Now let’s be serious. When 815-level lawyers threaten and cajole diocesan bishops not to reveal multiple sex-abuse cover-ups at the highest level lest former leaders be embarrassed, what can we expect, and why do we look down on the RCC? Serious and credentialled investigative reporters can contact me.

As a rector I had to follow a priest who was simply passed along by another bishop, and as a bishop have had the same experience with a staff member who was protected by his bishop, with catastrophic results here

On paper, we are a one-strike church, but in reality, too may people are walked. 815 refused comment on this story with principled-sounding obfuscation, which essentially tells it all, doesn’t it? There is no more transparency at 815 than previously, as some of the commentators above [on this thread] know to their pain.

— Bishop Paul Marshall of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, Penna.

Parry, 69, led the Abbey Boy Choir of Conception Abbey from 1982 to 1987. He said he had sexual contact with five or six choir members. Most were over 18, but two were 16 to 18 years old, he said.

“As far as I’m concerned, great harm was done to those people,” he told the newspaper in an interview from Las Vegas, where he now lives. “To lie and not recognize that would be a gross injustice to those folks.”

He did not return a telephone message left by The Associated Press on Friday.

Read it all.

After the plaintiff reported the abuse in 1987, Parry was sent for three months of treatment at Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico. Then he stayed in the Southwest, working at Lutheran and Catholic parishes.

In 2000, the lawsuit says, Parry underwent psychological testing because he was considering entering another Catholic monastery.

“The results of this testing revealed that Fr. Parry was a sexual abuser who had the proclivity to reoffend with minors,” the lawsuit says.

The results were provided to Conception Abbey, the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas and the Episcopal bishop for the Diocese of Nevada, the lawsuit says. Yet from 2000 until Thursday, Parry was employed by All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas.

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A Las Vegas Episcopal priest resigned from his duties at his church Thursday after his name surfaced in a lawsuit alleging a Missouri monastery covered up sexual abuse by him.

The lawsuit, filed in Missouri by a former choir boy, alleged the Roman Catholic monastery, Conception Abbey, kept secret the boy’s 1987 sexual assault by Bede Parry, then a Catholic priest who directed the choir.

Parry, 69, who was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, had been serving as the organist and choir director at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Las Vegas since 2000.

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Joe Smith, Trinity’s senior warden since January, said a recent assessment of the congregation, involving an outside consultant, looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the church. About 40 people were interviewed, he said. They included current and former members, and of varying ages. One component Trinity looked at was membership.

“The demographic most people are interested in is the 20-40 year olds with children. … and not just that group but (recruiting) new members across the board,” he said.

A result was that [Rich] Martindale resigned.

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The affectionately named “Vicar of Baghdad”, Canon Andrew White, has been named as this year’s recipient of the prestigious International First Freedom Award for his extraordinary commitment to peace-keeping and religious freedom in Iraq.

Past winners include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1999 for his efforts in the Northern Ireland peace process; former Czech President Václav Havel for his role in Charter 77 and the Velvet Revolution; as well as three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Father Elias Chacour, founder of Israel’s Mar Elias Educational Institutions.

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“For the last several months, the Vestry, the Wardens and I have been working and praying very hard to discern how best to meet the needs of the Parish and do the work we have been given to do in the name of Christ,” the letter [to the parish from the Rev. Rich Martindale] begins.

“At times, that discernment has been exhilarating; other times it has felt like a struggle.

“After consultation with the Bishop of Atlanta, the Wardens, and of course, my dear wife, my own portion of that discernment has led me to understand that the time has come for me to conclude my ministry to and with my friends at Trinity.”

Read it all and you may find the parish website here.

Hurtling through the dark but missile-streaked skies over Hanoi in 1972 after his B-52 bomber was shot down, Robert Certain was pretty sure he was going to die, just like three of the men in his plane had, and remembers praying for his parachute not to open rather than dying in captivity.

Then a 25-year-old Air Force navigator, the Rev. Certain is now the 63-year-old senior priest of St. Peter and St. Paul Episcopal Church in east Cobb, but war is still very much on the mind of the retired colonel.

