Jonathan Petre reports that Williams turns to ‘wise men’ in crisis over gays by which he means:
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has quietly appointed four “wise men” to advise him on the crisis over homosexuals that is threatening to tear the worldwide Anglican Church apart.
They have yet to be named, but are expected to include the liberal Primate of Wales, Archbishop Barry Morgan, and the conservative Primate of Central Africa, Archbishop Bernard Malango.
The group will play a pivotal role following next month’s General Convention of the US Episcopal Church, the American equivalent of the Church of England’s General Synod…
Stephen Bates in the Guardian reports on Anglican relief as California diocese elects straight bishop:
…The election was greeted with some relief in senior church circles but not by the conservative American Anglican Council, which hopes to overturn the Episcopal leadership. A statement said that California remained a “bastion of amorphous Christianity” and criticised all the candidates for not pledging to withhold consent for “same-sex partnered individuals” as bishops.
James Bone in The Times Anglicans avert clash over gays
Meanwhile back in England, Ruth Gledhill reports Church seeks spirituality of youth . . . and doesn’t like what it finds:
THE Church of England has debunked the widely held view that young people are spiritual seekers on a journey to find transcendent truths to fill the “God-shaped hole†within them.
A report published by the Church today indicates that young people are quite happy with a life without God and prefer car boot sales to church…
The book is Making Sense of Generation Y. The Church of England press release is here.
Ruth has also written on her blog about the California election in US election makes schism unlikely.
39 CommentsThe Church Times has a report today by Bill Bowder: Dioceses asked to find £10m to shore up pensions
The letter referred to in the article can be found on the Church of England web site linked from this page.
WARNING the .rtf file there is (at present) 4.3 Megabytes in size. [file size now fixed] You may find it more convenient to read the letter below the fold here.
There are reports of the hearing of the appeal being made by Richard Coekin against the action of Bishop Tom Butler of Southwark.
The Times Vicar defends protest against gay marriage
Church Times Scott-Joynt hears Southwark appeal
Church of England Newspaper Southwark appeal hearing for vicar
Meanwhile Mr Coekin is busy as described by the CEN in Why reaching men with the Gospel is no picnic in the park as well of course as here.
6 CommentsChristopher Landau interviewed John Sentamu for the BBC Sunday programme.
You can hear that interview by going 19 minutes foward into this recording (Real Audio). Better and more permanent link from the BBC now available here. The segment is nearly 7 minutes long.
This took place at the Fulcrum conference on in Islington last Friday, at which the archbishop was a main speaker. You can find out all about the conference at this page.
Update CEN report of conference: Finding a place for the Gospel in modern day Europe
0 CommentsAvailable to download are full and summary versions of the Church Commissioners’ report and accounts for 2005.
Both are in the format of a PDF file.
Full version 3.2 M.
Summary version 720K.
More information here.
ABCD: a way ahead for the C of E was the title of an article written by David Edwards and printed in last week’s Church Times.
David L. Edwards sets out his vision for the future of the Church: ‘If the Anglican experiment is to be a failure, the tragedy should not be underestimated’.
The letters stand for Activities, Blessing, Conferences, and Discretion.
37 CommentsThere are reports on Ekklesia and BBC London tonight about this.
Ekklesia Church of England faces embarrassment over homes sale:
The Church of England is facing embarrassment today after it was reported that a company to which it sold social housing just a month ago – with public reassurances about its long-term future – may sell almost half the properties…
BBC New estates owner mulls sell-off:
Hundreds of low-income homes at south London’s Octavia Hill estates may be sold after a consortium bought them off the Church of England.
Just a month after the properties were bought by Grainger Gen Invest, it has told tenants it may have to sell 400 of them to cover the cost of the purchase…
Here is the transcript of the recent General Synod Questions and Answers on this topic. (original in RTF format here.)
