2010: A year that brought further dismay to the Communion: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 pp 8-9. December 30, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church News, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Rev Canon Diane M. Jardine Bruce, left, and Rev Canon Mary Glasspool congratulate each other after their ordination and consecration ceremony
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
For the Anglican Communion, 2010 was not a year on which it could look back with undiluted pleasure. While not quite the Annus Horribilis that was 2003, the communion remained divided and distracted, nursing a colossal hangover watered by decades of doctrinal abandon. While individual provinces, dioceses and church movements flourished in different parts of the globe—as an international body the Anglican Communion ended 2010 crapulous, dispirited and decrepit.
The pace of decline has quickened: 2008 saw the collapse of the Lambeth Conference as a pan-Anglican body, losing its credibility through the absence of a majority of the African bishops and its rationale for being; 2009 witnessed the breakdown of the Anglican Consultative Council at its meeting in Kingston; and 2010 foreshadowed the end of the primates meeting as a credible body of leadership for the wider church and a mounting distrust of the London-based bureaucracy.
On Nov 7, 2006 the Primate of Uganda, Archbishop Henry Orombi told his general synod: “There is a proverb that says, ‘When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold’.”
Beware “the sickness that is coming from America,” he warned.
While the American church flu’s effects are still ravaging the communion, unlike past years it has not dominated the news, either as the source of controversy, or as the point against which the rest of the communion has reacted. War, civil unrest, globalization, militant Islam, climate change, nuclear tensions, poverty and disease continued their march. While the councils of the church have proven themselves unable to act, the wider church has focused its energies on local issues, and carrying on.
The true issues dividing the church, however, are becoming clearer. The fight over homosexuality, while still bitterly waged by the combatants, is slowly giving way to a new fight over the nature of truth and divine revelation.
Gay bishops and blessings—and lawsuits—topped the news from the Episcopal Church. The American church continued in decline with the national office reporting that in 2009 average Sunday attendance (ASA) fell by 3 per cent to 682,963. As of the end of 2009, the Episcopal Church reported having 2,006,343 active members—at its peak in the 1960’s the church counted over 3.5 million members.
In May the Diocese of Los Angeles consecrated the Episcopal Church’s second “out” gay priest: Suffragan Bishop Mary Glasspool, while a number of dioceses and the national church’s liturgical commission began work on crafting same-sex blessing liturgies. Unlike the 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson which prompted an emergency meeting of the primates to discuss the Episcopal Church’s consecration of the first ‘gay’ bishop and worldwide media attention—the 2010 consecration of Bishop Glasspool did not register on the nation’s conscience, nor did it spark any official reaction from the wider church.
On Aug 5, Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania won his appeal of his conviction of conduct unbecoming a clergyman—and returned to office following a three year suspension.
Financial woes have led to the mortgaging of the church’s national offices in New York, while a study by canon lawyer Allan Haley reported the church had dedicated over $21,650,000 to lawsuits and disciplinary actions against the clergy since 2001. Parish-diocese lawsuits continue to make their way through the courts, with results favoring dioceses in 2010, however, lawsuits between dioceses and the national church saw intermediate wins for the breakaway dioceses of San Joaquin and Fort Worth.
Canada’s property disputes continue as well, with the breakaway Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) filing an appeal in December with Supreme Court of Canada, asking it to overturn a British Columbia Court of Appeals ruling that awarded control of the property of its four Vancouver-area congregations to the Diocese of New Westminster.
In June Canada’s General Synod voted not to make a decision on the issue of same-sex blessings. Meeting in Halifax it adopted a resolution that recognized that same-sex blessings were being performed in the dioceses of New Westminster, Niagara and Ottawa, but declined to affirm or condemn the innovation. In November, the Diocese of Toronto released its guidelines for same-sex blessing services.
The church also entered the public eye after Toronto parish re-envisioned the Eucharist as a marketing and evangelism tool, 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 un-baptised Alsatian mix-breed, prompted outrage and mirth in the Canadian press, and an apology from the interim rector of St Peter’s Anglican Church in Toronto.
The Anglican Church of Mexico became the first province of the Communion in 2010 to formally adopt the Anglican Covenant. La Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America (IARCA)—the Anglican church in Central America—elected a new primate in April, with the conservative Bishop Armando Guerra of Guatemala succeeding the liberal Bishop Martín Barahona of El Salvador.
The Bishop of Barbados, Dr John Holder was enthroned as Primate of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, while diocesan synods wrestled with the problems of the region’s endemic crime and sluggish economies.
In November, Bishop Hector “Tito” Zavala of Chile was elected Presiding Bishop of la Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur (the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone). The province’s general synod also rejected allowing the ordination of women to the priesthood—prompting the Diocese of Uruguay in December to petition for release to join another province that would permit it to ordain women.
Political instability continued to plague the Solomon Islands, as the church sought to stem tribal violence across the Central Pacific. In a speech commissioning the new members of Parliament, Archbishop David Vunagi of Melanesia on Sept 12 warned the MPs the country risked sliding back into anarchy if they could not work together.
Political and social instability also plagued Papua New Guinea, but on June 11 the Anglican Church elected the Bishop of Popondota, the Rt. Rev. Joseph Kopapa, to serve as primate and archbishop of the province.
On May 12, the General Synod of the Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia meeting in Gisborne, New Zealand announced it had affirmed the election of Dr, Winston Halapua as Archbishop of Polynesia, while in the North Pacific, the Bishops of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK), the Anglican Church in Japan, agreed to issue a formal apology to their Korean brethren for their country’s conduct on the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of Korea.
The decision came at the second joint meeting of the Korean and Japanese House of Bishops in June. The 11 bishops of the NSKK and the three bishops of the Anglican Church of Korea (SHK) discussed the lingering hostility many Koreans and other East Asians feel towards Japan for its conduct during the early and mid-Twentieth century.
At its May General Synod, the Japanese church also overruled a recommendation from the theological committee of its House of Bishops, and voted to go forward with discussions on an Anglican Covenant.
In September, Archbishop Paul Kwong of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (HKSK) dedicated the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV) of the Old and New Testaments, the first new translation of the Bible in Chinese since 1919. The HKSK has also been engaged in talks with the China Christian Council—the state approved Protestant Church in China—seeking to build a common witness for Christians in China.
The Anglican Church in Myanmar remains under the watchful eye of the country’s military junta, while in Malaysia 2010 started off with a spate of church arsons set by Muslim militants.
The Anglican Church of Australia continues to deal with a spate of sexual abuse cases, most arising in the 1970’s and 1980’s, while the Bishop of The Murray was deposed for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy and the Bishop of Ballarat resigned in the face of an investigation into charges of bullying.
The Diocese of Sydney bucked the trend of Anglican Churches in the developing world and reported 5 per cent growth in attendance in 2009—a result of its Connect09 outreach and evangelism programme. Sydney, along with Melbourne and a number of other dioceses, were also heavily involved in a number of local issues ranging from Christian education in schools, euthanasia, and immigration reform.
The church in Ceylon saw the retirement of its two bishops—both strong critics of the country’s conduct in its war with Tamil guerrillas, while the Church of South India was plagued with corruption trials and property lawsuits. The Moderator of the CSI remains under investigation for fraud, while the Bishop in Coimbatore faces multiple criminal counts of theft and fraud while property litigation and communal violence and anti-Christian persecution have bedeviled the Church of North India.
Persecution has also been a marked aspect of the life of the Church of Pakistan in 2010, with a number of attacks reported against churches and individual Christians, while the nation’s blasphemy laws remain a threat to non-Muslims.
Development, corruption, education, the environment, political reform and independence were among the issues dominating the churches of Africa. The Episcopal Church of the Sudan is preparing for a January 2011 referendum on independence for South Sudan—and dealing with the expectations of a people emerging from almost 30 years of civil war.
Church leaders in Kenya campaigned unsuccessfully for the rejection of the country’s new constitution, arguing that it would give Islam a privileged place under the law, while also opening the door to abortion. The Tanzanian church pressed its government to review its economic and tax policies, but also remained internally with a minority faction opposing the church’s break with the Episcopal Church.
The Anglican Church of Rwanda saw the retirement of Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini and the election of a new primate, Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje. The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Burundi in June reelected Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi to serve a second five-year term as primate of the East African nation’s church.
The Anglican Church of the Congo continued to be ravaged by civil war, with many of its congregations and clergy scattered by fighting between rival militias and war lords. In April, the Bishop of Bukavu narrowly escaped death when gunmen invaded his home and threatened to kill him unless he paid a ransom for his life.
The Church of Uganda played host to a meeting of the continent’s bishops in August, and continued a strong course of growth. Fighting in the north with the Lord’s Resistance Army died down, but attacks by Islamist terrorist in Kampala have raised security concerns.
A new primate, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh was enthroned in Nigeria—and the communion’s largest province remained fully engaged in the life and work of the continent’s largest country. Political crises, ethnic and sectarian violence in the north, criminal and guerrilla activity in the Delta, corruption, a failing education and health system and a declining economy were a major focus of the Nigerian church in 2010—coupled with a spirited church planting and evangelism programme.
The Church in West Africa also was actively engaged in the political life of Ghana. The Church in Ghana continued to press political leaders to foreswear tribalism and sectarian politicking—while the church advanced plans for dividing the province to form a Church of Ghana out of the Province of West Africa.
The last vacant see in Central Africa was filled in 2010, allowing the first new primate to be elected since the retirement of Archbishop Bernard Malango in 2007. The Anglican Church in Zambia continued to play an active role in pressing the government to crack down on corruption, while the government in Zimbabwe cracked down on the church—the split caused by renegade bishop Dr. Nolbert Kunonga continued unhealed with Anglicans locked out of their parishes by police for the past year and a half.
In Southern Africa, the church’s House of Bishops returned to the subject of same-sex blessings, for the third time in six years, preparing guidelines for the clergy on the church’s response to the legalization of gay marriage by the state. The church has continued its prophetic role as a voice of downtrodden and oppressed, championing migrants and the poor, while also pressing the government to combat corruption and set a higher moral tone for the country.
The African archbishops have also pressed Dr. Williams to suspend the primates meeting scheduled for Jan 2011 in Dublin. On Aug 24 during the All African Bishops Conference in Entebbe the African primates told Dr. Williams that if US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Fred Hiltz were invited to the 2011 primates meeting, they would not come. This view was reiterated in a Nov 9 letter to Dr. Williams.
In Entebbe, Dr. Williams said he had not the power to withhold an invitation to Bishop Jefferts Schori and Archbishop Hiltz, and on Nov 17 Lambeth Palace stated that “given the closeness of the time, and the fact that the majority of Primates have already indicated that they will attend, the Archbishop of Canterbury is not minded to postpone the meeting.”
A quarter to a third of the communion’s 38 primates, will not attend the January meeting—absenting themselves due to the presence of the Americans and Canadians. African leaders have also privately expressed their exasperation with Dr. Williams, and have “given up” on him—Archbishop Henry Orombi noting that while they respect the office of Archbishop of Canterbury, they will likely have to wait for Dr. Williams’ successor to be installed before the breach is healed.
The breach with Dr. Williams also extends to the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council—which a number of primates have dismissed as lacking credibility. While its members have pledged a new transparency and openness in its dealings, the ACC’s staff has declined to state which provinces have approved the creation of the new body. A number of provinces have stated they were never consulted on the adoption of a new constitution for the organization. Bishop Gregory Venables told CEN that he reviewed all his correspondence with the ACC and its secretary general and can find no record of a request to approve the group’s new governing documents.
The Standing Committee has been plagued with institutional missteps, conceding that an appointment made by its members at its Dec 2009 meeting was unlawful, while its staff’s actions have raised questions. A request for guidance on the legality of the Anglican Covenant made by the New Zealand General Synod and forwarded to the July meeting for action, as of November 2010 remained unmet, the church’s general secretary told CEN.
The Anglican Covenant remains alive, but came under attack from an Anglo-American coalition that argued its strictures were too harsh and “un-Anglican” and urged its rejection. Conservative primates of the Gafcon movement also attacked the Covenant, but arguing it was too weak with the revisions adopted by the Standing Committee in 2009 insufficient to hold the communion together.
At year’s end, Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the flashpoint for many of the communion’s battles, announced he would take early retirement, and step down in 2013.
In an important series of articles printed in December in the Washington Post on the Bible and homosexuality, Bishop Robinson identified the key divide between liberals and conservatives.
The question was not so much about what Scriptures says about human sexuality, Bishop Robinson argued, but what it says about truth and on-going revelation.
“In John’s Gospel, which is largely made up of the conversation Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus says: ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth’.”
