Good Stuff in TEC: Georgiagood

Giving gifts that keeps on giving at St. Peter's

Mason Atkinson knows a thing or two about animals, and where the animals inside of St. Peter's Episcopal Church were going after the Living Gift Market ended this afternoon.

"They're going to poor people that need the animals," the Berry Elementary Kindergarten student said.

The animals on show today at the church are part of an effort to raise money for Heifer International, an organization that chairperson of the market Laura Davis said would provide livestock to those in need in third world countries.

http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news939141.html

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

St. Paul's Kittanning Votes to Stay in TEC

I've been notified by the leadership of St. Paul's Kittanning that the vestry voted Thursday night to remain with the Episcopal Church. The former rector of the parish, who left in June, is the current President of the Standing Committee for the Southern Cone group and a strident supporter of the realignment.

This brings the total number of congregations, in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, publicly declaring to stay to 22. In the past several weeks, Christ Church Indiana and St. Peter's Blairesville have decided to stay. More will be coming. For the reorganizing convention next Saturday 27 congregations have, so far, registered to send deputies.

First woman priest of the Anglican Church ordained

While the "new province" moves away from women's ordination the Province of Ghana breaks new ground.

The Reverend Hannah Dwomoh, a citizen of Nkoranza was at the weekend ordained as the first woman priest of the Anglican Church of Ghana at a colourful ceremony at St. Anselm's Anglican Cathedral in Sunyani.

Rev Dwomoh had her theological education in Canada and St. Nicholas Theological College in Cape Coast.

Also ordained was Rev. Father Martin Bonsu, a tutor.

The Right Reverend Thomas Ampah Brient, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Sunyani presided, assisted by the clergy of the diocese, while the Chancellor of the diocese, Justice W. K. Anderson, administered the ordination oath.

Before the Holy mass, Bishop Brient challenged the new priests to follow the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ with all zeal.

He noted that it was his late father, the Reverend Canon E. A. Brient who baptized Rev. Dwomoh and was therefore excited to ordain her into priesthood.

http://www.modernghana.com/news/193743/1/first-woman-priest-of-the-anglican-church-ordained.html

What would Jesus blog?

An article from Jacksonville Florida about how blogs fan the flames in church disputes.

While the Internet spread the outreach of the Chabad movement, it was also instrumental in the ongoing split within the Episcopal Church.

The schism began to pick up speed after an openly gay priest was elected bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. Since then, three dioceses and thousands of theologically conservative Episcopalians have left the denomination and aligned themselves with like-minded Anglican groups in the United States and around the world.

"A slew of liberal bloggers and a slew of conservative bloggers" have helped galvanize the opinion and action that has caused the split, said David Virtue, founder of Virtue Online, a news site critical of the Episcopal Church.

While some of them are clergy, most of the bloggers are lay people who are "kicking and screaming" about the issues dividing the denomination.

"This is all coming from the bottom up, not the top down," he said.

While it's good that blogs and other Web-based technologies have given lay people a voice, it's also spawned an unfortunate trend in anonymous carping - on both sides of the issue, Virtue said.

"People want to be able to smack someone without ever being discovered who they are."

'People are the problem'

http://www.jacksonville.com/lifestyles/values_and_religion/2008-12-07/what_would_jesus_blog

Good Stuff in TEC: Illinois

Pastor turns Christmas party into gift drive for wounded soldiers

The Rev. Rod Reinhart believes in taking care of the troops.

The Sunday after the Fourth of July, the Blue Island pastor did what he does best - prayed. He gathered his congregation for a day of prayer and supplicated.

We prayed for the physical and emotional health of the men and women in uniform," said Reinhart, 59. "And we prayed for the end of the war."

On Saturday, he's putting a different twist on the annual Christmas party at St. Joseph and St. Aidan Episcopal Church, 2453 Oak St. in Blue Island. In addition to the party, there will be a gift drive for wounded soldiers.

"Christmas can be a time of loneliness and depression for wounded soldiers and hospitalized veterans," Reinhart said. "This would make their Christmas more joyful."

