'No Ultimatum' for Episcopalians, Says Anglican Head

Today’s Top Five

1. Rowan Williams seems to give Episcopal Church a pass There will be news today out of New Orleans, where Episcopal bishops are working on a statement responding to … something.

“Anglican leaders set a Sept. 30 deadline for the Americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for same-gender couples,” says the Associated Press.

Not so fast, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said at a press conference. “Despite what has been claimed, there is no ‘ultimatum’ involved. The Primates asked for a response by September 30 simply because we were aware that this was the meeting of the House likely to be formulating such a response.”

Really? Sure sounded like an ultimatum back in February. That’s why we headlined our story “Global Ultimatum,”and The New York Times headlined its story “Many Episcopalians wary, some defiant after ultimatum by Anglicans.”

Here’s the relevant part of the February document:

In particular, the Primates request, through the Presiding Bishop, that the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church 1. make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorise any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses or through General Convention; and 2. confirm that the passing of Resolution B033 of the 75th General Convention means that a candidate for episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent; unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion.

The Primates request that the answer of the House of Bishops is conveyed to the Primates by the Presiding Bishop by 30th September 2007.

If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, the relationship between The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the Church in the life of the Communion.

“You know, if that works for you. If not, that’s cool,” the document does not then add.

2. IRS drops investigation into All Saints anti-war speech “Our examination of your activities concluded that your organization continues to qualify for exemption from Federal Income Tax,” the Internal Revenue Service wrote to All Saints Church in Pasadena, California. The church had been under examination for an October 31, 2004, anti-war sermon. The church is “pleased that the IRS exam is over,” pastor J. Edwin Bacon told the congregation Sunday, but he’s upset about this section of the IRS letter:

“Based on the existing record, the Church’s actions lead us to the conclusion that the Church intervened in the 2004 Presidential election campaign. We note that this appears to be a one-time occurrence and that you have policies in place to ensure that the Church complies with the prohibition against intervention in campaigns for public office.”

But since the letter doesn’t say what in the sermon constituted intervention into the campaign, the church has “no more guidance about the IRS rules now than when we started this process over two long years ago,” Bacon said.

The IRS’s rhetoric “requires a crazy reading of the actual text of the sermon, and calls into serious question what the IRS is up to — and who is directing its bureaucrats to so opine,” an editorial in the Pasadena Star-News said. “All the IRS or anyone else has to do is go to the sermon, available for all to read on the church’s Web site, to see that absolutely no endorsement was made.”

Focus on the Family announced earlier this month that it had been cleared by the IRS.

3. Newsweek wonders if evangelical Republicans will really switch parties The Democratic Party has undertaken “an audacious, if not quixotic, effort to win over a constituency that has been solidly Republican for a quarter century:” evangelicals. It bears repeating that more than one of three evangelicals voted for Bill Clinton over Bob Dole in 1996. But let’s pretend that not-quite-two-thirds constitutes “solidly Republican.”

“For now, the Democrats’ best target may be Hispanics, the fastest-growing subset of evangelicals,” Eve Conant writes. “They voted strongly in support of Bush in 2004, but many are now angered by the GOP’s handling of immigration. … Luis Cortés, president of the Esperanza USA network of 10,000 evangelical churches … is flirting with the Democrats, or at least they’re flirting with him.”

Richard Land is skeptical about a sweeping change, but says, “If the Republicans are foolish enough to nominate the pro-choice Giuliani, that will give the Democratic Party license to hunt for evangelical votes. I don’t know how successful they’ll be, but at least they’ll have that license.”

So what would a Democrat need to be considered successful in an attempt to “woo” evangelicals? A Clintonesque 35 to 40 percent of the evangelical vote? Would less than that be considered failure? Do they need simply to do better than Kerry’s 22 percent in 2004? What’s the bar here? What’s the goal?

4. Born alive? Christy Lynn Freeman will not be charged with murder because, Maryland state’s attorney explained, “In a homicide investigation, you have to prove that the victim had lived.” She had reportedly admitted giving birth to a live baby and letting it die in the toilet. But a pathologist said there was no way to know if Freeman was right in believing the baby was really alive.

5. King Herod’s quarry? “Archaeologists have found an ancient quarry where King Herod’s workers may have chiselled the giant stones used to rebuild the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago,” Reuters reports.

Quote of the day “It’s certainly not the case that there’s a prejudice that eliminates people with strong religious perspectives from the academy … People who are evangelical Christians can come in with an aggressive attitude that can cause a backlash, and then they do feel discriminated against.”

