SOUTHERN CONE ADOPTS ANGLICAN COVENANT - WHERE IS ACNA?

Mark Harris at Preludium puts 1 + 1 together and has a question. The Anglican Communion Office announced that the Province of the Southern Cone adopted the Anglican Covenant. Surprise, surprise!

The news release at the ACO website states:

In response to these novel practices the Southern Cone had held churches in North America under its wing for some time while the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) was formed. However, the Province has not maintained jurisdiction over any local churches there for over a year. As a result, all so called ‘border crossings’ by any provincial members ceased (as of October, 2010) even though the Southern Cone still remains in impaired communion with US and Canadian Provinces. It is hoped that the Covenant can now provide Communion stability.

Mark Harris further:

In ACNA land the Archbishop, himself a deposed bishop in The Episcopal Church was given residence in the PSC... that was in September 2008.

The Living Church stated, "Immediately after his deposition from the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church, Bishop Duncan was welcomed into the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, according to Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables." But those days are over.

Mark is moved to ask:

If Duncan is not in the PSC, where is he?

A very good question. Apparently, that ACNA was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Southern Cone for over a year was a rather well-kept secret until now. Is no one expected to note that ACNA is now free-floating? Unless, of course, there is more that we don't know, and another province is holding the ACNA 'fledgling Province' under its wing.

From Archbishop Robert Duncan of ACNA:

Recent events within the Anglican Mission in the Americas have challenged us all. This letter is a brief report to you all about those events and about our efforts to find a path forward. The present reality is brokenness. The vision, however, that governs our fledgling Province remains unchanged: a Biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism in North America.

So. Brokenness. One thing leads to another. If you read on, you will see that some sort of negotiations will take place between the AMiA bishops who departed from the Church of Rwanda and ACNA which will include discussion of the complication of ACNA's relstionships with the bishops, clergy, and congregations who remain under the jurisdiction of the Church in Rwanda.

The resignation of nine Anglican Mission bishops, including the Bishop Chairman, from the House of Bishops of Rwanda, changed relationships with Rwanda, with fellow bishops and with the Anglican Church in North America. The resigned bishops lost their status in our College of Bishops as a result of their resignation from Rwanda. The Anglican Mission also lost its status as a Ministry Partner, since that status had been predicated on AMiA’s relationship with Rwanda. In addition, confusion and hurt has been created in Rwanda and in North America, and there is much serious work ahead of us.

Are you still with me? I'm not certain that I am still with me. My brain is much smaller than Mark's. The story gets more and more complicated with unexpected (at least to me) twists and turns. I am greatly indebted to Mark Harris and his brilliant thought processes as he made the connections for his post, and I hope I have not done him a disservice by my shameless picking of his brain for my post.

My question: Will this fledgling fly?

LETTER TO THE CLERGY AND LAITY IN AMIA

The Director of Communications of AMiA, Cynthia P. Brust, posted a letter at the AMiA website to the clergy and laity of the group with information on the latest events. Along with Primatial Vicar Chuck Murphy, Bishops Sandy Greene, Todd Hunter, TJ Johnston, Philip Jones, Doc Loomis, John Miller, Silas Ng, and John Rodgers, resigned from the Rwanda House of Bishops.

During this interim period, the Anglican Mission is under the oversight of our founding Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini, Moses Tay and Yong Ping Chung until we have a new provincial home within the Anglican Communion.

I've been concerned about the priests and laity in AMiA, some of whom must have had a sense of being adrift since the announcement of the resignation of the bishops by which act the parishes are apparently no longer under the oversight of the Anglican Church of Rwanda. I wonder if the bishops by their resignations actually take all the parishes out of the Church of Rwanda. Do the parishes have a say in whether they leave the oversight of the Church of Rwanda?

I don't know the answer to the questions, but I pray that the clergy, laity, and bishops of AMiA find their places to settle.

RWANDA HOUSE OF BISHOPS TO AMIA BISHOP CHUCK MURPHY: RECANT OR RESIGN

From George Conger at Anglican Ink:

The head of the Anglican Mission in America has been threatened with ecclesiastical discipline for contumacy. Unless Bishop Chuck Murphy repents of his disobedience and apologizes for his offensive statements within seven days, the Rwanda House of Bishops will assume that he has “made a de facto choice to withdraw as primatial vicar” of the AMiA.

In letter from the Rwandan House of Bishops to Bishop Murphy dated 30 Nov 2011, the AMiA leader was chastised for disobedience and abuse of office.

Just read Conger's entire article. I am dumfounded.

H/T to Susan Russell at An Inch at a Time.

Update from the same article:

Questions were also raised at the meeting about the degree of accountability the AMiA had towards the Rwandan House of Bishops. Bishop Murphy charged the Rwandan bishops with seeking to impose a “reverse colonialism” on the AMiA. Overseeing a church half a world away had not worked during the age of colonial expansion when London missionary societies oversaw African churches and could not work today, he argued.

Who would ever have expected...? If that is the case, then may we expect problems in CANA and ACNA?

UPDATE: More letters here and here and rumors, but only rumors, as of now, of more resignations of Anglican bishops from Rwanda House of Bishops from Stand Firm.

A ROCKY ROAD AHEAD FOR AMIA?

An interesting post from George Conger via Jim Simons at Three Rivers Episcopal:

The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) has denied speculation that its chairman, Bishop Chuck Murphy, has offered to step down in the wake its dispute with its parent church, the Province of Rwanda.

On 28 November 2011, a spokesman for the AMiA told The Church of England Newspaper that a report in the Christian Post that stated Bishop Murphy was going to retire was incomplete.

The resignation of AMiA Bishop Terrell Glenn coupled with a show of no confidence in Bishop Murphy over the planned reorganisation of the American church group by the Rwandan Church had led to speculation the American leader would step down. Sources in the AMiA told CEN they also had been briefed by senior leaders that Bishop Murphy was going to retire, however, the AMiA’s spokesman stated this was incorrect.

“While Bishop Murphy has indicated for quite some time that he plans to step down as Chairman of the Anglican Mission sometime around December 2013, he has not made any ‘formal announcement’ either internally or externally,” spokesman Cynthia Brust said.

Read the rest.

Somehow I doubted that the American bishops who placed themselves under the authority of African archbishops were likely to have an easy journey, and it appears that the road is, indeed, a bit rocky at the moment.

The story was first published in The Church of England Newspaper which requires a subscription to read the online version.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

Now there's another letter (pdf) to AMiA signed by all the Rawandan bishops, which seems rather ambiguous to me.

STIRRINGS IN AMIA

From BabyBlueOnline:

1. A Letter to Bishop Chuck Murphy from Archbishop Nathan Gasatura, primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.
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.

BabyBlue posts the entire text of a letter from Bishop Terrell Glenn announcing his resignation from AMiA:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

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.

Read the rest of Bishop Terrell's letter at BB's link above.

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.