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In the end, it was the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that made the biggest news on the front lines of the liturgical culture wars this week. However, it should be noted that the most important action taken by the oldline Presbyterians was to adopt precisely the option that the Episcopalians have been using for quite some time now.
Brother Mattingly has implored me to keep GetReligion in mind while I am here in Columbus, Ohio, reporting on the Episcopal Church’s 75th General Convention. My report on Sunday’s election of the first woman primate in the Anglican Communion should appear sometime Monday on Christianity Today‘s website.
Our semi-retired blogger and ghost editor, the Rt. Rev. Douglas LeBlanc, is punching keys at the moment — only not for us. Anyone who wants to follow his work at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention should keep an eye on the websites of Christianity Today and, on the other side of the pond, The Church Times.
Veteran religion scribe Julia Duin of The Washington Times has written one of those stories that simply had to be written, taking readers inside what I once called the Anglican Web Wars.
The departure of President Bush’s close adviser and longtime speechwriter Michael Gerson ends an era in which an evangelical Christian had unprecedented access and influnce in shaping American foreign and domestic policy. Thanks to Gerson’s humility, he never came close to receiving the attention from journalists of the likes of Karen Hughes and Karl Rove, but few were as influential.
I think Episcopalians get a lot of ink because: (a) there are a lot of Episcopalians in the newsrooms, (b) they tend to be urbanites and well-educated (c) the opposing camps are incredibly well-funded with huge PR machines, and (d) Americans tend to have Anglo-envy.
The Episcopal Church begins its convention in Columbus, Ohio, today. I’m not sure if there is a church body in America that gets as much ink per member as the Episcopal Church. I’m not complaining about their coverage, I just wish that other church bodies of the same size could get half as much.
The Religion Newswriters Association’s ReligionLink service has posted a mostly helpful roundup about several denominations’ debates regarding homosexuality. But the roundup fumbles on a few details that are readily apparent to me as a longtime activist in the Episcopal Church’s debates:
