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IT was one of those quiet summer Sunday mornings when I knew the priest in a distant parish would be away and he would have a stand in for the holiday. I sneaked in to this famous citadel of Pre-Raphaelite beauty and, like most Anglicans, sat as far from the front as possible. The choir sang the opening of the Eucharist, the Gospel was read – Jesus walked on the water and the priest started to preach. Then followed a 20-minute thesis on why the Bible had it wrong. Jesus couldn't possibly walk on water – that would defy nature...

At Saint Mary the Virgin Catholic Church, the 75-year-old priest is married, members sing from an Episcopalian hymnal and parishioners kneel at the altar to receive Communion. Years ago, the Texas parish and a handful of other conservative Episcopal churches in the U.S. decided to become Roman Catholic. Though they were confirmed by the Vatican, they were still allowed to practice some of their Anglican traditions, including having married priests. Now, these churches may have helped pave the way for Anglicans worldwide, or Episcopalians as they are known in the U.S., to become Catholic under a new Vatican plan created...

In the wake of Vatican plans to make it easier for Episcopalians to become Catholic, the Episcopal bishop of Maryland would like to make one point clear: The door swings both ways. Lost in talk of the splintering of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton says, is the appeal that the 45,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has held for former Roman Catholics and others looking for a big-tent church. While attention focused on the conversion en masse last month of a Catonsville-based order of Episcopal nuns to the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has received...

[UPDATE: Lambeth Palace has denied reports that there is to be an emergency meeting of Church of England bishops to discuss the Pope's offer tomorrow.] Here’s what I think Dr Rowan Williams is most worried about as the reality of the Pope’s offer sinks in: the prospect of the Bishop of Chichester and many of his clergy signing up to the new Ordinariate. Bishop John Hind put out a statement today which denies that he is about to become a Roman Catholic. Read between the lines, though. It doesn’t mean that he won’t join the new Papal structure in the...

Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 27, 2009 / 04:49 am (CNA).- A Pennsylvania Episcopal church which joyously greeted the announcement of a provision to assist Anglicans who wish to become Catholic could be among the first to take advantage of the church structure put forward by Pope Benedict XVI.The Church of the Good Shepherd, an Episcopalian parish in the Philadelphia Maine Line suburbs, is an “Anglo-Catholic” parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. According to the Rosemont Journal, its liturgy is celebrated in the “high church” style reminiscent of traditional Catholic churches: with incense, elaborate vestments, and a choir that may sing...

(Oct. 20) -- The number of married Catholic priests could grow sharply as the result of the Vatican's epochal decision to welcome thousands of disaffected Anglicans and Episcopalians into the Catholic Church. At press conferences in Rome and London on Tuesday, Vatican officials announced that the Church would set up a special canonical structure that will ease the conversion of members of the Anglican Communion without them having to give up what the Vatican called "the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony." That means not only a body of prayers and hymns, but also a tradition of married priests and...

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Wolf and Mellett in their Talk origins paper, The Role of ‘Nebraska man’ in the creation-evolution debate,[1] claim Nebraska man was a careless mistake by an honest scientist. However, the evidence suggests that Osborn deliberately overstated the find because the theory of evolution was centre stage in a struggle for control of education policy in America...

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...

Ten religious sisters and a priest who were formerly part of an Episcopal religious community were received into full communion with the Catholic Church at a Mass in Maryland on Thursday. One sister said God will use them to bring unity to the Church. The women were members of the Society of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor. The former Episcopal priest, Fr. Warren Tanghe, was their chaplain. “We know our beliefs and where we are,” the sisters’ superior, Mother Christina Christie, told the Baltimore Sun. “We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is...

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.

Churches and whole dioceses have left the Episcopal Church since the 2003 consecretation of an openly gay bishop brought a lonstanding divide over homosexuality within the nation's sixth-largest Protestant denomination out into the open. But on Thursday, 10 Episcopal nuns from a Catonsville convent took what scholars say is the unprecedented step of joining the Catholic Church. At a Mass celebrated by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, each vowed to continue their tradition of consecrated life, now as a religious institute within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. "We know our beliefs and where we are," Mother Christina Christie, superior of All Saints...

