Friday press reports
Updated 2 pm – new items at bottom
Stephen Bates reports in the Guardian what a “not normally noted as a liberal” primate told him, but only on condition of anonymity. Anglican leaders divided and defiant after gays pact
The primate, who is not normally noted as a liberal, was speaking on condition of anonymity. He said: “Some primates were personally offensive towards Rowan and gratuitously rude about him behind his back. They had no respect for him and said: ‘He’ll do what we tell him to.’ If I wasn’t a Christian, I would walk away from this right now. I believe a split in the church is inevitable.”
…The anonymous primate said that the conservative archbishops had ignored a direct appeal by the Archbishop of Canterbury for them to attend a service at which he was to preside at Dromantine. Twenty of the 35 attended a “celebration” dinner hosted by Nigeria’s Archbishop Peter Akinola but paid for by American Episcopalian traditionalists opposed to their liberal church leadership following the end of the meeting.
The Church Times also reports on the atmosphere in which the meeting was conducted:
Pat Ashworth Yes, they’re united, but only just: Primates’ response
Other Church Times reports:
Americans and Canadians face tough decisions
Primates’ meeting: the ACC response
Over at the Telegraph Jonathan Petre reports Primate attacked for stance over gays and refers to this letter.
George Conger in the Church of England Newspaper has the most detailed account of events at Dromatine, the article is in two parts:
Behind the scenes at the Primates’ Meeting, part 1
Behind the scenes at the Primates’ Meeting, part 2
Here is his account of the Thursday afternoon:
Matters took a quick turn when at 2pm when an independent journalist announced that he was getting ready to break the story of the agreement over the internet. The Primate of the Southern Cone, Archbishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, telephoned the journalist asking him not to proceed as the details had not been completed nor signed.
Though delayed, an incomplete story announcing the deal broke at approximately 4.30pm causing anger among the global south primates who were fearful that publication of the proposal would wreck negotiations.
As problems unfolded over the leak, Bishop Griswold became perturbed after witnessing the departure of a number of global south primates with their American supporters to dine off-campus.
Bishop Griswold spoke with Dr Williams, who then dressed down the Primates upon their return for sneaking away. In rebuking the Primates, Archbishop Williams committed his first gaffe of the meeting, as his infelicitous tone offended the African leaders.
In the midst of the turmoil over absent primates, exaggerated news reports, and bruised egos, the Primates voted to junk the evening’s agenda and finish the communiqué.
Sources at Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Consultative Council told us the next day that the determination to finish the report and regain control of the agenda from the press unified the Primates as nothing else had over the week.
The drafting committee presented its work to the Primates and after only a few readings the communiqué was adopted — breaking with past practice of arguing over each jot and tittle. At 10.22pm the communiqué was released to the press.
The expression of repentance from the Episcopal Church found in earlier drafts did not materialise due, in part, to the rush to finish. Archbishop Peter Carnley explained: “At the beginning of our meeting we did talk about an expression of regret”, however “I think we lost sight of that particular issue in the course of the meeting”.
The endorsement of the communiqué, however, did not return harmony to the Primates. After the deal was done, Archbishop Williams announced he was going to lead the noonday Eucharist on Friday and invited all the Primates to attend as a gesture of unity. The global south primates declined.
Other CEN report: North American Churches suspended from Communion
and editorial which will disappear next week, but another copy is here
An American report from yesterday, by David Steinmetz in the Orlando Sentinel Negotiating truce in Anglican civil war
Associated Press report by Richard Ostling
And for those who thought Orombi okays gay debate in Church was too good to be true, well, it isn’t: No debate on gays, says Orombi.
1 Commentecclesiastical autonomy
A very interesting legal paper has been published by Dr Augur Pearce concerning the ecclesiastial autonomy of the Church of England.
There is a summary of the key points (and a biographical note) on this page: English Ecclesiastical Autonomy and the Windsor Report by Dr Augur Pearce.
and the full 12 page article can be downloaded in PDF format from here.
