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, consisting of those discontent with The Episcopal Church or those who have split from the denomination, approved a statement that would no longer require its members to operate within the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church.

Noting that many individual parishes and leaders in the Anglican Communion Network are no longer part of The Episcopal Church, delegates voted to add to the federating Articles of the Common Cause Partners the following statement: “Nothing in the charter or bylaws shall be interpreted as requiring submission to the constitution of The Episcopal Church by affiliates of this Network who are not themselves members of The Episcopal Church.”

The vote was made at the network’s Annual Council in Bedford, Texas, where over 80 conservative Anglican representatives expressed little hope that The Episcopal Church – U.S. branch of Anglicanism – would “turn around” from its departure from Christian orthodoxy and traditional Anglicanism.

With belief that The Episcopal Church abandoned the vision of “a Church that is truly evangelical, truly catholic, and truly pentecostal,” as Duncan stated, the conservative group agreed in their Common Cause theological statement that “to be an Anglican, then, is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a ‘Mere Christian,’ at the same time evangelical, apostolic, catholic, reformed, and Spirit-filled.”

Further identifying seven elements as “characteristic of the Anglican Way,” the Anglican Communion Network also approved the theological statement: “We believe and confess Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him.”

The Rev. Canon Warren Tanghe, who presented the document to the Annual Council, called it “classic Christianity.”

The Anglican Communion Network is in the works of forming an Anglican body in the United States, separate from The Episcopal Church.

“The American province is lost and something will have to replace it,” said Anglican Communion Network moderator the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan.

Last month, Duncan invited conservative leaders and major breakaway Anglican groups to initiate discussions on forming a separate Anglican structure in the United States and take their “Common Cause Partnership” to the next level.

The network is “a step forward for Common Cause that allows the constituent partners to retain their identity and autonomy while forming a more coherent and accountable structure. None of the groups disappear and none of the groups stop their gospel mission… Yet we are forming a more coherent whole,” Bishop-elect John Guernsey said.

The Episcopal Church, which widened rifts in the Anglican Communion when it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003, 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.

Although The Episcopal Church expressed desire to remain in the Anglican Communion, Duncan believes the U.S. branch will “walk apart” from the global communion. A meeting for the discussion is scheduled for Sept. 25-28.

Meanwhile, several lawsuits over church property continue to wrack The Episcopal Church as breakaway Anglican parishes continue to worship in the churches while Episcopal dioceses file suit to reclaim the properties for The Episcopal Church.

The Anglican Communion Network’s Annual Council passed a resolution Tuesday urging all existing litigation between The Episcopal Church and those that have split be suspended. Moreover, the network resolved to declare its willingness to engage in mediation to find a mutually agreeable way forward. The resolution echoes the request made by primates (leaders of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces worldwide) earlier this year, asking The Episcopal Church to drop all litigation over property issues. Litigation, however, has continued.

Each of the Common Cause Partnership’s 10 members is independently considering the ratified Theological Statement.

The Anglican Communion Network was birthed in March 2004 and is currently comprised of over 900 parishes and over 2,200 clergy.

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Conservative Anglicans Losing Hope in Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 070730)

Conservative Anglicans in the United States are finding themselves living through an “extended Good Friday,” mourning for The Episcopal Church.

The Anglican Communion Network, an orthodox group of Anglicans discontent with The Episcopal Church, began its fourth annual council meeting in Bedford, Texas, on Monday. Over 80 representatives opened the two-day meeting with disappointment in a church many had grown up in.

“Because our sense of order is such that we have always sought to be Christian first and Episcopalian next, we find ourselves on this present Way of the Cross,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, in his opening address.

A growing number of Episcopal parishes and leaders have left The Episcopal Church, citing the U.S. Anglican branch’s departure from Christian orthodoxy and Anglican tradition, particularly the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop.

In March, The Episcopal Church reaffirmed its stance welcoming gays and lesbians as an “integral part” of the church and rejected the request of primates (Anglican heads of the 38 Anglican provinces) that it allow Anglican leaders outside the U.S. branch to oversee American dioceses and those unable to accept the authority of the Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. The Episcopal head unapologetically supports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

Duncan, also bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the denominational Church that raised him and ordained him “no longer had any room for me, or any like me.”

“How bitter the rejection! How total my failure!” he said on Monday.

“Yes, we are all at different places on the Calvary journey as concerns our ministries in The Episcopal Church. But I suspect I can speak for all when I say that where we are is not where we had hoped to be,” said Duncan who believes their fourth annual meeting is being held amid a “seismic shift” when more bishops and priests have left the U.S. church body.

The Anglican Communion Network was birthed in March 2004 and is currently comprised of over 900 parishes and over 2,200 clergy. Last month, Duncan invited conservative leaders and major breakaway Anglican groups to initiate discussions on forming a separate Anglican structure in the United States and take their “Common Cause Partnership” to the next level. Although The Episcopal Church expressed desire to remain in the Anglican Communion, Duncan believes the U.S. branch will “walk apart” from the global communion. A meeting for the discussion is scheduled for Sept. 25-28.

“[F]ew in this hall anticipate that The Episcopal Church will turn around in the last days before September 30th, or that The Episcopal Church has any intention of leaving room for those of us whose commitments to ‘the Faith once delivered’ created the Anglican Communion Network and have sustained its vision and its witness,” said Duncan at this week’s council meeting.

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. Episcopal leaders, including Jefferts Schori, have indicated that they will not “retreat” from their 2003 decision and stance supporting homosexuals.

“God, in His wisdom, has not used us to reform The Episcopal Church, to bring it back to its historic role and identity as a reliable and mainstream way to be a Christian. Instead The Episcopal Church has embraced de-formation – stunning innovation in Faith and Order – rather than reformation,” Duncan stated.

The worldwide Anglican Communion rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture but at the same time calls its people to minister pastorally to all, including homosexuals.

Amid deepened divisions within The Episcopal Church and impaired relations with Anglican provinces overseas, some believe the Anglican Communion is on the brink of schism. And the Anglican spiritual head, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is not fully confident the global body can get it together.

“We do not know how long our trial will be,” said Duncan, “but we trust our Heavenly Father.”

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‘Critical Time’ for Divided Anglicans (Christian Post, 070720)

Anglican leaders in the Global South are calling it a “critical time” for a divided Anglican Communion and one that will shape their future.

“We are concerned for the future of our Communion as a truly global fellowship and our witness before the world as a respected ecclesial family within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church,” said a statement released by the Global South Steering Committee, which met in London, July 16-18.

The steering committee said they were distressed over resolutions passed by The Episcopal Church’s – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – which rejected the requests of the Anglican leaders representing 38 provinces and the 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.

Episcopal leaders also reaffirmed their stance for the “full inclusion” of homosexuals.

Conservative Anglican leaders, particularly in the Global South, which houses the largest Anglican provinces, have called The Episcopal Church to express regret for its controversial consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003 and further called for an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize same-sex unions.

“We urge them, once again, to reconsider their position because it is their rejection of the clear teaching of the Church and their continuing intransigence that have divided the Church and has brought our beloved Communion to the breaking point,” the Global South leaders stated. “Without heartfelt repentance and genuine change there can be no restoration of the communion that we all earnestly desire and which is our Lord’s clear intent.”

The Anglican Communion reaffirmed the Lambeth Resolution rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture while calling for pastoral care to all, including homosexuals.

Some conservative leaders, such as Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola, who is considered the world’s most powerful Anglican leader, say they have lost faith that the U.S. branch will ever listen to conservative church leaders in the Global South, according to an interview with London’s The Times.

Still, Episcopal bishops have declared their desire to remain in full constituent membership in the Anglican Communion and have been invited by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, to attend the decennial Lambeth conference next year.

Many Global South leaders, however, have rejected the invitation to participate in the global Lambeth meeting, objecting to the invitation of “violators of the Lambeth Resolution” and those who they believe have departed from Scripture.

They have called for the crisis to be resolved before the Lambeth meeting, which they say is now difficult to view as “an instrument of unity or communion.”

“At a time when the world needs a vision of reconciliation and unity, our failure to restore the ‘torn fabric’ of our Communion threatens to show the world a contrary example.”

But in the end, the conservative group of Anglicans said they are hopeful.

They are hopeful that the drafting of an Anglican Covenant, which is currently in process, will “help us move past this debilitating season into a new focus of growth and missionary zeal.” The Covenant will articulate the common foundations of Anglican belief, particularly on the issue of homosexuality and how member churches and provinces should manage related disputes. The covenant is also intended to set out principles that bind the worldwide body.

Moreover, they place their hope in Jesus Christ.

“We are hopeful for the future because our confidence is not in ourselves but in Jesus the Christ who gave his life that we might have life.”

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Anglican Council Backs ‘Clear Warning’ to Jefferts Schori, Williams (Christian Post, 070724)

A network of conservative U.S. Anglicans has praised a recent statement from Anglican leaders in the Global South that urged The Episcopal Church to repent and change to restore true communion to the worldwide Anglican churches.

The statement from the Global South Steering Committee is “a clear warning to both Presiding Bishop Schori and Archbishop Williams,” said the Rev Canon David C. Anderson, president and CEO of the American Anglican Council.

“The Global South and their 40 million congregants refuse to sit by and watch The Episcopal Church (TEC) defy Communion agreements and legally persecute those U.S. parishes that wish to remain faithful to the Gospel and church teaching,” Anderson added, in a statement last Friday.

The Anglican leaders from the Global South, called primates, last week urged TEC to reconsider its rejection of February’s Dar Es Salaam Communiqué, which requested the U.S. arm of Anglicanism to recommit to the Windsor Report, and called for TEC’s “heartfelt repentance and genuine change” in order to restore true communion.

The 77 million-member Anglican Communion is on the brink of schism over recent actions of The Episcopal Church in the United States. In 2003, The Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop and last November installed Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports ordaining openly gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions, as its head bishop. Jefferts Schori has also indicated that Jesus Christ is one of many ways to salvation.

The Global South statement also called the Anglican Church of Canada to task for their declaration that “same-sex blessing is not core doctrine” and their defiance of Windsor Report recommendations.

Although Anglican delegates of the Church of Canada rejected the blessing of same-sex unions at the national meeting of the General Synod – the Anglican Church of Canada’s highest governing body – some 300 delegates the day before agreed that same-sex blessings do not conflict with the “core doctrines” of the church.

In its statement, the Global South Steering Committee made clear its intention to continue extending pastoral care to U.S.-based churches and to make similar provisions for biblically faithful churches in Canada.

The statement also indicated the Global South’s resolve to not attend next year’s decennial Lambeth conference unless the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, reconsiders his invitations for the worldwide gathering and allows for discipline in the communion and true reconciliation.

Anderson said the statement “is the best news and the clearest word we have received in a very long while.”

The Global South Steering Committee also reiterated the primates’ request for TEC to immediately suspend litigation against “congregations and individuals which wish to remain Anglican but are unable to do so within TEC.”

It also alluded to a future where orthodox Anglican churches in the United States have their own ecclesiastical structure separate from The Episcopal Church.

“This is more than a message of hope for weary Christians; this is a call to action from the Global South Primates. Our plan at the AAC is to act alongside the Global South and fellow orthodox Anglican Christians,” Anderson said.

Anglican leaders have set a Sept. 30 deadline for The Episcopal Church to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or bless same-sex unions. Episcopal leaders in the United States, however, have indicated no intention of moving “backward” on their 2003 decision.

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Archbishop: Absence of Orthodox Anglicans Jeopardizes Communion (Christian Post, 070802)

The potential absence of a good number of Anglicans from the Global South and other regions may mean a global body that is no longer Anglican, said one bishop.

“The official Anglican representation will be synonymous with the American Episcopal Church and that movement is increasing if Global South traditionalists don’t attend. Many believe that if that happens the communion will no longer be Anglican,” said West Indies Archbishop the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, referring to a 2008 global Anglican meeting that some conservative leaders have threatened to protest.

Gomez believes the 77 million-member Anglican Communion is at a turning point and has grave doubts it will survive in its present form, according to VirtueOnline, a voice for global orthodox Anglicanism.

“We cannot go on with an ambiguousness and intolerance that is only increasing,” said Gomez at a Festival of Faith gathering in Bladensburg, Md., over the weekend.

Anglican leaders in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda as well as the Church of England have either stated their rejection of invitations to the 2008 Lambeth conference or their plans to do so and boycott. They argue that they will not attend with U.S. Episcopal bishops who are “unrepentant” of their recent actions, including the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop.

“In planning for Lambeth we don’t know who is going or coming, but if there is a large group who will not attend it will change the structure and significance of the Lambeth Conference,” said Gomez. “The Archbishop of Canterbury wants to focus on spirituality and mission.

“The big question is how can you have a meeting of the leaders of the communion in one place while refusing to address the issues that are tearing the communion apart and preventing the Anglican Communion from moving forward?”

Some have criticized conservative Anglicans for their stance against homosexuality and accused them of being homophobic, but Gomez clarified that they are not against homosexual persons.

And the issue is about “homosexual practice” – a lifestyle about that is incompatible with Scripture, as the Anglican Communion affirms. But beyond the sexuality itself, Gomez pointed to the context and biblical revelation attached to homosexual practice.

“In the church’s long history, the uninterrupted consensus is that physical intercourse is only intended for man and woman within marriage in a life long commitment. Anything else is contrary to God’s will for humanity. The ground for the church taking this stand is the Bible and it is transparently clear about homosexual behavior.”

Moreover, the vast majority of Christians hold the same stance as the conservative Anglicans on homosexuality, Gomez noted. It is “the liberals,” mainly those in The Episcopal Church, who are in the minority.

The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – has been given a Sept. 30 deadline to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

If The Episcopal Church does not meet the deadline and answers “without clarifications and unambiguity on where they stand on same sex blessings,” then Gomez said it could signal a break up of the communion, as many are predicting.

“Their (the TEC’s) action was known and done in defiance of the rest of the entire Anglican Communion,” said Gomez. “The American Church, on its own, and knowing the position held by the rest of the communion acted in defiance of the beliefs and practices of the rest of the Anglican Communion.”

Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu, the Church of England’s second most senior cleric, warned Anglicans that if they do not attend Lambeth, they would be the ones severing their link with Canterbury and the Anglican Communion.

The orthodox leaders, however, do not express the same view.

Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, said being obedient to Scripture is of greater importance than being recognized by Canterbury. Duncan believes Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, had never publicly supported the orthodox in the United States.

Gomez and other conservative leaders are hoping for a change of heart and direction in The Episcopal Church.

“We have to change the mindset of people in The Episcopal Church who not only resent traditional Anglicanism but want to root it out,” said Gomez.

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Episcopal Bishop Removes 21 Clergy from Pulpit (Christian Post, 070803)

Breakaway Anglicans are claiming that Virginia’s top Episcopal bishop has no authority to remove from the priesthood 21 clergy who have already “quit” The Episcopal Church.

The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, publicly announced on Thursday that he would depose clergy who were barred in January from performing priestly duties in the diocese.

The clergy, however, have already quit, noted Jim Oakes, vice chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) - an association of conservative Anglican congregations.

“This announcement from the Diocese of Virginia is like an employer trying to fire someone who has already quit,” Oakes said in a released statement.

The Rev. Jack Grubbs, rector of Potomac Falls Church and one of the clergy who has been deposed, argued that he and the others remain as Anglican clergy no longer in the service of The Episcopal Church, so the church cannot depose or remove them from their pulpits.

Congregations from 15 churches voted overwhelmingly in December to sever ties with The Episcopal Church, citing the denomination’s departure from Anglican tradition and Christian orthodoxy. They essentially removed themselves from the Episcopal ministry and placed themselves under the authority of the Church of Nigeria.

Although the breakaway clergy were “inhibited” from the Episcopal priesthood, they have continued to perform their same roles within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

“Our clergy have remained steadfast in their faith, and have fully embarked on their journey with the worldwide Anglican Communion by joining ADV and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (an offshoot of the Church of Nigeria). We should remember the unanimous message that the Archbishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion made at their February meeting in Tanzania clearly expressing that it is The Episcopal Church that is out of step not only with us, but with the majority of Anglicans around the globe.”

Of the clergy Lee inhibited early this year, one – the Rev. Nicholas Lubelfeld – returned to The Episcopal Church and had his inhibition lifted. He now serves as priest associate of Church of Our Redeemer in Aldie, Va.

This week’s announcement of the removal of the rest of the clergy comes amid heated debate as the breakaway Virginia congregations and the Diocese of Virginia battle for church properties in court. Most recently, The Episcopal Church filed a motion to add 76 more unpaid church volunteers to the lawsuit and anyone else in the future.

“In spite of these continued acts of intimidation, ADV churches continue to move forward serving Christ by proclaiming His gospel, supporting and strengthening families, and serving communities at home and abroad,” said Oakes.

The Anglican District of Virginia claims they are in full communion with constituent members of the worldwide Anglican Communion through its affiliation with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

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Dissident Episcopalians Back 21 Defrocked Clergy (Christian Post, 070806)

Dissident Episcopal leaders have expressed support for 21 clergy who were recently defrocked by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.

Conservative leaders, including the Rt. Revs. Robert Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Jack Iker of the Diocese of Forth Worth, and John David Schofield of the Diocese of San Joaquin, said last week’s deposition of clergy who had already voted to leave The Episcopal Church is “of no effect.”

Virginia bishop Peter James Lee announced on Thursday that he would remove from the priesthood 21 clergy who were part of the December exodus of Virginia parishes from The Episcopal Church. The congregations split over the denomination’s departure from Anglican tradition and Christian orthodoxy.

The congregations left to remain steadfast in their faith and clergy who were removed are each recognized as “a priest in good standing of the Anglican Communion,” conservative Anglicans argued.

The breakaway Anglicans have placed themselves under the authority of Nigerian archbishop Peter J. Akinola, joining CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), the mission initiative of the Church of Nigeria.

Stressing that the clergy are no longer under Lee’s jurisdiction, Akinola called Lee’s action “meaningless” and said it “appears to be rather mean spirited.”

“There is no question that CANA and its bishops are fully Anglican – they are a recognized and integral part of the largest and fastest growing Anglican Province – there is a serious question as to how long The Episcopal Church will be able to make the same claim,” Akinola wrote in a letter to the deposed clergy.

“As a member of the CANA clergy your Anglican identity is assured and your ordination vows fully valid.”

Akinola and three other Anglican bishops from Africa have set up offshoots in the United States to provide a spiritual home and “safe haven” for Anglicans discontent with The Episcopal Church. The U.S. Anglican body widened rifts in 2003 when it consecrated an openly gay bishop.

CANA currently claims about 40 congregations and Akinola has said that if The Episcopal Church gets back in line with the Anglican Communion and gives up its liberal agenda, CANA will be no more.

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Rejected S.C. Bishop Candidate Re-Elected to Head Episcopal Diocese (Christian Post, 070806)

The Very Rev. Mark Lawrence was re-elected to head the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, months after his first election was thrown out.

His election as bishop on Saturday must now receive consent from a majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and the diocesan Standing Committees within 120 days of receiving notice of the election, according to the Episcopal News Service.

Lawrence, who is currently rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Bakersfield, Calif., was the only candidate in the election and was first elected in September 2006 to be South Carolina’s 14th bishop. In March, however, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori declared Lawrence’s election “null and void,” citing that some of the votes were electronically submitted and did not have the required signatures attached. It was the first time in over 70 years that consents for the consecration of a bishop were denied.

The rejection outraged some conservative Anglicans who felt Lawrence clearly met the standards to lead the diocese and twice assured The Episcopal Church that he would keep his vows and not split from the U.S.-based church body over disputes on Scripture and homosexuality.

In a letter last December, Lawrence said he had no plans to take the local diocese out of The Episcopal Church. On March 8, Lawrence reiterated his position to the Standing Committees of the Episcopal Church to assure the diocese’s continued membership in The Episcopal Church.

“I will heartily make the vows conforming ‘...to the doctrine, discipline, and worship’ of the Episcopal Church, as well as the trustworthiness of the Holy Scriptures. So to put it as clearly as I can, my intention is to remain in The Episcopal Church,” he wrote in the March letter.

The Very Rev. William McKeachie, dean of South Carolina, had called the decision to invalidate Lawrence’s election “the latest outrage from the national church.”

Clergy and lay delegates held a special electing convention in June for the purpose of re-electing Lawrence to lead the South Carolina diocese, which has been without a bishop since January 2006. The Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr., has been serving as acting bishop since he turned 72 – the mandatory retirement age – in January.

Earlier this year, Salmon said the South Carolina Standing Committee will “implement an intensive effort to receive the consents during the 120 day period.”

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Sydney Anglicans Close Doors to Episcopal Author for ‘Gutting’ Christian Faith (Christian Post, 070815)

[KH: great!!!]

SYDNEY, Australia – The Anglican bishop in Sydney has given an order to prohibit a liberal U.S. Episcopal priest from entering any of the churches in the diocese over a new book that one reviewer said “defaced the only portrait of Jesus that makes any real sense.”

Bishop John Shelby Spong, a retired priest and long-time supporter of female and gay priests, was reportedly being snubbed by Anglicans in Sydney who have accused him of “gutting” the Christian faith in his latest book, entitled “Jesus for the Non-Religious.”

The bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, told the Australian newspaper it was a mistake for the Australian Anglican primate, or chief bishop, to invite Spong to promote his book.

“The judgment of the primate is, in our view, ill-advised,” Forsyth said. “It is a mistake. It is the wrong thing to do.”

In a review of Spong’s latest book, Mark Thompson, president of the conservative Anglican Church League in Sydney, wrote that despite all Spong’s “grandiose” claims in the book, it “is really little more than the rehash of long-discarded critical theories and doubts which scholars resolved years ago.”

“Far from providing a program for the future, this book simply rehashes the unbelief of the past that has done nothing but diminish the impact of Christian witness in the West,” he wrote in Sydneyanglicans.net.

The local divisive episode, which is relatively small on the international scale, magnifies the unease and indignation among conservatives within the Anglican Communion who say their liberal U.S. counterparts are bringing the Church into disrepute.

The consecration of V. Gene Robinson as The Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop 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.

While the majority of the Anglican Communion is demanding “true repentance” from The Episcopal Church for its recent actions, Episcopal leaders, however, have so far expressed that they will not be moving “backward” from their previous decisions.

The Episcopal Church’s final response to the requests made earlier this year by Anglican leaders from the Global South is expected before a Sept. 30 deadline.

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U.S. Episcopalians Near Deadline (Christian Post, 070830)

Less than a month remains before U.S. Episcopalians are expected to respond to Anglican leaders worldwide on whether they will remain in step with the Anglican Communion or walk apart.

Their response may determine a possible split in the 77-million member global body that has struggled over the years to avoid schism. Currently, many conservative Anglicans are not hopeful that The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – will “give up its liberal agenda” and remain aligned.

The Episcopal Church faces a Sept. 30 deadline to respond to the requests made earlier this year by Anglican primates, who lead the communion’s 38 provinces, to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples.

Controversy had heightened when The Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003. New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson recently announced plans to enter civil partnership with his gay partner next summer.

“With the clock rapidly running out on The Episcopal Church, the pressure is on for the denomination to place the good of the worldwide Anglican Communion above its own interests,” stated Ralph Webb, director of Anglican Action for The Institute on Religion and Democracy. “Unfortunately, the denomination still gives little hope that it will rise to meet the needs of not only the Communion to which it belongs, but the entire body of Christ.”

