Threats force Egyptian convert to hide

From the Associated Press:

CAIRO, Egypt - An Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity and then took the unprecedented step of seeking official recognition for the change said he has gone into hiding following death threats.

Mohammed Hegazy, who sparked controversy when pictures of him posing with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in newspapers, was shunned by his family and threatened by an Islamist cleric vowing to seek his execution as an apostate.

"I know there are fatwas (religious edicts) to shed my blood, but I will not give up and I will not leave the country," the 25-year-old Hegazy told The Associated Press from his hideout Thursday.

Hegazy made a public splash when he took the unusual step of going to court to change his religion on his national ID card. His first lawyer filed the case, but then quit after the uproar; his second is still considering whether it's worth pursuing.

Hegazy said he received telephoned death threats before he went into hiding in an apartment with his wife, a Muslim who took the name Katarina when she converted to Christianity several years ago. She is four months pregnant.

He said he wants to change the religion on his ID for two reasons: to set a precedent for other converts and to ensure his child can openly be raised Christian. He wants his child to get a Christian name, birth certificate and eventually marry in a church. That would be impossible if Hegazy's official religion is Muslim, because a child is registered in the religion of the father. . .

. . . "I started readings and comparative studies in religions," he said. "I found that I am not consistent with Islam teachings. The major issue for me was love. Islam wasn't promoting love as Christianity did."

He said after his conversion was discovered, police detained him for three days and tortured him. He said he was harassed several more times. . .

Read it all, and add Hegazy and his family to your prayers.

Diocese of Virginia legal proceedings

From BabyBlueOnline, a wrap-up of the legal proceedings from this week between the Diocese of Virginia and the 11 CANA congregations:

As to the ownership of the property, the [Fairfax Circuit Court] stated that it was making a very narrow ruling. The court found that, at this preliminary stage in the litigation, the complaints filed by the diocese and TEC state a sufficient claim to an interest in the property for those claims to proceed to trial where the TEC and the diocese will have to put on actual evidence to support their allegations. The court emphasized that it was not making a determination as to any rights, but simply that the complaints alleged enough to get TEC and the diocese past a preliminary motion to dismiss.

Also,

After recess, the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church agreed to dismiss all of the vestry members and rectors as defendants without prejudice and the individuals agreed to honor any determination of the court regarding the plaintiffs’ property claims, subject to their rights of appeal of any adverse ruling.

That's a relief for the volunteers who dedicate their time and talent to working for a church. Read it all.

However, EpiscopalLife Online spins it a little differently:

According to the agreement, if the court rules in favor of the Episcopal Church and the diocese, an orderly transition with respect to all property would ensue. The Church and the diocese reserve the right, however, to seek an accounting of all monies spent by the departed congregations and bring the individual vestry members and clergy back into the litigation for that purpose.

Feel the love.

Windsor bishops meeting at Camp Allen

From the Midwest Conservative Journal, a report and commentary on the Windsor bishops meeting in Camp Allen this week:

For the Windsor bishops, the nightmare scenario runs roughly as follows: what happens if TEC holds firm and Dr. Williams doesn't give the Windsor bishops what they want after the September meeting? Do they back down, go to Lambeth anyway and hope that TEC completely changes its mind next year?

How TEC would be persuaded to do that is about as doubtful as it is possible for anything to be. If the Windsor bishops do cave, their leverage is gone. If TEC stiffs Dr. Williams in September and he still invites them to Lambeth, my gracious lord of Canterbury fatally undermines the position of the primates and for all intents and purposes, kills not only the Dar es Salaam Communiqué but the Windsor Report itself.

And if, after all that, the Windsor bishops still proclaim their love and affection for the Anglican Communion, they effectively link themselves to a group with no serious principles of any kind. And what is so noble about proclaiming oneself a "Windsor bishop" when TEC tramples the Windsor Report underfoot and is allowed by the Anglican Communion to get away with it?

Check it out.

Anglican TV fundraiser

Help Kevin from AnglicanTV raise money to travel to cover events in Africa! From his website:

As you are aware Bishop-Elect Bill Atwood and Bishop-Elect John Guernsey will be traveling to Africa at the end of this month, and will be Anglican Bishops when they return. AnglicanTV would love to bring you video coverage of this historical event.

In order to do this we need to raise a total of $2500. This amount includes airfare, hotels, and meals (I do not take a salary from AnglicanTv... yet). As of 5pm on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 I have raised $1100 for Africa trip.

By Monday, August 13th, we need to raise the remaining $1400. Please consider donating.

Go here to purchase DVDs of ++Gregory Venables's Bible study from the recent ACN meeting. And go here for an update on Kevin's fundraising, and for info on how to contribute. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!

Canon Kendall Harmon on leadership

Be sure to check out Sarah Hey's (of Stand Firm fame) five-part series on leadership with Canon Kendall Harmon (of TitusOneNine fame) now posted at AnglicanTV. Each part is around 15 minutes. Enjoy!

“You can stay in the center as long as you want”

From the McKinney Courier-Gazette (North Texas), a story on a new labyrinth in the St. Peter's Episcopal Church parish hall (Diocese of Texas). Apparently, you can't just come up with a labyrinth yourself - it requires a labyrinth committee with its own chairman (in this case, Carolyn Hewitt) who then goes for labyrinth training:

After a trip to St. Paul, Minn., where she [Hewitt] went through labyrinth facilitator training with Lauren Artress, of Grace Cathedral Episcopal Church in San Francisco, Hewitt said she became more interested.

Huuummmmmm. . . I'm still trying to figure out what type of training is needed.

Read it all.

Sydney Bishops write to the Archbishop of Canterbury

Here's the letter the the Sydney Anglican bishops wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Excerpt:

Your invitation [to Lambeth] has been received with pleasure and it would give us a great deal of joy to be able to join you. Unfortunately the timing of the invitation has proved difficult. We have been looking for the response of the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church to the Primates’ Communiqué from Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. We understand that this response is due by 30th of September.

Read it all.
H/t to Stand Firm.

Lambeth RSVP deadline extended

From the Times Online, Ruth Gledhill writes:

The deadline for bishops to respond to their invite to the Lambeth Conference has been extended, according to a report in the Church of England Newspaper tomorrow.

The extension comes after Sydney's six bishops told the Archbishop of Canterbury that they could not reply to the invite until they knew the response of American bishops to demands made by Primates in February at Dar es Salaam.

