Thinking Anglicans

two more documents from the Americans

The American bishops issued A Message to God’s People…from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church.

And here is the Presiding Bishop’s homily at House of Bishops’ closing Eucharist.

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Dr Radner's IRD connection

Ephraim Radner who just attended the HoB meeting at Camp Allen to deliver this paper, is a member of the Covenant Design Group, and of the Anglican Communion Institute, and whose day job is being Rector of the Church of the Ascension, in Pueblo, Colarado, is now also a Director of the Institute for Religion and Democracy. You can see this by looking here.

Jim Naughton who wrote Following the Money, thinks this is a bad thing, as explained in Shining a little light on the IRD:

By the way, am I the last one to learn that the Rev. Ephraim Radner, who is helping to write the proposed Anglican Covenant, is a member of the IRD’s board? Does it bother anybody else that this sensitive work is being done by a man so closely allied with an organization that aims to “restructure the permanent governing structure” of “theologically flawed” Protestant denominations? (see FtM, Part one, footnote 3.)

The board is chaired by Roberta Ahmanson, whose billionaire husband Howard has said that while he no longer thinks it is “essential” to stone gay people, adds “It would still be a little hard to say that if one stumbled on a country that was doing that, that it is inherently immoral, to stone people for these things.” (See FtM, Part one, footnote 13.)

The Rev. Philip W. Turner is a member of the IRD’s Board of Advisors. He, like Radner is one of the six members of the Anglican Communion Institute. It is worth keeping these ties in mind when reading the ACI’s frequent interventions in the current debate over homosexuality and church order.

This was discussed on titusonenine and at Stand Firm and Dr Radner himself wrote:

Yes, I am a new board member of IRD. I have great respect for the the organization, in that it was one of the first to attempt to provide views regarding church-supported political activities around the world that challenged the standard liberal claims of our mainline denominations. These views simply were not being heard within our church structures — a form of conscious and unconscious censorship that I know first hand, and that has deeply limited and wounded these churches (including the Episcopal Church’s) intellectual and moral integrity. IRD’s work in bringing attention to matters of religious freedom around the world, woefully and ignominiously ignored by American Christian denominations, has been a critically needed witness. I do not in fact agree with all of IRD’s past positions or even current ones, but I respect and co[n]tinue to respect its work and its leaders. But I have made it clear that I am my own person. I am, for instance, a Democrat who often, although not always, votes with my party, but also struggles with it for a host of reasons. I try to be responsible and critical in my political thinking and acting. Diane Knippers was a great leader and Christian, whose witness inspired me in many ways, and I am more than willing to help carry on a work she began. Obviously, one is judged by one’s associations. I am, for instance, in the same church as Jim Naughton. What are we to make of this? It is odd, and in fact sad, to the utmost that the Church of Jesus Christ has crumbled to such an extent that Mr. Naughton (along with many others on the left and the right) is more interested in political segregation as a way of exercising his ecclesial vocation than in understanding.

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full text of American bishops statement

For context see here.

A Statement from the House of Bishops – March 20, 2007

We, the Bishops of The Episcopal Church, meeting at Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas, for our regular Spring Meeting, March 16-21, 2007, have received the Communiqué of February 19, 2007 from the Primates of the Anglican Communion meeting at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We have met together for prayer, reflection, conversation, and listening during these days and have had the Communiqué much on our minds and hearts, just as we know many in our Church and in other parts of the world have had us on their minds and hearts as we have taken counsel together. We are grateful for the prayers that have surrounded us.

We affirm once again the deep longing of our hearts for The Episcopal Church to continue as a part of the Anglican Communion. We have gone so far as to articulate our self-understanding and unceasing desire for relationships with other Anglicans by memorializing the principle in the Preamble of our Constitution. What is important to us is that The Episcopal Church is a constituent member of a family of Churches, all of whom share a common mother in the Church of England. That membership gives us the great privilege and unique opportunity of sharing in the family’s work of alleviating human suffering in all parts of the world. For those of us who are members of The Episcopal Church, we are aware as never before that our Anglican Communion partners are vital to our very integrity as Christians and our wholeness. The witness of their faith, their generosity, their bravery, and their devotion teach us essential elements of gospel-based living that contribute to our conversion.

