The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, held a press conference in Halifax on June 7^th during the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and said:

“Given that the development in Los Angeles [the consecration of a non-celibate lesbian] meant that gracious restraint was not being exercised, I think the Archbishop did have to act. What I think he’s done is say, “Look, the consecration of Mary Glasspool is a full, well-thought out decision of the Episcopal Church. There are implications to that decision. In that action, it is clear that The Episcopal Church does not share the faith and order of the vast majority of the Anglican Communion as expressed through the Instruments of Communion time and time again. They’ve made that decision and that’s fine. But if they don’t share the faith and order, then they shouldn’t represent the Communion on faith and order questions and that’s why ecumenical dialogues are the obvious ones where issues of faith and order are discussed and they ought to be discussed by bodies that share that faith and order (emphasis mine).”

Additionally Kearon directly “told the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council June 18 that when Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Suffragan Mary Glasspool was ordained as the church’s second openly gay, partnered bishop, the church ought to have known that it would face sanctions.”

While discipline for abandoning the faith of the church has been a long time in coming, it has at least begun to arrive. The implications are that The Episcopal Church will no be longer a constituent member of the Anglican Communion. Call it second tier if you like, call it whatever you want, it is still a demotion. Just ask Tony Hayward. The demotion results from TEC no longer being considered even vaguely Christian by Anglican standards (which is most telling because standards under Rowan Williams are fairly progressive and fluid). Sadly, this piercing truth about no longer be Christian continues to escape TEC leaders. And, of course, they will not tell their sheep.

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2009/08/your_views_trails_of_africa_ex.html

The Episcopal Church: Parsley’s comments heartbreaking

Recently, the Episcopal Church abandoned its place in the Anglican Communion. Scholar, and Bishop N.T. Wright opined that by “cynical double-think” to the contrary, “we should not be fooled.” The archbishop of Canterbury, sole arbiter of all things Anglican, agreed.

Far more appalling was Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s rather callous dismissal of apostolic teaching as “the great Western heresy.” Per Schori, the heresy is in “insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus.” Do Romans 10:9, “Jesus is Lord,” and your own baptismal examination ring a bell?

The most appalling thing, primarily because he shepherds many beloved in our city, is Henry Parsley’s defense of her unbelief in The News: “She was talking about the concept of ubuntu, an African word for ‘person in community.’”

Schori speaks for herself. She was talking about salvation and the particularity of Jesus, which she subsequently confirmed. She did not alter the truth. She simply abandoned it.

Parsley’s comments obscure the fact the Episcopal Church’s head pastor doesn’t believe what Anglicans believe or, for that matter, what Christians always and everywhere have believed. That’s heartbreaking, given that he vowed “to guard the faith, unity and discipline of the church.”

The Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson
St. Peter’s Anglican Church
Birmingham

Dear Editors:

Recently The Episcopal Church abandoned its place in the Anglican Communion. Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, said resolution DO25 “marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion” By “cynical double-think” to the contrary, “We should not be fooled.” The Archbishop of Canterbury and sole arbiter of all things Anglican, agreed.

Far more appalling was the Presiding Bishop’s rather callous dismissal of received doctrine. For her, the idea that we can be saved as individuals is “the great western heresy.” Per Schori, the heresy is manifest in “insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus.” Surely this PhD hasn’t overlooked Paul, in Romans10, relating salvation and confessing with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord”?

The most appalling thing, primarily because he shepherds many beloved in our city, is Henry Parsley’s defense of her unbelief in your paper:

“She was talking about the concept of ubuntu, an African word for ‘person in community,’” Parsley said. “None of us as Christians is alone, but we are all in community.”

She speaks for herself Henry! She said she was talking about the great western heresy and its foundational place in the crises facing TEC. Intentional or not, Henry’s comments hide the fact that the head of the Episcopal Church doesn’t believe what Anglicans believe or, for that matter, what Christians always and everywhere have believed. Heartbreaking given that he vowed “to guard the faith, unity and discipline of the Church.”

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson, Senior Pastor

St. Peter’s Anglican Church, AMiA

www.stpetersbhm.org  

The adoption of resolutions D025 and C056 by the 76th General Convention speaks to an unhealthy degree of theological ignorance and ecclesiastical incoherence at work within the higher councils of The Episcopal Church [TEC], Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said in a statement released July 27.

Read it all here: http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/assurances-on-convention-actions-%e2%80%98unpersuasive%e2%80%99-archbishop-says-living-church-7-27-09/

Greg Garrison missed some low hanging fruit on Saturday. Henry Parsley maintains the Episcopal Church did nothing to abandon its commitment to the Anglican Communion. Garrison could have held Henry’s feet to the fire on specifics from substantive players.

Ever conciliatory scholar Kendall Harmon says,

“There are now some participants in the 76th General Convention who are trying to pretend that a ‘yes’ to (the new resolution) is not a ‘no’ to (the moratorium).These types of attempted obfuscations are utterly unconvincing.”

Acclaimed academic and Bishop of Durham N. T. Wright, says DO25 “marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion” Wright adds that by “cynical double-think” to the contrary, “We should not be fooled.”

