Tom Butler changed his mind
Bishop Tom Butler spoke on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day on Tuesday, about how people change their minds on issues such as divorce and remarriage, or homosexuality.
The press has been remarking on Theresa May’s response to a question from a member of the Question Time audience, about the new home secretary’s apparently less than gay-friendly voting record . Her reply: “I’ve changed my mind”.
I don’t think that she’s alone in that. It’s remarkable to observe how, in spite of traditional religious teaching, public opinion in Britain over a period of a decade or so, in a remarkable shift of thinking has mostly changed its mind on the worth and place of gay people in society. The reason is simple: it’s difficult to hold dogmatic views about what is good and desirable behaviour, when some of the often obviously good, loving and responsible people you actually encounter are behaving in an alternative way…
Read the full text here.
17 CommentsChurch Commissioners full report for 2009
We linked to the announcement on 28 April of the Church Commissioners’ results for 2009 here. Their full Annual Report and Accounts for 2009 have now been published, and summarised in an official press release, copied below.
Helping parishes and dioceses across the Church of England: Church Commissioners publish 2009 Report & Accounts
25 May 2010
The Church Commissioners today publish their full Annual Report and Accounts for 2009.
It follows publication of their 2009 annual results on 28 April, when they announced that they had achieved a 15.6 per cent return on their investments during 2009. The fund outperformed its comparator group over the last year as well as over the past five, 10 and 20 years.*
The results mean that the Commissioners’ current level of support to the Church – including increased pensions costs – can be maintained, in cash terms, for a further three-year period, from 2011 to 2013.
The Commissioners’ asset value has grown to £4.8 billion (from £4.4 billion at 31 December 2008), and the fund has been able to distribute £31 million more each year to the Church than if the investments had performed only at the industry average over the last ten years. The 15.6 per cent return was achieved against a comparator performance of 15.1 per cent for 2009.
The Report shows that annual spending on the Church of England’s mission and ministry is just over £1.2 billion. Around three quarters of this sum comes from dioceses and parishes, mostly through the giving of Church members.
In 2009 the Commissioners contributed £193 million – around 16 pence in every pound – of these costs. The Commissioners’ spending for parish-level work reflects their long-standing commitment to supporting the Church’s ministry where there are needs and opportunities. This support breaks down into two key funding streams – clergy pensions; and a wide range of support for different aspects of the serving ministry.
“The Church Commissioners have had a satisfactory first decade of the twenty-first century”, writes the First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith, in his introduction to the Report. “The bottom line is that the Commissioners’ assets grew at an annual rate of 5.1 per cent, two percentage points better than the average fund and 2.4 per cent faster than inflation or, in other words, by 2.4 per cent per annum in real terms.”
The Commissioners have distributed £31 million more each year to the Church for the past 10 years than if their investments had performed only at the industry average. They operate a distributions policy that smoothes fluctuations in the financial markets, with the aim of providing stable support to their beneficiaries.
The Church Commissioners manage an investment portfolio of £4.8 billion derived from the Church’s historic resources. They play a vital role in supporting the Church of England as a Christian presence in every community by looking after this as a long-term resource, balancing the needs of both current and future generations.
The First Commissioner added: “Don’t let it be thought that the Assets Committee and the staff who carry out the day-to-day work of managing our general fund are at all complacent about the Commissioners’ performance. As well as managing the general fund so as to produce increasing returns without undue risk and in line with ethical considerations, the Commissioners also have to decide how best to meet the needs of their beneficiaries.
“The first step is to declare how much may be distributed during successive three-year periods on the footing that the value of the fund in real terms is maintained through time. This leads to a second question: how best to smooth these distributions so that beneficiaries are not subjected to unsettling volatility in their support from the Commissioners.”
The Commissioners’ total charitable expenditure in 2009 was £190.8 million (£189.1 million in 2008). Total non-pensions expenditure, including support for ministry within dioceses and for the ministry of bishops and cathedrals, totalled £81.6 million in 2009 (£84.8 million), following a reduction in bishops’ and other administrative costs of £3.5 million. Governance costs and other resources expended were £1.8 million in 2009 (£3.6 million).
