Dave Walker of CartoonChurch fame is reporting fully on this story over at SPCK reports (latest), so just read it all there.
Update on Durham Cathedral SPCK, see this.
20 CommentsUpdated again Sunday morning
Episcopal News Service has a further detailed report, Pittsburgh convention approves first reading of constitutional changes.
The Living Church has an extremely short report.
Newspapers:
New York Times Pittsburgh Episcopal Diocese Votes to Leave the Church
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Episcopal Diocese votes to leave
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Episcopal bishop won’t ‘abandon’ his local sheep
Associated Press Pittsburgh Diocese backs a split
Press Releases:
Progresssive Episcopalians of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Chooses Path to Separation
Update
Apologies for the earlier erroneous information. I wrote earlier:
How close was this vote? Read this.
We have opened the way to seeking membership in another province of the Anglican Communion, should delegates so decide a year from now. But how significant a single vote can can be. We passed it 109-24 in the clerical order (the usual supermajority), but by 118 to 58 in the lay order (with one abstention). One switch from “aye” to “nay” and we would have lacked the requisite two-thirds majority…
This turns out to be incorrect. Only simple majorities are required. The Pittsburgh constitution reads:
7 CommentsArticle XV
Alteration of the Constitution
This Constitution, or any part thereof, may be altered in the following manner only: The proposed alteration or amendment shall be submitted in writing to the Annual Convention, and if approved by a majority of each Order, shall lie over to the next Annual Convention, and if again approved, by a majority of each Order, the Constitution shall then stand altered or amended as proposed.
Simon Barrow writes about a special feature this week on Religion and Public Life in the Economist . See The Predictable New Wars of Religion?
The Economist feature is here: In God’s name.
Jay Lakhani writes in the Guardian that All faiths must accept pluralism.
Jonathan Sacks appears twice today. In The Times he writes that The search for meaning must begin outside the self.
Over in the Daily Telegraph he is interviewed by Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson in Jonathan Sacks’s solution to family breakdown.
Also at the Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse asks Why should abortion be thought wrong?
In the Church Times Giles Fraser asks Is football in a moral bubble?
The Tablet has a review by Michael Northcott Americans Who Sing For Zion of two books, God’s Own Country and Allies for Armageddon.
18 CommentsThe Diocese of Pittsburgh has voted in favour of Resolution One, which starts out this way:
RESOLVED, that Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution of the Diocese of
Pittsburgh be, and it hereby is, amended and restated in its entirety to read as follows:The Church in the Diocese of Pittsburgh is a constituent member of the Anglican
Communion, a Fellowship within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces and regional churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.RESOLVED FURTHER, that a new Section 2 of Article I of the Constitution of the Diocese of Pittsburgh be, and it hereby is, adopted to read as follows:
The Diocese of Pittsburgh shall have membership in such Province of the Anglican
Communion as is by diocesan Canon specified.
Read the rest of it in a PDF file here.
The diocesan press release about this says:
Clergy and deputies to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh’s 142nd Annual Convention strongly approved a resolution that begins the process of amending the diocesan constitution. If the amendment passes a second reading, slated for November of 2008, a future diocesan convention would be able to realign the diocese to another province of The Anglican Communion if it so chose.
Deputies voted 118 to 58 with one abstention to approve the change. Clergy voted 109 to 24 in favor. An effort to instead return the diocese to full “accession” to The Episcopal Church was defeated by voice vote.
“This vote does not change the diocese’s current affiliation with The Episcopal Church. In fact, nothing at all changes until such a time as the next annual convention approves a second reading of the proposed amendment,” said Bishop Robert Duncan…
Bishop Duncan’s address to the convention can be found in full here.
His letter in reply to the one from the Presiding Bishop is as follows:
1st November, A.D. 2007
The Feast of All SaintsThe Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori
Episcopal Church Center
New York, New YorkDear Katharine,
Here I stand. I can do no other. I will neither compromise the Faith once delivered to the saints, nor will I abandon the sheep who elected me to protect them.
