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BISHOP'S
LETTER |
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As published in the San Joaquin Star October
Edition
As we look forward to our Diocesan Convention Friday October 24th
and Saturday October 25th we find ourselves entering a season of
celebrating God’s faithfulness poured out upon us throughout this
past year. Despite constant opposition and attempts to confuse the
people of San Joaquin, deceit and scare tactics have been revealed
for what they are. What a privilege it will be to welcome two new
Church plants into union with Convention this year and to look
forward to the next three congregations that are well on the way!
Meeting with the folks who are organizing new missions is an
inspiration! Surely, their mutual love and joy in the Lord are
identical to that which caused the contagious spread of the Gospel
and the Church in its infancy when thirty years after the death and
resurrection of Jesus, Christians were already in the household of
Caesar in Rome!
We rejoice this month as the Diocese of Pittsburgh joins us after
what their spokesman described as a two year preparation when the
same scare tactics we had experienced were used on our Eastern
brothers and sisters. “They tried to say that the whole idea of
becoming part of the Southern Cone was Bishop Duncan’s idea and that
it had little support from the Diocese,” he said. Once the House of
Bishops attempted to depose Bishop Duncan, he was not allowed to
speak at Pittsburgh’s diocesan convention (Oct. 3rd & 4th). “In the
end,” the spokesman concluded, “this proved to be a blessing. The
vote of the majority on a written ballot put that rumor to rest
forever. Now our real desire is to re-focus on the mission of the
Church.” Not unlike the Diocese of Pittsburgh who have kept changes
to a minimum, we too will await the coming together of the larger
body of a New Province where common Canons and Liturgy will be among
the many things that bind us together.
Soon two more dioceses are scheduled to vote on realignment: Quincy
(Illinois) on November 7th and 8th, and Fort Worth on November 14th
and 15th. All of us are grateful for the gracious support given to
us by Archbishop Gregory Venables along with the people and clergy
who make up the Province of the Southern Cone. We are grateful, too,
for the outspoken support for Archbishop Venables coming from many
bishops around the world who have joined with the Council of
Primates calling for a new Province of North America.
By initiating law suits against those who for conscience sake know
they must leave an unfaithful Church – law suits, by the way, that
Primates of the world wide Anglican Communion begged be dropped –
leaders of The Episcopal Church have instead chosen to intensify
their legal efforts to gain control over property and money. Such
material things are not essential, but they are helpful tools in
reaching out to a world especially at this time when we face greater
turmoil than we have within living memory.
During the second Presidential Debate both candidates were asked,
“What is it that you DON’T know? And how do you plan to learn what
to do?” Speaking to the question, one candidate responded that we
are staring directly into the face of the “Unknown” which he
identified as an international financial meltdown with the potential
for unprecedented global chaos causing the disappearance of jobs,
life savings and pensions over night.
Facing into the possibility of a similar life-threatening disaster,
King George VI completed his Christmas address to the people of
England in 1939 with the words of a poet who was to be much quoted
during the dark hours of the Second World War. “I said to the man
who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I may tread
safely into the unknown. And he replied, Go out into the darkness
and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better
than light and safer than a known way.”
More than ever it is the Church who proclaims Jesus: the Way, the
Truth and the Life that is needed now. And strangely enough, a
comedian of our times also proves to be a prophet when Woody Allen
says: “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing!”
How easy it is to lose sight; and how tragic it is when a Church
loses its way.
Only recently we celebrated the life of William Tyndale who
sacrificed his life to bring forth a translation of the Bible in a
language understood by the people. As he said to one of the leading
Churchman of his own day: “If God spare my life, ere many years I
will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more scripture
than thou doest.” Escaping from England to Germany to Belgium in
order to save his life and his translations, against all odds
Tyndale completed both the New Testament and the first five books of
the Old in addition to the historical books from Joshua to II
Chronicles. His work survives even to this day as eighty per cent of
the King James Version of the Bible.
