Indian bishop accused of stealing £335,000: The Church of England Newspaper, March 19, 2010 p 7. March 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A diocesan official has been arrested and a bishop is under investigation by police in India in for allegedly embezzling £335,000 from the coffers of the Diocese of Coimbatore.
On March 8 detectives arrested the former secretary of the Diocese of Coimbatore, D.S. Amirtham, charging him with diverting pensions funds. While serving as director of five diocesan schools, Amirthan is alleged to have siphoned off five per cent of the funds contributed by teachers and the schools into their retirement funds between 2000 and 2008.
In January Amirtham came under police scrutiny after an altercation with the former Moderator of the Church of South India and retired Bishop of Coimbatore, the Rt. Rev. William Moses. Amirtham is alleged to have threatened to kill the retired bishop.
The altercation came after Bishop Moses supported a complaint lodged by members of the diocese with the police against Bishop Manickam Dorai of Coimbatore (pictured) and the bishop’s brother, charging the bishop with colluding in the looting the diocese of 30 million rupees.
Last year charges accusing the bishop’s brother of embezzling funds from a diocesan school were brought to Bishop Dorai by the diocesan Christian Welfare Association. The bishop did not act on the complaints, and told a local newspaper the charges were false and that “there is no truth in it.”
Those complaining of theft wanted “to tarnish the image of the diocese and defame the spiritual head of over 4 lakh (400,000) Christians spread” across the Tamil Nadu state, Bishop Dorai told The Express in an interview published on June 17, 2009.
On Jan 12 police questioned the Moderator of the Church of South India (CSI), Bishop William Gladstone and the church’s treasurer in connection with the allegations. Bishop Gladstone said the CSI synod’s executive committee would await the results of the investigation before it took action.
The Coimbatore affair is the second high profile fraud cause in the last year for the CSI. On Oct 13, 2009, Detectives from the Central Crime Branch of the Madras police arrested the former General Secretary of the CSI along with three members of her family. Dr. Pauline Sathiamurthy was accused of stealing almost £1 million of the tsunami relief funds donated to the CSI by the Episcopal Church.
Lord Carey’s sadness following death of leading Muslim scholar Sheik Tantawi: The Church of England Newspaper, March 19, 2010, p 7. March 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Islam.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
One of the Anglican Communion’s principal dialogue partners in the Muslim world, Sheik Mohamed Sayed Tantawi has died. The Grand Imam of the al-Azhar, the oldest and most prestigious centre of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, died last week during a visit to Saudi Arabia. He was 81.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who worked with Dr Tantawi to inaugurate the Anglican Communion’s formal dialogue with Islam, told The Church of England Newspaper he was saddened to learn of the sheik’s death.
Over the 12 years he had known him, Lord Carey said he found Dr Tantawi to have been a “gracious and kindly man. Together we chaired the Alexandria Declaration in 2002 and have kept in touch ever since. He had a deep appreciation of the Christian faith and had a huge respect for Bishop Mouneer Anis [of Egypt]” Lord Carey said.
Canon Andrew White, the vicar of Baghdad, stated the “world has lost a great forward-thinking Muslim leader,” with the death of Dr Tantawi.
“He was the only person who had been involved in both our Israel/Palestine work and our work in Iraq,” Canon White said, noting that his work with Lord Carey in producing the Alexandria Declaration was a “historic occasion as for the first time Jews, Christians and Muslims together condemned all forms of violence including suicide bombings.”
He also “totally supported our work to reduce tension between Sunni and Shia and to bring an end to all violence in Iraq,” Canon White added.
Appointed head of the al-Azhar in 1996 by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Dr Tantawi served for 10 years as Egypt’s grand mufti from 1986 to 1996, leading the House of Fatwa as the nation’s chief arbiter of religious law. As the head of the al-Azhar, he oversaw a university system with more than 300,000 students and a primary and secondary religious school system serving 1.5 million students.
A loyal supporter of the religious policies of the Mubarak regime, Dr Tantawi was a fierce critic of the Muslim Brotherhood and other hardline groups. He came under sharp attack from conservatives for banning the wearing of the hijab, or face veils, by female university students and for supporting France’s ban on the burqa. In 2008 he was criticised for shaking hands with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, during a conference in New York.
Liberals, however, criticised him for his uncritical support for the authoritarian policies of President Mubarak, and for tying Islam closely with the fortunes of the regime.
“We discussed at some depth a number of the problems in Christian-Muslim relations and he was well aware that the issue of reciprocity, that Christians in Muslim lands lacked the rights that Western nations are giving Muslims,” Lord Carey said.
However, “I felt he was rather reluctant to take this further. Unlike his successor, Sheikh Ali Goma, Dr Tantawi, was unwilling to enter into political dialogue and preferred to keep as far away as possible from public criticism.”
Dr Tantawi was born on October 28, 1928, in Sohag, in Upper Egypt. He studied at the al-Azhar University, earning his doctorate in 1966, and for the next two decades taught religion or administered religious studies programmes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iraq, before his appointment as Grand Mufti of Egypt in 1986. The Egyptian press reports Dr Tantawi will be buried in Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Russian honours for Dr Williams: The Church of England Newspaper, March 19, 2010 p 7. March 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Russian Orthodox.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has been honoured by Moscow for his services to British-Russian friendship.
On March 11, the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Yuri Fedotov, presented Dr. Rowan Williams with the Russian Order of Friendship. The citation for the award issued by decree of President Dmitri Medvedev recognised Dr. Williams’ “outstanding contribution to the cooperation and friendly relations between Russia and the UK.”
“What the Archbishop is doing helps tremendously to establish better understanding and to set a better climate in relations between Russia and the UK,” Ambassador Fedotov said.
Dr. Williams was also presented with a bilingual edition of his poetry, printed in Moscow by the All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature to commemorate the occasion.
The award was a “very special personal honour,” Dr. Williams said, and it was “an immense personal privilege to be recognised in this way so unexpectedly.” Russian religious philosophy had been one of his lifelong interests, he said, added noting that “the depths and challenges of the Russian world have continued to play a crucial part in my own life, in my mind and in my heart.”
Russia’s Interfax News Agency reported that Dr. Williams said he had been “keen on Russian culture, its philosophy and religious thought from my very young age. Great Britain and Russia are situated in opposite parts of Europe, Anglo-Saxon temper is almost contrary to Russian, but Christian faith unites us.”
“Studying Russian culture, I hear my culture echoing. However, for me personally, it’s easier to feel Russian mentality as I’m not an Anglo-Saxon, I’m a Welshman,” Dr. Williams told the BBC’s Russian service, Interfax reported.
Pope to visit Lambeth Palace: The Church of England Newspaper March 19, 2010 p 6. March 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
Pope Benedict XVI received Dr. Williams at his private library at the Vatican on Nov 11, 2009. September's visit to London will be the first papal visit in 28 years.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Pope Benedict XVI will visit Lambeth Palace during his September tour of the UK, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office announced on March 16.
Benedict will visit Britain at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II from Sept 16-19, Buckingham Palace said. His tour will begin in Edinburgh where he will be received by the Queen at Holyrood Palace on Sept 16.
The Pope will then travel to Glasgow and London, and end his tour at Coventry Cathedral—a symbol of the destruction of the Second World War and also of reconciliation with Germany in its aftermath.
In London, the Pope will meet with Dr. Rowan Williams at Lambeth Palace—the first papal visit to London since John Paul II’s 1982 tour.
“The Pope’s visit will be an opportunity to cement ties not only between the Holy See and the United Kingdom but also the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian churches in Scotland, England and Wales. I look forward particularly to welcoming Pope Benedict to Lambeth Palace on behalf of the Church of England,” a statement from the archbishop’s office said.
Basra memorial rededicated: The Church of England Newspaper March 19, 2010 p 6. March 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Iraq.comments closed
The Prime Minister The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP lays a wreath on behalf of the nation. The Basra Memorial Wall was rededicated at its new home in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The prime minister has rededicated the “Basra Memorial Wall” to honour the 178 British service personnel and one Ministry of Defence civilian employee killed in operations in Iraq.
On March 11, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Conservative party leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, members of the cabinet, the military service chiefs and over 500 family members of those killed in action attended the service at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
At the conclusion of the memorial service, wreaths were laid by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, and Brian Tanswell whose son, Lt Tom Tanswell RA, was killed in Iraq in 2006.
Last week’s service was the second and final national commemoration of the close of UK operations in Iraq 2003-2009, which began with the service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Oct 9.
The Basra Memorial Wall was originally built outside the Headquarters of Multi-National Division in Basra by members of 37 Armoured Engineer Squadron as a monument to the dead. It was disassembled and brought back to the UK in 2009. The names of the dead are inscribed on the wall and in the center is a brass memorial plaque that was blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the national service of commemoration for Iraq at St Paul’s Cathedral last year.
Speaking after the service, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said, “today we paid tribute to those who gave their lives in Iraq on behalf of the nation and in order to provide Iraqis with a better life. This memorial, set in this Arboretum of remembrance, is a fitting monument to their sacrifice.”
The prime minister told the British Forces Broadcasting Service “this now gives us a permanent memorial for the 179 who were killed and sacrificed their lives in Iraq.
“It is a lasting memorial; 100,000 troops went to Iraq and many of those members of our armed forces will want to visit this memorial too.
“It does give them a chance that they would not have had if it had remained in Iraq,” Mr. Brown said.
Glasspool halfway home: The Church of England Newspaper March 19, 2009 p 6. March 31, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Los Angeles.comments closed
Canon Mary Glasspool
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Mary Glasspool is half way home towards receiving the necessary approvals for her election as suffragan bishop and the church’s second “out” gay bishop, the Diocese of Los Angeles announced last week.
In a statement released on March 10, Bishop J. Jon Bruno invited members of the Diocese of Los Angeles to “share in this historic celebration” and attend the May 15 consecration of Canon Glasspool and Canon Diane Bruce his suffragan bishops.
While Bishop-elect Bruce has received the necessary endorsements from a majority of the Episcopal Church’s dioceses and bishops, the invitation to attend Canon Glasspool’s consecration may be premature, as she has not yet received the approval of the church’s bishops.
At the Dec 4-5 Los Angeles diocesan Convention, Canons Bruce and Glasspool were elected the diocese’s new suffragan bishops. The rector of St. Clement’s by-the-Sea in San Clemente, Calif, Canon Bruce is the first women bishop elected in Los Angeles. In the second election Canon Glasspool, the canon to the ordinary or assistant to the Bishop of Maryland, was elected.
The election of Canon Glasspool, a partnered homosexual, elicited a word of caution from the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council, which warned that her consecration would violate the moratorium on gay bishops and blessings adopted by the wider Anglican Communion.
On Jan 5 Los Angeles began to solicit the consents or written approvals from the wider Episcopal Church for Canon Glasspool’s election. Canon Bruce’s process began on Jan 8. Canon III.11.4 (a) requires that a majority of diocesan bishops and a majority of diocesan standing committees consent to an episcopal election within 120 days of the start of the process.
Completed consents from bishops are sent to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, while consents from the diocesan standing committees are collected by the Diocese of Los Angeles. On March 10, the Presiding Bishop announced that Canon Bruce had received the necessary consents from both the bishops and the dioceses. Los Angeles reported that she had received the approval of 78 of the 110 dioceses. Canon Glasspool had at that stage received 61 consents—56 are needed.
