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"Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be brave. Be strong. Be loving in everything you do." - I Corinthians 16:13-14 |
Bishop Duncan Gray of Mississippi writes a special column for Jackson's Clarion-Ledger newspaper (short version: All is Well™ in Mississippi). Kendall Harmon takes exception, and comments ensue. A fun time is had by all.
About 50 leaders in the orthodox Anglican movement are gathering in Atlanta at the headquarters of the American Anglican Council. Most in attendance are lay leaders from dioceses across the country: Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, West Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Maryland, and Florida are especially well-represented.
Most attendees gave presentations on their areas of expertise, from new church startups to Internet communications to organizing like-minded laity. Canons David Anderson and Ellis Brust, and communications director Cynthia Brust gave thoughtful and motivational addresses, and all three stood for a demanding question-and-answer session after dinner on Friday.
The meeting continues Saturday morning.
More pictures follow...
Bill Boniface is the author of a widely-circulated email explaining why he left his liberal parish, and wrote "Straight Talk to a Troubled Laity."
Nine bishops have put Andrew Smith on notice, pledging support of St. John's legal actions, and threatening to bring +Smith up on presentment charges if he doesn't back off Father Hansen and St. John's:
Therefore, the diocesans signing this letter have determined to intervene in the case of St. John's, Bristol - and in the cases of the other five parishes should that become necessary - with the following measures:
shaping of a presentment against you for conduct unbecoming [Title IV, Can.1, Sec.1 (j)] a Bishop of this Church;
raising legal and financial support for the six parishes in such civil suits as may be brought by or against you;
providing episcopal care to St. John's and the other parishes in such ways as to give them tangible evidence that we are in full communion together, in compliance with the Windsor Report.
Immediate licensing of the Rev. Dr. Mark Hansen for functions within any of our dioceses to the extent he might have opportunity to function among us.
You have used the unsupportable pretext of inhibition of a faithful priest to take over an orthodox parish. The conflict we face here is about much more than Connecticut, as we advised you back in April. As we asked fourteen weeks ago: "Whatever shall we do to reverse the course of the scandal that besets us?" We would prefer to find some way other than this deepening battle, but we refuse to allow this recent aggression to go unchecked or unchallenged.
On August 1 our friend Douglas LeBlanc will begin a new job as Communications Director for the Anglican Communion Network:
Bishop Robert W. Duncan, the network's founding moderator, said the ACN
is building a Pittsburgh-based staff to serve its long-term needs. "We want to be in touch more often with those dioceses and congregations that have joined the network. Doug will help the network encourage its affiliated dioceses and congregations, and will communicate regularly with mass media regarding the network's vision for orthodox Anglican faith within the Episcopal Church."
"I'm thankful for this opportunity to serve the Anglican Communion Network," LeBlanc said. "I have long felt deep respect for Bishop Duncan, and I consider it an honor to work with him and his team."
As LeBlanc begins contacting religion writers, he also welcomes reporters' e-mail inquiries at news@anglicancommunionnetwork.org. LeBlanc will be based near Richmond, Virginia, where his wife, Monica, works as a research scientist.
Duncan expressed his gratitude to the American Anglican Council, which has provided administrative support since the network's founding in January 2004.
"We are profoundly grateful to the AAC for its generosity, especially in sharing the skills of Cynthia Brust, its director of communications. Beginning with the meeting that chartered this network, Cynthia built a sound foundation for all of our communication," Duncan said. "We will work regularly with our brothers and sisters in the AAC on our many matters of shared concern."
The newly-formed Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean has issued this press release about its purpose and mission:
NASSAU, BAHAMAS - July 25, 2005 - Following a conference July 6-8 in Nassau that gathered dozens of leaders from across North and South America and the Caribbean, plans for a new body committed to the historic Anglican faith and formularies have been announced. Inspired by the effective witness of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), Archbishops Drexel Gomez and Gregory Venables announced plans for the formation of the Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean (CAPAC).
