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"Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." 1 Samuel 15:22 NASB
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Message from Bishop David Anderson
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Bishop Anderson
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, We are all now fully underway in this new year of 2012. There has been some speculation about doomsday prophecies from various sources including the Mayan calendar which allegedly calls for this year to be the end of the world. I suppose it could happen, and according to Holy Scripture it will happen at some point. My concern is to be spiritually ready when it does happen. I've never been present for an end of the world before, so I'm not sure exactly what to expect. If the end is Jesus descending from the heavens with an army of angels, that would be great - otherwise, I hope that the end doesn't hurt too much. The Mayans don't really give details; they just stop numbering the days. Well, actually their calendar cycle runs out at a time when a number of internal calendar cycles all end. The economic and spiritual euphoria of previous years culminating in the financial bubble that burst in 2007-08 has already caused most of us some hurt. It would seem that most economic theories and systems have a Pollyannaish, overly optimistic view of human nature, and all finally fail because mankind is innately more sinful than we think, especially when it comes to two of human beings' major weaknesses, money and sex. I am resolved this new year not to say any longer that things can't get worse, because repeatedly they can and do. I remember growing up in the Episcopal Church and thinking that the Anglican Church was the finest of all the church denominations, and that the Episcopal Church was the finest among the Anglicans. Yes, pride can precede a fall, and the Episcopal Church is no longer the church I knew and participated in years ago. The sins that have seemingly shipwrecked the Episcopal Church aren't exactly money and sex; it is more accurately power and sex. For decades, power was taken from the local church leaders and given more and more to the diocese and bishop. In turn, a good deal of this power continued on up to the national church offices and leaders. There was increasingly a consolidation of power previously unknown in the Episcopal Church in America, and at the expense of the religious liberty of the local church.
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The Episcopal Church discovered it had power to coerce members and churches to change in certain directions, and so it applied that power. New rules on marriage after divorce, new Prayer Books, new rules on ordaining women - all of these I confess I supported, not fully realizing that there were considerable collateral considerations that would surprise us, disappoint us, and leave us less than happy. Of remarriage after divorce, which I thought was a good pastoral accommodation, all restraints were soon cast off, and many were and are now married for a third time, and that wasn't what we had in mind. The new Prayer Book which seemed lovely carried with it a subtle change in view and teaching, and almost unnoticed took the church's beliefs in a new direction. Yet, when I close my eyes the words I remember are still from the 1928 Prayer Book.
When it comes to the ordination of women, we touch on an issue that is very difficult. Those who support it point to many women in presbyterial orders who have very well-received ministries, and those who don't support it believe that it just isn't possible to have women in the priesthood. As I have seen the gifts that women bring to the ordained ministry, I also have seen the hurt and damage that this divisive issue has caused throughout the Anglican Communion, and how it brings even close friends to real frustration with each other. Speaking as a bishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, we ordain women to the diaconate, but not as priests or bishops, and this is the discipline that I live under in CANA. Some groups in the ACNA ordain women priests, other groups do not, yet we respect and honor one another and work side by side. Although this is not without tension, it is a wonderful experience to see two opposite points of view able to be honored and respected while we try to work this out on a very long-term basis.
Of all of the changes that have occurred in the Episcopal Church, surely the "pro-choice" stance of so many, including the Executive Council, and the pro-homosexual advocacy of nearly the entire leadership of TEC - despite what the Bible says about such behavior - have pushed many out of the Episcopal branch of the Anglican Communion. Many of us have coalesced to form the Anglican Church in North America, which is episcopally led but synodically governed, and holds all three streams of Anglicanism in a delicate tension. Some groups in the ACNA ordain women priests, other groups do not, yet we respect and honor one another, and work side by side. The three streams of evangelical, charismatic and catholic are held together because we value all three streams and value one another.
