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Handle with prayer!
News – ANiC and AEN
Countdown to synod (and conference), November 2-4 in Victoria
If you
haven’t yet registered,
now would be a really good time to do so. Early bird registration ends October 21
and the synod hotel can only guarantee our special rates until October14. For
full information, including the agenda and speakers, see the ANiC website. Please
remember to pray for this important event and the decisions that will be made
at it. A prayer for synod is posted at the bottom of the synod website page.
Bishops’
corner
Bishop Don
Harvey represented our Primate at the installation of newly consecrated bishop,
the Right Rev Felix Orji in El Paso Texas. Bishop Orji once served on the
pastoral staff of St John’s (Vancouver). You can read more about Bishop Orji
and about his recent consecration, together with Bishop Julian Dobbs and four
other Church of Nigeria bishops, on the ACNA
website.
In a
wonderful and joyful service, Bishop Charlie Masters ordained the Rev Colleen McLeod
and the Rev Phillip Rutledge to the diaconate at St Aidan's (Windsor, ON) on Thanksgiving
Sunday.
The Reverend
Stephen Flower: Rest in peace
The Rev
Stephen Flower, who served in an honourary capacity at both Church of the Good Samaritan
and St Stephen the Martyr, in St John’s, NL, passed away on October 9. He had
been battling cancer for several years.
Please
pray for his wife, the Rev Marilyn Flower, who is a deacon at Good Samaritan –
and the entire ANiC community in St John’s. Bishops Don Harvey and Charlie Masters
plan to be present for the funeral – to be held on Wednesday, October 12
at Elim Pentecostal Tabernacle in St John’s.
Bishop Don
gives thanks “for the wonderful example in ‘holy living and holy dying’ both Stephen
and Marilyn have been to so many in recent months. May he rest in peace and
rise in glory”.
Only a
few weeks ago the Rev Paul Almond, an ANiC deacon in Windsor, ON, went home to
be with the Lord.
2012 liturgical calendar
If you
haven’t yet ordered your calendar for 2012, what are you waiting for? The
calendar is a fund-raiser for ANiC’s church-planting initiatives and features
the original artwork of ANiC artists. Any wall would be proud to display it and
you’ll be blessed by following the Church Year clearly noted on the pages. You
can see sample pages and order via our
website. They cost $10 per calendar, including shipping (for orders
within Canada), with discounts for bulk orders.
Parish
news
All Saints,
Rutland, VT is holding a special installation service on October 23 for six
women in the church forming a Daughters of the King chapter, called the All Saints’
Angels. This
is the first Daughters of the King chapter in ANiC and perhaps the first among ACNA’s
New England parishes.
All Saints
also recently signed a lease/purchase agreement for a church building. Deacon Dwight
MacPherson says that, once the congregation grows sufficiently to be designated
a parish and has received its tax-exempt, nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue
Agency, they will proceed with purchasing the building, parking lot and a two-story
adjacent apartment building that will provide an income stream for the congregation.
St John’s
Vancouver, BC has photos on its
website of worship and activities in its new premises. The ACNA
website featured St John’s
story in a recent article.
ANiC members serving in Angola
Audrey and Norm Henderson, missionaries from St Peter
and St Paul Anglican Church (Ottawa, ON) are praising God for the issue of work
visas that will allow them to continue their service in Angola, Africa. They
serve with Mission Aviation Fellowship and work at the Evangelical Medical Centre of Lubango where Audrey provides guidance to the nursing team and Norm assists with technology
and administration. Because of the lack of medical facilities in Angola, this hospital
deals with many horrific surgical cases and last-stage illnesses.
Norm and Audrey hope to bring the Alpha Course to
their Angolan parish community over the coming year. Please pray for them and
for the desperately needy country of Angola which suffered from decades of
armed conflict. You can learn more about their ministry via their blog or email them to get on their mailing list.
