The ACoC is going return the church buildings it acquired through the legal system from ANiC parishes; Bishop Malcolm Harding’s portrait will be restored to its rightful place in the Diocese of Brandon; James Packer will be invited to preach at St. John’s Shaughnessy; a certain bishop and a certain blogger who were entangled in a defamation lawsuit will tearily kiss and make up; Anglican Church of Canada bishops will call ANiC the “Anglican Network” not the “Network”. Projectile pigs with “Indaba” tattooed on their porcine posteriors will float gracelessly skyward during the Marriage Canon debate at the 2016 General Synod.
From here:
It is a fractious time in the life of the Anglican church, both in Canada and in the world, but even as the Communion struggles to overcome pernicious divisions over issues such as human sexuality or the ordination of women, it is also turning to the tradition of the scriptures and the indigenous wisdom of its diverse membership to find potential ways forward.
Living Reconciliation, a new book published jointly by SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) in the U.K. and Forward Movement in North America, tries to use the resources that exist within the church to explore more peaceful ways of handling disagreement.
The authors, the Rev. Canon Phil Groves, director of Continuing Indaba for the Anglican Communion, and Angharad Jones, former communications and resource manager for Continuing Indaba, understand reconciliation to be one of the foundational principles of Christian doctrine. The Christian story, they suggest, is fundamentally about how God reconciles his people to himself through Christ, which means that a faithful response to this story must be one that places reconciliation at the heart of Christian ministry.
This should be the hope for all of us. It is not easy but through Christ, all is possible. I am excited to see that reconciliation is starting to occur in more and more places.
There may be a perception within the AcoC that reconciliation is starting to occur, but not from my perspective.
This book, and these initiatives, from what I can see are completely from the AcoC, with of course its own spin. There is nothing new in any of this. Just more of the same “lets talk”, which of course is nothing more then the AcoC saying “you listen to us but we won’t be listening to you”.
I for one have had enough of this one sided nonsense. Here are my terms to the AcoC:
1) Publically declare that the Holy Bible is written by God, placed into this world by God, and preserved in this world by God.
2) Publically declare that the Christian Creeds (Apostles, Nicene and St. Athanasius) are definitions of the Christian Faith, and that any Creed that does not proclaim the two core Christian Doctrines (these being the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Doctrine of Christology) are not Christian Creeds.
3) Publically declare that it is only by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that a person is saved from the consequences of their sins, and thus it is only Christians that have any hope of getting into Heaven. Furthermore, that it is only the Christian Faith that accepts the fact the Jesus Christ is God the Son and that all other religious groups are not legitimate.
4) Reinstate the 3rd Collect for Good Friday.
5) Defrock all Bishops, Priests and Deacons who refuse to comply with any of these terms.
Only after I see proof of these initiatives towards reconciliation having been competed in full will I even think about talking with the AcoC.
Hi AMP.
I always like when you respond – someday I’d love to meet for coffee. You provide great perspective for me.
My response (not counter argument) would be two things:
1. Your points above are all about demands or requirements for the other party. While I agree with what you point, the problem is that it falls into the classic “miss the log in your own eye” mentality. Reconciliation is best started by recognizing what you (or your “side”) has done wrong or what hurt it caused in the relationship.
2. My second comment is that I have seen and heart of a lot of grassroots reconciliations. You say that you don’t see it… but don’t you attend a Nazarene church? Perhaps this is why you are missing it. I’m not saying that it is widespread but it is certainly occurring on different levels and in different areas. As Christians, we should be celebrating the fact that through Christ, we can be reconciled to one another.
Reconciliation requires two parties. This looks to me like the ACoC pretending that there are a significant number of people still within their ranks with whom they need to reconcile. If they were serious they would have approached Bishop Charlie in private instead of publishing a book.
Forgiveness and reconciliation are so hard in this life. God be merciful to us all!
Amen. And that forgiveness and reconciliation can only come in this life and the next through the unity of the Body of Christ, with and amongst ONLY true Christians, who have access to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit, and His UNCHANGEABLE Word. ONLY where the Holy Spirit fills and leads the hearts of men, will there be the unity of the Body of Christ, reconciled to God the Father and to each other. For we who are led by the Holy Spirit, are Father God’s children, and only His children can be brothers and sister’s in Christ. Amen
Reconciliation to Christ
never can be reconciliation to the sins for which Christ Died + Romans chs. 5, 6 in toto.
