The Church of England has published the office and working costs of its bishops for 2006. Here is the press release.
The 2006 office and working costs of bishops in the Church of England are published today. Figures for individual bishops were first published, for the year 2000, in December 2001. Bishops’ office and working costs were previously published as a total figure.
In 2006, the Church Commissioners funded the ministry of Church of England bishops by some £15.9 million, figures from the House of Bishops show. Of that sum, £4.6m related to stipends, National Insurance and pension contributions for the 44 diocesan and 69 suffragan/full-time assistant bishops. The remaining £11.3m related to bishops’ office and working costs, most of which pays for the salaries and pensions of office staff, as set out in this report.
Copies of Bishops’ office and working costs for the year ended 31 December 2006 are available from Bishoprics and Cathedrals Dept, The Church Commissioners, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ, tel 020 7898 1058.
The booklet includes a full description of the important role played by bishops locally, regionally and nationally.
The booklet for 2006, and for previous years back to 2000, can be downloaded from here.
16 CommentsUpdated
Three teenagers from Oi! magazine recently interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury at home in Canterbury and the text is online: Tea and Toast with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Update: This is now available on the Archbishop’s own website here.
A pdf file of the interview as it will appear in the print version of Oi! can be downloaded from here.
If the comments we receive are anything to go by TA readers may be most interested in what the Archbishop said about gay clergy but do read all of the interview.
Ruth Gledhill reproduces most of the interview in today’s Times: Family and God keep me going – even if they all think I’m an idiot.
66 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 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 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 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
Updated Friday morning
The Lesbian and Gay Clergy Consultation organised a service today, at which, according to Ruth Gledhill, the Archbishop of Canterbury presided and preached.
Her blog report is headlined Rowan celebrates ‘secret’ gay communion service, although pretty obviously it wasn’t a secret that it was happening.
Her online newspaper story however is headlined Archbishop presides over ‘gay’ Eucharist.
Some other websites are temporarily unavailable, but I will add further links as soon as I am able.
However babyblue has noted in a comment at StandFirm that Martyn Minns preached at an Integrity eucharist in November 2001. A report of that event can be found in this PDF document.
StandFirm articles with comments about this event are here and also here. And now also this one. My, my they are excited. Meanwhile over at T19 comments on this topic have to be submitted by email.
Update
Changing Attitude has this press release: Archbishop of Canterbury meets LGBT members of the Consultation.
And the paper version of The Times has this version of Ruth Gledhill’s story: Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, at ‘secret’ gay ceremony. The scare quotes in the headline have moved over one word!
51 CommentsThis widely-trailed radio programme is available on the web for one week, under the BBC’s Listen Again system.
Go here to listen to it (40 minutes long). BBC blurb:
122 CommentsMichael Buerk reports on the divide over homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Church. He talks to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who expresses his feelings of shame over homophobia.
Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream gave an address ‘An International Overview’ [of the Anglican Communion] at the Anglican Network in Canada conference, Burlington, Ontario, 23 November 2007.
You can read his remarks in full here (PDF file). He makes the following assumption:
…There are currently three groups of people in the current debate.
Some think that the approach of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada is the way ahead for the Anglican Communion. These would include the Archbishops of Wales and Scotland, and since they are welcoming Gene Robinson to visit, the Primates of Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and Melanesia.
Some do not agree with The Episcopal Church in its teachings on doctrine and ethics. Bishop Jonathan Gledhill of Lichfield said he believed that 95% of the Anglican Communion would hold this view.
Of the second group, some no longer trust the Archbishop of Canterbury to deal adequately with the problem. Others still trust that the Archbishop of Canterbury is willing to address the problem as one charged with contending for the faith once delivered to the saints…
See also his earlier article in Evangelicals Now (September 2007) Not schism but revolution which you can read here.
Graham Kings of Fulcrum has commented on these remarks, you can read his comments in full here (comment timed at 11.49 on 28 November), but the key point made is this:
37 Comments… It seems clear from the rest of the address that Chris Sugden aligns himself (and Anglican Mainstream as a whole?) with the second group, which presumably also would include CANA, AMiA, Anglican Communion Network and Common Cause.
Fulcrum, the Anglican Communion Institute and Covenant would be part of group three.
