Episcopal Leader to Visit ‘Continuing Episcopalians’

‘Continuing Episcopalians’? The ChristianPost:

The head of The Episcopal Church is making an official visit to Episcopalians who belong to a diocese that has opted to break away from the denomination.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the TEC, arrived Friday in South Carolina to visit Episcopalians in the Diocese of South Carolina who want to remain with the denomination. As part of her itinerary, Jefferts Schori will attend the “Continuing Episcopalians” special meeting on the election of a new provisional bishop for their churches, as the legal battle over who can rightfully call themselves the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina continues in court.

The Steering Committee for the Continuing Episcopalians nominated retired East Tennessee bishop Rt. Rev. Charles Glenn vonRosenberg to the post. The vote to confirm him will take place at Grace Episcopal Church in Charleston on Saturday.

Hillery Douglas, chairman of the Steering Committee and senior warden of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, said in a statement that Jefferts Schori was a welcomed presence. “We welcome the opportunity to have her with us at this important time in the history of our diocese, and it will be a privilege to share with her firsthand the energy and diversity of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina,” said Douglas.

Rev. Canon Jim Lewis, who is part of the diocesan leadership that decided to break away from TEC, told The Christian Post that he has little issue with the process that the Continuing Episcopalians are undertaking. “We have said consistently that The Episcopal Church (TEC) is free to set up a new Diocese here. She has every right to come and be a part of that process,” said Lewis.

“What neither she nor TEC has a right to do is to claim to be us in that process. We remain the same legally incorporated entity that was established in 1785 (four years before TEC was founded). We have disassociated with TEC but we have not ceased to be The Diocese of South Carolina.”

Earlier this month, the leadership of the South Carolina Diocese filed suit against TEC over the rights to the name, seal, and property of the diocese body. On Wednesday, the Diocese successfully got a court order to temporarily halt TEC’s usage of the name and seal. The order will remain in effect for ten days, overlapping with the Saturday vote on vonRosenberg. A hearing will be held on Friday, Feb. 1, to determine if the order should be made into an injunction.

“Our request for a declaratory judgment is now in the hands of the court of the State of South Carolina. We expect a full and fair hearing of the issues that will in time vindicate our right to freedom of association,” said Lewis.

“We chose to join in the founding of TEC. We are also free to choose to leave that association. We believe that to be guaranteed by both South Carolina law and the U.S. Constitution.”

Due to the court order, on their website the “continuing Episcopalians” have changed their name to “The Episcopal Church in South Carolina” and have removed the diocese seal from their web pages.

Neither The Episcopal Church in South Carolina nor the national leadership of the TEC returned comment to The Christian Post by press time.

 

The Traditional Anglican Church of Canada Take on the Situation in Canada

In Virtue Online:

The Traditional Anglican Church of Canada, formed and incorporated in 2010 after the Ordinariate controversy divided the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, has linked itself as a “missionary district” with the Anglican Catholic Church Original Province worldwide, while maintaining links as well with the Anglican Province of Christ the King. The Rev. Father Robert Mansfield of St John’s, Parry Sound, Ontario, convener of the synod, will serve as Vicar- General.

The province was taken at the young church’s initial synod, held October 23-25 at Queen of Apostles Renewal Centre in Mississauga near Toronto, Canada, ironically the location where an attempt was made earlier to form an Ordinariate in Canada.

A highlight of this gathering was the ordination of The Reverend George Betsos to the Sacred Order of Deacons by Archbishop James Provence of the APCK, to serve as Assistant Curate in Saint Mark’s Parish, Victoria, British Columbia. Betsos holds the Master of Divinity degree from the University of Toronto and a degree in psychotherapy. He will join the Victoria congregation later this year.

Archbishop Mark Haverland gave the address and charge to the ordinand. This was the third ordination to the diaconate this year for Canadian traditionalists: the others were of The Rev. Steven Beyer of Holy Trinity & St Jude, Thunder Bay, and The Rev. Jonathan Carrothers of St Mark’s, Victoria.

