More Answers to Questions
Three more answers, this group relating to discrimination on grounds of gender.
Q5 The Revd Canon Penny Driver (Ripon & Leeds) to ask the Secretary General:
In the House of Bishops’ paper HB(05)M1 (“Summary of Decisions”), item no.14 refers to the House giving its approval in principle to a way of amending the law to address a legal difficulty which would otherwise arise when a new EU directive comes into force in October. Please could we know what this amendment is, how it will be done and why?
Answer by the Secretary General [William Fittall]
0 CommentsIn the next few weeks the Department for Trade and Industry will be publishing draft regulations to bring UK law into line with the amended Equal Treatment Directive adopted by the EC in 2002. One amendment to Westminster legislation would involve a consequential amendment to the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993 in relation to the law on discrimination. As a result the DTI has, under the normal constitutional convention, consulted the Church. The House of Bishops and Archbishops’ Council have both given their approval to the Government’s proposed approach, which will enable the Church to maintain its present arrangements in a way consistent with European law.
I shall circulate a more detailed explanation to Synod members once the Government’s consultation document has been published.
The BBC and the Synod
Update Monday
Also Synod debates women bishops issue
and this 8 minute segment from the Today radio programme: Listen here to David Houlding and David Phillips:
The General Synod of the Church of England is split over the marriage of Charles and Camilla.
And also, from earlier in the morning, this 4 minute discussion with Robert Piggott, covering the whole synod agenda.
——-
First, Alex Kirby has published a review of the General Synod meeting next week, titled Anglicans fret over divisive issues.
Second, Jane Little has written about The Church, Charles and Camilla.
Third, the Sunday radio programme had three items relevant to all this. Real Audio required.
Charles & Camilla Listen (6m 57s)
We begin with the story that has dominated the secular press this week and seems likely to dominate next week’s Church of England Synod in London next week too; the news that the man destined to be the Church’s Supreme Govenor is to marry a divorcee – the deed of course being done in a civil ceremony and not before the altar. The Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, as she will then be known, will have their union blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But the conservative evangelical group the Church Society is far from happy – the group’s general Secretary David Philips is on the line. The Right Reverend Anthony Priddis, the Bishop of Hereford, chairs the church of England’s committee on such matters – FLAME, which stands for Family Life and Marriage Education.
Cathedral Deans Disco Listen (6m 58s)
There is a proposal before the General Synod of the Church of England this week which would have taken a lot of the fun out of Anthony Trollope’s account of office politics in the Cathedral Close at Barchester but is, in the view of the man behind it, necessary if the Church is to meet the challenges of the modern world. Anthony Archer – who is involved in high level appointments both in his professional life and within the church bureaucracy – says the way senior jobs are awarded in the Church is “shrouded in secrecy” and needs to be changed. Anthony Archer joins us as does Colin Slee the dean of Southwark Cathedral.
Gay Blessings Listen (7m 3s)
0 CommentsAnother of the big debates at the General Synod next week will concern the Windsor Report – the Anglican Communion’s study into how to preserve church unity in the face of the divisions over homosexuality – the BBC’s Parliament Channel will be broadcasting the debate live from nine o’clock on Thursday morning.. One of the main triggers which brought those divisions to a head was the decision of a Canadian diocese to authorise a service of Blessing for same sex unions. Such services are forbidden in the Church of England at the moment – and gay clergy aren’t allowed to be homosexually active. But both of those rules are often flouted in reality, and when the Civil Partnership Act comes into force later this year the questions about the Church’s position in this area will become even more pressing. – Christopher Landau reports.
General Synod: debates on women bishops
These debates will occur on Wednesday, following a service of Holy Communion at which Rowan Williams will preside and preach. The starting time of the debate will therefore be around 10.15 a.m.
Glyn Paflin reported on this in the Church Times last week:
About two and three-quarter hours have been set aside on the Wednesday morning for a take-note motion on the Rochester report.
