"God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation; and to God the Lord belongs escape from death [setting us free]." Psalm 68:20 AMP
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Message from Bishop David Anderson
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Bishop Anderson
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Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus,
In the United States we are a world apart from the European mindset, the world of the European Union and the Euro Zone. It is hard at times for Americans to understand Europeans and I am sure the reverse is also true. It is hard to understand the ongoing German legal battle over circumcision for Jews and Muslims, a battle that continues to cause anxiety in both communities on the Continent. Since both religions practice circumcision on male children, and since the children can't give informed consent, and since it is considered a form of mutilation, some judges have decided that it must be prohibited. A doctor who performed a circumcision on a Muslim boy was charged, and now a Jewish mohel is to be hauled before the court for doing a ritual circumcision on a Jewish male child on his eighth day, as Jewish law calls for. Several Israeli and U.S. papers have covered this here and here and we can only hope that sanity returns to the judges. This practice was ordered by God for the Jews in Holy Scripture, and has been a part of Muslim practice since the time of Mohammed; in the United States many Christian boys are circumcised as well. Surely the judges must have more important things to do than to infringe on the religious rights of citizens.
Now to a disturbing trend that has emerged in the Atlanta, Georgia area: people driving the wrong way on the interstate highways! Just the other day we had the fourth incident in two weeks of someone driving very fast, but in the opposite, oncoming traffic lanes of the freeway, in every case with disastrous results. It is true that some of the on/off ramps are too close, and perhaps better signage and lighting might help, but in several of these cases the driver was intoxicated or under the influence of some impairing drug.
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I haven't yet encountered a wrong way driver, and hope not to, but some questions do immediately rush to mind. Don't they notice that traffic is going by them the wrong way? Don't they notice that their side of the road has a center divide and there are cars on the other side of the center going the same way as they are? How did they miss the WRONG WAY sign when they entered the freeway? Perhaps when drivers are "on something," the conviction that he or she is right carries them on past all evidence to the contrary, until finally they collide at a combined impact speed of approximately 150 miles an hour. If anyone in either vehicle lives, it is a miracle, and the question of why this happens remains.
Apparently human beings are built this way - they come to believe they are right, and thereafter they are immune to wise counsel, posted signs, and all evidence to the contrary. Naturally, this makes me think of our faith communities, read churches, and how some of them and the individuals that inhabit them become convinced they are right, despite Holy Scripture to the contrary, despite history to the contrary, despite posted signs in the Bible and in church doctrine, and they go merrily down the freeway of life thinking that all of the oncoming cars they meet, all of the worldwide Christians that they pass by, are surely going the wrong way. In faith as in traffic, injuries result and much damage is done.
This is the Labor Day weekend in the United States and many are taking a few days for the holiday, dashing to the beaches or the mountains. Wherever you are headed, make sure you are going the right way, drive carefully, pray carefully, and don't take your son to Germany for circumcision.
Blessings and Peace in Jesus,
+David
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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Message from Canon Ashey
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By The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
The following is from the August 28 edition of the AAC's International Update. You can sign up for this email update here.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I recently read an article by Dr. Michael Poon in The Living Church (August 26, 2012), "Look Beyond England." Dr. Poon, director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in Asia (Singapore), has been a frequent critic of "post-Western colonialism" - especially those quarrels and disputes "exported and internationalized" by British and American (read "Western") Anglicans upon "institutionally weak" Anglican churches particularly in the Global South. I was therefore astonished by his conclusion:
"For me, as those in the Oxford Movement once saw, the disestablished American Episcopal Church, holding out the vision of a catholic and missionary church, offers a more promising future of spiritual renewal for the Anglican world. The Episcopal Church, a spiritual forebear of Anglicans in Asia, will continue to occupy a central place in God's unfinished plans for Anglicans."
