Latest Anglican News                           _________________     Volume 3, Number 5, June 18 2009

Bishop Sutton kindly loaned me a book from his library to help me understand the history of the Nicene Creed.  It was written by Harvey Goodwin, Lord of Carlisle and the 58th Bishop of Carlisle, copyrighted in 1889.  To say it’s loaded with gems is an understatement.  For the next several reports I will include a quotation or two from Lord Goodwin’s book.  The first is in the forward where the author makes a very humble reference to himself that is most certainly applicable to the writer of this report:
  “…the writer is so conspicuously an ornament.” 

The second quote from the book seems a perfect preamble to the principle theme of this report, which is focused on next week’s College of Bishops meeting and the first Provincial Assembly of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), and all of us participating ask for your prayers as we work through the meetings agendas:
 “O Almighty God, who hast built Thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and  Prophets, JESUS CHRIST Himself being the head corner-stone; grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto Thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

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Next Saturday, June 20, Bishop Sutton, accompanied by Susan, will make their way to St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford (Bishop Jack Iker’s church) to begin the second College of Bishops meeting of the ACNA.  On Sunday June 21, the ACNA Provincial Council will meet.  REC representatives on that Council are REC Presiding Bishop Leonard Riches, Bishop Sutton and Rudy Schenken.  Monday, June 22, they will be joined by Virginia Bowers, as an official delegate from the REC Diocese of Mid-America to the Provincial Assembly, which meeting will continue through midday Thursday, June 25.  Father Jeff Baker, Deaconess Mary Jane Mathieu and Deacon Chris Woodall will also attend the Provincial Assembly.

The main task of the Assembly meeting is to officially create the new Province and review and ratify the Constitution and Canons which the Provincial Council of ACNA approved at its meeting at DFW in April.  The founding entities of ACNA are:
The American Anglican Council
The Anglican Coalition in Canada
The Anglican Communion Network
The Anglican Mission in the Americas
The Anglican Network in Canada
The Convocation of Anglicans in North America
Forward in Faith – North America
The Missionary Convocation of Kenya
The Missionary Convocation of the Southern Cone
The Missionary Convocation of Uganda
The Reformed Episcopal Church

With regard to those Constitution and Canons, the following statement comes from Bishop Royal Grote, bishop of our diocese and member of the ACNA Governance Task Force which developed them:
“At the April 2009 meeting of the Council of Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC),…it was noted that the Reformed Episcopal Church finds itself in full agreement with the all the Fundamental Declarations of the Province in Article I of the ACNA Constitution, without exception. After review by the chairman of the Constitution and Canons Committee of the Reformed Episcopal Church, it was noted that there are no major inconsistencies between the REC Constitution and Canons and the Constitution and Canons proposed for the ACNA… The provision in Article VIII Section 2 regarding limitations of Provincial Authority on the ordination of women to the diaconate and presbyterate is seen by the REC to be an initial way to move forward in this process of unity.  (Article VIII Section 2 states: The Province shall make no canon abridging the authority of any member dioceses and those dioceses banded together as jurisdictions with respect to its practice regarding the ordination of women to the diaconate or presbyterate.)  Based on that evaluation and report of the Council of Bishops, the General Committee of the Reformed Episcopal Church has been pleased to elect and send delegates to the ACNA Provincial Assembly to participate fully in the creation of the new Province and to ratify the Proposed Constitution and Canons of the ACNA.”

For the information of all our readers, on Wednesday evening, June24, at Christ Church Plano a Holy Communion service will be held at which Bishop Bob Duncan will be officially recognized as the first Archbishop of ACNA.  This service, beginning at 7:30 PM, will be a grand spectacle of many flowing clerical robes and is open to the public.

