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Handle with prayer!
News – ANiC and AEN
Update on court process
At the March 11 hearing in Hamilton – involving three ANiC parishes – the judge asked for additional written submissions from both sides. It is possible that Justice Milanetti will set another hearing date to allow the lawyers to argue the points in these additional submissions.
A hearing involving St Aidan’s (Windsor) is scheduled for April 6 in London, Ontario and the three-week court hearing in Vancouver begins May 25. Please remember all these court proceedings in your prayers.
Barbara Pell’s service of Christian burial
A service of Christian burial will be held on Saturday, 21 March at 12 noon at St Matthew's in Abbotsford, BC. Thank God with us for Barbara’s life and joyful witness. Please remember in prayer the Rev Archie Pell, the Pell family, Barbara’s many friends and colleagues, and parishioners at Church of the Resurrection (Hope). For those who were privileged to know Barbara and would like to honour her memory, the family request is: In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Dr Barbara Pell Scholarship (No. 1816) at Trinity Western University (TWU), Attention: Darlene Heriot, 7600 Glover Road, Langley, BC V2Y 1Y1. The family may be contacted by emailing pellfamily[at]hotmail.com (replace “at” with @). See TWU’s loving tribute to Barbara.
Bishop Don’s address to Church of England synod event now available
You can read on our website Bishop Donald Harvey’s speech to an event organized by Anglican Mainstream at the recent Church of England synod.
Bishop Malcolm leads parish evangelism mission
This weekend Bishop Malcolm Harding is leading Church of the Good Shepherd (St Catharines, ON) in their parish evangelism mission. His theme, “Ten signs of a healthy parish”, will be presented over ten sessions, beginning Friday March 20 and ending Sunday March 22. Please pray for the mission and for Bishop Malcolm – and watch for a report in the next newsletter.
Newest ANiC parish gets a website
The people of St Matthias (Victoria) – who are calling themselves Anglicans in Fairfield until they decide on a new name – have introduced a new website.
Faith Today magazine available to ANiC parishes
Complementary copies of the March/April issue of Faith Today magazine are being shipped to ANiC parishes for distribution to parishioners. This issue features an interview with the Venerable Charlie Masters. Faith Today is the publication of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, of which ANiC is a member. If you aren’t able to get a copy through your parish, or would like additional copies, the ANiC office has lots. Contact Jude at jcarriere@anglicannetwork.ca or call 1-866-351-2642 extension 4015.
ANiC parishes in the news:
Parksville Qualicum Beach News – Mar 12 09 – A tear in the cloth (re. Christ’s Church Oceanside)
News shorts – Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)
New ACNA diocese forms in the Pacific Northwest
A new diocese-in-formation in Washington State – comprising seven parishes and led by Bishop Richard Boyce of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) – has applied for membership in ACNA.
Former Bishop of Southern Virginia joins Anglican Church in North America
Bishop David Bane, who was coerced into retiring from the Episcopal Church Diocese of Southern Virginia in 2006 because of his orthodoxy, has been accepted to assist Bishop Bob Duncan in the Diocese of Pittsburgh – which is under the Southern Cone and Archbishop Greg Venables.
News – Canada
Diocese of Ottawa’s tortured logic is exposed internationally
Writing in the Church of England Newspaper, Andrew Carey calls the recent “…declaration by the Canadian diocese of Ottawa that it will allow a parish to perform same-sex blessings in order to ‘discern’ the way forward” the “… most egregious example” of twisting the meaning of words. He says, “Needless to say, it’s an odd kind of ‘discernment’ to do something you are not agreed upon in order to reach agreement. It seems like a recipe for division and conflict.” Drawing from the Diocese’s news release, Carey concludes, “And here was I thinking that theological discussion was how the church reached conclusions. Instead it seems that ‘actions’ take the church to a ‘place beyond discussion’.” As a regular commenter on the AEC blog said, the Diocese of Ottawa’s rationalization is like “…discerning one’s feelings about temperance by having a stiff drink.”
Religious Intelligence also reports on the decisions of both the dioceses of Ottawa and Niagara to proceed with same-sex blessings despite the primates’ express request that they not do so.
