When J.P. Morgan Came to Town

Long article on J.P. Mrgan and his dedication to the Episcopal Church-

For months the stock market had tottered. But the spark that ignited the panic was set by an unscrupulous engineer, Frederick A. Heinze, who had amassed considerable wealth from copper mining. He’d purchased control of a bank to use its assets to back continued stock speculations. When his investments failed, his bank collapsed after depositors made a run on its holdings. This closure triggered runs on other banks and the financial crisis became full-blown. When New York’s second largest bank, Knickerbocker Trust, ran out of cash and other banks refused to shore it up, it closed. In October 1907 the streets of New York’s financial district were flooded with frantic and angry customers and investors withdrawing their holdings.

Who to call? President Theodore Roosevelt was in the wilds of Louisiana at the time hunting black bears — but could have done little anyway. The secretary of the Treasury rushed to New York but there was no central national bank and no Federal Reserve system in place at that time to offer stability.
The one man with the clout, intelligence, resources and moxie to restore order was J. Pierpont Morgan.

So where was he while banking was under siege? Morgan had arrived in Richmond Oct. 1, becoming comfortably ensconced for three weeks at the Episcopal convention. America’s most powerful man didn’t intend to interrupt his church work. As much as he loved lording over Wall Street or collecting rare books and old-master art, he was above all else an ecclesiastical groupie. He couldn’t get his fill of the Episcopal Church, whether sitting alone in a darkened corner of his own understated, St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York listening to an organist practice, or debating with high-ranking clergy an arcane point of church governance.

Autumn of 1907 was high season in Virginia. The year marked not only the 300th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement, but also the tercentenary of the Episcopal church, which established Christianity in the English-speaking New World. In October, while the eyes of the world were on the World’s Fair in Norfolk, Richmond was host to one of the largest and most prestigious gatherings in its history. One hundred Episcopalian bishops from around the world were among some 1,000 delegates at the three-week conference.

“Prelates Arrive for Convention … Bishop of London and J. P. Morgan at Cynosure,” a News Leader headline announced in the Oct. 1 afternoon edition. The newspaper would cover the proceedings breathlessly until adjournment.

http://www.styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=BD253555BD1D45419705BFBBA80CED27

Church Pension Fund portfolio declined in 2008 but investments 'well-positioned,' report says

he Church Pension Fund's investment portfolio declined by 18.8 percent in 2008, but still has approximately $1.3 billion more in assets than liabilities, according to a recent report mailed to fund participants.
"No one knows the duration of the current global economic and financial problems, but the fund remains in an enviable position," wrote Dennis Sullivan, Church Pension Fund president, in a March 20 introduction to "Perspective," a periodic newsletter from his office.

"Despite the recent declines, the fund's reserves are sound and benefits are secure," the newsletter said. "We do not know what the next months will bring, but we believe the investment portfolio is well-positioned for the long term."

As of December 31, 2008, preliminary figures show that the fund's assets were $7.45 billion and liabilities were $6.2 billion, according to the newsletter. The investment portfolio's decline of 18.8% in 2008 compared to a 37% decline during the same period in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, a broad gauge of U.S. stock market performance.

"The fund's 33% allocation to bonds cushioned the decline from equities," the Perspective newsletter noted, adding that the portfolio's "broad diversification" in its equities investments helped insulate the fund against the larger losses seen by other investors. Those investments include hedge funds, event arbitrage (purchasing securities of companies experiencing major events such as acquisition or reorganization), distressed debt (purchasing bonds of companies experiencing financial trouble) and absolute return strategies (aimed at producing a return even if markets are trending down).

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_106646_ENG_HTM.htm

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

Bishop Thomas E. Breidenthal of Southern Ohio says "No" to Thew Forrester

March 31, 2009

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

I am writing to inform you of my decision not to consent to the consecration of Kevin Thew Forrester as Bishop of Northern Michigan. I did not want to make a public statement before I shared my concerns with the Standing Committee. I was able to do this at their meeting last Friday, March 27.

Two subjects have arisen as matters of concern in the wider discussion of consent for this Bishop-elect. I want to be clear that these matters have not contributed to my refusal of consent.
First, the internal process which led to Bishop-elect Thew Forrester's election. In my view, it violated no canons, and, although I have questions about it, these have not entered into my decision to withhold consent. Second, some have voiced concern that Bishop-elect Thew Forrester has been recognized by the Zen Buddhist community as one who practices Zen Buddhist meditation in an exemplary fashion and accepts the basic ethical principles of Buddhism. I have no problem with this. Many Christians have deepened their own faith through Buddhist prayer practices, and in my view the moral framework of Buddhism is largely consonant with that of Judaism and Christianity.