The motion will be moved by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who chaired the House of Bishops’ working party on women in the episcopate, which produced the report that bears his name, Women Bishops in the Church of England?
In the afternoon, at 2.30, the Synod has until 3.45 to debate a motion in the name of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which says: “That the Synod welcome the report from the House of Bishops (GS 1568) and invite the business committee to make sufficient time available at the July group of sessions for Synod to determine whether it wishes to set in train the process for removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women to the episcopate.”
The paper issued to synod members explaining how the debates will be structured is GS 1568 published only as an RTF file, but reproduced here below the fold.
The basic document under consideration is GS 1557, the Rochester report Women Bishops in the Church of England? This can be downloaded as an 800K PDF file here, or as three separate smaller ones from here.
Annex 1 of this report details the varied status of women’s ordination across all 38 provinces of the commmunion (and beyond, in other churches with whom we are in communion). An html copy of part of this annex (including the footnotes which are essential for deciphering it) is accessible here.
An earlier brief note on the Rochester report can be found here.
National press coverage from November was listed here and here.
Also church press coverage including a number of excellent articles is listed here and here.
0 CommentsWR: debate at the General Synod
Next Thursday, the General Synod of the Church of England will debate a motion relating to the Windsor Report. The event will be covered live by the BBC Parliament TV channel from 8.50 am GMT. See report confusingly headlined Gay bishops on BBC Parliament.
The exact wording of the motion to be debated is below. For further documentation relating to this debate, read this earlier report.
The motion to be moved by the Bishop of Durham and debated by Synod (starting at 9am on Thursday 17 February) is:
That this Synod
(a) welcome the report from the House (GS 1570) accepting the principles set out in the Windsor Report;
(b) urge the Primates of the Anglican Communion to take action, in the light of the Windsor Report’s recommendations, to secure unity within the constraints of truth and charity and to seek reconciliation within the Communion; and
(c) assure the Archbishop of Canterbury of its prayerful support at the forthcoming Primates’ Meeting.
My own analysis of this is below the fold.
1 Commentmarriage in church after divorce
The policy of the Church of England on this matter is well documented but, as the items are not obvious on the CofE website, they are listed here. There is a link to them from the main CofE advice page on Weddings.
The general information page is Marriage in Church after Divorce.
This refers to several other documents. The two key ones are:
0 CommentsMarriage in church after divorce – Form and explanatory statement – A leaflet for enquiring couples but this is available only in PDF format – four of the six pages are the application form, but the one-page explanatory statement is reproduced here below the fold.
Advice to the Clergy which is naturally more detailed, and is available from the CofE website only as an MS Word document. An html version is accessible here.
senior church appointments
Update 11 February
Anthony Archer has an article in the Church of England Newspaper
Bringing the appointments system home
Update 4 February
The Church Times has a report on this subject Let us vet new bishops, says Synod member
The General Synod is scheduled to debate this private member’s motion sometime after 2.30 pm on Thursday 17 February. It has been given some prominence in the official press release about the forthcoming session, which says:
Senior Church Appointments
This private member’s motion from Mr Anthony Archer seeks to ask the Archbishops’ Council to set up a working party to undertake a wide-ranging review of the offices of suffragan bishop, deacon, archdeacon and residentiary canon, and the law and practice regarding appointments to these offices. In doing so, the motion proposes that the Church should adopt an integrated, consistent and transparent method of making appointments to senior ecclesiastical offices.
The wording of the motion has been published here.
The briefing note numbered GS Misc 765A prepared by the member concerned, Mr Anthony Archer, is available here in RTF, but is more accessible here as a web page.
The background note numbered GS Misc 765B prepared by William Fittall Secretary-General, is similarly available here and accessible here.
The printed version of this also reprints the text of GS Misc 455 Code of Practice for Senior Church Appointments issued in 1995 which is not available electronically from the CofE website, but is accessible here.
