The value of this story is to show the great difference between how Christianity and Islam treat apostates. Here, no one is out to kill Ms. Redding for becoming a Muslim. Even the "antagonist" of this story, who is "inhibiting" her, has gone to great lengths to respect her decision, with nothing but praise. His only, very valid question, is whether she can actually still serve as a reverand for Christians. Conversely, the apostate in Islam must be put to death, a fact that happens only too often. Imagine how the Muslim community would react to an imam (Islamic leader) who converts to Christianity, but still wants to be an imam, leading Muslims in prayer and giving the Friday khutba ("sermon").
"RHODE ISLAND: Priest inhibited as a result of her conversion to Islam," by Lisa B. Hamilton, for Episcopal Life, October 14:
[Episcopal News Service] Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Diocese of Rhode Island has inhibited the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding for publicly professing her adherence to the Muslim faith.Yes, it would be hard to be both, as Islam denounces the divinity of Jesus, which also just so happens to be the cornerstone of Christianity. Good luck!
The notice states that the diocesan “Standing Committee has determined that Dr. Redding abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church. The bishop has affirmed that determination.”The inhibition prevents Redding from “exercising the gifts and spiritual authority conferred on her by ordination and from public ministry” and is in force until March 31, 2009. In accordance with Episcopal canons, unless Redding “reclaims” her Christian faith, said Wolf in an interview, the inhibition will automatically lead to a deposition, ending Redding’s priesthood.
“In the process of deposition, we shouldn’t dismiss each other easily,” the bishop said.
According to the “notice of inhibition,” dated September 30 and signed by Wolf, “Dr. Redding has acknowledged taking her Shahadah to become a Muslim.”
“’Shahadah’ is a phrase used in the Koran that translates from the Arabic into English as ‘There is no God but God, and Mohammad is his prophet,’” said Thomas Ferguson, associate deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations of the Episcopal Church, in an interview.
“The recitation of the Shahadah, said with the intention of becoming a Muslim, in the presence of at least two other Muslims, is how one becomes a Muslim. It’s also part of Islam’s daily prayers,” Ferguson added.
Redding’s knowledge of Islam grew after her arrival at Seattle’s St. Mark’s Cathedral (http://www.saintmarks.org) as director of faith formation and renewal in 2001. “There was already interest in the parish about interfaith relations, and of course interest in Islam grew exponentially,” she said. She currently lives in Seattle, but no longer works at St. Mark’s. She teaches at a Jesuit seminary but is canonically resident in Rhode Island and therefore under Wolf’s authority.
While serving at St. Mark’s, said Redding in an interview, “I was facing a personal crisis and I needed to surrender. I did know that the word ‘Islam’ means ‘surrender,” but I was surprised when I received what I believe is one of the few invitations I’ve received from God in my life, and that unexpected invitation was to surrender by taking my Shahadah.
“It’s still a mystery as to why, on March 25, 2006, which happens to be my ordination date and the annunciation, I felt called to say the Shahadah with the intention of becoming a Muslim. I’m continuing to explore what it means to be both a Muslim and a Christian, and I expect to be the rest of my life. Being a Muslim makes me a much better Christian, and being a Christian makes me the kind of Muslim I want to be. I see as my calling and privilege witnessing the deep reality of one God.”
“I’m grateful for the chance to meet with Ann twice and to speak with her several times on the phone,” said Wolf. “She’s a very bright person, and I cannot say enough about the depth of her integrity. Hers is not a superficial decision, and this is why I been very deliberate and have taken over a year to talk things through. We’ve been in dialogue since June, 2007.Key word: "integrity." One can also add "sincerity." One can further add "sanity."“However, I believe that Islam and Christianity have enough differences to make it impossible to adhere to them both with integrity.
The church wants to be diverse and inclusive, but we’re decidedly Christian. We’re Christ-followers,” said Wolf.“Despite my respect for and genuine like of Bishop Wolf, I do not believe the canons were written with this situation in mind,” said Redding. “I think the people who wrote them were thinking of other Christian denominations. So my situation gives the church an opportunity to re-examine what it means to be in communion. If we want to survive as a Church, and be faithful witnesses of Christ, I believe all the people of the world must be in communion.”
Read: If we want to "survive" as Christians, we must also be Muslim?
