Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about how dreadful publishers are in using quotes from book reviews out of context. Read Now I know how theatre critics feel.
In The Times Jonathan Sacks writes about Next year in Jerusalem – teaching children the story of their people.
Bryan Appleyard wrote an article in the New Statesman entitled Religion: who needs it?
Lucy Winkett preached a sermon recently at St Mary Islington on Confession and Absolution.
The Guardian’s Face to Faith column is by Theo Hobson.
1 CommentUpdated twice Monday 10 April
Ephraim Radner has a detailed analysis of the report on the ACI site.
Michael Watson has an analysis of the resolutions wording.
The Guardian has US church offers olive branch to Anglicans on gay clergy by Stephen Bates
The Witness has published A Personal Reflection on the Special Commission’s Report by Sarah Dylan Breuer
This report was issued too late on Friday for Saturday’s British newspapers.
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Episcopal Panel: Use Caution in Elections
Reuters Michael Conlon Episcopal Church gets a caution flag on gays
Religion News Service Episcopal Panel Advises Caution on Gay Bishops
The Living Church Windsor Report Resolutions Released
Somewhat surprisingly, neither the American Anglican Council nor the Anglican Communion Network has yet issued any press release. Other press releases have come from Integrity and from Oasis California.
Blog comments have come from Fr Jake and Mark Harris and Blog of Daniel.
British church press coverage, written prior to the release of the report:
Church Times Douglas LeBlanc ECUSA shows signs of bowing to pressure on gays
Church of England Newspaper George Conger Over half of US bishops regret gay consecration Note: this headline and the first paragraph of the report are somewhat misleading, as regular TA readers already know, nevertheless the report is referenced by Reuters at the end of the story linked above.
11 CommentsThe awaited ECUSA report on Windsor has been published. You can download One Baptism, One Hope in God’s Call The Report of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a 444k pdf file.
This, and other papers for General Convention 2006 can be downloaded from this page.
The official press release is here.
An html copy of the wording of the resolutions (only) is here.
PDF files containing preliminary translations into Spanish and French of the summary, and the resolutions can be found here.
10 CommentsForward in Faith has published TEA – a further examination which contains the report of the Forward in Faith Legal Working Party on the Guildford Group report GS 1605. The report lists nine numbered paragraphs containing what the working party considers to be fundamental defects of TEA, and then continues with a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of the report.
Earlier, FiF had published TEA – an interim commentary.
15 Commentsupdated Thursday
Jonathan Petre wrote a story for the Telegraph on Monday, which was headlined US bishops set for U-turn on gay ‘marriages’. Then today Wyatt Buchanan wrote a story for the San Francisco Chronicle Episcopal panel seeks slowdown on new gay leaders Church to be urged to repent for electing Gene Robinson.
This reporting depends heavily on an email sent by one bishop, Kirk Smith of Arizona, which can be read in full here but which was not intended for publication beyond an Arizona diocesan mailing list. He has subseqently commented further in an interview with the Living Church Bishop of Arizona Calls for Civil, ‘Religious’ Discourse.
Some comments have been published by other bishops who attended the meeting. See for example, Jeffrey Steenson of the Diocese of the Rio Grande and Charles G. vonRosenberg of East Tennessee. Also Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh made this comment.
Update See also these comments from John Howe of Central Florida and from Duncan Gray of Mississippi.
The special commission’s report which was discussed at the meeting was also referenced by Michael Langrish of Exeter, as previously noted. It has been finalised since the HoB meeting and will be published in full, along with many other pre-Convention documents on or around Monday 10 April. That’s about a week away.
Meanwhile, Jim Naughton’s opinions on what will happen may well be a better-informed estimate than other reports.
23 CommentsUpdated Monday evening
The interview of Rowan Williams, conducted by Alan Rusbridger editor of the Guardian, was analysed in some detail in the Church Times last week, by Andrew Brown. The column was headlined Man not born to be king. Andrew wrote in part:
…If the interview had a theme, it was not the warnings and denunciations contained in the news story; it was a portrait of a man who doesn’t want to be a leader, and doesn’t believe that leadership is even possible in most situations.
It is enormously refreshing to find an Archbishop who doesn’t believe his own propaganda. But I think it’s wrong of an Archbishop not to take advantage, at least intermittently, of the fact that other people do believe his propaganda, and want to. Equally, there is a danger that a man who does not believe his own propaganda will find himself repeating the propaganda of others. How else is one to interpret this exchange:
Rusbridger: “The Archbishop of Nigeria recently told Nigerian Muslims, in the aftermath of the Muhammad cartoon furore, that they did not have a monopoly on violence and that Christians might strike back. Coincidentally or not, the remark was followed within days by a spate of attacks on Muslims by Christians which left 80 dead.”
