Saint Paul to the Corinthians

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

- 1 Corinthians 6:1-8

Thus It Begins

"The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin and The Episcopal Church (TEC) filed a complaint in Fresno County Superior Court on April 24 "to reclaim possession of the real and personal property belonging to the diocese."

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AAC Interviews Bishop Mark Lawrence

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Bishop Mark Lawrence:

April 12, 2008

AAC: Was any progress toward reconciliation made at this House of Bishops’ meeting?

+Lawrence: We spent a day and a half on what was called a reconciliation retreat. What makes it difficult to answer that question is that, based at our table discussion, the table I was at, I thought we began to talk about the difficulties that are connected with that whole area of reconciliation. So in that sense, on a table level, I would say, yes, we made some progress. But once we got to the legislative portion of the meeting…reconciliation is always costly and the question is, who it’s going to cost and who wants to sacrifice in order to reconcile. Once we got to the legislative portion of the meeting and the deposition for Bishop Schofield and Bishop Cox, I wouldn’t describe the mood of the house as conciliatory to those who, for issues of faith, don’t feel like they can conform to order of the church.

What we have in The Episcopal Church (TEC) today is that many people feel like the faith of the church has been compromised or violated and in order to deal with what they feel is a profound compromise or denial of the faith of the church historically and biblically, they feel like they have to do things contrary to the order of the church. At that point, many in the House of Bishops and in various other formats of the church desire to impose the order of the church upon them. That is, if Bishop Schofield believes the faith of the church has been denied, he has to go beyond the order of the church as in the canons and constitution of TEC, and those who are in the forefront who are quite comfortable with the new faith of the church, so to speak, feel like they have to impose the order upon him or upon Bishop Cox.

The difficulty we have, then, is the very way we went about imposing the order of the church. That is, after the House of Bishops’ meeting, after the voting on the canonical depositions of Bishop Cox and Bishop Schofield, it seemed to be revealed that those depositions were done in a way that was contrary to the order of the church...

AAC: What is your next step?

+Lawrence: I know that Bishop Howe has recently called for a re-examination of this. The Standing committee and Bishop of South Carolina, myself, have issued a letter of protest that the canons were not followed. I don’t know where we will end up with all of that.

AAC: How much room is there in TEC for the Diocese of South Carolina to be the Diocese of South Carolina?

+Lawrence: It’s not a matter of new rules. The challenge that we face is that the vast majority of people and clergy in South Carolina, at least as far as I have come across in my three months here in South Carolina, hold to the orthodox faith of historic Christianity. When that seems to be up for grabs, then it creates an atmosphere in which people become restless about what we are and who and what we are joined to. Now that is not a matter of canonical struggle, it is a matter of fellowship. The question seems to mingle this whole fuzzy area of faith and order. Some issues that we struggle with are issues of faith; others that we struggle with are the way the church is ordered. According to the constitutions and canons there’s all kind of space for us to exist as of now.

However, if the General Convention of TEC becomes the means by which every constitutional article and every canon is interpreted and can be changed, and if those canons are not just matters of governance but also matters that seem to be integral to the faith, then it creates a very precarious environment for someone who at one stage feels quite comfortable within the Episcopal Church. A subsequent General Convention could change that. An example would be the way those bishops who do not feel by conscience that they can ordain women have been increasingly marginalized by successive statements, resolutions, or canons of General Convention.

The question is, ‘yes we can function now, but will we be able to function in 2009, 2012, 2015?’ That remains to be seen.

Read the full interview HERE.

Bishop Tom Wright reports that Rowan Williams has sent letters to bishops requesting that they consider "absenting themselves" from Lambeth

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Calling this the "most difficult and fraught moment," the Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, in his talk to the Fulcrum Conference yesterday in London on "Conflict and Covenant in the Bible,"said that letters are now posted in the mail from the Archbishop of Canterbury to bishops who have been initially invited to Lambeth but who have been identified as not supporting the Windsor Report and the Covenant.

According to Bishop Wright, the letter is being sent to those whom Rowan Williams has identified as being "particularly unsympathetic to Windsor and the Covenant." Bishop Wright goes on to state that if these bishops are not ready to support Windsor and the Covenant, they should "absent themselves" from the Lambeth Conference. [the post continues]

Read the entire post at Baby Blue: Bishop Tom Wright reports that Rowan Williams has ...