The last two summary points read as follows:
- Reflecting that the Windsor Report’s proposed ‘communion law’ (subordinating national ecclesiastical autonomy for the future to an international agreement and arbiters) could only be effected in England by primary legislation, the paper mentions two existing approaches to self-obligation in the legislative field (in the European Communities Act and Human Rights Act). Given that either approach would affect radically the tradition of independence that formed the English Church as now known, and that a possible consequence could be to narrow the national church’s broad popular appeal, Parliament may think very carefully before approving such legislation while leaving the Church of England its national status and associated endowment.
- Being no expert in the history of the North American churches’ involvement with the Lambeth Conference, the writer does not seek to apply his conclusions directly to their situation. It is recognised that as voluntary rather than national churches, the conceptual basis for their autonomy is quite different. However it is suggested that if the Church of England is indeed presently not bound by Lambeth Conference majorities, the North American churches should consider whether it can be right for them either to own such an obligation.
primates meeting: more documentation
First, Anglican Mainstream has very helpfully provided a transcript of the interview that Rowan Williams gave to Roger Bolton on last week’s BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme.
Interview with Rowan Williams – Transcription
Second, Bob Duncan gave a speech in Pittsburgh about the Primates Meeting, and there is an audio file of the speech on this page and a summary of his remarks on this page.
Third, there was a statement issued before the Dromantine meeting which is only now available. A Statement from Global South Primates meeting In Nairobi January 27th/28th, 20O5
Fourth, Australian radio ABC National has a transcript and audio files of its weekly programme The Religion Report, entitled Woes of Anglicans; Dances of Ecstasy
And finally, a newspaper report from the Montreal Gazette A communion shaken by conflict
This contains perhaps the greatest exaggeration yet about the Lambeth Conference 1998:
1 CommentThe worldwide Anglican conference in 1998 upheld traditional church teaching, which prohibits practising homosexuals from receiving communion.
primates meeting: responses from groups
UK/Ireland-based
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
Reform Ireland (no response from the English one)
US or Canadian based
Anglican Communion Network and Anglican Communion Council (2 separate organisations but one statement)
Moderator of Anglican Communion Network
Anglican Communion Institute
On Reading the Primates’ Communique
THE COMMUNIQUE IN CONTEXT
What happened at Newry?—An ACI Response
primates meeting: more newspaper articles
icCheshireOnline Call for moral crusade as Church heads for split
Anthony Howard in The Times The Church should be about doctrine, not majority votes
Chris McGillion in the Sydney Morning Herald Anglicans must accept moral diversity to protect universality
Muriel Porter in the Melbourne Age Anglicans postpone their schism
Boston Globe Bishop says gap is closing over gays in Anglican church
New Vision Uganda Orombi okays gay debate in Church
Colin Slee in the Guardian The price of unity is too high
New Orleans Times-Picayune Bishop urges new route out of crisis
Simon Jenkins in The Times Schism would be better than giving way to intolerance
1 CommentWindsor Report: provincial responses
Addition
Comments by House of Bishops, Nippon Sei Ko Kai
The responses from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are now available online as PDF files from the LGCM website.
1 CommentDiversity and Renewal
Recently, some very striking demographic analysis has been undertaken into Irish population trends. To cut a long story (or perhaps, a rather intricate analysis) short, it has been suggested that by the year 2050 Ireland could have a population of 20 million (rather than the current 5 million or so), and that fewer than 6 million of these would then be indigenous Irish. If the trends on which this analysis is based continue, then Ireland would in just over one generation have been transformed from having the genetically most homogeneous population in Europe to having one of the most diverse. Indeed, the ‘old’ Irish would not even make up the biggest population group: that would be the Chinese.