Pax et bonum in Christ Jesus our Lord,
+Bob Pittsburgh
Episcopal News Service has this report by Mary Frances Schjonberg: Pittsburgh bishop declines Presiding Bishop’s offer of reconciliation.
78 CommentsThere is a very detailed article by Auburn Faber Traycik in the Christian Challenge which is titled TEC: “Clarified All…Questions”?
Also, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church passed a resolution at its recent meeting, which ENS reports on as follows:
10 CommentsAs it concluded its three-day fall meeting at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dearborn, Michigan, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church thanked the House of Bishops for its efforts that resulted in a statement to the Anglican Communion issued in September.
However, Council Resolution NAC026 said that where the bishops’ statement called “particular attention to the application of [General Convention] Resolution B033 to lesbian and gay persons, it may inappropriately suggest that an additional qualification for the episcopacy has been imposed beyond those contained in the constitution and canons of the church.”
Two new articles arising from the recent Williams/Howe correspondence:
PARISH IS THE BASIC UNIT OF THE CHURCH IN AMERICAN ANGLICANISM by Rev. Dr. Tim Smith and Rev. George Conger.
The Parish is the basic unit of the church in American Anglicanism. Local property rights prevailed throughout early American Anglicanism. Centralization of control using the corporate model which began to be used in the early 1900s – has failed the purposes of the Church. Any new order should return to the foundational roots of American Anglicanism…
The Archbishop’s Letter to Central Florida: Scarcely Innocuous by T.W. Bartel
26 CommentsOn 14 October 2007 the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida full text here… The Archbishop appeared to remove the national church and province from any significant role in his understanding of Anglican polity. He also seemed to suggest that a ‘Windsor-compliant’ diocese would be in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, separate from the relationship of the diocese to its province.
In a letter to Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, by contrast, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori makes very clear that the national church and its constitutional structures are a very sharp reality.
Timothy Bartel takes issue with the Archbishop:
What are we to think of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent letter to the Bishop of Central Florida, which asserts that ‘any diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the [Anglican] Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church’? According to Lambeth Palace, that letter was ‘neither a new policy statement nor a roadmap for the future’ of the Communion. It was written simply to discourage conservative clergy and parishes in Central Florida and elsewhere from forsaking a ‘Windsor-compliant’ diocesan bishop and seeking refuge in foreign jurisdictions—and it simply repeats ‘a basic presupposition of what the archbishop believes to be the theology of the Church’, namely, that ‘theologically and sacramentally speaking, a priest is related in the first place to his or her bishop directly, not through the structure of the national church’…
Updated again Friday evening
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on October 31 inhibited Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison from all ordained ministry pending a judgment of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop. The Title IV Review Committee issued a presentment for conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy against Bennison on October 28.
Read the full ENS report: Pennsylvania bishop inhibited from ordained ministry.
The two counts of the presentment center on accusations that Bennison, when he was rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, California, did not respond properly after learning sometime in 1973 that his brother, John, who worked as a lay youth minister in the parish, was having an affair with a 14-year-old member of the youth group. John Bennison was also married at the time, according to the presentment.
The bishop is accused of not taking any steps to end the affair, not providing proper pastoral care to the girl, not investigating whether she needed medical care, taking three years to notify the girl’s parents, not reporting his brother to anyone, not investigating whether his brother was sexually involved with any other parishioners or other children, and seeking no advice on how to proceed. The presentment says Charles Bennison reacted “passively and self-protectively.”
The second count of the presentment accuses Bennison of continuing to fail in his duties until the fall of 2006. John Bennison became ordained during this time and the bishop is accused of not preventing his brother’s ordination, or his ultimately successful application to be reinstated as a priest after having renounced his orders in 1977, or his desire to transfer from the Diocese of Los Angeles to the Diocese of California. John Bennison was forced in 2006 to renounce his orders again when news of his abuse became public.
Updates
The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Pennsylvania has issued a statement. TitusOneNine has a copy of it here.