But obviously I do have concerns. These concerns lie closer to home. My own reading of Bishop-elect Thew Forrester's sermons over the last year (these sermons were available on the website of his parish church, St. Paul's, Marquette, Michigan, as of March 16, but are no longer posted) reveals an understanding of the Christian narrative that is troubling to me. I have spoken about this with the Bishop-elect on the phone, and he has followed up with e-mails, but I remain troubled.

According to Thew Forrester, Jesus revealed in his own person the way that any of us can be at one with God, if only we can overcome the blindness that prevents us from recognizing our essential unity with God. The problem here is that the death of Jesus as an atonement for our sins is completely absent, and purposely so. As I read Thew Forrester, nothing stands between us and God but our own ignorance of our closeness to God. When our eyes are opened, atonement (not for our sins, but understood as a realization of our essential unity with God) is achieved. Thew Forrester's rejection of salvation understood as an atonement for sins we cannot procure for ourselves is not an idea he is merely exploring. In a very consistent manner, he is developing this idea. In materials he submitted to the House of Bishops earlier this month, he has shared with us his own revision of the Prayer Book rite for Holy Baptism, in which references to salvation are replaced with references to union with God.

I would not worry about this so much if Thew Forrester were merely speculating about alternative ways of understanding the Christian faith. I would not even worry so much if it were simply a matter of the content of a number of sermons (although I think we should expect to be accountable for what we preach). But, as his revision of the Baptismal rite makes clear, he appears to be settled in his conviction that our relation to Christ is not about salvation from a condition of objective alienation from God, but about a more realized union with God.


Why is Thew Forrester's teaching troubling to me? Because it flies in the face of what I take to be the conviction at the heart of our faith tradition, namely, that we are in bondage to sin and cannot get free without the rescue God has offered us in Jesus, who shouldered our sins on the cross. Our tradition certainly declares God's closeness to us and God's love for us, but insists that this is solely due to God's gracious initiative, made known to us in Jesus. In other words, Jesus in his singular closeness to God is as much a reminder of our alienation from God and from God's ways as he is God's word to us that we are loved despite our collective wrongdoings.
Some may say, "So what?" Should the Episcopal Church not allow as much latitude as possible when it comes to theological reflection on the meaning of Jesus in our lives? Yes, of course. We are a church that values a broad range of opinion on practically every subject. Yet our (unrevised) Baptismal liturgy (Book of Common Prayer, beginning at p. 299) is extremely clear about what it means to be a follower of Jesus: we are to turn to him - the same Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified and rose again and continues to invite us into a personal relationship with him - and accept him as Savior. Whatever else we have to say about Jesus follows from that (even though different people may end up saying quite different things).

I cannot emphasize enough that clarity about our relationship to Jesus through our baptism is especially important as we move on from the Lambeth Conference, where the bishops of the Episcopal Church pointed repeatedly to our Baptismal rite as evidence of our commitment to Jesus as Lord.

I write this with a heavy heart. Kevin Thew Forrester served as an assistant in the parish where some years earlier I was ordained a priest and served as an assistant. He has been raised up by a sister diocese in our own Province V, and I know how highly he is regarded there and what a blow it would be to the people of Northern Michigan if he were not to receive the requisite consents to be consecrated. But I also know that the Episcopal Church needs at this crucial juncture in the life of the Anglican Communion to be clear that all our hope is founded in the cross.

Faithfully,
+Tom Breidenthal

Bishop Thomas E. Breidenthal
Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio

Amazing Grace: The Sequel — transforming lives

From Canada-

Imagine one young aboriginal teenager who, while contemplating suicide, heard words of hope and encouragement from a church leader.

Imagine a community support group for mothers struggling with depression and hopelessness over the future of their children.

Imagine a host of church leaders across the country who are being trained and equipped to develop aboriginal-specific programs.

This seed of hope is germinating across the country, thanks to an Anglican community that has provided some seed money through the Amazing Grace project.

The genius lay in its simplicity: groups of men and women across the country singing and recording Amazing Grace. Almost incidental to the singing was the fundraising effort in support of the Council of the North. Anglicans responded with $80,000 in donations to accompany their video submissions and another $80,000 came in from individuals and groups. The response was deemed “amazing.”

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2009/135/apr/04/article/emamazing-graceem-the-sequel-transforming-lives/?cHash=ec87fb02a3

Visit to Sudan an eye-opener for area priest

This past Ash Wednesday, the Rev. Daniel Gunn performed the usual Christian rites on people who haven’t received them for 50 years.

Through a translator, the people of Sudan told Gunn — a priest at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre — they could not recall the last time a priest touched the ashes to their forehead on the solemn day..

Decades of devastating civil war tore apart the country and its people lost customs and practices along with their churches, homes and schools.

Over the religious holy day, Gunn traveled to Southern Sudan to meet people in his church’s companion diocese in Africa. He and his friend, Trip Tregnaier, were the first from the Diocese of Bethlehem to go to the town of Kajo Keji to see the charity work the diocese has completed in the war-torn country. He said the experience opened his eyes and taught him to appreciate what people have in the United States.

