Central Illinois and the Anglican Crisis

I have long counted the Bishop of Quincy a father in Christ, colleague in ministry, and friend. My association with Bishop Keith Ackerman began when he arrived here in Peoria through our mutual participation in local observances of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity arranged by the former Peoria Clergy Fellowship. Later we discovered we had much in common, including a Swedish heritage and mutual friends in the Society of St. Birgitta. Zion was privileged to have him preach and celebrate the Lord's Supper at our 110th Anniversary celebration in 2004, the first (and, thus far, only) time in the history of Zion that a non-Lutheran presided at Holy Communion (thanks to the full communion agreement between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church).

Bishop Ackerman is, of course, smack in the middle of the various controversies that beset the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Those of you who read Canon Kendall Harmon's titusonenine blog (linked as one of my Blogs for Faithful Churchmen) or otherwise keep up with the news will be aware of an increasingly-likely split of the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion over the place of homosexuals in the Church's ministry. Last week's Peoria Journal Star quoted Bishop Ackerman's distress over the House of Bishop's response to the communique of Anglican Primates to the Episcopal Church.

Quincy Bishop Keith Ackerman said the resolutions are "an absolute rejection of everything that was envisioned in the communique."

Ackerman, surprised action was taken, said, "What is very, very sad, though, is that first of all they had indicated they would not make a decision at this meeting but wait until the September meeting."

The Quincy bishop, based in Peoria, also said that the resolutions, in essence, say that "we want to be a part of the Anglican Communion, now here are the conditions by which we're willing to be in the Anglican Communion."

Ackerman said Quincy's leadership will not take any action in response to the resolutions since the statements don't have legislative power. "It would be unwise for us to do anything precipitous without taking counsel of other Anglican provinces," he said.

Read the rest here.

Last Monday, the Journal Star's Mike Miller offered more from his interviews with Bishop Ackerman and Springfield Bishop Peter Beckwith in his Faithfully Yours blog:

From Bishop Keith Ackerman of the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy:

“I believe it’s an absolute rejection of everything that was envisioned in the (Dar es Salaam) communique, and it’s an absolute rejection of everything that the majority of (Anglican) primates have agreed to. What is very, very sad, though, is that first of all they (the bishops) had indicated they would not make a decision at this meeting but wait until the September meeting. This is very, very surprising that this action was taken.

“It does call into question the presiding bishop’s willingness to work with all the points of the communique. She agreed to it, and then came back and only said that she would present it to the bishops. The other condescending feature is that it makes reference to the fact that the other primates don’t understand the unique polity of the American province. The vast majority of the overseas bishops” are quite knowledgeable about polity.

“The real embarrassment is that it’s not only poorly written in terms of academic and theological structure, but that it also says we want to be a part of the Anglican Communion. Now here are the conditions by which we’re willing to be in the Anglican Community.

“It’s a bit of an embarrassment to read that and then to see that it lacks so much of the polish and the poetry that comes from overseas bishops, for whom English is not a first language.”

Read it all here.

Zion regularly prays for Bishop Ackerman and the Diocese of Quincy, and for Bishop Beckwith and the Diocese of Springfield. It seems (as we used to say in Holy Communion) "meet, right, and salutary" that the faithful should pray for the faithful leaders in sister churches.