I was blessed to have the chance this week to speak to Bishop Keith Ackerman of the Quincy diocese. He says his diocese, on the Anglican-Catholic wing, has been ‘reserved’ in its response to the crisis and has not been aggressive in its pursuit of a solution. Nevertheless, the diocese has begun setting out plans that could see it leave TEC. ‘We are throwing ourselves on Rowan Williams’ mercy,’ Bishop Keith told me. ‘We want to persuade him to stop the haemorrhage that is taking place in The Episcopal Church. The haemorrhage is being grossly understated. There are now 53 denominations of continuing churches in the US. There are numerous parishes that are no longer under US jurisdiction. I’m led to believe there may be as many as 200 of these. One of the things that Lambeth 98 was terribly specific about was that the US needed to come up with a plan for them to re-enter the family. At Lambeth we said we would reach out to those who consider themselves of Anglican tradition. But there has been very, very little effort. More effort has been put into ecumenism with the Lutherans and United Methodists than with the various bodies of Anglican tradition. Frankly, I have much more in common with them than I do with Lutherans or Methodists.

‘We need to find a way to bring the family back together again.’

One peculiarity he pointed to was the lack of a legal entity called TEC. ‘What there is, is the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA. That is our name. That is how we are incorporated. So we were in effect supposed to be a missionary society. We did not have SPCK, we did not have CMS. We were to be the missionaries, particularly in unsettled parts of the US.’

So priests such as himself are today asking, where is the mission field? What is the real authority of General Convention? ‘I would say the average Episcopalian today feels disenfranchised,’ says Bishop Keith. (Sir Roy in his book says the parish church and indeed Church can only be saved by re-empowering the laity. To look back to England for a sec, I have always believed that every churchgoer should have a vote for General Synod, the Church’s Parliament. Putting deanery synods in the middle of the electoral process disenfranchises the laity, makes them uninterested and, in the final analysis, is killing the Church. It would save to much money, time and so many souls to kill off deanery synods instead. But it will never happen, believe me. When the Church of England is down to its last worshipper, served by 100-plus bishops and a thousand priests, there will still be people dozing in deanery synods up and down the land, wondering what they are doing and why on earth they are there. But I digress.)

Bishop Ackerman is distressed that the faith and practice that he was brought up in and has adhered to faithfully is simply no longer available in vast tracts of episcopaland. He regrets that there is no PEV, or flying bishop, scheme in the US but admits he functions very much like one, visiting parishes throughout the US desperate for a traditional pastoral oversight.

Read it all.

GENEVA, N.Y. (AP) — A western New York man faces grand larceny charges after being pulled over in a car that he said he stole so he could turn himself in on another charge.

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.

Read it all.

One hundred years ago, Western missionaries were sent to Africa to convert the heathen and spread the gospel of peace. But now the tide has turned, according to conservatives, after a bumper crop of US priests were consecrated in the heart of Africa this month. Their mission? To head back to the States and minister to Anglicans disillusioned with the increasingly liberal Episcopal Church which, they claim, tore the Communion asunder with the consecration of a gay bishop in 2003.Last week the Churches of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda all consecrated their American ”˜flying bishops’ on African soil ready to send them back to troubled traditionalist congregations in the US.

The Church of England Newspaper managed to catch up with one of the newly consecrated Kenyan bishops, the Rt Rev Bill Atwood, and asked him a few questions. Bishop Atwood was consecrated alongside Bishop William Murdoch and is now back in the United States ready to commence his ministry. We asked him, in view of the ongoing ”˜process’ within the Anglican Communion, whether proceeding with appointing these new bishops was not a little hasty. “The Primates of the Anglican Communion acted unanimously to call on the Episcopal Church to conform to Anglican teaching and practice by September 30,” he answered.

“Well prior to that date the House of Bishops decided that they did not need to wait until September 30 to decline to conform to what was asked. The Executive Council refused to conform as well.” He continued: “In addition, numerous dioceses have already indicated that they intend to proceed with the same agenda that has already caused the ”˜fabric of the Communion to be torn’.” He added: “We are, essentially past September 30 already.” But, we asked, if TEC are barred from the Anglican Communion, or similar,will traditionalists not lose some of the moral high ground in the debate? “No,” Bishop Atwood affirmed, “The consecrations were the logical extension of the call in the Dar es Salaam Communiqué for care to be provided for the faithful.

“When one looks at those who were consulted and those that came to Nairobi, it is clear that a consensus among Global South leaders was reached about the consecrations.”

