Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Candlemas.
In the Guardian Face to Faith is by Aidan Rankin who writes that the ‘many-sidedness’ of Jainism could inoculate us against fundamentalist rigidity.
The Times has Rodrick Strange writing about how Ordinary loves reveal extraordinary truth of compassion. Also, Greg Watts writes about religious broadcasting.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times In support of the scapegoat.
The Guardian also has a fascinating book review by Diarmaid MacCulloch of Martin Goodman’s compelling account of two crucial centuries in Jewish history, Rome and Jerusalem. See Original Spin.
10 CommentsUpdated Saturday morning
Several recent items relating to this meeting next month.
First, the Living Church reports that two American bishops who have been invited by Archbishop Rowan Williams to come to Tanzania, as mentioned here, are: Robert Duncan and Bruce MacPherson. See:
Bishop Duncan, Another Bishop Will Attend Primates’ Meeting
Details on Tanzania Meeting Few For Western Louisiana Bishop
Second, the Church Times today published a news report, Secretary-general hints at ‘difficulties’ with Dr Williams, about which the Living Church has published this: Louie Crew: Publication of Private Email a Betrayal.
American views of Rowan Williams, as previously summarised by Bishop Paul Marshall, will not be improved by the report in the Anglican Journal saying Archbishop of Canterbury to meet with Canadian bishops. For a further expression of American opinion on the archbishop, read Jim Naughton …and starring Rowan Williams as Dale Carnegie (for an explanation of this title: see here).
Update
Episcopal News Service has a report that Design group to give draft covenant to Primates.
13 CommentsThe Anglican Communion’s Covenant Design Group’s report to the February meeting of the Communion’s Primates will include a draft covenant, according to one of the two Episcopal Church members of the group.
Both the Rev. Dr. Katherine Grieb, associate professor of New Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary, and the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, rector of Church of the Ascension in Pueblo, Colorado, adhered to the group’s agreement to keep the details of its report confidential. Grieb said the report contains a draft of a proposed covenant.
However, both spoke to the Episcopal News Service about the covenant-design process and discussed their thoughts about the idea of a covenant for the Communion, which originated in the Windsor Report (paragraphs 113-120). The Archbishop of Canterbury appointed the group at the request of the Joint Standing Committee of the Primates’ Meeting and of the Anglican Consultative Council…
Updated Saturday morning
Previous report here.
Earlier this week, Bishop James Lee took action against all the clergy of his diocese who participated in recent secessionist actions.
Diocesan press release: Bishop Inhibits Clergy; Diocese Responds to Filings by Separated Churches
ENS Bishop inhibits clergy; diocese responds to filings by separated churches
Living Church Bishop Lee Inhibits 21 Priests.
Richmond Times-Dispatch Episcopal Church bars 21 clergy from duties
Washington Times Breakaway Episcopal priests face defrocking
Today, Bishop Martyn Minns has responded to this action.
Bishop Minns responds to Bishop Lee’s premature and punitive actions against 27 clergy. (PDF)
For an html copy of the letter see here.
Today also, the diocese elected a new bishop coadjutor (suffragan with right of succession). For details of Shannon S. Johnston and his election see here, here, and here.
And the Falls Church News-Press reports that F.C. Episcopal Non-Defectors Gather Off-Site; Bishop May Defrock Yates. This report notes that The Falls Church formerly claimed 2800 members, but less than half this number had voted to secede.
Updates
Living Church Three Start-over Congregations Send Delegates to Virginia Annual Council by Doug LeBlanc
…Many of the 1,000 delegates and visitors present gave a standing ovation when the Rt. Rev. Peter Lee announced that both the standing committee and the executive board of the diocese voted unanimously to take legal action over property ownership in the departing parishes.
They applauded vigorously when the Rt. Rev. John Paterson, Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand, said, “If the Episcopal Church needs a strong and united Diocese of Virginia, it is no less true that the Anglican Communion needs a strong and united Episcopal Church, and The Episcopal Church needs the Anglican Communion.”
