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The Very Rev. Katherine Ragsdale, lesbian cleric and then president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School, delivers 2009 'abortion is a blessing' address (National Organization for Women/Flickr) Via the Episcopal News Service, a press release revealing that the ultramegaliberal Episcopal Divinity School is winding things down: Episcopal Divinity School will cease to grant degrees at the end of the upcoming academic year, the seminary’s board of trustees decided July 21 on a 11-4 vote. During the next year, the board will explore options for EDS’s future, some of which were suggested by a specially convened Futures Task Force to...

For more than thirty years now I have been an observer and sometime participant in what I will here call the conservative Episcopalian mess. The departure of more orthodox Episcopalians from an apostatizing mainstream headed by weak and clownish English archbishops and astoundingly aggressive heretics in North America, contained no real surprises, for this is the predictable fruit of religious liberalism hatched upon an ignorant, passive, and venal laity, that we have seen in other major Protestant churches, and from which modern Roman Catholicism, especially under a Nice Pope, is unlikely to be much of a refuge. What I have...

he Washington National Cathedral will remove Confederate flag images from its stained glass windows that honored Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, it announced in a statement Wednesday. The cathedral ordered a five-member task force to examine the windows in order to determine their future, the cathedral said in its news release. Though it voted unanimously to remove the Confederate flag images, the task force also decided to host a public discussion on the future of the windows to start July 17. "The Lee-Jackson windows call the question of race and the legacy of slavery and instead...

NEW YORK (AP) - Anglican leaders on Thursday temporarily restricted the role of the U.S. Episcopal Church in their global fellowship as a sanction over the American church's acceptance of gay marriage. Episcopalians have been barred for three years from any policy-setting positions in the Anglican Communion while a task force is formed that will try to reconcile conflicting views over sexuality in the 85-million-member family of churches. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. The announcement came near the end of a weeklong meeting in Canterbury, England, called by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, to...

The Anglican Communion voted to censure its American branch, the Episcopal Church, during a meeting in Canterbury, England, called to reflect on the future of the communion. The vote Thursday (Jan. 14) to suspend the Episcopal Church from voting and decision-making for a period of three years was leaked a day ahead of a press conference that had been scheduled for Friday.

In a development that few Episcopalians of four or five years ago could have imagined, the Episcopal bishops of the most powerful and financially secure dioceses have begun to turn on their own once-strong, but now severely weakened, parishes. Having driven out all the dissenters at enormous expense to their coffers, these dioceses are increasingly trying to make up their losses by sacrificing valuable real estate -- even if it means turning out previously loyal congregations from their hard-won property. And -- who could have foreseen it? -- the parishes most harmed by the continuous litigation were precisely those with...

When the 2014 stats came out last week, it was no surprise that The Episcopal Church had again lost membership across the board. However, the newest released figures show that there is a dip in most church growth indicators -- total membership, ASA, congregations, baptisms, communicants, faith formation pupils, confirmations, and receptions from other Christian denominations. There is a slight uptick in marriages and an increase in funerals. For the first time in 75 years, The Episcopal Church's total membership dipped below the two million member mark. TEC's just-released official 2014 stats show worldwide church membership standing at 1,956,042. The...

Believe it or not, Planned Parenthood has a Clergy Advocacy Board. And these clergy, in name only, claim Planned Parenthood employees are “doing God’s work.” The Board released a statement (which has since been taken off of Planned Parenthood’s website) in response to what they describe is a Center for Medical Progress (CMP) “smear campaign” (planned-parenthood-clergy-advocacy-board-releases-response-to-smear-campaign”). The video recordings expose Planned Parenthood employees discussing their enthusiastic efforts to illegally sell aborted baby parts. Some include whole baby bodies from partial birth abortions. One purchaser is Stem Express, “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and...

"This is just the beginning. This is a declaration of war by five judges who have spat in the face of their Creator, of marriage, of biology, and freedom. Now a major proper response for Christians and others is massive civil disobedience and defiance of this homo-fascist decision."

Linky only.

ST. PETERSBURG — The bishop was not amused. Not with the video of one of his priests — complete with clerical collar — advocating gratitude for marijuana. "Now, thanking God for weed might feel a little awkward at first," says the Rev. Chris Schuller — a former rector at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in the Snell Isle neighborhood — in the short video that's punctuated with the reggae rhythms of Bob Marley. "Thanking God is going to feel so much better than throwing stones at people who are already stoned," he says. But Bishop Dabney Smith, head of the Episcopal...

