|
1a) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1292 Exclusives : DRAWING THE LINE - Bishops, Theologians say Commission must Discipline ECUSA Posted by dvirtue on 2004/9/9 11:52:21 May integrity and uprightness protect us, because our hope is in you. Redeem Israel, O God from all their troubles (Psa. 25:21-22). We write as bishops and theologians within the Anglican Communion to the Lambeth Commission to express our thanks for the important work which you are doing on our behalf as you respond to the current crisis within the Communion. We hold you in our prayers as you work to clarify for us the nature of Anglican discipline and make proposals for a way forward which will maintain among us the highest level of communion. Such communion and godly unity is our desire also. Yet we need to express our grave concerns about possible outcomes that might shortly be proposed by the Commission. 1. We write as persons convinced that the only way forward for the continuance of the Communion is for the Primates to exercise some form of discipline upon innovating provinces. The arguments for such a 'restorative' discipline, together with concrete suggestions for the shape of that discipline, have been given in previous submissions. We believe that the arguments in these submissions summarise well the concerns of the vast majority of Anglicans in the Communion, including much of the Two-Thirds World. For the present dispute does not derive from some conflict of local cultures, but is truly about right Christian teaching and common life understood in a 'catholic' sense (that is, throughout the world)(...) 7. The key problem, however, is that those provinces of the Global South that have already declared a state of 'impaired communion' (as well as orthodox Christians and churches in the North) will not wish to be in some ambiguous kind of relationship with ECUSA and Canada. For the sake of their own mission (often in Muslim lands) there needs to be a clear and publicly recognised distinction between the continuing Anglican Communion and those provinces whose witness diverges from the Communion. In some instances this may be because Communion churches do not wish to see their recent church growth compromised by association with unbiblical standards; in others (more soberly) because the very survival of any Anglican presence in their local context depends on this clear severance-it is, too literally, a 'life and death' issue. We urge you to note this key reality 'on the ground'. The provinces of North America must therefore be seen and known to be a quite separate church or denomination. This means that: o They must not be able to use the label 'Anglican' in a way that identifies them as part of the Anglican Communion. o Their relationship with Canterbury (if it is to continue at all) must be of a qualitatively different kind from that which Canterbury will maintain with (what will become) the continuing Communion. They would need to have a clearly 'diminished' status, the details of which would need to be worked out. The major point here is critical: if there is to be no accepted discipline within the Communion, then there must be appropriate distance from the Communion(...)
1b) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1293 Liberals have warned that the Church of England would break into "civil war" if the American Church is disciplined for its consecration of the Anglican Communion's first active homosexual bishop. There could be mass resignations amongst clergy who are sympathetic to the action taken by the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA), according to the Dean of Southwark, the Rt Rev Colin Slee. He said that recommendations from the Eames Commission that propose the exclusion of bishops supportive of Canon Gene Robinson's consecration from future Anglican summits would be devastating for the unity of the Communion Church of England. "There would be outrage," Dean Slee commented. "I think a lot of clergy would consider resigning. This would be interference with the proper processes of an independent province, forced on them by other provinces who have no jurisdiction there." A delegation of bishops flew in from America to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, as it appeared that the Eames Commission, meeting this week, was moving towards taking action against ECUSA. Under the likely resolution, the American Primate, the Most Rev Frank Griswold, would be barred from attending future Primates' Meetings as he presided at Canon Robinson's consecration. It would be a major blow to Bishop Griswold, who is already furious at the interference in his province of Ugandan bishops, who are providing oversight to conservative parishes in Los Angeles that have broken with their bishop. Primates from the Global South have called for ECUSA to be expelled from the Communion, but they would welcome recommendations that exclude bishops supportive of Canon Robinson's consecration until they repent of their action. The Most Rev Greg Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone (South America), said: "It's now beyond doubt that the majority of Anglicans worldwide aren't in agreement with what has happened in America and Canada. The commission will have to reflect that reality or there is little hope for the future of the Communion." However, the Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Chair of the pressure group, Inclusive Church, said: "The idea you can sort things out by scapegoating Americans is absolutely preposterous. I can't believe it's going to happen. It would bring civil war in the Church of England." The Rev Robert Van de Weyer, a Cambridgeshire vicar, said that he would consider looking for American supervision if the hardline proposals were imposed. "I personally would find myself unable to be a member of an ecclesiastical organisation which effectively condemned homosexuality as sinful," he said. "The churches in America are seeking Ugandan and Nigerian supervision, we might seek American supervision. And that's probably what we might find ourselves forced to do. This is very speculative but that is the kind of scenario that would unfold if the American Episcopal Church is excluded." The Eames Commission, which includes both conservative and liberals, is due to deliver its final report to Dr Williams by the end of the month, which will then be discussed at the Primates' Meeting in October. END
2) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/
3) http://www.agathos.com/events/
For inquiries email SetLoveInOrder@hotmail.com
Cost: $35 C dn / Person $60 Cdn / Couple
4a) http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2004/09/08/1094530688238.html?oneclick=true We've been forced to endure the massacre of children. Whether it's teenagers outside an Israeli disco or students in Beslan, Russia, we've seen kids singled out as special targets. We should by now have become used to the death cult that is thriving at the fringes of the Muslimworld. This is the cult of people who are proud to declare, "You love life, but we love death." This is the cult that sent waves of defenseless children to be mowed down on the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war, that trains kindergartners to become bombs, that fetishizes death, that sends people off joyfully to commit mass murder. This cult attaches itself to a political cause but parasitically strangles it. The death cult has strangled the dream of a Palestinian state. The suicide bombers have not brought peace to Palestine; they've brought reprisals. The car bombers are not pushing the U.S. out of Iraq; they're forcing us to stay longer. The death cult is now strangling the Chechen cause, and will bring not independence but blood. But that's the idea. Because the death cult is not really about the cause it purports to serve. It's about the sheer pleasure of killing and dying. It's about massacring people while in a state of spiritual loftiness. It's about experiencing the total freedom of barbarism - freedom even from human nature, which says, Love children, and Love life. It's about the joy of sadism and suicide. We should be used to this pathological mass movement by now. We should be able to talk about such things. Yet when you look at the Western reaction to the Beslan massacres, you see people quick to divert their attention away from the core horror of this act, as if to say: We don't want to stare into this abyss. We don't want to acknowledge those parts of human nature that were on display in Beslan. Something here, if thought about too deeply, undermines the categories we use to live our lives, undermines our faith in the essential goodness of human beings(...)
4b) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/international/middleeast/09arabiya.html?th BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 8 - The brutal school siege in Russia, with hundreds of children dead and wounded, has touched off an unusual round of self-criticism and introspection in the Muslim and Arab world. "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims," Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of the widely watched satellite television station Al Arabiya said in one of the most striking of these commentaries(...)
5a) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-episcopal8sep08,1,833906.story?coll=la-editions-orange The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Tuesday filed suit against three breakaway Southern California parishes, laying claim to the church buildings and personal property for the diocese and "faithful Episcopalians."(...) In a written statement, the three parishes said they were "deeply disappointed" by the lawsuits. They said the church buildings belonged to them and called the diocese's actions a "callous disregard of the religious rights of hundreds of families who overwhelmingly voted their conscience to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles."(...) The diocese also said that the national Episcopal Church intended to file a separate lawsuit within several days in support of the six-county Los Angeles diocese(...)
5b) http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2386581,00.html
5c) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/pilot/news/la-dpt-church08sep08,1,323341.story?coll=la-tcn-pilot-news NEWPORT BEACH - The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on Tuesday filed lawsuits against three breakaway churches, including St. James on Via Lido, demanding that the properties remain in the national Episcopal Church's hands(...) Local officials, also in a statement, said they were disappointed that the diocese "has rejected the possibility of a peaceful solution." "Instead, the diocese has filed senseless and intolerant lawsuits against three local churches in an attempt to confiscate their property and buildings," the statement, signed generically by all three churches, read. It also pointed out that the diocese "notified the media of these lawsuits today, not the three churches or their attorneys."(...) The three churches have argued that their parishioners are the rightful owners, with leaders at St. James, including Pastor Praveen Bunyan, saying it is owned by a nonprofit organization that was formed in the late 1940s. "The local churches hold the deeds to these properties, and hundreds of church families have raised money to acquire and build them," the churches' statement read(...)
