Updated 19, 21, 22 and 24 February
Online copies of the papers for the February 2011 meeting of General Synod are starting to appear online. I have listed them below, with links, together with other papers listed in the agenda but not yet online. I will update the list as more links become available.
The Report of the Business Committee (GS 1817) includes a forecast of future business, and I have copied this below the fold.
GS 1808 Amending Code of Practice under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003
GS 1808X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1812 Full Synod Agenda
GS 1813 Parochial Fees Policy: Report from the Archbishops’ Council
GS 1814 Draft Clergy Discipline (Amendment) Measure
GS 1814X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1815 Challenges for the New Quinquennium
GS 1816A Common Worship Baptism Provision (Liverpool DSM)
GS 1816B Common Worship Baptism Provision (Note from the Secretary General)
GS 1817 Report by the Business Committee
GS 1818 Briefing paper by FOAG on ARCIC II – Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ
Christian Aid Report: Poverty – We’re All in this Together
GS Misc 872 FOAG Essays on ARCIC II – Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ
GS Misc 960 The House of Bishops’ Statement on Marriage after Divorce and the Ordained Ministry
GS Misc 970 Dioceses Commission: Guide to the Review Report No 2
GS Misc 971 Anglican Communion Covenant: Reference to Diocesan Synods
GS Misc 972 Affirming Our Common Humanity
GS Misc 974 Faith, Work and Economic Life
GS Misc 974B Faith, Work and Economic Life (Resources)
GS Misc 977 Central Stipends Authority report (38th)
GS Misc 979 Ordinariate: Questions and Answers
There are copies of the ARCIC report Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ on the websites of the Anglican Communion Office and the Vatican. The ACO also has a pdf version.
5 CommentsI have already linked to the outline agenda for next month’s meeting of the Church of England General Synod. If normal practice is followed the full agenda and papers will soon be available online, and I will publish links as soon as possible.
Meanwhile the following press release was been issued by the Church of England this morning.
17 January 2011
Secretary of State for International Development to address the Synod.
Key debates on national Church plans for the quinquennium, Anglican-Roman Catholic relations, clergy discipline, parochial fees, baptism services, and marriage after divorce and the ordained ministry.
The Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell, will address the Synod on the scope for greater collaboration between Government and the Church on the Millennium Development Goal of partnerships for development. This will also link in with the Big Society debate at the November Synod.
The Synod has been addressed from time to time by Cabinet ministers, including the Rt. Hon Hilary Benn in 2004 and the Rt Hon Clare Short in 1998, on different aspects of international development.
The General Synod will meet at Church House from 3.00 pm on Monday 7 February until mid-afternoon Wednesday 9 February.
Plans for the quinquennium
Synod will debate a strategic report from the Archbishops’ Council and the House of Bishops looking at the opportunities and challenges facing the Church of England over the next five years and how work done at national level can support dioceses and parishes in meeting them.
Anglican-Roman Catholic relations
The report from the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC): Mary – Grace and Hope in Christ, published in 2005, is the last of the second series of ARCIC reports to come to the General Synod for debate (the decision to initiate a third series of ARCIC studies was announced last year).
The motion from the Council for Christian Unity welcomes the dialogue between the two churches; notes the strengths and weaknesses of the ARCIC report and the areas for further work identified in the briefing paper from the Faith and Order Advisory Group; and encourages study of the report.
The debate will be preceded by a presentation by the Bishop of Guildford, Rt Rev Christopher Hill, (Chair of the CCU) and Bishop George Stack, on behalf of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Clergy Discipline
The focus of the legislative business at this Synod is clergy discipline. In July 2009, the Synod passed a motion on this subject from the London Diocesan Synod and, in the following year, the Clergy Discipline Commission assessed what changes might be needed to the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 in the light of experience over the last seven years. The Commission’s recommendations, which do not involve fundamental changes to the existing legislation, now come before the Synod by way of draft amending legislation for first consideration. The Clergy Discipline Commission is also bringing to the Synod some changes to the Code of Practice under the 2003 Measure.