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and sole arbiter of all things Anglican, said it was for the bishops to block what the deputies endorsed in DO25 which was repudiation.

The best of the best in Anglicanism lump Henry in with all other prevaricators. And rightly so! Henry’s last act was to subscribe to the Anaheim Dissent distancing himself from the resolutions he now defends, one for which he voted. Why would Henry so awkwardly and obviously attempt to make clear his commitment to the Anglican Communion if the resolutions he now defends did nothing to undermine that very commitment?

I once gave Henry the benefit of the doubt - that he simply didn’t get it – honestly, that he couldn’t get it. But when Henry continually denies what the wisdom of many others sustains, the benefit ends. At best this is only disingenuous and it is increasingly likely that this is a calculated effort to keep sheep in the dark. One miscalculation - sheep may be dumb but they are not stupid.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson, Senior Pastor

St. Peter’s Anglican Church, AMiA

www.stpetersbhm.org  

Sadly, on more than one occasion when I was a teenager, I along with a friend would tell my parents I was spending the night at his house and we would tell his parents he was spending the night at my house. The subterfuge of course was designed to avoid accountability and a curfew. And it worked well for a season. On one occasion we took off for the beach, a mere three hours to the south, hoping to arrive long before Victor’s or Cash’s last call. Honestly, I am grateful to have survived.

Could it be that the imagination capable of producing this ruse explains why I find my youthful indiscretion so eerily similar to what is done when a bishop votes affirmatively for a resolution, say BO56, and then joins dissenters in a resolution inspired by the passage of that same resolution, say BO56? The House of Bishops is told one thing. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the “I voted ‘for’ before I voted ‘against’ BO56” bishops’ sheep are told something else.

It could be my imagination that explains it. It could be a hint of cynicism born of decades of experience. It could even be explained by the bishops’ previously undisclosed battle with schizophrenia for which I will pray fervently if that is the case. More likely the similarity is explained by simple logic and the law of non-contradiction. I cannot be in my house or my friend’s AND in “FLA” at the same time. So where am I? And that was the point! If I am for BO56 here and against BO56 there, conveniently hidden is where I really am. One avoids accountability and a curfew.

It is stretches rational sensibilities but six or seven bishops, including two from Alabama, who affirmed BO56 (Bishop Rickel of Olympia - this resolution does in fact, open up access once again to gay and lesbian people, to the discernment process for the episcopate. To interpret this any other way would be dishonest. And Kendall Harmon - There are now some participants in the 76th General Convention who are trying to pretend that a ‘yes’ to (the new resolution) is not a ‘no’ to (the moratorium),” Harmon said in a statement. “These types of attempted obfuscations are utterly unconvincing.”) are listed among Anaheim Dissenters subscribing to dissent from the very resolution they affirmed. No one can simultaneously affirm moving forward “from” and being committed “to” a moratorium. There is a law of non-contradiction. Logic prevails, that is if the facts are known.

You know my parents were not nearly as gullible as I thought they were. As Mark Twain believed of his father, I thought my parents became smart while I was away at college. But the logic and law of non-contradiction were there all along. And my first clue should have been when they suggested they were going to compare notes in the future with my friend’s parents. Busted! Hate when that happens. Consequently, having been busted enough, I became a man and gave up childish ways.

So bishops, your “folks” have compared notes. You’re busted. So be men. Tell all precisely where you really are.

Dissenting Bishops Issue ‘Anaheim Statement’

Posted on: July 17, 2009

Twenty-nine bishops have endorsed affirming their desire to remain part of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church while being faithful to the calls for restraint made by the wider church.

Styled as the “Anaheim Statement,” the letter of dissent to the actions of the 76th General Convention pledged the bishops’ fealty to the requests made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the primates’ meetings and ACC-14 to observe a moratoria on same-gender blessings, cross-border interventions and the ordination of gay and lesbian people to the episcopate.

In the hours after its release, the statement drew support from 23 diocesan bishops, four suffragan and assistant bishops, and two retired bishops and included bishops who voted on both sides of D025 and C056 — resolutions that rescinded the ban on two of the three Windsor Report moratoria.

Rising to speak on a point of personal privilege during the House of Bishops afternoon session July 16, the Rt. Rev. Gary W. Lillibridge of West Texas read a statement prepared by an ad hoc committee of concerned bishops.

“At this convention,” Bishop Lillibridge said, the house had “heard repeated calls for honesty and clarity” on The Episcopal Church’s stance on the contested issues surrounding sexual ethics.  The attempts to “modify wording which would have been preferable to the minority in the vote were respectfully heard and discussed, but in the end most of these amendments were found unacceptable to the majority in the House.”

The votes on Resolution D025 and C056 had made it clear that a majority of bishops believed it was time to “move forward on matters of human sexuality.”  While grateful for the “clarity” these votes had brought, Bishop Lillibridge asked his fellow bishops to join him seeking “to find a place in the Church we continue to serve” and endorse a five-point statement of loyalty to the Communion.

