St. Andrew’s Church begins 40 Days of Discernmentâ„¢
September 9, 2009 ”“ Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: The clergy and lay leadership of St. Andrew’s Church have invited the congregation to explore 40 Days of Discernmentâ„¢, a process where the church seeks God’s will for their place within the Anglican Communion. The process encourages parishioners to seek Jesus Christ personally and in community through Bible study, prayer and fasting, and through open and honest discussion.
“Our vision in this process is simple: We will come together to study the Scriptures, pray with one another, listen to each other, and seek to hear and the trust the Lord together as the body of Christ,” said The Rev. Steve Wood, who has been rector of St. Andrew’s since 2001. “Our intention to work through 40 Days of Discernmentâ„¢ represents our church’s desire to engage our entire community in one of the most important decisions we will ever make. We want to hear from the Lord about our place in the Anglican Communion as we pursue the vision God has for us. We believe God has given us the mission of playing our part in the re-evangelization of the world by telling people of the great hope and love found in Jesus Christ.”
40 Days of Discernmentâ„¢ is centered around a 40 Days Guidebook, with content written by a variety of Christian leaders on critical topics of concern. The Guidebook is designed to facilitate weekly small group discussions during the process.
St. Andrew’s is a Bible-based, mission-minded congregation. Among the many formal and informal ties to mission organizations and others in the community and internationally, the church’s members are involved in East Cooper Community Outreach, Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, Habitat for Humanity, Global Health Outreach, Palmetto Medical Initiative, and the Christian Medical Clinic, housed at St. Andrew’s Church. In addition, St. Andrew’s has international partners and missionaries in Honduras, Brazil, Haiti, Rwanda, Switzerland, India, Burundi, Uganda, and Liberia.
This is a life changing, spiritually insightful, and eye opening program.
One can no longer be cold or lukewarm to the gospel claim on them after seriously engaging in this discernment process.
Good for Steve Wood for giving his congregation this way forward…it is the responsible and pastoral thing to do.
These are awesome plans, broad and deep. I am imagining they were developed over a long time with lots of prayer. This is excellent, godly leadership. May the Lord richly bless this congregation and others who may choose to join them.
I’m not sure what this means. Why only discernment within the Anglican Communion? Why not even more macro – in the world? Or why not more micro – why not discernment within the Charleston metro area? or within the D. of S.C. or within TEC? Seems to me, that if your discernment process is basically to tell you whether you should stay in TEC, how can you also stay in the AC, when you know that TEC is going to remain a major player (if not THE major player) in the AC. But if this discernment process is to decide what your mission is going to be as a church in the world, regardless of any affiliations, then I say go for it and don’t set your sights too low.
It may be the same material used by Virginia Churches see
http://www.40daysofdiscernment.org/
http://www.churchoftheword.net
I would certainly hope and pray this is not to discern whether or not to leave the Diocese of SC under Bishop Lawrence. If one can not remain faithful to the leadership of this bishop, one really wonders! I hope St. Andrews will
keep in mind the influence they will have on churches outside their own diocese who do not have their freedom.
I guess i’m wondering why a parish decernment requires a press release?
6..
full disclosure?
Greetings.
Has any parish ever entered into a 40-day discernment process and decided [i]not[/i] to make a significant change in its affiliations?
Honest curiosity only. I know nothing about St. Andrews, have no idea what they ought to do, and intend no comment thereupon.
regards,
JPB
#5, CBH. Exactly. To me, leaving DioSC would imply that those leaving 1) believe that TEC is hierarchical at a national level, and 2) do not believe that Bp. Lawrence is a competent shepherd who can keep the wolves away from the fold.
There are many reasons to leave the Diocese of LA, and a handful of others. But, I cannot think of a reason for a conservative person or parish to give up on Bp. Lawrence.
#8 – JPB – Yes, I believe some have, including Holy Sacrament in Placentia, California (Los Angeles diocese) and Holy Nativity Plano (Dallas diocese).
CBH / Ralph – my guess is that this 40 Days of Discernment doesn’t have anything to do with the leadership of Bp. Lawrence.
