primates meeting, expressed his efforts of encouraging understanding between debating parties in the Communion. “I have tried to help people understand each other in this controversy. I have tried to challenge people to put some of their private views and convictions in the second place to the need to work together. That’s what I have tried to do.”

Meanwhile, in his travel back to Buenos Aires, Gregory J. Venables, presiding bishop of the Southern Cone of South America, clarified that what the Anglican Communion had presented in its communiqué was not “the answer” but “a way forward.”

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American Anglican Council Statement on the Primates’ 2007 Communiqué (AAC, 070223)

The American Anglican Council (AAC) expressed this week its gratitude for the work of the Anglican primates during their meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, held Feb. 14-19, 2007, and applauded the strong stance taken in their final communiqué as well as the progress made on developing an Anglican Covenant.

“This is the most important decision taken by the global Anglican Communion since the last Lambeth Resolutions were issued in 1998,” said the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, AAC president and CEO. “The clock is now running on The Episcopal Church, and it is running fast.”

The primates’ communiqué, issued later than expected on Monday, Feb. 19 due to last-minute deliberations, issues an ultimatum to The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States with regard to its stances on human sexuality. In particular, the church is given seven months (until Sept. 30, 2007) to convey its definitive position on the blessing of same-sex unions and the elevation to episcopal orders of a candidate living in a same-sex relationship.

“The meeting in Dar es Salaam moved TEC firmly into the penalty box, which they will not emerge from without a true, 180-degree turn from the behavior and theology that has become the norm in many parts of the U.S. church over the past several decades,” Canon Anderson said. “Fudging the issues is no longer possible because the primates are ‘on to’ TEC and understand that they have been saying one thing and doing another.

“Before this meeting, many primates could not fathom that the bishops and presiding bishop would play fast and loose with their words in order to deceive the primates or avoid sending a clear message,” Canon Anderson continued. “Now, a clear message is demanded, and if it is not given, the church will suffer the long-threatened consequence of losing full membership in the worldwide Anglican family.”

The AAC was especially pleased with portions of the communiqué which gave special recognition to the unique positions of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA); under the primates’ recommendations, these groups, led by American-based bishops, will be allowed to continue operating separately from TEC, and are recognized as legitimate parts of the Anglican Communion. In addition, the AAC applauded the communiqué’s demand for a stop to all litigation within TEC, and urged TEC both nationally and at the diocesan level to take this admonition seriously.

“The communiqué is a workable document, despite some difficult areas,” Canon Anderson said. “The proposal for a pastoral council and primatial vicar, for example, contains some rough spots that will be of particular concern for congregations linked to overseas dioceses that are not part of AMiA or CANA. Nevertheless, the document is strong overall, especially for its reaffirmation of Communion-wide teaching on sexuality and the concrete nature of its recommendations for the U.S. church.”

Canon Anderson also expressed support for the developments made on the Anglican Covenant and believes that once it is refined and finalized over the next several years, it will serve as an important unifying factor for the Anglican Communion.

In a related development, the AAC also announced this week its formation of a Communiqué Compliance Office, which will monitor TEC’s acts of compliance and non-compliance with respect to the primates’ requirements throughout the period leading up to the Sept. 30 deadline.

“As a non-ecclesial body, the AAC is in a unique position to function as a watchdog on TEC’s compliance with the demands of the Dar es Salaam communiqué,” Canon Anderson explained. “Over the coming months, the newly created office will continuously gather information from around the United States and provide monthly accountings to the primates so that there is no doubt where TEC stands when the clock runs out.”

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Anglican Agonies (townhall.com, 070227)

By Bill Murchison

When Johannes Gutenberg wound up before the Great Judgment Seat, some six centuries ago, one can only imagine he got a suspended sentence, pending assessment of how well this printing press thing was likely to work out. And here we are still wondering.

For instance: Is homosexuality the root of the Episcopal Church’s and the Anglican Communion’s well-advertised anguish, as the media — Gutenberg’s heirs — seem to believe and teach? Or, as with so much the press spews out half-digested, does something else go on — something deeper, something reproachful of human behavior across the board?

True, the latest squabble finds Asian- and African-Anglicans sternly warning their American and European cousins to disengage from the quest to normalize same-sex relationships or else. But as Peggy Lee inquired, “Is that all there is?”

Not as Laurie Goodstein, in The New York Times, reports the matter — moving at least part of the way toward a surer understanding of the theology, instead of the politics, presently at stake. “The underlying differences [between Anglicans],” she writes, “are over the basic understanding of tradition and Scripture. The conservatives say they are something sacred and fixed, while the liberals say they can be open to interpretation and responsive to new information.” Not a perfect formulation, but better than “conservatives refuse gays their undoubted rights.”

Though, we know where that viewpoint came from. The civil rights revolution, which gave way to the feminist revolution, which gave way to the sexuality revolution, put before modern Westerners the proposition that any group self-perceived as disadvantaged was entitled to active social encouragement.

The media, which had covered civil rights and feminism with sympathy, found gay rights at least as engaging a matter, and as central to modern notions of liberation. If you opposed gay rights — so the manufactured mythology went — you probably hated gays.

Christians who worried about gay rights had not a leg to stand on: So went the approved narrative, encouraged in headlines and reporting highly favorable to the idea that old-fashioned Christian moral theology required radical updating. What we used to think about gay rights (we heard) was out of date. We needed to know the tendency was inborn.

Well, hmmm. The print and electronic media aren’t exactly stand-ins for the College of Cardinals, but they could have tried a bit harder. Often enough they manage to obscure the reality that supernatural authority, rather than one moral perception, underlies the Anglican crisis. As it underlies the modern debate on sexuality, period.

The “homosexuality debate” in the worldwide Anglican Communion, which paid the matter little attention until three decades ago, is about how much authority the individual may rightly assume in his own personal arrangements and how much he should cede to his Creator.

Who’s in charge here, God or us, is roughly the question. That the Bible, God’s word, takes a high view of obedience to divine authority and a low view of what might be called I’ll Do It My Way, is the real question, not whether to bless same-sex unions in Episcopal churches.

The media, with ample help from gay-rights exponents, helped perpetuate the notion that God was more bystander than participant in a controversy that was about rights and choices, not duties, not obligations, not responsibilities, not behaviors that advanced divine ideals as to the leading of life.

I wouldn’t expect The New York Times to pull us (or want to pull us) out of this, our predicament of understanding. We’ll go right on, doubtless, acting as though the Sovereign Individual trumped God — or seeing the divine plan as constantly developing, like the news itself.

It’s sad all the same. Few conservatives I know feel for most gays other than affection and brotherly (or sisterly) concern — the same feelings they hope they themselves inspire. Few want to “bash” anybody or send anyone to Satan, the author of division, who must be smiling with satisfaction at the uproar going on among his supposed adversaries. Every last one of ‘em.

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Episcopal Head Seeks Compromise (Christian Post, 070301)

NEW YORK (AP) - Appearing on a live webcast, the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop began the painful task Wednesday of persuading members to roll back their support for gays — at least for now — so the denomination can keep its place in the world Anglican fellowship.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who personally supports ordaining partnered gays, told a studio audience, callers and those who submitted questions by e-mail that they should make concessions that Anglican leaders are seeking to buy time for reconciliation.

“To live together in Christian community means each member takes seriously the concerns and needs of other members,” Jefferts Schori said. “If we can lower the emotional reactivity in the midst of this current controversy, we just might be able to find a way to live together.”

Asked whether she was abandoning gay and lesbian Christians, Jefferts Schori said, “My view hasn’t changed, but I’m called to be pastor to the whole church.”

Anglican leaders emerged from a closed-door meeting in Tanzania last week with an ultimatum for the U.S. denomination: They gave Episcopalians until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. If it doesn’t, the church risks a much-reduced role in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Church, which represents Anglicanism in the United States, caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson. The decision put the liberal Christian focus on social justice directly at odds with the traditional biblical view of sexuality.

On Tuesday, Robinson made his first public comments on Anglican demands, saying the church should reject the ultimatum and instead “get on with the work of the Gospel” no matter how communion leaders react. Several other Episcopal bishops have issued similar statements.

Most of the calls and questions submitted during the webcast were equally fraught.

One woman said her daughter is a lesbian seeking to become an Episcopal priest who was “brokenhearted” by the restrictions on gays. Another asked whether Anglican leaders were actually promoting division instead of healing.

Jefferts Schori answered each in the same calm, measured tone, saying “an ethic of justice and inclusion would seemingly also urge us to include the dissenter.” Theological conservatives are a minority in the 2.3 million-member church, but are the majority among Anglicans overseas.

The presiding bishop cautioned that a rush to break from other Anglicans would hurt Episcopal humanitarian work, disconnecting the U.S. church from sister churches overseas. She said she understood the fear created by the crisis, but a split would not solve the problem.

“We are being pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and outside this church who hunger for clarity. That hunger for clarity at all costs is an anxious response to discomfort in the face of change which characterizes all of life,” she said. “The impatience we’re now experiencing is an idol — a false hope that is unwilling to wait on God for clarity.”

The Episcopal House of Bishops will take up the proposal for the first time at a closed-door meeting in March. Jefferts Schori said she was also trying to find a way that the House of Deputies, which represents clergy and lay people, could weigh in on the decision without calling a special convention, which would be expensive and time-consuming.

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Anglicans Vote on Gay and Lesbian Issues (Christian Post, 070301)

LONDON (AP) - The Church of England’s assembly on Wednesday affirmed existing teaching that homosexuality is no bar to full participation in the church but avoided the fractious debate within the Anglican Communion about accepting gay sexual relationships. [KH: apostasy]

A motion approved nearly unanimously by the governing General Synod disposed of language including a commitment to “respect the patterns of holy living to which lesbian and gay Christians aspire,” but affirmed “that homosexual orientation in itself is no bar to a faithful Christian life or in full participation to lay and ordained ministry.”

Bishop Michael Perham of Gloucester had urged the synod not to take a side in the debate about whether people in gay relationships can be good Christians or, as in the U.S. Episcopal Church, serve as a bishop.

“This is not the moment — it is very clearly the wrong moment — to shift our formal position and give any sense of winners and losers on an issue on which we are finding it hard to reach consensus,” Perham said.

John Ward, a gay member of the synod who supported the amended version, had asked the assembly “to say explicitly that we can and should have an open and Godly dialogue with one another about human sexuality and that we should create a safe place for this to happen without fear.”

Ward, whose voice trembled at times during the debate, also said: “I have experienced people in this synod who are afraid to be seen sitting next to me.”

The Rev. Mary Gilbert, who sponsored the original motion, said she was happy with the outcome as creating “an open, careful listening process about the issue of lesbian and gay Christians.”

The morning vote followed two hours of emotional debate between liberal and evangelical synod members. Liberals emphasized Anglicans must support gay Christians, who they said were an important part of the Church of England, and oppose any prejudice they face.

Evangelicals unsuccessfully tried to halt the debate with two procedural motions that were voted down. Some said Scripture was clear that only sex between married, heterosexual couples is permissible. Others argued that being gay should be defined as a choice, not a natural condition determined by their genetic makeup.

After a 2 1/2-hour afternoon debate, the General Synod approved a second motion that acknowledged some church members’ criticism of Britain’s Civil Partnership Act. It came into force in 2005, legally recognizing same sex relationships and allowing gays to virtually marry.

The synod said it understood the government acted to protect gays from discrimination, but said it should have “done so in a way that avoided creating a legal framework with many similarities to marriage.”

The synod scrapped a more radical motion, proposed by the Rev. Paul Perkin, a member of the evangelical group Reform, expressing “deep concern” that the act “undermines the distinctiveness and fundamental importance to society of the relationship of marriage.”

Perham said the church was at a delicate moment, following the meeting of Anglican leaders earlier this month in Tanzania, which included Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

The leaders gave the U.S. Episcopal Church until Sept. 30 to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for blessing same-sex couples. If that promise is not made, the Episcopal Church could face a much reduced role in the Anglican world.

The global Anglican Communion has 77 million members, and they have spent years debating how Scripture should be interpreted on salvation, truth and sexuality. Each province of the Anglican Communion is self-governing, with its own decision-making structures.

In a speech to the General Synod in London on Monday, Williams said: “The public perception, as we’ve been reminded by several commentators in the last week or so, is that we are a church obsessed with sex.” He said, “It feels as though we are caught in a battle very few want to be fighting.”

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U.S. Anglican Churches Call for Property Lawsuit Dismissal (Christian Post, 070314)

Breakaway Anglican churches sued by the Diocese of Virginia filed their official response on Monday over disputes on property rights.

Ten of the 11 churches involved in the lawsuit asked the court to dismiss the Diocese’s suits for failure to state any claims on which relief could be granted.

“The individual defendants sued by the Diocese serve as officers, directors or trustees without compensation and thus are immune altogether from suit by Virginia statute or cannot be properly sued as a matter of Virginia corporation law,” stated the churches in the Anglican District of Virginia in their response.

The churches, which broke from the Episcopal Church in overwhelming votes in December, argued that Virginia law does not recognize denominational trusts in their property and thus the Diocese cannot base claim to church property on an assertion of trust-based rights. Based on that claim, since the Diocese does not own the church properties, its claims of conversion, trespass, alienation or accounting “must fail,” the response stated.

Suits were filed in January against 11 congregations that left the denomination over differences in theological views. They formed a conservative Anglican body - Convocation of Anglicans in North America - remaining in communion with the global Anglican churches.

In the lawsuit, the Diocese asks the court to declare it the legal owner of the property and to restrain further use and occupancy of the property by the separated congregations. Since departure in December, the congregations have continued to hold worship services on the church properties.

The sued parties suffered another blow when the Episcopal Church filed complaints in February to take control of the multi-million dollar properties.

Despite a recent call by Anglican archbishops worldwide in a communiqué to back away from property litigation, the Episcopal Church said it would be “premature” to withdraw from court action. Last week, the breakaway churches renewed their requests to halt litigation in accordance to the Anglican Primates’ communiqué, but no response has been made by the Diocese, according to the Anglican District churches.

“As the churches file their responses to the lawsuits it is very important to remember that they have chosen to stay with the worldwide Anglican Communion, and be steadfast in their faith,” said Mary McReynolds, chancellor for the Anglican District of Virginia. “While we are confident in our legal position, it is an unfortunate distraction from the good work these churches are trying to undertake as servants of Christ. These churches are moving forward and will continue to be part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.”

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Breakaway Megachurch Heads to Court to Protect Property (Christian Post, 070407)

The fight over the future of a breakaway Episcopal parish landed in court Friday, with parish leaders asking a judge to declare that Colorado’s Episcopal diocese doesn’t own the historic church and its property.

Alan Crippen, a spokesman for Grace Church and St. Stephen’s in Colorado Springs, said the parish filed a complaint in El Paso County because the diocese tried to freeze some of its bank accounts.

Diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes confirmed that the diocese has begun the process of telling financial institutions that the leaders who voted to leave the denomination aren’t the rightful owners of the church property. She said the assets belong to parishioners who remain loyal to the Episcopal Church and the diocese.

The court filing came on Good Friday, when Christians recall Jesus’ crucifixion.

“It saddens us this has to happen during this sacred time,” Stokes said.

In a statement, senior parish warden Jon Wroblewski, who aligned with the breakaway parish, said he regretted the timing and said the diocese moved to suspend the parish’s rector, the Rev. Donald Armstrong, during Christmas week last year.

“We’ve become battle-hardened and are resolved to defend the continuing presence of Anglican worship in Colorado Springs,” Wroblewski said.

Last month, the leaders of Grace and St. Stephen’s, the state’s largest Episcopal parish, voted to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria. They were upset over the liberal theological direction of the national church, including questions about whether gay sexual relationships should be accepted.

They also criticized the diocese’s investigation of Armstrong as a “kangaroo court” and asked him to return to his position. The diocese is still pursuing charges against him in a church court.

Both sides have retained high profile lawyers to represent them.

The diocese has hired the same law firm that represented Kobe Bryant when he was accused of rape in Colorado. Armstrong is represented by Dennis Hartley, the lawyer for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

In the court filing, the parish said the diocese was in “financial and demographic decline,” having closed two parishes in Colorado Springs, and wasn’t in a good position to take over management of the Grace property. The parish said it has spent $6 million on work at the property since 1987 without any help from the diocese.

Stokes said the diocese is running a $73,000 budget deficit this year but said that isn’t affecting the operations of any parish.

On Easter, there will again be two services for members of the parish. In addition to services at the parish, Bishop Robert O’Neill, the head of the Colorado Diocese, will lead a service at a chapel at Colorado College for members of the parish who want to remain in the Episcopal Church, Stokes said.

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Episcopal Council Reaffirms Homosexual Stance (Christian Post, 070305)

The representative body of the Episcopal Church reaffirmed its position that homosexual members are an “integral part” of the American church body.

“We wish clearly to affirm that our position as a church is to welcome all persons, particularly those perceived to be the least among us,” stated the Executive Council in a letter to the Church. “We wish to reaffirm to our lesbian and gay members that they remain a welcome and integral part of the Episcopal Church.”

The council further welcomed those “who are not reconciled to certain actions of General Convention.” Rifts within the church widened when the convention consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

The letter came Sunday at the close of a three-day meeting and a private conversation centered on the recent communiqué issued by the Anglican Communion. It was the first meeting of a major deliberative body of the Episcopal Church since the global Primates meeting in Tanzania in February.

A communiqué issued at the end of the Primates meeting had given the U.S. body an ultimatum to not consecrate another gay bishop or authorize official prayers for gay couples. Otherwise, they will face a reduced role in the Anglican family. Noting that the request by the Primates raises questions about the polity of the Episcopal Church, the Executive Council authorized the appointment of a work group to consider the potential response of the legislative body to the communiqué.

At a Holy Eucharist at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Portland, Ore., Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told attendants, “Jesus laments over a community’s unwillingness or inability to serve the needs of all God’s people, an unwillingness to see all human beings as worthy of healing and welcome.”

The Anglican Communion currently rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, though it still calls on its people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all people, regardless of sexual orientation, as stated in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution.

Days ahead of the Council meeting, Jefferts Schori held a live conversation in New York and webcast with national church members where she clarified the national body’s “case” on which the Episcopalians base their support for the full inclusion of homosexuals.

“God created us human beings and God said that it was very good. God created diversity, male and female ... and God said that it was very good,” Jefferts Schori explained. “We live in an age where reproduction is not understood theologically to be the primary intent of marriage but that the primary intent of faithful lifelong relationships is companionship and growth in Christian living,” she said, adding that people in the Episcopal Church say such relationships are appropriate with homosexual couples.

While Jefferts Schori alludes to Scripture for her support for homosexual ordination and the blessing of same-sex unions, the majority of the Anglican Communion have pointed out that the Episcopal Church has abandoned Anglican tradition and scriptural authority, particularly when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

Conservative Anglican leaders continue to call for “true repentance” from the Episcopal Church for its apostasy and await for a clear response from the U.S. arm of Anglicanism by the Sept. 30 deadline the Anglican Communion had given in its recent communiqué.

While calling for a time to pause especially during the season of Lent, Jefferts Schori has continually expressed that the American church is unlikely to agree to stick with Anglican tradition.

“I believe that we’re called to pause and not to go backward,” said Jefferts Schori in New York. “I see no desire among any in this church to retreat” from its stance supporting homosexuals.

The Executive Council is scheduled to make a report and recommendations at its June 2007 meeting.

