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1a ) News Flash: Archbishop Greg Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone, will be attending the Celebration of orthodoxy at St. Johns Shaughnessy(27th & Granville, Vancouver) on Feb 28th Monday night 7pm, along with Canon Bill Atwood, Bishop Steve Jecko and Rev. Bill Murdoch of the Anglican Communion Network.
1b) http://www.anglicanessentials.ca/readarticle.php?article_id=22 THE MESSAGE IS AS CLEAR AS IT CAN GET
The message is as clear as it can get. In an unprecedented action, the Anglican world was changed last Thursday, February 24. The actions of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church of the United States have resulted in the Primates putting them on notice. Simply put, there is no more dramatic action that could have been taken than to request a Province of the Church to remove itself from the table. Clearly, there is before the Anglican Church of Canada the need to make a choice. Restoration to full communion requires repentance. The failure to do so implies the choice to walk alone outside the worldwide Anglican Communion.
In the days ahead Anglican Essentials Canada will be posting further reflections arising from these developments. May we all recall that the kindness of God leads us to repentance. (Romans 2:4).
Anglican Essentials Canada - a federation of orthodox Canadian Anglicans, February 26, 2005
1d) http://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/Portal/Default.aspx?tabid=1&mode=Story&StoryId=119 (Diocese of New Westminster Topic Magazine) Last Updated: Saturday 26 Feb, 2005, 03:49 PM Clergy hope for reconciliation Dissenting group not prepared to talk "at this time"
Several Diocese of New Westminster clergy who continue to protest the blessing of same sex unions have told Bishop Michael Ingham they "remain prayerfully hopeful that reconciliation can be accomplished in the Diocese of New Westminster."
However, without a moratorium on the blessing of same-sex unions, the group stated that it could see no basis for reconciliation "at this time."(...)
The bishop had suggested that all parties consider a proposal from the Canadian House of Bishops for shared episcopal ministry. This would involved the work of a second bishop acceptable to the group to minister to them.
The letter came from the rectors of St. Matthew's, Abbotsford, and the Vancouver parishes of Holy Cross, Good Shepherd, St. Luke and St. Matthias, and St. John's Shaughnessy, plus the former diocesan Holy Cross mission in Abbotsford(...)
The Rev. Stephen Muir of St. Monica's, West Vancouver, thought that the diocese and the protesting parishes were at the point of divorce and the question was whether `we can have an amicable divorce, or not."(...)
1c) http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/ March 13th Sunday 5pm Celebration Service with Bishop TJ Johnston Location: Richmond Emmanuel Church, 7451 Elmbridge Way (off Westminster & No 3 Rd) Theme: Transformed for Mission Please join us and bring your friends
Feb. 26, 2005. 01:00 AM Anglicans headed for divide over homosexuality 11 churches sever ties over issue Move praised as `right idea' ROBERT BARR, ASSOCIATED PRESS IToronto Starr)
NEWRY, Northern Ireland-One side is going to have to admit it's wrong before the Anglican Communion's rift over homosexuality can be resolved, the church's spiritual leader warned yesterday.
"We still face the possibility of division, of course we do,'' Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said after a crisis meeting of 35 leaders of Anglican national churches. "That's not going to go away. Any lasting solution, I think, will require people to say somewhere along the line, `Yes, we were wrong.'"(...)
A group of 11 churches - eight in B.C. and three in Saskatchewan - have effectively left the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue and are now affiliated with the church in Rwanda.
The withdrawal request was welcomed in Nigeria, which has the second-largest Anglican community after Britain(...)
The vast majority of Nigeria's 17.5 million Anglicans back the strong condemnation of gay priests and same-sex marriage by their Primate Peter Akinola.
