You are here
MISSISSIPPI: Retired SE Asian Archbishop visits Jackson metro area
By Jean Gordon
THE CLARION LEDGER
jmgordon@clarionledger.com
September 16, 2006
Retired Anglican Archbishop Datuk Yong Ping Chung of Southeast Asia landed in the metro area Friday to show his support for a conservative Episcopal church that has aligned itself with leadership outside the United States.
"I am doing some encouraging," said Yong, who will preach at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Flowood on Sunday. "I will encourage people to stand firm and not forget our mission to win souls for Jesus."
Formerly based in Malaysia, Yong, 65, will spend the next year visiting congregations affiliated with the Anglican Mission in America and and its Canadian counterpart. The groups encompass disaffected Episcopalians who feel U.S. and Canadian leaders have compromised Scripture to fit modern culture.
Holy Trinity formed in 2001 as an Anglican Mission in America church plant and is part of the Anglican diocese of Rwanda.
Steve Williams joined Holy Trinity after 25 years in an Episcopal church.
The Madison lawyer said he was attracted to the church's liturgical tradition and its evangelical emphasis.
Holy Trinity rector the Rev. Tim Smith said Yong is actively involved in supporting the new U.S. Anglican churches.
"We're delighted to have one of the bright lights of the Anglican Communion and Christiandom come and share the Gospel with our people," he said.
The 77-million-member Anglican Communion is a global network of parishes affiliated with the church of Canterbury in England. There are 38 provinces in the Communion, including the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church U.S.A.
Churches normally are organized in geographic jurisdictions, but a growing number of conservative Episcopalians have broken ties with U.S. church leadership to align with leaders from the global south.
Until his retirement, Yong was one of two Anglican primates to oversee churches in the Anglican Mission in America.
The mission claims more than 100 congregations and more than 15,000 members.
"Some people may wish they would disappear," Yong said about the Anglican Mission in America churches. "But the seed of the Gospel has been planted and it's going to grow."
Though most of the attention about the rift between U.S. Episcopalians and conservative churches within the global Anglican Communion has focused on issues of sexuality - the U.S. church consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003 - Yong said the real conflict centers on disputes about the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus.
"The denial of Jesus as the way, truth and life is totally outside Scripture," Yong said.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060916/NEWS/609160338/1001/news
