If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the text of the resolution:
That this Synod, aware of the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada
a) recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family
b) acknowledge that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further; and
c) invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011
Votes for 309, against 69, abstentions 17
Motions to pass to next business and to adjourn the debate were lost.
Notice that Canada is included. There’s a ton of comment all over the blogosphere, but I like David Virtue’s take:
First of all, the resolution said orthodox Episcopalians are indeed being persecuted by revisionists; however much TEC leaders whine that the brokenness is caused by those leaving, the resolution says otherwise.
Secondly, the resolution said that these faithful orthodox Anglicans want to remain in the Anglican family and not become outsiders. In fact, it did more than that. It was a wedge that will, in time, lead to a full chair at the Anglican Communion table.
…the rest of David’s piece here.
My Sabbath is on a Wednesday this week. Some interesting bits from my blog reading this morning:
More Anglican good news
…this time from The Rev’d Dr. John W. Yates II who lists the good things about Anglicanism. At its best, Anglicanism:
- is Biblical
- is Sacramental
- is Evangelical
- is Liturgical
- is Worldwide
- is Charismatic
- is about Accountability (we have bishops)
- is Musical
- Engages society and the world us
- is Prayerful
- is a Community of Grace
- loves Children
- loves Beauty
All here (H/T VirtueOnline).
What Marriage and Leadership Have in Common
In our Sabbath devotional this morning, Jude and I read this:
Contrary to hundreds of Hollywood romance movies, marriage is not primarily designed to make us happy. God is not primarily interested in our happiness, but in something deeper and more lasting: our holiness. Or we might say that God is so interested in our long-term happiness — our eternal joy, which only holiness leads to — that he reserves the right to sacrifice our short-term happiness to ensure we receive it.
Ditto for leadership. Kevin Miller, here.
The Anglican Covenant
The excellent ANGLICAN DOWN UNDER has a good point about the living with an Anglican Covenant and whether or not it can work:
Is homosexual practice compatible with Scripture? Some say No, some say Yes. But together we have not yet agreed to one of two things which would accord with a common approach to truth: either that it does not matter if an open contradiction on this matter is a feature of Anglican life, or that it matters that there is an open contradiction but nevertheless we can live with the contradiction.
That’s the question. Wise Kiwi. All DOWN UNDER here.
A few days ago Archbishop Mouneer Anis, Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, resigned from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Anis is a wise and faithful leader in the Anglican Communion. There are many quotes from his letter of resignation throughout the blogosphere, but I’ve not found anyone who quoted this bit; the conclusion of his letter of resignation:
O, yes!
His whole letter, which is worth the read, is here.
Don’t you love the way, whenever Anglicans make a solemn declaration of something, they number all the paragraphs? So decently and in order.
This post didn’t happen yesterday because we were driving through the blizzard between here and Swift Current (twice!) to give the granddaughters back.
Come and See Evangelism
I can’t think of anything deeply theological to write, but my Morning Prayer reading this morning was from John 1 where Nathanael says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Many are asking the same question about the Anglican Church.
Philip’s answer to Nathanael was a simple one and a good one: “Come and see,” he said. It’s a response many Anglican parishes and individuals can, and should, still say often, and with confidence.
A Bit of Fluff
Jude got a new NZ lambskin steering wheel cover for her beloved red Neon, Cloe, for Christmas.
It’s a bit like driving a bedroom slipper. Cosy, though.
A New Bishop
Fraser Lawton is being consecrated Bishop of Athabasca this evening. A good one. God bless him and his family.
Sobering words by Steve Weatherbe of canadianchristianity.com. His article focuses on the Diocese of British Columbia’s development director, the Rev. Dr. Gary Nicolosi, who calls for the Vancouver Island Anglican diocese to encourage growth by requiring
50 percent of rental incomes be spent on evangelization; by rewarding clergy with higher salaries and more holidays; by training those that don’t grow their parishes – and, if necessary, move them to non-leadership positions, or out of the ministry entirely.
It’s not just a BC problem. It’s an Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Calgary, StB and my problem, too. Lord, have mercy.
All here.
