News for Week Ending 4/28/2008

Archbishop Venables visiting North American flock

Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone has been traveling in North America to visit with groups who have sought to affiliate with his province. Venables attended the annual conference of the Anglican Network in Canada, April 25-26, in Vancouver, British Columbia. (See Pittsburgh Update story on Archbishop Fred Hiltz’s efforts to keep Venables out of Canada here.) The archbishop will visit the “Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin,” made up of individuals and congregations in California who have separated from The Episcopal Church, on April 29. He goes to the Diocese of Fort Worth May 2–3, where he will conduct a “day of conversation” with the diocesan clergy, and participate in a special "questions and answer" convocation of clergy and convention delegates. Venables’ visit to Fort Worth was announced in February.

Eleven clergy resign from Canadian church

Eleven members of the clergy in the Vancouver-based Diocese of New Westminster resigned on April 21, citing theological conflicts with Bishop Michael Ingham. The Anglican Journal reported that they intend to continue their ministry in their present parish buildings under the jurisdiction of the Southern Cone. The resignation letters came in response to a notice sent the 11 clerics in February by Bishop Ingham, stating that he considered them to have abandoned the communion of the Anglican Church of Canada. Their parishes have joined the Anglican Network in Canada, a group headed by Bishop Donald Harvey and attached to the Province of the Southern Cone. The present conflict in New Westminster can be traced back to the 2002 vote by the diocese to allow the blessing of same-sex unions in New Westminster.

Australia to get second woman bishop

Canon Barbara Darling will become the second woman bishop consecrated by the Anglican Church of Australia. The Age reports that the priest, 60, will become an assisting bishop in Melborne nine days after Archdeacon Kay Goldsworthy is consecrated in Perth. (See Pittsburgh Update Story here.)

Diocese and Episcopal Church file suit to recover San Joaquin property

The Diocese of San Joaquin and The Episcopal Church jointly filed suit April 24 in California “to reclaim possession of the real and personal property belonging to the diocese.” The 31-page legal complaint asks the court to order former diocesan bishop John-David Schofield to vacate the diocesan offices he continues to occupy. It further requests that all defendants be required to provide an accounting of all real and personal property belonging to the diocese, its parishes and missions that they control, and to relinquish all property to Provisional Bishop Jerry Lamb and the diocese. The suit also asks for an injunction barring Schofield from using “symbols and other trademarks of the Episcopal Church,” including the bishop’s seal.

Bishop Schofield was deposed by the church’s House of Bishops after affiliating with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone. (See previous Pittsburgh Update story here.) Scofield’s response to the legal action can be read here.

In a letter to all congregations concerning the lawsuit, Bishop Lamb asked clergy and church wardens “to enter conversations with me about their status in the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. There are no conditions for these conversations.” An Episcopal News Service story on the legal action can be read here. Links to the filing and related documents can be found on the Diocese of San Joaquin Web site here.

The view from the diocese being sued can be read on the Web site of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes. “Realignment Complete, San Joaquin Refocuses on Mission and Ministry” was written just before the suit was filed.

Other hierarchical churches support Diocese of Virginia position in court

The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia said April 24 that the United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the World Wide Church of God, along with the bishop of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and the conference’s chancellor have joined in a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the diocese’s position that a Civil War-era state law dealing with a “division” in a religious institution is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment to the Constitution. The hearing on these issues is scheduled for May 28. The filing is described on the diocese’s Web site here. The text of the filing, along with other documents related to the court case, can be read here. See also the previous Pittsburgh Update story on the court case in Virginia here.

Seabury-Western declares ‘financial crisis’; issues termination notices to faculty

Trustees of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., announced April 24 that, in response to a “financial crisis that threatens survival of the institution,” it has formally notified all faculty members that they will be terminated effective June 30, 2009, and that nine staff positions are being eliminated. The Episcopal News Service story can be read here. A newspaper story on the situation can be found here.

The seminary faced an ongoing deficit of $500,000 a year and had already suspended recruitment for an incoming class. Cooperation from neighboring Garrett Theological Seminary will allow currently enrolled students to complete their degrees. The Board of Trustees is still considering ways that the seminary may continue its educational mission.

Seabury-Western also noted that two of the other nine Episcopal Church seminaries have had to take drastic actions in recent months to meet financial challenges. Bexley Hall is phasing out its operations in Rochester, N.Y., and consolidating its remaining program and students in Columbus, Ohio, where it will continue its MDiv program with Trinity Lutheran Seminary. Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, Mass., announced last month that it has sold some of its campus to Lesley University in order to remain in Cambridge.

Network vision ‘again affirmed and embraced’

Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (Anglican Communion Network), issued a brief statement following a meeting of Network bishops April 24 in Chicago (available here and reproduced below):

The diocesan bishop of every Network diocese, as well as a dean representing all the Network convocations, met together in Chicago on April 24. It was an extraordinarily productive meeting. As has happened so many times before in the Network’s five year history, deepened understanding and deeper unity, despite remarkably different contexts and strategies regarding the Episcopal Church, were the fruit of the meeting. The Network’s vision of a biblical, missionary and united Anglicanism was again affirmed and embraced.