Bishop Wolf heads to D.C. to solicit support for South Sudan

From Rhode Island-

With South Sudan set to become an independent nation Saturday, Rhode Island Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf will go to Washington in coming days to advocate for a renewed effort by the United States to secure peace and security in the troubled region.

Bishop Wolf noted that she has been invited by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse to lead the U.S. Senate in prayer at its July 14 session. Following that, she said, she and her husband, Thomas Bair Jr., plan to meet the other members of Rhode Island’s congressional delegation, Sen. Jack Reed and Representatives David N. Cicilline and James R. Langevin, about the problems facing the people of South Sudan.

Bair, who accompanied his wife on a visit to the Diocese of Rhode Island’s companion Ezo diocese in southern Sudan in 2008, says that after 98 percent of the voters in predominantly Christian South Sudan voted in January to break off from the rest of Sudan, many people had assumed the region would enjoy some peace.

More here-

http://www.projo.com/religion/content/WOLF_SUDAN_07-09-11_RPP322D_v8.4c259.html

R.I. Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf to retire

From Rhode Island-

The Right Rev. Geralyn Wolf, a convert from Judaism who stepped into the history books 15 years ago by becoming only the second woman in U.S. Episcopal Church history to be ordained a diocesan bishop, is planning to retire as Rhode Island’s Episcopal bishop late in 2012.

Wolf, who turns 64 next month, broke the news to some of her staff Thursday, her first day back after undergoing knee replacement surgery on Jan. 31.

She made a more public disclosure on Saturday at the close of an evangelism convocation attended by priests and lay people at the Providence Marriott.

Although she limps a bit, and is using a cane, the bishop said the repairs to her knee, which have temporarily kept her from climbing the stairs to her second-floor bishop’s office, had nothing to do with her planned retirement.

More here-

http://www.projo.com/news/content/BISHOP_WOLF_03-06-11_KNMR3CH_v18.1945586.html

Bishop discusses expulsion of priest

A Providence News Video about Ann Holmes Redding and Bishop Geralyn Wolf (pictured)

http://www.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/bishop_discusses_expulsion_of_priest/12076/

Can you say "Islamopalian"? - Ann Holmes Redding Roundup

Links to the Ann Holmes Redding Story

First the Seatle Times-

The Episcopal Church has defrocked Ann Holmes Redding, the Seattle Episcopal priest who announced in 2007 that she is both Christian and Muslim.

Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, who has disciplinary authority over Redding, informed the priest of her decision in a letter today.

Wolf found Redding to be "a woman of utmost integrity and their conversations over the past two years have been open, honest and respectful," according to a press release from the Diocese of Rhode Island.

"However, Bishop Wolf believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim."

"I am very sad," Redding had said Tuesday. "I'm sad at the loss of this cherished honor of having served as a priest."

She also said she was sad at what seems to her to be a narrow vision of what the church accepts.

Redding, who had formerly served as director of faith formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral on Capitol Hill, announced in June 2007 that for more than a year, she had also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Muslim prayers moved her profoundly.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008961581_webdefrocked01m.html

Episcopal Life-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_106650_ENG_HTM.htm

Christian News Wire

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/797849914.html

Atlanta Journal Constitution

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/04/01/muslim_priest_defrocked.html

‘Muslim Priest’ Deposed

The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, Bishop of Rhode Island, deposed a Rhode Island priest on April 1 who claimed to be both a Christian and a Muslim.

For more than 20 years Ann Holmes Redding served in other dioceses. Since 2001, she has lived in the Diocese of Olympia, but she remained canonically resident in Rhode Island under Bishop Wolf’s pastoral oversight. In 2007, Ms. Redding revealed in an article in Episcopal Voice, the Diocese of Olympia’s monthly newspaper, that she had made the Muslim profession of faith and that she saw no contradiction in remaining an Episcopal priest.

After conferring with Ms. Redding, Bishop Wolf issued a pastoral direction giving Ms. Redding the opportunity to reflect for one year on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam, Bishop Wolf said in a statement issued at the time. The pastoral direction was extended for an additional three months in June.

In October, after the second expiration of the pastoral direction, the Rhode Island standing committee determined that Ms. Redding’s formal admission into another religious body not in communion with The Episcopal Church constituted abandonment as defined by the canons and constitution of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church and Bishop Wolf inhibited Ms. Redding. The inhibition expired on March 31. In order for the inhibition to be lifted, Ms. Redding needed either to renounce her priestly orders or withdraw from the Muslim faith. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Ms. Redding said being a Muslim did not preclude her from being a Christian.

“I am very sad,” she told the Times. “I’m sad at the loss of this cherished honor of having served as a priest.”

A statement issued by the Diocese of Rhode Island, said that Bishop Wolf found Ms. Redding “to be a woman of utmost integrity and their conversations over the past two years have been open and respectful. However, Bishop Wolf believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.”

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/4/1/muslim-priest-deposed

Priest won’t recant her faith in Islam

The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, the Episcopal priest who has been told by Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf that she had until the end of March to recant her faith in Islam or face expulsion from the Episcopal priesthood, said Tuesday she still has no intention of doing so and realizes that by dawn Wednesday she may no longer be a priest.