Williams: “Hmmm, I think that what he – what he meant was, so to speak, an abstract warning – you know, ‘Don’t be provocative because in an unstable situation it’s as likely the Christians will resort to violence as Muslims will.’
“It was taken by some as open provocation, encouragement, a threat. I think I know him well enough to take his good faith on what he meant. He did not mean to stir up the violence that happened. He’s a man who will speak very directly and immediately into crises. I think he meant to issue a warning, which has been taken as a threat, to have meant a provocation. Others in the Nigerian Church have, I think, found other ways of saying that which have been more measured.”
Giles Fraser had a column in the Church Times headed The Church needs some sort of leadership. Part of that reads:
…We know the Communion is in critical trouble. We hear Chinese whispers of meetings and phone calls trying to broker deals. Last week, I phoned Lambeth with a worry about a rumour. “Trust us,†comes the reply. OK, I have to; we all have to. And what I am trusting in, as much as anything, is the Archbishop himself. He might not like this over-investment in him personally, but there it is.
I don’t want a fantasy archbishop on a white charger, a deus ex machina who appears to make everything well. But the mood among many ordinary Christians is one of apprehension: are we being sold out? After the Jeffrey John disaster, the worry is that the Archbishop allows himself to be bullied off the ball. Yet, despite all this, trust to keep on believing in this Church remains for many of us a trust in the Archbishop. It’s a trust that’s in need of a bit of help. And that, surely, is the essence of leadership.
Update
In the original interview, there is this:
Rusbridger: And have you got a strategy for going forward as to how, given the media is always with us, what is your strategy for engaging with it in the future?
Williams: It’s a big question to ask really and I know that I’m not the world’s greatest strategist of thinking forward, but I think I need to take more advice on what makes sense or what sounds alright, a great temptation to try and do everything or be good at everything you can’t be.
A response to this is to be found today on the Guardian website (not in the paper edition) where Andrew Brown has written a letter of advice to the archbishop, in his regular Monday column. A fragment:
10 Comments…So I think that the media strategy you need is plain. You need to explain to the rest of us, who believed you inhabited our moral universe, just why sharing a church with gay bishops is a matter of theological gravity comparable to sharing it with enthusiastic Nazis and in the end just as much incompatible with real Christianity. You need to explain just what the arguments were that persuaded you, after 30 years of standing up for the outcast, that God really is on the side of the big battalions in your church…
Updated Monday 3 April
Changing Attitude has just published three four press releases, resulting from a recent meeting in Geneva, where Colin Coward met Davis MacIyalla and held extended discussions with him. (The background to this was the ILGA Conference.)
Davis MacIyalla describes his work with Bishop Ugede in the Diocese of Otukpo
Nigerian Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act introduced to House of Representatives
Davis MacIylla reports suspicions of Anglican Church involvement with new bill
In the first of these, it is reported that Davis MacIyalla is known personally to various senior church officials in Nigeria, including Archbishop and Mrs Akinola. The press release asks:
A further challenge to Canon Akintunde Popoola
In the press release issued on 28 December 2005 Canon Akintunde Popoola maintained that he had consulted over 6,000 clergy and none of them knew of Davis MacIyalla. We would now like to ask whether he contacted the people named by Davis in this report, including the Primate of All Nigeria, the Most Revd Peter J Akinola and his wife. Canon Popoola’s denial that Davis was a member of the Anglican Church is all the more remarkable given Davis’s deep involvement in the life of the Church of Nigeria from his earliest years and more recently in the Diocese of Otukpo.
In the third release the personal danger to individuals is discussed. Changing Attitude had also written its own open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury and others, concerning this matter last February.
Update
A fourth release: Nigerian gay representatives meet officer at Nigerian Human Rights Commission. This makes further grim reading.
Apologies to anyone who noticed this weekly feature was omitted last Saturday when I was on holiday. The most significant article it would have contained was the Guardian Face to Faith written by Marilyn McCord Adams that carried this strap Liberal Anglicans should not sacrifice their beliefs in order to hold on to church unity at all costs.
During the week Madeleine Bunting wrote a Guardian column Why the intelligent design lobby thanks God for Richard Dawkins. Today, the Face to Faith column is written by Colin Sedgwick and is about why Trying to be hilarious by being hurtful to other people or by being crude is really no laughing matter.
