Leaders of 100,000 disaffected former Episcopalians will unveil a proposed constitution for a new 39th province of the Anglican Communion at a Dec. 3 ceremony at the evangelical Wheaton College in west Chicago.
The new province, which will contain significant portions of four breakaway Episcopal dioceses plus about two dozen churches in Northern Virginia, will be launched in early 2009.
“This is a huge step,” said Anglican Bishop Martyn Minns, one of the leaders who will sign the constitution as the head of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
“The constitution will create a new Anglican church in North America that will have all the necessary features to be recognized as a province,” said Robert Lundy, a spokesman for the American Anglican Council, one of the constitution’s signatory groups. “Then it’ll be out of our hands.”
I am wondering if recognition of the Common Cause as a new province automatically implies the withdrawal of the recognition of the Episcopal Church as a province in the Anglican Communion. It seems to me that it should. If not, it will make for one fierce rivalry and that isn’t a helpful Christian witness.
It might as well, because by the looks of things, TEC have already set themselves up as a province of their own: The Episcopal Communion. TEC is worldwide in their scope, with their overseas provinces and missionary dioceses, so it would make sense to see them go on their own……which they have already done.
I have pointed out that in the Philippines, there is somewhat of an analogous situation. The Philippine Independent Church and the Episcopal Church of the Philippines are both Anglican recognized structures. The later is a creation of ECUSA and is a recognized province.
Multiple choice question for extra credit.
Who claims:
“It’s only a small minority, statistically insignificant, which is why we need to sue ’em. You know, give some recognition to four small dioceses and parishes and an ASA of a an hundred thousand. Bring some meaning into their small, drab wretched lives. It’s an MDG thing, you know. It’s part of our witness and evangelization program. You may have heard of it? 2020 – 20% growth by 2020 CE. It’s all the rage. And our growth (considered as change rate) is phenomenal.”
PB
HOB
Chicago Consortium
Listserve
All of the above
…and a couple of hundred OTHER parishes, but who’s counting?
Don’t forget Canada! The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) just had our first synod last weekend. So far we are 2 bishops, 65 priests and 25 parishes but adding every week these days. We’re definitely IN. And we are So grateful to God.
I’m sympathetic, but I just don’t see the power brokers (i.e. the folks with money and those dependent on those folks with money) in the Anglican Communion going along with this if push comes to shove. I certainly don’t see the Archbishop of Canterbury going along with it.
As such, I think maybe the Jerusalem declaration bishops will recognize it, but if the official arms of the Anglican Communion do not, then is such a province really a province? And if so, is it really Anglican, or simply another denomination forming? And if so, is this, ecclesiologically speaking, really a former a Catholic Christianity? I just have some reservations about this from an Anglo-catholic perspective.
It seems to me that ABC will either recognize the new province or he will see a split in the Anglican Communion with GAFCON provinces forming a new, reorganized branch of the AC that will be far larger that the original, considering much of Africa would likely be part. I suspect that when +Duncan says he had a ‘very positive meeting’ with ABC two weeks ago, he must have had some assureance that when the dust settles the ABC will agree that this is the only way to preserve the AC as we now know it.
My apologies to our sisters and brothers to the north. Of course we stand united!
Are we faithful to the Gospel and is Christ our Lord? Ultimately, THAT is what matters and the rest is just details. If the recognition of a province by the ABC was the most important concern, we could have stayed in TEC. We are Anglicans in style, we are Christians in substance. Let’s not lose sight of the eternal.
Archer,
You voice a concern that many of us have. I don’t think there is a person involved with this Reformation that is excited about creating another “denomination” among so many others. The catholic sensibility seeks to move toward greater unity, not greater division.
However, at what point do we acknowledge that the structures that have heretofore set the boundaries of catholic order in our particular expression of Christianity (the Anglican Communion – which communion is not yet two centuries in existence!) no longer do so effectively? And are not catholic order and Gospel Truth inseparable? It seems to me that the Anglican Communion structures have failed, for a variety of reasons. But at the root of resolving this crisis is not an appeal to fixing the structures – rather an appeal to the Truth of the Gospel.
