Updated again Thursday 14 August evening to include new letter from Deborah Pitt
The original batch of material in The Times itself was linked here, together with the first reports in other newspapers.
The response of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the letter to The Times from 19 CofE bishops was linked here.
The Times also published on 8 August, Dr Williams ‘has made a split inevitable in the Anglican Church’ by Ruth Gledhill.
Today, The Times published another article, Bishops back Rowan Williams in gay sex row – even though some don’t agree with him.
Here’s how some others covered this story:
Religious Intelligence first had Gay relationships ‘comparable to marriage’, says Archbishop of Canterbury , followed by Letters put fresh pressure on Archbishop and then had Bishops decalre their support for ‘magnificent’ Williams.
George Pitcher at the Telegraph has written Rowan Williams and sex: a clarification.
TIME magazine had Anglican Church Gay Row Heats Up.
The BBC had Gay ties like marriage – Williams.
Sunday update
Austen Ivereigh, writing for the journal America has No longer the ‘Labor Party at prayer’ in which he reveals:
What the 19 bishops do not realise is that the letters arrived on the desks of the religious correspondents of The Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian two whole weeks ago. But because the reporters were at Canterbury following the conference, they did not see the brown envelopes until after they got back. Amazing but true: no-one opened their mail in their absence. Because journalists no longer receive scoops by post — fax and email are the usual channel these days — their staff do not bother to open their mail.
Update Thursday See this letter to The Times from Deborah Pitt herself, Why I leaked the Archbishop’s letters.
13 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has issued the following statement in response to the release of the Pitt letters.
Friday 08 August 2008
In response to the recent coverage of the correspondence dated back to 2000, The Archbishop Canterbury has made the following statement:
In the light of recent reports based on private correspondence from eight years ago, I wish to make it plain that, as I have consistently said, I accept Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference as stating the position of the worldwide Anglican Communion on issues of sexual ethics and thus as providing the authoritative basis on which I as Archbishop speak on such questions.
That Resolution also recognises the need for continuing study and discussion on the matter. In the past, as a professional theologian, I have made some contributions to such study. But obviously, no individual’s speculations about this have any authority of themselves. Our Anglican Church has never exercised close control over what individual theologians may say. However, like any church, it has the right to declare what may be said in its name as official doctrine and to define the limits of legitimate practice. As Archbishop I understand my responsibility to be to the declared teaching of the church I serve, and thus to discourage any developments that might imply that the position and convictions of the worldwide Communion have changed.
The Bishop of Durham and 18 other bishops have written a letter to The Times which begins:
35 CommentsSir, As bishops in the Church of England, we wish to protest in the strongest possible terms at what we regard as a gross misrepresentation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The last update on here was CartoonChurch and the owner of the former SPCK bookshops.
Matt Wardman now reports: Dave Walker/SPCK Bookshops Campaign Moving Soon.
The place to which this move is taking place is: SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info.
2 CommentsHere’s a piece I wrote for Lambeth Witness. It’s in this issue here (PDF).
Lambeth: The View from the English Pew
by Simon Sarmiento
Thinking Anglicans
I’m fairly sure the average English churchgoer thinks that the Lambeth Conference is something of great importance to bishops. After all it gives them a chance to get away from home with their wives for over two weeks, and the Church Commissioners will pick up the full tab. Unlike their American counterparts, they are already accustomed to the primitive plumbing facilities of English university residence halls, which they experience every July when General Synod goes to York. But hey, it’s free.
I don’t believe though that many Church of England (CofE) parishioners think that the Lambeth Conference is of importance to them. They know that the Church of England is ultimately controlled by Parliament, via powers delegated to the General Synod, but they also know that the General Synod is very rarely able to agree on anything very quickly, if at all. So the chance of anything changing in their parish church because of something a Sudanese bishop said is rather remote.
And most parishioners know that what the national newspapers and television tell them about the CofE is rubbish anyway. They know this because their parish clergy, especially those who are members of General Synod, tell them this all the time.
And because the average churchgoer doesn’t read the Church Times, the only thing they will ever learn about Lambeth is what they hear in the pulpit. Lots of sermons have been preached in England recently about the Conference, and how important it is to pray for the bishops, including those not coming. In fact the main thing most people know about this conference is that hundreds of bishops are staying away. They may not be very clear about why this is, but one thing they are all certain of: it’s not the Church of England’s fault.
4 CommentsStonewall has issued a report which Ruth Gledhill describes in The Times, see Faith leaders out of touch about gays and also Lambeth Diary: faith people ‘moderate’ on gays.