Now, though, he thinks more about helping the military personnel returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Read it all.

For the seventh time in 20 years, The United Methodist Church will wrestle with the issue of homosexuality in a public church trial.

The Rev. Amy DeLong, a lesbian clergy member of the Wisconsin Annual (regional) Conference, faces two charges of violating church law and the possibility of losing her ministerial credentials this week. Her trial begins June 21 at Peace United Methodist Church in Kaukauna, Wis.

Read it all.

‘If we read on in this Letter to the Hebrews, we find there some very specific, very clear guidelines about moving on and growing up as believers. And we find also the warning that living in this way will not always make us popular. If we seek to make friends out of strangers, perhaps some people will attack us for being disloyal to our own folk. If we try to live honourable lives in marriage, perhaps some others will make fun of us or be angry with us for not following the easy ways of self-indulgence. If we stand out against corruption and money-grabbing or land-grabbing, we may offend powerful people. But in all this, God is with us. He demands that, as grown-up Christians, we should be honest about the problems of our society and seek to show a better way.’

Read or better yet listen to it all.

You may find the audio link here if you wish to suffer through it.

Scot McKnight, blogger and professor of New Testament at North Park University in Chicago, isn’t surprised that the issue of failure has struck a nerve with ministers. He said that ministry can be especially difficult for pastors of nondenominational churches who don’t have the support structure or a network of peers that a denomination can provide.

He sees signs for hope, though. McKnight said that older church members expected their pastors to be perfect. That’s not always the case with younger church-goers.

“In the previous generation, there was a lot of emphasis that the pastor had to be distant, apart from the congregation, and holy,” he said. “Failure was seen as a sign of betrayal. For this generation, admitting failure is part of the pastoral task.”

Read it all.

Jesus is not departing “up to” some higher but other floor in the universe, but to his God and Father upon whom the very existence of the universe depends, and in whom we all “live and move and have our being.” The Ascension is not an abandonment but the beginning of a new and more intimate nearness ”“ his continuing, ubiquitous, always-available presence with us and for us, not to a different and distant point within the universe, but transcending and filling all things. He is Ascended from one particular place to the heavenly, the divine places, far above all rule and dominion and power, as St. Paul says in our epistle, so that he now fills all in all ”“ not an abandonment, but a new and available nearness.

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Fr. Kimel is to be ordained into the Orthodox Church on Pentecost Sunday (i.e. today) by Bishop Jerome of the Russian Church Abroad, for the Western Rite.

For those of you who may not know, Al is the former rector of Holy Communion, Charleston, S.C. In 1998 it was written about him:

Father Alvin Kimel, Jr. became the 15th rector of the parish in November 1996. He is a scholar and accomplished liturgist. His efforts include an emphasis on improving music to complement the choral Eucharist and to generally raise the beauty of worship. Father Kimel is a superb teacher from the pulpit, in the classroom, and by published worship aid always available in the Church. He is well on his way to a successful ministry and the future of the Church of the Holy Communion looks bright.

A number of years later, Al wrote about himself:

Al Kimel… was a parish priest in the Episcopal Church for twenty-five years. He has published articles in the Anglican Theological Review, Sewanee Theological Review, Interpretation, Scottish Journal of Theology, Worship, Faith & Philosophy, Pro Ecclesia, and First Things. He has also edited two books: Speaking the Christian God and This is My Name Forever. He began [the blog] Pontifications in March 2004 as a way to reflect on the meaning of the Church and to invite others to share in these reflections. In June 2005 he entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. On 3 December 2006 he was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church. He is currently serving as the lay Catholic chaplain at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.

I found an article about Al’s Roman Catholic ordination (with a picture of some of the family) here.

There can’t be many Catholic priests who have a wife and nine children present at their ordination. But that’s exactly what awaits Deacon Ian Hellyer next week.

