Zimbabwe Anglican priest sells mother's home, leaves siblings homeless

From Zimbabwe-

AN Anglican priest allegedly sold his dead mother’s house and pocketed the money, leaving his siblings homeless.

David Dhlomo (52), a priest at St Martin’s Parish in Hatfield, allegedly sold the house in the same suburb in December 2008 without his brothers and sisters knowledge.

It is said his siblings were supposed to also benefit from the estate and Dhlomo is facing fraud charges before a Harare magistrate.

His trial opened this week before regional magistrate, Mr William Bhila, after the priest’s sister Zondiwe Dhlomo sought legal recourse.Prosecutor Ms Tinashe Kanyemba said the priest was one of the 10 children born to Ms Njini Sizi who died in 2002.

She left behind six children: the priest, the complainant Zondiwe, Rebecca, Richard and Jonathan Dhlomo, and Livingstone Mutimukulu.

The State says in 1999 Ms Sizi gave the deed of grant of the house to Zondiwe so that she could safeguard it in the event of her death.

More here-

http://zimtribune.com/news_article.php?cat=17&id=330

Cash-strapped choir keeps things hymning

From Kentucky-

Members of the choir at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Lexington started singing hymns Friday night.

They sang for three hours Friday. And they sang for 12 hours Saturday.

By the time the Hymn-athon resumed at 3 p.m. Sunday, the choir members had sung almost 500 hymns. And they planned to push their total to about 780 before finally quitting sometime Sunday night.

There was a method to all this musical madness. The marathon was to help raise money for St. Michael's choir to travel to New York City, where it will sing at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on April 25. The choir has 25 members, about 20 of whom will be making the trip.
"It's a great honor to be invited to sing at the cathedral, but these kinds of trips are not cheap. So we have to raise some money," said music director Ruth Witt.

Choir members recruited donors from within and outside the church, each of whom pledged at least a penny for each song sung during the Hymn-athon. Some people pledged more than that, Witt said.

Singers involved in the Hymn-athon ranged in age from 10 to 70.

more here-

http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/1140142.html

Texas, Malawi Episcopal dioceses pledge cooperation

From Texas-

About 1,000 clergy and lay delegates from throughout the state ended the 161st annual council of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas at midafternoon Saturday in what the Rev. Paul Moore, rector of the host St. Christopher's Episcopal Church of Killeen, called the most efficiently-run council he had ever seen.

"It's just unheard of to get through with our business and adjourn this early," he said as delegates were exiting the Killeen Civic and Conference Center, which had been filled up with official activities and display booths. "And I hardly did anything. I just turned it over to Don (event chairman Don Christian) and his volunteers and got out of the way."

Possibly the highlight of the two-day council was the signing of an agreement of partnership between the Texas diocese and the Diocese of Southern Malawi in Africa by the dioceses' bishops, C. Andrew Doyle of Texas and James Tengatenga of Malawi, Saturday afternoon. All the delegates stood for the ceremony.

The dioceses have elaborate plans for cooperation in several ways, including helping the people of Malawi to grow food, mutual visits between the dioceses, malaria control, partnering in prayer and fostering "pen pal" projects for children, gifts to care for AIDS orphans and helping to develop safe water sources in the African country.

Addressing the convocation before the signing, Tengatenga drew chuckles when he said, "Praise to God for y'all."

More here-

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=39193

War in Anglican Church: We want freedom —Igbo members

From Nigeria-

An unholy war is raging in the Lagos West Diocese of the Anglican Communion, with the combatants threatening fire and brimstone as the crisis gets messier.

At the centre of the conflict are the Bishop of the Lagos West Diocese, Peter Adebiyi, and the 14-member senior church council of St Paul’s Anglican Church, Mushin.

At a press conference on January 30, the church council accused Bishop Adebiyi of ethnic sentiments, insensitivity and high-handedness.

The parish is dominated by Igbo-speaking members, which is reflected in its name and description as St Paul’s (Igbo) Anglican Church.

But the name is not the bone of contention. Rather the members are at war with the Bishop because, among other allegations, the latter dissolved the church council, an action the feuding members consider as illegal and had ethnic colouration.

“Within the past eight years, we as a congregation have suffered silently and borne the weight of concealed hate, tribalism and unguarded discriminatory attitude and utterances of this bishop, who has roundly failed us both as a bishop and father. Bishop Adebiyi has at every opportunity demonstrated dictatorial nepotism and characteristic tribalism in handling affairs that impact our congregation at St Paul’s Church, Mushin,” the council said through Mr Richard Agbamisere.

