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Peter Drucker : "....the best indication of future performance is past performance.."
1) http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0409.html
2) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ CaNN News http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/ Anglican Mainstream International
(UK) You will not only enjoy this 9-minute presentation, but you will find it most informative as to the concrete nature of the TAEO offer by the Primates of the Anglican Provinces of the Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Central Africa, and South East Asia. If you are a Canadian Anglican, you will not want to miss out on seriously considering this historic offer. Free DVD copies of the TAEO video on the 5 Anglican Primates' offer are available for the asking.
3a) http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/
3b) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-episcopal31aug31,1,3230930.story Three breakaway Episcopal parishes refused to surrender their churches, hymnals and financial records to the Diocese of Los Angeles on Monday, despite threats of a lawsuit by the Episcopal Church. A lawyer for the parishes said Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno lacked the legal authority to make such a demand. "Your demand that hundreds of families and children immediately cease worshipping God in the buildings they alone have erected and supported defies belief," wrote Eric C. Sohlgren, the secessionist parishes' attorney(...) In a one-page response, Sohlgren wrote that "your clients have no authority or grounds to dictate or interfere with religious worship, instruction, oversight, communications, employment, and property use at these three churches…."(...) 3c) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/pilot/news/la-dpt-church31aug31,1,3408115.story Churches fire back at claims of diocese Lawyer's letter expresses disbelief at demands made by an attorney on behalf of bishop in Los Angeles. Deepa Bharath, Daily Pilot, LA Times, August 31st 2004 NEWPORT BEACH - Three churches, including one on Via Lido, refuse to bow to the authority of an Episcopal bishop from whose diocese they seceded during the last two weeks. St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints' in Long Beach and most recently St. David's in North Hollywood, broke away from the Diocese of Los Angeles, citing the Episcopal Church's liberal views on the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the Bible and homosexuality as reasons(...) Eric Sohlgren, an attorney representing the seceded churches, faxed a letter to the diocese on Monday in reply to a letter from Bishop J. Jon Bruno's attorneys on Friday, demanding that the churches ceased worship and business operations by 10 a.m. on Monday, stop using prayer and hymn books and submit complete financial records going back a year. The bishop also maintains that all churches and surrounding properties belong to the diocese. But St. James pastor Praveen Bunyan and other church administrators say the church and the surrounding land on Via Lido are owned by St. James, a non-profit organization, not the diocese(...) The letter goes on to state emphatically that the three churches no longer believe they are part of the diocese or the Episcopal Church. "[The diocese] has no authority or grounds to dictate or interfere with the religious worship, instruction, oversight, communications, employment and property use at these three churches," the letter says(...) A nonprofit organization has every right to hold property under California real estate law, Newport Beach attorney Michael Lawler said. "Unless St. James entered into some kind of agreement, where they subordinate their interests to the parent church, they have the right to the building and surrounding property," he said.
3d) http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21474~2369504,00.html Eric Sohlgren of Payne and Fears, a firm representing the local churches, wrote that the churches "reject the demands set forth in your letter."(...) The response rejected claims by John Shiner of Morrison and Foerster for the diocese that "all real and personal property of the Parish … is irrevocably dedicated to the (Episcopal) Church and Diocese." The response stated, 'You have not cited a single legal authority supporting your unsubstantiated demands …'(...)
3e) http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/9542520.htm
3f) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1244
3g) http://allafrica.com/stories/200408310201.html
3h) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1240
3i) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ My demand is equivalent to the demand made by Los Angeles Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno's attorneys to those local Episcopal parishes that have broken away from his Los Angeles diocese: to vacate their church buildings, surrender their financial holdings and yield up their worship aids. Bruno is obviously looking back to his roots as he attempts to formulate a response to this breakaway of parishes from a breakaway church. Douglas Campbell, Culver City
4a) http://www.alphacanada.org/
St. John's, NFLD: Churches organized an Alpha tent at the
Community Regatta and handed out 1000 invitations and 500 Alpha flags.
Over 30,000 people attended! Just last week we received confirmation that Alpha invitations will be broadcast on 21 radio stations across the Prairies! New resources: We have a new "Invitation to the Public" for you to use! It's a great article by Rev. Ed Hird entitled "Guess who's coming to dinner?" to which you can add a local interest Alpha picture! Visit our website www.invitethenation.org and click on "How to be involved" (scroll to #6). It's also on the page "Ideas to inspire you" under Local Newspaper Adverts. It is also reproduced below. We also have a bulletin insert for churches to use and/or as a community handout. Click on www.invitethenation.org and then "What's it all about?", then scroll down to "Church Advertising" (there is a sample of the bulletin on the side) and click on "bulletin inserts" . Have you purchased your Initiative 2004 products yet? It's not too late! Contact Cook Communications (www.cook.ca)!
To register your Alpha course: * * * * * * * * * * * * * Alpha National Prayer Initiative Day is on September 16th. The focus of this year's prayer initiative is for God to send revival to Canada! The vision is that thousands of churches across the country will come together in joint prayer meetings for an hour on September 16th. For more information, check out www.invitethenation.org and click on "How to be Involved."
Please contact us or your Regional Director if you have any questions, concerns or prayer requests! (Check the "Contact Us" link on the Alpha
website) We want to support you in every way we can! Many blessings!
