Government admits to covering up Catholic priest’s role in 1972 Ulster car bombing: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 27, 2010 p 5. August 30, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic Church, Terrorism.comments closed
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Willie Whitelaw in 1972
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Roman Catholic priest was the mastermind behind a 1972 bombing in Northern Ireland that left nine dead, a report by the Police Ombudsman into the Claudy bombing has found.
The report concluded that Fr. James Chesney was behind the terror attack. However, the priest was able to escape justice after a deal was brokered between the government and the Catholic Church to transfer him to the Republic of Ireland.
The government has apologized for its role in the cover-up, while the Roman Catholic Church has accepted the “shocking” findings in the report released on Aug 24.
On July 31, 1972 three car bombs exploded in the village of Claudy, injuring 30 and leaving nine, including three children dead. No one was ever charged with the murders, but the Police Ombudsman’s report found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) detectives who investigated the attack determined that Fr. Chesney “was the IRA’s director of operations in South Derry and was alleged to have been directly involved in the bombings and other terrorist incidents.”
“Police ombudsman investigators spoke to a former special branch detective who said he had wanted to arrest Fr. Chesney in the months after the bombing,” the report stated, “but that this had been refused by the assistant chief constable (ACC) special branch, who had advised that ‘matters are in hand’.”
Fearful of provoking civil unrest and fueling sectarian conflict if a Catholic priest were arrested for the murders, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Willie Whitelaw met on Nov 30, 1972 with Cardinal William Conway, who agreed to transfer the priest to Donegal.
Fr. Chesney later died of cancer in 1980, aged 46.
The Church of Ireland welcomed the release of the report saying “the indiscriminate bombings that took the lives of nine people in the quiet village of Claudy were a brutal act. The events of that day brought pain and suffering that cast a long shadow over the lives of many families in the Claudy area.”
A spokesman for the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe said “we pay tribute to the dignity and persistence of the families who have long sought for truth concerning this tragedy. Our prayer and hope is that this report will make a significant contribution in a journey of healing for the scars of a terrible act”.
Writing from Oberammergau while on holiday, Bishop Ken Good stated his “thoughts and prayers” were with those “who have walked a painful journey since that tragic day in Claudy. The truth surrounding these events should have come out at that time. It is right that the truth should come out now. Those who were so cruelly bereaved or injured on that day deserve no less.”
Following the release of the report, the Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Paterson, said: “For my part, on behalf of the government, I am profoundly sorry that Father Chesney was not properly investigated for his suspected involvement in this hideous crime, and that the victims and their families have been denied justice.”
In a joint statement Archbishop Seán Brady of Armagh, and Bishop Séamus Hegarty of Derry, said “we accept the ombudsman’s findings and conclusions.”
“Throughout the Troubles, the Catholic church, along with other churches in Northern Ireland, was constant in its condemnation of the evil of violence. It is therefore shocking that a priest should be suspected of involvement in such violence,” the Catholic leaders said.
Clergy abuse cases rock Church of Iceland: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 27, 2010 p 5. August 29, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Iceland.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Ólafur Skúlason, former Bishop of Iceland
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Iceland, the Rt. Rev. Karl Sigurbjörnsson has denied claims that he ignored accusations of sexual abuse leveled against his predecessor, the Rt. Rev. Ólafur Skúlason. However, the bishop admitted the National Church of Iceland, the Þjóðkirkjan, had “failed these women” who were allegedly victimized by the bishop.
Speaking on the television news discussion show Kastljósið on Aug 23, the bishop said he believes he still has the support of the church and country, and will not heed calls that he resign.
Allegations of cover-ups of clergy sexual abuse have swirled around the Church of Iceland this year. After meeting with Bishop Sigurbjörnsson last week, the Minister of Justice said it was up to the church to implement clear policies on reporting and combating sexual abuse.
The clergy of the state church have been divided over how far they will go in reporting sexual abuse, with one priest, the Rev. Geir Waage of Reykholt telling reporters last week that the sanctity of the confession overrides a law requiring every Icelandic citizen to report sex crimes against children.
In 1996 three women complained to then Pastor Sigurbjörnsson that they had been sexually harassed by his superior, Bishop Skúlason. The complaints were not forwarded to the police, and one of the victims has since claimed Sigurbjörnsson attempted to “hush up” the incidents and urged them to drop their complaints.
“I was just a small pastor,” Bishop Sigurbjörnsson told the Fréttabladid newspaper. “Of course you don’t want to believe something like that. It is the first reaction of all people to be on the defensive. Without a doubt, that’s what the church did in this instance.”
“We have learned from these mistakes,” the bishop conceded. “I regret that there are women out there who have grievance and anger towards the church’s servants, myself included, for having failed them in these matters. It is intolerable to be the subject of such accusations, both for myself, given my position, and the church’s priests in general. Simply intolerable.”
The bishop said in 1996 he attempted to mediate between Bishop Skúlason and his accusers. However, Bishop Skúlason denied the charges and the National Church, a partner of the Church of England under the Porvoo Agreement, took no further actions.
ACC not bound by UK or EU equalities laws, legal advisor claims: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 27, 2010 p 1. August 28, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Consultative Council, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Concerns that the Anglican Consultative Council will be subject to UK and EU equality laws following its formation as a British limited company are misplaced, the London-based instrument of communion’s legal advisor, John Rees, reported on Aug 11.
“I share the unease of many religious people about the impact of this British [equality] legislation,” Canon Rees said in a statement released by the Anglican Communion News Service, “but it is not right to say that the restructuring of the ACC will have altered its position” under the legislation.
Critics of the transformation of the ACC from a British charity to a limited corporation have voiced concerns over the ratification process and the powers given to the ACC Standing Committee by the new constitution. In a paper released last month, the conservative-leaning Anglican Communion Institute (ACI) offered a lengthy critique of the newly formed corporate entity, and noted that whether by accident or design, the ACC was now subjecting itself to UK and EU equality laws on homosexuality. Liberal groups have been equally troubled by the ACC’s statement that it will not be bound by British and EU equality laws.
In response to the criticisms Canon Rees stated “the Church of England has played a major part, with other churches in the UK, in achieving and preserving certain exclusions for itself and other religious bodies in relation to this legislation as it has developed over the last thirty years.”
He stated the recent incorporation would not change the application of the law as it would be binding upon both a corporation and a charity. However, Canon Rees added that the ACC will now “enjoy the benefit of exclusions from this legislation to the same extent as any other religious organisation in the UK.
The director of Changing Attitude, the Rev. Colin Coward, told CEN the exemptions granted to religious bodies under UK Equality Legislation are “very limited in extent and I doubt that they would affect the ACC in any way.”
He added that he was troubled by the claims made by the ACC, noting that “many members of the Church of England join Changing Attitude in believing there is no benefit to be enjoyed from these very limited exemptions.”
Mr. Coward said these claims “allow the church to continue with the dishonest pretence that it excludes from ordained ministry partnered lesbian and gay people. The unease of many religious people about the impact of this British legislation relates to freedom given to churches to maintain prejudiced and judgmental attitudes to lesbian and gay people.”
The ACI said it shared Canon Rees’ “unease” over the “impact of British equalities legislation on religious bodies, especially the ACC,” but added his assurances were not convincing as “this issue will not be settled without further judicial decisions.”
“We are neither as sanguine about the future scope of these exemptions nor as resigned to their applicability to the ACC as is Canon Rees,” it said.
The minutes to the December meeting of the ACC Standing Committee suggests it does not have a firm grasp on the equalities laws either. Agenda item 17 of the meeting minutes stated the Archbishop of Canterbury told the meeting the Church of England had “issued guidelines on clergy in civil partnership. He wondered if the moratoria included those clergy involved in civil partnership. Some were in celibate same sex partnerships,” the minutes reported.
The members of the Standing Committee responded that the “moratoria referred to consecration of bishops and authorisation of formal blessing of same sex unions. The meaning of civil partnership was unclear as it could include siblings or friends simply living in the one house,” the minutes said. However, Section 3.1(d) of the Civil Partnership Act of 2004 prohibits siblings from entering into a civil partnership.
The new ACC Constitution does concede that members of the Standing Committee may be in civil partnerships. In its definitions of “connected person” section 6.5.2 of the new constitution states that a “spouse or civil partner” of a member of the Standing Committee is prohibited from engaging in business with the new entity.
New bishop raises questions about the ACNA’s commitment to Anglicanism: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 27, 2010 p 6. August 27, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper, Ecclesiology.comments closed
Bishop Derek Jones
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Charges the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) has abandoned the historic episcopate by receiving a bishop from the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (CEEC) without re-consecrating him are unfounded, the traditionalist province-in-waiting tells The Church of England Newspaper.
