The mainstream media has an ongoing fascination with Jim McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey who resigned his office after acknowledging that he had cheated on his wife with a man and then enrolled in an Episcopal seminary. It is, one must admit, a difficult story to ignore, but it is also proving to be a difficult story for the press to get right.
Almost every recent document dealing with Anglican governance speaks of the Instruments of Communion as though they are well-established and widely supported. Yet the attempt to invest these instruments with ecclesiastical authority is barely a decade old, has never been examined in any formal way by the member Churches of the Communion and has never even been approved by the so-called instruments themselves.
In a comment on the blog Titus 1:9, Ephraim Radner, a member of the Covenant Design Group has suggested that the word “Church” was used in the Ridley Cambridge Draft of the Anglican Covenant rather than the word “province” to provide for the possibility that schismatic churches and individual dioceses could “request recognition and participation.” The question is, why wasn’t such an important point made clear in the text?
The Episcopal Church has filed a brief with the Virginia Supreme Court, asking it to reverse a Fairfax County Court judge who ruled that the Church’s property now belongs to congregations affiliated with the Anglican Church of Nigeria. The Diocese of Virginia has also filed an appeal.
Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Charles A. Blanchard to the post of General Counsel, Department of the Air Force, Department of Defense.
In a Q&A she discussed interfaith work, conflict in the church, and membership.
The Joint Standing Committee recommendations may address the extent to which the decision of any covenanting Church to continue with an action or decision which has been found to be “incompatible with the Covenant” impairs or limits the communion between that Church and the other Churches of the Communion. It may recommend whether such action or decision should have a consequence for participation in the life of the Communion and its Instruments. – Ridley Cambridge Draft
The Lead earlier this month published the letter from Bishop Breidenthal (Southern Ohio) to his diocese regarding his decision not to consent to the consecration of Kevin Thew Forrester as Bishop of Northern Michigan. The Rt. Rev. Rustin R. Kimsey (Assisting Bishop for the Diocese of Alaska, The Fifth Bishop of Eastern Oregon, Retired, Assisting Bishop for the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, Retired) has written an open letter to Breidenthal suggesting he withdraw his opposition
57-9 imposes a principle of congregational polity on hierarchical churches. However salutary majority rule may be for civil governance or secular institutions, the state cannot impose it on churches. The First Amendment protects the rights of individuals to worship as they choose. That right includes, and indeed it depends upon, the ability to join a hierarchical denomination and know that local majorities will not subvert denominational rules.