Rwanda Anglicans Greet and Meet with AMiA Anglicans in Raleigh, NC, mid-Jan 2012

http://www.anglicanink.com/article/christmas-greeting-province-rwanda

Christmas Greeting from the Province of Rwanda

Article | December 23, 2011 - 2:30pm

 

 

December 23 rd , 2011

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Grace and peace to all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As this season of Advent leads us to the celebration of our Lord's birth, we are thankful for many things. Truly, He is with us, in fulfillment of the ancient promises and His own.

The House of Bishops of the PEAR have just concluded a very important meeting this week in Rwanda and Archbishop Rwaje has asked us to forward a letter from him to you. We rejoice in the election of new Rwandan bishops as the HoB continues to move forward in unity and love. We are also grateful to Archbishop Duncan of the ACNA for his leadership and support for us, congregations and clergy, who find ourselves in this difficult season of grief, uncertainty and confusion over recent events in our life together. As you will read in his letter, Archbishop Rwaje is in communication with Archbishop Duncan as a fellow GAFCON primate and friend.

Next week, you will begin to receive information about a gathering that will take place in Raleigh, NC from January 16-18. (also referred to in the Archbishop's letter) The purpose of this assembly is to hear from our Archbishop and others about reconciliation, healing and next steps for all of us.

Clergy and laity will be invited and will have opportunities to prayerfully discuss what it means to move forward together.

Please keep this event in prayer as planning for it develops.
Just as the angels broke through the dark silence of the night sky with the radiance of God's glory and the thrill of praise to Him, may we all know His magnificent breakthrough in our hearts and lives this Christmas. And may Jesus' peace and hope rule in you now and always.

Faithfully in Christ,

+Thad and +Terrell

(Resigning) AMiA, Inc. Bishops Defend--Essentially--Their Resignations from Rwandan Anglicans

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=15354

AMIA Council of Bishops Defend Their Leader, Apologize for FalloutFounding archbishops supported formalized Misionary Society

December 21, 2011

Greetings in the name of Christ for whom we wait with joy and anticipation.

We, the undersigned Bishops of the Anglican Mission, write you today at the conclusion of two very important meetings. December 18-19th, we met in Charlotte, NC to seek God's direction for our Anglican Mission, and on December 20th, a delegation from this Council met with representative bishops from the Anglican Church in North America in Pittsburgh, PA.

Our desire is to share our hearts with you about these meetings and to confirm our support for you and our partnership in the Gospel. May this letter be a word of encouragement to each one of you that Jesus Christ is, even now, lifting a call of peace, reconciliation and vision in our midst.

We want you to know that this Council of Bishops is absolutely united. We have stood together as this whole transitional drama has unfolded and we will continue to stand together through whatever may come until unity and relationships are restored and our mission for the cause of Christ is accomplished.

We apologize for the fallout that you have felt from the collision of what may best be described as two groups of Godly leaders separated by tens of thousands of miles and substantial cultural differences, each seeking to do what they have hoped would bring about a more effective Christian witness in our land. What has happened in the past six months is certainly not reflective of, nor consistent with, the pattern of relationship and mission that has marked our relationship with Rwanda during the previous thirteen years. Nor are the attacks, in particular, against our Chairman, Bishop Chuck Murphy, true in regard to his character or leadership.

In Rwanda there has been significant change in the House of Bishops over the past two years as a result of the election of a new Primate and several new members to that House. It appears to have been their desire to transition our partnership toward a leadership model that would allow this newly constituted House to exercise much greater control over the day-to-day operations and direction of the Anglican Mission, moving in a direction that is inconsistent with anything that had been fully discussed or engaged in over the past thirteen years.

