Letter from Archbishop Haverland to Bishop Duncan

20 May 2009. Vigil of the Ascension


Dear Bishop Duncan,


I thank you for your invitation to attend as an observer the inaugural Provincial Assembly of the Anglican Church in North America, which is to gather in Bedford, Texas, from June 22nd to 25th. I congratulate those who will assemble on their movement out of the Episcopal Church. Whatever else we agree or disagree about, we believe that that movement is correct.


Those of us who left the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion a generation ago believe that the ordination of women was then the central problem in the Canterbury Communion. The notion that women can receive the sacrament of Holy Orders in any of its three parts constitutes, in our view, a revolutionary and false claim: a claim false in itself; a claim destructive of the common ministry that once united Anglicans; and, finally, a claim productive of an even broader and worse consequence. That worse consequence is the claim that Anglicans have authority to alter important matters of faith and order against a clear consensus in the central tradition of Catholic and Orthodox Christendom. Once such a claim is made it may be pressed into service to alter any matter of faith or morals. The revolution devours its children. Many of the clergy represented at GAFCON and now joining the ACNA seem to us to accept the flawed premise and its revolutionary claim in one matter while seeking to resist the application of the premise in the matter of homosexuality. This position seems to us to be internally inconsistent and impossible to sustain successfully over time.


In brief, then, we would suggest that the only sound basis for Continuing Anglican life is something akin to that already established in the Affirmation of Saint Louis with its clarity concerning the subordination of all Anglican authorities to the central tradition of Christendom.


We make this suggestion with a strong recognition of our own personal and ecclesial failures. But the failure of the Continuing Churches to unite and grow sufficiently does not at all alter the cogency of our observations about your own fundamental principles. Our own history teaches us that anything other than clear agreement on all significant doctrinal issues at the outset will lead eventually to division and decline.


To put matters another way, already now at the beginning of your enterprise, your dioceses and bishops are only in a state of impaired communion with each other. Some of your bishops do not recognize the validity of the priestly ministry of a significant body of clergy in other dioceses. Such divisions and problems at the beginning will not resolve themselves in time, but rather will grow. Ambiguity, or local option, or silence cannot undo the damage of essential disagreement concerning Holy Orders and authority in the Church.


In summary, then, we see in the ACNA the fundamental alterations in traditional Anglican faith, worship, order, and practice that led to the formation of our own Continuing Church in 1978. We would be glad to establish conversations with your ecclesial body in hopes that you may, having freed yourselves of the Episcopal Church, continue further on the same path by decisively breaking from a corrupt Anglican Communion and by returning to the central tradition of Christendom in all matters, including the male character of Holy Orders, the evil of abortion, and the indissolubility of sacramental marriage. We recommend to your prayerful attention the Affirmation of Saint Louis, which we firmly believe provides a sound basis for a renewed and fulfilled Anglicanism on our continent.


We suspect that any Anglican body that permits the ordination of women, or otherwise fails to return to the central tradition of Christendom, will soon move from what we might call neo-Anglicanism, which is already removed in ministry and worship from classical Anglicanism, and will eventually merge into the general stream of evangelical Protestantism. While faithful Protestantism of that sort is far preferable to what the Episcopal Church has become, it is not the Catholic Faith which we hold, it is not the Anglicanism that formed us, and it does not seem to us to have a bright future.


We have already communicated with persons in the ACNA about the Anglican Catholic Church's prior use of the name you have adopted (ACNA). We are certain that this matter can be successfully resolved to our mutual satisfaction, but pending such resolution we do note our prior use.


I fear that this letter in response to your kind invitation may seem somewhat abrupt. I do not mean it to be such. I wish instead to indicate clearly that our first principles seem to be very different. A fruitful dialogue would need to begin with those principles, and the plans outlined in your letter for the Bedford meeting do not seem to encompass such fundamental questions. I would be happy, however, to assist in the establishment of such dialogue in the future if the ACNA is not wedded to its position on the ordination of women and the authority of Anglican bodies to alter matters of faith and order.


With all good wishes, I am,

Faithfully yours in Christ,


(The Most Reverend) Mark Haverland, Ph.D.

Acting Primate, Anglican Catholic Church

St. Hilda's In the Snow

An early March snow storm blankets Atlanta, Georgia in 2009 turning St. Hilda's Church into a Christmas greeting card.

