Stephen Kent: Well I too was pleasantly surprised by the book, especially given all the sometimes rocky pre-publication publicity it received. What struck me most about the book actually Morton’s discussion about the behind-the-scenes negotiations that went on involving Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Certainly a lot of us who observe Scientology wondered whether Kidman caused a problem for Scientology, because in part, her father is a psychologist, and also in part she never really seemed to be that committed. What I did not realise however was the extent to which the organisation apparently involved itself in that relationship.

Stephen Crittenden: They were there at the beginning, helping to set the marriage up. They were there when the children were being adopted, and they were there at the end when the marriage was falling apart.

Stephen Kent: It’s a very good observation. And it’s the case that many people take on the veneer of a partner’s marriage just for practical purposes and don’t internalise that particular faith, and that seems to be the pattern that Nicole Kidman followed. But of course her relationship with her parents, particularly her father, was going to be an ongoing problem. Scientology’s antipathy towards the mental health profession, psychiatry, but also psychology, is long-standing and well-known.

Stephen Crittenden: And what about Andrew Morton’s statement that Tom Cruise is the No.2 figure in Scientology; was that news to you?

Stephen Kent: I hadn’t thought of it in the way that Andrew Morton framed it, and his framing was something along the lines that Tom Cruise is the No.2 person. Now certainly in an organisational sense, that claim is just not true, but it may be true in the context of the prestige that Tom Cruise has for other Scientologists, and from that standpoint Morton’s statement made a great deal of sense.

Stephen Crittenden: A couple of other things that struck me in Andrew Morton’s book: one is that Tom Cruise appears to have gone through the same step-by-step initiation process that everyone else in Scientology goes through.

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Consider what $20 will buy at your local grocery store.

Now consider that for the same $20 you could provide 100 meals to people living in an impoverished country.

Grace Episcopal Church is once again teaming up with Stop Hunger Now to provide 50,000 meals to people in need.

SHN is a nonprofit, international relief organization committed to ending hunger worldwide. The organization provides direct emergency food and other life-saving aid in crisis areas. SHN is headquartered in Raleigh and has provided more than $100 million of aid to more than 55 countries. Grace Episcopal first partnered with SHN in 2006.

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While many 18- and 19-year-olds await word from colleges, one of their peers has been accepted to a university ”” as a professor. Just days before her 19th birthday, Alia Sabur was hired to teach cell science at Konkuk University in South Korea.

Listen to it all from NPR.

Leaving aside the obvious problems with such a claim, let us, for the sake of discussion, simply grant it. One would think that–simply for the sake of appearances, to say nothing of legal strategy–it would then be in 815’s best interests to establish as much continuity as possible between the “new” DSJ–i.e. the one configured at the Lodi convention of March 29 of this year–and the “old” DSJ, that is, the one that was spun off as a Missionary District from the Diocese of California 97 years ago. One would think that it would be in the best interest of the Presiding Bishop and her counsel to be able to credibly say, “Several individuals have left, but the diocese remains. Look: We have retained eleven congregations, including the three largest ones, representing over half of the average Sunday attendance of the diocese. We have retained the most senior clergy, and six of the eight members of the Standing Committee, who have assured us that once Bishop Schofield resigns or is lawfully deposed, they will step in and perform their canonical duty. The Diocese of San Joaquin is still vital, diverse, and financially viable without any outside help.”

The ability to say all of this was within 815’s grasp. But, for reasons that I could only speculate about, they looked a Public Relations gift horse in the mouth and sent it packing. They rejected continuity, and chose instead to confect a new DSJ out of whole cloth, with only a little decorative embroidery from had come before. The fact that there is not the shred of a canonical basis for doing what they have done seems to count for nothing; what’s new is new and what’s done is done. The rule of law has been thrown under the bus of expediency.

The irony in all of this, and the actual point of this post, is that, in rejecting the path of maximum continuity, maximum numerical strength, and maximum credibility in the eyes a watching Anglican world, 815 has undercut its own Prime Directive than “only individuals can leave.” By their actions in electing to start over from scratch, they have tacitly admitted that the Diocese of San Joaquin did, in fact, leave the Episcopal Church. Why else would they have taken such pains to invent a new one–a new one that is every bit as ideologically monochrome as they accuse the old one of being, a new one that has retained not even a vestige of institutional or administrative continuity with the old one, and a new one that is wholly dependent on 815’s financial largesse and will, in effect, be a client diocese for as long as it is allowed to exist?