1 CommentUpdate
I deliberately didn’t mention this before because it wasn’t working initially, but now I can report that this site also provides a separate RSS feed for each bishop’s Recent Appearances. This makes it even easier for you to track your favourite (or non-favourite) bishop’s remarks.
I have gathered these feeds together into a blogroll which is currently viewable here. Open the list by clicking on the + sign at the left labelled Bishops in the Lords.
The excellent website TheyWorkForYou.com has extended its services to the House of Lords. Now anyone can track the activities of a Church of England bishop by signing up for an email notification of their remarks.
See for example:
The Archbishop of Canterbury
The Bishop of London
The Bishop of Chelmsford
The Bishop of Chester
Lord Carey of Clifton
Yesterday, as an example, the Bishop of Coventry spoke about Nigeria. Here is what he said. As you can see he didn’t mention many of the things reported here.
2 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury’s Sermon for Easter Day is published in full here.
The Bishop of Oxford preached this sermon on Tuesday in Holy Week, and also has an article in the Observer Science does not challenge my faith – it strengthens it.
The Bishop of Durham preached this sermon on Maundy Thursday.
The Archbishop of York preached this sermon on Maundy Thursday, this one on Good Friday and this sermon on Easter Day. And you can also read Archbishop Sentamu’s Good Friday article for the Yorkshire Post.
5 CommentsThe church newspapers publish a day early this week, because of Good Friday. So today we have:
Church Times ECUSA commission backtracks on gays and the resolutions are republished here.
Church of England Newspaper ECUSA to slow liberal agenda by George Conger.
12 CommentsForward in Faith has published TEA – a further examination which contains the report of the Forward in Faith Legal Working Party on the Guildford Group report GS 1605. The report lists nine numbered paragraphs containing what the working party considers to be fundamental defects of TEA, and then continues with a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of the report.
Earlier, FiF had published TEA – an interim commentary.
15 CommentsUpdated Monday evening
The interview of Rowan Williams, conducted by Alan Rusbridger editor of the Guardian, was analysed in some detail in the Church Times last week, by Andrew Brown. The column was headlined Man not born to be king. Andrew wrote in part:
…If the interview had a theme, it was not the warnings and denunciations contained in the news story; it was a portrait of a man who doesn’t want to be a leader, and doesn’t believe that leadership is even possible in most situations.
It is enormously refreshing to find an Archbishop who doesn’t believe his own propaganda. But I think it’s wrong of an Archbishop not to take advantage, at least intermittently, of the fact that other people do believe his propaganda, and want to. Equally, there is a danger that a man who does not believe his own propaganda will find himself repeating the propaganda of others. How else is one to interpret this exchange:
Rusbridger: “The Archbishop of Nigeria recently told Nigerian Muslims, in the aftermath of the Muhammad cartoon furore, that they did not have a monopoly on violence and that Christians might strike back. Coincidentally or not, the remark was followed within days by a spate of attacks on Muslims by Christians which left 80 dead.”
Williams: “Hmmm, I think that what he – what he meant was, so to speak, an abstract warning – you know, ‘Don’t be provocative because in an unstable situation it’s as likely the Christians will resort to violence as Muslims will.’
“It was taken by some as open provocation, encouragement, a threat. I think I know him well enough to take his good faith on what he meant. He did not mean to stir up the violence that happened. He’s a man who will speak very directly and immediately into crises. I think he meant to issue a warning, which has been taken as a threat, to have meant a provocation. Others in the Nigerian Church have, I think, found other ways of saying that which have been more measured.”
Giles Fraser had a column in the Church Times headed The Church needs some sort of leadership. Part of that reads:
…We know the Communion is in critical trouble. We hear Chinese whispers of meetings and phone calls trying to broker deals. Last week, I phoned Lambeth with a worry about a rumour. “Trust us,†comes the reply. OK, I have to; we all have to. And what I am trusting in, as much as anything, is the Archbishop himself. He might not like this over-investment in him personally, but there it is.
