The recent turmoil in the loosely affiliated churches that are described as “The Anglican Communion”, has produced or thrown into prominence several new committees and quasi executive bodies. Among them is a group that is called, somewhat quaintly, “The Primates’ Meeting”. These meetings began after the Lambeth Conference of 1978, but only recently have they seemed to mimic some of the organs of the much more tightly hierarchical Roman Catholic Church. Thus, at a fairly recent meeting in Tanzania, they requested (though, directed would seem more accurate) the Bishops of ECUSA, to “make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorize any Rite of Blessing for same-sex (they mean, I assume, same-gender) unions in their diocese or through General Convention”. The Primates go on to insist that anyone living in a same-sex (sic) union should not be approved for Episcopal orders. I am not clear whether this means that such a life-style is permissible for deaconal or presbyteral orders.

Read it all.

Human beings are specialists in not seeing things. Most of the time, we screen out a vast amount of our world, a vast amount of what comes to us through our senses, especially through our eyes. Part of this is simply practical: no-one can manage to respond to all the promptings and signals that are actually coming at us, and one aspect of ordinary growing-up is simply acquiring the skills to select what is most useful.

But this is always in danger of slipping over into something else. Too easily, we learn to screen out what makes us uncomfortable, what challenges our sense of being in control. It’s not just that we select what matters and what is useful to us in finding our way around in the world; we select what reinforces our security and we treat everything else as if it didn’t matter.

And among the things we often prefer not to bring to mind is the fact that our ”˜ordinary’ secure and fairly comfortable lives depend on a great deal of invisible work by others. It’s true at the most routine level. But today we think specially of those who have chosen to put their own lives at risk for the rest of us. Some of them are asked to exercise the greatest heroism; some are called to that less spectacular but still real heroism which is to hold themselves in readiness of mind and body for whatever may come. When we recognize our debt to them, it is not only to those who have served and struggled heroically but also to those whose daily work and faithful support make it possible for heroism to happen. When we say our thank you’s to them, it is to all of them.

Read it all.

We’ve finished this as best we can for next weekend’s conventions. We need info from readers for Quincy, Rio Grande, Western Kansas, in particular

Reminder: Our Convention links spreadsheet is here.
Next Weekend’s Conventions (Oct. 19 – Oct 21)

Arizona: The Convention page is here. The most interesting thing we found so far was the list of breakout groups, including this one:

2] State of the Anglican Communion – The Rev. Jan Nunley, Deputy for Communications for The Episcopal Church, and The Very Rev. Nicholas Knisely, Dean of Trinity Cathedral and Chair of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Communications

==========

California: The convention page is here.

Archbishop Ndungane, Primate of the Province of Southern Africa will be the featured guest:

The 158th Convention of the Diocese of California will provide a notable change from conventions of the recent past, and events throughout the week preceding convention promise to inspire and enliven members of the diocese while calling all into a deeper sense of community.

The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of California, has invited his friend the Most Rev. Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Province of Southern Africa, to be present with the diocese during the week leading up to convention, and to preach the homily at the convention’s opening Eucharist to be held on Friday night, October 19, at 7:00 p.m. The entire week leading up to the convention’s day of business on Saturday, October 20, will feature regional appearances by Ndungane, with opportunities to engage him on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the continuing scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and his perspective on the Anglican Communion.

more details on +Ndungane’s visit here.

The convention booklet is here. (108 page PDF document). The Resolutions are found on page 61 and following. They include:

1. Proposed Appointment of an Assistant Bishop
2. Sudan Divestment
3. Protection for Immigrants and their Families
4. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
5. The Five-Year Strategic Plan for Ethnic and Multicultural Ministries
6. The Liturgical Covenanting, Blessing, and Sending Forth of Couples in Committed Same-Gender Relationships (We’ll have a separate post on this, maybe tomorrow.)
7. Building the Beloved Community in the spirit of Transparency, Communication and Mission

Note: there seem to be a lot of proposed canon & constitution changes too. See above link for convention booklet, pages 76-89. Perhaps someone familiar with canon law can review these and let us know if there’s anything notable?

The Report of the Commission on Marriage & Blessings, to be presented to the Convention, is here. (48 page PDF)

==========

Connecticut: Convention page
A list of workshops. Given the Diocese of Bethlehem resolution about inclusion of all the baptized which we’ve posted below this evening, this workshop and it’s description caught our eye:

Are You Living Up to Your Baptismal Covenant?
Leader (s): A. Bates Lyons

How many times have you participated in a baptism and read the Covenant? Have you really paid attention to what you are promising to do-with God’s help? This workshop will call attention to this promise in light of institutional racism within our church. You will leave the workshop with a new outlook on your covenant and determine if you ”˜Are Living Up to Your Baptismal Covenant.’ You will also experience one exercise on exclusion during the workshop.

