"The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in His works."
Psalm 104:31 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,
For a week now the Anglican portion of the world has been waiting to find out who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, and a deadlock in the Crown Nominations Commission has apparently caused things to grind to a halt. Anna Davis, correspondent for the UK-based Evening Standard, reports that we are not the only ones anxious to learn who it will be; apparently the Prime Minister David Cameron himself is getting impatient and wants to get on with it.
The difficulty seems to be in agreeing on the number two name, with word on the street being that Bishop Justin Welby, educated at Eton and currently Bishop of Durham, is going to be the first name on the list. Although many of us are a bit impatient ourselves to find out who it will be, it is very important that they "get it right" the first time with both names, since apparently the Church of England together with the political process at hand will choose for the Queen who she will name, and the rest of us have no further opportunity to say anything about the choice except congratulations or, some might say, condolences. I do wish that the person chosen would be able to act as befits the important part that this role actually plays in the international Anglican Communion. In his early days, Dr. Williams made some unfortunate gaffes, such as allowing himself to be photographed in robes that made him look like either Merlin from mythical days long past, or some sort of a Druid priest. On another occasion, he was photographed wearing a blindfold, as if he were ready for a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. The role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, primus inter pares among the Communion's Primates, is a very serious and somber undertaking. My concern with Bishop Welby would be that he was made a bishop on October 28, 2011, which is LESS than a year ago. Does he understand the job of being a bishop well enough to be the figurative head of all bishops in the Anglican Communion only 11 months after his own consecration? You can read the full report from the Evening Standard at the link below.
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Elsewhere in the Communion, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Congo, the Most Rev. Henri K. Isingoma has written a formal letter to Canon Kenneth Kearon, who is the General Secretary of the Anglican Communion. I would suppose that normally he would have written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but paragraph one above may explain that. David Virtue, writing at VirtueOnline, reports the content of the letter, which says that Congo will not grant any canonical license to any clergy from the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) nor will it ordain any priest or consecrate any bishop from AMiA. Apparently one of Congo's bishops acted without the permission of the College of Bishops or the Primate of Congo, and his actions are declared illegal and "he will solely account for them." You can read David Virtue's full article here or at the link below.
When the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, chairman bishop of AMiA, wrote AMiA bishops and members that he had obtained acceptance from the Anglican Province of Congo and Primate Isingoma, it appeared that AMiA was just moving from Rwanda to another African Province, but things seemed to go awry quickly thereafter. The logical place for AMiA to find a canonical home was the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), but Bishop Murphy had previously pulled back from his connections with the ACNA and seems unwilling to renew the relationship. Instead he has shopped AMiA to several African bishops in different Provinces, but to date has not found an ecclesial home. Some of his churches, clergy and members have left him and stayed loyal to Rwanda, establishing additional ties with the ACNA with Rwanda's blessing. Other churches, clergy and members have left the AMiA and simply joined ACNA dioceses near them. Just a few years ago, few could have guessed that the AMiA would find itself in this situation so quickly. AMiA is made up of good and sincere people, and we pray that God's best for them would be revealed.
The Episcopal Bishop of California, based in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral, has apparently extended the left hand of fellowship to the new Roman Catholic Archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, on the eve of Cordileone's installation. It is pathetic to see a tired Episcopal bishop such as Marc Andrus, overseer of an increasingly irrelevant band of left-wing Episcopalians, act disrespectfully to a brother bishop, never mind that Cordileone is Roman Catholic and an Archbishop. Apparently, the Archbishop's support of orthodox Christian/Catholic causes has given the liberal Andrus heartburn. He charges that "Bishop Cordileone was an active supporter of Proposition 8, which I and the other Episcopal bishops throughout California opposed." Andrus holds to his and TEC's new mantra, "we make no peace with oppression." And furthermore, he says "The recognition of the dignity and rights, within civil society and the Church of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered people, and of women are as core to our proclamation of the Gospel as our solidarity with the poor, with victims of violence and political oppression, and with the Earth." Read his entire letter here.
On the other hand, Archbishop Cordileone chairs a subcommittee for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops that deals with the promotion and defense of marriage. Read the entire article from the Catholic Culture website below. I would imagine that this type of behavior by an Episcopal bishop would make any substantive dialogue between TEC and American Roman Catholics awkward if not impossible.
