30 June 2006: Several US dioceses ask for protection from Episcopal Church primate
After a US presidential election whose outcome made us unhappy we were once thinking of asking to be provided with an alternate president who shared our views. We didn't, of course. But the dioceses of Springfield, Central Florida, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, San Joaquin, and Fort Worth have asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide them with 'alternative primatial oversight' because they were unhappy with the new Presiding Bishop elected for the US Episcopal Church. We believe that is a nearly-complete list of dioceses expected to do this. A columnist for The Guardian (London) suggests that the best response to this incessant squabbling is to abolish bishops, who seem always to be at the centre of the squabbles. We figure they don't really mean it—after all, the US primate has essentially no oversight over diocesan bishops—and that it's just an experiment to see what happens. The Church Times filed this analysis.

30 June 2006: Global (over)reaction
Various Anglican leaders around the world have issued statements or taken actions that are said to be in response to the election of the US's new Presiding Bishop. We suspect that many (but not all) of these have been planned for months, waiting for the opportunity. Highlights: the Archbishop of Sydney has announced that the new US primate-elect 'would not be welcome to preach in Sydney'. Nigeria's primate has announced that he has selected a US priest to be a Nigerian bishop (while remaining as rector of his parish church). Canada's primate praises the proposed compromise. Update 3 July: Nigeria's press officer has contacted us to assert that the US priest-become-Nigerian-bishop was 'elected', not 'selected', but won't provide us with details such as the names of the other candidates and the voting body. We suspect it was rather like a Soviet election or a Saddam-era Iraqi election.

30 June 2006: Fringes angry, centre bruised
After the General Convention of the US Episcopal Church, the left and right wings are writing angry words at each other. The Church Times offers this report written by well-known conservative author Douglas LeBlanc.

30 June 2006: ABC comments on the General Convention
The Church Times reports on the letter sent recently to Anglican Leaders by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. News coverage is all about the same; this report by the Associated Press is typical.

29 June 2006: It's hard out here for a retired archbishop
An Episcopal church in suburban Washington DC has announced (here and here) an upcoming joint forum starring Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bob Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh and leader of the Anglican Communion Network. Don't let the spelling and grammar and formatting errors distract you; the webmaster is probably not a native speaker of English. We fully expect Martyn Minns (the new diune prelate) to show up, making it a hat trick.

25 June 2006: US Episcopal Church completes General Convention
Perhaps our favourite summary of events at the General Convention is this letter written to his diocese by Peter Lee, Bishop of Virginia. We also recommend this summary by Jim Naughton, who is Director of Communications for the Diocese of Washington. Here is the official report from the Episcopal News Service. The Anglican Communion Network offered this commentary and asked that this 'pastoral' letter be read in its member churches. If you prefer to read reports written from the far left and right fringes, as so many are, we're confident that you won't need our help in finding them.

25 June 2006: Archbishop of Brisbane says that church is responsible for its own decline
The Australian reports that Australia's most senior Anglican, Brisbane's Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, told his diocesan synod at the weekend that the policies, practices and decisions of the church had been responsible for the decline "to a fair degree".

24 June 2006: Bizarre Wisconsin presentment grinds through the church legal system
(If you are not familiar with this case, look here and here and here.) The pretrial conference was held June 24 in Milwaukee. The presiding judge came to his senses and recused himself from the case, and, in fact, did not attend that conference. Two other judges disqualified themselves when they learned how long the trial would likely last (there are many dozens of witnesses for the defence). Anglicans Online has copies of all relevant public documents pertaining to this presentment (pretrial motions, responses, affidavits, memoranda, etc.) but we shan't bore you with them unless you ask us for copies. The bishop has been ordered by the Court to provide a 'Bill of Particulars' describing each alleged act of misconduct set forth in the Presentment, with details by Friday, July 14, 2006. By that same date, he is also required to provide a detailed summary of the testimony intended to be offered from 27 trial witnesses identified in his pretrial submissions. Now that there is some openness and light on this trial, and now that the presenting bishop's chaplain is no longer the presiding judge, we are beginning to have some hope that the trial might actually be fair, and we hereby retire the kangaroo that had been the symbol of this ecclesiastical event.