The statement:

reaffirmed the bishops’ “constituent membership in the Anglican Communion, our communion with the See of Canterbury, and our commitment to preserving these relationships”;

reaffirmed their “commitment to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of Christ as this Church has received them”;

reaffirmed their “commitment to the three moratoria requested of us by the Instruments of Communion”;

reaffirmed their “commitment to the Anglican Communion Covenant process currently underway, with the hope of working toward its implementation across the Communion once a Covenant is completed”;

reaffirmed their “commitment to ‘continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship’ which is foundational  to our baptismal covenant, and to be one with the apostles in ‘interpreting the Gospel’ which is essential to our work as bishops of the Church of God.”

At the close of the afternoon session, 20 bishops endorsed the letter, with nine morre adding their names during the evening.

“This was not a statement of division,” the Rt. Rev. Edward J. Konieczny, Bishop of Oklahoma — a conservative leaning bishops who had not signed the statemen —said at a news briefing after the session.  It was a “statement of unity” that acknowledged “we have listened to one another intently.”

The House of Bishops’ second media spokesman, the Rt. Rev. James Mathes of San Diego and a supporter of the actions taken this week in the House of Bishops, said he believed the statement offered “clarity of where they are.”

A copy of the letter has been forwarded to the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Its initial signatories include:

The Rt. Rev James Adams, Western Kansas
The Rt. Rev Lloyd Allen, Honduras
The Rt. Rev David Alvarez, Puerto Rico
The Rt. Rev John Bauerschmidt, Tennessee
The Rt. Rev Peter Beckwith, Springfield
The Rt. Rev Franklin Brookhart, Montana
The Rt. Rev William Frey, Rio Grande
The Rt. Rev Dorsey Henderson, Upper South Carolina
The Rt. Rev John Howe, Central Florida
The Rt. Rev Russell Jacobus, Fond du Lac
The Rt. Rev Don Johnson, West Tennessee
The Rt. Rev Mark Lawrence, South Carolina
The Rt. Rev Gary Lillibridge, West Texas
The Rt. Rev Edward Little, Northern Indiana
The Rt. Rev William Love, Albany
The Rt. Rev Bruce MacPherson, Western Louisiana
The Rt. Rev Alfredo Morante, Litoral Ecuador
The Rt. Rev Henry Parsley, Alabama
The Rt. Rev Michael Smith, North Dakota
The Rt. Rev James Stanton, Dallas
The Rt. Rev Pierre Whalon, Convocation of American Churches in Europe
The Rt. Rev Paul Lambert, Suffragan-Dallas
The Rt. Rev David Reed, Suffragan-West Texas
The Rt. Rev Sylestre Romero, Assistant– New Jersey
The Rt. Rev John Sloan, Suffragan–Alabama
The Rt. Rev Jeffrey Rowthorn, Retired-Convocation of American Churches in Europe
The Rt. Rev Don Wimberly, Retired-Texas

(The Rev.) George Conger reporting from General Convention in Anaheim.

An Open Letter to Believing Episcopalians

The Living Church recently chimed in on the extraordinary events taking place at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention underway in Anaheim California. Ultimately, the House of Bishops considered (ultimately for not so long) a quick and bold retreat from a progressive agenda after having brought fire down upon itself from around the world for abandoning its commitment to the Anglican Communion.

The hesitation over endorsing gay blessings comes not from a lack of votes for passage, or from fears of an international backlash from the Anglican Communion or the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rather, there is a sense that the progressive agenda can only go so far before a second conservative exodus takes place.

Episcopal believers take note. Nothing should offend you more! The Episcopal Church might hedge. Why? For lack of votes? No the majority is 2:1 or better. For fear of being exiled from the Anglican Communion? No. Indeed through the Presiding Bishop, the American church has not only given the proverbial finger to the Communion, they have insulted the Archbishop of Canterbury personally laying the blame for division at his feet.

Why then consider, even momentarily, hedging on the radical agenda? To enjoy your fellowship? No. You are bigots and anathema to them. They have hounded out those like you and defrocked your priests and bishops in droves. And absent a conscience clause more persecution looms large.

Why then?

Because they need you, bible believing, God fearing, mission minded, ministry engaged people. Without you and your dollars the national church will implode. Another fifty churches and a diocese or two opt out and the naked emperor will be exposed. They cannot sustain their cause if you flee for cover and band together with others who believe what the church has always believed. You are not brothers and sisters in Christ. You are tithes. You are real estate. You are a means to an end. Nothing should offend you more.

There are churches, Anglican and otherwise, all around this country that will care for your soul without ever caring for your money. Find one and run to it.

The Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson, Senior Pastor

St. Peter’s Anglican Church, AMiA

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the BBC, the New York Times and Integrity all see what is being done here. There are now some participants in the 76th General Convention who are trying to pretend that a yes to D025 is NOT a no to B033. Jesus’ statement about letting your yes be yes and your no be no is apt here. These types of attempted obfuscations are utterly unconvincing. The Bishop of Arizona rightly noted in his blog that D025 was “a defacto repudiation of” B033. . .

D025 is the proud assertion of a church of self-authentication and radical autonomy.

It is a particularly ugly sight.