“Unfortunately the timing of the invitation has proved difficult,” they explained as they were first "looking for the response" of the American House of Bishops to the Primates’ February communiqué before they could give him their final answer. Sydney indicated it would follow the lead of the African churches who have said they will not attend if the American bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson were invited.

Saints of the Church

And from Touchstone, a reminder of what Christ calls us to do in the Great Commission even at the risk of our own lives, as the 23 kidnapped South Korean church volunteers (two have been killed) in Afghanistan can attest:

. . . I've been going through lists and readings about saints of the church. After a while, you realize something you always knew but still seemed far away in "tradition": we stand in spiritual company with those who bent their necks to the sword, gave their bodies to the flames, and clung to the Cross of Jesus under excruciating tortures. These are not pious fictions from yesterday and long ago; and today, as you read this, a brother, a sister in Christ, carries the Cross by which we have all been saved. Forget the martyrs and you forget Christ. They are, after all, the primary "witnesses," and, in the words of the Orthodox prayer at First Hour, the "first fruits of creation."

Read it all and also IRD's story on the hostage situation.

1662 or 1928 Prayer Book - which shall it be?

As one who, way after the 1979 Prayer Book came into being, was married from the 1928 Prayer Book (at the insistence of my mother), I found this article by the Rev. Dr. Peter Toon interesting:

Of those who hear this message—and, happily, they are growing slowly in numbers—a majority respond by saying, “Why not go back to the 1662 for this is what is used Sunday by Sunday (in English or in translation) in provinces like Uganda and this is what is the doctrinal formulary for all the Global South?” So it looks as though, if the new seceders are to recover the Anglican Way, and be set free from “the Episcopal Way” of TEC, then it will probably be through the discovery of the BCP (1662) in one form or another. Perhaps then, and only then, will appreciation of the three American editions of this same Book of Common Prayer, those of 1789, 1892 and 1928 be really appreciated—but that is some way off at present.

Maybe I should have held out for the 1662 Prayer Book.

Read it all.

Sin, Forgiveness, and Love

A worthwhile two-part series on Sin, Forgiveness, and Love by Fr. David Baumann here and here.

From Part I:

Recognizing one’s sin provides no guarantee of moving on to the next step. After recognition, one must come to repentance. Repentance means not only saying, “I have sinned,” but being sorry for it and wishing to fix it. There are times when someone may say, “Yes, okay, I did it, but...” And “but” is followed by rationalization, blaming someone else, pointing out someone else’s sin, or even an excuse for why the sin was really okay.

Repentance (which may include contrition or a feeling of sorrow and empathy with offended parties) must lead to confession. In confession, one frankly names one’s sins. Confession must be made to God, quite often to the offended parties, and sometimes to “the Church” in one form or another. If no sin is solitary, neither is any sin just against God alone. Just as love of God and love of neighbor must go together, sin is also against both God and neighbor. In the rite of the Reconciliation of a Penitent, at one point the penitent says, “I confess to Almighty God” and “to his Church...” It is at this point that the penitent begins to gain power over his sin; it is true that to name something gives one power over it.

And from Part II:

We must couple John’s, “No one who is a child of God sins” (1 John 3:9a) with Paul’s, “The good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want—that is what I do” (Romans 7:19). This is far too complex a matter for reflection on a blogpost that has already grown long, though I think that a good place to start would be to consider what is in the heart of the believer. When we truly and genuinely desire holiness, to love God and our neighbor, our sins will be kind of like “exhaust” on the journey, i.e. not willfully evil or deliberately injurious to others as the primary pattern of life. That is, they are evidence of weakness and imperfection rather than corruption that has been embraced while God is rejected.

Anglican churches petition California Supreme Court

From Virtue Online, an update on the ongoing legal manuevering between ECUSA and three of the Anglican churches originally in the Diocese of Los Angeles:

Three California Anglican churches today announced the filing of petitions with the California Supreme Court to settle a church property dispute case that affects countless churches and their members throughout California. The three churches are St. James Church in Newport Beach, All Saints' Church in Long Beach, and St. David's Church in North Hollywood.

In July 2007, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, reversed the Orange County Superior Court's prior ruling that the three former Episcopal churches, which ended their affiliation with the national denomination in 2004, did not forfeit their property by changing their affiliation to another Anglican church.

This division of the appellate court broke with nearly thirty years of California church property law applying "neutral principles" (i.e., who holds the deed, who bought or donated the property, and whether the local church ever agreed to turn over the property), and instead ruled that denominations can take over local church property by simply passing an internal rule - even if the local church is separately incorporated, bought and maintained the property, and never consented to the rule. . .

Read it all.

More from the Llama Butchers

From That's My Church - "You Can't Quit - I'm Firing You!" Division of The Llama Butchers, an interesting write-up on Bishop Lee's decision to defrock those Virginia clergy that joined CANA as well as this observation that I think is so true:

And in other Rebel Alliance news, a fellow cranky member of my congregation reminds me that it looks as if the Diocese of Pittsburgh is gearing up to consider breaking away. Pittsburgh is under the guidance of Bishop Robert Duncan, one of the more outspoken of the rebels. Indeed, his recently voiced opinion that not only is TEC lost, but so is Canterbury, is starting to form cracks in the Alliance even as it begins to coalesce. This is, in fact, exactly what TEC would like to see - a splintered, granulated sprinkling of cranks instead of an organized orthodox alternative. TEC still hasn't the remotest idea why anybody would want to abandon it, given what a paragon of Big Tent Deism it's become. But it's obviously happier if it feels they have no viable place to go.

Read it all.

New church in Temecula underlines Anglican divide

From a North County Times article by James Curran this Sunday:

. . . Those prayers were recited at the debut service for Temecula Valley Anglican Fellowship, which was held less than a half-mile away from St. Thomas Episcopal Church, the home of their former comrades in faith.

The service was the latest salvo in a chaotic battle for the souls -- if not the hearts and minds -- of believers after a series of ideological decisions, including the ordination of an openly gay bishop, inspired some parishes to split from the national Episcopal Church.

About 75 people attended the first service of Temecula Valley Anglican, which is called an outreach ministry of St. John's Anglican Church in Fallbrook. St. John's has been at the forefront of the struggle. It split from the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego due to theological disagreements.

The diocese and St. John's are currently arguing in the courts to determine who actually owns the land and sanctuary where St. John's currently meets. But instead of consolidating resources for a protracted legal battle, St. John's decided to expand into Southwest County, offering what officials call a traditional option for churchseekers.

