Several this weekend are about the 400th anniversary of the gunpowder plot. In the Guardian Catherine Pepinster (who is editor of The Tablet) wrote about this and in The Times Geoffrey Rowell wrote Remember, remember the legacy of suspicion, intolerance and hostility.
Christopher Howse however, wrote about The vision of Magnus Martyr.
In The Tablet *Michael Barnes continues the gunpowder theme with Terror, treason and plot and there are also book reviews. related to this.
Giles Fraser in the Church Times asks Is Sandy Millar a Trojan horse?
The gunpowder theme even extends to Peter Steinfels in the New York Times with A Day to Think About a Case of Faith-Based Terrorism. (hat tip KH)
18 CommentsPat Ashworth has this lengthy report today, Divisions dominate Global South conclave. There is a related editorial comment Sinners A & M.
28 CommentsUpdated
There are several stories about the irregular ordinations that took place in South London this week.
Ruth Gledhill in The Times has Church imports bishop to be tough enough on gays
Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph has Evangelicals defy bishop by holding ‘irregular’ ordinations and it gets covered in the Guardian story on Robinson already linked which has a strapline ‘Rogue’ ordinations escalate church crisis.
As background to this, see these statements:
Reform EVANGELICAL CHURCHES IMPORT AFRICAN BISHOP FOR ORDINATION
the co-mission initiative NEWS OF ALTERNATIVE ORDINATION which has a list of signatures of persons supporting this action, including several well-known names, and a link to a press release in Word format. The full text of the latter is reproduced here, below the fold to make it more easily available.
Anglican Church League Sydney The Anglican Church League, Sydney, expresses unqualified support for London ordinations
Further press coverage:
Reuters UK group imports African bishop in gay clergy row
Ekklesia Conservatives by-pass bishop over ordinations
Updated Friday morning
Both Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office issued press releases about this. The differences were in the headlines used:
Lambeth Palace Archbishop – ‘friendly but candid’ meeting with Bishop Gene Robinson
ACNS Archbishop Williams meets with Bishop Robinson
The press reported on this quite quickly:
Reuters Williams has “candid” talks with gay U.S. bishop
Associated Press Archbishop of Canterbury meets with Robinson
Times Online website Ruth Gledhill Rowan Williams has ‘candid’ meeting with gay US bishop
And Ruth has much more to say in her blog: Archbishop meets Gene Robinson
Friday morning
The paper edition of The Times has this version of the above: Archbishop meets US figure at heart of row
Independent Robert Verkaik Archbishop meets cleric who set off gay clergy row
Guardian Stephen Bates (who actually talked to the bishop) has Gay US bishop in ‘candid’ talks with Archbishop of Canterbury
Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph mentions it but gives priority to the Southwark ordination story (of which more anon) in Evangelicals defy bishop by holding ‘irregular’ ordinations
The BBC, coming late to the party (having previously focused on the Oxford Union), notes that Gay bishop meets head of Church
The BBC Today radio programme carried an interview with Gene Robinson in its prime 8.10 am slot and also had this earlier brief report (Real Audio required)
Update
Associated Press Bishop Predicts Acceptance Of Gays
BBC Bishop’s battle ‘for soul of church’ by Robert Pigott
The Church of England Newspaper website is already updated this week, and has:
Global South holds back from action against liberal provinces by George Conger and Andrew Carey
Archbishop appeals for unity in Egypt by Andrew Carey
And also, an analysis: Communiques message delivers a blow to West by Andrew Carey
3 CommentsACNS has published an interview with Archbishop Peter Carnley entitled The Panel of Reference – An Update.
In this interview he draws attention to the Panel web pages on the same site. Here’s an extract from the interview:
…I understand from the Chief of Staff at Lambeth Palace that at the moment there are a number of cases that have been drawn to the attention of the Archbishop, and those involved have been invited to collate the material necessary in order to enable the Panel to begin its work. So in fact the first formal referrals are only just coming through.
Can I emphasise the Panel is totally committed to acting with despatch on these issues. There are very substantial reasons why the work of the Panel has taken time, but we should see some positive action very shortly.
There have been several high profile appeals to the Panel, notably the Diocese of Recife in Brazil, and the Diocese of Fort Worth in the United States. Have you any comment to make on these?
Well, I’m aware of both the serious situation of dispute in Brazil and of the appeal of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. I understand that the Archbishop of Canterbury is talking with all parties to find the best way forward in Recife. The Panel itself recommends that every effort should be made for a pastoral intervention and reconciliation rather than the sort of formal process that reference to the Panel involves. The material requested in support of the application from Fort Worth has recently been sent on to the Panel’s Secretariat from Lambeth Palace, and we are beginning to process that now.
In a further press release, ACO announces that:
The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, the Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon, has appointed the Revd Canon Philip Groves as the facilitator of the “Listening Process” for the Communion.
See the full press release about Philip Groves here. For TA’s earlier report on the recruitment process for this position, see here: ACO advertises for unaligned listener.