And what about Archbishop Rowan Williams stance in all of this, has he not sided with the traditionalists so far? “Archbishop Williams joined in with all the Primates of the Communion in affirming historic Christian belief in Dar es Salaam,” he replied. “It is interesting (though sad) that all the Primates of the Communion could unanimously agree on the content of the Communiqué in (and from) Dar es Salaam, but that agreement has not produced any amendment of life or change of agenda from the Episcopal Church. “Those in leadership in the Communion (including the Archbishop of Canterbury) have been undermined by the actions of the Episcopal Church.” But, we asked Atwood, has Dr Williams even been consulted about these recent appointments? “I know that his office was informed, but I do not know of any response,” he said. Many critics feel that consecrating these US bishops in Africa is schismatic and separatist. But what does Atwood feel about this view? His answer suggested that there is more at stake here than first meets the eye-it is not just a gay issue. “What is going on is a clash of worldviews,” he answered. “One is an historic Biblical world view and the other is a post-modern progressive worldview. “The Biblical world view begins with God and his revelation to the world in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. We are called to conform to God’s revelation.

“The post-modern progressive worldview begins with ”˜us’, and applies moral relativism with man as the judge of propriety.” And how will inter-Anglican relations look after the deadline, set in Dar es Salaam, which called for a response from TEC before September 30 promising not to appoint another gay bishop? Is this the end of the Anglican Communion? “The Communion was torn in 2003,” Bishop Atwood states. “The only way to restore it is to restore Biblical (Anglican) teaching, discipline, and practice; and move forward with those who are willing to consult and mutually submit. There was an unprecedented level of consultation, collaboration, and agreement leading up to the Nairobi and Uganda consecrations.”

He added: “Because of that, we pray that they will be fruitful.” As he returns to the US to prepare for his ministry, together with fellow Bishop Murdoch, he will have oversight of 32 US congregations. Likewise the Ugandan bishops also consecrated last week will oversee 33 US congregations. Times are strange in the Anglican Communion and many are highly critical of these latest appointments. Many Anglicans fear the power of the Global South Church, and feel that the Archbishop of Canterbury has not done enough to deal with them. The Rev Martin Reynolds, a gay priest in South Wales, told this paper that he feared at least 10 more western bishops were lined up for similar African consecrations. He says that the breakaway church has had scant regard for the directions of Canterbury. These latest appointments graphically show an increasing dichotomy between those loyal to the Windsor process and those who, like Bishop Atwood, have simply ”˜had enough.’

–This article appears in the Church of England Newspaper of september 14, 2007, on page 12

Consider the situation of a small parish somewhere in the ranks of The Episcopal Church (TEC). Decades ago faithful men and women formed a community of worship in accordance with their faith, obedience, and trust in God. They affirmed and upheld the essential tenets of Christian belief, including the doctrines of Christ, the authority of scripture, and a biblical morality as affirmed by the tradition of the church for 2,000 years.

This faithful local church community gave of its time and resources. The church bought property with the money its members gave of themselves. They built buildings and planted trees. They engaged in ministry and called a rector. As the years went by, they invested their trust in God, in each other, and in The Episcopal Church. They honored the conditions of this trust, and the authority of their rector and bishop. All shared in the benefits of this sacred trust ”” generation by generation.

Then one day, this parish finds itself with a new rector and a new bishop who declare that Jesus is not the only means of salvation, scripture has authority only when we say it does, and biblical morality is outdated and must be modernized according to what we think is right. The parish is told to accept this new interpretation of Christian belief and practice. The parishioners’ trust has been betrayed. The very fabric of communion has been torn at its deepest level.

Of course, this is exactly what is happening to parishes all over the church. TEC is in the process of perpetrating an immense and corporate violation of trust. What is outrageous is the fact that the perpetrators continue to lay claim to the benefits of the covenant, namely the property that was bought and paid for by the faithful Christians through the decades who, had they foreseen, never would have given a dime to this new religious order.

TEC asserts that all property is held in trust ”” people may leave but parishes and dioceses may not. But this trust is invalid. It is a unilateral trust in which TEC receives all the benefits with no accountability. Trust means you trust us and we do whatever we please. If you don’t like it, get out, and we keep your investments.

Read it all.

President Bush, defending an unpopular war, ordered gradual reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq on Thursday night and said, “The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home.”

Yet, Bush firmly rejected calls to end the war, insisting that Iraq will still need military, economic and political support from Washington after his presidency ends.

Bush said that 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas and that four brigades – for a total of at least 21,500 troops – would return by July, along with an undetermined number of support forces. Now at its highest level of the war, the U.S. troop strength stands at 168,000.

“The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is: return on success,” the president said, trying to summon the nation’s resolve once again to help Iraq “defeat those who threaten its future and also threaten ours.”

Read it all.

– A group of active and retired bishops, all or most of them former attorneys, delivered a roughly 100-page report yesterday (9-13-07) to the Episcopal Church House of Bishops, accompanied by an “audio version” on disc. Among the authors, we predict, are the disgraced Joe Morris Doss, and Bishop of Lexington Stacy Sauls. Both bishops are former attorneys. The nature of this report is a “kick the can” proposal that includes at least two notable angles: The case as to why the HoB cannot reply to the demands of the Dar es Salaam communique (evidently a very detailed version of the ‘polity’ line the HoB has been peddling since its meeting in March); and some use of the data solicited by Sauls two weeks ago regarding the number and status of churches under foreign oversight. The latter may be part of a proposal to bring those churches ‘back into the fold’ somehow. As a whole, the document is to be offered as a ‘solution,’ but in fact defers all decisions to General Convention 2009.

