Anglican Church

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Songs by late reggae legends Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, both devout Rastafarians, will be included in a new collection of Anglican church hymnals in Jamaica. Marley's "One Love" and Tosh's "Psalm 27" will be the first reggae tunes to appear in songbooks alongside traditional worship music on the island that gave birth to reggae, said church leaders preparing a new collection of hymns. The Rev. Ernle Gordon, a church spokesman, said Friday that members of the Anglican Church of Jamaica were enthusiastic about including the reggae musicians' music in the hymnals,...

Scores of Maine churches will pass the collection plate a second time at Sunday services on Father's Day to kick off a fundraising campaign for the lead opposition group to November's ballot question asking voters to legalize same-sex marriages. Between 150 and 200 churches are expected to raise money for the Protect Marriage Maine political action committee, said Carroll Conley Jr., executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine evangelical organization and a member of the PAC. Conley is also trying to drum up support for the Maine campaign from religious leaders from...

WASHINGTON - A Virginia judge has ruled against seven conservative congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, rejecting their contention that they should be able to keep valuable church property that the national denomination also claims. The case has drawn worldwide attention because it involves a cluster of large, prominent churches with well-known conservative pastors and because the issues at hand - particularly the Episcopal Church's continued acceptance of same-sex relationships as equal to heterosexual ones - are roiling much of organized religion.

WASHINGTON - A Virginia judge has ruled against seven conservative congregations that broke away from the Episcopal Church in 2006, rejecting their contention that they should be able to keep valuable church property that the national denomination also claims. The case has drawn worldwide attention because it involves a cluster of large, prominent churches with well-known conservative pastors and because the issues at hand - particularly the Episcopal Church's continued acceptance of same-sex relationships as equal to heterosexual ones - are roiling much of organized religion.

LONDON — The Anglican Communion has suspended US Episcopalians from serving on ecumenical bodies because of the election of a lesbian as a bishop in California. The US church opened a rift in the global communion, and within its own ranks, seven years ago by electing a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. Conservative African Anglicans have taken a lead in opposing moves in the United States and Canada to promote gays and to bless homosexual relationships. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, had called for a...

JERUSALEM -- Representatives of the Anglican Church who toured Israel and the West Bank this week are recommending that the church withdraw investments from Israel to pressure the country to ease the "draconian conditions" imposed on the Palestinians, a church official said yesterday. Twenty-nine church representatives toured the area. Those recommending "divestment," or taking capital out of the country, include church leaders from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, said Nancy Dinsmore, director of development for the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

LONDON -- The US Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have been asked to withdraw from a key body of the global Anglican Communion by conservative church leaders distressed by the election of a gay bishop in the United States and the blessing of same-sex unions in the two countries. Though the requested withdrawal of the two churches would be temporary, it would be the first formal split in the communion over the issues of sexuality and biblical authority. The withdrawal request, which also summoned the two churches to explain their thinking on gay...

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- The Rev. V. Gene Robinson began his ministry as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal church yesterday by saying he wants to bring the message of God's love to "those on the margins. " He also said the church should speak out on issues of social justice, including the lack of access to health care for many Americans. "How dare we in this country spend $87 billion on war when 44 million people have no health insurance?" he said in a sermon at All Saints Parish, where he was married to his former wife.

LONDON -- A Ugandan-born cleric who opposes gay priests in the Anglican church and is a critic of the US-led war in Iraq was named yesterday the first black archbishop in the nearly 500-year history of the Church of England. The Right Rev. John Sentamu, 56, now bishop of Birmingham, was appointed by the British government as archbishop of York, the church's second-highest position after Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who leads the worldwide Anglican Communion. Sentamu was recently appointed by Williams to a committee formed to try to mend a rift in the church caused...

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The conservative leader of the Episcopal diocese of South Carolina, which has roots stretching to before the American Revolution, is the first bishop facing discipline from the national church over the ongoing schism over the ordination of gay ministers. While some conservative congregations left the national Episcopal church to join a new Anglican denomination over the issue, the South Carolina diocese has stayed in, while pushing back on theological differences and what it calls the increasing centralization of the church.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The conservative leader of the Episcopal diocese of South Carolina, which has roots stretching to before the American Revolution, is the first bishop facing discipline from the national church over the ongoing schism over the ordination of gay ministers. While some conservative congregations left the national Episcopal church to join a new Anglican denomination over the issue, the South Carolina diocese has stayed in, while pushing back on theological differences and what it calls the increasing centralization of the church.

Zimbabwe's top Anglican bishop says a breakaway church leader close to the country's president is intensifying a campaign to seize church properties that include missions, schools and priests' homes. Bishop Chad Gandiya, leader of the mainstream Anglican group, said Friday a new wave of evictions has targeted one historic orphanage. Breakaway Bishop Nolbert Kunonga claims to lead Zimbabwe's Anglicans and has already refused to hand back the Harare Cathedral, offices, buildings, church bank accounts and vehicles he seized with the protection of...

LONDON — Leaders of conservative Anglicans yesterday rejected a proposed covenant to hold their global communion together just as the Church of England gave preliminary approval to the plan. The covenant, backed by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is intended to contain splits within the Anglican Communion over sexuality, the role of women, and the authority of the Bible. The communion represents churches affiliated with the Church of England in more than 160 countries.

LONDON — The Anglican Communion has suspended US Episcopalians from serving on ecumenical bodies because of the election of a lesbian as a bishop in California. The US church opened a rift in the global communion, and within its own ranks, seven years ago by electing a gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. Conservative African Anglicans have taken a lead in opposing moves in the United States and Canada to promote gays and to bless homosexual relationships. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Anglican...

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Episcopal bishops authorized the church yesterday to start drafting an official prayer for same-sex couples, another step toward acceptance of gay relationships that will deepen the rift between the denomination and its fellow Anglicans overseas. The bishops voted, 104 to 30, at the Episcopal General Convention to “collect and develop theological resources and liturgies’’ for blessing same-gender relationships, which would be considered at the next national meeting in 2012.

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal John Henry Newman, an influential 19th-century Anglican theologian who converted to Roman Catholicism, moved a step closer to possible sainthood yesterday after the pope approved a miracle in Massachusetts attributed to his intercession. Pope Benedict XVI ruled that the recovery of a Marshfield, Mass., resident who for years suffered from a spinal disorder was miraculous, meaning Newman can now be beatified. A second miracle is necessary for him to be declared a saint - an event which, if it happens, would...

FAIRFAX, Va. -- In a direct challenge to the leadership of the US Episcopal Church, an influential Anglican archbishop from Africa is exploring ways to allow American congregations upset over the election of a gay bishop to realign themselves under his jurisdiction. Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has been sharply critical of the US Episcopal Church's decision last year to consecrate Bishop V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire, said yesterday he feels obliged to provide a spiritual home to Nigerians in the United States who are leaving the church over the issue.