"And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee." Psalm 9:10 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, The American Episcopal Church (TEC) is in trouble again, but this time it's not about sex - not that those issues have gone away, they have just been normalized - this time it's about money, and either money or sex will normally get an article on page one, maybe even above the fold. TEC has a General Convention every three years, made up of two houses, the House of Deputies comprising laity, priests and deacons, and the House of Bishops comprised of, well, bishops. This summer it is time again for General Convention, which will meet in Indianapolis, Indiana, and part of the business will be to deal with serious questions such as "Why is TEC's church attendance so low?," and "Why are contributions to TEC so low?"," and "What is most important for the church to be doing with its limited resources?" (I would suggest they consider stopping suing people and churches!). In between General Conventions, there is an Executive Council which is authorized to make interim decisions and carry out any mandates from General Convention. Additionally, there is a President of the House of Deputies who has some administrative duties, and the Presiding Bishop who has other administrative and episcopal duties, and there is a constantly shrinking staff, all based at TEC's headquarters at 815 2nd Avenue, New York, at the lower end of Manhattan. This group is often referred to collectively as "815," and is the denomination's bureaucracy, for good or ill. The Executive Council is supposed to submit a proposed triennial budget to a committee called Program, Budget and Finance (PB&F) in time for proper consideration, possible amendment, and then presentation at the General Convention. The budget is intended to embody both the expected income and the expenditures based on mission commitment. Inherent in any sensible budget are careful and cautious projections of future income and expenses. When expenses are manipulated up or down to further an end, or when projections of income are unrealistically altered to produce a desired outcome, it ceases to be a budget and becomes propaganda.
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Something apparently went wrong and the current draft budget didn't get to the right people in sufficient time, and then there were numerous proposed budgets being offered from different entities, including one the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori put together herself. Now the question is whose missional priorities will be given the green light, which budget will be presented to General Convention, and will there be any debate allowed on the open floor over the budget(s)? Apparently the postmodernism of TEC, which didn't bother them on such subjects as human sexuality, the authority of Holy Scripture or the person and work of Jesus Christ, where you have your truth and I have mine, all of a sudden is not acceptable with it comes to money. Down here in Georgia, we would say, "Well, bless their hearts!" One TEC writer, posting on his blog, objected to the nonsense that there could be one truth in one budget and another truth in another budget. Fr. Michael Russell, a clergy deputy to General Convention from the Diocese of San Diego, is apparently frustrated with the games about truth being played in what is left of the Episcopal Church.
In his recent posting he said, "I'd like the truth, please." That seems like a reasonable request, and I'm sure that most Episcopalians would join him in such a plea. He goes on to note, "We now have wildly different versions of events from the Presiding Bishop, the Chief Operating Officer, Katie Sherrod and other members of Executive Council. I expect all politicians to lie, but I do not expect leaders of my church to "spin" events to their own purposes. What we have here is the perfect post-modern meltdown, I suppose, in which multiple perspectives are somehow masked as truth. It is one of the reasons that postmodernism is so unsatisfying, it allows saints and sinners to all cloak themselves in notions of personal truths." I'd love to tape record that comment and turn back the clock to General Convention 2003 in Minneapolis and subsequent General Conventions, when issues on the person and work of Jesus Christ, the authority of Holy Scripture, and human sexuality were raised, and the mantra of "your truth/my truth" was pushed at those of us who were more conservative and wanting to hold onto the historic truths of the church. Fr. Russell suggests firing everyone: "If I had my way I'd fire everyone and start over. I do not want to waste the time it would take to adjudicate the competing claims." If Fr. Russell can figure out how to do that, it is more than the orthodox Episcopalians could figure out, so most of us just left and started over. An additional comment of his in a different venue was "Someone among the leadership of the church is not telling or owning the truth about his debacle." Many of us have felt that way for some time, though on different issues. Do read Fr. Michael's article, as it reflects considerable frustration in the Episcopal Church, at least among those who know what is, or isn't, going on.
A "progressive" TEC writer, Fr. Mark Harris, an Episcopal priest from the Diocese of Delaware, on his blog addresses the same issue from a slightly different angle, looking at the tensions within the TEC leadership over power and who is trying to take it away from whom. He writes "The skunk is on the table and fear and loathing is in the offing. The Budget of The Episcopal Church... a thing required by Canon... is coming soon to General Convention, ready or not. How it will get there is increasingly a matter for fear and loathing, mostly related to the sense that budget matters are more and more part of the larger re-visioning schemes being proposed and the way the budget is produced and how it is shaped is shifting the way various groups in the church exercise leadership."
