Frustrated that the Episcopal Church’s battles over doctrine and sex were turning off newcomers, the former members of Holy Cross decided, in essence, to switch brands. No longer Episcopalians, they were now Anglicans, allied with more conservative believers in Uganda.

Once reserved for consumer products like Coca Cola or Doritos, branding has become increasingly important in the God business. Churches, old and new, are using branding to define their theology, attract newcomers and get their message out.

“There is sadness for what we left behind, for who we left behind,” Richardson said. But “God will be faithful,” he added.

For Faith Anglican, the brand switch went deeper than a name change, Richardson said.

“It gives us a new identity,” Richardson said. “The Anglican Church does not have the baggage that the Episcopal Church has at this time. It speaks of a deeper tradition and a more biblically grounded faith.”

Read it all.

The members of the church left Holy Cross and the Tennessee diocese saying they believed the Episcopal Church had strayed from its core doctrine and scripture on the role of Christ, salvation and sexuality. The Episcopal Church has been embroiled in controversy over its decision to allow gay priests to lead congregations.

“I felt this was where God wants my husband and son to be,” Sharon Garner said, explaining why she and her family left the Episcopal church to join the Faith Anglican Fellowship.

Faith Anglican Fellowship is affiliated with the Anglican Communion through the Anglican Communion Network and the Common Cause Partnership of North America as a part of the Church of Uganda.

“There’s a place of worship for everybody and this is our place,” Garner said.

Read it all.

The rector, vestry and most members of Trinity Episcopal Church in Winchester, Tenn., began worship in a new location today as Christ the King Anglican Church.

Charging that the Episcopal Church today is pursuing a “false” gospel, the Rev. William Midgett, his staff, the lay leadership and a number of parishioners left the 149-year-old church last Sunday.

“For us, it came down to choosing between two gospels,” the former rector said. “We recognized there was one (gospel) the church has held onto for 2,000 years, and what’s being promoted now looks very different from that.”

Read it all.

Several Northeast Ohio congregations that are part of a breakaway movement from the U.S. Episcopal Church have joined an American Anglican church body.

St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Bay Village, the Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan in Cleveland, St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Fairlawn, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Akron and St. Anne in the Fields in Madison this week joined the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

The congregations had been affiliated with the more traditional Diocese of Bolivia. The parishes, other than Good Samartian, which is a new church, broke with the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio in 2005 over disagreements on church teaching, including the decision of the national denomination to ordain an openly gay bishop.

Read it all.

New Anglican Church Forms in Winchester
Trinity Members Leave Historical Downtown Property and Episcopal Church Affiliation Behind

WINCHESTER, Tenn. Following the annual congregational meeting on January 6, the rector, staff, lay leadership, and most of the members of Trinity Episcopal Church in Winchester, TN walked away from the historical building on First Avenue, N.W. in order to form Christ the King Anglican Church, a new Anglican congregation in Winchester.

At Sunday’s meeting, the Rev. William Midgett, Trinity’s rector since 2001, submitted his resignation and announced his disaffiliation from the Episcopal Church. Trinity’s other paid staff and the eight-member vestry followed suit.

“The present conflict in the Episcopal Church boils down to choosing between two gospels. These two gospels, one true and one false, are not allowed to co-exist within the body of Christ,” said the Rev. Midgett. Such is the conviction of the former rector and members that they will walk away from the property and financial assets of Trinity Church and begin anew.

Trinity’s congregation was founded in 1859. Several generations of Franklin County Christians have worshiped at the present location since 1876. “The decision to leave the Episcopal Church and the property has been extremely difficult, said the Rev. Midgett. “Many members of our congregation have been Episcopalians all of their lives. Some of our parishioners have worshiped at Trinity for over 50 years. Yet they have chosen to follow the traditional teachings of Christ. It has become impossible to remain true to both the gospel and to the Episcopal Church as it is presently constituted.”