Apparently, dioceses can leave the Episcopal Church. One just did, and they made a new one to replace it.

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The Most Revd Gregory James Venables
Rioja 2995,1636 Olivos,
Province of Buenos Aires,
B1636DMG , Argentina

My Brother in Christ:

In this Easter Season I greet you in the name of our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

It has come to my attention that you will be participating in the Anglican Network in Canada conference, “Compelled by Christ’s Love” taking place in Vancouver, B.C., April 25-26,2008. Your visit to Canada is without any reference to or consent from my office or that of the Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster. This represents a breach in what is considered normative in protocol among Primates and Bishops throughout the Communion.

I brought this matter before the House of Bishops meeting in Niagara Falls, Ont., last week. While we recognized that your motivation may be pastoral, there was a strong consensus that your visit at this time will further harm the strained relations between the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Network in Canada.

The Bishops believe that we have made adequate and appropriate provision for the pastoral care and Episcopal support of all members of the Anglican Church of Canada, including those who find themselves in conscientious disagreement with the view of their Bishop and Synod over matters of human sexuality.

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But the one thing which will be remembered above all after the visit of this very different Pope to the United States is the simple word “sorry”. The Holy Father recognised that there was no way he could celebrate the essence of his own faith amongst new friends without first offering a deep and profound apology for previous wrongs- and particularly to the victims of terrible abuse by representatives of his own church in former times.

The protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults is now a massive priority for any organisation working with and for them. And whilst the putting in place of stringent measures to protect children in the future is admirable – we cannot forget those who have suffered terribly in the past and who still bear the scares of previous wrongdoing.

By saying sorry so openly and unequivocally, Pope Benedict’s confession and appeal for forgiveness has obviously rallied many Americans behind him and given millions of Christians a basic reminder of how true repentance can lead to a fresh start. There’s no room for complacency but there’s certainly an opportunity to live out perhaps the most famous prayer of all: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.

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Jay Leno recently made fun of a commercial for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, in which she referred to playing pinochle as a child at her grandfather’s lake house in Pennsylvania.

“Pinochle?” Mr. Leno said quizzically to his late-night audience. “Well, that’ll help with the young voters, huh? I mean, come on. What kids aren’t playing pinochle now?”

The joke about the old card game captured a truth about this year’s Democratic primary: Mrs. Clinton has generally bypassed younger voters. And they have bypassed her, flocking instead to her rival, Senator Barack Obama. At the same time, she has attracted older voters, those who grew up in the pre-Internet era and might actually have played pinochle.

In a campaign where demographics seem to be destiny, one of the most striking factors is the segregation of voters by age. In state after state, older voters have formed a core constituency for Mrs. Clinton, who is 60, while younger voters have coalesced around Mr. Obama, who is 46. Age has been one of the most consistent indicators of how someone might vote ”” more than sex, more than income, more than education. Only race is a stronger predictor of voting than age, and then only if a voter is black, not if he or she is white.

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Gasoline prices surpassed $3.50 a gallon nationwide for the first time and oil jumped to a record on Monday as the long rise of energy prices showed little evidence of giving way to recession fears.

The national average price for regular gasoline is up 22 percent from a year earlier, according to AAA, the automobile club. Some analysts expect it to approach $4 a gallon this summer, when demand is at a peak. Diesel fuel prices reached a record $4.20 a gallon on Monday, on average, compared with $2.93 a gallon a year earlier.

In trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil for next-month delivery settled Monday at $117.48 a barrel, up 79 cents, a new high. Oil prices have more than quadrupled in the last five years, and some analysts say that oil will reach $125 a barrel this year.

The latest rise in energy prices was prompted by reports that a Nigerian rebel group had blown up pipelines in the Niger Delta. An earlier attack on a pipeline, last week, forced Royal Dutch Shell to curtail exports by 169,000 barrels a day.

Because there is little spare capacity worldwide and supplies are tight, slight disruptions in oil production anywhere can push up prices.