– As reported earlier, Presiding Bishop Schori will present a modified primatial vicar plan. The proposed vicar will not be Bishop Howe of Central Florida. It will be a loyal institutionalist, slightly left of center, not known for speaking out one way or the other in the debate, and not in attendance at a single Camp Allen meeting….

Read it all.

Read it all.

The NFL has fined New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the team a total of $750,000 for videotaping an opponent’s signals. The team also has been told to forfeit draft choices.

The Pats were caught videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive signals during last Sunday’s 38-14 win at the Meadowlands.

CBS 2 HD has learned Belichick was hit with a $500,000 fine by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The team will have to hand over $250,000.

The Patriots will also have to forfeit at least one draft pick in 2008, but that will depend on how they finish this season. If they make the playoffs, they will lose a first-round pick. If they don’t make the postseason, they will give up their second-and third-round picks.

Belichick will not be suspended.

Read it all.

Northern Rock approached the Bank of England at the end of last week to discuss using the facility, people familiar with the situation said. The lender made its decision because it faced pressure to refinance obligations that are due to mature in the next couple of weeks.

Northern Rock executives were expected to say on Friday that the bank would try to work through its difficulties with the help of the Bank of England facility. However, the move is likely to make it hard for Northern Rock to remain independent in the long term. The bail-out is a devastating blow for the bank, which grew from its roots as a building society in the north-east of England to become the most efficient mortgage lender in the United Kingdom. Northern Rock declined to comment.

The rescue came as the Federal Reserve released data showing that direct loans to banks, through its discount window, had reached their highest level since the September 11 attacks.

Read it all (subscription required).

This is written in response to this article posted yesterday–KSH.

Possibly Milbank has not studied the theology of the body: I suspect that certain sorts of theologians find the whole thing somewhat, well, kitschy, and I would not be at all surprised to find theologians such as Milbank, Loughlin, Pickstock, and other RO types falling under that rubric rather readily. But it is a very serious issue, and whether this particular teaching will ever “develop” in the way Milbank wants it to surely hangs more squarely on this question than on any other. If sexuality is an essential element in the essence of man whereby he comes to share in God’s creative aspect, then there is more to be said about this issue than that “love is a continuum from mere regard to blissful material union” or some such. Love may indeed be at least partly that, but to say that it is is not to say that that is all that it is. To know what love is in its entirety we must take the teachings of Our Lord in the greater context of our Tradition, within which it is clear that this teaching has been settled.

Once we realize that Milbank’s argument fails on theological grounds, it takes on a new aspect. Instead of arguing that idolatry can take many forms, we find that he is saying something along these lines: we live in a materialistic, hedonistic age, and in that sort of an age, people are going to do this sort of thing whether we want them to or not, and really, why should we care so much that they do this sort of thing when the harm principle, as it is understood in this sort of an age, cannot be invoked? Live and let live. That is clearly a much weaker argument, at least from the point of view of someone who is really radically orthodox. Whether the Radical Orthodox really are radically orthodox remains to be seen.

Read it carefully and read it all.

From here; this more fully fleshes out the material in the second link in the post about Nigeria below.

(Herndon, VA) — The House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) met in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, on the 12th day of September 2007. They received a report from the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, Missionary Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary initiative of the Church of Nigeria in the USA. Acknowledging the significant growth of CANA that is taking place in the USA, the House of Bishops considered a request for additional bishops to further the work of CANA and the extension of God’s Kingdom.

After the meeting, the Primate, the Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, announced the election of four suffragan bishops and appointed them to serve in the USA. The bishops-elect are the Rev’d Canon Roger Ames (Akron, OH), the Rev’d Canon David Anderson (Atlanta, GA), the Ven. Amos Fagbamiye (Indianapolis, IN), and the Rev’d Canon Nathan Kanu (Oklahoma City, OK). The consecrations will take place in the USA before the end of 2007, at a date and place yet to be determined. These four bishops-elect will join Missionary Bishop Martyn Minns and Suffragan Bishop David Bena in providing an indigenous ecclesiastical structure for faithful Anglicans in this country.

CANA currently consists of approximately 60 congregations and 80 clergy in 20 states. About a quarter of the congregations are primarily expatriate Nigerians. CANA was established in 2005 to provide a means by which Anglicans living in the USA, who were alienated by the actions and decisions of The Episcopal Church, could continue to live out their faith without compromising their core convictions. CANA is part of the Common Cause partnership that includes representatives of more than 250 Anglican congregations that are connected to the rest of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of some 70 million, through various pastoral and missionary initiatives.

Update: A Living Church article regarding this matter is here.

This is important. How many times have we said be Bereans and research yourself and do not trust something just because you read it on the Internet?

Read the Bishop’s whole address as well.

