The current national disciplinary canons were patterned on the military code of justice. And it was argued that the Church could do better than the military. Perhaps so. But it is my opinion that the new canons give far too much authority to the Bishop of a Diocese over his or her clergy, and they give unprecedented authority to the Presiding Bishop over the other Bishops of the Church ”“ and there is a tremendous loss of “due process” in their implementation.

If a Diocesan Bishop, or the Presiding Bishop, is a wise and caring person there may be no danger in these new canons. But I think there are few of us who might not be tempted to misuse the enhanced powers given to the Bishops and the Presiding Bishop to act against those with whom he or she disagrees.

I will tell you plainly: I do not want to have this enhanced authority given to me in my dealings with our clergy. Nor do I welcome this intrusion into the life of our sovereign Diocese of the unprecedented authority of the Presiding Bishop. (And I have told her so.) It is a radical revision of the polity of The Episcopal Church from its inception.

Read it all.

Read them all and make sure to compare them to the submitted resolutions.

I realize that there are presently clergy and congregations who have addressed these questions of blessing, community, society and Scripture in ways that could be deemed thorough and conclusive. Furthermore, you may remember that I have always affirmed that committed, monogamous same-gender relationships can indeed be faithful in the Christian life. Therefore, I plan also to begin working immediately with those congregations that want to establish the parameters for the “generous pastoral response” that the 2009 General Convention called for with respect to same-gender couples in Episcopal churches. Personally, it is my hope that the 2012 General Convention will authorize the formal blessing of same-gender unions for those clergy in places that want to celebrate them. Until then, we might not be able to do all that we would want to do but, in my judgment, it is right to do something and it is time to do what we can….

We all know that the litigation has been expensive, but I will remind you that these costs are being covered by a line of credit secured by unconsecrated, non-strategic real estate. No pledge dollars given to the diocese’s annual budget are being used to fund this legal battle. And this reminds me . . .

I remain shocked and grievously troubled by the lack of adequate funding for our diocese. Make no mistake: this is not about sexuality or any other controversy. Virginia has been dead last in the Episcopal Church in its percentage funding for the diocesan budget for decades. Our congregations’ average giving to the Diocese is a less-than-modest 6.5 percent of plate-and-pledge, and only 5.4 percent of all unrestricted operating revenues. Only 18 of our 183 congregations give at least 10 percent of their revenues to the Diocese.

Read it all.

From the blurb:

Raymond Dague, attorney and legal counsel for St. George’s Anglican Church in Helmetta, New Jersey, tells about how his client and The Episcopal Church amicably settled their disputes. Mr. Dague says this outcome gives hope that future and current lawsuits can be avoided or ended.

That faith heritage is one reason why [Stephen] Charleston has returned to his Oklahoma roots as the interim dean of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, 127 NW 7.

“Religion hooked me early,” Charleston said recently.

“My grandfather and great-grandfather were both ordained Presbyterian ministers. They founded churches in the Choctaw Nation. My grandfather baptized people in the lakes of southeast Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.”

Read it all.

Read it all and please follow the links as well.

On Friday afternoon, Jan. 21, attorneys for the Diocese and Corporation received two orders from the Hon. John Chupp in the matter of the main suit against us, in which a minority of former members has been joined by The Episcopal Church in an effort to claim diocesan property. Judge Chupp signed an order drafted by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, from which he struck several points with which he did not apparently agree. The order does find that TEC is a hierarchical church, and on that basis the judge has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. The judge’s order can be read here.

Friday’s ruling from the trial court is a disappointment but not a disaster. The plaintiffs have offered no evidence, either in the courtroom or in their voluminous filings, supporting their claim that the Diocese was not entitled to withdraw from The Episcopal Church, as it did in November 2008. Nor have they demonstrated a legal right to our property, which is protected by Texas statutes regulating trusts and non-profit corporations.

Read it all.

[Katharine] Jefferts Schori, president bishop of the Episcopal Church, preached to a packed house of clergy and lay delegates of the 168th annual convention of the Jacksonville-based Episcopal Diocese of Florida. The convention began with the 4 p.m. Eucharist service and continues today at the cathedral and at the Marriott Hotel.

The homily compared the diocese, the denomination, the nation, the world, other cultures and religions to the human body. The body is healthy when its different parts work in harmony, but breaks down when they don’t, Jefferts Schori said.

The miracle of the human body is that its different limbs and organs, together with digestive bacteria and other micro-organisms can work together to create a healthy life. But sometimes the body turns on itself, creating anti-bodies against needed organisms it perceives as outsiders and threats.

Read it all.