Earlier this week, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago announced that an openly lesbian priest was included among five nominees for bishop. If elected in November, the Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, would become the second bishop in the U.S. branch who lives with a same-sex partner.

“The nomination clearly goes against the spirit of the primates’ requests and illustrates the hardness of heart toward the primates demonstrated by many in the Episcopal Church today,” said Webb. “[T]hat goal (of the ‘full inclusion’ of gays and lesbians) and many other examples of jettisoning biblical, traditional Anglican faith have led thousands of orthodox Anglicans to leave the Episcopal Church.”

Providing a spiritual home for U.S. Anglicans discontent in The Episcopal Church over homosexuality and what conservatives argue a departure from scriptural authority, the Anglican archbishop of Kenya, Benjamin Nzimbi, consecrated two conservative American bishops on Thursday. The new bishops are to lead U.S. congregations who have split from The Episcopal Church. Nzimbi joins three other African leaders who have set up offshoots in the United States to take conservative Anglicans under their wings. The offshoots have been rejected by Episcopal leaders who say alternative oversight from overseas bishops would be “injurious” to the polity of The Episcopal Church.

Days ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline, The Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops will meet in New Orleans to discuss the primates’ requests. Anglican spiritual leader Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, has been invited to give an address and answer questions.

Williams has expressed hope but not optimism in the unity of the Anglican Communion.

Meanwhile, Anglican Bishop Trevor Mwamba of Botswana, also dean of the Province of Central Africa, says Anglican churches will soon return to other priorities and abandon a “fixation” with homosexuality.

“Very few of us take the homosexual debate as a top priority issue because there are more pressing issues facing the African church,” Mwamba told Ecumenical News International. “Most African Anglicans want to get back to basics and concentrate on poverty, disease, injustice and the need for transparency in governments.”

Mwamba said he believes there is still a lot of time for Anglican bishops to agree to attend next year’s Lambeth Conference – the decennial gathering of the world’s top Anglican leaders. African bishops have threatened not to attend the meeting in protest of the invitation of Episcopal leaders who have not repented over their controversial actions.

“I believe that quite number of African bishops who have threatened not to attend next year’s Lambeth Conference in Canterbury may change their minds,” he said. “Yes, there are problems, but a week is a long time in politics and we still have almost a year to go before the next Lambeth Conference.”

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Another African Church Appoints U.S. Bishop (Christian Post, 070904)

Uganda’s anglican archbishop became the fourth african leader to appoint an american bishop to serve breakaway anglicans in the united states.

Archbishop henry luke orombi consecrated former episcopalian john a. M. Guernsey on saturday just days after kenya’s anglican church made the same move. The series of interventions by african churches goes against the wishes of the episcopal church – the u.s. branch of anglicanism – which called such interventions “injurious” to the church and said it could lead to a permanent division in the worldwide anglican communion.

The african churches, however, say they are providing missional support to anglicans in america who believe the episcopal church has departed from orthodox christianity.

Guernsey, former rector of all saints church in dale city, va., which voted last year to disaffiliate with the episcopal church, was appointed to provide oversight to 33 u.s. parishes that will recognize the church of uganda’s authority, according to reuters.

Orombi had announced plans in june to appoint an american bishop as divisions deepened over the episcopal church’s consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003.

“we thought the crisis in the anglican church would be resolved by now. We expected the episcopal church to repent ... But they have prolonged the crisis,” orombi spokeswoman alison barfoot told reuters.

While such events have been called interventions by representatives of the anglican communion, the rt. Rev. Martyn minns – who was installed in may by nigerian anglican archbishop peter akinola to oversee u.s. congregations under cana (convocation of anglicans in north america) – commended the support african provinces were providing to conservative anglicans in the united states.

“it’s the global south collectively saying ‘we’ve got to do something’ because of the crisis in the u.s. church,” said minns.

The archbishop of rwanda, the most rev. Emmanuel kolini, and the archbishop of southeast asia, moses tay, set the precedent of establishing a missionary branch in the united states in 2000. They formed the anglican mission in the americas (amia) which now claims about 120 congregations.

This month, anglican bishops expect a response by the episcopal church to an ultimatum they issued, requesting that the u.s. body pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or bless same-sex couples. The deadline to respond is sept. 30.

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Thousands Petition Episcopal Church For Financial Transparency (Christian Post, 070910)

Over 5,000 people have signed a petition demanding financial transparency from the episcopal church as the threat of schism looms closer over the global anglican communion weeks ahead of a critical deadline.

The petition specifically demands the episcopal church – the u.s. branch of anglicanism – reveal how much money it has spent since 2004 on litigation against individuals and parishes.

One of the largest lawsuits filed by the u.s. denomination involves 11 virginia churches that voted to leave in december. The breakaway anglicans argue that the episcopal church has departed from anglican tradition and orthodox christianity. Their split with the american denomination was to remain faithful to the 77-milllion member anglican communion.

The petition for financial transparency had begun about a month ago, asking episcopalians and conservative anglicans if they had any concerns over the episcopal church’s funding in the string of lawsuits. The american anglican council (aac), which is keeping the petition open to get more voices heard, will most likely reveal the signatories, said aac communications assistant robert h. Lundy.

“this petition represents a cry from thousands of current and former members of the episcopal church,” said the rev. Canon david c. Anderson, president and ceo of the conservative aac.

Earlier this year, anglican leaders worldwide requested that the episcopal church back away from property litigation. However, lawyers for the u.s. denomination said it would be “premature” to withdraw from court action.

Last month, five retired episcopal bishops sent a second letter to the executive council – an elected body that represents the whole of the episcopal church – again expressing concern to threats of litigation and calling for financial transparency.

The bishops have not received any response to date.

“this contentious issue is not something to be ignored in hopes that it will dissipate or be forgotten. Because you have not pulled the veil from this issue, conjecture as to where the money is coming from is almost limitless,” stated the retired bishops in the letter.

Concerns were raised due to past incidents of questionable financial decisions and financial mismanagement among leaders in the episcopal church, according to the five bishops.

The latest petition, announced over the weekend, was signed by 3,583 episcopalians and 1,747 “non-episcopal anglicans” protesting against the episcopal church’s continued lawsuits against former parishes and individuals. Signatories have now reached 5,700, according to aac’s lundy.

The episcopal church faces a sept. 30 deadline to respond to requests made earlier this year by anglican leaders who lead the communion’s 38 provinces to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. Controversy had heightened when the episcopal church consecrated its first openly gay bishop – v. Gene robinson of new hampshire – in 2003.

Further action by the aac with regards to the petition is not likely to occur around the sept. 30 deadline in order to keep the focus on the primates’ requests, according to lundy.

The american anglican council is a network of individuals (laity, deacons, priests and bishops), parishes and specialized ministries who affirm biblical authority and christian orthodoxy within the anglican communion.

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Chicago Church Leaves TEC (Chicago Sun Times, 070910)

Christians often describe their faith journey as a spiritual walk.

On sunday, a west chicago congregation took a giant step in faith — splitting from their denomination, the 2.2-million-member episcopal church. Nearly 100 people turned out for the final service at the episcopal church of the resurrection. Afterward, they processed with crosses, candles and an altar down the street to their new worship space.

A sign greeted them: “resurrection anglican church. Welcome home.” The congregation is now under the auspices of the anglican church of uganda.

The episcopal diocese of chicago retains ownership of the church building the congregation had been using.

Addi moore, 52, of naperville said the decision to leave the episcopal church was decades in the making. The denomination had drifted from the historic christian faith, she said. Treasured stories from scripture had been called into question, from the virgin birth to the resurrection.

Then, four years ago, a gay bishop was ordained in new hampshire. Now, a lesbian priest is on the slate of bishop candidates in the chicago diocese.

“it’s sad to leave, but god is going to do amazing things with us,” moore said. “he’s just going to blow our socks off.”

The 90-minute worship was a joyous, upbeat celebration with guitars, tambourines and drums. Children waved colorful flags, while worshippers sang with their hands outstretched toward the heavens.

In his sermon, the rev. George koch called the split “a gentle leaving.” He said the congregation modeled their faith by handling the situation with prayer instead of strife.

“we have persisted in being love to the diocese of chicago and the bishop of chicago, and they responded in kind,” he said.

The rev. Scott hayashi, a diocesan representative, read a letter from bishop william persell, who thanked the congregation for carrying out its decision “with grace and integrity.” “we will continue to hold you in our prayers,” the letter said. Afterward, hayashi and koch hugged.

Resurrection is a young, multi-racial congregation where hugs flow as easily as peals of laughter. Dress is casual, worship is informal. Often, members rest a hand on a neighbor’s shoulder when in prayer.

“we’re a close family,” said catherine clark, 66, of batavia. “anyone can come here — black, white, gay, straight — and be loved.”

Lynne bowman, 59, a lifelong episcopalian from barrington, called the move bittersweet. “we have tried to allow the love of god to be part of everything,” she said. “but it’s still painful.”

The new worship space was a quarter mile walk from the church. As the worshippers processed, a guitarist strummed, while others yelled nigerian warrior cries.

Longtime members said leaving the episcopal church was tough but that the walk of faith is never easy. Younger members such as 24-year-old chris lyon of carol stream said it wasn’t a big deal. “the church isn’t four walls, but the people,” lyon said. “next week, it’ll be the same people, just different walls.”

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The Church Of The Holy Comforter Announces Resignation Of Church Leadership (AAC, 070827)

Spiritual leader reeder resigns; vestry to follow

Broomfield, colorado – august 27, 2007– the church of the holy comforter today announced the resignation of its leader, the reverend dr. Charles reeder and his departure from the episcopal church effective october 1, 2007. Holy comforter also announces that vestry, the children’s minister, youth minister and treasurer will resign and follow father reeder’s move within the greater worldwide anglican communion network (acn).

“we are saddened by the current state of the episcopal church in the us which we believe has strayed from the orthodox, scriptural beliefs of the worldwide anglican communion,” said reeder. “many church members have demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the episcopal church’s actions and words through the withholding of contributions. This has led us to examine the best possible future for holy comforter and our desire to remain part of the worldwide anglican communion.”

Near term, reeder, vestry, the core ministry team and members of holy comforter continue in a period of prayer and fasting as they look for guidance around the future of the congregation. Reeder has not yet determined his future place within the anglican communion.

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Bishops Atwood, Murdoch Consecrated In Kenya (AAC, 070830)

The anglican church of kenya has consecrated the rev. Canon dr. Bill at wood and rev. Bill murdoch as suffragan bishops of all saints cathedral diocese, nairobi to serve her international interest in usa where the church has more than 30 congregations.

The two bishops will collaborate with others in the common cause network chaired by the rt. Rev. Duncan (pittsburg) to provide episcopal care and oversight strategically uniting a broad conservative coalition that share historic anglican faith and practices

The consecration of the two bishops was presided over by the ack archbishop benjamin nzimbi and attended by among others 10 anglican primates from around the anglican communion, a clear testimony that the consecrations are an appropriate response to the challenges of mission in the complex environment in the world today.

Addressing a pre-consecration international conference, archbishop nzimbi said the fabric of the anglican communion has been torn by the actions of the episcopal church over the issue of same sex unions.

“it is evident that the conflicts in the communion affect us all and we have a responsibility to address the areas that we are able to impact” he said.

He said the decision to consecrate the two bills was after extensive consultation in the global south with unanimous consent of the provincial synod and the ack house of bishops.

The sermon at the all saints cathedral was given by the primate of west indies, the most rev. Drexel gomez.

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Diocese, St. Andrew’s Church Split Up Legally (AAC, 070831)

A syracuse church and the local episcopal diocese are legally splitting up - and, as with court-approved divorces, much of the settlement involves the division of property.

The episcopal diocese of central new york retains ownership of st. Andrew’s church, but members of the breakaway parish will get to use the building rent-free for up to a year, according to the settlement.

The settlement - accepted tuesday by state supreme court justice james murphy - will result in the court-ordered dissolution of st. Andrew’s episcopal church, 5013 s. Salina st., at the end of the year.

Neither the lawyer for the diocese or the church was available for comment.

A dispute over homosexuality and biblical authority led to a rift between the diocese and st. Andrew’s in the most visible local reaction to the 2003 consecration of v. Gene robinson as bishop in new hampshire. The action has led dozens of parishes in the u.s. episcopal church to secede in what some say could lead to a schism of the church.

After st. Andrew’s designated the bishop of rwanda its leader and hired a pastor who was not licensed to minister here, the episcopal diocese of central new york sued the church in july 2006. The diocese said it owns the church building, rectory and parish assets. Similar legal battles are taking place all over the country.

In june, members of another church in the local diocese, st. Andrew’s episcopal church in vestal, voted to leave the episcopal church and join the convocation of anglicans in north america, an orthodox group of churches.

And the pastor of the church of the good shepherd in binghamton has indicated his parish intends to leave the episcopal church, said the rev. Karen c. Lewis, assistant to bishop gladstone “skip” adams.

The diocese has not taken legal action against those two parishes, lewis said.

The diocese of central new york includes about 22,000 members in 93 parishes from the pennsylvania border to the st. Lawrence river and from utica to waterloo.

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Uganda Consecrates U.S. Conservative As Bishop (Washington Post, 070902)

Kampala (reuters) - uganda’s anglican archbishop henry luke orombi consecrated an american bishop opposed to gay marriage on sunday, the latest in a spate of conservative clerics to leave the u.s. episcopal church.

The consecration of the virginia-based conservative, john guernsey, came just three days after kenya’s archbishop benjamin nzimbi named two american priests as bishops.

Orombi spokeswoman alison barfoot said the archbishop had called guernsey to lead 33 congregations in the united states that will recognize the church of uganda’s authority.

“he’s an ecclesiastical refugee,” she told reuters by telephone from the ceremony, referring to guernsey.

“we thought the crisis in the anglican church would be resolved by now. We expected the episcopal church to repent ... But they have prolonged the crisis.”

The 77 million-strong anglican communion has been split since its 2.4 million-member u.s. branch consecrated gene robinson as anglicanism’s first openly gay bishop four years ago.

Orombi’s service in western uganda included primates from the “global south” churches of latin america, africa and asia who support traditional anglicanism’s tough stance against gay marriage.

The u.s. church accuses africans of invading their turf. Conservative africans retort that they are merely providing refuge for orthodox believers at odds with liberal views.

“this is not about sexuality, it’s about scripture,” barfoot said. “the leadership of the anglican church has hijacked us to a faith that does not represent biblical christianity.”

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AAC Supports Global South’s Position On Lambeth And The Episcopal Church (AAC, 070720)

The american anglican council (aac) applauds the recent statement from the global south steering committee. The statement is “a clear warning to both presiding bishop schori and archbishop williams,” said aac president and ceo the rev. Canon david c. Anderson.

“the global south and their 40 million congregants refuse to sit by and watch the episcopal church (tec) defy communion agreements and legally persecute those u.s. parishes that wish to remain faithful to the gospel and church teaching,” said anderson.

The global south primates urged tec to reconsider its rejection of the dar es salaam communiqué requests and principles and called for tec’s “heartfelt repentance and genuine change” in order to restore true communion. The statement also called the anglican church of canada to task for their declaration that “same-sex blessing is not core doctrine” and their defiance of windsor report recommendations. The statement made clear the global south’s intention to continue extending pastoral care to u.s. based churches and to make similar provisions for biblically faithful churches in canada. It also showed the global south’s resolve to not attend next year’s lambeth conference unless the archbishop of canterbury reconsiders his lambeth invitations and allows for discipline in the communion and true reconciliation.

Anderson said the statement “is the best news and the clearest word we have received in a very long while.”

The global south steering committee reiterated the primates’ request for tec to immediately suspend litigation against “congregations and individuals which wish to remain anglican but are unable to do so within tec.” It also alluded to a future where orthodox anglican churches in the u.s. have their own ecclesiastical structure separate from the episcopal church.

“this is more than a message of hope for weary christians; this is a call to action from the global south primates. Our plan at the aac is to act alongside the global south and fellow orthodox anglican christians,” anderson said.

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Rwandan Church Fights Back (AAC, 070814)

The anglican church in rwanda and africa will not be bullied into keeping quiet about the non biblical behaviors of the american and european churches, a senior bishop has said.

Bishop john rucahana - anglican head of the shyira diocese said the current disagreements in the anglican church were caused by the ordination of the homosexual bishops by the american episcopal church. Rucahana said this was against the teachings of the holly bible.

The stalemate stems from an invitation to the lambeth conference 2008 from archbishop rowan williams in which he invited one section of the bishops in rwanda and left out others because apparently they do not have similar approaches to anglican faith. Archbishop williams is essentially the head of the worldwide anglican church.

The lambeth conference 2008 will take place on the campus of the university of kent in canterbury, from july 16 to august 4, 2008.

Mr. Williams wrote in the letter seen by rna: “this is not a question of asking anyone to disassociate themselves at this stage from what have been described as the missionary initiatives of your provinces. I appreciate that you may not be happy with these decisions, but i feel that as we approach a critical juncture of the life of the communion, i must act in accordance to the clear guidance of the instruments of the communion.”

“it is them that abandoned the faith, the law and doctrine of the church. They also do not believe in the teachings of the bible”, bishop rucahana said tuesday in a lengthy interview on state radio.

“their behaviours do not conform to the religious conduct of the anglican church because it is them that ordained homosexuals as bishops not africans”.

Bishop rucahana said the anglican church in rwanda will not be pushed into adopting the satanic behaviour of the “whites because they are whites”. He called on the other sects to conform to the faith teachings as the problem crosscuts to them as well.

As a response to the move by archbishop williams, the episcopal church of rwanda hit back accusing archbishop williams of “divisive” leadership.

The rwandan anglican clergy though their head bishop emmanuel kollin said such behaviour was “violating holy orders” and by also making the decision to “ordain and to consecrate practicing homosexuals”.

They added, “we feel that the words of the archbishop are tantamount to a threat, and we cannot accept this”.

The bishops of the american episcopal church have accused african anglican primates of trying to drag their church back into “a time of colonialism”.

They said in march that they would resist the primates’ demand that they set up a new pastoral scheme with a “primatial vicar” to make a traditionalist enclave for antigay conservatives who reject the oversight of liberal bishops. They said that the scheme “violated” their canons, or church law.

Although the 2.3 million american episcopalians are few among the 77 million anglicans worldwide, they are understood to finance up to one third of the communion’s total international budget.

In april 2004, africa’s anglican archbishops vowed not to accept donations from western churches that support the ordination of gay priests. This, despite the fact that the church in africa depends almost entirely on funding from the west.

“the problem they have with the african believers is because we remained faithful to the biblical teachings and instead challenged them about their conduct. They had never been challenged by african believers”, bishop rucahana said.

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Attendance Of Lambeth (AAC, 070813)

Only a couple of hundred of the 880 anglican bishops invited to next year’s lambeth conference, one of the most critical gatherings in the church’s history, have replied by the deadline set by the archbishop of canterbury.

Dr rowan williams hopes that the conference, which is held every 10 years at canterbury, can be the starting point for rebuilding the church, which has been torn apart over the issue of homosexuality.

The failure of so many to respond is fresh evidence of the disintegration of the 70 million-strong worldwide communion, and will come as a further blow to the authority of dr williams.

When he issued the invitations in may, he asked the bishops, who are scattered all over the world in 38 selfgoverning provinces, to send in their replies by july 31.

Several conservatives are delaying their decisions because they will not attend if liberal americans are there - which will not be finally determined until later this year.

At least six conservative archbishops from africa and asia, who represent hundreds of bishops and more than a third of active anglicans, have already threatened to boycott the event.

Last week the archbishop of sydney, the most rev peter jensen, wrote to dr williams. The conservative evangelical said he and his five assistant bishops could not yet say whether they would come.

He said their decision would depend on the attitude of the liberal leadership of the american branch of the worldwide church, which has been given until sept 30 to reverse its pro-gay agenda.

Archbishop jensen indicated he would take the lead from the african conservatives. He will not attend the conference with the americans unless they agree to toe the predominantly conservative line on homosexuality.

The rt rev michael scott-joynt, the bishop of winchester, said in a recent interview that more than half of the church of england’s bishops would also wait until next month before deciding whether to attend.

Anglican officials admitted that just “several hundred” bishops had registered for the conference, but stressed that more replies were still coming in and blamed delays in the postal system.

A spokesman said the deadline of july 31 had been suspended.

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Archbishop Gomez On The Future Of The Anglican Church (AAC, 070801)

“This is a fight we are engaged in and we will see it through to the end. We are determined to see that the anglican communion ends up on the right side of the debate” over homosexual practice.

So west indies archbishop drexel gomez declared outside washington, d.c. saturday, drawing a standing ovation from a sizeable gathering of orthodox believers during a day-long festival of faith at st. Luke’s church, bladensburg, maryland. The event also featured retired quincy (il) episcopal bishop donald parsons.

Gomez assailed opponents for characterizing fidelity to the consistent witness of scripture on homosexual practice as homophobia, bigotry, and fundamentalism. He said that he and co-religionist anglican leaders would keep the communion in line with the 2,000-year consensus of christianity on same-sex relations, holding that the issue relates to “god’s ordering of life.” It is therefore - contrary the recent declaration by the anglican church of canada - a matter of “core doctrine.”

But the leading conservative primate (provincial leader) also warned of a liberal recasting of official anglicanism if some conservative provinces boycott the 2008 lambeth conference of anglican bishops. A few provinces have already determined to skip the meeting over the archbishop of canterbury’s decision to include therein all episcopal prelates who have violated the lambeth ‘98 sexuality resolution except actively gay prelate gene robinson, and to exclude u.s. missionary bishops backed by african provinces.

Gomez also sees obstacles to fulfilling the hopes of embattled american conservatives that the episcopal church (tec) would be deemed by primates this fall to have left the communion, a move they thought could help usher in a new jurisdiction for faithful u.s. anglicans.

Such communion housecleaning is still hampered by a weak top-level communion structure that is already undergoing de facto change, but which awaits formal strengthening via the prospective anglican covenant, which would be binding among provinces that adopt it. That is something gomez knows a lot about, and talked a lot about in bladensburg, as he not only helped produce the 2004 windsor report which (inter alia) recommended a covenant to help alleviate anglican structural problems, he heads the panel that is designing the pact. Backed by archbishop of canterbury rowan williams and his fellow primates, the covenant is a key agenda item for lambeth ‘08, which, however, already appears to be in trouble due to dr. Williams’ controversial handling of invitations to the once-a-decade meeting.

Gomez told his washington-area audience, which numbered over 200 at its peak, that he sees little prospect that all 38 anglican primates will meet later this year to determine the communion status of tec, whose bishops and executive council have rebuffed the primates’ last-ditch pleas to forswear further same-sex blessings and actively gay bishops, and to cooperate in the primates’ plan to provide an alternative leadership for disaffected episcopal dioceses and parishes. Episcopal bishops have until september 30 to give a final answer to the primates’ appeals, before which time archbishop williams is due to meet with the prelates. Gomez and others still hope tec will have a change of heart, but no one is predicting one.

In london recently, the steering committee for the global south coalition of anglican leaders urged archbishop williams (who is away on study leave) to convene a primates’ meeting after the episcopal bishops’ september 19-25 assembly, to determine the adequacy of the u.s. prelates’ response to the primates’ requests. Gomez backed the call (though, contrary to reports, he told tcc that neither he nor southern cone archbishop gregory venables was at the global south confab in london). However, gomez does not think dr. Williams will grant the request, with the communion office almost certain to plead a lack of money.

