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On Wednesday, April 27, 2005, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada issued a Statement of Commitment from their meeting at Windsor, Ontario. Anglican Essentials Canada is thankful that our bishops have unanimously affirmed their desire to continue membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion, although we note it appears clear from the Primates Communiqué that continuing membership will require adherence to the teaching of the Communion. We are thankful the bishops have acknowledged that synodical decisions in the Anglican Church of Canada have been the cause of much distress in the worldwide Communion. We hope and pray...

In a development that should surprise absolutely no one, Piskie PETA rolls out:When trappers killed Franz, a beloved tiger cat, the Rev. Rebecca Deinsen looked for help. That’s when she discovered that there was little recourse against the trappers, and frankly, that few people were interested in the issue. "I started contacting animal rights’ organizations, and they were the only ones who cared," said Deinsen, associate priest at St. John’s, Worthington. "In the midst of all that, I discovered that there was a need here. There was no spiritual outlet for grieving the loss of pets even though all of...

RALEIGH -- The Church of the Holy Cross has left the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina to join a new and rapidly growing group of U.S. churches no longer willing to affiliate with a national denomination they say has strayed from its biblical roots. Members of Holy Cross, which now calls itself Anglican, say the decision to leave has been brewing since the Episcopal Church USA consecrated an openly gay man as a bishop two years ago. The Rev. John W. Gibson, rector of Holy Cross, said the entire church backed the move. "For us, the focal point was not...

Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold has confirmed that he will be among the international delegation present in Seattle, Wash., on May 16 for the release of a joint statement of understanding on the place of Mary in the doctrine and life of the Church. The document, “Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ,” draws together five years of work by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), a dialogue officially sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council and by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. After months of public ecumenical consultations and unpublicized intrigue after the 2003 General Convention, Bishop Griswold...

Anglicanism is one of the only traditions outside of Roman Catholicism and maybe Orthodoxy (don't know enough about it) that, in my opinion, seriously values celibacy. I have never seen a big stink develop in Anglican circles when people find out that Fr. so-and-so is "single". And I have heard of married folk talk about Anglican religious communities with the deepest of reverence and respect. All of the celibate continuing clergy I have known have been very pious and godly men. I suppose we have mostly the Oxford Movement and Ritualism to thank for this. Celibacy is a good thing....

Bishop Charles Bennison has written a strange, and irritating, article on the catholicity of Anglicanism. Fisking his piece would be too easy. The man’s incoherence and ignorance are manifest. He reminds me of the leadership of the N.I.C.E. (the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments) in C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength. N.I.C.E is the nefarious scientific organization in C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength. Secretly controlled by evil spirits, it is intent on controlling and reconstituting humanity. In order to accomplish this end, it engages in a systematic corruption of public discourse. Words are twisted to make despicable policies acceptable...

Orthodox church appeals to ex-Anglicans wanting stability EDMONTON - David Johnston says he's been troubled for years over "compromises" on faith and doctrine by the national leadership of the Anglican Church of Canada. Last Saturday, Johnston, a former Anglican priest in Fort Saskatchewan, and seven of his former parishioners, were received as lay members of the Orthodox Christian Church. Johnston said they chose the Orthodox church because it seemed to be the faith that had been compromised the least over the centuries. "We're excited about the Orthodox church," Johnston said on the eve of a service of chrismation at St....