Free Republic

PRIEST LAKE, Idaho -- Sitting unobtrusively across the road from a pristine lake in the northern Idaho panhandle, the half-acre lot covered with weeds and piles of gravel isn't much to look at. And yet, in a few months' time, the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will decide its fate. For four years the land has sat idle while its owners, Mike and Chantell Sackett, have been locked in a fight with U.S. EPA.

The Church of England will no longer be “functionally extant” in 20 years time according to some projections, a member of the General Synod has warned. The Rev Dr Patrick Richmond, from Norwich, told members of the Church’s national assembly that they were facing a “perfect storm” of ageing congregations and falling clergy numbers. The average age of congregations was 61, with many above that, he said. “These congregations will be led by fewer and fewer stipendiary clergy ... 2020 apparently is when our congregations start falling through the floor because of just natural wastage, that is people dying. “Another...

I wrote an article on this site a few months ago in which I expressed a change of mind. After many years of kicking against my native Anglicanism, I found that the American version of it, the Episcopal church, was to my liking.As I previously explained, this church is proof that Anglicanism is not necessarily defined by the intolerable (to me) conservatism of the C of E. There is a world elsewhere. I always vaguely knew this on a theoretical level, but since moving to New York I have experienced its truth.....I've been attending a well-known arty-liberal church in Manhattan...

Media blackout: CIA director accused of links to Communist spy contact -- scandal ignored Wes Vernon June 13, 2011 If you have been depending on the mainstream media for your news the past few days, you are probably learning here for the first time that CIA Director Leon Panetta has been called out for his links to an important open member of the Communist Party. Some background When this writer first arrived in Washington, D.C., as a reporter in 1968, one of my assignments was to cover the congressional delegation from Washington State. Occasionally, both Democrat and Republican members of...

Church Blocks Reforms Over Royal Marriages The Church of England has blocked a Government move to scrap a centuries-old law which prevents members of the Royal family from marrying Roman Catholics, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. If the Supreme Governor of the Church of England was a Roman Catholic, they would ultimately be answerable to a separate sovereign leader, the Pope, and the Vatican. 24 Apr 2011 Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, began work towards repealing the 1701 Act of Settlement, under which heirs to the throne must renounce their claim on marrying a Roman Catholic, in order to...

LONDON - Hundreds of disaffected Anglicans left the Church of England to become Roman Catholics on Ash Wednesday, the Christian day of penance.The day set by the church to welcome converts wishing to join the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a unique grouping created by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglicans left feeling isolated since the Church of England decided in 1992 to ordain women as priests. Tensions have grown further as the governing General Synod moves to allow women to become bishops while denying special structures to protect the sensitivities of the objectors."I believe that synod is trying to...

LONDON -- Hundreds of disillusioned Anglicans were preparing Sunday to defect from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church in time for Lent, Sky News reported. It follows a campaign by a former Anglican bishop in protest at its stance on the ordination of women and gay clergy. Father Keith Newton has encouraged Anglicans to join the Ordinariate -- a special branch of Catholicism established by the Pope -- to welcome protestant defectors. Despite the efforts of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anglo Catholics have begun leaving following the conversion of three Anglican bishops in mid-January.

The Church of England is reviewing its investment in a company building Jerusalem's light railway amid concern that the tramline "will help to cement Israel's hold on occupied east Jerusalem". But the Church has stopped short of endorsing a campaign urged by Palestinian churches to boycott "everything produced" by Israel's West Bank occupation. The boycott call was made in a document known as 'Kairos Palestine', issued by Palestinian Christians last December. It denounces "Israeli occupation of Palestinian land" as "a sin against God and humanity". Last week, the Methodist Church voted to circulate the document among its members, taking up...

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are to make a dramatic intervention in the long-running row over women bishops this week by demanding that opponents of female clergy are not driven out of the Church. Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu are so concerned thousands of traditionalist churchgoers will quit when women become bishops that they are to risk the wrath of liberals by calling for major reforms in Church legislation. Sources said their statement will spell out a legal formula that will give traditionalist clergy and parishes the right to reject the authority of a woman bishop. The...

What happens when you sit on a three legged stool with only two legs? Out of the UK comes news that at a meeting of the Anglican House of Bishops in May, they voted for the first time to allow divorced bishops. The only question I have is, what took them so long?  What I mean to say is that in a ‘church’ that has formally abandoned the indissolubility of marriage (a point on which Jesus was fairly unambiguous), that this day was surely to come. The Anglican traditionalists are shocked and disappointed.  For my part, I am shocked and...

