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I have not had a chance to post this as of yet. If you haven’t seen it, read it all.

You can see all the candidates here. The names are:

The Rev. Gregory O. Brewer
Rector, Episcopal Parish of Calvary-St. George’s
New York, New York

The Very Rev. Anthony P. Clark
Dean, Cathedral Church of St. Luke
Orlando, Florida

The Rev. R. Jonathan. Davis
Vicar, Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
Director, Canterbury Retreat and Conference Center
Oviedo, Florida
The Rev. R. Jonathan. Davis
Vicar, Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
Director, Canterbury Retreat and Conference Center
Oviedo, Florida

The Very Rev. Charles L. Holt
Rector, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
Lake Mary, Florida

The Rev. Timothy C. Nunez
Rector, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
Belleview, Florida

The Rev. Mary A. Rosendahl
Rector, Episcopal Church of the Nativity
Port St. Lucie, Florida

The Rev. James A. Sorvillo, Sr.
Rector, Episcopal Church of the Ascension
Orlando, Florida

You can also find the search process homepage over there.

Revive thy Church, Lord God of hosts, whensoever it doth fall into complacency and sloth, by raising up devoted leaders, like thy servant John Henry Hobart whom we remember this day; and grant that their faith and vigor of mind may awaken thy people to thy message and their mission; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Q: What are your thoughts on gay clergy and same-sex marriages, as the issue continues to rage within other denominations?

A: That’s one of the real challenges of our time. The church is not ”¦ we don’t know. We have not made a decision about that. It’s something we’re still praying about, and that’s frustrating for some people. There are people who are frustrated that we are talking about this at all; they wish it would go away. There are others who wish we would get moving, that it’s something we shouldn’t be dragging our feet about. It’s a difficult, thorny issue.

We do have a diversity of theological positions in the church, which is the nature of our faith ”“ that people have different ideas that are not lightly held. When they disagree ”¦ what do you do?….

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The Diocese of New York, which includes the Lower Hudson Valley, is generally quite liberal and very open to gays and lesbians at all levels. But there has been some tension over whether gay couples can be married by priests.

[Bishop Mark] Sisk supported the passage of civil gay marriage by the state Legislature and has been very supportive of gays in church life. But he does not believe that church law has empowered priests to perform marriages for same-sex couples.

In a statement this past June, he said that clergy can offer a blessing for a gay couple that has entered into a civil marriage.

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Loving God, who didst call Charles Chapman Grafton to be a bishop in thy Church, endowing him with a burning zeal for souls: Grant that, following his example, we may ever live for the extension of thy kingdom, that thy glory may be the chief end of our lives, thy will the law of our conduct, thy love the motive of our actions, and Christ’s life the model and mold of our own; through the same Jesus Christ, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, throughout all ages. Amen.

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“I am quite speechless,” remarked the Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger of New York.

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Both men are religious — [Joseph] Eppink is Episcopalian, [Ralph] Panelli is Roman Catholic — so a church wedding was necessary for them.

The couple booked the First Lutheran Church in Albany, Babcock’s place of worship. They said they would have loved to have the ceremony in Eppink’s church, but Bishop William Love of the Albany Episcopal Diocese has barred priests from participating in same-sex marriage ceremonies. The congregation supports the couple. The Sunday after the law was passed, “We had a coffee hour in front of the church, and there was this huge cheer from people. The church, the parish, they’re all very excited,” Eppink said.

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The response of parishioners to the bishop’s letter was low key at Saint Eustace Episcopal Church in Lake Placid.

“I think they’re just digesting it,” the Rev. Brock Baker said. “For our parish, it is not a great controversial issue for us. I think it will continue to be a topic.”

The future of marriage for gay and lesbian Episcopalians in the Diocese of Albany is uncertain.

“It’s too new right now,” the Rev. Colin Belton of Trinity Episcopal Church in Plattsburgh said. “There’s canon law we have to follow. Bishop Love has stated the diocesan position. That’s where we stand. It’s really too soon to say much more than that.”

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On a recent hot Sunday morning, 73 people sat down to worship at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church with the Revs. Don Baxter and Melissa Adzima.

