Monday, December 01, 2008

Historic week for Anglican Communion: From Chicago to London to Canterbury

From BabyBlueOnline:

MONDAY, DECEMBER 01, 2008

Bishop Martyn Minns was at Truro yesterday and held a Bishop's Forum between
services. He reported on recent and upcoming events in the Anglican
Communion as well as take questions during the forum that was held in the
main church.

One of the highlights was his observations and thoughts on the remarkable
coming together of the diverse membership of the Common Cause Partnership in
the writing of the constitution for the new Anglican province in North
America. A joint effort by the partnership, it included not only the
Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), but also the other
Anglican organization that make up Common Cause. He described sitting next
to Bishop Chuck Murphy of AMiA, while representatives of Forward in Faith
and the Reformed Episcopal Church and others in the partnership gathered
around the table to draft the new constitution.

In addition, Bishop Minns described the respectful attitude that was taken
by the gathering over issues were there are differing opinions that do exist
between Bible-believing Christians in the Anglican Communion, including on
the issues surrounding the ordination of women to the priesthood. He
indicated a model for them to follow has been set by the partnership between
provinces such as Nigeria (where women may be ordained to the diaconate) and
Uganda (where women may be ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood) and
the respectful and prayerful attitude that is continually observed by them
as they seek not to devalue but show respect to those who may hold a
different view than one's own - not an easy thing to do in these challenging
times.

The unveiling of the new constitution is this Wednesday, Dec. 3 in Chicago.
The Anglican Primates Council will then meet the next day, on Thursday, Dec.
4, in London, England, to receive the new constitution. On Friday, Dec. 5,
the Anglican Primates Council are scheduled to meet with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in Canterbury, England.

In addition, it is expected that other Anglican Primates who were not in
Jerusalem for GAFCON (including the Southeast Asia primate and Bishop of
Singapore, The Most Rev'd John Chew and the Middle East primate and bishop
of Egypt, The Most Rev'd Mouneer Anis ) are among those also expected to
endorse the new constitution.

The Global South primates will meet together with the Primates Standing
Committee prior to the official gathering of the Anglican Primates on
January 31-February 6 in Egypt.

A Constitutional Convention is expected to be called for next summer.

In addition, the final order regarding the property ownership of the
Virginia Anglican churches should be handed down shortly by Judge Randy
Bellows. Even though the ruling has not yet been announced, the Episcopal
Bishop of Virginia issued a press release in October indicating his
intention to appeal the order to the Virginia Supreme Court.

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