The Government has published yet another White Paper on Lords Reform. You can find it over here.
The section relating to Church of England Bishops is reproduced below the fold.
Ekklesia has already published its opinion, Time to remove Bishops from the House of Lords:
11 Comments…The Church of England, an external institution with its own particular agenda, would be able to parachute whomever they choose into the second chamber of Parliament as a matter of right. This would not be a step forward but a step back into the dark ages of special political privilege. With the Prime Minister’s power to appoint bishops being ended, that section of the House of Lords would be more unaccountable than it has ever been…
We reported earlier on the outcome of the legal dispute at the Parish of Trumpington.
The Cambridge Evening News now has this report: Sacked vicar’s tirade over departure:
A VICAR sacked for “spitting” at his parishioners has posted a lengthy website criticism over his departure.
However, the Rev Tom Ambrose has withdrawn his bid to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights and an employment tribunal after being sacked from his Trumpington parish.
The parish becomes vacant from today and in two ‘vicar writes’ articles on the St Mary and St Michael Parish Church page of the diocese site, the Rev Ambrose is critical of the Bishop of Ely’s handling of the matter…
The two articles in question can be found (for now at least) at
Response to the Bishop of Ely’s decision
Legal representation to the Bishop
Copies of both documents have been archived: here, and also here.
4 CommentsStephen Bates has written a major essay: Church of England: Beset by liberals, hounded by conservatives, Williams needs a miracle to keep church intact.
26 CommentsPreaching to the converted
Gene Robinson is the Anglican church’s only openly gay bishop. He was denied an invitation to this week’s Lambeth conference but came anyway and on Sunday gave a dramatic sermon in London disrupted by heckling. What’s all the fuss about? Stephen Bates explains, while political sketch-writer Simon Hoggart, theatre critic Lyn Gardner and gay atheist Gareth McLean review the bishop’s performance.
Giles Fraser made his own comments earlier, in Here’s to you, Mr Robinson.
23 CommentsChristopher Landau of the BBC has a report Sexuality stance ‘embarrasses’ Anglicans.
Episcopal News Service has this report by Matthew Davies of her Sunday activities in Salisbury, Salisbury diocese welcomes Presiding Bishop, Sudanese bishops for pre-Lambeth hospitality initiative.
7 CommentsTwo items that fall into this category:
Martin Beckford reports Archbishop Desmond Tutu warns Anglican leaders not to abandon tradition of tolerance
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has warned Anglican leaders not to abandon the church’s tradition of tolerance ahead of a critical conference which is set to be dominated by divisions over homosexuality and women bishops.
Ephraim Radner has written, at Covenant an Open Letter to the Lambeth Bishops. This is also available at Fulcrum, see here.
10 Comments…I write to urge you to prayerful action in the face of widespread concerns that the upcoming Lambeth Conference will prove not only wholly irrelevant to the needs of our common life, but perhaps also the last such conference that our Communion will engage. Yet, in large measure, God has placed these matters in your hands. Although I am not privy to the planning, the intentions, and the ordering of the Conference, there are clear signs that the Conference runs the risk of failing to face and respond faithfully to the needs of God’s people within our Communion and her churches…
The Tablet had a leader article about this: Peter, Paul and women bishops. (The previous week they had Flight from women bishops.)
The Bishop of Durham issued an Ad Clerum on General Synod, which can be read here.
1 CommentJim Naughton has published some further reflections on the event, at Live: the sermon, the protester, the press, etc. Part II.
He also corrects some misinformation elsewhere, viz:
1. It is true that many people in the Episcopal Church would like to get us out from under Resolution B033, the legislation passed on the last day of our 2006 General Convention which calls upon “Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.” This isn’t a secret. Numerous dioceses have already submitted resolutions to next year’s General Convention asking that the legislation be repealed, or superseded. If this legislation passes (a big if—I am not sure there are enough votes in the House of Bishops to get the job done) a gay candidate would have a better chance of being elected and confirmed. The notion that if the legislation passed we’d immediately elect another gay bishop is speculative. The notion that we’d suddenly have five or six is hallucinatory. At this point, it is not even possible to know for which dioceses will be electing bishops, which priests would be chosen as candidates, or how the internal dynamics of the dioceses would affect the elections. (I have gone on about this at some length because I have had calls from three reporters about this story this morning.)