Our best wishes go to the new Archbishop and his flock.
Perhaps by next week we shall all know who the new Archbishop of Canterbury is, and until then stay faithful to the Lord and walk with him through the chapters of your life.
Blessings and peace in Christ 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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Canon Ashey
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What does God say about the leaders we should be seeking?
Dear Friends in Christ,
Two of the top stories this week have captured my attention because they are about choosing leaders. Both the presidential debate on Wednesday evening, and the difficulty the Crown Nominations Commission is having in selecting a new Archbishop of Canterbury, illustrate the challenges of identifying and calling the right leader. And in both cases, as one of the presidential candidates rightly observed, the problems we face are moral problems; the problems in our own country, and the problems in the Anglican Communion are not fundamentally technical, economic or relational. They are moral in that they have to do with choices we have made, and choices that we have allowed to be made on behalf of generations to come that involve what we believe to be good or evil.
And as I noted several weeks ago in an Anglican Perspective video, failure to diagnose the fundamental nature of a problem will lead to solutions that are not only unsuccessful, but actually exacerbate the problem. This is true for the Anglican Communion and for our own country, and has led to failures of leadership in both cases.
All of this begs the question: What qualities of moral leadership ought we to be looking for in the leaders we are seeking? As I prayed about this my mind was drawn to the New Testament, to the example of John the Baptist. John faced the wickedness of the religious leaders of his day, the wickedness of the secular rulers of his day (Herod), and the systemic evil that trickled down through lesser officials, tax collectors and soldiers. Here are some of the qualities in John the Baptist's leadership that are Biblical guideposts for the kind of moral leadership we should expect and pray for in our own leaders:
1. A person who is called rather than driven
In Ordering Your Private World (Nelson:1985), Gordon MacDonald does a masterful job contrasting King Saul, a "driven person," with John the Baptist, "a called-of-God person." As MacDonald rightly observes, King Saul bears the typical marks of a person driven to leadership: abnormally busy, gratified by accomplishment rather than relationship with God, preoccupied with symbols of accomplishment, caught in an uncontrolled pursuit of getting bigger and more successful, with a limited regard for integrity, possessing limited or underdeveloped people skills, highly competitive and possessing an anger which is easily triggered when others disagree. (pp. 31-40)
By contrast, John the Baptist bears almost none of these marks. In fact, he bears the opposite mark - a willingness to take time out of the busyness to listen to God's voice. John was a person who valued his relationship with God first and foremost, including obedience, holiness and integrity of life. His choice of clothes and lifestyle are a reversal of what society would hold up as symbols of accomplishment and success! Though he had his doubts and fears, as all leaders do, there is not one instance of John saying one thing and doing another. His sense of mission was crystal clear: "I am the voice of one crying in the desert, 'make straight the way for the LORD.'" (John 1:23 NIV) John's inner, private world was ordered around his relationship with God, and because of that inner order he was able to hear and pursue God's call on his life fearlessly and with faithfulness to Jesus Christ right up to the moment of his death.
"It is this quality of certitude for which we seek when we compare driven persons and called persons," writes MacDonald. "Driven people are confident they have that quality as they forge ahead. But often, at the moment when it is least expected, hostile events can conspire, and there can be collapse. Called people have strength from within, perseverance and power that are impervious to the blows from without." (Ibid. p. 52, emphasis added)
If we believe that God knows what is best for our personal lives, our families, our churches, our Anglican Communion and our country, we need to have leaders who are keen to pursue what God thinks is right under the circumstances, rather than what serves the needs of their own drivenness or ambition.
2. A person who hears God's voice above others by setting aside time and place to listen
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. (Luke 3:1-3 NIV, emphasis added)
Isn't it remarkable that while the leader of the known world was doing his leadership thing in Rome, and other politicians like Pilate, Herod, Philip and Lysanias were doing important political things where they were, and while Annas and Caiaphas were doing important religious things keeping institutional religion and rituals alive and well in the temple in Jerusalem, the word of God came to none of them!
The word of God - God's divinely inspired word, his plan for the salvation of the world, his particular mission for John to fulfill in preparing the way for Jesus the Messiah, and his specific directions - came to the most unlikely man of all. John was able to hear God's voice above the voices of other leaders and the crowds because he spent time in the desert, a synonym for quiet and solitude - a place where you can quiet not only the voices of others, but your own inner turmoil, and listen for the still small voice that is God's alone.