Iraqi archbishop decries Christian slayings

Archbishop Sako shown above
AP

By YAHYA BARZANJI, Associated Press Writer Yahya Barzanji, Associated Press Writer – Mon Apr 27, 2:58 pm ET

KIRKUK, Iraq – At two Christian homes, the gunmen used the same methods: point-blank fire that claimed three lives in a 30-minute span. The attacks left another outpost of Iraq's dwindling Christian community frightened Monday that it could become caught in the struggles over disputed Kirkuk.

"Innocent people who have no relation with politics and never harmed anyone were killed by terrorists in their homes just because they were Christians," Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako told more than 600 mourners in this ethnically mixed city 180 miles north of the capital.

The motives behind the late Sunday attacks remained unclear, with suspicions mostly falling on Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.

But fear of reprisals and worries about vulnerability have become common themes for members of one of the world's oldest Christian homelands.

Iraq's Christians, who numbered about 1 million in the early 1980s, are now estimated at about half that as families flee warfare and extremist attacks that target their churches and homes.

The future of Kirkuk — an ethnic patchwork led by Kurds and Arabs — has become one of the most politically sensitive issues for Iraqi leaders and for U.S. military commanders preparing to withdraw their troops by the end of 2011.

The city is the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields and a key prize for both Kurds and the central government in Baghdad. The showdown is so volatile that Kirkuk was excluded from regional elections in January and the United Nations has offered a proposal for compromise plans.

Caught in between are the smaller communities of ethnic Turks and Christians, including the ancient branches of Chaldean and Assyrian churches and smaller communities such as Roman Catholics and Orthodox.

Speaking to mourners at Kirkuk's main Chaldean church, Sako blamed political leaders for failing to reach compromises on the many ethnic and political disputes.

"It seems that violence is coming back and they lost that chance," he said.

Two of the victims were Chaldean Christians; the other was Assyrian. Family members said all would be buried in their home areas around Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Kirkuk police Lt. Col. Anwar Qadir said the slayings appeared to be an attempt by al-Qaida to spark sectarian clashes or scare away the more than 10,000 Christians remaining around Kirkuk.

In the past, insurgents have described Iraq's Christians as "crusaders" whose true loyalty lies with U.S. troops and the West.

On Monday, round-the-clock security patrols and checkpoints were increased around Christian areas.

Christians in the Mosul area have faced the brunt of attacks, including a string of bombings and execution-style slaying in late 2008 blamed on Sunni insurgents. An estimated 3,000 Christians fled the area in a single week.

In March 2008, the body of Mosul's Chaldean Archbishop, Paulos Faraj Rahho, was found in a shallow grave — a month after he was kidnapped at gunpoint as he left a Mass.

Kirkuk, however, has not been spared. In January 2006, two churches here were bombed as part of a series of coordinated attacks that also targeted the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Baghdad.

"If we can't feel protected, then more Christians will leave Iraq," said the Rev. Giorgos Alywa, an Assyrian Orthodox cleric at the burials in the Mosul area.

The first assault killed a woman and her daughter-in-law. About a half-hour later, gunmen killed a 27-year-old man in another part of the city, said Qadir.

Eman Latif, the sister of the younger woman killed, said the attacker stabbed the victims after they were gunned down.

"What have they done to be treated like this?" she said.

Last week, U.N. representatives gave Iraqi leaders a report outlining suggestions to ease sectarian tensions in Kirkuk, including a proposal to grant the area "special status" that would allow joint oversight by both the Kurdish region and the central government in Baghdad.

Kirkuk "should be solved through political, diplomatic channels and dialogue. There is a chance to solve it," the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, said Monday in an interview with Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television.

But a Christian university student in Kirkuk, Rudi Shammo, said there is a different reality on the streets: "We Christians in Kirkuk have no weapons or militias to protect us."

Still, he plans to take a stand.

"Some groups may have plans to push us out of our own country, but I say we will not leave Iraq," he said. "This will not happen."

Marriage as a Sacrament

Over at my two most visited blogs Stand Firm in the Faith and the Anglican Continuum debates are going on over marriage in all its forms (natural, civil, sacramental)and the question of annulments and how to determine if a marriage is valid, that is to say truly sacramental, or not. Printed below as a sort of companion piece is a sermon I recently wrote for a wedding. It was an unusual wedding in my opinion, and one that pointed up the theological confusion of our times. I warned the prospective couple that by including me in their ceremony they risked making their marriage a sacramental one. They understood well the meaning of sacramental marriage much to my surprise. So I preached at their wedding the following sermon which I imagine was somewhat troubling to the congregation, but heartily endorsed by the couple.