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American Anglican Council Lifts Inhibitions (AAC, 070223)

The American Anglican Council (AAC) announced today that the 21 recent Virginia inhibitions are null and void and declared them lifted. When the clergy from two of the three Episcopal dioceses in the state of Virginia were declared inhibited in January by the current bishop of middle and northern Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee, the clergy he acted against had already transferred to other Anglican jurisdictions.

Subsequently, Bishop Lee has defaulted on his agreed Protocol that he and other Diocese of Virginia representatives worked out with representatives of the churches investigating departure. With the filing of litigation by the bishop and Diocese of Virginia, the Protocol seems to have been unilaterally dishonored and abrogated, raising many questions about all agreements between the congregations and the diocese. In addition, Bishop Lee’s failure to discontinue this litigation following the Anglican primates’ specific request to do so in their recent Dar Es Salaam communiqué demonstrates even further a lack of respect for not only Anglicans within his own state but also for the Anglican Communion and its leaders world-wide.

AAC president the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson announced today that after a careful examination of the facts, the inhibitions imposed on 21 Virginia clergy associated with the departing congregations were baseless and without jurisdiction, and therefore have been lifted.

Asked by what authority the AAC could lift the inhibitions, Canon Anderson replied: “By what authority did Bishop Lee attempt to impose the inhibitions on clergy belonging to Uganda and Nigeria? Those faithful clergy are now declared Uninhibited for Christ!”

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Conservative Bishop-Elect in Danger of Being Blocked by Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070308)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Time is running out for the national Episcopal Church to approve the election of the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence, a conservative chosen locally in a landslide as the new bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina.

If not approved by Monday, canon law requires the diocese to hold a new election.

“This is very big. For the first time in at least 60 years, a bishop is in real danger of not getting consent,” the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the diocese, wrote in an e-mail Saturday.

The Diocese of South Carolina is among several nationwide that have voted to reject the authority of the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop over the issues of ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex unions.

The diocese stopped short of a full break with the Episcopal Church, but last year asked the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Church, to assign them an alternative leader.

The 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, which has about 70 million members worldwide.

In a letter last December, Lawrence said he had no plans to take the local diocese out of the Episcopal Church.

His election needs approval from a majority of Episcopal bishops and standing committees nationwide.

A majority of bishops have agreed, but only 46 committees have approved; 56 are needed, said the Rev. J. Haden McCormick, president of the local diocese’s standing committee.

“We are encouraged that some standing committees have decided to meet and reconsider their vote, and are praying that others will consider similar action,” he said in on the diocesan Web site.

The diocese is comprised of 75 parishes in the lower and eastern part of South Carolina. Acting Bishop Edward Salmon, who plans to retire, will remain until a new bishop is consecrated.

Lawrence is a priest in California’s Diocese of San Joaquin.

That diocese has criticized the election of Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in church life.

Lawrence said Monday it was highly unusual for the consecration of a bishop to be blocked.

“But this is a different era in the life of the church,” he said. “If you define the issues of same-sex blessing and ordination of gay and lesbian persons ... as a justice issue, and the other side defines it as a biblical issue, those who call it a justice issue — how can they in good faith stop until those who oppose them are silenced?”

Anglican leaders issued a communique last month calling on the Episcopal church to place a moratorium on blessing same-sex unions or consecrating gay priests. It gave the American church until Sept. 30 to respond.

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Episcopalians Supporting Homosexuality Express ‘Frustration’ (Christian Post, 070313)

There is a lot of “frustration” coming out of Episcopalians, who support homosexuality, toward their presiding bishop.

In the months ahead of a September deadline when the Episcopal Church must respond to the Anglican Communion’s moratorium on consecrating homosexuals and authorizing same-sex unions, liberal Episcopalians have begun to express hostility to recent decisions by their head.

“We’re trying to understand why our presiding bishop thinks this is the right way to proceed,” said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, a member of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, according to The Washington Post.

A month out of a critical meeting in Tanzania with the heads of Anglican provinces worldwide, U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had agreed to “a season of fasting” along with other Anglican leaders. She called the Episcopal Church to accept the primates’ call in an effort to continue to be a voice at the Anglican table. Jefferts Schori, who supports the “full inclusion” of homosexuals, believes it is one of the Episcopal Church’s “gifts” to help change other people’s understanding about gay and lesbian Christians.

Still, while conservative Anglicans in the United States have stood in continued dissidence with the Episcopal Church and its departure from scriptural authority, including the support for the ordination of homosexuals, liberal leaders are now responding with “sadness to anger and everything in between - a lot of disappointment and frustration,” according to Meyers.

Many Episcopal leaders have already declared their decision that they would choose the “full inclusion” of homosexuals over the Anglican Communion. And although Jefferts Schori affirmed the position of the Episcopal Church in making gays and lesbians an “integral part” of the body, she signed the Communion’s statement last month that called for a period of restraint.

Some Episcopalians, however, are ready to reject the request of the primates. “We have to be very clear about where we are as a church,” Bishop John B. Chane of Washington told The Washington Post. “We have consented to the consecration of Gene Robinson, and we have - the majority of dioceses in this country have - allowed the blessing of same-sex couples for some time.”

Robinson’s consecration in 2003 heightened the divide in the Episcopal Church and damaged, as many Anglican leaders say, the U.S. body’s relationship with the rest of the Communion. Many of the Communion’s primates are still seeking “true repentance” from the Episcopal Church for that action.

In a recent public conversation in New York, Jefferts Schori said there are “aspects of the current situation that cry out for a broader understanding on all sides. The call is to see those not as competing but as complementary Christian values.”

She also pointed out, “We are being pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and outside this church who hunger for clarity . . . If we can lower the emotional reactivity in the midst of this current controversy, we just might be able to find a way to live together.”

Episcopal bishops from all 111 dioceses in the United States are scheduled to meet on Friday in Houston to consider their response to the ultimatum issued in Tanzania.

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Conservative Anglicans Outraged Over Rejected Bishop Election (Christian Post, 070319)

The recent move to invalidate the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence’s election as bishop of South Carolina outraged some conservative Anglicans while others agreed with the decision.

“This is outrageous that a duly-elected priest, who clearly meets the Scriptural standards for church leadership, not to mention has gone out of his way to assure the rest of TEC (the Episcopal Church) that he will keep his vows and will not take the diocese out of the church, has been blocked from serving for no other reason than his orthodox views,” said the Rev. Canon David Anderson, president and CEO of the traditional American Anglican Council (AAC), in a released statement.

Lawrence, a conservative, had reaffirmed last week that he had no plans to take the Diocese of South Carolina, which rejected the authority of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori over theological differences, out of the Episcopal Church. He had given the same assurance in December.

Lawrence was elected to the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina on the first ballot last September. He received 57 “yes” votes, one more than the 56 required for election. Jefferts Schori took the rare step on Thursday of declaring his election “null and void,” citing “canonical deficiencies” in the voting responses submitted, according to a letter by the Rev. J. Haden McCormick, president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of South Carolina.

Some of the consenting votes were electronically submitted. Canon law requires consent with signatures and several votes had no signatures attached to their ballots, according to Jefferts Schori in a letter to the diocese. This is the first time in at least 60 years that a bishop’s election was thrown out.

While some agree with the presiding bishop’s decision, saying the signature requirement dates back to 1799, others expressed disappointment in the Episcopal head.

“Why she chose not to grant a simple extension of time to permit electronic consents to be converted to written consents conveyed by overnight mail is a mystery,” said the Rev. Todd H. Wetzel, executive director of the Dallas-based conservative group Anglicans United and Latimer Press, according to Episcopal News Service. “A majority of consents was secured prior to the deadline, in spirit, albeit not in fact.”

The denominational news service noted that the extension had been extended from March 9 to March 12 to allow for postal delays.

Still, the Very Rev. William McKeachie, dean of South Carolina, called the decision “the latest outrage from the national church.”

The Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Newark, which voted not to confirm, commented, “Despite my personal and theological differences with the man and the diocese, there is no doubt that this is a tragedy for Mark Lawrence, his wife and family, for the diocese of South Carolina, and for the church.”

Anderson called the situation ironic.

“While a man living in a same-sex union - which is in clear contradiction to biblical guidelines for church leaders - can be elected, confirmed and consecrated a bishop in one state, a man of high integrity who meets the strict demands of leaders as laid out in Scripture is denied consent in another,” the AAC president said in a statement.

The Episcopal Church had consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, which heightened controversy within the U.S. body and the Anglican Communion worldwide over theological differences, particularly over the issue of homosexuality.

“The discrepancy is obvious even to the casual observer,” Anderson added. “TEC says ‘all are welcome,’ but that is simply not true based on their actions toward those with whom they disagree.”

Acting Bishop Edward Salmon, who is retiring from the South Carolina post, will remain until a new bishop is elected. Meanwhile, McKeachie hopes Lawrence will not withdraw his name from a second search.

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N.Y. Parishes Want Withdrawal from Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070320)

Two Episcopal churches in New York plan to split from the national denomination if the church body remains supportive of ordaining homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions.

“Given the Episcopal Church is not willing to abide by the ruling of the Anglican Communion, we’re going to withdraw and go with another body (within the communion),” said the Rev. Anthony Seel, pastor of St. Andrew’s in Vestal, according to Binghamton’s Press & Sun-Bulletin. “On Sundays, we keep our focus on worship, but it’s demoralizing to go through something like this.”

Anglican leaders from the Anglican Communion issued a communiqué in February calling for a moratorium on the consecration of gays and the blessing of same-sex unions. The global body gave the Episcopal Church – the U.S. wing of Anglicanism – a Sept. 30 deadline to respond to what many are calling an ultimatum that may determine the church’s continued or broken communion with Anglican churches worldwide.

In recent weeks, however, leaders in the Episcopal Church, which consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, have expressed their desire to support the “full inclusion” of gays and lesbians over remaining within the Anglican Communion. While U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has called for a period of restraint, she has also indicated that the Episcopal Church is not willing to “pay the price” of rejecting homosexuals to participate fully in the church, including in ordained ministry.

St. Andrew’s and Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton are reportedly talking with officials at the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York about withdrawal and affiliating with an orthodox Anglican body. The two parishes contend that ordaining gays and blessing homosexual unions are contrary to the canon law that governs churches and clergy who are members of the Anglican Communion, according to Press & Sun-Bulletin.

Central New York Bishop Gladstone “Skip” Adams had written to diocesan clergy that he will not “sacrifice” gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people “for the sake of an unjust unity.”

“I will not ask gay and lesbian people to go to the back of the bus for a time. The gifts of God’s GLBT people will continue to be welcome in this Diocese,” he wrote in a letter, according to the local news service. Adams also acknowledged that such a stance could result in the departure of some churches but indicated his unwavering stance on homosexuals.

The withdrawal of the two churches would follow December’s exodus of parishes in Virginia. The split included two of the largest of most historic congregations in the Diocese of Virginia that overwhelmingly voted to leave the Episcopal Church over the denomination’s departure from Anglican tradition and scriptural authority.

Good Shepherd cited the same reasons for its decision to affiliate with another Anglican province.

“The Episcopal Church is no longer respecting the authority of Scripture or the traditions of the church,” said the Rev. Matthew Kennedy, pastor of Good Shepherd. “We cannot follow in that direction.”

Talks with the Diocese of Central New York are currently on hold while national leaders study their response to the September deadline from the communion, said the Rev. Canon Karen C. Lewis, assistant to Adams.

Episcopal leaders are currently at Camp Allen in Texas discussing their response to the communiqué.

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Episcopal Body Aims to Keep Anglican Ties, Reaffirms Homosexual Support (Christian Post, 070322)

The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops adopted on Tuesday three resolutions, one of which called for an urgent meeting with the head of the Anglican Communion.

At an annual spring retreat meeting at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas, the House of Bishops has been considering its response to the recent communiqué adopted by Anglican heads worldwide that urged the Episcopal Church to respond to a moratorium on ordaining homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions.

Months away from issuing a response by the Sept. 30 deadline, the Episcopal House of Bishops affirmed in its first resolution its desire that the Episcopal Church – the U.S. Anglican wing – remain a part of the councils of the Anglican Communion.

“We affirm once again the deep longing of our hearts for The Episcopal Church to continue as a part of the Anglican Communion,” the House of Bishops stated, according to the Episcopal News Service.

At the same time, it also reaffirmed that, “We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ’s Church.”

Earlier this month, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church had also reaffirmed its stance on the “full inclusion” of homosexuals. And in recent weeks, some Episcopal leaders expressed that they would choose the “full inclusion” of homosexuals at the cost of splitting with the Anglican Communion.

Nevertheless, the House of Bishops stated this week that it “pledges itself to continue to work to find ways of meeting the pastoral concerns of the Primates (heads of the 38 Anglican provinces) that are compatible with our own polity and canons.”

While expressing desire to keep ties with the Anglican Communion, the House of Bishops stated that the Primates’ request to establish a pastoral council to provide alternative oversight to Episcopal dioceses that requested it would be “injurious to the polity of the Episcopal Church.”

Seven dioceses split over theological views with the Episcopal Church have rejected the authority of U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports ordaining homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions, and are seeking a new overseer. Rifts in the Anglican Communion had widened when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

The House of Bishops called the Primates’ request for providing alternative oversight in the United States “spiritually unsound.”

“The pastoral scheme encourages one of the worst tendencies of our Western culture, which is to break relationships when we find them difficult instead of doing the hard work necessary to repair them and be instruments of reconciliation.”

A day ahead of the adopted resolutions, the Rev. A. Katherine Grieb, associate professor of New Testament at the Virginia Theological Seminary, drew attention to the Anglican Covenant. Grieb is a member of the international task force preparing a draft version of the covenant.

The Anglican Communion currently has until the end of 2007 to respond to the proposed Anglican Covenant, which is said to be a “discussion starter” and an effort to prevent a split in the Anglican Communion.

While discussions and the covenant drafting could take as long as 10 years, Grieb pointed out that it has become clear that the covenant process would be moving “at top speed.” A complete and ratified covenant could come out as early as Lambeth 2008.

As the Episcopal Church looks at a “double deadline” (one in September, another in December), Grieb suggested a “time out” from the Anglican Communion.

“I suggest that we enter a five-year period of fasting from full participation in the Anglican Communion to give us all time to think and to listen more carefully to one another,” she said, according to the Episcopal News Service.

The fasting period would mean non-participation in global meetings, including the decennial Lambeth, but contributions to discussions if invited. And the Episcopal Church would still be sending support and remain engaged in the mission of the church, Grieb explained.

“But we should absent ourselves from positions of leadership, stepping out of the room, so that the discussions of the Anglican Communion about itself can go on without spending any more time on our situation which has preoccupied it.”

Rather than walking “together” with the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church would be walking “in parallel.”

“It is not enough to say ‘let’s take a break from the Communion to let things settle down,’” said the Rev. Ephraim Radner, rector of Ascension Church, Pueblo, Colo., who is also participating in preparing the draft version of the covenant, “but it is, in a sense, our having broken the Communion that has caused the unrest in the first place. This mistrust must be dealt with now, in this church and elsewhere, with all of its hard choices; why? So that there will be a place where trust, as the Covenant would have us do, can bear fruit.”

Bishops of The Episcopal Church are scheduled to close their six-day meeting at Camp Allen on Wednesday.

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Anglican Head: Episcopal Rejection of Ultimatum is ‘Discouraging’ (Christian Post, 070322)

NEW YORK (AP) - Episcopal bishops risked losing their place in the global Anglican family Wednesday by affirming their support for gays and rejecting a key demand that they give up some authority to theological conservatives outside the U.S. church.

In strong and direct language, the Episcopal House of Bishops said it views the Gospel as teaching that “all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants” in the church. The bishops also said they would not agree to an Anglican plan for leaders outside the U.S. denomination to oversee the small number of conservative American dioceses that disagree.

“We cannot accept what would be injurious to the church and could well lead to its permanent division,” the bishops said in a resolution from a private meeting in Texas.

“If that means that others reject us and communion with us, as some have already done, we must with great regret and sorrow accept their decision.”

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a fellowship of churches that traces its roots to the Church of England. But it is at odds theologically with the vast majority of Anglican churches, which take a more conservative view on sexuality and other issues.

Episcopal bishops said they still have a “passionate desire” to stay in the communion. But the Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, issued a brief statement Wednesday calling their decision “discouraging.” The small yet affluent Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million members, covers a significant chunk of the Anglican Communion’s budget.

“No one is underestimating the challenges ahead,” Williams said.

Anglicans have been debating for decades how they should interpret Scripture on salvation, truth and sexuality. Those divisions reached the breaking point in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the church’s first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Williams has no direct authority to force a reconciliation, and has been struggling to negotiate a compromise.

The latest plan emerged from a meeting of Anglican leaders, called primates, last month in Tanzania — and it included an ultimatum for the U.S. church.

Episcopalians were given until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. Otherwise, the church could have a much-reduced role in the communion.

As part of the Anglicans’ demands, Episcopalians were told to accept a “primatial vicar” and special committee that would oversee U.S. dioceses that reject Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Six dioceses do not recognize her authority because of her support for gay relationships and liberal theology. Three of the six also do not accept the ordination of women.

In return, the Anglicans said they would stop Anglican bishops from coming on their own into the United States to take oversight of conservative U.S. parishes. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola has started a conservative parish network as a rival to the Episcopal Church.

But the Episcopal bishops said ceding authority to a panel that included overseas Anglicans cuts against Episcopal church law.

“It violates our founding principles as the Episcopal Church following our own liberation from colonialism and the beginning of a life independent of the Church of England,” the bishops said. “And for the first time since our separation from the papacy in the 16th century, it replaces the local governance of the church by its own people with the decisions of a distant and unaccountable group of prelates.”

Episcopal bishops did not respond to the Anglican demand about gay bishops and blessing ceremonies. However, the leaders noted that they had previously met requests not to approve another gay bishop “at great cost to many, not the least of whom are our gay and lesbian members,” only to have Anglican leaders say the pledges weren’t sufficient.

Still, the bishops insisted in a news conference after the meeting that their new statement was not their last word on Anglican demands. The panel of lay people and clergy who oversee the Episcopal church, the Executive Council, will soon take up the bishops’ resolutions, and the House of Bishops will meet again in September.

“It is not a final decision,” Jefferts Schori said.

But Canon Kendall Harmon of the Diocese of South Carolina, a leading conservative thinker, called the bishops’ statement “as strong a repudiation as you can get” of Anglican demands.

“The reality is that they’ve rejected what’s been asked,” Harmon said. “They went out of their way to both push back on Rowan Williams and the primates.”

The Rev. Susan Russell of the Episcopal gay advocacy group Integrity compared the bishops’ statement to a “coming out process.”

“This was a huge step that the American church was not willing to go back into the closet about its inclusion of gay and lesbian people in order to capitulate to those who would exclude us,” Russell said.

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Bishop: Episcopal Church Walking Away from the Christian Faith (Christian Post, 070323)

The tossed election of a conservative bishop to the Diocese of South Carolina makes it clearer that the Episcopal Church is walking away from the Anglican Communion and the Christian faith, said a former bishop of the diocese.

The Episcopal Church invalidated the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence’s election last week, outraging conservative Episcopal leaders who say the priest clearly meets the standards for church leadership. The decision also drew out sympathy from those who opposed Lawrence’s election as many called it a “tragedy” for him and the church.