The church council said trouble started on July 5, 2009 when the bishop through Venerable C.T Arowolo of the Isolo Archdeaconry dissolved the duly elected council, citing the way the church was administered between 2005 and 2008 as reason for his action.

But, the council wondered why the sins of the 2005 – 2008 executive should be visited on the 2009 executive and sought further explanation from the bishop, who said he received telephone calls and text messages from faceless persons informing him that church funds were not properly managed.


More here-

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/feb/14/national-14-02-2010-04.htm

Openly Gay Episcopal Priest Receives More Nods

From Christian Post-

A controversial priest who has a lesbian partner has so far received more than half the votes she needs to be consecrated as an assistant bishop.

And the 120-day consent process began just a month ago.

The Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool has 29 consents to become bishop suffragan, according to a recent report by the Diocese of Los Angeles. She needs 56 to be confirmed as the second openly homosexual bishop in The Episcopal Church.

"Throughout her 30 years of ordained ministry, the Rev. Mary Glasspool has been faithful and consistent to the ministry, doctrine and teaching of the Episcopal Church," Bishop Nathan Baxter of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania wrote in a pastoral letter indicating his consent.

"On the matter of her sexuality and life-style, the Rev. Glasspool is faithful to the spirit and prayerfully determined direction of our church," he noted. "For 18 years, she and her partner have lived in witness to the marks the church has expected of all persons in committed intimate relationships (including traditional marriage): fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and holy love."

Glasspool has been with her partner, Becki Sander, since 1988. Her election in December to the office of bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles has caused another uproar across The Episcopal Church, six years after it consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

More here-

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100213/openly-gay-priest-receives-nods/

General Synod member, Brian Lewis on ACNA vote

Mark Harris has posted a report from a participant in the General Synod who details how ACNA was rejected not once but three times by the Curch of England last Wednesday-

The Rev. Brian Lewis, member of General Synod from the Diocese of Clemsford and member of the Executive Committee of Inclusive Church, UK, has written the following report on the General Synod's decision to reject the call to "express a desire to be in Communion with ACNA," and to pass a motion that does quite another thing.

I want to thank Brian for his report and for clearing up many matters. Here is his report:



“We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language” (Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost 1887).

I was alarmed but (bearing in mind Oscar's witticism) should not have been surprised to hear that some in TEC and ACoC might misunderstand the full significance of the Church of England's General Synod's decision to reject the call to "express a desire to be in Communion with ACNA".

But let us be clear it did just that, not once, but twice or perhaps even three times.

To follow through the sequence of events.

The original motion was:

That this Synod express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America.

In a background paper circulated in advance of the debate the mover (Lorna Ashworth) made a number of allegations about TEC and the ACoC. This clearly established that though the motion was ostensibly only about ACNA it was intended to invite the CoE to condemn the behaviour of TEC and ACoC.

In response to that briefing paper I circulated to all members of synod two papers.


The rest is here-

http://anglicanfuture.blogspot.com/2010/02/general-synod-member-brian-lewis-on.html

Synod holds off from ACNA

From the Church Times-

THE General Synod declined on Wednesday afternoon to express a desire to be in communion with the Anglican Church in North Amerca (ACNA).

But, "aware of the distress caused by recent divisions" in the Anglican Churches of the US and Canada, it recognised and affirmed the desire of those who had formed ACNA to be part of the Anglican family, and "acknowledged that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further".

It invited the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011.

Lorna Ashworth (Chichester) had brought a private member's motion. There was no hidden agenda, she assured the Synod; but this was a question of fellowship. "If one part of the body suffers, all suffer."

There was an early attempt to scupper the debate. Canon Simon Butler (Southwark) said that there had been so many claims and counter-claims that it would be difficult to separate truth and falsehood. He moved "next business", supported by a member who spoke of the "grisly inevitability of watching a train wreck in slow motion", and opposed by another who was "deeply offended that what I was going to say was a lie".

Canon Butler's motion was lost.

The Bishop of Bristol, the Rt Revd Mike Hill, moved an amendment from the Bishops which formed the main part of the final motion. He believed that Mrs Ashworth's motion would commit the C of E to "too much too soon".

The Bishop of Chichester, Dr John Hind, also felt that there was "serious work still to be done".

