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Handle with prayer!
News – ANiC and AEN
Bishop Don’s Lenten letter to ANiC parishes
In his letter marking the start of Lent, Bishop
Donald Harvey calls us to repentance. He says,
“Without
that repentance, the ashes many of us received last [Ash] Wednesday are no more
than a novelty or outward display. Without it being predominant throughout our
services in the next six weeks, we cannot hope to experience the real joy that
comes when we commemorate the risen Lord striding in triumph from the tomb,
having born our punishment and destroyed the enemy of death… [I]t will be a powerful witness if all of us add the Collect for Ash Wednesday into our
daily prayer life. I ask that this be prayed sometime during every service,
every bible study, every prayer group gathering, and above all when we say our
own personal prayers…”
Almighty
and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive
the sins
of
all them that are penitent: Create and make in new and contrite hearts, that
we, worthily
lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the
God of all, perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Message from Bishop Don; three to be
ordained to the Diaconate
The Order of Deacon is a very real part of the historic, three fold
ministry of the Church that has been passed down to us from the very early days
of the Apostolic Church (See Acts 6). Although for many years the Order simply
became a stepping stone to the Sacred Priesthood, it
now has been restored to what it was meant to be – a distinctive and
unique ministry of its own.
It gives me much joy to see that across our Diocese of ANiC we have a
number of practicing Deacons and that in the next two weeks three more will be
added to their number. This Sunday I will ordain Roy Lang at St Aidan's Church in Windsor. On March 6, Dwight MacPherson will be ordained
Deacon at All Saints in Rutledge, Vermont and on Sunday, March 7, Rhonda Cotton will be ordained at Holy
Trinity in Marlborough.
Although you may not know these candidates personally, I ask that we
uphold them in corporate and private prayers as they approach this important
time in their lives and embrace this ministry of servanthood.
Blog ARDFC fund-raising challenge
A regular on the AEC blog is challenging others to match his $100 contribution to the newly
established Anglican Relief and Development Fund – Canada and its initial
project: Malaria prevention in Kenya.
Calendar of upcoming events – for
your interest and prayer support
Feb 24-25 – ACNA Provincial
Executive Committee meeting in Plano, Texas
Feb 26-28 – St George’s
(Burlington, ON) – Spiritual renewal conference with Bishop
Malcolm
Feb 28 – Ordination to the
Diaconate of the Rev Roy Lang at St Aidan’s (Windsor, ON)
Mar 2 – St Chad’s Bible Study
in Etobicoke every Tuesday at 2pm. For info call 416-236-4647.
Mar 16-18 – 5th Annual ANiC clergy retreat at Cedar Springs (near
Abbotsford, BC)
Mar 18 – Ministry leadership seminar at Heritage
Seminary, Cambridge ON
Mar 19-20 – St Andrew’s (Delta,
BC) – Parish renewal with +Malcolm & the Ven Paul Crossland
Mar 19-20 – Good Shepherd
(Vancouver) is holding a revival conference with Dr
Dennis Ngien
Apr 7-9 – reFocus Canada, a preaching and theology
conference, in Burnaby, BC
April 17-24 –Church of the
Good Samaritan (St John’s, NL) mission to Guatemala
June 3-11 – Anglican Church
of Canada General
Synod, Halifax, NS
June 7 -11 – ACNA House of Bishops,
Provincial Executive and Council meet in Amesbury, MA
Nov 3, 4-6
– Clergy day followed by ANiC synod, Ottawa, ON
News shorts – Anglican Church in
North America (ANCA)
Anglican 1000 Summit for church planters
More that 300
attended ACNA’s church planting summit in Plano, Texas including 30+ delegates
from Canada. ANiC participants included the Rev Jim Salladin (St John’s
Shaughnessy) who provide Bible teaching and the Rev Ray David Glenn (St George’s,
Lowville) who also spoke. You can see David
Virtue’s coverage of the event, including a summary of Archbishop
Robert Duncan’s challenge, a seminar panel discussion and keynote speaker the Rev Dr Ed Stetzer’s address.
News shorts – Canada
Closing churches “could be a boon for
arts groups”
A Victoria Times Colonist article discusses
the impending closures of churches on Vancouver Island and the possible uses
for the vacated buildings. It indicates that there has been interest from
Jewish and Buddhist groups. Other possible uses for the buildings discussed in
the article include theatres, day-cares and community
centres.
