Church Planting For The 21st Century - The Christian Challenge

Archbishop Finds ACC Growing,
Providing Services In Haiti
The Most Rev. Mark Haverland, Metropolitan of the
Anglican Catholic Church, a leading Continuing Church
body, visited ACC parishes and outreach ministries in Haiti
September 30-October 6 as episcopal visitor to the Missionary
Diocese of the Caribbean.
Accompanying him was the Rev. Canon Marvin Gardner, secretary
of the ACC’s Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle.
Following a brief visit to Notre Dame orphanage in Portau-Prince,
Archbishop Haverland and Canon Gardner traveled
to the village of Tapio in the mountains above the Haitian
capital, where the ACC’s parish, St. Therese de l’Enfant Jesus,
provides numerous social services. The highlight of the visit
there was the parish’s patronal feast, which included a solemn
procession through the village. Archbishop Haverland also
confirmed six persons.
Since Haverland’s last visit, Fr. Jean Bein-Aime, rector of St.
Therese and vicar-general of Haiti, and the ACC have piped
water to four locations in the Tapio, saving residents long and
difficult walks for water.
The Archbishop also met with representatives from St. Vincent
de Paul, a mission in Manonville, further into the mountains from
Tapio. That village, with about 15,000 residents, has but one
source of water, about 35 minutes by foot from most people. In
addition to a lean-to church, the Rev. Jean-Baptiste Beaudelet is
organizing a school. At present, Manonville has no clinic, with
people having to walk several hours to the nearest clinic at Tapio;
some die along the way. The ACC will arrange for a nurse to
make occasional visits to Manonville, Haverland said.
turned out...But I am important enough, as are you, to make
sure that every day we are faithful.”
FIF-UK Assembly
Attended by over 500 persons, FIF’s national assembly October
21-22 at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster, London carried
forward the organization’s work of preparing for the probability
that the Church of England will approve women bishops.
Among resolutions adopted by the gathering were two
supporting a financial response if the “legal provision” that
the C of E makes “for those conscientiously unable to receive
the ministry of women bishops is deemed unacceptable” by
FIF-Uk’s Council, after consultation with the Catholic Group
in General Synod. In such an event, the assembly called on
parochial church councils (PCCs) to “withhold payment of
common fund contributions, diocesan quota or parish share,
until such time as adequate structural provision is made.” The
Assembly also urged all FIF-Uk members to work with PCCs
with a view to securing approval of the withholding.
THE RESOLUTIONS came after a C of E proposal to
provide for traditionalists with “Transferred Episcopal Arrangements”
(TEA), ran aground in an initial church panel, the
Guildford Group. In July, the General Synod asked that another
group make new legislative arrangements for ordaining women
bishops that will avert a major split in the C of E. That panel is
being led by the Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch.
MEMBERS of St. Therese de l’Enfant Jesus process through Tapio with a
statue of the parish’s patron saint. Photo courtesy of The Trinitarian
Back in Port-au-Prince, the Metropolitan visited the ACC’s
school of St. Jean. In addition to housing 20 orphans full
time, the ACC provides them and more than 100 others
with schooling at St. Jean, as well as food for about 200 at
the orphanage. Later, Haverland visited the missions of SS.
Simon et Jude, where the Rev. Manigat Gassenby, along with
Fr. Bien-Aime, have begun a school; and Notre Dames de
Lourdes, run by the Rev. Jean Barnabe.
“In general we found the ACC in Haiti is well-populated,
growing and very active in providing social services for the poorest
nation in our hemisphere,” Archbishop Haverland said. n
Source: The Trinitarian
The new legislative group will have at least a year and a half
to come up with specific proposals for General Synod. Such
a timetable makes it unlikely that final approval will be given
to female bishops for at least five years.
The General Synod accepted two significant amendments to its
July motion. The first, offered by Preb. David Houlding (London),
committed the C of E to the resolution of the 1998 Lambeth
Conference that those opposed to women’s ordination are
“loyal Anglicans.” But the second committed the new legislative
group to Canon A4, which directs that church members accept
all duly ordained clergy as “truly bishops, priests or deacons.”
As FIF-Uk noted, the two amendments appeared to cancel each
other out, but the second was likely to prove most problematic
to formulating a provision satisfactory to traditionalists.
While pledging “robust” participation in the new process,
FIF, which says that the current system of “flying bishops”
for traditionalists would be insufficient if women are made
bishops, has long sought an orthodox third province in the C
of E with its own archbishop. Groups like Women And The
Church (WATCH), however, firmly oppose any “no-go” areas
for women bishops.
Interestingly, though, recent Synod voting trends, especially
in the House of Laity, have suggested that the two-thirds
majority needed for ultimate acceptance of female prelates
might not be attained. n
Sources: Forward in Faith, Kimgrams, VirtueOnline
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