Week ending 02/18/19

Australian Archbishop in Trouble for Use of Funds

 The resigned Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft is facing all sorts of problems caused by his failure to pusue accustions of child abuse.  Now unapproved withdrawal of funds can be added to his woes.  Herft did not seek approval before using $473,000 from the professional standards budget to pay his legal fees.  For more go here.

Updates on Continuing Stories

South Carolina Federal Judge Sets Date for Arguments

After being inundated by a sea of briefs, the federal district judge overseeing the trademark infringement law suit filed by Episcopalians against the schismatic group led by Mark Lawrence has given himself two extra months to read everything. Last August he set a date in March for argument.  That has now been extended to May.  The Episcopal web site posted this notice about the change.

Latest on Lambeth 2020

Lambeth 2020 is still more than a year away, but it keeps making news.  This week the planners of the once-a-decade gathering of active bishops from the whole Anglican Communion confirmed that all active bishops would be invited, but any same-sex spouses would not.  While this set off cries of protest from liberals within the communion, the GAFCON crowd was still upset that lesbian or gay bishops were coming at all.  In fact Ephriam Radnor of the tiny Anglican Communion Network proposed a series of resolutions for Lambeth that would exclude TEC and any of the other provinces now permitting same sex marriage or blessings and admitting ACNA.  The problem is, Lambeth 2020 is not set up to vote on anything.  Some of the GAFCON leaders want to either redo all the planning, or make the resolutions a precondition for attendance.  It is likely neither will happen, but that Bishop Sumner of Dallas, who sits on the Lambeth planning committee will get pressured by Radnor supporters.  Sumner is one of the so-called Anglican Communion Partners bishops, a group with ties to the Anglican Communion Institute.