Anglican Mainstream has printed the full text, and also the full list of signatories, which does not appear in the newspaper itself. There it says: “Col Edward Armitstead and 41 Members of General Synod from 24 dioceses”.
Letter published in the Church of England Newspaper
The Editor The CEN
Dear Sir,
We write to inform you that we are sending the following letter of support to Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh and his fellow Bishops in the Common Cause Council of Bishops following the letter last week to the Bishop of Pittsburgh,
Dear Bishop Duncan and Bishops in Common Cause
Warm greetings from the UK.
We have read the letter from Presiding Bishop Schori to the Bishop of Pittsburgh. We want to assure you, your dioceses and parishes of our prayers and fellowship as you take your stand on our shared Anglican heritage, accepting the Holy Scriptures as the rule and ultimate standard of faith, contrary to those innovators both in the British Isles and in the Americas who wish to give primacy to the demands of contemporary culture.
We are outraged by the threat and implementation of court actions against faithful Anglicans in the United States by the current leadership of The Episcopal Church who appear to be unitarian and universalist in theology, and coercively utopian in social practice.
We are most disturbed that the current plans for the Lambeth Conference are that the leadership of TEC be invited to the Lambeth Conference but not faithful Anglican bishops.
Yours in Christ
46 Members of General Synod from 26 dioceses
Colonel Edward Armitstead (Bath and Wells), Mrs Lorna Ashworth (Chichester), Mrs Anneliese Barrell (Exeter), Fr Paul Benfield (Blackburn), Mr Tom Benyon (Oxford) , Mr Paul Boyd Lee (Salisbury), Canon Peter Bruinvels (Guildford), Mr Gerald Burrows (Blackburn), Mr Graham Campbell (Chester) , Mr Nigel Chetwood (Gloucester), Mr John Clark (Lichfield) , Rev John Cook (London), Mr Tim Cox (Blackburn), Brigadier Ian Dobbie (Rochester), Rev John Dunnett (Chelmsford), Mr Paul Eddy (Winchester), Mrs Sarah Finch (London), Dr Philip Giddings (Oxford), Rev Ian Gooding (Derby), Rev John Hartley (Bradford) , Rev Richard Hibbert (St Albans), Fr Simon Killwick (Manchester) , Mr Peter LeRoy (Bath and Wells), Rev Angus Macleay (Rochester) , Dr Peter May (Winchester), Mr Steve Mitchell (Derby), Mrs Joanna Monckton (Lichfield), Mrs Gill Morrison (Peterborough), Mr Gerry O’Brien (Rochester), Rev Paul Perkin (Southwark) , Preb Sam Philpott (Exeter) , Mr Andrew Presland (Peterborough), Rev Colin Randall (Carlisle) , Mr Jonathan Redden (Sheffield), Mrs Alison Ruoff (London), Mr Clive Scowen (London), Mr Ian Smith (York), Rev Mark Sowerby (Ripon and Leeds),Mr Michael Streeter (Chichester) Canon Dr Chris Sugden (Oxford), Dr Chik Kaw Tan (Lichfield), Rev Rod Thomas (Exeter), Mr Jacob Vince (Chichester), Rev David Waller (Chelmsford) , Mrs Ruth Whitworth (Ripon and Leeds) Sister Anne Williams (Durham)
Plus Rev David Phillips (St Albans) Director, Church Society, Rev Geoffrey Kirk (Southwark) Secretary, Forward in Faith UK, Stephen Parkinson, Director, Forward in Faith, Rev Beaumont Brandie (Chichester) Chair of College of Forward in Faith Deans, Gill James (Birmingham), Rev Alan Rabjohns, Chair, Credo Cymru. Canon Nicholas Turner (Bradford) Editor, New Directions, Rev Trevor Walker (Lincoln) Forward in Faith Council, Fr Ross Northing (Oxford) Regional Dean, Fr Len Black (FiF dean for Scotland)
63 CommentsThe correspondence which started last January has recently resumed.
See the most recent letters:
Andrew to Giles on 16 September
Giles to Andrew on 3 November
This correspondence appears on both InclusiveChurch and Fulcrum. For the context see here.
25 CommentsUpdated
The Sunday Telegraph has a report by Jonathan Wynne-Jones headlined C of E to empower foreign bishops.
The Church of England is set to allow foreign archbishops to intervene in its affairs, secret papers reveal.
