“My purpose is … to be pastorally supportive of these congregations and missions,” said [John] Guernsey, who hails from Falls Church, Va. “I’m coming to Midland to talk about the worth of sharing our faith. That’s what I’ll be preaching about.”

Leadership at Christ Church is looking forward with excitement to the visit.

“We’re thrilled that he has found time for us and our other two West Texas Anglican congregations so soon,” said the Rev. Tom Finnie, Christ Church rector. “We respect the fact that he is busy and cherish the time he is giving us.”

It’s evident that as the bishop for the American churches, he will have a growing task ahead of him. Soft-spoken and with a bookish look, the Yale graduate has seen the number of churches allied with Uganda skyrocket before, during and after his consecration.

In June 2007, the Ugandan church reported 26 American congregations. In September, the number had risen to 33. Now, the total is 44, Guernsey said.

There are many other American Anglican churches that have sought shelter and affiliation with other foreign churches, many in Africa and South America. Guernsey estimates that number to be more than 300.

Though it’s not the main purpose for his visit — “This is not a political trip at all,” he said — Guernsey is currently working toward a larger goal.

If all goes well, a new nationwide Anglican church composed of those that broke with the U.S. Episcopal Church will be formed, and all of the dissenting churches allied overseas will be released to the new structure.

“The congregations are eager to put the difficulties and church conflicts behind them,” he said.

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In examining the origins of the conservative movement in the Episcopal Church, Hassett challenges some widespread opinions held by members of the liberal community. The oft-repeated charge that the support of Global South bishops for American conservatives at the 1998 Lambeth Conference and subsequently was “bought,” she dismisses as reflecting an inadequate grasp of where most of the Southern bishops stood. That there are problems with the disparities of wealth between North and South and how wealth is shared between the two cannot, she believes, explain why the crisis has developed as it has done. More controversial, especially in America, will be the conclusion she draws from her experience of worshipping and talking with the St. Timothy’s, regarding the genuineness of the professions of concern for moral teaching that come from groups like AMIA. “Although homosexuality is often singled out for particularly vehement opposition,” she writes, “my time at St. Timothy’s showed me that evangelical Episcopalians’ responses to homosexuals are framed in the same language of sin and the need for transformation through a relationship with Jesus Christ that they apply to their own lives.” (42)

Conservatives, however, should not become complacent. Hassett has her own view of the myth that has grown up around Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, which has led some to see the shift in the locus of power to the Global South as the inevitable triumph of Christian orthodoxy. (249-52) Her Ugandan experiences demonstrate that the sense of a monolithic Southern Church that one can sometimes derive from the statements of certain primates is far from accurate. She notes, for example, the greater degree of tolerance for homosexuality (though not a denial of its sinful nature) displayed by the Bakolole fellowships that emerged from the East African Revival; the understanding of homosexuality as an imported “colonial” practice that has made it a matter of nationalist well as religious significance; and the continued reservations expressed by Ugandan bishops and priests about the wisdom of constituting AMIA.

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Marie Manor was a “cradle” Episcopalian. The Scottsdale woman was born into an Episcopal family, but she said today’s Episcopal Church is not the one she was raised in, that it has moved away from historical truths about the authority of Holy Scripture and the divinity of Christ. So, she and her family have defected.

They are part of about 175 who left en masse from Christ Church of the Ascension Episcopal Church in Paradise Valley and last month started Christ Church Anglican, which now meets in a rented church building in Phoenix. They formed their first vestry, or 12-member church board, Tuesday night.

They represent about 40 percent of the average weekly attendance of about 420 at the historic Paradise Valley church where the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater had donated the land for the church, regularly worshipped and where his remains are buried, said Jane Allred, who handles the new church’s communications. Bishop Kirk Smith, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, disputes those numbers, saying it was a “small group of about 75 people out of a 1,000-member parish” who left in what he calls a “drastic step.”

Allred sticks to her numbers and said other Episcopalians from Phoenix and Scottsdale churches, plus some Lutherans and Catholics, have joined since their first service on Oct. 7.