On July 31, American church commentator Robin Jordan charged the ACNA with having abandoned the historic episcopate when its Provincial Council of Bishops voted on June 9 to receive the Rt. Rev. Derek Jones as a bishop in good standing. Formed in 1995, the CEEC is an American Protestant denomination that has found a niche blending charismatic worship with liturgies drawn from the Book of Common Prayer, and is not normally numbered among the Anglican breakaway churches in the United States.
However, a review of Bishop Jones’ episcopal antecedents by the CEN finds that while a number of his consecrating bishops would not be recognized by Anglicans, his descent from a Brazilian bishop whose episcopal orders were recognized by Pope John XXIII places him within the apostolic tradition.
Mr. Jordan charged that Bishop Jones “was irregularly if not invalidly consecrated,” adding that the CEEC’s “episcopal line of succession is derived from Eastern Orthodox and Old Catholic lines of questionable validity.”
The ACNA’s newest bishop was therefore an episcopi vaganti he said, adding that Bishop Jones’ reception violated traditional Anglican teaching on the episcopate as stated at the 1958 Lambeth Conference. Resolution 54 of Lambeth 58 stated the Anglican Communion “cannot recognize the Churches of such episcopi vagantes as properly constituted Churches or recognize the orders of their ministers’.”
The reception of Bishop Jones further appeared to violate Article I Section 3 of the ACNA constitution which states “the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part of the apostolic faith and practice and therefore as integral to the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.”
Mr. Jordan concluded the ACNA was perhaps “no longer pursuing Anglican Communion recognition” or was moving “away from Anglicanism to become a Convergence church.”
The Rt. Rev. Bill Atwood, the chairman the Episcopal Task Force for ACNA, told CEN the objections to Bishop Jones were “superficial.” The ACNA required a “significant standard concerning Christian testimony, character and manner of life, Biblical qualification, evidence of call, and demonstration of apostolic fruit for any candidate that is considered by the College of Bishops.”
Bishop Jones told CEN his journey to the ACNA began in 2007, when he was contacted by Bishop David Bena of the Church of Nigeria’s Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and asked to endorse a CANA chaplain for the US military. As a “recognized Endorsing Agent with the Department of Defense [I] had agreed to help CANA,” he said. In 2009, Bishop Bena and CANA head Bishop Martyn Minns “spoke with me privately about a jurisdictional transfer” to oversee CANA’s chaplains. A review that year by CANA of his episcopal orders indicated there would be no ecclesiastical difficulties in bringing him on board, he said.
Bishop Jones said he was released by the CEEC in 2009 and “made application to CANA” to be received as a bishop. “However, since only the House of Bishops for the Church of Nigeria could approve an Episcopal reception and their full attention was on the retirement of Archbishop Akinola, the idea of working my reception through ACNA was championed as a more appropriate course,” he said.
Bishop Jones stated that “once I had officially left the CEEC, I no longer performed any Episcopal duties, that is, until such time that I was approved for reception into the ACNA House of Bishops” on June 9, 2010. “This was to specifically avoid the type criticism” raised by Mr. Jordan, he said.
A review of Bishop Jones orders finds that while some of his antecedents are episcopi vagantes, succession through the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil would validate his orders. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church episcopi vangantes are “persons who have been Consecrated bishop in an irregular or clandestine manner or who have been excommunicated by the Church that consecrated them and are in communion with no recognized see.”
Several of Bishop Jones’ lines of succession, as Mr. Jordan has charged, pass bishops whose orders have been rejected by the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, including Joseph René Vilatte and Arnold Harris Mathew.
However, the episcopal orders of one of his consecrators were accepted as valid by the Vatican. In December 1959, Pope John XXIII received a married ex-Anglican priest consecrated as a bishop of the schismatic Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira into the Roman Catholic Church.
Married with seven children, Bishop Salomão Barbosa Ferraz was not re-ordained upon his reception and upon being named Titular Bishop of Eleutherna on May 10, 1963 was not re-consecrated. Active at the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Ferraz consecrated Manuel C. Laranjeira for the Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira in 1965. While the orders flowing from the Laranjeira consecration would be considered irregular by the Vatican, they would not be void.
Bennison conviction overturned: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 6. August 27, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, Pennsylvania.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An ecclesiastical court of appeal has overturned the conviction of the Bishop of Pennsylvania on charges of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.
In a decision dated July 28, but released last week, the Episcopal Church’s Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop found that the conduct in question had occurred more than 35 years ago, and the church was accordingly barred from prosecuting Bishop Bennison under the ten-year statute of limitations rule.
The appellate court’s 38-page unanimous decision by the court’s eight bishops restores Bishop Bennison to office as Bishop of Pennsylvania after a two and a half year suspension. It also comes as a sharp blow to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and her chancellor, Mr. David Booth Beers, who had vigorously prosecuted the case.
In 2008 a nine judge panel has ordered Bishop Bennison be removed from the ordained ministry for conspiring to cover up the sexual abuse of a minor. He displayed a “fundamental lack of professional awareness” of the consequences of his actions, which represented “very significant failure to fulfill his responsibilities” as a priest, the Court for the Trial of a Bishop said on Sept 30, 2008.
On June 26, 2008 the trial court convicted Bishop Bennison on two counts of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. The bishop was found guilty of having failed to respond appropriately in 1973 after having learned his brother, whom he had engaged to be his youth minister, had “engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship” with a 14-year-old girl. Bishop Bennison was also found guilty of having conspired to cover up the abuse.
As a result of the guilty verdict, the “court finds that [Bishop Bennison] should no longer serve as a member of the clergy of the church.”
However, the Court of Appeals found that the bishop had not engaged in acts of sexual abuse. While there was no question that his brother would have been liable for trial on that charge, Bishop Bennison’s failure 35 years ago to investigate his brother’s conduct “are not actions that constitute sexual abuse of a victim.”
“To the extent the Trial Court relied upon those findings to apply the sexual abuse exception [that waives the statutue of limitations0 and allow a guilty verdict against Appellant, the Trial Court was clearly erroneous,” the Court of Appeals held.
While the Trial Court held that Bishop Bennison was “guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy, those actions do not constitute sexual abuse and, therefore, a Presentment for that offense cannot be made because it is barred by the applicable statute of limitations,” it held.
Throughout the trial and appeals process, attorneys for Bishop Bennison had argued that their client was being tried for his brother’s bad actions. They also argued that the sexual abuse charge was a ploy by the national church and the diocesan standing committee to rid themselves of Bishop Bennison over his mismanagement of diocesan funds.
Bishop Jefferts Schori had offered a plea deal on several occasions to Bishop Bennison, offering to drop the charges in exchange for his departure. However, Bishop Bennison refused to concede his guilt and fought the allegations of cover up and abuse.
The court’s finding shocked many members of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, who gathered at the cathedral in Philadelphia on Aug 8 and called for the bishop to step down. At 66, Bishop Bennison cannot be compelled to retire until he turns 72 years of age. He told a press conference after the decision was announced that he planned to return to work on Aug 16, and would continue in office “if it seems appropriate and in the best interest of the church.”
New floods threaten Pakistan: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 1. August 26, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan, Disaster Relief.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Another wave of flood waters is moving south along the Indus River, Pakistani officials warned on Aug 16, threatening to swell the ranks of the millions driven from their homes. Around one-fifth of Pakistan was underwater over the weekend, and the official death toll has risen to 1463.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “In the past, I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this,” after visiting the Sindh.
Mr. Ban said he is allocating an additional $10 million from the U.N.’s emergency response fund for the disaster. Almost $305 million has been pledged for the relief effort, but Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said more aid is needed to address the country’s ruined infrastructure and agriculture.
Overseas aid has been slow in reaching Pakistan, however, and the UN said on Aug 13 said it had received only 20 per cent of the funds it needs to aid the victims. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the global response so far, “lamentable, absolutely pitiful.”
In an email to the Church of England Newspaper, the Bishop of Peshawar, the Rt. Rev. Humphrey Peters stated, the “floods have devastated everything in Pakistan and especially in our part of the world.”
The diocese reports that Khyber Pakhtunkwa province, formerly known as the North West Frontier, has been especially hard hit. “Thousands of villages are under water and hundreds of people are either dead or missing. All road links within the Province have been cut down; relief workers are trying to reach the affected people.”
“In Khyber Pakhtunkwa the worst hit area is Swat. The people of Swat were first hit by militancy and now they are terrorized by the natural disaster, worst of its kind in the living memory. Thousands are still trapped in floods, as roads and bridges have been washed away.”
“Similarly, people in Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Pabbi, Tarnab Farm, Tarbella, Swabi and Nowshera have also lost literally everything and are residing in open spaces, apart from floods and no-aid.”
“There are reports that people are also suffering from trauma, gastroenteritis, are also facing the deadly snakes, scorpions and mosquitoes and have no protection and/or medicines and flood. There are reports that people are also suffering from trauma, gastroenteritis, skin diseases and cholera,” the diocese reports.
