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Handle with prayer!
News – ANiC and AEN
Bishop Don Harvey’s Lenten pastoral letter
Our
moderator Bishop Don Harvey has written a pastoral letter to our diocese in
which he extols the virtues of slowing down during Lent and “taking time to reflect
upon the price paid for our salvation and how we should be responding.” He
adds, “While the Imposition of Ashes has become quite popular in our Ash
Wednesday liturgies… it often happens that the real themes of self-denial,
fasting and penitence, are as short lived as the smudge of ash on the forehead.”
You can read the entire letter on the ANiC
website.
Other
Anglican leaders around the world have also written Lenten letters. The
Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church has called
upon members to focus their Lenten study, fasting and prayers on the
Millennium Development Goals. The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined other British Anglican leaders in calling people to repent of their sins
against the environment.
However,
Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya calls us to repent of our broken relationship with God. His well-written letter
addresses the Millennium Development Goals and other similar agendas which are "good
things" but a "false gospel". The true gospel, "that we are
justified freely by God's grace alone". And it is this true
life-transforming gospel which, “far from making us complacent about doing
good, the abundant grace and full forgiveness we have through the blood of
Christ should be a great spur to Christ-like living, to walking in those good
works ‘which God prepared beforehand'.”
For an
additional discussion of the danger of substituting global ethic objectives for
Gospel-based initiatives, see a booklet
by Marguerite Peeters.
Synod 2012 to
be held November
14-16 in Ottawa
Our
Ottawa churches will host ANiC’s 2012 synod in our nation’s capital on November
14-16. Arrangements have been made with the Lord
Elgin hotel in downtown Ottawa for special rates on
accommodation. The larger meetings will take place at the National
Arts Centre across the street from the hotel. While St Peter and
St Paul's historic downtown edifice will be the
venue for the opening and closing Eucharist.
ANiC’s
Facebook page
Have
you visited ANiC’s Facebook page recently? You can see
– and “like” it – here. If you can’t wait for the next
newsletter to get ANiC news, consider following us on Facebook for up-to-the
minute information. (Our thanks to ANiC’s admin pro Jessica Underdown for
initiating this.)
ANiC
bishops’ activities
For
your interest and prayer support, we’re going to provide you with an occasional
update of our bishop’s activities:
Our
moderator Bishop Don Harvey will be visiting several ANiC congregations: New
Song (Port Perry, ON), Living Water (Athabasca, AB) and St David the Faithful
(Winnipeg, MB). In early March, he will hold official meetings with Robert
Bugbee the President of the Lutheran Church in Canada (LCC), Missouri Synod.
Bishop
Charlie Masters continues to work, together with fellow ACNA bishop the Right
Rev Leonard Riches, to help those in the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) resolve
their current crisis of unity. (You’ll find the latest on the AMiA schism, a
letter from those bishops who have elected to walk away for their Rwandan
oversight, on the Anglican Ink
website.)
Bishop
Trevor Walters will be leading a church retreat for ANiC’s as well as preaching
at Church of Our Lord (an
ACNA parish, also in Victoria, which is part of the Reformed Episcopal diocese)
on March 18. Christ the King and Church of Our Lord are prayerfully considering
the option of merging their congregations should God so lead.
Bishop
Stephen Leung has just returned from a very fruitful trip to Asia where he and
his wife Nona met with a number of dioceses and church leaders as well as
represented ANiC at the
installation of the new Primate of S E Asia, Archbishop Datuk Bolly
Lapok. Bishop Stephen is greatly encouraged by the growth of the church in S E
Asia as well as by the growing, multifaceted partnership developing between
ANiC and the dioceses of S E Asia.
Representing
ANiC at the GAFCon Leadership Conference
Bishop
Don and the Rev Ray David Glenn have been chosen to be part of a small
delegation of 15 representing our province, the Anglican Church in North
America, at the upcoming GAFCon
Leadership Conference, April 23-27, 2012 in London, England.
Clergy
retreat
This year’s clergy
retreat promises to be a wonderful time of ministry, renewal and
encouragement. Clergy are urged to register soon and parishes are encouraged to
make it possible for your clergy to attend! It is March 20-22 at the lovely Cedar
Springs conference centre in Sumas, Washington – just across the border
from Abbotsford, BC. For more information, please see the
poster.
All
ANiC congregations are asked to support our ordinands in prayer
Bishop
Don is requesting that, effective immediately, every ANiC congregation and all
ANiC members join in prayer for each of our ordinands on the Sunday before
their ordination.
