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The Church of England says all its dioceses have voted to let women serve as bishops, leaving just one major hurdle to changing centuries of church practice. The issue has long divided the Anglican Communion, a Christian denomination with more than 80 million adherents worldwide. …

What started off as a rocky relationship between the Episcopal and Roman Catholic bishops of San Francisco got even worse on Thursday (Oct. 4) when Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus said he was denied entrance to the installation Mass of the new Roman Catholic archbishop. Andrus said he arrived at St. Mary's Cathedral 30 minutes before the installation Mass of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was scheduled to start, but was kept in a holding area with an employee of the Catholic archdiocese until after the service started. After other local clergy had processed in for the 2 p.m. Mass, Andrus said the...

Commentators at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times may decry the Episcopal Church as a place offering pet funerals but nothing for the faithful or failing to provide anything one cannot get from purely secular liberalism. These traditionalists appear to bemoan the loss of a 1950s-era church that promoted an Eisenhower-era civil religion replete with the cross draped in the American flag. While they wax nostalgia over a past that largely existed only in TV Land,.the Episcopal Church made history at its 77th triennial General Convention by passing two gender nondiscrimination resolutions. Led by a grassroots coalition...

Two days after he was consecrated as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida, Gregory Brewer was marching Monday with the crowd demanding justice for Trayvon Martin. He was the only white clergyman to address the Sanford City Commission inside the Civic Center that evening, urging city leaders to address the concerns of the black community. "I thought it was very courageous," said Andy Searles, a pastor with Aloma United Methodist Church in Winter Park. "It would have been very easy for him to sit in his office and organize the paperwork on his desk, but he made a...

ELCA Presiding Bishop Responds to Veto of Resolution on Israeli Settlements 11-019-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said he is "dismayed" the U.S. government today vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that called on Israel to stop illegal construction of settlements on Palestinian land. The U.S. veto stopped the resolution, which had the backing of 14 other members of the U.N. Security Council. "I now am concerned that this action will increase a despondent mood about the future of such talks and will possibly strengthen extremist voices in...

OGDEN -- There may be some congregations that are leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for other Lutheran sects, but the state of the church is good, even locally. This was the message Sunday delivered by Bishop Allan Bjornberg of the Rocky Mountain ELCA Synod when he paid a visit to Ogden's Elim Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Rocky Mountain Synod includes 175 congregations in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. He is currently chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops. Bjornberg said the synod continues to open new congregations. "There are always more opportunities than there...

Across the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, congregants and clergy today reacted with heavy hearts to word that Bishop V. Gene Robinson is retiring. Robinson, 63, whose consecration seven years ago as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church divided the Anglican Communion worldwide, yesterday announced at the annual convention of the New Hampshire diocese that he plans to retire in January 2013, short of the mandatory 72-year-old retirement age for Episcopal bishops. He cited death threats and the considerable strain that the worldwide rift has placed on him, his family, and the church.

Earlier this year, two congregations expelled from the ELCA in the 1990s for welcoming gay pastors, received an invitation to rejoin the denomination. One of those congregations — St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco — voted 69-1 this week to begin the process, according to the head of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, or ELM.The other congregation is First United Lutheran Church, also in San Franciso. Both congregations are in the boundaries of the Sierra Pacific Synod.“These two congregations issued calls to openly gay and lesbian pastors in 1990, beginning a chain of events that led the ELCA to where it is today,”...

LONDON, CA (AP) -- The Anglican Communion has suspended U.S. Episcopalians from serving on some interfaith bodies because of the election of a lesbian as a bishop in California. The U.S. church opened a rift in the global communion, and within its own ranks, seven years ago by electing a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. Conservative African Anglicans have taken a lead in opposing moves in the United States and Canada to promote gays and to bless homosexual relationships.

Miami -- A Miami priest who left the Catholic Church after photos surfaced of him kissing his girlfriend on the beach has been ordained as an Episcopal priest. Alberto Cutie, known as "Father Oprah," has since married Ruhama Canellis and the two are expecting a baby.

Dr. David J. Lull, Professor of New Testament at Wartburg Theological Seminary gave a series of lectures in January 2010 titled, "Preaching Lent and Easter." It is amazing what ELCA pastors are being taught by our seminaries. For all of my life I thought Jesus died for my sins. Thankfully Dr. Lull set me and the 2000 years of Christian teachers and believers straight. Here is what Dr. Lull teaches. "Jesus did not have to die as a condition of God’s forgiveness of sins. Mark knew that Jesus knew that God had always forgiven the sins of “many/all,” and that...