2. Integrity has not provided cell phones for all of the Episcopal bishops attending the Lambeth Conference—or even for those sympathetic to its agenda. The Episcopal Church has provided cell phones for all its bishops—and their spouses, too, I believe.
Those who are not yet satiated with information about last night can find even more material here:
Full video of the sermon is here.
The Bishop of New Hampshire’s own blog is here.
2 CommentsMadeleine Bunting has written an article in the Guardian about Rowan Williams.
It is titled If they did it over transubstantiation, they can find a way over gay priests.
The cliches have been used so often in recent months that one wonders how the reporters will find any thing new to say about the Lambeth conference, which starts on Wednesday. We have already had the headlines announcing “the end is nigh”; the Church of England is collapsing; the Anglican communion is falling apart; and “Rowan Williams’ authority is in tatters”. They have all become so mechanical that one wonders if they have been keyed into some media keyboards: type Lambeth and out they all pour. They betray an astonishing ignorance of much of what is at stake…
Ten years ago, Madeleine was the Guardian’s Religious Affairs correspondent covering the 1998 Lambeth Conference.
0 CommentsThe Vanguard reports:
12 CommentsAnglican bishops reject Akinola’s voluntary retirement
Bishops of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) yesterday rejected a notice of voluntary retirement from Archbishop Peter Akinola, as Primate of the Church.
They requested him to complete his tenure, which ends in 2010.
The Dean of the Church, the Archbishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, said yesterday in Abuja that the bishops prevailed on Akinola to rescind his decision to retire by January 2009.
Anikwenwa, who spoke at a consecration service, said the bishops took the decision after they received the Primates retirement notice on Saturday.
He said the veto by the bishops was pre-empted by wide consultations with other Anglican leaders, particularly from the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON)…
Guardian
Riazat Butt Church of England: Gay bishop accuses church leaders of mistake over invitation snub
Stephen Bates Repent! Biker’s blast at bishop
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Gay American Bishop Gene Robinson accuses opponents of ‘idolatry’
Telegraph
Martin Beckford Gay bishop Gene Robinson criticises Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
Daily Mail Steve Doughty ‘Heretic’: The first openly gay bishop is pilloried in the pulpit by a long-haired heckler
Episcopal News Service Church need not be afraid, New Hampshire bishop tells Putney gathering
Jim Naughton Live: The sermon, the press, the protestor, etc.
Integrity Fear Not! Gene Robinson preaches at Putney
BBC Heckle that symbolises Church split
Earlier reports are here.
10 CommentsPress Association Protester hits gay bishop’s sermon
BBC Protest disrupts bishop’s sermon
Channel 4 News Katie Razzall Protestor disrupts the sermon by the world’s first openly gay bishop
This video report includes fragments of an interview made earlier today before the service, and summarises the background events leading up to the Lambeth Conference.
Riazat Butt writes at the Guardian that Ian McKellen accuses Anglican church of homophobia.
Watch the entire interview with Andrew Marr on the BBC website here.
13 CommentsUpdated Sunday lunchtime
The Associated Press reports that Pope prays for end to rifts in Anglican church.
The Telegraph has several articles:
Jonathan Wynne-Jones writes Church of England should appoint Britain’s first gay bishop, says Archbishop of Wales and
US gay cleric Gene Robinson ‘received death threats’ from England and also
Dr Rowan Williams’ Anglican power to be tested at Lambeth Conference
and the Telegraph’s list of the 50 most influential figures in the Anglican church (sic) starts here
while George Pitcher writes Dr Rowan Williams: Robust in the face of torment.
The Independent has Gay bishop defies his Lambeth Conference ban.
Theo Hobson wrote in The Tablet It’s good to talk:
The average family gathering relies on certain truths being left unspoken, carefully skirted around. As the bishops and their spouses travel to Canterbury for this decade’s Lambeth Conference, which begins on Wednesday, they resemble members of a large family congregating for a wedding. All are uneasily aware that at the last such event something went wrong: things were said that should not have been said, and a row ignited that has resulted in one branch of the family staying away. Should they try to return to the old friendly atmosphere, or has a new spirit of brutal honesty made that impossible?
