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THE Episcopal Church in the United States should slow but not halt its push for gay bishops and blessings, a report from a special commission recommends. The report prepared by the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion offered 11 resolutions for consideration in response to the recommendations of the Windsor Report and the Primates’ Dromantine Communiqué.It recommended the Church “exercise very considerable caution” in electing bishops “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church,” but stopped short of the moratorium on gay bishops demanded by overseas and traditionalist church leaders. The Commission also...

WASHINGTON, April 13 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Episcopal laypersons launched a national petition drive today to bring to church trial 35 bishops involved in the installation of a practicing homosexual bishop in New Hampshire. The target defendant group includes the gay bishop and the presiding bishop of about 2 million Episcopalians in the United States. The petition’s purpose is to determine, in formal trials, the standing of church law, doctrine and practice, the sponsor said. The denomination has been fractured in both the United States and the worldwide Anglican Communion by what the sponsoring Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Communion...

NEW YORK — An Episcopal Church panel studying the furor over the denomination's first openly gay bishop proposed Friday that dioceses use "very considerable caution" from now on in electing bishops with same-sex partners, but stopped short of the moratorium critics demanded. The commission also recommended that the American church offer "apology and repentance" for the turmoil its actions caused within the global Anglican Communion, and said dioceses should stop creating blessing ceremonies for same-gender couples, at least temporarily. (Snip) On May 6, the Diocese of California is scheduled to elect a new bishop and three of the seven candidates...

LONDON - The liberal leadership of the American Anglican Church is preparing for an unexpected climbdown over homosexuality that could save the worldwide Church from schism. Three years after consecrating Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop, the American bishops appear close to bowing to international pressure and shelving their radical agenda at a conference in June. Leaks from a private meeting of the bishops in North Carolina last week suggest that they will "repent" for plunging Anglicanism into turmoil by consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.

The liberal leadership of the American Anglican Church is preparing for an unexpected climb-down over homosexuality which could save the worldwide Church from schism. Three years after consecrating Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop, the American bishops appear close to bowing to international pressure and shelving their radical agenda at a conference in June. Leaks from a private meeting of the bishops in North Carolina last week suggest that they will "repent" for plunging Anglicanism into turmoil by consecrating Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. They are also likely to come into line with the rest of the worldwide Church...

A discussion and Prayer starter…. Thousands wait with baited breath to see what will occur at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in mid-June 2006. Within the small but active Anglican Communion Network of ECUSA-based dioceses and parishes, it is commonly asserted that, if there is no real and obvious U-turn on matters relating to sexuality by the General Convention in June 2006, then the plan of the Network is certainly NOT to depart (and become, for example, like the AMiA) but to stay in place with the claim, “We have not left the ECUSA, the ECUSA [as an...

A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned. The CIA Inspector General has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials. The CIA released an official statement on the matter to ABC News, saying: "It is standard practice for CIA's Office of Inspector General — an aggressive, independent watchdog — to look into assertions that mention agency officers. That should in no way be seen as lending credibility to...

LA CRESCENTA - St. Luke's of the Mountains, a church that has been affiliated with the Episcopal Church USA, renounced its Episcopal affiliations Tuesday and declared it is now under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of Uganda. While a press release made no mention of specific differences with traditional American Episcopalians, the church is the latest of a handful of conservative congregations to split over doctrinal issues including gay marriage, the ordination of gay priests and bishops and women in the priesthood.

February 14, 2006 To the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Los Angeles: A statement from the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles I have received word this afternoon that the congregation of St. Luke's-of-the-Mountains Episcopal Church, La Crescenta, voted on February 13 to sever its ties with the Diocese of Los Angeles and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and align itself with the Diocese of Luweero, Uganda. I am deeply disappointed in the actions taken by the congregation and its clergy. We have worked in the past to resolve differences between...

Letter from the Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson February 13, 2006,Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on February 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol. Over the 28 days I will be here, I will be dealing with the disease of alcoholism-which, for years, I have thought of as a failure of will or discipline on my part, rather than a disease over which my particular body simply has no control, except...

