epiScope

Breakaway bishop

New Anglican American bishop to visit Christ Church Sunday
Jennifer Edwards
Midland (TX) Reporter-Telegram
01/26/2008

The new Anglican bishop for protesting Episcopal churches, including Christ Church Midland, will pay a visit and lead worship Sunday.

On Sept. 2, Anglican Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda consecrated the Rev. John Guernsey as bishop over all American Anglican congregations currently under the protection of the Uganda's Anglican Church.

Though he visited the area before his consecration, it will be the first time he's visited Christ Church Midland, he said. While here, he'll also visit Good Shepherd Church in San Angelo and an emerging group in Lubbock.

It’s all here …

Interpretations

Church Faces A Hard Road After Split
By ELIZABETH HAMILTON
Hartford (CT) Courant
January 21, 2008

As the annual meeting was drawing to an end Sunday afternoon, and the light from the enormous window behind the pulpit was fading, a member of Bishop Seabury Church stood up and announced that the Holy Spirit had sent him a message.

The congregation, he said, should go forward, lay hands on the Rev. Ronald Gauss and the entire vestry, and pray for them, which they did, every man, woman and child, in an emotional moment that spoke clearly about the changes on the horizon for this vibrant, evangelical church.

Bishop Seabury, an Episcopal Church for 132 years, has severed ties with its historic roots by joining the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), and putting itself under the spiritual and ecclesiastic direction of a more conservative bishop.

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Holy Cross members regroup after split
Interim pastor named to lead Episcopalians
By MEALAND RAGLAND-HUDGINS
January 21, 2008

Carrie Barham was a member of Holy Cross Church for three months before she and many of the church's members left to form Faith Anglican Church two weeks ago.

"It feels like a divorce where you have to pick between two parents. I love the people at Holy Cross, but I love the others, too," she said in the sanctuary of her former church Sunday.

The Right Rev. John Bauerschmidt, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, met with Holy Cross' parishioners and supporters Sunday afternoon to discuss the church's immediate plans for the future.

It’s all here … and note please, in the first story...

One-sided in Lubbock

Episcopalians ponder alternative alliances
By Beth Pratt
Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal
January 12, 2008

On an average Sunday, fewer than 800,000 worshippers are present in all Episcopal churches throughout the United States, according to the leader of a U.S. Anglican group seeking shelter outside the Episcopal Church United States of America while desiring to remain within the worldwide Anglican family.

"People are voting with their feet," Bishop Martyn Minns said in a telephone interview from his church in Fairfax, Va.

Minns was consecrated as a bishop more than a year ago in Abuja, Nigeria, and was installed as the first missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America on May 5 in Woodbridge, Va. He said he is in conversation with people throughout the country about the possibility of joining CANA, part of the Common Cause Partnership of dissenting groups.

It's all here ...with--as far as we can tell--little or no corroboration of the assertions by Minns. We're just as near as your telephone, Beth--give us a ring sometime...

Ohio breakaways leave Bolivia for CANA

Northeast Ohio breakaway congregations join American Anglican church
Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer
David Briggs
January 12, 2008

Several Northeast Ohio congregations that are part of a breakaway movement from the U.S. Episcopal Church have joined an American Anglican church body.

St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Bay Village, the Anglican Church of the Good Samaritan in Cleveland, St. Luke's Anglican Church in Fairlawn, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Akron and St. Anne in the Fields in Madison this week joined the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

The congregations had been affiliated with the more traditional Diocese of Bolivia. The parishes, other than Good Samartian [sic], which is a new church, broke with the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio in 2005 over disagreements on church teaching, including the decision of the national denomination to ordain an openly gay bishop.

The Rev. Gene Sherman of St. Barnabas said it made more sense to join an American church body. The affiliation with the Diocese of Bolivia "was always a temporary situation," he said.

The Herndon, Va.-based American Anglican body said it serves about 60 congregations and 100 clergy in 20 states.

It's all here ...

Separatists

Va. Diocese opens $2 million line of credit
By Julia Duin
Washington Times
January 8, 2008

The Diocese of Virginia, embroiled in the largest property dispute in the history of the Episcopal Church, is taking out a $2 million line of credit to finance lawsuits against 11 churches that left the denomination a year ago.

