FEDERATION OF ANGLICAN CHURCHES IN THE AMERICAS



FEDERATION OF ANGLICAN CHURCHES IN THE AMERICAS

MINUTES

of the Plenary Meeting on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, in Summerville, SC,

at the Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary

The Meeting was called to order at 9:05 a.m. by the Rt. Rev. Paul Hewett.. The Rt. Rev. Walter Grundorf led in prayer. Member bishops and/or their representatives in attendance:

Anglican Church in America (ACA)

The Rt. Rev. Brian Marsh, Presiding Bishop

The Rev. Rhae Kelley, Vicar of St. Stephen’s, Timonium, MD.

Anglican Mission in America (AMiA)

the Ven. H. Miller, Executive Director

Anglican Province in America (APA)

The Rt. Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, Presiding Bishop

The Rt. Rev. Chandler H. Jones, Suffragan Bishop, Diocese of the Eastern U.S

Diocese of the Holy Cross (DHC)

The Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett, Bishop Ordinary, FACA Moderator

Episcopal Missionary Church (EMC)

The Most Rev. Council Nedd II, Presiding Bishop

The Rt. Rev. Wilbert Bailey, Assistant to the Diocese of the Chesepeake and Northeast

Reformed Episcopal Church (REC)

The Most Rev. Leonard W. Riches, Presiding Bishop

The Rt. Rev. David Hicks, Bishop Ordinary, Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic

The Ven. Dr. Jon W. Abboud, Provost and Dean of the Seminary in Blue Bell, PA; FACA Treasurer

Observers and guests:

The Very Rev. Frederick Bentley, (ACC), Director, Anglican Priests for Life

The Rev. Jason S. Boccabello, (DHC), Assisting Deacon at the Church of the Holy Communion, Charleston, SC

The Minutes of the April 5, 2011 Meeting at Cummins Memorial Seminary, Summerville, SC, were presented. Motion to accept, Bp. Grundorf, second, Bp. Jones. All in favor.

The Treasurer’s Report by Dr. Abboud indicated a balance of $7,531. Motion to accept, Bp. Hicks, second, Bp. Nedd. All in favour.

Updates from participating jurisdictions and organizations were received:

ACA: Bishop Marsh reported on the recent consecration of Bp. John Vaughan as a Suffragan Bishop, and on the ACA’s closer relationship with the APA, especially on the West Coast.

EMC: Bishop Nedd mentioned the Synod this July at Holy Trinity, Hillsdale, MI. EMC is committed to close cooperation with other continuing jurisdictions.

APA: Bishop Grundorf mentioned the possibility of an intercommunion agreement with the EMC, and reported on the APA’s work in the Philippines and India, and the partnering with Operation Mobilization. $108,000 is being raised for schools, especially for outcast children, and other ministries.

REC: Bishop Leonard Riches represented FACA at the ACNA Provincial Council in Long Beach, CA last June. Mission work is opening up all over the world, in the UK, Germany, Croatia, Singapore and Nepal. The REC’s missionary diocese in the central states has become a full diocese under Bishop Dan Morse. Bishop Ray Sutton is Chairman of ACNA’s Ecumenical Relations Task Force (ERTF). Some very good connections have been set up, especially with the OCA, the LCMS, the RCs and some groups of Messianic Jews.

AMiA: Fr. H. Miller looks after missions from the Pawley’s Island HQ and spoke of recent developments in AMiA, continuing to style itself as a missionary society.

DHC: Bishop Hewett highlighted the relationship with FiF/NA and FiF/UK. Fr. Geoffrey Neal, an FiF/UK Dean, will speak at the upcoming Synod in Columbia. The work with the Mission Province in Sweden continues, both in Sweden, and at the LCMS seminaries in St. Louis and Fort Wayne, IN.

Two applications to FACA were considered:

(i) the Church of the Word (the Rev. Robin Adams), whose property was being contested by the Diocese of Virginia.. It was agreed that they should seek legal advice before joining FACA, due to possible recriminations from TEC. The COE might consider aligning with FiF/NA.

(ii) the Anglican School of Ministry, Little Rock, AR (with a new Dean, the Very Rev. Henry Baldwin) The consensus was that they should affiliate with a jurisdiction, such as EMC.

Regarding AMiA, Bishop Nedd moved that we reaffirm their membership in FACA, making them thereby ministry partners in ACNA. Seconded by Bishop Grundorf. All in favour.

The FACA website: (i) create a link for the upcoming FiF/NA Assembly (ii) ask Bonnie Tuner (ACA) to be the webmistress, and pay her for this. Jason Grote will be thanked for his services as webmaster. Moved by Bishop Hicks, seconded by Bishop Nedd. All in favour.

FiF/UK: Bishop Hicks spoke of his visit with the Free Church of England (FCE), and with Bishop John Fenwick. The FCE has very interesting ties with the C of E, and has infrastructure that FiF/UK may find useful. FiF/UK will keep the faithful together with the Society of St. Wilfred and St. Hilda. The Anglican Association, a FiF/UK think tank, has set up fall-back positions, one of which is our American federation model. The federating is between FiF/UK, the Free Church of England, the Polish National Catholic Church, and the Nordic Catholic Church.

FiF/NA: copies of the agenda for the July Assembly in Belleville, IL, were distributed. FiF/NA and the ERTF are sponsoring a meeting with PNCC bishops in Scranton, this June 18-19. This is quite possibly an historic meeting of re-opening formal communication with the PNCC.

There will be a summit consisting of Archbp. Haverland (ACC) and Bishops Grundorf, Hewett and Marsh, May 29-30, in Oveido, FL, on interjurisdictional clergy transfer and reciprocity.

Motion from Bishop Grundorf to send, to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) a letter on the DHHS mandate, based on the letter sent earlier this year by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the LCMS. Seconded by Bishop Riches. All in favour.

We talked about the Diocese of South Carolina, and Bishop Mark Lawrence, and agreed to help them in their commitment to orthodox Anglicanism in every way we can.

The next meeting will be in Summerville, SC, the week after Low Sunday, on a date to be announced. Today’s meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

The Rt. Rev. Paul C. Hewett

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