Archbishop Hepworth welcomes the Open Letter from the Primate of the Anglican Catholic Church.
The Anglican Catholic Church has continued its series of public statements on the Unity of the Anglican Continuum by Archbishop John Charles and Archbishop Haverland with an Open Letter to the TAC.
Archbishop Hepworth has welcomed this further stage in the evolution of relationships between the ecclesial groups that make up what Bishop Robert Mercer has memorably called “extra-mural Anglicans.
In a letter to the College of Bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Archbishop Hepworth suggested that the letter, and earlier correspondence, be an important subject at the meeting of the whole College in October.
The Archbishop noted that serious tensions in the past between us had to be overcome. Legal actions had embittered people at the local level.
He also noted that the Traditional Anglican Communion was in a state of prayerful preparation for the meeting of the College of Bishops, and no comments would be forthcoming from any of the bishops on the proposed approach to the Holy See by the Communion until after the meeting. The essence of the approach has been discussed and endorsed by National Synods of the TAC, and the next step is for the College to determine.
“There are quite significant differences between the two bodies,” Archbishop Hepworth noted. “Some of them are highlighted by Archbishop Haverland. They go to the essence of our mission, to the future of Anglicanism, to the nature of the Church, the nature of authority within the Church, and in a very real sense to the Christian response to sin and the sinner. These are matters of critical importance for salvation. It is inevitable that the initial responses to Anglican failure around the world should lead to differences, since too often those attempting to be faithful have been marginalised and isolated. Since the failure was accompanied by a faltering of the ARCIC process that once encapsulated many Anglican Catholic dreams, our attitudes to the Holy See will naturally be part of the disappointment we bring to the Anglican bodies that have been formed beyond the structures of the Anglican Communion. I commend Archbishop Haverland for this initiative, and thank him for this further contribution to the Unity to which Jesus bound us on the night before he died.”
+John Hepworth
APCK Diocese, Bishop, align with TAC's Anglican Church in America
WASHINGTON DC based The Christian Challenge reports: JUST WEEKS after an Anglican Province of Christ the King (APCK) bishop voiced serious frustration with longstanding divisions in the mainstream Continuing Church, he and nearly all parishes and clergy of his diocese have left the APCK for the Anglican Church in America (ACA).
In a July 23 letter he said that, as of that day, he and the (12 to 14 congregations) had notified the ACA of their wish to be received, and had been assured of the ACA's willingness to take them in, with Bishop Florenza continuing to shepherd his flock therein "for such time as God allows me to do so."
In his letter to APCK's Archbishop Provence - recently chosen to succeed longtime leader Robert Morse, the Connecticut-based Florenza built on a pastoral letter he issued several weeks ago, when he publicly declared his diocese in full communion with the ACA, "a respected body that has been in real and visible communion with this diocese and the province."
The bishop said that he had not granted the requests of most of his parishes to join the ACA "lightly, but after much prayer and reflection on the needs of the people and clergy under my pastoral care and on the future of Christ's Church as it is found in the traditional Anglican expression. I believe that I can do nothing less and remain true to Scripture, tradition, and the foundational principles of our movement."
Noting that he had been a cleric in the APCK since its inception, Florenza said that, now, as bishop, "I no longer believe that it is possible to remain divided from those with whom we share the same Apostolic origins, the same theology and the same Sacraments. As stated in my recent pastoral letter to my diocese, such division stands in contradiction to the will of Christ, has been a stumbling block to our work for Him in the world, and has inflicted damage on the witness of the traditional Anglican expression.
Our clergy recognize this, and, more importantly, our laypeople well know the cost of a fragmented witness.
"A community truly centered on Christ present in the Sacrament cannot be closed in upon itself, as though it were somehow self-sufficient; rather it must strive for harmony with other catholic communities. We cannot erect artificial barriers to the unity of the church based on old wounds and particularized views of communion based on those past events. We are called as the people of God to press forward together, to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," Florenza stated.
Contacted about the ACA's new arrivals, Bishop George Langberg, president of the ACA's House of Bishops, told The Christian Challenge that: "Bringing together parties with an adversarial history can only be accomplished when all involved are ready to recognize their own contribution to past problems. Everyone has to agree to put aside old 'bones of contention' (especially those related to the personalities and egos of bishops) and move forward together in pursuit of our Lord's clearly stated will for the unity of his followers. I sincerely believe that the ACA and Bishop Florenza, along with the parishes which continue to follow him, have reached such a position with respect to each other."
Source: The Christian Challenge (Washington, DC) The complete article can be viewed on : www.challengeonline.org
