Read it all from the Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod.

Watch it all (starts about 5:30 in).

Read it all from Stand Firm.

Update: Jun 21, 05:00 EDT — Stand Firm’s newest entry on this is MUST reading, and puts the story in its larger context. Don’t miss it: Under the Radar…and Over the Cliff

The news from Seattle about the Rev. Ann Redding, an ECUSA priest in the diocese of Olympia who claims to be both a Christian and a Muslim, is generating a ton of interest around the blogosphere. (We’ll post some of those links here in a little while.)

It’s also generating a lot of comments. As of now, there are 128 comments on the Seattle Times’ story thread, meaning it’s in a tie for first-place among all T19 comment threads on the new blog.

Also of particular interest, we think, is that the story is generating NEGATIVE attention among some of our reappraising friends and bloggers. The AAC blog, for instance, is reporting that Jim Naughton, the communications director for the Diocese of Washington, and an influential reappraising blogger, is trying to encourage all other Episcopal “Communicators” (i.e. diocesan communications directors) to ignore and not publicize the story. Mind boggling.

We’ll pull together a round-up of links to this story from around the blogosphere shortly and add it to this post as an update.

UPDATE: Roundup of links we’ve seen (only a partial list, I’m sure) is below.
Original Story from Diocese of Olympia’s “Episcopal Voice”

Original Titusonenine comment thread on the Diocese of Olympia article

Original Stand Firm comment thread on Dio Olympia article

Albert Mohler’s blog: Clueless in Seattle — Can You Be Both a Christian and a Muslim?

Seattle Times: Q&A (Redding answers reader questions)

Seattle Times: Reader Feedback on Story

WorldNet Daily

Get Religion: She’s a dessert topping and a floor wax

Magpie Girl: Early Adaptor

Gospel Prism: Jesus Is the Only Way, but Allah Can Come Along Too

OK Preacher: Thumbs Down: Rev Ann Holmes Redding

David Fischler’s 3 part series at Reformed Pastor: Apostasy in the Great Northwest

Apostasy in the Great Northwest

Apostasy in the Great Northwest, Part 2

Apostasy in the Great Northwest, Part 3

From the Answering Muslims blog: Can a person be both a Christian and a Muslim?

From Ad Orientum: Apostasy… Not an Issue

Three entries from Chris Johnson at MCJ:
http://themcj.com/3186
http://themcj.com/3182
http://mcj.bloghorn.com/3164

Whitehall: “I am both Christian and Muslim”

IRD June 20 Press Release: Inclusion Run Amok: A Muslim/Episcopal Priest

Bishop Epting: Christian “and” Muslim?

Anglican Centrist (Fr Jones.com): Another One of those Crazy Episcopalians

Tobias Haller: Of Doubts and Discipline

Stand To Reason: Religion as Ice Cream

The Point (Breakpoint’s blog): The Priest Said to the Imam

Rod Dreher (Cruncy Cons): What Would we Do without TEC

The Corner (Mark Steyn): Interfaith Outreach (and Steyn was linked by Instapundit)

On the Verge: Episcopal Priest Defies Logic! (was posted at Stand Firm here)

Mark Shea (Catholic & Enjoying It): This Being Seattle…

Riddleblog: Worse than Caricature

The Reformed Evangelist: Koran-quoting “Christians”

Update 2:
A technorati search will bring up at least a dozen (or two… or three dozen) more references. Here are one or two that looked particularly noteworthy:

Christianity and Islam Merge in a Postmodern World

Pursuing Truth: “Muslim & Christian” Reverend: Jesus Is Not God

Spiritual Confusion

Balaam’s Ass: Both Christian & Muslim

Anyway, all of the links above suggest that Jim Naughton’s plan to hide the story isn’t going to work. It really is ALL over the blogosphere.

The move will mean the departure of a priest who, arguably, is one of the most accomplished and theologically noteworthy clergymen ever to serve in the city. He was among five candidates to be considered in 2003 to head the Colorado Diocese. Radner already had gained worldwide respect as a theologian and author by the time he was chosen earlier this year by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to be a part of an international panel asked to design a “covenant” for all the world’s Anglican churches. The aim was to create a working agreement among members of a church riven when American Episcopalians – a part of the Anglican community – ordained an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

Radner had been a delegate to the August 2003 general convention in Minneapolis, which ratified the New Hampshire diocese’s selection as bishop of Eugene Robinson – a divorced father of two who had lived with his male partner for 13 years.

Radner left the convention in protest, claiming that the meeting had forfeited “its authority, according to the traditional understanding that church council which act either illegitimately or heretically are no longer valid councils.”

He said that, “ultimately, some means within the larger Anglican communion must be brought to bear in order to adjudicate this matter.”

It made sense, then, that he serve on the international panel, as one of only two Americans thus invited. The gay-bishop and other issues have divided parishes, dioceses and the worldwide community of Anglicans, which numbers 77 million adherents.

Read it all.

To avoid cluttering the sidebar, we’ve decided not to display recent comments there. Instead, we’ve created a page where you can view the most recent comments to keep up with which articles are generating discussion. Here’s the link: http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/comments/

Although there is no search feature (yet? maybe we can add one, eventually) on this page, for the meantime, you can use the “find on this page” feature of your browser (look under the Edit menu in Internet Explorer or Firefox) and thus find comments containing certain text, or comments by a certain user.

We’re really pleased with how this has turned out. Let us know how it works for you all and any suggestions for making it even more useful. We will see if we can add search capacity within a few days. We’re also wondering if we might be able to add a calendar feature to facilitate displaying all comments for a given date. We would be glad to have you all brainstorm with us and suggest ideas. Some of the best features we’ve been able to design so far have been the direct result of reader requests and ideas.

P.S. Don’t forget, you can also use the Advanced Search feature to see which blog entries have the most recent comments.

As an example:
1. enter “the” (without the quotes) in the keyword section
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3. Select TitusOneNine in the weblog box
4. On the right in the “Sort Results By” box, select Most Recent Comments

(You could also specify a date range if you liked, or a specific category, such as Anglican – Episcopal)

The Archbishop supports the decision of the Province of Kenya to provide resident Episcopal oversight for the clergy and congregations in the United States who placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Kenya after they had arrived at the conclusion that the Episcopal Church no longer offered them the assurance of continuity with “The faith once delivered to the saints.” The provision of adequate pastoral care and episcopate oversight constitutes a deliberate and intentional effort to provide stability in an environment in which Anglicanism is being severely tested and challenged.

The Primates of the Communion at their meeting in Tanzania in February produced a communion response to the embattled state of Anglicanism in the United States in their offer of a provisional pastoral arrangement which provided space for the participation of all the major Anglican entities in the United States. Unfortunately, the unanimous offer of the Primates was rejected by the House of Bishops and the Executive Committee of the Episcopal Church. In the face of this unequivocal rejection, the Instruments of Communion must determine the most appropriate response to this unfortunate spectacle of a fragmented Anglicanism within the United States of America.

In this context, the decision of the Province of Kenya signals a willingness on the part of that Province to act responsibly to provide care for persons already under its jurisdiction. In addition, the selection of the Rev’d. Canon Bill Atwood as Suffragan Bishop is highly commendable. Canon Atwood is well suited for this particular ministry given his long association with Kenya and some of the other Provinces in CAPA and his unquestionable knowledge and appreciation of the ecclesial situation in the United States.

Finally, the willingness of the Province of Kenya to collaborate with the other orthodox Anglicans in the United States could serve the point towards a creation of a viable, stable and orthodox Anglican presence in the United States.

Read it all from the Church of England Newsaper.

From The Living Church:

What’s wrong with this picture? What is wrong with this picture is that it is not the complete picture.

