Historic week for Anglican Communion: From Chicago to London to Canterbury

Bishop Martyn Minns was at Truro yesterday and held a Bishop's Forum between services. He reported on recent and upcoming events in the Anglican Communion as well as take questions during the forum that was held in the main church.

One of the highlights was his observations and thoughts on the remarkable coming together of the diverse membership of the Common Cause Partnership in the writing of the constitution for the new Anglican province in North America. A joint effort by the partnership, it included not only the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), but also the other Anglican organization that make up Common Cause. He described sitting next to Bishop Chuck Murphy of AMiA, while representatives of Forward in Faith and the Reformed Episcopal Church and others in the partnership gathered around the table to draft the new constitution.

In addition, Bishop Minns described the respectful attitude that was taken by the gathering over issues were there are differing opinions that do exist between Bible-believing Christians in the Anglican Communion, including on the issues surrounding the ordination of women to the priesthood. He indicated a model for them to follow has been set by the partnership between provinces such as Nigeria (where women may be ordained to the diaconate) and Uganda (where women may be ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood) and the respectful and prayerful attitude that is continually observed by them as they seek not to devalue but show respect to those who may hold a different view than one's own - not an easy thing to do in these challenging times.

The unveiling of the new constitution is this Wednesday, Dec. 3 in Chicago. The Anglican Primates Council will then meet the next day, on Thursday, Dec. 4, in London, England, to receive the new constitution. On Friday, Dec. 5, the Anglican Primates Council are scheduled to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in Canterbury, England.

In addition, it is expected that other Anglican Primates who were not in Jerusalem for GAFCON (including the Southeast Asia primate and Bishop of Singapore, The Most Rev'd John Chew and the Middle East primate and bishop of Egypt, The Most Rev'd Mouneer Anis ) are among those also expected to endorse the new constitution.

The Global South primates will meet together with the Primates Standing Committee prior to the official gathering of the Anglican Primates on January 31-February 6 in Egypt.

A Constitutional Convention is expected to be called for next summer.

In addition, the final order regarding the property ownership of the Virginia Anglican churches should be handed down shortly by Judge Randy Bellows. Even though the ruling has not yet been announced, the Episcopal Bishop of Virginia issued a press release in October indicating his intention to appeal the order to the Virginia Supreme Court.