–The Rev. Dr. Kendall S. Harmon is Canon Theologian of the Diocese of South Carolina

See entire article here:

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/24199

. . . This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.

Granted, the TEC resolution indicates a strong willingness to remain within the Anglican Communion. But saying “we want to stay in, but we insist on rewriting the rules” is cynical double-think. We should not be fooled.

See the entire article here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6710640.ece

The best and brightest of the Episcopal Church interpret ECUSA’s recent actions here:

http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.com/2009/07/statement-on-the-repudiation-of-b033/

Note specifically the Archbishop of Canterbury’s remarks prior to ECUSA taking the extraordinary measure last night:

Speaking at the close of the Council’s meeting, the Archbishop of Canterbury anticipated yesterday’s action and spoke directly to The Episcopal Church on its place in the Anglican Covenant when he said “Action to negate that resolution [the moratorium] would instantly suggest to many people in the communion that The Episcopal Church would prefer not to go down the route of closer structural bonds and that particular kind of mutual responsibility.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury said elsewhere as reported by Ruth Gledhill:

The Archbishop of Canterbury told General Synod today that he ‘regrets’ the decision by The Episcopal Church house of deputies to overturn the moratorium on the ordination of gay bishops. At the same time, the Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori has warned the Church of England that it should not recognise the new Anglican Church in North America, arguing ’schism is not a Christian act.’

Responding to a question by Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, Dr Williams said: ‘As for General Convention it remains to be seen I think whether the vote of the House of Deputies will be endorsed by the House of Bishops. If the House of Bishops chooses to block then the moratorium remains. I regret the fact that there is not the will to observe the moratorium in such a significant part of the Church in North America but I can’t say more about that as I have no details.’

See full article here: http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2009/07/archbishop-of-canterbury-regrets-tec-move-to-gay-ordination.html .

ECUSA’a response? Vote affirmatively anyway. Indeed, on behalf of ECUSA, the presiding bishop shows disdain for the head of the Communion going so far as to suggest he, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Church of England, are fomenting schism.

So ECUSA opts out in spite of Canterbury’s appeal. Alabama’s bishop is one among many who recognize that this is precisely how the vote will be received:

Bishop Henry Parsley of Alabama and others who voted “no” said passage of the resolution would not be well-received by some members of the Anglican Communion.

“I long for us to be an inclusive church, but not a polarized church,” he said. “We need to be a part of the larger Anglican Communion in what we do in this matter. I think it will be interpreted internationally as a rejection of B033. I actually think it’s more nuanced and subtle than that.

“I think it can be understood that B033 still has some effect among us in terms of exercising restraint as we act under the constitution and canons of our church.”

See the entire article here:

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_112523_ENG_HTM.htm

“Still has some effect among us” is not likely to be overly reassuring.

Even the normally cautious and careful George Conger suggests the act may place ECUSA outside the Anglican Communion. See his article here: http://geoconger.wordpress.com/. Evident in his article is that many bishops meant the adoption of BO25 to declare a parting of the ways and independence from the Anglican Communion.

Church of England’s Graham Kings said this in response to the repudiation:

Bishop of Sherborne Dr Graham Kings said: “The Episcopal Church has clearly signalled, against the specific plea of the Archbishop of Canterbury on this very issue, its choice of autonomy over interdependence in the Anglican Communion. Questions will now have to be asked about the full continued participation of Episcopal Church representatives in Anglican Communion meetings.”

Dr Kings’s comments are particularly significant because, as a founder of the open or moderate evangelical forum Fulcrum, he has been one of the strongest advocates in the Church for maintaining bonds between evangelicals and liberals.

See the entire TIMESONLINE article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6707029.ece

One cannot dismiss the breach as a figment of the imagination of reactionary African bishops.

These are sad times for a once venerable institution. Believing members are being compelled to declare - Episcopal Church or Jesus Christ and the Anglican Communion.

In the tradition of Bishop Barnum’s Never Silent, I must say this statement and its timing make me wonder if the Presiding Bishop actually reads the lectionary. Sunday’s readings include Romans 10 which says:

“Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. . . The Scripture says ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’”

Admittedly I’m no scholar but it seems any simpleton could deduce from this text a very “specific verbal formula about Jesus” leading to salvation.

If anyone is in doubt about when the apostolic faith has been abandoned, let this be for him the very bright line. If you can’t say Jesus is Lord, you cannot be saved and therefore cannot be Christian. Next question: Can a church be Christian if it is headed by someone who is not?

And at present–in the distant outworkings of the Protestant Reformation, with its truly great and good message of salvation by faith alone–that long-accepted division has worked its way into the very heart of the gospel message. It is now understood to be a part of the “good news” that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins. This gives a precise meaning to the phrase “cheap grace,” though it would be
better described as “costly faithlessness.”

–Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (San Francisco: Harper, 1998), p.301; emphasis his

http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/12-faithspirituality/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years

Breaking Ranks - Better Put on Kevlar

The Diocesan of Western Kansas questions both strategy and transparency of ECUSA:

I really do not know anymore what is coming next. How things are done and not done are as haphazard as people’s ideas; or so it seems.

