The Launch of the Anglican Church in North America

 

Here are the items relating to some of the GAFCON and English responses to the launching of ACNA, in approximately reverse chronological order:  

 

1a.  Statement, 6 Dec. 2008, from the GAFCON Primates, welcoming the proposed North American Province.

With: 

1b.   With the earlier, 1 Oct. 2008, Statement of the GAFCON Primates Council on the alleged deposition of Bob Duncan from his position of Bishop of Pittsburgh by TEC, 

 

2.  Comment , 5 Dec. 2008, on "The Future of the Anglican Church in North America," by Stephen Noll, American Vice Chancellor of Uganda Christian University.

 

3.  Stephen Sizer's blog article, 4 Dec. 2008, "High Noon at the OK Corral: GAFCON Primates meet the Archbishop of Canterbury."  Comments on the attitudes and opinions of various players following the launch of the ACNA,

 

4a.  Full blog article of Ruth Gledhill of The Times, 4 Dec. 2008, "Lambeth Palace on new province as Gafcon primates fly in for summit," referred to by Sizer above (# 3). Followed by two items correcting her figures regarding the relative numerical strengths of TEC and ACNA:

4b.  Blog article by Perpetua, 4 Dec. 2008: "Episcopal Church Membership Statistics."

4c.  David Virtue's article, 16 Oct. 2008:  "Episcopal Church in Numerical Decline." (Excerpts)

 

5. Ruth Gledhill's blog article, 5 Dec. 2008,  "Canterbury Summit: nothing happened."  Re the undramatic meeting of the GAFCON primates with the ABC. 

 

6.  Warm Greetings, 4 Dec. 2008, from Anglican Mainstream, U.K., to the Common Cause Partnership, re the launch of ACNA.

 

7.  Greetings, 4 Dec. 2008, from the Anglican Church League, Sydney, to the new Province of North America.

 

8.   Articles by George Conger commenting on the launching of ACNA:

8a.  "New American Province looms," 4 Dec. 2008

8b.  "Legal framework set for new Third Province in North America, 4 Dec. 2008

And earlier:

8c.  "Analysis: Recognition of Third Province Likely to Take Years," 26 Nov, 2008.

 

9.    Excerpt from Article, 26 Nov. 2008, by David Virtue:  "Anglican Leaders Plot to Throw Out Southern Cone." 

 

Lovingly,

 

Patricia.

 

Patricia Birkett

Anglican Gathering of Ottawa

Prayer Co-ordinator

www.anglicangathering.ca

613-238-4680

 

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1a.

 

Gafcon Primates welcome North American Province

 

 

 

 

Statement by GAFCON Primates


 

Primates of the GAFCON Primates' Council meeting in London have issued the following statement about the Province of the Anglican Church in North America.

We welcome the news of the North American Anglican Province in formation. We fully support this development with our prayer and blessing, since it demonstrates the determination of these faithful Christians to remain authentic Anglicans.

North American Anglicans have been tragically divided since 2003 when activities condemned by the clear teaching of Scripture and the vast majority of the Anglican Communion were publicly endorsed. This has left many Anglicans without a proper spiritual home. The steps taken to form the new Province are a necessary initiative. 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.

Furthermore, it 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.    


6th December, 2008 AD

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1b.

 

 

 

Statement by the Primates' Council of GAFCON on the alleged deposition of the Bishop of Pittsburgh


 

The fact, timing and manner of the action taken by the American House of Bishops toward Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh has filled us with dismay.  He is a Bishop in good standing in the Anglican Communion, and is guilty only of guarding his people from false teaching and corrupt behaviour as he promised to do. 

Once more the upholders of the orthodox faith are made to suffer at the hands of those who have introduced new teachings. 

 

However, the action has also had the effect of clarifying matters even further. It is now impossible to believe that the exhortations of the Lambeth Conference and the Windsor Continuation Group will be heeded. No Pastoral Forum has been established. We remain convinced that the faithful Anglicans of North America need to have their own Province recognised by the Communion as a whole. We are determined to stand with Bishop Duncan and those who, like him, have protested in the name of God against the unscriptural innovations which have caused such divisions amongst us.

 

In the absence of other substantive provision from the historic structures of the Communion, the Primates' Council gives its full support to Archbishop Greg Venables in receiving Bishop Duncan as a Bishop in good standing in the Province of the Southern Cone. 

 

1/10/08

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2.

The Future of the Anglican Church in North America

December 5th, 2008 Posted in Anglican Church in North America, Global Anglican Future Conference |

By Stephen Noll

People are asking two questions about the Anglican Church in North America:

1. Does ACNA want recognition as part of the Anglican Communion?

2. What makes ACNA different from the alphabet soup of continuing bodies in North America?

To some extent the answer to both these questions is: GAFCON!