This is one of the principal questions we ask in our own Clergy Leadership Training Institute, in the first retreat on "The Character of the Leader." How is your prayer life these days? Are you listening to God? Or are you operating out of the clamor of other voices and the tyranny of the urgent?
If I had an opportunity to ask a prospective Archbishop of Canterbury or a Presidential candidate a question, those are the questions I would want to ask. How are you listening to God these days, and what is he telling you? Moral leadership, vision and calling flows out of that primary relationship, just as it did for John the Baptist.
Next week: The Kind of Leaders we should be seeking, part 2:
3. A person who is humble and content enough to exalt others
4. A person who sees himself fundamentally as a servant/steward
5. A person who acknowledges the limits of his leadership
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
Chief Operating and Development Officer, American Anglican Council
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Anglican Perspective: Looking for Leaders
| The past week has been filled with stories and speculation on the selection process for the next Archbishop of Canterbury. In this week's Anglican Perspective, Canon Ashey asks, "What qualities should the Crown Nominations Commission be looking for in an Archbishop of Canterbury and what does the Bible say about it?"
View this week's Anglican Perspective here.
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California: In "welcome" to new Catholic archbishop, Episcopal leader calls Catholic teaching on marriage 'oppression'
| Source: Catholic Culture
October 3, 2012
On the eve of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's installation in San Francisco, the Episcopal Church's bishop of California has written a letter to his faithful attacking the stand of the Catholic Church on marriage and inviting disaffected Catholics to join the Episcopal Church.
"Bishop Cordileone was an active supporter of Proposition 8, which I and the other
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Bishop Andrus
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Episcopal bishops throughout California opposed," writes the Episcopal Church Bishop Marc Andrus.
"We make no peace with oppression," he added. "The recognition of the dignity and rights, within civil society and the Church of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered people, and of women are as core to our proclamation of the Gospel as our solidarity with the poor, with victims of violence and political oppression, and with the Earth."
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Archbishop Cordileone
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Archbishop Cordileone is chairman of the Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"Some Catholics may find themselves less at home with Salvatore Cordileone's installation and they may come to The Episcopal Church," Bishop Andrus continued. "We should welcome them as our sisters and brothers. Even as we welcome those who may join us and look for ways to work with our Roman Catholic siblings in the faith, we will not be silenced in our proclamation of God's inclusion."
Bishop Andrus' letter may be found here.
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California bans teenage gay conversion therapy
| Source: BBC
October 2, 2012
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a ban on therapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight.
When the law comes into effect on 1 January, the Golden State will become the first to outlaw the practice for people under the age of 18.
The bill was backed by mental health groups, and gay rights activists say reparative or "conversion therapy" can increase risk of depression or suicide.
Counselling and prayer is used to help some Christians deal with gay urges.
The bill was signed over the weekend along with more than 100 pieces of legislation sent to the governor by California's state legislature.
Two Christian groups, the California-based Pacific Justice Institute and the Florida-based Liberty Counsel will challenge the law.
The Liberty Counsel said it planned to argue in its lawsuit that the measure infringes on the First Amendment and equal protection rights....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Cameron keen to 'hurry up' decision over new archbishop
| Source: London Evening Standard
October 1, 2012
By Anna Davis
David Cameron wants the Church of England to "hurry up" and recommend a new Archbishop of Canterbury, sources revealed today.
The Evening Standard has learned that the Prime Minister is keen to get on with appointing a successor to Rowan Williams but is being held up by slow progress on a commission charged with nominations.
Justin Welby, the Eton-educated Bishop of Durham, is emerging as first choice but the Crown Nominations Commission is said to be unable to agree on a second choice to present to No.10....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Congo: Anglican Archbishop ends Partnership with AMIA
| Source: VirtueOnline
By David W. Virtue
October 1, 2012
The archbishop of the Anglican Church of Congo, the Most Rev. Henri K. Isingoma has
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Archbishop Isingoma
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sent a formal letter to Canon Kenneth Kearon, General Secretary of the Anglican Communion, saying that the Congo will not grant any canonical license to any clergy from [the] AMiA nor will it ordain any priest or consecrate any bishop from AMiA.
