Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Anglican District of Virgina prepares to call a bishop and become a Diocese in the Anglican Church in North America

The Anglican District of Virginia will focus forty days of prayer during the 2011 Lenten Season in preparation for the ADV Constitutional Convention. Here is the timeline as the Constitutional Convention approaches:

Here is the timeline for the preparation for the Constitutional Convention as outlined by the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV):
  1. February 1, 2011 – The Synod Standing Committee on Constitution and Canons submits to the ADV Synod Council Draft of Proposed Amendments to ADV Constitution and Canons or Draft New Constitution and Canons;
  2. February 15, 2011 – ADV Synod Council circulates to ADV member congregations above Drafts, with comments;
  3. April 8, 2011 – Congregations submit proposed changes to Drafts to Synod Council; 
  4. May 1, 2011 – Synod Council circulates to Constitutional Convention delegates Final Proposed ADV Constitution and Canons and any alternative proposed sections.
Once the ADV Constitution and Canons are adopted, they will serve as the authority for selecting our new Bishop and will accompany our application for admission as a new ACNA diocese. 
Here is more on the call for prayer, via email:
"40 Days of Prayer" is a common theme this time of year. As Anglicans, as Christians, we devote a period of 40 days during Lent to many things.

This year, we at the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV) invite you to join us for 40 Days of Diocesan Prayer during the 2011 Lenten season beginning Ash Wednesday, March 9. This season leads up to an important ADV Constitutional Convention May 20-21, 2011, during which we will adopt our new constitution and canons (governing documents) and elect our new bishop as we seek admission as a new diocese of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).

Our new Bishop will be selected from a slate of up to three candidates who will stand for election immediately after adoption of the new ADV governing documents at the Constitutional Convention.

As we move towards the May 20-21 Constitutional Convention, ADV invites the attention, prayer and involvement of our 42 member congregations—40 Days of Diocesan Prayer—to guide our application to ACNA, consideration of our new governing documents, and the selection of a Bishop to lead us as a new ACNA diocese. The following weeks and months mark a pivotal time for ADV, as we articulate our growth and formation—essentially your growth and formation—into an Anglican diocese for the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. We continue to be humbled by the details and requirements for this growth, and look forward to God’s provision through your prayers and discernment.

Our current ADV Contact Bishop, Bishop David Bena, is providing a prayer below for use on Sunday mornings throughout Lent this year. We hope that the prayer will be read at all services during this season up through Easter Sunday, April 24, in preparation for the May 20-21 ADV Constitutional Convention. We look forward to updating you throughout the process and as to the outcome of the Convention.

More information about the formal process can be found here. If you are the communications contact for your parish, we encourage you to use the content herein and in the previous link to promote 40 Days of Diocesan Prayer in your parish publications and website as you are able.


Parish Prayer

Almighty and Everlasting Father, you have given the Holy Spirit to abide with us forever: Inspire, we pray, the clergy and delegates who will meet in council May 20, that the Anglican District of Virginia, being preserved in true faith and Godly doctrine, may make right choices regarding becoming a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America and in choosing a faithful bishop to lead us. May we fulfill all the mind of Him who loves us and gave Himself for us, your Son Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

To learn more about the Anglican District of Virginia, click here.

13 comments:

Steven in Falls Church said...

But . . . but . . . but you're not Anglican! You must know the super-secret handshake to be Anglican. Only TEC knows the super-secret handshake!

Lapinbizarre said...

Archbishop Duncan has just issued a "godly directive" "to all of the clergy of the diocese not to engage in, conduct, or conclude negotiations [with TEC concerning the disposition of church property] without first discussing such actions with me, or with Canon Mary, and with our chancellor."

This notwithstanding ACNA's property ownership canon (and a similarly worded statement in its constitution) which states

"All congregational property, real and personal, owned by a member congregation is and shall be solely and exclusively owned by the congregation and shall not be subject to any trust in favor of the Province or other claim of ownership arising out of the canon law of the Church; neither may any Diocese assert any such claim over the property of any of its congregations without the express written consent of the congregation."

Think carefully about what I was getting into if I were you, BB.

Kelso said...

I'm not optimistic about any "Anglican" group that calls Our Lord "you" in their prayers. The Episcopal Church is already full of Holy Rollers; let's not have the Anglicans acting like that.

