Church workers caught in Haiti's devastation

From The Christian Century-

Nearly a week after the devastating earthquake, with the capital city suffering from a shortage of water, food, medical help, gasoline, housing and safety from looters, Haiti's Episcopal bishop Jean Zache Duracin rejected an offer to evacuate him from Port-au-Prince. "No, I will stay with my people. We need to help them," Duracin told U.S.-based missionaries monitoring reports after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit January 12. Death toll estimates ranged upwards of 50,000.

Holy Trinity Cathedral, the Episcopal cathedral, was among the structures that crumbled in the densely populated city, forcing the bishop to live in a tent city along with 3,000 other homeless victims, said the Episcopal News Service.

The Diocese of Haiti, one of a dozen overseas Episcopal Church dioceses, is numerically the largest in the denomination with more than 83,000 Episco palians in 169 congregations served by only 37 clergy. Up to 100 churches were thought to be damaged.

U.S. churches responded rapidly with donations through church relief agencies and other charities. Conditions were dire in the first week because so many medical facilities were damaged.

Officials of the Presby terian Church (U.S.A.) confirmed by January 15 that Holy Cross Hospital in Leogane—a ministry that the PCUSA shared with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti—was destroyed.


More here-

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=8185

'Mr. Baseball' Bragan dies at 92

Bobby Managed my beloved if hapless Pirates in 1956 and 1957-

Bobby Bragan, who earned the nickname "Mr. Baseball" and was dedicated to seeing baseball blossom in Fort Worth, died at his Fort Worth home on Thursday night. He was 92.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened today by the passing of Bobby Bragan," Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. "I met Bobby when he was the manager of the Milwaukee Braves and he was a dear friend of mine for nearly 50 years. He had a long and wonderful baseball career as a player, coach, manager and executive. ... All of baseball will miss him."

Bragan, a native of Birmingham, Ala., arrived in Fort Worth in 1948 as a player and manager after parts of seven seasons in the majors, ending up with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a backup catcher for the Dodgers before spending two years in the military. He returned for the 1947 season.

The Dodgers went on to lose the World Series that year to the New York Yankees, and Bragan had a pinch-hit double in his only World Series plate appearance. The next season he was in Fort Worth helping the Cats become a winner. He stayed through the 1952 season and his teams won regular-season titles in 1948 and 1949, never finishing below .500 during his tenure.

More here-

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/news/story?id=4848392

Jean Simmons Dies at 80; Actress Whose Talent Exceeded the Parts She Played

After Grace Kelly probably the most beautiful actress ever on the silver screen.

Jean Simmons, the English actress who made the covers of Time and Life magazines by the time she was 20 and became a major midcentury star alongside strong leading men like Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Marlon Brando, often playing their demure helpmates, died on Friday at her home in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 80.

The cause was lung cancer, according to Judy Page, her agent.

“Simmons is one of the most quietly commanding actresses Hollywood has ever trashed,” the critic Pauline Kael wrote when reviewing her performance as the half-genuine, half-fraudulent revivalist preacher who succumbs to Burt Lancaster’s con man in “Elmer Gantry” (1960). Indeed, she rarely found roles to match the talent so many colleagues and critics recognized in her, despite a dazzling start to her career.

Plucked out of a dancing-school class at 14, Ms. Simmons appeared in three classic movies before her 19th birthday, typically eliciting adjectives like “lovely,” “radiant” and “luminous” in the reviews.

She was Estella, the mocking girl who was raised to break men’s hearts, in David Lean’s “Great Expectations” (1946). She was the sensual native girl whom five Anglican nuns sought to civilize in a convent high in the Himalayas in “Black Narcissus” (1947). And after seeing “Great Expectations,” Olivier chose Ms. Simmons to play Ophelia to his title character in “Hamlet” (1948).

More here-

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/movies/24simmons.html

Benedict XVI, Pope of Christian Unity

From the London Telegraph-

This week’s editorial in The Catholic Herald deserves to be reproduced in full. The practical steps taken by Pope Benedict XVI are doing more to achieve Christian unity than ARCIC’s decades of earnest and disingenuous waffle. Some professional ecumenists may be unhappy, which is a shame, but there you go.

When Jesus prayed that his followers may be one, He was praying for the unity of the Church whose leadership he entrusted to St Peter and his successors. He was not prophesying that this unity would be achieved by a particular model of ecumenism. In the 20th century, the Church mapped out a route towards unity which focused on ever closer links with other Christian communities, such as the Anglican Communion; the aim was to achieve a corporate reunion. Thus, the purpose of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, so far as the Church was concerned, was an agreement in which the Archbishop of Canterbury would once again become bishop of a historic see of the Church that Anglicans describe as “Roman Catholic”. Unfortunately, participants on both sides of ARCIC glossed over the fact that doctrines of transubstantiation and infallibility are unchangeable: one can do no more than tinker with the language in which they are defined.