The 2.1 million-member mainline denomination has seen a wave of departures for Anglican communities, citing actions by the House of Bishops to allow gay Episcopal bishops and same-sex union blessings. They say the American church contrasts with other parts of the global Anglican Communion, where, they say, tradition and adherence to Scripture remain strong. The Episcopal Church has experienced a 9 percent loss in membership since 1996.

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I don’t need to remind you that there is a war on for the very soul of the Church. But your courage, if I may say this, humbly, and your steadfastness in the face of a new and speciously sophisticated manifestation of evil has won you many admirers all over the world.
And now I want to suggest to you ”“ it’s time to GO FOR IT. To put up your sails for the wind of the Spirit is blowing. Look after each other, look after Tory and Elizabeth, that family; and Tory and Elizabeth, look after them.

The wind is blowing, and the Lord’s promise is as real today as ever it was. As far as you can, put the unpleasant things behind you. The Lord is doing a NEW THING do you not see it? There are thousands out there waiting to hear that God loves them. There is a task to be done before the Lord returns. There are millions of people to be touched with that sense of joy and peace and purpose and grace and forgiveness and love which you carry as the messengers for God. But it starts, it continues and it ends with Peter’s cry from the heart ”˜Lord, you know everything’ ”˜You know that I love you’. And Jesus’ kind reply ”˜Feed my sheep’.

Let’s have a moment of quiet if we may and I would love to encourage any of you and each of you in your own way with the Lord to re-dedicate yourselves. Don’t get distracted now, time is short. Re-dedicate yourselves if you’d like to and I’m going to end with a little prayer in which you could do that. Re-dedicate yourselves to the service of God, to the welfare of the Church for whom Jesus is coming back and the glory of God’s name in this place.

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Christ Church leaders canceled a late morning worship service Sunday to measure the congregation’s support of their recent decision to break from the Episcopal Church.

More than 200 parishioners gathered at the downtown parish at 11 a.m. to cast ballots and find out what happens next. A vast majority of voters said they supported the split.

Senior warden Steve Dantin tried to explain to the congregation why the church aligned with an Anglican entity in Africa after its break with American Episcopalians.

“These entities represent a lifeboat. It’s a temporary measure,” Dantin said. “All of these lifeboats will ultimately be leading towards a mother ship, and the mother ship will more than likely be an alternate Anglican province in the United States.”

The meeting follows the Sept. 30 decision by church leaders – known as the vestry – to leave the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and join the more conservative Anglican Province of Uganda. Both the American and Ugandan churches are members of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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October 14, 2007- Savannah, GA. By a decisive margin of 87% the congregation of historic Christ Church voted overwhelmingly to affirm the vestry’s September 30, 2007 decision to place itself under the pastoral care of The Rt. Reverend John Guernsey, Rector of All Saint’s Church in Woodbridge, VA and a bishop of the worldwide Anglican Communion’s province of Uganda, Africa. The action followed a prolonged process of disciplined prayer and discernment.

“It saddens us that The Episcopal Church (TEC) has chosen to walk apart from the rest of the Communion. We have been an Anglican parish since the founding of the Colony of Georgia, and it is important to us that we continue to participate as members in good standing with the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion,” said Steve Dantin, Senior Warden.
TEC, the U.S. “branch” or province of the worldwide Anglican Communion, received a final call from the Anglican Communion to return to orthodox Christianity and to signify the same by taking certain actions no later than September 30, 2007. TEC failed to comply, and thus it abandoned the communion previously existing between TEC (including the Diocese of Georgia) and Christ Church. Therefore, Christ Church appealed to Bishop Guernsey and Archbishop Orombi for their pastoral care and oversight, which has been granted.

“This has been a long and arduous journey,” said Dantin. “It was gratifying to see the large number of parishioners participate in this process. Our congregation has spoken clearly.”
Along with 33 other Anglican congregations in the U.S., Christ Church is under the authority of Archbishop Henry Orombi of the Province of Uganda, which has a membership of 9.5 million people. Christ Church is one of over 1,000 congregations representing more than 200,000 U.S. Anglicans and 1,200 clergy who are associates of the Anglican Communion Network, an ecclesial, Anglican body in the U.S. Christ Church is also an affiliate of the American Anglican Council, an advocacy group for Anglican orthodoxy in the United States.

