David Virtue who has been attending the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) Winter Meeting writes that at the Winter Conference three new bishops were being ordained.
"They include the Rev. Terrell Glenn, rector of All Saints Church, Pawleys Island, SC; the Rev. Philip Jones, rector of St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Little Rock, Arkansas; and the Rev. John Miller, rector of Prince of Peace Anglican Church, Melbourne, Florida. "I believe they will bring additional strength to the Anglican Mission's Council of Bishops as we seek to break into new territory and reach out to the 130 million unchurched in North America," said Murphy. The AMIA will now have seven missionary bishops serving more than 133 parishes with 62 in the pipeline.
Hands will be laid on them by the entire House of Bishops of the Province of Rwanda which has written a new constitution that includes the AMIA as an intrinsic part of the province that can never be eliminated.
Following their consecration, the new bishops will continue to serve as rectors (senior pastors) of their respective congregations while assuming the added responsibilities of a missionary bishop. They will join Bishops Murphy, Thad Barnum, Sandy Greene and T.J. Johnston as members of the Anglican Mission Council of Bishops."
The AMiA website has not yet published the names of the bishops.
The interesting note is that there is a new constitution in Rwanda that "includes the AMiA as an intrinsic part of the province that can never be eliminated." That being the case the Province of Rwanda stands condemned by its clear violation of the Windsor Report and all following assurances by the various intruding Provinces that this was somehow a stopgap on the way for rescue purposes.
I would suppose tha the Moderator of the Common Cause Partnership might also be on the lookout... if AMiA is an "intrinsic part of the province that can never be eliminated" then there is no future of AMiA in a federation on its way to being a united (so called) orthodox province in North America. Rwanda has intervened and is here to stay, it appears.
The Common Cause blurb from AMiA says this - NOTHING.
They are not going to anti up friends. So the CCP that was boasting nine members now is eight and on its way to seven. Of those who will be left by the time June and July come?
1/27/2008
14 comments:
OK... Comments, gripes, etc welcomed, but with some cautions and one rule:
Cautions: Calling people fools, idiots, etc, will be reason to bounce your comment. Keeping in mind that in the struggles it is difficult enough to try to respect opponents, we should at least try.
Rule: PLEASE DO NOT SIGN OFF AS ANONYMOUS: BEGIN OR END THE MESSAGE WITH A NAME - ANY NAME. ANONYMOUS commentary will be cut.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
this "can never be eliminated" part is really funny. Who in Rwanda thinks these people can be trusted to keep such promises?
ReplyDeletelooks like a church of bishops is growing. I wonder when they will elevate deacons to bishops? Will there be no priests? just bishop and lay? "A bishop in every church" is sounding like it should be their campaign slogan.
ReplyDelete"Bishops in their shovel hats,
ReplyDeleteWere plentiful as tabby cats,
In point of fact too many."
WSG
The consecration of Terrell Glenn, of All Saints Church, Pawleys Island will be an interesting development, since the diocese of South Carolina has been plaintiff in a case against the secessionist congregation at All Saints since 2005. The suit, to reclaim the church building for those in the congregation who remained with TEC, is particularly interesting since ownership hinges in part on a pre-revolutionary deed of gift. There seems to be little legal question that but for this, the church building would automatically revert to TEC under state law - something of which the SC diocese has to be well aware.
ReplyDeleteWith all these bishops, they will soon have to have even more grand titles, such as Patriarch and Metropolitan and Super-Elevated-Supreme-Archbishop-of-All Jacksonville.
ReplyDelete"Eliminated" in Rwanda having a particularly ominous meaning. :-/
ReplyDeleteWhat does everyone think about an AMiA bishop (I believe, retired) being among the consecrating bishops of TEC's (?) new bishop of South Carolina? [I'm not happy about it, fer shur!]
Padre Mickey, if you get the chance - and the title was recently reprinted in expensive paperback , tho' not nearly as expensive as the hardback first edition can be - check out Peter Anson's "Bishops at Large", originally published by Faber in 1964. It's a study of irregularly consecrated Roman succession "episcopi vagantes" from the 1840's through the early 1960's. It is a spectacular study of how things spin out of control in the absence of central authority. There are some deeply disturbed people here and some very, very funny ones - sometimes both. Their titles, as you surmise, become increasingly baroque as sects divide and proliferate. The photographs alone more than repay the cost of entry. Your public library should be able to root out a copy of the reprint for you.
ReplyDeleteThe "can never be eliminated" part isn't just funny - it's truly puzzling. Isn't the idea that missionary endeavors, be they in the US, Africa, or wherever, will one day be independent?
ReplyDeleteI've got Anson's book: it's a hoot and a cautionary tale on the dangerous game of separating 'valid' orders from the context of the church as well as 'collar lust' (people who want to be clergy for the wrong reasons).
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteI am a little confused.
* AMiA (Anglicans Missing in America)have suddenly reemerged and are now betrothed to Rwanda (with their fingers crossed perhaps).
* San Joaquin heads south to the Cone but there seems to be a problem of who is in and who is out - the Standing Committee.
* Finally, Duncan, et. al. look for a new province for North America to replace the TEC. Is an extra + before his name an equivalent of hitting the Power Ball Lottery?
As I have watched your blog these days, things seem to be unraveling with the protesters.
Who is really on first base?
""episcopi vagantes"...It is a spectacular study of how things spin out of control in the absence of central authority."
ReplyDeleteI've always felt the same about the proliferation of Old Catholic bishops.
""collar lust" (people who want to be clergy for the wrong reasons)."
As opposed to "collar queens" (people who have a overwhelming desire to be the significant other of a clergy person.
...things seem to be unraveling with the protesters.
ReplyDeleteYeah.
I've always felt the same about the proliferation of Old Catholic bishops.
To fair most of them aren't really Old Catholic bishops. Welcome to the 'lines of succession' game, or 'I haven't got a real church but this is just as good' (note that RCs and Orthodox don't talk about their succession that way; they've got nothing to prove): they were consecrated by people consecrated by people consecrated by people who LEFT the Old Catholics!
(My terms: Old Catholic = Utrecht, Anglican = Lambeth, RC = actually under the Pope, Orthodox = in the Orthodox communion with Moscow, Constantinople and company.)
I'll have to remember that definition of 'collar queen'.
Anson makes it clear that the authenticity of some of these lines of succession is pretty suspect, to put it mildly. Some of these guys collected lines of consecration, racking up two or three different successions, maybe for the fun of it, maybe to be on the safe side.
ReplyDeleteI did read that book, Lapinbizarre, when I was in seminary, and recently a book by Lewis Keizer entitled The Wandering Bishops: Apostles Of A New Spirituality. The Rt. Rev. Keizer has been traveling about making even more episcopi vagantes for those who tend more towards the New Age influence. I'm always amazed at how many of these wandering bishops are wandering about, and how glamorous and fabulous their titles become.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wiggly world!!