"But let judgment run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."
Amos 5:24 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, It seems that the litigation wars drag on and on, with the American Episcopal Church (TEC) shaping its very persona around crushing the dissenting voices of Anglican orthodoxy. The appeals process against the outrageous property claims of TEC are now at the stage where three congregations, two Anglican and one Presbyterian, have filed writs of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), all dealing with denominational claims on parish property. Judges across the United States have listened to TEC's mantra that the courts can't interfere with the internal operations of a church, and have in most cases granted their demands. When the church hierarchy in effect places a trust on the property of unwilling congregations, and defrauds them of their property, many of the courts have run for cover, giving TEC whatever they wanted, the Supreme Court of South Carolina being a notable exception. Now that Bishop Seabury Anglican Church, Groton, CT, and Christ Church Anglican, Savannah, GA, and Timberridge Presbyterian Church, also in GA, have filed writs to SCOTUS, other interested parties have filed a supporting document called an amicus brief. One of those filing the amicus brief is The Falls Church (Anglican) in northern Virginia, which is also a victim of the Bishop of Virginia's litigation jihad. Interestingly, the TEC Diocese of Virginia, which was trying to present a softer public image, cut a deal with the Truro parish in Fairfax, VA. The terms are being made public on the internet, (see story below) and while they are taking Truro's property, they are granting extended time for a transition and other considerations. The Falls Church would probably have been extended a similar deal, except The Falls Church joined in filing the amicus brief on behalf of the three churches' writ.
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The Diocese of Virginia immediately came down hard on The Falls Church, making exorbitant financial demands and showing Judge Bellows how wrong he was to rule in TEC's favor (article is below). As the list of churches filing briefs in support of the appellants grows, the hope is that the Supreme Court will not only hear the case, but overturn the misinterpretation and distortion of SCOTUS' prior ruling of Jones v. Wolf. If you can spare any money, the churches filing the writ of certiorari need some financial assistance with the appeal costs. If you can help, it would be very timely, and could help change the course of legal history and restore some justice.
In another area, we read in the Air Force Times that the Air Force is removing the "Is a Bible provided?" question from a checklist that is used to ascertain that rooms and lodging used by Air Force personnel have everything that is needed. The military likes standardization, yet the reason behind the removal of the checklist item is really because the Bibles that the Gideons have placed at no cost to the military have been challenged by a military atheist group, and rather than fight it, the Air Force has run from the fight. It is expected by analysts that I have consulted that the Navy will follow suit if the Air Force gets away with it.
Michael Dickerson, a spokesperson for the Air Force Services Agency, advised the Air Force Association that there was no legal requirement to have Bibles included in the checklist for lodgings. The issue came up when the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers protested the Bibles being in the rooms. The Gideons have been placing the Bibles in lodging since 1908, starting in a hotel in Superior, Montana. The atheists group claimed that the placement of Bibles in military lodging was an unconstitutional privilege and they wanted to "free the U.S. Military of policies that it purports promote religion." Really?! If you take enemy fire and are seriously wounded, when your life is hanging in the balance, who are you going to pray to? The God of the Holy Bible, or some atheist group? Who holds our life in his hands, the God of the Bible, or some atheist group? Why does the military cave in so quickly? How soon will we lose the entire chaplaincy because some atheist complains about it?
Previous to this, there was a recent Air Force move to delete a Squadron Officer School suggestion that young officers attend chapel regularly. No one was told which chapel, but the atheists don't want parity, they want faith to disappear from any official capacity.
As a result of the publicity, spokesperson Dickerson countered that "the Air Force has not agreed, in principle or otherwise, to remove Bibles." You can read the entire account here, but according to published articles, when Dickerson was asked how Air Force innkeepers should react to removal of the checklist reference to Bibles, he declined to answer. He did say, "We continue to review the situation and weigh our multiple First Amendment responsibilities and obligations." The Bibles are paid for and placed in the rooms by the Gideons themselves, and not the Air Force. The atheists are not asking for the right to put their own book in the rooms for parity, they simply want to deny others the opportunity to have something spiritually helpful.