Fans circulated air in the sanctuary where, not too long ago, regular attendance was hitting a high around 40, maybe 50 on a good day.

“We’re hoping to get 100 people by Christmas,” Adzima said.

The growth at the Millcreek Township church has followed the start of a redevelopment led by the youngest bishop in the Episcopal Church. He’s created a three-member leadership team at St. Mark’s that includes one of the youngest Episcopal priests.

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Lawsuits by churches, the U.S. government and civil-rights groups seeking to stop Alabama from enforcing new restrictions on illegal immigrants will be heard as one.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn in Birmingham, Alabama, ordered the cases’ consolidation yesterday. Episcopal, Roman Catholic and Methodist bishops; the U.S. Justice Department, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued Alabama Governor Robert Bentley starting July 8.

Church leaders claim the law stops them from carrying out their religious mission by denying food, shelter and worship to people who are in the U.S. illegally. The U.S. says the law conflicts with federal authority over aliens, such as regulation of migrant employment. The ACLU, joined by the Southern Poverty Law Center, objected that transporting children who are illegal immigrants will be a crime.

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In each of its multiple lawsuits against departed parishes and dioceses, ECUSA usually files a sworn statement (“affidavit” or “declaration”) from Prof. Robert Bruce Mullin, who teaches at its General Theological Seminary in New York. Required discovery disclosures in some of the lawsuits have finally given opponents a handle on the degree of bias which Dr. Mullin brings to his task. Without mincing any words, let me come right to the point:

Over forty months from September 2007 through December 2010, ECUSA has paid Prof. Mullin, over and above his salary at GTS, a total of $672,020.00 in hourly fees. ECUSA has also paid to reimburse him for a further $8,487 in expenses he incurred in his researches, including travel to various locations to have his deposition taken, or to testify at trials.

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The segment description is as follows:

George Conger and Kevin Kallsen discuss this day in History and the death of John Stott. This week we also have two contributors – AS Haley delves into New York states new same sex marriage law and Bishop Love discusses how this new law affects the Diocese of Albany NY. –Oh and for the curious…. we have the blooper reel at the end of the show.

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“Jesus wept.” (St John 11:35) As a child I learned that “Jesus wept” was the shortest sentence in the Gospels. I grew to understand that it is also one of the most powerful. I wept not long ago when I learned that the State of Alabama (the lower part of which is within my episcopal jurisdiction) passed legislation that would put me in violation involuntarily with State law because of my faith and religious convictions. With the implementation of HB56, we face one state’s edict to limit assistance and ministry only to those who can produce certain documentation.

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As a church that permitted “gay and lesbian clergy” to hold themselves forth as such, the Episcopal Church found it could not resist permitting such individuals to live with their “partners,” cohabiting openly without benefit of marriage. A kind of ancestral conservatism prevented Episcopalians from boldly sallying forth to bless same-sex unions as sacramental marriages so long as the state was not willing to legalize civil marriage for such couples. Thus the church found itself obliged to wink at something”“sexual relationships openly proclaimed by cohabiting but unmarried “clergy couples” of the same sex”“that it would not tolerate if the couples were heterosexual.

Ah, but now comes the state to the rescue! What the state has blessed, the Episcopal Church can now bless. Even more, it will now insist on its long-suppressed moral strictures about marriage! No more of this living in sin, which just yesterday we didn’t have the nerve to call sin! You folks better get married, because the state has decided for us that we can give you the sacrament!

Or if we want to keep our footing and not join Bishop Tanglefoot in a heap at the foot of the cathedral stairs, we can speak as Christians ought to speak: the Episcopal Church has been tolerating its clergy living openly in sin. Now it will bless the sin and the sinners alike. But it will righteously insist on it!

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Parry, 69, became a priest in the Episcopal Church in 2004 and until last month was the music director and assisting priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas. He told The Kansas City Star on Thursday that “my attorney has asked me not to say anything.”

Last month, Parry admitted to The Star that he had inappropriate sexual relations with several members of the Abbey Boy Choir from 1982 to 1987, when he directed the group.

