YEAR IN REVIEW - Part Six (Part 6)

By David W. Virtue AND AN OFFICIAL PROPOSAL obtained by Virtuosity from the Primates of the Global South The Anglican Communion Institute, which had met in Nairobi, Kenya, offered a two-stage proposed plan of action. 

Stage One - Emergency Action - called on the Standing Committee of the Diocese of New Hampshire to rescind its approval of Canon Gene Robinson’s nomination for election, prior to November 2, 2003. Failing that Stage Two - Formal Structures - would kick in and from November 2, 2003 and Easter, 2004 if repentance was not forthcoming after Easter, 2004 only those orthodox ECUSA bishops who uphold a commitment to the Holy Scriptures and to the historic faith and order of the church would continue to have full participation in the affairs of the Communion, including voice and vote in the councils of the Communion.  The rest would be out of communion. This discipline would take the following from Bishop Ingham would be reduced to observer status in the Communion (no voice, no vote). His further participation in Communion affairs would be suspended.Mechanisms would be implemented to protect parishes and clergy in New Westminster who maintain a commitment to the historic faith and order of the Communion.Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen threatened to split the Church and transfer his allegiance from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Primate of Nigeria over the issue of gay clergy. We must recognize the possibility that the Anglican Communion will actually divide, Dr Jensen said in an interview. It is conceivable, I have to say, that two world Anglicanism’s may develop, perhaps with two mutually exclusive centres. Instead of looking to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for moral authority, Sydney could look more to Nigeria orsome other place for the chairmanship of the board. And that was just for starters.It is not just the Episcopal Church that will come unraveled, the implications of Robinson’s consecration is having a rippling effect across the globe and among many Christian denominations.In UGANDA Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo announced that he had broken communion with the ECUSA bringing to three the number of African provinces who had broken communion with the American branch of Anglicanism.IN CANADA things went from bad to worse. Michael Ingham the New Westminster Bishop called the actions of the biblically orthodox Vancouver 11 ACiNW parishes schismatic saying, It is clear that the intransigence of the leadership of the dissenting group may force our negotiations to focus on structural separation (schism) rather than reconciliation. In view of this, diocesan officers must exercise both a fiduciary and a stewardship responsibility to preserve the territorial integrity of the diocese, and the assets of its parishes, for the future of the Anglican Church in British Columbia.AND IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH the call went out for Griswold to resign. Two rectors in the Diocese of Colorado who run CommunionParishes.com with some 6,000 supporting Episcopalians wrote a letter which invited anyone who felt so inclined to sign and send directly to the church’s national headquarters in New York.IN DAYTON, OHIO a number of Episcopal churches formed an independent Anglican Fellowship in the wake of actions by the Episcopal Church’s General Convention last August. Andy Figueroa, Webmaster and former Director of Communications with the Episcopal DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO resigned his position after the August decisions. These are painful times for Episcopalians who feel they have been betrayed by their leadership, he said.Figueroa announced the formation of Christ the King Anglican Fellowship. The fellowship, inspired by the Anglican Congress (a movement working to unite separate Anglican churches in the US and Canada), is a collaborative effort with Christ the King Reformed Episcopal Church (REC).In the DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE the evangelical Bishop Terence Kelshaw said this, We are not traditionalists as some would rudely and scornfully dismiss us, but we are men and women of God who (as The Message would put it) will not be turned into traitor to Him who called us by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message, another gospel, and one which turns the unchanging Gospel of Christ on its head!The Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, issued a statement responding to the reported severing of ties with theEpiscopal Church in the USA by the Anglican Church in Nigeria. Ifthese reports are accurate, my prayer is that the Nigerian bishops willcome to reconsider their action and await the outcome of the commission established by the worldwide Communion.