Under controversial plans being drawn up by the Church’s bishops, leaders from Africa and South America would be able to take over the care of parishes in this country.
They threaten to end the historic power of bishops to have ultimate control over their dioceses because parishes could ask for overseas prelates to carry out important duties, such as leading ordination services.
The proposals are part of a covenant or rule book of beliefs that has been endorsed by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a last ditch attempt to prevent the Anglican Church from splitting over gay clergy…
Episcopal Café has reported on this as Let’s see who salutes while epiScope has Telegraph plays telephone…?
Watch for clarifications to emerge…
Reminder: at the CofE General Synod in July the covenant draft was discussed with this outcome, and further reports are linked here.
Update
For clarification, see both the comment by Pete Broadbent below, and his comment here on Fulcrum.
Following on from here, this week the Church of England issued a press release, Church confirms principles of protocol to review past child protection cases and the press duly reported:
Guardian Riazat Butt Church pledges to root out decades-old child abuse cases
Church Times Pat Ashworth Child-protection protocol agreed
Religious Intelligence Ed Beavan Child protection review ordered
BBC Church abuse case review outlined
Transcript of last May’s radio interview with the archbishop.
16 CommentsSee earlier report here on the proposals for changing the way Crown Appointments are made. The full text of the document is here. The proposals relating to deans start at paragraph 31.
Three former deans wrote a letter to The Times this week:
Sir, Deans have been part of a system of checks and balances in the English Church, at least since the Reformation, when papal powers were divided between the Crown and the Archbishop of Canterbury (report, Oct 16).
Deans of cathedrals of the New Foundation (formerly monastic communities) are successors of their abbots and priors. Indeed, on the eve of the Reformation there were more abbots in the House of Lords than bishops. Canon law lays down that the government of the Church of England is by “archbishops, bishops, deans and archdeacons . . .” But suffragan bishops and archdeacons are already appointed by diocesan bishops: deans, therefore, appointed by the Crown, represent an independent focus in the life of the Church.
If the Crown wants to repudiate its responsibility in this regard, some other method of appointing deans should be found, because deans have a community rather than a purely ecclesiastical function.
Rather than abandon the appointment of deans by the Crown, consideration should be given to the appointment of all deans (including those of the parish church cathedrals, until recently called provosts) by the Crown.
John Arnold
Dean Emeritus of DurhamRichard Lewis
Dean Emeritus of WellsEdward Shotter
Dean Emeritus of Rochester
The Church Times has a report by Bill Bowder Deans question power of diocesan bishops.
3 CommentsIn the Sunday Telegraph Jonathan Wynne-Jones has a report that:
Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.
Read C of E child abuse was ignored for decades.
And also, Giles Fraser has an accompanying analysis: The truth must out.
4 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has an article today in the Observer, Britain’s abortion debate lacks a moral dimension.
There is a related news article, British women treat abortion as the easy option, claims angry Archbishop.
41 CommentsUpdated again Thursday evening
Reform, “a 1,700-strong evangelical network”, which was in the news earlier with this report, held an annual conference in central London this week. See announcement, and the detailed agenda (PDF file).
Media coverage of this:
The Times Conservative clergy told to leave care of bishop if he’s a liberal and later, Call to ignore ‘liberal’ CofE bishops and another version headlined Evangelicals told to defy bishops
Daily Telegraph Anglican Parishes To Ordain Own Clergy (Telegraph website temporarily unavailable, see copy here)
BBC Church makes threat over gay row
Update
The Church of England Newspaper also has coverage, headlined Reform warns of further actions: copy of it here.
And Religious Intelligence now also has More irregular action ‘highly likely’- Reform by Ed Beavan.
Second Update
The motions passed by the conference can be found at Anglican Mainstream, Motions from Reform Conference.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have published a press release and a consultation document.
The press release is here: Archbishops consult on Crown Appointments.
The consultation document to which it refers is published as a word processing file here.
An html copy of it is available here.
Here is the Introduction:
32 CommentsIntroduction
1. On 3 July the Government published a Green Paper, The Governance of Britain. It contained a wide range of proposals for constitutional renewal. Paragraphs 57 to 66 (copy attached at Annex A) signalled the Government’s wish for some change in the role that Ministers and civil servants play in relation to some Church appointments.
