Fellowship Calls Church Congress
Episcopal News Service. November 12, 1976 [76342]
NASVHILLE, Tenn. -- The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen (FCC) -- an umbrella group of conservative Episcopal organizations -- has issued a call for a church congress to be held next fall to present "the spiritual principles and ecclesial structure of the continuing Episcopal Church."
The step -- taken at a two day meeting here from which members of the press except those who are affiliated with the FCC were excluded -- appears to be an attempt to rally support for some sort of separate church body whose relationship to the Episcopal Church remains unclear.
The Fellowship issued the call for a Sept. 14-16, 1977 meeting to be held in St. Louis, Mo. in response to the recent General Convention actions in opening the priesthood and episcopate to women and authorizing a Proposed Book of Common Prayer.
A statement issued by the Fellowship, a coalition of seventeen organizations and publications related to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, declared that "it is impossible for Episcopalians who are determined to keep the Faith whole and entire to remain in communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.," and "the FCC is persuaded that the Episcopal Church by the actions of its General Convention in Minneapolis has betrayed the faithful and broken communion with them."
Mr. Perry Laukhuff, editor of The Certain Trumpet and president of the Fellowship, explained that a steering committee was appointed during the Nashville meeting to develop detailed plans for organization and financing. "The Church Congress," he said, "will open on Holy Cross Day, 1977, in St. Louis, and all faithful Episcopalians in the United States, Anglicans in Canada, and churchmen in other provinces of the Anglican Communion around the world will be invited to attend and to unite themselves with this Continuing Church."
Among those in attendance at the Nashville meeting were Bishops Clarence R. Haden, Jr., of Northern California, and Paul Reeves, of Georgia, both diocesan bishops in the Episcopal Church.
Statement from the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen
The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen met in Nashville, Tenn., on November 4th and 5th, 1976, for the specific purpose of responding to recent actions of the 65th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Bishops Clarence Haden, Jr., and Paul Reeves were present, together with representatives of the seventeen American and Canadian organizations associated in the Fellowship.
The Fellowship discussed in detail possible courses of action available to faithful churchmen in our present circumstances and agreed that it is impossible for Episcopalians who are determined to keep the Faith whole and entire to remain in communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. The FCC is persuaded that the Episcopal Church by the actions of its General Convention in Minneapolis has betrayed the faithful and broken communion with them.
Therefore, The Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen has resolved to hold a Church Congress on September 14, 15 and 16, 1977, in St. Louis, Missouri, for the purpose of presenting the spiritual principles and ecclesial structure of the continuing Episcopal Church. The Fellowship urges all faithful Episcopalians in the United States, Anglicans in Canada, and churchmen in other provinces of the Anglican Communion to attend that Congress and to unite themselves with this continuing Church.
In order to lay groundwork -- spiritually, morally and structurally -- for the continuing Church, the FCC has:
- 1. Commissioned the drafting of a statement of moral and devotional principles upon which a continuing Church will be based;
- 2. Appointed a steering committee to develop detailed plans for organization and financing.
The Fellowship wishes to stress particularly its awareness of the fundamental relationship between Christian morality and the Church's devotional and sacramental life. The Fellowship is convinced that defection from true doctrine in the Episcopal Church is related both in cause and effect to defection from the moral principles which our Lord taught. It calls, therefore, not only for the structural implementation of a continuing Church but for a renewal of spiritual life and a reassertion of moral principles in the Anglican Communion.
The Fellowship further noted and applauded the recent action of the Annual Council of the American Church Union in its uncompromising rejection of the vote to ordain women to the priesthood and the episcopate. It also welcomed the idea of conferring with a committee appointed by the ACU for the purpose of implementing its resolution.
The Fellowship embarks upon this course of action with full awareness of its solemnity but in a spirit of loyalty to Jesus Christ, to His Holy Church, and to the Faith and Sacraments once delivered to the Apostles. It calls for the prayers and support of faithful Anglicans everywhere.
Those associated in the Fellowship of Concerned Churchmen are: The American Church News; The American Church Union, The Anglican Digest, The Canterbury Guild; The Certain Trumpet; The Christian Challenge; Comment (Canada); The Congregation of St. Augustine (CSA); The Council for the Faith (Canada); Episcopal Guild for the Blind; Episcopal Renaissance of Penna.; Episcopalians United; Foundation for Christian Theology; the Rev. Dr. Carroll E. Simcox (Editor of The Living Church); Society of the Holy Cross (SSC); Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer (SPBCP); SPEAK.