Bishop Bob Duncan has written an article for this week’s Church of England Newspaper.
Anglican Mainstream has reproduced it. See An Emerging North American Province.
Or, now read it at Religious Intelligence.
The twin trajectories of The Episcopal Church and of the Anglican Church of Canada away from any Communion-requested restraint on matters of moral order and legal prosecution have made permanent a widespread separation of parishes from their historic geographical dioceses in the United States and Canada. Now these alienated parishes representing the moral (and theological) mainstream of global Anglicanism are being joined (or are about to be joined) by the majorities of four former Episcopal Church dioceses: San Joaquin in California, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Quincy in Illinois and Fort Worth in Texas. The reality of a significantly disintegrated North American Anglicanism now stretches from coast to coast and from the Arctic to the Rio Grande…
xPittsburgh repeats the old claim of 22 Provinces not being in communion with TEC.
It was a while ago since we heard that…
Hasn’t materialised yet (cf the several Global South meetings), as far as I know. Would’t take it at face value…
Surely, if the anger matched the numbers claimed by xPittsburgh and others TEC would have been ejected long ago?
Instead the numbers seem to have be shrinking, down to a dozen and half-a-dozen…
It seems to me that Bob Duncan is trying to get the ABC to bless or at least recognize the new province. It’s sort of like the badgering child that hopes by whinning that his/her parents will eventually begrudgingly give in/give up.
More invention and less humility from Mr. Duncan. He writes like his — and others with him — claim to orthodoxy justifies contra-canonical action in the name of the “true church.” The labels of “orthodoxy” and “mainstream” cannot be applied to self in the present tense. These can only be ascribed after the fact, through the objectivity of history.
Leaving without title, keys or treasury is the only honorable thing to do. No chance for that, I’m afraid.
As I have pointed out if Duncan’s province is admitted , then the next on the list will be the Church of England in South Africa ( CESA)nomination which has waited patiently since 1870. Please remember that when CESA was out in the cold, Sydney faithfully stood by.
Leaving without title, keys or treasury is the only honorable thing to do. No chance for that, I’m afraid.¨ oldmiler
That, of course, would require strength of real life conviction and TRUST in God…Duncan ought have studied marketing…he´s got the wrong approach…deregulation doesn´t work…it brings out the worst greed and envy in everyone, Duncan included as he defends his reason for being.
Why on earth are these English church publications humouring ex-bishop Bob Duncan like this? Surely even the CEN newspaper can see that it is not a wise or indeed Christian policy to encourage people overseas to disregard the jurisdiction of their peers in their national Anglican church? I thought the usual Evangelical way was to encourage those who have been found guilty by their church community to do penance rather than flaunt themselves?
“The goal of describing by December 2008 a ‘recognizably Anglican provincial structure’ has been adopted by the Lead Bishops Roundtable (Executive Committee). A Governance Task Force, chaired by a former chancellor of the Diocese of Virginia and composed of significant leadership from all the Common Cause Partners, is hard at work.” – Mr. Robert Duncan – former Bishop of Pittsburgh – The leadership of the ‘common cause partners’ – presumably headed by this former TEC bishop, is surely jumping ahead of the game. For unless his meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury has led him to presume that there will… Read more »
Bob “I should be Primate too” Duncan is doing what his job description calls for. He knows it’s a hopeless appeal -Rowan will never recognize this new north american province thing of Duncan and his handlers. And Duncan will go all colonial on Rowan and declare, once again, Canterbury to be irrelevant. And will increase his prey over parishes of TEC and Canada and sooner than later UK and the sky is the limit baby! It is such a pity that a man with apparently so many organizational gifts should put them to use for the sake of such unnoble… Read more »
Why is it that we are so easily diverted from our mission (it happens very often!)? Nothing is lacking in TEC except the courage of our convictions. There is no point is seeking reconciliation with those who so clearly have no desire for reconciliation. I urge your consideration of the Church in the least developed nations. They cannot afford to be diverted, and it would do us well to pay attention. (Diocese of Boga at my blog.)
Is it fair – it may be uncharitable- to say that Duncan seems to personify the sin of Pride?
Deposed Bp Duncan wants a church in which he will be the primate. To do that, he fomented schism in TEC. Clearly he will soon be proclaimed primate of whatever they will call it. But that’s only the first step. Now he has to get an Anglican Communion that will recognize him as primate. So far, he has the help of the GAFCON folks in doing that. If that means firing the ABC, then he’s prepared to try for that as well. I am reminded, however, of Proverbs 16:18 and expect that the train wreck is only a matter of… Read more »
The overall message in the Duncan piece is this: give us what we want on one front of the war (border crossings) and we will stop fighting on that front and concentrate on the other front (throwing The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada out of the Anglican Communion.) What an attractive and gracious gesture from Bishop Bob! Note that our church and Canada’s church are now “rogue provinces.”
A long time ago I heard the story of a layman at a cathedral (where I was a canon) who had desired to be in holy orders. He found an Old Catholic bishop who ordained him (and perhaps, as the joke goes, a baptismal font and two acolytes). Later he found someone to “consecrate” him a bishop. Still later (I’m not making this up) he “became” an archbishop.
“rogue provinces.”
