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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...

I believe very strongly that one of the many tragic aspects of this whole Episcopal Church debacle in the last five years is that not only was the decision in 2003 wrong (and the way it was made wrong) but that nearly every major decision made by the TEC leadership since then has made it worse. The hard part about this is that when you keep failing to offer a sufficiently radical solution to a problem, the next time you face it it requires an even more radical solution. I certainly wish to salute what the Presiding Bishop said in...

The canon Missioner for the Diocese of Colorado who is in charge of congregational development for the diocese, says that as many as 12 parishes will close with three already having made the decision to shut down. He calls it "holy dying." He also blames it on "National Church issues". Lou Blanchard, known unaffectionately as the "Grim Reaper of Church Growth" by an orthodox priest in the diocese, announced this week that St. Francis, Colorado Springs has made the decision to close after declining over several years for many reasons including National Church Issues. Their final service will be on...

I’m going to get off Newark soon, but Louie Crew keeps giving me stuff to work with. He has reset his General Convevtion clock to the 2009 meeting. For those of you hoping to get some great advanced travel deals, it is 1107 days away. And it’s in Anaheim. Yes, Disneyland! Perfect! In fact a map on the Convention Center website puts the meeting place adjacent to the fantasy park. General Convention 2006 was a fantasy land. The one in three years will be worse. The elite of the Episcopal Church—the senate of bishops and the house of choice Deputies...

Anglicans should welcome a schismhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/06/20/do2002.xml http://tinyurl.com/gfwwa By Damian Thompson (Filed: 19/06/2006) After a wretched couple of decades for the Church of England - catfights over the ordination of women and homosexuals, the tumbling of weekly church attendance to below a million - there is finally a glimmer of hope in the headlines. The Anglican Communion seems to be falling apart. As The Daily Telegraph's religion correspondent, Jonathan Petre, reported yesterday, the election of a woman bishop as leader of the American Anglican Church "could hasten the break-up" of the worldwide body. For this relief much thanks, to quote the sentry...

COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/20/06)-The House of Deputies of the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church today overwhelmingly refused to even consider a resolution that affirmed Jesus Christ as the "only name by which any person may be saved."

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Episcopal clergy and lay delegates Tuesday rejected a demand from fellow Anglicans that they temporarily stop electing gay bishops, leaving little chance the proposal could be revived at a national church meeting. Anglican leaders, angered by the 2003 consecration of an openly gay Episcopal bishop, had asked the Episcopalians pass a moratorium — at least for now — on homosexuals leading dioceses. But in a complex balloting system, a majority of the Episcopal House of Deputies voted against the measure, which church leaders had seen as critical to keeping the embattled Anglican Communion together. The critical debate...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Episcopal General Convention approached another defining vote Monday in the wake of electing its first female presiding bishop: whether the church should temporarily bar gays from becoming bishops to preserve Anglican fellowship. Delegates began considering a moratorium at the request of world Anglican leaders, who remain angry over the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop — V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The Rev. Frank Wade opened debate by asking delegates not to view the request from Anglican leaders as an ultimatum, but as a request for peace. "No one is being asked...

Episcopal boredom http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50644 http://tinyurl.com/p3s8y Posted: June 15, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Hans Zeiger Let me see if I can capture the mood at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio. The main thing about it is the generation. It is a gathering, chiefly, of baby boomers on the older end of their cohort. If they preceded the boom, they at least participated in the '60s. I half expected the long hair and dope to flow with the crowds that came yesterday to hear the debates about homosexuality and the consequently precarious relations of the Episcopal...

Anglican split 'has become necessary' The Communion has become 'two religions' says Bishop Nazir-Ali A split in the Anglican Communion is inevitable the Bishop of Rochester has said, as issues such as gay and women bishops continue to divide the global Church. The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali's comments came as the US Episcopal Church - which ordained the first openly gay bishop in 2003 - chose Katherine Jefferts Schori as its first female head. Here, two church members for and against such issues, give their views on a split. REV DAVID PHILIPS, THE CHURCH SOCIETYThe Reverend David Philips believes a...