“I respect him for doing the canonical thing, but I think he should go ahead and be consecrated anyway,” the Rt. Rev. Dr. C. Fitzsimons Allison, the retired 12th bishop of South Carolina, told VirtueOnline, a voice for global Orthodox Anglicanism. “I was surprised that it was that close. [U.S. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts] Schori and David Booth Beers (Chancellor to the presiding bishop) are so embarrassing to The Episcopal Church and worldwide Anglican Communion.”

While Lawrence had received one more vote than what was required for election, Jefferts Schori threw out the election, citing that some of the votes were electronically submitted and did not have the required signatures attached. This was the first time in over 70 years that consents for the consecration of a bishop were denied.

Some Episcopal leaders say Lawrence should have been consecrated anyway, noting his qualifications and that the needed number of consents was received.

“The conventional idea is to call another convention and elect him again. Mark is an impeccable person and those who did not give consent, elevate the canons (church laws) above the Christian Faith,” said Allison, according to VirtueOnline.

During the election, Lawrence, a priest in the conservative Diocese of San Joaquin, was asked to give his affirmation that he would not take the Diocese of South Carolina out of the Episcopal Church. The diocese had rejected the authority of Jefferts Schori, who supports ordaining homosexuals and blessing same-sex unions. Lawrence gave his affirmation in December and again early this month.

“The thresholds of pain seem to be closer than ever for a lot of folks,” the Rt. Rev. Stephen H. Jecko, assistant bishop in The Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, told VirtueOnline. “September 30th will be the telling point I suspect. If ECUSA (Episcopal Church) does not respond, as asked and clearly so, I think it’s over.”

Last month, the Episcopal Church was given a Sept. 30 deadline by Anglican primates (leaders), to respond to a moratorium on the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions. Controversy over theological differences had heightened in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated an openly gay bishop. The Episcopal Church is now being asked to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

This week, however, the Episcopal House of Bishops passed resolutions rejecting the demand of the primates as they reaffirmed their stance for the “full inclusion” of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons. They also said they would not agree to let Anglican leaders outside the Episcopal Church to oversee conservative American dioceses that reject the authority of Jefferts Schori.

The Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, which may become the first diocese to leave the Episcopal Church, was not surprised about the decisions made by the House of Bishops, according to VirtueOnline. But he expressed surprise at the Episcopalians’ quick response to the primates’ requests.

“I thought the HOB would meet prior to Sept. 30, but they dismissed the Primates call out of hand,” he said. “I think what the HOB did is arrogant, incredible, and they claim that they desire to be a part of the Anglican Communion, but what they are basically saying is ‘we want do it in our way and in our time.’”

In the meantime, some Episcopal leaders hope Lawrence will stand again in the next election and are confident that he will be re-nominated.

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Episcopal Head Supports Bishops’ Resolutions (Christian Post, 070325)

Following resolutions passed by Episcopal bishops that indicated rejection of several demands by the global Anglican family, the Episcopal head highlighted the urgency for a meeting with Anglican leaders worldwide.

“I think that the bishops of the Episcopal Church very much want Rowan Williams and the members of the Primates’ Standing Committee to hear directly from us about our concern for all members of this church, those we agree with theologically and those with whom we disagree, gay and lesbian members of our church and those who find it difficult to countenance blessing unions or ordaining gay and lesbian people,” said U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at a news conference on Wednesday, according to the Episcopal News Service.

“I think there is some belief in this House [of Bishops] that other parts of the communion do not understand us very well,” she said, adding that other Primates (Anglican leaders) should also be invited to hear concerns from the Episcopal Church.

Her comments come just after a meeting with the Episcopal House of Bishops, which again made clear that “all God’s children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants” in the church. The bishops also said they cannot accept the Primates’ request of establishing a council of leaders outside the Episcopal Church to oversee conservative American dioceses that disagree with the U.S. denomination.

Those resolutions were in response to a communiqué issued last month by the Anglican Primates which called the Episcopal Church to respond to a moratorium on the ordaining of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions by Sept. 30.

Jefferts Schori, who had agreed with Anglican Primates, to a period of restraint, expressed support for the resolutions. “They have emerged as a sense of the House [of Bishops] and as leader of this house I certainly will support them,” according to the denominational news service.

“The bishops of TEC (the Episcopal Church) are convinced that their policies of gay inclusion are non-negotiable, and even the Presiding Bishop has made clear that there is ‘no going back’ on actions and commitments made on this score,” said the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner is rector of Church of the Ascension, Pueblo, Colo., in a released statement.

The Episcopal Church had consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, widening rifts in the Anglican Communion over theological differences and the issue of homosexuality.

While conservative Anglican leaders saw this week’s Episcopal meeting as a step away from the Anglican Communion and a surprise quick response before the Sept. 30 deadline, Jefferts Schori clarified that the Episcopal bishops “did not begin to respond to the Primates’ communiqué in that area” (gay bishops or same-sex blessings).

“We did not talk about gay bishops or same-sex blessings,” she said, the Episcopal News Service reported.

Bishop Mark Sisk of New York said the statement that all God’s children, including homosexuals, are full and equal participants in the life of the church “was not intended to signal anything more than what it says. We did not discuss the moratorium.”

Others still saw the statements that emerged from the meeting as a rejection to the moratorium.

The conservative American Family Association founder Donald Wildmon said in OneNewsNow that liberals in the Episcopal Church have said “this is what we’re going to do: we’re going to ordain homosexual bishops, we’re going to accept homosexual priests - the whole ball of wax. You conservatives can get lost.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, called the Episcopalians’ decision “discouraging.”

Episcopal bishops are scheduled to respond to the remaining aspects of the communiqué at their next meeting in September.

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Colo. Episcopal Megachurch Battles Diocese (Christian Post, 070327)

DENVER (AP) - Colorado’s largest Episcopal congregation was left in turmoil after leaders voted to leave the denomination and the bishop responded by dismissing the parish’s leadership.

The controversy at Colorado Springs’ Grace Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Parish is the latest in a tense dispute among Episcopalians and their fellow Anglicans worldwide over how they should interpret what the Bible says about sexuality and other issues.

The vestry of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish on Monday voted to bolt from the national church and instead join a conservative Anglican church based in Nigeria. The move came three months after its pastor was placed on suspension amid an investigation of church finances.

Bishop Robert O’Neill rejected the church’s move, dismissing the local leaders and saying the Colorado Springs parish would remain part of the Episcopal Church.

“The fact is people may leave the Episcopal Church but parishes cannot,” O’Neill said in a statement.

The church’s longtime rector, the Rev. Donald Armstrong III, who was suspended late last year, said O’Neill no longer has jurisdiction over the parish.

“He doesn’t have an army. The courts will not interfere in an internal church dispute and the congregation is solidly behind us,” Armstrong said.

Beckett Stokes, a spokeswoman for the Colorado diocese, said church law states that all parish property and assets are held in trust for the diocese. She declined to comment on Armstrong’s reaction.

The leaders of Grace and St. Stephen’s voted to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria led by Archbishop Peter J. Akinola.

Armstrong has led the 2,500-member congregation for 19 years. The diocese said in a statement Jan. 3 that he had been placed on 90-day leave the previous week, following a nine-month review of the church’s finances. It did not release details of the allegations against him.

Parish leaders cited the handling of Armstrong’s suspension, along with the denomination’s rejection of the “historic faith,” as reasons for the vote.

Senior warden Jon Wroblewski said the parish had fought for a return to orthodoxy within the denomination but has lost hope in reform.

“It’s clear that The Episcopal Church no longer believes in the historic, orthodox Christian faith common to all believers. It’s also clear that purported Episcopal values of ‘inclusion’ do not apply to orthodox believers,” Wroblewski said in the statement.

Several Virginia Episcopal churches voted late last year to align with Akinola, including prominent congregations in Fairfax and Falls Church. Clergy in the breakaway churches were warned by Episcopal leaders that they could be removed from the ministry.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a fellowship of churches that traces its roots to the Church of England.

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Episcopal breakaway lays claim to church (Washington Times, 070402)

COLORADO SPRINGS — The Palm Sunday face-off at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church ended yesterday in a draw, with the conservatives keeping the historic church building for now, but parishioners who wish to stay with the liberal Diocese of Colorado nabbing the choir robes.

Not bad, considering it was the first service since the Rev. Don Armstrong and the vestry announced that the church would secede from the Episcopal Church and join the Nigerian-based Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

More than 600 worshippers attended Mr. Armstrong’s three services at the towering stone sanctuary, which he has refused to relinquish to the Diocese of Colorado. Another 400 opted to worship a few blocks away at Shrove Chapel on the Colorado College campus, where the diocese held a hastily called service for members who want to remain with the Episcopal Church.

Those included the church’s choir director and 40-member choir, who ignited a schism over choir robes last week by removing them from the Grace and St. Stephen’s music room.

The secessionists said the choir director did so at the direction of the diocese, a charge denied by diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes. Choir members yesterday said they were entitled to the black-and-white garments because they paid for them themselves.

“I gave them to Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, not to Nigeria,” said singer Bobbi Bradford. “So all I did was take back what was mine.”

Also choosing to stick with the Episcopal Church were the Rev. Michael O’Donnell and Deacon Sally Ziegler, who broke with Mr. Armstrong to lead yesterday’s off-site liturgy. They borrowed clergy robes, Communion wafers and the processional cross from St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.

Mr. O’Donnell said his decision was personal, not political.

“It was part obedience to my bishop, and also to these lovely lambs,” he said, gesturing to the hundreds of worshippers who stood in line to shake his hand or hug him after the service.

“I don’t care about politics; I care about sheep. I didn’t want them to be sheep without a shepherd,” said Mr. O’Donnell, who served with Mr. Armstrong for four years.

On March 26, nine of the church’s 11-member vestry voted to secede from the Episcopal Church, a move made out of frustration with both the church’s veer to the left and the diocese’s decision to place Mr. Armstrong on administrative leave during an investigation into accusations of financial misconduct.

Days later, the diocese charged that Mr. Armstrong had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of church money over the course of 10 years. Mr. Armstrong rebutted those charges in a letter to parishioners Friday, and plans to provide more detail, along with his tax forms, at a public meeting April 14.

Mr. Armstrong, who led all yesterday’s services for the first time since he was banished in December, said he felt “blessed” to be back with the congregation, which he called “my home for the last 20 years.”

At the same time, he had some harsh words for Bishop Robert O’Neill, who launched the financial investigation and whom he has clashed with politically for years.

“We have a long history of being on the opposite side of the fence, and maybe my success is an attack on his narcissistic core,” said Mr. Armstrong. “The bishop has some pathological obsession with me, and he’s putting the diocese at financial risk to spend $200,000 on this investigation.”

Parishioners, meanwhile, were giddy at his return, saying it was a relief to see and talk to him after being forbidden to do so since he was forced to leave.

“I think everyone feels a tremendous sense of relief to see Father Don Armstrong and Father [Eric] Zolner up there,” said vestry senior warden Jon Wroblewski. “We made a big decision, and we’ve taken a big step. They’re in a tricky position. It’s a profile in courage.”

Ed and Lucia Montgomery said they had no idea how many people would attend, especially after word reached them about the choir’s decision to side with the Episcopal Church. A makeshift choir of a dozen high school students was thrown together at the last minute.

“We were filled with trepidation coming today. Who will show up? Who won’t? We came early to make sure we had enough ushers, because you never know,” said Mrs. Montgomery. “We were thrilled that so many people were here.”

Karl Weiskopf called it “a day of rejoicing, not only for Palm Sunday but for the return of the rector.”

He praised the decision to break with the Episcopalians. A final vote of the congregation on whether to join the Nigerian-based convocation is scheduled for May.

“We were all pushed to the brink,” Mr. Weiskopf said. “If this church had not left on its own, I would have left on my own as soon as the matter with Father Armstrong was resolved.”

The only vestry member to stay with the Episcopal Church was Bob McJimsey, who received a loud round of applause when he spoke at the loyalist service. Their numbers were bolstered by the presence of Episcopalians like Nancy Ryan, a regular at St. Michael’s who said she came to support the Grace and St. Stephen’s congregation.

She predicted the church would survive the current schism over the leadership’s leftward political tilt, notably the 2003 decisions to offer same-sex blessings and support an openly homosexual bishop.

“We’ve survived Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and all the changes over the ‘70s. We can survive this,” said Mrs. Ryan. “We have liberals and conservatives, but we’re all working together in a loving manner. We’re not supposed to fight with each other.”

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Episcopal ‘Desertion from Anglicanism’ Prompts Call for New Church (Christian Post, 070326)

Conservative Anglicans made an “urgent plea” Monday to build a separate Anglican church in the United States following the Episcopal Church’s “desertion from Anglicanism” last week.

“Faithful Anglican groups with shared interests are needed, such as the Anglican Communion Network and already-defected organizations which have melded shared interests in Common Cause Partners and the Federation of Anglicans in the Americas. At long last their goal of a unified Anglican church in the U.S.A. that is faithful to Christ can become a reality,” Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion (LEAC) stated in a press release.

LEAC, a national coalition of lay people who believe the Episcopal Church has abandoned Christianity, had proposed a solution to what they viewed as “the American problem” last month, just before Anglican leaders gave the Episcopal Church an ultimatum on homosexual consecration and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The dissident Episcopalians had proposed for a new orthodox Anglican structure in North America that would operate independently from the worldwide Anglican Communion until the global body formally rids the American continent of the Episcopal Church – the U.S. wing of Anglicanism.

Now, a week after the Episcopal House of Bishops adopted resolutions reaffirming their support for homosexuals as “full and equal participants” in the church and rejected the Primates (Anglican leaders)’ request for leaders outside the U.S. denomination to oversee conservative American dioceses that disagree, LEAC called for “immediate, pan-Anglican readiness” for the development of a new body.

“The Anglican Church of the United States of America” is a “province-in-waiting” that could be activated immediately.

“We should create the new unified product now – up and operating as soon as possible, not next year or the year after – in order to stop the hemorrhaging of our Anglican lifeblood,” said the released statement. “That’s a great challenge and awesome change of pace for church people, but we can do it.

“We should selflessly engage our can-do American spirit rather than the casual, no-hurry, wait-and-see mode with which we have been all too comfortable. A new cultural dynamic is needed to give actual solutions in saving our debilitated Anglicanism highest corporate priority.”

Rifts in the Episcopal Church widened when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003. Since then, more Episcopal churches have left the U.S. body over theological differences. The Episcopal Church currently faces a Sept. 30 deadline to respond to a moratorium on the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, said he was not surprised at the decisions made by the House of Bishops last week, but was surprised by the quick response by the U.S. body.

Conservative Anglicans say the Episcopal Church is walking away from Anglican tradition and scriptural authority.

“You can be sure that if the captain of an ocean liner announced that the ship would sink at sea on September 30, there would a great demand that lifeboats and release systems are in order,” stated LEAC. “Already-committed laypersons want the lifeboats in order now to move toward a post-TEC (the Episcopal Church) Anglican landscape and bring in other, often confused, even disparate faithful together in a new, safe church.”

The lay Episcopalians say a new operating church is urgent and must be ready “when and if” the Anglican Communion invites them to “replace” the Episcopal Church.

“We’ll be ready,” the coalition stated.

While Jefferts Schori noted that breakaway Anglican churches only make up less than one percent of the U.S. body, LEAC said the conservative parishes will grow faster once they are “freed” from the Episcopal Church.

“The most critical thing we can do right now to halt the destruction of Anglicanism as a robust denomination in our country is announce authoritatively that there very soon will be a new, phased-in Anglican church, shortly ready to receive immediate membership, with provisions for standby or transitional memberships committed but awaiting a provincial declaration by the Anglican Communion.”

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Anglicans Fully Open Human Sexuality Talks (Christian Post, 070328)

The Anglican Communion has fully opened discussions and study on human sexuality on Tuesday when it made individual reports from member churches across the globe available on the Internet.

Called “The Listening Process,” a 1998 mandate has led to the culmination of months of work on drawing upon public statements and research into the controversial issue of homosexuality. Each of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces have released summaries on the matter for the entire Communion to study.

“In the cultures of Central Africa homosexuality is not something talked about. It is known in the prisons and cases are reported to those in authority. It is also known in the community, but it is often not acknowledged or named and when it is named, it is named negatively,” stated the report by the Church of the Province of Central Africa.

The African province indicated that it is beginning to consider how it might enter into a listening process to the experience of homosexuals and other Anglican churches and that it should not be a hurried process.

Archbishop the Most Rev. Dr. B. A. Malango made the church’s position clear, stating that the listening process is vital “not because we want to compromise our position rather hoping that we will reach a point to understand one another for the sake of witnessing a redemptive wrought in the Anglican Communion.”

Controversy in the Anglican Communion heightened when the Episcopal Church - the U.S. wing of Anglicanism - consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003. Conservative Anglican leaders, particularly from the African continent, have called for “true repentance” from the U.S. church in response to a 2004 moratorium on consecrating gays and blessing same-sex unions. While the moratorium was reaffirmed last month at a global meeting in Tanzania, Episcopal leaders have continuously expressed their support for the “full inclusion” of homosexual persons.

As the Episcopal Church faces a Sept. 30 deadline to respond to what reports indicate as an ultimatum - which calls the U.S. body to halt its march toward full acceptance of gays or risk a much-reduced role in the Anglican family - U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori believes the Episcopalians have a “gift” to change other people’s understandings of gays and lesbians.

Dialogue on human sexuality in the Communion has gone on for decades as the Anglican churches seek understanding amid increasing acceptance of gay lifestyles in societies. In 1998, the Lambeth Conference made a commitment to “listen to the experience of homosexual persons.”

While calling Anglican people to minister pastorally and sensitively to all irrespective of sexual orientation, the listening process does not mean that the Anglican churches accept the position of those they are listening to, the Communion clarifies.

“However, it does mean that we seek to hear God speaking to us and discover his will. It does require that we offer respect and, perhaps change the way in which we speak.”

Wanting to give homosexual persons, conservatives, liberals, and those uncertain a “safe place” to voice their experiences, the Anglican Communion chose the Internet as its venue for wide response from Anglicans all over the world.

Summaries of every Anglican province’s stance are now available online and available across the Communion for study and reflection. A Study Guide on “The Process of Listening to Gay and Lesbian people and Mutual Listening on Human Sexuality” is being prepared for next year’s decennial Lambeth Conference.

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Charges Against Breakway Megachurch Pastor Heats Up Dispute (Christian Post, 070329)

DENVER (AP) - The leader of a breakaway Episcopal parish will face financial misconduct allegations in the diocese’s judicial system, officials said Wednesday.

The action came two days after leaders of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish in Colorado Springs voted to leave the denomination and join a Nigerian-linked missionary diocese. They left because they were upset about the liberal theological direction of the national church, particularly when it comes to gay relationships.

Hours after the vote, diocese officials handed down the church equivalent of an indictment against the Rev. Donald Armstrong but did not release specifics. Parish leaders criticized the action against him as the product of a “kangaroo court.”

A letter to parishioners from Colorado Bishop Robert O’Neill, obtained by The Gazette of Colorado Springs, accuses Armstrong of theft and mishandling of hundreds of thousands of dollars over about 10 years. It also says Armstrong failed to report about $548,000 in income and benefits on state and federal tax forms.

Diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes confirmed the letter, but would not provide a copy to The Associated Press. The diocese suspended Armstrong Jan. 3 and barred him from the parish property because of the investigation.

Armstrong didn’t return a telephone message but released a written statement denying the allegations.