By bringing Christmas gifts for soldiers or their families, Reinhart believes the community can send a message of gratitude to the soldiers.

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1316169,120708inuniform.article

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

Viewing Episcopal split through historical lens

From Fort Wayne- My good froend Bishop Ed Little is quoted.

With another schism in the headlines this week - a possible split in the Episcopal Church due in large part to the appointment of an openly gay bishop in 2003 - it's good to remember that such conflicts are neither new, nor unique to Christianity.

That's because, while God may be perfect, we human beings most definitely are not.

All of which is of little comfort to the Rev. Edward Little, Episcopal bishop for the Diocese of Northern Indiana. Even though he opposed the consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson because it required “changing Christ's doctrine in a serious way,” he said this week he is saddened by the proposed split and wants no part of it. Neither, he said, do his diocese's 36 congregations, including three in Fort Wayne.

“In John 17 Christ prays that we ‘may be one.' Schisms never solve anything, they make us less effective,” Little added. “Many of the people with whom I disagree love the Lord. This isn't the same as disagreeing about the resurrection or the nature of the Trinity. We need to work out these issues, even though it may take decades or even centuries.”

In other words, disagreement over fundamentals of the faith is one thing. A schism over the church's response to homosexuality does not.

He's right, although - no pun intended - the devil is, as always, in the details.

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081206/NEWS/812060326/0/FRONTPAGE

Lemming Pledge #13

Another Lemming (I think his name is Kittanning) Sees the Light

German priest finds newborn baby left in church nativity scene

An infant was found in the crib of a nativity scene in southern Germany on Tuesday.

"I was in the church shortly after midday to pray and I heard the baby crying," said Father Thomas Rein, the parish priest of Peter and Paul Church in the village of Poettmes. "We prepared the crib in the pre-Christmas period so children could lay fresh straw in it and ponder on the meaning of Jesus and Lo! There really was a Jesus-child in it!"

Fearing the newborn might develop hypothermia Father Rein covered him with the small red carpet that is usually used to kneel on during services and took him inside his house beside the church. It was there that he called an ambulance.

The child, called Peter by the nurses after the church where he was found, remains at the Neuberger Paediatric Clinic. He is making good progress. Church members are praying for Peter and his mother, who was found by police to be a 38-year-old local Romanian woman. She said that she left her baby in the manger in the hopes that someone could take better care of him.

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=3438

Now is a good time for Quakers to reassess their priorities and find their tongues, says Michael Wrigh

A commentary from the London Guardian by a former Anglican priest who became a Quaker. He reflects on what the priority of religion should be.

It is easy for faith organisations to get their priorities misplaced - to strain out gnats while swallowing camels, as Jesus vividly put it. When the preoccupation with certain doctrines, traditions and practices blocks the path to spiritual creativity, and turns the focus away from the foundation values of justice, compassion, integrity and peace, it is time to take stock.

I left the Anglican ministry eight years ago because I felt its priorities were awry. It seemed more preoccupied with issues of sexuality than with those highlighted for concern in the gospels: the widow giving her mite, the madman among the tombs, the halt, lame and blind, the victim of robbers, and the wastrel son who returns home a penitent. When a bishop would not ordain our curate because the curate's wife would be participating in the laying-on of hands, I thought the leaders of my part of the church had lost an important part of the plot.

Compassion had taken second place to dogma. I am heartened that the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers), which I then joined, has recently taken stock and identified a set of priorities for the next six years which I can feel committed to. In a new document, Together in Worship and Witness, new ideas are encouraged from anywhere within the society. This bottom-up attitude is a Quaker characteristic, coupled with an emphasis on evaluating ideas with discernment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/06/faith-quaker

The new Anglican branch will face several significant hurdles.

Christianity Today gives a realistic assessment of the obstacles confronting the "new province". Already Jack Iker (who may or may not be a Bishop (See below)) has declared himself to be in impaired communion with the women clergy in Pittsburgh. Ian Douglas is right, this sort of division is just part of their DNA.