-Note: for 863 (!) related online news article, click on http://news.google.ca/nwshp?hl=en&gl=ca&ncl=http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer%3Fpagename%3Dthestar/Layout/Article_Type1%26c%3DArticle%26cid%3D1109373908198%26call_pageid%3D970599119419
2a) http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=01c1ed51-f1ef-4bee-b865-3af24922a60b Vancouver Sun, Jan 25th 2005 Friday U.S., Canadian Anglicans on the carpet for gay views Clash over same-sex unions forces split from global church body LONDON -- Anglican primates agreed Thursday the Anglican Church of Canada and the U.S. Episcopal Church will withdraw from a key body of the global Anglican Communion after failing to overcome internal church disagreements about the election of a homosexual bishop in the United States and the blessing of same-sex unions there and in Canada.
The agreement marked the first formal breach in the communion over the explosive issues of sexuality and biblical authority.
The announcement means the two churches will withdraw temporarily from the Anglican Consultative Council, a key body for contact among the national churches and one of the four so-called "instruments of unity".
The U.S. and the Canadian churches each send three delegates to the council.
A statement from leaders of Anglican national churches who met this church in Northern Ireland also called on the two churches to explain their thinking on homosexual issues at another Anglican meeting in June.
"In the meantime, we ask our fellow primates to use their best influence to persuade their brothers and sisters to exercise a moratorium on public rites of blessing for same-sex unions and on the consecration of any bishop living in a sexual relationship outside Christian marriage," the statement said.
Rev. Ed Hird, whose parish is one of four that broke away from the diocese of New Westminster and the Anglican Church of Canada in 2004 over the issue of same-sex unions described Thursday's announcement as a voluntary withdrawal by the two churches.
"Being asked to voluntarily withdraw is like being given a suspension," Hird, of the St. Simon's Church in North Vancouver, said in an interview. "It's without precedent and shows that the North American liberal Anglicans are out of sync with world-wide Anglican faith and practice."
Hird described the moratorium call as a "very polite but strong message," saying Diocesan Bishop and the American Episcopal Church's openly-gay bishop Gene Robinson have "in a very polite way been called on the carpet." He said that Westerners find it very hard to believe they can be held accountable by the global church.
The four breakaway parishes left the diocese because they did not want to be isolated and cut off from the worldwide church, Hird said.
But Rev. Peter Elliott, who is serving as acting bishop for the Diocese of New Westminster while Ingham is away in South Asia, said: "It's not the end of the world."
(...)"This will be a great opportunity for us to tell our story," said Elliott who is gay.
The diocese of New Westminster will wait until its next annual meeting in May, he added, to decide on whether to agree to the primates' request to place a moratorium on public same-sex blessings.
In the meantime, Elliott said, the diocese will continue to allow same-sex blessings(...)
In the Anglican Church of Canada, where individual dioceses enjoy considerable autonomy, the Vancouver-area Diocese of New Westminster set off a storm in 2002 by adopting a motion allowing its churches to bless same-sex unions.(...)
2b) http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_angliocan20050225 Anglican gay-rights split widens Last Updated Feb 25 2005 07:02 PM PST CBC News VANCOUVER - The issue of gay rights, which has been a major issue for Anglicans in Greater Vancouver, is causing further division within the Anglican Church worldwide.
Church leaders from around the world have asked the Anglican Church of Canada and the U.S. Episcopal Church to withdraw temporarily from the councils of the Anglican Communion.
Both churches bless same-sex unions and ordain gay clergy.
In Vancouver, the approval of same-sex blessing has created a major split within the Diocese of New Westminster - which is headed by Bishop Michael Ingham.
That decision prompted a handful of parishes to split from the diocese, including St. Simon's in North Vancouver.
Rev. Ed Hird arranged for his North Shore parish to join the Rwandan Anglican church because he disagrees with the Canadian church's position on gay blessings.
Even so, he says he never expected such a strong communique from the church's world leaders.
"This is a very significant step. It actually removes them from the corridors of power and influence, and that's never happened previously," says Hird.
"It's saying, in effect, that Michael Ingham and his folks are out of line, what they are doing is not Anglican, it's not consistent with either faith or practice."
