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According to informants quoted in The Catholic Herald, the Queen has "grown increasingly sympathetic" to the Catholic Church over the years while being "appalled", along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England. The usually well-informed newspaper adds that the Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the C of E, is "also said to have an affinity with the Holy Father, who is of her generation".In July, The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that the Queen had told the heads of a traditionalist group, formed in response to the liberal direction of some parts of the Anglican...

Feeling Profoundly Secular France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy recently announced to the world that Pope Benedict XVI has forcibly driven her away from the Catholic Church. The Italian-born former supermodel and third wife of Nicolas Sarkozy accused the Pope of "damaging" countries in Africa with his stance on condom use, apparently a reference to the Pope's remark during his March trip that the AIDS pandemic "can't be resolved with the distribution of condoms; on the contrary, there is the risk of increasing the problem." Bruni-Sarkozy told the women's magazine Femme Actuelle, "I was born Catholic, I was baptized, but in...

LONGMONT — One of the founders of the Anglican Mission in the Americas is in Colorado this week to encourage people to turn to Christ. Rwandan Archbishop Emman-uel Kolini, who is staying with a Longmont family this week, will deliver a sermon Sunday morning in Broomfield. The service is open to the public. “He’s seen as our spiritual father in terms of the formation of this church,” said the Rev. Gerry Schnackenberg, senior pastor of Epiphany Anglican Fellowship, which has worship sites in Longmont, Broomfield, Lakewood and north Boulder. “He really had the vision and courage to go against the...

  In the late 1970s, a group of Episcopal clergymen with typical American chutzpah wrote to Pope Paul VI. They said they wanted to become Catholics, and wished for their priestly ministry to be fulfilled by being ordained as Catholic priests. The only problem was that they had wives and children.   Paul VI received their petition, and they heard nothing. In the autumn of 1978, the pope died; then another pope died, and John Paul II took charge. The little group of Episcopal priests waited with crossed fingers and bated breath while Rome made a decision. In 1980...

The man who filled Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu’s shoes as South Africa’s Anglican archbishop is being sued for maintenance by his wife of 22 years. Two years ago, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane announced to his family that he would be resigning from the church and would be going on a 10-day retreat in Polokwane, Limpopo, to “meditate”. But the clergyman never returned. Now his estranged wife, Nomahlubi Vokwana-Ndungane, who had kept her husband’s disappearance “in the family”, has turned to the courts in a desperate bid to force him to support her financially. The shocking allegations surfaced this week when the...

A spiritual journey that began seven years ago ended in the sanctuary of a Catonsville convent Sept. 3 when 10 Episcopal nuns and their priest chaplain were received into full communion with the Catholic Church. In administering the sacrament of confirmation, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien traced a cross on the foreheads of each candidate as he anointed them with sacred chrism oil and called on them to be sealed with the Holy Spirit. The sisters then renewed their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as some 120 worshipers looked on.

After seven years of prayer and discernment, a community of Episcopal nuns and their chaplain will be received into the Roman Catholic Church during a Sept. 3 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien. The archbishop will welcome 10 sisters from the Society of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor when he administers the sacrament of confirmation and the sisters renew their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the chapel of their Catonsville convent. Episcopal Father Warren Tanghe will also be received into the church and is discerning the possibility of becoming a Catholic priest. Mother Christina Christie, superior...

I recently wrote an article entitled “Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Succumbs to Heresy” because it involved significant news. I also did so because I am a Catholic. As a Catholic, I believe I should be concerned about other Christians who are struggling within the communities which descended from the Protestant Reformation. Though the article was well received, there were some disapproving comments. They ranged from the reader who wondered why such an article was “even published on a Catholic Web Site”, to others which used the term “schismatic” in reference to all Protestant Christians. Some even objected to my...

Conservative Anglican leader the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns has a message for the Archbishop of Canterbury: "We're here; we're doing the work of Gospel; we are within the Anglican mainstream; and we are doing the very things that he declares that we should be about." ut he can't say the same for The Episcopal Church. Minns celebrated the growth of his breakaway group, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, this week during their third annual council in Herndon, Va. It's a story of redemption, Minns said Friday. "Birthed because of a disaster, the abandonment of biblical Christianity by the...

Next step for church is to find a priest GALESBURG, Il — The fledgling congregation of Grace Episcopal Church of Galesburg voted to take the first step in applying for recognition from the Episcopal Church USA in a vote Wednesday evening. In the next chapter of the local and national split between the Anglican and Episcopal churches, 12 members of Grace Episcopal elected a five-person vestry to go before the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Quincy. Twelve members of the church attended the group’s second official meeting Wednesday. One observer from Grace (Anglican) Church, where many members formerly worshipped...