Trinity Episcopal Church is located in the Diocese of Tennessee approximately 90 miles from Nashville. Trinity had an ASA of 118 in 2006. 90 former members of Trinity attended a worship service and light supper at the new home of Christ the King Anglican Church on Sunday evening. While the parish did not take a formal vote, it is expected that about 100 individuals will join the new Anglican congregation.

Christ the King Anglican Church will affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). CANA is a new, rapidly growing Anglican missionary effort in the U.S. sponsored by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). CANA is based in Fairfax, VA and is led by Bishop Martyn Minns, a former Episcopal priest. CANA numbers about 60 congregations and over 100 clergy in twenty states, with a total average Sunday attendance of approximately 8,600.

“We are grateful that the Anglican Church of Nigeria has reached out to traditional Anglican Christians in the U.S.”, said the Rev. Midgett. “Our association with the worldwide Anglican Communion is an integral part of our identity.”

Christ the King Anglican Church will worship and have offices at the former V.R. Williams Insurance office building in Winchester.

There are two previously existing CANA congregations in middle Tennessee: St. Patrick’s in Smyrna and the Anglican Fellowship of Middle Tennessee in Tullahoma.

Another Episcopal congregation in the Diocese of Tennessee also departed TEC on January 6. The Vicar and most of the members of Holy Cross, Murfreesboro, TN have formed Faith Anglican Fellowship, affiliated with the Anglican Church of Uganda.

HERNDON, Va. (January 7, 2008) ”“ The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) has welcomed ten new congregations into its membership. The Rt. Rev. Francis R. Lyons, the Bishop of Bolivia, commended these U.S. Anglican congregations and their clergy to the oversight of CANA Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with these churches that have been blessed by the leadership in Bolivia and will continue to be blessed by the Holy Spirit. CANA is eager to welcome them on their Christ-centered and faithful mission to serve God and to honor the worldwide Anglican Communion,” said Bishop Minns.
Originally under the ecclesiastical leadership of the Church of Bolivia, the ten U.S. congregations were given CANA oversight “with a profound desire to promote unity in Jesus Christ which issues from his reconciling work on the Cross and an abiding trust in the power of God’s Word written, and with a genuine commitment to support the emerging ecclesiastical structure of faithful Anglicans in North America,” said the Rt. Rev. Francis R. Lyons of Bolivia in a letter to Bishop Minns.

The newest CANA congregations are St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Fairlawn, OH, Church of the Holy Spirit (Anglican), Akron, OH, Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan (Fairhill), Cleveland, OH, St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Bay Village, OH, St. Anne in the Fields, Madison, OH, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Milan, OH, Christ the King Anglican Church, Columbiana, OH, Christ Our King Anglican Church, Lexington, MI, St. Michael the Archangel Anglican Church, Indianapolis, IN, and The Shepherd Church, Evansville, IN.

The Murfreesboro parish, led by The Reverend Frederick Richardson, is affiliated with the Anglican Communion through the Anglican Communion Network and the Common Cause Partnership of North America, as a part of the Church of Uganda.

Richardson describes Faith Anglican Fellowship as a blend of the great traditions of the Church and contemporary music that make it all very relevant to modern Christian living.

“We are excited about the opportunities Faith Anglican Fellowship has in this growing community,” said Richardson.

The congregation previously met as Holy Cross Church, an Anglican/Episcopal parish on Cason Lane in Murfreesboro. On Sunday, Richardson and the congregation of Holy Cross ended their ties with The Episcopal Church’s Tennessee diocese in an effort to better serve the community through Anglican traditions.

“This move is necessary for the health of our congregation,” said Richardson. “There has been a strong outcry from our members because of the clear direction of The Episcopal Church, which is the opposite direction of where we are going. We feel our future lies in the traditional faith, order and practice of the Bible, followed by the Anglican Church since its beginning, rooted in the teachings of the apostles.”

Read it all.

When you have an opportunity to stand back from what is going on, you are better able to see all the players in action, and it is a little easier to measure their play against a common set of reference points. Quite honestly, it seems to me that denial of the realities is standard at both ends of the spectrum. The voices of those who ally themselves with the “establishment” and the National Church seem as determined to read the situation through their own set of colored lenses as those at the other end of spectrum to put their own spin on the realities. While those who want everyone to kiss and make up are more sentimental than realistic.

