Anglican Mainstream South Africa

April 16th, 2009

By Bishop John Rodgers, SPREAD

Introduction

It is important, when considering what was accomplished at GAFCON, to keep in mind its singular focus. That focus was to identify the Anglican grasp of the apostolic faith, to claim that identity for the whole Anglican Communion and to provide a firm oversight and standing from which to confess the apostolic faith as we Anglicans have received it. This singular focus meant that many very important matters were not directly addressed at GAFCON, in the Statement or in the Jerusalem Declaration. This by no means relegates matters such as the status of 5th, 6th and 7th Councils, the ordination of women, the form of the Anglican Communion, abortion, the nature of and conflict with militant Islam, our relation to the persecuted Church etc. to secondary issues. There are serious issues and differences among the fellowship of confessing Anglicans that must and will be faced. It will not be easy, nor will solutions be sudden, nor can we be absolutely certain that some will not, in the end, decide they must walk apart. The difference is that they will be faced in the context of the authority of Holy Scriptures and the apostolic faith as Anglicans have historically received it. The Conference said, echoing Canon A5 of the Church of England: “The doctrine of the Church is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and in such teaching of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal. We intend to remain faithful to this standard and we call on others in the Communion to reaffirm and return to it.”

With that in mind, let me state I believe to be the most important things that we did accomplish:

1.      We are the Communion. “We are not breaking away from the Anglican Communion.”
In essence the fellowship of confessing Anglicans took things in hand and declared that we are the true and faithful Anglicans, upholding the historic Anglican grasp of the apostolic faith, and as such we are the true representatives of the Anglican Communion. Let those who are departing from historic Anglican convictions about the authority and content of the Scriptures come back to what Anglicans have confessed all along. If they are unwilling to do so, it is they, not we, who should leave. I suspect that there are differing expectations among those who have placed themselves under the Jerusalem Declaration as to the future of the structures and membership of the Anglican Communion as it is presently constituted. I myself do not see how we can long abide together structurally, but I could be wrong, my friends do remind me of the parting of the Red Sea and God still does miracles. However, of a faithful confessing Anglican Communion, all at the Conference expressed a confidence in a fruitful and “bright future”.

Read more ………………..

Canterbury won’t block or bless new province:

Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON.
Tags: ACNA
trackback

The Archbishop of Canterbury will not block the creation of a third Anglican province in North America, sources familiar with Dr. Rowan Williams’ Dec 5 meeting with five traditionalist archbishops, tell The Church of England Newspaper.

However, the archbishop will not give it his endorsement either, arguing his office does not have the legal authority to make, or un-make, Anglicans.

On Dec 5, five members of the Gafcon primates council: Archbishops Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, and Henry Orombi of Uganda met with Dr. Williams in Canterbury for approximately five hours to discuss the current state of affairs within the Communion.

In a half day meeting interspersed with prayer and lunch the archbishops had a “full and frank” discussion of the issues, sources familiar with the proceedings said. “There was no indaba-ding on Friday,” one senior Gafcon bishop told CEN, referring to the ‘Indaba’ process of directed listening used at the 2008 Lambeth Conference. The Gafcon bishop said the conversation was a direct and forthright discussion of all of the presenting issues.

According to several sources familiar with the proceedings, the archbishops discussed the boycott of Lambeth 2008 by 214 bishops, the on-going ramifications of the election of Gene Robinson, and the disquiet many Global South leaders felt with the innovations of doctrine and discipline advocated by the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada. While the idea of an Anglican Covenant was sound in theory, fears that the elastic interpretation given to language and law by the American Church would render the document meaningless, some conservatives said.

Dr. Williams sounded several familiar themes in his remarks, the sources said, stressing the need for on-going dialogue amongst the disparate parties. He shared his disquiet over ecclesiastical border crossings, saying that it implied that the trespassing bishops were stating that Christ was absent from the ecclesiastical structures who were their unwilling hosts.

The third province movement and the Wheaton constitution was presented to Dr. Williams as well—and was offered as a resolution to the archbishop’s concerns over border crossings. However, the gafcon primates did not ask Dr. Williams for his formal blessings of the project.