Fr. Harris continues, "Katie Sherrod, has written a powerful post on her blog in which she has put the skunk on the table. In "Balancing act" she makes it clear that the issues are not simply about the budget and its preparation, but about the extent to which budget development is carried out without any transparency and with motives that look very much like power plays. She writes, "Is this restructuring by budget? The presiding bishop is not elected by General Convention, but by one house as their presider. Do we want our budgets coming from the PB's office or from a more widely representative body?"
Ms. Sherrod, who serves on the Executive Council, goes on to further highlight some of the unseemly battles going on within top TEC leadership, "Several recent events, including the recent Commentary on the budget by the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, chief operating officer [COO] of The Episcopal Church, and the budget recently proposed by the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop [PB] and primate of The Episcopal Church, have raised quite public questions about the Council's competency. As a member of that body, I confess to being shocked by these developments - not because of the criticism (that comes with the territory), but because of concerns these developments raise about the direction of The Episcopal Church."
There have been serious suggestions that the church headquarters move out of pricey Manhattan to a less expensive and more centrally located city such as Chicago. Having the office in lower Manhattan means that everything costs more, including the salaries of the employees who have to be paid enough to live in such an inflated economy. All of the so-called mainline church denominations have been downgraded from their previous prideful place of prominence in American culture and society, and that is hard to re-adjust to. Where TEC once went first class, they now need to think economy or even tourist class. Fewer people in the pews means fewer dollars in the offering plate and fewer Episcopalians in prominent offices in all three branches of government. I hope that Deputy Michael Russell's request for truth is honored by his church in this summer's triennial gathering. I think the bottom line is it is hard to change the corporate DNA after it is set. I pray fervently that the new Anglican Church in North America can set its DNA in a godly manner so that we can stay true to the one who said that He is...THE TRUTH, Jesus Christ himself.
Blessings and peace in Christ 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
Adapting Jesus' mission without killing it
Dear Friends in Christ,
In these slower summer months I am taking time to read. Right now I am taking a fresh look at Rex Miller's The Millennium Matrix (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004). From pre-Gutenberg to Google, Miller explores the impact of communication on worldview, and especially on the church, its worship and spirituality. The book also provides practical suggestions on how Christians can navigate with integrity and kingdom impact the rapid pace of cultural change that will continue to accelerate in the years to come.
Early on in the book, Miller draws a wonderful analogy between building the church and building an oil tanker. Oil tankers are built and designed according to the purpose and destination. North Atlantic oil tankers face the most challenging environments of all (think Titanic). "These oil tankers have to be able to withstand a direct hit from an iceberg at seven knots," writes Miller, "They have to be able to locate and attach to a floating mooring in the middle of a turbulent sea. Without dropping anchor, they must maintain a stable position while buffeted by fifty-foot waves. They must remain relatively stationary so that the large hose bringing oil to the tanker does not get ripped from the mooring and gush oil."
Miller continues: "These tankers rely on satellite tracking systems to hold their position. They have tremendous stabilizers that keep them positioned, even with waves crashing over the sides of the ship. Multiple redundant systems act as safeguards and backups. These ships are one-third the size of regular tankers but cost three times as much...." (Emphasis added)
The North Atlantic is a perfect metaphor for the turbulent sea of cultural change that we are all navigating as Christians in North America, and as Anglicans in particular. We have idolized size and numbers without much considering what size and numbers our mission needs. As Miller observes, we have been infatuated with building the spiritual equivalent of Carnival Cruise liners - large, friendly, fun, passenger-focused and slow - made for "calm balmy seas and friendly ports of call..." "We may be trying to make these ships a little faster, a little more up-tempo and with a mission statement," Miller observes, "but we are still expecting calm seas and a sunny horizon."
Here's the question: is it time for the church to build differently for a different future?
We have long since left a stable, homogenous and predictable culture. We now live in a culture that is becoming as turbulent and threatening to Christianity and religious freedom as the Apostolic era was under the Roman Empire. Should we take a lesson from the construction of oil tankers designed for the North Atlantic? To follow the analogy, why not build churches on a smaller scale so that they are highly agile and faster to adapt to the needs of their ever changing communities? We need to build churches like North Atlantic oil tankers with "multiple redundant systems" (think many points of entry beyond Sunday worship, and growth capacity through small groups). We need to build churches that can maintain their position and mission in the midst of the storm, not only by external reference to the "horizon" (think the needs of your community), but especially through stabilizing leaders (clergy and lay) whose prayer life provides a spiritual GPS that will keep the church on course. We must build churches whose leaders are so equipped to deal with church conflict that it does not become "destabilizing," and thwart the mission.
