According to the Independent this morning, in Kelly rejects call to extend Ulster gay rights to the rest of Britain:
A row has broken out in the Cabinet over how far the Government should go in outlawing discrimination against gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, has pushed through regulations in the province that will be tougher than the Government plans for England, Wales and Scotland. He has defied a call by Ruth Kelly, the Cabinet minister responsible for equality, to hold fire until a common approach has been agreed…
Meanwhile, the Tablet has a news report (only available to subscribers) about what the RC bishops in Northern Ireland said, and a leader column which you can read in full here: When tone matters.
According to Anglican Mainstream government telephones are besieged with phone calls from people concerning these proposals.
The Lawyers Christian Fellowship has published a press release concerning a survey of public opinion which it commissioned, and another press release summarising their view of progress: Opinion Poll Results Show Widespread Opposition To Sors; Annulment Of Sors Sought In Commons And Lords
51 CommentsUpdated Wednesday 13 December
According to the Church of England Newspaper, this is the case.
The report is reproduced in full on Global South Anglican and can be read at Archbishop of Nigeria “banned” from preaching in Sheffield – CEN.
And Anglican Mainstream has a further column by Andrew Carey An Apology is in Order.
Update Wednesday 13 December
The Sheffield Star reports: Bishop’s ‘snub’ claims rejected by Lucy Ashton
CLAIMS that the Bishop of Sheffield barred a visiting foreign Archbishop from preaching at a service in the city were today dismissed as “total rubbish”.
The report reads in part:
43 Comments…The Reverend Rob Marshall said: “There are clear rules that if an Archbishop is visiting the province he must get the Archbishop of York’s permission to preach. Protocol has to be followed and it’s also courtesy.
“The Archbishop asked Bishop Jack’s permission but he couldn’t say yes or no because it wasn’t his decision to make.
“It’s total rubbish about Bishop Jack barring him, he simply told him to contact the Archbishop of York.”
If an Archbishop wants to preach in another province, it usually just takes a phone call.
Mr. Marshall added: “The Bishop was very relaxed and simply said he had to follow protocol and all they had to do was ring the Archbishop of York’s office.
“It’s total nonsense to say he barred him.”
Mr. Marshall said there should have been plenty of time to arrange for the Archbishop to preach.
“We had this conversation on the Thursday before the service was taking place on the Sunday but you never have just three days notice of a visit.
“Normally Archbishops’ visits are planned months, sometimes two years in advance, so all this could have been arranged in advance…”
Further comments on ECUSA that are worth noting:
Diana Butler Bass was online at the Washington Post website on Wednesday discussing the State of the Episcopal Church.
Fr Jake wrote about the Network and the Global South, and asks Is There a Plan?
Jim Naughton followed this up with Disarray on the right?
Mark Harris asks Where Have All the Flowers Gone? and also later has Venables of the Southern Cone.
Episcopal Majority weighed in with The San Joaquin Matter Heats Up and ++Akinola Unhappy?
And much earlier in November, Harold Lewis wrote this essay for the magazine of Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh where he is Rector: Ironies, Ideologies, and Inconsistencies.
0 CommentsSeveral people have analysed what Mark Lawrence wrote to standing committees and bishops in connection with their forthcoming decisions on whether or not to consent to his election as bishop of South Carolina:
Mark Harris has written twice: first here, and then here. Tobias Haller wrote about this also, here. And also Andrew Gerns is here.
Addition Monday 11 Dec
I apologise for inadvertently omitting this Living Church report of 6 December: Bishop-elect Lawrence Sees Election Resistance in Broader Context which contains his own comments on the approval process.
Updated again Friday morning
The Associated Press has a lengthy article Historic Episcopal parishes in Va. moving toward break.
The local paper in Falls Church, the Falls Church News-Press has an article, Voting Begins Sunday on Pulling Out Of Denomination at F.C. Episcopal.
In response to the above, Matt Thompson at Political Spaghetti has written Archbishop Akinola DEFINITELY supports legislation in Nigeria that calls for prison sentences for homosexual activity.
Martyn Minns has written this on the website of Truro Parish, in response to an earlier news report in the Washington Post:
A Statement of Clarification
In a recent Washington Post article, Archbishop Peter J. Akinola was characterized as “an advocate of jailing gays.” That is not true.