Christian leaders Connection events
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada – of which ANiC is a member –
will be holding an excellent one-day seminar in more communities across Canada. These seminars address the
theme "Being Evangelical in a
Complex World: Stats, Facts and Trends". New dates and locations
are:
March 25 -Winnipeg (Otterburne), MB
March 26/27 -Caronport (Briercrest), SK
April 13 -Ottawa, ON
April 21 – Cambridge, ON
Canadian news
Ottawa Citizen –
Feb 18 2010 – Anglicans examine training to bridge divisions
News shorts – United States
More priests “deposed” by TEC
The Episcopal
Churches’ recently formed Diocese of Fort Worth has
sent letters to 57 clergy in the ACNA’s Diocese of Fort Worth
purporting to depose them and deprive them “of the right to exercise the gifts
and spiritual authority of God’s word and sacraments conferred at ordination in
this Church.”
TEC continues ruthlessness in duplicity
Legal authority A
S Haley (aka The Anglican Curmudgeon) exposes the Episcopal Church’s ongoing
lawsuits against individual vestry members despite claims that “it is contrary to the policy of The
Episcopal Church to seek financial remedies from laypersons, and it has never
done so.”
Also addressing “a number of
inaccuracies found within the TEC report circulated at the [Church of England]
Synod”, the Rev Marc Robertson’s rector of Christ Church, Savannah,
Georgia specifically addresses those related to himself and his church. After
correcting the record, he says, “It is
a bit awkward to launch into such personal matters on behalf of my defense…
Nevertheless, I believe in these conflicted and chaotic times that God is best
honored with the truth... “
TEC tithes fund lobbyists
A US blogger,
after carefully analyzing the Episcopal Church budget, has determined that $6.6 million of that
budget goes toward lobbying governments.
US Lutherans begin forming new Biblically-faithful denomination
The Washington
Times religion report provides an update on the formation of an
alternative to the US-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) which
is rapidly moving in the direction of the Episcopal Church. She reports that a
number of congregations have already begun to vote on leaving the ELCA for the
newly named North American Lutheran Church (NALC) and that NALC will hold its
first convocation August 26-27 in Columbus, Ohio,
TEC leaders
claim action against Diocese of South Carolina due to “misinformation”
Claiming that the
action they have taken – and likely will take – against the Diocese
of South Carolina is because “facts
are being distorted and Episcopalians in South Carolina are not getting the
truth”. A
S Haley reports that, in a news conference, the Presiding Bishop
said “I… don’t want the people of
South Carolina to rely on erroneous information, provided by other sources… The
South Carolina representation of our theology and polity as a whole is not
accurate.” The Presiding Bishop later added that her “primary concern” was “those who have left [the] diocese or are
contemplating doing so [while continuing] to exercise control over Episcopal
assets”. You can read a full account of the TEC news conference on
Anglicans United.
TEC reports at least three churches
closed each month
Blogger Mary Ailes points us to an Episcopal Church report which
says, “According to the Church
Insurance Company, every month more than three congregations close their doors
for good.” The obvious question is why an organization already burdened
with more buildings than it can use is seeking to take away buildings from
vibrant congregations that need those buildings.
Bishop Beckwith (Springfield) surprises
many with his early retirement
Springfield
(Illinois) Bishop Peter Beckwith announced his retirement, effective February
1, two years before the mandatory retirement age. Bishop Beckwith is a
theological “conservative” and has had past association with ACNA. Finding a
replacement for him could be difficult given the polarized climate within the
Episcopal Church. As the Springfield State
Journal Register reports, “…knotty problems may lie ahead, particularly because whomever
local Episcopalians choose as their new bishop must also be approved by a
majority of U.S. bishops and standing committees — delegates from
Episcopal dioceses around the country.” Bishop
Beckwith did not divulge his plans.
Denominational growth
Reporting on the 2010 Yearbook for American and Canadian
Churches (which reflects 2008 statistics), the Catholic News Agency says, the US Roman
Catholic Church saw a 1.5 per cent growth in 2008, while the Mormon Church grew
by 1.7 per cent, and the Assemblies of God grew
1.3 per cent.
Other denominations shrank including: the Presbyterian Church (3.3 per cent),
the American Baptist Church (2 per cent), the Evangelical Lutheran Church (1.9
per cent) and the Southern Baptist Convention (0.24 per cent). “The Yearbook shows a decline in reported
membership of almost all mainline Protestant denominations”.
US news
Jacksonville News
– Feb 13 2010 – Episcopal breakaways get ‘back to the basics’
Church of England
Newspaper – Feb 19 2010 –
Church
row over sacking [Re TEC replacing unionized workers with
non-unionized workers]
Living Church – Feb 18 2010 – More lawsuits may emerge in S.C.