The Anglican Archbishop however challenged the 121 dioceses in the Church of Nigeria to intensify efforts on winning souls, embark on projects that will have direct bearing for the increase of the present members of the Anglican church in Nigeria from the present 20 million to 50 million out of the present 150 million of the Nigeria Population.

He also appealed to the mother dioceses of the newly created missionary dioceses not to abandon their spiritual babies but to lend helping hands in nursing them to maturity.

On the Convocation of Anglicans in the North America (CANA), Archbishop Akinola commended Bishop Martyn Minns for his doggedness in seeing that CANA continues to grow despite the enormous resources being committed by the America’s Episcopal Church (TEC) to crush CANA. He stressed that Church of Nigeria will gladly turn CANA over to the Communion once the condition that led to its creation have been reversed by TEC.

On Lambeth Conference, Akinola said Nigeria is not a problem of the Communion rather those who breaks the rules and the bonds of affection with impunity must repent and ensure that the broken communion be restored for the Church of Nigeria to be in the next Lambeth Conference.

Read it all and read this also.

With permission–KSH.

Synod Sermon
8 September 2007
St Saviour’s Cathedral, Goulburn, Australia

The Hymn to the Universe in Colossians, expressing the supremacy of Christ over all things, including the Church, must be one of the most confidently reassuring passages in the whole of scripture. I quote it often, not least to reinforce what I believe is fundamental, that is, environmental issues and ecological justice issues are core business to Christian people. Christ is not simply God’s word to fallen humanity; He is God’s word to the whole created order which groaneth in travail until now. These are not optional extras, this is not some trendy green thing, the sustainability and reconciliation of the whole created order is as core to us, as is our belief that Christ died for our salvation. For in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of the cross. If Colossians 1: 15 ”“ 20 does not stir your blood, I do not know what will.
But what of verses 21 ”“ 23, the verses that follow, the verses we read this evening? What does it mean to be estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds? What is the hope promised by the gospel which we have heard and from which we are not to shift?

Well, one of the great joys of Anglicanism is our lectionary. I am unapologetically disappointed to hear of parishes that do not use it. It is not simply that when we use it we are in unison with countless thousands of Christians who have reflected on the same passage, on the same day, which we are: nor even that it has saved us from constant recourse to the passages that suit us best, which it does: it invites us to read scripture against the backdrop of other scripture.
Now, the passage from Colossians chapter 1: 21 ”“ 23 has been read this evening against the backdrop of Luke 6: 1 ”“ 5; the first of two passages in Luke 6 in which Jesus directly challenges the prevailing teaching and practice of the Sabbath. You know that the sins of the religious were a favourite target of Jesus, in fact he used stronger language of them – “hypocrites”, than he did of the more colourful sins of the great unwashed. So are we being challenged this evening not to think of a “hostile mind and evil deeds” as referring to those things that the tax collectors and sinners do, but those things that the Pharisees do, the things, please do not hide under the pew, which religious people do. Are we prone to believe we are righteous and in the believing more likely to rest secure in our condemnation of those we consider to be more notoriously sinful? Are we, the people in Church, being called to consider our “hostile” minds, rather than preaching to those outside whom we think should change their hostile minds?

You are all familiar with Jesus’ challenges about the Sabbath. His fundamental problem with the teaching and behaviour of the ruling religious class was that they had turned a divine ordinance for the celebration of life, into an ordinance which essentially had become life denying. They had made the law a thing to be worshipped, rather than serving the principle that it was designed to celebrate. Celebrate is the right word. The Sabbath was never fundamentally about one day being holier than another, not even about religious observance per se; the Sabbath is no less than the celebration of creation itself, and a foretaste of its redemption. Wherever praise is offered, the Sabbath is celebrated; when the hungry are fed the Sabbath is celebrated; when the down trodden are set free the Sabbath is celebrated; when human work builds divine community the Sabbath is celebrated; when those who have been estranged are reconciled the Sabbath is celebrated; when a paddock is rested the Sabbath is celebrated; when debts are forgiven the Sabbath is celebrated; when ones preferred seat in high places is given to another, the Sabbath is celebrated; when the face of Christ is seen in a child on the street, or the woman selling herself that her children might be fed, the Sabbath is celebrated; when soiled and worn bodies are anointed with perfume, the Sabbath is celebrated. The Sabbath is not celebrated by simply creating space; it is celebrated by what fills the space. The Sabbath is about celebrating life. Hostile minds then are minds hostile to life, because life is of God and Sabbath celebrates God, by celebrating life.