5d) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1282
5e) Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles sues three breakaway parishes
5f) http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~24533~2386762,00.html
5g) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1290 Of course Bishop Bruno is not the first bishop to thus act and he certainly won't be the last. But he has been the loudest and most vocal to date in his attempt to annihilate the few remaining orthodox priests in his ultra-liberal diocese, using the power of his office to deal swiftly with rebellious orthodox priests. In a blinding flash his wounded ego and his desire for even higher office got destroyed and this quickly translated into ecclesiastical outrage, and the man erupted like Mt. Vesuvius. He fired off letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury, two African bishops (one an Archbishop), solicited the help of Frank Griswold, ECUSA's Presiding Bishop and got unsolicited support from the revisionist "Progressive" Episcopal crowd out of Pittsburgh, home of the Episcopal Church's leader of the Anglican Communion Network - Bishop Robert Duncan. Bruno ordered the priests to cease and desist all ministries, vacate the properties or he would bring an injunction against them prohibiting them from even using the buildings. The threat was real, though empty. That he would move so quickly from inhibition to deposition is probably no surprise to these priests. They expected it and clearly they were prepared and just as equally they don't care. They made their moves with eyes wide open and expected the worst. They got it(...) The Rev. Paul Walter, a feisty Evangelical priest in the Diocese of Missouri wants out and he wants his paid up parish property, and he is prepared to fight for it "as far as it takes." Bishop George Wayne Smith is fighting back with the help of the National Church. He has, of course, deposed the priest - another fine example of the triumph of the canons over Scripture(...) Dozens have left the ECUSA for the Anglican Mission in America (AMIA), and increasingly more are coming directly under overseas orthodox primates. Furthermore these are not small urban or country parishes; they are triple-digit parishes with some congregations having well over a 1,000 members. We are not talking chump change. Why else would Bruno scream like a banshee when he got the news? If it were three no name parishes with less than 40 members, he'd have turned them into missions and fahgetaboutit(...)
6a) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1287 The Rev. Sandy Millar, of Holy Trinity, Brompton is a major player in the ALPHA movement and he will become a Ugandan Bishop with responsibility for ALPHA parishes in England and will work as a missionary in Britain following his consecration by the Primate of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi. How his appointment differs from that of an English 'flying bishop' (PEV) who does not have any legal jurisdiction and ministers only with the permission of the Diocesan, remains to be seen. But this extraordinary ecclesiastical act must be seen in a much larger and wider context. Why did the Archbishop allow it? It has been suggested by this writer that it was a quid pro quo for the Jeffrey John appointment as the first openly gay Dean of St. Alban's and the steadily advancing liberal agenda in the Church of England over the ordination of women priests and the church's acceptance of sodomy. The other suggestion is that Williams and Millar are good friends and the Archbishop has been a public supporter of ALPHA and addresses Holy Trinity, Brompton theology schools(...) But the fact that the archbishop gave his blessing to this extraordinary ecclesiastical act raises far bigger questions of provincial autonomy and geographical boundary crossing that could have legal implications for numerous orthodox American Episcopal priests locked in legal combat with revisionist ECUSA bishops(..) Dr. Williams' action in allowing an African Primate to cross geographic boundaries and consecrate a bishop in an orthodox diocese (London) clearly has legal ramifications for other provinces, especially the Episcopal Church. It will now allow attorneys in the US, who are fighting for the right of orthodox parish priests to keep their properties, and they can also argue that the church's titular head has himself crossed diocesan boundaries for the sake of global unity. It could mean that new legal leverage is now possible for those orthodox ECUSA parishes that are fighting to keep their properties from revisionist bishops!(...)
6b) http://www.churchnewspaper.com/?go=news&read=on&number_key=5734&title=Sandy%20Millar%20proposed%20as%20'missionary%20bishop
7) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ The London Times reported Friday that the Lambeth Commission, which is due to deliver its report on homosexuality to the Archbishop of Canterbury in October, may recommend suspending the Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) from the 75-million strong worldwide Anglican Communion, until it repents of consecrating actively gay bishop Gene Robinson. According to the Times, a "senior source" stated: "This will not be a fudge. This report will have teeth." The Vancouver-area Diocese of New Westminster is also likely to face discipline for authorizing same-sex blessings at its diocesan synod two years ago(...)