Under Anglican rules, formal recognition of a province usually requires the assent of two-thirds of the communion's 38 primates — or leading archbishops. But Wednesday's unprecedented announcement raises new questions.

Bishop Martyn Minns, a leader in the Common Cause Partnership, estimates that nearly a dozen primates will support its new venture, about half the number it needs for recognition. Gaining the approval of more primates may prove difficult, said the Rev. Ian Douglas, of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"What happens in one province could set a precedent and come back to their own (province)," said Douglas.

Similar concerns could be raised by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), a 70-member international body that must also approve the new province, said Douglas, who sits on the council.

In an essay published online, the Rev. Ephraim Radner, a leading North American conservative, argued that these obstacles are nearly insurmountable.

The new province "will probably not be recognized at the primates' meeting as a whole or even by a majority of its members," he said. "Nor will it be recognized at the ACC. Thus it threatens to be yet another wedge in the breakup of the communion."

(snip)
According to the constitution released late Wednesday, each diocese, cluster or network in the newly declared province will have significant autonomy on women's ordination and other matters. But already, Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Texas, whose diocese seceded from the Episcopal Church this year, has declared himself in "impaired communion" with female priests ordained in Pittsburgh.

"The new grouping is, in the eyes of many," said Radner, "representative of diverse bodies whose theology and ecclesiology is, taken together, incoherent, and perhaps in some cases even incompatible."

That bodes ill for the denomination's future, Douglas said. "Those who have been quick to separate themselves out in the past have that as part of their operational DNA," he said.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/decemberweb-only/149-53.0.html

450 Amazing Grace videos invite you to tour the Canadian church

This will make you smile. The Anglican Church of Canada designated November 23rd as "Amazing Grace Sunday" and invited congregations to sing the hymn and make a recording. These have been collected and a sampling of the videos are available at the ink below, Including versions in rap and on steel drums.

The Amazing Grace Project is proving to have been a resounding success, with close to 450 videos received so far and more than $18,000 raised in support of ministry in the Canadian North. As the responses pour in, the world is seeing a glimpse of Anglican church life across Canada: boisterous churches, small churches, grey-haired churches, rural churches, churches with squirming babies, churches with wooden beams led by full-voiced rectors. What a privilege it is to peek in on this world.

http://www.anglican.ca/news/news.php?newsItem=2008-12-05_as.news

The Myth of Growth

The leadership of the "new province" keeps making claims that they are the portion of the church planting churches and growing. I know that the Diocese of Pittsburgh is not growing and posted the chart earlier in the year but here's the link to it again. In 2007, average Sunday Attendance (ASA), the best indicator of vitality, fell below 8000 for the first time.

http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_126200885511AM.pdf

But much the same is true for the other three diocese who have supposedly left. None have shown growth.

Ft. Worth is down slightly to about 7000 ASA

http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_126200885043AM.pdf

San Joaquin has been steadily declining for seven years to below 4000 ASA.

http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_126200885453AM.pdf

As has Quincy whose ASA for the entire Diocese is below 1000.

http://12.0.101.92/reports/PR_ChartsDemo/exports/ParishRPT_126200885134AM.pdf

It is difficult to know what the leadership means when they make claims about growth.

You might also notice that the number who actually show up is a fraction of the Baptized members. This is not unusual but makes one wonder about the 100,000 membership number that keeps getting bandied about.

Incidentally, the charts are from the Episcopal Church Center and represent the numbers submitted by the dioceses.

Pittsburgh Presbytery refuses to change policy on gay pastors

From this morning's Post-Gazette-

Pittsburgh Presbytery, which has a history of opposing gay ordination, has rejected a proposal intended to close a loophole that supporters believed could open the presbytery to openly gay pastors.

Officials of the presbytery don't believe Thursday's 125-54 vote signals a change in the presbytery's views. They say commissioners found it too similar to a 2006 presbytery rule that church courts struck down.

