Black Monday:
two missives issued Monday, Jan. 8

All right, all you Bishop's Best Girls who have been walking in goose-step with the ultraconservative agenda in this diocese. The writing is on the wall.

If you're ordained, don't look for there to be much of a place around here for you. Oh, there might be a well-connected, token favorite or two kept around. The rest of you will be pushed into the background or out. The ones of you in seminary now have probably figured out you need to look for jobs in other dioceses when you graduate.

You didn't think the forces of prejudice, the ones who want to turn the clock back 60 or 100 years would turn on you, as you backed the anti-gay hysteria agitated by the AAC/Network groups. You were in there solid with the conservative push, after all.

Read on. Read the writing on the wall.

Episcopal News Service
January 8, 2007

Panel of Reference tells Episcopal Church it should clarify stance on women's ordination

Wording of canon on availability of ordination process called 'ambiguous'

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[ENS] The Anglican Communion's Panel of Reference
(http://www.aco. org/commission/ reference/ index.cfm) has recommended that the Archbishop of
Canterbury discuss with the Presiding Bishop the possibility of clarifying what it called the
ambiguous wording of a 1997 amendment to the Episcopal Church's ordination canon "so as to
ensure that the permissive nature of the ordination of women is maintained in any diocese."

"At the same time the apparent intention of the amendment to defend the interests of women
candidates for postulancy, candidacy and ordination in a diocese that does not ordain women
would be underscored, " the panel's recommendation said.

The recommendations are part of a report
(http://www.aco. org/commission/ reference/ docs/Fort_ Worth_final. pdf) issued by the panel
sometime in December and posted on the Anglican Communion Office's website January 8. The
panel's report is its response to a submission by the Diocese of Fort Worth
(http://www.fwepisco pal.org) which states that the diocese and its bishop, Jack Iker, "are
concerned that the action of the General Convention of ECUSA in passing Canons which makes
women's ordination mandatory makes it impossible for the Diocese at some future date to
receive confirmation of the election as their bishop of a man who disapproves of the
ordination of women to the presbyterate and/or episcopate."

The diocese has put in place a procedure known as the Dallas Plan to provide women access to
the ordination process and provide for parishes that want to call a woman priest.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said, in response to the report, that "We
recognize that women do have access to ordination under the Dallas Plan at present, which
seems to address the intent of the canon."

No timeframe has yet been set for consultation during which the Presiding Bishop and the
Archbishop of Canterbury will take up further discussion of the issues at hand.

Full story: http://www.episcopa lchurch.org/ 3577_81044_ ENG_HTM.htm

-ENS provides information and resources which we consider to be of interest to our readers.
However, statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein, are
those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of ENS or the Episcopal Church.



Missive No. 2:

Thugs in charge of the Communion

I'm not sure what to think of this. I'd like to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury what he's thinking! So Drexel Gomez will be leading a "covenant design group?"

At this point, I don't know that I have any confidence left in the ABC or the Anglican Communion.

But they'll probably spend years arguing over terms of the covenant.
It's interesting there is a woman on the panel. Will the Diocese of Fort Worth be able to accept its recommendations?


ACNS 4235 | LAMBETH | 09 JANUARY 2007
Archbishop of Canterbury announces Covenant Design Group members

The Archbishop of Canterbury today announced the members of the Covenant Design Group that he has appointed in response to a request of the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates’ Meeting and of the Anglican Consultative Council.

The group will meet under the chairmanship of the Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop Drexel Gomez, and includes experts in canon law, the nature and mission of of the church and ecumenical relations from around the Communion. In addition to a small core group, the Archbishop is also appointing a wider circle of corresponding members, who will be assisting the Group’s work.

The Group will hold its first meeting in Nassau, the Bahamas, in mid-January 2007, and present an interim report to the Primates Meeting and Joint Standing Committee when they meet in February in Tanzania.

The members are listed below:


The Most Revd Drexel Gomez, West Indies
The Revd Victor Atta-Baffoe, West Africa
The Most Revd Dr John Chew, South East Asia
Ms Sriyanganie Fernando, Ceylon
The Revd Dr Kathy Grieb, USA
The Rt Revd Santosh Marray, Indian Ocean
The Most Revd John Neill, Ireland
The Revd Canon Andrew Norman, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative
Chancellor Rubie Nottage, West Indies, Consultant
The Revd Dr Ephraim Radner, USA
Ms Nomfundo Walaza, Southern Africa
The Revd Canon Gregory Cameron, Anglican Communion Office, Secretary