Reform England

Reform in England has a great summary of the GAFCON conference and solid suggestions for parishes in implementing reform while remaining a part of the C of E - which is roughly equivalent to those of us who are 'part' of TEC, while distancing ourselves from its teaching (or lack thereof) and its practice.

Camp Challenge - Wasilla, Alaska Camp 08

The Disaster of Indifference to Doctrine

From Martin Downes' Blog on Against Heresies

"My Christian life, for the past thirteen years, has involved inhabiting a small circle within a larger circle. The small circle is that of Reformed theology and church life, the larger circle that of UK evangelicalism. The world of the smaller circle is far from perfect. Yet one thing that it does not suffer from is indifference toward doctrine.

In the larger world of evangelicalism one cannot assume that doctrine is valued. The reverse is often the case. One has, at times, to present an apologetic for the necessity, vitality and importance of doctrine. One can assume that the "d" word is associated in your audience with intellectualism, and the kind of Christian life and experience that is "academic," dry and dusty. Of course these things aren't necessarily so, but prejudice is a powerful thing, and a stress on doctrine can lead to listeners switching off.

Evangelicals who are indifferent to doctrine are a danger to Christianity. Church leaders who do not "hold firmly to the trustworthy word as taught" will never be able to bring God's people to mature godliness (which requires instruction in sound doctrine), nor will they be able to ward off infiltrators who teach another gospel (Titus 1:9). Somehow they know better than Paul what is best for the health of the church.

But it is not only leaders who are held to account for their attitude to sound doctrine. The epistle to the Galatians is directed to churches who are departing from the apostolic gospel. If we are indifferent to sound doctrine, and neglect its intrinsic importance, we are guilty of treating the precious truth that we have been entrusted with as worthless. We take care of the things we love. When God entrusts us with the pattern of sound words he tests our love toward him by how we use, abuse, treasure or neglect his revealed truth.

When you cut through the forest of rhetoric surrounding doctrine, what becomes clear is that indifference toward doctrine is often a cover for indifference toward particular doctrines. Personal experience is not a sufficient or appropriate source from which truth for life can be derived. At the end of the day resistance to true doctrine is empowered by a non-negotiable commitment to other doctrines."

Spring is almost Here

Semper Reformanda

For those of you who like to write in your bibles - here is some handy advice
- use pigment ink pins - Such as Micron or Staedtler pigment liners- 
they are acid free & don't bleed through pages. 
Also, at the ESV Blog http://www.esv.org/blog
- an interesting how to on putting together a Bible
(ESV in this case) with blank pages in between for note taking. 

Common Cause or Uncommon Confusion

David Phillips of England's Church Society expresses some of the angst I feel as I think about the various groupings of orthodox US Episcopalians.

We have the Anglican Communion Network which our church belongs to. It consists mainly of those churches and 10 dioceses which are still a part of TEC (The Episcopal Church). Of course even that is changing with San Joaquin now a part of the Southern Cone. Ft. Worth is soon to follow. ACN also embraces about 100 congregations no longer a part of TEC.

Then we have newly ordained bishops, Bill Atwood and Bill Murdoch who represent the Province of Kenya, and John Guernsey who is a bishop for the Province of Uganda. The Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) numbers 60,000 including three of the largest TEC parishes. Martyn Minns was consecrated in Nigheria as a missionary bishop and another TEC retired bishop, David Bena, is now a part of CANA.

There are 3 Canadian groups, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Essentials Canada and the Anglican Network in Canada.

Then there is AMiA, The Anglican Mission in the Americas which began in 2000 sponsored by the Province of Rwanda. There are about 125 affiliated congregations in the US and Canada. There are 4 existing bishops and one retired bishop. Three more men will be consecrated this month.

Another group called the Anglican Province of America (APA) was formed by a merger in 1991 though its roots go back to the late 1960's. It is a traditionalist body since the merger has been more Anglo-Catholic in outlook. Then, there is the Reformed Episcopal Church which dates to the 19th century seem now to be a bit uncomfortable with being reformed and now are talking about a merger with APA.

All of the above are now part of yet another grouping called The Common Cause Network which covers these 10 organizations.

Here is the problem. This is a very mixed group, and few are clearly protestant and reformed. Some are ritualistic, some favor women's ordination while others reject it. Some are charismatic, and some use watered down modern liturgy, while others insist on traditional language.

