John Bryson Chane

Last updated
The Right Reverend

John Bryson Chane
Bishop of Washington
John Bryson Chane meeting with Naser Makarem Shirazi, Qom - 10 October 2007 (2 8607180589 L600).jpg
Chane in the Iranian city of Qom during his meeting with Naser Makarem Shirazi, 10 October 2007
Church Episcopal Church
Diocese Washington
ElectedJanuary 26, 2002
In office2002–2011
Predecessor Ronald H. Haines
Successor Mariann Edgar Budde
Orders
OrdinationJune 24, 1972 (deacon)
January 6, 1973 (priest)
ConsecrationJune 1, 2002
by  Frank Griswold
Personal details
Born (1944-05-13) May 13, 1944 (age 78)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality American
Denomination Anglican
SpouseKaren Chane

John Bryson Chane (born May 13, 1944 [1] ) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Church. The eighth diocesan bishop of Washington, he was consecrated at Washington National Cathedral on June 1, 2002, leading the Episcopal Diocese of Washington until he retired in November 2011. During this time, he also served between June 2003 and April 2005 as interim dean of Washington National Cathedral. In his role as Bishop of Washington, Chane served as president and CEO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which oversees the operations of Washington National Cathedral and the three cathedral schools: St. Alban's School for Boys, the National Cathedral School for Girls, and Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School. [2]

Contents

Washingtonian Magazine named him as one of the 150 most influential leaders in the District of Columbia. The Sunday Telegraph in London called him one of the most prominent leaders in the Anglican Communion. [3]

A leader in global interfaith dialogue and study, [4] [5] [6] [7] Chane traveled to Iran on numerous occasions as the invited guest of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. In late 2011, he was part of a four-person delegation that traveled to Tehran, and was instrumental in freeing the American hikers [8] held in Evin Prison. [9] He is one of the few from the West who has ever met with the current Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khameni. [10]

Chane has participated as a presenter at conferences in Oslo [11] and Tehran sponsored by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, the Club de Madrid, and Le Dialogue des Civilizations, focusing on religion, politics and terrorism, religion and politics and gender equality. [12] He continues to work with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., as a planner and presenter at the annual U.S. Islamic World Forum, held in Doha, Qatar.

He has spoken on numerous occasions at the Industrial College of The Armed Forces in Washington D.C., the U.S. Secretary of State's Open Forum and as the Anglican principal at the semi-annual Christian-Muslim Summit sponsored by Washington National Cathedral. [13] A respected speaker and charismatic preacher, he has been invited on several occasions by the Chautauqua Institution of New York to serve as Preacher in Residence.

Chane has been the recipient of various awards, including D.C.'s Interfaith Bridge Builders Award, the George Washington University President's Medal, the Berea College Founder's Medal, Search for Common Ground's Award for Global Peace and Reconciliation, the Rumi Forum's Global Peace Award and the Yale Divinity School's Lux et Veritas Award. He was a contributing author to Iraq Uncensored, an initiative of the bipartisan American Security Project, [14]

On January 30, 2010, Chane announced his intention to retire as Episcopal Bishop of Washington, stepping down from that role in 2011. [15] The ninth bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde, was consecrated and installed at Washington National Cathedral on November 12, 2011. [16]

Life and career

A Boston native, Chane served as dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego and also served congregations in Southborough, Massachusetts, Erie, Pennsylvania and Montvale, New Jersey. He holds a bachelor's degree from Boston University and a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School. He has received honorary doctorates from Virginia Theological Seminary, Episcopal Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University.

Chane and his wife, Karen, have two sons, Chris and Ian, and three grandchildren, Madeline, Althea and Ashton. He served as team chaplain for Team USA Hockey during the 1980 Olympics. He plays the drums in a band called The Chane Gang. [17] [18] [19]

Position on issues of human sexuality

In August 2003, Chane was among those who voted to confirm the election of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay priest in a partnered relationship to serve as a bishop of the Episcopal Church. Robinson was consecrated as Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire in November of that year, and served in that position until 2013. The move, and related decisions concerning the ability of churches to sanction same-sex relationships, divided the Episcopal Church, with some opponents of these developments announcing their realignment with bishops outside the Episcopal Church USA.