I don’t want a fantasy archbishop on a white charger, a deus ex machina who appears to make everything well. But the mood among many ordinary Christians is one of apprehension: are we being sold out? After the Jeffrey John disaster, the worry is that the Archbishop allows himself to be bullied off the ball. Yet, despite all this, trust to keep on believing in this Church remains for many of us a trust in the Archbishop. It’s a trust that’s in need of a bit of help. And that, surely, is the essence of leadership.
Update
In the original interview, there is this:
Rusbridger: And have you got a strategy for going forward as to how, given the media is always with us, what is your strategy for engaging with it in the future?
Williams: It’s a big question to ask really and I know that I’m not the world’s greatest strategist of thinking forward, but I think I need to take more advice on what makes sense or what sounds alright, a great temptation to try and do everything or be good at everything you can’t be.
A response to this is to be found today on the Guardian website (not in the paper edition) where Andrew Brown has written a letter of advice to the archbishop, in his regular Monday column. A fragment:
10 Comments…So I think that the media strategy you need is plain. You need to explain to the rest of us, who believed you inhabited our moral universe, just why sharing a church with gay bishops is a matter of theological gravity comparable to sharing it with enthusiastic Nazis and in the end just as much incompatible with real Christianity. You need to explain just what the arguments were that persuaded you, after 30 years of standing up for the outcast, that God really is on the side of the big battalions in your church…
Updated Thursday evening
Some blog reactions also:
Jeff Jarvis on Comment is Free First church of media
PZ Myers on Pharyngula Archbishop of Canterbury, anti-creationist, hat tip to Andrew Brown who has on helmintholog written Rowan, PZ, creationism.
Other newspapers have followed up on the creationism aspect of the original interview:
Telegraph Jonathan Petre reported: Clarke opposes creation teaching which came twinned with a leader Intelligent by Design. The Mirror seemed not to understand at all, with BAN BIBLE SCIENCE IN SCHOOL’.
The BBC gave more background with Fears over teaching creationism.
The Scotsman found another supporter: Scots church leader joins row over teaching of creationism in schools. In Glasgow, the Herald tried to explain all this in a feature article by Ron Ferguson: A battle that is all of their own creation.
Sarah Lyall in the New York Times had Anglican Leader Says the Schools Shouldn’t Teach Creationism while the Associated Press had Archbishop Opposed to Teaching Creationism.
Reuters Paul Majendie said Anglican leader opposes creationism in schools.
The Guardian itself had a number of letters to the editor.
5 CommentsThe Hansard verbatim record of this debate starts here and concludes here.
For the short amusing version, read sketch writer Ann Treneman in The Times Spiritual debate is divine comedy.
0 CommentsAlan Rusbridger editor of the Guardian interviewed Rowan Williams last Friday. The results are:
A front page news story by Stephen Bates Archbishop: stop teaching creationism
An article, based on the interview, in the G2 section of the paper:
‘I am comic vicar to the nation’
A complete transcript of the interview: Interview: Rowan Williams
Selected audio extracts of the interview: Listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s interview
The Archbishops’ Council is advertising this week for two vacancies among its appointed members.
The advert can be viewed here as a (very small) PDF file. Or on the Church Times website. Or on this site here.
We are looking for 2 individuals (one immediately and one in January 2007) who will be part of the leadership of the Church. Skills and experience in the areas of education, public affairs and law would be particularly welcome, but applications from people with a record of achievement in other areas are also welcome. You will have a lively Christian faith, be expected to contribute to the mission and ministry of the Church, and be able to commit at least 3 days per month.
In addition to the material provided in the application pack, available via the previous link, prospective applicants might like to peruse the CofE official website for the Archbishops’ Council pages.
Here is the current membership of the council.
The annual report for 2004 is available here (ignore the erroneous wording in the Title field of this page).
The recent synod document (RTF) Into the New Quinquennium is also very pertinent.
