Church Society has published this: An open letter to the Primates and faithful Anglicans of the Global South.
And also this: Overview of the teaching of Rowan Williams on Scripture and sexuality.
Update
This item has been reported in the Guardian see today’s People column by Stephen Bates.
The Australian reports this: Anglican conference ‘is wrong time, wrong place’:
WHEN the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, meets his ecumenical colleague the Bishop of Jerusalem this week for an informal afternoon tea, even lashings of cream and jam for the scones won’t be able to cover the chill in the air…
…Bishop Dawani, visiting Australia this month to speak to local congregations, was not consulted about GAFCON and believes the meeting will have a negative impact on efforts to create peace in his diocese, which covers Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan…
Archbishop Jensen spoke to his diocesan standing committee about not attending Lambeth, and the full text of his remarks is in a PDF file here. The standing committee issued this press release endorsing his decision.
7 CommentsUpdated Tuesday
First, we had Uganda’s Anglicans hail boycott of Lambeth meeting from Reuters on Sunday.
And the BBC Sunday programme had a segment on Uganda which you can listen to here (9 minutes audio):
Uganda shuns Lambeth Conference
The Anglican Church of Uganda has announced that its bishops will not be attending this year’s Lambeth Conference, the meeting of worldwide Anglicanism that takes place once a decade. The Ugandan bishops cited what they called the “crisis” over homosexuality. The Most Reverend Henry Orombi, the Archbishop of Uganda, talked to Sunday.Stefan Stern writes about business and management issues for the Financial Times. In a recent column he turned his attention to the challenges facing the Archbishop of Canterbury. He discussed his take on the Anglican ‘brand’.
Now, today, we have Uganda’s Anglicans threaten to secede from global church from Associated Press today.
And allAfrica.com republishes from yesterday’s Kampala Monitor Homosexuality – COU May Secede.
This morning we also had Ugandan Anglicans in ultimatum to US church over gay marriages in the Guardian.
This afternoon, ACNS reports Church of Uganda Still a Part of Anglican Communion.
5 CommentsAs the Living Church reports,
An English translation of the canons and constitution of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone has recently been completed. Translating the 20-page document from Spanish to English was accomplished by staff members from the dioceses of Fort Worth and San Joaquin.
The Diocese of Fort Worth has published the translation on its website. Bishop Jack Leo Iker of Fort Worth and the standing committee recently prepared a second report concerning the possibility of aligning with the Province of the Southern Cone. This comparative report reflects on key points of difference between the constitution and canons of The Episcopal Church and those of the Southern Cone. The report concluded that affiliation with the Southern Cone would provide Fort Worth with “greater self-determination” than it currently has under The Episcopal Church…
The PDF file of the translation is here.
The report on their content is here.
8 CommentsAn article that I wrote recently has been included in the LGCM Anglican Matters newsletter that was also published as an advertising supplement to this week’s Church Times.
The entire supplement is available online as a PDF file here (900Kb).
The article is a summary of Anglican Communion events during the past six months or so. It was published with the title Has the Covenant already sunk? and an html copy of it is now here.
17 CommentsEkklesia has published a paper written by Savitri Hensman and titled Binding the church and constraining God. Here is the abstract:
In a paper carefully analysing the popular use and misuse of biblical and doctrinal language about God and Church, Savitri Hensman shows that inflexible, one-sided, naïve or ideological conceptions of God in sections of the Christian tradition can reinforce domineering models and practices in the Church – which is in fact supposed to be a creative vehicle of Jesus’ broken body in the world, not a defensive fortress. God is not confined by rules set by humans and our institutions, she argues, however powerful they may be by earthly standards. In the biblical tradition, God is at work outside as well as within institutions, including those that claim to be about God’s business. Liberation, reformation and healing will continue to happen even if, at first, they are not acknowledged by the authorities (ecclesial and otherwise); and in time truth will break through our illusions. This paper is highly relevant to issues being discussed in and beyond Anglicanism, concerning its disputed future, and in other sections of the worldwide Church. It makes specific reference to the debate about an Anglican Covenant in the run-up to the Lambeth Conference 2008. It may also give those outside the Church a better understanding of how language and tradition is being applied and misapplied within very diverse Christian communities during a time of considerable upheaval and anxiety, both inside and outside the Church.
