Will the IRS like your next sermon?

Here's a frightening thought. The IRS is cracking down on political speech in sermons. So, you say, that might be so bad. Churches shouldn't tell people how to vote. The problem lies in the gray area between electioneering and prophetic preaching. A sermon preached at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA, said that the Gulf War is bad. The timing was an issue. The sermon was preached just before the 2004 elections.

What happened next? The IRS began to threaten and cajole. Lots of people, right and left, are not happy about this. All Saints isn't taking this easily. They've just announced they'll appeal.

From the LA Times article on Friday:

A liberal Pasadena church on Thursday declared that it will refuse to comply with an IRS investigation into its tax-exemption status launched after a guest speaker was critical of President Bush in a sermon.

At a news conference attended by 50 cheering supporters gathered before the marble altar at All Saints Episcopal Church, the Rev. Ed Bacon said his 3,500-member congregation did not violate tax regulations barring tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates when a former rector, George F. Regas, criticized the Bush administration two days before the 2004 presidential election.

I encourage you to follow this story. We need our government to stay out of the business of censoring prophetic or unpopular speech. Right or left, preachers should be able to speak out on the issues of the day. Maybe the IRS should spend more time preventing wholesale corporate fraud and less time monitoring sermons.

Here's the ENS article.

UPDATE: Maybe you'll want to buy this T-shirt.

Well, well. Two statments and many responses

This is a big day in Rhode Island blogland. On the heels of entries about two statements that have been released, ENS has a summary article of reactions to both statements.

Here's the punchline. Or punchlines.

Dr. Christopher Wilkins, facilitator of Via Media USA, said that the two statements "are hard
to reconcile" given the Camp Allen bishops' stance toward unity and what he called the Kigali
statement's "breathtaking rejection of the entire Episcopal Church, except for those segments
of it that the signatories consider truly faithful."

The Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, AAC president and chief operating officer said the
statement is "what we have hoped and prayed for since 2003."

Global South primates don't like our PB-elect

[ENS] A meeting of Global South Primates, held September 19-22 in Kigali, Rwanda, has issued
a communiqué criticizing the 75th General Convention's response to the Windsor Report and
announcing that "some of us will not be able to recognize" the Episcopal Church's next
Presiding Bishop "as a Primate at the table with us" at the next Anglican Primates' Meeting,
set for February 2007 in Tanzania.

Read the whole story.

Bishop Wolf joins with others in letter to House of Bishops

Bishop Wolf, joining with other bishops of the Episcopal Church, attended a meeting in Camp Allen, Texas. Those meeting have just issued a letter to the entire House of Bishops. Here's an excerpt, to give a flavor of the letter:

We are committed to the conciliar character of our Communion. Consistent with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Holy Cross Day letter to the Primates, it is our clear sense that General Convention of 2006 did not adequately respond to the request made of The Episcopal Church by the Communion through the Windsor Report and the Primates at Dromantine. These requests include explicit moratoria regarding church discipline and order. We express our regret, on behalf of ourselves, for those actions with which the Windsor Report was concerned.

We accept and affirm the Windsor Report and view adherence to it as furthering the vocation to heal the breaches within our own Communion and in our ecumenical relationships. Furthermore, we endorse the recommendation of the Windsor Report, as supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the development of an Anglican Covenant.

You can read the whole letter here.

Agreement signed between Archbishop and Rabbi

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger today signed a joint Declaration which sets out a framework for continuing dialogue between them. Dr Williams described the agreement as historic: "This is a most significant step in developing better mutual understanding and trust between the Anglican Communion and the Chief Rabbinate and worldwide Judaism."

The agreement adds to the growing network of bilateral and multilateral dialogues between religious leaders in the Middle East and in the wider world. This network of dialogue is a major contribution to a world in which religious faith is an increasingly important dimension of people's lives and of national policies.

Read the whole story from ACNS.

Bishop Wolf protests Iranian speaker

[ENS] Iran's former president, Muhammad Khatami, has been invited to speak at Washington
National Cathedral on September 7, a move that has stirred up strong protest from three
Episcopal bishops, but one that is regarded by Cathedral officials as a gesture toward
reconciliation.

The Rev. Canon John L. Peterson, director of the Cathedral's Center for Global Justice and
Reconciliation, explained that "although former president Khatami is viewed negatively by
some, he is important as the most moderate Iranian voice willing to discourse with Americans on matters of peace among the Abrahamic faiths."

Bishops John B. Lipscomb of Southwest Florida, Edward S. Little of Northern Indiana, and
Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island protested the scheduled speech in a September 5 statement,
describing the event as "ill-conceived" and "inappropriate," and calling for its
cancellation.

Read the full story at ENS.