epiScope

Church divide over gays has a global audience

As the Anglican debate plays out, other denominations seek guidance for similar battles in their futures.
By Rebecca Trounson
Los Angeles Times
October 13, 2007

As Episcopalians and Anglicans wait to see if their fractious global fellowship will splinter or hold together in a long-running conflict over homosexuality and the Bible, other denominations are watching nervously.

The same or related issues are roiling many denominations, especially such mainline Protestant churches as Evangelical Lutherans, Presbyterians and Methodists. And many church leaders and scholars predict that the way these questions play out in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion will hold lessons for them all.

"The struggle going on inside the Anglican Communion. . . is not peculiar to Anglicanism," Sister Joan Chittister, a Roman Catholic nun, wrote in a recent column in the National Catholic Reporter newspaper. "The issue is in the air we breathe. The Anglicans simply got there earlier than most."

It’s all here …

Rift between Peoria-based Diocese of Quincy and The Episcopal Church likely would lead to property dispute
By MICHAEL MILLER
Peoria (IL) Journal Star
October 14, 2007

PEORIA - The Episcopal Diocese of Quincy's struggle with The Episcopal Church may continue with a dispute over semantics and end with a dispute over property.

When the diocese's annual synod meets Friday and Saturday in Moline, resolutions that could drastically alter Quincy's affiliation with The Episcopal Church may be considered.

If diocesan leaders express their intent to affiliate with a different province or Anglican organization, it will raise the technical question of whether an entire Episcopal diocese can leave TEC.

It’s all here …

Episcopalians now face a reunited opposition
De-Balkanizing the Anglican traditionalists
David C. Steinmetz
Orlando Sentinel
October 14, 2007

Anglicans don't do schism well. Schism is a split in the structure of the church and Anglicans (also known in this country as Episcopalians) do it badly.

Which is surprising, considering that Anglicans are famous for doing things well, or at least doing them with an enviable sense of style. But when it comes to schism (arguably America's favorite indoor ecclesiastical sport), most Anglicans are embarrassingly clumsy.

They are, for one thing, prone to splinter. Rather than rally around a single standard and build a viable group of dissenters who can survive and prosper, Anglicans have preferred to split into several tiny, non-viable groups that are barely visible and hardly missed.

Until recently, fragmentation seemed to be the strategy du jour of traditionalists in the current Anglican crisis. This crisis was precipitated by the decision of the Episcopal Church to consecrate a divorced non-celibate gay man as the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire and to allow the blessing of same-sex unions. A minority of Episcopalians in the U.S. and a majority of Anglicans worldwide disagreed strongly with this decision and set about to scupper it.

It’s all here …

Josiah Idowu-Fearon: At the heart of two flashpoints
Rod Dreher
Dallas Morning News
October 14, 2007

With the worldwide Anglican Communion on the verge of disintegration over the issue of homosexuality, and increasingly violent tension between Muslims and Christians in the Third World, Josiah Idowu-Fearon, who was born in 1949, labors at the center of these two global religious flashpoints.

As the outgoing Anglican archbishop of Nigeria's Kaduna state, he oversees a Christian flock in a traditionally Muslim region where thousands have died in interreligious strife there. An academically trained Koranic scholar, Archbishop Josiah works with Muslim leaders to avoid communal violence and paper over differences. But as a top leader in the booming and theologically conservative Anglican church in Nigeria, whose numbers dwarf its sister Episcopal Church in the United States, the prelate speaks out against Western attempts, particularly among liberal Anglicans, to modernize traditional Christian teaching about human sexuality. It's a conflict that he says is not really about sex, but about the nature of religious authority.

Archbishop Josiah recently spent a few days in Dallas as the guest of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. He sat down for an interview with Points, excerpts of which follow:

It’s all here …

Historic Church Votes to Leave Episcopal Roots
October 14, 2007

A historic Savannah church is breaking its ties with the Episcopal Church. This morning, 87% of the congregation of Christ Church voted they would now become part of the Anglican Communion.

Christ Church has met in Savannah as an Episcopal Church for 274 years; however, over the last 30 years, church leaders say several hundred churches around the country are starting to feel that the Episcopal Church has abandoned them and their beliefs.