The west indies leader maintained in bladensburg, too, that, while the primates could determine that tec no longer shares the same faith as the communion, there is “no mechanism” for putting any province out of the global church, in the absence of an anglican covenant, which, however, will not be a “short-term process.”

He believes that global south provinces will reply to the final word from tec’s leadership, but that the “communion response” to the american church he says is needed may have to begin with individual provinces de-recognizing tec. (nearly half of anglican provinces are already in impaired or broken communion with it.)

Still, he contended that a “communion meeting and a communion decision” which “may lead us beyond geographic delineations” is needed to work out american problems - a reference, he later told tcc, to a possible new u.s. province.

“we have to move forward from this state,” in which episcopal conservatives appear to be “under siege,” gomez said at st. Luke’s. “technically speaking, anglicanism in the u.s. is synonymous with the episcopal church, but many have left it and identified with more traditional forms of anglicanism. That movement is increasing.” Though it was not clear how it would be realized under current circumstances, he asserted that: “we need a communion meeting where we can deal with things that really affect our communion. There should be no reason why a priest or congregation is persecuted simply because they want to practice traditional anglicanism,” he remarked to applause from the bladensburg audience.

He said that the primates, in their unanimously-adopted communiqué from tanzania in february, attempted to address that roiled situation - to provide space for all sectors of the church to work together until a covenant is in place - with their proposed pastoral scheme. It called for a pastoral council to be appointed by the primates, dr. Williams, and tec’s presiding bishop, and to arrange alternate primatial and episcopal care for faithful american anglicans within and outside of tec. The scheme was promptly rejected by episcopal leaders, who complained that the primates were overstepping their authority, acting like colonialists, and interfering with tec’s polity; only general convention could deal with the primates’ requests, they said.

What the primates proposed “was not an order,” but an “offer” rooted in concern for the u.s. church, and aimed at benefiting the whole communion, gomez noted.

“we have to change the mindset, because it is quite clear that there are people in the episcopal church who not only resent traditional anglicanism, they want to root it out,” he stated.

-lambeth ‘08-

The archbishop asserted that 2007 and 2008 will mark “the turning point in anglicanism,” not least because of lambeth ‘08, which, as noted, is already in question, not only because of conservative objections to the inclusion of pro-gay bishops, but to dr. Williams’ move to downgrade the conference into what the global south steering committee recently called an expensive episcopal jamboree packaged as a “prelatical training course.” Gomez said the global south’s question is, “how can you have the designated leaders of the communion meeting in one place and refusing to address the issue that is tearing the communion apart, that is preventing anglicanism from moving forward?”

If the bishops of the council of anglican provinces in africa (capa), which represents 12 african provinces, skip lambeth, gomez said, over half the bishops would be missing. A boycott by the nigerian province alone would mean a shortage of over 120 bishops, enough to make a “big difference,” he added. Such significant absences would mean that, unlike lambeth conferences of the past, “whatever decisions are made (in ‘08) will not necessarily be representative of the thinking of the communion.”

Saying his province believes that it is “better to be at the table,” gomez said: “my fear is that, if traditional people don’t turn up (at lambeth), the liberals in the communion will change anglicanism and will do so without blinking an eyelid.”

What about pressing dr. Williams, if tec refuses to repeal its pro-gay policies, to adjust lambeth invitations accordingly? In remarks to tcc, gomez argued that, while the primates could warn of the consequences of including violators of the lambeth resolution among conference participants, the lambeth invitations are solely within the archbishop of canterbury’s purview. Williams has warned that he could rescind invitations to bishops who have caused serious division or scandal in the communion, but the threat has been widely discounted.

-the covenant-

The fate of the anglican covenant hangs in the lambeth balance, and naturally, the draft covenant itself, or more specifically its content, is a battleground as well.

Liberals tend to think the pact an unanglican attempt to impose a “collective papacy” on the communion, and to repel gay or liberal members. But while the draft covenant clarifies the operation of existing international authorities and elicits commitments to respect them and settled doctrine, gomez told his washington-area listeners that it is not intended to invent a new model of authority, or define anglicanism in a new or narrow way. Rather, the covenant is essentially an attempt “to state the faith we have all inherited, so that we can have a new confidence that we are about the same mission.” The statements of belief were largely drawn from historical or other official sources, such as the lambeth quadrilateral and the church of england’s ordinal.

The archbishop stressed, too, that the process of developing the covenant will be consultative and deliberative, with provinces now studying the text and submitting responses. Lambeth is to debate a revised version as presented by the covenant design group. A final draft would have to undergo ratification by individual provinces to become effective.

In gomez’s view, though, the communion cannot remain (or become) such without a covenant. The global church is experiencing “great tension,” and the “bonds of affection” which once held anglicans together have been “strained,” and some would say “broken,” he said. Mistrust and suspicion resulting from the homosexuality conflict are rife, and fellowship (as earlier noted) has been curtailed, with some primates declining to receive holy communion with tec’s current or former presiding bishops. There are accusations of “heresy, bad faith, and of theological and ecclesiological innovation.” Prelates are taking over the care of churches outside their own provinces; new jurisdictions are being erected and bishops being consecrated. Extreme positions are being taken up, and language across the communion has become “strident.”

The draft covenant seeks to rebuild the trust necessary to have a world communion, gomez said. It promotes “a theology of interdependence, where we express autonomy in communion” and solicits a willingness ‘to act for the common good, not to insist one [one’s own] way.”

That was the situation presented by tec in its approval of an actively gay bishop and same-sex blessings. It “took decisions without any regard for the rest of the anglican communion,” without thought for the “ecclesiological and theological implications.” The american church acted in defiance of what it knew were the beliefs and practices of the rest of the global church, gomez stated.

Up to now, anglicans have had only one way of dealing with disputes: “we hold a meeting.” For the sake of the protection of truth, however, “you cannot have a world communion and fail to have some accepted mechanism for making decisions on behalf of the communion,” the archbishop averred. There has to be mutual accountability, he said, and not only on the gay issue. Among other matters that may arise are lay presidency at holy communion, which finds supporters in the anglican diocese of sydney, and “certain issues in africa,” which probably include the cultural challenge to the church posed by polygamy.

A covenant also would reassure ecumenical partners, who find it difficult under current circumstances to get a consistent definition of anglicanism. “do we anglicans have a clear and shared identity? This is the question...our ecumenical partners are increasingly asking us,” gomez noted.

And if anglicans can covenant with ecumenical partners, finding in them enough to recognize a shared faith, it would be strange if they are unable to covenant among themselves, he commented. Rejecting the idea that such a pact is unanglican, he said that christian life is in fact nurtured in covenants - such as those represented in the eucharist, baptism and marriage.

“and if truth be told, there is some sense that we have been living by an implicit covenant together already, loosely based upon the lambeth quadrilateral. But these limits have never been quite so agreed and recognized.” Even so, gomez said, the 1920 lambeth conference declared that: “the churches represented (in the communion) are indeed independent, but independent within the christian freedom which recognizes the restraints of truth and love. They are not free to deny the truth. They are not free to ignore the fellowship.”

“i personally stand by the draft (covenant) we have...produced because i believe it is short, comprehensive, and easy to follow,” gomez told the st. Luke’s gathering. “but i realize there are difficulties we have to face.”

He said some think that the draft concord places too much emphasis on the primates (despite a 1998 lambeth resolution calling on them to exercise enhanced responsibility for maintaining anglican unity, a mandate which the leaders have largely taken up in the intervening period). Gomez noted, though, that the primates would not be acting alone in the case of disputes on matters about which the communion has not articulated a clear position, but rather consulting with other anglican “instruments of communion,” (the covenant’s reform of the term “instruments of unity”); these include the archbishop of canterbury, anglican consultative council, and lambeth conference.

Some conservatives score the covenant for a weak endorsement of the anglican formularies, or think it does not go far enough in defining terms or in providing for the enforcement of discipline. Encouragingly, from the orthodox viewpoint, one section of the draft pact calls for member churches to “uphold and act in continuity and consistency with the catholic and apostolic faith, order and tradition.” The communion, however, would appear to be in breach of the historic and most universal meaning of those terms in permitting women’s ordination. (tcc is awaiting further comment on this from the archbishop, however.) And gomez stressed to his washington audience that the covenant development process is just beginning.

In his talk during the festival of faith, bishop parsons examined the call to each christian to be some form of theologian, who explains what god has done in christ jesus. But for how to go about the “task of theology,” he suggested that his audience look to the early church.

“what was their ideal,” he asked, “a lone ranger or a member of the apostolic college? Is it an i, or a we?”

He noted that the disciples went out “two by two,” and that st. Paul used what others had developed, saying he was delivering to those to whom he wrote what he had received. Paul was extremely careful in transmitting sacred tradition, bishop parsons said. It was a “we,” not an “i,” he observed.

“it was the whole church that determined the canon of scripture,” that established the creeds and identified the sacraments, he said. Doing theology must be more than just oneself or one’s “little group or convention,” he contended.

Preaching later during an evensong that concluded the festival, bishop parsons, speaking about anxieties that talking to others about christ can create, again noted the “two by two” principle, and cited some biblical references to show that not even jesus or the disciples had complete success in gaining converts. He also recommended not over-preparing but listening to what people are saying, and allowing the holy spirit to “teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” The one sure thing, he said, is that there is “a large, empty hole” deep inside each of us that only god can fill.

Archbishop gomez celebrated and preached at the festival of faith’s high mass at st. Luke’s, reminding during his sermon that, as everything jesus did was related to doing his father’s will, the church is to be faithful to jesus in carrying forward that work of salvation. “god cares so much that he comes to us in christ jesus...we are called to tell the story of god in our midst.”

In a postmodern world, though, he said anglicans must be confident enough in their knowledge of the faith and “what jesus has done for us in the power of the holy spirit” that they are prepared to be maligned. Hence, every congregation should make christian education a priority. Christians also witness to the lord by how they live their lives, he said, stressing the need to restore the “servant church.”

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The Anglican Church Of Canada Narrowly Defeated Same-Sex Blessings (AAC, 070624)

[Kh: it will eventually fall; just a matter of time]

The general synod of the anglican church of canada has narrowly defeated a resolution that would have allowed dioceses to decide for themselves whether or not to bless same-sex unions.

Lay delegates voted 78 to 59 in favor of the motion and clergy voted 63 to 53 in favor. But the house of bishops voted 21-19 against it. As a result the motion was defeated, since it required approval by each of the three orders to pass.

The motion read:

“that this general synod affirm the authority and jurisdiction of any diocesan synod,

1. With the concurrence of the diocesan bishop, and

2. In a manner which respects the conscience of the incumbent and the will of the parish,

To authorize the blessing of committed same-sex unions.”

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African Anglicans Split Over Homosexuality (Christian Post, 070911)

Anglican churches in zimbabwe have expressed their intention to pull out of the central african province in opposition to other churches which were in favor of homosexuals.

Three of five dioceses in zimbabwe had “unanimously agreed” to sever ties with dioceses in the central african province, saying it will not “stand with homosexuals,” a cleric at harare diocese, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told agence france-presse.

The cleric noted that according to the diocesan act adopted by the harare diocese in august and put into effect on aug. 4, the zimbabwe church body will “dissociate and sever relationship with any individual, group of people, organization, institution, diocese, province or people who indulge in or sympathize or compromises with homosexuality.”

On saturday, the provincial synod of the four national church bodies that make up the anglican communion’s central african province drafted a resolution reaffirming its opposition to homosexuality. The anglican province of central africa is comprised of botswana, malawi, zambia and zimbabwe.

However, the harare diocese – still not convinced by the resolution as the province has been accused of failing to censure some bishops dabbling with homosexuality –withdrew from the province, according to the herald, a publication of the government of zimbabwe.

Once one diocese withdraws, the province becomes null and void and will have to be reconstituted under a new name and structure, according to the standing orders of the province of central africa, as reported by the herald.

“we have taken a position as a diocese and the position has been necessitated by the issue of homosexuality,” bishop nolbert kunonga of harare told the herald. “we totally reject homosexuality; it is an abomination, it is totally against the law of god, and it diminishes the dignity of the human being.

“we also believe in the supremacy of the scriptures – the primacy of the scriptures – and there is nowhere where homosexuality has been condoned,” he added.

Currently, homosexuality is illegal in zimbabwe. Sexual acts – including holding hands, hugging or kissing – between two people of the same sex are considered a criminal offense.

“so when we look at all the angles – the religious life, the cultural side, the political system in which we operate – there is no institution that embraces homosexuality,” said kunonga.

Malawian archbishop bernard malango, who serves as the anglican head of the central africa province, earlier expressed his stance against gay bashing and stated that he believes that “gays and lesbians are god’s people so that they deserve as much love and respect as do heterosexuals” – a view held by the majority of christians.

However, like many other conservative christians, malango is opposed to the consecration of gay clergy, noting that homosexuality should not be encouraged as it is sin according to the bible.

Malango was among the african anglican primates who vehemently opposed the consecration of openly gay bishop gene robinson as bishop of new hampshire.

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Key Meeting Expected To Set Future Course For Divided Anglicans (Christian Post, 070917)

Some in the episcopal church strongly feel that they need to repent and change course while other episcopalians feel they need to maintain and stay their course – a course that has divided the worldwide anglican communion to a near schism.

These responses from around a third of the episcopal church’s dioceses have been sent to the house of bishops to help them as they meet this week amid forecasts of rupture in the third largest christian denomination in the world.

The house of bishops has invited the most rev. Rowan williams, archbishop of canterbury and spiritual head of the communion, to new orleans for their semiannual sept. 20-25 meeting. It’s the first time williams is meeting with the episcopal house of bishops since the 2003 consecration of openly gay bishop, v. Gene robinson of new hampshire, which heightened controversy in the 77-million-member communion. The episcopal church is the u.s. branch of anglicanism.

Williams is hoping he can hold together the increasingly divided communion.

“this is the most significant meeting in the last three years,” said the rev. Ephraim radner, a leading episcopal conservative, according to the new york times. “i’m not saying it will resolve everything, but it will set in motion responses that have been brewing for a long time. It doesn’t matter what happens, there’s going to be response from a whole range of folks in the anglican communion that will determine the future of communion.”

At the top of the agenda for this week’s meeting is the sept. 30 deadline the episcopal church faces to respond to requests by leaders in the anglican communion to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize blessings for same-sex unions.

Leading up to the meeting in new orleans, a 15-page study document – “communion matters: a study document for the episcopal church – was released on june 1 to help the house of bishops form a response to the requests, which they are expected to do this week.

The study document contains reflections and questions on why relationships with the global anglican family matters and if and how the episcopal church could live together with the communion, considering the seemingly “irreconcilable differences.”

Without giving too much away before the episcopal bishops read the responses, alabama bishop henry n. Parsley said people across the board say the communion is “enormously valuable” to them, according to the episcopal news service.

Conservative anglicans, however, aren’t optimistic that the episcopal church will stay in line with the global family. Already, the conservative episcopal diocese of pittsburgh began formal process last week that would keep the diocese aligned with mainstream anglicanism should the episcopal church refuse the terms of the anglican leaders’ requests.

“[i]t appears the time has come to begin the process of realignment within the anglican communion,” said pittsburgh bishop robert duncan. “where are we going? Nowhere. We stand where we have always stood. We are who we have always been. It is the episcopal church that has moved. It is the episcopal church that has become something new.”

The dioceses of quincy, ill., and san joaquin, calif., are also taking steps toward breaking with the u.s. body and aligning with an overseas, like-minded anglican province.

If the episcopal church does not make the unequivocal pledge that anglican leaders have requested, it risks a reduced role and representation in the communion at the very least.

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Two Powerful Anglican Leaders In Town Amid High Tension (Christian Post, 070920)

Nigerian archbishop peter akinola, a fierce critic of the episcopal church, has been invited by conservative anglican congregations in the united states to celebrate with them the holy eucharist this week.

Akinola is allegedly scheduled to attend the service on sunday at edman chapel at wheaton college, responding to an invitation by congregations in illinois that are affiliated with the anglican mission in the americas (amia) - a splinter group of conservative anglicans and offshoot of the anglican church of rwanda.

The visit comes as a surprise to the bishop of the episcopal diocese of chicago, the rt. Rev. William persell, who said that akinola did not contact him about his coming.

“amidst the highly charged political rhetoric in our nation and around the world concerning events of the anglican communion, i want you to know that the diocese of chicago has no connection with the visit of archbishop akinola,” said persell in a letter to chicago’s diocesan clergy last week.

The chicago bishop also stated that akinola’s visit is not an amia event, according to the amia office in pawleys island, s.c., as reported by the episcopal news service.

Persell is scheduled to be in new orleans this week with other episcopal bishops for a key meeting involving the highly publicized closed-door talks with anglican spiritual head the most rev. Rowan williams, archbishop of canterbury. Some say it’s the most significant meeting since the 2003 consecration of openly gay bishop v. Gene robinson which heightened controversy in the worldwide anglican communion.

Williams is aiming to prevent the communion from breaking up and trying to keep anglicans around the same table as long as possible.

The episcopal church - the u.s. branch of anglicanism - is expected to come out of the sept. 20-25 meeting with a response to anglican leaders who requested an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize blessings for same-sex unions. The deadline for the response was set for sept. 30.

Meanwhile, a silent protest is expected to take place outside the holy eucharist in wheaton “on behalf of lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) africans,” said persell. Akinola, considered the most powerful anglican leader, staunchly opposes homosexual ordination as do most anglicans in the communion which rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture. The nigerian archbishop is convinced that the episcopal church has “chosen to walk away from the biblically-based path we once all walked together” and holds little hope that the episcopalians will reverse course.

Anglicans on both sides of the divide over homosexuality and the interpretation of scripture predict the episcopal church is not going to back down from its recent controversial actions and current stance supporting the “full inclusion” of gays and lesbians.

“we continued to be blessed by the rich diversity brought to our diocese by the gifts and talents of all our people including our most conservative members, moderates, liberals, who are straight, lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgendered,” persell wrote. “the god who unites us and calls us together in all our diversity for mission is stronger than those who would fracture our unity in christ. Be of good courage and cheer.”

The chicago diocese recently announced that an openly lesbian priest, the rev. Tracey lind, is up for election to become the next diocesan bishop. If elected, lind would become the second bishop in the episcopal church, after robinson, who lives with a same-sex partner.

Last week, a west chicago congregation - the episcopal church of the resurrection - left the episcopal church and the church building and placed itself under the auspices of the anglican church of uganda. The breakaway parish broke from the u.s. denomination citing its drift from historic christian faith. Their new home is called resurrection anglican church.

More recently, the rev. Dr. Charles reeder announced on monday his departure from holy comforter episcopal church due to dissatisfaction with the u.s. denomination which they believe has strayed from the orthodox, scriptural beliefs of the global anglican family. He along with the church’s vestry and core ministry team are forming a new broomfield, colo.-based anglican church, holy spirit church, which will be part of the conservative anglican mission in america. Worship services will begin on oct. 7.

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U.S. Anglicans Drafting Compromise (Christian Post, 070924)

Senior anglican leaders in the united states were drafting a statement sunday night in an urgent attempt to find a compromise between warring factions within the worldwide communion.

Bishops meeting at their semi-annual gathering in new orleans are hoping to find a way to maintain a degree of unity within the anglican communion by keeping the episcopal church – the u.s. arm of anglicanism – within the worldwide church body.

The matter will be further discussed at the u.s. house of bishops meeting on monday, and it is believed that some compromise will be sought to allow liberal clergy to continue offering pastoral support to gay couples while imposing a ban on formal blessing services for homosexual couples as well as promising not to appoint any more openly gay bishops.

The latest efforts come amid fierce criticism from conservative members of the communion over u.s. church’s liberal stance on homosexuality. Controversy had heightened within the 77 million-member anglican communion when the episcopal church consecrated its first openly gay bishop – v. Gene robinson of new hampshire – in 2003. After years of disputes, anglican leaders, meeting in dar es salaam, tanzania, in february, had asked the episcopal church to respond to their request that they put a stop to ordaining homosexual bishops and blessing same-sex marriages by sept. 30.

While many interpreted the request to be an ultimatum, the spiritual head of the worldwide anglican communion, archbishop of canterbury dr. Rowan williams, clarified last week that it was not.

“the primates asked for a response by september 30 simply because we were aware that this was the meeting of the house likely to be formulating such a response,” he explained in a statement, referring to the gathering of the episcopal house of bishops being held sept. 20-25 in new orleans. “the acc and primates joint standing committee will be reading and digesting what the bishops have to say, and will let me know their thoughts on it early next week.”

The communiqué issued by conservative anglican leaders in february is “a place to start”, williams continued. “some primates would give a more robust interpretation of the demands, some less. It has been presented as a set of demands and indeed intrusions and impositions; i don’t think that’s what the primates had in mind and that means we are inevitably in the business of compromise. What is brought before us will be scrutinized, thought about, reflected, digested.”

He added: “i hope these days will result in a constructive and fresh way forward for all of us.”

A formal response to the dar es salaam communiqué is now expected to be made by february.

During his visit to new orleans last week, williams also issued a firm message to conservative members of the episcopal church that they should remain inside of the official u.s. branch of the communion and not join other conservative african churches looking to reach out to them.

Williams, who is considered the “first among equals,” rebuked african efforts to recruit dissident parishes in the united states and rebutted calls for next year’s decennial conference of anglican leaders to be postponed in light of the current threat of schism within the communion.

The archbishop joined the meeting of bishops on thursday and friday, but was criticized by conservative episcopal bishops who said williams refused to see them and did not return any of their calls during his entire u.s. visit.

It has been reported that a number of conservative bishops have now left the meeting and plan to gather in pittsburgh this week to discuss their next steps. There is speculation that they will seek oversight from an african province.

Bishop bob duncan of pittsburgh expressed his belief that around five of the u.s. church body’s 112 dioceses would now seek to affiliate outside the country.

However, duncan, who serves as moderator of the breakaway anglican communion network, made a call for unity, saying: “we are inevitably in the business of compromise ... If we are able to get this right, to live with it in some structure, in a godly way, we will have done something for the whole christian community.”

The house of bishops is due to conclude its meetings on tuesday.

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Orthodox Anglicans Open Talks On Heels Of High-Powered Meetings (Christian Post, 070925)

Orthodox anglican leaders on the move toward forming a new anglican structure that they hope would replace the episcopal church are convening for the first time this week to discuss a way forward.

The “common cause partners,” consisting of u.s. anglicans discontent with the episcopal church and those who have already split, opens a four-day meeting in pittsburgh, pa., on tuesday with some 50 bishops and some observers.

What is claimed to be a historic council meeting comes with predictions that the episcopal church – the u.s. arm of anglicanism – will “walk apart” from the global anglican communion by the conclusion of an episcopal meeting in new orleans.

“the american province is lost and something will have to replace it,” anglican communion network moderator the rt. Rev. Robert duncan has said.

The episcopal church’s house of bishops is concluding talks on tuesday and drafting a response to demands by anglican leaders worldwide that they bar any efforts to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize the blessing of same-sex unions. The deadline for the response was set for sept. 30.

So far throughout the episcopal meeting, which opened on thursday, orthodox anglicans believe the episcopal church has offered no real change or reversal on what conservatives say are unbiblical positions and schismatic actions. The episcopal church had heightened controversy in the anglican communion when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003.

