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.
Mainline Protestantism’s (potentially) prophetic voice has been drowned out in the debate over who can sleep with whom and still do God’s work. Yes, it’s a big deal but so is the war in Iraq, public education, the environment, New Orleans, poverty and the imperial presidency. At times, I wonder if it’s an easier fight than the ones with less obvious (depending on your side) heroes and villains. – Diane Winston
The Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls writes to the House of Bishops that the procedures used for consent to deposition of a Bishop for abandoning the
Sydney Anglicanism has been in fact marginalised and made even irrelevant by its continuing opposition to the leadership, the headship of women, and that this is why the Sydney Anglicans have put so much energy in recent years into forging overseas alliances, particularly in the Third World.