Dioceses have welcomed the mission development funding for giving them flexibility outside their normal budgetary commitments. It has given them headroom for risk-taking and creativity to enable churches to experiment with different forms of engagement with their communities. Examples include the appointment of a sports ambassador in Southwell and Nottingham diocese, and of a pioneer minister attached to Gloucester cathedral, who has helped build a new church community of 60 starting from none.
“Our task is to develop proposals on how best the Commissioners’ funds should be used to advance the Church’s mission”, Mr Whittam Smith concluded. “We don’t start with a clean sheet. Some distributions are determined by legislation. Other long established distributions are quite properly relied upon by recipients. Substantial sums are made available to poorer dioceses. Yet alongside these existing dispositions, new funding for mission is already bearing fruit.”
Continued below the fold
0 CommentsWomen in the Episcopate – more Synod papers
We linked earlier to the report of the revision committee on the legislation to enable women to be bishops, and the accompanying draft measure and canon. These papers have now been reissued in standard synod form.
GS 1708-09Y Revision Committee Report Women in the Episcopate
GS 1708A draft Women in the Episcopate measure
GS 1709A Amending Canon No 30
GS 1708AX Explanatory Memorandum to the draft Measure as revised in committee
The last of these is new. It has been prepared by the Legal Office and explains the effect of each clause of the draft measure in understandable, lay language.
There is also a paper from the Business Committee explaining how the draft legislation will be handled at the July meeting of General Synod (and subsequently) and an outline agenda for July.
GS Misc 952 This July’s Synod
Outline Agenda July 2010
Observer challenge to Anglicans
Today’s Observer newspaper carries this editorial article:
Homophobia
The church must not be complicit in gay persecution in Africa
with a strapline on the web version:
Anglican influence must be brought to bear to end this vile practice.
The article begins:
Homosexuality is not a sin or a crime. There is no caveat or quibble that should be added. The repression of gay men and women by legal means and public intimidation is an offence against the basic principles of a free and just society. Where it exists, which it does to varying degrees in many countries around the world, it must be confronted and defeated…
And the article ends:
The Anglican hierarchy in Britain has avoided speaking out too frankly on this matter to avoid a schism, but the church’s quiet diplomacy has done nothing to help the victims of homophobic repression. Increasingly, it looks like complicity.
For the background to this, see Love in the dock from Saturday’s Guardian.
18 CommentsWomen in the episcopate – House of Bishops' statement
The House of Bishops of the Church of England has issued this statement this afternoon.
30 CommentsWomen in the episcopate – House of Bishops’ statement
At its meeting in York on 17/18 May, the House of Bishops discussed the Revision Committee’s report on the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops.
The House noted that the forthcoming meeting of the General Synod in July would be a key moment in the legislative process when all 470 members of Synod would have the opportunity to debate the report and proceed to a clause by clause consideration of the draft Measure and Amending Canon. The House believed that the Synod would be helped in its task by the clarity and thoroughness of the Committee’s analysis.
As previous debates have shown, a majority of the members of the House strongly support the admission of women to the episcopate. At the same time there remains a strong commitment on the part of the House to preserve an honoured place within the Church of England for those unable to receive this development. There continues to be a variety of views within the House over the best way of achieving that, while enabling women fully to exercise their new ministry.
The July Synod has the potential to be one of the most demanding meetings of the Synod for many years. It will, in the view of the House, be an occasion when all concerned will need to listen with particular care to those with views that differ from their own and to acknowledge the passion and sincerity with which those views are held.
The House is aware that there are those who believe that the present legislative process does not have the potential to lead to a satisfactory conclusion and that a better outcome is more likely to be achieved in some years’ time. Most members of the House consider, however, that it is crucial to keep faith with the present process. They see no grounds for believing that the issues with which the Church is grappling will become significantly easier to resolve with the passage of time.
