Dearest People of God in the Anglican Church in North America:
I write you with a tremendous heaviness in my spirit and soul as I observe and participate in what is happening today in the United States of America. If ever there is a time for the people of God to fall on our faces before God and plead for his mercy and intervention, now is the time. As believers, we are given the privilege of coming to the Throne of Grace with our petitions and requests, and he promises to hear us. (1 John 5:14,15)
Consider what we have experienced in recent days and weeks:
- Another senseless killing by a police officer of an unarmed black man, George Floyd.
- Hundreds of thousands of people participating in peaceful protests.
- The unleashing of a spirit of lawlessness where rioting, violence, destruction of businesses and properties (mostly minority owned), unbridled theft, personal assaults on bystanders, store owners, the elderly, and police officers.
- Covid-19 closing whole countries down, reportedly killing over 100,000 people in the U.S., over 7,000 in Canada, and over 10,000 in Mexico, and creating an economic calamity with tens of millions of people unemployed across North America.
- Numerous businesses and churches have had to close down and many will not reopen.
- Incredible generosity of strangers helping strangers in the midst of calamity.
Sisters and brothers, I am asking you to join me in spending the next week in prayer and fasting for North America (Wednesday, June 3 – Wednesday, June 10). For those who can fast the whole week, a day, or a meal, I ask you set aside time to intercede on behalf of your community, state, and nation.
Pray in the Holy Spirit and as the Holy Spirit leads you, and as you do, consider these petitions:
- Show me my own sin; reveal to me the darkness of my own heart (Ps.139:24)
- Reveal to me the repentance I need in my own life.
- The ending of the lawlessness and violence.
- Justice for those who have had their lives taken from them, especially George Floyd, and comfort for their families.
- Comfort for the family and friends of the thousands of people who have lost their lives because of Covid-19.
- Help for the millions who find themselves suddenly without a job.
- Provision for all those business owners who have lost their business because of rioting, for those who have insurance and those who do not.
- Strength for the health care workers, nurses, doctors, technicians in hospitals and medical facilities who continue to work fearlessly to save lives.
- Wisdom for our government and civil leaders as they seek to keep us safe both from the virus and from the violence in our cities.
- Food and provision for those who are hungry and in need.
- Fresh anointing for the Church of Jesus Christ to faithfully proclaim the Gospel and reach people who are hurting, suffering, alone, and in need.
- Specific acts of grace and mercy that You want me to carry out in this time.
If you would like some specific prayers to help you pray, consider these from the Book of Common Prayer 2019 on pages 657-661:
- #39 – For our Nation
- #40 – For All Sorts and Conditions of Men
- #41 – For Cities, Towns, and other Communities
- #42 – For the Human Family
- #43 – For Social Justice
- #44 – In Times of Social Conflict or Distress
- #45 – For Those Who Serve Others
- #46 – For Commerce and Industry
- #47 – For the Unemployed
- #48 – For Agriculture and Farming
- #49 – For Schools, Colleges, and Universities
- #50 – For the Medical Professions
- #51 – For Those Who Inform Public Opinion
Jesus said: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Luke 11:9,10)Your brother in Jesus Christ,
The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach
Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America
I’m very uncomfortable with the ‘social justice warrior’ trajectory of ACNA? What if the Holy Spirit is tired of anglicanism and just wants it to go away; wander around aimlessly 40 years in the desert dissipating until most of the 1000 points of light blink out? Does ACNA find something obnoxious with the US Constitution? Yes the two tiered Justice Department does need draining.
We had the same riots taking place in 2016 in solidarity of the coming election of The Queen of Thieves. Hell, I remember my university days with the burning of the NROTC building, two cases of dynamite lit off on the administration building steps, stopping I-5 traffic, and most important campus SDS using the BSU as their storm troopers. The idealism along with billions of remedy dollars tripled the number of black students on that campus; 300 out of 32k in 1970 to 925 out of 46k today. What a joke. 26 percent of today’s students are Asian. Something ain’t right and doing the same social justice programs over and over with prayer and fasting won’t fix it.
“What if the Holy Spirit is tired of anglicanism and just wants it to go away”
What if He isn’t?
