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"The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe." Proverbs 29:25 KJV
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Message from Bishop David Anderson
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Bishop Anderson
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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus, The other day a friend took me to lunch in downtown Atlanta at a small, funky restaurant that I never knew existed. The food was very good, but what struck me in particular was a picture on the wall of Leonardo DaVinci's "The Last Supper." Superimposed on the picture were cartoon balloons with conversation in each. One balloon was attached to an apostle on one end of the table, calling out to an unseen waiter, "Separate checks, please!" The second balloon was attached to Jesus, who was saying, "That's OK, I'll be paying the price for all of you."  Clearly this little restaurant has a very low key, subtle ministry of evangelism to a crowd that might never hear the Gospel in a church setting - yet while sitting there eating a pulled pork sandwich, one might begin to notice that there is "folk art" spaced out on the walls, conveying a distinct message in a refreshingly new way. It gave me something to think about as we continue in our passage through the Lenten season of introspection and repentance. The troubles in Nigeria with the radical Islamist group Boko Haram continue, with the group announcing their intent to eradicate Christianity in Nigeria. Beginning in Northern Nigeria, they plan on launching further attacks targeting Christians. They seem to have adequate small arms to bring terror and bloodshed to Christian families and burn Christian churches, all while the army and the police do next to nothing. In fact, the army and police are also frequent targets of Boko Haram's attacks themselves. The question is, why don't the Christians have any means of their own to protect themselves? Although in Europe and Great Britain the general population is prohibited from having firearms to protect themselves, in the United States the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution guarantees law-abiding citizens such a right. When the police are slow to respond to a violent home invasion, many times the home owner has been able to defend himself with his own firearm, but apparently such is not the case in Nigeria. To be able to adequately defend one's home and hearth seems to me to be a more vital human right than some other more recently discovered rights.
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I have learned the hard way never to say, "It can't get worse," because it always can, no matter how bad it already is. As Albert Mohler says in the article included below, "The debate over abortion comes down to one essential issue - the moral status of the unborn child." One argument that those of us who are pro-life have used is the early date in the womb that the fetal child can feel pain to establish that a living, feeling child is present. Those who favor a mother's right to kill her unborn child are suggesting that a higher standard needs to be used, arguing that such a child lacks the ability to anticipate the future and to communicate. A justification for killing unwanted children is now being proposed not only for children in the womb, but for newborns and possibly older children as well. Alberto Giubilini of the University of Milan and Francesca Minerva of the University of Melbourne and Oxford University are arguing for the legal killing of children after they have been born and are viable. They are trying to characterize it as "after-birth abortion," since it doesn't sound as bad even to them as the correct term, "infanticide."
A problem with their definition of personhood based on the ability to 'anticipate the future' and 'communicate' is that this ability develops over the first years of a child's life. A baby's crying, which is a form of communication, gives way to head shaking and "no" as one of the first words after "mama" and "daddy." So when does the child anticipate the future? It probably depends on the child, but does that mean that we should be able to kill them up until the time when they can? Even our pets are able to use their voice to communicate in a simple manner, and they can anticipate the future quite well. What dog or cat doesn't recognize the sound of an electric can opener, and, anticipating a meal, makes a beeline to the kitchen?
Giubilini and Minerva reflect a godless, anti-life sentiment that must be stopped. I won't call them secular humanists, because their point of view is so anti-human that they need their own category within the culture of death. They are called medical ethicists, but neither word really applies. There is nothing medical in murder, and nothing ethical in their advocacy, even though the Journal of Medical Ethics has published their article. May God have mercy on the children, and inspire us to be their defenders.
Blessings and Peace in Jesus,
+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
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
Dear friends in Christ,
I am writing this morning from snowy and windswept St. John's, Newfoundland, where the temperature is hovering around 30 degrees, but the warmth of the unity and fellowship of the Anglicans here is so very high. I am here this weekend to work with them on growing their churches through our Sure Foundation Project, and after praying with their organizing committee last night, the Lord directed me this morning to 2 Corinthians 4. As I read this inspiring chapter, the Lord reminded me of so many hopeful and encouraging things I have seen over the last month on the road.
