Episcopalians may limit church funding. Gay debate to dominate state meeting. By Leanne Graves American Staff Writer Mississippi Episcopalians, upset with the Episcopal Church USA's stance on homosexuality, could decide to withhold money from the national church when they gather this week in Hattiesburg. More than 800 church members from around the state are expected to participate in the 177th annual council at Lake Terrace Convention Center. The conference is the first i

New Bishop of Florida won't ordain gays or celebrate their unions, but some churches still decide to consider split. By Binyamin Appelbaum The Times-Union Bishop John Howard opened the annual convention of his Jacksonville-area Diocese of Florida on Friday with a call to act as "a family in which disagreement does not lead to divorce." Clarifying his own place in the disagreement after months of silence, the newly installed bishop said he would not ordain active homosexuals

"We are a church seriously divided; there is no middle ground." An address to the 172nd annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee by the Rt. Rev. Bertram Nelson Herlong, D.D. Delivered in Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville January 31, 2004 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Welcome to the lay and clergy delegates, observers and friends as we meet together for the 172nd time in the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese o

By David W. Virtue NASHVILLE, TN--The Diocese of Tennessee annual convention stalled this week when a group of revisionist priests and lay people (but mainly priests) made dubious and possibly illegal parliamentary maneuvers to subvert the normal process for conducting convention business. The business was about redirecting the portion of pledged monies that would have gone to the national church to allow them to be redirected to other ministries in the diocese, Fr. Patrick S

"If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." St. Augustine of Hippo Dear Brothers and Sisters, Across the country biblically orthodox parishes and their rectors are waging courageous battles. From New Westminster, to North Dakota, from Montana to Tennessee, from Southern Virginia, to Albany and even in New Hampshire, the battle rages. No diocese is unaffected. Funds are being withheld at record l

By PAUL ASAY THE GAZETTE Colorado Springs launches scores of Christian missionaries into the world every year. The world is returning the favor. The International Anglican Church, which meets at 10 a.m. Sundays in Colorado College's Shove Memorial Chapel, is a mission church from Rwanda, Africa. It's also an effort by the Anglican bishop there to bring the Gospel to what he considers to be God's richest lost sheep: Americans. Colorado Springs may seem a strange locale for mis

By PAUL ASAY THE GAZETTE Anglican Mission churches such as the International Anglican Church — a missionary church that answers to Anglican bishops in Rwanda, Africa — are signs of struggle within the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion is made up of 70 million Anglicans and Episcopalians worldwide who answer to the Archbishop of Canterbury, England. But many Anglican provinces have had an uneasy relationship with the Episcopal Church U.S.A. in recent years, particular

By Carol Platt Liebau www.CaliforniaRepublic.org 2/2/04 Increasingly, it's becoming an anachronism to define oneself as a political conservative who is an Episcopalian. For a church that constantly proclaims the merits of "unity" and "inclusion," too many clergymen are doing an excellent job of alienating those who disagree with them on the political issues of the day. As a result, their more traditional congregants are increasingly finding that, in a real sense, they are no

By The Rev Keith Acker The events of General Convention and subsequent consecration, the meeting of the Primates, and a number of others, have struck deep at the heart of many Episcopalians. As a lifelong Episcopalian, I defined my faith not by the institutional church, but by the Anglican expression of the One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Body of Jesus Christ. Being a member of an individual congregation, of a diocese, of a national church has always been grounde

By David W. Virtue Loganville GA, (February 2, 2004) — Anglican Bishop Frank Lyons of Bolivia told more than 230 people that "the Episcopal Church no longer represents Anglicanism in the United States, and we no longer recognize them as such." "They have departed from Anglicanism and do not represent the Christian Faith," he said. He reminded the people, "keep the main thing the main thing and the main thing is Jesus." Holy Cross Anglican Church will hold their first services

