Wednesday, September 25, 2013

First Irish and South Indian Bishopesses

The Church of South India appointed its first bishopess on 25th September 2013.

The Church of Ireland appointed its first bishopess on 19th September 2013.

And the Church in Wales introduced legal provision for bishopesses on 12th September 2013.

As I have written previously...

The male character of Holy Orders is of divine institution, will and revelation, given by God as a gift to His Church and central to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ as transmitted in Word and Sacrament. With the legal creation of bishopesses for these ecclesial bodies, their Apostolic Succession is now cast under an irreversible cloud of doubt and uncertainty. Where sacraments are uncertain or possibly invalid, orthodox moral theology always demands that the Church take the safest and surest course, which is the refusal to recognise such dubious sacraments as valid or efficacious. Otherwise sacrilege might occur, or yet, the deprivation of sacramental grace for the faithful. Women who will soon receive the rite of episcopal consecration will be the fontes sacramentorum, the fount and origin of the sacramental life, within their future respective dioceses. Future episcopal consecrations held within these bodies will likely be conferred with at least the co-consecrating participation of those whose priestly and episcopal orders the Holy Catholic Church has never recognised and cannot and will not recognise as sacramentally valid. No Bishop, no Priesthood, no Eucharist, no Church. The Apostolic Succession of once-Catholic Churches is now in unmistakable jeopardy. The problem is strictly sacramentological, quite distinct from the personal beliefs and views of those women yet to be consecrated. They could be perfectly orthodox, biblical, in their moral and doctrinal teaching; the problem of their orders or lack thereof still exists. By virtue of these decisions, the bodies in question will slowly and inescapably introduce over time a plainly suspect sacramental system into every diocese and province concerned.


Ironically, it appears that Apostolicae Curae of Pope Leo XIII (1896) will apply 
in these bodies in future, not specifically because of a defect of form or a defect of intention, but because of a clear defect of minister. Pope Leo claimed the Anglican Succession died with Archbishop Matthew Parker in 1559 - that judgement was patently erroneous, from every conceivably objective theological examination. But now, tragically enough, a scenario described by Leo, the termination of Succession, will be set to happen in these ecclesial groups. This is a theological consideration, not a social, cultural or political one. Sacramental assurance, the very assurance of grace and supernatural life for which Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sacraments, will evaporate from whole dioceses and provinces, because the chief minister of the sacraments in the local church, the Diocesan Bishop, could be one whose status casts doubt on the validity of subsequent sacramental actions in her diocese. A break in the Succession will occur in years to come once male bishops consecrated by women attempt to pass on their ministerial line and orders to others. Male presbyters and deacons ordained by women do not possess orders recognised by the historic Church. The end result of these innovations will be the cessation of an undoubtedly valid sacramental structure. The Sacrament of Holy Orders as understood by the Church Catholic would then no longer subsist in these bodies. The realities of mutual reciprocity, interchangeability and recognition of ministry, and of communicatio in sacris, were long ago shattered in the Lambeth Communion.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Institution of the Very Reverend William H. Perkins Junior

On Sunday 8th September 2013, the Very Reverend William H. Perkins, Junior was instituted by the Most Reverend Walter H. Grundorf as the fourth Rector of Saint Mary the Virgin Church in Delray Beach, Florida.


Groundbreaking for New Building at Christ the Redeemer Church, Warner Robins, Georgia

Congratulations to the Church of Christ the Redeemer, 
and her Rector, the Reverend Father Paul Gerlock - 
Sunday 22nd September 2013!




Saturday, September 07, 2013

Let us pray for the peace of Syria...
















 Sanctus Ephraem populi tui Syrus, ora pro nobis advocatus.







ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, guide, we beseech thee, the Nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Friday, September 06, 2013

American Anglicans increasing aid to Syrian refugees as airstrikes near

While President Barack Obama weighs punitive airstrikes and increased military action against Syria, American Anglicans are increasing their humanitarian aid to the huge flow of Syrian refugees that have already fled to nearby countries.
White House spokespersons said today that it is no longer a question of whether the US would lead European allies in an attack on the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but only a matter of "where or when" it would occur.
Some concerned local parishes in North Carolina and Virginia from the Diocese of the Eastern United States, Anglican Province of America (APA) are already involved in a month-long campaign to collect emergency offerings to aid refugees in partnership with the Christian Aid Mission based here. Over 1.3 million refugees, 80% of which are women and children, have fled to nearby states where local indigenous churches and missions are involved in first-response aid to refugees.
Meanwhile the Most Rev Walter Grundorf, Presiding Bishop of the APA, is studying a proposal submitted to the Bishop's Advisory Committee to make Syrian Refugees the designated cause for the 2014 Lenten Offering Campaign for Foreign Missions. The annual Lenten appeal is the primary source of funding for the global outreach of the church.
Fr. David Haines, the Vicar General of Foreign Missions for APA is continuing to study the proposal presented to the APA Annual Synod by Christian Aid Mission staff last month in Annapolis, Maryland. The proposal would increase help to indigenous missions and church organizations in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Fr. Glenn Spencer, rector of All Saints Anglican here in Charlottesville, says that this is the most crucial humanitarian crisis right now. His parish missions committee is already contributing to the emergency relief effort.
"We have to help in this," he said in support of the proposal for partnership with Christian Aid, "we cannot stand by and do nothing."
The church's local missions committee and members of the men's group are already collecting aid. The proposal from Christian Aid Mission asks the APA to provide grants for additional delivery vans and support for the "Tents of Peace" and "Meals for Peace" outreach programs already being supported by the mission.
Until recently, refugees have streamed across the borders into Lebanon and Jordan at a rate of from 5-6,000 a day. In both countries, refugees make up nearly a fifth of the current population. On Wednesday, reports from Israel and nearly every frontline state say that the threat of imminent American missile attacks on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are already increasing the flow of refugees.

Archbishop Donald Arden

Apostolic Succession - our APA episcopal great-grandfather - on 30th November 1961, William James Hughes, Archbishop of Central Africa, serv...