Over at The Times Jonathan Romain wonders how Moses would have coped with the duplicity of the internet age in Electronic false prophets tell lies in His name. Geoffrey Rowell writes that Christian Communion celebrates love in the midst of Man’s betrayal.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about An elephant in the Tower.
The BBC Sunday radio programme had a splendid 5 minute piece by Diarmaid MacCulloch on the 450th anniversary of the death of Thomas Cranmer. Listen here (Real audio).
7 CommentsFor earlier articles go here and here.
Next, two reports in the Church Times by Doug LeBlanc:
Survey is part of anti-liberal bid on 17 March and
Low-budget fight-back begins in Maryland on 24 March.
Then, this report by Sarah Dylan Breuer in the Witness Inside LEAC.
And now, the LEAC website at http://www.layepiscopal.org/. This contains several pages which make clear the mission and objectives of LEAC, together with The LEAC Difference and The Call for Lay Help, and the LEAC Response, not to mention Less Talk, More Education, More Action.
Unsurprisingly their press release on the website reports that:
Bishops responding to LEAC survey reject key homosexual agenda items.
The version of this sent to others appears to be rather shorter, see Episcopal Bishops, If Voting Secretly, Would Oppose Church’s Stance on Homosexual Agenda Items Adopted in 2003, a Lay Poll Reports.
They sent surveys to about 298 bishops, and got 80 responses. Of these responses, they report that:
56.25% of respondents now would disapprove of the 2003 General Convention resolution which led to consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, and 57.5% would oppose provisions for church blessing of same-sex domestic partnerships, another of the convention’s historic resolutions.
Considering the first of these two resolutions, this means that 45 bishops recorded to LEAC that they would now have voted against and that 35 recorded that they would now have voted in favour. The actual numbers of bishops who voted in 2003 was 43 against, and 62 in favour with 2 not voting. (Only active diocesans had a vote on the matter, whereas this survey went to all current members of the house.)
Voting by bishops on the second resolution at GC 2003 is not known as it was done by a voice vote.
Update
Magic Statistics has weighed in again with ECUSA survey results released. He comments in detail on the differences between the two press releases, and shows how misleading the public press release is.
On the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme last Tuesday 28 March, the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed his concerns over the issue of climate change.
A full transcript of the interview is available on the CofE website. (Also on Lambeth Palace and ENS sites.)
You can also listen to the interview (Real Audio required) on the BBC website – 17 minutes total, but the archbishop comes first in sequence, and this lasts about 9 minutes. The other person interviewed is Margaret Beckett who is the UK Secretary of State for the Environment.
Church Times Dr Williams: Billions could die from climate change by Pat Ashworth
BBC Archbishop urges emissions cuts
A few nuggets on what the Church of England is doing about this itself can be found here.
1 CommentThe recent remarks of Bishop Michael Langrish in the USA previously mentioned here have been published in full on his diocesan website. You can read them at Some Reflections offered to the House of Bishops of ECUSA.
(*Addendum* This diagram, included in the article by Andrew Goddard mentioned below in a comment, may also be useful for readers of the original article.)
This has been reported today in the Church Times by Pat Ashworth as ECUSA could wreck it all, envoy warns US Bishops.
The Episcopal News Service reported this also, in Exeter bishop, South Indian scholar offer texts from House of Bishops’ meeting.
The other speaker whose remarks are published by ENS is Sathi Clarke, a priest of the Church of South India and a professor at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C. who delivered a paper on biblical interpretation: Sathi Clarke’s speech at Spring 2006 House of Bishops meeting .
13 CommentsUpdated
The Church Times take on the Guardian interview is broader, as revealed by the headline over the report by Rachel Harden: Dr Williams defends Akinola on anti-Muslim riots. The CT press column also deals with the interview at length, but that will not be available on the web for another week.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Peter Akinola, acting as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has issued A Call to National Mourning as explaine in this press release: CAN declares Two-Day National Mourning.
The Living Church reported this together with some comments from Canon Popoola, in Nigerian Strike Will Protest Sectarian Violence.
And for completeness, here is the defence of the archbishop’s earlier remarks that was made by Bishop Robert Duncan.
Added Friday afternoon
However, there is further news via Blog of Daniel about how others outside the church view the Nigerian legislative proposals in Human rights in Nigeria. And Peter Akinola says “Amen.”
Sixteen human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have urged Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in this Letter to President Obasanjo Regarding Bill to Criminalize Gay Rights to withdraw what the groups characterize as a “draconian” measure that not only “contravenes international law” but violates the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which “ensure(s) rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly.”
