Sri Lanka’s Anglican Diocese of Colombo, a short while ago elected Ven. Dhiloraj Canakasabey, uncontested, as the fifteenth Bishop of Colombo.
The Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Colombo of the Church of Ceylon (Anglican Church) elected the incumbent Archdeacon of Nuwara Eliya, Ven. Dhiloraj Canakasabey as the shepherd for the Anglican Seat of Colombo.
Speaking about his audience with the Queen, Mgr Antonio Mennini said: “First of all, I passed on the Holy Father’s warm greetings and told her that His Holiness often remembers his visit to the United Kingdom and has enormous gratitude for the kind welcome he received.
“I told the Queen that the aim of my mission is to strengthen the already existing good relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See and to strengthen the good fraternal relations with the Anglican Church in order to give a common witness to the values of the Gospel.
The Right Rev. Geralyn Wolf, a convert from Judaism who stepped into the history books 15 years ago by becoming only the second woman in U.S. Episcopal Church history to be ordained a diocesan bishop, is planning to retire as Rhode Island’s Episcopal bishop late in 2012.
Wolf, who turns 64 next month, broke the news to some of her staff Thursday, her first day back after undergoing knee replacement surgery on Jan. 31.
She made a more public disclosure on Saturday at the close of an evangelism convocation attended by priests and lay people at the Providence Marriott.
Almighty Father, whose blessed Son restored sight to the blind man who sought his mercy: Clear away, we beseech thee, the blindness of our hearts, and enlighten our minds with thy heavenly truth, that we may enter upon the approaching season of Lent with true love and spiritual understanding; through the same our Saviour Jesus Christ.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
–Deuteronomy 6:4-9
A transgender Maltese is challenging Europe’s most staunchly Catholic nation for the right to marry a man. Joanne Cassar, 29, who underwent gender reassignment in Britain eight years ago, has begun her court battle in the conservative Mediterranean island but is prepared to take her case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.
“I am not a ”˜trans’. I want to be a woman. I prefer that, when I die, on my gravestone is written ”˜Joanne’,” Ms Cassar, a hairdresser, said at her salon in Fgura.
With his wife, Hayley, and two children, aged one and four, Father Ed [Tomlinson] regrets that the diocese of Rochester could not consider a church-sharing scheme. “I feel the real scandal is that the building is going to be used for one hour a week. There will be no 8 o’clock Communion or 6.30 evening service any more. A church-share would have been so easy and very compassionate.”
One woman who is going is 90 years old. She has been attending each week since the age of two. “It is an emotional wrench for her.” They could not go to the Tunbridge Wells Catholic Church because it is already full to bursting. Even in Pembury, it will be a squeeze.
“I still feel it is a tragedy. I would have wanted to say, ”˜How do we maintain the strongest Christian presence here without worrying too much about the denomination?’ ” But he has never considered staying. “For whatever reason God has given me a little Catholic heart and I cannot do anything else.”
Father Martin Carter is one of only a handful of Roman Catholic priests in Canada who are married.
Formerly a married part-time Anglican minister, Carter, 65, of Charlottetown was a granted rare permission by the Pope to become a Catholic priest after he converted.
In a joint statement issued after a “Consultation of Bishops in Dialogue” meeting held in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania the church leaders said they had shared testimonies about partnership mission work. Through this a common thread had emerged “our experience of finding ourselves in each other.”
“Across the globe, across the Communion, we actually really need one another,” the bishops’ statement said. “We are stronger in relationship than when we are apart. This, we believe, is a work of engaging in Communion building rather than Communion breaking. In the words of the Toronto Congress of 1963 we are engaged in living in ‘mutual responsibility and interdependence’ (Ephesians 2:13-22)”.
The bishops hailed from Sudan, Botswana, Malawi, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Canada, the United States and England. They met at the end of February as a group of partner pairs and triads and discussed a range of issues including human sexuality, slavery and tackling poverty.
Update: An ENS article appears here also.