Andrew Brown and Nicholas Watt The Guardian Church of England General Synod expected to approve female bishops
Andrew Brown The Guardian Liberalism increases as power shifts to the laity in the Church of England
The Guardian editorial The Guardian view on the female bishops’ vote: One more heave
John Bingham The Telegraph Welby ‘can’t force’ women bishops on Church
Dan Grimmer Norfolk Eastern Daily Press No vote on women bishops will destroy church’s credibility, says Archdeacon of Norwich
The Telegraph editorial Time to settle the vexed issue of women bishops
BBC Women bishops: Church’s second chance to decide
Women bishops: Will trust or outrage follow key vote?
Dan Clough Burnley and Pendle Citizen I’ll oppose ordination of female bishops, says John Goddard
Madeleine Davies Church Times Welby expects the women-bishops legislation to pass
1 CommentOfficial summary of business
afternoon
evening
audio of
afternoon session
evening session
John Bingham The Telegraph First women bishops could be appointed by Christmas
Churches will use Magna Carta anniversary to ‘reassert Britain’s Christian heritage’
BBC Women bishops: Archbishop Welby ‘hopeful’ on vote
Press Association (in the Mail Online) Baptism Services May Omit ‘Devil’
Peter Stanford The Telegraph Will Jane Hedges be the C of E’s first woman bishop?
2 Commentsto be updated during the day
Order papers
morning
afternoon and evening
Official summary of the day’s business
morning
afternoon
evening
Much of the morning’s business was taken up with the composition of and electorate for the universities constituency in General Synod. A proposal to abolish it was defeated in a vote by houses. The voting figures, which are not given in the summary, were
House of Bishops voted: 5 for, 17 against
House of Clergy voted: 53 for, 69 against
House of Laity voted: 67 for, 65 against
The numbers of abstentions were not stated.
A substantial change was made when Synod voted to extend the constituency to include theological education institutions as well as universities. Again there was a vote by houses.
House of Bishops voted: 12 for, 10 against, 0 abstentions
House of Clergy voted: 71 for, 64 against, 3 abstentions
House of Laity voted: 76 for, 61 against, 2 abstentions
The theological education institutes to be included are those “recognised by the House of Bishops as an institution for training candidates for ordination as ministers of the Church of England”.
These, and other non-contentious changes to the universities constituency, are subject to final approval, which is scheduled for debate on Tuesday.
Jim Wallis gave this presentation on The Uncommon Good in the afternoon, and this interview afterwards.
audio of
morning session
afternoon session – Jim Wallis speech
remainder of afternoon session
evening session
The New Statesman has a series of articles by Rowan Williams, Melvyn Bragg, Lucy Winkett, Robin Ince, Vicky Beeching and Julian Baggini under the heading After God: how to fill the faith-shaped hole in modern life.
Michael Binyon writes for Diplomat Magazine about Church Diplomacy.
The Guardian has a video: A vicar’s wedding: ‘He loves God and he loves Stephen’.
7 CommentsUpdated
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has written for The Times on why he believes the Assisted Dying Bill, which will be debated in the House of Lords next week, is “both mistaken and dangerous”. His article can be read here: Archbishop Justin writes for The Times on the Assisted Dying Bill.
Meanwhile, former archbishop George Carey has said that he supports a change in the law on assisted suicide. He has explained his views in this article written for the Daily Mail: Why I’ve changed my mind on assisted dying says a former Archbishop of Canterbury.
Press reports include:
James Chapman Mail Online Carey: I’ve changed my mind on right to die: On eve of Lords debate, ex-Archbishop dramatically backs assisted death law
John Bingham The Telegraph Lord Carey: I support assisted dying
Nicholas Watt The Guardian Former archbishop lends his support to campaign to legalise right to die
Ruth Gledhill Christian Today Former Archbishop of Canterbury: ‘Why I support assisted suicide’
The Telegraph Archbishop Welby: Assisted dying is ‘sword of Damocles’ over vulnerable
Update
John Bingham The Telegraph Church of England calls for review on assisted dying
Nicholas Watt, Shane Hickey and agencies The Guardian Church of England seeks inquiry over bill to legalise assisted dying
to be updated during the day
The first day’s business is listed in Order paper 1.
Despite some initial confusion during the debate on the report of the reference to the dioceses of the women bishops legislation, Sue Booys, the chair of the Business Committee, confirmed that two-thirds majorities in each house will be required for final approval of both the draft measure and the amending canon when they are debated on Monday.
It was also made clear that abstentions (whether recorded or not) do not count in the calculation of the size of any majority.