“I take this to mean that Jesus is saying to the disciples, ‘Look, for a bunch of uneducated and rough fishermen, you haven’t done too badly. In fact, you will do amazing things with the rest of your lives. But don’t think for a minute that God is done with you – or done with believers who will come after you. There is much more that God wants to teach you, but you cannot handle it right now. So, I will send the Holy Spirit who will lead you into that new Truth’.” Bishop Robinson wrote.
Canon Peter Carrell, a New Zealand commentator, noted the true issue facing the Communion as encapsulated by Bishop Robinson’s commentary was not the morality of homosexuality and the second order issues addressed by the Covenant, but “what is the nature of the truth around which we fellowship as Anglicans in the communion?”
“Is it the old, old story of Jesus and his gospel, or is it the new Truth of Bishop Robinson and his peers? It cannot be both. We are in a rift because truth is non-contradictory,” he observed.
The year 2010 saw a subtle shift within the communion, away from political battles and committee fights, to an articulation of what was at issue—is the Bible trustworthy or true, or has a new spirit and age brought forth a new truth for Christians to behold.
Bishop smashes chalice on his cathedral altar to shame his critics: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 6. December 30, 2010
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Bishop Michael Hough
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The embattled Bishop of Ballarat closed out his episcopate with a bang, smashing a chalice placed on the altar of Christ the King Cathedral during his final sermon on Sunday.
On June 19, the Rt. Rev. Michael Hough told his diocesan synod that he would step down from office effective Dec 20. The bishop of the small rural diocese west of Melbourne had been under investigation by the Episcopal Standards Commission since July 2009, facing allegations of bullying his clergy. The bishop’s opponents had also pledged to bring a no confidence motion before the synod and were circulating a petition calling for his resignation.
In an emotional 30 minute sermon, Bishop Hough stated that his resignation did not mean that his opponents “have in fact won their guerrilla wars.”
The bishop then presented an analogy of his travails. Holding aloft a ceramic chalice he had commissioned from a local artist, Bishop Hough said he had come to love this “beautiful pot” which he felt represented his ministry in the diocese.
“But then along comes someone who hates the beauty of the pot, who resents the fact that it is slaking the thirst of the peoples in need of water,” the bishop said, according to local press accounts of his sermon.
“He does not want the pot there as he has a pot of his own which he thinks is better … so the bitter man gathers a few others around him who support him in his dark intent and they come and smash the pot to pieces.”
The bishop then placed the chalice in a bag and laid it on the altar, smashing it with a hammer. The pot was now “gone forever,” he said and the “evil one is happy as he can now put forward his own pot as the answer to the needy thirst of the people.”
The bishop then spoke of the sufferings and false accusations of Jesus. However, as Christ overcame his sufferings on the cross, so too could the diocese overcome its difficulties, the bishop said as he held aloft a cross adorned with pottery shards.
Without naming his opponents, the bishop rebuked those who disagreed with his leadership, and said that while the number of clergy and communicants had declined over the past twenty years, the church had been blessed by lay ministers and women clergy.
“Yes, the pot that was the church of 50 years ago is not the same pot of today,” the bishop said, adding, “I have no idea where we are going, but I am confident and comfortable in leaving that in God’s hands.”
Over the past year twenty clergymen have left the diocese, and attendance at Sunday services has fallen by two-thirds, the ‘Ballarat Laity Against Bullying’ coalition had charged. In 2009 five clergy brought formal charges of misconduct against the bishop, citing a confrontational management style. Bishop Hough had dismissed his opponents as “malcontents” who were unwilling to modernize the church.
Currently out of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia, only the Dioceses of Ballarat, North West Australia, Sydney and The Murray do not ordain women as priests. Bishop Hough had angered some traditionalists by ordaining three female deacons, but had said he would go slow over ordaining women priests.
Colombo bishop quitting Sri Lanka: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 6. December 30, 2010
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Bishop Duleep de Chickera
First printed in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Colombo has announced that he will step down from office on Dec 31 and leave Sri Lanka once a successor has been appointed.
On Dec 19, the Rt. Rev. Duleep de Chickera said he was retiring after nine years in office, and would serve as vicar-general of the diocese until a successor was chosen at the May meeting of the diocesan synod. The bishop has not offered an explanation as to why he was leaving the country.
A strong critic of government human rights abuses, Bishop de Chickera has been a leading voice in seeking reconciliation between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka after the decades long civil war.
In a submission last month to the country’s Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation written with the vicar-general of the diocese of Kurunagala, Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe, Bishop de Chickera called for an independent investigations of war crimes committed by the government in the closing days of the civil war.
Bishop De Chickera has also played a high profile role in the Anglican Communion, and was selected by Dr. Rowan Williams to preach to the bishops attending the 2008 Lambeth Conference. From the pulpit of Canterbury Cathedral, Bishop de Chickera called for the bishops to be agents of social and political change and for the communion to “resuscitate the challenge of unity in diversity.”
“In Christ we are all equal,” Bishop de Chickera said, there is “space for all” within the Anglican Communion regardless of “color, race, gender or sexual orientation.”
The Anglican Communion must exercise its “prophetic voice” and be the “voice of the voiceless,” calling into “accountability those who abuse power,” the Ceylonese bishop said.
The bishop also created a small fracas by closing his Aug 3 sermon to the 2008 Lambeth Conference with a traditional Buddhist chant. Bishop de Chickera however, failed to say he had substituted the Buddhist text for a Christian one, which in English stated: “I take refuge in God the Father, I take refuge in God the Son, I take refuge in God the Holy Spirit, I take refuge in the One Triune God.”
A short lived outcry arose among non-Sinhalese speaking traditionalist bishops at the conference, who were perturbed by the reciting of a Buddhist chant at Christian worship.
Newcastle halts abuse case pending supreme court review: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 7. December 28, 2010
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Dean Graeme Lawrence
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Australian diocese has suspended disciplinary proceedings against the retired Dean of Newcastle pending a review by New South Wales Supreme Court.
On Dec 17 Justice Patricia Bergin accepted a petition from of the Very Rev. Graeme Lawrence and the Rev. Graeme Sturt, and agreed to schedule a February hearing to review their claim of misconduct by the diocesan Professional Standards Board.
The two are among five men, four priests and a church organist, who were brought up on charges before the Professional Standards Board for sexual abuse and misconduct. On Dec 15, the board found that Dean Lawrence and his partner—church organist Gregory Goyette—had engaged in sexual relations with a 17 year old man at a church camp in 1984, and that Mr. Sturt had observed the act.
The board recommended Dean Lawrence and Mr. Sturt be defrocked and Mr. Goyette prevented from working in the church.
The alleged actions had “to do with breaches of trust and maintenance of standards and quality of pastoral relationships,” the Director of Professional Standards for the diocese, Michael Elliott stated.
“They also have to do with the restoration of confidence in the clergy that the community seeks,” Mr. Elliot said, according to local press accounts of the proceedings. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also reported the “proceedings against the former Dean and his partner have nothing to do with their sexual orientation.”
The accused had denied the allegations and have maintained their innocence. Following the determination by the board, they filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking it quash the recommendation that they be defrocked, declare the standards board failed to observe procedural fairness, and permanently restrain the diocese from giving legal effect to the determination.
The petitioners have also accused the standards board of setting itself up as a court competent to judge the accused, when it lacked the powers of a court or ability to gather and hear evidence.
On Dec 16, Bishop Brian Farran distanced himself from the board’s proceedings, writing his clergy the board was an advisory panel that was not under his direct control.
Dean Lawrence, who served as Dean of Newcastle for 25 years until his retirement in 2008, was a member of the Anglican Church of Australia General Synod Standing Committee task force that in 2003 created the recommendations for the current professional standards proceedings.
The 2003 Sexual Abuse Working Group recommended that the church change clergy disciplinary proceedings from an adversarial procedure involving a prosecution for an offence before a tribunal, to panel review process that looked at the fitness of the church worker to hold office. The Standing Committee subsequently accepted these recommendations, which were subsequently adopted by the 2004 General Synod.
Tribal violence fears in Kenya in wake of ICC indictments: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 6. December 27, 2010
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Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Kenya have called for calm in the wake of an International Criminal Court prosecutor’s call for the indictment on charges of “crimes against humanity” of six Kenyan political leaders.
On Dec 15, Luis Moreno Ocampo asked the court in The Hague to charge former higher education minister William Ruto, Minister for Industrialization Henry Kosgey and radio broadcaster Joshua Sang with planning a campaign of murder and ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley against supporters of President Mwai Kibaki.
In a separate indictment Moreno Ocampo charged Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta—son of Kenya’s first president Jomo Kenyatta—Cabinet secretary Francis Muthaura and former police commissioner Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hussein Ali with murder, deportation, persecution, rape and crimes against humanity committed against supporters of Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Kenya’s 2007 general election sparked a sharp clash between supporters of President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga. Over 1000 people were killed in sectarian and ethnic clashes and tens of thousands were driven from their homes by the fighting.
Kenyan political and church leaders have urged calm in the wake of the announcement, seeking to head off a new round of violent tribal clashes. “As a nation we must also focus on the need for national healing and reconciliation. This is paramount as we move forward on the path of national peace and unity,” President Kibaki said.
“I appeal to Kenyans to remain calm. The government will remain vigilant and ensure that the rights of its citizens and the dignity of the nation are upheld,” the president said.
On Dec 18 Archbishop Eliud Wabukala also called for calm. Speaking in Eldoret in the Rift Valley at the retirement ceremony of Bishop Thomas Kogo, the archbishop said Kenya would overcome the hatred loosed by the post-election violence by seeking reconciliation and not by “pointing accusing fingers.”
Cardinal John Njue warned worshippers at Nairobi’s Roman Catholic Cathedral on Sunday not to be seduced by the blandishments of agitators seeking to incite tribal hatreds. “Christmas is a season of love and sharing. We must remember that we are one people. Let us not be used by others to turn against each other,” he said.
However, the Anglican Bishop of Mumias, the Rt. Rev. Beneah Salala joined other civic leaders in calling for the four accused currently serving in government to step down from office.
“The new constitution is very clear that once a public officer is implicated in a criminal matter, that officer must step aside until they are cleared through the due process,” the Mumias ACK bishop told reporters.
On Dec 16, Prime Minister Odinga told Parliament the three government ministers and the head of the civil service would remain in office for the present. “They will continue to hold public offices until the summons are issued as per the Rome Statute,” Mr. Odinga said.
Church call for Ivory Coast president to step down: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 6. December 26, 2010
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President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in West Africa have called upon President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast to concede defeat in last month’s presidential election, and step down from office.
Speaking to his diocesan synod on Dec 15, the Bishop of Kumasi, Dr. Daniel Yinkah Sarfo called upon President Gbagbo to go. On Dec 3 the country’s Constitutional Council declared President Laurent Gbagbo winner of the Nov 28 president election – rejecting results published the previous day by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).
The CEI had declared Alassane Ouattara the winner, with a 54 to 46 per cent majority ove President Gbagbo. However the Constitutional Council threw out ballots from seven northern departments citing “flagrant irregularities” in the voting, and declared Gbagbo president by a 51 to 49 per cent margin.
The United States and the EU have backed Ouattara’s victory, while the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have suspended the Ivory Coast, and called on the president to step down.
The country’s boarders have been closed since Dec 2, and violent clashes between supporters of President Ggabo and Mr. Outtara have been reported. Ouattara’s Prime Minister-designate, Soro Guillaume, on Dec 13 said an Ouattara government would install its director of state television and begin working in ministerial offices by the end of the week. The pro-Ouattara Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Democratie et la Paix (RHDP) has called on Ivoirians to march in support of the move.
President Gbagbo has called out the army to support his regime, and on Dec 15 military commanders said they would hold the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) peacekeeping mission responsible for any violence resulting from demonstrations. The UN has said it recognizes Ouattara as president and UN troops have been guarding the Abidjan hotel where Ouattara and his government are based.
Bishop Yinkah Sarfo urged Ghana to mark what was happening in the neighboring Ivory Coast. Elections should not be seen as “do or die affairs”, and those who put themselves forward for office, must honour the voter’s choices.
The bishop also warned that the appeals for tribal and religious solidarity had no business in politics. He urged Ghana to remain united and combat the scourge of tribalism which had done so much to retard the development of Africa.
Legal loss for breakaway bishop in Zimbabwe: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 6. December 25, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation, Zimbabwe.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Manicaland reports the Mutare High Court has banned former Bishop Elson Jakazi from selling diocesan property while the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe decides on his appeal.
