The Anglican Gathering with Edith Humphrey - some thoughts
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Thank you all gratefully for your prayers for the Gathering last Friday
night:
1. That all the arrangements for it would go
smoothly - and that the plan
to make an audio recording of the
talk would go without hitches.
2. That as many as possible would attend.
3. That Edith would be in great form and that
she would be truly anointed
by the Holy Spirit.
4. That the Gathering would wonderfully serve
I am happy to be able to tell you that although I cannot answer for #4, as far as I could tell all the others were wonderfully answered, except for the matter of the audio recording. I think that the Holy Spirit must have been responsible for the little niggle in my mind about that, which was what made me add the special prayer for it at the last minute. It did not work out, but we hope to be able to let you have written texts from each of the speakers shortly. I will be in touch with you about that as soon as I know. The enemy may have been behind the failure, but I am sure that it was the Lord who made the alternative arrangement, which will doubtless serve His purpose better.
Now we have the happy task of thanking our loving heavenly Father for the gracious way in which He responded to our requests.
One of the nice things was that some of the people who came filled in our little contact slips, asking how they could support the Anglican Gathering, so I am hoping that we may get some additional pray-ers as a result.
A brief account of Friday evening follows this e-mail for those of us who were not able to be present. And I am also giving some introductory explanations about AGO etc. for new members of our e-group. Those who don't need such info, can just ignore what follows.
Lovingly,
Patricia.
Patricia Birkett
Prayer Co-ordinator
Anglican Gathering of Ottaw
INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION
The Anglican Gathering of Ottawa (AGO) (www.anglicangathering.ca)
The Anglican Gathering of Ottawa is a growing collection of Anglicans from across the Diocese of Ottawa who seek to continue to follow the traditional teaching and beliefs of the Anglican Church.
Our desire is to bring glory and honour to God in both our public and personal lives by faithfulness to our biblical and Anglican tradition and steadfastness at a time when an increasingly liberal agenda (as reflected in the 2004 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada) threatens the future of our church and the entire global Anglican Communion.
AGO, which was formed last year, was the child of the Elmhurst Group.
The Elmhurst Group
The Elmhurst Group is a group of traditionally orthodox Anglican clergy in the Diocese of Ottawa, which was formed some years ago for fellowship and mutual support. These clergy were naturally very concerned when the subject of blessing same-sex partnerships was brought up at our Diocesan Synod of 2002. Shortly after that, they gathered a group of equally concerned lay people and formed the Elmhurst Committee on Human Sexuality to study the subject and consider how they could encourage the Diocese to uphold a faithful witness to the Biblical model of human sexuality.
The Elmhurst Committee on Human Sexuality (ECHS) (www.elmhurstcommittee.com)
One of the first actions taken by the ECHS in September 2003 was the formation of this e-mail prayer support group. It also set up a website, prepared literature for distribution at the 2004 Diocesan Synod, etc.
As it studied the subject of S-SB, the ECHS quickly found that the blessing of homosexual unions (that is, accepting that they could be declared holy and pleasing to God) would have huge and entirely unacceptable implications for Christianity. Since such acceptance would only be possible if the Church rejected the governing authority of the Bible, it would not be a minor pastoral change as its proponents argue. Acceptance would involve such a radical change in the foundational understanding of Christianity that its eventual destruction would be inevitable. Christians have always understood that Christianity is not just another of the many religions devised by human beings, but a faith in response to the revelation from God Himself, which is recorded in the Bible. That was the teaching of Judaism, of Christ Himself, and of the apostles. If the Bible is rejected, then Christianity ceases to be an infallible, unchangeable, divinely revealed faith and becomes just another fallible, changeable, human religion. When it is not governed by the authority of the Bible, but by human reason and experience, it will inevitably be subject to constantly changing human ideas that will eventually make it unrecognizable as "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3).
