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We, the undersigned laity and clergy of the Episcopal Church, offer the following as a testament to our concern for the life and witness of our church and its membership in the Anglican Communion. The God-given bonds of affection that unite us to one another are based in the prior unity of love that is God’s own Trinitarian life; for this reason, our corporate life should continually strive to be an icon of this same love. At the present moment, we are particularly mindful that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (II Cor. 5:19), and that because of this we have been given a “ministry of reconciliation” (II Cor. 5:18). It is our prayer that the Holy Spirit will give the Episcopal Church a renewed awareness that at the heart of our common mission lies the ministry of reconciliation, which endeavors “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” (BCP Catechism, p. 855).

To that end, we

Affirm that evangelism lies at the heart of the Church’s mission, understanding evangelism to subsist in the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which calls all people to repent from sin, to be united in the Body of Christ through baptism, and to be continually discipled in the communion of the Church.

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If you follow the links there is a lot of material to sift through.

One of the resolutions up for consideration at General Convention in July is endorsement of the Earth Charter together with the development of “action steps for diocese, churches and individuals to implement its principles locally, nationally and internationally.”

The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it was drafted over a multi-year period by an international drafting committee that engaged literally thousands of ordinary people and hundreds of local and international organizations. It was formally launched in June 2000 and has since received formal endorsements by thousands of groups worldwide.

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Bishop [Robert] Duncan is Archbishop-designate of the ACNA and Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh that is now under the auspices of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone. The Rev. J. Philip Ashey, chief operating officer and chaplain for the American Anglican Council, told The Living Church that Pittsburgh is one of the five applications for recognition as an ACNA diocese that have already been received. The deadline for applications is April 15.

Earlier this month, the Rt. Rev. John H. Chapman, Bishop of Ottawa in the Anglican Church of Canada, said he would authorize a congregation under his oversight to begin performing same-sex blessings in part because “while our church struggles to honor the call for gracious restraint in blessing same-sex unions, those who are proponents of cross-border interventions have and continue to show no restraint.”

That view was echoed this week during the House of Bishops’ spring retreat by Bishop Dan Edwards of Nevada. Bishop Edwards posted a blog entry noting that a number of bishops are considering the repeal of Resolution B033 because of what they perceive as a lack of reciprocal restraint by the ACNA.

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This resolution failed on a roll call vote by orders–KSH.

Resolution R-3

Subject: A Resolution Requesting that General Convention 2009 be Suspended

Offered by: the Very Rev. Craige Borrett, the Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, Christ Saint Paul’s, Yonges Island

That this Diocesan Convention, while valuing and affirming the importance of meeting together in our common life for the upbuilding of the body, nevertheless asks that the Executive Council and the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church voluntarily agree not to hold General Convention 2009 (and thus not meet in General Convention until 2012) and that all dioceses agree to abide by this request as an act of mutual submission to one another; and

That all the money which is saved by this event suspension be given to a ministry focused on meeting the needs of the poor and in accordance with the Millenium Development Goals

Explanation:

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).

There are three reasons the Episcopal Church needs to do this. First, the last two General Conventions have been deeply divisive not only for our common life in the Episcopal Church but for the life of the Anglican Communion. As Archbishop Rowan Williams once wisely said, when times of friction and misunderstanding are high, sometimes a temporary withdrawal can promote more perspective and the possibility for healing.

Second, we are in the midst of a serious massive global economic crisis. In such a time, many companies in America are canceling their conventions so as to show greater prudence and stewardship to their employees and shareholders, and as a witness to the importance of simpler living by all.

Thirdly, this is a time to undertake creative and unusual initiatives. The Episcopal Church is in many ways stuck. It has been rightly said “if you do what you have always done you get what you have always gotten.” It is time for a change.

Some may object that this is something we cannot do because of our polity as a church. But polity is made for the church, not the church for polity. If any community really wants to do something, they can make it happen, and this would be a powerful witness to our willingness to sacrifice for our own common life and that of the Anglican Communion going forward.

Global concerns and Anglican Communion issues will be a major focus of the Episcopal Church’s 76th General Convention when it meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California.

The church’s main legislative gathering, which meets every three years, also will welcome many international guests from various Anglican Communion provinces. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will attend General Convention for the first time July 8-9. He will participate in Bible study and be a keynote speaker at a global economic forum on the evening of July 8.