When someone claims to have been “offended” by someone else’s remarks, he is usually grandstanding. Believe me: I’ve been on the receiving end of synthetic outrage more often than most. It’s one of the reasons I feel a certain kinship with Rowan Williams. ... It’s a similar story with the fabricated row about Chris Grayling’s belief that religious B&B owners should not be forced by law to let rooms to gay couples. Such hoteliers are guilty of bad business as well as bad manners: they are harming their profits for no good reason. But you don’t have to be anti-gay...

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that legalising assisted suicide would “cross a moral boundary”, and lead us into “very dangerous territory” during his address to the Church of England’s General Synod. Dr Rowan Williams also used his address to criticise Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill, currently before Parliament, which he described as “ideological” and “dangerous”. During his speech Dr Williams declared that the church “will argue fiercely, so long as legal argument continues, that granting a ‘right to die’ is not only a moral mistake, as I believe myself, but the upsetting of a balance of freedoms.” He also cautioned...

Leaders of the Methodist Church yesterday offered to surrender more than 200 years of independence from the Church of England. They said they were ready to 'cease having a separate existence' and merge with Anglicans to help the cause of Christianity. The promise, made to the Church of England's parliament, the General Synod, follows two decades of growing anxiety among Methodists over falling membership and its receding influence in society. Once seen as a pillar of working class culture and a major contributor to the thinking of the Labour Party, the church has seen its membership shrink to just 265,000.

I don’t belong to a Church which makes decisions about something as fundamental as the ordination of women priests by voting in a quasi-parliamentary General Synod. But, if I did, and if that Church then prepared to take the logical step of ordaining women bishops, I’d ask myself a simple question. Will these ordinations be valid? Then I stay. Invalid? Then I go. I am not saying that if you are an Anglo-Catholic who opposes women’s ordination then you must now seek to join the Ordinariate that Pope Benedict has set up for ex-Anglicans. Lots of conservative “Catholic Anglicans” don’t...

February 10, 2010 Church May Split Over Women Bishops and Gay Priests, Warns Rowan Williams Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent Members of the General Synod listen to Dr Williams?s address yesterday The Archbishop of Canterbury warned yesterday that damaging infighting over women bishops and gay priests could result in a permanent split in the Anglican Communion. Dr Rowan Williams stressed that he did not “want or relish” the prospect of division. He called on the Church of England and Anglicans worldwide to step back from a “betrayal” of God’s mission and to put the work of Christ before schism. But he...

The Archbishop of Canterbury today issued a "profound apology" to the lesbian and gay Christian community. In a powerful address to General Synod Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the church would represent of a "betrayal" of God's mission. But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church. The Archbishop is from the Church's liberal Catholic wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of...

Church of England Is "Living In The Past", Says BBC's Head of Religion The BBC's head of religion has accused the Church of England of "living in the past" and said that the corporation should not give Christianity preferential treatment. By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Media Correspondent 06 Feb 2010 BBC's head of religion, Aaqil Ahmed [Pic in URL]. Aaqil Ahmed, a controversial executive whose appointment last year prompted more than 100 complaints, said: "I think all the faiths should be treated in the same way. I don't believe in treating any faith differently." He dismissed claims that the BBC was marginalising...

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed plans for his visit to Great Britain in September-- and offered some unusually blunt reflections on the situation facing the Church there-- in a February 1 address to a group of visiting British bishops. The Pope told the bishops, who were in Rome for their ad limina visit, that he looked forward to his trip to their country. Although he did not mention specific dates, informed Catholic sources in London have confirmed that the trip will take place in September. The Pontiff went on to say that the Church leadership in England and Wales "needs to...

So Archbishop Rowan Williams reckons that the Pope’s Apostolic Constitution for ex-Anglicans is “theologically eccentric”. You can see his point. Much better to adopt a clear-cut, rational approach to the problem by allowing parishes to refuse to recognise the orders of the local woman diocesan bishop and neighbouring women vicars by supplying them with the oversight of a male bishop who himself rejects women’s orders but is in full communion with a primate who heads an international communion divided into an inner tier of provinces which obey a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops and an outer tier of provinces not...

The worldwide Anglican Church has been plunged into a fresh crisis after a lesbian was chosen as its second gay bishop. In a move that will dismay the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Canon Mary Glasspool was elected as an assistant bishop for the diocese of Los Angeles. The Rev Rod Thomas, the leader of the conservative evangelical group Reform and a member of the General Synod, said: ‘I feel deeply ashamed that this is happening in the Anglican Church. ‘I think a schism is absolutely inevitable.’