The proposal from Bellefield Presbyterian Church, Oakland, was intended to counter a decision by this summer's General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to allow the ordination of candidates who express "a departure from an ordination standard in matters of belief or practice." The most controversial standard requires pastors to abstain from sex outside of heterosexual marriage. The Bellefield proposal required candidates to reply "yes" when asked if they upheld the "essential tenets of the Reformed faith" -- which include beliefs about marriage.


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08341/933252-53.stm

Reactions Split to New U.S. Anglican 'Province'

A collection of quotes about the Schism of the "New Province". Harmon, Roseberry, Kearon, Frank, Naughton - you know, the usual suspects.

Nearly everyone agrees that a conservative group of Anglicans broke new ground when they declared on Wednesday (Dec. 3) that they had founded a new North American province of the Anglican Communion.

But further reactions to the new Anglican Church in North America, made up of conservatives who are fed up with the liberal drift of the Episcopal Church and Anglican of Canada, have been decidedly mixed.

Religion News Service spoke with Anglican and Episcopal leaders, and scanned the media and blogosphere to see what others are saying. Here's what we found:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2008/12/reactions-split-to-new-us-angl.php

Presiding Bishop declares inhibited Fort Worth bishop has renounced his orders

Interesting development in Ft. Worth, Bishop Katherine says Jack renounced his orders in writing and he says he didn't. From Episcopal Life Online-


Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said December 5 that she had accepted Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker's renunciation of his orders in the Episcopal Church.

The Presiding Bishop's office released a one-page notification on December 5 saying Jefferts Schori had accepted Iker's renunciation with the "advice and consent" of her advisory council. The document says that Iker made his renunciation in writing on November 24; however a spokesperson for Iker denies that such a renunciation has been made.

"I have chosen to follow this course rather than seeking consent of the House of Bishops to Bishop Iker's deposition for abandonment of the Communion of this Church because I believe it to be a more pastoral response to Bishop Iker's clear expression of his desire not to be a part of the Episcopal Church at this time," the Presiding Bishop wrote in a letter to the House of Bishops. "I believe this course best expresses my hope and prayer that reconciliation in the future can be achieved by God's love and grace."

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_103480_ENG_HTM.htm

Conservative Anglicans Vow to Press Ahead With Split

From the New York Times. I know sometimes the NYT link won't let you in so I'll tell you that later in the article Laurie says that the primates who met with Rowan Friday issued no statement. The official statements coming from the group (IMHO) seem awfully disrespectful of the wider communion.

Conservative Anglicans in the United States and Canada said Friday that they intended to proceed immediately with plans to create their own branch of the Anglican Communion, separate from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, despite warnings from the archbishop of Canterbury that winning official recognition could take years.

“This is not being put on hold while we wait for a committee in England to tell us which form to fill out,” said the Rev. Peter Frank, a spokesman for Bishop Robert Duncan, who led a majority of churches in the Diocese of Pittsburgh out of the Episcopal Church this year and is to become the archbishop and primate of the new province.

Theological conservatives representing a collection of breakaway dioceses, parishes and church networks announced Wednesday in Wheaton, Ill., the creation of a new province called the Anglican Church in North America. Despite serious differences among them, they are united in their condemnation of what they call the Episcopal Church’s drift to the left, most significantly its decision five years ago to consecrate an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire.

On Thursday, the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, warned the conservatives to slow down and follow the rules of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest body of churches, with 77 million members. He has been struggling to keep the Communion from schism, with homosexuality as the fault line.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/us/06episcopal.html

His Holiness Alexy II Dies

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church died yesterday. It may be worth converting to Orthodoxy just for the nifty hats.

His Holiness Alexy II, who died in Moscow on December 5 aged 79, was Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church during an era of profound change.

He became Patriarch in 1990, a year after the Berlin Wall had come down and at a time when the Communist bloc was on the verge of collapse. The Soviet Union had been officially atheist, but under the new Patriarch Russia was to see a remarkable revival of faith and a restoration of the Church's moral authority.

Alexy inherited a Church which, under successive Communist dictators, had seen its places of worship vandalised or neglected to the point of ruin; now many were restored to their former glory, and worshippers flocked to them to attend sumptuous masses, some of which were broadcast on television.

