"Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"                                                                        Isaiah 49:6
 

• January Encompass
• Archbishop Rowan Williams writes to the Primates of the Anglican Communion
• St. John’s severs ties with national Episcopalians
• Pittsburgh: Parish asks court to protect Diocesan property
• Canada: Anglicans to cut Synod short

The January issue of the AAC's monthly newsletter, Encompass, is scheduled to be mailed today and should arrive in your mailboxes shortly! This issue is longer than normal and features a "2006 in Review" summary insert.

If you would like to be added to our Encompass mailing list, please reply to this message and include your full name and mailing address.

ARCHBISHOP ROWAN WILLIAMS WRITES TO THE PRIMATES OF THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION

Source:   TitusOneNine
 
18 December 2006

To the Primates of the Anglican Communion:

During the last few weeks, I have been privileged to spend time first in China and then in Rome – two environments as different as could be, yet both giving abundant signs of the faithfulness of God to his people. The survival and growth of the Church in China is one of the great miracles of our time, and I know that several of you have witnessed something of this at first hand and are eager to find ways of supporting and assisting our brothers and sisters there. In Rome, I was able for the first time to visit the catacombs and to see there the evidence of the same faithfulness, as I looked at the ancient representations of costly witness painted on the walls – the images of the young men in the fiery furnace, Noah in the ark and the haunting and simple picture of the praying woman with hands raised, who is the symbol of the Church itself in its patient endurance. God is with us as he has promised, and in ways we cannot always see clearly. Also in Rome, I had the immense privilege of sharing in a celebration of the martyrdom in 2003 of our own Melanesian Brothers who gave their lives for reconciliation in a time of civil war. In persecution, conflict or obscurity, God is still present and powerfully active. In this Advent season, the great fact we are reminded of is that he is to be trusted in all things.

As Christmas approaches, preparations continue to be made for the Primates’ Meeting in February in Tanzania. A provisional outline of the programme is almost ready – but I am particularly glad that we shall have opportunity to celebrate in the cathedral in Zanzibar the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 1806, another great sign of God’s faithfulness and of what can be achieved by Christ’s disciples when they resist the powers of this world.
 
This meeting will be, of course, an important and difficult and important encounter, with several moments of discernment and decision to be faced, and a good deal of work to be done on our hopes for the Lambeth Conference, and on the nature and shape of the Covenant that we hope will assist us in strengthening our unity as a Communion.

There are two points I wish to touch on briefly. The first is a reminder of what our current position actually is in relation to the Episcopal Church. This Province has agreed to withdraw its representation from certain bodies in the Communion until Lambeth 08; and the Joint Standing Committee has appointed a sub-group which has been working on a report to develop our thinking as to how we should as a meeting interpret the Episcopal Church’s response so far to the Windsor recommendations. In other words, questions remain to be considered about the Episcopal Church’s relations with other Provinces (though some Provinces have already made their position clear). I do not think it wise or just to take any action that will appear to bring that consideration and the whole process of our shared discernment to a premature end.

This is why I have decided not to withhold an invitation to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the elected Primate of the Episcopal Church to attend the forthcoming meeting. I believe it is important that she be given a chance both to hear and to speak and to discuss face to face the problems we are confronting together. We are far too prone to talk about these matters from a distance, without ever having to face the human reality of those from whom we differ. However, given the acute dissension in the Episcopal Church at this point, and the very widespread effects of this in the Communion, I am also proposing to invite two or three other contributors from that Province for a session to take place before the rest of our formal business, in which the situation may be reviewed, and I am currently consulting as to how this is best organised.

The Episcopal Church is not in any way a monochrome body and we need to be aware of the full range of conviction within it. I am sure that other Primates, like myself, will welcome the clear declarations by several bishops and diocesan conventions (including those dioceses represented at the Camp Allen meeting earlier this year) of their unequivocal support for the process and recommendations of the Windsor Report. There is much to build upon here. There are many in TEC who are deeply concerned as to how they should secure their relationships with the rest of the Communion; I hope we can listen patiently to these anxieties.
My second point is to underline the importance of planning constructively for Lambeth 08. If we become entirely paralysed by our continuing struggles to resolve the challenges posed by decisions in North America, we shall lose a major opportunity for strengthening our common life. The recent St Augustine’s seminar which considered the Lambeth agenda was agreed by all to have been an outstandingly positive week, which has laid out a programme I believe to be worthy of our hopes for the Conference, and which was wholeheartedly owned and approved by people from very different regions and points of view within the seminar group. I do not want to lose that energy. I want to see it channelled properly into projects for better equipping ourselves as bishops and all our pastors and teachers, and into the work we all agree we must do in response to the crying needs created by poverty and violence in our world.

