Specifically we will vote against, and we urge you all to vote against, the propositions which purport to amend our diocesan constitution and canons and the resolution regarding membership in the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. Those of us who will remain in the Episcopal Church respectfully but profoundly disagree that passage of these propositions will in fact “remove” the Diocese itself, as well as church property in the diocese, from the Episcopal Church.
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1. The propositions are invalid because they are inconsistent with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, such as the requirements that each diocese maintain an unqualified accession to the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and for church officials to act consistently with their fiduciary duty to the Episcopal Church, including recognition of the express trust interest of the Episcopal Church in church property.

2. The propositions violate the fundamental conditions under which the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was created from within the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas and by which the new diocese assumed the use of and control over Episcopal Church property. These conditions include conformity with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church, as our diocesan officials expressly acknowledged in the primary convention of the diocese in 1982 and as they have judicially admitted on behalf of the Diocese in the declaratory judgment entered in 1984 and again in the Holy Apostles litigation in the mid 1990s.

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“Senator Obama built a substantial lead early and was able to maintain it throughout the race,” Barna explained. “Just when it appeared that he might win in a landslide, Senator McCain chose Governor Palin as his running mate, and that at least got the unmotivated conservative Christian vote on board. But the election clearly showed that a winning coalition requires more than just evangelical voters. George W. Bush rode to victory twice on the backs of the born again population. But Sen. McCain fared relatively poorly among the non-evangelical born again segment and was unable to compensate by replacing them with a large enough group of ideological moderates.”

Barna noted that in 2008, traditional issues did not energize the right. “There was substantial issue fatigue related to the moral issues that usually rev up the troops on the right. Although the candidates had very distinct and dissimilar views on moral issues such as abortion and gay marriage, those differences were not deal breakers for most voters. Voters are tired of fighting battles that seem interminable. And in a year when there were so many other significant crises and conflicts to consider, people’s focus shifted away from the usual throat-wringing issues.”

This may also have been a turning point for future elections. “It’s possible that the Catholic vote has now returned to the Democratic fold until another Ronald Reagan emerges to lead the Republicans. And ethnic voters flexed their muscle and came away with a win. Who would have suspected that African-Americans and Hispanics would have forged a bulletproof alliance? But they did this time around, and if Senator Obama fulfills his promise and his promises, then 2008 might have birthed a very significant new voting bloc for the future – one that is already 30% of the population and growing.”

Some different material here than that found elsewhere, so worth perusing.

Clergy and lay delegates of the Fort Worth Episcopal Diocese, which is theologically conservative, voted overwhelmingly Saturday to leave the Episcopal Church, which is more liberal.

The vote by 219 valid delegates was nearly 80 percent in favor of leaving. The vote was taken at St. Vincent’s Episcopal Cathedral in Bedford, where a vote also is scheduled on whether to temporarily align with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, a conservative entity that includes parts of South America.

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Delegates to the 26th annual diocesan convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth voted Saturday to realign the diocese with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

With little debate or emotion, delegates voted by order, 73 votes in favor, 20 against, among clergy and 98-28 among the laity for realignment. After the vote Bishop Jack Iker read a letter from Archbishop Gregory Venables, welcoming Fort Worth into the Southern Cone.

In a statement, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said after the vote that the church “grieves the departures of a number of persons from the Diocese of Fort Worth. We remind those former Episcopalians that the door is open if they wish to return.

“We will work with Episcopalians in the Diocese of Fort Worth to elect new leadership and continue the work of the gospel in that part of Texas. The gospel work to which Jesus calls us demands the best efforts of faithful people from many theological and social perspectives, and The Episcopal Church will continue to welcome that diversity.”

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I realize that for some of you this means that at the conclusion of this Convention, you will no longer recognize me as your Bishop and that the House of Bishops of TEC will initiate plans to depose me as a Bishop of TEC. However, it is important to understand what such an action can do and what it cannot do. I cannot be un-ordained any more than I can be un-baptized. Holy Orders, like Holy Baptism, bestows an indelible character and imparts a grace that is irrevocable. A deacon, priest or bishop who is deposed may be deprived of exercising his ordained ministry in congregations of The Episcopal Church, but he is not thereby un-ordained or removed from Holy Orders. The clergy of this Diocese were ordained not just for The Episcopal Church, but for the one holy catholic and apostolic church. We are deacons, priests and bishops of the Church of God, not an American denomination. As the Preface to the Ordination Rites says on page 510 of the Prayer Book, “The threefold ministry is not the exclusive property of this portion of Christ’s catholic Church.” I can assure you that all the clergy of this Diocese, under the authority and protection of the Province of the Southern Cone, will continue to exercise our ordained ministry as deacons, priests and bishops in good standing in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Our Province will change, but the validity of our sacred orders will remain unchanged.

