Category: The Lead

Women in the episcopate threaten to rend the fabric of the conservative Anglican movement known as Gafcon or Global Anglican Future Conference.

“It is with great sadness that we announced the death of the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong. He died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday morning,” St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been pastor, announced on Sunday (Sept 12).

I cannot recommend the continuation of a tenure in which I fear that more people will be made to feel diminished and discouraged. – Professor Iain Torrance, reporting to the Scottish Episcopal Church College of Bishops

Saturday the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America installed the Rev. Megan as its first openly transgender bishop. Sunday the ELCA installed the Rev. Brenda Bos as its first openly lesbian bishop.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will deliver a blessing and sermon Sept. 11 and 12 as part of A Time and Space of Remembrance and Healing at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York, which served as a relief mission for recovery workers at Ground Zero for nearly a year after the buildings fell. Tune in online at trinitywallstreet.org/september-11.

The Lee statue on Monument Boulevard in Richmond, Virginia came down today. After it was lifted off its pedestal the 12 foot tall was cut into pieces for transport. The pedestal on which is etched Lee remains for now.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Pope Francis, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issue a joint statement on climate change.

The Church in Wales has voted to bless same-sex marriages, a step towards marriage equality. The action puts the Church in Wales at odds with the Church of England.

Mark Babcock had an idea for Easter Sunday 2020. The organist and choirmaster of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Des Moines played the church’s carillon. He’s been playing every Sunday since.

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, one of the so-called flying bishops serving Church of England parishes that do not accept women’s ordination, has resigned in order to join the Roman Catholic church.