Episcopal News Service has a detailed report: PENNSYLVANIA: Standing Committee upholds Presiding Bishop’s decision to inhibit bishop.
The Standing Committee website has more links.
55 CommentsKatharine Jefferts Schori Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA has written to Robert Duncan Bishop of Pittsburgh. The full text of this letter has been published by ENS and also appears here, below the fold.
According to Episcopal News Service similar letters will follow to other bishops who are actively seeking to withdraw their dioceses from the Episcopal Church.
Read the full report by Jan Nunley Presiding Bishop reaches out to bishops attempting to withdraw dioceses.
…Of those dioceses considering “realignment,” Springfield appears not to have yet acted, and Quincy declined in its recent diocesan convention to pass a proposed canonical revision.
Fort Worth’s convention, meeting November 14-15,is set to consider the first reading of a constitutional amendment that would remove accession to the Constitution and Canons of the church, as well several canonical amendments that eliminate mention of the name of the Episcopal Church. Jefferts Schori intends to send a letter to Bishop Jack Iker, who advocates these changes, before the convention notifying him that such a step would force her to take action to bring the diocese and its leadership into line with the mandates of the national Church.
A similar canonical change is set to come before the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s convention November 2-3, and Jefferts Schori has written to Pittsburgh’s bishop in this regard (see link to letter cited above).
In December the Diocese of San Joaquin is scheduled to hear the second and final reading of its constitutional accession amendment, a proposed act that may prompt “more dramatic action” beforehand…
A year ago, the Presiding Bishop also wrote to Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin.
66 CommentsThe House of Bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada recently met, and issued this Letter to the Church.
Earlier the new primate Archbishop Fred Hiltz had visited Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office. See this report:
…Throughout these visits, Archbishop Hiltz heard encouraging feedback about how the Anglican Church of Canada is dealing with the issue of same-sex blessings.
“It’s always nice to hear someone like the Archbishop of Canterbury or from the Anglican Communion Office say you’re handling this coherently, cautiously, judiciously, and you’ve got some things I would hold up as a model for others to consider as they grapple with the issue,” said Archbishop Hiltz. “Of course that’s very encouraging and I’m looking forward to sharing those kinds of reflections at the Council of General Synod and the House of Bishops. Because we need to hear that.”
Two dioceses have recently voted on the matter of same-sex blessings, see Anglican Journal reports:
Ottawa votes yes to same-sex blessings
Ottawa synod followed process, says primate
Montreal diocese becomes second to urge same-sex blessings
“Progressive” Anglicans urge bishops to allow gay marriage
Ontario priest disciplined for marrying same-sex couple
24 CommentsThe Diocese of South Carolina announces that it has been notified that a majority of bishops with jurisdiction and a majority of Standing Committees have consented to the election of the Very Rev. Mark Lawrence as the 14th bishop of South Carolina.
The consecration will be held January 26, 2008 at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston, South Carolina. There is no indication in the official announcements of who will preside at this service.
More details of this in the Episcopal News Service report here.
The Diocese has also announced that:
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori has accepted our invitation to meet with the leadership of the Diocese of South Carolina February 25-26, 2008. This will give us an opportunity to state with clarity and charity the theological position of this Diocese in a manner similar to when we met with Most. Rev. Frank T. Griswold shortly after his Installation as Presiding Bishop.
An appropriate agenda will be developed after the Consecration.
Press reports:
Associated Press New Episcopal Bishop for S.C.
The State Diocese names new bishop
Bakersfield Californian Pastor named bishop after long struggle
14 CommentsA Christian magistrate who was told he could not opt out of homosexual adoption cases has lost his appeal.
Having lost an initial hearing at an employment tribunal in Sheffield earlier in 2007, Mr McClintock took his case against the Department for Constitutional Affairs to appeal in London.
However, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the Department for Constitutional Affairs had not acted unlawfully and that Mr McClintock had not suffered discrimination on grounds of his religious beliefs.
Mr McClintock intends to appeal this decision.