Now I read that the “New” Diocese of Fort Worth passed a $632,466 dollar budget for a part-time bishop, a little over 19 priests and 62 delegates who represent way less than a thousand people, and $200,000 is from the General Convention budget.

First, I did not see that in the GC budget that was passed in 2006. Where did it come from? Did the Executive Council pass it, which we would not know since the last several meetings’ minutes have not been posted? I hate to beat a dead horse but how can there be $200,000 to give away when budgets are being cut and people let go?

If there is $200,000 available, then why was there not more for the Domestic Missionary Partnership to use in the poorest dioceses of the Church? Why did money get initially cut from indigenous ministries to pay other budget items?

See the entire article here:

http://babybluecafe.blogspot.com/2009/03/bishop-of-western-kansas-writes.html

Clint Eastwood is lamenting our homage to political correctness. According to Dirty Harry, bowing on such bended knee has made us humorless.

See the entire article here:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090227/906/ten-eastwood-thinks-political-correctnes.html

The same homage has placed the church in a Cultural Cell that makes Babylonian Captivity seem like a walk in the park. Unable to speak the truth any longer without reservation, for fear of retribution from the language police, we have forgotten what the truth is. See Pastor Joel Osteen shrink back from anything absolute 2 minutes 54 seconds into this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXptuSAc_3c

“Of course I believe in the Christ as the Savior and all but. . .”  But? BUT? And by the way, what do you know with any conviction? A lot of well I don’t know that I know that in there.

Men, personal 1^st century friends of Jesus, died to transfer from one generation to the next the truth that you so casually distance yourself from Pastor. No wonder the church in America is in so much trouble.

As friend and Bishop John Rucyahana reminds us, it is the truth that sets us free. France was complicit in the genocide in Rwanda 1994 and the United States placed a higher priority on maintaining its relationship with France than saving a million people in Rwanda. So we did nothing until the carnage was over. It is the truth. It is painful truth. But dealing with something else won’t set us free. Even former President Clinton figured that one out. Well at least with regard to the genocide.

So, let’s speak it in love Christian people. Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life. No one comes. . .” Finish it believers. Go ahead. Make my day! Make His day!

To lay the debt of failed speculators and irresponsible homebuyers (who attempted to live well beyond their personal means) at the feet of bill paying and law abiding people is a crime. It is more sophisticated than breaking and entering but it has the same result – to take something from the lawful and to give it to an offender who has no legal or moral claim to it. It is akin to rigging the lottery for someone who should otherwise be incarcerated. A country that embraces crime for the greater good has lost its true north.

From the UK’s TimesOnline

Anglicans called on to convert non-

Christian believers

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

Anglicans were commanded to “go forth and evangelise” yesterday in a dramatic assertion of missionary fervour that could jeopardise carefully built-up relations with Muslims, Jews and other faiths.

The established Church of England put decades of liberal-inspired political correctness behind it in a move that led one bishop to condemn in anger the “evangelistic rants”.

See the full article here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5711595.ece

If only we could set aside liberal-inspired political correctness. Surely if the English can muster the strength, we as a nation can too.

Thoughts on Alexandria

Thoughts on the Primates Statement from Alexandria and The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Address to Synod

By The Rev. Dr. Leander S. Harding 

I have been reading the communiqué of the Primates from their meeting in Alexandria and other documents that relate to this meeting including the Windsor Continuation Group and the documents published by Archbishop Akinola. Below are some reactions in no particular order.

Full article may be found here:

http://www.leanderharding.com/blog/2009/02/11/thoughts-on-alexandria/

“The problem with consumerism isn’t that it creates desire, but that it fails to satisfy it.”

The Jesus Way does not create desire. It satisfies one that already exists in the soul of every created being.

Author of “Worship Evangelism” Sally Morgenthaler writes:

“The realization hit me in the gut. Between 1995 and 2000 I’d traveled to a host of worship-driven churches, some that openly advertised that they were “a church for the unchurched.” On the good occasions, the worship experience was transporting. (I dug a little deeper when that happened. Invariably, I found another value at work behind the worship production: a strong, consistent presence in the community.) Too many times, I came away with an unnamed, uneasy feeling. Something was not quite right. The worship felt disconnected from real life. Then there were the services when the pathology my friend talked about came right over the platform and hit me in the face. It was unabashed self-absorption, a worship culture that screamed, “It’s all about us” so loudly that I wondered how any visitor could stand to endure the rest of the hour.”

See the entire article here:

http://nancybeach.typepad.com/nancy_beach/files/morgenthaler_article.pdf

The following is clipped from the bishop’s page at Alabama’s diocesan website.

It is to the above excerpt that I respond briefly. With all due respect, the logic lacks intellectual integrity and contains some hubris. The Bishop seems to have forgotten that the Roman Catholics and Orthodox find the Anglican Communion itself a rogue province operating within in their rightly constituted geographical boundaries. If parallel provinces are the offense, damage to catholicity has already been done and Anglicans are the offenders. Also, we have peacefully coexisted for decades if not centuries with the Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians, all operating as Christian “provinces” within the same geographical boundaries. The Bishop seems to accept multiple overlapping jurisdictions elsewhere (indeed everywhere) but is threatened by the one that might be a reasonable alternative to his flock. He therefore cites polity and church history in hopes of preventing a second Anglican province from becoming a reality (which he cannot) and preventing the new province from becoming a viable alternative for his people (which he may if his people remain unaware of why the new province exist). No bishop has a God ordained right to territory which is exclusively his and if bishops did, this one would have to repent of trespassing upon the territory of those who have a historical priority exceeding his.