Anonymous said...

I guess the CANA gambit has outlived its usefulness now that the Division Statute is off the table.

The terminology is confusing. I think we all need to remind ourselves that terms like "Anglican" and "Episcopal" don't pack a lot of meaning these days. There are ACNA groups that still call themselves "Episcopal" in order to buttress their claim to property. And Episcopal churches are certainly Anglican. We probably need another descriptor.

Scout

Unknown said...

CANA is a lifeboat, as we know, to take refugees from the Episcopal Church and help them to be established in the new province recognized by Anglican provinces around the world.

As for the term "Anglican," as we also know the Church of England Synod overwhelmingly passed their resolution recognizing and affirming the ACNA identity as Anglican. The votes included both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York. The resolution stated:

That this Synod, aware of the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada,

“(a) recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family;

(b) acknowledge that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further; and
(c) invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011.”


We look forward to hearing from the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury this year as they report back to the Synod this year.

bb

Anonymous said...

The resolution as proposed was either directly intended to influence or at least have the effect of influencing the legal fights in the US over property in favor of departing groups who were attempting to lay claim to property previously controlled by Episcopal dioceses. The hope was to slip it through Synod without those intentions/effects being detected or understood by those voting. Fortunately, it was altered substantially to the kind of aspirational language that you posted that is innocuous - the CofE body acknowledged that there were departing groups in the US that wished to continue being thought of as "Anglican". Why shouldn't they? They use similar liturgy and trace their journey to the same history. But, as Bishop Graham Kings said in a BBC interview posted here, "Martyn and Robert Duncan have just formed [he may have said "invented"] a new church" [apologies if that's not precisely correct - I'm quoting from memory, but one can look it up in BB's archives].

My point in the prior comment, however, is that no one disputes that Anglican connection but that the term, because it includes both Episcopalians and the new churches formed by departing groups, is an ambiguous descriptor if the text needs to distinguish between the two groups, as folks who submit text here often wish to do.

As for CANA, my view of it was that it was purpose-built (in its Virginia application, not in its pre-schism Nigerian application) to provide a precise mold for fitting the events of 2006-2007 into the "division" and "branch" language of the Virginia Division Statute. There was really no independent need for moving into affiliation with African provinces other than to try to fit within the Statute for purposes of claiming property. The irony is that, if the departing groups had been a bit less energetic in trying to claim the property initially and had allowed events to transpire in a way that they affiliated with ACNA, rather than CANA, the rationale which led them to grief in the Virginia Supreme Court would not have applied. Too late now, but once that decision came down, there was no continuing rationale for the CANA structure.

Scout

Anonymous said...

What now happens to CANA? and it "dual citizenship" in CANA and ACNA? Has it out-lived its usefullness? If so, has the influence of the Church of Nigeria also outlived its usefullness in it? Will +Martyn Minns be returning to his Nigerian home province?

Anonymous said...

"There was really no independent need for moving into affiliation with African provinces other than to try to fit within the Statute for purposes of claiming property."

Or, perhaps, to keep a link to the larger Communion?

The Church of Nigeria has given freely of their resources to help the CANA churches. There was never an intent that the relationship should be permanant.

RalphM

Carolyn said...

RalphM, that does not fit with the way Scout prefers to view his world. Please withdraw your comment.

Anonymous said...

Ralph -I agree. I have no doubt that the Nigeria link was a temporary expedient that was never intended to be permanent.

Carolyn - could you elaborate a bit? I don't follow.

Scout

Carolyn said...

I know you don't follow, Scout. I watched you "not follow" on SFIF a lot, until Sarah finally tired of it. But I don't play that game, either.

Anonymous said...

?

Scout

Anonymous said...

RE: "There was really no independent need for moving into affiliation with African provinces other than to try to fit within the Statute for purposes of claiming property."

Of course, of course, which explains why *all the other dioceses and entities* of ACNA affiliated with an African province -- like Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Southern Cone. Each of the US states of those parishes also, I'm sure, had that pernicious Statute.

Carolyn -- nice one.

But, but . . . can't you see that he's all "confused"? He just "doesn't understand"? ; > )



Sarah