The final drafting of the draft measure and amending canon were agreed; the only drafting amendments were to some of the numbering in the canon.
The final versions of these, to be debated on Monday, are here: draft measure and draft amending canon.
Official summary of the day’s business:
Friday afternoon
Friday evening
Updated Friday afternoon, Saturday morning
The Church of England General Synod meets in York from this afternoon until Tuesday.
Some pre-synod press:
John Bingham The Telegraph Church of England General Synod: women bishops campaigners praying for a breakthrough
The Church of England General Synod – a rough guide
Women bishops: what are the issues?Press Association General Synod Vote on Women Bishops [on the Mail Online website]
Ruth Gledhill Chrisitian Today General Synod: Will women bishops happen this time?
Savi Hensman Ekklesia Church, worldly values, the ‘common good’ and war
You can follow the proceedings at this Live video stream.
The Agenda and papers are here.
Update
Church Times leader The vote on Monday
John Bingham The Telegraph Church of England edges towards historic breakthrough on women bishops
0 CommentsUpdated Friday afternoon
The Church Commissioners issued this press release this evening.
Church Commissioners confirm Wonga exit
10 July 2014
The Church Commissioners for England are pleased to announce that their indirect investment exposure to Wonga in their venture capital portfolio has been removed. The Church Commissioners no longer have any financial or any other interest in Wonga.
The terms ensure that the Church Commissioners have not made any profit from their investment exposure to Wonga.
At no time have the Commissioners invested directly in Wonga or in other pay day lenders. The indirect exposure of the Commissioners through pooled funds represented considerably less than 0.01% of the value of Wonga.
The Church Commissioners estimate that if they had had to sell their entire venture capital holdings they might have lost £3-9m to remove the exposure to Wonga, which was worth less than £100,000. The Commissioners are pleased that another way forward has been agreed given their fiduciary duties to clergy pensioners and to all the parts of the Church they support financially.
The Commissioners believe venture capital to be a good and useful instrument with significant potential to serve the common good. It gets new businesses up and running and supports the economy and jobs.
The Commissioners have made a number of ethical investment changes. They have tightened their investment restrictions for direct investments, will announce new controls on indirect investments later in the year and have created a new responsible investment position in their investment team to lead the implementation of the Commissioners’ ethical investment policies and responsible investment commitments, supporting the work of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group.
The Commissioners’ focus remains the mission they share with the Archbishop of Canterbury – supporting the ministry and growth of the Church of England.
The Commissioners will also continue to seek ways, consistent with their fiduciary duties, to support the Church’s priority of promoting responsible credit and savings. In 2013 they provided £200,000 of start-up capital to the credit union the Church itself is establishing, the Churches’ Mutual Credit Union. As active stewards of their investments the Commissioners will continue to engage with financial services companies to encourage responsible credit and savings practice.
Update – press reports
Chris Johnston The Guardian Church of England finally severs financial links with Wonga
Paul Handley Church Times The Church of England pulls its cash out of Wonga
BBC Church of England ends Wonga investment
Ian Johnston Independent Church of England severs its links with payday lender Wonga
Sharlene Goff Financial Times Church of England sells indirect stake in Wonga
John Bingham The Telegraph Church of England finally casts out Wonga
5 CommentsThe Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced on Monday that there will be an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse in Establishment circles in the 1970s and 80s.
Patrick Wintour The Guardian Theresa May promises child abuse inquiry with ‘maximum transparency’
David Barrett, James Kirkup and Georgia Graham The Telegraph Theresa May launches major new inquiry into child sex abuse allegationsStatement from Bishop of Durham on Government announcement on child abuse inquiries
It was later announced that the inquiry was to be headed by Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former president of the Family Division of the High Court. There has been criticism of this choice.
2 CommentsBBC Ex-senior judge Butler-Sloss to head child sex abuse inquiry
Nicholas Watt The Guardian Lady Butler-Sloss to lead child abuse inquiryNicholas Watt The Guardian ‘Conflict of interest’ raised over Butler-Sloss role in child abuse inquiry
David Barrett and Matthew Holehouse The Telegraph Baroness Butler-Sloss criticised over previous ‘flawed’ paedophile report
Andrew Brown reports in The Guardian: Church of England women bishops: archbishops will overrule synod.
30 CommentsThe archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is preparing to drive through legislation to allow women bishops even if it is rejected by the church’s governing body, the General Synod.
The synod is poised to vote again on the vexed plan next week but senior sources have told the Guardian that should the move be blocked again, there are now options being considered to force the change on the church.