When I knelt before Bishop Porteus, I doubt that anyone in that congregation, myself included, could have imagined that:

1. There would be a woman Presiding Bishop (who will be in here Feb. 4-6, by the way),
2. There would be gay and lesbian bishops,
3. Any Episcopalian would ever dream of defecting to an African Anglican Church,
4. There would be such a movement as the “Emergent” Church,

Read it all.

A new year has brought new twists and turns to the Episcopal Church’s legal wars. The national church beat back the secession of a West Texas congregation from the Diocese of the Rio Grande, saw reasons for optimism and gloom from Presbyterian property cases in Georgia, Indiana and Missouri, found its lawyer in the Fort Worth cases accused of professional misconduct, and witnessed the amicable settlement of a church property split in New Jersey.

Read it all.

The Bishop of North Dakota has proposed putting the cathedra back in cathedral, asking his diocese to consider approving him as the next dean of Gethsemane Cathedral, Fargo.

In the Rt. Rev. Michael G. Smith’s proposal, which appeared on his weblog Jan. 14 and on the diocese’s weblog Jan. 17, the bishop would devote two-thirds of his time to being dean and rector of the cathedral and one-third to being bishop. He envisions a staff of a full-time administrator, a full-time secretary, a quarter-time minister for pastoral care at the cathedral, and a diocesan ministry team (three canon missioners and the bishop’s executive assistant).

“My hope is for the Diocese of North Dakota to become one church with 21 mission outposts and emerging fresh expressions throughout our area,” Smith told The Living Church. “The cathedral could become the center and headquarters for this mission enterprise. My sense is that the future will depend less on our financial resources and more on the creativity and commitment of our members as we become communities of disciples serving the Lord Jesus Christ in our several communities.

Read it all.

The Georgia Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to hear arguments in the ongoing property dispute pitting the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia against the breakaway Christ Church in Savannah.

The hearing will most likely take place April 4, 5 or 18, one of the only three days that month the court will hear oral arguments, according to Jane Hansen, court spokeswoman.

In August 2010, Christ Church in Savannah appealed to the state’s highest court after losing its argument in Chatham County Superior Court and the State Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court will examine whether the Court of Appeals was wrong in its application of “neutral principles of law” and interpretation of state codes when it ruled in favor of the Diocese of Georgia.

Read it all.

The Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, Bishop of Arizona, wrote Jan. 10 that Christians “can go behind the rhetoric of blame and name the root cause of acts of violence like these ”” fear. Whether the young man was rational or not, he certainly was influenced by the escalating violent language which seems to characterize our political discourse these days, when anyone who disagrees with you is labeled as an ”˜enemy’ or as ”˜evil.’”

Bishop Smith added: “We fear others when we are afraid. There has to be someone or some group to blame for our anxiety about our economy, our social breakdown, our drug culture and our institutional collapse. And so we find a scapegoat ”” our problems are all the fault of ”˜liberals’ or ”˜tea-party members’ or ”˜illegals.’”

The Rt. Rev. Dan Thomas Edwards, Bishop of Nevada, wrote that the weekend’s violence reflects wider societal problems.

Read it all.

Read it all taking special note of the resolutions (starting on page 37), especially R-2, R-8 and R-9.

Toward the end of the service, the Bishop led Prayers for the Closing of a Congregation. Part of that prayer was, “God of our beginnings and endings, we celebrate all we have shared as people of St. Peter’s Church and as people of this Diocese and we ask your blessing as we continue on our journey apart from this place.”

As many in the pews remembered their own celebrations at St. Peter’s, the Bishop prayed, “For the works of ministry that have taken place on the blessed ground and within these sacred walls; for the baptisms and professions of faith, for weddings and for burials; for prayers offered and bread and wine offered; for holy food partaken and for the life of this community of faith now closing, we offer prayer and praise to God.”

Read it all.

Unlike some rites for blessing same-sex couples, the rite from Massachusetts repeatedly invoked the language and theology of marriage, occasionally revising the language of the Book of Common Prayer (1979).

“We have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of these women in Holy Matrimony,” said the liturgy authorized and celebrated by Bishop Shaw. “Holy Scripture tells us that all love is from God, and the commitment of marriage signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and the Church.”

The rite also invoked marriage with a reading from the opinion by Margaret H. Marshall, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, in the case of Goodridge v. Department of Health.

Read it all.

From here:

The Rev. Peter Keese, president of the Standing Committee, announced today that the Rev. Joseph R. Parrish, Jr. has been nominated by petition to stand for election as bishop, joining four other nominees, in our diocesan election scheduled for February 12, 2011 at St. John’s Cathedral in Knoxville. Fr. Parish was nominated by three clergy and three lay persons from the diocese and has completed all the background checks that every nominee must undergo. The petition process closed December 3, and no more nominees will be added to the slate.

Some further information about this latest nominee may be found there.