2. In particular, the Green Paper proposed that the Prime Minister should no longer use the royal prerogative to exercise choice in recommending appointments in senior ecclesiastical posts. In consequence, the Church would in future be asked to forward one name for the Prime Minister to convey to the Queen in relation to diocesan bishop appointments. The Government also committed itself to discussing with the Church how changes could be made in relation to cathedral, parish and other Crown appointments (excluding those to the Royal Peculiars) so that the Prime Minister no longer played an active role in the selection of individual candidates.
3. The scheduled General Synod debate on 9 July on the Pilling Report, Talent and Calling, provided the opportunity for the Church to give an initial response to the Government’s proposals. Attached at Annex B is a copy of the motion that the Synod passed by 297 votes to 1.
4. The Synod noted that there would now need to be a process of discussion both within the Church and between the Church and the Government in order to develop new arrangements that would command a wide measure of support. It invited us to report back to the Synod in February.
5. The purpose of this document is to set out some thoughts on a possible way forward and to invite comments from around the Church. The time-scale is necessarily challenging. Those wishing to respond to this consultation document are asked to do so not later than Friday, 7 December, preferably by emailing or by sending written comments to Dr Colin Podmore at Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ (crown.appointments@c-of-e.org.uk).
Alan Wilson, who is Bishop of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford, has written on his blog:
What kind of party spirit am I on? Someone asked me if I’m going to the Lambeth conference.
Read it all…
58 CommentsUpdated
See here.
The Church of England Evangelical Council has published a Statement on The Episcopal Church’s Response to the Primates and the Lambeth Conference.
You can read that here.
To understand who the members of the CEEC are, read this page. To understand how members get to become members, see over here.
The Daily Telegraph has reported this in C of E faces boycott over gay priests row by Jonathan Petre.
19 CommentsAccording to Ruth Gledhill in The Times the next inspection of Wycliffe Hall by the Church of England will occur in 2008 rather than 2009.
Bishops to inspect Wycliffe Hall after fears about management
31 CommentsUpdate
There are further quotes from the bishop here.
Jonathan Petre reports in the Daily Telegraph that the Bishop of Rochester has said he may not attend:
144 Comments…Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Bishop Nazir-Ali backed the calls of African archbishops for Dr Williams to convene an emergency meeting of all the primates to decide whether to discipline the Americans or postpone Lambeth.
He said: “My difficulty at the moment is not with a particular person, such as Gene Robinson, but with those who felt it right to approve and to officiate at his ordination.
“Unless they are willing to say that what they did was contrary to the Gospel, and we all of us from time to time need to repent about what we have done wrong, I would find it very difficult to be with them in a council of bishops.”
He said if the conference was no longer to be regarded as an authoritative council, as it had been in the past, then he might be able to attend, but many would then question whether such a costly gathering had any point.
Bishop Nazir-Ali dismissed the view of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, that conservatives who boycotted Lambeth would be expelling themselves Anglicanism because they had broken their links with the Archbishop of Canterbury…
The Church Times has a report by Bill Bowder Wycliffe Hall criticised by resigning governor.
33 CommentsCLARE MACINNES, a member of the Council of Wycliffe Hall, the increasingly troubled Evangelical theological college in Oxford (News, Letters, 28 September), wrote to its chairman on Monday to resign and explain her reasons.
She said on Tuesday that she had also written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the college’s Visitor, and to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. “My responsibility is to tell my story,” she said. “I am deeply saddened by this, and it gave me no pleasure to write this letter.”
The chairman of the Council of Wycliffe Hall, the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd James Jones, had replied immediately, “which I appreciated”, but she declined to give any details of his reply…
Religious Intelligence has reported that there is a New crisis for Anglican college as council member resigns by Ed Beavan.
A COUNCIL member of the under-fire Oxford theological college Wycliffe Hall has resigned because of her concerns over failures by the body to ‘respond to allegations of bullying, intimidation of Council members and a lack of transparency in its decision making’.
Clare MacInnes announced her resignation in a letter to the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, who is chair of the Council of Wycliffe Hall, which she also sent to The Church of England Newspaper.
Mrs MacInnes said she had decided to put the letter in the public domain because of the ‘importance of the issues for the ongoing welfare and governance of the Hall and the wider church’.
In the letter she says that that the Council had ‘failed to observe due process’in the areas of terminating staff employment, staff recruitment, the Listening Process, records of Council discussions, and Council membership…
The story is also reported in the Guardian by Stephen Bates under the headline College council member quits over ‘bullying’.