Convention will devote extensive conversation to global issues through its Committee on International Concerns, which will prepare legislation to be addressed by convention’s House of Bishops and House of Deputies.

Some of the key issues will focus on the crises and peacemaking efforts in conflict areas such as the Middle East, Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Convention addresses global concerns for two reasons, said the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, the Episcopal Church’s senior director of mission and director of the Advocacy Center.

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Six months before General Convention, it is already clear that dioceses want the triennial gathering to tackle a range of issues including same-gender relationships, criteria for consenting to episcopal consecrations, the environment, the economy, financing theological education and liturgical change.

In the run-up to the convention, which will take place July 8-17 in Anaheim, Calif., two issues in the debate over homosexuality have seen the most reaction from diocesan conventions. One involves blessing same-gender relationships, especially in states that grant some legal status to those relationships. The other centers on consenting to the episcopal election of individuals “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion,” as stated in Resolution B033 from the 2006 General Convention.

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The Chicago Consultation issued this statement from its co-convener, Ruth Meyers, in response to the communiqué of the Anglican primates on the final day of their meeting in Egypt:

“Christ calls us to practice both compassion and justice. We reject the false choice suggested by the Primates communiqué that God asks Episcopalians to deny either faithful mission with the worldwide Anglican Communion or full inclusion of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered sisters and brothers,” said Meyers, who is professor of liturgics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

“We look toward General Convention 2009, where we will work with a broad coalition of allies to achieve full inclusion of all the baptized in The Episcopal Church and to be a voice of witness with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people across the Anglican Communion,” continued Meyers.

“The Chicago Consultation believes that the Anglican Communion is, at its best, a manifestation of the body of Christ in which the Holy Spirit blesses members from different cultures and contexts with various gifts. As Christians, we are called to live in communion with one another, but also to embrace all of the Spirit’s gifts””graciously and fearlessly.”

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I think that instead of seeking out new fads and revising liturgies to suit modern tastes, I think we ought to go back and take a good look at those old liturgical books, dogmatic theology books, and Bibles we traded in for shiny glossy hardcovers that talk about a Jesus that doesn’t require you to go to church or be part of a community, or a Jesus who didn’t rise from the dead, or a Gospel that behaves more like secular humanism than God’s direct intervention into human history. It is in these ancient tomes that we will find the key to the way forward. Using our Anglican ingenuity and fortitude and our firm grasp on tradition and innovation, we can forge a way forward that responds to the spiritual hunger of our society and present the Gospel in a way that makes sense.

While I believe that all the outreach we do is important, valuable and are actions that help us to fulfill the Great Commandments, I think we focus too much on the second one and lose focus on the first one. The Great Commandments are: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourselves.”

The second should be an outgrowth of the first. Notice that the Scriptures don’t phrase it as “Love your neighbor as yourself, and love God only if you feel you have to”. We need to love God first, we need to first hand over our whole existence to Him. We can never pretend nor presume that our reasoning or our thoughts on their own are ever perfect because of our innately fallen nature as children of Eve.

I think that it is time that we have a whole General Convention dedicated to doctrine and creating the foundation for our mission work in the world.

I applaud the focus on doctrine and its importance but General Convention, sadly, is not at all conducive to doing theology. Read it all–KSH.

When an anticipated 9,000 to 10,000 deputies and alternate deputies, bishops, Episcopal Church Women, exhibitors, staff, volunteers and visitors converge in Anaheim, California, next July for the Episcopal Church’s 76th General Convention and ECW Triennial Meeting, they can expect sun, fun, rich diversity, green space, fresh worship, the launch of a mission conversation and a glimpse of the future’s “nochurch” churches.

From July 8-17, the glasswalled Anaheim Convention Center one block from Disneyland will be transformed into meeting, worship, child-care and other spaces and host at least 120 exhibitors, an educational discovery center and a diocesan hospitality venue featuring banners proclaiming “Faith and Our Future” and emergent worship, said Bishop Jon Bruno of the Diocese of Los Angeles.