Now for a subject in another area of concern, the encroachment of Islam into the soul of America. Journalist David J. Rusin, writing for the National Review this week, has pointed out the obvious but politically incorrect fact that the whole gay marriage effort is of great interest to American Islamist strategists. When it was clearly understood that marriage was between one man and one woman, laws against sodomy were still in place, and laws against multiple marriage partners (polygamy) were being enforced. In 1895, the desire of Mormons to have their Utah territory made into a state was so strong that they received a special revelation from God that polygamy, which had been practiced widely in the Latter Day Saints Church, became instantly forbidden. With this taken care of, Utah was welcomed in as the 45th state on January 4, 1896.
Some Mormons didn't want to go along with this new proscription; they liked multiple wives, and have continued to practice polygamy in small sects separate from the main LDS Church. The polygamists have been hounded by authorities and when possible, convicted of polygamy, against the law in all 50 states. The main LDS Church shows no desire or inclination to go back to the former practice, and are often seen as model families, as portrayed by a current Presidential aspirant Mitt Romney.
Islam, however is very interested in polygamy, practicing it both where it is legal and where it is not. In Europe and North America, where polygamy is illegal, one wife will be lawfully married, and the others, possibly three additional, will be married in religious services only. Since adultery and fornication laws have gone the same way as the sodomy laws, there usually aren't grounds to prosecute these polygamists.
As the homosexual community deconstructs traditional Judeo/Christian marriage and presses for gay marriage with full parity compared to traditional heterosexual marriage, lots of other possibilities begin to occur. If marriage is deconstructed to mean a lifelong union of people who love each other, and if gender isn't important, why should numbers be an issue? Why should the government or churches be looking into people's bedroom windows and counting how many people are married together?
I ask that question facetiously, because I am firmly standing by traditional marriage, but if you see the chain of deconstruction, where does it stop? If Islamists have their way, it will certainly include plural marriage for them.
If Islamists grow to the strength and numbers that they wish, and gain the political strength to change laws and how the courts interpret laws, not only will they have polygamist marriages, but gay and lesbian people will not fare well at all, given the harsh attitude of Islamists and most Muslims to homosexuality. Nevertheless, the gay push for their "rights" in marriage may open unintended doors and bring in unwanted and unforeseen consequences.
Let us pray for sanity in our churches and our governments, as well as the preservation of moral order in our families, leaving marriage as God did establish it, one man, one woman, one lifetime.
Blessings and peace in Christ our Lord,
+David
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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The Chaplain's Corner
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Canon Ashey
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Dear Friends in Christ,
Today I would like to share two important documents which were released this week that the American Anglican Council has produced or helped to produce.
The first is an Amicus Brief submitted on behalf of the Bishop Seabury Church (Anglican) in Groton CT vs. The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Connecticut. As you know, both Bishop Seabury and Christ Church Savannah left The Episcopal Church for all of the reasons I'll share in discussing the second document. Bishop Seabury lost title to its buildings in a decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court, despite evidence that its deeds and other documents of conveyance clearly vested title in the church and not the Episcopal Diocese or the national church. As has happened in so many other cases, the Episcopal Diocese and TEC prevailed solely on the basis of the Dennis Canon - which we believe the courts are deferring to through a serious misreading of the US Supreme Court's last major decision on church property disputes, Jones v. Wolf.
Here at the AAC, we believe the Jones v. Wolf decision requires courts to decide such church property disputes on the basis of "neutral principles of law" - the same principles of examining deeds, trusts and other instruments of conveyance that any attorney or judge would use in any property dispute. We believe the state courts have seriously misread the Jones v. Wolf decision by permitting a unilateral implied trust on all Episcopal Church properties (the "Dennis Canon") to "trump" all other evidence. This Amicus brief is in support of Bishop Seabury's petition to the United States Supreme Court to review the Connecticut Supreme Court decision, clarify the "application of neutral principles," and return it to the state courts for an equitable "neutral principles" inquiry that will look at ALL of the evidence and not permit the Dennis canon to trump all other evidence. To do otherwise would be to permit a denomination like TEC to have a privileged position that no one else has in property disputes: the ability to declare unilaterally and without the express consent of the property owner that it has a trust interest in that property. And that would be a violation of the Establishment Clause, which provides under our Constitution that the state shall not give such a privileged position to any religion.