What then is the “hope promised by the gospel which we have heard and from which we are not to shift”? Is it that Jesus has died for our salvation – well yes it is? Is it that he has taken away the sin of the world – well yes it is? I do not believe this hope can be expressed more clearly than by John. These (words) are written that you might believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and through believing you may have life in his name. Jn 20:31

Or
Beloved let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God for God is love. God’s love was revealed to us in this way: God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4 7 -10
If this is truly the hope promised by God, the hope from which we are not to shift, is it possible to lose the prize, or perhaps to lose the opportunity of conveying the prize to others, by holding on to a lesser truth as if it were the main game.
Those about whom Jesus was extremely critical had taken a passage or passages of scripture and turned them into an idol. They had made their interpretation of the law of the Sabbath the litmus test by which virtue and righteousness was to be judged, indeed that by which all human behaviour, however virtuous or evil, was to be judged.

Are there parallels today? Are there examples of religious people taking a passage or passages of scripture and turning them into a litmus test for all? Are there examples of people taking passages of scripture and saying of them to the wider religious community “we say to you that these particular passages are the tests we will set to show whether you hold to the hope promised in the gospel, which we have heard, and from which we are not to shift”. Well sadly – yes.
In our beloved Anglican Communion a litmus test has been set and whether any of us like it or not we are apparently to be judged by it. In less than 12 months from now the 2008 Lambeth conference will have come and gone. In coming months you are sadly going to have an increasing commentary in the press about those bishops who are going and those who are not; those who have been invited, and those who have not; those who will stay away if others attend, and those who will attend if others stay away.

I say to the Anglican Communion please stop it. I say to the Archbishop of Canterbury, please tell us to stop it. Archbishop Rowan, please do not allow yourself to refer to this matter as core, even if others do. Please do not take as seriously as you seem to the cries, on either side, of those who make this debate, the debate on homosexuality, the core business of the Anglican Communion: by so doing you are disenfranchising the rest of us, who with respect, are concerned about far more important issues. By making this the litmus test, will the Sabbath be celebrated, as Jesus intended ”“ I do not see how? By making this the litmus test will we address the more important issues of the presence of Jesus amongst the poor and disenfranchised, please tell me how? Will the voice, the prayer of Jesus, for justice and peace in the Jerusalem, in the Middle East where the call of the mosque prevails, be more clearly articulated? A vain hope. Will the healing of those dying from Malaria and HIV AIDS be more urgently addressed? Sadly no. Even at home, by pressing this debate will it enable the voice of the gospel to be heard more widely in Australian society, to be respected more intensely, to be understood more thoroughly – I think not. Then please stop it. This does not mean that I think it is unimportant, or that I am not committed to the Lambeth 98 resolution, or that I do not think people have the right to strongly held views, but will this debate open wider the gates that lead to everlasting life ”“ I am afraid not.

All legitimate Bishops in the Communion should attend the Lambeth Conference. We need to be challenged by one another and to try to understand each other. To be honest, the Bishop I will find it hardest to understand is the Bishop of Harare, Zimbabwe, the Bishop who applauds, supports and encourages the activity and behaviour of President Robert Mugabe who has wreaked so much pain and evil upon his own people. How this Bishop can possibly reconcile his pronouncements with the “hope promised by the gospel” is beyond my comprehension: well not quite, he is, apparently of the same tribal grouping as the President, he is of those who currently hold power. We are called to share the company of those who do not have power. So, even he, perhaps especially he, needs to be present.

We are so blessed to have heard the hope promised by the gospel, the promise of life in his name, we are so blessed to be personally redeemed by it, may we never be without the humility of spirit, the compassion of heart, the confidence of mind, and the strength of will to live it, and proclaim it to others.

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh is moving closer to a decision on whether to break with its American parent church and to join a more conservative branch of the Anglican Communion.

Meeting Tuesday night at Trinity Episcopal Downtown, a Pittsburgh Diocese council moved forward a resolution that, if approved, would allow the diocese to leave the Episcopal Church and realign itself with another province of the Anglican Communion.

The 2.3-million member Episcopal Church is the Episcopal wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has more than 70 million members. A number of provinces of the communion in Africa are headed by conservative bishops who have provided oversight to some conservative Episcopalians unhappy with the church in the United States.

The resolution is supported by Bishop Duncan, the conservative leader of the Episcopal Diocese here. The resolution now heads to the diocese’s convention, which is scheduled for Nov. 2-3 in Johnstown.

The resolution could potentially change the centuries-old Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh’s constitution, which at present places the diocese under the authority of the larger Episcopal Church.

Read it all.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will offer a revamped primatial vicar plan to the House of Bishops at their meeting next week in New Orleans, sources who have been briefed on the broad outline of the new proposal told The Living Church.

The plan is said to call for a nominee of the Presiding Bishop’s to exercise delegated pastoral authority over those dioceses that had requested alternate primatial oversight from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams following the 2006 General Convention.

However, the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, said a plan that placed the ultimate authority in the hands of the Presiding Bishop was a non-starter. Fort Worth would not accept the “unilateral dictates” of the Presiding Bishop, he said.

Last November, Bishop Jefferts Schori proposed a “primatial vicar” scheme where she would appoint a bishop to serve as her “designated pastor,” presiding at consecrations and acting in her stead for “any other appropriate matters.”

Read it all.