1 CommentThe Times Ruth Gledhill Williams apologises to ‘cultural captives’
Telegraph Jonathan Petre Church faces crisis over gay policies
Guardian Stephen Bates and Mark Honigsbaum Anglican traditionalists warn church on gay rights
Another press report, not British, is in Christianity Today and is by Timothy C. Morgan Anglicans ‘Severely Wounded’. This contains more information not reported elsewhere.
And also there is this press release from the Province of Nigeria: GLOBAL SOUTH ANGLICAN CHURCHES COME OF AGE
37 CommentsPress release from Lambeth Palace
For immediate use
31st October 2005
Archbishop – church’s hope ‘only in Christ’
The Archbishop of Canterbury has told Anglican Church leaders from the Global South that the only ground for unity in the church ‘is to be found in Christ’. Speaking at the 3rd Anglican Global South to South Encounter meeting at Ain al Sukhna, some 80 miles south of Cairo, Dr Williams said that the church had to be focussed on Christ:
“The church is one because Jesus Christ is one; the church is holy because Jesus Christ is holy; the church is catholic because Jesus Christ is the saviour of all; the church is apostolic because as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us. In other words, if we are to understand the nature of the church at all, we are to understand who Jesus Christ is and what he does.”
“Someone said recently that the path to heaven doesn’t lie necessarily through Lambeth. I agree. The path to heaven lies solely through Jesus Christ our Saviour and the unity he gives and the only use and integrity of our instruments of unity comes when they serve that.”
“Now I don’t suggest that we can forget the practical questions that are laid upon us at the moment in our Anglican fellowship. But I do say that we shall never begin to answer them adequately unless our eyes, our minds and our hearts are with Jesus, are where Jesus is.”
The Archbishop said that one of the greatest challenges faced by Anglicans was the development of authentically local voices in liturgy.
“In all sorts of ways the church over the centuries has lent itself to the error, indeed the sin of trying to make cultural captives, whether it is the mass export of Hymns Ancient and Modern to the remote parts of the mission field … the shadow of the British Empire that hangs over our own Communion or the export of American values and styles to the whole world; we are in a real difficulty here…. The question comes back again and again; ‘How do we encourage people to write liturgy, to write prayer books, to write Eucharistic prayers, in their own language with the rhythm, the association and resonance that your own language has for you and no other has.”
He said that the church had to find its holiness ‘under the cross’; where people were in need of healing:
“… our holiness takes us where Jesus goes; our holiness takes us to those Jesus died for; it takes us into the neighbourhood of those who are forgotten, who have no voice, those who need healing and forgiveness. It takes us into very strange places indeed and the holy person, as we all know, is often found in very odd company.”
Following the lecture, Dr Williams answered questions from the conference on a number of areas.
On sexuality, he affirmed that the church had not been persuaded of the acceptability of same sex unions. These questions, though, would not go away.
“Theologians will go on discussing this and it will not be possible to stop them. For nearly a century, in the 4th century in this country of Egypt, the conflict over the Trinity raged between theologians and bishops and was not resolved overnight. I distinguish as clearly as I can a question a theologian may ask and an action or determination a church may take or a bishop may take. I think this is a necessary distinction for the life and health of the church. It would be a tragedy if the church sought to suppress questions; it is equally a tragedy when the church seeks to create facts on the ground that foreclose discussion and reflection on such questions.”
On the question of authority within the Anglican Communion, he said that he had no desire to assume further powers:
“Since I do not have canonical power outside my own province, my freedom is limited. I say it as a matter of actual fact; I do not have authority over the canons and constitutions of another province… I don’t want to be a kind of pope, solving the problems of every province.
“For me, the prospect of an Anglican ‘covenant’ or a convergent system of canon law is the best hope that we have. That being said, many provinces as we know, are wedded to the idea of an absolute constitutional independence.”
On the Windsor Report, he said that it was too early to come to a judgement as to whether or not the responses of ECUSA and the Anglican Church of Canada satisfied the terms of the report:
“I don’t think we could say that they have satisfied in a simple and direct way what Windsor asked because that process is still continuing and will continue. Archbishop Eames gave an optimistic reading of this; I’m waiting to see.”
On the status of the networks of dissenting parishes in the United States and Canada, he said that he was happy to recognise them as part of the Anglican Communion.
“There is no doubt in my mind that these networks are full members of the Anglican Communion; that is to say that their bishops, their clergy and their people are involved with the Communion which I share with them, which we all share with them. Now formal ecclesial recognition of a network, as if it were a province, is not so simply in my hands or the hands of any individual. But I do want to say quite simply yes of course; these are part of our Anglican fellowship and I welcome that.”
The Archbishop’s full text is here.
ENDS
The meeting in Egypt has issued a communique, entitled A Third Trumpet from the South: Trumpet III The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter Red Sea (Egypt), 25-30 October 2005
You can find copies of this document either here or here or here. No doubt copies of it will be sent to other agencies in due course. The original PDF file seems to be available only from the AAC.
Update Monday morning
The communique has now appeared on the Anglican Communion News Service: The Third Anglican Global South to South Encounter.