Therefore since through God's mercy we have this ministry we do not lose heart. (2 Cor 4:1)
I am passionate to see leaders - clergy and lay - so equipped by God's word and the Holy Spirit that they see even their most challenging times as a gift from the mercy of God, and like Paul they rise to meet those challenges in the same spirit as he did. Last week it was my privilege to share several days with our first "cohort" group of clergy leaders from the Anglican Diocese of the South, the Gulf-Atlantic Diocese, and the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. This was the second gathering of our Clergy Leadership Training Institute, and we were blessed to have the Ven. Don Roberts, Archdeacon from the Anglican Diocese in New England, share with us about "The Competencies of the Leader." Dr. Jim Osterhaus and I continued our teachings on church conflict and the challenges of "Adaptive Leadership" in leading congregations.
In the beauty of The Cove in the mountains of North Carolina, I was struck by several things. The energy and engagement of the clergy there reminded me of that same spirit of joyful perseverance that Paul brought to ministry. Despite difficult situations that many of them face, these leaders shared openly with each other, encouraged each other in small group times and larger group discussions, and sought and received prayer from our teaching team, the intercessors and each other. The Holy Spirit orchestrated our teaching and sharing times in ways we had not anticipated, and I can report that already as they have returned to their congregations they are experiencing fresh outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon their ministries and the people they serve. This is precisely the kind of apostolic anointing and equipping Anglicans need as we seek to share the transforming love of Jesus Christ with a culture that is increasingly tone deaf, if not hostile, to the Gospel.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. (2 Cor. 4:2)
Almost a month ago I was invited to lead the annual parish weekend for Christ Church Anglican in Savannah, GA. I spoke from Nehemiah on the theme of "God's pattern for rebuilding his church" (you can find the teachings on their website here). What impressed me about the people of Christ Church is their absolute love of Jesus Christ, their commitment to reach out to the city of Savannah, and their focus on fulfilling Christ's Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20 to make disciples who are fully devoted to Jesus Christ. Not one person I spoke with - not one - expressed any regret about losing their historic church or their endowments. Not one hoped that through further legal action they might go back into that building. In contrast to the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and its bishop - who continue to demand damages through the courts and to sue the rector and individual leaders of Christ Church Savannah in an attempt to extinguish any Anglican presence in Savannah - the people of Christ Church Anglican have renounced such shameful ways and are no longer looking in the rear view mirror. If they take their case up to the U.S. Supreme Court, along with Bishop Seabury church in Groton, CT, they will be doing so to defend themselves from rapacious and outrageous demands from TEC. The Anglicans at Christ Church Savannah are looking forward to ways they can set forth the truth of Christ's transforming love plainly to those who do not yet know him.
Here at the American Anglican Council, we stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Savannah, in Groton, CT and elsewhere for the defense of the Gospel. If you would like to help them make that defense, please send your gift to the AAC with the designation "Anglican Defense."
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. (2 Cor. 4:3-5)
Here in Newfoundland, where the economy has suffered terribly from foreign overfishing on the Grand Banks and where a whole way of life is now in danger, Anglicans have shared with me how people more than ever need to know about Jesus Christ and his love for them. In an increasingly hostile culture where the laws do not permit Anglicans or other followers of Christ to bring the gospel into any government-funded school or home, Anglicans are challenged to find new and creative ways to reach people with the good news and love of Jesus Christ. The two congregations I am here with are a mustard seed of faith within the province of Newfoundland. They are stepping out in faith, joining hands and hearts and prayers to seek God's direction this weekend - not to preach themselves, but to preach Jesus Christ and themselves as his servants to the least, the last and the lost.
Will you join me in praying God's blessing upon them? Please pray that through this Sure Foundation weekend they will find a renewal of vision, a rediscovery of the core values that shaped their commitment to leave buildings behind and to follow Jesus, and a clarification of their mission and next steps - and all so that they may do the works that God has given them to do here in St. John's - to pierce the veil of unbelief and hardness of heart so that hearts and minds will be turned to Jesus Christ and his kingdom.
For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6)
So many wonderful connections and opportunities are emerging for the American Anglican Council to continue developing Anglican leaders and congregations here in North America. But one in particular has emerged from my time earlier this week in Plano, TX at Anglican1000. I have been working with several leaders who are passionate to establish a college and university ministry for students who are rediscovering the Anglican "Ancient-Future" way of following Jesus. Such a ministry would provide a missing "leadership pipeline" that will help raise up future lay leaders, church planters and clergy from the next generation for the 1000+ church plants and congregations we will continue to plant and renew. This Anglican University fellowship will be modeled after the Reformed University Fellowship that has been so blessed in providing leaders for the PCA. I am pleased to report, without going into all the details, that we are moving toward a pilot project in a major university in the Southwest. The AAC will be promoting this ministry and helping to provide counsel along the way as part of our commitment to "let light shine" out of the intellectual darkness of our colleges and universitiesand our commitment to raise up faithful leaders for generations to come. More details will follow, but please keep us in prayer as we work together with others to find the right people and resources to move this initiative forward.
