Min-Fadhli-Rabii
Junior Member
:salam2:
American Muslim-Anglican priest is deposed
Thursday, 2nd April 2009. 4:24pm
By: George Conger.
The Episcopal Church’s “Muslim-Anglican” priest has been deposed from holy orders. In a statement released on April 1, the Diocese of Rhode Island said the Rt Rev Geralyn Wolf had “imposed a sentence of deposition” upon Dr Ann Holmes Redding as a “priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.”
In a June 2007 interview with the Episcopal Voice, the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia’s newspaper, the Dr. Redding announced she was both a Christian and a Muslim. “The way I understand Jesus is compatible with Islam,” she said. “I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam.”
The former director of Christian Formation at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Redding began to study Islam in the wake of 9/11 after hearing Muslim imams speak at inter-faith events at the cathedral. A personal crisis spurred her onto a spiritual quest that ended with her publicly reciting the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith.
The Shahada, (the statement that There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his prophet) does not contradict Christian doctrine, Dr Redding told the Episcopal Voice, nor did the professions made at a Christian baptism contradict anything in Islam, for the language of the creeds and the Koran were not to be taken in a literal sense.
“We Christians, in struggling to express the beauty and dignity of Jesus and the pattern of life he offers, describe him as the ‘only begotten son of God.’ That’s how wonderful he is to us. But that is not literal,” she said.
In interviews with American newspapers over the past two years, the faith articulated by Dr Redding held in tension the Christian belief that Jesus was divine, that he was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven with the Muslim belief that Jesus was not the son of God, that only appeared to die on the cross, and was raised to heaven while still alive by God.
In June 2007, the Diocese of Rhode Island began an investigation following published reports of Dr Reddings profession of Islam. After ascertaining that the reports were true, Bishop Wolf issued a “pastoral direction” to Dr Redding, directing her to take a year to think over her decision. In 2008 the Rhode Island Standing Committee held Dr Redding had joined a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church ---- Sunni Islam, and recommended that she be defrocked.
Bishop Wolf affirmed the decision and suspended Dr Redding’s licence, giving her until March 31, 2009 to either renounce her orders, or recant. “Dr Redding did neither,” the diocesan statement said, “and, under the Canons of the Church, Bishop Wolf was required to consider deposing Dr Redding.
The diocese said Bishop Wolf found Dr Redding to be a woman of “utmost integrity” and characterized their conversations as having been “open, honest and respectful.”
“However, Bishop Wolf believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim. Consequently, as a result of the abandonment of the Communion of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Wolf imposed a sentence of deposition in accordance with the Canons of the Church,” the diocese said.
Speaking the Seattle Times after the sentence was handed down, Dr Redding said she was saddened by the outcome, but had no regrets over the course she had taken.
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4177
American Muslim-Anglican priest is deposed
Thursday, 2nd April 2009. 4:24pm
By: George Conger.
The Episcopal Church’s “Muslim-Anglican” priest has been deposed from holy orders. In a statement released on April 1, the Diocese of Rhode Island said the Rt Rev Geralyn Wolf had “imposed a sentence of deposition” upon Dr Ann Holmes Redding as a “priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.”
In a June 2007 interview with the Episcopal Voice, the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia’s newspaper, the Dr. Redding announced she was both a Christian and a Muslim. “The way I understand Jesus is compatible with Islam,” she said. “I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam.”
The former director of Christian Formation at St Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Redding began to study Islam in the wake of 9/11 after hearing Muslim imams speak at inter-faith events at the cathedral. A personal crisis spurred her onto a spiritual quest that ended with her publicly reciting the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith.
The Shahada, (the statement that There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his prophet) does not contradict Christian doctrine, Dr Redding told the Episcopal Voice, nor did the professions made at a Christian baptism contradict anything in Islam, for the language of the creeds and the Koran were not to be taken in a literal sense.
“We Christians, in struggling to express the beauty and dignity of Jesus and the pattern of life he offers, describe him as the ‘only begotten son of God.’ That’s how wonderful he is to us. But that is not literal,” she said.
In interviews with American newspapers over the past two years, the faith articulated by Dr Redding held in tension the Christian belief that Jesus was divine, that he was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven with the Muslim belief that Jesus was not the son of God, that only appeared to die on the cross, and was raised to heaven while still alive by God.
In June 2007, the Diocese of Rhode Island began an investigation following published reports of Dr Reddings profession of Islam. After ascertaining that the reports were true, Bishop Wolf issued a “pastoral direction” to Dr Redding, directing her to take a year to think over her decision. In 2008 the Rhode Island Standing Committee held Dr Redding had joined a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church ---- Sunni Islam, and recommended that she be defrocked.
Bishop Wolf affirmed the decision and suspended Dr Redding’s licence, giving her until March 31, 2009 to either renounce her orders, or recant. “Dr Redding did neither,” the diocesan statement said, “and, under the Canons of the Church, Bishop Wolf was required to consider deposing Dr Redding.
The diocese said Bishop Wolf found Dr Redding to be a woman of “utmost integrity” and characterized their conversations as having been “open, honest and respectful.”
“However, Bishop Wolf believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim. Consequently, as a result of the abandonment of the Communion of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Wolf imposed a sentence of deposition in accordance with the Canons of the Church,” the diocese said.
Speaking the Seattle Times after the sentence was handed down, Dr Redding said she was saddened by the outcome, but had no regrets over the course she had taken.
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4177
