Admiral of Morality

Another pre-Lambeth story

2008-06-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

This one is from the Economist. It is a preview of sorts of the upcoming Lambeth, and also surveys the recent controversy from the London blessing.

Here is a snippet:

"The Anglican ethos rests on an unspoken consensus, a tacit understanding that all manner of crankiness and eccentricity can be tolerated as long as the family somehow stays intact. But as any marriage counsellor will admit, there is not much you can do in a situation in which people are truly determined to put asunder a partnership which they once regarded as joined together by the hand of God."

Like the Catholic News Service piece noted below, the Economist piece positions Lambeth as a "high noon."

If tradition is any indicator, Lambeth will be just the latest in a series of Christian "high noons" dating back to the Crucifixion. But that turned out alright, didn't it?

Read: The Economist article is here.

Obama VP Top 10 picks

2008-06-19T10:00:00.002-04:00

Two women, two former Republicans, an independent, and a Hispanic make the top 10.

The following list reflects who's hot and who's not in the search for Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate. It's compiled by CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs and the rest of the CBSNews.com political team and reflects media speculation, buzz, reporting and a lot of guesswork.

1 Hillary Clinton
She won 18 million votes in the Democratic primaries, walloped the presumptive nominee in key states and retains the loyalty of a sizable chunk of the party. Conventional wisdom says this pairing will never happen but until that becomes crystal clear, Clinton has to remain high on the list.

2 Jim Webb
If being a Vietnam veteran, former Navy Secretary and the very face of the party's anti-war wing isn't enough, he's also from a key battleground state. Early media vetting has not been kind, however, and the Old Dominion isn't large enough to make the election all about Virginia, Virginia, Virginia.

3 Bill Richardson
The best choice if winning New Mexico and courting the Latino vote are paramount concerns. He may also have the best overall resume of anyone Obama will look at -- but his chances might be better if he had not run himself and turned in a puzzling performance.

4 Kathleen Sebelius
A rising star who suddenly has Republicans wondering what's wrong with Kansas. She's not an insider, has executive experience and bolsters the "change" theme of Obama's campaign. But could it be too much change?

5 Tom Daschle
An early and eager supporter for Obama, who appears to have forged a close relationship with the former Majority Leader. A consummate insider helps soothe concerns of inexperience but also brings a lot of insider baggage. And what happened to Obama in South Dakota?

6 Sam Nunn
A growing presence in the speculation because of his national security credentials, the former Georgia senator has veteran experience and moderate credentials. He's well-respected on both sides of the aisle, and is seen as a grown-up, but may be too much of a greybeard for the Obama generation.

7 Ed Rendell
One of Clinton's staunchest supporters in the primary and a seasoned politician who isn't afraid to jump into a fight. Obama's loss in Pennsylvania has Republicans looking to steal a blue state and Rendell could bring stability. He was careful not to trash Obama in the primaries but there are plenty of things he did say that would be thrown back at him.

8 Evan Bayh
The Midwestern moderate was supposed to be among the presidential field. Instead he backed Clinton from the get-go. It was a good way to get on her ticket, but just being one of the most popular politicians in Indiana might be enough to get on Obama's.

9 Tim Kaine
Not as appealing a Virginian as Webb, he may be a safer one. The governor has executive experience and isn’t steeped in the ways of Washington and is Catholic to boot. With as many as three prospects from the same state though, the chances narrow.

10 Michael Bloomberg
The only name to appear on the list for both presumptive nominees, the mayor appears to be a better fit for Obama. The two have publicly flirted throughout the campaign and this pick could help soothe uneasy Jewish voters unsure about Obama. But a New York City mayor might not be the kind of change voters can believe in.

For full bios and more on the hotlist, go to the VP bios pages at CBS.

Blessings and anguish for pastors in California

2008-06-18T12:15:00.003-04:00

Gay partnerships, unions, and marriages and Christian responses to them, continue to dominate the news.

Some clergy members in California spent Tuesday officiating at same-sex weddings made legal by a State Supreme Court ruling that took effect on Monday night. Others spent the day speaking out against same-sex marriage.

And there were those who spent the day in anguish, torn between the laws of their state and the laws of their church.

The Rev. Kimberly A. Willis said she had not decided what to do because she wanted to be able to minister to all of her congregants at Christ Church United Methodist, in Santa Rosa, about 10 percent of whom are gay. But if she officiates at a same-sex wedding, she could be charged with violating the United Methodists’ Book of Discipline, put on trial and defrocked.

“It was surreal to watch this and think, How can I not bless these people?” Ms. Willis said. “I can bless a car, and I have. I’ve been asked to bless animals, children, homes, bread, grape juice, but I can’t bless a gay and lesbian couple. That’s unreal to me.”

The tension could also be seen in Bakersfield, where the Rev. Tim Vivian of Grace Episcopal Church and about a dozen of his parishioners sat on the edge of a courtyard outside the Kern County Clerk’s Office, where same-sex couples were marrying. Mr. Vivian said he was “in solidarity” with the couples but would not participate in the ceremonies because his diocese was in turmoil over the gay issue and his superiors had asked him to refrain.

When asked whether he expected one day to marry same-sex couples in his church, Mr. Vivian said, “Very much so.”

Read the whole piece at The New York Times.

There is often a rather remarkable disconnect between the teachings and preaching of a Church and reality. In the past, one has given way to the other, to be reformed for the better.

When the subject has been Church teachings that have in some way dehumanized or limited real living persons, the solution has been to give powerful witness to our shared humanity.

The source of this powerful witness has regularly been and continues to be, the gift of grace and Spirit freely given. There is no way to dam it up.

Pray for our brothers and sisters in our Churches.

London priest: Why I blessed my friends' civil partnership

2008-06-17T11:30:00.004-04:00

The rector of St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London, in the eye of storm over gay 'marriage,' explains why he decided he must bless a gay relationship

Today, the New Statesman has posted a full comment by Rev. Martin Dudley, titled, "Why I blessed gay clergymen's relationship."

On May 31 in a ceremony at his London parish St Bartholomew-the-Great, Rev. Dudley blessed the civil partnership of two friends and fellow priests, Peter Cowell of England and David Lord of New Zealand.

The church, is one of the oldest in Britain, dating back to 1123. The blessing followed the 1662 Prayer Book rite for the solemnization of marriage, which with a few changes, is used in marriage ceremonies around the English-speaking world.

In Great Britain, same sex couples may enter into civil partnerships, giving participants rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage. But neither the Church of England nor the Diocese of London have officially adopted ceremonies blessing them.