Perhaps it is oversight or perhaps naiveté but the Bishop of Alabama misreads the founders of the new province. They do not mean for the new province to be a parallel province. They mean for it to become the only officially sanctioned Anglican province in the United States. Why? Because they consider the present one known as ECUSA to be apostate, having abandoned the faith once delivered to the Apostles!

In his recent open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola wrote:

“In our meeting we recommended that you initiate a “professionally mediated conversation which engages all parties at the earliest opportunity.” It now seems increasingly clear that without a radical change of behavior on the part of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada the only possible outcome of such a process is acknowledgement of a bitter truth that the differences in the words of (Scottish Primus) Archbishop Idris Jones are “irreconcilable”.

At the recent Primate meeting in Egypt, Archbishop Akinola had with him a well documented report of the American Anglican Council which includes this assessment of the American church:

“Episcopal Church leaders have denied Jesus as the only way to the Father, denied the divinity and uniqueness of Jesus Christ, denied the Resurrection, denied heaven and hell, denied salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ, denied the authority of Scripture, denied the Creeds and denied biblical standards for human sexuality.”

It seems to me that thinking Anglicans will necessarily choose, passively by acceptance or actively by parting ways. The choice?  To be trenchantly faithful to “gracious unity in the midst of diversity” which the Bishop maintains is our history and the age old geographical boundaries OR demand that their church uphold the faith once delivered and handed down throughout the ages. I think it not too much to say the choice is finally between allegiance to a waning institution and the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The screenings were incredible. See Greg Garrison/Birmingham News coverage here: http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/living/1234603001138021.xml&coll=2.

Bishop John would take great exception on this one point. Hutus and Tutsis are not tribes. They share culture, language, faith and geography. These two peoples of waning ethnic distinctions have intermarried for centuries. Indeed Bishop John would rightly say that the seeds of genocide were sown by foreigners creating tribes where there were none.

“Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life permeated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand all forces of evil. In short nondiscipleship costs you exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). The cross-shaped yoke of Christ is after all an instrument of liberation and power to those who live in it with him and learn meekness and lowliness of heart that brings rest to the soul.”

Unfortunately, as Dallas so painfully points out, we have been most effective at baptizing church members and least effective at MAKING DISCIPLES. We live in a church world of nondiscipleship!

By GEORGE F. WILL Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Oct. 18, 2008, 11:35AM

WASHINGTON — The Rev. Robert Duncan, 60, is not a Lutheran, but he is a Luther, of sorts. The former Episcopal bishop of Pittsburgh has, in effect, said the words with which Martin Luther shattered Christendom and asserted the primacy of individual judgment and conscience that defines the modern temperament: “Ich kann nicht anders” — I cannot do otherwise.

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh recently became the second diocese to secede from the U.S. Episcopal Church since, but not entirely because of, the 2003 ordination in New Hampshire of an openly gay bishop — Gene Robinson, a classmate of Duncan’s at General Theological Seminary in New York in the 1970s. Before the Robinson controversy, other Episcopalians, from South Carolina to Southern California, had disassociated from the Episcopal Church and put themselves under the authority of conservative Anglican bishops who serve where the church is flourishing — often in sub-Saharan Africa, where a majority of Anglicans live.

It is not the secessionists such as Duncan who are, as critics charge, obsessed with homosexuality. The Episcopal Church’s leadership is latitudinarian — tolerant to the point of incoherence, Duncan and kindred spirits think — about clergy who deviate from traditional church teachings concerning such core doctrines as the divinity of Christ, the authority of scripture and the path to salvation. But the national church insists on the ordination of openly gay clergy and on blessing same-sex unions.

In the 1960s, Bishop James Pike of California, who urged the church to jettison such “theological baggage” as the doctrines of Original Sin and the Trinity, was the last active bishop disciplined for theological reasons. Duncan doubts whether Pike would be disciplined today.

Duncan became a bishop in 1995, at age 47, in an Episcopal Church already roiled by dissension about the ordination of women, revision of the prayer book and other matters. But, Duncan says, “I wish it” — the issue that finally precipitated secession — “had been some other issue.” He means some controversy, other than Robinson’s ordination, turning on scriptural authority.

The shrinking Episcopal Church (2.4 million members, down from 3.5 million at its peak in 1965) is a small sliver of the worldwide Anglican communion (at least 77 million and expanding rapidly). Its travails are, Duncan says, yet another lingering echo of the 1960s.

The Anglican communion once was a middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism. Now, Duncan says, the national leadership of the Episcopal Church thinks of itself as a bridge between Protestantism and the culture.