Here at the American Anglican Council, we are committed to building such leaders and churches through our Clergy Leadership Training Institute and equipping local church ministry teams through Sure Foundation.
One thing I noted in this helpful analogy: in building oil tankers appropriate to the North Atlantic, the purpose or mission remained the same - bringing oil from one continent to another. The vehicle changes, adapted and improved, but the mission does not change.
And so it was with great sorrow that I read the press announcement of one of the most venerable missionary societies in the Church of England, the USPG (formerly the SPG or Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.) Founded around 1700 by Thomas Bray, this missionary society brought the gospel to many who had not received it, from America to Africa. They were committed to increasing Christian knowledge (discipleship) among the faithful, and sent very well-known missionaries such as John and Charles Wesley.
But now it seems that the USPG finds the term "propagation of the gospel" too "outdated" for the twenty-first century. In case you missed it, that's code language for "anyone who still believes that sharing the Good News stuff about Jesus is obviously too primitive for the 21st century." They could have taken a lesson from John Wesley, one of their own missionaries, who took the unchanging truth of the Bible and salvation through Jesus Christ, but adapted the methods of "propagating the Gospel" to reach the unchurched working poor across England. His bands and classes were the precursors of small groups and adult Bible fellowships that continue to be highly effective in evangelism and discipleship. It's unfortunate that his adaptive methods were rejected by Anglicans - they became the heart of "Methodism," not surprisingly.
If the term "propagation" was in fact the real problem, why didn't the USPG paraphrase it in language appropriate to the 21st century, such as "Sharing everywhere the good news of Jesus Christ," "Helping followers of Christ grow in their knowledge of him so that they will live their lives as he would," or "Sharing the transforming love of Jesus Christ so that people everywhere will come to put their trust in him as Savior, and follow him as Lord, in the fellowship of the Church"?
No. They had a different mission in mind. The focus today is on "inspiring local communities to unlock their potential so they can overcome whatever barriers they face, whether economic, political or spiritual." As the Director of USPG declared of this change in mission, "Our new name,' Us', is directly derived from USPG, so it speaks to our heritage, but it also speaks about inclusivity. There is no 'them'; we are all 'us'. Our work - in partnership with the churches of the Anglican Communion - is for the benefit of the whole community, regardless of ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, age or faith. No one is excluded."
Us. Really. Seems that the mission is no longer about Jesus. It's no longer about the power of the risen Jesus Christ and his word to transform individuals, neighborhoods and whole communities from the inside out. It's about "Us." Isn't that exactly where things fell apart in the Garden of Eden? Can you hear the words of Paul to the Galatians in chapter 1, verses 6-7: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -which is really no gospel at all." (emphasis added).
Let's build churches that stay true to the mission of Jesus Christ and his Great Commission to make disciples of every nation (Matthew 28:16-20). Let's explore every way we can to build churches that are agile enough to fulfill that mission in the turbulent cultures where Anglicans find themselves today - from North America to Northern Nigeria. Let's be as creative as Paul was in the Book of Acts!
But for heaven's sake, let's not change the mission! We have no permission or warrant to do so.
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
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Priest Recalled from Sudan to Lead Worship at Falls Church Episcopal
| Source: IRD blog
June 25, 2012
By Jeff Walton
The continuing Episcopal congregation of the Falls Church (TFCE) has invited an Episcopal priest who was famously recalled from the Sudan in a controversy over same-sex blessings to lead services on July 1.
The invitation comes one month after TFCE assumed control of the historic property
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Rev. Stanley
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following a court ruling against the departing Anglican congregation. The Anglican congregation (TFCA) voted overwhelmingly to separate from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in 2006 following disagreements about the authority and interpretation of scripture....
[Rev. Lauren R.] Stanley is best known for her four year missionary assignment at Renk Theological College in Sudan. In March of 2009, Stanley was recalled to Virginia by Bishop Peter Lee at the request of Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak. The head of the Sudanese church acted after the Virginia clergywoman made public comments at Diocesan Council defending a resolution opening the door to the blessing of same-sex unions. Responding to concerns that such a resolution would do irreparable harm to the long-standing mission relationship between the Diocese of Renk and the Diocese of Virginia, Stanley insisted that the Sudanese did not care. Archbishop Deng Bul Yak told Bishop Lee that Stanley's comments were offensive....
The congregation's vestry recently announced that the Rev. John Ohmer of St. James Episcopal Church, Leesburg, VA, has been called to be Rector of the church. Ohmer, a former aide to then-Senator Al Gore, serves alongside Stanley as a staff writer for Center Aisle, the Diocese of Virginia's General Convention opinion journal.
The rest of the article may be found here.
