From the American Anglican Council:
Beloved in Christ,
Let me begin this week's update by wishing you a blessed Advent IV and a Holy Christmas celebration. I find that the Christmas season seems different as MaryAnne and I grow older, and we have no little ones running around the house. Although our grandchildren are relatively close by, their own home is naturally the center of their celebration and festivity. We do our best to gather the family at some point around our Christmas tree to distribute gifts and share love one with another.
Since next week is Christmas, our AAC offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), and we will not publish an email update. The following week runs up against New Year's Day, and we will try to put out an update a day early so that we don't miss two weeks in a row.
This week, the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (JSC) has been meeting in London, under a veil of some secrecy. A somewhat terse communique has been released, but it only hints at the discussions and arguments that had to have been taking place. Until further information is released or leaked, we can only wonder what has really been discussed. Has the Archbishop of Canterbury repeated and further clarified his public remarks on the Los Angeles election which defies the Windsor Report's requested moratorium? Perhaps by the time you read this, some real answers will begin to be available.
One of the disturbing items of the JSC communique is the equivalent importance they place on not "continuing cross-jurisdictional activity within the Communion." The fact is that with the formation of the Anglican Church in North America (AC-NA), there are now no foreign Primates or bishops entering Canada or the United States for the purpose of supplying cross-boundary episcopal function. The Bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and Bishops of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, San Joaquin, and those of CANA, AMiA, and the newly-formed AC-NA dioceses and their bishops, both in the USA and Canada, are all citizens of the places where they live and minister. I live in Atlanta and have lived here for some time. As a bishop of the AC-NA and CANA, when I confirm someone in Atlanta, what boundary am I crossing? The Lutherans, Methodists, and Roman Catholics don't accuse me of border crossing. I am confirming someone in an AC-NA church, with AC-NA church members in attendance; how is this anything other than ministering to our own, in our own space? Now it is true that some (not all) of the dioceses of the AC-NA have missional associations with other provinces. This "dual citizenship" in most cases is not expected to be a permanent status, and it is not necessary for new AC-NA dioceses. In contrast, TEC is intentionally accelerating their violations of the other two moratoria.
In any event, one must ask how the crossing of a man-made boundary line in order to do Christian ministry can be equated to the grave sin of crossing the moral boundaries established by God, and distorting the Word of God in order to bless same gender relationships, and to even call those relationships marriage, or to officiate at such a blessing/marriage in consecrated church space, and for many to live in such relationships. Or how can it be equated to the election and consecration of a person to the Episcopate whose manner of life morally departs from the standard established by Holy Scripture? If the JSC has as a premise a flawed sense of the equality of the three moratoria, they will never arrive at an adequate answer.
As the Windsor Report moves the Anglican Communion toward a Covenant, one wonders if it is even possible to craft a Covenant that a) has enough content to matter, b) has a mechanism to enforce compliance or consequences of meaningful magnitude, or c) will have enough of the Anglican Communion willing to sign on to be truly relevant. Some have placed great hope in the Covenant, but it is quite possible that it also is a Potemkin Village just like the Panel of Reference was, and Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO), and other creations of the Lambeth wonks. The problem is that most Anglicans want to remain Anglican and keep the recognizable and familiar accoutrements of Anglicanism, and they want this so much that they can't believe that the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC) would betray them or deal falsely with them and their historic Anglican beliefs. Even when confronted with clear evidence that the ABC won't punish the theological deviants, nor clearly support the theologically orthodox, nor chart a course that he is serious about and which is open to public scrutiny, a large number of people continue to believe.
Many have taken bold steps to leap from a sinking spiritual death trap into waiting life boats, and indeed the leaping for life continues as I write and you read, but many at the center of the Anglican Communion's leadership think that those who leap for life are the problem, not the sinking ship that tries to claim them. Speaking of churches looking at life boats, the Diocese of South Carolina (DSC) has the opportunity and, I think, the willingness of the majority of its people to depart from TEC, but the question is - will they? St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Pleasant has done its 40 Days of Discernment and has taken a straw poll of the laity. The results are indicative of what perhaps many other South Carolina parishes would produce: a 93% positive vote to depart TEC and, if necessary, the DSC. Meanwhile, their neighbors in upstate South Carolina have elected a liberal revisionist who will move the Jefferts Schori agenda quickly through the diocese. If South Carolina leaves TEC, will the Diocese of Upper South Carolina see some parishes trying to move over into the Diocese of South Carolina to stay with the orthodox? Much rests on the leadership of the orthodox South Carolina bishop, Mark Lawrence, and whether he leads or simply lets events sweep past.
The crisis in the Christian Church is such that being orthodox in your faith is no longer enough - one needs to have the boldness, power and authority that the Holy Spirit brings, and to move in that power and direction both by sight and by faith. This is no season for the spiritually timid.
Blessings and Peace in this late Advent and Christmas season,
The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr.
President and CEO, American Anglican Council
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