The Resolutions are here. We’ve already posted the anti-B033 resolution (official title: concerning the election of bishops) quite awhile ago.

============

Dallas: The diocesan home page has tons of convention info and links.

The proposed changes to Constitution & Canons are here

Proposed Resolutions are here.

============

Eastern Michigan

The Convention page is here. I can’t find any resolutions.

Of interest: a four-week study guide to help parishes prepare for diocesan convention.

=============

Fond du Lac: Here’s the convention page.

Resolutions are here.

All three proposed resolutions are interesting. We’ll probably be posting them separately in the next day or two:
2007-01 “Pledge to National Church”
2007-02 “Proposed Anglican Covenant”
2007-03 “Anglican Pastoral Scheme”

=============

Kansas. Convention page. Convention booklet. The only resolution is on the MDGs (p. 17 of the booklet).

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Quincy:. Kendall posted an article about the upcoming Quincy convention a few weeks ago, but I’m not sure I’ve seen any specific proposals or Constitutional changes.
We’d welcome info from readers!

============

Rio Grande: The pre-convention issue of the Diocesan Newspaper is here with all the nominees. But I’ve not seen any resolutions.

============

Southwest Florida: The convention page is here.
Four resolutions are here.

============

Spokane: The convention page is here.

The Pre-convention booklet (93 page PDF) is here. This includes the Report of the Task force on Same Sex Marriage (pp. 31-61), and Resolutions (pp. 67-77). Actually pp. 67-76 are Constitution and Canon amendments. p. 77 has the sole resolution re: the UN Declaration of the Rights of Children.

===============

Western Kansas: No info found!

*** end ***

From here:

Delegates to the 136th Convention of the Diocese of Bethlehem unanimously approved this resolution on the Participation of all Baptized Members in the Life of the Church

Be it resolved, that in support of the House of Bishops as stated in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 25, 2007, “”¦ we [c]all for unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.” and be it further

Resolved, that as all baptize Christians are ministers of Christ, they are invited to fully participate in the life of the church. and be it further

Resolved, that we continue the “Listening Process” throughout the Diocese.

Explanation:
The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, September 25, 2007, stated the following in “A Response to Questions and Concerns Raised by our Anglican Communion Partners.” In the summary of their statement, the eighth point reads: “We call for unequivocal and active commitment to the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons.”

The Book of Common prayer, in the catechism, states the following: “The Church is described as the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and of which all baptized persons are members.” (p. 854) ”¦ and “The ministers of the church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons.” (p. 855).

Submitted by
Mr. Robert Barker
The Rev. T. Scott Allen
The Rev. Canon Jane B. Teter

Ok, that’s all the news on COMPLETED conventions that we’ve been able to find tonight. So this post is now final.

Dioceses we still need more news from include: Alaska, North Dakota, Northern Michigan.

Here’s the link for the latest version of our convention links spreadsheet. All Diocesan Convention blog entries are here.

More links coming, and a separate post, if we find resolutions of interest, for upcoming conventions.

***

We’re finally getting back to working on diocesan convention news and links after first posting on that topic a week and a half ago. We’ll focus this post on dioceses that have already held their convention in the past few weeks. We’ll do a separate post for links and news, resolutions etc. for upcoming conventions.

Alaska: The Living Church has an article posted here re: resolutions regarding election of a new diocesan bishop as well as a suffragan.

===========

Bethlehem
The Diocesan Blog has a helpful post with news and lots of links re: the convention this weekend. Five resolutions were approved:

resolution_on_the_budget
resolution_on_salary_shedule
resolution_on_office_of_assistant_bishop
resolution_on_evangelism

*NOTEABLE* resolution_on_participation_of_all_baptized_members This is posted as a separate blog entry above, you can comment on this there

Bishop Marshall’s address is here.

==============

Colorado: Bishop O’Neill’s address is here. Here’s an interesting excerpt on the challenges to go “deeper”:

[blockquote] But like the gospel we heard tonight, there is that twist””that midpoint in the story in which Jesus calls those who would follow him to go even deeper.

What might that mean for us?

For Peter, it was about entering into deeper and deeper relationship with Jesus, and as a consequence being called to enter into deeper and deeper relationship with others. With each successive step in following Jesus, Peter was called out of himself to cross the lines of division and separation that so characterized his culture and society. He was challenged, by Jesus, to sit at table and break bread with those whom others would exclude. He was invited, by God, to embrace those who were radically different from him. He did so not without his own very real inner struggle and conflict. But he did so. He did so faithfully. He did so in obedience to Jesus. And in so doing, he gave the world a glimpse of the restored humanity that God desires for all humankind. For Peter, “the deep” was about giving of himself more generously than he ever thought possible. It was about learning increasingly to surrender himself, to abandon himself, to give himself up
completely, even to point of death, which is, if you think about it, the ultimate act of generosity.

