Source: Diocese of Atlanta via American Anglican Council:
October 7, 2009
Atlanta's Pride Festival is Oct. 31 - Nov. 1 and, for the sixth year in a row, Episcopalians from throughout the Diocese of Atlanta will take part. Members of Episcopal churches will staff a booth in Piedmont Park, march in a Midtown parade and distribute water at St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Peachtree Street.
"Everyone is invited to participate, at whatever level you can, and help to spread the message that the Episcopal Church welcomes everyone!" said the Rev. Mac Thigpen, rector of St. Bartholomew's, Atlanta.
The Nov. 1 parade starts at 1 p.m. Episcopalians will gather at the Civic Center MARTA station to march behind the "Episcopal Church Welcomes You" banner. All are welcome: gay and straight, single people, families, laity and clergy. For more information, contact Thigpen, mac@stbartsatlanta.org.
The annual Gay Pride Eucharist will be held the previous week, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at All Saints' Episcopal Church, 633 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta. The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth M. Kaeton, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chatham, N.J., and currently president of The Episcopal Women's Caucus will preach. The Rt. Rev. Keith B. Whitmore, assistant bishop for the Diocese of Atlanta, will preside.
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TEC Executive Council expresses concern with covenant's disciplinary section
Source: Episcopal Life Online
October 8, 2009
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Episcopal Church's Executive Council said October 8 that the majority of the General Convention deputations and individual deputies that expressed an opinion do not support the disciplinary process outlined in the latest draft of a proposed Anglican covenant.
The comment came in the council's official response to the Ridley Cambridge Draft, which the members said addresses "some of the most difficult matters and substance relating to such a covenant."
The Anglican Communion's provinces were asked for specific comments on the draft's Section Four, which contains a dispute-resolution process.
"One [General Convention] deputation stated that Section Four is 'disturbing' because it creates a system of governance contrary to our understanding of Anglicanism and establishes a punitive system executed by a select committee," the council said. "On the other hand, a deputation felt that the fourth section is important because a governance section is needed to maintain a covenant."
Another response called the authority the communion's Standing Committee would have in the disciplinary process so "ill-defined as to endanger the very essence of Anglicanism." (The Standing Committee is a group of elected representatives of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and the Primates Meeting).
The Executive Council said that the comments it received on Section Four were "so interwoven" with comments on the covenant as a whole that "separating the two is difficult."
"The majority of deputations and individual deputies that responded are not convinced that the covenant in its current form will bring about deeper communion," the council said. "Several stated that the overall idea of a covenant is 'un-Anglican.' One went as far as to say that the 'document incorporates anxiety.'"
On the other hand, the council noted, another deputy called the covenant "a presentation of the Christian community as a dynamic spiritual body in which God-given freedom is inextricably bound up with God-given accountability." . . .
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