In 2010, AMiA’s leadership chose to distance themselves from the newly started ACNA. Where AMiA was once an organization with “dual citizenship” within the ACNA as well as Rwanda, it pulled out of the ACNA, changing its status to “mission partner.” Some inside the AMiA were disappointed by this distancing and wanted the opportunity to officially reconnect with the ACNA; now the establishment of PEARUSA by the Archbishop of Rwanda, Onesphore Rwaje, has rekindled hopes for those who want to be structurally within the ACNA.

The Rev. Clark Lowenfield, Rector of Hope Pointe Anglican Church near Houston, Texas is among those formerly in AMiA who are now in PEARUSA and would like to join the ACNA. Lowenfield says there are a number of parishes in his region alone that desire as much, however “there is a very high value on doing things decently and in order” within the group. That’s good news for a mission organization that has been through such turmoil in recent months and is made up of churches that may be headed in different directions.

Read it all.

(Please note two things. First, I realize this article is dated but it was only yesterday working on something that I realized it had not yet been posted and it remains relevant. Second, make sure to note that it should not be confused with the earlier article on the AMIA by this same writer which was posted on the blog there.. Blog readers should make sure to digest both pieces–KSH.)

Bishop Terrell Glen, a former AMIA leader who remains part of the Church of Rwanda, said [Chuck] Murphy and other American bishops did the wrong thing by bolting. They had taken a vow of obedience to their bishop, he said, and broke it by quitting.

“I don’t believe the archbishop was requiring anything of anyone that we could not submit to,” he said.

For years, leaders of the Anglican Mission and other breakaway Episcopal groups have tried to get the Anglican Communion to recognize them as a legitimate alternative to the Episcopal Church. This latest split shows how difficult that will be, said Jim Naughton, editor of Episcopalcafe.com and a former spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.

“We don’t know how much staying power they have,” said Naughton.

Read it all.

At the conclusion of the January, 2012 Sacred Assembly in Raleigh, NC, Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje established a temporary Steering Team on behalf of the Anglican Church of Rwanda to serve in directing its ongoing missionary efforts in North America. The Steering Team was commissioned to both respond to immediate needs and also to prepare the way for future long” term mission and structure. The immediate task of the team was to provide pastoral care and oversight for clergy canonically resident in Rwanda, as well as those congregations desirous of continuing affiliation with Rwanda, all under the auspices of an interim organization known as PEARUSA (Province de L’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda en USA). In preparing for the future, the team was charged to explore and develop plans for long”term ecclesiastical structures. Toward this end, a working group of laity, clergy and bishops met in a retreat center outside of Washington, DC, on Feb 26”28, 2012, to consider future possibilities. This communiqué reports the outcomes of this working group retreat….

Read it all (another from the long queue of should-have-already-been-posted material).

AMiA was founded in 2000. Initially the relationship between the American congregations that joined the Rwanda Province went well due to the lax control the Rwandan Church exercised over AMiA congregations. In return for being part of the Rwandan Church, AMiA freely gave 10 percent of its revenue to the province.

Problems began after Emmanuel Kolini, the archbishop of Rwanda, retired in 2010. His successor, Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, desired more oversight of AMiA, which led to tensions between Rwaje and American Bishop Charles Murphy, a missionary bishop ordained to head AMiA.

This led to the decision by some bishops including Murphy to resign in December of last year and leave the AMiA.

Read it all.

In mid-December, a small group of people brought the practice of an “ancient faith” to the Battle-Friedman House on Greensboro Avenue.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church is not the first Anglican church in Tuscaloosa’s history, but it’s the only one currently active.

“We’re brand new, and we want to let people know we’re here and have a sense what we’re all about,” said the Rev. Lanier Nail, pastor of St. Paul’s.

Read it all. Also, the Church website is there.

[Emmanuel] Ntazinda said he intends to embark on developmental projects, by sensitising Christians to form cooperatives.

“I have a very wide agenda…primarily to preach the word of God. But I will also sensitise church followers to embrace the culture of working in cooperatives. I will also promote education by working closely with all stakeholders,” he pronounced.”

Read it all.

For the second time in a decade, the Rev. Thomas McKenzie has found himself in an ugly church fight.

Back in 2004, it was over sexuality and salvation in the Episcopal Church.

Now it’s over power and money, the spat between leaders of the Anglican Mission in the Americas ”” made up mostly of former Episcopalians like McKenzie ”” and the overseas Anglican group that adopted them.