The announcement, made in the pages of this month's Virginia Episcopalian, is the latest in a series of legal battles that is draining the Episcopal Church of millions of dollars. The denomination has filed lawsuits in at least 12 states against churches leaving over disputes on biblical authority and the 2003 election of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who lives with a homosexual lover.

The diocese says it will sell off "non-strategic" diocesan properties to raise the money needed to win back $30 million to $40 million worth of real estate and assets.

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Diocese bishop saddened by split
By Doug Davis
Murfreesboro (TN) Daily News Journal
1/8/2008

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee is saddened by news that the priest and the majority of Holy Cross Church members have left the diocese to form Faith Anglican Fellowship in Murfreesboro.

"I am very sad about it," said the Right Rev. John Bauerschmidt, bishop of Tennessee. "It's a terrible thing when people separate themselves from the church."

Citing differences with the direction the national Episcopal Church is headed on issues such as church doctrine, interpretation of the Bible and homosexual priests, the Rev. Frederick Richardson and five church council members submitted their resignations to Bauerschmidt.

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Courageous schism
Opinion
Waterbury (CT) Republican American
1/8/2008

The history of the Christianity is replete with separations arising from doctrinal disputes. The Protestant Reformation challenging Roman Catholic teachings ultimately gave rise to the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Calvinists and Anglicans.

The Pilgrims' differences with the Anglican Church of England drove them to seek religious freedom on these shores. They coexisted in Colonial America with the Puritans who were faithful to the Anglican Communion; eventually, some Puritans who broke with the Church of England over theological differences organized the Episcopal Church.

It’s all here … but talk about “revisionist”! Where was the editorial writer when the rest of the class was learning American history—especially the part about the Puritans (who morphed into the Congregationalists, now the United Church of Christ)? No surprise that this piece veers into fantasy fiction from there on…

Faithful

Va. Diocese Shows Signs of Thriving Despite Rift
Largest Priest Class in Decades Ordained
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post
December 18, 2007; Page B03

The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia ordains this week its largest class of priests in decades -- 16 -- even as it remains in an intense legal battle with conservative congregations that voted one year ago to leave the church.

Eight Virginia congregations announced last Dec. 17 that they were leaving the Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion, and aligning with more conservative parts of the Anglican world, in Africa. At least 15 Virginia congregations have left the diocese and are locked in a court battle over tens of millions of dollars in church property. A small number of Episcopalians in other parts of the country have since made similar moves, including in San Joaquin, Calif., where this month a diocese voted for the first time to leave the U.S. church.

Yet even as Anglicans continue to debate such issues as what scripture says about human sexuality and how their governance system works, both sides continue to develop.

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Defectors from Episcopal Church Revert to Ban on Women Priests
by Nicholas F. Benton   
Falls Church (VA) News-Press
20 December 2007

Not only does it denounce homosexuality, but it turns out the new, Nigerian-linked association of defectors from the Episcopal Church, U.S.A. also rejects the notion of women in the priesthood, at least for the time being. This is the group that a majority of parishioners at historic The Falls Church voted to align with a year ago.

But while this group, which currently occupies the facilities at The Falls Church pending the outcome of a lawsuit next month, has stepped back from gender and sexual equality, those who did not vote to defect, calling themselves “Continuing Episcopalians,” have become a thriving force in the City of Falls Church. Gathering to worship “off site” weekly, they’ve most recently struck a partnership with a local non-profit to help disadvantaged families over the holidays that has been hailed by Falls Church Mayor Robin Gardner. 

As for the defectors, the new so-called Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), described as a “mission” of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, held a ceremony in Herndon, Virginia, last week to consecrate four new bishops, all male and two from Nigeria. The ceremony was led by CANA head Rev. Martyn Minns of Fairfax’s Truro Church, another defecting congregation.

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Oxymoron

CANA split on issue of women priests
Fairfax County (VA) Times
By Gregg MacDonald
DECEMBER 11 2007

CANA, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, numbers about 60 congregations and over 100 clergy in twenty states with a total average Sunday attendance of approximately 8,600. This number is larger than seventy percent of the dioceses in the Episcopal Church.

As it continues to develop into a formal body, the group of congregations that left the Episcopal Church not yet a year ago over the issue of homosexuality is now part of a split over the issue of women as priests.

CANA – the Convocation of Anglicans in North America – held a four-day convention in Oak Hill last week, culminating with the consecration of four new bishops on Sunday.