42 Comments…In her letter of resignation this week, council member Clare MacInnes told the Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, who is chairman of governors: “I am disturbed by the council’s failure to respond to allegations of bullying, intimidation of council members and a lack of transparency in its decision-making … I regret I have no confidence in the chair, the principal or the council as a whole to address these serious matters of governance, employment practice and simple human relationships.” Her letter suggests that a decision to pay Dr Turnbull a salary thousands of pounds above national pay scales was not properly appraised by the council when he was appointed two years ago.
The BBC Radio Ulster programme Sunday Sequence carried an interview with Dr Eeva John this last weekend. The programme ended with a statement from the principal of Wycliffe Hall (Dr Richard Turnbull) and the chair of the hall council (the Bishop of Liverpool).
Listen (11m 39s)
We linked to an earlier interview with Dr John on BBC Radio 4 here.
Update
Clare MacInnes, a member of the hall council, has resigned “because of her concerns over failures by the body to ‘respond to allegations of bullying, intimidation of Council members and a lack of transparency in its decision making’.”
Details here.
[hat-tip to badman]
According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Sunday Telegraph:
Conservative Christians will throw down the gauntlet to the Archbishop of Canterbury this week by demanding that he openly disowns the American church over gay bishops.
A letter to be sent to Dr Rowan Williams tomorrow by Reform, an evangelical group representing 1,000 parishes, urges him to make it clear that he opposes the American position
The group warns that his failure to do so would split the Church of England from “top to bottom” and lead to a further demand that the US church is barred from the Lambeth Council, the annual gathering of bishops…
Read the whole article, Ultimatum on Anglican church gays.
Read a statement from Reform at Anglican Mainstream Response from Reform to New Orleans Statement by TEC Bishops.
138 CommentsThe following letter to the editor was published today in full in the Church of England Newspaper and in a shorter form in the Church Times.
from Eeva John, the Revd Geoff Maughan, and the Revd Dr David Wenham
Sir,
Recent revelations concerning the removal of Dr Elaine Storkey and of the Revd Dr Andrew Goddard and the Revd Lis Goddard from their posts at Wycliffe Hall have ensured that this Oxford Evangelical theological college continues to attract media attention. Over the past six months, rumours have abounded regarding a shift towards conservative evangelicalism, homophobia, misogyny on the one hand, and heavy-handed management involving bullying and intimidation on the other. Until now, out of loyalty to the college and concern for its students, staff at the college have been reluctant to comment, even though the situation has been repeatedly misrepresented in the press by other stakeholders. But now the serious and distressing injustice of the forcible removal of three fellow staff members compels us to set the record straight and to let the facts of the past two years speak for themselves.
Wycliffe Hall was in a strong and healthy position, when the Revd Professor Alister McGrath stepped down as Principal in 2004. But the appointment of a new Principal in April 2005 heralded a new era and the time for various changes, especially in administrative and managerial areas of college life. Staff were open to change, and wanted to work with the new Principal in this.
Distress soon set in, however, as strategic decisions, policies, and appointments were made without due regard for the views of colleagues. Despite intense behind-the-scenes discussions, these acute management difficulties culminated in the first of many resignations: David Wenham resigned as Vice-Principal, and Geoff Maughan, Director of Ministry, left the Hall to take up a parish post.
Tensions continued and reached a new climax at a meeting of staff and student representatives, at which the Principal responded unsatisfactorily to questions from students about various issues, including future staff appointments.
Dr Elaine Storkey, the Hall’s Senior Research Fellow, spoke out forthrightly at the meeting in support of those students and staff who had questions. This led directly to the Principal’s initiating formal disciplinary proceedings against Dr Storkey, and in due course to her responding reluctantly with grievance proceedings.
The heavy-handed disciplinary action, following all that led up to it, resulted in an appeal to the Hall Council from nine mostly senior staff (not including Dr Storkey), asking for their help in resolving the difficulties within the staff team and in bringing reconciliation. This was followed in subsequent months by a series of letters to the Council (six from groups of staff and many others from individual staff members) asking the Council to help.
The repeated pleas for face-to-face meetings with the Council and eventually for independent mediation were consistently rejected by the Council; substantive issues raised by staff were not addressed.
Eventually, the Council initiated a listening process, giving individual staff members access to two designated Council members. The outcome was a brief 140-word statement to the Hall community which reiterated the Council’s unanimous support for the Principal, and emphasised the need for all staff “to follow proper processes, to support the Principal, and to work to the highest Christian standards”.