“We look forward to working to build a biblical, missionary, and united Anglicanism in North America,” said The Reverend Marc Robertson, Rector of Christ Church. “In the meantime nothing is changing at Christ Church. Our location, mission, ministry, education and worship services are continuing as usual.”

Founded in 1733 with the establishment of the Georgia colony, Christ Church is the Mother Church of Georgia and the oldest continuous Christian congregation in the state. Christ Church predates the establishment of The Episcopal Church in the United States and the Diocese of Georgia. Early rectors include British evangelists John Wesley and George Whitefield. Located on its original site on historic Johnson Square in downtown Savannah, Christ Church continues as an active and thriving congregation.

NEWPORT BEACH, October 10, 2007 ”“ Hundreds of Anglicans from across the southwest will gather at 10 am this Saturday at St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach to witness three ordinations which will be overseen by Bishop Evans Kisekka of the Anglican Church of Uganda and by Bishop John Guernsey, U.S.-based missionary bishop from the Anglican Church of Uganda. Kisekka will officiate at the service and Guernsey will preach.

Ordination services are not a frequent occurrence in any Anglican congregation. Being ordained priests will be St. James’s Brian Schulz and from Flagstaff, Arizona, Chuck McKinney. At the same service, St. James’s Discipleship Pastor Cathie Young will be ordained to the transitional deaconate.

In the Anglican tradition, there are three distinct orders of ordained ministry: deacon, priest and bishop. Following graduation from seminary, the first step toward becoming a priest is to be ordained a deacon. Deacons typically serve in that capacity for six months to one year before they are ordained to the priesthood. Deacons typically read the Gospel at worship services, help serve during Holy Communion, and help direct the order of worship services. They are able to preach, teach and aid in pastoral care as directed by their bishop and overseeing clergy. As priests Schulz and McKinney will assume more responsibility which will include serving as the primary celebrant during Holy Communion as well as administering other sacraments such as presiding at baptisms and weddings, as well as blessing and declaring pardon in God’s name.

Brian Schulz and his wife Julie arrived at St. James several years ago when his journey to ordained ministry brought the newlyweds to Southern California for Brian’s seminary education at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. During their time at St. James, Brian and Julie welcomed their first child, Simeon, age two. Prior to entering seminary Brian was marketing director for Coca-Cola in Beijing, China. Brian was ordained on the East Coast to the transitional deaconate about a year ago and began immediately to serve at Christ’s Church, a St. James church plant in Highland.

Cathie Young is well-known at St. James as she and her husband Philip have been members for more than 20 years and Cathie has served on the fulltime staff of St. James for 16 years. Cathie was raised in a Christian home and received her call to fulltime ministry when she was a teenager. “Interestingly, my call came as a result of the testimony of a visiting American woman missionary who was serving in Africa. She showed her slides of her ministry in Africa one night at our church and was led to specifically invite young people to give their lives to Christ for fulltime service. My heart burned within me and I received my call that night. It’s God’s great irony that the call issued by a woman who served in Africa should culminate almost 40 years later in an African ordination!” The change from lay ministry to ordained ministry follows the completion of her Masters of Divinity degree through Fuller Seminary in June 2007. At the completion of her time as a transitional deacon, she will be ordained a priest.

St. James Anglican Church is a community dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Worship services with Holy Eucharist are held Sunday mornings: 7:30 am ”“ traditional; 9 am ”“ contemporary; 11 am charismatic. Holy Eucharist is also held Wednesdays at noon. St. James is located at 3209 Via Lido, Newport Beach, CA 92663. Visit www.stjamesnb.org for more information about the church.

PREPARATIONS to commemorate the death of Bishop James Hannington in Busoga Diocese are underway. The ceremony will take place on October 28 at Kyando in Mayuge district, where Bishop Hannington was killed on October 29, 1885 by the locals on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga. Hannington was the first Anglican Bishop in eastern and central Africa.

The Jinja Archdeaconry, which is one of the five archdeacons in Busoga Diocese, is spearheading this year’s celebrations, according to Rev. John Bamugemereire, an archdeacon.

