The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
The Episcopal Church lost two of its retired bishops in the past week: Joe Burnett, 10th Bishop of Nebraska, and Chester Talton, Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles.
Some clerics say their church remains homophobic and others vow to defy the bishops, with the eight-year LLF process stopped dead by new legal and theological guidance.
Archbishop Titus Chung is the first major conservative Anglican leader to express concerns about the implications of GAFCON’s Global Anglican Communion.
All 12 men who drafted the plan for the Global Anglican Communion hail from dioceses and churches that have never been part of the Anglican Communion or have been largely disengaged from it for the last two decades.
The Secretary General urged engagement with the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and spoke kindly of GAFCON as a reform movement, while inviting its members to next summer’s ACC Meeting.
Member churches of the new body must forswear participation in the Instruments of Communion and the chair of its council would assume Canterbury’s historic role.
Stand-alone services for the blessing of same-sex unions and permission for clergy to enter civil same-sex marriages will now require action by General Synod, which will likely take years.
Johnson was an advocate for the acceptance of gay and lesbian people, started the diocese’s first Latino congregation, and launched a capital campaign to raise $3 million for outreach.
