From here:

Dallas Episcopal Bishop James Stanton today announced new policies regarding clergy conduct and accountability. The stronger guidelines include specific restrictions on the clergy from engaging in financial and business dealings with members of their congregations. The new policies and guidelines are effective immediately.

Under these guidelines, the clergy will be barred from soliciting, providing or selling secular products or services to parishioners. This includes the sale of stocks, financial services or other investments. Diocesan officials will review existing business relationships involving clergy and determine appropriate resolution on a case by case basis.

“We have good and faithful clergy in our diocese who care deeply for their people, and we want our clergy to focus on the spiritual and pastoral needs of their congregations,” said Bishop Stanton. “This new policy is designed to eliminate any conflicts of interest, and we hope these changes will raise the level of confidence in our clergy and that of the people under their care,” Stanton added.

The new policy amplifies the long-standing policy of the Diocese, as stated in the Customary (or policy manual) of the Diocese, that reads: “The relationship of members of the clergy with fellow clergy and with members of the laity must be of the highest moral and professional character.”

In addition to the new guidelines, all clergy of the Diocese of Dallas are required to undergo training every five years in “Safeguarding God’s People”, a program that focuses on issues regarding relationships between clergy and those under their care. Failure to comply will result in suspension of all spiritual duties until retraining is completed.

Diocesan officials will continue to evaluate clergy conduct guidelines and make additional changes when necessary.

Not many people get to travel the world. And an even fewer percentage go to countries that are conflict zones. The Rev. Cindy Howard recently took a trip to Israel and Palestine and came across an interesting fact – every Israelite and Palestinian she met wanted the same thing ”“ peace.

“There are people in every culture that make up the radical few who only want to fight,” she said. “But the vast majority of people I met wanted peace between the two countries. It didn’t matter what side of the Gaza strip they were on. They all wanted the same thing, peace for their families.”

Howard, an Episcopal priest and rector at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Lee’s Summit, was part of an Interfaith Delegation from Kansas City that traveled to Tel Aviv last month.

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They always saw themselves as a neighborhood parish, committed to the idea that with their brand of spirituality they could make a difference to those around them.

But when Bishop Geralyn Wolf chose the Church of the Epiphany as the site of her first parish visit after being installed as Rhode Island’s Episcopal bishop 13 years ago, there was already a growing sense that the parish was in trouble.

With roots going back to its start as a mission church in 1868, members believed their West End parish could show the world that a church needn’t be affluent to immerse itself in the old Anglo-Catholic traditions. Its members might be working class, but their services could still resonate with the sounds of chanting and incense-filled “high church” liturgies with all the trappings.
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By the 1990s, it was becoming clear that something was not working….

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Take a look–what interests me is the red line at the bottom.

[Liam] Collins is a native of Ireland. He was ordained as priest June 12, 1971, at St. Patrick’s College in County Tipperary. He earned both bachelor of philosophy and master of divinity degrees from St. Patrick’s College, and a master of family studies degree from Mercer University in Macon.

He has served churches in metropolitan and rural locations in South Georgia for 38 years. Most recently, his notable work has included initiating an outreach ministry to students and faculty at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

“The primary focus of my ministry has always been seeking to awaken all to the bonds of love and respect that unite us, as God’s people,” Collins said. “The church, in structure and service, is called to act when the most vulnerable and needy among us reach out for hope and healing. We are God’s very heart, hands and feet in this wounded, broken world.”

Collins has been married to his wife, Mary, for 15 years.

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Jan Hilton starts most days sitting in a living room chair, facing an iconic image of Jesus created 1,400 years ago in a Middle Eastern monastery.

Before she prays and meditates there for 20 minutes, she looks into the eyes of the picture.

“It creates the right frame of mind,” she said. “It’s just remembering that in awareness of the quiet is the divine.”

A spiritual director at an Episcopal church in Corpus Christi, Hilton said that same feeling of connection to God is one that has been enriched by her interest in mysticism. She has enrolled in a class about modern mystics that will begin next month in San Antonio.

Called “Christian Mysticism: History, Wisdom and Insights,” the course will include scholars talking about mystics from various Christian faith traditions, organizers said. In addition to talks about mystics, time is set aside in class for participants to practice prayer and meditation.

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St. John’s, founded in 1843, is a church bristling with new life. Earlier this year, the 150-member parish in Rosebank installed a new rector, the Rev. Roy Cole, after many years of working with a long-term supply priest and a dedicated vestry and wardens. The congregation is proud of its determination, its prayerful willingness to grow, and its diversity.

The parish has the vibrancy of a mosaic, with parishioners who trace their roots to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Central America. It is a place where bright pieces of culture, language, dress, customs and history wash up against each other and meld into one distinctive whole.

Father Cole made a point of honoring that diversity at his institution in February. He insisted that the event should not be catered but that parishioners should bring dishes that represented their ethnic background.

