A Message from the President of the American Anglican Council

Beloved in Christ,

It has been said that redundancy is the key to communication, and for the past three years, the global Anglican Communion has been trying to communicate with the American Episcopal Church (ECUSA) leadership, or indeed, whoever is at home here in ECUSA. Although the real illness within ECUSA is heterodoxy over the key issues of who Jesus is and the authority of Holy Scripture, the presenting symptom that has engaged the world’s attention is sexuality, and more specifically homosexuality. Much of the Anglican Communion is still unaware of how far from historic Christianity ECUSA has actually drifted, but the issue of a homosexual bishop in New Hampshire—and the likelihood of more homosexual bishops to come—has brought the crisis to a boiling point.

All four of the “instruments of unity” of the Communion have spoken clearly to the American Church asking them not to go down this road; nevertheless, ECUSA has, with one excuse after another, brushed them all aside. Now, finally, on the eve of the next General Convention, enough evidence has accumulated to garner the attention of the liberal elite of ECUSA. For starters, over the past 139 weeks since the close of General Convention 2003, more than 140 congregations have departed from the Episcopal Church and come under the oversight of overseas Anglican primates and bishops. That is a fairly steady rate of one per week. The numbers are starting to add up; the revenues of affected dioceses are going down; and a future of unending legal battles and expenses are part of the present reality. Additionally, recent remarks by the Archbishop of Canterbury with regard to sexuality and remarks of the Bishop of Exeter to the American House of Bishops, acting as Canterbury’s spokesman, have caused a great light to suddenly be turned on in the minds of the great center, both those theologically revisionist as well as those modestly orthodox. It has dawned on them that (a) if the hard-core revisionists have their way, there will be no slowing down, and there will be more homosexual bishops elected and confirmed; and (b) the entire Episcopal Church will likely be thrown out of the Anglican Communion. This is not the preferred future they had envisioned, and suddenly they are scrambling to see if things can’t be fixed.

Since the conclusion of the House of Bishops meeting in Kanuga, N.C., in late March, several Episcopal bishops on various sides of the issues have offered their opinions and reflections. Two of these bishops, the Bishops of Arizona and the Rio Grande, sent emails to their dioceses which have been circulated among the various blogs and email lists. The media picked up on these bishops’ messages, causing headlines in the past week or so to speculate that there will be a “slowdown” in the gay agenda’s push at General Convention 2006 in June. Within days, ECUSA’s Special Commission on the Anglican Communion will produce a statement recommending the actions and positions General Convention should take regarding the ordination of homosexual bishops and blessings of same-sex unions, as well as (consequently) the Church’s position within the Communion. Until this statement is published, we do not know what the commission will recommend; furthermore, as the AAC has constantly reiterated, we must remember that the issue at stake is much broader than homosexuality. While news reports, such as the Washington Times article below, contain useful considerations, I encourage you to remain cautious when reading them. Also, consult the AAC blog for the original bishops’ statements on which the news reports are based. We will offer analysis of the commission's recommendations when its report is released.

Blessings and Peace,

The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson
American Anglican Council President and CEO