If Kevin Martin is correct, and I think he has been fairer in his analysis of what is going on than most, then for those who continue as part of the Episcopal Church a crunch point is fast approaching when declining numbers and funds will no longer be capable of upholding the infrastructure that presently exists. You might have been able to say until now that its only a relatively small number of parishes that are causing all this upset and, by and large, other than them everything is fine and dandy, but it is no longer just parishes heading for the exit. When dioceses start doing the same then you have to change your tune.

But then, those who are conservative, orthodox, or whatever other label you want to give them, have their own blinkers on when it comes to looking at the realities. It might be a wonderful sense of relief for those leaving to get out from under the antagonistic leadership of the Episcopal Church, but it is incredibly hard and grueling work to create a whole new infrastructure in which to be church. Having been at the front end of a number of new ventures in my time, I know from personal experience the grinding agony of having limited financial resources, relatively little land or property, and how incapacitating it can be to do pioneer work after you have got over the euphoria of getting the new ministry (or whatever) up and started. It requires guts and a special mix of gifts to be a pioneer.

Read the whole piece.

In November, the Diocese of Georgia filed a lawsuit to keep control of Christ Church’s assets, which include a $3 million historic building and an endowment estimated at $2 million to $3 million.

Its claim is based on a church law, adopted in the 1970s, called the Dennis Canon, which says that all parishes hold their property in trust for the diocese. But Christ Church, which was established in 1733, asserts that it has firm legal footing to keep control of its building and property because it existed before the Episcopal denomination, which was established in the United States in 1789.

“That would make the case a pure property case rather than a religious liberty case,” Mr. Witte said. “They will have to argue that their church is closer to the values of the late 18th century” than the Episcopal Church is today.

And that, he added, is “an argument that hasn’t been tested in federal courts.”

Read it all.

We reiterate that the Executive Council has no wish or intention to “level charges” or to “threaten litigation.” But we and the Presiding Officers have a responsibility to protect the assets of The Episcopal Church and to preserve its structure.

That structure, as set forth in the Constitution and Canons, confers on the General Convention the sole authority to make changes in the identity and responsibilities of Dioceses. Unilateral actions by Diocesan leadership that are contrary to the Constitution and Canons should not be tolerated by any active or retired Bishop. We hope and pray that such unilateral actions, and the litigation that these actions trigger, can come to a peaceful end.

Read it all.

Almost six months after withdrawing from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, members of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Vestal will leave their buildings on Mirador Road this week and share facilities with a Baptist congregation on Front Street.

After the congregation’s vestry voted in June to leave the Episcopal Church, leaders faced the prospect of a long and costly legal battle with the diocese over the local parish’s buildings, which include a church, community center and rectory.

“We said all along that we would not go to court for our buildings,” said the Rev. Anthony Seel, pastor of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. “We do not believe that Christians ought to be suing Christians. The diocese had already sued St. Andrew’s in Syracuse (which also withdrew), and we decided we weren’t going to get involved in a court battle.”

Read it all.

Read it all.

From the November, 2007 Central Florida Episcopalian [emphasis as in the original]. An excerpt:

How we move forward will necessarily differ from one case to another. If an overwhelming majority of the members of a given congregation were to decide to leave, we might face a situation in which disposal of the property would eventually have to be considered.

I have shared the following proposed protocol with the clergy at our annual Clergy Conference at Canterbury, and it will be presented to the Diocesan Board and Standing Committee later this month. It has not yet been adopted, but I believe that it ”“ or something very like it ”“ must ensure that the spiritual needs of all the members of the Diocese will be protected. (This is more detail than most of you will want, but for everyone concerned we need to be as clear as possible.)