Needless to say the event has set off quite a bit of discussion, debate, and repercussions.

One of the civilly partnered men, the Rev. Dr. Lord of New Zealand, has apparently resigned his license as an Anglican minister.

The Bishop of London calls all involved "reckless and self-indulgent" and is instituting "an investigation."

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, earlier today issued a rather unusual joint response to the blessing: they listen to the reports of the recent service with "great concern"; they cannot say more due to the bishop of London's "investigation"; clerics are free to "disgaree with the Church's teaching" but cannot disregard it.

In his defense, Rev. Dudley tells the Guardian of London, "I am surprised and disappointed by the fuss. It was a joyful, godly occasion. Why turn it into a controversy? It was not a rally or a demonstration.

"Nor is it the first time there have been prayers, hymns or readings following a civil partnership. It may be that this ceremony had rather more knobs on. It may also be the only one we know about."

Here is part of what Rev. Dudley says in the New Statesman today:

"For today’s Church of England it is as if the 1970s never existed; the lessons have been forgotten. There has been a retreat from exploring the depths, pushing the boundaries to the point where words strain, crack and sometimes break as we struggle to express in a suffering world the foolishness of God and the all-embracing love found in Jesus Christ.

There has been a return to uncritical fundamentalist use of biblical “proof texts”, ripping verses from their theological and literary contexts. There has been a flight to the safety of rigid law and inflexible dogma and a consequent desire to unchurch those who will not conform.

So on a day late in 2007 when my friend and colleague Peter Cowell asked me to bless the civil partnership that he was to contract with David Lord in May this year I was ready to answer “yes”. I did so not to provoke the so-called traditionalists and to deliberately disregard the guidelines published by the English House of Bishops, not to defy the Bishop of London, whose sagacity I respect, or Archbishop Rowan, who I have known and admired for 25 years, but because to respond in any other way would have been a negation of everything I believe, of everything that makes me who I am, as a man and as a priest."

Read it all at The New Statesman.

Why I love the Episcopal Church

2008-06-17T09:45:00.002-04:00

A sermon recently preached by the Rev. Terence L. Elsberry, Rector, St. Matthew's Church, Bedford, NY:

I’m preaching this sermon in response to a request. When I told someone a few days ago that at today’s ten o’clock service we were going to commission our vestry, the person said, “Terry, why don’t you preach a sermon on what the vestry does and where the word comes from in the first place?”

My friend went on: “We have all these quirky words in The Episcopal Church—vestry, warden, glebe, verger—but how many of us know what they really mean? Why don’t you tell us?”

So in response, I have for you this morning not a typical sermon but a teaching of sorts. And I also offer a confession: all the quirky words are part of the reason why I love The Episcopal Church.

Read it all here (scroll to last page).

The power of witness

2008-06-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

Many Episcopalians/Anglicans are so reserved and grim faced even in the midst of a wonderful liturgy, that a newcomer might think he'd just walked into a wake.

The giveaway that the congregation isn't a funeral service is that there is no casket. Or there is a baby happily tumbling around in the the pews and being snatched up from the edge of the baptismal font by a flustered parent.

Being the frozen chosen might be a badge of honor in some parts and is every Episcopalian's God-given right. It may even be an attractive characteristic for many seekers.

True, being frozen is sometimes the result of five, six-verse funereal hymns. But it can also be an impediment to attracting and keeping newcomers, and to living a life of full discipleship.

Too often, we're so reserved we don't even speak about our own faith in a way that is accessible, open, and honest.

A life of discipleship should encourage and permit this. Because sometimes, the best testimony about our faith is not only a life lived, but a life shared.

One good example of the power of witness is currently online at Newsweek. The author is named Jimmy Doyle and he was recently confirmed in The Episcopal Church, at St. Thomas the Apostle in Los Angeles.

He writes that even as a boy he felt called to Christ, but that as a gay person, he did not live a life of discipleship until he encountered our Church.

Here, he found "a Christianity that was alive and evolving, one that delighted in difference and saw God's creation in many things."

Take some time out of the day to read Doyle's story. (Go here.) It is simple, honest, and a strong witness to the Lord.

Catholic News Service on Lambeth: "Time of reckoning for ecumenical dialogue"

2008-06-14T22:45:00.000-04:00

The Catholic News Service (CNS), may be the oldest and biggest wire service specializing in religious matters. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which shapes policy and governance for the Roman church in America, created it in the 1920s.

As Lambeth 2008 gets closer (we are only 32 days out), we are bound to see quite a few stories about the Conference, from quite a few different perspectives.

CNS has run a piece with a headline baldly stating that this summer's Lambeth is "a time of reckoning" for Anglican-Roman dialogue. What are Episcopalians/Anglicans to make of this?

On the one hand, the piece presents the Roman view in somewhat usual fashion. The piece quotes "the Vatican" anonymously; and otherwise, revisits many events that Roman Catholics as a body, do not agree is possible—-women's ordination, women's consecration, +Robinson.

On the other, in a fine display of "schism" euphemisms, the piece makes clear that "splintering," "factions," and "new groups," do not improve dialogue. Hear, hear.

CNS's review of Lambeth itself, is given short shrift. They do say that, "Over the last 140 years, even without legislative authority, the Lambeth Conference has been the Anglicans' most effective unifying instrument." Ecce signum!

But there isn't much in the piece about the conference per se, other than that the Romans tend to view the idea of a strong Covenant as very good, and the notion of a strong, primal Archbishop of Canterbury, as even better. Tsk, tsk--do we really need bandwidth to understand that this is the Roman position? (No.)

The CNS piece gives the sense that many Romans are still somewhat miffed that Anglicans have the following: decentralized authority, public disagreements, women priests and bishops, openly gay clergy, and a dynamic theology.

Could be.

Perhaps we Anglicans, will have to keep meeting with the Romans to dialogue about this?

The CNS story is here.

Confessions of a "die hard cyber-girl," and other tales

2008-04-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

When at sea it is second nature to calibrate based on all manner of information gathered via long distances. We adjust for winds, tides, heights, temperatures, depths and so forth, and don't much think twice about adjusting based on a voice we've never seen or a readout of data compiled by computer.

Even so, if we are over 18 or so, we might still wonder just how real and enduring cyber/virtual/online discussions and interactions can be, and how these might affect our physical interactions and discussions.

No doubt the wondering ends, when a physical world discussion or interaction, is based on or highly informed by, a virtual one--say, when a package examined and purchased virtually, arrives at our doors the very next morning. In these instances, the cyber world becomes very real indeed.