Reached by phone as she was stepping into a language academy in Seattle where she has begun studying Arabic, Redding said she had spent part of Tuesday mourning her impending expulsion.

“There is an acknowledged sadness, because if it were not for the limited vision of one particular bishop I still might have been able to function as a priest.”

Although Redding has never ministered in Rhode Island since Bishop George N. Hunt, the then-bishop of Rhode Island, ordained her 25 years ago, she has remained, at least until now, under the jurisdiction of Rhode Island’s bishop because she has never changed her canonical residence.

Bishop Wolf — who plans to release a statement on Wednesday — initially called Redding back from Seattle in 2007 after learning, at a bishop’s meeting, that Redding had converted to Islam while continuing to serve in the Olympia, Wash., diocese as an Episcopal priest. Redding’s unusual step did not seem to raise the ire of the then-bishop of Olympia, who called her move innovative.

Bishop Wolf — who plans to issue a statement on Redding on Wednesday — said she became particularly concerned because Redding had publicly recited the Shahada, the statement of belief that is at the cornerstone of becoming a Muslim and that she was attending prayer services at a mosque in Seattle.

http://www.projo.com/religion/content/episcopal_muslim_priest_04-01-09_F3DT8I4_v15.36a8f35.html

Bishop orders Episcopal priest to renounce Islamic faith

An Episcopal priest in Seattle is fighting attempts by Rhode Island Episcopal Bishop Geralyn Wolf to defrock her for practicing Islam and Christianity at the same time.
Ann Holmes Redding, who marks the 25th anniversary of her ordination on March 25, says she believes she can practice both faiths and should not have to recant her Muslim beliefs.

Redding, a former Brown University student and parishioner at St. Stephen's Church in Providence, was ordained by Wolf's predecessor. Wolf is her canonical superior because Redding never shifted her canonical residence to Seattle.

Wolf has told Redding that her conversion to Islam constitutes an abandonment of the Christian faith and she must recant by March 30 or lose her status as a priest.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-15-priest_N.htm

Ultimatum given to Christian/Muslim priest

More on the "Muslim Episcopal Priest" flap





The Episcopal Church’s Muslim-Anglican priest has been given six months to recant of her profession of Islam, or be defrocked. Last week, the Bishop of Rhode Island, the Rt Rev Geralyn Wolf affirmed the decision of a diocesan review committee that the Rev Ann Holmes Redding had “abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church.”

In an interview with the Seattle diocesan newspaper in June 2007, Dr Redding stated that she was both a Christian and a Muslim. “The way I understand Jesus is compatible with Islam,” she said. “I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam.” Islam and Christianity were complementary, she had told the Episcopal Voice. The Muslim profession of faith, “there is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God,” did not contradict anything in Christianity, nor did the professions made at a Christian baptism contradict anything in Islam, Dr Redding said.

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=3104

Priest inhibited as a result of her conversion to Islam

From Episcopal News Service-

Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Diocese of Rhode Island has inhibited the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding for publicly professing her adherence to the Muslim faith.

The notice states that the diocesan “Standing Committee has determined that Dr. Redding abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church. The bishop has affirmed that determination.”

The inhibition prevents Redding from “exercising the gifts and spiritual authority conferred on her by ordination and from public ministry” and is in force until March 31, 2009. In accordance with Episcopal canons, unless Redding “reclaims” her Christian faith, said Wolf in an interview, the inhibition will automatically lead to a deposition, ending Redding’s priesthood.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_101582_ENG_HTM.htm

Good Stuff in TEC: Rhode Island

For the troubled, an oasis amid bustle of the state airport

Amid all the happy travelers at T. F. Green Airport –– many leaving with suntan lotion and returning with mouse-eared Disney caps –– there are people making sadder pilgrimages as they rush to reach ailing relatives and friends.

Until recently, there was no special place at the airport for people to gather their thoughts, say their prayers or have a moment of peace as they arrive or depart. In April, however, the doors of the Hope Reflection Room opened –– a project that was started more than eight years ago by members of Episcopal churches in the West Bay area.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/AIRPORT_MEDITATION_ROOM_10-14-08_2UBT8PK_v16.38220eb.html

You can read all of the good stuff posts by typing good stuff into the blogs search engine.

Episcopal priest given ultimatum

Who says there's no discilpine in the Episcopal Church?

In a letter mailed last week to national and local church leaders, Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, who has disciplinary authority over the Seattle priest, said a church committee had determined that Redding "abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church."

Wolf has affirmed that determination, barring Redding from functioning as a priest for the next six months. According to church law, unless Redding resigns her priesthood or denies being a Muslim during those six months, the bishop has a duty to defrock — or depose — her, as the process is formally known.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008246825_redding10m.html

AP Story on Lambeth Quoting Bishop Geralyn Wolf

From The Philadelphia Inquirer some interesting quotes about the openinf retreat and the conference itself. Including this one from Geralyn Wolf (pictured (George Conger Photo)).

"Details of those talks were not released. But Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island said the archbishop of Canterbury spoke about how bishops must "call everyone together."

"Many people want us as bishops to align ourselves to one group or another," she said, summarizing his remarks. "But as bishops we must say there is more than just being on one man's side. You have to make decisions for the good of the whole. There's not just one way.""

Read it in context here -

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/25589584.html