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Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Tag Archives: Katharine Jefferts Schori

Episcopal Churches Reaching ‘Breaking Point’

20 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by Institute on Religion and Democracy in News

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Episcopal, Jeff Walton, Katharine Jefferts Schori, One News Now, South Carolina

Katharine Jefferts Schori

The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina is seceding from the national denomination — likely setting the stage for legal action.

First, the diocese voted to disassociate in October. Now, Jeff Walton of The Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD) reports that in a special convention this past weekend, the diocese voted to amend its constitution and canons to remove references to the national church.

“This is the fifth diocese in as many years to leave the Episcopal Church,” Walton reports. “They have done so largely for reasons of theological disagreement that came to a breaking point because the Episcopal Church’s national leaders really had it in for Bishop Mark Lawrence, who is the diocesan bishop of South Carolina.”

Read more here.

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Walton: Episcopal Presiding Bishop Contacts Defecting Dioceses

18 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Institute on Religion and Democracy in News

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Anglican, Episcopal, Jeff Walton, Katharine Jefferts Schori, South Carolina

katharine-jefferts-schori

(Photo credit: Katharine Jefferts Schori)

The Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church has sent a pastoral letter to the members of a diocese whose leadership is defecting from the denomination.

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori sent the letter to the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina on Thursday, writing that she wants the Diocese to remain part of the Church.

“Your presence adds to the ability of this community to discern the will of God, even if you disagree vehemently with one or another resolution passed by a particular General Convention,” wrote Schori.

“Never in the history of Christianity have all the faithful agreed about everything, and I doubt very much that we will come to full agreement about everything before we join the saints in light at Jesus’ Second Coming.”

Read more at the Christian Post website.

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Anti-Israel Christians Stir Further Controversy

09 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by Institute on Religion and Democracy in News

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Christians, divestment, Episcopal, Israel, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Mark Tooley, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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By Mark Tooley

The October 4 ecumenical letter to the U.S. Congress from 15 mostly old-line Protestant bureaucrats warning against U.S. military aid for Israel absent “immediate investigation” of Israeli human rights abuses continues to stir controversy. The letter from United Methodist, Presbyterian Church (USA), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and other clerics of course was uninterested in any potential human rights abuses by the Palestinian recipients of U.S. aid. Seven major U.S. Jewish groups cancelled an October scheduled interfaith dialogue with these denominations in protest.  The Jimmy Carter Center has since endorsed the ecumenical anti-Israel appeal, naturally.  And anti-Israel Episcopalians are imploring their denomination’s Presiding Bishop, who notably declined to sign the appeal, to reconsider.

Episcopalians for Mideast Peace has organized an online petition whose “target” is Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, who also publicly opposed anti-Israel divestment earlier this year before her General Convention was scheduled to debate it.  Divestment was overwhelmingly rejected in July, and doubtless anti-Israel Episcopalians were further peeved when her name or any other senior Episcopal leader failed to appear on the letter against U.S. military aid for Israel.  The online petition urges Jefferts Schori to “take a stand for justice for the Palestinians by adding her signature to the letter to Congress.”

Read the rest at Frontpage Magazine.

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Episcopal General Convention Begins

05 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by jeffreywalton in Uncategorized

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Anglican Communion, Bonnie Anderson, Episcopal Church, General Convention, Institute on Religion and Democracy, IRD Blog, Israel, Katharine Jefferts Schori, Same-Sex Blessings, Transgender

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Today marks the formal start of the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I will be on-site during the convention.

Same-sex blessings and transgender legislation are on the agenda. In 2009, General Convention authorized bishops in legal jurisdictions that allowed same-sex marriages to give a “generous pastoral response” to same-sex couples seeking church recognition. The General Convention also called for the church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to begin collecting resources for the development of same-sex blessing rites. Three years later, the denomination is expected to formally adopt same-sex rites, in direct contradiction to the requests of the broader Anglican Communion. Same-sex blessings will now spread to a larger number of dioceses, although the rite will not (for the time being) be in the prayer book, which requires two successive General Conventions to alter.

Homosexual and Transgender activists are also pushing for new language adding “gender identity and expression” to a list of protected items that “shall not disqualify” a person from entering into ordained ministry. This resolution was effectively defeated in 2009, but homosexual and transgender activists have vowed to press on, making it the centerpiece of their 2012 legislative agenda.

Much of the energy at General Convention is going to be taken up by a budget fight, which should reveal new divisions between liberals who are jockeying to be in the driver’s seat. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson have both been at odds over how the church’s diminishing resources should be allocated. We got a preview of this at the last Executive Council, and the presiding Bishop recently released her own budget proposal. Among other changes, Bishop Jefferts Schori wants increased funds for property litigation, more staff in her office, and a shift in Anglican Communion giving from London to the Episcopal Church’s own Anglican relations efforts.

Deputies will also have the added distraction of last week’s development in which nine bishops – all theologically orthodox – were notified by the church’s disciplinary board that complaints have been filed against them, prompting investigations that they have violated the church’s disciplinary canons. It remains to be seen if the disciplinary process will result in formal charges.

Lastly, IRD will be tracking about 40 resolutions, specific to the National and International Concerns committee. The resolutions range from unilateral withdrawal and ending military exercises on the Korean Peninsula to ending the embargo of Cuba and freeing Cuban spies. Once again, the church’s anti-Israel activists are seeking to build support for their efforts to isolate and punish Israel. Nine dioceses have forwarded on identical resolutions originally drafted by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship (EPF). Titled “Pursuing a Just Peace in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict,” the resolution calls upon every diocese to study the “Kairos Palestine” document, an anti-Israel letter drafted by some Palestinian Christian officials. The Kairos Palestine document calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the Jewish state.

Yesterday, committee members reviewed “Peacemaking Through Positive Investment in Palestine,” introduced by the bishop of South Dakota. The resolution specifically “Rejects boycott, divestment or economic sanctions and other divisive and punitive measures which seek to tear down, not to build up.” The resolution is still awaiting committee action, but appears to be an effort to provide an alternative to the EPF legislation.

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