Source:  AAC Weekly Email Update

The following is from the June 11, 2010 edition of the AAC's Weekly Email Update. Recieve this FREE news brief on the Anglican Communion by signing up here.  

Dear friends in Christ,

I am returning home from the second Provincial Council of the Anglican Church in North America, which met this week in Amesbury, Massachusetts, at All Saints pro-Cathedral and Ministry Center. We were blessed by Bishop Bill Murdoch and all the people from the Anglican Diocese in New England who extended the gift of hospitality and shared the miraculous missionary efforts that are going on in the diocese. We were also blessed by Canon Daryl Fenton and the Provincial staff of the ACNA for their organization of the Council, their servant hearts, and all they are doing to serve Christ and the mission of reaching North America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

I am also keenly aware of the legal developments on both coasts in our litigation defense against TEC. The American Anglican Council submitted an Amicus brief in support of the Anglican Churches in the Virginia case, and both Bishop +David and I hail from St. James Newport Beach.

In times like this, I always find myself going back to the Bible for perspective. As I prayed, I found the Lord reminding me of my life verse in Philippians 3:8-10, especially verse 10:

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

    Philippians 3:10 NIV

As an aside, if you don't have a personal "life verse" from the Bible that you can take to heart, memorize, and recall as needed, I recommend you ask the Lord to show you yours. It's like having a personal "north star" to keep you pointed in the right direction, especially when the strife is fierce and the battle long.

Philippians 3:10 provides a wonderful lens for us to view everything that we are seeing in the realignment of Anglicanism in North America, and around the globe:

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection..." In 50 weeks, less than a year since our inaugural assembly in Bedford, Texas, the ACNA has experienced the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. As Archbishop Duncan noted in his opening address, in Bedford we were 703 congregations. Now we are 811, including mission partner congregations. That is more than two new congregations per week - and the very pace at which we may well realize the astonishing challenge of planting 1000 new congregations in five years. We also recognized two new dioceses in the ACNA, the Anglican Diocese of the South and the Diocese of the Great Lakes. The efforts in forming these new dioceses represent a miraculous unification of churches from the Southern Cone, Bolivia, Uganda, CANA, AMiA and the APA for the sake of gospel mission and church planting. The congregations in these dioceses, with a total ASA together of almost 3,000, have invested themselves in the future of a North American Anglican province that will continue to know Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. There are more dioceses-in-formation and more to come as the ACNA organizes throughout North America.

Globally, The Anglican Church in North America is now recognized as the North American Province by the GAFCON/FCA Provinces and our Archbishop is now seated on the GAFCON/FCA Primates Council. More broadly, the representatives of twenty Provinces of the Global South, meeting at the fourth Global South Encounter (GSE4) in Singapore, declared the Anglican Church in North America to be "a faithful expression of Anglicanism," to be their "gospel partners," and expressed the hope that "all provinces will be in full communion with the clergy and people of the ACNA and Communion Partners." Archbishop Duncan's celebration of one of the eucharists at the GSE4 was a sign of global affirmation of who we are and of the shared faith and order for which we have stood together.

Ecumenically, recognitions and conversations have developed far beyond those first signs given to us at Bedford by Metropolitan Jonah and Pastor Rick Warren fifty weeks ago. Our commitments to what Anglicans have always been committed to has translated into a general ecumenical assessment that we look like what Anglicans have always looked like. Doors are opening that are unprecedented, especially with Lutherans and the Messianic Jewish communities. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church continues to help displaced Anglicans resettle in vacant RC churches in the Northeast and rust-belt - a not-so-subtle sign of their investment in our future.

At this Provincial Council, we were inspired by a new generation of thirty-something preachers and teachers, including the Rev's Stewart Ruch, Theresa Russell and Rusty Elisor, who reminded us that God is sovereign and in control (Eccl. 8:16-17), that at Pentecost the Holy Spirit birthed a missional church whose first step was to leave the buildings, get out into the streets, cross cultural boundaries, hang out with people, share the good news in their own language, and establish communities of incarnational discipleship marked by radical generosity and joy (Acts 2:42-47), and that we must always hide ourselves in no other foundation than Jesus Christ (I Cor. 3:11-15). The election of the Rev. Dr. Foley Beach as bishop of the new Anglican Diocese of the South - one of the youngest bishops to serve in the College of Bishops - heralds a new and rising generation of leaders within the ACNA. I can assure you that we will be well served by this new generation of shepherds, preachers and teachers who will both guard and proclaim the faith once delivered!

All of this would not be possible without the resurrection power of Jesus Christ at work in our midst. May it ever be so!

"...And the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings..." We all want to share in the power of Jesus' resurrection. But how many of us want to share in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, including persecutions? Paul wants us to know that there is no knowing Jesus Christ, or the power of his resurrection, without sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings.