The ACNA has been under attack by the Episcopal Church because we are perceived to be a threat to the monopoly of the Anglican franchise that TEC believes it holds in the  United States. Recent property litigation has often gone against the ACNA churches and in favor of TEC, but what TEC (which is shrinking in numbers, down from 3.5 million a few years ago to a generously estimated 1.9 million now) doesn't understand is that although our property is important to us, we will happily worship in rented warehouse space in order to preserve our religious liberty and the sanctity of our souls. A recent ruling of the United States Supreme Court (see article below) confirming the right of religious bodies to set their norms of belief and then use them in the hiring and retention of teachers and ministers in their churches is finally a bit of sanity from the judiciary to move confidently forward with.
News from the orthodox Anglican Province of Uganda is that their primate, the Most Rev'd Henry Luke Orombi, has announced that he is stepping down a little early to devote his time to evangelism, which is his first love. He feels that the Province is at a good point to elect his successor later this year.
Have a blessed year ahead,
+David
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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Chaplain's Corner
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 By The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey, J.D.
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
Canon Ashey is out of the office today and will not be writing an article this week.
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Anglican Perspective: ReconciliationA
| January 11, 2012
Last week, Anglican leaders from the Anglican Church of Rwanda, the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) and other bodies met regarding the recent controversy within the AMiA. Many are hoping that reconciliation will come from the meeting. This Anglican Perspective, filmed last week, focuses on what true reconciliation looks like and what is involved.
View this week's Anglican Perspective here.
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Va. judge rules against conservative churches in property case
| Source: Washington Post
January 11, 2012
By Michelle Boorstein
A Virginia judge has ruled against seven conservative congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, rejecting their argument that they should be able to keep some $40 million in church real estate that the national denomination also claims.
The case has drawn worldwide attention because it involves a cluster of large, prominent churches with well-known conservative pastors and because the issues at hand - particularly the Episcopal Church's acceptance of same-sex relationships as equal to heterosexual ones - are roiling much of organized religion. Various Protestant congregations in particular have wound up in litigation across the country.
The 113-page ruling was handed down Tuesday by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy Bellows.
A spokeswoman for the congregations said they were considering their next step, but a
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The Falls Church
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letter sent to some 4,600 congregants sounded as though they are bracing for the worst. Each congregation has a contingency plan if they have to vacate, said Caitlin Bozell Manaois....
If they decide not to appeal, the congregations would have to vacate their churches, which include the historic The Falls Church and Truro Church in Northern Virginia.
During the 2006-07 votes, almost all the churches' congregants sided with the conservatives. Just four, much smaller groups that did not want to leave the Episcopal Church remained together. They have been worshiping in basements and other temporary spaces during the litigation.
The ruling means, for example, that more than 2,000 worshipers affiliated with the Nigerian Church would move out of The Falls Church and an Episcopal congregation of fewer than 100 would come in....
The rest of the article may be found here.
A detailed analysis by Jeff Walton (IRD) regarding the financial and practical consequences of the ruling may be found here.
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| US Supreme Court sides with church on decision to fire employee on religious grounds | Source: Fox News
January 11, 2012
The Supreme Court has sided unanimously with a church sued for firing an employee on religious grounds, issuing an opinion on Wednesday that religious employers can keep the government out of hiring and firing decisions. In the case of Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, Cheryl Perich, a "called" teacher, argued that the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School of Redford, Mich., had discriminated against her under the Americans With Disabilities Act by refusing to reinstate her to her job after she took leave for narcolepsy.
But the high court found that Perich's was properly classified as a "minister," meaning she falls within the "ministerial exemption" from many employment laws.
"Because Perich was a minister within the meaning of the exception, the First Amendment requires dismissal of this employment discrimination suit against her religious employer," reads the ruling written by Chief Justice John Roberts. "The EEOC and Perich originally sought an order reinstating Perich to her former position as a called teacher. By requiring the Church to accept a minister it did not want, such an order would have plainly violated the Church's freedom under the Religion Clauses to select its own ministers. ...
"The exception ... ensures that the authority to select and control who will minister to the faithful is the church's alone," the ruling reads.