Bishop Cowan’s response to two parishes realigning
In his pastoral letter, Bishop James Cowan (British Columbia) speaks of the “…trauma being caused in the Diocese by the Network” and the “…hurt and betrayal” he feels as a result. He says, “…I pray that all those who are acting in this way will repent and be restored to a place of peace somewhere in the greater Body of Christ on earth… Part of the hurt is that people who now are part of the Network gave us assurances over the years and in recent months that they would never do what they have just done. Compounding this is the deliberate misinformation and selective presentation of facts which has allowed them to lead others to leave the Diocese. I am shocked by this and see, under the guise of lofty intent and purity of motive, instead the subversion of the mission of the Church and the Good News of God in Jesus Christ.”
Canada – in the news
Church of England Newspaper – Mar 13 09 – Canadian diocese to go ahead with gay blessings
News shorts – United States
Presiding bishop over-reaches authority again; Bishops threaten action
The Anglican Communion Institute (ACI), including two Communion Partner Bishops – Bishop John Howe and Bishop Bruce MacPherson – is calling attention to Presiding Bishop Schori’s latest breach of TEC canons: Her alarming “challenge to the long-standing polity of the Episcopal Church” in TEC’s legal action in Pittsburgh. They say: “The complaint proffered by the Presiding Bishop’s chancellor seeks to turn The Episcopal Church’s governance on its head and asks the court to enshrine this reversal in civil law. It alleges that the polity of The Episcopal Church has as its highest tier of authority the central bodies of the Presiding Bishop, General Convention and Executive Council. Underneath this triumvirate on “the next level” are the dioceses and their bishops. Dioceses are explicitly characterized as “subordinate unit[s].”
ACI says the correct understanding is that: “The polity of The Episcopal Church, clearly expressed in its name, its constitution and its history, is that of dioceses and bishops meeting in a general convention as equals. The Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council are the agents, not the superiors, of the dioceses.” The writers then say they are prepared to file a “friend of the court” brief in civil litigation in order to preserve the historic polity of TEC.
The Episcopal Church unmasked – well worth reading
The Episcopal Majority website has a very informative exposé by R A Livingston called “A Primer for those in the pews” – a “must read” for those still within TEC (or ACoC). The purposes for the article, the author says, are:
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“To let Episcopalians know that a small group of single-issue activists has taken over the leadership and management of the church and turned missions, goals and budgets to their exclusive advantage. |
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“To inform, educate and hopefully arouse Episcopalians to question the profligate spending by the church on lawsuits against fellow Christians and Anglicans. |
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“To draw attention to violations of the Canons of the church by its leadership. |
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To provide practical methods whereby an individual can express displeasure at these actions.” |
After laying bare the reality of TEC, the author offers some (detailed) practical suggestions – summarized below.
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Take steps to insure your donations cannot be used to fund lawsuits against departing parishes. |
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“Become involved at the local level. Get the word out, and get others behind the simple proposition that churches do not sue other churches, they mediate disputes as Christians. |
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“Do not vote for convention deputies who want to see the lawsuits continue. |
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“Become involved yourself, and get others to do likewise. It is your Church that is at stake here. |
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“Spread the word! Get this information into the hands of your fellow parishioners.” |
The Anglican Curmudgeon provides even more evidence to back up Livingston’s article.
The Episcopal Church (TEC) statistics
TEC has release 2007 statistics showing a decline of nearly 38,000 members from the previous year; median parish Sunday attendance is now 69.
In the US media
Church of England Newspaper – Mar 15 09 – New questions over “Buddhist” bishop
Christian Post – March 16 09 – Conservative Anglican rejects priest’s defense of Episcopal Church
Living Church – March 11 09 – ACI, Communion Partner Bishops mull petition in Pittsburgh
News shorts – International
Madagascar
Archbishop Ian Ernest (Indian Ocean) requests our prayer for Madagascar. The Anglican Communion News Service reports that “Weeks of opposition protests and turmoil on the Indian Ocean island have killed more than 135 people. On Monday [March 16], Madagascar's army threw its weight behind opposition leader Andry Rajoelina and stormed a presidential palace in the heart of Antananarivo. The army also seized the central bank. Tanks and scores of soldiers are still guarding the buildings… an increasing number of Malagasy families have been leaving the country for security reason and seeking exile in Mauritius.”