We would therefore meet any decision to exclude us from gatherings of all Anglican Churches with great sorrow, but our commitment to our membership in the Anglican Communion as a way to participate in the alleviation of suffering and restoration of God’s creation would remain constant. We have no intention of choosing to withdraw from our commitments, our relationships, or our own recognition of our full communion with the See of Canterbury or any of the other constituent members of the Anglican Communion. Indeed, we will seek to live fully into, and deepen, our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the Communion through companion relationships, the networks of Anglican women, the Anglican Indigenous Network, the Francophone Network, our support for the Anglican Diocese of Cuba, our existing covenant commitments with other provinces and dioceses, including Liberia, Mexico, Central America, Brazil, and the Philippines, our work as The Episcopal Church in many countries around the world, especially in the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Taiwan, and countless informal relationships for mission around the world.

(more…)

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American bishops respond to primates

Updated Wednesday afternoon

Episcopal News Service has: Bishops request meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury, Primates’ Standing Committee

Living Church has Bishops Reject Primates’ Ultimatum and earlier had House of Bishops Begins Discussion of Primates’ Communiqué.

See also Bishops’ ‘Mind of the House’ resolutions.

Full text of the Mind of the House of Bishops Resolution Addressed to the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church

Resolved, the House of Bishops affirms its desire that The Episcopal Church remain a part of the councils of the Anglican Communion; and

Resolved, the meaning of the Preamble to the Constitution of The Episcopal Church is determined solely by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church; and

Resolved, the House of Bishops believes the proposed Pastoral Scheme of the Dar es Salaam Communiqué of February 19, 2007 would be injurious to The Episcopal Church and urges that the Executive Council decline to participate in it; and

Resolved, the House of Bishops pledges itself to continue to work to find ways of meeting the pastoral concerns of the Primates that are compatible with our own polity and canons.

Full text of the resolution addressed To the Archbishop of Canterbury and the members of the Primates’ Standing Committee:

We, the Bishops of The Episcopal Church, meeting in Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas, March 16-21, 2007, have considered the requests directed to us by the Primates of the Anglican Communion in the Communiqué dated February 19, 2007.

Although we are unable to accept the proposed Pastoral Scheme, we declare our passionate desire to remain in full constituent membership in both the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church.

We believe that there is an urgent need for us to meet face to face with the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of the Primates’ Standing Committee, and we hereby request and urge that such a meeting be negotiated by the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the earliest possible opportunity.

We invite the Archbishop and members of the Primates’ Standing Committee to join us at our expense for three days of prayer and conversation regarding these important matters.

Here are some more Episcopal News Service reports of what went on in the American House of Bishops prior to the release of the statements linked above:

‘Mutual respect’ marks bishops’ deliberations and Bishops approach Communique, Covenant with prayer, reflection

A presentation to the House of Bishops on the Proposed Anglican Covenant by Ephraim Radner

Interpreting the Proposed Anglican Covenant through the Communique by A. Katherine Grieb

God’s Mission and the Millennium Development Goals by Ian T. Douglas

Blogosphere reactions
Episcopal Majority is rounding these up here at Responses to the Bishops.

Ruth Gledhill is now on the case at TEC rejects forces of ‘colonialism’

Dave Walker has The Episcopal Bishops say ‘No!’

Press coverage:
Los Angeles Times Episcopal rejection of demands looks likely

An earlier report, not directly related to the HoB meeting, was this in the New York Times
Money Looms in Episcopalian Rift With Anglicans by Laurie Goodstein and Neela Banerjee

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More about the South Carolina election

Updated Monday afternoon

Monday Update Stand Firm has published this interview with Mark Lawrence.