“I fear that Bishop O’Neill’s monomaniacal pursuit of the politics of personal destruction may ultimately result in the financial demise of the Diocese of Colorado and the loss of his episcopacy,” he said.

Also Wednesday, the diocese also said it may take action in state court to reclaim the parish property if leaders don’t relinquish their claims to it. An Episcopal Church law passed in 1979 states that parish property is held in trust for dioceses, but a state court still may have to analyze the relationship between the parish and the diocese, according to legal experts.

Grace and St. Stephen’s leaders said they had hoped to remain in the denomination but were upset with last week’s decision by the Episcopal Church not to allow leaders outside the U.S. to oversee dissenting, conservative dioceses.

The Episcopal Church says only about 45 of its 7,600 congregations nationwide have left the denomination since 2003, but they include some of the largest and most active.

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What it Means to Be Anglican in the 21st Century (Christian Post, 070401)

[KH: It is a mistake to attempt to hide the conflict. Those who don’t believe in the Bible must be expelled.]

Heightened controversies mainly around homosexuality in the Anglican Communion have forced the worldwide denomination to address more deeply what it means to be Anglican in the 21st century.

“To speak of Anglicanism today, either as a church tradition or as an ecclesial communion, is to speak of one of the most vibrant and unstable expressions of Christianity within the world,” said the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, archbishop of the West Indies.

The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian body in the world with around 77 million members. Many, however, predict a breakup as the Communion’s U.S. wing - the Episcopal Church - shows no sign of pledging not to consecrate another gay bishop, as it did in 2003.

The homosexual debate among Anglican churches has gone on for decades. And conservative leaders say the Episcopal Church has departed from Anglican tradition and scriptural authority. But Gomez says the gay debate is only “the tip of the iceberg.”

“The deeper issue is, in reality, a test of the nature of our communion and interdependence.”

Some say the Episcopal Church would choose autonomy over interdependence.

“In the past, the Episcopal Church has stressed its autonomy with little to no regard for the rest of the Anglican Communion,” said Ralph Webb, director of Anglican Action for the Institute on Religion and Democracy, in a statement last month. “Sadly, its actions to date suggest that if push comes to shove, it will choose independence over fellowship.”

While the Episcopal House of Bishops expressed desire to remain a part of the Anglican Communion, it reaffirmed the U.S. church’s stance on the “full inclusion” of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons earlier this month. Episcopal leaders are expected to respond to the Primates (Anglican leaders)’ moratorium on the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions in a September meeting. Their deadline to respond is Sept. 30.

The challenges in the Communion point to the question of Anglican identity.

“One of the problems that has been faced as the Communion has developed is its lack of an explicitly stated self-understanding of what it means to be Anglican and what it means to recognize others as Anglican and live in interdependent, mutually accountable communion with one another as part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church,” said Gomez, adding that there is a lack of agreed and stated principles of what it means to be interdependent.

Alluding to the growth of plural identities, often in contrast to one another, within and among Anglican churches, Gomez warned that there is a danger of having “a collection of culturally limited churches and perspectives and theologies.” He urged churches to give up the cultural captivities.

“The idea of communion, however, is a multiple series of learnings and giving ways,” he said, urging churches to submit to one another in a way that makes for deep mutual commitment.

As Anglicans look for a way forward, the Anglican Covenant is currently in progress to articulate the identity of the Anglican Communion. The covenant is meant to articulate and clarify the common faith of Anglicans and to “hold together and strengthen the life of the Communion.”

At the heart of Anglican identity is “the global, missionary and ecclesial vision of Anglicanism” to witness effectively in all the world, Gomez indicated. And the covenant seeks to express that, he noted.

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Episcopal Church Dismisses Charges Against Pro-Gay Bishop (Christian Post, 070416)

[KH: of course, what else?]

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A national review committee of the Episcopal Church has dismissed all the religious charges brought against Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith by leaders of six conservative parishes, the bishop said Friday.

The parishes had alleged, among other things, inappropriate application of church law in Smith’s decision to support the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the church’s first openly gay bishop. Robinson’s 2003 consecration divided the U.S. Episcopal Church and expanded the rift over gay issues among churches in the global Anglican Communion.

Dubbed the “Connecticut Six,” the priests had asked to be supervised by a different bishop because they disagreed with Smith’s support for Robinson.

The committee issued an 89-page decision that was mailed on April 11 to attorneys for the Diocese and for the churches. There is no provision for appeal. The committee, comprising five bishops, two priests, and two lay persons, is similar to a grand jury, which determines if there is enough evidence to continue to a church trial.

Smith said he was pleased with the committee’s ruling.

“My desire has always been to bring reconciliation with the clergy and laity who sought to dissociate themselves from the oversight of their bishop and the mission and life of the Diocese of Connecticut,” he said in a statement released Friday. “I will never abandon that desire and hope.”

Messages were left seeking comment from the priests and their lawyer, Ralph Dupont.

The six parishes also had filed a federal lawsuit in 2005 seeking several million dollars in damages from Smith. They allege he violated their civil and property rights after they tried to break away from his authority because he supported the election of Robinson. A federal judge dismissed the case last year and the parishes are appealing.

In spring 2005, the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Connecticut, an elected council of advice, determined that each of the six rectors had “abandoned the communion of the Church.”

Smith eventually removed the Rev. Mark Hansen of St. John’s in Bristol based in part on the Standing Committee recommendation.

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Anglican Leader Tells Departing Episcopal Church of ‘a Good Way Forward’ (Christian Post, 070421)

A breakaway Anglican leader presented the mission of his conservative Anglican group to an embattled church that’s preparing to vote on whether to leave the Episcopal Church.

Bishop Martyn Minns, missionary leader of Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) – a splinter group and outreach initiative of the Church of Nigeria – recently visited Grace Church & St. Stephen’s Parish in Colorado Springs, weeks after its leaders voted to secede from the Diocese of Colorado and the Episcopal Church.

He told Rocky Mountain News before the Wednesday meeting that he would tell parishioners he believes CANA represents “a good way forward” at a time when the Anglican Communion itself appears to be fracturing.

“We’re a mess,” said Minns of the Anglican confusion, according to the local newspaper. “Many things are incoherent.

Leaders of the Colorado Springs parish had voted in March to leave the Episcopal Church in dissension over the liberal theological direction of the denomination. The Episcopal Church heightened controversy when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

In December, Minns was part of a significant exodus of Virginia churches that voted to leave the diocese and national body. He and 11 breakaway churches have multiple lawsuits against them over church property.

“We’re trying to find a way to remain faithful Anglicans during this time of turbulence,” said Minns, according to Rocky Mountain News.

Meanwhile, Grace Church & St. Stephen’s Parish is being threatened with lawsuits against its rector, the Rev. Don Armstrong. Armstrong, who says the diocese is persecuting him for his conservative views, is being accused of misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money.

He and a majority of the church vestry voted to join Minns and his Anglican group, which consists of about 35 congregations and is growing. Minns said he was also in Colorado to support Armstrong – a friend for 30 years.

Parishioners of the Colorado Springs church are scheduled to vote on May 20 on the vestry’s decision.

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Anglican Head: Conservatives Misread Scripture on Homosexuality (Christian Post, 070419)

[KH: Jas 3:1, he will be harshly judged on this]

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told a group of theological students that the scriptural text conservatives use to argue against homosexuality is misread.

The Anglican spiritual leader was speaking in Toronto on Monday when he examined the practice of reading the Bible. He said the primary point of the most important single text in Scripture on the subject of homosexuality – for the majority of modern readers – is not about homosexuality. Instead, it’s meant to warn Christians not to be self-righteous when they see others fall into sin.

In the first chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul lists same-sex relationships as “unnatural” relations along with other moral depravities of mankind. The text is “famously” used by conservative Christians to back their argument against homosexuality. But Williams said Paul’s rhetorical gambit is not helpful to the conservative “who has been up to this point happily identifying with Paul’s castigation of someone else.”

“Paul is making a primary point not about homosexuality but about the delusions of the supposedly law-abiding,” he stated, according to the Anglican Church of Canada.

William’s comments, however, does not favor either side. He stressed the text is “not helpful for the liberal case either since Paul’s point is that everyone “in his imagined readership” agrees in thinking same-sex relations is as obviously as immoral as idol-worship.

The 77-million Anglican Communion is currently wracked by debate over homosexuality and near breaking point. Anglican primates (leaders) issued a Sept. 30 deadline for the Episcopal Church to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize the blessing of same-sex unions. The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003.

Williams stressed that his comments on Monday “does nothing to settle the exegetical questions fiercely debated at the moment.” Instead he was explaining a strictly theological reading of Scripture.

“Take Scripture out of this context of the invitation to sit at table with Jesus and to be incorporated into his labor and suffering for the Kingdom, and you will be treating Scripture as either simply an inspired supernatural guide for individual conduct or a piece of detached historical record – the typical exaggerations of Biblicist and liberal approaches respectively,” he said.

The Anglican head warned that there is a division in the communion “and it’s getting deeper and more bitter,” according to The Washington Post. “If the Anglican Church divides, everyone will lose.”

As the leader of the Anglican Communion, Williams said the main thing he can do “is try to maintain the level of credibility that allows him to get people around the table.” He further stressed the importance of community in the Christian church.

The Anglican Communion is currently in the process of drafting an Anglican Covenant, intended to be a faith statement to foster unity among its churches. Williams commented that he found “unacceptable a draft covenant presented to the senior archbishops, or primates, that would allow the communion to boot out member churches deemed to have stepped out of line doctrinally on issues such as sexuality.”

Williams announced on Monday that he intends to visit the United States in the fall in response to the invitation from the Episcopal House of Bishops.

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Episcopal Head Says Anglican Churches Will Make Same ‘Journey’ to Pro-Gay Stance (Christian Post, 070427)

After affirming that the 2008 Lambeth Conference will not be canceled over sexuality debates, the Anglican Communion is moving forward with plans for the worldwide assembly.

Next year’s decennial conference will be different, however. Rather than a parliamentary debating chamber with a string of resolutions, it will be a time for “spiritual reflection, learning, sharing and discerning,” said Archbishop of Melanesia, Sir Ellison Pogo.

The 77 million-member Anglican Communion had been considering whether to cancel the global event in the wake of heightened controversy over the Episcopal Church’s recent actions and stance favoring the consecration of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.

Earlier this year, Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria had threatened to not participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference and hold its own gathering if the issue of homosexuality was not resolved before then.

The Episcopal Church, which consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, was given a Sept. 30 deadline this year to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another gay bishop or authorize prayers for homosexual unions.

Leading up to the deadline, the Anglican spiritual leader had questioned the timing of the 2008 conference.

“We’ve been looking at whether the timing is right, but if we wait for the ideal time, we will wait more than just 18 months,” Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams told the Anglican Journal last week.

Last week, the conference “Design Group,” appointed by Williams, worked on the conference structures, purposes, issues and program, according to the Anglican News Service.

In the meantime, U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told The Boston Globe this week that the Episcopal Church will not likely be moving “backward” on their 2003 decision to elect an openly gay bishop.

“I don’t believe that there is any will in this church to move backward,” she told the newspaper on Tuesday. She called the 2003 election “a great blessing.”

While the majority of Anglican leaders, mainly on the African continent, say the Episcopal Church has departed from Anglican tradition and scriptural authority, Jefferts Schori believes the rest of the Anglican churches will move in the direction of the Episcopal Church possibly 50 years from now.

“Where the protesters are, in some parts of Africa or in other parts of the Anglican Communion today, is where this church and this society we live in was 50 years ago, and for us to assume that people can move that distance in a year or in a relatively instantaneous manner is perhaps faithless,” she told the Globe. “That kind of movement and development has taken us a good deal of pain and energy over 40 or 50 years, and I think we have to make some space so that others can make that journey as well.”

“In other words, Jefferts Schori argues that time is on her side,” commented the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of America’s pre-eminent evangelical leaders, in a blog post Thursday. “The African churches will simply have to grow up and learn to play the game. They will have to learn to replace the authority of the Bible with the authority of modern therapeutic ideologies.

“In time,” he wrote, “she expects the African churches to learn to play the game - relativizing Scripture, redefining biblical morality, and flaunting the moral wisdom the church has known for over 2,000 years.

“She may be right,” Mohler added. “We must pray she is wrong.”

Lambeth 2008 will continue to address the “internal conflicts of recent years,” according to Ellison, and also address such topics as the Millennium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS, Ethical/Green living, Anglican identity and covenant, The Listening Process and relationships with people of other faiths.

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Conservative Anglican’s Visit Upsets Episcopal Leaders (Christian Post, 070501)

An orthodox Anglican group in the United States will this week officially install its missionary bishop who will provide oversight to breakaway Anglicans. But Episcopal Church leaders feel more threatened by a visit from an Anglican leader from overseas who will be attending the ceremony.

Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria – the largest province in the worldwide Anglican Communion – plans to install the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) – a splinter group and offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. The visit, Episcopal Church leaders say, threatens to further strain the “fragile” relations between their church body and the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion, according to International Herald Tribune.

The Rev. Mark Harris, a member of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, said Akinola “is making clear that he considers the church in Nigeria is not in communion with the Episcopal Church.”

Akinola was one of seven Global South Primates (Anglican leaders) who declared a “severely impaired” relationship with the Episcopal Church and did not participate in the Holy Eucharist with Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during the global Primates meeting in February.

The Episcopal Church had widened rifts within the Anglican Communion when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, which the majority of Anglican leaders called a departure from Anglican tradition and a violation of Scripture.

Responding to Akinola’s planned visit, Jefferts Schori said Akinola’s acceptance of “an invitation to Episcopal ministry here without any notice or prior invitation” was not keeping with “the ancient practice in most of the church” that bishops minister only within their own jurisdictions, according to International Herald Tribune.

“This action would only serve to heighten current tensions and would be regrettable if it does indeed occur,” she said in her statement.

During the February Primates meeting, the Episcopal Church had called for an end to interventions from bishops such as Akinola, who started a conservative parish network in the United States for congregations that disagree with the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion. Those who intervened, however, said it would be inappropriate to pull out until “there is change in the Episcopal Church,” according to the February communiqué.

Primates recommended that the Episcopal Church consent to appoint a “Primatial Vicar” and special committee that would oversee U.S. dioceses that reject the authority of Jefferts Schori. In return, the Anglicans said they would stop Anglican bishops from coming on their own into the United States to take oversight of dissenting Episcopalians.

In March, however, the Episcopal House of Bishops rejected the demand for leaders outside the U.S. denomination to oversee the conservative American dioceses that disagree.

Akinola is now scheduled to preside over Saturday’s ceremony in Woodbridge, Va., to install Minns, former rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., which was one of the largest churches in the state to leave the Episcopal Church last December.

“The reality is that there is a broken relationship between the Episcopal Church and the rest of the communion,” Minns said, according to IHT. “We want to give people a freedom of choice to remain Anglican but not under the Episcopal Church as it is currently led.”

CANA, founded in spring of 2005, currently consists of about 35 congregations and is growing.

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Episcopal bishop hits Anglican installation (Washington Times, 070502)

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is confronting Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola head-on with a new demand that he not install Truro Church rector Martyn Minns as head of a parallel denomination this coming weekend.

At the ceremony, scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Archbishop Akinola and four other Nigerian bishops will make Bishop Minns, 64, the head of the Fairfax-based Convocation of Anglicans in North America. He has headed CANA, in addition to pastoring the 2,300-member Truro, since he was consecrated as a bishop Aug. 20 in Abuja, Nigeria.

“Such action would violate the ancient customs of the church” in terms of the sacrosanct boundaries of individual bishops, the presiding bishop wrote in a letter released yesterday.

Archbishop Akinola does not have the permission to minister within the geographical boundaries of the Diocese of Virginia, which lost 11 parishes about 9,000 people to CANA last winter.

“We share the concerns of the presiding bishop,” said diocesan spokesman Patrick Getlein, adding the diocese still refers to the 11 parishes as “occupied by Nigerian Anglicans.”

The presiding bishop added that “such action would not help the efforts of reconciliation that are taking place in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion as a whole. Such action would display to the world division and disunity that are not part of the mind of Christ, which we must strive to display to all.”

The head of the 2.3-million-member denomination first made her wishes known last week in a request leaked to the New York Times. When that did not produce a response, Bishop Jefferts Schori sent Archbishop Akinola an official letter Monday.

A call to Archbishop Akinola’s headquarters in Nigeria did not get an immediate response.

Bishop Minns called her actions “predictable.”

“The truth of the matter is we are in a broken relationship right now and the normal things,” such as asking a diocesan bishop’s permission to minister, “aren’t working,” he said.

Archbishop Akinola’s pending visit has raised hackles within the diocese ever since the 11 parishes left the diocese in December and January over questions of biblical authority and the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who is openly homosexual.

The diocese retaliated by ejecting about 21 clergy and suing them and several dozen members of each church’s vestry or governing board. The lawsuit is still pending in Virginia Circuit Court.

Bishop Minns pointed out the nondenominational 3,500-seat chapel was selected as the venue for Saturday’s ceremony so as not to antagonize the diocese.

“We delayed this installation for months,” he added, “and we deliberately did not have it in an Episcopal church. I really do want to make this event a positive not a negative witness for Christ.”

Organizers have downplayed Archbishop Akinola’s role at Saturday’s installation. Unlike past visits to Virginia, the archbishop is neither giving the main sermon nor appearing at any press conferences.

However, the archbishop’s mere presence in this country has nettled Episcopal leaders who say Bishop Minns’ installation is the beginning of an effort by the Nigerians to replace the Episcopal Church with a conservative alternative.

The Nigerians added fuel to such suspicions by announcing that they will name more CANA bishops in September. Two other bishops are already assisting CANA retired Albany, N.Y. Suffragan Bishop David Bena and Nigerian Bishop Ben Kwashi of the Diocese of Jos as CANA’s coordinating bishop.

Bishop Minns said CANA has 30 to 35 churches but did not provide more specific information about CANA’s total membership, budget and revenue.

He said his goal is “to give folks who want be Anglicans a place to live out their faith.”

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Leader of Breakaway Anglicans to be Installed amid Strong Objections (Christian Post, 070504)

Thousands of Anglicans across the country on Saturday are expected to attend the installation service of the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as overseer of an Anglican splinter group.

Minns will be installed as missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) – an offshoot of the Church of Nigeria – amid divisions within the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

CANA is one of several splinter groups that formed in the United States as conservative Anglicans disagreed with the theological direction of the Episcopal Church and sought to remain “faithful Anglicans” in the worldwide Communion. Dissident Episcopal parishes cited the Episcopal Church’s departure from Anglican tradition and scriptural authority, particularly when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003, as reasons for distancing themselves from the American arm of Anglicanism.

Installing Minns on Saturday will be Archbishop Peter Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, whose visit has drawn objections from Episcopal leaders, including U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

“Strongly” urging Akinola not to come and install Minns as a bishop in CANA, Jefferts Schori said “such action would violate the ancient customs of the church which limits the Episcopal activity of a bishop to only the jurisdiction to which the bishop has been entrusted, unless canonical permission has been given.”

Minns told VirtueOnline, a voice for global Orthodox Anglicanism, that the presiding bishop’s citing of ancient customs of the church was “a little strange” when “it is the rejection of key aspects of the historic teaching of the church that has resulted in our current crisis.”

In a response letter to Jefferts Schori on Wednesday, Akinola wrote that “brokenness” in the Anglican Communion remains since the 2003 consecration and thus the usual protocol and permissions are “no longer applicable.”