In the brief, we join with St. James Anglican Church (Newport Beach), The Presbyterian Lay Committee, Capin Crouse LLP and 15 other religious congregations to argue the following: (1) 33 years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided that church property disputes should be decided using the legal principles ("neutral principles") developed for use in all property disputes; (2) Although the "neutral principles" approach has been adopted in name, many states have converted it into its functional opposite: a rule of deference to denominational rules or canons; (3) The "neutral principles" approach as corrupted by some state courts' misreading of dicta in Jones v. Wolf now violates the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution; and (4) The uncertainty caused by differing state court interpretations of Jones v. Wolf has impinged upon religious freedom.
You can read the whole brief here.
We are particularly hopeful that the US Supreme Court will hear this case because of the diversity of the parties who are submitting the brief. We have joined with a group within the Presbyterian Church USA that has the same concern for their churches that the AAC has for orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans. We have joined with a certified public accounting firm devoted to serving over 700 churches and other non-profit organizations all across the United States. We have joined with 15 churches - Anglican, Episcopal and Presbyterian, both large and small, in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington and Maryland. It is a wonderfully diverse and compelling group of "Amicii" or friends of the court with interest in this case. Many of them are congregations to which the American Anglican Council has provided strategic counsel, advice and equipping for leadership and congregational development. Others are like-minded friends with similar convictions about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all and the supremacy of his word, the Bible, for his church, but in other denominations. We are finding ways to support each other tangibly, across denominational lines, and will have more to share in the months ahead as we work together to witness to the faith once delivered from which some mainline denominations have strayed into a theological wasteland.
Why did Bishop Seabury Church leave TEC? Why is this case more than just a dispute over buildings? What is really at stake? We are in a battle for the soul of Anglicanism - not only in North America, but all over the Communion as I wrote about last week. And that is why I commend the second document, "Tearing the Fabric - 2012" to you. We have updated this report, which we first released for the Church of England General Synod debate on the ACNA in February 2011. In it, you will find up-to-date quotes from TEC leaders denying the essentials of the faith, figures on TEC's membership decline, the number of active cases in litigation, and the total amount TEC has expended to date in its scorched-earth litigation tactics.
This second document is a helpful reminder of why so many, like Bishop Seabury Church, have left a denomination which has been systematically destroying the foundations of Anglican Christianity within the United States and tearing the fabric of the Anglican Communion to shreds. The words of TEC leaders, their actions and their defiance of both the Bible and the instruments of Anglican unity reveal why orthodox Anglicans in North America were led to form the Anglican Church in North America in order to preserve and promote an Anglicanism that is truly biblical, missionary and united.
I bid your prayers for the meeting of the GAFCON Primates today here in London, and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans Leadership Conference beginning on Monday. Please pray for the Lord to show us together the next steps he would like us to take in defending and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Anglican Communion. Next week, I hope to share some news from these gatherings.
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
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| Traditionalist [FCA] Anglican leaders to meet in London next week | Source: Telegraph
April 15, 2012
By Edward Malnick
...The gathering of 200 clergy and laity will be led by Dr Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, who is General Secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), the  body set up by traditionalists at their 2008 "alternative" Lambeth Conference in Jerusalem.
Many will be bishops from the Global South - a group which includes churches in Africa, Asia, South America and the West Indies - who say they have been ignored in the face of controversial steps by liberal churches.
Dr Jensen said: "The major concern is the contest that continues to go on over major doctrinal issues. It's a contest which has not gone away. The contest has, if anything, heated up.
"The impetus towards the secularisation of Christianity, particularly with modern communications, is growing everywhere.
"It is perfectly clear, for example, that the Global South is being challenged to rethink its faith and hence the existence of the FCA movement is really to defend and proclaim the gospel, and to restate biblical faith in modern terms."