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin:but yield yourselves unto GOD, as those that are alive from the dead…for sin shall not have dominion over you:for your are not under the law, but under grace.”
That is THE source of dissension (“pernicious divisions”), over anti-Scriptural definitions of human sexuality in the name of the false god ‘pan’, in His Body, His Church.
For my own benefit, would somebody please clue me in to the alleged sins fo the conservative side in this division? The sins of the liberals – ie, apostasy – are obvious to all.
As Frank would say, it is not a matter of conservative vs liberal as both exist in ANIC and ACoC. I don’t want to start a tit for tat as it is not helpful. But since you asked, one thing is a commonly expressed opinion on this forum. Some folks clearly had a bad falling out with the ACOC and then make sweeping and hurtful comments about the entire denomination that they were once a part of. God has been and continues to be present and working in the ACOC. It is hurtful to those of us who remain in the denomination when people will not acknowledge us as brothers and sisters in Christ. Not all ANIC people are like this but the vocal ones get the attention. As I noted before, collaborations and reconciliations occur at many local levels. My own church sees many ANIC visitors and many from my church visit the local ANIC church. We have our differences and despite the mockery of some on this site, we work at keeping good relations and we both continue to recognize each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. Now if only the leaders of both denominations could do the same.
When you speak of mutual recogniton as Christians, do you mean between Continuing Church folks and conservatives in the ACoC, or Rodney King ecumenism?
Forgive me but I don’t understand what you mean about continuing church or the Rodney King analogy.
When I talk about mutual recognition, I’m talking about each of us recognizing that God works both in the individual and corporate lives of our respective denominations. I hope this answers your question.
This is what is known technically, in the ordinary world of work and politics, as “lying”. What wretches these people are!
This entire suggestion is nothing but false. Considering the actions of the ACoC toward orthodox believers there is only one way that they would ever consider what is described as returning the properties and that is that the orthodox congregations would follow their clergy and basically dismiss the clergy in ANIC. The entire story, if it is indeed true is nothing better than the advertisement of what are known as “pay day loan” companies. I am confident that true believers will not be taken in by any such deceptive suggestion.
These people who use the word “reconciliation” should be required to tell us exactly what they mean by it (and no, I don’t mean a Rowan Williams-style prolixical nightmare, or tortuous politicians’ evasion speech). How can people of two utterly different views “reconcile” them? Many people in the orthodox areas of the Church are getting the view that “reconciliation” means having to slowly come round to the revisionists’ position.
When people choose not even to follow or embrace the basic tenets of the Christian faith ,what is there to be reconciled. Paul calls us to be separate from them, we have nothing in common. Are we to turn a blind eye to their theological position and to say it does not matter for the sake of unity. As the saying goes “Essentials ,Unity.Nonessential liberty, in all things Charity.We can not unity at all costs, we can not compromise the basic tenets of the faith.
Although I don”t understand how they can remain under an apostate leadership, there are many good Christians in the AcoC.
The story of the good Samaritan illustrates Christ’s inclusiveness.
Can someone tell me what the 3rd collect for Good Friday is and why it needs to be re-instated? Or where to find this 3rd collect? Thanks.
The Church of Enngland has three Good Friday Collects.
Ah, yes, and when you read the third Collect you can see why it has been dropped…
Here is the Collect, as printed on page 174 in the 1962 edition of the Book of Common Prayer (the current (1997 and online) edition only has 2 Collects for Good Friday). I’ve retained the wording as printed.
“O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live: Have mercy upon the Jews, thine ancient people and upon all who reject and deny thy Son; take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy fold, that they may be made one flock, under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.”
As to why it was deemed necessary to be omitted, the reason will likely be self-explanatory. I’ll leave it to others for further clarification.
Hello Jim,
Seems that not offending non-believers is more important than remaining Faithful to Jesus.
http://www.diohuron.org/what/HR/policies/section1/1-11%20Good%20Friday.pdf
“The action of the House of Bishops is in recognition of the difficulties created in relationships with the Jewish people by reason of certain phrases in this collect.”
Hi Amp,
What I really think of the AcoC would land me in a lawsuit.
It absolutely galls them to have us consistently pointing out their betrayal of the Gospel. Eventually, there will be only one Anglican denomination. It may be an evolution of ANIC, but it definitely won’t be AcoC. They have the smell of death on them.
Peace
Apparantly, Malcolm’s picture is back on the wall. This took place after the retirement of the Dean Robin Walker. But don’t rush to blame him. This was bishop Jim’s baby and Robin was ‘following orders’