Week Ending 5/30/22

 

All Posts are Updates on Continuing Stories

Diocese of Maryland Awards First Reparations

The Diocese of Maryland, which was one of the leaders in a movement to provide reparations to the African American Community for the church's participation in slavery and racism, has made its first set of reparation grants. Five grants of $30,000, and one of $25,000 went to Maryland organizations with goals ranging from helping black former prisoners find jobs, to raising self esteem and educational levels of black youths. While Maryland  led  reparation discussions, other Episcopal groups have also begun reparation grants.  Update has noted grants made by a Baltimore parish, the Virginia Theological Seminary, and the votes by the Dioceses of Virginia, New York, and Long Island to create reparation funds

The Road to Property Return in South Carolina

Update carried notice of the beginning of talks between the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and the ACNA Diocese about the process for return of property currently in the hands of the ACNA group, but which the South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered to be returned to the Episcopalians.  The Episcopal News Service has an article with background information, and as usual the scepiscopalians.com blog has used its May 26 post to allay concerns and clear up misconceptions about the process.

Another Round in the Never-Ending Oxford Saga

Last week, Update carried notice of the Christ Church, Oxford Dean's use of a farewell sermon to make very pointed criticisms on his long ordeal and church and college missteps in the handling of the controversy.  Not to be outdone, the college has now released its own statement, a defensive rehashing of the controversy.  Thinking Anglicans has a summary of the statement and a link to the full release. The comments (mostly critical of the college's version) on the thinkinganglicans.org site are also worth reviewing.

Objections Raised to Florida Election of Bishop

Charles Holt's election as bishop of the Diocese of Florida is proving quite controversial.  Update noted that the election of conservative Holt had almost immediately raised objections and concerns from the LGBTQ community and its supporter.  Now a formal complaint based on the process used for the election has been filed.  At the heart of the complaint is an argument that the Diocese changed the rules at the last minute to allow clergy (but not laity) to participate in the election on Zoom.  The original deadline for convention registration had resulted in too few clergy registrations to meet quorum requirements.  As a result what had been announced as an in-person convention was switched just days before the election to a hybrid with an electronic option for clergy.  The official complaint now goes to the Presiding Bishop's office for transmission to the church's Court of Review. Both the Living Church and Anglican.ink have stories on the latest objection.