Read the whole paper here.
3 CommentsUpdated Monday afternoon
The Economist has a brief news item: The gathering storm and then a leader, headed Church and state Sever them.
The news item concludes rather interestingly with these paragraphs:
…Schism has been looming over Anglicanism since 2003, when American liberals ordained a gay bishop, Gene Robinson. And—a sign of how far apart the camps are—the conservatives’ worry is not that Lambeth will endorse homosexual relations among the clergy or anybody else; it is rather that decisions there will not provide clearly enough for the expulsion of churches which stray in a liberal direction.
In the latest move, Drexel Gomez, the conservative Archbishop of the West Indies, has started drafting a compromise that would allow old-timers to attend the Lambeth meeting, on the understanding that proper arrangements will be made for disciplining gay-friendly liberals. To people who are neither Christian nor Muslim, it must all sound a bit like sharia law.
The leader draws this conclusion from it all:
…Faced with this anomaly, the archbishop proposes to expand the privileges of all religions. It would be better instead to curtail the entitlements of his one. It makes no sense in a pluralistic society to give one church special status. Nor does it make sense, in a largely secular country, to give special status to all faiths. The point of democracies is that the public arena is open to all groups—religious, humanist or football fans. The quality of the argument, not the quality of the access to power, is what matters. And citizens, not theocrats, choose.
Cut it free
Disestablishing the Church of England does not mean that it has no public role to play. America’s founders said there should be no established religion, but religion shapes public debate to a degree that many in Europe find incomprehensible. Let religion compete in the marketplace for ideas, not seek shelter behind special privileges. One law for all, with its enlightened insistence on tolerance and free speech, is not a “bit of a danger”. It is what underwrites the ability of all religions to go about their business unhindered.
Ekklesia which had already expressed a view on this in Disestablishment may be back on the agenda as church feels pressure has now commented directly on the Economist response in The Economist calls for cutting the cord that binds church and state.
And Simon Barrow wrote about Giving up Establishment for Lent.
Here is a link to the BBC Sunday item (7 minutes audio):
21 CommentsDisestablishment
Controversy has surrounded the comments Rowan Williams recently made about Sharia. The religious think tank Ekklesia has now weighed into the debate with the suggestion that the Archbishop’s speech demonstrates the need for the disestablishment of the Church of England. Jonathan Bartley, the co-director of Ekklesia, and the Right Reverend James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, gave their views.
Terry Philpot writes about Catholic care homes in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
Usama Hasan writes in The Times about What is Sharia?
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that the Democrats now do God.
Christopher Howse following the archbishop’s lead tells more Ronald Knox jokes in When Islam and the C of E unite.
Craig Brown tries to be amusing in Dr Rowan Williams’ ‘Cat Sat On The Mat’.
And for a real contrast to that, try the sermon given by Rowan Williams at the memorial service for Charlie Moule last weekend.
6 CommentsBoth the Church Times and the Tablet have multiple articles on this topic. Unfortunately several are not available at present except to subscribers. When more becomes available, we will publish links.
Meanwhile, here is what you can read:
Church Times Lambeth endures protests and Page 3 girls in sharia row by Rachel Harden
Synod welcomes Dr Williams’s robust defence by Pat Ashworth and Margaret Duggan
Church Times leader: First, they came for the Muslims
Tablet
Quiet voice of modernity’s enemy by Theo Hobson
Tablet editorial: Crisis of identity
The primates of Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and the Southern Cone have issued a public response to the letter they were sent signed by 21 English evangelical bishops.
The full text of the response is here: GAFCON Response to Evangelical English Bishops. Part of it reads:
45 Comments… You will know that some of us have not been able to take communion with the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church since February 2005, – a period of about three years. The reason is that TEC took an action to consecrate Gene Robinson as Bishop in 2003 contrary to the resolution of the Lambeth Conference, an action of which they have not repented. The consecrators of Gene Robinson have all been invited to Lambeth, contrary to the statement of the Windsor Report (para 134) that members of the Episcopal Church should “consider in all conscience whether they should withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican Communion”.