It's not so much that the virtual world affects us, but the extent to which it now does, that makes us wonder.

Many people of college age and younger, do not wonder much about it at all.

For them, cyber interaction is regular and typical, and in fact, often far superior to physical discussion and communication. Indeed, for most of them, the cyber interaction is essential to the physical interaction, and can be far more regular.

Why is this so?

There is a good deal of research and emerging study in this area. One thing we can be sure of is that one reason for this incredible fondness for and reliance on virtual communication, is because by the time a young person turns 18, cyberspace is already an old friend.

Consider what Kathryn Seiferth, a freshman at Tusculum College in Tennessee and a self-described "cyber girl," writes in the latest issue of Trinity Magazine, the parish magazine of Trinity Church, Wall Street.

She says, "I happily embrace my role as a child of an age in which nonverbal conversations are more common than not....This idea of being connected, despite distance, is a quality that defines my generation."

Young Seiferth's essay examines how "empathy" plays out in cyberspace. As you can probably tell, she thinks there is oodles of it there; just not always.

Hers is one of several essays in the current issue of Trinity Magazine, examining empathy in various contexts. Others include prison, the confessional, and the parish kitchen. There is also an article on "A Theology of Empathy."

Go here for the full "cyber girl" article.

Regula, dear readers, and thank you

2008-03-28T09:45:00.000-04:00

Since no entries were made to the website for a short period this past winter, several readers wrote to inquire as to my whereabouts, and as to the status of the site.

In the Episcopal contemplative tradition modeled on The Rule of St. Benedict, there are regular periods of prayer, meditation and contemplation. Much of this tradition occurs within a monastic or other contemplative community, of which The Episcopal Church has several.

These communities generally follow the rule of life formulated so well by St. Benedict. This rule, or regula, to use the Latin—which gives us the more expansive sense of the word's term, which is as a method or approach to spiritual formation—does not require holy orders, and many have written elsewhere, about the rules' usefulness and development in their lives.

In my own life, there are regular periods of contemplation, study, and prayer, during which no posts may appear, and no correspondence may be answered.

Alas, these periods might seem extended by the instantaneous standards of electrical impulses; by human standards, these times are surprisingly short.

Notwithstanding,—thank you, dear readers, for your notes of interest and concern, and your continuing visits.

Grace and peace in the name of the Lord.

For Bishop Gene, "moving on" means moving on to "the next round"

2008-03-25T09:30:00.002-04:00

The Boston Globe this morning has an interesting story on its front page about Bishop Gene.

Reporting from diocesan headquarters in Concord, N.H., the report reviews some of the events since +Gene's consecration five years ago "in a nearby hockey arena, wearing a bulletproof vest under his new golden vestments," and previews +Gene's upcoming schedule, including Lambeth and his civil union in June.

A good section of the report is a bit of a rehash of the past several years, using many of the phrases that, to regular readers of Episcopal/Anglican news reports, have become very familiar.

+Gene says in the interview that "he agrees with assertions by the presiding US bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, that he is not the only gay Anglican bishop, simply the only one willing to be open about his sexuality."

He also says that because of his visibility, his personal safety may be at risk, but that he's not afraid.

"I'm not afraid, I'm just realistic. There are angry people, and there are crazy people out there. And as far as we know, not a single one of the disciples died of old age at home in bed. The kind of confidence that they felt after the resurrection just enabled them to go out and make their witness and then what happens happens, and that's the way I feel."

The article in full is here.

Chaplains mark grim milestone with salute to each of the fallen

2008-03-24T20:30:00.002-04:00

As the news spread around the nation over Easter night that the number of U.S. dead in Iraq had reached 4,000, newspapers and broadcasts over the world marked the milestone with reports on the lives of the soldiers and their families.

Sharon Cohen of The Associated Press, covered the experiences of four chaplains:

Rev. David Sivret, rector at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Calais, Maine, and chaplain in the Maine National Guard;

Captain Kevin Wainwright, U.S. Army, a Presbyterian minister and chaplain to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment;

Jesus Perez, a Messianic Jew, chaplain to the First Calvary Division at Fort Hood;

and Lt. Colonel Irvine Brye, Army Reserve, a Baptist minister and chaplain to the 3rd Medical Command at Camp Victory, Baghdad.

Read their stories here.

Rowan Williams, apophaticist

2008-03-19T22:00:00.003-04:00

The interested who might have a moment or two during Holy Week (a spell between Maundy Thursday and choral evensong on Easter Sunday, say) can feel free to thumb through a slender new volume of essays that help us to navigate and find discernible landmarks, "inside the mind of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Britain's most impressive theological virtuoso." (This, according to the review of the new volume in the Times Literary Supplement.)

The book, Wrestling with Angels: Conversations in Modern Theology, is reviewed favorably there.

The new volume covers pieces Williams wrote only between 1978 and 1998, dates which are significant in the life of the Anglican Communion and in the career of Rowan Williams.

Those years saw major Prayer Book revisions, the first female bishops (priests, in some nations) and the growing prominence of African Anglicans, notably Archbishop Tutu in South Africa.

Williams writings and thought during this period, reflected these developments and indeed, laid intellectual and theological groundwork for them. Into 1998 and even through his elevation to the seat of Cantaur, Williams often wrote and spoke eloquently, about an expansive, generous orthodoxy rooted in the diverse voices and traditions, of Scripture itself. Doing this is how he made his reputation.

Regularly working against this very history of himself, is how he has come to be identified since his elevation.

The book itself mirrors this intellectual and pastoral 180 degree turn, cutting off anything post Lambeth 1998, a time—our time—when the very abstractions teased out and expounded upon from 1978 to 1998, have become concrete realities needing to be defended, given pastoral care, and recognized for always being at the foot of the Cross.

Here is how the TLS describes the significance of the essays in the new book, and the cutoff for dates:

....[P]ieces – all originally published between 1978 and 1998 – that deal directly with the thought of modern philosophers and theologians, and that therefore might be described as exercises in philosophical or systematic theology (as opposed, say, to historical theology, another field in which Williams has long distinguished himself). This sort of approach suits Williams well. He is not a theologian who has ever attempted to develop a “system” of his own, or to establish a particular school of theology within the greater theological world, or to enucleate a set of basic principles by which then to determine where and how other thinkers ought to be situated within his own thought. Rather, what he does extremely well is to “think along” with the author whose work he is considering, to measure the strengths of that author’s ideas, to seek out certain of the subtler currents within those ideas, and to identify what can and should be criticized therein.