A further report from Episcopal News Service rounds up various responses: Reactions to Lawrence announcement note ‘sorrow’.

The Living Church has Presiding Bishop Invalidates South Carolina Election and a longer report, Bruised Feelings Will Not Lead to Disobedience from South Carolina.

Secular newspaper reports:
Washington Post Alan Cooperman Episcopal Church Rejects S.C. Bishop
Charleston Post Courier Ex-candidate for bishop asks members to choose and earlier Top Episcopal bishop tosses S.C. election
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Episcopalian leader rejects conservative diocese’s choice of bishop
Bakersfield Californian Local pastor’s bishop bid rejected

From the blogs:
daily episcopalian Mark Lawrence plays the victim
titusonenine Dow Sanderson: The Arrogant and Ignorant Rejection of Mark Lawrence
American Anglican Council AAC Statement on the Denial of Consent for South Carolina Bishop-elect Mark Lawrence
Confessions of a Carioca South Carolina Postscript
Lionel Deimel Deimel on Lawrence’s Failed Bid: “Most Episcopalians Relieved” and Reflections on the Mark Lawrence Affair
In a Godward Direction See how these Christians…
Telling Secrets Losing It
Episcopal Majority South Carolina
Admiral of Morality A Godly admonition

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South Carolina election voided

Updated Friday morning

The Diocese of South Carolina has published a statement:

Consents for New South Carolina Bishop’s Election Ruled Insufficient; Diocesan Leadership Confident About the Future

I received a phone call late this afternoon from the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori giving notification that she was declaring null and void the election of The Very Rev. Mark Lawrence to be bishop of The Diocese of South Carolina. Although more than a majority of dioceses had voted to consent to Fr. Mark’s election, there were canonical deficiencies in the written responses sent to us. Several dioceses, both on and off American soil, thought that electronic permission was sufficient as had been their past accepted practice. The canons which apply are III.11.4(b), pp. 101-102 in the newly published 2006 Constitutions and Canons that require the prescribed testimonial to the consent be signed by a majority of each standing committee.

I have also notified Fr. Mark of her decision. We offer our deepest condolences to Fr. Mark and his wife Allison who have navigated this time of process with class, dignity and courage. I know that it is toughest on Allison who has had to watch her beloved spouse suffer so many indignities. We hope that they will agree to continue to be a part of the Diocese of South Carolina’s pursuit of securing our next Diocesan. Fr. Lawrence has modeled exemplary patience and calmness by enduring a level of scrutiny and persecution that is without precedent in The Episcopal Church (TEC).

Our Chancelor, Nick Ziegler has been suffering with bad health for several months. Currently our acting Chancellor, Wade Logan, is out of the country. He is scheduled to return within ten days. Upon his return we will convene both the Chancellor and acting Chancellor to discuss our options within the canons of TEC. The Standing Committee will then plot a course of action for the near future. In the meantime the Standing Committee will continue our partnership with our acting Bishop, the Right Rev. Edward Lloyd Salmon in tending to the needs of our diocese as we have for over the past 8 months. Bishop Salmon will represent us this week at the House of Bishop’s meeting to be held in Camp Allen, Texas.

I hope that this tragic outcome will be a wake up call to both clergy and lay through out TEC as to the conditions in our church. I have been blessed and encouraged by the many clergy and lay people throughout the world that have worked tirelessly on Fr. Mark’s behalf making phone calls and communicating through the electronic media in an effort to secure a majority of consents.

As I write this release I am reminded of Christ’s words in Luke 9:62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Our hand is to the plow, and in faithfulness to our Christ, we will not look back.

