Communion Angst #28: Episcopal Abandonment

I found this on virtueonline. It is a good account of the kind and type of conflicts that we see as a part of the "ground zero" of conflict within the Anglican Church. But this strikes me as end-game stuff... the devices and strategies that has brought this end-game to bear has been functioning among us for decades...


- Rupert

Episcopal Abandonment

By Charlotte Hays
National Review Online
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/287845/episcopal-abandonment-charlotte-haysv
January 11, 2012

I am sorry to say that I can't share my friend Phil Terzian's pleasure that a court in Virginia has ruled that the Episcopal Church can reclaim property from a so-called breakaway Anglican group. Phil says: "If people want to abandon the Episcopal Church, they are free to do so; but they cannot take historic Church property with them, or deprive Episcopalians of their parish homes."

But who has abandoned the Episcopal Church? I would argue that the real abandoners of the Episcopal Church more rightly include those who have kept the miters and want to keep the property but have ditched all semblance of doctrine.

Of course, the Episcopal Church always had a certain latitude regarding faith and morals (good taste, not so much), but sadly it has become in many ways a post-Christian institution. This was most recently and outlandishly manifested in the first sermon given by the Rt. Rev. Marianne Budde in her capacity as spiritual leader of Episcopalians in the nation's capitol. The bishop took as her text a poem by New Age poet David Whyte and referred to "Jesus and all of the great spiritual masters before and after him."

Long ago, back when I was an Episcopalian, Christ was the Son of God, which ranks even higher than a "great spiritual master." I have many dear friends like Phil who are hanging in there with the Episcopal Church, and I don't want to offend them. I know the love that the Episcopal Church inspired in all of us. I will always be grateful that my parents - the two least literary people you'd ever meet - gave me the gift of hearing Thomas Cranmer's English as a living thing.

But I am willing to bet that the people buried in historic cemeteries on Episcopal Church property would hardly recognize what their church has become. They might even hope that those who stand for the Church's historic character be allowed to have the historic properties.

Of course, property is a matter of law, not sentiment. I am only sorry that the Episcopal Church has decided to spend so much money suing for property. I wish the church as a whole would follow the path of the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, the highly orthodox bishop in South Carolina who has sent quitclaim deeds to all the churches in his diocese. That way parishes get decide about the property - in all likelihood bought and endowed by their ancestors - rather than Episcopal HQ in New York.

I must admit that I suffered greatly when I had to give up the old Book of Common Prayer (the '28 version.) upon swimming the Tiber. But now Pope Benedict XVI has given it back to us with his invitation for groups for former Episcopalians to bring our beautiful patrimony into the Catholic Church.

Speaking of which, may I invite you to join the St. Thomas of Canterbury Anglican Use Society in a festive Evensong to celebrate the erection of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans and Episcopalians and the appointment of the new ordinary, Father Jeffrey Steenson?

Evensong is one of the most beautiful and characteristically Anglican of liturgies. Ours will be at St. Anselm's Abbey, January 21, at 4 p.m. I can promise splendid music and reverent language, and, being former Episcopalians, we will lay on something more exciting than coffee at the coffee hour immediately following the service.

Communion Angst #27: Of Those Who Remain

In January, I noticed an end of the year editorial in The Anglican Planet that I quite liked. It speaks of the Anglican world that is, including property grabs and legal battles, and of the faithful orthodox-minded who choose to remain within. For my part, I have already opted 'out', and therefore would gauge my own activity on planting seeds, Gospel proclamation, and hoping in what a re-newed Church might accomplish through grace.


The hope of those who remain, is editorialized here:

Godspeed.
- Rupert


 

http://www.anglicanessentials.ca/wordpress/index.php/2012/01/02/what-the-future-may-hold-for-conservatives-who-remain-in-the-acoc/#comments

http://www.anglicanplanet.net/edible-thoughts/2011/12/30/the-editorial-taking-stock.html

WELL I DON’T KNOW if you have been keeping score, but it would seem that the courts have pretty consistently sided with the provincial churches in the property disputes that have been brought before them. Although we might have hoped and prayed otherwise, perhaps it should not surprise us that a secular judiciary has made its judgment on formal matters of canon law which it understands, rather than on the substantial matters of doctrine which are beyond its grasp. There are of course still some cases before the courts, but as we watched two iconic churches, St. John’s Vancouver (formerly St John’s, Shaughnessy) and Christ Church Savannah, courageously move en masse to new homes this fall, we cannot but think that the matter has been decided. We wish God’s blessing on those churches who have boldly made this decision, and praise God that our fellowship in Christ is not determined by synods or supreme courts. So where does this leave those of us who remain?

