In the fallout [over the recent vote on Women Bishops], the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, in an interview with this newspaper, urged Justin Welby, the incoming archbishop, to push through reform regardless, and there were mutterings in the Shadow Cabinet of changing the law so the Church would no longer be immune to charges of sexual discrimination. Hitchiner, though, “shocked” and “sad” as she was, and critical as she is of the overrepresentation in General Synod of people “on the more conservative end of the spectrum”, and the disproportionate amount of airtime they were given “to go back to discussions that were being held 20 years ago about why they felt uncomfortable with the idea of women priests”, says that she is wary of tampering with the system: “I think we stuck to the system and nothing went wrong. That’s the most frustrating thing. I would be happier in the long run without changing the system, without making special arrangements.”

The appointment of women bishops is, she thinks, an “unstoppable train. It is bound to happen.” She feels torn, she says. “As a feminist I believe that women shouldn’t be held back from anything. Women have worked very hard, whether they’re religious or not, to make sure that is the case. But having said that, I also think that if the Church is dictated to by society or the State it ceases to be a church.”

Read it all(requires subscription).

The former rector of the nation’s largest Episcopal church has become a Roman Catholic.

The Rev. Larry Gipson was dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham from 1982-94. Gipson retired in 2008 from the 8,000-member St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, where his parishioners included former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara.

Last month, Gipson was accepted as a Catholic into the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a structure set up by Pope Benedict XVI to accept former Anglicans into the Catholic Church.

Read it all.

CEB: What do you consider to be your spiritual gifts?
JWF: Preaching, encouraging and mentoring, energy and enthusiasm, creativity in imagining new ways in the faith.

CEB: How are these particularly matched with your new position and its demands?
JWF: The mix of my spiritual gifts can be useful for my new position. A bishop, however, is not just a bundle of gifts and skills. A bishop is a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered to be an agent of love and forgiveness. Bishop Doyle spoke most effectively about this in his sermon at my consecration. I believe that God called me to be a bishop””filled with the Holy Spirit, warts and all””and the person that I am today will not be the same as the bishop I will be tomorrow. God has always given me the gifts to do the ministry I am called to do. I am trusting that the same will continue to be true.

Read it all

One occasionally receives emails promoting various books. Here is one from the inbox last night that caught my eye:

Is it possible to find values in all religions and in all people? 1 in 5 Americans – about 46 million people – are among the growing ranks of those who don’t identify with any religion. From the pulpit to the many corners of the world, Richard Leonard shares his liberal approach to religion and to life in his new book Ports of Call.
“This world is a vaster place than any of us can imagine, with tremendous variations of culture and human experience,” says Leonard. “Yet the human community is essentially one, physically, and tied into the interdependent but fragile web that sustains all life.”
Leonard has spent sixty years of ministry and is a minister of the All Souls Church of New York. In Ports of Call, Leonard shares with his audience stories, sermons and events from various experiences in his life. His ministry has included development of schools and camps, civil rights as well as music.
“My liberal approach to religion and to life, seeing values in all religions and in all people, will raise the hackles of those who believe there can only be one way of looking at things,” says Leonard.
This is an exquisite collection of sermons and other writings that not only instills wisdom into it’s readers, but also delivers an inside look to the life of a clergyman and how it is not much different than everyone else’s. Leonard hopes that his writings will convey knowledge, compassion and good humor to those that read this book.

Perhaps you wondered as I did about the parish in which the author seerved–check their website here and do not miss their self description–KSH.

When the Rev. Harold T. Lewis became rector of the mostly white and wealthy Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside in 1996, the city was reeling from racial turmoil, and Father Lewis, who is African-American, was expected to be a leader in addressing social injustice.
But circumstances have led him to retire as a renowned advocate for Episcopal canon law.
Five years before the 2008 schism in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, he filed a lawsuit to stop anyone from taking property out of the Episcopal Church.
“If you had asked me when I was ordained … if I would ever sue my bishop, I would have said you were crazy,” said Father Lewis, 65, who retired Sunday.

Read it all.

Listen to it all if you so desire.

Police Chief Harry Sewell said he always felt a desire to comfort victims of crime and tragedy, even before he announced his decision to retire from the police office and become a chaplain.

