Breakaway Episcopalians look to US high court

(Newport Beach, Calif.) Marcia Kear’s three daughters were married at St. James Anglican Church. Her mother’s funeral was there. She said she found the Holy Spirit there.

But she may have to give up the bayside sanctuary, where sunlight filters through watery blue stained-glass windows and glints off the flawless copper …

Episcopal Church sues breakaway Texas diocese

(Fort Worth, Texas) The Episcopal Church has filed a lawsuit seeking to regain control of church property from the breakaway Diocese of Fort Worth.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Tarrant County district court. Defendants include Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker, who led the theologically conservative diocese to split from the …

Obama’s Pastor Pick Makes Anti-Gay Gesture – Again …..

Rick Warren, who has been out of the news for, oh, about 10 minutes, since the controversial California pastor was picked to give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration, is back.

Recapping here: After sticking a fork in the eye of gay rights advocates by actively supporting Proposition 8 — which overturned the legalization of gay marriage in California — Warren compounded their outrage by equating gay marriage with incest in an interview with Beliefnet.

The hubbub lulled down a little over the holidays but today, he’s back, with an open invitation to any group displaced by their denomination. This is code for Episcopal congregations that oppose that church’s acceptance of a gay bishop in 2003. Earlier this week, a California judge ruled that a breakaway congregation, St. James in Newport Beach, cannot keep its property now that they have left the Episcopal Church.

The Southern Baptist Warren shared his letter with Christianity Today which says, in part:

We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.

See Rev. Rick Warren takes another jab
USA Today -

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Breakaway churches lose property

Archbishop of Canterbury accused of creating confusion in the church

The Rt Rev John Chane, the Bishop of Washington, has criticised Dr Rowan Williams’s handling of the crisis over gay clergy in the Church.

In a letter to his clergy, he claims that the archbishop has encouraged conservatives who are determined to destroy the Anglican Church by listening to their demands for a breakaway province.

Dr Williams last week met with the primates of Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, who boycotted this summer’s Lambeth Conference and instead held their own conference, called Gafcon, which proposed the creation of a rival global network of traditionalists.

They have supported moves to set up a new Church in America opposed to gay clergy and led by the deposed bishop of Pittsburgh, Bob Duncan.

“It would be folly for the Archbishop to even consider recognising a non-geographical province because it would unleash chaos in the Communion, with theological minorities in every jurisdiction seeking to affiliate with likeminded Anglicans in other provinces,” said Bishop Chane.

“Unfortunately, the Archbishop has contributed to the confusion and anxiety the leaders of the proposed province have sought to foster by meeting on numerous occasions with [Bob] Duncan and his allies.

“These meetings have bestowed an unwarranted sense of legitimacy on those who seek to deconstruct the Anglican Communion.”

His comments represent the first attack from the hierarchy of the Episcopal Church in the US since the Lambeth Conference, which achieved an uneasy truce in the battle over homosexuality.

The bishop, who is one of the leading figures in the US Church and conducted the funeral of Ronald Reagan, said that the plan to create a 39th province was an attempt to undermine the current leadership.

He added: [It] is a rejection of the respectful diversity and generous orthodoxy that defines the Communion. It flies in the very face of what it truly means to be an Anglican.”

See Archbishop of Canterbury accused of creating confusion in the church
Telegraph.co.uk

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/archbishop-of…

Episcopal Diocese of LA officially condones the blessing of gay unions

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has announced that church leaders can bless the unions of same-sex couples as a matter of policy.

The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, whose diocese encompasses Los Angeles County and five other Southern California counties, made the announcement Friday during a diocesan convention in Riverside.

Bruno acted just days after hundreds of conservative Episcopal congregations in North America formed a breakaway church amid a rift that began with the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire five years ago.

Bruno’s declaration is not expected to have a major effect on Episcopal churches in Southern California. Many have been blessing gay unions for years. But he has now made it official.

“The practice has not changed. The policy has. . . . It’s sort of like ‘coming out,’ ” said the Rev. Susan Russell, a lesbian priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. Russell also is president of Integrity USA, a group representing the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the Episcopal Church.

The rite endorsed by Bruno also allows the blessing of other relationships, such as those between two senior citizens who do not wish to legally marry because they might lose health insurance or Social Security benefits.

Church officials also noted that, unlike communion, the rite is not mandatory. Clergy may choose not to perform it.

Diocese representatives also passed a resolution at their convention calling on the Episcopal Church to let gays and lesbians become bishops.

See Episcopal Diocese of LA officially condones the blessing of gay unions
Los Angeles Times