Vestry Vote and Special Meeting of the Members

The vote of a Rector (or Church Planter) and Vestry cannot control whether or not a congregation disaffiliates. This will only be considered after a vote of the members of the congregation. However, if the Rector and Vestry determine to disaffiliate from the Diocese by at least a 75% majority vote they shall immediately notify the Bishop of that fact. They are to furnish to the Bishop a plan outlining how they intend to provide for the ongoing nurture of all people, whether they are disaffiliating or not, and whether they will seek to negotiate for the real and personal property of the Parish. A copy of the plan submitted to the Bishop shall be given to every member of the congregation and the Rector and Vestry shall certify to the Bishop that this has been done.

The Bishop will call a Special Meeting of the congregation giving at least 15 days notice of that meeting and he or his designee will preside at that meeting. The Bishop and the Parish will provide a joint notice of this meeting. The Bishop may require the Parish to hold informational meetings for the congregation prior to the Special Meeting where a pastoral team appointed by the Bishop may participate and answer questions concerning disaffiliation.

Prior to the meeting the Bishop will appoint a committee of three members of the congregation who will make a recommendation to the Bishop as to the eligibility of any member to vote should a challenge arise, the Bishop being the final arbiter. This decision shall be based upon the canonical definition of a member in good standing, eligible to vote.

Congregational Vote

At the Special Meeting of the Congregation, after a suitable time for discussion as determined by the Bishop or his designee, the question shall be put before the meeting: “Do you wish to disaffiliate from the Episcopal Church or not?” The vote tally shall be reported by the Bishop or his designee and the Bishop shall render within 7 days, on a case by case basis whether in his opinion a viable Episcopal congregation remains.

The Bishop will call a meeting of those members desiring to maintain their affiliation with The Episcopal Church in order to elect a new Vestry. The Bishop, or his designee, will preside at that meeting. Until a new Vestry is elected, the Bishop will appoint at least three of the members desiring to remain in The Episcopal Church as the Vestry and an interim Warden who shall take charge of the Parish and establish a plan for the future operation of the Parish.

Possible Sale of Real and Personal Property

If, in the judgment of the Bishop with the concurrence of the Diocesan Board and Standing Committee (if consecrated property is involved), the Parish and the Diocese are willing to sell the real and personal property held by the Parish, and the members desiring to disaffiliate with The Episcopal Church have formed a non-profit corporation, the Diocese will enter into negotiations with the new corporation to consider the purchase or lease of the property. A decision to sell parochial property is one that must be made by the continuing members of a congregation, not by those who have voted to leave it. The Diocese and the new corporation will select a qualified property appraiser to determine the fair market value of the real property. The cost of the property appraisal will be borne by the new corporation. The Diocese may require an audit of the financial affairs of the Parish by an independent accountant for the current year and the prior two years.

Upon receipt of the audit reports and the property appraisal, the Bishop, with the consent of the Diocesan Board and Standing Committee, shall be empowered to sell the real and personal property on behalf of the Parish on terms agreeable to the Bishop and the Board. These terms may include a mortgage amortized over a 30 year period with low (not to exceed prime) or no interest. The starting point for any such discussion will be the fair market value of the property for use as a church.

This is a very painful time for many of us. I feel a great sense of personal loss in contemplating these departures, but I want to reassure you that the Diocese of Central Florida remains steadfastly committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority and trustworthiness of God’s word written, and the anointing and empowering of the Holy Spirit. As your Bishop I am committed to proclaiming the Gospel, to strengthening existing churches and planting new ones, and to raising up the next generation as faithful followers of Christ. The painful loss of some of our brothers and sisters in Christ will not divert us from any of these commitments.

I have said repeatedly that it is my desire to remain both an Episcopalian and an Anglican. In that regard, let me share something with you that the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to me just this past month: “Any Diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such”¦. I should feel a great deal happier, I must say, if those who are most eloquent for a traditionalist view in the United States showed a fuller understanding of the need to regard the Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the ”˜National Church.’”

We have a great and faithful Diocese, and with the help of the Lord himself, I am committed to making it even better. During this time of transition, I urge all of us to treat each other with great care and compassion. I ask your prayers for wisdom for all who will be involved in these discussions.

With warmest regards in our Lord,

+ John W. Howe, Bishop

The full article is here.