This past summer a process of discernment was initiated by Bishop Murphy with our Council of Bishops regarding next steps in formalizing the structures of the Anglican Mission in a manner consistent with what the Holy Spirit has led us into over the past fourteen years. The structure being considered was a Missionary Society out of the Province of Rwanda (a missionary society is an historically recognized entity within the Church). This conversation was evolving and was involving the HOB of Rwanda, our founding Archbishops, and leadership throughout the Anglican Mission. We believe that it is important for you to know that our founding archbishops, Moses Tay, Yong Ping Chung, and Emmanuel Kolini have all encouraged us to move forward toward a formalized Missionary Society. As such, a Society would build on what God has been doing with us and would also reflect what they have sensed in prayer that the Lord is calling us to do. This fall these two transitions met, and none of us could have anticipated the velocity with which they collided.

For today, we will leave the details of these past nine months to history. Things will all be made clearer as the dust settles, as relationships are restored and truth comes to light, and as we remain focused on our primary mission, starting churches and encouraging those who are doing Kingdom work. Know that we love and cherish our Rwandan friends, and they us. We will not speak further of what has happened save in the pursuit of reconciliation among our Houses. You may be assured that reconciliation remains important to us. We offer our apologies to Rwanda and to you for the missteps that we have made, and seek the forgiveness of our brothers and of Almighty God for those places where we have, by our words and actions, caused pain or confusion.

Already Bishop Murphy and Bishop Terrell Glenn have met following Bishop's Glenn's recent resignation from our Council. We are happy to report the good news that reconciliation has been reached between our brothers. For this we have not ceased to thank our Lord.

As we move forward we are deeply grateful for the sacrificial and ongoing leadership that our founding archbishops, Moses Tay, Yong Ping Chung, and Emmanuel Kolini have provided to our Mission. At this moment in our history, we are particularly thankful that they have stepped into an active oversight and leadership position in our Mission and in the formation process of a Missionary Society.

It may be helpful to say that an Anglican Missionary Society, by name, must have a jurisdictional connection within the Anglican Communion. We had hoped that our jurisdictional connection would have been with the Province of Rwanda, but with our resignation as bishops from that Province, we are prayerfully considering other options. Although several options have been considered and have presented themselves to us, in prayer and conversation with many of you, it became clear that a process of discernment should first be engaged with the Anglican Church in North America.

What follows is a joint statement issued by the ACNA/AM task force which came into being yesterday and which will be leading us through this discernment process. Bishop TJ Johnston and Bishop Doc Loomis will be representing the Anglican Mission in these conversations.

On December 20, 2011, Bishops Chuck Murphy, Doc Loomis and John Rodgers and representatives from the Anglican Mission in the Americas participated in a very encouraging conversation during a meeting with Archbishop Robert Duncan, Bishops Leonard Riches and Charlie Masters of the Anglican Church in North America. The joyful result of these conversations was a mutual pledge to wholeheartedly pursue a restoration of the relationship between The Anglican Mission and the Anglican Church in North America. The ACNA and AMiA have appointed four bishops to engage in a determined effort to bring about at the earliest possible time a reunion of The Anglican Mission, a founding partner of the ACNA, to full participation in the life and ministry of the Anglican Church in North America. Both parties recognize that this is the beginning of a process, which will involve a number of strategic decisions as well as the repair and restoration of relationships. We give thanks to God for the ongoing work of His Holy Spirit as He continues to draw us together to form a Biblical, united and missionary Anglican witness to North America.

Finally, during our time in Charlotte, Bishop Murphy and the Council openly engaged a number of important leadership issues and transitions that would be involved in formalizing a Missionary Society. One of the purposes of such a move is to provide a stable, sustainable, and flexible platform for our Mission for decades to come. During this conversation, the Council affirmed Bishop Murphy's leadership as Chairman, even as all of us, including Bishop Murphy, acknowledged that in this time of transition to a Missionary Society, current positions and leadership roles are likely to change.

We also prayed through and discussed our upcoming Winter Conference, which will be a very important time for us to gather together and seek God's presence and heart for our Mission. Along with our overseeing archbishops, we invite and encourage all of you to join us in Houston for what will be a defining moment for our Mission.

We implore you to prayerfully consider what we have shared with you. It is our earnest desire that you will trust and join with us as we boldly step forward in our call to press on with the Mission the Lord has laid on our hearts, and to help us work through the process of establishing a Missionary Society that reflects our long held belief that we are a Mission, nothing more, nothing less.