I am certain that in the months ahead, leaders of TEC will move to depose not only me, but every deacon and priest here present who votes for realignment at this Convention. Sad to say, some of you here in this Convention hall will cooperate with and facilitate those plans. It is my belief that such a course of action is not only unreasonable and uncharitable, but violates our ecclesiological understanding of what the Anglican Communion claims to be. If we are a worldwide Communion of Provinces who share a common faith, practice and ministry, then it does not make sense to depose clergy who move from one Province to another. No one is abandoning the Communion of the Church by realigning with another Province. The far better way to proceed would be for TEC to accept the fact that a realignment has occurred, to recognize the transfer of this Diocese to another Province of the Anglican Communion, and to wish us well in the name of the Lord. There is something deeply disturbing about a Church that would prefer to litigate and depose rather than to negotiate a peaceful, amicable separation among brothers and sisters in Christ who can no longer walk together.

I call upon the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and her colleagues to halt the litigation, to stop the depositions, and to cease the intimidation of traditional believers. Instead, let us pursue a mediated settlement, a negotiated agreement that provides for a fair and equitable solution for all parties, and let us resist taking punitive actions against our opponents. Christians are called to work out our differences with one another, not sue one another in secular courts.

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The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth follows the California-based Diocese of San Joaquin as well as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Quincy, Illinois, in disassociating itself from the Episcopal Church.

IRD Religious Liberty Director Faith J.H. McDonnell commented:

“Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has stated that the worst is behind the denomination. Saying so ignores the continued departure of parishes, and even more so, the decline in Sunday attendance.

“Suing four different dioceses simultaneously is going to be the least of Jefferts Schori’s problems if Episcopalians continue to die off, stop going to church or leave for more vibrant communities of worship.

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Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the landmark U.N. document still is not respected fully around the world, said a top Vatican official.

“Unfortunately nowhere in the world, even among (countries) that have embraced, promoted and highlighted this declaration,” are all its articles observed, said Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The cardinal spoke Nov. 13 at a Vatican press conference detailing events the Vatican will sponsor Dec. 10 to commemorate the anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly’s adoption of the declaration in 1948.

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[Henry] Paulson says the department plans to expand its efforts to ease the credit crunch, but his strategy for the remaining $400 billion or so in TARP may not do the trick either. In particular, we’re skeptical of Paulson’s plans to invest in credit-supplying institutions that aren’t banks — for example, giant insurance company American International Group received a $40-billion investment from TARP — and to address problems in more types of debt markets, including credit card and student-loan debt. As the Center for American Progress points out, the biggest issuers of credit card debt are bank holding companies that have already dined at the TARP trough. And the U.S. Department of Education has already agreed to provide a secondary market for student loans.

The most welcome change that Paulson promised was to use a portion of TARP to avert foreclosures in some unspecified way. That effort may prove to be as weak as the administration’s other initiatives to help homeowners, but at least it’s aimed at the root of the credit crisis.

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A website launched Friday with the backing of technology industry and Hollywood elite urges people worldwide to help craft a framework for harmony between all religions.

The Charter for Compassion project on the Internet at www.charterforcompassion.org springs from a “wish” granted this year to religious scholar Karen Armstrong at a premier Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in California.

“Tedizens” include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with other Internet icons as well as celebrities such as Forest Whittaker and Cameron Diaz.

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No googling or using references, etc. Who is the only American writer to win an Academy award, a Tony award, and the Pulitzer prize. I didn’t know and wondered if you did–KSH.

I will be speaking at a seminar at this major event this morning which draws hundreds of youth from throughout the diocese. Please pray for the gathering, the speakers, Bishop Lawrence, and especially the participants. if you have a moment, check out the homepage of the youth minstry in the diocese of South Carolina. They do fantastic work–KSH.