Conservative Anglo-Catholics, your time is up. As my colleague Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports, the General Synod committee charged with looking after opponents of women bishops has ruled out the idea of dedicated male bishops to safeguard traditionalists.The logic of the decision makes perfect sense to me. The C of E has the legal authority to decide whether to ordain women priests and bishops. Having acquired that authority, it voted to ordain women priests in 1992 and will now take the obvious step of raising women to the episcopate. Anglo-Catholics lost the battle to stop this happening 18 years ago; for a...

IT was one of those quiet summer Sunday mornings when I knew the priest in a distant parish would be away and he would have a stand in for the holiday. I sneaked in to this famous citadel of Pre-Raphaelite beauty and, like most Anglicans, sat as far from the front as possible. The choir sang the opening of the Eucharist, the Gospel was read – Jesus walked on the water and the priest started to preach. Then followed a 20-minute thesis on why the Bible had it wrong. Jesus couldn't possibly walk on water – that would defy nature...

Bishop John Broadhurst London, England, Oct 26, 2009 / 05:13 pm (CNA).-  Members of the traditionalist Anglican group Forward in Faith recently concluded their annual gathering, which was dedicated to discussing Pope Benedict's overture to Anglicans. The general impression left by the conference was the “Anglican experiment is over,” a mood that was reinforced by Bishop John Hind officially announcing he is ready to become Catholic.The 2009 National Assembly of Forward in Faith was held in the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster, London, October 23-24. The Assembly was originally scheduled before the Vatican announced its unprecedented move, but the issue dominated...

ROME (CNS) -- Dissident theologian Father Hans Kung criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his recent opening to discontented Anglicans, charging the pope was "fishing" for the most conservative Christians to the detriment of the larger church. Father Kung said the invitation to traditionalist Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church went against years of ecumenical work on the part of both churches, calling it instead "a nonecumenical piracy of priests." The pope's basic message is: "Traditionalists of all churches, unite under the dome of St. Peter's!" Father Kung wrote in an editorial Oct. 28 in the Rome daily La Repubblica....

Rome has parked its tanks on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lawn after manoeuvres undertaken by up to fifty bishops and begun two years ago by an Australian archbishop, John Hepworth... In the US, where a similar “Anglican usage” model has been in operation for years and will now be incorporated into the new ordinariate structures, there are 77 million Catholics alongside a mere 1.8 million Episcopalians. A few incoming conservative Anglicans have made little difference. In England and Wales, the proportions are reversed, with 25 million baptised Anglicans but four million Catholics.... Set against this, however, is the more confident...

Having a loved one laid to rest to the blaring strains of Simply The Best might seem a fitting tribute to assembled mourners. But whenever the Tina Turner hit - or any other pop song now popular at funerals - booms out, it leaves one vicar feeling 'like a lemon'. Father Ed Tomlinson, 35, said he wonders what a clergyman's role is at such services as he feels 'spiritually unwanted'. Writing on his internet blog, the vicar from Kent lamented the decline of Christian farewells centred on a 'beautiful requiem mass'. He said: 'The best our secularist friends can hope...

Top trumps appears to have suddenly become the in thing in the world of religion. It used to be ferraris and lamborghinis. Now a Christian version of Top Trumps, called Testament Trumps, has been released, apparently to help children learn more about biblical characters. And not to be outdone, the humanists have also launched their own version of Top Trumps, called God Trumps. A pack has been sent to me from the New Humanist magazine, and it’s brilliantly satirical, as you’d expect. With the caricatures by the Guardian’s excellent cartoonist, Martin Rowson, it pitches Catholics against Anglicans and pagans against...

CANTERBURY, UK, July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Suggesting a "two-track" model for the Anglican Church, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in a statement released Monday that the crisis over the acceptance of homosexuality in the Global Communion could be resolved by acknowledging "two styles of being Anglican." Williams was responding to the decision earlier this month by the US Episcopal Church to continue to ordain active homosexual clergy and bishops and "bless" same-sex partnerings. In one "track," said the archbishop, the mainstream of Anglicanism would continue to hold to Christian beliefs of sex and marriage, and the...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams London, England, Jul 29, 2009 / 03:21 am (CNA).- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head cleric in the Church of England, has responded to the Episcopal Church’s decision to allow the ordination of homosexual bishops. Saying that a change in Anglican teaching, if necessary, would require broader agreement, he proposed a “two-track” church structure which recognizes “two ways of being Anglican.”On July 14, the Episcopal Church’s General Convention voted to approve homosexual bishops. It was seen as a rejection of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s and the Anglican Communion’s call for a moratorium on the...

