This one is from the Bishop of Guildford, Christopher Hill.
Read the transcript of his audio interview in this PDF file: Lambeth Conference 2008 Mark Rudall talks to Bishop Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford.
The audio itself is linked from this page.
2 CommentsUpdated again Wednesday morning
The Dallas Morning News has this report: Episcopal priests from Fort Worth may be looking at Catholicism.
A delegation of Episcopal priests from Fort Worth paid a visit to Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann earlier this summer, asking for guidance on how their highly conservative diocese might come into “full communion” with the Catholic Church.
Whether that portends a serious move to turn Fort Worth Episcopalians and their churches into Catholics and Catholic churches is a matter of dispute.
The Rev. William Crary, senior rector of the Fort Worth diocese, confirmed that on June 16 he and three other priests met with Bishop Vann, leader of the Fort Worth Catholic diocese, and presented him a document that is highly critical of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.
The document states that the overwhelming majority of Episcopal clergy in the Fort Worth diocese favor pursuing an “active plan” to bring the diocese into full communion with the Catholic Church…
The document was published yesterday by Katie Sherrod and can be found in full at So. How do you feel about being Roman Catholic?
Update Tuesday evening
Bishop Jack Iker has issued a statement, headed A Statement by Bishop Iker on Roman Catholic Dialogues. It reads, in part:
…The priests who participated in this meeting with Bishop Vann have my trust and pastoral support. However, in their written and verbal reports, they have spoken only on their own behalf and out of their own concerns and perspective. They have not claimed to act or speak, nor have they been authorized to do so, either on behalf of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth or on my own behalf as their Bishop.
Their discussion with Bishop Vann has no bearing upon matters coming before our Diocesan Convention in November, where a second vote will be taken on constitutional changes concerning our relationship with the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. There is no proposal under consideration, either publicly or privately, for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth to become part of the Roman Catholic Church. Our only plan of action remains as it has been for the past year, as affirmed by our Diocesan Convention in November 2007. The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth intends to realign with an orthodox Province as a constituent member of the worldwide Anglican Communion…
Wednesday morning update
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has Episcopal priests propose aligning Fort Worth diocese with Catholic church.
46 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening
Today, the Bishop of Winchester has published a lengthy article, The Lambeth Conference 2008 – and the future of the Anglican Communion A Report to the Diocese of Winchester although I cannot at present find it on the Winchester diocesan website, but only on the Global South Anglican website, and, in part, on the Anglican Mainstream website.
Anyway you can read it all here.
Update
Jonathan Wynne-Jones has written about this letter, see Senior bishop predicts Anglican battle ahead.
The Church of England issued this press release today:
13 CommentsLambeth Conference: Funding
11 August 2008The Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners, and the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England have both met within the past few days to discuss an approach from the Lambeth Conference Company* for financial help. The Board met this morning (August 11th) and the Council on Thursday August 7th.
The Company has assured the Board and the Council that it is continuing to make further approaches throughout the Anglican Communion to meet the full cost of this year’s Conference. It cannot, however, be confident that these will generate funds sufficiently quickly for it to meet all of its obligations as they fall due over the coming weeks and months.
The Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners and the Archbishops’ Council have therefore each agreed to make available to the Company up to £600k as required to enable the Company to honour its commitments while fundraising efforts continue. At this stage both bodies regard these amounts as interest free loan facilities.
They will be considering these matters again at their September meetings when they expect a further report from the Company about the progress of its fundraising efforts.
Notes
There has already been generous support from the Church of England for the Lambeth Conference. Parishes and dioceses have made donations towards the costs of overseas bishops attending and the Church Commissioners have met the fees of the English bishops and their wives attending the Lambeth Conference, the costs of some of the conference organising staff, and some of the hospitality offered by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
More information about the Lambeth Conference is available at www.lambethconference.org.
*The Lambeth Conference Company is the body given responsibility for managing the finances and administration of the Lambeth Conference 2008.
Katie Sherrod has written on her own blog, That Wild Uncontrollable Force.
Watching Lambeth unfold was like watching one of those foreground/background optical illusions where, as you stare at the picture, either the profile of a beautiful young woman moves to the foreground or the image of an old woman moves forward while the young woman’s image disappears. It is almost impossible to see them both at the same time.
Lambeth was the same-there were two Lambeths occurring simultaneously, one out in front, the other in the background.
The Lambeth of the Indaba and Bible Study groups was the one in the foreground most of the time. But at key points, the Lambeth of the Windsor Continuation Group [WCG] and the group writing the Reflections documents moved out of the background into sight…
Jim Naughton has written at Comment is free The archbishop’s hands are tied, not ours.
52 CommentsThe politics of the church make Rowan Williams act against his beliefs on gay marriage. We don’t have to do the same.
Extensive research has proven that I am not the Archbishop of Canterbury. Neither, in all likelihood, are you. These facts, in hand for some time now, acquired new significance yesterday with the revelation that Rowan Williams, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury, believes, what a great many Anglicans believe, namely: “that an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might … reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness.”