The lawsuit, filed in Nodaway County Circuit Court under the name John Doe 48, seeks unspecified damages. It was announced Thursday at a news conference of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Read it all and if you want the lawsuit document is and if you want you can see the key legal document there (20 pages).

Bishop Franklin issued a Pastoral Letter addressing marriage equality to be read in all congregations on Sunday, July 24. The letter authorizes priests who wish to officiate at the marriage of a gay or lesbian couple to do so.

“As your Bishop, I believe that I am acting out of the tradition of the VIA MEDIA, the middle way, which has been a key to the identity of our Church for centuries. We do not all have to agree to remain in one diocesan community.”

Bishop Franklin arrived at his decision following a very intentional listening process involving a wide variety of diocesan clergy and lay leaders whose opinions covered the whole spectrum of thought on this issue.

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Now this is a media reported statement not a theological essay or paper, so I am not going to declare this to be evidence of heresy. But, on the face of it, here is an Anglican bishop making a christological statement which, putting it diplomatically, falls below the Nicene and Chalcedonian par.

The least we could expect of Anglican bishops around the world is that, different and diverse though they may wish to be on human sexuality, whether Hooker meant this or that re Scripture, reason and tradition, and what robes should be worn on which occasion, they all subscribe to the common ecumenical creeds.

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The Episcopal Church, which has been strained by gay-rights issues since the election of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire eight years ago, is now divided over how to respond to the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York.

As a result, gay and lesbian Episcopalians will be allowed on Sunday to get married by priests in Brooklyn and Queens, but not in the Bronx or Manhattan or on Staten Island; in Syracuse but not in Albany.

That is because the church has not taken a firm position nationally on same-sex marriage, leaving local bishops with wide latitude to decide what priests may do when the law takes effect in New York State. In the state, with six Episcopal dioceses, the bishops are split: two have given the green light for priests to officiate at same-sex marriages, one has said absolutely not, two are undecided and one has staked out a middle ground, allowing priests to bless, but not officiate at, weddings of gay men and lesbians.

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[John] Sloan has been Alabama’s bishop suffragan since 2008. Before that, he served as rector of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Huntsville, Ala., for 14 years, and at a number of churches in the Diocese of Mississippi.

Sloan founded the Special Session program in the diocese for summer campers with mental and physical disabilities. In the national church, he serves as a member of the Standing Commission for Liturgy and Music. He has participated in nearly 20 medical mission trips to Honduras.

Sloan, a native of Vicksburg, Miss., is married to Tina Brown Sloan. They have two children, McKee and Mary Nell.

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New York–After same-sex marriage becomes legal here on July 24, gay priests with partners in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island will head to the altar. They have to. Their bishop set a nine-month deadline for them to marry or stop living together.

Next door, meanwhile, the Episcopal bishop of New York says he also expects gay clergy in committed relationships to wed “in due course.” Still, this longtime supporter of gay rights says churches in his diocese are off limits for gay weddings until he receives clearer liturgical guidance from the national denomination.

As more states legalize same-sex marriage, religious groups with ambiguous policies on homosexuality are divided over whether they should allow the ceremonies in local congregations. The decision is especially complex in the mainline Protestant denominations that have yet to fully resolve their disagreements over the Bible and homosexuality. Many have taken steps toward acceptance of gay ordination and same-gender couples without changing the official definition of marriage in church constitutions and canons. With the exception of the United Church of Christ, which approved gay marriage six years ago, none of the larger mainline churches has a national liturgy for same-sex weddings or even blessing ceremonies.

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The former rector of All Saints Church in Las Vegas, Fr. Eldwin Lovelady told CEN that during the five years Fr. [Bede] Parry was his assistant “I found him to be faithful to his priestly ministry, a wonderful pastoral presence to me and to members of the parish, and a friend.”