—The Rev. J. Haden McCormick
President of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of South Carolina

The Episcopal News Service has issued South Carolina election voided due to canonical deficiencies in responses – Lawrence invited to participate in second search process. This explains what happened in more detail. In particular it says:

Canonically adequate ballots were received by South Carolina from 50 diocesan standing committees. Several other standing committees were reported to have consented, but no signatures were attached to their ballots, or the ballot itself was missing from South Carolina’s records, Jefferts Schori reported. Any committee that did not respond is considered to have voted no.

Elsewhere, Kendall Harmon has stated on his blog titusonenine that in total 57 consents were notified to the Standing Committee, the last two of which were Colombia and Venezuela.

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Pittsburgh discovery

Updated twice Thursday

The legal process of discovery in the continuing dispute between Calvary Church Pittsburgh and the Diocese of Pittsburgh has lead to the publication of this document. Warning: 1.4 Mbyte PDF

The background to this event and the pertinent content of that document is summarised in this post by Mark Harris: The Network, the WB’s and the Pledge to the “Leader.”
Update And also in this further post: More on the Pledge to the Leader.
Also read the comments on that post and on this one at daily episcopalian.

That content is:

“Private and Confidential Westfields Response to the Global South Steering Committee
November 16,2006 Chantilly, Virginia

The undersigned, having convened with the Global South Steering Committee in Chantilly, Virginia, on November 15-17, 2006, declare:

ARTICLE I: We are firmly committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the authority of holy Scripture and historic Anglican faith and practice.

ARTICLE II: We have chosen the Rt. Rev. Robert W. Duncan as our leader and hereby submit to his leadership without reservation in building unity among us and as our representative for the present in the councils of the Anglican Communion.

ARTICLE III: We pledge to lay aside all obstacles, which may prevent us from achieving our common purpose.

ARTICLE IV: We solemnly pledge not to withdraw from these commitments.”

Now the question is simply this: did the other “Network” bishops present sign this document?
The record revealed to the court shows only that Robert W Duncan and two of his diocesan officials signed.

Update Thursday morning Episcopal Majority has a “photocopy” of what this page really looks like. So also does Anglican Centrist who has some harsh words for Bishop Duncan and his friends.

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The saga of South Carolina

Updated Tuesday morning
Still at 55 and Holding is the headline from Kendall Harmon.
The Bakersfield Californian has a report Local pastor hoping to take role of bishop.

The next few days see the conclusion of the current South Carolina election process, as the deadline for Standing Committee consents is passed. The diocesan website is being updated frequently with the latest count: 52 as I write this but for approval 56 are required. If these are not received, a new election has to be held. Scroll down for the full text of the letter from Mark Lawrence dated 7 March, or read it more conveniently here.

Press reports:
Charleston Post and Courier Adam Parker Episcopal bishop-elect confirms loyalty
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steve Levin Episcopal nominee at center of storm
The State (Columbia SC) Carolyn Click Bishop-elect debate mirrors larger struggle

ENS had SOUTH CAROLINA: Bishop-elect again clarifies his stance on Episcopal Church membership last Thursday.
The Living Church had South Carolina Nears Necessary Consents for Consecration of its Next Bishop on 3 March.

A mid-February ENS report was SOUTH CAROLINA: Standing Committee asks other dioceses to reconsider withholding consent to Lawrence.

There is strong campaigning going on, see for example Sarah Hey’s Open Threads here and here at Stand Firm or on the other side from Lionel Deimel: A New Urgency.

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NACDAP latest letter

Another pastoral letter to the members of Anglican Communion Network from Moderator Bishop Robert Duncan has been issued for reading in NACDAP parishes this Sunday, and for publication to the world on Monday.

However, you can read it now, at Telling Secrets the aptly-named blog of Elizabeth Kaeton. See Moderator Bob’s Pastoral Letter.

Another copy of it is here, which may be easier to read.

The last paragraph quotes some statistics:

The Anglican Communion Network is comprised of over 900 parishes and over 2200 clergy.

However, as the letter itself explains by no means all of these are members of the Episcopal Church USA.