But the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, Rev. Peter Elliott, sees the issue very differently, and says the latest moves internationally will provoke more debate.
"I think we're going to have a very interesting discussion at our synod in May, which is just a couple months away," he says.
Chris Brown reports for CBC TV's CanadaNow: To watch the Video, click on: http://vancouver.cbc.ca/clips/Vancouver/ram-lo/050225_anglican.ram
2c) http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=canada_home&articleID=1856828 http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=n022533A http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/02/25/942782-cp.html February 25, 2005 - 19:27 Canadian Anglican leaders say gay ruling not as serious as some imagine GREG JOYCE VANCOUVER (CP) - Anglican churches in Canada are not being reprimanded and have yet to decide whether to abide by a request from church leaders to withdraw from a major body over the issue of homosexuality, a Canadian cleric said Friday. "I don't think anybody's being punished and nobody's been suspended and no decision has been made in the Anglican Church of Canada about whether we want to voluntarily withdraw from the meeting," said the Very Rev. Peter Elliott, dean of the Diocese of New Westminster. "They don't have the authority to kick us out."(...) The New Westminster diocese, under Bishop Michael Ingham, upset some pastors and churches within the diocese and throughout the country and world by adopting a motion in 2002 that allowed its churches to bless same-sex unions. Elliott, the acting bishop when Ingham is away and a supporter of same-sex blessings, said the request is "not the end of the world."(...) Elliott and Rev. Ed Hird, an opponent of same-sex unions who helped spearhead a breakaway from the Anglican Church of Canada, agreed the request was not simply directed at the New Westminster diocese and other same-sex supporters, but at the entire church in Canada. The church's General Synod met last summer in St. Catharines, Ont., and "almost (passed a motion) to have same-sex blessings nationally," said Hird, rector of St. Simon's Anglican Church in North Vancouver. Hird is now a member of a breakaway group called the Anglican Communion in Canada that is affiliated with the church in Rwanda. While the synod tabled that motion, they later passed another that affirmed the sanctity and integrity of same-sex relationships, said Hird. He said there is "strong support" for blessing same-sex unions among the national bureaucracy of the Anglican Church of Canada. "The global primates (archbishops) found this as very harmful because it defaces what Anglicans have always taught. By any other terms it's blessing same-sex unions." In other words, said Hird, the national church has "subverted" Anglican teaching. "It's no longer just Bishop Michael Ingham up to his tricks." Hird said that even Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada "sanctioned same-sex blessings when he was senior bishop for the (Canadian) military." Hutchison was (...)chief chaplain - or Bishop Ordinary - to the Canadian Forces for seven years prior to his election as primate last June(...) Hird is now part of a group of 11 churches - eight in B.C. and three in Saskatchewan - that have effectively left the Anglican Church of Canada over the issue and are now affiliated with the church in Rwanda. "We transferred to another province (jurisdiction) in Rwanda and are part of Anglican Communion worldwide." He said the communique issued by the church leaders in Northern Ireland "vindicates us and our position." Hird views the ruling, like Elliott, not as a punishment but as a discipline. "What they are doing . . . they are giving North American Anglicans another chance to repent and turn around from something that, as Anglicans, we clearly believe is out of sync with worldwide Anglicanism," he said.
2d) http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/02/25/anglican-050225.html Anglicans downplay dispute with global church Last Updated Fri, 25 Feb 2005 22:43:12 EST CBC News VANCOUVER - Canada's Anglican Church is minimizing a request from leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion that it withdraw from a key council over homosexual issues.
The leadership issued a statement Thursday urging the Anglican Church of Canada and the U.S. Episcopal Church to stay away from key meetings for three years(...)
Hutchison said the organization of the worldwide church doesn't give the primates the authority to order anyone out of the consultative council.
The Canadian church, which has 800,000 members, will consider its options at a meeting in May and will likely consent to temporarily withdrawing from the council, he said.