Archbishop Mark Haverland (ACCOP) presided at the meeting, which approved the “missionary” status of the Traditional Anglican Church of Canada unanimously. Thus the original eight parishes will be affiliated with 250 ACCOP parishes in the U.S., U.K., India, Africa, and Asia. The connection between St Mark’s in Victoria and the APCK, formed before the other parishes existed or had withdrawn from the ACCC, has the approval of Archbishop Haverland, who strongly supported the parish’s wish to continue this connection whilst maintaining full participation in the Canada-wide organisation. The two archbishops presented a united front and spoke movingly to the assembled clergy and lay leaders.

The theme of the synod was “Pastoral Availability and Organisational Stability,” and speakers from each of the parish described the efforts being made to implement the aims of the Traditional Anglican Church. A series of addresses on the theme given by The Rev. Father Stanley Sinclair of Victoria will be published.

Mrs. Marie Tetlow was chosen as secretary by acclamation. The five-member elected executive council of the TACC will remain in place, but a treasurer and a chancellor must be found. Dr Millo Shaw of Thunder Bay, who drafted the Constitution, asked to be relieved as Chancellor because of the pressure of work.

The Anglican Catholic Church in the U.S. was formed in 1978 as the aftermath of the Congress of St Louis a year before, which brought together thousands of disaffected traditional Anglicans, who wanted to maintain their tradition unimpaired by the changes made in the American and Canadian churches, replacing the Prayer Book with contemporary rites that diminished orthodoxy, and approving the ordination of women; although other issues were also involved. ACCOP and ACPK were created as the outcome of the “Affirmation of St Louis.”

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada began under Archbishop Robert Morse of APCK, who had taken the Victoria congregation founded by former bishop Peter Wilkinson [St Athanasius, later St John the Evangelist] under its wing prior to the formation of the Canadian body. At a 2010 synod near Vancouver the ACCC voted to join in an Ordinariate, but subsequently the parishes in Victoria and Halifax withdrew, and other parishes had a long period of uncertainty. Some have still not made a decision about their future affiliation. The Church of the Resurrection, Walkerville [Windsor], ON, under The Rev. Fr. James Chantler, voted to join the ACCOP prior to this development.

The Traditional Anglican Communion was formed as an international body in 1991, under Archbishop Hepworth, who after much controversy intervening is now a Roman Catholic layman. He gave the impression on a swing round the international TAC circuit that the church was seeking uniate status.

The appeal to the Vatican had actually been made by Evangelical bishops in the Church of England to the Vatican. Given the very cordial interaction through the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission, it was thought that a way might be found to establish a “uniate” relationship. In 2005 the proposed terms were presented to the English bishops as well as to TAC bishops at a meeting in Washington, DC, with Cardinal Wuerl.

At that time unknown to the rank and file membership, most of the bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion had signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church at a meeting in Portsmouth, England in 2007. [This was a tacit approval of papal infallibility, transubstantiation, and Marian dogmas adopted by Rome in the 19th and 20th centuries, along with the Catholic faith of the "undivided church" prior to the Great Schism.]

The publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus in 2009 made Anglican Catholics in Canada aware that under its terms the eligible clergy must be re-ordained and re-trained, and laity would undergo some rite, either Confirmation or Chrismation, at the hands of a Roman bishop.

When the Vatican document was released the now former Archbishop John Hepworth and other bishops denied that it meant the necessity of becoming Roman Catholic ["we will be united, not absorbed"], although subsequent events showed that this was indeed expected. In Canada two out of three ACCC bishops have now been laicised, although they are seeking Roman Catholic ordination, along with several ACCC clergy. Bishop Craig Botterill of Halifax, Nova Scotia, is the remaining ordinary of the ACCC.