While the approval of the dioceses for Canon Glasspool was not unexpected, it is uncertain whether the bishops will back her election and risk an open break with the Anglican Communion. The bishop and standing committee of conservative dioceses such as Central Florida voted ‘no’ to Canon Glasspool’s election, while other dioceses split their vote with the Bishop of Texas voting ‘no’, while his standing committee voted ‘yes’.
One clue to the final outcome may come in the decision from the liberal bishop of Southern Virginia who voted ‘no’ to Canon Glasspool’s election. On Feb 4, the Rt. Rev. Herman Hollerith IV stated that he believed Canon Glasspool “would make a wonderful bishop and that she is an excellent match for the Diocese of Los Angeles. Her election there was logical and appropriate.”
Bishop Hollerith pledged his continued support and solidarity for the gay movement in the Episcopal Church, but noted this did not mean he would vote for Canon Glasspool.
“Nevertheless, it is clear to me that the ordination of an openly Gay woman to the episcopate will – at this time – have a serious negative impact on our relationship with the wider Anglican Communion, and that it may very well strain – to the breaking point – those bonds of affection which we have come to value with others, even with those who may agree with us,” he said in explaining his ‘no’ vote.
Canon Glasspool has until May 5 to receive a majority of consents from the bishops. A vote to abstain or not voting counts as a ‘no’ vote under US canons. Should she receive the necessary votes from the bishops, Canon Glasspool will be consecrated on May 15 at the Long Beach Arena by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
One late vote may come from the Diocese of Fort Worth. When the request for consents was mailed to the dioceses on Jan 5, the ballot for the Diocese of Fort Worth was sent to Bishop Jack Iker and his breakaway diocese. The request was subsequently forwarded across town to the loyalist faction and its bishop, the Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, Jr.
Archbishop’s Indian tour announced: The Church of England Newspaper, March 12, 2010 p 8. March 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Church of South India.comments closed
The Hindu mother goddess, Durga. Dr. Williams will travel to Calcutta during the Durga Puja festival this October.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Plans for the Archbishop of Canterbury to tour India were made public last week by the Church of North India. On March 3 the Bishop of Calcutta, the Rt. Rev. Ashoke Biswas told the Calcutta Metro Dr. Williams will spend two weeks in a mixed private and public visit to the country.
“I met the archbishop at the Lambeth Palace last month and he said that he would visit our city soon. He seemed interested in Bishop’s College, the oldest ex-Anglican college in India, and also in the social action programmes of the church here,” Bishop Biswas said.
The archbishop’s tour is scheduled for early October and will take in Calcutta, Patna, Ranchi, Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore, as well as Thiruvananthapuram, the place the archbishop’s wife Jane Williams was born.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace declined to confirm the report from the Bishop of Calcutta as the arrangements were not yet finalized.
The archbishop’s visit to Calcutta will coincide with the annual Durga Puja festival, দুর্গা পূজা, one of the principal Hindu festivals celebrating the goddess Durga, as well as a major Bengali cultural celebration.
Gay marriage approved in Washington DC: The Church of England Newspaper, March 12, 2010 p 8. March 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Washington.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Washington has authorized his clergy to solemnize gay civil marriages.
“Through the grace of Holy Baptism, there are no second class members of the Body of Christ,” Bishop John Chane said on March 4. “We are of equal value in the eyes of God, and any one of us may be called by the Holy Spirit into holy relationships as well as Holy Orders.”
Bishop Chane’s statement came one day after gay marriages were legalized in the District of Columbia, and follow upon the Episcopal Church’s decision at its July General Convention to end the ban on gay bishops and blessings.
Resolution C056 from the July convention gave bishops “particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal,” the ability to “provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.”
No member of the clergy will be compelled to perform gay civil marriages, Bishop Chane said. Nor has a specific liturgy been selected. “I would prefer to work that out in consultation with the clergy who will be performing these services,” he explained.
Under its current Prayer Book the Episcopal Church’s “Order of Marriage” cannot be used for same-sex couples, however, a number of unofficial rites for the blessing of same-sex unions and marriages are in circulation in the United States and Canada. Washington becomes the fourth diocese after Massachusetts, Vermont and Iowa to allow its clergy to perform gay marriages.
Church call for clean elections in Zambia: The Church of England Newspaper, March 12, 2010 p 7. March 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Corruption.comments closed
Former President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The start of the election campaign season in Zambia has prompted calls from the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches for the nation’s political parties to field candidates untainted by corruption.
In an interview published in the Times of Zambia last week, the president of the Anglican Council of Zambia, Bishop Robert Mumbi of Luapala said while the church would not endorse any one candidate, it did ask voters to support “morally upright” candidates.
On March 1 the secretary general of the Catholic Church’s Zambia Episcopal Conference Fr. Joe Komakoma said the “role of the church in its involvement in the electoral process is to promote good governance and ensure people start voting for credible leaders who will develop this country.
“Accountability and transparency should be the core of whatever we do publicly, whether as politicians or ordinary citizens,” he said at the launch of the Caritas Zambia 2011 election programme.
Public corruption scandals have cast a pall over Zambian politics in recent years. On Aug 17, 2009 a criminal court acquitted former President Frederick Chiluba of corruption charges, finding that the government had not proven its case that the money that financed the 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 former 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.
The government’s decision not to pursue an appeal of Mr. Chiluba’s acquittal prompted sharp denunciations from the country’s Anglican and Catholic bishops, and is behind the call for clean candidates in the 2011 general elections.
The standards the church applied to candidates for ordination should be applied to prospective parliamentary candidates, Bishop Mumbi said. “The Church requires that those that are ordained as clergy are morally upright, with one wife, sound mind and various other requirements, and they are offered to the public for scrutiny,” he said.
While it was not possible to legislate morality, he urged political leaders to address ways of requiring probity from elected officials. “Paul in the Bible says that the goodness of the law is that it shows our weaknesses and if our weakness as a people is the lack of good morals, then we should consider putting up laws that will address this weakness,” Bishop Mumbi said.
Misconduct charges filed against Australian bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, March 12, 2010 p 8. March 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Ross Davies of The Murray
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Episcopal Standards Commission of the Anglican Church of Australia has lodged a formal complaint of misconduct with the church’s Special Tribunal accusing the Rt. Rev. Ross Davies, Bishop of The Murray with conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy and abuse of office.
The seventeen page complaint filed against Bishop Davies last month lists nine causes of action and offers 108 examples of misconduct, including seeking a AU$1 million payout from the diocese in exchange for his early retirement. Bishop Davies has denied the accusations, and told The Age newspaper he will contest the charges.
An April 2, 2009 The Church of England Newspaper reported that the Archbishop of Adelaide, Dr. Jeffrey Driver had requested the Episcopal Standards Commission investigate complaints against Bishop Davies.
Dr. Driver stated that he had been asked by The Murray’s diocesan council “to consider ways to assist in resolving issues raised in that Diocese related to the Bishop.”
Consecrated bishop of the 26-parish Anglo-Catholic diocese in 2002, Bishop Davies has had a rocky tenure. In 2005 an internal church report found that the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against his archdeacon, the Ven. Peter Coote were “credible,” however Bishop Davies took no action other than refer him to a therapist.
Complaints of bullying and neglect of his duties have followed Bishops Davies, and he took a year’s sick leave from 2007-2008. Upon returning to the diocese, the Adelaide Sunday Mail reported that he asked for £500,000 from the diocese in return for his early retirement.
In its complaint, brought on behalf of the two other bishops of the Province of South Australia, Archbishop Driver and Bishop Garry Weatherill of Willochra, the Episcopal Standards Commission charges the bishop with seeking an unjust payout in return for vacating his office.
It also alleges that he lives outside the diocese and worships at a Roman Catholic church in Adelaide, engaged in abusive and bullying behavior, took part in the unlawful consecration of a bishop of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and has licensed two TAC bishops, the Rt. Rev. David Chislett and the Rt. Rev. David Moyer, as assistant bishops in his diocese.
Bishop Davies told The Age, “’I don’t think I’ve done anything that deserves me to be ejected from office.” The embattled bishop is also a leading member of Forward in Faith Australia, which last month voted to take up Pope Benedict’s offer of an Anglican enclave in Rome.
Critics of the bishop charge he has pressed for an early payout from the diocese and will take advantage of the Personal Ordinariate. However, Bishop Davies said he had not yet decided if he was going over to Rome.
A three-man Tribunal led by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr. Philip Freier, will hear the charges.
Welsh church leaders back nuclear weapons ban: The Church of England Newspaper, March 10, 2010 March 24, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Archbishop Barry Morgan of Wales
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
For the sake of the “children,” the leaders of the Anglican, Catholic and Free churches of Wales are calling upon the Government to commit to a “world free of nuclear weapons.”
On March 5, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr. Barry Morgan, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, Peter Smith, and the President of the Free Church Council of Wales, the Rev Martin Spain, released a statement supporting the “Now is the Time” campaign. Their concerns come in advance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference this May in New York, which they see as a key moment in dismantling the nuclear stockpile.
Held every five years, the NPT Review Conferences serve as a “barometer of the health of the nuclear nonproliferation regime,” the Carnegie Endowment said, and allow member states to maintain and strengthen the effectiveness of the NPT, which governs nuclear nonproliferation, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and disarmament.
While Iran and North Korea will likely be at the top of the agenda for this meeting, peace advocates hope the change of administrations in Washington will see a greater willingness in the US for the adoption of an international treaty controlling nuclear weapons.
The “Now is the Time” campaign supported by the Church of England, the World Council of Churches and other UK church groups is pressing the government to sign up to a new Nuclear Weapons Convention that would put current stocks of bomb-grade uranium under international control and criminalize the state-possession of nuclear weapons.
“We believe that the use or threat of use of weapons of mass destruction is immoral,” the Welsh clerics said.
“We acknowledge the spread and increasing accessibility of nuclear technology and the threat that this poses to our security. We are encouraged by the prospect of significant reductions in US and Russian nuclear arsenals,” and “we call on nuclear weapons states to refrain from updating their nuclear arsenals and remind them of their “unequivocal undertaking” to meet their obligations to eliminate all nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The three church leaders said they owed it to the “children” to “seize the opportunity” of putting in place a “new legally binding verifiable and universal agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons.”
Women priests on the agenda for Central Africa: The Church of England Newspaper, March 9, 2010 March 24, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Women Priests.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Women clergy will be on the agenda at the August meeting of the General Synod of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, The Church of England Newspaper has learned.
The Rt. Rev. Robert Mumbi, Bishop of Luapula and president of the Zambian Anglican Council reports that calls for a change to the provincial constitution allowing dioceses to ordain women clergy have been made by lay leaders in the province. Speaking to the Times of Zambia last week, he stated the synod is likely to take up the issue.
A change is not likely to take place in the near term, as a constitutional amendment is required to permit the change, a Central African source tells CEN, as the province is unlikely to follow the line taken by some churches and state that as a matter of grammar, the language of the current constitution and canons can now be construed to permit men and women to enter the ordained ministry.
The issue may be side tracked at synod as the dioceses in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi have called for a division of the province into three national churches—with Botswana likely to move south to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The weakness of the Church in Zimbabwe due to the country’s economic collapse and the on-going Kunonga affair, however, has delayed the planned division.
Of the 38 Provinces of the Anglican Communion, 8 do not ordain women: Central Africa, Jerusalem and the Middle East, Melanesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, South East Asia, and Tanzania.
