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1) http://www.acicanada.ca/ http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/newsletter.htm Click on links to view the 'posters' with Adobe Acrobat for the details:
1a) Bishop TJ Johnston Theme: "Transformed for Mission" Dates: Friday evening March 11th, 2005; Saturday March 12th and Celebration Service (held at Richmond Emmanuel Church) Sunday March 13th at 5:00 pm Location: Lions Gate Christian Academy, Maplewood School 420 Seymour River Place, North Vancouver For the Poster: just click on http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/2005%20Renewal%20Mission%20Poster.pdf
1b) Anglican Communion in Canada Celebration Service Where: Richmond Emmanuel Church 7451 Elmbridge Way (off Westminster Hwy & No. 3 Rd.) Richmond, BC When: Sunday March 13th, 2005 Time: 5:00 pm Celebrant: The Rt. Rev. TJ Johnston Jr. Theme: "Transformed for Mission" Please join us and bring your friends For the flyer, just click on http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/March%2013th%20Celebration%20Service%20with%20Bishop%20TJ.pdf
1c) 18th Annual Renewal Mission 2005 For the brochure: just click on http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/2005%20Renewal%20Mission%20Brochure.pdf
2a) Please check out this video clip of Dr. Gil Stieglitz teaching the ACiC Coalition which was seen by 6 million Canadians this week 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
2b) http://www.ptlb.com/publications/index.htm Great resources available from our Coach Dr. Gil Stiegliz
2c) http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/191770849?item_no=14488&event=51177SBF Becoming a Godly Husband: The Hardest Thing a Man Will Ever Do is Really Love His Wife By: Dr. Gil Stieglitz
3a) http://www.anglicanmissioninamerica.org/index.cfm?id=F3BB9E5F-B40F-4DE7-B90A065719B60470 Anglican Mission Meets with Archbishops Representatives of the Anglican Mission in America have just concluded several important days of meetings with their sponsoring archbishops in London. Included in the conversations were interpretations of the outcome of the Primates meetings in N. Ireland the previous week. There was also discussion about ongoing mission and vision in the AMiA. Present at the meetings were Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini and Yong Ping Church, Bishops Chuck Murphy and TJ Johnston of the AMiA, Executive Officer the Rev. Tim Smith and Jay Greener, Communications Director for the Anglican Mission. The group worshiped at Holy Trinity Brompton on Sunday morning, home of the highly effective Alpha Program, now in use around the world. "It's important for us to be able to consult with our archbishops, especially at times when they are both together, as they were for the Primates' meeting," observed Bishop Murphy. "God has given us godly and courageous leaders in these men, and their oversight and direction is invaluable in our mission efforts." Bishop Murphy and his wife, Margaret, now head to Rwanda where he will attend the House of Bishops gatherings.
3b) http://www.anglicanmissioninamerica.org/index.cfm?id=D0ADB661-5991-4DA1-A2773F7C67131996 http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2137 News Update from the Anglican Mission Archbishops Issue Pastoral Letter Following N. Ireland Primates' Meeting
March 1, 2005
To the people of the Anglican Mission in America
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We send you warm greetings following a week of meetings with other Primates of the Anglican Communion and several fruitful days of consultation with leaders of the Anglican Mission in America. We have been very aware of your prayers during these days and are grateful for your continued dedication to prayer and mission and your devotion to Christ. Your prayers, along with those of many others, were honored and answered by God as reflected in the outcome of last week's meetings in Northern Ireland.
The final statement, or Communiqué, from the meeting expressed the collective work of all the Primates and the common desire of the Primates to preserve the Scriptural faithfulness of the Anglican Communion. This has happened, and without compromise or negotiation. The forces that sought to distract and mislead the Church have been put on notice to stop. The Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada must re-think their doctrinal innovations and have effectively been suspended for the next three years in order to consider their place in the Communion. But the door for repentance and a return to the fold has not been shut. It now depends on their response.
The strong voice of the Primates underscores and validates what we have known for years to be true-that there is a crisis of faith and leadership in the North American church. The Primates have now responded to the same anguished cries that prompted us to form the Anglican Mission in America nearly five years ago.
