"Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!" Revelation 5:13b NKJV
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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 Episcopal Church (TEC) worked for two General Conventions on revisions to their disciplinary canon law, rewriting it to remove most protections that an accused bishop or clergy person previously had and setting up fast track procedures to deal with complaints. Years ago, when I sat as the Presiding Judge of the Ecclesiastical Court for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, I was very aware of the laborious process of taking complaints, investigating them to a certain point, and then when there seemed enough evidence to constitute an offense if all the facts were proven true, to the equivalent of an indictment, inhibition of the accused clergy person, a full investigation and then a trial. It was my sense that the process provided all concerned the safeguards and the chance at justice that was required; it was not perfect, but reasonably fair except for the high cost of the investigation and the defense, the latter of which was born by the accused clergy man or woman. It was, however, not quickly completed, and the recent pressure for change has resulted in a disciplinary process that can be heavy-handed, provide few safeguards and move quickly.
Although TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori tried earlier to impose discipline on South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence and failed, she still has him in her gun sights. She also attempted to move forward to discipline a group of bishops and priests who had signed an Amicus Brief in the Fort Worth case opposing the hierarchical claims of the current Episcopal Church leaders. At the same time she has attempted to discipline three bishops who opposed hierarchical claims made by her attorneys in the Quincy Diocese litigation. Her first moves weren't successful against Lawrence, the so-called Ft. Worth seven or the Quincy three, but she has now regrouped and again commenced an attack on South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence along with the Standing Committee. She has officially inhibited him, telling him that he can't function in any official capacity until the charges have been adjudicated, and has begun the process of replacing the "disloyal" members of the Standing Committee with local individuals who are loyal to her.
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This process that TEC uses to attack a diocese that is in a strained relationship with her regime is termed the Replacement Strategy. Declaring the existing bishop and possibly also the Standing Committee to have abandoned the communion of the church, she then appoints an interim bishop loyal to her and, if necessary, new Standing Committee members. In many ways this looks very much like identity theft, where someone who isn't you replaces you at the bank and credit card companies, and, using your good name, begins to act and do business as if they were you, always to your detriment. In a letter to the people of the Diocese of South Carolina, Bishop Lawrence advised that a group of Jefferts Schori's supporters have used the official diocesan seal, and improperly called a meeting of the clergy as if it were an official meeting but with their own agenda.
As soon as the Presiding Bishop has a stand-in bishop named and new Standing Committee members all lined up, expect them to appear at all of the banks and financial institutions that do business with the Diocese and present new signature cards, attempting to take the identity theft concept a step further. Typically the banks won't fall for the ruse, but they do become alarmed and freeze the accounts, pending the courts sorting it all out. That actually is the preliminary goal of TEC, to freeze the liquid financial assets so that the diocese, or in some cases the parish, can't make payroll and can't pay their defense attorneys - in essence, to financially decapitate the Diocese preparatory to going into court and making the coup d'état "legal."
There is an official Diocese of South Carolina Special Convention prepared to meet this Saturday, November 17, at St. Philip's Church in Charleston, and the items for discussion and action are not pleasing to the Presiding Bishop. From their own webpage they state the purpose of the Special Called Convention on November 17, 2012: "Though we are already outside of TEC, our Constitution and Canons both contain multiple references to those of TEC. Ours must now be amended to bring them into agreement with the present legal reality. Those changes can only be made by a Diocesan Convention. More information about the specific purpose for this Convention is here. The webpage for the Diocese is http://www.dioceseofsc.org/ and it is worth looking over carefully. Pray for our brothers and sisters who are trying hard to grasp firmly the faith once delivered to the saints, and are under attack by the current TEC regime.
The Presiding Bishop of TEC has now followed up with a plea for everyone to step back from the brink, and accept her "generous offer" and explanation of what will happen with a new bishop and Standing Committee, and her desire for everyone (well, almost everyone) to be a part of that, including being able to continue contributions into the Pension Fund. Read her version of reality here.
