Question from Mr David Virtue, Virtue Online: Archbishop Foley, the Archbishop of Canterbury steadfastly refuses to recognise the ACNA, however you are recognised by the GAFCON Primates, especially the Primate of Nigeria the largest province of the Anglican Communion. What do you see or how do you think that log-jam is going to break or will it break in the coming months or years? Clearly you are growing, TEC is dying, so what do you see as the way forward with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the light of the recognition by the GAFCON Primates?
Archbishop Foley Beach: I think first of all we should respect the See of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Canterbury. I would say though, history in a few weeks, months, maybe the next year or so ”“ what’s happening in the Church of England I’m not sure we want to be in communion with just to be honest with you, and so.. [large and long applause]. As I have expressed it to folks in our diocese, we are in communion with 50 million of the 70 million Anglicans around the world, and if Canterbury chooses to recognise us – I mean I hope that will happen one day – I am not going to do anything to stop that from happening – but that’s not the goal ”“ our mission is to reach people for Jesus Christ, and we’ve got to stay focused on that
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AB Beach: Let us pray together please:
Father, we ask in Jesus’ name that you would use this time for your glory; that you would give us better insight and understanding on your church and what you are doing in our lives together. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Before I say a few words I wanted to introduce my wife, Allison. Many of you have seen her around. Allison and I have been married 31 years and we have 2 children. James is 25 years old and is a senior at an American university getting his masters in International Relations and Arabic; and our daughter is getting ready to be 23 and she is entering the University of Georgia to get her masters in Children’s Literacy. And so we are very blessed to have a wonderful family. Allison, do you want to say anything?
Allison Beach: I just thank God for you all and I thank you for the prayers that we already feel. You know there is so much power in prayer and this is a high calling and a high privilege and you all are right there with us and we thank you for what you are going to do for this whole movement to grow closer to the Lord and to bring others to Him. And I just thank you and we both thank you from the bottom of our hearts for what you are doing.
AB Beach: Thanks [Applause]
I thought I would begin by just telling you just a little bit about myself, so that you kind of know some of my history. People keep saying, ”˜we don’t know anything about you.’
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and was living what I thought was a normal childhood until about age 8 when…
my dad happened to be home one day, when I got home. I rode my bike home back from school. Yes back in those days we could ride our bikes as an 8 year old to school. And he was in the little garage area where we would park our bicycles, and he said, “I need to talk to you.” And he began to share that he and my mother were going to have a divorce and that he would be leaving. And of course, I was devastated, didn’t quite understand what was going on. Later I did some study and discovered that my mother had been running around sleeping with all kinds of men ”“ she had issues with alcohol ”“ and he just couldn’t take it any more.
Well back then the courts always gave custody to the mother and so my five brothers and sisters went to live with her, and she immediately got involved, at that time in the culture, the drug movement and the hippy movement [you all remember the wildness of the late 60’s] swept through our town, and my mother became what you would call a hippy. Some of you all may remember that, some of you may not remember that, but you should remember that.
And for the next five years, four and a half years or so, we moved all over the place. I went to five different elementary schools, and it wasn’t uncommon to have people doing drugs in our house or I would go to bed at night and some stranger would be in my bed – I had no idea who they were. I remember one time in the fifth grade, we lived in an apartment and it had a screen porch, and so I went to the hardware store and bought some plastic and a staple gun and stapled up the screen so it wouldn’t go to the outside, put a little heater in there and I made that my bedroom because things were so wild in the house.
I was pretty much a street kid on the streets of Atlanta, rode the bus everywhere, had no supervision. But somehow in the midst of that God protected me. On my 12th birthday [and I now view that as a birthday present from God], my mother was arrested for selling drugs: narcotics and for harbouring runaways was the charge, and my younger sisters and I went to live with DFACS [Division of Family and Children Services] for a while until my dad was given custody. As part of the custody deal we were not allowed to see our mother for the next five years, it was in the court order.
So I went to live with my father and all of a sudden I had somebody buying me clothes. I didn’t have to baby-sit to earn money to have things I wanted. The food was good and I got haircuts. I mean it was just a whole different world.
And he was involved in the Baptist Church, and so we started going to church on Sundays. And I remember going to youth camp, and sitting around the camp fire and the associate pastor was preaching, and he was talking about Hell and what Jesus did for us on the cross. And of course, I didn’t want to go to Hell, so I asked Jesus into my life, and it was a real meaningful experience.
Then High School hit ”“ and nobody ever explained to me that my relationship with the Lord is supposed to grow ”“ and I was not discipled – and so on Sunday morning I would be in church; during the week I would be just like everybody else ”“ the perfect chameleon.