Max DePree, author of Leadership Jazz and Leadership is an Art, says that the first task of the leader is to define reality. The problem with this quote from our Presiding Bishop””and she has said much the same thing in several venues””is that although there are places of health and vitality in The Episcopal Church, this assessment amounts to no more than happy talk.

What is “happy talk”? John Kotter, professor of leadership at Harvard Business School, says that too much happy talk from senior leaders can lull everyone into a sense of complacency. Mr. Kotter states that the failure of leaders to establish a (healthy) sense of urgency is one of several reasons that organizations fail.

A survey of The Episcopal Church taken a couple of years ago, “Faith Communities Today,” asked congregations to complete a survey which asked questions similar to those found on the parochial reports. When the compilers of the survey compared the completed surveys with those of that congregation’s parochial reports, it was determined that the survey results contradicted the parochial report data. Only those churches that were growing 10 percent or more per year “told the truth.” The vast majority of churches reported that they were doing better than their parochial reports indicated. Happy talk.

The task of the leader of an organization in a time of crisis is two-fold: to be a non-anxious presence, and to develop a sense of urgency. A look at the baptized membership and average Sunday attendance in The Episcopal Church indicates that we are a denomination in decline….

Read the whole article.

Read it all.

Watch it all.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida recognized the growth of the western communities and anticipated the establishment of the Callery-Judge Grove community, so it committed her to the area to establish a ministry.

She is living in a home bought by the church that also serves as her office and meeting space for the congregation.

A group she calls The 15:58 is helping her to get a church established in the community. “They are named after Corinthians 15:58,” Ostlund said. “Basically, the Scripture says that if you keep working, your work will pay off.”

Even though the county voted against the development of Callery-Judge Grove, their future in the area is uncertain, but their faith remains strong.

“It’s in God’s hands,” Ostlund said. “We don’t know what will unfold, but we’re still planning on launching the church next February.”

Read it all.

Watch it all. Photos of the nine are here. You need to take the time to follow all the coverage at www.charleston.net.

From the Independent:

Our next Prime Minister also identified with the rebellious, privilege-hating grassroots of the Church of Scotland. In 1843, the Church split when ordinary churchgoers insisted on their right to pick their own ministers, rather than have the aristocracy hand-pick one for them. As Brown summarised it happily: “They refused to be bound by the Lords.” This blunt egalitarian persisted into Brown’s youth.

But how does this affect his practical politics? The best hint can be found in Brown’s little-noticed endorsement in 2005 of a book called God’s Politics: Why the American Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get it by the theologian Jim Wallis. The author damns the right for focusing “on sexual and cultural issues while ignoring the weightier matters of justice.” So the book is an attack on Falwellian poison – but also on what it calls “secular fundamentalism.” Secularists, Wallis writes, “mistakenly dismiss spirituality as irrelevant to social change.” Wallis believes religion should be a presence perpetually motivating people to pursue “justice” for the poor.

He argues for a revived “prophetic religion”, adding quickly: “Prophecy is not about future telling, but articulating moral truth. The prophets diagnose the present and point the way to a just solution.” He argues that when societies were fairly equal, as revealed by Biblical archaeology, the Prophets did not emerge, because “they had nothing to say.” Brown is, he claims, “listening to the message of the Biblical prophets” when he brilliantly slashes Africa’s debts, doubles aid, and increases tax credits for poor kids here at home. (He is presumably defying it when he permits the super-rich to continue jaunting about all-but-untaxed). Wallis’s favourite Biblical tradition is the Jubilee Year, where periodically the debts of the poor were cancelled, slaves were set free, and land was redistributed more fairly.

All this puts left-wing atheists like me in a quandary. I think faith is a dangerous form of bad thinking – it is believing something, without evidence or reason to back it up. Where does that end?

Read it all.

From Editor and Publisher:

A new Gallup Poll will only reinforce those who claim that while the rich get richer most Americans don’t feel they are sharing in the growth in our economy. The stock market may be climbing and the unemployment remains relatively low, but 7 in 10 Americans believe the economy is getting worse — the most negative reading in nearly six years.