The July debates will provide the chance for the full Synod to decide whether it wishes to make significant changes to the draft legislation, including whether to retain an approach based on a statutory code of practice or to support amendments giving effect to some other approach. What happens thereafter will depend on what Synod decides. On any basis it will be at least another two years before the mind of the Church of England can be determined at the final approval stage.
The House accepted the recommendation of the Revision Committee that, if the proposal for a statutory code of practice is retained in July, work to develop a fresh draft of the code should start soon thereafter. The House will, in those circumstances, establish a group, constituted consistently with the Committee’s recommendation.
Note
The report of the Revision Committee was published on 8 May.
Bishop of Gloucester and the Anglican Communion
Updated again Saturday
Michael Perham, the bishop of Gloucester, gave an address about the Anglican Communion to his clergy on 6 May 2010. Here is an extract.
I think there are some things here we need to explore sensitively together. In doing so I want to acknowledge the honesty and courage of my friend, James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, who has publicly told his own story of moving his position on the issue of homosexuality over recent years and urged the Church not to allow this issue to divide us in a way that breaks communion. And I also need to acknowledge that I have long been in a different place and so have not had to travel as difficult a path as he has to be in the place where I now am. My own understanding has long been that the Church of England’s current stance is not tenable long term, but that, while we engage, struggle, with these issues, it must be task of the bishop to uphold our agreed policy, with all its weaknesses, and to try to hold the Church together while we tackle the things that divide us. I don’t believe I can move away from that position, though I need to share with you some of my discomfort.
It is difficult to know where to begin, but I think the best place is with the categorising of first and second order issues. I am quite clear that the issues on which the creeds make a firm statement – God as trinity, the divinity of Christ, the death and the resurrection of the Lord, the role of the Spirit and more – are first order issues on which there can be no change in what the Church teaches. They are fundamental to the Christian faith. I am equally clear that there are second order issues, which are important, and where interpretation of the tradition needs to be careful and prayerful, but where nevertheless individual churches and provinces need to be free to define doctrine in the way that seems to them to be in accordance with the mind of Christ.
The full address is a 40kB Word document and can be downloaded here: Bishop Michael’s address on the Anglican Communion. Read the whole address for Bishop Michael’s views on first and second order issues, the Episcopal Church, his own diocesan triangular partnership with Western Tanganyika and El Camino Real, the Anglican covenant, and the status in England of clergy ordained abroad by a woman bishop.
Updates
An html copy of this address can now be found here on this website, and over at this website.
For Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves’ comments on this, see below the fold.
29 CommentsWomen bishops – GRAS response
GRAS (the Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod) have issued this press release.
GRAS For women as bishops, against discrimination
GRAS welcomes the May 2010 report of the Revision Committee mandated by the General Synod to set out the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops in the Church of England.
The vast majority of Anglo-Catholic priests and lay people in the Church of England (as well as the rest of the Church) support women becoming bishops with the many gifts they will bring. However as a general rule there is no future in trying to keep people in an organisation which they are threatening to leave, so GRAS hopes that the eventual principal Code of Practice will follow a vision of a Church which is fair to all who have decided to remain in it, whatever their views, making provision for conscience where necessary, but preventing any discrimination. A two-tier episcopacy would be totally unacceptable.
While GRAS, at first reading of the report from the Revision Committee, is content with the proposals, it is hoped that Bishops will not dilute the principal Code of Practice to include in their diocesan Codes of Practice anything which has been previously turned down by the synod, or rejected by the Revision Committee. It is very important that women are appointed as bishops on exactly the same terms as men with no impediment to their episcopal role.
Furthermore any rights given should be reciprocal – available equally to those who ask for women’s ministry in areas where this is not being offered as much as to those who oppose the ordination of women
GRAS believes that to give credibility to the proposed Code of Practice it is vital that the committee or group appointed to prepare the guidelines should draw at least one third of its members from among senior women in the Church.
