Here is what the Diocese of Hereford told me on Tuesday 11 December when I asked them to clarify the comments made by the Bishop of Hereford at the employment tribunal hearing in Cardiff on Friday 7 December:
“Given the judgement of the tribunal the only “safe” option to avoid future discrimination claims is for the Diocese to express a Genuine Occupational Requirement and claim exemption from the Sexual Orientation Regulation 2003.
This we do not wish to do as we wish to encourage people of any sexual orientation to play a full part in the life of the Church and to apply for all Diocesan posts.
However, we also require those in leadership positions within the Diocese, and the DYO is such a position, to uphold, support and promote the doctrine of the Church of England. We are therefore seeking advice on how we can maintain the teachings of the Church without transgressing the law.”
The Church Times has a story on this, Priddis ‘sorry for hurt’, but it is only available to subscribers at present.
59 CommentsMarilyn McCord Adams delivered a paper entitled “Shaking the Foundations: LGBT Bishops and Blessings in the Fullness of Time”.
Read the full text on Daily Episcopalian over here.
Read the Episcopal News Service report here.
Check at Episcopal Café for more papers soon.
97 CommentsHere’s the press release from: The Chicago Consultation
International Anglican group initiates “strategy of inclusion”
Chicago Consultation celebrates contributions of gay Christians, urges blessing of same-sex relationships, calls homophobia “a sin whose end time is now”.
(Evanston, Ill.) Anglicans from around the world met near Chicago last week to build international coalitions and develop a strategy for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in the life of the Church.
Meeting at Seabury-Western Seminary, Dec. 5-7, the 50-member group known as the Chicago Consultation urged leaders of the Episcopal Church to permit the blessing of same-sex relationships and to remove barriers that keep gay candidates from being elected as bishops.
“Some people call it the gay agenda, but we call it the Gospel Agenda,” said the Rev. Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints Church, Chicago, co-convener of the Consultation. “We are asking our Church and our Communion to see what God has created and know that it is good.”
The Consultation also called upon the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, to invite Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as a full participant to the Lambeth Conference. Robinson, a member of the Consultation, is the only diocesan bishop in the Anglican Communion living openly in a same-sex relationship.
“We wanted to affirm Gene,” said Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Diocese of Washington, “but we also wanted to affirm all of the anonymous gay and lesbian Christians who have graced the Church with their God-given gifts—even when the Church has been unwilling to receive them.”
Participants from Africa, England and New Zealand joined fellow Anglicans from Central, North and South America in pledging to work against schismatic leaders who have sought to gain power in the Communion by turning marginalized groups against one another.
“Homophobia is a sin whose end time is now,” said the Rev. Canon Marilyn McCord Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity at Christ Church, Oxford University, in a paper opening the consultation.
Human institutions are riddled with systemic evils, she said. “Our calling is to discern which ones are ripe for uprooting and to take the lead in eradicating them, beginning in the garden behind our own house!”
In three intensive days, punctuated by periods of silent prayer, participants heard papers by Adams, Bishop Stacy Sauls of the Diocese of Lexington, Dean Jenny Te Paa of St. John’s College, Auckland, New Zealand and the Rev. Frederick Quinn of Salt Lake City, Utah and began to develop strategies to advance the cause of full inclusion at the Lambeth Conference in July 2008, and at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim in 2009.
Te Paa also preached at a Eucharist celebrated with members of the Consultation and the seminary community.
While developing what they dubbed a “strategy of inclusion,” participants also voiced opposition to the current draft of a proposed Anglican Covenant, which would create a centralized governing body with authority over member Churches for the first time in the Communion’s history.
“There was tremendous energy in the plenary sessions, and even more in the breakout groups,” said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, academic dean at Seabury, and co-convener of the Consultation. “It was such a talented and committed group that eventually we abandoned some of the formal presentations and started identifying our priorities and making plans.”
Participants focused particular attention on building international coalitions to work against what the Rev. Mpho Tutu, executive director of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage in Alexandria, Va., called “interlocking oppressions,” the web of economic, political and social factors that determine who has access to power, resources and social approval, and who does not.
“The issue is human suffering and the attitudes that cause it,” said Bishop Celso Franco de Oliveira of Rio de Janeiro.