In February 2006, Peter Akinola, at that time the Anglican primate of Nigeria, issued a communique on behalf of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, in which he stated: "The Church commends the law-makers for their prompt reaction to outlaw same-sex relationships in Nigeria and calls for the bill to be passed since the idea expressed in the bill is the moral position of Nigerians regarding human sexuality." [20] In addition to criminalizing same-sex marriage, the bill in question also proposed to criminalize "registration of gay clubs, societies and organizations" and "publicity, procession and public show of same-sex amorous relationship through the electronic or print media physically, directly, indirectly or otherwise", on penalty of up to five years imprisonment. [21] The proposed legislation was formally challenged by the U.S. State Department as a possible breach of Nigeria's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [22]

Chane, writing in the Washington Post, said:

"The archbishop's support for this law violates numerous Anglican Communion documents that call for a "listening process" involving gay Christians and their leaders. But his contempt for international agreements also extends to Articles 18-20 of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which articulates the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, association and assembly. Surprisingly, few voices -- Anglican or otherwise -- have been raised in opposition to the archbishop. When I compare this silence with the cacophony that followed the Episcopal Church's decision to consecrate the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives openly with his partner, as the bishop of New Hampshire, I am compelled to ask whether the global Christian community has lost not only its backbone but its moral bearings." [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

Gene Robinson Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire

Vicky Gene Robinson is a former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he served as Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Homosexuality and the Anglican Communion

Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." "Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops' report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church." The Church of England's 2019 General Synod was set to discuss a diocesan motion "to create a set of formal services and prayers to bless those who have had a same-sex marriage or civil partnership". At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain married and recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition provided that the spouses identified as opposite genders at the time of the marriage.

Peter Akinola Anglican bishop in Nigeria

Peter Jasper Akinola is the former Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria. He is also the former bishop of Abuja and Archbishop of Province III, which covered the northern and central parts of the country. When the division into ecclesiastical provinces was adopted in 2002, he became the first Archbishop of Abuja Province, a position he held until 2010. He is married and a father of six.

Anglican Church of Australia Church of the Anglican Communion

The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the Roman Catholic Church. According to the 2016 census, 3.1 million Australians identify as Anglicans. As of 2016, the Anglican Church of Australia had more than 3 million nominal members and 437,880 active baptised members. For much of Australian history the church was the largest religious denomination. It remains today one of the largest providers of social welfare services in Australia.

The Church of the Province of West Africa is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 17 dioceses in eight countries of West Africa, specifically in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Ghana is the country with most dioceses, now numbering 11.

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are located in South Africa, and one each in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Saint Helena. In South Africa, there are between 3 and 4 million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 45 million.

Frank Griswold

Frank Tracy Griswold III is a retired American bishop. He was the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Episcopal Diocese of California Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of California is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) in Northern California. The founding Episcopal diocese in the state, once encompassing all of California, today the diocese comprises Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties, and the cities of Los Altos and part of Palo Alto in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The see city is San Francisco, California and the diocesan cathedral is Grace Cathedral on top of Nob Hill.

Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States

The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the entire state of Connecticut. It is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church and one of seven New England dioceses that make up Province 1.

Katharine Jefferts Schori Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America

Katharine Jefferts Schori is the former Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Previously elected as the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, she was the first woman elected as a primate in the Anglican Communion. Jefferts Schori was elected at the 75th General Convention on June 18, 2006, and invested at Washington National Cathedral on November 4, 2006, and continued until November 1, 2015, when Michael Bruce Curry was invested in the position. She took part in her first General Convention of the Episcopal Church as Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church in July 2009.

Michael Curry (bishop) Presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church since 2015

Michael Bruce Curry is an American bishop who is the 27th and current presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church. Elected in 2015, he is the first African American to serve as presiding bishop in The Episcopal Church. He was previously bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.

The Anglican realignment is a movement among some Anglicans to align themselves under new or alternative oversight within or outside the Anglican Communion. This movement is primarily active in parts of the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church of Canada. Two of the major events that contributed to the movement were the 2002 decision of the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada to authorise a rite of blessing for same-sex unions, and the nomination of two openly gay priests in 2003 to become bishops. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest with a long-time partner, was appointed to be the next Bishop of Reading in the Church of England and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church ratified the election of Gene Robinson, an openly gay non-celibate man, as Bishop of New Hampshire. Jeffrey John ultimately declined the appointment due to pressure.

