Free Republic

In the order we’ve come across it. Please post any links you come across in the comments Anglican Mainstream (also posted below)Peter Ould Jim Naughton (posted below)Ruth Gledhill (posted below)Inclusive ChurchSusan RussellKendall’s commentary is below and at Stand FirmMark HarrisFather Jake Posted in Dar es Salaam 2007 | 5 Comments »

Facing a possible churchwide schism, the Anglican Communion yesterday gave its Episcopal branch in the United States less than eight months to ban blessings of same-sex unions or risk a reduced role in the world’s third-largest Christian denomination. Anglican leaders also established a separate council and a vicar to help address the concerns of conservative American dioceses that have been alienated by the Episcopal Church’s support of gay clergy and blessings of same-sex unions. Although the presiding American bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, agreed to the arrangement, some conservatives described it as an extraordinary check on her authority. The directive, issued...

The first thing I want to say is that people have no idea of how much sacrifice it took by those involved for the document to reach this point. This really was a contract negotiation (look at the appendix/Foundations section). I have said a number of times that I thought the most important piece written in the Episcopal Church in the last year was by Michael Smith, Bishop of North Dakota. He basically said this: When I got home from General Convention 2006, I thought even though TEC had not satisfied the letter of the Windsor Report, we had satisfied...

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have proposed the establishment of a broadly inclusive alternative Baptist movement to counter what they called a negative image of Baptists and to address poverty, the environment and global conflicts. Carter and Clinton kicked off their plans with a news conference Jan. 9 at the Carter Center in Atlanta, flanked by leaders of moderate Baptist groups including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a breakaway group of an unverified number of churches that objected to the election of conservative leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention. Carter and Clinton announced a “Celebration of a New Baptist...

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — The Rev. Ted Haggard this week formally begins his long journey toward recovery from a drugs-and-gay-sex scandal that forced him to step down as one of the most influential evangelical leaders in the nation. Haggard, 50, has turned himself over to a team of counselors who are "assessing his spiritual, emotional and mental condition," said the Rev. H.B. London, who is helping to guide Haggard through the process. London and two other pastors will then set out a rigorous "restoration plan" requiring Haggard to spend hours each week in counseling, Bible study, prayer and soul-baring talks...

Plano parish will pay to leave Episcopal Churchhttp://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_77847_ENG_HTM.htm Christ Church Plano, Diocese of Dallas reach 'godly judgment' Episcopal News Service Mary Frances Schjonberg Friday, September 15, 2006 The vestry and rector of Christ Church in Plano, Texas announced September 15 that the parish will pay the Diocese of Dallas $1.2 million for its title to the parish property and disassociate themselves from the Episcopal Church. Bishop James Stanton said, in one of two statements posted on the website of Christ Church in Plano, that he had come to the conclusion that there are "irreconcilable differences between Christ Church and the...

IUKA, Miss. -- In April, 150 members of Iuka Baptist Church voted to kick Charles Jones off the deacons' board. The punishment followed weeks of complaints by Mr. Jones and his friends that the pastor was following the teachings of the Rev. Rick Warren, the best-selling author and church-growth guru. After the vote, about 40 other members quit the church to support Mr. Jones.

Church and state face similar issueshttp://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/wb/xp-76903 Sunday, August 06, 2006 Donald Nuechterlein Early in 2003, before the Pentagon launched the invasion of Iraq, American liberals chastised the Bush administration for ignoring the United Nations and world opinion by pursuing a unilateralist foreign policy on Iraq. When key allies -- France, Germany, Belgium, Canada and Turkey -- refused to join the U.S.-led intervention to oust Saddam Hussein's regime, the NATO alliance was seriously split on a major international issue. In the same year, the U.S. Episcopal Church incurred the wrath of its conservative members and opposition from the worldwide Anglican Communion...

TESTING THE FAITH: New top Episcopal bishop challenged on her resumehttp://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51325 Tuesday, August 1, 2006 School of theology, priestly experience questioned, but same-sex marriage advocate will lead U.S. church Posted: August 1, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern The newly elected presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church lists as her major qualifications for office positions at two institutions shrouded in mystery and without any formal accreditation – if they exist at all. That's the finding of an investigation of the rise of Katharine Jefferts Schori, 52, a pilot and oceanographer and strong advocate for same-sex marriage and homosexual ordination by Virtue...

U.K. Anglican Group Calls for 'Imperative Action' Against U.S. Episcopal Church http://www.christianpost.com/article/20060727/23296.htm By Joseph Alvarez Christian Post Reporter Thu, Jul. 27 2006 08:25 AM EST A conservative evangelical group in the Church of England has called on the heads of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion to take “imperative” actions to “formally break” ties with the Episcopal Church, USA. Thu, Jul. 27, 2006 Posted: 08:25:36 AM EST --- LONDON – A conservative evangelical group in the Church of England has called on the heads of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion to take “imperative” actions to “formally break”...

