Brantley, an Anglican Rite Old Catholic priest, recently reported that "the online campaigns were less than successful" but their congregation based campaign has at present raised nearly $US2000 for mission funding on the island.

Pitcairn is the last place in the Pacific to see a Union Jack flying over British territory. It is fast becoming depopulated, and efforts to get more people to live there have not been successful.

An official report has indicated its 49 mostly mainly older inhabitants of Pitcairn may have to move to New Zealand, 5500 kilometres away, leaving the 4.6-square-kilometre rock to nature.

But Brantley is persisting with his plan. He says there are four stages for reaching his goal. The first stage of initial fund raising is about to conclude.

In the next few months the next stage will begin. It involves preparing boxes of literature and further fund raising.

Then in 2018 he hopes to send a mission priest to Pitcairn to work and with local people.

Brantley says the priest will not be trying to be to convert the people. He will build a relationship with the community and relay back to the USA what the population needs.

Finally, if all goes well, they will work to meet those needs and settle 2 or 3 Anglican families on the island.

Brantley is the vicar at Holyrood in North Carolina. The Holyrood website says it is "a small community of believers based in Princeton, NC who welcome you to worship, fellowship, and study with us as we continue in the faith of our fathers according to the Anglican tradition."

"Here at Holyrood we currently hold our services in our Vicar's living room and worship using historic Anglican liturgies from the Book of Common Prayer."

Source

• Supplied
• holyroodnc.webs.com
• Image: i.dailymail.co.uk

Archbishop John Hepworth, who led the conservative Anglican group until he was ousted in an acrimonious policy dispute last year, had caused a sensation by reporting that he was the victim of sexual assaults in the 1960s, when he was a Catholic seminarian.

The Anglican prelate said three Catholic priests had molested him, but did not reveal their names.

However, an independent senator, Nick Xenophon, used parliamentary privilege to name Monsignor Ian Dempsey, a former vicar general of Adelaide archdiocese, as the sole survivor of those accused.

After an independent inquiry, the archdiocese found that now-Bishop Hepworth's complaints against Monsignor Dempsey were unwarranted. Bishop Hepworth then reported his allegations to the police.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has now concluded that no charges should be brought.

Monsignor Dempsey said he was relieved that he would not face prosecution, but humiliated that his name had been "rubbed in the mud".

"I can concentrate on being a good priest, and continuing to be a good priest, which is what I love doing," he said.

"The only trouble of course is once this type of thing is said and the mud is thrown I can never prove that I'm innocent."

The monsignor said if Senator Xenophon had "any integrity", he would apologise for making the allegations in Parliament — but the senator said he won't be apologising.

"I believe the only apology due here is by the Adelaide archdiocese of the Catholic Church, for the way it abysmally dealt with Archbishop Hepworth's allegations," Xenophon said.

"The individual concerned is still working, he still has his job with the church, his position has been maintained, life goes on for him. Archbishop Hepworth, by contrast, no longer has a job."

Sources:

Herald Sun

The Australian

Image: The Australian

The request comes while investigations continue over Slipper's alleged mis-use of tax payer money and allegations that Slipper made sexual advances at a male staff member.

"It is right for anyone accused of serious misconduct in public life, whether in church life or political life, to stand aside until the processes of justice reach a conclusion," Australian leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), Archbishop Hepworth said.

Slipper is also the chief legal adviser to Archbishop Hepworth.

"Ministers of the crown and cardinals of the church have followed this sound principle in recent years in Australia; otherwise, the integrity of our core institutions is eroded, and our expectations of public morality further decay.

"As Peter Slipper's archbishop, I applaud his decision to stand aside as Speaker, and am seeking a similar decision in relation to his public functions in the church."

The decision was an awkward one for Hepworth, who considers Slipper a personal friend.

"I have agonised over it because we have been friends for a long time and I greatly respect his work both in the church and in the parliament," he said.

"I am a longstanding friend of both Peter and his wife, Inge, about whom I am extremely concerned. I also greatly respect his voting record in parliament on a range of contentious moral issues."

According to the Australian, Slipper was ordained a priest of the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia, a member church of the Traditional Anglican Communion, in 2008, after serving as a deacon since 2003. While he is a priest, it is understood he is licensed by the church to celebrate only private masses.

Sources

• The Australian
• Image: The Age

Hepworth, who claims to be the victim of rape while in a Catholic Seminary 40 years ago, said the move was prompted by "considerable dissension" within the Traditional Anglican Communion.

"Profound doctrinal and moral differences have grown between us," Hepworth told the Australian.

"It is my intention, provided the membership of our college is substantially clarified in the next few months, to tender my resignation as primate at Pentecost."

The TAC House of Bishops, last week, voted to seek Archbishop Hepworth's immediate removal, but the Hepworth said the vote was not binding.

Hepworth's advisor, Cheryl Woodman, said the vote was not sanctioned by the church.

"This is an illegitimate act and seems to be some sort of plot by people seeking power for themselves," Woodman said.

"They have included people who are not members of the college and have not informed the secretariat."

As leader of the TAC, Archbishop Hepworth was the most prominent Anglican leader in the drive to secure a means of corporate entry into the Roman Catholic Church. He said that he remains proud of his role in the process that led to the release of Anglicanorum Coetibus and the establishment of Anglican ordinariates within the Catholic Church.

Source

• The Australian
• ABC News
• Image: The Australian