More here-

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100023487/benedict-xvi-pope-of-christian-unity/

St. Pete missionary trip planned for Haiti

From Florida-

On Saturday, the Episcopal Deanery of St. Petersburg held a special prayer service to remember those who have died, and those who are suffering, due to the recent earthquake in Haiti.

The service was held at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, located at 738 Pinellas Point Drive South in St. Petersburg.

The tragedy is personal for many of the church members as well as St. Petersburg City Council member Jamie Bennett. He's a member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, which not only built
a school in the village community of Loiseau in Haiti, but they also helped build a church. The earthquake destroyed them both.

Jamie Bennett says, "Oh, it's awful. It's absolutely awful. We had concrete, rebar, wood roofs... galvanized very standard buildings but with things to protect it from hurricanes but not from a 7.0 earthquake."

Community members outside the church also attended the prayer service to not only pray, but to raise money to rebuild the school and church in Haiti. Bennett says, "We're going to have to figure out how to temporarily house and maybe we can put a tarp over the school so that we can clear it out, so that we can begin classes. We could be one of the first schools back up and running if we can do that."

Bennett and two pastors from the Bay area are planning to head to Loiseau next Saturday, January 30th. Bennett says, "We've allotted a week to clear the rubble and bring aid. We're working very closely with Senator Bill Nelson's office on bringing food, medicine, tents, water - whatever we can get there to Port Au Prince - and take it to the mountain."

Pastor Joseph Myrtle of Redeemer Baptist Church, which is made up of mostly Haitian members, says the people of Loiseau are desperate for help. "Right now, they are sleeping in the woods waiting for our help."

The current missionary trip is scheduled to leave on January 30th. They will take food and supplies. The mission group will also assess damage, begin the clean-up, secure the compound and possibly set up a temporary school, so that students can resume their studies as soon as possible.

If you would like to make a donation, you can drop off or mail a check to St. Matthew's Episcopal Church located at 738 Pinellas Point Drive South in St. Petersburg.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=123408&catid=8

Episcopalians name new bishop

From Savannah-

The Rt. Rev. Scott Anson Benhase became the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia in a formal ceremony Saturday.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, ordained and consecrated Benhase as a bishop in the national church during the service.

At least 800 were expected to attend the ceremony, including clergy and members from the Diocese of Georgia, and 23 bishops from around the country.


Benhase replaces the outgoing Rt. Rev. Henry I. Louttit, who is retiring after serving 15 years as bishop of the diocese.

The Diocese of Georgia is one of 116 dioceses that comprise the 2 million-member Episcopal Church.

The denomination traces its Georgia roots to the founding of the colony and the congregation of Christ Church in 1733.

Three parishes - Christ Church, Savannah; Christ Church, St. Simons Island; and St. Paul's Church in Augusta - formed the Diocese of Georgia in 1823. The Rt. Rev. Stephen Elliott served as the first bishop from 1841 to 1866.

More here-

http://savannahnow.com/news/2010-01-24/episcopalians-name-new-bishop

The Right Rev Colin James: Bishop of Winchester, 1985-95

From The London Times-

A child of the vicarage, Colin James followed his father, Canon Charles Clement Hancock James, into the Church of England, attaining high office as successively Bishop of Basingstoke, then Wakefield and finally Winchester.

Colin Clement Walter James was born in 1926 and brought up in Cambridge where he attended the King’s College Choir School. Later, after school at Aldenham and service with the Navy, he returned to King’s as an undergraduate, taking his degree in history.

Ordination training at Cuddesdon was followed by a curacy in Stepney and three years as chaplain at Stowe School. From 1959 he spent eight years with the BBC as a religious affairs producer. Broadcasting and television were to remain a keen interest; James was chairman of the BBC and IBA Central Religious Advisory Committee from 1979 to 1984 and he served on several groups concerned with the media.

It was during his time with the BBC that he met and was married to Margaret (Sally) Henshaw, who greatly sustained him in his life and ministry.

More here-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6997394.ece

Traditionalist Anglicans prepare response to Holy See

From The Catholic Herald-

The bishops of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) are to give the Vatican their answer to the new Anglican provision.

Archbishop John Hepworth, the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group of Anglican churches which have broken away from the mainstream Anglican Communion, said the bishops would come together at Easter to formulate a response to the Pope's decree Anglicanorum coetibus.

