Ten of the 22 members of Trinity Church's board of directors have been forced out or quit over alleged subversion of the institution's mission and extravagant spending by the rector of the Episcopal church in Lower Manhattan, the Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper.

Former directors accuse 67-year-old Cooper, who heads the world's richest Anglican parish with over $1 billion in Manhattan real estate, of departing from Trinity's original mission and wasting money, New York Post reported Sunday.

Accusations against Cooper include misreporting of numbers of worshippers on Sunday services; demands for a $5.5 million SoHo townhouse; an allowance for his Florida condo and a fat salary; trips around the world at church's expense; wasting more than $1 million on development plans for a luxury condo tower; and spending $5 million on a publicity campaign. His compensation was worth $1.3 million in 2010 and it included a salary of $346,391 and deferred compensation of $507,940. more >>

A feminist theologian is claiming that Jesus may have been a hermaphrodite.

Dr. Susannah Cornwall, a professor at Manchester University's Lincoln Theological Institute, wrote in a recent paper that the idea that Jesus was male is "simply a best guess."

She made the comments in response to an ongoing debate in the U.K. over having women bishop in the Church of England. more >>

One of The Episcopal Church's most controversial bishops will soon be stepping down from his position and the three nominees for his seat have been announced.

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, the first openly homosexual bishop to be ordained by The Episcopal Church, will be ending his term as Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire. On Thursday, the diocese announced the nominees for his position.

The nominees are the Rev. Penelope Maud Bridges of St. Francis Episcopal Church, Great Falls, Va.; the Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld of Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst, Mass.; and the Rev. Dr. William Warwick Rich of Trinity Church, Boston, Mass. more >>

The spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, announced on Friday that he will be stepping down from his position at the end of December, and take on the role as Master of Magdalene College, a senior role at Cambridge University.

"It has been an immense privilege to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury over the past decade, and moving on has not been an easy decision," Williams said in a statement. He did not give a concrete reason for his decision to retire, noting only that "after 10 years it is proper to pray and reflect and review your options."

The archbishop, who is 61, has been a bishop for 20 years and in his current position for almost 10 years. Although the normal retirement age for Church of England bishops is 70, Reuters reported that he made the decision to step down in what is widely viewed as a turbulent time for the Anglican Communion, amid divisions and debates over homosexuality and women priests. more >>

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has stated that Christians wearing crosses has little significance and that the cross is largely a decorative symbol these days.

His comments come in light of the current European Court debate that argues that Christians do not have the right to wear a cross as a visible manifestation of their faith, and those that do so at a workplace that prohibits them may face the risk of being fired. On the other hand, Muslim and Hindu adherents are allowed to wear religious clothing without fear of losing their jobs, the Telegraph reported.

The case is being debated by the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women are seeking to establish their right to display the cross at their workplaces, but the court is arguing that since wearing the cross is not a "required" part of Christianity, they should not be entitled to such a right. more >>

Although Prime Minister David Cameron has tried to assure British churches that any new same-sex marriage legislation will apply only to civil law, lawyers from the Church of England are arguing that the new legislation would force them to perform same-sex ceremonies in spite of their beliefs.

"If Parliament were in due course to legislate for same-sex marriage, as recently suggested by the Prime Minister, we would of course be in new territory," said the General Synod of the Church of England in a recent paper.

The proposed legislation is expected to allow civil same-sex marriage ceremonies that could be held in state register offices or other "approved premises," such as large homes. more >>