Two provinces ordain women to the diaconate only, Congo and the Southern Cone while 25 provinces and the extra-provincial Church of Ceylon ordain women to the priesthood: Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Central America, England, Hong Kong, North India, South India, Indian Ocean, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Scotland, Southern Africa, the Sudan, Uganda, Wales, West Africa, and the West Indies. Four provinces have consecrated women bishops: the Episcopal Church, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as has the extra-provincial diocese of Cuba.
Church retirement rules upheld in the Bahamas, The Church of England Newspaper, March 7, 2010 March 24, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies.comments closed
Senior Justice Jon Isaac
First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The Bahamian Supreme Court has rejected a petition to throw out the mandatory retirement canons of the Diocese of the Bahamas.
On March 3 Senior Justice Jon Isaac (pictured) discharged the injunction that had prevented Bishop Laish Boyd from removing 72-year old Archdeacon Etienne Bowleg from office as rector of Holy Trinity Church in Nassau, and dismissed the archdeacon’s appeal.
In his petition Archdeacon Bowleg argued the failure of the diocese to gazette, or give formal legal notice by publishing the canons in a journal of legal record, of the changes to its canons providing for mandatory retirement, rendered it void.
A similar case had been brought against the Diocese of Barbados by the Rev. Edward Gatherer, rector of St Andrew’s parish, who argued that when the Church of England was disestablished in 1969, the reorganized diocese failed to gazette its new retirement canons making them void.
The case of Gomez v Gatherer eventually came before the Ecclesiastical Committee of the Privy Council which held in 1992 the diocese had failed to follow its rules of procedure and was barred from enforcing canons not properly enacted. Fr. Gatherer, now 87 years of age, currently remains in office as priest in charge of St Andrews.
In last week’s case, Justice Isaac dismissed the archdeacon’s appeal without proceeding to the merits of his case after the diocese submitted a copy of the Deed of Institution naming Archdeacon Bowleg as rector of Holy Trinity which stated he “served at the pleasure of the bishop.”
As an ‘at will’ employee of the bishop, Archdeacon Bowleg had no standing to contest his dismissal, the court found, declining to address the constitutionality of the diocesan canons.
Bishop Boyd told the Nassau Guardian he was pleased with the ruling, while retired Archbishop Drexel Gomez said he too was pleased the issue had been “resolved for the sake of the church and for general order.”
Hundreds dead in massacre of Christians in Central Nigeria: The Church of England Newspaper, March 12, 2010 p 7. March 24, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Persecution.comments closed
Archbishop Ben Kwashi of Jos
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Hundreds are dead in Nigeria after Muslim Fulani tribesmen attacked three predominantly Christian villages near Jos in the country’s central Plateau State on March 7.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports the attack began at 3:00 am on Sunday morning when armed men “woke the villagers simultaneously with gun fire and shouting, before setting homes on fire and attacking men, women and children with knives. Most died from machete wounds and many bodies were decapitated. In one location CSW Nigeria staff counted the corpses of four babies; 28 children under five, 19 over five, 21 women and 15 men. The bodies of babies had also been set on fire.”
The attackers are believed to be Fulani tribesmen from the neighbouring state of Bauchi, who are suspected of having taken revenge for the massacre of 150 Muslim villagers in Kuru Karama on Jan 19. Aid workers in Central Nigeria believe that economic as well as sectarian passions have fueled the violence.
A local NGO working to prevent desertification in northern Nigeria, Green Shield of Nations, said there were an estimated 15 million primarily Muslim pastoralists in northern Nigeria. The search for land to graze their flocks led to conflicts with farmers—primarily Christians—in the Plateau State.
Speaking to Channel 4 News, the Archbishop of Jos the Most Rev. Ben Kwashi said word of the attacks reached him as he was heading to church.”
He was told the “Muslim attackers” were “killing anybody, anybody. … Even children were all massacred. One day old. A woman was delivering and even she with the undelivered baby were all killed. Everybody: women, children, men and all.”
The archbishop questioned how “bus loads of Muslim Fulani men who came armed with swords and machetes” could pass unmolested through an area under military curfew to attack the three villages. “The attack was quite systematic and quite well organised. It didn’t leave the villagers with any chance to escape at all,” he said.
“Hundreds of Fulani herdsmen invaded our village [Dogo Nahawa] and two neighbouring villages of Zot and Ratsat. My wife and two children were killed in the attack,” Peter Gyang told the IRIN news service. “The attackers fired gunshots just to scare people out of their houses, and then hacked them with machetes before setting them on fire.”
The quickness and severity of the attack led the archbishop to believe the attacks were not the work of simple tribesmen, but of trained killers. “If we had an idea of who it was, the problem would be solved. That’s what we have been facing in Jos, we don’t know who,” Archbishop Kwashi said.
“These are faceless people. If they could identify themselves we could ask them ‘what do you really want’ and some meaningful negotiations can be done, and with some skill, I believe, blood should not be shed. Blood should never be shed of any human being,” he said.
Archbishop backs Hillsborough vote at Stormont: The Church of England Newspaper, March 11, 2010 March 19, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Politics.comments closed
Dr. Alan Harper, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland speaking with Dr. Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales during the 2009 Primates Meeting in Alexandria
First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The Archbishop of Armagh has urged political leaders not to be sidetracked by sectarian squabbling, but continue to work for peace. Dr Alan Harper’s plea comes days before the Northern Ireland Assembly votes on legislation that would transfer justice and policing powers from Westminster to Stormont.
Paul’s prescription from the Epistle to the Romans, “Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone,” Dr. Alan Harper said in a statement released on March 5 “is exactly what is required of all the people of Northern Ireland and especially those in positions of leadership if we are to ensure that the peace we have begun to enjoy is truly embedded.”
Dr. Harper condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Keady, Newry and the murder of Ciaran Doherty outside Londonderry, believed to be the work of a republican splinter group. “Recent events have demonstrated the intent and capacity of some, a tiny faction, to try to turn back the clock. They will not succeed,” he said.
“The determination of the leaders of all the parties to build on the progress that has been made, together with the undoubted support of ordinary people for constructive, efficient and purposeful ‘partnership government’, will ensure that violence and division do not return to our streets,” Archbishop Harper said, noting that Ulster’s “political leaders deserve the wholehearted support of everyone as they seek to accomplish, under God, the difficult task given to them.”
The Northern Ireland Assembly will vote on March 9 to approve the devolution timetable established in negotiations at Hillsborough Castle last month. It is expected the bill will receive the backing of all of the parties in the Assembly, except for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).
Dr. Harper said that “it is clear that since Feb 5 considerable progress” has been made in bridging the sectarian divide.
“This progress is due to the commitment and cooperation of all the main parties, not least those that were not originally participants in the Hillsborough negotiations, becoming included only at a very late stage. Such work on the part of the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP, the PUP and the Alliance Party deserves special recognition,” he said.
He urged all of Northern Ireland’s political parties, to stay at the negotiating table. The Hillsborough agreement “demonstrates the common commitment of all the parties, so far as it depends on them, to live at peace and to build not only stable structures of government but also positive social relationships in order to ensure that there will be no to return to the sterility and violence of the past,” the archbishop said.
TAC goes to Rome: The Church of England Newspaper, March 13, 2010 March 19, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church, Traditional Anglican Communion.comments closed
Bishop David Moyer, Archbishop John Hepworth, Bishop David Chislett of the Traditional Anglican Communion
The bishops of the American branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion have voted to accept Pope Benedict’s offer of corporate reunion with the Roman Catholic Church, and will begin work on forming a “Personal Ordinariate” for disaffected Anglicans in America.
On March 3, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America (ACA) released a statement saying they have decided “formally to request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Anglicanorum coetibus’ in the United States of America by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Composed of 100 congregations and approximately 5200 members, the ACA is the second group to request admission to the Pope’s Anglican Ordinariate. However, unlike Forward in Faith Australia—which made its request last month, the ACA is an independent denomination belonging to the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC).
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane noted that a number of misunderstandings had arisen in connection concerning the relations between the Australian-based TAC and the Anglican Church of Australia.
TAC “is a group of people that are not part of the Anglican Church of Australia nor in communion with the global Anglican Communion,” he said in a March 5 statement given to The Church of England Newspaper.
It was not possible, he noted to be both a Roman Catholic and a member of the Anglican Communion. “My understanding is that if any Anglicans do wish to accept the Apostolic Constitution they will be able to retain elements of Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage,” he said.
However, those joining the Ordinariate would be “required to replace all ecclesial elements with those of the Roman Catholic Church,” Dr. Aspinall said, which meant that a former Anglican priest who “wishes to minister as a Roman Catholic priest would need to be re-ordained in the Roman Catholic Church.”
The changes would also apply to lay people, he added, who “may need to be re-confirmed. All former Anglicans who choose to become Roman Catholic will have to accept all the teaching of that Church including its moral teaching, for example on contraception. People who choose to change will no longer be members of the Anglican Church or be in Communion with the global Anglican Communion,” he explained.
While there has been “movement in both directions between our churches over the years,” Archbishop Aspinall said, “this is what is involved in an Anglican becoming a Roman Catholic.”
Last week’s request by the ACA bishops must now be affirmed by its clergy and lay members, however, sources in the ACA say that they expect most members to follow their clergy to Rome.
Zimbabwe police back Kunonga over the courts: The Church of England Newspaper, March 13, 2010 March 19, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, Zimbabwe.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Nolbert Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have ignored a High Court decision allowing Anglicans loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya and the Church of the Province of Central Africa to return to their churches.
The Church of England Newspaper has learned that last Sunday, the ZRP blocked Dr. Gandiya and his supporters from using diocese’s churches, as senior officials in the ZRP and security services failed to enforce the March 3 ruling issued by High Court Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that dismissed with costs the application of Dr. Kunonga to declare him to be the rightful owner of the diocese’s properties.
The dispute between Dr. Kunonga and Dr. Gandiya extends beyond the Anglican Church, and reflects the breakdown of Zimbabwe’s coalition government. In January, co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutseyekwa of the opposition MDC party announced that he was planning to meet Harare police commanders to discuss the Anglican issue, and would press them to obey the judiciary.
The ZRP’s decision to ignore the courts and the Home Affairs Minister, in favour of ZANU-PF loyalist Dr. Kunonga, analysts note, speaks to the breakdown of the rule of law and government in Zimbabwe.
Last year lawyers for Dr. Kunonga asked the courts to enforce an order issued on July 24, 2009 by Justice Ben Hlatshwayo, declaring the former bishop to be the rightful owner of the diocesan properties.
Lawyers for the Province countered the July 2009 order should be invalidated as the matter was already before the Supreme Court when Justice Hlatshawayo made his ruling, depriving him of jurisdiction to hear the case.
The court held that in the “final analysis I find that the [Dr. Kunonga] has failed to prove on a balance of probabilities that the appeal was noted before Hlatshwayo J. had delivered his judgment. The same issue is pending in the Supreme Court and this court has no jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter. It is accordingly ordered that the application be and is hereby dismissed with costs,” Justice Bhunu ruled.
The effect of the decision was to return the parties to the state of affairs as of January 2008 when High Court Judge Rita Makarau ordered Dr. Kunonga to share the use of the diocesan properties until a final decision was reached.
However, Dr. Kunonga with the connivance of the ZRP and the security services, refused to comply with the 2008 order, and last Sunday refused to comply with the latest order directing him to share the properties.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have been harshly critical of Dr. Kunonga and his allies in the Mugabe regime. Speaking at a fundraiser at Southwark Cathedral for the church in Zimbabwe last month, Dr Williams praised the courage and faithfulness of Harare Anglicans in the face of government-backed violence that had closed down their churches and prevented them from worshipping.
