Help America to ‘find its soul’ says Bishop Curry

THE Episcopal Church in the United States should help “America find its soul”, as “something is wrong” in the country, the Presiding Bishop, the Most Revd Michael Curry, said last week. In a sermon at a youth worship service of the Union of Black Episcopalians, Bishop Curry urged the congregation to consider, “between now and next year, leading a massive voter registration and education drive and a get-out-the-vote campaign”. He went on: “Something is fundamentally wrong when crowds chant about a Congresswoman, a Somali American, and say to ‘Send her home,’ and when the President of the United States says, ‘You need to go back home,’ to four Congresswomen of colour who have been openly critical of him [Comment, 19 July]. . . We must help America find its soul, help America look to its rock.” The US is preparing for its next presidential election, which will take place in November of next year.

Arizona diocese sued by sex-abuse survivor

A MAN is suing the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, alleging that it ignored his reports of child sexual abuse in the 1970s. The survivor, Charles Taylor, is suing the diocese, along with the Tucson parish where the abuse took place, after the state extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. The Episcopal News Service reported that Mr Taylor had filed a lawsuit alleging that the parish and diocese failed to stop his alleged abuser, the Revd Richard Babcock, a priest at Grace Church. The diocese has not disputed that the abuse took place. The Bishop of Arizona, the Rt Revd Jennifer Reddall, said that, to “the best of their knowledge”, the diocese had handled it appropriately.