General Synod: A Primer

From The Anglican Journal-

More than 350 Anglicans from across Canada—delegates, partners, invited guests, displayers, volunteers and observers—will gather July 10-16 in Vancouver for the 42nd General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. While there, delegates will consider resolutions affecting the whole church.

General Synod is the highest governing body in the church. Although the Anglican Church of Canada is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, it has final authority over its own affairs. It can pass, alter and strike down its own laws—or, in church parlance, canons.

The General Synod meets every three years, unless otherwise determined by Council of General Synod (CoGS), provided such meetings are not more than five years apart.

More here-

 https://www.anglicanjournal.com/general-synod-a-primer/?utm_source=Anglican+Church+of+Canada&utm_campaign=c01e38e64c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_04_07_49&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6285aca377-c01e38e64c-243912869

Women present at the altars in early Christianity, argues academic

From The Tablet-

The debate over female ordination inside the Catholic Church hinges on the role of women in early Christianity.  

When he addressed the question of women deacons, the Pope said a commission he set up to look at the historical origins of deaconesses, could not agree over whether they had received sacramental ordination or not.

He told a group of leaders of religious sisters last month: "I cannot make a sacramental decree without a theological, historical foundation.” 

How much emphasis can be given to art or artefacts from the early church? 

Dr Ally Kateusz, a research associate at the Wijngaards Institute and a historian, believes there is plenty of evidence to show women were present at the altars. 

More here-

https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/11842/women-present-at-the-altars-in-early-christianity-argues-academic-

Professing Faith: The religious foundations that bolstered the Declaration of Independence

From California-

In this week, when our nation celebrates the Declaration of Independence, signed 243 years ago on Thursday, perhaps we may do well to recall some of the religious foundations that rest behind the men who signed that famous document.

In our own day and age it has become fashionable to assert that the United States was never a Christian nation. On Feb. 26, 2015, the online news source, Huffpost righteously declared, “The facts of our history are easy enough to verify. Anybody who ignorantly insists that our nation is founded on Christian ideals need only look at the four most important documents from our early history – the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution – to disprove that ridiculous religious bias. All four documents unambiguously prove our secular origins.”

More here-

https://www.pe.com/2019/07/04/professing-faith-the-religious-foundations-that-bolstered-the-declaration-of-independence/

Anglican same sex marriage debate

From La Croix-

Bishops at the Lambeth Conference in 1930 defined the Anglican Communion as “as a fellowship of churches, provinces and dioceses in communion with the See of Canterbury.” (Photo courtesy of Anglican Communication News Service).

There have been appeals to Anglicans around the world to accept a need for frank and open discussion on the divisive issue of same-sex marriage at the 2020 ten-yearly 'Lambeth Conference.'
This Anglican Communion gathering was first held in 1867.

The Anglican Communion is a consultative and collaborative international association of autonomous national and regional churches with 80 million members rather than a governing body.

In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution stating that "homosexual acts" are "incompatible with Scripture".

More here-

https://international.la-croix.com/news/anglican-same-sex-marriage-debate/10465

Pro-Gay Episcopalian Service Moved Off Catholic Parish After Backlash

From The Church Militant-

A parish in the diocese of Lansing, Michigan was originally going to be the venue for a Protestant service honoring a pro-LGBT Episcopalian bishop's retirement, but after pushback was was moved off diocesan property.

The Episcopalian bishop, Wendell Gibbs, an active proponent of same-sex "marriage," is retiring from his role as head of the denomination's Michigan diocese. A service and reception honoring his two decades of leadership were originally scheduled to take place on Nov. 9 at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Brighton.

But the celebration was later rescheduled for the Episcopalian St. Paul Cathedral in Detroit.
The reasons for the venue change are unclear. But it is known that it comes amid complaints from some Anglicans as well as Catholics.

Conservative-minded Anglicans took exception to Gibbs' retirement taking place at a Catholic parish, owing to Gibbs' open support of same-sex "marriage." A petition opposing the event's venue was filed with Bp. Earl Boyea of the Catholic diocese of Lansing — the diocese in which St. Mary Magdalen is located.

More here-

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/catholic-parish-to-host-episcopalian-service

Catholics, Anglicans welcome news of Card. Newman’s canonization date

From Vatican News-

Catholics and Anglicans have welcomed Monday’s announcement that Pope Francis will declare English Cardinal John Henry Newman a saint on Sunday, October 13, at a Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.  

The day of canonization was established on July 1, as the Pope held an Ordinary Public Consistory of cardinals to formally approve the canonization of Card. Newman along with four others: Giuseppina Vannini, Mariam Thresia Chiramel Mankidiyan, Irmã Dulce Pontes and Marguerite Bays.

Newman, a former Anglican priest who became a Roman Catholic in 1845 and eventually a Cardinal, is regarded as one of the most influential figures from his era for both Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism, noted the Church of England in a press release on July 1.

More here-

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2019-07/cardinal-newman-canonization-date-catholics-anglicans.html

State Supreme Court denies Episcopal Church petition

From South Carolina-

The S.C. Supreme Court has denied a petition from The Episcopal Church and The Episcopal Church in South Carolina asking the court to enforce its decision about 29 properties currently held by a breakaway group.

The Supreme Court ruled in August 2017 that the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina, which broke away from the national Episcopal Church in 2012, must return the properties, which include St. Philip’s Church on Church Street and St. Michael’s Church on Broad Street.

That ruling, which reversed a 2015 circuit court decision, was written collectively by all five justices, and some of their opinions were contradictory. The task of enforcement then fell to 1st Circuit Judge Edgar Dickson to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision.

The Episcopal Church argued in March that Dickson had “unduly delayed” acting and the Supreme Court needed to step in.