One additional proposed change to the legislation results from a motion passed by the Synod in February 2009 and would allow disciplinary proceedings to be brought against clergy who support organisations which have aims that are inconsistent with the Church’s teaching on race equality.
Parochial Fees Policy
Last year, Synod gave final approval to new legislation (which is now completing its parliamentary stages). The legal framework for setting fees will in future be significantly different and before the Archbishops’ Council draws up the first Fees Order under the new legislation the Council has decided that the new Synod should have a general debate about principles and their practical outworking.
Baptism Services
The motion from the Liverpool Diocesan Synod asks for additional texts to be prepared as alternatives for passages in the Common Worship Baptism Services, which would be expressed in more culturally appropriate and accessible language than is perceived to be the case with the present services.
Marriage after Divorce and the Ordained Ministry
This provides the opportunity for a take note debate on the House of Bishops’ statement on Marriage after Divorce and the Ordained Ministry which was issued in June. The statement clarified the position on a number of matters including the possible appointment of bishops who may have married again after divorce or have married someone who has been divorced.
Other business
There will be a Presidential Address by the Archbishop of York; and a celebration of Holy Communion at which the Archbishop of Canterbury will preside and preach.
The Business Committee has also scheduled for debate the following motion from Mr John Ward that was not debated at the November Synod during the discussions on the Anglican Communion Covenant, for lack of time. The motion seeks to specify two-thirds majorities (rather than simple majorities) in the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy and the House of Laity at the Final Approval Stage for the draft Act of Synod adopting the Anglican Communion Covenant. The Covenant was referred to dioceses in December and is expected to return to the General Synod in 2012.
There will be two presentations: on ethical investment policy, from the Ethical Investment Advisory Group; and on the Weddings Project.
The Synod will also be asked to approve the appointment of the new Chair of the Synod’s Business Committee (following the Synod elections), and the new Clerk to the Synod (upon the retirement in March of David Williams).
1 CommentFrom the Number 10 website
Monday 17 January 2011
Suffragan See of ReadingThe Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Andrew John Proud, BD, MA, AKC, Area Bishop of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa (in the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa), to the Suffragan See of Reading, in the Diocese of Oxford, in succession to the Right Reverend Stephen Geoffrey Cottrell, BA, on his translation to the See of Chelmsford on 6 October 2010.
Notes for editors
The Right Reverend Andrew Proud (aged 56), studied for the ordained ministry at King’s College London and Lincoln Theological College. He served his first curacy at Stansted Mountfitchet, Chelmsford Diocese from 1980 to 1983. From 1983 to 1990 he was Team Vicar in Borehamwood in St Albans Diocese. From 1990 to 1992 he was an assistant priest in the Hatfield Team Ministry. From 1992 to 2001 he was Rector of East Barnet. He took a Masters at the London School of Oriental and African Studies in 2001. From 2002 to 2007 he was Chaplain at St Matthew’s in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2005 he was made Canon of All Saints Cathedral, Cairo. Since 2007 he has been Area Bishop of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa.
Andrew Proud is married to Janice, a plant physiologist. They have two grown up children and one grandchild.
His interests include Africa and African affairs, walking in vast open spaces, writing narrative poetry, contemporary and classic music, cooking and eating with family friends. He is a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Weavers of London.
The Oxford diocesan website has this report: New Bishop of Reading Announced.
12 Commentswannabepriest has an article, Much better, but let me give you something to aim at…. which reports that the CofE website has a newer, better introductory video than it did before.
But he also links to a video from another source, which is even better. Here is what he says:
11 CommentsIt is much better. The music isn’t turgid and hundreds of years old and the whole thing moves at a better pace. The quality of the typography is better and it looks edited.
However, I still question whether this is the kind of information and content that the Church of England should be aiming to communicate to the wider public. Indeed, the amount of information that this video still includes is voluminous. The whole thing feels pretty relentless now.
Anyway, let me give the CofE Communication gadgees a target to aim at. The following video was produced the Muslim MAS Media Foundation. This isn’t perfect either but it’s streets ahead, in my humble opinion. When can we do something like this, Archbishops’ Council?
Anna Arco at the Catholic Herald has interviewed Andrew Burnham formerly Bishop of Ebbsfleet.