During our days of discussion in Northern Ireland there was no negative reference to the Anglican Mission. The AMiA is a previously established intervention for the sake of the Gospel in response to the ongoing crisis within the American branch of Anglicanism and the country's tremendous need for evangelism and spiritual healing. The AMiA remains a missionary outreach of the Province of Rwanda as a Great Commission work, and is not a new initiative. This was clearly acknowledged during the Primates' meetings and by the growing support of our fellow Primates.\ So we give thanks to God for these deliberations and pray they will accomplish whatever the Lord intends. We also give thanks for each of you and want to urge you on to greater works in Him. Our mission and calling are clear. Let us commit ourselves anew to the work and opportunity to which we are so clearly called. In Christ, ++Emmanuel Kolini ++Yong Ping Chung
4a) http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/realmedia/sunday/s20050227z.ram BBC Sunday Report - Williams & Griswold interviewed (video)
4b) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2133 http://www.albanyepiscopaldiocese.org/equipping/newsitems/feature-21.html PRIMATES ACCEPT THE WINDSOR REPORT "ECUSA TO THE PENALTY BOX!" Posted by rturner on 2005/3/1 2:16:05 by Bishop Dave Bena (...)This is heavy stuff, my Brothers and Sisters! The Primates are telling ECUSA that it has three years to get its act together and return to the Anglican Communion fold, or it may be excommunicated(...)
4c) http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1426330,00.html Comment A schism that threatens us all Rowan Williams must confront those who would destroy the liberal traditions of Anglicanism Will Hutton, Sunday February 27, 2005, The Observer (...)Williams, a reflex Anglican and deep Christian, has to tolerate and include evangelicals as the valid Christian tradition they represent, but he has to insist that they cannot rule the roost. They would turn the church into an intolerant, right-wing, homophobic sect, a road that will lead inexorably to disestablishment, self-reinforcing marginalisation, poverty and an end not just to the church's Christian influence on national life but the crucial example it affords other faith communities who want the same privileges(...)
But the church's capacity to retain its breadth of appeal, liberalism and tolerance on which such an example hangs, depends in turn on its capacity to resist the dominance of evangelism - and it is losing the fight(...)
Liberals have to hold the line across the entire front, the Church of England included.
4d) http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_050227arch.shtml Archbishop of Canterbury asks for repentance over gay bishop -27/02/05
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has declared that the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church in Canada should do more than apologise for, respectively, ordaining a practising gay man as Bishop of New Hampshire and blessing same-sex relationships in church. They need to repent of these actions, he says.
Dr Williams was speaking on BBC Radio 4 this morning, in the aftermath of a protracted exchange over authority, faithfulness and sexuality at the week-long global Anglican primates meeting in Newry, near Belfast
(...)Dr Williams therefore gave the strongest hint possible that senior figures from the American and Canadian churches would be excluded from the 2008 Lambeth Conference of worldwide Anglican bishops if they do not 'repent'(...)
And the prominent British commentator and former head of the Industrial Society, Will Hutton, declared in today's Observer newspaper that Archbishop Williams is failing moderate Anglicans by refusing to stand up for the broad centre and by being brow-beaten by hardliners(...)
5) http://www.anglican.tk/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=734 FOR WAYWARD SHEPHERDS, A WELL-EARNED REPROACH Ian Hunter, National Post Monday 28 Feb 2005 Page: A14 Section: Editorials By Ian Hunter
Church pronouncements -- at least those from the hierarchy of the Anglican Church -- are usually phrased in a gelatinous and unctuous prose that obscures meaning.
A striking exception is last week's communique from the 35 global primates (i.e., senior bishops from around the world) after they met for a week in Northern Ireland. The sections of their communique that deal with homosexuality in the Church are remarkably free of ecclesiastical bafflegab. And that is bad news for the Anglican Church of Canada.
Essentially, the bishops have given the renegade Anglican churches in Canada and the United States an ultimatum: Shape up or get out.
The bishops view the current North American situation as "of the utmost seriousness." And they declare that there is "a very real question about whether North American churches are willing to accept the same teaching on matters of sexual morality as is generally accepted elsewhere in the Communion."
In other words, the bishops doubt whether the Canadian and U.S. churches remain part of that "one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church" that all Anglicans profess to believe in each and every time they recite the Apostle's Creed.
So, what's to be done?
