Reports include – Episcopal priest to Catholics: Let’s trade our disaffected clergy & members; New bishop for New York; Schuller Family Breaks Away From Crystal Cathedral; Priest ‘Placed On Leave’ After Denying Communion To Lesbian
Episcopal priest to Catholics: Let’s trade
Episcopal Cafe – Rev. Matthew Lawrence, rector of the Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa, Calif., proffers a bargain to the Vatican: Roman Catholics can have disaffected Episcopalians if we can have disaffected Roman Catholics.
If you have any gay priests, for instance, who might be unhappy about living in the closet, you’ll be happy to hear that the Episcopal Church has been ordaining openly gay men since 1990.
Or maybe you have some women on your hands who are unhappy because they are called to the priesthood. No worries. Send them on over to us. We’ve been ordaining women since 1976, and the current head of our church is a female bishop. She seems very happy.
Or maybe you’ve got some priests who are unhappy because they’ve fallen in love and they can’t get married. We want you to know that our priests have been getting happily married for hundreds of years now, and everyone is happier as a result.
Or maybe some of your people are unhappy with the amount of money you spent to keep gay people from getting married. Well, they might be happier with the Episcopal bishops of California, who unanimously opposed Proposition 8.
And then there’s the folks who might like to feel good about the birth control they’re using; or maybe they’d like to make their own decisions about abortion. Well, the Episcopal Church has supported birth control and a woman’s right to choose since at least 1967.
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/clergy/episcopal_priest_to_catholics.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+episcopalcafe+%28Episcopal+Cafe%29
New Bishop Coadjutor For Episcopal Diocese Of NY
Fox NY – A huge crowd of parishioners packed the Cathedral of the Church of St. John the Devine at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue for the consecration ceremony for Rev. Canon Andrew M.L. Dietsche. Report and video at:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/new-bishop-coadjutor-for-episcopal-diocese-of-ny-20120310
U.S. Christians hope for an ‘ecumenical spring’
ENI – For years, advocates for greater unity among Christian churches have wrung their hands amid talk of an “ecumenical winter.” But now, 10 years after leaders took the first steps toward forming the broad-based group Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT), some have hopes that U.S. churches may be entering a new season of closer relations.
http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5534
Schuller Family Breaks Away From Crystal Cathedral
NPR – On Saturday, Robert Schuller, his wife, and daughter, Carol, said they were resigning from the board of the church because of the “adversarial and negative attitude of other board members.” A day later, their daughter Schuller Coleman announced she was looking for another place to preach.
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/12/146241932/schuller-family-breaks-away-from-crystal-cathedral?ft=1&f=1016
Priest ‘Placed On Leave’ After Denying Communion To Lesbian
NPR – The priest who denied communion to a lesbian at the funeral of the woman’s mother is ‘placed on leave’ by the archdiocese.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/12/148460162/priest-placed-on-leave-after-denying-communion-to-lesbian?ft=1&f=1016
Virginia: Report on recent events – Voice of America
http://tinyurl.com/7mmzpso