ACNA's "Anglican Fever"

"Anglican Fever"

This is a GREAT story that I found first on VOL . I am thrilled about the impact that a godly, biblical, vibrant and historical Anglicanism is having on college campuses across the US. Having attended the ANIC Synod in Victoria, B.C. in November, I can attest to ACNA's impact across Canada and the world.

Never in my prior life had I experienced such a joyful synod of boundless praise and worship, with focused and God-inspired plenary sessions. On many levels, it was a great feast!

Global Mission is not neglected in ACNA. Gospel imperatives are generously finding life and health in the self-described "new denomination" that is identified in the link video and related article. The  story comes from Chicago.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/December/Anglican-Fever-Youth-Flock-to-New-Denomination-/

Blessings in Christ,

- Rupert

Global Schism Underway? Anglicans and Others...

Dear Friends of Rupert's Region...

I may not post very often these days, but I am always  on the lookout for really informative gems, and THIS is one!  Author Robert Munday, of toalltheworld blog, is the Nashotah House Seminary President and Dean. The link to his blog is first, and the "Global Schism" link is from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2007, and was attended by many of the leading religion writers in the US and beyond (I think). It is lenghy and a most excellent read. This post focuses on Dr. Munday's observations. Enjoy!

(I first spotted this on VOL, but the link didn't work.)

- Rupert

http://toalltheworld.blogspot.com/

Friday, December 09, 2011

Global Schism: Is the Anglican Communion Rift the First Stage in a Wider Christian Split?

From 2007, but still very relevant:

Some of the nation's leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2007 for the Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life.

Philip Jenkins, a Penn State University professor and one of the first scholars to call attention to the rising demographic power of Christians in the southern hemisphere, analyzed the ongoing schism in the worldwide Anglican church. While the dispute concerns attitudes toward homosexuality, Jenkins argues the core of the conflict lies in how biblical authority is defined. [Emphasis added.]

Will the current alliances between conservative Western and African leaders endure? Will African leaders begin to press an ultra-liberal economic agenda? Are other mainline denominations in the U.S. headed for similar splits? Jenkins answered these and others questions, while offering a fascinating glimpse into the life of African Christianity.

Read it all.

How to answer those questions? Here are my thoughts:

1. Will the current alliances between conservative Western and African leaders endure?

Given this week's developments in the Anglican Mission in the Americas, that is indeed a question. If Global South Anglicans were ever tempted to think of their western brothers and sisters as "Ugly Americans" this week's resignation of Chuck Murphy & Company from the Anglican Province of Rwanda and the events leading up to it cannot help but reinforce that impression. How will this eventually be resolved? And will this action by AMiA leaders cast a shadow on the Anglican Church in North America's relationship with the Global South? I pray not. But time will tell.

2. Will African leaders begin to press an ultra-liberal economic agenda?

No. Not in any way that will alienate them from their North American brothers and sisters. Still, North Americans need to try harder to understand the economic realities faced by those in the Global South and work constructively and cooperatively on solutions.

3. Are other mainline denominations in the U.S. headed for similar splits?

Yes. Presbyterians actually preceded Anglican splits with the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Moves by the "mainline" Presbyterian Church in the USA to ordain non-celibate homosexual clergy will only expedite the exodus, assuming that there are actually any remaining conservatives in the PCUSA who have not already left. (And, yes, I know there are some--you don't need to write.)

Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant body in the US, have seen their liberals (yes, liberals--not moderates--look at what they actually believe on all the major issues) depart into the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has seen their conservative wing split after they followed Episcopalians and Presbyterians in ordaining gay clergy. The conservatives have now formed the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). The trend is sure to continue as other denominations face these issues.

But the critical question is the one in the title: "Is the Anglican Communion Rift the First Stage in a Wider Christian Split?"

Sex Talk VII: Nature (and Nurture) in Same-Sex Issues

This piece was written for "Anglican Mainstream", and picked up by VOL. The Author, Mike Davidson, discusses the scientific debate on the 'nature vs nurture' of the cause(s) of homosexuality. He laments the lack of 'nurture' ie: the environmental factors, that are frequently downplayed in light of the contemporary push of 'nature' and 'genetics', in this debate. 


But Mr. Davidson discusses his personal story of abandoning homosexual attraction for heterosexual marriage. 

This is a worthwhile read.


