In inviting our readers and viewers to comment on our postings, Episcopal News Service’s goal is for this site to be a place for in-depth discussion on the news that tells the story of the Episcopal Church’s mission and ministry. We hope for intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the news and information we report.

General comments and suggestions about Episcopal News Service can be e-mailed to the editors at news@episcopalchurch.org.

To comment on a specific entry, you must provide your full name and e-mail address. Your full name will appear with your comments. If you post under multiple names, your accounts will be blocked. After your first comment has been accepted, your comments will post automatically. If your subsequent comments violate our policy, you will lose that status.

We want these conversations to be safe, open and respectful, and so we moderate comments. We reserve the right to remove any comment that we consider to be inappropriate for any reason.

Comments that are critical of ENS or the Episcopal Church are approved, unless they use vulgar language, hate speech or personal attacks of any sort. We delete such comments immediately and may block those commenters from participating in the future.

We quickly delete all spam and any comments that clearly promote a commercial site or product that has no relevance to the story on which the comment appears.

We reserve the right to close an article to comments.

Please “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” these additional guidelines.

• Treat everyone with reverence and respect their dignity whether you agree with their opinion or not.
• Use only language or a tone of voice that you would use at a respectable family dinner.
• Respect others’ opinions. Our goal is to convey the range of viewpoints on every issue.
• Write clearly. Give details and specifics, but please stay on topic. Proofread your comment before submitting.
• You are responsible for what you post in a comment.
• By submitting a comment, you agree that it can be publicly posted and that others may comment on it.
• Do not harass or threaten, question the motives behind others’ posts or comments, deliberately inflame or disrupt the conversation or air personal grievances about other members of the community.
• Do not post profane, sexually explicit, tortious, vulgar, obscene, libelous, abusive, misleading or unlawful material, or any material that infringes the rights of others or interferes with the ability of others to participate in these conversations.
• By using www.episcopalnewsservice.com, you agree to follow these rules and the rules and guidelines you find in various areas of the site and you accept the terms of our Terms of Service Agreement, and our Privacy Policy.

This Comment Policy was last updated on November 27, 2012.