Only one in three Americans rate the economy today as either excellent or good, while the percentage saying the economy is getting better fell from 28% to 23% in one month.

Gallup adds: “For the first time this year, a majority of Americans are negative about the employment market, saying it is a bad time to find a quality job.”

Read it all.

From the Washington Times:

Almost a year into his job as the spiritual leader of the Washington area’s 560,000 Catholics, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl has set a personal agenda and style that are worlds apart from those of his more flamboyant predecessor.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, now retired, was known for his extroverted persona, hobnobbing with politicians and worldwide travels. His successor prefers to stay closer to home.

“I am not making the politics of the country my focus,” Archbishop Wuerl said in an interview with The Washington Times. “My focus is pastoral and spiritual as bishop.”

Read it all.

Certainly one of the most difficult items for our discernment will be the question of how to proceed on the issue of same-gender relationships. Related to it are other questions. One is the deeper question of how Anglicans receive and understand Scriptures in the light of modern scholarship and contemporary experience. Another is how our decisions will impact our sister churches in the Anglican Communion. And beside that is a question as to the nature of the Communion, and the appropriate relationship between provincial autonomy and global interdependence.

Another way of putting that is, how do we wish authority to be exercised or limited within our family of churches? And perhaps most important, how will our decisions witness to the Good News of God in Jesus Christ for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters within the Church and outside it. There are of course many other questions to consider in the hard work of discernment over this issue. We are taught that the first principle of moral theology is obedience to conscience, and I ask each of you to embrace that principle, and with it the ethic of respect for the conscience of those who disagree with your own. The second principle of moral theology is to inform your conscience to bring it, if possible, into line with the teaching of the Church. And here careful listening using the Anglican approach of Scripture, Tradition and Reason will be helpful.

At the end of the day, when decisions are made, they will not be unanimous. Differences will remain, but the unanimous opinion of the Theological Commission (and of many other sources) is that the question of same-gender blessings should not be a communion breaking issue. So the alternative to that is that in keeping with a long Anglican tradition, we make room at the table for those whose views we do not share. For the table is the Lord’s and not our own. And it is He who invites us to share the life that is offered there for the sins of the whole world.

Read it all.

More women apply to college than men so colleges with selective admissions hope to maintain gender balance by admitting fewer women that men. While just a few decades ago women were not even allowed to enter the nation’s most prestigious universities, now collective success of women nationwide may be making women victims of their own success.

Alex Kingsbury of U.S. News & World Report talks to Anthony Brooks about the magazine’s research into gender gaps in college admissions.

Listen to it all from NOR’s Day to Day program.

John Thorp’s case for is here and Robert Gagnon’s rebuttal is there.

This is a serious debate among our friends just to the North, take the time to read both pieces and pray for General Synod. Thanks–KSH.

The Youth Group of Holy Trinity Church (Episcopal) on Folly Road in West Ashley is holding a fundraising car wash to aid the families of the nine firefighters who lost their lives on Monday night. The Harborview Car Wash, next to the Piggly Wiggly on Harborview Road, James Island, has donated the use of it’s facilities and the young people and other church members and friends will provide the labor. The car wash will be held from 3:00 to 7:00 on Wednesday, June 27, with donations accepted per wash. For more information, contact Holy Trinity Church at 556-2560 or Dorothy Porcher Holland at 766-PRAY.

(Press release)

Statement in Response to Second Lawsuit Filed
By The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego Against St. John’s Anglican Church

Fallbrook, Calif. ”“ June 19, 2007 ”“ Having lost a lawsuit filed against St. John’s Anglican Church and its volunteer board members last year, we are deeply disappointed that the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego and its Bishop, James R. Mathes, have been caught up in the national tidal wave of lawsuits being filed by The Episcopal Church against local church congregations that have realigned with other Provinces of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, and instead have filed another senseless and intolerant lawsuit against St. John’s in an attempt to confiscate all of its church property, including the sanctuary, Bibles, hymnals and office files.