The period between 1978 and 1998, when Williams expounded and help nurture an expansive Gospel, is seen as an intellectual exercise.

The period after this—our here and now—when the exercises can be put into practice and defended? Silence. The book snaps shut.

The TLS review is a fine one. It can be read in its entirety here.

++Katharine in Jerusalem for "historic moment"

2008-03-17T08:00:00.005-04:00

Marking the annual Palm Sunday celebrations and the start of a week-long visit to the Holy Land, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori made Anglican history on March 16, becoming the first woman ever to preach at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem.

The Presiding Bishop's visit to the Holy Land comes at the invitation of the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, who was consecrated Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem in January 2006.

++Katharine was met with smiles and jubilation as she joined ++Dawani in greeting each member of the congregation following the service.

"We joined in a remarkable multicultural worship experience today -- Arabic and English speaking Christians celebrating Palm Sunday in the midst of East Jerusalem, with palm and olive branches, singing old standard Holy Week hymns in both languages," ++Katharine said.

The morning Eucharist, celebrated in Arabic and English, was preceded by the blessing of palm branches and a procession from St. George’s College Square into the Cathedral, located on Nablus Road in East Jerusalem.

The Rev. Canon Hosam Naoum, acting dean of St. George's, described the Presiding Bishop's visit as a historic moment. "With all the differences in the Anglican Communion today, I see her as a uniting figure who brings beliefs and understandings and cultures of other people around the world," he said.

Audio of the sermon, and more on ++Katharine's visit, is at Episcopal Life Online.

From the Sunday readings

2008-03-16T06:00:00.000-04:00

Matthew 21: 1, The Lord enters Jersualem

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Beth'phage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, "The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately."

This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,

"Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

"Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."

The Lord enters Jerusalem as the city is preparing for Passover. Many are streaming into the city from all corners of Palestine, the Near East, Africa, Achea, and points beyond, to mark the Passover in the holy city, fittingly so, for many of these will then return to their corners of the world with the good news on their lips, of the Lord's triumphant resurrection and promise of life. The Lord constantly tells his disciples and apostles, that all is happening as it has been laid out in Scripture--down to the very detail of precisely when and how the Lord is to enter into the city. Prior to their arrival the Lord has performed several miracles and has notably, instructed that "the first will be last and the last will be first." He has also explicitly told them that the Son of Man will be given unto his enemies by one of his very own, flogged and crucified, and rise again on the third day. It is a miraculous sequence of events, venerated for millennia as Holy Week in all of Christendom.

"Shock and sorrow" at murder of Archbishop

2008-03-14T11:00:00.004-04:00

Lambeth Palace reports via the Anglican News Service that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has expressed his deep shock and sorrow at the appalling murder of Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul.

"Our prayers are daily with the people of Iraq, especially with the vulnerable Christian community, and particularly today with the Chaldeans and Archbishop Paulos' family," ++Rowan said.

As of this Friday, Christians from across Iraq have been attending the murdered archbishop's funeral, the BBC reports.

Surrounded by armed guards, mourners wept and held flowers as the coffin was carried through the village of Kremlis, near Mosul in northern Iraq.

Christians are a tiny fraction of Iraq's population, but their religious sites and leaders have been targets of increasing violence since the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Chaldean is a form of Aramaic, spoken at the time of Jesus.

The Chaldeans, an Eastern-rite Church that recognizes the authority of the Pope, converted to Christianity in the first century A.D., and the Chaldean branch of Christianity has been in Iraq since then.

The Chaldean Church comprises the bulk of Iraq's remaining Christians, 2/3 of whom have fled or been displaced, since the U.S. invasion.

The archbishop's body was found in a shallow grave on Thursday, two weeks after he was kidnapped.

His abductors had telephoned the church authorities to say where he was.

The killing has been condemned by Pope Benedict XVI, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, and Iraq's Sunni and Shia leaders.

Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped after mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul on 29 February. Three of his aides were killed in the abduction.

His kidnapping and murder came only months after another Chaldean priest and three subdeacons, were murdered outside the very same church from where the Archbishop was kidnapped.

Canon Andrew White, the only Anglican priest working in Baghdad, told the Times of London that the Archbishop's death was "inevitable." Other leaders in the Church there fear that to survive in Iraq, Christianity will be driven underground.

"The fact is that since the surge in Baghdad, Al Qaeda has moved north to Mosul," Canon White told the Times. "What is more, we know that they are very short of money, and that they hate Christians. A huge sum was asked for, but the church could not pay it. Sadly it was therefore inevitable that the Archbishop would be killed.

"This killing shows the very real danger faced by Christians in Iraq. This awful event happened in the very heartland of Iraqi Christianity in Nineveh. We are in tears—we are devasted. We are not giving up our faith in Jesus and I am not leaving this beloved land of Iraq."

O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our
prayers on behalf of your servant, and grant him an
entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of
your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for
ever. Amen.

Aye

2008-03-12T17:00:00.001-04:00

John Schofield, the former Bishop of San Joaquin, has officially been deposed, Episcopal Life online reports. ++Katharine requested his removal as bishop, and a "clear majority" of his brother and sister bishops in the House have agreed to her request.

The move comes after Schofield guided his diocesan convention to "remove" the diocese from The Episcopal Church.

Readers may recall that ++Katharine inhibited Schofield this past January.

Now, following the required two month window that afforded Schofield time to recant his schism, during which he only became more bellicose and opaque concerning the Church, the full House of Bishops has deposed him, meaning any ecclesial authority he attempts to wield to bind the Church or any of its people or institutions, is null and void. He is no longer a cleric in this Church.

For years, Schofield had assumed a belligerent, spirituality violent, and vulgar position towards much of the rest of the Church and its institutions.

He typically warned that any one not agreeing with him, or his opinions on gays and lesbians and a host of other issues, or actions of his therefrom, was not only stupid and terribly misguided, but heretical.

For some reason, when he was called to account for the abandonment of communion of his Church the first time in 2006, he was cleared.

The only thing this accomplished, was give Schofield time to pursue even more spiritual violence and material damage to the Church and its people.

By now the bishops of the Church have perhaps recognized that not acting to halt or forestall such violence in their own Church is not unChristian or wrong—but an abandonment of their own responsibilities to protect and guide this Church.

++Katharine is to be commended for bringing this to their attention.

The resolution, from Episcopal Life:

RESOLVED, that pursuant to Canon IV.9.2 of the Episcopal Church, the House of Bishops hereby consents to the Deposition from the ordained ministry of the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin.