The Anglican provision allows groups of Anglicans who consider themselves Catholic to enter into full communion with Rome while maintaining aspects of their heritage and identity. The document provides a new canonical provision called a Personal Ordinariate which most resembles the structure of military dioceses.

In 2007 the leaders of the TAC signed a petition to the Holy See asking for "corporate reunion with the Holy See" as well as "a communal and ecclesial way of being Anglican Catholics in communion with the Holy See, at once treasuring the full expression of Catholic faith and treasuring our tradition within which we have come to this moment".

According to Archbishop Hepworth, the bishops and vicar generals have each received a letter from Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying that the recent decree constituted "the definitive response of the Holy See" not only to the TAC's original request but also to "but also to the many others of a similar nature which have been submitted over the last years".

More here-

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000735.shtml

Synod’s ‘full agenda’ to include pensions, Fresh Expressions, and religion on TV

From The Church Times-

THE NEXT General Synod meeting will take place in Church House, Westminster, from Monday 8 to Friday 12 February. It has a very full agenda, said the secretary general of the Arch bishops’ Council, William Fittall, at the press briefing on Monday, because it will be “clearing the decks for the Synod at York in July” when the ordination of women bishops will next be debated.

Mr Fittall went on to “refute the myths” that were current in the press that the revision committee on women in the episcopate had been deliberately dragging its feet in order to miss the February sessions and therefore delay any decision, or that the committee had “misapplied itself”.

A large number of proposals had come to the committee, and it was having to examine each in turn, giving the proposers the chance to put their cases personally, and to consider all the legislation line by line.

Asked whether the recent offer from the Pope had further slowed the process down, Mr Fittall refused to commit himself, saying that the committee had had to look at “a lot of big ideas” as well as details. He did not think there was any reason to change the view that 2014 was likely to be the earliest date that a woman bishop could be appointed.

He said that the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, as chairman of the steering group, would give a statement to the Synod about the current situation.
As for the present concerns of the Anglican Communion, he said it would be surprising if there were no formal questions about the Pope’s initiative, or about the controversies in the Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury would be giving a presidential address on the Tuesday afternoon which would almost certainly include the tensions in the Anglican Communion. On Wednesday afternoon, the Synod would debate a private member’s motion on the Church’s relationship with the emerging Anglican Church in North America.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=87983

Christ Church welcomes Pittsburgh organist

From California-

Alan Lewis, director of music at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh, returns to the North Coast at 3 p.m. Jan. 31 to present an organ recital sponsored by the Christ Church Concert Series, at Christ Episcopal Church, 15th and H streets.

The program will showcase a contrast between Baroque and French Romantic organ music and will include some pieces of both early and contemporary music. Lewis will perform several organ works by J. S. Bach, including the lively Prelude and Fugue in D Major. The Bach Fugue ends with a rapid pedal solo which demonstrates the talents of the organist. Piece Heroique, a major work by French composer Cesar Franck, dramatically portrays concepts of good and evil, ending with a full-organ statement of the triumphant “good” theme, providing an opportunity to hear the full richness of the new 31-rank Kegg pipe organ.

Lewis was introduced to the world of organ performance and began his study of the organ in Southern California with Douglas Moorehead, who is currently the director of music and organist at Christ Episcopal Church. After earning degrees in performance and music history from Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music in Ohio, Lewis returned to California as a Mellon fellow in the humanities at the University of California, Berkeley.

More here

http://www.times-standard.com/lifestyle/ci_14253669

A's prospect leaving baseball for call of the priesthood

From Okaland CA- Baseball and religion, right in my wheelhouse. (Thanks to Bruce Robison for passing this along)

Well, here's a story you don't see every day.

Grant Desme, a 23-year-old minor league outfielder in Oakland's system, is retiring from baseball to follow a calling into the Catholic priesthood.

The story was first reported by Fox Sports' Jon Paul Morosi — perhaps appropriately with that first name of his — and this isn't a case of a struggling player going through an early-life crisis. Desme was ranked the A's eighth-best prospect by Baseball America after hitting .288 with 31 home runs and 89 RBIs in A ball in 2009 and he was just named MVP of the Arizona Fall League.

Desme might have even been a late-season callup to the big league club in 2010. Our Y! Sports 2010 fantasy guide has him ranked the 40th-best minor-league prospect for near-term fantasy purpose. However, ESPN's Rob Neyer disagrees, saying that he didn't see Desme as a future star by the Bay.

Susan Slusser has more on Desme's decision to leave playing against the Padres and Cardinals so he can start praying with other padres and cardinals at a Catholic seminary in Orange County. He said the news came as bit of a shock to Billy Beane, but that the Oakland GM and entire A's system have been supportive of his decision.