But Hutchison conceded that a permanent schism with the global church, which is made up of 38 national churches and 77 million members, is now a more likely possibility(...)
Conservatives in the communion also specifically condemned the diocese in New Westminster, B.C., when it became the first in the communion to bless same-sex unions(...)
However, Steve Schuh, who's gay and Anglican, expressed disappointment at the global church's move.
"It sends really quite a devastating message to gay and lesbian people ... and to their straight allies, that this is something so impossible to bridge ... that it's worth splitting a church over."(...)
2e) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ MICHAEL INGHAM is right, and everybody else who disagrees with him is not. Here is Bishop Michael's (Diocese of New Westminster) comment on the Primate's Communique ... (vancouver.anglican.ca) http://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/Portal/Default.aspx?tabid=1&mode=Story&StoryId=117 Last Updated: Friday 25 Feb, 2005, 09:33 PM Bishop Michael Ingham comments on Primate's Communique Urges members of diocese to read entire report (...) The Constitution of the Anglican Consultative Council makes no provision for member churches to be "uninvited." Nor has the Archbishop of Canterbury given any indication of an intention to provoke schism in the Communion by uninviting bishops to the Lambeth Conference. The Primates' call for the Canadian and American churches "to consider voluntary withdrawal" from the next three meetings from the ACC is carefully worded, and intended to appease the angriest voices in the Communion, but it should be firmly resisted by both churches. ACC is the one place where the provinces are fully represented and where the broadest consultations can and should occur.
To place the Canadian and American delegations in the position of explaining to the ACC why homosexual Christians should receive equal treatment in the church is invidious and unsatisfactory(...)
2f) http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6c1eae45-fe38-4d0e-9b14-e606870f7e21 B.C. news roundup: Feb. 26 2005 Broadcast News: Vancouver Sun Newspaper Bishop plays down church split over same-sex marriages
A controversial B.C. Anglican bishop is playing down a request that the Canadian and U.S. Anglican churches withdraw from the world body's consultative council over issues of homosexuality(...)
Top cleric faces rift among Anglicans By MICHAEL VALPY Saturday, February 26, 2005 - Page A1 Canada's Anglican primate faced accusations from his own clergy yesterday that he betrayed gays and lesbians by endorsing a proposal to suspend the Canadian and U.S. churches from a key body of the worldwide Anglican Communion because of their acceptance of homosexuality(...)
But Archbishop Hutchison said the agreement was "part of a pain that needs to be endured," adding he had expected that the weeklong meeting of his fellow primates in Northern Ireland to discuss the rift over homosexuality was "going to be much worse."
It was an assessment bluntly not shared by a number of senior Canadian clerics, theological scholars and lay Anglicans who reacted, on and off the record, with anger and astonishment at the primates' communiqué.
Bishop Michael Ingham of Greater Vancouver's Diocese of New Westminster -- where the blessing of same-sex unions has been approved -- said the recommendation to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion's top advisory body, should be "firmly resisted by both churches."
He called the primates' proposal that the U.S. and Canadian churches should appear before the ACC only to explain their position on homosexuality "invidious and unsatisfactory."
The prolocutor (vice-chairman) of the synod, or governing body, of the Canadian church, Dean Peter Elliott of Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral, said there was no foregone conclusion that the synod would agree to withdraw from the ACC.
The church's general secretary, Archdeacon Jim Boyles, noted the possibility that the synod's council, when it meets in May, could vote to end supportive funding to the ACC, this year worth $107,000.
(The Anglican Episcopal Church of the USA -- ECUSA -- gives $10-million to the communion and the Canadian church gives just under $1-million(...)
The senior Canadian delegate to the ACC, Nova Scotia suffragan Bishop Susan Moxley, said she could see nothing positive in the primates' action.
"In spite of the fact the [communiqué] says we value gays and lesbians and nobody ought to be nasty to them, I can't see that they'll see this as anything other than that they've been shut out again. This says, 'You Canadians are bad, you did the wrong thing and now we're not going to let you come to the party.'
