News for Week Ending 8/22/2010

CAPA meeting to convene in Uganda

The Council for Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) will be holding a meeting in Uganda August 23–29, 2010. The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will preach at the service opening the Second All Africa Bishops Conference. Bishops from 400 African dioceses are slated to attend the Entebbe, Uganda, event. Additional details are available from Thinking Anglicans and Episcopal News Service.

Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury to meet during UK visit

Details are now available for the much anticipated visit of the Pope Benedict XVI to the U.K. next month. The Roman Catholic Pontiff arrives in Scotland for his four-day U.K. visit September 16, 2010. Benedict will participate in an ecumenical service in Westminster Abby with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams September 17. The two religious leaders will meet at Lambeth Palace earlier in the day. Relations between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church have been tense because England is in the process of authorizing women to be bishops and because the Vatican has invited Anglican clergy to defect to the Roman Catholic Church. Additional details can be found in the story from Episcopal News Service here.

Bennison controversy continues

The setting aside of the judgment against Bishop of Pennsylvania Charles E. Bennison and the bishop’s return to his episcopal post continue to make news. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) The Episcopal Church is getting unflattering publicity, such as this August 22 story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Disappointment and frustration with the handling of the Bennison case by The Episcopal Church has also been expressed in a letter to the church from witnesses who participated in the Bennison trial. The letter calls for a removal of the statute of limitations on sexual abuse and the construing of the covering up of sexual abuse to be equally serious, as it allows abuse to continue. The latest Episcopal News Service Story on the Bennison situation can be read here.

New W. Kansas bishop to retain rector position

Episcopal News Service reported August 21, 2010, that the Rev. Michael Pierce Milliken, newly elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas, expects to retain his position of rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Hutchinson, Kansas. In the early years of The Episcopal Church, bishops commonly retained a rectorship as a way of financing the diocese, but the arrangement is unusual today. Milliken will need to receive consents to become bishop of the diocese. Western Kansas is a small diocese and has only been a diocese since 1973.

San Diego church on rebound after split

According to North Country Times, Holy Cross Episcopal Church of Carlsbad, California, is growing again after most of its parishioners left The Episcopal Church to form a church under the Bishop of Bolivia. The new priest in charge at the church in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego is the Rev. Laura Sheridan-Campbell, who recently earned a doctorate from Church Divinity School of The Pacific. You can read the story here.

Anglican school rejects girl of lesbian parents

A school in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, has refused to accept a female student because she is being raised by lesbian parents. St. Vincent’s School, formerly an Episcopal school, is now associated with the Anglican Church in North America, headed by deposed Pittsburgh bishop Robert Duncan. Details can be found here.