Another one bites the dust: Georgia Supreme Court upholds property ruling 6-1

[Episcopal News Service] The Georgia Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that the real property and other assets of Christ Church Episcopal in Savannah are held in trust for the Diocese of Georgia and the Episcopal Church.

The text of the 6-1 opinion, as well as the dissenting opinion, is here.

The court's opinion, issued Nov. 21, said that two lower courts properly applied the "neutral principals of law" approach, previously adopted by that court and approved by the U.S. Supreme Court as a constitutional method for resolving church property disputes.

The "neutral principles" approach requires courts to resolve church property disputes by examining deeds, state statutes, and the governing documents of the local and general church in order to discern whether local church property is held subject to any obligations to the larger church.

Supreme Court Justice David E. Nahmias, writing for the majority, said that "the record shows that at all times during the 180 years before this dispute began, Christ Church acted consistently with the Episcopal Church's canons regarding its property, demonstrating the local church's understanding that it could not consecrate, alienate, or encumber - much less leave with - its property without the consent of the parent church."

The opinion also said "the First Amendment allows Christ Church and its members to leave the Episcopal Church and worship as they please, like all other Americans, but it does not allow them to take with them property that has for generations been accumulated and held by a constituent church of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America."

Georgia Bishop Scott Behase said in a statement that "while we are grateful that a third court has upheld our legal rights to the property held in trust for the Episcopal Church for more than 200 years, whatever satisfaction we feel in prevailing in the courts is muted by the knowledge that this decision is painful for some of our brothers and sisters in Christ," referring to the congregation that disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church while continuing to occupy church property.

"As Christians we know that even those with whom we disagree are also seeking to follow Jesus faithfully," he added. "While we were forced to take action when the breakaway congregation deprived the thriving congregation of Christ Church Episcopal of the property we hold in trust for them on Johnson Square, we know that both groups share faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world."

The Rev. Michael S. White, Christ Church rector, said in a statement that he was thankful that the dispute is over but, "we remain saddened that our brothers and sisters decided to leave the Episcopal Church. Our church is diminished by their absence and by the loss of their voice in our midst.”

White added that "we will return to our church home on Johnson Square and maintain our abiding commitment to Christian grace, joy, humility and forgiveness.”

White and the continuing congregation have been worshipping on Sunday evenings since October 2007 at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Savannah. That gathering will continue "until further notice as we conclude certain administrative matters associated with our transitioning back to our historic home," he said.

When they return, White said, it will be as "a changed people."

"During this time in exile, we have formed as a community of faith and a Church centered in worship and service to God and God's world," he said. "Through the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst, we have also experienced the truth that we are called to be faithful stewards of his word and sacraments wherever we may meet."

The Anglican Church of the Province of Uganda-affiliated congregation said in a statement on its website that it was reviewing the ruling and that the leaders of the parish "will meet to determine our next course of action which could include an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if warranted."

The Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Georgia and Christ Church Episcopal originally filed a lawsuit after some clergy and members of the parish voted to align with the Province of Uganda in September 2007 but refused to vacate the building and relinquish control over other church assets.

In July 2010, the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld an Oct. 27, 2009, ruling by Chatham County Court Judge Michael Karpf, which said that "a trust over the property exists in favor of the national church and the Diocese of Georgia. Accordingly, the court finds that the church property reverts to the control of the bishop of the Diocese of Georgia for the uses and purposes of the Episcopal Church and that plaintiffs are entitled to immediate possession."

Until the congregation split, Christ Church had abided by the requirements of the Episcopal Church's property canons, including after the General Convention in 1979 passed the "Dennis Canon" (Canon 1.7.4), which states that a parish holds its property in trust for the diocese and the Episcopal Church, the appeals court said.
  
The breakaway congregation now has until Dec. 1 to file a motion for reconsideration.

Amicus briefs were filed in the case by the American Anglican Council, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Church of God, the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta, the Presbyterian Lay Committee and the South Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The dispute began in March 2006 when the church's former rector and members of the vestry changed the parish's articles of incorporation to disavow its affiliation with the Episcopal Church. In November 2007, the diocese filed a petition in Chatham Superior Court to regain the parish's real and personal property after the vestry voted unanimously to place the congregation under the care of John Guernsey, a former Episcopal priest who had been consecrated as a Province of Uganda bishop.