Archbishop Akinola believes that all people—whatever their manner of life or sexual orientation—are made in the image of God and deserve to be treated with respect. “We are all broken and need the transforming love of God,” Archbishop Akinola said to me during a recent conversation.
Archbishop Akinola also said, “Jesus Christ is our example for this. He refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery instead he said. ‘Go now and sin no more.’ That is an essential part of the message of the Gospel and the teaching of our congregations.”
Your brother in Christ,
Martyn
Update this statement now also appears on the CANA website: A Statement of Clarification
Jim Naughton at daily episcopalian has responded strongly to Bishop Minns with a piece headlined Martyn Minns, clarifier.
Meanwhile, the CANA website has after a long interval had an update and now provides a Frequently Asked Questions page with answers to (currently) 25 questions.
Addition The Truro Parish website has a page headed The Vote.
This is your electronic resource center for Truro’s congregational vote December 10–17. Click on the links below for resources to help you be an informed voter.
Further addition Friday This PDF file contains information about The Anglican District of Virginia of CANA full text reproduced below the fold.
Update
Matt Thompson has more to say at Oh, Martyn.
Fr Jake has commented Does Abp. Akinola Want to Jail All Gays?
Mark Harris has also commented Bishop Martyn Minns defends Archbishop Akinola at an opportune time.
26 CommentsThe Sun newspaper came to the support of the Bishop of Rochester: Gay law is bashed by bishop.
Two columns on Comment is free do not support the bishop’s point of view:
Andrew Brown The view from the inside (the URL is more descriptive than the title) and the strap is:
When religions discriminate against a minority group, they are also fighting for something fundamental about the freedom of religion.
and Theo Hobson Divine judgment on religion
The church is meant to signify unity between Christians, but the gay crisis has completely undermined this concept.
Meanwhile, the Evangelical Alliance has issued a Call for consultation, Andrew Marr interviewed Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor on BBC TV on Sunday, and the Christian Institute issued this briefing on the Northern Ireland regulations (PDF file).
The latest statement from the Lawyers Christian Fellowship is here and also here. This Word document here is slightly older but is the source of some material attacking the regulations seen elsewhere, such as the Christian bookshop and Christian printshop examples of alleged difficulty.
30 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
In no particular order:
The Vestry of Truro Church in Northern Virginia issued a Statement on 28 November: The Sources of Division.
…It is our hope and intention to bring clarity and transparency as to how we have come to the reluctant but ultimately firm conclusion that we should recommend that Truro Church sever its ties with The Episcopal Church…
The Living Church has a report by George Conger Archbishop Venables: Primates Coalition Will Support Second U.S. Jurisdiction. The video referred to in this report can be found at Archbishop Greg Venables speaks to Diocese of San Joaquin.
Update The full text of the remarks by Southern Cone Presiding Bishop Gregory Venables is now on the San Joaquin website here. (Scroll down for earlier items). Another copy of the text is now at Global South Anglican.
Beliefnet reported on the San Joaquin convention a bit differently to the New York Times: Calif. Episcopal Diocese Decides Against Split.
Earlier, the Living Church also carried this opinion piece by Jack Estes: Irreconcilable Differences.
And Christianity Today has published an excerpt from Philip Jenkins’ new book, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. The excerpt is headlined “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”
11 CommentsIt was previously announced that the Bishop of Manchester would chair the new group formed to draft legislation for the introduction of women bishops in the Church of England.
Today, the membership of the Women Bishops Legislative Drafting Group was announced:
The Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester (chair)
The Ven Donald Allister, Archdeacon of Chester
The Revd Jonathan Baker
The Rt Worshipful Dr Sheila Cameron, Dean of the Arches
The Very Revd Vivienne Faull, Dean of Leicester
Dr Paula Gooder
Mrs Margaret Swinson
Sister Anne Williams
The Rt Revd Trevor Willmott, Bishop of Basingstoke
Update Thursday
Women and the Church has issued a press release commenting on this. A copy is below the fold.
There has been a great deal of discussion concerning the confirmation of Mark Lawrence as Bishop of South Carolina. See, for example, here.