This is interesting to me not least because, over the past year, I have visited China twice, and so this has caused me to muse how a ‘Chinese’ Ireland might appear in a few years time, and what it might mean — including what it might mean to organised religion. In China, things are changing faster than any of us could imagine in our own environment. Some of it is rampant materialism, but China is not a country without a hunger for something more profound. My guess is that a Chinese population in Ireland will be an innovative and tolerant and energetic population; those already here show all those signs.
So while I have been musing on this, the Anglican primates meeting in Ireland have been dealing with their own intercultural issues. They have had to confront the reality of a western liberal culture coming under attack, and in an elaborate ritual of trying to sit down somewhere more or less on top of the fence have, predictably, failed to be comfortable in this posture. Nobody could, with any confidence, try to predict what the Anglican family of the year 2050 will look like, based on this evidence from the prelates. But there are few signs that anyone is trying to construct a forward-looking vision of an intercultural Christian world.
My own instinct is to say that western liberalism — at least where it stresses the dignity of human lifestyles which do not hurt or oppress — is by now very well rooted in these soils, and will survive the new cultural mix, and possibly even thrive in it. Our new world is about releasing innovative energy, and not about trying to shoehorn all life and culture into a narrow selection of time capsules.
The church may turn out to be relevant to this, or it may turn out to be just a ghost. The time has come for us to assert the right of Christianity to be a signpost to the future, and not just a grim reminder of some of the less pleasant aspects of our past. We must celebrate diversity and renewal, not be frightened by it. It’s time to realise that the place for Christians is not on the fence.
2 Commentsanalysis of communiqué
My own analysis of The Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting Communiqué, February 2005
can be found on Anglicans Online at The Primates Meeting at Dromantine, February 2005.
Choral Evensong at Armagh
Canon Michael Kennedy has sent us this full report on the service of Evensong which was held in Armagh Cathedral on Tuesday at the second day of the Primates’ Meeting:
A service of Choral Evensong was held in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, on Tuesday 22 February 2005 to mark the visit of the primates of the Anglican Communion at which the preacher was the Archbishop of Canterbury…
2 Commentsprimates meeting: Sunday
Press coverage continues…
Associated Press Nigerians, Anglicans Clash Over Gays
Telegraph Clifford Longley It’s independence day – again
Observer Will Hutton A schism that threatens us all
BBC Anglican split ‘a matter of time’
The BBC World Service has an interview with Josiah Idowu-Fearon (about 27 minutes, starts about 30 seconds into the recording)
…In this week’s edition of The Interview, Owen Bennett-Jones goes to the heart of the matter in his conversation with Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Archbishop of Kaduna state in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Anglican church – one of the biggest communities in the communion – has led the criticism over the appointment of homosexual clergy. The row began in 2003 when the American Episcopal Church ordained an openly gay bishop…
The BBC radio programme Sunday which has a larger audience than many Sunday newspapers sell copies carried this:
Primates Meeting listen here with Real Audio (14 minutes)
Was it a fudge, the beginning of the end, or a step back from the brink? I refer to the communique issued by the Primates of the Anglican Communion at the end of their crisis meeting in Northern Ireland this week. One observer said “The Primates have handed the North Americans a pearl handled revolver”. The communique dealt almost exclusively with the split between the North American churches, which have consecrated as bishop someone who has a homosexual partner and which have blessed same sex marriages, and conservative Christians in the rest of the world who believe practising homosexuality is a sin, and who have called for the liberal North Americans to repent. Caught in the middle is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Roger hears from the conservative Archbishop of the West Indies, Drexel Gomez, and the Presiding Bishop of Ecusa, Frank Griswold, and then talks live to The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, from Lambeth Palace.
