John Richardson thought it would be helpful to give us chapter and verse of the things his diocesan bishop has done that he objects to: he spent time over the weekend listing them out, and you can read his list here:
Bishop John Gladwin on the issue of Human Sexuality.
Meanwhile his Anglican Mainstream colleague Chris Sugden has published an interpretation of “Listening” that can best be described as bizarre.
29 CommentsJonathan Wynne-Jones wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph which was headlined Bible supports homosexual partnerships, says bishop.
Other responses to the story were reported by Ekklesia.
The tone of the original story, and the reported reactions of conservatives make interesting reading in the light of a recent Fulcrum newsletter article on Homophobia by Andrew Goddard. The long version of his paper (recommmended reading) can be found here.
17 CommentsToday, the Church of England and the Methodist Church of Great Britain published Faithful Cities.
The website for this is at the Commision on Urban Life and Faith.
There has already been some press coverage of this:
Reuters Anglicans angered over destitute asylum-seekers
Press Association Narrow the poverty gap urges Church
BBC Church anger over asylum poverty
Earlier, Ruth Gledhill had this in Saturday’s Times Archbishop in call for action on age of false celebrity and this blog entry today.
The Archbishop of Canterbury spoke in the House of Lords last Friday on a related theme.
0 CommentsA joint response to the Guildford report has been issued by:
Church Society, Fellowship of Word and Spirit, and Reform.
The response can be found either here, or over here.
1 CommentIn addition to their frosty response to AffCath/Watch, Forward in Faith has published TEA – the theological response. This complements the legal response previously published.
32 CommentsUpdate Wednesday
Forward in Faith has issued a press release in response to this.
Groups agree fundamental plans for women bishops in the Church of England
Joint press release by Affirming Catholicism and WATCH
A campaigning group and a network of Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England have agreed the fundamental principles by which women should be appointed as bishops. For the first time, the leadership and members of the Executive Committees of Affirming Catholicism and WATCH (Women and the Church), which between them represent nearly half the members of the Church of England’s General Synod, have jointly drawn up a list of key, non-negotiable principles for moving forward on women bishops.
Affirming Catholicism and WATCH had previously submitted separate proposals to the House of Bishops working party which consulted on proposals set out in the Guildford Report published earlier this year. The joint key principles draw heavily on their separate submissions and challenge the scope of the Guildford proposals which would, if implemented, provide a ‘women bishops free zone’ for those opposed to the ordination of women.
Christina Rees, Chair of National WATCH said: “The Church is currently discussing proposals which so limit the ministry of women bishops in order to take account of those who won’t accept them, that there is a danger of creating a second class of bishops who are women. Our principles – which we regard as non-negotiable – call for the Church to affirm unequivocally its confidence in the ordination of women by not discriminating against them.â€
The formal consultation process on women bishops began in 2000 with the setting up a House of Bishops’ Working Party on Women in the Episcopate, but the journey began over 30 years ago when General Synod agreed that there was ‘no fundamental objection to the ordination of women to the priesthood.’ There are now over 2,500 clergy women in the Church of England. For the past two years there have been equal numbers of women and men being trained for the ordained ministry in the Church of England.
The Rev’d Richard Jenkins, Director of Affirming Catholicism said: “The Church of England has always made room for different opinions. But the theology and law of the Church must give priority to the fact that we are a Church which has now joyfully accepted and overwhelmingly received the ordination of women. Our principles suggest ways in which those who are opposed can be given security and space, but still remain recognisably within one Church.â€
The groups now aim to discuss their principles with evangelicals and other groups in the Church in order to reach the widest possible agreement about how to move forward. The House of Bishops will meet again at the beginning of June to discuss the results of their consultation. The bishops will then produce a revised plan to be debated by the General Synod in July.
20 CommentsReuters British parliament blocks assisted suicide law
Associated Press British Lawmakers Reject Right-To-Die Bill
The Times David Charter The religious and the righteous unite in a moral crusade and Greg Hurst Peers wreck Bill to legalise euthanasia for terminally ill
And this leader: Means to an end
Telegraph Graeme Wilson Peers split as assisted dying Bill is derailed
Guardian Will Woodward Lords vote to block assisted suicide bill for terminally ill
Independent Ben Russell Lords vote against ‘right to die’ Bill after impassioned debate and this leader: Peer pressure
New York Times Alan Cowell British Religious Leaders Urge Defeat of Assisted-Suicide Bill
0 CommentsHere are Hansard links to:
Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop of St Albans
Bishop of Portsmouth
Lord Carey of Clifton
Lord Habgood
To read these in the context of the entire debate, start here.
1 CommentUpdate
The amendment by Lord Carlisle was passed by 148 to 100 votes.
BBC Lords block assisted dying bill
The Times Lords block mercy killings Bill
Guardian Lords block right to die bill
Telegraph Lords reject right to die Bill
Archbishop of Canterbury Extracts from a speech given in the House of Lords debate on Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster appeared together on the BBC radio programme Today this morning. Link here (Real Audio, 15+ minutes total). Or link here to download an mp3 file. Or read a transcript on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s website.
Together with the Chief Rabbi they also have a joint letter published in The Times this morning. You can read the letter here.
Related news story by Ruth Gledhill: Religious leaders fear ‘right to die’ law would turn into ‘duty to die’.
The Telegraph is editorially opposed to the bill.
Related news story by Graeme Wilson Should doctors help patients to die?
The Guardian is editorially in favour of the bill.
Reuters Three-quarters support assisted dying -poll
Press Association Lords to clash on right-to-die Bill
BBC Lords debate assisted dying bill
As I mentioned last Saturday, the Church of England is opposed to the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill to be considered in the House of Lords on Friday. A lot of information is available here.
According to Anglican Mainstream:
In a surprise development regarding Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, Lord Carlisle tabled an amendment yesterday ‘that the bill should now be read a second time this day six months hence’ . This, in effect, kicks the bill into the long grass and will kill it. The vote will take place after the debate on Friday. We expect it to occur sometime after 3pm.
The Care Not Killing petition has been signed by over 100,000 people so far.
This legislation is also heavily opposed by the membership of the Royal College of Physicians. See RCP cannot support legal change on assisted dying – survey results.
The bill is also opposed by many disabled people, see Not Dead Yet in the U.K. – Disability Coalition Opposes Assisted Suicide Bill. And also this.
6 CommentsJonathan 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 Comments