Week Ending 4/2/18

New Filings in the South Carolina Property Case

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a request filed by the Episcopalians for an extension in filing their response to the break-away group's appeal of the property decision made by the South Carolina Supreme Court.  Lawyers for the diocese and the Episcopal Church have until April 30 to submit their response to the claim that the Supreme Court needs to step in and sort out how to apply neutral principles in church property cases.  Meanwhile, the breakaway group has gotten two additional amica filings claiming that the majority of the South Carolina Court wrongly applied neutral principles in their decision.  All the filings can be accessed from the U.S. Supreme Court Docket page here. The Update's most recent previous story on the case is here.

St. James Returning to Building

The congregation that has been worshiping in secular spaces since they were locked out of their building by Bishop Bruno of Los Angeles in 2015 has reached an agreement with the new bishop, John Taylor to return to the building on a trial basis beginning the Sunday after Easter.  The bishop will be there for the first service.  You can find the most recent Update story on this three year saga here.  The coverage by the Living Church, by Anglican.ink, and by the Episcopal Cafe each provides a slightly different perspective.

Date Set for Next Anglican Consultative Council Meeting

Hong Kong will be the site for the next Anglican Consultative Council meeting.  The meeting will run from April 28, 2019 to May 5 of that year. The last ACC meeting was in Lusaka in 2016.  The 2019 meeting was originally to be hosted by the Province of Brazil.  The Anglican Communion press release on Hong Kong's hosting cited unspecified problems for both the church and the country in Brazil that necessitated the change. The ACC meeting may be a good test for how GAFCON provinces and the rest of the Anglican Communion will get along at the 2020 Lambeth Conference.

ACNA Punts On Gun Control

A prominent British supporter of ACNA was puzzled why the denomination had been silent during the recent gun control demonstrations.  The response Christopher Sugden got from ACNA was hardly satisfying.  This is in contrast to many other American Churches, including the Episcopal Church who have spoken out on the issue.

Archbishop of York May Face Charges

Archbishop John Sentamu of York and three of his bishops are now facing a police investigation for failure to report to the police after hearing an accusation from a young man that he had been raped by a Church of England minister.  When the young man wrote to Sentamu, telling him of the rape, Sentamu told the local bishop and two others and wrote to the young man offering his sympathy.  None of the 3 bishops or the archbishop informed the police.  A police complaint eventually was filed by others and the cleric committed suicide before trial. This investigation comes on the heels of three weeks of public hearings on the Church of England's failure to deal appropriately with charges of sexual abuse by clergy.