The question of invitations to Lambeth has been raised several times, in relation to the status of TEC, and indeed other Provinces. I shall seek the advice of the meeting on this. I am aware that decisions must be made soon, and I mention it primarily to alert you to the issues that lie ahead and to commend all this to your prayers over the coming season. But it illustrates the point I have made recently to the St Augustine’s Seminar and other groups: at the moment, we urgently need to create a climate of greater trust within the Communion, and to reinforce institutions and conventions that will serve that general climate in a global way. During my visit to the Pope in November, it was very clear that our ecumenical partners are looking to us not only to strengthen our bonds of ecclesial community and the coherence of our Christian witness, but also to show a hopeful and Christian spirit in resolving our current problems. Our partners are praying very intensely for us in this task, and their prayer deepens my own sense of resolve, as I am sure it will yours.

I should also mention that I have accepted the recommendation of the Joint Standing Committee that the Archbishop of York should be invited to the forthcoming meeting, so that there is a distinction between the two roles of speaking for the Church of England and chairing and moderating the meeting overall.

But finally, to end where I began, our reliance must be fundamentally upon God’s faithfulness. Whatever lies ahead, our God is the God who was present in the Roman catacombs with the martyrs and who has led his people in China through half a century of oppression and distress. Immanuel, God-with-us in Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, is our sole hope and our life, today, tomorrow and for ever. May God help us to honour his inexpressible gift by our faithfulness, forbearance and mutual love.

With every blessing for the Christmas season and the New Year.
Yours ever in Christ,
Rowan

(The Most Rev. Dr.) Rowan Williams is Archbishop of Canterbury)

  ST. JOHN'S SEVERS TIES WITH NATIONAL EPISCOPALIANS

Source:   Petaluma (California) Argus Courier
By Dan Johnson
Published: December 27, 2006

After considerable soul-searching, St. John’s Episcopal Church of Petaluma voted on Dec. 17 to sever its 150-year relationship with The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Northern California due to theological differences over sexuality and other moral issues.

After V. Gene Robinson, a divorced man who began living in an openly gay relationship, was elected the TEC’s bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, the ongoing morality debate between conservative and progressive members heated up in Episcopal churches throughout the country.

“That incident was the initial catalyst that led the Anglican Church into a divisive mode, but it’s only one example of the moral and ethical differences between orthodox members, who have a more historic and conservative view of the Bible, and progressive members, whom orthodox members call ‘revisionists’ because they feel they look at historical document from a new light and an ‘anything goes’ perspective,” said the Rev. Dr. Lu T. Nguyen, the canon lawyer for St. John’s.

St. John’s, which has approximately 230 members, the vast majority of them Caucasian, has been struggling with the more liberal perspectives of the TEC for the past three years, and on Dec. 17 voted in a parish meeting to sever the relationship. Nguyen said that the church is not revealing the actual vote totals, but said that the majority compares favorably with other Anglican churches that have had a 93 percent vote in favor of severing ties from the TEC.

At the meeting, St. John’s also voted to change its name to St. John’s Anglican Church and to seek association with an orthodox diocese within the Anglican Communion.

Nguyen said that because no members voiced strong opposition to the decisions, the harmony among the members of St. John’s should not suffer. But “it’s too early to tell” about how the decision to sever ties with the TEC will impact St. John’s, he added.

While noting that the differences between conservatives and progressives are substantial, Nguyen is hopeful that the two groups will be able to agree on a common ground.

“There always is an opportunity for reconciliation, and I’m hopeful that it will happen,” he said.

PITTSBURGH: PARISH ASKS COURT TO PROTECT DIOCESAN PROPERTY

Source:   Episcopal News Service
By: Mary Frances Schjonberg
Posted: December 22, 2006
 
Calvary Episcopal Church (http://www.calvarypgh.org/) returned to civil court December 19, asking a judge to enforce a ruling prohibiting the Diocese of Pittsburgh from transferring title or the use of any real or personal property to any entity outside of the Episcopal Church. The petition was filed by Calvary Church; its rector, the Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis; Philip Richard Roberts; and Herman S. Harvey. All three men were involved in a 2003 lawsuit against the diocese, the settlement of which they now want a judge to enforce. At the time of the 2003 lawsuit Roberts was Calvary's senior warden and Harvey was a parishioner of St. Stephen's Church, Sewickley, Pennsylvania.