The Synod was beginning to run out of time. When it came to voting by Houses on an amendment to the Bristol amendment which would in effect have combined it with the main motion, the electronic voting system broke down, necessitating a time-consuming division through the Ayes and Noes lobbies.

When they returned, that amendment lost, another indefinite adjournment was unsuccessfully attempted. But the mood had lightened. An amendment from the Revd Andrew Dow, to recognise the orders of ACNA clergy as an interim measure, was also lost.

The Bristol amendment was carried, with Mr Dow's other amendment about "distress". The amended motion was carried by 309 to 69 with 17 recorded abstentions.

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=89255

A Minnesota-centric ceremony

From Minnesota-

The Rev. Brian Prior realizes that several thousand people are going to make their way to the Minneapolis Convention Center Saturday morning to witness his installation as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. He just doesn't want all the attention to be on him.

"As I was talking to the people planning this, I told them that the one thing I don't want is for this to feel like a coronation," the 50-year-old bishop said Thursday. "I want this to be a celebration of the diocese. I don't want it to be focused on the new bishop, I want it to be focused on the new chapter in the diocese."

The consecration, which starts at 11 a.m. (people are being encouraged to arrive by 10:30), will feature a localized version of pomp and circumstance. It will include Ojibwe and Dakota drummers, Hmong choristers and a 200-voice choir gleaned from the diocese's churches.

More here-

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/84277737.html?elr=KArksD:aDyaEP:kD:aUq9_b9b_jEkP:QUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

St. Francis named in lawsuit to claim church, property

From Turlock CA-

A banner hanging outside St. Francis Anglican Church proudly declares “Lives Change Here.” Rev. Gerry Grossman is quick to point out the present tense of the declaration and is even quicker to point out that his parish has no plans of letting it slip into the past.

That goal was recently put into question by a lawsuit filed Monday in Stanislaus County by the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. The lawsuit, which names Grossman and nine members of the church’s leadership as defendants, seeks “to return control of the parish premises and other parish assets to the plaintiffs in the matter.”

The lawsuit was spurred by a separation among the Episcopal Church. Differences over interpretations of Scripture caused some churches to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate with the Anglican Church.

In 2007, about 40 parishes, including St. Francis, decided to leave the original Episcopal diocese in Fresno and align with the Anglican Church. Another seven opted to stay. About 20 parishioners left St. Francis prior to the separation, Grossman said.

More here-

http://www.turlockjournal.com/news/article/2954/

Bishop Henry Parsley Jr. announces retirement from Episcopal Diocese of Alabama

From Alabama-

The Rev. Henry N. Parsley Jr., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, today announced his plan to retire at the end of 2011.

Parsley became bishop-coadjutor in 1996, serving under Bishop Robert Miller, and became Bishop of Alabama in 1999.

"Fifteen years is a long, full tenure for a diocesan bishop and I believe that my decision to retire in two years is in the fullness of time for the diocese and me," Parsley said in a news release. "When I retire I will have gone to seminary 41 years ago and been ordained nearly 39 years. It continues to be a fascinating life's work."

His announcement today came during his address to the Diocesan Convention, held this year at the Marriott Shoals Hotel in Florence.

More here-

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/02/bishop_henry_parsley_jr_announ.html

Christian churches in Canada fading out: USA next?

From USA Today-

Olympics fans heading to Vancouver might want to visit a vanishing cultural treasure while they're in Canada -- local churches.

Canada has become a "post-Christian society" where once-dominant Anglicanism has "moved to the margins of public life," according to a bleak study reported by Michael Valpy at the Globe and Mail.

A new assessment of the state of the church in Canada looks at the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia and then across the country and concludes that,

... at the present rate of decline -- a loss of 13,000 members per year -- only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061.

... Nationally, between 1961 and 2001, the church lost 53 per cent of its membership, declining to 642,000 from 1.36 million. Between 1991 and 2001 alone, it declined by 20 per cent.

The report zeros in on Vancouver and the adjacent Gulf Islands, suggesting closing or preparing to shutter nearly two in three of its Anglican churches now that the Anglican population is

... one generation away from extinction ... The unchurched are not coming to us.

Only the Roman Catholic Church is holding steady and the report attributes that to immigration.