They gave a standing ovation when the Rt. Rev. David C. Jones, bishop suffragan, read a statement of unqualified support for Bishop Lee by nearly all the active and retired bishops in Province III of The Episcopal Church (with the notable exception of Pittsburgh’s bishops).
Bishop Jones said the departing congregations had shifted their emphasis “from belonging to Christ through baptism” to “adhering to one point of view.” When he added, “That is not an Anglican development,” delegates rose again, applauding and cheering….
Richmond Times-Dispatch Miss. priest next Va. bishop
Washington Times Bishop voted in as Lee’s successor
Andrew Brown writes about the Anglican archbishops’ statement: Is Rowan too subtle or too supple? It is in the nature of churches to regard themselves as higher moral authorities, but there’s no reason for the rest of us to go along with it.
Stephen Bates also writes about this: Gallantry after the battle. The Anglican archbishops’ intervention in the gay adoption row was an astonishing blunder.
Listen to an interview with Stephen Bates on the Guardian website here.
And, Elizabeth Ribbans on the Guardian Editors’ blog asks Was archbishop’s intervention a mistake?
Simon Barrow writes about it at Ekklesia: Adapting ourselves to adoptive grace. It would appear that the most senior figures in the English Catholic and Anglican churches have no real idea just how bad they look to a massive number of people right now.
Ekklesia also reports on what LGCM said, Catholic Church adoption policy seriously confused, says Christian group.
Changing Attitude said this in a press release.
In The Times Mary Ann Sieghart comments on The fallout from the gay adoption row. Jane Shilling also has some comments here. The leaders of Affirming Catholicism have a letter to the editor here.
Update
The full transcript of the BBC TV interview with Robert Pigott which was referenced earlier, hcan be found here.
Updated Thursday daytime
Following the initial report by Gary Gibbon on Channel 4 News that:
After meeting Labour backbenchers, the programme understands that Mr Blair won’t now be pushing for Catholic adoption agencies to be allowed an exemption from the law which will require them to place children with gay couples.
Downing St said Mr Blair would be seeking a “pragmatic solution” to the matter.
He would look to find agreement on how long they would have to wind up their operations after new gay rights regulations came into force.
The proposals, which result from last year’s Equality Act, are reported have caused a split in the Cabinet.
Mr Blair and Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly – a prominent Catholic – favouring an exemption, and colleagues including the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, insisting that the rules should apply equally to everyone.
The regulations, being drafted by Ms Kelly’s Communities and Local Government department, must be approved by a vote of both Houses of Parliament before coming into effect.
other news sources have now confirmed this story:
Daily Mail Blair caves in over adoption laws
The Times Catholics get time to adjust to gay rights. Also this leader: Adopt a Compromise and this cartoon.
Guardian Cabinet rejects exemption on gay adoptions and this leader: Principle under pressure. And this comment by Madeleine Bunting Retreat on adoption and the Equality Act will crumble.
Stephen Bates has also written on this topic, both in the paper, The loving gay family and the archbishop next door and on Comment is free in Adopting the wrong attitude. Also, Two churches, one view and a question of conscience.
Telegraph Blair retreats over opt-out for gay adoption
Faith or career – the choice facing Kelly by Graeme Wilson and Jonathan Petre
BBC ‘No opt-out’ for Church adoption (has link to video report from last night’s TV news). There is also an audio clip from the Today programme here.
Independent Blair backs down over gay adoption law.
37 CommentsSee previous entry for the letter from Rowan Williams and John Sentamu and earlier press reports, including The Times today.
Dr Sentamu was interviewed on the BBC Today radio programme: listen here, about 6 minutes long.
Should Catholic adoption agencies be able to refuse to place children with gay couples? We speak to the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu
Further press coverage:
Telegraph Churches unite against gay laws by Jonathan Petre and George Jones
Telegraph leader Sexual disorientation.
