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Handle with prayer!
News – ANiC and AEN
Court case involving Vancouver-area parishes concludes
On Thursday, June 11, the lawyers for both sides wrapped their final arguments. Full details of all each day’s proceedings are on the ANiC website. Our legal team did a terrific job of defending the ANiC parishes’ claims to the parish properties for their established ministries. We thank God for their skill and faithfulness.
The decision now rests with Mr Justice Stephen Kelleher. He has an enormous number of documents (affidavits) to review as he weighs the arguments. A decision is likely to take several months. Please pray for insight and wisdom for Mr Justice Kelleher, for confidence in God’s sovereignty for the parishes involved, and for God’s good and perfect will to be done. Whatever the outcome, Bishop Donald Harvey has noted that this trial has united us in prayer as never before.
Media coverage of the court case:
Anglican Journal – June 13 2009 – New Westminster diocese court case hearings end
St Aidan’s (Windsor) negotiates interim arrangement with Diocese of Huron
The Rev Tom Carmen has written St Aidan’s parishioners to tell them about changes to service times as a result of an interim sharing arrangement negotiated with the Diocese of Huron. The agreement went into effect this past Sunday.
St Hilda’s keeps giving away freebies
Hard on the heels of it free garage “sale”, St Hilda’s (Oakville), held a free car wash. Parishioner David Jenkins tells us that St Hilda’s free events are “an outreach to the community to illustrate the love, grace and salvation of God which is offered to us free through Jesus Christ.” St Hilda’s also offers “Freebie Friday” each week for students of a nearby high school. David tells us:
Every Friday St. Hilda’s ANiC feeds about 200 schoolchildren; they hear a short gospel message and sometimes they ask for prayer. Friday [June 12] was the last Freebie Friday before the summer. 200 hotdogs were served, some wonderful bread from Artisano’s – peanut butter, lots of potato chips, and fruit punch… The lunch always ends with the phrase, “have a great weekend – and remember that God loves you, Jesus loves you, and we love you, too.””
Bishop Don is looking forward to spending the morning of June 28 with St Hilda’s – his second annual visitation with this parish.
St George’s (Lowville/Burlington) is adding an evening service
For the past year, St George’s has held two Sunday morning services in Burlington. Now, effective June 21, they’re adding an evening service on the third Sunday of every month in Milton – which is closer to their original location of Lowville.
Calendar of events – for your interest and prayer support
June 21 – St Chad’s (Toronto) 100th Anniversary celebration service
July 22 – Toronto Centre ANiC project meeting. See poster
Aug 31 - Sept 3 – St John’s Shaughnessy (Vancouver) Youth Leadership Conference
News shorts – Canada
New metropolitan elected for ACoC province of Rupert’s Land
The Anglican Journal reports that Bishop David Ashdown of the diocese of Keewatin was elected “archbishop of Keewatin and the metropolitan of the Province of Rupert’s Land” at the provincial synod, June 11. He succeeds Archbishop John Clarke who retired earlier this year.
News shorts – Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)
Excitement building for ACNA’s inaugural provincial assembly, June 22-25
Although only a few ANiC delegates and observers are able to attend ACNA’s first provincial assembly, everyone will be able to follow the event online. Peter Lillington will be blogging live from Bedford. You can follow along and send your comments and questions to Peter via the AEC blog.
ACNA Governance Task Force comments on the Constitution and Canons
Members of ACNA Governance Task Force – including ANiC’s Chancellor, Cheryl Chang – worked feverishly between October and April preparing the draft constitution and canons that the provincial assembly will consider for adoption. They commented on their work in a document just posted online. In the document, Cheryl notes the diversity of input and the cooperative spirit amongst the task force members. She says, “The Canons and Constitution being presented for ratification are not intended to be perfect. They are intended to provide a minimalist structure to support the primary task of growing the church in North America… It is clear that we have different cultural issues, legal systems and charitable rules, and that creates certain practical problems. However, such problems are not insurmountable and we are grateful the gospel has no such obstructions to our common mission and vision. These Canons and Constitution were intended to be flexible enough to adapt in ways to overcome such worldly obstacles. It will take our continued cooperation and the grace of God to ensure that we facilitate and support one another in the mission of the church for the glory of God.”
