Free Republic

Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 election as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop rocked Anglican Communion, has announced his divorce from his longtime partner and husband. Robinson, who retired in 2013 as the Bishop of New Hampshire, and his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrew, were married in a private civil union in 2008. The announcement was made public Saturday (May 3) in a statement to the Diocese of New Hampshire. “As you can imagine, this is a difficult time for us — not a decision entered into lightly or without much counseling,” Robinson wrote in a letter. “We ask...

The Rev. Greg Fry, priest-in-charge at Grace Episcopal Church in Pine Bluff, told his congregation Sunday morning that he is transgendered and identifies himself as a woman, apparently becoming the only working member of the Episcopalian clergy in Arkansas ever to make such an announcement. Church members and officials at Grace Episcopal declined comment on Monday, while one member said church leaders in the vestry were scheduled to meet on Wednesday, after which they may be in a better position to discuss the matter. The Rt. Rev. Larry Benfield, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, said in a statement...

The highly restrictive firearms laws in Washington, D.C., are enforced differently depending on your status and political position on gun control. Once again, the D.C. police are using their resources to provide illegal guns for a public relations stunt intended to pressure politicians to pass federal restrictions on the Second Amendment. Outside the Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, blacksmiths will “forge firearms into garden tools” as a symbolic enactment of this year’s theme, “Swords into Plowshares.” The Children's Defense Fund, which is cosponsoring the event, said in a press release that blacksmiths will be using “illegal guns confiscated by the...

The Washington National Cathedral, a symbol of unity among faithful Americans, was the site of a politically divisive event promoting gun control on Sunday. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, and the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the cathedral, exited the church service to participate in a event based on a theme of “beating swords into plowshares.” The gun-control leaders donned protective eye gear and took up hammers to bang on the gun parts that blacksmiths had turned red from heat. Before the dramatic performance in Northwest Washington, I interviewed Mrs. Edelman about her...

With apologies to C.S. Lewis My dear Wormwood, The Screwtape Letters It's hard to fathom, even by our standards of non-compliance with the Other Side, what a marvelous catch this John Shelby Spong fellow has turned out to be. I doubt we could have created a more perfect model of apostasy and heresy all wrapped up in one man. For more than four decades, he has steadfastly aided and abetted our cause of disbelief. Atheists and skeptics are obvious sinners, but they are not a patch on a man who wears the cloth of his religion while defaming and declaiming...

At 82, retired and enjoying life, Bishop John Shelby Spong doesn’t have to be the liberal enfant terrible whose pronouncements for gay rights and against traditional dogmas once scandalized Christendom. Indeed, many of the views that once turned the Charlotte native and former Episcopal bishop of Newark into a lightning rod are now regarded as so matter-of-fact that they barely occasion much notice: Ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex marriages, for example, or having a female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman elected to lead a national church in the Anglican Communion. On a range of issues, Spong...

A wave of vandalism continued to mar some of Washington’s more popular landmarks Monday with at least three more attractions spattered with green paint, and authorities announced the arrest of a woman near one of the incidents at Washington National Cathedral. The latest crimes occurred three days after the Lincoln Memorial was hit in similar fashion. On Monday, the light-green paint was discovered on an organ in the cathedral’s Bethlehem Chapel, in the cathedral’s Children’s Chapel and on the granite base of a statue next to the Smithsonian Castle on the Mall. D.C. police said Monday evening that they had...

http://www.spiritdaily.com/lorig.htm For Father Lorig, going strong at 77 and full of the Spirit, it's a matter of seeing some of it with his own eyes. On about a dozen occasions, says the priest, he has personally encountered spirits of the dead, including at bedside during the night, and has been led to pray their souls toward Jesus. Father Lorig, who was ordained a Catholic priest in 1984, and who is married with four children (and fifteen grandchildren), had some special experiences while at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Nogales (near the Mexican border). "It was built over an Indian graveyard...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — The National Cathedral is pealing its church bells, along with some other Washington churches, to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decisions on gay marriage. Cathedral spokesman Richard Weinberg said the bells rang at noon Wednesday for 45 minutes to an hour. Bells also rang at other Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian and other Christian churches

The bells at the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church of the United States, located in Washington DC, pealed for an hour at noon on June 26 following the decision of the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. Bells tolled at other places of Christian worship, including those of other Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian and other Christian churches.   The National Cathedral, which has seen numerous solemn occasions in American history, has also scheduled a prayer service for male and female homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders and their families for the evening of June 26.   The dean of...

