News for Week Ending 4/23/2012

Christchurch rejects Covenant

Anglican Taonga reported April 22, 2012, that the Diocese of Christchurch in New Zealand has rejected a resolution favoring adoption of the Anglican Covenant. This extends a series of reverses for the Covenant in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) The whole church will take up the matter of Covenant adoption in July.

Two more CoE dioceses vote for Covenant

Two more Church of England dioceses voted on the Anglican Covenant, according to a post on Thinking Anglicans April 21, 2012. The dioceses of Chichester and Southwell & Nottingham both voted for Covenant adoption. Of course, the votes are meaningless, as previous diocesan votes have assured rejection by the church. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.)

Wales fails to adopt Covenant

The Church in Wales issued a press release April 18, 2012, indicating that the church’s Governing Body had passed a motion asserting the church’s commitment to the Anglican Communion  but requesting the Anglican Consultative Council, which meets in October, to clarify the status of the Covenant in light of its rejection by the Church of England. The press release can be found on the church’s Web site.

Blue Book released

The so-called Blue Book for the 2012 General Convention has been posted on-line as a PDF file. The book contains reports related to the business to be conducted at this summer’s meeting of the governing body of The Episcopal Church. Episcopal News Service has posted a story on the release, which includes a link to the book itself.

Truro and Diocese of Virginia settle

The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and the breakaway Truro Church issued a joint statement April 17, 2012, announcing that agreement has been reached concluding five years of litigation. A Virginia court issued a decision in January giving the assets of the church at the time the congregation left The Episcopal Church to the diocese. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) Terms of the agreement, which include deeding the real property of the parish to the diocese by April 30, can be found on the diocesan Web site.

McConnell elected 8th Bishop of Pittsburgh

In an election that required six ballots, the Rev. Dorsey W. M. McConnell, of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, was elected the eighth Bishop of Pittsburgh in a special convention held April 21, 2012, at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Pittsburgh. McConnell led in the clergy balloting from the beginning. The early favorite among the lay deputies, however, was the Rev. R. Stanley Runnels, of Kansas City, Missouri, who received the most lay votes through the fifth ballot. In an event held the night before, convention participants met at Trinity Cathedral to speak about the five episcopal candidates.

The diocesan Web site contains information about the candidates here and also carries a story about the McConnell win and about what happens next in the diocese. Episcopal News Service, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Tribune-Review all covered the convention.