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Windsor bishops: Western Louisiana spoke

The Bishop of Western Louisiana, Bruce MacPherson was one of those asked by Rowan Williams to make a presentation to the primates at Dar es Salaam on 15 February.

The text of what he said has been published in full here.

His diocese published a press release last October headed The Diocese of Western Louisiana becomes a “Windsor-compliant” diocese.

I have written twice previously about who are the Windsor bishops? and more on the Windsor statistics.

In his presentation Bishop MacPherson says:

…to speak on behalf of about twenty-four other diocesan bishops who share a common support and commitment to the process in which the Windsor Reports invites the Church to share in a journey leading to the development of a “common Anglican Covenant.” [WR117.p48]…

Later he says:

… we do not represent a small minority, but rather, we represent about twenty-five percent of the dioceses of The Episcopal Church, and a growing number of people beyond these borders..

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Executive Council reports

The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council met last week in Portland, Oregon. Unlike the Archbishops’ Council, its proceedings are conducted largely in public view.

It issued this Letter to the Church.

Further ENS reports of its actions are Executive Council approves 2007 budget, adopts resolutions on mission, ministry and Executive Council letter affirms Episcopal Church’s welcome to all people.

Living Church reports are Council Considers Proposals to Address Anticipated $3.8 Million Deficit , Development and Marketing Plan Presented to Council, and Task Forces to Study Anglican Communion Concerns .
Addition Also Executive Council Seeks to Reassure Homosexual Episcopalians

The sermon delivered by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori yesterday can be found here. ENS news article here.

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PB webcast

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori conducted a live webcast this morning. You can view a recording of this at varying levels of video quality or in audio only, here.

A transcript of the first part of the broadcast is here.

An ENS news report on this: Presiding Bishop engages in a live ‘Conversation with the Church.

There is also Presiding Bishop’s webcast gets reviews from participants, viewers

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more on the "Windsor" statistics

Updated

Lionel Deimel, Joan Gunderson, and Christopher Wilkins have published a detailed analysis of the statistics previously discussed here.

A Modest Analysis of NACDAP’s “Anglicans in the United States”.

Here is part of it:

…We now turn to the Coalition numbers. It is virtually impossible to verify the 48,000 number of “Network Parishes in Non-Network Dioceses.” The 194,312 number of members for “Network Dioceses” is consistent with the declared Network dioceses and their numbers shown in TEC statistics. This is an over count, however. There is opposition to the Network in all Network dioceses, and, in most of them, the opposition is highly organized. Moreover, the Network is not equally strong in all Network dioceses. In Pittsburgh, the 13 parishes that have formally declined membership in the Network have 6,200 members, including the 2nd and 3rd largest parishes in the diocese. This is just over 30% of the diocese. Pittsburgh’s diocesan dynamic is by no means unique. Typically, at least 25% of the Network diocese membership shown actually opposes the Network, and many more parishioners find the entire conflict distracting and would prefer a system that minimized diocesan division instead of exacerbating it. Some parishes are quite divided, and in almost every parish will have some parishioners that disagree with its stance (whatever that is), but 25% dissenter seems a fair guess, accounting for all the intermixing of partisans of anti-Network sentiment in the typical Network diocese. Applying this analysis would mean that reducing the 194,312 number shown for Network dioceses to 145,734 would be realistic.

Most questionable is the 201,501 figure shown for “Non-Network Windsor Dioceses.” PEP has been unable to verify this figure. It does not correspond to the number of members in various dioceses whose bishops attended the Camp Allen meetings, and there seems to be some confusion about just who is or is not a “Windsor bishop.” Among the bishops who attended the first meeting were two who retired (Salmon and Herlong) and were thus no longer diocesans. Another bishop (MacDonald, of Alaska) left his TEC see for Canada. The diocese of a fourth (Wolf, of Rhode Island) has steadfastly refused to endorse any resolutions supportive of the Windsor Report. A fifth bishop is on medical leave from his diocese (Lipscomb), and his successor, who has already been chosen, has not joined this group. Five bishops did not return for the second meeting at Camp Allen in January. Four new bishops attended that meeting (Jenkins, Gray, Jacobus, and Parsley). Bishop Parsley has been adamant that those in his diocese should not join the Network!