On Sunday,
March 4, all ANiC congregations are asked to pray for Peter Robinson and his
family, for the service of ordination, and for his ministry.
Peter is
to be ordained to the Diaconate on March 11 at St Peter and St Paul, Ottawa at
4pm. Peter was a missionary for a number of years in Austria where he met his
wife Simone. Later Peter served as a teaching pastor of a church in the Ottawa
area. While finishing his doctorate studies in Ottawa the Lord led him and his
family to a love of the Anglican way and a desire to be part of the ANiC. Peter,
Simone and their daughter Victoria are members of St Peter and St Paul.
Greater
Toronto area men’s breakfast
March
24 – ANiC Toronto Regional Men’s Breakfast
A
second ANiC men’s breakfast in the Toronto region is planned for Saturday, March
24, 9-11am. Once again it will be held in the Red Crest Golf Club House, just
west of Newmarket, ON. Bishop Charlie Masters will be the speaker and the theme
is Advancing with Jesus towards Holy Week. Please register by March 18 by emailing Walter Marshall or calling him at
705 999-2911. See the poster and
information sheet for address and full details. You can see photos of the much appreciated January breakfast attended by
80+ men of all ages.
Where
to from here?
With
the winding down of Anglican Essentials Canada (AEC), the AEC blog, which has
faithful informed Canadian Anglicans since 2007, would like to hear your views
on its future. You can comment here.
Diocese
of Recife’s Bishop Cavalcanti murdered; ANiC leaders express their sorrow
Anglican Ink
reports that Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti and his wife Mirian were
murdered in their home in Olinda, Brazil on the night of February 26,
reportedly by their adopted son who is believed to have had a history of drug
abuse and petty crime. Bishop Cavalcanti was deposed in 2005
along with the majority of the clergy of Recife by the Anglican Episcopal
Church of Brazil for refusing to compromise their theology. Like ANiC,
Recife was given an episcopal home in the Province of the Southern Cone. Since
realigning out of the Brazilian church, Recife has experienced tremendous
growth, more than doubling in size.
Bishop
Cavalcanti was a friend of many in ANiC, particularly Bishop Don Harvey who has
spent time in his home and in his diocese. We join with thousands around the
world in sending our love and condolences to our brothers and sisters in
Recife.
Gone to
be with his Lord
Bishop
John (Jack) Sperry, beloved bishop of the Arctic from 1973 to 1990, died February 11 in Hay
River, NWT. He was 87. Having mastered Inuinnaqtun, Bishop Sperry translated
the Bible, prayers and hymns into the local language. Bishop Sperry was the
chair of the landmark Essentials ’94 conference which birthed the Anglican Essentials movement in Canada and led to the founding of ANiC
and the Anglican Communion Alliance (formerly Anglican Federation).
ANiC council
committee chairs
The council of ANiC’s synod,
which is responsible for the temporal governance of our diocese between synod
meetings, has appointed the following committee chairs:
Executive committee – Bishop Don Harvey
(chair); Committee members: Rev George Sinclair, Michael Bentley, Claus Lenk, David Gibbs
Church planting working group – the Rev Ray
David Glenn (St George’s Burlington, ON)
Synod planning – John MacDonald, ANiC’s
executive director
Episcopal election nominating committee –
Claus Lenk, ANiC treasurer
Board nominations committee – the Rev Ray
David Glenn
Legal committee – Mike Donison, ANiC chancellor
& Michael Bentley (co-chairs)
Constitution and canons committee – the Rev
George Sinclair
Finance and audit committee – Claus Lenk, on
a temporary basis until a new treasurer is appointed
Resolution committee – Joel Reinhart &
Michael Donison
In the
media
ANiC
clergyman, the Rev Dr Craig Bartholomew was recently interviewed for a Christianity
Today article on his new book Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View
of Place for Today.
Parish
news
St
John’s Vancouver is co-hosting, with the Regent Anglican Studies Program, a
gathering of ACNA theologians from February 28 through March 2. These
theologians have been asked by the ACNA House of Bishops to prepare a new
catechism for our Province. This is their first face-to-face meeting. Bronwyn
Short, of St John’s, is a member of this ACNA catechesis task force.
Please email your parish news and communication ideas to Marilyn or call
1-866-351-2642 extension 4020.
ANiC
and ACNA events calendar
March 6-8 – Anglican 1000’s 2012 Church Planting Summit in Plano, TX.