“It’s sinful, it’s ugly, it’s wrong,” said McKenzie, pastor of Church of the Redeemer in Nashville and a former Episcopal priest. “And it doesn’t bring honor to the name of Christ.”

Read it all.

Update: Please note–this link no longer works for me but I found it over here.

Greetings in the name of Christ for whom we wait with joy and anticipation.

We, the undersigned Bishops of the Anglican Mission, write you today at the conclusion of two very important meetings. December 18-19th, we met in Charlotte, NC to seek God’s direction for our Anglican Mission, and on December 20th, a delegation from this Council met with representative bishops from the Anglican Church in North America in Pittsburgh, PA.
Our desire is to share our hearts with you about these meetings and to confirm our support for you and our partnership in the Gospel. May this letter be a word of encouragement to each one of you that Jesus Christ is, even now, lifting a call of peace, reconciliation and vision in our midst!

We want you to know that this Council of Bishops is absolutely united. We have stood together as this whole transitional drama has unfolded and we will continue to stand together through whatever may come until unity and relationships are restored and our mission for the cause of Christ is accomplished.

We apologize for the fallout that you have felt from the collision of what may best be described as two groups of Godly leaders separated by tens of thousands of miles and substantial cultural differences, each seeking to do what they have hoped would bring about a more effective Christian witness in our land. What has happened in the past six months is certainly not reflective of, nor consistent with, the pattern of relationship and mission that has marked our relationship with Rwanda during the previous thirteen years. Nor are the attacks, in particular, against our Chairman, Bishop Chuck Murphy, true in regard to his character or leadership.

In Rwanda there has been significant change in the House of Bishops over the past two years as a result of the election of a new Primate and several new members to that House. It appears to have been their desire to transition our partnership toward a leadership model that would allow this newly constituted House to exercise much greater control over the day-to-day operations and direction of the Anglican Mission, moving in a direction that is inconsistent with anything that had been fully discussed or engaged in over the past thirteen years.

This past summer a process of discernment was initiated by Bishop Murphy with our Council of Bishops regarding next steps in formalizing the structures of the Anglican Mission in a manner consistent with what the Holy Spirit has led us into over the past fourteen years. The structure being considered was a Missionary Society out of the Province of Rwanda (a missionary society is an historically recognized entity within the Church). This conversation was evolving and was involving the HOB of Rwanda, our founding Archbishops, and leadership throughout the Anglican Mission. We believe that it is important for you to know that our founding archbishops, Moses Tay, Yong Ping Chung, and Emmanuel Kolini have all encouraged us to move forward toward a formalized Missionary Society. As such, a Society would build on what God has been doing with us and would also reflect what they have sensed in prayer that the Lord is calling us to do. This fall these two transitions met, and none of us could have anticipated the velocity with which they collided.

For today, we will leave the details of these past nine months to history. Things will all be made clearer as the dust settles, as relationships are restored and truth comes to light, and as we remain focused on our primary mission, starting churches and encouraging those who are doing Kingdom work. Know that we love and cherish our Rwandan friends, and they us. We will not speak further of what has happened save in the pursuit of reconciliation among our Houses. You may be assured that reconciliation remains important to us. We offer our apologies to Rwanda and to you for the missteps that we have made, and seek the forgiveness of our brothers and of Almighty God for those places where we have, by our words and actions, caused pain or confusion.

Already Bishop Murphy and Bishop Terrell Glenn have met following Bishop’s Glenn’s recent resignation from our Council. We are happy to report the good news that reconciliation has been reached between our brothers. For this we have not ceased to thank our Lord.

As we move forward we are deeply grateful for the sacrificial and ongoing leadership that our founding archbishops, Moses Tay, Yong Ping Chung, and Emmanuel Kolini have provided to our Mission. At this moment in our history, we are particularly thankful that they have stepped into an active oversight and leadership position in our Mission and in the formation process of a Missionary Society.

It may be helpful to say that an Anglican Missionary Society, by name, must have a jurisdictional connection within the Anglican Communion. We had hoped that our jurisdictional connection would have been with the Province of Rwanda, but with our resignation as bishops from that Province, we are prayerfully considering other options. Although several options have been considered and have presented themselves to us, in prayer and conversation with many of you, it became clear that a process of discernment should first be engaged with the Anglican Church in North America.