“It would be difficult enough to deliver all this significant help and support if there were not other problems, a country suffering grave deprivation and political and economic crisis, but to deliver this also in the face of relentless brutality and harassment is a further extra mark of the courage and the stature of our Anglican friends in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Convent for sale: The Church of England Newspaper March 14, 2010 March 19, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.comments closed
Rempstone Hall
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Benedictine sisters of the Holy Cross are selling up, and have listed their convent near Loughborough for sale with an estate agent.
Rempstone Hall, the nuns’ home since 1979, is being placed on the market for £2.5 million, and the proceeds from the sale will allow the order to move to a purpose-built home nearby in the village of Costock. A classical Georgian red-brick house, originally built in 1792 for a local landowner, the sisters purchased the property in 1979 for £110,000.
When the order acquired the 20 bedroom, 21,000 sq foot home Grade II-listed hall, there were 20 sisters in residence. Their numbers have fallen to nine, and a purpose built convent suitable for their smaller size and aging population was felt necessary.
The Rev. Mother Mary Luke told the Leicester Mercury she was sad to leave the 22-acre estate and it “is the most wonderful building and it has served us very well.”
However, the “hall was not built as a convent. It was built as a large private residence and we will be moving to a new home which we hope will be ready by May next year,” she said.
A description of the property in Country Life notes the Hall can be turned back into a private residence at a cost of approximately £500,000. The prospectus states the “property, which has been carefully maintained throughout, comprises the hall with four reception rooms, a drawing room/chapel, a library, 10 main bedrooms, 10 secondary bedrooms, and six bathrooms, plus two lodges, a flat, an impressive stable courtyard, and a walled kitchen garden.”
Mother Mary Luke said she was hoping for a quick sale. “People who have millions are still able to afford property and we have a very nice one,” she said.
US Church spends £1.5 million on lawyers in property battle: CEN 3.05.10 p 7. March 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation.comments closed
David Booth Beers
The Episcopal Church’s national offices in New York spent over £1.5 million for lawyers last year in its fight to hold on to the assets of departing dioceses and congregations, preliminary financial figures show.
This total represents only a portion of the funds expended and does not include the bills for dioceses and parishes. A number of dioceses are believed to have spent more than the national church in legal fees. At its annual synod last month, the Diocese of Virginia reported it had spent over $3.5 million of a $4 million line of credit taken out to regain the properties of the breakaway Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA).
The December 2009 preliminary balance statement released by the national church shows that legal assistance for dioceses fighting secession battles had been budgeted at $100,000 for the year. The actual amount spent was $2,346,347—23 times over budget.
The new year saw no lull, nor has there been any final reckoning. On March 1 the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari, or declined to review the appeal of a St Luke’s Church in La Crescenta, California, which lost its bid to secede from the Diocese of Los Angeles for the Church of Uganda and keep its property.
On Feb 15 the loyalist faction of the former Episcopal Church parish of All Saints Waccamaw on Pawley’s Island, South Carolina filed a petition for review to the US Supreme Court of the Sept 18, 2009 South Carolina Supreme Court ruling that permitted the congregation to quit the diocese and keep its property.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh under the leadership of Archbishop Robert Duncan, leader of the Anglican Church in North America, last week filed an appeal to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court of a local court order directing it to turn over its assets to the Diocese of Pittsburgh affiliated with the Episcopal Church, while in Texas, the Diocese of Fort Worth has filed a writ asking the Court of Appeals to dismiss the case brought by the loyalist faction of the former Episcopal diocese, seeking to control the name and a assets of the diocese now part of the ACNA.
Litigation continues in California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno, were briefs were filed last November in the case of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin v. the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. In June 2009 a lower court granted summary judgment to the Episcopal diocese in its bid for control the assets of the Anglican diocese.
Disputes between breakaway congregations and their former dioceses are underway across the United States in Connecticut, Tennessee, California, Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia and California, while in Virginia the state Supreme Court is schedule to hear an appeal from the Diocese of Virginia against a lower court ruling that permitted eleven conservative congregations to secede with their property.
The battle between left and right also extends to the clergy and their lawyers. On Feb 15, the bishop of the loyalist faction of the Diocese of Fort Worth deposed 57 clergy aligned with the majority faction that seceded with the Diocese from the Episcopal Church. Last November, the Diocese of Long Island filed suit against the lawyers for a New York parish, including the son-in-law of Archbishop Duncan, that quit the diocese. In 2008 a court awarded custody of the parish property to the diocese, which now is seeking to recoup the $205,000 paid to the parish’s attorneys, claiming they were unjustly enriched by the litigation.
Conservatives are also suing each other in America. In December, the Rt. Rev. David Moyer, the rector of Anglo-Catholic bastion Good Shepherd, Rosemont sued his former attorney following his loss for a suit of unjust dismissal leveled against Bishop Charles Bennison, Jr. of Pennsylvania. Bishop Bennison is also pursuing an appeal of the ecclesiastical court case that found him guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy for mishandling his brother’s sexual abuse of a teenage girl many years before, when he was a rector in California.
Chile quake hits Church: CEN 3.05.10 p 1. March 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Over 700 have died and more than two million people have been displaced from their homes following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile on Feb 28.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has instituted martial law over the south western coastal region of Maule and the city of Concepción and ordered troops to help deliver food and relief supplies. With Concepción’s 500,000 residents cut off from food and water, looting has broken out and soldiers have fired tear gas to control the crowds.
Bishop Henry Scriven, director of mission for Latin America for CMS-SAMS reports that its has no word of any injuries of its staff in country. The former Bishop of Chile, the Rt. Rev Colin Bazley was visiting family in Santiago and was in their 24th floor apartment when the earthquake struck. “They were shaken, but not stirred!” Bishop Scriven reported.
Communications with the Concepción are difficult, however. Sammy Lugo told SAMS-Ireland the “phone lines have been down and mobile phone signals are weak and unreliable. Even the government hasn’t really known what’s been happening till about 12 hours ago. “
“The news we’re now getting is quite disturbing: riots, looting, people trapped under buildings and even hundreds of people having escaped a few of the local prisons. On the coast some towns have been hit by tsunamis, though things are calmer now on that front,” said Lugo, a lay member of the Diocese of Chile, who recently completed a one-year parish placement in Belfast.
“Thankfully, the news from the Concepción church seems to be ok. We’ve heard news of many of the church families staying together and sharing food and lodgings, as things are much more difficult there.”
On March 2, SAMS Ireland General Secretary Denis Johnston spoke with Bishop Tito Zavala of Chile, who reported that he was taking a team from Santiago to Concepción to survey the damage and to assist church families displaced by the earthquake.
In an email to Anglican Mainstream, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, the Primate of the Church of the Southern Cone stated the earthquake “represents both a setback and a great opportunity to demonstrate the reality of the transformation Christ brings through his Spirit working through his people. I hope we can support our brethren in Christ in Chile strongly at this time. “
Summit urged to debate church persecution: CEN 3.05.10 p 7. March 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Ecumenical, Washington.comments closed
Ayatollah Mostafa Damad
Washington’s National Cathedral played host this week to a closed door Christian-Muslim summit of religious leaders. The invitation of representatives of the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam prompted protests however from US conservatives who called for Muslim leaders to address the persecution of Christians across the Islamic world.
From March 1 to 3, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Professor Ahmad El Tayeb, president of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Bishop John Chane of Washington and Ayatollah Ahmad Iravani, president of the Center for the Study of Islam & the Middle East met for “for a candid discussion of matters affecting Christian-Muslim relations and peacemaking efforts worldwide,” a press statement from the summit said.
Organizers of the three day gathering, stated the meeting sought “to promote understanding and reconciliation between the two faith traditions, and to encourage religious leaders to use their influence with government leaders, and the community at large” to build peace.
The four religious leaders were joined by twenty additional representatives from the Sunni, Shia, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, including Clare Amos of the staff of the Anglican Consultative Council, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon of Kaduna, Nigeria, Bishop Pierre Whalon of the Convocation of American Episcopal Churches in Europe, and Prof. Lamin Sanneh of Yale University.
Shortly before the start of the conference, the head of the Shia delegation, Ayatollah Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, professor of law at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, notified the meeting he would be unable to attend.
The meeting prompted protests led by the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). The IRD’s Religious Liberty Director Faith McDonnell stated that what should have been on the agenda was the persecution of Christians.
“In many Christian-Muslim dialogues, Christians avoid anything contentious, but they have a moral obligation to those oppressed by Islam to talk about everything that is contentious,” she said, adding that the “two countries represented by the Muslim Principals, Egypt and Iran, commit egregious human rights violations against Christians, converts from Islam, outspoken democracy and free speech advocates, women, and gays.”
However, Ayatollah Damad, the former High Commissioner of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in Iran, has been a critic of the abuse of civil liberties in his country, while also supporting the government. In 2004 he told a Canadian government panel that “without democracy, we have no human rights at all.”
Damad argued that it was important for the West to approach the issue of human rights in Iran from the standpoint of benefits for the people of the country. If Western motives were perceived to be founded on self-interest, based on security or anti-terrorism fears, Western interests would be seen as attacking not assisting the pro-democracy movement in Iran.
“Civil society in every Muslim country needs help,” he argued in 2004, but to be received as genuine this help would have to avoid any self-serving political agenda in order to build long-term supporting partnerships that appreciate Iranians’ situation and concerns, Damad said.
Church retirement rules go under Court scrutiny: CEN 3.05.10 p 8. March 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies.comments closed
Archdeacon Etienne Bowleg of Nassau
The Bahamian Supreme Court will hear a challenge this week to the Anglican Church’s canons governing the retirement of clergy.
On March 3 the court will hear the petition of Archdeacon Etienne Bowleg, rector of Holy Trinity Church in Nassau, who is fighting Bishop Laish Boyd’s order that he step down upon reaching the mandatory age of retirement of 70.
This will be the second go round before the courts in the Bowleg affair, as the archdeacon had previously sought to have eight years subtracted from his age, claiming his birth certificate was in error. The archdeacon’s new claim is that the diocese’s failure to properly gazette, or publish the canon, renders it void.
The archdeacon’s claim is being given close consideration by the Bahamian courts, as a similar case in the Diocese of Barbados went to the Privy Council in London, which found in favor of a clergyman who was able to show the publication of the diocese’s canons had not been legally perfected.
In 2007 Archbishop Drexel Gomez informed Archdeacon Bowleg that as he was 70 years of age, he would have to step down at the end of the year. Under Bahamian canon law, clergy must retire at the age of 65, but may with the permission of bishop remain in office until the age of 70.
Archdeacon Bowleg responded that he was born on Dec 18, 1945, but when his birth was recorded it was registered with the wrong date: Dec 18, 1937. The mistake was only discovered when he moved to Nassau to live with his father. In 1962 he stated his parents signed an affidavit stating the year of his birth was 1945, but he had subsequently lost the affidavit.
The court granted an ex parte order to the archdeacon changing the date of his birth, but following the protests of the diocese which produced a baptismal certificate and the intervention of the attorney general, the order subtracting eight years from his birth certificate was rescinded.
In an affidavit sworn on Aug 20, 2008 Acting Registrar General Shane Miller stated the archdeacon’s birth had been recorded by his mother as Dec 18, 1937. A further search of the records revealed that a daughter had been born to the archdeacon’s mother on May 28, 1945 in Ragged Island. “It should be noted that this birth was seven months prior to the alleged birth of [Bowleg] on Dec 18, 1945,” Miller stated.
