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1) cqod@lists.gospelcom.net Christian Quotation of the Day August 28, 2004
If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. ... St. Augustine (354-430) 2a) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1235 http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=b84a3ac6-13e7-4967-a818-e642f0c1d554 (Vancouver Sun) http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=fd0d5166-4806-426f-81db-e0f639f6cffb (National Post, August 28th 2004) Breakaway Anglicans won't vacate churches Bishop trying to evict two parishes that left church over blessings of same-sex unions By Douglas Todd, Sun Religion Reporter VANCOUVER: Two B.C. priests at breakaway Anglican parishes are defying their former bishop's request to vacate their church properties, which are together worth more than $1.2 million. The two Vancouver-area conservative priests - who recently left the Anglican Church of Canada because they vehemently oppose same-sex blessings - say their congregations have no intention of saying goodbye to the buildings in which they have worshipped for years. "We own the premises and we're carrying on as usual," said Rev. Ed Hird of the North Vancouver parish of St. Simon's which has about 200 members (note: actually 360 members, 165 average Sunday attendance). "We're not going to leave," said Rev. Barclay Mayo of the newly renamed Christ the Redeemer Church in Pender Harbour. It has about 120 members. Both priests say their lawyer, a prominent evangelical Christian named Bob Kuhn, believes the conservative parish members have legal title to the properties and predicts they would win their cases in court. Hird and Mayo said they will leave their long-time church buildings only if forced out by legal means. "Of course, we'd follow the law," Hird says. A spokesman for the Vancouver-area diocese of New Westminster said he hopes the dispute with the two parishes doesn't have to end up in court. He criticized the protesting clergy for being 'confrontational'. "I think it's unfortunate. It's not of our choosing," Chancellor George Cadman said in an interview. Although Cadman 'respects' the parishes' decision to opt out of the Canadian Church and operate under the authority of an Anglican Archbishop in Rwanda, he said there is no legal precedent for the congregations to take control of church property since they were asked in July by the diocese to find somewhere else to worship. The two activist priests are more than a dozen in southwestern BC who have grown furious over the past few years as Vancouver-area Bishop Michael Ingham and a majority of members in his diocese began favouring rites to bless committed homosexual relationships. Cadman, legal advisor to Ingham, says he has not seen a single case in North America in the past five years in which a congregation that has broken away from the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or Episcopal churches has been able to take its property with it. Mayo and Hird were among at least four BC priests who recently joined their congregations in leaving the Anglican Church of Canada, whose governing body, at the urging of Ingham and others, passed a controversial motion in June "affirming the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships." On Thursday, Mayo condemned the national church as 'apostate'. He said in an interview he and like-minded Anglicans are tired of "suffering under the oppression it's foisted on us." Hird said he believes conservative activists in BC will gain international backing for their cause from two major events scheduled in the next month. More than 700 conservative Christian activists are gathering Tuesday in Ottawa for a conference called Anglican Essentials, where delegates will try to sway Canada's bishops to censure Ingham. And next month, a top prelate in the 70-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, Irish Archbishop Robin Eames, will release a report on how to hold together a church that threatens to break apart over the issue of homosexual rights. Hird hopes Eames' panel, called the Lambeth Commission, will lead to Ingham either 'repenting' his support for same-sex blessings or being disciplined by the international Anglican Communion.
2b) http://www.anglicanmissioninamerica.org/ But some have responded with positive moves, forming congregations under a temporary plan supported by five Anglican Archbishops from the Global South. One such congregation is St. Timothy's, in N. Vancouver. They are proclaiming the Gospel and going forward.
3a) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1228 Reading through his letter of ecclesiastical outrage, one gets the usual carrot and stick approach to fleeing clergy that one is all too familiar with in these instances. If you come back all will be well, we still love you, please come home and the temporary inhibitions will be lifted against you. If you don't, we will not be waging reconciliation and graceful conversation is over and we will toss you into ecclesiastical outer darkness, and use the canons to wrest your properties from you. Long experience has taught this writer that the latter always prevails(...)