Before adjourning, the group made plans to:
The consultation includes two Primates of the Anglican Communion—Archbishop Martin de Jesus Barahona of Central America and Archbishop Carlos Touche-Porter of Mexico, who was unable to attend due to illness; 12 bishops from the Episcopal Church, including 10 diocesan bishops or bishops-elect; four members of the Church’s Executive Council; numerous General Convention deputies, and representatives of groups such as Integrity, Claiming the Blessing and Inclusive Church.
Bonnie Anderson, president of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies, attended the consultation as an observer, and said she hopes other groups in the Church will invite her to their meetings in a similar capacity so that she can familiarize herself with their concerns.
Participants from other Churches in the Anglican Communion included the Very Rev. Victor Atta-Baffoe, dean of St. Nicholas College, Cape Coast, Ghana; Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada; Te Paa; the Rev. Jane Shaw, dean of divinity, New College, Oxford and the Rev. Giles Fraser, founder of Inclusive Church in the United Kingdom.
The steering committee was convened by Meyers and Perry and included Bishop Neil Alexander of Atlanta, who was unable to attend the meeting; Chane; the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of Seabury-Western; the Rev. Gay Jennings, associate director of the CREDO Institute; Jim Naughton, canon for communications and advancement in the Diocese of Washington; Robinson and Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Mary Wolfe Professor of Historical Theology at Episcopal Divinity School.
The consultation was supported by several grants, including one from the Arcus Foundation of Kalamazoo, Mich., which works to “achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race.” Following the conference, the group received a $60,000 grant from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Philadelphia, Pa., to support its future work.
21 CommentsThe text of the address given at the Drenched in Grace conference by the Revd Dr Louis Weil is now available at the Inclusive Church website.
Read it in full at When signs signify – the Baptismal Covenant in its sacramental context.
0 CommentsEpiscopal News Service reports: Continuing Episcopalians making plans to reconstitute Diocese of San Joaquin.
Local leaders, along with those from the wider church, are already making plans for the continuation of the Diocese of San Joaquin following a vote to disassociate from the Episcopal Church.
Michael Glass, a San Rafael, California-based attorney who represents congregations and individual Episcopalians who wish to remain in the Episcopal Church, told Episcopal News Service (ENS) December 11 that he, local leaders, Chancellor to the Presiding Bishop David Booth Beers, and leaders from Episcopal dioceses surrounding San Joaquin “are coming together very soon to finalize our coordinated efforts to provide for the leadership needs, the legal and pastoral issues, and the financial concerns of our brothers and sisters in San Joaquin, and to provide for the continuation of the diocese.”
The Rev. Robert Moore will meet with the group as well. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori appointed Moore “to provide an ongoing pastoral presence to the continuing Episcopalians in the Diocese of San Joaquin,” said the Rev. Charles Robertson, canon to the Presiding Bishop.
Moore is the husband of Bishop Suffragan Bavi Edna “Nedi” Rivera of Olympia, the daughter of San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield’s predecessor, Bishop Victor Rivera.
But it is not straightforward. Read the rest of the report about the intimidating threats to clergy, and the problems of mission congregations.
27 CommentsThe employment tribunal hearing last week in the case of John Reaney and the Diocese of Hereford adjourned without the Remedies being settled. The tribunal chairman said it would be at least mid-January before judgment would be given. That’s yet another month’s delay in a case which started over a year ago.
Some press reports:
BBC Gay row bishop ‘sorry for pain’
Wales News Bishop hurt by ‘derogatory’ comments, and in the Western Mail next day Bishop regrets gay case distress.
And in today’s Guardian, Stephen Bates has a piece in the People column.
20 CommentsThis week, in the Church Times a letter was published from Canon Giles Goddard which is reproduced at InclusiveChurch.
See Letter to Church Times 7th December 2007. The Church Times copy is here (subscription only until Friday).
The earlier letters to the editor to which this is a direct response can be found here, at Bishops Iker and Duncan, and the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The original letters to the bishops can be found here (Duncan) and here (Iker).
38 CommentsUpdated Tuesday morning
As noted by Episcopal Café an email from The Rev. Canon Dr. James M. Rosenthal, Anglican Communion Office, Director of Communications says:
“Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has not in any way endorsed the actions of the Primate of the Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables, in his welcoming of dioceses, such as San Joaquin in the Episcopal Church, to become part of his province in South America,” a spokesman for the Anglican Communion said.
Update
Episcopal News Service has Archbishop did not endorse Southern Cone’s invitation to San Joaquin, Anglican Communion spokesman says which includes various earlier quotes relating to this issue, and Anglican Mainstream has this report which quotes Gregory Venables himself as saying:
75 Comments“I have neither sought nor claimed his endorsement for our actions in Canada or the Diocese of San Joaquin. At the same time however he has been informed of the steps we were planning in North America. If that hadn’t been the case we wouldn’t have moved ahead.”