However, in light of his second cause of action, the Supreme Court has granted Archdeacon Bowleg an injunction, preventing his ouster pending the March hearing. The canons governing mandatory retirement were not properly advertised, the archdeacon has argued, and should be of no legal effect.
When he was Bishop of Barbados, Archbishop Gomez was party to a similar case. In Gomez v Gatherer, the Privy Council held that the failure of a Church to follow its rules of procedure served as a bar to enforcement of acts not properly enacted.
In 1969 the Anglican Church in Barbados was disestablished and the 1947 Anglican Church Act rescinded. New regulations were made by the church providing for retirement of clergy, but the church failed to publish the new regulations in the Official Gazette as was required by law.
The rector of St Andrew’s Church, the Rev. Edward Gatherer upon reaching retirement age was asked to stand down by Bishop Gomez. He declined and the case was brought to trial, and on appeal the Privy Council in 1992 held no obligation to retire was created because the regulations had not been properly published.
In affidavit filed with the Court in Nassau, Archbishop Gomez said he was disappointed that Archdeacon Bowleg was now seeking to impugn the diocesan constitution, when he had supported their adoption, and had acted on the premise that they were binding upon him and required his retirement at the age of 70.
Two dead after sectarian clashes in Liberia: CEN 3.05.10 p 6. March 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of West Africa, Islam.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Charges of witchcraft and ritual murder have led to the deaths of two people and the destruction of an Episcopal church in sectarian clashes in Northern Liberia last week.
St Theresa’s Episcopal Church in the town of Vionjama in Lofa County along Liberia’s border with Guinea and the town’s Roman Catholic and Baptist churches were destroyed and a dozen people were injured after fighting broke out between Christians and Muslims after the body of a child was found near Vionjama’s mosque. Some of the child’s body parts had been removed, raising fears of child sacrifice or ritual murder.
The Reuters news agency reported on Feb 27 that the government had imposed a curfew and dispatched troops to bring the area under control.
Tensions between Christians and Muslims have been high across West Africa this year, with deadly sectarian riots having erupted in Nigeria and Guinea leaving hundreds dead. In a speech last month in Port Harcourt, the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, urged Christians to take the first step in breaking free from the cycle of violence plaguing the region.
Christians should not return violence with violence, but be as “salt and light in the world”. He linked the political chaos in the region to a malign combination of ethnic and sectarian divisions coupled with rampant corruption.
It takes but a “few genuine Christians” to “transform the nation,” he said on Feb 23, urging Anglicans to have no truck with corruption. “Those who validate evil by connivance are not worthy to be called Christians,” he said.
German bishop resigns over drink-driving: CEN 3.05.10 p 7. March 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Afghanistan, Church of England Newspaper, EKD.comments closed
Bishop Margot Kaessmann
The President Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (EKD) has resigned after being arrested for drunk driving in Hanover.
The Rt. Rev. Margot Käßmann (Kaessmann) was stopped by police for running a red traffic signal on Feb 20 and failed a field sobriety test. Under German law driving with a blood alcohol level above 0.11 per cent is a criminal offence. The bishop’s blood alcohol level was 0.154 per cent, three times the .05 per cent legal limit, making it likely that if convicted, she would lose her driver’s licence for a year.
“I made a serious mistake that I regret deeply,” Bishop Kaessmann told a televised news conference on Feb 24.
“My heart tells me very clearly that I cannot remain in office with the necessary authority,” she said, stating that she no longer had the moral authority to “name and judge ethical and political challenges.”
Chancellor Angela Merkel stated she had valued working with the bishop, but accepted her decision “with respect and regret.”
German newspapers had a field day with the arrest, reprinting past statements made by Bishop Kaessmann condemning alcohol abuse and drunk driving. Bishop Kaessmann told the press last year she was giving up alcohol for Lent stating she “noticed how a glass of wine in the evening can become a habit.”.
Spiegel reported that three years ago the Bishop condemned drunk drivers saying “sometimes there is a lack of awareness particularly when drink and drugs are involved.”
“Sometimes on the motorway I see people driving as though they have no idea of how powerful a car is, even at 50 kilometres per hour, in other words how a car can really destroy lives.
Bild reported that in one column the bishop wrote that “wine is a part of life, but it should be enjoyed in moderation,” she said, adding that “even the Bible warns about drunkenness. I like … light white wines.”
After her arrest the bishop told Bild she was “shocked” that she “could make such a terrible mistake,” and added she was “aware of how dangerous and irresponsible drinking and driving is, and am ready for the legal consequences.”
Elected chairman of the EKD’s church council on Oct 28, 2009 at the church’s national synod meeting in Ulm, Bishop Kaessmann is the first women to lead Germany’s 25 million Lutherans. A mother of four, her election stirred controversy in conservative quarters as she divorced her husband, a fellow Lutheran pastor, in 2007 after 26 years of marriage.
The new bishop has taken a high public profile since her election, and has condemned as immoral the government’s operations in Afghanistan. At two New Year’s church services, she told congregations in Berlin and Dresden she did not approve of NATO strategy in Afghanistan, where 4,500 German soldiers serve with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
“Even by the loosest possible standards of the Protestant church, this war is unjustifiable. That is why there needs to be an end to the violent conflict as soon as possible,” she told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.
She called it “infuriating” that “military methods had once again taken priority” before other methods. “The population will only accept a peaceful new beginning if peaceful methods are used,” she said, calling for immediate peace talks with the Taliban.
German political leaders and veterans’ groups denounced her views as “not helpful”, “naïve”, and “unrealistic.” Germany fields the third-largest force contingent after the United States and Britain, who have asked it to commit more troops towards the stabilization of the country.
Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg met with Bishop Kaessmann last month and has invited her to visit the Bundeswehr’s mission in Afghanistan. It is too soon to tell if the bishop’s drunk driving arrest and resignation will affect the political calculus of the anti-war movement in Germany, analysts tell The Church of England Newspaper.
Primus attacks Labour Minister over bid to woo faith vote: CEN 3.05.10 March 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy MP at a 2008 audience at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church has criticised Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy’s “blatant attempt” to align the Labour Party with the religious vote.
On Feb 27, the Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, the Rt Rev David Chillingworth, joined Cardinal Keith O’Brien in accusing the government minister of doing a “grave disservice to faith by suggesting that it can be ‘shrink-wrapped’ to fit the manifesto of his or any political party”.
In a talk given last week to a Labour think-tank, Mr Murphy sought to keep religious voters on board to give Labour a fourth term in office by saying their concerns would be given prominence in the party’s political manifesto. In the 2005 election, Labour led the Conservative Party by nine percentage points among those who identified themselves as being religious, he said, and noted that the party had been founded and nurtured on the principles of Christian Socialism.
The comments prompted a sharp reaction from the leader of the Scottish Catholic Church, Cardinal O’Brien, who charged the Labour Government with maintaining an “unrelenting attack on family values”.
Bishop Chillingworth said he was “astonished” by Labour’s claims to be faith-friendly. Murphy’s lecture “expresses the view that ‘fairness’ is a key component of faith. But faith is about much more than fairness.”
“Faith is about justice,” he said, it “is about love and sacrifice – not about splitting the difference in the interests of fairness,” the Bishop said this week.
The concept of fairness outlined by the Scottish Secretary was “flat-footed,” and represented the “politics of the supermarket check-out. They are regressive, inviting us to revisit outdated nationalisms, to pursue those whom we deem to be work-shy, to close our borders to the poor of the world on the basis of a ‘firm and fair’ immigration policy”.
“What about some bigger visions – a new vision of how peace can be built, how creation can be honoured, how the poor can be fed, how the weak can be protected, how an inclusive and tolerant society can be built,” he asked.
To engage in “serious dialogue with politicians is what churches and faith groups must do,” Bishop Chillingworth said, “if that is what Jim Murphy is hoping for, I shall be delighted and honoured to join in that debate. But I hope he will understand that I feel that my faith has been diminished – shrink-wrapped – by his picture of it,” he said.
New diocese created in North India: CEN 3.05.10 p 8. March 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India.comments closed
The General Synod of the Church of North India has approved the creation of the Diocese of Chhattisgarh. The new diocese’s boundaries will follow the political borders of the state of Chhattisgarh in central India and will be carved out of the southeast Chhattisgarhi-speaking portion of the Diocese of Jabalpur.
The growth of the church in central India coupled with the demands of a geographically large diocese overseen by the Bishop of Jabalpur, Dr. P.C. Singh, and a petition from church leaders in the prospective diocese prompted the creation of the new diocese, a member of synod told The Church of England Newspaper.
Last month the General Synod Executive Committee appointed the Bishop of Cuttack, the Rt. Rev. Samson Dass to serve as commissary for the diocese pending the appointment of a bishop in April. On Feb 1 Bishop Dass opened the diocesan offices at St. Matthew’s Church in Raipur and met with lay and clergy leaders to begin the work of building the new diocese.
The Diocese of Chhattisgarh will be the Church of North India’s 27 diocese.
Commissioners to lobby for extension of VAT relief scheme: CEN 3.05.10 p 6. March 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, EU.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church Commissioners will ask the Government to extend the “Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme” providing for VAT relief for churches beyond its March 31, 2011 expiration date, Second Church Estates Commissioner Sir Stuart Bell told Parliament last week.
Whether the Government is able to act, however, is unclear as a Feb 11 ruling by the European Court of Justice limits the ability of national governments to interpret or modify the EU VAT directives.
On Feb 26, the member for the Vale of York, Miss Anne McIntosh (pictured, Cons.) the shadow minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs asked Sir Stuart “what recent representations the Church Commissioners have received on the effects of the scheme which rebates Value Added Tax payable on repairs for listed places of worship”.
Sir Stuart responded that General Synod had “made a clear statement that this extremely welcome scheme, which had by the end of Jan 2010 paid out over £101 million across the UK but is due to end on March 31, 2011, should be extended”.
On Feb 11, General Synod endorsed the motion “Repair of Church Buildings” (GS 1768) which called on the Government to “substantially increase” funding for the repair of listed church buildings and to “give an early commitment to continuing beyond March 2011 the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme”.
The scheme had made a “huge difference” to parishes, he said, “which are currently spending over £110 million on repairs”.
Sir Stuart noted that “as no provision has been agreed within the EU to allow for the reduction of VAT for repairs to listed places of worship, the Church is campaigning, in partnership with other denominations and faiths, to persuade the Government to ensure the continuation of this scheme”.
The Government’s ability to interpret EU Directive 2006/112/EC governing VAT rates was limited last week, however, by the European Court of Justice. In a Feb 11 opinion handed down in European Commission v France (C-492/08), Advocate General Nilo Jääskinen held that France’s interpretation of the EU VAT directive must give way to that of the European Commission.
Under the French Tax Code, a 5.5 per cent VAT rate was applied to services provided by lawyers who were compensated through the state legal aid programme. French government policy held that these services were covered under Article 98 of the VAT directive which permitted a reduced VAT rate for the supply of goods and services provided for charitable services. Reduced fee legal services for the poor, the French government held, was a form of charitable activity.
However, the European Commission rejected France’s interpretation of the VAT directive and brought suit in 2008. The European Court of Justice rejected France’s arguments, holding that while legal aid was a charitable service, lawyers could not be considered charitable entities under the code.