- Rupert

Standing against oppression “..these things some of you were”

By Mike Davidson, Church of England Newspaper November 25 2011

Stuart Walton (CEN November 18) believes science has shown that “sexuality is mostly, perhaps even wholly genetic”.  By contrast, the best Anglican survey prepared for Lambeth (2008), The Anglican Communion and Homosexuality,  Philip Groves (ed) says (p281) that the impetus behind the search for genes associated with homosexuality “has lessened with the weakness of genetic links to HS implied by recent twin studies.”

The more recent (and most reliable) twin studies suggest a much lower genetic influence in homosexuality than earlier studies – the better the study the weaker the linkage.  In Bailey et al [2000] the doyen of twin study practitioners, Michael Bailey, says, “Although prior twin studies have been generally consistent in indicating a genetic contribution to male and female sexual orientation, they have also been rather consistent in their methodological limitations. Most importantly, all sizable twin studies of sexual orientation recruited probands by means of advertisements in homophile publications or by word of mouth.”  This distorts the results. Bailey found that of twenty-seven pairs of identical twins of whom one was gay (at least 2 on a Kinsey scale of 0 – 6), in only three cases was the co-twin gay.  In other words, if one identical twin was gay, the other rarely was.  This makes a ‘gay gene’ improbable, invalidates the racial analogy and suggests the influence of psychosocial factors. Thus the Anglican book is justified in referring to “the weakness of genetic links”.  Twin studies point us away from ‘nature’ causes in general, and it finds little support for other popular ‘nature’ theories such as the gay brain or maternal hormonal influence.

Clearly, if science is to explore all the options, it must look at ‘nurture’ as well as ‘nature’.  This was the original intention for the book, but (perhaps in the rush to complete it for Lambeth?) the nurture dimension was overlooked.  Thus, the scientific exploration is seriously incomplete.

But what might ‘nurture’ tell us?   In some  cases, what psychotherapists refer to as trans-generational trauma might account for various ideas and behaviours that appear completely normal to an individual, but which originate somewhere outside of the gene pool, and yet present themselves as natural and intrinsic.  More generally, perhaps the most dramatic statement is found in a study of two million Danish people who had undertaken heterosexual or homosexual marriages or civil partnerships.   The title of the study is itself startling: “Childhood Family Correlates of Heterosexual and Homosexual Marriages” [2000].  It found evidence that “childhood family experiences are important determinants of heterosexual and homosexual marriage decisions in adulthood.”  Children’s life experiences may be so powerful as to influence whether they will ultimately marry a man or a woman.  The implications of this are profound indeed.

For Stuart Walton, a disapproving church must explain why gay people should not “accept and enact the sexuality that the Lord God … has bestowed on them.”   But science does not say that God made them that way.  This accords with my own sense of being.  I have lived with a homosexual drive for as long as I remember, but enactment of this experience of sexuality is not something I look for given the findings of science and the teachings of Jesus.  This would hardly honour the loving marriage and family my wife and I have built. The church owes it to people like me to do good science.

Of course the church should move away from oppression, discrimination and ungraciousness towards gay folk but an inclusive agenda will test itself against an unchanging call to holiness: “come out and be separate”.  And it will respect those who journey out of homosexuality because of their own reading of science, scripture and conscience.  It might give renewed attention to Jesus’ failure to change the rules when his Jewish hearers would without doubt have understood active homosexual expression to be forbidden.

The Anglican Communion needs to make a major investment in looking at the ‘nurture’ side of the debate.  At present, this aspect has gone by default, but the evidence cries out to be heard.  Until it is heard, the ‘inclusive’ agenda will continue to devalue the experience of people like me who choose to walk a different road.

Mike Davidson
CORE ISSUES TRUST
www.core-issues.org

The Cof E and Women Episcopacy - preliminary numbers

I found this information on virtueonline
Although it is not a reflection of how the Church of England's General Synod will vote this summer, it is indeed a sign of how women's episcopacy is looking 'on the ground'.


- Rupert

UK: Women bishops approved by 42 out of 44 dioceses

By Ed Beavan
THE CHURCH TIMES
November 17, 2011

THE diocesan synods of Liverpool, Newcastle, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southwark, and York debated the draft legislation on women bishops on Saturday, and all six backed it in all three houses.

But York diocesan synod went on to carry a following motion: "This Synod calls upon the House of Bishops, in exercise of its powers under Standing Order 60(b), to amend the draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure in the manner proposed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York at the Revision Stage for the draft Measure." This was carried by 62 to 24, with six abstentions.

In total, 42 out of the 44 dioceses have voted in favour of the legisla­tion. London and Chichester voted against (News, 21 October).