"The Province of the Anglican Church of Congo is a full member of the Anglican Communion; thus the individual actions from Bishop Bahemuka Mugenyi William (Diocese of Boga) in this regard with AMiA are illegal and he will solely account for them."
The letter was sent to the General Secretary on Sept. 30, 2012. A copy was obtained by Virtueonline.
On April 13, The Rt. Rev. Charles H. Murphy, III wrote AMIA bishops and friends that he had secured the Province of the Congo which he said is validly attached to the global Anglican Communion. The Anglican Mission's connection with the Congo began at Winter Conference 2012 when Bishop William Bahemuka Mugenyi generously made provision for scheduled ordinations to go forward, he said. Murphy later wrote that he had received an official letter from Archbishop Henri Isingoma of the Anglican Church of the Congo, receiving him as a Bishop of the House of Bishops in his Province and offering the AMIA a new canonical residence
Archbishop Isingoma has now formally rescinded that offer.
"The period for the temporary canonical residence conditionally granted to some of its ministers will expire as soon as they get another guest-Province and this within a relatively short time. Therefore, the Province of the Anglican Church of Congo encourages AMiA to join other conservatives' movements such as ACNA or any other Anglican ecclesiastic structure in North America if they cannot rejoin TEC or the Province of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda or simply to move from its status of Church Structure to the one of Missionary Society as promised."
The archbishop said his House of Bishops would work with the AMIA as a Missionary Society "hundred percent but not as an ecclesiological structure within parishes and/or dioceses."
The archbishop concluded his statement concerning the AMIA saying he would pray for any move towards eventual reconciliation among Episcopalians or Anglicans in the USA....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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UN Human Rights Commissioner seeks to criminalise abortion opposition
| Source: LifeSiteNews
October 3, 2012
By Hilary White
NEW YORK - The recently re-appointed UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, has issued a document calling for governments to criminalise organised opposition to abortion by non-governmental groups such as pro-life lobbyists or even family members. The UN Human Rights Council published its "technical guidance" to address maternal mortality and morbidity in July, to "assist policymakers in improving women's health and rights."
The document starts from the abortion industry's assertion that the best way to reduce maternal mortality is to introduce legalised abortion and reduce legal and other restrictions on abortion. Under the "rights-based" approach to women's health care, the document says, states are "obliged" to use "maximum available resources" to "protect against interference with sexual and reproductive health rights by third parties by enforcing appropriate laws, policies, regulations and guidelines."...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Boy killed as blast hits Nairobi church
| Source: Daily Nation
September 30, 2012
By Vincent Agoya
A boy who had just turned nine was killed on Sunday after an explosive was hurled at a
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Archbishop Wabukala and Bishop Mwangi of Nairobi pray over child injured in blast
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Sunday School class in a Nairobi church.
John Ian Maina suffered fatal injuries in the explosion that rocked the Anglican Church of Kenya St Polycarp Parish on Juja Road in Pangani area.
He was among a group of children waiting for a Sunday School session when attackers struck, throwing an improvised explosive outside their classroom before escaping on foot.
Police had just warned the previous day that Al-Shabaab was planning retaliatory attacks in the country following the capture of Kismayu port by the Kenya Defence Forces in southern Somalia.
Police said the attackers threw the improvised explosive device and escaped through a footpath next to the church compound in the 10.30am incident....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Land dispute may be behind Kenyan church bombing
| Source: Anglican Ink
October 2, 2012
By George Conger
A property dispute is being investigated as an alternate theory of the crime in last Sunday bombing of St Cyprian's Anglican Church in Nairobi which left one child dead and six seriously wounded.
While the 30 September 2012 attack on St Cyprian's has all the hallmarks of an operation by the Somali-based Islamist group al-Shabaab, the question whether the bombing was related to a lawsuit between the church and a property developer pending in the Nairobi courts is also being considered....
The week before the attack at St Cyprian's Kenyan troops drove al Shabaab from the Somali town of Kismayo, the group's last stronghold along the coast. Affiliated with al Qaeda, al Shabaab had vowed to hit back at Kenya and other nations participating in the African Union peace keeping force in Somalia. Kenya's press has speculated that the use of an IED at a church would be in keeping with the group's past attacks.
However, the use of an IED might have been a copycat attack designed to drive the church off its land. The land on which the Sunday school building sits is the focus of a protracted legal battle between the church and a property developer - a former parishioner....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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