Church call for independence referendum for South Sudan: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 6. August 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church of the Sudan, Politics.comments closed
President Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders have called upon the Islamist government in Khartoum to honour its pledge to hold a referendum on independence for South Sudan on Jan 9, 2011.
On Aug 9, five bishops of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan released an open letter warning that delays in holding the referendum, a key component in the comprehensive peace agreement that ended 25 years of civil war, could lead to bloodshed.
The Rt. Rev. Reuben Maciir Makoi of Cueibet, the Rt. Rev. Wilson Kamani of Ibba, the Rt. Rev. Bismark Monday of Mundri, the Rt. Rev. Joseph Maker of Pacong, and the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Mangar of Yirol asked Britain, Norway, the United States and the East African community to pressure Khartoum to hold free and fair elections.
Critics charge the government of President Omar al-Bashir with trying to sabotage the referendum. While the Sudanese parliament in December created an electoral commission to oversee the referendum and President al-Bashir has promised the referendum will go ahead as planned, the government did not appoint the members of the commission until June, and rivalries between north and south among the commissioners have prevented the election of a chairman.
Under the referendum law passed by parliament, the electoral rolls of eligible voters must be drawn up by Oct 9, ninety days before the vote. However, as of mid-August the commission has not begun voter registration, which is expected to take several months.
“The commission now is paralysed, it is not working,” Pagan Amum, secretary general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) told AFP.
“I am afraid there may be elements within the referendum commission that are actually planning… a postponement, or in the worst case a total betrayal (of the right) to be exercised by the people of southern Sudan,” he said.
The bishops’ letter called upon the political parties to stand down their youth militias, and turn their efforts toward the social and economic empowerment of the country. Politicians should train young people to rebuild the Sudan rather than engaging them in activities that promote anarchy.
“As the country prepares for the 2011 referendum; all political players should foster harmony so that Sudan does not lose its status as a haven of peace,” the letter urged.
On Jan 11, 2010 the church took its campaign for international support for the referendum to 10 Downing Street, where Dr. Daniel Deng, the Archbishop of Juba and Primate of the Sudan, met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Dr. Deng called upon Britain and the US to intervene in the Sudan to ensure the terms of the peace treaty were honoured, warning that the country faced the specter of war.
The Labour government’s Minister for Africa Baroness Kinnock pledged Britain “will continue working” with all sides to ensure compliance with the peace treaty. However, Dr. Deng told reporters before his meeting with the prime minister “the time for talk [from the UK] is over, it is time for action.”
Dr. Williams to headline All Africa bishops conference in Uganda: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 5. August 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in CAPA, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Imperial Beach Resort Hotel in Entebbe, the conference venue
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury will preach at the opening service of the All African Bishops Conference on Aug 24 in Uganda.
Approximately 370 African bishops and 60 other guests will join Dr. Williams at the Imperial Hotel in Entebbe from Aug 23-29 for the second pan-African bishops’ conference. Gathered under the theme “Securing our potential: unlocking our future” the meeting is not expected to directly address the divisions within the Anglican Communion.
The All Africa conference will be Dr. Williams’ first visit to Uganda, and his first opportunity to address the bishops of the African church. In 2008 of the continent’s 324 diocesan bishops boycotted the Lambeth Conference in protest to the presence of the bishops of the Episcopal Church.
However, presentations and panel discussions interspersed with Bible studies and prayer groups will occupy most the Entebbe conference, which will focus on internal issues of African development. Session 1, entitled ‘Nurturing Family Life and Building Healthy Populations,’ will address health care issues, HIV/AIDs, family relations and the Millennium Development Goals.
Session 2, ‘Nurturing Harmonious and Dignified Communities’ will discuss “managing diversity” and “conflict management” and the protection of the vulnerable. Session 3, ‘Securing our Economic Future’ will address questions about a “sustainable environment” and the “prudent management” of church resources.
Session 4, ‘Disempowering the Powerful and Empowering the Vulnerable’ will focus on theological education and the challenges of urbanization. The fifth session, entitled ‘Making Leadership work to secure our Future and Unlocking our Potential’ will look at the varieties of leadership and the church’s interaction with economics and politics. The final session will feature presentations from staffers of the Anglican Consultative Council on its work and various programmes such as the continuing Indaba process.
Judge orders police to investigate bishop for fraud: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 6. August 23, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Dorai released on bail
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Madras judge has ordered detectives to investigate charges of fraud against the Bishop in Coimbatore, Dr. Manickam Dorai, for taking kickbacks in the letting of a school building contract.
On Aug 10, Justice C.T. Selvam ordered a First Investigations Report (FIR) be filed in response to allegations brought by a lay member of the diocese, Mr. E. Prem Kumar who charged the bishop and his confederates with bilking the diocese out of almost £275,000.
The complaint against Bishop Dorai alleges that on Dec 19, 2006 a contract for £385,000 was signed by the bishop to construct a building at the CSI’s College of Engineering at Ketti. The diocese reported paying £660,000 for the new building at the Engineering School, yet the December 2006 contract was on a fixed costs basis. Mr. Kumar had charged the bishop and his associates with pocketing the difference between the public cost and the private cost—some £275,000.
Under Indian law, a FIR is the official document that sets in motion a formal police investigation of a crime. The registration of a FIR does not presume the guilt of the subject of the probe, as no adjudication has yet taken place.
On July 21, detectives of the Tamil Nadu CID registered a FIR against the bishop in response to charges he embezzled over 30 million rupees (£415,000) from the Church of South India’s Polytechnic College in Salem. In January the bishop and his brother were accused by the former moderator of the CSI, Bishop William Moses and diocesan lay leaders of looting the diocese of a 30 million rupees.
On May 8, a bench warrant was issued for the arrest Bishop Dorai after he failed to appear in court to respond to charges of threatening one of his clergy with grievous bodily harm. The Bishop was released on bail on May 10 after a bond was filed with the Madras High Court, and the bishop remains free on bond pending his trial.
The executive committee of the CSI general synod in June dissolved the Diocese of Coimbatore’s governing board and suspended Bishop Dorai pending the outcome of the legal proceedings lodged against him.
Scottish inclusive language liturgies are ugly and teach bad doctrine, critics charge: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 5. August 21, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Hymnody/Liturgy, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
The Rev Prof Stuart G Hall
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Scottish Episcopal Church’s College of Bishops has approved inclusive language prayers, authorising optional changes that remove “Lord”, “He”, “his”, “him”, and “us men” from its 1982 Eucharistic Liturgy.
On Aug 2, the SEC published a list of seven permitted changes. Spokesman Lorna Finley said the changes were offered by the College of Bishops as an “interim measure” as the General Synod Liturgy Committee prepares new Eucharist rites.
The permitted changes include altering “God is love and we are his children” in the Confession and Absolution to “God is love and we are God’s children.”
In the Gloria the phrase “and peace to his people on earth” becomes “and peace to God’s people on earth;” the Nicene Creed is revised with the phrase “for us men and our salvation” making way “for us and for our salvation;” while the opening responses in the Eucharist Prayer change “it is right to give him thanks and praise” to “it is right to give God thanks and praise.”
The Christological Prayer in Eucharistic Prayer IV changes from “He renewed the promise of his presence” to “Your son, Jesus Christ, renewed the promise of his presence.” Eucharistic Prayer V allows revisions to the phrase “Give thanks to the Lord for he is gracious, And his mercy endures forever,” with “Give thanks to our gracious God, whose mercy endures forever;” and substitution of the phrase “which is your will for all mankind” with “which is your will for all the world.”
Ms. Finley said the revisions incorporate changes suggested by the clergy after a questionnaire was distributed in 2007. “The use of inclusive language was one of the key comments arising from this questionnaire,” she noted, adding the permitted changes prepared by the Liturgy Committee in consultation with the Faith & Order Board of General Synod and the College of Bishops “help bring our common texts in to line with the English Language Liturgical Consultation recommendations.”
However, the Rev. Stuart Hall of the Scottish Prayer Book Society on Aug 5 urged the Primus and College of Bishops to rethink the revisions as “some of the tinkering” to the liturgy “are going to do some incidental damage.”
Dr. Hall, Professor Emeritus of Ecclesiastical History at Kings’s College London and Honorary Professor of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews stated he believed there were problems of doctrine and aesthetics with the new liturgy.
The revisions “disturbed” the liturgy’s musical settings and upset the rhythm of the verses. The “compilers and revisers of the 1982 [Liturgy] have from the start been culpably indifferent to music,” he observed.
“The absurd thing is that the whole difficulty, if such there be, could be avoided with reference to all the ancient originals from which the Eucharistic dialogue was translated,” Dr. Hall said.
