RHODE ISLAND: Bishop issued Pastoral Direction to priest
Episcopal News Service. July 10, 2007 [071007-02]
Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf has issued a pastoral directive to a priest who has announced that she is both Christian and Muslim.
The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, Washington, has told people that, for the last 15 months, she's also been a Muslim -- drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved, according to a news story in the Seattle Times.
Holmes, who is canonically resident in Rhode Island and licensed to officiate in the Diocese of Olympia, first told her story in Olympia's diocesan newspaper.
Wolf said in a July 3 memo to Rhode Island clergy and members of the Diocesan Council and Standing Committee that she had met with Redding.
"I issued a Pastoral Direction giving her the opportunity to reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith, her vocation as a priest, and what I see as the conflicts inherent in professing both Christianity and Islam," Wolf said in her memo. "During the next year she is not to exercise any of the responsibilities and privileges of an Episcopal priest or deacon."
She said that other aspects of the Pastoral Direction would remain private.
A Pastoral Direction is defined in the Episcopal Church Canons (Canon IV.15) as a "a written solemn warning" which a bishop may issue to a priest or deacon that is "directed to some matter which concerns the Doctrine, Discipline or worship of this Church or manner of life and behavior of the Priest or Deacon addressed."