The GAFCON Final Statement not only makes clear that the participants, including all those who are in ACNA, wish to be part of the Anglican Communion but they consider themselves to BE part of the Communion. Would they like recognition by the “Instruments” of the Communion? Sure. Do they consider that such recognition is the only means of recognition? No, they do not. Are they willing to wait for full and final recognition in a reformed Communion? You bet.

Secondly, the Global Anglican Future Conference itself was a sign of something new in the Communion: a movement, not a moment, as we said. Pulling off the conference was something of a miracle and showed the high degree of commitment and creative energy behind this movement. It was the fruit of a global alliance that has been developing for more than a decade (see Miranda Hassett’s Anglican Communion in Crisis). This is not Naughton’s bevy of gay-bashers and “handful of likeminded leaders in Africa” (Jim, think Nigeria! think Uganda). I have personally been on the ground floor of much of this movement and tell you the relationships that were manifest at GAFCON are rich and deep.

Finally, GAFCON endorsed and encouraged the Common Cause leaders to move ahead. Let me observe that the North American leadership represented in the ACNA College of Bishops represents much of the best talent that has grown up in the Episcopal Church since the 1970s. Most of these leaders were successful parish priests who in a better world would have been bishops in TEC. Most of them, even the Anglo-Catholics, have a strong commitment to church growth and world evangelization. Many of them and their congregations have made hard choices to leave their property behind and start over. They are risk-takers. And above all, they really do believe in the grace of God working through His Church.

The way ahead is not going to be easy for anyone at this point in history. We are dealing with an increasingly secularized society in the USA, and in many parts of Africa and Asia an aggressive Islam backed by oil money. What are the alternatives? A dying TEC? The Communion Partners, I think, can hold their own territory and get the endorsement of the Communion hierarchy, but I do not see how they get far beyond that (I continue to believe that in time CP and ACNA will work together more fully). ACNA is no sure bet, but it does have a “hope and a future.”

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http://stephensizer.blogspot.com/2008/12/high-noon-at-ok-corral-gafcon-primates.html

 

THURSDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2008

High Noon at the OK Corral: GAFCON Primates meet the Archbishop of Canterbury

 

It is time for plain speaking: The Episcopal Church in the USA and the Anglican Church of Canada have prostituted the Christian faith and authorized that which God has anathematized.

 

The hour of reckoning has arrived. How the Archbishop of Canterbury responds will determine much. Early signs are not good. Whether the views of the Archbishop or his staff, the official Lambeth statement about the meeting tomorrow between six archbishops is terse if not defiant.

 

Ruth Gledhill writes, TimesonLine "Today Lambeth Palace, although not the Archbishop of Canterbury in person, has at last made a comment on this, and the comment at first glance seems to make it clear that this new province will not receive formal recognition any time soon. In fact it appears pretty brutal in its dismissal of the Common Cause initiative. Hong Kong, don’t forget, was recognised extremely fast once its three dioceses decided to seek independence.

 

Lambeth Palace says: ‘There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12), detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces. ‘Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, no such process has begun. This comes as the five Gafcon primates, Archbishops Akinola, Venables, Nzimbi, Kolini and Orombi, fly into London this afternoon and prepare to travel to Canterbury tomorrow, Friday, to meet Dr Williams to discuss the new province among other things.’

The meeting has been arranged at the request of the five primates. Next month, I understand, the Gafcon primates will then meet with the primates of the Joint Standing Committee, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori of TEC and Archbishops Morgan of Wales, Aspinall of Australia, Orombi of Uganda, Anis of Egypt and Dr Williams. At this meeting they will present the plan formally to the primates for consideration at the Primates Meeting which begins in Alexandria, Egypt the following day. But it is not at all clear whether this presentation will incorporate a formal request for recognition or not.

Apparently, the big question that is being asked inside the power structures of the Anglican Communion is: ‘Do they want recognition?’ Is there a desire to maintain unity or not? This is not at all clear, and so far the guidance from both sides on this is a bit fuzzy.   

Read the rest of this entry »     Below

With Archbishops Akinola, Venables, Nzimbi, Kolini and Orombi riding into town, it is literally high noon at the OK Corral. The fact is the Arcbishop and his staff do not determine who is, or who is not, recognised in the Anglican Communion. Let me explain what is going to happen next, although I make no claim to the gift of prophecy.

1. Conservative Evangelical organisations such as Anglican Mainstream, SAMS, Church Society, the Fellowship of Word and Spirit, Crosslinks, New Wine, REFORM, and probably Forward in Faith, CMS and the CEEC, will all recognise the new Anglican Province of North America, either immediately, or in the next few weeks. They are already working together with Common Cause partners, formally or informally, within the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. This Fellowship already includes whole Provinces, Dioceses, Bishops, clergy and laity. What representatives or Bishops within the Church of England have to say or threaten is now really quite irrelevant. After Gene Robinson was consecrated the die was cast. The showdown in Canterbury tomorrow became inevitable.