Calendar
of upcoming events – for your interest and prayer support
Oct 16 – Christ The King 1st
anniversary celebration
Oct 16 – Celebration Church (Barrie, ON),
Healing Prayer Conference
Oct 22, 7:30pm – Good Shepherd Vancouver missions
fundraising concert
Oct 29 – Bible-in-a-Day seminar,
St John’s Richmond, BC
Oct 29 – Pastoral Care of Women, St George’s (Burlington,
ON) conference, Crieff Hills
Nov 2 – ANiC Clergy Day, Victoria, BC
Nov 2 – ANiC lay conference, Victoria, BC
Nov 3-4 – ANiC synod, Victoria, BC
Nov 10-11 – Anglican1000’s Liturgy &
the Arts conference, Durham, NC
Nov 13 – International
Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
Mar 6-8 – Anglican 1000’s 2012 Church Planting Summit in Plano, TX.
June 7-9 – ACNA Provincial Assembly, Ridgecrest,
NC
News –
Anglican Church in North America (ACNA)
Inspiring story of
how God provided a church building for an ACNA congregation
The Anglican1000 website has an encouraging account of how God provided a
church building, mortgage-free, for a congregation in San Jose where property
is prohibitively expensive. Anglican1000 is ACNA’s initiative to support church
planting.
News –
Canada
Bishop of Calgary to retire
The Anglican Journal reports that Bishop Derek Hoskin
of the Anglican Church of Canada Diocese of Calgary has announced his
retirement at the end of this year.
Renewal conference in Burlington, ON, November 5
For those not attending ANiC’s synod, there is a
renewal conference in Burlington entitled, Christ Our Renewal with guest
speaker Rev Charles Congram. Information is on the
conference website.
EFC defends religious
freedom before Supreme Court
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) – of
which ANiC is a member – will appear before the Supreme Court of Canada
on October 12 as an intervener in a court case that revolves around the issue
of religious freedom. They will argue that “if the
Court rules that one cannot act in a non-harmful way in public discourse based
on one’s foundational religious beliefs then one does not actually have
religious freedom, but only freedom to believe”. Information on the case is posted on the EFC website. We are
asked to pray for EFC’s Don Hutchinson who will speak before the court.
The current issue of EFC’s Faith Today
magazine examines the question “Can you say publicly what you
believe?”
News –
USA
Episcopal Church finally begins
its attack on Bishop Mark Lawrence
As expected, the Episcopal Church
(TEC) has begun moving to depose the Right Rev Mark Lawrence, the orthodox
bishop of the Diocese
of South Carolina, on charges of ‘abandoning the Communion of the Episcopal
Church”. In recent years, that diocese has acted to distance itself from its
revisionist national Church leadership and strengthen its autonomy. Links to TEC’s
63-page document chronicling its allegations as well as its letter of demands
sent to the diocese’s Standing Committee can be found on Canon Kendall Harmon’s blog. Among the litany
of charges are that the diocese allowed churches to leave and realign with the Anglican
Church in North America without pursuing legal action, the diocese actively
supports the Anglican Covenant, and that Bishop Lawrence, together with six other
orthodox TEC bishops met with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
According to a Charleston (South Carolina) Post and Courier article,
Bishop Lawrence received official word that “serious charges” had made against
him on September 29th and has called an emergency meeting of diocesan clergy
for October 11. The article clearly spells out what is at stake: “If the allegations of abandonment trigger legal action, the national
church feasibly could depose Lawrence as bishop, and if diocese officials opt
to sever ties with The Episcopal Church, the move could prompt property
disputes.”
A day
prior to receiving the letter notifying him of the charges, Bishop Lawrence
wrote responding to a TEC official’s claim that TEC was able to nullify the actions
taken by the Diocese of South Carolina to distance itself from TEC. In his feisty response,
Bishop Lawrence notes that, as a founding diocese in TEC, South Carolina is
exempt from the particular TEC decision in question; and, furthermore, the Executive
Council of TEC which issued the decision has no authority to do so.