More here-

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/A-s-prospect-leaving-baseball-for-call-of-the-pr?urn=mlb,215238

Pittsburgh's Episcopal bishop seeks reconciliation

From The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review-

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh's new bishop, Kenneth L. Price, is seeking face-to-face meetings with area congregations that left the Episcopal Church over issues ranging from abortion to the consecration of a non-celibate gay bishop.

A letter from Price was sent Wednesday to lay leaders and clergy of 40 congregations that split from the Episcopal Church in October 2008. A copy of the letter was sent to the diocese's former bishop, Robert Duncan, who heads a newly formed Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh diocese which has 55 congregations.

"This is all toward seeking an understanding and reconciliation of how each of us, even if we disagree, can still serve our one Lord and Savior," Price said. Episcopal Church offices are based in Monroeville.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/s_663509.html

Honors for Archbishop Prompt Criticisms

From The Living Church-

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit to New York City has drawn increasing attention because of honors that two institutions plan to bestow on him.

America, a weekly magazine published by Jesuits, will give Archbishop Rowan Williams its Campion Award on Jan. 25.

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y., will host a lecture by the archbishop and confer an honorary doctor of divinity on Jan. 30.

Archbishop Williams also will be one of four featured speakers at a Trinity Institute conference, “Building on Ethical Economy: Theology and the Marketplace,” on Jan. 27-29.

America’s award attracted wry commentary by religion reporter Tom Heneghan of Reuters.

“What an award to give to the world’s top Anglican!” Heneghan wrote on Reuters’ FaithWorld weblog. “As the press release explains about the man to whom the prize is dedicated, ‘a martyr of the English Reformation, Edmund Campion stirred Elizabethan England with his daring missionary efforts and the great power of his pen.’ What it politely skates over is the fact that Campion was drawn and quartered for refusing to renounce his Catholic faith.”

Archbishop Williams has long been identified with Anglo-Catholicism, and was a founding member and patron of Affirming Catholicism.

The honors planned by St. Vladimir’s prompted a letter to Metropolitan Jonah by the Very Rev. Patrick Henry Reardon, pastor of All Saints’ Antiochian Orthodox Church, Chicago.

“Although the scholarly publications of Dr. Williams may be cited as adequate reason for his lecture at the seminary, news of the plan to honor him is already prompting a popular consternation and even scandal,” Fr. Reardon wrote. “Outside of academic circles, this individual is chiefly known for his public support for sexual perversion within the Anglican Communion.”

Fr. Reardon did not elaborate on that point. The archbishop, during his academic career at OxfordUniversity, made a case for same-sex couples in his address “The Body’s Grace” in 1989.

Archbishop Williams reflected briefly on that essay in a profile published in March 2009 by The Atlantic.

“Never in my career did 5,000 words make such a tempest,” Archbishop Williams said in that profile. “I wrote it as a professor of theology contributing to an increasingly tense debate in the Church of England. I didn’t think, I’d better be careful what I say, in case I become a bishop one day. When people ask have I changed my mind, I can only answer, ‘Well, the questions I raised there are still on the table. They’re still questions. And I still think they’re worth addressing.’ That essay is my contribution, made in good faith at that time. Now my responsibilities are different. The responsibility is not to argue a case from the top or cast the chairman’s vote. It’s to hold the reins for a sensible debate — and that’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/1/21/honors-for-archbishop-prompt-criticisms

PITTSBURGH: Bishop Price invites parish leaders to discuss differences

From Episcopal Life Online-

The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh's provisional bishop has invited the clergy and lay leaders of 40 congregations to meet with him and discuss concerns they may have with the Episcopal Church, according to a Jan. 21 news release from the diocese.

"I believe that much of the recent pain and turmoil in the Diocese of Pittsburgh has been caused by misunderstandings about the Episcopal Church," wrote Bishop Kenneth L. Price in a Jan. 20 letter to parish leaders who have not actively participated in the Episcopal Church since October 2008. "An important part of my ministry in Pittsburgh will be attempting to address these misunderstandings, which I believe is best done in face-to-face meetings."

On Oct. 4, 2008, a majority of the delegates to the diocese's 143rd annual convention approved a resolution by which the diocese purported to leave the Episcopal Church. In November 2009, Price released 135 priests and deacons who had said they belong to an entity called the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, which claims affiliation with the Argentina-based Province of the Southern Cone. Price also said that those clergy, who had accepted letters of transfer to the Southern Cone province, may be reconciled to the diocese at any time.