“I was there the last time convention was in Anaheim, when Edmond Browning was elected the presiding bishop,” said Bruno, a veteran conventioneer. “I’ve gone from volunteer to host of convention, and we’re excited beyond belief and preparing for our thousands of visitors.”

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But I do not think leaving is the answer. That is where the Communion Partners rest. Daniel had to stay in Babylon, but did not abandon his faith. Jeremiah was not given another Israel. Ezekiel had to preach to the dry bones. When Jesus and his message were completely rejected, he did not leave. He wept. He stayed. He did not move on to Egypt. He stayed and faithfully preached when they believed and when they did not believe.

There appears, for now, to be tremendous hope in the other forms of Anglicanism that have been springing up around the country. But they are very much in their embryonic stages. In my previous diocese, there were six different expressions of Anglican identity in one small area of the state. None of them were growing significantly. There are already some divisions within these breakaway movements over liturgy, women’s ordination, and prayer book language. I wish them well, but I would have rather seen them stay.

I have asked every person I personally know that has [left] or was pondering to leave the Episcopal Church if they were prevented in some way by their parish or bishop from preaching the gospel. Each one has said, “No….”

The press has not done an adequate job of reporting on the success stories in the Episcopal Church, and it has also ”” too often ”” presumed that the vast majority of Episcopalians agree with the revisionist agenda. I would argue that the vast majority in the pews do not. Many bishops do not, and many clergy do not.

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It is a 48 page pdf file with material of interest.

(ENS) If a proposed Anglican covenant is released in mid-May for adoption by the Anglican Communion’s provinces, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will “strongly discourage” any effort to bring that request to the 76th General Convention in July….

Anglican Communion provinces have until the end of March 2009 to respond to the current version of the proposed covenant, known as the St. Andrew’s Draft. The Covenant Design Group meets in London in April 2009 and may issue another draft of a covenant. That draft is expected to be reviewed by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) during its May 1-12, 2009 meeting. The ACC could decide to release that version to the provinces for their adoption.

If the ACC decides to do that, “my sense is that the time is far too short before our General Convention for us to have a thorough discussion of it as a church and I’m therefore going to strongly discourage any move to bring it to General Convention,” Jefferts Schori told the Executive Council. “I just think it’s inappropriate to make a decision that weighty” that quickly, she added.

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(ENS) In another step toward the Episcopal Church’s 76th General Convention in Anaheim, California, the process of forming legislative committees has begun.

Deputies have until September 30 to express three preferences for appointment to one of 23 committees.

While a preliminary review of those completed forms will begin next week, according to House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, no appointment decisions will be made until after the deadline. Anderson will appoint deputies to the committees and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will appoint bishop members.

To aid the appointment process, deputies also have been asked to outline their previous General Convention experience as well as their experience in the wider Episcopal Church. “It’s likely that first-time deputies without wider church experience won’t be appointed” to the committees, Anderson said.

There is a lot to learn about General Convention, she said, and first-time deputies can find themselves overwhelmed and feeling like observers rather than active participants. Anderson said this can be especially true when first-time deputies are named to legislative committees.

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“I will work on educating the church specifically about General Convention, our bicameral system, and our theology of governance,” …[Bonnie Anderson] said in an address to the annual Episcopal Communicators’ Conference in Seattle recently. “The circular model of ministry ”“ clergy, laity, bishops working together, using their gifts to be the ministers of the church that attracted me to The Episcopal Church over 35 years ago ”“ has somewhat morphed itself into a pyramidal structure with the largest order, the laity, being at the bottom of a top-down approach to ministry.”

Mrs. Anderson, who is also chairwoman of the 17-member Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements, said the theme of the 76th General Convention will be Ubuntu, a Zulu word that describes humaneness encompassing a sense of caring, sharing and being in harmony with all of creation, according to an article in Episcopal Life, which noted that finding an exact translation for the word in English is difficult.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told Episcopal Life that she suggested Ubuntu as the convention theme for a variety of reasons.

“Because it is unfamiliar, it may be able to invite us into a larger and more expansive way of understanding identity in community,” she said.

In comments to Episcopal Life, Mrs. Anderson said Episcopalians often struggle to describe the identity of The Episcopal Church and relationships within it. She and other planners envision a deeper understanding of the church’s identity and relationships by having convention engage in a process known as public narrative.

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