23 June 2006: Preparing for the Church of England General Synod
The Church Times reports on the upcoming General Synod of the Church of England. Thinking Anglicans, which seems always to have the best coverage of General Synod, offered this summary.

23 June 2006: Face of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch to grace cathedral spire
The Age (Melbourne, and not a Murdoch newspaper) reports that the dean of St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne has announced plans to decorate its spire with a sculpture of the face of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

21 June 2006: Australian church tribunal free to consider female bishops
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that 'Sydney Anglicans have failed in their attempt to stall the church's chief legal authority from considering the vexed question of female bishops, as key Australian conservatives have condemned the US election of the denomination's first female primate.'

19 June 2006: Fort Worth asks ABC for protection from woman primate
The Diocese of Fort Worth has petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury for someone who is not a woman to provide them with 'Primatial oversight'. Most likely not Harris Milstead, we suspect.

19 June 2006: ABC — not prayers but 'prayers'
The Archbishop of Canterbury has offered 'prayers' for the new US Presiding Bishop. When the Archbishop's office sent the press release to the Anglican Communion Office, it had quote marks around the word 'prayers', and the Anglican Communion News Service just ran the release with the shock quotes in it. We exchanged a number of emails with the ACO to find out if they really meant to have quotes around that word, and after a day or two they removed them. But the Archbishop's own website still has the original phrasing, offering not prayers but 'prayers'.

18 June 2006: US Episcopal Church elects Katharine Jefferts Schori Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal News Service reports that the General Convention of the US Episcopal Church has elected the Bishop of Nevada, Katharine Jefferts Schori, as its next Presiding Bishop. See the vote tallies, her video interview, a biographical summary (scroll down), a collection of her writings gathered by The Witness, an interview conducted by The Living Church, and her own web pages at the Diocese of Nevada. News reports include the Associated Press, Reuters, the BBC, The Times (London), The Telegraph (London), the New York Times, USA Today, and the Anglican Journal. The BBC has assembled this profile. More coverage will certainly arrive during the week; this link should find it for you.

17 June 2006: A tale of two apologies
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that 'After almost three months of closed-door negotiations and lawyers at 10 paces, the Anglican Church has paid a secret cash settlement without admitting liability to Dr Belinda Goodenough.' No apology. The Episcopal News Service reports that the US General Convention is about to pass an 'Expression of Regret' to apologize for, well, we'd better not try to paraphrase it. Read it. (We presume that news reports about the Expression of Regret are the referent of this angry AO Letter to the Editor.)

17 June 2006: A tale of two eucharists
The Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio, USA) filed this report on the two eucharists held simultaneously Friday at the US General Convention, one with a sermon by New Hampshire bishop V Gene Robinson and one with a sermon by Rochester bishop Michael Nazir-Ali. Here is Bishop Robinson's sermon, and here is Bishop Nazir-Ali's sermon.

17 June 2006: Church and state in Malawi
The Nation (Blantyre, Malawi) reports that two weeks after the Malawi court referred the Lake Malawi episcopal dispute back to ecclesiastical court, it issued a ruling that Leonard James Mwenda is the Bishop of Lake Malawi and should be given the keys to the bishop's house and cars.

16 June 2006: More on the Wisconsin presentment
The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) reports that members of the Grace Episcopal congregation and Associate Pastor Roman Shemayev brought a complaint today against Bishop Steven A. Miller, accusing him of violating church law. The Court has ordered that there be no recording of the Pretrial Conference on June 24 in Milwaukee. We have obtained a copy of that complaint, and a copy of the court's no-recording order with the defendant's response. We were starting to re-think our belief that this was a mediæval marsupial trial, but the idea that a judicial proceeding of any kind is not recorded went out, as far as we know, with the Magna Carta. We really expect to see, soon, an episcopal order for the construction of a dunking chair. In secret, of course.