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At least 30 people were shot over the weekend in Chicago. Six died. Authorities point to the usual culprits ”” gang warfare and easy access to guns. Police had just released statistics showing the city’s murder rate fell in March compared to a year earlier.

listen to it all from NPR.

(ENS) Episcopal Church House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson has asked diocesan General Convention deputations to find ways to comment to their bishops about the second draft of the proposed Anglican covenant.

Anderson made her request in an April 21 letter emailed to all deputies and first alternate deputies. The full text of the letter is below.

“We are told that the bishops at the Lambeth Conference will not be making a decision on the Anglican covenant, nor will they be ratifying any draft of the covenant,” Anderson wrote, reminding deputies that “the only body with authority to commit the Episcopal Church to an Anglican covenant is the General Convention in which bishops, priests and deacons and lay persons share authority.”

Thus, she wrote, “the input of the clergy and laity of the Episcopal Church is especially important as the Anglican Communion considers the development of a covenant.”

“In the Episcopal Church the belief that God speaks uniquely through bishops, laity, priests and deacons, enables our participatory structure and allows a fullness of revelation and insight that must not be lost in this important time of discernment,” Anderson wrote. “The joint work of the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops is the highest institutional expression of this belief. It is thus crucially important that our bishops go to Lambeth with a sense of where their General Convention deputations (and their diocese) are with respect to the current state of the Anglican covenant.”

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MARIKO Watanabe admits she could have chosen a better time to take up baking. This week, when the Tokyo housewife visited her local Ito-Yokado supermarket to buy butter to make a cake, she found the shelves bare.

“I went to another supermarket, and then another, and there was no butter at those either. Everywhere I went there were notices saying Japan has run out of butter. I couldn’t believe it ”” this is the first time in my life I’ve wanted to try baking cakes and I can’t get any butter,” said the frustrated cook.

Japan’s acute butter shortage, which has confounded bakeries, restaurants and now families across the country, is the latest unforeseen result of the global agricultural commodities crisis.

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With baby boomers preparing to retire as the best educated and most skilled workforce in U.S. history, a growing chorus of demographers and labor experts is raising concerns that workers in California and the nation lack the critical skills needed to replace them.

In particular, experts say, the immigrant workers needed to fill many of the boomer jobs lack the English-language skills and basic educational levels to do so. Many immigrants are ill-equipped to fill California’s fastest-growing positions, including computer software engineers, registered nurses and customer service representatives, a new study by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute found.

Immigrants — legal and illegal — already constitute almost half of the workers in Los Angeles County and are expected to account for nearly all of the growth in the nation’s working-age population by 2025 because native-born Americans are having fewer children. But the study, based largely on U.S. Census data, noted that 60% of the county’s immigrant workers struggle with English and one-third lack high school diplomas.

The looming mismatch in the skills employers need and those workers offer could jeopardize the future economic vitality of California and the nation, experts say. Los Angeles County, the largest immigrant metropolis with about 3.5 million foreign-born residents, is at the forefront of this demographic trend.

“The question is, are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the majority at poverty or near poverty wages?” asked Ernesto Cortes Jr., Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a leadership development organization. “Right now we’re headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that.”

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Some journalists, he said, don’t think that religion matters. Thus, many editors get sweaty palms when it comes time to dedicate time, ink and money to the subject. Few seek out trained, experienced religion-beat reporters.

“The prevailing ethos among most of our editors is that the public square is the province of the secular and not a place for … religious messages to be seen or heard,” said [William] Burleigh in an interview for my chapter in “Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion.” Oxford University Press will publish this book, produced by my colleagues at the Oxford Centre for Religion & Public Life, late this fall.

“As a result,” Burleigh said, “lots of editors automatically think religion is out of place in a public newspaper. That’s what we are up against.”

The key is that this is a journalism problem. Any effort to improve coverage will fail if journalists are, as commentator Bill Moyers likes to put it, “tone deaf” to the music of religion in public life.

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To say she was a practicing Catholic would be an understatement. For years, Maria Aparecida Calazans was a mainstay at her Long Island church, joining dozens of fellow Brazilian immigrants for the Portuguese language Mass on Sunday mornings. She and her husband, Ramon, were married at the church. Their two daughters were baptized there, and every Friday she attended a prayer meeting that she had helped organize.