Canon Andrew Hindley Lancashire, England, Jul 30, 2009 / 03:17 am (CNA).- An Anglican cathedral is trying to accommodate those of its faithful who do not accept female clergy by allowing parishioners to decide whether to accept communion bread blessed by its female canon or by a male priest. Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire recently installed Rev. Sue Penfold as a residential canon. Cathedral canon Andrew Hindley explained the decision to This Is Lancashire, saying it was agreed by all the clergy that it was the best way to handle what they called a “mixed economy.”The congregation can choose whether...

CANTERBURY, UK, July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Suggesting a "two-track" model for the Anglican Church, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in a statement released Monday that the crisis over the acceptance of homosexuality in the Global Communion could be resolved by acknowledging "two styles of being Anglican." Williams was responding to the decision earlier this month by the US Episcopal Church to continue to ordain active homosexual clergy and bishops and "bless" same-sex partnerings. In one "track," said the archbishop, the mainstream of Anglicanism would continue to hold to Christian beliefs of sex and marriage, and the...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams London, England, Jul 29, 2009 / 03:21 am (CNA).- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head cleric in the Church of England, has responded to the Episcopal Church’s decision to allow the ordination of homosexual bishops. Saying that a change in Anglican teaching, if necessary, would require broader agreement, he proposed a “two-track” church structure which recognizes “two ways of being Anglican.”On July 14, the Episcopal Church’s General Convention voted to approve homosexual bishops. It was seen as a rejection of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s and the Anglican Communion’s call for a moratorium on the...

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) -- The Anglican Church may have to accept a "two track" communion in which believers can hold different opinions about gay clergy and same-sex unions, the Archbishop of Canterbury said Monday in a bid to keep the church unified. Rowan Williams outlined his thoughts on the future of the deeply divided church on his Web site a few days after the U.S. Episcopalian church authorized bishops to bless same-sex unions and research an official prayer for the ceremonies. The move dismayed more traditional members of the Anglican Church, and Williams, the church's spiritual leader, is now...

Swine flu has spurred the Church of England to revive a rule drawn up more than 450 years ago when bubonic plague swept the land. As concern mounts about the spread of the virus, which has killed at least 29 people in the UK, some Anglican churches have begun to allow “intinction” or dipping bread in communion wine rather than sharing the chalice, while others have stopped offering wine altogether. The practices are permitted under the 1547 Sacrament Act, introduced after the plague, which requires both bread and wine to be given “except necessity otherwise require”. In London’s Southwark diocese...

The Episcopal church is trying to replace the conservative membership that bailed out, by becoming more inclusive and more liberal. Their chief bishop is a woman, and they are now open to openly gay bishops. Because Gene Robinson, the existing openly gay bishop is in a relationship, it appears that bishops may be in relationships, whether or not they’re married. In contrast, the Catholic and Orthodox churches limit the Episcopacy to celibate men; while in the Orthodox Church and in some Eastern Catholic Churches, married men may be ordained, in none of those Churches may married men become Bishops,...

Britain’s Leaders Warn of the Loss of Common Values The decline of Christianity and moral values in general is reaching new lows in Britain. While the number of faithful has been decreasing for some time now, warnings about the situation are starting to come from all quarters. Britain is no longer a Christian nation, affirmed Anglican bishop, Paul Richardson, in an article published Jun. 27 in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. The Anglican prelate was also critical of his fellow bishops for not understanding just how serious the change is in contemporary culture, and for their lack of action in dealing...

Homosexual Episcopalian Bishop Gene Robinson. (UPPA) In defiance of the majority of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. has voted in favor of ordaining homosexual bishops. The unilateral action by the Episcopal Church, courtesy of a vote by its General Convention, moves the deeply divided Anglican Communion closer to formal schism. The Los Angeles Times reports today: Bishops, clergy and lay leaders voted overwhelmingly at the denomination’s General Convention in Anaheim to open “any ordained ministry� to gays and lesbians. The liberalized policy represents a reversal from guidelines adopted by the church at its last convention in...

A conservative Anglican theologian says the Episcopal Church is experiencing a large membership decline because it's espousing neither a biblical gospel nor a New Testament understanding of evangelism. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Catherine Jefferts Schori acknowledged Monday that 19,000 more members die each year than are born or baptized into the denomination -- a trend she hopes to reverse through "evangelism." Jefferts Schori said Episcopalians "for a long time didn't do active evangelism," and now "need to be sent out into the world to take the good news of Jesus." Her emphasis on evangelism comes just days after she said individual...