The Latin Dignum et iustum est or Greek axion kai dikaion is translated in the Book of Common Prayer as “It is meet and right so to do,” he said, asking “Why could our translators not have avoided the whole issue of God’s sex and stuck with ‘It is proper and right,’ or preserving the rhythms of the original Greek and Latin, ‘Proper it is, and right’.”
Changing the words of the Nicene Creed was problematic, he said. “On principle, liturgy-writers should not tamper with the text of ecumenical creeds,” and omitting ‘men’ has doctrinal consequences, he said.
The Greek words tous anthropous in the creed uses ‘men’ in the sense of all humanity. “If you leave it out, the reference might be taken to mean us Christians, or even us Episcopalians,” Dr. Hall said, adding that Hooker had to defend the phrase ‘that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men’ in the Litany “against dissenting critics who thought we should pray only for the Elect, not for everybody.”
In the original Creeds, the same word anthropos is applied to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who is not just enfleshed, ‘incarnate of the Virgin Mary’, but puts on total thinking humanity, enenthropesen, ‘made man’, Dr. Hall explained. “So there is a balance: for us humans … he became human. And his fleshly humanity is entirely derived from the Virgin Mary: her manhood becomes his. If ‘men’ applied to ‘us’ excludes women, then Christ is said not to have become human, but to have become male.”
Prudence Dailey of the Church of England’s Prayer Book Society told CEN she was “sorry” the SEC “felt the need to be squeamish” about gender specific language in relation to God.
“I would hope that the authorised liturgies of the Church of England will never go that far down that particular path. The Prayer Book Society would not wish worshipers to be encouraged to feel uncomfortable with the traditional usage of masculine pronouns, as found in the Book of Common Prayer of 1662,” she said.
Australian church court bans diaconal presidency at the Eucharist: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 20, 2010 p 6. August 20, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Canon Law, Church of England Newspaper, Ecclesiology.comments closed
Dr. Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney
First published in The Church of England Newspaper
The Anglican Church of Australia’s highest church court has thrown out the legal principle behind its 2007 decision to allow the ordination of women bishops. In an Aug 10 decision concerning the Diocese of Sydney and diaconal presidency at the Eucharist, the Appellate Tribunal held that it is not the language of a canon, but the legislative intent in its creation that provides its meaning.
In its 2007 ruling the court came to an opposite conclusion, finding that while women bishops were not contemplated in the drafting of the canons governing the episcopate, its language could be construed to allow the innovation.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Sydney declined to comment on last week’s ruling, stating “the advisory opinion of the Tribunal will doubtless receive attention at the Diocesan Synod to be held in October.”
The ruling on lay and diaconal presidency at the Eucharist came in response to a petition filed by opponents of the Oct 21, 2008 resolution adopted by the Sydney Synod that stated “lay and diaconal administration of the Lord’s Supper is consistent with the teaching of Scripture” and affirmed that the “Lord’s Supper in this diocese may be administered by persons other than presbyters.”
The synod resolution followed a 1997 ruling by the Appellate Tribunal that held that deacons or lay people could administer Holy Communion so long as General Synod authorized the practice. Some parishes in Sydney had authorized deacons to administer the Eucharist in the absence of a priest, but lay presidency has not been permitted in the diocese.
The Sydney Synod believed that three revisions to the Ordination Service for Deacons Canon passed by General Synod in 1985 “radically” reformed the Ordinal to allow diaconal presidency. Under the new rite, deacons were charged to be “faithful in prayer, and take your place with bishop, priest and people in public worship and at the administration of the sacraments.”
In his question to the diaconal candidates for ordination, the bishop under the revised Ordinal asked, “Will you take your part in reading the Holy Scriptures in the church, in teaching the doctrine of Christ, and in administering the sacraments?” And in his authorization of the new deacon the bishop stated “receive this sign of your authority to proclaim God’s word and to assist in the administration of his holy sacraments.”
These three portions of the 1985 ordination service “expressly authorizes the deacon to assist the priest in the administration of the sacraments,” a report accepted by the 2008 Sydney Synod held, adding that the word “assistance equally applies to Holy Communion as it applies to baptism; and there is no dispute that a deacon can administer baptism in its entirety.”
The authors of the Sydney report, led by the Bishop of North Sydney Dr. Glenn Davies, conceded that it may not have been the intention of the 1985 Ordinal to authorize diaconal presidency, but the principle that authorial intent does not bind interpretation of the canons had been set by the Appellate Tribunal the year before.
In a split 4-3 decision released on Sept 28, 2007 the Appellate Tribunal found the language of the Law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992 did not require a bishop to be male in order to meet the definition of ‘canonical fitness’ for the Episcopal ministry. While the canon may not have contemplated women bishops, grammar allowed the canon to be construed to permit it, the court held.
Objections to the 2008 Sydney vote were submitted to the Appellate Tribunal in 2009 by 25 members of General Synod led by Dr. Muriel Porter of the Diocese of Melbourne. In its opinion, the court said the objections to the Sydney vote arose from the view that the “1985 Canon and the service for making deacons contained in it, the deacon’s role is clearly to take his or her place in the administration and to assist the priest in the administration.”
The Diocese of Sydney did not participate in the Tribunal’s proceedings, while Bishop Davies appeared in a personal capacity to defend his committee paper on diaconal presidency and the 1985 Ordinal only.
The court by a vote of 6 to 1 rejected Bishop Davies argument, finding a distinction with the phrase “assist in” found in the canon, and the concept “assist by.” As a deacon may only “assist in” it was “logically correct” to argue that a priest was necessarily present when a deacon could “assist in” administering the Eucharist.
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall wrote that he believed that Bishop Davies’ view that words “are to be given their plain and ordinary meaning” must be modified by context.
The archbishop argued that “there is a context that impacts upon the meaning of the words in the 1985 service, namely the BCP ordinal and the longstanding norms and practices governing the manner in which a deacon assists the priest in ministering the sacraments. That context impliedly limits the meaning of the words in the 1985 service and does not permit them to be construed in the manner submitted by Dr Davies.”
The effect of the Tribunal’s decision will be to halt the administration by deacons of the Eucharist in the Anglican Church of Australia, pending a canon authorizing the practice adopted by General Synod.
Kenya adopts new constitution over church protests: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 13, 2010 p 5. August 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abortion/Euthanasia/Biotechnology, Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
President Mwai Kibaki
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
hurch leaders in Kenya have voiced disappointment over the approval of the country’s draft constitution in a national referendum held on Aug 4, but have pledged to support the outcome of the vote.
“The historic journey that we began over 20 years ago is now coming to a happy end,” President Mwai Kibaki said in a nationally broadcast address on Aug 5. “Let us all join hands together to as we begin the process of national renewal under the new constitution.”
Almost 70 percent of the country’s 12 million voters supported the document, which will replace the constitution drawn up at independence in 1963. The new constitution reduces the power of the president, setting up a system of checks and balances among the executive, the judiciary and parliament, and devolves power to the regional and local governments, while also creating a commission to begin work on the contentious issue of land reform.
Church leaders had objected, however, to provisions in the document that allow Muslims to set up a government backed Sharia court system, while Section 26 of the constitution included language which allowed abortions when in the “opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.”
The Catholic Church had called upon its members to vote ‘no’, while Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, who that while he would vote ‘no’, Anglicans were free to “vote their conscience.”
In a pastoral letter released after the preliminary results were announced, Cardinal John Njue and the Catholic Bishops Conference said, that while respecting the outcome, “truth and right are not about numbers. We therefore, as the shepherds placed to give moral guidance to our people, still reiterate the need to address the flawed moral issues in this proposed constitution. That voice should never be silenced.”
Education Minister William Ruto, the leader of the ‘no’ coalition, said his side would accept the outcome of the election. He called on the government to engage in negotiations over the parts the clauses on abortion and land ownership, and address the root causes of the tensions that led to violence and social unrest after the 2007 elections.
“You cannot just go and tell people ‘live together nicely, now forgive each other’ when in fact somebody lost his parents or lost his land or business and yet nothing has been done about it,” Bethuel Kiplagat, chairman of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, told Reuters AlertNet.
“We have to approach it through the healing of the individual and communities. If nothing is done about them; an acknowledgement, counseling and reparations. I am afraid the seeds of the next conflict are dormant, waiting to explode again,” he said.
A date for the promulgation of the new document is to be announced with 14 days of the vote. After the promulgation, parliament will be prorogued while top leaders will be required to take fresh oaths of office. In three months, parliament will form committees to implement the new law.
Healing Prayer works, US study finds: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 13, 2010 p 6. August 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Health/HIV-AIDS.comments closed
Sebastiano Ricci, "Christ Healing the Blind Man" (circa 1712-1716). National Gallery of Scotland
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A study to be published next month in an American medical journal reports that “proximal intercessory prayer” (PIP) — when one or more people pray for someone in that person’s presence and with physical contact – has been found to have remarkable results in healing the sick.