Marriage is a simple thing, and the simple things are very hard.

My sermon today is a charge to the two of you, and no different than a bishop giving a charge to men newly ordained to the priesthood. You are on a mission from God now. You are responsible both as a couple and as individuals for everything you do, or fail to do in this marriage. You are taking on a great responsibility to firstly God, and secondly to each other. It is an indissoluble union between the two of you, made for solemn service to God, one another, the Church, and humanity.

“It is not good that the man should be alone,” we read in the book of Genesis. So we know that marriage is for mutual support and comfort, and if God wills it, for the procreation of children, but we also must understand that Christian marriage is a thing that demands service, sacrifice and loyalty.

It is a great instruction to us that God has continually taught us through Holy writ, that the Kingdom of God is like unto a marriage. The many parables that Jesus told, using marriage as a simile for the Kingdom of God, lift marriage out of the realm of the secular and into the realm of the divine. Most of us are familiar with those parables, and we remember that Jesus did his first miracle at the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee, and also his reply to the scribes and Pharisees about the nature of marriage and divorce. Jesus told them, when they recounted that Moses had given them permission to divorce in the event of adultery, that single exception was given because of the hardness of their hearts. So the inference is that someone who puts away a spouse for such a cause has a hard heart, and also such a divorce is not pleasing to God.

The Old Testament also speaks to us of marriage. It speaks in a brutal and frank way with a demand for absolute fidelity, even when the other partner has grievously sinned. I am speaking of the Book of Hosea now. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, was anything but a faithful wife, but God made it clear that he was to not only forgive her, but to seek after her even to the point of buying her out of slavery when she ultimately put herself in that position, and also to raising the bastard children that she tried to pass off as Hosea’s. That is an incredibly high standard for this world, one that the vast majority of us would never even think of trying to live up to.

So what is God’s point? Well, He wants each one of his children to be just like Jesus, that is to say perfect, like the Father Himself, And God is always faithful, and God always keeps His promises, even when we don’t keep ours. When God enters into covenant with us we make certain promises to Him and Him to us. When we fail to keep our part of the covenant God does not divorce us, He continues to be faithful. If both parties to a marriage can keep troth in this fashion, then a strong Christian marriage has been established. One that serves the husband and wife, that serves God, serves the Church and also the entire community of humanity. But even if only one manages to keep troth, than a great spiritual work has been accomplished in the name of God, one that brings great spiritual benefit.

My charge to you is to remain loyal and true to each other and to let nothing stand in the way of, or affect your faithfulness to one another. God requires this of you. If you can accomplish this then you will have obtained an object with great spiritual rewards, a blessing for yourselves, the Church, and the larger community, an ensample of Holy living and a great witness to the power of God, who remains faithful and true come whatever.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Persecution Intensifies Worldwide

Alfita Poliwo (top) and Theresia Morangke, two of the victims decapitated on October 29, 2005

Three Christian schoolgirls were murdered in Poso, Central Sulawesi province, on October 29, 2005. Ida Yarni Sambue (15), Theresia Morangke (15), and Alfita Poliwo (19) - were decapitated, and their companion, Noviana Malewa, was hacked in the face with a machete, but survived.

The news of the trial opening of the murderers is covered by AKI, Reuters, Antara News, The Australian, AFP via Yahoo, DPA via Bangkok Post, Gulf News and Jakarta Post. The media in the United States are not covering this story by and large. If these were Muslim girls decapitated by a Christian militia we would be hearing and reading about it 24/7. There would also be calls for Christians to be reeducated, and restricted in their speech (already happened in Canada and Sweden) and for special "anti-hate" laws to be passed protecting Muslims from any type of Christian "harassment" and "insensitivity."

The killings of the three schoolgirls, whose heads were placed in plastic bags and left near a church in their village, signaled a resurgence of violent Christian persecution in the province of Central Sulawesi. Between the end of 1998 and 2002, the region had been subject to an intense conflict in which Muslims attacked Christians, and Christians organized to defend themselves and their families. Well over 1,000 people died. The conflict in Sulawesi was part of a larger conflict, the Moluccan War, led by militant Islamist groups such as Laskar Jihad. This "war" killed 9,000 people over the same period.

On May 5, 2006, five Muslims were arrested on Sulawesi. These included two of those who are now standing trial - Apriyantono (aka Irwanto Irano, aka Irwan) and Lilik Purwanto (aka Arman, aka Haris). Shortly after these arrests, seven individuals bragged to police that they had been involved in the attack upon the Christian schoolgirls.

