c. 2007 Religion News Service

Bishop Suspends Episcopal Priest Who Says She Is Also a Muslim

(RNS) A Seattle Episcopal priest who claims to be both a Christian and a Muslim has been temporarily removed from ministry by the bishop of Rhode Island, who remains her supervisor under church rules.

The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, who was ordained in 1984 in Rhode Island and directed faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, told reporters that she became a Muslim about 15 months ago.

But Bishop Geralyn Wolfe of Rhode Island, who remains Redding’s supervisor,issued a “pastoral direction” Tuesday (July 3) removing the Seattle woman from the priesthood for one year, according to the Episcopal Church’s communications department.

“During the next year she is not to exercise any of the responsibilities and privileges of an Episcopal priest or deacon. Other aspects of the pastoral direction will remain private,” Wolfe wrote in an e-mail to Episcopal clergy and leaders. The e-mail was posted on the Episcopal Church’s Web site.

Redding, 55, has not lived in Rhode Island for more than 20 years, Wolfe said. She was removed from St. Mark’s in March because of budget cutbacks, not her practice of Islam, according to the cathedral’s dean.

Last month, Redding told reporters: “I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I’m both an American of African descent and a woman. I’m 100 percent both.” Redding made the shahada _ the Muslim profession of faith _ and prays in Arabic five times a day, she said.

“At the most basic level, I understand the two religions to be compatible. That’s all I need,” Redding told The Seattle Times. Bishop Vincent Warner of Olympia, Wash., told the newspaper he accepts Redding as an Episcopal priest and a Muslim.

Wolfe disagreed. She said the sabbatical will give Redding “the opportunity to reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam.”

Unlike Christians, Muslims do not believe that Jesus was the son of God, or that salvation can be attained through him.

_ Daniel Burke

British Prime Minister Says Church Should Choose Own Bishops

LONDON (RNS) New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has relinquished his right to choose diocesan bishops in the Church of England, from the archbishop of Canterbury on down, and turned the whole business over to the church itself.

Until now, when such openings for diocesan posts come up, church leaders nominated two names and presented them to the prime minister in order of preference. But the premier had the power to select the second name, or even to ask for more nominees.

But one of Brown’s first moves since taking over as prime minister from Tony Blair was to remove himself and his office from the business of choosing diocesan bishops and archbishops.

In a constitutional “Green Paper” presented to Parliament on Tuesday (July 3), Brown’s government said the prime minister is giving up any such “active role” in the selection of candidates and making the church itself the “decisive voice” in the process.

Instead, the church’s Crown Nominations Commission will submit a single name for each post to the prime minister, who will then simply pass along the recommendation to Queen Elizabeth II, titular head of the Church of England, for her approval.

The current archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, was the first choice of the church but had to get Blair’s approval before his name could be submitted to the monarch. He was elected to the post of Canterbury on July 23, 2002.

The change, one of a series of initiatives taken by Brown to devolve power in some areas away from the prime minister, is expected to get a routine OK from Parliament soon.

Meanwhile, it was greeted enthusiastically by leaders of the Church of England, who have worked for more than three decades to streamline the process.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the church’s No. 2 official, said, “I welcome the prospect of the church being the `decisive voice’ in the appointment of bishops, which the General Synod called for 33 years ago,” in 1974.

Sentamu said the prime minister’s move was in “accord with the declared wish of the Church of England.”

Williams’ office said he was on “study leave” when Brown’s “Green Paper” was disclosed. Williams left it to Sentamu “to deal with the matter,” his office said.

_ Al Webb

Communication Mix-up Slowed Search for Missing Priest

PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) A dispatcher’s failure to pass along the full description of where a car tumbled down a steep gully likely hampered a search for a missing California priest and his traveling companion, a state trooper said Tuesday (July 3).

The Catholic priest, the Rev. David Schwartz, and his friend, Cheryl Gibbs, both died in the June 8 wreck but were not found until Sunday (July 1).

Members of Schwartz’s family said they’ve hired a private detective to help track down a man who witnessed the accident and reported it to police.

“We don’t have faith in the police to handle it,” said Tom Mulligan, Schwartz’s brother-in-law. “They dropped the ball across the line.”

The family was comforted by autopsy results that showed the vacationing pair died almost instantly of massive injuries in the accident, Mulligan said. “It’s just a huge relief,” Mulligan said.

Schwartz, 52, and Gibbs, 61, were reported missing June 19, when they didn’t arrive home after a monthlong trip through the Northwest. A Civil Air Patrol plane spotted their car off U.S. 26 on Sunday after family sleuthing helped narrow the search.

A breakthrough in the case came after the family spotted Gibbs’ name in a guest book at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. On Saturday, a clerk at a cafe in Wheeler told Tillamook County sheriff’s investigators that Schwartz and Gibbs had stopped in for coffee late in the morning of June 8. She had given the pair advice on how to get back to Portland on roads that would lead them to U.S. 26.

But the family and other searchers might have been spared the effort if a 911 call by an eyewitness to the accident had been handled differently.

Interviews and a review of the 911 tape reveal two potentially crucial errors in judgment that may have kept officials from finding the bodies earlier, as well as confusion among agencies as to who should deal with the crash.

When a veteran Washington County dispatcher took the 911 call, the witness said the accident had occurred about a quarter-mile west of milepost 26 on the north side of U.S. 26. The dispatcher relayed the call to another dispatch center and gave the accident location only as “milepost 26” on Highway 26. He left out the “quarter-mile west” and “north side of the highway” in his description.

The call was re-routed several times, said Assistant Police Chief Alan Oja of Astoria, Ore., resulting in at least a six-minute delay in responding.

“The direction of travel, the fact that it was a quarter-mile … (from the) 26 milepost marker and the fact that it had crossed over and was on the north side of the highway, none of that information was told to our dispatcher,” Oja said.

State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings said a more exact description would have helped three troopers who came from nearby locations and spent 25 to 30 minutes searching without finding the car.

Even without the communication mix-ups, Schwartz and Gibbs wouldn’t have survived the crash. The autopsy showed that they probably died within a minute or two of the accident, said Dr. Karen Gunson, state medical examiner.

_ Lisa Grace Lednicer, Lori Tobias and Aimee Green

Quote of the Day: Blair Scott, Alabama director of American Atheists

(RNS) “We need to consult a meteorologist and climatologist, not invisible rain-makers in the sky. Obviously, if there was a god, it knows of the drought and has chosen to ignore it.”

_ Blair Scott, the Alabama director of American Atheists, criticizing Alabama Gov. Bob Riley for issuing an official proclamation urging Alabamians to pray for rain.

KRE/PH END RNS