The Christian Century

A high-level Anglican committee based in Great Britain has reported that the Episcopal Church’s bishops who met last month in New Orleans “clarified all outstanding questions” regarding its controversial stances on homosexual issues. But 11 bishops in the Council of African Anglican Provinces, in a special meeting October 2-5 in Mauritius, said the assurances by U.S.

Expressing their “passionate desire” to remain a full partner in the worldwide Anglican Communion, U.S. Episcopal bishops late last month essentially reiterated an earlier statement of their intent to “exercise restraint” regarding the consecration of more gay bishops and to stand firm against authorizing public blessings of same-sex unions.

The Episcopal Church’s struggle with the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexuality and biblical interpretation took another turn just before the Labor Day weekend with news that one of five clergy nominated to be the next Episcopal bishop of Chicago is Tracey Lind, the dean of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral and a lesbian who speaks of life with her partner, Emily Ingalls, as “the gift that m

An Episcopal priest who announced that she has embraced Islam has been suspended for one year by her supervising bishop, who said the woman’s dual religious loyalties were in “inherent” conflict.

In a clear rebuff to conservatives in the global Anglican Communion, Episcopal Church leaders have rejected a September 30 deadline set by overseas Anglicans to roll back their church’s pro-gay policies, arguing that such decisions can be made only at the U.S. church’s triennial conventions—the next one being in 2009.

Christian Churches Together in the USA has named Richard L. Hamm, a former chief executive for 10 years of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), to become the ecumenical group’s first executive administrator.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, who defied the top bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion by installing his own bishop on U.S. soil this month, declared that “insulting and condescending” American bishops are to blame for the controversy.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that he will visit the United States this September after U.S. Episcopal bishops declared an “urgent need” for a meeting with the spiritual leader of world Anglicanism.

A recently retired conservative Episcopal bishop from Albany, New York, has left the church to become a Catholic. Daniel W. Herzog, 65, bishop of Albany from 1998 to January 2007, was an outspoken critic of the Episcopal Church’s liberal trend, especially its 2003 election of an openly gay bishop.

Episcopal bishops have brushed off an attempt to give overseas Anglicans a role in governing the Episcopal Church, saying such a move would be “injurious” and could lead to a permanent division of the U.S. church.