News for Week Ending 1/24/2011

Unknown number of primates to meet

The Primates’ Meeting is to take place in Dublin January 25–30, 2011. Church Times reports that it is still unknown how many primates will attend, since a number of Global South primates are boycotting the meeting because Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will be attending. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) The meeting, unlike previous meetings, will employ a facilitator to lead discussions. Anglican Communion Secretary General Canon Kenneth Kearon has insisted that the primates staying home because Jefferts Schori will be at the meeting are still committed to the Anglican Communion, according to Anglican Communion News Service. No formal announcement of an agenda has been made, but Anglican Church of Canada’s Archbishop Fred Hiltz has indicated that the primates will discuss the nature of the Anglican Communion and their own role in it, according to Episcopal News Service. Episcopal News Service ran a story January 24 on the meeting that can be read here.

Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to DC marriage equality law

Religion Dispatches reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case challenging the law allowing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. The suit was brought by Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church of Beltsville, Maryland.

Fort Worth judge rules for Episcopal Church

Tarrant County (Texas) District Court Judge John Chupp ruled January 21, 2011, that “all property, as well as control of the diocesan corporation” must be surrendered to the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth by the breakaway group led by Bishop Jack Iker and also claiming to be the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. The ruling resulted from arguments made before the court January 14 on various motions for summary judgment advanced by both plaintiffs and defendants. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) The judge ruled that, as a matter of law, The Episcopal Church is a hierarchical church, and its property can only be used for the benefit of The Episcopal Church. More details have been reported by Episcopal News Service and the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. The defendants announced their intention to appeal January 22.

San Joaquin to get new provisional bishop

According to the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, its Standing Committee has chosen the Rt. Rev. Chester L. Talton, a retired suffragan bishop of Los Angeles to succeed the Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb as provisional bishop of the diocese. Like Pittsburgh, San Joaquin is one of the four Episcopal Church dioceses that split, with many churches joining what has become the Anglican Church in North America. The choice of Bishop Talton is to be confirmed at a special convention of the diocese on March 29, 2008. Bishop Lamb and his wife will be returning to their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Bishop Jones announces retirement

According to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, its suffragan bishop, the Rt. Rev. David Colin Jones, has announced that he will retire in 2012. Bishop Jones, who has been in his current position for 17 years, served as consultant to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh after many diocesan leaders and members left the Episcopal Church in October 2008.