Press Association report on the above radio interview, Williams Admits Gay Row has Caused Serious “Fractures”
BBC report of the interview Williams admits church ‘fracture’
BBC World Service Divine division? listen here
Graham Kings and Stephen Bates interviewed about the Primates’ Meeting on BBC World Service World Update (hat tip KH)
Some other items not reported earlier:
BBC interview of a spokesman for Peter Akinola, on Saturday’s Today Programme: listen here (3.5 minutes)
CNEWS Gay debate divides Anglican faith
Toronto Globe and Mail Top cleric faces rift among Anglicans
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steve Levin Anglicans push U.S. church off key council
Two Church of Ireland press releases:
Irish Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) members comment on recent devlopments in the Anglican Communion
Bishop of Cork asks: “Has Anglican Primates’ Meeting exceeded its powers?”
Ruth Gledhill wrote up the Armagh Evensong for the regular Times Saturday feature At Your Service which can be compared with the account of this service from an insider published exclusively here.
3 Commentsprimates meeting: Saturday
Press coverage of the meeting continues.
Updated Saturday 9 a.m.
Church Times has updates to the paper edition:
Pat Ashworth Primates speak of ‘miraculous’ unanimity
and an editorial Fall-out from the Primates’ Meeting
(earlier report Let Christ unite you, Primates advised)
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Americans must admit gay error, says Church
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, made it clear yesterday that the Anglican churches of the US and Canada will have to admit that they are in the wrong over homosexuality if the unity of the Anglican Church is to be preserved.
Dr Williams, speaking in Northern Ireland at the end of the week-long primates’ discussions of the crisis that has brought the Church to the brink of schism, said: “There is no painless solution.
“Any lasting solution will require people to say, somewhere along the line, that they were wrong, wrong about something. What, I do not know. That is for them to determine. It is perfectly possible to take a decision in good faith and afterwards to think, ‘I had not counted the cost’.” …
and an editorial article Come on all ye faithful
…Were God to focus on the question of elevating homosexuals to the Anglican episcopate, He would, presumably, distinguish at once between disagreement based on genuine respect for Scripture, and the contortion of Scripture in order to camouflage mere prejudice. There seems little doubt, however, that the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Anglican Church in Canada have undervalued unity in their precipitate and unilateral moves in favour of same-sex unions and gay bishops. Neither development is necessarily incompatible with Anglican harmony in the long term, but in the short term the suspension of both churches from the Anglican Consultative Council is wise. Time has been bought, and, God willing, sanity and sanctity will prevail.
Guardian
Stephen Bates Church schism feared despite deal on gays
Owen Bowcott ‘Punishment is for doing what we are all meant to do’
Mark Lawson His only ‘ism’ is schism
and an editorial Divided they stand
Telegraph
Jonathan Petre Church remains at risk of schism on homosexuality, warns Williams
and an editorial Anglicans must fight to keep their Communion
Independent
No easy solution to Anglican split, says Williams
and an editorial (text below the fold).
Scotsman
Archbishop of Canterbury can’t rule out schism over gay clergy
Financial Times
Deal averts split over gay bishops
New York Times
Move to Halt Delegations Is Challenging Episcopalians
Washington Post
Episcopalians Affirm Pro-Gay View
Sydney Morning Herald
Anglican leaders split over gays
National Public Radio
Gay Issues Cause Dischord Within Anglican Union
PBS Television
Anglican Primates Meeting
Episcopal News Service has a page of material, including audio of the press conference and an interview with Frank Griswold:
Primates Meeting 2005 – News and Resources
The BBC has done a major write-through of the story at this URL now titled Lasting split looms for Anglicans which also includes links to a substantial video clip of the press conference and a BBC TV news report.
Belfast Telegraph
Gay row move not a mere fudge, warns Eames
This Life: Finding right way in the sex maze
primates meeting: later reports
updated Friday evening
ACNS picture of the press briefing here
BBC
Anglican rift grows over gay row (This story has now been updated to reflect the briefing)
Anglicans deny gay clergy split
Q&A: Anglican church split
Associated Press
Anglican Leaders Ask U.S. to Leave Council
and, later Archbishop: Anglicans Could Face Division
The Times
Archibishop acknowledges the Church may split
Should the Anglican Church split over homosexuals?
