BabyBlue: Upcoming timeline

From BabyBlue Online, a list of upcoming events:

October 8 - TEC/Diocese of Los Angeles vs Anglican Congregations (Appeal before the California Supreme Court)

October 14 - TEC/Diocese of Virginia vs CANA, Virginia (significantly scaled-down to focus on whether the VA Division Statute also applies to three smaller properties)

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

Oct. 21-22 - Anglican Awakening - Akron, Ohio

Nov. 4 - Election Day, USANov. 7 - Diocese of Pittsburgh Special Convention - Pittsburgh, PA

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

Nov. 13-15 - Anglican Awakening, Amesbury, MA

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

Check it out.

AAC weekly update from Bishop Anderson

The AAC weekly update from Bishop David Anderson, via email [boldface mine]:

Beloved in Christ,

One of our lead stories this week centers on the agreement of the Rev. Brian Cox to cooperate with the Episcopal Church in their attempt to wrest control of the Diocese of San Joaquin back from Bishop John-David Schofield and the parishes that have chosen to realign with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. There is a particular disappointment among the orthodox that this former brother in arms would agree to such a collaboration. The American Anglican Council would urge Fr. Cox and any others who are being asked to participate in such endeavors to turn aside. History judges the collaborationists harshly, and his interests in bringing so-called reconciliation to the areas encompassing San Joaquin is ill-advised and focused on the wrong people. Bishop Schofield addresses the points in his own words quite adequately.

On the opposite coast of the United States, the TEC diocese of North Carolina passed the following resolution:

ON THE INCLUSION OF ALL PERSONS REGARDLESS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION AS FULL AND EQUAL PARTICIPANTS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH.

Resolved by the 192nd Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, that the Diocese continue to demonstrate its commitment to radical hospitality and, that in accordance with the House of Bishops' Statement, Fall 2007, we "proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church" by:

1) Urging the Archbishop of Canterbury to extend to the duly elected and consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire an invitation to full participation in the Lambeth Conference of 2008;

2) Encouraging our Deputies to the 2009 General Convention to ensure compliance with Title III. Canon I. Section 2, which supports the full and equal participation of all persons regardless of sexual orientation in all aspects of the Church's ministries, lay and ordained;

3) Encouraging the General Convention to call for the development of public liturgies for the blessing of same sex unions.

As one orthodox North Carolina representative protested, "This extraordinary document encapsulates the agenda of the lesbian and gay communities. ‘ALL PERSONS REGARDLESS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION’ would certainly appear to include those whose sexual orientation compels them to seek heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, sex with boys, girls, young children, or even animals. There are absolutely no exclusions or limits listed."

He then goes on to rightly ask, "Has our religion truly come to the point where there are no personal moral constraints whatsoever, and the only good is what lesbians and gays deem it to be?" Aside from continuing to push for Bishop Gene Robinson to be invited officially to the Lambeth 2008 Conference, full enfranchisement of all sexual behaviors, and public liturgies for same sex unions, the telling line of the resolution is the title itself.

Because most of TEC’s upper leadership on down to many, many parish rectors and staff priests no longer believe that the Holy Scriptures are, in the words of 1 Timothy 3:16, "God breathed", that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, those leaders believe that the Word of God can be reshaped and re-understood in light of our current culture. The Episcopal Church has no lamp to light their way. The sinful behavior of sexual relations outside of traditional marriage and relations involving same gender partners is nothing but the beginning of a strange journey into a different, non-Christian religion having some of the outward form of the former but a corrupted content that does not lead to eternal life with the Creator.

If the homosexual relationships are just the beginning, what is to follow? All the historic perversions of what God created and called good are following closely. Bisexual behavior, behavior with underage individuals, cross dressing and gender switching are included in the Diocese of North Carolina's resolution: "the inclusion of all persons regardless of sexual orientation as full and equal participants in the life of Christ's church." Sexual orientation is a catch-all phrase, leaving the door open for the rest of the crowd to follow along.