There is a feature article based on the interview: ‘What we asked for is what we got’
You can read a complete transcript of the interview here.
Here is a sample passage:
33 CommentsYou said before you were basically setting up the See of Ebbsfleet. What does that mean?
My predecessor, Michael Houghton, who died after a year (which is of course why they were nervous about me), had taken to calling it the See of Ebbsfleet as if it were a proper diocese. And I took the view that what we were aiming to be was a diocese, an orthodox diocese: bishop, priests, deacons, and laypeople. And therefore that, even though we weren’t an actual diocese, we should organise ourselves as if we were. So I wrote a pastoral letter to the people every month, more or less every month for 10 years. I had a council of priests. This was before anyone else was doing this sort of thing. I had a lay council and a lay congress. I had deaneries, with clergy organised in deaneries for pastoral care.
We did all this as if we were setting out to be a diocese, which irritated people no end. It was done in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury because it was all about how best to care for people. And the apologia I gave was that of the Apostolic District, which was the term in canon law to describe a group that is not yet a diocese but might become so and has an apostolic administrator. Of course an administration, a jurisdiction, was the one thing we weren’t. We didn’t have the legal authority to do any of it. But that was what we were in search of becoming. And it fitted in with the Forward in Faith Free Province rhetoric and fitted what we needed to survive in the Church of England. It was a good way to organise people and get them to move forward together.
Of course my dream would have been that when I said: “We’re going to submit to the Holy See.” Everyone would have followed me and done so that the priests, the churches and congregations would do so en bloc, which they haven’t.
It irritated people, but it did give us a real coherence and cohesion, and it meant that such things as evangelism and mission were always at the forefront of the agenda. And we had a children’s and young people’s eucharistic festival at Brean Sands, Somerset every year with 700 kids coming together for the day. We had parish evangelism weekends to train up younger leaders to replace the older men and women who were struggling to keep their churches going.
I’m very proud of all that and it was all very good. Except that at the end we couldn’t all move forward together, which is the sadness. Partly it was because some priests are too afraid of doing it. Partly it was because of the issue of buildings. Partly it was because for congregations, provided they’ve got that nice Bishop so-and-so and that nice Father so-and-so the ecclesiology is neither here nor there.
And partly it was because the really vigorous parishes, of which there were some, don’t grow because people debate women’s ordination, gay marriage or any other issues of the day. They grow because they simply get people coming together as community. Who knows why they get together? One wouldn’t dream of asking them because you might get the wrong answer. For all sorts of reasons, therefore, going forward together hasn’t quite worked, neither on my side of the country, the West and South West, nor elsewhere.
The Diocese of Portsmouth website reports the sad news that Kenneth Stevenson, the former Bishop of Portsmouth, yesterday lost his battle with leukaemia, dying peacefully in hospital aged 61.
Bishop Kenneth died in hospital early this morning (January 12) after a short illness. His successful earlier treatment for leukaemia had led to a deterioration in his overall health and physical resilience to infection.
May he rest in peace!
3 CommentsThe Church of England Communications Unit drew attention today to the following parliamentary exchange yesterday in the House of Lords:
* Oral Questions
The Bishop of Manchester the Rt Revd Nigel McCullogh asked a supplementary question during Lord Dubs’s oral question about the Act of Succession. Bishop Nigel highlighted that this was not a matter of simple right to equality and that there were wider implications to the suggestions made by Lord Dubs in particular there is an issue for the Church of England should full equality be granted. The full text can be found below or in context at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110110-0001.htm#1101107000347The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, does the Minister accept that the central provision for the establishment of the Church of England is that the Sovereign, as Supreme Governor, should join in communion with that church? Does the Minister agree that, unless the Roman Catholic Church is prepared to soften its rules on its members’ involvement with the Church of England, whose orders it regards as null and void, it is hard to see how the Act of Settlement can be changed without paving the way for disestablishment, which, though it might be welcome to some, would be of great concern to many and not just to Anglicans or, indeed, to other Christians?
Lord McNally: My Lords, that intervention shows the wisdom of proceeding with extreme caution on these matters.