You will know that some of those who objected to this consecration in the United States and have made arrangements for orthodox oversight from other provinces including ours have been charged with abandonment of communion. Their congregations have either forfeited or are being sued for their properties by the very bishops with whom you wish us to share Christian family fellowship for three weeks.
To do this is an assault on our consciences and our hearts. Further, how can we explain to our church members, that while we and they are formally out of communion with TEC, and provide oversight to these orthodox colleagues, we at the same time live with them at the Lambeth Conference as though nothing had happened? This would be hypocrisy.
We are also concerned that the invitation list reflects a great imbalance. It fails to address fundamental departures from historic faith that have triggered this crisis and yet excludes bishops of our own provinces, of Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda who teach and practice Biblical faith. As constituted, the invitations suggest that institutional structures are superior to the content of the faith itself.
We are also mindful of the press interest in the Conference, and in the presence in some form or other of Gene Robinson and his male partner, and of 30 gay activists. We would be the continual target of activist campaigners and media intrusion. In these circumstances we could not feel at home…
First, the Bishop of British Columbia (that’s the diocese next door to New Westminster), James Cowan issued this letter (PDF file) to his diocese on 30 January:
Then, Bishop Michael Ingham of New Westminster wrote a letter to his diocese on 6 February.
The Anglican Journal reported all this as West Coast bishops warn parishes against separation on 12 February.
The next day, the Primate of the Canadian Church, Archbishop Fred Hiltz also issued a letter, reported also here):
…“I am very concerned that there are a few parishes that may be considering a motion to withdraw from the fellowship of the Anglican Church of Canada, and to place themselves under the jurisdiction of another Province of the Anglican Communion,” he wrote, urging reconsideration.
“It is not necessary for any parish to consider such action. The House of Bishops has designed a model for Shared Episcopal Ministry. This model enables a diocesan Bishop to share his or her Episcopal oversight with another Bishop for parishes finding themselves in conscientious disagreement with the Bishop and Synod over the matter of the blessing of same sex unions.
“With this provision in place there is no need for pastoral interventions by bishops from jurisdictions outside of the Anglican Church of Canada. Such interventions in fact are inappropriate. Indeed the Archbishop of Canterbury in a recent letter to me said he cannot “support or sanction” such actions.
Nevertheless on that same day, members of the parish of St John’s Shaughnessy did just that. The diocese reported it this way: Diocese regrets decision of people to leave Anglican Church of Canada
Results from the Vestry meeting of St. John’s Shaughnessy on February 13 indicate that members of that parish plan to leave the Anglican Church of Canada.
The parish congregation voted to request that Donald Harvey, a retired bishop who left the Anglican Church of Canada in November, give it episcopal oversight, as a bishop in a South American Anglican Church. Harvey’s jurisdiction is not recognized by the Canadian Church or the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Dean Peter Elliott, speaking for the Diocese while Bishop Michael Ingham is out of the country, said: “We regret the decision of any person to leave our Church.”
Read the whole report here.
Press reports:
Anglican Journal Vancouver church votes to leave Canadian church
Reuters Anglican church split over gays widens in Canada
Toronto Globe & Mail Anglican church seeks oversight from bishop in South America
Vancouver Sun Anglicans vote to split over same-sex blessings
There is a further development in relation to the Diocese of San Joaquin (previous report here). ENS reports:
…A steering committee has been appointed to begin to reconstitute the Fresno-based Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, while a second priest has been appointed as “interim pastoral presence” in the Central California Valley diocese.
“The steering committee has been formed and there are about 20 people involved,” said the Rev. Canon Robert Moore, appointed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as an interim pastoral presence late last year.“It is important for people both inside and outside California to understand that this committee represents a broad spectrum of theological positions,” Moore said. “We are really trying to stay away from designations like liberal and conservative, because it is very important to the Presiding Bishop that it be a representative group of people.”
Moore confirmed that the Rev. Canon Brian Cox, 16-year rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara in the Diocese of Los Angeles, also has been appointed as an interim pastoral presence in San Joaquin.