Guardian
Lesbian and gay Anglicans deny schism
Belfast Telegraph
Gay issue widening Anglican divisions
Reuters
Anglican Church Divisions Over Gays Widens
North American Anglicans Defend Gay Policies
Beliefnet
In Anglican Report, There’s Something for Everyone, Once Again
Further American responses from ENS
A word from the Presiding Bishop
Anglican primates uphold unity in response to Windsor Report
CTV No ruling on Anglican church withdrawal: official
Further Canadian response via Anglican Journal
Church sanctions could have been worse: primate
Request from Primates’ Meeting is not an enforceable decision – Bishop of Cork
Reports filed before the briefing:
Press Association Church Warned over Stance on Homosexuality
Sydney Morning Herald Sex drives wedge in Anglican ranks
Associated Press Anglican Leaders Seek Split Over Gay Issue
primates meeting: additional material
Due to the early issuance of the Primates Meeting Communiqué the press briefing at Dromantine has been rescheduled to 2 30 pm.
ACO press release Explanatory note: The Anglican Consultative Council
The ACO website has (or will have) additional material relating to the primates’ Windsor Report discussions (these are mentioned in the footnotes to the communique itself):
PRESENTATION OF THE WINDSOR REPORT 2004 by Archbishop Robin Eames – this is 5 pages on the web
Reception Process Report Given by Primus Bruce Cameron at the Primates Meeting 2005 – this is 8 pages on the web and leads to Powerpoint slides and PDF files#
Photographs from the Primates Meeting, February 2005
0 Commentsprimates meeting: Friday
British press coverage this morning:
Press Association Church Tells Pro-Gay Anglicans to ‘Consider Position’
Reuters Anglicans Face Temporary Split in Gay Row
Guardian Church faces schism today
The Times Anglicans ready to split over gay bishop
Independent Gay row forces split with North American Anglicans
Telegraph Anglicans give ultimatum to pro-gay liberals
Audio of first report on BBC Today Programme at 0632 listen here (3 minutes)
Second report at 0709 listen here (6 minutes) – interviews with Steven Charleston and Philip Giddings
Third report at 0810 listen here (6 minutes) interview with Peter Carnley
BBC reports
Anglican rift grows over gay row
BBC Analysis: Anglican schism nears reality
Can Anglican rift be resolved? invites comments from the public. Thinking Anglicans encourages you to comment to the BBC.
New York Times Anglican Leaders Seek Move to Avoid Schism
Los Angeles Times U.S., Canada Churches Urged to Leave Key Anglican Council
Canadian responses:
A Statement from the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
Anglican Journal Primates move to sanction North American churches
American response:
Primates’ Meeting Communiqué – From the Presiding Bishop:
Primates' Meeting — first comments
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Frank Griswold, has issued this statement about the communiqué:
“The primates of the Anglican Communion and Moderators of the United Churches have just completed their work on the attached communiqué which gives some sense of our meeting this week in Northern Ireland. These days have not been easy for any of us and the communiqué reflects a great deal of prayer and the strong desire to find a way forward as a Communion in the midst of deep differences which have been brought into sharp relief around the subject of homosexuality.
“Clearly, all parts of the communiqué will not please everyone. It is important to keep in mind that it was written with a view to making room for a wide variety of perspectives. I continue to have faith and confidence in the many ways in which the mystery of communion is lived among us, and am grateful that bonds of understanding and affection to bind us together and call us to an ever deeper and more costly living out of the reconciliation brought about by Jesus through the Cross. Again this week it was revealed that so much more unites us than divides us.”
“The Presiding Bishop will make a further comment tomorrow.”
0 CommentsPrimates' Meeting — communique
The Primates, meeting in Northern Ireland, have issued this communiqué
The main points seem to be:
- the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada are invited to ‘voluntarily withdraw their members from the Anglican Consultative Council for the period leading up to the next Lambeth Conference.’