Perhaps the most famous of these churches was the cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, erected in the 19th century in gratitude for the deliverance of the city from Napoleon's armies. It had been destroyed under Stalin to be replaced by an open-air swimming pool, but was now rebuilt, reopening in 1997.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/3567608/His-Holiness-Alexy-II.html

The Complete Text of Yertle the Turtle

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about the Yertle references. Thought it might be nice to get the full text up. So here it is - sorry no pictures. If you want to buy the book, Barnes and Nobel is having a "Buy Two Dr. Seuss Books Get One Free" sale!

On the far-away island of Sala-ma-Sond,
Yertle the Turtle was king of the pond.
A nice little pond. It was clean. It was neat.
The water was warm. There was plenty to eat.
The turtles had everything turtles might need.
And they were all happy. Quite happy indeed.

They were… until Yertle, the king of them all,
Decided the kingdom he ruled was too small.
“I’m ruler”, said Yertle, “of all that I see.
But I don’t see enough. That’s the trouble with me.
With this stone for a throne, I look down on my pond
But I cannot look down on the places beyond.
This throne that I sit on is too, too low down.
It ought to be higher!” he said with a frown.
“If I could sit high, how much greater I’d be!
What a king! I’d be ruler of all that I see!”

So Yertle the Turtle King, lifted his hand
And Yertle, the Turtle King, gave a command.
He ordered nine turtles to swim to his stone
And, using these turtles, he built a new throne.
He made each turtle stand on another one’s back
And he piled them all up in a nine-turtle stack.
And then Yertle climbed up. He sat down on the pile.
What a wonderful view! He could see ‘most a mile!

“All mine!” Yertle cried. “Oh, the things I now rule!
I’m the king of a cow! And I’m the king of a mule!
I’m the king of a house! And, what’s more, beyond that
I’m the king of a blueberry bush and a cat!
I’m Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!”

And all through the morning, he sat up there high
Saying over and over, “A great king am I!”
Until ‘long about noon. Then he heard a faint sigh.
“What’s that?” snapped the king,and he looked down the stack.
And he saw, at the bottom, a turtle named Mack.
Just a part of his throne. And this plain little turtle
Looked up and he said, “Beg your pardon, King Yertle.
I’ve pains in my back and my shoulders and knees.
How long must we stand here, Your Majesty, please?”

“SILENCE!” the King of the Turtles barked back.
“I’m king, and you’re only a turtle named Mack.”

“You stay in your place while I sit here and rule.
I’m the king of a cow! And I’m the king of a mule!
I’m the king of a house! And a bush! And a cat!
But that isn’t all. I’ll do better than that!
My throne shall be higher!” his royal voice thundered,
“So pile up more turtles! I want ’bout two hundred!”

“Turtles! More turtles!” he bellowed and brayed.
And the turtles ‘way down in the pond were afraid.
They trembled. They shook. But they came. They obeyed.
From all over the pond, they came swimming by dozens.
Whole families of turtles, with uncles and cousins.
And all of them stepped on the head of poor Mack.
One after another, they climbed up the stack.

Then Yertle the Turtle was perched up so high,
He could see forty miles from his throne in the sky!
“Hooray!” shouted Yertle. “I’m the king of the trees!
I’m king of the birds! And I’m king of the bees!
I’m king of the butterflies! King of the air!
Ah, me! What a throne! What a wonderful chair!
I’m Yertle the Turtle! Oh, marvelous me!
For I am the ruler of all that I see!”

Then again, from below, in the great heavy stack,
Came a groan from that plain little turtle named Mack.
“Your Majesty, please… I don’t like to complain,
But down here below, we are feeling great pain.
I know, up on top you are seeing great sights,
But down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.
We turtles can’t stand it. Our shells will all crack!
Besides, we need food. We are starving!” groaned Mack.

“You hush up your mouth!” howled the mighty King Yertle.
“You’ve no right to talk to the world’s highest turtle.
I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea!
There’s nothing, no, NOTHING, that’s higher than me!”

