Diocese calls on Canada to take more refugees

THE diocese of British Columbia has called on Canada to “continue to show leadership” by increasing government targets for refugee resettlement by 7000 this year. In a statement last week, the diocese said that it was privately sponsoring 268 refugees “fleeing war and discrimination” through the scheme. It has also entered into partnership with the Islamic Centre of Nanaimo, and Mosque Al-Iman in Victoria, British Columbia, to sponsor Muslim refugees. Its statement reiterated its condemnation of the attack on the Quebec mosque, last month, and “outrage” over President Trump’s travel ban.

Archbishop prays for Lahore bomb victims

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has prayed for Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people at a protest rally over drug-sale laws, in Lahore, on Monday. “We hold all those affected by the terrible attack in #Pakistan in prayers of lament and hope,” Archbishop Welby wrote on Twitter. “Lord bring healing, justice and peace.” More than 80 people were injured in the explosion after a man rode a motorbike into hundreds of pharmacists.

Bishop sues US Episcopal Church

THE Rt Revd Stacy Sauls, one of three senior officials of the Episcopal Church in the United States who were dismissed last year after an investigation into misconduct (News, April 2016), is suing the Church, the Presiding Bishop, the Most Revd Michael Curry, confirmed in a letter to staff last week. Bishop Sauls, who managed his deputy, the director of mission, Samuel McDonald, and the director of communications, Alex Baumgarten, was removed after an investigation found that his two employees had “failed” in their personal conduct. Bishop Sauls has filed a lawsuit against the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (the Church’s legal entity) and an “unspecified number” of unnamed defendants. The letter said that a “good offer of severance” had been rejected. “The Presiding Bishop, as a steward of church resources, felt that he could not go beyond that offer and explain it in good conscience to the church.”