On May 21, Bishop Jakazi, an ally of Dr. Nolbert Kunonga of Harare, lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court asking it overturn the ruling of Judge Chinembiri Bhunu that he had forfeited his rights to control diocesan property when he quit the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA).
Bishop Jakazi on Sept 23, 2007 announced he was pulling his diocese out of the CPCA to join Dr. Nolbert Kunonga’s “Anglican Church of Zimbabwe.”
Unlike Dr. Kunonga, Bishop Jakazi tendered his resignation as Bishop of Manicaland when he quit the CPCA. When the CPCA took Bishop Jakazi to court to regain control of the property, Judge Bhunu said the decision to resign ended Bishop Jakazi’s control over diocesan property. In Harare, Dr. Kunonga did not resign when he quit the CPCA and has maintained that he is the sole and rightful bishop of Harare.
Bishop Jakazi, along with Dr. Kunonga and Bishop V. Gene Robinson, were the three sitting bishops not invited to Lambeth 2008 by Dr. Rowan Williams.
Following the May court ruling, Bishop Jakazi was permitted to remain in possession of the property pending a review of the decision by the supreme court and following the posting of a bond.
However, the new Bishop of Manicaland, Dr. Julius Makoni, asked Judge Bhunu this month to issue a restraining order, forbidding Bishop Jakazi from selling diocesan property. The breakaway bishop had advertised an auction of diocesan property at St. John’s Cathedral in Mutare, this week.
In an email from Mutare, Dr. Makoni reported “we won the case. Jakazi was instructed to stop selling church assets.”
Zimbabwe watchers tell CEN the court’s ruling in favour of Dr. Makoni is a hopeful sign for the country. Bishop Jakazi, along with Dr. Kunonga, are fervent supports of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party, and the court’s rebuke of the bishop reestablishes the “rule of law” in Zimbabwe, sources in country note.
Christmas Island tragedy prompts Archbishops’ calls for prayer: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010 p 7. December 24, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper, Immigration.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishops of Sydney and Melbourne have called on Australians to pray for those affected by the Christmas Island refugee tragedy, and for government leaders to find a just solution to the immigration dispute dividing the government and opposition political parties.
Immigration is a contentious political issue in Australia, with the major political parties split over who and how many migrants should be permitted to settle in the country.
On Dec 15 a wooden boat carrying approximately 100 Iranian and Iraqi migrants was smashed on the rocks of Christmas Island off the coast of North Western Australia. Twenty-eight people were drowned, while 42 others were rescued. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said between 70 and 100 people were believed to have been on the boat, and a number of children were among the dead and those rescued.
Dr. Peter Jensen of Sydney called the loss of life and injury in the Dec 15 shipwreck “heartbreaking and tragic.”
“We must pray for families and friends who are grieving and for those injured, and the survivors and witnesses who have been traumatised by the events surrounding this tragedy,” he told The Church of England Newspaper last week.
Dr Philip Freier of Melbourne said the “reports of the asylum seeker boat capsizing off Christmas Island, and the appalling loss of lives, including young children, are very distressing and a cause of deep sadness.”
He offered the profound sympathies and prayers of Melbourne’s Anglicans “to the families of those who have suffered loss of life or injury” and also commended Prime Minister Julia Gillard for cutting short her holidays to investigate the tragedy. Dr. Freier also thanked the country’s political leaders for not politicizing the tragedy in the dispute over immigration policy.
Dr Jensen noted “our leaders bear the burden of responsibility in a difficult situation. The desperation of many asylum seekers drives them into the hands of the unscrupulous. We must pray for wisdom for those who serve Australia in this area.”
Dr. Freier added it was “time for both sides of politics to put aside party political differences and properly investigate, in a true spirit of bipartisanship and humanitarian concern, why so many are prepared to make such perilous journeys; and why the boat was not intercepted and given assistance.”
“A review of the policy of processing asylum seekers at a remote island in the Indian Ocean would also be appropriate,” the Melbourne archbishop said.
Australian Federal Police are expected to charge the boat’s three Indonesian crewmen with smuggling, while prosecutors are investigating manslaughter charges.
TEC Texas legal setback: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010, p 7. December 23, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, Property Litigation.comments closed
The Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker, Bishop of Fort Worth
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Episcopal Church suffered a setback this week in its Texas legal battle with the breakaway Diocese of Fort Worth after a US Federal judge stayed all proceedings in the trademark against Bishop Jack Iker, pending the diocese’s motion to intervene in the case.
On Dec 20, Judge Terry R. Means in Fort Worth issued a one-page order that “in the interests of judicial economy and fairness to all parties,” the proceedings in the Episcopal Church’s trademark infringement suit against Bishop Iker would be stayed until the court ruled on the diocese’s request to intervene in the proceedings.
The decision affects only the third of the four lawsuits initiated by the national Episcopal Church and its surrogates against Bishop Iker and the majority faction of the Diocese of Fort Worth. On Sept 21, lawyers for Bishop C. Wallis Ohl, Jr. and the loyalist faction filed a complaint against Bishop Iker, saying his “unauthorized use of the Service Marks in his provision, advertising, and marketing of religious service and works is likely to cause confusion among the public seeking to participate in, benefit from, or support [the Diocese’s] religious services and works.”
In its press release, the loyalist faction stated unsuspecting members of the public might be duped into attending worship services conducted by clergy from the majority faction under the “mistaken belief” the services they were attending were “provided by, sponsored by, or affiliated” with the minority faction loyal to the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Iker responded the lawsuit was “preposterous” and “vindictive” because the minority faction was “trying to get a different result in federal court from the state court ruling” in favor of the majority faction.
The first lawsuit initiated by the Episcopal Church was filed in Tarrant County, Texas in 2009, sought control of the assets of the Diocese of Fort Worth by claiming the minority faction loyal to the national church was the true Diocese of Forth Worth. Bishop Iker countered the minority faction had not the authority to bring the suit in the name of the diocese. The trial court found in favor of Bishop Iker but declined to strike the national church’s lawsuit.
Bishop Iker asked the Fort Worth Court of Appeal to review the trial judge’s decision not to strike the pleadings. The appeals court backed Bishop Iker and ordered the trial court to strike all the pleadings filed by attorneys for the minority faction who claimed to represent the diocese.
A second lawsuit was then initiated by the national church in Hood County, Texas, seeking control of diocesan assets in that county, and was prosecuted in the name of the Diocese of Fort Worth. The Hood County court stayed proceedings in that case pending the outcome of the first lawsuit.
On Sept 21, the minority faction filed its third lawsuit against Bishop Iker, and on Oct 18 a fourth lawsuit was brought by a loyalist congregation against the bishop, asserting trademark violations.
Legal commentator Allan Haley, who served as one of the attorneys for the breakaway diocese of San Joaquin in its battle with the national church and its supporters in California, commented the Dec 20 decision by Judge Means showed the judge “grasped what ECUSA and its rump diocese were trying to do.”
The national church’s strategy of doing an “end run around the State courts” has been “rebuffed,” Mr. Haley said.
“The courts have uniformly told ECUSA and its attorneys thus far: ‘Not so fast. You cannot assume the very point at issue by pretending to be what you have not shown yourself to be … you have not demonstrated how you are legitimately in charge of those entities. Until you do so, you cannot come into court pretending to be them from the outset’,” he observed.
Indian church land swindle investigated: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 8. December 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Indian Orthodox, Property Litigation.comments closed
Dr. Gabriel Mar Gregorios, Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram
Police in the southern Indian state of Kerala are investigating the fraudulent sale of church land allegedly committed by a former archbishop.
While Anglicans in North America have resorted to litigation in recent decades to resolve disputes over church property, the Christian churches of India have been in the courts for over 100 years seeking a resolution to property disputes tied to doctrinal divisions.
On March 31, 2010 Archbishop Gheevarghese Mar Dioscorus, the former bishop of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church’s Diocese of Thiruvananthapuram-Kollam appeared at a land registry office in the state capital and executed deeds transferring the sale of land registered in his name on behalf of the church to a third party.
The sale was duly recorded and the archbishop’s signature and identity confirmed by the registration officials.
However last week, Jacob Punnoose, director general of police in the southern Indian state, said he has a registered a case and ordered the probe after receiving a complaint from the late prelate’s successor, Archbishop Gabriel Mar Gregorios.
The archbishop informed the police the diocese had no knowledge of the transaction and did not know the alleged buyer, and also pointed out that Archbishop Gheevarghese had been dead for eleven years.
An initial police inquiry, the UCAnews reported, found that the commissioner for oaths who recorded the sale retired on the same day as the transaction allegedly took place.
Speaking to IANS, Archbishop Gabriel said the “fraud has come to our notice. According to the late bishop’s will and as per the tradition of our church, all his property belongs to the church. Now that this has surfaced, we will be meeting the home minister and the registration minister to see that the fraud is unearthed.”
Traditionally established by St. Thomas the Apostle in 52 AD, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headed by the autonomous Catholicos of the East.
In the Nineteenth century the Indian Orthodox church entered into close relations with the CMS and a schism split the church. One group entered the Church of England and are now part of the Church of South India.
A second group which accepted the teachings of the fourth ecumenical council but kept a reformed version of the Syrian liturgy established the Mar Thoma Syrian Orthodox Church—a church in full communion with the Anglican Communion—while those who maintained the traditional Syrian liturgy and Alexandrian Christology formed the Syrian Orthodox Church.
The Syrian Orthodox church split again into a faction that recognized the Patriarch of Antioch as its primate (the Jacobites) and a faction that recognized the Catholicos (the Malankara) as its leader
The two Orthodox factions jointly own 1,026 churches across Kerala. Since the split the factions have been engaged in litigation for control of church properties, which has sometimes led to violence and street battles between the two groups.
On May 8, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested a Jacobite priest in a murder for hire scheme. Fr Varghese Thekkekara of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church was charged with arranging the 2002 murder Malankara Varghese, a member of the management committee of the Malankara Orthodox Church.
According to the complaint filed with the Kochi magistrate’s office, Mr. Varghese was involved in an assault on a Jacobite that arose over a church land dispute. While fleeing from the scene, Mr. Varghese allegedly struck and killed a young man from the Jacobite faction. This death allegedly prompted Fr. Thekkekara to hire gangsters to kill Mr. Varghese. Police have arrested 18 people in connection with the murder, and the case is presently before the courts.
Bishop of The Murray defrocked: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 7. December 22, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Uncategorized.comments closed
Bishop Ross Davies
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane, has accepted the findings of the church’s Special Tribunal and deposed the former Bishop of The Murray.
On Dec 13, a spokesman for Dr. Aspinall stated the archbishop had “accepted the recommendation of the tribunal and approved the removal of Bishop Davies from office in accordance with these recommendations.”
On Sept 24, Bishop Davies resigned as Bishop of The Murray in South Australia, one day before a tribunal met to hear nine counts of misconduct laid against him by the Archbishop of Adelaide and Bishop of Willochra.
After two days of hearings, the tribunal found the former bishop guilty of misconduct in absentia and recommended he be removed from the episcopate.
Bishop Davies was adjudged to have subverted the Professional Standards processes by failing to respond to allegations of sexual misconduct made against his archdeacon. The tribunal found he had displayed a lack of commitment to the Anglican Church and acted at times in an abusive manner “inconsistent with his pastoral role as a Bishop of the Diocese.”
He was also found guilty of having improperly influenced the composition of diocesan council in order to gain financial advantage “at the expense of the interests of the Diocese.”
Bishop Davies is believed to have been received into the Roman Catholic Church, but the Anglican Church of Australia had no knowledge of his current status, Dr. Aspinall’s spokesman said.
Church Commissioners offer their moral support to hospital chaplains: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 6. December 21, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Health/HIV-AIDS.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have appointed the Bishop of Carlisle as the lead bishop for health care, the Second Church Estates Commissioner told Parliament last month.
In response to a question from the member for Loughborough, Ms. Nicky Morgan (Cons.), as to “what steps the Church Commissioners are taking to support hospital chaplaincy,” Mr. Anthony Baldry said that one of Bishop James Newcome’s tasks included the “support of hospital chaplains.”
He noted the Church of England worked “extensively with workplace chaplains, especially in hospitals” but then added the church was “keen wherever possible to develop interfaith chaplaincy co-operation.”
The Church Commissioners “believe that chaplains of all faiths play a vital role in the support of patients, families and staff in hospitals,” Mr. Baldry said.
Ms. Morgan responded by asking how the Church of England was dealing with hospital trusts that had cut back on chaplaincy services.
Mr. Baldry responsed that the government, through the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Health, the Earl Howe, “has recently stressed to hospital trusts the importance of chaplaincy services.”