2. A majority of the Primates meeting in Alexandria in February (who thankfully are still orthodox) will recognise the new Province of North America. No question.

3. The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) will be tasked with completing the administrative processes necessary to give the recognition that is already there, legal status. Liberals on the ACC and Jefferts Schori especially, will do everything they can to stall or circumvent the will of the Primates, but time, history and the majority of Anglicans worldwide are not on their side.

4. TEC will be expelled from the Anglican Communion. OK, that was not prophecy just wishful thinking on my part.

"Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth." (1 John 2:18-20)

 

POSTED BY STEPHEN SIZER AT 18:42 

 

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4a.

 

YOUR WRITER


Ruth Gledhill is The Times Religion Correspondent. In this blog she offers her views 
on the issues of the day

 

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

 

December 04, 2008

Lambeth Palace on new province as Gafcon primates fly in for summit


As we report, conservatives from The Episcopal Church 'have voted to form their own branch of Anglicanism in the United States. TitusOneNine has more details. Today Lambeth Palace, although not the Archbishop of Canterbury in person, has at last made a comment on this, and the comment at first glance seems to make it clear that this new province will not receive formal recognition any time soon. In fact it appears pretty brutal in its dismissal of the Common Cause initiative. Hong Kong, don't forget, was recognised extremely fast once its three dioceses decided to seek independence.

Lambeth Palace says: 'There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12), detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces.

'Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, no such process has begun.'

Nevertheless, it should be nopted that this resolution is just a guideline, and has never been formally incorporated into the Anglican Consultative Council constitution.

This all comes as the five Gafcon primates, Archbishops Akinola, Venables, Nzimbi, Kolini and Orombi, fly into London this afternoon and prepare to travel to Canterbury tomorrow, Friday, to meet Dr Williams to discuss the new province among other things.

The meeting has been arranged at the request of the five primates. Next month, I understand, the Gafcon primates will then meet with the primates  of the Joint Standing Committee, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori of TEC  and Archbishops Morgan of Wales, Aspinall of Australia, Orombi of Uganda, Anis of Egypt and Dr Williams. At this meeting they will present the plan formally to the primates for consideration at the Primates Meeting which begins in Alexandria, Egypt the following day. But it is not at all clear whether this presentation will incorporate a formal request for recognition or not.

It appears the primates are reluctant to formally request recognition because they don't want to force the Archbishop of Canterbury into a decision that might go against them.

Apparently, the big question that is being asked inside the power structures of the Anglican Communion is: 'Do they want recognition?' Is there a desire to maintain unity or not? This is not at all clear, and so far the guidance from both sides on this is a bit fuzzy.

All I could establish for certain, from an Anglican Communion Office spokesman, was this: 'There has been no approach from the Common Cause Partnership about their proposal.'

So maybe the dismissal is not that brutal after all. Because there is clearly an interest in being approached.

I assume it is this approach that is to be discussed at the Old Palace at Canterbury tomorrow, and that will be formally made to the Primates on 31 January next year.

But the fact is that no-one really knows what to do or how to respond.

On the one hand, as Bishop Gregory Venables just told me, from one of those awful anonymous hotels at Heathrow where he is meeting up with the others as they check in, 'It would be unthinkable if those who believe in original Anglicanism found there was no place for them in the new Anglicanism.'

And on the other hand, as TEC's Jim Naughton says from his home in the US where he is on a day off: 'There are small anti-gay Christian denominations all over the US and we have existed in the midst of these denominations for ages. At this point, this is just another of those small anti-gay Christian denominations.'

Naugton continues: 'They are distinguished from other small anti-gay churches in the us by their global pretensions, but the relationships they have cultivated with a handful of likeminded leaders in Africa don't really change the dynamic here in the US. Reporters have allowed these guys to say we at TEC are not Christians. There has to be some deep evidence that The Episcopal Church is not orthodox in its Christian beliefs for that to be justified. I do not think that evidence exists. They are trying to fly under the banner of theological orthodoxy. Really, they are just anti-gay.'

The Episcopal Church claims up to 2.2 million members, a figure which as Perpetua of Carthage reports is disputed by many.

Common Cause, of which Pittsburgh's deposed Bishop Bob Duncan will become the Archbishop and primate, claims 100,000. Some of these, however, as became apparent at Gafcon, are not episcopalians but are drawn from the many traditional and continuing Anglican churches that still operate in the US.

So it seems, either Common Cause will seek recognition and possibly be granted it, thus fulfilling the gospel imperative of unity by drawing back into the fold all the other traditional Anglicans who have left over the years over issues such as women priests and bishops.

Or Common Cause will join the continuing churches out there as yet one more Anglican denomination in the increasingly fragmented landscape of North American episcopalianism.

