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Breakaway Anglican Groups Invited to Form New Alliance http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070604/27766_Orthodox_Anglicans_to_Initiate_Talks_on_Forming_'Anglican_Union'.htm http://tinyurl.com/37dsm9 By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Mon, Jun. 04 2007 07:09 AM ET The head of a conservative Anglican network in the United States has invited major breakaway Anglican groups to up the level of their partnership for a united Anglicanism in North America as some predict a split in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, called for a Sept. 25-28 meeting to initiate discussion of creating an "Anglican Union" among the partners. The creation of the union would be a step...

The mother of all lawsuits pitting Episcopalian against Anglican kicks off today in the red-brick confines of Fairfax County Circuit Court. The case has amassed numerous court filings involving 11 churches, two dozen lawyers, 107 individuals, the 90,000-member Diocese of Virginia, the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church and the 18.5 million-member Anglican Province of Nigeria. The Episcopal Church and its Virginia Diocese are suing 11 churches, their clergy and lay leaders for leaving the diocese last winter in order to join the Nigerian province. Since the 2003 consecration of the openly homosexual New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, conservatives have been...

In his book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains how our world has shrunk. Thanks to instant information and rapid transportation, hierarchical structures have been flattened. One global organization that should be ideally positioned for this transformation is the Christian Church. The genius of its founder was that it was designed to be "flat;" small groups with a common vision, a common language of faith, and international networks that crossed national boundaries. As often happens, initial flexibility was soon lost and replaced by more predictable and controllable structures and the early vision forgotten while waiting for another fresh wave...

The Rev. Felix Anyasor was a happy man this week. So was his friend and colleague the Rev. Simon Omoke. The Nigerian-born Houston ministers had just returned from Virginia, where they celebrated the installation by Peter Akinola of a “missionary bishop” to lead U.S. churches that have broken from the Episcopal Church because of disagreements over homosexuality. “It was like the first Christian gathering at Antioch,” Anyasor said of the installation of the former Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. “When (Antioch) happened, people from all over the world came. The spirit...

Archbishop of Canterbury Lambeth Palace, London Sunday, May 6th, 2007 My dear Rowan, Grace and Peace to you from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus the Christ. I have received your note expressing your reservations regarding my plans to install Bishop Martyn Minns as the first Missionary Bishop of CANA. Even though your spokesmen have publicized the letter and its general content I did not actually receive it until after the ceremony. I do, however, want to respond to your concerns and clarify the situation with regard to CANA. I am also enclosing a copy of my most...

Orthodox Anglicans Take 'First Step' Away from Episcopal Church http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070507/27269_Orthodox_Anglicans_Take_'First_Step'_Away_from_Episcopal_Church.htm http://tinyurl.com/ywlc4m By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Mon, May. 07 2007 06:43 AM ET WOODBRIDGE, Va. – The installation of a local minister who recently broke with the Episcopal Church and will now oversee other breakaway congregations was a unique and historic event and one that the Nigerian Anglican leader called "just the first step." "The journey ahead is long, the road ... rough, rugged," said Archbishop Peter J. Akinola of the Church of Nigeria, who defied top church leaders on Saturday and installed the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns as...

The Rev. Martyn Minns became an Episcopal priest in the late 1970s. As the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, priest-in-charge at Truro Church, his is one of several large, historic Episcopal congregations in Northern Virginia that have split from the Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church. A Brit by birth he has spent most of his adult life in North America. He is a former Mobil Oil executive. His alliance with the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, Primate of the fast growing Anglican Province of Nigeria has made him an international power player in the Anglican Communion. This weekend he will...

Somebody else apparently doesn't want Peter Akinola to cross the pond: Lambeth Palace today confirmed the Archbishop of Canterbury has written to the African Primate asking him to cancel his trip to Virginia to carry out the service. A spokesman for Dr Rowan Williams confirmed a letter had been sent to the Archbishop of Nigeria, while it has also been reported that the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has also appealed to Bishop Akinola not to carry out the installation at Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Virginia. Thanks to wannabe. But unlike Dr. Williams, Bob Duncan can see the...

I am going to give it a try. There are a slew of people from all over here. I bumped into Benjamin Kwashi and his wife Gloria in the lobby on the way in. We had about a five minute visit. Loved seeing the text messages from their children. I asked about the climate in Nigeria and no, it is still not safe for Bishop Kwashi. An important reminder of the cost of following the gospel. I had a warm greeting from Bishop David Bena and thought about the sheer courage of the man. Many forget that he was the...

(from the CANA website (www.canaconvocation.org )) Letter from The Most Revd. Peter J Akinola 2nd May, 2007 The Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Episcopal Church Center 815 Second Avenue New York, NY 10017, USA My dear Presiding Bishop: My attention has been drawn to your letter of April 30th ostensibly written to me but published on the Episcopal News Service website. In light of the concerns that you raise it might be helpful to be reminded of the actions and decisions that have led to our current predicament. At the emergency meeting of the Primates in October 2003 it was...

