Anglican Communion Institute http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com 2008-05-09T07:12:45+01:00 text/html 2008-05-06T05:31:25+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/141/2/ A defense now proffered by the Presiding Bishop and her supporters is that the same procedures were followed in the recent cases of Bishops Davies and Moreno. Past violations of the canon’s clear provisions are said to justify current ones. In considering this defense, it is necessary to distinguish three senses of “precedent” in legal usage. One is the well-known sense of precedent as a formal ruling on a legal issue by a competent juridical body. This is clearly not the case here as no one has suggested that the prior cases were determined to be canonical by any body reviewing the canonical issues. These cases are not offered as reasoned legal rulings, but as a fait accompli. text/html 2008-05-01T06:13:52+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/140/2/ Three events in the recent past have posed a serious question. Does the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (TEC) know what she is doing? The possible answers to this question have raised even greater concern than the question itself. For, I have concluded, if, on the one hand, she does not know what she is doing then TEC is without effective leadership at perhaps the most crucial time in its history. If, on the other hand, she does know what she is doing, she is leading TEC in directions for which she has no warrant. To be specific, her decline of an invitation to greet the Pope on his present visit calls into question her understanding of the office of Presiding Bishop. The canonical irregularities surrounding the specially called convention in the Diocese of San Joaquin and the actions to depose Bishops Cox, Schofield and Duncan raise questions about the way in which she understands and deploys the Constitution and Canons of TEC. Finally, her Easter Message to TEC raises a question about the adequacy of her grasp of the Christian Gospel. text/html 2008-05-01T06:07:04+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/139/2/ A Comment on the St. Andrew’s Draft of the Anglican Covenant I A second iteration of a draft covenant for the Anglican Communion (the St. Andrew’s Draft) is now circulating; and it is likely that some version thereof will be presented to the Bishops of the Communion when they meet in Canterbury this summer. At some point after this gathering, a covenant proposal will be circulated among the provinces of the Communion for ratification. There is no doubt that most (though perhaps not all) of the member provinces of the Communion will ratify a covenant within the next few years. The question is really not so much ratification of the Covenant, but (1) the sort of covenant that will be ratified; (2) the way in which the provinces of the Communion comport themselves during the period leading up to ratification; and (3) how the Communion might best respond to a situation in which a province rejects the covenant but there are dioceses and parishes within that province that do not. Read it all..... text/html 2008-05-01T05:31:16+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/138/2/ MEMORANDUM TO: Working Group April 21, 2008 FROM: [Redacted] RE: Canonical Violations This memorandum evaluates whether the Presiding Bishop has violated the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church and what procedures would be applicable for charging her with a presentable offense. This memorandum identifies at least eleven violations of TEC's constitution and canons by the Presiding Bishop in her dealings with Bishops Cox, Schofield and Duncan and the Diocese of San Joaquin. Taken together, these actions demonstrate willful violation of the canons, an intention to repeat the violations and a pattern of concealment and lack of... text/html 2008-04-09T18:36:11+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/136/2/ Biblical Theological Reflection and the Rule of Faith: Threshold Considerations In order both to set limits and for clarity's sake-themes to which I shall return- the present essay will undertake theological reflection on covenant and the appropriateness of using this term for work presently before us in the Anglican Communion. This requires some threshold consideration. By ‘theological reflection' I mean, giving a comprehensive account of Scripture with concern for its total, mutually-informing witness. I take this to be the concern of one of the Articles, with a long prior history, that scripture be read in such a way that its portions be not repugnant, one with another. The same concern also animates what in our present period is called ‘canonical reading.' It will be a basic contention of the present essay that this hermeneutical caution is traceable to the rule (kanon; regula) of faith (regula fidei) in the early church. Indeed, in the period of the formation and consolidation of New Testament writings and especially relevant because of the character of that ‘work-in-progress,' the rule grounds Christian convictions about the nature of God in Christ in the witness of the stable, inherited scriptures of Israel. The rule of faith... text/html 2008-03-28T18:47:54+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/135/2/ Easter Sermon Wycliffe College, Toronto 26 March 2008 Because of its reflective character, John's Gospel dwells on details and lets them speak in ways the other Gospels' proximity and excitement sometimes prevents. The beloved disciple is he who remains, abides, literally