There it is, the deep water””the challenge to live out of a posture of deep generosity, freely giving of ourselves in love to Love; and, as a consequence, the
challenge to enter ever more deeply into relationship with those around us whoever they may be. Here in Colorado the call to live generously has some very real challenges both practically and relationally.

Tomorrow, you will be presented with an operating budget””funding that you all set aside from your own congregational operating funds to support one another, to support the wider mission of the Church, through the Office of the Bishop. You will see that that proposed budget reflects the key mission initiatives that we have set before us, and you will see too that that budget is balanced. That would seem to be good and well. But I have to tell you it really isn’t. The funding for redeveloping the lives of our congregations is minimal. The resources to plant new congregations are extraordinarily limited. We have again reduced staffing in the Office of the Bishop. The money budgeted to support the summer camp program that has grown significantly over the past two summers will not cover the actual costs for this summer’s program. Funding set aside for the College and Young Adult Committee, which began its work in August, has been removed. Planned increases in funding to support children’s ministries in the diocese (training events, resources, resource development, and so on), is just not there. This
balanced budget is fiscally responsible, but it is, at the same time, missionally inadequate.[/blockquote]

There were no resolutions. ENS has an article about the Colorado Convention, here.

==========

Milwaukee: We’ve added links to the spreadsheet for the convention page, the 1 resolution (on clergy compensation) and the budget.

=========

Montana
Stand Firm had a report from an attendee posted recently. Another brief report (but some interesting comments) at RevRef’s blog is here.

==========

Nevada: The big news, of course, was election of a new bishop, Dan Edwards. His acceptance speech is here.

The Pre-Convention journal has one resolution on the MDGs

==========

South Dakota: There is this comment by Bp. Creighton Robertson on the Diocesan Information Exchange. There is no way to link it, so we post it in full:

[blockquote]+Creighton
Yesterday at 03:10 PM

Comments:
Greetings in the name of our Lord:

Well, the Diocesan Convention is over for another year, and we will meet again in Chamberlain in 2008. I think the folks in the Black Hills Deanery deserve a special round of “thank you” for hosting this convention. Also, the people of the Mni Sose cluster in Chamberlain, Lower Brule, and Ft. Thompson deserve a special “thank you” for their help hosting with the Friday evening service and providing lunch afterward. It was good to see so many folks gathering to participate in this year’s convention.

The Banquet on Saturday evening was a little different, with a buffet dinner. Fr. Bunker Hill did a great job in locating the entertainer for the evening following the banquet. Great job Bunker!!

Some of the clergy, some lay folks as well, were upset that a letter had been mailed out from a group of folks at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Sioux Falls, asking folks to leave the Episcopal Church and join their Anglican group. The usual reasons were cited for their leaving, the issue of human sexuality, same sex union blessings, our failure to interpret scripture as narrowly as they do, and they ask all of us to consider leaving the Episcopal Church and join their splinter group. I spoke about some of their concerns in my convention address.

I believe that the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) has addressed the HOB statement and finds that it has met the conditions set forth in the Windsor Report, which is the document being touted by these splinter groups as the standard for belonging to the Anglican Communion. Whether or not the Primates will follow the ACC’s lead is questionable. But as I said at the convention, it doesn’t matter, since the Primates do not have the authority to either ask or remove someone from being a part of the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church in South Dakota will continue to be the Anglican expression of faith here in South Dakota. I suppose that some folks will be unhappy with that and will likely leave us. They can do that if they wish, and they can go with my Blessing. We, the Diocese of South Dakota, will use whatever resources we have to ensure that folks at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church will be able to worship in the Episcopal/Anglican tradition as they have since that church was started.

As I said at the convention, this whole splinter conversation is not about being the church, it is about power, authority, biblical interpretation or rather the holding of everyone to one interpretation, and it is about control. It is about dishonesty and it’s about holding one group accountable to one standard and another accountable to a different standard.

I trust that you will see it for what it is worth, an attempt to force on the good people of this diocese, a way of life in the church which is at odds with the Anglican/Episcopal tradition as they have been expressed and handed down to us in this Diocese over time. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me.

I am preparing a letter to be sent to all congregations in this Diocese concerning the House of Bishops statement at the New Orleans meeting in September. It can be made available but not read from the pulpit.

