JSC and ACC meet at Lambeth Palace
Primates, bishops, lay people from the various regions of the Anglican Communion are meeting this week at the Anglican Communion Office and Lambeth Palace in London. The group meets on a regular basis between official gatherings of their larger meetings.
Members of the Joint Standing Committee … are focussing attention on the forthcoming meetings of the Primates, in February in Alexandria, Egypt, the ACC in Jamaica, in May and ongoing business. …
– Press release from the Anglican Communion News Service. (Photo: ACNS Rosenthal.)
Ft Worth to Schori: Stop border crossing
Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth has responded to his supposed inhibition by the TEC Presiding Bishop:
“Katharine Jefferts Schori has no authority over me or my ministry as a Bishop in the Church of God. She never has, and she never will.
Since November 15, 2008, both the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and I as the Diocesan Bishop have been members of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. As a result, canonical declarations of the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church pertaining to us are irrelevant and of no consequence.
The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth”
And from the Fort Worth Standing Committee: Read more
Fort Worth Bishop inhibited
While the Nov 21 notice of inhibition came as no surprise to Episcopal Church watchers, internal church documents show a resistance by the review committee to punish Bishop Iker on the basis of his beliefs – resisting Bishop Schori’s push to discipline the Fort Worth bishop before his diocese quit the Episcopal Church. …
– George Conger writes at Religious Intelligence.
A sign of things to come?
The passage of Proposition 8 in California has reset the table with respect to the issue of same-sex marriage. Clearly, those pushing for legalized same-sex marriage thought that the decision of the California Supreme Court last May was the final word, and same-sex marriage would be an established legal reality in California. The fact that Proposition 8 passed on November 4 threw that assumption aside, and an ugly new chapter is opening. …
– Al Mohler writes on the backlash against those who supported marriage as between a man and a woman.
Bishops in bid to overturn gay marriage
On Nov 17, Bishop J Jon Bruno of Los Angeles and Bishop Marc Andrus of California along with the California Council of Churches, the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Unitarian Universalist Church filed a writ with the California Supreme Court seeking an injunction blocking implementation of the petition based by voters. …
– Report by George Conger for Religious Intelligence.
(Photo of Bishop Marc Andrus: Diocese of California.)
Coming soon to EHarmony – Adam & Steve
EHarmony … the Pasadena-based dating website, heavily promoted by Christian evangelical leaders when it was founded, has agreed in a civil rights settlement to give up its heterosexuals-only policy and offer same-sex matches. …
It must not only implement the new policy by March 31 but also give the first 10,000 same-sex registrants a free six-month subscription. …
– Report from The Los Angeles Times. (Graphic: EHarmony.)
Plans to create a conservative province ‘disturbing,’ says primate
News of a plan to create a new North American Anglican province that would be defined by conservative theology rather than a geographic location may have been greeted with enthusiasm by delegates at the Anglican Network in Canada’s first synod last week, but Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, described the plan as “disturbing.”…
– Text of a report from the Anglican Church of Canada’s Anglican Journal – interspersed with commentary on the Anglican Essentials Canada blog.
Anglican Leaders seek to unite North American Churches
Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, will release to the public on the evening of December 3 the draft constitution of an emerging Anglican Church in North America, formally subscribe to the Jerusalem Declaration of the Global Anglican Future Conference and affirm the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future at an evening worship celebration in suburban Chicago. …
– Read the full media release from The Common Cause Partnership.
New North American Province set to be formed on 3rd December 2008
Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh has just announced that a meeting of the Council of the Common Cause Partnership will be held in Wheaton, Illinois, on December 3rd – with the intention of forming a new North American Anglican province and to adopt the Jerusalem Declaration.
Speaking in Pittsburgh, Bishop Duncan, who was joined by Bishop William Murdoch of the Province of Kenya, said
“We want to bring Jerusalem to North America, we want to embrace the movement that began at the Global Anglican Future Conference, we want to claim our place as members of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans…”
Anglican TV has video of the announcement.
New Dean for Newcastle Cathedral
From a press release from the Diocese of Newcastle –
“The Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Brian Farran, is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Dean of Newcastle and Christ Church Cathedral.
Dr James Rigney (49), an Australian who is presently the Chaplain and Director of Studies in Theology at Magdalene College in the University of Cambridge, will take up the prestigious position of Dean in mid March 2009.”
In the meantime, a new Dean for St. David’s Cathedral in Hobart is being sought, following Dean Lindsay Stoddart’s retirement.
Fort Worth joins Southern Cone
Delegates attending the 26th annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth on November 15 overwhelmingly approved realignment with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.
It was the fourth time within 12 months that members of a diocese severed ties to the Episcopal Church, which has a total of 110 dioceses…
– An Episcopal Life Online report. (Image: Results posted on the Fort Worth website.)
Bishop Jack Iker’s Address to the Diocese of Fort Worth
“We here in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth intend to be who we have always been, to believe what we have always believed, and to do what we have always done.
We are not going away, nor are we abandoning anything. We are not leaving the Church – we are the Church. We will remain an orthodox diocese of catholic Christians, full members of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Above all else, we remain committed to serving and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ, upholding the authority of the Holy Scriptures as the revealed Word of God and our ultimate authority in all matters of faith, morals and doctrine.”
– Read Bishop Iker’s full address at the Diocese of Fort Worth.
Watch the Fort Worth Convention
As the Diocese of Fort Worth’s convention meets this weekend to vote on leaving The Episcopal Church, video of the proceedings will be streamed live on the internet.
See it at ustream.tv.
Canadian clergy unveil new plan
Breakaway conservative Anglicans hope to set up a new entity within the church to rival the established power structure in Canada and the U.S. within the next three months. And they say failure to recognize their efforts could irrevocably divide the communion.
“If this new province doesn’t work, there’s probably going to be a much bigger split than just North America,” Bishop Don Harvey told a news conference yesterday.…
– Report from The Toronto Star.
Stand Firm interviews Bishop Jack Iker
“I fully expect that I’ll receive notification from the Presiding Bishop’s office, within days of our diocesan convention, that I’ve been inhibited. Of course by then it will be irrelevant, because I won’t be under the authority of the Episcopal Church. But they’ll play that out in the same that they did with Bishops Schofield and Duncan.…”
– Bishop Jack Iker is interviewed by Greg Griffiths for Stand Firm.
See also this report by David Virtue. (Photo: Stand Firm.)
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…