“It’s not a job; it’s a calling,” he said today. “It’s bringing light into dark places, not only to victims but to first responders. They see things that shouldn’t be seen.”

Sewell will join the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy at the end of the year. He confirmed his decision at a news conference at Waterfront Park….

Read it all.

We pass on to consider the present usefulness of the Prayer Book and the possibility of extending that usefulness in the future. And now I shall speak wholly as an American to Americans, not because the destinies of the Prayer Book in the new world are the more important, though such may in the end turn out to be the fact, but simply because we are at home here and know our own wants and wishes, our own liabilities and opportunities, far better than we can possibly know those of other people. As a Church we have always tied ourselves too slavishly to English precedent. Our vine is greatly in danger of continuing merely a potted ivy, an indoor exotic. The past of the Common Prayer we cannot disconnect from England, but its present and its future belong in part at least to us, and it is in this light that we are bound as American Churchmen to study them. Let us agree then that the usefulness of [15/16] the book here and now lies largely in the moulding and formative influence which it is quietly exerting, not only on the religion of those who use it, but also largely on the religion of the far greater number who publicly use it not. It has interested me, as it would interest almost any one, to learn how many prayer books our booksellers supply to Christian people who are not Churchmen. Evidently the book is in use as a private manual with thousands, who own no open allegiance to the Protestant Episcopal Church. They keep it on the devotional shelf midway between Thomas a Kempis and the Pilgrim’s Progress, finding it a sort of interpreter of the one to the other, and possessed of a certain flavor differencing it from both. This is a happy augury for the future. Much latent heat is generating which shall yet warm up the chillness of the land. The seedgrain of the Common Prayer will not lie unproductive in those forgotten furrows. The fitness of such a system of worship as this to counteract some of the flagrant evils of our popular religion, can scarcely fail to commend it to the minds of those who thus unobserved and “ as it were in secret,” read and ponder. Much of our American piety, fervid as it is, shows confessedly a feverish, intermittent character which needs just such a tonic as the Prayer Book provides in what Keble happily called its “sober standard of feeling in matters of practical religion.”

Then, too, there is the constantly increasing interest…which it is such a pleasure to observe among Christians of all names in the order of the ritual year, in Christmas and Easter, Lent and Good Friday””who can tell how much of this may not be due to the leavening influence of the Prayer Book, over and above what is effected by the public services of the Church? “I wonder,” said a famous revivalist to a friend, a clergyman of our Church, “I wonder if you Episcopalians know what a good thing you have in that year of yours. Why don’t you use it more?”

And true enough, why do we not?

Read it all.

Read it all.

There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the heart. We noticed, in our reading, that there had been a little tiff between two sisters in the church at Philippi;””I am glad that we do not know what the quarrel was about; I am usually thankful for ignorance on such subjects;””but, as a cure for disagreements, the apostle says, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” People who are very happy, especially those who are very happy in the Lord, are not apt either to give offence or to take offence. Their minds are so sweetly occupied with higher things, that they are not easily distracted by the little troubles which naturally arise among such imperfect creatures as we are. Joy in the Lord is the cure for all discord. Should it not be so? What is this joy but the concord of the soul, the accord of the heart, with the joy of heaven? Joy in the Lord, then, drives away the discords of earth.
Further, brethren, notice that the apostle, after he had said, “Rejoice in the Lord alway,” commanded the Philippians to be careful for nothing, thus implying that joy in the Lord is one of the best preparations for the trials of this life. The cure for care is joy in the Lord. No, my brother, you will not be able to keep on with your fretfulness; no, my sister, you will not be able to weary yourself any longer with your anxieties, if the Lord will but fill you with his joy. Then, being satisfied with your God, yea, more than satisfied, overflowing with delight in him, you will say to yourself, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” What is there on earth that is worth fretting for even for five minutes? If one could gain an imperial crown by a day of care, it would be too great an expense for a thing which would bring more care with it. Therefore, let us be thankful, let us be joyful in the Lord. I count it one of the wisest things that, by rejoicing in the Lord, we commence our heaven here below. It is possible so to do, it is profitable so to do, and we are commanded so to do.

