News for Week Ending 5/6/2013

Southern Cone primate interviewed by The Living Church

Southern Cone primate and Trinity School for Ministry alumnus Héctor (Tito) Zavala was interviewed by The Living Church while visiting the Eastern Assembly of the Anglican Network in Canada. In the interview published April 29, 2013, Zavala declared that the Southern Cone remains in broken communion with The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, but it is no longer involved with Bob Duncan’s Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). He described GAFCON, through its Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, as the “protecting body" for ACNA. The interview touches on many other topics as well.

Los Angeles diocese wins judgment against Newport Beach church

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled May 1, 2013, that the property of St. James, Newport Beach, properly belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Judge Kim Dunning declared summary judgment in favor of the diocese. St. James was one of three churches that voted to leave the leave The Episcopal Church. The other two cases had already been decided in favor of the diocese. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) The St. James case was complicated by a 1991 letter from Canon to the Ordinary Bruce MacPherson giving permission to the parish to obtain a parcel of land unencumbered by the Dennis Canon. Anglican Ink reported the story. A convenient version of the judge’s decision can be found here. The diocese reported that Judge Dunning reaffirmed her decision on May 6. The diocese has a story on the decision here.

Seminary dean calls Episcopal Church decline a myth

Dean of Virginia Theological Seminary, the Very Rev. Ian Markham, recently addressed the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Delaware on the topic “The Myth of the Decline of the Episcopal Church.” Markham argued we undercount people attending Episcopal services, that what decline there is is recent, and that the trend should soon reverse. His talk, in two videos, can be viewed here.