The trial of these men, and the alleged ringleader, is taking place in Jakarta as it is believed by the government that a trial in Poso would only fill Christians with a resolve to remain vigilant and actively defend their families. Already Poso is in a state of tension after three Christians were recently executed for their daring to organize a self defense force and resist the Muslim attacks. Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu were shot by firing squad at Palu airport on September 20, 2006. This unjust public execution, which was meant to intimidate Christians, triggered a reprisal attack in which two Muslims fighters were killed. In the weeks leading up to their execution, Christians had been subjected to numerous attacks, with two random ones killed by bombs.

On October 16, 2006 a Christian minister, Reverend Irianto Kongkoli, was killed in Palu, capital of Central Sulawesi province. He had actively campaigned for the three executed Christians to have their lives spared.

The leader of the three men currently on trial in Jakarta is 34-year old Hasanuddin, (aka Hasan, aka Slamet Raharjo), a trader from Java, who is accused of having "planned and/or mobilized others to conduct crimes of terrorism by intentionally using violence."

At the opening of the trial, the state prosecutor Payaman claimed that Hasanuddin ) had carried out the planning of the attack upon the four schoolgirls with six other individuals. Two of these were Irwanto Irano and Lilik Purwanto, while the four others are still fugitives. Hasanuddin, Irwanto Irano and Lilik Purwanto are being tried separately.

Incredibly Payaman was quoted as saying that Hasanuddin had said of the killing of the girls that, "the aim of this activity is to seek justice for our brothers and sisters who have been sadistically and inhumanly slaughtered." He provided no explanation as to how the taking of innocent lives was "justice."

The prosecutor said: "The defendant planned or provoked others to commit violent acts aimed to incite terror."

Hasanuddin had undergone training at a Muslim militant camp in the southern Philippines. This is probably the Hudaybiyah camp, which was run by the Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah, in conjunction with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Hasanuddin did not speak when the trial started, other than to say that he would deliver a defense against the charges.

The Central Jakarta District Court was told that when the schoolgirls' severed heads were placed in their village, a note accompanied them. This read: "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head." This was a mystifying note as no Muslims had been beheaded, except in Saudi Arabia by other Muslims.

Hasanuddin had spoken to a Muslim cleric in Poso about the possibility of mounting a Lebaran terror attack in Indonesia, but had been unsure if such an action was appropriate. The court was told that Hasanuddin later decided that such an action could count as an action of "Muslim charity". He gathered his accomplices from a local pesantaren, or Islamic school. He charged one of these, Lilik Purnomo, to scout for "the head of a Christian". Payaman told the court that Hasan had said: "We had better find Kongkoli (Christians) as an Idul Fitri gift."

Hasanuddin had supposedly told Lilik: "It would be a great Lebaran trophy if we got a Christian. Go search for the best place for us to find one." Lilik's reconnaissance had identified a group of Christian schoolgirls, who would regularly walk to their school at the village of Gebong Rejo in Poso district.

Indictments claim that Lilik had passed onto Irwanto Irano four potential targets, and the Gebong Rejo target was chosen. Lilik then assigned Irwanto to "lead an ambush team" of four men to carry out the murders. The plan to attack the schoolgirls was formulated by Hasanuddin and his accomplices in Gebang Rejo library in 2005, prosecutor Payaman said.

The attackers prepared for the killings by taking six machetes and plastic bags, and watched the area where the schoolgirls walked regularly. On one occasion, a planned attack on the girls was called off, after a woman spotted the men hiding by the roadside. The attack took place the following day, Saturday, October 29. The attackers had planned to behead six girls, but only four walked past on the morning of the attack.

Three of the girls were beheaded "cleanly", but Noviana Malewa struggled and escaped screaming. The assailants chased her but were unable to catch her. The heads were taken to Hasanuddin in a backpack.

Critique of Pure Dread

The events of the past thirty years in the history of the Episcopal Church in particular, and the Anglican Communion in general, had seemed to me a distant sort of story about a group of people struggling to hold on to what had been bequeathed to them. After 27 years of being in the Anglican Catholic Church, I had begun to observe that struggle somewhat disinterestedly. There were some in that church who wanted to move "with the times" as some say, and they began, at first, a clandestine takeover of the Episcopal Church and its ancillary institutions. The action of deposing the Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan by the Episcopal House of Bishops, meeting in Nevada this week past, seems to me to be a sort of watershed, or turning point, like Stalingrad and Gettysburg were. Because make no mistake about it, this is a war. I now realize very clearly that this turn of events is going to have repercussions for all faithful Christians.