Following motions have been rejected by 32 out of 44 dioceses. Those that have carried them in­clude Chichester, Exeter, Wakefield, Blackburn, Manchester, Manchester, Europe, and Sheffield.

The campaigning group WATCH (Women and the Church) says that 85 per cent of bishops, 76 per cent of clergy, and 77 per cent of laity voted for the legislation, which is due to return to the General Synod for debate in February.

A spokesman for Forward in Faith, which opposes it, said: "We are reasonably encouraged by the fact that so many dioceses have passed following motions, which will surely place the matter on the agenda of the February Synod."

GRAS publishes statistics. The C of E is "a third of the way to reaching gender equality", the Group for Res­cinding the Act of Synod (GRAS) said last week, after publishing a table charting the position of women clergy.

The Furlong Table, named after the late Monica Furlong, who first suggested the publication of such statistics, shows that the average score across all dioceses for its def­inition of gender equality is 34.9 per cent, up from 25.8 per cent in 2005. This percentage is arrived at by com­bining two scores: one for the num­ber of full-time stipendiary women clergy in each diocese, and one for the number of women in senior posts.

GRAS said that a perfect score would be 100 per cent, representing half of all clergy and women in half of all senior posts.

The top-scoring diocese was St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, with 60.7 per cent, which GRAS says indicates that it is almost two-thirds of the way to having equal numbers of male and female clergy in senior posts - more than double its score in 2005.

GRAS's scores for the dioceses of Canterbury, Birmingham, Exeter, Portsmouth, and Chichester in­creased by more than 100 per cent. St Albans and Ely had gone up by only one per cent since 2005.

The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Chaplain of University College, Durham, and a member of the General Synod, helped to com­pile the statistics. The results showed that the Church of England was "moving in the right direction", she said, but the figures were "still disappointing", and there was still a lot of "untapped talent" among women in the Church.

She said that, at the moment, there were four female cathedral deans, and 16 women archdeacons, out of a total of 121.

Priest receives threatening messages. The Vicar of St Martin's, Barton, in Torquay, Prebendary Gorran Chap­man, has received what he described as "cowardly and anonymous threats" in a text message, after the PCC voted to adopt Resolutions A and B under the women-priests Measure. Police are investigating the matter.

*****

Church of England dioceses back Measure on women bishops - what next?
The Measure on women bishops has been backed overwhelmingly in the dioceses but supporters still face a few hurdles
The Measure returns to the General Synod for a final vote next summer

by John Kingsley
CHRISTIAN TODAY
November 18, 2011

Last weekend the Church of England inched further towards women bishops with the completion of voting on the Measure by the 43 diocesan synods. Leaving out abstentions overall 77% voted in favour.

Voting was as follows:

Bishops: For 88, Against 13 (85% in favour) Clergy: For 1956, Against 464 (76% in favour) Laity: For 2138, Against 490 (77% in favour)

The vote failed in three dioceses, Chichester, Europe and London voted against. So if diocesan synods were any measure of opinion within the church, the Measure would be expected to pass when it returns to the General Synod for a final vote next summer, or autumn at the latest. Don't, however, expect it to be as easy as that.

To pass the legislation needs to get two thirds majorities in each of the three Houses of the General Synod. General elections have taken place since legislation put to the dioceses was passed in the summer of 2010 and indications are that the vote will be somewhat closer. Voting patterns over many years make it clear the General Synod in no way mirrors diocesan synods and generally tends to be more conservative.

The other unknown is that the promised Code of Practice to accompany the legislation is yet to be published. When it is, if the numbers look close, the serious horse-trading will begin. The more outspoken advocates of women bishops will flatly oppose any arrangement that gives even a hint of a suggestion that women are a lower order of bishops. They may prefer delay of up to five more years than the wrong compromise.

People opposed will seek assurance that appropriate Episcopal ministry will be guaranteed to them in the future. The term they use to express this requirement is 'sacramental assurance'. They want to be sure there will be bishops in the historic tradition who have not done anything that will compromise this. It is not merely about gender but whether a male bishop has a female consecrator somewhere in his line of succession.

The practicalities of this requirement are hugely challenging and Catholic minded apologists say openly that the church of the future will be hard put to guarantee such sacramental assurance. If a diocesan bishop is a woman it is hard to see how any form of authority delegated by her would satisfy those demanding sacramental assurance.

If after all the horse trading there is deadlock, Parliament may elect to step in and legislate for women bishops (as it theoretically could). That, however, would set a terrible precedent and leave the Church of the future vulnerable.