The bill also undermines Nigeria’s struggle to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, as a further story from Human Rights Watch points out: Nigeria: Obasanjo Must Withdraw Bill to Criminalize Gay Rights.
18 CommentsUpdated Friday morning and again Friday evening
Ruth Gledhill has a blog entry today that is mostly about the Recife situation. While not wishing to minimize the significance of that topic, I did find the second part of her article even more interesting:
…The Anglican Communion is in deep crisis. The General Convention in the US could see the ratification of the election of a gay or lesbian Bishop of California. Convention will also debate where Ecusa goes now in response to the Windsor Report. The outcome will determine whether Gene Robinson and the bishops who consecrated him are invited to Lambeth 2008. My guess is that when the invitations go out later this year, some of the US bishops and suffragans might be invited with observer status only, rather as the Ecusa delegates attended the ACC meeting in Nottingham. But beyond not inviting people and issuing public rebukes, there is very little Dr Williams can do with respect to Ecusa if the North Americans do decide to follow their liberal consience, as seems likely.
Meanwhile, work is going on to examine the ACC constitution for a way forward. The constitution is framed to allow new members to be elected into the Anglican Communion but there is no mechanism for expelling anyone or inviting them to leave.
It is to debate issues such as this that Dr Williams has convened a meeting at Lambeth Palace on 24 April to examine the ‘options and scenarios’ for the ‘post-General Convention period’ in the Anglican Communion. Those invited include the Bishops of Durham, Winchester, Exeter, Manchester, Norwich, Bristol and the Dean of St Paul’s as well as representatives from the Church’s mission agencies and Anglican Mainstream. They will discuss the implications for the Church of England and how the ‘Instruments of Unity’ should respond to whatever happens in Ecusa this summer.
In his letter of invitation, leaked to me, Dr Williams’ head of staff Chris Smith says the roundtable discussion concerns the ‘next critical months’ in the life of the Anglican Communion. ‘This is too important a set of issues to allow events to overtake us,’ he says.
My source, who is not one of those invited, interprets it this way: ‘The wording of the invitation makes it fairly clear that Lambeth is expecting no backtrack from Ecusa and is therefore working out how to manage the oncoming schism.’ …
The Bishop of Exeter was present at the recent ECUSA House of Bishops meeting, as noted here. No doubt the July General Synod meeting will be hearing more about all this. (General Convention dates are 13-21 June, General Synod dates are 7-11 July.)
Update 1 The Living Church has also noticed Ruth’s report, see Bishop of Exeter Represents Canterbury at House of Bishops Retreat.
Update 2
Ruth Gledhill has published more, see Schism looms, Exeter warns US bishops
Update 3
On Saturday, The Times had this short piece Archbishop holds talks over fear of a schism.
Following the recent meeting of the ECUSA House of Bishops, there have been American press reports which attempt to put the forthcoming General Convention into context:
Reuters Michael Conlon U.S. Episcopal church faces another showdown over gays
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Episcopal leader: concern on gay candidates for California bishop
The House of Bishops itself issued this: A Word to the Church which includes the following:
The unity, mission, and faithfulness of the Church are matters very much in our prayers. We strongly affirm our desire for the Episcopal Church to remain a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, and we recognize that the gift of communion requires generosity and restraint on the part of all. We were blessed by the presence and presentation of our guest from the Church of England, the Right Reverend Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter, who encouraged and challenged us in respect to our relationship with the larger Anglican Communion. On behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Ms. Sue Parks, the Manager of the Lambeth Conference, briefed us on the plans for the Lambeth Conference 2008.
We believe that the most effective way to foster communion is to be present for each other, as often as possible, so that we may learn from each other, be corrected by each other, and discern the mind of Christ together. In this regard we were encouraged by the report of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. We welcomed the Commission’s overview of the report that it is preparing in order to assist the General Convention in addressing the critical issues and concerns raised in the Windsor Report, in the Primates’ Communiqué, and by the Anglican Consultative Council. The report, which will be completed and issued early in April, affirms our commitment to the Anglican Communion, and will include a number of resolutions to be proposed for consideration by the General Convention. We commend to the prayerful reflection and legislative process of the General Convention this report of the Special Commission as a way forward in faithfulness to our Lord, to the Episcopal Church, and to the Anglican Communion.
The House of Bishops also issued this pastoral letter: The Sin of Racism: A Call to Covenant.
4 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
Some blog reactions also:
Jeff Jarvis on Comment is Free First church of media
PZ Myers on Pharyngula Archbishop of Canterbury, anti-creationist, hat tip to Andrew Brown who has on helmintholog written Rowan, PZ, creationism.