leans on Jesus, and remaining is a key word in this Gospel. Because remaining allows one the space, the time, even the awkwardness of inaction, to discern and believe. John does not criticize the active role of apostles; this has its place in God's plans of sending forth and announcing and doing as Jesus did. But John stays where he is, close to Jesus, and so dwells on details and lets their significance come into focus. text/html 2008-03-21T12:07:12+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/132/2/ [Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of three reflections by Dr. Seitz.] Good Friday Service St Matthews Anglican Church Toronto21 March 2008 The Revd Christopher Seitz John 18:1-27 And when he said to them ‘I am He' they drew back and fell to the ground. Good Friday provides us a second occasion-the traditional occasion-to reflect on the Passion of our Lord. The Gospel of John is exactly suited (designed) for this. For it too is a second and more in-depth look at the Passion, than what we had in Matthew on Palm Sunday. It is possible to be too close to things to grasp their full significance. John does not offer a different story so much as one where the proportions are redrawn: this is true of the events themselves as he sees them, but also especially their significance. History is always more than a camera taking pictures, and in the case of this story, how much more that is true. John wants us to see the deep significance of what Jesus has done on these last days of his earthly life. Even through a lifeless body hanging from a cross-a man whose history is over-God will continue to speak... text/html 2008-03-21T14:17:04+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/133/2/ [Editor’s note: This is the second of a series of three reflections by Dr. Seitz.] John 18:28-19:16 Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?' With what deep irony does John report the transfer of Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate. The Jews do not enter the Roman governmental headquarters for fear of defilement-in accordance with the law-and so do not hear the words they need to hear, and never will hear. Unless, like us, at a later day through this account from John. And the true Passover lamb is Jesus himself. They will not partake of him as they attend to the Passover requirements he is himself, in himself, fulfilling. At noon on the day of Preparation, the slaughtering of Passover lambs begins, and leaven is removed from their houses and burned. It will be at that hour that Jesus is sentenced, having been scourged and flogged within an inch of his life, the true lamb led to slaughter. Yes, for John, this too, maybe even essentially this, is what he means when he says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. As the church fathers knew, this is what it meant for Jesus to be the servant of... text/html 2008-03-21T12:20:13+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/134/2/ [Editor’s note: This is the third of a series of three reflections by Dr. Seitz.] John 19:17-42 It is finished. Our first two lessons served to expose the depths of treachery in the hearts of us all, in the heightened form of Gentile power and Jewish fear and hatred. But through it all, Jesus was neither condemning nor vindictive. He stood forth as King, through all the worst thrown his way. By this show of unworldly power the opponents of his kingdom had the secrets of their own hearts revealed, because of this and in smite of themselves. One commentator has said: Pilate's fear of the sinister and suspicious emperor was even greater than his awe of the mysterious personality of the Accused; his own safety appeared to him more important than a passing triumph over the accusers who were unsympathetic to him. But God was using this all for an accomplishment it was always Jesus' intention to fulfill, until his lips moved for the last time to form the words: That is it; it has been accomplished. It is finished. text/html 2008-03-17T06:39:31+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/131/2/ The current public dispute over the canonical legality of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops' recent vote to depose Bishops Schofield and Cox amounts at best to a severe embarrassment to the Presiding Bishop, her advisors, and the House itself; at worst, it exposes a travesty of Christian justice and prudence. How was it possible that the process and definition of terms demanded by the canons were not openly examined, discussed, and agreed upon prior to this vote, so as to avoid the prima facie plausible accusations now being made that appropriate consents were not in fact given? Indeed, given the intrinsic seriousness of the matter - the deposition of a bishop - and the overwrought character of the moment within both TEC and the Anglican Communion and within which the deposition process has unfolded, and the general ecclesiological stakes at play within the Communion at large that are caught up in this moment, it is simply unconscionable that such preparation was not carried through. Trust in the good will and/or good sense of our leadership is no longer just frayed; it has been torn asunder. text/html 2008-02-23T09:16:47+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/130/2/ Several things need to be borne in mind about the Communion Partners Plan as it is discussed on the internet via the lens of news stories now appearing. The Polity of The Episcopal Church in respect of the Presiding Bishop. Particularly in a period of contestation about the role of the Presiding