I am in the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, and if the vote to disaffiliate with TEC had gone the other way and the diocese would have remained, I would have left. It had nothing to do with Bishop Schofield, who I regard as one of the most Spirit-filled, Christ-centered people I have ever had the pleasure to know (I thank our Lord that he is my bishop), but it had everything to do with not being able, in all good conscience, to continue being a part of a church whose top levels of leadership, among other heretical things, denies the uniqueness of Jesus as the only means of salvation and denies the authority of the Scriptures. For me, to stay in TEC would be to appear to be tacitly approving these heresies, and I do not want to give the slightest appearance of that.
I’ve known Bishop Mark from the time he was rector of St. Paul’s in Bakersfield. My feelings about him mirror my feelings about Bishop Schofield. I have nothing but respect for him. I had mixed feelings when he was elected Bishop of SC; sadness that he was leaving our diocese, and rejoicing that he would be serving the Lord in the Capacity of a Bishop of the Church. But even with my respect and admiration of him, I would not stay in TEC even if he were my bishop. As above, it doesn’t have anything to do with him, but the national organization.
I understand why some conservatives/reasserters want to remain in TEC and be a light in a seeming ocean of darkness. I pray for them. I would hope that they pray for those of us who cannot in good conscience remain. And I pray for the people of St. Andrews that they would seek and find the Lord’s guiding, and have the courage to follow His leading whether it is to stay or leave TEC.
Nos 4 and 8 are correct. The “40 days of discernment” publication was used in Virginia and, while I appreciate it and keep it on the shelf as a reference, it is essentially a tool for herding the sheep out the door. One of the major problems in at least some of the Virginia parishes is that the process of separation was essentially a pre-determined conclusion of vestry and clergy nudging and prodding the parishioners to leave. There was very little give and take in any meaningful way. The plans were laid well in advance (months and, in certain cases years) and the choreography all pointed out. Even as conservative as I am in my theological groundings, I began to bridle at the relentless manipulativeness of the process. I would probably have been less offended if there had been more balance to the exercise.
There are some who would say that a shepherd who remains in communion and table-fellowship with heretics is not a competent shepherd.
I’m just offering that as a suggestion of what some would say, since the question was raised in #9.
JM, we could just burn the heretics, couldn’t we?
I think part of the the problem with your formulation is that we don’t really know who the heretics are. In my parish, there was and is a range of views on the hot-button subjects of the day (subjects that I think receive more fixation than they should, at least proportionally to all the other issues facing the church), not all of which are neon-flashing heretical. How do I know when I go to the rail whether the guy next to me is a heretic? Out of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of persons I have worshipped with over the decades, I can’t say that I have ever met a person I knew to be a heretic.
Years ago I attended a meeting where Dr. Seitz was the speaker. At that meeting Dr. Seitz used the term “tormented”. He advised that congregation that until they felt TORMENTED he would advise them to stay put. They did not. Many of them are my friends. I know their pain. I understand their sense of isolation from their friends in our diocese. “Divorce” is seldom the answer to our problems. As long as we have faithful bishops such as the Anaheim Bishops and as long as we have faithful and orthodox priests such as my own, I believe God has called us to this place and this time to fight for our Lord in this church. We owe it to the generations who have come before us. We owe it to the generations who are to come. And we certainly owe it to the individuals who are sitting quietly in churches all over this world who do not have our voice, who sit quietly and pray in an atmosphere that has changed immeasurably from what they have been taught and know to be TRUE. I can’t help but wonder if we haven’t wandered so far from the prayer book that we all need a renewed focus on praying from it daily and most particularly at every service of the church! We seem to have wandered far from our liturgy and common prayer. Individual renewal and prayer would be of the greatest Power over the darkness within our church.
Just remember that word “tormented”. It is a good tool to use in such a discernment.
I pray that they will stay within the diocese. I understand the desire to be out from under TEC. The Diocese of SC is already out of communion with 815. Ms. Schori was not allowed to celebrate communion when she visited last year, nor will she be allowed to. We do not acknowledge her authority, nor do we acknowledge the non-canonical action of 815.
SC must remain strong. Precipitous action may play into the hands of the national “church”.
#8 and #10 – there was also an congregation in Tennessee that did the 40-day discernment and ended up staying.