"There are canonical procedures that can be followed to receive you and again license you to practice ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church," Price wrote in 2009, "and my door will always be open for such a conversation with you."

Price asked that his Jan. 20 letter be received in a "conciliatory spirit," while noting that "in our eyes, all parishes that were part of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh before the convention of October 2008 remain part of our diocese."

"As soon as I arrived here late last month, I began visiting our 28 active parishes to help those congregations be the people they feel called to be," Price added, "so I want to offer the same for those congregations that feel separated from the Episcopal Church."

A copy of the letter was sent to the diocese's deposed bishop, Robert Duncan, "in his capacity as the leader of those who regard themselves as part of the Anglican diocese," the news release said. In June 2009, Duncan was invested as archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America, composed mainly of groups that have left the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_118719_ENG_HTM.htm

Synod to debate the ACNA

From The Church Times-

THE General Synod is being asked next month by a lay representative from Chichester diocese to “express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America” (ACNA).

The private member’s motion is being proposed by Canadian-born Lorna Ashworth, who wants to “give Synod an opportunity to hear about the unfair treatment of people who have continued to maintain the Anglican faith in doctrine, practice, and worship”. She refers to Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, Bishop Henry Scriven, and the Revd Dr James Packer among the 491 clergy inhibited or deposed in legislation estimated to cost $30 million.

The motion is “not about interfering in the polity of other Anglican provinces”, Ms Ashworth says in her background paper. She questions whether the use of the canons for solving property disputes or deposing bishops and clergy in both the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada has “in every regard been proper or in accordance with natural justice”.

It is “not acceptable” that those who have not left either of those Churches for another jurisdiction should be “deposed without canonical process because of what they might do, or that they should be formally advised that they have abandoned their ministry when they have done nothing of the kind”, Ms Ashworth suggests.

Of the 83-year-old Dr Packer, she says: “It is ironic as well as hurtful that a man who, as a young priest, was a doughty defender of the inheritance and doctrine of the Church of England against its detractors should be presumed to have abandoned the ordained ministry.”
The Bishops of Blackburn, Exeter, and Winchester will host a lunchtime meeting at the Synod on Tuesday 9 February, at which members can “quiz loyal Anglicans” from the US Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=87957

Caught in Haiti earthquake, couple ready to return, rebuild

From South Carolina-

Joyce and John Pipkin were just two miles from the epicenter of Haiti's earthquake but it wasn't until they returned to the United States and saw the televised images from CNN and other news outlets that they realized the depth of the devastation.

Now, John Pipkin, a pilot who flies for the Christian organization Mission Aviation Fellowship, is preparing to return to the Caribbean country to help move needed personnel and supplies to those in need.

He will work out of the Port-au-Prince airport, and "probably sleep on the ground," when he's not working.

But the Pipkins, who left Haiti last Friday, cautioned this is not the time for impassioned volunteers with no training to jam into the country.

"Unless you are part of a first responder team, this is not the time to go down," John Pipkin said Thursday.

The Pipkins have carried out short-term mission projects to Haiti through their church, St. Mary's Episcopal on St. Andrews Road, for more than a decade. Joyce Pipkin works out of Les Cayes, where the Episcopal Church runs a school that supports 261 children.

Joyce Pipkin said she had a brand new agenda book and lots of plans when the couple arrived in Haiti on Jan. 12 at noon, five hours before the earth shook. She had scheduled a meeting for Wednesday in downtown Port-au-Prince with about 40 Haitian women who wanted to form a chapter of the Episcopal prayer organization Daughters of the King. She has yet to hear about the fate of those women, all of whom lived downtown, she said.

"I also had this overwhelming sense of helplessness," she said.

Now, she said, she will stay in Columbia for the time being until the Episcopal Church determines the best time to send mission teams to help. The church is discouraging any missions until Haiti is stabilized and the vast medical needs of the people are met.

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/1122015.html

Episcopal Diocese meeting opens today

From Winston Salem-

Many of Haiti's man-made structures have been destroyed in the earthquake, but the country will rebound, the head of an international relief agency says.

"We can't sit here in the United States and say, ‘This is what you need, and we'll pay for it,'" said Rob Radtke, the president of Episcopal Relief & Development.

The Haitian people need to be allowed to chart their own course through the disaster, Radtke said.

He will be the keynote speaker at the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina's 194th annual convention in Winston-Salem. The convention will open today at the Benton Convention Center and continue through Saturday.

The theme of this year's convention -- "100,000 ways to Say Welcome" -- "focuses on Episcopal efforts to extend a welcome out into the world," said the Rev. Michael B. Curry, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. That means feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and transforming the world by faith through partnerships.