Updated again Tuesday evening
There has been is still no at last a media report so far of the episcopal consecrations which took place yesterday afternoon in Virginia. Four additional suffragan bishops were consecrated for CANA by Archbishop Peter Akinola. This is the first such event to take place in the USA. Correction It has been pointed out that some AMiA consecrations took place in Denver in June 2001.
Update the report is in the Fairfax Times and is headlined CANA split on issue of women priests.
There are a number of documents on the CANA website, and there is blog coverage by BabyBlue.
Bishop Frank Lyons of the Province of the Southern Cone, Bishop John Guernsey, Missionary Bishop for the Province of Uganda, and Bishop Bob Duncan, Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Moderator of the Anglican Communion Network, Bishop John Ball, Diocese of Chelmsford, Church of England, Bishop Ben Kawshi and many other bishops from the Province of Nigeria, and other bishops all took part in the consecrations this afternoon at Church of the Epiphany, Herndon, VA.
Bishop Martyn Minns delivered this address last Thursday (PDF file).
The order of service for the consecrations is also available as a PDF file.
Biographies of the four are included here.
Two earlier press reports:
New bishops set for Anglican breakaways by Julia Duin Washington Times
Ex-Episcopal splinter group expanding, official says Washington DC Examiner
Ruth Gledhill discusses this event on her blog, at Anglican experiment “is over”. She has some still photos. BabyBlue has lots of video.
More photos are here.
56 CommentsUpdated again Tuesday evening
Sunday Telegraph Jonathan Wynne-Jones Diocese splits from Church in gay row
The Living Church has this interesting account headlined Presiding Bishop Eyes New Leadership for Diocese of San Joaquin.
The Stockton Record has two three articles:
Church votes to secede and What would Jesus rue? (opinion column)
Staying true to the Scripture (opinion column)
Remain Episcopal had issued this press release in November: San Joaquin Diocese Will Continue With or Without Bishop Schofield (PDF file). The website of this organisation is here.
The official press release from the diocese is here: Diocese of San Joaquin Votes to Disassociate with The Episcopal Church. It includes the assertion that:
The Diocese of San Joaquin was founded as a missionary diocese in 1911 and became a full autonomous diocese in 1961.
Gregory Venables sent this message to San Joaquin.
Monday updates
Daily Telegraph Anglican diocese quits over gay rights by Catherine Elsworth
Los Angeles Times Some parishes won’t secede by Rebecca Trounson
The Remain Episcopal website has various messages of support linked from the home page.
Tuesday update
Bakersfield Californian Local believers discuss church split and as epiScope notes:
61 CommentsA representative of the Diocesan Office said that Schofield told the news media Friday during the convention that individual parishes within the diocese are free to remain in the Episcopal Church as long as they settle any outstanding debts first.
So…what does that mean for the 20 San Joaquin congregations (out of 56) currently in mission status?
Updated Sunday morning
Episcopal News Service reports on the voting at the diocesan convention today.
Read San Joaquin votes to leave Episcopal Church, realign with Southern Cone by Pat McCaughan.
The full text of the bishop’s convention address can be found in this PDF file. And the Living Church has a story on that, Bishop Schofield Urges San Joaquin Delegates to Take Leap of Faith.
Initial press reports of this:
BBC US Church splits over gay rights
Associated Press Diocese Breaks With Episcopal Church
Reuters Calif. diocese leaves Episcopals in historic split
New York Times Episcopal Diocese Votes to Secede From Church by Neela Banerjee
Los Angeles Times Episcopal diocese secedes in rift over gays by Rebecca Trounson (and in the print edition with the headline California diocese leaves Episcopal Church in rift over gays, theology)
Central Valley Business Times Central Valley Episcopal diocese splits from national church
San Francisco Chronicle Episcopal fold loses 1st diocese – in valley
Fresno Bee Diocese splits from national Episcopalians
Modesto Bee Diocese will leave Episcopal Church
Bakersfield Californian Diocese votes to split from church
20 CommentsIn the Guardian Zaki Cooper says Some of the staunchest supporters of Christmas come from other religions.
Also, Pankaj Mishra argues that a public conversation about Islam should not be avoided, in A paranoid, abhorrent obsession.