“I felt a need and desire to connect with our brothers and sisters there, to know how they live day-to-day and hopefully find new ways we can reach out to help them through our abundance,” said Gunn, 35, of Wilkes-Barre.

The Diocese of Bethlehem has donated more than $3 million to help the people in Southern Sudan rebuild their country. Much of the money raised in Gunn’s diocese has gone toward building four schools near Kajo Keji.

The rest is here-

http://www.citizensvoice.com/articles/2009/03/31/lifestyles/doc49d2864c72bd5059522525.txt

Good Stuff In TEC: Florida

Parish nurses help others heal through faith

Sometimes, parish nurses extend their roles beyond their assigned churches.

That's the case in North Fort Myers, where nurse Peggy Asrani works at the All Souls Episcopal Church but spends most of her time helping church leaders, members and volunteers from an array of organizations minister to the homeless.

Asrani in the last six or seven years has worked to organize medical clinics with the Salvation Army and Family Health Centers, helped bring in a veterans representative to advise former service people and brought in the health department to screen and vaccinate people for diseases such as hepatitis. Her position is supported by private donations funneled through the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation.

"You need to build trust with any patient, but especially these people who feel they've been taken advantage of or that society hasn't been kind to them," she said.

Like the other nurses, Asrani loves her job. It's challenging, she said, but not in the physical way as, say, hospital-based nursing.

"I definitely encourage all those nurses who are retired or semi-retired to consider parish nursing," she said.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20090401/HEALTH/904010433/1013/LIFESTYLES

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

On divisive issue of gay clergy, two churches weigh softer stance

Christian Science Monitor-

Two mainline Protestant denominations, after decades of wrestling over the place of homosexuality in the church, are considering allowing local congregations to select pastors who are in long-term, monogamous, same-gender relationships.

The church council of the largest Lutheran body in the US, the 5-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), decided this week to send such a recommendation to its national assembly. The proposal would take effect if supported by majority vote at the assembly's biennial meeting in August.


The 2.3-million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) approved the idea at its national assembly last summer, but a majority of the church's 173 district bodies, called presbyteries, must vote in favor by June for it to become church policy.

While it's not clear that either denomination will embrace the change, their actions reflect the shifting views on homosexuality in society, as well as an acknowledgement that the old consensus in the churches has broken down and a new one is not likely to arise soon. The churches are seeking to accommodate differing views and avoid a denominational split.

"There is no question that attitudes have shifted in the church in the way in which this issue has been interpreted theologically," says the Rev. Peter Strommen, chairman of the ELCA task force for studies on sexuality, which developed the recommendation.

More here-

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0331/p02s04-ussc.html

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

In East Asia and the Pacific, Anglicans commit to action on climate change

Anglican Communion Network

With a pledge to work together in addressing pressing environmental concerns in East Asia and the Pacific, representatives from several Anglican provinces and mission agencies met March 23-26 in Hong Kong for a consultation on climate change, co-sponsored by Episcopal Relief and Development, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Province of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui.

The consultation was inspired by several conversations in 2008 with Episcopal Church partners and church leaders primarily from East Asia and the Pacific Rim, said Kirsten Muth, ERD's senior director of Asia, Pacific and New Initiatives, who noted that the purpose of the gathering was to focus on "climate change as it relates to poverty, and identifying how we can work together more effectively in areas of sustainable development."

Around 30 participants attended the gathering from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Polynesia, Solomon Islands, the U.K., the U.S. and Vanuatu.

For the Rev. Keith Joseph of the Anglican Church of Melanesia, the issues addressed at the gathering could not have been closer to home, where climate change in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu has resulted in some islands with large Anglican communities having been submerged by sea.

"Flooding and severe weather impact us significantly," he told ENS in an interview. "We cannot deal with these problems on our own, so it was very good to attend this gathering and tell our story."

Rachel Parry, East Asia and Oceania regional desk officer for the U.K.-based mission agency USPG, said it was "really powerful to hear voices from Pacific islanders sharing their vivid stories of the climate change realities with which their communities are living, helping us all grow in our understanding of the urgency of the issue."

More here-

http://acen.anglicancommunion.org/news/index.cfm/2009/3/31/In-East-Asia-and-the-Pacific-Anglicans-commit-to-action-on-climate-change

Cuban church needs materials

From Canada-

Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, returned from Cuba where he represented the Metropolitan Council of Cuba at the annual synod of the Episcopal Diocese of Cuba in February.

The Metropolitan Council is chaired by the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, who has overseen the church in Cuba since it separated from The Episcopal Church in 1967. It is also comprised of the U.S. presiding bishop and the primate of the West Indies.

