The Changes Underway in the Anglican Communion
NEWS
ABOUT RESURRECTION
has moved.
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Response of the Episcopal Church Bishops to the Communiqué (below).
House of Bishops Message to God's People
Primates Meeting in Dar Es Salaam,
TANZANIA, February 15-19, 2007
and the Communiqué and Responses to that Meeting
The
Final Communiqué with the Directives (Schedule) to the Episcopal Church
Archbishop of Canterbury's comments on the meeting and Communiqué
The proposed Anglican Covenant
Archbishop Henry Orombi (Uganda) comments
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori comments
Chicago Bishop William Persell comments
Comments from various bishops on the Communiqué and directives to the Episcopal
Church
BACKGROUND MATERIALS ON THE CRISIS
Note that the presence here of any specific document does not indicate either
endorsement or rejection by Resurrection. These are here for
reference.
Resurrection's own resources for the
crisis:
Where do we stand on gay clergy? A brief
statement of Resurrection's position in this debate. By the way, though gay
clergy and same sex marriages seem to be the focus of most of the media
attention, we see them only as symptoms of a mistaken understanding of
Scripture, and the departure from the normative understandings of the church
throughout history.
For a fuller statement, read Sex Overtakes the Church. (Where Resurrection
stands: a careful look at gay bishops, sexual variety, Scripture and related
controversy. Long and thorough, with links.)
The Future of the Episcopal Church
following General Convention 2006. Also cited above.
The Windsor Task Force Summary
Report is here.
A PDF version is here.
A Word version is here.
This is the report from the Task Force that Pastor George talks about in 1. and
2. He and Rev Sam Portaro were the co-chairs of the Task Force.
Catharine Phillips was the Chaplain.)
The actual
Windsor Report is here.
How to think through issues of communion and doctrine, using biblical
principles - a resource
for individuals and congregations from
Pastor George.
News for Around the Globe:
Other parishes leaving the Episcopal Church
The most recent news is that the Diocese of Virginia, with an intervention
from the national Episcopal Church, has ceased negotiations with parishes
wishing to leave the Episcopal Church, and apparently will see them in court.
Read about it here. Or just do an Internet news search
(Google News, for instance) with the keywords "Anglican" and "Episcopal."
All Saints
Church in Dale City, Virginia
Falls Church and Truro Church in Virginia also
here
from the Living Church
Two in Olympia,
Washington, part in agreement between congregations and diocese
Web sites and blogs for following what is happening in the
Anglican Communion:
TitusOneNine:
http://titusonenine.classicalanglican.net/
Stand Firm in Faith:
http://www.standfirminfaith.com/
Anglican Communion Network:
http://www.acn-us.org/ (Resurrection is a member)
American Anglican Council:
http://www.americananglican.org (Pastor George is a founder, Resurrection
was one of the first member parishes)
American Anglican Council Blog:
http://aacblog.classicalanglican.net/
VirtueOnline:
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/index.php
Original Materials (2005 and older) Behind the Separation
That Is Underway:
House of
Bishops adopts 'Covenant Statement' in response to the Statement from the
Primates (just below).
Statement from the Primates (regional leaders) of the Anglican Communion, in
response to the Windsor Report, published at the end of their meeting in
February, 2005.
Main Anglican Communion Web site,
with news.
Link to the Windsor Report
from the Lambeth Commission on the crisis in the Anglican Communion. Interview
with N. T. Wright, one of the authors. Very worthwhile reading.
More information, history, news:
The basics of Anglicanism:
What It Means to Be an
Anglican
The Archbishop of
Canterbury (the head of the Communion)
Instruments of Unity (what
holds the Communion together?)
The Churches around the world
that belong to the Anglican Communion
The Membership numbers of
those churches (pretty surprising!)