It's all here …

More bishops

Anglican priest from Akron named a bishop
by Janet Fillmore
Cleveland
December 10, 2007

The Convocation of Anglicans in North America has consecrated the Rev. Roger Ames, rector of St. Luke's Anglican Church in Akron, a suffragan bishop. Ames is one of five suffragan bishops with the conservative parish network, which was created in spring 2005 by Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria for Anglicans who felt alienated by actions of The Episcopal Church. The U.S. wing of the global Anglican Communion has been under pressure from traditionalists at home and abroad since it consecrated an openly gay bishop in 2003.

Ames, 65, has been pastor of St. Luke's for more than 20 years. According to the convocation, he left the Episcopal Church around 2004 and became part of the Diocese of Bolivia in South America. In his new role, he will work to increase the number of convocation congregations and clergy in the Great Lakes region.

The Convocation of Anglicans in North America says it has about 60 congregations, including seven in Ohio, and more than 100 clergy in 20 states. Sunday's consecration ceremony was in Herndon, Va. Other suffragan bishops consecrated are from Atlanta, Indianapolis and Oklahoma City.

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Trouble in Paradise

P.V. Episcopalians split to form Anglican church
Lawn Griffiths
East Valley (AZ) Tribune

Marie Manor was a “cradle” Episcopalian. The Scottsdale woman was born into an Episcopal family, but she said today’s Episcopal Church is not the one she was raised in, that it has moved away from historical truths about the authority of Holy Scripture and the divinity of Christ. So, she and her family have defected.

They are part of about 175 who left en masse from Christ Church of the Ascension Episcopal Church in Paradise Valley and last month started Christ Church Anglican, which now meets in a rented church building in Phoenix. They formed their first vestry, or 12-member church board, Tuesday night.

They represent about 40 percent of the average weekly attendance of about 420 at the historic Paradise Valley church where the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater had donated the land for the church, regularly worshipped and where his remains are buried, said Jane Allred, who handles the new church’s communications. Bishop Kirk Smith, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, disputes those numbers, saying it was a “small group of about 75 people out of a 1,000-member parish” who left in what he calls a “drastic step.”

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Breakaway Anglicans follow Mars, not Christ
The Free Lance-Star
11/17/2007

David Bena, a bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America--a minority gathering of disaffected Episcopalians, not recognized by the worldwide Anglican Communion--frames his rhetoric like a captain leading a wartime fire team ["The Anglican faith: A new world, new choices," Viewpoints, Nov. 11].

The analogy is apt. Rather than submitting obediently to the will of the church, as expressed at the General Convention, CANA warriors conduct guerrilla campaigns including the seizure of property, promulgation of misleading propaganda, and the dehumanization of targeted enemies.

I attend a continuing Episcopal Church, meeting in a temporary alternative location, after a majority of the formerly unified parish voted to join CANA.

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CANA at Truro

Truro Church will install a new rector
Richmond Times-Dispatch
October 27, 2007

The Anglican District of Virginia will install the Rev. Tory Baucum tomorrow as rector of Truro Church in Fairfax. The Anglican District is an association of Anglican congregations in Virginia and part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

The installation will take place at 11:15 a.m. at Truro Church, 10520 Main St.

Baucum serves as a missioner of Alpha International and an adjunct professor of mission at Asbury Theological Seminary. He received a doctorate in intercultural theology with expertise in the catechumenate, Christian revitalization movements and the history of preaching.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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...and reactions UPDATED

Nigerian archbishop blasts Episcopal Church stand
By Michael Conlon
ReutersUK
27 Sep 2007

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A leading conservative critic of the U.S. Episcopal Church said on Wednesday its bishops have turned their back on pleas from global Anglican church leaders to take a clear stand against consecrating gays as bishops or blessing same-sex unions.

"Sadly it seems that our hopes were not well-founded and our pleas have once again been ignored," Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria said, responding to a six-day meeting of Episcopal Church bishops that ended a day earlier in New Orleans.

"Instead of the change of heart (repentance) we sought, what we have been offered is merely a temporary adjustment in an unrelenting determination" to make the rest of the global Anglican Communion, as the worldwide church is called, think the same way as its U.S. branch, Akinola said in a statement issued from his office and circulated to American media.

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Anglican split gains ground
Pittsburgh bishop calls on church conservatives to split if necessary from more liberal elements
Stuart Laidlaw
Toronto Star
September 27, 2007

PITTSBURGH–A possible massive realignment of the worldwide Anglican Church got started last night in America's Steel City.

Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan, long a critic of his church's liberal drift, called on conservative Anglicans in the United States and Canada to return to traditional Christian values to revive the church, and to even split from their national churches if need be.

"Anglicanism seems to be failing in the west," said Duncan, a major force in the conservative Anglican movement. "Would each one of us become a missionary bishop?"

He was speaking at the opening last night of a four-day meeting here to discuss splitting the Episcopal Church, as Anglicanism is known in the U.S., in two – one liberal and one conservative.

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Bishop skeptical of Episcopal stance on gays
By Steve Levin,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
September 26, 2007

Pittsburgh Episcopal Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. last night dismissed the promise of church leaders meeting in New Orleans to "exercise restraint" in approving gay bishops and same-sex blessings.

Speaking before the opening in Pittsburgh of a four-day gathering of more than four dozen bishops representing both the Episcopal Church's conservative minority and U.S. and Canadian offshoots of the denomination, Bishop Duncan said the leaders' promise was "the same stuff; it's not movement."

"The American church is moving in one direction," he said. "The Western church is moving in one direction. The classic church stands where it has always stood."

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Nigerian Anglicans want U.S. church to ban gay clergy

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola has rejected the U.S. Episcopal Church's latest efforts to calm tensions over the consecration of gay bishops -- an issue threatening to split the global Anglican-Episcopalian family.
art.nigeria.afp.gi.jpg

U.S. Episcopal congregations against gay clergy have turned to Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola.

Akinola, a vocal and influential leader of the faction seeking an outright ban on gay bishops, said a resolution this week by the U.S. Episcopalians that failed to explicitly bar gay bishops from the pulpit meant his followers' "pleas have once again been ignored."

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African archbishop says Anglican church still faces 'gay' crisis

LAGOS (AFP) — An influential African archbishop said Thursday that the Anglican church was still in crisis despite the US Episcopal Church agreeing to halt the ordination of gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

Benjamin Kwashi, archbishop-elect of Jos province in Nigeria, insisted that the gay crisis was "not resolved" by the statement by US church leaders.

"The statement by the US Episcopal bishops should be taken with extreme caution," Kwashi told Nigerian media.

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The turbulence of priests
A meeting in Louisiana papers over the cracks
The Economist
Sep 27th 2007

IN NEW ORLEANS it is hard to stop talking about hurricanes, even metaphorically. “People came here thinking this was going to be Katrina II,” said Gene Robinson, the gay American Episcopalian whose ordination as bishop in 2003 plunged the worldwide Anglican Communion of churches into crisis. In the end, reported Katherine Jefferts Schori, who led 160 Episcopalian prelates in six hard days of deliberation, they found “common ground to stand on...high ground”.

Will the elevation be sufficient? Faced with the risk of a fiasco at next summer's Lambeth conference—a once-a-decade gathering in England for all the communion's bishops—the Americans were pondering how far they could go to meet conservative demands that they stop elevating gay bishops and blessing same-sex couples. Without concessions from the American side—so the Africans and other conservatives had made clear—Lambeth might face a mass boycott.

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Anti-gay Anglican archbishop speaks in Wheaton

Nigerian archbishop known for anti-gay views
By Margaret Ramirez Tribune religion reporter
Chicago Tribune
September 24, 2007

In an impassioned Sunday morning sermon to more than 2,000 worshipers at a Wheaton church, a leading critic of the Episcopal Church's liberal stance on homosexuality spoke against sexual sin, saying unity must come from transformation and obedience to God.

Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, a Nigeria-based cleric who leads the largest church in the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, is perhaps the fiercest critic of the U.S. Episcopal Church's stand on gays.

His controversial visit to Edman Memorial Chapel coincides with a meeting in New Orleans of Episcopal bishops who must respond to a demand from Anglican leaders that they stop consecrating gay bishops and ban the blessing of same-sex unions.

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Critic of Episcopal support for gay clergy speaks in Wheaton

WHEATON (AP) - Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, a strong critic of Episcopal support for gay clergy, said unity in the Anglican Church could come only when people are obedient to the word of the Gospel.

Akinola’s remarks in a sermon Sunday in Wheaton coincided with debate among Episcopal bishops meeting in New Orleans over how to answer a request by senior Anglican bishops. The bishops have asked that the U.S. church not approve an official prayer service for gay couples and stop consecrating gay bishops.

