Property litigation involving Episcopal Diocese is over

By Ann Rodgers in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Eight years of property litigation involving the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has ended, but most parishes that broke from the Episcopal Church still face negotiations over their buildings.After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week denied an appeal from the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, which had argued that it owned the property, the Anglican decided diocese it will not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, spokesman David Trautman said.
"This whole string of litigation is ended, is done," he said.
The lawsuit was filed in 2003 by Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside, whose leaders believed that Bishop Robert Duncan and many others might leave the denomination and try to take property. According to the Episcopal canons, all property -- including parish buildings -- is held in trust for the denomination.
The split occurred in 2008, when the majority at the diocesan convention voted to leave the Episcopal Church. Those who wished to remain Episcopalians immediately chose new leaders and continued that diocese. The Anglican diocese argued that it was the legitimate heir to the Episcopal Church property.
"We accept that the courts have not found in our favor and will, of course, comply with all court orders," Anglican Archbishop Duncan wrote last week.

'A chauffeur-driven bishop, and a Church that refuses sanctuary'

Mark Donne writes:

The most senior cleric to intervene so far is the Bishop of London, the Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres, whose private residence happens to be opposite the square the protesters occupy. Dr Chartres is the primary representative of the Church in the Royal Court. He has announced he would like the protesters to leave, but has made not a single mention of safety.
Dr Chartres is renowned for his conservative political outlook, and has been criticised for his "chauffeur-driven lifestyle". Despite his professed fondness for the Oyster card, in the most recent year for which records are available he spent more than £17,000 on a private car and chauffeur. The Bishop and others in the church are entitled to a comfortable lifestyle and their own political standpoints, but when the central message of the church is called into question in a time of unparalleled greed and growing inequality, should it not do more to side publicly with the 99 per cent of the population who do not share the wealth of the few?

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Cathedral may be set to reopen, but the bitterness over the Church's attitude to protesters has deepened

St Paul's had been forced to close on Friday because of health and safety issues, the Dean said, though the cathedral refused to make public that advice or say who gave it.

Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London and third most senior cleric in the Church of England, echoed the call, saying the protesters "should leave". But one of the cathedral's chapter members, Canon Giles Fraser, was understood to have threatened to resign if the church tried to rid its grounds of the demonstrators.

His views echoed many of those in the church who felt the demonstration, campaigning against corporate greed and for a better distribution of wealth, seemed a perfect fit with Christian teaching.

Richard Harries, Baron Harries of Pentregarth, the former Bishop of Oxford, who sits in the House of Lords, said the decision to close the cathedral was "sad and mistaken". "Capitalism at the moment is working against the most vulnerable."  MORE

Update: St Paul's Cathedral set to reopen after Occupy London shuffles tents

The Dean of this cathedral is making  fool of himself.

St Paul's Cathedral is expected to reopen on Friday, in spite of its earlier claims that an anti-capitalist protest camp posed a "grave danger" to staff and visitors.

His latest announcement is all the more surprising given his strenuous assertions a week ago that the camp was a clear fire hazard.

Clergy at St Paul's have been divided over what action to take against the protest. Its canon chancellor, Giles Fraser, reportedly vowed to resign in the event of any use of force to remove protesters. He was unavailable for comment. MORE

St. Paul's Cathedral makes a bigger mess

From The Episcopal Cafe: 

The leadership of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, seems to be heading down the march of folly with their decision to ask the protesters to cease their protest so that the Cathedral can reopen:

From The Guardian (UK)

This rather messy and absurd situation has handed the dean and chapter of St Paul's a truly historic opportunity to discredit Christianity in this country. They seem determined to take it. They should think, and stop.The dean and chapter appear to have decided that health and safety considerations mean they must be rid of the makeshift camp. These grounds are frankly risible. Pretending otherwise compounds the first mistake, which was to shut the cathedral altogether, rather than expose visitors to the sight and smells of a couple of hundred
protesters. A cathedral isn't really there for the tourists, even if it can charge visitors £14.50, as St Paul's does. It is a place for prayer and worship. The congregations who come for these, the real purposes of the building, should remember that Jesus talked to
publicans and tax collectors. He might even have talked to merchant bankers. He would certainly have talked to the protesters camped outside.
Aspects of the protest camp are silly and rather squalid. But it still represents a profound and important moral revulsion which the Church of England needs to take seriously. These aren't the usual Spartist suspects. The sense that there is something outrageous, unjust and absurd about the world of modern finance has spread across the whole political and religious spectrum. Even Pope Benedict XVI has reinforced his predecessor's teaching with a demand that the markets of the world be brought under human control. The Church of England needs to be part of this discussion, for its own sake and for the sake of the country. And that is done far more effectively by theatre and by conversation than by lecturing or even preaching. It is no use having clever bishops saying clever things that no one listens to. Here at St Paul's right now, there is a chance to catch the attention of millions of people who would never listen to a bishop or recognise a Dean without a Torvill.
The protesters aren't right about everything. A lot of the time they aren't even coherent enough to be wrong. But the role of the church is to talk with them and to find out how their sense of injustice at the present slump can be refined and educated and brought out into the wider conversation. The cathedral has a chance to take Marx's taunt about religion being "the heart of a heartless world" and try to make it true, and valuable. It must not fumble this.