It became clear that the demand for S-SB was just one symptom of a far larger problem within the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. (ECUSA), and Anglicanism in general in the affluent West. These developed western nations are all rapidly departing from their Christian roots and most of the churches in them are following the secular society into the abandonment or radical revision of the Bible, and the abandonment or radical modification of the apostolic teaching. When our General Synod in 2004 declared the sanctity (that is, holiness) of committed adult homosexual unions, it became clear that the ACC, like ECUSA, had abandoned the authority of the Bible and thereby separated itself both from its historic roots and from the vast majority of Anglicans and other Christians in the world today.
Therefore, as a major split in the Anglican Communion began to seem inevitable, it appeared that the best thing to do was to form an organization that traditionally orthodox Anglicans in this diocese could look to for leadership if that tragic situation actually occurred. Of course, no one on board a liner ever wants to have to use a lifeboat, but everyone feels better if lifeboats are available in case of need, so AGO was formed last year to be a "lifeboat" in case the orthodox Anglicans in this diocese should ever need one, though of course we are praying hard that our diocese will remain faithful to Christ and that a "lifeboat" will never be needed. The old ECHS was subsumed in the new AGO and our ECHS Prayer Support Group has now become the AGO Prayer Support Group.
AGO is an Ottawa organization, but as the crisis in the global Anglican Communion has continued to develop, similar "lifeboats" are being built all over Canada. Working in isolation, though, is obviously not ideal. All the separate little groups needed to be linked nationally. The only traditionally orthodox national organization that they could all look to for co-ordination was Essentials Canada. As it happened, AGO had an easy link with Essentials, because the Reverend George Sinclair, Rector of St. Alban's in Ottawa, who is the Chair of Essentials, is also one of the Elmhurst Group. So while AGO is not structurally part of Essentials, it is quite closely associated with it.
Essentials (www.anglicanessentials.org)
Essentials was formed in 1994 by three already existing traditionally orthodox Anglican groups: Anglican Renewal Ministries, Barnabas Ministries, and the Prayer Book Society. Its purpose was to be the theological and spiritual rallying point for historic Christian orthodoxy in the Anglican Church of Canada. Its mission was to call the Anglican Church of Canada to embrace and live by its orthodox Christian heritage under the renewing guidance of he Holy Spirit. At its first national conference in Montreal in June 1994, Essentials adopted a "declaration of Anglican essentials" as the theological basis of those who take part in the Essentials movement. This foundational document has come to be known as The Montreal Declaration (www.anglicanessentials.org/montreal.htm).
Following the divisive General Synod of 2004, Essentials held its "The Way Forward" national conference in Ottawa in the fall of 2004. In the face of what seemed an increasingly bleak future for traditionally orthodox Anglicanism in Canada, Essentials began to prepare to meet whatever that future might in fact hold. It decided to create two new branches of Essentials, initially known as the Federation and the Network. The original Essentials is currently being subsumed in the Federation. The purpose of Essentials in its new Federation incarnation is to help historically orthodox Anglicans in Canada to co-ordinate their efforts to recover the foundational principles of Anglicanism in Canada and work for their reinstatement in the life of the Anglican Church of Canada. The Essentials Network is a smaller body that is a sort of AGO on a national scale, an Essentials "lifeboat" in case one is needed as the crisis in Anglicanism develops. As with AGO, we pray that it will never be needed, but are grateful that preparations are being made in case they ever are.
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE ANGLICAN GATHERING OF 11 FEBRUARY 2005
Attendance
We can give grateful thanks to the Lord that somewhere between 150 and 200 people came, which was very gratifying for the AGO organizers. Something else that was very pleasing was that they came from a wide spectrum of backgrounds. For example, we know that some of the homosexual community came and at least one Lutheran and one Muslim. It is very important that Anglicans (and others) have a real understanding of our present situation, and I think that the presentations were calculated to provide that. While they were, of course, unequivocally made from the traditionally orthodox point of view, they were very factual and not objectionably biased in their approach. One of the people who came asked at the entrance if there was going to be any anti-homosexual ranting as he didn't want to listen to that. I assured him that "gay bashing" was no part of our mandate, and that of course there would be none.