ANAHEIM, CA - Episcopalians are moving toward affirming an open role for homosexual clergy in their church despite pressure from fellow Anglicans not to do so. Episcopal bishops voted at a national meeting yesterday for a statement that says "God has called and may call" homosexual men and women to ministry. Delegates to the meeting already approved a nearly identical statement. This latest version is likely to be approved by Friday. Episcopalians caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly homosexual bishop, Vicki Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. That decision has nearly split the world Anglican Communion, which...

In a rebuke to the more conservative branches of the Anglican Communion, the bishops of the Episcopal Church voted 99-45 on July 13 to affirm the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals” to “any ordained ministry” within the church, so long as they are in “lifelong committed relationships.”

Bishops of the Anglican Church in the United States have voted to overturn a three-year moratorium on the election of gay bishops. The decision seems likely to lead to the Episcopal Church's eventual exit from the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Communion has been fighting to avoid disintegration since the Episcopal Church consecrated the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson in 2003. The decision is expected to be confirmed in the next few days. Archbishop's regret The election of the Bishop of New Hampshire, the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, created an apparently irreconcilable rift between liberal and traditional Anglicans. Liberals believe the...

AUSTRALIA, July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Most Reverend John Hepworth, the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, has issued a resoundingly clear statement on the position of the global Communion of Traditional Anglican Churches on the right to life of the unborn. Hepworth is also the Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of Australia in the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia.In a pastoral letter published in the Messenger Journal Bishop Hepworth begins by praising the pro-life witness of a Catholic priest in Sydney, Father John Fleming, whom the bishop describes as having "given a life to the defense of life" and...

The Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has also wished them well with today's launch in London of a new alliance of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes in Britain and Ireland. She told the heads of the traditionalist group, formed in response to the liberal direction of some parts of the Anglican Communion, that she “understood their concerns” about the future of the 80 million-strong global church. The Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has also wished them well with today’s launch in London of a new alliance of evangelical and...

Change And Repent, Bishop Tells Gays A senior Church of England bishop has called on homosexuals to repent and "be changed" in comments that have infuriated equality campaigners. By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent 04 Jul 2009 The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has defended traditional biblical teachings on homosexuality and said the Church should not be "rolled over by culture". Dr Nazir-Ali spoke as tens of thousands of people, including Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister’s wife, joined the annual Pride London march to celebrate homosexual culture. A war of words broke out between Labour and the Conservatives over...

Speaking on Wednesday morning to the ACNA Assembly, His Beatitude, Jonah, Metropolitan of All America and Canada and leader of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), called for a "full... intercommunion" with the Anglican Church in North America. "What will it take," he asked, "for a true ecumenical reconciliation? That is what I am seeking by being with you today." This marks the potential resumption of an Orthodox/Anglican dialogue that began a hundred years ago between two missionary bishops, St. Tikhon of Moscow and Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac, only to be broken off in the 1970s with the...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The founders of the new Anglican Church in North America, a conservative alternative to the pro-abortion Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Church of Canada, have affirmed a pro-life view on abortion in their new founding constitution.About 800 people met in Texas on Monday and tapped Archbishop-designate Robert Duncan to be the new leader of the ACNA.He told attendees of the founding conference that no one regrets their decision to break away from the pro-abortion mainline Protestant denomination, which has moved further to the left over the years on abortion and other political and social issues."There...

Archbishop-elect Robert Duncan Bedford, Texas, Jun 24, 2009 / 04:21 am (CNA).- Former Episcopalian leaders from across North America gathered in Bedford, Texas on Monday to launch the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), described as an “alternative” to the U.S. Episcopal Church within the Anglican Communion.The new denomination claims 100,000 members from several varieties of Anglican spirituality described as evangelical, charismatic or catholic. A union of eight groups, it is seeking recognition as part of the Anglican Communion.The new denomination's constitution emphasizes biblical authority, church discipline and evangelical missionary outreach.The Episcopal Church has been afflicted by controversies over...

There are several updates to the continuing Episcopal/Anglican saga in our area. ... Also last week, the nine other self-incorporated parishes with ties to the Anglican diocese headquartered in Fresno received letters from Lamb "to arrange the transition of all properties and assets back to the Episcopal Church." Two of those parishes are St. Francis in Turlock and St. James (the historic Red Church) in Sonora. Because of their independent status, those parishes were not named in the lawsuit the Episcopal Church filed against Anglican Bishop John-David Schofield and the rest of the parishes after they voted in December 2007...