2 CommentsWomen bishops – Church Times report
Paul Handley has a detailed article in the Church Times today about the report of the revision committee on the legislation to enable women to be bishops in the Church of England: Resolutions A, B, and C to go under draft women Measure.
6 CommentsChurch of England finances
Updated Wednesday afternoon
Update
The report is available for download from Mazars, who carried out the study.
Church of England diocesan benchmarking study
Ruth Gledhill writes about it on her blog: One quarter of CofE dioceses ‘in the red’, new study shows
There are stories in today’s papers about a report on diocesan finances commissioned by the Church of England.
Ruth Gledhill and Alexandra Frean in the Times Church of England clergy asked to cut costs as recession takes toll
Alastair Jamieson in the Telegraph : Church of England ‘should prepare for staff cuts to deal with deficits’. One quarter of Church of England dioceses are running deficits, according to a report that suggests parishes prepare for staff cuts that could affect pastoral care and worship.
The Times offers this case study: Bath and Wells diocese sells family silver to tackle £2.5m deficit.
5 CommentsBBC – CofE views
The Church of England has responded to the BBC’s proposals for the future strategy of the corporation. Their press release, Church calls for BBC to go back to the future in its public service mission, is copied below the fold. The full response is online here.
Mark Sweney writes in The Guardian that Church of England voices fears over BBC cutbacks. Corporation’s strategy review could result in fewer religious programmes and less content online, says C of E.
1 CommentAffirming Catholicism response to Report of the Women Bishops Revision Committee
Affirming Catholicism has issued this response to the proposals of the Report on Women Bishops published on Saturday.
PRESS RELEASE
10/05/10
Affirming Catholicism welcomes the Report of the Women Bishops Revision Committee which was published on Saturday 8th May 2010 (see http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr4210.html). Our gratitude and thanks are due to all those who served on the Revision and Steering Committees which have enabled the Church to come to this point. Now is the time to move forward, in line with the proposals, so that women can take their full place within the Church of England’s ministry.
As the Report says, the legislation proposed “will, for the first time, enable women to be admitted to all orders of ministry. By preserving intact the authority of the diocesan bishop it will avoid any changes in the historic understanding of that office and of the episcopate more generally. And by making statutory arrangements for those with theological difficulties it will endeavour to preserve that broad and comprehensive character of the Church of England that is one of its defining and most attractive features.” (para. 459)
The Chair of Affirming Catholicism, Rev’d Jonathan Clark, said, “The Report bears witness to the careful exploration of the many and complex issues surrounding this legislation, and to the desire of all the members of the Church to retain the highest possible degree of unity. We recognise with sadness that many traditionalist Catholics do not believe that the provision for those who disagree is adequate to their needs. For those many Catholics in the Church of England who affirm the ordained ministry of women, though, this is good news – and we encourage the General Synod to move forward in working with these proposals.”
Affirming Catholicism has always stated its desire both to see women admitted to the episcopate, and also to include within the Church those who oppose that decision. We continue to affirm that the Church cannot remain as one body if it is divided into two parts, one of which does not recognise the ministry of the other. We are encouraged that the proposed legislation preserves the Church’s integrity, and thus serves its mission.
3 CommentsWomen bishops – more responses
Updated Tuesday afternoon
We linked to the announcement of the publication of the report of the revision committee on the legislation to enable women to be bishops in the Church of England on Saturday.
The Church Mouse has some comments from Pete Broadbent, one of the members of the committee: Bishop Pete Broadbent on the draft measures to allow women bishops
Mouse draws our attention to two statements issued by Forward in Faith UK.
FiF reacts to Revision Committee Report
Further reaction to Revision Committee Report
The second of these is from three members of the revision committee.
We have already posted the views of WATCH and some early press reports.
Update
Reform has said that Report on Women in the Episcopate “provides no adequate framework” and sent a letter to every bishop.