More here-

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/02/christian-churches-in-canada-fading-out-usa-next/1

Calif. Episcopal diocese sues breakaway parish

From San Jose CA-

Episcopal leaders in central California are launching a new round of legal action to gain control of property used by congregations that split from the national church in a dispute over the Bible and homosexuality.

The Diocese of San Joaquin said the congregations that left to align with more conservative Anglican parishes in 2007 had no right to take control of church property. Former Bishop John-David Schofield led about 40 San Joaquin parishes in the secession after the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have since formed the rival Anglican Church in North America.

The Modesto-based diocese previously filed a lawsuit against Schofield in an effort recover most of the church properties.

But 10 of the breakaway parishes are incorporated—meaning that they own their own property—so the diocese must deal with those cases individually.

On Monday, the diocese sued one of those parishes, St. Francis Anglican Church in Turlock, "to return control of the parish premises and other parish assets to the plaintiffs in the matter." The lawsuit also names the Rev. Gerald Grossman and nine members of the church's ruling body.
"The (Modesto) diocese has never given us money," Grossman said. "The national church has never given us anything. Why do they think they have a right to this property?"

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14391531

Signs, signs every where signs #26

Pastor's ban sparks unholy Anglican stoush

From Australia- (anybody know what a "stoush" is?)

THE first sign of trouble for Bruce Haddon came at an impromptu meeting with his pastor, the Reverend Dominic Steele, the gregarious but conservative rector of St Aidan's Anglican Church in Annandale.

Mr Steele informed Mr Haddon that he had become aware, via members of Mr Haddon's home Bible study group, that he had questioned the accuracy of the Old Testament.

As punishment, Mr Haddon says, he was banned from his ministry role within the church, where he had been appointed to greet parishioners arriving at Sunday evening services.

But it was just a hint of what was to come for Mr Haddon, 58, a divorced management consultant who is embroiled in a bitter battle with the Anglican Church, largely sparked by a single email.

The email, sent two years later in February 2008, contained allegations that Mr Haddon believes implied he was guilty of sexual misconduct towards women in the church.

He claims it is all part of a vicious campaign to force him out of the church because of his liberal beliefs, which grate with the strict Anglican doctrine of the Sydney diocese.

More here-

http://www.smh.com.au/national/pastors-ban-sparks-unholy-anglican-stoush-20100212-nxm4.html

Anglican church calls for tighter regulation of violent computer games

From The London Guardian-

Tighter official regulation of violent computer games was called for by members of the Church of England general synod last night.

In a brief debate, members queued up to condemn the availability of ultra-violent games and the relative lack of restrictions on what children can see.

The church itself has been a victim – in 2007 images of the interior of Manchester Cathedral were used without permission in the violent game Resistance: Fall of Man.

The cathedral staff secured an apology - but not the withdrawal of the game from its worldwide market.

The cathedral's dean the Very Rev Govender Rogers Govender told the synod: "Sony's response was: "What is the church worried about? It's just a game.' I had to tell them, 'It may just be a fantasy game to you, but violence is really serious on the streets of Manchester.' We eventually managed to elicit a grudging apology."

Initiating the debate, synod lay member Tom Benyon, a former Tory MP, said: "There is a bubbling sewer of gratuitously violent and sexual pornography and games all around us … I have seen [their] pernicious effect: a family member saw a so-called game and he had nightmares. The images remained with him for months."

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/12/church-violent-games-pornography

South African Anglicans criticize Zuma

From The Washington Post-

Anglicans have joined Catholics in criticizing the South African president's sexual misconduct.

In a statement Friday, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa said President Jacob Zuma's actions "highlight the way women more widely face exploitation and abuse."

Thursday, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference said that while Zuma has expressed regret over an affair that resulted in a daughter born in October, he has not shown remorse for adultery.

The Anglicans also are calling on southern Africa's leaders to curb greed and do more to fight poverty and corruption and support democracy.

The Anglicans say the faithful are wondering "who they can respect and look up to as role models in the political leadership of our nations."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021200997.html

Episcopal Church diocesan conference coming to Killeen

From Texas-

Starting Friday, the largest convention to ever come to Killeen will fill the Killeen Civic and Conference Center with more than 1,000 attendees, 70 vendors and the goal of a clear direction for Episcopalian churches across Texas.

The Episcopal Church Diocesan Conference annually brings together delegates from across the state to discuss problems that arise during the year, find solutions to those problems and consider ways to implement those solutions.