Dr Ephraim
Radner has written a
response to the disciplinary process TEC has begun against Bishop Lawrence
in which he says this action is absurd, deceitful, malicious, as well as
morally repugnant – and will ultimately damage the Episcopal Church. He
says, “To put in motion a process of deposition over this kind of behavior is,
by implication, to put on trial the very commandments of Jesus Christ.” Dr Radner
concludes:
“Of course, the more practical consequence of this disciplinary
process is to weaken TEC itself. It is the case that Bp. Lawrence has walked a
careful line in keeping the Diocese of S. Carolina within TEC even while many
aspects of TEC’s official witness have deeply offended the faith of a good number
of her members. Yet he has done so, and the people of his diocese have followed
– a diocese that remains one of the few, if not perhaps the only, growing
diocese in TEC itself. To reward such a difficult pastoral accomplishment with allegations
of disloyalty and abandonment of the church is to declare openly and formally
to all such faithful members of TEC who have sought a way to maintain their
membership and witness in the face of much opposition that such membership and
witness is no longer welcome and will no longer be tolerated…. [The] fall-out
will prove self-fulfilling: the “abandonment” of TEC by many ardent and resourceful
Christians. Given the imploding financial and structural condition of the
national church and of many other individual dioceses, this can only strengthen
the church decline.
“I personally stand beside Bishop Lawrence... If he
has abandoned TEC, then…I have as well. Will you drive all of us out, Bishop Jefferts
Schori? I say as clearly as I can: Presiding Bishop, you have bankrupted your
apostolic office, broken your vows, and sullied this church, of which I and
others are still members despite your folly, and of which I am still proud to be
a member precisely because of bishops like Mark Lawrence…”
In his
commentary on this latest chapter in TEC’s inquisition, ANCA Bishop David
Anderson notes the “incredibly detailed and
ridiculous document comprising the list of charges” that was said to have been
submitted to TEC by Episcopalians in South Carolina who oppose the diocese’s
conservative bent, and says, “It looks like a carefully crafted and coordinated
product of a group of legal professionals” rather than parishioners. David Virtue in his
commentary notes that Bishop Lawrence is highly respected throughout
the diocese and TEC may have underestimated the level of support he has garnered.
Pertinent past statements from the Archbishop of Canterbury, affirming the sovereignty
of dioceses, have been compiled by Father
Dale Matson on his blog.
Diocese of Central Florida
distances itself from action of TEC General Convention
The Church of England
Newspaper reports that a special convention in the Diocese of Central
Florida, led by Bishop John Howe, decisively voted to distance the diocese from
the actions of the Episcopal Church (TEC) through a series of resolution. Like
the Diocese of South Carolina, however, Central Florida has taken no action to
realign out of TEC. Among other decisions, the diocese voted to discontinue its
contributions to the national church.
Wall Street Journal
article explores hypocrisy of the Episcopal Church
Secular US media seldom spotlight
the vindictiveness of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in its behaviour toward departing
orthodox congregations and clergy. But this October 7
article in the Wall Street Journal reveals TEC for what it is –
and it isn’t pretty. The article notes that 22 of the 38 provinces in the Anglican
Communion have declared themselves to be in broken or impaired fellowship with TEC;
that TEC’s Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has spent $22 million
pursuing orthodox clergy, congregations and dioceses in court; and that she would
rather see empty church buildings sold at fire-sale prices to become Mosques or
saloons rather than sold at market value to orthodox Anglican congregations. (Also,
see the video associated with the article.)
Washington National Cathedral
shake-up and shenanigans
VirtueOnline carries an interesting
article about a management shake-up at Washington’s National Cathedral
that immediately followed the physical shake-up from the August earthquake. Although
the departure of top management has been kept quiet, it seems to coincide with
extreme financial difficulties and the cathedrals efforts to access trust funds
to finance ongoing operating expenses. The cathedral has failed to post a full
financial report since 2008.
Other US news
Church
of England Newspaper – September 30 2011 – Ordinariate
falling short in US
Church
of England Newspaper – October 7 2011 – Seattle
bishop suspended
News –
International
From around the Communion and the
world
Central
Africa – The Archbishop of Canterbury has been
visiting Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, all part of the Church of Central
Africa. He met with Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe to discuss the harsh treatment of Anglicans and
clergy in that country and present him with
documentation of these abuses. While in Malawi, Archbishop Williams
praised early missionaries for ending the slave trade, saying “The Church
has done a great job in Africa.”