ORTHODOX BISHOPS SEE LITTLE HOPE FOR ECUSA'S REFORM Future Grim as General Convention Draws Closer News Analysis By David W. Virtue www.virtueonline.org Two things are becoming abundantly clear as the Episcopal Church heads towards General Convention in June. The first is that the Presiding Bishop and his fellow revisionist bishops have no intention of repenting of their actions in consecrating V. Gene Robinson to the episcopacy as the first homoerotic Bishop of New Hampshire, and secondly they will not step away voluntarily from the Anglican Communion unless forced to do so. Following ECUSA's ouster from the Anglican Consultative Council, Frank...

The Church of the Holy Spirit in Ashburn, Va., has become the second congregation to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia over disagreements on biblical authority, church discipline and homosexual clergy. Meeting after their Sunday morning worship service, adult members of the church voted 88-0 to leave the 90,000-member diocese, the country's largest, and affiliate with the Anglican Diocese of Ruwenzori in Uganda.

2nd church quits Episcopal diocese Sexuality is an issue in its decision to join Uganda's Anglicans BY ALBERTA LINDSEY TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 8, 2006 A second Northern Virginia congregation has voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and to affiliate with the Diocese of Ruwenzori of the Anglican Church of Uganda. The consecration of an openly gay bishop by the Episcopal Church USA in 2003 is a factor in the congregation's decision, said the Rev. Clancy Nixon, missioner of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ashburn in Loudoun County. The Holy Spirit congregation voted 88-0 Sunday...

Maryland Democrats concerned about the political fallout from last week's court ruling on same-sex marriage are considering a plan to block any final court ruling from taking effect until after the November elections. The proposal would be offered in legislation by Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Montgomery) that would freeze any decision from the state's highest court until the General Assembly has time to evaluate it. "What we're trying to do is see if we can craft a bill allowing the legislature to seek an injunction, at least until 2007, when we'll have the opportunity to consider a constitutional amendment" banning...

Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire. Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism. "A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration...

    Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's fiery political remark Monday that the Republican House is like a "plantation" has triggered charges of playing the race card and a sharp rebuke from first lady Laura Bush, who called her comment ridiculous.     The New York Democrat's racial broadside during a Martin Luther King Day appearance at a Baptist church in Harlem continued to spark debate yesterday on both sides of the political aisle.     Black Democratic leaders such as Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois defended and attempted to explain Mrs. Clinton's remarks, saying she was referring to a "further consolidation of power" by Republicans in...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut on Saturday removed a priest from his duties in a clash over the elevation of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. Connecticut Bishop Andrew D. Smith stripped Mark H. Hansen, formerly of St. John's Church in Bristol, "of the right to exercise the office of priest in the Episcopal church." Smith acted six months after Hansen's "inhibition," or suspension, that began July 13. "It's a very sad day," Smith said in an interview Saturday. Diocesan officials said last year that Hansen was suspended because he took an unauthorized...

WASHINGTON — Maine's Democratic congressmen said Tuesday that the conviction of lobbyist Jack Abramoff should bring about reform and could taint House Republicans in this year's election. "It's clear the Justice Department now has its sights trained on members of Congress and their staffs," said Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine. "I have no doubt that as this scandal unfolds, it will expose practices that the Republican leadership in the House has wanted to keep hidden." His comments came as congressional watchdogs reported that no member of Maine's delegation - including its two Republican senators - received contributions from Abramoff in recent...

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - No stained-glass windows. No pews. No church choir. And definitely no parking spots left out front. The new (rented) home of the Chillicothe Anglican Fellowship is packed to the rafters. The storefront once housed one of Ross County's rowdiest, two-fisted drinking joints. Now it's the center of a quiet, though no less explosive, religious rebellion. It's been that way since the Rev. Rick Terry decided enough was enough and shepherded most of his flock, about 60 people, two blocks north and around the corner from St. Paul's Episcopal Church to the coffeehouse on N. Paint Street. That...

AMMAN, Jordan (12/29/9005)--A heated debate broke out on the floor of the Jerusalem Diocesan Convention recently when sides were drawn up over whether the orthodox Middle East Diocese should twine with the revisionist Diocese of Los Angeles which openly espouses gay and lesbian unions. A source told VirtueOnline that Bishop-elect Suheil Dawani announced that he had recently visited Los Angeles and New York and that he had made agreements with the Bishop of Los Angeles to have a special relationship between their dioceses and the Diocese of Jerusalem. The Rev. Canon Suheil was recently elected Coadjutor Bishop of the Anglican...