March 20-22 – ANiC clergy
retreat, Cedar Springs, WA
March
24 – Toronto area ANiC men’s
breakfast, Newmarket, ON
April
23-27 – GAFCon Leadership Conference, London, England
June 7-9 – ACNA Provincial Assembly,
Ridgecrest, NC
June
11-12 – Asian & Multicultural Ministries in Canada (AMMiC) conference,
Vancouver
News – Anglican Church in
North America (ACNA)
Archbishop Bob Duncan’s Ash
Wednesday message
In his Lenten message, our Primate invites us to
embrace the spiritual pruning that results from Lenten disciplines. In
discussing what God has been doing in and around our Province, the Anglican
Church in North America (ACNA), he observes that young people are attracted to ACNA churches observing our
willingness to follow Christ regardless of the cost. He says, “It seems
to me that what so many of us found to be painful pruning in the loss of
properties and possessions has produced abundant new fruit in a generation
looking for something (someone) worth living for.”
He also notes that:
| • |
The ACNA has counted more than 200 churches
planted since 2009 |
| • |
Biblical stewardship
is increasingly embraced by ACNA parishioners, churches and dioceses. |
| • |
He is encouraged with the behind-the-scenes work being done to repair
the schism in the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA). |
Helping the “least of the least”: the Anglican Relief
and Development Fund (ARDF)
Our donations to ARDF-Canada (more
commonly knows as ARDFC) are helping to make a real and lasting difference in
the lives of the people who are the most in need in countries around the world.
While ARDFC has just launched our 3rd and 4th projects,
our longer-established partner ARDF has completed
more than 100 projects worldwide, one of which is featured on our Provincial (ACNA) website.
This project built a primary school operated by the Diocese of Bukavu in
the Congo. The school building now serves more than 600 children and is used
for adult training and basic health care. The success of the project attracted
additional funding from the UN for a school feeding program.
ARDFC’s current projects in both Myanmar and Peru are helping
impoverished women successfully establish themselves in micro-businesses
through microfinance initiatives. For more information on these projects,
please see the ARDFC website. For
insight into microfinance projects in general see a report on a
recent ARDF project in India.
A growing ACNA church
The ACNA website features an interesting
article on a growing ACNA church in Tallahassee, Florida. St Peter’s is
described as “an old-fashioned” Anglican church that
has “remained true to traditional worship and traditional music, yet our seams
are bursting with young families and singles”. They have grown by almost 500
people in the seven years since the original congregation left the Episcopal
Church. The rector, Father Eric Dubley encourages other churches:
“Do not fear! God is in this movement and that on which He places His
hand will not fail! We have not had one moment of regret! It is, however,
terribly important that you not look back…I encouraged our members from the
first Sunday to stay away from the blog sites, and from conversation about the
Episcopal Church. We made our decision; we followed the lead of God, now we
look forward with great joy to the future He intends. I would also strongly
encourage new churches NOT to throw the baby out with the bath water! ...Leaving
the Episcopal Church does not mean leaving Godly Anglican traditions. Sometimes
I fear that we are trying so hard to be something else that we cease to be
Anglican. All these rich traditions that we have inherited (the centrality of
the Eucharist, kneeling in corporate confession, corporate Creedal
affirmations, collared clergy, youth deeply involved as acolytes, etc.) provide
a sense of anchored stability, ancient mystery, that do so much to shape hearts
and minds for Christ, and which we have found to be enormously appealing to
young people looking for mystery, sacrificial living, ancient Truth.”
Last chance: Church Planting Summit and Youth Ministry Conference
This is your last chance to register to the Anglican1000
Church Planting Summit and pre-summit Youth Ministry
Conference. More that 350 are already registered for the Summit.
Seven ACNA churches in Virginia appeal portion of earlier court decision
VirtueOnline reports that “Seven Anglican congregations in Virginia that are parties to the
church property case brought by The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese
of Virginia have filed a motion for partial reconsideration…” The churches are
asking that “…that the court honor the gift restrictions designated by
individuals…” Since 2003 donors have had the options of designating their
gifts, and most specifically designated those gifts for uses other than the
ministries of the Episcopal Church (TEC) and its diocese. However, in its
recent decision, the court awarded gifts designated for the congregation to
TEC. The Virginia Attorney General has filed a brief supporting the ACNA
churches’ position. A news release is on
the ACNA’s Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic website.