BEDFORD — Fueled by disputes over many issues — including ordaining a gay bishop — conservatives who have left the national Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada approved a constitution Monday creating a new Anglican Church in North America. After nearly unanimous adoption of the constitution, some 800 Anglicans — representing 700 dioceses and other groups with some 100,000 parishioners in the U.S. and Canada — stood and sang PraiseGod From Whom All Blessings Flow, in celebrating the new organization. - snip - Duncan, who will be ordained as archbishop of the group Wednesday night at Christ Church...

The other day I was already thinking about gratitude when I started reading about old students and friends suffering from the continuing -- the continuous -- degeneration of the Episcopal church. Some of them faced losing their jobs, or had already lost them, but most of them suffered simply from seeing the communion they had so loved become something completely different, and having no real hope of its recovery. There is an answer to their sufferings, but it is an answer only some of them can, or maybe will, hear.   This brought me, a convert from the same...

Catholics are humbled by the stories of former Anglicans who were faced with a decision and stepped out in faith to join the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. "The Catholic Church understands and appreciates the sacrifices made by former Anglican clergy and laity who have made the journey as individuals or as communities to full communion with the Catholic Church," he said June 12. "Truly, Rome is home and a place of abiding in our pilgrimage to the father," noted the cardinal in a keynote address at the 2009 Anglican Use Conference in Houston. The June...

The next stage of the Anglican Communion's attempt to resolve its differences over theology, sexuality and the authority of scripture will involve more "listening processes," but this time those processes will be paid for by a retired Episcopal priest who advocates same-sex blessings. The money given by the Episcopal priest will be monitored by a group of sex "experts" who advocate a vision of sexual freedom and "justice" that bears little resemblance to mainstream Christian doctrine or tradition, and at least one of these "experts" believes that pornography, bestiality, and multiple sex partners are not inherently harmful or wrong. Working...

The All Saints Convent chapel at Catonsville. NLM is reporting this morning that the Anglican All Saints Sisters of the Poor in Catonsville, Maryland have announced their intention to be received into the Caholic Church on September 3. These are wonderful women and this is wonderful news. As an Anglican, I made two retreats with the sisters when the men's order I was an associate of held it's chapter at Catonsville and I've visited one or two other times. One of their sisters was assigned to St. Anna's, the small house they maintain in Philadelphia, and I knew her...

Portrait of Cardinal Newman. (CNS) A papal decree announcing the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman is imminent and will most likely be made before the Vatican closes for its summer break in August, the Register has learned. Last month, the Vatican’s medical board concluded a miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman’s intercession was due to inexplicable causes. Deacon John Sullivan, 70, of Marshfield, Mass., was healed of severe back pain in 2001 after praying to the 19th-century English theologian. Deacon Sullivan was prompted to ask for Cardinal Newman’s intercession after watching an EWTN program on Cardinal Newman’s beatification process. Now,...

(RNS) The election of an Episcopal bishop in Michigan who has practiced Buddhist meditation and changed traditional church prayers appears headed for defeat, according to an unofficial tally kept by a newspaper reporter. The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was elected bishop of the sparsely populated Diocese of Northern Michigan in February. Under Episcopal Church rules, a majority of bishops and 111 regional standing committees must vote to ratify his election before it is valid. On Friday (June 5), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which has kept an unofficial running tally of the voting, reported that 56 standing committees—a majority—have voted to withhold...

Young clergy face life on the dole after Church of England loses £1.3billion 31st May 2009 No jobs: The Church is turning away graduates of theological colleges The Church of England is turning away trainee clergy for the first time in history after £1.3billion of its investments were wiped out in the financial crisis. Up to a dozen graduates of theological colleges will miss out on their ordination next month and may end up on the dole as there are no parish jobs for them. The Church has previously given all graduates placements in parishes as curates, which they need...

Episcopal Church fires 61 priests and deacons in the Central Valley. Part of the reason, is they followed former Bishop John David Schofield when he rebuked the national church for its stance on the ordination of gays into the priesthood. The 61 clergy had six months to deny or recant their stance against...

LONDON - The Church of Scotland has approved the appointment of an openly homosexual minister - the latest case of tensions over sexuality to prompt division in the Anglican Communion. The church's ruling body voted Saturday by 326 to 267 to support the appointment of the Rev. Scott Rennie, 37, who was previously married to a woman and is now in a relationship with a man. Rennie was first appointed as a minister 10 years ago, but has faced opposition from some critics since he moved to a church in Aberdeen, Scotland, last year. The case threatens to divide Scottish...