The study, entitled “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments in Rural Mozambique,” measured improvements in vision and hearing in economically disadvantaged areas of rural Mozambique where eyeglasses and hearing aids are not readily available.
“We chose to investigate ‘proximal’ prayer because that is how a lot of prayer for healing is actually practiced by Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world,” Dr. Candy Gunther Brown of Indiana University, the study’s lead researcher, said.”
The study to be published in the September issue of the Southern Journal of Medicine is part of a larger research program conducted by medical and religion scholars funded by the John Templeton Foundation Flame of Love Project, on the cultural significance and experience of spiritual healing practices.
The success of Pentecostal Christians in healing the success was one reason for its explosive growth in the developing world, the authors said. “When people feel that they have a serious need for healing, they are willing to try almost anything,” Dr. Brown said. “If they feel that a particular religious or spiritual practice healed them, they are much more likely to become an adherent. This phenomenon, more than any other, accounts for the growth of these Christian subgroups globally,” she suggested.
The researchers joined healing prayer teams from Iris Ministries and Global Awakening in Mozambique and using an audiometer and vision charts evaluated 14 subjects who reported impaired hearing and 11 who reported impaired vision—before and after receiving proximal intercessory prayer (PIP).
Dr. Brown said the study chose to test hearing and vision as changes could be measured by hearing machines and vision charts, while other ailments provided a less subjective standard of measurement.
They found that the study subjects exhibited statistically improved hearing and vision after receiving PIP. Two with impaired hearing reduced the threshold at which they could detect sound by 50 decibels. Three subjects had their tested vision improve from 20/400 or worse to 20/80 or better. These improvements are much larger than those typically found in suggestion and hypnosis studies, the authors said.
One participant, an elderly woman named Maryam, initially reported that she could not see a person’s hand, with two upraised fingers, from a distance of one foot. An intercessor placed her hand over Maryam’s eyes, hugged her and prayed for her. The intercessor then held up five fingers before Maryam, who could count them and was tested on an eye chart and able now to read the 20/125 line on a vision chart.
Scientific research on the benefits of intercessory prayer has produced contradictory results in recent years. A 2006 Harvard Medical Schools study concluded that prayer had no effect on healing, but certainty of receiving prayer adversely affected health.
Critics of the Harvard study note that it focused on distant rather than intercessory prayer. Those offering the prayer differed from the Mozambique study as the Harvard study was a multi-faith enterprise, and included only one group of Protestant intercessors: Silent Unity, a group which rejects the efficacy of prayers of supplication or petition as “useless.”
“If empirical research continues to indicate that PIP may be therapeutically beneficial, then — whether or not the mechanisms are adequately understood — there are ethical and nonpartisan public policy reasons to encourage further related research,” Dr. Brown said.
“Disastrous” Big Society spending cuts denounced by bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 13, 2010 p 5. August 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
The Rt Rev Robert Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney has denounced plans outlined in Prime Minister David Cameron’s “Big Society” programme to test those receiving invalidity benefits to see whether they are able to return to work.
In a letter printed in the Scotsman on Aug 8, Dr Robert Gillies welcomed the government’s plans to boost volunteerism saying it could soften the prevalent culture of anti-religious rhetoric. However, the government’s plans for welfare reform announced last month by the prime minister would be “disastrous” for those on the margins of society
“For some, not least those suffering from various forms of mental illness, this will prove disastrous. Discreet or covert assessment tests are required to be carried out on people who may not know they are even being tested,” Dr. Gillies said.
The Scottish Episcopal Church bishop also questioned the government capacity to fairly measure the ability of the mentally disabled to return to full time employment. “Do they assess a person’s capacity to assume responsibility, sustain a full, or part-time day’s work? I fear not.
“Do they take into account any variation of a person’s emotions and how these might be affected in any given workplace? Do they look at how a drugs regime might be maintained in such places? It is unlikely,” the bishop said.
He noted the evolution in Conservative party thinking on these questions, noting “my mind re-connects with a statement that former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, once made: ‘There is no such thing as society; there are individual men and women, and there are families’.”
Now thirty years later David Cameron had come full circle. “One prime minister debunks society. Another commends it.” But the bishop urged the government, whatever its philosophical views on government, not to use the “big society” mantra to cover up the faults of “bad society.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury had also voiced concerns about the “Big Society”. While the government’s plans could very well be a “watershed moment in British politics”, Dr. Rowan Williams said he could only give it “two and a half cheers” because he feared it could be a smokescreen for cuts.
In a 2008 paper entitled “Moral, but no Compass,” the Church of England said the Labour government had a “significant lack of understanding, or interest in” the church’s contribution to society.
The coalition government has sought to distance itself from its predecessor on this point. The Communities Secretary, Eric Pickles on July 16 told Dr. Williams and other faith leaders at a meeting at Lambeth Palace that “for years, faith communities have been quietly making a huge difference day-in and day-out, to every single neighbourhood in the country – something that has not been sufficiently recognised by central Government. We can together build on the huge amount of experience faith groups have in getting out into the community.”
“Some see religion as a problem that needs to be solved. The new Government sees it as part of the solution. I want to send an important signal that we value the role of religion and faith in public life. The days of the state trying to suppress Christianity and other faiths are over,” the minister said.
Dr. Gillies said he hoped the new government would live up to its word and “ends the secularising and marginalising of faith into a ‘private’ thing you do in your own time.”
Bishop resigns after £500,000 goes missing: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 13, 2010 p 6. August 15, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Donald Harker
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A South African bishop has resigned after auditors discovered over £500,000 missing from diocesan coffers.
The Rt. Rev. Donald Harker, Bishop of George in South Africa’s Western Cape Province stepped down on July 10 after a meeting with Archbishop Thabo Makgoba. The diocesan Board of Trustees and Finance has been dissolved and an interim board and vicar general have been appointed to oversee the diocese until new officers and a bishop are elected by the diocesan synod.
Two former diocesan officers have been asked to account for their stewardship of church funds. Bishop Harker has not been accused of malfeasance. “I resigned as head of the church as this is the honourable thing to do as I accept responsibility and thereby take the liabilities on me,” the bishop told his clergy.
In a letter to the diocese, Archbishop Makgoba wrote that a Port Elizabeth auditor firm was investigating over 1000 suspect transactions brought to the church’s attention over a year ago.
“Three provincial teams have visited the Diocese of George to investigate more fully the complaints of financial mismanagement lodged in January 2009. What became clear was that significant fraud and theft had been taking place and that a forensic audit was required to ascertain the extent of the amount embezzled.”
The auditors completed their work “some five months after the original engagement date. The delay was largely brought about by the number of fraudulent transactions,” the archbishop said.
“After visiting Bishop Harker, he agreed to step down as Diocesan Bishop with effect from 10 August 2010,” he said.
In a statement released last week, Mr. Rob Rogerson, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s provincial treasurer said “those named in the audit are now being given the opportunity to answer. If anyone was enriched, without criminal intent, then that individual can pay back the money, or the church can attempt to get the money back through civil action.”
Mr. Rogerson told the Herald a committee had been formed “to assess the criminal and civil liabilities.”
“We might find that people who received money in error will pay it back, or if they default we can potentially take civil action.
“Of course, if there is specific evidence of fraud and theft, a criminal case will have to be made,” Mr. Rogerson said.
Taliban kill ten Western aid workers: The Church of England Newspaper, Aug 13 2010 p 1. August 14, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, NGOs, Terrorism.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Ten members of Christian medical charity working in Afghanistan have been murdered by the Taliban.
On Aug 6, the bodies of ten members of the International Assistance Mission (IAM) were found in Badakhshan north of Kabul. The ten: six Americans, two Afghans, one German, and a Briton, Dr. Karen Woo, a general surgeon from London, were murdered as they were returning from a medical mission to Nuristan in the Hindu Kush. One member of their team, an Afghan driver, survived after convincing the killers he was a Muslim.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the killings, saying the ten were spies and Christian missionaries, seeking to proselytize Afghans.
However, in an Aug 9 press conference in Kabul, IAM executive director Dirk Frans said the team was not seeking to convert Muslims.
“IAM is a Christian organization – we have never hidden this,” Mr. Frans said, and “our faith motivates and inspires us – but we do not proselytize.”
“We abide by the laws of Afghanistan. We are signatures of the Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs Disaster Response Programmes, in other words, that, “aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint.” But more than that, our record speaks for itself,” he said.
IAM would not pull out of Afghanistan, Mr. Frans said. “Our NGO has worked here for well over four decades. And we remember that there were times when security was much worse than it is now. IAM works in Afghanistan as the guest of the people and the government. As long as we are welcome here, we will, God-willing, continue to stay and serve the Afghan people,” he said.
