Primates from the Americas Meet ad Elect Anglican Communion Standing Committee Member
Canada
hosted a regional meeting of primates from Anglican Communion Provinces in the Caribbean, and South, Central and North America. All provinces were represented and they discussed a number of issues. The primates
also elected a representative to sit on the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry declined to be considered in order not to upset some members of the communion. The Canadian primate also declined, noting he was due to retire within a year. The group chose Archbishop Julio Murray of Panama, the primate for the Province of Central America.
Presiding Bishop Statement on Death of George H.W. Bush
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry issued
this statement upon the death of former U.S. President, George H.W. Bush. The funeral will be at the National Cathedral. Bush was a lifelong Episcopalian as was his wife.
Conservatives Upset by English Cathedral Dean
When a student organization wanted to hold an Carol Service at the Derby Cathedral, the Dean of the Cathedral agreed, but he refused their first choice of preacher. That choice was a man whose parish has refused to pay assessments to the diocese because of its stand in favor of inclusion of LGBTQ people and because a member was "insulted" when she tried to support conversion therapy at a diocesan synod meeting. Those associated with GAFCON are raising a stink claiming he has banned the clergy person from the cathedral. Typical is this
Anglican.ink story. Dean Stephen Hance
invited another leading evangelical conservative to preside instead.
New Zealand Church Issues Apology to Maori
Archbishop Philip Richardson of the "Settler" strand in the threefold structure of the Province of Aotera, New Zealand and Polynesia,
led a deputation to Tauranga Moana iwi to apologize for the Church's failure to hold on to land entrusted to the Church Missionary Society in the 1830s. In 1867 the Society protested but did not prevent the government from claiming 526 hectacres of ancestral lands of the Maori. Maori leaders were on hand to welcome the deputation and receive the apology. The loss of this land has long been a source of on-going pain for the Maori.
Church in Japan Begins Campaign to End Use of Nuclear Power
The Anglican Communion province in Japan, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai has announced a campaign to end the use of Nuclear Power stations worldwide. Japan, of course has more experience than any other nation in the power of nuclear explosions, and following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has the most recent experience with a nuclear power station disaster. The Anglican New Service
has more details.
Updates on Ongoing Stories
Another Filing in Fort Worth Appeal
The filings seem endless in the lawsuit over Episcopal Church property in Texas. The latest filings are based on identity claims each side making the case that documents needed to be interpreted from a stance that their side was the real diocese of Fort Worth. You can read the latest filing by the schismatic group
here. Update provided links to the filings this latest brief references
here.
South Carolina Parish Defying Court Decision
In August 2017 the South Carolina Supreme Court awarded the diocesan property and the property of 29 parishes participating in the schismatic group to the Episcopal Diocese. Implementation of the decree was assigned to Judge Dickinson, a SC district court judge. He has not yet made a ruling, although he has received filings and
had a hearing on some of the issues. St. Jude's parish in Walterboro, however has decided to act as if the supreme court decision had not been made and
is listing for sale some of the church property.
Lawsuit by Bishop Sauls Postponed
Retired Bishop Stacy Sauls was
put on leave during an investigation of working climate issues in December 2015, and let go from his position at the Episcopal Church Center in
April 2016 when the position was eliminated by Presiding Bishop Curry. He has been frustrated in his search for a new position, so
he filed suit against the Episcopal Church in Alabama where he was living in 2017, but the Alabama suit was thrown out of court, and
he filed a new suit in New York where the Episcopal Center offices are located. The hearing was scheduled for late this year, but has
now been delayed for several months more.
More Commentary on the Albany Ban on Same Sex Marriages
Responses to Bishop Love of Albany's
announcement that he would defy General Convention and forbid implementation of Resolution B012 in his diocese because it was part of a "gay agenda" that was the work of "Satan" have continued to surface. St. Andrews in Albany invited everyone to attend their services on the First Sunday of Advent when they had a visitation from their DEPO bishop, DeDe Probe of Central New York, and hung a
rainbow flag as part of their Advent door decorations. The rector of an inclusive parish in Schenectady responded in his parish's
December newsletter by countering Love's statement and vowing the church would continue to be inclusive. The Standing Committee of Albany
put out a non-committal announcement that they had had a conversation with the Presiding Bishop, and Mark Harris wrote a
scathing rejoinder in his blog.
Another All-Woman Slate for Bishop Announced
Update has noted that in
several recent episcopal elections dioceses chose from slates where all the candidates were women. These were all for diocesan bishops. Now the Diocese of Texas has
announced the slate for their election of a suffragan bishop to replace Suffragan Bishop Dena Harrison, and it is
three women, all of whom serve in the Diocese of Texas.