In an apparent contradiction to the bishop’s claim that restrictions were placed on Fr. Parry’s ministry and the “reasons for it conveyed” by Bishop Jefferts Schori to his supervisors, Fr. Lovelady said he “never had even the smallest hint of any kind of inappropriate behavior, or any inclination to such. I was not aware of anything in his past and now that I’ve been made aware of these allegations, I have not changed my opinion about Bede in any way and if I were still in the diocese of Nevada, I would be supporting him.”

Bishop Edwards’ claim the diocese did not receive the 2000 psychological profile of Fr. Parry is at odds, as he notes, with the claim made in a lawsuit filed last month in Missouri, which stated the Episcopal Diocese was given a copy of the report. However, the bishop’s further contention that any psychological profile conducted in 2000 that indicated a predilection for abuse would be “dubious” as such tests would not be developed until “20 years later” appears to be a misstatement.

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The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut
June 30, 2011

Dear Colleagues in Ministry:

We are writing to remind you as sisters and brothers in ordained ministry that the new Title IV disciplinary canons go into effect this coming Friday, July 1. For the past year we as a diocese have been preparing for the new Title IV. At our diocesan convention last year we voted in members of the new committees needed to support the Title IV process. Robin Hammeal-Urban has been leading educational offerings throughout the Diocese and in Province One, helping all of us to understand the new process and intent of the canon.

Further information on the new Title IV can be found on the Diocese of Connecticut website at:
http://www.ctepiscopal.org/Content/Clergy_Disciplinary_Process_Title_IV_.asp

The goal of the new Title IV is to embrace a form of clergy discipline based on restorative justice rather than retributive justice. We have moved away from a model of discipline based on the code of military justice (on which the outgoing Title IV was based) hoping to embrace more a process of collegiality and accountability amongst peers.

The new Title IV both broadens the guidelines of what needs to be “reported” with respect to actions that contravene the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church and also includes more participants in disciplinary process. It thus requires that offenses to the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church be reported by clergy to the Diocesan Intake Officer when they arise. Lay people may also report offenses, but since they are not “in orders” they are not required to do so. Robin Hammeal-Urban will be serving as our Intake Officer as an extension of her role as the Diocesan Pastoral Response Coordinator for the next year as we live into this new model.

One topic which has come up at almost all of the trainings and educational offerings that Robin has lead is the question of Open Communion. Canon 1.17.7. restricts eligibility to receive Holy Communion to persons who are baptized. The new Title IV presents us with the circumstance to consider what we believe about “open communion” in light of what the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church is at this time. Some deaneries and delegates in the Diocese of Connecticut are thus looking at offering a resolution to our Diocesan Convention that will ask us to engage in a diocesan-wide conversation around “Open Communion”. In the meantime, your bishops are called to uphold the canons of the church as outlined in the Constitution and Canons voted at General Convention 2009.

The implementation of the new Title IV might cause some anxiety as we learn to live with the new canons. Still, if we can stay centered, open, and as well informed as possible, we trust that in time the new Title IV will serve all of us well as we seek always to be faithful to our ordination vows.

Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas
The Rt. Rev. James E. Curry
The Rt. Rev. Laura J. Ahrens

Before July 1, 2011, clergy disciplinary matters were brought to the bishop or the Standing Committee. After July 1, 2011 (under the revised Title IV canons) all matters will be reported to an Intake Officer (contact info below) who will create a written report. Following that, the matter could be resolved by pastoral care, mediation, an agreement with the bishop, an investigation, or any combination of these.

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…the question we can be concerned with here is whether this situation affects the leadership of the PB in two ways relating to the Communion. First, a few days ago a new canon on discipline of bishops came into effect. Some believe this new canon will be used to bring charges against the Bishop of South Carolina, Mark Lawrence, because allegedly there is a case which can be brought against him for the way in which he has handled some situations involving churches leaving his diocese, permitting property to go with the departure, rather than fighting to retain it for the future ministry of TEC. To bring such charges will be of great interest to many in the Communion because +Mark is a symbol of conservative presence in TEC: to charge +Mark would look to all the Communion as though TEC has no particular commitment to the diversity it professes. But now, there is a possibility the canon could be used against the PB herself. Or will both possibilities quietly die away, the embarrassment of the latter outweighing the advantages of the former?

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