The group alternates the location of the conference between its "headquarters" in Houston and other cities. St. Christopher's Episcopal Church of Killeen is hosting the event this year.

The first-time hosts have worked for about two years to bring the conference to Killeen, said Connie Kuehl, director of the Killeen Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The way conventions normally work is that you're actually preparing two as far as eight years out," she said. "The best one is like this one where we had a bunch of local folks who are proud of the conference center and want to show it off to their peers."

Kuehl said the group has "maxed out" the center for this weekend's event.

The first evening of the event begins with a worship service that brings together all participants, with dinner afterward.

Saturday is filled with workshops and meetings "to basically determine the direction of the church and take care of the business of the church," said Don Christian, former assistant city manager, who was one of the most active in bringing the conference to the center.

More here-

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=39107

Episcopal diocese sues, seeks church property

From The Modesto Bee-

The Episcopal-Anglican battle in Stanislaus County got very personal on Monday, as the Episcopal faction filed a lawsuit against St. Francis Anglican Church in Turlock.
The suit, filed by the Rev. Jerry Lamb, bishop of the Modesto-based Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, names the Rev. Gerald Grossman and nine members of the church's vestry, or ruling body, as well as the St. Francis parish as defendants.

No monetary damages are mentioned. Instead, the lawsuit seeks "to return control of the parish premises and other parish assets to the plaintiffs in the matter."

St. Francis is the first parish to face an individual lawsuit. When the original diocese, headquartered in Fresno, voted in December 2007 to leave the Episcopal Church and align itself with the larger worldwide Anglican church, about 40 of its parishes joined in that action, while another six or seven decided to remain Episcopal.

The break was mainly over the interpretation of Scripture — whether Jesus is the only way to salvation and if homosexuals should be ordained and married in the church, for example.
The Episcopal Church set up a parallel San Joaquin diocese with Lamb as bishop, while the Rev. John-David Schofield is the bishop of the Anglican diocese.

Most of the parish property belongs to one of the two dioceses; about 10, however, were incorporated, which means their property was never owned by the Anglican diocese, which stretches from Stockton to Bakersfield.


Read more:

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/1044574.html#ixzz0fKEljBu9

Church of England says no to full communion with breakaway entity

From Episcopal Life-

The Church of England has said it recognizes and affirms the desire of the Anglican Church in North America to remain in the Anglican family, but it is not yet ready to be in full communion with the breakaway entity.

Amended legislation passed Feb. 10 by General Synod, the Church of England's main governing body, said that ACNA's desire required further exploration by the "relevant authorities" in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Michael Hill of the Diocese of Bristol, who proposed the amendment, told ENS that the debate had been charitable. "While it leaned towards issues of human sexuality, the real issue is about the process of reception with groups like ACNA," said Hill, a member of the Anglican Consultative Council, the communion's main policy-making body.

The passing of the motion hasn't resolved all the issues, he added. "It leaves the doors open but makes it clear that the church has to deal with these matters with due process and not in an ad hoc way." Hill's amendment -- which received 309 votes for, 69 against, and 17 abstentions -- also invites the archbishops of Canterbury and York to report further to synod in 2011. The original motion submitted by Lorna Ashworth of Chichester had called on synod to "express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America."

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_119351_ENG_HTM.htm

An Important Pastoral Letter from South Carolina Bishop Mark Lawrence

From Titus One Nine- Bishop Mark Lawrence in South Carolina-

February 9, 2010

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings in the strong name of Jesus Christ whose word calls us to conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day.

I write to announce a change in the date of our upcoming Diocesan Convention which was scheduled for March 4_5'" at St. Paul's, Summerville. According to our Diocesan Constitution and Canons the Ecclesiastical Authority may "for sufficient cause" change the date of the Convention. I, with the unanimous concurrence of the Standing Committee, have so done. The 219'" Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina will now be held at St. Paul's, Summerville on March 26, 2010.