EXPLANATION: On January 9, 2008, the Title IV Review Committee certified to the Presiding Bishop, pursuant to Canon IV.9.1, that the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin, has repudiated the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Episcopal Church and has abandoned the Communion of the Church by, inter alia, departing from the Episcopal Church and purporting to take his Diocese with him into affiliation with the Province of the Southern Cone. In the intervening two months since the Presiding Bishop gave notice to Bishop Schofield of the foregoing certification, Bishop Schofield has failed to submit to the Presiding Bishop sufficient retraction or denial of the actions found by the Title IV Review Committee. Accordingly, the Presiding Bishop has presented the matter to the House of Bishops and requested consent to Bishop Schofield's Deposition.

Episcopal Life notes that more information from the House regarding the matter will be forthcoming this evening.

Other places covering the announcement include The Episcopal Cafe and Thinking Anglicans.

Canada asks, What's a middle of the road Anglican to do?

2008-03-12T09:45:00.003-04:00

The Anglican Church of Canada is experiencing some of the troubles with separatist parishes and clergy, that the Episcopal Church in America, has been working through for some time. Go here for some background.

This may all play like a broken record in some parts, but for our brothers and sisters in Christ who face these troubles head on in their parishes and dioceses, the experiences are very real and very unsettling. They threaten to uproot and even destroy a way of life and a reliance on faith and communion, that have proven inseparable.

Connie Woodcock of the Toronto Sun, who has been writing about Canada's Anglican ne'er do wells for some time, asks how things have come to this and wonders, "What's a middle of the road Anglican to do?"

Her piece sparked quite a few letters, which can be read by following the link to the entire column and clicking towards the letters.

"Anglicanism has always been a big tent that has made room for a broad range of belief. Those on the far right, who call themselves orthodox Anglicans, a small group despite the noise they make, believe the Bible literally, right down to Adam and Eve. Their sympathies lie with the Third World Anglicans although they don't seem to realize that beliefs there can seem outrageous to the rest of us -- those African leaders who despise homosexuality, for instance, but tolerate men with multiple wives. Some Canadian congregations have asked to be supervised by a South American bishop rather than their own.

There are those on the far left who have gone so far as to leave the Christ story itself behind and yet still feel comfortable within the church because, after all, we are supposed to love our neighbour as ourselves, no matter what our neighbour believes.

And then there are the rest of us in the middle, wondering why we can't just go back to the way we were -- worshipping in peace and tolerance."

One small fish, one giant lesson for mankind

2008-03-12T09:15:00.000-04:00

The Age sits down for lunch with Bishop Walkabout of Melbourne, illustrating once more why he's popular around these parts:

"That was some fluke yesterday. Just as Mr Diary set off for a long-arranged gluttony-free lunch with the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, a new batch of mortal sins were trumpeted from Rome. The original seven deadlies apparently were no longer enough and seven extra nasties, such as pollution, obscene riches, drugs and social injustice, were now on the charge sheet too.

Fortunately, none covered our midday repast and, anyhow, Anglicans were not necessarily included. "We don't seem to have the codification of things as much as the Catholic Church does," Dr Freier said. "But I suppose the seven deadly sins have been worked over pretty hard down the years."

Of course, Dr Freier was first to nail one new sin: he got stuck into obscene wealth last June, rating it the modern-day citizen's "greatest moral blindness".

Said His Grace at the table yesterday: "You do encounter people who are less stuck on the grasping and the grabbing. It is possible to live with wealth and the responsibilities that come with it. But we've seen a different attitude since the 1980s and the West Australian mining boom, where people took to conspicuous wealth. People will spend $70 million on a yacht and they are probably so busy they don't have time to use it. Some of it doesn't make sense."

We didn't like to tell Dr Freier that yachts have long since gone past that mark: Greg Norman's yacht Aussie Rules sold last year for $77 million.

"Wealth is one of the things Jesus speaks most about," says His Grace.

No coincidence that the addled antics of the ridiculously rich seem to occupy a disproportionate amount of this page.

Frugality note: Dr Freier had a humble barramundi with nothing on the side."

The last good man

2008-03-11T09:00:00.003-04:00

Eliot Spitzer campaigned for governor as the last good man in New York, the only one with enough integrity and chutzpah, to root out the corruption and waste that permeates all levels of New York’s byzantine government.

No one could challenge Spitzer on his claims to integrity, only fear him and hope he wouldn’t cast his righteous indignation in their direction.

He’d done an impeccable job as New York Attorney General. He reined in titans of Wall Street for corruption and malfeasance, when no one else, much less the federal government, could be bothered.

He went after companies and businesses that nickled and dimed and cheated citizens on everything from photocopies and plumbing to insurance and electricity, in the process winning the affection and respect of millions who, rightly, viewed him as their honorable advocate.

Informing his sense of mission and obligation were a deep rooted faith and sense of personal honor. They were twin strengths he’d hoped would flow from him into government, as honesty and transparency. In the glare of his public humiliation and personal failing, these, his greatest strengths and the sources of his ability to live and govern, seem dim shapes on a misty horizon.

With him, for a season at least, go his hopes for a more representative and responsive government.

With him, for a season at least, also goes the notion of the honorable man, for who was more honorable than Eliot Spitzer? His name was synonymous with integrity. As the knives sharpen in the days and weeks ahead, it may come to mean something else entirely.

He is not alone in his personal failings and human weaknesses but to see it happen before our eyes with such rapidity and definitiveness, is saddening and terrible.

ENS: Lambeth Invitation "not possible" for +Robinson

2008-03-10T20:45:00.004-04:00

But he encourages other bishops to attend and says he will visit Canterbury during Lambeth

The Episcopal News Service, reporting from the House of Bishops meeting at Camp Allen, Texas, notes that the House was informed March 10 that it is "not possible" for the Archbishop of Canterbury to issue a full invitation to include Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a participant in this summer's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops.

Bishop Robinson, addressing the House, urged the other bishops of the Episcopal Church to participate fully in the conference, and thanked all who are willing to "stay at the table."

Bishop Robinson told the House that he respectfully declined an invitation to be present in the conference's "Marketplace" exhibit section.

Robinson confirmed for ENS that he plans to be in Canterbury during the July 16-August 3 once-a-decade gathering, but not as an official conference participant or observer.

Word about the invitation came in a report from three U.S. bishops, speaking in the House's late-afternoon session, who worked with Lambeth Palace staff to seek provision for Robinson's participation in the conference.

The House of Bishops is in session through March 12 at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas.

+Robinson, an openly gay man ordained a bishop in 2003, was informed last year that an invitation to the Lambeth Conference would not be extended to him at that time.

