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January 17, 2013
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness
- Genesis 15:6
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 Thankful for our Canadian Friends - a Message from Bishop AndersonDear Friends of the Anglican re-alignment, During a period of time more than a decade ago, a number of orthodox Episcopalian and Anglican Church of Canada leaders, including laypeople, priests and bishops, kept turning up together at various Anglican venues and we began to get to know one another. No one knew that at some point in the future our lives would intersect in the way they have, but we bore testimony in those larger Anglican settings to the deteriorating theological and spiritual doctrine and practice in our respective churches. At one point the American Anglican Council, to facilitate conversation among the orthodox Episcopal and Canadian Anglican bishops, formed a loosely structured Conference of North American Anglican Bishops, CONAAB for short. In the early days it was thought that good planning and bold witness would turn around the deteriorating situation in both churches, but unfortunately that was not to be. As things worsened in both churches, thoughts turned to alternatives outside our respective borders, but no one wanted to leave the church that had raised them and nurtured them if some alternative could be found... Read more. |
What should we do when Christians disagree - really
By The Rev. Canon Phil Ashey
I am writing in response to an article published today by the Anglican Communion's news office "What should we do when Christians disagree?" by the Rev. Dr. Phil Groves, facilitator of the Continuing Indaba Project. In the article, Grove writes that when Christians disagree, "when disunity appears, facilitated conversations are the Biblical way forwards."
With all due respect, his analysis misses the mark by a longshot.
First, he cites the disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche in Philippians 4:2-3 as the Biblical paradigm for all disagreement within the Church. But what about differences over Christian doctrine itself? In his landmark study Conciliarism: A History of Decision making in the Church (Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp. 56-60) Paul Valliere notes meticulously the doctrinal disagreements that gave rise to the Councils of the Early Church. Disagreements over doctrine often present themselves first as disciplinary issues-- such as how do you deal with the "re-baptism" of people who vacillated or apostasized in the face of persecution (Council of Carthage, 256 AD), or how do you respond to public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and the consecration as bishop of a person living in such a union? (Anglican Communion, 2003).
Groves seems to have forgotten his history. The crisis in the Anglican Communion since at least 2003 has been and continues to be over the very definition of the Gospel... Read more.
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Parish Church of St. Helena, Diocese of South Carolina |
Diocese of S.C.) TEC denied again by Judge in attempt to seize Diocese of SC identity
January 16, 2014
U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck issued a sharply worded ruling today that rebuffed efforts by The Episcopal Church to sidestep a South Carolina Circuit Court injunction preventing the denomination from seizing the identity and symbols of the Diocese of South Carolina.
In his ruling, Judge Houck said, "It appears Bishop [Charles G.] vonRosenberg is using the motion to express his disagreement with the Court's ruling and to 'rehash' previously presented arguments. ... As such, Bishop vonRosenberg's motion is improper and reconsideration is not justified."
Bishop vonRosenberg had asked Judge Houck to effectively overturn a state court injunction preventing him and his followers from claiming to be the Diocese of South Carolina.
"We are grateful Judge Houck saw through The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECSC) efforts to distract from the real issues in this case," said Jim Lewis, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese. "Their attempt to claim violation of trademark rights was little more than a stalling tactic... Read more.
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The Rev. Tory Baucum
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Canterbury Appoints Anglican Church in North America Priest to Cathedral Post
January 16, 2014
The Most Reverend and Right Honorable Justin Welby, 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, has today announced the appointment of the Reverend Tory Baucum, Ph.D., Rector of Truro Church and Priest of the Anglican Church in North America, as one of the Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral. This appointment was approved by the Chapter of Canterbury at its December meeting. The office of the Six Preachers was established at the English Reformation by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer. The duties of the Six Preachers are limited; being called to preach in Anglicanism's Mother Church on various occasions...Read more.
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Bishops gathered for GAFCON 2013
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A Canterbury Tale
By Gerald Bray
Winter 2014 Edition
GAFCON II has come and gone, and a great time was had by all 1300 participants, including over 300 bishops, who represented twenty-eight of the Anglican Communion's thirty-eight provinces. It sounds impressive and in many ways it was, but statistics of this kind conceal as much as they reveal. Many of the bigger African provinces turned out in force, but representation from the developed world was patchy and at the episcopal level almost non-existent. Much as it wants to be a movement for the renewal of worldwide Anglicanism, GAFCON is a bit like the curate's egg-good in parts. Its leadership is committed, its followers are loyal and expectant, but its influence remains limited to the sorts of people who would support its aims even if it did not exist. It has not yet reached out beyond its predictable support base, and unless it does so, the energy that has gone into it will be dissipated and it will go the way of other initiatives that never got anywhere...Read more.
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The new intolerance: will we regret pushing Christians out of public life?
By Cristiana Odone
January 14, 2014
In this provocative challenge to the left, the former New Statesman deputy editor Cristina Odone argues that liberalism has become the new orthodoxy - and there is no room for religious believers to dissent...
A few days before the conference, someone from Christian Concern, the group which had organised the event, rang me in a panic: the Law Society had refused to let us meet on their premises. The theme was "contrary to our diversity policy", the society explained in an email to the organisers, "espousing as it does an ethos which is opposed to same-sex marriage". In other words, the Law Society regarded support for heterosexual union, still the only legal form of marriage in Britain, as discriminatory.... Read more.
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