Mark Ireland ViaMedia.News Now is Not The Time to Cut Clergy Posts!
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Struggle to find Safeguarding Justice in the C of E.
Peter Ould Psephizo What will the new General Synod look like?
Victor Lee Austin The Living Church The Parish as a School of Friendship
66 CommentsThe first group of sessions of the 2021-2026 General Synod of the Church of England will be held in London on 16-17 November 2021. There will also be an induction day on 15 November. The outline timetable is available here and is copied below. Papers for the inaugural group of sessions will be published on Thursday 28 October.
GENERAL SYNOD: NOVEMBER 2021 TIMETABLE
Tuesday 16 November
10.00 am – 1.00 pm
Inauguration, including Abbey Service
2.45 pm – 7.00 pm
Welcomes and introductions
Welcome to First Church Estates Commissioner
Presidential Address
Report by the Business Committee
Generosity and Diocesan Finances
Question Time *5.30 pm – 7.00 pm
Wednesday 17 November
09.00 am – 12.30 pm
Opening worship
Loyal Address
Special Agenda IV: Leeds DSM: Wealth Gap
2022 Budget and Apportionment
Special Agenda I: Act of Synod for Vacancy in See Amendment Regulations 2021 – For approval
Appointment of AC Member
2.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Vision and Strategy
Report by the Governance Review Group
Farewells
Prorogation
Meetings of the House of Laity 4.45pm – 6pm
* not later than
Please note that all timings are indicative unless marked with an asterisk Deadline for receipt of questions: 1200 hrs Thursday 4th November
The Dean of Norwich, the Very Revd Jane Hedges, has announced that she will retire in May 2022.
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“Young people don’t want Jesus to be their best mate”
Church Times Compulsory worship in schools should end
“It is time to change a law that threatens to bring the C of E into serious disrepute, argues Richard Harries”
Helen King ViaMedia.News The Changing Face of General Synod
100 CommentsPress release from the Church of England
LLF Next Steps Group Meeting on 29th September 2021
14/10/2021
The Next Steps Group began the meeting by considering how to ensure widest possible engagement with the LLF resources across the range of demographics, especially including young people.
The group reviewed a set of resources for leading groups with young people which have now been published on the LLF Learning Hub.
The importance of encouraging all participants to share their experience and learning through the LLF online questionnaire and by means of creative responses was stressed. LLF Advocates were encouraged to continue to share good practice across dioceses.
The group noted the need to get three key messages across:
the LLF resources are for and about everyone; it is a genuinely open-ended opportunity for the whole church to contribute to the Church’s discernment about questions relating to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage; the resources are flexible and should be adapted to different contexts at a time and in a way that is appropriate for them. The gathering of feedback will close on 30th April 2022.
It was agreed to reschedule publication of the resource, ‘The Gift of the Church’ to September 2022, when it will sit alongside the findings of the listening process as the process of discernment begins. The Next Steps Group will work together with the Faith and Order Commission on this task, and involve others as discussed at previous meetings.
The Group agreed that it would be important to introduce new members of General Synod to the LLF journey as part of their induction in November 2021.
The meeting ended in prayer.
36 CommentsChurch Times The accused have their rights, too
“Remedying past failures should not mean repenting at others’ expense, says Peter Selby”
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Church of England and failures in the administration of justice
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“Being ordained deacon prompts Christina Rees to reflect on how women clergy are still perceived differently from men”
Martyn Percy Modern Church Churches and Cultural Climate-Change Denial (Part Three): Forecasting and Futurescape
Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News General Synod: The Importance of Compromise & Conscience
38 CommentsJon Kuhrt Psephizo The culture change we need in the light of abuse scandals
Helen King sharedconversations Counter-cultural Cranmer?
Martyn Percy Modern Church Churches and Cultural Climate-Change Denial (Part One): Learning from Canute
Churches and Cultural Climate-Change Denial (Part Two): Money, Sex and Power
Anne Foreman ViaMedia.News General Synod: Why I Can’t Support “Save the Parish” Campaign
Edmund Weiner Surviving Church Iwerne Camps and Conservative Evangelicalism. Memories and Reassessment
Angela Tilby Church Times Ministry that is lay-led is not Anglican
69 CommentsPress release from Number 10. There is more on the Portsmouth diocesan wesbite.
Appointment of Bishop of Portsmouth: 8 October 2021
The Queen has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Jonathan Frost for election as Bishop of Portsmouth.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 8 October 2021
The Queen has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Dr Jonathan Frost, Dean of York, for election as Bishop of Portsmouth, in succession to The Right Reverend Christopher Foster, following his retirement on 31st May 2021.
He will lead the Church of England’s Diocese of Portsmouth, which covers 133 parishes across south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Background
Jonathan was educated at the universities of Aberdeen and Nottingham; he prepared for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge and served his curacy at St Giles’ West Bridgford, Nottingham. Jonathan was ordained priest in 1994 and, alongside parish duties, served as a Police Chaplain.
From 1997 to 2002, Jonathan was Rector of Ash in the Diocese of Guildford. In 2002 he took up a new joint post as Anglican Chaplain to the University of Surrey and Residentiary Canon at Guildford Cathedral. For 11 years, Jonathan taught Christian Doctrine on the Local Diocesan Ministry Course. He served as Bishop’s Advisor for Inter-Faith Relations and on General Synod. He was awarded a doctorate honoris causa by the University of Surrey in 2012.
