Eight cyclists including led by biking enthusiast Bishop Mark Hollingsworth of the Diocese of Ohio left Anaheim on the closing day of General Convention. Destination: 815. Mission: Episcopal Relief and Development and NetsforLife®. ENS reports they arrived in one piece, mostly, and have accomplished their objectives.
Pressure was mounting on the Church of England tonight to use its power as a shareholder to stop mining company Vedanta Resources from opening a bauxite mine in a sacred part of India after it vowed to go ahead despite pleas from indigenous people.
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity “supports the archbishop in his desire to strengthen these bonds of communion, and to articulate more fully the relationship between the local and the universal within the church.”
A growing frustration of mine has been that we have increasingly accepted a legislative model of decision-making. This reinforces the idea for people on the extremes that the point is to prepare for diocesan and general conventions as do-or-die events that determine the future of the church by majority rule.
The podcasts he produces — of Morning Prayer, Noonday Prayer and the end-of-the-day prayer called Compline — have expanded Lee’s ministry from the wooded mountains of Maryland’s western extreme to a global congregation. This spring, the four-year-old effort claimed 50,000 downloads a month, from Anglicans on every continent and Christians of every stripe. And the number continues to grow.
On July 29, 1974 eleven women broke the barrier so long in place against the ordination of women to the priesthood of the Anglican Church when they were “irregularly” ordained to the priesthood in Philadelphia. Charges were filed against the bishops who ordained the women and attempts were made to prevent the Philadelphia 11 from serving their priestly ministries.
The Rev. Phil Ashey, chief operating officer of the American Anglican Council, said the sentiment on the ground is: “Rowan has spoken. So what? … He has abdicated his leadership in surrendering to the two-tier, two-track model of Anglicanism. … In typically Rowanesque fashion, he has left an open door for the Episcopal Church to dominate.”
It is the way that Archbishop Rowan uses “choice” which is bothersome, as if it would be as easy for someone to choose a homosexual lifestyle as it would be them to choose a certain way of being Anglican. At their deepest levels of identity, neither homosexuality nor Anglicanism is a choice. In particular, Anglicans have claimed that Anglican Christianity is a gift. – The Very Rev. Sam Candler
Friends of mine offer me their sympathy every three years or so following our General Convention. “It must be really hard to grow a church that spends so much time fighting” they say. In the past I’ve agreed with them. But I think I’ve decided that it’s time we as Episcopalians tell the truth about who we are though in a way that tries to explain to
others why our struggles are not a “bug” – they’re a “feature”!
Taking pity on the tears of Mary and Martha,
Thou has said to them:
“He will be resurrected and he will rise up
Saying, ‘Thou art the Life and Resurrection.’”