Meanwhile the happy poachers are facing law suit after law suit for attempting to violate our LOVE THY NEIGHBOR and THOU SHALT NOT STEAL Commandments…of course the lies are to be noted too as immoral and unChristian (even thou there are so many spewed about from destructionists that it has become commonplace to listen to him/them).
We need only keep our eye on REAL standards of Gods good will toward ALL women and men…the dangerous excluders will fall away.
Who or what has caused schism except TEC’s provocative action in GC2003 which, the primates warned, would indeed tear ‘the sacramental unity of the church at its deepest level’ (a pretty spot-on definition of schism, eh?)? What a fair-minded, not ideological-driven assessment of +Duncan et al., is about might look like is this: “+Duncan is seeing whether there is possible a realignment within the Anglican Communion, the greater body, by a smaller body, namely, those who hold to the mind of the greater Anglican Communion including the official teaching of Lambeth 1.10 and to the spirit, letter, and direction of… Read more »
There were Jews who broke ranks with Moses’ annointed leadership to return to the the moral (and theological) mainstream of global thinking of their time. Judaism was created anyway, the book of Numbers gives some amusing anecdotes about God’s slamdunking of the alternatives. God is committed to the third path, the majority might want to be in the camps of abusers, seeking some kind of divine protection from the wrath of God and having their status changed to victim. God is not and has never been about having victims or scapegoats. It is to Jesus’ shame that Christianity has allowed… Read more »
Quote. The reality of a significantly disintegrated North American Anglicanism now stretches from coast to coast and from the Arctic to the Rio Grande… Unquote. Decode. It is the USA civil war all over again, replayed this time round using queer folks as the hot button trash talked target group, standing in for slaves and other issues involved in the first war games. Comment, comparison. Duncan The Deposed is again preaching the statistically obvious – rightwing believers far outnumber progressive believers in North America, and so what? Even fairly rightwing believers in USA sometimes embrace common cause with this or… Read more »
“It is to Jesus’ shame that Christianity has allowed misogyny and abuse to continue for so long and to such a degree. – CherylVa Dear, dear Cheryl. This is not the first time you have blamed Jesus for the sins of some of his followers – who happen not to have understood the significance of the New Commandment, in all of its glorious inclusiveness. (It would appear that some of his followers still do not understand). It’s a bit like blaming God the Father for the sins of the Jews. This is rather unsettling to those of us who have… Read more »
Wm. Paul, are you seriously arguing that failing to follow Windsor in all its particulars renders a church apostate?
Are you seriously elevating The Windsor *Report* to the level of the Creeds?
If so, then I am afraid that you are guilty of far greater apostasy than that of which you so blithely accuse others.
To Jpm
Please read closely. I said that ECUSA reminds me of the apostate ghost in Lewis work. My post is in response to the DUncan Bashing that routinely goes on by those who show very little sense that by any fairminded estimation it is ECUSA which has, or is, walking apart. Disregard of Windsor revals who is walking apart and should at least be admitted bt ECUSA and at the very last put an end to accusations of “schism” by those who are, truly, realigning within the communion.
WmPaul, could you please tell us which of the re-Asserters are, like you, protesting their compliance with the Windsor Report? I must have missed something important here. Another Question: Are the re-asserters going to actually abide by the moratorium which requires them to refrain from exercising jurisdiction in Provinces different from their own? Until, and unless, both the Windsor Report and the moratorium applicable to them, are declared to be binding upon them, I cannot see how either you or they, have any grounds on which to criticise non-compliance on the part of others. No-one in TEC or the Anglican… Read more »
“As for whether we are “rogue provinces”, I am reminded of the Episcopal Ghost in CS Lewis The Great Divorce who just can’t believe, can’t believe that he might just be apostate” – WmPaul- WmPaul. Are you suggesting that former Bishop Robert Duncan might be the ‘Episcopal Ghost’ in CSL’s story; who ‘just can’t believe that he might just be apostate”? If that’s what you’re saying, then, as a friend of his, you might be doing him a favour by letting him know that this is how he is viewed by the rest of us. It’s terrible for anyone to… Read more »
WmPaul:
First of all, there is no “ECUSA”. The name of the US province is The Episcopal Church…period.
Second, if TEC is “walking apart” because it has elected and consecrated one single gay bishop, what then of Sydney? Is not lay presidency a greater break from Anglican tradition, practice and belief than the sexuality of a bishop?
Fr. Ron, of course that other part of Windsor is not important (the part about piracy) because it does not involve sex. In today’s newly fundamentalized Anglicanism, only actions involving certain people’s genitals are sinful.
I would say the same to Pat: lay presidency has nothing to do with people’s peepees and hoohoos and thus is not an important issue.
See how easy “orthodox” moral theology is!
“First of all, there is no “ECUSA”. The name of the US province is The Episcopal Church…period.” As it turns out, you are mistaken. The name of the Church has not changed. The Preamble to our Constitution reads “The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, otherwise known as The Episcopal Church (which name is hereby recognized as also designating the Church), is a constituent member of the Anglican Communion…” We didn’t change the name of the Church – we simply recognized an alternate name. (And of course, if you want to get really picky, we’re “Domestic and… Read more »
Actually, there is no “ECUSA” — there is “PECUSA” aka “TEC”