Here is the problem for reformed evangelicals who hang their hat squarely on the 39 Articles and also the need of a reformed Book of Common Prayer (which we do not have). There is still no clear evangelical, reformed and protestant grouping; not even in the Reformed Episcopal Church.

TEC is moribund; but the alternatives are disappointing. Maybe Fitz Allison's advice is prophetic: Stay, Pray and Don't Pay.

Ok, Ok Let's Get Real

No, I'm not memorizing all those wonderful verses that appeared on the blog. But how about one verse a week.

Go here.

It's a lot easier.

A Great Quote

From the late Alan Stibbs, a wonderfully clear writer, and an astute expounder of the Bible. "This one event of the cross of Christ is a final revelation of both the character and consequences of human sin and the wonder and sacrifice of divine love."

Helpful Encouragement from J.I. Packer

So, who are we today, and where do we stand at this moment in relation to all that is happening in the storm-tossed Anglican Communion? In light of what I have said so far, I put it to you that there are four things we can and must now say. They are as follows.

To start with, we are a community of conscience, - committed to the Anglican convictions - those defined, I mean, in our foundation documents and expressed in our Prayer Book. The historic Anglican conviction about the authority of the Bible matches that which Luther expressed at the Diet of Worms: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe” - that is, it imperils the soul. As for the historic Anglican conviction about homosexual behaviour, it contains three points:

First, it violates the order of creation. God made the two sexes to mate and procreate, with pleasure and bonding; but homosexual intercourse, apart from being, at least among men, awkward and unhealthy, is barren.

Second, it defies the gospel call to repent of it and abstain from it, as from sin. This call is most clearly perhaps expressed in 1Cor. 6: 9-11, where the power of the Holy Spirit to keep believers clear of this and other lapses is celebrated.

Third, the heart of true pastoral care for homosexual persons is helping them in friendship not to yield to their besetting temptation. We are to love the sinner, though we do not love the sin.

We must hold to these positions, whatever the culture around us may say and do. So a biblically educated conscience requires.

Second, we are a community of church people, committed to the Anglican Communion.

We rejoice to know that the more than 90% of worshipping Anglicans worldwide outside the Old West are solidly loyal to the Christian heritage as Anglicanism has received it, and we see our realignment as among other things, an enhancing of our solidarity with them. As I said earlier, what we are doing is precisely not leaving Anglicanism behind.

Third, we are a community of consecration, committed to the Anglican calling of worship and mission, doxology and discipling. Right from the start church planting will be central to our vision of what we are being called to do.

Fourth, I think we may soberly say of ourselves that we are a community of courage, heading out into unknown waters but committed to the Anglican confidence that God is faithful to those who are faithful to him.

Anglicanism in twilight

Chris Sudgen writes in Evangelicals Now about the bleak prospects for us TECies.

Great Conference

Phillip Jensen, Mark Dever and Tony Payne led a wonderful conference last week at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

One tidbit: Phillip said we should scrap the word, "membership," and use the word "partnership." A member is passive; a partner is active and involved in ministry. Further, 'membership' is not a biblical word, whereas 'partnership' is. In the NT, one is a member of a political or religious association; but a 'member' of Christ is another Greek word altogether. It is word for a part of the physical body.

Peter Jensen on New Orleans

Peter Jensen is not fooled by American obfuscation.

The Briefing on the Web

Terrific resource for Christians.

Praise God for African Christians

What is Textual Criticism?

I found this very helpful.

Getting the Gospel Right, Getting the Gospel Out!

Are we getting the gospel right? What if we don't? Does it matter? And if we are getting it right, how do we get it out? These are some of the questions our guest speaker, Dr. Cornelis Venema will be addressing when he visits us October 12-14 at All Saints' Anchorage, and Church in the Wildwood in Eagle River, AK.

The first session will be Friday at All Saints' (corner of 8th and F in Anchorage, 907-279-3924) from 7-9 pm (babysitting available).

The second session will be Saturday at Church in the Wildwood, 16832 Hansen Drive, Eagle River (907-694-2089) from 9-11 am.

Toon On International Standing Committee

A virtually clean bill of health for The Episcopal Church!

An International Committee finds TEC is in compliance with requests made of it.


Dr Peter Toon

On October 2nd, the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council submitted its Report on The Episcopal Church to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who then sent it on to the Primates of the Global Communion. The Report is nineteen pages in length, is clearly written, and is unlikely to be misunderstood in terms of its findings by anyone who reads it carefully.