First press reports on this:
Reuters Conservative Anglicans warn liberal churches in West
Associated Press Anglicans: N. American Church Too Liberal
Back in August, an analysis of the bishops’ Pastoral Statement, written by Andrew Goddard, was published in the Church of England Newspaper but not on their website: The Civil Partnership Act and the Church of England. This escaped my attention at the time.
51 CommentsThe final papers for next month’s meeting of General Synod are now online and linked in my earlier posting here.
Also circulated to Synod members and now online is a summary of the decisions of the most recent meeting (4/5 October) of the House of Bishops.
0 CommentsThe only substantive report so far from the Anglican meeting there is this one from Reuters:
Rowan urges split church to keep talking
Alister McGrath writes in The Times about atheism: The Enlightenment is over, and atheism has lost its moral cutting edge.
Paul Oestreicher writes in the Guardian about the rebuilding of Dresden’s cathedral.
Christopher Howse summarises what Rowan Williams said to Mary Midgley about Gaia in a dialogue at St Paul’s Cathedral in Living on the skin of Gaia (you can read more about the book here).
Those who found Rowan Williams’ remarks about Islam in the context of Richard Hooker interesting may also find this critique by Colin Chapman of last summer’s Spectator article on Islam of interest: An Open Letter to Patrick Sookhdeo, while Madeleine Bunting has an interview today in the Guardian with Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Speaking of Williams and Hooker, Graham Kings’ review of Anglican Identities has been republished:‘Passionate Patience’.
0 CommentsThere has been an ominous development in the Nigerians criticise Akinola story: see this report from Changing Attitude:
Changing Attitude Nigeria members held by police.
The figures for diocesan voting turnout published by the Church Times last week have been analysed.
In summary, less than 61% of the eligible clergy, and less than 49% of the eligible laity bothered to vote at all. There is a wide variation between dioceses but there is no significant correlation between the clergy turnout and the lay turnout in the same diocese.
The highest clergy turnout was in Derby (77.2%), and the lowest was in Oxford (48.4%).
The highest laity turnout was in Rochester (63.9%) and the lowest was in Worcester (37.4%).
These figures exclude results not made available to the Church Times, namely Europe, Guildford, and Winchester. Also the Bath & Wells laity election was declared void and will be rerun, and the Clergy election in Sodor & Man was uncontested.
The total number of eligible voters included in this analysis was: Clergy 12,264; Laity 25,333.
The full table of figures is now available here.
0 CommentsAnother long but very worthwhile lecture. Rowan Williams delivered the The Richard Hooker Lecture at the Temple Church yesterday.
Richard Hooker (c1554-1600): The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity Revisited.
10 CommentsThe newly elected General Synod will meet in London on Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 November. Papers for this meeting, listed below, are now appearing online. GS 1593 and 1595 are scheduled for dispatch to members on Friday this week.
Agenda
Tuesday
Wednesday
Legislative Business
GS 1592 Report by the Business Committee
GS 1593 Review of Clergy Terms of Service: Property Issues and Progress Report
GS 1595 Facing the Challenge of Terrorism
Papers for Legislative Business
GS 1348B Amending Canon No 24
GS 1594 Payments to the Churches Conservation Trust Order 2005
GS 1594X Report and Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1596 Admission of Baptised Children to Holy Communion Regulations
GS 1596X Report and Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1597 Draft Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure [large file: 5 MB]
GS 1598 Draft Amending Canon No 27
GS 1599 Draft Vacancy in See Committees (Amendment) Regulation
GS 1597-9X Report and Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1600 Clergy Discipline Appeals Rules
GS 1600X Explanatory Memorandum
Two articles on Monday in the Washington Post discuss homosexuality in Africa.
Nigerian Churches Tell West to Practice What It Preached on Gays
includes some quotes from Archbishop Akinola.
A companion piece is Namibia Chips Away at African Taboos on Homosexuality
27 CommentsScripture and Sexuality – our commitment to listening and learning is the title of a major lecture delivered yesterday by the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan. Here’s how it starts:
Few people doubt that the 1998 Lambeth Resolution on Human Sexuality – Lambeth 1 10 as it has come to be known has not had a profound effect on the Anglican Communion. In fact you could be pardoned for thinking that the Anglican Communion since then has not been interested in any other topic, since it has dominated the Agendas of Provinces, meetings of Primates and of the Anglican Consultative Council. The ordination of a practising homosexual as a Bishop in the USA and the blessing of same sex relationships in Canada might not have had the repercussions they have had, if the Lambeth Conference in 1998 had not had such an acrimonious debate about sexuality. What I would like to do in this lecture is to look at Lambeth 1 10 and ask why this resolution rather than any other has caused such problems, for after all there were 63 pages of resolutions at the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
It’s an extended read, but well worth it.
8 CommentsUpdate Thursday The Guardian today carries a news report by Stephen Bates on this, see Church rift deepens over gay bishop’s visit.
The London Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship Committee has sent a letter to DEF members, which criticises the plans for the Changing Attitude service described here.
The full text of this letter can be found below the fold.
67 Comments