Another copy of the full set of exchanges can be found here.
19 CommentsUpdated
The Church of England has today launched a redesign of its website.
The new website can be found here.
However, all old links from Thinking Anglicans articles to Church of England documents are now broken. This affects in particular our pages relating to the General Synod. The new General Synod section of the CofE website now starts here.
UPDATE Sunday evening
Peter Owen has revised three of our most recent articles containing links to the Church of England website, namely
Yorkshire – Dioceses Commission reports
Women in the episcopate draft legislation referred to dioceses
Reference to Dioceses: Anglican Covenant
Where a referenced document could not be found on the new CofE website, a copy has been uploaded to TA.
The Church Times carried a news report about this new website design in its issue dated 24/31 December, which was published before Christmas. See ‘Anglican’ vanishes in web revamp by Ed Thornton.
In this article, the Church of England Director of Communications, Peter Crumpler, was quoted as follows:
10 CommentsUsers of the current web address will be “automatically redirected to the new site” when it goes live in January, he said. “All the existing links should transfer across automatically.”
Updated 9 & 11 January 2011: All the four documents linked below are now available on the new Church of England website, and I have updated the links accordingly.
As a result of the debate at the November 2010 General Synod on the Anglican Communion Covenant, the matter was referred to Diocesan Synods. The papers sent to dioceses and are available online. They include this paper outlining the process
Reference to Diocesan Synods (GS Misc 971)
and these background papers.
Transcript of debate on Anglican Covenant November 2010
Draft Act of Synod (GS 1809)
Faith and Order Commission: Briefing Paper (GS Misc 966)
Dioceses are required to respond by 5pm on Monday 30 April 2012, so the earliest that this matter can return to General Synod for a final decision on whether to adopt the covenant is July 2012.
5 CommentsUpdated 10 January 2011: links updated to refer to the new Church of England website.
I have recently published election results for General Synod officers and some committee members.
General Synod officers (including detailed voting figures)
General Synod committee elections (Appointments and Business Committees)
The Church of England website has now published these, and other election results, including all the detailed voting figures.
General Synod officers elected
Electoral Returns for Officers and Committees
Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports in the Sunday Telegraph that First Anglicans are received into the Roman Catholic Church in historic service.
Priests and worshippers from around 20 Church of England parishes converted to Catholicism on Saturday at a ceremony in Westminster Cathedral.
Three former bishops were among those confirmed at the service, which saw the first wave of Anglicans defecting to Rome to join the Ordinariate…
Further reports by Austen Ivereigh at America in The discreet beginnings of the Ordinariate and by Sean Finnegan in History Being Made at The Anglo-Catholic.
54 CommentsAdam Forrest has interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury for The Big Issue in Scotland: This turbulent priest.
2 CommentsDocuments released today by the National Archives show that the government of the day had to change the planned date for the Budget to avoid a clash with the scheduled date for the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.
News articles:
Financial Times Cabinet and Church tussled over Budget date
BBC Thatcher wanted Church to relent on Budget Day clash
You can download your own (free) copy of a PDF file containing the relevant documents from here.
3 CommentsThe former archbishop, Lord Carey has written a letter to the current prime minister, David Cameron. This is reported in a news article by Tim Ross under the headline Only half of Britons say UK is a Christian country. The text of the letter itself doesn’t appear to have been published yet.
In the letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Carey said Christians were too often “ridiculed” and dismissed as relics of “a bygone age”.
“Notwithstanding its vast and varied contribution to our society, there appears to be a suspicion about the validity and value of the role that the Christian faith plays in our national life,” he said.
“This has been highlighted by the spate of recent instances in which ordinary Christians who have sought to manifest their Christian faith in the workplace and have allowed their Christian conscience to direct their public service have fallen foul of new employment practices and then discovered that rather than protect them, the law has sided against them.”
Lord Carey suggested that recent legislation was unclear on where the balance of rights fell between different groups. One particularly contentious subject has been the clash of rights between homosexuals and Christians.
“Whatever the explanation, this situation needs urgent review and action from government,” he said.