A Pastoral Letter from the Bishop of Central Florida
To be Read or otherwise Distributed in all of our Congregations
On Sunday, October 21, 2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The following agreed statement was released by all of the participants in a meeting held at Diocesan House on Thursday of this past week:

“On Thursday, October 18, 2007, the Rectors and Senior Wardens of seven Parishes of the Diocese of Central Florida and two Church Planters met with Bishop John W. Howe and representatives of the Diocese to discuss the possible scenarios by which all or part of the congregations may disaffiliate from The Episcopal Church.

“Each Parish will now enter a process of conversation and negotiation with the Diocese based on its particular circumstances. Bishop Howe reiterated his commitment to provide pastoral care both to those who leave and to those who wish to remain.

“All parties agreed to enter into these negotiations in good faith using Biblical principles in an effort to avoid litigation and scandal to the Church of Christ”.

As Bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida, and as stated above, I remain committed to providing pastoral care both to those who wish to leave and to those who wish to remain. Individuals who wish to leave the Diocese of Central Florida and form another congregation are to be honored as brothers and sisters in Christ. The Diocese will do everything in its power to make their departure from the Diocese of Central Florida and The Episcopal Church a peaceful one without rancor or recrimination.

At the same time the Diocese is bound to work within the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church which state that a Parish holds in trust all real and personal property for the benefit of the Diocese and The Episcopal Church. We have a solemn responsibility to protect the interests of the Diocese and the larger church. We cannot and will not abandon those who wish to remain as members of The Episcopal Church and we will work diligently to determine whether in fact there is a sufficient number of Episcopalians in a given congregation to constitute a viable continuing congregation able to meet and worship in its own current facilities.

We are developing a detailed protocol for dealing with those who wish to disaffiliate, and I will discuss it with the clergy at our annual Clergy Conference this week. Only after receiving their input will this protocol be finalized. For now, let me assure you that all of you will have a say in these decisions, and they will not be made by Rectors and Vestries acting alone.

This is a very painful time for many of us. I feel a great sense of personal loss in contemplating these departures, but I want to reassure you that the Diocese of Central Florida remains steadfastly committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority and trustworthiness of God’s word written, and the anointing and empowering of the Holy Spirit. As your Bishop I am committed to proclaiming the Gospel, to strengthening existing churches and planting new ones, and to raising up the next generation as faithful followers of Christ. The painful loss of some of our brothers and sisters in Christ will not divert us from any of these commitments.

I have said repeatedly that it is my desire to remain both an Episcopalian and an Anglican. In that regard, let me share something with you that the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to me just this past week: “Any Diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such”¦. I should feel a great deal happier, I must say, if those who are most eloquent for a traditionalist view in the United States showed a fuller understanding of the need to regard the Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the ”˜National Church.’”

We have a great and faithful Diocese, and with the help of the Lord himself, I am committed to making it even better. During this time of transition, I urge all of us to treat each other with great care and compassion. I ask your prayers for wisdom for all who will be involved in these discussions.

With warmest regards in our Lord,

(The Rt. Rev.) John W. Howe is Bishop of Central Florida

Important Update: I have contacted Bishop Howe directly and he has given permission for me to cite his response: “The longer version is correct.”

Read it all from George Conger.

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.

Read it all.

My wife Sharon and I spent an extended Columbus Day weekend in the Northeast, largely in Newburyport, MA. My father was born there over 80 years ago and grew up during the depression. His family attended a Congregational church that now is a member of the United Church of Christ. We were blessed to visit family there, but we found that even in small town New England, Episcopal Church issues were having an impact.

Because when I picked up Saturday’s local paper, I couldn’t help notice a front-page article detailing the local Episcopal Church’s (one town over) struggle to survive after the majority of its congregants left for the Anglican Church of Kenya. Only 10 families remained to keep the original Episcopal Church afloat. In contrast, according to congregational statistics from the Episcopal Church, average worship attendance had been at over 300 in 2006.