The Reverend Robert Stocksdale of St. Andrew’s Church in Meriden, voted in favor of the [diocesan] resolution.

“I would like for us to have the ability to chose,” he said. “I don’t think Jesus would turn away anyone.”

Turn people away from doing what, exactly? Or does Jesus not care what people do. There is that rich young ruler gentleman, for example, whom Jesus let walk away. And for a reason too. Read it all.

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, is expected today to become the fourth theologically conservative diocese to break away from the national Episcopal Church, part of a long-running dispute between conservatives and liberals.

The debate among the 2.2 million members of the U.S. Episcopal Church has raged over issues ranging from interpretations of the Bible to ordination of gay priests and blessing of same-sex unions.

The vote will be held today during Fort Worth’s 26th annual diocesan convention. It is expected that 80 percent of the delegates will vote to leave, reflecting a vote held last year, part of a long “discernment” process, Bishop Jack Iker explained.

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Lanette Carpenter can’t say enough about the people of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hurst, especially choir members she has sung with for years.

“They’ve walked with me through the best and worst times of my life,” she said.

But the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, including St. Stephen’s, is to break officially from the Episcopal Church today, becoming the fourth diocese in the nation to leave since last year over such issues as the ordination of female priests and the acceptance of an openly gay bishop.

Though Ms. Carpenter doesn’t agree with everything the Episcopal Church does, she loves it, and doesn’t want to leave.

So on Sunday, she and other Episcopal Church loyalists from St. Stephen’s plan to hold services at a local women’s club.

“It’s like a man and woman getting a divorce, and now they have to have two households,” she said. “It saddens me greatly.”

Read it all. This is not mainly over “social” issues, but theological ones, the nature, authority and intepretation of the Bible, how the church makes decisions, marriage, Christology and yes, even soteriology, the nature and means of salvation.

A vote this weekend will determine where Wichita Falls’ Episcopalians sit in church Sunday.

Disagreements that have been festering for years in the Episcopal Church will be addressed today and Saturday at the annual convention of the Diocese of Fort Worth at St. Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford, Texas.

The published agenda includes a vote on a constitutional amendment that would remove the Fort Worth diocese ”” including its church property in the diocese ”” from the Episcopal Church and tuck it under the South American-based Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, a realignment under the branch of the church that is headquartered in Argentina.

Who will own the actual buildings in Wichita Falls ”” All Saints Episcopal at 2606 Southwest Parkway, Church of the Good Shepherd at 1007 Burnett, and St. Stephen’s Episocopal Church at 5023 Lindale Drive near Rider High School ”” is in question and may require a court to decide, officials say.

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Finally, the outlines of a coherent debate on the federal bailout. This comes as welcome relief from a campaign season that gave us the House Republicans’ know-nothing rejectionism, John McCain’s mindless railing against “greed and corruption,” and Barack Obama’s detached enunciation of vacuous bailout “principles” that allowed him to be all things to all people.

Now clarity is emerging. The fault line is the auto industry bailout. The Democrats are pushing hard for it. The White House is resisting.

Underlying the policy differences is a philosophical divide. The Bush administration sees the $700 billion rescue as an emergency measure to save the financial sector on the grounds that finance is a utility. No government would let the electric companies go under and leave the country without power. By the same token, government must save the financial sector lest credit dry up and strangle the rest of the economy.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is willing to stretch the meaning of “bank” by extending protection to such entities as American Express. But fundamentally, he sees government as saving institutions that deal in money, not other stuff.

Democrats have a larger canvas, with government intervening in other sectors of the economy to prevent the cascade effect of mass unemployment leading to more mortgage defaults and business failures (as consumer spending plummets), in turn dragging down more businesses and financial institutions, producing more unemployment, etc. — the death spiral of the 1930s.

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Happy-Go-Lucky starring Sally Hawkins. Elizabeth and I saw it last night. Terriific. Ideal for adult small groups to go see and discuss, or for you to go to with friends and discuss. Thought-provoking, moving, funny and touching. Put it on your list–KSH.

THE ARCHBISHOP of Jerusalem and the Middle East has welcomed Dr Rowan Williams’ decision to hold the 2009 Primates’ Meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, telling The Church of England Newspaper the witness of Egypt’s embattled Christians in the face of persecution can serve to strengthen the Anglican Communion.