"I was facing a personal crisis and I needed to surrender."
This statement sums it up nicely. Give in, give up and convert. No thought required from now on about how to run your personal life - it's all in the Koran.
Excuse me while I pick up my jaw. She thinks she can be a muslim and still administer to Christians???? Okay. A few flaws in her thinking. As Raymond pointed out, muslims don't accept the divinity of Christ. And the other being, islam doesn't recognize any other religion accept as sources of revenue and slaves.
The reality is she is nothing more than a spoiled brat. She had bought into the fallacy that the left continues to spew that all religions are the same and becuase of the West's supposed transgressions, islam is better because it is populated by "minorities." So instead of actually re-examining her life and praying for guidance she just up and left. Joined some cult but still wants to keep some kind of link to her old world in case she decided it's too hard. Please. She will get what she deserves for having no faith.
"And the other being, "
Should have written, "And another being..."
Does the Episcopal Church stand for anything at all anymore?
This is an example of the "we believe in the same god" line.
We do not believe in the same deity. They are not of the same purpose and nature.
She was never a Christian priest, she was an Episcopalian.
So it goes!
While serving at St. Mark’s, said Redding [the Episcopal priest who has converted, or possibly reverted -- take your choice -- to Islam] in an interview, “I was facing a personal crisis and I needed to surrender."
-- from the article above
A "personal crisis." She "needed to surrender."
That is Way Of All Reverts. They need not a Guiding Light, but a Master, to tell them, firmly, that This Is Commanded, and That Is Prohibited. They want not just a faith, but a Total Regulation of Life and a Complete Explanation of the Universe. They want to give up their individuality to the Collective of the Umma.
We have seen, in our time, two famous cases of such mass-surrenders. One was to the Nazis. Another was to the Bolsheviks, who metastasized into the Communists. The Party -- Nazi or Communist -- cannot be wrong. The Supreme Leader -- Hitler or Stalin (or before him Lenin) -- cannot be wrong. No, follow the Party and follow the Leader, in whatever they say.
And when you become, a poor confused girl or boy, facing a Personal Crisis, in need of that Collective, and those Commands and Prohibitions, that Total Regulation of Life and that Complete Explanation of the Universe, there are the smiling, plausible, agents of Da'wa, who are well-prepared to take advantage of your Personal Crisis (or Mental Breakdown, which it so often is), and withholding a great deal about the texts, and the tenets of Islam from you, the potential convert -- this is done deliberately, by the way, and Muslims engaged in Da'wa discuss it, plan it carefully (and there are ex-Muslims who have been privy to these conversations and these well-laid plans), and intend to reveal a little more about Islam only once someone has Made The Choice, only very partially informed, with the rest to come out, slowly, later on.
She's a classic case, and a clinical one.
Don't discharge her from the Mental Ward into the smiling custody of her new best Muslim friends sitting complacently in the waiting room for their new recruit to the Army of Islam (a former Episcopal Minister! Who Chose Islam! Let's spread that glad news far and wide!). No, keep her in for a few more days. We want to give another group of interns and residents the chance to be exposed to this newly-diagnosed mental illness during the next Grand Rounds.
Guaranteed to cause spiritual cognitive dissonance. This woman has a spiritual illness...
Billie Holiday is too good in every sense -- even in her druggiest last daze and days -- for the comical and entirely unwinnning likes of Ann Holmes Redding. But the sentiment of surrender -- one for which A. H. R. apparently could find no object other than Muhammad and His Cult -- that is hardly unknown in other contexts (romantic love, for example) is memorably expressed in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujdbwEHkv1I
She should've looked into the Baha'i religion, where they really believe all religions are 'equal', though Baha'i is best, of course. Same 'surrender' without the 'death for apostasy' clause. They even believe in equality of the sexes, no shahadah, just sign on the dotted line. But she chose poorly, so now must live within the confines of her stifling Cult of Allah.
Why not go convert and worship the devil with Anton Levay's crwod, that would help her lead those masses on those dark winter days better. This chick is a total fluffhead dimwit.
"I’m continuing to explore what it means to be both a Muslim and a Christian"
I think they have antipsychotic and antidepressant medications to manage this type of problem now:
Fluphenazine, chlorpromazine, lithium, risperidone, haloperidol plus amitriptyline or desipramine...
