Anglicans Respond Coolly to Swedish Consecration: TLC 11.07.09 November 7, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of Ireland, Church of Sweden, Living Church.1 comment so far
First published in The Living Church.
Swedish press reports that the Church of England and Church of Ireland will boycott the consecration of a partnered lesbian priest as Bishop of Stockholm are not true, spokesmen for the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of Armagh told The Living Church.
Nevertheless, no episcopal representatives from the Churches of England or Ireland, the Church in Wales or the Scottish Episcopal Church will be present for the Nov. 8 consecration of the Rev. Eva Brunne by Swedish Archbishop Anders Wejryd of Uppsala.
The Swedish Christian newspaper Dagen reported on Nov. 3 that the Church of England and Church of Ireland will boycott the ceremony as a sign of their displeasure with the ordination of Pastor Brunne, who lives with her partner, a fellow Church of Sweden pastor, the Rev. Gunilla Lindén.
Paul Harron, a spokesman for Archbishop Alan Harper, Primate of the Church of Ireland, said that while the substance of the comments attributed to Dr. Harper were correct, the archbishop “did not give such a statement to a Dagen journalist.”
Dr. Harper would “not think of this in terms of a ‘boycott,’ ” Mr. Harron said. The archbishop received an invitation, he said, but declined to attend.
The Archbishop of Armagh “has conveyed to the Church of Sweden that the Church of Ireland will not be officially represented at the episcopal consecration in Uppsala,” Mr. Harron said, as the “Church of Ireland is observing the moratorium” on the consecration of clergy with same-sex partners.
David Brownlie-Marshall, a spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury said the Church of England will be represented by the Area Dean of the Baltic and Nordic States of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe, the Rev. Nicholas Howe, chaplain of St. Peter and St. Sigfrid’s Church in Stockholm.
A “diary conflict” will prevent Fr. Howe from attending the consecration, Mr. Brownlie-Marshall said, but he will attend a subsequent reception. The Church of England’s Diocese of Portsmouth, which is twinned with the Diocese of Stockholm, will also send a representative to the reception.
Speaking to the Church of Sweden’s newspaper, the Kyrkans Tidning, Archbishop Wejryd said he did not expect the Archbishop of Canterbury to attend. “We send invitations to those with the highest rank. That’s why the Archbishop of Canterbury received an invitation, but no one expected him to say yes.”
The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, said he had “no plans to attend the consecration,” but noted that “it’s wonderful to see a church which chooses its bishops based on their experience, skills, and faithfulness, rather than on gender, sexual orientation and the like — a commitment I believe the Episcopal Church has now made.”
The consecration of Pastor Brunne follows the Oct. 22 vote by the Kyrkomötet, the church’s governing assembly, to permit clergy to conduct same-sex church weddings.
Writing to the Archbishop of Uppsala on June 26, the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England said the adoption of gay marriage by the Swedish church is problematic.
The “teaching and discipline” of the Anglican Communion is that “it is not right either to bless same-sex sexual relationships or to ordain those who are involved in them,” the Archbishops’ Council said.
The way the Church of Sweden has gone about introducing gay-marriage liturgies is problematic, said the Suffragan Bishop in Europe, the Rt. Rev. David Hamid. The Porvoo Common Statement, which joined the Church of England and Church of Sweden in full Eucharistic fellowship in 1992, committed the partners to consultation with one another on issues of faith and order.
“Such a consultation has not happened on the matter of gender-neutral marriage,” Bishop Hamid said.
Parish share figures revealed: CEN 10.30.09 p 4. November 6, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
Tables detailing the ‘parish share’ contributed to each diocese by its church members have been given to Parliament by the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Sir Stuart Bell.
In response to a written question from the member for Stroud, Mr. David Drew (Lab.) on Oct 15, Sir Stuart reported that the 2007 figures for the Church of England, excluding the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe and the Diocese of Sodor & Man varied widely, from a high of £461 per church member in the Diocese of Bradford to a low of £123 in the Diocese of Rochester.
Sir Stuart noted the “parish share is not necessarily paid for out of members’ voluntary giving,” but was the “best proxy” in response to the question of what average financial contribution was made to each diocese by each of its parishioners.
In response to a second question, Sir Stuart noted the Church Commissioners provided 15 per cent of the “running costs” of the Church of England in 2005 and 2006—the last years “for which whole-Church figures are available.”
| Diocese | Parish share contributed to diocese per church member (£) |
| Bath and Wells | 314 |
| Birmingham | 326 |
| Blackburn | 292 |
| Bradford | 461 |
| Bristol | 421 |
| Canterbury | 362 |
| Carlisle | 335 |
| Chelmsford | 369 |
| Chester | 299 |
| Chichester | 291 |
| Coventry | 341 |
| Derby | 349 |
| Durham | 313 |
| Ely | 310 |
| Exeter | 333 |
| Gloucester | 294 |
| Guildford | 428 |
| Hereford | 286 |
| Leicester | 360 |
| Lichfield | 339 |
| Lincoln | 234 |
| Liverpool | 279 |
| London | 338 |
| Manchester | 299 |
| Newcastle | 300 |
| Norwich | 379 |
| Oxford | 358 |
| Peterborough | 365 |
| Portsmouth | 302 |
| Ripon and Leeds | 406 |
| Rochester | 123 |
| St Albans | 351 |
| St Edmundsbury and Ipswich | 333 |
| Salisbury | 306 |
| Sheffield | 343 |
| Southwark | 414 |
| Southwell and Nottingham | 356 |
| Truro | 284 |
| Wakefield | 343 |
| Winchester | 350 |
| Worcester | 340 |
| York | 298 |
Two new Lords Spiritual prepare to take their seats: CEN 10.30.09 p 4. November 6, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, House of Lords.add a comment
Two new ‘Lords Spiritual’ will be introduced to Parliament next month. On Nov 3 the Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt. Rev. Jonathan Gledhill will be introduced to the House of Lords by the Bishops of Wakefield and Ripon and Leeds, while on Nov 24 the Rt. Rev. Anthony Priddis will be introduced by Bishop Gledhill and the Bishop of Manchester.
The two will be added to the roster of “duty bishops,” leading prayers in the Lords and participating in debates.
Bishop Gledhill said he looked forward to his work in Parliament. “I have been surprised at the strength of conviction from people of other faiths and none who have said to me that they value the contribution of the bishops in the Lords and that this is part of the constitution which should not be meddled with,” he said.
“Christian leaders have played an active role in parliament since at least the time when the Witans, consulted by Saxon Kings, were attended by religious leaders. The very name ‘Westminster’ reminds us of the Christian origins of our constitution, and in each generation Christian leaders have been active in contributing to our laws and advancing the values which underpin them,” he said.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester are seated by right of office in the House of Lords, the remaining 21 Lords Spiritual are composed of the 21 other senior diocesan bishops.
Bishop attacks corrupt politicians: CEN 10.30.09 p 8. November 6, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Corruption.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Eastern Zambia has denounced political leaders who use public office to enrich themselves at the expense of their country. In a sermon preached at an ordination at St Luke’s Cathedral in Msoro on Oct 18, the Rt Rev William Mchombo warned that “politics, instead of being a tool to serve others has been reduced to a level where it is seen as a quick step from rugs to riches.” |
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“Some people even go to the extent of peddling lies — like building bridges where there are no rivers — and using vulgar language or purely tribal remarks in order to win votes for political office,” he said.
The bishop’s remarks come amidst growing civic unrest with the government of President Rupiah Banda’s decision not to pursue corruption charges against former President Frederick Chiluba. On Oct 2 the Bishop of Central Zambia, the Rt Rev Derek Kamukwamba called for national protests in response to the government’s decision. For democracy and the rule of law to be preserved it was necessary the appeals process “be exhausted and there should be no shortcuts,” Bishop Kamukwamba said.
The divide between the rich and poor in Zambia had widened in recent years, Bishop Mchombo said, such that we “live in a world today where a few people swim in riches and the majority drown in poverty, pollution, disease and violence.”
Small steps such as the maintenance of roads would do more for the people of the Central African country than grandiose projects. “A subsistence farmer cannot access the market owing to deplorable roads,” the bishop said, and “at the end of the day, the produce is sold to briefcase buyers.” In its leader of Oct 19, the Zambia Post endorsed the bishop’s call for clean government, stating that “it is true that most of our people are seeking political leadership positions as a stepping stone to government resources, to enriching themselves.”
“Elections in this country are no longer generally seen as a competition to serve,” the newspaper said. “They are increasingly becoming a competition for financial survival.”
Sudan creates four new dioceses: CEN 10.30.09 p 6. November 6, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Episcopal Church of the Sudan (ECS) has created four new dioceses and elected seven new bishops at meeting of the provincial synod and House of Bishops in Juba last week. On Oct 24, five priests were elected to serve as the first Bishops of Terekeka, Pacong, Akot, Twic East and Nzara. Elections were also held to fill the vacant sees of Wau and Rejaf, while the sees of two new dioceses were left unfilled: Wad Medani and Aweil. |
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The Feb 15 provincial synod created the Dioceses of Pakong and Akot out of the Diocese of Rumbek in the Lakes State of Southern Sudan and the dioceses’ two assistant bishops: the Rt Rev Joseph Maker and the Rt Rev Isaac Dhieu were nominated to stand for election as diocesan bishops. Both bishops ran unopposed and the House of Bishops confirmed Bishop Maker as Bishop of Pakong and Bishop Dhieu as Bishop of Akot.
The Diocese of Terekeka was carved out of the diocese of Juba in January 2009, and the Assistant Bishop of Juba the Rt Rev Micah Leila nominated as its first bishop by the provisional diocesan synod. Bishop Leila faced no opposition in his election and was confirmed in the post.
The Diocese of Nzara was carved out of the Diocese of Yambio along Sudan’s border with the Congo earlier this year. The Diocese of Yambio’s development officer, the Rev Samuel Enosa Peni ran unopposed in the election and was confirmed in office.
The new Diocese of Twic East faced a contested election after the archbishop’s commissary Archdeacon Joseph Mabior Garang was killed on Aug 28 by gunmen. The Assistant Bishop of Bor, the Rt Rev Ezekiel Diing polled three quarters of the votes cast and was named bishop-elect of Twic East in the Diocese of Juba was killed last month.
In the election to fill the vacant see of the Diocese of Wau, the Rev Moses Deng Bol received 62 per cent of the votes cast and was named bishop-elect, while the former General Secretary of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan Canon Enock Tombe polled 76 per cent of the votes cast and was elected Bishop of Rejaf.
The Diocese of Aweil was inaugurated last week, formed from the an archdeaconry of the southern diocese of Wau, while the Diocese of Wad Medani was carved out of the southern half of the Diocese of Khartoum along the Blue Nile. The first enthronement for the new bishops will take place on Nov 1 in Terekeka, the ECS reported.
Archbishop wants laws on advertising aimed at children tightened: CEN 10.30.09 p 6. November 6, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Youth/Children.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide has called upon the Australian government to institute a code of practice for advertising directed towards children, arguing that the reliance upon sex to sell products to children was a form of “corporate paedophilia.” Speaking to the opening session of the Diocese of Adelaide’s annual synod on Oct 23, Archbishop Jeffrey Driver denounced marketing that presented children in sexually provocative ways. |
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“Children have a right to their childhood, but it is being taken from them through the hyper-sexualised environment in which they now grow up,” he said, adding that “at an increasingly early age,” children were being “caught up” in a culture of sex, violence and drugs.