Women bishops – press reports
Martha Linden of the Press Association via The Independent Church faces fresh turmoil over women bishops
Christian Today CofE gears up for debate on women bishops at July Synod
Ruth Gledhill and Jack Grimston in the Times Draft law opens way for first women bishops by 2014
Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Telegraph Church faces turmoil over plans for women bishops
41 CommentsWATCH response to Report of the Women Bishops Revision Committee
WATCH (Women and the Church) has issued this initial response to the proposals of the Report on Women Bishops published today.
WATCH encouraged by draft legislation on Women Bishops
WATCH is very encouraged by the Report of the Women Bishops Revision Committee which was published today, Saturday 8th May (see http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr4210.html). It proposes that women should be consecrated as bishops on the same basis as men. WATCH has argued for this for the last fifteen years, as there are sound theological reasons for it as well as scriptural warrant: the first chapter of Genesis says we are all made in the image of God, both male and female, and St Paul says that in Christ there is no male or female.
WATCH will be studying the details of the Report carefully over the coming days and will give a fuller response in due course. Our initial reaction is that we hope that the draft legislation will be approved by General Synod substantially as it stands in July and then be sent out to the 44 dioceses of the Church of England for them to debate and approve; which is the next stage in the legislative process.
A major concern of the Revision Committee has been how to draft legislation that does not create second-class bishops and yet enables those opposed to women bishops to remain in the Church. We are pleased that the Revision Committee has found a way forward that acknowledges their position, because it has never been the aim of WATCH to exclude those with a differing conscience. However, it is now right for the Church of England as a whole to accept women and men as equal before God in all parts of its ministry.
10 CommentsWomen Bishops legislation
The General Synod revision committee on the legislation to enable women to be bishops has completed its work and their report is published today, together with a draft measure and canon. The report will be debated at the July meeting of General Synod.
Here is the official press release.
Stage set for key July debates on legislation to enable women to be bishops
8 May 2010
The Church of England has today published the 142-page report of the Revision Committee that has been considering in detail the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops in the Church of England. Also published is an amended version of the draft, eleven clause Measure and associated draft Amending Canon.
The Committee has met on 16 occasions over the past 12 months and considered 114 submissions from members of the General Synod and a further 183 submissions from others. After much discussion the Committee rejected proposals aimed at fundamentally changing the approach of the legislation, whether by converting it into the simplest possible draft Measure or by creating more developed arrangements – whether through additional dioceses, a statutorily recognised society or some transfer of jurisdiction – for those unable to receive the ministry of female bishops.
As indicated to the General Synod in February 2010 (scroll to p6), the draft legislation continues to provide special arrangements for those with conscientious difficulties by way of delegation from the diocesan bishop under a statutory Code of Practice. The legislation has been amended in a number of detailed respects. Provision for statutory declarations by bishops unable to take part in the consecration of women as bishops or their ordination as priests has been removed as has an obligation on the Archbishops to nominate particular suffragan sees to be occupied by those who do not consecrate or ordain women.
Added to the Measure are new provisions requiring each diocesan bishop to draw up a scheme in his or her diocese that takes account of the national Code of Practice and provides local arrangements for the performance of certain episcopal functions in relation to parishes with conscientious difficulties. A further new provision allows such parishes to request, when there is a vacancy, that only a male incumbent or priest-in-charge be appointed.
It is expected that much of the July group of sessions of the General Synod in York (9-13 July) will be devoted to debating the Revision Committee’s report and conducting the Revision Stage of the legislation. This is the moment (equivalent to a parliamentary Report Stage) when all 470 members of the Synod have the opportunity to consider the draft legislation clause by clause and to vote on proposed amendments. Proposals rejected by the Revision Committee can be debated afresh at the Revision Stage.
Once the Revision Stage has been completed – and provided the Synod does not decide that further work is necessary in Revision Committee – the draft legislation will have to be referred to diocesan synods and cannot come back to the General Synod for final approval unless a majority of diocesan synods approve it.
The earliest that the legislation could achieve final approval in Synod (when two-thirds majorities in each of the Houses of Bishops, Clergy and Laity will be required) is 2012, following which parliamentary approval and the Royal Assent would be needed. 2014 remains the earliest realistic date when the first women might be consecrated as bishops.