Jonathan served as Suffragan Bishop of Southampton from November 2010 to January 2019. In these years Jonathan chaired the Portsmouth and Winchester Joint Diocesan Board of Education and became Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Portsmouth.
He was installed as Dean of York at the Feast of the Presentation in February 2019. Among his priorities are prayer and Benedictine spirituality, evangelism, discipleship and working with others to tackle what he describes as ‘the scandal of poverty’.
He said: “I am learning to walk more gently on the earth and to partner with others in seeking climate justice. Inspiration to work for the integrity of creation, in my experience at least, has most often come through encounter with visionary young people.” He is a trustee of USPG, an Anglican mission agency.
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Colin Coward Unadulterated Love The inability to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy Christianity
11 CommentsApril Alexander ViaMedia.News General Synod: The Challenge of Voting in Women Bishops
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“The corporation’s slowness to appoint a new Religion Editor does not inspire confidence”
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11 CommentsThe Rt Revd Paul Slater, Bishop of Kirkstall, an area bishop in the diocese of Leeds, announced his retirement today. He will leave on 31 January 2022. The diocesan announcement is here.
17 CommentsElections to General Synod are currently taking place. I have posted links to the election addresses of candidates here. This includes all the dioceses and special constituencies except for some where candidates were unopposed. The only exception is the Armed Forces Synod whose members are to be “elected or chosen … in such manner as may be determined by the Armed Forces Synod”. I have been unable to find anything online about how this being done.
In addition to election addresses some dioceses have produced videos of the candidates and/or held hustings or question and answer sessions which are available online.
If anybody wants to download any of this material for future reference they are advised to do so in the next few days. If 2015 is any guide some dioceses will remove election addresses from their websites immediately after voting closes on 8 October.
I am also compiling a list of the members of the new synod here.
Additions and corrections to either list can be emailed to me here.
3 CommentsThe Church of England has released statistics on remote worship during the March to July 2020 lockdown: Church at Home. There is an accompanying press release, copied below.
Thousands of churches offered remote worship during lockdown, new report finds
01/10/2021
Thousands of churches adapted ‘at a moment’s notice’ to providing worship at home from the start of the first lockdown, according to a new report published today.
More than 9,000 churches (78%) offered ‘Church at Home’ online, via email, post and telephone during the March to July 2020 lockdown when collective worship was suspended because of the coronavirus restrictions.
More than 8,000, or 69%, offered livestreamed or pre-recorded services, while more than 5,000, or 44%, offered services downloadable from a website or emailed. More than 4,000, or 33%, offered printed and posted services and more than 2,000, or 21%, provided telephone or dial-in services.
The majority were continuing to offer these services in October last year even though most were also open for in-person collective worship.
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[We linked to parts I and II here.]
Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News General Synod: Honest to God!
‘Angela’ Surviving Church Power abuse against Church Leaders. The Witness of a Parishioner
The Archbishop of York gave this lecture at St Martin in the Fields – The Dream for the Church
19 CommentsMartyn Percy Modern Church “Nuts and Bolts” (I): Reflecting on the Governance Review Group Report
“Nuts and Bolts” (II): Reflecting on the Governance Review Group Report
Church Times What the C of E can learn from the police
“Withdrawing resources from local communities results in loss of trust and confidence, argues Alan Billings”
Andrew Lightbown Theoro0 Speaking of character, culture, mixed economies / ecologies & parishes
written in response to the article by Alan Billings
Sam Norton Elizaphanian Synod: The dying of a church is not a management problem
Ian Paul Psephizo Why we should all be using printed Bibles
45 CommentsAndrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of character, speaking of culture
Kelvin Holdsworth Making the Real Presence, real.
Church Times Archbishop of Canterbury: ‘Daily fed and guided’ in sacrament
Archbishop Welby talks to Madeleine Davies about reform and the pandemic
Jenny Humphreys ViaMedia.News General Synod: Permitting Discrimination is Very Dangerous!
75 CommentsGiles Fraser UnHerd Only chaos can redeem the Church
“God save our parishes from people with MBAs”
Church Times The love affair with the parish — has it ended?
Madeleine Davies, in part two of her study, looks at the forces for its retention and abandonment
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Purposeful Sexuality – naive, dangerous ideas about LGBTIQ+ and straight identities
48 CommentsThe Economist The Church of England needs new members. How to get them?
A new scheme hopes to create a million new converts in a decade
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Hierarchy, Bishops and Leadership in the Church
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Radical New Christian Inclusion – Changing Attitude England writes to the Bishop of London
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23 CommentsThe nomination period for this year’s elections to General Synod has closed. Dioceses are now required to post candidates’ election addresses on their websites before sending out voting papers. Some of these have already appeared, and the remainder should be available by the end of the week. I am compiling a list of links to all the addresses, which you can find here. I will update this during the coming week. So far as I am aware there is no similar requirement for the special constituencies.
I am also compiling a list of the members of the new synod here.
Additions and corrections to either list can be emailed to me here.
8 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love Whither the Church of England – London diocese an exemplar?
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Madeleine Davies begins a two-part examination of the Church’s future
Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley The Minister is Tired
Gilo and Tony Surviving Church Award for Investigative Journalist supporting Abuse Survivors: Issues for the Church of England
23 Comments