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"Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him."
Prov. 30:5 KJ21
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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, You are seeing many comments from sources around the world about the announced retirement of Dr. Rowan Williams as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Some are saccharinely sweet, causing me to wonder what planet the writer has been living on, while other comments say nice things so faintly that the writer's true opinion comes through quite clearly. Others are abundantly explicit, comparing him to historical figures who are viewed unfavorably. I've written a personal remembrance of his Canterbury tenure, or at least a partial remembrance, since there are several stories I will wait to tell. My article will appear in the American Anglican Council's newsletter Encompass, which will be released shortly. This newsletter appears in both print form for those who have made a donation and online (free) to those who choose the electronic distribution. If you choose the latter, you are still encouraged to send a generous and much-needed gift to the AAC to help support our national and international work. You can find out about all of that on our website postings. I don't usually endorse a product or movie, since that isn't my main area of expertise, but I am making an exception this week so that you don't miss something that you would enjoy seeing. This week, I want to alert you to a delightful and yet impactful movie which is called, oddly enough, "Baseball, Dennis & the French." You might well wonder what in the world these three items have in common to build a story around. It's worth your time to find out! "Baseball, Dennis & the French" tells the authentic life story of Paul Croshaw, longtime liberal activist and connoisseur of French films, who as a child played baseball (and didn't many of us, many, many years ago!). It is narrated in part by Dennis Prager, the nationally syndicated radio talk show host. For those who haven't listened to Dennis, he is a Jew who has great warmth toward Christianity, rooted as it is in his Judaism, and he makes a delightful and incisive case for the importance of the Judeo-Christian values that have underpinned Western civilization.
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The movie is well done, the story of Paul Croshaw's life well told, and it pulls you right along with lots of quotable gems along the way. You might want to take paper and pen to the movie so you can quickly jot down a few quotable lines to use in those family or office discussions with the skeptics and the confused. Prager has a way of reducing supposedly complex issues to simple, understandable situations that Judeo-Christian teachings speak to clearly and well.
Even if you were to disagree with some of Prager's conclusions, and I can't imagine why you would, you will be charmed by his equanimity and fairness and his acknowledgement of the tension, even within himself, between standards and compassion. Paul Croshaw's story does involve a baseball, Dennis Prager's radio program, and the French, but that is all I am going to tell you; I don't want to spoil the story for you. I would rate it for middle school children on up to senior citizens. If a multigenerational family sees it, it would be interesting to hear what each age group enjoyed and took away.
Go here to find out more about it, and here for release dates in your area and theaters showing it.
Faithfully in Christ,
+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
On March 16th, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, announced that he would be resigning at the end of the year. He has accepted a position at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Having visited there I can tell you that it's a beautiful and ancient place, and Rowan Williams' brilliant academic gifts will serve that institution well.
During his tenure as symbolic leader of the Anglican Communion, the American Anglican Council has differed sharply on matters of the direction of the Communion and his handling of the crisis between those who believe in biblical standards for human sexuality, the sanctity of marriage and for holiness of life in holy orders and those principally in The Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Church of Canada who do not share these beliefs. The settled teaching of the Anglican Communion on these topics (memorialized in Lambeth resolution 1.10 from the 1998 Lambeth Conference) is that we need to follow the Bible on what it says about these things. The Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada have simply flaunted their disregard for these resolutions.
In my opinion, there have been three instances when Rowan Williams had an opportunity to do something about The Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada and chose not to. Number one was at the gathering of archbishops of the Anglican Communion in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 2007 where the archbishops agreed that some discipline needed to be taken against these rogue churches. However, Rowan Williams took matters into his own hands, didn't do what his fellow archbishops asked him to do and as a result, many of them decided not to come to future gatherings. They seemed to be thinking, "What's the point in going if the Archbishop of Canterbury is going to overturn our decisions?"
Secondly, in a gathering of Anglican leaders, bishops, clergy and laity, in Jamaica, 2009, Rowan Williams intervened in the debate about the Anglican Covenant. The Covenant was designed to try and hold the Communion together around some kind of a confession of faith and discipline. His interventions during that debate, which I was present for, were bewildering. He seemed to undermine the very Anglican Covenant he'd been championing and cast doubts about his own leadership behind it.