You can read the full judgement of the appeal tribunal as a PDF file. Here is the official summary:
The appellant was a Justice of the Peace. He sat on the Family Panel which, inter alia, places children for adoption. He objected to the possibility that he might be required to place a child with a same sex couple. The reason he gave was that he considered that there was insufficient evidence that this was in the child’s best interests and he felt that children should not be treated like guinea pigs in the name of politically correct legislation.
He asked to be relieved from hearing cases which might raise these issues. Representatives of the respondent refused to allow this and he resigned from the Family Panel. He complained that this was both direct and indirect discrimination and harassment, contrary to the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.
The Tribunal found that on the facts there was no unlawful conduct of any kind. He had not indicated that his objections were rooted in any religious or philosophical belief. There was in fact no direct or indirect discrimination for religious or philosophical reasons, nor any evidence of harassment. Even if there were a criterion adversely impacting on the appellant, the respondent was justified in requiring him to carry out the full duties of the office in accordance with his judicial oath.
The EAT rejected the appeal. The case was dismissed largely on the facts, but in addition the Tribunal was fully entitled to find that any indirect discrimination was justified.
Press coverage of the decision:
BBC Gay couple adoption appeal lost
Daily Telegraph Jonathan Petre Magistrate loses gay adoption appeal
Religious Intelligence Nick McKenzie Christian Magistrate to appeal after losing tribunal case
The Christian Institute and the LCF-sponsored CCFON are both unhappy, see here and here.
9 CommentsAccording to the November issue of the diocesan newspaper, one of the seven parishes that was departing has changed its mind:
*LATE BREAKING NEWS: Fr. Holsapple, St. Anne’s, Crystal River, e-mailed Bishop Howe at press time, saying he had reconsidered and would not leave, nor would his parish.
Meanwhile, the Central Florida Episcopalian published full details of the proposed protocol by which any disaffiliations will be handled: see here.
Note that this has not yet been agreed to, as the bishop explains:
5 CommentsHow we move forward will necessarily differ from one case to another. If an overwhelming majority of the members of a given congregation were to decide to leave, we might face a situation in which disposal of the property would eventually have to be considered.
I have shared the following proposed protocol with the clergy at our annual Clergy Conference at Canterbury, and it will be presented to the Diocesan Board and Standing Committee later this month. It has not yet been adopted, but I believe that it – or something very like it – must ensure that the spiritual needs of all the members of the Diocese will be protected. (This is more detail than most of you will want, but for everyone concerned we need to be as clear as possible.)
Updated
The Sunday Telegraph has a report by Jonathan Wynne-Jones headlined C of E to empower foreign bishops.
The Church of England is set to allow foreign archbishops to intervene in its affairs, secret papers reveal.
Under controversial plans being drawn up by the Church’s bishops, leaders from Africa and South America would be able to take over the care of parishes in this country.
They threaten to end the historic power of bishops to have ultimate control over their dioceses because parishes could ask for overseas prelates to carry out important duties, such as leading ordination services.
The proposals are part of a covenant or rule book of beliefs that has been endorsed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a last ditch attempt to prevent the Anglican Church from splitting over gay clergy…
Episcopal Café has reported on this as Let’s see who salutes while epiScope has Telegraph plays telephone…?
Watch for clarifications to emerge…
Reminder: at the CofE General Synod in July the covenant draft was discussed with this outcome, and further reports are linked here.
Update
For clarification, see both the comment by Pete Broadbent below, and his comment here on Fulcrum.
Following on from here, this week the Church of England issued a press release, Church confirms principles of protocol to review past child protection cases and the press duly reported:
Guardian Riazat Butt Church pledges to root out decades-old child abuse cases
Church Times Pat Ashworth Child-protection protocol agreed
Religious Intelligence Ed Beavan Child protection review ordered
BBC Church abuse case review outlined
Transcript of last May’s radio interview with the archbishop.
16 CommentsMark Vernon writes in the Guardian that seeing scientific knowledge as limitless erodes our capacity for contemplative wonder. Read Face to Faith.