This ‘no longer trusting in the Archbishop of Canterbury’ matches Chris Sugden’s earlier article, ‘Not Schism but Revolution’, in Evangelicals Now (September 2007), where he stated, after a quotation from Bishop Bob Duncan:
In other words, since the Archbishop of Canterbury has not provided for the safe oversight of the orthodox in the United States, he has forfeited his role as the one who gathers the Communion.
The irony of this, is that the Presiding Bishop of the Southern Cone, Greg Venables, has been at pains to point out that he consulted with the Archbishop of Canterbury in September concerning the current events. At least he continues, it seems, to treat the Archbishop of Canterbury as one ‘who gathers the Communion’.
The consequential question resulting from Chris Sugden’s view concerning the Archbishop of Canterbury is: ‘Then who does gather the Communion?’ His view leaves a vacuum. It also means that the Primates’ Meeting can’t be gathered, since Canterbury presides at those meetings. It also means the Lambeth Conference can’t meet. Of the Four Instruments of Communion, that leaves only the Anglican Consultative Council and that is not seen as respresentative by him.
The Church of England’s Mission and Public Affairs Council and the Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have issued a joint statement.
This statement has been issued with a press release titled Churches comment on Government’s incitement to hatred plans which starts:
The Church of England and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales have commented on the Government’s proposed amendment to the Public Order Act 1986 to create a new offence of incitement to hatred on grounds of sexual orientation….
Scroll down from the press release to read the full text of the Memorandum to the Public Bill Committee on the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.
48 CommentsGLOBAL ANGLICANS SHARE CALL TO AN INCLUSIVE GOSPEL VISION AND MISSION
Inclusive Church supporters are drenched in grace and ready to embrace “costly unity”
Last week, 180 people gathered in Derbyshire, England for “Drenched in Grace”, Inclusive Church’s first residential conference.
We met as Anglicans, committed to our church. We met as evangelicals and charismatics, as catholics, liberals and conservatives. We met at the Lord’s table – the unifying core of the conference. We reclaimed with confidence the orthodoxy of the inclusive Gospel we celebrate in the Anglican Communion.
We offered a model of engagement to the Communion at large. In our disagreements we acknowledged the primacy of God’s love in which we are all held together, but we did not keep silent about our differences.
Dr Jenny Te Paa (St John’s College, Auckland NZ) opened the conference. In a strong speech, Te Paa reminded us “how pervasive the reach of enmity has become amongst us.” She urged us “not so much to focus too intently and singularly on the bad behaviour of the few, but rather to focus anew on the very good behaviour of the many.”
Revd Dr Sharon Moughtin-Mumby in her talk “Out of the Silence” said “I believe it is vital for us to …. refuse to skip over the difficult and challenging or awkward passages of the Bible, just as in Inclusive Church we are committed to refusing to skip over those who can be made to feel like the difficult, challenging or awkward members of the people of God.”
Revd Dr Louis Weil (Berkeley, California) spoke about the central place baptism holds in our ecclesial understanding. Speaking of the sacraments of baptism and communion, he said “our obsession with validity has weakened the boldness of the sacramental signs. This creates a low level of expectation and weakens our understanding of mission.” We are in communion with one another by God’s grace, not by any human action. “I am in communion with Peter Akinola (the Archbishop of Nigeria)” he said. “I will remain in communion with Peter Akinola until we are both on the other side.”
Canon Lucy Winkett (St Paul’s Cathedral) spoke of the need to “forge relationships on the anvil of profound disagreement.” “The worry that we have as Anglicans is that our faith can be so driven by fear that our liturgy is tedious and our public pronouncements shrill and irrelevant.” In a powerful and wide ranging address she called for engagement with others across the theological spectrum.
Mark Russell, the Chief Executive of Church Army, sent us out into the world, calling passionately for the church to unite. “Unity is not saying that we will always agree with each other, unity is a deeper spiritual concept. Unity allows me to love my brothers and sisters even when I don’t always agree with them. Love allows me to hold difference and diversity.” He challenged us to “go from here, with a renewed vision to pursue a costly unity, and a vision to bring a gospel of hope to all.”
Many present are increasingly alienated and distanced from the church which they see as home. They are being rendered spiritually homeless. A common question was – why are our episcopal friends, who value and support classical Anglican comprehensiveness, so silent? Why do they, with few exceptions, leave the field clear to those who continually seek to undermine the Communion and deny its profound unity?
