“I’m all for Rick Warren being at the table,” Bishop Robinson said, “but we’re not talking about a discussion, we’re talking about putting someone up front and center at what will be the most watched inauguration in history, and asking his blessing on the nation. And the God that he’s praying to is not the God that I know.”
I write this to you because our clergy and congregations need to know the current status of
the irregularly proposed new province within our church. I also need to share with you my
disappointment in the behavior of men who were once bishops in the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Jack Iker of Forth Worth says that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is wrong. He has not renounced his orders, and therefore should not
Bishop Charles E. Jenkins III of Louisiana, saying he has struggled with the emotional trauma caused by the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005, has announced his retirement, effective December 31, 2009. In a letter to the diocese, Jenkins, 57, wrote, “This move is based on issues of health and a concern for the mission strategy of the diocese.”
Accepting Bishop Iker’s voluntary renunciation now rather than waiting for the March meeting of the House will do much to alleviate the difficult circumstances facing the Episcopalians in Fort Worth, who are functioning in a Diocese devoid of any formal leadership.
The Rt. Rev. Keith L. Ackerman, who resigned last month as Bishop of Quincy — in the brief interval between coming back from sabbatical and
Bishop Jack Iker, who presided over the vote in the Diocese of Fort Worth to leave the Episcopal Church, has been inhibited in the exercise of the ministry in the Episcopal Church by the Presiding Bishop.
I recently returned from a 10-day journey to Palestine, Jordan and Israel. This trip was an opportunity to spend time with the new Episcopal Bishop of Jerusalem, Suheil Dawani, whose diocese spans Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Syria and Palestine. What I saw, heard and experienced has brought me to a place where I can no longer sit back and assume that in time all will be well in that troubled part of the world.
In hopes of salvaging his career, suspended Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. yesterday asked a special church court convened in Philadelphia to reverse its recent sentence removing him from holy orders.
There are numerous articles appearing about the reactions around the world to Tuesday’s presidential election results. The Church Times in the UK has collected a number of reactions from African American leaders in the Episcopal Church and other reactions are being shared from around the world. President-elect Obama is featured on the front cover of the issue.