The Stonewall press release says:
Many faith leaders inadequately reflect their followers’ religious objections to lesbian and gay sexuality, new research has found. Love Thy Neighbour – published today by Stonewall and based on interviews with Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Christian participants from across the north of England – found that many hold significantly more moderate views of homosexuality than is often claimed on their behalf. Participants suggested to researchers from the University of Leeds that when the perceived tension between faith and sexual orientation is discussed in public, the agenda often becomes so dominated by aggression and sensationalism that levels of respect between faith communities and gay communities are overlooked.
Ben Summerskill, Stonewall Chief Executive, said: ‘Witnessing the saddening divisions in the Church of England demonstrated at this week’s Lambeth Conference, it’s telling that so many people of faith say they actually live, work and socialise with lesbian and gay people, and that significantly reduces negative ideas about difference. Many Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindus are clearly markedly more moderate that we are often allowed to believe. The stark conclusion to draw when it comes to religion and homosexuality is that it may be time to start listening to the voices of the many people of faith in Britain which have until now not been heard enough.’
Interviewees suggested that new legal protections for lesbian and gay people, including civil partnership, have had a ‘civilising effect’ on British society. The increased acceptance of gay people on a national and political level has also had a positive impact on attitudes at a local level, they said. This confirms the findings of Living together, a YouGov survey of 2,000 people published by Stonewall in 2007, which found that 84 per cent of people who identified as religious disagreed with the statement ‘homosexuality is morally unacceptable in all circumstances.’
Ruth has made the full report available here. It’s a 200K PDF.
6 CommentsUpdated again Tuesday afternoon
There was a press conference today at Canterbury, at which the Archbishop of Canterbury answered questions.
A full audio recording of this can be downloaded from the ACO website, go here.
A video recording of it is available at ENS, go here.
Navigate to the video by date: 07/21/08.
Jim Naughton has posted about it, see Live: ABC meets the press.
I will add links here to further reports about this event.
Anglican Journal Communion not headed for a schism, says Archbishop of Canterbury
BBC ‘Alienation’ over women bishops and also Robert Pigott’s Lambeth diary: Saying sorry
Guardian Riazat Butt Church is not wounded and bleeding, says Williams
Telegraph Martin Beckford Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams: Traditionalists ‘alienated’ by women bishops
Tuesday afternoon
The Times Ruth Gledhill Archbishop confirms church’s anti-gay sex stance
16 CommentsThe detailed reports in the Church Times of the recent Church of England General Synod are now available to non-subscribers.
The reports on the women bishops debates
Women bishops: debate: ‘I know people say that bishops can’t be trusted, but I think I can’ – reports of the Bishop of Manchester’s preentation on the Friday evening and the take note debate on the Saturday.
Women bishops: the vote – the main debate on Monday 7 July
Below the fold are details of clergy votes in the debate on women bishops on Monday 7 July similar to my earlier details for bishops. So far only three of the votes (the Packer amendment, the vote on the adjournment and the final vote) are included.
I have matched my list of members and the voting lists by synod number. My list is based on the June 2008 list of members, which may not be totally up-to-date.
13 CommentsVoting lists for the electronic votes at the recent sessions of the Church of England’s General Synod are now online. I have summarised the bishops’ votes in the debate on women bishops held on Monday 7 July, both in a table below the fold and online as a pdf file.
The table records whether each bishop voted for or against each motion or amendment, or recorded an abstention. Some of the 45 bishops present missed some of the votes altogether and this is indicated by a dash.
Bishops are listed alphabetically by surname, and their synod number is given in the first column.
I have already given the text of each amendment and of the substantive motion, and the overall voting figures here. The table includes my very brief summary of the purpose of each amendment.
Note: Not included in the table are the bishops of Sheffield and Truro (sees vacant) and the bishops of Coventry, Chester, Ely, Leicester, Salisbury and Sodor & Man, none of whom took part in any of the votes. The bishop of Coventry was only consecrated on 3 July, the bishop of Leicester was on duty at the House of Lords and the bishop of Salisbury was ill. I don’t know why the others were absent.
25 CommentsThe Government has published yet another White Paper on Lords Reform. You can find it over here.
The section relating to Church of England Bishops is reproduced below the fold.
Ekklesia has already published its opinion, Time to remove Bishops from the House of Lords:
11 Comments…The Church of England, an external institution with its own particular agenda, would be able to parachute whomever they choose into the second chamber of Parliament as a matter of right. This would not be a step forward but a step back into the dark ages of special political privilege. With the Prime Minister’s power to appoint bishops being ended, that section of the House of Lords would be more unaccountable than it has ever been…
We reported earlier on the outcome of the legal dispute at the Parish of Trumpington.