The diocese had filed suit against Father Donald Kroeger, nine church volunteers, and St. John’s in late 2006 in an attempt to wrestle away its property. The San Diego Superior Court rejected this claim, and entered judgment in favor of the St. John’s defendants.

“It is absolutely stunning that the Court ruled in our favor in November 2006, and now James Mathes is leading the charge to sue us again trying to confiscate our property,” said Father Donald Kroeger, head priest and rector of St. John’s Anglican Church. “We had hoped the diocese would respect the decision of the Court and the biblical prohibitions about suing other believers, but apparently we were mistaken.”

Since ending its affiliation with The Episcopal Church in July 2006 to remain steadfast and loyal in their commitment to the Holy Scripture and the historic teachings of Christianity, St. John’s membership and ministries have flourished.

St. John’s will continue to worship at its present location and facilities in Fallbrook.

On June 15, the Executive Council, the governing body between General Conventions, passed Resolution NAC023 which noted that Article V, Section 1 of the Constitution of The Episcopal Church requires each diocese’s constitution to state “an unqualified access to the Constitution and Canons of this Church.”

“Any amendment to a diocesan constitution that purports in any way to limit or lessen an unqualified accession to the constitution of The Episcopal Church is null and void,” the resolution continued, adding that “the amendments passed to the constitutions of the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin, which purport to limit or lessen the unqualified accession to the constitution of The Episcopal Church are accordingly null and void and the constitutions of those dioceses shall be as they were as if such amendments had not been passed.”

The chancellors of the four dioceses said June 18, in a statement on the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s website, that they “reserve the right not to accede to [the Episcopal Church’s] unbiblical actions.”

“The Executive Council does not have the authority to make decisions or pass resolutions of this type on behalf of [the Episcopal Church],” their statement said. “Furthermore, the Executive Council does not have the right to interfere in internal diocesan constitutional processes … The Executive Council’s declaration is contrary to the law and to the historic Anglican faith.”

Via Media USA, an alliance of Episcopal laity and clergy formed in 2004 to offer a counterpoint to efforts to “realign” the Episcopal Church along more conservative lines, said June 18 that it was “pleased that the Executive Council, in its resolution NAC023, has made clear what we have understood for a long time to be the case.”

Read it all.

from the Hays Daily News:

In an unprecedented visit, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church visited Hays on Monday night.

Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori visited St. Michael’s Episcopal Church as part of a marathon three-day, 15-town tour of western Kansas.
“It’s a real honor for us,” said the Rev. Craig Brown, pastor of St. Michael Episcopal Church. “It’s been a long time since a presiding bishop has come to western Kansas. To my knowledge, we have not had the presiding bishop come to St. Michael’s specifically.”

Jefferts Schori made the visit at the invitation of Bishop James Adams, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas.
The trip included dinner and a conversation Monday night, and a stop at St. Andrew, north of Hays, this morning.

Read it all.

Update: More from AP here.

From Reuters:

Thou shall not drive under the influence of alcohol. Thou shall respect speed limits. Thou shall not consider a car an object of personal glorification or use it as a place of sin.

The Vatican took a break from strictly theological matters on Tuesday to issue its own rules of the road, a compendium of do’s and don’ts on the moral aspects of driving and motoring.

A 36-page document called “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road” contains 10 Commandments covering everything from road rage, respecting pedestrians, keeping a car in good shape and avoiding rude gestures while behind the wheel.

“Cars tend to bring out the ‘primitive’ side of human beings, thereby producing rather unpleasant results,” the document said.

Read it all.

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From this is London:

Perhaps it’s the Da Vinci Code or Dan Brown or a fascination with Opus Dei, but I’ve been stunned by the amazing response,” says David Suchet, star of a gripping mystery thriller about to open in the West End following rave reviews at its Chichester premiere last month. “Letters and messages have been pouring in. It’s touched a nerve.”

