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Welcome to the Official Home Page for
The Anglican Province
of America
The Most Rev. Walter Grundorf Presiding Bishop
Anglican Province of America (800) 480-1087
A COVENANT UNION OF ANGLICAN CHURCHES
INFORMATION AND LINKS
Resources and Links
A STATEMENT OF
Intercommunion Prayer Cycle A.D. 2008
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Bishop's Epistle
“A Biblical Admonishment”
One of the statements I made when elected as Bishop of
the DEUS in 1995 was, “I am not a one man show and
will be relying upon the gifts and talents of others to assist
me in the proper administering of the Diocese.”
Since that time, we added other dioceses and eventually
formed ourselves into a Province in 1998. With the duties
of the Cathedral added in, and being without a full
time priest on staff at the present time, life has become
far too busy to do justice to any one position. I reminded
myself of my own advice to the clergy how it is so important
to find good and capable people in the parish to
assume certain responsibilities in order that you not burn
yourself out. The example I have used was the incident
when Moses father- in- law Jethro came to him having
watched Moses trying to do everything himself. As
Jethro continued he told Moses what the results would
be: “You will surely wear away.” Jethro’s instruction
was that Moses select capable, godly people who can
share the load of leadership. (Ex. 18:21) I will attempt
to follow Jethro’s advice to Moses.
Ecumenical Activities
One of the very time consuming areas of responsibilities
that are part of the Presiding Bishop’s duties has to do
with ecumenical activities. This is an area of keen interest
to so many of the APA these days particularly in light
of the much discussed Common Cause Partnership
(CCP). There are other important relationships that need
nurturing such as the Church of Nigeria, the Federation
of Anglican Churches in the Americas (FACA) the other communions of the Global South and the continuing
churches in North America. I will be talking with the
Bishops and other leaders of the APA about those who
have the interest and time to be involved in these activities
and will ask and assign clergy from all dioceses to
serve. I greatly appreciate the concern and wise council
of a number of our clergy who know and understand the
demands of my office and constructively try to make
suggestions on how I, along with all of us, can work
more effectively.
At our Provincial Council (PC) Meeting in January,
2008, I recommended that we not become a partner in
the CCP at this time and with the support of the PC that
we “wait, watch and pray…for a clearer direction…” It
is important for all of us to remember that the APA and
its predecessor Body the American Episcopal Church has
always taken an active role in building relationships
with other Anglicans. One of my first initiatives as Presiding
Bishop was to work with the Reformed Episcopal
Church (REC) to establish a formal intercommunion
agreement and work toward merger. All of these relationships
take time and cultivation of trust and friendships
and clear theological commonality. We set a goal
of 10 years for this process to take place with the REC.
(Incidentally, we are being asked to make a quick decision
to become part of the CCP with which we have important
areas of disagreement when we planned 10 years
with a jurisdiction that we share most things in common.)
Out of the relationship with the REC has come
the Federation of Anglican Churches in the Americas
which now has 6 partners, who for the most part share a
common ecclesiology, faith and practice. FACA has
been invited to have a seat at the table of CCP and
unless something changes, this will put all FACA member
churches in a position to participate in the direction
of the CCP. I have learned over the years that patience
in the face of pressure is often the best course of action.
If threats and pressure are the way one must make a decision,
often times my experience has been, one may
make a wrong decision.
“Support for the Bishop and Provincial Council’s decision”
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