POSTED BY RUTH GLEDHILL ON DECEMBER 04, 2008 AT 03:27 PM  IN ANGLICAN COMMUNION

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4b.

http://perpetuaofcarthage.blogspot.com/2008/12/episcopal-church-membership-statistics.html

Thursday, December 4, 2008

UPDATE: This post has been updated to include Julia Duin of the Washington Times

 

The membership numbers for The Episcopal Church (TEC) are in the news today with the announcement of the new Anglican Church in North America. But the reporters are reporting different numbers.

 

Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times is still using a membership for TEC of 2.3 million. Kind of sneaky the way she wrote this sentence to make it seem the number for TEC was provided by the new North American church:

Bishop Duncan will be named the archbishop and primate of the North American church, which says it would have 100,000 members, compared with 2.3 million in the Episcopal Church.

 

Michelle Boorstein in the Washington Post story is using 2.2 million. 

 

But Julis Duin in the Washington Times story, Duke Helfand in the LA Times story, Michael Conlon for the Reuters story and Rachel Zoll for the AP story all have membership down to 2.1 million.

 

If we are talking about The Episcopal Church in North America, e.g., the Domestic Dioceses, TEC is officially reporting membership down to 2.1 million for 2007. These 2007 numbers still include all ten thousand members of the Episcopal Diocese for San Joaquin although San Joaquin voted themselves out of TEC and joined the Southern Cone in December 2007, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. And using the 2007 numbers does not reflect the 2008 losses of the dioceses and churches now forming the Anglican Church in North America.

 

 

However, the TEC report shows Non-Domestic Dioceses beginning in 2002. As of 2007, the membership in these non-North American diocese raises the TEC total to 2.3 million. But it would not make sense to include the Non-Domestic Dioceses in a direct comparison with the new Anglican Church in North America. If we are looking at TEC including the Non-Domestic Diocese, shouldn't we compare to the total membership in GAFCON? Hmmm, that gets a little embarrassing, what with the large memberships in the Anglican churches in Nigeria, etc.

 

Perhaps Manya A. Brachear for the Chicago Tribune was wise to just write TEC has "has about 2 million members" and not use a decimal point at all.

 

Posted by Perpetua at 8:36 AM

 

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4c.

 

 

Episcopal Church in Numerical Decline...

(Excerpts)   

Posted by David Virtue on 2008/10/16 8:50:00 


***** 

The LATEST ATTENDANCE FIGURES are out on The Episcopal Church and they are not good. Between 2005 and 2006 the church dropped just over 50,000 Episcopalians (a 1,000 a week). The church is also aging, parishes are shrinking and in the current economic crisis anecdotal evidence is coming in that shows many congregations are now running deficit budgets. When the figures come out for 2007 and 2008, we can expect that, with four dioceses exiting, these figures will just get bigger. Also Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) dipped from 787,000 to 765,000 in 2006. By the end of this year that figure could be well below 750,000. 63% of all congregations have 100 members or less. The median average Sunday attendance is 72.

*****

As a sign of how bad things are at the diocesan level, the DIOCESE OF MICHIGAN announced this week that its people must face stark realities. A task force said that "the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is in steep decline." Charts included in the document reveal that average Sunday attendance has declined by 22% since 2000. During the same time period "pledge and plate revenues" for all congregations combined has decreased by approximately $2 million, when adjusted for inflation. If it is this bad in Michigan, imagine what it is like in other smaller dioceses with little or no endowments. You can read the full story on this diocese in today's digest. 

*****

In the DIOCESE OF WASHINGTON things aren't much better. A State of the Diocese report revealed there has been a steady decline in attendance over 40 years with no reversal in sight. Membership and money are the biggest challenges the Diocese of Washington is facing today, according to canon to the ordinary Paul Cooney. 

On a typical Sunday, Cooney said, church attendance at parishes in the diocese ranges from 14 to 1,039. In half of the diocese's parishes, fewer than 115 people attend Sunday services. And in the average parish, Church School draws just 27 children. Data from parochial reports show that over the last 20 years, the diocese's membership has remained stable in the low 40,000s. But during that same period, the number of pledging households has decreased by about 20 percent. You can read the full report in today's digest. Both the present bishop, John Chane and his predecessor hate orthodoxy. 

*****

The DIOCESE OF IDAHO has a new bishop. The Rev. Brian Thom was consecrated fifteenth bishop recently. He is not known for being orthodox. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori called the celebration "a reunion for members of the Canterbury House community" where she and Thom were classmates while attending Oregon State University in the 1980s. Her appearance and endorsement speaks volumes. Expect no change in this diocese. Thom has been a rector in the diocese for 15 years. The Diocese of Idaho has 29 congregations and about 6,800 Episcopalians, says an ENS report. However, the Red Book says that less than 2,000 attend church on a regular basis.

*****

 

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5.