The Times has Jonathan Sacks writing that The battle to teach moral values is won at school.
In the Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse writes about Trevor Beeson’s new book, Round the Church in Fifty Years, in an article titled Bringing life back into the parishes.
Giles Fraser asks Which party really wants a divorce? in the Church Times.
Andrew Brown argues at Comment is free that Civilisation is safe.
36 CommentsCardinal pours cold water on union with rebel Anglican group is the headline in the Catholic Herald.
One of the Vatican’s most senior cardinals has dismissed the idea that a breakaway group of Anglicans might be received into the Catholic Church en masse – despite Benedict XVI’s personal support for such a move.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, told The Catholic Herald: “It’s not our policy to bring that many Anglicans to Rome.”
The cardinal’s comments refer to the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), a rebel group which claims to represent 400,000 people. Its bishops sent a letter to Rome last month requesting “full, corporate and sacramental union”.
But the bishops did not send their letter to Cardinal Kasper. Instead they addressed it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), where, it is understood, they expected a warmer reception…
Read the whole article here.
26 CommentsThe Bishop of Ripon and Leeds has criticised Anglican bishops who are threatening to withdraw from next year’s Lambeth Conference on issues of principle as “misguided and missing the point”, saying that the purpose of the ten yearly gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world has always been to discuss divisions and differences since it was begun by his predecessor, 140 years ago.
Read the full press release about his Advent Address.
…Speaking of his predecessor, the first Bishop of Ripon, Charles Longley, Bishop Packer said, “The act for which he is remembered in history is that calling of the (Lambeth) Conference in 1867 in which bishops were invited to express their differences in the context of their unity in Christ… There was strong disagreement over the necessity for Christians to believe in the reality of eternal punishment following the publication of ‘Essays and Reviews’.
“There could not be a greater contrast between the attitude of the bishops at Lambeth in 1867 and those who appear unwilling to attend in 2008 who I believe to be misguided and missing the point….. (In 1867) there was no sense of a need to achieve unity before meeting, or refusal to attend on the grounds of the deep divisions which then split Anglicans from each other. Indeed the fact of such divisions was the chief incentive to meet…”
The full text of his address is available as a PDF file here.
89 CommentsUpdated again Friday evening
The ENS report by Jan Nunley is headed San Joaquin bishop asked to ‘reconsider, draw back’ from withdrawal efforts.
Expressing concern for his health and “evident sense of isolation,” Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori urged Bishop John-David M. Schofield of the Diocese of San Joaquin to “reconsider and draw back” from efforts to withdraw his diocese from the Episcopal Church.
As with previous letters to other disaffected bishops, the correspondence with Schofield notified him that such a step would force Jefferts Schori to act to bring the diocese and its leadership into line with the mandates of the national Church.
“You have been clear that you feel your views are dismissed or ignored within the Episcopal Church, yet you have ceased to participate in the councils of the Church. It is difficult to have dialogue with one who is absent,” Jefferts Schori wrote. “…The Church will never change if dissenters withdraw from the table. There is an ancient and honored tradition of loyal opposition, and many would welcome your participation”…
The full text of the letter is included and also appears here below the fold.
Update
Bishop Schofield has responded to this, and his reply can be read here. The diocesan site has it here, but a more permanent URL is this PDF version. The full text of this reply is now also below.
Today, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this article by Ann Rogers: Secession sends churches into unknown territory.
And last Friday the Ridgecrest Daily Indpendent in California had Split in world church could mean change for local parish by Ruth Justis.
Earlier last month, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had Episcopal diocese takes step to cut ties by Terry Goodrich.
In a related development, Episcopal News Service recently published Executive Council committee chairs respond to retired bishops’ open letters which references the detailed response given (PDF file) to “a pair of open letters written last summer by a group of retired bishops, demanding a “public report” of the cost of litigation over breakaway groups attempting to take the Episcopal Church’s property”. The article also gives some background on the earlier actions of those retired bishops.
36 CommentsFirst, The Rev. Canon Benjamin Twinamaani of Uganda has written a very informative article, which is published by both Anglican Communion Institute and by Covenant.
It is titled How American Anglicans Think and Act: A Primer for the Global South.
Second, Andrew Goddard has published a new analysis The Anglican Communion – Mapping the Terrain which constitutes the November newsletter for Fulcrum.
It’s receiving a number of critical comments from American conservatives. See for example these three:
Stephen Noll says this.
Sarah Hey says this.
Leander Harding says this.
