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SAN FRANCISCO, October 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA), has said that there will be no reversal of the church's pro-homosexual direction taken in recent years. Speaking to a standing room-only audience at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, the most senior official of the American branch of the Anglican Communion, announced that the Episcopalians would continue to "bless" same-sex unions and consecrate active and unrepentant homosexuals to the episcopate. "[We are] not going backward, but willing to pause," Jefferts Schori said. "All people, including gay and lesbian Christians...

Posted by The_Elves As we did yesterday, we'll add to this post throughout the day with interesting excerpts of commentary from around the blogosphere. Keep checking for updates. ** this is "sticky" -- check below the Links for New Orleans News post for new entries ** We're up to 12 entries and expect this to keep growing quite quickly... From Scott Gunn at Inclusive Church: Clarity, please -- and my own "radical solution" http://inclusivechurch.blogspot.com/2007/09/clarity-please-and-my-own-radical.html Not too long before the House of Bishops began to meet, Kendall Harmon made this plea: So let the TEC leaders have the courage of their...

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...

It is very interesting to see Ephraim's comment this morning as I came across it after I wrote the entry below which came from some praying and thinking and bandying about ideas with some friends last might--KSH. I cannot say with much certainty what Abp. Williams “really” wants in the midst of this mess. Perhaps he himself doesn’t really know. But one thing I am certain of: if the American bishops of all stripes—and their dioceses and clergy—could agree to some response to this situation that would get the larger Communion out from under this fight, he would think this...

The scholarship is very uneven, and even totally in error on major points. For example, in showing the difference between TEC and the rest of the Anglican Communion (especially England), these legal scholars state that we elect our bishops by clerical and lay support, while in England the Prime Minister nominates to Parliament a nominee, who is then either accepted or rejected by Parliament. Only our system is fully open to the Holy Spirit, so we cannot conform to the Tanzania communique. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- StandFirm asked the retired bishop of Eau Claire, citizen of the Seminole Nation and chief magistrate of...

It is impossible to respond to this sad piece, except to say that is so filled with error, special (and false) pleading, misreading and misunderstanding, pretence and posturing, perversion and malice, as to defy coherent reply. The section on “Original Intent”, for instance, refers (as earlier) to the authority of Hooker and his views regarding to relative authority of the “positive” laws of Scripture. Hooker may be right or wrong, but the authors here (as elsewhere) appear to have no idea of what they are talking about. From Hooker’s “Laws”, I.12.if. “When supernatural duties are necessarily exacted, natural are not...

My guess is that the Bishops' Report was intended to frame the Presiding Bishop's substitute Primatial Vicar plan. The Report was supposed to carry the day, legally speaking, so that when the Presiding Bishop's plan is released it will not look like the complete rejection of Dar that it is. The combined effect would have been to say: "We cannot, legally, comply with Dar, but what we can do we will do..." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Living Church reported yesterday afternoon that Bishop Henderson has asked that his name be removed from the Bishops’ Report that was published here yesterday morning. Bishop...

Six bishops of the Episcopal Church in the United States, who are also licensed attorneys at law, offer the enclosed statement for discussion at the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. They are, in order of their ordinations, Cable Tennis, Robert D. Rowley, Jr., Joe Morris Doss, Dorsey F. Henderson, Jr., Creighton L. Robertson, and Stacy F. Sauls. Their statement addresses the crisis within the Anglican Communion. It is offered in the spirit of genuine dialogue and out of profound respect for the Communion, each member Province, and each baptized member. It is also offered with prayerful gratitude for...

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will offer a revamped primatial vicar plan to the House of Bishops at their meeting next week in New Orleans, sources who have been briefed on the broad outline of the new proposal told The Living Church. The plan is said to call for a nominee of the Presiding Bishop’s to exercise delegated pastoral authority over those dioceses that had requested alternate primatial oversight from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams following the 2006 General Convention. However, the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth, said a plan that placed the ultimate authority in...

Chris Johnson alerts us to some deep thoughts from ECUSA's Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told the incoming class at Union Theological Seminary September 5 that they need to consider "how theological thinking is going to help to shape the rest of your life." "The task of theological education really is to help us learn to do theology -- to relate our own stories, and the stories of those around us, to the great stories of our faith, so that we may be able to give an account of the faith that is within us,"...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Episcopal Life reports from Church Times: A suggestion that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori ordered the removal of information from the Wikipedia website has been discredited, according to a report by Simon Sarmiento in the U.K.-based Church Times newspaper. The story, which originated on an American conservative website in May, resurfaced last Saturday in The Independent newspaper, which reported that Barbara Alton, personal assistant to Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania, "deleted information concerning a cover-up of child sexual abuse [by the bishop's brother], allegations that the bishop misappropriated $11.6 million in trust funds, and evidence of other scandals. When...