The day’s theme will be: ‘Sacrifice Yourself for Christ’.

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(Church of Uganda News)

The Episcopal Church USA (TEC) has clarified its commitment to continue on their path to abandon the Biblical and historic faith of Anglicanism. They, in fact, have decided to walk apart, and we are distressed that they are trying to take the rest of the Anglican Communion with them.

We cannot take seriously a statement from TEC that merely pledges “as a body” to not do something. TEC betrayed the Anglican Communion when it elected and confirmed as bishop a divorced man living in a same-sex relationship. We were further betrayed when its Presiding Bishop agreed to the Communiqué from the 2003 emergency Primates’ Meeting that he deeply regretted the “actions of the”¦Episcopal Church (USA),” and immediately proceeded to assert at a press conference that he would preside at that consecration. He then explained that the Primates believed their statement “as a body,” but individual primates were free to disagree.

Now, TEC has told us that they pledge “as a body” not to “authorize public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.” We have every reason to believe that individual bishops will feel free to disagree and continue to permit blessings of same-sex unions in their dioceses, rationalizing it as part of the breadth of their pastoral response, and all the while denying their complicity. This is unacceptable.

TEC has lost the right to give assurances of their direction as a church through more words and statements. They write one thing and do another. We, therefore, cannot know what they mean by their words until we see their meaning demonstrated by their actions.

–The Most Rev. Henry Orombi

“The report is severely compromised and further tears the existing tear in the fabric of our beloved Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Orombi wrote. “It is gravely lamentable that our Instruments of Communion have missed the opportunity in this moment to begin the healing that is so necessary for our future.”

Archbishop Orombi said the primates never asked the House of Bishops to make new policy for The Episcopal Church. Given that General Convention would not meet again for three years, he said the primates wanted the Episcopal bishops to clarify parts of two General Convention resolutions which the primates believed could be interpreted several different ways.

“TEC has lost the right to give assurances of their direction as a church through more words and statements,” Archbishop Orombi said. “They write one thing and do another. We therefore cannot know what they mean by their words until we see their meaning demonstrated by their actions.”

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Read it carefully and read it all.

Update: Here is the press release:

September 30, 2007””Savannah, Georgia: The vestry of historic Christ Church has voted to continue in a province in good standing with the rest of the worldwide Anglican Communion by placing itself under the pastoral care of The Rt. Reverend John Guernsey, Rector of All Saint’s Church in Woodbridge, VA and a bishop of the worldwide Anglican Communion’s Province of Uganda, Africa. The vestry was unanimous in its decision.

The vote follows a period of discernment and prayer that stretches back to 2000. “For seven years we have studied scripture, prayed and engaged in deep and significant conversations within the vestry, the congregation and the diocese,” Senior Warden Steve Dantin said. “It became clear to us that this was the best direction for us to take in order to proclaim the authority of Holy Scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.”

“We have witnessed how The Episcopal Church (TEC) has separated itself from the historic Christian faith over the last few decades,” Dantin continued. “In February 2007 TEC received a final call from the Anglican Communion to return to the central tenets of Christianity, and TEC failed to comply with the request by the September 30 deadline. Therefore, TEC has abandoned the communion previously existing between TEC (including the Diocese of Georgia) and Christ Church. This is a sober moment for us, but our first allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ and God’s word revealed to us in the Holy Bible.”
“Traditional Anglican worship will continue at Christ Church just as it has for almost 275 years,” said The Reverend Marc Robertson, Rector of Christ Church. “We have had an established mission relationship with Uganda for several years. Bishop Guernsey in Virginia is well known to us, and I welcome the opportunity to serve under his authority.”

The province of Uganda, under the leadership of Archbishop Henry Orombi, has a membership of 9.5 million people, including 33 churches in the U.S. Christ Church is one of over 1,000 congregations representing more than 200,000 U. S. Anglicans and 1,200 clergy who are associates of the Anglican Communion Network, an ecclesial, Anglican body in the U. S. Christ Church is also an affiliate of the American Anglican Council, an advocacy group for Anglican orthodoxy in the United States.