The ruling serves to make the European Court of Justice and the European Commission the final arbiter of tax policy, not national governments, legal analysts note. In order to continue the Listed Grant Scheme, the British Government must either convince the EU to endorse the proposal, or fund it out of government revenues.
Tony Blair gathers inter-faith support to battle menace of malaria in Africa: CEN 3.05.10 p 5 March 13, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church and state must work together in Africa to combat the spread of malaria, Tony Blair said last month during a visit to Nigeria to kick off an inter-faith programme to equip religious leaders to combat the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.
On Feb 20, the former Prime Minister joined the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja and the Sultan of Sokoto, co-chairs of the Nigerian Inter-Faith Action Association (NIFAA), to inaugurate a training programme for 200 Christian and Muslim clerics in the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory.
The NIFAA programme, in conjunction with Nigeria’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and other NGOs hopes to train 300,000 religious leaders in disease control techniques. The Christian and Muslim clergy are then expected to train their congregations. Nigeria accounts for over 25 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa’s malaria cases, the WHO reports, and the NMCP seeks to cut the current morbidity rate in half by 2010.
Working with faith leaders, the NMCP plans to distribute over 60 million nets by the end of 2010.
“We are now faced with an extraordinary opportunity to turn the world’s positive attention to this major health intervention that our hundreds of thousands of faith leaders are carrying out alongside the national government,” Archbishop John Onaiyaken of Abuja said.
“It is fantastic to see the great training work being carried out by NIFAA,” Mr Blair said.
“It is the work of Muslim and Christian faith leaders on the ground in Nigeria — multi-faith collaboration about shared goals — that is at the heart of the work of my Faith Foundation. When faith communities collaborate and work together for justice and human development there is a double pay-off: things get done and respect and understanding between them grows. I hope that this work will be replicated in other parts of the developing world.”
“This model of inter-faith action can be readily adopted to join the faith and public sectors in other developing countries, if governments and funders are willing to provide external support to make this a reality,” Mr Blair said.
The Episcopal Church is ‘demonic’, Nigerian Archbishop charges: CEN 3.12.10 March 11, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, Property Litigation.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Church of Nigeria has accused the leadership of the Episcopal Church of being in league with the devil for waging a “demonic” campaign of litigation against breakaway conservative parishes in the United States.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria published last month, Archbishop Akinola stated the Nigerian-backed Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) was growing, but faced a number of obstacles. The law suits were a “major challenge,” he said, but “it is not CANA going to court; it is the demonic powers in the so-called Episcopal Church that are suing CANA churches.”
“They are fighting us with everything they have with the hope of crushing us,” he said in the interview published on the Church of Nigeria’s website.
“It is so ungodly, so demonic and they are determined to completely wipe us out and this is costing millions of dollars,” he said, noting that “money that could have been used in more positive work of the Gospel, is now being used for legal battle; it’s so sad.”
Archbishop Peter Akinola’s denunciation of the Episcopal Church comes as the Virginia Supreme Court has set a date for oral argument in the case of the Diocese of Virginia versus CANA. On March 3 the court stated it would hear oral arguments on the appeal of the diocese of a trial court ruling that held in favour of the breakaway parishes during the week of April 12.
Speaking for the breakaway parishes, the chairman of the Anglican District in Virginia Jim Oakes said “our parishioners have exercised their religious freedom by staying true to the Gospel, and have tried to do so in a way that avoided the need for government interference in our affairs. We continue to regret the necessity for defending ourselves in secular court, but remain fully prepared to do so and are confident in our legal position.”
The Secretary of the Diocese of Virginia Henry Burt stated the diocese welcomed “this news and the opportunity to appear before the Court.”
“For more than 200 years, the Episcopal Church has had the freedom to govern itself without government interference,” he said, adding that “we look to the Court to protect the religious freedoms upon which this Commonwealth and our nation were founded.
Archbishop Akinola noted the litigation campaign had produced mixed results. While prevailing so far in Virginia, breakaway congregations had lost cases in other jurisdictions. But he stated, that “where we have lost, our people have braced up to say that they will not bow down to Baal and they will not on the account of money go and do what is not right.”
South Africans welcome call for debate on morality: CEN 3.05.10 p 8. March 10, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in South Africa have given a cautious welcome to President Jacob Zuma’s proposal for a national dialogue on morality.
On Feb 23, the National Church Leaders’ Consultation, an umbrella group representing the leaders of the Christian Churches in Southern Africa, stated President Zuma’s proposal to examine the soul of South Africa was a “timely one” as the “common values and principles” that formed the country “under the leadership of former President Nelson Mandela” had been “substantially squandered”.
President Zuma (pictured) has come under harsh criticism for fathering a child out of wedlock, which for many symbolized the country’s declining civil and moral standards. In an interview published in South Africa’s Sunday Times on Feb 22, he conceded there was a need for agreement upon the “values that define a common South African identity”.
He called for a “conversation that must help us reach a common understanding as South Africans,” he added. “Values may not exactly be the same, but how do we bring harmony to this?”
The National Church Leaders’ Consultation welcomed the president’s statement, but warned the country was now “floundering,” “directionless” and “clueless” about its future.
“Given the current depth of polarisation along social, economic and political lines, we propose that the starting point be the foundational principle that the human person, and every human person, has intrinsic and inalienable value,” the church leaders said, adding that “all else in any code of morals must take its lead from that basic principle. In this way we will avoid all considerations of race, class, nationality, religion and political persuasion”.
For Christians, this principle arises from the belief “that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, that every person has value and worth from the fact that human life is sacred and therefore inviolable”.
Such a stance was the “only way in which we will be able to judge and evaluate whether or not our Constitution and its application is in fact fair and just to all those who have been given the gift of life – from babies in their mother’s wombs to natural death,” they concluded.
Militants bomb church: CEN 3.05.10 p 6. March 10, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan, Terrorism.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Peshawar reports that Islamic militants have bombed St Augustine’s Church in Kohat in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, badly damaging the colonial garrison church.
On Feb 12, a rocket or self-propelled grenade hit the perimeter wall of the church located near the city’s fort at 11:30 pm, badly damaging the church’s walls, doors and air-conditioning system.
The attack on the Christian community follows last year’s suicide car-bombing of the town’s central bazaar which targeted members of the Shia minority community in Kohat. The explosion during a busy market day killed 33 and wounded 80.
The government reported that a hitherto unknown militant group, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Al Almi, claimed responsibility for the September attack. The banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan denied having a role in the blast however the bomber was discovered to have come from territory controlled by the Taliban.
First reports from last month’s attack on St Augustine’s blame the Taliban.
In an email to supporters in the West, the Diocese reported the congregation had sustained a major financial loss, but “thank God there was no human loss”.
The North West Frontier Province was “in the frontline of the war against the militancy, and the Christian inhabitants of Kohat, Bannu, DI Khan, Karak, Tank and other tribal areas are living in a very tense situation,” the Diocese said, asking supporters to pray for “peace and especially for the Christian community of the Frontier Province”.
Episcopalians told they must ignore conservatives: CEN 2.26.10 p 8. March 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Episcopalians should pay no heed to the views of conservative scholars and bishops, but should place their trust in her, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said this week. Her remarks came as a new front opened in the Episcopal Church’s civil war over homosexuality, with the national church sending out skirmishers for an impending legal assault against the traditionalist Bishop of South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence.
On Feb. 9 Bishop Lawrence announced he was postponing the diocese’s annual synod from March 4 to March 26 to permit him time to respond to the “unjust intrusion into the spiritual and jurisdictional affairs of this sovereign diocese of the Episcopal Church” by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
With his announcement he provided copies of letters showing that the former chancellor of the diocese, Thomas Tisdale, Jr., had written to the current chancellor Wade Logan III seeking copies of the minutes of all standing committee meetings held since he took office, a copy of oaths of conformity given to the new clergy, and the parish by-laws and other documents from four parishes that have indicated they may quit the Episcopal Church.
In the lawyers exchange, Tisdale, who styled himself “South Carolina counsel for the Episcopal Church” told Logan, that it was his understanding that Bishop Lawrence would not take any legal action in response to “recent and ongoing actions by some congregations in our diocese that threaten to ‘withdraw their parishes from the diocese and the Episcopal Church.”
Logan responded that no parishes had quit the diocese during Bishop Lawrence’s tenure, and that “the bishop, as the sovereign authority in this diocese, will work pastorally with diocesan parishes and their members in ways that will seek to keep them a part of this diocese.”
Logan added that “it seems transparent that the Episcopal Church is trying very hard to find reason to involve either the bishop or the diocese, or perhaps both, in an adversarial situation.”
Following the July General Convention’s vote to end the moratorium on gay bishops and blessings, on Oct 24 the Diocese of South Carolina held a special meeting of synod that declared the moratorium votes “null and void” in South Carolina. The synod also authorized Bishop Lawrence to begin withdrawing the diocese from national church bodies that approve “actions deemed contrary to Holy Scripture, the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as this church has received them, the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference which have expressed the mind of the Communion, the Book of Common Prayer and our Constitution and Canons, until such bodies show a willingness to repent of such actions.”
A spokesman for the Presiding Bishop declined to comment on the South Carolina letters when questioned by The Church of England Newspaper, but at the meeting of the national church’s Executive Council in Omaha, Nebraska on Feb 19, the Presiding Bishop addressed the issue.
According to a report published by the Episcopal News Service the Presiding Bishop told the Executive Council that Bishop Lawrence had delayed the South Carolina annual synod in response “supposedly to my incursions in South Carolina.”
“He’s telling the world that he is offended that I think it’s important that people who want to stay Episcopalians there have some representation on behalf of the larger church,” she said, and asked for prayers for the diocese.
Asked at a press conference held on Feb 22, what prayers should be offered for South Carolina, Bishop Jefferts Schori said she “would hope that Episcopalians in South Carolina have a clear understanding” of the church’s polity and “not rely upon erroneous information.”
The focus on South Carolina arose from pleas to her office from distressed members of the diocese. “My understanding is that Episcopalians in South Carolina are concerned about those who have departed and are attempting to keep the Episcopal Church’s property,” she said.
Asked by CEN whether she was referring to the Anglican Communion Institute (ACI) as the source of this “erroneous information” the presiding bishop said that “Episcopalians like many others often seek information from the internet. They are looking at sources that are not peer reviewed, or rely on opinions. The representations on the theology of the church as a whole are inaccurate as are the representations on the processes of the church inaccurate.”
The President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church, Mrs. Bonnie Anderson added that there was an “influx of information coming from sources outside the official bodies” of the Episcopal Church.
“It was really important that people who are voting on something” be fully informed. She then offered the example of “can a diocese leave the Episcopal Church?” “What are the processes?” “What have we agreed to in past General Conventions … when we were walking together” on this issue. The national church should be the source of information on the polity and structures of the Episcopal Church, Mrs. Anderson said.
Elton angers church leaders: CEN 2.26.10 p 7. March 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Popular Culture.comments closed
Jesus was a “super-intelligent gay man,” Sir Elton John told an American magazine last week.
The singer-songwriter’s remarks to Parade magazine have prompted bemusement and outrage with the president of the Catholic League in the United States thundering that to say Jesus was gay was to say that God was a pervert, while a spokesman for the Church of England suggested the 62-year old rock star was perhaps not the best source for insights into the person of Christ.
In a wide-ranging interview Parade—a tabloid magazine distributed with many Sunday newspapers across the US—printed on Feb 21, Sir Elton summarized his view of Jesus as a “compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems”.