Guardian Archbishops back Catholic stance on adoption rights for gay couples by Will Woodward and Stephen Bates (another version of this story here).
Independent Cherie Blair ‘split Cabinet in Catholic adoption row
Independent Leading article: When the interests of child and church collide
and a report from last Sunday, Faith & Reason: Ruth Kelly, her hard-line church and a devout PM wrestling with his conscience.
Magnus Linklater in The Times Kelly must face her tragic end – to resign on principle.
Ekklesia Call for Kelly’s head as Blair ponders and C of E backs Catholics and Sentamu seeks to defend church against charges of discrimination.
The Church of England has published the text of a letter from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Tony Blair.
Dear Prime Minister,
The Church of England, along with others in the voluntary sector, including other churches and faith communities, have been in discussion with the government for some time over what has become known as the Sexual Orientation Regulations. Those discussions have been conducted in good faith, in mutual respect and with an appropriate level of confidence on all sides.
Last week that changed. Speculation about splits within government, fuelled by public comment from government ministers, appears to have created an atmosphere that threatens to polarise opinions. This does no justice to any of those whose interests are at stake, not least vulnerable children whose life chances could be adversely, and possibly irrevocably, affected by the overriding of reasoned discussion and proper negotiation in an atmosphere of mistrust and political expediency.
The one thing on which all seem able to agree is that these are serious matters requiring the most careful consideration. There is a great deal to gain. It is becoming increasingly evident, however, that much could also be lost, as the letter from Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor makes clear.
Many in the voluntary sector are dedicated to public service because of the dictates of their conscience. In legislating to protect and promote the rights of particular groups the government is faced with the delicate but important challenge of not thereby creating the conditions within which others feel their rights to have been ignored or sacrificed, or in which the dictates of personal conscience are put at risk.
The rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well meaning.
On numerous occasions in the past proper consideration has been given to the requirements of consciences alongside other considerations contributing to the common good, such as social need or human rights – the right, for example, of some doctors not to perform abortions, even though employed by the National Health Service.
It would be deeply regrettable if in seeking, quite properly, better to defend the rights of a particular group not to be discriminated against, a climate were to be created in which, for example, some feel free to argue that members of the government are not fit to hold public office on the grounds of their faith affiliation. This is hardly evidence of a balanced and reasonable public debate.
As you approach the final phase of what has, until very recently, been a careful and respectful consideration of the best way in which to introduce and administer new protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in England and Wales, we hope you, and cabinet colleagues, will do justice to the interests of the much wider grouping of interests within the nation that will be affected. It is vitally important that the interests of vulnerable children are not relegated to suit any political interest. And that conditions are not inadvertently created which make the claims of conscience an obstacle to, rather than the inspiration for, the invaluable public service rendered by parts of the voluntary sector.
Yours faithfully,
Most Rev and Rt Hon Rowan Williams
Archbishop of CanterburyMost Rev and Rt Hon John Sentamu
Archbishop of York
Reference is made above to a letter from Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor. That letter can be read here.
Press coverage
Earlier reports from the Telegraph Jonathan Petre Gay laws would force closures says Cardinal and A bare fist fight.
Later reports from The Times Ruth Gledhill and Greg Hurst Anglicans back right to deny gay adoption and Tony Blair: torn between two loves.
49 CommentsDrenched in Grace: Anglicans, Inclusion and the Gospel is the title of the InclusiveChurch residential conference to be held from 21st to 23rd November 2007 at the Christian Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire.
DRENCHED IN GRACE: Anglicans, Inclusion and the Gospel
More than at any time in the recent past, those who seek to offer an open, inclusive and welcoming Gospel within the Anglican Communion are facing great challenges. Now more than ever we need to be equipped with the theological and ecclesiastical resources which mean that we can with confidence affirm that the Gospel of justice, inclusion and peace we try to communicate is scriptural, rational and central to Anglican tradition.