“He is, by his own description, a well-known conservative and trained in reconciliation work,” Moore said. “The hope is that he will be able to reach out to additional folks. He and I are now beginning a healing kind of reconciliation process,” he added…
Read the full report here. Also the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, meeting this past week, said in a letter that:
…The transformation we have witnessed in the Diocese of Central Ecuador gives us hope in light of the attempt of the Bishop and Convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin to remove their diocese from The Episcopal Church and transfer it to another province in the Anglican Communion.
We are deeply concerned for those who are members of The Episcopal Church but now find themselves in parishes or dioceses attempting to depart. To the members of The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin, know we stand with you. Your struggles and needs inform our prayers, deliberations, and plans. This is a new and unfamiliar landscape for all of us. We stand with you and commit ourselves to provide pastoral care, to aid in re-organization, and to support legal actions necessary to retain the assets of the diocese for ministry. We will hold clergy leaders accountable to their vows to uphold the doctrine, discipline and worship of this Church, and lay leadership accountable to the fiduciary responsibilities of the offices they hold. Up to $500,000 of income from trust funds will be made available in the calendar year 2008 to support the mission work of the Diocese of San Joaquin and similarly situated dioceses…
The full letter text is available as PDF file here.
The Living Church also has a report on this.
0 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
Religious Intelligence had this on Tuesday:
Theological convictions, not bruised feelings, will prevent at least three provinces from attending the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the Primate of the West Indies has said.
In an interview with the Nassau Guardian yesterday, West Indian Archbishop Drexel Gomez stated “there are at least four provinces in Africa that have either said they will not attend or are still considering if they will attend, but there are three who said they will definitely not be attending.”
Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda had announced they will not be attending the conference as it is currently organized. Sources in the Anglican Church of Kenya tell us that the Church was to have made a decision at its House of Bishops meeting scheduled for this week. However, the post-election violence has postponed the meeting to April when a decision will be taken…
The Nassau Guardian article itself is here. It also says:
It would be “scandalous” if gay Anglican Bishop Canon V. Gene Robinson appeared at the upcoming Anglican Lambeth Conference in July with his partner, Archbishop Drexel Gomez told The Guardian Monday.
The upcoming conference, held once every 10 years, is expected to see the coming together of a number of Anglican Bishops at the University of Kent in Canterbury. But because of the on-going schism within the Communion as a result of the ordination of Robinson almost six years ago, Gomez said some provinces recently indicated they would not attend the upcoming conclave.
Uganda’s decision is now reported widely in the media:
Religious Intelligence again on Thursday: Uganda to boycott Lambeth
The African Province announced its intention in a statement issued last night by the Archbishop of Uganda, the Most Rev Henry Orombi, pictured, on the same day the Church of England’s General Synod discussed the content of a Covenant which is being drawn up to try and keep the worldwide Communion together.
The boycott revolves around the Church’s long-running row over homosexuality, which came to the fore after the consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, by the Episcopal Church (TEC) of the USA in 2003. In the statement Bishop Orombi writes that Bishop Robinson’s consecration and the TEC’s continued practice of blessing same-sex couples is ‘in flagrant disregard’ of a resolution passed at the 1998 Lambeth Conference which described homosexual practice as ‘incompatible with Scripture’.
He added that their non-attendance was a means of expressing their disapproval that American bishops have been invited to the ten-yearly gathering of Primates. He said: “This decision has been made to protest the invitations extended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Rowan Williams, to TEC Bishops whose stand and unrepentant actions created the current crisis of identity and authority in the Anglican Communion.” He added they planned to meet with other traditionalist bishops at an ‘alternative Lambeth’ called the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem in June, which is expected to be attended by other conservative leaders from Africa and Australia.
Press Association Uganda boycotts Anglican conference
Reuters Ugandan bishops to boycott global Anglican meeting
BBC Uganda boycotts Anglican meeting
The Times Uganda bishops join boycott of Lambeth Conference over gay priests
And Ruth Gledhill has a blog article which links to the actual text of the Uganda statement as an RTF file. I have reproduced it as an html page here.
The decision by Rwanda not to attend goes back to June 2007, see Lambeth invitations: Rwanda not attending.
The decision by Nigeria goes back to May 2007, see Nigeria responds to Minns not being invited and also later, Nigeria: open letter to Canterbury.
