Dear Anglican Network in Canada & Anglican Essentials Network members and friends,
The Anglican Network in Canada is now part of a new entity, the Anglican Church in North America, formed by the partners of what has been known as the Common Cause Partnership.
On December 3rd, this new Church was launch in Wheaton, Illinois with a large celebration service involving bishops, clergy and laypeople from Canada, the United States and beyond. The Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Moderator of the Common Cause Partnership, Bishop Bob Duncan, was named Archbishop Designate.
This Church, which is a “province in formation”, unites 700 Anglican congregations, representing tens of thousands of people. As the Primates of the Global Anglican Future Conference requested in Jerusalem last June, this Church has the characteristics necessary to be recognized as an Anglican province.
The provisional constitution and canons of the new Church make clear that mainstream Anglican Christian belief and mission are central to its identity. These governing documents also articulate that the basis of unity is a shared faith in Jesus Christ and a commitment to bringing that transforming faith to every corner of this continent.
The GAFCon Primates Council met Thursday and Friday in London, England to consider the constitution and canons. Bishop Duncan has also provided the constitution and canons to the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Dr Williams’ request.
Following their meeting, the GAFCon Primates issued a statement earlier today saying,
We welcome the news of the North American Anglican Province in formation. We fully support this development with our prayer and blessing… A new Province will draw together in unity many of those who wish to remain faithful to the teaching of God’s word, and also create the highest level of fellowship possible with the wider Anglican Communion.
The provisional constitution and canons, which have been approved by the Common Cause Partnership Council, now begin to shape our life together. The coming months will be marked by a period of transition that will require much prayer for God’s wisdom and grace and much discussion.
The goal is that the ecclesial ties to various overseas provinces will shift over time to missional relationships – as the relationships and structure within the North American Church take shape. A period of dual citizenship will likely exist for clergy, parishes, and dioceses.
We are all grateful for the care, guidance and leadership these overseas provinces have made for us and we will work closely with the primates and provinces involved to effect a smooth transition.
While there is no definitive roadmap for this transition period, several initial milestones are anticipated:
- The Governance Task Force will begin immediately to work on additional canons required in the near future.
- By April, various groupings of parishes – dioceses, clusters or networks – will apply to be part of the Church. These do not need to be geographically-based groupings but over time, the expectation is that geography will be the most common theme of these groupings.
- In late April, the Leadership Council of the new Church will likely meet.
- The College of Bishops will likely meet in June immediately prior to the Church-wide assembly, called the “Provincial Assembly”, which is tentatively planned for the summer of 2009, where the constitution and canons will be presented for final ratification by all those who choose to be part of the Anglican Church in North America.
More details will be available in the weeks and months ahead.
Prayer items:
Praise God for this development in the formation of a new North American Province.
Please pray for Archbishop designate, Bishop Bob Duncan, for the Lead Bishops, including Bishop Donald Harvey, and for all those involved in bringing this Province to fruition.
Pray also for Bishop Don who missed the celebration service in Chicago in order to fly to Recife Brazil to represent Archbishop Greg Venables at Recife’s synod. His trip to Recife was an “adventure”. Please pray for a smooth trip home, for health and for a spiritually profitable time in Recife.
And please pray for the Venerable Charlie Masters in his very demanding ministry – both within ANiC and as General Secretary of Common Cause (and now the Anglican Church in North America). Like Bishop Don, his schedule requires extensive travel.
Haven’t been able to follow these developments as closely as I’d like this week, so I’m out of the loop and missed a lot. Somebody please clarify: is ANiC still under the episcopal oversight of Archbishop Venables of the Southern Cone, or of Archbishop Duncan of the new North American province?
I don’t have any inside information, but my quick read of this material would suggest ANiC would fall under the category of:
“A period of dual citizenship will likely exist for clergy, parishes, and dioceses.”
So the answer to your question is likely, Yes!
The analogy of dual citizenship works at a personal level, but even dual citizens aren’t equally subject to two different jurisdictions simultaneously (e.g. when in Britain, a dual Canada/UK citizen drives on the left-hand side of the road).
I note that the provisional constitution has now been “adopted,” but will be “ratified” by the Provincial Council sometime before the end of next summer. Does adoption mean that this constitution is effective immediately, or will it come into effect later, upon ratification by the Council?
