Episcopal Church

For churches all over it's the season of ordinations as candidates for the priesthood complete their studies. In Southern California, at least 20 men are joining the clergy in solemn and joyful ceremonies in this week. The ordinations began Thursday night in Hollywood as Vahe Abovian and Mayis Shahbazyan were welcomed into the priesthood by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America.

A third theologically conservative diocese has broken away from the liberal Episcopal Church in a long-running dispute over the Bible, gay relationships and other issues. The Diocese of Quincy, Ill., took the vote at its annual meeting that ended Saturday. Two other dioceses -- San Joaquin, based in Fresno, and Pittsburgh -- have already split off. Next weekend, the Diocese of Fort Worth will vote on whether to follow suit.

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.

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church declared Thursday that church members who joined a newly formed conservative denomination "are no longer Episcopalians," even as she predicted that the exodus had largely run its course and would not trigger further large-scale defections. In her first public comments since a coalition of 700 parishes announced the formation of a new North American church Wednesday, the Most. Rev.

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has announced that church leaders can bless the unions of same-sex couples as a matter of policy. The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, whose diocese encompasses Los Angeles County and five other Southern California counties, made the announcement Friday during a diocesan convention in Riverside.

Since its founding more than two centuries ago, the Episcopal Church has often struggled to keep disparate factions unified under its diverse umbrella. Repeated controversies -- over slavery, the ordination of women and even the role of children in church life -- have threatened to tear at its religious fabric.

For Bishop John-David Schofield, the question is central to the future of the church he loves: Does the American Episcopal Church believe the Scriptures are the revealed word of God? In a recent vote, a majority of his flock answered with a resounding "no," and that is why Schofield is leading his San Joaquin Diocese in an unprecedented effort to pull away from the Episcopal Church.

As leaders of the world's 77 million Anglicans gathered here amid fears of a split in the church over divergent views on gay bishops and same-sex unions, a spokesman said the first day of discussions was characterized by "intense listening." "There has been no talk of schism in the meeting at all," said Australian Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, who briefed reporters after the closed-door sessions Thursday.

Seven conservative archbishops snubbed the head of the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Church during a crucial meeting of the church leadership here Friday, refusing to take the Holy Eucharist with her to protest her support of gay bishops and of blessing same-sex unions. The men called their action in boycotting the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the U.S.

Anglican leaders wrapping up a tense meeting here Monday called on the U.S. Episcopal Church to state unequivocally that it will bar the blessing of same-sex unions and stop consecrating gay bishops in order to heal a rift that threatens to split the worldwide Anglican Communion. The five-day meeting ended with a joint communique and without evidence of an immediate schism in the 77-million-member global church, which many had feared. But tensions remained over the U.S.