The Church Commissioners believed chaplaincy services were “central to meeting the spiritual needs of patients, families and staff” and would “continue to reinforce that message at every level, because we are all too keenly aware of the importance of chaplaincy services to those who are sick, the dying, their families and the bereaved,” Mr. Baldry said.
Lambeth Palace costs released: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 6. December 21, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Lambeth Palace
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury cost the Church of England £2.6 million in 2009, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Mr. Antony Baldry told the House of Commons last week.
In response to a written question from the member for Bishop Auckland, Ms. Helen Goodman (Lab.) what the “overheads and running costs to the Church of England” were for Lambeth Palace, Mr. Baldry referred to figures released in October concerning the total costs for bishops’s offices.
“The Church Commissioners spent £5.9 million on maintaining the houses, office premises and gardens of the archbishops and diocesan bishops,” he said on Dec 8.
“Out of that £5.9 million the running costs for Lambeth during 2009 stand at £622,813. The running costs include the salary costs for gardeners and domestic staff. It also includes garden equipment, maintenance, and heating, lighting and cleaning for those parts of the palace that are not the Archbishop’s residence.”
Mr. Baldry added the “cost of running the Archbishop’s Office in 2009 was £2.6 million, this included the cost of support staff and working costs.”
Tourists covered £20,000 of the costs for Lambeth Palace, the Second Church Estates Commissioner noted. In response to a second question from Ms. Goodman about income generated by Lambeth Palace, Mr. Baldry replied, “the annual income from visitors to Lambeth Palace in 2009 was £38,696 with overheads of £18,565. This figure is inclusive of room hire, catering, tours and the sale of any souvenir items.”
Calgary church goes over to Rome: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 7. December 19, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Roman Catholic Church, Traditional Anglican Communion.comments closed
St John the Evangelist, Calgary
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Canadian parish has voted to accept Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to join the Anglican Ordinariate.
The Bishop of Calgary, the Rt. Rev. Derek Hoskin announced last week that at a parish meeting held in late November, the congregation of St. John the Evangelist in Calgary voted to begin the move to Rome.
“This is a step in a spiritual journey which St. John’s has been on for a number of years and is in response to the announcement on Nov. 4, 2009 of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus by Pope Benedict XVI,” Bishop Hoskin told his diocesan clergy.
With only two “no” votes, the congregation adopted the following resolution: “We accept, unreservedly and with humility and gratitude, the invitation of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church through the provisions of Anglicanorum Coetibus in a corporate manner.”
“Upon the ratification of this motion by parishioners at a Special Meeting, we instruct the Church Wardens to negotiate with the Anglican Diocese of Calgary the transfer of the Parish of St John the Evangelist, and its property, to the Anglican Ordinariate for Canada, to be effective on its establishment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum Coetibus and its Complementary Norms.”
The bishop and the clergy of St. John’s have agreed not to speak publicly about the move until the process is complete.
St John’s is the first Anglican Church of Canada parish to join the Ordinariate, although a number of Canadian congregations of the Traditional Anglican Communion—the continuing Anglican group whose petition to the Vatican spurred the creation of the Ordinariate by Pope Benedict XVI—have indicated their intention to join.
On Nov 30, the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Archbishop John Hepworth, released on an update on that group’s progress towards reunion with Rome. Three bishops and 43 clergy of the TAC in Canada have indicated their intention to join the Ordinariate, while “51 priests of the TAC in the United States have so far indicated that they are seeking admission.”
Twenty-eight clergy and three bishops of the TAC in Australia and 24 TAC clergy in the UK will join, while other groups have indicated their likely intention to join.
Archbishop Hepworth stated that “for a host of symbolic and historical reasons, the first Ordinariate will be in England,” while a second will be created for Australia.
He announced that three retired Anglican bishops will join the Ordinariate: the Rt. Rev. Raphael Kajiwara of Yokohama, the Rt. Rev. Robert Mercer CR of Matabeleland, and an unnamed Australian bishop.
Australian dean under investigation for abuse: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 8. December 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Anglican Church of Australia, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Dean Graeme Lawrence
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The former Dean of Newcastle, Australia, is among four clergymen and a youth worker under the scrutiny of a Professional Standards Board investigating allegations of sexual abuse.
The Very Rev. Graeme Lawrence, who served as Dean of Newcastle for 25 years until his retirement in 2008, the Rev. Graeme Sturt, the Rev. Bruce Hoare, the Rev. Andrew Duncan and former church worker Gregory Goyette are the subject of an internal investigation for “alleged examinable conduct under the diocesan code of conduct.”
On Dec 14, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported the offences related to an “alleged group sex incident” with a 19-year old man at a church seminar at Narrandera in 1984.
The victim reported the abuse when he learned the “former Dean of Newcastle Graeme Lawrence was taking on relief work in the Wangaratta Diocese,” ABC said. No criminal proceedings are currently pending against the accused.
In 2003, the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia appointed Dean Lawrence to the church’s Sexual Abuse Working Group. In March 2003 the Working Group recommended procedures for handling information concerning sexual abuse and sexual misconduct by clergy and church workers.
The Working Group recommended that the church change clergy disciplinary proceedings from an adversarial procedure involving a prosecution for an offence before a tribunal, akin to a civil court proceeding. The new approach called for an inquiry as to the fitness of the church worker to hold office. The Standing Committee subsequently accepted these recommendations, which were subsequently adopted by the 2004 General Synod.
Police investigate CSI moderator for fraud: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 8. December 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop S. Vasanthakumar of Karnataka Central
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Karnataka High Court has directed the Bangalore Police to complete the corruption and fraud investigation of the Moderator of the Church of South India (CSI) and present their findings to the court.
On Dec 9, Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar asked the police to complete their investigations “as soon as possible, but not later than the outer limit of two months” into allegations that the Bishop in Central Karnataka, the Rt. Rev. Suputhrappa Vasanthakumar, his wife Nirmala, daughter Aparna, and his personal secretary Patricia Job stole church funds.
On April 30, Mr. I Sounder Raj, a member of St. Peter’s parish in Kolar Gold Fields filed a complaint in the Bangalore magistrate’s court alleging the bishop and his wife had embezzled diocesan funds. The thefts had been on-going since April 2002, Mr. Raj said, and involved theft, forgery, fraud, and the sale of admissions to church schools.
Prosecutors told the court that the police had investigated similar accusations lodged against Bishop Vasanthakumar and had filed a ‘B’ report—a police form that states a case could not be made against the accused.
The complaint against the bishop, however, was brought after the B report was filed. Mr. Raj, alleged the investigation was incomplete and asked the court to supervise the investigation. The judge took notice of the earlier police findings, but directed them to investigate the complaint.
The bishops of the CSI have been immersed in a series of lawsuits in recent years. Suits are pending against Bishop Vasanthakumar alleging his election as moderator was fraudulently procured while the Bishop in Madras and the CSI are in court over whether he can be compelled to retire. Criminal investigations are also pending against the Bishop in Coimbatore and Bishop Vasanthakumar.
While the CSI Synod’s income rose by 50.5 per cent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009, due to an increase in the diocesan assessments, expenses have risen even faster, the synod’s financial statements seen by The Church of England Newspaper show.
“Legal fees and Professional Expenses” rose 10-fold in one year, from Rs 3.3 lakhs to Rs 34.1 lakhs (£4600 to £48,000) auditors Gopal & Murthi reported. Programme expenses for activities such as Youth Work, Sunday Schools and outreach, now consume a smaller share of the synod budget than legal expenses critics note, with only 2.4 per cent spent on programme in 2009 compared to 13.8 per cent of the budget spent on legal fees.
ANiC to appeal to Canada’s Supreme Court: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 7. December 18, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation.comments closed
Canada's largest parish, St. John’s, Shaughnessy in Vancouver
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) has filed an appeal with Supreme Court of Canada, asking it to overturn a British Columbia Court of Appeals ruling that awarded control of the property of its four Vancouver-area breakaway congregations to the diocese of New Westminster.
On Dec 12 the parishes announced that they would be filing an appeal of the Nov 15 decision upholding a trial court ruling by Justice Stephen Kelleher that the property of St. Matthew’s, Abbotsford, St. John’s, Shaughnessy, St. Mathias & St. Luke and Church of the Good Shepherd should remain within the Diocese of New Westminster.
In a joint statement, the parish councils said that after a period of “prayer, consultation, reflection and discernment” they would take their case forward.
“This is not the path any of us would have preferred,” the noted, “however, we initiated court proceedings when threats to replace trustees began to be carried out and when the diocese caused banks to freeze two parishes’ bank accounts.”
“The Trustees of the four parishes sought the court’s direction and clarification as to their status and responsibilities. The courts have agreed that the bishop did not have the lawful authority to fire or replace the Trustees,” they said.
In an interview with AnglicanTV, Cheryl Chang of ANiC noted the parishes “won four of five points” at issue before the BC Appeals Court. However, on the fifth point, the control of the property, the courts said “we can’t disrupt the structure of the Anglican Church of Canada so we are going to let the properties go to them,” she said.
“What is at stake” for the congregations, was that “you either have to deny your faith or leave your buildings,” Ms. Chang said.
However, in a statement released on Nov 30 the diocese said “no one has ever been required to act against their conscience” on the issue of same-sex blessings.
“No one is being asked to leave or relocate.”However, the “clergy now aligned with [ANiC] will need to continue their ministry in other locations,” the diocese said.
It added the issue “before the Court was not about sexuality nor the truth of the Gospel. Rather, litigants sought to take possession of diocesan buildings and assets after they had removed themselves from the Anglican Church of Canada.”
However, the parish councils said “this has always been about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the authority and interpretation of Scripture. We are seeking to continue our biblically faithful and historic Anglican tradition and witness in church buildings that were founded and built for that purpose.”
The Diocese of New Westminster responded to the announcement saying it did “not believe that there is any need to take any further court challenges, which will incur more expense and anxiety.”
Ms. Chang said she believed the Canadian Supreme Court would hear the appeal as the issue effected litigation in a number of provinces and because the Court of Appeals ruling overturned the existing laws on church property disputes.
She noted that the prior standard the Courts in Canada used in determining ownership of the property in the event of a church schism was to look at the doctrine of the two parties and see which conformed to its traditional teachings.
The tenets of the Canadian Church’s Solemn Declaration of 1893, which set out the doctrine and disciple of the church, had been altered by Bishop Michael Ingham and the Diocese of New Westminster, she said. The purpose of the “original trust” articulated in the Solemn Declaration “was now frustrated,” she said, and under Canadian law, the courts had the “opportunity” to reform the church’s covenants so as to permit its original intentions to be fulfilled.
Grimsby priest convicted of immigration fraud: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 24, 2010, p 4.. December 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of York, Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Immigration.comments closed
The wedding portrait that led to the fraud conviction of the Rev. Samuel Bisaso
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A wedding portrait and the testimony of the Archbishop of York have proven to be the key evidence in the immigration fraud and bigamy trial of a Grimsby priest.
Last week a jury at the Hove Trial Centre in East Sussex found the Rev. Samuel Bisaso and his wife, Rebecca Muwonge Bisaso, guilty of staging an elaborate fraud involving stolen identities and a bigamous marriage to procure British residency. The Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu was called to give evidence in the trial, testifying he had married the couple at his South London parish in 1996.
The trial of Mr. Bisaso, a chaplain for the Mission to Seafarers in Immingham until his arrest last year, comes amidst heightened concern over immigration fraud and sham marriages. On Dec 2, Lord Wallace of Saltaire told the House of Lords the government was working “closely with civil registrars and members of the clergy to identify potential suspicious marriages at the earliest opportunity and prevent these marriages taking place.”
The government promised it would take a “a more rigorous approach” to the problem and would “remove those who seek to gain an immigration advantage from a sham marriage.”
In response, the Bishop of Newcastle said the Church of England “deplores any abuse of the marriage service for immigration reasons, whether in a civil or a religious setting.”
Bishop Martin Wharton said the church was “committed to working closely with the UK Border Agency to prevent such incidents happening in future,” and added that the House of Bishops would meet shortly “to assess whether the clergy need to be given further guidance.”
On July 27, 1996, Mr. Bisaso, a theology student at the University of Gloucestershire, married fellow Ugandan Rebecca Muwonge at Holy Trinity Church in Tulse Hill, Lambeth, South London in a ceremony conducted by Dr. Sentamu.
Mr. Bisaso told the court the marriage did not work out, and he returned to Uganda. In 1998 he returned to the UK, and married ‘Proscovia Nakamya’ at the Newham Register Office. However, prosecutors stated this second marriage was with the same woman whom he married in 1996, and that Mrs. Bisaso had assumed the identity of her 18 year old niece–a British subject–for the ceremony.