So far there is no Ordinariate in Canada, but “fellowships” in Ottawa and Victoria, related to the “Anglican Use” and Ordinariate parishes in the U.S. One lone Anglican parish, historic St John the Evangelist, Calgary, has joined the “Anglican Use” group. At the moment these congregations have no clergy of their own but rely on regular R.C. clergy for ministrations. This of course reflects the very limited interest expressed in the Ordinariate proposal by Anglicans in the U.K., Australia, India and Africa.

Squabbling half-truths. A poor, yet typical, Virtue post.

 

Parish Weighs Order to Surrender its Church

Sad news for the people of St Barnabas in Omaha:

An Omaha congregation that left the Episcopal Church over issues of doctrine and homosexuality now faces a tough decision about its midtown church: Should congregants stay or should they go?

A judge ruled last week that the people of St. Barnabas Church must surrender the 97-year-old church building, with all its artwork and other trappings, plus its rectory and other property to the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska.

The ruling by Douglas County District Court Judge Joseph Troia came more than three years after the diocese sued St. Barnabas’ priest and leaders for the church and rectory at 129 N. 40th St. It is one of many such property disputes around the nation between the Episcopal Church and disaffected congregations.

The judge’s order gives the St. Barnabas congregation, which is moving toward joining the Roman Catholic Church, until late October to hand over the keys. But the diocese’s lawyer, D.C. “Woody” Bradford, said it won’t push to enforce that deadline.

People on both sides said they hope for negotiations that could lead to the congregation’s staying in its current home, though not as an Episcopal church. St. Barnabas leaders also are considering an appeal.

“What we’re hoping is that now that they have won the lawsuit they’ll be more willing to sit down with us and talk about what’s real,” said the Rev. Robert Scheiblhofer, rector of St. Barnabas.

Bradford said Nebraska Episcopal Bishop J. Scott Barker “wants to resolve it as amicably as possible, without any hindrance of their desire to become a Catholic Church. … I’m sure we’ll come together and work something out.”

St. Barnabas is one of dozens of Episcopal parishes around the nation whose members have chosen to leave the Episcopal Church. They have done so for a variety of reasons, most having to do with their parishioners’ and clergy’s beliefs that the U.S. church has drifted from traditional Anglican faith.

Long known for tolerating a wide variety of theological views, the Episcopal Church has struggled in recent years over issues that confront other denominations as well, including the ordination of women and of openly gay clergy…

Officials of the Nebraska Episcopal Diocese have said that St. Barnabas members were free to leave the denomination, with church leaders’ blessings, but that they could not continue to use their buildings…

They also are considering other options, including moving out and finding a different church building…

HT:  Michael Frost (in via e-mail).

 

Will ‘the TAC bishops will stop wearing Roman Catholic ecclesial attire?’

Deborah Gyapong has picked up on a thread of comments over on this blog and she comes up with some rather interesting and selective conclusions. Things like:

As others have expressed on this blog, I would like to see a good theological and rational explanation for why the present TAC bishops have decided to reject the Apostolic Constitution that goes beyond the ad hominem attacks against Hepworth.  How do they explain their actions in light of what the CCC says?

And I wonder, too, if the TAC bishops will stop wearing Roman Catholic ecclesial attire?  Maybe Fr. Anthony can do a post on his blog about what Anglican priestly and episcopal attire should look like.

Wow! I don’t even think it worth responding to, other than perhaps to say it’s sad to see this coming from one who just a day or two ago  wrote:

Anyway, I wish these chapters would come to an end and the ACCA and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross can go their separate ways without bitterness or continued fighting.

You may wish to comment or respond over here or there.

UPDATE:  Fr Anthony Chadwick goes there and actually posts ‘what Anglican priestly and episcopal attire should look like’.

 

Breakaway Anglican Church Calls Eviction ‘Blessing’

CBN:

Property battles in the Episcopal Church have cost a prominent Washington, D.C.-area congregation its multi-million-dollar home.

The 4,000 members of The Falls Church Anglican must now find a new place to worship after holding their last service in the historic 1732 sanctuary Sunday.