ACNA’s Archbishop writes against: “The unleashing of a spirit of lawlessness where rioting, violence, destruction of businesses and properties (mostly minority owned), unbridled theft, personal assaults on bystanders, store owners, the elderly, and police officers.” What in that do you object to?
Fair question. I’ve given it some thought. It’s not that Abp. Beach is wrong. It is more the need to take a position early on from a small religious organization with the danger of actually acerbating the situation. The world isn’t binary. One wrong doesn’t make burning, killing, looting right. My observation is the large churches in my area with actual parishioners don’t feel the need to make specific public position statements on every aspect of life.
I think the church should leave room for even my race perspective. America melts which differs from multicultural Canada. During university in the short window of the Berkeley Free Speech movement, Malcolm X (I attended his speech) derided his red hair a legacy from his white grandfather but yet it was there. I have a good friend whose grand children are ½ Mexican, ¼ Polish, ⅛ German, and ⅛ Korean. The children’s great grandmother is wholly Korean. A lot of melting takes place in four short generations. My friend does think her young Mexican son-in-law spoils her daughter too much. He has a masters degree in aeronautical engineering and works for the Boeing Co (not on 737 Max).
Who is the most racist race of all? I would say Japanese from my experience working with AND for. They don’t melt. There are lingering reasons the Koreans, Chinese, and New Mexicans harbor a distinct dislike. I got along fine and worked around the arrogance.
Although I usually find ReebHerb’s posts impenetrable, I agree with the sentence “It is more the need to take a position…” in the first paragraph here.
A certain unsavory event happens. It goes viral. The news media push their narrative of it. And everyone of any importance simply has to get on the bandwagon and make an official Statement of concern. We got the secular version of the Abp’s statement in a blast email from the boss at work yesterday — totally gratuitous.
And here I go contributing to the tsunami of verbage on the subject…
I watch no TV news. Somehow I’m going to have to limit my online reading but still keep up with current events.
“Anglicanism is perhaps the prime example of the distortion of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the culture of the West.”
Incorrect. Not surprisingly, you do not attempt to support this assertion with any facts or reasoning.
“Mr Foley’s call to petition God so as to resist evil,”
Which he doesn’t do, hence irrelevant.
No Chris, you did not support it. You didn’t even try. And yes, I did read your comment. Both sentences of it are still there for anyone to read.
“Mr Foley invites us to …”
The rest of that paragraph does not appear to bear any relationship to what ++Foley wrote. If you object to a particular sentence or section of it, feel free to tell us what it is, and why.
“Insofar as Anglicanism, notoriously, as from the day of its inception, is under constant pressure to distort the gospel ethic …. servile tradition of its Church…”
And yet another entirely unsupported assertion.
“As you know, the distortion of the gospel by Anglicans has been amply demonstrated by Gafcon et al.”
On the contrary, Gafcon et al shows us that there are SOME bad eggs in the Anglican basket – as there is with every other denomination and congregation (bar none).
“can readily advise you in respect of the early history of the Church of England”
I am more than happy to debate that, if somebody wants to make a comment. So far, on this thread, nobody has done so.
“you have read the comment, but not so as to understand it cf the third and fourth petitions on Mr Foley’s list.”
Of course, since you have said nothing about that until now. We were left to guess as to your reasons for asserting that Anglicanism “distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ by the culture of the West”. And we are still wondering what you are referring to, since there are three “lists” in the article above. Could you clarify which ones you mean?
“you appear adept at avoiding substantive engagement”
No actually, that’s how you appear. At least now we are starting to get an idea of the basis of your jibe against all Anglicans.
“also betrays the conformity of Anglicanism to a secular agenda.”
No more so than every other denomination and congregation in existence. None of us are perfectly in conformity with God’s will.
“Consider the fact that there are no “bad eggs” in the Body of Christ”
No, but there are bad eggs in every denomination and congregation in existence. Angicanism is no different to any other in that regard. Hence you have no basis for singling out Anglicanism in particular.
Of course, some of those bad eggs will be made good before our Lord returns, i.e. join the Body of Christ. That is why he leaves them there.
