Press release from the Church of England
Meeting of College of Bishops March 23, 2023
24/03/2023
The College of Bishops met on Thursday to continue considering next steps for the Church of England following the recent debate at General Synod on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.
Last month’s Synod considered proposals from the bishops which would enable same-sex couples who have marked a significant stage of their relationship such as a civil marriage or civil partnership to come to church to give thanks, offer prayers of dedication to God and to receive God’s blessing. Synod members also met in small groups to consider and comment on a set of draft texts for these prayers known as Prayers of Love and Faith, and to offer their views on proposed pastoral guidance.
At Thursday’s meeting, in London, bishops began reviewing those comments and considered how to approach the task of refining the Prayers of Love and Faith and preparing the new pastoral guidance.
They agreed to setting up three working groups and a steering group to oversee and coordinate their work, each to be made up of bishops assisted by a group of advisers drawn from across the Church, both lay and ordained.
The working groups will focus on:
It is anticipated that the steering group will be chaired by the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, and will include the chairs of the three working groups.
The final membership of the working groups will be confirmed and published in due course.
25 CommentsBen Bradshaw’s bill to “enable clergy of the Church of England to conduct same sex marriages on Church of England premises in certain circumstances; and for connected purposes” was given a first reading in the House of Commons yesterday under the Ten Minute Rule. The bill was opposed by the Second Church Estates Commissioner (Andrew Selous), although he did not force a division of the House. As with most ten minute rule bills this one has no chance of becoming law.
The Hansard verbatim record of the debate is here, and there is this report in the Church Times.
36 CommentsJustin Welby was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury ten years ago this week.
Giles Fraser UnHerd Justin Welby can’t read the room
Matthieu Lasserre La Croix International The man who’s trying to halt the Church of England’s decline
Tim Wyatt Religion Media Centre Gentle Justin, the archbishop who has steered the CofE through a troubled decade
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Colin Coward Unadulterated Love “I have come that you may have life, life in all its fulness”
Rachel Mann The Christian Century Twisting words
“What does it mean to protect women and girls?”
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church A New Dean – a New Beginning for Christ Church?
24 CommentsAndrew Goddard has gathered the detailed voting data from February’s General Synod debate on Living in Love and Faith into a convenient Airtable database format and has written a Narrative Account & Analysis* of these votes. The latter includes at the end advice on how to use the database for your own analysis.
He has also published this series of three articles on Fulcrum taking stock of where we are now in the LLF process.
LLF: Recent Past, Present & Future – Part One – Looking back – The Bishops’ Response to LLF and Synod’s Response to the Bishops
LLF: Recent Past, Present & Future – Part Two – Looking at the issues
LLF: Recent Past, Present & Future – Part Three – Looking ahead – where do we go from here?
* Note: the tables in the The House of Laity section on pages 13 and 14 of the Account & Analysis incorrectly refer to clergy instead of laity.
26 CommentsFr Ron Smith, who contributed more than 5000 comments to Thinking Anglicans, died on 10 March 2023, aged 93. He was a priest in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Bosco Peters, a fellow New Zealander, has written this appreciation: Fr Ron Smith RIP.
‘Sioux Grey Wolf’ Psephizo Pandemic Pandemonium And The Purple Powers
34 CommentsThe Church of England Evangelical Council has today published a lengthy statement which includes this declaration:
If the Church of England’s General Synod or House of Bishops:
- authorises or commends liturgical provision for the celebration, dedication, blessing or solemnisation of any sexual relationship other than marriage between one man and one woman, or liturgical provision for the blessing of those in such relationships; or
- removes the bar on clergy being in such relationships; or
- produces pastoral guidance that is indicative of a departure from the Church of England’s doctrine that marriage between one man and one woman is the proper context for sexual intimacy; or
- amends Canon B30 so the Church of England no longer affirms that “according to our Lord’s teaching marriage is in its nature a union permanent and lifelong, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man with one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side”;
we will declare that this action represents a departure from the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness.
Our desire is to keep faith with this inheritance as members of the Church of England and to remain in full communion with those Provinces of the Anglican Communion who also maintain the biblical and historic teaching of the church catholic.
We will therefore resist all attempts to introduce any of these changes or to marginalise those who, in their own teaching and practice, uphold the received doctrine of the Church of England and the teaching of Jesus on marriage.
We are compelled to resist.
More from the same statement page is copied below the fold.