Initial steps organizing CAPAC were taken by the two Archbishops and the Moderators of the US and Canadian Networks leading to the creation of a body that will "enable coordination, cooperation, collaboration, and communication, and to encourage mission as well as resource theological education and ministry of the Gospel in the Caribbean and the Americas." It has become necessary because of the confusion and theological chaos that has been introduced in the region by the unilateral actions of the Episcopal Church in the USA (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada, who have departed from historic Anglican faith and practice. The ensuing conflict has drained huge amounts of energy and resources from the mission of the church around the world. CAPAC is being organized to re-energize mission and ministry in the region.
The Covenant of Understanding signed by the four leaders will be shared with their provinces/organizations for discussion and ratification. Archbishop Drexel Gomez said, "This is important for the future of the faith. As we move ahead, it must be on an agreed theological foundation. We envision CAPAC not only to build on the theological foundation of Anglicanism, but also to seek to collaborate with structures like the Instruments of Unity and the Panel of Reference."
Bishop Robert W. Duncan, Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network in the US said, "There has been an increase in incidents of unfair and excessive action by liberal bishopsagainst clergy and congregations who share the faith and values of the majority of the Communion. Not only has mission been undermined, but theological innovations in the region have increased in stridence."
Spokesman for the group, Canon Bill Atwood said, "It is important for those who share Anglican faith and practice to support clergy and congregations who are 'in serious theological dispute' with their bishop or province. While the Panel of Reference has been formed to monitor provisions for adequate episcopal care, its slow start and pace have left many clergy and congregations in even greater peril. Faithfully engaging mission means both reaching out to the unchurched and caring for those inside the church."
One of the most exciting aspects of CAPAC's formation is a plan to gather Spanish language theological resources and translate other key documents into Spanish. Other major languages of the region will follow.
For further information contact:
Dr. Bill Atwood, (800) 303-6267 GenSec@ekk.org
As the fundamental principle of our common life, we share our commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and seek to lead all people to have faith in His saving grace. Being inheritors of a great missionary tradition that brought the apostolic faith to this hemisphere, we express our profound gratitude to our Anglican forebears for the spiritual legacy they have delivered to us. We have been strengthened by decades of mutual encouragement through many effective companion diocese relationships, mission trips, and other shared mission opportunities. Therefore, as Communion-committed Anglicans, we covenant to walk together to maintain and further our witness as Anglicans.
Inspired by the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) we commit to forming The Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean (CAPAC) in order to provide regional solutions to regional needs. Membership in CAPAC is open to provinces, dioceses, and recognized networks and ministries in the region that remain committed to conform to the historic Anglican formularies and have endorsed the theological position of the Windsor Report. CAPAC is a covenanted affiliation of Communioncommitted Anglicans organized to enable coordination, cooperation, collaboration, and communication, and to encourage mission as well as resource theological education and ministry of the Gospel in the Caribbean and the Americas.
We declare:
---A commitment to the primacy of Scripture as presented in the classical Anglican formularies. Our understanding of faith and practice conforms to the theological standards described in the Windsor Report Sections A & B, which we affirm and to which we wholeheartedly subscribe.
---We are committed to advance our witness, cooperation, and common cause in the Gospel with others of like theological commitment and practice in our hemisphere and collaborating with those who embrace the historic apostolic faith.
---Our intention to encourage and resource the ongoing life of the Anglican Communion in this hemisphere in mission, ministry and sacramental life together with others of this theological persuasion. We are particularly concerned that Anglican theological and liturgical resources be developed in the major languages of the region and that plans be made to discern, articulate and pursue a faithful strategy for mission among the various national and cultural groups.
---A remarkable breadth of diversity bridged and united among us as Communion-committed Anglicans.
---A common call to unify Communion-committed Anglicans currently fragmented by history and the present strident challenges to the historic faith and, in some places, the tragic oppression of faithful Christians. Intending to serve the wider communion by addressing the numerous overlapping jurisdictions in our hemisphere, CAPAC seeks to provide a solution in the context of the wider Anglican Communion.