The plaintiffs believe that "despite assertions to the contrary -- persons and property within the Diocese are effectively being removed or have been removed from the Episcopal Church" in the wake of the diocesan convention's decision in early November to request a relationship with a primate other than Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and to withdraw consent to membership in the Episcopal Church's Province III.

The constitution of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Anglican Communion's main policy-making body, makes no provisions for alternative primatial oversight. Neither do the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church.

"The diocese firmly believes the matters presented in the petition were either finally resolved by the settlement of October 2005 or of such a nature that, if they are to be pursued, they can only be pursued in a new and separate lawsuit," the diocese said in a statement on its website. "There have been no breaches of the settlement agreement by the diocese, the bishops, or committees sued." 

In the statement, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan said: "It is a sad thing to see Calvary Church, which over the years has been part of so much that was good in the diocese, once again attempt to use the secular legal system as a lever to enforce its own version of being Episcopalian on the majority here. We fully expect to defeat this effort. We will continue to protect the rights and resources of all Pittsburgh Episcopalians."

In October 2005, a Pennsylvania state court judge approved a settlement in the lawsuit, which challenged a 2003 diocesan convention resolution asserting that congregations own their buildings and that neither the diocese nor national church structures could claim them if a parish decides to leave.

According to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, dioceses are created or dissolved only by acts of General Convention (Articles V and VI) and dioceses create or dissolve Episcopal congregations in their midst. Congregational property is held in trust for the diocese, and the diocese holds property in trust for the wider church.

The Calvary settlement, announced October 14, 2005, stated that even if the majority of the diocese's congregations decide not to remain in the Episcopal Church, any diocesan real estate and endowments would be held by the remaining diocesan structure.

Calvary's December 19 court petition asks that the 2005 settlement be enforced because it claims that Duncan, among others, signed a "pledge of allegiance" to a number of Anglican primates from outside the United States during a mid-November meeting with them in Virginia. The petition claims that those present at the meeting "discussed strategies, to be dictated by the foreign primates, to facilitate the creation of a separate ecclesiastical structure in the United States."

Such an entity was called for the by Kigali Statement issued in September by some of the Anglican primates of the global south.

Calvary's filing asks for an accounting of the use of all the diocese's real and personal property since 2003, various methods to prevent transfer of that property outside the Episcopal Church, and appointment of a trustee to oversee the property, coupled with a declaration that Duncan and Assistant Bishop Henry Scriven have "renounced and repudiated their fiduciary responsibilities" regarding the property.

In a motion filed December 20, Calvary asks that the court speed up the disclosure of information it requests the diocese turn over to it so that it can make its case on the petition to the court. The normal time for such so-called "discovery" is 30 days; the parish asked for a 21-day limit.

Calvary says the limited time frame is needed in part because the court should rule on its petition before the scheduled meeting of the primates of the Anglican Communion February 11-19, 2007 in Tanzania. The petition says that some of the primates and Duncan are planning to use the meeting to further their efforts to set up an alternative Anglican structure in the United States.

The collection of court filings dating to the initial 2003 filing is available here (http://prothonotary.county.allegheny.pa.us/CaseDetails.asp?AnotherCaseID=TRUE&CaseID=GD-03-020941&ComingFromWelcomeScreen=&BeginDate=&EndDate=&From=). Many of the documents number more than 300 pages and take considerable time to download.

ANGLICANS TO CUT SYNOD SHORT

Source:   Halifax, Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald
Date: December 28, 2006

TORONTO (CP) — Budget constraints have forced the Anglican Church of Canada to shorten next year’s meeting of its governing body by one day.

General synod, which meets every three years, will fit its deliberations in Winnipeg next June into six days instead of the usual full week, according to the Anglican Journal’s website www.anglicanjournal.com.

The 350-plus delegates will face a busy agenda, from the election of a new primate, or head of the church, to the official welcoming of the church’s first national aboriginal bishop.
Delegates will also mull over the role of gays and lesbians in the church’s ministry, an issue that is threatening to splinter the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Dean Peter Elliott told the Journal that while he shares the concern raised by the abbreviated schedule, "you’ve got to work with the time you’ve got, and we could meet at general synod for two to three weeks and still say there isn’t enough time."

Elliott was elected prolocutor, the second highest office in the national church, at the last general synod in 2004. His term comes to an end at the Winnipeg event.