While the agenda and locale remain to be settled, the Bishop of Egypt, Dr Mouneer Anis, said he was proud to be able to host the conference. However, suggestions by the Archbishop of Canterbury that he would use the Indaba process to manage the Primates’ Meeting has prompted private scorn from the primates contacted by CEN, and public criticism from evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics unhappy with the ”˜manipulation’ and management of the Indaba process at Lambeth.

“I want [the primates] to see, to feel the history of the Church as they walk through Alexandria,” Dr Anis said on Nov 11. For in Alexandria one “steps in the blood of the saints shed in obedience to the faith, a faith that has been watered by the blood of the martyrs.”

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For most of October, more than 200 Catholic bishops, along with sundry theologians and experts, met at the Vatican to figure out how to get Catholics to read the Bible — a project easily dismissed by Protestants and some Catholics as too ambitious and about 500 years too late. After all, wasn’t it Rome’s fears about letting mere lay people consult Holy Writ that stoked the Reformation? And Catholics don’t want to read the Bible anyway, right? They’re all about the Mass and the sacraments.

The first supposition has some merit, though the truth is a good deal more complex, and the Reformers — pace, Martin Luther — a good deal less enlightened on that score than is generally assumed. And, yes, Catholics continue to be sacramentally centered Christians who find the “summit and source” of their spiritual nourishment in the Eucharist.

But a funny thing happened on the way to modernity: The Catholic Church opened itself to the Word in a way it hadn’t done before. In the process, it fostered a balanced culture of biblical exegesis and devotion (at least among most scholars and clerics) that many in sola scriptura Protestantism might envy. Especially in light of trends in mainline denominations that foster a radical deconstruction of biblical texts on the one hand, or, on the other hand, a blinkered literalism that appeals to many conservative pew-sitters.

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One year ago, economists were worried about inflation. Now, they are worried about deflation ”” prices for everything from corn to soybeans to gold are falling. While it might seem like lower prices could be a good thing, unchecked deflation can bring economic activity to a standstill. Economists say the risks of deflation should not be ignored.

Listen to it all from NPR.

The Rt. Rev. Charles E. Bennison, Jr., Bishop of Pennsylvania, has expressed remorse for the emotional trauma inflicted on a teenage girl who was sexually abused by his brother at a California parish where Bishop Bennison served as the rector in the 1970s. But he maintains the charges against him “are not fair and are not true.”

A nine-member church court ruled unanimously in October that Bishop Bennison should be deposed from ministry in The Episcopal Church for failure to report his brother and to protect the girl.

“This was a terrible, monstrous sin,” Bishop Bennison told The Living Church. “I have always expressed remorse for my direct responsibility in this tragedy, especially hiring my brother as the youth director, inadequately supervising him and not thoroughly investigating the situation when it was first brought to my attention in 1976.”

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Delegates to the Diocese of Fort Worth’s annual synod will decide this Saturday whether to quit the Episcopal Church, a move which would make it the fourth American diocese to secede and affiliate with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.

The stronghold of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Episcopal Church, Fort Worth has long been at odds with the Episcopal Church over innovations of doctrine and discipline championed by its liberal hierarchy. One of only three dioceses that did not ordain or license women clergy, Fort Worth now remains alone within the American church in rejecting women’s orders, after Quincy quit this past week and San Joaquin left in 2007.

Fort Worth bishop the Rt Rev Jack L Iker said he was “confident” the second reading of the secession bill would pass this week’s synod on Nov 15. The “only question is by how much” he told ReligiousIntelligence.com.

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Since the stock market began to fall, friends have been coming to Barbara Goldsmith to talk about their depression, loss of appetite, insomnia and cravings for hot fudge sundaes.

“People are grieving,” said Ms. Goldsmith, a semiretired psychotherapist who counsels fellow residents of the Gleneagles Country Club, a gated community here. “There was a death. Their money died.”

In communities like Gleneagles and in the homes of retirees across the country, these are days of fear and uncertainty. In theory, retired people are not supposed to invest much in the stock market; in reality, many millions of them do. With the economy in free fall and stocks down about 40 percent this year, legions of middle- and upper-middle-class people are suddenly worried about having enough to carry them through.