Now I come to the text itself, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”

It will be our first business at this time to consider THE GRACE COMMANDED, this grace of joy; “Rejoice in the Lord,” says the apostle.In the first place, this is a very delightful thing. What a gracious God we serve, who makes delight to be a duty, and who commands us to rejoice! Should we not at once be obedient to such a command as this? It is intended that we should be happy. That is the meaning of the precept, that we should be cheerful; more than that, that we should be thankful; more than that, that we should rejoice. I think this word “rejoice” is almost a French word; it is not only joy, but it is joy over again, re-joice. You know re usually signifies the reduplication of a thing, the taking it over again. We are to joy, and then we are to re-joy. We are to chew the cud of delight; we are to roll the dainty morsel under our tongue till we get the very essence out of it. “Rejoice.” Joy is a delightful thing. You cannot be too happy, brother. Nay, do not suspect yourself of being wrong because you are full of delight. You know it is said of the divine wisdom, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Provided that it is joy in the Lord, you cannot have too much of it. The fly is drowned in the honey, or the sweet syrup into which he plunges himself; but this heavenly syrup of delight will not drown your soul, or intoxicate your heart. It will do you good, and not evil, all the days of your life. God never commanded us to do a thing that would really harm us; and when he bids us rejoice, we may be sure that this is a delightful as it is safe, and as safe as it is delightful. Come, brothers and sisters, I am inviting you now to no distasteful duty when, in the name of my Master, I say to you, as Paul said to the Philippians under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”

–C.H. Spurgeon (1834 ”“ 1892)

The Rev. David Thurlow of St. Matthias Church in Summerton said Friday he supports and endorses Lawrence’s pastoral letter to the Diocese of South Carolina….

He said the main and underlying issue in the whole matter stems from decisions made by majority of the dioceses in the country choosing to reject the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ. Thurlow added despite the changing circumstances nothing has changed with regards to the diocese’s identity.

“We are, always have been and shall remain the Diocese of South Carolina,” Thurlow said. “We existed and operated as the Diocese of the South Carolina prior to existence of the national church, which we together with a handful of other dioceses established. Whereas a majority of Episcopalians in this country are choosing to vote for these innovations, the Diocese of South Carolina together with the overwhelming majority of the rest of our denomination throughout the world cannot embrace. They not only represent a marked departure from the faith of the Christ, but chiefly because they stand in direct conflict with scriptures and biblical witness we are called to follow and obey.”

Read it all.

Dear Parish Family,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In these extraordinary days in the life of the Church, I continue to bid you to avail yourselves of helpful information from reliable sources. In today’s Post and Courier there is a Pastoral Letter to the Diocese from Bishop Lawrence. Recognizing that all of our diocesan households do not read the paper, the Bishop has asked that each congregation forward this Letter to our electronic mailing list. I am glad to do so.

Rectors of the Diocese were invited to add their names to the letter if they chose, and many did. Some could not be reached in time for publication, others declined. I was one who declined, and I want you to know why.

I have tried to make at least two things clear here at Christ Church.
First and foremost, my own deep convictions on a broad range of issues that I believe concern the very nature of God, Jesus Christ, humanity, and the Sacraments and theology and life of the Church. In short, I believe the Gospel as we have received it is at stake in all of these matters. For this, I am willing to stand, come what may. I believe that places me clearly and unequivocally with Bishop Lawrence, other diocesan leadership, and the majority of the diocese and of this parish church.

Second, my own heart’s ‘strange peace,’ as it were: I find in myself no desire to fight anyone, and so have worked hard to practice and encourage within the parish as non-partisan a tone as possible.

And so, my friends, we’re doing this – the Resolution of the Rector and Vestry presented at last Sunday’s parish meeting makes that clear; and here’s how we’re doing this – everyone go stand where they believe they are called, and there seek and serve Christ. In that, there is no call for fighting.

The Bishop, whom I love and pray for regularly, by virtue of his office, bears the brunt of others’ actions in a way that the rest of us do not. And so the burden uniquely falls to him to decide what corporate, public stands – and in what forums and in what words – the Diocese must take. It is his determination that others’ actions required a public answer by way of a letter in the newspaper. He is probably right in that choice! But it was just enough different from what I would have done, that just this once, on just this one matter of strategy, I declined to add my name. That’s all – no more, no less.