While interventions from overseas, such as Akinola’s CANA initiative, were said to have exacerbated the current divide, Akinola noted that the Primates (Anglican leaders) recently recognized the need for pastoral strategies to address congregations in the United States that are at odds with the Episcopal Church and want to remain in the Anglican Communion. The Nigeria archbishop said CANA was established to “provide a safe place for those who wish to remain faithful Anglicans but can no longer do so within the Episcopal Church as it is currently being led.”

The Episcopal House of Bishops passed a resolution in March saying they would not agree to let Anglican leaders outside the Episcopal Church oversee conservative American dioceses that reject the authority of Jefferts Schori. Such a response has made it clear to Akinola that a pastoral protection like CANA is “even more necessary.”

“It is my heartfelt desire – and indeed the expressed hope of all the Primates of the Communion – that the Episcopal Church will reconsider its actions – and make such special measures no longer necessary. This is the only way forward for full restoration into fellowship with the rest of the Communion,” stated Akinola.

Both the U.S. Episcopal head and Nigeria Anglican leader made a call to reconciliation but the latter noted inconsistency in the words and actions of Jefferts Schori as the Episcopal Church has not dropped its filed complaint against breakaway Anglican churches in Virginia. The Primates had recommended that parties in the United States back away from property litigation.

In his letter, Akinola renewed a pledge that he had made to the former U.S. presiding bishop, Frank T. Griswold. He said the Church of Nigeria will be the first to restore communion on the day that the Episcopal Church “abandons its current unbiblical agenda.” [KH: which is almost impossible with so many liberal bishops.]

The installation service will be held in Woodbridge, Va., with an expected crowd of 3,000 Anglicans.

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Evangelical Leader Blasts Churches’ Gender-Neutral Language (Christian Post, 070427)

The largest Episcopal church in Tucson, Ariz., is removing all power imagery, including the word “Lord,” from its services.

“The way our service reads, the theology is that God is love, period,” Thomas Lindell, deacon at St. Philip’s in the Hills, told Arizona Daily Star. “Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything.”

The church’s associate rector, Susan Anderson-Smith, said “Lord” conveys hierarchical power over things but that’s not who Jesus understood himself to be, she told the local newspaper.

“Jesus was for an egalitarian community. He did not have room for titles or status. And it is recorded that many of the disciples called him Lord. But they had a different idea about worshipping him,” she said. “Jesus was a rabbi and teacher. It was a relationship of mentoring, looking up to him for that kind of companionship.”

Prominent evangelical leader the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the comments absurd.

“Jesus – the Lord – called His disciples to follow Him. He did not follow them ... He was not a mere ‘mentor’ and ‘companion,’” Mohler wrote in his weblog on Friday.

And removing “power imagery” from worship services is rather hard to do, Mohler noted.

“If God is not all-powerful, why worship?” he wrote. “Without an acknowledgment of God’s power, we are left with little to say. A God who is not powerful cannot help, much less save. What can you then sing? ‘O God our [well-intended but less-than-sovereign Spirit of helpfulness] in ages past?’”

St. Philip’s is joined by First Congregational United Church of Christ in Midtown, which uses the word “Lord” on occasion. The pastor of the church, Briget Nicholson, said they are “suspicious” of the word. Some of their hymns have a verse that say “Father” and “God” which is followed by a verse that then says “Mother” and “God.”

“It’s gender-balanced,” the pastor explained to the local newspaper.

Mohler argued in his radio segment on Tuesday, “What did Jesus himself say? When you pray, say ‘Our Father.’ There is no parallel verse about mother anywhere in Scripture. Period.”

“It’s not that God is male, it’s that he is Father. It’s not talking about physicality here, but function and role,” he added. “And when God names Himself, He has the right to say what we should call Him.”

The churches reflect a movement toward gender-neutral language in the church. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country, last year “received” a paper that gave alternatives to the names of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some of the alternatives, which opponents have called “metaphorical triads,” include “Sun, Light and Burning Ray” and “Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child and Life-Giving Womb.”

While some said the paper, titled “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing,” is helpful in answering questions a new member of a congregation might have, the Rev. Alan Gray of Abingdon Presbytery said, “This paper confuses the clear message of Scripture. The reason we call God Father is that He identifies Himself as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Similarly, Mohler concluded about the major denominational churches in the recent report, “If you call God something different, you’re talking about a different god.”

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Orthodox Anglicans Take ‘First Step’ Away from Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070507)

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – The installation of a local minister who recently broke with the Episcopal Church and will now oversee other breakaway congregations was a unique and historic event and one that the Nigerian Anglican leader called “just the first step.”

“The journey ahead is long, the road ... rough, rugged,” said Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, who defied top church leaders on Saturday and installed the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) – a conservative splinter group and an offshoot of the Church of Nigeria.

It was a day of mixed emotions. Minns, rector of the prominent Truro Church in Fairfax, said part of him was sad since the Episcopal Church was his home for several decades.

“[These] are difficult days and confusing days for those of us who consider ourselves Anglican Christians,” Minns told thousands of Anglicans during his installation ceremony at the Cecil D. Hylton Memorial Chapel. “The fabric of our beloved communion has been torn at its deepest level.

“Our name is now synonymous with division and discontent.”

In December, Minns helped lead 11 Virginia churches in overwhelming votes to split with the Episcopal Church – the American wing of Anglicanism. Leaders of the breakaway bunch said their decision to leave was because of the church body’s departure from Christian orthodoxy. The 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop had widened rifts and was the “flash point that showed how far the repudiation of Christian orthodoxy had gone,” according to The Falls Church rector the Rev. John Yates and parishioner Os Guinness.

The breakaway congregations went under the leadership of Akinola, who leads the largest province in the Anglican Communion and who had refused to partake in the Holy Eucharist with Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori during the global Primates (Anglican leaders) meeting in February.

Congregations are fractured, said Minns on Saturday. “It is a disaster.”

Although sad, Minns also called it a celebratory time to stand with some 34 congregations and take a “huge” step of faith in his new home – CANA.

“It isn’t the end of the story. See, God wanted to transform it into a celebration.”

He called CANA “God’s gift” to people who want to serve and grow as Anglicans but cannot do so in “good conscience” within the Episcopal Church.

Touching on several theological debates within the Episcopal Church, Minns told the growing group of orthodox Anglicans, “We want to proclaim that Jesus is Lord of Lords and not simply one option of many. We want to teach the Bible as trustworthy and true and not cross our fingers when we read it. We want to get on with the work of evangelism and church planting without apologizing for who we are. We want to see lives transformed and not simply excused. We want to see families made whole and not merely redesigned. We want to be a church where everyone is welcomed but no one leaves unchanged,” he said in his sermon, stirring wide applause and nods.

“We want to remain faithful members of the Anglican Communion during these turbulent times,” he added. “We treasure that ... worldwide family.”

Despite calls by Jefferts Schori and the head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, urging Akinola not to visit the United States and install Minns, Akinola affirmed at the service, “We’re doing this on behalf of the Anglican Communion.”

Some Episcopal leaders have said Akinola’s action would worsen an already fragile situation within the Anglican Communion, especially in the months before the Sept. 30 deadline outlined by the Primates in February, requesting the Episcopal Church to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop “unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion.”

But “brokenness” in the Anglican Communion remains, said Akinola in a response letter to Jefferts Schori, and CANA was established to provide “a safe place” for faithful Anglicans.

“We are here to make sure that God’s people have a home ... a spiritual home,” Akinola said on Saturday.

Partaking in CANA’s historic event, Simon Frank, a member of Mount Zion Anglican Church in Chicago, Ill., said, “I don’t think the Episcopal Church believes in what the Anglican Communion stands for.” Frank, a Nigerian, has been Anglican all his life and said CANA is a “nice turn for us to establish what we’re intending to do.”

If the divisions in the American church, however, are removed and the Episcopal Church is “back in line” with the Anglican Communion, the Church of Nigeria will be there to restore communion, Akinola told CANA parishioners in a renewed pledge which he had first made with the former Episcopal presiding bishop, Frank T. Griswold.

But the Most Rev. Leonard Riches, presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, doesn’t think the Episcopal Church is going to “reverse course.” He said the Church of Nigeria and the American church have “competing agendas” with the former defending traditional faith.

The Reformed Episcopal Church is part of what Minns called a “common cause partnership.” CANA isn’t alone in this, the CANA missionary bishop acknowledged. Other dissident Anglican groups in the United States include the Anglican Province of America and the Anglican Mission in America among others. According to Minns, all the groups are working hard to work together and not be fragmented.

“There’s been way too much talk” and “way too many meetings,” said Minns. “We have Gospel work to do today.”

It is not clear how things will turn out, he added. But for now, the work of the Gospel is urgent and the goal of CANA is to live out their faith in an “authentic” way.

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Nigerian Anglican Leader Committed to Protecting Conservative Flock (Christian Post, 070508)

Nigerian Anglican leader Archbishop Peter J. Akinola told the head of Anglican churches worldwide that they are a deeply divided communion and despite many efforts to keep the body from splitting, the division has only deepened.

“As leaders of the [Anglican] Communion, we have all spent enormous amounts of time, traveled huge distances, sometimes at great risk, and expended much needed financial resources in endless meetings, communiqués and reports,” wrote Akinola in a letter addressed to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

“We have developed numerous proposals, established various task forces and yet the division has only deepened,” he added.

The letter, published on May 6, was written in response to Williams who had asked Akinola to cancel plans to install a local minister in northern Virginia as head of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – a conservative splinter group and missionary arm of the Church of Nigeria.

Although the letter was publicized just days before the installation of the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as missionary bishop of CANA on Saturday, Akinola said that he did not receive it until after the ceremony.

Still, the Nigerian Anglican leader – who was recently featured as one of Time magazine’s top 100 Most Influential People in the World – said he wanted to respond and clarify the situation with regard to CANA.

CANA was established as “a way for Nigerian congregations and other alienated Anglicans in North America to stay in the Communion,” he wrote.

It does not bring any advantage to the Church of Nigeria financially or politically, the conservative leader added, but he said, “We believe that we have no other choice if we are to remain faithful to the gospel mandate.”

At the heart of the crisis in the Anglican Communion are the “decisions, actions, defiance and continuing intransigence of the Episcopal Church,” Akinola pointed out. Controversy within the Communion heightened when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003. Conservative Anglicans leaving the American church body argued the Episcopal Church’s departure from Christian orthodoxy was the reason for their split.

Akinola told CANA members on Saturday during the ceremony that the conservative group was there to provide a “spiritual home” for God’s people. Minns said CANA was for those who want to remain “faithful members of the Anglican Communion” but cannot do so in “good conscience” in the Episcopal Church.

Such interventions as the Church of Nigeria’s missionary initiative in the United States were said to have exacerbated the fragile situation in the Anglican Communion, stated a February communiqué drafted by the Primates (Anglican leaders). But the communiqué also recognized that those Primates who have intervened do not feel it is right to end those interventions until it becomes clear that sufficient provision has been made for the life of those persons and until there is change in the Episcopal Church.

Akinola assured Williams that CANA was established “for the Communion” and that they have no desire to cling to it.

“We are more than happy to surrender it (CANA) to the Communion once the conditions that prompted our division have been overturned,” he wrote. He had made that pledge in February during the Primates meeting and also to CANA members on Saturday.

While the Church of Nigeria tried delaying the election of their first CANA bishop and the election of additional suffragan bishops for the conservative U.S. group, Akinola said the Episcopal Church has not embraced the Primates’ recommendations that the U.S. Anglican arm not authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop.

“They are determined to pursue their own unbiblical agenda and exacerbate our current divisions,” Akinola stated.

The Episcopal House of Bishops recently passed resolutions affirming gays and lesbians as “full and equal participants” in the church and rejecting the Primates’ plan for leaders outside the U.S. Anglican body to oversee the conservative American dioceses that disagree with the Episcopal Church.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori also recently told The Boston Globe that the Episcopal Church will not likely be moving “backward” on their 2003 decision to elect Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a gay man living in same-sex relationship. She called the 2003 consecration “a great blessing.”

“It is imperative that we continue to protect those at most risk while we seek a way forward that will offer hope for the future of our beleaguered Communion,” wrote Akinola. “It is to this vision that we in the Church of Nigeria and CANA remain committed.”

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Liberal Archbishop Reflects on Divided Anglican State (Christian Post, 070516)

[KH: what nonsense!]

As the world’s Anglicans remain divided over orthodoxy and human sexuality issues, center stage is increasingly being given to the Anglican leaders of the worldwide denomination, noted a liberal Anglican archbishop.

“[A]nd I very much regret this,” commented the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, who recently spoke at a Bishop’s Forum.

Amid reports indicating the 77 million-member Anglican Communion is on the verge of a split, Ndungane noted that the current difficulties among the Anglican churches should not primarily be handled by the Primates (Anglican leaders), but by the Anglican Consultative Council, which meets approximately every three years with episcopal, clerical and lay representatives from each of the 38 provinces across the more than 160 countries that make up the Anglican Communion.

“[My] conviction is that this (Anglican Consultative Council) is the Instrument of Unity which should primarily be the place for handling the current difficulties and the inter-Anglican, provincial and relationships that are affected by them,” Ndungane said.

The South African archbishop’s recent speech and reflection on the state of affairs within the Communion comes weeks after Nigerian Primate the Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola installed a local minister in Woodbridge, Va., as missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) – a growing conservative splinter group and an offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. Akinola has been labeled as a fierce critic of the Episcopal Church, which widened rifts when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, and has remained firm in his demand that the U.S. arm of Anglicanism get “back in line” with the Anglican Communion.

Primates at a February meeting in Tanzania gave the Episcopal Church a Sept. 30 deadline, requesting an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop “unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion.”

Last month, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams – the Anglican spiritual leader – said that after the deadline, he would leave the decision about the place of the Episcopal Church in the Communion to the Primates and not himself.

In his recent reflection, Ndungane said, “[I]t seems that center stage is increasingly being given to the Primates – and I very much regret this.”

“What grieves me most, is that through not holding to the internal processes of this Instrument of Unity, we have undermined, and so lost our grip, on the assumptions of unity in communion that underlie our common life,” he said, alluding to the Primates meeting as one of the four Instruments of Unity.

Ndungane, who has criticized the dominant talks of the controversy over homosexuality within the Anglican Communion, saying that it has sidetracked global issues of AIDS and poverty, stressed again that human sexuality is “not the prime concern for most Christians in their life of faith.”

U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori expressed a similar view when she addressed the Church Club of New York (layperson’s group) last week. She said this is one of the most exciting times in history to be an Episcopalian and an Anglican.

“The Communion is moving, in what some people see as seismic kinds of ways, but it’s moving. It’s not a dead and dormant thing,” she said as she referred to the talks and work around missions in the Communion, according to the Episcopal News Service.

“I am happy to tell you that almost everywhere I go, I see signs of enormous health and vitality in congregations and dioceses. I don’t see people moping.”

Akinola and CANA missionary bishop the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns had stressed the need to get on with the mission of the church and the work of evangelism in the world during the installation service on May 5. Except Minns and about 34 congregations have chosen to proclaim Jesus Christ as “faithful Anglicans” apart from the Episcopal Church, which they believe has departed from Christian orthodoxy and Anglican tradition.

“Of course, some may leave the Communion as a result of our current problems,” said Ndungane. “But we must not take ourselves too seriously. As Joost de Blank once said ‘God works His purposes out, despite the confusion of our minds.’

“I suspect that future generations will see this as something of a storm in a teacup, and certainly not as central to the Christian life. For the center of Christian life is Jesus Christ.”

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Anglican Conflict: A Battle with ‘Eternal Significance’ (zcp, 070525)

The recent non-invitation of two wayward bishops to a decennial global Anglican meeting produced a media frenzy this week. But what does all this mean?

“First of all, it is clear that the Archbishop of Canterbury faces an impossible task – he is confronted by two irreconcilable truth claims,” stated Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, newly installed missionary bishop of CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) – an orthodox Anglican splinter group and offshoot of the Church of Nigeria.

Minns was one of the bishops whose name was not included in the first batch of invitations to the Lambeth Conference (2008) that were sent out on Tuesday. He oversees some 34 congregations that have split with the Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – and placed themselves under the leadership of Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of the Church of Nigeria. The breakaway group of Anglicans had departed from the Episcopal Church because of the church body’s departure from Christian orthodoxy, which was highlighted by the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop.

That openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, was also not on the Lambeth invitation list. His consecration has prompted a small but growing exodus of Anglican congregations in the United States from the national body and led conservative Anglican provinces overseas to declare their relationship with the American church as severely impaired.

To Robinson, his non-invitation is “an affront to the entire Episcopal Church,” he said in a released statement. “This is not about Gene Robinson, nor the Diocese of New Hampshire. It is about the American Church and its relationship to the Communion.”

While Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams said he has to reserve the right to withhold invitations from “bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the [Anglican] Communion,” Minns believes what Williams has chosen to do is to “ignore the underlying issue and elevate process over principle.”

Moreover, although Williams stressed that attendance at Lambeth 2008 does not commit bishops to accepting the position of others, Minns noted in a letter on Wednesday that the planned activities of Bible study, prayer and shared reflection at the gathering “presume a shared understanding of what the Bible is, who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

“Without any such agreement how can there be a coherent gospel to present to a hurting world?”

U.S. bishops, including Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, have continued to reaffirm their stance for the “full inclusion” of homosexuals. And Jefferts Schori has also questioned in past interviews Jesus Christ as the one and only way to God.

Conservative Global South Primates (Anglican leaders) have expressed staunch opposition to the theological views of Jefferts Schori and clearly indicated a deep division in the Anglican Communion when seven of them refused to break bread with the Episcopal head during the global Primates meeting in February.

With the latest non-invitation of Minns, Akinola – who had installed Minns on May 5 to oversee CANA – stated that a withholding of an invitation to a Nigerian bishop will be viewed as withholding invitation to the entire House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria. Akinola reportedly heads the largest Anglican province in the Anglican Communion.

“Finally, we need to remember that all this confusion is simply one more phase of a global conflict for the soul of the Anglican Communion,” said Minns in the letter. “It is a profoundly important battle that has eternal significance.”

Meanwhile, the future for CANA is very bright, said Minns. The orthodox group has been moving forward since Minns’ installation early this month with 20 prospective candidates for ordination now being considered. At the same time, the splinter congregations have begun this week their court battle – which Minns predicts will be a long and costly one – with the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church over church properties.

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Barred Anglican Bishop: Communion Torn at Deepest Level (Christian Post, 070523)

The exclusion of two wayward bishops from joining a major Anglican conference next year has placed all the attention on the invitation list. But one of the bishops says the crisis Anglican churches are facing is not just about a few bishops.

“While the immediate attention is focused on the invitation list, it should be remembered that this crisis in the Anglican Communion is not about a few individual bishops but about a worldwide Communion that is torn at its deepest level,” said the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) – an orthodox Anglican splinter group and offshoot of the Church of Nigeria.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican Communion’s spiritual leader, sent out the first set of invitations to over 850 bishops for Lambeth 2008 – the church body’s global decennial gathering – on Tuesday. Minns, who now oversees some 34 orthodox Anglican congregations in CANA that are dissident with the Episcopal Church, and openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire were not invited.

While reports indicate the non-invitation of the two bishops is likely to provoke debate, Williams stated he has to reserve the right to withhold invitations from “bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion.” He also recalled that invitations are issued on a personal basis by the Archbishop of Canterbury and that the conference has “no ‘constitution’ or formal powers,” he stated in the invitation letter.