Dr. Sentamu testified via videolink on Nov 29 that he had been acquainted with Mr. Bisaso’s father in Uganda, and that Mr. Bisaso had attended his parish in 1996, and that he had ordained him on behalf of the Church of Uganda in 2002.
“You have to be very careful. You need to see the full documentation. With anyone who is not a British citizen I have to make sure I am working within the rules,” Dr. Sentamu said.
At the trial, Mrs. Bisaso maintained the 1996 marriage was between her husband and another woman, and that she had first married the defendant in 1998. However, a wedding portrait from the 1996 service seized by police during a search of their Grimsby home contradicted her testimony. Mr. Bisaso was convicted of two charges of obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception while his wife was found guilty of two offences of assisting unlawful immigration.
Sentence will be handed down by the court in January.
Guyana massacre remembered: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 17, 2010 p 8. December 17, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of the West Indies, Crime.comments closed
The victims of the Bartica massacre. Photo from the LiveinGuyana blog
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An obelisk commemorating the victims of the Bartica massacre was dedicated this week by church and state leaders in Guyana.
The “Monument of Hope” dedicated by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and the Rt. Rev. Cornell Moss, the Bishop of Guyana, commemorates the 12 people murdered by gunmen who attacked the mining community on the Essequibo River.
On the night of Feb 17, 2008, approximately 20 bandits landed by boat at the town wharf. Five laborers loading a cargo ship were ordered to lie down, and then shot in the back of the head by the gang, which then moved on to the Bartica police station. The three constables on duty were killed and the gang proceeded to empty the station armory. A security guard and three other bystanders were also killed when the bandits shot up the town as they made their way back to the river.
The assault on Bartica prompted a nationwide outcry against the crime epidemic plaguing the South American nation, and has prompted government efforts to reform the police. Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told the audience gathered for the ceremony the government was committed to “beefing-up support” for the police, and since the attack, “we, as a country, were severely tested, but have survived.”
The 13-foot black marble memorial was given to the town by the Canadian mining company, Guyana Goldfields Inc., on land donated by the diocese across from St. John the Baptist Church along the river’s edge.
In his address, Bishop Moss said he prayed that the monument would be a symbol of hope and promise for the community. “Never again should what happened in Bartica occur anywhere again in Guyana, and it is our hope that this is true,” the bishop said.
Presbyterian prison opens in Korea: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p 7. December 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Presbyterian Church foundation has opened South Korea’s first private jail.
On December 1, the Somang (Hope) Prison received its first 30 inmates from the justice ministry, the Korean Herald reported. The 214,000 sq metre prison is designed to house 360 male convicts, and will offer vocational training and Christian counseling.
The South Korean government will provide 90 per cent of the operating costs, while the Christian Agape Foundation will make up the balance and run the prison.
A justice ministry official said: “We believe that the participation of our civil partner will greatly boost the efficiency of the prison system and also improve the welfare of the prisoners.”
The facility will be Korea’s most modern prison with extensive assembly halls, recreation areas, and high-tech electronic cells. However, critics have denounced the Christian ethos of the private penitentiary, saying it amounted to a government sanctioning of one religion.
The chairman of the foundation, the Rev Kim Sam-hwan, who is also pastor of the 30,000-member Myongsung Presbyterian Church, said the prison would only accept inmates from the state-system who wished to participate in its rehabilitation programmes. Eligible inmates must be serving sentences of less than seven years and have not been convicted of narcotics, organised crime, or public security offences.
Mr Kim told UCAnews.com the Christian counseling and reforming ethos of the facility was designed to reintegrate offenders into society and cut the recidivism rate from its current 22.4 per cent to three per cent.
While private prisons in the US and Brazil were opened as profit-making ventures, the Somang Prison in Korea was an outreach ministry, the foundation explained, that sought to inculcate Christian values and healing to help inmates turn their lives around and leave prison as better men than when they entered.
Moral failings fuelled the Irish bank crisis, Archbishop says: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 9, 2010 December 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Development/Economics/Govt Finances.comments closed
Dr. John Neill
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The EU’s bailout is a moral as well as financial failure for Ireland, the Archbishop of Dublin said.
Speaking to the Irish Times, Archbishop John Neill stated an Irish debt default “would be seen as lacking in moral rectitude. There is something definitely unethical about borrowing and not repaying.”
On Nov 21, Prime Minister Brian Cowen announced that the Republic of Ireland had requested emergency assistance from the International Monetary Fund and the EU to stave off a collapse of the Irish economy.
The European Union offered an €85 billion rescue package on Nov 28, with €50 billion to be used to finance the Irish state budget, €10 billion for bank recapitalization and €25 billion for banking contingencies, RTE reported.
However, the financial markets have reacted poorly to the deal. “The smart choice [for Ireland] is to default inside the euro zone,” Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Münchau, said last week, as an Irish default on its bank and sovereign debt “is going to happen, sooner or later.”
While the banking industry’s policies were one factor in the collapse, “lending recklessly” did not “mean people had to borrow,” Dr. Neill said.
The financial crisis had shown Europe the Irish were “not good with individual responsibility, basically.”
The Church of Ireland shared the blame for this as “we stopped propagating” the Protestant work ethic of thrift, hard work and economy and were content on “keeping our heads down.”
On Dec 7 the Irish parliament is expected to approve a package of tax hikes on income, alcohol, cigarettes and gasoline, an increase in university tuition fees and cuts to welfare and unemployment programmes, designed to cut €30 billion from the government’s budget over the next five years.
The Irish churches have been largely silent so far, Dr. Neill said, as it was “particularly hard to comment on it at the moment because it is so party-political sensitive”. Mr. Cowen is expected to dissolve the government in the coming weeks, with elections expected no later than March.
Court rejects bid to force the Indian government to reveal the Gandhis’ religion: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 9, 2010 December 16, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of North India, Politics.comments closed
Sonia Gandhi
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Indian court has held that the country’s 2005 Right to Information Act does not permit the disclosure of religious affiliation listed by an individual on their census form.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Nov 27 dismissed an application seeking the census data for Sonia Gandhi and her children. According to a report printed in the Indian legal periodical Law et al News, the court held that Section 15 of the 1948 Census Act protects the confidentiality of census records, and trumps the Right to Information laws.
The court held that “it is apparent that the appellant is wanting to elicit information about the religion of such public persons. India being a socialist, democratic and secular democratic republic, the quest to obtain the information about the religion professed or not professed by a citizen cannot be in any event, be considered to be in public interest, which information is strictly confidential as per Section 15 the Census Act, 1948.”
Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the appellant’s argument that the “leaders of the nation and the information regarding their religion” should be disclosed as being in the “public interest.”
The standard bearer of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty and leader of the United Progressive Alliance Party and president of the Indian National Congress, the Italian-born Mrs. Gandhi is a Roman Catholic. However, the religious faith of her son Rahul Gandhi is a matter of speculation, while her daughter Priyanka Gandhi is married to a Roman Catholic Anglo-Indian.
Rahul Gandhi is an MP and is tipped to take his mother’s place as the leader of Congress and the Prime Minister of the country if Congress emerges victorious in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Hindu nationalists have denounced as unacceptable the possibility of a Christian leading the world’s largest democracy.
CSI takes no action against Bishop Dorai: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p 7. December 13, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Dorai (centre) following his release on bail earlier this year
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Executive Committee of the Church of South India (CSI) Synod has declined to take disciplinary action against the Bishop in Coimbatore for theft and fraud.
At their Nov 29-30 meeting in Madras, the committee voted to take no action after one of the three members of the fact finding committee appointed to investigate Bishop Manickam Dorai had offered a dissenting opinion to the report that found the bishop had abused his office for personal financial gain. However, Bishop Dorai remains suspended from office and remains free on bail as he awaits criminal trial on multiple counts of theft and fraud.
The decision not to act against Bishop Dorai has provoked strong criticism from anti-corruption activists in the CSI. The CCC (Christ Centered Campaign), whose representatives met with Dr Rowan Williams during his trip to India to share their concerns about church corruption, accused the Moderator of the CSI, Bishop S. Vasanthakumar of “burying” the report and putting the investigative committee in “cold storage.”
If allowed to continue its investigations if Bishop Dorai, the CCC alleged, it would have “opened a Pandora’s box of similar demands for action against other corrupt CSI bishops.”
In its 32 page report, the fact finding committee led by retired Karnataka High Court Justice Michael Saldhana, former Karnataka Director General of Police A J Anandan and bank auditor C E Sarasam, reported it had been hindered in its investigation as many of the documents were in police custody, and Bishop Dorai and his supporters had refused to cooperate.
However, the committee found substantial evidence of criminal behavior by the bishop. It said Bishop Dorai had pledged diocesan bank accounts, trust funds and pension funds as collateral for personal loans, sold admissions to diocesan schools, took kickbacks on building contracts and diverted diocesan funds for his personal use. They found the bishop had authorized the sale of diocesan property to real estate developers at approximately 20 per cent of their market value, in return for what the committee believes were kickbacks from the real estate developers.
“These transactions are not a mere case of mismanagement but point to rank dishonesty and criminality,” the committee said.
The bishop’s family was also involved in the looting of the diocese the committee found. The bishop’s brother, Murthy, as head of the diocese’s Erode Womens Christian College “bled this institution” of funds by setting up a parallel teacher’s training college to which he diverted diocesan assets and encumbered college assets with loans of over £240,000 which he allegedly kept for his personal use..
“Virtually every expenditure and every facility of the CSI institutions right down to the vehicles and computers were diverted from the CSI institutions to Murthy’s personal institute which is run by his wife. Not only is this unethical and a clear case of misappropriation of funds and property running into lakhs of rupees, but it is downright dishonest and unethical,” the committee found.
In his dissenting opinion Mr Sarasam stated that while there was evidence of wrong doing, the bishop had not had an opportunity to defend himself. He also stated that all of the frauds could not be blamed upon the bishop. “While the truth is in the open, we attempt to find facts groping in the dark,” he said.
As the executive committee met to hear the report, protesters picketed the building in support of Bishop Dorai. The bishop also obtained a court order barring any disciplinary action against him until after Christmas. A supporter of the bishop had filed suit in Erode claiming the suspension of Bishop Doria had deprived him of pastoral care, and asked the court to reinstate the bishop.
The CCC accused the synod of moral cowardice for not acting upon the findings of the investigatory committee. “The Moderator and his fellow bishops had no stomach for acting” on the report’s findings as this would lead to the question why were similar committees “not appointed to probe serious allegations, some resulting in criminal cases, against themselves.”
“No action, they decided, is the best action for the safety and security of their own positions,” the CCC charged.
Manicaland dispute returns to court: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p 6. December 12, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Dr. Julius Makoni, Bishop of Manicaland
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The legal fight for control of the properties of the Diocese of Manicaland has returned to the Mutare High Court, after breakaway Bishop Elson Jakazi attempted to sell church property in violation of a court order rejecting his claims of ownership.
Bishop Julius Makoni of Manicaland and the Church of the Province of Central Africa has asked the court to issue an injunction, forbidding Bishop Jakazi from selling diocesan property pending a final adjudication of the dispute between the province and the breakaway bishop.
On May 21 Bishop Jakazi, an ally of President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party, lodged an appeal of High Court Judge Chinembiri Bhunu’s May 19 decision which held the bishop forfeited his right to oversee diocesan property when he quit the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) to join Dr. Nolbert Kunonga’s Anglican Church of Zimbabwe. On Sept 23, 2007 Bishop Jakazi and Dr. Kunonga pulled their dioceses out of the CPCA in protest to what they alleged was a pro-gay, pro-Western agenda.
Bishop Jakazi has alleged the judge erred in applying the law and distorted the facts of the case, and has asked the Supreme Court to restore him to office. The petition and accompanying bond temporarily suspended his ejection, but Bishop Jakazi remained firm, stating “I remain the legally enthroned bishop of the Diocese of Manicaland.”
Judge Bhunu is scheduled to hear the CPCA’s petition to halt the sale of diocesan property at St. John’s Cathedral in Mutare, this week, and is expected to issue a ruling shortly.
Anglicans locked out in Harare: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p 6. December 12, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Dr. Chad Gandiya
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
In a letter to overseas supporters, the Bishop of Harare, Dr. Chad Gandiya reports no let up in the the battle with breakaway bishop Dr. Nolbert Kunonga.