Note to the clergy: There will be a Diocesan Clergy Retreat at Blue Cloud Abbey on January 28-31, 2008, Monday through Thursday. The Reverend James Lemler will be our retreat leader, and he will build on the information presented at the clergy conference in Chamberlain. Please put this on your kalendars.

Thank you all who attended the convention last week; it was great to see all of you. It was a wonderful time.

Peace,

+Creighton[/blockquote]

==========

Western Louisiana: Virtually nothing on the diocesan website so far. But of course, Brad Drell made up for that lack. You can find the links here.

==========

Wyoming: We’ve added the link for the Wyoming Bishops Address. The focus was church vitality:

This is what a vital church looks like to me.
1. The unique perspective and contribution of every member is valued.
2. Members participate in ongoing engagement with the Gospel.
3. Members display the hard work of learning, discerning and healing.
4. Members engage in broad based, collaborative decision making.
5. There is full local engagement in determining strategies for mission and ministry
supported by diocesan staff.
6. All members share the Gospel in word and deed seeking to bring others into
relationship with Christ.
7. Should this congregation disappear from it’s community, it would be truly missed.
Vital churches bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ
Over the next decade we will pursue vitality. Vita (latin for life). We will become fully
alive, animated, vigorous, gospel sharing, bodies of Christ.

There don’t appear to have been any resolutions.

Read it all and the comment from yours truly as well.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, criticized popular atheist writers such as Richard Dawkins on Saturday, saying they misunderstand religious beliefs and unfairly portray faith in God as “an eccentric survival strategy.”

“There are specific areas of mismatch between what Richard Dawkins may write about and what religious people think they are doing,” Williams said in a speech at the Taliesin Arts Center in Swansea, a port city in southwestern England. “There are few things more annoying than people saying ‘I know what you mean.”‘

Williams described Dawkins, a British expert in evolutionary biology and author of the best-selling book “The God Delusion,” as a “wonderfully lively and attractive writer,” but criticized the way he has attacked belief in God as irrational.

“Don’t distract us from the real arguments by assuming that religion is an eccentric survival strategy or irrational form of explanation,” Williams said in a lecture to about 1,000 people in the fully packed auditorium or listening via speakers in nearby rooms.

Recently, militant, atheist writers such as Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, the author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” have been making an all-out assault on religious faith and the influence of religion in the world among nonbelievers.

Williams said many Christians would not recognize their religion as it is described by such critics.

“When believers pick up Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, we may feel as we turn the pages: ‘This is not it. Whatever the religion being attacked here, it’s not actually what I believe in,”‘ the archbishop said.

Read it all.

If we hadn’t been offline most of yesterday and today, we would have noted earlier that Brad Drell was liveblogging the Western Louisiana diocesan convention.

Brad’s blog is here (There are 5 or 6 convention entries)

Perhaps of greatest interest are a resolution that was presented, and Bishop MacPherson’s address.

Here’s the resolution:

In accordance with the Lord’s High Priestly prayer that we be one, and in obedience to his Great Commission to go into the world and make disciples, and in gratitude for the wider Anglican Communion which is a sign of the fulfillment of the High Priestly Prayer, and in working toward reconciliation of all people with God and each other, we propose the following resolution:

Whereas the Diocese of Western Louisiana is committed to following the recommendations of the Windsor Report; and

Whereas we support Bishop MacPherson’s resolution to the House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans expressly calling for the establishment of a Pastoral Scheme as outlined in the Dar es Salaam Communique;

Be it resolved that the Diocese of Western Louisiana calls upon our Bishop, Standing Committee, and General Convention Deputation to initiate plans and to take all possible action toward the creation and implementation of the Pastoral Scheme proposed in the Dar es Salaam Communique; and to take all possible action to ensure that the Diocese of Western Louisiana remains fully in communion with the wider Anglican Communion.

Grace Church, Monroe
St. Michael & All Angels, Lake Charles
St. Paul’s, Shreveport
The Rev. Errol Montgomery, Christ Church, Bastrop
St. Thomas Monroe Delegation Members, Vicki LaMarca, Tony LaMarca, and David Furr
Judge Dee Drell, Individually, St. James, Alexandria

According to a later entry by Brad, the resolution was approved by laity but rejected by clergy: Lay: 70-53 in favor; Clergy 24nay to 19 yea.

Brad liveblogged Bp. MacPherson’s address here. We’ll post the official link/text when it becomes available.

An earlier article today on this upcoming vote was here.

Update: An Ottawa Citizen article is now here.

Here in this Western outpost that serves as the intellectual center of the United States Army, two elite officers were deep in debate at lunch on a recent day over who bore more responsibility for mistakes in Iraq ”” the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, or the generals who acquiesced to him.