Options under consideration include an immediate dissolution of the synod so that fresh elections could produce a sufficient majority by November, or even a move by the bishops in the House of Lords to introduce the legislation without synodical approval…
Andrew Goddard at Fulcrum asks Can we pray for the dead?
Giles Fraser writes in The Guardian that Assisted dying is the final triumph of market capitalism.
Jenny McCartney writes for The Spectator about The terminal confusion of Dignity in Dying.
Malcolm Brown (the Director of Mission and Public Affairs for the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England) asks Is the choice to be killed the same as choosing a car ?
Christopher Howse writes in The Telegraph about Imagining Jesus is beside you and about Clever folk being foolish about God.
Justin Welby preached this sermon last Sunday: ‘Thanksgiving and repentance’ – Archbishop on the first black Anglican bishop.
3 CommentsA question was asked in the House of Lords yesterday about the appointment of the next Bishop of Guildford. A short debate followed about the length of time between the announcement of a vacancy for a diocesan bishop and the meetings of the Crown Nominations Commission to nominate a successor. The full text of the debate (which did at times stray off topic) is copied below the fold.
Blogger Archbishop Cranmer comments on
The sluggish delinquency of the Crown Nominations Commission.
Press release from the Prime Minster’s Office.
Suffragan Bishop of Basingstoke: David Grant Williams
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
History: Published 26 June 2014
Part of: Arts and cultureThe Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Canon David Grant Williams to the Suffragan See of Basingstoke.
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Canon David Grant Williams, BSc, Vicar of Christ Church, Winchester, in the Diocese of Winchester, and Honorary Canon of Winchester Cathedral to the Suffragan See of Basingstoke, in succession to the Right Reverend Peter Hancock, MA, on his translation to the See of Bath and Wells on 4 March 2014.
Reverend Canon David Williams
The Revd Canon David Williams (aged 53) studied Social Policy at Bristol University and after some years working with CMS in Kenya, trained for the ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his curacy in the Diocese of Sheffield at All Saints, Ecclesall from 1989 to 1992 after which he became Vicar of Dore, an adjacent parish. He was made Rural Dean of Ecclesall in 1997 and served in this role until moving south in 2002. During these years he was also a Chaplain at Aldine House Secure Children’s Home.
Moving to the Diocese of Winchester in 2002, he became Vicar of Christ Church Winchester and was made an Honorary Canon of Winchester Cathedral in 2012. He was elected to General Synod in 2010 and became Chair of the House of Clergy of Winchester Diocesan Synod in 2012.
David grew up in Uganda and retains strong links with East Africa. He is married to Helen and they have 2 children, Sarah (25) and Mark (22). David owns a small racing yacht and spends days off sailing in the Solent. Together with his son, Mark, he also completed 2 long motorbike journeys across Eastern and Central Africa in 2010 and 2012.
The Bishop-designate said today:
“During the 13 years Helen and I have lived and worked in Winchester, we have grown to love the church and its people and are very much looking forward to serving in a wider context across the diocese. We look forward to welcoming many to our new home and to sharing in the life and ministry of the people of God here.”
The Winchester diocesan website has A new Bishop for Basingstoke in which it is stated that “The Most Reverend Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury has decided that David’s consecration as Bishop of Basingstoke will take place at Winchester Cathedral, the first consecration in the city for many years.”
Consecrations in the Canterbury province normally take place in London at St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey or Southwark Cathedral. Readers may know where and when the last one was held elsewhere.
19 CommentsPaul Valleley asks Is Christian unity anything more than a pious aspiration?
This is the uncut version of an article in The Independent.
Jonathan Clatworthy writes on the Modern Church Blog about Spreading the Word – a liberal response.
Eric Hatfield writes about Sermons – not how we learn best?
Gillan Scott blogs Without a moral compass British values lose their way and now we’re seeing the consequences.
Sam Norton blogs Remorseless logic and a Bishop’s rest.
Benjamin J Dueholm explains Why I kiss my stole.
Giles Fraser writes in The Guardian that Using schools to boost the military ethos could be making a comeback.
5 CommentsYesterday’s second distribution of General Synod papers included the annual report of the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group. Also published was this press release.
Ethical Investment Advisory Group – ethical investment restrictions tightened
27 June 2014The Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) has tightened its recommendations regarding investment restrictions. From this month none of the EIAG’s investment exclusions have a revenue threshold higher than 10%, a reduction on the previous 25% threshold.
The EIAG also announced that during 2013 it instructed votes for the Church Commissioners and Church of England Pensions Board on over 30,000 resolutions at approximately 3,000 company general meetings. Reflecting wider concern over executive remuneration packages, the EIAG withheld support in over 70% of cases.