Archbishop of canterbury dr. Rowan williams, the spiritual leader of the world’s anglicans, joined closed-door talks in the first two days of the meeting in new orleans, warning episcopal leaders that they must make changes to keep the communion together. He also said the sept. 30 deadline was not an ultimatum, as many interpreted it. Global south anglican leaders, who are mainly conservative, were stunned by william’s characterization of the deadline as not being fixed, according to virtueonline, a voice for global orthodox anglicanism.

A vote by the house of bishops was set for tuesday when the meeting ends.

“we are working very closely with one another whether we are on the conservative end of the church, the liberal or the moderate middle,” said liberal los angeles bishop jon bruno, according to the associated press. “we’re looking to make as full, clear and complete a response as we can.”

Nigeria archbishop peter akinola, considered the most powerful anglican leader and also a fierce critic of the episcopal church’s stance on homosexuality and scriptural interpretation, was also in town, speaking in wheaton, ill., to more than 1,500 people on sunday. He was invited by congregations in the midwest that are affiliated with anglican mission in the americas (amia) – a splinter group of conservative anglicans and offshoot of the anglican church of rwanda.

Akinola acknowledged that anglicans are clearly divided and told worshipers to conform to a strict biblical framework.

“those who are working for the unity of god’s people lack one thing: the word of god,” the nigerian church leader said, according to the chicago tribune. “whoever loves god, will obey god.”

Stating that transformation by the gospel requires total obedience and rejection of sinful actions, akinola maintained that there is no room for ambiguity.

During the service in the edman chapel, protestors stood outside, opposing akinola’s interpretation of the bible and staunch stance against homosexual practice.

“he refers to his views on gays as scripture. Well, i refer to them as outright bigotry,” said jim beyer, a member of emmanuel episcopal church in la grange, according to the local tribune.

Those who attended the service, however, said akinola’s message wasn’t hateful and instead encouraged unity.

“i don’t think it was hateful,” terry schwartz of all souls’ anglican church in wheaton, told the tribune. “he said if we want to follow christ, then we have to do what he told us to do. God doesn’t say being gay or adulterous is ok. God tells us to behave in certain ways because he loves us.”

Akinola’s visit was not intentionally meant to coincide with the episcopal house of bishops meeting and williams’ rare attendance in the united states. The rev. Stewart e. Ruch, rector of the church of the resurrection, said the amia event was planned months ago.

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Episcopal Church To ‘Exercise Restraint’ In Approval Of Gay Bishops (Foxnews, 070926)

New orleans — episcopal leaders, pressured to roll back their support for gays to keep the world anglican family from crumbling, affirmed tuesday that they will “exercise restraint” in approving another gay bishop and will not authorize prayers to bless same-sex couples.

The statement mostly reiterated earlier pledges by the church, and it will not be known for some time whether the bishops went far enough to help prevent an anglican schism.

Presiding bishop katharine jefferts schori said she believed the document met the requests of anglican leaders. But some episcopal conservatives immediately rejected the statement as too weak, because it does not bar gays and lesbians from becoming bishops.

Bishops released the statement in the final hour of an intense six-day meeting and at a crucial moment in the decades-long anglican debate over how the bible should be interpreted.

The 77-million-member world anglican communion has been splintering since 2003, when episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, v. Gene robinson of new hampshire. The episcopal church is the anglican body in the u.s.

Anglican leaders had set a sunday deadline for the americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for same-sex couples.

Archbishop of canterbury rowan williams, the anglican spiritual leader, took the unusual step of attending the meeting for the first two days, pushing bishops to make concessions for the sake of unity. Anglican lay and clergy representatives from overseas also participated, scolding episcopal leaders for the turmoil they’ve caused. Williams and other anglican leaders will evaluate the statement in the coming weeks.

Robinson said the talks with williams and anglican leaders were “the two hardest days since my consecration.” But he said thought the document was fair.

“i think people came here thinking this was going to be katrina ii,” he said. “and what in fact happened was a coming together of the bishops of the church.”

However, episcopal conservatives noted that many priests will still conduct same-gender blessing ceremonies, despite the lack of an official prayer. Critics also said the bishops aren’t doing enough to provide alternative leadership for conservative dioceses.

“this is a ‘try to keep your foot in the door’ maneuvering effort,” said canon kendall harmon, a leading conservative from the diocese of south carolina.

Conservative bishop john howe of the diocese of central florida said the statement wouldn’t satisfy all the anglican leaders. But howe said “most will find it acceptable.” Howe is staying in the episcopal church, even though his diocese, based in orlando, has rejected jefferts schori as a leader because she is liberal.

In the document, the bishops reconfirmed a resolution passed last year by the episcopal general convention, urging bishops “to exercise restraint” by not consenting to a candidate for bishop “whose manner of life presents a challenge” the church and the communion.

Episcopal leaders also demanded that overseas anglican leaders stop coming into the u.s. to take oversight of breakaway conservative episcopal parishes. Anglican leaders from nigeria, rwanda, kenya, uganda and elsewhere have consecrated bishops to oversee congregations in the united states.

Four dioceses — fort worth, texas; pittsburgh; quincy, ill.; and san joaquin, calif. — are taking steps to break away and align with an overseas anglican church. And about 60 episcopal parishes have left or have voted to leave the national church, according to the national church.

The next crucial event for the communion will be the lambeth conference, in july in england. The once-a-decade meeting brings together all the bishops in the anglican world.

Whether williams can persuade bishops to attend will be a measure of the strength of the communion.

Williams did not invite robinson or a u.s.-based bishop, the rt. Rev. Martyn minns, who leads a network of breakaway conservative episcopal parishes aligned with the anglican church of nigeria. But some anglican prelates don’t want to be even at the same table as episcopalians who consecrated robinson.

Separately, robinson has been in private talks with the archbishop of canterbury to find a way he can attend, as an observer perhaps, and bishops in new orleans this week voted to support that effort.

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Episcopal Church Agrees To Conservative Anglican Demands (Christian Post, 070926)

The episcopal church has agreed to halt the ordination of homosexual clergy in efforts to prevent a schism in the worldwide anglican communion.

In tuesday’s announcement, the u.s. arm of anglicanism said it would also stop all prayers of blessing for same-sex couples, thus fulfilling the two major conditions requested by anglican officials before a sept. 30 deadline.

Furthermore, the episcopal church would allow conservative dioceses to opt out of american church body and affiliate with a conservative province thousands of miles away. [kh: with conditions, under the control of ecusa, see below]

The decisions come after anglican leaders across africa and asia threatened to leave the worldwide communion unless appropriate assurances were given that the episcopal church would reverse its pro-gay agenda.

According to the presiding bishop of the episcopal church, katharine jefferts schori, bishops that have been meeting for the past six days found “common ground to stand on.” “high ground,” she added.

“not everyone is 100 percent happy with every word in this document,” jefferts schori noted, “but we believe we have found a place that all of us can stand together – at the foot of the cross.”

The threat of a worldwide split has been hanging over the 77 million member anglican communion since the ordination of v. Gene robinson as the first openly gay bishop in the episcopal church in 2003.

Adherents of the christian faith have historically taught that homosexuality is a sin according to scripture, and conservative christians hold onto the belief that homosexuals should not be allowed to hold positions of leadership within the church. They also feel that the church should not bless homosexual relationships, as this would be tantamount to blessing a sinful act.

Liberal believers, meanwhile, argue that biblical teachings on inclusiveness should take precedence and nullify any such teachings against homosexuality.

The episcopal church’s decision on tuesday came to a shock to many who predicted the liberal church body to break from its global family. The worldwide anglican community had been waiting in anticipation as u.s. bishops met for a six-day semi-annual gathering in new orleans that was also attended by the spiritual head of the anglican communion, archbishop of canterbury dr. Rowan williams. During his visit to america, williams reportedly insisted that the u.s. church body make the relevant concessions to ensure the worldwide communion remained united.

Prior to the sept. 20-25 meeting, episcopal church leaders had expressed several times that they were not going to back down from their controversial actions and the church body’s stance supporting the “full inclusion” of gays and lesbians.

While episcopal bishops reaffirmed tuesday their commitment to the civil rights of gay people and added that they opposed to any violence towards them or violation of their dignity, it is hoped that their latest announcements will appease conservative members of the worldwide communion who have reportedly made plans to adopt a breakaway group of american dioceses that oppose the episcopal church’s liberal stance on homosexuality.

On tuesday, the “common cause partners,” consisting of u.s. anglicans discontent with the episcopal church and those who have already split, opened a four-day meeting in pittsburgh, pa., with some 50 bishops and some observers.

The meeting was arranged as many predicted that the episcopal church would “walk apart” from the global anglican communion by the conclusion of the gathering of the episcopal house of bishops in new orleans.

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House Of Bishops Response ‘To Questions And Concerns Raised By Our Anglican Communion Partners’ (Episcopal Church, 070925)

A response to questions and concerns raised by our anglican communion partners:

In accordance with our lord’s high priestly prayer that we be one, and in the spirit of resolution a159 of the 75th general convention, and in obedience to his great commission to go into the world and make disciples, and in gratitude for the gift of the anglican communion as a sign of the holy spirit’s ongoing work of reconciliation throughout the world, we offer the following to the episcopal church, the primates, the anglican consultative council (acc), and the larger communion, with the hope of “mending the tear in the fabric” of our common life in christ.

“i do it all for the sake of the gospel so that i might share in its blessings.”

1 corinthians 9:23.

Introduction

The house of bishops expresses sincere and heartfelt thanks to the archbishop of canterbury and members of the joint standing committee of the anglican consultative council and the primates for accepting our invitation to join us in new orleans. By their presence they have both honored us and assisted us in our discernment. Their presence was a living reminder of the unity that is christ’s promised gift in the power of the holy spirit.

Much of our meeting time was spent in continuing discernment of our relationships within the anglican communion. We engaged in careful listening and straightforward dialogue with our guests. We expressed our passionate desire to remain in communion. It is our conviction that the episcopal church needs the anglican communion, and we heard from our guests that the anglican communion needs the episcopal church.

The house of bishops offers the following responses to our anglican communion partners. We believe they provide clarity and point toward next steps in an ongoing process of dialogue. Within the episcopal church the common discernment of god’s call is a lively partnership among laypersons, bishops, priests, and deacons, and therefore necessarily includes the presiding bishop, the executive council, and the general convention.

Summary

* we reconfirm that resolution b033 of general convention 2006 (the election of bishops) calls upon bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees “to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.”

* we pledge as a body not to authorize public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.

* we commend our presiding bishop’s plan for episcopal visitors.

* we deplore incursions into our jurisdictions by uninvited bishops and call for them to end.

* we support the presiding bishop in seeking communion-wide consultation in a manner that is in accord with our constitution and canons.

* we call for increasing implementation of the listening process across the communion and for a report on its progress to lambeth 2008.

* we support the archbishop of canterbury in his expressed desire to explore ways for the bishop of new hampshire to participate in the lambeth conference.

* we call for unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.

Discussion

Resolution b033 of the 2006 general convention

The house of bishops concurs with resolution ec011 of the executive council. This resolution commends the report of the communion sub-group of the joint standing committee of the anglican consultative council and the primates of the anglican communion as an accurate evaluation of resolution b033 of the 2006 general convention, calling upon bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees “to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” The house acknowledges that non-celibate gay and lesbian persons are included among those to whom b033 pertains.

Blessing of same-sex unions

1we, the members of the house of bishops, pledge not to authorize for use in our dioceses any public rites of blessing of same-sex unions until a broader consensus emerges in the communion, or until general convention takes further action. In the near future we hope to be able to draw upon the benefits of the communion-wide listening process. In the meantime, it is important to note that no rite of blessing for persons living in same-sex unions has been adopted or approved by our general convention. In addition to not having authorized liturgies the majority of bishops do not make allowance for the blessing of same-sex unions. We do note that in may 2003 the primates said we have a pastoral duty “to respond with love and understanding to people of all sexual orientations.” They further stated, “…[i]t is necessary to maintain a breadth of private response to situations of individual pastoral care.”

Episcopal visitors

We affirm the presiding bishop’s plan to appoint episcopal visitors for dioceses that request alternative oversight. Such oversight would be provided by bishops who are a part of and subject to the communal life of this province. We believe this plan is consistent with and analogous to delegated episcopal pastoral oversight (depo) as affirmed by the windsor report (paragraph 152). We thank those bishops who have generously offered themselves for this ministry. We hope that dioceses will make use of this plan and that the presiding bishop will continue conversation with those dioceses that may feel the need for such ministries. We appreciate and need to hear all voices in the episcopal church.

Incursions by uninvited bishops

We call for an immediate end to diocesan incursions by uninvited bishops in accordance with the windsor report and consistent with the statements of past lambeth conferences and the ecumenical councils of the church. Such incursions imperil common prayer and long-established ecclesial principles of our communion. These principles include respect for local jurisdiction and recognition of the geographical boundaries of dioceses and provinces. As we continue to commit ourselves to honor both the spirit and the content of the windsor report, we call upon those provinces and bishops engaging in such incursions likewise to honor the windsor report by ending them. We offer assurance that delegated episcopal pastoral care is being provided for those who seek it.

Communion-wide consultation

In their communiqué of february 2007, the primates proposed a “pastoral scheme.” At our meeting in march 2007, we expressed our deep concern that this scheme would compromise the authority of our own primate and place the autonomy of the episcopal church at risk. The executive council reiterated our concerns and declined to participate. Nevertheless, we recognize a useful role for communion-wide consultation with respect to the pastoral needs of those seeking alternative oversight, as well as the pastoral needs of gay and lesbian persons in this and other provinces. We encourage our presiding bishop to continue to explore such consultation in a manner that is in accord with our constitution and canons.

The listening process

The 1998 lambeth conference called all the provinces of the anglican communion to engage in a “listening process” designed to bring gay and lesbian anglicans fully into the church’s conversation about human sexuality. We look forward to receiving initial reports about this process at the 2008 lambeth conference and to participating with others in this crucial enterprise. We are aware that in some cultural contexts conversation concerning homosexuality is difficult. We see an important role for the anglican consultative council (acc) in this listening process, since it represents both the lay and ordained members of our constituent churches, and so is well-placed to engage every part of the body in this conversation. We encourage the acc to identify the variety of resources needed to accomplish these conversations.

The lambeth conference

Invitations to the lambeth conference are extended by the archbishop of canterbury. Those among us who have received an invitation to attend the 2008 lambeth conference look forward to that gathering with hope and expectation. Many of us are engaged in mission partnerships with bishops and dioceses around the world and cherish these relationships. Lambeth offers a wonderful opportunity to build on such partnerships.

We are mindful that the bishop of new hampshire has not yet received an invitation to the conference. We also note that the archbishop of canterbury has expressed a desire to explore a way for him to participate. We share the archbishop’s desire and encourage our presiding bishop to offer our assistance as bishops in this endeavor. It is our fervent hope that a way can be found for his full participation.

Justice and dignity for gay and lesbian persons

It is of fundamental importance that, as we continue to seek consensus in matters of human sexuality, we also be clear and outspoken in our shared commitment to establish and protect the civil rights of gay and lesbian persons, and to name and oppose at every turn any action or policy that does violence to them, encourages violence toward them, or violates their dignity as children of god. We call all our partners in the anglican communion to recommit to this effort. As we stated at the conclusion of our meeting in march 2007: “we proclaim the gospel of what god has done and is doing in christ, of the dignity of every human being, and of justice, compassion and peace. We proclaim the gospel that in christ there is no jew or greek, no male or female, no slave or free. We proclaim the gospel that in christ all god’s children, including women, are full and equal participants in the life of christ’s church. 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. We proclaim the gospel that stands against any violence, including violence done to women and children as well as those who are persecuted because of their differences, often in the name of god.”

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Episcopal Bishops Reject Anglican Church’s Orders (AAC, 070926)

New orleans, sept. 25 — bishops of the episcopal church on tuesday rejected demands by leaders of the worldwide anglican communion to roll back the church’s liberal stance on homosexuality, increasing the possibility of fracture within the communion and the episcopal church itself.

After nearly a week of talks at their semiannual meeting in new orleans, the house of bishops adopted a resolution that defied a directive by the anglican communion’s regional leaders, or primates, to change several church policies regarding the place of gay men and lesbians in their church. But the bishops also expressed a desire to remain part of the communion, and they appeared to be trying to stake out a middle ground that would allow them to do so.

Still, up to five american dioceses led by theologically conservative bishops may try to break with the episcopal church and place themselves under the oversight of a foreign primate in the coming months, said the rev. Canon kendall harmon, a conservative episcopal strategist.

“we’ll have the chaos here increase as more individuals, parishes and dioceses begin moving,” mr. Harmon said. “what will happen is that we will see more of the disunity here spread to the rest of the communion.”

In a voice vote, all but one bishop supported a resolution, called “a response to questions and concerns raised by our anglican communion partners.” Several conservative bishops who are considering leaving the episcopal church were not in attendance.

The resolution affirmed the status quo of the episcopal church, both theological conservatives and liberals said.

It states, for example, that it “reconfirms” a call to bishops “to exercise restraint” by not consenting to the consecration of a partnered gay bishop. It also says the bishops promise not to authorize “any public rites of blessing of same-sex unions.” Still, some bishops allow such blessings to occur in their dioceses. Both positions have been stated in past meetings of the governing body of the church, the general convention.

The resolution also calls for an “immediate end” to the practice of foreign bishops’ consecrating conservative americans to minister to breakaway congregations in the united states, a trend that church leaders believe undermines their authority.

The bishop martyn minns of the convocation of anglicans in north america, a prominent conservative group supported by the archbishop of nigeria, responded to the bishops’ resolution: “they’re offering business as usual. The communion asked them to make a change, to embrace the teaching of the communion about homosexuality, and there’s no change at all.”

The anglican communion in 1998 denounced homosexuality as incompatible with scripture. Bishop minns spoke from a meeting in pittsburgh where he and leaders of as many as 50 breakaway groups were discussing how to cooperate and avoid further splintering.

Contrary to recent news reports that the conservatives were close to forming a unified new structure, bishop minns said there were no plans to announce the formation of a new anglican body that would consolidate all the conservative groups that have broken with the episcopal church under one umbrella.

The dispute over homosexuality has simmered for at least 30 years, as part of a larger clash about biblical interpretations and primacy. Tensions worsened when the episcopal church consecrated an openly gay man, v. Gene robinson, as bishop of new hampshire in 2003.

At a february meeting in dar es salaam, tanzania, 36 primates of the anglican communion issued the directive on gay bishops and same-sex unions. They also demanded that the episcopal church create a parallel leadership structure to serve the conservative minority of episcopalians who oppose the stance on homosexuality.

The communiqué held out the possibility of a diminished status for the episcopal church in the communion if it did not satisfy the primates’ demands.

In march, episcopal bishops rejected the parallel structure, saying it would compromise church autonomy. At the time, the episcopal bishops sent an urgent invitation to archbishop of canterbury rowan williams, the communion’s spiritual leader, to meet with them in new orleans, which he did last week, along with other anglican leaders.

At a news conference in new orleans on friday, archbishop williams said that other anglican leaders at this week’s meetings would be “reading and digesting what the bishops have to say” and would share their opinions with him. He said he would also talk to primates and others and then give his own opinion about what to do in the coming weeks.

Bishops in new orleans said the dar es salaam communiqué galvanized them, despite their differing views on homosexuality, largely because of what they considered efforts by foreign primates to interfere in the life of the episcopal church.

The communiqué’s idea of outside oversight for dissident episcopal dioceses and the recent consecrations of bishops to serve breakaway congregations violated most bishops’ notions of local authority and appropriate interactions among provinces of the communion, bishops said.

Some bishops said they have reconciled themselves to the fact that some kind of break in the episcopal church or the greater communion is inevitable. If several months ago, a sizable number of bishops would have argued for the unity of the communion at almost any cost, far fewer would do so now, several bishops said.

But others argued that the bishops had sought to prevent a split by agreeing not to ordain more gay bishops or to formalize rites for same-sex unions.

“i think they had a sense of what the communion needed to hear from them, and i think that they said it,” jim naughton, canon for communications and advancement of the diocese of washington, said of the bishops.

“we wanted to give the people working to hold the anglican communion together a useful tool to help them do that,” he added. “at the same time, we did not want to backtrack on our commitment to gay and lesbian christians. It’s our sense that this resolution has accomplished that.”

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Common Cause Council Of Bishops Opens (AAC, 070925)

A total of 51 bishops and bishops-elect representing tens-of-thousands of anglicans in north america are meeting together sept. 25-28 in pittsburgh , pa. The meeting of the first-ever common cause council of bishops brings together bishops and observers from the american anglican council, the anglican coalition in canada, the anglican communion network, anglican network in canada, the anglican province of america, anglican essentials canada, the anglican mission in the americas, the convocation of anglicans in north america, forward in faith north america and the reformed episcopal church.

In welcoming the assembled bishops, the rt. Rev. Robert duncan, episcopal bishop of pittsburgh and convener of the gathering, said that before any unified orthodox anglicanism could be expected to emerge in north america relationships among bishops and jurisdictions need to be reordered. “our shortcoming is not ‘right faith.’ our shortcoming is ‘right order’ and ‘right mission ,’” said bishop duncan.

Bishop duncan went on to suggest that the bishops discuss a number of practical points that could contribute to building a more unified orthodox anglicanism in north america . Among those points, he asked that the bishops agree to consult each other as they plant congregations, mutually review candidates for bishop before consecrations, share ministry initiatives instead of duplicating efforts, work actively together at the local level, and allow those ordained in one jurisdiction to function in all jurisdictions.

“our theme for this council of bishops is ‘together in mission : restoring confidence in an american episcopate.’ the whole world is watching. After speaking the truth to each other, we will need to speak the truth about what we have done – or not done – to the world,” said bishop duncan.

The full text of bishop duncan’s opening remarks follows:

A historic conclave

“together in mission : restoring confidence in an american episcopate”

Welcome to pittsburgh ! Welcome to the common cause partnership council of bishops! Welcome to three days of worship, fellowship, teaching, sharing and incredibly hard work.

Welcome bishops, bishops-elect, bishops-designate, wives, presenters, intercessors, staff, friends. Welcome to dr. George hunter of asbury seminary, our keynote speaker tonight, and welcome to prof. Justyn terry of trinity school for ministry, our scripture expositer for the next three mornings.

During the early hours of yesterday, the lord reminded me of the word “conclave.” Bishop’s meetings are sometimes “with the key withheld,” the literal meaning of the latin root. Bishops gathering in conclave cannot come out until they have a successful result. While there will be no one “locking us in,” the whole anglican world is expecting something great of us in this meeting. They are expecting some “key” to unlock a more hopeful future. Let us not fail them, or our god.

Re-structuring relationships

Most of our work here is behind closed doors. This is an intentional decision on the part of the seven lead bishops who did the planning: bishops ackerman, grundorf, harvey, minns, murphy, riches and myself. We need to speak the truth to one another. We need to do some hard thinking and hard talking. The future of anglicanism in north america is at stake.

On trinity sunday in 2004, the leaders of the first six (now ten) partners wrote to the archbishop of canterbury “signifying our commitment to make common cause for the gospel of jesus christ and common cause for a united, missionary and orthodox anglicanism in north america.”