Established in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe, founder of the Georgia colony, Christ Church is known as the "Mother Church of Georgia." The church has been the home for many of Savannah's most prominent citizens, according to a statement on its website, including Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low and Academy-award winner Johnny Mercer. It counts among its former rectors John Wesley and George Whitfield, and in more recent times, Bland Tucker.

The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia covers the southern two thirds of the state of Georgia, including Savannah, Augusta, Albany, Thomasville, Valdosta and Brunswick.
-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter the Episcopal News Service.

Court: Prop. 8 forces can defend measure

Court: Prop. 8 forces can defend measure

State Supreme Court rules sponsors of the gay marriage ban have the right to appeal a federal judge's ruling that struck it down.

CA Supremes to rule 10 AM Thursday Re: Standing in Prop 8 Appeal

PERRY (Kristin M.) et al. v. BROWN JR. (Edmund G.), as Governor, etc., et al.
S189476 (9th Cir. No. 10-16696; N.D. Cal. No. 3:09-cv-02292-VRW)
Argued in San Francisco 9-06-11
The court granted the request of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to address the following question: “Whether under Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution, or otherwise under California law, the official proponents of an initiative measure possess either a particularized interest in the initiative’s validity or the authority to assert the State’s interest in the initiative’s validity, which would enable them to defend the constitutionality of the initiative upon its adoption or appeal a judgment invalidating the initiative, when the public officials charged with that duty refuse to do so.”

Opinion(s) in the above case(s) will be filed on:
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 10:00 a.m

In Massachusetts, An Unfolding Dream

It's been a tense, exciting day in the Boston area as the legislation known as the "Transgender Equal Rights Bill" makes its way out of the Judiciary Committee for the first time in six years.  The bill is heading to the legislature with a vote expected tonight or tomorrow as the winter recess approaches.  

Yesterday the Boston Globe and Boston Herald reported on the impending vote, and this morning both papers reported on dueling press conferences in which the bill's opponents called the vote a "distraction" from economic issues.  When one such representative argued, "The goals of the advocates is to have this litigated in the courts,” he was confronted by Ken and Marcia Garber.  The Garbers' transgender son was, as the Globe explained,"bullied and discriminated against before he lost his life to a drug overdoes at the age of 20." When the representative "said he did not have time to answer their question because he was late to a meeting," the Garbers, faithful members of Dignity Boston, "challenged Lombardo’s contention that the transgender bill is a distraction from bills that would protect the state’s economic future, [saying] 'Some of these people will never have a future if they don’t do something' to pass the legislation.".

As the battle over this legislation heats up, I find myself seeking to be present to it as a holy time and space, as an invitation to be, as Bishop Shaw often puts it, opened.  It strikes me that this openness is not simply a static state of welcome and inclusion, but an ongoing process of being opened, transformed by God, ushered into new ways of being in the world, into a new time and space that Christians name as the reign or dream of God. That notion of openness is unsettling and challenging indeed, but hopeful and promising beyond our wildest imaginings.  May it be—may it become – so.

Posted by the Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge, is the Episcopal Chaplain at Boston University and a Lecturer at Harvard University, to Walking With Integrity.

Despite surpirse legal action, Diocese of Connecticut seeks way forward with leadership of St. Paul's, Darien

Editor's note: Follow the money to understand this story. St. Paul's is very rich and very conservative. For years they have participated in diocesan convention but refused to pay their fair share of the cost of running the diocese. The parish has filed yet another suit challenging "the legitimacy of a trust that the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut claims it has regarding the Parish's Darien church grounds and assets." Big bucks are at stake here.Bishop Douglas has been very nice to St. Paul's so far, offering them oversight by a more conservative Bishop. And he has nudged them toward paying up. Their response is described below. Do they really think they look like Jesus when they sue to keep more of their money in Darien? 

The Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and the rector and vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Darien, Conn., are working within the existing structure of the Church to find a way forward for the clergy and lay leadership of St. Paul’s to remain validly within The Episcopal Church.  The Bishop and other diocesan leaders have maintained and expressed a strong desire that St. Paul’s rector, the Rev. Christopher Leighton, and all of the present members of St. Paul’s continue their historic and present witness to the power of the Holy Spirit within The Episcopal Church.  The lay and ordained leadership of the congregation of St. Paul’s have recently expressed a similarly strong desire to continue as members of The Episcopal Church.