Fr. Darin Lovelace+
St. Paul’s, Durant, Iowa
Fr. Darin, the Anglican Communion structures have failed for one reason: the Archbishop of Canterbury has undermined every decision those structures have made in order to keep TEC from being banished.
It’s a sign:
39 articles
39th Province (proposed)
#8 – I believe you have neglected the third option: do nothing, or more precisely, delay doing anything. This is what I think most likely. Though I also think that with primates representing half the membership of churches of the communion supporting a new province, anything short of nipping it in the bud right away (which would split the communion) will become de facto, then likely actual, acceptance.
iAnglican, thanks for the reminder. Note also we have Mexico as officially part of the new Anglican Province of North America. Any hermanos y hermanas en Cristo de la Iglesia Anglicana out there?
While I am in overwhelming support of this, I really think it’s too late. With the deteriorating economic conditions around the world, it’s going to be very difficult to start new congregations unless it’s a home church. Also, with the Democratic controlled Congress and Executive, I am wondering if the new province organization could be labeled a hate group. The Hate crime bill will probably pass the next time it is presented to Congress.
We do live in interesting times!!!
Vincent
David+,
Your diagnosis is reasonable at the start, but wonder if it presupposes the Anglican Communion structures are predisposed to banishing a province in any case? Certainly individual bishops can be not invited to Lambeth, but beyond that (and the historical honor due the office), what does the ABC have power to do actually? Is it a goal of the Covenant to change that? Perhaps. It seems the Primates are working more on a conciliar level to guide the church, which (it seems to me) is a good thing. And GAFCON seeks to restore that conciliar process, I think, to the Anglican way of being the Church. We are watching, in our time, the throes of change in our worldwide communion – and the centrality and influence of the ABC is probably fading. Perhaps it need not have been so, as you say.
Fr. Darin Lovelace+
St. Paul’s, Durant, Iowa
How does a parish actually go about joining the new province. I mean this quite specifically. Larry
I is worth reading it all as Canon Harmon says, right to the end, carefully. If Julia Duin has reported things accurately it is very interesting, very interesting indeed.
I wonder if it is?
Larry, assuming that you really are serious about it, and depending on where your parish is located, having your vestry and rector contact one of the diocesan bishops involved would be my advice to you.
Larry (#17), my understanding is that individuals and parishes can join the new province essentially by joining GAFCON, which means essentially signifying assent to their Jerusalem Statement. The mechanics of registering that assent seem to be ambiguous… but that’s not too surprising at this point. First comes the constitution, then come the bylaws/canons, and then the administrivia will follow accordingly. #19’s advice seems the most direct path for now.
Our parish is under Kenya, and so part of the ACN’s “international convocation” and so I expect we’ll be automatically assimilated; but I’m going to suggest to our vestry that we forward to our provisional bishop some kind of resolution affirming the Jerusalem Statement just to make our intentions clear to him.
Mea culpa, that’s Jerusalem Declaration, sorry!
http://www.gafcon.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=31
There’s also this, from the GAFCON site:
An invitation from the Primates Council
Written by Russell Powell
Friday, 29 August 2008
We invite individuals, churches, dioceses, provinces and parachurch organisations who assent to the Jerusalem Declaration to signify their desire to become members of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. To express your initial interest, please send full details via email at membership@gafcon.org
or write to the
GAFCON Secretariat,
PO Box Q190,
QVB Post Office, NSW, Australia, 1230
Ms. Duin has a book out–Quitting Church–with some good analysis and a sound prescription for fixing the problem.
I really appreciate this help. You have told me where to begin.
Yes, I’m serious. The ACA has stood above the fray for years, quite unwilling to get its hands dirty, so to speak. I resent this and find it unprincipled. Moreover, its stongest interest seems to be getting as close to the Roman church as it can without alienating its members.
This is much too close for me.
My bishop, Bishop March, will visit my parish in December and I intend to question him closely. The ACA calming words – “we are only interested in intercommunion” – strike as not ringing true on the basis of events a year ago and Bishop Langberg’s own words.
Larry