“I’m currently experiencing a funny combination of peace and excitement ”“ with just an occasional moment of fear,” says the 44-year-old from Devon in England who, until a few months ago, was the Anglican vicar of five rural parishes.

“Over the past 10 years, though, I’d increasingly felt uncomfortable in the Church of England and found myself questioning more and more of its decisions and the direction it’s going in,” he told CNA June 9.

Read it all.

…after almost 27 years of service to the church, and the Santa Clarita Valley, [the Rev. Canon Lynn] Jay will hold her last sermon July 31.

Her work with countless local charities ”” some she’s played pivotal roles in, such as the SCV Emergency Winter Shelter and the SCV Food Pantry ”” will likely leave a lasting mark in the community long after she steps down.

But perhaps just as memorable for parishioners is her quick wit and unique passion. Jay said she’ll stop a sermon mid-hymn to playfully chide a more impassioned verse from the choir. Sometimes, it’s something to the effect of, “Hey, if we can get two more good verses, I won’t make you guys sing the third,” she said.

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Beginning Sunday, Episcopal priests in the San Joaquin Diocese can “perform blessings of same gender civil marriages, domestic partnerships and relationships which are lifelong committed relationships characterized by fidelity, monogamy” and “holy love.”

The change doesn’t mean Episcopal priests will begin marrying same-sex couples, Bishop Chester Talton said. Such marriages are forbidden by state law, although that is under review by the courts.

Instead, Talton said, “what is being authorized is a blessing of relationships, which we’ve chosen to call sacred unions.”

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An Horry County judge recently awarded Krystal Renee Thornhill, pastor at Charity African Methodist Episcopal Church in Huger, a judgment of more than $3.3 million in the case. The trouble now is finding the man who took her money six years ago.

Thornhill met Theodore Collins at an annual church seminar in Myrtle Beach in 2005, where Collins presented a program called “Trust Your Church,” which encouraged people to invest with his Trust Management Associates….

Collins told Thornhill that the $99,000 she invested would accrue 35 percent returns annually and that she would receive $3,500 every 40 days, according to court filings. Bank records show that Thornhill’s money and another investor’s $1 million instead went into an account used to fund purchases such as airline and hotel reservations, meals at chain restaurants and furniture.

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A former Ludlow priest today revealed he is turning his back on the Church of England so he can lead the weddings of gay and mixed-religion couples.

Mark Townsend, from Leominster, said he had grown tired of the “creakiness and backwardness” of the church so he will join the Open Episcopal Church.

Read it all.

The Oxford Ordinariate Group is organising their first Solemn Evensong and Benediction at the Dominican Priory, Blackfriars, next Wednesday, 15 June, at 7.30pm by kind permission of the Prior and Community.

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The Rev. J. Scott Barker was walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain ”” a historic pilgrimage route ”” about a year ago when he had an epiphany.

On his pilgrimage to the site where St. James the Apostle is said to be buried, Barker, the rector of Christ Church in the Village of Warwick, realized he aspired to be a bishop with the Episcopal Church.

Little did he know that a year later, he’d be tapped as bishop of the Nebraska Diocese.

Read it all.

An Anglican chaplain at a British university has rebutted claims that universities throughout the U.K. are a breeding ground for extremist recruitment, and that universities are not doing enough to tackle the problem.

Jeremy Clines who is the Anglican chaplain at the University of Sheffield has said that Islamic extremists were not the problem for universities, but rather government spending cuts were of greater concern.

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Seven former Church of England clergy [yesterday were] ordained Roman Catholic priests at St George’s Cathedral Southwark in London. It marks the start of a wave of ordinations over the next two weeks in which more than 50 former Anglican clergy, many married, will become Catholic priests.

The first of the Pentecost ordinations by the Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev Peter Smith, …[Saturday] mark[ed] the formal establishment of the new Ordinariate as a going concern. More than 900 laity have already been received into the Catholic Church but have until now been worshipping with existing Catholic congregations while their clergy trained for the Catholic priesthood at Allen Hall seminary in Chelsea, West London.

Read it all (requires subscription).