The council normally meets just before the synod in Cuba, but because it coincided with the recent meeting of the primates of the Anglican Communion in Egypt, it met earlier and sent Mr. Pollesel to Cuba as its representative.

“One of the main issues (Cuban churches) are dealing with is one that is pretty common in Cuban society and that is just being able to obtain materials for the upkeep of their church buildings,” Mr. Pollesel said.

“Because of the (U.S.) blockade, materials are very scarce,” he said, noting that this ongoing problem was magnified by the damage done by Hurricane Ike, which hit Cuba in September, 2008.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2009/135/apr/04/article/cuban-church-needs-materials/?cHash=f10353a6c9

Four Nominees for South Dakota Bishop Coadjutor

The Diocese of South Dakota announced a slate of four candidates for the election of a bishop coadjutor. The candidates are:

- The Rev. Douglas Robert Dunn,rector, St. Luke’s Church and High Plains Regional Missioner, Denver, Colo.

- The Rev. John F. Floberg, canon missioner, Standing Rock Reservation, Bismarck, N.D.

- The Rev. Peter A.R. Stebinger, rector, Christ Church, Bethany, Conn.

- The Rev. John T. Tarrant, rector, Trinity, Pierre, S.D.


The election is scheduled to be held May 9 at a hotel convention center in Pierre. Because the election falls within 120 days of the start of the General Convention, the bishop-elect will need to receive consents from a majority of diocesan deputations and bishops with jurisdiction. Assuming those are forthcoming, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will consecrate the new bishop Oct. 31 in Sioux Falls.

The Rt. Rev. Creighton Robertson, Bishop of South Dakota since 1994, previously announced his intention to resign no later than Dec. 31, 2009.

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/3/30/four-nominees-for-south-dakota-bishop-coadjutor

Church baptises baby with cola

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up Department" Norwegian division -

A Norwegian church where the taps had been turned off because of freezing temperatures was forced to use a substitute liquid in a baptism ceremony - specifically, lemon-flavoured cola.

Priest Paal Dale, from the town of Stord, about 150 miles west of the capital Oslo, improvised during a recent cold-spell by dabbing the fizzy drink on the baby, daily newspaper Vaart Land said on Tuesday.

'It had gone flat,' Dale was quoted as saying by the newspaper. 'Only the lemon smell made this unusual.'

Dale said the child's family were only informed about the switch after the ceremony, because the priest 'had a need to inform' them about the lingering lemon odour.

'They didn't say much, but I assumed they smelled the aroma as well,' Dale told Vaart Land.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Church_baptises_baby_with_cola&in_article_id=603702&in_page_id=2

What next for the Bishop of Rochester?

From the London Guardian-

It tells you a lot about the state of the Anglican Communion that when Dr Michael Nazir Ali made his bombshell announcement that he was stepping down as Bishop of Rochester to minister "to the persecuted Christians", the liberals who told me assumed that he was going to work for the Archbishop of Nigeria. They thought the persecuted Christians he meant were the rich white North Americans who have split off from their mother church there in protest over homosexuality, rather than the poor black or brown ones who live in countries where sharia law is a problem.

His position within the diocese of Rochester had become a difficult one. A lot of his clergy were unhappy with his decision last year to boycott the Lambeth Conference, which was meant to be a gathering demonstrating the unity of the Communion's 800 bishops around the world. In the event, something like 230 stayed away but the only English heavyweight to do so was Nazir Ali.

Signing up for a declaration that describes the Archbishop of Canterbury as an apostate for his tolerance of liberal views on homosexuality was not a way to endear himself to his colleagues, who already regarded him as vain and ambitious. But he is also consistent about his beliefs and prepared to act on them and suffer for them. As a young man in Pakistan, the son of a convert from Islam, he became the youngest Anglican bishop in the world, in a back-country diocese from which he had to be rescued, after local fundamentalists threatened to kill him and his family.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/mar/30/rochester-nazir-ali-resigns

Reports say man shot as police protect ousted Bishop Kunonga’s service

The Zimbabwe Journalists website reports that a Harare man was shot and injured by police, who were protecting a rebel service held by ousted Bishop Nolbert Kunonga’s people. Police fought running battles with parishioners in Budiriro and Glen View, who had tried to reclaim their churches from Kunonga’s people.

Controversial Bishop Kunonga was excommunicated in 2007 from the church, after he attempted to unilaterally withdraw the Diocese of Harare from the Central African Province. He was replaced by Bishop Sebastian Bakare but has since used youth militia and the police to chase away Anglican parishioners loyal to the new bishop.

Bishop Bakare told Newsreel the formation of the coalition government has done nothing to stop the lawlessness affecting the Anglican Church. He said for the past 4 weeks their services have been disrupted by Kunonga’s thugs, who have no following within the parishes.

On Sunday two priests, a church warden, a youth member and another church member, all loyal to Bishop Bakare, were arrested during the skirmishes. Bakare said the police are openly telling them they are out in full force to protect Kunonga and his people.