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Now that we have progressed to the eve of the first ACNA Assembly the number of pundits voicing their – ahem – learned prognostication of what lies ahead seems limitless – some pro, some con – some very positive, some very gloomy.  For what it’s worth here are a few excerpts from some those bloggers:

From English Bishop John Ellison:
 
“…I have wondered how leaders, especially those bishops in the Church of England who have been invited, will in fact respond.  Will we as a church make sure we are represented?     My firm conviction is that the ACNA shows the marks of the true church as affirmed by the Nicene and the Niceno Constantinoplan Creeds, that it to say apostolicity, catholicity, holiness and unity.  … given the worldliness of so much of the contemporary church in the West, it is reassuring to have in the ACNA a firm testimony to the Christian difference seen in the  holy living of the church over against the surrounding secular culture.  The ACNA unequivocally affirms that holiness is God’s calling to God’s people, both individually and collectively.  In the coming together of different Anglican traditions within the new province there is a renewed emphasis on the corporate nature of our common discipleship.  ACNA represents a clear turning away from the excessive individualism that we have seen in TEC and gives us hope that in other western cultures by God’s grace, orthodox belief and behavior can be brought back together again.´

From blogger Father David F. Coady:

 “Is denominationalism blasphemy of the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost guides the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Christ is the vine and we are the branches. We must be part of the vine or we have left the Holy Catholic (Christian) Church. Holy Scripture informs us that if we are dead wood we will be plucked and burned up. To be part of the Holy Catholic Church one must believe that Holy Scripture is the inspired word of God. The three great Creeds are statements of fact. Believe in an all-male clergy consisting of deacons, priests, and bishops. The Church must offer the seven sacraments consisting of the two Dominical sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Communion; and the five minor sacraments of Confirmation, Penance, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick.  Denominationalism is taking Christians farther and farther away from the vine.

 From Chris Sugden, Executive Director of Anglican Mainstream, an organization of orthodox Anglicans in England:
“Between June 23-25 the Anglican Church in North America will be inaugurated.  Bishop Bob Duncan holds that the coming together of
Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals was the seed-bed of the strong
orthodox developments now in the United States.  Such a coming
together will be expressed in the United Kingdom and Ireland at the Be
Faithful! gathering on July 6th at Westminster Hall. It is most
important that evangelicals, anglo-catholics and all concerned to
maintain “the faith once delivered to the saints” express fellowship
with the 80% of the Anglican Communion whose bishops and leaders
issued the Jerusalem Statement in June 2008 and also identify the
medicine of the gospel in mission afresh for the financial and
political crises facing the nation (the United Kingdom) rooted in distorted ethical values.   Bring a coach load!”

From David Virtue’s June 13 column:

The launching of the new ANGLICAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA is producing much last minute activity prior to the grand opening later this month.
ACNA leaders have produced an 'Overview of the work of the Governance Task Force on the Constitution and Canons for the Anglican Church in North America'.
The work of the Governance Task Force (GTF) began last October and concluded in April when the Common Cause Council, meeting in Texas, adopted the final version of the Constitution and Canons which are being submitted to the Assembly for adoption. The GTF is quick to admit that its work is not perfect. Undoubtedly, some of the provisions when adopted in June will, in time, be changed as the Province gains experience in its common life. The Constitution and Canons bring together the past experiences of its many separate constituent jurisdictions, along with earlier disappointments and hopes for a vital and effective future together. Compromises in some places were necessary as were the acknowledgment that time may produce a more comprehensive set of documents. What is most remarkable, however, is the unanimity found in setting forth the fundamental declarations of faith and belief.

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Comments by a blogger that the writer accidentally deleted asked the following question:
Q – Will the REC and Forward in Faith (North America) endorse the ordination of women after the ACNA is formed next week?  A – Definitely not.  The REC will make no changes in regard to this question, nor will FiFNA, as this is their raison d’être.
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And in the end, another quotation from Lord Carlisle:  “…we may say that faith starts the pilgrim on his journey towards the Celestial City; that as he proceeds upon that journey he learns lessons – very varied lessons – day by day, by trial and trouble, by meditation and prayer, by combat with doubt and other spiritual foes; and so he grows in grace, till he knows Him in whom he has believed. 

This kind of knowledge is within the reach of all who strive for it; it is revealed to the simple; it grows by quiet submission and obedience; it finds food in the daily round and the common task; it is not a knowledge that depends upon proof in the ordinary sense of the term or upon an infallible guide; it is an anticipation of the knowledge, which belongs to that whole company of Heaven and to the spirits of just men made perfect in the presence of God.”

Rudy Schenken
Church of the Holy Communion, Dallas
www.holycommuniondallas.org
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