News for Week Ending 4/21/2014

Welby’s position on same-sex marriage is topic of great interest

There seems to be no end in sight for commentary and analysis of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s balancing of his roles as English bishop and spiritual head of the Anglican Communion with respect to same-sex marriage. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) There is a certain redundancy in the myriad items that have appeared in the last week. Thinking Anglicans collects relevant links here. “Justin Welby: the anguish I face over gay marriage” from The Telegraph does a good job of identifying Welby’s dilemma, as he sees it. Andrew Brown has written something of a biographical sketch of Welby for The Guardian that contains a good deal of information useful for understanding the still new Archbishop of Canterbury.

Ordinariate falling short of expectations

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, which was created by the Vatican to to lure disaffected Anglicans in England, Wales, and Scotland into the Roman Catholic Church by allowing them to retain some Anglican traditions, seems to be attracting fewer Anglicans than was hoped. The Rt. Rev. Monsignor Keith Newton, in a sermon preached at an April 14, 2014, Chrism Mass, admitted, “However, we must be honest and say the Ordinariate has not grown as much as we hoped it might. The vision has not been caught.” He announced an Ordinariate-wide recruiting drive to take place on September 6.

Supreme Court of Canada refuses to hear St. Aidan’s appeal

According to an April 18, 2014, story from Anglican Ink, the Supreme Court of Canada has refused to entertain an appeal from the congregation of St. Aidan’s Anglican Church of Windsor, Ontario. The congregation had left the Canadian church and joined the Anglican Network in Canada, which is part of the Anglican Church in North America. The Ontario Court of Appeal had affirmed the award of parish property to the Diocese of Huron of the Anglican Church of Canada. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) That decision now stands.

Unused space leased at Episcopal Church Center

The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs announced April 16, 2014, that the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Lesotho to the United Nations will lease 6,379 square feet of currently unused office space in the building at 815 Second Avenue that houses the Episcopal Church Center. The building is a 4-minute walk from United Nations Plaza. In the first year of the lease, $274,000 of unanticipated income will be added to the church’s balance sheet. Other tenants of the building are the Consulat General de la Republique d’Haiti, the Ad Council, and the Lyceum Kennedy School.

Fort Worth Episcopalians handed another setback

The Texas Supreme Court has rejected the request from Fort Worth Episcopalians to stay its order returning litigation to the trial court pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.) Comments from the Episcopal diocese are here and from the breakaway diocese here.

N.Y. Times highlights Johnston-Baucum relationship

On April 19, 2014, The New York Times published a story on the friendship between Bishop of Virginia Shannon Johnston and rector of Truro Anglican, the Rev. Tory Baucum. There isn’t much new information in the  story, but readers interested in the relationship may nevertheless want to read it. (See Pittsburgh Update story here.)