Why not be a Christian and a Satanist? The logic here is non-existant.
Besides, she was a Episcapalian...there is no Christian walk in the church. It is mere worship of Humanism with a steeple. The religions moral compass spins like a fan.
Did this fool not read the Bible:
One cannot serve two masters. They will love the one and hate the other.
Which one do you love? This is typical liberal thinking. "All religions are equal and deserve reverence", This is so much bullcr_p and this so called minister should be thrown out with the rest of the trash. If we want to survive as Christians we must oppose these followers of evil with all our might.
A theological hermaphrodite.
Hugh, correctly, deems this case an example of a "newly diagnosed mental illness." The severity and salience of such a case, which I would classify as a psychosis, deserves, I believe, a separate entry in the psychiatrist's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is a compendium of all officially recognized mental disorders.
....as director of faith formation and renewal in 2001.
Director of faith formation???? It's frightening to think of all the damage that has been done to that Christian community through her ignorance.
She has no understanding of the absolute most basic theological tenant which all Christians agree on. Which is the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, the ONE TRUE GOD.
You can just imagine what she may have said to the people of that community who came to her for guidance. Possesing a such a warped understanding of Christianity that she would convert to islam, then think she can be both...
She teaches at a Jesuit seminary
She is involved in the formation of future Episcopal clergy????
I suggest those interested in how much the Episcopal Church has changed read the "Collected works of C.S. Lewis". In particular his letters "God in the Dock" and "Priestesses in the Church". He foresaw the dangers of much of this.
http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Works-C-S-Lewis/dp/0884863387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224098260&sr=8-1
Earlier coverage here, with a link to the initial story in 2007:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/023053.php
Islam seems to make people nuts. This woman seems to have become a nut.
Nicholas Sarkowsy is undoubtedly a nut.
Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but in the end it leads to death.
I’m continuing to explore what it means to be both a Muslim and a Christian, and I expect to be the rest of my life.
This sentence demonstrates that she knows as much about Christianity as she does about Islam - which seems to be NOTHING.
What idiocy.
How about somebody arrange for her to take an all-expenses-paid trip to Saudi Arabia - not forgetting a trip to Chop Chop Square?
I suggest also a selection of videos of live full-colour-and-sound beheadings, accompanied by howlings of 'allahu akbar', and stonings (I understand that such things exist, though I have never watched them nor do I wish to watch them).
Shock therapy.
Or make her read things like *this* (William Sampson's experience of the bottomless abyss of sadistic cruelty and injustice that is the Muslim 'holy' land of Saudi Arabia):
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/023109.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/14/saudiarabia-humanrights
She's insane.
Ockham's Razor says: if all Muslim-majority societies, and all Muslim-majority regions even in otherwise 'kafir' lands, conduct their affairs with atrocious violence, bullying and attacking kafir and treating women like dirt, then the difference between that behaviour, and the seemingly less aggressive behaviour of Muslims when living as very small minorities within predominantly kafir societies, may be sufficiently accounted for only by this: that the former is the way that Muslims behave when they have power, and the latter is the way that they behave when they do not...yet.
The woman's mad. Can someone get her scheduled?
“Despite my respect for and genuine like of Bishop Wolf, I do not believe the canons were written with this situation in mind,” said Redding. “I think the people who wrote them were thinking of other Christian denominations...
.................................
The above is one of the craziest points in a thoroughly crazy article. As inappropriate as it would be for an Episcopalian Reverend to also consider herself to be Catholic, or Baptist, or Methodist--or some sort of "pan-Christian"--in addition to being Episcopalian, it would not be nearly so bizarre as also identifying as *Muslim*.
All of these Christian denominations, despite their considerable differences in interpretation, believe in the divinity of Christ. Islam does not. The Islamic "Isa" is *nothing* like the Christian Jesus.
Muslims consider every major aspect of Christianity to be the worst sort of blasphemy--considering Jesus the son of God, believing he was crucified, understanding him to be a peaceful figure.
As Muslims see it, the main role of Isa is to return to Earth in the last days, and "kill the pigs and break the cross"--in other words, to slay all Christians who will not convert to Islam. Christians will no longer have even the ugly current choice of accepting Dhimmitude.