But six years ago, her husband went to a relative’s baptism at a Pentecostal church in a warehouse in Astoria, Queens, and came home smitten.

The couple made a deal. “We would go to the Pentecostal service on Thursdays and to Mass on Sundays, and then we would decide which one we felt most comfortable with,” Mrs. Calazans said.

Within 40 days, they had given up Roman Catholicism and embraced Pentecostalism, following the path of the estimated 1.3 million Latino Catholics who have joined Pentecostal congregations since immigrating to the United States, according to a survey released in February by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

“I feel whole here,” Mrs. Calazans, 42, said one recent Sunday in the Astoria sanctuary, the Portuguese Language Pentecostal Missionary Church, as she swayed to the pop-rock beat of a live gospel band. “This church is not a place we visit once a week. This church is where we hang around and we share our problems and we celebrate our successes, like we were family.”

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This is a difficult letter to write but I must let you know that I have submitted my resignation to the Metropolitan of Rupert’s Land effective September 1, 2008. I begin that day a new ministry as Rector of the Church of the Incarnation in Dallas, Texas.

I cannot begin to express my gratitude for the privilege of serving with you these past 17 years, first as Dean and, since 1993, as Bishop. Our sense of call to Texas is a positive one but at the same time I felt that it would be an opportunity for the Diocese to be overseen with a fresh pair of eyes, and to enjoy the excitement and momentum a change of bishop brings.

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Pope Benedict XVI ended his six-day trip to the United States with a mass for nearly 60,000 people Sunday at Yankee Stadium in New York. When the pope arrived last week, most American Catholics knew little about him. But the 81-year-old pontiff seems to have changed his image and America’s vision of the Roman Catholic Church.

Listen to it all.

A Pastoral Letter
From the Bishop of Central Florida
To be Read or Otherwise Distributed in All the Congregations
Of the Diocese of Central Florida
by
The Right Rev. John W. Howe

Introduction

Dear People of God: Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:

It has been my privilege to serve you, first as Bishop Coadjutor and then as Bishop of Central Florida for a total of nineteen years. During this time I have ordained more than 250 men and women to the diaconate and priesthood. We have welcomed 189 priests to new ministries as Rectors, Vicars and Assistants. We have planted 14 new congregations (only two of which did not survive). In nineteen years a Diocese can grow and change dramatically, and this one surely has.

Sadly, in the past several months the Diocese of Central Florida has seen the clergy and some of the members of eight of our congregations choose to “disaffiliate” from The Episcopal Church and, therefore, from the Diocese, as well. This has been costly in terms of relationships and finances, and in diminishing the Body of Christ.

It seems fitting to pause to reflect on the questions: Who are we”¦ now? What are the “core values” of the Diocese of Central Florida? Where are we going? What is God calling this Diocese to do and to be?

Jesus is the Way

Let me begin with myself. I promised, on April 15, 1989, to “guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church” to the very best of my ability, and to “proclaim Christ’s resurrection, interpret his Gospel, and testify to his sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.”[i] In a day in which many in leadership in The Episcopal Church and other churches are saying that Jesus is “a way,” or, perhaps, “my way,” I am committed to Jesus’ own proclamation that he is “the way, the truth and the life,” and “no one comes to the Father except through me.”[/i]

The Word of God

Every member of the clergy of The Episcopal Church has declared his or her conviction that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, containing “all things necessary to salvation.”[iii][iii] I am committed to holding myself and the clergy of this Diocese to that declaration. And, in the words of the Prayer Book still in use at the time I became a priest (1968), I remain committed to my promise to “banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word.”[iv][iv]

Discipleship

Every member of The Episcopal Church has renounced the world, the flesh and the devil, and promised to turn to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, putting our whole trust in his grace and love, and following and obeying him as our Lord.[v][v] These are extremely significant promises, and any diocese that truly upholds them will become as a shining city on a hill, and salt and light to The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, and the larger community in general.