Thirdly, in response to the crisis in the Communion, instead of giving more authority to those archbishops who were faithful to the Gospel, the Archbishop of Canterbury attempted to centralize power in his own Anglican Communion Office and in the creation of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. These actions undermined the legitimacy and respectability of the other existing instruments of communion, unity and governance-and especially the Primates' Meetings.
So where do we go from here? I know that many are wondering, "Who's going to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury and will there be any difference?" I suggest that it doesn't really matter who the next Archbishop of Canterbury is.
In 2008, more than 1,000 orthodox, Bible-believing, evangelistic Anglicans decided at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem that Anglicanism has little to do with the Archbishop of Canterbury. We will always be grateful for the fact that Archbishops of Canterbury sent out English missionaries to evangelize the rest of the world. However, as they said at the GAFCON conference in their final statement: "While acknowledging the nature of Canterbury as an historic see, we do not accept that Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Building on the ...doctrinal foundation of Anglican identity, we hereby publish the Jerusalem Declaration as the basis of our fellowship."
This statement points to what the Bible says in Colossians 1:16-18 where Paul writes, "...all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church..." Jesus is the true basis of our unity and the real reason why Anglican reformers such as Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley literally died at the stake. They believed in His authority and the authority of scripture in the life of the believer and in the life of the church. They memorialized these beliefs with the 39 Articles, with their meeting together as bishops in council, and with the creeds that we have.
Anglican beliefs and practices are based on the supremacy of Christ in the life of the believer and in the life of the Church as He revealed in scripture. It is Christ that holds us together and Christ that always will. No other man or office can take His place.
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
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Anglican Perspective: Canadian Anglicans
| Source: Anglican Perspective Weekly Video
March 22, 2012
This week Canon Ashey discusses his recent training session with Anglicans in Newfoundland, Canada. Two congregations began the AAC's Sure Foundation program and continued their efforts to evangelize and serve their community.
Watch this week's video here.
Anglican Perspective is a weekly 2-minute teaching video produced by the American Anglican Council. Each week, the Rev. Canon Phil Ashey, AAC Chief Operating Officer, looks at current events from an orthodox, biblical Anglican perspective.
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Another attempt to protect US chaplains' conscience rights
| Source: OneNewsNow
March 21, 2012
By Chad Groening
An advocate for America's fighting men and women says it's essential for Congress to pass a proposed amendment that protects traditional values in the armed forces.
Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) has introduced H.R. 3828, which has been inserted into the 2012 House Defense Authorization Bill. It is designed to define and protect marriage and the rights of conscience in the military. It is similar to an amendment approved by the House last year. That measure, however, was removed by the Senate-House conference committee.
Elaine Donnelly is president of the Center for Military Readiness (CMR). She says military chaplains who espouse the biblical view of homosexuality are being pressured to conform to the new law that allows "gays" to serve openly in the military.
"The army training said, If you cannot reconcile differences with the new law, then the chaplains should have their endorsement withdrawn and they should leave the military," she reports. "This is not a very good solution."
But she asserts that this year's amendment goes further to protect traditional marriage....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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| Anglican leaders gather to work towards visionary future | Source: GAFCON/FCA Media Release
March 22, 2012
Anglican leaders gather to work towards visionary future
More than 200 delegates from 30 Provinces of the Anglican Communion will gather in London in April to build on the work of the GAFCON conference in Jerusalem and in the
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Archbishop Wabukala
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words of the organisers to 'help turn the present crisis moment into a visionary future'. The leaders are clergy and laity, men and women from 29 countries.
"We are committed to building networks and partnerships of orthodox Anglicans, strong in their witness to Jesus Christ and the transforming power of His Spirit, to face the challenge of mission around the world" said the Most Rev'd Eliud Wabukala, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council.
The gathering is the first leadership conference since the landmark GAFCON meeting in Jerusalem in 2008.
The General Secretary of the FCA, Archbishop Peter Jensen says "Many more leaders will be included in leadership gatherings and another larger GAFCON meeting, but we are praying that this will lay a good platform for the future of the movement."
"The aim of the conference is to unite us behind the goals of FCA and equip us to fulfill them. It is vital that we understand the nature of the gospel and the nature of the church and so the theme is the uniqueness and sufficiency of Christ, the One who is the heart of the gospel and the Head of His church" said Dr Jensen.