And no, I don’t “avoid substantive argument” – rather that is what you have been repeatedly doing.
“Thus Anglicanism is perhaps the prime example of false teaching for the English speaking peoples.”
And again, you don’t give a reason for this unsupported assertion. Your previous sentence certainly supplies none. If you can explain a reason for your assertion, then I am happy to discuss it.
And no, I did not “avoid the substantive argument”. You still seem to be misunderstanding what you are arguing again. For example, you write:
“it is not right simply to petition God to administer due justice…”
I have to stop you there, because that’s the opposite of what ++Foley says in the article. Rather, he suggests that the nation should petition God for mercy. In this context, there is a profound difference. It is the same for us as individuals – if we petition God for justice, we will be lost in our sin forever. The only safe petition we can make to God is for mercy.
“Rather than that we might hope, conceivably, as a society, to avoid payment of the wages of sin,”
Isn’t that exactly what the Old Testament teaches us? The Old is not contrary to the New.
This is yet another example of how the Old Covenant is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ – if as a nation we seek relief from God’s temporal judgment, that is a great way to get individual sinners thinking about their need to seek relief from God’s eternal judgment.
“We have received no revelation to say that we, as a nation, are now suffering the temporal judgment of God,”
We don’t need to. We have received the teaching of Christ which is sufficient. Remember He wrote both the Old Testament and the New Testament. This also is what the Old Testament teaches.
“nor does there exist any teaching of the Old Testament, whereby it has been revealed to us that “what is happening to day in the United States of America””
Precisely my point, Chris. Thank you for agreeing with me.
There is no revelation about any particular temporal judgment now, just as there is no revelation about any particular sin now. However, the Bible teaches us that God does use temporal judgment from time to time, and nations should seek his mercy.
“The teaching of Christ, which is sufficient,”
The teaching of Christ is found in both the New and the Old Testaments. And yes, it is sufficient.
“As for ethnic groups or nation states,”
Who mentioned that? Certainly not me. I have no idea why you introduced the idea.
” if you divested yourself of political concerns.”
Yes, that is what you should do.
“However the relevant point is that we do not know as to whether God is now so acting”
We don’t need to, any more than an individual needs a special revelation concerning their own sin. The Bible tells us what sin is, by a people and by an individual. Both categories need to repent of it.
“anymore than did the Jews know thus in regard to the Tower of Siloam.”
Insofar as that passage is relevant, it supports my point. Jesus pointed out that both the people killed in the tower crash and his listeners were ALL sinners. They all needed to repent.
“but moreover, that you confess no idea as to why I referred to political matters.”
That’s actually not what I wrote – you appear to be conflating two of my comments above. When you can put my position fairly then I am happy to engage.
” namely, that the suffering of the catastrophe of the Tower of Siloam is not to be linked to the particular sinfulness of the victims”
Jesus at no point says that, so let’s not substitute your words for his!
What Jesus actually says is this: “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish“.
Jesus does not say they weren’t sinners, and he does not say that the falling of the tower on them was not a temporal judgment. All he says is that everyone listening to him are just as sinful and that they will all “LIKEWISE perish”.
So no, I am not the one who is “misreading scripture” or “avoiding the relevant message of Jesus”, or “simply negating and denying”. Each of those comments is in fact an excellent description of yourself. Look in the mirror.
Re your last paragraph, it is not important to me to “have the last word”. I would hope that we all see it as important to have the right word, based on the teachings of Jesus.
“Think you, then, Michael, that this people of America, this people of China, this people of Australia… etc are sinners above the peoples of all the nations?”
Why would they be? Doesn’t Jesus teach us the opposite in the very passage we have been discussing?
“However you did say that all that Jesus said was that everyone listening to him are just as sinful and that they will all likewise perish. That is not correct.”
I say it is correct, i.e. that is precisely the effect of Jesus’ words.
“Jesus also said: “think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem”.”
Yes, that is the same passage that I quoted above. If you would prefer to use KJV rather than NIV, this is it:
Luke 13:4-5
This is much improved from his support of the weak “Bishops’ Letter.” It has slightly restored my faith in his wisdom.