Other documents have been issued by the Secretary General in connection with this motion:
GS 1405 Working with the Spirit: Choosing Diocesan Bishops – the Perry Report published in 2001 (as a PDF file about 0.5 Mb)
(no number) Briefing for members of Vacancy-in-See Committees (RTF format) – accessible copy here
GS Misc 770 CHOOSING DIOCESAN BISHOPS A report on progress on the implementation of the Report of the Steering Group appointed to follow up the recommendations of “Working with the Spirit” – this is not yet on the CofE website, but is accessible here.
We are also promised, in GS Misc 770, an electronic copy of GS 1465 “Choosing Diocesan Bishops. The Report of the Steering Group appointed to follow up the recommendations of Working with the Spirit”, but neither this, nor new paper copies of it have appeared yet.
Last July questions were asked about appointment of deans and the BBC carried an interview with Anthony Archer and others.
And finally, for the moment, Mr Archer has prepared a note for his colleagues on EGGS, which he has given TA permission to publish. It can be found here.
1 CommentCofE House of Bishops on the Windsor Report
Update
The second item mentioned below, the report from the chairs of the Theological Group and FOAG, not previously available, is now on the web:
Original RTF format is here (this includes the HoB report itself as well as the annex)
an HTML version is here (just the annex)
A document GS 1570 has been sent out to synod members which contains two things:
- A short report by the House of Bishops to the General Synod
- A lengthy paper prepared for the HoB by the chairs of its Theological Group and the Faith and Order Advisory Group.
The agenda papers also contain
- The wording of a motion to be put before the General Synod in February
- the report of the Business Committee which contains several paragraphs relating to this matter.
Three of these four items are reproduced below. All are likely to appear on the CofE website on Monday.
SYNOD MOTION
The motion to be moved by the Bishop of Durham and debated by Synod (starting at 9am on Thursday 17 February) is:
That this Synod
(a) welcome the report from the House (GS 1570) accepting the principles set out in the Windsor Report;
(b) urge the Primates of the Anglican Communion to take action, in the light of the Windsor Report’s recommendations, to secure unity within the constraints of truth and charity and to seek reconciliation within the Communion; and
(c) assure the Archbishop of Canterbury of its prayerful support at the forthcoming Primates’ Meeting.
The other items are below the fold.
1 CommentAnswerable to Parliament 2
An earlier post reported on this topic.
Sir Stuart Bell has this explanation of the role of the Church Commissioners on his own website. TheyWorkForYou.com has this explanation of why he answers questions in the House of Commons.
Here is a new batch of his Written Answers.
0 CommentsTelegraph editor admits mistake
Update
This story has now also been reported in both The Times and the Guardian:
Telegraph takes blame for Archbishop’s loss of faith by Andrew Pierce
Editor says sorry to archbishop by Stephen Bates
not to mention a further report by Ekklesia
Sunday Telegraph fails to correct misrepresentation of Archbishop.
It had also been covered by Andrew Brown in his weekly Church Times press columns on 7 January, Archbishop’s Doubt
and again on 14 January, Telegraph proles.
—-
Ekklesia reports that Dominic Lawson the editor of the Sunday Telegraph has admitted his paper made a mistake.
Paper admits it misrepresented Archbishop of Canterbury. In summary form:
0 CommentsThe editor of a major newspaper, the Sunday Telegraph in the UK, has admitted that his paper misrepresented the opinions of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, by falsely claiming that the tsunami disaster had made the Archbishop doubt whether God exists.
…Ekklesia associate Simon Barrow wrote to the editor, saying “Your headline… makes me question not Dr Williams’ faith … but the capacities of your headline writer and sub-editor.”
He continued: “Did they choose simply not to read the Archbishop’s article, which nowhere states what they attribute to him? Or do they and you now regard news reporting as the creative art of sidestepping facts in order to produce a more sensational story?”