The primates of the global south, writing from kigali exactly one year ago, stated that the time had come for a “separate ecclesiastical structure in the united states [ north america ].” What we come together to do is to see whether we can so re-order the relationships among us that the way might be opened for such a structure to emerge.

Our shortcoming is not “right faith.” Our shortcoming is “right order” and “right mission.”

- can we agree to interchangeability of those in holy orders?

- will we work actively together at the local level?

- will we consult with one another as we seek to plant congregations?

- can we agree to mutual review of candidates for bishop before consecrations?

- will we share ministry initiatives or needlessly duplicate efforts?

- can we agree about appropriate ratios of bishops to congregations, attendance and membership?

- would each one of us be willing to give up episcopal function for the good of the whole, were that in the best interests of all?

- could each one of us become a missionary bishop over a growing church?

Our theme for this council of bishops is “together in mission : restoring confidence in an american episcopate.” The whole world is watching. After speaking the truth to each other, we will need to speak the truth about what we have done – or not done – to the world.

Anglicanism appears to be failing in the west. We cannot answer for how others have failed, or are failing, but we must surely answer for what we do – or do not do – here in this place, in this conclave, wherein we hold the key.

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Conservative Anglicans See No Change in ‘American Problem’ (Christian Post, 070927)

What The Episcopal Church had hoped to be a “clear and unambiguous” statement has left both sides of the Anglican divide dissatisfied, with some saying the Episcopal bishops are again dodging their response to avoid losing their place in the global communion.

“I’m saddened but not surprised,” said the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Anglican breakaway CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), in a teleconference on Wednesday. “I think basically they ducked. The response they’ve offered does not clarify as was requested.”

The Episcopal House of Bishops affirmed Tuesday that they would “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion,” essentially ceasing the consecration of gay bishops. They also pledged not to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions until a broader consensus emerges in the Communion, or until General Convention takes further action.

At the same time, the bishops called for “unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.”

The statement was released at the conclusion of a six-day meeting in New Orleans.

The response by The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – was offered as an attempt to “mend the tear” in the Anglican Communion which has been wracked particularly since it consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003.

Anglican bishops set a Sept. 30 deadline for The Episcopal Church to respond to their requests – which were a culmination of years of conversations – that they make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize same-sex unions. Conservative leaders have more specifically called for a “heartfelt repentance” and “genuine change” to get back in line with the communion and with Scripture, as many of the bishops in the Global South has stated.

Many Episcopal bishops showed support for the statement, saying it represents the current reality of where The Episcopal Church stands. But conservatives were disappointed in the Episcopal response, which they say indicated no change in their stance on homosexuality among other issues.

“It’s business as usual,” said Minns, who is currently in Pittsburgh, Pa., with 50 other orthodox Anglicans to discuss how to up the level of their “Common Cause Partnership” as they see The Episcopal Church walking apart from the global Anglican family.

“I think it’s clear the American church wants to continue its way and to ignore the persistent requests that have been made from the rest of the communion,” the CANA bishop noted.

Supporters of gay clergy, meanwhile, accused the Episcopal bishops of caving in to pressure from conservatives, according to The Associated Press.

Furthermore, a number of media outlets, including the British Broadcasting Corp., had viewed the Episcopal response as an agreement to halt the ordination of gay clergy.

“Bishop [Neil] Alexander [of Atlanta] said that he hoped for a ‘clear and unambiguous’ statement from the bishops. Well, judging by the initial media response, the statement released Tuesday night falls short of ‘clear and unambiguous,’” noted respected theologian Dr. R. Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of America’s pre-eminent evangelical leaders. “Mark yesterday (Tuesday) as another date of disaster in New Orleans,” he wrote in his weblog.

While Episcopal bishops said they “believe” their responses to the Anglican Communion “provide clarity and point toward next steps in an ongoing process of dialogue,” breakaway Anglicans were looking for a more clear-cut statement on the U.S. church body’s stance rather than the middle ground they chose to take.

“I would have preferred that they would pull back and say that ‘we’ve gone too far’ and say that ‘we’ve got to get back in line with the rest of the church and the price of what we’re looking for is too high,’” said Minns, who often calls the controversy the “American problem.”

The other option would be to stand up for what they believe in, mainly a pro-gay stance, and be willing to pay the price for it, Minns added.

“I guess I was looking for clarity on either end of that,” he said. “But what they’ve done is stay in the middle.”

Although controversy in the communion heightened over homosexuality, the larger issue comes down to both the authority of Scripture and mutual submission within the community of faith, Minns explained.

“I believe that in fact that part of what we’re looking at is the church that wants a sanction to go its own way without respect to the mind of view of others,” he said.

Episcopal leaders have indicated that they will not go “backward” on their 2003 decision to consecrate Robinson and are further appealing Archbishop Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual head, for Robinson’s invitation to the 2008 Lambeth Conference – a global Anglican gathering that takes place ever 10 years.

While the communion calls for the pastoral care of all people, including homosexuals, it does not support openly gay priests serving in a pastoral role. Anglican bishops are to live out in their own lives the teaching that they proclaim, Minns explained, and if they live in a deliberate contradiction to what they teach or to what the organization they serve teaches, they are not effective. The Anglican Communion rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture.

In an initial response to the Episcopal statement, Nigeria Archbishop Peter Akinola, arguably considered the most powerful Anglican leader, said it “seems clear from first reading that what is offered is not a whole hearted embrace of traditional Christian teaching.”

“The unequivocal assurances that we sought have not been given; what we have is a carefully calculated attempt to win support to ensure attendance at the Lambeth Conference and continued involvement in the life of the Communion,” he commented.

Some are hoping the Episcopal statement will make room for more dialogue to keep the Anglican family together, but conservatives believe they’re at the end of lobbying back and forth as they have been doing for the past decade.

“The meeting in Dar es Salaam basically said this is one last chance,” Minns stated, referring to the gathering of Anglican leaders, called primates, in February, at which they drafted their ultimatum and warned that The Episcopal Church would face consequences for full participation in the communion if a response is not given “in good conscience.”

With congregations discontent and “hurting” in The Episcopal Church and after some 10 years of meetings and still no movement, orthodox Anglican leaders said they can’t remain silent any longer, said Minns.

“The reality of division is becoming clearer by the minute,” he stated. “We need to move forward.”

Primates who made the requests are now expected to respond to the Episcopal statement and acknowledge its adequacy or lack thereof.

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Anglican Gay Row Intensifies with Second Canadian Blessings Request (Christian Post, 071020)

The Montreal branch of the Anglican Church of Canada has urged its bishop to allow clergy to bless same-sex unions, becoming the second in the church body to make the request.

Days after the Diocese of Ottawa voted to ask its bishop to allow clergy to bless “duly solemnized and registered civil marriages between same-sex couples,” the Montreal Diocese approved a similar motion on Friday, raising another red flag to conservative branches in the global Anglican Communion.

Some Anglicans in the diocese may not be happy with the decision, said Montreal bishop Barry Clarke, who concurred with the vote. “But at least we can say we are out there and we can say that’s where we stand,” he said, according to the Anglican Journal.

Friday’s vote does not immediately change the policies and practice of the diocese. Clarke is scheduled to bring up the results of the vote at an Oct. 25-30 meeting in London, Ontario, with the Canadian house of bishops. There, Clarke will consult other bishops and consider the wider concerns of church members in the wider Anglican family, according to Clarke.

“Until a decision is made, there is no change in our current policy and practice; I expect our clergy to refrain from blessing same-sex couples,” he said.

Delegates were urged to vote in accordance with their own consciences rather than being preoccupied with the possible political consequences of the vote at various levels of the worldwide Anglican church body, according to the Anglican Journal.

The 77-million-member Anglican Communion has been torn by divisions, particularly since the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop in the United States as well as an earlier authorization for the blessing of same-sex unions in the New Westminster diocese of Canada. The Anglican Communion had urged the Canadian church and the U.S.-based Episcopal Church not to authorize same-sex blessings. Such approval, many have said, could fracture the already divided communion.

Debating the measure in the Montreal Diocese, opponents of the resolution argued that the strongest scriptural arguments against same-sex “marriage” come not from a few selected texts but from a general view of the couple as male and female right from the Creation story through the Bible.

“However you interpret this scripture, you have to take it seriously,” said the Rev. Gregory McVeigh of St. Stephen’s Church in Westmount, according to the church’s Journal publication.

Canon Paul Jennings, who sponsored Friday’s approved resolution, asked delegates to ask themselves what they would want for their children if they were homosexual.

“What do we believe in all honesty that God wants for them?” he posed.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Anthony Harvey of St. Michael and All Angels Church in the Montréal suburb of Pierrefonds asked whether the resolution “is really God’s will or is it bringing God down to our level of understanding and acceptance?”

If bishops in the Montreal and Ottawa dioceses approve the resolutions, their decision would contradict a vote in June by Canada’s national Anglican synod that narrowly rejected a proposal to give churches the option of blessing of same-sex unions. However, the Church of Canada had also agreed in June that same-sex blessings do not conflict with the “core doctrines” of the church.

The resolution in the Montreal Diocese requests that the bishop allow clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless duly solemnized and registered civil marriages, including marriages between same-sex couples, where at least one party is baptized. It also asks that the bishop authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes.

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Conservatives Want Out of Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 071004)

Leaders of Christ Church in Savannah, Ga., have voted to split from The Episcopal Church over its departure from orthodox Christianity, church officials reported.

“We have witnessed how The Episcopal Church has separated from the historic Christian faith over the last few decades,” said the Rev. Marc Robertson, rector of Christ Church, according to The Associated Press.

Established in 1733 by Georgia’s founder, Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe, and known as the “Mother Church of Georgia,” Christ Church is one of the state’s oldest churches and has been discontent with the national denomination, particularly since the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003. The church’s vote for departure on Tuesday was unanimous and church leaders decided to place themselves under the authority of the worldwide Anglican Communion’s provincial body in Uganda.

The split could prompt a legal battle between the church and the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia as both claim the church property is theirs.

“Christ Church is and will remain a parish of The Episcopal Church in this diocese and will continue to occupy its present facilities,” asserted Bishop Henry I. Louttit of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.

Robertson, meanwhile, said, “we’re confident of our ownership of that property.”

Christ Church leaders said they were prepared to go to court over ownership rights to the nearly $3 million church property but hope litigation can be avoided.

Conservative congregations disaffiliating with The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – constitute less than 1 percent of the entire denomination, but the exodus is continuing and entire dioceses have threatened to split.

On Monday, the Standing Committee – the bishop’s council of advice – of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth announced that it will ask its upcoming diocesan convention to take the first step needed to dissociate itself from The Episcopal Church. The convention meets Nov. 16-17.

The Very Rev. Ryan S. Reed, president of the Standing Committee, said it’s time to separate and join an orthodox province under the Anglican Communion. The diocese has been at odds with The Episcopal Church for 25 years, according to Reed, as it struggled to remain faithful Anglicans within the national denomination.

Conservatives were disappointed last week when The Episcopal Church indicated they will not retreat from their liberal-leaning interpretation of Scripture and acceptance of homosexuality.

The Episcopal Church had responded to a Sept. 30 deadline set by Anglican leaders to pledge not to consecrate any more openly gay bishops or bless same-sex unions. Episcopal bishops released a statement Sept. 25 declaring that they would “exercise restraint” by not consenting to consecrating openly gay bishops and not authorizing public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions.

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Anglican Panel Says Episcopal Bishops Met Directive (Christian Post, 071004)

[KH: The heretics are successful in their delaying policy again!]

A high-ranking Anglican panel acknowledged Wednesday the effort of Episcopal bishops to keep the worldwide Anglican family together and said they have complied with a directive by Anglican leaders on gay bishops and same-sex unions.

“We believe that The Episcopal Church has clarified all outstanding questions,” stated the advisory report from the lay-clergy Joint Standing Committee. The report was written for the Anglican Communion’s spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, who is struggling to prevent a schism in the 77-million-member global church body.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism and deepened divisions in the Anglican Communion when it consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Anglican leaders set a Sept. 30 deadline for Episcopal bishops to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.

With only a few days left before the deadline, the Episcopal House of Bishops released their response last week during a meeting in New Orleans, saying they will “exercise restraint” in approving partnered gays as bishops and authorizing public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions.

Conservatives condemned the response, saying the Episcopal bishops again dodged the requests made by Anglican leaders and had chosen not to change course but rather go their own way based on their liberal-leaning interpretation of Scripture and acceptance of homosexuality.

However, the Joint Standing Committee said The Episcopal Church has “given the necessary assurances sought of them,” according to their report.

“The Joint Standing Committee report has recognized the hard work of the House of Bishops,” commented Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in a statement, “and that our responses reflect our repeatedly expressed desire to remain in full communion with the rest of the Anglican Communion.”

Jefferts Schori confirmed last Sunday The Episcopal Church would not retreat from their position on the “full inclusion” of gays and lesbians and their 2003 controversial action, but are willing to “pause” on their pro-gay agenda. The worldwide communion holds that homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture although it still calls its people to minister pastorally to all, including homosexuals.

Despite the praise, the Joint Standing Committee said the U.S. body must do more to support theological conservatives, who are a minority within the church.

Conservative congregations in the United States are breaking with The Episcopal Church and joining orthodox Anglican provinces from overseas.

“Unless some measure of reassurance and security is given to those congregations, parishes, bishops and dioceses who are feeling an increasing sense of alienation from the Episcopal Church, there will be no reconciliation either within the Episcopal Church or within the wider Anglican Communion,” the committee wrote.

At the same time, the committee criticized overseas Anglican conservatives who have set up offshoots in the United States to house breakaway parishes.

“We believe that the time is right for a determined effort to bring interventions to an end,” stated the panel.

U.S. conservatives, however, have made it clear that after years of dispute and no movement, the intervention of Anglican leaders from the Global South was an act that simply reflected the failure of the current approach, as noted by the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, who leads the breakaway group CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) – the offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. Moreover, the overseas conservatives were responding to cries for help from U.S. Anglicans, Minns has stated.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, meanwhile, has said that he would stop the intervention if The Episcopal Church returns to the Bible and gets back in line with the rest of the communion.

So far, one committee member dissented Wednesday’s report – the Most Rev. Mouneer Hanna Anis, primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

He stated that the response of Episcopal bishops is inadequate and represents “a superficial shift from their previous position” and that their position since 2003 has not changed.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent the report to all the primates, the communion’s regional leaders, and members of the Anglican Consultative Council, a representative body of bishops, priests and lay people. They are expected to respond by the end of the month.

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Conservative Anglicans Dissatisfied with Episcopal Assurances, Failure to Repent (Christian Post, 071010)

A senior Church of England bishop has criticized The Episcopal Church for not repenting of its pro-gay stance, which goes against traditional Anglican teachings.

The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, indicated Monday that he leaned to the side of conservative African bishops, who maintain that The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – has not fully dealt with the issue of same-sex blessings and the installation of the worldwide communion’s first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

There is now speculation that the bishop, regarded as one of the most-respected clergymen in Britain, may boycott the next year’s Lambeth Conference.

The once-a-decade conference of Anglican bishops from around the world is being touted as a landmark event which could potentially determine the future of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

In speaking with The Daily Telegraph, Nazir-Ali said: “My difficulty at the moment is not with a particular person, such as Gene Robinson, but with those who felt it right to approve and to officiate at his ordination.

“Unless they are willing to say that what they did was contrary to the Gospel, and we all of us from time to time need to repent about what we have done wrong, I would find it very difficult to be with them in a council of bishops.”

The Rev. Tony Smith, a spokesperson for the Bishop of Rochester, confirmed that Nazir-Ali’s statement to the Telegraph was the bishop’s official stance.

The statement follows the dissatisfaction expressed by a number of leading conservative Anglican leaders toward last month’s Episcopal House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans.

At that meeting – which was attended in part by the head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams – Episcopal bishops said they would “exercise restraint” in approving partnered gays as bishops and authorizing public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions.

The Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council, a high-ranking Anglican panel, subsequently said that those pledges had fulfilled the requests made by Anglican leaders for the Episcopal Church.

The panel added, however, that the U.S. arm of the communion must do more to support theological conservatives.

Despite the committee’s conclusions, African Anglican leaders who met in Mauritius last week declared dissatisfaction with the assurances given by U.S. bishops.

In an official communiqué, the African Anglicans called for the 2008 Lambeth Conference to be postponed.

“The assurances made are without credibility and its preparation is severely compromised by numerous conflicts of interest,” it stated.

“The report itself appears to be a determined effort to find a way for the full inclusion of the Episcopal Church with no attempt at discipline or change from their prior position.”

Earlier this year, in a warning to the worldwide Communion, the second-most senior clergyman in the Church of England, Archbishop of York Dr. John Sentamu, said that any bishop who chooses to boycott the Lambeth Conference would, in effect, expel themselves from the communion.

He explained that such an action would break their links with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican church body.

In response, Nazir-Ali said: “It is nothing to do with loyalty to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“In fact it may be an expression of loyalty to him to say that the Lambeth Conference has integrity.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent the Joint Standing Committee’s advisory report to all the top Anglican leaders (called primates), the communion’s regional leaders, and members of the Anglican Consultative Council – a representative body of bishops, priests and lay people. They are expected to respond by the end of the month.

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Canada Diocese Approves Call for Same-Sex Blessings (Christian Post, 071015)

A diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada approved same-sex “marriage” blessings on Saturday amid a roaring debate within the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Delegates to the Diocese of Ottawa voted 177 to 97 in favor of a motion that asks the local bishop to allow clergy “whose conscience permits” to bless same-sex unions. The move is expected to inflame controversy over gay rights within the worldwide Anglican Church body which many say is already torn beyond repair.

“It goes to the very opposite direction to what the international church is calling for,” retired Newfoundland bishop Donald Harvey, moderator of the conservative Anglican Network in Canada, told the Toronto Star.

“We in Canada and the United States need to do a better job of explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it,” said Ron Chaplin, who introduced the motion in the Diocese of Ottawa.

Ottawa Bishop John Chapman said after the vote that the final decision on whether to bless same-sex “marriages” rests with him. He said he expects to take his time as he talks to other bishops both nationally and internationally before making a decision.

The Ottawa diocese is the first in Canada to ask its bishop to allow local parishes to bless “marriages” between homosexual couples since the Anglican Church of Canada rejected the blessing of same-sex unions in June.

“We make decisions locally, when it comes right down to it,” Garth Bulmer, priest of St. John the Evangelist in Ottawa, said Sunday, according to the local CBC News. “A bishop, generally speaking, is much more concerned about listening to what his diocese is saying than listening to what a conflicted house of bishops is going to say.”

The Church of Canada had also agreed in June that same-sex blessings do not conflict with the “core doctrines” of the church.

The Montreal diocese is scheduled to vote on a similar motion this weekend. Chaplin said he expects to see several dioceses across the country introduce similar motions at their annual synods and expects most to be approved.

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Anglicans Prepare to Fight Against ‘Liberal Threat’ (Christian Post, 071018)

As the “liberal threat” in the Church of England increases, orthodox Anglicans warned that they may distance themselves from the church and carry out its own ordinations.

At an Oct. 16-17 meeting in Central London, the head of Reform – a traditionalist network of churches and individuals within the Church of England – said parishes discontent with the Church of England’s liberal drift must prepare for “courageous action” which may include looking overseas for irregular ordinations in the future.

“As the Church gets more fractured maybe bishops or retired bishops will be able to help out so we can find an ‘English solution,’ but if not we may have to look overseas,” the Rev. Rod Thomas, chairman of the Reform network, said to The Church of England newspaper. “This is not what we’re looking for but as the pressure from liberals increases it becomes more likely.

“This would be a last resort,” he added, “but you can see this happening more frequently as the liberal threat increases and we need to plan ahead to maintain our role of reforming the Church.”

The network isn’t seeking to leave the Church of England but rather reform it from within, according to the church newspaper.

After years-old talks of schism in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, the third largest Christian denomination in the world, conservatives say the global family is torn beyond repair. Divisions deepened in the communion when The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Anglican leaders in February had presented what some considered an ultimatum to the American church, which responded last month saying they would “exercise restraint” in approving partnered gays as bishop and authorizing public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions. Episcopal bishops, however, said they would not retreat from their pro-gay stance and called for “unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.”

“There will be no outcasts in this church, whether because of sexual orientation or theological perspective. God has given us to each other, to love and to learn from each other,” said Episcopal head Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on Tuesday during a webcast at Trinity Church in New York.

According to Jefferts Schori, many Anglicans around the world support The Episcopal Church and where it’s headed, including parts of the Church of England, she said during a Sept. 30 public forum.

The Anglican Communion calls its members to minister pastorally and sensitively to all including homosexuals but rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture.

Reform’s Thomas said the pro-gay lobby in England was likely to become more overt and persistent and the network must therefore get more serious about devoting themselves to reforms in the church, according to the United Kingdom’s The Telegraph.

“But the good news is that there has never been a better time to do this. Evangelicals are becoming clearer about the issues that have to be fought and more determined to do the fighting,” said Thomas.

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Anglicans Propose Adding Adulterers to Sex Offenders List (Christian Post, 071026)

Anglicans in Australia are enforcing a stricter code of conduct with a proposal for its national church database of child abusers to include ministers accused of extra-marital affairs.

The proposed register is part of the Australian Anglican Church’s attempt to keep churches safe by taking a firm stance against sexual misconduct, including child abuses.

Critics say marital infidelity should not be included alongside child abuse in the register, according to The Associated Press.

But Philip Gerber, the professional standards director of the Sydney diocese, said potential ministers and church workers should be held to a higher moral code than other members of the community.

“The church has always had a high expectation, a scriptural expectation, that members of the clergy and church workers lead moral lives,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Although marital infidelity among clergy is rare, Gerber said it does happen.

“Often people that come in touch with clergy are vulnerable because they’re in a pastoral situation and the minister is, in a sense, in a position of power,” he said. “We just want to make sure that whenever people come in touch with the church they are safe.”

The register will be based on complaints, according to Gerber, and include accused church workers even if those accusations of sexual abuse are unproven. Only if the accused is completely cleared of the allegation will the minister or church worker’s name come off the list.

“We are not going to set up a bureau of investigation,” said Gerber “But obviously when these sorts of things happen … the person concerned or people that know of the facts … can be concerned and they come forward and make a complaint. So it’s based on complaints.”

Dr. Muriel Porter, a lay member of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia – which is meeting this week in the nation’s capital, Canberra – fears including extra-marital affairs in the register could downplay the “really serious issues.”

“The serious issues are very important … [and we] must deal with them properly, but we’re getting to the point where people for, almost for winking at somebody, could end up being on a register and I think that’s quite serious,” said Porter, according to Australia’s ABC News.

If the proposed database is approved, officials said the database could be set up by March.

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MASSACHUSETTS: Members leave third diocesan parish for African affiliation (AAC, 071025)

The majority of the members of a third Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts congregation have decided to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate with an Anglican province in Africa.

The departing members of Holy Trinity Church in Marlborough will celebrate their last Eucharist in Holy Trinity’s building on October 28 and then process to the nearby First United Methodist Church where it will re-form as Holy Trinity Anglican Church. That congregation will be part of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). The AMiA calls itself “a missionary outreach of the Province of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda.”

The departing members have already re-configured the parish’s website to bear the name of Holy Trinity Anglican Church.