Bishops of the Anglican Church in the United States have voted to overturn a three-year moratorium on the election of gay bishops. The decision seems likely to lead to the Episcopal Church's eventual exit from the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Communion has been fighting to avoid disintegration since the Episcopal Church consecrated the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson in 2003. The decision is expected to be confirmed in the next few days. Archbishop's regret The election of the Bishop of New Hampshire, the Right Reverend Gene Robinson, created an apparently irreconcilable rift between liberal and traditional Anglicans. Liberals believe the...

In a rebuke to the more conservative branches of the Anglican Communion, the bishops of the Episcopal Church voted 99-45 on July 13 to affirm the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals” to “any ordained ministry” within the church, so long as they are in “lifelong committed relationships.”

Church accuses Government of favouring Muslims Church leaders have accused the Government of giving preferential treatment to the Muslim community because of "political correctness". By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent 11 Jul 2009 Parishes are being starved of state funds to help the poor as a result of money being diverted to other faiths, senior clergy told the General Synod, which is meeting in York. A report endorsed by Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, claimed that the Government had become "unbalanced" in its approach to faith groups. It argued that the determination of ministers to tackle Islamic extremism...

Church of England under pressure to accept gay marriage By STEVE DOUGHTY 11th July 2009 The Fellowship Of Confessing Anglicans, a coalition of clergy and lay people, are unhappy with the liberal agenda of some churches The Church of England warned last night that it is under pressure to accept gay marriage. But two senior bishops - writing on behalf of the CofE - said it is not prepared to abandon its traditional teachings in favour of the idea of 'gender neutral' marriage. They said that the Church of England considers 'it is vital for the Church to maintain a...

Chris Bryant, who once posed in his underpants on a gay dating website, said he wanted clergy to be "much more open" to the idea of treating civil partnership ceremonies like traditional marriages. However, his suggestion goes directly against the rules of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, which state that only the union of a man and a woman can be celebrated by a priest in church.

A senior Church of England bishop has angered gay-rights campaigners by saying homosexuals should repent. Archbishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the Bible defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. He said the church welcomed gay people, "but we want them to repent and be changed." Nazir-Ali is a leading member of the conservative wing of the global Anglican Communion, which is riven by divisions over homosexuality and the ordination of women. Gay groups condemned the bishop's remarks. Campaigner Peter Tatchell said Nazir-Ali's view "goes against Christ's gospel of love and...

A senior Church of England bishop has angered gay-rights campaigners by saying homosexuals should repent. Archbishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that the Bible defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. He said the church welcomed gay people, "but we want them to repent and be changed." Nazir-Ali is a leading member of the conservative wing of the global Anglican Communion, which is riven by divisions over homosexuality and the ordination of women. Gay groups condemned the bishop's remarks. Campaigner Peter Tatchell said Nazir-Ali's view "goes against Christ's gospel of love and...

Portrait of Cardinal Newman. (CNS) A papal decree announcing the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman is imminent and will most likely be made before the Vatican closes for its summer break in August, the Register has learned. Last month, the Vatican’s medical board concluded a miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman’s intercession was due to inexplicable causes. Deacon John Sullivan, 70, of Marshfield, Mass., was healed of severe back pain in 2001 after praying to the 19th-century English theologian. Deacon Sullivan was prompted to ask for Cardinal Newman’s intercession after watching an EWTN program on Cardinal Newman’s beatification process. Now,...

Young clergy face life on the dole after Church of England loses £1.3billion 31st May 2009 No jobs: The Church is turning away graduates of theological colleges The Church of England is turning away trainee clergy for the first time in history after £1.3billion of its investments were wiped out in the financial crisis. Up to a dozen graduates of theological colleges will miss out on their ordination next month and may end up on the dole as there are no parish jobs for them. The Church has previously given all graduates placements in parishes as curates, which they need...

The Vatican has opened its secret archives, the repository of centuries worth of documents pertaining to the Holy See, to let the world get a closer look at a document presaging England’s split from the Church of Rome. Dated July 13, 1530, and addressed to Pope Clement VII, the letter, right, asks for the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and includes the seals of dozens of peers of England who concurred with the request.

Priests stage fashion show The latest fashions among the clergy were on display in Devon as local priests swapped pulpits for the catwalk. 30 Jan 2009 Clergy Catwalk Show at Westpoint, showing off the cloths form the cloth is - Reverend Wiz Slater, curate at St Michael's CofE Stoke Gifford Photo: The ecclesiastical event was a showcase of the latest designs of religious gowns in various colours, patterns, shapes and textures. Several priests acted as 'models' to strut the cat walk in front of hundreds of clergy at the exhibition . One model, The Rev James Hutchings, said: "I've done...