. . . Murrieta resident Rick Powell said his family had left the Episcopal Church several years before [2003] due to other decisions he thought ran contrary to Anglican belief. He went to the Temecula Valley Anglican service and plans to continue attending.

"It's been said throughout the centuries, the Anglican Church is built like a stool with three legs," Powell said. "We take the Scripture to be primary. If Scripture's not clear, we take tradition to be our guide. Where tradition is not clear, we take reason.

"In my opinion, the Episcopal Church has changed that paradigm to where it's reason, followed by tradition, followed by Scripture. The demotion of Scripture is the reason (we left)."

[Fr. Don] Kroeger [of St. John's Anglican] said a series of decisions that go against Scripture, not simply the Robinson vote, led to St. John's leaving the diocese.

"I've never even preached against homosexuality," Kroeger said. "I've preached against sin. The church is reinterpreting Scripture. We could not abide by that. I believe what we believe is consistent with 90 percent of Christian churches."

. . .Despite the new congregation nearby, [the Rev. Robert A.] Nagy [of St. Thomas Episcopal in Temecula] doesn't believe his flock will abandon St. Thomas en masse. He cited a survey that asserted first-time churchgoers attend a house of worship based on proximity rather than core belief. . .

Love that last sentence -- nice to know I've selected my church based on convenience and proximity rather than closely held beliefs in Scripture and the Word of God. . . but wait a minute -- I pass several other churches on the way to my church. Huummmmmm. . .

Read it all. Also, see here for everything you ever wanted to know about what's happening in San Diego. And don't forget to check here for more info on the new Temecula Valley Anglican Fellowship.

I sing a song of the saints of God

I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door;
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor,
and I mean to be one too.

Lesbia Scott, 1929, alt. (words)
John Henry Hopkins, 1940 (music)
The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (1940), #243

This was one of my favorite hymns growing up - I think it was the first time that I truly realized that anyone could be a saint, and that saints were probably all around me.

Through the past several years as I have struggled to understand what the church I grew up in (and my family for generations) has become, I have taken comfort from all of the saints I have met both on- and off-line.

Southern California Regional Anglican Women's Council

Info about a new organization, the Regional Anglican Women's Council (RAWC, pronounced rock) from the Anglican Church of St. Timothy & St. Titus newsletter:

At the behest of Fr. Russell, Molly Martin and Sue Gerhardt have been attending the newly formed RAWC. It is a group of women representing all the Anglican churches in Southern California. Currently there are 16 churches participating in the Council and we pray more will follow. The Council's goal is to bring together the Anglican women of the area in fellowship to help develop our spiritual growth as we walk as Anglicans.

Currently there are two events being planned so please mark your calendars. Friday evening, September 20th, at Saint. Anne's in Oceanside, there will be a "Quiet Day", conducted by Rev. Kathleen Adams, who is the spiritual director of RAWC. The theme will be Putting on the Whole Armour of God. Time and other details to follow.

In April, 2008, over the week-end of April 11-13 we are planning a retreat in Orange County. The guest speaker will be Mama Phoebe Orombi, wife of Bishop Orombi of Uganda. We anticipate that it will be as exciting an event as the men recently enjoyed with Bishop Orombi. The theme will be SET FREE -- to do God's work. We have just started committee work on this so more details will follow in coming months.

. . .RAWC will be a resource as well as a supplement to do things that we cannot yet do as a congregation. There have only been three meetings thus far so we are still very much in the planning stages. It is exciting to be part of an organization that we pray will be a blessing to all the Anglican women of the area and especially the women at TNT. . .

Check it out here.

"into the twilight"

From Catholic World News:

Whenever an organization begins to lose its grasp on the message it wants to deliver, it concentrates its efforts on improving the means of delivery. With gratifying timeliness, ECUSA has responded to its identity crisis by developing an Organizational Effectiveness Plan to streamline the ministerial services whose purpose it can't seem to find.

Strategic groupings of advocacy, evangelism, leadership development, and partnerships -- together with a configuration of regional satellite offices to support strategic mission -- are central to a new organizational effectiveness plan to reshape ministries based at the Episcopal Church Center.

A new "diocesan services" unit, offering a comprehensive approach to local mission needs, is a highlight of the new plan initiated by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and drafted after five months of consultative work by two task forces.

"The new configuration will raise our level of service to the church," Jefferts Schori said July 26 while commending the plan’s outline to the Church Center management team. "There is remarkable synchronicity in the development of this plan, and great potential for creativity and capacity building."

Give credit where credit is due: the good Doctor didn't get where she is without skill in the bestowal of elegant and semantically vacuous compliments. Note down these gems for your own future use: "remarkable synchronicity," "great potential for capacity building" (potential for capacity building?). That's about as close to pure meaninglessness as you're likely to find without a prescription. There is no project, plan, document, or resolution whatsoever -- including the minutes of the Wannsee Conference and your son's third grade report card -- to which these pretty polysyllables could not be cheerfully applied.

Yet it's hard not to pick up a sense of desperate swagger in the use of quasi-military jargon such as "task force" and "strategic mission" -- muscle-flexing, heel-clicking words that suggest an ardor and singleness of purpose that isn't there. The crisis of liberal Christianity is precisely its inability to decide whether it has anything of value to give, and the language of mission is empty in the absence of an authority to do the sending. As with decaying religious orders in their death-throes ("that we may work toward deconstructing existing systems and constructing a new paradigm ..."), the grandiosity of objectives expands in inverse proportion to the power of failing eyes, muscles, faith.

The synchronicity is, well, remarkable.

[all boldface mine]

South Carolina re-elects Mark Lawrence

From EpiscopalLife Online:

The Very Rev. Mark Lawrence was re-elected as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina August 4 at a special electing convention held at St. James Church on St. James Island, South Carolina. Lawrence was the only candidate in the election since no petitions to add other names to the slate were received by the July 11 deadline. A majority of bishops exercising jurisdiction and diocesan Standing Committees must now consent to Lawrence's ordination as bishop within 120 days of receiving notice of the election.

Lawrence, 56, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bakersfield, California, in the Diocese of San Joaquin, was first elected September 16, 2006 to be South Carolina's 14th bishop.

On March 15, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori declared that election "null and void," saying that a number of the consent responses did not adhere to canonical requirements since Lawrence's election did not receive the consent of the majority of diocesan standing committees.

Read it all here and here.

Radner discussion continues

Take a look at the ongoing discussion at TitusOneNine and Stand Firm on Dr. Ephraim Radner's resignation from the Anglican Communion Network, including posts from Stephen Noll and Dr. Radner. Check here, here, and here.