At this Saturday’s Special Diocesan Convention, my name will be on a Resolution that, in a fashion similar to our Vestry’s Resolution, makes clear the reality of our disaffiliation from TEC, and my continuing support of the Bishop, the Diocese of SC, and our call to follow the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as we have received them, and to share that with others.

I am always available to you for discussion and prayer, no matter where you are in your journey. May God bless you.

Faithfully,

(The Rev.) Ted Duvall is rector, Christ Church, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

What will be the role of the United States on the global stage in 2062?
India and China will be thriving super nations and leading the world in arts and sciences. People in the United States are already being operated on by Chinese and Indian surgeons. Another nation that is emerging as a surprising international power is Canada. That nation is now exploring its vast natural resources in the north and is in the midst of a renaissance. Some of the best novelists, musicians, poets, artists, now live in Canada. It already has been awarded “best cheese in the world” (“Cinderella cheese”) and the number one place to do business. The role and place of the United States is uncertain. Our future in 2062 may be similar to the position of France and England in 2012 if we continue on the present trajectory…..

Daniel Pink has observed that the well curve has replaced the bell curve….The middle class is declining and the United Methodist Church is a church of the middle. All middles are in trouble. The challenge for the church is to tribalize (particularize) in order to globalize (universalize). We need to “make my parish my world” before we can follow John Wesley in saying, “The world is my parish.” We need churches to love their zip codes and their heritage””I don’t mean love their bishop and polity. I mean churches must know and love people in their community and their “campfire” heritage.

Read it all.

With a large gathering of members and friends of the Anglican Church of St. George the Martyr, the Rev. Paul A. Rivard was installed this past weekend as the church’s new Rector, the church announced.

The Most Rev. Walter H. Grundorf, Presiding Bishop, Anglican Province of America, presided. The Rev. William Martin, of Mills River, NC, and the Rev. Peter Geromel (Diocese of the Holy Cross), in Landrum, SC, assisted during the service. Other APA clergy as well as friends and family of Rivard were also in attendance.

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The gray clapboard church with the red door had stood near the New Jersey coastline for more than 125 years, surviving floods and fires, hurricanes and northeasters. So when its senior warden left the church on the Sunday before Hurricane Sandy hit, he tucked the church records into a drawer for safekeeping and kept everything else in place.

That moment keeps replaying in his mind, said the warden, Dennis Bellars, because this time, luck ran out for St. Elisabeth’s Chapel-by-the-Sea, a tiny Episcopal chapel in storm-ravaged Ortley Beach, N.J. The church is marked now by nothing but a field of sand and broken pavement. The pews, the brass candlesticks; the 1885 stained glass windows, the needlepoint kneelers sewn by a parishioner; the wooden baptismal font ”” the sea or the sand took all of them.

Mr. Bellars, 70, said he had evacuated to the mainland that afternoon with the family Bible, a change of clothes, his dog and some dog food. Devastated, he found the destruction hard to talk about….

Read it all.

There’s a common military expression: “Somewhere out there is a bullet with your name on it.” Both soldiers in the line of fire and those farther from the front lines need spiritual counsel from people who understand the high-risk, high-stress environment of military life. The people who provide pastoral care and support for those who put their lives on the line for their country””and their families””are military chaplains.

Several dozen Candler alums serve as military chaplains, among them Chaplain Matthew T. Stevens 94T, who serves in the U.S. Navy. He says that chaplains must maintain “an active, visible, constant presence with the people they serve.”

“Even when things are at their worst, a chaplain being there represents God’s presence,” says Stevens. “It reminds people that God will never leave them or forsake them, that God will always be there with them. Chaplains are a visible representation of that.”

Read it all and join me today in prayer for military chaplains worldwide–KSH.

The agency of Satan in the affairs of man cannot be doubted by any one who really believes the representations given us in this inspired volume. His great employment from the very first has been to seduce men to sin.

—-Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae MCCLXXVI

England, of course, is the nation that once gave us preachers the likes of Charles Simeon, Charles Spurgeon, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Now, with the rare and blessed exception of some faithful evangelical churches, preaching has fallen on desperate times.