The Cambridge Evening News now has this report: Sacked vicar’s tirade over departure:
A VICAR sacked for “spitting” at his parishioners has posted a lengthy website criticism over his departure.
However, the Rev Tom Ambrose has withdrawn his bid to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights and an employment tribunal after being sacked from his Trumpington parish.
The parish becomes vacant from today and in two ‘vicar writes’ articles on the St Mary and St Michael Parish Church page of the diocese site, the Rev Ambrose is critical of the Bishop of Ely’s handling of the matter…
The two articles in question can be found (for now at least) at
Response to the Bishop of Ely’s decision
Legal representation to the Bishop
Copies of both documents have been archived: here, and also here.
4 CommentsStephen Bates has written a major essay: Church of England: Beset by liberals, hounded by conservatives, Williams needs a miracle to keep church intact.
26 CommentsPreaching to the converted
Gene Robinson is the Anglican church’s only openly gay bishop. He was denied an invitation to this week’s Lambeth conference but came anyway and on Sunday gave a dramatic sermon in London disrupted by heckling. What’s all the fuss about? Stephen Bates explains, while political sketch-writer Simon Hoggart, theatre critic Lyn Gardner and gay atheist Gareth McLean review the bishop’s performance.
Giles Fraser made his own comments earlier, in Here’s to you, Mr Robinson.
23 CommentsChristopher Landau of the BBC has a report Sexuality stance ‘embarrasses’ Anglicans.
Episcopal News Service has this report by Matthew Davies of her Sunday activities in Salisbury, Salisbury diocese welcomes Presiding Bishop, Sudanese bishops for pre-Lambeth hospitality initiative.
7 CommentsThe Tablet had a leader article about this: Peter, Paul and women bishops. (The previous week they had Flight from women bishops.)
The Bishop of Durham issued an Ad Clerum on General Synod, which can be read here.
1 CommentJim Naughton has published some further reflections on the event, at Live: the sermon, the protester, the press, etc. Part II.
He also corrects some misinformation elsewhere, viz:
1. It is true that many people in the Episcopal Church would like to get us out from under Resolution B033, the legislation passed on the last day of our 2006 General Convention which calls upon “Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” This isn’t a secret. Numerous dioceses have already submitted resolutions to next year’s General Convention asking that the legislation be repealed, or superseded. If this legislation passes (a big if—I am not sure there are enough votes in the House of Bishops to get the job done) a gay candidate would have a better chance of being elected and confirmed. The notion that if the legislation passed we’d immediately elect another gay bishop is speculative. The notion that we’d suddenly have five or six is hallucinatory. At this point, it is not even possible to know for which dioceses will be electing bishops, which priests would be chosen as candidates, or how the internal dynamics of the dioceses would affect the elections. (I have gone on about this at some length because I have had calls from three reporters about this story this morning.)
2. Integrity has not provided cell phones for all of the Episcopal bishops attending the Lambeth Conference—or even for those sympathetic to its agenda. The Episcopal Church has provided cell phones for all its bishops—and their spouses, too, I believe.
Those who are not yet satiated with information about last night can find even more material here:
Full video of the sermon is here.
The Bishop of New Hampshire’s own blog is here.
2 CommentsGuardian
Riazat Butt Church of England: Gay bishop accuses church leaders of mistake over invitation snub
Stephen Bates Repent! Biker’s blast at bishop
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Gay American Bishop Gene Robinson accuses opponents of ‘idolatry’
Telegraph
Martin Beckford Gay bishop Gene Robinson criticises Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
Daily Mail Steve Doughty ‘Heretic’: The first openly gay bishop is pilloried in the pulpit by a long-haired heckler
Episcopal News Service Church need not be afraid, New Hampshire bishop tells Putney gathering
Jim Naughton Live: The sermon, the press, the protestor, etc.
Integrity Fear Not! Gene Robinson preaches at Putney
BBC Heckle that symbolises Church split
Earlier reports are here.
10 CommentsPress Association Protester hits gay bishop’s sermon
BBC Protest disrupts bishop’s sermon
Channel 4 News Katie Razzall Protestor disrupts the sermon by the world’s first openly gay bishop
This video report includes fragments of an interview made earlier today before the service, and summarises the background events leading up to the Lambeth Conference.
Riazat Butt writes at the Guardian that Ian McKellen accuses Anglican church of homophobia.
Watch the entire interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC website here.
13 CommentsThe Sunday Times has an article by John Sentamu Britain’s cruel snub to exiled Zimbabweans.
1 Comment