Bishop Kee Sloan, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, has posted a letter asking churches to sponsor Boy Scout troops. In apparent response to the Southern Baptist Convention's resolution opposing the Boy Scouts' decision to accept openly gay scouts, Sloan wants Episcopal churches to step forward to host troops that may need a meeting place. Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter said while in Birmingham last weekend that his church, Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, plans to stop hosting its Boy Scout troop. First Baptist Church of Pelham and First Baptist Church of Helena have also announced...

"The theology of Rome, the authority of Rome—that was appealing to us," says Father Mark Lewis of St. Luke's Parish, the first US Episcopal church to join the Catholic Church under new Vatican rules.

Retired Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to become a U.S. bishop in the Episcopal Church, has written an nasty piece of opinion attacking a Catholic Archbishop as well as the Catholic Church in its entirety for defending marriage. Robinson, writing for The On Faith blog at The Washington Post, attacked Abp. Allen Vigneron for having said Catholics who support gay unions or marriage should not receive communion. And not only does he say that the Church is wrong on gay marriage, he says the Church has "lost its way" and has no right to even discuss...

At my small Episcopal church yesterday, we prayed for all those "killed" in the "tragic" Boston Marathon bombing. That was bad enough--those people were murdered and it was anything but a tragedy. Then we had to pray for the dead terrorist--which I refused to do. How unbiblical can you get. The dead terrorist didn't repent before his death. His soul went straight to Hell. Praying for him is basically praying for evil if you ask me. We also prayed for the still living terrorist. I can see that--he's still alive and can repent. But we didn't pray for the Holy...

Washington Episcopal Bishop Marianne Budde, writing in her blog on the subject of Resurrection, opined that if someone were to discover a tomb with Jesus' remains in it, the entire enterprise would not come crashing down. VOL: Actually, Bishop it would. Our faith would be in vain and we would be of all men (and women) most miserable. St. Paul writes in I Cor. 15, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day...

Most Easter church services dwell on three words: “He is risen!” At the church that President Obama chose to attend on Easter, the three words were a bit different: “You’re a racist!” Obama attended St. John’s Episcopal Church in DC, and according to the pool reporter, Rev. Luis Leon launched into at least one racist tirade. “It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus … for women to be back in the kitchen … for immigrants to be back on...

When it comes to finding controversial pastors, President Obama sure knows how to pick them. While attending Easter services at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington this morning, President Obama listened as Rev. Dr. Luis Leon spoke not of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but of the religious right as bigots who hate blacks, women, immigrants, and gays. The report came from the White House press pool and posted by TheBlaze.com. According to reports, Rev. Leon used his Easter sermon to attack religious conservatives, saying “It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us...

President Obama and his family this morning went to Easter Sunday services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Here are notes on the Easter service from the pool reporter, which included this part, "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border":

The pastor at the Washington, D.C. church where the Obama family celebrated Easter on Sunday said members of the religious right want blacks “in the back of the bus,” women “back in the kitchen” and immigrants “back on their side of the border.” “It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back…for blacks to be back in the back of the bus…for women to be back in the kitchen…for immigrants to be back on their side of the border,” Rev. Dr. Luis Leon said in his sermon, according to the White House press...

While many Christians were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday, Barack Obama, his family, and everyone else attending St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. received a message that included an attack on conservatives, the Weekly Standard reported. "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border," said Dr. Luis Leon. According to a tweet sent by Reuters'...