One benefit of holding the House of Bishops meeting, which concludes today, in New Orleans, was to focus attention on the Church’s participation in rebuilding the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This story from The Boston Globe focuses on the efforts of the Rev. Jane Bearden of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
There were no documents released today, but the Episcopal News Service describes the arduous process for what was done today at the House of Bishops
At approximately 4:30 p.m., the House of Bishops took a brief break. When the meeting resumed, the session was again closed to the public, with even the bishops’ spouses being invited to leave. The enlarged writing committee again joined the plenary room.
Summarizing the days work as drawing from their experience with the poor and displaced in New Orleans, the Episcopal News Service reports that Mondays work
(Updated again) The House of Bishops are working on two different documents, both of which are very time consuming: a pastoral letter to the Episcopal
In reality [breakway parishes] declared their independence from the national Church years ago. To come under Nigeria is effectively to do as they please. It allows them to put “Anglican” on the board, though they are basically congregationalists by a posher-sounding name. When they fall out with their new best friends in Nigeria — the history of schism suggests they will — another bishop will be found.
While the Episcopal Church weighs how to deal with the differences in whether to ordain partnered homosexuals or to develop rituals for blessing same sex relationships, and while the House of Bishops debates crucial issues, the National Council of the Church of Norway is reevaluating its pastoral practice after 14 years experience with civil unions in that nation.
The compromise being worked on over the weekend has seen moderate conservative bishops working with liberals bishops and senior Anglican officials on a formal statement that would keep the majority of US bishops together. American conservative bishops complained that the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to see them, or return their calls during his stay.
All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, California, will keep its non-profit status after a two year inquiry of a sermon given by a visiting speaker in 2004, but the IRS also found that the sermon was an improper intervention in electoral politics.
Americans now have less than a fifty percent chance for having a marriage that lasts more than 25 years, according to new U.S. Census data. The trends for a marriage surviving even fifteen years are also troubling. Still, it appears that the divorce rate has actually remained steady in recent years.