Church Of England

LONDON -- Thirty-two women knelt last night in Bristol Cathedral for the laying-on of hands by the bishop and became the first women ordained as priests in the Church of England's 460 years."

In the nave of St. Anne's Church in Annapolis is a new gift, one even older than the historic church itself: a leather-bound Book of Common Prayer, elegantly printed in 1849 by Oxford University Press. It comes compliments of an 81-year-old woman packing up to move to Connecticut. Mary Knight, a widow who has retained her British diction and manner through nearly 40 years of living in the state capital, said, "I'm clearing the decks, you might say. I hate throwing anything away." Sitting in a mahogany church pew by a Tiffany window, she said to the Rev. Bob Wickizer, the acting rector, "I know it will have a good home here."

LONDON -- For years the Church of England has been racked by an internal debate over homosexuality: Is it morally reprehensible and a cause for repentance? Or is it acceptable and, when accompanied by love and fidelity, as positive a form of human expression as heterosexuality?Last week the debate exploded into the public arena as the bishop of London, the church's third most senior cleric, revealed that he had been pressed by a militant gay rights group to proclaim himself a homosexual "voluntarily."

For about 30 years, the Episcopal Church has been one big unhappy family. Under one roof there were female bishops and male bishops who would not ordain women. There were parishes that celebrated gay weddings and parishes that denounced them; theologians sure that Jesus was the only route to salvation, and theologians who disagreed. Now, after years of threats, the family is breaking up. As many as eight conservative Episcopal churches in Virginia are expected to announce today that their parishioners have voted to cut their ties with the Episcopal Church.

The Church of England's historic vote to ordain women as priests is being welcomed as a powerful symbol of progress and hope by advocates of a greater role for women in American denominations."

LONDON -- The Church of England departed from 450 years of tradition and agreed yesterday that women should become priests.The combined vote of 384 to 169 among the delegates in the three houses of the church's General Synod achieved the necessary two-thirds majority in each house.Until the last minute, through nearly five hours of what one priest called "a charitable debate which no one can win," the outcome of the ballot was never certain.As expected, the vote came closest in the House of Laity, where at 169 to 82, it passed by only two votes.

It was a long time coming.The General Synod of the Church of England set the process in motion. Parliament endorsed it. The Crown gave assent. So it happened that on March 12, the Rt. Rev. Barry Rogerson, Bishop of Bristol, ordained 32 women as priests.They were the first of more than a thousand women expected to be ordained as the mother church of Anglicanism follows the example of the dozen Anglican provinces -- the United States, Canada and New Zealand among them -- that have already taken the momentous step.

David Hare's "Racing Demon" establishes its central debate almost immediately with a scene in which the Bishop of Southwark warns the Rev. Lionel Espy that parishioners have begun to doubt Lionel's convictions.But while Lionel may have doubts about God, Ralph Piersanti's gentle, low-keyed portrayal at Theatre Hopkins makes it clear that he does have convictions -- they're just different from those of the bishop and, by extension, the Church of England.Imbued with humility, Piersanti's Lionel is a concerned cleric who believes the rituals of the church are no longer relevant to most of his working class South London parishioners.

No institution that survives over a span of centuries is unfamiliar with the constant tug between loyalty to tradition and acceptance of change. With its vote last week to ordain women as priests, the Church of England recognized that change is not incompatible with its mission -- and, in fact, is necessary to remain true to that mission.The step has been debated for almost two decades, and it brings the church closer to its American counterpart, the Episcopal Church, as well as many other Protestant groups that ordain women.

LONDON -- The specter of a schism darkens the Church of England as 574 Anglicans, arrayed in the three houses of the General Synod, decide tomorrow whether or not to permit the ordination of women as priests.No matter what the outcome of the ballot in Westminster, Britain's established church faces a divisive period."It is an enormous issue," said John Wilkins, editor of the religious magazine, The Tablet. "In this century it is one of the most important decisions the Church of England has had to take."