41 CommentsEpiscopal Majority has published, in four parts, an essay by Christopher Webber titled Unity and Diversity in the Lambeth Conference.
Read the four parts:
Part I: The Beginning
Part II: Broader Agendas
Part III: Coming to Grips with Unity and Diversity
Part IV: Living Together as a Truly Global Community
Matt Wardman is quite clear about the answer to this: he blames the BBC. Read Archbishop Rowan Firestorm was Started by the BBC before Interview was even Broadcast (H/T Alan Wilson)
News Sniffer shows you how the BBC’s own web reporting of the story changed over time.
There are others, though, who believe that what Rowan Williams said was wrong. See for example, Christopher Hitchens at Slate in To Hell With the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Theo Hobson has written Rowan Williams: sharia furore, Anglican future at openDemocracy.
And at ourKingdom Simon Barrow’s latest piece in the Sharia Subjects series is The real purpose of the Archbishop.
He also wrote A question of conscience on Comment is free.
More links to other opinions on all this on Ruth Gledhill’s blog at Sharia show shuts down? No it doesn’t. Bad luck Rowan. She includes this from Archbishop Akinola:
18 Comments‘We have received news of what the Archbishop of Canterbury allegedly said. If it is true that this statement about the inevitability of the introduction of Sharia law into the UK credited to Rowan Williams was actually said by him, it is most disturbing and most unfortunate. With what Christians are going through in Muslim lands around the world, it is unbelievable that any Christian leader – not to talk of an Archbishop – would make such a statement under whatever guise. This matter will be discussed at the next meeting of our House of Bishops.’
Updated Tuesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning
Official report : General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Monday 11th February 2008 PM
This includes links to audio recordings of all the items.
Church Times
Day one: Monday
Synod welcomes Dr Williams’s robust defence
Press Association Williams defends sharia law debate
Reuters Williams defends right to raise Islamic law
BBC
Williams in synod Sharia address
Archbishop guilty of innocence by Alex Kirby
PM extends support to archbishop by Laura Kuenssberg
Guardian
Archbishop defends his comments on Sharia law Riazat Butt Paper version: Archbishop defends sharia law remarks but admits his words may have lacked clarity
A very Anglican resurrection by Andrew Brown
Williams, sharia and a mea culpa … of sorts by Stephen Bates
In an age of red-top fury, here is a hero by Giles Fraser
Guardian leader: Wounded and wiser
The Times
Synod backs Archbishop in Sharia controversy by Philippe Naughton and Ruth Gledhill headline now changed to ‘Sorry for any confusion but it is my right and duty to talk about religion and the law’
St Rowan seeks forgiveness for the sin of ‘unclarity’ by Alan Hamilton
Daily Telegraph
Archbishop won’t back down over sharia row by Jonathan Petre
Dr Rowan Williams may suffer lasting damage by Jonathan Petre
Synod fails to cast first stone at Archbishop by Andrew Gimson
Dr Rowan Williams’s gift to Gordon Brown by Rachel Sylvester
Telegraph leader: Dr Rowan Williams’s words were understood
Daily Mail
‘I was right to speak out on sharia law,’ says Archbishop by Steven Doughty
He stood there, hands clasped in front of him, the beard moving roughly in sync with his lips by Quentin Letts
Independent
Williams tries to defuse row over sharia law but refuses to apologise by Jonathan Brown
Clumsy maybe, but not sorry by Paul Vallely
Episcopal News Service
Canterbury defends Sharia comments in General Synod address by Matthew Davies
Church Society
General Synod Report 11 February 2008
The full text of what Rowan Williams said can be found here.
This was preceded by a standing ovation from the members of the synod.
Complete audio recording of this address available here.
49 CommentsRiazat Butt in the Guardian has Archbishop tears up script to face critics
And also, Ayesha Khan on Sharia sensibilities
Jonathan Petre in the Daily Telegraph has Synod turns on Rowan Williams in sharia row
And also, here is what Lord Carey said yesterday in the Sunday Telegraph Are we promoting harmony or Muslim ghettos?. Today, Janet Daley has Removing the state from Dr Rowan Williams
Andrew Grice in the Independent says Williams resists calls to resign over sharia row
And Johann Hari has Rowan Williams has shown us one thing – why multiculturalism must be abandoned
See previous TA article for reports in The Times.
