Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

African-American-Muslim-Episcopalian Priest Defrocked
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The new frontier of Interfaith Relations?

An Episcopal priest who announced that she is also a practicing Muslim has been suspended from the priesthood for a year.

The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding has been a priest for 23 years and until March was director of faith formation at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. In a story published in The Seattle Times last month, she said she also has been a practicing Muslim for 15 months after being profoundly moved by an introduction to Islamic prayer.

Redding said she removed her priest's collar last week in a meeting with the Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, who suspended her in an e-mail received by church leaders in Seattle on Thursday.

Redding should "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 wrote in an e-mail to church leaders.

For the next year Redding "is not to exercise any of the responsibilities and privileges of an Episcopal priest or deacon," Wolf added.

She has maintained that she did not violate any of her baptismal or ordination vows.

"I am both Muslim and Christian, just like I'm both an American of African descent and a woman. I'm 100 percent both," she said.

Labels: Interfaith Relations

Posted by B Feiler at 7:06 AM
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