Penny wise, pound foolish? In a breathtaking leap of faith, the Church of England has decided to gamble £150 million on global warming alarmist Al Gore's sketchy investment firm, Generation Investment Management (GIM). What makes the investment so risky is that GIM stands to make a killing only if the U.S. government cracks down on carbon dioxide emissions. We previously examined Al Gore's adventures in climate change finance in the August 2008 edition of Foundation Watch and before that in the August 2007 edition of Foundation Watch. (Hat tip to Noel Sheppard of NewsBusters)

The bishops of the Church of England have agreed to admit women to their ranks in a compromise that also aims to accommodate traditionalists. Under the plan, female bishops would be equal to their male colleagues, The Times of London reports. But the church would also have a class of subordinate "flying bishops" to serve parishes who do not accept women's ordination as priests. Several churches within the worldwide Anglican communion ordain women, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, which began in the 1970s and now has a female presiding bishop. The Australian church recently consecrated its first...

Church of England Gives Money to Gore's Investment Firm By Noel Sheppard Created 2008-12-30 11:24 Did you need any more proof that climate alarmism is indeed an environmental religion? The Church of England has invested 150 million pounds with Generation Investment Management, the green fund started by Nobel Laureate Al Gore. Can I get a "Hallelujah" ladies and gentlemen? As reported [1] by Religious Intelligence News Tuesday: The Church of England's Church Commissioners have gone green, investing £150 million with former US Vice-President Al Gore's environmentally minded investment firm, Generation Investment Management. On Nov 18 the First Church Estates Commissioner,...

Relations between the Government and the Church of England reached a new low on Sunday as Labour figures angrily hit back at criticism of the party's economic policy from several bishops. Anglican leaders led by Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, accused Labour of being "morally corrupt" and "beguiled by money". Rev McCulloch described Gordon Brown's plan for Britain to borrow its way out of recession as "scandalous". The Bishops of Carlisle, Durham, Hulme, and Winchester also used interviews with The Sunday Telegraph to voice strong criticism of Labour's policies on the economy, poverty and social justice. The...

A Church of England clergyman has banned the popular hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem from his Christmas services because he claims it does not reflect the true state of the town believed by Christians to be the place of Jesus' birth. “That just isn’t what it is like there at the moment. It isn’t still and peaceful, it is full of tension and anger and fearful people. Mr Coulter visited the Middle East last month along with a group of 30 parishioners and said he was shocked by the security wall.

Church of England apologises to Darwin Anglican Church’s neo-Chamberlainite appeasement of secularism 20 September 2008 ...it’s notable that many evolutionized clergy not only have appeased secularism but also appeased radical Islam: the leading cleric in the CoE, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, stated earlier this year that adoption of sharia law in the UK seems unavoidable. (Click link to read entire article...a must read!)

The Church of England will tomorrow officially apologise to Charles Darwin for misunderstanding his theory of evolution. In a bizarre step, the Church will address its contrition directly to the Victorian scientist himself, even though he died 126 years ago. But the move was greeted with derision last night, with Darwin’s great-great-grandson dismissing it as ‘pointless’ and other critics branding it ‘ludicrous’. ---- Church officials compared the apology to the late Pope John Paul II’s decision to say sorry for the Vatican’s 1633 trial of Galileo, the astronomer who appalled prelates by declaring that the earth revolved around the sun....

An explosive article appeared Wednesday in the London Times entitled “Rowan Williams: Gay relationships 'comparable to marriage'”. Ruth Gledhill, the Religion Correspondent of the Times may have blown the lid off of the perceived pause in the internal battles threatening the the Church of England after the Lambeth Conference. Ms. Gledhill wrote: “Rowan Williams believes that gay sexual relationships can “reflect the love of God” in a way that is comparable to marriage, The Times has learnt. Gay partnerships pose the same ethical questions as those between a man and woman and the key issue for Christians is that they...

<p>New York (AP) -- The spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans is urging an extended ban on consecrating another gay bishop until their troubled fellowship can be healed.</p> <p>Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams made the plea Sunday, the final day of the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade Anglican meeting in Canterbury, England.</p>

The rector who presided at the controversial 'gay marriage' of two priests has caused fresh outrage by conducting £1,800 'white wedding' services for Japanese tourists. The Rev Martin Dudley has benefited from a craze for Western-style ceremonies among Japanese couples - many followers of Shintoism or Buddhism - by blessing their unions in his London church. The blessings - which feature traditional music, a white bridal dress, prayers and Bible readings, bouquets and confetti - are not banned by the Church of England but critics say they undermine the dignity of marriage.