“The secretary of defense is an easy target,” argued one of the officers, Maj. Kareem P. Montague, 34, a Harvard graduate and a commander in the Third Infantry Division that was the first to reach Baghdad in the 2003 invasion. “It’s easy to pick on the political appointee.”

“But he’s the one that’s responsible,” retorted Maj. Michael J. Zinno, 40, a military planner who worked at the headquarters of the Coalitional Provisional Authority, the former American civilian administration in Iraq.

No, Major Montague shot back, it was more complicated: the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top commanders were part of the decision to send in a small invasion force and not enough troops for the occupation. Only Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff who was sidelined after he told Congress that it would take several hundred thousand troops in Iraq, spoke up in public.

“You didn’t hear any of them at the time, other than General Shinseki, screaming, saying that this was untenable,” Major Montague said.

Read it all.

From AP:

The U.S. mission in Iraq is a “nightmare with no end in sight” because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency – such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.

He called current strategies – including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year – a “desperate attempt” to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.

“There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight,” Sanchez told a group of journalists covering military affairs.

Sanchez avoided singling out at any specific official. But he did criticize the State Department, the National Security Council, Congress and the senior military leadership during what appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership to oppose them.

Read it all.

Update: Powerline says “it would be hard to tell from press accounts of Sanchez’s speech that he was mostly critical of…the press.” They have the first half of the speech here.

Another update: The whole speech is here.

In the center of this quaint New England town, where the green is surrounded by antique shops, boutiques and restaurants, not much changes without the blessing of the Historic District Commission.

In the past, the commission has gone so far as to order the removal of flower boxes from the front of homes. And it is entangled in a lawsuit initiated by a homeowner who replaced a 19th-century door with a window.

But little has rattled this community like plans by Chabad Lubavitch of Litchfield County, an Orthodox Jewish organization, to turn a Victorian house into the town’s first synagogue.

Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach, the spiritual leader of the Chabad, presented his plans ”” which include replacing the slate foundation with stone and building a steeple to display the Star of David ”” to the commission last month, and was met with stiff opposition.

Read it all.

Check it out.

A framed document hangs in a dining room-turned sanctuary on the outskirts of this tiny central Mississippi city that reads, “Diocese of Thika, the Anglican Church of Kenya.”

The certificate shows who has authority over the two-month-old congregation, called St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church.

“We gave them what I call ‘the kiss of peace goodbye,’ ” said St. Michael’s priest the Rev. Linda Berry about her break from the Episcopal Church U.S.A. “Our main focus is on what we’re doing now, which is redoing church.”

Berry is part of a national movement of former Episcopalians and other believers aligning their congregations with conservative Anglican churches in Africa. Those seeking African oversight say they’ve become disillusioned with what they consider to be an increasingly secular drift in the Episcopal Church U.S.A.

Read the whole article.

Everyday would look something like this for me. The conversations could be good or bad, heartbreaking or producing anxiety, depending. But all of it is made up of small minutes, small decisions, and each is a decision to remember God or to forget the one who died for my salvation. Each phone call is a call from Christ (God have mercy on me).

Wonderously I am remembering that everything is filled with God – that He is everywhere present. And stopping and going slowly through the day the brightness of this unmitigated joy overwhelms anything that would seek to replace. Not just the natural things that grow – but everything. Glory to God!

And each day, is a struggle to say yes to the Grace that pours out upon us more than we can bear. Glory to God.

Read it all.

Visitors to the San Diego Natural History Museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition got a surprise treat this week: the oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments.
.
“I am just in awe,” said Mildred Hill, 81, of Carlsbad, as she stood beside the exhibit yesterday morning. Under glass was a 2,000-year-old fragment written in Hebrew from the biblical book of Deuteronomy.

“I knew they were coming, but I didn’t know if we were going to get lucky ”“ and we were,” Hill said.

Read the whole article.

Opinions on the denomination’s long-term prospects vary widely.

The Rev. John Buchanan, pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, said that while staunch conservatives and liberals are unhappy with church policy, the vast middle is satisfied.

“The people of this congregation are not at all distressed with where we are right now,” said Buchanan, a former moderator of the denomination. “And I think there are many, many more churches like that, than there are churches that are unhappy.”

Cutter takes a long view, noting the denomination’s history of splits and mergers.

“The process of union and reunion in the Presbyterian Church … has been going on for centuries,” he said. “I don’t anticipate it stopping. I anticipate there may be people that want to come back.”

But the Rev. Parker Williamson, editor emeritus of The Layman newspaper, said entire congregations are leaving, an escalation from the usual pattern of disgruntled individuals leaving on their own.

