'The logjam is about to break,' bishop tells 'Hope and Future' conference By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Friday, November 11, 2005 PITTSBURGH, Pa. – "The logjam is about to break," Episcopal Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. told more than 2,000 participants at the opening of the first-ever international conference "Hope and a Future" on Thursday. "The way forward for Biblical and missionary Anglicans – and Christians – is increasingly clear and involves all of us together." The Anglican Communion Network, created by Duncan and other conservative bishops after the denomination consecrated a homosexual man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, organized the conference, which Duncan has said will focus on the renewal of North American Anglicanism and "the rebirth of a Biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism." The network was formed in opposition to the Episcopal Church USA's decision in 2003 to accept an openly gay bishop and give tacit approval to same-sex blessings. The two-year-old network is made up of 10 Episcopal dioceses and more than 800 parishes, constituting about 10 percent of the Episcopal Church USA's 2.3 million members. "This conference," Duncan said in his keynote address, "comes at a kairos moment in Anglican development, in Western civilization and in Christian history. We have gathered here to be encouraged, to be challenged, and to be sent." Early in the planning for the conference, Duncan said, "God gave that early committee the Scripture verse and the reference out of which the conference title and the conference message spring – Jeremiah 29:11: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you hope and a future. "It is to this verse that I want to turn as I give one part of the overview for this conference," he said. "Our identity as orthodox Anglican Christians in North America is as exiles, strangers and aliens. The beautiful city of classical Anglicanism, in which we were raised or to which we had found our way, now lies in ruins. We have been taken captive, against our will, to a place we did not wish to go. On our best days, and at our most positive, we might describe ourselves as pilgrims, on a journey from the place we had known to the one we trust God will give us, but we are very far – very far – from having arrived. This is a very difficult time for us all, even if we have been among the few who have been able to hold on to much of what we had. "No matter what the particulars of the local circumstances from which we have come, every one of us is clear that we are very far from the realization of that united, Biblical and missionary Anglicanism that is our vision, at least in penultimate terms. Ultimately, there is not one of us here who yearns for anything less than the heavenly city, but penultimately our sights are set on a united, Biblical and missionary Anglicanism, and we are not ashamed to admit it or to admit how far we still have to go. But this conference is a step, corporately for us all and individually for each one who has sacrificed to come and who is prepared to claim our hope and decide for our future." Duncan offered the participants "three encouragements, three warnings and three choices" to consider as the conference proceeded. The three encouragements were that Jesus Christ is our hope; that Anglicanism is reforming and re-forming; and that the future is the mission. "Jesus Christ is our hope," he said. "He is the whole of it. He is the sum and substance of it. One of the two 'conference hymns' is In Christ Alone My Hope is Found. If we keep Jesus before our eyes, we will be able to face any challenge that comes our way. "Global Christianity is also reforming and re-forming," Duncan said. "Those who have been divided from one another are being brought together, both within orthodox Anglicanism and within the wider Christian family. Mission is being reshaped and reinvigorated everywhere and the center of world Christianity is shifting south. "When asked about what we could do in the midst of our present sufferings, our dear brother Archbishop Henry Orombi said, 'You can do the mission.' Jesus' instructions to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, visit the sick, go to those in prison, clothe the naked – as well as to proclaim his salvation to all creation – apply to all seasons, good and bad. If we want Jesus' future to come, the third encouragement is that to focus on the mission – every last one of us – is the quickest, happiest and most fulfilling way to get there. Duncan said that Jeremiah and the wider Biblical witness about exiles and pilgrims provide three warnings. The first is about impatience. "When are we going to get there?" he said. "The English word 'patience' is built on the Latin verb meaning 'to suffer.' We in the West are not willing to suffer. Ours is a very sick culture addicted to painkillers. We want to be there now. If God doesn't deliver us from our fears, anxieties, discouragements and losses now, then our lips are filled with murmuring. How are we different from the children of Israel in their long-ago wilderness? There is not one of us who does not murmur. The Biblical witness that is that murmuring – and the impatience out of which it grows – only lengthens the purgatory of the wilderness." His second warning was about idolatry. "When the impatience becomes unbearable, when despair overtakes us, when we reach the point where we just cannot see how our God can be trusted any more for the outcome," Duncan said, "we turn to false gods. We melt down what we have and make a golden calf. The calf can be accommodation, the calf can be autonomy, the calf can be sullen inaction. What calf have you set up? What calf have I set up? Jeremiah warns the exiles that the time of exile will not pass quickly, and that those who say it will are false prophets. Settle yourselves. Trust God for his plan and his deliverance in his time." Duncan's third warning was about self-righteousness. "It is not just someone else's sin that got us here," he said. "It is our sin, our complicity, our unfaithfulness. It is not about pharaoh anymore. He has been severely punished, and will know eternal separation. But we are God's special people and it is our sin that we must deal with, and that he is dealing with. The call for repentance is a call to us. We have a log in our own eye. We will not get out of this wilderness by blaming others, or setting up false gods, but only by genuine repentance and by a return to our first love will we be ready to enter the promised land or be restored to the geography of the land we once knew." He then spoke about people making a choice. "To be here is to make a choice," Duncan said. "To be here is to choose to soldier on. There are three choices this conference, and our present exile, implores. The first choice is for truth over accommodation. For everyone in this hall, we are continuing to deal with choosing Jesus first: Jesus above culture, Jesus above comfort, Jesus above property, Jesus above family and friends, Jesus above any other security, Jesus above a wayward North American Church. We are here to confirm our choice for truth above accommodation. This is the evangelical choice." Duncan said the second choice is for accountability over autonomy. "Freedom, like truth, is a passion that all of us share," he said. "But the vast danger here is that we will get stuck in our freedom Forty years of Anglican splits and splinters tells the story only too well. Autonomy is every bit as much a danger as accommodation. We are here to make a choice for accountability over autonomy. This is the catholic choice." The third choice, he said, is for the "mission over sullen inaction. Is your congregation a church-planting congregation? Is your congregation partnered with a Global South diocese? Is your congregation functioning in local needs-based evangelism? Are you personally engaged in a Matthew 25 ministry? Have you personally led anyone else to saving faith in Jesus Christ? Have you challenged those around you to choose this Day? Are you trapped in 'ain't it awful?' or 'what can we possibly do?' or the escape of self-absorption? We are Holy Spirit people: people who have been gifted, 'charismed.' We are here to elect mission over sullen inaction. This is the charismatic choice." "We are here," Duncan said, "to model a united, Biblical and missionary way of being Anglicans; to repent for our impatience, idolatry and self-righteousness; to choose truth and accountability and mission; to begin to set a wholesome and reformed DNA in place for a movement that is evangelical and catholic and charismatic, and recognizably Anglican and passionately Christian; to allow ourselves to admit that a new day is dawning."

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