Dr. Karen Woo, 36, the lone Briton among the dead, had left private practice in London to provide maternal health care in Afghanistan and was planning to leave in a few weeks to get married, friends said.
“Her motivation was purely humanitarian. She was a humanist and had no religious or political agenda,” her family said in a statement.
Catholic Church saddened by General Synod’s vote on women bishops: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 6. August 10, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church, Women Priests.comments closed
Bishop Brian Farrell of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Last month’s vote by General Synod on the consecration of women bishops is a departure from the apostolic tradition of the catholic church, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said. However, Bishop Brian Farrell declared the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion continued to have a duty to engage in ecumenical dialogue.
In an interview with the ZENIT news service, Bishop Farrell said would women bishops would present an “enormous obstacle” to Anglican-Catholic talks. “All the Churches of the first millennium, Catholic, Eastern and Orthodox, state that only men can be ordained. These Churches see the ordination of women as an illegitimate abandonment of authentic Tradition.”
However, the addition of women to the episcopacy in the Anglican Churches of Canada, New Zealand, the United States and Cuba had not ended ecumenical dialogue in those countries he noted. Any future dialogue with Anglicans “must take account of this situation, and recognize that an enormous obstacle has been created for attaining the objective of the dialogue itself, which would be total and visible ecclesial communion. The Catholic-Anglican dialogue will continue within these parameters,” Bishop Farrell said.
He added that the attempted compromise brokered by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to keep traditionalists on board, was inherently unworkable. If General Synod had accepted the archbishops’ proposal “one would be faced with a situation in which, for example, a parish or a group could reject the authority of a woman diocesan bishop and place itself under the authority of another male bishop. Thus, that parish would not be in communion with the other parishes of its diocese. In a certain way it would be a structural schism, even if it isn’t called that.”
The Church of England’s determination to go forward with women bishops “saddens us” Bishop Farrell said as “on this point the Anglican Communion has left what we consider the essential Tradition of the Church since its beginning.”
However this “process began a long time ago,” he said, adding that the Catholic Church “will continue the ecumenical dialogue with a realism that accepts things as they are and is aware that the road ahead is long and arduous. Knowing, however, that dialogue is a task imposed by Christ himself and sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, soul of the Church of Christ.”
No break in pace of Episcopal Church lawsuits: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 6. August 9, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation.comments closed
Bishop Iker being served with legal papers by a Texas constable in 2009
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The summer months have seen no break in the Episcopal Church’s legal wars, with new lawsuits, appeals and victories for both sides in the litigation over parish and diocesan property.
On July 6, the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin filed suit against the rector, vestry and parish of St Paul’s Anglican Church in Visalia, California. A congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin, St. Paul’s along with a majority of the diocese withdrew from the Episcopal Church in 2007 and affiliated with the Province of the Southern Cone.
The St Paul’s litigation joins a growing list of parish lawsuits funded by the national Episcopal Church and initiated by loyalist faction in San Joaquin. Suits against lay leaders and parish corporations are pending against St Francis Anglican Church in Turlock; St Michael’s Anglican Church in Ridgecrest; St John’s Anglican Church in Porterville, James Anglican Church in Sonora; Holy Redeemer Anglican Church in Delano; and St Columba’s Anglican Church in Fresno.
Canon lawyer Alan Halley noted the diocese appeared to have adopted a legal strategy of financial attrition. By adding the parish vestry and clergy as defendants in the lawsuits, the diocese was engaged in a “particularly nefarious attempt to force the defendants to waste money on the litigation.”
In California, each named defendant must pay an “appearance fee” of $355 to the court when a response is filed to a complaint, he noted. In the case of St Francis in Turlock, for the rector and ten members of the vestry to respond fully “will cost the parish of St. Francis a cool $3,905 in court filing fees, to say nothing of the legal fees that will be incurred.”
Diocesan chancellor Michael Glass told the Episcopal News Service the litigation was necessary after the parish refused Bishop Jerry Lamb’s request that they turn over their property to him.
Mr. Glass said the diocese would not initially seek monetary judgments against vestry members “unless it becomes evident that such defendants have diverted parish assets to other purposes or parties.”
Parishes have fared badly this month in their attempts to secede from diocesan control, while diocesan moves to quit the Episcopal Church have seen legal wins. In Georgia, Christ Church in Savannah, the church of John Wesley and George Whitfield, filed an appeal on July 28 with the state supreme court seeking review of a July 8 appellate decision that found in favor of the diocese. In Tennessee, St Andrews Church in Nashville filed an appeal in June against a lower court ruling that held the national church’s property canons control parish property, even when the property is held by a trust independent of the diocese.
However, the Diocese of Fort Worth under Bishop Jack Iker secured a second victory against the loyalist faction backed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, when a Texas county court on July 14 granted three motions blocking attempts to seize the income of a trust bequeathed to a congregation loyal to Bishop Iker.
Hood County Texas Judge Ralph Walton found that Bishop C. Wallis Ohl, leader of the loyalist faction had no “legal interest” in funds belonging to St Andrews Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, and barred Bishop Ohl’s attorneys from calling themselves the attorneys for the “Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.”
Welsh archdeacon pick sparks controversy: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 5. August 8, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church in Wales, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Andrew John of Bangor
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Bangor has defended his selection as Archdeacon of Meirionnydd a priest once arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover policeman. The Rt. Rev. Andrew John told Wales on Sunday that the new archdeacon, Canon Andrew Jones, has his full support.
On July 24, the diocese announced that Canon Jones, rector of the parishes of Llanbedrog and Llannor with Llanengan and Llangian, and Area Dean of Llyn and Eifionnydd had been chosen to oversee the diocese’s southern archdeaconry.
However, on Aug 1, the Welsh press reported that Canon Jones had been arrested sixteen years ago while serving as a lecturer at St. Michael’s Theological College in Llandaff. Canon Jones admitted in court ‘importuning for immoral purposes’ an undercover policeman, and was given a 12-month conditional discharge.
Canon Jones declined to comment on the controversy, but Bishop John said he was satisfied with his choice. The bishop said Canon Jones “has been a devoted priest to locals and diocese alike. He has attracted respect for his honesty, warmth and openness. He is a person of deep faith and integrity and has my wholehearted and unreserved support.”
“He regrets his behaviour which led to the offence and conditional discharge 16 years ago and the diocese has always been fully aware of it,” Bishop John said.
Women bishops by 2014, Second Church Estates Commissioner predicts: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 5. August 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Women Priests.comments closed
Anthony Baldry MP
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The first woman bishop of the Church of England could be appointed by 2014, the Second Church Estates Commissioner told Parliament on July 27.
Speaking in response to a question from the member for Kingston upon Hull North, Diana Johnson (Lab), as to his “guess” when the Church of England might first see women bishops, the Second Church Estates Commissioner Mr. Anthony Baldry stated the legislation completed its Report stage at the meeting of General Synod at York.
“It now has to go to all the 44 dioceses of the Church of England. If a majority of them agree, it will go back to General Synod, probably in 2012. If two thirds of each of the General Synod’s houses agree to it, I would then expect it to come here to the Ecclesiastical Committee and this House in 2013, and if this House agrees, we could see the appointment of the first woman bishop in 2014,” Mr. Baldry said.
The member for The Wrekin, Mr. Mark Pritchard (Cons.), rose and asked Mr. Baldry whether he agreed that “the first appointment of a female bishop, which will undoubtedly happen soon, must be on merit rather than political correctness?”
Mr. Baldry replied that he was “sure that all appointments in the Church of England, including that of the Second Church Estates Commissioner, are made on merit,” sparking laughter from some members of the House.
ACC faces questions about the legality of its new constitution: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 6. August 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Consultative Council, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Consultative Council failed to follow its rules in soliciting approval for its new constitution, critics of the London-based ‘instrument of communion’ tell The Church of England Newspaper.
Some provinces were never asked to approve the ACC’s new constitution, while others were asked to approve “in principle” a draft version that differed from the final document lodged with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on July 10, 2010, while a third group reported that the draft it approved was substantially similar to the one adopted.
The resulting uncertainty has likely resulted in two Anglican Consultative Councils under law: a limited corporation created under English law on July 12, 2010, and an English charitable trust registered in 1978.
The ACNS reported that ACC legal adviser John Rees told the Standing Committee at its London meeting on July 24 the new Articles of Association had been drawn up between 2002 and 2005, before submission to the Provinces between 2005 and 2009. “In all essentials the content of the new Constitution is as circulated to the provinces between 2005 and 2009” ACC spokesman Jan Butter said.
However, Global South leaders tell CEN the claim of inconsequential revisions advanced by the ACC was misleading. Citing the Anglican Communion Institute’s analysis, they note the new constitution engages in a power grab that makes the delegates subordinate to the Standing Committee, while also encroaching upon the authority and prerogatives of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates Meeting. It is also unclear if all of the provinces were consulted about the changes introduced by the new constitution, including the subordination of the ACC to the European Union’s equality laws.
