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McGreevey mulling Episcopal priesthood Posted by The Star-Ledger May 02, 2007 12:08PM Categories: News Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger Former Gov. James E. McGreevey appears during custody proceedings in the Union County Courthouse last week.Former Gov. James E. McGreevey has started the process to become a priest in his newly adopted Episcopal faith and hopes to begin a three-year seminary program in the fall. McGreevey, who often described himself as a devout Catholic while in public office, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday, at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan, and is now part of the church's "discernment" phase that...

DALLAS -- The United Church of Christ has accepted a predominantly gay Dallas megachurch into its fold. That means about a quarter of the mainline denomination's members in Texas and Louisiana attend the same church. The North Texas Association of the Cleveland, Ohio-based UCC voted 32-9 last month to admit the 4,300-member Cathedral of Hope after a year-long courtship. The cathedral bills itself as “the world's largest liberal Christian church with a primary outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.'' The cathedral becomes the fourth largest church in the denomination. It decided to affiliate with the UCC after the...

ECUSA's Incoming Leader: Homosexuality Not a Choice, Jesus Not the Only WayComments by Jefferts-Schori During Interview Appear to Contradict ScriptureBy Jody Brown and Allie Martin November 2, 2006 (AgapePress) - She says she doesn't consider Jesus Christ to be the only way to God. She says she believes God makes some people "gay." And she's soon to be the leader of a mainline Protestant denomination in America. In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul writes that "in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9, NIV). But in an interview this week with...

Woman Believes People Are Created Gay NEW YORK -- The Presiding Bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church said she doesn't believe that the Bible condemns "committed" gay and lesbian relationships. Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori, who'll be installed Saturday at Washington National Cathedral, supports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. In 2003, she voted to confirm the denomination's first openly gay bishop. For that reason and others, seven conservative Episcopal dioceses have rejected her leadership. In an Associated Press interview, Jefferts-Schori said she believes homosexuality is "how one is created," so the church should offer what she calls "a sacramental...

Delaware, Ohio--A central Ohio Episcopal priest has resigned his ordination to protest what he calls “pervasive homophobia” coming mostly from the church leadership in the third world. Former Rev. Paul Nicely issued a written statement July 25 saying, “I no longer in conscience can honor my vow as a priest to be subject to the authority of a church which persists in sanctioning bigotry and exclusion.” “There’s not much an individual can do,” Nicely said in a later interview. “There’s not much political influence for an individual, but I wanted to be expressive in my views on this.” Nicely, 80,...

COLUMBUS, OH: Bishop Katherine celebrates transgender Jesus By Hans Zeiger VirtueOnline Correspondent www.virtueonline.org COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/21/06)-While addressing a morning Eucharist at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop-elect Katherine Jefferts Schori declared, "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation. And you and I are His children." With Jefferts Schori as the leader-to-be of the Episcopal Chuch, it seems that the church will move beyond gender-inclusive language to transgender-inclusive language. Yesterday however, the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops refused to even consider a resolution that would affirm the exclusive Lordship of Jesus Christ as "the only...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori became the first woman to lead any church in the global Anglican Communion when she was elected Sunday to be the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. The choice of Jefferts Schori may worsen — and could even splinter — the already difficult relations between the American denomination and its fellow Anglicans. Episcopalians have been sparing with many in the other 37 Anglican provinces over homosexuality, but a female leader adds a new layer of complexity to the already troubled relationship. Only two other Anglican provinces — New Zealand and Canada —...

And if Christianity doesn't adapt, Bishop Spong says, it will die. "As people change, liturgy has to change. I don't know why that's so difficult to understand," he told more than 200 people at the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Elgin Street yesterday, the first of a two-day conference organized by the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity, with the theme Religionless Christianity. ...[snip]The Christian calendar is full of stories and observances that are drawn not from historical occurrences, but absorbed instead from Jewish traditions, Bishop Spong said. Palm Sunday can be traced to the lulav, a bundle of...

Living with Tares: Why I stay in a church that has seriously strayed from biblical teaching. Posted on Mon Mar 06 2006: by Bishop Edward S. Little II (Christianity Today) Whenever a priest or a deacon in the Episcopal Church is removed from ministry, the cleric's diocese sends official notification to every active bishop. In the years since the church's controversial General Convention of 2003—a convention that, among other things, consented to the ordination of a partnered gay bishop—most notices contain a disclaimer: "This action was taken for causes that do not affect moral character." This is code language. It...

Man, it's getting hard to keep up with all the developments at DePaul. From NPR last week: DePaul University in Chicago -- the largest Catholic university in the United States -- is launching a "queer studies" program that looks at issues of homosexuality. DePaul will be the first Catholic university to offer a minor in the topic, and could face the wrath of the Vatican. Jason DeRose of Chicago Public Radio reports. Will DePaul offer a minor in "conservative studies?" Or even "libertarian studies?"

--snip--Danforth draws no connections between the divisions bared in the Thomas debate and the polarization that bedevils Congress today. He recalls a more pleasant era of coalitions and compromises that gave way to ever fiercer partisanship starting in the early 1990s after Thomas was already on the bench. He dates the beginning of the downslide to the arrival in the Senate of sharp-tongued former House Republicans. --snip--That certainly dovetails with the argument of Baptist Sunday school teacher and certified Democrat Jimmy Carter, who pursues the theme in his hot-selling recent book, "Our Endangered Values," with 750,000 copies in print. He...

'I Am a Mystic' 'I never doubt,' says Bishop Spong. 'It's not that I'm getting older and cramming for finals. It's that God becomes more real.' Interview by Deborah Caldwell John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, N.J., for 20 years before his retirement in 2000. Widely admired (and often scorned), Spong is a leader of the worldwide liberal Christianity movement. He has taught at Harvard, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., and has lectured in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. He is the author of 15 books, including his latest, The Sins of...

The California Council of Churches has asked the governor to rescind his support of the Minuteman Project, which posted civilian volunteer, some armed, on the Arizona-Mexico border. "No responsible or moral public official would encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands, particularly on an issue that is already so laden with division and hatred," the statement said. "Playing on people's fears and divisions and dropping bombshells like those of last week represent demagoguery, not leadership," said the letter, signed by the Rev. John Walsh, a University of Redlands chaplain, and 149 other religious leaders. Gov. Schwarzenegger said...

A shooting star streaks across the sky during a meteor shower. Residents of the area near Madrid airport reported seeing a ball of fire explode and disintregrate in skies over the Spanish capital overnight, security services said.(AFP/NASA. Someone may want to link up to the Photo. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1778&e=1&u=/050128/photos_od_afp/050128154706_51rancsg_photo0 The photo is clearly of a sword with a distinct hilt Though the artcle makes no mention other than it is an "Offbeat Photo." -- something strange