What follows is a joint statement issued by the ACNA/AM task force which came into being yesterday and which will be leading us through this discernment process. Bishop TJ Johnston and Bishop Doc Loomis will be representing the Anglican Mission in these conversations.

On December 20, 2011, Bishops Chuck Murphy, Doc Loomis and John Rodgers and representatives from the Anglican Mission in the Americas participated in a very encouraging conversation during a meeting with Archbishop Robert Duncan, Bishops Leonard Riches and Charlie Masters of the Anglican Church in North America. The joyful result of these conversations was a mutual pledge to wholeheartedly pursue a restoration of the relationship between The Anglican Mission and the Anglican Church in North America. The ACNA and AMiA have appointed four bishops to engage in a determined effort to bring about at the earliest possible time a reunion of The Anglican Mission, a founding partner of the ACNA, to full participation in the life and ministry of the Anglican Church in North America. Both parties recognize that this is the beginning of a process, which will involve a number of strategic decisions as well as the repair and restoration of relationships. We give thanks to God for the ongoing work of His Holy Spirit as He continues to draw us together to form a Biblical, united and missionary Anglican witness to North America.

Finally, during our time in Charlotte, Bishop Murphy and the Council openly engaged a number of important leadership issues and transitions that would be involved in formalizing a Missionary Society. One of the purposes of such a move is to provide a stable, sustainable, and flexible platform for our Mission for decades to come. During this conversation, the Council affirmed Bishop Murphy’s leadership as Chairman, even as all of us, including Bishop Murphy, acknowledged that in this time of transition to a Missionary Society, current positions and leadership roles are likely to change.

We also prayed through and discussed our upcoming Winter Conference, which will be a very important time for us to gather together and seek God’s presence and heart for our Mission. Along with our overseeing archbishops, we invite and encourage all of you to join us in Houston for what will be a defining moment for our Mission.

We implore you to prayerfully consider what we have shared with you. It is our earnest desire that you will trust and join with us as we boldly step forward in our call to press on with the Mission the Lord has laid on our hearts, and to help us work through the process of establishing a Missionary Society that reflects our long held belief that we are a Mission, nothing more, nothing less.

With glad tidings for a blessed Christmas we remain,

Faithfully yours,

(signed)

(The Rt. Rev.) Sandy Greene
(The Rt. Rev.) Doc Loomis
(The Rt. Rev.) Todd Hunter
(The Rt. Rev.) T.J. Johnston
(The Rt. Rev.) Philip Jones
(The Rt. Rev.) John Miller
(The Rt. Rev.) Silas Ng

unfortunately, there is another issue that has been made public; it is now part of the historical record: Chuck Murphy and eight AMIA bishops have removed themselves from Rwandan oversight, having done so for no particular theological or biblical reason. The issues are both personal and ecstatic. By personal, I mean personality conflicts. By ecstatic, I mean that the only spiritual reason given for the departure was Chuck Murphy’s sense that the Lord had told him personally that he was like Moses leading people out of Egypt: “I must now say ”¦ that I believe that the Lord’s present word to me (and to us) now directs me to look beyond Genesis chapters 39-45, and on into the Book of Exodus”¦. that Africa (Egypt) could no longer be viewed as [AMIA’s] lasting home”¦. Things have now been made very clear to me” [letter of Dec. 5, 2011 to Archbishop Rwaje].

I think it critical in such times that we say what a thing is”“only the truth will set us free. And this thing that happened has a name: schism. All the AMIA bishops who have resigned are schismatics.

This is a hard sentence to write and to read, because these are otherwise godly men, whose leadership we have admired. Some we call friends and colleagues. But there is no other word to describe what they’ve done other than the word schism.

Read it all.

The recently disclosed rupture inthe relationship of the Rwandan House of Bishops and bishops of the Anglican Mission in the Americas, although hardly yet resolved or completely transparent, illumines at least a couple of key elements about ecclesial existence, especially among Anglicans. I was never a supporter of the AMiA’s formation, for mainly two reasons: it diluted traditional Anglican witness within North America and it provided a model of and stoked the dynamics for Anglican fragmentation around the world. But for all that, many of the AMiA’s leaders have been people of enormous missionary commitment and skill, and the public dispute among their American and Rwandan leaders hardly does them the honor they deserve.

Read it all.