I can only ask, "Is this a church you want your children and grandchildren to be exposed to?" In this regard, I call your attention to the included New York Times story about pedophilia in a New Haven, Connecticut Episcopal Church and how accommodating the church was to that horrible behavior. Other articles elsewhere in the news pick up on the Diocese of Minnesota's employment of a sexual predator and the cover up they have used (see the story here, the diocesan response here, and one priest's reaction to the diocesan response).

Elsewhere in the news we are shocked to see that TEC’s Executive Council has reassigned investment income from trust funds to be used for activities (which would include litigation) inside the dioceses of TEC which have or are planning to depart. In their own words, the Executive Council says, "We will hold clergy leaders accountable to their vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline and worship of this Church, and lay leadership accountable to the fiduciary responsibilities of the offices they hold. Up to $500,000 of income from trust funds will be made available in the calendar year 2008 to support the mission work of the Diocese of San Joaquin and similarly situated dioceses." Because the references are directly to holding clergy and lay leaders accountable for their vows and fiduciary responsibility and since, as of now, there are few ways to hold the laity responsible except through civil litigation, we see this as an allocation of funds that could go to genuine mission work elsewhere being used to sustain the litigation and punishment of clergy and laity within departing dioceses.

Several questions need to be asked. What are the trust funds’ designations for the funds being raided of their income? Are there restrictions, or are the income proceeds free to be raided? With all of the talk in TEC about Millennium Development Goals, how can TEC justify spending half a million dollars on litigation to punish clergy and laity who only want to depart with what they and their ancestors paid for? Since the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (a TEC seminary) is having to close its doors due to finances, could not the $500,000 help the seminary stay afloat, or is it more important to sue people than to train people for ministry? Inquiring minds would like to know. As much as the Episcopal Church constantly emphasizes the vow of clergy to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Church (TEC), what is overlooked is that imbedded in that ordination vow is the adjoining statement by the priest,"...I solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation..."

How is it that in their accusations against the orthodox, TEC leadership can forget "the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation" and only remember the "doctrine, discipline, and worship" part? Is not the doctrine, discipline and worship fully dependent on the prior statement being true, not only for the ordinand, but for the bishop doing the laying on of hands?

I suppose the partial good news is the American Anglican Council and several orthodox retired TEC bishops asked for full disclosure of where the litigation money has come from, and we got a partial answer: in 2008 some of it will come from invaded trust funds’ income. We still want to know where the rest of the litigation money is coming from to pay David Booth Beers and his law firm to sue orthodox Anglicans. We know the Diocese of Virginia has already spent about $1 million and has taken out another $1 million line of credit to sue the Northern Virginia churches. They could spend more than that in the appeals process. The Diocese of Virginia borrowed the money, has spent it, will have to pay it back, and now it needs more money to sue. Virginia will learn that the devil has an unquenchable appetite, not only for the souls of the revisionists, but for their money as well.

Finally we note that some correspondence is suggesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury should step down to save the Communion. Suggestions such as these, while very much to the point following the "Sharia law" outrage, to name only one, miss the point that Dr. Williams serves at the pleasure of the Queen of England, and not at anyone else’s. Only if and when the Queen herself becomes concerned enough about the honor and stability of the Church and the office of the Archbishop, will anything happen. The AAC will thus note the problems, but will not suggest what actions the Archbishop should take career-wise.

Blessings and Peace in Christ Jesus,

The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President & CEO of the AAC

Executive Council reviews budgets, considers draft of letter to the Episcopal Church

From EpiscopalLife Online [boldface mine]:

Members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council February 13 learned that diocesan financial contributions to the wider church's budget exceeded what was expected in 2007 and will likely also increase in 2008.

Josephine Hicks of the Diocese of North Carolina, chair of Council's Administration and Finance Committee (A&F), and Episcopal Church Treasurer Kurt Barnes reviewed the performance of the 2007 budget and presented A&F's proposed 2008 budget. Council will vote on the budget February 14 during the concluding day of this four-day meeting in Quito.

