becoming

Karen大件事，你知道味？

Thank you Anson to this breaking news which we have anticipated for so long:

Anglican Leaders seek to unite North American Churches
Draft Constitution to be Unveiled, Jerusalem Declaration Signed at Dec. 3 Chicago Gathering

WHEATON, IL, Nov. 14 — Leaders of the Common Cause Partnership, a federation of more than 100,000 Anglican Christians in North America, will release to the public on the evening of Dec. 3 the draft constitution of an emerging Anglican C–hurch in North America, formally subscribe to the Jerusalem Declaration of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) and affirm the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future at an evening worship celebration in suburban Chicago.

This historic event comes in the wake of GAFCON held in Israel last June with leaders from more than one-half of the world’s 77 million Anglicans. At the close of that gathering, Anglican leaders released the Jerusalem Declaration and the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future, which outlined their Christian beliefs and goals to reform, heal and revitalize the Anglican Communion worldwide.

“One conclusion of the Global Anglican Future Conference held in Jerusalem last June was that the time for the recognition of a new Anglican body in North America had arrived,” observed Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of Common Cause Partnership. “The public release of our draft constitution is an important concrete step toward the goal of a biblical, missionary and united Anglican Church in North America.”

Provinces, dioceses and parishes around the world have been making formal decisions to support the Jerusalem Declaration and the GAFCON Statement on the Global Anglican Future since its release this summer. Leading bishops and representatives of the North American Common Cause Partnership will officially subscribe to the Declaration and affirm the Statement at the public worship service at Wheaton Evangelical Free Church in Wheaton, IL at 7:30 p.m. CST on December 3. All Anglicans in attendance will also be given an opportunity to individually subscribe to the Declaration and affirm the Statement.

“We enthusiastically issue a public invitation to all fellow Christians in hopes that they will witness, participate in and celebrate our unity and common mission,” Bishop Duncan added.

Prior to the evening service, at 2 p.m. CST earlier on Dec. 3, a reception will be held at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton to give thanks and learn about the mission of Christ Awakening. Rooted among Anglicans, Christ Awakenings are quickly spreading to the larger Christian community. The first Christ Awakening was held in September 2007 in Chicago. Since then, the grassroots movement of Christ Awakenings has held events in Vancouver, Ohio and New England to call Christians to work together, in unity, partnering for mission worldwide. After the reception, a media briefing with Common Cause leaders will follow at 5:30 p.m. CST, addressing the significance of the historic worship celebration that evening.

The Common Cause Partnership is a federation of Anglican Christians that links together eight Anglican jurisdictions and organizations in North America, including the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Anglican Network in Canada, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, Forward in Faith North America, the Reformed Episcopal Church, and the bishops and congregations linked with Kenya, Uganda, and South America’s Southern Cone. Together they represent more than 100,000 Anglican Christians worshiping each Sunday in the United States and Canada.

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Btw, if you are interested, the book I am quoting “The gift — Reflections on Christian Ministry”, is the UK version of the same book “The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction“, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans in US in 1993.

Such powerful reminder from Peterson:

But prayer is not a work that pastors are often asked to do except in ceremonial ways. Most pastoral work actually erodes prayer. The reason is obvious: people are not comfortable with God in their lives. They prefer something less awesome and more informal. Somthing, in fact, like the pastor. Reassuring, accessible, easygoing. People would rather talk to the pastor than to God. And so it happens that without anyone actually intending it, prayer is pushed to the sidelines.

And so pastors, instead of practicing prayer, which brings people into the presence of God, enter into the practice of messiah: we will do the work of God for God; fix people up, tell them what to do, conspire in finding the shortcuts by which the long journey to the Cross can be bypassed since we all have such crowded schedules right now. People love us when we do this. It is flattering to be put in the place of God. It feels wonderful to be treated in this godlike way. And it is work that we are generally quite good at.

Eugene Peterson, The Gift — Reflections on Christian Ministry, p.43

Dream Awakener’s A Primer on Today’s Missional Church.

As a Christian, don’t you feel that you are constantly invited to para-church “fund-raising dinners”, “walkathons”, or “vision-sharing nights” throughout the year? Besides begging for more money to save their financial statements that are blinking in bright red, you would also hear endless complaints of lacking resources, lacking space, lacking staff, lacking volunteers…… even though they have already sucked up most of the time and energy of regular parishioners, leaving vacuums in church ministries.

Don’t you feel tired of hearing those “same old, same old” by Fall every year? Anson raised an interesting question on what it might mean to the numerous Para-church Organizations (PCOs) during the time of a Financial Crisis.

And don’t forget to follow the even more thought-provoking exchange between him and our friend Alan@afc in the comment section!

[Anson, stop playing your guitar and those Jenga/Tetris/99 bricks!! You need to write more posts like this!]

The metaphors Jesus used for the lift of ministry are frequently images of the single, the small, and the quiet, which have effects far in excess of their appearance: salt, leaven, seed. Our culture publicizes the opposite emphasis: the big, the multitudinous, the noisy. It is, then, a strategic necessity that pastors deliberately ally themselves with the quiet, poised harpooners, and not leap, frenzied, to the oars. There is far more need that we develop the skills of the harpooner than the muscles of the oarsman. It is far more biblical to learn quietness and attentiveness before God than to be overtaken by what John Oman named the twin perils of ministry, “flurry and worry.” For flurry dissipates energy, and worry constipates it.

Eugene Peterson, The Gift — Reflections on Christian Ministry, p.25

省府高官要在教會為ESL開發佈會，早上七點多，一堆人已經來到Setup。看看他們搬來的器材，是可以在沙漠也一樣開到發佈會的那種。

九點半鐘發佈會前，本來用的班別告示，通通換過更大和彩色的。教會的banner不是抽出，就是反轉。一輪「去教會化」之後，發佈會開始：

若你有機會從電視看到發佈會片段，記著提提自己：「原來水銀燈下的影像，真的經過處理。」

影像，永遠和真實，有一段距離。