Does the moronic Rev. Redding understand any of this? I consider it very doubtful. Does she realize how Christians are treated--demeaned, harrassed, threatened, forcibly converted, and killed in the Muslim world? If she has any inkling of such things--and I am by no means convinced that she does--then she probably sees herself as some sort of "bridge" between "communities", that will only lead to greater "understanding".
I only hope that she doesn't wind up paying dearly for her willful naivete at the hands of the "Religion of Peace".
I know these lefty Christians are just plain daft, however, it is possible that someone may yet succeed in "melding" Islam and Christianity such that the noxious elements of the former are removed. Obviously, this wouldn't be Islam anymore, but a new religion which could appeal to Muslims. Of course, converts to any such new religion would be apostates, with all that entrails, er, entails.
She has a sort of intelligence—one must to become an Episcopal priest. But she also shows that she does not "get it". This ignorance is some type of idiocy I presume.
My guess is that her Christian theological studies dealt primarily with those German theologians and their descendants who speculate about God in such abstract way that few concrete concepts of the religion ever come through.
Secondly, I guess her concept of religion is that what is important isn't truth, or if there is a real God, or any of that, but what does this do for me? If this comforts me or makes me feel good or helps me cope, it is good and true. Facts, logic and reality are unimportant.
My hope is that she truly does in some way want to find the truth and eventually does realize the ludicrous position she is in. My hope is that she does find the true faith, the faith of St. Theodore of Taursus, Archbishop of Canterbury.
As an alumnus of a Jesuit school, I am horrified, but not surprised, that the Jesuits have given this woman a job. In Australia they have lost their focus of promoting the Christian faith, defending and explaining the traditional teachings of the Church. They would rather puddle around on safe issues like climate change and being multi-cultural. They would be loathe to confront Muslims about the violence inherent in Mohammed's teachings.
Um, no. You do not need any sort of intelligence to become an Anglican priest, trust me. Much less a lay reader, but I digress...
I used to go to St Peter's Cathedral in Adelaide, South Australia. The current dean, Steven Ogden, is
a) divorced and remarried (contradicting St Paul's excellent advice on criteria for choosing church elders)
b) completely undoctrinal (believes that Jesus died for us but not quite sure why, also that you can believe anything and still be in the Anglican Communion; sadly, he may be right about the second bit)
The woman rector believed only in half the Bible, but which half, she couldn't say - like that famous judge, she'll know it when she saw it.
There are brilliant Anglican priests out there. One of my current church priests is absolutely world-class. But it is not part of the job description.
The Rev Dr Mark Durie, in Australia, is also an Anglican priest.
He is as sane and intelligent as Redding is clueless. He also has the advantage of having studied Islam-on-the-ground, in Aceh, for some time; I understand his PhD included study of their traditional jihad literature. One imagines he must have read Hurgronje, among others.
Durie contributed four brief but excellent hard-hitting essays to Mr Spencer's anthology, 'The Myth of Islamic Tolerance', to wit: two accounts of Muslim mistreatment of Christians in Indonesia, "What is Happening in Indonesia?" (pp. 264-66 - originally written 'for use at a memorial service at St Hilary's, Kew, in Melbourne, after the Bali terrorist attacks in 2002') and 'Documentation of Oppression of Religious Freedom in Aceh, Indonesia', exposing a classic case of forcible imposition of dhimmitude (pp. 267-70); a no-nonsense discussion of contemporary dhimmification of westerners "The Dhimmitude of the West" (pp. 278-82); and - most important of all, for the avoiding of more cases like Redding's - "'Isa, the Muslim Jesus", pp. 541-555.
The subjects discussed in ''Isa, the Muslim Jesus', are dealt with in more detail in Durie's brief and lucid paperback handbook, 'Revelation: Do We Worship the Same God? Jesus, Holy Spirit, God in Christianity and Islam; Guidance for the Perplexed' [CityHarvest Publications, 2006; costs $15 (Australian) and can be purchased online].
Durie exposes, systematically and with an air of detached objectivity, the bottomless gulf that separates the anthropology and theology of the Muslim sacred texts, from the anthropology and theology of the Bible (be that the Jewish scriptures, the TaNaKh, or the Christian scriptures).