The Chancellor of the diocese, Mr. Wade Logan, was informed in December of 2009 that a local attorney had been retained by the Chancellor of the Presiding Bishop to represent The Episcopal Church in some "local matters." Then, beginning in January of 2010, a series of letters requesting various documents from our diocesan records were sent sequentially to our chancellor, leading us to believe that perhaps the Presiding Bishop's Chancellor, if not the Presiding Bishop herself, is seeking to build a case against the Ecclesiastical Authorities of the Diocese (Bishop and Standing Committee) and some of our parishes. These requests (which can be viewed here) seek from the Diocese and about certain parishes: lists of all persons ordained since October 24, 2009; all parish bylaws and amendments since 2006; all Standing Committee Minutes since the episcopacy of Bishop Salmon; parish charters, parish founding documents, parish deeds, parish mortgages, documents evidencing parish participation in diocesan programs and others. In some cases, the stated reason for the information requested is the assertion that these parishes have left the Diocese of South Carolina because of changes made to their respective bylaws. However, these parishes have not made these changes with the intention of leaving the Diocese of South Carolina, nor have they left. I have been working with their clergy and lay leaders to find appropriate ways to resolve their struggles with the recent decisions of the General Convention in ways consistent with the Holy Scriptures, our common life and fellowship in Christ, as well as with the canons of the Church and the laws of the State of South Carolina.

More here-

http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/28210/#more

Episcopal Diocese still wants its property back

FromCalifornia-

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin has started a new round of lawsuits to get dissidents to return numerous Central Valley churches.
The dissidents split from the national Episcopal church to affiliate with a more conservative unit of the Anglican Church.

The lawsuits have been filed because invitations of the Diocesan Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb, to discuss the orderly return of the churches have been largely ignored, the diocese says.
“It is particularly disappointing given the recent and unequivocal decisions of the California Supreme Court and Court of Appeals’ rulings that the properties and assets are held for the Episcopal Church and its Dioceses,” says Diocesan Chancellor Michael Glass, the lawyer for the diocese.

The litigation is focused on returning the properties and assets to the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, he says.
Mr. Glass says the litigation will not be initially seeking monetary judgments against individual defendants “unless it becomes evident that such defendants have diverted parish assets to other purposes or parties.”

More here-

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=14361

Tensions over women bishops in Church of England continue at General Synod

From Catholic News Agency-

As the Church of England’s General Synod begins, some Anglo-Catholic leaders have said if their concerns about the introduction of women bishops are not addressed they will withdraw their resources from the Anglican Church and focus them on ministries outside the formal church structure.

The Church of England introduced women to its priesthood in 1994. It is committed to the consecration of female bishops as well, The Telegraph reports, but controversy continues about the implementation.

Many of those who favor female bishops argue they should be introduced on the same basis and with the same powers as men. They fear the development of a two-tier system.

Those who oppose female bishops argue they had been assured that provisions would be made for them. They point to the current “flying bishops” arrangement for parishes that cannot accept the oversight of female vicars and so have bishops from other regions as their overseers.

The traditionalists, led by a group called Reform, seek either an entirely new province that could cover all of England or extra junior bishops in dioceses that had not ordained women bishops and would be answerable only to an archbishop.

The debate has been postponed until July. However, according to the Telegraph, Anglican Bishop of Manchester Nigel McCulloch’s comments to Synod members on Monday suggested that the proposals desired by traditionalists are no longer being considered.

More here-

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/tensions_over_women_bishops_in_church_of_england_continue_at_general_synod/

Kill or jail gays but not pastors: Church of Uganda

From USA Today-

At last, the Church of Uganda, the Anglican Communion branch there, has spoken up on the anti-homosexuality bill it has been studying for months. Their confusing statement, released today to Christianity Today, is long on bewildering rhetoric and very short on proposed amendments.

Indeed, Warren Throckmorton, an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College, blogs that the "changes" only serve to show the church wants to "make it more clear that homosexuality is against the law."

The only specific amendment suggested would qualify a provision of the bill that now says people who fail to report gays to authorities could be imprisoned themselves. The Church would like to see pastors, doctors and counselors exempted. Otherwise, they back all efforts to be sure homosexuality is "excluded as a human right."

So, family and friends who fail to turn in gays to authorities would still be facing jail, as per the original bill's wording. (Note to actress Anne Hathaway, who told a British mag she left the Catholic Church because it wouldn't welcome her gay brother: Stay out of Uganda.)

More here-

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/02/gay-death-penalty-church-uganda-anglican/1

'Comfy-Space' worship service aims for family-friendly setting

From Arizona-

A special Family Worship Service will be held at 9 a.m. Sunday in the Music Center at St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church.

This service is called a "Comfy-Space" service because although it is a worship service, it is set up in a less-formal space, with activities, lessons and songs that are more informal and designed to hold the interest of younger worshipers.