- that the Archbishop of Canterbury ensure that adequate pastoral provision be made for those in the USA or Canada in ‘serious theological dispute’ with their bishop, or province; meanwhile the primates will not initiate or encourage extra-provincial arrangements
- that the Americans and Canadians attend a ‘hearing’ in Nottingham in June 2005 to explain their actions
- that there should be a process of dialogue, and all are invited to take part in that dialogue (implying that there has not been a dialogue so far)
- that there be a moratorium on same-sex blessings and bishops ‘living in a sexual relationship outside Christian marriage’
Stealing the heart of the Church
The BBC referred this morning to the “Battle for the political heart of Anglicanism” being fought out at Armagh between the Anglican primates, over issues about same sex couples.
It is fascinating that this is seen as a particularly Anglican issue, when the same difficulties are found in other churches, as a Baptist observer said at the Church of England’s General Synod last week. The reason must lie in the history of the Anglican Church, the close founding link of Church and state, particularly in the way that relations were defined and described in Richard Hooker’s monumental Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity 400 years ago. Since that time, with bishops in the House of Lords, there has been a close correspondence between the laws of Church and State to the extent that it is often difficult to discover which is which. We’re reaping some of the problems associated with this in the upsets over the marriage plans of Prince Charles and Camilla, and it is fascinating to find that European Human Rights legislation needs to be invoked to say they can legally marry in an English register office outside the gates of Windsor Castle.
Whilst the Church of England was little more than a national church (leaving aside the Scottish Episcopal Church and its great legacy to the Episcopal Church of the USA) it might have seemed that laws of Church and State could be seen to correspond. But, with the growth of the British Empire and the exporting of the national church into other cultures, conflicts were bound to arise.
A particular problem was the prevailing polygamy found in of parts of Africa. Whilst Christianity did not allow polygamy, there was a certain tolerance of it for those who were not Christians, and often a blind eye was turned to the ancient droit de seigneur of local rulers to collect a large harem of young women. Things only came to a head when Mwanga, the ruler of Uganda in 1886, wanted boys, not girls, for his bed. The Christian pages began to refuse his advances, so he had them put to death. They included Catholics and Anglicans. On their way to the place of execution, these young Christians sang hymns in honour of the Lord and some were still singing when the flames surrounded them. Since then they have been regarded as founding martyrs of the Christian Church. It is salutary to think, however, that few people would have shed tears over maids in waiting, had the ruler preferred girls. Not surprisingly, the Church of Uganda, in honouring its founding martyrs, strongly opposes homosexual relationships today, as Britain did in the time when Oscar Wilde went to prison.
So long as the Empire continued, many local cultures were suppressed. Today, with the independence of nations which were once British, the differences emerge. Pakistan is a largely Muslim country, competent to make its own laws. In Muslim law it is legal for a man to take four wives. The Christian Church there, whilst holding different views, would never dare to advocate these for anyone outside their own flock. Equally, the Christians there know that the acceptance of homosexual relationships would lead to the burning of Christian churches and the persecution of Christians. The Church is not in a position to advocate different rules from those of the state.
In a worldwide Communion, Anglicans have to accept that we are not in the driving seat when it comes to making laws. There is in Pakistan, in Uganda, and in other places a complete abhorrence of homosexual activity.
Equally, in Europe, it is secular Human Rights law which is in the driving seat, not the laws of national churches. Today the British Navy asks the advice of gay rights groups about the best way to encourage recruitment of homosexual men and women. Gay rights are enshrined in the law of the land. They are seen as just as important as the rights of people of different races, or the rights of women, and all are protected by law.
In much of Europe, in the USA, and in Canada, discrimination against gay people is now being consigned to history, along with slavery and the lack of universal suffrage. It is only shameful that the Church, which was in the forefront of the campaign to free slaves, still treats women and gay people as being less than fully human, with impaired human rights. Speaking out and saying that a faith founded on the incarnation has to be a faith which respects the dignity of all people has required great courage. Fundamentalism still tries to steal the political heart of the Anglican Church. There is a rearguard action against the ordination of women to the episcopate.