Cognizant that it may be necessary to establish interim, provisional measures for mission and ministry, we fully intend to pursue cooperation with the Instruments of Unity of the Anglican Communion in compliance with the Windsor Report and the direction of the Lambeth Conference of 1998.
We purpose to move forward by establishing a steering committee representing the constituent provinces, conforming national networks, and dioceses that share these theological values.
The Episcopal Steering Committee is hereby established incorporating the Bishops who lead the first four organized entities entering into this Covenant:
The Primate of the Southern Cone
The Primate of the West Indies
The Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network in the USA, (and Chair of Common Cause in the United States)
The Moderator of the Anglican Network in Canada
Provisions are also hereby made for such executive and administrative support as agreed by the Episcopal Steering Committee.
Approved unanimously by the participants of the Anglican Pan American Conference gathered in Nassau, Bahamas, July 6-8, 2005 and attested to by the signatures hereto affixed by the Episcopal leaders of the founding entities.
(Signed)
The Most Revd Drexel W. Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies
The Most Revd Gregory J. Venables, Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone
The Rt. Revd Robert W. Duncan, Moderator, Anglican Communion Network
The Rt. Revd Donald F. Harvey, Moderator, Anglican Network in Canada
The Board of Stand Firm stands in solidarity with the persecuted church of St. John’s in Bristol, Connecticut, which has recently been seized apparently in violation of canonical procedures, by Bishop Andrew Smith. We stand with the clergy, vestry, wardens and membership. We are praying for your protection, that you may be protected by the full armor of God, that you may stand your ground and when you have done everything, that you may stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. (Eph. 6). Jesus promised that as His followers, we would have troubles, but that we are to take heart, for Jesus has overcome the world. (John 16:33).
We call upon the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Connecticut in Christian love, to follow the procedures of Scripture that are called upon in Matthew 18 when one Christian has been wronged by another. You are in the best position to protect this congregation from destruction, and from alienation from its Bishop.
We call upon the Panel of Reference to take action to protect this orthodox parish from its Bishop, with whom it is theologically at odds. This is the purpose for which you have been formed. The time for action is now, or your effectiveness will be in serious doubt, and your credibility will be dashed before you even have a chance to establish it.
We call upon all the Bishops of ECUSA, and of the Anglican Communion, to hold one another accountable to the principles of the Windsor Report, the Communique of the Primates and the actions of the ACC. The destruction of congregations with which one disagrees is not Christian behavior.
After studying at Oxford, Paris, and Bologna, and receiving a doctorate in law, Richard (1197-1253) returned to Oxford to become University Chancellor. Shortly afterward, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edm;und Rich, appointed him to be his own chancellor. The friendship between the primate and his young assistant was close. When conflict with King Henry the Third eventually forced Archbishop Rich into exile in France, Richard accompanied him and nursed him in his final illness. After the Archbishop's death, Richard moved to the Dominican house at Orleans for further study and teaching. He was ordained priest in 1243.
Richard returned to England and was elected Bishop of Chichester in 1244. King Henry opposed the election, confiscated all the revenues of the diocese, and even locked Richard out of the episcopal dwelling. During these years, he functioned as a missionary bishop, traveling about the diocese on foot, visiting fishermen and farmers, holding synods with great difficulty, and endeavoring to establish order. Threatened by the Pope, Henry finally acknowledged Richard as Bishop in 1246.
For eight years, he served his diocese as preacher, confessor, teacher, and counselor. Nine years after his death, he was canonized. His shrine in Chichester Cathedral, where many cures are said to have been wrought, was destroyed by order of Henry VIII in 1538.
Richard's best remembered words are:
Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly.
Bishop of Connecticut Andrew Smith has inhibited The Rev. Mark Hansen, one of the "Connecticut Six."
TitusOneNine has coverage here, here, and here.
The AAC Blog has stories and commentary here, here, here, here, here, and here.