He has written a document, addressed to bishops and standing committees of ECUSA dioceses, containing his answers to various questions that have been put to him.
You can read this document in full here.
43 CommentsJim Naughton has drawn attention here to the Nigerian angle in the report about Northern Virginia that is in this morning’s Washington Post (also linked in the preceding item).
The Nigerian provincial website has this report of the recent meeting of Global South leaders in Northern Virginia. (Also on the Global South Anglican site.)
But Changing Attitude has a report from Nigeria which suggests all is not entirely well: Archbishop Peter Akinola unhappy with his secessionist friends in the USA.
3 CommentsUpdated again Monday evening
Episcopal News Service has published: Presiding Bishop comments on San Joaquin actions:
…I lament the actions of the Bishop and Convention of the Diocese of San Joaquin to repudiate their membership in the Episcopal Church. While it is clear that this process is not yet complete, the fact that the Bishop and Convention have voted to remove the accession clause required by the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church would seem to imply that there is no intent to terminate this process before it reaches its full conclusion. Our task as the Episcopal Church is God’s mission of reconciling the world, and actions such as this distract and detract from that mission.
I deeply lament the pain, confusion, and suffering visited on loyal members of the Episcopal Church within the Diocese of San Joaquin, and want them to know of my prayers and the prayers of many, many others.
I continue to consult with others involved in responding to this extracanonical action…
Update The ENS report of this also includes additional comment by Bonnie Anderson, and other information, see here.
On the East Coast, the Washington Post has a report Episcopal Churches To Vote on Departure by Michelle Boorstein.
Earlier, the Washington Times had Episcopalians warned against leaving diocese.
On the West Coast, the Fresno Bee has this report Valley diocese votes to separate by Ron Orozco.
Episcopal Majority has published a letter it has received from Rowan Williams, in reply to two letters sent by Bill Coats. Read all the correspondence at The Archbishop Responds.
Update The Living Church later reported on this correspondence here.
Doug LeBlanc wrote a column in Episcopal Life about Why Canterbury matters.
Sarah Dylan Breuer wrote a commentary on current events in San Joaquin and elsewhere, titled increasing chaos among breakaway movements.
13 CommentsToday’s Observer contains a leader and an opinion column both of which respond to the remarks of the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali as quoted last week in the Daily Mail.
First, a reminder of the Daily Mail report by Steve Doughty:
A senior Church of England bishop have warned that Anglican youth clubs, welfare projects and charities may close because of new gay rights laws.
The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, said that the Church of England’s charities would be “affected” by the rules, which will force them to give equal treatment to homosexuals.
He declared: “It will be the poor and disadvantaged who will be the losers….”
…Pakistani-born Dr Nazir-Ali said: “I welcome warmly what the Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham has said about the Sexual Orientation Regulations.
“In the proposed regulations there is no clear exemption for religious belief even though it is widely known that several of the faiths in this country will have serious difficulty.”
He added: “Religion affects every area of life and cannot be reduced to just worship.
“These regulations will certainly affect a great deal of charitable work done by the churches and others. It is the poor and disadvantaged who will be the losers.”
Now, today’s Observer. First, Nick Cohen in Let’s not sleepwalk with the Christian soldiers says:
…Last week, full-page adverts launched a histrionic campaign from the church’s evangelical wing against New Labour’s attempts to secure equality for homosexuals. The low point came when the Bishop of Rochester claimed ‘the poor and disadvantaged will be the losers’ if religious charities are forced to treat gays fairly.
Much can change before 25 December, but after the past fortnight, there is a fair chance that the hedonism and family quarrels of the traditional British Christmas will be overshadowed by religion, of all things.
Only the Tory press sympathised with the wild assault on equality under the law for homosexuals, but hardly anyone defended British Airways. Tellingly, only now can you see widespread anger at the failure to call Christmas by its proper name, although Birmingham City Council has been burbling about ‘Winterval’ since 1998.