“The prayers of the bishops are with the Rev. Michael McKinnon as well as with the members of Holy Trinity who feel God calling them to this path in their faith journey,” said Maria Plati, diocesan communications director.

The diocese and leadership of Holy Trinity have been in cordial conversation for at least three years following Massachusetts Bishop M. Thomas Shaw’s decision to allow the parish to be under the ‘delegated episcopal pastoral oversight’ (DEPO) of Donald F. Harvey, retired Bishop of Newfoundland and Labrador in the Anglican Church of Canada, Plati said. Harvey ordained McKinnon in 1996.

DEPO is a plan developed by the House of Bishops to accommodate congregations that, due to theological differences, do not believe that they can “receive appropriate pastoral care” from their own bishop. The bishop delegates another mutually agreed-upon bishop to provide pastoral care. DEPO provides temporary oversight while other steps toward restoring the relationship between a diocesan bishop and parish are pursued.

“This process of discernment has been marked by mutual respect for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and for the different theological views that have brought us to this place,” said Plati.

No decision has been made about the status of the Holy Trinity Episcopal church property which remains with the diocese, according to Plati.

When individual members of the Episcopal parishes in Attleboro and West Newbury (both named All Saints Episcopal Church) left those parishes and formed congregations affiliated with Anglican provinces in Africa, the Episcopal parish remained, she said.

Other Massachusetts Episcopal congregations have grown over the last few years, Plati said, including those in Groveland (next to West Newbury), Lowell, Bedford, Chatham, and Norwood.

Some individuals have left the diocese in years past over theological differences with the Episcopal Church over the adoption of the Book of Common Prayer in 1979 and the ordination of women, Plati noted.

McKinnon, in a statement provided by the diocese, attributed the move first to a “growing membership” and second to a desire to be with others who are “uniting for the Gospel and traditional Anglicanism in North America.”

According to the information supplied in the parish’s 2006 parochial report, Holy Trinity has slightly more than 80 baptized members and a worship-attendance rate of just under 40 people.

“Our faith, preaching and teaching is grounded in the Holy Bible as God’s Word,” McKinnon continued. “We describe ourselves as evangelical, sacramental and Spirit-filled. We claim both the historic Faith and Order of the ancient Christian Church and the

principles of the English Reformation of the 16th Century as our own.”

He said the members are “very grateful” to Shaw for allowing the DEPO arrangement the last three years.

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Australians Divided Over TEC Response (AAC, 071025)

[KH: Episcopal church’s additional sin: causing others to divide]

Source: Sydney Anglicans

It looks highly unlikely Australian Anglicans will offer US Episcopal bishops any clear support for their attempts to re-enter full participation in the worldwide Anglican Communion, despite two senior Anglicans backing the American bishops.

Both the Australian Primate, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall in his presidential address and Canon Kenneth Kearon, head of the Anglican Consulative Council, in an after-dinner speech, advised Australia’s General Synod (parliament) that US bishops had complied with requests not to consecrate another homosexual bishop and not to authorise same-sex blessings.

“What I saw at the Primates’ meeting with the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church of the USA,” said Canon Kearon, “was a genuine attempt by both to seriously repair the breeches of trust which have arisen.”

While Archbishop Aspinall acknowledged that the Americans had not implemented a scheme to protect conservative minorities as requested because of ‘legal advice’, he believes that overall the American response is ‘positive’.

General Synod was given the opportunity to record their own opinions in small group meetings. They heard the case for the Americans put by Robert Fordham, Australia’s representative on the global church’s top decision making body called the Anglican Consultative Council. The case against was presented by the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen.

It appeared that Dr Jensen’s speech was well-received by General Synod delegates.

“I am sure that the American response was well-intentioned,” he said. “But it has not yet healed the rift which opened as a result of their actions in 2003, because those actions arose from a way of looking at the world which most in the Communion believe to be unbiblical.”

During small group discussion, there was widespread concern expressed at the American response from across many Dioceses.

Afterwards, Archbishop Aspinall said the response ‘would need to reflect the differing views expressed at General Synod in order to accurately present the Australian position’ to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

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More Anglicans Seek Way Out of Liberal Church (Christian Post, 071030)

Anglicans worldwide are taking steps to separate themselves from more liberal churches and finding new approaches that would allow them to live the biblically faithful lives that they want to.

In the latest move by conservatives in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, an orthodox group in Ottawa, Canada, proposed the formation of a new branch of the Anglican Church of Canada. The proposal was made Sunday in an effort to create a church that is more “biblically faithful” than the current church.

The Anglican Network – an arm of the Anglican Essentials Ottawa (AEO), which describes itself as a safe haven for all those who profess traditional Anglican beliefs – called a meeting a week after a second diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada voted in favor of blessing same-sex “marriages.” Both the Montreal and Ottawa Dioceses approved resolutions earlier this month that would urge their respective bishops to allow clergy to bless same-sex unions.

“I’m very dissatisfied with the direction the Anglican Church of Canada is going,” said Peter Scotchmer, who attended the Anglican Network meeting, according to The Ottawa Citizen. “I’m certainly not happy to see the liberal drift of the church. It’s an erosion of what the church has always stood for.”

Attendees of the meeting discussed the impact of the recent votes and what should be done to remain true to tradition.

The proposal: a separate Anglican church.

“We don’t want to stop being Anglican, but we don’t want to be part of a church that is not biblically faithful,” said Karen Bergenstein, who is seeking to become a priest in the Anglican Diocese in Ottawa, as reported by the local newspaper. “The question is where do we go from here?”

Concrete details of the new branch and its ecclesiastical structure and relationship with the wider church are to be further discussed at a meeting in late November.

Anglican Essentials Ottawa president Tony Copple is hopeful for the future of dissatisfied Anglicans.

“We’re working on something tangible for the future,” he said. “We sense there is potential for three new churches in the Ottawa area. We want to give people a place where they feel comfortable.”

The proposal follows a similar plan in the United States that has already begun to take shape. Breakaway Anglicans and others discontent in The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – took their first step last month in forming a separate ecclesiastical structure in North America and are strengthening their Common Cause Partnership.

The orthodox bunch has little hope that The Episcopal Church will get back in line with Anglican tradition and Scripture years after the U.S.-based denomination heightened controversy in 2003 with the consecration of its first openly gay bishop.

Although the new North American body is only in its initial stages, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Anglican breakaway CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America), said the orthodox partners are working together “far more deliberately.”

Meanwhile, parishes discontent with the Church of England are forming their own “English solution” as they feel a “liberal threat” in the church. As a last resort, dissidents part of the traditionalist network Reform may look to orthodox bishops overseas for irregular ordinations in the future.

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Chicago Bishop Election Avoids Widening Anglican Rift (Christian Post, 071112)

The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago avoided deepening the rift over homosexuality within the Anglican Communion on Saturday when it elected the Rev. Jeffrey Lee as its twelfth bishop.

There were seven candidates for the position, including the Rev. Tracy Lind, the openly lesbian dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland.

Had Lind been elected, she would have been the second openly homosexual Episcopal bishop after V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

It was the 2003 consecration of Robinson that drove the worldwide Anglican Communion to the point of schism, pitting more liberal-leaning Episcopalians against traditionalists, who favor a conservative interpretation of Scripture.

The election of another openly homosexual bishop would have likely deepened the divisions within the Anglican Communion.

Lee, the new Chicago Bishop, is regarded as a moderate. In a statement given to 500 delegates before the vote, Lee said he wanted to keep conversation going with conservatives on gay clergy but at the same time supported “the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the church.”

Earlier this year, The Episcopal Church said it would “exercise restraint” in choosing more gay bishops after intense pressure from conservative leaders in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Lee supported the decision by The Episcopal Church, writing that he had a “deep desire to keep the conversation going forward at the international level.”

“He (Lee) would be perceived as someone who is qualified for the job, but not polarizing as other candidates might have been,” commented the Rev. Canon Mike Stephenson of the Diocese of Chicago, according to the Associated Press.

Lee was the rector of St. Thomas Church in Medina, Wash., and was elected on the second ballot, comfortably surpassing the required 308 clergy and lay votes with 337.

Lind came in fourth on both ballots, receiving just 16 votes of clergy and lay people in the second ballot in which Lee was elected.

In Lee’s statement, the reverend said that his church supported the inclusion of gays and lesbians, but did not exclude members who disagree with that stance.

“I make it clear that I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but as a leader I have a duty to articulate my own understanding of what God may be calling the church to do,” he said.

According to AP, Lee said that he was “honored and humbled” by the appointment. His consecration ceremony is slated for Feb. 2, 2008.

Outgoing Bishop William Persell said that many of the delegates who voted where aware that voting for Lind would have sparked controversy.

He also said that “this election should not be seen as a vote against a gay or lesbian person” and that the Diocese of Chicago was as committed as ever to full inclusion of lesbians and gays.

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Episcopal Head Warns Bishops Withdrawing from the National Church (Christian Post, 071101)

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, has urged a conservative bishop not to lead congregations out of the denomination.

In a recent letter, the Episcopal leader warned Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan that if his course to withdraw the entire diocese from The Episcopal Church does not change, disciplinary action may be taken.

“I call upon you to recede from this direction and to lead your diocese on a new course that recognizes the interdependent and hierarchical relationship between the national Church and its dioceses and parishes,” wrote the Episcopal head.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh voted last year to withdraw from the national church and seek alternative oversight, rejecting the authority of Jefferts Schori. Two years before she became The Episcopal Church’s first female head, Jefferts Schori had voted to confirm openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration caused uproar in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church leader also supports ordaining openly gay bishops and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

Duncan believes The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, has departed from traditional Anglicanism and from scriptural teaching and has little hope the church will get back in line with the wider Anglican family.

The Pittsburgh bishop heads the Anglican Communion Network – a conservative Anglican group – and is currently fortifying partnerships with other orthodox and breakaway Anglicans to form an ecclesiastical structure in North America separate from The Episcopal Church. The new structure would allow those discontent in the American church to stay faithful to the wider communion and to orthodox Christianity.

In her letter, Jefferts Schori said if Duncan’s course out of the national church does not change, “I shall regrettably be compelled to see that appropriate canonical steps are promptly taken to consider whether you have abandoned the Communion of this Church ... and whether you have committed canonical offences that warrant disciplinary action.”

The Episcopal head made the letter public both as a warning but also as a way of “reaching out” to those bishops contemplating realignments for their dioceses, according to the Rev. Dr. Charles Robertson, Canon to the Presiding Bishop.

Parishes within the Diocese of Central Florida have entered a process of conversation on whether to cut ties with The Episcopal Church as well as negotiation.

“This is a very painful time for many of us,” said Central Florida Bishop John W. Howe.

This weekend, the Diocese of Pittsburgh opens its annual convention where they are expected to decide on their future in The Episcopal Church.

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Pittsburgh Diocese Approves Split from Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 071104)

Despite a warning from the head of The Episcopal Church, members of the Diocese of Pittsburgh voted overwhelmingly Friday to leave the national church.

Clergy members and lay people voted 227 to 82 to approve constitutional amendments, taking the first step in separating from The Episcopal Church, which the diocese says has drifted from Scripture.

It was the first of two vote approvals needed for the diocese to remove itself from the national church and realign with a conservative province in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

Delegates had the choice of voting for realignment or full accession to The Episcopal Church.

“As a diocese we have come to a fork in the road,” Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan told delegates during the diocese’s annual convention. “Indeed, it has become clear that our understandings are not only different, but mutually exclusive, even destructive to one another.”

Some opposing separation said it would create chaos for the diocese.

“I think it was tragic,” said Joan Gunderson, president of Progressive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh and a lay deputy who voted against the resolution, according to The New York Times. “I’m concerned what will follow.”

But the vote was necessary, Duncan said, because the more liberal bishops now in the majority in the national church “have hijacked my church, and that’s how most of the people here feel,” as reported by The New York Times. “What we’re trying to do is state clearly in the United States for the authority of Scripture.”

Duncan believes The Episcopal Church has departed from traditional Anglicanism and scriptural teachings and has little hope the church will get back in line with the wider Anglican family. The national church had widened rifts when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop, New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, in 2003.

The Pittsburgh bishop leads the Anglican Communion Network, a conservative coalition, for those in the United States discontent with the liberal direction of the national church.

Years into division, Duncan says the global Anglican family is more polarized and clergy and lay leaders in the diocese have revealed a growing acceptance that “our differences are presently irreconcilable.”

“There is no prospect of resolution, only of a mediated separation as an alternative to the public scandal of ever-spiraling litigation [over property] or canonical proceedings,” he said.

Friday’s vote comes just after Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori addressed Duncan in a letter of warning, telling him to retreat from his course of withdrawal, otherwise, disciplinary action may be taken.

Friday’s approval to remove language in the diocesan constitution that states the diocese accedes to The Episcopal Church’s Constitution and Canons does not become final until a second vote of approval is made at the next convention in November 2008.

For those who may disagree with splitting from the national church, Duncan said they would try to find a way for them to stay in the diocese or be given “freedom to separate” from the diocese and align more with The Episcopal Church.

Pittsburgh’s vote follows similar decisions by dioceses in San Joaquin, Calif., and Quincy, Ill., in granting preliminary approval to separate from the national church.

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Conservative Leader Refuses to Surrender in Fight to Preserve Anglican Tradition (Christian Post, 071108)

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola has urged for a meeting with other Anglican leaders worldwide to respond to what he sees as a crisis stemming from the American church that will affect the entire Anglican body.

“The situation in The Episcopal Church is deteriorating rapidly,” said Akinola, arguably considered the most powerful Anglicans in the 77-million-member communion. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

“We are losing members. We are losing time. We are losing our integrity as an important part of the One, holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,” he said.

The archbishop’s comments were written last week in a letter addressed to Anglican primates – the top leaders of Anglican provinces worldwide. The letter was released Wednesday.

Primates are expected to respond to a resolution passed by U.S. Episcopal bishops in in September stating that they will “exercise restraint” in approving partnered gays as bishops and authorizing public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions.

The Episcopal Church had caused uproar in the Anglican Communion when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.

Earlier this year, Anglican bishops had requested for the American church to make an unequivocal pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize same-sex unions. Conservative leaders also more specifically called for a “heartfelt repentance” and “genuine change” to get back in line with the communion and with Scripture, as many of the bishops in the Global South had stated.

The U.S. bishops, however, indicated they would not pull back from their pro-gay stance and further called for “unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.”

In his letter, Akinola, one of several conservative Anglicans who have provided primatial oversight to those in the United States discontent with the liberal direction of The Episcopal Church, also defended his move to shelter conservative U.S. Anglicans, calling it a “heartfelt response to cries for help.”

“We acted in accordance with the Gospel mandate,” he wrote in the letter, arguing against claims that his missionary initiative in the United States was an “intervention” or “incursion.”

“Had TEC (The Episcopal Church), against all godly warnings, not taken actions that tore the fabric of our beloved Communion there would be no need for hundreds indeed, thousands of its members to seek pastoral, episcopal and now primatial care elsewhere,” Akinola stated.

Offshoots set up by Akinola as well as three other overseas leaders to provide a place for those in the United States to remain “faithful Anglicans” have been rejected by Episcopal leaders who have called alternative oversight from overseas bishops “injurious” to the polity of The Episcopal Church.

Akinola, however, argued that the situation is not about polity nor is his offshoot (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) an interest in territorial expansion. He indicated that Scripture must take precedence over the structures of the church.

“The world needs to understand that the situation that we now confront is not primarily about structure or conferences but about irreconcilable truth claims,” he wrote. “Of course there is value to preserving Anglican structures but we must never do so at the expense of the people for whom our Lord Jesus the Christ gave his life.”

The Nigerian leader has stated that he would dissolve the offshoot if The Episcopal Church gets back in line with the rest of the communion and repents for its controversial actions.

While still a minority, a growing number of Episcopal parishes have split from The Episcopal Church, citing the national church’s departure from scriptural authority and Anglican tradition. Many face property litigation.

“Their only crime is a desire to continue their Christian pilgrimage as faithful Anglicans,” said Akinola, defending those who have disaffiliated.

“Sadly, it is becoming increasingly clear that the only acceptable end as far as TEC is concerned is the full capitulation of any who would stand in opposition to their biblically incompatible innovations—this we will never do,” Akinola stressed.

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Bitter Church Property Dispute Goes to Trial (Christian Post, 071114)

A trial involving 11 former Episcopal congregations began Tuesday in a bitter battle over tens of millions of dollars of church property. It is reported to be the largest property dispute in the history of The Episcopal Church.

Almost a year after the majority of congregants in 15 Virginia churches voted to leave the U.S.-based church body, the battle over the control of church property has gone to the Fairfax County Circuit Court, where a judge will hear evidence during a two-week trial. Only 11 breakaway congregations are involved in the litigation.

The churches severed ties from The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – citing the denomination’s departure from Scripture and Christian orthodoxy. After the split, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, and soon thereafter The Episcopal Church, filed suits against the churches and individuals to reclaim the multi-million dollar church properties.

“The Episcopal Church has continually walked away from the scriptural foundation of the Anglican Communion,” said Jim Oakes, vice-chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia, an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia and a part of the conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). “When we objected, they chose intimidation through lawsuits as their solution.”

Breakaway Anglicans have asked and continue to ask for the withdrawal of the lawsuits, which Oakes has called “unseemly.”

“We did not choose this path,” Oakes stated. “Even today, our churches remain open to negotiating a reasonable solution with The Episcopal Church and the Diocese. The legal proceedings have been an unfortunate distraction from all the good work our churches are doing to advance the mission of Christ.”

Conservative Anglicans in Virginia are joined by traditionalists nationwide who are discontent with the liberal direction of The Episcopal Church. The U.S. Anglican arm widened rifts in 2003 when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop. Breakaway Anglicans only make up a minority in the wider church body, and members of the 15 Virginia congregations that left represent about 7 percent of the Diocese of Virginia, according to The Washington Post.

But the minority is supported by conservatives overseas who dominate in Africa and Asia.

This month’s trial is the first of two trials and is meant to determine whether a “division” has occurred in The Episcopal Church. The breakaway congregants had filed court documents after their split citing a Virginia law from the Civil War era that allows congregations that have divided to vote on where they wish to affiliate. They argue that there is a division in the global Anglican Communion.

“The division has led more than half of the provinces of the Anglican Communion to announce a severance of relations with [The Episcopal Church] and has prompted a substantial number of congregations in the United States to disaffiliate from [The Episcopal Church] and their dioceses,” the conservative Anglicans say in court filings.

Oakes says they have a strong case “legally and ethically.”

Meanwhile, the Virginia diocese is arguing that there was no division. Rather, individuals discontent with the national church chose to leave. Also, the diocese and The Episcopal Church say that the denomination is hierarchical and “division” can only happen if there is a vote of its governing body. With no formal division recognized by the Episcopal hierarchy, Episcopal leaders argue that the state law does not apply in this case.

Conservatives, however, argue that it was the national church that “left” by letting stand the controversial 2003 consecration. The national church “has willfully torn the fabric of the communion at the deepest level,” attorney Steffen N. Johnson said Tuesday in his opening argument, according to The Washington Post.

The trial is scheduled for six days and Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows has said he will rule on this case next month. A second trial will be held on the lawsuits filed by the diocese and The Episcopal Church. The suits ask the Circuit Court to declare the diocese the rightful owner of all the property.

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A Letter from Bishop Iker to the Episcopal Presiding Bishop (Christian Post, 071112)

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

815 Second Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Dear Katharine,

I have received your letter of November 8th and am rather surprised by your suggestion that I have somehow abandoned the communion of the church and may be subject to ecclesiastical discipline. Such a charge is baseless. I have abandoned nothing, and I have violated no canons. Every year at our Chrism Mass, I very happily reaffirm my ordination vows, along with all our clergy, that I will be “loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them.” (BCP, pages 526 and 538)

It is highly inappropriate for you to attempt to interfere in the internal life of this diocese as we prayerfully prepare to gather in Convention. The threatening tone of your open letter makes no attempt to promote reconciliation, mediation, or even dialogue about our profound theological differences. Instead, it appears designed to intimidate our delegates and me, in an attempt to deter us from taking any action that opposes the direction in which you are leading our Church. It is deeply troubling that you would have me prevent the clergy and laity of this diocese from openly discussing our future place in the life of the wider Anglican Communion, as we debate a variety of proposals. As you well know, the polity of this Church requires the full participation of the clergy and lay orders, not just bishops, in the decision making process. It grieves me that as the Presiding Bishop you would misuse your office in an attempt to intimidate and manipulate this diocese.

While I do not wish to meet antagonism with antagonism, I must remind you that 25 years ago this month, the newly formed Diocese of Fort Worth voluntarily voted to enter into union with the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. If circumstances warrant it, we can likewise, by voluntary vote, terminate that relationship. Your aggressive, dictatorial posturing has no place in that decision. Sadly, however, your missive will now be one of the factors that our Convention will consider as we determine the future course of this diocese for the next 25 years and beyond, under God’s grace and guidance.

In closing, let me be very clear. While your threats deeply sadden us, they do not frighten us. We will continue to stand firm for the unchanging truth of the Holy Scriptures and the redeeming Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whatever the costs. I shall continue to pray for you, as I trust you will pray for me, in the difficult days ahead.

Faithfully in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker

Bishop of Fort Worth

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Bishop gives Anglicans new option (National Post, 071118)

A retired bishop has defected from the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue of same-sex blessings and said he expects others will soon make the same decision, raising the spectre of a schism forming in the national Church.

“I knew since the last general synod that I could not stay within the Anglican Church of Canada because the rift was getting too wide and the direction it was starting to go was moving way too fast,” Donald Harvey, the former bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, said in an interview. “I’m certainly hoping I will not be by myself.”

Bishop Harvey has put himself under the authority of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, which takes in most of South America.

It mimics a move by some conservative Anglican dioceses in the United States, which have started to put themselves under the leadership of certain African provinces. Anglicans in the southern parts of the world have been generally more conservative on the same-sex blessing issue than those in Europe and North America.

“It’s a tremendously big step for me after 44 years of ordained ministry,” Bishop Harvey said in an interview. “It’s a lifetime for many people.”

In June, the Canadian Church narrowly defeated a motion that would have permitted dioceses to decide for themselves to let parishes perform the controversial ceremony. But the synod did approve a motion that said that performing same-sex blessings is not a violation of core doctrine. Conservatives such as Bishop Harvey believe the decision on doctrine opened the door for the inevitable approval of same-sex blessings.

On Saturday, the Anglican Journal of Canada reported that the diocese of Niagara voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing civilly married gay couples to receive the blessing. The Anglican Journal said that the Niagara bishop, who refused to give his assent to a similar vote three years ago, would respect the decision this time.

Since June, the dioceses of Ottawa and Montreal have also voted in favour of same-sex blessings, but their bishops have not acted on the vote.

In a news release on the weekend, Bishop Harvey said: “Because of the unabated theological decay in the Anglican Church of Canada, many long-time Anglicans have already left their church and left Anglicanism. We want to provide a fully Anglican option for those who feel their church has abandoned them and who are contemplating taking the same action.”

On Thursday, the Anglican Network of Canada, which Bishop Harvey leads, plans to announce a plan by which other dissident Anglicans can leave the Canadian Church.

“We have weighed up the situation relatively wisely,” he said. “Those who are saying at the moment we can no longer in conscience stay within the Anglican Church of Canada, we will give them an option so they can still remain Anglicans.