“It’s happening as bits and pieces of the church that are flying off,” Williamson said. He contends that the pace of departures is “ramping up significantly.”

The Rev. Gerrit Dawson, senior pastor of the Baton Rouge church, said his congregation hungers for theological clarity instead of the “institutionalized nebulousness” in the larger denomination.

“PCUSA is not getting better,” Dawson said. “It’s going to keep fragmenting. And we don’t want to spend the rest of our ministries doing that. There’s a world to be reached.”

Read it all.

The U.S. Episcopal Church, described more than a century ago as the “Republican Party at prayer,” is anything but that today.

The church seems determined to rip itself asunder over the role of gays and lesbians in its clergy. A tipping point came a couple of years ago when Episcopalians ordained their first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson.

Conservatives who said they had had more than enough began filing out the door, taking their congregations with them. But since they wanted to remain part of the worldwide Anglican communion, many decided to put themselves under the sponsorship of Anglican prelates in Africa.

It seemed to be the perfect solution. Last week, I visited the town in Maryland where my son-in-law is pastor of the Lutheran church. He showed me a conservative Episcopal church that created its own diocese – a diocese of one church – under alternate sponsorship.
This not only demonstrates just how deeply the passions are running among some Episcopalians. It also shows the law of unintended consequences has yet to be repealed.

Read it all.

The “survival of the world” is at stake if Muslims and Christians do not make peace with each other, leaders of the Muslim world will warn the Pope and other Christian leaders today.

In an unprecedented open letter signed by 138 leading scholars from every sect of Islam, the Muslims plead with Christian leaders “to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions” and spell out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the Koran.

Read it all.

From a proposed resolution in the Diocese of Bethlehem:

Resolution on Raising Weekly Attendance

Be it Resolved, That weekly attendance and active parishioners in the Diocese of Bethlehem have been
flat for over a decade. This is evident in the pews and in Parish and Diocesan financial health. One needs
to look no further than the Diocesan staff reductions necessary in recent years. At a parish level, giving
has not risen at the same level as expenses resulting in program or staff cutbacks, or greater use of
endowment resources. The financial health of the Diocese is in direct correlation to the financial health of
its parishes. And the financial health of a parish is in direct correlation to the growth or lack thereof in
active membership. At the same time that our income is stagnant, we are faced with necessary significant
expense increases such as health insurance and utilities. And, we have important new expenses that we
wish to fund such as the Presiding Bishop’s call to us to meet the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals and Bishop Paul’s New Hope initiative.

You can read the resolutions here. (pp. 46 – 50)

Wasiu Olasunkani drops to his knees in the sacred grove, lowers his chin to his chest and turns his palms skyward: a gesture of thanks to a traditional water goddess embodied by the massive stone idol with outstretched arms that sweep over an ancient shrine.

Olasunkani, a Muslim whose 1998 pilgrimage to Mecca fulfilled one of the five pillars of Islam, joins tens of thousands of ethnic Yoruba people each year to pray before the idol and offer libations to her mermaid-like spirit, Osun. Last year, Olasunkani beseeched the goddess for a baby. This year he’s thanking her for twin boys, Farook and Cordroy.

“If you want to get a baby, you come here and pray, and you’ll certainly have one,” said the 46-year old doctor after finishing his riverside reverie. Speaking of his fellow Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria ”” 20 million strong and roughly evenly split between Christians and Muslims ”” he says: “We’ve been doing this for centuries.”

Across West Africa, churches or mosques can be found in virtually every settlement: evidence of deep Christian and Muslim roots sown by the merchants, missionaries and slave traders who brought the religions hundreds of years ago. But also firmly settled in the red soil are indigenous practices that West Africans integrate with the foreign beliefs.

The results may sometimes seem to flout the monotheistic holy books, the Bible and Quran. But many West African faithful say their interpretations are equally valid ”” although they don’t always tell their pastors or imams.

Read it all.

“The Church of England Evangelical Council has met and considered the responses of The Episcopal Church (TEC) to the questions asked of it from the Primates”² Meeting in Tanzania. We wish to report back to the Anglican Evangelical churches we represent the results of our consultation.

We are committed to the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

We believe TEC”²s response does not meet the requests of the Primates from Dar es Salaam, not merely for clarification but for repentance and turning back from their clear intention to affirm same-sex blessings and the consecration of practising homosexuals to the episcopate. They have continued to widen a gap of their own making. As a result the fabric of the Communion is torn almost beyond repair.

We support attempts to draw the Communion back together around a covenant, but in the light of TEC”²s response this covenant may not hold. TEC has shown by its pronouncements and its practice to have placed itself outside the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the Catholic Creeds.