His invitations go out four months before the Episcopal Church is scheduled to respond to the requests of the Primates (Anglican leaders) to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop. The Episcopal Church, which currently represents Anglicanism in the United States, had widened rifts in 2003 when it consecrated Robinson and faces a Sept. 30 deadline this year to respond to the Primates.

“The question of Gene Robinson ... I think has exercised the archbishop of Canterbury’s mind for quite some time,” said Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary-general of the Anglican Communion, according to The Associated Press.

Although Robinson was duly consecrated a bishop according to the rules of the Episcopal Church, “for the archbishop to simply give full recognition at this conference would be to ignore the very substantial and very widespread objections in many parts of the communion to his consecration and to his ministry,” said Kearon.

The global body had reaffirmed earlier this year that homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture while still calling on the church to minister to all people irrespective of sexual orientation.

“At a time when the Anglican Communion is calling for a ‘listening process’ on the issue of homosexuality, how does it make sense to exclude gay and lesbian people from the discussion?” Robinson said in a statement released by his office.

Robinson expressed “great disappointment” in Williams’ decision, but the New Hampshire bishop may be invited to attend the Lambeth Conference as a guest, according to Kearon.

Currently, however, there is seemingly no intention to invite Minns as a guest.

“It is a very different situation,” said Kearon, explaining that while Minns is a bishop, his consecration is not regular.

Minns had helped 11 Virginia churches that voted overwhelmingly to split with the Episcopal Church. He was installed to lead CANA congregations on May 5 by Nigerian Primate the Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola who was urged by U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Williams not to do.

Regarding his name not being on the Lambeth invitation list, Minns stated, “Depending on the response of The Episcopal Church to the Primates’ communiqué by September 30, the situation may become even more complex. One thing is clear, a great deal can and will happen before next July.”

Also not invited are bishops of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) and bishops from the Reformed Episcopal Church. Both groups are currently working together with CANA along with other dissident Anglicans in what Minns had called a “common cause partnership.”

For those invited to Lambeth, Williams affirmed that their coming to the conference “does not commit [them] to accepting the position of others as necessarily a legitimate expression of Anglican doctrine and discipline.”

“At a time when our common identity seems less clear that it once did,” Williams wrote, “the temptation is to move further away from each other into those circles where we only related to those who completely agree with us. But the depth and seriousness of the issues that face us require us to discuss as fully and freely as we can, and no other forum offers the same opportunities for all to hear and consider, in the context of a common waiting on the Holy Spirit.”

Lambeth 2008 is scheduled to be held July 16-Aug. 4 at the University of Kent in England.

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‘Unseemly’ Episcopal Court Battle Underway (Christian Post, 070522)

Lawsuits against 11 breakaway Anglican churches went under review before a Fairfax County judge Monday to begin resolving church property conflicts. And the defendants - conservative Anglicans - are fairly optimistic.

“We believe we have a strong case morally, legally and ethically,” commented Jim Oakes, vice chair of the Anglican District of Virginia and one of 107 defendants named in the lawsuits, about the property dispute.

The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia are suing the churches, including two of the largest and most historic; their clergy; and lay leaders after the parishes overwhelmingly voted to leave the American church body yet have continued to worship on the multimillion-dollar church properties.

Attorneys for all three parties were present at the Monday scheduling conference for what may be the Episcopal Church’s largest lawsuit ever. Circuit Judge Randy Bellows agreed to first hear arguments on the “division statute” to determine whether the breakaway Anglicans’ claim that there is division in the Episcopal Church and in the worldwide Anglican Communion is valid.

The tentative trial date to hear filings under the Virginia statute is late November, according to Oakes.

“We claim that … the fact that we (Truro Church) took the vote in concert with other churches and the fact that there is so clearly a division – not only within the diocese [of Virginia] also but within the Episcopal Church, as evidenced by entire dioceses that are talking about looking for alternative oversight, and within the worldwide Anglican Communion, as evidenced by a number of provinces in the Anglican Communion – have in effect declared that they are either in impaired communion or not in communion with the American Episcopal Church,” explained Oakes, also former senior warden of Truro Church. “We believe that all those factors point to the existence of a division.”

The Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church, which filed suit weeks after the diocese did, however, disagree that there is division.

The Virginia churches had voted to split from the national denomination in December, leaving only tiny minorities of members who chose to remain in the Episcopal Church and joining the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – an orthodox Anglican splinter group set up by the Church of Nigeria in the United States. Leaders of the breakaway bunch argued that the Episcopal Church has departed from Christian orthodoxy, and the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop heightened the controversy.

While the conservative Anglicans have continued to hold worship services on the church properties, the Episcopal Church and its Virginia diocese argue that they shall take steps to secure the property of any parish or mission that ceases to function as an Episcopal congregation. Meanwhile, the breakaway Anglicans claim that the deeds to the church properties are in the name of trustees for the congregations and not the Diocese of Virginia or the Episcopal Church

“[W]e are appalled that we are having to deal with this issue in the courts,” said Oakes. “We continue to think it’s unseemly for Christians to have to battle these sorts of issues out in secular court.”

When the Episcopal Church had announced its filed suit in February, leaders of the breakaway churches had called it “un-Christian.”

At the time of the December split, the Virginia diocese and the breakaway congregations had originally agreed to avoid litigation over property. But negotiations stopped within a month of the agreement and the Episcopal Church has since backed the diocese in the recovery of the church properties.

Amid scheduling trial dates and preparing for evidentiary hearings, Oakes and fellow orthodox Anglicans continue to “strongly” ask the Episcopal Church to return to the negotiating table.

“My personal hope would be that the judge would at some point order us to try to work differences out through negotiation,” said Oakes. “Litigation is just expensive, it’s unseemly. Nobody really wins. All that said, we’re confident of our position.”

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Nigerian Church Leader May Lead Boycott of Decennial Anglican Gathering (Christian Post, 070529)

Archbishop Peter Akinola, the leader of Anglican churches in Nigeria, may lead a boycott of the 2008 Lambeth Conference, following news that two controversial bishops did not receive invitations from the Anglican Communion’s spiritual leader.

Akinola revealed he was greatly upset that Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams did not issue an invitation to Bishop Martyn Minns, the “missionary bishop” of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) - an orthodox Anglican splinter group and offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. He had said the failure to invite Minns could be “viewed as withholding invitation to the entire House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria.”

The first set of invitations for Lambeth 2008 – the Anglican Communion’s global decennial gathering – were sent out by Williams to more than 850 bishops last week. Openly gay Bishop V Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was also not invited to Lambeth 2008.

Akinola warned that he might now refuse to attend the Lambeth Conference, and encourage all other Nigerian prelates to join him in boycotting the meetings.

The Nigerian church leader has been one of the most outspoken critics of the acceptance of homosexuality in the Anglican Communion.

He now oversees some 34 orthodox Anglican congregations in CANA that are dissident from the U.S.-based Episcopal Church.

Akinola recently ordained the Rt Rev Martyn Minns as a “missionary bishop” to serve the spiritual needs of like-minded Anglicans in America.

He also recalled that invitations are issued on a personal basis by the Archbishop of Canterbury and in the invitation letter stated that the conference has “no ‘constitution’ or formal powers.”

The invitations went out four months before the Episcopal Church is scheduled to respond to the requests of the primates (Anglican leaders) to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop.

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Orthodox Anglicans Welcome 3 New Splinter Churches (Christian Post, 070530)

An Anglican splinter group in the United States has welcomed three new congregations, bringing its growing membership to now 37 registered churches in 15 states plus the District of Columbia.

“I am very pleased that CANA is providing a safe haven for faithful Anglicans in the U.S. who feel cut off from the worldwide Anglican Communion,” said the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, in a statement on Tuesday. “I am also delighted that we are reaching out and planting new congregations. It is especially appropriate that new people are coming to faith and new churches are being established as we celebrate the beginning of the Christian movement on the Feast of Pentecost.”

Trinity Church in Bristol, Conn.; Christ the King Anglican Church in St. Augustine, Fla.; and Grace Church and St. Stephen’s in Colorado Springs, Colo., have separated from the Episcopal Church and newly placed themselves under the leadership of Minns and Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, who leads the largest Anglican province and set up CANA in the United States.

CANA is meant to provide a safe spiritual home for people who want to remain faithful members of the Anglican Communion but cannot do so within the Episcopal Church, Akinola has said. Although such interventions as Akinola’s CANA initiative were said to have exacerbated the current divide in the Anglican Communion, Primates (Anglican leaders) recognized at a meeting in February there is a need for pastoral strategies to address congregations in the United States that disagree with The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism.

The Episcopal Church widened rifts in 2003 when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop. The controversial action, conservative Anglicans argue, was a “flash point” to the American church body’s departure from Christian orthodoxy and Anglican tradition.

And until The Episcopal Church “abandons its current unbiblical agenda,” Akinola says CANA will remain. Otherwise, Akinola would end the CANA ministry.

The three latest additions to CANA join three other congregations that have recently joined – St. Brendan’s in Washington, D.C.; Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Garland, Texas; and Celebration Church in Fredericksburg, Va.

The future for CANA is very bright, Minns said last week as the orthodox group newly ordained priests and expanded membership. And congregations joining CANA are not leaving or separating from the Episcopal Church, Minns had clarified early this month when he was being installed to oversee CANA churches.

“The Episcopal Church has declared itself separate” from the Anglican Communion, he said.

Minns is the first missionary bishop of CANA and was consecrated as a bishop on Aug. 20, 2006, in Abuja, Nigeria. He was installed as missionary bishop for CANA on May 5, 2007, in Woodbridge, Va.

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Breakaway Anglicans ‘Glad’ to be Out of Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070529)

The latest withdrawal from The Episcopal Church has left the breakaway Colorado Springs parish divided between congregants assured of their split and others who are confused.

A day after a vote to break away from The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Colorado, Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish held its three weekly worship services on Pentecost Sunday with over 500 parishioners who agreed with the vote. Although the congregation was reduced by about 27 percent, the spirit of the breakaway church was anything but somber.

Parishioners carried the Anglican Communion’s Compass Rose flag, replacing the flag of The Episcopal Church, in a procession as the congregation celebrated their continued commitment to the Anglican Communion. After the Rev. Don Armstrong, rector of the church, announced the final votes, the congregation applauded. And after he delivered a message on Pentecost, they clapped again.

Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish is a conservative church and Alan Crippen, spokesman for the church, has never heard applause after a sermon, he said.

The service marked a time to celebrate “the rebirth of Grace Church,” said Armstrong.

“We are released from all that has divided us, embittered us, distracted us, and diminished us,” he said in his sermon. “And on this day we are empowered by the Holy Spirit for a new life, a new witness, new community, and new worship.”

Meanwhile, parishioners who do not agree with the split held their own worship service at the nearby First Christian Church. Some, who are undecided, are attending both.

On Saturday, 370 votes were cast out of the 763 congregants who were eligible to vote by canon (church) law. An overwhelming 93 percent approved the church vestry (governing board)’s earlier decision to secede from The Episcopal Church and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America - the conservative offshoot group of the Church of Nigeria.

“We are no longer a part of a corrupt and apostate Episcopal Church,” Armstrong told parishioners on Sunday.

However, Beckett Stokes, the communications director for the Diocese of Colorado, argues the vote has no legal grounding.

“Because The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church, parishes are not established by the vote of a congregation but only by actions taken by a diocesan convention and ecclesiastical authority. Conversely, no vote taken by a congregation or by its vestry can dissolve a parish or change its affiliation to another religious body,” the spokesperson said.

Still, the vote strongly affirmed the vestry decision to secede, the parish says. And the vote was also good news to Bishop Alpha Mohamed of Tanzania who had visited the church earlier. “We have learned with much relief to learn that Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish has followed the Orthodox and scriptural basis,” he said.

Since The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003, Armstrong has spoken out against gay clergy and has been featured on news networks like Fox News’ “O-Reilly Factor” and radio programs.

His conservative stance has been clear – homosexual practices are contrary to Scripture.

Armstrong, however, is currently being investigated by the Diocese of Colorado for allegedly misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in parish funds – a charge he is confident he will be cleared of.

Meanwhile, both the splinter group and those who remain in the Episcopal diocese say the multi-million dollar church property is theirs. The Diocese of Colorado, which claims some 200 to 400 loyal members from the Colorado Springs parish, argues that the seceding Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish group is illegally occupying the church property and that it rightfully belongs to The Episcopal Church. Armstrong argues the historic building predates the diocese, according to Rocky Mountain News.

As the church property battle is currently in the courts, the divided groups say they will thrive.

But members of the breakaway Colorado Springs parish believe The Episcopal Church is decaying. According to Crippen, there are more Global South Anglicans (who are largely conservative) in Colorado Springs than there are Episcopalians. In the last year, four Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Colorado closed, according to The Gazette. And the existing churches within the diocese are either in decline in membership or in financial trouble, the spokesperson added.

“We’re just glad to be out of it,” said Crippen.

“So to put the past behind us and the future before us let make certain resolutions: Never again from this pulpit will you hear about The Episcopal Church, Rob O’Neill (bishop of Colorado), or the issue of homosexuality,” Armstrong preached.

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Breakaway Anglican Groups Invited to Form New Alliance (Christian Post, 070604)

The head of a conservative Anglican network in the United States has invited major breakaway Anglican groups to up the level of their partnership for a united Anglicanism in North America as some predict a split in the Anglican Communion.

Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, called for a Sept. 25-28 meeting to initiate discussion of creating an “Anglican Union” among the partners. The creation of the union would be a step forward in forming a “separate ecclesiastical structure (from The Episcopal Church) of the Anglican Communion” in the United States, which Anglican leaders in the Global South had proposed for.

Duncan has planned to hold the meeting after The Episcopal Church – the U.S. wing of Anglicanism – gives its response to the request of the Primates (Anglican leaders) to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop. Primates had set a Sept. 30 deadline for The Episcopal Church’s response. The request, made in February, was largely prompted by TEC’s consecration of its first openly gay bishop in 2003, which widened rifts within the worldwide church body.

“By the time we meet, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church will have given its response to the Anglican Communion as to its decision to ‘walk apart,’” Duncan predicts. “By contrast, I expect our gathering to signal a new level of ‘walking together’ both with each other and with the wider Anglican world.”

Since the controversial consecration, conservative Anglicans discontent with the U.S. body and its departure from Christian orthodoxy formed such splinter groups as the Anglican Mission in Americas and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). The orthodox groups have formed a “Common Cause Partnership,” committed to working together for “a biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism in North America.”

The purpose of the September meeting is fivefold, Duncan explained.

The meeting is intended to:

1. take the Common Cause Partnership to the next level of development in mission together;

2. showcase ministry initiatives of any of the partners that might be shared with all the partners;

3. share understandings of the purpose and role of bishops such that some common guidelines for the making of bishops relative to numbers of communicants and congregations might be developed;

4. consider whether a permanent Common Cause College of Bishops might be created, in order that ever greater levels of communication, cooperation and collaboration can be built; and

5. initiate discussion of the creation of an “Anglican Union” among the partners.

Conservative Anglican leaders in the Global South had proposed last September in their Kigali communiqué that a separate Anglican body accommodate opponents of the consecration of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions in the United States.

Former Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold had raised concerns, saying such a move would open the way to “multiple divisions across other provinces” of the Anglican Communion and that “any sense of a coherent mission would sink into chaos.”

Orthodox Anglicans have made it clear, however, that they “want to remain faithful members of the Anglican Communion” and feel they cannot do so within The Episcopal Church. The splinter groups are “working hard to work together and not be fragmented,” according to the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, the “missionary bishop” of CANA.

Duncan acknowledged in his invitation that the Council of Bishops “lacks the voice of the laity” and is “not a full synod of the Common Cause Partners.”

“[B]ut it is the next step agreed upon by the Common Cause Roundtable,” he stated. “While it is not the end of our journey, it does continue the trajectory of ever greater unity and ever closer cooperation between those of us who know Jesus as the only Lord.

“In the challenging weeks and months ahead, let us say our prayers, do the work before us and trust ‘that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new,” Duncan urged.

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What Makes a Thriving Mainline Church When Many are Dying? (Christian Post, 070612)

[KH: missing the main point]

At a time when most mainline denominations are continuing to experience consecutive drops in membership, a critically acclaimed author presented what actually makes a mainline church thrive.

Diana Butler Bass, scholar and author of Christianity for the Rest of Us, was engaging a Christian crowd at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s annual Summer Leadership Conference when she presented some of her findings on thriving churches.

Successful congregations cultivate spiritual practices in daily life, promote tradition without using it as a fence to keep people out and offer a quest for wisdom, not pat answers, she said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

As project director of a Lilly Endowment study of mainline Protestant vitality from 2002 to 2006, Butler Bass has studied thriving congregations in the Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ.

“[M]illions of people would choose mainline denominations if we gave them something worth choosing,” she said, according to the local newspaper.

She noted that today’s Americans don’t inherit faith. Rather, they choose it.

Earlier studies have shown a lack of denominational loyalty among today’s churchgoers. LifeWay Research released a study this year that found 54 percent of people who switch churches change denominations. Less than half value denomination.

Whatever the style of music a congregation worships to, Butler Bass said it can be classical or contemporary as long as “people feel the presence of God in it and can participate in it.”

Thriving mainline churches are also strong in basic practices of faith, which includes hospitality. Butler Bass surprisingly found that the successful congregations she studied also embraced diversity. And the most successful congregations “created communities that were purposefully diverse. That included racial diversity, theological diversity, political diversity and diversity of life experience,” she added, according to the local Post-Gazette.

Highlighting the need for change, Butler Bass said Americans are looking for new ways to experience religious community and thriving congregations have been able to change the way they do ministry to create those communities. Churches that do not implement change and continue to offer conventional church programs from the 1950s wither and die, she noted.

Her words echo those of New Church Specialties founder Dr. Larry McKain, who has also stressed change in ministry. The churches that are really having trouble are those that never changed its ministry since 1950, he said in an earlier interview with The Christian Post. And churches have to continue to change.

“If you don’t change, you will cease to exist,” he said.

Americans today are also out on a “quest for meaning,” said Butler Bass.

People are not looking to join churches to find easy answers, she stressed.

“Meaning is not the same thing as answers. They want to know how to navigate suffering. What about their vocation or job? They want to know how they can change the world.”

Butler Bass is a keynote speaker at the June 10-13 conference titled “Transforming Faith: Help for You, Your Congregation, and Your Community” at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary - a graduate professional institution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). She has written six books on American religious practice and is currently senior fellow at the Cathedral College of the Episcopal Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and serves on the national board of directors for Emergent Village.

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Episcopal Leaders Developing Response to Anglican Requests (Christian Post, 070612)

A draft of a response to the requests of worldwide Anglican leaders is ready for U.S. Episcopal bishops to consider.

Three months before The Episcopal Church’s deadline (Sept. 30) to respond to the Anglican Communion’s latest communiqué requesting the American church body to make an unequivocal pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings and confirm another openly gay bishop, the Executive Council began a four-day meeting Monday to discuss the draft report.

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, who chairs a work group appointed earlier this year to draft a potential response, announced that the Executive Council – the Episcopal Church’s governing body – reportedly discussed the draft report in private conversation Monday and will discuss it during an open plenary session on Thursday, according to the Episcopal News Service.

“How do we keep the space open so that we can truly learn from each other?” Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori asked on Monday.