The Sunday Telegraph chose not to apologise editorially last week, though it published letters critical of the headline, and also critical of Dr Williams’ article. Its weekday sister paper, The Daily Telegraph, also published a leader excusing the mistake and accusing the Archbishop of being unclear.
This is evidently not a viewpoint shared by Dominic Lawson. Replying to Simon Barrow, he wrote: “I share your sentiments… It grieves me that we should let down our readers who have the right to expect the highest standards.”
In his personal letter to the Archbishop, Mr Lawson straightforwardly recognises that the headline, “apart from misrepresenting the nature of your argument, was also theologically obtuse.”
CofE statistics: more
The Church Times today has an article about the church statistics previously mentioned here and on which some comments here are overdue.
Church sees an increase in its attendances
Two tables from the report are rendered as graphics:
The Church of England Newspaper also has a report:
More people now going to church
David Hope interviewed
The Yorkshire Post today has a splendid interview of David Hope by its Religious Affairs Correspondent Michael Brown.
Faith, Hope and lots of charity
A quite ordinary – but to some surprising – thing happens to His Grace the Lord Archbishop of York, Primate of England and Metropolitan, as he walks down the long gravel drive of his palace at Bishopthorpe and into the village street. A cyclist chummily calls out, “Hello, David”.
Such matey familiarity has happened a lot to David Hope since he became Archbishop of York 10 years ago. It even happens in the village’s Co-op supermarket where he frequently does his smaller shop, and in Tesco’s at Dringhouses, the venue for his more occasional bigger trolley-pushing exercise.
Not only does he never mind, he quietly enjoys the chumminess. David Hope has never been one to expect in his clergy what the 19th-century divine, Sydney Smith, called a dropping-down deadness of manner. He would certainly not welcome any display of obsequiousness by lay people, and would doubtless be embarrassed if fawning were shown by chaps on bicycles or by girls at supermarket check-outs.
It gets better, read it all.
0 CommentsWindsor Report: CofE bishops
The Church of England Newspaper reports that Bishops give Williams mandate for Windsor
2 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, received the full backing of his House of Bishops this week to ensure that the recommendations of the Windsor Report are implemented.
Bishops were united in drawing up a motion to be put to next month’s General Synod, which endorses the work of the Lambeth Commission, and urges that the process of the Report’s reception in the Anglican Communion should be enabled to begin.
The row over the Jeffrey John affair had caused strong divisions amongst the House of Bishops, but they have rallied together to give Dr Williams a strong mandate ahead of the Primates meeting, which also convenes next month.
“We wanted Rowan to go knowing we endorse the position taken by the report,” one bishop said. “We want to be genuinely backing him.”
Another bishop said that the show of unity was vital. “It is critical the Archbishop goes to the Primates meeting with the support of his own house. If he’d gone with criticism and a lack of support, it would undermine his ability to do anything. The Windsor Report could be terrific if it’s given teeth.”
They said that the bishops were keen to see action on the recommendations. In particular, bishops stressed the need for the American Church to express regret and to respect the moratoriums on the promotion of gays as bishops and same-sex blessings.
Work should begin on establishing the various instruments, such as the Council of Advice, suggested in the Report, the bishops agreed.
A briefing paper by the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, Chair of the House’s Theology Group, and the Rt Rev John Hind, Chair of the Faith and Order Group, was distributed amongst the bishops. It was regarded as “an encouragement” to Dr Williams as it is very sympathetic towards the Windsor Report, upholding the calls for regret and reconciliation.
Church Times review of the year
In the issue dated 31 December 2004, the Church Times carried its usual clutch of Review of the Year articles.
Andrew Brown contributed this review of the Press: Religion needs to be understood
This is relevant to the more recent RW/Telegraph spat.
I WANT to propose an interpretation of the year which will strike attentive readers of the British and American press as ridiculous: the important religious story of 2004 had nothing whatever to do with the mating habits of Christians.
Graham Cray wrote Mission-shaped Church — start of something new?