Pakistan – For a second straight year floors have ravaged much of Pakistan,
however, little humanitarian aid has been forthcoming. The Church of England
Newsletter says the UN reports 5.4 million people need assistance. Last
year 18 million were affected by the flooding.
Uganda –
The New York Times
reports that some 20,000 Ugandans were violently removed from their
homes and farms to make way for a tree plantation by a British forestry company,
backed by the World Bank and HSBC, that is seeking to acquire and sell valuable
“carbon credits” under the highly touted Kyoto Protocol. One 8 year old was
reportedly burned to death in his house as houses were razed to make way for a
tree farm.
Egypt – Compass
Direct News reports that churches continue to be torched by Egyptian
mobs enflamed by imams at Muslim Friday prayers. The mobs then tend to loot and
attack the businesses and homes of Christians. No one was killed in that attack
on September 30.
According
to an Associated
Press report, on October 9 what started as a peaceful demonstration
by Orthodox Christians protesting the violence they have suffered turned
violent with reports the Christians were attacked first by plain clothed thugs,
then by the military. The result was hundreds injured and 25-35 killed,
including a number who were mowed down by an army vehicle. Bishop Mouneer Anis,
Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, urgently asks for prayer.
The Guardian
provides insight into Egyptian politics and lays the blame at the
feet of the Salafists (radical Egyptian Muslims) and Egypt’s ruing junta. Inciting
violence against Christians – who form less than 10 per cent of Egypt’s
population – has long been used by those in power as tactic to shore up political
support. An ABC article also provides good background to this latest incident.
ACNA
Canon for provincial and global mission, Jack Lumanog has been in Egypt but was
to return to the US today.
North
Korea – An article in
the Harvard International Review discusses the horrifying evidence
of systemic genocide in North Korea and accuses the world powers of complicity by
refusing to confront the situation.
India – The Anglican
Communion News Service reports that the Church of North India has
elected a new moderator, the Most Rev Dr Philip Marandih, Bishop of the Diocese
of Patna.
More international news
Church of England
Newspaper – October 1 2011 – Jerusalem
residency row ends
New York Times –
October 6 2011 – Anglican
leader to seek meeting with Mugabe
Church of England
Newspaper – September 30 2011 – Clean sweep
in Ecuador
Church of England
Newspaper – September 30 2011 – New Primate
for South East Asia
Church of England
Newspaper – September 30 2011 – China opening
for Global South primates
Soul
food
Anglican Unscripted – a
weekly news video
Last
week’s Anglican
Unscripted weekly video news podcast covered:
• |
the
“politically correct” – but laughable – decision by the BBC to
eliminate references to BC and AD |
• |
the
decision by the Connecticut court to award the property of a church in that
state to TEC |
• |
the
death sentence hanging over Christian Pastor Youcef in Iran |
• |
the
turmoil in the Ecuadorian church resulting from TEC’s refusal to listen to the
wishes of the Ecuadorian national church when it imposed a bishop on the
diocese. |
• |
TEC’s
efforts to nullify decisions taken by the Diocese of South Carolina and pave
the way to take action against that diocese – or at least its bishop,
Bishop Mark Lawrence |
This week’s Anglican
Unscripted weekly video news podcast includes extensive discussion of TEC’s attack on the
Diocese of South Carolina in preparation to depose Bishop Mark Lawrence. The
commentators speculate that the diocese will be forced out of TEC and may join
the Anglican Church in North America.
One
life abortion didn’t claim
Patheos.com
has posted the story of a young woman, unmarried and pregnant, who chose in
1954 to give her baby to adoptive parents. Because this young woman chose life,
Steve Jobs had 56 years to revolutionize the way we communicate and, to some
degree, how we live. You can read the rest
here.
