Bringing ICCA back to California

There has been considerable interest here in last month’s International Catholic Congress of Anglicans. In the past week, I’ve given brief summary presentations on the ICCA to two groups in the San Diego deanery of the Diocese of Western Anglicans. Saturday’s was to (mainly) laity hosted by Fr. Lawrence Bausch of Holy Trinity (at his Lutheran-owned sanctuary) — the new president of Forward in Faith North America (FiFNA).

Thursday’s presentation was before the deanery’s steering committee (all the clergy and a few laity). This latter (slightly longer) presentation is posted to Google.

The report is mainly a summary of my earlier posts to this blog, including the 350 attendees — among them 24 US bishops. I tried to summarize the major themes of the congress, focusing on the undivided Catholic church, and conciliarity among Anglicans and between Anglicans and other Christians. (I also mentioned how much I enjoyed the opportunity to enjoy corporate worship over the four days of the conference).

Seminary Education

I highlighted two topics of particular interest. One was the on the future of theological education. On Thursday morning, there was an official session featuring the head of Nashotah, Trinity and Cranmer (REC’s Dallas seminary) seminaries. At an (unofficial) Tuesday night session, the head of Nashotah outlined its vision while seeking financial support from attendees.

As Fr. Bausch pointed out Saturday, as the seminary goes, so goes the church. The leftward drift of the ECUSA seminaries anticipated the subsequent drift of the national church. In other words, as the seminaries turned out poorly trained (or intentionally corrupted) clergy, those clergy went out and shifted the thinking of the broader church.

In my opinion, the need for properly trained clergy seems even more urgent in today’s context. This is not the established church of 19th century England, or even the 20th century ECUSA that brought a disproportionate share of American senators and presidents. Today, fewer laity (or even clergy) were raised in Anglicanism, and many laity (unlike any time in US history) grew up without prior knowledge of (or even exposure to) the church. Against errors of poorly trained clergy, the natural balance provided by experienced vestry and other laity will be absent in many parishes.

While the seminaries of the Continuum are directly under control of local bishops, the ACNA’s two favored seminaries have alumni and other ongoing ties to TEC. Although drift by these seminaries seems unlikely, in 1950 none of us could have anticipated what would happen in the next 50 years at GTU, Seabury Western, CDSP and other TEC seminaries.

The LCMS faced these same issues in the 1970s: in the Seminex crisis of 1974, it stood firm for doctrinal consistency over the protests of faculty (and media) seeking greater freedom to depart from the denomination’s teachings.The LCMS today continues to enjoy the benefits of its resolute stand 40 years ago.

Church Planting

The other topic of special interest was about church planting. An official session Wednesday afternoon by Fr. Chris Culpepper and Fr. Lee Nelson talked about why Anglo-Catholics need to plant churches. At an unofficial session on Monday, these two and others talked about what FiFNA and other groups can do to support church planting.

In the next few weeks, I hope to post more news on this latter topic.

California Christian Catechesis

The San Diego deanery (aka San Diego Anglicans) of the ACNA diocese of Western Anglican is running a Lenten class for lay leaders on six Saturday mornings.

The classes are learning to teach the catechism approved (for trial use) by ACNA bishops in January 2014. Modestly titled To Be a Christian —available for free download at the ACNA and sale at Amazon and BN.com — the new catechism is a longer and far more detailed explication of the faith than in previous editions of the US Book of Common Prayer. (More on this another time).

The short course is led Rev. Brian Hughes, assistant rector of Holy Spirit Anglican (located at Bethel’s San Diego campus). It includes a series of guest preachers:

• February 21 – Introduction to the Catechumenate and the Catechism. Instructor: Fr. Brian Hughes of Holy Spirit Anglican Church, San Diego
• February 28 – Part I: Beginning in Christ (Q 1-18), What is the Gospel? Instructor: Fr. Cameron Lemons of St. Paul’s City Church, Lake Elsinore
• March 7 – Part II: Believing in Christ (Q 19-80), the Creeds. Instructor: Fr. Brian Hughes of Holy Spirit Anglican Church, San Diego
• March 14 – Part II: Believing in Christ (Q 81-148), How to Study the Bible. Instructor: Fr. Jamal Scarlett of St. Paul’s City Church, Lake Elsinore
• March 21 – Part III: Being Christ’s (Q 149-255), A Rule of Life. Instructor: Fr. Larry Bausch of Holy Trinity Anglican Parish, Ocean Beach
• March 28 – Part IV: Behaving Christianly (Q 256-345), Accountability Structures. Instructor: Fr. Russell Martin of Christ the King Church, San Diego