More documentation from CEEC is here:
37 CommentsUpdate
Press release from Christ Church Appointment of first female Dean of Christ Church the Rev Canon Professor Sarah Foot
Press release from the Diocese of Oxford Appointment of first female Dean of Christ Church
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office
Appointment of the Dean of Christ Church: 16 March 2023
The King has approved that The Reverend Canon Sarah Foot be appointed Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1st July 2023.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 16 March 2023
The King has approved that The Reverend Canon Sarah Foot, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Oxford, be appointed Dean of Christ Church, Oxford from 1st July 2023 in succession to the Very Reverend Martyn Percy.
Background
Canon Professor Foot has been the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford since 2007. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge (BA; MA; PhD), served as a Lay Canon at Christ Church from 2007-2017, and as a Residentiary Canon since her ordination in 2017.
Previously, Professor Foot was a Research Fellow then Fellow and Tutor at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1989-93, then successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Sheffield 1993-2007, where she was Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts 2005-7.
She served as Chair of the Board of Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University 2011-14. She writes on women in religion, medieval monasticism, and the early history of the Church in England, and is currently working on a study of the life and work of the Venerable Bede.
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Ed Watson Earth and Altar Who is Rowan Williams?
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church What is going on at the Top Level of the CofE over Safeguarding?
The Living Church Remembrances of Frank Griswold, 25th Presiding Bishop
0 CommentsPress release from the Church of England
LLF Next Steps Group meeting on 3 March 2023
14/03/2023
The meeting appraised and reviewed the outcomes of the Living in Love and Faith debate and motion passed at General Synod in February and considered the scope of work required between now and the next General Synod in July 2023.
The Next Steps Group then considered and refined the agenda of the forthcoming College of Bishops meeting at the end of March. They noted that it will be important for the bishops to listen to the feedback from General Synod, the response of the wider church to the decisions made, as well as to each other’s reflections before moving on to the consider how the work of drafting the Pastoral Guidance, providing pastoral reassurance, refining the Prayers of Love and Faith and establishing the Pastoral Consultative Group will be taken forward.
With the remit of the Next Steps group now having reached its conclusion, the bishops went on to discuss the necessary phases of work after the March College of Bishops and the composition of the working groups that will take forward the work that will need to be done for the July Synod.
The meeting ended in prayer.
1 CommentThe King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Matthew Porter to the Suffragan See of Bolton, in the Diocese of Manchester.
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office. There is more detail on the diocesan website.
Suffragan Bishop of Bolton: 15 March 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr. Matthew Porter to the Suffragan See of Bolton, in the Diocese of Manchester.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 15 March 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr. Matthew Porter, Vicar of St Michael le Belfrey, in the Diocese of York to the Suffragan See of Bolton, in the Diocese of Manchester, in succession to The Right Reverend Mark Ashcroft following his retirement.
Background
Matthew holds degrees from the universities of Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield and Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, USA and trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at Christ Church, Dore, in the Diocese of Sheffield, and was ordained priest in 1997. Matthew was appointed Vicar at St Chad’s, Woodseats in 2000 and additionally served as Director of Curate Training for the Diocese of Sheffield from 2005.
In 2009 Matthew was appointed Associate Minister at St Michael le Belfrey, in the Diocese of York, and has served as Vicar there since 2010. Additionally, Matthew has served on the boards of Cranmer Hall, Durham and St Hild College, Leeds, is an author, and was appointed as Honorary Chaplain to the Queen and then King in 2022.
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Sunday Liturgy without a Priest: Part One (Communion by Extension)
Sunday Liturgy Without A Priest: Part Two (Morning Prayer and Antecommunion)
Phil Hooper Earth & Altar Who is Athanasius of Alexandria?
50 CommentsSince the SCIE report on Lambeth Palace Safeguarding was published on 28 February, there has been a series of news and comment articles about it. Our reporting of it has been a bit disjointed so for clarification here is a complete record.
Our original 28 February report is here: Lambeth Palace safeguarding audit published. We then published links to six other items in the Comments rather than by amending the original post. We also mentioned two of these in our Opinion roundup on 4 March. Here are all the links:
28 February Anglican Futures: Unbelievable!
28 February Premier Christian News: Welby’s attempts to create safe CofE culture ‘undermined’ through lack of consistency says audit
28 February Church Times: Abuse survivors unhappy with their treatment by Lambeth Palace, audit finds
2 March Jasvinda Sangera Independent Safeguarding Board: Response to SCIE Report on safeguarding practices into Lambeth Palace
3 March Stephen Parsons Surviving Church: Trying to be heard. How Lambeth Palace has let down the Abused in their search for Justice.