When the Rev. John Miles Evans arrived at All Hallows Parish in June 1999, he was surprised to find it was the only one of 30 Episcopal parishes that existed in Maryland in 1692 without a historical marker. "It would have been easy to get one because the other churches all had one, so I wonder if the omission was deliberate," said Evans, 66, who became a priest in 1995. "The church was run for the longest time by a few old families. I think it's a well-kept secret for having such a big place in history."

JAMESTOWN, Va.-- The Church of England has agreed to allow researchers using radar to look beneath two churches for remains that could determine whether a skeleton found at Jamestown is that of one of the colony's founders, scientists said this week. Researchers who excavated the site of a 400-year-old fort at Jamestown want to know whether a skeleton discovered there in 2003 is that of Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold, captain of one of the three ships that carried settlers from England. To do so, they need to find the graves of Gosnold's sister and niece, who were buried in two churches in Suffolk, England, and conduct DNA analyses.

VERO BEACH, Fla. - Rick Lindsey left a short, but telling phone message last fall for his longtime friend and fellow Episcopal priest, Lorne Coyle. "Are we OK?" he asked. Coyle and Lindsey met as seminary students in the 1970s, and they're godfathers to each other's children. But they hadn't spoken in months. The reason: The Episcopal Church had confirmed the election of its first openly gay bishop. Coyle, an evangelical who interprets Scripture strictly, was against the move, while Lindsey, a social and theological liberal, called it progress.

By reading the great journals of opinion, it is hard not to believe that the Anglican Communion, known in the United States as the Episcopal Church and in Britain as the Church of England, is in tatters. The Nigerian Church, we are advised, is set to break away, as might Episcopal congregations in Pennsylvania and Texas. The cause of the controversy is the consecration of an openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire. Conservative commentators, such as George Will, have argued that if the church does not hold to biblical writ and doctrinal law, it will implode.

CONCORD, N.H. - Episcopalians in the diocese of New Hampshire elected yesterday as their leader the first openly gay bishop anywhere in the worldwide Anglican Communion, a step likely to roil the church in America and England and deepen the disaffection of the more conservative Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The bishop-elect, the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, who had developed a loyal following here for his work as assistant to the current bishop, was elected from among four candidates on the second round of balloting at St. Paul's Church.

Late one late August afternoon some 20 years ago, I was taken for drinks to a two- or three-centuries-old stone manor house in the Midlands of the Republic of Ireland. The owner was a latter-middle-aged member of the caste still referred to, albeit ironically, as "the Ascendancy" - though it has been descending in numbers, influence and prosperity since Irish independence was achieved more than four score years ago. More familiarly called the Anglo-Irish, they were professionals, merchants and landowners of principally English origin when Britannia ruled Eire.

LONDON -- Thirty-two women knelt last night in Bristol Cathedral for the laying-on of hands by the bishop and became the first women ordained as priests in the Church of England's 460 years."

MUCH HAS BEEN MADE of the story or leak or trial balloon that the British royal family is studying reforms calculated to bring it into modern life and greater favor with the British people. But none of the reported proposals is for the House of Windsor to decide. In Britain, the elected House of Commons is really sovereign. The political establishment decides the place and role of the monarchy, not vice versa.The next election is expected to put the Labor Party back in power. While it is the repository of what republican sentiments exist, Labor has been respectful of the monarch when in power.

LONDON - The Most Rev. George Carey, the 103rd archbishop of Canterbury, whose moderate style helped shepherd the Church of England and worldwide Anglican movement through a decade crammed with difficult social and religious issues, announced yesterday that he will retire in the fall. Although he could have retained the position until he turned 70 in 2005, Carey said he will retire Oct. 31, two weeks before his 67th birthday. "By the end of October I shall have served 11 1/2 years in a demanding yet wonderfully absorbing and rewarding post," Carey said in a statement released by his office at Lambeth Palace.

St. Anne's Church is a historic landmark in the heart of Annapolis - the city's downtown radiates from Church Circle, which surrounds St. Anne's and State Circle, which surrounds the Maryland State House several hundred yards away. But it's also a vibrant Episcopal house of worship for a busy parish of almost 900 member households. So when it was time for renovations - spurred by long-range plans and the immediate need to fix a leaking roof- church leaders faced the challenge of preserving the building's historical heritage while improving its usefulness.