He lays out all the huge, irreconcilable differences - indeed, the diametrical oppositions - with their key source texts, in language that a literate high school senior could grasp. Indeed, at the end of the book, the key difference, or, indeed, oppositions and flat contradictions are conveniently summarised and laid out in tabular form so that one can see them at a glance.
Anyone here who has Christian friends or family or associates who are being lured into 'inter-faith dialogue' with smiling and plausible Muslims, should give them Durie's handbook as fast as possible and keep pestering them (politely) until you are sure they have read it.
Indeed, given that both Bat Yeor and Andrew Bostom, Jewish investigators of Muslim history, gave the book their imprimatur, it might be useful for Jews as well, both to comprehend that orthodox Christianity is NOTHING like Islam, and also to be able to see the sheer spuriousness of any attempt by Muslims to 'claim kinship' with 'monotheist' Jews as over against those wicked 'polytheist' Christians.
If you attend a church or a synagogue: do give Durie's book to your clergyperson and advertise it to your fellow worshippers.
Had Ann Redding encountered Durie's no-nonsense demolition of all the usual 'inter-faith' canards, she might have found it a little harder to sustain for even one second the proposition that there is any kind of an identity between the entity 'allah' as conceived of by Muslims, and the Lord YHWH as conceived of by Jews and by Christians.
And of course, let us not forget two other Anglicans who have their heads screwed on straight - the Bishop of Rochester in the UK, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, best known for his acerbic remarks in the sharia controversy; and Canon Patrick Sookhdeo, also in the UK, an apostate from Islam, and author of three books warning about the jihad in all its forms - 'Islam in Britain', 'Global Jihad' and 'Power, Faith, and Territory'.
She's a symptom of a larger problem.
Redding probably never had any real faith that would survive even a speed bump so to speak.
Though I suspect she inbibed a lot of theological literature written by liberals, atheists and heretics like Matthew Fox, the Jesus seminar folks, Spong and others. People who rendered G-d a nullity and reduced Jesus to a Communist agitator.
But it gets worse, the denominations that water down their teachings(liberalize) or modernize them are the ones losing membership and fragmenting.
Its the price one pays for liberalization - the loss of faith.
The Universalist/Unitarians are a classic example - they morphed into a club that has no beliefs on anything, where even a atheist can become a minister. They're the Seinfeld of religion - all about nothing.
ddarmy: Oh, no doubt about it, there are bright lights amongst the trash that is the Anglican Communion clergy. Especially the African and Asian branches.
I just wish it was easier to get rid of the chaff while we're on earth; chaff like the Archdruid Rowan, for instance. Especially the ones in power.
(cough) (Raises a small finger in to the air begging for attention.)
(shuffles feet then asks) Isn't this Reverend Jeremiah Wright all over again? He's a Mohammedan preaching in a Christian church claiming he is a Christian.
{o.o} OK, I'll go back into my hidey hole.
Kevin, you hit the nail on the head. Maybe, before too long, the Episcopal Church will start serving real human flesh at holy communion to bless and affirm the small subculture of Jeff Dahmers and other erotic cannibals out there.
Frankly, I don't see any conflict here. Maybe the Episcopalians fear that Ms. Redding will strap on a fake penis and start sodomizing the choir boys (if there are any under the age of 64) in good Pashtun mullah fashion; but, wouldn't this affirm and bless the need to initiate others into the "beauties" of the homosexual lifestyle? Wouldn't Vicky Gene Robinson and Squid Schori approve?
Ms Redding really has a problem! She still loves Christianity, but she will be considered an apostate if she gives up Islam! When I wanted to join my church at 14, i had to study the Bible and understand what I was getting into. All she had to do was mumble the Shahada! No doubt she never read Surah 5:33! The Episcopal Church should start excommunication proceedings! STAT!
I presume she is getting a wage from the Episcopalian church. No doubt she wants to keep it. But no, the Church should simply dismiss her.
aussie_antipodean: (sorry but it is "loath" not "loathe"). You are so right about the Anglican Church. They have sold their soul to a watery multiculturalism and feel-good optimism. As for "inter-faith dialogue", it is embarrassingly sycophantic to Muslims. How dare they, with their supposed knowledge of the Bible, try to tell us we "worship the same God", and quote Sufi masters to us, and so on. Why would we want to go to church any more? Even the new recruits (Indian, Chinese, Africans) are not impressed.
