Subject: FW: Friday Review
FRIDAY REVIEW
The
Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle
Dean
Jim McCaslin & Assistant
Lynne
Ashmead at the Nairobi
Consecrations
August 30. Dean Bill
Thompson
of the Western Convo-
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Yesterday
afternoon the Network deans along with Bishop Bill Atwood and the Rev. Dr.
Trevor Walters, a Director from the Anglican Network in Canada, had
their regular weekly conference call. As I was reflecting this morning on the
exciting news coming out of Canada,
I remembered that in one sense this latest phase of increased momentum in the
realignment of North American Anglicanism started with the consecrations of
Bill Atwood and Bill Murdoch in Nairobi.
Perhaps
the greatest significance of these consecrations was the great degree of
consultation and consensus that was reached among Global South Primates
before the consecration of the “twin Bills” was set in motion. While
Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya presided, ten other Primates from around
the Anglican Communion, key network leaders to include Common Cause Chairman
Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh and Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, as well
as bishops from our Common Cause Partners, Chuck
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Murphy
of AMiA and Martyn Minns of CANA, and our
beloved Canadian Network Bishop Don Harvey also participated. As we heard the
Primates share at the reception at Archbishop Nzmibi’s home that Friday
evening, it was clear that the time for united action to start the movement
into a new ecclesiastical structure in North America
had arrived. Bishops Bill and Bill would be more than Kenyan bishops. They were
mandated to serve as missionary bishops for the rebuilding of orthodox American
Anglicanism and for the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.
St.
Andrew’s Collect reminds us that we who are called by God’s Holy Word need His
grace to follow Jesus without delay and to bring those near to us into his
gracious presence. That is what we are all about, my brothers and sisters, and
that is what we see unfolding in North American Anglicanism.
As the
status of TEC, the Lambeth Conference, and the future of the Anglican Communion
continue to play out, we are moving forward with realignment and
reformation. The Anglican Network in Canada
held a historic meeting November 22-23 in Burlington,
Ontario. Archbishop Greg Venables
of the Southern Cone has graciously received Canadian Network Moderator Bishop
Don Harvey and Bishop Malcolm Harding into the Southern Cone and opened the
door to those Canadian congregations intent on leaving the Anglican Church of
Canada and who want to be recognized as fully Anglican and in the mainstream of
global Anglicanism.
Earlier,
the Southern Cone Synod that met November 5-7 in Valparaiso, Chile
voted to give an ecclesiastical home to dioceses that need to secede from TEC.
The ACN Dioceses of Quincy, Springfield, Pittsburgh, and Fort
Worth have recently met to consider their future
regarding their association with TEC and their commitment to remaining orthodox
Anglicans. The last of the five APO (Alternative Primatial Oversight) Dioceses,
San Joaquin, will meet in convention December
7-8. Pray for Bishop John-David Schofield and his people as they consider
Archbishop Venables’ invitation for San Joaquin
to join the Southern Cone.
As
we enter this Advent season, please pray also for the meeting of the Common
Cause Partners Leadership Council December 17-19 in Orlando under the Chairmanship of Bishop Bob
Duncan. “It will organize itself into a federation of all partners who have by
that point ratified its Articles. The assembly will elect a Moderator,
Secretary, and Treasurer. It will appoint standing committees and task forces.
By the end of the day, it will have brought into existence the ‘separate
ecclesiastical structure’ in North America for
which the Global South Primates have called.” (See www.acn-us.org/milestones/2007/dec-18/common-cause-leadership-council.html)
Your
Brother in Christ,
Jim McCaslin+