“Our people continue to endure the harsh exile from their churches but cry ‘for how long’?” Dr. Gandiya wrote on Nov 17. “While some denominations have offered some of our congregations the use of their church buildings, others we hear rent our buildings from Dr. Kunonga. “
On Nov 16, the Kunonga faction attempted to seize control of Bishop Gaul Theological College in Harare. However, Dr. Gandiya reported that “for the first time in a very long time, the police protected our students from Kunonga’s people,” and rebuffed the invaders.
One witness told Dr. Gandiya: “I was a stunned participant of today’s attempted takeover of Bishop Gaul College. The praise and worship and prayers the [seminarians] went into drove those interlopers right out of the common room to stand in groups outside whispering.”
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon all those young men in training,” she said.
The Bishop of Harare added there “haven’t been any running battles with the police lately because our people have stopped insisting on worshiping in their church buildings. A lot of our church buildings are now being used by Dr. Kunonga as schools and colleges while vestries have been turned into residential homes. What was once sacred space for us is now profane space.”
In a Dec 3 report, the Zimbabwean newspaper, NewsDay, reported that many of the churches seized by Dr. Kunonga were being used as businesses. Fifteen churches visited by reporters had been turned into fee-paying schools, one had been rented out as a “phone shop” while a second as a “sewing shop.” St Michael’s Church in Mbare had been rented to another denomination, while St Mary in Highlands, St Christopher in Rugare and St Mary’s Church in Cranborne were padlocked, the newspaper found.
Japan urged to go forward with the Covenant, ‘warts and all’: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p 7. December 11, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, Nippon Sei Ko Kai.comments closed
The Most Rev. Nathaniel Uematsu, Primate of Japan and Bishop of Hokkaido
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Concerns that section IV of the Anglican Covenant is ‘un-Anglican’ should be set aside in view of the parlous state of the Anglican Communion, the Primate of Japan told the 58th General Synod of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK) meeting at St. Barnabas Church, Ushigome in the Diocese of Tokyo.
In his presidential address to the May 25-27th general synod, published last month in the NSKK’s English-language newsletter, Archbishop Nathaniel Uematsu reported the NSKK House of Bishops’ Theological and Doctrine Committee “have expressed their opinion that such a Covenant should not be necessary, as it provides restrictions and exclusions.”
In 2008 the NSKK’s 57th General Synod received the covenant for study. The bishops’ theological committee was not convinced that all Anglicans could or should be “ruled by this one agreement,” and balked at section IV. “One of the major characteristics of the Anglican Communion has been that in its long history the richness of diversity has been widely appreciated,” the Japanese primate explained.
“However given the present situation of confusion and disagreement among the Anglican Communion, the expectation of the Anglican Covenant is increasing and NSKK needs to consider its suitability,” Archbishop Uematsu said.
In summarizing the state of the Communion, the Japanese church leader used uncharacteristically strong language, laying the blame for the dissension upon the Episcopal Church (TEC) and Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). However, the solutions proposed by leaders of the Global South coalition were troublesome, he stated.
“It is strongly felt that the disorder in the Anglican Communion has increased. The dangerous possibility of a split in the Anglican Communion continues to deepen,” Archbishop Uematsu said.
In the interval between the 57th and 58th Japanese general synods, the Primates Meeting, the Lambeth Conference, and the Anglican Consultative Council made “requests and recommendations” that the US and Canada forebear from pursuing gay bishops and blessings, while the “Archbishop of Canterbury has repeatedly given appeals and requests to address the problems.”
Yet, “in spite of the recommendations and appeals [TEC] and the [ACC] have proceeded with the ordination of a homosexual Bishop and recognizing the ‘marriage’ (union) of same sex couples, further complicating the situation and resulting in some provinces threatening to sever relations” with the two North American provinces, while other “provinces have expressed their intention of establishing a separate ‘Province’.”
“These unfavorable movements have created the situation where a number of provinces, dioceses and churches are unsure of where they stand dangerously affecting their identity within the Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Uematsu warned.
“Furthermore, certain movement has occurred that may create a new Anglican Communion which excludes the TEC and the ACC even going as far to say they may even exclude the Archbishop of Canterbury!” the Japanese primate said.
Cyber attack on religious freedom watchdog blamed on China: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p 6. December 11, 2010
Posted by geoconger in China, Church of England Newspaper, Civil Rights.comments closed
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The website of the ChinaAid Association has been crippled by repeated cyber attacks, the American-based organization that monitors religious persecution in China has reported.
On Nov 30 a distributed denial of service attack was launched against the group’s Chinese-language website www.chinaaid.net followed by an attack on its www.monitorchina.org website, which provides Chinese and English reports on state persecution of religious groups.
Tracy Oliver, ChinaAid’s media coordinator told The Church of England Newspaper that it was impossible to say with certainty who was behind the attacks, but the organization suspected the Chinese government’s hand in the attacks.
On Dec 7, Ms. Oliver said the attacks were “on-going.” They “keep attacking the IP address” apparently in the hope that we will shut down or move the site, she said.
We “know the Chinese government has the capacity” to mount such a sustained and sophisticated attack, she added, noting that it was the “Chinese website that was attacked first.”
ChinaAid “has been unrelenting in reporting on the increased official persecution directed at religious believers, particularly house church Christians, that has been part of a wider government crackdown on dissent since the announcement in early October that the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo,” the organization said.
A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) occurs when multiple systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted computer system or website. Unlike a denial of service (DoS) attack, a DDoS attack used multiple computer hosts to launch simultaneously attacks on a site.
According to US State Department documents released last week by Wikileaks, the US embassy in Beijing reported that China’s Politburo was being a 2009 DDoS attack on Google.
“The Google hacking was part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and Internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government. They have broken into American government computers and those of Western allies, the Dalai Lama and American businesses since 2002, cables said,” the New York Times reported on Nov28.
Security Week reports that WikiLeaks was under a mass DDoS distributed denial of service attack on Nov 28, as it was set to release classified State Department documents.
Founded in 2002, ChinaAid states that its mission is to “draw international attention to China’s gross human rights violations against house church Christians.”
Egyptian court allows Christians to remarry: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010. December 10, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Coptic Orthodox, Marriage.comments closed
Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Egyptian court has tossed out the appeal of the Coptic Church challenging a lower court ruling permitting Orthodox Christians to remarry after divorce.
On Nov 30 the State Council’s Administrative Court” upheld its May decision “permitting the Coptic Orthodox sect to remarry, refusing a legal challenge filed by two lawyers to halt the ruling,” state news agency MENA said.
The decision places the embattled Coptic church at odds with the government of President Hosni Mubarak, giving it the choice of either changing church teaching on marriage, seeing divorced Copts who wish to remarry join another church or convert to Islam, or defying the state.
The court on May 29 held that the Coptic Church must permit remarriage for its members, rejecting an appeal by Pope Shenouda III who argued that church law does not permit remarriage after divorce, except in the limited circumstances.
“The Egyptian constitution guarantees that anyone may remarry and form a new family,” said Judge Mohamed El-Husseini, head of the Supreme Administrative Court. “The appeal made by Pope Shenouda III to prevent Copts from remarrying is accordingly rejected.”
The Coptic Orthodox Church, which is the Middle East’s largest Christian community with over 12 million members, allows remarriage only in cases of proven adultery and after the death of a spouse.
The May ruling was suspended by the Supreme Constitutional Court in July in order to allow the Coptic Church to make a challenge.
The case involved the petition of Hani Wasfi, a Copt who filed suit asking the government to force the church to allow him to remarry after his first marriage was dissolved.
Egypt’s personal status law does not recognize civil marriage, and requires a religious ceremony to give legal status to a nuptial union. Copts who wish to remarry after a divorce must either obtain a dispensation from the church showing they were the innocent party in a case of adultery or convert.
“Although we respect the judicial system it is not binding on the church. Marriage is one of the church’s seven sacraments. Nothing on earth will oblige us to abide by anything that contradicts with Biblical teaching,” Shenouda told reporters on June 2.
Churches divide over California gay marriage ban: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 10, 2010 p December 10, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of North America, Church of England Newspaper, Marriage, Politics.comments closed
Two signatories to the Dec 6 letter defending marriage: Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church of America and Archbishop Robert Duncan of the ACNA.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Conservative religious leaders in the United States have released an open letter urging their followers to press the government to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Dec 6 letter was released the same day the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the legality of California’s Proposition 8: the state ban on gay marriage.
The three paragraph letter stated that “marriage is the permanent and faithful union of one man and one woman. As such, marriage is the natural basis of the family. Marriage is an institution fundamental to the well-being of all of society, not just religious communities.”
The coalition of Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox, Anglican, Jewish, Sikh, Mormon, Pentecostal and Baptist leaders, including Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Church in North America, affirmed their “commitment to promote and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman. We honor the unique love between husbands and wives; the indispensable place of fathers and mothers; and the corresponding rights and dignity of all children.”
Marriage is a “great good in itself, and it also serves the good of others and society in innumerable ways,” they stated.
The preservation of the “unique meaning of marriage is not a special or limited interest but serves the good of all,” the faith leaders said, inviting all Americans “to stand with us in promoting and protecting marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”
In August, San Francisco Federal District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, stating that defining marriage as between a man and a woman lacked any rational basis at all. Judge Walker said opposition to gay marriage reflected a religious-based hostility to homosexuality.
However, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and one of the letter’s signers said “the broad consensus reflected in this [Dec 6] letter, across great religious divides, is clear: The law of marriage is not about imposing the religion of anyone, but about protecting the common good of everyone.”
“People of any faith or no faith at all can recognize that when the law defines marriage as between one man and one woman, it legally binds a mother and a father to each other and their children, reinforcing the foundational cell of human society.”
The Episcopal Churches California bishops backed the judge’s ruling and have joined with other liberal religious leaders in endorsing a brief filed by California Faith for Equality seeking to uphold the ruling that struck down Proposition 8.
At an Oct 20 Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno led a rally at the Cathedral Center of St Paul urging support for gay marriage. It was “important” that “people understand” that the Diocese of Los Angeles “supports all humanity and their right to marry,” Bishop Bruno said. “This is a fundamental right of all human beings, it’s a religious right, a right of sacredness.”
Dr Williams appoints a bishop for central Sri Lanka: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 9, 2010 December 9, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of Ceylon, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Bishop Greg Shantha Kumar Francis of Kurunegala
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has appointed a bishop for the Diocese of Kurunegala in the Church of Ceylon.
On Nov 7 the diocese announced that Dr. Williams and the Bishop of Colombo had selected Archdeacon Greg Shantha Kumar Francis to succeed Bishop Kumara Illangsinghe as the fifth bishop of the Central Sri Lankan diocese.
A spokesman for Lambeth Palace told the Church of England Newspaper the choice fell to Dr. Williams in his capacity as Metropolitan of the Church of Ceylon after the diocesan electoral commission “was unable to decide on the right name by the necessary majority.”
Following his announcement that he would retire by year’s end, an electoral commission consisting of six clergy and six lay delegates was elected on Sept 19 to select a list of candidates to succeed Bishop Illangsinghe.
However, the committee was unable to submit a slate of candidates by April 3, 2010 for election at the 54th annual diocesan synod, prompting the Rev. Neil Wimalaratne to ask the Kandy District Court to block the election of a bishop for violating section A.3.14 of the Constitution of the Church of Ceylon.
Mr. Wimalaratne asked the court to compel the diocese to conform to the Church of Ceylon’s constitution and place the selection of a new bishop in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Colombo acting in conjunction with the electoral commission.
The diocese responded by placing the matter in the hands of Dr. Williams and the Bishop of Colombo, who “proposed a name, in consultation with the diocesan consultative body,” Lambeth Palace said.
Dr. Williams’ Roman holiday: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 8, 2010 December 8, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England Newspaper, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic Church.comments closed
The Archbishop of Athens, His Beatitude Hieronymus II and Dr. Williams on tour
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has travelled to Rome and Athens, holding private meetings with Pope Benedict XVI and the Archbishop Hieronymus II, the primate of the Church of Greece.
On Nov 17, Dr. Rowan Williams delivered a lecture commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He joined Cardinal Walter Kasper, Cardinal-designate Kurt Koch and Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon in addressing the evening service at the Sala San Pio V in Rome.
The lectures were part of the council’s Nov 15-19 plenary session focusing on the theme: “Towards a new stage of ecumenical dialogue.” The speakers noted the weakening spirit of ecumenism, but underscored the importance of continued church relations.
The division of Christendom was an “anomaly” Metropolitan John observed, while the former president of the council, Cardinal Kasper, called it sin.
“The great danger is that we get used to this situation of division, taking it simply as a fact,” Cardinal Kasper said. “The existence of confessional churches, one alongside the other, is a reality that contradicts the will of the Lord and is the fruit of sin.”
