The Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon is here, below the fold.
The Archbishop of York’s sermon is on the York diocesan website.
Fulcrum has transcribed the whole of the Simon Mayo interview with Rowan Williams previously reported. The transcript starts here, and not only is it complete, but it is also indexed by subject. What an achievement!
2 CommentsUpdated Thursday
First, John Hind Bishop of Chichester delivered a pastoral letter at his recent diocesan synod. The full text is on the diocesan website here: Civil Partnerships — A Pastoral Letter.
Second, Tom Wright Bishop of Durham issued an Ad Clerum letter to diocesan clergy yesterday. You can’t read that, or anything much, on the Durham diocesan website which is being refurbished, but it is available here.
The Bishop of Worcester’s views were reported earlier.
Update
The Bishop of Winchester Michael Scott-Joynt has issued this statement.
Changing Attitude has issued a Rough Guide to the Civil Partnership Law which mentions that:
31 CommentsThere are two bishops, one Northern, one Southern Province, with whom we haven’t talked because their views are predictable and dangerous for gay clergy. You will know who they are and you would be advised not to register a partnership if you serve in either of their dioceses.
Affirming Catholicism has announced it is to publish a booklet on Civil Partnerships.
The press release is reproduced below the fold (as it is not yet on the AffCath website).
ekklesia has this news article: Affirming Catholicism and two bishops back civil partnerships.
5 CommentsRecently we published here an opinion on civil partnerships issued by LGCM and written by Derek Belcher.
Anglican Mainstream has now published a response by James Behrens which you can find at A Further Opinion regarding Civil Partnerships. He begins:
This further opinion is a response to a paper by Canon Belcher for the LGCM which comments on my written opinion of 30 June 2005 published by Anglican Mainstream. Canon Belcher and I are not as far apart as may be thought. Some people have read my written opinion as saying that the mere fact of entering into a civil partnership is a matter for ecclesiastical discipline. That was not my intention, and it is not my opinion. I am sorry that confusion has been caused. I make it clear now that it is active homosexual practice which is a matter for ecclesiastical discipline, rather than the fact of civil partnership itself. If the relationship between the parties to a civil partnership is chaste, the matter is not one for ecclesiastical discipline.
I annex to this note a slightly revised text for my written opinion which, I hope, makes my position clear. I have underlined the differences from the original version for ease of reference.
Unfortunately the AM web page has lost Dr Behrens’ underlining. Perhaps this will be rectified soon. Meanwhile the original version, of which this is a revision, can be found here.
10 CommentsFulcrum has published a comprehensive analysis by Graham Kings of the recent irregular ordinations in Southwark diocese:
Judicious or Precipitate? Evangelicals and Order in the Church of England.
Also, this week, the CEN reports on this letter from the Southwark Diocesan Evangelical Union under the headline Southwark appeal for healing of division.
2 CommentsUpdated Saturday
BBC Radio Five Live presenter Simon Mayo interviewed Rowan Williams for 35 minutes yesterday. You can hear the whole thing here (Real Audio).
Includes discussion of pretty much every current hot Anglican topic.
Update Ruth Gledhill has some more about this interview here.
7 CommentsIt’s impossible to link to all the reports, but it made its way even to Whispers in the Loggia: The Archbishop Played Bongos
BBC coverage:
First black Archbishop enthroned
Inauguration of the Archbishop
In pictures: Archbishop enthroned
The York Gospels
Times Online has John Sentamu sworn in as Archbishop of York, which then appeared in the paper under the headline Archbishop opens English hearts to an African rhythm and Ruth Gledhill’s blog has Sentamu beats the drums of change
Telegraph Jonathan Petre Archbishop of York is enthroned to the sound of African drums
Guardian Stephen Bates Archbishop beats drums for change
Independent New archbishop beats the drum for the Church
Church of England press releases:
Sermon preached by the Archbishop of York at his Inauguration
Order of Service for the Inauguration of the Archbishop of York
Background information on the Inauguration of the Archbishop of York
A press release has been issued today about this. The full text of the release is below the fold.
Two letters accompany the release, and can also be downloaded:
appeal letter to the Archbishop dated 18 November
letter to Bishop of Southwark dated 3 November
(the latter also in Word format – the headers of which show who really wrote it)
The documents can also be found here.
74 CommentsUpdated Saturday
The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has published its response to the Church of England’s report about women bishops.
The response can be found here as a Word file:
Women Bishops in the Church of England?
The Church of the Holy Apostles in Ft Worth has a copy of it as a web page.
The Daily Telegraph has a report by Jonathan Petre on this today:
Catholics warn C of E over women bishops
Church Times Glyn Paflin RCs and Free Churches criticise Rochester report
20 CommentsThe Times has an interview with John Sentamu today:
Ruth Gledhill
Multiculturalism has betrayed the English, Archbishop says
‘It is my job now to remind the English of what you taught me’
editorial
Outsider looking in
and Ruth has more on her weblog, Sentamu on multiculturalism
4 CommentsThe cartoonist David Austin has died.
You can read a Guardian obit of him by Steve Bell.
But Andrew Brown has published a wonderful ecclesiastical cartoon by David Austin on his blog here.
An important news report from last week’s Church Times and only now available: Dr Butler blasts irregular ordinations by Pat Ashworth. This includes among other information the following about Anglican Mainstream spokespersons:
After the ordinations, the Co-Mission Initiative invited signatories to a statement of “full support” and “recognition of the validity” of the ordinations. An early signatory among the 177 names was Canon Chris Sugden, executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream and a newly elected member of the General Synod. He confirmed on Tuesday that he had attended the ordinations, and had signed the statement in full knowledge that the rite used had been unauthorised.