The primates' directive is blunt and it has four parts:
- Canadian and American bishops are no longer welcome to take part in the Church's deliberative assembly -- the Anglican Consultative Council -- until 2008 (the next meeting of the international Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops in England). A more blatant snub is difficult to imagine.
- The Canadian and American churches must respond fully to the recommendations of the Windsor Report, issued last October; this report requires, among other steps, a formal Canadian apology for the antics of the Bishop of New Westminster, B.C., Michael Ingham (the blessing of same-sex unions); and an apology from Frank Griswold, the United States Presiding Bishop, for consecrating as bishop a man who had left his wife and children to live with his homosexual lover.
So far, there have been no such apologies, only expressions of "regret" for "hurt caused to all sides." The Windsor Report also requires a moratorium on further same-sex blessings, a point that the global primates reaffirmed.
- In June, 2005, Canadian and U.S. church leaders will be summoned to a meeting in Nottingham, England, in effect to "show cause" why their severance from the worldwide Anglican Communion should not be made permanent. The primates left little doubt that unless there are big changes between now and then, an excommunication (although not by that name) is in prospect.
- Their most consequential decision may have been the direction given to the Archbishop of Canterbury -- "as a matter of urgency" -- to get on with the creation of a panel to recommend and supervise alternative episcopal oversight. This means Anglican priests who find themselves serving in a diocese such as New Westminster, under a renegade bishop, will be able to carry on under orthodox supervision.
No one expected the global primates to be quite so direct and forceful; the aftershocks will be felt for some time. Orthodox Anglicans will regard this development as an answer to their prayers; how the Canadian House of Bishops will take such a public slap in the face is harder to predict.
It has been estimated that roughly a third of Canadian bishops oppose the blessing of same-sex unions on theological grounds. Many others are closet supporters of Bishop Ingham, though some regret his timing and his preening ego. Will the bishops' common desire for "peace in our time" trump theology and doctrine? We shall have to wait and see.
Moreover, is there a limit to the patience of the dwindling band who still attend Canadian Anglican churches? Many of them have felt betrayed by their bishops -- over liturgy; over the squandering of money on politically correct causes (e.g. the residential schools imbroglio); and over other issues -- and yet they continue to go to church. Will the faithful wish to do so when they are disowned by the worldwide Anglican Church?
If the Canadian bishops want a text for their upcoming deliberations, I make bold to suggest these words of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah: "It is you -- shepherds of my people -- who have scattered my flock; it is you who have driven them away; it is you who have not attended to them."
6a) http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=1c8d3fa2-470b-491b-be1b-f25de8995e7c National Post, Feb 28th 2005, Monday Volpe's views add to Cabinet divide over same-sex marriage bill OTTAWA - A bitter government divide over the same-sex marriage bill reached into cabinet this week, as Immigration Minister Joe Volpe gave unmistakable support in an internal dispute to one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation in the Liberal caucus(...)
6b) http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05022511.html LifeSiteNews.com Friday February 25, 2005
"Man and Woman", "Wife", "Husband", "Widow", "Widower" Banished From all Ontario Law
Terms, when referring to spouses, are banned from all government programs, services, documents(...)No longer can a married couple be referred to as "husband and wife" or "man and woman". The terms "Widow" and "widower" are also struck from government statutes(...)
7a) http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0035670.cfm February 28, 2005 Anglicans Prepare to Separate from Pro-Gay Churches by Keith Peters, Washington, D.C., correspondent
The breach is widening in the Episcopal-Anglican family. An ultimatum has been delivered on the endorsement of homosexuality.
The Worldwide Anglican Communion has delivered an ultimatum to the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) and the Anglican Church of Canada: Stop endorsing homosexuality or leave the Anglican Communion.
Both churches must cease ordaining homosexuals and presiding over same-sex ceremonies by 2008 or the worldwide body will sever direct ties. Meanwhile, the archbishops requested that the two churches "voluntarily withdraw from the governing body of the Anglican Communion."
The Rev. Ellis Brust of the American Anglican Council called the delivery of the ultimatum a pivotal moment in Anglican history.
"Biblical faithfulness and the teaching and practice of Anglicanism have been reaffirmed," Brust said, "and the revisionist theology that has taken hold in the Episcopal Church and in the church in Canada-as well as other significant parts of the Communion-has been rejected."(...)
