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  ANiC Newsletter: 10 October, 2011 ... pdf version
    

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.

EgyptCompass 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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