The pastor and parishioners at St. Michael the Archangel, a church that began serving Noblesville Sunday, are certain God has opened doors to a great future.

St. Michael the Archangel is an Orthodox Anglican church that was established in January as a mission of the Anglican Diocese of Bolivia. The mission church is the third one established in Indiana, with others in Nashville and Anderson. Sunday worship is held in the Winks Building at the Hamilton County 4-H Fairgrounds.

“We’re looking to be a church that is Bible-based, traditional, not agenda driven and a place where families can raise their children and learn about Christ,” said the Rev. Tom Tirman, pastor of all three Indiana Anglican churches.

Read it all.

The Episcopal Church was given until Sept. 30 by Anglican archbishops from around the world to provide “unequivocal” assurance that it will not consecrate noncelibate homosexuals as bishops or allow blessings for same-sex unions.

So far, the American province has not complied.

“We’re praying the House of Bishops will have a change of heart when they meet in New Orleans Sept. 20-25,” Ackerman said in a statement. “If The Episcopal Church refuses to turn back, we will be forced to make a decision.”

The Rev. John Spencer, president of the diocesan standing committee, said the diocese was not trying to pre-empt the bishops’ meeting by discussing the proposals before the bishops meet.

“We’re required to finalize proposed synod resolutions now to meet canonical deadlines,” Spencer said. “It’s not our intention to prejudge what the House of Bishops may or may not do when they meet later this month.”

Read it all.

Diocesan attorney John R. Shiner said Tuesday he was confident that the state Supreme Court would affirm the appellate court’s decision, which was unanimous.

Eric Sohlgren, lead attorney for St. James, said he was encouraged by the high court’s decision to review the case, and said it could affect trial proceedings for other churches embroiled in similar property disputes.

“We think it’s an important step toward calming the legal turmoil created by the appellate court decision,” Sohlgren said.

Read it all.

Watch and listen to it all.

The sexton of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Peapack-Gladstone has filed suit against the rector emeritus of the parish, alleging the clergyman sexually harassed him more than a decade ago.

The Rev. Canon John Morrow, who was rector of the Somerset County church for more than 30 years before retiring in 1996, and who has since led worship at other Episcopal churches and chapels in the state, is named in the suit along with St. Luke’s and the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey.

Sexton Richard Young, 68, of Chester, who still works at St. Luke’s, charged in the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Morris County that from 1984 to 1996, he was subjected to unlawful touching on his chest and torso, inappropriate questioning about his sex life and abuse of control by Morrow. An alleged sexual assault took place at the clergyman’s Shore house, while Young was undressing to take a shower, the suit said.

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It is clear that today there is a huge issue about the relation between Christianity and sex which is a part of the debate about what social order, if any, Christianity implies. Despite the decline in religious practice, the big secular ideal of socialism has also for the moment collapsed. Secular people only embrace capitalism half-heartedly, with a shrug — as unavoidable reality, not as an ideology. In this vacuum only religion offers ideals — either the conservative Protestants idealize capitalism, or others put forward religiously grounded communitarianisms and ecologies. The debate within religion — and this really means, for all pretense otherwise, the debate within Christianity — is now the great debate.

And part of this debate — a big part — is about sex. In just what way can there be a sexual path that is also a spiritual path? In a sense, this is a debate about human ecology, and it is notable that today, as earlier in the twentieth century, those who are “conservatively” critical of over-technologization and the exploitation of nature also tend to be in favor of a more positive attitude toward sex (D.H. Lawrence, J.C. Powys and Eric Gill, for example). Inversely, those who are more conservative, puritanical and legalistic about sex are often those who fully embrace technological modernity, the ruthless exploitation of nature and economic liberalism.

Moreover, in reality nearly all mainline Christian opinion has veered more toward the former combination than the latter. Even the Roman Catholic Church has taken new steps this century to admit more fully that sex as such, rightly exercised, is productive of good. And even the pope seems to concede, unlike his predecessors, that homosexual orientation as such is not wicked. Already, then, there has been a shift of Christian identity. Christianity is the religion of love — yet what is love? Is agape also eros? Is love of the neighbor entirely distinct from love of the friend and love of the lover, including physical love? Astonishingly, there has been no Christian consensus here: for example, Kierkegaard’s view is almost the opposite of that of Aquinas (the latter seeing agape as essentially also philia and eros, the former absolutely not).

To be divided about love and physical love may not be so trivial. Moreover, this is also a division about authority. Although I favor the gay cause, I actually think the conservatives are more or less right about the Bible. Only disingenuousness fails to see that the ancient Hebrews and later the rabbis associated homosexuality, like other forms of sexual deviancy, with idolatry. To turn from the true God and the true mode of worship was linked with a turning away from the true objects and modes of sexual devotion. Failure to acknowledge this reading is often linked with an old-fashioned denial that there was an ancient Hebrew (more than Greek) obsession with the question of what was “naturally” fitting and what was not. This is both a ritual and a moral matter, since the Torah makes no such distinction at bottom.