Anglican Mission in the Americas Communiqué from the London Meeting

Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini, Moses Tay and Yong Ping Chung, founding archbishops of the Anglican Mission, met with Bishop Chuck Murphy December 12-14, 2011, in London, England, and were joined by Cynthia Tay, Julia Yong, Susan Grayson, Canon Mike Murphy, and Canon Kevin Donlon. They have issued the following report:

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Advent is a season characterized by waiting, expectation and hope. In our recent time together, we took the opportunity to seek the Lord in prayer and meditation upon HIs Word as we waited to hear His voice. God, who is always faithful, gave us profound encouragement. We experienced His presence powerfully as we sought Him with expectant hearts in order to discern His good and perfect will for all of us in the Anglican Mission.
We acknowledged together the rapid and dramatic chain of events that have led to this moment. Remembering the joy and anticipation of Winter Conference 2011 as we welcomed the new leadership in the Rwandan House of Bishops makes the current reality of separation even more difficult for all concerned. We grieve the pain caused by such a radical and sudden change that resulted in the end of a meaningful sojourn with Rwanda.

We are mindful of the story of Abraham and Lot (Genesis 13:8-10) which illustrates that sometimes moments come when God’s people take different paths. Abraham and Lot separated with grace and mutual respect, and that is our desire as well. We are convinced that we can all find a godly way forward that overcomes division and builds for a future that honors God and extends His Kingdom.

Such a way forward demands humble hearts, fervent prayer, willing minds and committed effort.

In the midst of what must be recognized as a challenging transition, we believe God is showing us His direction for the future of the Anglican Mission. Our current situation necessitates a clear response based on what we have heard from the Lord, and therefore we commit to the creation of a missionary society as a cherished and honored model recognized within the wider Eastern and Western traditions of the Church. We look forward to the opportunity to give specific form and shape to this normative structure of a missionary society, seeking the input of our bishops, clergy, network leaders and laity. We are encouraged to be still before the Lord and to discern His leading to a new canonical provincial relationship. In addition, we pledge our commitment to the eight-member Council of Bishops and all of the Anglican Mission leadership and congregations. Living out this model within our Anglican context allows us to be a mission”¦nothing more, nothing less in North America and beyond. Finally, we

recognize and affirm the development of a Pastoral Declaration designed to provide the necessary order for developing a constitution.

In just a few weeks, we will gather in Houston, Texas, for Winter Conference 2012, and we look forward to the opportunity to explain the vision for a missionary society and process together this new chapter in the life of the Anglican Mission. We will hear the voices of those gathered and recommit to our Lord’s Great Commission and to one another as fellow missionaries. We believe the Lord would have us build on the past with the promise that He is with us always.

Be assured of our prayers of thanksgiving for you as we all prepare for the Nativity of our Lord and the new life He gives to each of us through His son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.”

Read it all and please take the time to read the material at the links at the bottom of this piece.

So after reading all the articles on AMiA, I have determined that there is no simple summary so I will take a shot at it. By the way, “summary” means I left out a bunch of details. My blog; my prerogative on which details I leave out. The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) is an organization of churches Chuck Murphy created when he left the Episcopal Church. In order to be an official Anglican organization recognized in the world by other Anglicans, he needed an endorsement from a genuine Anglican province. Rwanda and Asia stepped in to fill that role and now Chuck is Bishop Murphy. What they didn’t tell us (or at least what I didn’t get)….apparently this organization is not part of the province of Rwanda, as I had thought. It is a business venture of Bishop Murphy. So when Bishop Murphy breaks ties with Rwanda and leaves, so does the Anglican Mission. And that is what has happened. Bishop Murphy has cut our relationship with the Province of Rwanda.

This is where it gets complicated. Our church is an AMiA church, but our priests were received as official missionary priests in the province of Rwanda. So it would seem our church is under the authority of Bishop Murphy, but our priests are under the authority of Rwanda, but not Bishop Murphy. What? Exactly.

Read it all.

At this point it is hard to know what to make of this – well, let’s call it what it is, a spiritual mess – and to know exactly how to unring the many bells that have now already been rung. I will note for the record that I am a bishop of CANA/Nigeria and of the ACNA, and that as President of the AAC, my organization is comprised of AMiA and non-AMiA members, and I will further note that at GAFCON, MaryAnne and I chose to ride on the bus that had all AMiA (except us) members on board, because we enjoy their company. When AMiA decided to move from ACNA member status to “mission partner” status, I was disappointed in the distancing that I felt.

