Episcopal priest with Muslim beliefs defrocked

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An Episcopal priest has been defrocked for refusing to recant her faith in Islam, Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf said Wednesday.

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Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times

Ann Holmes Redding, an Episcopal priest has been expelled from her position in Rhode Island for refusing to recant her faith in Islam.

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Ann Holmes Redding’s expulsion from the priesthood was two years in the making. Wolf first learned in June 2007 that Redding had become a Muslim when she recited the Shahadah — the Islam creed testifying to Allah as the only God and Muhammad as his prophet.

Wolf said Redding had abandoned the church. She gave Redding more than a year to re-examine her beliefs and withdraw from Islam before stripping her of the priesthood.

In a statement Wednesday announcing the decision, which came after review of the case by a church committee, Wolf called Redding “a woman of utmost integrity” and said “conversations over the past two years have been open, honest and respectful.”

Bishop Wolf believes that “a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.”

“I am very sad,” Redding had said Tuesday. “I’m sad at the loss of this cherished honor of having served as a priest.”

She also said she was sad at what seems to her to be a narrow vision of what the church accepts.

Redding has previously said she believed the two faiths were compatible and she felt compelled to practice both.

Redding was ordained in Rhode Island 25 years ago. She lives in Seattle, Wash., where she began an appointment as a visiting professor at Seattle University in 2007, but was still under the supervision of the Rhode Island Diocese.

She was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle until 2007, when she and two other employees were let go because of budget problems, said Norah Joslyn, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Olympia.

Olympia’s Bishop Greg Rickel backed Wolf’s decision, Joslyn said. But she also said Redding was well-loved and that Rickel supported her “as a person of faith on her own spiritual journey.”