But, while he was shouting, he saw with surprise
That the moon of the evening was starting to rise
Up over his head in the darkening skies.
“What’s THAT?” snorted Yertle. “Say, what IS that thing
That dares to be higher than Yertle the King?
I shall not allow it! I’ll go higher still!
I’ll build my throne higher! I can and I will!
I’ll call some more turtles. I’ll stack ‘em to heaven!
I need ’bout five thousand, six hundred and seven!”

But, as Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand
And started to order and give the command,
That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he’d taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a bit mad.
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.
He burped!
And his burp shook the throne of the king!

And Yertle the Turtle, the king of the trees,
The king of the air and the birds and the bees,
The king of a house and a cow and a mule…
Well, that was the end of the Turtle King’s rule!
For Yertle, the King of all Sala-ma-Sond,
Fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! in the pond!

And today the great Yertle, that Marvelous he,
Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see.
And the turtles, of course… all the turtles are free
As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.

by Dr. Seuss

Bishop Ackerman Accepts Call to Springfield

From the Living Church-

The Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman, who resigned last month as Bishop of Quincy, will serve as an assisting bishop in the neighboring Diocese of Springfield. The Rt. Rev. Peter H. Beckwith, Bishop of Springfield, said the Presiding Bishop’s office had been notified that the new position would become effective Dec. 1.

Bishop Ackerman’s resignation came a week before an overwhelming majority of delegates to the annual synod of the Diocese of Quincy voted to leave The Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, based in Argentina.

Appointments to assistant bishop positions require consent from the annual synod of the diocese and a majority of the House of Bishops, but the position of assisting bishop, which is not defined in the canons and constitution of The Episcopal Church, is at the discretion of individual diocesan bishops unless otherwise constrained by local diocesan bylaws.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2008/12/3/bishop-ackerman-accepts-call-to-springfield

Kitschmas stocking fillers

From the London Telegraph and one of them is pretty crude but still they're a pretty good chuckle.
One is pictured for the other 11 you have to go to the link.

The "Jesus Saves" piggy bank, a plaster model depicting Christ with imploring eyes and a slot for coins between his outstretched arms, has been named as one of the best religious gifts of the year in the annual 12 Days of Kitschmas awards.

Roman Catholics who are tempted to spend money they don't have in these straitened times can also reach into their wallets and pull out a credit card-sized rosary, illustrated with a string of embossed marks instead of beads and a painting of Mary and Jesus, then pray instead of pay.

For homeowners desperate to sell as the property market collapses, meanwhile, there is a model of St Joseph that is said to produce a buyer miraculously if it is buried head-first outside the house.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/3566932/Jesus-Saves-piggy-bank-revealed-in-12-Days-of-Kitschmas-collection.html

Cathedral in Quincy Votes to stay in TEC

From the Diocese of Quincy web site.

Members of the Cathedral parish of the Diocese of Quincy voted Thursday night to not be “realigned” or “removed” to the Anglican province of the Southern Cone in a 181 to 35 vote. The vote to stay within The Episcopal Church dwarfs the 54 layperson votes cast at the recent Synod of the Diocese of Quincy that purported to remove the Diocese from The Episcopal Church.

The Reverend Canon John Blossom, a member of the group working to reorganize the Diocese said “This group intends to remain faithful to the Christian faith in spite of allegations by those who have left The Episcopal Church for a new version of Anglicanism that to remain faithful to the Christian faith is to leave.” Full communion with the traditional Anglican connection to the See of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Canterbury is a cornerstone of the group organizing the meeting.

The Very Reverend Bob Dedmon, Dean of the Cathedral parish said after the Cathedral parish vote, “This vote demonstrates that when people have an opportunity to study the facts they realize that the information disseminated by the ultra-conservative leadership of the Diocese was misleading. Now this parish must get on with our Christian mission and ministry.”

A meeting at St. Paul's Cathedral in Peoria on December 13 will review options to stay with the more than 90 Dioceses and over 2 million Episcopalians remaining within The Episcopal Church.

http://episcopaldioceseofquincy.ning.com/forum/topics/st-pauls-cathedral-vote

Anglicans Toot Somebody Else's Horn

A commentary of the odd way the "new province" was actually declared.