Girl’s clothing often was a “highly sexualised, mini versions of adult fashion,” while some child’s magazines advised five- and six-year-olds “how to look hot and catch a boy,” the archbishop said.
“There are strong suggestions that this premature sexualisation of children could play a role in grooming children for paedophiles, preparing children for sexual interaction with older teenagers or adults,” Archbishop Driver said. The archbishop’s concerns about the debasement of children have also been a matter of concern for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. In 2007 Dr Williams endorsed the Children’s Society report entitled Commercialisation of Childhood that found that children were being “engulfed” by sexually suggestive images about how they should look and feel, and what items they should own.
Dr Williams said there was “an increasing political and social consensus that something needs to be done to safeguard children from the worst excesses of direct marketing and the pressures of commercialisation.”
Bishop says no to capital punishment: CEN 10.30.09 p 8. November 5, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies, Crime.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of the Bahamas has denounced government plans to restore capital punishment. In his charge to the diocese’s 109th synod gathered at Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau, Bishop Laish Boyd told delegates that hanging was “not a deterrent to crime.” “The disregard for human life and a perverted value system which allows a person to maim or to kill another in a dispute, are realities that capital punishment cannot ever address, even though a hanging may satisfy the desire for retribution,” he said on Oct 21. |
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On Dec 19, 2008 St Kitts and Nevis hanged Charles Laplance for the 2006 murder of his wife — the first execution in the West Indies since the execution for murder of David Mitchell in the Bahamas in 2000.
Following Mitchell’s hanging there was a de facto ban on capital punishment in the English-speaking Caribbean in the wake of a 2000 ruling by the Privy Council, which lengthened the appeals process for those convicted of capital crimes to approximately five years. The five-year process effectively ended executions, as a separate law banned excessively long imprisonments for prisoners on death row.
Political pressures upon the Caribbean governments to respond to the sharp rise in crime has led to a restoration of capital punishment. In November 2008, the Jamaican parliament rejected a ban on capital punishment, with the Trinidad parliament following suit in February. The Bahamas legislature is currently debating restoring capital punishment. As of Sept 18, 2009 the West Indian nation recorded 59 homicides, Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest reported last week.
“The real issue is the fragmentation of relationship and of family life as we know it,” Bishop Boyd said, as “too many children are being born to parents who are unable to socialize and care for them properly. What we need is for parents to be parents and to raise children to honor and respect God and humanity. We have strayed far from this in some quarters and we need to get back to it.”
At their Nov 2008 meeting, the House of Bishops of the Church of the Province of the West Indies called for an end to capital punishment. “Mindful of our Blessed Lord’s repudiation of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ and, that in our prayer, study, reflection and experience, the death penalty has not been proved to be a deterrent,” the bishops called on “our people to stand with us in our opposition to the death penalty.”
Irish row erupts over school funding: CEN 10.30.09 p 8. November 5, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Education.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of Ireland’s Bishop of Cork has accused Irish Education Minister Batt O’Keefe of hiding behind his legal advisers in a row over a cut in government funding for Protestant schools. In a speech given last week at Midleton College, Cork, the Rt Rev Paul Colton denounced the “brutality and financial back street butchery inflicted on Protestant schools in last year’s budget.” |
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Protestant secondary schools were removed from the free education scheme, after more than 40 years, with grants for caretaker and secretarial expenses discontinued. In his Oct 20 charge to the Dublin and Glendalough synod, Archbishop John Neill charged the cuts were politically motivated, with the government assuming that Protestant schools only catered to the wealthy.
The Irish government had mounted a “very determined and doctrinaire effort… to strike at a sector which some officials totally failed to understand,” the archbishop said.
In a statement given to the Dáil on Oct 20 Mr O’Keefe defended the government decision to withdraw the €2.8m subsidy saying the attorney general had advised him that it was unconstitutional. However, he declined to release the report saying it was confidential, adding that the Church of Ireland had so far failed to come up with alternatives to the Budget cuts.
Bishop Colton responded, “Are we seriously to believe that the founding fathers and framers of our Constitution envisaged a situation where this Republic would become a hostile place for the children of the Protestant minority?” Mr O’Keefe was hiding “behind secret advice about the document, not his alone, but the charter of the people of this country – our Constitution,” the bishop charged.
He also denied the government’s assertion the Church of Ireland had not offered its own proposal, noting he had met “with some of the Minister’s most senior officials” to discuss the issues.
“Our proposal is this and for clarity I state it, yet again, publicly, we want our schools, in their uniquely difficult situation, restored to parity with schools in the free scheme, where they have been since free education was introduced 42 years ago,” he said.
However the minister “chooses not to hear it,” Bishop Colton charged.
Lawsuits launched after tsunami fraud: CEN 10.30.09 p 8. November 4, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) of the American Episcopal Church has filed suit against the Church of South India (CSI) to recover £1 million allegedly stolen by its former General Secretary Dr Pauline Sathiamurthy. Detectives from the Central Crime Branch of the Madras police arrested Dr Sathiamurthy and three members of her family on Oct 13, after the church turned over the results of an internal investigation to prosecutors. |
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In a statement released on Oct 23, ERD said that two years ago it had “approached the local Church authorities with concerns when CSI failed to complete the financial reporting and required audits outlined in our agreement for 2005 and 2006. As a result, we suspended work with CSI and implemented an in-depth effort to account for the missing funds. After a lengthy process, we deeply regret that we have been forced to take legal action.”
“While this situation is highly unusual,” it said, “we strive to honour our commitment to the people we serve around the world and the generosity of our faithful donors.”
The funds sent to the CSI were “only a portion of our tsunami response work,” ERD added, noting that “as per standard plans and procedures, clean audits were completed with our church partners in both North India and Sri Lanka.”
However, “as this is a legal matter, we cannot comment further about the current situation. We have faith in the Indian judicial system and believe this case will be handled fairly,” ERD said.
Zuma appeal to South African clergy: CEN 10.23.09 p 8. November 4, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.add a comment
South African president Jacob Zuma has urged religious leaders in the Western Cape to work with the government to combat racial and ethnic strife.
Speaking to approximately 500 religious leaders at a meeting held at Bishopscourt, the home of the Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba on Oct 17, President Zuma “called on religious leaders to work together in dealing with the perception that the Western Cape is racially divided,” said the president’s spokesman Zizi Kodwa.
The president’s meeting with religious leaders comes amidst shifting political fortunes for South Africa’s religious groups, with the president turning to conservative and traditional religious leaders to bolster his regime, freezing out liberal denominations and church organizations from the country’s corridors of power.
South Africa was a religious and interfaith state the president told me the meeting. But many of its citizens had forgotten the Biblical principle of “love thy neighbour,” leading to a breakdown of community and social order.
Religious leaders had an important part to play in building society, and should continue to speak out on social and moral issues, the president said. The problems of crime, deteriorating public services and morals, and poverty were top of the list for the religious leaders present.
On Oct 16, Archbishop Makgoba said the agenda for the day’s meeting would center round “what it means to be human in the context of protests and strikes over the delivery of services to our people; and how the religious community can maintain a critical engagement with the President.”
President Zuma’s meeting with the religious leaders comes amidst a shift in the political fortunes of South Africa’s churches. The South African Council of Churches (SACC), a long time political ally of the African National Congress (ANC) party has fallen out of favor with President Zuma and the ruling faction of the ANC, after it was seen to have backed former President Thabo Mbeki in the party’s leadership struggle.
The conservative National Interfaith Leadership Council (NILC) has stepped into the gap, offering its support to the president. Among the council’s twenty leaders are four ANC MP’s and including ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga and former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool.
In September the Rev. Nthabiseng Khunou, an ANC MP and member of the NILC secretariat, told the South Africa’s Mail & Guardian the NILC would “play a role” in revisiting legislation legalising abortion and gay marriage.
“I know most churches want them abolished, so the reason for NILC is to give a voice to people who don’t have it,” Mr. Khunou said.
Priest sent to jail for rape: CEN 10.23.09 p 2. November 4, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
A West Yorkshire vicar has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for having raped two boys.
The Rev. Peter Hedge was convicted on Oct 16 of two counts of rape and of having committed 30 indecent assaults after trial at the Bradford Crown Court. The abuse took place over seven years while he was curate at St Margaret’s Church in Thornbury and as vicar of Holy Trinity, Queensbury in the Diocese of Bradford.
Upon passing sentence, Judge Peter Benson told Mr. Hedge he was a “dreadful disgrace” and had abused his office as a priest of the Church of England. “As a result of your conduct, which really defies description in its wickedness, you not only robbed these young men of their childhood, you scarred their young lives.”
The court heard testimony that Mr. Hedge had given cash to young boys to enable them to purchase cannabis, later molesting them.
The diocese suspended Mr. Hedge in 2007 after the allegations were made public. The Bishop of Bradford, the Rt. Rev. David James, the Bishop of Bradford, said the “clergy of the Church of England are expected to uphold the highest moral standards; by committing these very serious crimes Peter Hedge has betrayed the trust put in him by the people of Thornbury and Queensbury.
‘”My thoughts and prayers are with the victims who have been deeply damaged by someone who should have been nurturing them and keeping them safe. And I thank them for their courage in coming forward to give evidence,” Bishop James said.
“The Diocese of Bradford now has stringent policies in place. We have adopted codes of good practice which help prevent abuse and these are regularly reviewed,” the bishop said.
Covenant blow from Episcopalians: CEN 10.23.09 p 6. November 4, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.add a comment
The Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has unanimously endorsed a report that rejects the proposed disciplinary provisions of section IV of the Anglican Covenant. The Council also offered an oblique criticism of dioceses that have endorsed the Covenant, saying such moves were unhelpful and premature.
On Oct 8, the Executive Council released its official response to the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the Covenant, following a survey of the church’s General Convention deputies. The “majority of [diocesan] deputations and individual deputies” were “not convinced” that the “covenant in its current form will bring about deeper communion.”
The idea of a covenant was “un-Anglican” for some American Episcopalians while one unnamed deputy said the “document incorporates anxiety.”
A “majority of respondents do not support the fourth section of the draft covenant,” the report said, with one diocesan deputation arguing the disciplinary provisions of the covenant created a “system of governance contrary to our understanding of Anglicanism and establishes a punitive system executed by a select committee.”
The report criticized “some in the Episcopal Church and beyond who want to prejudge the General Convention’s decision on the Anglican Communion covenant. We find such predictions and pronouncements premature and unhelpful.”
Asked by The Church of England Newspaper who these unhelpful Episcopalians were and why their actions were unhelpful, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said she did not know. “I did not write the response. It was written by the committee that gave the report,” she said.
“The reality is that the General Convention has not acted as yet to adopt a covenant because text is not final,” the presiding bishop noted.
Not all of the comments received were negative however as one diocesan deputation argued that “a governance section is needed to maintain a covenant.”
At its May meeting, the Anglican Consultative Council endorsed the first three sections of the Ridley Cambridge draft: I) “Our Inheritance in Faith”; II) The Life We Share with Others: Our Anglican Vocation”; III) “Our Unity and Common Life,”, but asked the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams to empower a committee to review criticisms of section IV) “Our Covenanted Life Together,” which creates a dispute resolution mechanism for the communion.
On May 28, Dr. Williams appointed Archbishop John Neill of Dublin, Archbishop John Chew of Singapore, Eileen Scully of the Anglican Church of Canada, and Bishop Gregory Cameron of St. Asaph in the Church in Wales to review section IV.
The working group will meet Nov 20-21 in London and give their recommendations to the Joint ACC-Primates Standing Committee meeting Dec 15-18.