The Archbishops’ Council and the House of Bishops Standing Committee endorsed the revised articles of association in early 2009, a spokesman for the Church of England said, adding that “we do not consider there to be any significant differences between the drafts considered by the Archbishops’ Council and House of Bishops Standing Committee in 2009, and the articles adopted this year.”
A spokesman for the Church of Uganda told CEN that in 2008 a letter asking for comments on the draft bylaws was sent to Archbishop Henry Orombi, which stated that unless an answer was received, this would be interpreted as the church’s consent for the revisions, which were described as inconsequential changes to facilitate the ACC’s metamorphosis into a limited liability corporation.
However, “we were never sent an actual copy of the new by-laws to review,” the Church of Uganda spokesman said.
In 1969 the special session of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention “acceded and subscribed to the Proposed Constitution of the said Anglican Consultative Council,” but spokesman Neva Rae Fox stated “the General Convention did not act on the revisions to the ACC constitution proposed by ACC-13.”
On July 27, the Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina stated he had “no recollection of this province having been consulted on these changes.”
Mr. Butter told CEN that ACC chairman Bishop John Patterson reported the approval of the new constitution “to members in the first session” of ACC-14. However, he said he did not believe the announcement of the approval “was minuted” in the proceedings of ACC-14, while audio recordings of the May 2 session do not record this announcement.
Formed in 1969 in response to 1968 Lambeth Conference Resolution 69, the ACC began as a voluntary association to advance the interests of the churches of the Anglican Communion. In 1973 ACC-2 approved the creation of a trust under British law to hold title to property in England on behalf of the ACC’s members. Further refinements were taken at ACC-11, which adopted resolution 11.6 calling for the formation of a limited legal company to manage the ACC’s assets while keeping the structure “so far as possible in all other respects in accordance with the existing constitutional arrangements.”
In 2005, ACC-13 Resolution 3 approved the draft articles reconstituting “the work of the Council within the framework of a limited liability company,” authorized the Standing Committee to make final amendments to the proposed constitution, and asked that the Standing Committee establish “such a body with charitable status in accordance with the such approved draft Memorandum and Articles as amended” following consultation with the Primates and legal counsel.
In response to questions about the status of the new constitution, in January 2010, ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon told the website Episcopal Café the change to its constitution “required approval in principle from a majority of the provinces, and the Standing Committee just before ACC 14 in Jamaica in 2009 noted that the requisite number of approvals had been received.”
The new articles were “available at the ACC meeting in Jamaica in 2009 and were discussed at the [December] Standing Committee meeting,” Canon Kearon that month told Pittsburgh blogger Dr. Lionel Deimel, adding that “these were sent to the Charity Commissioners for final approval immediately after ACC in 2009, but we have not yet received a response.
Last month Canon Kearon further clarified the chronology stating the “text was finalised at the Standing Committee meeting” held before the start of ACC-14. The “approval by the Charity Commissioners was received just before the [July 2010] Standing Committee meeting, at which point it became operative.”
Approval by the Standing Committee alone was insufficient to ratify a new constitution, canon lawyers tell CEN, as Article 8 of the former bylaws limited the Standing Committee’s power. It could not act on behalf of the full council in matters “by this Constitution required to be done specifically by the Council” including the adoption of new bylaws, they argue.
The final text of the constitution approved by the Standing Committee before the start of ACC-14 had to be “submitted by the Council to the constitutional bodies” or Provinces for ratification, under Article 10 of the former bylaws.
An “association must proceed by its rules,” former Australian ACC member Robert Tong told CEN. It was part of pattern of “contempt” for the ACC constitution by the Standing Committee illustrated by its denial of Ugandan delegate the Rev. Phil Ashey a seat at ACC-14, and the Janet Trisk affair, where it appointed the South African clergy delegate in December, but conceded in July its actions were unlawful under the old rules, but could be perfected under the new. This was “a con by the ACO” that showed “constitution is held in contempt,” Mr. Tong, a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference and the Diocese of Sydney deputy-chancellor said.
The ACC stated that details on which provinces had endorsed the draft constitution would not be quickly forthcoming as the relevant staffer who could provide this information was on vacation.
Churches call for ‘no’ vote on Aug 4 referendum: The Church of England Newspaper, August 6, 2010 p 5. August 5, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abortion/Euthanasia/Biotechnology, Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
Archbishop Eliud Wabukala
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders held a joint prayer service on July 30 in Nairobi, urging Kenyans to vote “No” in the country’s Aug 4 constitutional referendum.
While opinion pollsters predict the constitution will be backed by a majority, a close vote will likely be seen as a moral victory by Christian leaders who disapprove of the new constitution’s legalisation of abortion and legal recognition of Islamic Khadi Courts to regulate marriage and inheritance in the Muslim community.
Kenya’s 2007 election divided the country along ethnic lines, with the violence between supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), led by current Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and the Party of National Unity (PNU), led by President Mwai Kibaki, bringing the country to the brink of civil war.
However, Prime Minister Odinga and President Kibaki and their parties have united in support of the constitution, while the “no” campaign has brought together Christian leaders and Daniel Arap Moi, who served as president of Kenya from 1978 to 2002.
Political analysts fault the government for not consulting with the country’s churches in the drafting of the proposed constitution which seeks to decrease the power of the president and to create a system of checks and balances that can reduce corruption and the accumulation of power in few hands. Church leaders have endorsed the constitution’s devolution of authority to local and regional governments, but say the documents support for abortion mandates a ‘no’ vote.
In the July 30 prayer service at the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi, Roman Catholic Cardinal John Njue, Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, and the General Secretary of Kenya’s National Council of Churches Canon Peter Karanja along with the heads of the country’s main Christian churches called for unity and calm before the vote.
“It is true this Constitution has many good things but the good has been mixed with evil sections that affect the moral life and rights of this country in fundamental ways,” a joint statement by the leaders read by Canon Karanja said.
“There are no two ways; either we are Christians or we are not. You cannot tell me to approve something that goes against the commandments of God that say ‘do not kill’,” Cardinal Njue said, condemning the legalization of abortion under the proposed constitution.
Archbishop Wabukala concurred, saying “it is time the Church stands together and influences kingdom principles in our society.”
“The greatest right is the right to life. This right does not need to be qualified for the unborn simply because they can’t speak for themselves,” the archbishop said.
Dog offered Holy Communion at Toronto parish: The Church of England Newspaper, July 30, 2010 p 2. August 4, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Toronto parish has taken the concept of using the Eucharist as a marketing and evangelism tool to new heights, providing Holy Communion to a dog as an act of welcome.
The decision to offer the wafer, but not the wine, to ‘Trapper’ a four year old Alsatian mix-breed has prompted outrage and mirth in the Canadian press, and an apology from the interim rector of St Peter’s Anglican Church in Toronto.
During a June Sunday Eucharist, the Rev. Marguerite Rea gave Trapper a wafer at the Communion rail after his master, Donald Keith, received the host. A first time visitor to the fading downtown church, Mr. Keith told the Toronto Star “the minister welcomed me and said come up and take communion, and Trapper came up with me and the minister gave him communion as well.”
“I thought it was a nice way to welcome me into the church. I thought it was acceptable,” he said, adding that the priest’s actions appeared to have the approval of the congregation.
On parishioner, however, complained to Toronto Assistant Bishop Patrick Yu, about offering communion to an un-baptised dog.
“I wrote back to the parishioner that it is not the policy of the Anglican Church to give communion to animals,” Bishop Yu told the Star. “I can see why people would be offended. It is a strange and shocking thing, and I have never heard of it happening before.”
Critics of Mrs. Rea’s actions in giving the Body of Christ to a dog note that the action reflects badly on the Church and upon her theological understanding of what she is doing as a priest at the altar.
“Communion is a symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus’ body; he died for all of us. But I don’t recall anything from the scripture about Jesus dying for the salvation of our pets,” Cheryl Chang of the Anglican Network in Canada told the National Post.
Bishop Yu stated he believed Mrs. Rea “was overcome by what I consider a misguided gesture of welcoming.”
Last Sunday Mrs. Rea told her congregation that offering the Eucharist to a dog was not intended as a provocative theological assertion that a dog could by receive the sacraments by faith and be incorporated in to the Body of Christ, but was merely a “simple church act of reaching out.”
“If I have hurt, upset or embarrassed anyone, I apologise,” she said.
However, dog-owner Donald Keith said the congregation backed their priest over her “open communion” policy for all comers, whether on two legs or four, and added that the parishioner who had complained to the bishop had since left the church.