In order to appreciate its major findings or recommendations, we need to bear in mind the following context concerning the work of the Joint Committee:

1. It had a limited brief which concerned the relation of The Episcopal Church, more specifically its House of Bishops, to The Windsor Report and to the recent Communique from The Primates Meeting in Tanzania. Further, it met only with Bishops at the Bishops’ Meeting and apparently had no prolonged conversation there with the Bishops of the Anglican Communion Network, who are closely allied with the Provinces of the Global South.

2. It made no study of either (a) “the practical theology” of much of TEC, which theology is closely related to a radical reading of the much-vaunted “Baptismal Covenant,” or (b) what goes on in dioceses without the Bishops’ formal permission and as he or she turns “a blind eye.” Thus it only studied the words of Bishops when they were on their best behavior and engaged in crafting forms of words in order to be seen as genuine members of the Global Anglican Communion. Further, it relied on the lady Presiding Bishop for information and interpretation, where perhaps the use of other sources may have been better (e.g., on how many parishes have left TEC recently and their size).

3. It is composed of persons who, while being admirably committed to the unity of the Global Anglican Family, belong in the main to what we may call “the centrist” position and apparently are neither too perturbed by “the practical theology” of the TEC nor too supportive of the “enthusiasm and zeal” of some in the Global South.

Obviously these three factors profoundly affected the tone, if not the facts in this Report, in which are three major findings or recommendations.

First of all, the Joint Committee finds—after a long tour of the documentary evidence on sexuality in recent discussion— that the House of Bishops (and thus TEC) has met the requests and demands made by both The Windsor Report of 2004 and of The Communique of the Primates from Dar es Salaam. That is, the Committee accepts as trustworthy the words of the resolutions of the recent House of Bishops’ Meeting in New Orleans, wherein the House committed not to bless the unions of same-sex couples, not to ordain active homosexual persons and not to vote for any such for the office of bishop. The Report thus states:

"By their answers…, we believe that the Episcopal Church has clarified
all outstanding questions relating to their response to the questions directed explicitly to them in the Windsor Report, and on which clarifications were sought by 30th September 2007, and given the necessary assurances sought of them.”

We note that the Committee was able to come to this conclusion because—and it really had little option—it had to take the words of the Bishops’ resolutions in their literal, straightforward meeting. Had the Committee also toured say ten of the more “prophetic” dioceses, it would have found most probably that the blessing of same-sex persons has in no way ceased, even though there is no official Liturgy for the same and the official permission of the Bishop is not requested. (It may be noted here that is because the Primates of the Global South have reliable reports of what goes on unofficially and widely in not a few liberal dioceses that they do not take the statements of the House of Bishops as necessarily faithful and true.)

Secondly, the Joint Committee finds that the “interventions” by overseas Bishops to establish missions and congregations on U.S. territory, and to consecrate missionary Bishops for this purpose, are wholly against the spirit and the letter of what may be called a fundamental law of Anglican polity. In this it agrees with the statement of the House of Bishops of TEC from New Orleans defending the territorial episcopate as the Anglican way of being the church on the ground. Further, it advances in support of this position all kinds of evidence from Councils of the Early Church and resolutions from Lambeth Conferences. Further, it also seems to believe that there is some hope of resolving this problem and so makes suggestions—mostly concerning what the Archbishop of Canterbury could do—for ways to heal this growing schism and to bring back into TEC the recent seceders on terms that are reasonable and fair. One may comment that while what it stated and recommended by the Committee is balanced and reasonable, what is wholly missing—perhaps because the Committee does not really feel this—is the sense that the present TEC leadership has actually adopted a new form of religion. That is a new type of Christianity which, while using much traditional wording and symbols, is contrary to classic, biblically-based traditional Anglican worship, doctrine and discipline. In a word, its basic confession is not “Jesus is the only Lord and Savior” but something like “Jesus is a Savior and is our Savior.”

Finally, the Joint Committee finds that the position of the House of Bishops in terms of the understanding of “sexual orientation” and the making sure that people of all kinds of “orientation” are welcome in the Church as whole persons is wholly in accord with the position adopted by The Lambeth Conference of 1998 and widely accepted within the Anglican Family.