Speakers
1. Reverend George Sinclair
George, as Chair of Essentials, gave a short account of the status and achievements so far of the expanded Anglican Essentials Federation and Network. He said that we are definitely faced with a crisis in Anglicanism and that it is getting worse. He explained the actions taken by Essentials at "The Way Forward" Conference last September (see Introduction above) and reported that although we were probably not yet aware of it, progress was rapidly going forward in the setting up of both the Federation and the Network. He explained that when a business or other large project begins, progress may seem slow at first and dull. People to do the work have to be found and get to know one another (especially when they come from all over a country as huge as Canada), constitutions have to be written, incorporation has to arranged, websites set up, and so on. So although the actual business for which it is established may not at first seem to be progressing, a lot of preliminary work is actually being done to lay the foundations that are necessary for it.
2. Tony Copple (Chair of the Publicity Committee of AGO)
Tony gave a summary (available at http://www.igs.net/-tonyc/ssbrep13.html) of the Windsor Report (available at http://www.anglicancommunion.org/windsor2004).
3. Dr. Edith Humphrey (Associate Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary)
Edith gave an admirably clear account of the Windsor Report and its implications, under the following title and using the following framework:
Whither with the Windsor Report?
Strengths
2. The insightful description of the weaknesses of our ecclesiology
3. The admission of the urgency of the situation
4. The suggestion to strengthen the Primates' power, and classifying of issues.
Weaknesses
1. Little attention to the foundational malady (individualism, "experimentalism")
2. Some historical inaccuracies (how women's ordinations developed, Nicaea and bishops)
3. Concentration on polity rather than principle - equal or lopsided blame
4. Naivity with regards to the situation - sequence, DEPO, dialogue, rhetoric, consequences?
Uncertain Prospects
1. Will the creation of an Advisory Council really help - what about its makeup?
2. No suggestions re how to revise the Anglican Consultative Council
3. Canon law? - no teeth, very Roman, could it be used to emphasize process only?
4. Covenant? Will a written covenant serve us any better than recited creeds?
Edith said at the outset that while homosexual marriage is the presenting issue that has caused the crisis in the worldwide Anglican Communion as well as in the Anglican Church of Canada, it is merely a symptom of a much deeper problem (see Introduction above). Her statement to that effect and the whole subject of her address made that extremely clear. Otherwise, virtually nothing was said about the homosexual issue. The whole address related to the fundamental Anglican problem and the Windsor Report's attempt to address it. In summary, she said that while the Windsor report said some useful things, it was not a document that could "part the Red Sea." She noted that there were inconsistencies and surprising gaps in the Report, which presumably resulted from the fact that it was produced by a panel with strong and profoundly divergent views, and then proceeded to deal systematically with some of the Report's strengths and weaknesses as outlined above.
A random selection of some of the things that struck me particularly in what Edith said were:
1. That if the Anglican Church were to adopt homosexual marriage, and thereby implicitly reject the authority of the Bible, that radical change in its teaching would only be the first of many similar changes (see Introduction above). She mentioned that the next change is already on the horizon - namely the rejection of the unique claim of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, to be the only way to salvation and eternal life. She pointed out that Michael Ingham, the Bishop of New Westminster who has spearheaded the promotion of S-SB in the ACC, has already written a book promoting the view that Jesus Christ is only one of many ways to God and the idea that all religions are of equal value.
2. That when the Shepherds act like wolves, they shouldn't be surprised if the sheep cease to trust them.
3. That North American individualism and insistence on the complete autonomy of their churches is fundamentally at odds with the whole concept of Communion. She noted that the North American churches' way of implementing the change to women's ordination was another example of this individualism and that the Windsor Report's account of it was inaccurate, for while Hong Kong may have consulted the Communion on that innovation, the North American procedure had been messy and divisive in much the same way as its current implementation of changes in its understanding of the Church's historic understanding of homosexual activity.
4. She also pointed out that the Windsor Report's remarks on parallel jurisdictions were historically inaccurate and their appeal to Nicaea an irrelevant fudge. As she remarked, for Anglicans to take such a view is ridiculous, given that they themselves have parallel jurisdictions to those of the Roman Communion. She referred to the reply made to the Report's inaccurate view by the African bishops whose knuckles had been rapped by the Windsor Report.