Members of the FCA have affirmed the Jerusalem Declaration and also the goals of the movement....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Rowan Williams: A wide spectrum of comments emerge
| Editor's note: Upon the announcement that Dr. Williams will step down from his position as the titular leader of the Anglican Communion, many diverse comments have been published. Below are some representative examples:
Statement by Archbishop Paul Kwong, Primate of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui
Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui expresses our gratefulness to Archbishop of Canterbury Dr
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Dr Williams
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Rowan Williams for serving the Lord in the past 10 years through his love and dedication to the Anglican Communion.
I had the pleasure to host Archbishop Rowan, (Archbishop in-waiting) when he visited Hong Kong in 2002 to attend the Standing Committee meeting of the Primates' Meeting prior to ACC-12. I am also privileged to have worked with him for the past five years on the life of the Communion since the Primates' Meeting of 2007 held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. While he is known to many as a gifted spiritual thinker with immense intellectual capacity, he impresses me most for his humility and compassion, the two fundamental attributes as God's servant.
Despite the challenges facing the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Rowan had the ironclad faith to preserve our unity while working relentlessly to develop our ministry throughout the world. I specially want to thank him for his continuous support of our ministry in Hong Kong and his efforts to cement the relationship with the Christian church in China and his love and heart for Chinese people.
Archbishop Rowan's articulation of the Anglican way in a theological context will continue to inspire us for years to come. We will always keep him and his family in our prayer and hope to welcome them to Hong Kong again in the future.
From the Anglican Communion News Service.
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Statement by The Most Revd Dr Thabo C Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town, on the news that Archbishop Rowan Williams will step down at the end of 2012.
My heart is very full at the news that Dr Rowan Williams will stand down at the end of this year. We in the Anglican Communion, and indeed the wider world, have been inordinately privileged to have such an able theologian and deeply spiritual thinker, as Archbishop of Canterbury over the last decade. He has exercised remarkable gospel-shaped leadership during tumultuous times for our Communion, in which his commitment to consensus seeking, rooted in his refusal to take quick and easy solutions that fail to address the more fundamental issues, has shown great courage and deeply profound rootedness in the faith to which we are called. Again and again he has returned us to the central questions of whose we are, and for whom we are to be - in loving, faithful, obedient, service of God, of God's church, and of God's world. I look forward to the fresh contribution he will be able to make in coming years to the Christian voice in the public space, as he moves to Cambridge.
I personally, and we in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, will miss him very much. He has been a great friend to us, and especially to me when I was first appointed Archbishop and learning the ropes. As Southern Africans we say he is 'Truly Umtu', someone who lives and embodies the fullness of ubuntu - that it is through others we find our own humanity, umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. We wish him, his wife Jane, and children Rhiannon and Pip, great joy and blessing during the rest of their time at Lambeth Palace, and in the new chapter of life that lies ahead. They have the assurance of our fondest love and prayers in the coming months.
From the Anglican Communion News Service.
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Church of Nigeria reacts to Archbishop of Canterbury's Resignation
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and human sexuality as stumbling blocks to oneness, evangelism and mission all around the Anglican world.
It might not have been entirely his own making, but certainly "crucified under Pontius Pilate". The lowest ebb of this degeneration came in 2008, when there were, so to say,  two "Lambeth" Conferences one in the UK, and an alternative one, GAFCON in Jerusalem. The trend continued recently when many Global South Primates decided not to attend the last Primates' meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
Since Dr. Rowan Williams did not resign in 2008, over the split Lambeth Conference, one would have expected him to stay on in office, and work assiduously to 'mend the net' or repair the breach, before bowing out of office. The only attempt, the covenant proposal, was doomed to fail from the start, as "two cannot walk together unless they have agreed".
For us, the announcement does not present any opportunity for excitement. It is not good news here, until whoever comes as the next leader pulls back the Communion from the edge of total destruction. To this end, we commit our Church, the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) to serious fasting and prayers that God will do "a new thing", in the Communion.
Nevertheless, we join others to continue in prayer for Dr. Rowan Williams and his family for a more fruitful endeavour in their post-Canterbury life.