In recent months, Bishop Douglas has met with the Rev. Leighton, the officers of the parish, and the vestry of St. Paul’s to discuss how the present congregation of St. Paul’s can be faithful to their theological commitments within the structure of The Episcopal Church.  Bishop Douglas has outlined that all Eucharistic communities in the Diocese need to maintain a relationship with a bishop of The Episcopal Church, participate in the life of the wider Church including diocesan councils and committees, and contribute financially to the work of the diocese.  To that end, Bishop Douglas has offered St. Paul’s, Darien the possibility of Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight (DEPO) by which another bishop of The Episcopal Church who is more theologically aligned with St. Paul’s oversees the parish at the invitation of the Bishop of Connecticut.

Bishop Douglas has been working closely with the Rt. Rev. William H. Love, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany to offer pastoral oversight to St. Paul’s.  On October 19th, 2011 Bishops Douglas and Love met with the rector and vestry of St. Paul’s to consider the possibilities of Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight for the parish.  Specific steps were offered by which the people of St. Paul’s could maintain their relationship with The Diocese of Connecticut.

Nonetheless, on October 27, St. Paul's rector and vestry filed a lawsuit with the Connecticut Superior Court against the Diocese of Connecticut and The Episcopal Church. The Diocese of Connecticut believes that the lawsuit is misguided and asks the court to resolve a dispute where none exists; and that the lawsuit appears to ask the court to give its opinion on ecclesiastical questions that are not appropriate or necessary for it to consider, such as whether the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and The Episcopal Church are part of the Anglican Communion.

Surprised by the legal action, Bishop Douglas responded: “I am shocked and saddened that the ordained and lay leaders of St. Paul’s, Darien have decided at this point to sue the Diocese and The Episcopal Church; especially as I am laboring so hard to find a way for them to remain in The Episcopal Church.  Still, I believe that the love of Jesus can redeem even the most difficult of circumstances and so I will continue to work with Bishop Love and the leadership of St. Paul’s to try and effect a Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight arrangement as soon as possible.”

A 2005 suit by the same parish is described here.

Confronting The Gaystapo

"Having forcibly – and understandably – rectified the Versailles-type injustices and humiliations foisted on the homosexual community, the UK’s victorious Gaystapo are now on a roll. Their gay-rights storm troopers take no prisoners as they annex our wider culture, and hotel owners (here) and (here), registrars (here), magistrates (here), doctors (here), counsellors (here) and (here), foster parents (here), grandparents (here), adoption agencies (here) and traditional street preachers (here) and (here) find themselves crushed under the pink jack-boot."

That's how Alan Craig starts an article published in The Church of England Newspaper. The Church of England Newspaper has no official status, besides being offensive from time to time.

Medical Schools Neglect Gay and Gender Issues

NY Times reports:

Researchers from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Medical Education Research Group at Stanford University School of Medicine surveyed medical school deans in the United States and Canada and asked about the curriculum devoted to topics like gender identity, coming out as gay and disparities in health care access for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients. While nearly all the students were learning to ask patients about the gender of their sexual partners, a majority of medical schools devoted only five hours to teaching anything more than that simple question. Fully one-third of schools allotted no time at all.

“These results should serve as a call to action for the health profession to include L.G.B.T. health as part of the standard curriculum,” said Dr. Desiray Bailey, an anesthesiologist and president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

See Gene on Rachel's TV Show Tonight

The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson is scheduled to be on be on Rachel Maddow's show tonight toward the end of the hour - he is expected to be talking about Occupy Wall Street.

Church rift widens as aide attacks bishop over handling of St Paul's protest

A senior aide to the Archbishop of Canterbury has ridiculed the Bishop of London over his handling of the St Paul's protest.

An email sent from an official close to Rowan Williams expressed dismay over Dr Richard Chartres's role in the crisis and accused him of presiding over a public relations disaster.

The message, seen by the Evening Standard, is further evidence of a growing rift at the top of the Church of England over the Occupy London protest camp on St Paul's doorstep.

MORE

Liturgical tradition's return planned in New Haven

To fill that spiritual hole, as well as other pastoral needs of the neighborhood, Christ Church and the ministry interns of its St. Hilda's House program are trying to bring the liturgical tradition back to the Hill, to Church of the Ascension at Howard Avenue and Lamberton Street.