"People don't need us doing to them," Curry said. "The point is to do God's work with them."

More here-

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/jan/22/episcopal-diocese-meeting-opens-today/

PENNSYLVANIA: Bishop appeals church court's decision

From Episcopal New Service-

Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison on Jan. 19 appealed a decision by an ecclesiastical trial court, asking that a 2008 ruling that the bishop engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy be overturned.

After Bennison's 2008 trial, the church's Court for the Trial of a Bishop found in February 2009 that 35 years ago when Bennison was rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, he failed to respond properly after learning that his brother, John Bennison, a 24-year-old seminary student (later deacon and priest) whom he had hired as youth minister, was "engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship" with a minor parishioner. The abuse allegedly lasted for more than three years from the time the minor was 14 years old.

Charles Bennison was found to have failed to discharge his pastoral obligations to the girl, the members of her family, and the members of the parish youth group as well as church authorities after he learned of his brother's behavior. The court said that he suppressed the information about his brother until 2006, when he disclosed publicly what he knew.

A Jan. 19 news release from Bennison's attorneys said the appeal to the Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop argues that the charges stem from incidents that began more than 30 years ago and should never have come to trial. It also said that the Court for the Trial of a Bishop should not have called for Bennison to be deposed from the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church because he was not involved in the sexual abuse.

The bishop has been inhibited or barred from exercising his ordained ministry by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori since October 2007 when he was first ordered to stand trial.

A chronology of the Bennison case is available in this Sept. 25 ENS story.

http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/81803_118633_ENG_HTM.htm

Slate of Five for Rio Grande Bishop Election

From The Living Church-

The Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande has nominated five men — ranging in age from 43 to 61 — in its search for its ninth bishop.

The nominees are:

The Rev. Ellis Tucker Browerfind, rector, St. Luke’s, Alexandria, Va.
The Rev. James R. Harlan, rector, Church of the Ascension, Denver, Colo.
The Rev. Jedediah D. Holdorph II, rector, St. Mark’s, Medford, Ore.
The Rev. John S. Nieman, rector, Holy Trinity, Clemson, S.C.
The Rev. Dr. Michael Louis Vono, rector, St. Paul’s Within the Walls, Rome, Italy.

The diocese has released brief statements and resumes from each of the five nominees. It will accept nominations by petition until Feb. 1. The diocese has not released discussion questions, but certain themes emerged from the nominees’ statements and resumes.

Fr. Browerfind described his ministry style at St. Luke’s: “Liturgical exploration at a tolerable rate. Strengthen stewardship. Work with parishioners to offer pastoral care. Support strong commitment to diocese. Do not choose sides in current polarizing debates on social justice.”

Fr. Harlan emphasized church growth and pastoral care, writing that in his various ministries he has increased parish membership “from small, pastoral-sized congregation (60 on a Sunday) to energized transitional-sized (150 on a Sunday)”; “implemented creative worship and education programs to reach spiritually indifferent sailors”; and “deepened spiritual lives through strong, engaging preaching and teaching and faithful worship leadership.”


More here-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2010/1/20/slate-of-five-for-rio-grande-bishop-election

Anglican dissidents put back decision on Vatican offer

From The BBC-

A leading opponent of women bishops in the Church of England says he has put back a decision on converting to Rome after a vote on the issue was delayed.

Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, said he had "not taken bookings" after the General Synod vote next month.

But after the Synod vote was put off to July, Bishop Burnham said he was now "not taking bookings" after then.

He and other opponents of women bishops are concerned that the Synod will not grant their leaders enough autonomy.

The disagreement centres on the powers of those bishops - like Andrew Burnham - who are appointed to minister to parishes which oppose women priests.

Those like Bishop Burnham do not want such powers to be granted at the discretion of the local diocesan bishop - who may in future be a woman.

More here-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8468795.stm

Anglican Church in lawsuit limbo

From North West Texas- (Note the rector, Stan Burdock, was once in the Diocese of Pittburgh)

A desert tranquility surrounds the buildings of the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd in San Angelo. Mesquite trees shade its parking lot and sway in the breeze, a broad expanse of rolling grass and dirt spreads out to the east of the buildings, and a large cross adorns the side of one of the walls, while ivy creeps up others.

This peaceful domain, however, has been the field of a legal battle for more than two years. And now the congregation of the Good Shepherd has been left in limbo after Judge Blair Cherry ruled in favor of giving the property to the Diocese of Northwest Texas.

“We’re just waiting and watching and praying,” said Stanley Burdock, the pastor of the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd. “It’s an unfortunate situation, and we can trust to God to bring it to its appointed conclusion, although we don’t know what that conclusion will be.”