Financial setback over New York investments: CEN 10.30.09 p 6. November 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A New York court ruling has handed the English Church Commissioners a major financial setback, making it likely that will lose all of its $70 million investment in a New York real estate partnership. Last week the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that property developers Tishman-Speyer and BlackRock Realty had illegally raised rents on thousands of apartments in the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village development on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. |
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The Church Commissioners had provided $70 million in equity financing for Tishman-Speyer’s $5.4 billion investment in 2006. However, the purchase of the 11,000-unit 80-acre development from MetLife came at the height of the New York property bubble, and a recent report from Realpoint, a credit rating agency, estimated the property had a current value of $2.13 billion.
The 2006 deal was financed with 80 per cent debt, with Tishman-Speyer and BlackRock Realty along with investors such as the Church of England and the California and Florida public employees’ pension funds putting down 20 per cent of the purchase price in cash.
Rental income however only covered 58 per cent of the debt at the time of the purchase. In order to amortize the debt, the partnership needed to end the rent-controlled status of several thousand apartments and charge free-market rates. However, the Court of Appeals ruled : “The current and former owners of the properties, respectively, were not entitled to take advantage of the luxury decontrol provisions of the Rent Stabilization Law (RSL)1 while simultaneously receiving tax incentive benefits under the City of New York’s J-51 program.”
The ruling could cost the partnership $200 million in rent repayments to tenants, leaving it likely the project will collapse by years’ end, real estate analysts report. A spokesman for the Church Commissioners confirmed to The Church of England Newspaper that it did hold an equity position in the deal, but declined to speculate as to its current valuation.
Suicide bomb damages Iraq church: CEN 10.30.09 p 6. November 3, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Iraq, Terrorism.add a comment
| First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The suicide bombing of Iraq’s Justice Ministry has badly damaged St George’s Memorial Church, the “Vicar of Baghdad” Canon Andrew White reports. On Oct 25 two car bombs exploded outside the Justice Ministry and a provincial government building at 10:30 am local time in Baghdad. Initial estimates report 147 people were killed in the blast and 721 wounded. |
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No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, which analysts believe are designed to destabilise the country in the run up to the January general elections.
US President Barack Obama said the attackers showed a “hateful and destructive agenda,” while Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the attacks were a “terrible reminder of the threat from violent extremism. Such acts of terrorism can have no justification, and must be condemned without reservation.” In an email sent to supporters, Canon White wrote that the attacks had “done serious damage to the church compound, the clinic, the bookshop, the school rooms and the mothers’ union buildings. “
An Aug 19 bombing had blown out the church’s windows, he said, but Sunday’s attack “hit the church much more powerfully. Even the window frames and the doors were blown out. All of the cars in the compound and the Danish Memorial were destroyed.”
“Destroyed fragments” of those killed in the blast were “thrown through windows of the church, making the clean-up operation yet more unpleasant. Many of our staff and church members remain unaccounted for,” he said. Canon White stated the “carnage was terrible, but it could have been even worse. At 10.30am this morning, when the bombs exploded, there was no one in the church. If the bomb had been just a few hours later, the glass from the windows would have ripped through the congregation causing terrible human damage.
He added that “yesterday an enormous tree fell down outside the church, which prevented the suicide bomber from detonating his explosives where they would have caused maximum damage.”
“It is days like today that reminds us why our work in Iraq is absolutely essential,” Canon White said.
“We must continue to provide a place of worship for Iraqi Christians. We must continue to treat the medical needs of Iraqi civilians. And we must continue to engage with the senior religious leaders from across the sectarian divides, working with them to challenge the belief systems that lie behind this terrible slaughter,” he said, urging supporters to help him rebuild the shattered church and restore its outreach to the community.
Two US dioceses back Anglican Covenant: CEN 10.30.09 October 30, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, South Carolina, Western Louisiana.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Dioceses of Western Louisiana and South Carolina have endorsed the Ridley-Cambridge draft of the Anglican Covenant, joining Central Florida as the third American diocese to formally back the Archbishop of Canterbury’s plan for creating a structure to manage the divisions over doctrine and discipline dividing the Anglican Communion. On Oct 24, a special convention of the Diocese of South Carolina approved a resolution by a margin of 88 to 12 per cent that “endorses” the Anglican Covenant “as it presently stands, in all four sections, as an expression of our full commitment to mutual submission and accountability in communion, grounded in a common faith.” |
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Delegates to the Oct 9-10 annual convention of the Diocese of Western Louisiana also affirmed their support for the Covenant and backed Bishop Bruce MacPherson’s endorsement of the Anaheim Statement, which reaffirmed his commitment to remain part of the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Covenant process.
By a show of hands the convention adopted a resolution which “fully affirms” Western Louisiana’s “commitment to the Windsor principles, including the formation of, and future adoption of an Anglican Covenant as a means of supporting the ongoing work of our bishop and the efforts of the broader Communion to preserve our unity.”
The convention further stated that it “supports the ongoing work on the Ridley Cambridge draft including section 4.”
The South Carolina convention restated its evangelical credentials, declaring it believed the “doctrine, discipline and worship” of the Episcopal Church was found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, “the Creeds, the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral and the theology of the historic prayer books.”
It also adopted a resolution authorizing the withdrawal “from all bodies of the Episcopal Church that have assented to actions contrary to Holy Scripture” and the “doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ” as held historically by the church and Anglican Communion “until such bodies show a willingness to repent of such actions.”
The resolution does not pull South Carolina out of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Mark Lawrence said, but states its rejection of the recent actions taken by the General Convention. South Carolina also declared the July 2009 General Convention resolutions authorizing gay clergy and creation of gay liturgies to be “null and void” in the diocese.
In his convention address Bishop Mark said the General Convention was “not the answer to the problems of the Episcopal Church,” but had “become the problem. It has replaced a balanced piety in this Church with the politics of one-dimensional activism. Every three years when the Episcopal Church train pulls into the station of General Convention more traditional, catholic and evangelical Episcopalians get off the train and do not return.”
Sudan civil-war could re-ignite, warn church leaders: CEN 10.23.09 p 8. October 30, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in the Sudan have issued a statement warning that the failure of the governments in Khartoum and Juba to implement the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) could reignite the 22-year-old civil war. If the CPA “had been fully and honestly implemented from the outset, a peaceful, attractive unity would have had chance in Sudan,” said the group on Oct 12 that includes Anglican Archbishop Daniel Deng of Juba, Roman Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro, and the leaders of the Presbyterian, Pentecostal, and reformed churches of the country. |
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“However, since the signing of the CPA, every protocol has either not been fully implemented or is under discussion for less-than-full implementation, and therefore unity is no longer attractive, especially to Sudanese Christians and those in the marginalised areas.”
Contrary to the provisions of the peace treaty, Sharia law was still being enforced by the Khartoum government, national elections have been postponed, as has a promised referendum on independence for Southern Sudan. The government in Khartoum had also failed to disclose the revenues received from oil drilling in several disputed areas, the church leaders said.
“Consequently there is a widespread lack of confidence by Southerners and other marginalised people in the fairness or true democracy of the upcoming elections and referendum because of a general lack of trustworthiness and transparency from the Northern government,” they said.
Violence was also tearing apart South Sudan with guns flowing into the region to arm rival tribes and factions of the SPLA. “In all these incidents of violence it has been the case that Southern Sudanese have for various reasons fought Southern Sudanese, a fact that leads the churches to urge our people to unite in this crucial time and not to jeopardise the CPA through infighting.” Archbishop Deng and the other church leaders called upon the international community to intervene and enforce the terms of the peace treaty. “If the CPA is made to work, it must be fully implemented by both signatories and must be fully supported by those guarantor governments who promised to do so in 2005.”
“If the CPA is renegotiated or is allowed to fall apart, war or oppressive unity will be the outcome, with serious effects for the whole region,” they warned.
Membership drops in the Episcopal Church: CEN 10.23.09 p 7. October 29, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.2 comments
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Membership and average Sunday attendance in the Episcopal Church have continued their downward spiral, statistics released by the church last week report. Average Sunday attendance for the Episcopal Church’s domestic dioceses declined by three per cent from 2007 to 2008; with an additional 22,565 people missing from the pews last year. Average Sunday attendance for 2008 was 705,257. |
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The church’s membership, counted as active baptized members, also declined by three per cent, falling by 59,457 to 2,057,292. The rate of decline in attendance and membership also rose last year, with the 10-year rate of decline in attendance rising from 13 to 16 per cent, and the 10-year rate of decline in active membership rising from 10 to 11 per cent.
Fifty per cent of US Episcopal churches saw a decline in attendance last year, while only 35 per cent registered growth. The median average Sunday worship attendance in 2008 was 69.
For the first time the church’s income fell, with recorded “pledge and plate” income falling by 0.2 per cent.
Critics assert the numbers may be overstated as some dioceses have not recorded the secession of breakaway congregations. While the Diocese of San Joaquin recorded a membership drop of almost 8,000, or 77 per cent — reflecting the secession of a majority of its congregations, the Diocese of Los Angeles continues to carry St James Newport Beach’s 1,500 members on its books — even though the congregation’s fight to quit has already taken the fight to the US Supreme Court.
At the autumn meeting of the Executive Council meeting, the Church’s two presiding officers declined to answer questions on membership.
The President of the House of Deputies, Mrs Bonnie Anderson told reporters that the statistics had been “circulated to the Executive Council.” However, “we’re not going to be talking about those per se. Our agenda’s pretty full and we’ll probably be taking those up in the future at our next meeting,” she explained. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stated she was “not able to comment” on what the numbers were, as “I don’t have it in my head.”
However, some liberal leaders had claimed the decline had been stemmed. Speaking to the New York Times at the July 2009 General Convention, Bishop Robinson said his diocese was bucking national trends and had grown, and numbered “15,000 people.”
“We have received so many Roman Catholics and young families,” he said, “particularly families who are saying, ‘We don’t want to raise our daughters in a church that doesn’t value young people’,” such that the diocese “grew by three per cent last year.”
The report issued this week showed that New Hampshire did buck the national trend, with its membership rising from 14,160 to 14,501, but this did not translate into more people in the pews, as attendance continued to decline, falling a further 1.1 per cent from 4,281 to 4,234.
Bats pose pricey problem for Church of England: CEN 10.30.09 p 4. October 28, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Bats in British belfries has become an expensive problem for the Church of England, the Second Church Estates Commissioner told Parliament last week, in response to a query from the member for North-West Norfolk about the church’s work with Natural England on protecting rare bats found in church roofs. Speaking for the Church of England, Sir Stuart Bell told Mr Henry Bellingham (Con) the Archbishops’ Council was working with Natural England as well as English Heritage, the Bat Conservation Trust and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to “strike a sensible balance between the protection of church buildings and their contents, and the protection of bats.” |
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Mr Bellingham asked Sir Stuart whether he was aware that a number of churches in his constituency have had much-needed restoration work delayed by Natural England, which had required “lengthy and costly bat surveys.”
While it was important to preserve Britain’s bats, it was “more important to make an absolute priority of conserving our great heritage,” he said, prompting the member for Salisbury, Mr Robert Key (Con.) to rise and interject that the affair struck him as being “batty.”
Sir Stuart thanked the member for Salisbury for his wit, and turning to Mr Bellingham, said that several hundred parish churches had the expense of bat surveys. A “handful” of churches had “serious problems” with bats in roofs and belfries where they had caused “significant damage and great inconvenience.” Sir Stuart did not provide an estimate of bat costs, but added that he would “be happy to take up with Natural England” the concerns Mr Bellingham had raised of giving priority to bats over churches.