And, from David Allen Green at The New Statesman:

Closing the doors at St. Paul's Cathedral
How seriously is the Cathedral taking health and safety concerns?

This response of the protesters warrants careful reading, as it indicates what appears to be a serious flaw in the Cathedral's position. On the one hand, it is contended that the health and safety concerns are so serious, they required the closure of the Cathedral and nothing less. But, on the other hand, the Cathedral is refusing to provide any information to the protesters so as to allow those supposed health and safety concerns to be properly addressed since the time the Cathedral closed its doors.It would almost seem as if the Dean and Chapter, with a health and safety report in their hands, looked down the steps of St Paul's at the protesters and, rather than sharing the content of the report with those who could be affected, chose to close the Cathedral doors instead.
The position of the Cathedral seems to be a hopeless muddle. Few, if any, of the contentions advanced actually explain the two crucial decisions made -- to close the Cathedral to all visitors and to then not engage with the protesters in respect of health and safety. The revealing back story to these decisions is that before Thursday last week the Cathedral was in fact dealing with the protesters directly, and on the Wednesday there was a wide-ranging meeting where variety of health and safety concerns were discussed, and constructive solutions agreed. Attending the meeting were those directly charged with maintenance and safety of the building. It was only after what appeared to be this successful and practical exercise in identifying and managing risks that the Dean and Chapter then moved to close down the Cathedral completely and to break off further engagement with the protesters. It seemed the mood of the Cathedral changed overnight on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

Rediscover the Seven Sundays of Advent

The Rev. Cannon Frank Logue, Canon for Congregational Missionaries in the Diocese of Georgia, has wn interesting idea. We quote:

Historically, the season of Advent was the seven Sundays leading up to Christmas, with the days in between. Currently, and in an unbroken tradition that is centuries old, those in Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate seven Sundays of Advent. The readings in the RCL do not have to be changed to observe this longer season of preparation for both the first coming in Bethlehem or Christ’s second coming at the end of time. In fact, the readings in these last three Sundays of the church year are designed for a longer Advent. One goal of this move is to reclaim the time for preaching and teaching about the second coming as was traditionally part of the season and remains so in truncated form now.
Last year, I led the congregation of King of Peace, Kingsland, in an experiment. Together with six other congregations in the US and Canada, we expanded Advent to its historic length. We used Rite II Prayer B Penitential Eucharist. The prayers of the people are changed weekly, adapted from those in Liturgy Training Publication’sIntercessions for the People. We used a seasonal blessing for Advent from the Book of Occasional Services. We also used liturgist Bill Petersen’s seven Advent collects written for this project (which I can send to interested persons).
In previous years, we has an Advent wreath on the way into worship and replaced that with a seven candle stand to show the same season is lengthened. We do not have a choir and music is by piano except on fourth Sundays when it is guitars, dulcimer and drum. I used O Come, O Come Emmanuel in the spot of a hymn of praising with verses 1 and 2 in week one, verses 1 and 3 in week two and so on.
Preaching reflected seasonal themes found in the texts each week. Music was a huge challenge, but we made it work. This needs improving over time. Some hymns from the Lutheran Book of Worship helped us expand available music on the fly.

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THE BLOG OF THE REV. CANON FRANK LOGUE, CANON TO THE ORDINARY FOR THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF GEORGIA

Much has changed for gay and lesbian Catholics in L.A.

"In the last 25 years, Ponnet said, the church in Los Angeles has become more accepting of gays and lesbians and, in some parishes, his ministry has faded away as members have been absorbed into regular parish life. Still, those at Saturday's Mass said the ministry was still needed, in part to educate the church, in part to show gay Catholics who have fallen away that they have a place to return.

Talk at the Mass wasn't so much of living up to church doctrine as changing it." More @ LA Times