News shorts – International
CoE bishops lobby for changes to allow
civil partnership ceremonies in churches
Some Church of
England leaders – including some retired bishops – are lobbying in
support of changes to British legislation that would open the door to civil
partnership ceremonies in churches. The Times reports that “The amendment would remove the legislative prohibition on blessings of
homosexual couples and open the door to the registration of civil partnerships
in churches, synagogues, mosques and all other religious premises… This would
in effect end any remaining distinction between civil partnerships and marriage
and increase the pressure on the established Church to take a more liberal line
on same-sex relationships. It would also deepen the schism in the Anglican
Communion over gay blessings and gay ordination… The amendment is expected to be strongly opposed by conservative
Christians. Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “What is
being advanced as an issue of religious freedom today will be used to remove
religious freedom in the future. ‘Homosexual activists have made clear that
this is not the end. It is a step towards forcing churches to conduct same-sex
unions that would go against their beliefs. Changing the law will further blur
the distinction between marriage and what the Government put forward as a
purely secular ceremony.’”
Anglo-Catholics
launch website to promote Roman Catholic offer
Anglo-Catholic
supporters of the Roman Catholic Church’s “Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus” have launched a
website called Friends of the
Ordinariate.
Archbishop of Canterbury visits Middle
East
The Washington Post reports that Dr Rowan Williams, visiting in Jordan, expressed concern for
the declining number of Christians in the Middle East – the birthplace of
Christianity.
International media coverage
Anglican Journal –
Feb 22 2010 – African churches use mobile phone to ring up growth…
Soul food
God’s created order vs our increasingly antagonistic culture
Pornography – There’s a new website “dedicated to providing the most accurate peer-reviewed research on the
harm from pornography, along with relevant news and opinion”. Website
founder, Patrick Trueman, Former Chief, Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice, says “Pornography is a neglected pandemic and it
will remain so until knowledge of its destructive forces is widely understood
and disseminated. The Pornography Harms website is dedicated to this task of
education… Addiction to pornography is now common among men, women, and even
many children, bringing life-long consequences. Pornography use is a
significant factor in divorce; a contributing cause of
the spread of prostitution and the sexual trafficking of adults and children.
America is becoming a "pornified" culture…”
Abortion – LifeSiteNews reports that Parliament Budget
Office Kevin Page has released a report that clearly shows the “disastrous consequences of Canada’s
long-term below, replacement birth rate… Canada’s steady 1.5
birth rate, far below the 2.1 replacement rate, [coupled with] an older population,
[will create] spending pressures in areas such as health care and elderly
benefits... At the same time, slower labour force growth is projected to
restrain growth in the economy, which will in turn slow the growth of
government revenue. The financial result is devastating, says the report… In
order to compensate for the low birth rate the report says there must be very
substantial increases in taxation and major cuts to government services,
amounting to 14 to 28 billion dollars.”
The Duluth News Tribute reports that the woman
who threatened a pro-life supporter with a knife outside an abortion clinic in
Duluth, Minnesota last November decided not to abort her baby as a result of
the words of the pro-life advocate.
Euthanasia -Bishop Michael
Nazir-Ali has weighed in on the euthanasia debate. In a Telegraph article, he says, “We should be very wary of changing the legal tradition of the Western world,
based as it is on the Judaeo-Christian view of the human person, because of
extreme situations which have been given massive media publicity... Our last
days are not necessarily lost days… Not only can they be used to recapture the
past and to strengthen relationships but also for contemplation and
preparation.” He sites both the evidence of “creep” – where the
scope of conditions for which euthanasia is legal expands over time – and
the ability of hospice care to manage pain while respecting human dignity. He
also says that the 70 per cent of the perpetrators of elder abuse are family
members – the very people the proposed UK assisted suicide legislation
exempt from prosecution in cases of assisted suicide.
Bishop Nazir-Ali
concludes, “There is an alternative to
the vociferous campaign to legalise assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.
This involves using all our science to relieve suffering. It means bearing one
another's burdens and building a society based not on atomistic individualism
but on a strong sense of inter-dependence and on the importance of
relationships. It requires that we should value the person at every stage of
life and be willing in humility to serve them and to learn from them… Let us
draw back from the brink. Let us not place ourselves in moral jeopardy and let
us continue to protect those who need our protection the most.”
Resources
The GAFCon
theologians have released Being
Faithful, a commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration in digital format.
You can download the 162-page book for free or
purchase it in book form from Latimer Trust or from Amazon. The GAFCon Primates
Council have urged Anglicans everywhere to read and study this important work.
