Week Ending 1/25/16

 

House of Lords Seats Second Woman Bishop

The House of Lords has just seated the Rt. Rev. Christine Hardman, Bishop of Newcastle.  She is the second woman to be seated among the 26 bishops in the House.  Traditionally the 26 seats are held by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester and the 21 most senior bishops in the Church of England.  However for the next 9 years under special transitional provisions, the most senior women bishops will take any openings that occur. 

Bishop vonRosenberg of South Carolina To Retire (Again).

Bishop Charles vonRosenberg, provisional Bishop of South Carolina has announced he will retire after June 26, 2016.  The retired bishop of East Tennessee stepped forward to lead the rebuilding effort for Episcopalians in the coastal half of South Carolina after Bishop Mark Lawrence led a majority of parishes in the diocese out of the Episcopal Church.  Bishop von Rosenberg and his wife were living in South Carolina at the time of the split.  Instead of a quiet life in a warm climate, vonRosenberg has had to deal with multiple lawsuits, recreating a church infrastructure, and nuturing clusters of loyal Episcopalians who have formed congregations in areas where parishes sided with Lawrence.  For more on his accomplishments and background, see the ENS story on his announcement.

Reaction Continues to Primates Meeting

The commentary and interpretation of the Meeting in Canterbury of Anglican Primates (and the ACNA Archbishop) continues.  Episcopal Cafe has a summary prepared by Andrew Gerns of statement from around the globe here and the Cafe also has a chart of comments by Episcopal Bishops which is updated by additional links in the comments section.  The latest from Presiding Bishop Curry stresses the independence of the Anglican Consultative Council which meets in April and that the primates have no authority to dictate who may vote at that meeting. Interestingly, Norman Doe the Church of Wales canon lawyer who helped write the Anglican Covenant makes the same point. Those who have been unhappy with the direction the TEC has taken, continue to insist that the primates issued sanctions and to suggest that in three years further punishment could be forthcoming, which led blogger Mark Harris to call the Archbishop of Kenya  who is chair of GAFCON, a bully.  The Anglican Church in North America issued a statement on their Archbishop's participation (was he supposed to vote or not?) That takes his participation as a step towards full recognition as a member of the Communion.