The ferocity of the Church of England’s internal conflicts could make a Balkan warlord blanch. However, Ekklesia, a think-tank on the church’s left, and Anglican Mainstream, from its evangelical right, agreed on one point. They both told me that committed Christians with a sincere faith were just another minority – somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent of the population. But beyond them there were millions of people who could be glad that Christians were asserting themselves under special circumstances…
and the leader column The government must not buckle over gay rights said:
…It says much about modern Britain that civil partnerships were introduced without a rumpus. The law was not forcing liberal values on a reactionary society, it was catching up with attitudes that had already changed. Prejudice still exists, but there is no doubt that Britain in 2006 is a much better place in which to be gay than it was 10 years ago…
…In the same spirit a law has been drafted that would ban discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Hotels, for example, would not be able to deny rooms to gay couples. Schools would not be able to deny places to gay pupils. The changes were due to be introduced earlier this year but have been postponed because of lobbying by church groups.
Last week the Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols attacked the government for what he called the imposition of its moral agenda on the church. The Anglican Bishop of Rochester, the Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, warned that church-based charities would be forced to close their doors if the government insisted they let in gay people. ‘It is the poor and disadvantaged who will be the losers,’ he said.
The churches are thus trying to depict the Sexual Orientation Regulations as an assault on their philanthropic work, including faith schools and adoption agencies. That is a tendentious argument. ‘The poor and disadvantaged’ would only lose out if the churches choose to hate homosexuality more than they like good works. Their objection to the new law is not, as they like to see it, self-defence against a meddling government. It is a threat by powerful institutions to withhold their charity out of prejudice.
Churches are free to preach that homosexuality is a sin and their followers are free to believe it in private. But the elected government of Britain does not share that view and has rightly sought to give gay citizens the same public rights as everyone else. Or at least it has done thus far. On this latest measure the cabinet is divided. Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, a devout Catholic, is the minister responsible for the new law and is sympathetic to the idea of exempting churches. The Prime Minister is also thought to be amenable to religious petitioning…
To judge for yourself whether or not “there is no clear exemption for religious belief” read the regulations as published for Northern Ireland, from this page (which has links to the full text).
25 CommentsUpdated again Monday
The Diocese of San Joaquin today voted for a different amendment to its constitution than the one previously published.
The resolution actually passed can be seen here.
The previous proposal can be seen here.
The Associated Press reported it this way: Calif. Diocese Snubs Episcopal Church. Reuters has U.S. diocese favors break with Episcopal Church.
The Living Church says California Dioceses Take Opposing Sides on Human Sexuality.
The bishop’s address to the convention is on the diocesan site.
The New York Times has its own report on this: Episcopal Diocese Votes to Secede From Church by Laurie Goodstein in New York and Carolyn Marshall in Fresno, Calif. They write in part:
…The vote by the diocese is one more step in a carefully planned strategy by conservative Episcopalians in the United States and primates of Anglican provinces, many in the developing world, to unite the conservatives, claim the mantle of Anglicanism and isolate the Episcopal Church, the 2.3-million-member American branch in the Anglican communion, which claims 77 million members worldwide…
…The Bishop of San Joaquin, John-David Schofield, told the convention on Thursday, “This amending process is the first step in the removal from our constitution of any reference to the Episcopal Church because, in our opinion, they have decided to walk apart from the Anglican Communion.”
The wording of the resolutions was changed at the last minute, leading to widespread confusion among the delegates. But Bishop Schofield told the convention that the wording was changed after a recent meeting in Virginia between conservative American bishops and other leaders and conservative primates from other provinces in the Anglican Communion. The global primates advised the Americans to “remain flexible and allow them to provide the necessary leadership for us,” by holding off on specifying what structure, or bishop or province, would replace the church’s relationship with the diocese.
One crucial amendment effectively erases the borders of the diocese so that it could eventually absorb parishes in other parts of the state or elsewhere in the country that wish to break with the church, Mr. Petz said.
Another amendment says that if the bishop and his coadjutor bishop are absent, unable to act or removed, the standing committee, a lay group, would become the “ecclesiastical authority.” The thinking behind this provision, Mr. Petz said, is that it could prevent the church from taking over the diocese by removing the bishop and coadjutor…
Update Monday
Episcopal News Service has published its report of this: San Joaquin convention seeks to sever diocese from Episcopal Church
Stephen Tomkins is giving up Christmas for Advent, read the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
In The Times Geza Vermes writes about The real Christmas story and Peter Townley writes about Ted Whickham in Sowing the seeds of mission on stony urban soil.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about church architecture, Ionic, Doric and Catholic.