A Fairfax County judge gave the final order to depart this spring, ending the breakaway congregation’s six-year fight with its former denomination.

Anglicans say the Episcopal Church has drifted from the historic Christian faith.

“It’s an outcome of our desire to be faithful to the person and teachings of Jesus Christ,” John Yates, rector of The Falls Church Anglican, told CBN News.

On Tuesday, Yates held a final staff meeting full of memories and hope for the future.

“The church is people, not buildings,” he said. “We knew that — but didn’t know it as well as we thought we knew it.”

Church staff are now relocating to temporary quarters, not really sure just where they’ll land. But in the midst of such uncertainty, Yates said the faith of his congregation is growing.

“What we’re feeling is a great sense of privilege to be going through what we’re going through,” he said. “It’s sure not easy, but it’s a blessing.”

“We know that we have a lot to learn from it so we’re thankful for it,” he said.

Falls Church Episcopal, a congregation of 200, has met offsite since the 2006 split. It’s now moving back onto the property and will hold its first service there Wednesday night.

Their website is here.

 

Catholic Herald: Breakaway Anglicans Reject Pope’s Offer

‘Reject Pope’s offer’… The word ‘reject’ is an ugly, negative word.

Well the Catholic Herald, Britain’s leading Catholic newspaper, has caught up with the discomforting news:

The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), the world’s largest breakaway group of Anglicans, has announced that it will not be joining a Personal Ordinariate.

The move represents an remarkable turnaround. Five years ago the group sent a letter to Rome asking for “full, corporate and sacramental union”.

At a meeting near Johannesburg, South Africa, the group’s bishops deposed its primate, Archbishop John Hepworth. They voted unanimously that he “cease to hold the office of primate immediately”.

In a statement the bishops said there was a “strong feeling” at the meeting that “a new direction had been taken by the TAC”.

They said the meeting was “long overdue”. Their statement said: “Over the past two years, several members of the College of Bishops had requested of the primate an urgent meeting of the college. Anglicanorum coetibus or the Apostolic Constitution, for example, had never been discussed or debated within the College of Bishops. Meetings of the College of Bishops had, in fact, been scheduled at least twice over the past two years.

“Most recently, a meeting was called by the TAC primate for mid-2011. This meeting was cancelled abruptly by the primate. Accordingly, the meeting in Johannesburg was voted to be the overdue meeting of the College of Bishops,” the bishops said.

They said they had appointed Archbishop Samuel Prakash, one of the TAC’s founders, as acting primate.

Archbishop Hepworth announced in December that he would step down this year, saying that “considerable dissension” had arisen within the TAC.

Earlier last year he alleged that he had been sexually abused and raped by two priests while he was a seminarian and young Catholic priest in southern Australia. The Melbourne archdiocese has apologised and given him $75,000 in compensation, but the Archdiocese of Adelaide has dismissed his claims.

In 2007, at a meeting in Portsmouth, England, the TAC bishops agreed to send a letter to Rome asking to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church. It was understood that they had accepted the teachings of the Catechism and that Archbishop Hepworth had offered to step down to the level of a priest.

The TAC says it has about 400,000 members and has branches in North America, Ireland, southern Africa, Australia, India and Japan.

What a shocker is the above report not?!

Oh, and ‘reject’ from the Oxford Dictionary:

Origin:

Late Middle English: from Latin reject – ‘thrown back’, from the verb reicere, from re-‘back’ + jacere  ‘to throw’

It’s been a terrible day for the Church in the global press.

Remember, faithful, we are in Lent.

Pray… Abstain… Sacrifice… Alms Giving.

Better yet, maybe we ought to be walking around in sackcloth and ashes…with our heads hanging in shame.

Just saying.