Redundant churches earn Church £4m: CEN 10.23.09 p 4. October 28, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
ales of redundant church buildings netted the Church of England almost £4 million in 2008, the highest total in 10 years, the Second Church Estates Commissioner told Parliament on Oct 15. In response to questions from John Robertson MP (Glasgow, North-West) (Lab) about the net proceeds and conditions of sale placed upon the disposal of closed church buildings, Sir Stuart Bell said the Church of England last year realized “just under £4 million.” |
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“We take great care when we sell a redundant church,” Sir Stuart said, and “have very strict criteria on redundant churches and what uses they can be put to after sale.”
The “proceeds from the sale of closed churches are used to support dioceses in the work of the living Church,” he said, adding that since the Pastoral Measure came into effect, “we have distributed £32 million in such support, also supporting the preservation efforts of the Churches Conservation Trust which is co-funded by the Government.”
Sir Nicholas Winterton, the member for Macclesfield (Con) rose to ask “what consideration does the hon. Gentleman give to the work of the Churches Conservation Trust?”
Sir Stuart responded the sales proceeds are used “in some measure” to support the preservation efforts of the Churches Conservation Trust. While 2008 sales “were the highest for over a decade” the current market is “less encouraging, however, given the economic climate.”
In response to a question from Mr Peter Bone, the member for Wellingborough (Con) about whether this money is “reinvested” in new church buildings, Sir Stuart said “the purpose of the sales proceeds is essentially to support the dioceses in their work, which might, of course, include building a new church.” “If we are closing down churches, it would be nice sometimes to open others,” he said.
New archbishop for Toronto: CEN 10.23.09 p 6. October 28, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper.3 comments
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Bishop of Toronto has been elected metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario. Bishop Colin Johnson was elected on the second ballot at the Oct 15 provincial synod held in Cochrane, Ontario. He is the fourth metropolitan archbishop elected in the Anglican Church of Canada this year. On Sept 25 the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon elected the Bishop of Kootenay, the Rt Rev John Privett as archbishop of the western Canadian province. This follows upon the Sept 11 election of the Bishop of Fredericton, the Rt Rev Claude Miller as Archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of Canada, and the June 11 election of the Bishop of Keewatin, the Rt Rev David Ashdown as Archbishop of the Province of Rupert’s Land. |
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Archbishop Johnson succeeds Archbishop Caleb Lawrence, the Bishop of Moonsonee whose term as metropolitan of the province which included the dioceses of Moosonee, Algoma, Ontario, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara and Huron, ends in October.
Archbishop Johnson was educated at the University of Western Ontario and received his ministerial training at Trinity College, Toronto. Ordained deacon in 1977 and priest in 1978 by the Bishop of Toronto, Archbishop Johnson served in parish ministry from 1977 to 1992 when joined the staff of the Bishop of Toronto as his Executive Assistant. In 1994 he was appointed Archdeacon of York, and elected area-bishop of Trent-Durham in the diocese in 2003. In 2003 he was elected diocesan bishop.
“I feel very honoured and apprehensive in some ways about the workload, but challenged by the position and looking forward to serving,” Archbishop Johnson told the Anglican Journal, adding that he hoped as archbishop he would be a provincial voice calling for the government to combat poverty and social inequality.
Rebuff for Vatican offer to Anglicans: CEN 10.30.09 p 3. October 28, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Communion, Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church, Traditional Anglican Communion.1 comment so far
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper
A mass exodus of overseas Anglo-Catholics in response to last week’s announcement of a proposed Anglican enclave within the Roman Catholic Church is unlikely, a review of the Communion by The Church of England Newspaper finds.
While overseas leaders acknowledge that individual Anglicans may take advantage of the provisions of the proposed Apostolic Constitution for the creation of “Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church,” no diocese or province is set to quit the Anglican Communion for Rome. |
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In jurisdictions where traditional Anglo-Catholics predominate: the Provinces of Central Africa, Tanzania, West Africa, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the West Indies; the Australian dioceses of The Murray and Ballarat and the US dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin—individuals may take up the Vatican’s offer, but no institution is likely to follow. Nor is the offer likely to divide North American conservatives into rival Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical camps, its leaders tell CEN.
For the liberal and evangelical wings of the Communion, the statement is an encouraging sign of ecumenical progress and recognition by the Vatican of the Anglican ethos, but not a “live issue.”
“It’s not too much of an issue in New Zealand,” Archbishop David Moxon said, adding that he was unaware of anyone considering the offer. But “the fact that the Pope can receive a small group of traditionalist Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church without too much complication means that quite a lot of common ground exists” between the churches, he said.
Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria and the leaders of the Global South primates group also welcomed the Pope’s “stance on the common biblical teaching on human sexuality, and the commitment to continuing ecumenical dialogue,” but said adoption of an Anglican Covenant was a better way to fulfill “God’s divine purposes” for “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church of Jesus Christ.”
Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA welcomed the statement, describing it as “recognition of the integrity of the Anglican tradition within the broader Christian church.”
“While we believe that this provision will not be utilized by the great majority of the Anglican Church in North America’s bishops, priests, dioceses and congregations, we will surely bless those who are drawn to participate in this momentous offer,” he said on Oct 20.
US Anglo-Catholic leader Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth said the proposal was a “very generous and welcoming offer” for those seeking to maintain “certain aspects of the Anglican way of worship, spirituality, and ethos while entering into full communion with the Pope.”
However, “not all Anglo-Catholics can accept certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, nor do they believe that they must first convert to Rome in order to be truly catholic Christians,” Bishop Iker said on Oct 20 noting that “other Anglicans who desire full communion with the See of Peter would prefer some sort of recognition of the validity of Anglican orders and the provision for inter-communion between Roman Catholics and Anglicans.”
Bishop Ross Davies of The Murray told The Age he was “shocked and pleased” by the announcement as it provided a “way to leave with dignity.” But he did not expect a “great stampede” of Australian Anglo-Catholics to Rome as a result.
For evangelical Anglicans, submission to Rome was a non-starter. Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya told the BBC’s Network Africa programme there was “no possibility” of his submitting to Rome. “The Protestant family understands faith in different ways, for example, the idea of the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, the interpretation of ministry,” he said.
Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda said the Vatican’s offer was directed towards traditionalists in England and the white commonwealth countries. “The Archbishop of Canterbury sent us letters welcoming the offer, but it is essentially to deal with the local England context and does not apply to other provinces,” he said.
The Anglican Churches of Africa do not need the Vatican’s helping hand to combat liberalism because “it is strong on biblical theology,” Archbishop Orombi told a Kampala newspaper.
The Episcopal Church’s ecumenical officer Bishop Christopher Epting observed the “announcement reflects what the Roman Catholic Church, through its acceptance of Anglican rite parishes, has been doing for some years more informally” and would not harm ecumenical relations.
Canadian Archbishop Fred Hiltz concurred, writing on Oct 22 that “among the vast majority of Anglicans and Roman Catholics in Canada and in the world there is a genuine commitment to build on 40 years of formal dialogue between our Communions.”
“While this announcement from the Vatican creates some shock waves, I do not believe them to be seismic,” he said. “I believe the greater will of the whole church while acknowledging our ‘real but imperfect communion’ is to continue steadfast in dialogue,” Archbishop Hiltz said.
Bishop urges calm after Government is suspended: CEN 10.23.09 p 6 October 27, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies, Politics.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of the Bahamas has urged residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) to “respect and support” the colonial governor following the decision by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to suspend local government in the British Overseas Territory. Speaking to the press during his pastoral visitation to Providenciales, the Rt Rev Laish Boyd, Bishop of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, said he understood the allegations of corruption that led Britain to suspend the government of Chief Minister Michael Misick had led to feelings of “fear, anger, frustration and embarrassment” among islanders. |
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However, he urged islanders to “not lose hope” and “respect and encourage the new remedial and analytical processes that have been set in motion” to rebuild the country.
In an Oct 12 statement to Parliament, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the Rt Hon Chris Bryant, reported the government on Aug 14 had instructed Governor Gordon Wetherell to issue an Order in Council “suspending ministerial Government and the House of Assembly for a period of up to two years. The Order also suspended the constitutional right to trial by jury in TCI.”
A government commission found there was “information in abundance pointing to a high probability of systemic corruption and/or serious dishonesty in TCI,” Mr Bryant said, adding that “this, together with clear signs of political amorality and immaturity and of general administrative incompetence, demonstrated a need for urgent suspension in whole or in part of the constitution and for other legislative and administrative reforms.”
The commission further recommended the “institution of criminal investigations in relation to [Chief Minister] Michael Misick, and four of his former Cabinet ministers,” he said.
A special prosecutor has been appointed along with an Advisory Panel chaired by the Governor, the minister said, while advisors have been dispatched to reform the government and implement measures to “limit public expenditure, increase revenue and bring the islands’ debt under control.”
Bishop Boyd urged residents of the TCI to “respect and support” Governor Wetherell and help bring good government to the West Indian territory.
No compensation for bells, church is told by Minister: CEN 10.23.09 p 4. October 27, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The government has no plans to compensate the Church of England for its contribution of church bells to the war effort. In a written question to the government, the Rt Hon Graham Brady, Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West, asked if the Minister for Culture, Media and Sport “will bring forward proposals to ensure that grant-making bodies for which his Department has responsibility give preference to those places of worship which donated their bells as a contribution to munitions in the Second World War in awarding grants for the replacement of church bells.” |
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In response, the member for Barking and Minister for Culture and Tourism, Lady Hodge said there were “no plans to influence grant-giving polity” in this way.
However, she noted churches did benefit from other government grants. The “Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme makes grants equivalent to the VAT incurred in making repairs to places of worship that are listed buildings. Eligible works include repairs to bells, their ringing mechanisms and bell frames.”
Grants for the replacement of church bells “would only be considered under the scheme where they are damaged beyond economic repair,” Lady Hodge said, noting that “another source of funding” for churches was the Heritage Lottery Fund which had awarded “£12,148,814 to 237 projects that have involved the repair, conservation and restoration of church bells and bell-frames throughout the UK.”
Women clergy now make up 15 per cent of Anglican clerics: CEN 10.27.09 October 27, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Women Priests.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Women vicars comprised 15 per cent of the parochial-incumbent status clergy of the Church of England at the close of 2007, the Second Church Estates Commissioner told Parliament last week. At the end of 1997, six per cent of parochial-incumbent status clergy — or 426 overall — were women, whereas in 2007, 15 per cent, or 974, were women,” Sir Stuart Bell said on Oct 15. However, the number of full-time parochial clergy had also fallen over the past 10 years, from 7,471 at the end of 1997 to 6,450 on Dec 31, 2007. |
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The member for the Vale of York, Miss Anne McIntosh (Con) asked Sir Stuart what the Church of England would do to arrest this decline and “increase the number of parish priests, particularly in rural areas.”
“Because the number of priests has fallen, the size and number of parishes that they are being asked to look after has risen. That is putting huge pressure on them, and is obviously quite stressful,” Miss McIntosh said.
Sir Stuart responded that the Church of England was “keen for stipends to be flexible enough to allow it to put clergy where they can best be deployed, consistent with preventing their mobility from being impeded.” He added that the number of ordinands had also risen to 552 in 2007, “the highest number since 2000.”
The Church of England welcomed the “upward trend” but “owing to deaths and retirements the number of stipendiary clergy is falling overall,” he said. The Church recognised that the amalgamation of parishes, particularly in rural areas had increased the “work load of priests,” Sir Stuart said, “but how we deal with it shall have to be discussed with the Archbishops’ Council.”