The sessions run from 9-12 at Christ the King’s Scripps Ranch office. Father Hughes has already uploaded the first two videos to his YouTube channel and has created a YouTube playlist.

For more information, contact Fr. Hughes.

California's newest Bishop

On Sunday night, Archbishop Foley Beach and others from the Anglican Church in North America consecrated its newest bishop in Newport Beach, California. The Rt. Rev. M. Keith Andrews (M. Div, D. Min) was consecrated the second bishop for the Diocese of Western Anglicans.

The Service

Rt. Rev. Keith Andrews

The service was held at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, one of 175 parishes of the ECO Presbyterian movement that broke away from the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA). (Unlike the ACNA parishes, they got to keep their buildings). It was the same place where the diocese’s first bishop, Rt. Rev. Bill Thompson, was consecrated on October 31, 2009.

As recorded by Anglican TV, the service was clocked at 194 minutes from start to finish (excluding music before and after the service).

By my estimate there were about 600-700 people in the pews — of those 60+ deacons and priests — with another 60 attending in the altar party, including a 6-piece praise band and a 17-member choir that looked lost in the spacious choir benches. As with the most recent diocesan convention, the service emphasized praise music over hymns or other traditional liturgy.

The service combined the Ordinal — published in 2011 and approved by the ACNA bishops in 2013 — with the ACNA “trial use” Communion service that was launched in time for Advent 2013. The event was organized by Rev. Richard Crocker and Rev. Cathie Young — respectively the rector and associate rector of nearby St. James’ Anglican.

The Election

The diocese’ first bishop, Rt. Rev. Thompson was elected in June 2009 and resigned effective June 30, 2014. Bp. Thompson announced his resignation in August 2013 after two falls and a concussion. (In Feb. 2014, he revealed that he had since been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the diocese’s Executive Committee would assist in the governance.)

In late 2013, the Executive Committee appointed a 12-member nominating committee to find qualified candidates. The March 2014 diocesan newsletter explained the process:

According to our Canons, the Bishop must be drawn from male Rectors in the Diocese who have at least five years’ experience, are at least 35 year old, and are not divorced and remarried. This gave us a potential pool of twenty candidates. They were each contacted, and seven agreed to put their name forward.
…
On February 8th, the four candidates still in the discernment process were announced to the full diocesan House of Delegates at its annual meeting. The candidates still in the process are:

Fr. Keith Andrews, Living Faith, Tempe, AZ
Fr. Russell Martin, Christ the King, San Diego, CA
Fr. Larry Bausch, Holy Trinity, San Diego, CA
Fr. Jose Poch, St. David’s, Burbank, CA

On March 22, the committee nominated Andrews and Martin, dropping Bausch (the most Anglo-Catholic candidate) and Poche (who was also a candidate in 2009).

In May 2014, the diocesan House of Delegates voted to nominate Andrews in hopes that the ACNA College of Bishops would elect the 2nd bishop at their June meeting. Instead, Rev. Andrews was elected bishop at their October meeting.

Bp. Thompson was directly elected by the diocese, and the 2014 requirement for ACNA approval was somewhat controversial. This shift in policy caused confusion during the ceremony, in which the text of the program was not what was spoken during the presentation of the bishop-elect (emphasis added):

The Diocesan President says
I certify that the Reverend Doctor M. Keith Andrews was duly elected nominated Bishop of the Diocese of the Western Anglicans by the clergy and lay members of the House of Delegates of the Diocese on May 10, 2014, as attested to by the minutes of the House of Delegates.

The Dean of Provincial Affairs says
I certify that the Reverend Doctor M. Keith Andrews was duly confirmed elected as Bishop of the Diocese of the Western Anglicans by the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America on October 10,2014, as attested to by the minutes of the College.