Episcopal Churches in Arkansas Get Green Light To Perform Same Sex Marriage Ceremonieshttp://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=5204093 July 27, 2006, 07:40 AM St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas sent out letters to the members of the congregation letting them know the church will now be performing same sex marriages. Although same sex marriages are not legal in the state of Arkansas, all of the Episcopal churches in the state have been given the green light to perform ceremonies for same sex couples. Only two churches have come forward to offer the service and St. Paul's is one of them. Although the church went...

How To Fight The Religious Righthttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/26/opinion/main1837172.shtml http://tinyurl.com/jhs6f July 26, 2006 --------------------------------------------------------------------- (The American Prospect) This article was written by Adele M. Stan. --------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a modest and, I thought, obvious proposal that I put forward two weeks ago on this page: That liberals give up the notion of creating a cohesive religious left movement that could act as an effective counterforce to the animus of the religious right. Instead, I argued, liberals would do well to claim our own moral agency by virtue of our own humanity and the essential values of liberalism, which encompass the most admirable tenets...

Division looms for Episcopal Churchhttp://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2216 http://tinyurl.com/kr9gt July 25, 2006 Signs of a full-blown split between the Episcopal Church and most of the worldwide Anglican Communion appeared only days after the U.S. church's General Convention refused to renounce the election of gay bishops. The 2.2-million-member Episcopal Church would be reduced to nonvoting "associate" status in a proposed two-tiered membership policy for the 77-million-member communion that was announced June 27 in London. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said those national churches that sign a covenant affirming Anglicanism's traditional stance on homosexuality could be full members of the communion, while other churches would...

In the three weeks since Joan Clark Houk's plans to be ordained as a Catholic priest became public, the McCandless woman's media baptism has involved six interviews and one letter writer's claim that she was well educated in witchcraft. Joan Clark Houk, shown near the parish offices of St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, is part of an international movement to ordain Catholic women. She plans to be ordained July 31. But Mrs. Houk, who celebrated her 66th birthday last weekend, remains resolute. On July 31, the cradle Catholic will join 11 other female candidates in an ordination ceremony aboard a...

The accelerating fragmentation of the strife-torn Episcopal Church USA, in which several parishes and even a few dioceses are opting out of the church, isn't simply about gay bishops, the blessing of same-sex unions or the election of a woman as presiding bishop. It also is about the meltdown of liberal Christianity. Embraced by the leadership of all the mainline Protestant denominations, as well as large segments of American Catholicism, liberal Christianity has been hailed by its boosters for 40 years as the future of the Christian church. Instead, as all but a few die-hards now admit, all the mainline...

From the Magic Statistics blog regarding a comment Dr. Edith Humphrey left on Titusonenine.  Edith Humphrey gives a much-needed word of encouragement in a comment posted at titusonenine. Her comment deserves wide circulation, I think. She takes a look beyond the depressing sight of the Episcopal Church and focuses on the big picture of Christ’s church. (Pardon the typos since this was a comment on someone else’s blog which, as I know only too well, cannot be edited after posting.) The debate over Arianism brought about clarity for the church with regards to the nature of Christ. Then they had...

New bishop has feeble following By MICHAEL COREN Toronto Sun Saturday, June 24, 2006 Pass another cup of tea and a cucumber sandwich, please. Better still, make it a sherry because, darling, the Anglicans are in a spin. Last week the U.S. Episcopalian Church, the American equivalent of Canada's Anglicans or the Church of England, chose Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the new leader of its 2.3-million-member denomination. The lady bishop is an oceanographer by training and thinks that, "the great message of Jesus is to include the excluded." Golly, who knew? I thought the great message of Jesus...

This could be called the summer of triumph for gay theology. The majority opinion on the Supreme Court's highly controversial decision to overturn Texas' sodomy laws plainly opened doors to viewing law as responsive to cultural vicissitudes. In keeping with the prevailing winds of culture, never has so much official sanction been given to active homosexuality in the Church, indeed even at leadership levels. Despite plenty of internecine jostling, an Anglican minister in British Columbia blessed the union of a gay couple. Then, the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire elected openly gay priest V. Gene Robinson as bishop. In defiance...

The Episcopalians are in disarray as their primate shows her feminist credentials THE Episcopal Church in America descended into chaos last night after leading bishops on both the liberal and conservative wings dissassociated themselves from a last-gasp effort to avert a schism with the worldwide Anglican Communion. Just hours after its newly elected woman head preached a sermon in praise of “our mother Jesus”, the Episcopal Church agreed to “exercise restraint” in appointing any more gay bishops after a tense day of debate and argument. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, welcomed the resolution with gratitude and what appeared...