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...

Lutherans Prepare To Vote On Accepting Gay Clergy by Barbara Bradley Hagerty National Public Radio, August 15, 2009 First it was the Episcopalians, now it's the Lutherans. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — one of the largest Christian churches — is on the brink of sanctioning gay clergy members. When more than 1,000 members of the clergy and lay people begin a weeklong meeting in Minneapolis on Monday, they will be asked to decide whether to change their policy and allow pastors in gay relationships to serve in the ministry. What's remarkable is that this once incendiary issue has...

Gay, lesbian priests nominated for bishop LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Two Episcopal priests in same-gender relationships are among the nominees for assistant bishop of Los Angeles, officials said Sunday. The Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool of Maryland will be among six candidates on the ballot when lay people and clergy vote in December, despite a long-standing request from world Anglican leaders for a moratorium on consecrating openly gay bishops. Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno said in a statement Sunday that he was "pleased by the wide diversity" of the nominees. Separately, the...

Episcopal Church leaders in Los Angeles today nominated an openly gay priest and an openly lesbian priest as bishops, becoming one of the first dioceses in the national church to test a controversial new policy that lifted a de facto ban on gays and lesbians in the ordained hierarchy. The nominations of the Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool of a Baltimore-based diocese are likely to further inflame theological conservatives in the U.S. church and their global partners in the Anglican Communion, who have repeatedly warned about the repercussions of such action....

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...

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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...

Apostasy is a strong word. It is a word with a direct correlation with the Anti-Christ. Hence, it should not be used lightly in connection with a person, church, or denomination. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 says: “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come (the second coming of Christ) unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (NASU). The...

The Episcopal Church in the United States took another major step toward ensuring its own demise last week, by adopting a resolution endorsing the ordination of homosexuals as clergy and bishops. The resolution, adopted at the denomination’s General Convention, said that “gay and lesbian persons . . . have responded to God’s call and have exercised various ministries,” and declared that “God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.” The resolution was widely interpreted as abandoning a moratorium on the ordination of homosexual bishops that was adopted after the furor surrounding the...

WASHINGTON—When Andi Kasarsky’s husband died six years ago, members of her synagogue came to sit shiva—the customary Jewish ritual of mourning—with her. They came in shifts for days, many of them strangers, to share her grief. And although Kasarsky was mourning her husband, many of the grievers were gay. She was so touched by the support that Kasarsky, 54, became a more faithful member of Bet Mishpachah, an unaffiliated Washington congregation of around 200 gays and lesbians. She’s just one of many heterosexuals who are finding God in predominantly gay houses of worship. “Mishpachah means family and they were truly...

Episcopalians, Lutherans Taking Action on Sexuality Topics 09-154-MRC CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church took a series of actions on the topic of human sexuality July 8-17 in Anaheim, Calif. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will also make decisions on matters concerning the topic at its 2009 Churchwide Assembly Aug. 17-23 in Minneapolis. The ELCA and Episcopal Church have been "full communion" partners since 2000. The relationship is based on a common confessing of the Christian faith. The denominations collaborate on various ministry initiatives, may provide for the interchangeability of ordained clergy and...

Walter Cronkite's family has released details on his funeral service tomorrow at 2pmET at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan. The service will be a traditional burial service from the Book of Common Prayer with the Rev. William McD. Tully presiding. Music will be performed by St. Bartholomew's Choir. The music was chosen in cooperation with the family and will include a jazz band's rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In" during the final procession. Speakers will include Andy Rooney, Sanford Socolow, Mike Ashford and Bill Harbach followed by a final tribute from son Chip Cronkite. St. Bartholomew's is the...

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,...

Q: What has been the fallout of all of this on your own diocese, in New Hampshire? Have you lost many church members? A: Except for one parish in Rochester early on, no. That left about 15 people in that congregation, they met for about a year, and then asked me to close them down because there weren’t enough people to sustain a continued parish. That’s all. That’s it. There’s no one, no priests or parishes associated with the breakaway groups. Our diocese grew by 3 percent last year. … Q: Who are you pulling in? A: We have received...