“It is a remarkable state of affairs that, in such a short space of time and in a country that has been so shaped by, and benefitted so significantly from, a Christian foundation, those who hold traditional Christian viewpoints, in common with millions across the globe and across history, can suddenly find their position labelled discriminatory and prejudiced and then discover that it has effectively become a legal bar to public service.”
Earlier, on a BBC radio news broadcast, the Bishop of Winchester, Michael Scott-Joynt also criticised the legal system. Again the Telegraph has the story, see Bishop of Winchester: legal system discriminates against Christians by Rosa Prince.
93 CommentsBishop Scott-Joynt told the BBC’s World This Weekend: “The problem is that there is a really quite widespread perception among Christians that there is growing up something of an imbalance in the legal position with regard to the freedom of Christians and people of other faiths to pursue the calling of their faith in public life, in public service.
“Probably for the first time in our history there is a widespread lack of religious literacy among those who one way and another hold power and influence, whether it’s Parliament or the media or even, dare I say it, in the judiciary.
”The risk would be that there are increasingly professions where it could be difficult for people who are devoted believers to work in certain of the public services, indeed in Parliament.
“Anybody who is part of the religious community believes that you don’t just hold views, you live them. Manifesting your faith is part of having it and not part of some optional bolt-on.
“Judgement seemed to be following contemporary society, which seems to think that secularist views are statements of the obvious and religious views are notions in the mind. That is the culture in which we are living.
“The judges ought to be religiously literate enough to know that there is an argument behind all this, which can’t simply be settled by the nature of society as it is today.”
In addition to the election of the General Synod officers (who, amongst other things, will be members of the Archbishops’ Council), Synod has been electing members of the Appointment and Business Committees. So far, I know of the following successful candidates.
Appointments Committee of the Church of England
three clergy elected by and from the House of Clergy
The Ven Dr John Applegate (Manchester)
The Ven Annette Cooper (Chelmsford)
The Revd Canon Giles Goddard (Southwark)
three laity elected by and from the House of Laity
Ms Susan Cooper (London)
Ms Sarah Finch (London)
Mr Aiden Hargreaves-Smith (London)
The Business Committee of the General Synod
three clergy elected by and from the House of Clergy
The Revd Canon Susan Booys (Oxford)
The Revd Canon Simon Butler (Southwark)
The Ven Julian Henderson (Guildford)
three laity elected by and from the House of Laity
Mrs Anne Foreman (Exeter)
Mrs Sue Johns (Norwich)
Mr Gerald O’Brien (Rochester)
In addition the House of Bishops elects one member to each committee.
The committee chairs are appointed by the Archbishops (Appointments Committee) or the Archbishops’ Council (Business Committee), and the Archbishops’ Council appoints respectively four and two of its members to the committees.
I maintain a list of members of these, and other committees, here.
0 CommentsThe Telegraph is observing Christmas Eve by publishing a clutch of articles relating to possible changes in the law relating to marriage and civil partnerships.
Tim Ross writes that Coalition ministers consider gay marriage plans.
He also provides a Q&A: same-sex marriages and civil partnerships.
The Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Tim Thornton writes that Marriage should be between a man and a woman.
And the Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of LGCM, writes that We were brought up to believe we would fall in love and get married.
18 CommentsElections for officers of the Church of England General Synod have recently taken place and the following were elected.
House of Laity
Chair: Dr Philip Giddings (Oxford)
Vice-Chair: Mr Tim Hind (Bath & Wells)
House of Clergy
Prolocutor of the Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury: The Venerable Christine Hardman (Southwark)
Prolocutor of the Lower House of the Convocation of York: The Revd Canon Glyn Webster (York)
The detailed voting figures have been issued to candidates and I have collated them into this web page.
The elections were carried out by STV (single transferable vote), with voters putting candidates in order of preference. When, as here, there is only place to be filled in an election, STV reduces to the successive elimination of the candidate with the fewest votes, and the re-allocation of those votes to the elector’s next preference, until one candidate has more than half the votes.