Then I got involved, someone invited me to the Ministry of Young Life and I began to go to Young Life meetings. And I remember during my senior year, a Young Life leader getting up [we had become very good friends] and he gave a talk which basically said something like this: he said our life is like a chest of drawers, and in your chest you have your school drawer, your religious drawer, your family drawer, your party drawer, your dating drawer, your working drawer, your athletic drawer, all these. And I remember thinking, yeah, that’s me ”“ I’m well balanced, I’ve got all these different drawers. [laughter]. And he goes on to say: what most people do is they put God in a drawer marked ”˜religious’ ”“ and when they want him around they open the drawer, and when they don’t they close the drawer. He said, ”˜God doesn’t want to be put in a drawer, he wants the whole chest’. And that got me ”“ and he began to talk about Jesus being Lord and what that meant ”“ and that got my head spinning because he was describing me perfectly.
A few weeks later a friend of mine invited me to spend the night at his house, and that Sunday we went to his church. And the Pastor preached a sermon and I still remember the title and the details. It was called Jesus Christ: the Lord or my Lord. And the first part of the sermon was all about the lordship of Jesus being lord of creation and lord of the earth and lord of the heavens and all these aspects of the lordship of Jesus. And then last part was what it meant to have him as my lord, my boss, the one driving the car of my life.
And I realised at that point that yes, I had asked Jesus into my life, but He was not my lord – I was. I was in charge of my life.
So that night I went home and I got down by my bed and knelt, and I said: ”˜Lord, I just surrender it to you. I want you to truly be my Lord’. Now I didn’t have a lightening bold experience, but all of a sudden when I would read the Bible, it would speak to me. When I would pray, I didn’t feel like my prayers were bouncing off the ceiling. And then I had this incredible peace, which I now know is that ”˜Peace of God which passes all understanding’. That Peace just was always with me. That began a journey that has just been an incredible, incredible journey.
So before I go any further, we have been talking a lot about conversion and compassion and courage this week, and if you are here this week and you have never experienced conversion, please don’t leave here without bending the knee of your heart and allowing Jesus to come into your life and to forgive you of your sins, please don’t do that.
Well during College, I got involved in the ministry of Young Life. And Young Life began to form me, shape me, disciple me, teach me how to live the life of a Christian, but also how to do ministry. And after four years of, really five years of doing that, a search committee approached me from the Cathedral of St Philip in Atlanta, Georgia, that is a very large Episcopal Church there, asking me to be their youth pastor. Well, I am still a Baptist at this point [laughter], but I went through the interviewing process and they wanted to hire me. And so in my final interview with the Dean of the Cathedral, David Collins, he was all excited about me being willing to come and he finally said: ”˜well do you have any questions for me?’ And I said: “well does it bother you that you have a Baptist working as your youth pastor?” He said: “No, we are looking for God’s person, and God’s person may not be an Episcopalian.” Well I was just stunned at that kind of freedom in the Spirit to be open to what God was going to do.
Well, I served there for seven years. After three years I was confirmed, with the confirmation class that I taught. [laughter] But in that process I really felt God calling me into the Anglican world, it was just so many things worked together to do that.
But I remember when we had confirmation classes with the kids, we would ask them who their godparents were because we would want to get them involved in the process of their confirmation. And so it comes time for my confirmation and I’ve got godparents, but because of my childhood, I didn’t know them. And so after a few calls I discovered that as a child, as a baby, I had been baptised in the Episcopal Church, in a church in Atlanta, and so it is like God did this circle, and brought me home.
I can now look back at my childhood and see how wherever we were living, something drew me to a church. I can’t explain why, it is varieties of types of churches, but wherever we were moving, I would take my younger sisters and we would go to church.
How are we doing on time? I’ve got to leave some time for questions. OK a few more things:
I went to the University of the South for cemetery [laughter]. It took about three years to recover, but praise the Lord he taught me a lot while I was there. When I graduated seminary, the bishop said: “Foley, if you are willing, I am willing to send you as a deacon in charge, until you are ordained a priest to this little church out in Monroe, Georgia.’ I think he was thinking: ”˜you know, he will be out of my hair out there and won’t bother me.’ And so I agreed to do that and we were there about eleven years. And we had a fun time taking a small little parish in a rural area that was quickly becoming suburban and watching the Lord transform lives and change things.
Then 2003 hit, and the events of the Episcopal Church General Convention that year and our church was really devastated. And I remember running one night after that decision and I know you are going to think this is crazy but I was wrestling with: Lord, what do we do Sunday? What’ll I tell the people? Because they felt like their church had been taken from them; that the church that they grew up in no longer existed. And so what came to me was, do the burial office for The Episcopal Church ”“ and so I did [laughter and clapping] and the press here, you all don’t have to advertise that please. But we did the liturgy with the Pascal candle and all and it was so cathartic that the Holy Spirit was so powerful it ministered ”“ because of the grieving people felt. And by the way they did change their name after that – I don’t know those who know that, they actually did.