+Nicholas D. Okoh
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria
From the Church of Nigeria Website
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Not Everyone loves Rowan
Source: Anglican Ink
March 22, 2012
By George Conger
The political obituaries of the Archbishop of Canterbury have portrayed Dr. Rowan Williams as a brilliant, decent, spiritual man who was let down by the Church of England, or who was tasked with an impossible job, or who was a unfairly savaged by a rapacious media culture.
The less than glowing statements from overseas church leaders, with a few exceptions such as that of the Archbishop of Cape Town, are treated as outliers, or dismissed with the sentiment that "well, they would say that wouldn't they."
There is thus an attitude in the U.K. that there must be something wrong, or at least odd, about those who were not enamored by Dr. Williams. In covering Dr. Williams' overseas work for the Church of England Newspaper since he entered office I have encountered overseas examples of this conventional wisdom. However, what I have found more prevalent is that expressed in Archbishop Nicholas Okoh's encomium for the archbishop which essentially said, "Good bye, good luck, and good riddance."
Why this attitude? From the perspective of the Global South primates it would be hubris. Being the smartest man in the room is wonderful, but when you couple this with an ignorance of the international scene, patronizing attitudes, avoidance of argument or debate, and a weak staff you should be prepared for trouble....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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European Court finds gay marriage is not a 'human right'
| Source: Daily Mail
March 20, 2012
By Steve Doughty
Same-sex marriages are not a human right, European judges have ruled. Their decision shreds the claim by ministers that gay marriage is a universal human right and that same-sex couples have a right to marry because their mutual commitment is just as strong as that of husbands and wives.
The ruling was made by judges of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg following a case involving a lesbian couple in a civil partnership who complained the French courts would not allow them to adopt a child as a couple....
Lawyers said the decisions transformed the impact of David Cameron's planned same-sex marriage law.
Neil Addison, a specialist in discrimination law, said: 'Once same-sex marriage has been legalised then the partners to such a marriage are entitled to exactly the same rights as partners in a heterosexual marriage. This means that if same-sex marriage is legalised in the UK it will be illegal for the Government to prevent such marriages happening in religious premises.'
The Government's consultation paper also said that no church would have to conduct gay weddings. It said there would be different legal categories of civil and religious marriage and same-sex couples would not be allowed religious marriages.
But Church of England lawyers have already warned that if same-sex marriage goes ahead, then equality law is likely to force churches to fall into line and perform the wedding ceremonies.
The Strasbourg ruling won praise from campaigners against same-sex marriage.
Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said: 'For too long campaigners have been using the language of rights in an attempt to add moral force to what are nothing more than personal desires....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Hundreds Of Thousands Of Christians Face Expulsion From Sudan
| Source: BosNewsLife Africa
March 21, 2012
KHARTOUM, SUDAN - Hundreds of thousands of Southern Sudanese Christians are "effectively being forced to leave" Sudan within three weeks having been stripped of their citizenship, a Christian aid workers confirmed Wednesday, March 21.
Barnabas Fund, a Christian advocacy and aid group, told BosNewsLife that as many as 700,000 people originating from neighboring South Sudan, are effected by the ultimatum.
"They have until 8 April either to leave the strongly Islamic" Sudan "or to be treated as foreigners under a regime that is extremely hostile to non-Muslims and non-Arabs," the group said in a statement.
Most of the Christians fled north to Sudan during the long civil war which eventually led to the creation of the new state of South Sudan.
After the South voted to secede in January 2011, Sudan removed citizenship rights from all those of Southern origin.
Yet, as they have lived in Sudan for decades "few have ties with the South", Barnabas Fund explained.
CHURCH LEADERS CONCERNED
Church leaders are reportedly concerned that many Christians cannot leave as they have children and homes in Sudan.
However "There are fears that Christians who remain in Sudan after the deadline may face increased persecution or even forced repatriation," Barnabas Fund said.
The Khartoum government reportedly says that that people in Sudan whose parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were born in South Sudan, and those who belong to any Southern ethnic group, "are nationals of that country."
Barnabas Fund said it fears a massive exodus could trigger a humanitarian emergency at a time when both Sudan and neighboring South Sudan face difficulties....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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