“[At the meeting] we will unveil a proposal and some [parishes] will be in a position to take the option then and others will have to go back to their parishes and meet before making a decision.”

Bishop Harvey said there are only a few parishes he knows of that are willing to follow his lead, but hopes his decision will act as a symbolic opening to many others who are unhappy with the Canadian Church.

In an interview with the National Post earlier this month, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the country’s 600,000 Anglicans, said the Church may never be able to come to a satisfactory agreement on same-sex blessings and some parishes will perform them and others will not. He also said that some in the Church would end up leaving.

“It’s not what any of us wants, but it’s what happens sometimes,” he told the Post. “If they feel the cannot stay and withdraw other parishes with them, obviously it’s a sad moment for the Church.”

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Fourth Diocese Takes Steps to Leave Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 071120)

The Episcopal Diocese of Forth Worth in Texas voted on Saturday to withdraw from the national church body, garnering the first of two approvals needed to re-align with an overseas Anglican leader.

Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker said the decision “marked a firm resolve about moving forward together, recognizing that there are parts that are not fully behind the path we’ve chosen, but the debate is always characterized by respect and honesty.”

The conservative diocese is the fourth to approve constitutional amendments and remove language that states the diocese accedes to The Episcopal Church’s Constitution and Canons. The dioceses of Pittsburgh, San Joaquin in California, and Quincy in Illinois have also taken the first steps to remove themselves from The Episcopal Church – U.S. branch of Anglicanism – and realign with a conservative province in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The dioceses contend the national church has departed from scriptural authority and traditional Anglicanism. The national church had widened rifts when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.

Members of the Forth Worth diocese met at their 25th annual convention and expressed their wishes “to remain within the family of the Anglican Communion while dissociating itself from the moral, theological, and disciplinary innovations of The Episcopal Church,” according to the Episcopal News Service.

Iker noted that the decisions are preliminary and will be up for final approval at next year’s convention.

Before the vote this past weekend, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori had sent a letter to bishops who have threatened to lead their dioceses out of the national church. Jefferts Schori called upon conservative bishops to retreat from the course of withdrawal and warned that disciplinary action may be taken should they leave.

In response, Iker said that he “must object to the claim that the presiding bishop has any canonical authority in this diocese or any legitimate power over the leadership of this diocese.”

“She has no authority to bring Forth Worth into line with the mandates of a so-called ‘national church,’” Iker told delegates at the convention, according to The Associated Press. “There is no such thing as ‘the national church.’ We are a confederation of dioceses, related to each other by our participation in General Convention.”

Recently, Jefferts Schori addressed a small church in San Jose and asked congregants to be patient as the church body passes through an arduous time.

Perhaps, she said, if all sides in the current debate over sexuality and Scripture could “hold their truths more lightly,” they might yet find a way forward – together.

“I believe we only know the fullness of God’s truth at the end of time,” she said, according to The Los Angeles Times. “And in the meantime, we have to be careful about being so sure that we understand it all.”

She also urged Episcopalians to look beyond the issues that divide them and focus on what she said should be the Church’s main mission – ministering to people in need.

Last year, Jefferts Schori became the first woman to be elected to head The Episcopal Church. She has expressed support for the “full inclusion” of gays and lesbians, including gay ordination and blessing same-sex “marriage.” The presiding bishop also stirred controversy when she questioned Jesus Christ as the one way to God in a 2006 interview with AP.

Next month, the Diocese of San Joaquin could be the first Episcopal diocese in the country to take a final vote and leave the national church. The conservative dioceses received a formal invitation to affiliate with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone in Argentina.

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Canadian Anglicans Facing ‘Full-Blown Schism,’ Bishop Says (Christian Post, 071121)

As conservatives in Canada move toward discussion on the possible formation of a breakaway Anglican body this week, one diocesan bishop says the Canadian church is now facing “a full-blown schism.”

Traditionalist members of the Anglican Network in Canada are expected to present the option of forming a separate Anglican body to those who want to remain “biblically faithful” in the global Anglican family but are in “serious theological dispute” with the national church. Details will be outlined at the network’s national conference, which opens Thursday.

“This is a full-blown schism now within the Canadian church and it is a direct attack upon the catholicity of the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster in a recent interview with Anglican Journal, the church’s editorially independent newspaper. “It is one thing to hold differing opinions as many Anglicans obviously do on matters of sexual ethics. It’s quite another thing to establish alternative ecclesial bodies, which is schism.”

Divisions have deepened over what conservatives contend is the Anglican Church of Canada’s liberal direction on homosexuality and scriptural authority.

Last week, the southern Ontario Diocese of Niagara became the third diocese in the national church to approve blessings for same-sex couples. The dioceses of Ottawa and Montreal recently passed similar motions and their bishops said they will consult widely before deciding whether to implement the decisions.

The Rt. Rev. Donald Harvey, retired bishop of Eastern Labrador, announced last week that he was relinquishing his ties to the Anglican Church of Canada and would affiliate with the orthodox Province of the Southern Cone, the Anglican church in South America.

Harvey, moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada, said he will be resuming full-time Episcopal ministry on behalf of “biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are distressed and feel they no longer have a home in the Anglican Church.”

“The network says the church has already crossed the line in the sand, and they either repent and reverse some of the decisions they’ve made or we will find it difficult to be able to follow them where they seem to be leading,” he told The Telegram newspaper.

“If [that] means separating from the Anglican Church of Canada, we will go with the communion of the world.”

Although the homosexuality debate has drawn the most attention, Harvey noted that even if that issue was resolved in the Anglican Communion, there would still be conflict.

“I do not like what some of the leaders … are now doing to [the church]. They are diluting that faith, and doing their best to make it acceptable to a society, that, in the long run, won’t appreciate it anyway,” he said.

Harvey’s departure comes as Ingham, whose New Westminster diocese was the first Anglican jurisdiction to formally authorize the blessing of same-sex unions, warned clergy in his diocese that he would discipline those who take part in ordinations planned by Harvey next month. Ingham asserted that only the bishop of the diocese or another bishop to whom the bishop has delegated authority may ordain priests or deacons.

The Council of General Synod further stated that Harvey’s secession was unnecessary to provide pastoral care to parishes and that such actions are “not a valid expression of Anglicanism.”

“Interventions in the life of our church, such as ordinations or other episcopal acts by any other jurisdictions are inappropriate and unwelcome,” council members said on Saturday. “In particular, we cannot recognize the legitimacy of recent actions by the Province of the Southern Cone in purporting to extend its jurisdiction beyond its own borders.”

The Nov. 22-23 conference of the Anglican Network in Canada will unveil what Harvey calls its “lifeboat” on Thursday, according to The Telegram. Details have not been given but Harvey suggested it could be a historic moment.

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Anglican Head Slams U.S. Foreign Policy (Christian Post, 071126)

[KH: true liberal]

The head of the Anglican Communion delivered his harshest criticism to date on U.S. foreign policy in Iraq in the latest issue of a British Muslim lifestyle magazine.

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams denounced the United States for its “quick burst of violent action” creating the “worst of all worlds” in his interview with Emel magazine.

The church leader compared America’s action in Iraq to that of the British Empire in the past.

“We have only one global hegemonic power,” he said according to London’s Telegraph newspaper. “It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.

“It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources in to administering it and normalizing it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did in India, for example,” added Williams, who has been a long-time critic of the war in Iraq.

“It is another thing to go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together – Iraq, for example.”

Since the 2003 U.S.-led offensive, more than 3,800 U.S. soldiers, 300 from other coalition countries and more than 76,000 Iraqi civilians, and more than 28,000 have been wounded, according to the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

However, reports in November indicate that rocket and mortar attacks in Iraq have decreased to their lowest levels in more than 21 months, the U.S. military said, according to The Associated Press.

Moreover, U.S. and Iraqi deaths showed a sharp drop in recent months, according to AP figures. The number of American military deaths fell from 65 to at least 39 over the period of September to October.

Williams, nonetheless, criticized the United States for having lost its moral high grounds since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He also claimed that the violence is a “quick discharge of frustration” that does not solve problems or help anyone.

“A lot of pressure around the invasion of Iraq was ‘we’ve got to do something, then we’ll feel better.’ That’s very dangerous,” said the archbishop.

The Anglican head also condemned the Israeli security wall that cuts Bethlehem in two, mildly criticized Muslim world for offering political solutions that are “not the most impressive,” and said he was surprised that the small Christian community in Pakistan is viewed as “deeply threatened” by the Muslim majority, according to the Telegraph.

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Second Anglican Network in Canada bishop received into Southern Cone (AAC, 071122)

Bishop Malcolm Harding, retired Bishop of Brandon, has announced that he will minister under Archbishop Gregory Venables and the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone of the Americas, effective immediately.

Bishop Harding is the second Canadian bishop to make this announcement in the past week. It was announced on Friday that the Right Reverend Donald Harvey had been received under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Venables and would be free to offer episcopal oversight to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans distressed by the seismic shift in the theology and practice of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Bishop Harding will assist Bishop Harvey in performing episcopal ministry in Western Canada.

We are thanking God that Bishop Don Harvey is now a part of this Province,” said Archbishop Venables. “We are equally delighted to receive Bishop Malcolm Harding as our co-worker. He too is a man whose very being is centred around the gospel and whom the Lord has used for the salvation of many… It is also good to be able to say that these steps we have taken are fully supported by a significant number of other orthodox Anglican provinces. There is no need for any to walk alone or step outside the Anglican family.”

“Bishop Malcolm is a highly respected and gifted man of God, whose gentle humility and passion for revival is deeply appreciated by biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans,” said Bishop Harvey. “I look forward to ministering together.”

Bishop Harding, who also has a master’s degree in social work, ministered in the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) for 30 years, retiring in 2001. Since retirement, he has served with Anglican Renewal Ministries (ARM), traveling across Canada to promote renewal in the church that he loved and served.

“I am deeply grieved that the church I have loved and served for over 30 years, has left me no choice.” said Bishop Malcolm, “My heart yearns for revival in Canada and in Anglicanism but I have lost hope for reformation within the Anglican Church of Canada. I now realize that we cannot have unity at the expense of truth. I cannot in conscience travel the path that the Anglican Church of Canada is traveling, away from historic Christian teaching and established Anglican practice.”

The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone (Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America) is one of 38 Provinces that make up the global Anglican Communion. It encompasses much of South America and includes Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay and Argentina.

The Anglican Network in Canada is currently holding its national conference in Burlington, Ontario to outline details of the new episcopal option now available to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are in “serious theological dispute” with the Anglican Church of Canada and want to be recognized as “fully Anglican” and in the mainstream of global Anglicanism.

The Anglican Network in Canada is committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their spiritual brothers and sisters around the world.

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Bishop Harvey welcomes two parishes to jurisdiction of the Southern Cone (AAC, 071126)

The first Canadian Anglican churches have been welcomed to the episcopal care of Bishop Donald Harvey under the Primatial authority of Archbishop Gregory Venables and the Province of the Southern Cone. Neither St John’s Richmond (BC) nor Church of the Resurrection (Hope, BC) was an Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) congregation at the time they joined, although both had their roots in the ACC.

“We are sending these churches out to minister, share the good news of Jesus Christ, and help rebuild an orthodox Anglican witness in Canada,” said Bishop Donald Harvey.

St John’s Richmond is a young vibrant congregation of 80 that meets in a Baptist church building. It started in 2005 as a Bible study group of members from St John’s (Shaughnessy) and has grown rapidly since. They have been an independent church in full communion with ANiC parishes.

‘We’re very thankful that this allows us to be in full communion with Anglicans worldwide,” said the Rev Sean Love, rector of St John’s Richmond. “We look forward to Bishop Don’s episcopal ministry and are excited about continuing gospel mission and ministry in a growing urban centre.”

Church of the Resurrection began in 2006 as well but under very different circumstances. It was planted by the biblically orthodox majority of the former congregation of Christ Church Hope after their priest, the Rev Dr Archie Pell, was summarily fired by Bishop Michael Ingham following a parish vote to affiliate with the Anglican Network in Canada. The bishop then appointed a minister with a more liberal theology. The Rev Pell teaches at Regent College in Vancouver as a professor of Anglican Studies. Until recently, his wife, Dr Barbara Pell, taught English Literature at Trinity Western University.

“When the Diocese of New Westminster dismissed me and appointed a priest sympathetic to the bishop’s position, the Anglican Network in Canada and Bishop Harvey gave us support, both legally and spiritually,” said the Rev Pell. “Now, we are thrilled to be embraced by a God-fearing Province that allows us to remain fully Anglican and in fully communion with the worldwide Anglican Church. We no longer have to feel alone.”

The Anglican Network in Canada (the Network) is committed to remaining faithful to Holy Scripture and established Anglican doctrine and to ensuring that orthodox Canadian Anglicans are able to remain in full communion with their spiritual brothers and sisters around the world. The Network will have members who are under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone as well members who are in the Anglican Church of Canada during a transitional period.

The Network just concluded its national conference in Burlington, Ontario at which it outlined details of the church structure and relationship to the Province of the Southern Cone – now available to biblically faithful Canadian Anglicans who are in “serious theological dispute” with the Anglican Church of Canada and want to be recognized as “fully Anglican” and in the mainstream of global Anglicanism.

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Australian Archbishop Calls Anglican Court’s Approval of Female Bishops ‘Shaky’ (Christian Post, 071128)

SYDNEY – Sydney Anglican Archbishop Dr. Peter Jensen has made clear his disappointment in the highest legal authority in the Australian Anglican Church, calling its recent decision to allow the ordination of women as bishops “shaky.”

The Appellate Tribunal’s 4-3 decision late September, which did not address whether the ordination of women is compatible with the Bible, is being challenged by Jensen, who said the majority ruling was “scarcely” based on a sound basis for such a big change.

In his monthly column for the Southern Cross publication, Jensen said the decision should have been made by the General Synod rather than the Tribunal. Adelaide Anglican Archbishop Jeffrey Driver concurred with Jensen though he welcomed the decision.

To address those who are aggrieved about the issue, a new organization, known as the Association for the Apostolic Ministry, was set up jointly by both the Bishop of Ballarat and the Sydney Anglican Archbishop in October to help them. Some of the activities the new ministry will undertake include locating people who have objections, representing their interests, and educating the Church about the biblical teachings on this issue, reported the Sydney Anglican media portal.

Meanwhile, Jensen is negotiating for a national protocol to protect congregations that do not recognize female bishops as representatives of their diocese, and is following the footsteps of his predecessor, Archbishop Harry Goodhew, in declining to recognize women’s Episcopal bishop orders and their priestly duties.

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Breakaway Anglicans Set for Fight (AAC, 071129)

$1 million set aside, law firm hired as property battle threatens

Canada’s breakaway conservative Anglicans have a million-dollar war chest to fight pending legal battles over church property and have hired a Bay Street law firm, documents from the groups’ recent meeting in Burlington reveal.

“It is possible that we could lose church properties at the end of the day,” reads one of the documents, released this week by Anglican Essentials Canada. “However, that day could be very long coming.”

The document is from a session on the legal implications of separating from the Anglican Church of Canada that was closed to the media. In it, lawyer Cheryl Chang says the group is confident it has sufficient resources to fight any legal battle.

“We feel we have a very good legal case to make and have a substantial commitment for a legal fund in the amount of $1 million,” the document reads.

Reached at her Vancouver office, Chang would only say “a group” has committed $1 million to Essentials, but refused to identify the group.

Last September, Essentials signed on to the Common Cause partnership of orthodox groups in the U.S. hoping to set up their own church.

Chang says the fight here will likely go to the Supreme Court of Canada, and cost well over $1 million.

“This is going to be expensive, not only for us but for the Anglican Church of Canada,” Chang says, adding that losing the buildings and bank accounts would case “irreparable harm” to Essentials.

“This is really about freedom of religion,” she says.

The Anglican Church of Canada declined comment. Primate Fred Hiltz is preparing a pastoral letter to be read in all Anglican churches this Sunday outlining his response to the Essentials’ activities.

Other documents from last week’s pivotal meeting show that the group has a start-up budget of $130,000 and an annual operating budget of $750,000. A registered charity, it is looking for office space in Mississauga.

Rev. Canon Charlie Masters, a priest in Lowville and leading member of the group, says Essentials will ask all its members from 16 parishes across the country to donate 10 per cent of their income.

“We are going to be encouraging every individual to tithe. That’s the biblical standard,” he told a press conference last week.

Masters was to see Niagara Bishop Ralph Spence Tuesday to discuss his involvement in Essentials, but the meeting was delayed while Masters seeks legal council.

Bitter legal battles have already begun in the U.S., where several parishes have broken with the Episcopal Church to align themselves with more conservative Anglican churches in developing countries.

That process has only just begun in Canada, with the announcement last week that the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America has invited Anglicans here to switch their allegiance from the Anglican Church of Canada.

Chang says clergy could face disciplinary actions for their Essentials work, including suspension of their licences and dismissal. She is advising clergy to a witness to meetings with their bishops.

“This is the livelihood of a priest at stake,” she says.

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First Episcopal Diocese Set to Take Final Vote on Split (Christian Post, 071206)

The 9,000-strong Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin in California will vote this week on whether or not to secede from The Episcopal Church.

The diocese consists of almost 50 churches and would be the first to leave over the divide sparked by the liberal stance of The Episcopal Church on homosexuality.

The U.S. arm of Anglicanism and the worldwide Anglican Communion have been divided ever since The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop – Gene Robinson of New Hampshire – in 2003.

Concerns over the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of homosexual bishops have not gone away despite a pledge to “exercise restraint” by The Episcopal Church earlier this fall.

As many as 32 individual parishes have already left and another 23 have voted to leave the American church body as a result of its liberal pro-gay stance, but a whole diocese has yet to split.

The dioceses of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Fort Worth have all taken preliminary votes to leave but any final decision is still one year away.

According to Reuters, the bishop of San Joaquin Diocese, John-David Scholfield, said that leaving The Episcopal Church would be “a sensible way forward,” but not one to be regarded as a permanent departure should “circumstances change and The Episcopal Church repents.”

The diocese has been invited to place itself under the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of South America, led by Archbishop Gregory Venables of Argentina and part of the more conservative Global South movement in the Anglican Communion.

In a preliminary vote last year, the Diocese of San Joaquin voted overwhelmingly to leave The Episcopal Church. In order to leave, however, two votes a year apart are required.

According to Reuters, an organization called “Remain Episcopal” is fighting against splitting from the American church body and has said its members will stay and be recognized by The Episcopal Church should the bishop, clergy and other congregants leave.

The presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Schori, called upon Schofield to stay within the church body, saying, “The Church will never change if dissenters withdraw from the table,” according to Reuters.

The Episcopal head also said she would initiate a process allowing her to “depose” the bishop, declare the diocese vacant and form a new church leadership out of the remaining congregation and clergy.

The Episcopal Church has also claimed that the church buildings used by exiting congregations belong to them, and that departing congregations will need to find new places to worship. The Episcopal Church is already engaged in legal battles over church property with congregations who have left.

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First Diocese Approves Split with Episcopal Church (Christian Post, 071209)

A California diocese overwhelmingly voted on Saturday to sever ties with The Episcopal Church, becoming the first diocese in the church’s history to do so.

Despite warning from the head of the national church, delegates of the Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22 to secede and realign with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

“This is the first time, I believe, that a diocese has finally said ‘enough’ in terms of the liberal theology of The Episcopal Church,” said Bishop John David Schofield of the San Joaquin diocese before the vote.

The break comes after years of conflict over what the diocese and other conservatives contend is The Episcopal Church’s departure from Scripture and traditional Anglicanism. While dozens of congregations have already disaffiliated from the national church, Saturday’s vote marked the first time an entire diocese has chosen to secede.

“The church will inevitably leave the Bible behind at point after point,” said Schofield to the diocesan convention on Friday, “but since on this view the Bible is the word of fallible men rather than of the infallible God, leaving it behind is no great loss,” as reported by The New York Times.

Before the vote, Schofield had written to Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, saying, “We are not pining away here in the Diocese of San Joaquin; we are rejoicing in the truth of God’s word!”

In the Dec. 5 letter, the bishop noted the national church’s “failure to heed the repeated calls for repentance issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion.” He further pointed out the church’s “cessation of false teaching and sacramental actions explicitly contrary to Scripture.”

The letter was in response to the Episcopal head’s warning to draw back from plans for secession.

The Episcopal Church - U.S. arm of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion - had widened rifts when it consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Primates, the top leaders of Anglican provinces worldwide, have asked the American arm not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize same-sex unions and have further called for “true repentance,” urging the national church to get back in line with the rest of the Anglican Communion and with Scripture.

In September, U.S. Episcopal leaders passed a resolution to “exercise restraint” in consecrating gay bishops and also pledged not to authorize public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions. Conservatives, however, saw no “genuine change” in The Episcopal Church, which has persistently called for the full participation of gays and lesbians in the church.

While the Anglican Communion calls its leaders to minister pastorally to all, including homosexuals, the global body rejects homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture.

San Joaquin’s latest vote follows last year’s approval to change the diocesan constitution to remove language that states the diocese accedes to The Episcopal Church’s Constitution and Canons. A second vote - which occurred Saturday - was required to approve such constitutional amendments.

“The Episcopal Church receives with sadness the news that some members of this church have made a decision to leave this church,” Jefferts Schori said in a statement after the vote. “We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the historical Anglican understanding of comprehensiveness. We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey. The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership.”

Three other Episcopal dioceses - Forth Worth in Texas, Pittsburgh, and Quincy in Illinois - have held their first votes to withdraw from The Episcopal Church. Schofield of San Joaquin expects other dioceses to take similar steps to leave.

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Breakaway Anglicans Move Forward with Orthodox Initiative (Christian Post, 071207)

The first annual meeting of a flourishing breakaway Anglican group opened Thursday, marking the “coming of age” for the orthodox Anglican initiative, said one bishop.

Hundreds of clergy and lay delegates representing more than 60 congregations in the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) converged in Herndon, Va., for the first council addressing the current state and future growth of the orthodox group.

“This is the first time that we have been able to gather so many CANA clergy and lay leaders together and I would be most remiss if I did not express my personal gratitude to all of you for your remarkable faith,” CANA missionary bishop the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns said in his opening address Thursday. “Your willingness to step out of the boat and become part of this community of faithful Anglicans called CANA is a source of continuing encouragement.”

Presiding over the council this weekend is Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who set up CANA in the United States as a missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria - one of the largest provinces in the global Anglican Communion. CANA is now a body for realignment or what Akinola called a place to provide a spiritual home for those discontent in The Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch of Anglicanism – and its liberal direction in Scripture and theology.

In his “State of the Church” address, Minns retraced divisions in the Anglican Communion back to 1998 during the decennial global Lambeth Conference when a resolution rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture was passed. The resolution provoked strong dissent from many in The Episcopal Church.

“‘No one can tell us what to do!’ was a persistent reaction,” Minns explained about the U.S. Anglican church’s reaction. “Very quickly that was translated into a much more aggressive embrace of non-biblical views on human sexuality and, in general, a diluting of the Gospel to the point where it was barely recognizable as traditional Christianity.”

In 2003, The Episcopal Church widened rifts when it consecrated its first openly gay bishop – V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Some Episcopal leaders also affirmed the practice of same-sex blessings.