In wider corporate engagement, church investors recorded important successes in the areas of both alcohol and pornography. After engagement with the EIAG, all three major UK-listed supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – published alcohol policies newly acknowledging the potential for alcohol to cause harm. In the area of pornography, church investor engagement with a major telecommunications company led to the company ceasing to promote pornographic material on its handsets in the UK.
The threshold reduction follows a review requested by the Archbishop of Canterbury in light of the “Wonga controversy.” As a consequence of the review process revenue thresholds used to exclude companies on account of their involvement in tobacco, gambling, high interest rate lending and human embryonic cloning have been capped at 10% from the previous threshold of 25%.
The annual review makes it clear that these new restrictions would not have prevented the exposure to Wonga which was in a pooled fund and which could not have been screened in the same way as direct holdings are.
Edward Mason, EIAG Secretary, said: “Exposure to restricted investments, like Wonga, can occur in pooled funds and the EIAG accepts this.” Commenting on the EIAG’s intention to propose a new pooled funds policy to the national investing bodies, he said: “The policy will specify controls on the use of pooled funds but will not bar their use.”
The EIAG will publish the new policy on pooled funds later once the investing bodies have agreed it. The annual review explains that pooled funds are often the only way to access certain asset classes and investment strategies – including venture capital which, along with increasing financial returns for investors, also serves society.
Writing in the report’s foreword, EIAG Chair James Featherby explains that the Commissioners’ indirect investment in Wonga highlighted some misconceptions about ethical investment, and in particular that its objective is to achieve a morally perfect portfolio.
“In our view Christian ethical investment is, instead, about fulfilling responsibilities to beneficiaries and trying to make a positive difference in society. The Church’s national investing bodies seek to do the latter through engagement with companies, partnerships with other investors, and participation in public policy initiatives. In this way they aspire to be part of the Church’s witness to the world.”
Press reports include:
Ben Quinn The Guardian Wonga: Church of England advised by ethics review to keep its stake
Alex Blackburne Blue & Green Tomorrow Church of England reduces exposure to ‘sin stocks’ after ethical investment review
Christian Today Wonga controversy leads to changes in Church of England’s investment policies
2 CommentsThe House of Bishops’ plans for Shared Conversations on Sexuality, Scripture and Mission in the Church of England were issued today in a paper (GS Misc 1083) circulated to General Synod papers. I have made a webpage version available here.
These conversations are what the Pilling Report called “facilitated conversations”. They will start in the College of Bishops in September, then move to groups of dioceses and end with two days of conversations in General Synod in July 2016. The paper gives full details of who will be involved and how they will be supported.
The Church of England has issued this press release.
19 CommentsNext steps in shared conversation process published
27 June 2014The Church of England has today published the next steps in its process for shared conversations on Sexuality, Scripture and Mission.
A short paper from the Bishop of Sheffield outlines the next steps for the Church following the publication of the Pilling report in November 2013 which recommended that the church’s internal dialogue on human sexuality might be best addressed through a process of conversations across the Church.
The outlines of the process were approved by the House of Bishops at its meeting in May and are published today.
The document has been sent to members of the Church’s General Synod ahead of its meeting in York from 11 -15 July.
The document can be found online here.
Archbishop Justin Welby delivered a lecture on The future of banking standards and ethics at New City Agenda, House of Lords, Westminster on Tuesday 17 June. The text is now available online: Archbishop’s lecture on the future of banking standards.
The Financial Times has two reports by Martin Arnold: Archbishop of Canterbury warns banks are still ‘too big to fail’ and Archbishop warns on return of loan sharks
Jill Treanor writes in The Guardian about Church of England’s unholy mess over Wonga stake This refers to earlier reports that “selling the £100,000 stake would result in a loss of between £3m and £9m”.
General Synod will have a presentation on the proposed Churches’ Mutual Credit Union on Sunday 13 July. This background note was issued to Synod members at the end of last week. The Business Committee report has this preview of the presentation.
This will take the form of a presentation under S0 97 by the Revd Canon Antony MacRow Wood and Hilary Sams, the President and CEO Designate respectively of the Churches’ Mutual Credit Union (‘CMCU’). Their presentation will outline the plans for the launch of this new credit union for clergy. Those eligible to join will be the clergy, trustees and staff of the Anglican churches and charities in Britain and the ministers, trustees and staff of the Church of Scotland and the Methodist church. The aim of the CMCU is to provide a mutual ethical vehicle for tax efficient savings and affordable loans for clergy and staff of churches charities. It will also help to support and strengthen the credit union movement and contribute to the rebuilding of the mutual sector as a viable, ethical alternative to mainstream banking for people irrespective of their financial status.