Confirmed speakers so far are:
Dr. Jenny Te Paa
Principal of Te Rau Kahikatea, College of St John the Evangelist, Auckland, New Zealand and member of the Windsor CommissionRev. Dr. Louis Weil
James F. Hodges Professor of Liturgics, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley CaliforniaRev. Canon Lucy Winkett
Precentor, St Paul ’s Cathedral, LondonRev. Dr. Sharon Moughtin-Mumby
formerly lecturer in OT Studies, Ripon College, Cuddesdon and now Curate, St Peter’s Church, Walworth (Diocese of Southwark)Mark Russell
Chief Executive Officer, Church Army
For further details see here and for a booking form go here.
24 CommentsJonathan Wynne-Jones has had two stories in the Sunday Telegraph lately on this:
14 Jan For YouTube, read PewTube
21 Jan Hug somebody for Lent
The latter was triggered by a Church of England official press release titled: Lent – now str8 2 ur fone about the Love Life Live Lent campaign. The associated website is not what you might expect, but rather is www.livelent.net.
Both these projects are subjected to some serious criticism, first by Dave Green at wannabepriest under the title Oi, Williams…. NOOOO! and then by Dave Walker at The Cartoon Blog. I agree with their comments. What do TA readers think?
10 CommentsA new joint project of Fulcrum and Inclusive Church has just started. Titled Goddard2Goddard it has as a strapline Waiting for Goddards: Corresponding Theologies.
Who are we?
Andrew Goddard is Tutor in Christian Ethics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Giles Goddard is Rector of St Peter’s Church, Walworth, South London. Giles is also Chair of Inclusive Church while Andrew is on the Leadership Team of Fulcrum and a scholar of the Anglican Communion Institute.
What are we doing?
We agreed just before Christmas to correspond with each other over the next few months on matters relating to the challenges facing the Anglican Communion and the Church of England and to publish our exchanges online. The correspondence will appear on both the Fulcrum and Inclusive Church sites although both of us are writing in a personal capacity. We do this knowing we initially come with different perspectives on many of the major presenting issues (the nature of Anglicanism, life in communion, the Windsor Report, Lambeth I.10 on sexual ethics etc) and eager to explore these together.
Why are we doing this?
The project is explained further both here and here.The initial pair of letters can be read on either site:
29 CommentsFurther letters will be posted both here and here.
The Fulcrum forum has a thread for discussion which you can read here.
Jonathan Sacks writes in The Times: A gentle reminder that soft answers can turn away wrath.
Chris Hardwick writes about Conscience in Face to Faith in the Guardian.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about how The Bible is not a legal document.
26 CommentsUpdated again Saturday morning
The Diocese of Virginia has just issued this: Diocesan Leadership Declares Church Property ‘Abandoned’
and
A Letter to The Diocese of Virginia from the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, Bishop
Please read both documents in full.
Friday morning
Episcopal News Service Virginia leadership declares church property ‘abandoned’
Living Church Diocese Declares Departing Virginia Church Properties Abandoned
Richmond Times-Dispatch Diocese moves to recover breakaway churches’ land
Associated Press via Washington Post Episcopalians Readying Legal Challenge
Washington Times Church dispute headed to court
Friday evening
Episcopal News Service Presiding Bishop affirms Church’s ‘fiduciary and moral duty’ to preserve property
From the CANA website:
On January 12, Bishop Martyn Minns of CANA received the following letter from the leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia (the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee). Bishop Minns’s response is also pasted below. CANA regrets that given the Episcopal Church’s more recent public polemical statements, that we are forced to make these two private letters part of the public record. In the past, the headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia has endorsed the principles of civility and grace (e.g., “The Grace and Power of Civility” by David Abshire). But their recent unilateral actions of (1) denying their own Protocol’s access to amicable separation, of (2) breaking off the negotiation process, of (3) driving a wedge into CANA congregations, of (4) denying senior priests access to COBRA health care extensions — all of these seem to prove that the Episcopal Church is more interested in posturing than people. CANA continues to pray for a peaceful resolution and that the Episcopal Church leaders will not initiate litigation.