 

December 05, 2008

Canterbury Summit: nothing happened


 

 

Well I suppose that headline is not quite accurate. The mother church of the Anglican Communion, Canterbury Cathedral, today welcomed into her stable the five Gafcon primates from the South and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who they had travelled from afar to see. They bore gifts of frank discussion, gold-standard Christianity and little in the way of mirth. They were there to mark a new birth in the North, a province. Question marks hang like shepherds' crooks over its legitimacy, and probably will continue to do so for another 2,000 years or so, if it is not forgotten by then. But stranger things have happened. 

So what really took place that day not so long ago?

The five primates of Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Southern Cone met with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the cathedral. They prayed, started talking at 10am, prayed, had lunch, prayed, carried on talking, prayed again and finished mid-afternoon. Discussions were pretty frank and they went over everything, from Lambeth 1:10, through 2003 to the present day. No-one blinked.

Ultimately, it comes down to a question of identity.

Who, or what, is The Communion?

And I'm not sure that Jesus himself could answer that one. 

POSTED BY RUTH GLEDHILL ON DECEMBER 05, 2008 AT 06:47 PM IN ANGLICAN COMMUNION

 

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UK: Anglican Mainstream's Message to the new Anglican entity in America

Posted by David Virtue on 2008/12/4 8:40:00 (306 reads)

UK: Anglican Mainstream's Message to the new Anglican entity in America

December 4th, 2008 

Anglican Mainstream sends very warm greetings to the leaders and people of the Common Cause Partnership as they launch the constitution of a new Anglican entity in America and seek to maintain a home in the Anglican Communion for orthodox Anglican life-giving belief and practice in their countries.

We pray for courage and grace for them and all Anglicans in North America as they seek to uphold the truth of the faith revealed in the scriptures and witness to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all life.

Dr Philip Giddings Convenor Anglican Mainstream 
Canon Dr Chris Sugden Executive Secretary

 

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7.

Greetings from the Anglican Church League, Sydney, to the new Province of North America

Posted on December 4, 2008 
Filed under Announcement

THE COUNCIL OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH LEAGUE SENDS GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS GATHERED IN THE NEW PROVINCE OF NORTH AMERICA

1.   The ACL welcomes this new development while remaining deeply saddened by the circumstances which made it necessary. Faithful Anglicans have been marginalised within The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada because of their determination to remain faithful to the Scriptures as expressed in the Creeds and the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. We rejoice with these our brothers and sisters in this way forward out of the difficulties that have plagued them over the past five years and more.

2.   The Statement on the Global Anglican Future published in Jerusalem in June 2008 said ‘In particular, we believe the time is now ripe for the formation of a province in North America for the federation currently known as Common Cause Partnership to be recognised by the Primates’ Council.’  The ACL recognises the new Province of North America as fulfilling the vision of the GAFCON Primates’ Council.

3.   There can be no doubt about the authentic Anglican character of this new province. It contains Anglicans from a variety of traditions who, though different at significant points and committed to taking seriously those differences, share the same prior commitment to the supreme Lordship of Christ and the authority of the Scriptures in all matters of faith and life. They have proven themselves to be faithful men and women who embrace the classic Anglicanism of the Articles, the Book of Common Prayer, and more recently, the Jerusalem Declaration.

4.   It is a matter of profound regret that Lambeth 2008 and the other so-called Instruments of Communion (the Anglican Consultative Council, The Primates’ Meeting and the Archbishop of Canterbury) have failed to address the crisis with any urgency or meaningful action. Their delay has given further opportunity to those who are using all means possible to hinder the faithful gospel ministry of orthodox Anglican Christians in North America and beyond.

5.   We congratulate Bishop Bob Duncan on his election as Archbishop and Primate of the Province of North America. We pledge him and the members of the new Province our support and our prayers for the future. We call on all Anglicans around the world to join with us in these prayers and in congratulating the churches of North America for taking this bold but necessary step.

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever! (Rev.   5:13)

Mark D Thompson, President
Robert Tong, Chairman
On behalf of the Council of the Anglican Church League
3 December 2008 

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8a.

 

New American Province looms: CEN 12.05.08 p 1. December 4, 2008

The Third Province movement in North America will be the topic of a special meeting at Lambeth Palace today (Dec 5). The Archbishop of Canterbury is scheduled to meet with the Gafcon primates’ council and will be briefed on plans to form a province for traditionalist Anglicans in the United States and Canada.

On Nov 11, Kenyan Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi told The Church of England Newspaper that a meeting had been tentatively set with Dr. Rowan Williams in London for Dec 5. He said the timeline under which the Gafcon primates were working was that on Dec 3 the leaders of the Common Cause Partnership would gather in Wheaton, Illinois to endorse a draft constitution for the emerging province.

The Gafcon archbishops: Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, [Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda] Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, Valentino Mokiwa of Tanzania, Henry Orombi of Uganda, Justice Akrofi of West Africa would then meet on Dec 4 in London to receive and endorse the agreement and bring it to Dr. Williams the following day.

