SCOTLAND: Kirk votes against trainee gay clergy

The Christian Institute
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=18350
November 20th, 2009

Allowing a homosexual man to begin training for ministry in the Church of Scotland broke a two-year agreement to suspend appointing openly gay clergy, the Kirk has decided.

A church court voted 43 to 38 that Hamilton Presbytery, one of the largest in Scotland, broke the agreement by appointing Dimitri Ross to training.

The agreement was put in place after the appointment of an openly homosexual minister, Revd Scott Rennie, caused an uproar. The agreement will remain until a Special Commission publishes a report on the issue in 2011.

ROME: Archbishop tells Pope: there will be no turning back on women priests

by Ruth Gledhill and Richard Owen in Rome
The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6923807.ece
November 20, 2009

The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday made his most outspoken challenge to the Roman Catholic Church since the Pope invited disaffected Anglicans to switch to Rome.

Speaking before he meets Benedict XVI tomorrow, Dr Rowan Williams told a conference in Rome that the Catholic Church's refusal to ordain women was a bar to Christian unity.

"For many Anglicans, not ordaining women has a possible unwelcome implication about the difference between baptised men and baptised women," he said.

The Anglican provinces that ordain women had retained rather than lost their Catholic holiness and sacramentalism, he said.

Addressing an ecumenical conference at the Gregorian Pontifical University, the Archbishop said that the way Anglican leaders dealt with internal arguments offered lessons for senior Catholics.

NEW YORK: Episcopal Priest 'Very Sorry' for Using Church Funds for Plastic Surgery; Gets Probation

November 19, 2009

A New York priest accused of using church funds to pay for plastic surgery has been ordered to serve five years probation.

The Rev. William Blasingame also must pay back $84,537 to St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church on Staten Island.

Prosecutors say he paid for personal luxuries, including tens of thousands of dollars worth of plastic surgery and Botox treatments, with money earmarked for the needy and the upkeep of church grounds.

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth:Parishes file Plea in Intervention

November, 19, 2009

Forty seven parishes and missions of the diocese have filed a Plea in Intervention in the lawsuit against the diocese that is currently before the 141st District Court. Collectively, the 47 churches are termed the "Intervening Congregations."

The plea asks the court to acknowledge through a declaratory judgment that, "in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, the title to the real property being occupied and subject to the control of Intervening Congregations is held by the Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth in trust for the use and benefit of each Intervening Congregation" and that this trust relationship is superior to any other claims.

Rowan Williams urges Rome to rethink position on female bishops

By Riazat Butt and John Hooper in Rome
guardian.co.uk
November 19, 2009

The archbishop of Canterbury today pleaded with Roman Catholics to set aside their differences with Anglicans over the issue of female bishops, insisting there was more uniting the denominations than dividing them.

Rowan Williams was giving a lecture in Rome before Sunday's meeting with the pope, their first encounter since the Vatican's surprise announcement of a special institution for traditionalist Anglicans wanting to convert to Catholicism.

In his address at the Gregorian University, Williams said the Anglican communion was proof that churches could stay together in spite of their differences.

The communion has teetered on the edge of schism for nearly a decade over the issue of gay clergy but has retained a sliver of fellowship. Williams urged Roman Catholics to continue their 35-year dialogue with Anglicans in spite of theological and ideological divisions.

ENGLAND: Churches head for a showdown in Rome

by Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6922455.ece?print=yes&randnum=1258608022877#
November 19, 2009

Priests returning to the Anglican Church have warned clergy against leaving to become Catholics

The Archbishop of Westminster has blamed Church of England bishops for keeping their leader in the dark about the Pope's attempts to entice Anglicans to Rome.

As the Archbishop of Canterbury prepared to visit Pope Benedict XVI for the first time since plans to admit Anglican opponents of women priests into the Catholic faith were published, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, deepened the row.

Two Fort Worth Bodies Tout New Unanimity

http://tinyurl.com/ylczrja
November 17, 2009

Now that the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth (Southern Cone) are separate entities, they are both reporting unanimous decisions by their respective legislative bodies. The decisions move the dioceses away from one another and toward their respective theological commitments.

The convention of the diocese remaining with the Episcopal Church voted unanimously Nov. 14 to:

* Call the Rt. Rev. Wallis C. Ohl as its next provisional bishop. Bishop Ohl succeeds the Rt. Rev. Edwin "Ted" Gulick, who has served as the provisional bishop for 10 months.

BETHLEHEM: Bishop gives permission for same-gender blessings

By Mary Frances Schjonberg,
November 17, 2009
Episcopal News Service

Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem Bishop Paul Marshall said Nov. 16 that he has established "interim measures" to allow clergy to bless same-gender relationships.

Marshall's letter to his clergy is available here. http://tinyurl.com/ydntsc2

"I am not generally broadcasting this decision yet (although I suspect the word will be quickly out) because it is up to the clergy of a place to decide if they are interested, and then to take it up within the parish system," Marshall wrote in his letter.