Why has the controversy over Gene Robinson created the firestorm that it has?  Why was it the factor that caused many of us to leave parishes in which we had spent most if not all our lives?  After all, many of us rationalized our way through episcopal atheists like John Shelby Spong, besides whom Robbie is a model of Christian orthodoxy.For me, it was not just the fact that the Episcopal Church had voted in convention that it would not let the Bible get in its way anymore.  It was the decision's titanic arrogance.  In 2003, ECUSA created a fact...

Episcopal Bishop says few leaving over same-sex issues http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=123562&ran=89412 By STEVEN G. VEGH, The Virginian-Pilot April 26, 2007 Last updated: 12:16 AM VIRGINIA BEACH - The Episcopal Church's presiding bishop on Wednesday downplayed the notion of a denominational schism over homosexuality, saying only a tiny fraction of congregations have moved to break away. In an interview, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said the congregations had "gotten a lot of attention and been very noisy," but accounted for less than 1 percent of the country's total number of parishes, which she put at 7,500. "The Episcopal Church is alive and well,"...

It?s possible to fire up the Conspiracy Generator to come up with a theory that some Standing Committees waited to the very last second to issue their consents to Mark Lawrence?s election, and then did so in improper form, with the understanding that ++KJS would toss them out. It makes a little sense: the required number of consents are in fact given, but the desired result still comes about, and ++KJS can try to shift the blame to the Diocese of South Carolina: It is certainly my hope that in future any diocese seeking consent to an election will use...

Last Thursday (March 1, 2007) the Rev Susan Russell and I had the privilege of sitting down for a little over an hour with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. I was grateful for the opportunity and I hope it signals a new openness on the part of her office regularly to engage acknowledged leaders in the Episcopal lgbt community. Bishop Katharine is a remarkable listener and, even more strikingly, an amazingly non-anxious and non-defensive person. Those qualities alone go a long way to encourage me to trust her, even when I disagree with her. My impression is that she says...

¡°The word is patience,¡± she said in an interview as the Executive Council of the 2.4 million-member American church met at the DoubleTree Hotel at Lloyd Center. Jefferts Schori, a graduate of Oregon State University and formerly an assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Corvallis, attended a tense meeting of Anglican Communion leaders in Tanzania last week. There she came under increasing pressure to reconsider her support for ordaining gay bishops and blessing same-sex couples. In Portland, she urged calm in ¡°an anxious age.¡± She agreed that members of the American church are divided over...

NEW YORK - Appearing on a live webcast, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop began the painful task Wednesday of persuading members to roll back their support for gays — at least for now — so the denomination can keep its place in the world Anglican fellowship. The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who personally supports ordaining partnered gays, told a studio audience, callers and those who submitted questions by e-mail that they should make concessions that Anglican leaders are seeking to buy time for reconciliation. "To live together in Christian community means each member takes seriously the concerns and needs...

The bishop of western Kansas has jumped into a national dispute over theology dividing the Episcopal Church. Bishop James Adams has caught the attention of the newly appointed Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori with a letter stating he disapproves of her theology. In response, the first female primate in the 500-year history of the Anglican Church has offered to visit the Western Kansas Diocese, which has about 2,500 members. The next move in their exchange will be up to Adams - under church protocol, Jefferts Schori cannot visit unless invited. "I have offered to be in western Kansas during holy...

Kate Schori's looking forward to her trip to Tanzania next month. But she thinks that some of the stuff that's been said about her has been over the line: Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said she has not taken personally statements by some Global South primates that they will “refuse to sit with her” during the meeting of Anglican leaders next month in Tanzania, but she expressed concern that such comments were “disrespectful” of her office. “I wonder how they would feel if someone said things like that about them,” she said. Kate? Read everything that's been written about Peter...

Stephen Crittenden: We've had many listener requests in recent weeks for an interview with the new Primate of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada since 2001, who is making history in more ways than one at the moment. Not only is she the first woman to be elected Primate in the Anglican world, she's suddenly right at the centre of the storm that's blowing the Anglican communion apart: the election five years ago of a gay bishop, Gene Robinson. The Episcopal Church has since been asked to repent of that decision, but...