"Over the past 30 years, there has been a slow devaluation of scripture in the church," said Steve Dantin, senior warden of the vestry of Christ Church. "We're now facing questions about the actual unique Deity of Jesus Christ and those are the real issues at hand."

It’s all here …

JSC: TEC OK

Panel Says Episcopalians Have Met Anglican Directive
By NEELA BANERJEE
New York Times
October 4, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — In a victory for the Episcopal Church in its effort to remain in the Anglican Communion, a high-ranking Anglican advisory committee said Wednesday that Episcopal bishops had complied with a directive by Anglican leaders on same-sex unions and gay bishops.

The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, which has been torn by disputes over the church’s liberal stance on homosexuality.

Earlier this year, the communion’s regional leaders, or primates, issued a directive to the Episcopal Church to curtail the consecration of partnered gay and lesbian bishops and the authorizing of rites of blessing for same-sex unions.

It’s all here …

Anglican Panel Praises Episcopalians
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 3, 2007

A world Anglican panel acknowledged Wednesday that Episcopal bishops are making some concessions to ease the turmoil they created in 2003 by consecrating their church's first openly gay bishop.

But the committee said that all sides in the long-running conflict over the Bible and homosexuality need to do much more to keep the beleaguered worldwide Anglican fellowship from splitting.

The advisory report from the lay-clergy Joint Standing Committee was written for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, as he struggles to prevent a schism in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

It’s all here …

Anglican leaders urge unity
A key panel responds to Episcopal bishops' pledge of restraint on issues that have threaten the worldwide communion.
By Rebecca Trounson, Los Angeles Times
October 4, 2007

Leaders of the global Anglican Communion responded largely positively Wednesday to pledges from the Episcopal Church to use restraint in consecrating gay bishops and other contentious matters.

But an influential joint standing committee of Anglican bishops, clergy and lay leaders also called on all sides in the continuing debate over homosexuality and biblical authority to work harder to ease their differences and keep the 77-million-member Anglican Communion intact. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

The panel's report to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican Communion's spiritual leader, came in response to a statement by Episcopal bishops last week at a meeting in New Orleans.

It’s all here …

African Anglican bishops steer away from gay row
By Ed Harris
Reuters
Oct 4, 2007 1

QUATRE BORNES, Mauritius, Oct 4 (Reuters) - African Anglican archbishops ducked homosexuality, the issue dividing the worldwide Communion, on Thursday and instead drew attention to the poorest continent's problems.

Last month Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, one of the Church's fiercest critics of gay rights, blasted bishops from the U.S. Episcopal Church for "ignoring" pleas to take a clear stand against consecrating gay clergy or blessing gay unions.

Chairing a meeting of African archbishops in Mauritius, Akinola was at pains to avoid the topic.

It’s all here …

White Anglicans accused of pressuring African churches on anti-gay agenda
By staff writers
Ekklesia
4 Oct 2007

Lesbian and gay Christians in the UK have criticised primarily white conservative Christians for pressurising African Anglican leaders to back them, and have said that the US Episcopal Church's compromise in saying it will not ordain gay people or bless partnerships at the moment is likely to backfire.

The response comes after a press release from the conservative Church Society network in England, effectively telling African Anglican churches meeting in Mauritius over the next few days to take a series of measures to outlaw Western churches who take a different view to them.

The bishops will be meeting under the banner of CAPA (Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa) which includes the provinces of Burundi, Congo, Central Africa, Egypt, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and West Africa. CAPA is chaired by Archbishop Peter Akinola - an outspoken opponent of recognising lesbian and gay people.

It’s all here …

CCP

Groups Plan New Branch to Represent Anglicanism
By NEELA BANERJEE
New York Times
September 30, 2007

Bishops from 13 Anglican and Episcopal groups in North America announced Friday that they had formed a partnership as the first step to creating a rival to the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The announcement by the group, the Common Cause Partnership, marks a widening of the fissures within the Episcopal Church and in the greater communion over the church’s liberal stance on homosexuality.

Earlier in the week in New Orleans, the bishops of the Episcopal Church defied a directive by leaders of the Anglican Communion asking them to set up an alternate structure for conservative churches, to stop consecrating openly gay and lesbian bishops and to ban the blessing of same-sex unions.

