JSC and ACC meet at Lambeth Palace
Primates, bishops, lay people from the various regions of the Anglican Communion are meeting this week at the Anglican Communion Office and Lambeth Palace in London. The group meets on a regular basis between official gatherings of their larger meetings.
Members of the Joint Standing Committee … are focussing attention on the forthcoming meetings of the Primates, in February in Alexandria, Egypt, the ACC in Jamaica, in May and ongoing business. …
– Press release from the Anglican Communion News Service. (Photo: ACNS Rosenthal.)
Ft Worth to Schori: Stop border crossing
Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth has responded to his supposed inhibition by the TEC Presiding Bishop:
“Katharine Jefferts Schori has no authority over me or my ministry as a Bishop in the Church of God. She never has, and she never will.
Since November 15, 2008, both the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and I as the Diocesan Bishop have been members of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. As a result, canonical declarations of the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church pertaining to us are irrelevant and of no consequence.
The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth”
And from the Fort Worth Standing Committee: Read more
National Geographic blows it again
When I was growing up in the 1960s, my mother had a subscription to the National Geographic and I regularly perused its issues. It had a reputation as recently as the 1980s for a high degree of accuracy and the avoidance of sensationalism. Some time between then and this decade something went awry. …
– New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg. (Photo: Denver Seminary.)
Fort Worth Bishop inhibited
While the Nov 21 notice of inhibition came as no surprise to Episcopal Church watchers, internal church documents show a resistance by the review committee to punish Bishop Iker on the basis of his beliefs – resisting Bishop Schori’s push to discipline the Fort Worth bishop before his diocese quit the Episcopal Church. …
– George Conger writes at Religious Intelligence.
A sign of things to come?
The passage of Proposition 8 in California has reset the table with respect to the issue of same-sex marriage. Clearly, those pushing for legalized same-sex marriage thought that the decision of the California Supreme Court last May was the final word, and same-sex marriage would be an established legal reality in California. The fact that Proposition 8 passed on November 4 threw that assumption aside, and an ugly new chapter is opening. …
– Al Mohler writes on the backlash against those who supported marriage as between a man and a woman.
A new model for a new Province
The news of the unveiling of the constitution of the new Anglican Church in North America the first week in December has generated a great deal of excitement and a lot of speculation on the Internet. …
While it may be rather late to be proposing a model for the new province, one model the Common Cause Partnership Council might want to consider for the new province is a modification of the Australian model for an Anglican province. …
– Robin Jordan writes at VirtueOnline.
Bishops in bid to overturn gay marriage
On Nov 17, Bishop J Jon Bruno of Los Angeles and Bishop Marc Andrus of California along with the California Council of Churches, the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Unitarian Universalist Church filed a writ with the California Supreme Court seeking an injunction blocking implementation of the petition based by voters. …
– Report by George Conger for Religious Intelligence.
(Photo of Bishop Marc Andrus: Diocese of California.)
Coming soon to EHarmony – Adam & Steve
EHarmony … the Pasadena-based dating website, heavily promoted by Christian evangelical leaders when it was founded, has agreed in a civil rights settlement to give up its heterosexuals-only policy and offer same-sex matches. …
It must not only implement the new policy by March 31 but also give the first 10,000 same-sex registrants a free six-month subscription. …
– Report from The Los Angeles Times. (Graphic: EHarmony.)
What’s going on in Sydney?
Sydney Diocesan Synod passed a resolution in October that recognized that it is both legal and desirable for those in deacon’s orders to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This has raised again the issue of lay people presiding at the Lord’s Supper, which has long been a strongly held view in the Diocese of Sydney.…
– Canon Chris Sugden writes for Evangelicals Now. Read it at Anglican Mainstream.