“I wanted the people to be authentically included with offerings of their culture and one of the best ways to do that is through food,” Father Cole said.

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The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, located AT 542 Potters Avenue, began as a mission parish in 1868. The mission church had once claimed 700 parishioners but has seen its membership decline in recent decades.

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After a farewell service on Sunday, St. George’s Episcopal Church will close its doors just short of its 100th anniversary ”” the latest parish to disintegrate in part because of the ordination of gay and lesbian priests.

The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado will officially deconsecrate the Englewood church, more recently called Holy Apostles, after its short-lived merger with another struggling congregation failed to save it.

“St. George’s has been a church in turmoil for decades,” said Rosamond Long, a 35-year member of the church. “We managed to get it back on its feet every time. This time, we’re not going to be able to do it.”

The remaining 30 or so congregants will scatter among other churches.

Even though these traditional, loyal and older Episcopalians did not object to the church’s growing acceptance of openly gay clergy, they say, their former priest did.

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On weekdays he worked as a stockbroker.

On Sundays he served as an Episcopal priest.

But the lines got blurred, and now both of the Rev. William Warnky’s careers are in jeopardy.

Securities regulators suspended the Dallas man’s registration as a broker last week. They said he had defrauded a former client and disregarded an order to repay him $50,000.

At least one other former client has accused Warnky of financial misconduct and is also seeking a repayment order, according to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records.

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On 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30 at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Mayor E. Denise Simmons shall be marrying her longtime partner, Ms. Mattie B. Hayes, in a celebration of love, acceptance, and togetherness. The couple shares a passionate interest in advocacy and support work for children and families, and their wedding ceremony shall touch upon those themes. This is certainly a joyous milestone for the Cambridge Mayor and her family, which is to be expected of a loving union; however, this same-sex marriage is also important on a broader scale, as it seems indicative of a more accepting, more tolerant society.

The wedding will take place at the historic St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, which has predominantly been serving Cambridge’s African-American community for over 100 years, and is presided over by the Rev. Leslie K. Sterling. The wedding ceremony shall be conducted by Rev. Irene Monroe, who has cultivated a reputation as a progressive and nurturing spiritual leader, and who has conducted extensive outreach efforts to the GLBT community. The Reverend writes religion columns for In Newsweekly (the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender newspaper in New England), for The Advocate, and for The Witness, a progressive Episcopalian journal. Mayor Simmons is honored to have this progressive spiritual leader preside over her wedding, and to have the ceremony take place in such a historic and inclusive house of worship.

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

Hundreds of members of Christ Episcopal Church, one of the largest and most influential Episcopal churches in South Texas, filled their parish hall Tuesday evening to meet with their bishop, Gary Lillibridge, and ask him this: Is there room in the Episcopal Church USA for their long-standing, conservative beliefs?

At the Episcopal Church’s annual meeting last month, its leaders voted to open the door to ordaining gay clergy in committed relationships and blessing same-sex unions.

The decision has sparked much discussion among the 90 parishes in the Diocese of West Texas, a district with about 30,000 members that spans much of South and Central Texas. Lillibridge voted against the new policies at last month’s convention, saying restraint at this unstable time is best for dealing with this controversial matter.

“At this point, it’s going to take all of us working together with God’s wisdom as a very diverse diocese to come up with a response,” he said after the meeting at Christ Church, the largest donor to the West Texas Diocese and its largest church with up to 800 people at weekly services.

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One of the many contentions of this blog over the years is that The Episcopal Church is in significant trouble as an institution. While I believe this is primarily because of theological factors, no monocausal explanation is sufficient to describe what is occurring. What remains disturbing, however, is the degree of denial by the National Episcopal leadership about the scale of this problem.

I think a lot of TEC statistics overstate the strength of TEC on the ground. For example, people in parish ministry know well that the real membership of a parish is roughly twice the Average Sunday Attendance.

So you know something is fishy when TEC claims some 2.2 million members, and average Sunday attendance is now under 800,000 (768,476 according to the national church office).

One goldmine for this data is the research and statistics page kept by Kirk Hadaway’s office at the national church.

As an example of the scale of the problem this morning, consider one diocese, Lexington. If you look at baptized membership, Lexington shrank from 8949 in 1997 to 8002 in 2007. That is a decline of 10.6%. Now, however, consider the more meaningful number, Average Sunday Attendance. In this category, Lexington fell from 3905 to 2973 in the period from 1997-2007. That is a decline of 24%.

It is part of a significant national trend, and it is a major issue–KSH.

The longtime rector and chaplain at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Coral Gables resigned in June, saying only that “it was time.”

The Rev. Eric Kahl, spiritual leader at St. Philip’s for nearly 17 years, sent a letter to parishioners explaining that he would stay in the area to be near his three children.