12 June 2006: New Primate for Nippon Sei Ko Kai
The Rt Revd Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu, Bishop of Hokkaido, became Primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai on 23 May 2006 during the biennial election in the House of Bishops at St. Barnabas' Church, Tokyo, according to the June edition of the "Sei Ko Kai Shimbun" (monthly newspaper of the Church in Japan). Bishop Uematsu succeeds Bishop James Toru Uno of Osaka. The late Bishop Watanabe of Hokkaido was also Primate of NSKK in former years for several successive biennial terms.

11 June 2006: US General Convention begins
The 75th General Convention of the US Episcopal Church begins this week in Columbus, Ohio. Our coverage of this General Convention is not breathless hour-by-hour updates, but rather a more reflective look at what is going on and what it means. In our General Convention 2006 pages we include links to various up-to-the-moment news sources in case you want to follow it as if it were a sport match, but without actually being there. We will update every couple of days, or whenever something genuinely newsworthy happens.

11 June 2006: Former ABC blames current ABC for problems
The Independent and The Telegraph (both of London) report that Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has delivered a damning assessment of his successor, saying the Anglican communion is now riven by "bitterness, hostility, misunderstanding and strife". A quick check of our News Centre archives shows that this rift is nothing new, and dates to far earlier than the investiture of the current archbishop. The Guardian headlined 'Oh dear. George is at it again' and went on to note that Lord Carey has made something of a speciality of issuing pointed criticisms of the Church of England since his retirement in 2002.

10 June 2006: Church and state in the UK
The Telegraph reports that proposed new equality regulations in the UK, which would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, might be binding on the established church. The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England issued this press release in response.

9 June 2006: More from Kenya
Earlier we noted the dispute between the Bishop of Chelmsford and the Archbishop of Kenya. Headlines in the British press typically said that Kenya had 'withdrawn hospitality' to the Chelmsford delegation. The Church Times reports that the Archbishop of Kenya has insisted that at no stage did the Anglican Church of Kenya withdraw hospitality from the Chelmsford group.

6 June 2006: English priest reinstated after appeal to ABC
The Times (London) and The Telegraph (both of London) report that the Archbishop of Canterbury has overruled the Bishop of Southwark by reinstating the licence of a priest that had been revoked by +Southwark. Although Archbishops of Canterbury do have this authority in the Church of England, it is rare for them to invoke it. The Telegraph filed this report. We find that the best coverage of this issue is in Ruth Gledhill's blog. Ms Gledhill is the Religion correspondent for The Times and the author of the above-mentioned news article. The Bishop of Southwark issued this press release afterwards. Thinking Anglicans has extensive coverage of 'the Coekin affair' here, and later here and then here. Finally, the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, wrote this essay for The Guardian. We suspect that this story will continue to have twists and turns over the next few months.

4 June 2006: US General Convention coming soon
The US Episcopal Church holds its General Convention every three years. The next GC is in Columbus, Ohio, from 13 June to 21 June. Here is the official website announcing and explaining General Convention. General Convention gets a lot of attention in part because it happens so rarely; most other churches hold synod meetings several times per year, so less happens at each synod.

4 June 2006: Episcopus imperator: getting crozier and crozier by the minute
The bishop's presentments and inhibitions against Grace Church in Madison, Wisconsin, USA (Diocese of Milwaukee) continue to be curious. On 10 May the bishop modified the inhibition against the Rector (here is the text of the bishop's letter and here is a letter to the parish), then placed a Godly Admonition on the Associate Rector (its text here; Associate Rector's letter to the parish here). The ecclesiastical trial has been scheduled for October. We have not been able to substantiate the rumour that the bishop has issued an inhibition against the parish cat. We think that the parish should not have a cat, but a kangaroo—the presiding judge (who signed the trial order) is Chaplain to the Bishop.