Update: Bishop Robinson's statement on the announcement (as a Word document) and further reports from the House's meeting, have been posted at the ENS site for Camp Allen updates. Bishop Robinson says:

Maybe this is what God has in mind. I had hoped to focus on the community of bishops at Lambeth, making my own contribution to its deliberations. But now, I think I will go to Lambeth thinking about gay and lesbian people around the world who will be watching what happens there. I will go to Lambeth remembering the 100 or so twenty-something's I met in Hong Kong this fall, who meet every Sunday afternoon to worship and sing God's praise in a secret catacomb of safety - because they can't be gay AND Christian in their own churches. I will be taking them to Lambeth with me. They told me that the Episcopal Church was their hope for a different, welcoming church. They told me they were counting on us. Yes, the things we do in the Episcopal Church have ramifications far, far away - and sometimes those ramifications are good.

The Presiding Bishop must act

2007-12-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

In light of the events in the dioceses of San Joaquin, Fort Worth, and Pittsburgh, the Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops must not wait any longer to call the rogue bishops of these dioceses to full and speedy account.

The time has clearly arrived when the Presiding Bishop must stop each of these bishops from doing anymore spiritual violence in their dioceses, to the national Church, and to the Communion.

Each of these bishops, within the week, must be given notice of two months to recant and if not, called before the House of Bishops at the end of that period, and deposed, for abandoning the communion of their Church and violating their vows of ordination.

If, when the House of Bishops meets, they conclude that they cannot act to protect the church against these rogues, until a "second reading' has occurred in each diocese, then the blame for the confusion, spiritual violence, and legal mess that ensues on those second readings, will certainly be theirs.

The mere fact of calling a convention to vote on secession, is enough to warrant an abandonment of our Church. What else is it? We do not need a second example, to clearly identify the first.

Permitting these bishops to accelerate their divisions and proceed in their hostilities, as bishops, only adds to calls that the Episcopal Church cannot adequately manage its own affairs and that doing so, must come from the outside.

These spiritually violent and schismatic actions have been allowed to continue for far too long.

The Presiding Bishop must act strongly, and swiftly, to stop each of these bishops from doing any more harm.

Eight heroes of nonviolence (you never heard of)

2007-11-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Every community holds any number of extraordinary, everyday humanitarians. Leah Reddy of Trinity News, the magazine of Trinity Church, Wall Street, highlights eight hidden heroes of nonviolence from around the world.

IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
Investigative journalists are an important part of our newshungry society. But before there was a Woodward, a Bernstein or a Christiane Amanpour, there was Ida B. Wells-Barnett. She was a black woman born in Mississippi in 1862. She became a teacher at 14, but lost her position when she took up journalism and the cause of civil rights in her editorials. And then she turned her pen to the horrors of lynching. Much like a war correspondent, Wells-Barnett lived through the atrocities she investigated: three of her friends were lynched for running a grocery store that was competing with white-owned businesses. After her Memphis newspaper office was ransacked due to her civil rights advocacy, Wells-Barnett moved to New York and then Chicago, and continued writing pamphlets and articles exposing the truth about lynching.

ALEX SANCHEZ
The brutal Salvadorian Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s drove thousands of families to seek refuge in the Pico Union section of Los Angeles. In L.A. these traumatized youth — hardened by poverty, grief, and their status as outsiders in American society — eventually formed violent street gangs. Gang activity often led to arrest and deportation back to El Salvador, where gang members reconnected and continued their turf wars. Alex Sanchez was one of those deported gang members. But when he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant he came back to the U.S. illegally, determined to shake his old life. He found help from Homies Unidos, a nonprofit gang violence prevention and intervention organization. With Sanchez’ help, Homies Unidos became the first transnational gang prevention initiative, addressing the root causes of gangs in the U.S. and El Salvador. Today, as program director for Homies Unidos, Sanchez helps L.A. youth find productive outlets for their energies and emotions.

JAVIER STAURING
Javier Stauring believes in restorative justice — and he has risked his career to build a better juvenile justice system. Stauring, a Catholic lay chaplain and co-director of the Office of Restorative Justice for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, has worked with inmates, victims, and their communities since 1996. In 2001, he began counseling juveniles held in an adult jail and found the youths living in intolerable conditions: confined to their cells for more than 23 hours a day and denied schooling and vocational programs. He spoke out against these conditions and subsequently lost clearance to visit the jail. His clearance was reinstated after a lawsuit, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors ruled that the jail was unfit for juvenile inmates. Mr. Stauring continues to work toward transformation of the juvenile justice system.

ABDUL GHAFFAR KHAN
Known as the “Frontier Gandhi,” Abdul Ghaffar Khan built an army dedicated to nonviolent resistance and self-improvement. A devout Muslim from the North-West Frontier Province of British India (now Pakistan), Khan was frustrated by years of oppression by the British and the violence endemic to his Pathan society. The lives of Pathans, he felt, could be improved only through a combination of self-improvement and nonviolent resistance to British rule. Beginning in the 1930s, Khan formed the Khudai Khidmatgar — the Servants of God — a 100,000-member nonviolent army. During their 17-year existence, this unusual army built schools, helped maintain order, and generally sought to improve the lives of Pathans. They were arrested, poisoned, attacked, and sometimes killed by British soldiers, but never turned to violence.

ELLEN FRANCIS POISSON
“Citizen-to-citizen diplomacy,” the Rev. Dr. Ellen Francis Poisson, OSH, writes, “is based on the conviction that direct dialogue can challenge stereotypes and change the attitudes of people, on both sides.” As co-leader of interfaith peace and reconciliation delegations to Iran and Afghanistan, Poisson — who is an Episcopal priest, a member of the Order of St. Helena, and an iconographer — builds understanding and respect one relationship at a time. Poisson’s leadership gives ordinary citizens of the U.S. and Middle East the chance to say with conviction, “We’ve met people from there who want peace with us.”

MICHAEL LAPSLEY
In 1990, the Rev. Michael Lapsley, an anti-apartheid activist and Anglican priest, lost both hands, one eye, and suffered shattered eardrums in a letter-bomb attack. The perpetrator was never caught. Despite his life-changing injuries, Lapsley returned to South Africa and worked at the Trauma Center for Victims of Violence and Torture, which assisted the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He later developed the Institute for the Healing of Memories, which offers worldwide workshops and resources for helping people forgive and heal from emotional and psychological trauma.