When you forgive, there will be freedom in your hearts. . .

From allAfrica.com, Archbishop Orombi continues the Lord's work in Uganda:

THE Archbishop of the [Anglican] Church of Uganda, the Rt. Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, has urged the Acholi to forgive the LRA rebels and UPDF soldiers for the crimes committed against them. "When you forgive, there will be freedom in your hearts other than remaining a prisoner. You begin to know what paradise, peace and freedom are," he told displaced persons at Omiya-Anyima camp in Kitgum district on Saturday.

Orombi said the insurgency had impacted negatively on the displaced persons. "You are familiar with nakedness in the north like Jesus who was naked on the Holy Cross where he was humiliated and exposed. Are we not humiliated? Are our girls not raped, children abducted and killed? Jesus was crucified between two thieves. People in the north are lonely like Jesus," he said.

"Many of you are injured, disturbed and have lost your dear ones. You are bitter and crying from inside. Listen to the last words of Jesus, forgive them. Will you forgive one another and release them from your hearts?" he pleaded. . .

Read it all.

Because, sometimes, the only answer is more shoes

After the last few days of watching and listening to all of the discussions at the Anglican Communion Network Council meeting in Texas, time for a little relief. . .

Aren't they wonderful? I feel better just looking at them.

Find out more about them here, and as always, when life gets too chaotic, check out the Manolo.

Watch AnglicanTV video

Go to AnglicanTV to take a look at the video from the Anglican Communion Network council meeting. And don't forget to donate (go here and click the Donate button, or the links for Get a Subscription or Our Wish List) so that Kevin can continue to cover these important events.

Bible teaching from Archbishop Venables

Take a look at the transcripts of Archbishop Venables' Bible teaching at the Anglican Communion Network Council meeting over at Anglicans United (thanks to Cherie Wetzel).

H/t to TitusOneNine.

Puppy at 15 weeks

To err is human, to forgive canine. - Unknown

Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.

Milan Kundera
Czech writer
(1929 - )

Link to ACN council meeting video

Here's another link to AnglicanTV's video coverage of the Anglican Communion Network council meeting. Enjoy!

From "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen

From The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri Nouwen:

For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spriritual life - pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures - and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not "How am I to find God?" but "How am I to let myself be found by him?" The question is not "How am I to know God?" but "How am I to let myself be known by God?" And, finally, the question is not "How am I to love God?" but "How am I to let myself be loved by God?" God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home. . . Can I accept that I am worth looking for? Do I believe that there is a real desire in God to simply be with me?

From Part III, Chapter 8

Archbishop Drexel Gomez at the Festival of Faith

From Anglican Mainstream, an article reposted from The Christian Challenge on what Archbishop Drexel Gomez considers might happen in the coming months in the Anglican Communion:

. . .But the leading conservative primate (provincial leader) also warned of a liberal recasting of official Anglicanism if some conservative provinces boycott the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. A few provinces have already determined to skip the meeting over the Archbishop of Canterbury’s decision to include therein all Episcopal prelates who have violated the Lambeth ’98 sexuality resolution except actively gay prelate Gene Robinson, and to exclude U.S. missionary bishops backed by African provinces.

Gomez also sees obstacles to fulfilling the hopes of embattled American conservatives that The Episcopal Church (TEC) would be deemed by primates this fall to have left the Communion, a move they thought could help usher in a new jurisdiction for faithful U.S. Anglicans. . .

Anglican Mainstream also offers this overview of key points in the ++Gomez presentation:

• Same-sex relations relate to God’s ordering of life and therefore core doctrine


• Little prospect of Primates’ Meeting after September 30 - ACO will plead lack of money


• Individual provinces may derecognise TEC


• Possible new US Province


• People in TEC want to root out traditional Anglicanism


• Global South see Lambeth downgraded to expensive prelatical training course


• Boycott by Nigeria alone (120 bishops) would make a big difference


• Lambeth decisions will not be representative of the thinking of the Communion


• ABC’s threat to rescind some invitations to Lambeth widely discounted

Read it all.

Resignation statement from Ephraim Radner

From TitusOneNine, a statement from Ephraim Radner on his resignation from the Anglican Communion Network:

The recent statements by the Moderator of the Network, Robert Duncan, however, so contradict my sense of calling within this part of Christ’s Body, the Anglican Communion, that I have no choice but to disassociate myself from this group, whom I had once hoped might prove an instrument of renewal, not of destruction, of building up, not of tearing down.

Bishop Duncan has now declared the See of Canterbury and the Lambeth Conference -- two of the four Instruments of Communion within our tradition – to be “lost”. He has said that God is “doing a new thing” in allowing these elements to founder and be let go. I find this judgment to be dangerously precipitous and unfair under circumstances when current, faithful, and hard work is being done by many to bolster these Instruments as servants of our common life in Christ. The judgment is also astonishingly self-confident and autonomously prophetic in a mode not unlike the baleful claims to visionary authority of those who have long misled the Episcopal Church. Finally, the declaration in effect cancels out the other two Instruments of Communion that also uphold our common Anglican life – the Primates’ Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council. It is the entire Anglican Communion, therefore, that Bp. Duncan is declaring to be “lost”. The judgment is far too sweeping. . .

Read it all.

ACN Council ratifies Common Cause structural document

Delegates to the Network’s Annual Council voted unanimously to ratify the federating Articles of the Common Cause Partners, to clarify the relationship of Network affiliates to The Episcopal Church, and to restate the Network’s commitment to making space for different opinions about women in Holy Orders. . .

The Articles create a leadership council, outline the purpose of the Common Cause partnership, and envision structures that will allow Common Cause Partners to work more closely together in communications, mission and education. Providing it meets each partner’s canonical requirements, the articles also envision Partners making arrangements for the orderly transfer of members between the parishes of different jurisdictions and allowing the clergy of Partners to “officiate transiently” in jurisdictions other than their own.

Delegates also unanimously approved an amendment to the bylaws of the Anglican Communion Network. Noting that many individual parishes and leaders in the Network are no longer part of The Episcopal Church, delegates voted to add the following statement: “Nothing in the charter or bylaws shall be interpreted as requiring submission to the constitution of The Episcopal Church by affiliates of this Network who are not themselves members of The Episcopal Church. . .

Read it all.