Those of us who wrote the report are absolutely delighted by the response it has received — and, if we are honest, a little surprised.
Paul Handley contributed The American emperor has no new clothes
A WEEK into the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Dr Rowan Williams wrote: “We must not be caught naked of ideas and clear commitments when a ceasefire arrives” ( The Times, 25 March 2003). Since then, the American emperor’s lack of clothing has been disguised only by the suspicion that, despite his confident assertions, the ceasefire is yet to arrive.
and also Standing at the same table
THE Anglican Communion began and ended 2004 intact. That was all, really, that could be said for it.
And the staff reporters summarised 2004 the year in review
0 CommentsCofE attendance statistics for 2003
New Church of England attendance figures, for 2003, were released today:
Attendance figures for 2003 published
and the statistics themselves can be downloaded in PDF format here.
The tables contain various comparisons of 2003 with 2002 and 2001. Unfortunately the pdf file does not permit any content extraction so I cannot easily quote additional details here. I will nevertheless publish further impartial 🙂 comments on the numbers after a detailed review of them.
For reference, the previous yearly press release, for 2002, is here and the 2002 tables are in PDF format here.
Update Saturday
British press coverage of this topic:
Guardian Stephen Bates Church sees rise in Sunday worship
Telegraph Jonathan Petre Rise in numbers going to church
The Times Ruth Gledhill Churches’ faith in public restored as attendance rises
Who did the baptism?
Just before Christmas, there was international press coverage of an alleged baptism in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire.
See for example this report Next on Entertainment Tonight: Celebrity sacraments.
However, the Irish bishop Paul Colton mentioned in these reports, who had married the couple involved (he was at the time, the rector of the parish in Ireland where the wedding took place) completely denied having had any part in this event. See BISHOP OF CORK CRITICISES INACCURATE JOURNALISM.
Nor had the incumbent of Sawbridgeworth had any involvement. The Bishop of St Albans knew nothing about it either.
The mystery remained until The Tablet this weekend published an item about it in its Notebook column which, after reporting the events so far, continues:
2 CommentsA spokesman for the Beckhams’ agents tells us it was a woman priest in the Church of England but at the request of the couple would give no further details.
“They consider the matter private. It was a Church of England ceremony with additions and readings chosen by the family,” he said. He added that the woman priest had also consecrated the chapel which the Beckhams had renovated, rather than built themselves. It was not used regularly for worship.
Rowan Williams in the Telegraph
Final Update Friday
An even more ridiculous attack on RW’s article by TE Utley in the Telegraph
Simple English for the Church of England
Update Thursday
The Guardian has published this attack on the Telegraph for what they did:
The bishop who believed. An extract:
The sensational headline was simply a lie. The story beneath it, though clumsy, was not blatantly false. Of course – Dr Williams was quoted as saying – terrible events like these shook people’s faith. But Christians must face the challenge, and focus on a passionate engagement with the lives that were left. Nowhere at any point did the story suggest that Dr Williams was questioning God’s existence. Inside, for those who cared to look for it, was the text of what the archbishop had actually written. I cannot see how any literate person reading this piece could honestly have drawn the conclusion that the Sunday Telegraph headline did.
…The Daily Telegraph here was asking us to accept not just that the headline writer honestly thought the sentence about upsetting faith could be equated with Dr Williams doubting the existence of God, but that various higher editors, culminating in whoever was in charge of the paper, were dozy enough to share the same delusion. (And you don’t need to read the archbishop’s piece “several times over” to notice the difference. A single swift reading will do.)
Update Monday
The Daily Telegraph carries this editorial leader concerning the matter reported below:
Faith in plain language. An extract:
We have some sympathy with the archbishop. Those who had time on their hands to read his article several times over will realise that he was not in fact doubting the existence of God. The headline writer had clearly been misled by the sentence: “Every single random, accidental death is something that should upset a faith bound up with comfort and ready answers.”