Bishop says gap is closing over gays in Anglican church By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | March 1, 2005
The danger of a schism in the global Anglican Communion appears to be lessening, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, said yesterday.
Shaw, responding to last week's gathering in Northern Ireland of worldwide leaders of the Christian denomination, said he would oppose a moratorium on consecration of gay and lesbian clergy as bishops. ''It's a very bad idea," he said. ''It scapegoats the gay and lesbian community."(...)
But Shaw's relatively upbeat perspective on the state of the Anglican Communion is not shared by some local leaders on both sides of the debate over homosexuality.
''The spin -- that things aren't so bad, and this is not that big a deal -- is not going to work," said the Rev. William L. Murdoch, who is the New England dean of the Anglican Communion Network, the alliance of conservative Episcopalians. ''The fracture of the Anglican Communion is still very much a great and terrile threat upon us right now."
The Rev. Anne C. Fowler, a leading supporter of gay rights in the church, called the primates' statement ''a terrible shame."
''I am just very sorrowful that they don't respect our faithfulness," said Fowler, who is rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain and cochairwoman of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry.
8) Press Release ANGLICAN DIOCESE OF RECIFE REJECTS SUSPENSION OF ITS BISHOP
In a Extraordinary, and historical, Synod, last Saturday, 26, by unanimous vote of 32 clerical and 58 lay delegates, 15 observer from 35 Parishes, Missions and Missionary Stations, representing 90% of its membership (over 2.000 people), the Anglican Diocese of Recife - Brazil, decided, by a motion, "to protest and to reject" the Resolutions from liberal Primate Orlando Santos of suspending Diocesan Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti, an evangelical, from "Office and Ministry", appointed the suffragan bishop as "Diocesan Authority". The suspension is not based in a current disciplinary process for "insubmission", but, for everybody surprise, in anew accusation of "voluntary church renunciation", that Bishop Cavalcanti denies. Recife Synod considers the case unjust, untrue and unfair, part of a deliberate plan to demoralize the bishop and to destroy the Diocesan orthodox identity, and to impose an ECUSA style "unlimited comprehensiveness" (no doctrinal or moral standards) model for the entire Province.
The Recife Resolution says: "we continue to recognize the Rt Rev. Edward Robinson de Barros Cavalcanti as our Diocesan Bishop, in his full exercise of Office and Ministry", reaffirming its loyalty to the See of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion, and its historical and institutional links with the Province of Brazil, but not having relationship with its today leadership for their doctrinal and moral position, and their illegal and illegitimate actions.
"The Diocese is united and decided, but with a certain sadness for the lack of the presence and more clear and public support from the Anglican orthodox leadership worldwide. The Primate of Brazil uses his position to confuse the public opinion with untrue and distorted versions about our reality", said Rev. Estevão Menezes, diocesan press officer.
The Diocese the Recife was the first Institution to send an appeal to the new panel of Supervision to the be created by the Archbishop Canterbury by suggestion of the last Primates Meeting, in Northern Ireland.
Rev. Estevão Menezes Diocese of Recife Press Secretary 03.01.2005
9a) http://ireland.anglican.org/pressreleases/index.php?p=349 Bishop of Cork asks: "Has Anglican Primates' Meeting exceeded its powers?"
* Press Releases
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Bishop Paul Colton, in an initial response to the communiqué issued yesterday at the conclusion of the meeting of Primates in Northern Ireland, has said that the question has to be asked whether, in some respects, the Primates as a group have exceeded their powers as traditionally delineated within Anglicanism.
Bishop Colton said, "The Primates' Meeting was established relatively recently within Anglicanism. When it was set up in 1978 it was for nothing more than "leisurely thought, prayer and deep consultation". The Windsor Report (Paragraph 104) underlines this when it states that '.the Primates' Meeting itself has refused to acknowledge anything more than a consultative and advisory authority.'
"I believe it is an anxiety of many within Anglicanism that the Primates' Meeting is taking on a life of its own which is not supported either by the traditional understanding of the church or of church laws across the Anglican Communion.
"The fact that so many in society at large and also in the media appear to see this communiqué as a decision about what the way forward will in fact be for Anglicanism, is a measure of the lack of clarity that has gained currency about the primates' collective role. This is seen, for example, with regard to the specific request to the Episcopal Church in the USA and to the Anglican Church of Canada, which is being referred to by some as those churches having been "thrown out" or suspended.