The Crisis background: For some years now the U.S. and Canadian churches in the
Anglican Communion have been working to include individuals who consider
themselves homosexual into the life of the church as both members and ordained
clergy. While most of the Anglican Communion churches would agree about
membership, they would consider any sexual intercourse outside of marriage
between a man and a woman to be sinful and contrary to the teaching of
Scripture. As the wider Communion has watched the United States and Canada
advance to the approval of intercourse between same-sex individuals, it has
warned these churches that to do so goes against the plain sense of Scripture,
and threatens the unity of the whole Communion. These following documents spell
out the warnings, and also the response of the Presiding Bishop of the United
States, others who favored these changes, and the Bishops of Chicago:
The 1997 Kuala Lampur and
Dallas Statements of Bishops and Anglican Primates
The Resolution of the Primates of the Anglican
Communion, meeting in Lambeth in 1998
The Archbishop's warning to the
Episcopal Church
Letter from President of Integrity
(pro-gay advocacy group within the Episcopal Church)
Statement in favor of same-sex
blessings by Bishop Swing of San Francisco
Biography of Gene Robinson
The Approval of the election of Gene Robinson
by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, August 2003
Statement about this by the Assistant
Bishop of Chicago
Robinson and Same-Sex Blessings
Approved
This last action caused the Archbishop of Canterbury to call an emergency
meeting of the Primates, including Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, in October
of 2003. They issued a unanimous
resolution: Primates statement
This emergency meeting was called because
of Canon Robinson's election as bishop of New Hampshire, and General
Convention's approval of it, and of same-sex blessings. Our Presiding Bishop,
Frank Griswold, was one of those present and signed the document. The other
primates believed that he promised not to go ahead with the consecration of
Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, and saw his agreement and signature as that
promise. They felt betrayed when he returned to the U.S. and immediately
proceeded with the consecration:
Frank Griswold's interpretation of the
Primates Statement
The Primates Statement was followed up by the Archbishop:
Creation of the Lambeth Commission to
deal with this crisis
Some of the work they have done thus far
The report from this commission was released in October, 2004, and is now
know as Windsor Report.
An careful analysis of this by David Roseberry is
here,
and we commend it for your study.
A number of reform movements have arisen within and outside of the Episcopal
Church over many years, some more recently in response to this and related
issues. Here is a short review of some of them:
Reform Groups
Most recently a number of congregations and individuals have left the
Episcopal Church and become part of the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). It
was begun when some overseas bishops and a couple of retired American bishops,
consecrated "missionary bishops" and sent them to the United States. They then
started the Anglican Mission in America. Here is information on it:
Singapore Consecrations
Frank Griswold's reaction to
these consecrations
Anglican Mission in America
Within the Episcopal Church, the leading reform group for the last several
years is the American Anglican Council. Resurrection was one of the first
members and Pastor George was one of the founders.
American Anglican Council
There has also been a push by many people to get alternative bishops for
orthodox parishes in liberal dioceses (called variously Alternative Episcopal
Oversight, Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight, Flying Bishops, etc).
Here's what the AAC says about it:
Other
bishops with oversight
Here's what our bishop (Persell) says about it:
A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy
A new organization is being formed of congregations and clergy who desire
common cause with orthodox churches and clergy in the Episcopal Church and in
the Anglican Communion. This is an offshoot of the AAC, which some hope will
become either a second Province of the Anglican Church within North America, or
which would replace the Episcopal Church as the representative of the Anglican
Communion, IF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH LEAVES or IS EXCLUDED FROM THE COMMUNION. This new organization is here:
Network
of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes
Some congregations have decided that they can no longer be under the
oversight of a bishop who approves of same-sex blessings or gay ordinations,
nor under an alternative bishop that such a bishop might delegate, and want a
change now. Here's an example of three such congregations in the Diocese of Los
Angeles:
Churches Leaving ECUSA (the
Episcopal Church)
Statement of the Archbishop of Uganda accepting them
Statement by Frank Griswold,
Presiding Bishop, about these leavings
Latest Statement about Lambeth
Commission from Bp Griswold to other bishops.
Statement from Archbishop of
Uganda rejecting ECUSA funds.
And that's a summary of where we are. Please pray.
Love
God, neighbor and enemy. 
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