Anglican Communion Primates Focus on Refugees, Climate, and Persecution
After two years of meeting virtually, the titular heads of the independent churches (or provinces) of the Anglican Communion met in person in England at Lambeth Palace. Originally scheduled for Rome covid-19 travel complications meant that the venue was changed at the end. The Three most disaffected province leaders did not attend, and one or two others had complications that kept them away, but the may leaders present managed to find a number of issues that were shared concerns. Their final communique reflected those. They were concerned about the Ukraine and refugees there and in other parts of the world, about the effects of climate change and growing hunger in the world. They expressed concern for political actions that harmed several provinces in Africa and the Middle East, and for forced conversions and attacks on Christians in several countries. What did not come up in the Communique was any statement on sexuality or actions taken to affirm or penalize LGBTQ people in various of the provinces. The full communique is available here.
Continuing Stories
ACNA Misconduct Issues Spread
Members of the Christ Our Hope Diocese of ACNA have contacted the ACNAtoo group in the Midwest because they too have not received a complete hearing or action from their bishop following charges of abuse in a Washington D.C. parish. Christ Our Hope is made up of congregations located in 9 eastern states. The Diocese originally was part of AMiA. The number of ACNA bishops now caught up in charges of not adequately pursuing complaints of misconduct keeps growing. Episcopal Cafe has the story here. Update has carried several notices of events in the Midwest diocese. The most recent is here.
Old Issues Dredged Up by Anglican Fellowship
The American Anglican Fellowship, Inc. has sent a petition to the Episcopal House of Bishops asking the House submit a resolution to General Convention. The resolution desired would ask that all the clergy "deposed" following those clergy leaving the Episcopal Church as part of organized withdrawals of congregations from Episcopal Church be restored to their ministries and the Dennis Canon be repealed. If you are wondering who this group is, Anglican.ink answered that in 2014. It is the American Anglican Council after a name change. It now claims to be a philanthropic group. The petition should be laughed out of the House of Bishops. First of all many of the 700 plus clergy referred to in the petition were not deposed. Those in Pittsburgh and South Carolina, (over a third of the total were "released." See the actions reported on by Update here and here. South Carolina started the deposition process, but chose to follow Pittsburgh's route and release the clergy which left them outside the Episcopal Church but still clergy and facilitated clergy returning to the TEC (which some have done in both dioceses). Secondly, any depositions were done under the canons for abandonment of the communion, and clergy were given notice and opportunity to say they wanted to still be Episcopalians before the process was finished. See the Update stories on Fort Worth and San Joaquin here and here. Colorado clergy who went to the AMiA also were included in this petition. For those who may not recognize the name of the American Anglican Council, it is the group that promoted the Anglican Network which then morphed into the separate denomination the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). It is not clear if the AAF asked any of the clergy if they wanted to come back to TEC.