Bakare began the defiance last week in Mabvuku when he defied attempts by riot police to remove him from the altar during a service. The riot police however turned on the parishioners, driving them away from the church. He told Newsreel he urged his parishioners to defy the police and reclaim their churches.

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20075&Itemid=103

Burundi archbishop supports Canadian church in opposing cross-border interventions

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has thanked his Burundian counterpart, Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi, for the Anglican Church of Burundi’s stance against cross-border interventions, notwithstanding its opposition to more liberal views on homosexuality in some churches in Canada.

“I am very grateful for the position that the Anglican Church of Burundi has taken,” said Archbishop Hiltz, who met with Archbishop Ntahoturi during the course of his solidarity visit hosted by the diocese of Bujumbura Feb. 12 to 15. “We value our relationship with Burundi and it’s part of the reason why there are young people in our delegation; we would like a building and renewal of relationship.”

Archbishop Hiltz was responding to opening remarks made by Archbishop Ntahoturi, who underscored that his province “doesn’t want the crossing of borders.” (Some primates in Africa and South America have exercised episcopal oversight over conservative parishes in North America that are opposed to the blessing of same-sex unions and the election of a gay bishop.)

“We walk in different contexts but we value our communion as human beings,” said Archbishop Ntahoturi, who added that he would like to “open more doors” of partnership between the Burundian and Canadian churches.

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/world/africa/022/article/burundi-archbishop-supports-canadian-church-in-opposing-cross-border-interventions-1/?cHash=fa21c60a58

Liberals too hasty in claiming victory at Bishop Nazir-Ali's resignation

While Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's decision to resign may have been unexpected, the reaction to it has been all too predictable.

For the liberals who have read his departure as marking the end of the Church's war over homosexuality, it has been hailed as an admission of defeat.

"Throwing in the Episcopal towel" is how my colleague George Pitcher described it. Others have looked at his decision to devote the rest of his career to defending persecuted Christians in a rather more positive light.

If his stepping down does indeed represent a victory for the liberal wing, one might have thought that they would have a little more grace and display the tolerance which they claim to represent.
I'd argue however that anyone that thinks that the battle is over is sadly misguided.

The storms that have broken intermittently over the last 22 years following Tony Higton's General Synod motion arguing homosexuality to be a sin have often been followed by periods of relative calm.

George Carey claimed that he thought the Anglican Communion was in good heart when he left, but that there were "black clouds appearing on the horizon".

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/jonathanwynnejones/blog/2009/03/30/liberals_too_hasty_in_claiming_victory_at_bishop_naziralis_resignation

PENNSYLVANIA: Presiding Bishop engages in conversation with laity

For two hours on Sunday afternoon (March 30), Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori held a conversation with lay people in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia Cathedral, listening to their views and responding to their questions about the diocese, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
She urged them not to become mired in the diocese's major problem -- the future of inhibited Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison -- but to focus on new possibilities. Echoing her videotaped greeting to the Diocesan Convention last November, she encouraged them to be open to healing as individuals and collectively as a diocese. "Restoring relationships with one another is a significant part of your work right now," she said.

More than 250 people attended the lay forum and listened intently as the Presiding Bishop responded to about 30 questions directed her way. The questions were wide-ranging in scope and reflected broad interests, but at least a dozen were related to the serious financial challenges the diocese now faces and the lengthy legal procedures that have followed the inhibition of Bennison in 2007.

Since then, Bennison has been found guilty of two charges of conduct unbecoming a clergy member, and an ecclesiastical court has recommended he be deposed. In a separate hearing, the judges, composed of bishops, clergy and lay people elected by the General Convention, rejected his request to modify their sentence. Bennison has now appealed to a Court of Review composed of nine bishops. He continues to be paid by the diocese during this time.

More here-

http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_106571_ENG_HTM.htm

Religious Leaders Tell G20 Not to Forget Promises to Poor

From the Christian Post-

Religious leaders have urged G20 nations (pictured) not to forget the world’s poorest people when they meet in London this week to discuss the global financial crisis.

The call was made in a joint communiqué issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams; the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor; and Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

In the communiqué, they tell G20 leaders to consider the moral dimension of the financial crisis.

“We pray for the leaders of the G20 as they prepare to meet in London this week. They, and we, have a crucial role to play in recovering that lost sense of balance between the requirements of market mechanisms that help deliver increased prosperity, and the moral requirement to safeguard human dignity, regardless of economic or social category,” they said.

They voiced concern over estimates from the World Bank that 53 million people are at risk of falling into poverty as a result of the crisis.

“The likelihood is that more will face significant hardship before it comes to an end, and those who are already poor suffer the most. Along with the leaders of the G20 we all have a duty to look at the faces of the poor around the world and to act with justice, to think with compassion, and to look with hope to a sustainable vision of the future,” they said.