Soul food
Worth reading
1. In an article on the intolerance of those who purport to preach tolerance, George Cardinal Pell. (Catholic) Archbishop of Sydney (Australia) exposes the bullying and persecution in the west of those who dare oppose the secularists’ agenda. Here are some excerpts:
[Secularists’] intolerance of Christianity seeks to drive it not only from the public square, but even from the provision of education, healthcare and welfare services to the wider community… Modern liberalism has strong totalitarian tendencies.
"Did God create us or did we create God?" The limited scope that secularism is prepared to concede to religious beliefs is based on the assumption that we created God. As long as the supremacy remains with man, as long as faith is understood as a private therapeutic pursuit that can be picked up, changed or discarded at will, it is permissible. But when people insist that faith is more than this and that the supremacy is not ours, it is resisted; increasingly through the law.
The question of autonomy, freedom and supremacy plays itself out, among other places, in the contest between religious freedom and sexual freedom. Absolute sexual freedom lies at the heart of the modern autonomy project…The message from the earliest days of the sexual revolution, always barely concealed behind the talk of "live and let live"… was that few limits on human sexual autonomy will be tolerated. This is generating the pressures against religion in public life.
But there will be limits. There are already abundant indications of human autonomy being diminished from the left as sexual freedom becomes a driver of consumption and an organizing principle of economic life, with the re-emergence of slavery in Europe and Asia, the booming exploitation of pornography and prostitution, and the commercialization of surrogacy, egg donation, and the production and destruction of human embryos and human stem-cell lines. At the level of the individual, the possibilities of happiness are greatly restricted by the lovelessness, fear and despair that the assertion of the autonomous self against others usually leaves in its wake. Limits are an inescapable part of the human condition. The only questions are whether they will be the limits of servitude or the limits of freedom, and whether self love or love of others will be predominant.
Christians have to recover their genius for showing that there are better ways to live and to build a good society; ways which respect freedom, empower individuals, and transform communities. They also have to recover their self-confidence and courage. The secular and religious intolerance of our day needs to be confronted regularly and publicly.
2. World Magazine discusses the perverse callousness of the North American Church in pursuing innovations – specifically the normalization and blessing of homosexual behaviour – without regard for the devastating effect on the Church in other parts of the world – diminishing the reputation and witness of the Church and sometimes putting Christians’ lives in jeopardy.
Just for laughs – For those of us with a twisted sense of humour!
Please pray...
For the Rev Dr Archie Pell and family – as well as the people of Church of the Resurrection (Hope, BC). Even in the midst of grief, may they be able to “rejoice in hope”.
For new ANiC congregations and fledgling church plants. May they know the Lord's leading and experience His blessing on their congregations. Pray for God’s peace for church leaders.
For the parish mission at Church of the Good Shepherd (St Catharines) this weekend and for Bishop Malcolm as he leads it. May God be pleased to do a might work in and through this parish and faithful bishop.
For wisdom as ANiC seeks to find more effective ways of ministering to and encouraging “Orphaned Anglicans” who have no orthodox Anglican church in their community.
For congregations involved in court proceedings and disputes. Pray for wisdom, courage and peace for the congregations. Pray particularly for the judges and lawyers involved. Pray for the leadership of the dioceses pursuing ANiC parishes in court. Pray that the Author of Truth, Love and Justice would bless them with a deeper insight into the riches found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For the needed money to support the legal defence of ANiC congregations. Pray for the ongoing court process in “Niagara” as the judge decides costs – who should pay and how much. Also pray for the April 6th hearing in London Ontario.
For our national, provincial and civic leaders as well as for our nation. May God be pleased to grant repentance and cause a revival to sweep our land.
Pray for Madagascar, for political stability and a restoration of order and good government. Pray for the church to be effective in its witness and in service.
And now a word from our sponsor
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
Never be wise in your own sight.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9-21
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