The passion to translate was the passion to give life, eternal life,
to the reader, for he knew that the abysmal ignorance of God’s Word
in Tyndale’s time had led to the corruption, abuse, and distortion
of Christianity. No price was too much to pay! And even though he
was late to come to the same conclusion, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer,
who would pay dearly with his own life, adds: “If there were any
word of God beside the Scripture, we could never be certain of God’s
word; and if we be uncertain of God’s word, the devil might bring in
among us a new word, a new doctrine, a new faith, a new church, a
new god, yea himself to be a god. If the Church and the Christian
faith did not stay itself upon the Word of God certain, as upon a
sure and strong foundation, no man could know whether he had a right
faith, and whether he were in the true Church of Christ, or in the
synagogue of Satan.” Such was the faith of the early Anglicans whose
influence brought to an end the slave trade upon which the economy
of England was based, that sent missionaries throughout the world
bringing good news to Africa, India, the Middle East, the South
Pacific, and to Asia. It was the fire that stirred in the breast of
men like William Wilberforce, John Wesley, and the scores of
academics like Newman and Pusey at Oxford, ultimately transforming
the lives of coal miners in Wales, orphans in Bristol, and slum
dwellers in the East End of London.
Yet once the knowledge of God and His Word disappear, the believer
is left with little. For stability and continuity, he turns to what
remains, namely Church structure, man’s laws, and even the physical
appearance of buildings and furniture. With devastating clarity the
Apostle Paul put it this way: “But mark this: There will be terrible
times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers
of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a
form of godliness but denying its power.” (II Timothy 3. 1-5)
For over forty years, the faith has been diluted, denied, and –in
some extreme cases– abandoned by leaders in The Episcopal Church.
Beginning with James Albert Pike, Bishop of California, the divinity
of Christ, the Virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Jesus, and
ultimately the very Trinity itself was denied. J.A.T. Robinson in
England joined in the battle with a flurry of publications in the
1960's with the Honest To God Debate. (Fortunately, in later years
he rejected his own rebellion.) And, back again in the United
States, the Bishop of Newark, John Spong, completed the task of
denying all the tenets of the Nicene Creed. Attempts to remove such
men from the House of Bishop’s committee on Theology were scoffed
at. When a noticeable group within the House of Bishops called the
Irenaeus Fellowship began to speak out and take orthodox stands in
the late 1980's and early 1990's strong forces came out against
these men. It ceased to exist.
When the authority of the Word of God is undermined, power and
passion dissolve. The impetus to reach out to those who do not yet
know Jesus as Lord and Savior is not only gone, it is ridiculed.
Detractors attempt to put down those who have the Great Commission
(see: Matthew 28. 18-20) carved –as it were– on their hearts as
meddlers who are attempting to foist their personal faith on someone
else. When the authority of the Word is gone, it is no wonder that
fewer and fewer recognize the call to the ministry and that
seminaries begin to close down for lack of students. (Thank God for
seminaries such as Nashotah House in Wisconsin and Trinity School
for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania! These institutions deserve
our prayer and support.)
Forward in Faith and the Anglican Communion Network of Dioceses and
Bishops arose to provide faithful orthodox Anglicans a place within
The Episcopal Church. Even these numbers have been diminished while
a look-alike group called the Windsor Fellowship arose whose number
included some bishops who took legal actions against orthodox
priests and believers.
Arising out of discouragement and disarray has come the new face of
the Anglican Network of Dioceses. Called together a very few years
ago in Chantilly, Virginia by Primates of the Global South, two
requests were made of us. First, we were to identify and elect one
man to be the Voice of Orthodox Anglicanism in North America. We
did. We chose the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh.
Second, we were asked to bring together as many as possible of the
continuing churches that had separated from The Episcopal Church
since 1976 and any that pre-dated that time. It was Bishop Duncan
who brought about “The Round Table” reaching out to many voices of
Anglicanism in North America. From this group has come what we
presently call our Common Cause Partners. Working together with us
they have been instrumental in helping us to prepare for a New
Province. From all these groups, many bishops representing hundreds
of thousands of orthodox Anglicans in Canada and the United States
will be meeting in the Spring of 2009. Anglicans from all six
Continents meeting this year in Jerusalem at GAFCON (Global Anglican
Future Conference) spurred us on as they rejoiced with us.
Truly we look forward to this season of new life in Christ,
strengthened by His Word and Sacraments, supported by the fellowship
of believers around the world, encouraged by Christians who find
themselves facing similar difficulties in their faith communities,
and sensing the guidance of the Holy Spirit each step of the way, we
celebrate God’s faithfulness.
+John-David |
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2008 The Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. All rights reserved
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