ACN ratifies the Common Cause Theological statement

Voting by delegations, The Anglican Communion Network Annual Council has unanimously ratified the Common Cause Theological Statement. Each of the Common Cause Partnership’s ten members is independently considering the document. While no partner has the power to independently modify the Theological Statement, they are invited to suggest improvements or state concerns about its present form.

The document states that the ratifying partners “believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” It goes on to say “no one comes to the Father but by Him.” Presenting the document to Annual Council, the Rev. Canon Warren Tanghe stated “this is classic Christianity. . .”

Read it all.

Los Angeles Appeals Court will not reconsider property ruling

From EpiscopalLife Online, an update on the Appeals Court consideration of property ruling in the Diocese of Los Angeles:

A California Court of Appeals has refused a request that it review its June ruling against three Episcopal congregations where the majority of members had voted to leave the Episcopal Church for oversight by bishops in another Anglican province but retain the congregations' property.

A notice posted July 24 on the website of the California 4th Appellate District Court Division 3 said that the petition for a rehearing filed by attorneys for the departing members had been denied. . .

The congregations have 10 days to petition for a discretionary review by the California Supreme Court. . .

The case on behalf of the Diocese of Los Angeles was brought by Holme, Roberts and Owen, the law firm of the diocesan chancellor, John R. Shiner, who successfully argued an issue relating to California's "anti-SLAPP" statute. The Episcopal Church was represented by Goodwin Procter in Washington, D.C., the law firm of David Booth Beers, the Chancellor to the Presiding Bishop. Beers' partner Heather H. Anderson argued the merits of the appeal.

Read it all.

The Llama Butchers find another one

From the Llama Butchers, That's My Church! Inadvertent Truthiness Division, for fun and games (and another Clown Mass):

Yep, pretty much says it all, although I don't believe that is the intent:

This Sunday, being a clown earns you a special blessing at Hickory Neck Episcopal Church in Toano [Virginia].

Big red noses, supersized rubber shoes and frizzy wigs will fill pews for the seventh year at one of the few church services in the country to recognize International Clown Week.

But the "Blessing of the Clowns" service isn't just about thick painted smiles and polka-dotted jumpers — the gospel message will also be given by the clowns in the form of a skit.

[INSERT YOUR OWN TEC CRISIS JOKE HERE]

As a matter of fact, a couple of our older parishioners came up to me yesterday after our service and asked when I was going to be posting again about the impending TEC implosion. I more or less shrugged - it's the slowest time of the year and our parish dreams in a false peace (as I believe Tolkien said of Ithilien before Sauron unleashed his assault on Gondor). As a matter of fact, I was musing at the time on the fact that ushering summer services is always a breeze because the only people who show up are the regulars, and they both are better about picking up their trash from the pews and also know what they're doing when they come up for Communion, so do not need much attendance. . .

I expect our parish will wake up to what's going on when it starts trying to hit up the regulars for money just about the same time that the noozpapers start splashing frontpage headlines about the crackup. All I can say is that I'm awfully glad I'm not on the stewardship committee.

Read it all.

Bishop Duncan at the ACN annual meeting

Now posted at the Anglican Communion Network website is Bishop Duncan's Moderator's Address from earlier today. Some excerpts:

I shall never forget the darkness of the days and weeks beginning with last March's House of Bishops Meeting. It was during those days at and after that Camp Allen meeting that I truly came to grips with the unavoidable fact that the denominational Church that had—from infancy—raised me, captured me, formed me and ordained me, no longer had any room for me, or any like me. How bitter the rejection! How total my failure!

. . .Three decades of fracture and disintegration characterized the life of orthodox Anglicans up until the Plano Council of January, 2004. None who were present at that organizing Council will ever forget the unity that permeated the decisions of that assembly. Every article of the Charter was unanimously approved. None of us had any expectation that anything like that would be possible. It was all God-given and God-breathed. None will forget the moment when a respectful way forward on the ordination of women emerged—surely the high-point of God's grace in that Council—and we stood to sing the Doxology.

. . .During this past year, the Network Bishops have done everything we could to work with a broader Windsor Coalition within the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops. In order not to abandon the wider coalition in its one last stand, the Network Bishops have agreed to take part in the upcoming meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the Primates Steering Committee and Anglican Consultative Council. We do so, some of us at least, without any implied recognition of or submission to the American primate, without any diminishment of our appeal for Alternative Primatial Oversight, and without any expectation that the Episcopal House of Bishops will turn from the course so unequivocally embraced at their March meeting.

. . .I began with words from the prophet Ezekiel. God is judging shepherds and is judging between sheep. His promise is to save His flock. His promise is that His sheep will no longer be a “prey,” either to unfaithful shepherds or to fat sheep (or to wolves). His servant David, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the true and trustworthy shepherd. We, in the Anglican Communion Network, propose to follow Him, even through the valley of the shadow of death. For Jesus is our Way, our Truth, our Life. We can do no other.

[boldface mine]

Read and watch it all.

Sign the TEC Legal Transparency petition

From the American Anglican Council, a statement on requesting information from ECUSA on how various lawsuits are being funded:

The Episcopal Church's (TEC) continued litigation against parishes and vestries is a great concern to many in the Anglican Communion. These lawsuits come at a high price emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Of special concern is the source of TEC’s funding. Where are they getting the money to sue these churches? Should TEC be open about the amount spent and the source of their litigation funding?

Sign it here.

H/t to Stand Firm.

ACN Annual Meeting happening NOW

Don't forget, today and tomorrow July 30-31, 2007 is the Anglican Communion Network Annual Council Meeting at St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford, Texas.

AnglicanTV is covering parts of this live, and Stand Firm has a number of posts covering the action - check it out!

Temecula Valley Anglican Fellowship off to running start

From SanDiegoAnglicans.com comes a report on Temecula Valley Anglican Fellowship, a ministry of St. John's Anglican in Fallbrook:

At least 60 people came this first Sunday and heard special guest clergyman, Rev. Canon George Kovoor, speak from today's lectionary readings about, "How to Pray." It was an effective sermon as evidenced by Fr. Don Kroeger subsequently opting to forego the "Prayers of the People" as printed in the worship bulletin ('79 BCP Rite II) in favor of a spontaneous time of prayers uttered aloud from the congregation.

A three-piece praise band added vibrancy and set a tone of more casual, contemporary worship. For those familiar with somewhat more traditional parent church, St John's Fallbrook, you'll recognize this as an intentional effort to reach out to the young families in the burgeoning Temecula area. For those looking for a traditional liturgy in the context of lively worship and warm fellowship, this appears to be a best-of-both-worlds kind of place.