With glad tidings for a blessed Christmas we remain,

Faithfully yours,

Rt. Rev. Sandy Greene
Rt. Rev. Doc Loomis
Rt. Rev. Todd Hunter
Rt. Rev. T.J. Johnston
Rt. Rev. Philip Jones
Rt. Rev. John Miller
Rt. Rev. Silas Ng

Breaking: Letter from 8 Resigning AMiA Bishops (from Rwandan Anglicans) to Now-Unaffiliated-AMiA, Inc.-Congregations

Stand Firm continues to cover the story, unlike the slow-footed and heavily-vested/biased VOL at virtueonline.org.  Ecclesiologically and pastorally, a disastre of Bp. Murphy's own making.  The VOL puffing silence is telling.  Had this been a TEC-story, he would have been all over this like "white on rice."  VOL's silence, unlike Stand Firm's, is telling.  The unvarnished fact is:  AMiA, Inc. Bishops "resigned" their bishoprics from the Rwandan House of Bishops, as sectarians in search of reasons (non-doctrinal) and the personal pre-eminence of Murphy. 

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/28235

A Letter from 8 Former Rwandan Bishops to the AMiA
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 • 10:27 pm

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Greetings in the name of Christ for whom we wait with joy and anticipation.

We, the undersigned Bishops of the Anglican Mission, write you today at the conclusion of two very important meetings. December 18-19th, we met in Charlotte, NC to seek God’s direction for our Anglican Mission, and on December 20th, a delegation from this Council met with representative bishops from the Anglican Church in North America in Pittsburgh, PA.

Our desire is to share our hearts with you about these meetings and to confirm our support for you and our partnership in the Gospel. May this letter be a word of encouragement to each one of you that Jesus Christ is, even now, lifting a call of peace, reconciliation and vision in our midst!

We want you to know that this Council of Bishops is absolutely united. We have stood together as this whole transitional drama has unfolded and we will continue to stand together through whatever may come until unity and relationships are restored and our mission for the cause of Christ is accomplished.

We apologize for the fallout that you have felt from the collision of what may best be described as two groups of Godly leaders separated by tens of thousands of miles and substantial cultural differences, each seeking to do what they have hoped would bring about a more effective Christian witness in our land. What has happened in the past six months is certainly not reflective of, nor consistent with, the pattern of relationship and mission that has marked our relationship with Rwanda during the previous thirteen years. Nor are the attacks, in particular, against our Chairman, Bishop Chuck Murphy, true in regard to his character or leadership.

In Rwanda there has been significant change in the House of Bishops over the past two years as a result of the election of a new Primate and several new members to that House. It appears to have been their desire to transition our partnership toward a leadership model that would allow this newly constituted House to exercise much greater control over the day-to-day operations and direction of the Anglican Mission, moving in a direction that is inconsistent with anything that had been fully discussed or engaged in over the past thirteen years.

This past summer a process of discernment was initiated by Bishop Murphy with our Council of Bishops regarding next steps in formalizing the structures of the Anglican Mission in a manner consistent with what the Holy Spirit has led us into over the past fourteen years. The structure being considered was a Missionary Society out of the Province of Rwanda (a missionary society is an historically recognized entity within the Church). This conversation was evolving and was involving the HOB of Rwanda, our founding Archbishops, and leadership throughout the Anglican Mission. We believe that it is important for you to know that our founding archbishops, Moses Tay, Yong Ping Chung, and Emmanuel Kolini have all encouraged us to move forward toward a formalized Missionary Society. As such, a Society would build on what God has been doing with us and would also reflect what they have sensed in prayer that the Lord is calling us to do. This fall these two transitions met, and none of us could have anticipated the velocity with which they collided.