With all of this said, I first sensed alarm when the letter of the Washington, DC AMiA members was posted publicly, as it gave evidence that all was not well in the Anglican Mission, as it is currently called. Then additional letters, most of which have been posted on Stand Firm in Faith or TitusOneNine websites began to come in, some from Rwanda, and some from Chairman Murphy in response. There has been a communications train wreck unfolding in slow motion. It would seem that Rwanda is not pleased with the new direction that +Chuck Murphy wishes to take the Mission, and in taking it out of Rwanda proper. They told him to stop his action and repent or resign from the AMiA chairmanship.

Read it all.

This leads to many more questions. Apart from the $6600 expensed for my work from the tithe, did the remaining $1.2 million make it to Rwanda? Is any of it sitting around in US corporations or bank accounts, waiting to be dispersed? Is the money resting in someone’s account? Who selected the programs that were funded by the tithe? Did this process of selection conform to the Rwandan canons? Why was this information not provided to the Rwandans when requested?

When I was interviewed by Bobby Ross Jr from Christianity Today and asked my views of this situation, I said this was a very very sad day for the church. There are a great number of people who are bewildered by the speed in which the AMiA seems to have come apart. The issues are confusing and statements of no friction between the AMiA leadership and Rwanda and that all is well are followed by the call that God is “doing a new thing” and the AMiA is being led out of the Eygpt of Rwanda into the promised land by its Moses — Bishop Murphy.

I do hope this ends quickly and that there can be a reconciliation of the parties concerned. This is a sad, sad story and its telling gives me no joy. However, I will continue to do my job and seek out and report the truth mindful that the pursuit of truth is the highest calling of us all.

Read it all.

Divorce is messy, the lessons from a failed marriage often complicated.

Such is the case with this week’s split of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA) from its majority-world leadership in the Church of Rwanda.
Until the 11-year-old partnership crumbled, it seemed to embody the potential for Global South church leaders to rise up and provide spiritual oversight and direction in the developed world.

Now?

“It would be unwise to draw any general conclusions for the future from a dispute which is clearly about particular human relationships,” said Brian Stanley, director of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh.

Read it all.

Read it all.

Have the Shepherds lost the flock?

Confusion over the consequences of the AMiA Bishops walkout has spawned a host of contrary opinions as to what the schism means for the organizations clergy and congregations. While the AMiA leadership insists that congregations and clergy are tied to the person of Chuck Murphy, other AMiA leaders have argued the link is with the Province of Rwanda.

One email circulated within the AMiA ranks outlines the contrary view….

Read it all.

Before the skirmish, [Chuck] Murphy had contended that AMIA was “embedded” in the constitution and canons of Rwanda, Conger said. When AMIA stepped back from its links with the Anglican Church in North America, a larger Episcopal breakaway group that formed in 2009, Murphy and the Rwandan House of Bishops said that AMIA could not be both American and Rwandan at the same time under the Rwandan church laws.

“It’s a dispute of personalities,” [George] Conger said of the recent turmoil. “Archbishop Kolini had a very strong, good relationship with Bishop Murphy and essentially let Bishop Murphy do what he wanted to do.”

Read it all.

Read it all (two pdfs).

The head of the Anglican Mission in America has been threatened with ecclesiastical discipline for contumacy. Unless Bishop Chuck Murphy repents of his disobedience and apologizes for his offensive statements within seven days, the Rwanda House of Bishops will assume that he has “made a de facto choice to withdraw as primatial vicar” of the AMiA.

In letter from the Rwandan House of Bishops to Bishop Murphy dated 30 Nov 2011, the AMiA leader was chastised for disobedience and abuse of office.

“You have constantly disregarded the decisions and counsels of the House of Bishops” and have “misused the authority given to you by the Archbishop in advancing your new missionary society interests,” said the letter signed by the Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje and the Rwandan bishops.

The censure follows a 17 Nov 2011 meeting in Washington between Bishop Murphy and Archbishop Rwaje, which sources described as having had a full and frank exchange of views.

Read it all.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Read it all (Hat tip: Stand Firm).

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Rwandan leaders told CEN that they understood that Bishop Murphy had been asked at the September meeting to halt the implementation of the planned change. However, a series of meetings was subsequently held in Pawley’s Island discussing the status of the transformation. On 31 October 2011, Archbishop Rwaje wrote to Bishop Murphy “requesting that all procedures toward the formation of the new missionary society be halted until we go through the Jerusalem moment (are of common mind).”

