Free Republic

UNITED KINGDOM, December 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – While the Church of England – the largest Christian denomination in the United Kingdom – is stopping short of calling its newly instituted blessing for “transgenders” a second baptism, priests are being directed to offer baptism-style ceremonies for those announcing their new sexual identity. In a newly issued pastoral guidance, clergy are being told to call men by their new female names, and women by their new male names. The guidance declares, “For a trans person to be addressed liturgically by the minister for the first time by their chosen name may be...

LEICESTER, United Kingdom - Catholic schools in the Republic of Ireland can no longer give preference to Catholic students. Richard Bruton, the Irish Minister for Education and Skills, made the announcement Oct. 3 on Twitter. Unlike in the United States, the government funds religious schools in Ireland, and about 96 percent of elementary schools in the country are under the patronage of a religious group, and approximately 90 percent of these schools are run by the Catholic Church. In some areas of the country - mostly in and around the capital Dublin - there are more students seeking places in...

The Pope is preparing to offer the Traditonal Anglican Communion, a group of half a million dissident Anglicans, its own personal prelature by Rome, according to reports this morning. History may be in the making", reports The Record. "It appears Rome is on the brink of welcoming close to half a million members of the Traditional Anglican Communion into membership of the Roman Catholic Church. Such a move would be the most historic development in Anglican-Catholic relations in the last 500 years. But it may also be a prelude to a much greater influx of Anglicans waiting on the sidelines,...

WHEATON, Ill. — Theological conservatives upset by the liberal views of the Episcopal Church are forming a rival denomination. The new Anglican Church in North America will include four Episcopal dioceses that recently split from the U.S. church, along with breakaway Anglican parishes from Canada. The announcement Wednesday in Wheaton, Ill., comes after decades of debate over what Episcopalians should believe about issues ranging from salvation to sexuality. Tensions erupted in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop. The world Anglican Communion is a fellowship of churches with roots in the Church of England. The Episcopal Church is...

TORONTO, January 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity has presented a direct challenge to the leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada by voting to hold weddings for same sex couples.Their statement says, "Holy Trinity will continue to exercise its conscience and bless same-sex unions and marry same-sex couples." While Holy Trinity has been conducting blessing ceremonies for some time, Rev. Jim Ferry, a preist at Holy Trinity clarified, "We also intend, when the opportunity arises, to take the next step, which is a (same-sex) marriage ceremony." Ferry also claimed that numerous other parishes across Canada...

SAN FRANCISCO, October 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA), has said that there will be no reversal of the church's pro-homosexual direction taken in recent years. Speaking to a standing room-only audience at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, the most senior official of the American branch of the Anglican Communion, announced that the Episcopalians would continue to "bless" same-sex unions and consecrate active and unrepentant homosexuals to the episcopate. "[We are] not going backward, but willing to pause," Jefferts Schori said. "All people, including gay and lesbian Christians...

The ACI has long hoped to encourage the reflection and writing of developing scholars and theologians, much as SEAD, in a previous era, did through its conferences and occasional journal The Harvest. In an effort to renew such a path, we have begun to place on our website the work of some newer voices, and will continue to do so. Craig David Uffman is a senior M.Div. student at Duke Divinity School. A former businessman, he has a passion for church-planting and recently toured and studied in some significant areas of the Global South where evangelism is being vigorously and...

Episcopal Panel 'Dodges' Response to Moratorium http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070615/27991_Episcopal_Panel_'Dodges'_Response_to_Moratorium.htm http://tinyurl.com/35qes6 By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Fri, Jun. 15 2007 07:13 AM ET An Episcopal panel of clergy and lay people indicated on Thursday they will not give a response to the moratorium Anglican leaders requested for by September, arguing that only the General Convention has the authority to respond. The next General Convention – The Episcopal Church's primary governing and legislative body – however, meets in the summer of 2009. After a four-day meeting that ended Thursday, the Executive Council said that no governing body other than General Convention can agree...

Executive Council prepares for communiqué response http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86791_ENG_HTM.htm Two committees hear experience of gay Nigerian activist By Mary Frances Schjonberg June 11, 2007 [Episcopal News Service] The Executive Council, the Episcopal Church's governing body between General Conventions, began its four-day meeting June 11 in New Jersey learning that a draft of a response to the Anglican Communion Primates' latest communiqué was ready for their consideration. In a public plenary session, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson said that Executive Council members would discuss during private conversation later in the day a draft report of the EC008 Task Group, requested by the...

Williams Not 'Absolutely Confident' Anglicans Can Get it Together http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070608/27856_Williams_Not_'Absolutely_Confident'_Anglicans_Can_Get_it_Together.htm http://tinyurl.com/2om7ed By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Fri, Jun. 08 2007 10:56 AM ET The spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion is hopeful, but not "absolutely confident" that the global church body, which many say is on the brink of division, can stay together. "Anglicans should remain Anglicans ... I don't think schism is inevitable," said Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in an interview with Time magazine. The Anglican head added, however, "If you're asking am I absolutely confident that we can get it together after the Lambeth Conference? No....