For all intents and purposes, the battle for the possession of the Episcopal Church is over except for a few mopping up operations here and there. Remaining issues, such as whether or not the Diocese of San Joaquin will be able to keep their property and money in the conduct of their fighting retreat, are inconsequential. The forces that have retreated, whatever may become of them, are not coming back to retake the lost ground. The National Cathedral is lost, the University of the South is lost, the Cathedral in Atlanta is lost, to the organized homosexuals and their allies who slugged it out in the "long march" to take over the Episcopal Church. They won completely and utterly. I will not call them apostate or heretic. To do so would bestow a status on them they do not deserve. They are not traitors, for to be a traitor, one must belong, and they never belonged.

I was privileged to be invited this past week to a luncheon sponsored by Father Foley Beach at the Atlanta headquarters of the American Anglican Council. Bishop David Anderson and about a dozen priests from the metro Atlanta area were in attendance. The mood was somber as those present were aware that the Episcopal House of Bishops was at that moment meeting in Utah (in Star Chamber so to speak)to depose Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, in violation of their own canons. I did not fully appreciate the gravity of the moment. I was as one who watches a great ship go down from the safety of a life boat, a life boat named the Anglican Catholic Church. Later I felt a little guilty for being unable to render them any aid in their ship wreck. I also realized that I was witnessing not only the end of the Episcopal Church, but also the end of the historic Anglican Communion. The Turks were in Constantinople and running through the streets. Hagia Sophia had heard its last Mass.

Later, when I got home, I went on the internet and toured a variety of revisionist Episcopal blogs. The vicious, gloating, arrogant, mocking comments I read had an unexpected effect on me. Now that absolute power was in the hands of these phony Christian radicals, they made it clear that their intention is to clean house, TEC's own version of the "Night of the Long Knives." I could read the pattern of their courses of action, both accomplished and contemplated. They were burning their boats and striking boldly inland to conquer. They knew they would lose a few buildings and bank accounts by such a bold coup, but they are prepared for that. They will retain a vast fortune with which they will continue the assault on Christendom. There is nothing and no one for them to fear save Christ himself, and they believe him to be long dead, or perhaps even just a myth. No fear of GAFCON, no fear of a new Anglican Province in North America, and certainly no fear of the Archbishop of Canterbury who, we know beyond the shadow of any doubt, is with them heart and soul.

As long as the Episcopal Church had to contend with those in their ranks who opposed their political agenda, they were kept busy ordering their own house. Now they are free to direct their energies outward, and what damage they will do. They will use all of their considerable treasure to eradicate the parishes and dioceses that managed to slip their grasp by "civil rights" and "hate crimes" initiatives. Those of us in the Anglican Continuum will be targeted as well. They have not forgotten us.

While it is ironic that Satan would use the accumulated financial power of the Church to attempt to destroy the Church, it is not surprising in the least. In the greatest battle fought between Satan and God, Satan used the power of the Jewish Church to physically destroy Jesus. The outcome of that battle gives me strength, peace, and hope. But while we trust in God, we must do our part too. The juggernaut is coming, we must prepare. All those who truly belong to Christ and call themselves Anglican will be in a much better position to defend themselves if they stand united. This would be a good time to try and achieve some unity among faithful Anglicans. If we hope to win the next battle with the monster that the Episcopal Church has become, we will fare better if we can at least cooperate in stopping their efforts to turn our own federal government on us. Better still, let us seize the initiative, and find a way to slay the "rough beast, it's hour come round at last, slouching towards Bethlehem to be born."

Come Lord Jesus, even now.

Bishop-General Polk

On Saturday June 16th at 6 p.m. St. Hilda's Anglican Catholic Church in Atlanta, Georgia will celebrate the annual Mass for Blessed Leonidas Polk, Bishop and Martyr. Directions and details may be found at the parish web pages, www.sthildasacc.org . Pictured at left is the presentation of the relics from the Bishop's field communion chest at last year's Mass. Pictured left to right are: Mr. John Evans, Lay Trustee, University of the South, Fr. John Roddy, Rector, St. Hilda's Parish, and the Rt. Rev. D. Presley Hutchens, Bishop of New Orleans.

This year the 37th Georgia Infantry Regimental Band will once again perform period music, and the Parish will host a wine and cheese reception as well as a chocolate tasting after the service. Both the service and the reception are open to the public.