Indian Church chief arrested in fraud investigation: CEN 10.23.09 p 8. October 27, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Detectives from the Central Crime Branch of the Madras police have arrested the former General Secretary of the Church of South India (CSI) and three members of her family. Dr Pauline Sathiamurthy is accused of stealing almost £1 million of the £2.2 million sent by Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) to the CSI to help in relief efforts following the 2004 tsunami. Dr Sathiamurthy, her husband, daughter and nephew were arrested on Oct 13 following a 10-month investigation by police. The alleged thefts came to light in 2007 when the Rev Moses Jayakumar was appointed General Secretary of the CSI in succession to Dr Sathiamurthy. |
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Upon assuming office Fr Jayakumar found that a request for an accounting for the funds from ERD had been ignored by Dr Sathiamurthy, and the NGO had cut off funding to the CSI pending an audit.
The CSI asked retired Madras High Court Judge J Kanagaraj to investigate.Dr Sathiamurthy declined to cooperate with the investigation, but Judge Kanagaraj found that she had appointed her husband to oversee the construction of houses built for survivors of the tsunami, her daughter to head up medical relief efforts, and her nephew to serve as a liaison officer for tsunami rehabilitation work — all at inflated salaries.
In December 2008 Fr Jayakumar turned the Judge Kanagaraj’s report over to the police, who began a criminal investigation, leading to the handing down of arrest warrants last week. The daughter of the former moderator of the CSI and Bishop of Tiruchi-Thanjavur, Dr Solomon Doraisawmy, Dr Sathiamurthy and her co-defendants are currently lodged in Puzhal prison in Madras.
In a statement released last week, ERD said it hoped the “Indian authorities will work quickly to resolve this matter. [ERD’s] sole desire is that this money be used to benefit the people who were impacted by the tsunami, as originally intended. As this is a judicial and legal matter in India, we cannot comment further about the current situation.”
New survey to explore rural ministry needs: CEN 10.23.09 p 4. October 26, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Farming.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Arthur Rank Centre has initiated a survey of the Church of England’s 19,000 rural churches to find out what is working in rural ministry, and where the church is falling short in serving the countryside. The survey is the first stage of a £180,000, 3-year training project to strengthen churches in the countryside, which was commissioned in response to urgent calls from church leaders earlier this year. Organisers expect it to reveal “significant shortcomings” in training resources for lay people which they believe could well “hamper the life and work of the rural church.” |
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“We are interested in real life people in the pews and real leaders: what training and resources they are using and how useful and relevant it is to their mission and ministry. The questionnaires will allow us to build a detailed picture of resources and learning across all denominations in England, and find out where the gaps are,” Simon Martin, the programme’s project officer said.
“There is some excellent, creative work going on out there and now we have the funding to find out what people at grassroots level find useful and relevant; and to work together with the churches to build a comprehensive programme of training and resources for everyone,” he said.
Preliminary results from the survey will be ready in spring 2010, and will be published as a database of results and a report with detailed analysis of the findings. The next stage of the Rural Life and Faith project will be to work with those who have become involved through the mapping exercise to design, test and promote resources appropriate for the needs revealed by the survey, a spokesman for the Rank Centre said.
Air Vice Marshall the Ven. Ray Pentland QHC: CEN 10.16.09 p 7. October 24, 2009
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The chaplain in chief of the RAF, Air Vice Marshall Ray Pentland at St Clement Danes in London---the RAF Church---following his appointment on Oct 1, 2009.
New chaplain in chief for Royal Air Force: CEN 10.16.09 p 7. October 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Uncategorized.add a comment
The Royal Air Force has appointed a new Chaplain-in-Chief. Archdeacon Ray Pentland QHC took up the top post at the RAF on Oct 1 and will be the service’s 21st chaplain to hold the job, holding the rank of Air Vice-Marshall.
“Chaplaincy serves the RAF through prayer, presence and proclamation,” Padre Pentland said. “We minister to people of faith and people who have no faith. If you are living amongst people whose lives may be on the line, who are a long way from home, you are in the midst of that, facing the same issues as they are – that gives you the right to be their chaplain”.
Ordained in 1988, in Southwell Minster, Archdeacon Pentland served his curacy at St Jude’s Mapperley Park, Nottingham, before joining the RAF in 1990, and served in the first Gulf War, and in units based in Canada, Norway, Cyprus, The Falklands, Bosnia and Croatia.
“During the Gulf War, I gave out ice pops in the desert – following on from a tradition that dates back to the First World War, and one of my personal heroes, Army Padre Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy,” Padre Pentland said.
“Nicknamed ‘Woodbine Willie’, his mantra was ‘you go out with a smile on your face and a pack of cigarettes in your kit bag. You hand them out. Sometimes you pray with the boys, but you always pray for them’. I think that sums it up very well,” he observed.
Canadian ad campaign highlights the needs of the poor: CEN 10.16.09 p 6. October 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Social Inequality.add a comment
The Bishop of Toronto has launched an ad campaign to shame the Ontario government into increasing public benefits for the poor.
“As we come together to celebrate this Thanksgiving,” Bishop Colin Johnson wrote in an open letter published as a full page ad in the Toronto Star, “I ask you to pause and imagine looking down at a half-empty plate of plain food, a meal that will leave you hungry at the end. That’s the reality for 300,000 Ontarians who rely on food banks to ward off hunger each month.”
Bishop Johnson called for a “a stronger response from Government.” He applauded the work begun, but “there is still much more that must be done for the hungry and poor in our midst.”
As a first step, we recommend a $100 Healthy Food Supplement be added to the monthly incomes of people living on social assistance,” he wrote on Oct 8.
He also urged Anglicans to “continue to give more generously and do more for those who are poor in our communities.”
In an interview with the Anglican Journal, Bishop Johonson said the ad was designed to demonstrate the “church is active and involved in social issues and that it has a legitimate place in discussions.”
The first anti-poverty ad appeared last November, at the height of the global financial crisis. A third ad is planned for the Christmas season. The £20,000 cost was covered by private donations, the diocese reported.
Bishop Johnson told the Journal that Canada’s war on want had been “incremental, and we want to make sure that it doesn’t slide back.”
The church was “one of the major providers of support for people who are deeply marginalized – the poor, the lonely,” the bishop said, and was a “natural component of our faith.”
“But I think the proclamation has to be made public,” Bishop Johnson said. “We need to say that not only is the church engaged in frontline work, it also advocates for changing the policies and systems that lead to poverty.”
Diocese partners with bank to distribute mosquito nets: CEN 10.23.09 p 8. October 24, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of West Africa, Health/HIV-AIDS, NGOs.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Bo has partnered with the Standard Chartered Bank to distribute 16,000 mosquito nets in the Bo and Pujehon districts of Sierra Leone as part of the “Nets for Life” programme. An initiative of Episcopal Relief & Development, Nets for Life works with local partners in Africa to distribute long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) to stop the spread of malaria. The World Health Organization estimates there are approximately 250 million cases of malaria each year, the majority occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly one million people die from the mosquito-born disease each year, mostly children younger than five years old. |
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Ninety per cent of all malaria deaths occur in Africa, and the disease also retards economic growth, costing an estimated $12 billion in lost productivity in Africa each year, ERD reports.
The Nets for Life programme is active in 17 African countries and has benefited more than 11 million people, ERD stated. Partners in the distribution programme include ExxonMobil, Standard Chartered Bank, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Starr International Foundation and the White Flowers Foundation.
The CEO of Standard Chartered Bank in Sierra Leone, Albert Saltson, said that in addition to the nets, the programme will provide training in the prevention of the disease. “Standard Chartered Bank is committed to fighting malaria in Africa because its effects kills and also slows the very economies in Africa that we are helping to develop,” he told the local media.
The Rt Rev Emmanuel JS Tucker, Bishop of Bo said the diocese would ensure an equitable distribution of the nets, and would coordinate the anti-malaria education campaign in the largely rural Southern Province of Sierra Leone.
Swedish church allows gay weddings: CEN 10.22.09 October 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Sweden, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The general synod of the Church of Sweden has authorized same-sex weddings. On Oct 22 the Kyrkomötet, the Church’s governing assembly, voted 176 to 73 to endorse the recommendation of its Central Board to solemnize gay marriages after Swedish civil law on May 1 granted same-sex couples the right to marry. Marriage “is a social institution regulated by public authorities. From a perspective of theology of creation, the marriage has the purpose to support the internal relation between spouses and give a safe setting for the children growing up,” the Central Board said in its recommendation to adopt gay marriage rites. |
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The Kyrkomötet vote “takes a stance in favour of an inclusive view of people. Regardless of whether one is religious or not, this affects the entire social climate and the view of people’s equal value,” said the head of the country’s largest gay rights group, Åsa Regnér of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU).
In the run up to the vote, conservative members of the Church of Sweden had urged the Kyrkomötet not to “cuff off the church from its roots. The Church of Sweden will now be transformed into a congregational denomination, whose teaching is formulated by simple majority decisions, and where the Bible is being used arbitrarily or even entirely removed in order to legitimize the decisions taken,” said Pastor Yngve Kalin of the Church Coalition for Bible and Confession.
Traditionalist members of the Kyrkomötet had argued that same-sex marriage violated Scripture and the Church’s traditional teachings on marriage and also imperiled ecumenical relations. The Church of England is in communion with the Church of Sweden through the 1992 Porvoo Common Statement.
Writing to the Archbishop of Uppsala on behalf of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Hill on behalf of the Council for Christian Unity and the Rt. Rev. John Hind on behalf of the Faith and Order Advisory Group said the adoption of gay marriage by the Swedish church would be “problematic.”
The “teaching and discipline” of the Anglican Communion was that “it is not right either to bless same-sex sexual relationships or to ordain those who are involved in them,” the Archbishops’ Council said on June 26, 2009.
Gay marriage was a “fundamental re-definition of marriage and of basic Christian anthropology.” Making marriage gender neutral was “at odds with the Biblical teaching about the significance of God’s creation of human beings as male and female as this has been received by the Church of England and by the Catholic tradition in general,” the bishops said.
The adoption of gay marriage by the Swedes would also have “immediate and negative ecumenical consequences” and would “lead to the impairment of the relationships” with “particular limitations of the inter-changeability of ordained ministry.”
However, traditionalists in the Kyrkomötet siad the outcome of the gay marriage vote was all but certain due to the politicized nature of its general synod.
“The Church of Sweden is permeated by the same political parties that constitute the parliament. The majority of the members of the Church of Sweden Governing Body have party labels, as have those who are members of the Church of Sweden General Synod, and they usually follow their party lines on decisive issues,” Pastor Kalin said.
In the Church of Sweden, “theology has been transformed into an ideology and the church’s own institutions happily provide theological post-constructions to the latest opinions and whims of the world,” he said.
Pastor Kalin said that “for the church, this is devastating” as the “faith, confession and teaching of the Church of Sweden” rested “on political majorities or on the currently fancy views of the world.”
The proposed changes will likely take the form of the modification of the marriage liturgy, replacing “man and wife” with “lawfully wedded spouses” for same-sex couples and follows upon the 2005 vote to amend the title of Chapter 23 of its prayer book, from “Marriage” to “Marriage and Blessings” to permit blessing of same-sex civil unions. Pastors will be permitted the option of refusing to perform same-sex marriages; however, traditionalists worry that this conscious clause will be abrogated in future sessions of the synod as past guarantees respecting the conscious of those opposed to women clergy were rescinded.
