Friends doing well in Anglican land.

Time to recognize and give thanks for friends who are doing well in Anglican-Land. I am shamelessly using cartoons of these two friends done by the Pluralist (Adrian Worsfold) whose usually exceptional articles is almost topped off by his most recent offering, Essays and Reviews In Depth. Adrian has a talent for capturing something (what is not quite clear) about those whose visages he draws.

Word today on Thinking Anglicans that The Rev. Canon Giles Fraser is appointed Residentiary Canonry of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. This is good news indeed.

I did get a kick out of realizing once again just what different ecclesial worlds we live in, all part of the Anglican Communion. The announcement of Giles' appointment came from the Prime Minister and 10 Downing Street. The posted announcement read, "The Queen has approved that the Reverend Canon Giles Anthony Fraser, MA, PhD, Team Rector of St Mary’s Putney, in the diocese of Southwark and Honorary Canon of Sefwi-Wiawso, Ghana, be appointed to a Residentiary Canonry of St Paul’s Cathedral in succession to the Reverend Canon Edmund John Newell, BSc (Econ), DPhil, MA, FRHistS." I tried to imagine anything like this in the US, "The President has approved that the Reverend Joe Maximus, MBA, MDiv, be appointed a Canon of the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Washington." Not a prayer.... I have no more ideal how he actually was chosen than I suppose most folks in the CofE have about how a canon is chosen or appointed here. Much less to I have a sense of how clergy end up in specific parishes in the CofE. Perhaps that puzzlement is reciprocated. But it leads we do wonder how we can be anything other than a fellowship of Churches, with being a "Federation" a considerable advance in ecclesial organization.

So, congratulations to Giles Fraser. He is a very good man, a fine writer and analyst of Anglican-land.

Professor Ian Douglas, new member of The Episcopal Church representatives on the Anglican Consultative Council has been elected to serve on the Standing Committee of the ACC and thus on the Joint Standing Committee of Primates and ACC. He may be a new member on ACC but his ministry in Anglican Communion affairs is long standing and of great depth. Most recently he served on the design committee for the Lambeth Conference.

Ideas appear on the horizon in Anglican-Land and some of them never make full launch above the horizon, others make a fast launch, race across the sky, and are never seen again. But sometimes an idea arises, is nurtured, and becomes part of the sky light, lasting for many years as a dominant idea in Anglicanism. One such idea is the "Missio Dei." The idea has been around since the 1930's but found its most prominent use in the late 20th Century by such writers as David Bosch. Professor Douglas has consistently pushed the Anglican Communion "instruments" to take seriously the notion that mission - the stuff that we are all about - is not determined by this or that ecclesial agenda, rather it is God's mission and our work is to, as it were, "Get with the program." The trail of Ian's work to see this ideal kept alive can be seen in almost every important document of the Anglican Communion in the past twenty years.

Congratulations, Ian. Keep pushing.