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New AEC website launched
Please visit the brand new AEC website at www.anglicanessentials.ca. I think you'll be as delighted with it as we are. We are now working on companion websites for both Network and Federation with a similar look and feel to the new AEC site.
Call to fasting and prayer for Primates meeting, Feb 12-19
Anglican Essentials Canada is inviting Canadian Anglicans to join in a season of concentrated prayer and fasting leading up to the Primates meeting in Tanzania, February 12-19. Please join us and challenge your congregation to do the same.
"Lent and Beyond", www.lent.classicalanglican.net, is a very helpful Anglican website with tools local parishes can use to mobilize their members to pray for leaders attending this crucial Primates' meeting.
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The website will post daily prayers for the Primates' meeting as well as for the Covenant Design Group meeting. |
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Parishes can download a “Primates' Prayer brochure" for distribution on Sunday. |
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You can also go to the website listing of all the Primates and sign up to pray for specific archbishops. |
Clergy conference
The clergy conference is only a month away but there's still time for you to register - or for you to encourage your clergy to register. Those who are always giving of themselves ministering to others occasionally need to be ministered to and to be spiritually refreshed.
Dates: February 27 (Tuesday), 3pm - March 1 (Thursday), 9pm
Keynote: John Guernsey, rector of All Saints, Woodbridge, Virginia, and Senior Dean of the U.S. Anglican Communion Network
Location: Cedar Springs conference center in Sumas, Washington
(a free shuttle from the Abbotsford airport will be available)
Cost: $275 Cdn for single accommodation, $225 for shared, $175 for spouse
Theme: Lord, teach us to pray
Last year's conference was sold out, so register early by contacting Gary Stobbs at 604 854 5380 or garystobbs@shaw.ca.
Ginger Group releases three new titles this month
The Anglican Agenda Series now boasts six titles, with the addition of these booklets:
Taking our Future Seriously, by Paul Woehrle and Peter Klenner
Taking Repentance Seriously, by J.I. Packer
Taking Evangelism Seriously, by David Edwards.
These small books are designed to increase the understanding and spiritual awareness
of Canadian Anglicans and to encourage thoughtful laity and clergy to work for the renewal of Canadian Anglicanism. They are authored by eminent Anglican scholars and edited by the Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer. The booklets can be ordered by completing the form available on our website - and submitting it with your cheque.
ACC National Indigenous Bishop named
In a move that could be precedent setting, Bishop Mark L. MacDonald, the Episcopal Bishop of Alaska was named the first National Indigenous Bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada, with pastoral oversight over all of Canada's indigenous Anglicans no matter where they live. Bishop MacDonald, who is generally viewed as a liberal, joins the Bishop Ordinary to the Armed Forces in pastoring to a group of Anglicans across jurisdictional boundaries, rather than to residents of a geographic diocese.
The ACC's news release of January 4, 2007 says that “Bishop MacDonald, in his new position, will straddle national boundaries as well. Although he has resigned as Bishop of the U.S. diocese of Alaska, he is also assisting bishop of Navajoland Area Mission with the U.S. Episcopal Church, a position he will maintain as he serves as Canadian National Bishop.” So, not only will he pastor Anglicans across diocesan jurisdictional boundaries, but also across national borders. Previously, the Primate and others have said that such boundary crossing can not be done by bishops, particularly for groups like the Network, but it appears that “where there is a will, there is a way”. In fact, Archbishop Hutchison is quoted in the January 4th release as saying, "It's important to remember that we elect bishops for the church. We don't elect bishops for national jurisdictions." Click here
Break Point
Chuck Colson, of Watergate fame and now noted Christian activist and commentator, has an interesting take on the media's treatment of the crisis in the Anglican Communion. Read his BreakPoint commentary, “Bigotry or Obedience?” (1/10/2007) at www.breakpoint.org
Diocese of Virginia set to take 11 conservative churches to court
The Diocese of Virginia appears headed to court over the properties of 11 churches that recently voted to leave the Diocese because of the national church's continued departure from historic Anglicanism and biblical Christianity. The diocese has declared these church properties “abandoned” and given the Bishop the green light to go take the congregations to court to recover the property - which include some of the oldest church buildings in the US.”
www.americananglican.org
(Due to space constraints, the following two items were dropped from earlier newsletters so are a bit dated.)
Bishop of Florida attempts to depose six conservative priests
The Anglican Alliance of North Florida has announced that six priests have received letters of deposition from Bishop John Howard of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida on the grounds of “abandonment of communion”. (The deposition of a priest is an ecclesiastical measure which strips someone of clergy status by nullifying his or her ordination.) All of the priests had earlier requested Bishop Howard provide alternative episcopal oversight but were refused, all but one had applied to the Panel of Reference and the Archbishop of Canterbury for protection, and all are now serving as priests under archbishops in other parts of the Anglican Communion.
Source: www.americananglican.org
Four Jills in a Jeep
In a thought-provoking but politically incorrect article on demographic trends, columnist Mark Steyn discusses the birth rate among Episcopalians vs that of Palestinian Muslims.
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