Every 10 years there is a Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, presided over by the archbishop of Canterbury. This year only 650 of the nearly 900 bishops attended — 150 of them representing only the tiny U.S communion. The bishops from three of the Anglican communion’s five largest provinces — Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya — boycotted.

In London, more Muslims attend Friday prayers than Anglicans attend Sunday services. Last December, on the Sunday after former Prime Minister Tony Blair was received into the Catholic Church, more Catholics than Anglicans attended services in England.

“I think,” Duncan says, “the 21st century will be for the archbishop of Canterbury what the 20th century was for the royal family.” That is, an era of diminution.

Because Protestantism has no structure of authority comparable to the Vatican, and because it does not merely tolerate but enjoins individual judgments by “the priesthood of all believers” concerning beliefs and obligations, all Protestants are potential Luthers. Hence it is evidence of spiritual vigor that Episcopalians in Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth will vote on disassociation from the U.S. communion on Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, respectively.

The Episcopal Church once was America’s upper crust at prayer. Today it is “progressive” politics cloaked — very thinly — in piety. Episcopalians’ discontents tell a cautionary tale for political and religious associations. As the church’s doctrines have become more elastic, the church has contracted. It celebrates an “inclusiveness” that includes fewer and fewer members.

Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist, based in Washington, D.C.

“There is an addictive quality to Baal. Giving up Baal means that we give up control over God. Giving up Baal means that we no longer have all the vast spiritual paraphernalia at our beck and call. Giving Baal means that we give up any hope of having influence with God, of being able to get our way with him. Giving Baal means that we let go of the comforting illusions that allow us to live in guilt-free dishonesty. Giving up Baal means that can no longer use religion to scare or bribe or bully other people. Giving Baal means that we have to grow up. And growing up is not an attractive option for men and women who are accustomed to a culture that gives them a free pass to a Disneyesque religion of entertainment and ecstasy.”

This painful assessment of church culture is not far from the truth. We are too often saplings when God intends to grow Sequoias.

From The Blessing

“Few people see themselves as struggling with missing out on their family’s blessing, but people around them see it. Whether it is reflected in an underlying sense of insecurity, or, more blatantly obvious, in an angry, hostile spirit, we can hide very little from those who know us well.”

Makes me think - Bitter roots emerging from the absence of blessing, even if beneath the ground, are usually known to someone other than self. Perhaps we should be asking others where God wants to heal us. Perhaps for a few moments each day we should see our loved ones as physicians and ourselves as patients.

From On Being a Theologian of the Cross

There is no way through here. God can be known and had only through suffering the divine deed of the cross. The cross does not merely inform us of something, something that may be “above,” or “behind” it. It attacks us and afflicts us. Knowledge of God comes when God happens to us, when God does himself to us. We are crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:19). The sinner, the old being, neither knows nor speaks the truth about God and consequently can only be put to death by the action of God. Such is the way one becomes a theologian of the cross, who can begin to speak and proclaim the truth of God, to “say what a thing is.”

Make me thinks – That won’t tickle many ears and yet so many ears, including my own, need to hear it.

Next on the list? “The Jesus Way” by Eugene Peterson.

It is a joy to labor with you to implement mission driven change. The launch of the new service has been fairly uneventful in terms of mechanics. We had a bit of trouble staffing each service until we had a sense of how attendance between the services would play out. Transitions for children took some fine tuning. After seven weeks everyone seems to be settling into the new schedule. The “Stay, Late, Come Early” fellowship time from 10:00 to 10:30 has exceeded expectations greatly.

Hitting the mark in so many areas may eliminate room for concerns and perhaps even a lament or two. We expected a real loss of intimacy. And it has been realized. Some of the folks we worshiped with side by side for six years are now at a different service. Intentionally, the fellowship time is meant to compensate though we have to be proactive about engaging in it. So please stay late or come early.

Another loss is that sense of critical mass. We were comfortably full in one service. On occasion we were at comfortable capacity and every so often well beyond it. With two services, we are not always comfortably full in either. So let’s name it. It can be Uncomfortable. But advancing the cause of Christ often, if not always, is uncomfortable. We sacrifice to see the Kingdom advanced.

The hope of this Great Commission endeavor, and an ordinary occurrence when starting a new service, is for both services to grow to the point of being comfortably full again. We endure very real loss in order to achieve greater gains in the Kingdom. By design we created space that the Holy Spirit might fill it. Of course we can aid Him greatly through issuing invitations, that others might be blessed as we are blessed. Our personal zeal for the cause, in spite of the loss, is instrumental to making those invitations effective. Regardless, the loss is real, albeit temporary, and we are sensitive to it.

Consolation may be found in the fruit of our efforts. New families are coming, some at 9:00 and some at 10:30. Several have taken steps to become members and will be incorporated on October 5th. Rejoice! The Holy Spirit is alive and well.

Let’s labor on together to see this missionary vision realized. By our commitment, participation and invitations, in short order, we will see the services full again. It may become quickly apparent that the Lord has called us to multiply yet again.

