In recent months, Roman Catholic dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics a spiritual benefit that fell out of favor decades ago — the indulgence, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife — and reminding them of the church’s clout in mitigating the wages of sin.
The two principal documents released by the Primates at their recent meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, namely The Primates Communiqué and the Report of the Windsor Continuation Group are a study in contrast.
William Mims was a member of one of the breakaway Episcopal Churches when he introduced a bill in the Virginia legislature that would have made it easier for such churches to maintain their property when they left the church. The Washington Post suggested that Mims’ intervention was exactly the sort of thing that the separation of church and state was meant to prevent.
Anglican Information reports: there is a now distinct danger that Nolbert Kunonga could promote a candidate of his choice. His own election (overseen by Bernard Malango) was shrouded in mystery and intrigue.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was the featured homilist on the Day One radio broadcast yesterday. Read her sermon, and see if you don’t hear echoes of Bill Carroll’s recent essay on the Daily Episcopalian blog.
The Gazette from Colorado Springs brings us a preview of the six-week trial that begins tomorrow to determine ownership of Grace Church and St. Stephen’s. The clergy and most of the laity voted to leave the Episcopal Church and join Archbishop Peter Akinola’s Anglican Church of Nigeria. They also decided to take the property with them, which the canons of the Episcopal Church do not permit.
The behavior of conservative primates and advocacy groups at the recently-concluded Primates Meeting in Alexandria, Egypt and the comments of Bishop Gregory Venables in this interivew with George Conger suggest a change in the strategy, and perhaps the aims of the anti-gay faction in the Anglican Communion.
From the Oklahoman comes a story similar to a story we recently reported on in Texas. It seems Republican legislators are eager to let people
There is, it seems to me, a connecting thread between all the various depressing bits of Catholic news this past week, beginning with the clueless, insular outreach to reactionary SSPX anti-Semites and culminating in the latest revelations about the serial child rapist protected by John Paul II, Father Maciel. That thread is not sex or anti-Semitism. It is the abuse of absolute clerical power.
The report of the Windsor Continuation Group may well be a more important document than the communique released earlier today by the Primates of the Anglican Communion. We offer a link, some of the highlights and a little commentary.