A study guide to The Way, the Truth and the Life – the first book produced by GAFCon – is also
available for free download. And GAFCon’s The Way of the Cross Bible study series can be
purchased as well.
The Shack
and evangelicals
Much has been written about the
blockbuster The Shack. Two
recent additions to the debate are worth considering. Dr Albert Mohler outlines what he believes
are the implicit and explicit heresies in the book – specifically its
distorted doctrine of the Trinity and its theology of universal salvation.
He
says:
“In evaluating the book, it must be kept in
mind that The Shack is a work of fiction. But it is also a sustained
theological argument… When it comes to The Shack, the really troubling
fact is that so many readers are drawn to the theological message of the book,
and fail to see how it conflicts with the Bible at so many crucial points. All
this reveals a disastrous failure of evangelical discernment… We desperately
need a theological recovery that can only come from practicing biblical
discernment… our real task is to reacquaint evangelicals with the Bible's
teachings… The Shack is a wake-up call for evangelical Christianity… The
popularity of this book among evangelicals can only be explained by a lack of
basic theological knowledge among us --a failure even to understand the Gospel
of Christ. The tragedy that evangelicals have lost the art of biblical
discernment must be traced to a disastrous loss of biblical knowledge.
Discernment cannot survive without doctrine.”
Pastor and author Tim Keller also weighs in:
“But here is my main problem with the book. Anyone who is strongly
influenced by the imaginative world of The Shack will be totally
unprepared for the far more multi-dimensional and complex God that you actually
meet when you read the Bible. In the prophets the reader will find a God who is
constantly condemning and vowing judgment on his enemies, while the Persons of
the Triune-God of The Shack repeatedly deny that sin is any offense to
them. The reader of Psalm 119 is filled with delight at God’s statutes,
decrees, and laws, yet the God of The Shack insists that he doesn’t give
us any rules or even have any expectations of human beings. All he wants is
relationship. The reader of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Isaiah will
learn that the holiness of God makes his immediate presence dangerous or fatal
to us. Someone may counter (as Young seems to do, on p.192) that because of
Jesus, God is now only a God of love, making all talk of holiness, wrath, and
law obsolete. But when John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, long after the
crucifixion sees the risen Christ in person on the isle of Patmos, John ‘fell
at his feet as dead.’ (Rev.1:17.) The Shack effectively
deconstructs the holiness and transcendence of God. It is simply not there. In
its place is unconditional love, period. The God of The Shack has none
of the balance and complexity of the Biblical God. Half a God is not God at
all.”
Emergent
leader shows his colours
Brian McLaren – a leader in the
"emergent church" movement, speaker at the 2008 Lambeth Conference,
and often mislabeled as an evangelical – is coming under increasing
scrutiny with the publication of his most recent book A New Kind of Christianity. Tim Challies writes, “In this book we finally see where McLaren’s journey has taken him; it
has taken him into outright, rank,
unapologetic apostasy. He hates God… McLaren says
he would prefer atheism over belief in the God so many
of us see in Scripture… This new kind of…Christianity is no Christianity at
all. It is not a faith made in the image of Jesus Christ, but a faith made in
the image of a man who despises God and who is hell-bent on dragging others
along with him as he becomes his own god… This new
kind of Christianity is simply paganism behind a thick coating of false
humility and biblical language. It is an expression of rebellion against God
far more than it is a pursuit of new intimacy with the Creator.”
Another reviewer is welcoming McLaren’s latest book because it “is drawing lines
and forcing people to choose camps”, it “demonstrates the hypocrisy of
liberalism” and it will force others “within the Emerging Church to clarify
their beliefs”.
In his thorough analysis, Kevin DeYoung says,
this book “is two steps forward in
terms of clarity and ten steps backward in terms of orthodoxy. A New
Kind of Christianity, more than any
previous McLaren project, provides a forceful account of what the emergent
leader believes and why.” He concludes: The message of McLarenism is pretty simple: God is love and wants
everyone to be kind and inclusive and care for the poor and the environment… In
McLarenism there is no original sin, no wrath, no hell, no
creation-fall-redemption, no definite future, no second coming that I can see,
no clear statement on the deity of Christ, no mention of vicarious substitution
or God’s holiness or divine sovereignty, no ethical demands except as they
relate to being kind to others, no God-offendedness, no doctrine of
justification, no unchanging apostolic deposit of truth, no absolute submission
to the word of God, nary a mention of faith and worship, no doctrine of
regeneration, no evangelistic impulse to save the lost, and nothing about God’s
passion for his glory. This is surely a lot to leave out.”