The five-day conference starting on April 23 will include addresses by Church of England clergy including the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester.
They will be among leaders from 29 countries calling for churches to adopt the Jerusalem Declaration - a 14-point manifesto intended to reaffirm orthodox values and condemn moves by liberals away from traditional church teaching....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Congo to give a temporary home to the AMiA
| Source: Anglican Ink
April 16, 2012
By George Conger
The Anglican Province of the Congo has given the Anglican Mission in America a temporary home while it seeks to find a permanent place within the Anglican Communion.
In a statement released on 13 April 2012, the chairman of the AMiA, Bishop Chuck
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Archbishop Isingoma
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Murphy told supporters he had received "an official letter from Archbishop Henri Isingoma of the Anglican Church of the Congo, receiving me as a Bishop of the House of Bishops in his Province and offering us a new canonical residence."
The move to the Congo, Bishop Murphy wrote, came in response to a "recent letter from Archbishop Rwaje asking our bishops to translate to another Anglican jurisdiction by the end of this month." On 2 April the primate of the Anglican Province of Rwanda (PEAR), Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, asked the AMiA bishops who had resigned to "declare the ecclesiastical jurisdiction to which they wish to be translated within the next few weeks." PEAR clergy in America were asked to state their intentions by August as to whether they wished to remain in Rwanda, transfer to the ACNA or to another Anglican province.
Bishop Murphy stated the AMiA would continue to develop its particular ecclesiology under the cover of the Congo. "As we continue to transition toward a Mission Society with oversight provided by a College of Consultors, we remain committed to the multi-jurisdictional model that launched the Anglican Mission in Singapore," he said, adding that "toward that end, conversations with other jurisdictions including the Anglican Church in North America will continue."
In its 6 April 2012 April to the AMiA, Archbishop Henri Isingoma stated the province would give it temporary ecclesial oversight. The archbishop wrote that the Congo was mindful of the AMiA's desire to remain in the Anglican Communion "in spite of the differences of opinion among its members and the current acute crisis it undergoes."
And: "Taking into account the nature of your request to temporarily settle in the Province of the Anglican Church of Congo in order to safeguard the existence of your Mission and to establish its perennial presence in the Anglican Communion;"
And: "Hoping for an appropriate solution within the Communion for a final affiliation of your Mission to one of its provincial entities;"...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Joint Statement from Truro Anglican Church, Fairfax and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
| Source: Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
April 17, 2012
Truro Anglican Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia announced today a settlement that concludes five years of litigation that arose after Truro Anglican and other parishes left the Episcopal Church in 2006 to become part of what is now the Anglican Church in North America.
The settlement follows a January ruling in which the Circuit Court of Fairfax County held that all real and personal property held by the parishes at the time they left the denomination belongs to the Diocese.
Under terms of the settlement, the Diocese has given Truro Anglican a rent-free lease of
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Truro Church
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the church buildings at 10520 Main Street in Fairfax, as well as two rectories, until June 30, 2013. Truro Anglican will deed the properties to the Diocese by April 30, 2012, and will pay the operating costs of the properties during the term of the lease. In addition, the Diocese has the option to use a small portion of the church building during the lease, as determined between the Rev. Tory Baucum, rector of Truro Anglican, and the Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, bishop of the Diocese of Virginia.
Additionally, Truro Anglican has agreed to pay $50,000 to resolve Diocesan claims for liquid assets due under the court's order. The parties had already agreed on division of the tangible personal property held by Truro Anglican.
In several previous settlements, Anglican parishes that leased Episcopal property agreed to sever ties with all Anglican bodies during the term of the lease. Under today's settlement, however, the parties have agreed that Truro Anglican will maintain its affiliation with the Anglican Church of North America and its Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. Because the Diocese and Truro Anglican are part of different ecclesiastical bodies who share the Anglican tradition, they have agreed to follow a process during the term of the lease by which bishops may visit Truro Anglican with the permission of Bishop Johnston.