Bishop David Rossdale asks this question: If resolution 1.10 is important, what about resolution 19?
21 CommentsThe more I read the final Lambeth Document, “Capturing Conversations and Reflections”, the more I rejoice that we did not go down the road of resolutions and votes. To have a ’snapshot’ of the engagement between the Bishops is probably of far more worth, than adding to the fossilised remains of earlier conferences, which leave skeletal resolutions disconnected from the tissue of conversation lying behind them as some sort of guide to the heart and mind of the church.
Much has been made of Resolution 1.10 from the 1998 Conference, as though this is an enduring and unerring piece of truth. It has become almost a test for orthodoxy. But if this resolution has such enduring status, then all resolutions of the Lambeth Conference must be given the same status. So what about Resolution 67 from 1908? Very importantly it states…
Updated Sunday morning
Daniel Burke of Religion News Service interviewed Bishop Eugene Sutton of Maryland. The Washington Post carries this story at Raising Issues Of Race in Anglican Rift.
The Times had interviews with seven bishops by Bess Twiston Davies in The Anglican balancing act, in a church near you.
The Los Angeles Times had an unsigned opinion article, Adding to division.
Martin Beckford reports in the Telegraph that Archbishop may be forced to do fundraising tour to solve £1m Lambeth financial crisis.
Related to this is the ACNS press release, Finances and the Lambeth Conference 2008.
The webcast press conference held by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Mark Sisk is reported for Episcopal Life Online by Solange de Santis here.
Sunday morning update
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote for Comment is free The road from Lambeth.
I wrote a second column for Wardman Wire Lambeth Conference: Sex or Power?
More about the Lambeth financial deficit in the first few minutes of the BBC Sunday programme, listen here (URL for one week only). See also this BBC report, Church considers £1.2m shortfall.
76 CommentsUpdated again Thursday 14 August evening to include new letter from Deborah Pitt
The original batch of material in The Times itself was linked here, together with the first reports in other newspapers.
The response of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the letter to The Times from 19 CofE bishops was linked here.
The Times also published on 8 August, Dr Williams ‘has made a split inevitable in the Anglican Church’ by Ruth Gledhill.
Today, The Times published another article, Bishops back Rowan Williams in gay sex row – even though some don’t agree with him.
Here’s how some others covered this story:
Religious Intelligence first had Gay relationships ‘comparable to marriage’, says Archbishop of Canterbury , followed by Letters put fresh pressure on Archbishop and then had Bishops decalre their support for ‘magnificent’ Williams.
George Pitcher at the Telegraph has written Rowan Williams and sex: a clarification.
TIME magazine had Anglican Church Gay Row Heats Up.
The BBC had Gay ties like marriage – Williams.
Sunday update
Austen Ivereigh, writing for the journal America has No longer the ‘Labor Party at prayer’ in which he reveals:
What the 19 bishops do not realise is that the letters arrived on the desks of the religious correspondents of The Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian two whole weeks ago. But because the reporters were at Canterbury following the conference, they did not see the brown envelopes until after they got back. Amazing but true: no-one opened their mail in their absence. Because journalists no longer receive scoops by post — fax and email are the usual channel these days — their staff do not bother to open their mail.
Update Thursday See this letter to The Times from Deborah Pitt herself, Why I leaked the Archbishop’s letters.
13 CommentsAndrew Brown in The Guardian Dr Williams’ contortions
Mary Ann Sieghart in the Times Rowan Williams was selected as a liberal and now he should govern as one
Roderick Strange writes about Edith Stein in the Times The life and death of a German Jewish Christian nun.
Dr Bernard Ratigan in The Guardian writes that The needs of young people brought up in homonegative faiths are being neglected.
Justin Thacker in The Guardian God and evolution can coexist
Tom Frame in the Church Times Jesus’s checklist for good leadership
3 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has issued the following statement in response to the release of the Pitt letters.
Friday 08 August 2008
In response to the recent coverage of the correspondence dated back to 2000, The Archbishop Canterbury has made the following statement:
In the light of recent reports based on private correspondence from eight years ago, I wish to make it plain that, as I have consistently said, I accept Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference as stating the position of the worldwide Anglican Communion on issues of sexual ethics and thus as providing the authoritative basis on which I as Archbishop speak on such questions.
That Resolution also recognises the need for continuing study and discussion on the matter. In the past, as a professional theologian, I have made some contributions to such study. But obviously, no individual’s speculations about this have any authority of themselves. Our Anglican Church has never exercised close control over what individual theologians may say. However, like any church, it has the right to declare what may be said in its name as official doctrine and to define the limits of legitimate practice. As Archbishop I understand my responsibility to be to the declared teaching of the church I serve, and thus to discourage any developments that might imply that the position and convictions of the worldwide Communion have changed.
The Bishop of Durham and 18 other bishops have written a letter to The Times which begins:
35 CommentsSir, As bishops in the Church of England, we wish to protest in the strongest possible terms at what we regard as a gross misrepresentation of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Here are more Lambeth Conference news items from last week’s Church Times that were only available to subscribers until today.
