Breaking News: Four Anglican American Bishops consecrated today inside the United States by bishops of the Anglican Communion

UPDATE: Here is the moment of consecration. I made it into a short video to try to express what it felt like the moment these men were made bishops on American soil. "Almighty Father, fill them with the grace and power which you gave to your apostles that they may lead those committed to their charge in proclaiming the gospel of salvation." Here it is:




It's a big weekend in Anglican news, that's for sure. We've just come back from the first consecrations of Anglican bishops inside the United States. Archbishop Akinola was the presider and chief consecrator, but other Anglican bishops also took part in the consecrations of four bishops for CANA, including Roger Ames (Rector, St. Luke's, Akron, OH) and David Anderson (President, American Anglican Council). Bishop Frank Lyons of the Province of the Southern Cone, Bishop John Guernsey, Missionary Bishop for the Province of Uganda, and Bishop Bob Duncan, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, Bishop John Ball, Diocese of Chelmsford, Church of England, Bishop Ben Kawshi and many other bishops from the Province of Nigeria, and other bishops all took part in the consecrations this afternoon at Church of the Epiphany, Herndon, VA.

We did some live video blogging from the consecrations, sort of hiding behind the organ (we do what we can). The music was very robust and we can see it might have blasted out our trusty iSight recording (even though we turned it down, it's hard to turn down joy). We've asked for a zoom for Christmas so we'll see what Santa brings (along with the ABC teddy bear), but you may be able to get a sense of what it felt like, especially from the organist's point of view.

We do want to send out a special tip of the tinfoil to Sheila Crawford who helped us find a spot for the trusty iSight. You are awesome, Sheila - thank you!

Here's my first entry, as the service ends, live from the consecrations (sorry about the bad hair day, we were basically flying by our wits as we recorded and the hair shows it):



He is Exalted and the Gospel Reading. The music was extremely joyful and though we turned it down, it still was expressive! But you get the sense that it's standing room only and in fact, there is another room nearby where folks were watching it by closed circuit.



The Collects followed by the Old Testament Reading from Numbers 27:



The Examination of the Candidates for Bishop followed by the Litany:



The Nicene Creed:



Greetings from Bishop Lyons of the Province of the Southern Cone, Bishop Duncan of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, and Bishop Ball of the Church of England:



The Recessional: