| Friday, June 15, 2007
“For the word of the cross is
folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God.”
1 Corinthians 1:18
- May Communiqué Compliance Report Available
- Kenyan Primate to Consecrate Bishop for U.S.
Congregations
- TEC Executive Council Declines Primates'
Pastoral Scheme, Puts Orthodox Dioceses on Notice
- South Carolina Diocese Schedules Re-vote for
Bishop
- Canadian Anglicans Prepare for Crucial General
Synod
May Communiqué Compliance Report Available
The third report of the American Anglican Council's (AAC)
Communiqué Compliance Office (CCO) has been posted online and is available
in PDF format on the AAC Web site. You may also download the report directly
at the following link:
Download CCO Report No. 3
In addition, for background information on the CCO and its
purpose, view this
press release.
Kenyan Primate to Consecrate Bishop for U.S.
Congregations
Source: The
Living Church
June 12, 2007
"Kenyan Primate to Consecrate Former Episcopalian as
U.S. Bishop"
The Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi, Primate of Kenya, has
announced he will consecrate the Rev. Canon Bill Atwood as a suffragan
bishop to oversee the U.S.-based congregations of the Anglican Church of
Kenya (ACK).
The Aug. 30 consecration of Canon Atwood as “Suffragan
Bishop of All Saints' Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi” is “part of a broader and
coordinated plan with other provinces,” Archbishop Nzimbi said on June 12,
to “support
the international interests of the Anglican Church of
Kenya, including support of Kenyan clergy and congregations in North
America.”
An undisclosed number of Global South primates are
expected to participate in Canon Atwood’s consecration in Nairobi and are
expected to work with the Kenyan Church in forming a “North American
Anglican Coalition.”
The coalition will “provide a safe haven for those who
maintain historic Anglican faith and practice, and offer a way to live and
work together in the furtherance of the gospel,” the statement said.
Archbishop Nzimbi stated The Episcopal Church had torn the
fabric of the Anglican Communion and the House of Bishops had “exacerbated”
the damage by failing to provide adequate pastoral care for the “faithful”
and for rejecting the pastoral council “offered through the primates in
their communiqué from Dar es Salaam.”
The impetus for a Kenyan bishop to the U.S. came at a Jan.
13-14 meeting in Memphis, Tenn., between Archbishop Nzimbi and the clergy
and lay leaders of 17 American AKC congregations. The congregations
petitioned Archbishop Nzimbi to create a missionary diocese for the 25
U.S.-based congregations of Kenyan expatriates and American traditionalists
under his care.
Archbishop Nzimbi told the Memphis gathering he would
bring their request to the February primates' meeting. “We must go slowly
and assure that in every step we are giving honor and glory to God,” he told
the meeting, according to a Jan. 15 article in the Memphis Commercial
Appeal.
The consecration of Canon Atwood, a former Episcopalian
and general secretary of The Ekklesia Society, will mark the third time an
African Anglican province has created a missionary jurisdiction in the
United States. The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) operates under
the aegis of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda, while the Convocation of
Anglicans in North America (CANA) is overseen by the Church of Nigeria.
Several other overseas provinces, including Central Africa and the Southern
Cone, also exercise jurisdiction over U.S.-based parishes.
Episcopal Executive Council Declines Primates'
Pastoral Scheme, Puts Orthodox Dioceses on Notice
The Episcopal Church's (TEC's) Executive Council declined
participation in the Pastoral Scheme proposed by the Anglican primates in
their February 2007 Dar es Salaam Communiqué-a scheme that has also been
rejected by the U.S. Church's House of Bishops. According to the Episcopal
News Service release about the meeting, the Council "told the Anglican
Communion June 14 that no governing body other than General Convention can
interpret Convention resolutions or agree to deny 'future decisions by
dioceses or General Convention'...The action came June 14 on the last day of
a four-day meeting at the Sheraton hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey."
In addition, the Council issued a resolution regarding
orthodox ("disaffected") dioceses that have moved to distance themselves
from the Church. The Living Church reported: "In other news, council
approved a resolution declaring 'null and void' attempts by a number of
dioceses to revise their constitution to qualify their accession to the
Constitution and Canons of the General Convention." The resolution passed by
Council read: "Any amendment to a diocesan constitution that purports in any
way to limit or lessen an unqualified accession to the constitution of The
Episcopal Church is null and void, and be it further resolved that the
amendments passed to the constitutions of the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Fort
Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin, which purport to limit or lessen the
unqualified accession to the constitution of The Episcopal Church are
accordingly null and void and the constitutions of those dioceses shall be
as they were as if such amendments had not been passed."
Read the full Executive Council statement, along with
corresponding commentary from Episcopal News Service,here
.
Coverage by The Living Church is here
.
South Carolina Dioceses schedule re-vote on bishop
Source: The
Post and Courier
June 10, 2007
Representatives of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina
gathered Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church on James Island to vote to
continue where the 216th diocesan convention left off late last year,
reconvening delegates for the purpose of electing a new bishop.
Though some church officials expressed concerns over the
procedures adopted to reconvene as well as the perceptions of church
officials outside the diocese, all but a few dissenters voted to proceed as
planned in an effort to fast-track the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence into the
bishop's office.
This entailed suspending Rule 21 of Canon 31, which was
established in late 2005 for the purpose of electing a new bishop but which
would have required officials this time to start from scratch with a new
convention, a new set of delegates, a new Electing Convention and a new set
of candidates. That standard process could have taken a year, Bishop Edward
Salmon said.
Read the rest of the article here.
Canadian Anglicans Prepare for Crucial General
Synod
Please pray for the Anglican Church of Canada’s triennial
meeting to be held next week beginning Tuesday, June 19 and ending Monday,
June 25 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Canadian church faces similar choices as
the U.S. church faced last year at its General Convention with regard to its
relationship with the Anglican Communion and commitment to biblical
standards for morality.
The church’s news service reported yesterday from Toronto:
“More than 400 people including delegates, partners and staff will gather in
Winnipeg next week for the Anglican Church of Canada's 38th General Synod --
a crucial assembly that will elect a new national leader or Primate and once
again tackle the difficult and divisive issue of the blessing of same-gender
relationships…” (More here)
Note: Canada’s General Synod 2007 Web page is here. |
