Week Ending 2/14/22

Site of Primates Meeting Changed

Access due to pandemic restrictions has changed the location of the upcoming Primates meeting for the Anglican Communion.  Originally the meeting was scheduled for Rome, but has now been switched to London.  The primates meeting is a gathering of the lead bishop in each of the independent churches of the the Anglican Communion.  It is not a policy making body, but helps to knit the Communion together. 

Presiding Bishop Curry Has a Busy Weekend

This last weekend Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preached sermons at separate celebrations in New York.  Both were appropriate events for Black History Month.  On February 12, Curry was at St. Philip's Episcopal Church to mark the annual commemoration in the Episcopal Church of Absalom Jones, the first black to be ordained deacon and priest in the Episcopal Church.  Jones led a group in Philadelphia that founded the first black Episcopal congregation, St. Thomas African Episcopal Church.  St. Philip's in New York was the second black Episcopal congregation, and thus an appropriate site for a New York celebration.  The next day Curry preached at a special memorial service for Archbishop Desmond Tutu held at the Cathedral of John the Divine in New York. Update carried notice of Tutu's death in December and early tributes to him.  The Episcopal cathedral hosted an interdenominational memorial with eulogies by a range of distinguished speakers.  The Episcopal News Service provided full stories on each service.. 

Continuing Stories

Bishops in Ghana Change Stance on Drastic Anti-LBGTQ Law 

Update carried the story in October 2021 of the House of Bishops in Ghana endorsing a proposed drastic anti-LGBTQ law.  Over the next several weeks, that endorsement and statement received multiple critiques, including from the Archbishop of Canterbury, who then met with the bishops and twice revised his statement to be more moderate.  Now his talks have led to a slight modification in the position of the bishops in Ghana.  They have issued a new statement, saying that while the traditions and customs of that country are strongly supportive of heterosexual relationships, and their reading of scripture does not endorse marriage other than between a man and a woman, the Lambeth Conference of 1998 and Christian love require them to speak out against persecution of  LGBTQ, and that they think the proposed law goes too far.  The Living Church has an accessible summary of the latest statement based on a story first carried in the Church Times.