In her Pastoral Letter, Jefferts Schori makes reference to the Ft. Worth seven and the Quincy three, expressing hope that they will fold up and accept her version of conciliation under the disciplinary canons. That is what she says now, but once she has devoured Bishop Lawrence and South Carolina, she will turn her full attention to the seated bishops in her previous action, especially Dallas, Springfield, and Albany, and seek to effect her coup d'état on them as well. The best defense is going to be a vigorous offense, and I urge those already in her sights to recognize their danger and collaborate closely. A quote often but erroneously attributed to Benjamin Franklin is this definition of democracy and liberty: Democracy is a group of two wolves and a lamb deciding on the lunch menu; Liberty is a well-armed lamb. Arm yourselves with the full armor of God and the best street-smart attorneys you can find, because in Jefferts Schori's church it is lunch time and the wolves are closing in on the lambs.
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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Some Questions facing Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury designate
Dear Friends in Christ,
This week has been full of news about the new Archbishop of Canterbury designate, Bishop Justin Welby of Durham. We are learning more about +Justin Welby every day. What we do know is that he was a lay pastor who received significant spiritual formation at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), home of ALPHA. When I was in full-time parish ministry, I led more than a few ALPHA courses, and found ALPHA to be a very effective way of bringing secular and irreligious people, as well as once-churched believers, into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. ALPHA's emphasis is on the essentials of the Christian faith - the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the trustworthiness of the Bible, and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, to name but a few. +Welby's experience at HTB can only be a good thing for the vast majority of Anglicans who stand firm and uncompromising on those essentials - especially those Anglicans within the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA).
Likewise, +Welby's 11 years experience as a business executive will, I believe, bring a "real world" perspective to management that will be a refreshing change for the See of Canterbury. In fact, it may not be an altogether bad thing that he has not been a bishop for long. There is sometimes an institutional mindset that bishops acquire in which the church itself becomes more important than the Lord of the church. Perhaps his lengthy experience with secular people in the business world and his experience with ALPHA, will keep the new Archbishop's internal compass pointed toward the fulfillment of Christ's Great Commission above all else.
But what I find especially intriguing is the reports of his experience as a special conflict negotiator in Northern Nigeria and Baghdad. If true, the reports reveal a man whose commitment to peacemaking (at great risk to his own life) may bring a very helpful skill set at this time in the life of an Anglican Communion which is seriously fractured over the crisis of Gospel truth.
Almost two years ago, when I was in the UK for the Church of England's General Synod debate on the ACNA, I met with a senior member of the CofE leadership who asked me, "When will you (ACNA) settle your differences with TEC and get on with life together?"
My response: "When they stop suing us. When they stop misrepresenting the facts to your bishops, saying that they are being sued by us and that they have no policy of suing individual vestry members. When they stop inhibiting and deposing our clergy when they exercise their conscience and join another branch of the Anglican Communion. Maybe then we can begin a conversation. But it won't be about reunion."
He smiled, changed the subject, and moved on to another question.
Given the new Archbishop-designate's commitment to and skill in conflict resolution, I fully expect the question to come up again. So I've been reflecting on all of the questions that must be faced around "settling differences" within the Anglican Communion, and within North America in particular.
First, does +Justin Welby have all of the facts? Does he have not only the facts describing the crisis of Gospel truth that gave rise to the formation of the Anglican Church in North America, but also the facts about how that crisis of Gospel truth has spread to and fractured the Anglican Communion? I hope he will read the facts we have documented about why the ACNA had to be formed in our report "TEC: Tearing the fabric of the Communion." I hope he will read the facts in the report from 300 international Anglican leaders gathered in London in April 2012, "Statement from the FCA leaders Conference" -facts which document the failure of governance in the Anglican Communion in the face of actions by TEC and others to persistently violate not only the clear teaching on Christian marriage, human sexuality and holy orders in Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (1998), but also to undermine the essentials of the Christian faith throughout the Anglican Communion. I hope he will read the statement from two of the largest churches within the Anglican Communion, Nigeria and Kenya, on "What really happened at ACC-15" in Auckland NZ. I hope and pray he will not wave these facts off as simply "grisly details." Surely, as a skilled negotiator in conflict resolution, he will know that ignoring one of the parties to a conflict, and ignoring their pain, is no way to settle differences. Understanding the real pain of all those involved and the sacrifices and costs they have borne is essential to beginning any process of settling differences.
