Gene Robinson on his prayer
President-elect Barack Obama has asked Bishop Gene Robinson… to deliver the invocation at a kickoff inaugural event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, two days before the inauguration itself. …
In recent years, and especially during the inaugurations of President George W. Bush, ministers gave explicitly Christian prayers. Bishop Robinson said he had been rereading inaugural prayers through history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were.”
Bishop Robinson said, “I am very clear that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.”
He said he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings,” language he said he learned from the 12-step program he has attended for his alcohol addiction.
– read the full report from The New York Times. And there’s an audio interview from NPR.
(Photo: Episcopal News Service/Mike Collins)
New Diocese attempts to join lawsuit
[January 8 2009] In an expected, but disappointing decision, the newly forming Episcopal Church diocese in southwestern Pennsylvania announced today that it intends to move forward with legal action against The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh (Anglican) by attempting to claim all diocesan property.
“The document filed today in the Calvary litigation by Calvary and the new diocese created after the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh withdrew from The Episcopal Church is both procedurally and substantively improper. Moreover, it is regrettable that these groups have chosen to pursue more litigation rather than agree to equitable division of the assets.” said the Rev. Peter Frank, diocesan spokesman.
– Press release from the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Gene Robinson to kick off Obama inaugural weekend
Following the row that erupted after pro-marriage and pro-life Saddleback pastor Rick Warren was picked to preside over the main inauguration event, Obama has selected the Episcopal Church’s only openly homosexual bishop to give the main invocation at a Sunday event celebrating Obama’s inauguration, to be held two days later. …
– Report from Life Site News. (Photo: TEC.)
Nigeria: Bishops’ Retreat communiqué
“Following the Primate’s report on the meeting of the GAFCON Primates Council with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the House of Bishops, while expressing support for this effort to build bridges, stressed that in any effort to bring restoration to the Communion there can be no compromise on the need for genuine repentance by those who have walked away from the ‘faith once delivered to the saints’.
We are, however, delighted by the continuing fruit of GAFCON, the developing Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans around the world, the work of the GAFCON Primates Council and the emerging Anglican Church in North America.”
– from the 2009 Annual Retreat of the Bishops of the Church of Nigeria.
The Aussie saving lost souls on Wall Street
He’s been described by an admiring New Yorker as “God’s go-to man on Wall Street”, an energetic Australian churchman ministering to the fallen financial gurus once considered masters of the universe.
That, the Reverend John Mason says modestly, is an exaggeration…
– John Huxley writes about the ministry of John Mason – in The Sydney Morning Herald.
See also the Christ Church website – Christ Church is affiliated with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
Related: Making your life count for eternity. (Photo: Sydney Morning Herald.)
Church loses to Diocese of Central New York
“Dear Good Shepherd,
As you may or may not have heard, the judge has ruled and we have lost our building and all of our assets. …
This little white church on the corner of Livingston and Conklin has been a part of all our lives and the lives of those in our neighborhood for many years. Some of us have spent our whole lives here. This is painful news.”
– Matt Kennedy and the Vestry and Wardens of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton, New York, break the news to their congregation. (h/t Stand Firm.)
(Screenshot from WBNG News, NY – see this earlier report.)
Rick Warren offers support for ACNA
Pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren has entered the conflict within The Episcopal Church over title to church property, offering his full support to the breakaway congregation of St. James in Newport Beach, Calif., and the third province movement known as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). …
“We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans,” he wrote, and offered the “campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who needs a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.”
– Report from The Living Church.
Vancouver-area parishes’ case to be heard on May 25
Press release from the Anglican Network in Canada: 7 January 2009
The trial involving four Vancouver-area Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) churches and the Anglican Church of Canada’s (ACoC) Diocese of New Westminster will begin on May 25 in British Columbia Supreme Court. Three weeks have been set aside to hear the case.
The four parishes – St. Matthew’s (Abbotsford), St Matthias and St Luke’s (Vancouver), St John’s Shaughnessy (Vancouver) and Church of the Good Shepherd (Vancouver) – had asked the courts in early September 2008 to clarify their trustees’ responsibilities in light of hostile action taken by the ACoC diocese. Read more
Tribute to Derek Kidner
In early December, Bishop John B Taylor spoke at a service of celebration for the life of Derek Kidner, who had fallen asleep in Christ a week or so earlier. He gave thanks for his scholarship and ministry – and for “his priceless legacy of book after book on the Bible”.
Oak Hill College has made the text of Bishop Taylor’s tribute available on their website.
(Photo of Derek Kidner: Oak Hill College.)
UK: Draft legislation to consecrate Women Bishops
“Earlier this week the first draft was published of legislation to permit women to be consecrated as bishops in the Church of England. The draft will be considered by the General Synod in February and it must either be rejected or passed a Revision Committee, the latter being by far the most likely outcome.
… the legislation is not making provision for alternative oversight, but just a form of delegated oversight. Opponents have consistently said that delegated oversight is inadequate.”
– David Phillips, General Secretary of Church Society at Church Society’s EVnews.
Abp of Canterbury’s New Year Message
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s New Year message is now available at the Anglican Communion News Service.
(Photo: Lambeth Conference media.)
FiF Aust responds to Bishop Kay Goldsworthy
Forward in Faith Australia has released this statement:
“The Council of Forward in Faith Australia Inc takes great exception to Bishop Kay Goldsworthy’s statement reported in the Sydney Morning Herald that those who oppose the ordination of women ‘will never accept that God is calling women to leadership in the church’.
This denigrates the great women in the past as well as the present who are leaders in the Church. …”
– Full statement available at the FIF website. (Photo: Diocese of Perth.)
Women bishops want male authority
Women bishops must enjoy the same authority as their male counterparts if they are placed in charge of an Anglican diocese, say two pioneering Australian churchwomen.
Barbara Darling, who was consecrated Assistant Bishop of Melbourne this year, said she opposed any plan that would diminish traditional authority of bishops over their dioceses. …
– Report from The Sydney Morning Herald. (Photo: Australian women bishops Barbara Darling and Kay Goldsworthy – by Janine Eastlake / Anglican Media Melbourne.).
Latest Australian Church Record out now
Released just in time for Christmas, the latest issue of the web-only newspaper, The Australian Church Record, is now online.
The 700kb December 2008 issue is available in PDF form at australianchurchrecord.net.
C of E drafts women bishops legislation
The Church of England published draft legislation Monday that could allow the ordination of women bishops – an issue that has provoked deep splits among Anglicans.
The proposed measures will go up for debate by the church’s General Synod governing body at a meeting in February. …
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…