Kahl, who wrote frankly about a difficult year because of his impending divorce from his wife, Carolyn, took July off and said he would go on a six-month sabbatical to learn what God’s next plan for him was. He said he wouldn’t lead another church or take another call but was putting his faith in the Lord.

“I am at peace with this decision, and it is my hope that all members of the family which calls itself St. Philip’s will join me in the peace of Jesus,” wrote Kahl, who delivered his last sermon June 28. He could not be reached for comment.

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Update: You can go here and check the statistics on this parish (diocese of Southeast Florida)

About 10 years ago, Ricardo Reznichek headed south on a mission for his Hermosa Beach church: The goal was to find a village in Latin America that needed financial help.

A priest driving a beat-up old car picked him up at a hotel in Belize, and the two men drove for miles toward the rural fields of the impoverished country. The Rev. Irineo Martir Vasquez, known as Father Martir, introduced his American companion to a group of farmers who gathered for Sunday services outside in the fields.

They had no money for a church building but, with Vasquez’s help, they had a church.

“He would drive out all this way to minister to these people,” Reznichek said. “I saw in him then just an extraordinary person who had that ability to help people and make things happen. He is a person who really wants to make progress in the world.”

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From here, a motion passed August 3rd:

Whereas The Episcopal Church in its most recent General Convention has once again exhibited a disregard for Holy Scripture and failed to submit to the Anglican Communion, we the Vestry of Christ St. Paul’s Parish, Yonges Island, SC, hereby request that the Diocese of South Carolina be placed under a spiritual authority which holds to the clear teaching of the Holy Scripture and the Bonds of Affection within the Anglican Communion which will give our Diocese a place to thrive.

[The Rev. Terri] Pilarski, who has been pastor at St. Francis-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church for about 18 months, said her Green Valley congregation has weathered changes before and is ahead of the denomination on many social justice issues.

“I’m sure there are a few people who are upset,” she said, “but nobody’s banging on my door.”

Pilarski said the congregation, which ranges from 225 to 500 members depending on time of year, has a long history of life experience that has shaped them.

“While they can fall all along the spectrum of people who embrace the more progressive perspective and others who embrace the more traditional perspective, they are, nonetheless, people with a lot of experience,” she said. “They have family, children and grandchildren who may be gays and lesbians and they really have a compassionate response.”

Pilarski said the Bible does not condemn homosexuality, but she said society as a whole still ostracizes gay men and women.

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It’s been about three months now since we heard of Alberto Cutie, the former Roman Catholic priest who was caught kissing his girlfriend on a Miami beach. No sooner was he removed from his post than he left the Catholic Church altogether for the local Episcopal diocese, which welcomed him with much fanfare and sent him to pastor a local church.
Alberto-Cutie-2.jpg

As I looked at photos of Cutie, I realized there was something very familiar about the background: I used to attend that church.

That was when I was a reporter for the Hollywood Sun-Tattler, a daily of about 35,000 circulation when I moved there in 1983 as a general assignment reporter. Hollywood is a few suburbs to the north of Biscayne Park, where sits the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, Father Cutie’s digs.

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[The] Rev. Jeffrey H. Walker, a tall man with dark-rimmed round glasses, walked in singing. He led the congregation through prayers that reminded me those similar to Catholic masses like the Nicene Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. But The Book of Common Prayer was a new addition to my understanding of prayer in church.

Rev. Walker is a good storyteller, but he is also genuinely funny. He began his sermon with the words of an old friend. “I don’t go to church, but if I did, I’d go to yours,” he started. “If I counted all the times someone said that to me, I’d be the rector of the largest congregation in the Episcopal Church.”

This began a story about people who walk away from religion. Some have cited the inclusion of gay clergy more recently; others have declared the appointment of V. Gene Robinson in 2003, the first openly gay bishop, as the “end of civilization.” (They are the same people, no doubt, who dislike the recent nomination of gay priests for promotion.)

Considering all of the challenges and changes facing the church in recent months – both when the General Convention affirmed gay clergy and same-sex unions and the Anglican Communion’s reacted to those affirmations – it was compelling to hear Rev. Walker talk about the reasons people stray from organized religion.

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When members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 335 Locust St., voted 2-1 in January to remain in the Episcopal Church of the United States, the Rev. Doug Blakelock, church pastor, and about 40 members separated from St. Mark’s.

“One third of the congregation did not want to stay in the Episcopal Church,” Blakelock said in the Oakland United Methodist Church sanctuary.

“Deacon Marion Kush and I led them out, and the very next Sunday we met here.”

The Methodist congregation graciously opened the doors for their neighbors to hold a Eucharist healing service on Jan. 18, Blakelock explained.

The breakaway Episcopalians founded St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. They have been worshiping Sunday afternoons in the Oakland church at 1504 Bedford St. ever since.