"For me, the thing would be that we stay in conversation, and telling some people that they can't come is not staying in conversation. And I can't see that anything will be accomplished by saying [the Canadian and U.S.] churches, who foot the biggest chunk of the bill for the ACC, can't come to the meetings."
Chris Ambidge, a Toronto spokesman for the Anglican gay organization Integrity, said: "It's comforting . . . that my church is taking a hit for me. But I hope that it doesn't withdraw, in effect saying, 'We've made a mistake.' "(...)
Archbishop Hutchison said the hearing gives the North American churches the opportunity to present their case to a broader body -- consisting of clergy and laity -- than the primates. And the monitoring mechanisms will enable the church's leaders to see just what goes on in dioceses.
"If our invitation [to withdraw] is not accepted, then we're back to Square 1. If it is accepted, then we can move forward."(...)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1109346831403_104756031/?hub=Canada No ruling on Anglican church withdrawal: official CTV.ca News Staff, Feb 25th 2005 Friday
Canadian and U.S. Anglican officials denied media reports suggesting they have temporarily withdrawn from an international council at the request of leaders who condemn their position on homosexuality.
They have not yet made any decisions in response to the request, Archdeacon Paul Feheley, Principal Secretary to the Primate, told CTV.ca in a phone interview from Northern Ireland where the meetings between the leaders took place this week.
"We're members of the Anglican Communion, we will continue to be members of the Anglican Communion," he said, nothing that the talks were much like a family dispute during which family members "step back for breathing space, to sort things out."
Rev. Jan Nunley of the U.S. Episcopal Church Center also denied media reports in an email to CTV.ca inquiring about the church's response.
"No, no decision has been made on the request for voluntary temporary withdrawal from the Anglican Consultative Council," Nunley wrote.
"The Presiding Bishop will be conferring with other leaders in the church about this, probably next week."(...)
Note: please also check out the video weblink for the Rev. Dr. David Reed, an 'orthodox Anglican' Wycliffe College Professor at the University of Toronto www.ctvbroadcast.ctv.ca/video/2005/02/25/ctvvideologger2_143kbps_2005_02_25_1109373013.wmv Dr. Reed: "I said that this is a serious move(...) They are being gracious on the one hand but they are also being firm. They are saying that we ask you to voluntarily withdraw (the Canadian and American representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council) which means also a firm expectation that they will(...) For a number of them, (Canadian Anglican) clergy and congregations and individuals, their views are conservative and more in line with what they hear from the Global South and will seek alternative relationships with that Church(...)
3a) http://gs2004.classicalanglican.com/modules/news/ http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=614954 Gay row move not a mere fudge, warnes Eames North Americans told to take 'breathing space' By Alf McCreary , Religion Correspondent newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk 26 February 2005 The Anglican primates' decision to ask the American and Canadian churches to withdraw voluntarily from a key committee for three years and to think about their position is not a fudge, Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames has insisted. Speaking after the release of the primates' statement at the end of a meeting at Dromantine, near Newry, the Archbishop said: "When people realise that we have said some very serious things to the North Americans, they could not possibly call it a fudge."(...) The North Americans have been asked not to send representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council until 2008(...)
Primates speak of 'miraculous' unanimity, Church Times UK By Pat Ashworth in Newry, Northern Ireland, Friday Feb 25th 2005
THE AMERICAN and Canadian Churches have been asked voluntarily to withdraw from a key body in Anglican Communion for the three-year period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference in 2008(...)
