Update on Muslim-Christian Episcopal Priest

Thanks to Hot Air with hat tip to Pursuing Holiness, I found an update on the episcopal priest who wants to be a practicing Muslim at the same time she is an Episcopal priest.

I blogged on this previously, noting at the time that I was a big tent person, but that too large a tent would lead to a crash. I thought this represented way too large a tent. Redding can pursue some interfaith path if she wants, but it should not be as ordained clergy in a Christian denomination.

It seems now that the bishop with disciplinary authority, the one who ordained her, has determined that the combination doesn’t work. According to the Seattle Times,

The Rev. Ann Holmes Redding, a local Episcopal priest who announced she is both Muslim and Christian, will not be able to serve as a priest for a year, according to her bishop.

During that year, Redding is expected 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,” the Rt. Rev. Geralyn Wolf, bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island, wrote in an e-mail to Episcopal Church leaders.

Redding was ordained more than 20 years ago by the then-bishop of Rhode Island, and it is that diocese that has disciplinary authority over her.

This sounds appropriate to me.