Some observers of British life now estimate that in any given week Muslim attendance at mosques outnumbers Christian attendance at churches. That means that there are probably now in Britain more people who listen to imams than to preachers.

This raises an interesting question: Is the marginalization of biblical preaching in so many churches a cause or a result of the nation’s retreat from Christianity? In truth, it must be both cause and effect. In any event, there is no hope for a recovery of biblical Christianity without a preceding recovery of biblical preaching. That means preaching that is expository, textual, evangelistic, and doctrinal. In other words, preaching that will take a lot longer than ten minutes and will not masquerade as a form of entertainment.

Read it all.

He grew downward in humiliation before God, and he grew upward in his adoration of Christ.

Handley Moule captures the essence of Simeon’s secret of longevity in this sentence: “‘Before honor is humility,’ and he had been ‘growing downwards’ year by year under the stern discipline of difficulty met in the right way, the way of close and adoring communion with God” (Moule, 64). Those two things were the heartbeat of Simeon’s inner life: growing downward in humility and growing upward in adoring communion with God.

But the remarkable thing about humiliation and adoration in the heart of Charles Simeon is that they were inseparable. Simeon was utterly unlike most of us today who think that we should get rid once and for all of feelings of vileness and unworthiness as soon as we can. For him, adoration only grew in the freshly plowed soil of humiliation for sin. So he actually labored to know his true sinfulness and his remaining corruption as a Christian.

I have continually had such a sense of my sinfulness as would sink me into utter despair, if I had not an assured view of the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save me to the uttermost. And at the same time I had such a sense of my acceptance through Christ as would overset my little bark, if I had not ballast at the bottom sufficient to sink a vessel of no ordinary size. (Moule 134f.)

He never lost sight of the need for the heavy ballast of his own humiliation. After he had been a Christian forty years he wrote,

With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that the circumstance of God’s having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me (Ezekiel 16:63). . . . There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they should be viewed together; just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the scapegoat. The disease did not keep him from applying to the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the disease. By this I seek to be, not only humbled and thankful, but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and Saviour continually. (Carus, 518f.)

Please do read it all.

In closing, permit me to highlight three areas of Simeon’s ministry which have greatly challenged me in my reflections and which, if we were to follow them, would have the potential to rejuvenate our ministry.

1 Giving priority to an effective devotional lifestyle, with a commitment to spending ”˜quality’ time in Bible study and prayer.

2 A commitment to living a holy life, recognizing the need of the renewing and cleansing power of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.

3 That, along with Simeon, our understanding of the purpose of our preaching would be: ”˜Sir, we would see Jesus’ (John 12:21).

Read it all.

O loving God, who orderest all things by thine unerring wisdom and unbounded love: Grant us in all things to see thy hand; that, following the example and teaching of thy servant Charles Simeon, we may walk with Christ in all simplicity, and serve thee with a quiet and contented mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

…I can’t resist saying just this. I hope you will take with you the memory of our northern saints as you learn what it means to inhabit this office. In Durham, you are the direct successor of Aidan, founder of our diocese, and of Cuthbert in whose shrine in the Cathedral you have often prayed. In a blog earlier this year I compared Rowan Williams with Cuthbert as ”˜off-beat’ bishops. I wanted to say that a Christian leader needs to be a bit elusive, not always saying or doing the expected thing, not afraid of being surprising and keeping people guessing.

Already the public wants to pigeon-hole you: evangelical rather than catholic, pro this and against that. You are bigger than that, as anyone who knows you will confirm. You know that it needs great self-awareness to resist these easy either-ors. It also takes resilience and courage to be your own man in leadership. It depends on keeping the spiritual garden watered by long and regular spells of solitariness, meditation and prayer. I know how important this is to you, to go to the heart of faith and keep it alive and fresh. I hope the pressures of high office drive you more and more in the contemplative direction which is the source of wisdom. I believe they will because your personal authenticity is so important to you. And I believe that you will surprise, inspire and delight us too.

When Donald Coggan was installed as archbishop, his secretary mis-typed ”˜enthronement as ”˜enthornment’….

Read it all.

Read it all.