With love in Christ, and with hope for the future!
Phil+
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Anglican Perspective: Christian Minority
| Source: Anglican Perspective
March 6, 2012
A recent report suggested that by the year 2030, Great Britain will no longer have a Christian majority. Should Anglicans be concerned about this? How should we respond to the growing numbers of non-Christians in America, Great Britain and elsewhere? This week, Canon Ashey points to how early Christians handled their minority status and what Paul said about responding to the wisdom of the age.
Watch this week's Anglican Perspective here.
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Something Deadly This Way Comes - "After-Birth Abortion"
| Source: Albert Mohler blog
By Albert Mohler
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
The debate over abortion comes down to one essential issue - the moral status of the
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Dr. Mohler
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unborn child. Those making the case for the legalization of abortion argue that the developing fetus lacks a moral status that would trump a woman's desire to abort the child. Those arguing against abortion do so by making the opposite claim; that the unborn child, precisely because it is a developing human being, possesses a moral status by the very fact of its human existence that would clearly trump any rationale offered for its willful destruction.
This central issue is often obscured in both public argument and private conversations about abortion, but it remains the essential question. We have laws against homicide, and if the unborn child is recognized legally and morally as a human being, abortion would be rightly seen as murder.
In the main, abortion rights advocates have drawn the moral line at the moment of birth. That is why, even with our contemporary knowledge of the developing fetus, abortion rights activists have persistently argued in favor of abortions right up to the moment of birth. Anyone doubting this claim needs only to consider the unified opposition of leading abortion rights advocates to restrictions on late-term abortions.
From the beginning of the controversy over abortion, this supposedly bright line of the moment of birth has been unstable. Abortion rights activists have even opposed efforts to restrict the gruesome reality known as partial-birth abortions. The moment of birth has never been the bright line of safety that the defenders of abortion have claimed.
Now, an even more chilling development comes in the form of an article just published in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Professors Alberto Giubilini of the University of Milan and Francesca Minerva of the University of Melbourne and Oxford University, now argue for the morality and legalization of "after-birth abortion."
These authors do not hide their agenda. They are calling for the legal killing of newborn children.
The argument put forth in their article bears a haunting resemblance to the proposal advocated by Dr. Peter Singer of Princeton University, who has argued that the killing of a newborn baby, known as infanticide, should be allowable up to the point that the child develops some ability to communicate and to anticipate the future.
Giubilini and Minerva now argue that newborn human infants lack the ability to anticipate the future, and thus that after-birth abortions should be permitted. The authors explain that they prefer the term "after-birth abortion" to "infanticide" because their term makes clear the fact that the argument comes down to the fact that the birth of the child is not morally significant.
They propose two justifying arguments:
First: "The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus, that is, neither can be considered a 'person' in a morally relevant sense."
Second: "It is not possible to damage a newborn by preventing her from developing the potentiality to be a person in the morally relevant sense."
Thus: "The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack the properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual."
Those assertions are as chilling as anything yet to appear in the academic literature of medical ethics....
The rest of the article may be found here.
Giubilini and Minerva's article was published in the February 23, 2012 Journal of Medical Ethics.
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| Nigeria: Muslims announce plans to 'eradicate Christianity' | Source: WorldNetDaily
March 8, 2012
By Michael Carl
Members of the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram are vowing to "eradicate Christianity" in Nigeria. Reports coming out of Nigeria over the past several days show that the group whose name means "Western education is evil" is launching a new terror campaign aimed at killing Christians and Jews in northern Nigeria.
The Nigerian news site Bikya Masr reports that the jihadi group has declared war on all
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AP photo
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Christians living in northern Nigeria. Human-rights group International Christian Concern's Jonathan Racho confirms the reports and says the news is "alarming."
"The reports indicate that members of Boko Haram recently declared a war on Christians in northern Nigeria. The group vowed to eradicate Christians from certain areas in Nigeria," Racho said.
"The spokesman for the group (Boko Haram) say the group will launch a number of attacks targeting Christians," Racho said. "So there are alarming developments even as we speak."