We have a Gospel to proclaim in a world disenchanted by the actions of those who proclaim a message which excludes. We invite them to meet with us, so that we can together move into the world with a vision of costly unity and hope for all in Jesus Christ.
21 CommentsUpdated Monday morning
The Archbishop of Canterbury has given an interview to a British Muslim magazine, Emel.
The Sunday Times has a news report on this, US is‘worst’ imperialist: archbishop by Abul Taher and has also published the full text of the interview as a PDF file, which you can read here. The interview is more balanced than the newspaper report of it.
Other British newspapers reported on this:
Stephen Bates Guardian Archbishop thrown into row over US Middle East policy
Auslan Cramb Daily Telegraph Archbishop’s assault on US foreign policy
Ruth Gledhill The Times Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, gets political blessing for his attack on America’s foreign policy
And the BBC reported it as Archbishop attacks ‘violent’ US
46 CommentsThe full text of the concluding keynote address by Mark Russell, Chief Executive of the Church Army, can now be found at Go into the world.
And the welcoming remarks by Giles Goddard at the conference opening can be found here.
For the other talks, see entries below.
3 CommentsUpdated Friday evening
TA readers will recall the recent letter from the UK supporting Bishop Duncan.
Pat Ashworth in the Church Times reports that The Catholic Group on the General Synod has initiated a letter of support for the Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt Revd Jack Iker.
Read Catholics write to back Iker.
The full list of names is not yet available but the report says that 34 of the 51 names are common to the earlier letter.
Update
Thr full text and list of signatures is now available on the Fort Worth site here.
And is reproduced below the fold.
93 CommentsSee here for earlier report.
Pat Ashworth has more information in the Church Times in Dr Tutu is ‘ashamed’ of his ‘homophobic’ Communion.
…Dr Tutu told Lord Carey that he was ashamed of Anglicanism as long ago as the Lambeth Conference of 1998, over which Lord Carey presided as Archbishop of Canterbury. Lord Carey is heard drawing a distinction between tolerance and approval of homosexuality — in a manner that the programme’s producer, David Coomes, described on Tuesday as “nuanced”. “There was a report in The Sunday Telegraph saying Lord Carey and Tutu were at odds. There’s an element of truth in that, but not the total truth,” he said.
Whereas Dr Tutu sees the Bible as “a useful guide rather than a repository of unqualified truth”, says Michael Buerk, conservatives such as Stephen Green regard it as “divinely inspired to such an extent that he would like to see its strictures incorporated into British law”.
Ann Widdecombe, he explains, “thinks Tutu is blurring all the edges . . . between the sinner and the sin, between orientation and action — above all, between right and wrong”; and that “Tutu’s idea of what Christ is about is too simple by half.” Bishop Duncan “appears to think Tutu, now 76, has lost it — if he ever had it”, says Mr Buerk…
From Calvary to Lambeth is broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday 27 November at 8 p.m., and repeated on Sunday 2 December at 5 p.m.
45 CommentsHere are links to audio recordings of two of today’s keynote talks.
Both of these presentations were outstanding and I strongly recommend listening to it all.
Louis Weil on When Signs Signify
Lucy Winkett on Our sound is our wound
(Text versions of these will also be available later.)
Meanwhile the full text of two other talks are already available:
Each of us was given grace: an address by Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa (audio linked here previously).
Out of the silence: an address by the Revd Dr Sharon Moughtin-Mumby
(Dr Moughtin-Mumby was unable to be present but her address was read by the Revd Canon Giles Goddard, chair of Inclusive Church.)
7 CommentsThe InclusiveChurch conference Drenched in Grace opened with a keynote speech by Jenny Te Paa.
Jenny Te Paa condemns “the reach of enmity” among Anglicans The first Inclusive Church conference opened today at the Hayes Conference Centre in Derbyshire, England with an address by Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa. In a strong speech, Te Paa reminded us “how pervasive the reach of enmity has become amongst us.” She urged us “not to notice the bad behaviour of the few, but the good behaviour of the many.” Calling to mind the great humanitarian needs of the world, Te Paa lamented our obsession with drawing lines that exclude, which is distracting us from the enormous suffering so many people face. We must not “fret and fight” while people are literally dying.