Here is the final paragraph:

"The life of the Anglican Communion has been much damaged in recent years following the tensions raised by the consecration in The Episcopal Church of a bishop living in a committed same-sex relationship and the authorization in some dioceses of Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions. With the response of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in September 2007, the Communion should move towards closure on these matters, at least for the time being. The Communion seems to be converging around a position which says that while it is inappropriate to proceed to public Rites of Blessing of same-sex unions and to the consecration of bishops who are living in sexual relationships outside of Christian marriage, we need to take seriously our ministry to gay and lesbian people inside the Church and the ending of discrimination, persecution and violence against them. Here, The Episcopal Church and the Instruments of Communion speak with one voice. The process of mutual listening and conversation needs to be intensified. It is only by living in communion that we can live out our vocation to be Communion.”

One may regret that the Report ends in this way, which may be seen as placing too much emphasis (by stating it last of all) on the failure of the Church to minister fully to one small class of persons, “gay and lesbian people,” when Communion has many other more important dimensions to be emphasized and lived.

In conclusion:
What will be the fall-out from this Report which is now in the possession of all the global Primates and their advisers? We can only guess and here we go.



The majority of, if not all, the Primates of the Global South will not regard it as binding because, relying on what they believe to be accurate information from the U.S.A., they will believe that the fine words of the House of Bishops (taken at face value by the Committee) do not match either the reality on the ground in many dioceses or the general teaching of the leadership of TEC on the radical meaning and prophetic actions and requirements of “the Baptismal Covenant.” Thus the missionary interventions will continue with the general intention of creating a new province in North America for they regard TEC as apostate and engaged in infidelity.



The majority of Bishops in the West/North will be inclined to accept the Report and support the Archbishop of Canterbury in his going ahead with the 2008 Lambeth Conference, even if many from the Global South do not attend. This Bishops will also pay lip service to the need to bring the American seceders back into TEC and away from their African “Pastors” but do little about it for they have other things to do!



The Global Anglican Communion will effectively be no more, except in name, and this may lead to the effort to create a two-tier membership, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury has hinted. But since TEC has been given a relatively clean bill of health by this Committee, it will apparently not be the lead candidate for any such second tier anymore! More likely then that we shall see something like a North/South divide with some in the South (e.g., S Africa) looking to the North and some in the North (e.g., Evangelicals in England, Australia and U.S.A.) looking to the South! If this occurs, Anglicanism will be opening a wholly new era for itself and will have few maps available to guide it.



END

Making Sense of the HOB

Fulcrum isn't my favorite group - open evangelicals and all; but at first glance, this looks like a helpful guide to the Episcopal melt down.

Joint Statement on the Resolution of the House of Bishops

Here is the statement of 3 Anglican groups, the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Communion Network, and Forward in Faith North America.

The facts:

Dar es Salaam required TEC these 4 things:

1. End same-sex blessings at all levels.
2. Confirm that no more non-celibate homosexuals will be consecrated bishop.
3. Provide alternative Primatial oversight for those who do not agree with the Episcopal Church's leadership.
4. End all lawsuits against parishes and vestries.

The HOB did the following:
1. Reconfirm that resolution B033 of General Convention 2006 (Election of Bishops) calls upon bishops with jurisdiction and Standing Committees "to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."
2. Pledge as a body not to authorize public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.
3. Commend our PB's plan for episcopal visitors.
4. Deplore incursions into our jurisdictions by uninvited bishops and call for them to end.

Number 1 means that non-celibate gay and lesbian persons are included. One of the candidates for the Diocese of Chicago episcopate is a non-celibate lesbian.

Number 2 - means that in addition to refraining from authorizing rites for same-sex blessing, the "majority of bishops do not make allowance for the blessing of same-sex unions." Further, this prohibition will remain until (unless was the word in Dar Es Salaam) a broader consensus regarding sex-sex unions is reached. As the ink dried, a same-sex union was performed in the diocese of Los Angeles.

Number 3 neglects to mention that no affected bishop or diocese was consulted regarding the adequacy of the PB's plan.

Forget about Sexual Innovations, Concentrate on the Basic Doctrine which motivates the leadership of TEC

Back in 1991, when I was a colleague of Professor Charles Caldwell (now retired and living in Naples FL.) I was very impressed with his insight into The Episcopal Church and his evaluation of it.

Though he saw women’s ordination as a serious error, and though he also noticed all kinds of errors and faults in the 1979 Prayer Book, he maintained—I still think rightly—that the answers to three basic questions by Episcopalians would reveal where they were doctrinally and morally.