The religious leaders went on to warn that pledges made to the poor before the downturn now risk being “postponed by the pressing concern to rectify market failures.”

“Even in these difficult times we strongly urge the leaders of the G20 to hold fast to the commitments they have made to the world’s poorest people,” they said. “To forget their needs would be to compound regrettable past failures with needless future injustices.”

Rest is here-

http://www.christianpost.com/Intl/General/2009/03/religious-leaders-tell-g20-not-to-forget-promises-to-poor-30/

Church in Oz: A club nobody bothers to go to?

From "Downunder"

So I’ve mended my heathenish ways and started going back to church again. After last year’s less than happy encounter with low church Anglicanism, I found another church more to my liking, more traditional — so much so that I have joined the choir.

So far I am enjoying going to church more than I had expected I would. It is certainly helping to assuage my sense of loneliness and isolation. The people are genuinely nice and it’s comforting and familiar, going through the rituals I know so well in the company of others.

The company of others … and there is the catch. Because, in this part of Sydney at least, people don’t go to church. I’ve just come back from singing at evensong. As we walked, robes swishing, out of the church, one of the sopranos blurted out, “I made a bet that there would be more people in the choir than in the congregation this evening and I was right!” One of the men shushed her in case the worshippers inside overheard, but she had a point.

There were twelve of us in the choir, eleven in the congregation. It was the same on Ash Wednesday, traditionally an important service. (By way of contrast, my mother told me that at the service she sang at back in Joburg, people were queuing out the door.)

Is it this bad for the Catholics, the Uniting Church, the Presbyterians? Why don’t Australians, especially Anglican Australians, go to church? As in other first world countries, pentecostal churches such as Hillsong are showing rapid growth. At the same time, the number of Australians who claim no religious affiliation is growing. Not to mention the growth of other religions in line with increased immigration from Lebanon and Asia.

The rest is here-

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/sarahbritten/2009/03/29/church-in-oz-a-club-nobody-bothers-to-go-to/

Bishop Nazir-Ali retires; a rebellion fizzles out

Read the whole article. The author ties Nazar-ali's retirement to the demise of Gafcon-

There are events in public life that are not in themselves terribly important, but which symbolise something much bigger, like the end of an era. Jacqui Smith's accidental purchase of cable porn with taxpayers' money is, for example, an essentially trivial issue, even rather funny, but it is symptomatic of a derided Government in its death throes, just like John Major's sleaze-ridden last days in power.

For the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion, the retirement of Michael Nazir-Ali as Bishop of Rochester is another such totemic event. I must be quick to declare that there is nothing sleazy in the departure of Dr Nazir-Ali from the English episcopate.

On the contrary, he is to devote the rest of his considerable ministry to the support of persecuted Christians here and abroad, which is a noble and sacramental enterprise.
But his departure from the House of Bishops is nevertheless emblematic of the decline of a political force in worldwide Anglicanism, which as recently as last year threatened to tear our Communion apart. For such a significant figure of conservative evangelicalism to be throwing the episcopal towel in at this time shows just how far the Church has travelled over the past 12 months.

Again, it's important not to read too much in to Dr Nazir-Ali's resignation itself. He has had the See of Rochester for 15 years; at not yet 60, he has another career in him yet. But can anyone seriously suggest that, had those biblical traditionalists of the southern hemisphere, known collectively as the Global South, prevailed last year in overthrowing the authority of Canterbury in favour of an African-led Communion, he would have abandoned his important foothold in the English Church?

No. Dr Nazir-Ali, scourge of homosexual liberalism and what he sees as the Muslim threat to Christendom, pitched his tent with the African rebels, under the flag of the unfortunately named Gafcon, but now finds that army dispersed and demoralised.

The rest is here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/georgepitcher/5071925/Bishop-Nazir-Ali-retires-a-rebellion-fizzles-out.html

Good Stuff In TEC: North Carolina

Pregnant teens receive motherly guidance

One hundred seventy-three. According to the State Center for Health Statistics, that’s how many teen pregnancies, between the ages of 10 and 19, occurred in Henderson County in 2007: 173. Linda Carter, family education and support director with the Children & Family Resource Center, and the Rev. Joyce Beschta, deacon with St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church, feel that’s too many.

“It affects the lives of both the mother and the baby,” said Beschta.

“This is so under the radar,” said Carter. “No one recognizes the cost. (We want) to raise awareness.”

The pregnancy rate in Henderson County is 65.9 per 1,000, in the age range of 15 to 19. North Carolina’s pregnancy rate is 63.

“Just in Henderson County, from 2006 to 2007, there was a 4 percent increase,” said Carter.

“We’ve got to start somewhere and we’ve got to stop this,” said Beschta. “A young girl who gets pregnant in high school interrupts her whole life, her development process.”