The main goal is to meet both practical and spiritual needs and to help heal the "sense of hurt and abandonment that so many churches have pulled out of here," Hendrickson said.

"We began to ask people, 'What do you need in the neighborhood?'" said Hendrickson, who has handed out cards for people to list their prayer requests. A branch of New Haven Reads now meets in the parish house behind the church, and Hendrickson said people have asked for classes in English as a second language and training to earn their high school equivalency diplomas.

MORE

Value and Values: Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today

St Pauls Institute has finally issued their report: Value and Values: Perceptions of Ethics in the City Today.

Professionals in the Financial Services sector believe that City bond traders, FTSE Chief Executives and stock brokers are paid too much, teachers are paid too little and that there is too great a gap between rich and poor in the UK, according to a survey carried out by ComRes on behalf of St Paul's Institute.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the financial 'Big Bang', the survey also indicates that the majority of Financial Services professionals do not know that the London Stock Exchange's motto is 'My Word is My Bond' and many think that deregulation of financial markets results in less ethical behaviour.
The survey of 515 professionals working in the Financial Services sector in London carried out online by ComRes between 30th August and 12th September 2011 also found that:

· The majority of FS professional think that bankers, stock brokers, FTSE 100 chief executives, lawyers and city bond traders are paid too much.
· 'Salary and bonuses' are the most important motivation for professionals working in the FS sector in London for 2 in 3 (64%) participants. 'Enjoyment of the work' comes a distant second.
· 75% agree that there is too great a gap between rich and poor.
· Only 14% of respondents correctly indicated the motto of the London Stock Exchange ("My Word is My Bond").
· Many are not familiar with what happened after the financial 'Big Bang':
1 in 3 disagree that the financial markets were deregulated
More than two-thirds (69%) did not know that the financial Big Bang happened in 1986.
· The majority of respondents feel that their companies maintain high ethical standards that are broadly in line with their personal moral standards.

Commenting on the survey Revd Michael Hampel, Canon Precentor of St Paul's Cathedral, said:

"Action is a crucial goal of the protest camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. We hope that the telling findings of this report can provide a solid foundation for future engagement and highlight issues where action might be of mutual concern for all sides of the debate."

This report can be downloaded in full here.

Catholic Official Who Linked Gays to Devil Resigns

Daniel Avila, who worked on policy and research for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, resigned — possibly under pressure — after he wrote a newspaper column that linked same-sex behavior to Satan. Advocate

Church of England vetoes services of blessing for same-sex couples

The Church of England has warned its clergy not to register same-sex relationships, following government confirmation that places of worship can host civil partnership ceremonies from next month.

Gay and lesbian couples can, from 5 December, celebrate their big day in religious premises opting into a new scheme. But there is no obligation on religious groups to take part in the initiative. MORE

How St Paul's protesters rocked Church of England leaders

Within days, two of the big four had resigned and a third was questioning the meaning of his faith. Their beloved St Paul's was derided as a joke. But the inside story of their agony has not been told, until now.

What do clergy who have resigned do next?

Riazat Butt has an interesting article in the UK Guardian that begins:

Giles Fraser and Graeme Knowles weren't just leaving their salaries when they announced their resignation over the Occupy London farrago. They were walking away from their homes and better financial and material security than mere mortals can ever hope for. In addition to their salaries and pensions, the two senior figures at St Paul's Cathedral enjoyed rent-free housing. So what happens now they've stepped down?

City lets protesters stay at St Paul's until Christmas

Protesters camped outside St Paul's Cathedral have been given permission by the Square Mile's governing body to stay until the new year. @ UK Independent.

Ed Miliband: politicians must listen to the St Paul's Cathedral protesters

Ed Miliband says the protesters camped outside St Paul's Cathedral present a stark warning to the political classes and reflect a wider national crisis in confidence about the values of those in business and politics. Guardian.

NEW ZEALAND: Maori quash Anglican Covenant

By Taonga staff, November 04, 2011

[Anglican Taonga] The Anglican Covenant is all but dead in the water in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia, following a crucial vote by Tikanga Maori at its biennial runanganui (synod or convention) in Ohinemutu on Nov. 4.

