Friday, February 8, 2008

"Return, O faithless sons, " declares the LORD; "For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding."
                                                                    Jeremiah 3:14-15 NASB

• A Message from Bishop Anderson
• Western Louisiana Bishop Critical of Archbishop Williams' Advent Letter
• US Church will Not Back Down on Innovations
• Title IV Task Force proposes revisions to canons on ecclesiastical discipline
• Archbishop Jensen: "Why I'm Going to Jerusalem"
• Covenant Design Group issues communiqué and draft

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A Message from Bishop Anderson

Beloved in Christ,

Today is a special day in the Anderson home as MaryAnne comes home from the hospital after having total knee replacement surgery. After forty years of my wife waiting on me, it is time to return the blessing and nurse her back to health. In a few weeks we hope she can have surgery on the other knee, so she will be recovered in time for the GAFCON conference/pilgrimage in Jerusalem. Having a goal to work for helps in the recovery process.

Several newsworthy events unfolded this week. One event was a statement  released by the Rt. Rev. James Jones, the English bishop of Liverpool, which places him squarely in the pro-gay advocacy column. Some are surprised, since for years he has alleged that he is orthodox, but to participants in a meeting with him a few years ago at his palace, it was clear that he was already in the other camp but not ready at that point to declare it. Now he has, which is disappointing but not surprising.

Within the USA, all but one of the 19 TEC diocesan bishops resident in Province 4 of The Episcopal Church have signed a letter  chastising Joan Dalrymple, president of the Daughters of the King (DOK), calling for more financial transparency. In fact many feel that the entire issue has to do with whether the DOK has room for Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican members who are not a part of TEC. According to TEC, it seems that the answer is, with a vengeance, NO!, and that is truly disappointing. The average Daughter of the King is a lovely church woman who prays regularly, is involved in ministry, and works both for her Lord and the church. The "inclusive" TEC is clearly not inclusive at all, and powers from 815 down to the usual revisionist bishops have chosen to beat up on the DOK so that we can learn what non-inclusiveness is all about. My prayers are for the DOK members and leaders - you deserved better from your church.  It is pleasing that Bishop Howe refused to sign the document, knowing that it isn't true, but what is surprising is Bishop Ed Salmon's name on the letter. It doesn't seem like Ed Salmon to sign such a document, and I challenge Bishop Alexander to show me where +Ed inked his approval. Perhaps Bishop Salmon could shed light on how his name came to be included?

Other important news about the Covenant is included in this Update, and everyone is waiting for final plans on GAFCON to be announced.

Blessings and Peace in Christ Jesus,
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President & CEO of the AAC
 
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Western Louisiana Bishop Critical of Archbishop Williams' Advent Letter

Source:  The Living Church
Date:  February 8, 2008

The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop of Western Louisiana, has expressed disappointment with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in a letter to his diocese.  Bishop MacPherson also said he will attend the Global Anglican Fellowship conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem this June.

Bishop MacPherson recently wrote his diocese with some reflections on Archbishop Williams' Advent letter to the primates. In his highly anticipated letter, Archbishop Williams declined to sanction The Episcopal Church for failing to provide the unequivocal assurances sought by the primates' in their February 2007 communiqué. Archbishop Williams' letter also offered no substantive alternative means of resolving the conflict within the Anglican Communion over innovations to church teaching on sexuality, a particular point of contention for Bishop McPherson.

"What hasn't been said is when the continued extension of conversations and meetings will come to an end and a definitive decision made, " Bishop MacPherson wrote. "What also has gone unstated is when is The Episcopal Church going to be called to a place of accountability by the wider Anglican Communion, Lambeth 2008?

"Throughout all of this I have stated that we needed to follow the process that would prayerfully lead to resolution. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel before us? I can't answer this specifically, but do know and have shared that in order to remain informed of all that is taking place, and the options that may well come before us, we must remain a part of the conversations."

Bishop MacPherson said he would be attending both GAFCON and Lambeth this summer.

"It is my prayer that through the meeting in June and the Lambeth Conference that we will emerge with a clear sense of what God is calling us to be about in the Diocese of Western Louisiana, " he said. "As to the future, I have said before and repeat here, the diocesan convention of October 2008 will need to provide this direction."

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US Church will Not Back Down on Innovations

Source:  Church of England Newspaper
Date:  Week of February 7, 2008

THE EPISCOPAL Church will not back down from its innovations of doctrine and discipline on the issue of gay clergy, US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in Chicago last week. The US church will defend its practices at this summer's Lambeth Conference, she said, and would not be alone in being in support of gay clergy. "Many more [bishops] than you might expect are sympathetic, " she told parishioners at a suburban Chicago parish. "They are not, however, the loudest voices."

The newly consecrated Bishop of Chicago, the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Lee told members of the cathedral congregation after his enthronement on Feb. 2 that the "baptismal covenant" found in the 1979 US Prayer Book, and not the words of Scripture were the boundaries for church life...

Read the rest of the article by clicking  here.
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Title IV Task Force proposes revisions to canons on ecclesiastical discipline

Source:  Episcopal News Service
Date:  February 7, 2008

Building on work done before and during the 75th General Convention in 2006, a task force has released a second proposed revision of the Episcopal Church's rules on ecclesiastical discipline.
 