While the majority of the Anglican Communion is demanding “true repentance” from The Episcopal Church for its recent actions, including the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop, Episcopal leaders have expressed that they will not be moving “backward” from their previous decisions.

“I don’t believe that there is any will in this church to move backward,” Jefferts Schori told The Boston Globe in April.

Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, believes The Episcopal Church’s response in September will be to “walk apart” from the global Communion.

Duncan is thus calling fellow Anglican splinter groups to raise the level of their Common Cause Partnership and prepare to create a separate “Anglican Union” in the United States.

In the meantime, Davis Mac-Iyalla, an Anglican gay-rights advocate from Nigeria and founder of the country’s only gay-rights organization – Changing Attitude Nigeria – is on a speaking tour across U.S. Episcopal Churches and met this week with the Executive Council’s Concerns (INC) and National Concerns (NAC) committees.

He claimed that Church of Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola has been directly involved in a bill that would impose a five-year jail sentence for relationships, activism, advocacy and shows of affection among lesbian and gay people. The Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2006, currently pending before the Nigerian legislature, bans both same-sex “marriage” and those who advocate for gays.

Claiming 2,500 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members in his organization, Mac-Iyalla said, “It is wrong to say that homosexuality is a Western, imported culture,” according to Episcopal News Service.

He urged The Episcopal Church to petition the Nigerian government to oppose the bill.

“Our hope is in The Episcopal Church,” he said. “If you don’t speak out for us, we don’t know where we will take our voice.”

Although Akinola initially supported the bill, he later expressed concerns “about individual human rights that must be addressed both in the framing of the law and its implementation.”

The 77 million-member Anglican Communion affirms homosexuality as incompatible with Scripture but encourages pastoral care to all persons, including homosexuals. Anglican churches around the world have also been mandated to partake in the “Listening Process” to listen to the experience of homosexual persons and to give such persons a “safe place” to voice themselves.

The Executive Council meeting, scheduled for June 11-14, is being held in Parsippany, N.J.

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Disgruntled Episcopalians to Form Another Anglican Group with New Leader (Christian Post, 070614)

The Anglican Church of Kenya has announced plans to install an American priest to oversee its congregations in the United States.

The latest development is expected to reignite rumors of schism within the Anglican Communion, as the U.S.-based Episcopal Church becomes increasingly isolated due to its liberal stance on homosexuality within the worldwide church body. It will also result in a third “missionary” U.S. group made up of disillusioned American Anglicans hoping to be under the care of church leaders with a more traditional faith in Scripture.

The Aug. 30 consecration of Canon Bill Atwood as “Suffragan Bishop of All Saints’ Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi” is “part of a broader and coordinated plan with other provinces … [to] support the international interests of the Anglican Church of Kenya, including support of Kenyan clergy and congregations in North America,” Kenya Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi said in a statement released Tuesday.

The new coalition will “provide a safe haven for those who maintain historic Anglican faith and practice, and offer a way to live and work together in the furtherance of the gospel,” Nzimbi added.

Until now, there have been two major separate Anglican missions operating in the United States - the Anglican Mission in America, whose bishop is Chuck Murphy, and CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), whose bishop is Martyn Minns.

The new group, which will be called the North American Anglican Coalition, will install as its head Bishop Atwood, who will oversee more than 200 congregations throughout the United States.

Some commentators are suggesting that the decision by Nzimbi is part of a wider move to create an alternative Anglican worldwide structure, according to Religious Intelligence, a U.K.-based religious news agency.

Recent developments will do nothing to comfort Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, who has tried to reconcile the warring parties since U.S. Bishop V. Gene Robinson was consecrated as the first openly gay bishop in 2003.

Earlier this week, Robinson further enraged his critics by announcing plans to allow his clergy to carry out same-sex blessings.

Consequently, Archbishop Nzimbi has said that developments in North America had left him with no other options.

The Kenya church leader stated that The Episcopal Church had torn the fabric of the Anglican Communion and the House of Bishops had “exacerbated” the damage by failing to provide adequate pastoral care for the “faithful” and for rejecting the Pastoral Council “offered through the Primates in their Communiqué from Dar es Salaam.”

Also, much to the worry of the Anglican Communion, the Kenya church’s new plans have excluded any comment or reference to Lambeth Palace, the Anglican equivalent to the White House – a move seen by many as further evidence of an increasingly dividing worldwide church body.

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Episcopal Panel ‘Dodges’ Response to Moratorium (Christian Post, 070615)

An Episcopal panel of clergy and lay people indicated on Thursday they will not give a response to the moratorium Anglican leaders requested for by September, arguing that only the General Convention has the authority to respond.

The next General Convention – The Episcopal Church’s primary governing and legislative body – however, meets in the summer of 2009.

After a four-day meeting that ended Thursday, the Executive Council said that no governing body other than General Convention can agree to deny “future decisions by dioceses or General Convention” or interpret Convention resolutions. Primates (Anglican leaders) gave The Episcopal Church a Sept. 30 deadline to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or bless same-sex unions.

“Neither the Executive Council, the Presiding Bishop, nor the House of Bishops can give binding interpretations of General Convention resolutions nor make an ‘unequivocal common commitment’ to denying future decisions by dioceses or General Convention,” the statement titled “The Episcopal Church’s Commitment to Common Life in Anglican Communion” read.

The council also questioned the authority of the Primates to “impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion.”

Wicks Stephens, chancellor for the Anglican Communion Network, believes The Episcopal Church’s response on Thursday is “a dodge that has no effect.”

“It seems pretty clear that they (council) don’t intend to respond,” he told The Christian Post. “It is probably the most predictable response we could’ve expected because it’s the lay Episcopal Church that seeks to put out true responses by saying only the General Convention can respond.

“But you might remember that the primates (Anglican leaders)’ communiqué did not ask The Episcopal Church to clarify. Rather, they asked the House of Bishops to clarify.”

Primates stated in the communiqué at the conclusion of their meeting in February in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: “In particular, the primates’ request, through the Presiding Bishop, that the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church” make the unequivocal pledge.

The requests were made as the primates believed The Episcopal Church has not expressed “regret” for its controversial actions, including the 2003 consecration of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Executive Council also said they decline to participate in the primates’ plan to develop a “pastoral scheme” where Anglican leaders outside The Episcopal Church would oversee conservative American dioceses and those unable to accept the authority of the Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. The House of Bishops believes the scheme is “ill-advised,” which the Executive Council agreed with. Moreover, the council is “respectfully” asking their Presiding Bishop not to take any of the actions asked of her by the pastoral scheme.

At the same time, the council strongly affirmed The Episcopal Church’s desire to be “in the fullest possible relationship” with the Anglican Communion.

“It is our most earnest hope that we continue to walk with our Anglican brothers and sisters in the journey we share together in God’s mission. We believe The Episcopal Church can only offer who we are, with openness, honesty, integrity, and faithfulness, and our commitment never to choose to walk apart.

Jefferts Schori congratulated the council for engaging a variety of issues “faithfully and with clarity,” as she recognized the diversity of opinion that exists within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, according to the Episcopal News Service.

To ACN’s Stephens, “The House of Bishops has spoken that they do not intend to change anything.”

This is not The Episcopal Church’s official response. The final word will be given during a meeting Sept. 20-25 in New Orleans.

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Historic Colo. Parish Breaks from Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070527)

One of the oldest Anglican churches in Colorado overwhelmingly voted on Saturday to break from the Episcopal Church and join a conservative Anglican group.

Over a month after the governing board (vestry) of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Parish voted to secede from the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, 93 percent of the 370-member congregation agreed to break away and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – a splinter group and offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. Another vote revealed the majority of the parishioners wanted to keep the church property.

“The congregation’s decision to join CANA is the most important decision in Grace Church and St. Stephen’s 135 year history,” said Jon Wroblewski, senior warden of the parish’s vestry. “We have decided to remain true to the faith of our ancestors and the founders of this parish even as the Episcopal Church departs from the faith and the Anglican Communion.”

The parish’s vestry had voted on Mar. 26 to leave the Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – in dissension over its actions, including the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop, indicating departure from Christian orthodoxy.

“The plight of the Episcopal Church truly grieves me,” said the Rev. Donald Armstrong, the parish’s rector. “What was once a great church of Gospel proclamation and social influence has now become an irrelevant and insignificant denomination characterized by theological drift and demographic decay. The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado is dying and has lost 60 percent of its market share of Colorado’s population during the last 60 years. The decision for Grace Church and St. Stephen’s was a simple choice between death with the Episcopal Church or spiritual life and vitality with CANA.”

Armstrong is currently being investigated by the Diocese of Colorado for misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in parish funds. He says the charge is an act of revenge by the diocese and Bishop Rob O’Neill, according to Rocky Mountain News, and is confident he will be cleared of the accusations.

Parishioners partook in a weeklong voting process complete with voting booths and an official ballot.

Beckett Stokes, the communications director for the Diocese of Colorado, said the voting process was illegitimate because in the Episcopal system, “parishes are not established by a vote of the congregation but only by actions taken by a diocesan convention and ecclesiastical authority,” according to Rocky Mountain News.

Still, the will of the voting majority was indisputable “and showed clearly a very strong mandate to affirm the vestry decision of March 26 (to leave the Episcopal Church),” said Alan Crippen, spokesman for the Colorado Springs church, according to the local newspaper.

And the vote affirmed the parish’s new affiliation with CANA which allows Grace Church and St. Stephen’s “the freedom to continue its Gospel ministry unmolested by theological innovators and revisionists in the Episcopal Church,” said a statement by the parish.

The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of CANA, had visited the parish last month to tell parishioners about the mission of CANA and that it represents “a good way forward” amid divisions in the Anglican Communion.

After the overwhelming vote to split, Crippen said the flag of the Episcopal Church is being removed from worship services at the Colorado Springs parish and the Anglican Communion’s Compass Rose flag will instead be carried to symbolize the parish’s continuing constituent membership in the Anglican Communion.

Grace Church and St. Stephen’s was founded in 1872 and was the first Anglican Church in Colorado Springs. With some 800 attendants each week, it has been regarded as one of the largest and most influential Episcopal churches in the state.

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Breakaway Colorado Parish Makes Plea to Preserve Church Property (Christian Post, 070622)

Breakaway members of an Episcopal congregation in Colorado have made pleas to their congregation to help establish a new legal precedent in a court battle over church property.

Congregants of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church who voted to split from The Episcopal Church last month continue to worship at the multi-million dollar church property while those that voted against the withdrawal claim the property rightfully belongs to The Episcopal Church.

Grace and St. Stephen’s revealed in a news release Wednesday a plea made by the breakaway group on their website to “please make a donation to help us establish a new legal precedent and overturn the Colorado Mote decision that is used as the basis for differing to hierarchal structures,” according to the Episcopal News Service.

Another request was made Thursday on the splinter group’s website that read, “Please help us establish new legal precedent to preserve parish buildings for the purposes and faith for which they were intended.”

The pleas were referring to the 1986 Bishop & Diocese of Colorado v. Mote decision that ruled The Episcopal Church was a “hierarchical church” and that the authoritative decision-making bodies within that church had determined that the minority that remained affiliated with The Episcopal Church was the “true group” which comprises St. Mary’s Church and was entitled to the property.

The Mote case ruled that the Episcopal parish holds its property in trust “for the use of the general church.”

In May, 370 votes were cast out of the 763 congregants at Grace and St. Stephen’s who were eligible to vote by canon (church) law. An overwhelming 93 percent approved an earlier decision by the church vestry (governing board) to secede from The Episcopal Church and join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – a mission initiative of the Church of Nigeria – citing TEC’s departure from Christian orthodoxy and their desire to remain faithful to the Anglican Communion.

Beckett Stokes, the communications director for the Diocese of Colorado, argued that the vote has no legal grounding, explaining that The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church and that no vote taken by a congregation can dissolve a parish or change its affiliation.

Nevertheless, those who voted to leave celebrated a rebirth as Grace Church and St. Stephen’s. Meanwhile, some 200 to 400 have remained with the Episcopal diocese and are worshipping nearby. And they have called “the secessionists” to give back the church property.

“If the secessionists understand that Mote is the controlling law, and Mote says they cannot take property when they leave the Episcopal Church, then they must understand that their continuing possession of the property is unlawful,” said St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church vestry member Timothy Fuller, according to the Episcopal News Service.

While the court battle is underway, Alan Crippen, spokesman for the splinter Grace Church and St. Stephen’s, has noted that there are more conservative Anglicans affiliated with Anglican churches in the Global South than Episcopalians – who represent Anglicanism in the United States – in Colorado Springs. Four Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Colorado closed last year.

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Canadian Anglicans Elect Pro-Gay Leader (Christian Post, 070625)

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) - A liberal-leaning bishop who has expressed support in the past for full acceptance of gays and lesbians was elected Friday to lead the Anglican Church of Canada.

Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island was chosen on the fifth ballot by clergy and lay people at the church’s national meeting. Among the three other nominees for the post was Edmonton Bishop Victoria Matthews, who would have been the church’s first woman leader.

The vote came one day before the assembly, called the General Synod, was to decide whether to allow Anglican priests to bless same-sex couples — a step short of performing same-sex marriage, which is legal in Canada.

Chris Ambidge, president of the Toronto chapter of gay advocacy group Integrity, said Hiltz “has long been an advocate of opening church doors to all people” and that his election signals to gays and lesbians “that they are welcomed and affirmed in their church.”

The leader of the Anglican church, called a primate, does not directly set such policy for the church; that is the role of the General Synod.

Still, the Rev. Canon Charlie Masters, head of the conservative Canadian group Anglican Essentials, said the election of Hiltz raised “fears” about the future of the denomination.

“He is the first bishop who has publicly given his support to same-sex marriage so there are concerns of his position,” Masters said.

Hiltz, 53, will succeed Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who is retiring at the end of this meeting.

Hiltz, who is married to Lynne Samways and has a son, refused to discuss his personal views after the election, but he said he worries that a vote in favor of same-sex blessings could lead some theologically conservatives to break away from the church.

“I will do all I can to encourage people to stay in the church and remain respectful at table and in conversations,” Hiltz said.

The vote comes at a time when divisions over the Bible and homosexuality are tearing at the world Anglican Communion, a 77 million-member fellowship of churches that trace their roots back hundreds of years to the Church of England.

Most of the world’s Anglicans are theological conservatives who believe gay relationships violate Scripture. More liberal Anglicans emphasize social justice teachings in the Bible, leading them to support full acceptance of same-sex couples.

Even before last week’s Canadian meeting, the world Anglican Communion was already in an uproar over the U.S. Episcopal Church’s 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. Anglican leaders have given the U.S. denomination until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. If Episcopalians fail to agree to the demands, they risk losing their full membership in the communion.

Separately, the Anglican Church of Canada came under fire in 2002, after Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia allowed parishes in his region to bless gay couples. In 2004, the Diocese of Niagara voted to follow suit, but its bishop has barred the ceremonies for now.

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Canada Anglicans Reject Blessing Same-Sex Unions (Christian Post, 060525)

Anglican delegates of the Church of Canada rejected the blessing of same-sex unions on Sunday after voting on the hotly debated issue was deferred for a day.

The resolution that would have enabled priests to conduct blessing ceremonies for gay couples who already married in civil ceremonies was defeated by a narrow vote. Lay and clergy delegates voted in favor while the House of Bishops voted against it. Majority rule is required in all three orders – laity, clergy, and bishops.

The vote came a day after some 300 delegates at the national meeting of the General Synod – the Anglican Church of Canada’s highest governing body – agreed that same-sex blessings do not conflict with the “core doctrines” of the church.

Both supporters and opponents call the decisions confusing, according to Winnipeg Free Press.

During the June 19-25 meeting, a full day of debate began on Saturday over the Canadian Anglicans’ view on the issue of homosexuality. Delegates were torn on the issue as some called for full acceptance and others for aligning with Scripture.

“I have come to accept that some people are ordered toward the same gender. The church needs to adjust its views. It has excluded them for too long,” said Dorothy Davies-Flindall of the diocese of Ontario, according to the church’s Anglican Journal.

Expressing opposition to homosexual practice, Bishop Larry Robertson of the Arctic said, “Homosexual behavior is not in line with Scripture of my prayer book. We can call it sin. My desire is for people to be whole and come back into line with God’s will.”

Much of the debate went into procedural issues including whether the vote should be decided by a greater margin than the usual 50 percent. The General Synod eventually rejected motions that would have required a two-thirds majority in two successive synods or a 60 percent majority for approval.

Those supporting a larger majority for approval recognized the impact the decision could have on the church and its relation with the global Anglican Communion and called for a “higher standard” when voting on the issue of homosexuality.

“This is an issue that may rend us asunder,” said Sheila Vanderputten of Calgary, according to Anglican Journal. “We need to give this full weight.”

Some delegates called for more time even after a decision on the issue was deferred by General Synod 2004 to the next national meeting in 2007.

“I think when we move too quickly ... we may fail, we may cause more problems than we solve,” said Steve Hampton.

The Anglican Church of Canada, however, has had plenty of meetings and reports on the issue already, according to Archdeacon Bruce Byrant-Scott.

“We’re not going to be any wiser by waiting, although we may have more information,” he said.

The decision was already clear to others.

“Sin is still sin, and to bless sin would be a disaster to our church,” the Rev. David Parsons stated.

Delegates continued to debate until 9 p.m. when they declined to extend the session and deferred the vote until Sunday when they ultimately rejected the resolution of allowing priests to perform blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples already “married.” The resolution would not have allowed priests to actually “marry” same-sex couples. Civil marriage for gay couples has been legal in Canada since 2004.

Earlier, Fred Hiltz was elected as the new primate to succeed Archbishop Andrew Hutchison. He has declined to state his position on the blessing of same-sex unions and stated that the conversation on the issue “must go forward in the way that the church has decided it should go forward.”

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3 Ex-Episcopal Churches Lose Property Case (Christian Post, 070627)

Amid a string of lawsuits against churches that severed ties with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, a state appeals panel ruled in favor of the diocese’s claim to the property of three conservative parishes.

A California Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision late Monday overturns rulings by a lower court which had ruled in favor of the parishes – St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints Church in Long Beach, and St. David’s Church in North Hollywood. The ruling is the first of recent cases in the state involving church property, including a fourth lawsuit by the Diocese of Los Angeles and three others by the Diocese of San Diego.

The Rev. Eddi Gibbs, senior professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and an Episcopal priest, called the ruling “a sad reversal,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

One long-time member of St. James was surprised by Monday’s ruling.

“This is a difficult time in the global church in the Anglican community, and the decision of the Diocese of Los Angeles and the national Episcopal Church to proceed with this in court is a deep disappointment to me as an Anglican,” said Cathie P. Young, pastor for discipleship at St. James, according to The Los Angeles Times.

St. James and the other two congregations had voted in August 2004 to pull out of the Los Angeles Diocese and The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism. They cited The Episcopal Church’s departure from Anglican tradition and Christian orthodoxy. The parishes joined the Anglican Province of Uganda.

“In our opinion as orthodox Anglicans ... The Episcopal Church was going in a direction that took them away from Christian core tenets,” Young said to the LA Times.

The Diocese of Los Angeles sued the parishes, arguing that the church buildings are held in trust for the diocese and the national Episcopal Church.

While an Orange County trial judge had ruled in favor of the parishes, the Fourth District Court of Appeal held that there is evidence that the “governing instrument” of The Episcopal Church “expressly impresses a trust on the property of a local church corporation,” which must be enforced by the courts.