LONDON: Archbishop backs higher taxes

By Daily Express Reporter
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/140810/Archbishop-backs-higher-taxes
November 17,2009

ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams sparked fury yesterday by claiming higher taxes could be a way to create a better society.

His backing for new levies on financial transactions and carbon emissions enraged low tax campaigners.

Susie Squire, political director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The Archbishop is showing yet again how out of touch he is with the British taxpaying public."

NEW YORK: Bishop Christopher Epting comments on the Vatican's Apostolic Constitution

November 16, 2009

Bishop Christopher Epting, Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations of The Episcopal Church, has issued the following:

Now that the full text of the Vatican's "Apostolic Constitution" dealing with certain former Anglicans who wish to become Roman Catholics has been released, it is clear that what is being touted by some as an 'ecumenical gesture' may be understood as 'pastoral' but is not necessarily very ecumenical. Even though Cardinal Walter Kasper has now given one newspaper interview, there has otherwise been a noticeable silence on the part of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity on this matter. This appears to be a unilateral action on the part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which flies in the face of the slow, but steady progress made in the real ecumenical dialogue of over forty years.

FT. WORTH: Appellate court issues stay in response to Mandamus filing
Stay buys time for Bishop Jack Iker

http://www.fwepiscopal.org/news/courtordersstay.html
Nov. 17, 2009

The Fort Worth Court of Appeals has ordered the suspension of further proceedings in a suit brought against the diocese last April. The stay was issued late on Monday, Nov. 16, in response to a Petition for Writ of Mandamus filed by the diocese on Friday, Nov. 13. The suit is pending before the 141st District Court. The Hon. John P. Chupp is the trial judge.

Monday's order, issued by the Court of Appeals for the Second District of Texas, says, "The court has considered relators' [the diocese's] petition for writ of madamus and motion for stay and is of the tentative opinion that relators are entitled to relief or that a serious question concerning the relief requires further consideration." The order sets a deadline of 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 30, for any response to be filed by parties of interest, who could include Judge Chupp and attorneys Jonathan Nelson and Kathleen Wells. The stay is in effect until the Court of Appeals issues a decision.

UK: REFORM Group Blasts Revision Committee on Women Bishops
Overlooked Evangelicals could move to alternative Anglican affiliations

by Paul Dawson
November 16, 2009

Reform regrets a 'lost opportunity for peace and unity' over Revision Committee's decision on Women Bishops

The decision of the General Synod's Revision Committee to back away from proposals to give opponents of women bishops a way of staying in the Church of England has "overturned the will of Synod, created the spectre of confrontation, and risks extending the controversy for another five years," according to the chairman of Reform, the Rev'd Rod Thomas.

ST. CATHARINES, ON: ACNA Archbishop Duncan on the Anglican Schism

By Charles Lewis,
National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/
November 15th, 2009

Archbishop Robert Duncan rejects the term "breakaway" to describe the faction of orthodox Anglicans he now leads.

He argues, instead, that the more than 700 orthodox Anglican parishes in Canada and the United States that have left their national churches behind represent where the vast majority of Anglicans in the world are - and where the rest of the Anglicans will soon be.

Archbishop Duncan, visiting Canada last week for the first time since he became head of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), the first Anglican jurisdiction that crosses national boundaries, earlier this year, says it is the national churches in Canada and the United States - the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church USA - that are the real schismatics, trading in the Bible and orthodoxy for a trendy form of Christianity that is trying to be popular instead of faithful.

Ex-NJ Gov McGreevey training to become Episcopal priest

By ANGELA MONTEFINISE
The New York Post
http://tinyurl.com/yg3v49c
November 15, 2009

"Gay American" Jim McGreevey is spending his Sunday mornings with a new man -- Jesus.

The former New Jersey love gov has gone from Turnpike rest stops to the church rostrum as part of his training to become an Episcopal priest, working each weekend at All Saints Church in Hoboken. McGreevey -- who resigned from office in disgrace in 2004 -- isn't far enough along in his seminary studies to actually give sermons, but he assists the Rev. Geoffrey Curtiss at three Masses on Sunday and participates in parish programs, donation drives and activities.

Cost of Church of England bishops increases by £2 million

by Ruth Gledhill and Tim Glanfield
The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6877114.ece
November 14, 2009

The running costs of the Church of England's 113 bishops increased by £2 million, or 13.5 per cent, to £16 million last year at a time when the Church has been telling the nation to embrace a more lowly life.

The bishops spent £1.3 million on travel in a period when the Church's own assets dropped from £5.67 billion to £4.36 billion during the credit crunch.

As many of the bishops' own costs increased, in repeated Lent campaigns they urged worshippers to turn off televisions, lights and use charity shops to save both cash and climate.