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Older people are sticky.

That is the latest view from Silicon Valley. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites aimed at baby boomers and graying computer users.

The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook ”” with wrinkles.

And they are seeking to capitalize on what investors say may be a profitable characteristic of older Internet users: they are less likely than youngsters to flit from one trendy site to the next.

“Teens are tire kickers ”” they hang around, cost you money and then leave,” said Paul Kedrosky, a venture capitalist and author of the blog “Infectious Greed.” Where Friendster was once the hot spot, Facebook and MySpace now draw the crowds of young people online.

“The older demographic has a bunch of interesting characteristics,” Mr. Kedrosky added, “not the least of which is that they hang around.”

This prospective and relative stickiness is helping drive a wave of new investment into boomer and older-oriented social networking sites that offer like-minded (and like-aged) individuals discussion and dating forums, photo-sharing, news and commentary, and chatter about diet, fitness and health care.

Last week, VantagePoint Ventures, an early investor in MySpace, announced that it had led a $16.5 million round of financing for Multiply, a social networking site aimed at people who are settled.

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Jeremiah C. Lamphier, a layman, started the revolution because he was helping his declining church near Wall Street in New York City. Posting flyers announcing a noon prayer meeting, he prayed alone in an empty room for the first half hour.

Finally someone joined him. Before the hour was over, six had attended. It was an ordinary prayer meeting, fervent but unspectacular. Meeting the next week, 20 attended. When 40 appeared the following week, they decided to go daily.

On Oct. 14, 1857, Wall Street experienced the Panic of 1857, one of the worst financial crises in American history. By the month’s end, another 100 people were participating in the daily prayer meeting.

Newspaper accounts of a November spiritual revival in Ontario, Canada, spurred prayer meetings throughout America. In New York City, the prayer movement spread so that by March 1858, newspapers reported that 10,000 businessmen were meeting regularly to pray. Every available room in churches was packed at noon for prayer and at evening for services. The happening gained front-page headlines in New York newspapers.

The fervency for prayer swept into Philadelphia and up into Boston and the Northeast. Like a wave, the movement splashed into Chicago and the Midwest. Though it started in the North, the spirit of prayer rippled into the South. Thousands came to Christ. Churches gained attendance.

Amazingly, it began by a layperson leading a small, obscure prayer group. It swelled into a tidal wave of prayer washing the nation, changing lives and reviving declining churches. It sounds like a plot in some cheesy Christian film, but it really happened!

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Al-Qaida has revived, extended its influence, and has the capacity to carry out a spectacular strike similar to the September 11 attacks on America, one of the world’s leading security thinktanks warned yesterday.
There is increasing evidence “that ‘core’ al-Qaida is proving adaptable and resilient, and has retained an ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks in the western world despite the attrition it has suffered”, said the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). “The threat from Islamist terrorism remains as high as ever, and looks set to get worse,” it added.

“The US and its allies have failed to deal a death blow to al-Qaida; the organisation’s ideology appears to have taken root to such a degree that it will require decades to eradicate,” it continued.

The warning came in the latest annual review of world affairs by the IISS. Its strategic survey paints a bleak picture of global security in the future….

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(Please read the following article by way of background–KSH.)

Both the Vatican and the U.S. bishops are investigating a book by a prominent American Catholic theologian, Vietnam-born Fr. Peter Phan of Georgetown University. The book raises issues about the uniqueness of Christ and the church, issues that were also behind recent censures of other high-profile theologians, as well as a recent Vatican declaration that the fullness of the Christian church resides in Catholicism alone.

The case confirms that no subject is of greater doctrinal concern for church authorities, including Pope Benedict XVI, than what they see as “religious relativism,” meaning the impression that Christ is analogous to other religious figures such as the Buddha, or that Christianity is one valid spiritual path among others.

Critics of writers such as Phan, who offer a positive theological evaluation of non-Christian religions, assert that their work courts confusion on these points, while others believe church authorities are drawing the borders of theological discussion too narrowly.

Phan, a priest of the Dallas diocese, is a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. The book in question is Phan’s 2004 Being Religious Interreligiously, published by Orbis.

Sources who asked not to be identified said that Phan received a July 2005 letter from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith signed by Archbishop Angelo Amato, the congregation’s number two official. It presented 19 observations under six headings, charging that Phan’s book “is notably confused on a number of points of Catholic doctrine and also contains serious ambiguities.”

The letter said the book is in tension with the 2000 Vatican document Dominus Iesus, which states that non-Christians are “in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the church, have the fullness of the means of salvation.”

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An interesting segment to be sure.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. ”“ September 12, 2007 ”“ The California Supreme Court today unanimously granted the petitions by St. James Anglican Church, Newport Beach, All Saints’ Church, Long Beach, and St. David’s Anglican Church, North Hollywood, to review the Fourth Appellate District decision of Episcopal Church Cases.