Surely Dr. Poon must know that The Episcopal Church of today bears little resemblance to the spiritual forebears of Anglicans in Asia - the missionaries and others who came believing in an Anglicanism rooted in the Bible, the Creeds and the Thirty Nine Articles. Surely he knows that those Anglican forebears believed in the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all people, quite unlike the leadership of The Episcopal Church USA and other western, post-modern Anglicans. Surely he must know that it is not the Bible but Post-Modernism that shapes the thinking and governance of post-Western colonial Anglicans in The Episcopal Church, The Anglican Church of Canada, the mother Church of England and elsewhere among Anglicans in the West. Post-Modernism is the current Western cultural ideology that has been shaping revisions to the Christian faith among Anglicans dominating the governing structures of the Anglican Communion - especially those from The Episcopal Church to whom he invites us to look for hope and a future! How could he have missed the death spiral in average Sunday attendance, baptisms, and confirmations in the Episcopal Church occurring simultaneously with its violations of Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (1998) in the consecration of partnered homosexuals as bishops, the provision of rites for same sex blessings, and now the access of transgendered persons to holy orders?
All of this is the result of (mostly) western Anglican leaders in the grip of Post-Modernism rather than in being in the grip of the Holy Spirit. Post-Modernism emerged in the 20th century, especially among French philosophers like Jacques Derrida who emphasized the "deconstruction" of language so that no text - including the Bible - can be understood as having anything but multiple and conflicting interpretations. The result is a rejection of any kind of "objective and absolute truth," (except for the absolute dogma that "there is no absolute truth"!). What this means for Anglicans like you and me is that among western leaders who have embraced post-modernism, there is a lack of confidence in God's word, the Bible, as being the final authority in matters of faith, order and discipline. It means that words like "grace," "salvation," "sin," "catholic," "missionary" and even "Lord and Savior," can mean quite different things to those who use them divorced and deconstructed from any sense of divine revelation. This is one reason why genuine dialogue and listening have been so elusive in all of the discussions around The Episcopal Church's violations of Biblical, catholic and Anglican communion teaching. Because there is no Biblical standard for what is right or wrong when language is "deconstructed" and divorced from objective truth, and truth itself becomes a moving target based on what is culturally acceptable in a particular context. And, according to post-modernism, no context is better than another.
This week I read a compelling article on "Why Post-Modernism won't win." In it, the author, Philip Rosenthal, lists several reasons why post-modernism is just another "ism" that will follow its predecessors of Marxism, National Socialism and Soviet Communism into the dustbin of history....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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| Anglican Perspective: Daughters of the Holy Cross | August 30, 2012
The Daughters of the Holy Cross is composed of Anglican women who have committed their lives to the work and service of our Lord Jesus Christ. The order will hold its first-ever national Assembly September 13-16 in St. John's, FL. This week, Canon Ashey focuses on this wonderful organization and its members who order their lives to be faithful to Christ. Key Scripture: 1 Cor. 9:25
View Anglican Perspective here.
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Steve Wood Ordained as First Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas
| Source: ACNA
August 25, 2012
On Saturday, August 25, bishops, leaders, and members of the Anglican Church in North America rejoiced at St. Andrew's Church in Mount Pleasant, SC, as they stood witness
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Bishop Wood (Mary Ailes photo)
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to the ordination of the Rev. Steve Wood as bishop of the newly formed Diocese of the Carolinas - a Provincial diocese that oversees parishes and missions in North and South Carolina....
11 bishops and 33 priests were in the procession at last weekend's ordination service. The Most Rev. Robert Duncan, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America served as the Chief Consecrator and was assisted by The Rt. Rev. Stanley Ntagali (Diocese of Masindi-Kitara and Archbishop-elect of the Church of Uganda), The Rt. Rev. Roger Ames (Diocese of the Great Lakes), The Rt. Rev. Alphonza Gadsden, Sr. (Diocese of the Southeast, Reformed Episcopal Church) and The Rt. Rev. John Guernsey (Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic). Over 600 people attended the service....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Pittsburgh Presbytery to vote on exit plan
| Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
August 23, 2012
By Ann Rodgers
Pittsburgh Presbytery is poised to vote on a plan that would allow congregations to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) with their buildings if they first engage in an open discernment process and negotiate a settlement with the presbytery.