Read "Conflict and Covenant in the Bible" by Tom Wright: Bishop Tom Wright reports

Western Louisiana Bishop: 'Two Sets of Rules for One Church'

From The Living Church

Posted on: April 17, 2008

The recent deposition of bishops John-David Schofield and William J. Cox lends credence to those who say two sets of rules govern The Episcopal Church, according to Bishop D. Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana.

At a diocesan standing committee meeting on April 14, all six members approved a statement that noted that the deposition votes of the House of Bishops on March 12 failed to achieve the canonically required number of votes for enactment. A pastoral emergency prevented Bishop MacPherson from attending the standing committee meeting, but he endorsed the statement and urged its approval the following day at a meeting of diocesan council. All 19 members of council present also approved the resolution.

“The purpose is to express displeasure and concern, to encourage everyone to obey the canons” Bishop MacPherson told The LivingChurch. “Right now there is a disparity. It appears there are two different sets of rules for one church.” [the article continues]

Read it all: Western Louisiana Bishop: 'Two Sets of Rules for One Church'

Canada's largest Anglican realignment begins in BC, parishes leave ACC

Canada's largest Chinese Congregation votes unanimously to leave

By Sue Careless

The largest Chinese Anglican congregation in Canada has voted unanimously to leave the Anglican Church of Canada and come under the spiritual care of a South American archbishop. It was not alone. This past February saw an unprecedented exdous of congregations and clergy from the national church as more dioceses voted to bless same- sex unions.

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver, a 119 year-old Cantonese-speaking congregation, attracts 300 people each Sunday with another 100 attending midweek services and fellowship groups. Although many of its members are young, it is the oldest Chinese Anglican church in Canada. It has a remarkable outreach into Vancouver’s substantial Chinese community. And it helped plant a Chinese ministry at St. Luke’s in 1993. Most of the Chinese who take part in home fellowship groups are first-generation immigrants. Once they learn more about Christianity, many begin to attend church and are baptized as adults.

On Feb. 17 this vibrant, thriving church voted unanimously 203-0 with no abstentions to leave the national church and affiliate instead with the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC). “When you have to defend your faith, you grow stronger,” said the Rev’d Stephen Leung, the rector.

A total of ten congregations have voted to leave the ACC yet all hope to retain the church buildings in which they have long worshipped. However, legal battles have begun for some of the ten. Another five congregations, which had roots in the ACC but who now meet in non-ACC buildings, are not expected to be entangled in any court proceedings.

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Fred Hiltz, warned in a letter dated Feb. 13: “In our Anglican tradition, individuals who choose to leave the Church over contentious issues cannot take property and other assets with them.”

All fifteen churches also voted to come under the “temporary emergency oversight” of the Most Reverend Gregory Venables of the Southern Cone. This move will ensure that the clergy and congregations, while under a new jurisdiction, are still part of the global Anglican Communion. Archbishop Venables has appointed Bishops Donald Harvey and Malcolm Harding of the ANiC to offer episcopal oversight. Both former ACC bishops came out of retirement in November and have relinquished their ACC licences. All fifteen churches are now under their spiritual care.

[the article continues]

Read the entire article here.

Virginia Judge Allows Case on Episcopal Property to Proceed

New York Times - April 5, 2008

By NEELA BANERJEE

Eleven congregations in Virginia that broke away from the Episcopal Church have won an initial round in their court fight to retain church property.

But the final decision remains months away. And the outcome of the lawsuit could be affected by the Episcopal Church’s constitutional challenge of Virginia law that deals with the dispensation of church properties after a split.

Like several dozen others around the country, the 11 Virginia congregations broke with the Episcopal Church over issues of Biblical interpretation and the 2003 ordination of an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.

The dispute has already led the majority of parishes in the Diocese of San Joaquin in California to vote to leave the church, and it threatens to rupture the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the American arm.

Early last year, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia sued the congregations for the property, arguing that it was held in trust by the congregations for the Episcopal Church.

In a ruling issued Thursday night, Judge Randy I. Bellows of Fairfax County Circuit Court found that the 11 congregations could pursue their case under a Virginia law that determined the division of church property in the case of a split.

Judge Bellows did not decide who would be awarded the property, which will be argued in October. But he affirmed the congregations’ position that a division did occur and that they were now part of another branch of the Anglican Communion.

[the article continues]

Read it all:New York Times: Eleven Churches win initial round