- The above is borrowed from www.invitethenation.org/invitation.html, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (adapted from an article by Reverend Ed Hird)
5a) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1236Posted by dvirtue on 2004/8/31 13:02:34 ANGLICAN COMMUNION NETWORK DEAN CALLS FOR ACTION NOW By David W. Virtue in Ottawa OTTAWA, ON-(8/31/2004)--A dean of the U.S. Anglican Communion Network told more than 700 orthodox Canadian Anglicans at the 2004 ESSENTIALS conference that they need to get out of their foxholes and start taking some of the hills in front of them. Referencing the spiritual and moral chaos in the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, the Rev. Bill Murdoch, Dean of the New England Network, said that the time for reflection, analysis and self-criticism is over and overcoming needs to begin (...) (click the link above to read more)
5b) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ More than 700 members of the Essentials movement, an Anglican group that rejects same-sex marriage, are meeting at Ottawa's Bethel Pentecostal Church until tomorrow, primarily because of the national Church's decision in June to affirm "the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships." Rev. George Sinclair, the pastor of Ottawa's St. Alban's parish and chairman of the Essentials Council, has called the decision 'terrible', as well as 'unbiblical and non-Christian'. Delegates to the conference all signed a declaration rejecting the decision by the church's governing general synod and affirming a series of the Essentials movement's principles. Leanne Larmondin, a writer with the national Anglican Journal, and Brian Sarjeant, editor of the Ottawa diocese's monthly newspaper, Crosstalk, were initially told by Rev. Charlie Masters, the national director of Anglican Essentials, that the conference would be closed to media. Later he told them they might be able to attend if they signed the Essentials movement's affirmation of faith and its rejection of same-sex relationships. Larmondin said she pointed out that "it would be repugnant to any right-thinking journalist to sign such a statement. They changed their tune from one call to the next." When Larmondin and Sarjeant both refused to sign any statements, conference organizers decided to ban all media. Doug McKenzie, one of the conference organizers, said there was a misunderstanding, and it was never intended to allow media to cover the conference. "It's a private family meeting. We want to create an environment where people are free to express themselves," he said. The Essentials movement has declared that its "vision is to be the theological and spiritual rallying point for historic Christian orthodoxy in the Anglican Church of Canada."
5c) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ An important conference concludes today in Ottawa which might reconfigure the shape of the Anglican Church in Canada. Though closed to the media, it is no secret that the 700 gathered delegates are asking whether they have a future in a communion which shares less and less in common. The participants in the Anglican "Essentials" conference believe that in choosing to bless homosexual relationships, their Church has abandoned the ancient faith. Canadian Anglicans are wrestling with competing ideas of morality, authority and tradition. The issues engaged are of interest far beyond the Anglican Church. "Essentials" is a movement of Canadian Anglicans whose declared "vision is to be the theological and spiritual rallying point for historic Christian orthodoxy in the Anglican Church of Canada." The members of Essentials believe that the Anglican general synod's decision in June to affirm "the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships" does not square with historic Christian orthodoxy. On this there can be little dispute. Teaching that what was heretofore considered a serious sin is now something holy is a reversal, plain and simple -- something which is conceded even by supporters of the change. Can a Church do that? It depends on how morality is understood. Does the Church teach that something is morally wrong because it is in fact wrong, or is something wrong because the Church says so? Doctrinal innovators would argue the latter, the Essentials group would argue the former. The division goes to the heart of what a Church is. Is it a body of believers who seek to give witness to the truth, or is it a body of like-minded members who organize themselves in pursuit of shared goals? Again, the Essentials group would opt for the former. That position is articulated often by Catholics when faced with demands that the moral teaching on this or that issue be reversed. The Church often responds that it has the authority to teach, but it is does not have the authority to teach whatever it likes. That teaching authority applies, but does not create, the moral law. It is reported that during the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI proposed that the section on the papal office should say that the pope is accountable to no one -- highlighting his supreme governance. That formulation was rejected because while the pope has no earthly superiors, he is in fact accountable to the truth, the scriptures, the Christian tradition and the witness of the saints and martyrs. It is ironic that in the current Anglican disputes, the general synod takes a view of authority that is much farther reaching. The Anglican synod acts as a body which is the master of truth, scripture and tradition, able to reject or amend it as it wishes. The more modest approach to authority advocated by the Essentials group -- or the Catholic Church for that matter -- places today's authority in the context of a tradition which develops over time, but never repudiates itself. Tradition, according to Christian orthodoxy, is not an artificial constraint from the past. Rather it is the wisdom of centuries of saints, received and applied to the new things of today. Tradition is supposed to be a humbling force, checking the temptation to impose recent innovations or contemporary fashions on the faith of the ages. It requires a measure of historical arrogance to assume that late-20th century preoccupations ought to be normative for a tradition that has endured for two millennia. Delegates at the Anglican Essentials conference contend that the Anglican leadership in Canada has placed itself outside of that tradition. The leadership understands itself to have changed the tradition, according to its own authority. Are there limits to how far that tradition can be changed before it will break? The Anglican Church has always cultivated a certain sensibility, rather than defined itself wholly in doctrinal terms. Part of that sensibility has produced the justly celebrated liturgical and biblical texts that have elevated and ennobled the English language. Another part of that sensibility was a willingness to remain in communion with each other, leaving ambiguous points of doctrinal disagreement if necessary. But it is difficult to maintain that communion when parties disagree whether one and the same thing is to be considered sinful or holy. On the question of Anglicanism, I have to admit my bias. While the sundering of England from Rome by Henry VIII was a tragic wounding of the Church to be deeply regretted, Anglicanism went on to become a harbour of fine liturgy, cultural gentility and a certain conviviality.
It is to be lamented that we are in danger of losing that.
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