Withdrawal is from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and is to take effect immediately, though both Churches have been invited to a "hearing" at the ACC meeting in Nottingham in June, to discuss the thinking behind their recent actions: the blessing of same-sex unions in New Westminster, Canada, and the consecration of a non-celibate gay man, the Rt Revd Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire, in the US(...)
he Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Revd Henry Orombi, was asked how he hoped to listen to the experience of gay people when homosexuality in Uganda remained a criminally punishable offence. He replied that listening and understanding meant precisely what they said. "I want to address the whole issue of listening to the homosexuals," he said. "I don't want to think that I would be judgmental. I am a proclaimer of the good news." And while defending cross-border action in the past, he said the communiqué was very clear about no new initiatives. "I'm not hunting for congregations."
The decision had been made, and "What I've seen done is plenty," he said. When the proposed panel could do its work, "I'll be the happiest man. I have eight million people to look after. I don't want to be going to Frank [Griswold], who has only about two million. He should be doing that himself. But if there is trouble, I need to go [and help]." Whatever was going to attract people to church would be the acid test, he said(...)
The Archbishop of the Southern Cone, the Most Revd Greg Venables, said: " What marked this Primates Meeting was greater freedom in speech. Not that people weren't able to speak before, but culturally, when you gather people together from very diverse backgrounds, and the agenda has as in the past been dominated by the West, then people aren't always going to be able to express themselves freely. Now under Archbishop Rowan's leadership, either because he's got a Celtic background, or perhaps because of his personality or perhaps of his emphasis on spirituality and the need for prayer, we've been able to get to a stage where we can talk very openly, very strongly even but somehow keep the thing open and keep going. We're very grateful for that.
"I believe there was a breakthrough in dialogue, for which we thank God, but we also thank the style that Archbishop Rowan brought to it, and also Archbishop Robin Eames, who is a master at negotiation and has helped us to be able to consider possibilities and how t move forward within a Christian context. What's called the Global South has been able to express itself in a much clearer way and that has helped. Also we've been grateful for the north American Church, who were able to say what they were thinking and why they were thinking it, and that was a great aid to the dialogue as well."(...)
North American Anglicans Defend Gay Policies Fri February 25, 2005 6:13 PM GMT-05:00 By Randall Palmer, Reuters Press OTTAWA (Reuters) - The North American branches of the Anglican Church showed few signs on Friday of submitting to an attempt to crack down on ordaining gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions, with one defiant bishop saying a split was inevitable(...)
At least three dioceses said they would continue to authorize the blessings of same-sex unions for now, despite the request for a moratorium.
"I see no reason to call a moratorium," Orris Walker, bishop of the diocese of Long Island, told Reuters.
"If this makes people unhappy, I'm disappointed, but we have work to do and we'll proceed ... I think we're playing games. I think the split is already there. I'm not sure anything can be done to avoid the split."
The diocese of North Carolina and the British Columbian diocese of New Westminster also said they would maintain their practices for now.
The blessings in New Westminster, which started in 2002, were the reason the Northern Ireland meeting targeted the Canadian church. But the diocese said it would not stop at least until a synod meeting studies it again in May.
"The blessings continue at least till the synod," diocesan spokesman Neale Adams said.
The primate of the Canadian church, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, said he would maintain his past recommendation of a moratorium but said he personally favored such blessings. He said New Westminster had been acting within its rights and done it to advance justice.
"Unity at a price of justice is not a price they have been prepared to pay," he said(...)
"What this has done is brought us back from the brink," Canadian Archbishop Hutchison told Reuters by telephone.
He said he would recommend to the Canadian church authorities that they agree to stay out of the Anglican Consultative Council but that this was not up to him.
In the United States, the pro-gay Episcopal organization Integrity USA said it was dismayed by the two requests out of Northern Ireland but encouraged that they were voluntary.
It suggested the Episcopal Church think twice before agreeing to stay away from the council. The church should "carefully consider the justice and wisdom of granting this request," it said.
3e) http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/news05022501.asp Primates Statement - Bishop Bob Duncan's Response 25th February 2005 (...) The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have been asked to withdraw their representatives from the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) effectively immediately. This suspension of relationship continues until the constitutional assemblies of each church indicate their willingness to conform to what was asked of them in the Windsor Report."(...)
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