Akinola did not mention the New Orleans meeting or differences in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality, but said he believed that divisions in the church came from people straying from the Gospel as it was written.

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'God wants unity' but doesn't get it
WHEATON | Lesbian chaplain protests Anglican archbishop's talk
September 24, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON
Chicago Sun-Times

They spoke of faith, preached unity and professed an unwavering love for God.

Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola did it Sunday from the pulpit of Edman Memorial Chapel at Wheaton College.

The Rev. Liz Stedman and more than two dozen others did it outside -- protesting Akinola's presence.

Akinola, of Nigeria, heads one of the Anglican faith's most thriving sectors and is building up churches at a roaring pace while carving out a firm stance against gay clergy.

But Stedman -- the Episcopal chaplain at Northwestern University who is also a lesbian -- stood outside the chapel where he spoke, a chapel named after her own grandfather, and protested what she and others say are the anti-gay and divisive messages Akinola preaches.

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Akinola's US tour

Nigerian archbishop, foe of gay clergy, visits church gathering
Associated Press
September 23, 2007

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) - Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola (AH'-kee-noh-luh) says unity in the Anglican Church can come only when people are obedient to the word of the Gospel.

Akinola is a strong critic of gay clergy and blessings for same-sex unions. He spoke this morning in Wheaton to several hundred people at a gathering called the Midwest Anglican Awakening.

His appearance also drew about 30 protesters who carried signs outside the Wheaton College chapel where Akinola spoke.

Among the protesters was Gini Lester, a lesbian and a member of the Episcopal Church. She says Akinola is trying to draw churches away from the U.S. Episcopal Church, which is moving toward greater tolerance and openness toward issues important to gays.

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Visiting Anglican Archbishop denounces homosexuality
By Margaret Ramirez
Chicago Tribune
September 23, 2007

In an impassioned sermon at Edman Memorial Chapel in Wheaton today, Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria spoke against sexual sin, saying unity must come from obedience to God.

"Those who are working for the unity of God's people lack one thing: the word of God," Akinola said. "Whoever loves God will obey God." "Fornication is fornication. Adultery is adultery. ... These are the areas of primary evangelism."

Akinola, who leads the largest church in the worldwide Anglican community, is the fiercest critic of the Episcopal church's liberal stance on homosexuality. His controversial visit comes at a time when Episcopal bishops are meeting in New Orleans to respond to a demand they stop consecrating gay bishops.

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DIVIDED FLOCK

Episcopal Church Dissidents Seek Authority Overseas
Amid Rift Over Gays, Conservatives Go Global;
Bishops Made in Africa
By ANDREW HIGGINS
Wall Street Journal
September 20, 2007; Page A1

MBARARA, Uganda -- The Rev. John Guernsey, rector of a church in a middle-class Virginia suburb, stood early this month before thousands of Africans here on a rickety, ribbon-bedecked podium. Clutching a wooden staff in his left hand, he shouted in Runyankole, a local tribal language: "Mukama Asimwe!" -- Praise the Lord!

Mr. Guernsey, 54 years old, had reason to rejoice. A defector from America's Episcopal Church, he had just been made a bishop -- by the Church of Uganda.

"I had no idea that this is what God had in store for me," said the bespectacled Virginia priest after a five-hour consecration ceremony in Mbarara, a Ugandan district best known for its long-horned cattle.

Mr. Guernsey represents a religious byproduct of globalization: A small but growing number of Christians in North America are turning to developing countries in Africa and elsewhere for spiritual direction. Some priests call the phenomenon "theological offshoring." They are looking to Africa and other poor lands not just for inspiration but, in a very literal way, they are moving their theological base offshore.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Exits and entrances

Torkelson: Church breakup civil but still hurts
Jean Torkelson
Rocky Mountain News
September 10, 2007

In many sweet ways - little notes on the refrigerator, photos of kids on the walls - Holy Comforter parish in Broomfield resembles a happy family.

But next Sunday, this 49-year-old family faces something like a divorce.

That's when the Rev. Chuck Reeder and an unspecified number of parishioners join the national conservative flight out of the Episcopal Church because of its departure from traditional teachings on marriage and Scriptural authority.