Founded in 1733 with the establishment of the Georgia colony, Christ Church is the Mother Church of Georgia and the oldest continuous Christian congregation in the state. Christ Church predates the establishment of The Episcopal Church in the United States and the Diocese of Georgia. Early rectors include British evangelists John Wesley and George Whitefield. Located on its original site on historic Johnson Square in downtown Savannah, Christ Church continues as an active and thriving congregation.

Christ Church is a Bible-based, mission-minded congregation. The Christ Church Parish House hosts Emmaus House, started in the 1980’s, which feeds 30,000 meals to homeless people annually, including a Christmas morning breakfast. Christ Church is a full partner in the Savannah Tour of Homes and Gardens, which it founded in 1935, returning the bulk of its proceeds to community ministries and mission. Christ Church also supports missions in Pass Christian, Mississippi; Belize; Romania; Russia; South America and Uganda.

Anglican bishops met in Tanzania in February to issue an ultimatum to the U.S. church, calling for an end to both the appointment of gay clergy and the approval of same-sex unions. After a six-day meeting in New Orleans, American Episcopalians decided Wednesday that they will “exercise restraint” in doing both actions, but did not announce an end to its liberal position on homosexuality. The Episcopal Church also called for an end to the practice of foreign bishops consecrating Americans.

“The decision is inadequate ”” clearly, the Episcopal Church has torn apart the Anglican Communion and wants to walk away from the rest of the church,” Guernsey says. “The Episcopal Church embarked on its course before there were African bishops and will continue to do so.” He adds that American churches have become too dry and lost their vigor. In contrast, Guernsey says that Western visitors are often overwhelmed by the heightened religiosity found in Ugandan churches.

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Reported by Alice Linsley, who attended the event, and posted at Northern Plains Anglicans. It seems everyone’s a reporter this week! Thanks All!!

Here’s the Q&A portion. But read the whole entry:

Henry Orombi Meets with Kentucky Anglicans
Alice C. Linsley

Archbishop Henry Orombi, Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, spoke to Anglican clergy and lay leaders at Apostles Anglican Church in Lexington, Kentucky on Tuesday, September 25. The event was well attended with representatives from all the newly formed Anglican churches in Kentucky. Also present were representatives from a missionary agency working in Uganda and a representative from the American Anglican Council.

[…]
After the preaching, His Grace took questions. Here are some points that he addressed:

Rowan Williams does not have authority to change the deadline for TEC’s response to the Communiqué because the Primates set that date in Dar es Salaam.

Rowan Williams regards many in TEC as being so long without Christian teaching that “they don’t know their right hand from their left.” (Here Orombi is quoting Williams.)

Archbishop Orombi and Archbishop Akinola are in the USA at a time that coincides with the HOB meeting to strengthen Anglicans in preparation for TEC’s anticipated rejection of the Primates’ requests to cease ordination/consecration of active homosexuals and same-sex blessings in the Episcopal churches.

Archbishop Orombi consecrated John Guernsey so that there would be an Anglican bishop in close proximity to deal with emergencies. As he expressed it: “It took me 16 hours to arrive in Virginia. If you need a fire truck to come all the way from Uganda, what would be left of the building?”

His Grace expressed gratitude for the Common Cause Partners and asked for prayer that there might be unity among them. “They must come together as brothers, taking each other’s hands,” he said. “They must stand together, all holding hands.”

When asked about the importance of Canterbury, the Archbishop responded, “Anglican identity is not tied to Canterbury.” While Anglicans recognize Canterbury as one of the oldest sees, “there are other significant sees.” In this matter His Grace follows Church tradition in recognizing the authority of older sees such as Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome and Antioch.

Read it all here.

Mr. [John] Guernsey says his own church, All Saints’, voted 402-6 to align with Uganda late last year and avoided a legal battle over property by negotiating a settlement with the Virginia diocese. Late last year, Mr. Duncan, Pittsburgh’s dissident conservative bishop, wrote to Ugandan Archbishop Orombi and proposed that he promote Mr. Guernsey to bishop. Mr. Orombi, who says he has no designs on American property, embraced the idea so as to provide “Ugandan” churches in the U.S. with an American-based overseer.