Mark Harris has posted Numbers, we’ve got numbers, we’ve got lots and lots of numbers. and more recently More on the Moderator’s Numbers.

epiScope has useful links to the sources of statistical data used.

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who are the Windsor bishops?

See earlier report of statistics used by Bishop Duncan, referred to by the Bishop of Winchester (“something over a quarter of its bishops and dioceses”) and mentioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury (“perhaps amounting to nearly one quarter of the Bishops”).

Who are these bishops? And do they each speak with the authority of their diocesan conventions, or only as individuals? Does having a “Windsor bishop” automatically create a “Windsor diocese”? And if so what is the extent in each diocese of dissent from that position?

Let’s start with the simplest question, the numbers of bishops.

As best I can tell, and I welcome corrections and comments on this:

All ten Network bishops are to be included in this list. OK, right now South Carolina doesn’t have a diocesan bishop in office, but it’s safe to assert that the bishop-elect should be included.

Outside the NACDAP, the following fourteen bishops appear to be candidates:

The Rt. Rev. Jim Adams, Bishop of Western Kansas
The Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray Diocese of Mississippi
The Rt. Rev. Samuel Johnson Howard, Bishop of Florida
The Rt. Rev. Russ Jacobus Diocese of Fond du Lac
The Rt. Rev. Charles Jenkins Diocese of Louisiana
The Rt. Rev. Gary Lillibridge, Bishop of West Texas
The Rt. Rev. John Lipscomb, Bishop of Southwest Florida
The Rt. Rev. Edward Little, Bishop of Northern Indiana
The Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop of Western Louisiana
The Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, Jr., Bishop of Northwest Texas
The Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley Diocese of Alabama
The Rt. Rev. Michael G. Smith, Bishop of North Dakota
The Rt. Rev. Don A. Wimberly, Bishop of Texas
The Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, Bishop of Rhode Island

I omit:
The Rt. Rev. Mark L. MacDonald, of Alaska, because he has subsequently accepted a post in the Anglican Church of Canada.

So we have a total at present of 24 (including South Carolina).
There are I believe 109 established posts in ECUSA for bishops with jurisdiction, and a quarter of that number would be 27+.

More on this later.

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Presiding Bishop on the Tanzania meeting

Amended

Episcopal News Service has published an audio recording of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori speaking to people who work at the Episcopal Church Center in New York last week. You can find it here.

It is a little less than 25 minutes long, but I strongly recommend listening to the whole of it.

There is a detailed ENS news report of this, Presiding Bishop briefs Church Center community on Primates’ Meeting by Mary Frances Schjonberg. This quote has drawn some attention elsewhere:

The “low point” of the Primates’ Meeting came, Jefferts Schori said, when one primate equated homosexuality with pedophilia and another said he couldn’t see why the Anglican Communion should study homosexuality if it doesn’t need to study murder.

The Living Church also has a report, Presiding Bishop Outlines Discernment Process, Schedules Webcast.

Next Wednesday, while the English General Synod is debating Private Members’ Motions, there will be a live webcast featuring the Presiding Bishop, see Presiding Bishop sets live webcast to discuss current issues. The recorded programme will be online for viewing afterwards.

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Bishop Duncan on Tanzania meeting

The Bishop of Pittsburgh, Robert Duncan, has published a “Pastoral Letter”. Whether you read it on the NACDAP website where it is titled “in Response to Primates’ Meeting” or on the Pittsburgh diocesan website where it is “Regarding the Primates’ Meeting” it is the same letter.