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Congregation exits
'SAD TO LEAVE' | Gay clergy cemented departure from Episcopal Church
BY SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH
Chicago Sun-Times
September 10, 2007

Christians often describe their faith journey as a spiritual walk.

On Sunday, a West Chicago congregation took a giant step in faith -- splitting from their denomination, the 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church.

Nearly 100 people turned out for the final service at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection. Afterward, they processed with crosses, candles and an altar down the street to their new worship space.

A sign greeted them: "Resurrection Anglican Church. Welcome home." The congregation is now under the auspices of the Anglican Church of Uganda.

The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago retains ownership of the church building the congregation had been using.

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West Chicago congregation leaves Episcopal Church
Associated Press
September 10, 2007

WEST CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) - The congregants of the Church of the Resurrection in West Chicago took a quarter-mile walk yesterday morning, and when they finished they were no longer Episcopalians.

About 100 people took part in the final service at the church, and then they walked to their new worship space, which is called Resurrection Anglican Church. The congregation is now under the auspices of the Anglican Church of Uganda.

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East Haven priest retiring to start new congregation
Associated Press
Sept. 9, 2007

East Haven (AP) _ An East Haven Episcopal priest is leaving his parish to start a new congregation following a dispute with church leaders over the confirmation of an openly gay bishop on New Hampshire.

The Reverend Gilbert Wilkes of Christ and the Epiphany Episcopal Church will retire at the end of the month and lead a new congregation called Christ Church Anglican at an East Haven middle school beginning on October 14th.

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Church leader starting fresh
Pamela McLoughlin
New Haven (CT) Register
09/09/2007

EAST HAVEN - An Episcopal priest at odds with church leaders over many of their views, including on homosexuality, is breaking from the ranks by retiring Sept. 30 to start a new congregation, Christ Church Anglican.

The Rev. Gilbert Wilkes, rector of Christ and the Epiphany Episcopal Church in East Haven, said Saturday his new congregation will meet for the first time Oct. 14 with services at 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. at a middle school in East Haven. His church will be part of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America - or CANA - founded to offer disaffected Episcopalians a theologically friendly church structure.

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Married man considers turn as Catholic priest
By Electa Draper
Denver Post
09/08/2007

Phil Webb knows the weight of a divided heart.

The 52-year-old husband, father and former Episcopal priest weighs it every day as he considers ordination to the Catholic priesthood after leaving a church he felt was in turmoil.

The little-known Pastoral Provision of the Catholic Church, approved by Pope John Paul II in 1980, permits former male Episcopal priests, even married men with children, to pursue two sets of vows - marriage and priesthood.

The pope granted the provision at the request of breakaway Episcopalians troubled by a 1976 decision to ordain women.

In the past 27 years, more than 80 Episcopal ministers in the United States have left their church and been ordained Catholic priests.

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Agonizing

Akinola: Anglicans must not sacrifice Bible for unity
August 24, 2007

ABUJA, Nigeria --Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, a leader of Bible traditionalists in the Anglican world, says the "the moment of decision is almost upon us" about whether Anglican conservatives and liberals can stay together.

In a statement Monday, Akinola said that theological conservatives cannot stand by as the U.S. Episcopal Church -- the Anglican body in the U.S. -- and the Anglican Church of Canada move toward full acceptance of gay relationships.

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Diocese Files Suit To Retain Bristol Church

Congregation Split Off After Gay Bishop Was Appointed
The Day, New London (CT)
8/19/2007

Bristol (AP) — The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut is suing in an attempt to regain possession of a local church that broke ranks with the diocese over the appointment of an openly gay bishop.

The congregation of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bristol voted in May to join the more conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria.

The diocese's lawsuit, filed this month in New Britain Superior Court, argues that Trinity's rector, the Rev. Donald Helmandollar, and other church leaders gave up their legal rights to control the parish, its records and furnishings.

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"Person of interest"

Police investigators scrutinize Grace Church rector
by Michael de Yoanna
Colorado Springs Independent

Despite what must have been a hellish week for the Rev. Donald Armstrong, the pews at Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish were full on Sunday.

"Grace Church is growing stronger," the church's Web site proclaimed Monday, issuing a photograph as proof. "There's Standing Room Only! Praise GOD!"

There was no reference to the flurry of negative headlines that in the preceding days only darkened the cloud of suspicion surrounding the priest, who faces allegations of pilfering church funds.