For a decade now, the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) has been bitterly divided over the issue of ordaining openly gay clergy. The matter reached a new intensity this past week when the church's triennial convention ended the ban on gay candidates serving in ordained ministry. After years of protesting ECUSA's liberal policies and doctrines, seceding conservatives have now organized a rival church -- the Anglican Church in North America, or ACNA -- which claims 100,000 believers, compared with two million in ECUSA. This week's dramatic decision is sure to widen the rift even further, causing what church historians might officially...

The Episcopal Church approves blessing same-gender unions Lutherans Concerned / North America celebrates the decision of the US Episcopal Church at its triennial General Convention to approve the blessing of some same-gender lifelong, committed relationships. The change in policy was passed yesterday, July 17, 2009, the last day of the 10-day meeting. The resolution passed also included directions to the church leadership to develop liturgies for the rites of blessing. Characterized in the press as carefully worded, the resolution did not change the stated definition that a marriage is between a man and a woman. The rites called for will...

Durham, N.C. — Duke University has fired an employee who faces federal child sex charges. Frank M. Lombard, 42, of 24 Indigo Creek Trail in Durham, was let go from his position as associate director of the Center for Health Policy at Duke, a spokesman said. Duke Vice President for Public Affairs Michael Schoenfeld said Lombard was placed on unpaid leave at the time of his arrest June 24 and was fired Monday. Schoenfeld added that the university was cooperating with the investigation. Lombard faces extradition to Washington, D.C., to face charges that he solicited an adult to have...

Episcopal Church officials voted yesterday to allow bishops the latitude to bless same-sex unions -- the second vote this week in favor of gay rights and one that may further divide the worldwide Anglican community. On the last day of the church's triennial national convention in Anaheim, Calif., officials stopped short of creating liturgical rites to bless same-sex unions, but approved a compromise measure that allows bishops, especially in states where same-sex unions are legal, to bless the relationships. The key portion of the legislation says bishops "may provide generous pastoral response" for such unions. The vote came three days...

Anaheim, Calif. (AP) -- Episcopal bishops authorized the church Wednesday to start drafting an official prayer for same-sex couples, another step toward acceptance of gay relationships that will deepen the rift between the denomination and its fellow Anglicans overseas. The bishops voted 104-30 at the Episcopal General Convention to "collect and develop theological resources and liturgies" for blessing same-gender relationships, which would be considered at the next national meeting in 2012. The resolution notes the growing number of states that allow gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, and gave bishops in those regions discretion to provide a "generous pastoral...

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...

Episcopalians poised to affirm ordaining gays, despite potential threat to Anglican unity The Episcopal Church moved Monday toward affirming their acceptance of gays and lesbians for all roles in ministry, despite pressure from fellow Anglicans worldwide for a decisive moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop. Bishops at the Episcopal General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., voted 99-45 with two abstentions for a statement declaring "God has called and may call" to ministry gays in committed lifelong relationships. Lay and priest delegates to the meeting had comfortably approved a nearly identical statement, and were expected to adopt the latest version before...

The Episcopal Church moved Monday toward affirming their acceptance of gays and lesbians for all roles in ministry, despite pressure from fellow Anglicans worldwide for a decisive moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop. Bishops at the Episcopal General Convention in Anaheim, Calif., voted 99-45 with two abstentions for a statement declaring "God has called and may call" to ministry gays in committed lifelong relationships. Lay and priest delegates to the meeting had comfortably approved a nearly identical statement, and were expected to adopt the latest version before the meeting ends Friday. Leaders of the Anglican Communion have been pushing...

Episcopal presiding bishop terms individualistic salvation 'heresy' By Bob Allen Thursday, July 09, 2009 ANAHEIM, Calif. (ABP) -- The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church called the evangelical notion that individuals can be right with God a "great Western heresy" that is behind many problems facing the church and the wider society. Describing a United States church in crisis, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told delegates to the group's triennial meeting July 8 in Anaheim, Calif., that the overarching connection to problems facing Episcopalians has to do with "the great Western heresy -- that we can be saved as individuals,...