About 170 people attended a discussion Tuesday night in Bethany Presbyterian Church, Bridgeville. The plan will be voted on Sept. 15....
The proposed plan says a congregation that wants to leave must engage in nine to 18 months of discernment. An administrative commission of the presbytery will represent the denomination in these talks. All parties agree not to go to civil court and "no acts or impressions of 'intimidation' will be tolerated." After the discernment period, the congregation will vote on whether it wishes to pursue dismissal. If a simple majority of its members approve, negotiations will begin.
The proposal says the financial settlement must enable the congregation "to carry on its desired mission post-dismissal with its property intact." The settlement can't make the presbytery responsible for any debt. A majority of the congregation must approve the settlement, as must a majority of the presbytery....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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| European Court to decide on limit of British Christians' 'freedoms' | European Court to decide on limit of British Christians' 'freedoms' next week
Source: Anglican Mainstream
August 28, 2012
From the Christian Legal Centre
The limits to which British Christians are free to manifest their faith in the public square will be determined next week by Judges sitting in the European Court in Strasbourg.
In an unprecedented hearing on Tuesday (4 SEP), the Justices will hear appeals from four British Christians who believe the British Courts, and Laws set by the former Labour Government under the Equality Act, discriminate against their Human Rights.
In recent years, a number of high profile cases have come into the public domain where Christians who expressed their faith, either through refusing to carry out activities which went against the historic teaching of the Christian faith, or through wearing historic Christian symbols, were penalised in the workplace by employers - many have been sacked, or denied work in professional environments....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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| Flap over "submit" in Sydney wedding vows | Source: Huffington Post
August 29, 2012
By Sarah O'Meara
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has today caused outrage in his defence of a controversial decision to change the wording of marriage vows in Australia. [Editor's note: the proposed wording change is for the Diocese of Sydney, not the entire country of Australia]
Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, Peter Jensen explained why, he believed, a wife
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Archbishop Jensen
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should 'submit' to her husband on their wedding day, sparking a fierce debate on blogs, Twitter and Facebook.
According to Jensen's editorial in Sydney Morning Herald, brides will promise to 'submit' to their husbands under a new marriage vow that the Anglican diocese of Sydney is expected to approve at its synod in October....
However, the legality of the new vow has already been called into question.
Archdeacon John Davis said to the Sydney Morning Herald that the changes not only carried ''unpleasant connotations'', but could also be illegal.
"Under the Marriage Act a religious ceremony must use a service authorised by the religion's governing body, which in this case would be the Anglican Church of Australia as the act is a Commonwealth one," Dr Davis said.
The rest of the article may be found here.
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| Kenyan faith leaders urge calm after Mombasa riots | Source: Anglican Journal
August 29, 2012
By Fredrick Nzwili, ENInews
Nairobi, Kenya - Kenyan Christian and Muslim leaders are calling for calm in the coastal city of Mombasa after two days of violence over the killing of a militant Muslim cleric.
Churches were torched, vandalized and looted by Muslim youths who were protesting the Aug. 27 killing of Sheikh Aboud Rogo, a cleric the American government has accused of aiding the al-Shabab militants of Somalia, allegedly linked to al-Quaeda. More than eight Protestant and evangelical churches were targeted.
A grenade was hurled at police officers who were trying to save a Presbyterian church. Three officers and a civilian were killed and 14 others injured.
With uneasy calm returning to the city, the Rev. Peter Karanja, National Council of Churches of Kenya general secretary, said he thanked Christians for showing restraint.
"We seek peaceful and legal means to resolve our grievances," he told a news conference Aug. 29 in Nairobi....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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