More here-

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20090330/NEWS/903299971/1042/NEWS?Title=Pregnant-teens-receieve-motherly-guidance

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

Gay clergy's hopes dashed by Presbyterian decision

From the LA Times-Also mentions the Colorado Springs decision-

March was a busy month for courts weighing issues affecting churches and clergy in California and across the nation.

Three rulings -- one from a church body, two from secular courts -- involved a California lesbian who hopes to become a priest, a dispute over church property in Colorado and whether children in Texas should observe a minute of silence before starting their school day.

In California, a Presbyterian Church commission issued a ruling Wednesday that essentially halted a lesbian deacon's candidacy for ordination as a priest.

Lisa Larges, 45, has been trying to become a Presbyterian priest for more than 20 years. She heads the group That All May Freely Serve, which advocates for gay equality in the church.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) does not allow gays or lesbians to become priests, but last week's ruling sidestepped Larges' sexual orientation. In a highly technical ruling, the commission rejected the process used by the Presbytery of San Francisco to approve Larges' candidacy for ordination.

Still, Larges said the ruling has "deeply personal and painful repercussions" for her and other gay, bisexual and transgender people who want to serve the church. Larges likened the commission's action to the ruling of an appellate court. She said it was unclear whether there would be an appeal to a higher church court.

The rest is here-

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs30-2009mar30,0,5959119.story

God & Steel in Pittsburgh

From Time Magazine 1955

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, 61, is a ruggedly handsome divine who thrives on Gilbert & Sullivan and finds the preacher's lot a challengingly happy one. Ever since his unlined face and gentle voice became a fixture in Pittsburgh's Calvary Episcopal Church three years ago, religion has been moving out of the Sunday-morning shadows and into the steel mills and executive suites. The casual young members of the "Golf Club crowd" have found themselves talking religion at cocktail parties and even turning out for Bible-study meetings with "Dr. Sam" at the H-Y-P (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) Club. Steelworkers have attended prayer meetings right in the factory.

This month Dr. Shoemaker and his friends launched a new movement—the "Pittsburgh Experiment." It is designed as a saturation campaign against "nonconductors" in Pittsburgh's business world, to be carried out through small task forces. Explains Shoemaker: "Today . . . the small group is both a sign and an instigator of spiritual awakening.''

Apart from Dr. Shoemaker, the experiment's prime mover is Admiral Ben Moreell, board chairman of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., longtime seven-day-a-week Christian and one of those responsible for bringing Dr. Sam from Manhattan's fashionable Calvary Church. Layman Moreell, who will serve as chairman of the Pittsburgh Experiment's board of trustees, announced that the campaign will be guided by a full-time executive director, the Rev. William H. Cohea Jr., graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and former pastor of the Daniels Park Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

More here-

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936613,00.html

Report Warns of Long Term Decline

More than five years later, tensions caused by the consecration of a partnered homosexual man as Bishop Coadjutor of New Hampshire continue to affect half of all Episcopal churches, according to census information compiled in the Blue Book prepared for the 76th General Convention, to be held July 8-17 in Anaheim, Calif.

The report, based on results from 783 completed surveys, is a sober snapshot of an aging denomination, struggling with unresolved conflict and in danger of long-term decline. It was written by the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church and included in the Blue Book report published in advance of Convention.

“In prior years the Committee on the State of the Church often heard the criticism that our church seemed unwilling to recognize the presence of a major source of internal controversy that some argued was having an impact on our common life, as reflected in declining membership and attendance statistics,” the Blue Book Report states. “The metaphor most often used was that we ‘failed to acknowledge the elephant in the room’, referring to what many viewed as the momentous decision by the 74th General Convention (2003) to consent to the consecration of the Bishop of New Hampshire.”

There are some indications that what the committee describes as “tensions” are growing in congregations. In a similar survey undertaken in 2005, 37 percent of congregations reported serious conflict that resulted in at least some members leaving. About one-third of those responding in 2005 attributed the conflict to decisions made during the 2003 General Convention. In a similar survey conducted in 2008, 64 percent of congregations reported some level of conflict over the ordination of homosexual clergy, with most reporting such conflict to be serious.

“Overall, 47 percent of Episcopal congregations had serious conflict over this issue, 40 percent indicated that some people left and 18 percent indicated that some people withheld funds,” the committee report states. “Furthermore, the rate of decline in Average Sunday Attendance from 2003-2007 among congregations with serious conflict over the ordination of gay clergy was 35 percent higher than congregations with no conflict over the issue (and accounted for more than double the aggregate loss).”

More-

http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/3/27/report-warns-of-long-term-decline

A troublesome priest in a timid church

From the London Times (another nice hat)

Whatever your views about Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, he is hard to ignore. After his announcement this weekend that he is to retire early, the Church of England will be the poorer for it. The inference is that he felt stifled and decided that he could do more worthwhile work elsewhere, mostly outside Britain. Sadly, he is probably right.

