Presbyterian propectus online

The prospectus for the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Sydney is now online for any who may be interested.

Church in Quebec is ‘dying’

The Diocese of Quebec is all but dead, its bishop told the Canadian House of Bishop at their fall meeting in Niagara Falls, the Anglican Journal of Canada reports.

The Rt. Rev. Dennis Drainville said his diocese was “teetering on the verge of extinction” according to an account given by the church’s official newspaper.

Of the diocese’s 82 congregations, 50 were childless and 35 congregations had an average age of 75. These graying congregations often had no more than 10 people in church on Sundays, he said. “The critical mass isn’t there, there’s no money anymore,” he said. …

(R)etired marketing expert Keith McKerracher … said, “…We’re losing 12,836 Anglicans a year. That’s 2 percent a year. If you draw a line on the graph, there’ll only be one person left in the Canadian Anglican church by 2061.”

– Read George Conger’s full story written story for the Church of England Newspaper. (Photo of Bishop Drainvolle: Diocese of Quebec.)

Follow up on BC Supreme Court decision

“ANiC chancellor Cheryl Chang has written to the four Vancouver-area churches involved in the recent court proceeding reporting on a meeting held November 30 with the leaders of the four churches and their legal counsel. She says that while there are clear grounds for appeal, no decision has been made.…”

– Report from the ANiC newsletter for December 10, 2009.

December 2009 Australian Church Record online

Grab your copy of the latest Australian Church Record – from their website.

New Bishop of Wollongong announced

Archbishop Peter Jensen has announced the appointment of Peter Hayward as the new Bishop of Wollongong.

The Standing Committee of the Diocese overwhelmingly endorsed his appointment on Monday night.

Peter is currently the Rector of St. Bede’s Beverly Hills, where he has been since 2001. Previously he was the founding Rector of Christ the Redeemer, in Spokane, Washington state.

Please pray for Peter and his wife Julie in this season of change.

SydneyAnglicans.net has the story here.

Archbishop Peter Jensen on Los Angeles Bishop’s election

Statement by the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, on the Episcopal election in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

“The election (yet to be confirmed) of a partnered lesbian as Bishop in the Episcopal Church (TEC) is sad but not surprising.

Confirmation of this election will make clear beyond any doubt whatsoever that the TEC leadership has chosen to walk in a way which is contrary to scripture and will continue to do so.

This settled path that the TEC chooses is contrary to the expressed will of the majority of the Anglican Communion.

Further, it confirms the rightness of GAFCON in producing the Jerusalem Declaration and establishing the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA).

The aim of the FCA is to recognise and give fellowship to those who wish to remain faithful to God’s revealed word and also to defend and promote biblical teaching throughout the Communion.

It is all the more urgent that those who share the aims of the FCA should associate themselves with the movement and express their disapproval of actions which are contrary to scripture and contrary to historic Anglicanism.

Further, this gives the Archbishop of Canterbury every reason to act decisively and dissociate from the Episcopal Church and to recognise the Anglican Church of North America.”

7th December, 2009

CMS NSW Summer School — registered yet?

Planning on going to the CMS NSW Summer School in January?

Online pre-registration closes on December 13.

ABC AM on the Los Angeles election

Bishop Robert Forsyth was interviewed on ABC Radio’s AM this morning.

“The Anglican Communion as a united body is now history and now we are foreseeing a complete restructuring of relationships. I think that is what the event is showing. Communion as a united body is now history… I am not saying this one event changes everything. It just continues to cement the trajectory towards a restructuring of the Anglican Communion in the world.”

In Melbourne, Muriel Porter declares, “I am actually proud of the Americans”.

mp3 audio here.

Los Angeles election provides further clarity

From The American Anglican Council –

The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles elected a partnered lesbian as Bishop Suffragan today and demonstrated The Episcopal Church’s further departure from biblical Christianity.

“Unfortunately, this election provides further clarity to the rest of the Anglican Communion,” said Bishop David Anderson, president and CEO of the American Anglican Council. “Should the rest of The Episcopal Church consent to this election, there can be no more pretending that The Episcopal Church holds to Anglican Communion doctrine and 2,000 years of biblically based Christian teachings. Not only have they elected another non-celibate homosexual bishop, but they repeatedly defy the moratorium on same-sex blessings called for by the Windsor Report.”

(Photo of Bishop David Anderson: Joy Gwaltney.)

Will the ‘bonds of mutual affection’ hold?

Archbishop of Canterbury’s Statement on Los Angeles Episcopal Elections

December 6, 2009

“The election of Mary Glasspool by the Diocese of Los Angeles as suffragan bishop elect raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.

The process of selection however is only part complete. The election has to be confirmed, or could be rejected, by diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees. That decision will have very important implications.

The bishops of the Communion have collectively acknowledged that a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.”

– from The Anglican Communion News Service.

This might be an appropriate time to re-read The Episcopal Church: Tearing the fabric of the Communion to shreds, prepared by the American Anglican Council in February 2009. It’s an 820kb PDF file.

Dean of Auckland elected Bishop

“Ross Bay has been elected as the new Anglican Bishop of Auckland.

The Dean of Parnell’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, 44-year-old Bay is being touted as further evidence that the church is placing its trust in a new generation of leaders…”

– TVNZ reports on the election of a bishop to replace Bp John Paterson, who will retire in March. Video report here. Profile here.

Lesbian Episcopal priest elected LA assistant bishop

“The six-county Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has elected the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool, canon to the bishops of the Baltimore-based Diocese of Maryland, to the office of bishop suffragan, in which she is called to assist Bishop Diocesan J. Jon Bruno in ministry to the region’s 70,000 parishioners. Glasspool, 55, was elected Dec. 5 on the seventh ballot taken by some 800 clergy and lay delegates to the 114th Annual Meeting of Diocesan Convention…

The second woman to be elected a bishop in the diocese’s 114-year history, Glasspool is also the first openly partnered lesbian to be elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church…”

– Press release from the Diocese of Los Angeles.

See also this story from Associated Press.

A new Minister for Kalbarri?

Bishop of North West Australia, David Mulready, is looking for a Minister for the parish of Kalbarri, at the mouth of the Murchison River, 160km from Geraldton and 600km from Perth.