Dioceses can adopt the Covenant: CEN 10.09.09 p 5. October 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Archbishop of Canterbury, Central Florida, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
Dioceses and other ecclesial bodies may endorse the Anglican Covenant, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams said this week, but noted the current process is geared toward adoption of an inter-Anglican agreement by the provinces of the Anglican Communion.
In a Sept 28 letter to the Bishop of Central Florida, the Rt. Rev. John W. Howe, Dr. Williams welcomed Central Florida’s endorsement of the first three sections of the Anglican Covenant.
On Sept 17 the Diocesan Board and Standing Committee affirmed the first three sections of the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the Covenant and asked Dr. Williams to “outline and implement a process by which individual Dioceses, and even parishes, could become members of the Anglican Covenant, even in cases where their Provincial or Diocesan authorities decline to do so.”
Dr. Williams responded that “as a matter of constitutional fact, the ACC can only offer the Covenant for ‘adoption’ to its own constituent bodies, (the provinces).”
“But I see no objection to a diocese resolving less formally on an ‘endorsement’ of the Covenant,” he said. Such an action would not have an “institutional effect” but “would be a clear declaration of intent to live within the agreed terms of the Communion’s life and so would undoubtedly positively affect a diocese’s pastoral and sacramental relations” with the wider communion, he wrote.
A spokesman for the Archbishop of Canterbury declined to comment, saying it was their policy not to discuss private correspondence. However, the Anglican Communion Institute—whose members include Bishop Howe and Dr. Ephraim Radner—a member of the Covenant Design Grooup—noted that Dr. Williams was not articulating any new policies in the letter.
The ACI stated it was “in complete agreement with the Archbishop of Canterbury that endorsement of the Covenant by dioceses is a way to begin to preserve and restore “pastoral and sacramental relations with the rest of the Communion.”
They noted formal endorsement and adoption of the Covenant was a matter “committed to the ‘constitutional procedures’ of the member churches” of the Anglican Communion. Given the Episcopal Church’s “unique polity, those procedures will inevitably require consideration and agreement or rejection by [its] dioceses.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury was aware that the “adoption of the Covenant works best at the provincial level,” the ACI said. However, Dr. Williams “does not prejudge whether dioceses can adopt if a province does not because that would be to prejudge the decision of provinces to commit to the accountability demanded by the Covenant as well as the character of the Covenant in its completed form,” they said.
Samoa devastated by earthquate, tsunami: CEN 10.09.09 p 5. October 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief.add a comment
An earthquake and tsunami in the Central Pacific has devastated the southern coast of Samoa. On Sept 30 at 1748 GMT the 8.3-magnitude earthquake located 120 miles south of the Samoan capital of Apia spawned a 15 feet high tidal wave that inundated the coast. The earthquake and resulting tsunami left 135 dead and eight missing in Samoa, 32 dead in American Samoa and nine dead in Tonga.
About 20 villages on Samoa’s southern coast of the main island of Upolu are thought to have been leveled, while popular beachside resorts have been wiped out. Roads, power lines and telecommunications have been badly damaged.
Archdeacon Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota, a Samoan national living in New Zealand reported that one of her sons was in a van that was swept out to sea by the tsunami and was critically injured and is in an Apia hospital, while one of the archdeacon’s daughters-in-law lost at least 10 members of her family.
Her home village, Poutasi, on the southern coast of Upolu, “looks like it’s been bombed,” she told Anglican Taonga.
Mixed results in latest US Court proceedings: CEN 10.09.09 p 7. October 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, Property Litigation, San Joaquin.add a comment
State courts in Texas and California have handed down interim rulings in the Dioceses of Fort Worth and San Joaquin cases. While partisans for both sides can claim a win from the mixed bag of rulings in the dispute over whether dioceses may secede from the Episcopal Church, the courts appear to be pulling back from accepting at face value the arguments of the national church that canon law alone should govern church property disputes.
On Oct 2, Texas 141st District Court Judge John Chupp rejected a motion from Bishop Jack Iker and the Diocese of Fort Worth asking that he reconsider last month’s ruling in the bitterly contested battle over the name, corporate seal and assets of the Diocese of Fort Worth. On Sept 16 the judge told the court he saw no reason why a diocese could not withdraw from the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Chupp however, ruled that Bishop Gulick’s attorneys could not represent Bishop Iker’s Diocese or its Corporation, a Texas not for profit association founded in 1983 when the diocese was formed. But he refused to strike the loyalists’ pleadings even though their attorneys stated they were acting on behalf of the 1983 association.
A motion continuing the proceedings until January was approved. In a statement posted on its website the loyalist faction stated they did not oppose the motion for the continuance, but said that none of their attorneys “has ever claimed” that they represented Bishop Iker.
However, at last week’s hearing the judge granted a third motion filed by Bishop Iker that joined Bishop Gulick and the chancellor and officers of the loyalist faction as defendants in the proceedings. The effect of this motion will be that Bishop Gulick and the loyalist group will have to prove they were lawfully elected to the positions they claim to hold in the Diocese of Fort Worth and have the legal right to hold themselves out as the Bishop and officers of the Texas not for profit association named “the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.”
In California, on Sept 22 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Word accepted the petition for review filed by Bishop John-David Schofield and the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin of July 21 Fresno Superior Court ruling granting summary judgment in favor of Bishop Jerry Lamb and the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin.
Fresno Judge Adolfo Corona argued dioceses could not leave the Episcopal Church, as it was a “hierarchical church” where parishes are subunits of dioceses and dioceses are subunits of the national church. “In a hierarchical church, an individual local congregation that affiliates with the national church body becomes a member of a much larger and more important religious organization, under its government and control, and bound by its orders and judgments,” he said.
Although other issues remained outstanding and were set down for trial in 2010, the Appellate Court took the unusual step of agreeing to intervene in the case before the trial court had concluded its deliberations.
After Bishop Schofield filed his petition, the Appeals court asked Bishop Lamb to file an informal response. Bishop Schofield was then asked to file a reply by Oct 5. However, after reading Bishop Lamb’s brief, the Fifth District Court of Appeals declined to wait for Bishop Schofield to file his response and ordered Bishop Lamb to submit a formal response to the petition.
The effect of the ruling is to suspend the trial court’s judgment pending a full hearing before the Court of Appeals, which may reject or affirm all or part of the trial court’s decision, or set it down for further deliberations.
Bishop caught in prostitution sting in USA: CEN 10.09.09 p 8. October 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Crime, Southern Ohio.add a comment
A former Nigerian bishop serving in the Episcopal Church has been arrested for soliciting the services of a prostitute.
On Oct 1 the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Omosebi was arrested by police in Ohio for offering $15 to have sexual relations with a prostitute. He was released from jail shortly after posting bond and will appear before a magistrate on the misdemeanor charge on Oct 16.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Southern Ohio, Richelle Thompson, told The Church of England Newspaper that Bishop Omosebi held a license to officiate as a supply priest in the diocese. The license had been suspended pending the judicial proceedings, Ms. Thompson said. However, for several years Bishop Omosebi had conducted Episcopal visitations on behalf of the Bishop of Southern Ohio across the diocese.
A spokesman for Convocation of Anglican Churches in North America (CANA) told CEN Bishop Omosebi left the Church of Nigeria in 1998 when he immigrated to the United States and was not currently affiliated with CANA or the Church of Nigeria. From 1990 to 1998 Bishop Omosebi served as Bishop of Kano in Nigeria’s Plateau State.
Spokesmen for the Church of Nigeria in Abuja declined to comment on the allegations.
The ‘knicker vicar’ vows to carry on: CEN 10.09.09 p 8. October 23, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper, Farming.1 comment so far
New Zealand’s ‘knicker vicar’ has made his last panty run.
The Rev. Gary Husband, vicar of St Andrew’s Church in Inglewood in the Diocese of Waikato gained world attention in 2006 after a crisis in women’s underpants was exposed in his rural North Island parish.
After the village’s only clothing store closed, “someone came up with the point that it was a bit difficult that ladies essentials were not able to be bought in Inglewood,” Mr. Husband told TV New Zealand.
He organized a “knickers run” where church volunteers would drive the elderly and those without transport to the nearby city of New Plymouth to shop.
Dubbed the “knicker-vicar” by New Zealand’s press, Mr. Husband last week took up the post of minister of Piopio, telling the New Zealand Herald “I haven’t thought much about it but there is no lingerie store, I know that” in his new parish.
“I’m sure God will give me plenty of ideas for Piopio very soon,” Mr. Husband said.
However, the issue was “about rural communities not being able to get their essentials in the community,” Mr. Husband said in 2006. Like portions of the UK, the changing face of the countryside in New Zealand, which has seen banks, shops, post offices and churches close in many small communities, coupled with governmental indifference, has stressed community life.
Mr. Husband said he enjoyed the notoriety of being the knicker vicar as it gave him an opportunity to talk about Jesus with people. “But I’m proudest that God asked me to be here and that I was able to give a bit of myself to the church and the people,” he said of his work in Inglewood.
Archbishop of Canterbury accused of ‘green hypocrisy’: CEN 10.23.09 p 5. October 22, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Environment.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was accused in Parliament last week of hypocrisy, for promoting agricultural self-sufficiency while at the same time overseeing the sale of church farm land for suburban development. During the House of Commons question time on Oct 15, the member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Mr Nick Gibb (Con) asked Second Church Estates Commissioner Sir Stuart Bell the size of the church’s agricultural holdings. Sir Stuart responded the Church Commissioners hold over “109,000 acres of English farmland, spread across 44 estates and over 300 farms.” |
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Mr Gibb stated in response that Dr Williams “wants more food to be grown locally and has attacked organisations driven solely by the desire to make money. Is it not therefore paradoxical that the Church Commissioners, which he chairs, wants to concrete over 3,000 acres of prime agricultural land to the west of Chalcraft lane in my constituency?
“When challenged, the Commissioners say they want to build on that land because they are obliged to maximise the amount of money they make. If the Archbishop of Canterbury were a politician, would it not be fair to say that he says one thing but does another?” Mr Gibbs said.
The Church Commissioners have submitted plans for the development of up to 2,000 homes on 370 acres of farmland near Bognor Regis in order to “meet local housing needs.”
On Oct 14 Dr Williams delivered a lecture at Southwark Cathedral calling for people to rediscover their responsibility for the environment and that engaging in “apparently small-scale action” in “personal habits and local possibilities” was vital to the nation’s health. “When we believe in transformation at the local and personal level, we are laying the surest foundations for change at the national and international level,” Dr Williams said.
Mr Gibbs said this inconsistency of Dr Williams was worrying, and asked Sir Stuart, “if the Archbishop of Canterbury were a politician, would it not be fair to say that he says one thing but does another?”
The Second Church Estates Commissioner responded that it was “always pleasant when the Archbishop of Canterbury is cited in the House of Commons. I am sure that he does not wish to be a politician and I would urge him not to be one.” This brought some members to their feet with shouts that “he is a Member” and “shame.”
Sir Stuart responded “the archbishop is a Member of the House of Commons now, is he?,” which prompted shouts “he is in the Lords.”
Sir Stuart conceded “he is a Member in Parliament,” but noted he was “being diverted” from the matter at hand, and said “we have a legal duty to our beneficiaries. On this occasion, we accept that we have met some controversy in his constituency, but we have not to be distracted from our fiduciary duty.”
Sir Stuart turned to the House and said as the members were “in an enlightened mood, may I cite the scriptures? In Ezekiel, it states: ‘In controversy they shall stand in judgment…and they shall keep my laws and statutes’.”
“We propose to keep the laws and statutes of Parliament that have been conferred upon the Church Commissioners,” he said.