Te Paa is a Principal of the College of St John the Evangelist in Auckland, New Zealand, was a member of the 2003 Lambeth Commission, and assisted in the St Augustine’s Seminar responsible for planning the detailed content for the forthcoming Lambeth Conference 2008.
The Revd Canon Giles Goddard, chair of Inclusive Church, said, “We are not a pressure group of the like-minded.” He added, “We are ordinary Anglicans who love our church, and we are deeply concerned by the way in which the effort to exclude is overtaking the calling to live the Gospel.”
180 people have gathered here at a time in which many people are concerned that the generous tolerance which has characterized Anglicanism is under serious threat from those who wish to divide the church. The conference includes participants from all parts of Great Britain and throughout the Anglican Communion.
Information for Editors: IC is a growing network of Anglicans from across the Anglican Communion working to celebrate the traditional diversity of Anglicanism.
For further information contact Revd Canon Giles Goddard – 07762 373 674 or
Revd. Philip Chester – 07515 815710
Savi Hensman has written a little more about the session on the IC blog at Each of us was given grace.
And you can listen to the entire speech by going to Audio from Jenny Te Paa address.
40 CommentsUpdated
Andrew Brown has written on comment is free that Rowan Williams and the Church of England can no longer remain aloof from convulsions threatening to tear the Anglican communion apart.
Read Falling off the fence.
Jonathan Petre reports in the Daily Telegraph Dr Rowan Williams to target pro-gay bishops which is not the action that Andrew had in mind. Nor what Desmond Tutu thinks, see Williams should tackle Anglican homophobia, says Desmond Tutu on Ekklesia.
Andrew’s link to Rowan’s 1998 Address at Lambeth Plenary on making moral decisions is a useful reminder.
Update
Colin Coward asks Is the Archbishop of Canterbury proposing to withhold Lambeth invitations from English bishops?
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has contributed to the Anglican Communion Listening Process.
The Church Times has an exclusive report by Bill Bowder at Acceptance helps gays, psychiatrists inform Anglicans.
THE Royal College of Psychiatrists has challenged Anglican bishops to support gay clergy and laity as an example to parents struggling to come to terms with having gay or lesbian children.
“The Church has a wonderful opportunity to lead rather than to be dragged along kicking and screaming. Christianity is such an inclusive religion,” said Professor Michael King, an executive committee member of the College’s special-interest group of 200 to 300 psychiatrists who work with lesbians, gay men, and bisexual and transsexual people.
His committee has submitted a report to the Church’s Listening Exercise on Human Sexuality, to inform a study guide for next year’s Lambeth Conference.
The report, endorsed by the full College “from the President down”, said that there were no scientific or rational grounds for treating lesbian, gay, and bisexual people differently, Professor King said on Monday.
The full text of the contribution can be found here as a PDF file. An html version is here.
134 CommentsFrom today’s Church Times Pat Ashworth has this:
English bishops back Duncan over warning letter (scroll down for second story)
THE BISHOPS of Chester, Chichester, Exeter, and Rochester issued a statement on Tuesday in support of the Rt Revd Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, after the warning letter sent to him by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori…
…The English bishops’ statement, which was instigated by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, read: “We deeply regret the increase in the atmosphere of litigiousness revealed by the Presiding Bishop’s letter to Bishop Duncan. At this time, we stand with him and with all who respond positively to the Primates’ Dar es Salaam requests. We hope the Archbishop’s response to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida will also apply to Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh.”
The Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, said on Tuesday that the statement gave personal support to Bishop Duncan. He described the Presiding Bishop’s letter as “aggressive, inappropriate, and unfortunate”. “They are acting as if it is the OK Corral. This is the North American culture: it is a managerial rather than a pastoral approach.”
Dr Forster emphasised that issuing the statement did not imply support for decisions taken at the Pittsburgh diocesan convention.
When asked whether the Presiding Bishop was within her rights to act as she had done, Dr Forster said that if a whole diocese voted to realign with another province, that needed to be addressed on its own terms. “I’m not sure simply saying ‘It’s illegal’ is the best way to produce some healing. What’s needed is a pastoral, healing approach, which attempts to find a way forward.”
Bishop Duncan is “holding out the prospect of those who wish to stay doing so, and promises to be fair and generous in his dealings with them. I think I’m asking for a similar fairness and generosity from the Episcopal Church towards those parishes who do want to leave,” said Dr Forster….
60 Comments