The Title IV Task Force II has proposed a complete revision of Title IV, the main clergy-discipline canons...

The current draft revisions contain five major changes from the 2006 proposal, Hutchinson explained...

The new Title IV proposal restores a "little more traditional approach" to the concept of a statute of limitations provision than did the 2006 version, Hutchinson said. It also restores the canon on abandonment of the communion of the church. The 2006 proposal had included abandonment of communion as one of the listed offenses but "people didn't like that approach, " Hutchinson noted.
 
The 2006 proposal's plan to subject certain lay leaders to ecclesiastical discipline was controversial but, Hutchinson said the current task force continues to believe some such mechanism is needed. Thus the members now propose to amend the section of Title I that sets out regulations for the participation of the laity in the life and work of the church.
 
The proposal, Hutchinson said, "would provide a fair mechanism for addressing problems of lay people in leadership positions who are involved with misconduct because right now there is not a canonical process for removing them."
 
"It's not a full-blown sort of trial, " he added...

Read the rest of the article by clicking here.

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Archbishop Jensen: "Why I'm Going to Jerusalem"

Source: Sydney Anglicans
Date:  February 4, 2008

A Global Anglican Future Conference is planned for June 2008. I want those in the fellowship of our Diocese to know what this is about and why I am involved.

In 1998, the Lambeth Conference made it clear that the leaders of the overwhelming majority of Anglicans world-wide maintained the biblical view of sexual ethics - that sexual relationships are reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. Five years later, however, actions were taken in Anglican Churches both in Canada and the United States of America which officially transgressed these boundaries in defiance of the Bible's authority...

Since 2003, patient attempts have been made to call the offending North Americans back to biblical standards. Many American Anglicans are now more aware of the distress which their actions have caused others, and regret this impact. At the same time, however, others have condemned attempts by Global South Bishops to provide ministry for the orthodox Christians who still wish to be Anglican, but cannot continue to do so in the fellowship of the American churches. Individuals, parishes and even dioceses have left the original church, becoming associated with other dioceses in other parts of the world, and with new bishops being appointed from overseas to care for the disaffected.

Such has been the fall-out that it is now clear that we will never go back to being the Communion which we once were...

The next Lambeth Conference has been summoned for July-August 2008. The Archbishop of Canterbury is responsible for the guest list, and he has invited all except for the Bishop of New Hampshire on the one hand and some of the new bishops appointed to care for the dissidents on the other. Thus, for example the Bishop of New Westminster has been invited although his actions have caused the Reverend David Short and his congregation (which includes Dr Jim Packer) to withdraw as far as they can from the Diocese. An invitation to share the Conference under these circumstances has posed a real difficulty for many of us.

Several African Provinces have indicated that they will not be attending Lambeth, because to do so would be to acquiesce with the North American actions. They are not ending the Anglican Communion, or even dividing it. They are simply indicating that the nature of the Communion has now been altered by what has occurred. They see that since the American actions were taken in direct defiance of the previous Lambeth Conference, the Americans have irreparably damaged the standing of the Conference itself. They asked without success for the Conference to be postponed. They do not think that this Conference is what is needed now. To attend would be to overlook the importance of the issues at stake.

The Anglican Future Conference is not designed to take the place of Lambeth. Some people may well choose to go to both. Its aim is to draw Biblical Anglican Christians together for urgent consultation. It is not a consultation which can take place at Lambeth, because Lambeth has a different agenda and far wider guest list.  Unlike Lambeth, the Future Conference is not for Bishops alone - the invitations will go to clergy and lay people also.  It seeks to plan for a future in which Anglican Christians world-wide will increasingly be pressured to depart from the biblical norms of behaviour and belief. It gives an opportunity for many to draw together to strengthen each other over the issue of biblical authority and interpretation and gospel mission.

I am hoping that we will also see Sydney laypersons and clergy in attendance with our bishops. We must look to the future, and network with Anglican Christians from around the globe who share our fundamental trust in the authority of God's word. We have much to learn from them and they can benefit from our fellowship also. I hope that you will pray for the Conference and support our decision to attend.

Read the entire article by clicking here.

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Covenant Design Group issues communiqué and draft

Source:  Anglican Communion News Service
Date:  February 6, 2008

The Covenant Design Group (CDG) held its second meeting at the Anglican Communion Offices, St. Andrew's House, London, UK, between Monday, 28th January, and Saturday, 2nd February, 2008 under the chairmanship of the Most Rev'd Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies.
The main task of the group was to develop a second draft for the Anglican Covenant, as originally proposed in the Windsor Report 2004; an idea adopted by the Primates' Meeting and the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates in their following meetings...

The current draft - known as the St Andrew's Draft - will now be offered for reflection in the Communion at large, and in particular by the Lambeth Conference, which has been convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury to meet in his see City of Canterbury, England, between 16th July and 3rd August of this year. The CDG hopes that bishops will study the present draft in their preparations for the Conference, consulting in their dioceses and sharing their reflections at the Conference...