But only on the Pittsburgh site (so far) is there a live link to the statistics referenced in the text (a very small PDF file, stored in fact on the NACDAP site).

About these statistics, he writes:

  • Statistics bearing out the assertion that the Network and Windsor Dioceses, together with AMiA, CANA, and Network Convocation and Conference parishes across the country, represented a number equal to one-quarter of The Episcopal Church’s membership, minimally some 500,000 souls, a number larger than 18 Provinces of the Anglican Communion.

In the statistics table the following further claims are made:

  • 48,000 baptised members (no figure given for average Sunday attendance) in 128 parishes, and a total of 453 clergy, from Network Parishes in Non-Network Dioceses are Immediately Imperiled
  • 194,312 baptised members (81,335 average Sunday attendance) in 637 parishes, and a total of 1,586 clergy in Network Dioceses are Short-term Imperiled
  • 201,501 baptised members (75,932 average Sunday attendance) in 598 parishes (no figure given for total clergy) in Non-Network Windsor Dioceses are Longer-term Imperiled

Against this the table claims the “Non-Windsor Dioceses” have a total of 1,761,563 baptised members (630,004 average Sunday attendance) in 5,792 parishes (again no total clergy figure).

These claims clearly confused the Bishop of Winchester.

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Virginia: more legal action

From ENS: Episcopal Church goes to court in Virginia to retain parishes’ property.

The Episcopal Church has joined the Diocese of Virginia in its legal dispute over possession of the property of 11 congregations in which the majority of the members and clergy voted in 2006 and early 2007 to leave the denomination and affiliate with African Anglican bishops.

Lawyers filed a 20-page complaint in the County of Fairfax, Virginia, courts on February 9. The complaint lists the Episcopal Church as the plaintiff and names as defendants the former clergy and vestry members of 11 parishes and missions, as well as trustees who technically hold title to the real property of some of the parishes.

The complaint names the parishes as defendants “because their real and personal property and affairs are currently under the de facto control of individuals who claim the right to sever the link between the parties and the Diocese and the Episcopal Church, to divert the parishes’ real and personal property for their own use in affiliation with another denomination outside the United States, and to exclude the parishes’ faithful Episcopalian members for use and control of that property.”

The clergy and vestry, or vestry committee members in the case of the two missions, are named because they “have left the Episcopal Church, yet continue to exercise control over the real and personal property” of the congregation…

Stand Firm has a 2 Mb PDF file of the legal document here.

Press release from the seceded parishes here.

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Bishop Katharine in Cuba

Episcopal News Service has recorded a video interview with Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori which discusses her recent visit to the Episcopal Church of Cuba.

For background on this visit, see In Cuba, Presiding Bishop affirms ‘sea of possibilities’ for ending oppression and Cubans hail appointment of woman bishop.

The interview, conducted by Jan Nunley, on February 8 in New York, is linked here. It is about 11.5 minutes long.

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Church Times: the Virginia reports

Last week, I linked to the main news story by Paul Handley Virginia tells secessionists: see you in court.

The other reports are now available to non-subscribers:
The inhibited priest
Talk to our attorneys
The Bishop interviewed
Television
The priest who is staying
The faithful remnant

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Bishop Katharine in North Carolina

Episcopal News Service reports Presiding Bishop brings message of ‘Shalom’ to Episcopal Urban Caucus conference.

The Episcopal Urban Caucus website is here.

This was also reported in the Raleigh, North Carolina newspaper the News & Observer, which headlined the story Episcopal leader backs gay equality.

The paper also posted (as a PDF) the full text of her sermon at the Chapel of the Cross where she honoured the 30th anniversary of the first black woman ordained in the Episcopal Church USA.

There is a TV interview with Bishop Katharine linked from here. It is preceded by an interview with Lord Carey. The first interview is about 12.5 minutes. The second one is about 8 minutes.

Also, Bishop Katharine’s latest contribution to Episcopal Life is reproduced here: Three mission questions.

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