The Archbishop’s letter also contained a strong word of rebuke, asking Bishop Murphy to reflect on “the spirit of rebellion and lawlessness.”

Last week Bishop Murphy met with Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje of Rwanda in Washington to discuss the AMiA’s reorganisation proposal. Details of the meeting have not been released, while a January meeting has been set for the bishops to discuss the future of the AMiA.

Read it all.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has come under sharp criticism from the Church of Rwanda over its plans to pull away from the oversight of the African church.

On 31 Oct 2011 Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje directed AMiA Bishop Charles “Chuck” Murphy to suspend work on a proposal that would change its oversight from a “personal prelature” under the Rwandan primate to a missionary society overseen by an independent “college of consultors”.
Founded by Evangelicals in response to what it saw as the abandonment of the classical Anglicans in the United States, Bishop Murphy and Bishop John Rodgers were consecrated on 29 January 2000 at St Andrews Cathedral in Singapore by the Archbishop of Southeast Asia and Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. It has grown rapidly under the leadership of Bishop Murphy, but has begun to witness internal tensions as well as stresses in its relationship with Rwanda.

Citing personal disagreements with Bishop Murphy, the Rt. Rev. Terrell Glenn, an assistant bishop, last week announced his resignation. Questions have also been raised over the transparency of the AMiA’s finances and leadership structure. Criticisms have also been raised over new canons prepared by a former Roman Catholic clergyman now serving in the AMiA that have incorporated a Roman Catholic ecclesiology and sacramental theology.

Read it all.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

(ACNS) The Archbishop of the Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi, the Most Rev. Bernard Ntahoturi, and the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda, the Most Rev. Onesphore Rwaje, have co-hosted an interdenominational conference for Church leaders in collaboration with UNAIDS and Tearfund in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, to consider the role of the Church in the fight against sexual violence in Burundi and Rwanda.

In March 2011 the Most Rev. Bernard Ntahoturi, along with the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Congo, was present at the launch at Lambeth Palace of the ”˜We Will Speak Out’ coalition, initially comprising the Anglican Communion, Tearfund, Christian Aid, and Restored. The coalition was established to urge the Church to speak out against sexual violence and came about as a response to the findings in Tearfund’s research report, ”˜Silent No More’, which documented the role of the church in response to sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Liberia, with some later study in Burundi. It concluded that the Church had largely failed to respond adequately to sexual violence and had sometimes been unintentionally instrumental in marginalising those who have experienced its devastating consequences.

Read it all.

The Anglican Church of Rwanda has also been at the forefront of the reform movement within the Anglican Communion. While it supports in principle the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Anglican Covenant process, it has been less than enthusiastic about how such a structure might work, given the anarchy now prevalent across the Communion.

At the All African Bishops Meeting in Entebbe in August, discussion of the Anglican Covenant among the gathered bishops took a decided second place to the conciliar programme for a renewed Anglican ecclesiology propounded by Rwanda and the Global South group of churches.

An August 2008 paper prepared by Dr. Kevin Donlon, an American priest of the AMiA, and a member of the Global South Anglican Theological Formation and Education Task Force, argued the Covenant was yesterday’s solution to today’s problems.

Read it all (subscription required).

Update: You can now find the full article on George Conger’s blog here.

Archbishop elect, Onesphore Rwaje, who is set to succeed Anglican Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini in January, 2011, has vowed to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps by taking a firm stand against homosexuality.

“Anything that is contrary to God’s family set-up is not acceptable; there is nowhere in the Bible where same-sex marriage is encouraged. God created a man and woman to be the basis of a family,” the Archbishop-elect told The New Times, a week after he was elected to succeed Kolini.

Read it all.

You may find some information on this here–read it all.

The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has pulled back from full membership in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and has asked to be affiliated with the breakaway province in formation as an ACNA “Ministry Partner.” The announcement weakens the third province movement in the United States and Canada, but will not likely prove to be fatal its supporters say.

On May 18 Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA and Bishop Chuck Murphy of the AMiA, also known as the Anglican Mission, released separate statements saying the downgrading of the AMiA’s relationship with the ACNA would take affect following the group’s June bishops meeting.

Bishop Don Harvey of the Anglican Network in Canada, a diocese of the ACNA, stated that he did “not see this as good news, in fact it is a sad development in many ways.”

Read it all (subscription required).