In the mean time, resignations continued unabated. By the end of the academic year, eight staff members had resigned, two annual contracts had not been renewed, and one senior staff member had stepped down from his management responsibilities in protest.
Not all these resignations were as a direct consequence of the difficulties at the Hall, but many were. Three were staff who had been appointed by the current Principal and had been in post only two years. They could hardly be described as dead wood. Finally, the recent dismissals without grounds of Dr Storkey and the Goddards, none of whom had plans or desires to leave their posts at the Hall this year, has taken the toll of staff departures in one academic year to a total of 13. This represents more than 40 per cent of all support and academic staff.
Clearly neither Elaine Storkey nor the Goddards were alone in their unhappiness with the leadership and management of the Hall: they simply outstayed their welcome as far as the Principal and the Council were concerned.
The rough and tumble of heavy-handed and abrasive management may be the harsh reality of life in some businesses and organisations, but it is unacceptable and damaging in an institution that is first and foremost a Christian community in which future leaders are trained and mentored to imbibe the counter-cultural values of servant and team leadership. Furthermore the severance of the contracts of three members without any justification other than elimination of dissent is unjust. This is particularly the case when so many pleas for help in working towards reconciliation and understanding have been ignored.
Purported theological dimensions to the crisis at the Hall have been eagerly grasped by the press, and expressed variously as an attempt to capture the college for a narrow evangelicalism that is hostile to women’s ordination and homophobic. We are deeply distressed by, and wish to distance ourselves from such attempts to to polarize the Christian community caricature theological viewpoints. However, some of the Principal’s recent appointments, public statements, and changes to the curriculum do, however, suggest a more narrowly conservative emphasis (not to mention his signing of the “Covenant for the Church of England” without consulting colleagues). On the other hand, the appointment of two women academics can be seen as representing a broader approach.
As for the outgoing staff, any suggestion that they were uncommitted to the Evangelical heritage and emphasis of the Hall is untrue: we all held highly the Hall’s long-standing commitment to biblical doctrine, preaching and practice in a spirit of generous theological orthodoxy.
Finally, Wycliffe’s status as a Permanent Private Hall within Oxford University has been under the spotlight as a result of the recent review of all PPHs by the University. An important dimension of the Hall’s vision is to foster the pursuit of evangelical biblical scholarship within a context in which views are respectfully exchanged and heard. The Hall’s association with Oxford University is vital to this vision. We are naturally concerned that the recent events may have weakened this important relationship, but hope that the Council will support the Principal in ensuring that any damage is swiftly and unequivocally repaired.
The events we have described have caused intense pain and perplexity to many people. Although we readily acknowledge that the failures of judgement and charity have not all been on one side, we believe it is important for the wider Church, to which Wycliffe Hall is ultimately accountable, to be exposed to the voices that heretofore have been silent.
As staff who have left the Hall, we deeply regret what has happened, and the divisions that have arisen within the college and among its friends. We continue to have great affection for the Hall and for colleagues and students who have meant so much to us, and we hope and pray, still, for reconciliation, for healing of relationships, and for the rebuilding of the Wycliffe community.
Eeva John (Wycliffe Hall 2004-07); Geoff Maughan (Wycliffe Hall 1998-2007); David Wenham (Wycliffe Hall 1983-2007)
23 CommentsThe Oxford University Gazette has published the full report: Review of the Permanent Private Halls associated with the University of Oxford.
It is available as a PDF file, from here.
The whole report should be read to get the sense of it, but in response to anticipated interest Annexe E on Wycliffe Hall can be read as an html page here. (There is a similar annexe describing each of the individual halls.)
15 CommentsUpdated
The BBC radio programme Sunday carried an interview with Eeva John:
Wycliffe Hall staffing dispute
Elaine Storkey has left Oxford’s Wycliffe Hall theological college. Storkey, sometime presenter of Thought For The Day on Radio 4’s Today programme, is the latest in a long line of academic staff who have gone since the appointment of Richard Turnbull as principal two years ago.Turnbull was brought in to improve management at the college. He has earned many critics and some have expressed fears that he is moving the college in a more theologically conservative direction.
Eeva John, Wycliffe’s former director of the diploma for Biblical and theological studies, resigned in August. She explained why she decided to go.
Listen (6m 18s)
Earlier report on this is here.
Further comment, by Eeva John herself, appears below among the comments.
38 Comments