BabyBlue makes a list

From BabyBlue Online, a list of upcoming events of interest:

Been thinking about what comes next. Here are some of the events:

Sept. 3-4 - CAPA Primates and Standing Committee Meeting, Nairobi, Kenya

Sept. 12-14 - The PB Road Show in Augusta, Savannah and Statesboro, Georgia

Sept. 17-19 - TEC House of Bishops, Salt Lake City, Utah

September 26-27 - Anglican District of Virginia Synod, Herndon, VA

Oct. 4 - Diocese of Pittsburgh Annual Convention, Monroeville, Pennsylvania

October 8 - Trial: TEC/Diocese of Los Angeles and Anglican Congregations, California
October - Trial: TEC/Diocese of Virginia and CANA, Virginia

Oct. 20-23 - TEC Executive Council, Helena, Montana

Oct. 22-24 - REC General Council, Victoria, BC

Nov. 7-8 - Diocese of Quincy Annual Synod, Quincy, Illinois

Nov. 14-15 - Diocese of Ft. Worth Convention, Bedford, Texas

Dec. 1-3 - Common Cause Partnership Council

Dec. 15-19 - Windsor Continuation Group Meeting, Mustang Island, Texas

Jan/Feb 2009 - Anglican Primates Meeting, Bahamas

Feb. 9-13, 2009 - General Synod of the Church of England, London

Jan. 28-31, 2009 - AMiA Winter Conference, Greensboro, NC

Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2009 - TEC Executive Council, Stockton, CA

April 20-22, 2009 - TEC Executive Council, South Portland, Maine

May 2009 - Anglican Consultive Council

July 9-12, 2009 - BabyBlue's 30th High School Reunion, Honolulu, Hawaii

July 8-17, 2009 - TEC General Convention, Anaheim, CA

July 10-14, 2009 - General Synod of the Church of England, York

Nov. 17-19, 2009 - General Synod of the Church of England, London (if needed)

Check it out.

AAC weekly update by Bishop Anderson

Via email from the American Anglican Council, the weekly update from Bishop David Anderson [boldface mine]:

. . .The Anglican stories below, those in the previous weeks, and the stories in the weeks ahead can be seen as individual vignettes - but they can also be seen as part of a larger flow of events moving in defined directions, sometimes in very different directions. So the question, "Where is Anglicanism going?" is a question that has more than one answer. Part of the Anglicanism of today is going one direction, part is going a different direction, and the distance between the two is increasing day by day. Liberal/Revisionist Anglicanism is flowing with the issues, advocating secular views on religion and sexuality, with altered views on the authority of Holy Scripture, who Jesus is, and what he did or didn't do for us and the world. This part of Anglicanism is welcoming of cultural and polytheistic inclusion such that modern Anglicanism can be the home for authentic spiritual pantheism. Not everyone in that flow is in the same place, but the flow is moving in that direction.

The other flow is in the opposite direction, not absolutely unified, but generally embracing a higher view of Holy Scripture's authority and authenticity, a historic and Biblical view of who Jesus is, what he has done and is doing for us and the world. More traditional views on Trinitarian theology, sexuality, and moral and ethical discipline would accompany this flow.

With the increasingly worrisome behavior of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a question is now being heard among the orthodox Anglicans: "What would a post-Canterbury/Lambeth Anglicanism look like?" Embodied in this question is "What would hold us together, what or who would center us, globally, in an organizational and incarnational manner?" It is understood that the spiritual center is Jesus Christ, of course. But where would we look for an orthodox and vital 'first among equals?' I don't have the answer, lest you thought I was setting you up for one scheme or another, but the question needs to be asked now, pondered and prayed through, because unless there is a miraculous change in Lambeth Palace's leadership, the question will grow more relevant week by week.

News from around the world the fact that former TEC bishop Bill Cox, now enrolled in the Province of the Southern Cone, has been served notice of TEC deposition proceedings. Why does TEC waste their time and paper deposing those who have left and gone to other Provinces? The meanness and vindictiveness of the American Episcopal Church continues to show itself week by week.