The Consecration
I counted 12 bishops in the altar party (not including the archbishop and the bishop-elect). Note all the bishops listed in the program were present — and I didn’t recognize a couple — but here they are:

Back row: unidentified, Bp. Eric Menees, unidentified, Bp. Clark Lowenfield, Bp. Gregory Bowers. Front row: Bp. William Murdoch, Bp. John Guernsey, Bp. Bill Thompson, Bp. Todd Hunter, Bp. Frank Lyons, unidentified

The new Bishop was examined by Abp. Foley and 11 other bishops. (The bishop not participating in the examination was Bp. Gregory Bowers, representing the Los Angeles-area Jubilee Convocation that is discussing fellowship with ACNA).

At the end of the consecration, the archbishop and the other bishops engaged in the traditional laying on of hands (which the unitiated
resembled a rugby scrum without the pushing and shoving).

The consecration was followed by the presentation of four episcopal symbols from four deaneries of the diocese: Rocky Mountain (a crozier), Arizona (a ring), San Diego (a pectoral cross) and Los Angeles (his cope and mitre).

After this — and before the offertory — the congregation heard greetings from Andrews’ ecumenical partners in Arizona and the local assemblyman (with a state proclamation). A longer talk came from a priest of the North American Lutheran Church (the ELCA-splinter group) and a representative from the Diocese of Singapore.

The New Bishop

Bp. Andrews gave a brief five minute talk, thanking those responsible. While the event did only indirectly touched on his qualifications and experience, I did have a chance to hear him speak in April 2014 as one of the two final candidates.

Here some excerpts of his resume from that presentation (which I have scanned and posted to Google). His work experience:

• Senior Pastor, Living Faith Anglican Church, Tempe, AZ (2005-Present)
• Anglican Mission in the Americas Canon Missioner and Network Leader (2005-2012)
• Vicar (1985-1998) and Rector (2005), St. James Episcopal Church, Tempe, AZ
• Associate Rector, Christ Church of the Ascension, Paradise Valley, AZ (1983-1985)
• Assistant Rector, All Saints, Carmel, CA (1981-1983)

His education:

• D. Min, Fuller Theological Seminary, 2003
• M. Div., Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 1981
• M.A., Arizona State University, 1976
• B.A., Arizona State University, 1975

His dissertation, entitled “A local church paradigm that fosters renewal in mission through church multiplication,” is listed in the Fuller library as a case study of his St. James experience.

What stood out from his presentation (and what I know of the other three semi-finalists) was his successful track record in planting churches. Obviously this is a crucial imperative for the diocese and ACNA more broadly.

The Diocese

What is less clear is the bishop’s plans for the diocese (and also the constraints of the existing clergy and laity). I was told that any candidate from outside Southern California (i.e., Andrews) would be expected to relocate to Southern California (which has the greatest concentration of parishes).

When first consecrated, Bp. Thompson remained rector of All Saints (Long Beach, Calif.) but then relinquished that role in July 2012 (at the age of 66) to become a full-time bishop.

The office of bishop and the diocese have remained at All Saints since Bp. Thompson stepped down. The diocese HQ seems to have been in a holding pattern (under its interim bishop), with few updates to the website; the bimonthly newsletter hasn’t been published in 10 months.

So will the diocese remain in Long Beach? Will Bp. Andrews have another home parish? What other changes are coming? When the ECUSA formed a new diocese in San Diego in the 1970s, the first bishop used his home parish as the cathedral; the second and subsequent bishops used the largest parish in the city center as their cathedral.

The diocese of 35 parishes is hoping to convert its four deaneries to new dioceses. To do that will require significant growth in membership, parishes and pledging — something that all California Anglicans hope that the new bishop can pull off.