The covenant will still come before the province's General Synod in July 2012, but a decision to accept it requires a majority vote in all three houses – lay, clergy and bishops – and by all three tikanga, or cultural streams: Maori, Pakeha and Pasifika.

The Nov. 4 decision effectively binds all Maori representatives on General Synod to say no to the covenant, according to a news article from Anglican Taonga.

Two of the five Maori hui amorangi (dioceses) have already rejected the covenant, largely on the grounds that it could compromise Maori rangatiratanga (sovereignty).

Moving the resolution, Archdeacon Turi Hollis noted that the covenant applied at provincial level. "If one diocese makes a decision that another objects to – then the whole province will be held accountable," he said.

"We are being asked to conform to the standards of the rest of the world. Yet we have a constitution that the rest of the world does not understand.

"Would that have been agreed to had the covenant been in force?

"The proposed covenant is trying to impose on us something that should be based on relationship – onwhanaungatanga or manaakitanga."

Seconding the motion, the Rev. Don Tamihere said the covenant was not about homosexuality.

"It is about compliance and control. We are being asked to sign over our sovereignty, our rangatiratanga to an overseas group ... To a standing committee over whom we have no choice or control. And they have the power to recommend punishment," he said. "The proposed covenant offers us nothing new – or nothing we need as Anglicans, as Hahi Mihinare, or as disciples of Jesus Christ.

"We don't need it to have faith in Jesus Christ: We already have a covenant that binds us to our savior, Jesus Christ. And that is the only covenant we need."

Philip Charles said: "Over the years, the practice has been: If you disagree with the church, you leave. And those groups who have left have often withered and died. The covenant changes that. If you disagree with a group – you kick them out. I give it two thumbs down."

The Rev. Ngira Simmonds pointed out that to be Anglican means to be in relationship with people – even if you don't like them.

"We want this church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia to focus, instead, on acting for the restoration of justice."

The full story and resolution is available here.

Anti-gay campaigner says opponents are part of “Satan’s plan”

Peter LaBarbera, the founder of anti-gay campaign group Americans for Truth, claimed this week that the people who say he fosters a “climate of hate” are part of “Satan’s plan”. Pink News UK

Murdering St Paul's Cathedral

George Pitcher has an interesting explanation of why things went so terribly wrong when St. Paul's Cathedral in the UK first tried to deal with the issue of Occupy London of its doorstep. His church,  St Bride’s, stands at the foot of Ludgate Hill, perhaps 500 yards from the camp. The distinctive tower of St. Bride's - the Cathedral of Fleet Street - is at left. He lists a series of mistakes St. Paul's made and then details how the current Bishop of London Dr. Richard Chartes has started to sort things out.

"Dr Chartres is a man that most organisations under bombardment would want in their trench. He is battle-hardened in crisis management. When the terrorist bombs exploded in London on July 7 2005, he had clergy heading against the flow of evacuees and into the crime scenes to open churches as marshalling points for the emergency services," Pitchard writes. It is a jolly good read here at the UK's Telegraph   

Episcopal Church membership shows some regional growth, overall decline

Statistics mirror trends in U.S. Protestant membership

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, November 04, 2011

[Episcopal News Service] While membership in 16 of the Episcopal Church's domestic dioceses and eight of its non-domestic ones grew in 2010, recently released data shows that overall membership has declined.

The decrease is part of a trend that has seen membership decline by just more than 16 percent since 2000.

Membership in the Episcopal Church in 2010 was 2,125,012, with 1,951,907 in its domestic dioceses and 173,105 in the non-domestic dioceses, according to a report here. Membership in the church's domestic dioceses in 2009 was 2,006,343, showing a decrease of 54,436 in 2010.

The 16 U.S. dioceses that grew in the past year were Alabama, Arkansas, Atlanta, Central Gulf Coast, East Carolina, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Navajoland, North Dakota, Northwest Texas, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and Wyoming. The eight non-U.S. dioceses that grew in membership were the Convocation of Churches in Europe, Dominican Republic, Ecuador-Central, Haiti, Honduras, Micronesia, Puerto Rico and Taiwan.

St Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston had the largest number of active congregants with 8,406.

The average pledge was $2,346 in 2010, compared with $2,314 in 2009 and $1,948 five years ago. Overall plate and pledge income declined 1.2 percent in 2010, going to $1,273,709,000 from $1,289,458,871 in 2009.