A few weeks before this month’s ceremony in Mbarara, the Episcopal bishop of Virginia, Peter James Lee, booted Mr. Guernsey and 21 other dissident Virginia preachers from the Episcopal priesthood.

As he stood amid family members, supporters from Virginia and throngs of African faithful, Mr. Guernsey pledged allegiance to the Church of Uganda and vowed to “banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s word.”

A thin layer of clouds shielded the gathering from a scorching equatorial sun. This, declared Archbishop Orombi, showed the occasion was God’s work. “This weather is not normal,” he told the crowd. “God has done a good thing.”

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An audio mp3 file–listen to it all.

link is fixed

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(Church of Uganda News)

A Statement by the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi, Archbishop of the Church of Uganda

My first visit to churches and clergy in the Episcopal Church (TEC) in Northern Virginia was in 1996, and I have been back many times since then. In the intervening eleven years it has become plain to see that there is a clear division in the Episcopal Church. The 2003 decision of TEC to defy Biblical authority, including the consecration as Bishop of a divorced man living in a same-sex relationship, “tore the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level.”

TEC’s decision separated itself from historic Anglicanism as well as from the vast majority of Christians worldwide. Accordingly, what has become evident is that the theology that could lead church leaders to make such a schismatic decision further separates TEC from mainstream Anglicanism in particular and global Christianity in general.

As early as 2004 the Church of Uganda responded to the first appeal from Biblically faithful TEC congregations in America to receive them as members of the Church of Uganda. There are now thirty-three congregations in the United States that are part of the Church of Uganda, and many more that are part of the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Province of the Southern Cone, the Episcopal Church of Rwanda’s Anglican Mission in the Americas, and the Church of Nigeria’s Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

There is a desperate need to provide emergency pastoral care for Biblically faithful orthodox Anglicans in America. The March 2007 rejection by TEC’s House of Bishops to the Pastoral Scheme presented to them unanimously by the Primates of the Anglican Communion and the subsequent rejection by TEC’s Executive Council only provide further evidence of this desperate need to care for, support, and encourage orthodox Anglicans and Episcopalians in America. That’s why there was such a great outpouring of international support for the recent consecrations of Americans as Bishops from the Anglican Churches of Kenya and Uganda.

I have just met with leaders of the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV). I have great respect and admiration for them as I see them remaining steadfast in their faith. The ADV embraces several Global South ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and represents the renewal of Anglicanism in America whose unity is based in the Word of God and demonstrated through its Bishops who work together cooperatively and collaboratively for increased mission in America.

Although the split occurred after the American province ordained a gay bishop, the Rev. Eric Dudley, pastor at St. Peter’s, said the problems ran much deeper.

“Homosexuality became a lightning-rod issue, but underlying that was the much larger issue of the role Scripture plays in the church,” he said.

The idea that Jesus is a way, rather than the way to God is one example, Dudley said. He said most of the 77 million Anglicans worldwide, including Orombi, adhere to a more “classical” view of the Bible.

The Rev. Jim Needham – pastor of St. Luke’s Anglican Fellowship, also a sponsor of the archbishop’s visit along with St. Peter’s and Trinity Anglican Church in Thomasville – has met Orombi twice. He describes him as a “wonderful combination of gentleness and strength.”

“He has a firmness of convictions but at the same time cares a lot for people,” Needham said.

In addition to raising three children, for instance, Orombi also has taken in a number of children and supported them through college.

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The problem for Anglicans is that they cannot agree on how to interpret the Bible, and therefore they arrive at very different views on a number of moral issues.

For conservative Anglicans, the Bible is clearly opposed to homosexuality. Liberals say that Jesus was silent on the issue.

What is clear is that the debate over sexuality is not going to be over soon, but in the meantime African Anglicans are seizing the initiative and creating new branches of their churches inside the United States.

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Watch it all courtesy of Anglican TV

The Rev. Scott Hayashi, a diocesan representative, read a letter from Bishop William Persell, who thanked the congregation for carrying out its decision “with grace and integrity.”

“We will continue to hold you in our prayers,” the letter said.

Afterward, Hayashi and Koch hugged.

Resurrection is a young, multi-racial congregation where hugs flow as easily as peals of laughter. Dress is casual, worship is informal. Often, members rest a hand on a neighbor’s shoulder when in prayer.