The BBC has Williams to face Anglican leaders and also Sharia row persists for Williams and Carey weighs into Sharia law row and later, PM praises archbishop’s integrity
The Press Association has Archbishop ready to defend himself
Reuters says Williams to speak out after storm
Here’s the timetable for today’s General Synod session:
3.15 p.m. to 7 p.m.
1. INTRODUCTIONS
2. PROGRESS OF MEASURES AND STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
3. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
4 and 5. REPORT BY THE BUSINESS COMMITTEE (GS 1676)
6. FORTY-SECOND REPORT OF THE STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE (GS 1677)
7. QUESTIONS
And the BBC has this helpful Q&A: The General Synod explained
10 CommentsTomorrow in The Times Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correpondent, and Philip Webster, Political Editor report that: Archbishop faces critics on his day of judgment:
An embattled Archbishop of Canterbury will confront anger within the Church of England as, on this most critical day of his five years in office, he tries to justify his remarks about Islamic law.
Dr Rowan Williams will open the General Synod in Central London this afternoon with a presidential address in which he will show that he can weather the storm over his recent remarks. He will attempt to set the record straight, insisting that he never advocated a “parallel jurisdiction” of Sharia.
The Archbishop, whose liberal stance has provoked fury among evangelicals, will face further pressure when a senior bishop launches a renewed attack on the Church’s approach to homosexuality.
The Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester and fifth most senior clergyman in the hierarchy, will give warning that the Church’s integrity has been “gravely undermined” by its implicit acceptance of same-sex relationships.
The issue of homosexuality and the Church is due to be debated by Synod when the Covenant, a new agreement on doctrine supported by Dr Williams, is examined on Wednesday.
In a forward to God, Gays and the Church, a book to be published this week and seen by The Times, Bishop Scott-Joynt attacks what he calls the “public advocating and vaunting of behaviour contrary to the teaching of the Church of England” at last year’s Synod, which was presided over by Dr Williams…
For more background to this book, see Anglican Mainstream’s announcement: God, Gays and the Church and also the announcement by The Latimer Trust God, Gays & the Church: Human Sexuality in Christian Thinking
Also the same journalists have this: Row over gay clergy threatens to divide a Synod still reeling over Sharia furore:
…In a new book, God, Gays and the Church, the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, attacks the acceptance of “alternative, revisionist teaching” on the issue of homosexuality.
Bishop Scott-Joynt, referring to a debate on sexuality at the synod last February, claims that there was a “public advocating and vaunting of behaviour contrary to the teaching of the Church of England”. Several priests in that debate spoke openly of the joy and fulfilment they get from being in openly gay relationships, even though official church discipline demands that gay clergy be celibate.
Bishop Scott-Joynt condemns the fact that personal experience appears to be given the same weight as Scripture, tradition and the Church in the debate over homosexuality…
And Ruth Gledhill has this comment piece: The intellectual arrogance that pervades the heart of Lambeth Palace wisdom:
…Dr Williams was advised before his speech on Thursday evening that the content could prove controversial. He heeded the warnings but went ahead anyway. He was “taken aback” by just how controversial it then proved but remains “chirpy” and unrepentant about his comments because he believes that they needed to be made.
Although he is a holy and spiritual man, danger lies in the appearance of the kind of intellectual arrogance common to many of Britain’s liberal elite. It is an arrogance that affords no credibility or respect to the popular voice. And although this arrogance, with the assumed superiority of the Oxbridge rationalist, is not shared by his staff at Lambeth Palace, it is by some of those outside Lambeth from whom he regularly seeks counsel…
Read the whole article for more on the Lambeth Palace scene.
31 CommentsUpdated
As a change from the secular media reports, here is what Ekklesia has published:
8 Feb Archbishop under fire over Sharia law lecture and interview
9 Feb Church of England head seeks a multi-faith settlement for the UK
10 Feb What lies beyond Lambeth’s Sharia humiliation?
And see also Real problem, wrong solution
10 Feb Catholics say their marriage tribunals do not seek civil law enforcement
And see also on Comment is free A multi-faith muddle
16 Comments