"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." (John 4:23)

• Episcopal Church's Executive Council Meets: Affirms 'Inclusion' and More  
• SC Bishop-elect in Danger of Not Receiving Consent
• Archbishop of Canterbury Writes Pastoral Letter to Primates
• Nigerian Bishops Pledge "Enthusiastic Support" for CANA

EPISCOPAL CHURCH'S EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEETS:
Affirms Inclusion, Addresses $3.8 million Deficit, Creates Task Force for Communion Concerns

Source:  The Living Church
By Steve Waring
March 4, 2007

"Task Force to Study Anglican Communion Concerns"

Executive Council devoted the majority of the public portion of its March 2-4 meeting in Portland, Ore., to ‘mission’, postponing a formal responses to both the Feb. 19 primates’ communiqué and to a proposed Anglican Covenant which was released during the recent meeting of senior Anglican leaders.

“We are conscious that this is the first meeting of a major deliberative body of the church in the wake of the primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,” the council stated in a letter. “We are in the process of discerning what it means to be members of a global and multicultural Anglican Communion, autonomous yet interdependent, diverse yet living a common life as a family of churches.”

Council authorized the presiding officers (the Presiding Bishop and the president of the House of Deputies) to appoint a work group “to consider the role, responsibilities and potential response of the Executive Council to the issues raised by the primates’ communiqué,” stated resolution EC-008. The task force, which is to be chaired by Bonnie Anderson, president of the House of Deputies, is to prepare a report in time for the June 2007 Executive Council meeting in Parsippany, N.J.

The task force on the proposed Anglican Covenant will work with the Church’s representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council and report back in time for the October 2007 Executive Council meeting.

By April 15, that task force will prepare a text to the covenant which “explains the implications of each section,” states a memorandum. The text and the draft covenant will be distributed for comment “specifically to the following: the House of Bishops, the deputies to General Convention, and the standing committees of each diocese.” Comments must be received by June 9.

“This report will become The Episcopal Church’s official response to the Covenant Design Group by the Jan. 1, 2008 deadline,” the memorandum states. “This committee will be appointed by the presiding officers and will be broadly representative of the many constituencies and voices of our diverse Church.”

This was the first full legislative session of the new triennium for Executive Council and by canon, the council was required to address a projected $3.8 million deficit caused primarily by a combination of lower than expected pledge payments from dioceses and higher than anticipated legal expenses due to expected property litigation and Title IV disciplinary cases.

To address the deficit, council approved Resolution AF-21, which called for increasing the investment income payout ratio from 5 percent to 5.5 percent and taking an amount not to exceed $2.3 million from short term reserves for 2007 only. The approved resolution also called for establishment of a task force “to look at steps and strategies necessary to achieve a balanced budget in 2008 and 2009” without increasing the payout ratio or drawing down reserves. The task force is also authorized to “develop strategies for increasing participation and accountability by dioceses that are not fully meeting their commitment to budget for the Episcopal Church.”...  Continued Here

SOUTH CAROLINA BISHOP-ELECT IN DANGER OF NOT RECEIVING CONSENT

Source:  The Charleston Post and Courier
BY ADAM PARKER
March 9, 2007

"Episcopal Bishop-elect Confirms Loyalty"

In a last-minute attempt to dispel concern and win approval from a majority of Episcopal Church standing committees, the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence, bishop-elect for the Diocese of South Carolina, has  written a letter  affirming his intention to abide by the church's constitution and canons.

"To put it as clearly as I can," he wrote, "my intention is to remain in the Episcopal church."

As of Thursday, Lawrence had secured 50 "yes" votes, or consents. All votes must be postmarked by the Monday deadline. If Lawrence fails to get 56 consents, the diocese likely will arrange for a new election.

Retiring Bishop Edward Salmon recently was appointed interim bishop until a new leader is in the position.

Lawrence's election has been controversial, in part because of statements and indications he has made concerning his priorities and goals.

The Diocese of South Carolina was among several dioceses that asked for an alternative primatial relationship - oversight by someone other than Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church - and has become part of the Anglican Communion Network, which espouses an orthodox theology that interprets Scripture strictly.

The dispute within the Episcopal church was exacerbated when Gene Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. Robinson is gay. Since then a minority of Episcopalians opposed to gay marriage and ordination have sought to remedy the conflict either by demanding the church repudiate its position on gay ordination or by seeking a "realignment" with another part of the Anglican Communion.