Speaking to the congregation of Truro Parish in Fairfax, Virginia on Nov 30, Bishop Martyn Minns publicly confirmed the proposed timeline adding that the Gafcon primates were also planning on briefing the primates standing committee the day before the start of the Jan 31-Feb 6 Alexandria Primates meeting-however, US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will likely miss the pre-conference session as she is scheduled to attend the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council meeting from Jan 29-31.

A Lambeth Palace spokespersontold CEN that Dr Williams would meet Archbishops Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone and Henry Orombi of Uganda at the Old Palace in Canterbury today. The meeting had been set “at their request” the spokesperson said. However, she declined to describe the proposed agenda.

A senior member of the Gafcon leadership team said it would be a mistake to assume they were waiting upon Dr. Williams’ word before work began on the Third Province. He told CEN the Gafcon primates would not adopt a confrontational approach over the Third Province and would be happy for Dr. Williams to sign on to the plan. However, he noted that under the existing legal structures of the Anglican Communion, Dr. Williams’ endorsement was not a prerequisite for their creation of the new Common Cause province in North America.

Membership in the Anglican Consultative Council determines membership in the Anglican Communion. Article 3 of the Constitution of the Anglican Consultative Council vests the authority to make members with the primates: “With the assent of two-thirds of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, the council may alter or add to the schedule” of members.

While it is technically possible for a vote on a third province to come before the primates’ meeting in Alexandria, and then be forwarded to ACC-14 in May for action, it is unlikely as the necessary constitutional work in forming a CCP-based North American province will not be completed.

Final approval within North America could take up to two years as the synods of the four breakaway Episcopal dioceses: San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy and Fort Worth will have to endorse the constitution over two meetings of their convention, while the Reformed Episcopal Church, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, and the Kenyan and Uganda overseen churches in North America and other CCP members must ratify the constitution and amend their own governing documents so as to bring its terms into force.

Should the primates agree to the creation of a Third Province at their 2011 meeting, the matter would be brought before ACC-15 in 2012. While special meetings of the ACC and the primates can be called on the initiative of their standing committees, no such meeting has ever been called, and the current political climate within the Anglican Communion does not favor expedited action.

The status of the members of the Third Province within the Anglican Communion during the interval between Dec 3, 2008 and final approval by the ACC, would likely be under dispute. However, under custom established in the case of the Church of South India and existing church canons the status of the individual churches would be determined by its relationship to one of the existing primates of the Anglican Communion. The four breakaway US dioceses, the Anglican Network in Canada, and the African-overseen parishes and jurisdictions would continue in their present form as de facto members of the Communion—while ecclesial entities such as the Reformed Episcopal Church would be outside the Communion.

While in the 20th century, many came to assume that Anglicanism was cotemporaneous with the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the governing constitutions and canons of a number of provinces affect their link to the Communion through fealty to the Book of Common Prayer, or to shared doctrine. The “muddiness” of Anglicanism ecclesiastical structures, the Gafcon senior source tells the CEN, prevents decisive or speedy action in resolving the disputes.

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8b.

 

Legal framework set for new Third Province in North America 

Thursday, 4th December 2008. 11:10am

 

By: George Conger.

 

Leaders of the Third Province movement sidestepped the contentious issue of women clergy last night, and have endorsed a provisional constitution and canons governing the emerging Third Province in the Americas.

 

 

 

“God did a great work today,” Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan told supporters at a church service in Wheaton, Illinois at the end of the Dec 1-3 gathering, as the disparate members of the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) of Anglican traditionalists in the US and Canada “came together with the proposed draft of the constitution and canons” and after discussing each proviso, “adopted unanimously” each article of the code.

This was “staggering considering who was around the table” said Bishop Duncan — the moderator of CCP and now the interim primate and archbishop of the provisional province.

Comprised of approximately 700 congregations with an average Sunday attendance of 100,000, the newly created Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) boasts Anglo-Catholics, Evangelicals, Charismatics, and a variety of traditionalists at odds with the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada.

Its members include the four breakaway dioceses of Pittsburgh, San Joaquin, Quincy and Fort Worth and the Anglican diaspora of the last 125 years: evangelical groups that seceded within the past eight years, Anglo-Catholic groups that left following changes to the Book of Common Prayer and the introduction of the ordination of women in the 1970’s, and the Reformed Episcopal Church --- an independent Evangelical Anglican church that seceded in the 1870s in protest to the high church movement then controlling the Episcopal Church.

While the document must be ratified by the individual governing bodies comprising ACNA to give it de jure effect, it had already received de facto authority from its members. “We are not operating under it,” he said. The CCP leadership council is “now the provincial executive committee,” and “I am archbishop and primate-designate.”