Bishop Robert Duncan, Archbishop-designate of ACNA, also provided his views on the draft constitution and canons. He notes the six principles underlying work on the canons and constitution:
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confessional unity, expressed in matters of Faith and Order;
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subsidiarity, where what may be wisely left to the local level (both diocesan and congregational) is left to the local level, including property ownership;
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missionary focus, especially in structures, roles and representation;
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flexibility, recognizing the diversity of Godly approaches common among the partners coming into union; |
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disciplinary reform, including address of concerns for Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders, as well as provision of a provincial tribunal. |
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collegial accountability, especially in matters relating to bishops. |
Bishop Duncan adds, “The notion of a Provincial Assembly focused on mission rather than governance is among our deepest hopes. Very specifically, we do not want to repeat the General Convention (USA) or General Synod (Canada) experience. This is where the notion of “ratification” at Assembly derives. Our vision is for fairly straightforward up or down votes on articles and canons. If the Provincial Council has discerned it rightly, and we have significant consensus, a matter is ratified. If not, the matter is sent back to Provincial Council for more work. Most things, if not easily agreeable, can wait another year or two.”
ACNA committee memberships posted
The membership of numerous committees formed by the Common Cause Partnership to accomplish the work of building the Anglican Church in North America has been published. ACNA is recommending that these committees remain in place. A good representation of ANiC members and leaders are included.
EpiscopalLife Online is very interested to see the names of two TEC bishops in the ranks of those on ACNA committees: Bishop Peter Beckwith (Springfield) is on ACNA’s ecumenical relations committee, while Bishop Keith Ackerman (retired bishop of Quincy and assisting bishop of Springfield) is on the executive committee, as well as on admissions, prayer book and common worship committees.
Church planting in Victoria – supporters wanted
The Table – an ACNA church plant initiative in Victoria is looking for partners, See Andy and Josh’s video explaining what they’re up to.
News shorts – United States
Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori “deposing” two more bishops
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (TEC), Katherine Jefferts Schori, has sent letters purporting to depose both Bishop David Bane, who resigned as Bishop of Southern Virginia and is now with the Anglican Church in North America, and Bishop Edward MacBurney, retired Bishop of Quincy and now serving as assisting bishop for the Anglican Diocese of Quincy which voted in 2008 to come under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. As in the past, the letters claim that the two bishops renounced their orders under the canons of TEC. David Virtue reports that “Both men deny they have renounced their orders or abandoned the communion of the church.”
Is a Buddhist bishop “too unorthodox even for the Episcopal Church?”
A Christianity Today article predicts that bishop-elect of the Diocese of Northern Michigan Kevin Thew Forrester will fail to receive the needed support from the dioceses and bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC). The Rev Thew Forrester has received Buddhist “lay ordination” and has also rewritten the church’s baptismal covenant, the Apostles’ Creed and portions of the Book of Common Prayer to reflect his rejection of historic Christian doctrines. While some bishops and dioceses rejected his doctrinal stand, others were miffed that he didn’t go through the appropriate channels before rewriting the historic Christian doctrinal statement; and still others were simply concerned about the process used to “elect” him; his was the only name on the ballot.
Diocese of Quincy (Southern Cone) to elect a diocesan bishop in October
Since the retirement of Bishop Keith Ackerman last November, Quincy’s standing committee has acted as the ecclesiastical authority. However, the Living Church reports that will come to an end with the election of a new bishop in October at the diocese’s annual synod. However, “Under the proposed constitution and canons of the ACNA, approval from at least two-thirds of the members of the College of Bishops would be needed within 60 days of the election in order for the consecration to proceed.” Nominations will be accepted beginning July 1.