Every major paper covered the formation of the Anglican Church of North America, comprised of 100,000 now-former members of the 2.3 million strong -- make that 2.2 million -- Episcopal Church in the United States. But only evangelical magazine Christianity Today, gushingly enthusiastic about the split -- the breakaway Anglicans seem motivated chiefly by anger over the Episcopal Church's acceptance of gays and lesbians and women priests, none of which are approved by most evangelicals -- notes that the new church declared its creation by blasting a shofar, a Jewish ritual instrument made out of a ram's horn, traditionally blown on certain holidays -- or, as in the Book of Joshua, as a sort of battlecry. Why did the mainstream press ignore this unusual detail? Did it strike the NYT as too absurd? The Washington Post as simply confusing? I suspect this may be a case of the press neatening up some strange religion for broad public consumption.

More here-

http://www.therevealer.org/archives/timely_003140.php

I suggest the new 'Anglican Church in North America' isn't actually Anglican

An editorial from the Dallas Morning News about the so called "New Province".

My musing: At this point I put these folks in the same basket as the women who claim they're Catholic priests, Christians who say they are "Messianic Jews" and Mormons who say they are Christians.

(snip)

Which leads us to the Episcopalian/Anglican kafuffle. Anglican provinces are defined by the Anglican Communion of which they are a part. Until now, a province could no more declare itself to exist than I could declare myself to be a doctor. There are rules, standards, approvals. None of which has this new whatever-it-is gone through.

So what is it? Best I can see, it's a religious organization - a new American denomination - that seeks to be recognized as an Anglican province. News reports about how its leaders plan to seek that recognition are not specific. But until the Archbishop of Canterbury says it is, I can't see calling it "Anglican" without quotes.

All here-

http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/12/the-episcopal-split-a-battle-o.html

The Episcopal Split: A Battle Over Purity, not Orthodoxy

A brief commentary on the recent schism in North America. I think hits the nail on the head.

In his Letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul describes his frustration with members of "the circumcision faction"-an early group of conserative Jewish-Christians from Jerusalem who refused to eat with the Gentile converts in St. Paul's community in Antioch.

What might Bishop Robert Duncan and other leaders of the new conservative rival denomination to the Episcopal Church share in common with this narrow faction of the early church over whom St. Paul's wider vision ultimately prevailed?

The common thread is a confusion between purity and orthodoxy.

Rest is here-

http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2008/12/the-episcopal-split-a-battle-o.html

Episcopal split? Not in Maine

A different perspective from New England. Would that it were here.

Episcopal churches in Maine may not always agree, but they stand ready to support one another.

The 66 year-round congregations have been fairly untouched by the controversy since the Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, was consecrated as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, Heidi Shott, spokeswoman for the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, said Thursday.

On Wednesday, theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American church.

"We've certainly had some people leave our congregations because of our bishop's support of (Robinson) becoming bishop," Shott said Thursday. "There were some people upset by that. But because in Maine we have such a broad range of worshiping and one common prayer, there are pretty diverse congregations."

After Robinson was consecrated the dioceses held meetings across the state, she said. Everybody talked and listened, and although not everyone agreed, she said, they at least stayed together as a family of churches.

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5674882.html

Archbishops hold Canterbury summit over threat of schism

London Times on an "Emergency" meeting between some Global South Primates and The Archbishop of Canterbury. Funny that these guys were all in town at the same time.

Anglican archbishops will hold an emergency meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury today to discuss the unfolding schism in the Church in America.

The meeting between Dr Rowan Williams and the primates of Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the Southern Cone comes two days after conservatives in the US unveiled the constitution and canons of the new Anglican Church in North America.

With a membership of 100,000, drawn from disaffected members of the Episcopal Church of the US and from churches that broke away over the women’s ordination dispute, leaders of the new “province” claim they are not splitting from the 75 million-strong Anglican Communion.