Legal advice given to the Archbishop of Canterbury held that his office had no role in the creation of provinces independent of the primates meeting and Anglican Consultative Council, sources told CEN.

However, Dr. Williams was able to come away with an undertaking by the primates who boycotted Lambeth 2008, that they would attend the Jan 31 to Feb 6 primates meeting in Alexandria.

Following their meeting, the Gafcon archbishops released a statement affirming their support for the third province. “The steps taken to form the new Province are a necessary initiative,” the primates said, as a “new Province will draw together in unity many of those who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of God’s word, and also create the highest level of fellowship possible with the wider Anglican Communion.”

By freeing the church from its seemingly intractable legal wrangling, a new province “releases the energy of many Anglican Christians to be involved in mission, free from the difficulties of remaining in fellowship with those who have so clearly disregarded the word of God,” they said.

Read whole article here…….

Historic week for Anglican Communion: From Chicago to London to Canterbury

Bishop Martyn Minns was at Truro yesterday and held a Bishop’s Forum between services. He reported on recent and upcoming events in the Anglican Communion as well as take questions during the forum that was held in the main church.

One of the highlights was his observations and thoughts on the remarkable coming together of the diverse membership of the Common Cause Partnership in the writing of the constitution for the new Anglican province in North America. A joint effort by the partnership, it included not only the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), but also the other Anglican organization that make up Common Cause. He described sitting next to Bishop Chuck Murphy of AMiA, while representatives of Forward in Faith and the Reformed Episcopal Church and others in the partnership gathered around the table to draft the new constitution.

In addition, Bishop Minns described the respectful attitude that was taken by the gathering over issues were there are differing opinions that do exist between Bible-believing Christians in the Anglican Communion, including on the issues surrounding the ordination of women to the priesthood. He indicated a model for them to follow has been set by the partnership between provinces such as Nigeria (where women may be ordained to the diaconate) and Uganda (where women may be ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood) and the respectful and prayerful attitude that is continually observed by them as they seek not to devalue but show respect to those who may hold a different view than one’s own – not an easy thing to do in these challenging times.

The unveiling of the new constitution is this Wednesday, Dec. 3 in Chicago. The Anglican Primates Council will then meet the next day, on Thursday, Dec. 4, in London, England, to receive the new constitution. On Friday, Dec. 5, the Anglican Primates Council are scheduled to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in Canterbury, England.

In addition, it is expected that other Anglican Primates who were not in Jerusalem for GAFCON (including the Southeast Asia primate and Bishop of Singapore, The Most Rev’d John Chew and the Middle East primate and bishop of Egypt, The Most Rev’d Mouneer Anis ) are among those also expected to endorse the new constitution.

The Global South primates will meet together with the Primates Standing Committee prior to the official gathering of the Anglican Primates on January 31-February 6 in Egypt.

A Constitutional Convention is expected to be called for next summer.

In addition, the final order regarding the property ownership of the Virginia Anglican churches should be handed down shortly by Judge Randy Bellows. Even though the ruling has not yet been announced, the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia issued a press release in October indicating his intention to appeal the order to the Virginia Supreme Court.

November 7th, 2008 Posted in Anglican Church Of Canada, TEC |

From AAC

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

Those of us who have been privileged to grow up in a somewhat genteel Church and Society have perhaps believed in a rule of law based on the what the laws says and what the facts of a particular case happen to be. One of the reasons many earnest Anglicans in the USA are nonplussed is that the Church in which we were catechized and the society that we were a part of have both seemingly gone upside down. Doctrine and faith that we were taught is now contradicted by leading Episcopal Church officials, and practices that were only recently considered abhorrent and openly known to be sin are now exalted as sacred and rites are fabricated to celebrate them in church. That is why so many are leaving churches that teach and model such, and fortunately there are places, Anglican and otherwise, that are safely orthodox to receive them. The issues of society are more difficult, for as civil law moves to permit formerly illegal behavior, and even grant license for it, speaking against the sin is increasingly falling into so-called “hate speech” categories, and the government that once stood for stability and morality now is moving to suppress both in favor of granting a grave sinner freedom to never hear a call to repentance.

