Over the weekend, more than 2,000 people attended the consecration of Shannon Johnston, bishop co-adjutor of the Diocese of Virginia, at Washington National Cathedral on Saturday, May 26, 2007. Read on to find out more about the service, the people who attended it, and what’s in store for the new bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church’s largest diocese.
Of course, what should really happen is that the bishops of the Church of England stop using colleges like this to train its priests. Places such as Wycliffe are turning Anglicanism into a cult. But it’s a symptom of how bad things are in the C of E, and how frightened its bishops have become of the financial muscle of conservative evangelicals, that they won’t find the gumption to cut Wycliffe adrift.
– Giles Fraser, The Guardian
The 1549 Book of Common Prayer was as much the child of worship in the preceding centuries as it was a product of the Reformation. But there is an essential difference. Whereas the 1549 was intended to establish this new, universal relationship between every worshipper and the single, authoritative service book for the whole nation, the preceding era was different altogether.
An Anglican professor at a Ugandan theological college says Network bishops in the Episcopal Church are partly to blame for the crisis in the church
Perhaps it’s not so surprising to find that many think of a typical Episcopal parish as if it were a small business. After all, any business with an annual budget of 300-500K (not unreasonable for a medium size parish) would have to be considered worth the attention of a competent manager who keeps up with the latest trends in the business literature.
There used to be parades in every town at this time of year in honor of those who died in the defense of our country. Old guys in uniforms they wore as young men marched along Main Street with the high school band and last year’s homecoming queen, and every fire engine the town had crawled through town at the end, blowing its siren.
A Colorado congregation that has affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, and is attempting to keep the property it occupies from being retained by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, announced the results of a week of voting today.
The most recent development in the court battle came last week, when the congregation that remained with the Episcopal diocese appealed an April ruling by Judge Thomas Cooper to deny the diocese ownership of the church property. He upheld a 1745 deed that said the church real estate is held in trust for the benefit of the people of the Waccamaw Neck, for the establishment of an Anglican church. That means that neither the Episcopal Diocese nor the Anglican Mission in the Americas can lay claim to the church property.
The blog “BabyBlueOnline” has a long report on the meeting that place on May 25th between the clergy of the Diocese of Virginia and Bishop Schori. The Presiding Bishop was in town for the consecration of the new bishop coadjutor of Virginia that happened on Sat May 26th. It’s a wide ranging conversation between the Presiding Bishop and the clergy, with a number of sharp questions directed toward her.
Part of the richness that I cherish in the Episcopal Church is the variety of existing religious orders and communities that are already a part of our life. The monastic tradition is alive and well in our midst. The web site of the Episcopal Church has links to connect to twenty-three religious orders and twelve communities.