TEC affirms “gender identity and gender expression”

“‘Gender identity and gender expression’ have been added as a category of protected classes of personas and behavior for the Episcopal Church. On 9 July 2012 the House of Deputies adopted resolutions … forbidding discrimination in the employment, ordination and the ‘life, worship, and governance’ of trans-gendered or transsexual persons……”

– George Conger reports at Anglican Ink.

No censure for “Fort Worth 9” in TEC House of Bishops

“The push by the provisional bishops of Fort Worth and Quincy to censure nine bishops for disloyalty to the Episcopal Church has failed in the House of Bishops and has likely sunk any attempt to discipline the accused through the church’s legal system. …”

– George Conger reports at Anglican Ink.

Bishops respond to accusations

“Our Constitution … specifies no office or body with supremacy or hierarchical authority over the Ecclesiastical Authority of the diocese for matters within a diocese. And as bishops, we take no vow of obedience to any other office or body.”

– Six of the nine bishops accused of violating TEC’s canons have written an open letter to the TEC House of Bishops and Presiding Bishop. A report and the letter at The Living Church.

Related:

“The lawyers for Bishop Iker’s Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth continue to stay several moves ahead of their ECUSA opponents. Bishop Ohl’s and Bishop Buchanan’s tactic of trying to lower the boom on the seven Bishops signing an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court in the Fort Worth case may be said to have backfired. …”

– read more at The Anglican Curmudgeon.

Commended: The Faith we Confess

“The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer are the doctrinal standard of the Church of England.

… Anglican churchgoers, ordinands, and ministers still require some kind of exposition of the Articles which are nearly four and a half centuries old, in order to understand them and see their importance as an expression of the faith we confess today. Into the breach steps Gerald Bray with this well-written, historically-aware, and faithful unwrapping of each Article.”

– Lee Gatiss, review editor for Churchman commends (PDF file) Gerald Bray’s book on the Articles. (Availability.) Related: “a brilliant resource” – Mark Thompson.

Download the Introduction from The Latimer Trust.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, of Church Planting

“It was only about fifteen years ago that Sydney Anglicans recommenced church planting. Since then we can see that church plants can be described in the title of the old spaghetti western as ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’.

People plant churches for a variety of reasons. Consequently, there are many different kinds of church plants. Some of the reasons are great but some are somewhat less than noble. Unfortunately, the sinful and deceitful heart of man is rarely so simple as to have only one motivation. Here is a list of twelve different reasons for church plants as a reality check on our motivations. …”

– Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen writes in his weekly column for the Cathedral.

Related:

“Late last year I was invited to speak at a conference on the topic Why we need more churches. It seemed a silly question really. Of course we need more churches. …

But for me, it was and is a real issue. People confronted me with this question a number of times after hearing that we were moving to Darwin to plant a new church.”

– Dave McDonald in Canberra: Why we need more churches.

TEC Presiding Bishop’s opening remarks to General Convention

TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori:

“If this convention is The Episcopal Church’s family reunion, then go find somebody who represents the outlaw side of the family for you and spend a few minutes learning your relative’s story.… Episcopalians are increasingly engaged in creative reconciling work…”

– for anyone interested, the full text of the opening remarks to the TEC General Convention in Indianapolis can be read here. (Photo: ENS.)

‘Divine Conference’ attracts 2000 to All Saints Nairobi

“In the West the adjective ‘divine’ is used more to describe chocolate or clothes than the things of God, but the ‘Divine Conference’ held at Nairobi’s All Saints’ Cathedral last month, 24-27 May, was intended to be exactly what it said it was – a time given to God for his glory and to seek his face. …”

– Charles Raven, now based in Kenya, looks at what’s happening in East Africa. At Anglican Mainstream.

Calculated to intimidate?

“It turns out that in the Diocese of Quincy litigation, each side was scheduled to file last Friday, June 29, a list of the witnesses, both lay and expert, whom they plan to call to the stand at the trial scheduled for next April.

What a curious coincidence, then, that on the day before the Anglican Diocese of Quincy had to file its statement (i.e., on June 28), one of the Bishops which they planned to list as an expert witness received an email from the Intake Officer, the Rt. Rev. F. Clayton Matthews…”

– A S Haley, The Anglican Curmudgeon, asks about the timing of the notification from TEC of ‘disciplinary proceedings’ against nine bishops.

TitusOneNine has a good summary – Bishopsgate: A Guide with Links.

BBC Radio 4 programme on women bishops

Adrian Reynolds at The Proclamation Trust writes:

Interesting programme on Radio 4 yesterday including a very high quality section with Andrea Trevenna from St Nicholas’ Sevenoaks. Listen here. Go to 16:38 if you want to skip context and go straight to her part. She’s very strong on the authority of Scripture. She pretty much was the only person interviewed who mentioned the Bible.

(Includes comments from Kay Goldsworthy.)

Griffith Thomas on Original Sin

Church Society has posted the latest extract from W H Griffith Thomas’ classic work, Principles of Theology. This is the first section of his piece on Article IX of the Thirty Nine Articles.

TEC strikes again

“Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against three bishops of the Episcopal Church under the provisions of Title IV for having endorsed a legal pleading filed in the Quincy lawsuit.

On 28 June 2012, the Rt. Rev. Edward L. Salmon, Jr., former Bishop of South Carolina and Dean of Nashotah House seminary, the Rt. Rev. Peter H. Beckwith, former Bishop of Springfield, and th Rt. Rev. D. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop of Western Louisiana received an email from the Rt. Rev. F. Clayton Matthews stating that the charges had been leveled against them…”

– George Conger reports at Anglican Ink. Photo of Bp Edward Salmon: Nashotah House.

Related: Comment from The Anglican Curmudgeon.

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