Secondly, when the question of reconciling differences comes up, what will he and others in the Anglican Communion leadership mean by that? The Oxford dictionary defines reconciliation as 1. the restoration of friendly relations: 2. the action of making one view or belief compatible with another: and 3. the action of making financial accounts consistent; harmonization.
With all due respect, definitions 2 and 3 are out of the question because of the irreconcilable theological differences between ACNA and TEC on essentials of the Christian faith. As others have observed, it is not as if our Biblical doctrines of anthropology (human nature) and Christology (who Jesus is) are hermetically sealed and separate from each other. TEC's capitulation to non-Biblical teaching on anthropology (beginning with human sexuality) has not only corrupted their Christology, but almost every other doctrine they profess regarding the Christian faith. And now they are seeking to spread it as a "special vocation of the Episcopal Church" to the rest of the Anglican Communion through a doctrine of baptism that is divorced from catholic teaching and regeneration. Anglicans in the ACNA and the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans will never adjust, compromise or harmonize our faith in Christ and Gospel truth with such un-Biblical and un-catholic theologies. In fact, we will resist them as we have been doing, no matter what it may cost. Continuing Indaba will not wear us down. We will not become weary in welldoing (Gal 6:9).
Likewise, as we have documented in "Tearing the Fabric", the manner in which TEC is functioning through its Canons and abandonment of both natural justice and due process to marginalize and silence minority voices is also an irreconcilable difference.
I cannot imagine theological or institutional reconciliation between ACNA and TEC within my lifetime, if ever. The theological and institutional differences are too irreconcilable to harmonize. Certainly not while the leadership of TEC promotes a false gospel globally. So then, what about definition 1: "The restoration of friendly relations." Surely it would be good and pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ to lower the level of acrimony.
But to what end? That is the real question. To heal wounded relationships and rebuild personal relationships of trust among leaders that might lead to common action on issues we can agree on, such as the abolition of human sex trafficking? Or to introduce Episcopalians who can share the Christology and biblical trustworthiness of resources like ALPHA to help people come into a living relationship with Jesus Christ as both their savior and Lord of all their lives? Yes.
But this in turn raises other questions. Even if leaders of goodwill on both sides of the divide could move in this direction, how could this be done without compromising the Biblical and catholic essentials of the Christian faith for which we have struggled and suffered? How would such leaders on both sides of the divide share Holy Communion when one is subverting the Gospel truth upon which the others' faith is based - both locally and globally? How can we work together with false teachers when Paul admonishes Timothy to "have nothing to do with them"? (2 Tim. 3:5 NIV)
Like Nicky Gumbel's wonderful book "Questions Worth Asking", these, too, are questions worth asking to honor our Lord's own example and his love and longing for those "prodigals" who have wandered in a land that is far away (Luke 15). But the answer could not be to support those who are still actively leading others to waste their inheritance in a land that is far away. That would not be the father's response either.
Is it to find a way, for instance, for TEC and ACNA to exist as two parallel but theologically different and separate Anglican realities within one geographic area? For each to pursue its agenda apart from the other, but without attacking each other or seeking to undermine each other? That might be the most realistic scenario for the new Archbishop designate to hope for at this point.
In any case, he will need all our prayers, and all his skills and faithful goodwill for the challenges ahead.
Yours in Christ,
Phil+
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Thanksgiving Holiday Next Week
| Next week, we will not publish a Weekly Update on Friday due to the Thanksgiving  holiday.
The AAC wishes all our readers a happy and blessed Thanksgiving day.
"Many, O Lord my God, are your wonderful works which You have done..." "...We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Psalm 40:5a, Isaiah 25:9b NKJV
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TEC Presiding Bishop backs ecclesiastical coup in South Carolina
| Source: Anglican Ink
November 12, 2012
By George Conger
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has declared the ecclesiastical authority of
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TEC Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori
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the Diocese of South Carolina vacant and has backed a faction within the diocese that is seeking to fill the "vacuum" created by the suspension of Bishop Mark Lawrence.
The loyalist "Transitional Committee" has also declared the South Carolina Standing Committee to be vacant and has formed a "steering committee" to act in its place.