» January 10, 2007 – Letter from the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee to the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns (PDF)
» January 16, 2007 – Letter from the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns to the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee (PDF)
FAIRFAX and FALLS CHURCH, Va, Jan. 19 – Two leaders of the Anglican District of Virginia today urged the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and its bishop, the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, to cease both his divisive rhetoric and his march toward the courthouse and instead return to the negotiating table.
“It is still not too late for Bishop Lee and the leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia to stand down from making any more threats against faithful Christians who followed the Diocese of Virginia’s protocol for departing congregations, and instead to return to the negotiating table,” said Tom Wilson, Senior Warden of The Falls Church and Chairman of the Anglican District. “I still have hope, even now, that we can sit down and reason together.”
The Anglican District of Virginia is a growing association of Anglican Churches in Virginia, consisting of 16 worshipping congregations and two emerging church plants. On a typical Sunday, almost 6000 people attend these churches, making Anglican District larger than almost half of the Episcopal dioceses in the United States…
This article from the Washington Post yesterday contains detail about the Heathsville, Virginia church mentioned in the correspondence above: Praying for Answers.
Saturday morning
Living Church Departing Virginia Churches Urge Diocese to Resume Negotiations
Washington Post Congregations Give Warning On Property
Washington Times Breakaway churches urge bishop back to talks
The Rev. Dr. John Yates Writes to The Falls Church via Stand Firm
101 CommentsSince my previous report on this, there have been some further developments:
Pat Ashworth reported it last week in the Church Times under Panel gives comfort to Fort Worth.
Jim Naughton had asked Did the Panel of Reference do its homework? and Katie Sherrod had written It’s All About Gender.
Today, ENS reports that Bonnie Anderson the House of Deputies president writes Panel of Reference to clarify misconceptions. The report includes the full text of the letter, which had also appeared in leaked form yesterday.
26 CommentsFirst, my earlier article on official church news items was incomplete. Several further press releases have followed:
2007 Episcopal Retreat Press briefing Q & A : Abp. Akinola answers questions on Elections, Niger-Delta, Lambeth, and other issues. This includes the following:
Primates February Tanzania meeting and the homosexuality issue
We are not going to Tanzania to discuss gay marriages. We are going to Tanzania because we are Primates of the Church and we have many things to talk about and to pray about. We come together primarily for fellowship as Primates, we come together to study the word of God and to think together on various matters that concerns our provinces. So the gay marriage thing is not the main agenda. It may rear its ugly head again but it is not the main agenda.
Church of Nigeria Bishops and Lambeth 2008
We are part and parcel of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Lambeth Conference is called once in every ten years for all Anglicans Bishops therefore it is our conference. What we are saying in Church of Nigeria and in many other provinces in Africa is that for us to gather all over the world as many as 800 Bishops, and to build that consensus and to agree on certain things, and for some to say “well it doesn’t matter; we can continue things in our own way”. Then think of the financial implication, think of the risks involved. For 120 Bishops from Nigeria to travel to England, consider the financial implication. It will not cost any diocese in the country lest than N1million – for the delegates and other expenses-. We are talking about N120million and we are going to spend three weeks there. And then on return, there is nothing to show for it, that is what we are arguing against. So, we are part and parcel of Lambeth Conference, but we are challenging the authorities that before we come, we have to be sure that we are not coming for a Jamboree. We are coming for serious business and we have plenty of time before Lambeth to decide whether we are coming for a mere jamboree or a serious conference.
Press Release : 20 new bishops elected : Names of newly elected bishops and their dioceses
Church on the MOVE…: Rare glimpse into activities surrounding election of bishops.
Second, there has been this report in the Wall Street Journal In Nigeria, a Bill To Punish Gays Divides a Family which has also been reproduced at The Nigerian Village Square. This legislation is not mentioned in the press briefing.