The archbishop’s purpose here, it now appears, was to say that the Christian faith should not be upset by natural disasters, because it is a faith that is not “bound up with comfort and ready answers”. But what a convoluted way of putting it.
If Dr Williams was indeed misrepresented by our sister paper’s headline, he himself must accept much of the blame. His prose is so obscure, his thought processes so hard to follow, that his message is often unclear.
The Sunday Telegraph carried an article by Rowan Williams and a news story about it.
The article was published under the headline:
Of course this makes us doubt God’s existence
and the news story was headed
Archbishop of Canterbury admits: This makes me doubt the existence of God
Lambeth Palace issued the following release concerning this at 11 pm on Saturday evening:
1st January 2005
For immediate use
Lambeth Palace has issued the following statement in response to the Sunday Telegraph’s first edition story with the headline ‘Archbishop of Canterbury admits: this makes me doubt the existence of God.’
“Whilst the Archbishop’s article itself has been transcribed faithfully, the headline reporting it is a misrepresentation of the Archbishop’s views.
“As any reading of the text makes instantly clear, the Archbishop nowhere says that the tsunami causes him to question or doubt the existence of God; rather that the Christian faith does not invite simplistic answers to the problem of human suffering”.
“It is extremely disappointing that what is a thoughtful response to the challenge posed by events of these kinds to the mind and heart of the believer has suffered in the search for a headline.”
ENDS
6 CommentsSunday news reports
Stories related to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon are here.
The Telegraph reports that churchgoers live longer. The secret of long life… go to church.
The Sunday Times says that David Stancliffe says that Prince Charles should consider a Register Office wedding (middle part of the page).
There was further positive news for him this weekend as a senior figure in the Church of England raised the possibility of a resolution to his marital status by proposing a register office wedding.
David Stancliffe, Bishop of Salisbury, said: “If the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles expressed a wish to marry, the proper pastoral approach should be to advise them to seek a civil ceremony which may be followed by prayers of dedication in church.”
This suggestion, which he said was supported by the majority of the episcopate, marks a significant development from the position taken a year ago by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Williams indicated that the couple might not meet the criteria for a remarriage in church.
According to Stancliffe, the church’s expert on liturgy, the dedication ceremony would be appropriate for a future supreme governor of the Church of England. “That can be a solemn and splendid affirmation of their new marriage.”
An act of parliament would be required because at present there is no provision for the royal family to marry in a register office.
And the BBC today reports on one of its own programmes:
Gay cleric attacks bullying. You can read the entire sermon here and judge for yourself whether this is a balanced report of the sermon as a whole.
Update Monday
Other news reports of this event:
The Times Challenge thugs, says gay dean
Guardian Gay cleric accuses church of giving in to bullies
Sunday radio reports
The BBC radio programme Sunday comes this week from York Minster and is entirely about York. All the items are worthwhile but the following is the most interesting.
David Hope is interviewed at length: this is in two parts. Part 1 is here (3 minutes). Part 2 is “hidden” inside this part which starts with a discussion of the history of Christianity in York. The interview begins about 6 minutes 50 seconds into the feed, and lasts for 10 minutes, and this contains his comments on several current issues.
Strongly recommended (Real Audio required).
Sunday Worship from St Albans
The BBC programme Sunday Worship came this morning from the Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban.
You can hear the entire programme with Real Audio here
or read a transcript here
Update: Maggi Dawn has posted about this sermon: you can read what she says, and also the comments of her readers, here.
Further Update So has Kendall Harmon: see here.
News reports of this event are here.
0 CommentsChristmas religious attendance
Several newspapers are reporting this story:
Cathedral city prays while the rest of Britain plays
Residents of Hereford are Britain’s most devoted churchgoers
Manchester comes top of the godless league
Christmas cancelled due to lack of interest
Cities ‘shun church at Christmas’
but only the BBC links to the data on which the reports are based.