Anger over former president’s acquital: CEN 10.16.09 p 8. October 22, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Corruption.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Zambia have denounced their government’s decision not to pursue an appeal against the acquittal of former President Frederick Chiluba on charges of public corruption. The Bishop of Central Zambia, the Rt Rev Derek Kamukwamba, has urged Zambians to lend their voices to a national protest campaign mounted by civil and religious groups that calls on the government of President Rupert Banda to appeal the verdict. For democracy and the rule of law to be preserved it was necessary the appeals process “be exhausted and there should be no shortcuts,” Bishop Kamukwamba told the Zambia Post on Oct 2. “We need to move forward until we reach the last stage to the highest court.” |
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On Aug 17 a criminal court acquitted Mr Chiluba of corruption charges, finding that the government had not proven its case that the money that financed the diminutive president’s lavish lifestyle was stolen from state coffers.
The ruling came in sharp contrast to the verdict of a 2007 civil trial in London, where a court ordered the five-foot-tall president to repay £23 million to the Zambian government. Evidence presented in the London trial included testimony the former president spent more than £300,000 at one tailor, paying his bills with suitcases filled with cash.
In his summing up in 2007, Mr Justice Peter Smith said Mr Chiluba should be “ashamed” for having abused his office. However, the Zambian court held that Mr Chiluba’s London bank account held millions of pounds in gifts for the former president, and that there was no convincing evidence the money had been diverted from the state treasury.
A former bus conductor, Mr Chiluba was elected president in 1991, defeating Kenneth Kaunda the country’s independence leader, in one of Africa’s first multi-party elections. After leaving office in 2001, his handpicked successor, Levy Mwanawasa, with British backing began an anti-corruption drive that eventually led to the stripping of Mr Chiluba’s presidential immunity from prosecution.
On Aug 27, 2009 the director of the country’s anti-corruption task force Maxwell Nkole was sacked after he urged the government of President Banda not to interfere in with prosecutor’s plans to launch an appeal. Although Mr Chiluba was acquitted, his co-defendants were found guilty of corruption. The following day the government blocked prosecutors from pursuing an appeal.
The decision not to pursue Mr. Chiluba prompted harsh comments from the head of Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID)’s Zambia office, Mike Hammond. He told government leaders they should “to continue to be clear that you are ready to confront corruption no matter who is involved and that the policy of zero tolerance means just that.”
The general secretary of the Council of Churches of Zambia Susan Matale, said: “We’re totally confused and taken aback about the withdrawal of the appeal… the state should let the due process of the law go all the way to its logical conclusion.”
Last week Bishop Kamukwamba said that blocking the appeal raised questions about the government’s motives. “The desire is that the only institution that can clear the air should be allowed to do so,” he said.
The DFID has given more than £1 million to fund Zambia’s Task Force on Corruption, whose mandate was to investigate public corruption in the Chiluba administration.
Episcopal Church reluctant to release Sunday attendance figures: CEN 10.16.09 p 6. October 20, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.1 comment so far
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Episcopal Church’s membership and Sunday attendance statistics for 2008 have been distributed to members of its national Executive Council, but the church has declined to release the numbers to the public. Average Sunday attendance grew slowly from 1997 to 2002 in the American Episcopal Church, rising from 841,445 to 846,640. However in the five years following the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire and an intensification of the church’s internal divisions, attendance has declined by 14 per cent to 727,822. |
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However, some liberal leaders have claimed the decline has been stemmed. Speaking to the New York Times at the July 2009 General Convention, Bishop Robinson said his diocese was bucking national trends and had grown, and numbered “15,000 people.”
“We have received so many Roman Catholics and young families,” he said, “particularly families who are saying, ‘We don’t want to raise our daughters in a church that doesn’t value young people’,” such that the diocese “grew by three per cent last year.”
Questioned at a press conference at the close of the autumn Executive Council meeting, the church’s two presiding officers declined to speak to the issue. The President of the House of Deputies, Mrs Bonnie Anderson told reporters that the statistics had been “circulated to the Executive Council.” However, “we’re not going to be talking about those per se. Our agenda’s pretty full and we’ll probably be taking those up in the future at our next meeting,” she explained. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stated she was “not able to comment” on what the numbers were, as “I don’t have it in my head.”
Mrs Anderson said the church would be posting the information once it had been “approved.” Charts showing attendance and membership trends for dioceses and parishes were released by the church the following day, but statistical reports have yet to be made public.
Concern over Irish Church School Funding: CEN 10.09.09 p 6. October 17, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Education.add a comment
| First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Anglican leaders in the Republic of Ireland have accused the government of discrimination, amidst fears that a cut in state funding for Protestant schools will force students out of the voluntary sector. In a statement printed in the Irish Times on Oct 5, the former Archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven Gordon Linney charged the government’s 2009 budget “singled out the Protestant secondary school sector for damaging treatment by removing the majority of our schools from the free education scheme. Funding and benefits were withdrawn without notice on top of other cuts imposed across the education sector.” |
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The government’s treatment of Catholic and Protestant schools was unequal, Archdeacon Linney said, and “our schools were hit harder than any others.” While the state supports Catholic and Protestant pupils on an equal per capita basis, “what is unfair and discriminatory is the fact that Catholic children have additional supports in their schools through various grants and a much better teacher-pupil ratio,” he said.
In 1969 the Irish government agreed to support voluntary Protestant schools, providing grants and teacher salaries at the same rate as for Catholic schools. The government’s education budget, Anglican leaders have warned, will upset this balance.
In his address to the Clogher Synod on Sept 27 Bishop Michael Jackson said the budget cuts “hit very hard at an agreement which had, since the foundation of the State, enabled Protestant people in the Republic of Ireland to provide and to experience education in accordance with the Protestant ethos.”
“One fell administrative swoop has cut at the root of this and the devastation of its impact raises serious and ongoing questions about respect for Protestant identity as an interwoven component in national identity,” he said.
In a Sept 29 statement, the House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland voiced its concern over the “failure of government to perceive the distinctive needs of the Protestant minority, not least in the provision of education for a dispersed community which is certainly not characterised by its desire for any kind of educational elitism.”
Church of Ireland schools served Protestants, Catholics as well as those from other faiths or of no faith, they said. However, a “faith-based education often leads to a fruitful outcome in terms of the holistic needs of the child. In a rushed and distracted world, space needs to be made for responding to the presence and the mystery of God,” they said.
“We wish to affirm the importance of equality of opportunity and provision within education,” the bishops said, but also wanted to “express particular concern about those forms of selective intake which may produce academic excellence for some, but which in the long term may foment in others a sense of failure and injustice” arising from the government’s education budget.
Bishop Jackson told the Clogher synod it was “not our wish either to prop up the past or to live in the past” by supporting church schools. “It is our concern, in fulfilling educational aspirations for the children and young people in our care, to make through them an open-ended contribution to public life and active citizenship. Our capacity to do so has been seriously endangered and needs to be safeguarded,” he said.
Clergy allowed to leave Pittsburgh: CEN 10.09.09 p 7. October 17, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Pittsburgh.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Pittsburgh clergy who wish to transfer from the Episcopal Church to the Anglican Church in North America will be permitted to leave the diocese without being deposed, the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Church affiliated Diocese of Pittsburgh have declared. The Oct 5 decision by the “Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church” to allow clergy of the “Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican Communion)” the opportunity to withdraw from the church without legal sanction stands in contrast to the recent actions in the Dioceses of San Joaquin and Quincy, where clergy who seceded with the dioceses from the Episcopal Church have been defrocked. |
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In a letter from the loyalist Standing Committee clergy are asked to state whether they wish to remain active in the Episcopal Church or be released. “We’re doing this for pastoral reasons,” Standing Committee president, the Rev James Simons, said. “We do not want to see our priestly brothers and sisters deposed.”
In a statement released on the loyalist diocese’s website, the Standing Committee said it had “initiated the release on its own,” but consulted with Bishop Kenneth Price, who has been nominated to become the diocese’s provisional bishop.
Bishop Price stated: “As the Standing Committee worked through this necessary action, I was painfully aware that they were not just talking about a list of clergy, but friends of long standing. For this reason I am grateful the canons provide this ‘softer’ method of allowing those who wish to depart from the Episcopal Church to do so legally without us making a judgment on their ordination.”
“This does not affect your ordination, which you may register with whatever entity you choose,” the Standing Committee said.
In the Episcopal Church a deposition removes a priest or deacon from Holy Orders, while a release ends a clergyman’s licence to officiate in the Episcopal Church.
On Sept 22 the secessionist Diocese of Quincy denounced the decision by the loyalist faction of the central Illinois diocese under provisional Bishop John Buchanan to depose seven priests, and inhibit 34 others — who will soon be deposed unless they recant their secession.
The president of the standing committee, Fr John Spencer said: “The supposed inhibitions and depositions of our clergy have no bearing on those clergy, or on their ministries, since our diocese is no longer under the authority of the Episcopal Church.”
In late August, Bishop Buchanan wrote to seven priests, including Fr Spencer, accepting their “renunciation of the ordained ministry” and declared they were deprived of all the authority conveyed in ordination. “We did leave the Episcopal Church,” Fr Spencer said, “but we didn’t renounce our ordination vows, or abandon our ministries.”
Bishop faces clergy protests in South Africa: CEN 10.09.09 p 7. October 17, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Protesters disrupted the synod meeting of the Diocese of Mthatha in South Africa last week, shouting down the bishop as he gave his charge to the diocese. Formerly known as the Diocese of St John’s, Kaffraria, in 2006 the diocese in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province was renamed after its see city, Umtata or Mthatha. Meeting at the Church of St John the Evangelist on Sept 15 in Umtata for the 49th session of synod, members of a group identified by the local press as the “Concerned Anglicans Forum” called for the bishop to resign. |
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As Bishop Sitembele Mzamane rose to give his charge, the Rev Jongikhaya Sikhuni stood and attempted to hand the bishop a petition alleging malfeasance and misconduct in his administration of diocesan finances as outlined in a report circulated to the synod.
The bishop asked Fr Sikhuni to return to his seat, prompting the priest’s supporters to rise and enter the aisles of the church to dance and ululate. The bishop returned to his speech and attempted to talk over the singing. Police were summoned and order restored.
After the service Bishop Mzamane told reporters the charges of misconduct levelled by the disgruntled clergy were untrue. The Concerned Anglicans Forum is understood to have forwarded their complaints to the metropolitan archbishop Thabo Makgoba for review.
Church of England facing $70 million loss: CEN 10.23.09 p 5. October 15, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of England appears set to take a $70 million loss in the US real estate market, losing its entire investment in New York City’s Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village apartment complex. On Oct 14 the Wall Street Journal reported the partnership venture led by Tishman Speyer Properties that purchased the 56-building, 11,000-unit residential complex in lower Manhattan was in danger of default. As of the end of September, the Journal reported, the partnership had $33.7 million left of $400 million in interest reserves to service its debt. With a ‘burn rate’ of $16 million per month, real estate analysts predict the project will be in default by year’s end. |
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At the height of the Manhattan property market, the Church Commissioners of the Church of England invested $70 million as equity partners in the project, alongside the California Public Employees Retirement System which invested $500 million, and the Florida State Board of Administration which committed $250 million to the deal.
Tishman Speyer Properties purchased the complex for $5.4 billion in 2006. The property is now thought to be worth $2.1 billion. Income from the property was projected to reach $336 million per year by 2011, but is currently bringing in only $139 million.