Sounds like a strong beginning. Read it all.

Wanted, an unpractical man

Thought for the day, courtesy of G. K. Chesterton from Part One, Chapter II of What's Wrong with the World:

There has arisen in our time a most singular fancy: the fancy that when things go very wrong we need a practical man. It would be far truer to say, that when things go very wrong we need an unpractical man. Certainly, at least, we need a theorist. A practical man means a man accustomed to mere daily practice, to the way things commonly work. When things will not work, you must have the thinker, the man who has some doctrine about why they work at all.

Via Media

As clear an explanation of via media that I've read, from Peter Ould at An Exercise in the Fundamentals of Orthodoxy:

I[t] amazes me still that some people continue to argue that Via Media is an excuse for liberal theology. It’s not and it never was. Via Media was an explanation of the path of churchmanship and theology that the Anglican Church took between the extremes of Roman “tradition” and Puritan “no tradition at all thank you very much”. Via Media was an orthodoxy that avoided excess but believed and trusted in the clear Biblical message of grace and holiness. Those who claim to be inheritors of the Via Media must first of all be orthodox on doctrine and moral practice. Without such an affirmation they aren’t even Christian, let alone Anglican.

[all boldface mine]

Read it all.

More on the Diocese of Virginia election and irregularities

From the Friday, Jul 20, 2007 issue of The Church of England Newspaper via BabyBlueOnline, a report by George Conger on charges of canon irregularities by 815 on the Diocese of Virginia election:

The Presiding Bishop’s office admitted that it acquiesced in the Diocese of Virginia’s violation of the express language of Episcopal Church’s Constitution and Canons in the consecration process of its new bishop, but stated the violation was customary and not of sufficient merit to call into question the validity of the Episcopal consecration of Bishop Shannon T Johnston of Virginia. . .

Earlier this year, Bishop Schori nullified the election of Mark Lawrence as Bishop of South Carolina, tossing out ballots from dioceses in favour of his election for not being in strict conformance to the requirement that the ballots be signed by all members of a diocese’s standing committee, thereby depriving him of a majority necessary for consent to his election.

South Carolina initially sought to use the “short form” to solicit the consents of Bishop- elect Lawrence, but was cautioned by the Presiding Bishop’s office to use the proper language found in the canons so as not to violate the canons. The permissive stance taken towards Virginia while South Carolina was required to conform to the letter of the law, over the same issue within a period of two months by the Presiding Bishop’s office, prompted San Joaquin’s charges of hypocrisy and double standards.

The Diocese of Virginia declined to respond. However, observers in Virginia note that the diocese’s claims that the Virginia-based CANA Bishop Martyn Minns has irregular episcopal orders, would appear to be undercut, given the admitted defect in the consecration process of its bishop-coadjutor. . .

Read it all.

Cannon in front of them volley'd and thunder'd

A reflection of my feelings exactly from Chris Johnson at the Midwest Conservative Journal (and just in case you've forgotten, a visual reminder of ECUSA's big guns, because unfortunately, this is a civil war of "brother against brother"):

As far as the Current Unpleasantness is concerned, I and I suspect a great many other people have finally set a date. If, as most reasonable people believe, the Episcopal Church flips off the Anglican Communion once again at the end of September and if conservative western Anglicans once again do nothing about it, that will, for most of us, be that. We will either content ourselves with AMiA, CANA or other Anglican offshoots or we will abandon the Anglican tradition altogether.

Can the Anglican Communion Network keep people like us on board? Of course. What do they have to do? What they had most emphatically better not do is to issue another open letter and tell everyone to "wait until Lambeth." First of all, nobody is stupid enough to fall for the Vitally Important Anglican Meeting Which Is The End Of The Line And We Mean It This Time dodge anymore. And this request assumes that there is even going to be a Lambeth Conference and that the Conference will rule the way the Network wants them to. . .

I've written this many times before but it bears repeating. The Anglican Communion Network no longer has the luxury of time. The Network bishops have got to stop talking about how importantly they take all this and start ACTING like it. . .

ECUSA has big guns and has repeatedly shown that it is quite willing to use them. But the Network bishops really have no good options. Whatever it ends up costing them, they've got exactly one more chance to demonstrate why the Anglican tradition is still worth hanging around.

[all links and most boldface are mine; italics are author's]

Read it all.

Five Talents

Mr. Frederick Kalema-Musoke, a former World Bank senior staffer, will succeed the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns as chair of the board for Five Talents International. CANA’s Bishop Martyn Minns has served as chair since 1999 and was a co-founder of the organization.

"Transformation!” emphasized Bishop Minns, “that's the most important accomplishment of Five Talents: transformed lives and changed communities.”

During Minns’s tenure as chair, Five Talents, a Christian microfinance organization working in partnership with the worldwide Anglican Communion, has assisted more than 220,000 of the poor in 14 countries through microcredit and savings programs and business training. The ripple effects of these projects have touched a million people around the globe. “I don’t think we ever dreamed of the worldwide impact we are making,” Minns said.

Read it all.

H/t to Transfigurations.

AAC weekly update message from Canon Anderson

From the American Anglican Council (AAC) weekly email update:

A message from The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson
President and CEO, American Anglican Council

Beloved in Christ,
It was just a week ago that the Global South Steering Committee released a statement which touched on conditions in both the United States and the global communion, and suggested that other meetings separate from the Lambeth Conference might be called for. Some readers have raised questions about the form of the statement, particularly why it didn't have a "Pauline" salutation. I suspect that the form is the answer: it is not a letter, it is a statement. I also suspect that in this world of email, cell phones and faxes, those in attendance and those remotely located were able to communicate adequately in order to validate the content and force of resolve that the final message conveyed.

The Communiqué Compliance Office has released its fourth report on the state of the American Episcopal Church's compliance (or lack thereof) to the Tanzanian demands. A copy of the report is posted on the AAC website and may be downloaded. In electronic form the report has web links which take you to a copy of original texts cited. In print form you lose the electronic links.

With increased awareness of the scope of the strategic litigation that the Episcopal Church is sponsoring against local church congregations, vestries, and vestry members individually and personally, it raises several questions.

First, is it safe to serve on an Episcopal Church vestry, since the Episcopal Church is disregarding both federal and state legal protection granted to volunteer (unpaid) individuals who agree to serve on non-profit boards of directors? This is doubly troublesome since a few important insurance companies, who purportedly issue Directors and Officers Liability Insurance which is routinely purchased by churches, are refusing to provide legal defense or coverage for the vestries and individuals once they are sued.