We support the intentions of the Common Cause Council and those bishops invited to give pastoral care for congregations in the United States.

We support those Bishops who have said that under the present arrangements they cannot attend the Lambeth Conference. We invite those English dioceses who are twinned with dioceses and provinces overseas to consult with their companion dioceses about whether to attend the Lambeth Conference. We prayerfully counsel Church of England bishops to consider whether in the light of TEC”²s response they may wish to absent themselves.

Jesus Christ unites people from different races, cultures, economic groups, genders and sexual inclinations into a true inclusivity based on repentance, faith and the gift of the Spirit. This is the true diversity of the transforming gospel. In effect TEC”²s approach to inclusiveness excludes the majority of Anglicans from other provinces who are faithful to Biblical teaching. We affirm as the will of God the biblical teaching that we are called either to heterosexual marriage or celibacy.

We wish to uphold the Primates in our prayers as they receive TEC”²s response and as they work for the health of the Anglican Communion.”

Bishop John Chapman of Ottawa said Friday that regardless of the outcome of a motion asking him to allow same-sex blessings in the diocese he expects clergy and laity to “continue their work and ministry embracing our differences rather than fretting over them.”

In the bishop’s charge during an opening eucharist of the 125th session of the diocesan synod of Ottawa, Bishop Chapman explained that the motion on same-sex blessings is asking the bishop, not the diocese, to decide on whether same-gender unions should be allowed.

The synod is expected to debate and act on the motion before the end of its two-day synod Saturday, Oct. 13. It is the first diocese to consider the matter since the triennial General Synod, the Anglican Church of Canada’s national governing body, agreed in June that same-sex blessings are “not in conflict” with core church doctrine, but declined by a slim margin to affirm the authority of dioceses to offer them.

“The motion is asking the synod of the diocese of Ottawa to make a recommendation to the bishop regarding the blessing of those civilly married according to the laws of the government of Ontario,” said Bishop Chapman. “Please be aware that this motion is calling for a recommendation in the positive or in the negative. The diocese is not being asked to make the decision.”

Read it all.

The bitter dispute ripping apart the social fabric of Ocean Grove, N.J., a lovely Victorian enclave 40 miles south of Manhattan, began simply enough. Long-time residents Harriet Bernstein, 65, a retired schoolteacher, and Luisa Paster, 60, a Princeton University staff developer, wanted to celebrate their civil union on the town’s boardwalk pavilion. The ceremony would have been legal, since New Jersey in 2004 had become the fifth state in the nation to recognize homosexual civil unions.

But Ocean Grove isn’t just any pretty town. Founded as a Methodist camp in 1869, it was the first permanent camp meeting dedicated to the pursuit of both holiness and recreation, according to historian Troy Messenger, author of “Holy Leisure: Recreation & Religion in God’s Square Mile.”

Ocean Grove has remained a religious retreat for its entire existence. Its leaders adhere to the Methodist Book of Discipline, which warns that “ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.” Thus, says executive director Scott Hoffman, they cannot permit the civil union ceremony. “We own 100% of the land, including parks, beach, boardwalk, and a thousand feet of riparian rights, granted by the state. We worship on the boardwalk, and cannot allow activity in opposition to our deeply held religious beliefs.”

This conflict is interesting both for what it says about the country’s current debate over civil unions and for what it might indicate about the direction the law will take in the future. The collision here is between an assertion of civil rights by the couple and an assertion of freedom of religion by the Methodists.

Read it all.

When we talk about “the family Bible,” that usually refers to an ornate edition resting on a coffee table or a dusty heirloom carefully stored away.

But for the Lamberts, the family Bible has been a bit more utilitarian.

It’s just a small thing ”“ a pocket-sized New Testament and Psalms ”“ worn and frayed with use.

And what incredible use.

Clarence Lambert, 85, received the Bible during World War II. He was a 21-year-old Navy cook on a remote Alaskan island.

He and an Army chaplain hit it off. Homesick for Dallas, Clarence enjoyed hearing Lt. L.J. Gray talk about his home in Stratford, Okla.

In one of their visits, Lt. Gray presented Clarence with a small Gideon Bible ”“ a standard military issue.

Though nothing special in appearance, it meant the world to Clarence. “When you’re as young as I was then and that far from home, a Bible meant a lot,” he said.

Read it all.

An interesting discussion (and do follow all the links).

Sir, ”” Today, Sunday 6 October, there have been a number of news bulletins on the BBC about the wearing of dog collars by the clergy.