For the next four months I was so booked with weddings and speaking events that I really couldn’t decide what to do, so we put our church in a prayer-mode. We asked folks to just seek the Lord, we did some teaching, but after Christmas that year was the first time I was really able to put some serious thought and prayer as to what Foley Beach is supposed to do. And so I had a prayer retreat scheduled, and I hadn’t been with the Lord 15 minutes and it was just clear ”“ I knew I could not stay, I would lose my soul if I continued to do ministry under that authority.
And so I knew I had to go, but I did not know where – and a few days later I was invited to a dinner at a friend’s house and two folks were there, Bill Atwood who many of you know, and David Anderson. And I was sharing with them my dilemma and they said something like this:
”˜Let us suggest something to you new. The Primates had met in emergency session and offered overseas Primates to do emergency pastoral temporal care, something to that effect, for folks in the States. What about going under Bolivia?’
And so in a few minutes we had the Bishop of Bolivia on the phone. He interviewed me, I interviewed him, and in a few days I was canonically resident in the Diocese of Bolivia under the Southern Cone. [Applause]
I stood up at our church a few weeks later and resigned. I didn’t ask anybody to come with me. I basically told folks it was their decision before the Lord what they should do: some would be called to be a part of this; some would not. And then when we has our organisational meeting when 154 folks showed up, I knew at that point we were going to have a church, I’d have a job, the Lord was going to do wonderful things and the rest is history.
I’ve only got 10 minutes left, so that is enough of my story. I am just so grateful for the Lord – what he has done in my life, and how he has used us all together to begin to transform North America.
Let’s just open this up for questions, we have a couple of mics here and I will see if anyone would like to ask me anything before I run out of time. Anybody?
Question: Where did you meet your wife?
AB Beach: Where did I meet my wife ”“ very good. Well one of my best friends from high school I prayed with him to receive Christ, in a bar just before he went off to college at the University of Georgia. And he became involved in ministry leadership there. Well Allison came to know the Lord at the University of Georgia and got involved in his ministry. So she graduates and is looking for something to do and she wanted to do youth ministry.
So he sent her my way, and so we actually met when she showed up to do a training thing I was doing for leaders, for high school kids. The next part of that story is the kids ended up setting us up on our first date [laughter] ”“ and we actually doubled on our first date with a couple in the youth group which is kind of bizarre, but its ”“ yes.
Question from Debbie Colgard from the Diocese of Western Anglicans: Looking forward in the next five years, how would you, what’s your vision for the role of the laity in our churches?
AB Beach: Laity is the key. If you guys aren’t doing the ministry we are in trouble and so it’s a great question. I could give a 30 minute talk on the importance of lay ministry. I’m going to do my best to build on what we have, but to see how dioceses can equip congregations to empower the laity to do the ministry. That’s the key ”“ I mean you guys are out in the market place ”“ you guys are out in the schools and the communities to be able to reach people. What happens to too many of us clergy is we get insulated by Christian people all the time, our members ”“ you guys are the key to winning North America for Jesus Christ, so laity are important.
Yes sir-
Question from Mr David Virtue, Virtue Online: Archbishop Foley, the Archbishop of Canterbury steadfastly refuses to recognise the ACNA, however you are recognised by the GAFCON Primates, especially the Primate of Nigeria the largest province of the Anglican Communion. What do you see or how do you think that log-jam is going to break or will it break in the coming months or years? Clearly you are growing, TEC is dying, so what do you see as the way forward with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the light of the recognition by the GAFCON Primates?
Archbishop Foley Beach: I think first of all we should respect the See of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Canterbury. I would say though, history in a few weeks, months, maybe the next year or so ”“ what’s happening in the Church of England I’m not sure we want to be in communion with just to be honest with you, and so.. [large and long applause]. As I have expressed it to folks in our diocese, we are in communion with 50 million of the 70 million Anglicans around the world, and if Canterbury chooses to recognise us – I mean I hope that will happen one day – I am not going to do anything to stop that from happening – but that’s not the goal ”“ our mission is to reach people for Jesus Christ, and we’ve got to stay focused on that. [Applause] Thank you:
Question: My name is Mimi, I’m here with Greenhouse movement with Father William Beazley. It’s my first time here actually and it is a privilege to be here. Just looking around this room and this week I’ve noticed that there is a lack of more diversity in terms of demographics, in terms of the ethnicity and race which I understand is part of the ACNA just in America. My question is: what are we doing as the Anglican Church in North America to bring more diversity in terms of age group, demographics, social economic class, ethnicity, race and things like that?