That’s a huge drop. If we apply the U.S. 2006 average family size of 3.20 persons to the families that remain (and that seems to be close to the mark, given year 2000 census figures for both the town and the county), we’re looking at roughly 32 members left in the Episcopal congregation. That means that at most roughly 11 percent of the congregation did not break away to form the new All Saints Anglican Church in a nearby community and remained with the Episcopal Church.

I can’t imagine the pain that those who remain with the local congregation must feel to see their congregation shrink by roughly 90 percent.

Read it all.

It was hardly a surprise but a cause for sorrow nonetheless: the House of Bishops, meeting in New Orleans, made a response to the requests of the Primates at Dar Es Salaam that offered little to repair the “tear in the fabric of the communion” caused by the consecration of Gene Robinson. They did pledge compliance in the election of bishops (no more Gene Robinsons) ”“ but then demanded that Gene Robinson be invited to Lambeth Conference in 2008. Their convoluted pledge not to authorize same-sex blessings is surely designed to permit local option (as is already happening). They demanded that the Global South Primates stop their pastoral interventions, but they had nothing serious to offer the conservative dissenters the Primates are trying to care for: the Pastoral Council proposed by the Primates was refused in favour of window-dressing; and the destructive policy of aggressive litigation against conservative dissent was not even addressed, let alone restrained.

Some will adjudge the result the best that could be hoped for under the circumstances. Others will even eagerly claim to find it satisfactory. But who really believes that is true? These are grudging assurances in words that inspire no trust, weasel words with built-in wiggle-room, a tactical maneuver, not a change of heart. The House has not renounced the imagined right of the Episcopal Church to do as it pleases, unconstrained by the teaching of the Bible, the historic Faith, or the Communion’s “bonds of affection”. They have not healed the breach their arrogance opened up, and that means it will only get worse.

The breach has now come to Savannah, in the decision by the Vestry of Christ Church to secure its future in the Faith, in the Anglican Communion, by placing the parish under the pastoral care of John Guernsey, a Virginia priest recently made bishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda in North America. This decision, made in conscience, cannot have been easy to make, and it deserves respect even from those who disagree with it. St. John’s Vestry has made no such decision, but I can testify to our respect for theirs; and also our continuing fellowship with them in the historic faith, and in “the bonds of affection”.

In response Bishop Louttit has asserted the Episcopal Church’s claim to Christ Church’s real property, on the grounds that parishes are “integral and constituent parts of a diocese and of the larger church.” But the obligations of “constituent” membership in the “larger church” run both ways. The constitutional obligations of the Episcopal Church – to uphold the Bible’s teaching, the Church’s historic Faith and Order, and membership in the Communion ”“ are the covenantal basis of its canonical claims to parochial real property. If it cannot fulfil the former, then the moral basis for the latter disappears.

–The Rev. Gavin Dunbar is rector, Saint John’s, Savannah

Christ Church leaders say biblical authority rests at the center of their decision to leave the Episcopal Church.

But now that they’ve left, the only question remaining is: Who gets the property?

According to attorneys with experience in church property laws, the odds are stacked against Christ Church.

However, church leaders say historical and current documents clearly list the wardens and vestry as its owners.

The Episcopal Church claims ownership to all church properties. The denomination considers individual parishes to be held in trust by the congregation.

Macon attorney W. Warren Plowden Jr. said he has argued cases for the United Methodist Church, which also operates under a hierarchical governance system.

“In Methodist cases, the courts will look at deeds, the discipline of the United Methodist Church and, if it’s incorporated, the corporate documents,” he said.

Read it all

CHATHAM COUNTY tax documents show the Protestant Episcopal Church owns six local properties. Christ Church is not one of them.

Both the Bull Street church building itself, and the nearby structure that holds the parish house, offices and children’s school are owned by the Christ Church wardens and vestry.

That’s an important bit of information, considering the local congregation’s recent announcement that it intends to separate from the Episcopal Church of the United States.

Christ Church, the 274-year-old “Mother Church of Georgia,” has had a long-running dispute with church leaders over scriptural issues.

Nationally, much press has been given to arguments over the ordination of women, the blessing of same-sex marriages and the ordination of practicing homosexuals into the ministry.