Blessings in Christ Jesus,
John D. Richardson

Dear Editors:

With reluctance I write again. However, much has transpired within the global Anglican Communion that has gone unreported in the News. Your readers deserve a fair presentation of the reality on the ground. After all, “our mutual loyalty to one another” should be grounded in truth, and not in weak assessments (at best), or via orchestrated spin (at worst).

First, Bishop Chane of Washington DC has offered a reflection on Lambeth which soberly and fairly reflects what the Archbishop of Canterbury calls a state of “grave peril.” Contrary to the vacuous “all is well” offered by many, Chane says: “Archbishop Williams sought what he believed was a middle way that unfortunately continues to marginalize the Canadian and American churches. . . ” The Bishop of Alabama says the “strong center” held firm. Chane understands Lambeth’s implications and accepts the reality that the “middle way” excludes increasingly both The Episcopal Church (TEC) and its counterpart in Canada (ACC).

Next, the Primates Council established by the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) has met. Representing over 75% of practicing Anglicans around the world, they recently rejected the authority of all Anglican churches preaching “a false gospel” including TEC and the ACC. Post-Lambeth the Primates see nothing to cause them to abandon this. They are now offering a means by which to “authenticate and recognize Anglican jurisdictions, clergy and congregations”: specifically, subscription to the Jerusalem Declaration.

These developments raise serious questions. Will the Bishop Alabama acknowledge to his flock the “grave peril” and the marginalization of the perpetrators - especially TEC? Also, will he or the Diocese “authenticate” within Anglicanism by signing onto the Jerusalem Declaration? Otherwise, will the Bishop grant freedom, as a matter of conscience, to his clergy who wish to authenticate themselves as Anglicans by signing the Declaration?

These questions deserve serious and immediate responses.

Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson
Episcopal Province of Rwanda
Birmingham, Alabama

More… http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/121947935722490.xml&coll=2

Dear Editors of the Birmingham News:

It was good to see stories addressing the Anglican Communion in Saturday’s Birmingham News. It was as if an embargo had been lifted. As dated as the RNS and AP stories were, they made headway in making folks aware of deep divisions within the Communion, the third largest Christian body in the world.

However, more needs to be said that your readers might make well-informed decisions. This is especially true when the Episcopal Bishop of Alabama gives a glowing report about Lambeth saying specifically, “The strong center of the church held firm” as if the American church and the Diocese of Alabama are a part of the “strong center.” Is that a fiddle we hear? Nothing could be further from the truth. This statement assessing Lambeth could not be deemed accurate in any way by any objective person.

The truth is “the strong center” was not present. Nearly three hundred Bishops from the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda did not attend Lambeth as a matter of conscience. The people should be told that the “few dissident provinces” we keep hearing about actually represent 70% or more of practicing Anglicans around the world. These provinces are not suggesting something as simple and easily addressed as “The Episcopal Church has erred in doctrine.” They are declaring TEC is no longer a Christian church (not to impugn the character or faithfulness of the many fine Christians within TEC) and that the United States is a mission territory.

When you consider the statements of the Lambeth-attending Global South Primates collectively and individually who are only slightly behind the “boycotting” provinces in their grave assessment, the vast majority (85% or more) of Anglicans consider the American and Canadian branches of Anglicanism apostate having abandoned the faith once delivered. Reflecting on Lambeth, Church of England Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt said the American church would not retreat from “directions foreign to the life and convictions of the vast majority of Anglicans, let alone of other Christians, across the world.” He concludes only one option remains, “orderly separation.” Even the Archbishop of Canterbury concedes that should the American church not turn back the Communion as we know it remains in “grave peril.” And the Episcopal Bishop of Alabama says to the faithful, “the strong center of the church held firm”, as if the American church and its Diocese of Alabama are a part of that center. There is no basis upon which one could build such an argument. It is sophistry and not very good sophistry at that.

[The Global South Primates specifically cite the arrogance of the Western churches in relationship to the deep divisions. “We are concerned with the continuing patronising attitude of the West towards the rest of the churches worldwide. We regret attempts to cause divisions and break the bonds between churches in the Global South, and are distressed that the realities in our churches are often misrepresented and misunderstood in the West.” This is the statement of those present at Lambeth; how much more does it reflect the sentiments of those who did not attend as a matter conscience?

One of the great ironies in all this is that Anglicans like William Wilberforce led the charge to liberate Africans from slavery. Many good Episcopalians, including Alabama’s Bishop Furman Stough, rightly fought for civil rights here in the United States. Now the same White Westerners have turned a deaf ear if not a contemptuous one to a people they enabled to come of age.]

The News’ reporting is not complete without more stories. One could easily be left with the sense of a shallow divide within Anglicanism when the chasm is actually so deep and so wide as to be unbridgeable. The strong center is getting stronger and it no longer considers the corporation called TEC to be Christian in any biblical or historical sense. That’s news worthy of reporting and it makes one wonder why such news goes unpublished and the local implications remain unexplored.

The Rev. Dr. John D. Richardson, Senior Pastor
St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Anglican Mission in America
Episcopal Province of Rwanda
A Constituent Member of the Historic and Worldwide Anglican Communion

As eventually published in the Birmingham News
http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/opinion/121947935722490.xml&coll=2