The “seven primates meeting in Jerusalem [at Gafcon] asked us to prepare this “document, he said, and “I have fair reason to believe they will recognize it.” The Gafcon primates meet in London on Dec 4 to receive the ACNA documents, and are expected to give it their endorsement. Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda, Peter Akinola of Nigeria, Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone, Henry Orombi of Uganda and Benjamin Nzimbi are scheduled to meet in in Canterbury on Friday, a spokesman for Lambeth Palace told ReligiousIntelligence.com, and will present the documents to Dr. Rowan Williams.

Bishop Duncan was optimistic the new province would be incardinated as the 39th province of the Anglican Communion. “I have to believe,” he said, “the system will have to recognize the province before too many years pass.”

The “majority of Anglicans will recognize us” within a short time, he noted, and added that the ACNA would be recognized as a valid ecclesial body by other members of the Catholic faith as what ACNA stands for “looks like the Christian faith” and its apostolic witness would be recognizable to all.

A spokesman for US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori declined to speculate on the ramifications of the Dec 3 rollout of the ACNA constitution. However, the Rev Canon Charles Robertson said he wanted it “to be clear that The Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada and the La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, comprise the official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America.”

The schism represented by the Wheaton constitution was unnecessary, Dr Robertson said. “There is room within The Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ.”

Dr Robertson told ReligiousIntelligence.com that as a matter of doctrine and church tradition, separation in the face of division was not the apostolic solution. “Paul spoke of the importance of being together ‘in Christ’ to believers who were more apt to form sectarian movements and follow certain leaders while decrying others and even speaking ill of Paul himself.”

He noted that that “consummate Anglican,” Richard Hooker “both proclaimed and modeled a life in Christ that welcomed the diversity of his time, in the face of people who only recently before had been killing one another--literally killing one another--because each believed the other to be a heretic.”

While unable to remain in fellowship with the liberal hierarchy of the US and Canadian churches, the ACNA exhibits strands of churchmanship that have not always been able to work together.

How the bishops worshipped and what they wore at the closing service illustrated the traditional divides. While some bishops crossed themselves and genuflected at points of the creed, other bishops of the ACNA adopted a more protestant approach to the ceremony. The divergence could be seen in the vestments on display --- the Bishops of Fort Worth and Quincy wore scarlet mantelettas — a Roman Catholic vestment worn by a bishop when outside his diocese but suppressed in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, while some bishops wore Anglican choir dress of cassock, rochet, chimere and scarf --- others wore stoles over their choir dress, still others wore a plain white alb and stole --- while Bishop Duncan was dressed in an alb, stole, chasuble and maniple. The provisional constitution took no stand on the issue of the ordination of women, stating “the Province shall make no canon abridging the authority of any member dioceses, clusters or networks (whether regional or affinity-based) and those dioceses banded together as jurisdictions with respect to its practice regarding the ordination of women to the diaconate or presbyterate.”

While ambiguous on the issue of women clergy, the ACNA planted its doctrinal flag squarely within the Book of Common Prayer, stating it received the BCP “as set forth by the Church of England in 1662, together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.”

On June 22, 2009 the ACNA will hold its first provincial synod at St Vincent’s Cathedral in the Diocese of Forth Worth. A spokesman for Bishop Iker noted that at the synod “representatives of each constituency of the new province will gather with the intention of ratifying the constitution and canons that have been introduced today. “

“This new province is the goal for which we have worked and prayed so long,” Forth Worth said. “It is an exciting time in the church, and we anticipate that its birth will set the stage for future ministry and growth in our diocese” and for the Anglican way across North America. 

 

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8c.

 

 

Analysis: Recognition of Third Province Likely to Take Years

Posted on: November 26, 2008

The members of the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and the college of primates are meeting in London this week in preparation for ACC-14, the triennial meeting of the ACC’s delegates scheduled for May in Jamaica.

 

Organizers of the gathering told a reporter that the “agenda is largely preparing for ACC-14 next year, and trying to build on the lessons learned from Lambeth.” The JSC is reviewing the ACC’s finances, communications and staffing needs; receiving an update on the work of the Faith and Order Commission proposed by the Windsor Continuation Group at the Lambeth Conference; and learning details of the meeting of the Anglican Covenant Design Group in Singapore in September.

 

The JSC meeting comes shortly after Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh announced that leaders of the Common Cause Partnership (CCP) will meet Dec. 3 in Wheaton, Ill., to endorse a draft constitution to govern the loose coalition of breakaway dioceses, congregations, and Anglican jurisdictions in the United States.

 

It is technically possible for a vote on a third province to come before the primates’ meeting  in February in Alexandria, Egypt, and then be forwarded to ACC-14. This is unlikely, however, because the necessary constitutional work in forming a CCP-based North American province probably will not be completed. This could take as much as two years because the diocesan conventions of the four breakaway Episcopal dioceses—San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy and Fort Worth—will have to endorse the constitution of the proposed province over two meetings of their conventions. CCP members also will need to ratify the constitution and amend their own governing documents so as to bring its terms into force.