No doubt more to follow.
57 CommentsLetters of support from the UK to Bishop Duncan and to Bishop Iker have already been reported.
It should not go unnoticed that another letter from the UK was sent to the Anglican Network in Canada. The full text and list of signatories can be found here, and the text is reproduced below the fold. Note that the signatories claimed to be writing not as individuals but also on behalf of their organisations:
Signed with pleasure and delight,
+Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes & President of Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC)
Dr Philip Giddings, Convenor, Anglican Mainstream
Paul Boyd-Lee, Chair of the 1990 Group in General Synod
Rev John Coles, Director of New Wine
Canon Andy Lines, General Secretary of Crosslinks
Stephen Parkinson, Director, Forward in Faith
Revd Paul Perkin, Convenor of the Covenant Group for the Church of England
Revd David Phillips, Director of Church Society
Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Executive Secretary, Anglican Mainstream
Rev Dr Richard Turnbull, Chairman and for the Executive of the Church of England Evangelical Council
Rev Roderick Thomas, Chairman of Reform
But also, there is this letter from no less than the Bishop of Rochester:
63 CommentsThe Right Revd Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester
I greatly regret the necessity for this step, but I am glad that an agreed way has been found for biblically minded and orthodox Anglicans to receive appropriate primatial oversight from the province of the Southern Cone and episcopal care from Bishop Don Harvey. I pray that this arrangement will be a blessing for many.
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali
Gregory Venables has written his opinions (scroll down the page) on specific points raised by the November 29th Pastoral Statement of the Primate and Metropolitans of the Anglican Church of Canada.
For Immediate Release: November 30, 2007
1. Regarding extending a place in the Anglican Communion for those who in all conscience cannot remain in their Province, Archbishop Venables quoted scripture:
“Jesus said, ‘Which of you if your son or ox fall into the well won’t immediately pull him out on the Sabbath?’
Are we keeping the law or the spirit of the law?”
2. Regarding the provision for pastoral care and episcopal support being adequate and appropriate:
“Surely this would require agreement from the recipients as well as those in power.”
3. Regarding the contravening of agreements by interventions:
“In the Dar es Salaam communiqué we said, “Furthermore, those Primates who have undertaken interventions do not feel that it is right to end those interventions until it becomes clear that sufficient provision has been made for the life of those persons.”
On the other hand the bishop of New Westminster within the ACOC a few hours after the appearance of the Primates’ letter from Brazil in 2003 went ahead with the very action the letter had pleaded should not be taken. It also went against the Bible and the consensus of 2000 years of Christianity.
The implication of this violation and the resulting crisis was ignored.
Since then there have been egregious examples in clear rejection of Lambeth 1 10, Windsor and the requests of the Communion leadership. Once again nothing has been said even though this has meant the tearing apart of the Anglican Communion and an exodus from the church.
Now suddenly those who seek to take care of those who side with historic, biblical Christianity and the Anglican Communion are accused of the very lapse that has produced the crisis.
Is it possible in the real world to use the very agreements that one is contravening to protect oneself”.
4. Regarding Bishop Donald Harvey’s response to the Pastoral Statement (Nov. 30, 2007):
Bishop Don Harvey’s response is an accurate assessment of the cause of the current crisis and interpretation of the Primates’ statements. I am grateful to my brothers and sisters in Christ who wrote letters in support of for these actions and in support of ANiC and the ministry of biblically faithful Communion committed Canadian Anglicans. Thanks be to God.
The Anglican Journal has an interview: South American archbishop sees ‘denial’ and ‘hypocrisy’ in Canadian leaders’ statement
and there is a sidebar, Quick facts: The Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America.
The Anglican Network in Canada itself had this to say about the Pastoral Letter.
27 CommentsRoderick Strange writes in The Times about Advent: Nativity narratives are a gift from the gospel’s heart.
Martyn Percy writes in the Guardian that: Advent is a time of serious preparation, but it’s about far more than Christmas.
Christopher Howse writes in the Daily Telegraph about a new papal encyclical: Spe Salvi, says Pope Benedict.
The same paper also has a piece by Sam Leith titled Loving William Blake for being bonkers.
Giles Fraser who has returned from his US trip, writes in the Church Times about How the US conscience has become diseased.
In the Los Angeles Times there is an essay by Laura Miller on the Religious furor over ‘The Golden Compass’.
Added
And here’s a bonus column: Andrew Brown writes about Kitschmas: Funnier than thou.