The grant of review has the effect of nullifying the Fourth Appellate District decision, meaning that no trial court or attorney can rely upon it until the Supreme Court ultimately decides the case. This is encouraging news to countless church congregations in California, including Russian Orthodox, Anglican, Presbyterian and Evangelical, who have been threatened with the loss of their property after trial courts began to rely upon Episcopal Church Cases.

“Our petitions asked the Supreme Court to intervene and calm the legal turmoil caused by Episcopal Church Cases. By disregarding almost thirty years of California law where local church property rights and donations of local church members are respected, Episcopal Church Cases adopted a throwback theory where local church property could be confiscated by a large institutional church simply by passing a rule,” said Eric Sohlgren, lead attorney for St. James Church. “This unanimous and quick decision by the Supreme Court to grant review indicates that it has a strong interest in restoring clarity to the law in how California courts are to decide church property disputes.”

“We are extremely pleased that the Supreme Court has decided to take this important case to help churches throughout California be able plan and grow for their future,” said Lynn Moyer, counsel for All Saints’ and St. David’s. “The same founding fathers who created the United States Constitution created the Constitution for Anglican churches in the United States following the American Revolution. Congregations were formed and independent long before any ”˜diocese’ or ”˜national church’ was ever established. It was never intended that these local congregations who are independent corporations put their property in trust for the Episcopal Church. Title to the properties is held by the local congregations. To allow the Episcopal Church to rip these properties away from these congregations after 80 years is wrong, as numerous families who have attended these churches for decades can attest.”

In July 2007, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, reversed the Orange County Superior Court’s prior ruling that the three former Episcopal churches, which ended their affiliation with the national denomination in 2004, did not forfeit their property by changing their affiliation to another province of the Anglican church. This division of the appellate court broke with nearly thirty years of California church property law applying “neutral principles” (i.e., who holds the deed, who bought or donated the property, and whether the local church ever agreed to turn over the property), and instead ruled that denominations can take over local church property by simply passing an internal rule ”“ even if the local church is separately incorporated, bought and maintained the property, and never consented to the rule.

St. James, All Saints’ and St. David’s, as the sole property owners, never agreed to relinquish their property to the Episcopal Church upon changing their affiliation, and they have consistently maintained that they have the right to use and possess the property they have owned and maintained for decades.

The Supreme Court also granted review to decide whether a California statute which allows courts to expedite cases where people are sued for exercising their free speech rights, known as the anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) is applicable to this dispute. The statute subjects to early scrutiny cases filed by large private interests to deter individuals from exercising their political or legal rights to free speech or to petition the government. Attorneys for the three churches argued that The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles are large, wealthy and powerful religious organizations that sought to stifle these fundamental rights when church members spoke out about their disagreements with the Episcopal Church, including through the act of disaffiliation itself.

* * *

A Brief Recap

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles brought lawsuits against St. James, All Saints’ and St. David’s Anglican Churches and their volunteer board members in September of 2004. Subsequently, the national Episcopal Church intervened into the lawsuits against the three local church corporations and their volunteer board members.

On August 15, 2005, the Honorable David C. Velasquez of the Orange County Superior Court ruled in favor of St. James against the complaint brought by the Diocese of Los Angeles. In October 2005, Judge Velasquez issued a similar ruling in favor of All Saints and St. David’s. The Diocese of Los Angeles appealed the rulings to the California Court of Appeal.

In August 2005, the Complaint in Intervention filed separately by the national Episcopal Church (“TEC”) was still pending in the Orange County Superior Court.

In Fall 2005, the Court granted the three Churches’ challenges to TEC’s original Complaint in Intervention, but gave TEC an opportunity to amend the Complaint (but only if it could do so in good faith). TEC filed a First Amended Complaint in Intervention, which rehashed many of the church-rule arguments the Court had already rejected in prior rulings. The three local churches filed another challenge (called a demurrer) asking the Court to dismiss the First Amended Complaint without further leave to amend on the ground that even if all of the factual allegations were true, they did not state a legal wrong under California law. TEC also appealed that ruling to the California Court of Appeal.

In July 2007, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, in an opinion authored by Presiding Justice David G. Sills, reversed the Orange County Superior Court’s prior ruling that three church corporations which disaffiliated from the national denomination did not forfeit their property. This division of the appellate court broke with nearly thirty years of California church property law, and Division Two of the Fourth Appellate District, by ruling that general churches can take over local church property by simply passing an internal rule ”“ even if the local church is separately incorporated, bought and maintained the property.

In August 2007, the three churches filed petitions with the California Supreme Court to settle a church property dispute case that affects countless churches and their members throughout California.

Dear All:

Peace in Jesus.

The Rt Rev Dr Benjamin Argak Kwashi, DD, Dmin, OON, has asked me to share with you that the church fathers meeting today have elected him to serve as Archbishop of the Province of Jos, Church of Nigeria.

In Christ,

The Rev Canon Dr Leslie DG Martin
American Chaplain to the Archbishop-elect of Jos