Lawrence called the controversy a "clash of ideologies." Some like to frame the conflict as one between advocates of social justice and advocates of Biblical doctrine, he said. Marriage between a man and a woman is a theme that starts with Genesis, ends with Revelation and "runs as a major current all the way through Scripture," he said in a recent interview.

"This is much bigger than just what Leviticus says, or Paul in Romans."

Many of those who advocate a "broad church" approach, balancing the authority of Scripture with that of reason and tradition, bristle at the suggestion that Scripture is not important to them.

"The literalists do not have exclusive claim to the 'authority' of the Bible, whatever that is," said Steve Skardon, an Episcopalian who runs an unofficial Web site about the church. "Both sides ... are trusting the 'authority' of Scripture. Those who believe in the full inclusion of all peoples in the Body of Christ are just as Biblically centered as the literalists. The literalists conveniently ignore the fact that their 'authority' is not an original author of the Bible but some unknown, unnamed translator with human limitations and prejudices."

It remained unclear Thursday whether Lawrence would secure the 56 "yes" votes needed to become bishop.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY WRITES PASTORAL LETTER TO PRIMATES

Full text of Archbishop Williams' letter   (from Lambeth Palace)

Source: Church Times
By Pat Ashworth
March 9, 2007

"Williams Tells US Church to Get a Move on With Reforms"

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has called for generosity and graciousness in the aftermath of the Primates’ Meeting in Tanzania (News, 23 February).

In a letter to all the Primates, released on Monday, he acknowledges that the meeting in February had been “far from an easy few days”, but suggests that it was marked by honest conversation and a direct facing of the Communion’s tensions.

He also sets out the immediate steps needed to implement decisions made in Tanzania. Against the background of the 30 September deadline imposed on the Episcopal Church in the United States, these would include the swift setting up of a pastoral council to work with the Presiding Bishop, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori. This will appoint a Primatial Vicar to oversee dissenting congregations. (*See note (1) below.)

The proposals should be taken with “all seriousness and dispatch”, the Archbishop says. “Once a sufficiently strong scheme is in place within the Episcopal Church, then this should be sufficient for all dissenting congregations and dioceses to find their home within it.” Dr Williams says that nominations for two Primates to serve on the Council should reach him by 16 March. (*See note (2) below.) They will, he suggests, need skills in canon law, administration, and mediation, as well as pastoral insight and availability.

Dr Williams affirms the “shared conviction” of the Windsor report as the way ahead; the Anglican Covenant as “the clearest way for our mutual trust and interdependent life to be renewed in the longer term”; and Lambeth 1.10 as the “standard of teaching on matters of sexual morality for the Communion”.

While acknowledging that the Primates can offer the Episcopal Church only advice and suggestions, he emphasises: “We cannot wait for another General Convention for further clarification [on the issues of human sexuality].” A readiness by the leadership of the Episcopal Church “to live by that same formal standard of teaching on these matters which applies elsewhere in the Communion is perhaps the first and most important step in the way forward”.

What the Primates have done, says Dr Williams, is to “indicate very clearly those steps which would enable all those provinces currently in a state of broken or impaired communion with the Episcopal Church to see significant movement towards healing and reconciliation, and towards the sort of unity by which the gospel may most fittingly be proclaimed”.

In a live webcast after the meeting, Dr Jefferts Schori said of the interventions by foreign bishops: “Whatever you may think of these acts, it behoves us as Christians to believe they acted in good faith, until we are confronted by evidence to the contrary. They are seeking to offer pastoral care to the minority among us who disagree vehemently with the direction and decisions of recent General Conventions.”

Dr Jefferts Schori encouraged the Church to see the Primatial Vicar proposal “in its most gracious container. The expectation is that the interventions will cease once the processes are functioning.” She indicated: “We are called to pause and not to go backward. I think we have been clear about affirming the equal dignity of all human beings. I see no desire of any in our Church to retreat from that position.”

The Episcopal Church’s executive council made a strong statement of inclusion last weekend: “We wish clearly to affirm that our position as a Church is to welcome all persons, particularly those perceived to be least among us. We wish to reaffirm to our lesbian and gay members that they remain a welcome and integral part of the Episcopal Church.”

Anglican women gathered at the 51st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women reiterated their unequivocal commitment to remaining in communion with one another.

