New Patriarch of Antioch welcomed
THE new Greek Orthodox
Patriarch of Antioch has been congratulated by the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Youhanna X succeeds Ignatius IV, who died this month in
Beirut at the age of 92 (News, 14 December). The
Patriarch-elect was born in Syria in 1955, and became a monk on
Mount Athos, before being ordained. Since 2008, he has been the
Bishop of the Patriarchate of Antioch's diocese of Western and
Central Europe.
Global South support for Bishop Lawrence
THE Steering Committee of
the Primates of the Global South of the Anglican Communion has
written a letter of support to the Bishop of South Carolina, the Rt
Revd Mark Lawrence, after he announced that the diocese had
disaffiliated itself from the Episcopal Church in the United States
(News, 23 November). In
a letter dated 14 December, the Primates assured Bishop Lawrence
that "we recognise your Episcopal orders and your legitimate
Episcopal oversight of the Diocese of South Carolina within the
Anglican Communion." The Episcopal Church has said that individual
dioceses cannot leave it, and in October, the Presiding Bishop, Dr
Katharine Jefferts Schori, restricted Bishop Lawrence's ministry,
after the Disciplinary Board confirmed that he had abandoned the
Church "by an open renunciation of the discipline of the Church".
There have been long-running difficulties in the relations of
Bishop Lawrence and his diocese with the leadership of the
Episcopal Church, over issues such as gay clergy and same-sex
unions.
Bishop joins protest on Mount of Olives army
plans
OPPOSITION to plans to build
a military college on the Mount of Olives has won the backing of
the Bishop of Swansea & Brecon, the Rt Revd John Davies. A
60-day consultation on the proposal was opened by the Israeli
authorities in October. Bishop Davies has signed a petition by a
campaign group based in the UK that argues that the development on
a site of importance to all three Abrahamic faiths, "could be seen
as a provocative act, taking Jerusalem yet further away from
becoming a city of peace".