These questions did not involve anything about women’s ordination or the ordination of active homosexual persons, but they got to basic Christianity:

Who is God?

Who is Jesus?

What is salvation?

How one answers these proclaims where one is in the spectrum from pantheism through to biblical Trinitarianism. In passing I may note that Dr Caldwell often demonstrated that the official Prayer Book of TEC had rejected the full, biblical Trinitarian Faith, even though it did so, to mislead the unwary, in nearly “orthodox” phrases.

The present TEC through its House of Bishops (Sept 25, 2007) has declared that it is officially not in favor of blessing same-sex unions or of ordaining people in such unions. At the same time, it is fully committed to the full rights of homosexual persons both in society and in church (so it is not clear if this includes supporting same-sex unions that are not actually blessed in church).

However, many bishops turn a blind eye and do not seek to prevent such events occurring in their dioceses, as all investigative reporters can demonstrate very quickly.

Thus TEC speaks out of both sides of its mouth simultaneously—a practice that has been in operation since the early 1970s.

Now back to doctrine.

If one reads the growing literature on “The Baptismal Covenant” (so beloved of the Episcopal hierarchy) and its duties (see the recent book of sermonettes by the lady Presiding Bishop), if one studies the theology being taught in most of TEC seminaries, if one studies the resolutions submitted to diocesan and national convents, if one listens to the discussions of the House of Bishop, if one looks at the innovative liturgies being used in many places, if one listens to the sermons in most churches, if one studies the history of innovations in TEC since 1960, if one follows the web Episcopal blogs, and if one reads the learned articles and books of the professors in most TEC seminaries, then one comes to the conclusion quickly that the practical theology—that which makes TEC tick like a clock—is not biblical Trinitiarian Theism at all.

Reduced to a short span it is: God is Love and all love (loving) in the world is God.

Stated in more technical terms, it varies from a dynamic kind of pantheism, through various kinds of panentheism (especially beloved of feminist theologians) to process philosophy/theology, where God and the cosmos are seen to be in an evolutionary process together.

So Who is GOD in the new religion? God may be neuter or feminine but not solely masculine—thus God is She or It and is never Father but is Parent or Mother/Father. Further God is not in God’s own being wholly Transcendent, above and beyond the cosmos—No! God’s being is integrated into the cosmos even while also being apart from it. (A simple picture of this is the Mother giving birth but always keeping what She births tied to her—the cosmos in God and God never wholly apart from the cosmos—pan-en-theism.)

In this way of thinking, the symbol of God as Trinity is retained but usually to present a “divine” picture of community and cooperation for communitarianism on earth.

And who is JESUS? Jesus is the Child of God even as also the child of Mary, a unique Event of cosmic evolution. Jesus is regarded as really androgynous, even while also being male in a male-dominated society, and “his” real saving work is the way “he” got alongside the poor, needy, outcasts, and hungry and ministered to them. Where regular religion and society stopped, there Jesus began to minister and this led to his martyr’s death. The resurrection is the symbol of new life arising from this Jesus, new life to change the world with justice and peace and enabling the value of all human beings of every kind and type to be recognized and affirmed.

And what is SALVATION? Since God is not separate from the cosmos, heaven is not “up there.” Salvation is cooperating with God in change to bring about better and better conditions on earth for people so that they live in dignity, without fear and poverty. The present millennial goals of the United Nations express part of this hope of salvation. Christians today in the Baptismal Covenant are charged to work for justice, peace and dignity.

I SUGGEST that from today onwards those who wish to engage with Episcopal leaders leave aside for the time being the sexuality agenda and move instead to the Basic Christianity agenda to ascertain what kind of sincere, religious people are the majority of the House of Bishop, Executive Council and General Convention of The Episcopal Church. They are sincere, please grant them this, and they are fervent, please grant them this—but move on and examine their theology that motivates them.

Then having done this to go back to the public Liturgies and new Canon Law of TEC since 1970 and read these in the light of the doctrine discovered.

(my own attempts to do this kind of thing are found in the content of several booklets available from www.anglicanmarketplace.com or by calling 1-800-727-1928)

Dr Peter Toon

The Revd Dr Peter Toon

President of the Prayer Book Society 2007

www.pbsusa.org

www.anglicanmarketplace.com

www.anglicansatprayer.org