Worth reading
If your church is looking for ways to get free
publicity, this article from the diocese of Sydney
might give you some ideas.
On his blog, the Rev John Richardson (aka the Ugly Vicar) tracks the historical development of two
wedge issues in the Church of England – the ordination of women and the
normalization of homosexuality. He concludes “The Church of England has, in the past,
acted as if compromise were the ‘genius’ of Anglicanism. History, I suspect,
will show the opposite — that far from being its genius, it was the agent
of its downfall.”
In an interesting related article, the Rev John Richardson examines how the debate within Anglicanism
about women’s ordination is exposing two “entirely different concepts of the ordained ministry”. He says, “At the risk of oversimplification, one of
these basically assumes that the pattern of having bishops (who run, or help
run, dioceses), priests (who minister more locally, celebrate the sacraments,
preach and pastor), and deacons (who are probationary priests), represents the
way the church long has been and forever should be. The other takes the view
that these same orders are, in the form in which they are found in the Anglican
Church, essentially man-made, and therefore dispensable. They may sometimes
serve the Church well
— they are of its bene esse (its ‘well
being’) — but they are not, in their present form, of the esse (the ‘very
being’).”
The Revs Matt and Anne Kennedy have
published the third riveting installment in their account of God’s
provision when the court forced the congregation of Good Shepherd out of their
church building.
Food for thought
A well-known
speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill and asking, "Who
would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give
this $20 to one of you but first let me do this." He proceeded to crumple
the dollar bill up.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands
were up in the air.
"Well,"
he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and
started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all
crumpled and dirty.
"Now who
still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, no matter what I
did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It
was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and
ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come
our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or
what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty
or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him. Psalm
17:8 states that
God will keep us 'as the apple of His eye.'"
The worth of our
lives comes not in what we do or who we are, but by WHOSE WE ARE!
Just for
fun
Copyright Gospel,
Communications International,
Inc - www.reverendfun.com
Please pray...
For ANiC projects, church plants and parishes,
especially as they seek to proclaim the Good News to those in their
communities who desperately need new life in Christ.
| • |
For the Good
Shepherd (Vancouver) revival conference, Mar 19-20 with Dr Dennis Ngien |
| • |
For the Church of the Good Samaritan (St John’s,
NL) mission to Guatemala, April 17-24 |
For our bishops and clergy.
| • |
For Bishop
Malcolm and the spiritual renewal missions at St George’s (Burlington,
ON) on Feb 26-28 and St Andrew’s (Delta, BC) on March 19-20. |
| • |
For those being ordained to the diaconate: Roy Lang (St Aidan’s, Windsor, ON), Dwight MacPherson (All Saints,
Rutledge, VT) and Rhonda Cotton (Holy
Trinity, Marlborough, MA) |
| • |
For the Mar 16-18 ANiC clergy retreat at Cedar Springs (near Abbotsford, BC) |
For
legal cases and disputes
| • |
For the Vancouver-area
ANiC parishes that are proceeding with an appeal of the November 25
court decision. |
| • |
For all the congregations involved in court proceedings and disputes. Pray for
peace for the wardens and trustees who
are on the front lines and bear the burden of risk and responsibility. Pray for
a continued focus on, and blessing upon, their ministry in the midst of this
turmoil. |
| • |
For ongoing financial contributions to the Legal Defence Fund so that legal costs
can be covered and just decisions rendered for the future of Anglicanism in
Canada. |
| • |
For the leaders
and parishioners of the dioceses pursuing eviction of and damages
against ANiC congregations and wardens in court. |
| • |
That God
will be glorified in all court proceedings. |
Praise God
for the granting of charitable status to the Anglican Relief & Development Fund –
Canada. Pray for sufficient funds to be
raised for the Kenya Malaria Prevention Project.
For our fellow Anglicans and
other Christians facing violence,
persecution and natural disasters in Haiti, Nigeria, Congo, Sudan and
other Muslim lands as well as in Communist countries, especially North Korea.
And now a word from our sponsor
The Mighty One, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the
rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God
shines forth.
Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring
fire, around him a mighty tempest.
He calls to the heavens above and to the
earth, that he may judge his people: “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a
covenant with me by sacrifice!” The heavens declare his righteousness, for God
himself is judge! Selah
“Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against
you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt
offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on
a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the
field is mine.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness
are mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God
a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call
upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my
words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep
company with adulterers.
“You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one
like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
“Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there
be none to deliver! The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies
me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”
Psalm 50
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