Khmer Rouge killer/Christian convert: The Church of England Newspaper, July 30, 2010 p 6. August 3, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of South East Asia, Crime.comments closed
Comrade Duch
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A UN-backed War Crimes Tribunal in Phnom Penh has sentenced the commandant of the Khmer Rouge’s main death camp to 35 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity.
The trial of Kang Kek Iew, whose revolutionary nom de guerre was ‘Comrade Duch’, has been compared to the trial of Adolf Eichman in Jerusalem, and has served as a cathartic political and historical moment for the Southeast Asian country. He is also the only Khmer Rouge leader to have admitted his participation in the genocide that killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979.
The Duch trial has also been an exercise in Christian doctrine for the predominantly Buddhist country. In 1996, while in hiding from his crimes, Comrade Duch converted to Christianity.
On July 26, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) held that when Comrade Duch commanded Camp S-21 he was responsible for the torture and deaths of an estimated 17,000 enemies of the regime.
“He worked tirelessly to ensure that S-21 ran as efficiently as possible and did so out of unquestioning loyalty to his superiors,” the ECCC said, noting that his zeal led to his promotion as head of the Santebal, the Khmer Rouge’s internal security apparatus.
After the Communist seizure of power in 1975, the Khmer Rouge under their leader Pol Pot emptied Cambodia’s cities, forcing residents into collective farms and forced labour projects, with the goal of forming a Utopian society.
Approximately 21 per cent of Cambodia’s population died following the restarting of civilization in “Year Zero.” The regime collapsed in 1979 when Vietnam invaded the country and from 1979 to 1997 Pol Pot and his supporters operated in the jungles in along the border with Thailand. A factional split within the Khmer Rouge led to Pol Pot’s house arrest in 1997, and he died in captivity in 1998.
Four leading figures of the former regime are awaiting trial before the ECCC. However, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Nuon Chea are unrepentant and have defended the record of the Khmer Rouge. Hun Sen, the current Prime Minister of Cambodia, is also a former official of the Khmer Rouge regime who defected to Vietnam in 1979, and has dismissed any suggestion that he stand in the dock for his part in the regime. Unlike his former Khmer Rouge colleagues, Comrade Duch has asked for forgiveness from the Cambodian people for his crimes.
Comrade Duch’s trial began in March 2009 and concluded last November. The ECCC reported that over 28,000 people followed the proceedings from the public gallery, while the trial was broadcast across the country.
In addition to his testimony about Cambodia’s killing fields, the country learned that while in hiding in 1995, Comrade Duch heard a Cambodian-American Protestant missionary preach in a village near Battambang. Two weeks later Duch approached the Rev Christopher LePel and asked to be baptised.
On Sept 24, 2009 Mr LePel told the court that he did not know who his new convert was, but said the man he knew as Hang Pin confessed to him he had done things that “couldn’t be forgiven.”
Mr LePel said that after converting from Buddhism to Christianity, Duch changed from that of a man with “no joy, no peace, no purpose in life” to someone whose “heart wanted to share the word of God to his friends and family.”
The minister noted that his parents and a brother and sister had died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and a number of friends had perished at S-21. However, as a Christian he had forgiven Duch. “I hate the sin, but I love the sinner,” he told the court.
The prosecution discounted Duch’s conversion, noting that a court-appointed psychologist believed it was insincere. The prosecutor told the court that while Christianity promises instant forgiveness, Buddhism would require many cycles of rebirth to expiate his crimes. Duch had made a pragmatic decision to become a Christian to avoid bad karma, prosecutors claimed.
Mr LePel said he was convinced of Duch’s sincerity, saying that in a 2008 jailhouse visit he “was sorry for the crimes that he did in the past and that he did not rejoice for what he had done.”
“I am proud of him for his willingness to accept his crime and punishment,” Mr LePel told the court.
With credit for time served, Comrade Duch will serve 19 years in prison for his crimes.
Church State clash over gay marriage in Argentina: The Church of England Newspaper, July 30, 2010, p 5. August 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue, La Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America.comments closed
Bishop Gregory Venables
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
Argentina has become the first Latin American national to recognize gay marriage.
Over the vigorous protests of Catholic and Protestant leaders, the Argentine Senate on July 15 passed a gay marriage law endorsed by President Cristina Fernández. By a vote of 33 to 27 with three abstentions, the Senate passed the gay marriage bill following 15 hours of contentious debate.
“I am very satisfied. It has been a positive vote,” said President Fernández upon hearing of the vote while on a state visit to China.
While Protestant leaders had opposed the bill, the fight over gay marriage had pitted the Fernández government against the country’s influential Catholic Church in a political battle that analysts note had more to do with anti-clericalism than with gay rights.
In the run up to the vote Argentina’s Synod of Catholic Bishops had warned “this is not a private matter or a matter of religious choice, this is a reality rooted in the very nature of humanity, which is male and female.”
The Archbishop of Argentina, Cardinal Jorge Bergogolio before the vote said “this is no mere legislative bill. It is a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God.”
President Fernández responded saying the Cardinal’s statement was “really reminiscent of the times of the Inquisition,” and argued that the proposed law “recognizes a pre-existent reality” and “the rights of minorities.”
The night before the vote, Catholic and Evangelical leaders organized a march upon the Congress building in Buenos Aires. Over 60,000 protesters waived orange flags and held aloft placards denouncing the bill while a statement released by the march organizers declared, “we won’t vote for politicians who vote for the marriage of homosexuals.”
On June 30 Anglican, Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox leaders testified before the Senate’s legal committee against the proposed law. The Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone and Bishop of Argentina, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables urged legislators to reject the government’s bill. Expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples would shake and divide the nation, he said.
“If you take the Old and New Testaments” it is plain that “God foresaw marriage as being for a man and a woman.” The Biblical text “leaves no possibility of marriage as anything else,” the bishop said, for marriage is the “sign of the union of Christ and his Church.”
“I can only bless what God blesses” (Yo sólo puedo bendecir lo que Dios bendice), Bishop Venables told the Senate, urging them to take head to the views of the “86 per cent of the country that is Christian”, adding that the government had been wrong not to consult with the people before it began its political push for gay marriage.
Political analysts in Argentina note the battle over gay marriage has little to do with the intrinsic issues, but is part of a wider political battle between President Fernández and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, against the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church has been sharply critical of the government’s failures to address corruption and poverty. The split with the church was evident on July 9, when President Fernández broke a long-held presidential tradition by missing the Te Deum Mass for Argentina’s Independence Day. The country’s constitution designates Roman Catholicism as the country’s official religion.
“Kirchner’s epic vision of politics and his need to turn every issue into a mortal combat have driven him to seek the defeat of [Cardinal] Bergoglio and the church,” said Joaquin Morales Sola, a columnist at the conservative La Nacion newspaper.
“Kirchner doesn’t care about the gay community,” said opposition leader Elisa Carrio of the Coalicion Civica party. “Kirchner is using the gay-marriage issue to take on Bergoglio,” she said.
New criminal charges for Indian bishop: The Church of England Newspaper, July 30, 2010 p 6. August 1, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Manickam Dorai
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The embattled Bishop of Coimbatore, Manickam Dorai, has been indicted on charges of stealing over £400,000 by police in the Southern Indian city of Salem.
The July 21 indictment filed by detectives of the Tamil Nadu CID at the Hasthampatti police station alleges the Bishop and his henchmen embezzled over 30 million rupees (£415,000) from the Church of South India’s Polytechnic College in Salem.
Acting upon a complaint filed by the secretary of the People’s Welfare Society of the Diocese, Mr V R Ravichandran, police investigated allegations the Bishop, his wife, the former principal of the college, Dr Sampson Ravindran, and 10 accomplices manipulated the school’s bank accounts college’s accounts, diverting tuition fees and funds to their own pockets.
In May the Bishop and six co-conspirators were accused of bilking the Diocese out of almost £275,000 through a kickback scheme in the construction of a building at the CSI’s College of Engineering at Ketti, while in March the Bishop, two of his brothers and the former diocesan secretary along with 27 others were accused of stealing over £335,000 from diocesan coffers.
On May 8, a bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Bishop Dorai after he failed to appear in court to respond to charges of threatening one of his clergy with grievous bodily harm. The Bishop was released on bail on May 10 after a bond was filed with the Madras High Court, and the Bishop is understood to remain free on bond pending his trial.
Last month the executive committee of the CSI general synod dissolved the Diocese of Coimbatore’s governing board and suspended Bishop Dorai pending the outcome of the legal proceedings lodged against him.
On July 23 Lambeth Palace confirmed a March report that Dr Rowan Williams and his wife would travel to India in October. Bishops in India tell CEN the Williams’ tour will likely take in Calcutta, Patna, Ranchi, Delhi, Madras, Bangalore, and Thiruvananthapuram but is not expected to include Coimbatore.
