Other News of the Anglican Church

Following consultation with the Presiding Bishop the Archbishop of Canterbury has asked Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida to convene a small group of bishops from the Episcopal Church (USA) to meet together to discuss some of the difficult issues facing the Church and to explore possible resolutions. Along with Bishop Griswold, those invited include Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, Bishop Bob Duncan, and Bishop Jack Iker . The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion will also attend. The first meeting will be taking place in New York in the first half of September.

At the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Robert Duncan and I have agreed to participate in a two day consultation next month that will address the controversies and divisions in the Episcopal Church that are impacting the entire Anglican Communion. The meeting will be co-chaired by Bishop Peter Lee of Virginia and Bishop John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida. The Presiding Bishop and the Presiding Bishop-elect will also participate. Archbishop Rowan Williams will be represented by Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary General of the Anglican Communion.

In accordance with the Archbishop’s instructions, we are each to bring along another Bishop to share in these deliberations, and we have asked Bishop Ed Salmon of South Carolina and Bishop James Stanton of Dallas to join us. All four of us are member Bishops in the Anglican Communion Network and our dioceses have requested alternative primatial oversight from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

We are grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for his efforts to broker a cease fire in our current conflicts and to assist us in finding a way to work through the impasse we have reached. If things go well at this initial meeting, additional dates have been set aside to continue our deliberations in the future. Your prayers are asked for the participants as we seek a way forward for a church in crisis.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is under growing pressure to respond in a meaningful way to dioceses and parishes alienated by recent stands on sexuality enacted by the General Convention. Shortly after announcing a mid-September summit to find a way to resolve the divisions within The Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams said in an interview with a Dutch newspaper the Anglican Communion is capable of avoiding a future in which lawsuits over property are all-consuming.

"In terms of decision-making, the American Church has pushed the boundaries," Archbishop Williams told Nederlands Dagblad. "It has made a decision that is not the decision of the wider body of Christ. In terms of the issue under consideration: there are enough Christians of good faith in every denomination – from evangelical to Roman Catholic – to whom it is not quite so self-evident, who are not absolutely sure that we have always read the Bible correctly. They are saying: this is an issue we must talk about. But if we are going to have time to discuss this prayerfully, thoughtfully, we really don’t need people saying: we must change it now. The discussion must not be foreclosed by a radical agenda."

Archbishop Williams described the situation in The Episcopal Church as highly complicated and said he has delayed responding to the dioceses which have requested alternate primatial oversight because he does not want to "make up church law on the back of an envelope." He also has "great concern for the vast majority of Episcopal Christians in the U.S. who don’t wish to move away from the Communion at all, but who don’t particularly want to join a separatist part of their Church either. I want to give them time to find what the best way is." He is aware, however, that the Anglican Communion Network won’t "hold out" under the present circumstances indefinitely.

"If Canterbury doesn’t help, there will be other provinces that are very ready to help," he said. "I don’t especially want to see the Anglican Church becoming like the Orthodox Church, where in some American cities you see the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church. I don’t want to see in the cities of America the American Anglican Church, the Nigerian Anglican Church, the Egyptian Anglican Church and the English Anglican Church in the same street."

A split in The Episcopal Church would likely have repercussions for the Church of England, according to Archbishop Williams as clergy and congregations are forced to decide where their loyalties lie.

"My nightmare is that action is now going forward that will tie us up in law courts in 10 years, in disputes about property," he said. "That would take so much energy from what we’re meant to be doing… We can prevent those endless lawsuits, I think, if there is enough co-operation in the central mission of the Church. If that work continues it may also help us in finding those structures."

The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a six-page statement about the state of our Anglican Communion in response to the just-ended General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

Archbishop Rowan Williams explains the guiding priorities of Anglican Christianity quite well.  He also suggests that divisions over various practices are leading us toward a formal division between "constituent churches" of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and "associate churches" that operate under a more localized agenda, apart from the world body.

Clearly, the Episcopal Church is envisioned in the "associate" category because of its untraditional positions and inability to work within a global Christian consensus.

Many questions will remain open until the Primates (Presiding Bishops of the 38 Anglican Provinces around the world) meet in early 2007.  It is too soon to know the impact on Church of the Good Shepherd, however, I will tell you that my preference is to keep us part of a church that lives by what the Archbishop describes: "maintaining a balance between the absolute priority of the Bible, a catholic loyalty to the sacraments and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility."

A Message from Fr. Tim regarding the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

Dear People of Good Shepherd,

After a time of prayer and reflection, I will write you in greater detail with my impressions of the Episcopal Church's current situation.  For now, I share the following thought with you and encourage you to pray that we will always recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and that our congregation will Come, Grow, Celebrate! with Him:

The stated vision of the Diocese of South Dakota is "A sacred circle of love, prayer and service gathered around the Gospel."

The Gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ includes our announcement that His self-sacrifice on the cross was made for our benefit (we say this on Sunday in the Holy Eucharist Rite I at 8:00 and Rite II, prayer A at 10:00).  It is disheartening that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church "discharged" (basically refused to consider) a resolution to affirm this very basic point of Christian faith.  The Episcopal Church makes many loud claims about all kinds of things - it saddens me that God's greatest demonstration of love for us was unworthy of affirmation by our assembled deputations.  

But God will not let us evade the truth.  This coming Sunday (June 25), our readings include II Corinthians 5:14-21...

"For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

May God mend the broken circle of our church and gather it around the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fr. Tim+

  Many of you have been praying for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.  He spoke with great grace at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in England in June.  You can read his words at the following link: Archbishop's words

  Please go to the following link for the Archbishop of Canterbury's 2006 Easter Sermon

Fr. Tim and other Anglican Christians from around the country post prayers at "Lent & Beyond," a prayer weblog.  Fr. Tim posts as "Tim F." Use the following link to check this out at:  Weblog  Once at the Weblog, a quick way to find Fr. Tim's entries is to go to Find under Edit menu and type in "Tim F.".