The [Episcopal]…bishop of Massachusetts began 2011 by solemnizing the first lesbian marriage – of two senior Episcopalian clergy – at Boston’s St Paul’s Cathedral Saturday (January 1).

The marriage of Episcopal Divinity School, dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, was the first lesbian marriage solemnized by the Right Reverend M Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

At the marriage attended by close to 400 guests, Bishop Shaw commented: “God always rejoices when two people who love each other make a life long commitment in marriage to go deeper into the heart of God through each other. It’s a profound pleasure for me to celebrate with God and my friends, the marriage of Katherine and Mally.”

Read it all.

3. Episcopal turmoil

Slowly, deliberately, steadily, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina has been pulling away from the Episcopal Church for reasons theological, administrative and cultural.

Unhappy with what the diocese’s leadership calls the inclusive and liberal drift of the church, local officials have voted to disengage, aligning instead with conservative Anglicans in the U.S. and abroad.

But for a few parishes in the coastal region of the state, the diocese wasn’t doing enough.

In March, St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant voted to sever ties with the diocese and the Episcopal Church and join the Anglican Church in North America.

Read it all.

The rift has tested personal and professional relationships, spurred protracted court disputes over church property and prompted efforts to create a rival North American province.

“What you are seeing is a division between churches committed to the historical Christian witness and churches committed to the categories of contemporary cultural relevance,” said John Wright, professor of theology and Christian scriptures at Point Loma Nazarene University.

The fissure has played out painstakingly in San Diego County as one congregation after another has decided to break away and commit itself to bishops in Africa and Latin America.

Read it all.

The birth of a boy was an occasion of great joy in First Century Palestine. When the time of the birth drew near so did family and friends. So also did the village musicians. They were as predictable as a band or DJ at a wedding reception. The musicians gathered near the house and the moment the birth was announced they broke into song””that is, if it was a boy. But if the birth was a girl, the musicians just went quietly away without plucking a string””they must have looked like vanquished athletes leaving the field. But if it was a boy it was as if the whole village had just won the state championship. With that in mind look again at the manger.

No family or friends gathered near. No musicians adorned the baby’s first cries. Those at this birth looked like refugees from a flood. It resembled more the birth of a girl””this boy-child, whose life would change the course of history, changing the roles of women and slaves, workers and drunks. This birth””that would make sinners into saints and kings into servants””brought no earthly chords and melodies.

Yet God whose plan brought all this about would not allow the birth of his son to go unsung. Angels took the place of the local village musicians. The glory of God suffused the atmosphere with the ethereal radiance of heaven. The celestial brightness””like the lamps and torches of kinsmen and friends””shone in the darkness of our human condition and the darkness could not overcome it. And there in the place of the kinsmen and friends came shepherds””Bedouins, splendidly disheveled””rawboned, and glorious in their joy. Angels they had seen! Good news they had heard! Joy had filled them like a child’s first words fill the heart of his father.

If the shepherds had not arrived no visitors would have graced his birth. We, of course, will make up for this on Christmas Eve. But on that night he slept with the poor. However low we may sink, his crib and cross have been there before us, for swaddling cloth and grave clothes are the fabrics of our faith. No wonder the Angels took the place of the village choir. No wonder the Shepherds arrived so filled with Joy. The Birth of the Son of God happened only once in history. Yet its message and meaning is a yearly thing. Our worship and music on Christmas will join with the angelic choir, and with our presence we will become family and friends of Mary and Joseph””because the birth of this boy, like no other that ever was, has brought each of us eternal life. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given… of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Merry Christmas,

–(The Rt. Rev.) Mark Joseph Lawrence is Bishop of South Carolina

Responses from the Standing Committees

Consents: 58

Non-Consents: 13

Read it all.

I resolved to stay away from ECUSA’s litigation troubles during this season of the nativity, but I still have to report to my readers breaking news, if it is important. And this is important news: the federal district court in Fort Worth today issued a one-page order staying all further proceedings in the trademark infringement action brought by the rump diocese of Fort Worth and its “corporation” (which does not actually exist, for reasons I explain below). The stay will remain in effect until the court resolves the pending motions by the real diocese of Fort Worth and its real corporation to intervene in the case to protect their property rights in their name and corporate insignia.

With an apparently unlimited litigation budget in Texas, the Episcopal Church (USA) and its puppet diocese of Fort Worth have tried all manner of strategies to accomplish an end run around the courts of Texas and achieve a quick victory in their dispute with Bishop Jack L. Iker and his Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth….

Read it all.

The Rev. William Melnyk, former rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Downingtown, resigned from the church in late 2004 amid investigations that he and his wife, the Rev. Glyn Ruppe-Melnyk, wrote two druidic ceremonies as suggestions for women’s liturgies. The druids were a Celtic sect that predates Christianity.

