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