4 March The Times (£): Archbishops’ aide criticised for handling of Church of England sex abuse allegations
Now the Church Times has published two further articles (read the earlier one first, to make sense of them):
9 March Church Times: Abuse survivors criticise Bishop Urquhart’s appointment as Bishop to the Archbishops
10 March Church Times: Safeguarding not a responsibility of the Bishop to the Archbishops, Lambeth said
Here is the Lambeth Palace statement: Clarification from Lambeth Palace of current safeguarding arrangements following publication of SCIE report.
6 CommentsThe Right Reverend Peter Eagles, the Bishop of Sodor and Man, has announced that he is to retire from the role on 28 October 2023.
45 CommentsThe King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Madhu Smitha Prasadam, Chaplain of St Alban’s, Copenhagen, in the Diocese of Europe to the Suffragan See of Huddersfield, in the Diocese of Leeds.
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office. There is more on the diocesan website.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 8 March 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Madhu Smitha Prasadam, Chaplain of St Alban’s, Copenhagen, in the Diocese of Europe to the Suffragan See of Huddersfield, in the Diocese of Leeds, in succession to The Right Reverend Dr Jonathan Gibbs following his appointment as Bishop of Rochester.
Smitha was educated at Leeds University (College of Ripon and York St John) and trained for ministry at Queen’s College Birmingham. She served her title at St Paul, Blackheath in the Diocese of Birmingham, and was ordained Priest in 2004. She was the Vicar of St Paul, Hamstead in the Diocese of Birmingham from 2007 to 2018.
Smitha was appointed to her current role as Chaplain of St Alban’s, Copenhagen in the Diocese of Europe in 2018. She has additionally served as Canon on the Cathedral Chapter since 2021.
7 CommentsFrom the Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England
Evangelical opinion on the bishops’ LLF proposals
The following letter from eighteen evangelicals was published in yesterday’s issue of the Church Times (3 March 2023 – https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/3-march/comment/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor).
The Equal Campaign approves. For far too long conservative evangelical organizations such as CEEC and the Church Society have claimed that only those who subscribe to their package of fundamentalist beliefs are entitled to call themselves evangelical. As the writers of the letter show, this is simply not the case.
The full text of the letter to the Church Times is copied below the fold.
27 CommentsA former presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, Frank Griswold, has died.
The Episcopal Church:
Diocese of Chicago:
The Living Church Frank T. Griswold, 25th Presiding Bishop, 1937-2023
Church Times Frank Griswold, a former US Presiding Bishop, dies aged 85
4 Commentspress release 23/02/2023:
Archbishops’ Commission on Racial Justice releases Second Biannual Report
The Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice has released the second of its biannual Racial Justice reports.
Mandated to drive ‘significant cultural and structural change on issues of racial justice within the Church of England’, the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice (“ACRJ”), headed by The Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng, is charged with monitoring, holding to account and supporting the implementation of the forty-seven recommendations of the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce which were laid out in the Taskforce’s comprehensive 2021 report From Lament to Action….
The remainder of the press release is copied below the fold. From another page:
In this, the second of the six reports the ACRJ will produce, we have reported on the work of the seven workstreams since the publication of the Spring 2022 report and on the progress of work on the five priority areas and the forty-seven recommendations identified in From Lament to Action.
The full text of the report is available here.
A report in the Church Times is available here: Lord Boateng: Church’s racial-justice progress is slow, despite accusations of haste
8 CommentsBosco Peters Liturgy Deconstruction Part 1
Philip Zoutendam Earth & Altar Who is Thomas Cranmer?
One of my fellow editors at Thinking Anglicans has written this.
Simon Kershaw Thinking Allowed The Coronation Liturgy
Jasvinder Sanghera, Survivor Advocate Independent Safeguarding Board Response to SCIE report on safeguarding practices into Lambeth Palace
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Trying to be heard. How Lambeth Palace has let down the Abused in their search for Justice
See also links in the comments to our article Lambeth Palace safeguarding audit published.
The Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, has announced that he will retire at the end of August 2023.
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Helen King ViaMedia.News Born-Again Virginity?
Pierre Whalon God does not exist
Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Review Time
Martyn Percy Prospect Magazine Why Charles’s coronation could be a spiritual flop
Pete Broadbent Ecclesiastical Law Journal Reflections on the Workings of General Synod
[no longer behind a paywall]