It’s all here …

BeliefWatch: Anglican Angst
By Matthew Philips
Newsweek

Oct. 8, 2007 issue - What happens when the Archbishop of Canterbury and 150 Episcopal bishops meet in New Orleans to talk about gay rights? Predictably (temporizing is an Anglican hallmark), it's hard to tell. Despite heaps of press over a meeting last week in which the Episcopal House of Bishops was to clarify its views on homosexuality, the outcome remains fuzzy. Did they, as The New York Times reported, reject orders from conservatives to stop consecrating gay and lesbian bishops and blessing same-sex unions, thus sealing the fate of a fracturing church? Or did they, according to USA Today, make concessions to those demands and preserve the united of the worldwide Anglican Communion? It depends on whom you ask.

It’s all here … and a big epiScope Amen to Mr. Philips’ final sentence: “Doing the work of the Gospel, it seems safe to say, is more productive than debating it.”

Episcopalians plan to leave denomination
By Julia Duin
The Washington Times
September 29, 2007

Fifty-one Anglican and Episcopal bishops announced plans yesterday to form a separate Anglican province in North America within 15 months, giving disaffected Episcopalians a chance to flee their increasingly liberal denomination.

The Common Cause partnership, which includes bishops from several Episcopal dioceses and leaders of nine Anglican organizations, met yesterday in Pittsburgh. The leaders represent 600 congregations and more than 100,000 people.

The bishops said they will meet in December to put together an office staff for a 39th province of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

It’s all here …

INTERVIEW: Bishop Robert Duncan
September 28, 2007
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
Episode no. 1104

Kim Lawton's September 27, 2007 interview with Bishop Robert Duncan of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh:

Q: What did you think of the final document the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans produced?

A: The final document from NO was very much what the HOB has said before, and it revealed the commitment of the American church to continue on its move forward in terms of the innovations in faith and order. It did acknowledge the trouble in the communion and the pain that the American church has caused. It did maybe slow things down a little bit, but it's not going to change the direction, and clearly in New Orleans as there has been for some while there really are two churches under one roof and those two churches are one that is moving in a way with the culture and with secular society, moving toward embrace of the culture itself, and the other is moving in a direction -- I mean we are trying to stand where we've always stood. That's the reality. So that's New Orleans, but that's old news.

It’s all here …

When splitting is right decision
Area churches weighing controversial issues
Johnstown (PA) Tribune-Democrat
September 28, 2007

On Oct. 31, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther posted on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church in Germany his list of 95 areas of disagreement with the Catholic church.

That act was a key moment in a division of the church in Europe that eventually led to the formation of Protestantism and new denominations of believers. Obviously, the Catholic church continued, even as groups splintered off and went their own way.

Religion can be a contentious and divisive undertaking. People sometimes disagree, quite passionately, about fundamental principles, or how those beliefs should be incorporated into lives and traditions.

That’s when changes happen.

It’s all here …

Anglican schism?

Archbishop Rowan Williams strives to preserve the communion
By JOHN WILKINS
National Catholic Reporter
Issue Date:  September 14, 2007

On Sept. 3 Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams came back from study leave to face the music. The primate of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion does not want to go down in history as the archbishop who presided over the disintegration of that communion. So far, against the odds, he has held together this worldwide grouping of 38 self-governing provinces counting more than 70 million Christians. He has sought to make space for all contending parties to be heard: notably the “inclusive” liberals led by the American Anglicans of the Episcopal church, who in 2003 ordained as bishop a divorced man, Gene Robinson, now living with a gay partner, and, at the other end of the spectrum, the conservative evangelicals, especially those of the “Global South” -- the expanding Anglican churches of the Third World, above all in Africa -- who have accused the North Americans of “following another religion.” A crunch is approaching at the end of September, when the Episcopal church has been asked to declare that it will no longer bring forward candidates for the episcopate who are living in same-sex unions, and that no bishop will authorize same-sex blessings.

It’s all here …

The Anglican crisis in brief

At stake: Unity of the Anglican Communion, an affiliation of 38 self-governing provinces, including the Episcopal church in the United States and the Anglican church of Canada.

Major threat: Severance of links between the churches of the communion. Separatist pressure groups in the Global North, especially within the Episcopal church in the United States and the Church of England, are using the primates of the Global South, notably in Africa, as their agents.

