Greetings All,
I am afraid that I have been a little tardy with posts to the blog, but am away to Chicago this next weekend to take part in the next milestone on the raod of this reformation we are experiencing in the Anglican Way, so decided to write and bring you up to date.
Things are happening at two different levels. The Lead Bishops and the Common Cause Council will be in meetings through Tuesday and Wednesday to work on the first draft of the constitution for our emerging new Province, the signing of the Jerusalem Declaration & Statement which we were all asked to take back to our jurisdictions for ratification, and to continue work on budget, organization & development of our common life together. It is all pretty heady stuff, but also mind-numbing in its scope. It is our desire create a fellowship of believers that is authetically Anglican, but at the same time not encumbered with the baggage that allowed our former jurisdictions to descend unchecked into apostacy & heresy.
I was interviewed by a reporter yesterday who was asking questions from the perspective of the old paridigm...and telling me that our former Bishops and Archbishops were saying that what we want can't be done. It is very difficult for those who are bound by the old models to understand that a new wine-skin is necessary, because the old one is rotten... and on the point of bursting and loosing all the wine! I told the reporter that it is already done...this things that the liberals are saying can't be...it is already a reality, and we are in the process of ordering and shaping it specifically so that it doesn't look or act like that which we have left behind. The Lord says, "See, I am doing a new thing! Can't you perceive it?"
That is what Chicago is about...but it is only one small step in a very large and complicated process which we are walking through step, by step with as much humility and care that can be mustered. We can't move ahead of the Primates and Provinces that are sponsoring us. Are we headed for a new province? Yes. However, it will be a few more months yet before we. can declare that we have arrived...and then the real work begins. There are 150 Million unchurched people in North America, and that is our mission field.
The other awesome thing that is happening in Chicago next week is a Christ Awakening For Mission sponsored Service that will happen on Wednesday evening at the close of our Council Meeting. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people coming for that event at which the Jerusalem Declaration will be formally signed. While the leadership plods along doing the necessary admin and organzational stuff, there is a groundswell of the faithful who are getting more excited by the minute. This Reformation is beginning to gain momentum in ways that we had never imagined. To God be the Glory!
So, Please pray for us...pray for the meeting, pray for the worship, pray for relationships healed & righteous fellowship developed.
I will be headed to Montreal on Thursday to speak with some groups of Anglican believers who also have caught a vision for this reformation. Please pray that I will be able to present with humility and passion about what God is doing in our midst.