Also during the afternoon plenary session at the Hilton Colon hotel, a task group charged with writing a letter to the Episcopal Church, to be released at the end of the meeting, presented a first draft and asked for feedback. Council members read the draft as it was projected on a large screen in the plenary meeting room. Task group chair Sherry Denton of the Diocese of Western Kansas asked the members to individually relay their feedback to the task group.

The draft would have Council express its admiration for the mission and ministry of the people and clergy of the hosting Diocese of Ecuador Central and explain Council's efforts to help the Church work within its 2007-2009 triennial budget. The letter also contains language assuring people who want to remain member of the Episcopal Church but who find themselves in parishes or dioceses attempting to depart that the Church has not forgotten them and stands ready to help them. . .

In other action February 13, Council:

• heard a summary of the Anglican Church of Canada's 2006 General Synod from New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham, who is the Canadian church’s partner on the Council. Ingham also told Council he sees the Episcopal Church as "deeply committed" to "basic Gospel values" and to mission. He noted the disagreements about the full inclusion of gays and lesbians facing both churches, adding "we need not tear ourselves apart" on issues that both churches have said are not issues of core doctrine. "We walk together on this journey," Ingham said.


• heard a summary of plans for the 2008 Lambeth Conference from Council member Ian Douglas, who is part of the conference's design team. He described a plan designed to equip bishops for mission and which begins with groups of eight bishops from different provinces meeting in what are being called "indaba groups" to begin the practice of encountering God's Word and encountering each other through sharing their stories and God's story. Indaba is a Zulu/Xhosa word meaning gathering for conversation. Indaba groups will be combined for discussions of issues. Douglas told the Executive Council that some of those issues could well include Anglican identity, evangelism, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), environmental concerns, multi-faith dialogue, gender equality and violence, human sexuality, the Windsor Report, and biblical authority. "We're trying to create a space for conversation," but not avoid the hard issues, Douglas said. . .

Read it all.

MCJ's learned response to the Executive Council

Responding to the draft proposal to an Anglican Covenant, TEC's Executive Council laughs into its hand and chokes out, "Yeah. Right."

This posting at the Midwest Conservative Journal is way too nuanced to just pick sections to highlight. You have to go read it yourself - how Christopher Johnson wades through this stuff is totally beyond me. Just enjoy (in a macabre sort of way)!

Executive Summary: Executive Council insults conservatives

Thanks to Tom Rightmyer in Asheville, NC (posting on Stand Firm) for his fine (and accurate) summation of the response of the Executive Council of the Episopal Church to the HOB statement, as articulated (and passed this afternoon without any amendments) in Resolution NAC 026, "Response to House of Bishops Statement on Resolution B033."

RESOLUTION TEXT

Resolved, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, expresses its appreciation to the House of Bishops for undertaking the monumental task of trying to clarify the conflict between the canons of the Episcopal Church and the demands raised by the Dar E [sic] Salaam communiqué, and be it further

Resolved, the Executive Council affirms with the House of Bishops the essential and renewed study of human sexuality as noted in the “listening process” of the Lambeth Conference of 1998, and be it further

Resolved, that the House of Bishops’ statement exacerbated feelings of exclusion felt by many of the lesbian and gay members of our church by defining Resolution B033 from the 75th General Convention to include lesbian and gay people, and be it further

Resolved, that by calling particular attention to the application of B033 to lesbian and gay person [sic], it may inappropriately suggest that an additional qualification for the episcopacy has been imposed beyond those contained in the constitutions and canons of the church, and be it further

Resolved, that while B033 focuses on the consent process for bishops, the broader impact is to discourage the full participation by lesbians and gay persons in the life of the church and enshrine discrimination in the policies of the Episcopal Church, and be it further

Resolved, that the Executive Council acknowledge with regret the additional pain and estrangement inflicted on lesbian and gay members of the church, and we pledge to work toward a time when our church will fully respect the dignity of every human being in all aspects of the life of our church.