"We all need to be reminded that bishops are not the sum total of the Church. The Church is people - lay and ordained (only some of whom are bishops) - who have decision-making authority about issues such as this together in Synod. Outside such Synods Archbishops and Bishops may speak personally. When Archbishops speak personally, or indeed collectively and internationally, their majority view may be persuasive, but ought not to be taken as the sum of the will and mind of the Church.
"That being the case the request to the American and Canadian branches of Anglicanism may be a request, but it is not an enforceable decision or an imperative.
"In my view serious questions need urgently to be asked about the role the Primates' Meeting appears to have arrogated to itself."
Further information from: THE DIOCESAN COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER 4 Glandore Avenue Blackrock Cork
9b) http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/dsnews/261nd3.htm Chicago bishop says flap over gays 'sinful' while people live in poverty Saturday, February 26, 2005 By Allison Hantschel, Staff writer, Daily Southtown Newspaper Chicago's Episcopal bishop said it is "sinful" for his church to be focusing on sex while people around the world suffer in war and live in poverty.
Bishop William Persell expressed his frustration Friday with a report by Anglican leaders that criticized American and Canadian faithful for accepting same-sex relationships and electing an openly gay bishop.
"It is sinful, and it is irresponsible, and someday we will look back on this period of our history and ask, 'Why were we so obsessed with this issue?' " Persell said(...)
10) http://anglicanjournal.com/131/03/canada11.html New Westminster replaces priests who resigned Dialogue with United church began in 2003 MARITES N. SISON, Anglican Journal, March 2005 STAFF WRITER The diocesan council of New Westminster has approved the appointments of new wardens and priests-in-charge at two parishes whose rectors have left the Anglican Church of Canada after disagreeing with a diocesan decision in 2002 to authorize same-sex blessings. The appointments to St. Simon's in Deep Cove, North Vancouver, and St. Andrew's, Pender Harbour were made by Bishop Michael Ingham as a step towards re-establishing ministry in that part of North Vancouver, said diocesan spokesperson Neale Adams. Rev. Ed Hird, former rector of St. Simon's, and Rev. Barclay Mayo, former rector of St. Andrew's - who have since joined a group called the Anglican Communion in Canada (ACiC) - called the move "a harassment," and said it was done when they were both attending an Anglican Mission in America conference in South Carolina. They maintained that they own the parish properties and that the parishes are now under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, of the province of Rwanda. Mr. Adams said, however, that the parishes "are still part of the diocese of New Westminster and they are there to provide ministry for the Anglican Church of Canada." He said that canon (church) law allowed the bishop to appoint Rev. Sarah Tweedale, rector of St. Clement's, to take charge of St. Simon's, and Rev. Mark Lemon, rector of St. Hilda's in Sechelt, to be priest-in-charge of St. Andrew's. Ms. Tweedale's parish opposes same-sex blessings but has remained with the diocese. In an interview, Ms. Tweedale said her new appointment does not involve her physically going to St. Simon's because Mr. Hird is still in the parish property with members of the congregation that have followed him out of the diocese. St. Simon's and St. Andrew's, she said, remain "as geographical entities, and as people, some of whom no doubt want to remain with the Anglican Church of Canada." Bishop Ingham also announced that he was adopting the diocesan council recommendation to dissolve Emmanuel Church in Richmond, B.C., whose priest, Rev. Silas Ng, also left and joined Mr. Hird and Mr. Mayo. The parish worshipped in rented space.
11) http://www.terrisfight.org For those who may not know I invite you to see Terri awake for yourself at http://www.terrisfight.org
I think by now everyone has heard of the plight of Terri Schiavo, a young Florida woman mentally impaired in some bizarre accident back in 1991.
Terri is awake and responsive but unable to speak or feed herself because of the associated paralysis. Her husband has consistently denied her any form of rehabilitation since the injury, 'winning' a series of court battles to have her feeding and hydration tube removed.
Death by dehydration is an agonizing way to die and interestingly enough, the same robed monarchs who currently occupy the judiciary, wouldn't dream of putting a dog to death in such a manner, much less a convicted felon. In my best recollection, no one awake has ever been a candidate for murder in a hospital bed(...)
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