The Anglican Communion

The Diocese of Central Florida understands itself to be “a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces, and regional Churches in Communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.”[vi][vi] We have affirmed our overwhelming commitment to The Windsor Report[vii][vii] and the emerging Anglican Communion Covenant.[viii][viii] As a diocese we acknowledge our primary ecclesiastical allegiance to be to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ.[ix][ix]

Evangelism and Worship

By the actions of successive Annual and Special Conventions, the Diocese of Central Florida has repeatedly and consistently affirmed the Faith of the Church as it is set forth in the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, and in particular, the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as God come among us as perfect man. We believe it is the mission of the Church “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”[x][x] We understand evangelism to be “the presentation of the claims of Christ in the power of the Spirit to a world in need by a Church in love.”[xi][xi] We are committed to “taking Central Florida for Christ.”[xii][xii] We call all people to “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus,”[xiii][xiii] and we invite them to the waters of baptism that they might join us at the Table of the Lord.[xiv][xiv]

Church Planting

We are committed to planting new congregations, and growing existing ones,[xv][xv] extending the love of God and the welcome of his Church to every person, regardless of race, gender, social or economic status, or past behavior. In inviting people “to know Christ and to make him known”[xvi][xvi] we also urge them and ourselves to become his true disciples: men and women, boys and girls who earnestly repent of our sins, seek to live in love and charity with our neighbors, and intend to lead new lives, following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways, as revealed to us in the Scriptures, our ultimate standard and rule of life.[xvii][xvii]

Social Context

We are committed to serving the communities in which we live, recalling the admonition of Jeremiah: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you”¦and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”[xviii][xviii] From the support of Anchor House in Auburndale to House of Hope in Orlando, to Kairos throughout the Diocese, to Mustard Seed Ministries in Fort Pierce, to our companion relationship with the Diocese of Honduras, the Diocese of Central Florida takes an extraordinary interest in serving the needs of people in the local and international community with food, housing, advocacy, medical and psychological services, and a host of other things.

Youth Ministry

We are committed to ministry to the next generation, understanding that out of all the people who ever make a commitment to Jesus Christ, over 90% do so before the age of twenty.[xix][xix] We are deeply grateful for the “resurrection” of Camp Wingmann to assist in this ministry (in addition to Canterbury, which is geared much more to adults).

Human Sexuality

The Diocese of Central Florida has reaffirmed by a super majority in Convention the Church’s Biblical and traditional understanding of human sexuality.[xx][xx] We adopted without dissent the canonical requirement that, “All members of the clergy of this Diocese, having subscribed to the Declaration required by Article VIII of the National Constitution, shall be under the obligation to model in their own lives the received teaching of the Church that all its members are to abstain from sexual relations outside of Holy Matrimony.”[xxi][xxi] The canons and the code of ethics for the Diocese stipulate that “Clergy are to affirm marriage as the only appropriate setting for sexual intimacy.”[xxii][xxii]

A Troubled Household

We are painfully aware that not all of these commitments are shared throughout The Episcopal Church. Because they are not, some of our members, clergy and lay, have chosen to “disaffiliate” from The Episcopal Church and align with other Anglican jurisdictions or alternative denominational structures. We respect their decisions, we are saddened by their departure, and we offer them our continued love and prayers. But we believe we are in the mainstream of historic Anglicanism, and the positions we hold are those of the overwhelming majority of the world’s Anglicans and other Christians today.[xxiii][xxiii] We believe it remains our calling to be faithful disciples: Lay Persons, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, members of faithful parishes and a faithful diocese within a troubled household.[xxiv][xxiv]

Remaining Steadfast

We believe that unless we were required to do something that Scripture and conscience forbids, or forbidden to do something that Scripture and conscience requires, we have no reason to abandon the responsibilities to which the Lord has called us. We are committed to fulfilling the responsibilities to which the Lord has called us in our baptismal covenant promises and ordination vows.[xxv][xxv]

Encouraging Each Other

We remain committed to making the Great Commandment and the Great Commission the twin priorities of the Diocese of Central Florida.[xxvi][xxvi] We strive to encourage each other to remain “faithful to Jesus, loyal to the Gospel, obedient to God’s Word, filled with his Spirit, rejoicing in his love.”[xxvii][xxvii]

* * * *

What is the purpose of these reflections, and how might they shape our life together?

First, I am recommitting myself to these core values on the anniversary of my consecration, and I invite the Diocese to reflect on these commitments that we might strengthen our common life and faith, and that we might bear a united witness to Central Florida, to The Episcopal Church, and to the world at large. I invite the clergy of the Diocese to join me in committing themselves individually and as a collegial body to these core values.