Bishop it is crucial to keep in mind the peculiar polity of TEC. Bishop Stanton of Dallas has been clearest about this in questioning the option of alternative Episcopal Oversight given that specific limitations already inhere in the office of Presiding Bishop. No metropolitan powers are attached to this office. More recently, in the Diocese of South Carolina we witnessed appropriate attention to the limits this Church has imposed, in the course of its history, on the role of the Presiding Bishop. The Diocese of South Carolina did so, in other words, not as an act of revenge nor in a position of questionable advocacy, but in full compliance with the Canons of TEC. One news report is accurate when it speaks, not of permission by the Presiding Bishop, but of offering the courtesy of a nihil obstat (‘no objection'). The Plan should be assessed in the light of this. Five... text/html 2008-01-23T10:11:47+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/129/2/ As Anglican Christians, both within and outside TEC, what are we to make of the disciplinary process against Pittsburgh's Bishop, Robert Duncan, now initiated by the Presiding Bishop? In brief, I would urge TEC and other Anglican bishops to pray for and take action so that this process pauses indefinitely. They should do this for the sake of genuinely seeking discernment and resolution as to the ordering of our common life as Anglicans. There is nothing that legally demands that the process be carried through at this point and in the manner now laid out. There is every Christian reason to work for some other outcome. I. First, the engagement of the process itself appears to have been inevitable, at least once the various positions regarding the actions of General Convention 2003 were laid out, adopted, and embraced by different parties in the church. That is not in dispute. And once the complainants against Bishop Duncan formally made their charges to the Review Committee, an examination and determination as to Bp. Duncan's adherence to the Episcopal Church's Constitution and Canons was necessarily demanded. text/html 2008-01-15T14:57:34+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/128/2/ In August of 2007, we posted on the ACI site an essay by Dr. Jacqueline Jenkins Keenan. (Why Theology Should Precede Change (content/view/108/1/) ) In this essay, Dr. Keenan provided an overview of a number of recent scientific studies questioning the claims made by many that there is a biological basis to homosexuality that renders it an immutable condition. These claims have also been made by some leaders in the Episcopal Church as part of their defense of the church's affirmation of homosexual unions. They were made quite formally by the official response of TEC to the Anglican Communion's request for an explanation of the American church's reasoning in pressing for such affirmation, a response contained in the report To Set Our Hope On Christ. Dr. Keenan's essay, therefore, stood as a direct challenge to at least one important aspect of TEC's argument offered to the rest of the Communion. text/html 2007-12-26T06:17:17+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/127/2/ Rev. Dr. Sumner is the principal of Wycliffe College, Toronto This being Christmas Eve Eve, my question for you is this: back in your childhood, when Christmas had a numinous glow, what was the most memorable present you ever received? Several come to mind for me. There was a doll of my hero, Popeye, which I received on my 5th Christmas and dragged happily around the house all morning, only to discover to my horror later in the afternoon that my sister had performed surgery on him (we were surgeon's kids) and the surgery had gone very very wrong...not sure I have forgiven her yet. A couple of years later, in my militaristic phase, I found under the tree two beautiful uniforms, of Union and Confederate soldiers, handsewn by my grandmother, one of which I have to this day. But the one I want to focus on this morning was actually given to my older brother: a see-through antfarm. There they were, working industriously within, digging, dragging, building, quite oblivious to the staring eyes of us, far larger beings taking in their predicament and their efforts. The antfarm: what strikes us when we watch is how industrious they are, but when... text/html 2007-12-20T17:36:28+01:00 http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com http://anglicancommunioninstitute.com/content/view/126/2/ The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent Letter of 2007 The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Advent Letter of 2007 The Significance for Anglican Communion Life You may download a PDF version of this document for forwarding by clicking here.... I The long awaited Advent Letter promised by the Archbishop of Canterbury is now in the public arena. It is a remarkable piece of work-one that deserves careful reading and reflection on the part of all. Its rich theological content and wise procedural protocols will place it, along with the Windsor Report and the Communiqué from Dar es Salaam, in the center of all future discussions of the nature and calling of the Anglican Communion. It should be remembered that statements of this nature are not trial balloons or proxies for our voting, up or down, but rather have the character of Anglican instrumental discourse, to be ranged with other such documents as defining the nature of Anglicanism at a critical time. So they must be assessed with the same level of seriousness with which they are constructed and promulgated.