If the Anglican Communion decides to take on an international identity rather than being a family of independent national churches, then there’s an implication that not many people have recognized.
The Northern Province of the Moravian Church, which represents the northern half of the full body of Moravians in the United States voted last night to approve the full communion agreement that the Episcopal Church approved last summer in Anaheim.
We fear physical pain, aging, dying. We fear the force of our own distress or depression. We fear being so easily bogged down, bringing no identifiable goodness into the world. Praying takes us right into the middle of these fears and opens their constant little trickle into a swift running stream, for in prayer every early effort to still our fears only intensifies them. We try all the familiar tricks—reciting familiar set phrases, psalms, hymns.
Canon Kearon explained the removal of Episcopalians from the Anglican Communion ecumenical dialogs as being due in part to the collapsing of the dialogs. Yet Bishop Chris Epting points out that the Episcopal Church is in full and lively conversations with a number of ecumenical partners, including in parallel with some that are in conversations with the larger Communion.
Executive Council finished its meeting today and has issued a report detailing what happened, and what decisions were made. It also reports that Bishop Douglas and The Rev. Gay Jennings were elected to fill vacant seats on the Anglican Consultative Council.
Jefferts Schori asked the council to vote on Kearon’s request that the session be closed to all but council members. His request was decisively rejected by a show of hands. Bruce Garner of Atlanta told ENS afterwards that he had “never witnessed so much obfuscation in such a short period of time” in his entire life. “We were polite,” he said, “but we asked him questions he could not or would not provide answers to.”
‘It all goes to show what a silly boy I was to be properly courteous to the ABC and ask permission in the first place! But I can also say that my definition that an ‘Episcopal Act’ is consecrating, ordaining, confirming might have been a wiser course of action.”
The Rt. Rev. Ann Tottenham Area Bishop of the Credit Valley Diocese of Toronto : “For the record, I celebrated and preached at Southwark Cathedral on November 9, 2009 with the permission of the Powers-That-Be in the C.of E. in the presence of the Diocesan Bishop and fully vested including mitre. It was a public service to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood in the C. of E.
Reports from Executive Council members about the discussion with Secretary General Kenneth Kearon are coming in. Social media are being employed by Council member to get the word out. This post will be updated as more reports arrive.
Bishop Martyn Minns, missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America in the Anglican Church in North America, will be preaching at St