Second, I am calling our Diocese to a renewed emphasis on the teaching ministry of the Church with these core values as the foundation and standard. We have begun two projects at the Diocesan level of our common life. 1) The resources of Cathedral Tapes are being transcribed onto CDs and a digital library to be a lasting resource to the Diocese and the larger Church. 2) The Christian Formation Commission is beginning a project to identify and make available to all the “best practices” of the diocese in the areas of teaching, discipleship, baptismal, confirmation, marital, and parenting preparation, etc. We seek to develop a curriculum of teaching and practice that will be available to the Diocese and the larger Church.

Third, these reflections will be made available to any member of the clergy expressing interest in coming into positions of leadership in this Diocese in the future. This, I believe, is who we are, and we will look for support of and commitment to these values on the part of any who might wish to join us

Fourth, I encourage the leadership structures of our diocese at all levels from the Diocesan Board, Standing Committee, and Commissions to parish vestries, School Boards, parish commissions and committees to examine and evaluate their stewardship of the resources of Christ’s Church. We have been entrusted with an awesome and sacred calling. Our time, talent, and treasure must align around strengthening and preserving our most sacred commitments and stimulating progress and creativity for the fulfillment of the Gospel mandate: that all of creation unite under the one head, Jesus Christ the Lord. Let us contend as one to that end.

It is my fervent hope, and, I believe, the hope of many, that this diocese will continue in this faithful witness far beyond my own tenure as Diocesan Bishop.

A Prayer for the Church

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

For the Mission of the Church

Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

For the Diocese

O God, by your grace you have called us in this Diocese to a goodly fellowship of faith. Bless our Bishops and other clergy, and all our people. Grant that your Word may be truly preached and truly heard, your Sacraments faithfully administered and faithfully received. By your Spirit, fashion our lives according to the example of your love to all among whom we live; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

——————————————————————————————————————
[i] The charge to a Bishop-elect, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 517
[ii][ii] John 14:6
[iii][iii] The Declaration of Conformity, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 513, 526, 538
[iv][iv] The Ordering of Priests, Book of Common Prayer (1928), p. 542
[v][v] Holy Baptism, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 302, 303
[vi][vi] Preamble to the Constitution of The Episcopal Church, and adopted on first reading as an amendment to Article III of the Constitution of the Diocese of Central Florida, January 26, 2008
[vii][vii] Resolution R-1, passed by the Thirty-Sixth Annual Convention of the Diocese, January 29, 2005
[viii][viii] Resolution A-2B, passed by the Thirty-Eighth Annual Convention of the Diocese, January 27, 2007
[ix][ix] Article III of the Constitution of the Diocese of Central Florida
[x][x] The Catechism, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 855
[xi][xi] Author’s definition, adopted by the Anglican International Conference on Spiritual Renewal held in Canterbury, England July 1978
[xii][xii] Theme of the Thirty-Ninth Annual Convention of the Diocese of Central Florida, January 26, 2008
[xiii][xiii] Acts 20:21
[xiv][xiv] The Episcopal Church’s Canon I.17.5
[xv][xv] Bishop’s Vision Statement, July 16, 1999
[xvi][xvi] Mission Statement first developed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Darien, Connecticut
[xvii][xvii] Invitation to Confession of Sin, Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 330
[xviii][xviii] Jeremiah 29:7
[xix][xix] Bishop’s Address, Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention, January 31, 1998
[xx][xx] Special Convention of the Diocese, September 20, 2003
[xxi][xxi] Canon XVI, Section 10, Diocese of Central Florida, adopted January 25, 1992
[xxii][xxii] Code of Ethics for Clergy in the Diocese of Central Florida, revised October 18, 1993
[xxiii][xxiii] Cf. Resolution 1:10 of The Lambeth Conference, 1998; the vote was 526 to 70, with 45 abstentions
[xxiv][xxiv] ”¦according to John, Central Florida Episcopalian, January 2008
[xxv][xxv] Freeing Our Relationships, Bishop’s Teaching Series, Cathedral Tapes
[xxvi][xxvi] Bishop’s Vision Statement, July 16, 1999.
[xxvii][xxvii] Bishop’s Convention Homily, January 25, 2008