“[T]he right of the general church in this case to enforce a trust on the local parish property is clear,” presiding Justice David G. Sills, who wrote for the panel, stated.

Just as the court ruled, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, stated, “While individuals are always free to leave the Episcopal Church and worship however they please, they do not have the right to take parish property with them.”

Eric Sohlgren, lead lawyer for the three parishes, however, argued, “Church property disputes have been looked at through neutral principles: who has the title to the property, who bought it, who maintains it and what state statutes say. What the court said here was that if a hierarchical church wants to take control of local church property, all it has to do is pass a rule.”

Sills made clear that the court decision on Monday was confined to the property dispute writing that the broader religious controversy “is irrelevant to this action.”

“In a word, the lawsuit brought by the plaintiff general church is a property dispute – basically over who controls a particular church building in Newport Beach,” Sills wrote.

The three parishes plan to decide within a week whether to appeal to the California Supreme Court.

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An Episcopal Muslim? Feelings vs. Faith (Christian Post, 070627)

Chuck Colson

On Friday nights, Ann Holmes Redding of Seattle puts on a black head scarf, heads to the Al-Islam Center, and prays with her fellow Muslims.

Nothing I just told you is remarkable. What’s remarkable is what I didn’t tell you: Redding is an Episcopal priest. Not an ex-Episcopal priest, mind you, but a priest, as far as she and her superiors are concerned, in good standing.

Her story is a vivid reminder of what’s really at stake in the various culture wars within Christian churches: orthodoxy.

Redding has been a priest for over 20 years. Until recently she was the director of “faith formation” at Seattle’s Episcopal cathedral, St. Mark’s. I am, as Dave Barry likes to say, not making this up.

Apparently, at the same time she was in charge of forming other people’s faith, her own was undergoing a transformation. Fifteen months ago, she became a Muslim, the result of an “introduction to Islamic prayers [that] left her profoundly moved.”

Actually, according to Redding, I should say that she also became a Muslim. As she told the Seattle Times, “I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I’m both an American of African descent and a woman. I’m 100 percent both.” So while on Friday nights she puts on a black head scarf, on Sunday mornings she wears a clerical collar.

Redding doesn’t deny that there are differences between the two faiths—she simply doesn’t think that they ultimately matter. As she put it, “at the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need.”

There’s so much wrong here that I scarcely know where to begin, so I’ll limit myself to the obvious: There’s no inherent contradiction between being an African-American and a woman, just as there’s none in being an American of Swedish descent and a man, as I am.

However, the same cannot be said of being a Christian and a Muslim. As Kurt Fredrickson of Fuller Seminary told the paper, “there are tenets of the faiths that are very, very different,” especially regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Mahmoud Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies at Temple, agrees. He says that “the [respective] theological beliefs [about Jesus] are irreconcilable.”

Of course, for Redding (as for too many people today), it isn’t about logic or theology: It’s about feelings. She can call herself anything she wants, but she’s only truly a Muslim if she denies Christian doctrines such as original sin, the Trinity, or the divinity of Christ. And to deny those truths is to deny the Christian faith.

Which raises an interesting question: Why is she an Episcopal priest, never mind a director of “faith formation?”

Writing at the website Get Religion, Mollie Hemmingway says that Redding’s story illustrates that the split in the Episcopal Church isn’t about homosexuality, as the media says. The former Episcopal parishes aligning themselves with African bishops aren’t leaving a denomination with gay clergy; they are leaving a denomination with non-Christian clergy.

Redding is simply an extreme example in the Episcopal Church. But sadly she represents the widespread, politically correct belief that all religions lead to the same place—a message which is not only dead wrong as a matter of logic, but one which denies Christ. In short, it is the ultimate heresy.

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Christian Theologians: ‘Episcopal Muslim’ Faith is Illogical, Contradictory (Christian Post, 070629)

News of an Episcopal priest claiming to be simultaneously a Christian and a Muslim has Christian theologians shaking their head in dismay at the irreconcilable contradiction.

While some call the statement heresy and others illogical, the theologians agreed that the Christian belief in the divine being and savior Jesus Christ is incompatible with Islamic teaching of Jesus as a prophet.

Christianity’s foundation is built on the understanding of Jesus Christ as the son of God who is fully human and yet fully divine, explained the Rev. Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and one of America’s pre-eminent Evangelical leaders. The Christian faith also points to Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection as the only way for mankind’s salvation.

Islam, on the other hand, “explicitly denies” that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that He died on the cross and resurrected from the dead, acknowledging only Jesus as a great prophet, His virgin birth, and His future role in judgment

“These are merely the most obvious foundational contradictions between Christianity and Islam,” Mohler wrote on his blog. “Furthermore, these most obvious contradictions are affirmed by all major Christian denominations and both historic branches of Islam.”

The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding recently made headlines for claiming to be both a Christian and Muslim. She was formerly the director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle and has been a priest for more than 20 years. However, for the last 15 months she has also been a Muslim, according to The Seattle Times.

Dr. Emir Caner, dean of The College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, described Redding’s faith conviction as “an extraordinary illustration of what has become Postmodern Christianity in America.”

Postmodernists are characterized for criticizing the conventional and embracing contradictions.

“It is a logical impossibility for someone to be both a Muslim and Christian since they stand in direct opposition to each other on such crucial theological issues as the cross, resurrection, and salvation,” Caner, a former devout Muslim, said to The Christian Post.

Meanwhile, Chuck Colson, founder of the Christian ministry Prison Fellowship, commented that “there’s so much wrong here that I scarcely know where to begin,” in response to Redding’s dual faith.

Colson pointed out that religion is not only about “feelings,” but being Christian is about believing in undeniable truths such as original sin, the Trinity and the divinity of Christ.

“Redding is simply an extreme example in the Episcopal Church,” concluded Colson in a commentary on Tuesday. “But sadly she represents the widespread, politically correct belief that all religions lead to the same place – a message which is not only dead wrong as a matter of logic, but one which denies Christ.

“In short, it is the ultimate heresy.”

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Church of England Recruits Simpsons to Teach Theology, Boost Attendance (Christian Post, 070627)

LONDON – The Church of England is getting help from the Simpsons to provide a more relevant way of teaching children about theology and to give a boost to dwindling congregations.

Mixing it Up with the “Simpsons”, a book to be released by the Church of England’s publishing company, will be sent to youth advisers in every diocese across the country next week, the Sunday Telegraph reported, with the hope of showing how Christianity is relevant to life today through issues tackled in the popular U.S. TV cartoon series. Clergy will be urged to show episodes of “The Simpsons” that focus on Christian themes such as love and punishment.

The book’s author, Owen Smith, is a youth worker in the Kent Diocese of Rochester and insists the cartoon series is filled with biblical references. He looks to illustrate this in the book with quote comparisons.

Smith told the Sunday Telegraph: “‘The Simpsons’ is hugely moral, with many episodes dealing with issues and dilemmas faced by young people. The willingness of the show’s writers to deal with questions of both morality and spirituality makes the program an ideal tool.”

Mixing it Up with the “Simpsons” has been made specifically to help keep youth interested in church, as the number of under-16s attending worship in the Church of England on Sundays has decreased by 12 percent over the five-year period between 2000 and 2005.

The initiative has received backing from the Church, with Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams speaking of his adoration of the show.

The Church of England head said that the cartoon was “generally on the side of the angels and on the side of sense,” and also explained that beneath the dysfunctional image of the animated family lay an example of “remarkable strength and remarkable mutual commitment.”

“For all that Homer is a slob and Bart is a brat and Lisa is a pain in the neck, you know there’s real affection and loyalty,” Williams said.

According to Church House Publishing, the official publisher of the Church of England, Mixing it up with The Simpsons is split into two parts each with six sessions; the first part is for those who are newer to church and the second part is for young people who have been coming to church for a little longer.

Each session is divided into six parts and includes photocopiable material:

• Beforehand (to help leaders prepare the session)

• Opening Activity (introducing the session’s theme and getting the young people thinking about the issue)

• Focus on Simpsons (exploring the issue with an episode, with questions for discussion)

• Bible Focus (a Bible verse or passage dealing with the Christian perspective on the session’s theme.)

• Prayer Response (prayer activity and response)

• Extras and Inserts (optional activities linked to the theme)

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Sydney Bishops Take ‘Wait-and-See’ Stance on Anglican Invitation (Christian Post, 070812)

The Anglican archbishop of Sydney and five assistant bishops in the Sydney diocese have delayed their response to an invitation to their worldwide denomination’s decennial meeting, stating that they will wait to see what actions bishops in America will take before making a decision.

In a letter delivered to the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Archbishop Dr. Peter Jensen expressed the “great deal of joy” in receiving the invitation from Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams to the Lambeth 2008 conference but said “the timing of the invitation has proved difficult.”

Before it could give Williams a final answer, the Sydney diocese said it would first look for the response of the U.S.-based Episcopal House of Bishops to a communiqué drafted earlier this year by conservative primates (Anglican leaders) from the Global South, reported the Church of England’s newspaper.

The communiqué requests The Episcopal Church recommit to the Windsor Report – which recommended each church to ratify an Anglican Covenant to strengthen the link between churches within the Anglican Communion – which in part means that major decisions being made must be consulted with the wider communion. The document also requests the U.S. church body express regret for causing disunity and calls for its “heartfelt repentance and genuine change” in order to restore true communion.

The requests were made after The Episcopal Church consecrated V. Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop in 2003, which was seen as a departure from Anglican tradition and scriptural authority. The consecration had placed the U.S. arm of Anglicanism at odds with the majority of the worldwide Anglican Communion which now seeks an unequivocal pledge from the Episcopal Church not to consecrate another openly homosexual bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

“Sydney indicated it would follow the lead of the African churches and decline to attend the conference should the bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson or who have authorized local rites for the blessing of same-sex unions be invited to attend,” the Church of England reported.

While the majority of the Anglican Communion is demanding “true repentance” from The Episcopal Church for its recent actions, Episcopal leaders have expressed that they will not be moving “backward” from their previous decisions.

A final response to the communiqué from The Episcopal Church is expected before the Sept. 30 deadline given by conservative Anglican leaders.

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Hope for Unity Fading in Divided Anglican Communion (Christian Post, 070821)

Hope for the Anglican Communion is not any brighter now than it was when leaders tried to resolve divisions earlier this year or even 10 years ago, said the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria.

In his latest statement over the highly publicized rifts in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola blasted The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – and the Anglican Church of Canada, saying they betrayed the rest of the Communion.

“Their intention is clear; they have chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together,” said Akinola.

Akinola is considered the most powerful Anglican leader in the 77 million-member Communion and the fiercest critic of The Episcopal Church, particularly over homosexuality.

The Nigerian archbishop argued that he and other conservative Anglicans have sent clear warnings of impaired relationships when the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada voted in 2002 to approve blessing same-sex unions and when The Episcopal Church USA voted to consecrate an openly gay bishop in 2003.

“As always, we were ignored,” stated Akinola, who set up an offshoot called CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) in the United States to house U.S. Anglicans who find themselves no longer able to live out their faith in The Episcopal Church.

He stated that the leadership of the Anglican bodies in North America “seem to have concluded that the Bible is no longer authoritative in many areas of human experience especially in salvation and sexuality.”

“They claim to have ‘progressed’ beyond the clear teaching of the Scriptures and they have not hidden their intention to lead others to these same conclusions. They have even boasted that they are years ahead of others in fully understanding the truth of the Holy Scriptures and the nature of God’s love,” said Akinola.

Episcopal leaders have indicated that they will not go “backward” on their 2003 decision and affirmed their desire to stay within the Anglican Communion. U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said earlier that if they leave the Communion, they would be losing the “advantage” of being able to “challenge” views expressed by other Anglican leaders in regards to homosexuals.

The Anglican Communion affirms that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture. At the same time, it has called for the pastoral care to all people, regardless of sexual orientation, and has also committed to “listen to the experience of homosexual persons.”

“These past ten years of distraction have been agonizing and the cost has been enormous,” said Akinola, who predicts the moment of decision on the relationship of The Episcopal Church with the Communion has come.

The Episcopal Church has been given a Sept. 30 deadline to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

Meanwhile, Anglicans stand at a crossroads, said Akinola.

One follows the current path of the Anglican bodies in North America while the second follows faithfulness to Anglican tradition and scriptural authority.

The first road, Akinola said, “is one that we simply cannot take because the cost is too high.”

“We want unity but not at the cost of relegating Christ to the position of another ‘wise teacher’ who can be obeyed or disobeyed,” he said. “We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion but not at the cost of re-writing the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend.”

Akinola’s comments come ahead of Lambeth 2008, a worldwide decennial meeting where gathers Anglicans from across the world for theological engagement and fellowship. The Nigeria church leader and several conservative leaders from other provinces have threatened to boycott the conference if violators of the 1998 resolution that rejects homosexual practice and blessing same-sex unions are invited, namely U.S. Episcopal leaders who supported the consecration of the openly gay bishop.

“The consequence is most serious because, even if only one province chooses not to attend, the Lambeth Conference effectively ceases to be an Instrument of Unity,” said Akinola.

Originally, those invited to Lambeth 2008 were requested to give their response to the invitation by July 31, but the Rev. Canon James Rosenthal, the communion’s director of communications, noted that the deadline to respond had been extended as some overseas bishops “have stated they have not receive their invitation yet.”

According to U.K.-based Christian Today, only a couple hundred of the 880 who were invited had replied by the deadline.

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Canadian Anglicans Still Tackling Same-Sex Blessings (Christian Post, 070823)

[KH: procrastination of the unavoidable in order to delay the exodus, but it is almost hopeless since the leaders already negate Biblical authority]

Anglicans in Canada are in the midst of discussion to clarify recent decisions on same-sex unions that many have found confusing.

While some bishops in the Anglican Church of Canada say that the church still does not permit same-sex blessings, others believe the decision may be left to a local church or diocese of priest.

The conflicting opinions are interpretations of the latest decision by the General Synod – the Anglican Church of Canada’s highest governing body – to reject a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions. Although the motion was defeated in June, the General Synod also agreed that same-sex blessings do not conflict with the “core doctrines” of the church.

Canadian Anglicans have called the two decisions confusing.

The Rev. Alan Perry, an expert on canon law from the Diocese of Montreal, said the motion that blessings are not in conflict with the church’s core doctrine is a “declarative” but not an “enabling” motion, “which would contain some mechanism or permission to act in a certain way.”

It does, however, “clear the decks for future action on blessing of same-sex unions by some body or other,” he said, according to the Anglican Journal.

He further observed that the General Synod has not stated who, if anyone, has the authority to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions, noting that while the General Synod is granted jurisdiction over the definition of the doctrines of the church, the governing body does not have “exclusive control over any and all actions having to do with doctrine,” said Perry, citing the church’s Declaration of Principles.

His comments come as conservative Anglicans have indicated a loss of hope in the Anglican Church of Canada and most notably The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – in getting back in line with Anglican tradition and scriptural authority.

“Their intention is clear; they have chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together,” said Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria the Most Rev. Peter Akinola in his latest statement.

Meanwhile, supporters and opponents of same-sex blessings continue to ask what the recent decisions by the General Synod mean, if clergy can conduct same-sex blessings, and if priests can be disciplined if they do bless same-sex unions considering the Canadian church’s stance that blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with their doctrine.

Bishop James Cowan of British Columbia indicated in his opinion that the General Synod was clear in its decision against allowing dioceses to decide on blessing same-sex unions.

“There are those who argue that because General Synod did not pass a motion claiming its authority on the matter, it may be left to a local church (diocese, parish, or parish priest) to make decisions about moving forward with same-sex union blessings. I am not of that opinion, nor will I authorize such action or concur with it,” he wrote in a pastoral letter, according to Anglican Journal.

The General Synod has not abrogated its right to make decisions around same-sex blessings, Cowan added.

In contrast, Perry said there is nothing in the church’s canons or constitution that prevents a diocese from going forward with same-sex blessings now that General Synod has said it would not be against core doctrine.

As debate over homosexuality continues, the Anglican Church of Canada recently released new resources to help its members study more on same-sex blessings and other topics of human sexuality.

“At General Synod 2007, one of the critical calls that we heard over and over again was that people wanted more time to study. I wanted to make sure that this material was readily accessible,” said the Rev. Canon Dr. Linda Nicholls, Coordinator for Dialogue, who organized the material and wrote the introductions.

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Nomination of Lesbian for Bishop Adds Fuel to Episcopal, Anglican Row (Christian Post, 070829)

The Episcopal Church has stoked further controversy amid the ongoing Anglican debate over homosexuality in the Church with the nomination of an openly lesbian priest for bishop.

The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago recently announced that the openly gay Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, was included among five nominees for the vote to take place on Nov. 10.

If elected, Lind would become the second bishop in the Episcopal Church who lives with a same-sex partner – following New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose highly-publicized consecration in 2003 is at the heart of the fierce debate among members of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The latest developments in Chicago could also be enough to push the worldwide church body past the brink of schism.

Lind’s inclusion as a candidate for bishop is sure to further intensify next month’s meeting of U.S. Episcopal Church bishops, who are due to meet and discuss whether to agree to demands from the Anglican Communion to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate any further openly gay bishops.

That meeting, set for Sept. 30, could prove to be a pivotal point in the history of the Anglican Communion. If U.S. bishops refuse to bow to demands from the communion, The Episcopal Church could potentially lose its full membership status within the 77 million-member church body.

If, on the other hand, the U.S.-based church does reject the demands and the head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, refuses to retract the membership of the American arm, then Global South church members, who have been the most stringent opponents of U.S. developments, may decide to break away from the communion.

Many Anglican bishops have yet to confirm their attendance at next year’s landmark Lambeth Conference, which is held every ten years.

According to U.K.-based Christian Today, only a couple hundred of the 880 who were invited had replied by the deadline.

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Kenya Archbishop Consecrates Conservative U.S. Anglican Leaders (Christian Post, 070830)

The Anglican archbishop of Kenya has consecrated two conservative U.S. priests as suffragan bishops to take over the pastoral care of congregations that have broken away from The Episcopal Church in the United States because of its pro-homosexual stance.

Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, leader of the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK), told the the Rev. Canon Bill Atwood and the Rev. Bill Murdoch during Thursday’s service at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi that as a bishop they are to “maintain the Church’s discipline, guard her faith and promote her mission in the world.”

Hundreds of Christians, including around 10 primates from the “Global South”, looked on as Atwood and Murdoch pledged their word to “serve the international interests of the Anglican Church of Kenya, to serve clergy and congregations in North America under the Kenyan jurisdiction,” according to Reuters.

The 77 million-member Anglican Communion has been torn over homosexuality ever since The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – consecrated the openly gay V. Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

A number of American clergy and dioceses have since turned to African churches for oversight because they refuse to compromise on biblical teachings regarding the sin of homosexuality.

Speaking the day before his consecration, Murdoch said, “This is a missionary action brought to this point by four years of frustration.”

Earlier this year, the outspoken archbishop of Nigeria, the Most. Rev. Peter Akinola, similarly installed Bishop Martyn Minns of Virginia as the head of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – the U.S. missionary branch of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

Bishops Atwood and Murdoch will now oversee 30 North American congregations that have turned to the ACK for leadership.

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Conservative U.S. Anglicans Outline ‘Classic Christianity’ (Christian Post, 070801)

A group of conservative Anglicans planning to form a separate orthodox Anglican body in the United States ratified a “common cause” document on Tuesday.

The Anglican Communion Network, co