Individual bishops continue to speak about inclusion. The Bishop of New Jersey, the Rt Revd George Councell, told his diocesan convention: “We are called to minister in New Jersey. New Jersey is not Tanzania. New Jersey is not Nigeria. New Jersey is not any of the 29 countries in the African continent where homosexuality is a criminal offence. We minister in a radically different context.”

The Bishop of Florida, the Rt Revd John Howard, reflected on the contrast of polity, and on structural misunderstanding in the Communion. “Some of these provinces have all-powerful Primates who hire and fire bishops and priests as they wish, and who dictate from above the philosophical and theological tenets by which their followers must abide.”

It was, he said, “unhelpful for ultimatums with deadlines to be issued to our Church from abroad. . . For a heavy hand to be lifted over us from across the seas, for a spiritual stop-watch to be activated, can produce no long-term good.”

Changing Attitude Scotland added a new dimension to the debate in pointing out that, on the day the Tanzania communiqué was issued, the Church of Sweden had agreed rites of same-sex blessing.

“The Church of Sweden is in full communion with the Scottish Episcopal Church. Through its own synodical processes, the Church of Sweden has now agreed a text for the blessing of gay people,” a statement said on Tuesday.

“We note that there has been no condemnation of the actions of the Swedish Church from the Anglican Primates during this extensive process, nor from any of the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. We are glad that this is so, and recognise that this illustrates very clearly that the actions of the Primates towards the Episcopal Church in the US are primarily political rather than theological.”

Leanne Larmondin, web manager for the Anglican Church of Canada, has described news that the Archbishop of Canterbury is to join the Canadian House of Bishops at their April meeting as “all the more surprising, because many had believed Archbishop Williams to be taking great pains to appease the Church in the Global South and some of the more combative conservatives in Canada and the Episcopal Church”.

*AAC Note: There are two errors of fact in the story:

(1) The Communiqué says the bishops supporting the Camp Allen principles (i.e. the "Windsor Bishops") - NOT the Pastoral Council - will nominate the Primatial Vicar "in consultation with the [Pastoral] Council and with the consent of the Presiding Bishop."

(2) The Communiqué says the chair of the Pastoral Council will be a primate chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but it does not specify that the other members be primates. Specifically, the document said, "This Council shall consist of up to five members: two nominated by the Primates, two by the Presiding Bishop, and a Primate of a Province of the Anglican Communion nominated by the Archbishop of Canterbury to chair the Council."

NIGERIAN BISHOPS PLEDGE "ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT" FOR CANA

Source:  Church of Nigeria News
March 5, 2007

A Statement from the House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)

On Sunday March 4, 2007, twenty new bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) were consecrated in a glorious celebration attended by more than 7000 people. Among those present were the Primate of West Africa, the Most Rev’d Justice Akrofi, Archbishop of Ghana, and our ecumenical partner, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, the Most Rev’d John Onayekan.

At the end of the Consecration Service the House of Bishops met to elect six new Bishops, one for the vacant See of Katsina, and five for the dioceses created at the General Synod in Sokoto held in February. The elections were as follows:

1. Diocese of Katsina, the Ven. Jonathan Bamaiyi
2. Diocese of Nike, the Ven. Evans Ibeagha
3. Diocese of Ikwerre, the Ven. Blessing Eyinda
4. Diocese of Egba-West, the Ven. Samuel Ajani
5. Diocese of Isiala-Ngwa, the Venn. Owen Azubuike
6. Diocese of Aba-Ngwa North, the Ven. John Ezirim

We also heard a report from the Bishop of CANA, the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, on the growth of the ministry in the USA and pledged our enthusiastic support for this vital mission initiative of our Church. We welcomed the news that the Rt. Rev’d David Bena, recently retired Suffragen Bishop of Albany, has now transferred to the Church of Nigeria to assist with the work of CANA.

In light of the report from the recent meeting of Primates in Dar es Salaam we agreed to defer the request for additional Episcopal elections for CANA until our meeting in September 2007.

The House of Bishops expressed profound gratitude to Archbishop Peter J. Akinola and his colleagues in the Global South for the strong stand taken at the meeting, together with the gracious leadership of Archbishop Rowan Williams, and continue to pray that the Anglican Communion can move forward in truth and unity.

“Now to him who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24,25)

Signed,

The Most Rev’d Peter J. Akinola, CON,
Archbishop, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria
March 5, 2007