The second major question is, "Where is all the money coming from to wage this litigation campaign by TEC?" Various possibilities have been suggested based on remarks made by some Episcopal Church officials, and speculation about the handling of TEC finances is not healthy for TEC itself. The American Anglican Council, representing many parishes, clergy and individuals still within TEC therefore calls on the Episcopal Church to make the funding for the litigations underway and the source of the funding open and transparent for all to see. To this end the AAC applauds the request that several TEC bishops have made to the administration of TEC for financial transparency with regard to the litigation efforts.

It was a great sorrow months ago to learn that the Presiding Bishop had ruled against the Diocese of South Carolina pertaining to the form of their Bishop Election Confirmation documents. The ruling cancelled the election and has forced the diocese to rerun the process, although at an accelerated rate. Now we discover that the same Presiding Bishop has two sets of rules, one for her enemies and one for her friends. She doesn't like South Carolina (and the Chancellor David Booth Beers certainly doesn't either) so their election is null and void. Virginia, on the other hand, is considered a friend of the Presiding Bishop and the Chancellor, and when they use a non-canonical form to report the confirmations for their bishop-elect, no issue is made, all is wonderful, and the consecration of the new bishop is now history. It is sometimes said by those of the world that all is fair in love and war. Well, this certainly isn't love, so orthodox dioceses should be well advised.

Speaking of love and war, Trinity Church, Wall Street, probably the wealthiest church in the world, has decided to cooperate with the TEC plan to use money to try to fracture the Global South unity. Trinity Church hosted a summit meeting in Madrid, Spain, inviting Global South bishops to sit down with Episcopal Church leaders and talk about mission opportunities in their dioceses. When the Israelites left Egypt, fleeing Pharaoh's army, they took Egyptian gold with them. Although we would advise orthodox bishops against going to lunch with the spider, if you have any of the spider's gold, get out of the web as fast as you can.

The Archbishop of York, His Grace John Sentamu has publicly remarked that other than the sexual issues, there is really nothing wrong with the orthodoxy of the Episcopal Church. We are afraid he speaks of things he does not know about. Sexuality is a tertiary issue. The most dangerous issues are TEC's abandonment of orthodoxy concerning the person of Jesus Christ and the authority of Holy Scripture. In reality, if we lose Jesus and the Bible out of the Anglican faith, why would we care about the sexuality issue?

The issues which confront the American and Canadian churches are not isolated to North America, and the division is touching England itself. Reports coming to us from the UK indicate that up to ten orthodox diocesan and suffragan bishops may stay away from the Lambeth Conference unless the issues are satisfactorily dealt with.

As this Weekly Update goes to press, representatives of the Anglican Communion Network are traveling to Bedford, Texas for an annual ACN Council meeting. A great deal has changed since the last meeting a year ago. The Council will take stock of the reality of the current landscape and chart a path forward for orthodoxy. Elections are scheduled for this meeting for both the Moderator and Secretary positions. We will bring you news next week of the progress reported at the Council meeting.

[all boldface and links are mine]

"Theology on tap"

From the Washington Times, this sounds like it could be interesting - Theology on Tap:

Saying Hail Marys over a pint of Guinness has become a popular happy hour activity for some local Catholics.

More than 200 people in their 20s and 30s packed into Pat Troy's Ireland's Own pub in Alexandria [Virginia] to eat, drink and pray alongside friends Monday night.

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, 68, who recently was named archbishop of Baltimore, led a dialogue about the mystery of evil at the kickoff session of this summer's "Theology on Tap" sessions.

The Catholic Diocese of Arlington brings priests and lay speakers to local bars once a week to attract young Catholics eager to converse and mingle. . .

"We speak of abortion as 'therapeutic,' saving or helping the health of the mother. We speak of living together before marriage — fornication — as some kind of love," [Archbishop O'Brien] said. "There's always a nice word we can attach to it, rather that admit and describe what the evil is."

Read it all.

H/t to Dawn Eden at The Dawn Patrol.

Uganda: More than 30,000 children kidnapped; now one has a voice

I am currently reading Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children by Faith J. H. McDonnell and Grace Akallo, published by Chosen Books. From the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD) press release:

More than 30,000 children have been abducted over the last twenty years and forced to commit unspeakable crimes.

Grace Akallo was one of these. Her story, which is the story of many Ugandan children, recounts her terrifying experience. In a new book co-authored with Akallo, Institute on Religion & Democracy Religious Liberties Director Faith McDonnell provides historical background and insights on how people can personally make a difference. . .

In conjunction with the Washington Post article "The Price of Peace in Uganda" by Michael Gerson, a horrific picture emerges of what the children of northern Uganda have faced:

Two years ago, I visited a squatter's camp of mud houses and open sewers on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda, where thousands have sought refuge from the Lord's Resistance Army -- a cultish rebel group that has caused perhaps 100,000 deaths and displaced more than 1.5 million people. A young woman I met had been abducted by the LRA along with other members of her village. She calmly described their first night's "welcoming meal," in which one of the villagers was killed and the rest forced to eat him, to instill a proper fear.

To read all of Grace's story, buy Girl Soldier from IRD here or check your local book store.

Anglican Communion Network and evangelism

The Anglican Communion Network (ACN) has planned seven evangelism workshops across the country.

These “Sharing Our Faith” conferences are sponsored by the Good News Initiative of the Anglican Communion Network (ACN) in conjunction with local host teams from Anglican churches across America. The conferences planned include:

• Gainesville, FL - August 24–26, 2007 (Registration open.)


• Bluffton, SC - September 14–16, 2007


• Akron, OH - September 28–30, 2007


• Savannah, GA - October 5–7, 2007 (Registration open.)


• Hamilton, MA - October 25–28, 2007


• San Jose, CA - November 14–16, 2007 (Live videofeed available.)


• Metro DC (Herndon, VA) - Feb. 8–10, 2008 (Live videofeed available.)

H/t to Stand Firm.

Bishop Howe of Central Florida writes his clergy

From the Diocese of Central Florida, Bishop John Howe has written a letter on issues he is dealing with there:

. . .So, will there be a new Province, or a new Something, recognized by some of the Primates, but not others? If that is the case, what will it then mean to be part of the Anglican Communion? When will the Primates respond to our unsatisfactory response? Will Archbishop Williams agree with them? Will he declare that The Episcopal Church has, in fact, to some degree “walked apart”? And if so, what will he say about those Dioceses within The Episcopal Church that are, and openly declare themselves to be "Windsor compliant"?