ANGLICAN COMMUNION NETWORK AND FORWARD IN FAITH RESPOND TO SCHORI ELECTION By David W. Virtue www.virtueonline.org COLUMBUS: OH (6/18/2006) The Anglican Communion Network and Forward in Faith UK have issued statement concerning the Election of the Bishop of Nevada to be the 26th Presiding Bishop. Wrote: Network Moderator Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh: "I want to assure Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop Elect, of my prayers for her, for her husband Dick, and for their family, as Katherine assumes the impossible task now assigned to her." "As to the implications for the Episcopal Church and for the Anglican Communion,...

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 —...

COLUMBUS, OH: Gay Eucharist attracts 1,000+ By Hans Zeiger VirtueOnline Correspondent COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/16/06)-Over 1,000 homosexual and pro-homosexual clergy, bishops, and laymen of the Episcopal Church celebrated Eucharist Friday evening at Trinity Episcopal Church, just blocks from the site of the 75th Episcopal General Convention. "This is a small taste of what heaven must be like," said the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, as he began his sermon to the prolonged cheers of the adoring congregation. Then Robinson was brought to tears as he thanked his homosexual partner Mark, three years after the Episcopal Convention at...

Conservatives (I mean evangelicals, traditional anglo-catholics, and just plain conservatives) will lose the battle at General Convention. There never really was any doubt, but some events drive the point home.And let me say that the connotation of “conservative” to me relates to the root “conserve.” Conservatives are usually slow to change, but the motive is often (not always) to conserve something valuable.The official Episcopal News Service is easily seen to be an organ for promoting the institutional cause of ECUSA. Significant news highlighting the conservative cause is often ignored, as is news that reflects poorly on the liberal cause. I...

I'm very grateful that Sarah Hey sent this reminder yesterday to her mailing list about the failure of the House of Bishops at the 2003 General Convention to affirm that “Holy Scripture (contains) all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation,” as set forth in Article VI of the Articles of Religion established by the General Convention on September 12, 1801." Sarah writes: During...

Episcopal Church Debate Grows More Heated http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/14611673.htm http://tinyurl.com/rrwgw Thursday May 18, 2006 7:46 PM By RACHEL ZOLL AP Religion Writer Kendall Harmon has to monitor his blog these days, so he can delete insults and offensive language from the comments section. His topic: the Episcopal Church. As a critical church meeting on homosexuality nears, the debate online and in public comments has grown so intense that one publication has dubbed it ``blood sport.'' ``I think people are dreading possible outcomes and when you're dealing with the unknown, fear kicks in in a big way,'' said Harmon, a minister and conservative...

THE FUTURE of the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA) and its standing within the Anglican Communion now appears set to be determined chiefly by the June General Convention’s decisions on compliant-sounding resolutions that, as presently written, would nonetheless leave ECUSA “pointing in the same direction.” This, after the Diocese of California averted a second major convention struggle—and probable schism in the Communion—by passing up the chance to elect another actively gay bishop on May 6. The election of a second such prelate would have presented an opportunity for considerable drama: Some claimed—and some did not believe—that the House of Bishops would...

Please note: this article is a follow up to a piece Father Estes wrote last fall–KSH There are two visions competing for the heart and soul of the Episcopal Church. They are separate and distinct. They are irreconcilable. The two cannot be brought together in unity, because at the very heart of each reside fundamental assumptions and principles that are radically opposed to one another. In order to merge the Progressive vision with the Orthodox vision, a compromise would be required of such a serious nature that either vision would cease to exist. Since General Convention 2003, the proponents of...

Two months from this date, on June 21, the Episcopal Church's General Convention will be ending. The Episcopal Church will have a Presiding Bishop, and, more importantly, the General Convention will have taken action on the Windsor Report. The Episcopal Church has before it the recommendations of a special commission that was called to study the relationship of the Episcopal Church to the Anglican Communion, and to begin the process of crafting a response from the General Convention to the Windsor Report. StoryReport It's possible to read into this report that it's a good start. Ha! Before you get your...

There are two regular, official publications in the life of the Episcopal Church which today stand in the most stark, and most revealing, contrast. One is the smartly-edited national church monthly newspaper, Episcopal Life, which sports aggressively upbeat headlines about Episcopal laypeople involved in racial reconciliation, young adults' ministries, investment in Palestine, and the growth of church publishing. The other is the dour national church yearbook, the Episcopal Church Annual, which publishes detailed break-outs of diocesan statistics, clergy listings, the Episcopal succession list, and similar matters so leaden that the front-matter advertising is usually the most interesting part of the...