I have known few preachers with more reverence for the homiletical arts and almost none who were more grateful that God had called him to preach. He once told me that he was ready to “robe up for the game anytime Harvard wants something said in a way that adds weight, no matter how trivial the occasion.”

When I got Peter [Gomes] to speak at my alma mater, Wofford College in Spar­tanburg, South Carolina, Peter ad­dressed a packed house in Wofford’s Old Main, a building built by slave labor with bricks made by slaves on campus.

“I am not unmindful of the significance of this building, nor my presence in this pulpit,” he said. “As a preacher, I’m accustomed to answering to the claims of the dead. I am acutely aware, at an occasion such as this, we are accompanied by the dead, anonymous and remembered, surrounding us, wanting to speak to us. Yet the voiceless dead cannot speak without us. Thus I speak to you . . .”

–Will Willimon in “Harvard’s Preacher” (on Peter Gomes 1942”“2011), Christian Century, April 5, 2011, edition, page 11

Dr Welby said the death of Johanna, in a road accident in France in 1983 when she was just seven-months-old, had drawn his family closer to their faith.

“It was a very dark time for my wife Caroline and myself, but in a strange way it actually brought us closer to God,” he said.

After the tragedy, Dr Welby continued in the oil business and by 1987 had moved to the top of the oil finance industry, but chose to resign.

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The Church in Wales is struggling to recruit new priests, with nearly one in three of clergy expected to go in the next five years.

A total of 166 clergy are due to retire within the half-decade, leaving the Anglican church with the challenge of finding a new generation of leaders at a time of shrinking congregations.

Next week the church will stage a “ministry and calling Sunday” to urge people to consider ordination. It will also encourage people to recommend a life in the church to others they feel have the skills to serve Welsh congregations.

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As Memorial Day approaches, we must remember. The Indy 500 will come and go. People will gather for reunions and barbeques. Many of us will enjoy the liberties attained by years of “blood, sweat and tears” to quote Winston Churchill.

In far off lands and in this country, our service men and women sacrifice time, family and safety to do far more than insure that we can enjoy fun weekends. They serve for a variety of reasons, and their families live with the unknown as they hope and pray for the safe return of sons, daughters, husbands, wives and parents, but a common thread binds us all with these people and with those who suffered physical and psychological maiming or death. That common thread is the desire for freedom, liberty and justice for all, not just in this nation, but in every land.

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The depth of the split between the progressive and traditionalists appeared during a debate over the section that would allow the induction of ministers and deacons “ordained before May 2009 who are in a same-sex relationship”.

Traditionalists claimed that the section was a “Trojan horse” which could pull the church apart.

The Rev Andrew Coghill, of the Presbytery of Lewis, described the section as a “hand grenade”. He said: “I believe it will be ruinous for unity of the church, potentially multiplying homosexual inductions the length and breadth of the country. The church almost pulled apart over one such induction.”

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Bishop Danbinta spoke on Thursday in a sermon at the opening of the first session of the 10th Synod of Remo Anglican Diocese….[He] disclosed that it was becoming increasingly difficult for Christians to openly carry the Bible in some areas in the North.

Although he did not mention such places, the Kaduna-born bishop said he had had nasty experiences of hostility against adherents of the Christian faith in Kano and Zamfara states, where he is currently a bishop.

“Those of you who are Christians in the South here do not know what it really means to be Christians. In the North, we live daily preparing to be killed for the sake of Jesus Christ. And we suffer a lot for Christ sake….”

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…what does explain the rise in abuse? A major reason, she says, was the 1960s.

“There’s a sexual revolution, there’s an increased amount of drug use, there’s an increase in crime, there’s an increase in things like premarital sex, in divorce,” [Karen] Terry says. “In a number of factors, there’s change. And the men who are in the priesthood are affected by these social factors.”

Terence McKiernan calls that the Woodstock defense.

“A lot of us went through the ’60s, and very few of us reacted to the pressures of that interesting decade by sexually abusing children,” McKiernan says.

Read or listen to it all.