‘Really weird’, but Scriven bears no ill will on orders

by Pat Ashworth
30 January, 2009

THE Rt Revd Henry Scriven, former Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Pittsburgh, says he bears no ill-will towards the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori, after she appeared to interpret his resignation from the US House of Bishops as a voluntary renunciation of his orders.

Bishop Scriven, who is British, has returned to the UK this month, where he is to be director of the South American Mission Society (SAMS), soon to be affiliated to the Church Mission Society, He accepted an invitation to be an honorary bishop in the diocese of Oxford, and wrote to Dr Jefferts Schori in October last year, resigning from the House of Bishops. He considered himself to be under the episcopal authority of the Bishop of Oxford as soon as he moved, which was scheduled to be just after Christmas.

Dr Jefferts Schori responded on 12 November 2008: “I understand your request to resign as a member of the House of Bishops to mean that you will become a bishop of the Church of England, serving as assistant to the Bishop of Oxford.” the rest

A.S. Haley: The Case of the Missing Letters
"The excuse machine is in high gear. Episcopalians throughout the Church are trying to cover the embarrassing mess of Inter-Communion relations made by the Primate of All ECUSA on the eve of her meeting with her fellow Primates in Egypt. It seems that she has claimed the power to deprive a Bishop in good standing in the Church of England of the "gifts and spiritual authority as a Minister of God's Holy Word and Sacraments conferred on him in Ordinations." (For more background, see this earlier post.)"