Gearing up for Ashes to Go : USA’s first openly gay bishop preaches inclusivity beyond hospitality : Ex-Anglican Catholics to welcome new leader : New Jersey’s Episcopalians keep the faith despite papal invitation : Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Faces Costs of Legal Victory : Prosecutors seeks to keep leader of Amish beard-cutting sect jailed : Couple charged in son’s faith healing death pleads not guilty
Gearing up for Ashes to Go
Episcopal Cafe – The Diocese of Chicago will once again offer Ashes to Go, the exceedingly popular, and at least slightly controversial initiative in which congregations take to the streets and subway stations on Ash Wednesday to offer ashes to passers-by. This initiative has had a profound effect on the way the bishop and some clergy in Chicago view their ministry. Bishop Jeff Lee frequently tells the story of a woman, who, upon receiving ashes from him on a street corner outside of the diocesan offices said that she never imagined that “the church would come out here to us.” Her response, he suggests, is a kind of charge. The mission of the church is to bring what happens inside its walls out into the streets. This year, we’ve heard reports that Ashes to Go will be on offer in St. Louis, where it seems the initiative got started, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and New York. And we can’t imagine that Sara Miles and others from St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco won’t be out in the streets again. (Sara wrote one of the most popular essays on the site last year about her Ash Wednesday experiences.) But Chicago, where some 25 congregations participated in Ashes to Go last year, is the center of the movement at the moment.
More at: http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/church_year/gearing_up_for_ashes_to_go.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+episcopalcafe+%28Episcopal+Cafe%29
USA’s first openly gay bishop preaches inclusivity beyond hospitality
Charlotte Observer – On a day when Gene Robinson led the congregation of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in singing “All are Welcome,” the country’s first openly gay bishop was interrupted by demonstrators as he preached and talked with church members between services.And while Robinson’s second service went off without incident, two members of South Concord Church of God were waiting on the sidewalk, Bibles in hand, when members of St. Martin’s walked out afterward into the noontime cold. Robinson, according to those who witnessed the earlier incidents, handled the interruptions calmly.When loudly confronted during his sermon by one of the demonstrators that “Sodomy is a sin,” the bishop responded that the homosexual prohibitions cited in the Bible are words from another era, not the timeless message of love for all that permeates so much of later Scripture. In his second sermon, he called on the audience to pray for the demonstrators. “I ask that they pray for me,” Robinson added. “We’re all trying to do the best we can. We’re all trying to figure this out.”
More at: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/13/3008114/preaching-inclusivity-beyond-hospitality.html#storylink=rss#storylink=cpy
Ex-Anglican Catholics to welcome new leader
San Antonio Express – After seceding in the 1530s, the Church of England maintained many Catholic elements, including clergy titles, vestments and ritualization of the sacraments. “While the words of the church sounded Protestant, it always looked very Catholic,”
More at: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/article/Ex-Anglican-Catholics-to-welcome-new-leader-3255871.php
New Jersey’s Episcopalians keep the faith despite papal invitation
NorthJersey.com – The Church of England, the precursor to the Episcopal Church, split from Rome when King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment. Through the Act of Supremacy of 1534, the king made himself the “supreme head” of the Church of England in place of the …
More at : http://www.northjersey.com/news/state/CHURCH_0212.html
Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Faces Costs of Legal Victory
IRD Online – A recent court ruling in a dispute between current and former Episcopalians has awarded all church properties to the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. Reports have focused on the theological disputes precipitating the legal battle. Less covered has been the cost of the conflict, both in finances and church attendance. If the departing congregations decide not to appeal, the Episcopal Church has won a major legal victory – but one that may prove to be pyrrhic. Framing their litigation as “seeking to recover Episcopal Church property,” diocesan officials have stated that their goal is to “return faithful Episcopalians to their church homes and Episcopal properties to the mission of the Church.”
More at : http://www.theird.org/page.aspx?pid=2249
Prosecutors seeks to keep leader of Amish beard-cutting sect jailed
ReligionNewsBlog – The Justice Department has asked a federal appellate court to keep Amish sect leader Sam Mullet behind bars while he is awaiting trial on federal hate crime charges. Authorities say Mullet, who heads a renegade Amish sect sometimes referred to as the Bergholz Clan, arranged a series of beard-cutting attacks on other Amish in Ohio.
More at : http://www.religionnewsblog.com/
Couple charged in son’s faith healing death pleads not guilty
ReligionNewsBlog.com — A Creswell, Oregon couple charged with second-degree manslaughter in the ‘faith healing’ death of their teenaged son pleaded not guilty in court Monday. 16-year-old Austin Lewis Sprout died last December. Second-degree manslaughter carries a mandatory minimum prison term of 6 years and 3 months upon conviction. The boy’s family belongs to the General Assembly and the Church of the First Born, a church that teaches illnesses and injuries should be treated with prayer rather than medical care.
More at : http://www.religionnewsblog.com/26547/couple-charged-in-sons-faith-healing-death-pleads-not-guilty