VERÓNICA CRUZ SÁNCHEZ
Verónica Cruz Sánchez empowers the people of her community to resist and change a culture of violence against women. In Guanajuato, Mexico — her home — battered, abused, or raped women are routinely denied their legal rights. Three hundred women in Guanajuato have been killed by their husbands or family members in the last five years. Cruz Sánchez, executive director and a founding member of Centro Las Libres de Información en Salud Sexual, is determined to fight that violence. Las Libres (The Free Women) helps victims of domestic violence when the government will not, providing psychological counseling, legal help, and support.

SULEIMAN JAMOUS
More than one million people live in crowded refugee camps inside the war zone of Darfur, Sudan. Suleiman Jamous, humanitarian coordinator for Darfur’s rebel groups and a widely respected “elder statesmen” is committed to caring for these displaced, endangered people. He co-authored The Black Book — a documented exposé of the ethnic favoritism and corruption of the Sudanese government — in 2000 and was detained by the Sudanese government for three years. He fled to Darfur, where he began communicating with rebel groups and aid organizations, helping to ensure that humanitarian aid reached those in need in rebel-held regions. Jamous has also been an essential consensus-building voice in the ongoing peace process. He was confined to a United Nations hospital for over a year with intestinal problems, but the Sudanese government recently allowed him to seek advanced medical care in Chad. Jamous hopes to recover and return to his work in Darfur.

This article appears in the "Religion and Violence" issue of Trinity News. The issue serves as a companion piece to Trinity Institute's 38th national conference, an interfaith examination of religion and violence.

Provincial and ACC replies to New Orleans bishops meeting begin to trickle in

2007-11-22T10:30:00.000-05:00

Over at the redesigned Anglican Communion homepage, the Anglican Communion Office has begun compiling the responses to the Episcopal bishops meeting from this past September.

The responses are collated into two groups: provinces,which includes responses from the primates and provincial synods, if these were consulted as part of the response process; and responses from members of the Anglican Consultative Council.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, as chair of the Joint Committee of Primates and ACC, requested the replies by October 31, and they are being sent to him. The Communion office notes that the Archbishop himself, will include reflections on the report and responses to it, in his annual Advent letter, which is expected sometime in the next few weeks.

As of November 6, Canterbury has received 26 responses from Primates, with no reply from 12 Provinces.

Of these 26, 12 view the Episcopal responses favorably. Ten provinces, all of them from the "global south," view the response unfavorably. Two responses are described as mixed. Figure one (below) charts the numbers. Click on the figure, for a legible image.

Twelve provinces have yet to reply. These are:

• CAPA Provinces (3) – the Archbishop of Central Africa retired in September, and the primacy is vacant at present. The (retired) Archbishop of Central Africa was a signatory of the recent CAPA communiqué, as were the Provincial representatives from the two remaining CAPA Provinces where a reply has not yet been received (the Archbishop of Sudan is currently in hospital, and is due to retire at the end of this year).
• South and Central American Provinces (2)
• United Churches (3)
• Other Provinces (4) although the Primate of one of these is on the JSC.

As for the Anglican Consultative Council, 27 of the 75 members have sent in their views. Only one so far, says the Episcopal Church reply is inadequate. Figure 2 (below) charts these numbers. Click on the figure, for a legible image.

Overall, the replies tend to support the Episcopal Church. There is an "extended comment" section highlighting responses that have been sent in; many of these highlight that The Episcopal Church has undergone an historic and unprecedented intrusion into its internal affairs.

There appears to be little support for having a special meeting of the primates on this matter, or indeed on any matter, as several replies evidence a growing uneasiness with the authority the primates have attempted to arrogate to themselves.

The link to this report, which no doubt will be updated as more replies arrive, is here. It is also formatted as a pdf here.

The work of the Evil One

2007-11-19T14:15:00.000-05:00

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold on more than one occasion characterized the disputes over sex in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as the work of the Evil One. It may be impossible to state with any certainty that Bishop Griswold was correct in his view but there can be no doubt that he was certainly on the right track.

Consider for a moment the words and actions of so many of the Episcopal dissidents. Though they consider themselves to be acting in righteous indignation, by their fruits we know them. In Virginia and other places, often with the aid of overseas bishops who consider themselves equally righteous, they have proceeded with lies, subterfuge, and doublespeak, along an arc of division and hostility. That they consider themselves in the right, does not alter that they proceed with lies, subterfuge, and doublespeak, along an arc of division and hostility.

Also in this country, the bishops of Pittsburgh, Fort Worth and San Joaquin regularly insist they are doing nothing to divide our Church yet work actively and vocally, to foster this very thing. Their relishing of hostility and confrontation and their eagerness to heap scorn, and their lies, are perverse. That they remain bishops of our church is an outrage.

The dissidents regularly claim that their unceasing hostility for all manner of persons and positions, turns on the authority of Scripture. That they read Scripture is not in question. The question is, whose Scripture? They promote their positions on sexuality as catholic and universal but their approaches, discernment, and conclusions, are not catholic or universal. If anything they are Calvinist and Reformed. The catholic churches do not accept or promote the primacy of Scriptures on every question. In fact, The Roman Catholic Church, to give one example, bases much of its Marian theology, which is essential to it, on revelation to the Church outside of Scripture, in the course of human events.

Nor are the questions and answers the dissidents use to circumscribe their church and by which, they would try to bind ours, as fixed as the dissidents would like to believe. On the precise issue of sexual orientation, the very Scriptures these dissidents regularly promote with such enthusiasm, are by the Jewish rabbis, interpreted as they are by the Episcopal Church. These Old Testament passages are no bar to the rabbinate and in fact, are no bar to a holy life at all. Why? Because in the discernment of the rabbis, the Spirit of God has revealed to us and them, in the course of human events, that it is not.

Whose Scripture is this, then? We claim it as ours, and they claim it as theirs, the only difference being, they claim it as theirs exclusively, meaning, that their claims negate all others, and in fact, reject the fact of there being others.

It is this sort of claim that identifies many of the Episcopal dissidents as being part of the strong current of the language and actions of election, exclusion, denial, and yes, evil. This is a conclusion that must be stated, for their idle chatter is often Godless, and unchecked, can spread like a gangrene, both in themselves, and to the unknowing hearer, who, hearing, turns away from the Light, which is life.

This turning away from and rejection of the Lord's mercy and light; and the severing of the gift of fellowship in our Church, as a result of the words and/or actions of the dissidents, who work actively to see that both of these things are not possible in our church-- this is the most perverse of their actions. To their minds--stress, to their minds--they are not turning away others from the light, but in fact, are leading them on the correct path, which, they alone in our church, have discerned. Perversity upon perversity.