Anglicanism 272. Did the Anglican Church have anything to do with the Diet of Spires?The Anglican Church did not exist then. But when later established it gradually adopted Protestant principles, and is a Protestant Church.  273.    The Church of England repudiates the term Protestant, and, as far as I am aware, has never used it. I myself was brought up as an Anglican, and in the firm belief that I was a Protestant. An Anglican paper. The English Churchman is subtitled A Protestant Family Journal, The King of England is an Anglican, and in his coronation oath uses the words,...

If there is an absolute value in the relativistic world of post-modern Western culture, it is tolerance. Political correctness, medical ethics, and public policy are gauged by the polestar of tolerance. People say tolerance is an absolute virtue, which, in the realm of theology, must make it an attribute of God. Yes, God must be eternally and infinitely tolerant, because tolerance is an expression of love, and we all know the Bible tells us that God is love. Since everyone accepts that God is love, the thinking goes that God must be the most tolerant of all. Just look at...

The Vatican has opened its secret archives, the repository of centuries worth of documents pertaining to the Holy See, to let the world get a closer look at a document presaging England’s split from the Church of Rome. Dated July 13, 1530, and addressed to Pope Clement VII, the letter, right, asks for the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and includes the seals of dozens of peers of England who concurred with the request.

Obituary: Rev Dr Peter Toon - 1939 – 2009 April 26th, 2009 Peter, son of Thomas Arthur and Hilda Toon, was born in Yorkshire, England, soon after the start of World War II. After him came Paul, David and Christine. He attended Hemsworth Grammar School, Cliff College, Sheffield; King’s College, London; The University of Liverpool and Christ Church, Oxford University. He held three Masters’ degrees and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford. He was married to Vita for forty-seven years and they have one daughter, Deborah, who lives in California, and is married to Michael, a Naval Officer. Vita...

The Episcopal Church filed suit Tuesday to regain control of Fort Worth-area church buildings and other property held by a breakaway contingent led by Bishop Jack Iker. "We're stewards of property that has been given for generations to the Episcopal Church. We can't just let people walk off with it," said Kathleen Wells, chancellor for the reorganized Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. The suit was filed in Tarrant County district court and names Iker as a defendant, among others. -snip-

Preached before King James at Whitehall, on Sunday the Sixth of April, A.D. 1606. Text Romans vi: 9-11 Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon (or account) you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Scripture is as the feast is, both of them of the Resurrection. And this we may safely say of it, it is...

Darwin’s quisling (Charles Kingsley) Clergymen betraying the faith they profess is not new. But perhaps none was as destructive as the famous author who smoothed the way for Darwin...

ADV Responds to Appeal by The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia (April 7, 2009) - In response to the appeal in the Virginia church property litigation filed on Tuesday, April 7 by the Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church, the Anglican District of Virginia Vice-Chairman Jim Oakes issued the following statement: "We are saddened that The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia find it necessary to continue this litigation with an appeal filed during Holy Week. The appeal process will cost additional millions of dollars that could be spent on mission and ministry. Both sides have...

Fr. John Nankivell, pastor of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Walsall, West Midlands, spent over thirty years teaching chemistry and religious studies before retiring as principal of Joseph Chamberlain College in Central Birmingham to take on a full-time ministry. His first book, Saint Wilfrid, on Wilfrid of York was published in 2002, and he has served as chaplain on a number of occasions to the annual Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona pilgrimage. In co-operation with other West Midlands parishes, the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God houses the St....

On a stormy Sunday morning in Charlotte, N.C., latecomers were still shaking off wet umbrellas and streaming into a rented chapel at a local Catholic high school as Anglican minister Filmore Strunk led the congregation in reading Psalm 19: "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold." For this congregation, those words ring especially true: Less than 15 months ago, the 300-member group was worshipping with more than 1,000 other parishioners in a 22,000-square-foot, gothic-style sanctuary on a prime piece of property in a growing...

Dr Michael Nazir-Ali received death threats last year after criticising Islamic extremists The outspoken bishop of Rochester will step down from the position on 1 September, it was announced today. Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the first non-white diocesan bishop in the Church of England, has been in the post for 15 years. Nazir-Ali, who turns 60 in August, said: "We thank God for his blessings and for friends we have made in the diocese in the past 15 years. I am so grateful to God for the friendship and loyalty of those around us and ask for people's prayers as we...