More here-

https://charlestonbusiness.com/news/real-estate-commercial/76689/ 

also here-

https://thetandd.com/news/local/s-c-supreme-court-says-st-circuit-court-will-resolve/article_ffa53448-83ad-5c7f-977a-0b551ca7b548.html

Church of England Releases New ‘Ten Commandments’ For The Internet Age

From England-

These commandments were written on a very different type of tablet.

It can be hard navigating the modern world of social media, but thankfully the most modern of organisations The Church of England has decided to step in and help out.

The original Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mt Sinai were so helpful in reminding us important lessons like “Thou shalt not murder” and what we should and should not covet.

But those old stone tablet commandments don’t really apply to our online world so we really need some modern twists. Surely, God could speak to a modern Moses and tell him things like ‘Thou shalt not DM an ex after midnight’.

The Church of England have asked Anglicans to pledge to the following online community guidelines, and while it’s not exactly the online ten commandments (because, for one, there are only nine of them), it’s as close as we’re going to get.

More here-

https://10daily.com.au/shows/theproject/comedy/a190702mvncb/church-of-england-release-new-ten-commandments-for-the-internet-age-20190702

Bishop of Temotu, Leonard Dawea, Elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Melanesia

From Melanesia

The Anglican Church of Melanesia will have a new Primate later this year when the Bishop of Temotu, Leonard Dawea, is installed at St Barnabas Provincial Cathedral on 15 September.

The Archbishop-elect was chosen as the new Primate during a meeting of the Provincial Electoral Board last week.

Bishop Leonard, whose current diocese is in the Solomon Islands, will take over from Archbishop George Takeli, who retired in May. Before training for the priesthood he spent 12 years as a monk with the Melanesian Brotherhood.

Bishop Leonard, who comes from the Reefs islands in Temotu, and his wife Dorah, who hails from Guadalcanal, have two children.

More here-

https://www.solomontimes.com/news/bishop-of-temotu-leonard-dawea-elected-primate-of-the-anglican-church-of-melanesia/9186

Women are joining the House of Bishops at unprecedented rate

From ENS-

The first day of June was a historic, if somewhat distracting, day in the life of The Episcopal Church.

While the Rev. Kathryn McCrossen Ryan was being ordained and consecrated as a bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Texas, many people in attendance were surreptitiously checking on the outcomes of two bishop elections happening that day. In both cases, laity and clergy elected women: the Rev. Bonnie Perry in the Diocese of Michigan and the Rev. Lucinda Ashby in the Diocese of El Camino Real.

Perry and Ashby are the seventh and eighth bishops elected in The Episcopal Church this year, and the fifth and sixth women, the most ever elected in one year in the church’s history.

More here-

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/07/01/women-are-joining-the-house-of-bishops-at-unprecedented-rate/

Anglican Church raises red flag on rise in broken marriages

From Rwanda-

Marriages are crumbling and the trend is growing, raising concern, not only for Rwanda but also for the entire world, Rev. Canon Dr Antoine Rutayisire, a Senior Pastor at St. Peter’s Remera Parish of the Anglican Church has warned.

“All over the world, families are falling apart. People are getting wealthier, people are getting more educated, but families are falling apart, and [getting] miserable,” Rutayisire said.

He used the platform of the Anglican Church’s annual celebration of Father’s Union on Sunday to deliver a warning against rushing into marriage because of the desire for material wealth.

Rutayisire’s warning comes at a time when Supreme Court figures show that cases of divorce have been rising gradually, from 21 cases in 2016, to 69 in 2017, and 1,311 in 2018.

More here-

https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/anglican-church-raises-red-flag-rise-broken-marriages

Elaine Pagels’s lifelong search for the sacred

From Christian Century-

A professor once said to me that religious scholars come in two varieties: those who openly admit the connections between their scholarship and their autobiography, and liars. By this standard, Elaine Pagels is no liar.

Pagel’s autobiographical reflections chronicle her search for the sacred throughout her life, from a fundamentalist Christian congregation in California to graduate studies in religion at Harvard, from a fertility ritual done on her behalf in New York City to a Trappist monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. Two tragic losses inform her search: the death of her son Mark from a congenital heart illness when he was six, and the death a year later of her husband, Heinz, during a hiking accident in the mountains.

More here-

https://www.christiancentury.org/review/books/elaine-pagels-s-lifelong-search-sacred

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church celebrates 60 years in Brackenridge

From Pittsburgh-

There was a time, not so long ago, when the congregation of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church had all but disappeared.

When the Rev. Frank Yesko arrived in 2011, he didn’t know if they’d end up closing their doors, but he knew he had to try.

Now, the church has about 100 members.

“It stayed open,” he said, smiling. “We really put our trust in God.”

On Sunday the congregation got to reflect on the history of the church as they celebrated 60 years at its Morgan Street location in Brackenridge. The church moved there in 1959 after outgrowing its first location in Tarentum.

Bishop Dorsey McConnell delivered the sermon for the service.

“60^th anniversary — congratulations,” he said. “That’s a beautiful thing.”

More here-

https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/st-barnabas-episcopal-church-celebrates-60-years-in-brackenridge/

Closed for 17 years, St. Jude’s in Franklin opens for prayer

From  Connecticut-

When Barbara Burns plays the organ at St. Jude’s Church in Franklin, she thinks about her mother singing with the church’s choir 60 years ago.

“You can almost see your family up here, in the choir, teaching Sunday school,” said Burns, 81, sitting near the pulpit on her familiar cushioned seat at the organ during a recent Thursday service.

Burns, who began going to St. Jude’s as a child, played the organ at the Episcopal Church faithfully for 46 years before it closed in 2002. She said her family shared a love for the old hymns that were played there.

More here-

https://www.concordmonitor.com/St-Jude-s-Church-in-Franklin-reopens-after-16-years-26438525