It’s all here …

Anglicans Turn Inside Out
Episcopal renewal group's new strategy divides conservatives.
Sheryl Henderson Blunt
Christianity Today
9/11/2007

Since its founding in 2004, the Anglican Communion Network (ACN) has worked for renewal within the Episcopal Church. Now it is focused on getting conservatives out and keeping them united.

At a July meeting in London with members of the Global South steering committee, Bishop Robert Duncan, moderator of ACN, said he and three other American bishops were asked whether they believed the Episcopal Church (TEC) could be turned back toward orthodoxy. "All of us registered our assessment that the answer to that question was no," he said.

It’s all here …

Point-counterpoint

In the conservative Church of England Newspaper (which is an independent newspaper and not, let unwary American journalists note, in any way an official house organ for the Church of England) for the week ending August 3, 2007, appeared this opinion piece:

Why the Archbishop of York got it wrong
The Revd. Canon David Anderson

It's all here ...

And not too many days later...

Why Canon Anderson Got it Wrong
Arun Arora responds to The Revd. Canon David Anderson
05 August 2007

It's all here ...particularly this.

By using such a broad brush to attack the Episcopal Church as a whole, Canon Anderson conveniently whitewashes the testimony daily offered up by all those faithfully reciting the creeds and liturgy that bear evidence to those doctrines which he alleges have been abandoned. The orthodox voice of the multitude is drowned out and ignored in Anderson’s analysis in favour of selective quotation from the fringe.

And let the people say Amen.

Counting the cost

Breakaway churches struggle to raise legal funds

By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 26, 2007

Eleven Virginia churches being sued by the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia for leaving the denomination with their property last year have set a goal of raising a combined $3 million to $5 million for their pooled legal expenses.

But an informal poll by The Washington Times revealed that more than half of these churches can't afford to give funds or have made no plans to do so.

It’s all here …

More U.S. Episcopalians Look Abroad Amid Rift

I'm really sorry to see how this story turned out; Alan Cooperman is usually a more careful reporter than this.

Overseas Prelates Lead 200 to 250 Congregations

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 17, 2007; A03

The Anglican archbishop of Rwanda was first, then his counterpart in Nigeria. Now Kenya's Anglican archbishop is taking a group of U.S. churches under his authority, and Uganda's archbishop may be next.

African and, to a lesser extent, Southeast Asian and Latin American prelates are racing to appoint American bishops and to assume jurisdiction over congregations that are leaving the Episcopal Church, particularly since its consecration of a gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.

So far, the heads, or primates, of Anglican provinces overseas have taken under their wings 200 to 250 of the more than 7,000 congregations in the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism. Among their gains are some large and wealthy congregations -- including several in Northern Virginia -- that bring international prestige and a steady stream of donations.

It’s all here … and here's the problem.

Moving on

Redeemer Anglican loses fight for building
After a judge ruled against them, congregants decided to move to a temporary site for services.
By Jeff Brumley
Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union
5/7/2007

An Anglican congregation in Jacksonville will leave the church where it has worshiped for 20 years after losing a legal battle over property with its former Episcopal bishop, the Right Rev. John Howard.

As a result, Redeemer Anglican Church members will begin worshiping in temporary space on May 27, its rector said. A handful of other former Episcopal congregations in North Florida may face similar situations.

"Those folks have the right to leave the Episcopal Church if they choose, but they do not have the right to take church property with them," said Stephen Busey, the attorney for Howard's Episcopal Diocese of Florida.

It’s all here …

Episcopalians find new place to worship
Former rector starts St. Michael The Archangel Anglican Church
Lynelle Miller
Anderson (IN) Herald Bulletin
May 08 2007

For Jewel Morgan’s entire life, she has attended Trinity Episcopal Church in Anderson.

“My family is the largest family at Trinity,” said Morgan, 47, Anderson.

So when she and her husband chose to leave the church last year, along with several other family members, she said it was a very “painful and thought-out decision.”
…

Interim Rector Bishop William Smalley said that Trinity Episcopal Church still has a strong congregation despite the slight drop in attendance.

“I think the parish is going strong,” said Smalley. “We have good leadership. I feel positive about the future.”

Smalley said that although there may be controversy in the national church, he is confident this local congregation will continue to stay strong.

It’s all here …