“We’re a close family,” said Catherine Clark, 66, of Batavia. “Anyone can come here — black, white, gay, straight — and be loved.”

Lynne Bowman, 59, a lifelong Episcopalian from Barrington, called the move bittersweet.

“We have tried to allow the love of God to be part of everything,” she said. “But it’s still painful.”

The new worship space was a quarter mile walk from the church. As the worshippers processed, a guitarist strummed, while others yelled Nigerian warrior cries.

Longtime members said leaving the Episcopal Church was tough but that the walk of faith is never easy.

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Bishops Bill Atwood, John Guernsey, and Bill Murdoch are personal friends of many years and we are looking forward to working with them in the coming months as part of the Common Cause Partnership. These new initiatives are a dramatic demonstration that we are not alone as we seek to bear witness to the transforming love of Jesus Christ that is rooted in the ‘faith once and for all delivered to the saints.’

These missionary and pastoral initiatives by our friends in the Global South also make clear that they will not abandon us to those who seek to silence our voices by pernicious lawsuits and canonical threats. It is my hope that one result of these creative partnerships will be a renewed emphasis on mission and reaching the unchurched with the Gospel.

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Amid ululations and applause punctuating colourful worship, Revd. Canon Will Atwood and Revd. William Murdoch were consecrated as Suffragan Bishops of the Church of Kenya in All Saint’s Cathedral, Nairobi, on Thursday August 30th. The following Sunday in an open air event in the grounds of St. Luke’s Cathedral, Mbarara and in the presence of the Prime Minister of Uganda, a huge crowd witnessed Revd John Guernsey being consecrated along with a Ugandan, Revd Dr. George Tibeesigwa, as Bishops of the Church of that nation.

The North Americans were commissioned to serve scores of parishes in the USA that have withdrawn from the Episcopal Church. But being people who love their Lord and their Anglican heritage, they have requested episcopal and pastoral support from Provinces overseas.

In a packed press conference in Nairobi before the service, Archbishop Nzimbi explained the background to these consecrations.

He noted the shift from the traditional understanding and interpretation of Scripture, particularly evident in the USA. This has resulted in a denial of the uniqueness of Christ, universalism in relation to salvation and views on homosexual practice that clash with the clear statements of Scripture. The Nairobi and Mbarara events were clearly an encouragement to laity and clergy who had come from the USA in support of their new bishops.

They were also reassured by the presence of Primates from the West Indies, the Indian Ocean, Central Africa, West Africa, Rwanda, the Southern Cone and Nigeria as well as bishops from the USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil and England. It was clear evidence of the worldwide response to their desire to remain part of the Anglican Communion.

Greetings were carried to the new bishops from 31 members of the General Synod of the Church of England and also from the Group which challenged the church in this country with its “Covenant for the Church of England”. The significance of these events is massive. We are often given to understand that the Global South along with conservative Anglicans in the USA and Canada are unloving, hard line traditionalists, schismatic, resistant to change and lacking in compassion.

True, a large number has chosen to walk away from their national church. They were not prepared to see the church they love taken over, nor the Gospel they love distorted, by an intolerant liberal fringe that has moved away from mainstream Christian faith and without a message of hope even for the people they seek to serve.

Now these people of historic Anglican faith can remain within Anglican structures. Clearly these arrangements cannot be anything other than provisional or temporary, and this was understood by those participating. . So these consecrations were not an expression of a “Religious Rift” as Nairobi’s “Daily Nation” called it. Even less was it an anti-gay demonstration.

Talk was much more of a new approach to mission within our church. “I see a new reformation happening in the Anglican Communion”, declared Archbishop Nzimbi. “God is at work renewing it for mission. We want the Gospel to be preached as we have received it and to form churches grounded in God’s Word and relevant to today’s challenges”.

Bishop Bob Duncan (Pittsburgh), the Moderator of conservative Anglicans in the USA, saw this weekend as “a tremendous step forward in providing missionary leadership necessary to building a united renewed Anglicanism in North America”.