8) http://www.virtuosityonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1291 No one knows the exact date, but sometime in 1880 Grace Episcopal Church was planted as a mission church. Today the church has grown to 1,400 members. This year marks our 124th birthday as a church. Far from slip sliding into old age, we are being made young again by a new birth. September 4 was the 20th anniversary of my ordination. There can be no greater way for me to celebrate that anniversary than to give birth to a daughter . . . a daughter church. The fellowship that began several years ago as the "On Ramp" service is going to become a new Anglican Church in Clay County, coming under the under the ecclesiastical authority of the Province of Rwanda and its Primate Emmanuel Kolini. It will be called Emmaus Road Church (ERC) with its new rector the Rev. David Freels, who was ordained by Bishop T. J. Johnston of the Anglican Mission in American under the authority of Archbishop Kolini and former Florida Bishop Steve Jecko who licensed Freels. David, the vestry, and the people of On Ramp service had been talking about a new church plant for some time. Over time it became clear that God was leading David Freels to plant an Anglican church under the direct authority of his bishop, Thomas Johnston. Till now, David had been exercising his priestly ministry under Sam's authority as part of a joint venture of cooperation between Bp. Johnston of the AMiA and Bp. Jecko of ECUSA. That joint effort in mutual ministry came to an end when the new bishop of Florida, Johnson Howard, refused to relicense David to perform priestly functions in this diocese. This was a sad and cruel thing to do. On August 9, 2004, the vestry of Grace Church unanimously passed a resolution celebrating this new venture and approving David's move from full-time to part-time status here at Grace, thus freeing him up to resume his priestly calling at ERC. Taking the On Ramp to a New Road On Sunday, September 5, ERC moved out of our home and took on her new identity as an Anglican Church on mission to America. To celebrate this new adventure with us, my old friend of 30 years, Bp. Thomas Johnston joined us. He gave us his wisdom, his blessing and his charge to us as the people of the Gospel(...)
9) http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/040908comment THE DA VINCI CODE has been the best selling hardback in recent years. It has been at or near the top of nearly all bestseller lists since its appearance a year and half ago. It has been translated into more than 35 languages. To date more than 10 million copies have been distributed. Reviews of the book during most of the first year of its life were positive, even enthusiastic. "An exhilaratingly brainy thriller," wrote the reviewer in the New York Times. "This is pure genius," commented Nelson DeMille, adding: "Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished writers in the country." The Library Journal called the book "a compelling blend of history and page-turning suspense." Finally, eleven months after its release, Laura Miller wrote an article for the New York Times Book Review entitled 'The Da Vinci Con,' in which she pointed out that most of the 'research' that went into Dan Brown's book was dependent on the discredited pseudo-history embedded in the 1982 bestseller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln and that the so-called Priory of Sion, which features so prominently in the book, was a hoax invented by a man who had pretensions to the French throne. Since Laura Miller's essay there has been a spate of new books that critique The Da Vinci Code. Secrets of the Code (CDS Books), edited by Dan Burstein, is an eclectic collection of essays and excerpts by both recognized scholars, informed and insightful amateurs, and the conspiracy pseudo-scholars upon whom Brown has drawn (Baigent, Leigh, Lincoln, Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy, Margaret Starbird et al.). Read critically, it contains much fascinating if mutually contradictory information. The best Christian response is The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius Press) by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, who astutely expose the extremely sloppy historical research that is reflected in Dan Brown's thriller. The implied claim that the historical references in his book are all 'FACT' (he capitalizes the word in his note at the beginning of the book) and claim that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" could not be further from the truth. He rarely gets anything right! What makes Brown's claims so appealing to many readers is that they simply do not have a clue about history. Olson and Miesel have little difficulty exposing the ludicrous insinuations that he puts into the mouth of Harvard guru Robert Langdon and fictional historian Sir Leigh Teabing. One satisfying feature of Olson and Miesel is that they cover the whole gamut of historical allusions rather than just the earliest centuries. An extremely well written but briefer response is Amy Welborn's De-Coding Da Vinci (Our Sunday Visitor), sub-titled 'The facts behind the fiction of The Da Vinci Code.' The author is a Catholic and occasionally, it seems to me, a bit too sensitive about the outlandish claims of the book, though the same could be said for some of the evangelical Protestant critiques. Still, this is probably the best, brief but comprehensive treatment. Two excellent critiques by Protestant writers who focus primarily on refuting Dan Brown's historical reconstruction of the first four Christian centuries are Breaking the Da Vinci Code (Thomas Nelson) by Darrell L. Bock; and The Gospel Code (InterVarsity) by Ben Witherington, III. Witherington, who has published several scholarly books on women in the early church, offers an authoritative counterbalance to the muddled-headed neo-pagan feminism reflected in DVC(...) Why should Christians be concerned with a book like The Da Vinci Code? (1) The book has been read by more than 10 million individuals, many of whom have been duped by the fraudulent historical pretensions. But just wait until the movie comes out in 2005, produced and directed by Ron Howard and the team that made A Beautiful Mind: this will likely create a media opportunity for the church, comparable to The Passion of the Christ. I hope that we will be ready(...)
Next Ed-Mail Same-sex Blessings |