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Congregation makes space for Episcopalians displaced by church feud
By Beckie Supiano
DisciplesWorld

COLORADO SPRING, Colo. (8/14/07) — Sundays are busy at First Christian Church in downtown Colorado Springs. Each week, the church houses worship services for First Christian’s Disciples congregation — and for the congregation of Grace Episcopal Church, which is leasing the building.

Having two congregations share space on Sunday can be a little tricky in terms of parking and other logistics. Even so, members of First Christian have been happy to share their space.

“It’s just been a wonderful way for us to use our facility and offer the love of Christ to our brothers and sisters,” said First Christian member Nancy Lingbloom, moderator of the congregation when the decision to share the building was made.

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Ex-rector defrocked by bishop
By Jay Tokasz
The Buffalo News
August 16, 2007

An Episcopal priest suspended since 2004 on charges he stole funds from a Batavia parish, forged a church document and repeatedly misrepresented himself has been removed from the priesthood.

The Rev. Simon B. Howson’s status as a priest within the Episcopal Church U.S.A. was revoked by Bishop J. Michael Garrison of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York.

Howson, now serving in a California diocese, is former rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Batavia.

Howson was suspended in October 2004. He sued the diocese a short time later, claiming the bishop retaliated against him after Howson had accused another priest of sexual harassment. The suit is still active.

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Clergy abuse viewed as isolated
Albany Episcopal officials say there is no evidence ex-dean acted improperly at Cathedral of All Saints
By MARC PARRY
Albany (NY) Times Union
August 16, 2007

ALBANY -- Local Episcopalians have no immediate plans to investigate a former Cathedral of All Saints dean who has admitted sexually abusing four boys while working as a rector in central New York.

The Rev. Marshall Vang, the dean of the cathedral, said Wednesday he was not aware of any local complaints against the Rev. J. Edward Putnam, who led the Albany Episcopal Diocese's mother church between 1993 and 1997. He also served as a chaplain for the state Assembly.

Putnam, 66, recently admitted in a written statement that he engaged in "inappropriate conduct with minors" as rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Skaneateles, Onondaga County, between 1986 and 1993, according to the Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse.

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Pastor with Barrington ties admits to abusing boys
BY JOAN D. WARREN
East Bay Newspapers (Bristol, RI)
Aug 21, 2007

BARRINGTON - A man who served as interim pastor at St. John's Episcopal Church in Barrington recently admitted to sexually abusing four adolescent boys while serving as rector of a church in New York. J. Edward Putnam, 66, has been suspended from all ministerial and pastorly duties for the next 20 years, according to Retired Rev. Gladstone B. Adams, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. Mr. Putnam reportedly abused the boys between 1985 and 1993.

Local officials said there are no indications that Mr. Putnam acted inappropriately while serving in Barrington at St. John's. Mr. Putnam served at St. John's in 2000 and left in Oct. 2001. Rev. C. Neal Goldsborough was appointed rector in early November of that year, replacing Mr. Putnam who served as interim for about a year.

Rev. Goldsborough said he and the members of the parish are saddened by the actions of the former pastor.

"We at St. John's are shocked, angered and saddened that the wonderful priest and pastor we knew could have done such terrible things. We also pray for the healing, forgiveness and reconciliation for everyone who has been hurt by his actions," Rev. Goldsborough said.

It’s all here … and an UPDATE follows.

Ruling reversed in church dispute

Splinter Episcopal groups wanted diocese suits tossed
By STAFF REPORTS
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Aug 16, 2007

A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge last week overruled a motion to dismiss lawsuits filed by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church against 11 breakaway congregations.

The congregations, in which a majority of members have voted to leave the Episcopal Church, asked the court to dismiss the complaints seeking to force them to vacate and relinquish the church properties to the diocese.

In addition, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church agreed to allow individuals named in the lawsuits to be taken out of the suits on assurance that those individuals and their successors will be bound by the rulings of the court on claims concerning property.

In November, the court will hear arguments on a section of state law that relates to church divisions.

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1st Court Ruling After Defections Favors Continuing Episcopalians
Motion to Dismiss Suit Over Property Quashed by Judge
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church (VA) News Press   
16 August 2007

In the first official court ruling concerning the defection from the Virginia Episcopal Diocese by 11 churches last December, a Fairfax Circuit Court judge ruled against dismissal of lawsuits by the diocese and the national Episcopal Church last Friday. It was a victory for the Episcopal Church against the defectors that include a majority of voting members at the historic Falls Church that have continued to occupy that church property.

