NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Identity Crisis
Episcopal priest Ann Holmes Redding, who declared herself both Christian and Muslim in 2007 has been defrocked by her superior, Bishop Geralyn Wolf, on the grounds that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim," reports The Seattle Times:
Redding's defrocking — formally called deposition — comes almost 21 months after Bishop Wolf first told the priest to take a year to reflect on her beliefs.
After Redding remained firm in her belief that she was called to both faiths, Bishop Wolf said in fall 2008 that a church committee had determined that the priest "abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church."
Wolf barred Redding from functioning as a priest for the next six months, and said that unless Redding resigned her priesthood or denied being a Muslim during that time, the bishop would have a duty to defrock her.
Since Redding has neither renounced her orders nor withdrawn from the Muslim faith, Wolf decided to depose her.
Redding tells The Seattle Times she is saddened by the church’s “narrow vision,” that she doesn’t agree Christianity and Islam are mutually exclusive, and that “I'm sad at the loss of this cherished honor of having served as a priest.”
Redding then made the hajj to the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca and explained to imam Sheikh Faisal Al Ghazzawi that she is both Muslim and Christian. Not being at all narrow-minded, Al Ghazzawi agreed that the Koran would be improved with the incorporation of Christian dogma and extended her the honor of serving Islam as an imam. April Fools. (Um, only this graf. The rest is all true.)
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