This enables parents or grandparents to feel more relaxed as they worship with their young ones.
"For the first time, I can actually worship while I am with my family because I don't have to be so concerned about how my kids are behaving," one parent said after a family service.

Worshipers of all ages are welcome.

This service will celebrate the end of the Season after Epiphany. Participants will get shiny stickers on their faces to commemorate the Transfiguration of Jesus. The story of the Transfiguration is that Jesus went on a mountaintop with three disciples to pray, and while there his face became radiant, he spoke with Moses and Elijah and God called him "Son."

Also, "alleluias" will be metaphorically packed away in a basket, where they will stay throughout the season of Lent. In Episcopalian tradition, "alleluia" is not said from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday.

More here-

http://www.azstarnet.com/news/local/foothills/article_528f3b61-9d73-510b-b1af-8d91c527b790.html

Anglican Church in North America ‘should be in communion with C of E’

From the London Times-

One of the most controversial motions to reach the General Synod for several years will be debated today when members discuss a proposal that the Church of England should be in communion with the breakaway US conservative Church, the Anglican Church in North America.

Lorna Ashworth, a lay member from the Diocese of Chichester, will call for the General Synod to express a wish for communion with the new group, which has 742 parishes and more than 800 clergy in the US and Canada and opposes the consecration of openly gay bishops and the blessing of gay partnerships.

Mrs Ashworth, a Canadian-born mother of three who works as a volunteer at All Saints’ Church in Eastbourne, said: “Most lay members like myself have little understanding of the technical ins and outs of canon law but what is clear, however, is the shocking and unjust treatment of historical, biblical Anglicans as they seek to continue to live out their faith in this province.”

Many have been subject to legal actions over property, and some have been deposed from their orders.

More here-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7021260.ece

Synod: messy, imperfect, but ours

From the London Guardian-

Years ago I was visiting friends in the Episcopal Church in the United States. The diocese had just elected a new a bishop and my friend had been an elector in the House of Laity of the diocesan synod. What did he think of the new man? I asked. "Well", he said, "he's a bit of jerk but he's our jerk". This layman, in other words, responded like a grown-up, taking responsibility for decisions and acknowledging his accountability.

In the Church of England, unlike most of the Anglican Communion, we do not elect our bishops, but we are governed by a synodical structure in which the three "estates" of the church are represented in three houses: laity, clergy and bishops. This model is replicated in every diocese as well. That it is a cumbersome and often frustrating decision-making system is beyond dispute. What is less acknowledged is that lay participation and a (somewhat) democratic authority is nothing new and has been inherent in our structures since at least the Reformation.

General Synod is a direct descendent of the Reformation Parliament of 1529-1536 which declared the Church in England to be independent of the see of Rome and the king to be its supreme head – in so far as the law of Christ allows. Even that megalomaniac Henry VIII needed parliamentary legitimisation for his programme of ecclesiastical reorganisation. The Commons, acting as a "lay synod" of the church, developed an increasing sense of responsibility and accountability in religious matters. So much so that slightly more than a century later, a Commons-dominated Parliament would abolish the Church of England and send its archbishop and supreme governor to the scaffold: a superb example of the law of unintended consequences.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/10/general-synod-anglican-religion

Full text: Archbishop of Canterbury's presidential speech

From the Guardian -Full text at link at bottom-

In the last few weeks we've seen a number of topics coming up in public discussion, all centring on one set of questions – a set of questions which I think reflects painfully accurately some of the problems we face in our church, locally and internationally. The heated debates around the equality bill brought this out in one way, some of the renewed flurries of pressure and anxiety about euthanasia and assisted dying in other ways. And as we look forward to our own debates later in the year on women bishops and on the Anglican Covenant, we may see the parallels. And in the middle of all the frustration that many feel about deferring the debate on women bishops, perhaps we can at least ask how we can spend the intervening time constructively, looking again at whether we might learn anything from the way our culture is moving that will help us maintain some level of health or maturity in our church. That is the task I'm going to attempt, with some trepidation, today .

(snip)

But when the affirmation of that good takes the form of pre-empting the discernment of the wider Anglican (and a lot of the non-Anglican) fellowship, and of acting in ways that negate the general understanding of the limits set by Bible and tradition, there is a conflict with another undoubted good, which is the capacity of the Anglican family to affirm and support one another in diverse contexts. The freedom claimed, for example, by the Episcopal church to ordain a partnered homosexual bishop is, simply as a matter of fact, something that has a devastating impact on the freedom of, say, the Malaysian Christian to proclaim the faith without being cast as an enemy of public morality and risking both credibility and personal safety. It hardly needs to be added that the freedom that might be claimed by an African Anglican to support anti-gay legislation likewise has a serious impact on the credibility of the gospel in our setting.