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The Truth in Transgender: Will the Episcopal Church Amend Its Rules?
| Source: Religion Dispatches
June 26, 2012
By Elizabeth Drescher
...As the Episcopal Church prepares for its 77th triennial General Convention in Indianapolis next month, transgender Episcopalians and their allies are preparing to challenge the denomination's commitment to the full inclusion of all God's people - without consideration of "race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, ((gender identity and expression)), disabilities or age" - in discernment for lay or ordained ministry in the Church. The italicized language is a proposed addition to the current canons of the Episcopal Church, which were previously amended to include sexual orientation as a characteristic that could not be considered as an impediment to ministry. The new language was proposed at the 2009 General Convention, and was passed by majorities of lay and ordained deputies. However, Episcopal bishops amended the proposed new canonical language to remove reference to gender identity specifically, preferring broader language that would ensure access to all the ministries of the church by "all baptized persons." Members of the trans community and their advocates persuaded deputies that the bishops' revised language obscured the challenges faced by transgender Episcopalians, and the amendment was defeated.
"I think there was a tremendous amount of confusion the first time around," says Louise Emerson Brooks, a media consultant and communications director for the Episcopal LGBT advocacy group, Integrity USA, of the failure of the 2009 resolution. "There was a clear need for education among the bishops and the delegates in general on what it means to be transgender and why it matters that they are not prevented from serving the church in any ministry, lay or ordained."...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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England: Better provision needed regarding women bishops issue
| Source: Anglican Mainstream
June 28, 2012
Reform Chairman Rev'd Rod Thomas said today that "Reform deeply regrets that we
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Rev'd Thomas
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have reached such an impasse on women bishops" with the current House of Bishops' amendments not satisfying the conservative evangelical network's concerns over their future in the Church of England.
Speaking at a prayer meeting attended by almost 200 Reform members in central London, Mr Thomas said: "We thank the House of Bishops for their work. They have tried to find a way through. But their amendments have not succeeded in persuading our members that there is a secure future for those who cannot in conscience accept the oversight of women as bishops. In light of that we will be encouraging our members on General Synod to vote against the legislation as it stands."
Mr Thomas added: "The furore created by some in response to these small amendments reveals most clearly the reason why those who hold to our Biblical position need legislative clarity, not just a code of practice if we are to continue to encourage young people to come forward for ordination.
"There is clearly a desire on the part of some to see any provision for us as strictly temporary, despite the fact that we're simply seeking to follow the Bible's teaching about how God wants his Church to be organised. They hope we'll just leave. However, we believe the majority of Anglicans want to honour the promises made to us over the last two decades to preserve a place for us in the Church of England. As it stands, the draft Measure doesn't do this - and we'll be asking General Synod to withhold approval of the draft Measure so that some proper compromises can be agreed.
"We face a very difficult situation, so we are urging our members to pray for the House of Bishops, the General Synod and for the church's witness in this country to the saving grace of Jesus Christ."
Additional information on Reform's position may be found here.
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Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt reports on his meeting with President Mursi
| Source: Anglican Ink
June 27, 2012
Dear Friends,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Yesterday I received a phone call from the Presidential Palace asking me to meet with
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President Bishop Anis
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the new President of Egypt, Dr. Mohammed Mursi. The President also invited the heads of other the Christian denominations for the meeting.
We were received with a warm welcome from the President. Each one of us gave congratulations to the President and he assured us that Christians are equal citizens in Egypt and it is his duty to make sure that every citizen receives his or her rights. The President also told us stories from the history of Islam of how Muslim leaders were very keen to ensure the right of citizenship of all Christians in Egypt.
I assured the President of our prayers for him and also asked him to make the topic of "National Unity" a priority. By "National Unity" I mean, of course, equality between Christians and Muslims and applying the rule of law on all citizens. He immediately responded that there were attempts to disrupt this National Unity in the past and create a strained relation between Christians and Muslims. He promised to do his best to ensure the rights of Christians, especially in regard to building churches.
I also asked the President to consider attending one of the meetings of "Beit el Aila" the House of the Family, which is an initiative of the Grand Imam to bring Christian and Muslims leaders together to discuss ways to enhance the religious harmony. He immediately agreed to host one of these meetings. I shared this news with the Grand Imam who was happy to hear that the President will give a serious attention to "Beit el Aila."
I came out of the thirty-five minute meeting very encouraged. I must say that this initiative of the President carries in itself the desire to assure Christians that he will be the President of all Egyptians.
We will continue to pray for him and for our beloved country Egypt.
May the Lord bless you!
Yours in Christ,
Mouneer Anis
President Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, Bishop of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa
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