Birthday greetings for Jimmy Carter, aged 100
THE King and the Archbishop of Canterbury congratulated a former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, on his 100th birthday, on Monday. Archbishop Welby posted on X: “In the years since his Presidency he has continuously been a practical and reliable leader of peacemaking and democracy enhancing. A truly remarkable servant of the common good.” In a private message, the King is reported to have “expressed warm personal greetings and great admiration” for Mr Carter, who served one presidential term from 1977 to 1981. He has been in a hospice for the past 19 months, and is the first former US President to become a centenarian.
NY memorial service held for transgender Georgian
A MEMORIAL service has been held in New York for a transgender woman, Kesaria Abramidze, stabbed to death on 18 September in her apartment in Tbilisi. The previous day, the Georgian parliament passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. The service at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, on Sunday, was an opportunity “to show the family that she wasn’t alone”, Ms Abramidze’s friend David Schubladze, an LGBTQ+ activist, told ENS this week. A conservative Georgian Orthodox church had refused her family’s request for a funeral, he said. Brooklyn has one of the largest Georgian populations outside Europe.
US Presiding Bishop-elect to move ‘soon’ on reform
THE Presiding Bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Rt Revd Sean Rowe, who takes office on 1 November, has said that he plans to move quickly on the Church’s call for “structural realignment”. Speaking to the Executive Council’s Joint Budget Committee, which met last week to finalise the 2025-27 Church-wide plan, he said that “the realignment will be under way soon”, with substantial changes to Church-wide operations in the first quarter of 2025. The plan seeks to save $3.5 million on staff over three years, or about five per cent of the Church’s total personnel costs. Bishop Rowe has contracted a consulting firm with experience in organisational development to help to facilitate conversations with 140 church staff this autumn. He asked the Committee not to recommend funding any new staff positions while a staff audit was still under way.