At the conclusion of the investigation, Bishop Charles E. Bennison declined to suspend the two priests from the church.

Ruppe-Melnyk still serves as the rector of St. Francis-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Willistown.

Melnyk said recently that Bishop Bennision agreed to reinstate him if Melnyk could agree to not write or speak about Celtic spirituality. Melnyk said he could not agree to those terms and that it became evident earlier this year that his reinstatement was not going to happen.

Read it all.

I trust that this letter finds you well. You may remember me from Chicago where I am the rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Glenview. We had the privilege of hearing you preach at one point in your time as Dean of Seabury Western Theological Seminary.

I am writing in response to your diocese’s recent resolution to investigate the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Apparently you think that IRD is taking members out of the Episcopal Church. I’m still in TEC, so I must have missed the message. I have been a board member of the IRD since the mid 80s and was ordained a deacon by Bishop Paul Moore in June of 1974. So it is with a heavy heart that I write to defend my association with the IRD, especially given the fact that I started out in your diocese, though I never worked there as an ordained priest. I spent three years in the Diocese of Ohio doing youth ministry at St. Peter’s, Lakewood. Then I became rector of Church of the Good Shepherd for the next fifteen years, prior to becoming rector of St. David’s.

The IRD began in the early 1980s before I became associated with it. It was founded in part to stand up for the persecuted church. We were one of the few organizations which prayed for and stood up for the persecuted church in the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the underground Christian church thanked us for our prayers.

Read it all.

A landmark church in Northwest Gainesville might be torn down and replaced with a Walgreen’s.

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church was designed in the seventies by Nils M. Schweizer, a student of the famous architect Frank Loyd Wright.
And some members of the community are fighting to save what they consider a spiritual and architectural treasure.

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church is a mid-century modern building featuring a column-less design. It’s home to a congregation of about 100 people and the idea of it being torn down is very upsetting to some long time community and church members.

Susan Halbert has been a member of the church for 15 years. She said, “To tear down a beautiful church to put another drugstore was a real disappointment to me.”Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida made the announcement last month that a contingent contract had been signed with Walgreen’s to sell the property.Halbert said, “It would be futile to speculate on why he made this decision, but for me personally it’s a devestating thing.” Some church members are struggling with the idea of losing the building they consider they’re spiritual home.

Read it all.

Among some of the reasons for this failure to keep and recruit younger people, I would list the following:

1. The abandonment in the early 70’s of a National Curriculum for Church Schools.
2. The failure to have a unified teaching and age for confirmation, and the lack of emphasis by our bishops of the place on confirmation.
3. The moment toward ordination to an older and older age, along with making ordination almost exclusively a “second career” track for people.

These two reasons are closely related because it is younger leaders who have the best chance of reaching their own generation for Christ.

Read it all.

Read it all.

The season of Advent is a challenging time for Christian people. In the span of only four weeks, we are presented with several (huge) themes and messages: the Second Coming of Christ, God’s judgment, our own preparations for those events and the record of God’s direct intervention into human life through the miraculous conception of Jesus in the Blessed Virgin Mary. Furthermore, Advent also uniquely fuses our experience of past, present and future. This is the time when we look at what God has done in the past, what God is doing and saying to us today and what God promises about the future through a single lens, making all of that inseparable ”“ a single, living reality that directs our lives….

What does Advent offer? The famous biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann gets at it best: “A past without gifts, and a future without hope, gives us a present filled with anxiety.”

Read it all.

In addition to continuing his ministry to people who grew up without religion or who have had bad experiences with church, [Gene] Robinson said he plans to become more involved in public policy issues. Religious people on the political left, he said, need to speak more loudly ”” and provocatively ”” on behalf of the poor and vulnerable.

“Jesus was constantly upsetting people,’’ he said in an interview at the diocesan offices in Concord last week. “If we started proclaiming what Jesus did, which is our love for the marginalized and the outcast, and started demanding legislation and money that helped these people, there would be hell to pay. And that’s exactly the kind of Gospel trouble I think we should be in.’’

Robinson, whose election seven years ago created a rift in the Anglican Communion, surprised many when he announced last month that he would retire in early 2013, more than six years before he will reach the mandatory retirement age of 72. His mention of death threats among the many reasons he cited for leaving led to speculation that he felt chased out.

But Robinson said that is not true. Being the focal point of so much controversy has been stressful, he acknowledged, on top of a job that is fast-paced and demanding. But he said most Episcopal bishops retire in their mid-60s, and by 2013 he will have served as bishop for nine years. It seemed, he said, like a reasonable time to pursue other interests.

Read it all.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.