3b) http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040827-110035-8939r.htm
3c) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-episcopal28aug28,1,5852382.story The parishes were also given five days to deliver financial statements, copies of all bank accounts and investment portfolios, and their registers of members. Over the last two weeks, the three conservative parishes - All Saints in Long Beach, St. James in Newport Beach and St. David's in North Hollywood - declared that they had pulled out of the national Episcopal Church and no longer considered Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno their leader. The parishes placed themselves under the jurisdiction of an Anglican diocese in Uganda run by a conservative bishop who agrees with their more orthodox biblical interpretations and views on homosexuality. On Friday, in hand-delivered letters to the three parishes, Los Angeles diocesan attorney John R. Shiner of Morrison & Foerster said the congregations were in violation of church canons and California civil law and could face a lawsuit. Church buildings and all property were "irrevocably dedicated to the church and the diocese under the jurisdiction of the bishop," according to the statement. The letter sought to prohibit the secessionist parishes from using not only the church buildings but also the hymnals and the Book of Common Prayer, which is central to Episcopal and Anglican worship. Father Praveen Bunyan, rector of St. James, called the ultimatum by the diocese unfortunate. "We're just worshiping in our own property," he said. "We're doing what is legally our right. We will continue to have worship services here. We have peace about it." Bunyan said parish attorneys would review the letter over the weekend before any further comment. The Rev. William Thompson, rector at All Saints, issued a similar statement. Leaders of St. David's could not be reached, but they had previously said that they held title to the property and were confident they would win in any possible legal tussle. In the last week, the parishes said they had amended their articles of incorporation to delete all references to the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church, which is the American arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion(...)
3d) http://www.anglicanmedia.com.au/news/index.php NEWPORT BEACH - When Praveen Bunyan speaks, the words ring loud and clear. They still bear a trace of an East Indian accent, as the 42-year-old pastor of St. James Church on Via Lido was born and raised in India and lived there most of his life. But it's easy to understand what he says, because he seems to stand by and believe in every word that comes out of his mouth. Bunyan spearheaded his church's recent struggle against the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. St. James, All Saints' Church in Long Beach and most recently St. David's in North Hollywood, seceded from the diocese last week announcing that they are now under the Diocese of Luwero in Uganda, Africa. In a way, Bunyan believes he was destined to come to Newport Beach. "I didn't want to be in the middle of all this," he said. "But it just happened that way." The issue was one of "self-identity" and was crucial to him and his church members, Bunyan said. "We don't want to be part of a church that questions the divinity of Jesus Christ and is not so sure about the validity of the scriptures," he said. "If we deny the basic tenets of Christianity, why do we even call ourselves a church?" Bunyan has maintained that his church did not break away from the Episcopal Church because of the issue of homosexuality, but he said he is personally opposed to the ordination of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as the bishop of New Hampshire. "I'm not saying leaders should be perfect," he said. "I'm no saint myself. But a bishop or a minister should be someone who is above all reprove." Bunyan's church, however, welcomes everyone, he said - heterosexual or homosexual. "But we don't marry gay couples in our church because it's against the scripture," he said. "A Christian marriage is between a man and a woman." All other individuals must live a life of celibacy or "holy singleness" according to the Bible, but Bunyan says he is aware of how practical or impractical that may be in society today. "There are people who veer off the path," he said. "In our church, we have gay people who go off that path and succumb to temptation, just as we have heterosexual people who do that. But do we throw them out of church for that? No. We pray together." The church also has special ministries for gay and lesbian people and for those infected with HIV, Bunyan said. "The gay issue is not why we disassociated ourselves from the Episcopal Church," he said. "It may appear that way because of our beliefs, but it's not the real reason." St. James is still part of the Anglican Communion comprising 77 million people. The 2.5-million strong Episcopal Church of the United States is also part of the Anglican Communion. St. James has seceded from a small part of the Anglican Communion, Bunyan said. "The Episcopal Church has been receiving stern warnings from the Anglican Communion