AMiE II - AMiE is a game-changer

From my youngest days, to the moment I left the Anglican Church of Canada last Spring, I had been tossed around by the manipulative power-plays of those in charge. There is pure joy in the realization that there is, indeed, a new game in town. It is centered in the timelessness of Gospel truth - not a wending and a twisting innovation that makes the Western Church unrecognizable to that which Christ and the Apostles left to us. 

AMiE and it's North and South American equivalent, through the Global South leadership and courageous example, are a godsend.

- Rupert

AMiE is a game-changer

Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden

The ordinations of three young Englishmen by the Archbishop of Kenya in June and the launch of the Anglican Mission in England was a "game-changer". It marked a turning point after four and a half years of discussions with and proposals to Lambeth Palace. These discussions were to seek a way of providing effective Episcopal oversight to those for whom this had become problematic in the Church of England.

The launch of AMIE and the establishment of its panel of bishops indicated that we would no longer play the game of Church of England politics as defined by the Church of England Establishment.

The rules of the Establishment are premised on the fact that they have the luxury of time. They hold all the cards. All they have to do is to sit where they are. Their main tactic is to weaken the orthodox ranks in two ways: by co-opting some of the orthodox into their number and second by suggesting that there is such a significant divergence of views among the orthodox that they have neither coherence nor cohesion. This divergence is provoked in the same way that TV News reports on a major event, and gives equal space to the small number of people protesting at the event "in order to provide a balanced report."

Our response to this wall of silence from the Establishment often starts by being fragmentary. We take on matters issue by issue – homosexual practice, women bishops, heterodox bishops, the need for freedom to church plant, difficulty in securing ordinations. The problems are disaggregated and our response is therefore fragmented.

We can learn here from the Arab Spring for there are many parallels. The Arab Spring was started by few people, as few as seven in Egypt, who were provoked by the suicide of a market trader in Tunisia and by the murder by police of a blogger in Cairo. In the CofE, following years of similar problems, a bishop refused to say he would teach that homosexual practice was a sin and thus young men were unable to accept ordination from him.

In the Arab Spring, those seeking change made straight for the central square, the focus of national life and identity and occupied it. They were claiming it belonged to them, not to the tyrant who had usurped their nation for himself. They did not say that they were forming another nation. They did not say that they would emigrate. They went to the central public space and occupied it in order to state clearly that the square and what it stands for was theirs. They stood together in a way that the authorities could not control to claim their heritage.

In the same way AMIE is a standing together that demonstrates a different way of doing things. It has a different view of mission through planting churches and organizing for growth rather than seeking power and influence in the present system. It has a different view of being Anglican which embraces a global Anglican identity based on the Bible rather than a technical institutional identity. It has a different view of episcopacy that is not prelatical or monarchical but missional, accountable and focused on service. It has a different view of women in ministry that does not seek to compete as though it is a matter of power and status. It has a different view of marriage and sexuality which is not based on the interchangeability of the genders. AMIE resists the disaggregation of the issues as though they are all separate. It analyses the current malaise as a gradual process of destabilizing biblically faithful Anglican witness and ministry.

AMIE is first about enabling orthodox biblical mission through the Church of England which has been frustrated in a number of ways. This includes recovering a biblical view of episcopacy that enhances mission through its panel of bishops particularly for those who find the current system has excluded, ignored, marginalized or compromised them.

Oversight is to be seen not primarily as a legal requirement of an accountability to an appointing authority but as supporting the ministry and calling which both presbyter and bishop share. It is about episcope not primarily as exercising power in a territory but about collaborative ministry in expressing and serving the calling to mission wherever God leads.

AMIE also resists the playbook of senior civil servants who always respond to challenges by pointing out questions to which answers have not yet been given. AMIE is about collective action that all support whether or not all are particularly involved; it is about a refusal to be fragmented or to deal with the issues in a fragmented way. AMIE and its action has been welcomed by Anglo-Catholics as having done what they would like to have done. It has also crucially been supported and encouraged by the GAFCON Primates Council in its actions.

The summer ordinations in Kenya were part of the process of saying that we will remain Anglican but not on the current terms of the CofE establishment. The process of welcoming the ordinands, launching the AMIE and now expanding its membership is a process of moving to the public square of Church of England life and saying: "We will not be robbed of our Anglican identity. We will not be marginalized. You are the usurpers. We will not allow you to deprive us of our Anglican heritage of faithfulness to the Bible. We will find a way of being faithfully Anglican in being true to the Bible which does not depend on you."

Responses welcome to Vinay and Chris on sugdenmainstream@gmail.com