Its all here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/09/full-text-archbishop-canterbury-speech

Archbishop of Canterbury appeals for unity over gay clergy and women bishops

From The London Guardian-

Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, attempted today to bind together the warring factions of the Church of England by appealing for both conservatives and liberals to show mutual tolerance and understanding over issues of gay equality and women bishops.

He also placed the church firmly against any liberalisation of the law on assisted dying, describing the granting of a right to die as a moral mistake and an upsetting of the balance of freedoms.

However, his warning to Anglicans not to demonise opponents was immediately undermined by a pugnacious statement by the archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, who, with immaculate timing, insisted on his church's support for homophobic legislation under consideration by the Ugandan parliament.

Williams, who described such legislation as infamous and repugnant, insisted in his address to the Church of England's General Synod, meeting in London: "Our job is not to secure purity but to find ways of deciding such contested issues that do not simply write off the others in the debate as negligible, morally or spiritually unserious or without moral claims."

But the archbishop stoutly defended the recent opposition of bishops in the Lords to the government's equality legislation, seeking to define how far the church could discriminate, particularly against gay people, in making secular appointments.

More here-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/09/archbishop-canterbury-general-synod-address

Church of England is 'living in the past', says BBC's head of religion

From The London Telegraph-

Aaqil Ahmed, a controversial executive whose appointment last year prompted more than 100 complaints, said: "I think all the faiths should be treated in the same way. I don't believe in treating any faith differently."

He dismissed claims that the BBC was marginalising religion as overly simplistic and argued that Christianity, in particular, was already covered well on television.

His comments come on the eve of a debate at the General Synod, the Church's parliament, over the BBC's treatment of Christianity.

There has been growing concern at top levels of the Church over the corporation's approach to religion, with warnings that it must not ignore its Christian audience.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, met last year with Mark Thompson, the BBC's director-general, to discuss religious broadcasting.

Bishops, clergy and lay members of the General Synod will vote this week on a motion calling on the state broadcaster to explain why its television coverage of Christianity has declined so steeply in recent years.

Output has fallen from 177 hours of religious programming on BBC television in 1987/88 to 155 hours in 2007/08 - a period during which the overall volume of programming has doubled.
However, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Ahmed, an award-winning programme-maker, said that the Church's criticisms were too simplistic.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7174716/Church-of-England-is-living-in-the-past-says-BBCs-head-of-religion.html

Communion, Order, And Dissent Or “The Revenge of Puss And Boots”

A lengthy but good paper by Phil Turner from ACI-

I owe it to my readers to provide an explanation of a puzzling title. What does a discussion of “communion, order, and dissent” have to do with the well-known and well-loved children’s story of Puss and Boots? Remember, in the story, the hero can only reach his goal if he listens to a despised cat that he must take as his companion on the way. It would seem that the point of the story is that attention must be given to what we might otherwise despise if we are to succeed in our more “high flown” endeavors.

My point is that hierarchy, the subject of this conference, is an aspect of church order, and both have become something like the cat in Puss and Boots. We cannot reach our more noble goals without these unwelcome sources of help. Nevertheless, for some years we have neglected these despised companions, and as a result our church and our communion are in a terrible mess. Indeed, our seminaries do little or nothing to introduce future clergy to the importance of church polity. I remember when I was in seminary the arguments about church order that so engaged the Reformers were mentioned, but only in passing. Polity, we were told, is a subject we ought to “bone up on” because there would be polity questions on our General Ordination Exams. The message was clear. Hierarchy and order are not very important subjects. Yet, here we are at the beginning of the 21st Century faced with fiercely debated polity issues. The debate centers on the communion wide challenge of an Anglican Covenant and on a domestic legal battle over the meaning of the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church (TEC). The former challenge might produce a divided communion and/or result in TEC becoming a second track form of Anglicanism. The latter might produce a change in our constitution effected by a secular court rather than constitutionally mandated procedures.

More here-

http://www.anglicancommunioninstitute.com/2010/02/communion-order-and-dissent-or-the-revenge-of-puss-and-boots/