about the path they have been taking," he said. The Episcopal Church, in an attempt to adapt to a changing culture, has lost its identity, Bunyan said. "This obsession with fitting in has led them down a different path," he said. "All we can do is pray for that church and its leaders." Bunyan's journey into the life he now leads was tumultuous. Born into a family of Christian ministers, he told himself as a young man that he would never take that path. Bunyan's resolutions were usually set in stone. "But this one, God overruled," he said. Bunyan's great-grandfather was the first convert in the family who later in life became a minister in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. His grandfather was ordained the first bishop of the Anglican Church of South India. His parents taught theology at the Hindustan Bible Institute in Chennai, a city in the southeastern coast of India. That's where Bunyan went to school and college. Although he grew up with his parents teaching at a seminary, Bunyan had very little regard for the church, he said. "I was more into being popular in school and college," Bunyan said. He played sports, but he also developed a drinking habit and became addicted to drugs. "I was going astray and wanted to be popular," he said. "I was throwing muck on the face of the church and ridiculing God." But Bunyan had his turning point when he was about 20. He was looking for something in his dresser drawer when a needle he used for shooting drugs pricked his finger. "A drop of blood fell from my finger to a Bible that I kept in my drawer," he said. "I dusted the old, brown Bible and opened it." His hands took him straight to the Book of Phillipians, Chapter 2. "I asked myself, why?" Bunyan said. "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" And just then, he said, he felt the presence of Jesus Christ in his room. "I heard Him tell me: "Praveen, I died for you,'" Bunyan said. "And that's when I said, 'If you died for me, I want to live for you.'" To this day, the pastor believes that moment turned his life around. He threw his drugs and needles out the window and into the Cooum river that traversed his neighborhood. He pursued a master's degree in public administration and political science. But even then, he was fighting his destiny. The turning point came when his parents went to do missionary work in a village in interior Andhra Pradesh. "They successfully converted one family," Bunyan said. "But I wondered who would continue the work and teach them more. My parents said they didn't know, but God would send someone." Bunyan took it upon himself to be that someone. For 15 months, he lived under a tree in that village breathing its dry air, with only a backpack and no tent or shelter over his head. "I'd eat berries or fruits," he said. "Sometimes, people would bring me food." As he learned to plow the soil with the farmers, he talked to them about Jesus. While he was there, Bunyan had helped set up 12 churches in that village and neighboring villages. His parents encouraged him to attend a seminary in Pune, India, where he met and married Grace Veena Samson. Together, they worked in India as ministers and then moved to the United States in 1993 to pursue higher studies in theology. Bunyan spent most of his years in this country as a minister for a church in Colorado. "As a pastor, he was very engaging," said Bob Williams, a parishioner and a Denver real estate agent who helped the pastor find a home in the area and who later became one of his best friends. "People were instantly attracted by his warmth, spontaneity and clarity." Bunyan was not one to try to please everyone, Williams said. "I suspect the decision he made with his church was agonizing for him," Williams said. "But it's important for people to do what they believe they have to do. The core of Praveen's being is in his faith, his family and his church." St. James Church offered Bunyan the job in January 2003. The decision to appoint Bunyan was unanimous, said Jim Dale, president of the church's board of directors. "We found him to have a heart for scripture," he said. "He's a great leader, with strong pastoral skills, and above all, we felt we were in the presence of an incredibly godly man." Bunyan is also a people person, Dale said. "He loves to be around people," he said. "His family serves as a role model to show people what a family is about." The church definitely did not call Bunyan in to lead them out of the Episcopal Church, Dale said. "But he has handled the situation wonderfully," he said. "He has a pastor's heart and understands that there may be people hurting. He communicates openly with all our members." Bunyan understands that this could end up being a legal battle, with the Bishop of Los Angeles refusing to release the churches to the African diocese. An African archbishop responded to the bishop saying that the clergy and churches now came under the Diocese of Luwero. "We were happy to receive that support from the archbishop," Bunyan said. "This church belongs to us. It's our home, and this is where we intend to be." o DEEPA BHARATH is the enterprise and general assignment reporter. She may be reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.