 

It is more likely that the primates would address the creation of a third province at their meeting in 2011. If approved, the matter would be brought before ACC-15 in 2012.

 

While special meetings of the ACC and the primates can be called on the initiative of their standing committees, no such meeting has ever been called. In the current political climate within the Anglican Communion, expedited action is unlikely.

 

Approval of the CCP document outside of North America will likely be faster because the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) primates’ council—including the primates of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, and the Archbishop of Sydney—is scheduled to meet after the Wheaton gathering to vote to receive the constitution.

 

Meetings have been tentatively scheduled between the GAFCON primates and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams before the primates’ meeting in Alexandria to seek his counsel and input into the process. However, Archbishop Williams’ approval is not a prerequisite for creating a new province for the Anglican Communion.

 

Censure Unlikely

Contrary to some reports, the JSC is unlikely to censure The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada for incomplete compliance with the Windsor and Lambeth moratoria, or the Southern Cone for its support for the four breakaway dioceses. The JSC has no authority to take such actions because the membership schedule of the ACC is controlled by the primates. The JSC is free to recommend, but it has no power to act in this area.

 

The meeting of the ACC will likely have all of the provinces of the Anglican Communion represented, as the voluntary withdrawal of the U.S. and Canadian delegations from the ACC ended with Lambeth 2008.

 

The JSC includes, in part, members of the primates’ standing committee elected by regional blocs at the primates’ 2007 meeting. Africa’s delegate, Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, is not attending the meeting because of a prior pastoral commitment. The continent is represented by Archbishop Justice Akrofi of West Africa, the Church of Uganda. The delegate from West Asia, Presiding Bishop Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East, also is unable to attend the meeting due to a prior commitment.

 

(The Rev.) George Conger

 

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 Anglican Leaders Plot to Throw Out Southern Cone - Dioceses Feel Financial Pain

Posted by David Virtue on 2008/11/26 12:10:00 (3027 reads)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org 
11/26/2008

There seems to be no end to the outrage by liberals in the Anglican Communion.

Not content with making life a living hell for orthodox Episcopalians by sanctifying inclusivity as dogma, and then declaring that it is not necessary to say that Jesus is THE way the truth and the life, we now have a new twist on international liberal Anglican hegemony.

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent of "The Times" reports that a conservative province in the Anglican Communion faces "punishment" for offering a safe haven to conservatives. "Senior bishops and laity meeting in London are to consider suspending the Anglican Church in South America for taking rebel US dioceses under its wing. The move will bring the Anglican Communion closer to a formal split. Early next month, rebel conservatives are expected to finalize plans for a new Anglican province in the US, to sit as a parallel jurisdiction alongside the existing Episcopal Church."

Unless this new province is recognized as part of the Anglican family by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the other 38 primates, it will in effect become a new Anglican church, she writes. Will it?

Near the end of the story, she reveals who is behind this. It is none other the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) whose manipulative liberalism is well established. 

Writes Gledhill, "In a further indication that the liberals are winning the Anglican wars, The Episcopal Church of the US, which was suspended at a previous meeting, is expected to be welcomed back into the fold after sticking by its pledge not to consecrate any more gay bishops."

Now that is only partially true. They haven't done so to date. Furthermore TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is on record as saying that if a non-celibate homosexual candidate presented himself or herself for consecration, she would not hold back. So this is just a game of semantics.

The hypocrisy of this should be noted if Archbishop Venables and his province are tossed out or disciplined in any way by the ACC or the Primates in the Anglican Communion.

All along, the liberals have claimed there is no way in the Anglican system to suspend or expel a province from the Anglican Communion. That's when some wanted TEC necks on the chopping block. Now, lo and behold, it turns out we can suspend a province, after all. Oivey.

The hypocrisy and lies never end. If Rowan Williams doesn't see through this, he should resign.

Archbishop Venables, has aroused the fury of liberal primates for taking four orthodox Episcopal dioceses under his wing, at least till a new North American Anglican province is formed.

"The Church of England has so far resisted being split by the controversy. At a recent meeting of evangelicals in London, delegates refused to vote for a motion backing a declaration by the Global Anglican Future Conference, the conservative "alternative" to the Lambeth Conference that met in Jerusalem last summer," wrote Gledhill.

"The penalty being considered against the Southern Cone, which has 22,000 members in Argentina and surrounding nations, includes the removal of voting rights at the forthcoming meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, the central governing body of the Anglican Communion, in Jamaica next May."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Bishop Jefferts Schori are among those who will be debating action against the Southern Cone at this week's meeting of the joint standing committee of the Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council, chaired by the Rt. Rev. John Paterson of New Zealand.

Significantly, the two conservative Archbishops on the committee, the Most Rev Henry Orombi of Uganda and the Most Rev Mouneer Anis of Egypt and the Middle East, have decided not to attend.

 

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