episcopal church

If the Episcopal Church decides to clearly articulate its intention that all aspects of participation in the life of the church—including ordained ministry—are open to transgender persons, it will be the first mainline Protestant denomination to do so.

The decision of Episcopal churches like St. Luke’s to convert en masse to Roman Catholicism while retaining a quasi-medieval Anglican liturgy is not, however, a decision to move into this ever-emerging ecclesial reality. It is a solemn retreat into an imagined past where a priest’s sacramental office itself, his back turned to the congregation, protects him from the conflicted desires and diverse stirrings of the wider church.

The crowd favorite at the DC screening I attended was the filmmaker’s interview with Bishop Barbara Harris, whose 1989 consecration as the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion also shook up the church. Harris is memorably direct. About the idea that Robinson is the first gay bishop, Harris snorts, “Give me a break.” In response to some of the rhetoric at the bishops’ gathering, she says, “if assholes could fly, this place would be an airport.”

RD recently reported that Sudanese Anglican Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail thought that if he not been in the U.S. for medical treatment, he might now be in a mass grave back home. A dramatic new report may prove him right.

The creation of the Ordinariate is about sex, and resoundingly so. It affirms, not questions or challenges, the Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy and procreative marital sexuality.

If I were CEO of Trinity Wall Street, I’d be alarmed at the idea of the “unspecified use” apparently demanded by the OWS protesters. But, of course, Trinity Wall Street does not have a CEO, it has ministers.

Should St. Paul’s Cathedral be responsible to regular worshippers trying to get to Evensong or the protestors who might be modeling the social concerns of Christ?

Amidst escalating calls for intervention from senior UN staff, the International Federation of the Red Cross, and Red Crescent, and widely reported satellite photos of what appear to be mass graves, it looked like the world might be poised to intervene before the U.S. doused those hopes.

“Dog Bites Man,” (i.e. nothing much happened), and it is news.

RD’s weekly review doesn’t flinch when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shows up in a Stetson.