45 CommentsUpdated again Wednesday evening
Update Tuesday The Episcopal Majority has now also published this article, with some explanation:
This letter was written by the Right Reverend Paul Marshall (Bishop of Bethlehem) to other bishops in the Episcopal Church in anticipation of the next House of Bishops meeting. Initially written for limited circulation among Bishop Marshall’s colleagues in the House of Bishops, it has been distributed in wider circles. We reprint it here in full with Bishop Marshall’s permission.
—-
Both Jim Naughton and Ruth Gledhill have now published an article written by the Bishop of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania, USA) Paul Marshall.
You can read it in full here.
Ruth Gledhill has links to a number of other articles and has commented that:
I think he is being just a bit too hard on the Archbishop. Dr Williams has written about why he decided to invite Schori to the Primates’ meeting in Tanzania, and has also had meetings with US liberals that a fringe Bishop such as Marshall could not possibly know about. The orthodox are worried. Poor Dr Williams is being attacked from all sides. In the letter below, Bishop Marshall writes of the pending crucifixion and resurrection of The Episcopal Church as it is presumably ‘forced’ to split. But if you ask me, it is the Archbishop who’s being crucified here, not TEC or anyone else.
Jim Naughton wrote that:
…the bishop articulates what many of us have been feeling about the Archbishop of Canterbury and his behavior toward our Church for some time.
Certainly this contribution strengthens the feeling of American discomfort that I received from reading the articles linked previously.
Mark Harris has commented at The Questions get Sharper
Update Wednesday
The article is now available on the Bethlehem diocesan website as a PDF file or as a Word file, go here. There is a background note there also:
In anticipation of the House of Bishops meeting in Texas, Bishop Paul Marshall wrote a discussion starter and sent it by email on January 12, 2007, to his colleagues in the House of Bishops. Upon receiving requests from colleagues to share more widely the note initially intended for limited circulation, he expanded and revised it. Primarily about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s relationship to our House of Bishops, the note assumes a great deal of context. It may be downloaded below, as a Word or PDF file. As always, we continue to pray for the ministry of Rowan, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as Bishop Paul notes, “needs no witness from me to his reputation as a pious and good man, great in so many ways, and someone whom I overall admire as writer, teacher and moral voice in the UK.
There is also an Episcopal News Service report headed Bishop challenges Archbishop of Canterbury to meet with House of Bishops.
122 CommentsAtheists: the bigots’ friends is the headline over a comment article in today’s Guardian by Giles Fraser. The strapline reads: Most Christians back gay rights – and to claim otherwise only boosts the fundamentalists.
The article starts:
41 CommentsMedia atheists are fast becoming the new best friends of fundamentalist Christians. For every time they write about religion they are doing very effective PR for a fundamentalist worldview. Many of the propositions that fundamentalists are keen to sell the public are oft-repeated corner-stones of the media atheist’s philosophy of religion.
Both partners in this unholy alliance agree that fundamentalist religion is the real thing and that more reflective and socially progressive versions of faith are pale imitations, counterfeits even. This endorsement is of enormous help to fundamentalists. What they are really threatened by is not aggressive atheism – indeed that helps secure a sense of persecution that is essential to group solidarity – but the sort of robustly self-critical faith that knows the Bible and the church’s traditions, and can challenge bad religion on its own terms. Fundamentalists hate what they see as the enemy within. And by refusing to acknowledge any variegation in Christian thought, media atheists play right into their hands…
The recent flurry of announcements from Lambeth and elsewhere concerning the Covenant Design Group, the Panel of Reference re Fort Worth, and the question of who will or won’t sit down with whom in Dar es Salaam, have led to a flurry of opinions by several American Episcopalians, collectively questioning the desirability of continuing membership of the Anglican Communion. I have listed a selection of these below.