The research shows that the average Sunday attendance across the church in 2010 was 657,831 in the United States. That compares to 856,579 in 2000. Average Sunday attendance in the non-U.S. dioceses grew in 2010 to 40,049, compared to 35,572 in 2003 (the first year the report lists non-domestic ASA). The 2010 non-domestic ASA is down 4.4 percent from 2009's total of 41,882.

Sixty-eight percent of Episcopal Church congregations have an average Sunday attendance of 100 or less and 286 of the church's 6,794 parishes and missions have an ASA of 10 or less. The median ASA is 65.

"These statistics reveal something very important about the challenges we face as a church," Bishop Stacy Sauls, the church's chief operating officer, said in a press release about the research reports from the Office of Public Affairs. "One of those is that we cannot allow statistics like this to make us anxious about our survival. Earthly survival is not much a value of the Gospel. Striving for the kingdom and righteous of God is. Concentrating on the latter is likely to yield more abundant life than the former (Mt. 6:31-33)."

Sauls said that the statistics also show that "we cannot continue to pretend we are the church of the establishment entitled to the power, prestige and privilege that comes with that."

"Right now, I think the cross calls us to die to those trappings of our old establishment life, and that means turning our attention single-mindedly to God's mission and our participation in it, which means that we are going to have to restructure and reform ourselves accordingly," he said. "Churches that turn inward will die. Churches that turn outward will not only live, but thrive. The numbers call us to strengthen our commitment to turn outward."

The decrease in Episcopal Church membership reflects a trend across most other Protestant denominations. In 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey reported (that its research and that of other scholars shows "the proportion of the population that is Protestant has declined markedly in recent decades while the proportion of the population that is not affiliated with any particular religion has increased significantly."

Just more than 16 percent of American adults are not affiliated with any particular religious group, the survey found.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reports that its 2010 membership of 4,272,688 is a decrease of 270,349 from 2009. ELCA membership has declined every year since 1988 when there were 5,288,048 members. The 2010 decline of 5.95 percent is largest in those 22 years. There were 11,133 congregations in 1988 and 10,008 in 2010.

The Presbyterian Church USA reports that at the end of 2010 it had experienced a net loss of 61,047 members from 2009 (-2.9 percent) and a net loss of 97 congregations. There were 10,560 congregations and 2,016,091 members at the end of 2010. Total contributions for 2010 were $2,027,479,202, a loss of $74,516,440 (3.5 percent) over 2009. The average contribution per member in reporting congregations was $1,122.29.

The current membership reflects a net loss of 509,239 members, or about 20.2 percent, over the last 10 years, according to the PCUSA website. There were 11,178 congregations in 2000, 618 more than in 2010. Fifty-two percent of Presbyterian congregations have 100 or fewer members.

The United Methodist Church said earlier this year that its U.S. membership had declined while the number of Methodists in Africa, Europe and Asia grew from 3.5 million to 4.4 million in the five years ending in 2009. U.S. professing membership in 2009 was down 1.22 percent from 2008, to a 7.8 million members, according to data from the United Methodist Council on Finance and Administration. Overall UMC membership stood at 12 million in 2009, making it the third largest denomination in the United States behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.

"Alarm bells are ringing all over the world. St Paul's has now heard that call."

The Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres said: "The alarm bells are ringing all over the world. St Paul's has now heard that call.

"Today's decision means that the doors are most emphatically open to engage with matters concerning not only those encamped around the cathedral but millions of others in this country and around the globe."

Members of the Chapter met representatives from the protest camp this morning in a bid to engage "directly and constructively with both the protesters and the moral and ethical issues they wish to address, without the threat of forcible eviction hanging over both the camp and the church", a spokesman for the cathedral said.

The Bishop has invited investment banker Ken Costa, formerly chairman of UBS Europe and chairman of Lazard International, to spearhead an initiative which aims to reconnect the financial with the ethical.
Mr Costa will be supported by a number of City, Church and public figures, including Dr Giles Fraser, who resigned as the chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral last week. MORE @ UK Independent

London Cathedral Stops Legal Action Against Protesters

LONDON — St. Paul’s Cathedral has suspended legal action to evict hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters camped outside its doors, according to a statement on Tuesday. MORE