Tishman Speyer Properties did not respond to Religious Intelligence’s requests for comments, however a spokesman for the Church Commissioners said: “I can confirm that we are invested in this fund as part of a well diversified domestic and global indirect property portfolio. The Commissioners manage a long-term fund, so we will continue to work with our portfolio managers.”
Florida’s pension fund currently values its $250 million investment in the project at zero, however, the spokesman for the Church Commissioners told Religious Intelligence that for reasons of commercial confidentiality, it could not give a current valuation of its investment.
The sprawling collection of red brick apartment buildings, built immediately after the Second World War covers 80 acres of land on the East Side of Lower Manhattan, stretching from First Avenue to Avenue C, between14th and 23rd Streets. Current rents for the property range from $2850 for a one bedroom apartment to $7000 for a five bedroom apartment.
For 2008, the Church Commissioners reported a 22 per cent or £1.2 billion loss in asset value, due to the global financial collapse. In his Sept 16, 2009 report on the first two quarters of 2009, First Church Estates Commissioner Andreas Whittam Smith reported that equities rallied in the first two months of the second quarter as investors grew more confident, bringing major stock markets back to levels similar to those at the end of 2008.
The Commissioners’ UK equities “returned 12.2 per cent in the second quarter, ahead of the 10.9 per cent benchmark,” while the “picture with real estate was mixed.”
The UK commercial property markets “are arguably bottoming out following capital value falls of 44 per cent since the July 2007 peak,” Mr. Whittam Smith said. In the late 1980s and early 1990s speculation in London properties led to an £800m loss for the Church Commissioners.
Australian priest guilty of sexual abuse: CEN 10.09.09 p 7. October 13, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Traditional Anglican Communion.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A former priest of the Diocese of Adelaide has been found guilty of carnal knowledge with an altar boy. Wilfred Edwin Dennis was found guilty on Oct 1 of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy between October 1975 and January 1977. He was acquitted, however, on three counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency for allegedly having molested a second 10-year-old altar boy between 1972 and 1974. |
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The crimes came to light in 2002 when one of the victims contacted Dennis demanding compensation. Dennis, who had by that time quit the Anglican Church of Australia over the issue of women priests to join the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), informed his superior, Archbishop John Hepworth, of the threatening letter.
Asked if the allegations were true, Dennis admitted they were, and added that he had molested 41 other boys. Archbishop Hepworth contacted the police to report the crimes and also helped Dennis engage a lawyer.
In his summing up, Judge Sydney Tilmouth said Dennis’ testimony had been “bizarre” and “unconvincing.” Sentencing will take place in November.
On Oct 24, 2008, Adelaide Archbishop Jeffrey Driver told his synod the diocese had paid out over £2 million to settle 80 sexual abuse claims. In 2004, the diocese was confronted with claims for damages from up to 100 young men allegedly sexually abused by clergy and diocesan youth workers. The scandal forced then-Archbishop Ian George to resign after a diocesan review found his management of the crisis unsatisfactory.
The synod agreed to sell portions of Bishopscourt, the diocese’s episcopal palace, to help pay the abuse claims.
Monsoon devastates South India: CEN 10.09.09 p 7. October 13, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Disaster Relief.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Monsoon rains have led to widespread flooding in southern India, with at least 125 people reported drowned following four days of torrential rain. The Church of South India’s Bishop in Nandyal reports the Thungabadra and Krishna rivers have breached their banks in the south central city of Kurnool with floodwaters 10 feet high. “Our clergy and the congregation members living in the surrounding area of the [central] church are taking shelter in the balcony of the church. And the news is that the situation may worsen further,” the bishop in a letter released on Oct 2 by Anglican Mainstream. |
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“People are running to higher grounds and are crying for help,” the bishop said, noting “there is a sense of helplessness and uncertainty.” Wire service reports state 25,000 people have been trapped by the rising floodwaters in Kurnool alone.
Much of Southern India’s road and rail network has been shut down and in Maharashtra, the national highway between Bombay and Goa was closed by the flooding.
Bishop Lawrence stated “we have just concluded the meeting of all the leaders of the diocese to prepare for relief work with supply of food, water and shelter in our schools hostels and church buildings.
“We also are conducting prayers of intercession and help for the greatest disaster. The situation is grave with raising level of water of rivers canals and tanks. This is the first of its kind we are appealing for your prayers,” he stated.
Further rains are expected in the coming days, hampering rescue efforts mounted by the Indian military.
Pittsburgh’s ACNA clergy will not be defrocked: CEN 10.09.09 p 8. October 13, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Pittsburgh, Quincy.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Pittsburgh clergy who wish to transfer from the Episcopal Church to the Anglican Church in North America will be permitted to leave the diocese without being deposed, the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Church affiliated Diocese of Pittsburgh have declared. The Oct 5 decision by the “Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church” to allow clergy of the “Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican Communion)” the opportunity to withdraw from the church without legal sanction stands in contrast to the recent actions in the Dioceses of San Joaquin and Quincy, where clergy who seceded with the dioceses from the Episcopal Church have been defrocked. |
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In a letter from the loyalist Standing Committee clergy are asked to state whether they wish to remain active in the Episcopal Church or be released. “We’re doing this for pastoral reasons,” Standing Committee president, the Rev James Simons, said. “We do not want to see our priestly brothers and sisters deposed.”
In a statement released on the loyalist diocese’s website, the Standing Committee said it had “initiated the release on its own,” but consulted with Bishop Kenneth Price, who has been nominated to become the diocese’s provisional bishop.
Bishop Price stated: “As the Standing Committee worked through this necessary action, I was painfully aware that they were not just talking about a list of clergy, but friends of long standing. For this reason I am grateful the canons provide this ‘softer’ method of allowing those who wish to depart from the Episcopal Church to do so legally without us making a judgment on their ordination.”
“This does not affect your ordination, which you may register with whatever entity you choose,” the Standing Committee said.
In the Episcopal Church a deposition removes a priest or deacon from Holy Orders, while a release ends a clergyman’s licence to officiate in the Episcopal Church.
On Sept 22 the secessionist Diocese of Quincy denounced the decision by the loyalist faction of the central Illinois diocese under provisional Bishop John Buchanan to depose seven priests, and inhibit 34 others — who will soon be deposed unless they recant their secession.
The president of the standing committee, Fr John Spencer said: “The supposed inhibitions and depositions of our clergy have no bearing on those clergy, or on their ministries, since our diocese is no longer under the authority of the Episcopal Church.”
In late August, Bishop Buchanan wrote to seven priests, including Fr Spencer, accepting their “renunciation of the ordained ministry” and declared they were deprived of all the authority conveyed in ordination.
“We did leave the Episcopal Church,” Fr Spencer said, “but we didn’t renounce our ordination vows, or abandon our ministries.”
Archbishop urges peace in Bermuda: CEN 10.09.09 p 6. October 11, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of York, Bermuda, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu has called upon the people of Bermuda to embrace a culture of forgiveness in world awash in violence.
Preaching at Holy Trinity Cathedral and to an open air congregation at the island’s Arboretum in Devonshire parish, Dr. Sentamu was the principal speaker for a series of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the church in Bermuda, entitled Faith Venture 2009. (On July 25, 1609 the Sea Venture, an English merchant ship sailing for Jamestown was wrecked on Bermuda, marking the first landing on the island.)
In his evening sermon, Dr. Sentamu spoke of the war and violence dividing mankind. “You know friends, child soldiers carry and use AK45’s, you know arms manufacturers make millions out of this misery and computer games teach children hideous violence on screen, giving young people the thrill of violence supposedly without its spills,” he said.
“If only, Jesus cried over Jerusalem, these people knew the way to real peace. Friends I have an amazing message, the message of forgiveness; the message of reconciliation is not an easy one, as they can tell us in South Africa, or Congo, or Northern Ireland, but friends it works.”
“Forgiveness of sins is at the heart of the gospel and for God’s greatest gift within each one of us is forgiveness for past sins, new life in the present and then hope for the future.”
“Here in Bermuda as in all parts of the world should we not be praying for a fresh wave of reconciliation,” Dr. Sentamu asked.
Bermuda welcomes Dr. Sentamu: CEN 10.02.09 p 8. October 11, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of York, Bermuda, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu will travel to Bermuda this week to lead festivities celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Anglican Church on the Atlantic island.
The Bishop of Bermuda, the Rt. Rev. Patrick White said “we are elated at the Archbishop’s impending visit. He is known for his energy and willingness to be on the front line in the fight for justice.”
Dr. Sentamu will deliver two public lectures during his tour of Bermuda, and is expeted to speak on the issues of racial reconciliation and unity. On Oct 4, he will preach at Holy Trinity Cathedral at the anniversary celebration service and later that day at the island’s Arboretum in an open air service.
Celebrations as new diocese formed in South Africa: CEN 10.09.09 p 8. October 10, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The 27st diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa was inaugurated last week at a ceremony in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape Province. Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba inaugurated the Diocese of Ukhahlamba on Oct 3 at a ceremony at Queen’s College in Queenstown. The new diocese was formed from the northern half of the Diocese of Grahamstown and encompasses a largely rural area around the Drakensburg mountain range. In March 2007 the Grahamstown synod approved the division of the diocese and on Jan 1, 2009 a vicar general, the Rev. Lawrence Ndzwana, was appointed by Grahamstown Bishop Ebenezer Ntlali to oversee the region. |
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Supreme Court declines California case: CEN 10.09.09 p 7. October 10, 2009
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Los Angeles, Property Litigation.add a comment
| First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The US Supreme Court has denied the petition of St James Church, Newport Beach, California to hear its appeal of a California Supreme Court ruling on its property suit with the Diocese of Los Angeles. On Oct 5 the Supreme Court announced it would not hear the St James case along with 8,000 other cases seeking review. Historically the Washington-based US Supreme Court will hear only one percent of the cases submitted to it for review. |
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Monday’s decision comes as a blow for the parish and other breakaway congregations, which had hoped the US Supreme Court would settle contradictory state court rulings on the validity of the Episcopal Church’s Dennis Canon — the 1979 property rule that states parish property is held in trust for the diocese and national church.
The effect of the denial of the writ of certiorari will be to send the case back to the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, California for litigation.
In a statement released by the parish, the rector of St James, the Rev Richard Crocker stated that while he was disappointed with the court’s decision, “our battle is far from over.”
Parish attorney John Eastman stated the Supreme Court “normally considers only cases that are final, so it is not surprising that the Court decided to wait until further developments in this case are completed.”
He added that the “decision today does not foreclose review down the road once a full trial of the matter and subsequent appeals in the California Courts have run their course.”
The Bishop of Los Angeles said the diocese “greatly appreciates the action and insight of the US Supreme Court in declining to hear the case.” Bishop J Jon Bruno stated the US Supreme Court action “follows the strong and comprehensive opinions issued by the California Court of Appeal and affirmed by the state Supreme Court.
“The Episcopal Church continues to live out its traditional mission of welcoming people who hold a diversity of opinion while remaining united in common prayer,” he added.
In its petition for review, the parish asked the US Supreme Court to adjudicate whether the California Supreme Court violated the US Constitution’s Establishment and Free Exercise clauses. They argued that by giving the Episcopal Church preferential treatment in property disputes by permitting it to impose trusts on parish property in which it had no ownership interest by virtue of its status as a “hierarchical” church, California was favoring the Episcopal Church above other churches.
In its brief the Diocese of Los Angeles argued the court should reject the petition “because trial court proceedings remain ongoing and no final judgment will be entered until those proceedings have run their course.” The US Supreme Court offered no reason for denying the appeal.