Ray Comfort has prepared an extraordinarily
powerful 33-minute
video posted to YouTube. It is called 180 and is well worth your
time. It shows how little people think about moral questions like abortion and
how their views can change when they see the truth from a different
perspective. The website HeartChanger.com has more information.
Resources
Persecution and perseverance – In this week’s 2
minute Anglican Perspectives video, Canon Phil Ashey, who will be a speaker at our November 2-4 conference and synod,
addresses the death sentence hanging over a Christian pastor in Iran, simply
because he won’t recant his faith. Canon Ashey urges us to pray for Pastor
Youcef Nadarkhani and asks "What would you do in his shoes?" [The
latest news from Iran is that Pastor Youcef’s fate will be decided by Ayatollah
Khamenei.]
Doing
vs devotion – Matt Perman, on his blog
Whatsbestnext.com, draws an good lesson, especially for those in
Christian ministry, from the juxtaposition of the parable of the Good Samaritan
and the story of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of Luke. He concludes: “The lesson: Do indeed be radical in doing
good, just like the Good Samaritan (v 37). But don’t take this to mean that you
should be scrambling around frantically, over-committing yourself and becoming
over busy. We ought to sacrifice and endure hardship. But don’t let your
service to others distract you from the ultimate reason for your service, which
is Jesus himself… don’t neglect devoted time to worship and prayer and reading
the Bible. The point of seeing these things together here in Luke 10 is that
there is enough time for both. Don’t let your service turn into frenetic
anxiety.”
Just for fun
A
college professor, known for his arrogance, met his new class on the first day
of school with his usual lengthy introduction to the course, extolling his
expertise and his qualifications.
Upon
completing his monologue, he smugly looked around the room and asked his
students "If any of you think you are stupid, stand up." Not one
student stood. So he asked the same question again, "If anyone thinks they
are stupid, please stand up."
Still
no one stood, until one lanky young man in the back of the room slowly rose to
his feet. The professor asked, "Do you think you are stupid?"
The
first year student replied, "No, but I felt badly for you standing there
by yourself."
www.mikeysFunnies.com
Thoughts
Those
who bring sunshine into the lives of others will bask in its warmth.
The
smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention
Please pray...
For the Rev Marilyn Flower and those grieving the Rev
Stephen Flower’s passing.
For the
new deacons at St Aidan’s Windsor: the Revs Phil Rutledge and Colleen McLeod.
For missionaries from ANiC churches, including Audrey
and Norm Henderson in Angola.
For ANiC churches in Ontario involved in property
disputes: St Aidan’s (Windsor), St George’s (Burlington), St Hilda’s (Oakville)
and Good Shepherd (St Catharines).
For synod planning and preparations.
For our bishops,
clergy and lay leaders, and their families – especially those in
need of healing.
For ANiC
projects, church plants and parishes, and for their proclamation of the
Good News to those in their communities who desperately need new life in
Christ.
For ARDFC’s new Congo project which is helping
war-torn communities return to faming and which promotes peace-making. May God
use it to bless Congolese and
bring many to Christ.
For persecuted Christians in Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sudan and China
– and especially for those suffering unimaginable atrocities in North
Korea, Eritrea & Somalia.
For those ministering in the famine areas in the Horn
of Africa. Pray that the Islamist militias in Somalia will relent and allow aid
to safely enter territories where people are starving.
For the nation of Israel. Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem.
For the GAFCon Primates & Fellowship of
Confessing Anglican leaders as they plan meetings of Biblically faithful
Anglicans in 2012 & 2013. Pray also for the new Anglican Mission in
England.
For all
those in positions of leadership and influence in the Anglican Communion, that they would honour and obey God above all
else.
For repentance and revival in our hearts and in our nation, for a
hunger for God and His Word.
And now
a word from our sponsor
Praise
is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.
O you
who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.
When
iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.
Blessed
is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!
We
shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your
temple!
By
awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the
hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his
strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the
roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that
those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You
make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
You
visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full
of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
You
water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and
blessing its growth.
You
crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
The
pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the
meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they
shout and sing together for joy.
Psalm 65
ESV
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