The turnout, particularly for the clergy elections, appears to be rather low. I don’t have definite figures for the number of eligible electors, but I don’t think the figures in the table below are significantly in error.
| votes cast | electors | percentage turnout |
|
| Laity Chair | 163 | 212 | 77 |
| Laity Vice-Chair | 162 | 212 | 76 |
| Canterbury Prolocutor | 90 | 142 | 63 |
| York Prolocutor | 32 | 60 | 53 |
The General Synod of the Church of England will be meeting for a shorter than usual group of Sessions in February 2011. The outline agenda was published today, and is copied below.
One item is “Draft Act of Synod Adopting the Anglican Communion Covenant (GS 1809): John Ward’s following motion”. Here is the text of this motion.
That this Synod resolve that final approval of the Act of Synod adopting the Anglican Communion Covenant shall require the assent of two-thirds of the members of each House present and voting.
GENERAL SYNOD FEBRUARY 2011
TIMETABLE
Monday, 7 February
1.45 pm Meeting of the House of Laity
[House of Clergy/Convocations (tbc)]
3.00 pm Prayers, welcomes and introductions
Progress of Measures and Statutory Instruments
Address by the Secretary of State for International Development, followed by questions and response from one of the Archbishops
Report by the Business Committee
Draft Act of Synod Adopting the Anglican Communion Covenant (GS 1809): John Ward’s following motion
Questions
Tuesday, 8 February
9.30 am Service of Holy Communion (Assembly Hall)
Legislative Business:
Clergy Discipline Amending Code of Practice
Clergy Discipline (Amendment) Measure – First Consideration
Ethical investment policy: Presentation by the Ethical Investment Advisory Group
1.00 pm LUNCH
2.30 pm Presidential Address (by the Archbishop of Canterbury)
Into the New Quinquennium
Appointment of the Chair of the Business Committee and of the Clerk to the Synod
Weddings Project: presentation
Parochial Fees policy
Wednesday, 9 February
9.30 am Prayers
House of Bishops’ statement on marriage after divorce and the ordained ministry (GS Misc 960)
Liverpool Diocesan Synod Motion: Common Worship Baptism Provision
Introduction to the debate on ARCIC report on Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ – Joint presentation by the Bishop of Guildford and senior RC Bishop
1.00 pm LUNCH
2.30 pm ARCIC report on Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ
Farewells
Prorogation
6 CommentsThe Queen has approved the nomination of the Right Reverend Nicholas Baines, BA, Area Bishop of Croydon, for election as Bishop of Bradford in succession to the Right Reverend David Charles James, BA, BSc, PhD, on his resignation on the 14 July 2010.
Press Release from 10 Downing Street: Diocese of Bradford.
Statement on Diocesan website: New Bishop for the Diocese of Bradford
Message to the Diocese of Bradford from The Rt Revd Nick Baines
Bishop Nick Baines writes on his own blog: Northern Light.
12 CommentsUpdated Thursday
The European Court of Human Rights today declared that a government scheme was discriminatory for charging some immigrants a fee only if they are not planning to marry in the Church of England.
Read this press release from the Equality and Human Rights Commission: European Court finds marriage fee discriminatory.
See press reports:
Belfast Telegraph Couple get payout after law violated their right to wed
BBC Northern Ireland Londonderry couple ‘s victory on sham wedding law
Daily Mail European judges kill off British law that curbed sham marriages
From the press release:
The Commission submitted to the European Court of Human Rights that the scheme was wrong as a blanket ban on marrying anywhere other than a Church of England unfairly targets innocent people. The scheme could only be justified if it was actually designed in a way that could identify marriages of convenience.
The European Court ruled that “the scheme was discriminatory on the ground of religion and that …. no reasons were adduced by the Government …. which were capable of providing an objective and reasonable justification for the difference in treatment”.
And the Church of England doesn’t even operate in Northern Ireland!
Update
Quite a lot more information about this case is now available:
UK Human Rights Blog UK scheme to police sham marriages slammed by Human Rights court
Press release from the ECHR: UK immigration law to prevent sham marriages breached the right to marry and was discriminatory (PDF)
And a link to the full text of the judgment of the court is available at O’Donoghue and Others v. the United Kingdom (application no. 34848/07).
5 Comments