A formal proposal arguing for recognition as the 39th province of the Anglican Communion will be put before the primates at their meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, at the end of January.

However, a statement from Lambeth Palace last night made it clear that no request for recognition as a province had been made and seemed to indicate that this was unlikely.

The Palace said there are “clear guidelines” set out for the creation of new provinces. “Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete,” it said, making it clear that in the case of the US conservatives no such process had begun.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5289581.ece

US Anglican leaders look to replace Episcopal Church

The Guardian reprots that the "New Province" is intended to replace the Episcopal Church.

But observers in the Episcopal Church, which has about 2 million members, say the event at an evangelical church at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, the same spot where the Reverend Billy Graham nearly 70 years ago began his evangelism, does not hold much significance for the rest of the Anglican Communion.

"I do not think Wednesday's event is as big a deal as the organisers think it is," said the Reverend Ian Douglas of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Yet another threatened line in the sand."

The new church is the first province to be drawn according to theological and not geographic boundaries - a dramatic departure from Anglican policy and procedure that may not get approval from the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams or other bodies that normally would give approval to the new province.

"While claiming more conservative tradition on human sexuality and biblical interpretation, their approach is radical and contrary to church polity," Douglas said.

Its all here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/04/religion-episcopal-anglican-us

A Worldwide Anglican Melee

Washington Post reports on the behind the scenes politicking to get the "New Province" Recognised by the wider Anglican Communion

Episcopal Church experts and disaffected conservatives predicted yesterday that intense lobbying would soon begin over dissidents' plans to leave the church and create a new Anglican community in the United States.

The two sides will try to convince Anglican leaders worldwide either of the value or the cost of a second branch of the U.S. church, one that would be based less on geography than on theology.

Bishop Martyn Minns, a Virginia-based leader of the breakaway movement, confidently predicted victory. "I think we've got a good basis of support for what we're doing," he said

But experts on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion said approval is by no means guaranteed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120403851.html

Episcopal Church leader says Exodus is over

From the Los Angeles Times.The Presiding Bishop coments on the "New Province".

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church declared Thursday that church members who joined a newly formed conservative denomination "are no longer Episcopalians," even as she predicted that the exodus had largely run its course and would not trigger further large-scale defections.

In her first public comments since a coalition of 700 parishes announced the formation of a new North American church Wednesday, the Most. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori also reiterated that church property must remain in Episcopal hands, a position disputed by breakaway leaders.

"They are no longer Episcopalians," Jefferts Schori said of those who left. "They have made that very clear in their departures.

"Those who were formally bishops in the Episcopal Church are no longer understood to be bishops in the Episcopal Church," she added in a meeting with Times reporters. "They are free to associate with whom they wish."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-episcopal5-2008dec05,0,7356324.story

Compass Rose Society hears Archbishop of Canterbury review Communion's work

Many of the reports about the "new province" have stated that Martyn Minns, from CANA, is meeting with Rowan Williams this week. Martyn is a member of the Compass Rose Society and that's the reason for his being with Rowan as the society met this week. From Episcopal Life-

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams told the annual meeting of the Compass Rose Society (CRS) in November that the tensions within the Anglican Communion are not going to be resolved any time soon. "Deep wounds heal slowly," Williams told members of the CRS, which supports the ministries of the Archbishop of Canterbury by providing annual financial support and enhancing communication within the communion.

The Archbishop spoke at length about last summer's Lambeth Conference of bishops and viewed a "photo cinema" presentation of Lambeth images from the Anglican Communion Office's communications department. The Most Rev. Clive Handford, former primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, and Bishop Victoria Matthews of Christchurch in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, offered an update of the work of the Windsor Continuation Group and matters relating to the Anglican covenant.

Holding its annual meeting in Canterbury, the society heard Williams review the year's events and pledged continuing support for his ministry throughout the communion. The group also attended a major fundraising event for the Canterbury Cathedral restoration appeal and heard its dean, the Very Rev. Robert Willis, speak about the cathedral's vision for the next decade.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_103335_ENG_HTM.htm