For today, we will leave the details of these past nine months to history. Things will all be made clearer as the dust settles, as relationships are restored and truth comes to light, and as we remain focused on our primary mission, starting churches and encouraging those who are doing Kingdom work. Know that we love and cherish our Rwandan friends, and they us. We will not speak further of what has happened save in the pursuit of reconciliation among our Houses. You may be assured that reconciliation remains important to us. We offer our apologies to Rwanda and to you for the missteps that we have made, and seek the forgiveness of our brothers and of Almighty God for those places where we have, by our words and actions, caused pain or confusion.

Already Bishop Murphy and Bishop Terrell Glenn have met following Bishop’s Glenn’s recent resignation from our Council. We are happy to report the good news that reconciliation has been reached between our brothers. For this we have not ceased to thank our Lord.

As we move forward we are deeply grateful for the sacrificial and ongoing leadership that our founding archbishops, Moses Tay, Yong Ping Chung, and Emmanuel Kolini have provided to our Mission. At this moment in our history, we are particularly thankful that they have stepped into an active oversight and leadership position in our Mission and in the formation process of a Missionary Society.

It may be helpful to say that an Anglican Missionary Society, by name, must have a jurisdictional connection within the Anglican Communion. We had hoped that our jurisdictional connection would have been with the Province of Rwanda, but with our resignation as bishops from that Province, we are prayerfully considering other options. Although several options have been considered and have presented themselves to us, in prayer and conversation with many of you, it became clear that a process of discernment should first be engaged with the Anglican Church in North America.

What follows is a joint statement issued by the ACNA/AM task force which came into being yesterday and which will be leading us through this discernment process. Bishop TJ Johnston and Bishop Doc Loomis will be representing the Anglican Mission in these conversations.

On December 20, 2011, Bishops Chuck Murphy, Doc Loomis and John Rodgers and representatives from the Anglican Mission in the Americas participated in a very encouraging conversation during a meeting with Archbishop Robert Duncan, Bishops Leonard Riches and Charlie Masters of the Anglican Church in North America. The joyful result of these conversations was a mutual pledge to wholeheartedly pursue a restoration of the relationship between The Anglican Mission and the Anglican Church in North America. The ACNA and AMiA have appointed four bishops to engage in a determined effort to bring about at the earliest possible time a reunion of The Anglican Mission, a founding partner of the ACNA, to full participation in the life and ministry of the Anglican Church in North America. Both parties recognize that this is the beginning of a process, which will involve a number of strategic decisions as well as the repair and restoration of relationships. We give thanks to God for the ongoing work of His Holy Spirit as He continues to draw us together to form a Biblical, united and missionary Anglican witness to North America.

Finally, during our time in Charlotte, Bishop Murphy and the Council openly engaged a number of important leadership issues and transitions that would be involved in formalizing a Missionary Society. One of the purposes of such a move is to provide a stable, sustainable, and flexible platform for our Mission for decades to come. During this conversation, the Council affirmed Bishop Murphy’s leadership as Chairman, even as all of us, including Bishop Murphy, acknowledged that in this time of transition to a Missionary Society, current positions and leadership roles are likely to change.

We also prayed through and discussed our upcoming Winter Conference, which will be a very important time for us to gather together and seek God’s presence and heart for our Mission. Along with our overseeing archbishops, we invite and encourage all of you to join us in Houston for what will be a defining moment for our Mission.

We implore you to prayerfully consider what we have shared with you. It is our earnest desire that you will trust and join with us as we boldly step forward in our call to press on with the Mission the Lord has laid on our hearts, and to help us work through the process of establishing a Missionary Society that reflects our long held belief that we are a Mission, nothing more, nothing less.

With glad tidings for a blessed Christmas we remain,
Faithfully yours,

[Signatures of the 8 AMiA Bishops]

This is a feint toward repentance that falls far short of the biblical model. The bishops "apologize" for whatever harm they "may" have caused. They do not name the sins they have committed, take responsibility for the division they have created, or offer to take any substantive steps to amend their offenses or repair the relationships they have broken.