In “Cause for Sadness and Celebration” for The Washington Post, Lord Carey, erstwhile and most recent Archbishop of Canterbury, gives his take on Pope Benedict’s offer of a Roman Catholic ‘Apostolic Constitution’ for “Anglicans wishing to flee their own troubled shores.”
I enjoy the way Lord Carey thinks and expresses himself. This on why we have this complicated Anglican predicament:
Historically, we have been a Church formed and shaped from a ‘troika’ of three traditions – evangelical, high church and liberal. Many evangelicals are now hiving off to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and refusing to have anything to do with the rest of the church. If Anglo-Catholics are wooed by Rome we could see the Church of England becoming a mainly liberal church, espousing little more than tolerance and liberality in all things; a kind of green party at prayer. Yes, the troika we have inherited has been, at times, a wild group of horses but, for myself, I would rather have that, than what we are likely to have if distinctive groups go their separate ways.
We do indeed live in uncertain times but I remain quite convinced that Anglicanism stands for something that is not quite caught by other traditions and, with respect, not even by Rome. That is to say, Catholic and Reformed. This has sometimes been put in the Latin tag: ‘Ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda’ (the Church reformed and constantly in need of reform). In faithful continuity to the past and yet open to all that God wishes to reveal to us through the fundamental sources of our faith, namely, the scriptures.
Our mess is a fine one, indeed.
All here.
Anglican Down Under quoting The Ugly Vicar quoting Bishop Stephen Neill in a post on being Christian, Anglican and Evangelical; in that order:
Show us anything clearly set forth in Holy Scripture that we do not teach and we will teach it. Show us anything in our teaching or practice is clearly contrary to Holy Scripture, and we will abandon it. (Anglicanism, Pelican Books, 1965, p 417)
Good stuff. All here and here.
The Ottawa Citizen’s David Warren has weighed in on all the commentary and opinion arising out of the Roman Catholic invitation to traditional Anglicans. He makes a point which I have not yet seen in all the debate—the possible benefits for the Catholics:
the reception of these traditional Anglicans will create very exciting possibilities for all English-speaking Catholics on the “liturgical” front: for the traditional Anglicans retain, in intensely beautiful English, a liturgy that is actually more “catholic” in spirit and form than the rather crass and now dated “contemporary translations” Rome mistakenly approved at the end of the 1960s, in the depths of the post-Vatican II meltdown. Those old Anglicans can help us recover our own more reverent liturgical traditions.
…one answer, and a good one, to the question: Can anything good come out of Anglicanism?
I’m happy to say we get to enjoy that intensely beautiful, ‘catholic’ liturgy every Sunday morning at 830.
All here.
In his Hope Among the Fragments, Ephraim Radner writes that we conservative Anglicans only have two choices; stay, or go back to Rome.
A New Road to Rome
The Pope’s invitation to disaffected Anglicans has now made the second of Radner’s choices a real option (see the Catholic News Service article here).
Staying On
On staying, “Staying On” by Philip Turner, an excellent piece over at The Anglican Planet:
As I understand it, my role as a Presbyter is to protect the church from strange doctrine rather than go to another place whenever error rears its ugly head.
…past divisions leave all sorts of opportunities to find a church that is more to my liking–one that seems a little more faithful. On a relative scale of things there are no doubt a number of more faithful options. But to my mind, to avail myself of one or another of them is simply to repeat what I believe to have been an inadequate grasp of the way in which God has confronted the defection of the world. No matter how noble my intentions and no matter how understandable my reasons, I, nonetheless, repeat in my own life the divisions of the past. In so doing, I avoid once again, as did my forebears in the faith, the way my Lord took. He stayed on.
All here. (H/T Canon James Robinson)
And, for better or for worse, that’s where I find myself at the moment.
Two things that caught my eye yesterday:
- David Virtue: A Summary of the State of the Anglican Church in the USA and Canada
- The Anglican Essentials Canada blog: The Decline and Fall of the Anglican Church of Canada
Ours is not a sexuality problem. It is a lack of evangelism problem. We don’t know what the good news of Jesus really is and/or we are unable or unwilling to share our faith in and our experience of Jesus in a clear, winsome way.
Lord, help us.
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