Update: The official ACNA press release (reprinted at Virtue Online) lists 10 of the 11 bishops (beyond Abp. Beach) involved in the consecration:

• Rt. Rev. John A.M. Guernsey, Bishop of Diocese of Mid-Atlantic
• Rt. Rev. Todd Hunter, Bishop of Diocese of Churches for Sake of Others
• Rt. Rev. Clark Lowenfield, Bishop of Diocese of Western Gulf Coast
• Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Assisting Bishop of Anglican Diocese of South
• Rt. Rev. Eric Menees, Bishop of Diocese of San Joaquin
• Rt. Rev. John Miller, III, Assistant Bishop of Diocese of Atlantic
• Rt. Rev. William Murdock, Bishop of Anglican Diocese of New England
• Rt. Rev. William Thompson, Retired Bishop of Diocese of Western Anglicans
• Rt. Rev. Mark Zimmerman, Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Southwest
• Rt. Rev. Derek Jones, Bishop of Armed Forces and Chaplaincy

The Evangelical Church in North America

The Anglican Church in North America has always been an interesting compromise. Today at the diocesan convention of the Western Anglicans, keynote speaker (and ACNA primate) Robert Duncan described ACNA as “three streams, two integrities and one church.”

During his subsequent answers to written questions, Bp. Duncan described the two integrities (two views on women’s ordination) and the three streams

• “First of all, evangelical. We hold ourselves accountable to the word of God.”
• “The second stream, the Catholic stream, holds itself accountable to tradition.”
• The third stream was once called the “liberal” (sometimes now Charismatic). It was defined by a willingness to be free within the power of the Holy Spirit — but more recently has meant free to do anything.

Since the founding of the Church of England in the Tudor era, the tension of the Anglican Church has been most visibly between the evangelical and Anglo-Catholic wings of the church. The Oxford movement of the early 19th century was the most successful effort of the past half-millenium to restore the influence of Anglo-Catholics within the CoE. The two sides share power in the CoE, although the Evangelicals appear to be dominant (while many of the liberals left the CoE to become Methodists).

Abp. Duncan’s address — and the worship of the entire diocesan convention — make it clear that the ACNA is an Evangelical church with little room for Anglo-Catholics. In theology, ACNA may position itself in the historic (Reformed) Christian tradition, but in terms of worship style it’s distinctly modern.

At all four services, the 7-piece praise band (with drummer) performed a series of 21st century CCM tunes. A few were familiar to the congregation members, and many (although not all) appear to be worshipping to praise music at their home parishes. Two of the services had one token hymn each.

Rehearsal by Diocese of Western Anglicans praise band, October 12

I’ve been in all three California dioceses — San Joaquin, Western Anglicans and the proto-diocese of San Francisco Bay. The first two are conservative theologically (at least on WO), but it’s clear liturgically that both (like the Bay Area) are largely following the contemporary worship fad, marginalizing worship (and music) that would have been the only worship style one would have seen in an ECUSA church 30 years ago. Our form of worship may be (Rite II) liturgical, but in terms of music we in ACNA are all Pentecostals.

The archbishop commands us to be “in the world but not of the world.” But conforming our worship style to contemporary culture — Pop Goes Religion as Terry Mattingly put it — seems to imply that we must join the culture to reach it.

Yes, every generation adds its music to the canon. But throwing away centuries of tradition — all of the prior canon — in favor of the past five years is a hubris only a Baby Boomer could attempt (even if the nominal reason is appealing to millennials).

In the meantime, we Anglo-Catholics will go gray and die while waiting for another Oxford-style revival (much as the Baroque revival in the 1960s and 1970s brought back Bach and other music that had been largely forgotten in this century). Or we can join and support the Schism I churches, which — despite their many faults — are the one Anglican institution in this country that will pass along our historic liturgy in the state that they received it.

An end to one Anglican tradition in San Diego

On Sunday, the parishioners of Holy Trinity (ACNA) in San Diego held their final Sunday worship service in the sanctuary (a half mile from the Pacific) that they have called home for six decades. Having surrendered their legal fight with the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, on Thursday their rector will hand over the keys to the diocese.

A brief story ran last week in the neighborhood weekly, the Peninsula Beacon. On Wednesday, the San Diego Union-Tribune is running a major feature story on this, the last Schism II church in San Diego to surrender its building. (The next to last parish, St. Anne’s of Oceanside, gave up their property a year ago.)

Attending services on both Dec. 25 and 26 at Holy Trinity was very poignant for me, and not because this was the second time I witnessed an ACNA parish surrender their building to TEC. This one was more personal, because this is the parish that my father once attended.