— George Marsden, author of The Soul of the American University and The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship, quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Anglicanism | All Saints vs. IRS | Church and state | Politics | Environment | Life ethics | Canada faith schools fight | Education | Higher education | Books | Art and entertainment | Music | Kathy Griffin | Rex Humbard | People | Pope John Paul II | Pope Benedict XVI | Church life | Abuse | Crime | Mary Winkler | Jeffs polygamy trial | Homosexuality | Missions and ministry | China | Sudan | Israel | Money and business | Other stories of interest

Anglicanism:

Episcopalians try to prevent split | With the Anglican world anxiously waiting, Episcopal leaders weighed their response to demands that they bar any more gays from becoming bishops (Associated Press)
Gay issue looms over Episcopal Church | Bishops of the Episcopal Church are in New Orleans this week, tackling a job that may need a little divine intervention (Morning Edition, NPR)
Episcopal bishops see “clear” statement on gays | U.S. Episcopal Church bishops, hammering out a response to a request by the broader Anglican Communion that it stop ordaining openly gay bishops, said on Monday its answer would be “clear and unambiguous” (Reuters)
Episcopal Church remains divided on gay issues | A standoff over the Episcopal Church’s liberal stance on homosexuality increases the possibility of splits within the world’s third-largest Christian denomination (The New York Times)
Analysis: Anglicans already breaking up | As Episcopal leaders consider barring more gays from becoming bishops to prevent an Anglican schism, the world Anglican family is already dying by a thousand cuts (Associated Press)
‘God wants unity’ but doesn’t get it | Lesbian chaplain protests Anglican archbishop’s talk in Wheaton (Chicago Sun-Times)
Anti-gay Anglican archbishop speaks in Wheaton | Nigerian archbishop known for anti-gay views (Chicago Tribune)
US bishop defects to Catholic Church in row over gays | In the most high-profile American defection to date in the row over gays in the Anglican Church, a diocesan bishop has explained why he is to be received into the Roman Catholic Church (The Times, London)
Anglican head downplays split over gays | After two days of private talks with Episcopal leaders, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, said “there is no ultimatum involved.” The goal, he said, is “compromise.” (Associated Press)
Anglican showdown over gays looms in New Orleans (Reuters)
Anglican leader plays down schism | The head of the Anglican Communion offered words of encouragement yesterday to U.S. Episcopal bishops under fire for their support of gay men and lesbians, saying they aren’t facing an “ultimatum,” even as other leaders of the worldwide church insisted the Americans are teetering on being forced out of the communion (The Washington Post)
Archbishop holds out hope for compromise | Says Episcopal- Anglican schism can be avoided (The Boston Globe)
Archbishop addresses religious fissure | The Anglican Communion, torn by disputes over theology and church authority, must push for compromise or it would be “an admission of defeat,” says Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, head of the world’s third largest Christian denomination (USA Today)
Anglican Church could split by end of year | The worldwide Anglican Church is expected to split radically by the end of the year under plans being drawn up by a leading conservative archbishop to “adopt” a breakaway group of American dioceses (The Telegraph, London)
US bishops try to find compromise on gay clergy | The move, which will be discussed within the US house of bishops at its meeting today, seeks to allow liberal clergy to continue offering pastoral support to gay couples while ruling out, at least for the present, formal blessings services or the appointment of more openly gay bishops (The Guardian, London)
Archbishop prays for miracle in gay rights row | “This is not a very comfortable place to be,” he said. “It is somewhat like the situation for soldiers in the First World War in the trenches — we can’t remember how we got here and most of us don’t want to be here.” (The Telegraph, London)
Homosexuality not a ‘disease’, says Archbishop | Warning that “violence against gay and lesbian people is inexcusable,” he added: “Gay and lesbian people have a place in the Church as do all the baptised.” (The Telegraph, London)
Internal bickering leaves Q-C Anglican churches in turmoil | The Rev. Steven McClaskey really didn’t want to retire right now from his pastoral post at Trinity Church in Rock Island. Yet, he also didn’t want to risk losing his pension, which advisers and he felt was endangered, by the continued dispute between Episcopal Church leaders and the worldwide Anglican Communion (Quad-Cities Online)
Preparing for the Anglican summit | This week’s meeting between Rowan Williams and the American bishops will be my swan-song as a religious affairs correspondent, after eight years covering the subject for The Guardian (Stephen Bates, Religious Intelligence)

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