National & World News
[All stories from Episcopal News Service]
Archbishop Williams writes to
primates, calls for leadership and prayer
September 15, 2006
The
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has spoken of his prayers for
ordinary churchgoers who are "puzzled, wearied, or disoriented" by the
present controversies within the Anglican Communion. In a pastoral letter to
the Anglican Communion's primates and presiding bishops, Archbishop Williams
says that the "ordinary people of God" do not want to see division as the
consequence of the Anglican Communion's difficulties.
"Many say they simply do not want to take up an extreme or
divisive position and want to be faithful to Scripture and the
common life," Williams said. "They want to preserve an Anglican
identity that they treasure and love passionately but face
continuing uncertainty about its future."
In his letter, Williams also updated the
primates on the Windsor process, reporting the initial thinking
of a group set up to advise in the wake of the Episcopal
Church's 75th General Convention.
Full article here.
Bishops' group meets in New York to seek way
forward
September 13, 2006
From September 11 through 13 a group of bishops, including Bishop Henderson, met in New York at the invitation of the archbishop of Canterbury and in consultation with the presiding bishop to review the current landscape of the Church in view of conflicts within the Episcopal Church.
The archbishop of Canterbury had received a request from eight dioceses for alternative primatial pastoral care and asked that American bishops address the question. The co-conveners of the meeting were Bishops Peter James Lee of Virginia and John Lipscomb of Southwest Florida. Other participating bishops, in addition to Bishop Henderson, were Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishops Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, James Stanton of Dallas, Edward Salmon of South Carolina, Mark Sisk of New York, and Robert O'Neill of Colorado. Also participating was Canon Kenneth Kearon, the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion.
Following the meeting the bishops issued a
statement, reporting that they “were unable to come to common
agreement on the way forward.” Read the full
statement and related articles:
- Meeting on primatial oversight adjourns without agreement
- Participants, observers reflect on bishops' meeting in New York
- More bishops offer reflections on New York meeting
Our neighboring diocese, South Carolina, elects 14th bishop
September 16, 2006
The
Very Rev. Mark J. Lawrence was elected September 16 as the
fourteenth bishop of South Carolina. Lawrence, 56, is the rector
of St. Paul's Episcopal Parish, in Bakersfield, California, in
the Diocese of San Joaquin. He will succeed Bishop Edward L.
Salmon Jr., 72. Salmon was elected in the fall of 1989 and
consecrated on February 24, 1990. The consecration is planned
for February 24, 2007.
Read the full ENS story.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) endorsed in
joint ecumenical statement
Lutheran, Episcopal presiding bishops call for end to global poverty
September 15, 2006
Urging deeper ecumenical collaboration in the fight against
deadly poverty and disease around the world, Presiding Bishop
Frank T. Griswold and Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) released a joint
pastoral letter September 14, calling on members of both
churches to "play a key role building [the] will and holding
governments accountable" for the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), an eight-pronged initiative whose aim
is to cut extreme global poverty in half by the year 2015.
The letter is accompanied by four one-page reflections on various dimensions of the Church's witness against global poverty, each intended to provide models for local communities seeking to engage in learning and witness around the MDGs. The reflections, along with the letter itself, urge particular engagement through ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, a movement of 2.3 million Americans working to end deadly poverty in the world. During the past year, both the Episcopal Church and the ELCA have entered into partnerships with the ONE Campaign called "ONE Episcopalian" and "ONE Lutheran," according to Alex Baumgarten, international policy analyst for the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.
The 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006, adopted the MDGs a mission priority for the Church over the next triennium. Noting that "in God's kingdom, death and sorrow always give way to resurrection and life," the two presiding bishops wrote that, "a world that has achieved the MDGs will be a world that more greatly reflects Christ's prayer that all be one as He and the Father are one."
Read the full text of the pastoral letter and reflections.
Find a
wealth of terrific resources from ONE Episcopalian.