On 11 Nov 2012, the steering committee announced that it had taken charge of the diocese. "We write to assure you that The Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina is continuing," they said, noting they had formed a "steering committee of faithful Episcopalians" to "reorganize our continuing Diocese over the next few months. This committee will serve as the broad-based group in the Diocese that communicates with the Presiding Bishop during this period when the Diocese has no functioning ecclesiastical authority."
The loyalist faction, writing in the name of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and acting under its seal, said at the diocesan convention scheduled for 8 March 2013 they would "begin the work of selecting a bishop, a new standing committee, and forging ahead with our missions and ministry."
The names affixed to the document for the group claiming to exercise the legal authority of the diocese, a South Carolina corporation, were:
Hillery P. Douglas, Charleston, Chairman; Erin E. Bailey, Mount Pleasant, Secretary; The Rev. James E. Taylor, North Charleston, Treasurer; Holly H. Behre, Charleston; William P. Baldwin, McClellanville; Charles C. Geer, MD, Charleston; Lonnie Hamilton, III, Charleston; Margaret S. Kwist, Summerville; The Rev. Richard C. Lindsey, Hilton Head/Beaufort County; Rebecca S. Lovelace, Conway; The Rev. Wilmot T. Merchant, II, North Myrtle Beach; John O. Sands, Pawleys Island; The Rev. Calhoun Walpole, Charleston; and Virginia C. Wilder, Summerville....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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South Carolina: Bishop Writes Diocesan Clergy on eve of Special Convention
| Source: VirtueOnline
November 14, 2012
By Mark Lawrence
Dear Members of the Diocese of South Carolina,
"Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or tamper with God's word...." 2 Corinthians 4:1-2
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Bishop Lawrence
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In just a few days, on November 17th, the Special Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina will meet at St. Philip's Church in Charleston.
By God's grace and providence we will step more fully into the vocation that awaits us-taking, as we have done in the past, the Good News of Jesus Christ across the oceans and across the street. This is and shall remain our highest purpose.
As I have stated at various deanery and parish forums in the diocese this present crisis was brought about through the convergence of three dimensions of our diocesan life and the national church's leadership-theology, morality and polity.
All three have undergone and continue to undergo revision within The Episcopal Church (TEC). This Diocese of South Carolina for well over a quarter of a century has steadfastly resisted these revisions as it has sought to remain faithful to the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this Church has received them.
While the "national" Episcopal Church has married yesterday's fads and is quickly becoming today's widow, declining in membership and resources, we have grown our parishes and diocese in faithful and relevant ways. When we have had large parishes separate from us, such as All Saints' Pawleys Island and St. Andrew's Mt Pleasant, it has been because of disagreement with TEC not the direction of the diocese. We have sought to conserve the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles while embracing both innovative and traditional ways to make him known and worshipped in today's world of the 21st century. We shall continue to do this in keeping with our diocesan vision- To Make Biblical Anglicans for a Global Age.
It should give all our members profound encouragement to know that we have heard from Archbishops, Presiding Bishops, and diocesan bishops from Kenya to Singapore, England to Egypt, Ireland to the Indian Ocean, representing the overwhelmingly vast majority of members of the Anglican Communion that they consider me as a faithful Anglican Bishop in good standing and this diocese as part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. They have also called for the leadership of TEC "to repent and return to the Lord."...
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Statement from the Communion Partner Bishops on the South Carolina Situation
| Source: The Living Church
November 14, 2012
We, Bishops of The Episcopal Church associated with the Communion Partner fellowship, are grieved at recent developments in the life of The Episcopal Church, specifically in the Diocese of South Carolina. The way in which the complaint was lodged against Bishop Lawrence and the action of the Disciplinary Board itself under the abandonment canon seem to have derailed a good faith attempt on the part of the Presiding Bishop, the Bishop of Upper South Carolina, and the Bishop of South Carolina to address issues of mutual concern. The reaction of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of South Carolina in its decision to withdraw the diocese from The Episcopal Church is also a source of grief. We lament these developments as symptomatic of a church that is the servant of its procedures rather than the responsible wielder of its own canonical tools....
The rest of the statement may be found here.