Williams urges generous love
Lawyers see 1662 as still able to unite
Bishops tackle extremism and ‘daily business of dialogue’
Spouses aim to build good faith
Step up moral pressure over climate, Conference is told
Millennium Goals must be met, say Lambeth walkers
Ecumenical participants grapple
Murphy-O’Connor warns of ‘ecumenical shadow’
Jim Naughton wrote the Church Times press column last week. It is now available online at What I ‘learnt’ at Lambeth.
4 CommentsFOR AN American church flak like me, learning to work with the British news media has been similar to learning to drive on British roads. The enterprises are fundamentally similar, and yet one’s reflexes need reconditioning to avoid accidents.
As a former journalist, I was struck first by the difference in the ways that American and British journalists attribute (or don’t attribute) the information in their stories. The British press is freer in its use of anonymous sources than its American counterpart. One is constantly reading that a paper “has learnt” something. Well, how, exactly?
Perhaps this wink-and-nod approach makes a certain sense in the cosy world of the Anglican Communion, but it’s open to abuse. A friend of mine recently found her fondest hopes transformed into the hidden agenda of the Episcopal Church by a reporter who assumed that my friend had much more influence that she has…
The Economist has several articles about the Lambeth Conference:
The high price of togetherness
The bishops got on fine for a while—but was it only a holiday romance?
Anyone for Schadenfreude?
What Roman Catholics fear from an Anglican split.
Leader: United we fall
The writhings of worldwide Anglicanism are another reason to disestablish the Church of England.
The last update on here was CartoonChurch and the owner of the former SPCK bookshops.
Matt Wardman now reports: Dave Walker/SPCK Bookshops Campaign Moving Soon.
The place to which this move is taking place is: SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info.
2 CommentsI linked last week to three reports in London newspapers about what Bishop Cathy Roskam was alleged to have said about husbands beating their wives.
These reports all referred to the Lambeth Witness as the source of the quotes, rather than to any Episcopal Church news briefing.
The relevant issue of the Witness is available as a PDF here.
Bishop Roskam’s own response to the press reports can be found on her blog (scroll down to item 9) and is reproduced in full below the fold here (emphasis added).
14 CommentsUpdated Thursday morning
The Times has released some correspondence between Rowan Williams ( who at the time was Archbishop of Wales) and Deborah Pitt.
Read all about it:
Ruth Gledhill Rowan Williams: gay relationships ‘comparable to marriage’ and
New light on Archbishop of Canterbury’s view on homosexuality
and on her blog, Archbishop Rowan: gay sex comparable to ‘marriage’
Mary Ann Sieghart Rowan Williams was selected as a liberal and now he should govern as one
Times Leader: Rowan Williams: pragmatism and belief
PDF of original letters here.
Update
The Telegraph has several reactions to this from conservatives (only) in Archbishop of Canterbury compares gay relationships to marriage. The Guardian and the Independent and the Mail also have reports.
The BBC Northern Ireland radio programme Sunday Sequence can be listened to via the BBC iPlayer. Last week’s programme hosted by William Crawley can be heard here, until next Sunday.
There is a segment on blogging at the conference, about 24 minutes in that lasts about 6 minutes. It includes contributions from Bishop David Chillingworth, and also from me.
Another article that I wrote on Saturday can be read at Wardman Wire titled Lambeth Conference – Touching Base: Guest Column by Simon Sarmiento.
2 CommentsFirst, Tony Sadler formerly the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments, writes to The Times Arch appointment.
Second, Priyamvada Gopal who teaches postcolonial studies at Cambridge University, writes for Comment is free about Orombi: a child of empire?
Third, Will Self, columnist at the Evening Standard, writes It’s your job to stand up to the bigots, Archbishop.
33 CommentsUpdated Tuesday evening
Robert Pigott of the BBC has published his final entry in Lambeth Diary. Read DARING THE EXTREMES TO LEAVE.
Anglican TV has Archbishop Orombi clarifies The Times letter.
The Living Church has What the Lambeth Conference Accomplished by Steve Waring.
Regarding the final press conference, there is now a transcript of it here (thank you Lichfield), and ENS has video recordings here (navigate by date to two segments dated 08/03/08).
ENS also has two further reports by Mary Frances Schjonberg:
Lengthy reflections document called ‘narrative’ of Lambeth experience and
Reactions to Lambeth Conference span the spectrum.
Tuesday evening additions
Yesterday’s Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 had a segment at 8.53, which includes both a report by Robert Pigott and an interview with Bishop Nick Baines.
And Premier Christian Radio has two segments: Lambeth Conference draws to a close and Anglican Church looks to the future. Those interviewed include Graham Kings and Rod Thomas.
58 CommentsThe Scotsman reported Gay bishop thanks Scottish Church for recognising ‘all God’s people’.
The Herald has Applause and tears as gay US bishop preaches in Glasgow.
And The Times has Gay clerics certain to win struggle, Right Rev Gene Robinson says.
The full recording of the sermon is available here.
18 Comments