Breakaway Anglican Groups Invited to Form New Alliance http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070604/27766_Orthodox_Anglicans_to_Initiate_Talks_on_Forming_'Anglican_Union'.htm http://tinyurl.com/37dsm9 By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Mon, Jun. 04 2007 07:09 AM ET The head of a conservative Anglican network in the United States has invited major breakaway Anglican groups to up the level of their partnership for a united Anglicanism in North America as some predict a split in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, called for a Sept. 25-28 meeting to initiate discussion of creating an "Anglican Union" among the partners. The creation of the union would be a step...

Anglican Conflict: A Battle with 'Eternal Significance' http://www.christiantoday.com/article/anglican.conflict.a.battle.with.eternal.significance/10915.htm http://tinyurl.com/2ndbyg by Lillian Kwon, Christian Today Correspondent Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2007, 12:39 (BST) The recent non-invitation of two wayward bishops to a decennial global Anglican meeting produced a media frenzy this week. But what does all this mean? "First of all, it is clear that the Archbishop of Canterbury faces an impossible task – he is confronted by two irreconcilable truth claims," stated Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, newly installed missionary bishop of CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) – an orthodox Anglican splinter group and offshoot of the Church of...

Episcopal break up? http://www.catholic.org/views/views_news.php?id=24184 5/23/2007 Our Sunday Visitor One could argue that the Episcopal Church in the United States has been on the brink of disaster for years. Thomas Reeves, in his book The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity, quoted an observation made about the Episcopal Church in 1994 that seems no less true today: “The Episcopal Church is an institution in free fall. We have nothing to hold on to, no shared belief, no common assumptions, no agreed bottom line, no accepted definition of what an Episcopalian is or believes.” The Episcopal Church has been divided by...

No Lambeth Invitation for Bishop Robinson http://www.livingchurch.org/publishertlc/viewarticle.asp?ID=3366 http://tinyurl.com/yoerxw 5/22/2007 The Bishop of New Hampshire will not be invited to participate in the 2008 Lambeth Conference, according to the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary of the Lambeth Conference. Invitations to the conference were mailed May 22 to more than 800 bishops of the Anglican Communion by the conference’s host, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, Bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) and the Rt. Rev. Charles Murphy and his suffragans, the bishops of the Anglican Mission in North America (AMiA) will not receive...

Katharine Jefferts Schori on the future of the Episcopal Church http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/faith/05/19/0519schori.html http://tinyurl.com/2vknks First woman to preside as bishop talks with Statesman religion reporter By Eileen Flynn American-Statesman Staff Saturday, May 19, 2007 The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, addressed the graduates of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest on Tuesday in Northwest Austin. After the commencement, Jefferts Schori, the first woman to lead the national church, sat down with an American-Statesman reporter to talk about her denomination's challenges, including tensions within the 2.4 million-member American province and with Anglicans worldwide and her recent...

The nation's first openly gay governor has become an Episcopalian and been accepted into a seminary, according to a published report. Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, vicar at the church. McGreevey has been accepted to study at the General Theological Seminary in New York, the oldest in the Episcopal Church, school spokesman Bruce Parker said Wednesday. Parker did not know whether the former governor wants to become a priest. ''Mr. McGreevey has...

Gay Bishop Will Make Union with Partner Official http://www.beliefnet.com/story/217/story_21727_1.html Associated Press Concord, New Hampshire - The Rev. V. Gene Robinson became the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop. Now, he and his partner want to be among the first gay couples in New Hampshire to officially unite under a soon-to-be-signed civil unions law. New Hampshire is set to become the nation's fourth state to offer civil unions for gay couples after legislation approved by the state Senate on Thursday was sent to Gov. John Lynch, who has said he would sign it. "I think this moves us one step closer...

Archbishop of Canterbury announces plans to visit the Episcopal Church http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_84949_ENG_HTM.htm By Mary Frances Schjonberg and Solange de Santis April 16, 2007 [Episcopal News Service] The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, announced April 16 that he intends to visit the United States this autumn in response to the invitation from the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. Speaking in a news conference in Toronto, Williams said he would make the visit together with members of the Standing Committee of the Primates, of which Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is a member, and the Anglican Consultative Council. "I look...

Fate of Episcopal Church Left to Anglican Leaders, Not Head http://tinyurl.com/3dn5pf An Episcopal bishop recently revealed that the latest Anglican conference, while publicly centered on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, had a hidden agenda - concern over the issue of homosexuality. Tue, Apr. 10, 2007 Posted: 13:08:34 PM EST An Episcopal bishop recently revealed that the latest Anglican conference, while publicly centered on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, had a hidden agenda - concern over the issue of homosexuality. More than 400 people had convened in Boksburg, South Africa, last month for the Towards Effective Anglican Mission (TEAM)...

Primates push U.S. on sexuality http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2007/133/apr/04/article/primates-push-us-on-sexuality/ http://tinyurl.com/3auuwb Americans given deadline to comply Marites N. Sison, staff writer Apr 1, 2007 Primates of the Anglican Communion have given the U.S. Episcopal Church until Sept. 30 to “make an unequivocal common covenant” that its bishops will bar same-sex blessings in their churches and that it would not consecrate another gay bishop “unless some new consensus on this matter emerges” across the Anglican world. Failure to comply would mean that “the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remain damaged at best, and this has consequences for the...