Episcopal Church

An Episcopal priest who has clashed with church leaders over his conservative views will be tried in a church court for preaching at a suburban Washington parish without his bishop's approval. The Rev. Samuel Edwards was charged with breaking church laws when he ignored an order from Jane Holmes Dixon, acting bishop of Washington, to leave Christ Episcopal Church in Accokeek in May. He was later forced out of the parish by a federal order.

The standoff between the Episcopal Church hierarchy and a growing band of dissident traditionalists turned personal recently when a retired Episcopal priest was issued an ultimatum by his bishop: Stop dissident activities or leave the church. The Rev. Patrick Murphy, ordained 44 years ago, renounced the priesthood this week after refusing his bishop's orders to "cease and desist" ministering to a small Houston congregation of disaffected former Episcopalians he helped organize.

The Episcopal church should bend to changing attitudes and give its blessing to steady, sexual relationships between homosexuals, as well as unmarried young adults and divorced or widowed people, according to a diocesan report. The report was prepared by a Newark diocesan task force. It seeks to ignite debate on sexual ethics among leaders of the nation's 3 million Episcopalians in the hope that they will amend church doctrine to embrace all believers.

Leaders of the Episcopal Church formally ousted the bishop of California's breakaway Diocese of San Joaquin on Wednesday, saying John-David Schofield had abandoned the communion of the church in a bitter, years-long struggle over homosexuality and the Bible. In December, Schofield's Fresno-based diocese became the first in the nation to secede from the Episcopal Church over the issues, placing itself under the authority of a theologically conservative Anglican archbishop in South America.

Thousands of Episcopalians who oppose the church's election of an openly gay bishop gathered to discuss forming their own network of dioceses and congregations -- a move that could become official next weekend. The two-day Plano East Conference in Woodbrider attracted about 3,000 church members from 47 dioceses across the country. Another conference is set for next weekend in Plano, Texas.

It has been 12 years since the Episcopal Church opened the door to female priests and bishops, but a recently released committee report offers a glimmer of hope to those who oppose the priesthood of women. The report, prepared by Presiding Bishop Edmund L. Browning's Committee on Dialogue on Women in the Episcopate, offers two resolutions to the General Convention that will meet in July, both of which aim to moderate the sometimes acrimonious debate that continues over the ordination of women.

One day after U.S. Roman Catholic bishops reaffirmed the ban on women in the priesthood, the Episcopal Church on Thursday consecrated the second woman bishop in its history in an ancient rite at Washington Cathedral. Amid medieval pomp and ceremony and the laying on of hands by more than 20 bishops, the Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon was elevated to the episcopacy vowing to "testify to Christ's sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings."

The Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will not take a stand at this time on the debate over issues of human sexuality raging among Episcopal bishops, church officials said. The church this week released a letter Browning had written to bishops in the 2.8-million-member church in which he rejected bids to make him come down "on one side or the other" of the debate.

The Episcopal Church has nominated four bishops for the office of presiding bishop, a post to be decided when the 3-million-member denomination holds its triennial convention Sept. 7-14 in Anaheim. The men selected by a nominating committee this week include the first black ever picked as a candidate for the church's highest post, Bishop John T. Walker, 60, of Washington, D.C. The others nominated to succeed Presiding Bishop John M.