In his address, Dr. Williams warned of the dangers, of “reconciled diversity;” of believing the differences among Christians were of such magnitude that it was more profitable and easier to ignore them, and accept the status quo.
The Archbishop of Canterbury called for a renewed effort to develop an ecumenical theology of the Eucharist as a key step towards visible church union, for it was around the altar that Christians stood in unity with Christ, because it was “the place where the prayer of Christ becomes our prayer.”
The following day, Dr. Williams held a private meeting with the Pope, the day before a pre-consistory retreat of the College of Cardinals, which heard a presentation on the Anglican Ordinariate.
On Nov 25, Dr. Williams met with His Beatitude Hieronymus II, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and Primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece, to discuss church relations. The archbishops described their meeting as a success. Hieronymus told reporters Dr. Williams was “a sincere friend of Orthodoxy and a student of the teachings of Orthodox dogma.”
Call for prayer for Ireland’s economic meltdown: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 6. December 8, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland, Development/Economics/Govt Finances.comments closed
Bishop Ken Clarke
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of Ireland has issued a call for prayer and contrition in the face of the country’s economic meltdown. On Nov 28, the Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, the Rt. Rev. Ken Clarke urged his diocese to meet the financial crisis with increased prayer and committed Christian service.
“Be there!” “Show Care!” Take “decisive action!” And be in “urgent prayer!” for Ireland, Bishop Clarke urged his diocese.
His plea comes amidst widespread economic and political unrest as the government of Prime Minister Brian Cowen appears ready to fall in the face of public anger over the country’s economic collapse. Last week Mr. Cowen announced he would dissolve the government after it passes the 2011 budget in December. The government’s junior coalition partner, the Green Party, has announced it would withdraw its support once the budget was in place.
“There are occasions when the imperative of serving the national interest transcends other concerns, including party political and personal concerns,’’ Mr. Cowen said in a statement. “This is one such occasion.’’
Ireland has been in an economic recession since 2008. Banking has been particularly hard hit, and on Sept 30 Ireland’s central bank said the cost of rescuing the banks would push the public deficit to 32 per cent of gross domestic product in 2010, from its present 11.6 per cent rate.
A four year austerity plan was proposed by the government to bring the deficit down to three per cent by 2014, and last week European finance ministers and the IMF agreed to loan Ireland €85 billion. But on Nov 27, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce the austerity measures and the bailout.
“We are in uncharted waters in Ireland,” Bishop Clarke said as the country faces a “time of extreme cutbacks, stringent measures and financial restraints.”
“Urgent prayer” is needed for Ireland’s “politicians, national leaders, financiers and decision makers. They need our prayers and this country needs a praying people,” the bishop said.
He offered as a model prayer: “God bless our leaders. God bless our country. God bless the church. Forgive our sins of greed and selfishness. Forgive our arrogance and pride. Move among us by Your Holy Spirit bringing hope and healing, progress and employment. Help us to care for one another as You care for us. Thank you for hearing our prayer. In the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”
Church call for appeasement of North Korea to prevent war: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 7. December 8, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Korea, Arms Control/Defense/Peace Issues, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Kim Jong Il
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Korea have issued a statement condemning the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea, but have warned the US and South Korean governments not to antagonize the unstable regime of Chairman Kim Jong Il and provoke a full scale war with the North.
On Nov 23, North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island, located seven miles south of the Demilitarized Zone, and 50 miles from the city of Inchon. Two civilians and two Korean marines were killed and a number of homes were destroyed.
Korea’s largest Protestant federation, representing the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Free Churches: the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), on Nov 26 said it “mourns with the surviving victims and the families of those whose lives were so senselessly taken. It deplores the North Korean military for using powerful weapons against the civilian community in the most serious incident since the signing of the Armistice in 1953.”
However, the attack came amidst joint US-South Korean war games, the NCCK noted. It challenged the “governments of South Korea, USA and Japan to refrain from upgrading these joint military exercises under an umbrella of the USA’s respective ‘security alliances’ because they appear to have provoked North Korea and led to its strong reaction.”
The NCCK said joint military exercises with the US and Japan “served no purpose other than to escalate tensions in Korea and to threaten the peace in the whole Northeast Asian region. The presence of a great number of nuclear weapons on land and on the surrounding seas makes Korea a tinderbox that threatens the peace of the whole world.”
The way forward through the crisis was for the Christian “ecumenical family to pray for peace in our land and to urge all governments to exercise caution, to refrain from further inflaming the political atmosphere and to exercise the maximum restraint so that reason and diplomacy can prevail over narrow self-serving military, strategic or political interests.”
However, U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed last week to stage joint naval exercises as a first response and the aircraft carrier USS George Washington was dispatched to the Yellow Sea.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Pyongyang said the North had responded in “self-defense” and accused the South of “reckless military provocation” that was bringing the Korean peninsula to the “brink of war,” the official KCNA news agency said.
In March, a North Korean submarine sank a South Korean warship in the same area, killing 46 sailors, but last week’s attack was the first to involve civilian deaths since the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987. Conservative political leaders in Japan and South Korea have urged their governments to take a strong line in response to this latest attack, while China has been pressed to use its influence to rein in North Korea.
However, the Rev. YJ Kim, general secretary of the NCCK, argued that a military solution would not resolve the Korean conflict. “Faith is the foundation of peace, not force,” he said.
Dr. Sentamu called to testify in bigamy trial: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 6. December 7, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Archbishop of York, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Dr John Sentamu
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of York has been called to give evidence in the case of priest accused of bigamy and immigration fraud.
Trial began last week in the case the Rev. Samuel Bisaso, a chaplain with the Mission to Seafarers in Immingham until his arrest last year. The accused has been charged with making a false statement at register office that he was a bachelor, when he was lawfully married. The Ugandan native is also accused of two counts of obtaining leave to remain in Britain by deception and of possessing a false passport.
On July 27, 1996, Mr. Bisaso married fellow Ugandan immigrant Rebecca Muwonge. The ceremony took place at Holy Trinity Church in Tulse Hill, Lambeth, South London and was conducted by Dr. John Sentamu.
Mr. Bisaso told the court the marriage did not work out, and he returned shortly thereafter to Uganda, believing his first marriage was “void”. In 1998 he returned to the UK, and married a Proscovia Nakamya at the Newham Register Office. However, prosecutors have argued this second marriage was with the same woman whom he married in 1996, and that Mrs. Bisaso had assumed the identity of her niece for the ceremony.
Mrs. Bisaso’s application to remain in Britain was denied in 1999. Prosecutors claimed she then married a Swedish national under her original name of Muwonge in order to remain in the UK as the spouse of an EU citizen.
Dr. Sentamu testified via videolink on Nov 29 before the Hove Trial Centre, stating he had been acquainted with Mr. Bisaso’s father in Uganda, and that Mr. Bisaso had attended his parish in 1996.
“When I conduct weddings of people who are not British nationals, I need to be sure in myself they are not underage and also that they are not prohibited for any reason from getting married.”
“You have to be very careful. You need to see the full documentation. With anyone who is not a British citizen I have to make sure I am working within the rules,” Dr. Sentamu said.
The Bisasos have denied the charges of making false statements, immigration fraud and bigamy. The trial continues.
Al Azhar opens doors for Muslim dialogue with Judaism: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 7. December 6, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Islam, Judaism.comments closed
Bishop Alexander Malik of Lahore
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Sunni Islamic world’s leading university, the Al-Azhar in Cairo, has lifted the ban on inter-faith talks between Muslims and Jews.
In a statement released last week at a meeting of religious and political leaders at the House of Lords, Sheikh Fawzi Al-Zifzaf, the head of Al-Azhar’s Permanent Committee for Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions, said interfaith dialogue should be “founded upon equality, mutual respect and valuing of the opinions of one another.”
Islam seeks “brotherhood and mutual understanding and the strengthening of bonds between Muslims and followers of the other religions, and the establishment of bridges of dialogue with scholarly institutions in Europe and America,” the statement said.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, a vice-president of the World Jewish Congress called the Nov 23 statement a “landmark decision, and Al-Azhar deserves praise for it. Coming from the leading centre of Islamic thinking in the world, it will be enormously helpful for all moderate forces within Islam. This declaration rightly emphasises the importance of inter-faith relations. Leaders from both sides should now seize the opportunity and take Jewish-Muslim relations to the next level.”
In the 1990’s the Al Azhar and the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Communion initiated a series of conversations, designed to foster inter-faith relations. The Anglican-Muslim dialogue committee met in Cairo from Oct 27-28 under the leadership of Sheikh Ali Abdel Baki Shehata of the Al Azhar and Bishop Alexander Malik of Lahore.
The participants received a number of presentations on inter-faith relations focusing on “how recent global developments had made positive engagement and dialogue between Muslims and Christians absolutely vital.”
ACC appointments: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 6. December 5, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Consultative Council, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
The Rev. Maria Christina Borges Alvarez of Cuba
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee has appointed two new members and named a former member to serve as vice chairman of its finance committee.
The minutes of the July 23-27 meeting reported that vacancies created by the resignation of Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda, Archbishop Justice Akrofi of West Africa, Presiding Bishop Mouneer Anis of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Ms. Nomfundo Walaza of Southern Africa, and Bishop Azad Marshall of Iran, were filled by the committee.
The seat of Archbishop Orombi was not filled, however, as the alternate for Africa, Archbishop Akrofi, had resigned also. The two African primates, along with Bishop Anis and Bishop Marshall had quit the standing committee, citing their lack of confidence in its integrity.
Bishop Paul Sarkar of Bangladesh, as alternate to Bishop Anis was appointed to fill his seat, while the committee asked the Rev. Maria Christina Borges Alvarez of Cuba to join. The minutes note she was a “woman priest from Latin America, a region which was at present unrepresented.” An appointed member of the ACC, the Cuban priest has already served six of the nine years of her term on the council, and will only serve through the next meeting of the ACC in 2012.
The minutes report that questions first raised by this newspaper over the legality of the December 2009 appointment of Canon Janet Trisk to the committee were valid. The former ACC constitution was still in force as of the December 2009 meeting and the “casual vacancy arising from the resignation” of Ms. Walaza “should therefore have been filled” by a lay person, the minutes reported. The new constitution, however, permitted the appointment of Canon Trisk, and the committee voted to appoint her to the “vacancy that currently exists.”
Australian member Mr. Robert Fordham, whose term of office ended in 2009, continued to serve the ACC as a consultant and as vice-chair of the Finance and Administration Committee.
However, the legality of this second December 2009 appointment as vice chairman is also in doubt, as the ACC’s constitution rule 14.3 requires committee chairs to be members of the ACC—a position not held by Mr. Fordham as a consultant.
A further vacancy now exists on the Standing Committee following the retirement of the Bishop of Kurunegala, the Rt. Rev. Kumara Illangasinghe. This elected seat will likely be filled at the committee’s next meeting.
Church of Ireland to address the Covenant at its May General Synod: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 6. December 4, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The proposed Anglican Covenant does not conflict with the formularies of the Church of Ireland, that church’s Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue has concluded. The decision opens the way for the Church of Ireland to adopt the Covenant at its General Synod in May.
At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Irish General Synod on Nov 16, the Bishop of Cashel & Ossory, the Rt. Rev. Michael Burrows reported the commission was “satisfied” the Anglican Covenant would not change the doctrines, formularies, and rituals of the Church of Ireland.
It would be “possible for the General Synod to be asked to adopt it by simple resolution,” Bishop Burrows said, rather than via an amendment of its constitution or articles. The standing committee accepted the commission’s report and “agreed to move forward on that basis,” the church’s press office reported.
The standing committee also urged a church wide discussion of the covenant during the run up to the May general synod, to allow delegates an opportunity to review the document.
Canon Rodney Hunter murdered by persons unknown, court finds: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 7. December 3, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Crime.comments closed
Canon Rodney Hunter
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Former USPG missionary the Rev. Canon Rodney Hunter was murdered, the judge in the Malawi vicarage murder trial has concluded.
“There is no dispute that [Canon Hunter] died of a violent death. It was a result of poisoning and physical manhandling – suffocation (smothering),” Justice Robert Chinagwa stated in his Oct 13 decision.
However, “what is in dispute is the identity of the culprit,” the court declared, acquitting Canon Hunter’s cook, Leonard Mondoma of murder. While there was sufficient probable cause to arrest Mr. Mondoma and his conduct was “suspicious,” there was no direct physical evidence tying him to the murder, the judge ruled.
On Nov 10, 2006, Canon Hunter was found dead in his home in Nkhotakota. The Malawian press reported that a black substance had been found on the lips of the 72 year old assistant priest of All Saints Cathedral in Lake Malawi, suggesting he had been poisoned.