While I appreciate the real concern of National Church Watch about clergy safety when visibly seen to be clergy, I wonder if the respect of the public might improve a bit if the use of the unpleasant and derogatory term “dog collar” was ended. Personally, not having been into punk, I have never worn a dog collar and I imagine they would be most impractical in combination with robes.

Let us end the use of this term and call the collar what it is ”” a clerical collar. If we are all consistent in using this term, people will come to understand what we mean, and will perhaps see us less as objects for making fun of or being violent to.

–The Rev. Beverley Hollins in a letter to the editor in today’s Church Times

By George Conger

THE NEW Orleans statement of the US House of Bishops has ”˜clarified all outstanding questions’ posed by the Primates to the American Church, a report prepared by the Primates/ACC Joint Standing Committee (JSC) has found.

However, the 19-page report has been dismissed as dishonest by US conservatives, and its conclusions rejected by the African churches. Observers note the clumsy attempt of the JSC to usurp the prerogatives of the Primates, and to become a de facto fifth ”˜instrument of unity,’ has served to worsen the already bitter climate within the Communion.

The Primates had asked the US Church to clarify the statement of its 2006 General Convention that it would not permit the election of more gay bishops or authorise gay blessings, that an autonomous scheme for pastoral oversight be given to traditionalists, and that the lawsuits against breakaway conservative parishes would cease.

At their March meeting the US bishops invited Dr Williams and the members of the Primates Standing Committee to meet with them face-to-face to avert a blow up. Over the summer this invitation was enlarged by the ACC staff to include itself and the ACC standing committee. In New Orleans the US Bishops pledged ”˜as a body’ to ”˜exercise restraint’ in electing gay bishops, pledged not to authorise ”˜public rites’ of same-sex blessings, and agreed to delegated pastoral oversight for traditionalists under the supervision of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. It declined to address the issue of lawsuits, and chastised Global South Primates for violating their jurisdictions in providing support for traditionalist congregations.

The JSC concluded that this response satisfied the Primates’ requests and added the US was correct in citing the ”˜ancient councils of the Church’ in protesting border crossings. The Primates were hypocrites in demanding the US church refrain from implementing gay bishops and blessings while they permitted the border crossings to go on. “[W]e do not see how certain Primates can in good conscience call upon The Episcopal Church to meet the recommendations of the Windsor Report while they find reasons to exempt themselves from paying
regard to them.

“We recommend that the Archbishop remind them of their own words and undertakings,” the report said.

Crafted in a late night session on Sept 24 by Bishop Jefferts Schori and the JSC, the statement was adopted with amendments by the bishops on Sept 25. Critics of the report charge it is disingenuous of the ACC to give an independent endorsement of a report that it helped write, and question the US Presiding Bishop’s role as defendant, judge and jury in the process.

Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda called the report ”˜severely compromised, and the gross conflicts of interest it represents utterly undermine its credibility.’ He said the Primates did not envision the ACC inserting itself in the process while the US was ”˜considering our requests. Yet, members of the [JSC] met with Presiding Bishop Schori in the course of the preparation
of their House of Bishops’ statement in order to suggest certain words, which, if included in the statement, would assure endorsement by the [JSC].

”˜Presiding Bishop Schori’s participation in the evaluation of the response requested of her province is a gross conflict of interest. We wonder why she did not recuse herself.’ Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, a member of the JSC delegation in New Orleans repudiated the report saying the US had given an inadequate response. “Instead they used ambiguous language and contradicted themselves within their own response,” he said.

The African archbishops also questioned the integrity of the JSC report, stating last Friday that: “On first reading we find it to be unsatisfactory. The assurances made are without credibility and its preparation is severely compromised by numerous conflicts of interest. The report itself appears to be a determined effort to find a way for the full inclusion of The Episcopal Church with no attempt at discipline or change from their prior position.”

The JSC report will be forwarded to all of the members of the Anglican Consultative Council and the primates for consideration. Archbishop Rowan Williams has asked for
their responses by the end of October.

–This article appears on page 8 of today’s edition of the Church of England Newspaper

If anyone thinks the Episcopal Church actually intended in New Orleans to abide by any kind of slow down on the march to fully authorized rites for SSB’s, resolutions like this may cause them to think again. Here’s proposed resolution 5 in the diocese of Northern California:

Supporting Same-Gender Relationships of Mutuality and Fidelity

Resolved: That this 97th Convention of the Diocese of Northern California, desiring to support our sisters and brothers in Christ who are in same-gender relationships of mutuality and fidelity, and desiring to provide clergy with appropriate pastoral tools for ministering to persons in same-gender relationships, calls upon General Convention of the Episcopal Church to develop and authorize same-sex union blessing rites.

The Convention is Nov. 10 – 11. You can read all the resolutions here.