Church Planting For The 21st Century - The Christian Challenge

THE RECENT CONSECRATION of the
supposedly conservative Dena Harrison as
a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Texas
was riddled with liberal bishops, despite
which some conservative prelates took part
in the rite.
Dr. Lance Guiffrida, 54, to the Rwandan
province and the congregation’s
acquisition of All Saints’ property. But
in a strongly worded letter, Shaw said
the rector had violated his ordination
vows and parishioners had violated their covenant with the
diocese by transferring to AMiA. He said he is handing the
matter to a diocesan committee for “appropriate action.” Guiffrida
earlier said that, “We won’t go to court; we are prepared
to walk away.”
The separation had been “coming for some time,” said Fr.
Guiffrida, citing the decline in TEC’s scriptural and moral
standards. The “vast majority” of bishops in TEC and in
Massachusetts, he contended, “do not believe salvation comes
through Christ alone, nor do they believe the Bible is the
supreme authority of the church.” They believe “they have
received new revelation from the Holy Spirit to establish a
new and prophetic religion, similar to and built upon Christianity,
but which is neither historic nor orthodox Anglican
Christianity.” At a special service in early November, AMiA
Bishop Thaddeus Barnum asked the gathering of about 300
All Saints’ parishioners if any of them wanted to be received
as AMiA members, and nearly everyone stood up.
*THE FOURTH TIME WAS THE CHARM for the
Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, which finally elected a bishop
to succeed the Rt. Rev. Bertram Herlong on October 28. The
new diocesan will be the Rev. John C. Bauerschmidt, rector
of Christ Church, Covington, Louisiana, since 1997. He was
elected on the 12th ballot. That concluded the lengthy process
which began with a different slate of candidates last spring.
Including the 39 votes held March 18, March 25 and again
on May 6, Tennessee required 51 ballots to find a successor to
Herlong, who retired as diocesan on October 31. At the root
of the difficulty was the current conflict in the church over
homosexuality and biblical authority. Bauerschmidt and two
other candidates on the ballot were described as “moderates”
who support a moratorium on gay bishops and blessings until
there is more discussion of those issues within the church.
*THE U.S. PAN-ANGLICAN RENEWAL AND RES-
TORATION CONFERENCE, which had been slated for
November 20-21 in Orlando, was rescheduled for February
28-March 1 in the same city. With the theme “One Christian
Question for Episcopalians,” the lay-focused conference
will be geared toward preparing parish leaders to help their
congregations make the critical choice needed to preserve a
scripture-based American Anglicanism. Reaching the silent,
passive “middle 80 percent” of Episcopalians is the challenge,
said a release on the meeting. The conference is being underwritten
by Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion,
and will be co-sponsored by Anglicans United, the Anglican
Province of America, and VirtueOnline. n
Sources included The Living Church, VirtueOnline, The Sun Chronicle, The Tennesseean
28 November-December November-December 2006 The Christian Challenge www.challengeonline.org
CHANCELLOR Continued from Page 26
Notably, kim Byham, a former leader of the gay group,
Integrity, said that if a bishop does not do anything to keep
the property (e.g., if he is a conservative sympathetic to a
congregation’s wish to secede), there is nothing the national
church can do. In that case, he said, TEC loyalists in the diocese
should be prepared to bring action against the diocesan
for breach of fiduciary responsibilities. Mathes suggested that
other bishops might need to step in, in such a case.
What happens if an entire diocese acted to withdraw from
TEC, a scenario that has not yet been litigated? That was
on the minds of several conference participants, in light of
various steps that dioceses aligned with the conservative Anglican
Communion Network (ACN) had taken to distance
themselves from TEC, without actually leaving it.
Beers had raised this issue in October 19 letters to the chancellors
of two Network dioceses - Fort Worth and Quincy. The letters
warned of possible “action” by Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori if
the dioceses did not repeal regulatory language that may undermine
their “unqualified accession” to TEC’s constitution and canons. He
told The Episcopal Majority workshop that he had written a similar
letter to the chancellor of the Diocese of San Joaquin. The three
dioceses had adopted language opting out of General Convention
decisions that do not comport with scripture or historic faith.
The letters, Beers maintained, were not meant as threats, but
as a reminder that an Episcopal diocese is “a creature of General
Convention” and cannot change its status with respect to TEC
without the convention’s permission.
(This idea has been challenged as historically untrue by retired
Eau Claire (WI) Bishop William Wantland, a lawyer and
canonist. Wantland pointed out that General Convention was
organized by pre-existing dioceses, and still treats new dioceses
seeking admission as pre-existing entities. “General Convention
does not create dioceses - it simply admits into union with itself
those dioceses which ask to be admitted,” he said.)
Beers noted that he could not say how Jefferts Schori would
respond if a diocese left TEC without General Convention
permission. However, he said at a different point that, in the
case of a vacancy in a see, he assumed that TEC’s leader would
“obey the canon calling for her to consult,” provide the diocese
in question with “episcopal care,” facilitate the selection of a
new diocesan standing committee and council, and help the
diocesan leadership bring a lawsuit to recover the diocese’s
property, signs and symbols. In the case of San Joaquin, which a
month after the TEM meeting decided on first reading to leave
TEC, the P.B. appears to be in the consultation stage.
At the time of the Washington meeting, though, Beers said
that the handful of dioceses that appeared to be turning away
from TEC had not yet acted in a sufficient enough manner to
convince a secular judge that there was an actionable case.
And Beers questioned where would-be seceding dioceses
were going to go. “They seem to be preparing for a day when
Canterbury recognizes them as a separate province,” he said,
“but I don’t see evidence of that happening.”
*THE EPISCOPAL HOUSE OF BISHOPS’ TASk
FORCE ON PROPERTY DISPUTES has identified eight
“problem dioceses” to be monitored, and will maintain contact
with TEC loyalists in those dioceses, Lexington (kY)