Latest Anglican News                         Volume 1, Number 3, 8 August 2007
What follows is taken from the press reports and from watching much of the ACN meeting on the Internet by streaming video*, which we heard about from CHC parishioner, Richard Naff.  Thanks to Richard.

ACN meeting in Ft. Worth - July 30 – 31: Nearly 80 representatives of Anglican Communion Network dioceses, parishes and related organizations met at St. Vincent’s Cathedral (Diocese of Ft. Worth) in Bedford, Texas, for the Network’s Annual Council Meeting. This was the third meeting of its kind since the birth of the Network in 2004. The Bible teacher for the meeting was the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Archbishop of the Southern Cone of South America (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and parts of Brazil).  Among those represented at the meeting were The Episcopal Church (TEC) Dioceses; Albany (Bhp Love); Central Florida (Bhp Howe); Dallas (Bhp Stanton); Eau Claire (Bhp Wantland [ret]); Ft. Worth (Bhp Iker); Pittsburgh (Bhp Duncan); Quincy (Bhp Ackerman); Rio Grande (Bhp Steenson); San Joaquin (Bhp Schofield); South Carolina; Springfield and Western Kansas (Bhp Adams).  Among those sitting as observers were representatives of other Common Cause Partners (CCP); REC (Bhp Sutton); APA (Bhp Boyce); AMiA; CANA (Bhp Bena); American Anglican Council; Forward in Faith North America (William Ilgenfritz, bishop elect); Anglican Essentials of Canada and the Anglican Network in Canada (Bhp Harvey).  Also present were Bishop Bill Cox, Southern Cone; Bill Atwood, bishop elect of Kenya and John Guernsey, bishop elect of Uganda.

Bishop Sutton, along with some of the other observers, delivered an excellent “greeting”, as a guest at the meeting, outlining the history of the REC, bringing it up to the present; clearly positing REC involvement in the CCP from its beginning.

The ACN took several giant steps to continue the march toward traditional Anglicanism and away from their own church, TEC.  They unanimously ratified both the Common Cause Theological Statement and its federating Articles of the Common Cause Partners.  Incidentally, both of these documents have already been ratified by the REC and are available to you by your email request to me.

The Articles create an Executive Council; outline the purpose of the partnership and permits clergy to “officiate transiently” in other jurisdictions.  To ensure participation by the laity, each CCP member will appoint one layman to the Executive Council.

By their unanimous agreement they commit to, among other things, reception of the Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church of England in 1662 and its Ordinal, as the standard for Anglican doctrine and discipline (the basis for the 1928 BCP used by CHC).  They also unanimously agreed to receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1562, as the fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.  This is a monumental step away from the 1979 Prayer Book and raises the question again of the ordination of women, both as presently accepted in most of TEC. 

Such a step was extremely difficult for these TEC members and was done with considerable sadness, but also with the resolve that they must make this break if they are to be true to Anglican traditions and beliefs which they hold to be essential.

By these agreements the constituent partners retain their identity and autonomy while forming a more coherent whole.  None of the Common Cause Partners surrenders any self identity or freedom to act in its own interests, which, of course, is of great importance to the REC.

Some quotations from what was said at the meetings:
 Bhp Duncan (ACN moderator) – “I shall never forget the darkness of the days and weeks beginning with last  March’s House of Bishops Meeting. It was during those days, and after that … that I truly came to grips with  the unavoidable fact that the denominational Church that had, from infancy, raised me, captured me,  formed me and ordained me, no longer had any room for me, or any like me. How bitter the rejection! How total my failure!”

 “The mother that bore us is dying.  The vision of the Anglican Communion is still sound, but some of its parts are withering”.

 “We mourn the death of our church and, perhaps, our Communion.  The grief is palpable.”

 “TEC has embraced de-formation – stunning innovation in faith and order – rather than reformation.”

 “We are just trying to follow Jesus in the way we were taught by this Church, and they are changing, now,  what they taught.”

 “Lambeth is failing, Canterbury is failing, the Anglican Consultative Council is prejudiced in a Western way  and the primates are sadly divided north and south.”
 
 “Never, ever, has he (the Archbishop of Canterbury) spoken publicly in defense of the orthodox in the  United States.”  Later Duncan attributed the origin of this remark to Australian Archbishop of Sydney, Peter  Jensen.”

 “The Church of England is following the West, not the majority.”

 “At no time has any Common Cause member tried to impose itself as the leader we all should recognize.    Quite the contrary, each member has made it clear that they remain totally independent.”

 Bishop Keith Ackerman – “This is a coming together without giving up any autonomy; none disappear, none   have to make any changes.  This not an alliance, but a federation, with a small ‘f’.”

 Archbishop Gregory Venables – “Why is it time to move on?  Because there is a world out there that needs to  hear about Jesus.  While we are in meetings, who is telling the world?”

  “God is with us now, just as he was with those who came before – with Paul, with Cranmer, with Whitefield  and Wesley.  He is with us.  The same God in the same way.”

 “It is obvious, as you walk in faith, the road divides before you – take a road to a Christian church or one to a  comfortable church.  That is the history of the world.   Don’t hold back.”

 “At the end of the day, it isn’t Anglicanism you are standing up for.  It is Jesus.”

 “What about those who think Jesus was just a good Man.  Pray for them.”

 Cherie Wetzel, a correspondent representing Anglicans United and wife of our Dallas friend, Fr. Todd Wetzel   – “The meetings were ‘a gathering of humble people, excited about being called to do the Lord’s work.  There  was little or no arrogance or power politics…”

The Network Bishops have agreed to take part in the September TEC House of Bishops meeting because the Archbishop of Canterbury, members of the Primates Steering Committee and the Anglican Consultative Council will attend. They do so, some of them at least, without any implied recognition of or submission to the American Primate (Katherine Jefferts Schori), without any diminishment of their appeal for Alternative Primatial Oversight, or with any expectation that the TEC House of Bishops will turn from the course they so unequivocally embraced at its March 2007 meeting.

At the meeting it was stated the Network has 200,000+ laity, 2,200 clergy and more than 900 congregations.

I finish with apologies for so many acronyms, this being so wordy and with two personal observations.  One reporter at the meeting made a comment on something I have observed when attending REC meetings and Diocesan synods. It concerns the glorious, inspiring sound that comes from the deep resonance of a large gathering of clergymen as their voices, in full force, boom out the hymns we know.  Second, Southern Cone Archbishop Gregory Venables is among the best speakers I have ever heard, a master at mixing humor with serious pedagogy.  Don’t miss a chance to experience either of these.

Rudy Schenken, REC Lay Representative to the Common Cause Partners

*Anyone interested may view the streamed video at www.anglicantv.org\blog, as long as it is up.