Roberts added that this particular case is based on the ministerial exception's use in dismissing the discrimination claim but does not bar other types of suits alleging breach of contract or "tortious conduct" by religious employers. The applicability of the exception to other circumstances would be dealt with separately "if and when they arise," he wrote....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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| Religious leaders: Gay marriage a 'peril' to liberty | Source: Washington Times
January 12, 2012
By Cheryl Wetzstein
Nearly 40 religious leaders, including Catholic, evangelical, Jewish and Mormon figures, issued an open letter Thursday that argues that the battle against same-sex marriage is a fight on behalf of religious freedom.
"Marriage and religious freedom are both deeply woven into the fabric of this nation," clergy members wrote in their letter, "Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together." It calls on all Americans to promote and protect marriage "in its true definition."
The "most urgent peril" associated with legalizing same-sex unions is that religious individuals and organizations would be forced or pressured to treat same-sex sexual conduct as the moral equivalent of marital sexual conduct, they explained.
These conflicts would arise in countless ways, "because altering the civil definition of 'marriage' does not change one law, but hundreds, even thousands, at once," the clergy said. Already, religious people and groups are being labeled "bigots" and their activities and services punished or targeted because they believe marriage is only the union of one man and one woman....
Among the signatories of the Jan. 12 letter on marriage and religious freedom are leaders of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Anglican Church in North America, the Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints, Agudath Israel of America, the Salvation Army, National Association of Evangelicals, Assemblies of God, the Wesleyan Church, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Church of the Nazarene.
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Presbyterians may split: Conservatives drafting plans for new denomination
| Source: Louisville Courier-Journal
January 7, 2012
By Peter Smith
Presbyterian conservatives are drafting plans for a new denomination as an alternative to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), citing liberal trends over sexuality and theology in the Louisville-based denomination.
The "New Reformed Body" - the working title for the as-yet-unnamed group - would also be an alternative to the existing conservative Presbyterian denominations that broke with the main denomination in previous decades.
Those denominations have attracted dozens of congregations that have already left the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Seventy-eight congregations were officially recorded as leaving between 2007 and 2010 - amid the crescendo of debate over these controversies - and others have been moving to the exits.
The New Reformed Body is slated for discussion at a conference Jan. 18-20 in Orlando, Fla. Also under discussion will be the creation of a separate network for congregations that want to stay in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) while dissenting from some of its liberal stances.
It's too early to say how many congregations might joint a new denomination. But the Orlando gathering is expected to draw representatives from more than 700 congregations, said an organizer, the Rev. Paul Detterman of Louisville, administrative assistant to the group Fellowship of Presbyterians....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Ugandan Archbishop Orombi Announces Retirement
| Source: Anglican Church of Uganda Press Release
8th January 2012
Contact: Rev. Canon George Bagamuhunda
Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi has called for the election of the next Archbishop of the
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Archbishop Orombi
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Church of Uganda. The announcement came during a regularly scheduled meeting of the House of Bishops on Saturday, 7th January, in Mbarara.
Archbishop Orombi confirmed the announcement in Ntungamo on Sunday, 8th January, during the consecration and enthronement of the new Bishop of South Ankole Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Ahimbisibwe.
The election of the next Archbishop will take place in June 2012 by the House of Bishops. The enthronement of the new Archbishop will take place in December 2012.
Archbishop Orombi was elected in July 2003 and enthroned as Archbishop on 25th January 2004.
Archbishops in the Church of Uganda serve a ten-year term and must retire by the age of 65 or at the conclusion of their ten-year term, whichever comes first.
Orombi's ten-year term was set to expire in January 2014, before he turned 65.
Orombi decided to retire one year early, saying, "I want to use my retirement to preach the Gospel single-heartedly. This has been my single passion and I want to fulfill the call while I can still do it."
Orombi's tenure as Archbishop has been marked by reconciliation within conflicted Dioceses, infrastructure development at the Provincial Offices in Namirembe, launching a Decade of Mission, streamlining Provincial operations, a serious engagement with youth around the country, campaigns to eliminate child and human sacrifice, and the long-awaited construction of Church House.
Orombi has been a significant leader and speaker internationally, providing encouragement for the emergence of the Global South churches as leaders for Biblical faithfulness within the worldwide Anglican Communion and interdenominationally.
(A recording of Archbishop Orombi's press conference is available on the AAC's website here.)
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