There are some notes attached to the press release, and these are copied below the fold.
27 Commentsdepartures to the ordinariate?
Updated twice
Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Telegraph has another exclusive, this time about traditionalists threatening to leave the Church of England.
Anglican bishops in secret Vatican summit
Bishops’ defection: A major new blow to the Anglican church
Update
Associated Press British bishops in defection talks with Vatican
…Rev. Keith Newton, the bishop of Richborough, said the trip consisted of “nothing more than exploratory talks” and denied a report in The Sunday Telegraph that he and his colleagues had secretly promised the Vatican they were ready to defect to Rome.
…Newton was joined in his most recent trip by Rev. Andrew Burnham, the bishop of Ebbsfleet, and Rev. John Broadhurst, the bishop of Fulham.
Burnham did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but Broadhurst also confirmed that the trip had taken place, although he declined to say what was discussed.
“I don’t want to be drawn on it,” he said, explaining that the issue “can damage both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.”
Monday’s Times has a report by Ruth Gledhill that reports on the forthcoming publication of the proposed legislation at the end of this week.
See Synod to vote on final stage of code to allow women bishops.
99 CommentsThe Church of England is expected to pave the way for the consecration of women bishops when it publishes final proposals this week. The legislation, to be debated by the General Synod in July, will trigger a departure of some traditionalists to the Roman Catholic Church.
Sources told The Times that the legislation for women bishops would include no statutory provision for opponents. Instead, arrangements to allow traditionalist parishes to opt out of the oversight of a woman bishop are expected to be included in a voluntary code of practice. This will not be enough to placate a small number of leading Anglo-Catholics who fear that female bishops will “taint” the historic catholicity of the Church of England.The proposed legislation is to be sent to members of the synod on Friday…
Little Gidding Pilgrimage
Saturday 22 May
For nearly 400 years pilgrims have been drawn to Little Gidding in the north of the diocese of Ely, ever since the saintly Nicholas Ferrar and his family lived there in the early seventeenth century.
You are warmly invited to join the annual Pilgrimage to Little Gidding
commemorating the life and example of Nicholas Ferrar
This year’s pilgrimage is led by David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon, well-known blogger and occasional contributor to Thinking Anglicans.
Join the celebration of Holy Communion in Leighton Bromswold Church
whose restoration was funded by George Herbert and directed by the Ferrars
Share lunch with fellow pilgrims at the historic Green Man at Leighton Bromswold
Enjoy the gentle walk through the Huntingdonshire countryside
from Leighton Bromswold to Little Gidding
(about five miles along the country roads, with three short stations for prayer and rest)
Gather round the tomb of Nicholas Ferrar for prayer
Sing Evening Prayer at Little Gidding ‘where prayer has been valid’
(preacher: Bishop David Thomson; choir: the Hurstingstone Singers)
Delight in Tea and conversation at Ferrar House
For more details see www.littlegidding.org.uk/pilgrimage
Timetable for the day
10.30am: Holy Communion at Leighton Bromswold Church
12 noon: Pilgrims’ Lunch at the Green Man
1pm: First Station at the Hundred Stone at Leighton Bromswold, and start of Pilgrimage Walk
2pm (approx): Second Station at Salome Wood
2.45pm (approx): Third Station at Hamerton (refreshments and toilets available)
3.30pm (approx): Fourth Station at Steeple Gidding Church
4pm: Fifth Station — Prayers at the Tomb of Nicholas Ferrar at Little Gidding
followed by Pilgrimage Evensong and Tea
What is the Pilgrimage about?
Born in London in 1592, Nicholas Ferrar gave up a life in commerce and politics to move to Little Gidding, with his mother and his brother and sister and their families, establishing a life of prayer and charitable works. Ordained deacon, he was the leader of the household, foremost in the life of prayer, study, and work, setting an example of devotion and spiritual life to the English Church that has stood as a beacon to those who have followed. Nicholas died on 4 December 1637, and his devout life and example have consecrated Little Gidding as a holy place to this day. Our pilgrimage to his grave not only honours his memory and devotion, but also binds us into that same story.