Bishops in the nation's largest Lutheran denomination have approved preliminary steps to welcome a group of openly gay and lesbian ministers as official clergy with new liturgical rites. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Conference of Bishops approved a draft proposal on Monday (March 8) for the new rites, which include prayers and the laying on of hands by the local bishop, according to the denomination's news service. The proposal only applies to 17 pastors who had followed normal ELCA procedures for education and ordination, but remained barred from the denomination's official clergy roster because of their sexuality. The clergy...

If Pastor John Vaswig or Pastor Kim Latterell were to leave their East Pierce County Lutheran churches, their congregations could replace them with a gay or lesbian clergy member. In August 2009, the church-wide assembly of the Ecumenical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) voted to allow churches to call pastors who are in a committed, same-gender relationships to head up their congregations. Many other important issues were discussed and voted on at the assembly meeting in Minneapolis, but this decision is the one that generated the most interest. John Brooks, spokesman for the ELCA, said that most of the churches...

MODESTO – The Episcopal-Anglican battle in Stanislaus County got very personal this week when the Episcopal faction filed a lawsuit against St. Francis Anglican Church in Turlock seeking control of the its assets. The suit was filed Monday in Stanislaus Superior Court by the Rev. Jerry Lamb, bishop of the Modesto-based Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. It names the Rev. Gerald "Gerry" Grossman and nine members of the church's vestry, or ruling body, as well as the St. Francis parish as defendants. St. Francis is the first parish in the diocese to face an individual lawsuit in the dispute that...

They worked for years cleaning and maintaining the Episcopal Church Center in midtown Manhattan. But after they were fired on Dec. 30, nine hard-working people are in desperate need of divine intervention. "We came to work on Dec. 30 as every day, hoping to leave a little earlier to celebrate the new year," said Bronx native Héctor Miranda, a father of three. "But when we got to the building we were told that we no longer worked there. Just like that. They picked the date well to fire us." Now, without the means to support his family, Miranda has no...

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, says those Anglicans who respond to Pope Benedict's invitation to join the Catholic Church under the provisions of the new Apostolic Constitution, would not be "proper Catholics". You can listen to the interview in full on this week's Sunday Sequence (Sunday, from 8.30am). In the same interview, Dr Sentamu also called for the banning of the British National Party and says he is "surprised that Parliament doesn't want to do it." He also says he has "every hope" that [Robert] Mugabe will be gone very soon." Here's part of the exchange I had...

The tensions in the Middle East date back centuries, are complicated and at times have turned violent. In December, a group of nine bishops, including the Rev. B. Penrose Hoover, bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, traveled to Israel and the West Bank for 10 days to gain a better understanding of the conflict and to spend time with Lutherans there. It was the second trip the ELCA planned. The first trip, dubbed the "Bishops' Academy I," took place last January as fighting between the Palestinians and Israelis raged in the Gaza strip....

The South Dakota bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said he has no plans of leading his synod out of the denomination over last year's pro-gay actions. That's not to say he's content with the national body. "This is not the first time I have been upset with the church," the Rev. David Zellmer told local Lutherans Thursday at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, according to the Argus Leader. Since last week, Zellmer has been hosting "conversations" at several Lutheran congregations to reflect on the actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly and their implications. Thursday's meeting was...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) ― [Click to zoom.] Click to enlarge 1 of 1 ELCA convention delegates in August voted to lift a ban prohibiting gay and lesbian pastors who were not celibate from serving as clergy. (File) AP Close numSlides of totalImages Related Links * Read The Latest Local News * Read The Latest Political News The bishop of the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says seven congregations in the state have taken initial steps toward leaving the country's largest Lutheran denomination over its policy to allow gay clergy. The Rev. David Zellmer says...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is on the attack. And they will let nothing get in the way of their goal, a nation called Palestine, with Jerusalem as it's capital. They are shameless. The ELCA is now on the attack against Christians that care for and support Israel. Presiding ELCA bishop Mark Hanson says the support of Israel by Christians “ . . . is a dangerous and radical political movement.” The ELCA has websites and brochures denouncing them. The ELCA gathered with other like-minded mainline denominations, not to long ago, to find ways to combat these Christians. The...