Rev. Kennedy Calls for Bp. Chuck Murphy's Public Repentance over Schism

Rev. Matt Kennedy, an Anglican Rector and sponsor of Stand Firm, calls for "public repentence" for "schismatic" behaviours by the Rt. Rev. Chuck Murphy, AMiA.  Rev. Kennedy's response is found at comment #22.

http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/sf/page/28229

As Mark Galli pointed out here, the only reasons cited by +Murphy for his break with Pear are “ecstatic” and personal. He has never indicated explicitly or implied that PEAR has deviated from orthodoxy in any way. In the absence of such a deviation, the most appropriate word for this sinful division is schism.

+Murphy is a bishop in the church. As such his public acts carry a great deal of weight and influence. It is vital for the health and wellbeing of his followers and the Church as a whole that before there is any coming together, he publicly and clearly repent of his schismatic behavior and there be a reconciliation between him and PEAR.

I am sure there are many things we do not know about the money and about the interpersonal relationships between bishops. I am sure that the various parties have all hurt each other in various ways. And yet, since there are no charges of heresy, these disputes do not provide a legitimate basis for breaking ecclesial bonds.

There was a couple in my church early in my ministry. They were not getting along and had both hurt each other in various ways…deeply. But there was no basis for divorce.
I had numerous counseling sessions with both. The wife wanted to work it out. The husband refused.

Ultimately, he filed for divorce without any legitimate biblical cause. He was removed, at that moment, from the communion of the church and we began a process of restorative discipline.

He wanted to continue to maintain his membership and status in the church while divorcing his wife without cause. We said no.

He ultimately and unfortunately decided to leave rather than to repent and reconcile.

So be it. Did I make pastoral mistakes? Sure. And yet there is no doubt in my mind that we as a church did what had to be done in order to remain faithful to scripture.

If we’d let him continue as part of our body without repentance, his actions would have served as a precedence for any couple in the future to do what God expressly hates—causing great harm both to themselves and to the church as a whole.

That may be a poor analogy, but I see the same principles in play here. It is crucial to the fledgling ACNA, especially since we have been formed by a broken relationship, to set very firm and strict behavioral guidlines about such things.

We let this pass without public repentance, we set a precedence for leaders to “feel led” to do just about anything they want in the face of conflict or frustrated vision.

It would be foolishness.

Stand Firm: Comments on Constitution/Canons of Rwandan Anglicans

This will be a thread to watch.  For those following the AMiA, Inc. split with the Rwandan Anglicans, trouble is stirring.  The blog to watch here is Stand Firm. at: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/28233 .  Reformed Anglicanism's involvement with one (large and influential) AMiA Church---fine Christian Churchmen, but Praise-Bandish, quasi-chariscratic, not very Confessional if at all, and rather low Churchmanship.  We live in eastern NC where low churchmanship has governed.  Singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" to 4 loud crooners exfoliating on guitars, drums and an electronic keyboad...well, that just did it.  The pain was excruciating.  The service got worse when the computer geek messed up the projections on the wall--back and forth on the Nicene Creed until he fixed the projection on the wall.  Could hardly read what was on the wall.  Too painful to return.  They tossed the "Traditional Service" to an early AM and hoisted the enthuasiasts to the main hour.  (We had to travel 61-miles north one way, so we're not returning to hear loud guitars while the highly trained organist, choir, and grand pipes are quiet.)  Anyways, this is the thread to watch...at Stand Firm. Also, the acronym PEAR (below), the "AR" part of PEAR means Anglicans of Rwanda.  The PE part refers to a French phrase not conveniently at hand.  PEAR is the Rwandan Anglican Church.
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Open Thread: Comments on the Constitution & Canons of the Province of Rwanda

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 • 12:04 pm

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I'd be very interested in our readers' take on the Constitution and Canons of the Province of Rwanda -- both good and bad, including comments on how they might apply to the PEAR-affiliated congregations and how they might have once applied to the AMiA-affiliated congregations.

Plenty of food for thought -- on bishops, church discipline, synod, ecclesiology, and various other aspects of Anglitania as related to AMiA bishops, clergy, and congregations.