However, Christ Church pastor Rev. Marc Robertson said those issues are not central to the local church’s concerns.

Instead, they focus on the greater Episcopal Church’s unwillingness to unequivocally back such basic tenets as the authority of scripture, the divinity of Christ and the availability of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice.

American Episcopal leaders have been fairly heavy-handed in addressing those concerns.

Read it all.

Statement of the Right Reverend Henry I Louttit, Ninth Bishop of Georgia concerning the recent announcement by the present leadership of Christ Church (Episcopal), Savannah of their intention to leave the Episcopal Church:

I have just been informed that the rector and wardens of Christ Church, Savannah have voted to leave the Episcopal Church. It is important to clarify the ecclesiastical structure of our denomination. Parishes in our church are not separate congregations but are integral and constituent parts of a diocese and of the larger church. Should some individuals in a parish decide they can no longer be Episcopalians, that in no way changes the fact that Christ Church is and will remain a parish of the Episcopal Church in this diocese and will continue to occupy its present facilities.

Even though some parishioners of Christ Church have chosen to leave the Episcopal Church, I will work with those who remain to ensure that they will have newly empowered leaders, vestry members and clergy to lead them and carry forward the ministry and mission of the Episcopal Church at Christ Church, Savannah. To that end the continuing members of the Parish of Christ Church will meet in St. Paul the Apostle Episcopal Church, 34th & Abercorn, at 5 p.m. Sunday October 7 for the liturgy of Holy Communion and for a time of fellowship.

No matter what path any individual or any group may choose, Christ Church in its present facilities will carry on its portion of the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church here in Savannah and in the broader community and world. Should some decide that they can no longer take part in that mission and ministry, we will wish them well. However, we will continue to do God’s work at Christ Church, a parish of the Diocese of Georgia in the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church has weathered many storms over the last two hundred years and we will weather the present one as well. Please know that I want no one at Christ Church or elsewhere in this diocese to leave this part of God’s church that we call the Episcopal Church. But also know that should anyone choose to leave us, the doors of the Episcopal Church in this diocese will remain open for their return.

In February, leaders of national churches – called primates – set a Sept. 30 deadline for the Episcopal Church to promise not to approve any more gay bishops or blessings of gay partnerships.

Episcopal bishops issued a cleverly worded declaration on Sept. 25 that angered both sides of the issue. In it, they promised to “exercise restraint” by not consenting to any candidate for bishop “whose manner of life presents a challenge” to the church.

“We perceived that decision failed to comply with the primates’ expectations and the primates’ directives to the Episcopal Church,” said the Rev. Marc Robertson, church rector.

“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,” said senior warden Steve Dantin in the statement sent Tuesday.

Read it all.

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.

From here:

On September 30 I celebrate my last day at Christ Church in Paradise Valley, AZ, a parish under Bishop Steenson’s good care. The parish will split and a good number of faithful people will be realigning on October 1 with another province in the Anglican Communion. After threats from the diocesan, the faithful decided not to fight for the property but to leave it and move on.

On October 1 I begin as priest in charge of Holy Faith parish in Santa Fe. I was so looking forward to serving under Bishop Steenson. My heart is broken–not just for him, but for the diocese he has led so faithfully and with such grace. I can’t say I am sorry to miss the clergy conference this week as I am packing to leave Arizona. The PB has nothing to say to me. Pray for the Church.

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.”

Read it all.

This year’s diocesan convocation comes at a time of transitions at many levels in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. The fall meeting of the House of Bishops in New Orleans, the Sept. 30 deadline set by the Anglican Communion Primates, and the guest list for the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops are some of the factors that likely will bring about significant changes in the Church.

Here in the Diocese of the Rio Grande we will experience this volatile time with particular sadness, as it is likely that the clergy and almost all of the members of the Pro-Cathedral of St. Clement in El Paso will have made the decision
to separate from the diocese and the Episcopal Church. The contributions St. Clement’s, our largest congregation, has made to the diocese for more than a century are incalculable. We are dealing with the loss of a number of effective
diocesan leaders from that congregation and the very significant support that St. Clement’s provides to the life and mission of the diocese.