Dear Friends: The Episcopal Church is in the midst of a challenging time. As in times past, we will get through it and emerge renewed in our faith and refocused on our mission and strengthened for service to our Lord. I regret, however, that there are impatient forces seeking to provoke conflict when humility, respect and patience are in order. In the run up to this weekend you no doubt will read news accounts of the impending visit of the Archbishop of Nigeria the Most Rev. Peter Akinola to preside at a service of installation of the Rt. Rev. Martyn...

Breaking News...COLORADO: GRACE CHURCH AND ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH LEAVES DENOMINATION The vestry of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish in Colorado Springs, the largest Episcopal parish in the state and one of Colorado's oldest churches, voted to leave the Episcopal Church today. Effective immediately the parish has affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican). A 40 day process of discernment is planned for the congregation to fully understand the ramifications of this decision. At the end of this period parish members will be given the opportunity to affirm...

ALBANY -- A retired assistant bishop in the Albany Episcopal Diocese has joined a controversial splinter group at the forefront of a worldwide fight over the future of the Episcopal church. Former Albany Suffragan Bishop David Bena will minister to the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a U.S. branch of the Nigerian church set up by the anti-gay Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola. Akinola created the convocation last year as a refuge for conservative American Episcopalians disaffected with the U.S. Episcopal Church. A spiritual war has engulfed the Episcopal Church, the American wing of the worldwide Anglican Communion, since the...

All Saints Anglican Church Anglicans Find New Home and A New Name A Peachtree City Church congregation that walked away from the Episcopal Church or TEC over Bible interpretations, chose a new name this week and a new location. Most recently known as the Anglican Church of Fayette County, the group has selected All Saints Anglican Church as its permanent name, and a multi-use building in Tyrone for worship for at least the next year. The thriving church will begin meeting at the Whistle Blow Station on March 18th at 10:30 a.m.while it develops longer range facility plans. A one-year...

The Diocese of Virginia has filed suit in various legal jurisdictions regarding real and personal property claims made by 11 congregations where the majority of the membership recently voted to leave The Episcopal Church. The 11 new complaints seeking court action with respect to the real and personal property now held by the 11 congregations were preceded by legal filings last week in which the diocese objected to any transfer of property, citing both Virginia law and the canons of the diocese and the General Convention. Following the votes to separate, eight of the congregations initiated proceedings in their respective...

It's one thing when a mainstream reporter from Palm Beach shows a profound lack of understanding of the debate. It's another when someone as familiar with the debate as Susan Russell thinks this is an accurate summary of the problem. Cut through all the verbiage, and their issue is sex, specifically homosexuality in the church's leadership, with a side order of bias against women. The clergy in Truro Church and Falls Church in northern Virginia led their flocks out of the American Episcopal Church last month. In an extraordinary expression of self-righteousness, they aligned themselves with the Anglican Church of...

Speaking of hysteria on the Episcopal left, this guy wants Dr. Williams to come down on Nigeria and Uganda like a ton of gender-neutral Bibles: The Anglican Communion is based on a system of trust and a confederation of sovereign provinces. According to Anglican Canon Law and tradition, no Anglican province is permitted to violate the sovereignty of another. Since 1789, ECUSA has been the sole representative of the See of Canterbury in the United States and therefore is the sovereign province in the United States. In recent years, primarily due to the consecration of His Grace, Bishop Gene Robinson...

The Journey of Christ Church, Plano: Part III Peter Akinola was dressed in a brilliant white caftan with pajama-style pants. His outfit was clearly and beautifully Nigerian: it was made of silk and cotton and heavily embroidered. He wore a simple wooden pectoral cross on a dark string around his neck. He had a simple white silk headdress on... and an elfish grin on his dark face. He said, "I came down dressed incognito... " Indeed, while he was the most visible person in the hotel lobby, no one would have thought he was the leader of nearly 18 million...

http://www.antiochian.org/water-of-cana THE WATER OF CANA IS TURNED INTO BLOOD By His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP Primate, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America July 31, 2006 Cana (modern spelling is �Qana�) is a little village in South Lebanon which was blessed by the presence of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, his Holy Mother and his disciples. Cana is the Village where Christ performed his first miracle by changing the water into wine at the marriage feast. (John 2: 1-11). Thus, Cana is deeply rooted in our Christian history. Unfortunately, in modern times and due to the conflict between Israel and...

What do Hizbullah dangeroues armed top commanders do in an (Arab Muslim) hospital?You wouldn't see any "protests" to protest the Muslim on Muslim crimes on their own people, these Hizbollah "freedom fighters" would dance again once a bomb unintentionally kills a hospital pacient, claimg again to be "the innocent victims" in it all and of course blaming Israelis that are the ONLY ONES THERE, in that jungle of bloody murderers to be careful NOT to hit at civilians. http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=108987 IDF Commandos Raid Hizbullah Hospita ... the hospital, which was built for Hizbullah by Iran. ... terrorists and arrested several patients...