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Early prospects for a revival of consumer spending do not look encouraging. The Pew Research Center reports a sharp increase in the number of people planning to rein in their spending. And more people say Americans should learn to live with less.

It is hard to overestimate the impact of the decline in consumer spending, which has represented 70 percent of America’s gross domestic product. Undoubtedly, there will be a recovery. But America may no longer be the wonder of the world as the greatest shop-until-you-drop nation.

Read or listen to it all.

THE Revd Teresa Davies, a former Team Vicar in the Daventry Team Min­istry, in the diocese of Peter­borough, was this week prohibited from ordained ministry for 12 years by a tribunal under the Clergy Discipline Measure.

The tribunal upheld complaints that Mrs Davies and her husband had an open sexual relationship, and that she had taken services while under the influence of alcohol. Mrs Davies was found to have acted in a manner unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in holy orders.

The tribunal, which met in September in London, heard that Mrs Davies had told clergy colleagues at a Christmas lunch in December 2006 that she and her husband Mick took holidays in an area in the south of France noted for the casual exchange of sexual partners.

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Gov. Mark Sanford and I agree that the current problems that our state faces are severe. We also agree that the problems are preventable in the future if we take action now. The states are different than the federal government in dealing with downturns in the economy since they cannot print extra money and most cannot run deficits. Where we disagree is how to accomplish what needs to be done. The governor and some in the House want to impose statutory limitations on spending the money that comes in. I, and others in the Senate, want to impose spending limitations in our state constitution. This is not just a stylistic difference. I believe that it is the difference between success and failure.

The problem that we face is that in good times as much money is spent as comes in. State programs are started and expanded, growing the size and appetite of government. Then, when an inevitable downturn in the economy comes, those programs have to be cut in size. It becomes a perpetual rollercoaster of spending and cutting. It is also an approach that cannot be solved by vetoes. What we need is a systemic fix of the budgeting process.

This is but one illustration of the state government struggles nationwide–read it all.

In the week since, California has seen an outpouring of demonstrations ranging from quiet vigils to noisy street protests against Proposition 8, including rallies outside churches and the Mormon temple in Westwood as well as boycotts of some businesses that contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Many of those activities have been organized not by political professionals and established leaders in the gay community, but by young activists working independently on Facebook and MySpace.

The grass-roots activism is a tribute to political organizing in the digital age, in which it is possible to mobilize thousands of people with a few clicks of a mouse. It has generated national attention — and set up a series of Saturday demonstrations that organizers hope will attract tens of thousands of people to city halls throughout California.

But the demonstrations also have raised questions about whether the in-your-face approach will alienate voters, who may be asked one day to approve gay marriage. Twice in the last eight years, voters have rejected it.

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Treasury Notice 2008-83 went virtually unnoticed as the government rushed to cope with the emerging financial crisis in September. And that seems to have been the point. With no public discussion, the Treasury Department gave banks a huge chunk of money ”” as much as $140 billion, by one estimate ”” by changing a tax law that had been in place, and the subject of relentless lobbying, for 22 years.

Even by today’s deficit-be-damned standards, that’s a lot of your money. It’s the size of the economic stimulus plan President Bush proposed last winter. It would repair and modernize all of America’s bridges. And it’s on top of the $700 billion financial rescue plan approved by Congress.

Tax regulations are hideously complicated, but the gist of Notice 2008-83 is that it lets healthy banks buy weak ones and take big write-offs for the weak banks’ losses. At least three banks have already taken advantage of the change. So taxpayers are funding their growth, and unlike other aspects of the bailout, they will get no return.

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A priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown Greenville has told parishioners that those who voted for Barack Obama placed themselves under divine judgment because of his stance on abortion and should not receive Holy Communion until they’ve done penance.

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman told The Greenville News on Wednesday that church teaching doesn’t allow him to refuse Holy Communion to anyone based on political choices, but that he’ll continue to deliver the church’s strong teaching on the “intrinsic and grave evil of abortion” as a hidden form of murder.

Both Democratic president-elect Obama and Joe Biden, the vice president-elect, support legal abortions. Obama has called it a “divisive issue” with a “moral dimension,” and has pledged to make women’s rights under Roe v. Wade a “priority” as president. He opposes a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court decision.

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