The Texas Third Court of Appeals Web site says the case was appealed Jan. 7.

More here-

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/jan/20/anglican-church-in-lawsuit-limbo/

Homeless Bishop in Haiti stays with his flock

From St. Louis-

There are so many stories pouring out of Haiti right now, it’s hard to know how to sort through them or what to say about them. The Episcopal Church has a diocese in Haiti, so I know many people who have close affiliations with that country and people who live there. Even for those of us who have never been to Haiti, six degrees of separation is narrowed down to three, or two, or one.

At all four of our Sunday services our parish prayed fervently for all who have been affected by the earthquake in Haiti. We included in our prayers both the Roman Catholic Archbishop, who died in the earthquake, and also the Episcopal Bishop of Haiti, Jean Zache Duracin, who survived, although his wife was injured and his home destroyed. Now the Episcopal News Service has run this remarkable story about Bishop Duracin.

According to a missionary who spoke to him, the Bishop was given the option to evacuate but said, “No I will stay with my people.”

More here-

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/general/2010/01/homeless-bishop-in-haiti-stays-with-his-flock/

Religious Groups Fill Haiti Government Gaps

From The Wall Street Journal-

Outside a red and gray Coleman tent, a boy sat mute in a wheelchair holding a dented metal bowl of yellow gruel. His arms were laced with pus-filled wounds, flies swarmed around his grotesquely swollen ankles, and his right foot was missing its littlest toe—but he was lucky. Not only had he escaped the school for the disabled, where many of his handicapped classmates were crushed to death, but he had found his way to what passes for an oasis in this city of death and ruin: a camp run by the Episcopal church.

In a country whose government has all but stopped functioning, in a city whose crowded shanties remain largely unreached by aid cargoes, it has fallen to communities on the ground to fill the gap as best they can.

Religious missions, with their deep community connections, are proving to be particularly critical conduits of help, both spiritual and material.

Catholic Relief Services has started turning a golf course in the neighborhood of Pétionville into one of the first formal camps for the homeless.

Some Haitian government officials say between one million to three million people may have been displaced by the quake. Thousands of tons of food and medical supplies have been shipped to Haiti, but much of it remains trapped in warehouses, or diverted to the neighboring Dominican Republic.

More here-

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704320104575015502368917126.html

Wednesday Travel

Editor's note: If you're wondering why there weren't any posts yesterday: I was traveling back from Indianapolis. Planning and Arrangments for the 2012 General Convention met and I spent most of yesterday getting home with no Internet access. Anyway, the National Cheerleading Champinoships had taken place that weekend at the Convention Center and when we toured the facility this sign was still up. Maybe we should post something similar outside the House of Deputies.

South African preachers raise trafficking alarm

From The Washington Post-

South African preachers will raise awareness about human trafficking and concerns the World Cup could mean more exploitation.

Jo Seoka, Pretoria's Anglican bishop, said in an interview Tuesday: "The church has the constituency to do this," adding South Africa, a country of 50 million, has 4 million Anglicans.

Seoka, who spoke from a meeting near Cape Town where 21 leaders of churches and other groups met to launch the Stop Human Trafficking Project, called for better border policing and stronger laws.

Rural South Africans have been brought to the cities and forced into sex trade, housecleaning or farm work at slave wages. Rights groups fear more people, including those from neighboring countries, could become victims to meet demand from World Cup fans visiting from around the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011901015.html

Rt. Rev. Robert D. Rowley Jr.

From Erie-

The Rt. Rev. Robert D. Rowley, Jr., age 68, of York, formerly of Erie, died at 6:11 AM Monday at York Hospital. He was the husband of Nancy (Roland) Rowley. Born July 6, 1941 in Cumberland, Maryland, a son of the late Robert D. and Alyce M. (Wilson) Rowley, he retired in 2006 as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania. He was a 1959 graduate of Saint Vincent College Preparatory School in Latrobe.

He received his Bachelor's of Arts Degree and Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and Master of Laws in International Law from George Washington University. In 1977 he earned his Masters of Divinity from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1965, the Court of Military Appeals in 1966 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1970.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1966 until 1974, and the U.S. Naval Reserve until 1992 when he retired as a Captain for the Judge Advocate General Corps. Bishop Rowley was ordained as a Deacon in 1977 and as a Priest in 1978. He taught at Chaminade University of Hawaii, Saint Andrews Priory School in Honolulu and Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. He also served parishes in Honolulu, and Aiea, Hawaii and as Canon to the Bishop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1989 he was elected as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania.