Estimates put the casualties in Boko Haram's campaign at more than 100 dead since Christmas....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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TEC's Liturgy commission releases proposed same-gender blessing rite
| Source: Episcopal News Service
March 8, 2012
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has released excerpts from its "I Will Bless You, and You Will Be a Blessing: Resources for Blessing Same-Gender Relationships," report, including the text of its proposed rite of blessing.
The excerpts from the commission's report to General Convention are now available for study online here in the Documents section.
In addition to the proposed rite, the excerpts released March 8 include a theological reflection on blessing same-gender relationships and two related legislative resolutions that the SCLM will recommend to General Convention when it meets in Indianapolis July 4-12.
"We really wanted to give bishops and deputies in particular an opportunity to understand the material prior to General Convention and providing it to the wider church then allowed bishops and deputies to hear from the wider church as part of their discernment about how they might respond at convention," the Rev. Ruth Meyers, Hodges-Haynes professor of liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and SCLM chair, told Episcopal News Service in a telephone interview shortly before the excerpts were posted.
The SCLM's work comes in response to General Convention's 2009 mandate (via Resolution C056) that it work with the House of Bishops to collect and develop theological resources and liturgies for blessing same-gender relationships and report to this summer's 77th meeting of convention.
The proposed rite is titled "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant." Marriage is specifically not mentioned because, as Meyers has frequently pointed out, C056 called for development of resources for blessing same-gender relationships and not solemnizing marriages of same-gender couples. However, the introductory page of the rite notes that "to comply with the laws of the civil jurisdiction in which the rite is celebrated, the priest shall consult the bishop, who may authorize modifications in the Pronouncement" section of the rite.
Meyers told ENS that the commission wanted "to leave leeway for" bishops in such settings who have already or may yet decide that clergy in their dioceses may officiate at the civil portion of a marriage or civil union....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Southern Cone to divide - Province to split along the Andes into Atlantic and Pacific groups
| Source: Anglican Ink
March 8, 2012
By George Conger
A special meeting of the Synod of the Province of the Southern Cone has voted to begin discussions on dividing the province in two. Meeting in Asunción, Paraguay, from
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Province of the Southern Cone
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12 - 15 November 2011, the synod suggested dividing the province into an Atlantic and a Pacific half with Peru, Bolivia and two dioceses in Chile comprising one province and Argentina, Northern Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay comprising the second.
According to a press statement released by the Bishop of Bolivia, the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, the decision to divide came in response to a request made by Uruguay to allow it to seek the oversight of another jurisdiction.
In September 2010, the Southern Cone synod rejected a proposal put forward by the Diocese of Uruguay to allow dioceses to have a local option to ordain women to the priesthood. Uruguay's diocesan synod responded the following month, endorsing a resolution asking for a transfer out of the province.
Last June the provincial standing committee agreed to advance the date of the general synod by two years, to November 2011 to review Uruguay's request and to take up the issue of women priests again....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Christians not being persecuted in UK, report concludes
| Source: Church Times
by Madeleine Davies
March 2, 2012
Religious belief is being "gently squeezed" from public life, but Christians do not face persecution, and the campaigning activity of some Christian organisations has been counter-productive.
These are the key findings of the preliminary report on the freedom of Christians in the UK, Clearing the Ground, produced by a cross-party group of Christian MPs, chaired by the Conservative MP Gary Streeter. The group's six-month inquiry received 56 written submissions, and heard evidence from witnesses including the director of Mission and Public Affairs at the Archbishops' Council, the Revd Dr Malcolm Brown.
Launched in Westminster on Monday, the report highlights a "narrowing of the space for the articulation, expression and demonstration of Christian belief" caused by social, cultural, and legal changes over the past ten years.
It finds that the lack of guidance that accompanied the Equality Act has resulted in the creation of a "hierarchy of rights" in which religious belief is placed below other protected characteristics. It argues that indications from court judgments that "sexual orientation takes precedence, and religious belief is required to adapt in the light of this" have led to "an unacceptable and unsustainable situation".
The policing of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, under which Christians have been arrested for using offensive language, is also criticised in the report. MPs suggest that the bar for offence may be set too low, and conclude that "it is becoming increasingly difficult for Christians to speak about their views on sexuality without fear of recrimination."
MPs launching the report were keen to emphasise that much of the conflict described had arisen from misunderstandings about the Christian faith, borne of widespread "religious illiteracy" in public life and within the media....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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