While litigation rolls on in Virginia, the Episcopal Church is quietly regaining property in other dioceses. Members of the congregation of a Trinity Church in Bristol, Connecticut ended their legal fight with the diocese this week by giving up the church.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba joined Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury yesterday in a telephone call to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in which they appealed for help over the disruption of church services and the beating of worshippers in Zimbabwe.
Updated: Developments in California and New York suggest that the nation’s largest states are moving much faster than the Episcopal Church in recognizing the legitimacy of same-sex relationships.
Listening to God involves listening to one another, which allows us to understand the Bible more clearly, appreciate the depth and variety of the traditions of the Church, and enables us to draw on the intelligence and experience of others. This book offers … resources to enable bishops, clergy and laity … to listen to God and to one another on the subject of human sexuality.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today announced plans to mount an unprecedented mass walk of bishops and other faith leaders through central London during the forthcoming Lambeth Conference to demonstrate the Anglican Communion’s determination to help end extreme poverty across the globe.
It seems that the case could turn on whether the state has made sufficient provisions in its laws for hierarchical churches to hold property in a way that honors the church’s polity. In the Episcopal Church, many parishes hold their property in trust for their dioceses. The state wants the diocese to hold property in the name of the bishop or via a corporation.
“I feel safer down here among the Christian savages along Narragansett Bay than I do among the savage Christians of Massachusetts Bay Colony,” wrote Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, shortly after his exile from polite society in 1635.
What’s a bit of pain and an unsightly red welt when I could help to feed the eaglets? It’s a small price to pay to live amid this natural wonder and beauty in a setting that would resemble a photo in the L.L. Bean catalogue if only we had nice lawn furniture and professional landscaping.
God freely created us so that we might know, love and serve him in this life and be happy with him for ever. God’s purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may obtain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven.