Week Ending 1/9/17

Ecumenical Groups Express Concern About Trump Appointments

The National Council of Churches and PICO National Network (the largest group of faith-based organizations) have both expressed concern about some of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet Appointments.  The Religious Action Center of Reform Judiaism and the Rev. William Barber's group Moral Monkeys made statements. You can find a summary of their concerns here.

Controversy Continues Over Dar-es-Salom Bishop

The Archbishop of Tanzania deposed the Bishop of Dar-es-Salom for financial irregularities.  Bishop Mokiwa however is refusing to recognize the authority of the Archbishop to do this, and controversy continues.  It is not clear if the Archbishop can do this without the action of the House of Bishops and they had declined pursuing the charges.  Mokiwa is himself a former archbishop of the Anglican province.

Bishops Against Gun Violence Take Next Step

The Episcopal Bishops United Against Gun Violence are now facilitating a conference in Chicago on April 20-22, 2017 which hopes to empower those who attend to deal with the "unholy Trinity" of poverty, racism and guns.  You can find more information including registration information here.
The group of Bishops made their first public statements in a march during the 2015 General Convention in Salt Lake.  (See the Update here.)

Five Part Series on Diocese of Fort Worth Questioned

Last week Pittsburgh Update carried the link to the first of a five-part series by the Episcopal News Network on the "Resurrection" of the Diocese of Fort Worth.  The rest of articles each featured one parish, one that meets in a theater, one that does weekly lunches for college students, one meeting in a former mission chapel, and one in a shopping center.  Meanwhile the IRD has published an article picked up by conservative church news sources that questions the statistics showing diocesan growth  in the first article.  While the material in the IRD article may not be accurate on budget, the rest is based on The Episcopal Church parochial report statistics for the diocese.

Anglican Archbishops in the News

The Anglican Archbishop who headed the Maori track within the three-part organization of the Church in New Zealand has died.  Ninety-two-year-old Archbishop Brown Turei had already announced plans to step down in March 2017,  after serving for over 24 years as archbishop.  The update covered his retirement announcement here. Meanwhile Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has come out with a statement in support of the Archbishop of Southern Africa.  The South African President Jacob Zuma had told Archbishop Thabo Makgoba to keep the church out of politics.  Both archbishops referred to the long history of the church witnessing on political issues.

Two Diocese Take Steps Forward

The Episcopal Diocese of Vermont has made a major commitment to green energy by purchasing the solar array that they had been leasing.  The array is on diocesan property and provided all the electricity needed for the diocesan conference center property with a little to spare and sell. Meanwhile, the diocese of Bethlehem is moving forward with plans to elect a bishop.  They have been sharing a bishop with the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania. Bishop Sean Rowe has served as provisional bishop of Bethlehem since  March 2014.

Too Much Candle Power at Christmas

Church of England vicar Frank Coleman noticed that his server's vestments had caught fire from a candle and it was about to spread to her hair on Christmas Eve.  He rushed over and patted out the fire with his hands and then after a member of the congregation made him soak his hand in cold water continued with the service.  The server was unhurt.  The vicar ended up after the service in the emergency room with severe burns on 30% of his hand.