An important feature of this settlement is that both sides have agreed to enter into a covenant of mutual charity and respect. This document will frame the way the Diocese and Truro Anglican will deal with one another and speak of one another. The covenant is being drafted by the Rev. Baucum and Bishop Johnston....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Virginia: Judge Bellows Puts Stay Hearing over to April 27
| Source: Anglican Curmudgeon
April 18, 2012
By A.S. Haley
The following brief announcement appeared today on the Website of the Diocese of Virginia:
Court Declines to Rule on Stay; Will Hear Evidence April 27
The Fairfax Circuit Court heard today the Falls Church Anglican's motion for a stay to suspend the court's order until its appeal is decided. The court determined that it has jurisdiction over the matter, and that it could not impose a sharing arrangement on the parties. The court will hear evidence on the factors it must consider on whether to grant the stay at 2 p.m., Friday, April 27.
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The Falls Church
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...The big argument is, of course, over the property. In the case of The Falls Church, the amount of funds on hand as of early 2007 that must be handed over pursuant to Judge Bellows' final order is very substantial - the reply brief submitted by the Church admits to an amount of about $2,720,000.00. The Falls Church has offered to pay this amount into the registry of the Court, together with interest on it for nine months at the rate of six percent. In addition, The Falls Church has offered to pay for the mortgage and upkeep on all of the property pending the appeal, as the price of occupying it during that time period.
When the Episcopal congregation in Falls Church objected that they would have to continue to pay $750 per month to the Presbyterian Church if they could not occupy the property pending the appeal, The Falls Church offered to reimburse it for that sum as well. Not satisfied with that offer, the Episcopal Diocese wants The Falls Church to pay it "rent" on top of its paying for the mortgage and all expenses of upkeep - even though, were the Anglican congregation to become a simple lessee of the property, it would be the Diocese that would have to pay the mortgage and similar expenses.
But the Diocese wants to have its cake and eat it, too - it wants The Falls Church to pay it an amount in rent equivalent to all the mortgage and upkeep expenses, and then to pay for those expenses directly, as well - thereby allowing the Diocese to pocket a tidy sum each month without having to use that money to defray the expenses of the property. (And this is the outfit which Bishop Johnston is trying to portray as being the very soul of Christian reasonableness towards its "brothers in Christ".)...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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TEC's Executive Council looks to future
| Source: Episcopal News Service
April 18, 2012
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
Salt Lake City, Utah - The Episcopal Church's Executive Council began its last meeting of the 2010-2012 triennium contemplating its leadership role - and emotional investment - in the church's journey to its future.
The council has spent much of the last three years exploring how the Episcopal Church must change in response to the challenges facing all mainline churches, including declining memberships and thus declining finances, demographic shifts and cultural changes in the place and authority accorded to religious communities in society. When General Convention convenes in July in Indianapolis, deputies and bishops will grapple with a variety of calls (some of the proposals can be seen here) for changes in the church's structure that their proposers say will help the church meet those challenges.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson and Bishop Stacy Sauls, Episcopal Church chief operating officer, all addressed the impact and implications of those challenges during their opening remarks April 18.
Jefferts Schori reminded council members that they began the current triennium "just past a major budget cut [made by the previous meeting of Convention] that forced a public and painful reduction in church center staff."
She said that the cut was prompted by the economic crisis that "only hurried a reality that has been emerging for some time," adding that the Episcopal Church, like other denominations, "is declining in numbers, financial strength, and societal influence."...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Canada: Diocese of New Westminster to spend $4.5 million in an attempt to revitalise seized parishes
| Source: Anglican Essentials
April 14th, 2012
Having won the court battle for the buildings of St. John's Shaughnessy, St. Matthias and St. Luke, and St. Matthew's Abbotsford, the Diocese of New Westminster must decide what to do with them. Since it has no substantial congregations in the buildings, the diocese has concluded that it must "plant three new churches" to "establish Diocese of New Westminster, Anglican Church of Canada worship" in the parishes. The diocese makes no mention of worshipping Jesus.
The money is to come from "the assets of the parishes returned to the diocese by the courts of Canada" along with funding from the diocese....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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