2 June 2006: Malawi civil court refers bishop case back to church
The Church Times reports that the High Court in Lake Malawi has referred the case of the Rt Revd James Mwenda, the disputed Bishop of Lake Malawi, back to the Church.

1 June 2006: Chelmsford bishop returns from Kenya
Last week we reported on the 'stranding' of the Bishop of Chelmsford in Kenya when his hosts withdrew their offer of hospitality. Bishop Gladwin has returned to Chelmsford, where he held a press conference and issued this statement. Upon reading Bishop Gladwin's statement, the Archbishop of Kenya issued this reply. The Times' Ruth Gledhill reported the event under the title 'Bishop stranded in Africa blames the devil'. Kenya's newspaper The Nation carried this story about the two men's statements, and Fulcrum offered this commentary on the issues raised by those statements.

30 May 2006: Statement from the Panel of Reference
The Anglican Communion News Service has issued this statement on the subject of squabbles related to 'the Connecticut Six'.

30 May 2006: Seeking new Anglican observer at United Nations
The Anglican Communion News Service has announced the upcoming vacancy in the post of Anglican Observer at the United Nations, and are inviting applications and nominations for the post.

30 May 2006: Shady deal in Diocese of Adelaide?
The Advertiser (Adelaide) reports that the Diocese of Adelaide began transferring property worth about $30 million to its charity, Anglicare, within 18 months of a church member being charged with pedophilia. Victims are suspicious that this transfer was to protect those assets from involvement in compensation. Archbishop Jeffrey Driver has issued this statement in response to the Advertiser report.

27 May 2006: Defender of all faiths?
The Telegraph reports that Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester has questioned whether the Prince of Wales can or should be known as 'Defender of Faith' rather than 'Defender of the Faith' on his eventual succession to the British throne. Reuters also carried the story, and so did the BBC.

26 May 2006: English cathedral attendance continues to grow
The Church Times reports that the average weekly attendance at English cathedrals increased slightly from 2004 to 2005, despite a decline in tourism.

26 May 2006: Zimbabwean priests to seek help from the Archbishop of York
Trevor Grundy of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting reports that ten Zimbabwean priests have gone into self-imposed exile in protest against an ecclesiastical crisis in their nation. According to their leader, the Reverend Paul Gwese, 'We are Zimbabwean Christians and we want the worldwide Anglican community to know that we want justice, transparency and good leadership in our Anglican community'.

26 May 2006: US$50,000 settlement for false arrest claim by priest
The Living Church reports that the town of Milton, Massachusetts will pay an Episcopal priest $50,000 to settle a false arrest claim. The Reverend Henderson L. Brome, rector of St Cyprian's Church, Milton, was arrested on 28 July 2004 following a burglary complaint.

25 May 2006: Kenya withdraws welcome to Bishop of Chelmsford mid-visit
The Rt Revd John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford, was partway through a tour of Kenya as a guest of the Anglican Church of Kenya, when the Kenya hosts 'withdrew hospitality' because of Gladwin's opinions about homosexuality. It is interesting to compare the UK coverage (Yorkshire Post, The Times, The Church Times, East Anglia Daily Times, Reuters) with the African coverage (The Nation, more from The Nation, The East African Standard, The Angola Press).

25 May 2006: Sexual abuse claims against Episcopal priest resurface
San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO-TV reports on abuse accusations against the Reverend John Bennison, a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of California. We are not aware of any official ecclesiastical response or recent documentation connected with this case.

25 May 2006: Not a matter for the secular courts
According to The Daily Times of Malawi, a case involving the election and enthronement of the next bishop of the Diocese of Lake Malawi should be solved internally rather than in the High Court of the nation's justice system.

