1. A Letter to Bishop Chuck Murphy from Archbishop Nathan Gasatura, primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.BabyBlue posts the entire text of a letter from Bishop Terrell Glenn announcing his resignation from AMiA:
2. A Letter to Bishop Chuck Murphy from Bishop John Rucyahana.
3. A Letter from the Rev. Cynthia Brust of the AMiA Press Office to the Rev. Canon George Conger.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,Read the rest of Bishop Terrell's letter at BB's link above.
Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus.
I am writing to inform you that I have resigned from the Anglican Mission in America. I communicated this to my brother bishops earlier this week at our fall retreat in Myrtle Beach and submitted a letter to that effect to Bishop Murphy, our Chairman and Archbishop Rwaje’s Primatial Vicar. This is not a decision that I have made lightly or in haste or in reaction to any of the impending decisions about the future direction of the Anglican Mission that are before the Council of Bishops and the Anglican Mission. Rather, it is a decision that Teresa and I have made after several months of agonizing prayer as we have sought to do what we believe the Lord has called us to do.
BabyBlue's post also includes a video of 'Anglicans Unscripted' with Kevin Kallsen and George Conger discussing the present situation in AMiA, along with commentary on the relationship between AMiA and ACNA, which now seems to be fraying, followed by a segment with Bishop Julian Dobbs of CANA. By now, my head is spinning. I confess that I don't have a firm grasp of the identities and history of the several groups. I'll take a stab at making connections: AMiA is connected to Rwanda; CANA is connected to Nigeria; ACNA is connected to the Southern Cone; the kneebone is connected to the thighbone.... Oops! I went off the rails there.
Then I sobered up quickly. The next two segments of the video contrasted the handling of allegations of child abuse by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky at Penn State and the subsequent cover-up, resulting in the firings of head coach Joe Paterno and the president of the university, with the months-long silence of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori about questions concerning the reception of Bede Parry, a former Roman Catholic priest with a history of sexual abuse of young people, into the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. The subject of the final section of the video was the Anglican Covenant.
The Parry story is not going away. The PB's silence is deafening.
Thanks to Lapin for the link.
I think most of us expected that sub-schism would follow, but this fast & with what seems to be this much acrimony? Seems Murphy is a real piece of work. Many of the Stand Firm folks (Matt Kennedy has several threads currently running) have no patience with AMiA, which is interesting. Point frequently made over there that he's establishing a hierarchical church on the Roman rather than the Anglican model.
ReplyDeleteI'm still fascinated by Murphy screaming at Ed Salmon, then his bishop, that he was a liar during a full session of the 1997 SC diocesan convention - account half-way down this link.
An expensively-built AMiA church is about to open here in the centre of Columbia.
I'm out of the hospital convalescing at home and catching up on blogs.
ReplyDeleteAs for the schisms beginning in the ex-Episcopalian movements, this has all been done before. The most entertaining account of it can be found in a (sadly) out of print book by Canon Peter Anson, Bishops at Large. If you can ever get hold of it, the tales of resignations, excommunications, reordinations, reconsecrations, and just plain hanky panky (Bishop Leadbeater [you can look him up] is particularly entertaining in a sad way) are quite amusing, as is Mar Georgios, who when he was not being "His Sacred Beatitude Mar Georgius I, DD, DCL, Patriarch of Glastonbury, Caertroia, and Mylapore, Successor of St. Thomas, Apostolic Pontiff of Celtica and of the Indies, Prince-Catholicos of the West, and of the United Orthodox Catholic Rite, Prince de Mardin, Exarch of the Order of Antioch for Britain, Ruling Prelate of the Order of Corporate Reunion, Grand Master of the Orders of St. Thomas Acon, St Gregory of Sarkis, and the Spiritual Christian Nation, Prelate Commandeur of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, Chevalier Grand Officier of the Order of the Lion and Black Cross, Doctor Christiantissimus, Prince of Saxe-Noricum, etc. etc." made his living as a bicycle repairman.
I predict that the AMiA and ACNA will break up into several competing prelacies within 5 years (at most).
Oh, if you do find a copy of Bishops at Large for sale, be prepared to shell out if you want it. The book that cost a few pounds when published cost me £95 from Abebooks. I had to take a lot of stick from He Who Must Be Obeyed (my spouse) when he found out.
There's a 2006 reprint of "Bishops at large".
ReplyDeleteLapin, I finally read the account of Murphy's screaming at your link. It seems things must go his way or no way. No wonder Bishop Salmon left the room for 20 minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe dispute between AMiA and the church in Rwanda is partly about money.
Chris, for one thing, the groups seem to be top-heavy with bishops, and bishops expect to have power. One result of too many bishops is likely to be clashes amongst the bishops. And the schismatics were disgruntled to begin with, so it was unlikely that their disgruntlement would disappear altogether once the new groups were formed.
I don't know if I'd want to read the book. My head was spinning as I wrote the post on the present schismatics last night.
Mimi, it strikes me that the motto for all these bishops who sign their name with a + in front should be (wait for it...)
ReplyDelete+ ça change...
[now departing behind the proscenium]
Tobias, you're an actor, and you know what to do. Thanks for saving me the trouble.
ReplyDeleteMy guilty secret is that I laughed so loudly that Tom called from another room, "What are you shouting about?"
Argh, why are we feeding these (beloved of God!) losers this AMMO w/ the Silence Re Bede Parry???
ReplyDeleteGet it out, and GET IT OVER WITH!!! >:-0
I was gutted to see that Bishops at Large has been reprinted and can be gotten at a reasonable price (softcover). I will have to keep it a deep dark secret, as if HWMBO finds out about it I'll be in the doghouse for weeks.
ReplyDeleteOf course, having the original book counts for SOMEthing, I suppose.