CJ has his characteristically low-key take here, and Drell has this one and this one, which are, um... slightly less so.
Welcome to the future, folks.
Brad Drell hits one out of the park for Stand Firm Louisiana:
You people beat all I've ever seen - especially you, Snarkster. I spend hours upon hours conquering the plague of the blogosphere (comment spam), and let two of your posts get mangled by the new code and you come unglued. Or as Letterman would say, "I do and do and do for you kids, and THIS is the thanks I get?!?"
YOU MAY RESUME POSTING... QUOTES, LINKS, NEW LINES AND ALL.
Thanks to Marty for helping sniff out the bugs.
The Anglican Communion Institute says Gene Robinson should resign. It also calls for Frank Griswold to resign if he can't embrace the Windsor Report and submit to its calls:
a. The Presiding Bishop must publicly desist from working against the Windsor Report's teaching and discipline, and must instead embrace them and submit to them. If he cannot do this, he should resign immediately.
b. ECUSA's House of Bishops must embrace, as a House, the Windsor’s Report’s teaching and recommended discipline, and do so clearly and quickly. Despite claims to the contrary, the House of Bishops can and must speak for itself apart from General Convention (even the ECUSA report to the ACC makes clear in its historical account of matters that such action is possible).
c. The place of Gene Robinson in the House of Bishops remains problematic. The clearest action in this regard would be his own resignation.
In an attempt to end comment spam on this and the other Stand Firm blogs, I have put in place some new code to handle comment submissions. Our tests went well, but we've gotten a couple of emails from people saying they've had problems. If you're having trouble submitting comments, please click here to email me with exactly what kind of problems you're having.
Another Episcopal congregation leaves ECUSA.
Elizabethtown Congregation Leaves Episcopal Church
More than 100 former members of Christ Church, Elizabethtown, KY are leaving the Episcopal Church to form a new Anglican parish. The new congregation, Holy Apostles, will begin worshipping at the Gallery of the State Theater in downtown Elizabethtown. Their first service will be celebrated July 10th at 10:00 a.m.
According to the Reverend Kent Litchfield, pastor of the new church, the recent practices and teaching of the Episcopal Church are in violation of scripture and go against the tradition, faith and order of Anglicanism and Christianity. "The Episcopal Church has acquiesced to the pressures of cultural relativism and secular modernism instead of standing as the moral beacon to a society that appears to have abandoned the principles that have stood the test of time," said Father Litchfield. "We hope to regain that moral compass and be a positive voice in the community."
During its general convention in 2003, the Episcopal Church voted to approve a non-celibate homosexual man to become bishop and approved the development of rites to bless same-sex unions. The worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is part, has repeatedly rejected these actions at various councils prior to and since 2003.
Last month, the Anglican Consultative Council ratified a motion that effectively gives the American Episcopal and Canadian Anglican churches no representation in worldwide Anglican church councils until all Anglican bishops meet in 2008. This "cooling off" period allows the churches time to reconsider their actions and determine whether they wish to remain a part of the Anglican Communion.
The new Elizabethtown congregation is stepping out in order to better proclaim biblical truth to the community and their own children. "Christian education extends beyond familiar biblical stories," said Alexandria Wilson, a member of the new congregation. "It is the cornerstone of our faith and the love of Christ. These biblical principles equip us to live out our beliefs daily in our community and the secular world. It does our children no good to see their denomination act with disregard to the truths we teach them from the Bible."
The Rev. Litchfield recently retired from the Episcopal Church and served as rector of Christ Church for the past 17 years. His new congregation, Holy Apostles, will be affiliated with the Anglican Communion Network and is under the direct supervision and support of the Right Reverend Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia.
Two other new Anglican churches in Kentucky, St. Andrew’s in Versailles and Apostles in Lexington, are under the supervision of Ugandan bishops. A third church, St. Patrick’s Anglican in Lexington, is part of the Anglican Mission in America which has several American bishops who serve under the authority of the Anglican archbishops of Rwanda and Southeast Asia.