3e) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/pilot/news/la-dpt-church28aug28,1,6029567.story The three churches - St. James in Newport Beach, All Saints' in Long Beach and St. David's of North Hollywood - announced their secession from the Episcopal Church of the United States on Aug. 17 and placed themselves under the Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican Province of Uganda, Africa. St. James Church broke away because of the Episcopal Church's refusal to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and its refusal to accept the supremacy of the scriptures, Pastor Praveen Bunyan said. The churches also oppose the Episcopal Church's liberal view on homosexuality and its appointment of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as the Bishop of New Hampshire. The letter, sent by attorneys on behalf of Bishop J. Jon Bruno, states that the churches have defied the bishop's authority by continuing to hold worship services and conducting business under the aegis of the Diocese of Luwero. Attorneys say the churches have violated both state and canonical law by continuing to operate on property that rightfully belongs to the diocese. The letter also demands that St. James and the other two churches "immediately surrender control of the parish corporation and parish property to the Bishop and those congregants who have elected to remain as faithful members of the church." Another option, according to the letter, is for the churches to abide by a list of rules and conditions laid out by the diocese. That list includes holding no more services, conducting no more business and using no more printed materials such as the Book of Common Prayer. Additionally, each church must provide a current financial statement along with copies of all bank account and investment statements and other financial records, attorneys say. Bunyan said he is still "digesting" the contents of the letter. "I'm not surprised by it, though," he said. "They're trying to do what they believe is right. And we'll continue to do what we believe in." The church and the surrounding property on Via Lido is and has always been held by St. James, a nonprofit corporation formed in 1949, he said. "They can say what they want to say," Bunyan said. "We have the deeds and the documents to prove it." It will be business as usual at the church, he said. "Our services will go on as always on Sunday," Bunyan said. "We will be responding to this letter through our attorneys."(...)
3f) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1230
3g) http://dfms.org/3577_49704_ENG_HTM.htm?menu=undefined Bruno called for "unconditional love" to be extended to a group said to number 1,700 people -- from All Saints, Long Beach; St. James, Newport Beach; and St. David's, North Hollywood -- who have in the past two weeks voted to disavow the Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican Diocese of Luweero, Uganda. The parishes are among the 147 congregations of the six-county Diocese of Los Angeles, where overall membership is estimated at about 85,000. The bishop said he hoped for reconciliation before a Monday-morning deadline that calls on departing clergy, wardens and vestry members to respond to letters hand-delivered to them August 27 from diocesan attorney John R. Shiner of the Los Angeles offices of the law firm Morrison & Foerster. The letters call on each congregation to adopt one of two courses of action: either "immediately surrender control of the Parish corporation and Parish property to the Bishop and those congregants who have elected to remain as faithful members of the Church" -- or affirm an alternate nine-point plan of action to "preserve the status quo of the Parish, its loyal congregants, and the Parish's real and personal property until the matter is either resolved by the Church or by a court of competent jurisdiction." The latter requirements stipulate that the breakaway groups not conduct worship services or other activities on site without written permission of the bishop. The requirements also proscribe the use of any printed materials of the church, including the Book of Common Prayer, and calls on each parish to provide the attorney within five days a current financial statement and a copy of the parish register. Clergy familiar with such proceedings tell the Episcopal News Service that the letters reflect a widely held view that "parishes do not leave the Episcopal Church; individuals do." In an August 27 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Newport Beach rector Praveen Bunyan called the letter unfortunate. "We're just worshipping in our own property," he told the Times. "We're doing what is legally our right. We will continue to have worship services here. We have peace about it."(...)
3h) http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2368039,00.html The Rev. Jose Poch said his congregation remains opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of a gay bishop. "We are a biblically orthodox congregation. The Gospel is preached here faithfully," Poch said Sunday, after leading services for more than 60 congregants. "The courts will decide whose building this is, but we have decided whose church we are." Poch, 51, declared last week that St. David's at 11605 Magnolia Blvd. was breaking with the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles. He said the deeds to the church building, the parish hall and the rector's house are in the name of St. David's Church. But a legal fight with the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles could result from the split and the ownership of the buildings, Poch said(...)
3i) http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/9529811.htm The parishes were also given five days to deliver financial statements, copies of all bank accounts and investment portfolios, and their registers of members(...) The Rev. Praveen Bunyan, rector of St. James, called the ultimatum unfortunate. "We're just worshiping in our own property," he said. "We're doing what is legally our right. We will continue to have worship services here. We have peace about it."(...)
4) www.anglican.tk/gs04/farrow.pdf
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