“On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East – you’re as good as dead,” he said.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, denounced Sir Elton’s theological musings, stating that to say Jesus was “super intelligent” was “to compare the Son of God to a successful game-show contestant.”
“To call Jesus a homosexual is to label Him a sexual deviant,” Donohue said.
In response to queries from his local newspaper, the Rt. Rev. John Goddard, the Bishop of Burnley, stated that “Christ was compassionate but there is no evidence whatsoever that he was gay.”
Painting Jesus as a compassionate homosexual was not a way to make Christianity palatable to gays, Bishop Goddard said. “As a married man, I don’t feel that because Jesus was a single, celibate man, he would criticise my marriage,” the Bishop told the Burnley Citizen, adding that “people who are gay are welcomed by the church so if I was gay, I would not feel the need to believe Jesus was too at all.
A spokesman for the Church of England told the BBC: “Sir Elton’s reflection that Jesus calls us all to love and forgive is one shared by all Christians. But insights into aspects of the historic person of Jesus are perhaps best left to the academics.”
Ugandan Church questions anti-gay bill: CEN 2.26.10 p 8. March 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Politics.comments closed
David Bahati, MP
The Church of Uganda has urged a revision of that country’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, objecting to calls for the death penalty for those who have homosexual relations with minors, the disabled, or while being HIV-positive.
The controversial bill has gained widespread opprobrium overseas, and has been condemned by government and church leaders, including the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
On Feb 9, the Church of Uganda voiced its opposition to the bill. It asked that any law protect the “confidentiality of medical, pastoral and counseling relationships, including those that disclose homosexual practice in accordance with the relevant professional codes of ethics.”
On 14 Oct MP David Bahati of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) tabled a private-members bill before parliament entitled the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ that would stiffen Uganda’s sodomy laws. Bahati’s bill seeks to establish a legal definition of homosexual acts that would provide for their criminalization, and impose harsh sanctions, up to the death penalty, for “crimes against nature.”
The church endorsed the Bahati’s general aims of proscribing the “promotion of homosexuality as normal or as an alternative lifestyle,” and urged that homosexual practice not be “adopted as a human right,” but rejected the proposed harsh penalties.
The church further asked that sex education and gender identity programmes sponsored by the government be “in compliance with the values and the laws of Uganda,” and that laws be adopted defining marriage as being between a man and a women.
The recommendations follow the December statement of the Ugandan Joint Christian Council which said the “problem of homosexuality cannot be addressed by the law alone.”
Uganda’s Christian churches were “concerned about the spiritual wellbeing of all members of the human family, including those who find themselves trapped in questionable lifestyles such as gays and lesbians.”
Coercion was not the solution, the churches concluded, appealing to “all parties to seek sustainable solutions to this problem. This would, among other things, involve teaching, mentoring, counseling and rehabilitation of all victims who are within reach,” it said.
On Feb 15, the South African bishops released a statement condemning the Bahati bill. “Though there are a breadth of theological views among us on matters of human sexuality, we see this Bill as a gross violation of human rights and we therefore strongly condemn such attitudes and behaviour towards other human beings,” the said.
The South African bishops voiced their concern about the “violent language used against the gay community across Sub-Saharan Africa,” and urged governments to defend the “rights of minorities.”
“As Bishops we believe that it is immoral to permit or support oppression of, or discrimination against, people on the grounds of their sexual orientation, they said.
Church powerless to support Middle East believers: CEN 2.26.10 p 8. March 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Israel, Persecution.comments closed
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams
The Church of England is powerless to support Christians in the Middle East, the Archbishop of Canterbury said during his four day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, telling the Jordanian Petra news agency the concerns of the church are not priorities for the British government.
Dr. Rowan Williams arrived in Jordan on Feb 19, and on Saturday laid the cornerstone of the Great Church of St. John the Baptist east of the Jordan river at the site of Jesus’ baptism on land donated to the church by the King of Jordan.
In his audience with King Abdullah II on Feb 21, Dr Williams discussed a range of issues “from peace-building to inter-faith dialogue” and “shared profound concerns about the increasing fragility of Christian communities across the region,” a statement from Lambeth Palace said.
The King appealed to Dr. Williams for the Church of England to protect the Christian holy sites in Israel. “The king underscored the importance of the efforts that can be exerted by western churches to back peace efforts in the region and contribute to the protection of holy places in Jerusalem,” a statement released by the royal household said.
Abdullah also urged the Church of England “to intensify efforts to force Israel to stop its unilateral measures that threaten the Christian and Islamic holy places and seek emptying the holy city of its Arab inhabitants, both Muslims and Christians.”
In an interview with the official Petra news agency Dr. Williams said the emigration of Christians from Middle East was of “extreme concern for us,” however, “we always put up this issue to the British government, but it appears that this question is not among its priorities.”
‘Yobbo’ Jesus cartoons sparks riot: CEN 2.26.10 p 6. March 5, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Free Speech.comments closed
Cartoons portraying Jesus as a beer drinking cigarette smoking yobbo have sparked communal rioting in India, and have led to the burning of a Church of North India (CNI) church and Salvation Army meeting hall in the Punjab.
On Feb 20, Christians in the town of Batala took to the streets to protest the publication of a cartoon from a school textbook that portrayed Jesus raising a can of beer in one hand and holding a cigarette in the other.
“In most of the places the protest was peaceful,” the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported, but in Batala the “situation took a turn for the worst,” when Christian youths demanded Hindu merchants close up shop in solidarity with the protest.
“Resistance on the part of these shopkeepers led to clashes between the two communities. The violence gradually spread to the entire city when [Hindu extremists] came out on the roads with weapons and indulged in arson, looting and violence.”
Fighting broke out and ten people were injured and numerous shops and the two churches were burned, with the priests “brutally thrashed” and their houses ransacked, EFI reported.
The chief minister of the Punjab Parkash Singh Badal declared martial law in Batala and imposed a curfew, and promised to respond with an “iron fist” to anyone who “foments sectarian hatred,” the Indian press reported. The IANS news service reported that the deputy chief minister of the Punjab stated that the “culprits behind the blasphemous act of showing disrespect to the image of Lord Jesus have been arrested by the special team of Punjab police.”
The Punjabi riot followed protests by Christians in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya, who protested the distribution of a handwriting book that published the yobbo Jesus cartoon, where it was used to illustrate the letter “I” for the word “Idol.”
The education minister of Meghalaya, India’s only majority-Christian state, Ampareen Lyngdoh said the government “strongly condemn[s] such a blasphemous act. Legal action has been initiated against the publisher.”
“We are deeply shocked and hurt at the objectionable portrayal of Jesus Christ in the school book. We condemn the total lack of respect for religions by the publisher,” the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Shillong Dominic Jala told AFP.
The Shillong Times said the Delhi-based publisher had apologised for “hurting people’s religious sentiments,” and had recalled the offending textbook.
Diocese pulls back from approving same-sex rites: CEN 2.26.10 p 8. March 5, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, Virginia.comments closed
The Episcopal Church’s largest diocese has pulled back from approving rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, voting at its annual synod to wait for the national church to take the lead on gay marriage.
The Feb 20 vote by delegates to the annual council meeting of the 80,000 member Diocese of Virginia halts the push for the legalization of gay clergy and blessings in the Episcopal Church as it prepares to debate the Anglican Covenant—which would blocks such innovations.
At its July 2009 General Convention the Episcopal Church voted to lift its ban on gay bishops and blessings and asked the diocese to begin “collecting and developing theological resources and liturgies” for same-sex blessings.
Saturday’s vote by Virginia stated the diocese would not undertake this work until the national church had authorized these developments. It came as a compromise between resolutions that reaffirmed the traditional teachings on marriage, with a call on lifting the prohibition on permitting the ordination and deployment of gay clergy and the use of same-sex blessings.
The diocese “remain[s] divided over the wisdom and theology of blessing same-gender relationships” the resolution said, and conceded the “growing differences between Christian and civil understanding of marriage and relationships.”
Should the national church authorize gay blessings at its 2012 General Convention in Indianapolis, the compromise resolution said the diocese must examine the question of providing a “theological principle” for clergy who refuse to perform gay blessings.
The close vote reflects the shifting politics of the diocese, which lost over 10,000 members and its largest congregations to CANA, the Convocations of Anglicans in North America. A report to the diocese stated that litigation with breakaway conservatives had consumed over $3.5 million. The diocese hopes to recoup this loss through the sale of church land.
Church leaders condemn Newry bombing: CEN 2.26.10 p 6. March 5, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Terrorism.comments closed
Church and government leaders in Ulster have denounced the terrorist attack in Newry, Co. Down, calling it a disgraceful attempt to turn back the clock on the peace process in Northern Ireland.
On Feb 22 republican terrorists telephoned a warning to the Newry police station that a bomb would explode outside the courthouse in a half an hour. Seventeen minutes after the warning was made, a 250 pound car bomb exploded at 10:27 pm.
Police were able to evacuate the area in time and no one was killed or injured in the blast. However, the gates of the courthouse and a security hut were destroyed in the blast while buildings in New Street including a Presbyterian Church were damaged in the explosion.
The bombing is the work of suspected dissident republicans, police believe, possibly angered at the power sharing deal signed two weeks ago between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein.
Police Chief Superintendent Alisdair Robinson told the BBC the attack could have been deadly. “But for the fact there was divine intervention, there could have been multiple casualties.”
A spokesman for Prime Minster Gordon Brown condemned the attack, calling the bombing “entirely unrepresentative of the views of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland,” and said the government would not “allow a tiny minority to turn the clock back” on the peace process.
Police have defused a number of car bombs over the past few years, and Monday’s attack in Newry—the sight of the 2005 primates meeting of the Anglican Communion—is the first successful car bombing since the 2000 attack on a police station in Stewartstown.
On Feb 23 the clergy of Newry released a joint letter condemning the attack, which they described as “an indiscriminate attack on the whole community and on Newry’s continued development as a progressive and social and economic entity.”
“We pray that our community will stand together against such actions and in the continued pursuit of a lasting peace for all,” the church leaders said, adding that they prayed that those behind the attack would “come to fully understand the tragedy and futility of violence and they will find Christian renewal through repentance.”
Pakistan Church hit by arrest warrant for bishop: CEN 2.19.10 p 8. March 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan.comments closed
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the Bishop of Karachi, the Rt. Rev. Sadiq Daniel, after the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Jan 25 issued an order revoking the bishop’s bail for a pending criminal assault case.
The arrest warrant for Bishop Daniel—who remains at large as of our going to press— is the latest in a series of troubles for the divided Church of Pakistan Diocese of Karachi, which has seen numerous lawsuits and was the subject of a failed intervention by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey.
On Oct 1, 1997 the Rev. Ijaz Inayat was elected Bishop of Karachi by the diocesan synod. Shortly before his consecration, a rival faction within the diocese charged the election was unlawful and received an injunction from a civil court blocking the consecration.
In 2002, the Rev. Sadiq Daniel was elected Bishop of Karachi in an election boycotted by supporters of Bishop-elect Inayat. Bishop Alexander Malik of Lahore, Bishop Samuel Azraiah of Raiwind and the former Bishop of Multan, the Rt. Rev. John Smart consecrated Mr. Daniel as Bishop of Karachi.
In response, Bishop Smart K. Dass of Hyderabad, Bishop John Samuel of Faisalabad, Bishop John Mall of Multan and Bishop Pervaiz Samuel of Sialkot consecrated Mr. Inayat as Bishop of Karachi. Litigation over who is the true bishop of Karachi is on-going.