22 May 2006: Anglican Consultative Council considers Covenant document
The Anglican Communion News Service reports that 'the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and of the Primates’ Meeting considered how the proposal in §117-120 of the Windsor Report for an Anglican Covenant could be carried forward'. The ACNS also published the text of that proposal. The Living Church suggested that it was unlikely that a covenant would be approved in the next five years.

19 May 2006: Newspaper coverage of Wisconsin presentment
The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) reports in detail on the strange presentment of a priest at Grace Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Milwaukee. The parish website has a link to a letter to the congregation on it, but that letter is in a proprietary format that we don't have software to read, so we can't actually tell you what it says or whether it might be worth reading.

19 May 2006: New Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church reports that it has elected the Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, the Rt Rev Dr Idris Jones, to serve as its Primus.

19 May 2006: Afghanis seek refuge in Dublin cathedral
The Church Times (London) reports that several dozen Afghanis are seeking sanctuary in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, to avoid being sent back to Afghanistan.

18 May 2006: Archbishop Ndungane announces plans to retire
The Independent Online (Cape Town) reports that the Most Revd Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, has announced that he will retire after the next Lambeth conference. The Anglican Communion News Service published his statement.

16 May 2006: Joint press release on plans for women bishops in the Church of England
Thinking Anglicans has published a joint press release by Affirming Catholicism and WATCH asserting the fundamental principles by which women should be appointed as bishops in the Church of England.

16 May 2006: Australian diocese selling assets to pay sex-abuse reparations
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has published a transcript of an interview with Jeffrey Driver, Bishop of Adelaide, about the means by which that diocese is raising money to compensate victims of sexual abuse by a former employee. ABC News Online published this article about what was said in that interview.

16 May 2006: Australian Bishop speaks out about nuclear waste
The Australian reports that the Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn has stated that Australia had a moral obligation to store nuclear waste if it continued to export uranium.

15 May 2006: Communiqué from the Panel of Reference
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Panel of Reference held its second plenary meeting between 9 and 12 May 2006, and issued this communiqué.

14 May 2006: South African bishops concerned about violence against women
The Independent Online (Cape Town) reports that South Africa's bishops are 'deeply concerned about the treatment of women in society' and plan an activist event this winter.

14 May 2006: Australian worry about environmental impact of organ pipes
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that after the destruction by fire of St Barnabas Church, environmentalists are concerned that the organ be rebuilt without pipes containing the usual large amount of lead, because of the risk that church fires may spew poisons into the environment.

13 May 2006: New Primate in New Zealand
The Gisborne Herald reports that the Rt Revd William Brown Turei has been appointed Archbishop and Co-Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

11 May 2006: General Synod in Ireland
The Church of Ireland held its General Synod this week. The big news from that event was Ireland's Primate, the Most Revd Robin Eames, announcing his retirement. The Belfast Telegraph offered this opinion about his tenure as Archbishop. Here is the Church of Ireland's report on its synod, and here is the Church Times report on Dr Eames' retirement.

11 May 2006: Canadian dioceses worried about cost of General Synod
The Anglican Journal (Canada) reports that a number of dioceses are voicing concerns about the increased cost of attending General Synod 2007, with some saying they may have to cut the number of delegates they send.

8 May 2006: Disturbing report on faith of England's youth
The Times (London) reports on a recent survey by the Church of England, noting that 'young people are quite happy with a life without God and prefer car boot sales to church'. The Church of England issued this press release about the survey, and published the complete set of results in this book.

8 May 2006: Four wise men this time
The Telegraph (London) reports that 'The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has quietly appointed four "wise men" to advise him on the crisis over homosexuals.'

7 May 2006: Politics in Pakistan
There has been a steady stream of unbelievable press releases emanating from Anglican groups in Pakistan. We've not mentioned them here because, well, we weren't sure we believed them. The Church Times has studied the situation and reports that 'Lurid accusations of murder, land-grabbing, sexual infidelity, and drink, involving the Bishop of Raiwind in the Church of Pakistan, the Rt Revd Samuel Azariah, may be no more than a ploy to gain control of disputed church property.'