Still, one important defector, the Rev. John Yates, rector of The Falls Church, told his congregation recently that no matter how the court finally rules, it will be years before they will actually have to depart the premises. That’s because of planned lengthy court appeals, he said, even though he conceded that contingency plans are underway. Last week, Yates was among 21 priests in Virginia officially defrocked by the diocese for abandoning the Episcopal Church.

Judge Randy I. Bellows overruled a motion by lawyers representing the defecting congregations to dismiss the suits after a four-hour hearing, moving the process to the next stage, which is expected to be in the form of petitions on the lawsuits in November.

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Cops investigate theft report

State's Episcopal Diocese filed a complaint in Colorado Springs
By Electa Draper
Denver Post
08/11/2007

Colorado Springs police said Friday that they have been investigating theft and fraud at the Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish since the Denver-based Episcopal Diocese of Colorado filed a complaint July 16.

The Rev. Don Armstrong, pastor of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish, is a "person of interest" in the case, said Colorado Springs police spokesman Skip Arms. Arms said he could not discuss the investigation, except he anticipates it will take several weeks.

Episcopal Diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes said Friday she had no knowledge of the criminal complaint.

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Springs police looking into possible embezzlement at Grace Church
By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD
Colorado Springs (CO) Gazette
August 10, 2007

Colorado Springs police are investigating a complaint that funds were embezzled from Grace Church and St. Stephen’s, which broke from the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado in March.

Police wouldn’t elaborate today on the investigation, saying only that the complaint was filed July 16 by the Denver-based diocese.

The Rev. Don Armstrong, who was convicted by an ecclesiastical court this week of stealing $400,000 from the church, was described by police detective Michael Flynn as a “person of interest” in the embezzlement investigation.

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Virginia depositions

Yates Among 21 Priests Defrocked By Episcopalian Bishop of Virginia
by Nicholas F. Benton   
Falls Church News Press
09 August 2007

Attorneys for the defecting members of The Falls Church will be in Fairfax Circuit Cout Friday seeking a summary dismissal of the consolidated suit filed by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal denomination, nationally, aimed at their retaining control of the church property.

Since the defectors voted to remove themselves from the Episcopal denomination last December, they have held control of the property and refused access to an organized group of non-defecting Episcopalians that formerly worshipped there.

The defectors removed themselves from the Episcopal Church in protest over a variety of issues, foremost of which was the national denomination’s elevation in 2003 of an openly-gay clergyman to standing as a bishop.

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Episcopal bishop publicly deposes three area clergy
By: Eileen M. Carlton
Fauquier (VA) Times-Democrat
08/09/2007

Bishop Peter James Lee of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia announced late in the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 2, that the 21 clergy who have transferred to the Anglican Communion are officially deposed.

Among those on the list are the Rev. Elijah White, of Hamilton, who is the pastor at Church of Our Saviour Oatlands, the Rev. Jack Grubbs of Potomac Falls, and the Rev. Clancy Nixon of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ashburn.

According to the Web site of Virginia's Episcopal Diocese, "the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee took the required canonical action to remove from the priesthood clergy inhibited by him on January 22, 2007. Those clergy were inhibited following a determination by the diocesan Standing Committee Jan. 18 that they had abandoned the Communion of The Episcopal Church."

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Overstepping Authority?
Latest move by Diocese of Virginia seen as unnecessary by churches that recently split from church.
By Lauren Glendenning/OPINION
The Connection (VA)
August 8, 2007

Former Episcopalians claim the latest move by The Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church of the United States is just another legal step meant to intimidate both current and former Episcopal clergy.

Rev. Peter James Lee, of the Diocese, released 21 clergy "from the obligations of the Priest or Deacon and … [the former Episcopal clergy are] deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority conferred in Ordination," according to an Aug. 2 statement from the Diocese.

The action is one of many Diocese responses to the December decision made by Truro Church in Fairfax and several other Episcopal churches in the state. They voted to split off from the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Diocese to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA — an Anglican missionary effort sponsored by the Church of Nigeria. CANA affiliates with the Anglican District of Virginia, or ADV, which includes 15 CANA churches and four churches affiliated with the Church of Uganda. The ADV and the Diocese are both part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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