AB Beach: In order to be more diverse, really to me the key is ”“ I mean let me back up: This church has been awesome with missions, and we are going to continue to emphasise missions, but God has brought the mission field to our countries ”“ and in every urban area, now even many rural areas, people from all over the world have come here, so we have got to send folks into those groups to love them, to care for them, to serve them, to lead them to the Lord, and start churches in those areas. So to me that is going to be the key, is to go where people are, build relationships with them and serve them and lead them to Jesus. So that is what I am going to be about or at least trying to do. Thank you.
Question from Canon Norman Beale, Jurisdiction of Armed Forces and Chaplaincy: You have given us the perfect segue to my question which is: Tell us about your vision for the work of missions beyond the borders of Canada and the United States?
AB Beach: Well first of all I want to stay out of the way. I mean there are such good things happening right now I don’t want to mess it up. But I would like to be a catalyst and a spark to help things even get better. I think that working with our global Anglican partners, especially the GAFCON Primates, what they need there in their countries, we can be doing wonderful things to assist them.
But then there’s all these people groups that haven’t been met, and there are some tremendous ministries that are doing that and I think we ought to have our people involved. There’s even now an incredible mission ministry online called Global Media Outreach, I believe it is, and literally millions of people are being exposed to the Gospel through internet technology. And we ought to have online missionaries, these folks who can’t get out of their house, they can sit in front of their computer screen for a couple of hours and disciple new believers in other parts of the world. There’s just incredible things happening that I think we ought to be supportive of ”“ the potential is wonderful so I don’t know if that helps with your answer
Canon Beale: Thank you
Question from a member of the Diocese of the Mid Atlantic: As you look at the next five years what are you most excited about ”¦ and what do you see as the biggest challenge?
AB Beach: Well, I need to say this too, I have been the Archbishop-elect, five days ”“ four days ”“ so much is coming at me. First of all, I think it is exciting for me personally to be a part of such a wonderful movement. I think this Anglican movement is going to reach a lot further and a lot deeper than most of us realise, so I am very excited about that. I’m excited about the young people. There’s some tremendous things happening with young people but the challenge, and this is a real challenge, as I go around the churches and visit, I don’t see too many children in a lot of places, or teenagers.
So how are we going to reach children and teenagers? Some places are doing it well, but a lot of places there are none. So that is going to be a tremendous challenge.
I’m not so much worried about the unity thing that gets worked up in the press all the time because I have been walking with these bishops, and I see their heart, and I see their love for the Lord, and I see a commitment to keep this thing going and to work. So I am not worried about that ”“ it’s going to be a challenge because we do have differences on a lot of things but we are in the same stream and we are all going in the same direction. We may not be in the same part of the stream but we are in the stream.
Question from Matt Webb, Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic: Who are your Christian heroes, particularly from the past?
AB Beach: Wow. Obviously Wilberforce, Nicholas Ridley, Latimer, [John] Chrysostom, one who doesn’t get a lot of credit is E.M. Bounds ”“ he wrote a lot of books on prayer, and that’s really affected me ”“ that’s just scratching the surface.
Question from Thomas Mackenzie, Nashville, Tennessee: I want to first of all just testify that you are looking at a wonderful pastor in Foley Beach [AB Beach: thank you]. My question is, there is some anxiety about women’s ordination and I just wondered if you would like to make a comment about what would you say to that anxiety?
AB Beach: ”˜Be anxious for nothing for .. with everything’ ”“ Philippians 4. I don’t want to be flippant but as I shared with David Virtue, I approach this from really three different perspectives. One is from the College of Bishops, we have put a process in place and I don’t feel called to usurp that process and force things. We are going to let that unfold, and part of that process is it goes to the GAFCON Primates who, their theological committee on all of this, and they are divided on it too. And so it is an issue that is not going to go away real quickly. The whole Anglican Communion is divided on it.
From a personal perspective what I have tried to say to folks is we need to.. Well first of all, where I’m at, I do not ordain women to the presbyterate, I just make that clear so everybody who doesn’t know that knows now. But for the people on the other side of that issue, for me I feel we need to honor them and respect them and treat them royally. We do not need to be doing this to each others [hits his fists against each other]. I’ve often when asked about this, and I am not going to embarrass folks in front of you all, but when I am asked about this I will quote other bishops in the college, their name, and how I respect them and honor them and some of them are my heroes literally but we are on different places on this – and I am not going to let it divide fellowship, or break fellowship with them because we disagree on that issue. We have agreed to disagree.
And then there is just one last thing. When I signed up to be part of the ACNA I knew that in the Constitution it said each diocese would have its own policy on this and so I knew that there would be people that would disagree. Where we end up down the road I don’t know but that is the framework I am coming into this with ”“ that there are Godly people on the other side of the issue from me.
I am out of time and so I hate to stop us here, we are just getting interesting but let me close us with a prayer and then I would like us to go quickly because we only have a few minutes before the service starts.