6 May 2006: US bishops elected
Four US dioceses held conventions to elect a bishop, and three of them succeeded. The Diocese of Eastern Michigan elected the Revd Steven Todd Ousley as bishop coadjutor. The Diocese of California elected the Rt Revd Mark Handley Andrus as bishop. The Diocese of Northern California elected the Revd Canon Barry Beisner as bishop coadjutor. The Diocese of Tennessee once again failed to reach consensus and did not elect a bishop. Details of all of these elections can be found at the Episcopal News Service. The California election was extensively reported in the world press because three of the six candidates were gay or lesbian. Your News Centre editor has checked with several voting delegates to the California diocesan convention, and they all said that sexuality had nothing to do with the voting or decision making process.

5 May 2006: Further conflict in Malawi
The Church Times reports that the Archbishop of Central Africa, Most Revd Bernard Malango, and the disputed Bishop of Lake Malawi, the Rt Revd James Mwenda, have been found in contempt of court, and were due to appear with others before a judge yesterday. If they failed to appear, a warrant would be issued for their arrest.

5 May 2006: Fundraising for Church of England pensions
The Church Times reports that English churchgoers are being asked to find an extra £10.4 million next year to guarantee the pensions of the Church’s 9600 active stipendiary clergy.

4 May 2006: Canadian bishops speak out
The Anglican Journal (Canada) reports that Canada's Anglican bishops unanimously endorsed a motion expressing "grave concern" about proposed legislation in Nigeria that "would prohibit or severely restrict the freedom of speech, association, expression and assembly of gay and lesbian persons." Thinking Anglicans has published a copy of the motion text.

4 May 2006: Presentment and inhibition against Wisconsin priest
Anglicans Online has learned that the Rt Revd Steven Miller, Bishop of Milwaukee, has filed a presentment and inhibition against the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin. We have obtained a copy of the presentment and of the Senior Warden's letter to the parish. We have redacted names from the presentment, as we see their presence as a needless violation of privacy. We did not get these materials from any of the principals in this case or their attorneys. We expect that Ms Englert will file a rebuttal soon, and, should that happen and should we acquire a copy of it, we will link it here. We aren't entirely sure what is going on here, but it seems to us that there's more than meets the eye.

30 April 2006: Following the money
The Diocese of Washington (DC) has published an extensive investigative article about the political interests of the organizations that are funding dissent in the Anglican world. The diocese issued this press release announcing the article. The Witness, a US magazine, published this article based on that study, and the Church Times, a UK weekly, published this article.

30 April 2006: Debunking The Da Vinci Code
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Diocese of Sydney has spent AUS$50K on a cinema advertising blitz to debunk claims made in upcoming movie The Da Vinci Code. The campaign includes this slick cinema-quality website ChallengingDaVinci.com.

29 April 2006: Texas elects female bishop suffragan
The Episcopal News Service reports that the Ven Dena Harrison, archdeacon and canon for ministry in the Diocese of Texas, was elected April 29 as the diocese's second bishop suffragan.

28 April 2006: Anglican Church of Canada applauds schools agreement
The Anglican Journal (Canada) reports that the Anglican Church of Canada has applauded the announcement that the government has reached a final deal with all parties involved in the residential schools negotiations and that the federal cabinet is likely to approve it within days.

28 April 2006: Obituary: Bishop David Hand
The Most Revd and Rt Hon David Hand, GCL, KBE, first Archbishop of Papua New Guinea, died recently. A truly amazing man, he earned obituaries worldwide, including the Sydney Morning Herald, the Papua New Guinea Post Courier, The Australian, and the Anglican Communion News Service.

27 April 2006: Australian roots to open Carey letter
Last week an open letter to Lord Carey was reported (April 21). Recently the Sydney Morning Herald revealed that this letter originated in Australia, and was signed by more than 100 Australians. The Age (Melbourne) reported the letter with somewhat stronger language.