Dear PG,
I could try a spot of taqiyya and say that I made a typo, but truth must win out. I confused the verb with the adjective.
What would be a fitting punishment to appease the gods of grammaticial pedantry? A fine? Amputation? Lapidation? What if I promise not to do it again?
Thanks for keeping me honest.
Dear aussie_ antipodean, I can't resist: "Loath" really means just "reluctant", whereas "loathe" means, well, you know. I am loath to convert to Islam, because I loathe the Koran and all its loathsome teachings.
But my friends think that, given my feelings on this matter (I am an avowed Islamophobe), I am a hypocrite as I have some (only a few, mind!) Muslim friends and love popping over to Khartoum to see the Sufis and hear the music and so on.
So I am a hypocrite and a pedant, much worse than your minor crime. Double lapidation; I deserve nothing less, I'm sure!
gkong3 -
the same thing applies with the church as with the political realm.
Whenever we of the laity - corresponding, in the church, to ordinary citizen-taxpayers in our respective polities - encounter a leader, for example, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, or Rev Dr Mark Durie (gkong3 - if you poke around on the net, you will find Durie's blog and his parish website - worth visiting), or Cardinal-Archbishop George Pell, who tells the truth, or some of the truth, about Islam in public, we have to pour on the praise and support.
When Bishop Michael was being abused by Muslims in the UK, and their enablers, for having the temerity to give a British newspaper an incisive exposition, with some telling examples, of why sharia flatly contradicts all the most basic principles of British common law, and for also speaking out publicly about the 'no-go-for-kafir' zones developing in parts of Britain colonised by Mohammedans, I took the trouble to send him an encouraging email, all the way from Australia, as a fellow member of the Anglican Church, and assure him of my prayers. (Some months later, he visited Australia to give some lectures, and I had the pleasure of meeting him face to face).
I have written to Cardinal Pell, to encourage him. He replied! (and he told me, in the reply, that he had read Bat Yeor. Good.)
I sent an encouraging email to a UK parish priest in Oxford who was protesting against a proposal to permit a Mosque, in his vicinity, to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer via loudspeakers.
I keep in touch, by phone, with a parish priest in my own hometown whose church is right next to a mosque, and who is doing his best to lead and inform his congregation and the wider church in our diocese. I also try to encourage another friend, also an ordained clergyperson, who is of Jewish background and has Jewish family and a deep love of Israel, and who has a thoroughly realistic view of Islam.
It is probably better to concentrate on identifying and strongly supporting those who understand the danger of Jihad and Sharia, or are showing signs of 'getting' it, than to waste our time and energy on the invincibly foolish.
Pray that someone like Nazir-Ali or Sookhdeo may get to be Archbishop of Canterbury - and that Pope Benedict XVI may be able to groom a few Islamosavvy potential successors.
Looks like Satan hooked another one!
Sorry, I imagine someone else will already have said it, but I still have to ask - since when is an Episcopalian priestess anything to do with Christianity?
As a Christian, she should know that the Bible identifies those who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ as "the spirit of anti-christ". She should also know that according to Scripture, the one unforgivable Sin is the deliberate turning away from Jesus after knowing the Truth.
In repeating her ’Shahadah’, stating in front of witnesses that ‘There is no God but God, and MOHAMMED is his prophet,’ she actually has done both.
I hate to tell her, but she not only isn't both Islamic AND Christian - she's no longer Christian at all. In fact, according to the Bible, she has rejected Jesus completely.
BIBLICAL correctness gets you into Heaven... political correctness leads you to Hell...
Hmmm, that's pretty-much of a no-brainer. If she's so terribly enlightened, you'd think she would get that.
ddarmy: I certainly agree with you there!
St Ebbes in Oxford works quite well also, in terms of doctrinal purity, and Holy Trinity in Adelaide is supposedly as orthodox as they get.
Indeed, I believe I shall start doing the same as yourself - support and encouragement and most of all, prayer. My thanks for that suggestion.
Paolo: Can't argue there, regretfully.
Although, I would say that there may be some diamonds amongst the rough. I'll let you know when I come across them, but while many of the women priests I know are splendid people, their theology and doctrines are also splendidly off-kilter in rather dramatic ways.