In Wednesday’s RNS report, Katherine Boyle writes that the leader of the Episcopal Church is urging “fasting” on gay issues: Responding to a mandate from the worldwide Anglican Communion, the top leader of the Episcopal Church has called for a moratorium on the blessing of same-sex civil unions and the consecration of gay and lesbian bishops. But it is unclear whether Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori intends for the moratorium-which she describes as “a season of fasting”-to be a permanent or temporary measure. Some conservatives say Jefferts Schori’s statement does not go far enough, noting that Anglican leaders who met last week in Tanzania did not ask for merely a temporary ban. “The Episcopal Church has turned playing with words into a high art form,” said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a prominent conservative leader from South Carolina.
Adelle M. Banks spent 10 Minutes With … Edward Gilbreath, during which she talked to the author of “Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity,” about being one of the few blacks in his evangelical circles.
After 25 years, an abortion warrior steps aside, reports Daniel Burke: For a quarter-century, Frances Kissling has been poking a stick in the eye of the Catholic hierarchy. Whether arguing for abortion rights, trying to get the Vatican kicked out of the U.N., or hurling zingers at conservative Catholic activists, the 62-year-old has always attracted attention-some good, some bad. But after 25 years in the limelight, Kissling will retire Feb. 28 and turn over the reins at Catholics For a Free Choice to a new generation of leaders. As she prepares for a new career in writing and teaching, Kissling talks about abortion, the state of progressive religious causes and what it means to be a Catholic.
Nicole Neroulias writes about gay Jews who see a coming-out story in Purim’s Esther: As a child, Idit Klein celebrated Purim by wearing homemade gowns and tiaras to play the beautiful Queen Esther. She fantasized about how she, like the heroine who dangerously revealed her faith to save ancient Persia’s condemned Jews, could have somehow become royalty and rescued her relatives from the Holocaust. Thirty years later, Klein compares Esther’s fearful revelation of her religious beliefs to the experience of coming out of the closet. ” Purim is really a quintessential coming-out story,” she said. “When I came out, I immediately felt the parallels between the experience and the Esther story.” Some, including Klein, would like to see Purim become a “National Jewish Coming Out Day.”