The arrest warrant for Bishop Daniel arises from an incident where he allegedly assaulted the administrator of a women’s hostel.
On April 11, 2005, Bishop Daniel along with a number of supporters entered the offices of the administrator of the Brenton Carey Girls Hostel in Karachi and sought to evict Mrs. Ghazala Shafique—a support of Bishop Inayat, from her position. They allegedly stripped and beat her in an attempt to force her to sign documents relinquishing her position.
A criminal complaint for assault was filed against the bishop and three accomplices, and bail was granted on Jan 4, 2006. Mrs. Shafique filed an appeal challenging the bail application, and after a hearing on Dec 3, 2009, the court revoked the bishop’s bail on Jan 25, 2010, issuing the arrest warrant.
Bishop Daniel has denied his guilt in the Brenton Carey affair, and in 2009 told the Karachi News he was disappointed he was being tried in the press, while the proceedings were still pending before the civil courts.
Supporters of Bishop Daniel denounced Mrs. Shafique, a Christian convert from Islam, with “ulterior motives.” Bishop Daniel’s diocesan secretary Zafar Iqbal told the Karachi News “we have evidence of her frequent visits to Afghanistan from where she brought money to Pakistan to distribute among poorer members of the Christian community.”
“We suspected she may have been doing so to economically empower the Christians and then gradually turn them against the clergy, and so we decided to sack her,” he said. A charge denied by Mrs. Shafique’s supporters.
Sri Lankans worry over arrest of runner up in election: CEN 2.19.10 p 8. March 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of Ceylon, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
General Sarath Fonseka
Church leaders in Sri Lanka have voiced concern over the arrest of the runner-up in last month’s presidential elections, demanding that the details of the treason charges leveled against General Sarath Fonseka be made public.
On Jan 26, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reelected to a second term of office by a margin of 58 to 40 per cent against the former army chief of staff General Fonseka. Following the election President Rajapaksa dissolved parliament and called for new elections, but on Feb 8 Gen. Fonseka was arrested on treason charges for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government while he was military commander.
In a statement issued last week, four of the island nation’s eleven Roman Catholic bishops and the country’s two Anglican bishops released a statement challenging President Rajapaksa. “The willful violation of electoral laws … sadly demonstrated that might is right,” the bishops said.
The vote in last month’s election divided along ethnic lines, with the Sinhalese majority backing President Rajapaksa and the Tamil minority supporting General Fonseka, who led the successful campaign to destroy the LTTE, the Tamil Tigers—the Tamil separatist group. Analysts fear the government’s unwillingness to extend a helping hand to the defeated Tamil minority will set the stage for a new round of ethnic fighting.
On Feb 13 the Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo, issued a statement calling for the government to make public its charges against the general.
“The manner of the arrest and detention of General Sarath Fonseka, has disturbed all Sri Lankans who value dignity and order in public affairs,” he said.
The arrest was “a blot on the democratic, cultural and religious traditions and image of our country,” the bishop said, noting that the government had offered “conflicting reasons” for the general’s detention.
The rule of law must be upheld, the bishop said. “If there have been violations of the military code, it must be left to the Military to handle professionally. If he was arrested for planning a coup and the assassination of the President, which are very grave charges, the people should know the basis of this allegation. In either case he should be entitled to his rights,” Bishop de Chickera said.
“In the event that the prevailing confusion is not clarified and a transparent judicial process is not set in place, this action is likely to be interpreted as an attempt to humiliate a presidential candidate who fought a hard campaign, or an attempt to obstruct him from campaigning and participating at the forthcoming general election; or both. The people’s right to clear information on such a serious matter regarding such a prominent personality should not be withheld,” he said.
Arab leaders urged to mediate: CEN 2.19.10 p 8. March 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Islam, Politics, Washington.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. John B. Chane, Bishop of Washington
Arab leaders must take the lead in ending the cycle of violence in the Middle East, the Bishop of Washington told the seventh US-Islamic World Forum meeting in Qatar this week.
“Arab leaders have to condemn violence and terrorism and make clear it is not appropriate and not helping anybody to find a way to deal with the complexities of the world around them,” Bishop John Chane told the Gulf Times following his presentation of a paper on the “role of religious leaders and religious communities in diplomacy,” in a closed session of the Feb 13-16 conference in Doha.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Al Thani in addressing the forum, while US President Barak Obama delivered a videotaped message broadcast to the gathering sponsored by the Washington think-tank, the Brookings Institution, and Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
President Obama acknowledged that “the United States and Muslims around the world have often slipped into a cycle of misunderstanding and mistrust that can lead to conflict rather than cooperation.” He called for “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
Building upon remakes made in his 2009 Cairo speech to the Muslim world, President Obama stated the US was seeking to “promote education” exchanges, “broaden economic development”, “increase collaboration on science and technology” and “promote global health” within the Muslim majority nations of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
In his address to the gathering, Bishop Chane argued that world leaders were wrong to ignore the religious dimensions of foreign policy issues, adding that religious leaders must be seen as equal partners in public diplomacy.
However, religious leaders also had a responsibility to speak out against violence and oppression in their own countries, and not foster sectarian interests, he said. The persecution of religious minorities must cease, and religious leaders should be at the forefront of those condemning attacks on ‘holy places’ as well as denouncing those who used religious passions to foment violence.
One area of particular concern for the religious communities was Gaza, Bishop Chane said. Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders should take the lead in working out equitable strategies to address the Israel-Palestinian dispute, which sixty years of political dialogue had so far failed to resolve.
Bishop killed in Ugandan road accident: CEN 2.19.10 p 8. March 2, 2010
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Road accidents in Uganda have taken the life of the Bishop of Rwenzori, and have led to the hospitalization of two of his colleagues.
On Feb 11, the Rt. Rev. Patrick Kyaligonza died in an accident on the Kampala Fort Portal Highway. Police report the rear tyre of the bishop’s land cruiser burst, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle. Bishop Kyaligonza was killed instantly and his wife remains in critical condition at the Buhinga hospital in Fort Portal.
At 45, Bishop Kyaligonza was one of the youngest bishops of the Church of Uganda, and had assumed office less than a year ago.
While driving to Bishop Kyaligonza’s funeral on Feb 16, the Bishops of North Mbale and Sebei were injured in car crash and are reported to be in critical condition at the Buhinga hospital.
The wife of the Bishop Daniel Gimadu of North Mbale was killed in the crash, which took place 20 kilometers from Fort Portal on the Kampala Highway. Bishop Gimadu, Bishop Augustine Salimo of Sebie and their driver are in intensive care, the Church of Uganda reports.
Church leaders hit out at South African president: CEN 2.19.10 p 7. March 1, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
South African President Jacob Zuma’s fathering of a child out of wedlock has been condemned by the nation’s Anglican and Catholic bishops as a personal moral failure and a symbol of the country’s spiritual degeneration.
In a statement released on Feb 12, the Anglican bishops of Southern Africa said the President’s fathering of his 20th child by a women who is not one of his five wives highlights “the way women more widely face exploitation and abuse,” while a statement released the day before by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference denounced the “scandalous behaviour of leaders who shamelessly flout the norms of morality and decency.”
The bishops’ condemnation of President Zuma follows upon a speech given by Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, who while not naming the president, denounced promiscuity in his “moral state of the nation address” delivered Feb 3 in Johannesburg.
While the Christian teaching of “no sex outside marriage” made for strong families and healthy societies, there was a danger that this teaching was “out of touch with how people actually live.”
“Let me rather put it this way: promiscuity, unfaithfulness, adultery, unprotected sex that risks spreading HIV or resulting in unwanted pregnancies and the appallingly high numbers of abortions that occur in our country – all of these are offences against the sanctity, the sacredness, of life,” the archbishop said.
In their pastoral letter released at the close of their Feb 8-11 meeting in Swaziland, the bishops condemned the rampant political corruption and “the moral degeneration within our societies.”
“The almost unprecedented levels of alleged corruption among those in positions of power within the Republic of South Africa, the seeming inability or unwillingness of the State to hold anyone accountable, and the recent revelations of the sexual misconduct of the President of that country do not bode well for the future and are cause for serious concern,” they said.
Government leaders were setting a poor example as the “people in our pews look at what is happening there and elsewhere within our Province, and ask who they can respect and look up to as role models in the political leadership of our nations.”
The bishops called upon the “leaders of all the nations within our Province to covenant with us in a process of moral, spiritual and economic regeneration, in which we seek to model our lives and our societies more closely on God’s principles and purposes for humanity.”
EU appeal for Antigua: CEN 2.19.10 p 7. March 1, 2010
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Church leaders in the West Indies have asked the European Union (EU) for financial assistance in restoring St. John’s Cathedral in Antigua, which was closed in December after having been declared unsafe by surveyors.
With the support of Antiguan Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, the cathedral chapter has requested a grant in aid of €3.3 million (£2.9 million) to repair the 161-year old cathedral church of the Diocese of Northeastern Caribbean and Aruba.
In December, a teacher from the Antigua Girl’s High School fell through the floor of the church during a rehearsal for the school’s annual Christmas carol service. An inspection by engineers found the ground under the cathedral had shifted. They also discovered structural damage caused by a 1974 earthquake had rendered the cathedral unsafe.
The cathedral chapter has applied for ‘heritage’ status for the building, in order to qualify for EU funding. The funds will be used to repair the floor, the pews and ceiling; “all of those things that need attention will be given attention so that we can get back into our beloved cathedral as quickly as possible,” chapter member Valerie Hodge said.
Anglican Communion’s most senior bishop dies: CEN 2.19.10 p 7. March 1, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand & Polynesia, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
The senior serving bishop in the Anglican Communion has died. Archbishop Jabez Bryce of Polynesia died on Feb 11 at the Suva Private Hospital in Fiji after a long illness. He was 75.
The first Pacific Islander elected as Bishop of Polynesia, Archbishop Bryce was consecrated in 1975, and in 2006 was elected co-primate of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Born in Tonga of mixed Scottish-Samoan-Tongan parentage, Jabez Leslie Bryce was reared in Samoa, and trained for the ministry in New Zealand. Ordained in 1962, he served the diocese in Fiji throughout his ordained ministry.
Active in the wider councils of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop Bryce was a member of the Pacific Council of Churches and past president of the World Council of Churches. He also took an active role in Pacific affairs, leading protests against French nuclear testing in the 1970’s while in 2008 he led the coronation ceremonies for the new King of Tonga, George Tupou V.
Archbishop Jabez oversaw the expansion of the diocese across the Pacific island nations of Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji as well as chaplaincies for Pacific islanders in New Zealand. In 2005 he appointed three suffragan bishops to reflect the diocese’s ethnic diversity—consecrating an indigenous Fijian, an Indo-Fijian, and a Tongan.
Under Archbishop Bryce’s tutelage “the Diocese of Polynesia has grown in a hundred ways – in its sense of identity, its ethnic diversity and in its ‘Pacificness’,” Archbishop David Moxon of New Zealand said.
Maori Archbishop Brown Turei called the late archbishop a “prince of the church: a man who was dignified, kindly, who liked things done decently and in order, because that reflected what the church meant to him.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams told CEN, “Archbishop Jabez was a leader and pastor of exceptional stature, a warm and wise man. I had the privilege working with him in some of the planning processes for the 1998 Lambeth Conference and learned to respect his judgment greatly. He is a sad loss to the province and the Communion.”
The late archbishop will be interred on Feb 18 at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Suva, Fiji.
