c. 2008 Religion News Service

N.M. diocese votes to stay in Episcopal Church

(RNS) Episcopalians in New Mexico have voted to leave a conservative umbrella group and “reaffirm” their commitment to the Episcopal Church rather than join a new rival Anglican province on U.S. soil.

The Albuquerque-based Diocese of the Rio Grande on Thursday (Dec. 11) said it could not support plans to launch a new Anglican Church in North America and voted to end its four-year membership in the Pittsburgh-based Anglican Communion Network.

The Anglican Communion Network is one of 11 conservative groups that joined together to launch the new province on Dec. 3. Four Episcopal dioceses that belonged to the Pittsburgh group and have already left the national church plan to join the new province.

But other Episcopal dioceses that supported the Pittsburgh group, like Rio Grande, do not plan to join the new province and are likely to remain in the Episcopal Church, officials said.

“The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande disaffiliates from the Anglican Communion Network and rescinds its motion of support � and reaffirms the Diocese of the Rio Grande’s commitment to the Episcopal Church,” the diocese’s elected leadership said in a unanimous resolution.

The Very Rev. Mark Goodman, the dean of Albuquerque’s Cathedral of St. John, told Episcopal News Service that the diocese wants to find a way to remain a part of the national church.

“I think the picture people have in their mind about the Diocese of Rio Grande being a very conservative and evangelical diocese is, in many ways, not an accurate picture of where we are today,” he said.

The Rev. Peter Frank, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh group, downplayed the vote in Rio Grande, saying officials knew that not all dioceses would join the new province.

Frank’s group is scheduled to fold its operations into the new province over the next few months. About half of the Pittsburgh group’s 100,000 members are expected to join the new province, Frank said.

“We’re an organization of free association; we could never force anyone in and we would never force anyone out,” Frank said. “The main thing we need to do, as people make different choices about whether to stay in the Episcopal Church or join with us in creating a new province, is make sure that we don’t demonize each other or stand in judgment of each other.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Palin’s church seriously damaged by suspicious fire

(RNS) The Alaska evangelical church that former Republican vice-presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin calls home was severely damaged Friday (Dec. 12) by a fire that has been ruled suspicious by authorities.

“Our building was damaged by a fire, and will need repairs before we can resume worship there again,” Wasilla Bible Church announced on its Web site. “Praise God that no one in the building was injured, and pray for us as we rebuild.”

The congregation met on Sunday at a local middle school and plans to worship there “until further notice,” the church announced.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin’s office issued a statement the day after the fire.

“Gov. Palin stopped by the church this morning, and she told an assistant pastor that she apologizes if the incident is in any way connected to the undeserved negative attention the church has received since she became a vice-presidential candidate on Aug. 29,” it said.

“Whatever the motives of the arsonist, the governor has faith in the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good.”

James Steele, chief of the Central Mat-Su Fire Department, said it was the biggest fire his department had handled this year, but did not immediately tie its suspicious origin to political motivation.

“We are definitely treating it as suspicious and as potential arson at this point,” he said. “Right now there’s no indication that we have that there’s any connection there. We just don’t have any leads at all as far as the intent or motive in this.”

He told the newspaper that the building, which is worth between $4 million and $5 million, sustained about $1 million in damage.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin’s husband, Todd, and their children attended the service at the middle school but the governor did not because she was preparing to present next year’s state budget.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Younger Schuller resigns from Crystal Cathedral

(RNS) The Rev. Robert A. Schuller has resigned as senior pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California after his father, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, said his son would no longer be the sole preacher on the church’s “Hour of Power” television program.

In October, the elder Schuller said differences between the two men over the “direction and the vision” of the megachurch and its related television broadcast had led them to “part ways.” At that time, the younger Schuller remained as the church’s senior pastor while the elder Schuller hosted the broadcast and invited a range of guest speakers to the pulpit.

A statement on Crystal Cathedral’s Web site says its executive team has accepted the younger Schuller’s resignation and he remains a member of the Reformed Church in America, the denomination with which the church is affiliated.

“It is expected that Robert will make an announcement soon regarding plans for his new ministry,” reads the statement. “The leadership and congregation wishes him all the best as his plans unfold.”

The Rev. Juan Carlos Ortiz, founder of Crystal Cathedral Hispanic Ministry, has been named interim senior pastor.

Crystal Cathedral spokesman John Charles said the elder Schuller’s role has not changed at the ministry. The pulpit is being filled by a rotation of pastors around the country, he said.

As of Monday (Dec. 15), Charles said the younger Schuller had not yet announced his future plans.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Cherie Blair criticizes Vatican on contraception

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Catholic wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair voiced dissent from her church’s teaching on contraception in a lecture Friday (Dec. 12) at a Vatican-chartered university in Rome.

Cherie Blair made the remarks on the same day that a new Vatican document condemned recently developed forms of birth control and fertility treatments.

“I am on record as having had difficulties with accepting the current teaching on responsible parenthood,” said Blair, a human rights lawyer, in a lecture on the church and women’s rights at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, commonly known as the “Angelicum.”

Anti-abortion groups had protested Blair’s appearance at the university, whose alumni include the late Pope John Paul II, because of Blair’s support for contraception and what they said were her links to organizations that favor abortion rights.

In her lecture, Blair endorsed what she described as the Catholic Church’s “clear distinction” between contraception and abortion, and stated that “we know better than ever before now, thanks to modern science, that life begins at conception with the contribution of both man and woman.”

She also noted that she had refused to undergo an amniocentesis test when she found herself pregnant at the age of 45, and lamented the “wide and indiscriminate use of abortion” as a means of sex selection favoring the birth of boys.

_ Francis X. Rocca

Quote of the Day: Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson

(RNS) “I haven’t asked for one, and I won’t. I’ve gotten the only pardon I care about, which is from Christ.”

_ Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, the former Nixon aide who was imprisoned for his role in the Watergate scandal, on whether he will seek a presidential pardon. He was interviewed by Christianity Today after receiving a Presidential Citizen Medal.

KRE/CSW END RNS