At both services, Fr. Lawrence Bausch, SSC made reference to the move. The Christmas service emphasized Christ coming for our eternal salvation, and thus the need to focus beyond temporary and temporal concerns. The Christmas 1 sermon highlighted some of the history of the parish, which began worship at an Ocean Beach home on Trinity Sunday 1921. (A 95-year-old parishioner attended both the first service and Sunday’s final service in their longtime sanctuary.)

Despite the sadness, it was no surprise: this move has been a long time coming. Holy Trinity (along with St. Anne’s and a third parish in Fallbrook) was first sued in 2007. Other than St. James Newport Beach, I believe all the other California churches have given up on their fights against their respective dioceses. (TEC litigation against the Diocese of San Joaquin poses different legal issues.)

I’ve followed the Holy Trinity situation intermittently over the last three years. Last summer, the vestry and then an all parish meeting decided to abandon the legal appeals and hand over the building to the TEC. As I understand it, the expenditure was certain but the benefit highly uncertain, and at this point the church leaders decided that it was time to move on (both figuratively and literally).

Unlike in Oceanside, the diocese was in no hurry to get the building back. There is a very liberal parish, All Souls, less than two miles away. There is no rump “Episcopalian” membership of Holy Trinity — the entire parish is leaving lock, stock and barrel. Unlike the other disputed properties, the diocese does not even list Holy Trinity in its church finder. Plans to hold a Jan. 9 service as the nucleus of a new congregation seem unlikely to succeed. At the same time, the Union reports that the diocese wanted $2 million to sell the building and was unwilling to rent it to Holy Trinity.

Meanwhile, the “farewell to the building” service (with about 100 people present) was the most crowded I’ve seen since the litigation began. I only recognized a handful of people, in part because (as with elsewhere in California) people have been moving to lower cost locations as the economy has soured.

As the Union article notes, the Holy Trinity faithful are moving (literally) next door to the sanctuary of a much larger LCMS parish, Bethany Lutheran. Sunday’s service concluded at Bethany with a joint prayer between Father Bausch and Pastor Steven Duescher. The combined congregations sang “The Church’s One Foundation” from the Lutheran Service Book (words by Samuel Stone, tune by S.S. Wesley).

However, in the shared space, Holy Trinity will have a less than desirable Sunday worship time: 8:00, before the home parish (10:30), Immanuel Korean Church (12:30), and a non-denominational church (5:00). The facilities (especially parking) are spacious, but the time will be a challenge over the long haul.

Fr. Bausch was called to Holy Trinity in 1979, and he fits the parish so well that it’s hard to imagine the parish with anyone else. How many Episcopal (let alone Anglican) priests are regular surfers? However, his position at Holy Trinity is perhaps a fluke, since in 1979 he was also being considered at another Anglo-Catholic parish in the diocese, St. Michael’s of Carlsbad. The rector called to St. Michael’s in 1979 retired in 1995, and his replacement was forced out earlier this year by the Bishop of San Diego. Once the largest Anglo-Catholic parish in the diocese, St. Michael’s is now destined to become a bastion of high church progressives as its Anglo-Catholic members have formed a new ACA parish, St. Augustine of Canterbury.

In some ways, however, the San Diego ACNA parishes — even without permanent facilities — seem on a more sound foundation than much of ACNA — perhaps due to the mutual support that they provide to each other. Five San Diego area parishes are among 19 in the Diocese of Western Anglicans. These five in San Diego County (population 3 million) contrast with three in Los Angeles County (population 9 million). In part, this seems a testimony to two doctrinally sound (and one decent) bishops who preceded James Mathes, keeping them in the ECUSA longer than most of the West Coast — whereas L.A. and Bay Area are home to many Schism I parishes (ACA and APCK, respectively) that formed decades due to local heresies by people like Jim Pike.

Still, any parish without a building has a long row to hoe. Holy Trinity starts with their 1928 BCP (which the diocese had no use for) but will need to rebuild most of the other assets it had accumulated over the past 90 years.

Update: Photos taken during and after Dec. 26 worship service.