Free Republic

Printable copy here. You are not alone 33 bishop's stand with Bishop Schofield and Diocese of San Joaquin Dear Bishop John-David,We, Episcopal colleagues from across the Anglican Communion and across the world, write to salute you on the courageous decision of the Diocesan Convention of San Joaquin to take leave of The Episcopal Church and to align with the Province of the Southern Cone. We know that decision was to a large extent the result of your tenacity and faithful leadership, and for that we give thanks to God. It has been said that you are isolated and alone. We...

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- The archbishop of Canterbury said Friday he will not reverse his decision to exclude a gay U.S. bishop from joining other bishops at a global Anglican gathering next year. The office of Archbishop Rowan Williams said he also had not changed his mind about refusing an invitation to Martyn Minns, a traditionalist U.S. priest who was consecrated as a bishop in the Anglican Church of Nigeria to minister to disaffected Episcopalians in the U.S. Williams, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, said he has recruited professional mediators in trying to reach greater understanding between the...

Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola will preside at a ceremony at a church in Herndon as four new bishops are consecrated today to serve the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. (Agence France-Presse) A new breakaway Anglican group of 11 churches that left the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over theological differences less than a year ago met last week for its first annual convention. Four new bishops will be consecrated at 2 p.m. today to serve the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), which includes 61 member congregations siphoned from the Episcopal Church. Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola will...

Dear CANA Friends, Over the past few days Angela, Rachel, and I have had the joyful privilege of taking part in the consecration of three new bishops from Kenya and Uganda to serve in the USA. We were there, along with representatives from most of the provinces of the Global South, to demonstrate our solidarity with each of these new bishops and their families as they begin their ministries. The actual services were exuberant celebrations attended by thousands and both lasted approximately five hours! They were also important milestones in our effort to build a united, biblically based, missionary-minded expression...

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...

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...

Virginia Episcopal Bishop Peter J. Lee announced yesterday that he and the newly consecrated Anglican Bishop Martyn Minns have failed to reach an agreement on allowing the new bishop to minister in the Virginia diocese. Consecrated on Aug. 20 in Abuja, Nigeria, Bishop Minns continues to lead Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, one of several parishes considering leaving the diocese over the Episcopal Church's 2003 decision to consecrate the openly homosexual V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. On Sept. 17, Truro starts a "40 Days of Discernment" process on whether to leave the diocese. Bishop Lee indicated in...

RICHMOND, VA: Virginia cleric to lead new Anglican group Assumption of bishop's post in Nigeria today could add to tensions in church BY SHAUN BISHOP TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Aug 20, 2006 Fairfax congregation could leave U.S. Episcopal Church A conservative Episcopal rector from Northern Virginia is in Nigeria today to assume leadership of a new organization that could complicate the already simmering tensions in the Episcopal Church. The U.S. church has faced a polarization among some of its 2.3 million members since the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of the New Hampshire...

Dear Friends:A number of you have asked about the editorial “Gospel of Intolerance” that appeared in the Washington Post last Sunday, February 26. It was written by John Chane, Bishop of Washington, and was a very pointed attack on the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Archbishop Akinola, and, by implication, those in this country who align themselves with him.While there are a number of related points raised in the editorial the underlying issue is the proposed legislation in Nigeria with regard to Same-Sex Marriage. If enacted, this legislation would include the possibility of a jail sentence for those who...

CHERRY HILL, NJ (11/21/2004)--A leader in the orthodox wing of the Episcopal Church says evangelical Episcopalians must stand together, build new networks and friendships and be prepared for whatever the worst revisionist bishops do and fight back. Speaking at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, Cherry Hill, on Sunday, Canon Martyn Minns, rector of the 2,500-strong Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia said that unless ECUSA repents some sort of North American provincial realignment was "inevitable." He also pointed out that the Network (NACDP) was recognized by the Church of Nigeria and the other African provinces as their partner in the USA during...

Carey tour adds to US fears of gay schism By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, will provoke a fresh storm over homosexuality in the Church next month by blessing hundreds of American traditionalists who are boycotting their own pro-gay bishop. This high-profile intervention by Lord Carey will highlight the growing polarisation in the worldwide Anglican community over the issue and will be criticised as "back-seat driving" by supporters of his successor at Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. It will also raise the temperature of the debate weeks before the publication of the final report by...

<p>The pastor of a Capitol Hill Episcopal parish has challenged the Diocese of Washington with a resolution rebuking same-sex "marriage," and a debate scheduled in his church was canceled yesterday after documents were stolen and trashed.</p> <p>A draft of the one-page statement, which was presented Saturday to members at Calvary Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill, declares that "Holy Scripture does not support giving God's blessing to a sexual relationship outside marriage, be that relationship homosexual or heterosexual" and that "councils of the Episcopal Church have, and sometimes will, err."</p>

<p>Episcopal conservatives, making good on their threats to form an ecclesiastical and legal shelter for theologically orthodox believers, meet today and tomorrow in a Dallas suburb to hammer out the details.</p> <p>About 120 people, including bishops and representatives from 12 dioceses, will gather at Christ Episcopal Church in Plano to draw a charter for a "Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes."</p>

Episcopalians rally against gay stance "Plano-East" conference brings more than 3,000 Episcopalians, Conservatives forming network within church Fred and Betty Haeberer of Stafford County said they felt betrayed when the Episcopal Church USA voted to approve an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire. Yesterday, they met with thousands of others who share their concerns over the direction of the church. "Homosexuals are due their civil rights and I am in no way challenging that," said Fred Haeberer, who attends Aquia Episcopal Church near Aquia Harbour. "However, this is a spiritual realm and our church is founded on Scriptures...

<p>OXFORD, England &#8212; Conservative Episcopalians say the majority of the world's Anglican archbishops will support their efforts this week to punish the Episcopal Church for elevating a practicing homosexual to the post of bishop.</p> <p>Starting tomorrow, the world's Anglican primates, or leaders of the various national churches, will be at Lambeth Palace in London for a showdown meeting over the Aug. 5 ratification of Canon V. Gene Robinson, a homosexual, as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.</p>

<p>CATONSVILLE, Md. — When the Rev. Steven R. Randall learned that his denomination had consented to the first openly homosexual bishop in mainline Protestantism, he decided he could no longer trust the Episcopal Church and its leaders.</p> <p>Mr. Randall, 52, received a standing ovation yesterday after telling his 200-member congregation at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church here that he would no longer obey his bishop nor would his congregation send its monthly $5,000 pledge to the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.</p>

<p>Heresy is better than schism, the Episcopal bishop of Virginia said yesterday in a speech that gently chided church conservatives for imperiling the unity of the country's largest diocese over the consecration of the denomination's first homosexual bishop last November.</p>