Signatories to the statement were:
The Rt. Rev. John C. Bauerschmidt, Diocese of Tennessee
The Rt. Rev. Peter Beckwith, Diocese of Springfield, retired
The Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer, Diocese of Central Florida
The Rt. Rev. Bill Frey, Diocese of Colorado, retired
The Rt. Rev. John D. Howe, Diocese of Central Florida, retired
The Rt. Rev. Russell E. Jacobus, Diocese of Fond du Lac
The Rt. Rev. Gary R. Lillibridge, Diocese of West Texas
The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little, II, Diocese of Northern Indiana
The Rt. Rev. Bill Love, Diocese of Albany
The Rt. Rev. Daniel H. Martins, Diocese of Springfield
The Rt. Rev. David Reed, Diocese of West Texas, Suffragan
The Rt. Rev. Michael G. Smith, Diocese of North Dakota
The Rt. Rev. James M. Stanton, Diocese of Dallas
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TEC Diocese of Georgia to allow same sex blessings
| Source: Diocese of Georgia
November 16, 2012
A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Scott A. Benhase | |
Bishop Benhase
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...I have discerned that we in the Diocese of Georgia will offer a Rite of Blessing for our homosexual sisters and brothers using the adapted rite found in Appendix 1. This will be the only Rite authorized in the Diocese of Georgia. In Appendix 2, you will find criteria for how the Rite may be offered in the Diocese of Georgia. These criteria are not suggestions. They are expected provisions and guidelines required of clergy and lay leaders who discern within their congregation that they should offer the Rite.
It should go without saying, but I will say it here because uninformed people often create needless alarm. No congregation or priest is required to offer such a rite. The criteria in Appendix 2 requires formal discernment between the parochial priest in charge and the vestry before it may be offered in the congregation and that discernment must be first initiated by the parochial priest. That means I will not allow non-parochial priests (or any deacon) to preside at such a Blessing Rite disconnected from a pastoral cure in a congregation. They may, however, assist the Rector, Vicar, or Priest-in-Charge of the Congregation at the Rite....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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England - Women bishops: As Synod vote nears, both sides slug it out online and in print
| Source: Church Times
November 16, 2012
by Madeleine Davies
With days to go until the General Synod votes on final approval of the Measure to ordain women as bishops, opponents and supporters are attempting to win over undecided members online.
Last Friday, the Archbishop of Canterbury-designate urged the Synod to approve the Measure, while paying tribute to the "remarkable signs of God's grace and action" in those who could not accept the ordained ministry of women.
In a briefing on the history of the Measure issued on Tuesday, the campaigning group WATCH (Women and the Church) said that it had chosen to support it in its latest iteration "as an act of generosity to those who would like to stay in the Church of England, but are not yet convinced about the rightness of having women as priests or bishops"....
A number of papers opposing the Measure have been published on the website Fair Measure 2012, set up to convey the argument that the draft legislation "must be replaced with a new, fairer Measure which enables us all to go forward together".
Tom Sutcliffe, a member of the House of Laity for the diocese of Southwark, who voted for women priests in 1992, and is "keen in principle" that women be ordained as bishops, said that he would be voting against the Measure. It was "simply not true" that appropriate provisions had been made for those who could not support the development, particularly conservative Evangelicals, who would be "in an impossible position". He argued that the ordination of women had failed to increase the membership or effectiveness of the Church, "however good most women priests have been"....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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Canada: Charlie Masters elected Bishop of ANiC
| Source: Anglican Ink
November 15, 2012
By George Conger
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Bishop Masters
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The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) synod has elected the Rt. Rev. Charles Masters to be bishop coadjutor of the Anglican Church in North America's diocese in Canada.
Delegates to the ANiC synod meeting representing the ANiC's 69 congregations and4000 active members met at SS Peter and Paul Anglican Church in Ottawa on 14 November 2012 to select a successor to Bishop Donald Harvey, who has announced his retirement.
Born in 1951, "Charlie" was reared in Lennoxville, Quebec and Guelph, Ontario. A 1972 graduate of the University of Guelph, Bishop Masters had come from a strong Christian home and at university found his calling to serve Christ.
Upon graduation, Bishop Masters worked at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver for the Navigators, a Christian campus ministry, and in 1975 he and his wife, Judy, moved to England where he trained for the ministry at St John's College, Nottingham....
The rest of the article may be found here.
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