3 CommentsChurch Commissioners' results for 2009
The Church Commissioners have announced their results for 2009 under this headline: “Church Commissioners’ 2009 results confirm long-term growth – level of support to the Church to be maintained”. The full announcement can be read in this press release and here are the first few paragraphs.
The Church Commissioners achieved a 15.6 per cent return on their investments during 2009. Results announced today show that the fund has now outperformed its comparator group over the last year as well as over the past five, 10 and 20 years.
Today’s results mean that the Commissioners’ current level of support to the Church – including increased pensions costs – can be maintained, in cash terms, for a further three-year period, from 2011 to 2013.
The Commissioners’ asset value has grown to £4.8 billion (from £4.4 billion at December 31, 2008), and the fund has been able to distribute £31 million more each year to the Church than if the investments had performed only at the industry average over the last ten years. The 15.6 per cent return was achieved against a comparator performance of 15.1 per cent for 2009.
In the last five years, the Commissioners achieved average returns of 6.6 per cent per year, against the comparator of 6.2 per cent. Over the past 10 years, the Commissioners’ total returns averaged 5.1 per cent per year, against the comparator group’s 3.1 per cent. Over the past 20 years, the Commissioners outperformed the comparator group with an average annual return of 7.8 per cent against 7.7 per cent.
There are no links in the press release and I have been unable to find an online copy of the full Commissioners’ report for 2009.
0 CommentsBishop of Durham to leave diocese
Updated twice on Wednesday
from the Diocese of Durham website
BISHOP OF DURHAM TO LEAVE DIOCESE
27/04/2010
The Bishop of Durham, Dr N. T. Wright, has announced that he will be retiring from the See of Durham on August 31.
Dr Wright, who will be 62 this autumn, is returning to the academic world, in which he spent the first twenty years of his career, and will take up a new appointment as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Announcing his move, Bishop Tom said, ‘This has been the hardest decision of my life. It has been an indescribable privilege to be Bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham, to work with a superb team of colleagues, to take part in the work of God’s kingdom here in the north-east, and to represent the region and its churches in the House of Lords and in General Synod. I have loved the people, the place, the heritage and the work. But my continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit (I hope) of the wider world and church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop. I am very sad about this, but the choice has become increasingly clear.’
Among the initiatives Bishop Tom has pioneered has been the ‘Big Read’ programme, which has got people across the North-East, and across all Christian churches, reading the Bible together in Lent. This programme will expand to a national level next year, with Bishop Tom’s forthcoming ‘Lent for Everyone – Matthew’ being the basic text.
As Bishop of Durham, Dr Wright has spoken in the House of Lords on numerous occasions and issues. Most recently he has championed the cause of new underground technology for the clean use of coal from the region’s still massive coalfields. He has also taken a lead in debating issues surrounding constitutional reform. Within the wider Anglican world he was a member of the Commission that produced the Windsor Report (2004) on the future of the Anglican Communion, and was the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special representative at the Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops in 2008. Together with Maggie, his wife, he has developed a close relationship with HMS Bulwark, which is twinned with County Durham, culminating in a seminar on board which brought together leading theologians and military personnel to discuss issues of war, peace and faith. He has worked hard to develop friendships and partnerships with Christians of all denominations. He has spoken frequently on radio and TV, including writing and presenting a series of radio meditations and music and television programmes on the resurrection and on the problem of evil.
As a writer, Bishop Tom has been working on three series of books – Christian Origins and the Question of God (at a scholarly level), The New Testament for Everyone (at a popular level) and a sequence of studies to introduce the Christian faith, Simply Christian, Surprised by Hope and most recently Virtue Reborn (US Title After You Believe). He hopes now to be able to complete these collections, and other ongoing research, while teaching (particularly graduate students) in the Faculty of Divinity at St Andrews. He has also been approached to head up various broadcasting projects to bring the results of good biblical scholarship to a wider audience.