From a church split, two families form St. John's, St. Andrew's struggle with changes By Frank E. Lockwood HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER VERSAILLES - St. John's Episcopal Church is 157 years old, wealthy, loyal to the diocese of Lexington and nearly empty. St. Andrew's Anglican Church is 3 weeks old, practically homeless, free of all ties to the Episcopal Church U.S.A. and growing exponentially. About 180 people attended St. Andrew's yesterday, gathering at the Falling Springs A

St. Andrew's pastor feels called to Ky. By Frank E. Lockwood HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER VERSAILLES - As an associate minister at one of the nation's largest Episcopal churches, the Rev. David Brannen had a secure job in a conservative western Pennsylvania diocese. But he gave it all up to lead a congregation with no building, no budget, no history and no guarantees. It's a decision he and his wife have struggled with. "Claire has asked me a million times, 'Are you sure you're

By Willard Fishburne ASHEVILLE, NC--Five years ago I took my family out of one local church and began a search for a new church home. The experience was difficult. This is the story of that time in my life. I want to tell you why we left, what we lost, and what we found. First of all, I want you to know we were involved at this church, not just attendees. I had been on the Vestry and had been Junior Warden. I had been the church Treasurer, and at the time of our departure I w

The "conservative case" for same-sex marriage collapses. by Stanley Kurtz 02/02/2004 MARRIAGE IS SLOWLY DYING IN SCANDINAVIA. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents. Not coincidentally, these countries have had something close to full gay marriage for a decade or more. Same-sex marriage has locked in and reinforced an existing Scandinavian trend toward the separation of marria

News Analysis By David W. Virtue From North to South and from East to West the great Episcopal shake-up is underway. Weekly, but increasingly several times a week a parish and/or its priest announces that they are leaving The Episcopal Church. They have had enough. Forty years of theological and moral erosion has finally caught up with the mostly revisionist but not a few orthodox bishops in the ECUSA, and a priest stands up in his or her pulpit and says something like this:

By Caryle Murphy Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 1, 2004 Episcopalians of Virginia voted yesterday to set up a year-long "reconciliation commission" to examine ways of maintaining their unity in the face of deep theological differences over what the church's stance on homosexuality should be. The vote, taken on the last day of the diocese's annual convention, had wide support among the 700 delegates gathered at a Reston hotel -- a sign, many said, of the desire

[ACNS source: Anglican Church of Canada] 2 FEBRUARY 2004 Archbishop Michael Peers' 18-year primacy of the Anglican Church of Canada officially ended with his retirement last weekend. As of Sunday 1 February, the church is under an acting primate until Archbishop Peers' successor is elected at General Synod on May 31. Candidates for this election will be nominated by members of the House of Bishops when it meets in Regina in April. Under church law, the acting primate is the s

BY DAVE MUNDAY Of The Post and Courier Staff PAWLEYS ISLAND--It's unsettling to George Townsend to be considered "a visitor" at All Saints Parish Waccamaw, the church she has attended for 40 years. But the retired real estate office manager is just that, after the congregation took steps to separate itself from the Episcopal diocese. Townsend said the label doesn't seem to fit, since the cemetery in the old church where she attends services contains the graves of several ance

PAUL NOWELL Associated Press HIGH POINT – Episcopalians from North Carolina's largest diocese Friday rejected resolutions asking their leader to rescind his vote ratifying the election of the denomination's first openly gay bishop. Discussion of the actions taken last summer at the denomination's General Convention – specifically the election of Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire – dominated conversation and debate as Episcopalians gathered in High Point. "I think the Epis

By BRIAN LEWIS Staff Writer The Tennessean The annual convention of the Episcopalians Diocese of Tennessee adjourned here yesterday afternoon without voting on several controversial resolutions. The motion to adjourn was based on a complicated point involving the legality of proxy votes for clergy who were not in attendance at the meeting at Christ Church Cathedral at Ninth Avenue North and Broadway. However, another consideration for many was that the bulk of the convention'