The presence of representatives of CANA (led by Bp. Martyn Minns) and AMiA (led by Bp. Charles Murphy), and other groups at these consecrations was testimony to that. It was indeed a courageous weekend.

This was the Anglican Communion as it should be and pointed the way forward to a new expression of Anglicanism in the USA, freed from the shackles of an inadequate and superficial culture-shaped theology, free to share Good News to a nation and a world starved of it.

–The Rt. Rev. Colin Bazley is former Bishop of Chile and Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone; this article appears on page 5 of the September 7, 2007, issue of the Church of England Newspaper

The subject of Sunday’s sermon at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church was repentance, and the preacher found an obvious example of the sinfulness of contemporary culture within the branch of his own denomination an ocean away in the United States.

Criticizing the Episcopal Church’s embrace of gays and lesbians, the Rev. Samuel Muchiri told the 1,000 worshipers “we in Kenya feel this is not what God wants.” An usher advised a visiting reporter to “remember that Sodom and Gomorrah was demolished because there were homosexuals.” Another warned that the reporter could be assaulted if he asked worshipers about the issue, and said that America’s permissiveness toward homosexuality had led Osama bin Laden to attack.

Those sentiments have been building for years, and now a group of Anglican archbishops is attempting to plant the seeds for a new, conservative Anglicanism in North America that will either transform or replace the Episcopal Church.

“All these people brought Christianity to us, but now the church is growing here [in Africa] like wildfire, it’s spreading everywhere, while the church in England is withering, the church in the States is going completely, and there has been a cry, ‘Why don’t you come? You should have come here a long time ago to evangelize,’ ” said Archbishop Bernard A. Malango, the Anglican primate of Central Africa. “We need to send missionaries, even to Britain; we need to send missionaries to the United States, and we need to send missionaries to Canada, because those who brought the church here have lost what their intention was, and the same Bible they brought to us is being misinterpreted. We find it very odd.”

Malango was one of seven Anglican primates, as the archbishops of regional provinces of the Anglican Communion are called, who gathered in Nairobi last Thursday to consecrate as bishops of the Anglican Church of Kenya two former Episcopal priests, including William L. Murdoch of Massachusetts. Then, many of those same primates, from the developing nations of the Southern Hemisphere, went to Kampala on Sunday to consecrate a third American as a bishop of Uganda.

The significance of the consecrations is hotly debated…

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Go here and go forward 31 minutes and 45 seconds for the segment to begin. It includes interviews with both John Guernsey and Archbishop Henry Orombi (hat tip: SS).

[John] Guernsey, who has been the Vicar of All Saint’s Church in the parish of Woodbridge, Virginia, will return to the US and lead the 33 parishes that have recognised the Church of Uganda’s authority.

“As I assume this responsibility of providing episcopal oversight and care for the church of Uganda congregations in the US, I am excited about helping these churches catch the fire of mission which the Church of Ugada so passionately demonstrates”, Guernsey said.

“In America, we must recapture the priority of evangelism, the urgency of outreach into our communities and the need to reach young people and raise leaders of the next generations. I pray that the spirit of revival comes to us where so many are lost.”

Guernsey’s consecration came just three days after Kenya’s Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi consecrated two American priests as bishops.

The 77 million-strong Anglican Communion has been split since its 2.4 million-member US branch consecrated Gene Robinson as the first gay bishop four years ago.

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Orombi spokeswoman Alison Barfoot said the archbishop had called Guernsey to lead 33 congregations in the United States that will recognise the Church of Uganda’s authority.

“He’s an ecclesiastical refugee,” she told Reuters by telephone from the ceremony, referring to Guernsey.

“We thought the crisis in the Anglican Church would be resolved by now. We expected the Episcopal Church to repent … but they have prolonged the crisis.”

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The BBC’s Christopher Landau says the consecration of a new local bishop in south-western Uganda would normally pass without comment.

But the church is also appointing a white American priest, John Guernsey, to lead a new branch of the Ugandan Church in the US, serving parishes in the state of Virginia that no longer feel able to tolerate the American Church’s liberal stance on homosexuality.

The ceremony will take place in the open air because the local cathedral is not large enough to accommodate the thousands due to attend.

It follows the consecration of two US bishops in Kenya on Thursday.