More here-

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/erietimesnews/obituary.aspx?n=robert-d-rowley&pid=138681840

Monks' morals defended in wine row

From England-

THE makers of Buckfast Tonic Wine have defended South Devon monks after their morals were publicly attacked by a bishop.

The Right Rev Bob Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church, accused the Devon-based Benedictine monks of going against Christian values.

The comments were made after a Freedom of Information request revealed Buckfast Tonic Wine has been mentioned in 5,000 crime reports in Scotland in the last three years.

Speaking on BBC Scotland Investigates last night Bishop Gillies said: "What sort of moral double-take is there that these monks can be so closely associated with that product and knowingly aware of the social damage as well as the medical damage it is doing to the kids who take it in such vast volumes?"

He added: "The monks at Buckfast are in a Benedictine monastery, which is founded upon the rule of St Benedict. Benedict urged his monks to live a simple life following a rule which leads them into closer discipleship with the Lord."

More here-

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Monks-morals-defended-wine-row/article-1727581-detail/article.html

Anglicans Consider Recognizing Priests’ Gay Partners

From Boston about C of E-

The Church of England, the English mother branch of the Anglican Communion worldwide, is considering a proposal that would give the partners of gay priests some of the same rights awarded to priests’ spouses.

Not surprisingly, the proposal isn’t being accepted with open arms by everyone in the sprawling church, which encompasses the (recently) liberal Episcopal Church in the United States and very traditional Anglican church in the developing world.

As the (U.K. Telegraph reports, "Traditionalists have expressed strong opposition to the move, which they claim would give official recognition to homosexual relationships." The church’s hierarchy will debate the proposal in February, at a General Synod.

If passed, priests’ significant others would receive financial benefits, among other privileges. The church bars clergy from being in active gay relationships, although they can enter civil partnerships provided they are celibate.

The Episcopal Church, on the other hand, has been far more tolerant toward gay priests. The bishop of New Hampshire is gay, and an incoming bishop in Los Angeles is a lesbian. Both are in committed relationships and (one assumes) are not practicing 100 percent celibacy.

Great Britain does not have same-sex civil marriage, but it does have civil unions. About 200 priests in the kingdom are believed to have entered such a legal agreement.


More here-

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=101271

Islamic sect’s plan to build mega-mosque next to Olympics site collapses

From the London Times-

Controversial plans to build Europe’s biggest mosque close to the London Olympics site have been halted, The Times has learnt.

Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic sect behind the proposal, is to be evicted this week from the East London site, where it has been operating illegally a temporary mosque and had planned a complex that would accommodate 12,000 worshippers.

The Muslim Council of Britain said that the group had fallen victim to “unfounded hostility and hysteria”.

However, another Muslim organisation last night welcomed the move. Minhaj-ul-Quran, which advises the Government on how to combat youth radicalisation, said that a mosque should be a “community effort” and not the initiative of one group with extremist links.

Newham Council is now considering compulsory purchase of the land after Tablighi Jamaat, whose strict interpretation of Islam has caused concern, failed to lodge a masterplan of its vision. There was strong opposition when the sect unveiled its plans for the site, south of the London 2012 Olympic Park, in 2007. More than 48,000 people petitioned the Government to prevent the development, dubbed the “mega-mosque”.

More here-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6991808.ece

Anglicans and Catholics team up to spread word

From Ireland-

FREE copies of the Gospel of St Luke will be distributed today to the homes of 100,000 Catholics and members of the Church of Ireland in Dublin.

The deliveries will be courtesy of the Catholic and Anglican archbishops of Dublin in a joint evangelisation campaign to highlight the annual Christian unity week, which starts today.

Archbishops Diarmuid Martin and John Neill are to meet in Trinity College Chapel at noon to launch what they describe as "a unique venture to spread the good news of the Gospel of Luke throughout our diocese".

This is the Church's liturgical year of St Luke and it is the Gospel being read in churches throughout the year.

As part of the year of evangelisation, this is the latest in a series of ecumenical initiatives spearheaded by both archbishops.

The two archbishops booked a joint tent with the Irish Missionary Union at last year's Ploughing Championships.

The Gospel of St Luke project will be followed with a DVD, 'Luke the Book', for families and children.

The two churches are also planning a joint youth pilgrimage to Taizé, the ecumenical place of prayer in France, for later in the year.

Archbishop Martin has said that this evangelisation project is parallel to the special Lenten Pastoral on reform of the Irish Catholic Church in the wake of the Murphy report, which Pope Benedict XVI is planning to issue in time for Ash Wednesday, on February 15.

- John Cooney

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/anglicans-and-catholics-team-up-to-spread-word-2018299.html