He said on Tuesday: “My presence there indicated our support for gospel ministry and the growth of the Church. While not approving of an irregular ordination, we were expressing our understanding of the pressures behind the decision which the people of Dundonald had made, to do something which they were well aware was irregular . . .”
Dr Philip Giddings, convener of Anglican Mainstream, was not a signatory. Asked on Tuesday whether he approved of the action, he said: “I don’t approve or disapprove. I understand the reasons that have produced this, just as I understand the frustration and irritation of neighbouring parishes and the diocese. . . As far as I’m concerned, it’s symptomatic of a breakdown in pastoral relations, and what should be addressed is not this particular symptom, but how reconciliation can be achieved.”
And on a lighter note, the Guardian today has an item of church news hidden in a Diary column by Stephen Moss.
The item reads as follows:
Almost impenetrable story from the Diary’s ecclesiastical department (actually there are two departments, hopelessly at loggerheads over the issue of how long eggs should be boiled). The Church of England’s most senior civil servant, William Fittall, may soon be out of communion with his own church. Fittall, secretary general of the C of E’s general synod, which has been meeting this week in London, is a lay reader with a church in Battersea whose vicar has fallen out with his bishop. The vicar in question, Paul Perkin, is a hard-line, evangelical, anti-gay supporter of a rebellious Wimbledon cleric who has had his licence removed by Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, for calling in a non-Anglican South African bishop to ordain three lay members of his flock without Butler’s permission. Are you following this? Mr Perkin is a pillar of Reform, the conservative evangelical pressure group, which has come out against all the bishops of the C of E who, like Butler, have signed up to allowing clergy to register under the new civil-partnerships legislation. That means he’s in rebellion against his own bishop. Which way will Fittall jump?
Sorry, that was hopelessly long-winded and complicated. Professor John Sutherland has kindly done a simplified text message version for us. Godsez man+wmn=gd rckn sum clrx. Ovr bshps w brds dont. bit o prob 4 burcr@ sposed 2 kp anglican shw on road. who rlly gvs toss?
Sutherland has I think got it right.
1 CommentThe Diocese of Southwark website now has:
original press release
full text of Bp Tom’s letter to clergy
full text of Bp Tom’s presidential address to diocesan synod
Christ Church Sanderstead has
letter of support to Bp Tom from Evangelical clergy in Southwark
Fulcrum has a background note about CESA by Colin Craston
And also, an article by Stephen Kuhrt about Why I as an Evangelical Anglican in the Diocese of Southwark support Bishop Tom Butler
Anglican Mainstream has
Irregular Ordinations at Southwark A Comment by Anglican Mainstream UK
The statement of support for the ordinations has (at the time of this posting) 290 names.
32 CommentsThe LGCM has issued an opinion on Civil Partnerships. You can read the full text of it here.
1 CommentSeveral resolutions from the recent Reform conference bear on the latest events in Southwark:
Encouragement of Principled Irregular Action
1. This conference acknowledges that the crisis facing the Anglican Communion is to be found in the Church of England as acutely as in ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada.(see para. 1 & 4 of ‘Reform in Every Diocese’)
2. This conference instructs the Council of Reform to encourage, help, and further partnership and action at the local level in accordance with the ‘Reform in Every Diocese’ paper.
The Formation of a Panel of Reference
1. The Council of Reform remains resolved to promote and support, wherever possible, the existing structures for selection and training of ordinands and others within the Church of England.
2. This conference see the Panel of Reference as set out in the paper as a positive step in encouraging new ordinands for the Church of God and instructs the Council to further the proposals.
3. This conference invites the Council to finalise the Selection Criteria for Ministry in the light of the conference discussion. 4. This conference asks the members of the Panel of Reference to be appointed in the light of the categories of people mentioned above.
Alternative Episcopal Oversight
In response to the ‘Panel of Reference’ and ‘Reform in Every Diocese’ paper this conference invites the Council to consider establishing an effective route to recognizably Anglican Ordination for ordinands who are in an impaired relationship with their Diocesan Bishop.
Support for Co-Mission Initiative Churches
This conference expresses its full support or those involved in seeking to provide ordained ministry in accordance with the Anglican tradition in Co-Mission Initiative churches.
The latest Reform press release is titled ‘OUTRAGEOUS BISHOPS’ STATEMENT ON CIVIL PARTNERSHIPS MUST NOW PROVOKE ACTION’ SAYS REFORM. If you scroll down, you will also find the resolution on this topic from the recently concluded 2005 conference of this organisation. I reproduce both the press release and the resolution text below the fold.
There is also another document, also available from either Church Society or Anglican Mainstream, written by John Richardson and in PDF format. It is titled The Church of England, Civil Partnerships and the House of Bishops.
And a further document from Reform is Key Issues Arising for from the Civil Partnerships Act September 2005 by Charles Raven (remember him?)
3 CommentsThis week, there is an interview with Gene Robinson by Pat Ashworth and also a report of the St Martin-in-the-Fields service by Rachel Harden. Both of these items are found in ‘I can’t be unmade a bishop,’ says Robinson (scroll down for the news report)
Last week, there was a back page interview with Rachel Harden which you can now read on the web.
0 CommentsUpdated Friday morning
The Church of England Newspaper carries this report by Andrew Carey
Southwark minister stripped of licence after irregular ordination
and this article, by no less a person than Richard Coekin himself, is entitled
No option but to ordain
In the Church Times Pat Ashworth reports Dr Butler blasts irregular ordinations
and there is editorial comment:
The perils of Surbiton
The University Sermon at Oxford on 6 November 2005 was preached in the University Church of St. Mary by The Reverend Canon Marilyn McCord Adams, Regius Professor of Divinity.
It was titled: A serious call to a devout and holy life.
The full text of this sermon can be found as a Word file, here.
Or alternatively as an ordinary web page here.
14 Comments