It is an acute sense of alienation from the Episcopal Church that has led St. Clement’s to take these steps, and many in this diocese feel the same way…

Read it all (page 1).

Congregants at Pro-Cathedral of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, one of the city’s oldest places of worship with hundreds of members and more than a dozen ministries, is leaving the Episcopal Church to carry on with doctrines members said no longer fit those of its former denomination.

The church recorded a 460-41 vote from its congregation on Sunday to dissolve its relationship with Episcopal Church USA and remain part of the Anglican Communion Network.

“I’m very excited about the future of St. Clement’s,” Rev. William Cobb said. “I’m not at all surprised about the overwhelming vote because this is a unified church.”

Read it all.

“We are a very vibrant, dedicated church that is extremely active in carrying out Christ’s mission, and we feel that the Episcopal Church is going in a very different direction than we are,” he said.

[The Rev. Bill] Cobb said more than 200 congregations have left the Episcopal church since 2003 because they believe the church has moved away from tradition and Scripture and because a new prayer book was adopted.

Also highly controversial was the 2003 ordination in New Hampshire of the first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson.

Cobb said the vast majority of Anglican bishops agreed that Anglican churches should not ordain those who are in same-gender unions.

“This is the official teaching for the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, and the Episcopal Church has rejected this position. I believe that the Bible teaches that Christians should should either be married or abstain from sex, and that leaders should be an example to the church,” he said.

Read it all.

The exodus from the Episcopal Church continued last week as leaders of another Colorado congregation prepared to split with the increasingly liberal denomination.

The Rev. Charles Reeder is scheduled to preach his last sermon today as rector of the Church of the Holy Comforter here. Then, “Father Chuck” and the church’s leadership ”” including the 10-member vestry and youth ministers ”” plan to join the growing number of traditional Episcopalians fleeing the embattled denomination.

In this case, the trigger was money. Donations have dropped precipitously since 2003, when the church consecrated its first openly homosexual bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, and agreed to perform same-sex blessings.

John Bosio, Holy Comforter’s senior warden, said the 49-year-old parish is now basically insolvent.

Read it all.

Three American priests who left the Episcopal Church after it appointed an openly gay bishop in 2003 have been consecrated as bishops in Africa. They’re returning to minister to American congregations, but will report to conservative churches in Africa.

Listen to it all. In the piece, Bill Atwood is wrongly identified as being from Massachusetts; he is from Texas and it is Bill Murdoch who is in Massachusetts. Jan Nunley tries her tired this-is-no-big-deal-the numbers-of-parishes-involved-are-so-small line, which continues to fail mightily not only with the secular media as well as a number of our sister denominations which see us as an example of how not to proceed, but also with the reality in the church on the ground. When you consider the number of people who have departed as individuals, as well as the number of parishes springing up of people who wish to be Anglicans but do not wish to be associated with TEC, along with the number of parishes and dioceses still in TEC who wish no part of the national leadership’s new theology (think Windsor Bishops, Network Dioceses, numerous groups of organized reasserting clergy and lay people, and many others), you have a quite significant problem.

Indeed, even one national church study (not to mention the statistics) makes this clear:

Only 20% [fully] endorse the actions of General Convention [2003].

Now, ask any priest out there, Jan, how they would feel if only 20% of their vestry was fully behind their capital campaign in terms of whether the capital campaign would work? As they say denial is not a river in Egypt. You cannot judge the degree of opposition to the terrible and mistaken choices made in 2003 with the number of parishes which, as nearly entire parishes, left, because in our polity it is quite difficult to achieve the degree of support and unity necessary for a whole parish (or diocese) to make such a choice, AND, those opposed have differing discernments about how best to proceed at the present time.

Oh and I have a question which I bet has occurred to some of you. Now that it is September 2007, where in the world are the statistics for calendar year 2006?–KSH

Update: The thoughts of Alan Guelzo are worth recalling as well.