Gay bishops

This article largely discusses presence of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and queer bishops in churches governed under episcopal polities. The existence of LGBTQ bishops in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and other traditions is a matter of historical record, though never, until recently, were LGBTQ clergy and bishops ordained by any of the main Christian denominations. Homosexual activity was engaged in secretly. When it was made public, official response ranged from suspension of sacramental duties to laicisation.

Martyn Minns

Martyn Minns is an English-born American bishop, serving in the Anglican Church of Nigeria. He was the founding missionary bishop of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), under the patronage of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, until his retirement in January 2014. Prior to becoming a bishop, he served as rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Virginia, in the United States.

Anglican Church in North America Anglican realignment denomination

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 30 dioceses and 1,037 congregations serving an estimated membership of 134,593 in 2017. In 2020, the denomination reported 972 congregations and 126,760 members. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.

Josiah Idowu-Fearon Anglican bishop in Nigeria

Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon is a Nigerian Anglican bishop. Since 2015, he has been Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council. He was previously the Bishop of Kaduna diocese and the Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna in the Church of Nigeria.

Carl Christopher Epting is a bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He served the Diocese of Iowa as coadjutor bishop and diocesan bishop from 1988 to 2001, and as the Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations for the Episcopal Church from 2001 to 2009. He then served as the Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Chicago from November 2011 through December 2015 before retiring. Since 2021 Bishop Epting and wife Susanne have resided in Englewood, Colorado.

Barry Valentine was bishop of the Diocese of Rupert's Land in the Anglican Church of Canada from 1970 to 1982. Valentine's episcopacy was "transformational and visionary."

Foley Thomas Beach is an American bishop. He is the second primate and archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, a church associated with the Anglican realignment movement. Foley was elected as the church's primate on June 21, 2014. His enthronement took place on October 9, 2014. He is married to Alison and they have two adult children.

Peter David Eaton is the fourth and current bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida.

References

  1. ↑ Episcopal Clerical Directory 2013 (2013). New York: Church Publishing Inc. ISBN   978-0-89869-888-6, p. 175.
  2. ↑ Biography of Bishop John Bryson Chane Archived 2009-03-13 at the Wayback Machine Episcopal Diocese of Washington
  3. ↑ Boorstein, Michelle (January 31, 2010). "D.C.'s Episcopal bishop, known for liberal causes, to retire". The Washington Post .
  4. ↑ "Interfaith Dialog | C-SPAN.org".
  5. ↑ "Pushing Past Terror to Understanding".
  6. ↑ "Fear, hatred, slaughter marks of heresy -- not God". CNN . 21 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Chane embraces 'radical' label while building interfaith bridges". 14 August 2012.
  8. ↑ "Mission to Iran improves relations with dialogue". 20 September 2011.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2018-11-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ↑ "In Iran, Supreme Leader Wields True Power". NPR.org.
  11. ↑ https://unaoc.org/repository/oslo_conference_statement.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  12. ↑ "Bishop John Bryson Chane delivers speech on respecting diversity on behalf of the US delegation at the OSCE tolerance meeting in Astana - Council for Global Equality".
  13. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2018-11-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ↑ "Just Released – Iraq Uncensored".
  15. ↑ Bishop John Bryson Chane's Retirement announcement [ permanent dead link ] Episcopal Diocese of Washington
  16. ↑ "Homepage".
  17. ↑ Our Bishop Really Rocks
  18. ↑ "Bishop Drums to the Blues in Off-Hours". NPR.org.
  19. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-11-10. Retrieved 2018-11-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  20. ↑ Message to the Nation, September 2006 Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine Standing Committee of the Church of Nigeria
  21. ↑ A Bill For An Act To Make Provisions For The Prohibition Of Sexual Relationship Between Persons Of The Same Sex, Celebration Of Marriage By Them And For Other Matters Connected Therewith Be It Enacted By The National Assembly Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria As Follows Archived 2008-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ↑ Nigerian Legislation Threatens to Limit Rights of Sexual Minorities Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine Press Statement from the United States Department of State
  23. ↑ A Gospel of Intolerance John Bryson Chane
Episcopal Church (USA) titles
Preceded by Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington
2002–2011		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.