“These specific actions revealed that those in control of The Episcopal Church were ready to separate themselves from the ‘faith once and for all delivered to the saints’ and embrace innovations that were essentially a new religion,” Minns said. “This was a step too far for many orthodox believers.”

Minns was consecrated last year as the first full-time bishop for CANA as the breakaway group grew with congregations seeking to be biblically faithful and remain a part of traditional Anglicanism, they contend. CANA now numbers about 60 congregations and over 100 clergy in 20 states and with a total average Sunday attendance of approximately 8,600.

Rapid growth, however, presents some challenges to the diverse breakaway body. The question of women’s ordination has come up and while CANA has committed to the full participation of women in the leadership of the church, dissenting voices have been raised among the conservative members. Minns proposed that the group continue allowing women clergy while still honoring the position of those unable to support women’s ordination. A task force has been set up to continue work on this issue.

Several CANA congregations in Virginia are also currently involved in a multi-million dollar property battle with The Episcopal Church. Lawsuits were filed against 11 churches that disaffiliated with the national church. The first of two trials concluded last month and breakaway leaders are confident they will keep their church properties.

Despite the challenges, CANA members are moving forward with “great joy and conviction that this is the right thing that God has led,” said Minns in a conference call Thursday.

To date, five of 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion have recognized CANA as a provincial structure, reported Minns. And he is optimistic that they will receive Communion-wide recognition.

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Diocese of Recife Approves Affiliation with Anglican Church of Southern Cone (AAC, 071211)

Delegates and observers from the 44 territorial and extra-territorial communities (parishes, church plant and missions points) which comprises the diocese (over 4.000 members) passed unanimously with a standing ovation the following motion: “In gratitude to God, and to our brothers and sisters in that Province, we deliberate to join, officially, the Church of the Southern Cone, as an extra-territorial diocese, subject to its Authority, Constitution and Canons, and hereby request its acceptance”. The house reflected favorable on the last two years in which the diocese has been under the supervision of Primate Gregory J. Venables.

In his message to Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, the clergy and the people of the Diocese of Recife, the Primate of the Southern Cone commended the diocese for standing firm in the Gospel in the face of unfair treatment, declaring that “Our Synod resolved with great support to commission our house of bishops and diocesan council to find the language necessary to bring the diocese of Recife into formal relations with the Southern Cone”. In other words, from just a protection into one more normal provincial life. “Please be assured of our united support and prayers for you and particularly for my deep sense of privilege as your brother and Primate, affirmed Archbishop Venables.

The XXVII Synod of the Diocese of Recife voted canonical amendments consonant with the Constitution and Canons of the Southern Cone, concluded with a Eucharistic Service, with the ordination of three deacons. Bishop Peter Beckwith of the companion diocese of Springfield (TEC) preached and co-celebrated.

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CANA’s Growth Continues: Four New Bishops Consecrated (AAC, 071210)

HERNDON, Va. (December 10, 2007) – The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) consecrated four new suffragan bishops yesterday. These included The Rev’d Canon Roger Ames, Rector of St. Luke’s in Akron, Ohio; The Rev’d Canon David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council in Atlanta, Ga.; The Ven. Amos Fagbamiye, Vicar of Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Indianapolis, Ind.; and The Rev’d Canon Nathan Kanu, Vicar of Christ’s Ambassadors Anglican Church in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“We are thrilled to welcome these four new bishops to CANA. They will minister to our growing flock of orthodox Anglicans here in the U.S. and bring an incredible depth of pastoral care to CANA congregations. CANA is not primarily concerned about ‘doing’ church but about ‘being’ church. Our greatest desire is to be ‘a people with whom God is pleased to dwell’ so that his love can be reflected through our lives. We know that without Him we are nothing but with Him there are no challenges or obstacles that we cannot overcome,” said CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns.

“These past few months have been an exciting time for all of us. We have grown at a remarkable rate. We have done so in the face of relentless opposition and some of the largest lawsuits ever mounted by The Episcopal Church against its own clergy and congregations. We now number about 60 congregations and over 100 clergy in twenty states and with a total average Sunday attendance of approximately 8,600 – larger than seventy percent of the diocese in The Episcopal Church. We have been blessed by the wonderful diversity of the congregations and the common commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” Minns continued.

“CANA has a passion for people – all people everywhere, black and white, rich and poor, single and married, young and old – and we believe that our most effective way of demonstrating God’s promises for them is through the life and witness of local churches that are beacons of light and communities of hope. We are committed to strengthening marriages and families because we believe that God’s plan for humanity is best lived out in the context of Christ centered homes where children know they are loved. We know that we live in a broken world where people are often treated as objects to be used or manipulated and often discarded and we renew our commitment to the sacred worth and dignity of every human being. We believe that there is no person outside the reach of God’s love.”

The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (www.canaconvocation.org) currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 100 clergy in 20 states. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion.

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Episcopal Church, Anglican Communion Continue to Undergo a Seismic Shift (AAC, 071212)

“The Episcopal Church’s average Sunday attendance undoubtedly will continue to drop dramatically. Meanwhile, Anglican groups that the Episcopal Church dismisses offhand, other than to sue them over property, continue to grow.”

—IRD Director of Anglican Action Ralph Webb

Washington, DC- Last weekend was a significant one in the life of the Episcopal Church and the larger Anglican Communion. On December 8, delegates to the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of San Joaquin overwhelmingly voted to leave the denomination. The vote carried with support from 90 percent of the lay delegates and 83 percent of the clergy delegates. The diocese has aligned itself with another province in the Anglican Communion, the Province of the Southern Cone.

On December 9, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary arm of the Church of Nigeria, consecrated four new bishops to support its growing work in North America. Roger Ames, David Anderson, Amos Fagbamiye, and Nathan Kanu have joined the Rt. Rev. David Bena as suffragen bishops under the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, who is missionary bishop of CANA.

IRD Director of Anglican Action Ralph Webb commented:

“The seismic shift in the Episcopal Church and the larger Anglican Communion continues unabated. The Diocese of San Joaquin is most likely only the first of several dioceses to leave the Episcopal Church. The denomination apparently has lost the vast majority of its parishioners and clergy in the diocese.

“The activity of CANA this last weekend also was remarkable. Many bishops from the larger Anglican Communion attended the consecrations. Orthodox Anglicans from many different groups also were present, demonstrating a solidarity that could only have been dreamed of a few years ago.

“The lives of orthodox Anglicans from the Diocese of San Joaquin and CANA may well prove difficult over the next few years. They have made costly decisions. Still, they say they are experiencing a sense of freedom in following Christ in the larger Anglican Communion outside of the Episcopal Church. Other orthodox Anglicans are making sacrificial decisions by staying within the Episcopal Church and maintaining a biblically faithful witness there.

“The Episcopal Church’s domestic average Sunday attendance dropped 11 percent between 2001 and 2006, and it will undoubtedly continue to drop dramatically as long as departures continue. Meanwhile, Anglican groups that the Episcopal Church dismisses, other than to sue them over property, continue to grow. Clearly, new alliances are being forged and old ones are crumbling in today’s tumultuous Anglican Communion.”

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Church on the Tipping Point (Church of England Newspaper, 071212)

By Chris Sugden

“This is an historic weekend on both coasts,” said Bishop Bob Duncan, the moderator of Common Cause in the United States. He had attended the vote of the Diocese of San Joaquin in California to leave The Episcopal Church (TEC), and flew to Washington to attend the consecration of four new bishops for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). He brought them ‘greetings from the wider fellowship which is our common future,’ looking forward to a new Anglican entity in North America.

The Church of the Epiphany, near Dulles International Airport, in Washington DC is the home of the CANA offices. Some 1,000 people gathered there last Sunday for a three-hour service for the consecration of two Nigerians and two Anglo-Americans as bishops of CANA. The Convocation of Anglicans in North America has 60 congregations in 20 states in the USA, with a total average Sunday attendance of approx 8,600, larger than 70 per cent of TEC dioceses. A senior leader said CANA expected to grow to 200 congregations in the next year. All the glories of Anglican worship were there: a splendid liturgy, the great hymns of the church, enthusiastic African praise songs accompanied by drums and the celebrant on tambourine led by a dominant Nigerian soprano, and robust biblical exposition. It was impossible to tell if this was a Nigerian service in which Anglo-Americans took part, or an Anglo-American service in which Nigerians took part. CANA and other Anglican entities on North America are working hard to express true partnership across cultures. It is hard to see what else other than the crisis we are in could have brought about such a deep desire from Westerners for Global South help.

Archbishop Edmund Akanya of Kaduna insisted in his sermon that the antidote to prevailing heresy is the faithful teaching of the whole Bible. “We will continue to face the growth of heresies. Teach the Word, it is your duty to protect and preserve what God has given to our hands. The divisions in the Anglican Communion are not about sexuality. It is the beginning of a new kind of religion which not only reinterprets traditional doctrines but jettisons many altogether.” To this task the new bishops, Roger Ames, David Anderson, Amos Fagbamiye and Nathan Kanu were consecrated. The Missionary Bishop of CANA Martyn Minns said in his pastoral call, that all would continue in their parish ministry:

“Bishops are called to guard and strengthen values, set out vision, develop unity and connectedness, recognise gifts and callings and care for leaders.” Bishops are called to ‘guard the faith, unity and discipline of the Church’ and ‘to be in all things a faithful pastor and wholesome example for the entire flock of Christ.’ Contrary to this, in the Church of England, those who run large churches successfully are not considered suitable material for preferment. The new Bishops were consecrated by the Primate of Nigeria, three archbishops and 11 bishops from Nigeria who traveled at their own expense, Bishops Minns and Bena of Cana, Bishop Bob Duncan, Bishop John Guernsey (Uganda) Bishop Royal Grote of the Reformed Episcopal Synod, and Bishop Don Harvey (Anglican Network in Canada).

Bishop Frank Lyons (Bolivia) also brought greetings from Archbishop Greg Venables, the Primate of the growing Southern Cone, who “sent his greetings, love and blessing”. Bishop John Balls, himself a former Bishop in Africa and now Assistant Bishop in Chelmsford, brought special greetings from ‘many in the Church of England who stand with you in what you are doing here today’ and from Bishop Wallace Benn, the President of the Church of England Evangelical Council who expressed himself to be ‘150 per cent behind you.’ Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti of Recife, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester and Bishop Colin Bazley of Chester Diocese also sent greetings.

What we saw last weekend were tipping events. Canon Vinay Samuel notes that most social and spiritual institutions are built and sustained by conventions. A convention is an outcome in which it is in the interest of the members to adhere to the convention as long as they believe most others will do the same. What the Anglican Network in Canada, the Diocese of San Joaquin and CANA have done in developing succession in global Anglican ministry and global Anglican fellowship are tipping events leading to the tipping point.

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Anglicans at a Deadlock; Archbishop Pursues More Talks (Christian Post, 071216)

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said it is “practically impossible” to expect a clearer response from the American church which had earlier agreed to halt the ordination of openly gay bishops.

In a lengthy Advent letter addressed to the global Anglican Communion, Williams - Anglican spiritual head - delivered a long-awaited response to the current crisis dividing the 77 million-member body. The letter was released Friday.

“It is practically impossible to imagine any further elucidation or elaboration coming from TEC (The Episcopal Church) after the successive statements and resolutions from last year’s General Convention onwards,” Williams wrote.

In September, The Episcopal Church - U.S. branch of Anglicanism - said it would “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” It further pledged not to authorize public rites of the blessing of same-sex unions. At the same time, Episcopal bishops called for “unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.”

The Episcopal Church had caused uproar in the global body when it consecrated openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Conservative Anglicans have demanded a clear response from the American branch on whether it would repent and get back in line with traditional Anglicanism or continue on its own path, apart from the rest of the Communion. They concluded from the September resolution that they saw no change in The Episcopal Church’s liberal direction on theology and Scripture.

Across the global Communion, primates - highest leaders of the Anglican Communion’s 38 provinces - came to no consensus about whether the American branch provided an adequate response. Slightly more than half of the leaders were willing to accept The Episcopal Church’s pledges while the rest regarded the response “inadequate.”

Williams noted in his letter that it is “extremely unlikely” that a more substantial consensus will come out.

The archbishop faulted both the American branch and conservative Anglican leaders overseas, saying both sides have violated the Communion’s boundaries.

He criticized The Episcopal Church for departing from the Communion’s common reading of Scripture by ordaining an openly gay bishop and blessing same-sex unions “in the name of the Church.”

Williams also criticized conservative leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America for intervening by taking American parishes under their wings and ordaining conservative Americans as bishops. Such interventions create “rivalry and confusion,” he said.

Both liberal and conservative Anglicans were troubled by the archbishop’s letter.

The Chicago Consultation - a group of liberal bishops, priests and laypeople - said the letter “contains not a word of comfort to gay and lesbian Christians,” noting the archbishop’s unwillingness to include homosexuals in leadership.

The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, a conservative strategist, was comforted by the archbishop’s emphasis on the authority of Scripture but troubled by what appeared to be an “equivalency” between the errors of The Episcopal Church and the conservatives, according to The New York Times.

Harmon said the archbishop had consistently failed to discipline the American church and that the letter provided “truth, but no consequences,” as reported by The New York Times.

Some conservative leaders have threatened to boycott next summer’s Lambeth conference, a global meeting that occurs once a decade. But Williams said the refusal to meet can be “a refusal of the cross - and so of the resurrection” and called for professionally facilitated conversations between The Episcopal Church with those they are most in dispute.

“We are being asked to see our handling of conflict and potential division as part of our maturing both as pastors and as disciples,” he wrote.

Further conversations are an attempt to ease tensions and clarify options, Williams said.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori welcomed the archbishop’s recommendation.

“I am glad to hear of the archbishop’s interest in facilitating further conversations,” she said. “While I have repeatedly offered to engage in dialogue with those who are most unhappy, the offer has not yet been seriously engaged. Perhaps a personal call from the archbishop will bring to the table those who have thus far been unwilling to talk.”

Williams acknowledged that the Communion has come to a deadlock but refused to believe that division is unavoidable or that future cooperation cannot be imagined.

“I cannot accept these assumptions, and I do not believe that as Christians we should see them as beyond challenge, least of all as we think and pray our way through Advent,” he said.

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Archbishop of Canterbury Dismisses Nativity Scene as Nothing but ‘Legend’ (London Times, 071220)

[KH: moving toward being heretical]

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, dismissed the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men yesterday as nothing but “legend.” [KH: liberal !]

There was scant evidence for the Magi, and none at all that there were three of them, or that they were kings, he said. All the evidence that existed was in Matthew’s Gospel. The Archbishop said: “Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us there were three of them, doesn’t tell us they were kings, doesn’t tell us where they came from. It says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that’s all we’re really told.” Anything else was legend. “It works quite well as legend,” the Archbishop said.

Further, there was no evidence that there were any oxen or asses in the stable. The chances of any snow falling around the stable in Bethlehem were “very unlikely.” And as for the star rising and then standing still: the Archbishop pointed out that stars just don’t behave like that.

Although he believed in it himself, he advised that new Christians need not fear that they had to leap over the “hurdle” of belief in the Virgin Birth before they could be “signed up.” For good measure, he added, Jesus was probably not born in December at all. “Christmas was when it was because it fitted well with the winter festival.”

He said the Christmas cards that show the Virgin Mary cradling baby Jesus, with the shepherds on one side and the Three Wise Men on the other, were guilty of “conflation.”

But in spite of his scepticism about aspects of the Christmas story, as told in infant nativity plays up and down the land, he denied that believing in God was equivalent to believing in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy.

“The thing is, belief in Santa does not generate a moral code, it does not generate art, it does not generate imagination. Belief in God is a bit bigger than that,” the Archbishop said.

Williams was speaking live on BBC Radio Five to the presenter Simon Mayo when Ricky Gervais, star of The Office and a fellow guest, challenged him about the intellectual credibility of the Christian faith.

He said he was committed to belief in the Virgin Birth “as part of what I have inherited.” But belief in the Virgin Birth should not be a “hurdle” over which new Christians had to jump before they were accepted. [KH: Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! This is the test-stone of orthodox faith.]

He hinted that decades ago he was not “too fussed” with the literal truth of the doctrine of the Virgin Birth. But as time went on, he developed a “deeper sense” of what the Virgin Birth was all about. And he went on to do a literary-critical analysis of the traditional Christmas card that features, as often as not, a Virgin Mary cradling a baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, with shepherds on one side, the Three Wise Men on the other and oxen and asses all around. Sometimes the stable is depicted with snow falling all around, and often with a bright star rising in the East.

Most of it, the Archbishop said, could not have happened like that.

One of the few things that almost everyone agreed on was that Jesus’s mother’s name was Mary. That is in all the four Gospels. It was also pretty clear that Jesus’s father was called Joseph.

Williams was not saying anything that is not taught as a matter of course in even the most conservative theological colleges. His supporters would argue that it is a sign of a true man of faith that he can hold on to an orthodox faith while permitting honest intellectual scrutiny of fundamental biblical texts. [KH: wrong again!!!]

The Archbishop admitted that the Church’s present difficulties, with the dispute over sexuality taking the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism, were off-putting to outsiders. “They don’t want to know about the inside politics of the Church, they want to know if God’s real, if they can be forgiven, what sort of lifestyles matter more and they want to know, I suppose, if their prayers are heard.”

Williams’s views are strictly in line with orthodox Christian teaching. The Archbishop is sticking to what the Bible actually says. [KH: no, this is not orthodox; no wonder the Anglican church is splitting up.]

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Christian Author Defends Archbishop’s Nativity ‘Legend’ Remarks (Christian Post, 071222)

LONDON – Shortly after the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion drew fire for dismissing one popular aspect of the nativity story as a “legend” the week before Christmas, a Christian author and speaker defended the church leader and criticized British media for going “berserk.”

“I heard the interview yesterday and at no point did Rowan Williams deny the historicity of the nativity accounts – he just tried to point out what they actually say, as opposed to what people think they say,” wrote Nick Page in a web log Thursday.

In an interview with BBC Radio Five, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams had indicated that Scripture does not describe the magi as commonly depicted in nativity stories and scenes.

“Well Matthew’s gospel doesn’t tell us that there were three of them, doesn’t tell us they were kings, doesn’t tell us where they came from, it says they’re astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire,” he said. “That’s all we’re really told so, yes, ‘the three kings with the one from Africa’ – that’s legend; it works quite well as legend.”

The next day, the London-based Telegraph newspaper published an article with the headline “Archbishop says nativity ‘a legend.’”

“All he (Williams) does is point out what is actually in the Bible and some pinheads who pass for journalists at the Telegraph go berserk. (One of whom, apparently, is the Editor -in-chief of the Catholic Herald. He really should know better.),” pointed out Page in the archbishop’s defense.

“Actually reading the Bible, as opposed to glancing at the Christmas cards, reveals that not only was there no kings, there was no stable and, in all probability, no inn,” he continued, noting that the word usually translated as “inn” actually means “guest room.”

This week, Page released his latest book – “Whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant?” – in which he asserts that Jesus was not born in a stable and that Mary and Joseph were not turned away by a hard-hearted inn-keeper.

“Every nativity play, every nativity scene, every Christmas card – they have all got it wrong,” says Page, whose latest book looks at over 30 “mysteries” of the Bible.

“The actual Greek word used by Luke doesn’t refer to an inn at all, but to a guestroom. Most likely Mary and Joseph were lodging with relatives. There wasn’t enough room, so they were sleeping in the place where the animals are kept,” he explains.

“In peasant households of the time, animals were kept in the lower part of the house, partly so the animals wouldn’t be stolen, and partly because the heat from their bodies provided a kind of rudimentary central heating.”

The idea of the stable, Page notes, is just one of the things that society has gotten wrong in the traditional rendition of the Christmas story. He also argues that Mary was probably only fourteen, that Joseph was not much older and that both came from very poor backgrounds.

“The trouble is that the stable and all that tends to turn the whole thing into a kind of fairy-tale,” he says. “But the gospel writers weren’t just highlighting the miraculous nature of the events, they were pointing out that the whole thing took place against a background of poverty and hardship.

“To them, the idea that Jesus was born to a peasant household and laid in an animal’s feeding trough was as amazing as the star and the angelic choir.”

Page stresses that the facts really do matter “if you care about the history and want to get to the reality of what actually happened.”

“And I think it’s good news for inn-keepers everywhere. There never was an inn and there never was a hard-hearted innkeeper. These guys have had nearly two thousand years of bad PR, all because we translate the word wrongly,” he adds.

In addition to separating nativity facts from the myths, “Whatever happened to the Ark of the Covenant?” tackles some of the other big questions thrown up by the Bible, including where the Ark of the Covenant really ended up, how tall Zacchaeus was, and why Judas kissed Jesus.

“These are questions that have always bothered me,” commented Page, who has authored over 60 books. “I think the answers give us a fascinating insight into the times of the Bible. Or maybe I should just get out more....”

Other books authored by Page include “Church Invisible,” “The Bible Book,” “Lord Minimus,” “The Tabloid Bible” and the more recently published “Explorer’s Notes: The Bible.”

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Anglican District of Virginia Churches Remain Confident: ADV Files Brief in Case to Prevent Church Property Seizure (AAC, 071221)

FAIRFAX, Va. (December 21, 2007) – The 11 Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) churches filed a brief in the Fairfax County Circuit Court regarding the Multi-Circuit Property Litigation. The brief explains the validity of the Virginia Division Statute (Va. Code § 57-9) in determining that the Virginia congregations are entitled to keep their church property due to the division within The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia, and the Anglican Communion. (Case No. CL-2007-0248724)

“As our brief today explains, the evidence at the trial strongly demonstrated that our congregations have satisfied each of the core requirements of this law. There has been a ‘division’ in The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Virginia (“Diocese”), and the worldwide Anglican Communion, and our congregations have joined a ‘branch’ of the divided body created as a result of that division,” said Jim Oakes, Vice-Chairman of the Anglican District of Virginia.

“This division occurred as a result of The Episcopal Church and the Diocese separating themselves from the historic Christian faith by deciding to reinterpret Scripture on a number of different issues. Although the reasons for the division involve important issues of biblical truth, the existence and effects of the division are plain and evident for all to see, without regard to religion.

“The evidence also showed that this law was applied no less than 29 times to recognize the legal rights of congregations to keep their property. Over the years, the Virginia General Assembly has made various amendments to the Virginia Code as it relates to religious organizations, but it has not seen fit to narrow or repeal the Division Statute. The General Assembly continues to believe that when congregations separate from a denomination, the neutral and objective principle of majority rule should govern ownership of property. In addition, The Episcopal Church admitted in its complaint that it does not hold title to any of these eleven churches, and that the churches’ own trustees hold title for the benefit of the congregations.

“As the Global South Primates said in 2004, The Episcopal Church has ‘willfully torn the fabric of the communion at its deepest level and as a consequence openly cut themselves adrift.’ We are sorry that The Episcopal Church has moved away from the historic teachings of the church, but we should not be forced to go with them,” said Oakes.

The Anglican District of Virginia (www.anglicandistrictofvirginia.org) is an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia. Its members are in full communion with constituent members of the Anglican Communion through its affiliation with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary branch of the Church of Nigeria and other Anglican Archbishops. ADV members are a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a community of 77 million people. ADV is dedicated to fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples while actively serving in three main capacities: International Ministries, Evangelism, and Strengthening Families and Community. ADV is currently comprised of 21 member congregations.

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