Episcopal priest suspended after saying she also is Muslim
International Herald Tribune | July 6, 2007
SEATTLE: An Episcopal priest who announced last month that she is also a practicing Muslim has been suspended from the priesthood for a year, according to a media report.
The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding must take a year from her position at Seattle’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral and should “reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam,” the Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, wrote in an e-mail to church leaders.
Redding, a priest for 23 years, was ordained by a former bishop of Rhode Island and remains subject to discipline by that diocese.
“I’m deeply saddened, but I’ve always said I would abide by the rulings of my bishop,” Redding told The Seattle Times.
In a front-page article last month in The Times, she said she had been a practicing Muslim for 15 months after being profoundly moved by an introduction to Islamic prayer.
She has maintained that she did not violate any of her baptismal or ordination vows.
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Tuesday 10 Jul 2007 | JBL | Culture war |
Only suspended for a year? How about defrocked and suspended permanently. No wonder the Episcopal church is in trouble…
Hey, I’m just glad someone in the Episcopal church recognized that this was a problem. After all, they don’t seem to have problems with “liturgies to the divine feminine”.
Change the pronoun of God to “She”, and the manner of God’s creation of the world changes. The material creation came into being through a divine “birth” and the ontological distance between Creator and creation collapses. Neopaganism reborn.
Maintain the pronoun “He”, and the collapse is impossible since the male has no capacity to create new life out of his own body. The manner of God’s creation is not replicated by any creature. God, as the Hebrews brilliantly saw, created the world through His Word. God and and His creation are not One. From the uttering of the first prophet, the death knell of paganism was sounded although it took many centuries for this word to bear fruit.
Fr. Hans, I had never thought of the He/She difference this way before. It would be great if you could expand on your thoughts here or is there some literature that explores this particular ontology?
I’ve been meaning to write an article on this for years. I developed the reasoning after reading some books by feminist theologians and comparing their ideas to the Tradition. I don’t know if anyone else has approached it in this way. It also ties into ideas I hold about the dynamic nature of language (meaning is not relative).
Fr. Hans,
Your insights and observations are really significant. Writing an article on this issue would be very helpful. I have not seen any material that approached it the way you did and focused so clearly on the heart of the matter.
Fr. AMEN to Chris! I’d love to see a more complete treatment.
OK. It won’t be for a while though but I will put it on my task list. I just committed to an article for AGAIN (on the moral shift in the culture — committing to an article makes me work through the ideas), and a book review for Touchstone.