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| Presiding Episcopal Bishop Frank Griswold has predicted ‘chaos’ if the Anglican Communion splits largely along northern-southern hemisphere lines, with anti-gay U.S. churches joining like-minded congregations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. (File photo by Peter Morrison/AP) |
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CHICAGO — The presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church warned Sept. 28 of chaos if the Anglican Communion splits over how to handle gay issues, Reuters News Service reported. Frank Griswold, who heads the 2.4 million member Episcopal denomination, was reacting to a Sept. 22 communiqué from Anglican bishops in Africa, Asia and Latin America that suggested the schism. The statement, issued from Rwanda by the conservative bishops jointly under the name the Global South, “raises profound questions about the nature of the church, its ordering and its oversight,” Griswold said according to Reuters. The conservative bishops further suggested that U.S. Episcopalians upset with the ordination of openly gay New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson should also be permitted to start their own church. “Such a division would open the way to multiple divisions across other provinces of the [Anglican] Communion,” Griswold said in his response, “and any sense of a coherent mission would sink into chaos.”
ATLANTA — A rift between Georgia Christian Coalition Chair Sadie Fields, who led the fight against same-sex marriage in Georgia in 2004, and national Christian Coalition leadership will result in a new chairperson for Georgia, but not dissolve the state chapter, according to a national spokesperson. Sadie Fields, announced Oct. 1 that the state chapter was splitting from the national Christian Coalition of America to form its own organization. “Just because Sadie Fields will no longer be the chair doesn’t mean we won’t have a Christian Coalition [in Georgia],” Michele Combs, director of communications for the South Carolina-based Christian Coalition of America, said a day later. “We’ll have a Christian Coalition there, we’ll just put a new chair in.” As head of the state’s Christian Coalition chapter, Fields heavily and successfully lobbied lawmakers to approve an amendment to alter the state’s constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Dominick Giombetti has decided not to return to his job as an English teacher at Saint Andrew’s High School in Boca Raton, Fla., after rumors spread based on his role in a gay-themed play, the Palm Beach Post reported. Giombetti, who is openly gay, had been a very popular teacher, but that all changed after one of his students “Googled” his name and learned of his role as a gay preppy who falls in love with a male prostitute in a local theater production of Edwin Sanchez’s “Trafficking in Broken Hearts.” The role called for nudity and sexually suggestive situations, the Post reported. Giombetti claims school officials initially insisted he choose between teaching and acting, but when he refused, they informed him that his contract would not be renewed at the end of the school year, the paper reported. School officials told the Post no such decision had been reached about Giombetti. “Earlier this week, Saint Andrew’s became aware of information regarding Dominick Giombetti which could distract students and the learning environment,” the school said in a statement. “No employment decisions have been made or ultimatums given.”
FREEPORT, Grand Bahama — Bishop Reno Smith, pastor of Mount Gilead Union Baptist Church in the Bahamas, is threatening to sue another pastor for claiming in a local newspaper that Smith performed a same-sex wedding ceremony, the Bahama Journal reported Sept. 26. “If I performed a ceremony not knowing if they were the same sex, that’s no fault of my own; that becomes an issue with the registrar general’s office,” Smith said on a radio talk show, the paper reported.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A judge has ruled against a Baptist church that claimed its freedom of speech and religion were violated by a ruling that it should have disclosed work its to help a ballot measure. The issue dates back to 2004’s Constitutional Initiative 96, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and passed by about a 2-to-1 margin. The state commissioner of political practices found that Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church in East Helena should have reported its activity in support of the constitutional ban on gay marriage. The church argued state campaign laws are unconstitutional. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula ruled against the church.
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