This year, just like last year, Gay Pride weekend coincided with the feast of Corpus Christi.   Washington, D.C.'s Pride parade was fairly restrained: It featured a cornucopia of Episcopalians, and all the marchers went out of their way to sweetly drape beads over the little elementary-school girls standing in front of me. There were Affirming Baptists; as the parade passed by me, a knot of gay men to my right joked -- in that gay way that is never really joking all the way down -- that maybe they could be Baptists again now. There were strollers, lots...

About two months ago, I heard from an old friend with whom I had lost touch. Most of what he had to say revolved around his relationship with a man with whom he is now living. (snip) He said he and his boyfriend needed a church that is more tolerant. I’m going to recommend that he give The Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Carrboro, North Carolina a try. Until a couple of days ago, the Advocate website (www.ouradvocate.org) had a list of the members of its vestry, which included Frank Lombard. But after Lombard was arrested for allegedly trying...

Associate director of Duke University's Center for Health Policy, Frank Lombard, was recently arrested by the FBI and charged with offering up his adopted 5-year-old African American son for sex to an undercover cop. Lombard admitted to molesting his own adopted son to the undercover officer in an online chat room under the user name "Perv Dad for Fun". He invited the under cover officer to travel to North Carolina to rape his already-molested adopted son. Lombard faces 20 years in prison if convicted but is not eligible for the death penalty.Lombard bragged to the detective that “the abuse of...

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...

Episcopalian Priest, the Rev. Nina Churchman wrote a letter to Episcopal Life Online saying that women shouldn't have to ask for forgiveness for aborting a child. In fact, Rev. Churchman then goes one step further and says God rejoices in the woman's choice to abort. Here's the text in full:After reading the 3 June article, "Pregnancy-loss Prayers", I found the text for Rachel's Tears online and was sickened to discover that the rite for abortion is couched wholly in terms of sin and transgression. The Episcopal Church, by resolution, has long held that women have the freedom to choose an...

Episcopalian Priest, the Rev. Nina Churchman wrote a letter to Episcopal Life Online saying that women shouldn't have to ask for forgiveness for aborting a child. In fact, Rev. Churchman then goes one step further and says God rejoices in the woman's choice to abort. Here's the text in full: After reading the 3 June article, "Pregnancy-loss Prayers", I found the text for Rachel's Tears online and was sickened to discover that the rite for abortion is couched wholly in terms of sin and transgression. The Episcopal Church, by resolution, has long held that women have the freedom to choose...

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...

June 22Dr. Jay Budziszewski former Episcopalian During the 1990s, J. Budziszewski rose to prominence as one of the leading intellectual lights among Evangelical Christians in America. A political theorist with a special interest in the natural-law tradition, he was highly sought as a speaker at conferences organized by groups such as the InterVarsity Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ. A principal theme of his many talks to American campus groups is captured in the title of his 1999 book, How to Stay Christian in College. For some Evangelical Protestants, then, it came as a jolt when, on Easter Sunday...

MIAMI – Ex-Catholic priest Alberto Cutie will wed in two weeks, after sparking a scandal when he was photographed nuzzling his girlfriend on a Miami beach, The Miami Herald newspaper said. The wedding will be held in an Episcopal church here at a private ceremony for which several ex-police have been hired to ensure security, according to sources close to the religious. Cutie, born in Puerto Rico of Cuban descent, left the Catholic Church after the photos were published and weeks later announced that he was joining the Episcopal Church, for which he has already given his first sermon. The...

(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...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) It was tough enough to get New Hampshire's lawmakers and governor to approve gay marriage, but Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson says there's an even tougher job ahead: getting churches to fully embrace gay marriage and gay people."What we have to work against is countless centuries of tradition which has judged homosexual people to be an abomination before God," said Robinson, the Episcopal church's only openly gay bishop.Robinson sat in the front row of the gallery in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, hands clasped at times, praying for lawmakers to push a little green button that...