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In December 2006, members of the original congregation split from St. John’s Episcopal Church as part of a larger national break by conservative congregations over same-sex blessings, ordination of a gay bishop and the authority of Scripture. The breakaway St. John’s Anglican Church continued meeting in the church, an 1890 shingled sanctuary and rectory.

The remaining Episcopal members re-formed under the Rev. Norman Cram, who came out of retirement to conduct services ”” first in a parishioner’s living room and later at Elim Lutheran Church.

A settlement recently was reached with St. John’s Anglican congregation after a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling involving churches in a similar situation in Southern California.

“To be back home means we can reach outside of our border to the community of Petaluma,” said Cram. “Currently, we have been exploring areas in which there are vacuums in ministry.”

“I think the congregation is counting on us to provide an atmosphere of love and acceptance, as well as a message of hope during these tough times,” he added. “There have been rapid changes in our culture, and we think we can provide a safe place for all people wishing to worship.”

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At St. James Episcopal Church in Bowie, children are free to roam during services, and they often amble up to the altar and hold the priest’s hand.

At St. George’s Episcopal, three miles down Lanham Severn Road in Glenn Dale, the congregation is an eclectic, quirky collective of straight and gay men and women of various races.

Neither Episcopal parish in northern Prince George’s County wants to sacrifice the factors that make it special. But against the backdrop of the recession, which has tightened parishioners’ pockets and diminished the value of the church’s national endowments, banding together has emerged as the only viable option for the survival of St. James, the smaller of the two churches with just 38 parishioners.

When that became clear to the Rev. Anne-Marie Jeffery, St. James’s rector (the Episcopal equivalent of a pastor), she reached out to St. George’s. Since April, the two parishes have been exploring a merger by having integrated services mostly at St. George’s, which is more modern and has a following of about 70.

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Given those realities (again, from TEC’s own reports and stats), the loss of just a person or two can have a major impact:

* + The loss of one major financial donor, by death or departure, can cripple the budget of a small church. It can be the difference between full- or part-time clergy, paid or volunteer secretary or music leader, hiring staff or keeping a building up to code for use.
* + The loss of one major “doer” in a small or aged congregation means that some ministry will not be done, or not done well. No usher greets the visitors. Nobody makes coffee for fellowship time. Nobody has a strong enough voice to lead the hymns and they are mumbled. Nobody tries to do programs for the few kids or teens who might be left.

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Because of political turmoil in Honduras following the arrest of President Manuel Zelaya, members of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Killeen have canceled their annual medical mission trip to the Central American country.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, issued a statement last week requesting that people avoid all nonessential travel to the region.

On June 28, soldiers ousted the democratically elected Zelaya before an unpopular constitution referendum went to a vote. The referendum could have allowed the president to run for a second term, which is forbidden by the Honduran constitution. Zelaya, forced into exile in Costa Rica, vowed to stay in power.

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Things went smoothly for the first hour of the Twitter experiment at Trinity Church in Manhattan on Good Friday in April.

While hundreds of worshipers watched the traditional dramatization of the Crucifixion from pews in the church, one of New York’s oldest, thousands more around the world followed along on smartphones and computers as a staff member tweeted short bursts of dialogue and setting (“Darkness and earthquake,” “Crucify him!”).

The trouble began in the second hour….

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Could it be a sign from God?

An Episcopal church in Cobb County wants to install an electronic sign to replace an old-style sign that a car destroyed two years ago. It has had to keep the high-tech shift on hold, though, because county rules prohibit electronic signs in residential areas.

Now, a ray of light may shine down on the church after all. Cobb County commissioners are considering a change to the county code that would allow electronic signs for some churches, private schools and others in residential areas.

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Take the time to read it all, noting carefully the warning about the affadavit. My response to this was real sadness, and prayers for the parish and the mess the leadership is now ensconced in.

Also, Terry Mattingly has some pertinent questions to ask about this story here and a diocese of North Carolina statement is there.

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

Although the decision has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Anglican leaders in Petaluma decided to settle rather than engage in a costly legal battle, said their lawyer, the Rev. Lu T. Nguyen.

“My clients felt as though it just wasn’t worth the long-term fight,” Nguyen said. “This is a church. It’s purpose is not material gain but spiritual matters.”

Petaluma Episcopalians appeared happy Wednesday to have a place of their own.

After a majority of the congregation voted to split from the Episcopal Church in December 2006, the remaining Episcopal members re-formed under the Rev. Norman Cram, and held services first in a parishioner’s living room and later at Elim Lutheran Church.

The congregation now has about 50 members.

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Eight members of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies are scheduled meet privately with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at General Convention in a session that is intended in part to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the church.

General Convention meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California, and Williams will be present July 7-9.

The session is not an official convention meeting and thus there has been no announcement of the plans. However, when contacted by Episcopal News Service, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of the Diocese of California confirmed the details.

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