Born in Karachi to parents who converted to Christianity from Islam, the first non-white diocesan bishop in Britain emerged as an outspoken critic of multiculturalism. Nobody, given his background and race, was better placed to do so. More than his Anglican colleagues, he knew about fighting for your faith. His criticisms were well made. Immigrants, he said, needed to do more to integrate into British life. He warned last year that Islamic extremism had turned “already separate communities into ‘no-go’ areas”. For this he received death threats and required police protection.

He has lamented “the long withdrawing roar of the sea of faith . . . nurses cannot pray, the creed cannot be recited at Christian services for fear of offending non-believers”. He warned of “the advent of a doctrinaire multi-faithism”, in which the established church was in retreat and in which radical Islam had filled the void. His views on Muslims were said to have ruled him out of succeeding George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke out against the soggy “anything goes” political correctness that characterises the modern Church of England. Sometimes his conservative views got him into trouble. Nine years ago he caused a flurry by saying that having children was “not an optional extra” for married couples.

(Read it all)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article5993105.ece

Married Catholic priests gain acceptance

There are few women who can say they are married to a Roman Catholic priest. And few people who can say their dad is the man whom Catholic churchgoers address formally as "Father Steve."

But Cindy Anderson and her three sons can, and they were among the rush of congregants who gathered for 10 a.m. mass on a recent Sunday at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Goodrich.

The parish priest is Cindy's husband and the father of Austin, 24, Steven Jr., 14, and Christian, 11. The Rev. Steve Anderson has been a Catholic priest since 2003, when he became the second priest in Michigan to be ordained under an exception to the Catholic Church's celibacy rule for married ministers serving some Protestant denominations.

About 100 married men, mostly ministers in Episcopal churches in the United States, have sought permission from the Vatican to be ordained as Catholic priests since Pope John Paul II allowed it in 1980.

"It does take some explanation, for sure," said Austin Anderson, an automotive engineer. "People think I don't know what I'm talking about, at first. 'Maybe you mean deacon,' they say. 'Maybe you mean another denomination.' "

Then there's the joke he hears whenever he explains what Dad does for a living: "Do you call him 'Father father'?"

More here-

http://www.freep.com/article/20090329/NEWS06/903290380/Catholics+accepting+of+married+priests

Commission releases highly critical report of Episcopal Church communications

Here's an excerpt from the report of the Standing Commission on Communications now available in the "Blue Book" for this summer's General Convention in Anaheim. It gives us a rather stunning window into the confusion and power struggles inside the governing structures of The Episcopal Church:

REPORT TO THE 76TH GENERAL CONVENTION

SUMMARY OF WORK
Communications in The Episcopal Church has been in a state of significant flux for the past three years. This situation is attributable primarily to personnel changes during the Church Center reorganization initiated by the new Presiding Bishop, but it is also due to the rapidly changing nature of way in which communication is being done within The Episcopal Church and by The Episcopal Church to the larger world. These two reasons are important in understanding the frustration felt by many serving the Standing Commission as we have attempted to fulfill our mandate.

PERSONNEL CHANGES
During this Triennium, the Interim Director of Communications, Robert Williams, who was appointed to serve in this role when the previous Director, Dan England, resigned, was named the Director of Communications. Under Mr. William’s leadership the Communications portion of the Church Center staff underwent a number of reorganizations. It is unclear what was driving the reorganizations, though certainly lack of adequate funding must have required all of the staff to try to do more with fewer resources. The net result of the reorganization was that for a large portion of the triennium it was unclear to those outside the Church Center which staff person was responsible for which area.

The rest is here-

http://www.examiner.com/x-4775-DC-Episcopal-Examiner~y2009m3d27-Commission-releases-highly-critical-report-of-Episcopal-Church-communications

Financial crunch weighing heavily on churches

From this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-

At a meeting last week of the Urban Church Network, leaders of 80 predominantly black churches in Allegheny County discussed how to stem a financial crisis that has forced some pastors to take a second full-time job and a few churches to close.

Their first concern was how to help neighborhoods through times so hard that robbery and high blood pressure have soared, said the Rev. Jermaine McKinley, assistant director of the Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. With little of their own to give, they want to teach others how to tap into the government stimulus package to improve their communities.

"Most churches are not in the business of building houses. We don't build roads. But what we can do is help the community to address the issue," she said.

That is one of many responses congregations have made to the economic crisis. There are no major studies, though anecdotes say income went down while neighborhood needs and utilities shot up. Some wealthy congregations may hurt worse than those accustomed to scraping by.

Bishop Kurt Kusserow, who oversees 201 parishes in the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, tracks the impact through donations to missions. Some parishes cut their gifts; others increased theirs. The difference isn't related to size, he said.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09088/959157-85.stm