Lionel Deimel
9 Jan Do We Need the Anglican Communion?
11 Jan Advice to the PB for the Primates’ Meeting
11 Jan Just to Be Clear …
Jim Naughton
9 Jan Revisiting “The Question”
10 Jan Revisiting “The Question”: Stewardship
Mark Harris
9 Jan Drip, Drip, Drip: Are we dealing with water torture or fresh springs?
11 Jan The Vocation of the Episcopal Church. (scroll down).
Marshall Scott
11 Jan Patience Through the Pain of Waiting
The outline agenda for the February 2007 group of sessions of the General Synod is now online and is copied below.
GENERAL SYNOD
February 2007
Timetable
Times of sessions (unless otherwise stated): 9.15 am – 1 pm, 2.30 pm – 7 pm
Monday, 26 February
Morning
Meetings of Convocations
Afternoon
Prayers, introductions, welcomes, progress of Measures etc
Presidential Address on the Anglican Communion
Business Committee report
Trident
Questions
Tuesday, 27 February
Morning
Prayers
Clergy Pensions
Legislative Business: Draft Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure, Amending Canon No 27 and Vacancy in See Committees (Amendment) Regulation – Final Drafting and Final Approval
Afternoon
Legislative Business: Clergy Terms of Service legislation – First Consideration
Legislative Business: Church of England Marriage Measure – Revision Stage
Fresh Expressions
Wednesday 28 February
Morning
Holy Communion
PMM: Revd Mary Gilbert: Lesbian and Gay Christians
Legislative Business: National Institutions of the Church of England (Transfer of Functions) Order (re CBF’s functions); Resolution confirming the appointment of a successor body corporate as trustee of the Church of England Investment Funds
Afternoon
Business Committee report on Electronic Voting
PMM: The Revd Paul Perkin: Civil Partnerships
The Dearing Report: Five years on
Thursday, 1 March
Morning
Prayers
Criminal Justice and Prison Policy Issues
Legislative Business (contingency provision & Parsonage Measure (Amendment) Rules (if a debate is requested))
Afternoon
Legislative Business (contingency provision & Amending Canon No 28 re Canon B 44 – First Consideration)
Lichfield Diocesan Synod Motion: Standards of Human Behaviour in relation to the Media
Farewells
Prorogation
Contingency business
Private Member’s Motion: Mr Gavin Oldham: Ethical Investment Advisory Group: Restricted Investments
First, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interviewed Katharine Jefferts Schori during her recent visit there to preside at the consecration of the new Bishop of Arkansas. You can read the full interview here, at Bible Belt Blogger, Frank Lockwood, religion editor of the Democrat-Gazette, or there is another copy of it here.
Second, the Winter/Spring edition of the Voice of Integrity (published by the US Episcopalian LGBT organisation) also carried an interview. You can read this here in the 2 Mb PDF original (the interview starts on page 9), or there is an html transcription here.
1 CommentThe Church Times not only reported on this week’s events, in Christians protest, but gay regulations continue in force by Pat Ashworth, but also had a leader which makes its editorial position very clear indeed: Misguided and misinformed:
69 Comments…But there is no threat. The broad support for the Equality Act from the Church of England and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, to name just two, has been drowned out by a small group of conservative Christians who seem to believe that, regardless of what the Government says, or the wording of the Act, only they stand in the way of a homosexual free-for–all. “This is a Christian country. If we don’t speak out now, in a few years’ time, it will be too late,” said one protester on Tuesday. No, it won’t. The legislation has been drafted to prevent discrimination against people on account of their sexual orientation; there is nothing about condoning sexual behaviour, a distinction made by the House of Bishops in 1991. The Government must simply take the protesters at their first word — every speech is prefaced by an assurance that the speaker is not against gay people as such — and ignore any misinformed opinions that follow. The mainstream Churches, having quibbled over some of the wording in the legislation, now need to make it clear that they do not share the views of the protesters, and that the majority of Christians will have no truck with discrimination on grounds of this kind.