Other newspapers have followed up on the creationism aspect of the original interview:
Telegraph Jonathan Petre reported: Clarke opposes creation teaching which came twinned with a leader Intelligent by Design. The Mirror seemed not to understand at all, with BAN BIBLE SCIENCE IN SCHOOL’.
The BBC gave more background with Fears over teaching creationism.
The Scotsman found another supporter: Scots church leader joins row over teaching of creationism in schools. In Glasgow, the Herald tried to explain all this in a feature article by Ron Ferguson: A battle that is all of their own creation.
Sarah Lyall in the New York Times had Anglican Leader Says the Schools Shouldn’t Teach Creationism while the Associated Press had Archbishop Opposed to Teaching Creationism.
Reuters Paul Majendie said Anglican leader opposes creationism in schools.
The Guardian itself had a number of letters to the editor.
5 CommentsThe Hansard verbatim record of this debate starts here and concludes here.
For the short amusing version, read sketch writer Ann Treneman in The Times Spiritual debate is divine comedy.
0 CommentsAlan Rusbridger editor of the Guardian interviewed Rowan Williams last Friday. The results are:
A front page news story by Stephen Bates Archbishop: stop teaching creationism
An article, based on the interview, in the G2 section of the paper:
‘I am comic vicar to the nation’
A complete transcript of the interview: Interview: Rowan Williams
Selected audio extracts of the interview: Listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s interview
Updated 23 March
The Living Church now has a report on this with more detail, Windsor Report Response Presented to Bishops.
The ECUSA House of Bishops is currently holding one of its regular meetings, this time at the Kanuga Conference Centre in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
They have received a preliminary report from the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion announced last September – for backstory see ENS Special Commission on Episcopal Church, Anglican Communion to meet and TLC Special General Convention Commission Appointed.
See the latest ENS report: Special Commission members brief bishops on progress.
The Commission will offer a full report, relating to the Windsor Report, Primates Meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council, to the 75th General Convention approximately 60 days prior to Convention, i.e. about 10 April.
Then, as the General Convention of ECUSA approaches, a separate official commission will prepare formal resolutions for the Convention to consider. Membership of this commission was recently announced, see ENS Special committee on Church and Communion named. Although this is a separate body, there is a significant overlap of members between the two groups. The Convention meets from 13 to 21 June in Columbus, Ohio.
In a separate development, the Presiding Bishop has written to the other primates about the Listening Process:
see ENS Interview: Presiding Bishop supports listening process, writes to primates
Transcript: Presiding Bishop supports listening process, writes to primates.
This has been reported by the Living Church magazine as Presiding Bishop Writes to Primates.
The actual text of this letter has not (yet?) been published.
Meanwhile, in yet another development, the Diocese of California will hold its election of a new diocesan bishop on 6 May. This is thought to be relevant because the nominees include several persons who are in same-sex relationships. The General Convention will be asked to ratify the outcome of the election. You can read all about the election process of that diocese on a special website which contains profiles of all the candidates as well as of the diocese and much else besides.
8 CommentsThe Archbishops’ Council is advertising this week for two vacancies among its appointed members.
The advert can be viewed here as a (very small) PDF file. Or on the Church Times website. Or on this site here.
We are looking for 2 individuals (one immediately and one in January 2007) who will be part of the leadership of the Church. Skills and experience in the areas of education, public affairs and law would be particularly welcome, but applications from people with a record of achievement in other areas are also welcome. You will have a lively Christian faith, be expected to contribute to the mission and ministry of the Church, and be able to commit at least 3 days per month.
In addition to the material provided in the application pack, available via the previous link, prospective applicants might like to peruse the CofE official website for the Archbishops’ Council pages.
Here is the current membership of the council.
The annual report for 2004 is available here (ignore the erroneous wording in the Title field of this page).
The recent synod document (RTF) Into the New Quinquennium is also very pertinent.
So also are the papers relating to the recent Service Review, in particular the 43-page report (.doc).
0 CommentsFace to Faith in today’s Guardian is written by Jonathan Romain and considers prostitution in Hebrew scripture.
Diarmaid MacCulloch reviews a new book by Karen Armstrong in The axis of goodness.
The same book is also reviewed today in the Independent by Peter Stanford.
Stephen Plant writes in The Times Credo column Let all churches enjoy the feedom to teach.
There is also an extract from the new book by Edward Stourton in From the Cold War to the Council: the making of a Polish Pope and this sidebar.
Christopher Howse write in the Telegraph about the new winner of the Templeton prize, John Barrow in Space means not dread but life.
1 Comment