 

From Australia: Traditional Anglicans Reject Vatican Offer to Join Up

On National Radio (no less):

In South Africa at the weekend, a group of bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) met. The TAC is made up of Anglicans who have broken away from the mainstream church, largely over the issue of women priests. In mainland Australia, the TAC is small, with about 20 parishes. But its leader, Archbishop John Hepworth, has been in the forefront of a push for traditional Anglicans to become part of the Catholic Church. And the Vatican has, to an extent, obliged, setting up the Anglican Ordinariate. But in Johannesburg on Friday, 12 of the 20 active bishops of the communion voted not only to reject the Vatican’s offer but also to remove Archbishop Hepworth as primate. (He was planning to stand down in May but he has been pushed out early.) David Virtue is a journalist who edits the conservative-leaning website Virtue Online — billed as ‘the voice for global Orthodox Anglicanism’ — and he keeps a close eye on developments within the communion. Meanwhile, not all members of the Traditional Anglican Communion accept the decision of the bishops meeting in Johannesburg, including lay Canon Cheryl Woodman, registrar of the TAC in Australia.

So David Virtue and Cheryl Woodman are interviewed, and what they have to say is very interesting. Listen further here.

Download the clip here (mp3) to spend some more time with it.

I’ll reserve comment.

You just go listen.

UPDATE:  And still more bad news.

 

Advocating Schism within the TAC

Just a short note to those so openly advocating schism and working against the good governance and effective spiritual leadership within the TAC (and by schism, I mean: the offense of causing or inciting division or disunion within the Church):

Canon 1364 § 1 of the Catholic Church (for the ‘pro-Catholics’ out there) states:

An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication…

Schism, like an act of apostasy or heresy, automatically brings the penalty of excommunication. That is standard procedure in most Churches. And do you know where this sin stems from? Pride. That primordial sin that lead Satan to rebel against God.

So if you are a TAC member, please stop. As a still serving member, you ought to be loyal, lest you make yourself guilty of one of the vilest devices of Satan - warned against in Scripture - the causing of divisions and strife in the Church:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

- (Rom 16:17-18)

(Cf. 2 Cor 2:11; 1 Cor 1:10; 3:1-3; 11:17-19; 2 Cor 11:20).

The peace and unity of the Church is a divine mandate of the highest priority (Ps 133:1-3; Mat 5:9; Rom 12:18-21; 1 Cor. 7:15; 2 Cor 13:11; Eph 4:1-6; 1 Thess 5:12-15).

Or if you cannot follow the Biblical mandate, then simply leave and go to there where it is you think that you will best be able to honour and obey Christ. If ‘Church-hopping’ is your thing (everyone just pause for a minute here, and look back over your own ecclesiastical landscape), then by all means. Continue and make the Church just another product in the broader marketplace of goods and services. Faithfulness to a specific theological or ecclesiastical tradition has in any event, long been replaced by the modern fad of ‘Church shopping’. Even Clergy seem to openly shop. And do it here, and you’ll do it there.

As for me, I’d rather be found faithful. I believe being faithful is a Christian virtue (Gal 5:22)? So when things are not what I believe they ought to be, then I work to make the change, within. Our culture has so little if any regard for commitment. Divorce is easy. And yet, the Good  Shepherd says:

I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the  sheep. The hired hand is not the  shepherd who owns the sheep.  So when he  sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters  it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

- St John 10:11-13

Do that and who knows, you may even be able to grow your congregation? When people see in you a holiness, love, devotion and unwavering commitment to the Risen Lord, they will follow you. People need Jesus, and they need to be shown Jesus. How do you do that when you cannot get over yourself?

The path to unity will not be easy, but it can be done. So let us pray to that end.

 

Archbishop John Hepworth to Resign on Easter Day

Released for publication here.

Traditional Anglican Communion
Office of the Primate Archbishop John Hepworth

28th January 2012

To the Bishops, clergy and people of the Traditional Anglican Communion

My Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

In June of 2003, I was elected as the second Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion.  At the Plenary Meeting of our College of Bishops, held in Australia in conjunction with the inauguration of my Primacy, it was made strongly clear – without dissent – that I was to further the ambition of this Communion since its beginnings to discover a means by which Anglican ecclesial communities might come into the fullness of Catholic Communion in a corporate manner, without loss of the treasures of the Anglican tradition.