Christopher Howse writes in the Daily Telegraph about Women alone in Paris and Mecca.
Roderick Strange asks in The Times How many of us have given until we felt the pinch?.
And there is another article: Church’s historic home in the City.
In the Church Times Giles Fraser asks Is secularism neutral on faith or anti-religious?.
And there is a leader column: Unity agreeable to God’s will.
27 CommentsSee earlier report here on the proposals for changing the way Crown Appointments are made. The full text of the document is here. The proposals relating to deans start at paragraph 31.
Three former deans wrote a letter to The Times this week:
Sir, Deans have been part of a system of checks and balances in the English Church, at least since the Reformation, when papal powers were divided between the Crown and the Archbishop of Canterbury (report, Oct 16).
Deans of cathedrals of the New Foundation (formerly monastic communities) are successors of their abbots and priors. Indeed, on the eve of the Reformation there were more abbots in the House of Lords than bishops. Canon law lays down that the government of the Church of England is by “archbishops, bishops, deans and archdeacons . . .” But suffragan bishops and archdeacons are already appointed by diocesan bishops: deans, therefore, appointed by the Crown, represent an independent focus in the life of the Church.
If the Crown wants to repudiate its responsibility in this regard, some other method of appointing deans should be found, because deans have a community rather than a purely ecclesiastical function.
Rather than abandon the appointment of deans by the Crown, consideration should be given to the appointment of all deans (including those of the parish church cathedrals, until recently called provosts) by the Crown.
John Arnold
Dean Emeritus of DurhamRichard Lewis
Dean Emeritus of WellsEdward Shotter
Dean Emeritus of Rochester
The Church Times has a report by Bill Bowder Deans question power of diocesan bishops.
3 CommentsA report in the Times Higher Education Supplement tells about the advice given to its members by Council of Church Colleges and Universities (CCCU).
See Academia checks on faith in The Times:
Advice from the Council of Church Colleges and Universities tells universities to mention their Christian ethos in employment contracts so that staff who “openly flout” their ideals can be said to be in breach of contract.
It is thought that the rules are most likely to affect senior staff, chaplains and teachers of theology.
“If an employee acts in a way that is detrimental to the employer, by openly flouting the ethos . . . it may be possible to conclude that there has been a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence,” the advice adds…
And also Universities told how to use Christianity to sack staff on Ekklesia:
40 Comments…But Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said that the advice was deeply disturbing.
“This report obliquely suggests ways of ensuring that some positions are not held by those whose lifestyle is at odds with some Christian doctrine, presumably in terms of sexual orientation, attitudes to abortion and maybe even to marriage”, the Times reports…
Andrew Goddard has made a very detailed analysis of the Joint Standing Committee Report which you can read at Fulcrum: The Anglican Communion after New Orleans and the Joint Standing Committee Report.
It includes an interesting description of how the report was compiled.
Kendall Harmon had A Conversation with Elizabeth Paver, member of the ACC Standing Committee.
Peter Jensen spoke to the Australian General Synod: Responding to the American House of Bishops – Archbishop Peter Jensen.
George Conger wrote in the Church of England Newspaper US House of Bishops Letter sparks debates on both sides.
49 CommentsThe Bishop of Fort Worth and the President of the Standing Committee of that diocese welcomed the letter.
The Living Church reported that the Letter Doesn’t Sway Central Florida Parishes who were presumably the primary target.
One blogger I omitted previously was Tobias Haller who wrote Strange Advice and then followed up with States of Things.
George Conger reported on it for the Church of England Newspaper this way: Archbishop’s Letter Angers Liberals.
Andrew Carey wrote about it in his CEN column: New direction?
Cary McMullen asked in the Lakeland Ledger Has Bishop John Howe averted Schism?
2 CommentsFurther developments since this report:
Living Church Two Sees in Central Africa Declared Vacant by George Conger
Anglican Communion News Service From the Dean of the Province on the withdrawal from the Province of Bishops Kunonga and Jakazi
6 Comments