The subsequent arrest and murder trial of Leonard Mondoma spawned fierce emotions and quickly became enmeshed in the Anglican Communion’s wars over homosexuality. A former librarian of Pusey House, Canon Hunter came out to Malawi in 1965. In 2005 he spearheaded opposition to overturn the election of the Rev. Nicholas Henderson as bishop of Lake Malawi, claiming the London vicar was theologically unsound. Following the challenge the Central African bishop declined to affirm Mr. Henderson’s election, citing his ties to the Modern Churchpersons Union.
Canon Hunter’s nephew, Mark Hunter told the Oct 2007 Forward in Faith his uncle had been murdered. Mr. Hunter stated “it is salutary to note that, of the three people directly opposing the appointment of Nicholas Henderson as bishop, two are now dead and a third” was “in fear of his life.”
Supporters of Mr Mondoma denounced as a calumny the suggestion the death of Canon Hunter was a political murder. The website Anglican-Information also attacked press reports of the crime printed in The Times in 2007 as “sensational” and “foolish,” arguing that they would serve only to deny the accused a fair trial.
The subsequent acquittal of Mr. Mondoma was “most surprising,” Mark Hunter told CEN. Anglican-Information, however, denounced the prosecution as a “disgraceful saga” but noted that “justice has prevailed.”
A review of the judge’s 22-page verdict, however, finds that justice has not yet been done to Canon Hunter.
In his summary of the facts, Justice Chinangwa noted that suspicion fell upon Mr. Mondoma almost immediately. Canon Hunter became ill after eating a meal prepared by Mr. Mondoma, and died during the night.
When the body was discovered the following morning, the cook was found to be in possession of the key to Canon Hunter’s home and to the victim’s cash box. The court noted the key to the cash box “was always in the deceased’s custody. Accused has not explained how he came to be [in] custody of the key. This again raises suspicion.”
Mr. Mondoma’s behavior upon the discovery of the body was also suspicious, the court noted. His lack of emotion upon finding the body and comments made upon its discovery the court said “was a strange behavior” which stunned the other witnesses.
Upon being taken for questioning, Mr. Mondoma denied killing Canon Hunter. However, he stated he saw Bernard Mlotha, (his co-defendant who died before trial) “administer certain substance on the deceased’s food in the absence of the deceased.”
The prosecution argued Mr. Mondoma had a duty to warn Canon Hunter of what he saw, but Mr. Mondoma’s attorney responded his client “owned no legal duty to the deceased.”
“This argument is quite strange,” the judge said. “The accused was the one who cooked that food. Accused claims to have seen one Mlotha administer certain substance on the food. Surely it is the view of this court that there existed a legal duty on the part of [Mondoma] towards the well being of his master. Just standing and watch was very ridiculous.”
The court noted that a forensic analysis found evidence of three prescription drugs in Canon Hunter’s body. Two of the medications had been prescribed by Canon Hunter’s physician, while no record existed for the third, Phenothiazine: a family of drugs most commonly prescribed as a tranquilizer and anti-psychotic medication and marketed under the name of Thorazine.
The autopsy also found petechial hemorrhages in the whites of the eyes, the lungs and heart: a condition consistent with death by asphyxia.
The “state submits that it is this Phenothiazines which was administered in the food by Mlotha in the presence of the accused” in conjunction with asphyxia by smothering that led to Canon Hunter’s death.
However, the court found that no evidence had been submitted showing Mr. Mondoma had access to the drug, nor were “finger prints of accused” found at the crime scene, or any evidence how or when the accused may have smothered a drugged Canon Hunter. Samples of the meal were not preserved, nor of the deceased’s vomit.
Alternate theories of the crime could be maintained, the court held. “There are pieces of evidence which raise suspicion” against Mr. Mondoma, but “there are areas of doubt as well. It is a principle of criminal law that such doubt has to be resolved in favour of accused,” the court wrote, acquitting the defendant of murder.
Gafcon primates vote of no confidence in the Covenant: The Church of England Newspaper, Dec 3, 2010 p 1 December 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Covenant, Church of England Newspaper, GAFCON.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Anglican Covenant is too little and too late, to hold the Anglican Communion together, the leaders of the Gafcon movement said last week.
Revisions to the document adopted last December by the Anglican Communion’s Standing Committee were unacceptable, the Gafcon primates’ council said on Nov 24, and urged the communion to adopt “new initiatives to more effectively respond to the crises that confront us all.”
Seven primates along with Archbishops Robert Duncan of the ACNA and Peter Jensen of Sydney acknowledged as “well intentioned” the “efforts to heal our brokenness through the introduction of an Anglican Covenant,” but concluded the “current text is fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate.”
The primates further rejected the Dr Rowan Williams’ plea for business as usual. “We can no longer maintain the illusion of normalcy,” they said, and “join with other Primates from the Global South in declaring that we will not be present at the next Primates’ meeting.”
Questioned about the statement, a spokesman for Lambeth Palace told The Church of England Newspaper ACC Secretary General Kenneth Kearon “has said the following: ‘The decision whether to come remains a matter for the Primates. The meeting is being organised and will be going ahead in Ireland next January. We are still receiving acceptances and hope as many Primates as possible we be able to attend’.”
Crafted at a meeting in Oxford held Oct 4-7, the statement crystallizes months of discussions among the reform minded leaders of the communion.
Frustrated with the course adopted by Dr. Williams in addressing the crisis of doctrine and discipline in the communion, and openly scornful of the integrity of the ‘Anglican Communion Office’, the Gafcon primates reiterated their call to ditch a church whose primary principle was the paramount importance of its London organs for one that espoused common doctrines
The communion needed to reform or it would die. “New ways of living out our common life” were “emerging as old structures are proven to be ineffective in confronting the challenges of living in a pluralistic global community,” they said.
They offered the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration as a way forward, saying the “unique character” of the communion’s reform movement “with its diversity of cultures and its embrace of the Jerusalem Declaration as a common theological confession is a vital contribution to the future” of the communion.
While the statement was released on the same day as General Synod debated the covenant, the timing of the release was not intended to sway discussion in England, a spokesman told CEN.
The “Oxford Statement” required weeks of refining and was passed from archbishop to archbishop before it was ready for release, a Gafcon secretariat spokesman said.
Sources within the Gafcon movement tell CEN, the Oxford Statement should not be read as an outright rejection of the covenant, but as a vote of no confidence in the current draft that vests authority in the Anglican Communion “Standing Committee”.
On Nov 1, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali encapsulated the thinking of many of the Gafcon leaders, telling CEN the new section IV of the covenant was “quite different” from what had been prepared by the covenant design team, and “produces a new kind of ecclesial animal” in the Standing Committee.
“We have had a spate of resignations” from the Standing Committee “that calls into question its on-going credibility,” he noted. Yet the Standing Committee will “make recommendations” about discipline.”
The Ridley draft of the covenant “was much better and stronger,” Dr. Nazir Ali said. It provided “due safeguards and allowed the primates to make the final decision,” he observed.
Irish bishop to Carlisle vicarage: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 27, 2010 p 6. December 2, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
Bishop Richard Henderson
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church of Ireland’s Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry has written to his diocese announcing that he will be stepping down from office in January after 12 years to serve as vicar of Appleby-in-Westmoreland, Cumbria, leader of the Heart of Eden Team Ministry and Honorary Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Carlisle.
In his pastoral letter of Nov 21, Dr. Richard Henderson thanked the clergy and laity of his West of Ireland diocese, writing: “It has been an immense privilege to be among you all.”
“Having been Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry for over twelve years, with our children now grown up, and having reflected deeply on the gifts I can best offer, I have felt led increasingly to return to parish life and substantially to non-episcopal ministry,” the bishop said.
The bishop noted that he had “deep roots” in Cumbria and had been baptised in Brough Parish Church. Reared in England and educated at Oxford University, Dr. Henderson took up a pastoral cure in Ireland in 1989 and was elected bishop of the rural northwestern Irish diocese in 1998.
“My time within the various facets of the life of the Church of Ireland has been rich and rewarding on many levels, so this is not a move made lightly, but equally I move forward with faith to a new chapter in ministry within the team in the Heart of Eden,” the bishop said.
The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr. Alan Harper stated the departure of Dr. Henderson for England “will be a very considerable loss to the Church of Ireland.”
“His scientific training, linked to a formidable intellect and deeply devotional engagement with Holy Scripture made him a most persuasive teacher of the faith. Furthermore, his quiet, thoughtful and deeply attractive spirituality saw him much in demand as a giver of retreats. In a part of Ireland where the Church of Ireland community is but a tiny minority Bishop Richard fostered and nourished warm and positive relationships across the whole community to the great benefit of all,” Dr. Harper said.
The bishop will take up his new post in March 2011.
New Westminster legal win in church property fight: The Church of England Newspaper, Nov 26, 2010 p 7. December 1, 2010
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Canada, Church of England Newspaper, Property Litigation.comments closed
Bishop Michael Ingham
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal has handed a defeat to the breakaway congregations in the Diocese of New Westminster, giving trusteeship of the property of four breakaway parishes to the diocese. However, the court rejected the diocese’s plea that it be given control of a multi-million dollar bequest made to one of the parishes.
The “Anglican ministry in Canada is ‘as defined by the ACC [Anglican Church of Canada]’,” Justice Mary Newbury held in a decision released on Nov 15, citing statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury that the only official Anglican body in Canada was the ACC.
While the court’s ruling advances the diocese’s campaign to regain control of the congregations, it may come to haunt the ACC and its relations with the wider Anglican Communion. The court’s summary of facts states the Canadian church has authorized same-sex blessings, appearing to contradict claims made by Archbishop Fred Hiltz to the Anglican Consultative Council in July that the ACC’s general synod had not done so.
The court held the “ACC is autonomous and doctrinal change is a matter for the General Synod. That body has chosen to permit same-sex blessings, albeit in the rather unenthusiastic wording of the 2007 [general synod] resolution, and the Bishop and Diocesan Synod of New Westminster have chosen to pursue the matter to the extent they have – despite the opposition of many of their parishioners,” the court stated.
The court questioned whether this decision to forge ahead with gay blessings was wise.
“Presumably the Bishop and the Synod [of New Westminster] have chosen to take the risk that the policy allowing same-sex blessings will indeed prove to be ‘schismatic’; or that clergy in the Diocese will for the foreseeable future find themselves ministering to vastly reduced or non-existent congregations.”
But that “is their decision to make in the structure that the Anglican Church takes in Canada,” the court ruled.
In finding for the diocese, the court said it looked to trust and canon law. “The purpose of the trusts on which the parish corporations hold the church buildings and other assets is to further Anglican ministry in accordance with Anglican doctrine, and that in Canada, the General Synod has the final word on doctrinal matters.”
The court added that it was not saying the breakaway parishes were “not in communion with the wider Anglican Church – that is a question on which I would not presume to opine. I do say, however, that members of the Anglican Church in Canada belong to an organization that has subscribed to ‘government by bishops.’ The plaintiffs cannot in my respectful opinion remove themselves from their bishop’s oversight and the diocesan structure and retain the right to use properties that are held for purposes of Anglican ministry in Canada.”
In its second ruling, the court dismissed an appeal lodged by the diocese that held that moneys left to Good Shepherd Church to support the Chinese Anglican community in Vancouver should go to the diocese. The court noted that as nearly all Chinese Anglicans in Vancouver had quit the ACC for ANiC, “making the funds available to the ANiC congregation would come closest to fulfilling Dr. Chun’s charitable intent.”
The ruling effects four congregations: St. John’s Shaughnessy Church, the largest Anglican parish in Canada with nearly 1,000 parishioners, St. Matthew’s Church in Abbotsford, and St. Matthias and St. Luke Church and Good Shepherd Church in Vancouver.
“Obviously, we are deeply disappointed by this decision which is currently being reviewed by our legal counsel,” said ANiC’s Cheryl Chang.
“We are awaiting their advice before any discussion about an appeal can take place. The congregations have always said that if they are forced to choose between their buildings and their faith, they will choose their faith. That position remains unchanged,” she said.
In a pastoral letter to his diocese dated Nov 21, Bishop Michael Ingham said “no one should have to choose between their faith and their church.”
“I invite you all to join with me in the work of healing and reconciliation, mutual forgiveness and forbearance, so that we may move forward together in humility with God’s grace,” Bishop Ingham said.
He hoped the four congregations would “remain in communion with Canadian Anglicans” and “stay in the churches where they worship” while he worked with them to appoint clergy loyal to the diocese.