I prosecuted that mandate of the College in National and Diocesan Synods, in meetings and discussions with anyone whom I thought might assist in both Anglican and Roman Catholic circles, having made clear to the Holy See that I would not allow my own circumstances to become an impediment to unity.

With the promulgation of Anglicanorum Coetibus, the mandate given to me by the College is now complete.

I have been deeply concerned that most of our Communion has been marginalised by the process of implementing the Apostolic Constitution.  My correspondence and personal representations have not been as effective as I would have wished.

I have been equally concerned that several of the Bishops of our College continue to set aside the provisions of the Concordat that regulates our life as a College.  The Concordat is a deeply Anglican document.  It cannot be changed or disregarded by bishops alone.  The clergy and laity meeting as the National Synods of our Member Provinces must confirm changes before they become effective.  Neither bishops nor anyone else can be expelled from Communion at the whim of the bishops.  Several bishops have started to exercise prelacy of this most disturbing kind.

I have also been concerned at the lightness with which the most solemn decisions of the College are being set aside.

I indicated last December that I would spend some weeks discerning the moment when my retirement might best be accomplished.  Some of the bishops have expressed impatience; others have dissented from their actions.

I have today forwarded to the Secretary to the College (an elected position of the College, not an appointment of the Primate) a deed of resignation to be effective on Easter Day of this year, and I have instructed the Secretary to conduct an election for the next Primate, in strict accordance with the procedure laid down by the Concordat, and according to the detailed process determined by the College prior to the resignation of Archbishop Falk, my predecessor.

I remain the Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia.

I ask the prayers of the whole Communion for their bishops at this time, as once again they seek the Divine Will.

+John Hepworth

So the Primate will no longer resign at Pentecost. It is now Easter Day. 50 days sooner…

The resignation can be downloaded in pdf. Click here.

 

Traditional Anglican Communion: Trouble in India

UPDATE:  It has been brought to my attention that what is noted below is in fact a reference to the historical situation in India and not ‘news’ per se. There is no TAC trouble in India. Rather The Most Rev Samuel P Prakash (Metropolitan) is highlighting some of the difficulties that they have had to face up until now. Our prayers are with them.

…………………………………………………………………………..

Fr Anthony Chadwick alerts us to the news of trouble in India:

In the Latest News of Anglican Church of India (member church of the TAC) on the Anglican Church of India’s website, we read that Archbishop Prakash has removed four prominent leaders for some kind of “mutiny”. At least two of the names given seem to be those of bishops (John Augustine and Masih). They also spread a false rumour that Archbishop Prakash was bedridden and seriously ill.

The Anglican Church in India has been in litigation with the Anglican Catholic Church – Original Province over property for years, so I was told some time ago by Archbishop Hepworth. I don’t know if this is presently the case. Something is going on, and it would seem that the devil is working overtime these days!

From the above links:

… The following members were removed from the Anglican Church of India (CIPBC) in accordance to the Constitution, Canons and Rules of the Anglican Church. John Augustine, Gabriel Buxla, Johnson T. John, and Suraj Masih for their self interest. Such persons spread rumour against the highest office of the Metropolitan. Some say that Archbishop Samuel P. Prakash is no more, or he is serious in bed and all of them claim to replace the Most Rev. Samuel P. Prakash, Metropolitan. They misguide the Government offices and general public. We must be careful from these persons who are claiming to be Anglican leaders only to sell the dedicated and consecrated Anglican Church properties in their own interest. They are defeated in Court cases up to the High Court and Supreme of India…

More here.

Divisive squabbling and bickering is fast becoming a TAC Continuing Anglicans hallmark. So sad when one is to consider that of the main intentions behind the formation of the Communion was actually to unite (alienated) Continuing Anglicans on various levels.