Other news in brief
Anglican
newsmagazine - The February 20th edition of the Anglican video
newsmagazine Anglican Unscripted covers:
| • |
The
Queen of England’s role as “Defender of the Faith”; |
| • |
Bishop
Michael Nazir-Ali’s reflections on the “Arab Spring” in which he expresses his
pessimistic assessment that the affected countries are being radicalized,
creating growing hostility toward Christians; and |
| • |
The decision confronting parishes in AMiA, in light of the recent split
in their organization. |
Legal definition of “human being” – The
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), of which ANiC is a member, is
supporting the call for a parliamentary review of existing legal definition of
a human being. The current definition is enshrined in the Criminal Code of
Canada and states that a child becomes a human
being only at the moment of complete birth. The EFC has written MPs and Senators an open letter and invites us to also contact our MPs to voice our views.
Social
action – The founders of the Manhattan
Declaration – including Chuck Colson – are organizing a
Wilberforce Weekend conference, in Lansdowne, Virginia on March 30-April 1,
entitled “Break the Spiral of Silence”. For details, see the conference
website.
The
former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has written an
article published in the Daily Mail which is a strong defense of traditional marriage as the foundation of society.
Anglican
Covenant – Short YouTube videos extolling the
merits of the Anglican Covenant have been prepared by the Inter-Anglican
Standing Commission on Unity Faith and Order (IASCUFO). The Church Times reports that “Almost a quarter of [Church of England] dioceses have now voted against the
Anglican Covenant.”
Council
of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) - In the February 13 edition of Anglican
Unscripted, journalist George Conger and Kevin Kallsen discuss how
the liberal agenda of western Anglican churches is capturing the CAPA
organization. Through financial incentives, the gospel agenda is being
transformed into a social agenda.
Prayer
is requested for Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi (retired, Kenya), a founding GAFCon
Primate, who had a stroke and has been in intensive care in a Nairobi hospital.
Evangelising
in Muslim lands – For insight into courageous Anglican initiatives to
evangelize in Africa see an article entitled: “Rwanda bishop confronts Islam in Tanzania”. The article notes that
increasingly Muslims are open to Christianity due to radical Islam’s track
record of creating failed states.
Nigeria – ACNA Bishop Julian Dobbs who was a visitor at ANiC’s synod last fall, wrote a
pastoral letter to his diocese, which has a close relationship with
the Church of Nigeria, about the threat to Christians in Nigeria. In asking for
prayer, he said, “Thousands of Christians are fleeing their homes in the
Muslim-dominated northern states of Nigeria following a New Year ultimatum –
from the murderously militant Islamist paramilitary group Boko Haram –
for Christians: ‘leave or die.' According to the Barnabas Fund, the terrorist
group executed a series of coordinated bomb and gun attacks on churches and the
security services. Many of our Anglican churches have been closed and our
brothers and sisters killed or injured as a result of these and subsequent
attacks.”
Sudan – Compass
Direct News reports that “There are at
least three South Sudanese militia groups fighting against the government of
South Sudan with the support of the government of Sudan… [T]hey have resorted to forcibly conscripting South Sudanese who are still living in
(north) Sudan, where the government supports them [the militias] as part of an
effort to rid the country of Christianity, sources said. Christians in (north)
Sudan said that such abductions are increasing as the Islamic government in
Khartoum supports these militias, which are fighting the government of South
Sudan and the South Sudan-based Sudanese People’s Liberation Army.” Please
continue to pray for Christians in Sudan and South Sudan.
Soul food
Getting media attention
for your parish’s activities
An article on
the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada website, co-author by now ANiC
member Karen Stiller, provides great advice on how to get your events and good
news stories in the local media.
Just for fun
Q: How
does a home schooler change a light bulb?
A:
First, mom checks out three books at the library on electricity. Then the kids
make models of light bulbs, read a biography of Thomas Edison and do a skit
based on his life. Next, everyone studies the history of lighting methods,
wrapping up with dipping their own candles. Next, everyone takes a trip to the
store where they compare types of light bulbs as well as prices and figure out
how much change they'll get if they buy two bulbs for $1.99 and pay with a five-dollar
bill. On the way home, a discussion develops over the history of money and also
Abraham Lincoln, as his picture is on the five-dollar bill. Finally, after
building a homemade ladder out of branches dragged from the woods, the light
bulb is installed. And there is light.
www.mikeysFunnies.com
Thought
Holding
a grudge is letting someone live rent-free in your head.
And now
a word from our sponsor
Be
still, and know that I am God.
I will
be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46:10-11
Clap
your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
…Sing
praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God
is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a
psalm!
God
reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.
The
princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the
shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly
exalted!
Psalm 47:1, 6-9
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