So also are the papers relating to the recent Service Review, in particular the 43-page report (.doc).
0 CommentsFirst, the short version of the learned paper by Jacqueline Humphreys that first appeared in the Ecclesiastical Law Journal was published last week in the Church Times. The long version was published here previously.
The short version is Does this differ from marriage?
Second, the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly will be considering this in May, see General Assembly to examine civil partnership implications. Whatever they decide it is likely to annoy the Scottish Roman Catholic bishops. That article Ties that bind in the Tablet provoked some correspondence there.
Mario Conti the Archbishop of Glasgow wrote to defend himself against criticism of his “reductionist notion of family” by appealing to para 2202 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Aidan O’Neill’s response to him was not published by the journal, but is below the fold here.
However, The Tablet did publish O’Neill’s riposte to another clerical correspondent who queried his use of the words “fall in love with, body and soul” as he was “not sure it offers a way to truth in marriage…”. Aidan O’Neill replied as follows:
0 CommentsSome press reports of the recent announcements:
Church Times last week had: C of E faces new £36-million pensions squeeze
Church of England Newspaper this week has a feature article by Bishop John Packer Facing up to the pensions crisis.
The Church of England website has, in addition to the documents linked here previously has more items:
An article designed for parish magazines, which can be downloaded as an RTF file, or read here below the fold.
The Powerpoint slides used at the General Synod presentation in February can be downloaded.
You can listen to the audio recording of that presentation here.
If you want to know more about how the clergy pension scheme works from the member’s viewpoint, you need to download as a PDF the booklet Your Pension Questions Answered . Other material is available from the links on the right hand side of this page.
4 CommentsUpdated Tuesday
Below is the text of an article by Stephen Bates which appeared under the title A Question of Judgement in The Tablet dated 25 February. It is reproduced here by kind permission of The Tablet.
In the same issue, The Tablet also published a related article, Capital concerns by Brian Griffiths who is vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs and a member of the Church of England.
On Sunday, this profile of John Reynolds chairman of the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG), appeared in the Observer: Confessions of ethics man.
Last week, the Church Commissioners announced:
Grainger GenInvest and The Church Commissioners have exchanged contracts for the freeholds of 976 predominantly residential properties in Waterloo, Winchester Park, Vauxhall, Pimlico and Walworth. Completion of the sale is expected within the next few weeks.
Thus the sale of the Octavia Hill Estates, which got rather overshadowed by the Caterpillar issue, has now been concluded, whereas nothing at all has happened, and indeed may never happen, about the Caterpillar shares held by church bodies.
Item added Tuesday
Caterpillar: Ethical Investment Advisory Group confirms earlier decision
1 CommentThe Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group, after careful consideration at a specially convened meeting to discuss Caterpillar Inc – the US-based manufacturer of construction and mining equipment – has unanimously reaffirmed its previous decision, taken in September 2005.
The decision involved: not recommending disinvestment from Caterpillar; continuing its programme of engagement with Caterpillar; and making clear its intention of revisiting this decision if there are new sales of Caterpillar equipment to the Israeli defence forces for use in the demolition of Palestinian houses…
Further Update
The archbishop’s own website now also carries a transcript of the TV programme as transmitted.
Update
Ruth Gledhill’s blog now carries the full transcript of this interview. Read Archbishop’s interview with Sir David Frost. This is the full, unedited version.
Telegraph coverage of yesterday’s television interview is comprehensive:
Archbishop warns gay issue may ‘rupture’ Church and Williams: Cuba camp is setting a dangerous precedent America both by Jonathan Petre and
Missed chance to speak out on Darfur’s bloody conflict speaks volumes by David Blair, Africa Correspondent
Guardian Stephen Bates Archbishop warns of split over gay bishops
The Times Ruth Gledhill Archbishop attacks Guantanamo
Ekklesia Archbishop of Canterbury condemns Guantanamo Bay camp includes useful back links to earlier Christian protests about this.
17 Comments