The Church Times had this leader about the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Pope: Why they must keep talking.
3 CommentsPress release issued by the diocese:
On Friday, Dec. 1, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, Peter James Lee, sent a letter to the rectors, vestries and wardens of congregations known to have engaged in a “40 Days of Discernment” program to consider their place in The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia. Some of those congregations have chosen to conclude that program with votes, to be held this month, to determine their future affiliation with the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia
In his letter, Bishop Lee highlighted that the members of those congregations are cherished members of the Diocese and the Episcopal Church, and that he and the Standing Committee hope they will decide to continue to worship as one, unified family.
“I pray you will remain in communion with your brothers and sisters in Virginia and take your full place in the life of the Diocese of Virginia,” he wrote. “Ours is a faith historically defined by our ability to bring together people with different theological emphases within traditional faith and order,” he added. Bishop Lee also stated his concern that any decision to leave the Episcopal Church will be a source of regret for future generations.
The letter also explained some of the potential legal and canonical consequences of a decision to separate from the Episcopal Church, addressing issues of property and personal liability.
“Along with the damaging effects any split would have on the Diocese as a whole and these churches in particular, we are concerned that these congregations may not fully understand the potential legal consequences of their actions,” said Russell Palmore, chancellor of the Diocese of Virginia. “The decision to leave the Diocese should be a fully informed one.”
Read the letter in full here. It includes this paragraph:
21 CommentsI remind you that absent a negotiated settlement of property, an attempt to place your congregation and its real and personal property under the authority of any ecclesial body other than the Diocese of Virginia and the bodies authorized by its canons to hold church property will have repercussions and possible civil liability for individual vestry members.
The American Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes or Anglican Communion Network has published this map, showing at the time of writing a total of 737 parishes that are said to be affiliated with them in some way.
Curiously though, the same website also says:
We are currently ten dioceses and six convocations stretching from coast to coast, border to border. As of January 2005, ACN dioceses and parishes count 200,000 Episcopal Christians in more than 800 congregations, and the number of affiliated parishes grows weekly.
The Network’s leader, Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, recently gave an interview to the Florida Times-Union in which he stated:
“There are 10 dioceses comprising about 175,000 Episcopalians, and in those 10 dioceses are 650 congregations.”
Then Bishop Duncan says:
“Beyond those dioceses are another 350 congregations.”
By now you are right to be confused. 650 and 350 would total 1000 not 800.
Not all Episcopalians in the ten dioceses support the Network. Not all of those additional congregations are ECUSA churches — or ever were.
The Network defines three membership categories:
Other older data on the same website shows at this writing
That’s less than 250 total once the duplications within Network dioceses are removed.
Also, while I am at this, Common Cause Partners are:
American Anglican Council
Anglican Coalition in Canada
Anglican Communion Network
Anglican Essentials Canada
Anglican Mission in America
Anglican Network in Canada
Anglican Province of America
Convocation for Anglicans in North America (Church of Nigeria)
Forward in Faith North America (a duplication of the FiFNA Convocation of the Network?)
Reformed Episcopal Church
Beyond NACDAP, that’s three Canadian organizations, three “not-in-communion” churches (I include AMiA here), and the Church of Nigeria. Few out of all these congregations are “ex-ECUSA”.
So what is the right number of congregations or members for the Network itself? I would welcome better information.
8 CommentsThe ACNS has published this: Archbishop of Canterbury – Cautious welcome for TEC proposals
Update here is the LamPal copy: Archbishop – cautious welcome for TEC proposals
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has given a cautious welcome to proposals outlined by the Episcopal Church in the United States to offer alternative forms of oversight to dissenting parishes and dioceses. Dr Williams said that the proposals would contribute to the process of determining future relationships.
“The meeting in New York to consider the questions raised by requests for ‘alternative primatial oversight’ has produced some imaginative proposals which represent, potentially, a very significant development.
“I am glad to see these positive suggestions and shall be giving them careful consideration. I hope that they will mark a step forward in the long and difficult process of working out future relationships within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion in a manner faithful to the gospel requirements of forebearance and generosity.”
8 Comments