A pontiff found unexpectedly dead in bed, a crisis of faith and a nest of vipers in the Vatican – these are the fantastical true-life ingredients for Roger Crane’s new play The Last Confession, about Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciano), the “smiling” Italian who occupied St Peter’s throne in 1978 for only 33 days. Just weeks after his triumph as a burly, gravel-voiced Robert Maxwell in the BBC2 drama about the late tycoon, Suchet is tackling another fact-based role that once again centres around a sudden, unexplained death.

Swathed in gorgeous scarlet, crucifix swinging, this brilliantly versatile actor plays Cardinal Benelli, who persuaded the reluctant John Paul to accept the Papacy then felt responsible for his early demise.

“At the simplest level,” Suchet explains, “this is a dark thriller about who murdered John Paul I, the Church’s only really liberal, reforming and modernising Pope – if, indeed, he was murdered. On another, it’s about one man’s loss of faith, his bitterness and confusion, and a power struggle at the heart of the Catholic Church.”

Read it all.

Check it out.

Most of the world’s Anglican churches have openly opposed sanctifying same-sex marriages, arguing that such blessings defy scripture.

“If we go through with this, we’re going to be tearing the fabric of the Anglican community worldwide at its deepest level,” Calgary-based delegate Sheila Vanderputten told CBC News.

“The primates have really been strong in telling us that we may have to choose to walk apart if we go against our 2000 years plus of history of Christianity according to scripture.”

On Saturday, delegates will vote on a “local parish” option. If it passes, Anglican priests would be allowed to choose whether their individual parish will bless a same-sex couple.

Read it all.

The adversarial relationship between this Diocese and the leadership of The Episcopal Church was
exacerbated by two decisions made by the Executive Council of TEC at its meeting last week.

I. The Council’s refusal to participate in the Pastoral Scheme developed by the Dar es Salaam Primates’
Meeting has deepened our sense of alienation from TEC. Instead of “waging reconciliation,” the Council
has failed to respond to the expressed needs of those dioceses appealing for Alternative Primatial
Oversight, pushing us further apart from TEC. They have claimed that the Pastoral Council proposal
violates the polity of TEC, but they have been unable to substantiate this by citing any constitutional or
canonical provisions to that effect.

II. Claiming an authority that our polity does not give, the Council has declared certain amendments to
our Diocesan Constitution “null and void.” To this, we respond, first, that it is not within the scope of
duties assigned to the Executive Council to render findings as to the legality or constitutionality of
actions by the several dioceses of The Episcopal Church; and second, that resolutions adopted by the
Council, or even by the General Convention, are non-binding. Therefore, this resolution is nothing more
than an opinion expressed by those individuals who issued the statement. It is itself “null and void“ ”“
unenforceable and of no effect. This action is another example of the heavy-handed tactics being used by
those who do not have the right to interfere in the internal constitutional process of the dioceses.
While the Council’s resolutions on a range of subjects may excite debate, that does not guarantee their
opinions are consistent with the Faith, the law of the land, or the Constitution of The Episcopal Church,
much less that they establish precedent. That the Council would attempt to interfere now, nearly 20 years
after this diocese first amended its Constitution, is evidence of an illegitimate magisterial attitude that
has emerged in the legislative function of TEC. Sadly, the one thing the resolution does show is that there
is no desire on the part of the Council for reconciliation with those alienated by the recent actions of
General Convention.

The Council’s threats may continue, but we will continue to stand for the historic biblical faith and our
Lord Jesus Christ’s call to extend His Kingdom. We regret that a further deterioration in our relationship
with TEC has been effected by these decisions.

The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth

The Very Rev. Ryan S. Reed
President, Standing Committee
June 19, 2007

“Paying taxes, according to the brain, can bring satisfaction.”

Read it all from the NY Times.