Executive Council receives draft response to proposed Anglican covenant

From EpiscopalLife Online:

Members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council received copies of a proposed Council response to the draft Anglican covenant during private conversation the afternoon of October 26.

The Council, the church's governing body between meetings of General Convention, will discuss the draft response on October 27 in another private conversation during the second day of its three-day meeting at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Michigan.
Also on October 26, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, during her opening remarks to the meeting, discussed her plan to reorganize the staff of the Episcopal Church Center in New York.

The goal is to create an "organic and flexible structure that is mission-driven" that is dispersed in terms of decision-making and actual location, she said.

"We're looking for a system that tends to be more self-organizing rather than directed from the top," she said.

Draft covenant response consideration begins

Rosalie Ballentine of the Virgin Islands, chair of the work group assigned to draft the response, told the Council's International Concerns Committee (INC) earlier in the day that the drafting group was representative of the whole Episcopal Church and set a goal "to try to be reflective of the various views within the Episcopal Church."

She said the group found that "the Episcopal Church is not of one mind with respect to anything in the draft covenant."

The Rev. Canon Mark Harris of Delaware, a member of the drafting committee, told INC that "there was a lot of generosity with the group itself," adding that "there was real listening" during the group's writing efforts. Harris said that the resulting draft makes "an honest attempt" to reflect the diversity of the church's feelings.

Ballentine reminded the committee that the idea of an Anglican covenant is "evolving" and that she understood that "the decision about signing any covenant would have to be General Convention's."

In a letter to the Episcopal Church at the close of its March 2-4 meeting in Portland, Oregon, the Executive Council said "responding to the draft covenant does not presuppose agreement with the terms and principles advanced in the draft."

Responses to the proposed draft covenant from around the Anglican Communion are due by January 1, 2008. Responses received thus far are available here. . .

Jefferts Schori summarized her work since the Council's last meeting in June, beginning with her description of the "health and vitality" she has seen during her travels around the Episcopal Church. She said it was exciting "to see the passion with which dioceses and parishes in this church are engaged in mission."

"More and more people in this church get mission," she said.

Jefferts Schori cited the vitality of the health ministry of the Diocese of Puerto Rico and the Diocese of Northern Michigan's exploration of various models of an episcopacy to succeed Bishop Jim Kelsey, who died in June, as the kind of "unexpected places" from which others in the church can learn lessons about being responsive to mission needs.

The Presiding Bishop also told the Council that she'd twice spoken to Diocese of San Diego Bishop James Mathes on October 25 concerning the devastating effects of the wildfires burning in southern California. "They are enormously grateful for the ministry of ERD" and others across the church, she said.

She also spoke during lunch on October 26 with Diocese of Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno about the somewhat less-dire wildfire situation in his diocese.

Saying that many dioceses and congregations will be taking up special collections on October 28, Jefferts Schori said "please, please, please keep the people of southern California in your prayers and bless them with your generosity."

Jefferts Schori also reported briefly on the September meeting of the House of Bishops in New Orleans. Noting the presence of members of the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates of the Anglican Communion at the New Orleans meeting, she said "the bishops heard some very challenging words from the visitors."

She said that she was pleased with the statement the bishops issued to the Anglican Communion at the end of the meeting. "Not everyone was comfortable where we stood, but we stood together," she said.

The JSC also recognized that the Episcopal Church has a "vocation in this season to keep the issues of human sexuality before the communion," Jefferts Schori said, adding that not all of the JSC members like that situation, but she said they do recognize the Episcopal Church's vocation.

The communion is involved in a "signal shift" these days, Jefferts Schori said, back to mission questions and "basic living issues." She cited the recent communiqué from the Council of the Anglican Provinces of Africa as an example.

Anderson spent the majority of her opening remarks describing her September visit in the Diocese of Fort Worth to meet with those Episcopalians who are not happy with the diocesan leadership's desire to distance the diocese from the Episcopal Church. Her presentation included a series of questions asked of her during that visit which were projected onto a screen in the Council's meeting room. . .

Read it all.