The provisional constitution states that the founding entitities of the Anglican Church in North America “are” the Common Cause Partners, but the above letter to ANiC states that “by April, various groupings of parishes – dioceses, clusters or networks – will apply to be part of the Church,” suggesting that they “aren’t” part of the Church until application is made.
I give praise and thanks to Almighty God for those courageous Primates who have been giving us temporary refuge in these spiritually difficult times, and for providing us with a tangible vision of the formation and structure of our more permanent, future home.
#4
AMEN !!!
The choice of name is somewhat ironic, considering what happened to the last “Anglican Church in North America”. Sadly, that body fell apart at their constitutional convention, and each diocese became an independent church. Thirty years later, after various attempts to reunite, another group – with even more disparate membership, with even more serious theological differences – is trying to create a new province. Only, in this case, groups that already have an established identity will be asked to surrender much of that. Not an easy thing to do.
If this works, it will certainly be a miracle. But, after all, we are Christians, and we believe in miracles.
Although not in the new province, I will, as always, continue to pray for it.
[#6],
If this works, it will certainly be a miracle
Just like the early church.
Or to put it another way, when has any church’s survival not depended upon a miracle – i.e. the intervention of the supernatural into the natural? And if a church did survive without this particular miracle, I can’t imagine wanting to be a part of it.
Woops! I just noticed that my earlier question was answered in the Anglican Journal story: “Mr. Masters noted that the constitution won’t be ratified until it is voted on in a provincial assembly in Texas in the spring. Until then, ANiC churches will remain under Archbishop Venables’ jurisdiction.”
So, if we’re joining the same church as the Americans, does this mean that we won’t be allowed to pray for the Queen any longer, and that Jesus will no longer be our Saviour?
Andrew [#9],
You are in jest, I presume?
Andrew [#9], even if you’re serious I doubt this would happen. The Church of Ireland encompasses both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Its Prayer Book offers prayers for the President or the Queen depending on which side of the border it’s being used, so I don’t see any problem in doing the same here. The spelling is not so easy to predict, though.
Regarding the questions of Andrew (9)
Personally, even as a Canadian, I do not have a problem with Praying for the President of the United States (who is both the official “Head of State” and “Head of Government” of the USA), so long as it is done in a very non-partisan manner, meaning a prayer more for the individual holding that office and not for that persons politics. Likewise, I would hope that our American brothers and sisters would be willing to in a similar way Pray for our Queen, as she is officially the “Head of State” for our Country (the Prime Minister is the “Head of Government”, which is an important difference).
Depending on the final structure of the new Anglican Church in North America, we may find that the Canadian area will be set up as a Diocese within the Province. In which case, I would anticipate us Canadians being able to use our Canadian Book of Common Prayer (either the 1662 or 1962 versions).
I was told a while ago that having an American as head of the church was for us, a temporary measure, and the goal was to have a Canadian bishop in charge of a separate Canadian church as soon as we could.
#9 GROAN I only just noticed the bolded “u”.
By all means, the Canadian members of Common Cause should form a Diocese of Canada, which could then (over time), develop into a more or less independent church.
I think it would still be very important for the Canadian Diocese to remain part of an overall province, however. This because the province would allow for non-geographic “networks”, as an alternative to geographic dioceses, for churches and clergy that have special concerns (Forward in Faith, for example). It would be important to allow Canadian who wanted to be part of one of these networks to be fully part of the new province, without necessarily being part of the Diocese of Canada.
Wondering where French Canada sits in the vision of this new church body?
Robert (#16), are “French Canada” and “English Canada” meaningful categories in this discussion? Other than the language in which a service is conducted, why would any distinction be made between these two groups? In other words, I hope the answer would be that French Canada sits in the same place as English Canada.
Well, there aren’t a whole lot of French Anglicans around (although my mother in law is one – she grew up a French protestant in small town Quebec in the 1930′s…) I am certain that if a group of francophones wanted to plant an ANiC church, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Given that the stated orientation of this new church body will be ‘missional’, my question is whether there has been some thought at the outset as to whether the name, forms and tools of this church body lend themselves well to outreach to Canada’s little reached groups, the most significant of which is comprised of our French speaking compatriots
Robert (#19), you’ve asked a good question. I suspect it’s one that several other denominations are grappling with as well (I hope so, anyway).