The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, the Episcopal priest whose book "Are You Running With Me, Jesus?" took prayer out of church onto the city streets in a slangy vernacular not found in Sunday missals, has died. He was 91. Boyd died Friday under hospice care in Los Angeles from complications of pneumonia, according to Robert Williams, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Boyd delivered riffs on life's grittier problems — the white racists afraid of integration, or teenage girls who get pregnant — with a candor that was rarely heard from a priest leading a community at prayer.

St. James Episcopal Church in Wichita, Kan., plans to host a “Chili for Choice” fundraiser for Planned Parenthood on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, helping to pay for abortion while other churches are encouraging participation in pro-life events, including a march in the Kansas capital. The fundraiser supports Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri with “an evening of stimulating conversation, refreshments and CHILI!” The ticket costs range from the $20 “income-sensitive” option to the $1,000 “Scorching Serran Patron.” Until 1967, the Episcopal church condemned both abortion and infanticide. But in 1967, the church embraced abortion law reform and...

A Wichita church will be hosting a celebration of abortion for Planned Parenthood. St. James Episcopal Church will celebrate 42 years of abortion with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid Missouri on January 22, 2015 for their Chili for Choice. January 22, 2015 will be the 42nd anniversary of legalized child killing through abortion under the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision. According to the most recent abortion stats, in 2011, Guttmacher, reports that 1.06 million abortions were performed nationally.

Which offense is more serious? Denying a lesbian communion at a Catholic funeral? Or a female Episcopalian bishop hitting and killing a bicyclist? The Washington Post has picked (A). In 2012, they splashed across the front page (with a picture) that lesbian activist Barbara Johnson was denied communion at her mother's funeral. On December 30, the Post buried a hit-and-run-bishop story on page B5 with the headline “Bishop put on leave after fatal crash: Episcopal diocese says Heather Cook drove car that killed bicyclist.” .......

It looked like a chilling scene from a Last Days, anti-Christ-takes-over-the-world disaster movie. Hundreds of Muslims take over America’s most notable church, prostrate on their prayer rugs as their unified chant echoes out in full volume: “There is only one god, he begets not and I bear witness that Muhammad is His only servant and Apostle."

Christine Weick, the Christian woman who snuck into the invitation-only Islamic prayer service last Friday afternoon at the Washington National Cathedral, said that although she interrupted the service to proclaim the name of Jesus and tell worshippers inside to stay away from U.S. churches, she loves Muslims. "God has a love for them. He does, 'God so loved the world.' That includes Muslims. I have a love for them. They are a beautiful people. Most of them are very kind," Weick, 50, told The Christian Post Sunday. The service held inside the Episcopal church was meant to promote interfaith prayer...

The Washington National Cathedral hosted it first Muslim prayer service Friday afternoon in an effort to promote interfaith prayer and improved global relations between Muslims and Christians. The Muslim prayer service held at the Washington National Cathedral was briefly disrupted by a protester, according to a local NBC report. "Jesus Christ died on that cross over there!" a woman said loudly, immediately after announcements at the beginning of the service were made. "He is the reason why we are to worship only him. Jesus Christ is our lord and savior!" According to the NBC report, she continued, "We have built,...

On Friday, November 14 the Washington, DC’s National Cathedral will host a Muslim prayer service organized by the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR), The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and the All-Dulles Area Muslims Society (ADAMS) Center. The leaders of the National Cathedral told The Washington Post that they hope Friday’s service at the historic cathedral will foster more understanding and acceptance between Christians and Muslims around the world. However, there is ample evidence to suggest that the Muslim participants have a different motive for choosing November 14 to hold their prayers in...

FULL TITLE: Episcopal priest praises new Planned Parenthood clinic as “safe place for the termination of pregnancy” It’s certainly no secret that some churches support the choice to abort. While it’s counter-intuitive to the Christian faith, which began with Mary’s unplanned pregnancy, it’s a reality in 2014 that many who identify as Christian also identify as pro-choice. Despite this troubling truth, it’s still disconcerting when a minister of the gospel speaks out and makes a statement welcoming a new abortion facility to his region the same way one might welcome a new business offering jobs to a troubled economy. However,...