Being a pastor is bad for your health. Pastors have little time for exercise. They often eat meals in the car or at potluck dinners not known for their fresh green salads. The demands on their time are unpredictable and never ending, and their days involve an enormous amount of emotional investment and energy. Family time is intruded upon. When a pastor announces a vacation, the congregation frowns. Pastors tend to move too frequently to maintain relationships with doctors who might hold them accountable for their health. The profession discourages them from making close friends. All of this translates, studies show, into clergy having higher than normal rates of obesity, arthritis, depression, heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes and stress.

But research also says that pastors’ lives are rich in spiritual vitality and meaning. Pastors say that they have a profound calling and are willing to sacrifice to fulfill it.

Is there a way for pastors to be both physically and spiritually healthy? What would enable clergy to become physically healthier? What effect does physical health have on spiritual well-being, if any? The Clergy Health Initiative is trying to find out the answers to these questions. Funded by the Duke Endowment, the CHI is the largest and most comprehensive effort ever made to study clergy health and to improve it.

Read it all.

Men and women in ministry who are not finding satisfaction in Christ are likely to demonstrate that with overexertion and overpreparation for speaking and with no peace about what they do after they do it. If we have not come to the place of resting in God, we will go back and think, Oh, if I’d done this,or Oh, I didn’t do that. When you come to the place where you are drinking deeply from God and trusting him to act with you, there is peace about what you have communicated.

One of my great joys came when I got up from a chair to walk to the podium and the Lord said to me, “Now remember, it’s what I do with the Word between your lips and their hearts that matters.” That is a tremendous lesson. If you do not trust God to do that, then he will let you do what you’re going to do, and it’s not going to come to much. But once you turn it loose and recognize we are always inadequate but our inadequacy is not the issue, you are able to lay that burden down. Then the satisfaction you have in Christ spills over into everything you do.

The preacher who does not minister in that satisfaction is on dangerous ground….

Read it all.

Listen to it all if you so desire.

One of the early Christian Fathers of the Church, Clement of Alexandria, says at one point that human love is always tending to slip back into the love of what is common among people.

But there’s nothing, he goes on to say, there’s nothing in common between God and the world.

So God’s love for the world is extraordinary. Without cause, absolutely free, absolutely, overwhelmingly unreasonable.

And that’s the kind of the love we are invited to become part of.

Read it all.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams gave the sermon at today’s beautiful opening eucharist for the ACC-15 meeting at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Speaking on the Gospel reading, John 15:17-27, he said we all needed to remember that while the world around us is a place where love is conditional, Jesus punctures that view of love.” He said that the challenge for the Church is rethinking love & belonging. “We are to create more belonging with those who don’t belong…” he said. “The church is whatever in us says ‘yes’ to the reckless love of God, that reaches out in mission.”

Check it out.

At 4.06pm, less than 30 minutes before Synod rose for the year, the first count of this year’s meeting was held on a proposed amendment during a debate on church planting (the establishment of new congregations across Melbourne and Geelong). This time, the amendment was carried.

Synod called on the Diocesan Council to review how the living requirements of clergy in the Melbourne Diocese were met, including the setting of stipends, recompense for travel costs, housing, superannuation, benefits, stipend continuance insurance and retrenchment.

A senior clergyman, the Revd Dr David Powys of St John’s Cranbourne, said in his mover’s speech that the fundamental way in which clergy remuneration and provisions were conceived had not changed very much in 30 years but “very many other things” about ordained ministry had changed very substantially. These included the dwindling proportion of clergy who were vicars, a reduction in ministry households where the stipend was the main source of income, the decline in clergy living in vicarages and church-owned accommodation, the increasing number of clergy in part-time appointments and the fact that women now made up a significant proportion of clergy ranks.

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For as long as she can remember, Rev. C. Denise Yarbrough knew she was called to work for the holy ministries.

Born in New Jersey, she grew up in the Episcopal tradition and majored in religious studies at Barnard College. At the time, women were just starting to work as ordained ministers, but Yarbrough was discouraged by her religious mentors from entering the profession. “The priest told me to go out into the world and do something else, and then return one day,” she recalls. “I think he thought I never would, but I did!”

Twelve years after graduating Barnard and working as a lawyer, Yarbrough was ready to return to her called profession. Today, she serves as an Episcopal priest for the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester and is the recently appointed Director of Religious and Spiritual Life at the University of Rochester.

Read it all.