We can only speculate about all these questions, but we will know the answers to them within the next six months, or so, I believe. . .

I am doing absolutely everything I can – and have done so for eighteen years – to uphold “orthodoxy,” to remain faithful to the Lord and to the scriptures, to call this oh-so-compromised Church back to its own heritage. But I will not break the rules to do so. I am working "within the system" for a comprehensive solution to a complex situation. These efforts can be easily undermined by precipitous actions, and I urge us to be very careful. . .

[all boldface mine]
Real it all.
Some background information on events in Central Florida can be found here, and here.
H/t to Father Jake Stops the World.

Magic Statistics

Check out Scott Gilbreath's (aka StatGuy) new posting at Magic Statistics on "Emerging or Episcopal?"

Posters originally from here.

More on Lambeth

From Ruth Gledhill at the Times Online:

Six out of ten senior Church of England bishops could boycott next year’s Lambeth Conference of more than 800 Anglican bishops and archbishops from around the world because of the row over gays.

Such a boycott would be unprecedented in the history of the Anglican Church and would be an indication of how deep the divisions go, in England as well as in the rest of the communion.

The fifth most senior bishop in the mother church of the Anglican Communion warns today that a majority of English diocesan bishops could consider a boycott if the US does not row back on its pro-gay agenda. . .

[The Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt] tells the Gazette that as many as six in ten diocesan bishops, from the Church’s evangelical and Anglican-Catholic wings, would be “constrained” in their protest by their loyalty to Dr Rowan Williams. Speaking to The Times he said later, "The point I was making was that they are having to think about it". . .

Bishop Scott-Joynt says in the Gazette that for a boycott not to take place, the bishops of The Episcopal Church must meet the demands of the recent Primates’ Meeting in Dar es Salaam.

Read it all.
H/t to A Guy in the Pew.

More on Virginia Consent Form Debacle

Although according to 815, it's not a debacle - it's called doing business as usual, apparently.

Updates at TitusOneNine, Stand Firm (here and here), Diocese of South Carolina, Diocese of Virginia, The Living Church, and the incomparable commentary of Chris Johnson at Midwest Conservative Journal [peace and blessings be upon it and him].

"Defining Anglicanism in Today’s World"

From a letter to The Church of England Newspaper:

It is worth remembering that a number of Anglican churches have already pointed out that Anglican churches have from their beginnings seen themselves as part of the one holy, catholic and apostolic church. That is much more than a matter of formal conformity with a particular see or institution, or attendance at a specific gathering within the Communion, no matter how venerable. . .

Read it all.
H/t to Anglican Mainstream

For sale, but no "immoral" plans allowed

From the OttawaCitizen.com, comes this story:

The century-old former St. James Anglican Church in Hull is for sale for $1 million, but offers from anyone with "immoral" plans will not be considered. . . "Things such as a strip joint, a gambling parlour, anything of ill-repute would definitively not be accepted," said Michael Herbert, director of administration for the diocese, which owns the former church and its 12,000-square-foot lot, at the corner of St. Jacques Street.

The new owner will never be able to establish an immoral enterprise, even if, 50 years from now, the structure burns to the ground. The diocese will insist that a covenant is added to the land title, binding in perpetuity any future owner to the current requirements. . .

It's too bad it's for sale - it's the oldest Anglican congregation in the Ottawa area.

Read it all.

Archbishop John Sentamu continued

An extended article on the interview that Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent for the Telegraph, held with the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu:

"As long as someone does not deny the very basic doctrines of the Church - the creation, the death, the resurrection of Christ and human beings being made in the image of God - then the rest really helps but they are not the core message.

"And I haven’t found that in Ecusa or in Canada, where I was recently, they have any doubts in their understanding of God which is very different from anybody. What they have quarrelled about is the nature of sexual ethics."

He nevertheless emphasised that Dr Williams does expect those who attend Lambeth to abide by the decision-making processes of the Anglican Communion.

"The Archbishop of Canterbury is very clear that he still reserves the right to withdraw the invitations and that those who are invited are accepting the Windsor process and accepting the process about the covenant.

"But in another sentence, he said that attending Lambeth is not also a test of orthodoxy. . .

[all boldface are mine]

The first few paragraphs where ++Sentamu is discussing whether England needs a written constitution or not are interesting in light of the push for an Anglican covenant.

And I'm a little unclear from the article which are direct quotes and which are not, even though quote marks are used.
Read it all.

Light blogging

Bad back - off to the doctor today (yes, this is being typed standing up!)

CaNN WebElves doing again what they do so well

They're baaaccckkk! As I noted earlier, I really missed these guys! So glad they're posting again - love those blogrolls!

Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
  Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
  Rode the six hundred.

The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
English poet
(1809-1892)

And thanks for braving the ECUSA "canon" to Stand Firm (here, here, here, here, and here), TitusOneNine (here and here), and BabyBlueOnline (here) with their current continuing coverage on the discrepancy of tabulating elections for South Carolina and Virginia. Do you suppose we'll ever get a rational, reasonable, logical response from 815?

From "Areopagitica"

. . . [F]or books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragons teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet on the other hand unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book; who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, imbalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.

John Milton
English poet
(1608-1674)

Update on Walking to Emmaus consultation

From EpiscopalLife Online, a follow-up to the "Walking to Emmaus, Discovering New Mission Perspectives in Changing Times" notice of last week:

Bishops from 22 dioceses in the United States and 29 dioceses in Africa joined the congregation of Madrid's Iglesia Episcopal de España for a Eucharist on July 22. Joining the Rt. Rev. Carlos Lozano Lopez, bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain, at the altar were the primates of Burundi, Central Africa, Congo, and Southern Africa, as well as the primate of Brazil. . .

The consultation continues through Thursday, July 26 and is being convened by New York's Trinity Church, Wall Street, as

an opportunity for bishops of the Anglican Provinces in Africa and their companions in the Episcopal Church of the United States to strengthen relationships, develop mission partnerships, and discover new opportunities to bear witness to the Gospel.

Read it all.

Follow-up on John Sentamu interview

From the Church Society, some questions on the Telegraph interview with Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

We have been unable to confirm that this accurately reports John Sentamu but if it does then it is very serious. Previously he appeared to have taken the view that sexual immorality is important and that the actions of the revisionists and sodomites in North America is a problem. If these reports are accurate it indicates that he has changed his stance and adopted the revisionists way of handling Scripture. . .

Read it all.