The Independent has two articles about CMCU:
Jamie Merrill Church of England to open credit union in its ‘war on Wonga’
Simon Read Church’s credit union continues Welby’s ‘war on Wonga’ but more help for all needed
Meanwhile payday lender Wonga is in the news for another reason.
Rupert Jones The Guardian Wonga to pay £2.6m compensation for fake debt firm letters
and Wonga’s fake legal letters passed to police
Jim Armitage The Independent Wonga scandal and subsequent let-off calls for a full parliamentary inquiry
Katherine Rushton The Telegraph Wonga to pay £2.6m compensation for fake legal letters
Updated Friday
The UK Supreme Court yesterday handed down its judgment in the assisted suicide (or “right to die”) case. The full judgment and summaries are available online.
Judgment (PDF)
Judgment (html)
Press summary (PDF)
Watch Lord Neuberger’s summary of the judgment on YouTube
Newspaper and other reports include:
Rosalind English UK Human Rights Blog Supreme Court rejects right to die appeals
John Bingham The Telegraph Supreme Court rejects right to die bid but challenges Parliament to review law
Owen Boycott The Guardian Assisted suicide campaigners fail to get supreme court to overturn ban
BBC News Campaigners lose ‘right to die’ case
Kathleen Hall The Law Society Gazette Supreme Court dismisses ‘right to die’ appeal
Brian Farmer The Independent Right-to-die: Supreme Court rules against assisted suicide
The Church of England has issued this statement.
Statement on Supreme Court judgement
25 June 2014
In response to ruling on the cases of Paul Lamb and Jane Nicklinson, and ‘Martin’Revd Dr Brendan McCarthy, National Adviser: Medical Ethics and Health and Social Care Policy for the Archbishops’ Council, said:
“We welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court and the emphasis it has placed on the need for the law to protect vulnerable individuals.
“We remain convinced that the current law and the DPP guidelines for its application provide a compassionate framework within which difficult cases can be assessed while continuing to ensure that many vulnerable individuals are given much needed protection from coercion or abuse.
“We recognise the distress that this judgment will cause some individuals but we believe that any other judgment would have resulted in even greater distress for even greater numbers of people.”
Reactions from church groups and others include:
Press Association Reactions to right-to-die ruling
Dan Bergin Independent Catholic News Campaigners welcome court judgements on assisted suicide
Alex Stevenson politics.co.uk Right-to-die campaigners are wasting their time
Editorial in The Guardian The Guardian view on parliament and assisted suicide
Update
The Church Times has a report on the judgement from its legal correspondent Shiranikha Herbert: Judges not persuaded by ‘right to die’ appellants.
Updated Wednesday morning
The following statement has appeared on the Church of England website today [Tuesday].
Statement in relation to weekend press reports
24 June 2014
“The recent press report that the Bishop of Norwich has been asked to keep a blacklist of clergy who marry same sex partners is untrue. The House of Bishops agreed in February to establish a small informal monitoring and reference group which is available to diocesan bishops who may wish for information or advice. The group has no formal powers. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York asked the Bishop of Norwich to chair the group and for the Bishops of Sheffield and Willesden to be members.”
That is the complete text.
Update
David Pocklington has written about this at Law & Religion in Marriage of clergy to same-sex partners. As he had explained earlier:
Permission to Officiate is issued under Canon C 8 (3) entirely at the discretion of the bishop, creates no employment-like rights, and can be withdrawn at the absolute discretion of the bishop without the need for a disciplinary process. In contrast, Canon Pemberton is employed as Deputy Senior Chaplain with the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust in the diocese of Lincoln, under the Extra-Parochial Ministry Measure 1967, for which he holds a licence from the Bishop of Lincoln. However, although employed by the hospital, that employment is generally dependent upon the Bishop’s licence which can only be terminated following a disciplinary process, s8(2) Clergy Discipline Measure 2003. No public announcement has been made regarding this licence.
And he now comments:
57 CommentsThe CofE statement has been greeted with scepticism by some of those commenting on the Thinking Anglican report of the announcement. Against such concerns, however, it would be unusual if the Church had not established a group to monitor developments in a sensitive area such as this, and would be subject to criticism if it did not adopt a consistent approach in the interpretation of the House of Bishops Statement of Pastoral Guidance on Same Sex Marriage: there is a degree of uncertainty in the sanctions that may be applied under ecclesiastical law and a further degree of complexity is added through the range of possible employment situations as these current examples demonstrate.