Bishop Tom and Maggie have four adult children and three grandchildren.
And from the University of St Andrews:
Update
From the Lambeth Palace website: Archbishop – Bishop of Durham ‘will be greatly missed’
Ruth Gledhill The Times Archbishop loses key aid[e] in unity fight as Bishop of Durham retires and Tom Wright to step down early as Bishop of Durham
From the website of The Tablet Bishop of Durham stands down complaining of red tape:
…Dr Wright, 61, one of the most senior figures in the Church of England, told The Tablet today that diocesan bishops in the Church of England were weighed down by bureaucracy. “It’s something the Church shares with other professions, the feeling of being hamstrung by petty legislation and regulation,” he said…
Andrew Brown has written about it at Cif belief see News of God’s world
34 CommentsThe bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, has announced his resignation. He is going to take up a chair at St Andrews. He is a prolific author, and the leading evangelical scholar in the Church of England. As Bishop of Durham he has been distinguished for his implacable hostility to anyone who would accept gays within the church, especially American liberals. On the other hand, he has not gone off with Gafcon and the global south in their schism.
He has always seemed to be to a first class prefect at a minor public school – exactly the sort of person I got myself expelled to get away from. On the notoriously scientific Brown two axis scale of clergy measurement he scores high on the “Would you trust him with a secret?” question, but only moderately on “Would you trust him with your pension?”
(The scale is calibrated with reference to Rowan Williams, who scores 95% on the pastoral axis, and 5% on the practical one). But add in the third axis – would I take his advice on a personal problem? – and Wright scores about 20%. Were I gay, that figure would be 2%. This is a drawback in anyone dealing with the clergy of the Church of England.
So who will be his successor? Traditionally, the bishop of Durham has been a scholarly figure, who would score like Rowan Williams on the pastoral/practical axis. Williams himself would have made an excellent bishop there, in the tradition of Michael Ramsay, a man so splendidly unworldly that he threw his unwanted diplomatic presents into the Wear. But this tradition came rather unglued in the 80s with the appointment of David Jenkins, (90/50/80 on the three axis scale) who became a liberal hate-figure to the evangelicals. It is not an exaggeration to say that the overwhelming aim of evangelical appointments since then has been to ensure that there will never be another bishop like Jenkins in the post. Hence Tom Wright, who has claimed that a video camera could have captured the resurrection. Is it now time for a scholarly bishop less identified with one party?.
The New Yorker on the CofE
Updated
There is a major feature article on the Church of England in The New Yorker dated 26 April, which is now online but is only available to paid subscribers and available to all via this link: A Canterbury Tale.
However, others have now written about it, so it is worth mentioning here.
Here’s the abstract from the New Yorker itself: Jane Kramer, A Reporter at Large, “A Canterbury Tale,” The New Yorker, April 26, 2010, p. 40. It starts out:
ABSTRACT: A REPORTER AT LARGE about the battle in the Church of England over female bishops. Today, women account for nearly a third of the Church of England’s working priests, and most of them are waiting for the investiture of the Church of England’s first female bishop—a process begun in 2008, when of the laity, clergy, and bishops in the Church’s governing body, the General Synod, voted in favor of removing the last vestiges of gender discrimination from canon law. Not everyone is pleased. Thousands of conservative Anglicans—priests and laymen—still refuse to take Communion from a female priest, and would certainly refuse to take it from any priest ordained by a female bishop. For the past two years, they have been threatening to leave the Church at the first sign of a woman in a bishop’s mitre. The next session of the General Synod, in July, is going to consider, and is expected to approve, the draft for a change in canon law that would open the episcopate to women. If a large number of militant conservatives do leave then, the Church of England and, with it, the churches of a worldwide Anglican Communion, will fracture…
The Living Church has New Yorker Article Features Abp. Williams.
USA Today has Anglican fight: Can a woman bishop speak for God in England?
And Episcopal Café has Ash in the air, and the CofE in The New Yorker.
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