In much of the USA, Canada, Britain and Southern Africa, the battle is over. National laws guarantee the rights of women, of gay people and different races. The Church is doing little more than catching up with what governments, nationally and internationally, have agreed.
At the same time it is totally impossible for Anglicans in many other parts of the world to uphold a viewpoint which is so much at odds with their own national culture and laws. Pakistan and Uganda will want to be different. But we need to be grown up enough to accept that.
The Anglican Communion was never intended to be, and cannot be monolithic. We have to accept (Article 34 in the Prayer Book) that there will be national differences. “It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies in all places be one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries.”
These articles were honed out of the bitter controversies of the Reformation, out of the martyrdom of John Fisher, Thomas More, Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer and the rest. And in the time of Elizabeth people realised that there had to be an end to blood letting. Christians had to learn to live together in peace, and respect differences of conscience and custom. We need to learn the lesson again.
29 Commentsprimates meeting: Thursday
updated Thursday afternoon
News from Northern Ireland today is in fact non-existent, but tomorrow there will be a press conference at 5.30 pm
Primates Meeting Press Briefing
and The Living Church reports
Team to Prepare Final Statement of Primates
The BBC Radio 4 Today Programme has this report followed by a discussion with Peter Jensen and Colin Slee: listen here (Real Audio)
BBC Gay priest row ‘threatens Bible’
Press Association Church ‘May Have to Split over Homosexuality’
Reuters Sydney primate warns of church split on gays
Toronto Globe and Mail Anglican churches battle over conflicting beliefs
The Church of England Newspaper has these reports, related to the Northern Ireland meeting:
Primates take first step to implement Windsor
Synod backs Windsor as liberals receive warning
Primates Meeting: the key players
Later reports
Belfast Telegraph Gay row: Anglican leaders prepare update
0 CommentsClergy Discipline Measure – consultation on Rules and Code of Practice
The Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 received Royal Assent in July 2003. It is likely to come into effect towards the end of this year. There is a very good summary of both the current and new arrangements here on the Oxford diocesan website. Note however that the new measure does not apply to “matters involving doctrine, ritual or ceremonial”. These will continue to be governed by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963.
Before the new arrangements can come into effect, Rules (to carry into effect the provisions of the Measure) and a Code of Practice (providing guidance, explanation and best practice) need to be finalised by the Rule Committee and the Clergy Discipline Commission respectively, approved by Synod and, in the case of the Rules, laid before Parliament in the form of a Statutory Instrument under the ‘negative resolution’ procedure.
The Rule Committee and the Commission have drafted the Rules and the Code of Practice and they are now seeking comments. Full details of the consultation and how to make comments are here.
The measure and the drafts are online here:
Clergy Discipline Measure 2003
draft Rules
draft Code of Practice
The drafts are each about 3.5 MB and contain a total of 139 pages.
The intention is that the Rules and Code of Practice will be brought to General Synod for approval in July 2005. As a result the closing date for the consultation is midday on Tuesday 5 April 2005 and this deadline will be strictly observed.
The members of the Clergy Discipline Commission are listed here.
1 Commentprimates meeting: Wednesday
Updated Wednesday afternoon
Morning reports from British journalists in Northern Ireland:
Stephen Bates in the Guardian
Bishops pray together amid rumours of split
Tolerance is absent from their lexicon
Ruth Gledhill in The Times
Church plea for unity over gays
BBC
Call for peace in gay bishops row
Belfast Telegraph Church should be a place of sanctuary: Archbishop – Let us keep doors open, says Williams
Primates Meeting 2005: Photographs from Armagh
Later reports
BBC Will Africa split the Anglican Church?
Reuters Archbishop pleads for calm over gays
3 Comments