26 April 2006: Canadian Primate to retire
The Anglican Communion News Service reports that Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has announced that he will retire next year following General Synod. Canada's Anglican Journal has more on the story.

21 April 2006: Former ABC rebuts open letter
The Church Times reports that former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey 'has described as "baseless and ill-informed" the concerns expressed in an open letter that rebukes him for apparently offering himself as "an alternative leader" to his successor as Archbishop of Canterbury'. The text of Lord Carey's statement is on the Anglicans for Israel website.

21 April 2006: Concelebration in Ireland
The Church Times reports that a Church of Ireland priest was one of the concelebrants of a Roman Catholic mass to mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. The Primate of the Church of Ireland issued this statement on that concelebration.

20 April 2006: Nigerian archbishop demands justice
Christianity Today has published an interview with the Most Revd Peter Akinola, Primate of the Church of Nigeria, about his concerns for his church and his nation.

20 April 2006: Easter messages from around the Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion News Service has published a collection of Easter messages from various places in the Anglican Communion, including Uganda, Ireland, Nigeria, the USA, Canada, and Wales.

16 April 2006: Bishops to sign letter demanding Carey end feud with Williams
The Sunday Times (London) reports that supporters of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, have drafted an open letter to former ABC Lord Carey demanding that he end his disloyalty and support the current Archbishop. 15 English bishops are expected to sign.

16 April 2006: Crowds turn out for Easter services in Australia
The Australian reports that the usual surge of Easter churchgoers was larger than ever in Australian churches this year.

16 April 2006: ABC rejects religious conspiracy theories
The BBC reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke out in his Easter Sermon against the conspiracy theories swarming around popular fiction such as The Da Vinci Code or ancient texts such as the 'Gospel of Judas'.

13 April 2006: Bishop installed in Namibia
The Namibian (Windhoek) reports that the Rt Revd Nathaniel Ndaxuma Nakwatumbah was installed as the tenth Bishop of Namibia.

11 April 2006: New bishop stoned in Malawi
The Nation (Malawi) reports that 'The enthronement of Leonard James Mwenda as Anglican Bishop of Lake Malawi Diocese ...was conducted under police guard as a group ... resorted to stone-throwing to stop the Zambian from succeeding the late Bishop Peter Nyanja.' The next day, that newspaper reported on an attempt to get an injunction against his performing the duties of bishop. The injunction was granted.

9 April 2006: Church and State in England
The Sunday Times (London) reports that Church of England clergy 'have quietly dropped the centuries-old practice of saying prayers for the monarch, supreme governor of the church, at their main Sunday services'.

7 April 2006: US Episcopal Church releases report on Windsor Report
The Episcopal News Service reports that the USA's Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion has issued its report, including 11 resolutions to be debated at the next General Convention in June 2006. That press release contains links to the report in English, Spanish, and French. The Associated Press and Reuters both reported its release. There were a number of news stories earlier in the week that were fundamentally just rumour and speculation on what this report was going to say. Since the report has been released, we shan't bother listing that news coverage.

7 April 2006: ABC says threats destroy mutual trust
The Church Times reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking in Washington DC, condemned as 'outrageous' the death threats recently made against an Afghani man who converted from Islam to Christianity.

7 April 2006: Standoff continues between Church of Nigeria and Changing Attitude
The Church Times reports that the press officer of the Church of Nigeria is standing by his claim that a principal of Changing Attitude Nigeria has no recent affiliation with that church, despite additional evidence backing Changing Attitude's claims.

6 April 2006: Canadian Easter service to be webcast
The Anglican Church of Canada reports that Toronto's St James’ Cathedral will become the first Anglican church in Canada to provide a live web cast of its Easter Sunday service. Details here at the Diocese of Toronto.

1 April 2006: English clergy said to be at risk of burnout
The Religion News Service reports that an English bishop says clergy in Britain are overworked and running the risk of burnout and wrecked marriages, and he wants a national debate on what to do about it.