In US news
Ledger Enquirer – June 8 2009 – After split with Episcopal Church, California churches await ruling on property
News shorts – International
Following the money: the Anglican Communion listening process “Trojan horse”
This story was hinted at during the Anglican Consultative Council meetings in Jamaica last month. Now, following extensive research, the American Anglican Council has written a full exposé on the funding behind the next round of the listening process initiated at the ACC meeting, bringing into question the integrity and motivation of the entire process. We learn that the $1.5 million to fund this latest Communion-wide listening process comes from an individual who advocates a sexual ethic foreign to Biblical Christianity – not the organization stated by the Anglican Communion Office earlier. We also learn that the funding of the project will be monitored by an organization dedicated to a view of human sexuality that is incompatible with the stated position of the majority of Anglican bishops worldwide. The question then is, how can a productive honest conversation take place, given this fundamental bias in the process? With such an agenda at work, what provinces would want to participate in the process?
Displaced women and children hit hardest by fighting in Pakistan
The Ecumenical News service reports that the fighting in Pakistan between the Taliban and the government forces in the northwest of the country has displaced 2.5 million people. The report carried in the Anglican Journal also states that, in this male-dominated culture and in the absence of husbands who stayed behind to protect the property, displaced Pakistani women and children are not able to properly access humanitarian assistance in the camps – especially food and hygiene facilities. Please pray for Christian organizations seeking to help and for those needing the aid.
Church in Sri Lanka calls for safeguarding of democratic rights
The Anglican Journal also carries a report from Sri Lanka which indicates that, following the government’s victory over the Tamil insurgents, 300 000 Tamil civilians in refugee camps are being held in terrible conditions for screening by security forces. “The Sri Lankan government has rejected international demands for access by aid workers to the refugees.” In addition, human rights activists are reportedly being harassed.
Diocese of Sydney suffers devastating investment loss
The Church of England Newspaper reports that the Diocese of Sydney, led by Archbishop Peter Jensen has been hit hard by the global recession, losing more that half of its investment value. While many dioceses in North America, England and elsewhere had also been hit hard, the Diocese of Sydney had borrowed extensively in recent years as part of its investment strategy.
Archbishop Jensen said, the strategy of borrowing, although profitable in the past, had “accentuated our losses. As a result, our investments have fallen by more than half and the distribution of money from our investments has been cut by 50%. Ministries which depend on this funding will be severely impacted.” The Diocese of Sydney has been a faithful and generous supporter of Biblically-faithful Anglican endeavors in the past. Please pray that the clergy and leadership will know God’s comfort and that this will be used for God’s greater purposes.
Cyclone devastates West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh
The Church of England Newspaper reports that over five million people were displaced in Bangladesh and several hundred killed in both India and Bangladesh by a May 25 cyclone, and the resulting tidal surges and floods washed away fields, roads and houses. The Moderator of the Church of Bangladesh, Bishop Paul Sarker, and the Bishop of Durgapur, Bishop Probal Kanto Dutta request prayer.
Scottish Episcopal Church elects new Primus (primate)
The sole nominee for the position, Bishop David Chillingworth, was elected Primus of the /Scottish Episcopal Church taking over from the Most Rev Dr Idris Jones.
Soul food
Just for laughs
Cultivating a culture of death
In The strange double standards of abortion, Professor John Stackhouse weighs in on the abortion debate. With recent US polls showing that fewer Americans now support abortion and with the murder just weeks ago of a US doctor who specialized in late term abortions, the issue is again being debated in the media. His thoughtful essay concludes: “I’m angry about our absurd political situation that makes vigilantism even thinkable. Most of us, at least, can agree that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare”— even most pro-lifers can imagine extreme cases in which an abortion might be justified. But to have such weak anti-abortion legislation in the United States, and to have no anti-abortion law at all in Canada, only breeds martyrs on the extremes and makes the rest of us into hypocrites.”
In “Thoughts from as ex-fetus”, National Post Columnist George Jonas, who does not consider himself a pro-lifer, asks, “Will our grandchildren say we were enlightened or barbaric? ... [Speaking] in my capacity as an ex-fetus, I say controlling someone else's body is where abortionists and their assassins meet. Please note that I say "meet." I don't say justify. Nothing justifies the assassin. Does anything justify the abortionist?”