Suffering is not an option for followers of Jesus Christ. So we share in the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in the Anglican District of Virginia as they face continuing litigation by TEC to seize their buildings. On the positive side, the Virginia Supreme Court found a "division" under the meaning of the Virginia Division Statute - thereby exposing the sham of TEC's arguments that there has been neither a division within, nor in fact a Communion to be divided, among Anglicans worldwide. Unfortunately, on a very narrow reading of the statute, the court found that the ADV churches were not a "branch" within the meaning of the statute. How can there be a division without a branch? It makes no sense, and one wonders whether the ADV churches will petition the Virginia Supreme Court for reconsideration of the facts that clearly would establish themselves as a "branch," or whether they will proceed with other non-statutory defenses that they have under state trust law and "neutral principals of law." Whatever the decision, there will be more litigation, more costs, and more delay.

Not surprisingly, the Rev. John Yates of the Falls Church scheduled a service of Prayer and Praise for this evening at 7:30pm. He scheduled the service last week, not knowing what the verdict of the Virginia Supreme Court would be, and regardless of the verdict. Throughout this litigation, the legal team and the clergy and the people of the ADV have devoted themselves to prayer and fasting. Though most of us cannot be with them tonight in body, we shall be with them in spirit as we join them in praising God and petitioning him for wisdom and guidance for the way forward.

On the west coast, our brothers and sisters in Christ at St. James Newport Beach received some respite from their suffering with a unanimous decision by the California Supreme Court to grant their petition for rehearing. Based on language from the earlier ruling by the CA Supreme Court on the Episcopal Church cases, the appellate courts made an unprecedented and astonishing ruling to end the case and award the property to the Episcopal Diocese based on a "demurrer" only. In simple terms, a demurrer is a legal response that says in so many words "without withdrawing my right to present the facts, for the sake of argument I will agree with my opponent's statement of the facts. Even under my opponent's statement of the facts, there is no case." No court has ever heard the facts and evidence from St. James, and to award the property to the Diocese based on their statement of the facts alone is a manifest injustice; a denial of fundamental rights under the constitution, procedurally and substantively. It will take some careful parsing - and perhaps a little humility - for the California Supreme Court to clarify its previous ruling. So far, the Court has not been known for either virtue. In the meantime, there will be more litigation, more costs, and more delay as this case winds its way through the courts, both for St. James and the other Anglican churches that will be affected by the ruling. May we also keep them in our prayers.

But the suffering from litigation is no match for the suffering endured by Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone. On the same weekend that his mother passed away, his home was severely damaged by a storm that ruined the roof and made the upstairs uninhabitable. Another storm came through after that and destroyed the porch. Now he is being singled out by Lambeth Palace and ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon for potential sanctions for his involvement in providing pastoral care and oversight to churches in North America. Is it a coincidence that this follows his election as Chair of the GAFCON Primates Council? ++Gregory Venables has been a faithful, steadfast friend and shepherd to so many of us here in North America. In addition to your prayers, if you would like to contribute to an offering to assist Presiding Bishop Venables, please send your checks to the AAC marked "Venables relief."

As we share in the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and in the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in Christ, we shall come to know His resurrection power.

"...Becoming like him in his death..." As the author of Hebrews reminds us, we should fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, "who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb. 12:2) Jesus faced his death in a place of absolute surrender to the will of the Father, trusting his plan for the salvation of humankind, and never looking back.

We ended our Provincial Council with Holy Eucharist on June 9, the Feast of St. Columba. Columba was the missionary saint who evangelized Scotland. Like Jesus, St. Columba did not look back. He travelled further and further into Scotland until he could no longer see his beloved Ireland. Then he and his companions buried their boat. For the joy that was set before them, they sacrificed their lives to reach the Picts with the transforming love of Jesus Christ.

Archbishop Duncan reminded us that Columba died a few days before St. Augustine of Canterbury landed with the Roman mission in the south. Thus ended the period of Celtic Missionary Christianity and thus began the era of Roman Christendom. Is it a coincidence that we ended this missionary-focused Provincial Council on the Feast of St. Columba? The Christendom era has ended. We are living in a post-Christendom age when our Anglican movement is poised to recover the missionary zeal of Columba, Patrick and the Celtic saints who loved the people they witnessed to, crossed cultural boundaries, entered into their culture, and shared the transforming love of Jesus Christ in a language they could understand. But they did so with an abandon and a sacrifice that challenges our love of so many comforts.

Will we rise to the challenge?

Surrender... sacrifice... no looking back. May we too follow in our Lord's footsteps so that we may know him and the power of His resurrection!

Yours in the crucified and risen One,

Phil+