Anglican Church

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Wednesday ordered leaders of a former Episcopal church in La Crescenta by Oct. 12 to turn over church property to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, marking the latest wrinkle in a long-running legal dispute. St. Luke's Anglican Church and the diocese have been feuding since 2006, when a majority of the parish's congregants voted to pull out of the diocese and the 2.1-million-member Episcopal Church because of differences over biblical authority and interpretation, including the national church's decision to consecrate an openly gay bishop.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested Monday that the Episcopal Church might have to accept a different role within the worldwide Anglican Communion amid U.S. leaders' decision to lift a de facto ban on gay bishops and to consider rites of blessing for same-sex unions. Williams outlined his concerns in a statement to leaders throughout the communion, saying "very serious anxieties have already been expressed" among the 77 million Anglicans. The Episcopal Church, the U.S.

At St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach, the Rev. Richard Crocker told parishioners Sunday to await the "good news of a God who's with us," an upbeat message despite a recent legal ruling that could strip the congregation of its property because of its break with the Episcopal Church. At St. John's Cathedral near downtown Los Angeles, whose congregation has remained within the Episcopal fold, the Very Rev. Canon Mark R.

Hundreds of conservative Episcopal congregations in North America, rejecting liberal biblical views of others in the denomination, formed a breakaway church Wednesday that threatened to further divide a global Anglican body already torn by the ordination of an openly gay bishop.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, in a long-awaited message to the global Anglican Communion he heads, said Friday there was no consensus among Anglican leaders on whether the Episcopal Church had met demands that it stop consecrating openly gay bishops and authorizing same-sex blessings.

Central California's Diocese of San Joaquin on Saturday became the first in the nation to secede from the Episcopal Church, taking the historic, risky step as part of a years-long struggle within the U.S. church and global Anglican Communion over homosexuality and biblical authority.

Anxiety crept into the priest's voice as he addressed the leader of his unsettled church. Was she finding a way to bridge the widening rifts in the Episcopal Church and its parent Anglican Communion? he asked. Or was it an impasse? Standing recently in the airy sanctuary of a small San Jose church, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori was direct, her low voice calm, as she offered her own, more nuanced view to the priests and lay leaders before her. "I'm not sure it is a stalemate," she said.

Leaders of the global Anglican Communion responded largely positively Wednesday to pledges from the Episcopal Church to use restraint in consecrating gay bishops and other contentious matters. But an influential joint standing committee of Anglican bishops, clergy and lay leaders also called on all sides in the continuing debate over homosexuality and biblical authority to work harder to ease their differences and keep the 77-million-member Anglican Communion intact.

Episcopal leaders, who are struggling to hold together their increasingly divided church and maintain its place in the global Anglican Communion, pledged anew Tuesday to "exercise restraint" in consecrating another openly gay bishop. In the final hours of a crucial meeting in New Orleans, Episcopal bishops promised not to authorize official rites for the blessings of same-sex couples and asserted that a majority of bishops do not allow priests to bless such unions.

new orleans -- Episcopal bishops, under pressure from Anglicans to ease their support for gays, said Monday that they were crafting a straightforward statement that reflects their deep desire to remain in the global Anglican fellowship. Anglican leaders have set a Sept. 30 deadline for the Americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for same-gender couples. Episcopal bishops have dedicated their meeting here to crafting a response.