Also on the pro-life theme, Faye Sonier, Legal Counsel with The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, has written, “On a personal note: Euthanasia, assisted suicide and abortion. Recounting her own personal brushes with potential death and reflecting on legislation before the House of Commons (Bill C-384), she concludes, “When life in general is devalued, the life of every vulnerable individual in Canada will be threatened. Should I be forced to revisit my sickly past, either from illness or old age, I don’t want to risk being in a society that would choose to respond to my need with premature death as its solution. My Canada will offer optimal health and palliative care services as a society that assures me of my value even though I may not be perfect.”
West Vancouver pharmacist, Cristina Alarcon writes in “Right to die? How about right to live”, carried in the National Post, about the growing culture of death in western society and on an international symposium she recently attended on euthanasia and assisted suicide. She says, “Euthanasia advocates claim that there is no slippery slope, that there are safeguards to ensure that only the terminally ill are “aided in dying.” However, after attending the symposium it seems more likely to me that there is a slope, that it is well greased and that we have slipped to the bottom. Only time will tell what the consequences might be.”
Dr Matt Anderson, a Minnesota-based obstetrician/gynecologist reports that “pro-life doctor groups worldwide are banding together to form a Hippocratic Registry of Physicians ” based on Ottawa.
A matter of pride?
Dr Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, comments on US President Obama’s proclamation that June is “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month”:
The Bible is straightforward in its consistent identification of homosexual acts as inherently sinful. Homosexual acts are not singled out as the only form of sexual sin. The Bible condemns any number of heterosexual sins, ranging from fornication and adultery to a catalogue of forbidden acts and relationships.
Beyond sexual sins, the Bible condemns sins as various and deadly as anger, envy, covetousness, disobedience, gluttony, greed, and dishonesty. The Bible declares all of us to be sinners and makes clear that no one of us can even understand the full sinfulness of our own sin. Sin is deceptive and addictive. Sin leads to death, judgment, and eternal destruction.
The Bible allows no room for finding pride in sin... To do so is not only to confuse sin, but to undermine the Gospel of Jesus Christ… Evangelical Christians dare not respond with a claim of moral superiority as if we are not ourselves sinners. But we must be clear that we cannot find pride in sin, whether these are our own sins or those of others. The Gospel of Christ simply does not allow us to see sin -- any sin -- as a matter of pride.
After examining the scientific literature, psychologist Trayce Hansen reports that children raised by same-sex couples "are significantly more likely than the general population to develop a non-heterosexual sexual preference. She reports that the "studies thus far find that between 8 percent and 21 percent of homosexually parented children ultimately identify as non-heterosexual… For comparison purposes, approximately 2 percent of the general population are non-heterosexual. Therefore, if these percentages continue to hold true, children of homosexuals have a 4 to 10 times greater likelihood of developing a non-heterosexual preference than other children."
A disturbing aspect of her report is the finding that these results have been intentionally concealed by the many researchers due to their self-proclaimed biases and the fear that the information could influence social policy decisions.
Please pray...
For the Anglican Church in North America provincial assembly, June 22-25 – and particularly for ANiC delegates and leaders as they prepare and travel to Texas.
For the legal cases
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For the now concluded Vancouver court hearing – for insight and wisdom for Mr Justice Kelleher, for confidence in God’s sovereignty for the parishes involved, and for God’s good and perfect will to be done. |
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For the people of St Aidan’s as they adjust their services and ministries to accommodate the negotiated interim possession agreement with the Diocese of Huron. |
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For continued contributions to the Legal Defence Fund so that legal costs can be covered and so the churchwardens and trustees will not be at personal financial risk. |
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For the leaders and parishioners of the dioceses pursuing eviction of and damages against ANiC congregations and wardens in court. |
For new ANiC congregations, church plants and projects. May they know the Lord's leading and experience His blessing on their congregations.
For upcoming parish events, especially the 100th Anniversary celebration service at St Chad’s (Toronto) on June 21.
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.
That we would share the Good News with those around us who need to meet our Lord & Saviour.
For the unity of orthodox Anglicans in the Communion.
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.
For those suffering in Sri Lanka and Pakistan due to military actions, and in Bangladesh and India as a result of the cyclone and flooding.
For the Diocese of Sydney hit hard by the financial crisis. May God turn this difficulty into good.
And now a word from our sponsor
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
2 Timothy 3:10-4:8
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