The dissidents purport to know without question the mind and Spirit of God so well, that they then act and behave in ways producing not the fruits of the Spirit, but the evidence of confusion and wickedness. They regularly flout love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and, their most glaring shortcoming as persons and Christians, self-control. There is no law against any of these, yet they speak and act so regularly as if there were. They act hastily, in anger, to divide, and revel in talk of battle, bullets, hostility, and harm. If this is not the work of the Evil One, it is certainly along the way to it.

And for us, what? What is to be our witness?

We must remember and put into effect the greatest commandment, the royal law; and at the same time, reject the positions and actions of those who would seek to divide based on what, to their minds--stress, to their minds--is valid. Because quite often, what they promote, in their idle chatter, is in direct contradiction to the fruits of the spirit, and hence, cannot be of the Spirit.

In the process, we must also reject acting with spiritual expediency, which would be tantamount to destroying our Church. We must act with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generoisity, faithfulness, and gentleness, because the laws of heaven require it and our own God-given reason shows these all to be true. Together these are a lamp to the world and if we do not act with them, there is no light.

We must continue to act in the fruits of the Spirit and to speak honestly and forthrightly about our experiences, discernment, and welcome. We must defend our Church, and if this means a season of litigation in some dioceses to protect and maintain what is rightfully hers for her mission, then so be it.

We do not need the permission of one single dissident to do this. We do not need their permission or approval, to protect our Church, to defend it against attacks, and to preserve its resources to carry its mission into the world. We do not need the permission of any of them, to lift high the Cross and carry before us into the world, our faith, beliefs, and lives.

This is the great and irrevocable gift of the Holy Spirit, that it fills us with the power, love and self-discipline, to do precisely these things. This Church, comes from and is, of the Holy Spirit, and so is imbued by right with the power, love and self-disciplne, to declare the Good News and be a lamp for the world.

This right cannot be taken away; or squandered by anyone except ourselves. And so we must take care, all of us who lift high the Cross and do the work of our Church in the name of the Lord, wherever we may be, to remember, that we must be about our Father's business in a way that gives glory to Him, brings people to Him, and lets us all know, that our Church, is the fruit of the Spirit.

My time in York

2007-10-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

Don Taylor, the Vicar Bishop of New York, recently returned from sabbatical at York, in the north of England. He reported about his time there for the Diocese in the recent issue of the diocesan magazine, which you can find here.

Bishop Taylor has served various parishes around the Church as deacon, assistant, rector, and bishop. He was born and raised in Jamaica, where he was greatly influenced by his paternal grandmother, Adina Taylor, and his headmaster, the Right Reverend Percival William Gibson, who later became Lord Bishop of Jamaica and ordained him to the Diaconate and to the Priesthood.

Bishop Taylor has always had a keen interest in evangelism. At his first posting, at St. Mary's in Kingston, Jamaica,the Parish grew from a tiny mission of about 50 souls to a large and flourishing Parish of over 2,000.

∞ ∞ ∞

I last took a sabbatical 19 years ago. Then the Bishop of the Virgin Islands, I spent a month at home reading and reflecting on the direction of my ministry. My wife was struggling with cancer at the time, and I needed to be close to her. Four years later, after my wife’s death, I was again planning a sabbatical when I was called to be the Vicar Bishop for New York City. It was suggested I defer sabbatical for a year; 13 years later, my time came. It was well worth the wait.

I spent June and July in “Old” York with the permission of the new Archbishop of York, His Grace, the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. John M. Sentamu, an immigrant from Uganda. The Dean of York, the Very Rev. Keith Jones, and his wife, Viola, provided me housing in the deanery. The archbishop’s chaplain and the clergy of York Minster were generous with their time and advice.

The bishops and deans of the Northern Province opened doors for me and provided otherwise impossible insights. In two months, I also visited the dioceses of Blackburn, Bradford, Liverpool, Carlisle and Manchester.

“Evangelism in the Anglican Tradition,” is a passion of my ministry. For me, it involves proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ; leading people to accept the claims of the Gospel; and leading such persons to use the gifts given them by the Hold Spirit to become full, active participants in the Christian community.

My zeal for evangelism has grown during my tenure in New York; its importance sharpened by the challenge of reaching immigrants from all over world. I focused my sabbatical on gaining a better understanding of this challenge. The way evangelism plays out may vary from one location to another, but each community of faith offers a unique perspective.

Many of the dioceses of the Northern Province are working hard to teach the Gospel in constantly changing communities, and in places where immigrants are unfamiliar with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. York, where the Gospel has been proclaimed faithfully for more than a thousand years to a wide range of people, presented a good place for me to look, listen and learn. In many ways the challenges we face in New York are very much the same as they face in York; therefore we have much to share.

(I was fortunate to be in York when the General Synod of the Church of England met. As a visitor, seated in the gallery, I was able to see firsthand how the Church of England conducts business.)

How will this exposure enrich my ministry in New York? We face similar challenges.

New York and “Old” York are challenged to present the Gospel in a world that no longer places God at the center of its life; where non-Christian faiths compete with Christianity for people’s minds and souls, especially the young. Aware of this challenge, the Church of England implements a variety of programs–social service, education and advocacy–to expose people to Jesus’ love.

The Diocese of Bradford, which straddles a large Islamic community, presents a particular challenge. Here, interfaith dialogue has advanced an understanding of the fundamental tenets of Christian faith on many levels. I attended a Christian/Islamic relations seminar that opened my mind to important aspects of Islamic faith and culture.

I also made discoveries in mission and ministry. In rural areas, much the same as in New York, the Province of York cannot sustain one priest per parish. I met a priest who oversaw 11 small, rural congregations, but who was happy and fulfilled in his ministry. In many cases the yoking of congregations did not destroy the identity or the structure of the individual congregation. And the use lay ministers, non-stipendiary and retired clergy provided an added resource, further enriching the blend. In one instance, several small congregations shared a youth leader to provide otherwise absent Christian education and catechetical instruction.

Maintaining shared ministry necessitates a centralized structure, but I didn’t get the sense that it stifled or curtailed local, spontaneous initiative; rather it sparked conversation and removed the sense of isolation small congregations often feel. A central structure allows small congregations to focus on the mission of Jesus Christ, whereas strain diverts their energy from mission.

Lastly, I was deeply touched by the warm and generous affection the Church of England holds for The Episcopal Church, USA. Everywhere I went clergy and lay people went out of their way to show me that they love and cherish the TEC as part of the Anglican Communion.