In following up on news from last week, we note that the CofE priest/wiccan witch who was outed in the press has at his bishop's insistence resigned as an Anglican cleric. He will presumably take his black kettle and book of spells and incantations with him when he leaves the vicarage. One is tempted to see this just as a theatre of the absurd, but if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, you can look through the mist and see that we are actually engaged in spiritual warfare, a head-on collision of two kingdoms. We should not flee, but as Christ's soldiers run to the sound of the battle, girded with the full armor of God.

Those who are following the news about the planned GAFCON gathering will have read the "leaked" minutes of the confidential meetings which were held to discuss the event. Closer inspection reveals that the purported text "leaked" was not an agreed-upon set of minutes at all, and was not in fact leaked, but planted. Apparently, upon examination of the text in circulation, the words are those of a Janina Zang, a Missionary of USPG (General Secretary is Bishop Michael Doe), who is on assignment as Personal Assistant to Bishop Suheil Dawani. Her text seems written to achieve a particular aim, and the fact that the misnamed "minutes" were then suddenly in the hands of a number of hostile organizations, and given as well to a number of London journalists (as reported by Ruth Gledhill, London Times) seems well planned, and hardly a leak. It is finally, a non-event.

I began by saying that I was looking out of the window of a hotel, and it is in Dallas, Texas, where the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) is having their Winter Conference. AMiA, a mission of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, uses their Winter Conference each year to provide corporate worship, teaching, vision and encouragement to their laity and clergy. Over the last few years others of us who are not a part of AMiA, but very much a part of the orthodox Anglican realignment with them, attend as well. Many of us are a part of the Common Cause Federation with AMiA, and we are welcomed warmly. This event, like other Common Cause Partners' Councils and Conventions, is a time of Christian refreshment, so different from the acrimony and divisiveness that were common in official gatherings of the Episcopal Church's General Conventions. The final day of the Winter Conference will see three new bishops consecrated for the Anglican Mission in America. Bishops based in Rwanda and their Primate Emmanuel Kolini, AMiA Bishops based in the USA, and Common Cause Bishops will all lay hands upon them. The AAC welcomes the addition of faithful orthodox American bishops to strengthen the work of proclaiming the Gospel, and to see the Good News of Jesus Christ bring men and women to salvation and a transformation of their life.

Blessings and peace in Christ Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President & CEO, American Anglican Council

Reuters on the Anglican Communion

From Reuters, Africans woo conservative U.S. Anglicans in gay row:

JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) - As an Anglican row over gay clergy deepens, growing numbers of conservative American priests are abandoning the liberal U.S. church and pledging allegiance to traditionalist African bishops instead.

Africans, who take a tough line on homosexuality, are keen to recruit the dissident priests as bishops under their own authority and to provide a new spiritual home for their clusters of wealthy U.S. congregations.

But liberals say African bishops are violating church rules by setting up fiefdoms in the United States and deepening a crisis that threatens to split the Anglican communion, a world-wide federation of 38 member churches.

"It's a terrible breach of longstanding Christian tradition. You don't invade someone else's territory just because you disagree with them," said Jan Nunley, deputy communications director for the U.S. Episcopal Church. . .

The 77-million-strong Anglican church has been divided since 2003 when its 2.4-million-member U.S. branch consecrated Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop in its history.

Conservatives say the U.S. church has disobeyed biblical commands and broken with Anglican teaching by backing gay priests, while liberals support a looser interpretation of scripture and say Anglicanism has always embraced diversity.

The Africans say they want to rescue U.S. churches and individuals who might otherwise abandon Anglicanism.

"We are not undermining the authority of anybody. We are actually saving a situation of people who so much need us," Kenya's Nzimbi told Reuters. "Otherwise if they are left on their own they would be like sheep without a shepherd." . . .

Jim Naughton, canon of communications for the Washington diocese, said most defecting parishes were small. He suggested financial gain could be a factor for struggling African churches -- a charge they vehemently deny.

"The budgets of large American churches are sometimes larger than the budgets of entire African countries," he said.

On an earlier story, I sarcastically said, "Feel the love." Here I say, "Feel the condescension" (and I'm not being sarcastic - Jim Naughton as canon on "communications" must only be "communicating" to the choir, because this type of language I find amazingly insulting, to everyone involved).

Read it all.