Oh wow. This cannot be good. I have to say, if my bishop were to make such a request demand I would not comply, regardless of the positions taken. This is simply not the way matters are handled in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The proper manner is to send the motion to a committee, have that committee send it to another sub-committee. If the report emerges then it would go to a hearing….
Toronto Star: Anglican clergy told to declare loyalties
In what could be the start of real schism in the Anglican Church, a Newfoundland bishop is demanding clergy come to the provincial capital to declare whether their loyalties lie with him or his predecessor, the leader of a breakaway conservative movement.
“Attendance at these gatherings is mandatory,” Cyrus Pitman, bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador warns in a Dec. 18 letter to clergy obtained by the Star.
Clergy from Eastern Newfoundland’s 33 parishes are to be in St. John’s on Jan. 21 to restate their ordination vows and to get new licences, with a date for those from the six Labrador parishes yet to be set.
Clergy need a licence from the church to minister to a parish or perform marriages.
(Via TitusOneNine.)