The law itself, in its practical application, has developed a strong third leg: money. It seems that now law, facts and money stand, not equal but tipped in favor of money. Those who have the money will litigate mercilessly, and if the ones they are suing are financially unable to defend themselves, despite law or fact, they fall out of court and lose. The amazing thing is that one source of this kind of abuse is a Church, and a Church that calls itself Christian. In the USA we are familiar with The Episcopal Church becoming the Church of Perpetual Litigation, and using its vast financial resources to sue individual congregations, rectors, and vestry members. This is being expanded now to include suing dioceses as they also depart from the organizational structure and the heretical beliefs of present day Episcopalianism. An article that is included for your review details how the “remaining Episcopal” fragment of the Diocese of San Joaquin, now calling themselves the Diocese of San Joaquin (Episcopal), is turning to the national Episcopal Church for operational funding in amounts that may approach $600,000, and dedicating all of its internal income for litigation against the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin (the original diocese).

Read more

By George Conger,  Institute on Religion & Democracy

“The pieces are on the board” for the resolution of the Anglican conflict, Williams asserted. “And in the months ahead it will be important to invite those absent from Lambeth to be involved in these next stages.”

However, as of October 16, eight weeks after the close of the conference, Dr. Williams has yet to contact the boycotting bishops to take part in the “next stages.”

.

Dr. Williams acknowledged at the start of the conference, the communion was “in the middle of one of the most severe challenges,” but noted the “options before us are not irreparable schism or forced assimilation.” The way forward was through an Anglican Covenant – the pact proposed by the Windsor Report to help ensure unity in basic beliefs and mutual accountability among historically autonomous Anglican provinces.

A covenant would allow “an Anglicanism whose diversity is limited not by centralized control but by consent – consent based on a serious common assessment of the implications of local change.”

Conflict

The first open clash in the conference came on July 22, when the Episcopal Church of the Sudan released a statement calling for the Episcopal Church to repent and immediately cease its advocacy of gay bishops and blessings. Three Roman Catholic cardinals attending the conference then rained on Dr. Williams’ parade, offering progressively harsher assessments of the state of Anglicanism and its relations with Rome.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor urged Anglicans to put their house in order, and decide what they believe. “If Anglicans themselves disagree” over contentious issues like women priests “and find yourselves unable fully to recognize each other’s ministry, how could we?”

Dialogue between Anglicans and Roman Catholics now appeared pointless due to the ecclesiological anarchy spreading across the communion. “If we are to make progress through dialogue, we must be able to reach a solemn and binding agreement with our dialogue partners. And we want to see a deepening, not a lessening, of communion in their own ecclesial life,” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said.

The Russian Orthodox Church was blunt. Women or homosexual bishops would exclude “even the theoretical possibility of the Orthodox churches acknowledging the apostolic succession” of Anglican bishops, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna told Dr. Williams on July 28.

In its closing week, the conference turned to a discussion of the Anglican Covenant.  Liberal bishops objected to the creation of a mechanism that would impose constraints upon theological and liturgical experimentation, while conservatives expressed fears a covenant would be too little, too late.

A second committee called the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG), created by Dr. Williams earlier this year, briefed the bishops on recommendations for repairing the broken fellowship between the U.S. Church and a dozen churches from the developing world.

The WCG called for maintenance on the ban on gay bishops and blessings and for the creation of a “Pastoral Forum” tasked with responding to future conflicts within the communion. However, in the case of both the Covenant and the WCG, the bishops at Lambeth were only briefed on the work of the committees; they were not given the authority to develop the relevant documents.

On August 3, the conference released a closing statement that noted the broad desire for a “season of gracious restraint” marked by abstentions from the consecration and blessing of partnered homosexuals, and foreign incursions into the jurisdictions of the North American provinces.

Written as a “Reflections” paper, the 42-page statement was described as a “narrative” of the meeting, and attempted to summarize the bishops’ discussions. It was not a consensus document or a position paper. The bishops were asked not whether they agreed with the document, but “whether they could see their voices” amidst the various reflections it contains.

Looking Forward

In the closing press conference, Dr. Williams said Lambeth had proven that the bishops could speak to each other respectfully and prayerfully, and had a “strong commitment to remain unified.”

Read the full article here.