Until recently, few British Anglicans gave much thought to the Lambeth Conference, which (in theory) brings all Anglican bishops together once a decade. It was a reminder that Anglicanism was thriving in the colonies and former colonies. It was an insight into the exotic issues that faced native evangelists in sunnier climes. It was a way of discovering what help they needed in spreading Canterbury’s light through the globe…
The Observer has The gospel on being gay.
The BBC has Gay bishop will preach in London.
Updates at lunchtime
The BBC has more reports: Archbishop’s gay ordination offer and Archbishop’s position ‘untenable’ (these two articles refer to different archbishops) and also Bishop supports gay row boycott (this is not an English bishop).
The Press Association has Gay bishop calls decision a mistake and Gay bishop to deliver UK sermon.
40 CommentsThe Sunday Times has an article by John Sentamu Britain’s cruel snub to exiled Zimbabweans.
1 CommentGene Robinson writes in the Guardian about The God I know is alive and active in the church, not locked up in scripture.
In The Times Muhammad Abdul Bari writes that British Muslims plan a summer vision.
Christopher Howse writes about a forthcoming TV documentary in Koranic verses on the duty to kill.
Alan Wilson wrote about Church of Navel-Gazers?
‘Facebook Generation’ Faces Identity Crisis, according to Medical News Today (hat tip Mark Vernon).
12 CommentsRachel Zoll of the Associated Press has interviewed Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and her report of that can be read here.
The Bishop of Arizona, Kirk Smith was interviewed in the Arizona Daily Star and his views are reported in this article: Ariz. Episcopal bishop: Gay’s exclusion ‘insult’.
The Bishop of New Hampshire spoke this week at the conference of the Modern Churchpeople’s Union and what he said is summarised in this article: Lead, don’t manage.
6 CommentsRuth Gledhill reports in As Lambeth beckons, Anglican rebels don’t know if they are coming or going that:
A Nigerian bishop has broken ranks to fly to Britain to attend next week’s Lambeth conference. More than a dozen other Nigerian bishops have telephoned the organisers privately to say that they wish they could come but dare not disobey their archbishop, who has ordered all his 100 bishops to stay away in protest at the liberalisation of the Western Church.
The Right Rev Cyril Okorocha, the Bishop of Owerri, will defy Dr Peter Akinola, the Nigerian primate, when he arrives at his host parish in Oxshott, Surrey, this weekend. He will be the only Nigerian bishop at the Lambeth conference when it opens on Wednesday.
A source close to the bishop, who used to be on the staff at Lambeth Palace, where he looked after mission, said that he was coming because he believed strongly in the unity of the Anglican Communion.
Martin Beckford writes in the Telegraph: Anglican Communion: More than one in four bishops to boycott Lambeth Conference, and says this about English bishops:
As The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last month, the Bishops of Rochester, Lewes and Willesden are boycotting Lambeth because pro-gay bishops will be there.
But following the controversial decision of the Church of England’s ruling body this week to ordain women as bishops without compromise measures, several Anglo-Catholic bishops may also stay away.
The Bishop of Ebbsfleet, who is likely to become the first English bishop to convert to the Roman Catholic church over female bishops, has said he is unlikely to attend while the Bishop of Richborough is still considering whether he can go.
The Bishop of Europe, the Rt Rev Geoffrey Rowell, said he would attend but could not take part in a Eucharist service held by the female head of the Episcopal Church of the USA, the Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori.
He added that he was “astonished” that so little information about events at Lambeth had been given out so far.
“We know the themes for each day and that we shall be in study groups of eight, but not much else.”
The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, added: “I too am very surprised that we have had little more than a sketchy outline. I’ve never been to a conference before where we have had such little information.”
The Times also has a series of comments from individual bishops printed under the headline In search of the wisdom between the extremes.
13 CommentsNew Vision has published this “clarification” of the earlier article:
Gays not after Orombi’s head
Kampala
Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi yesterday clarified that he did not say gays were planning to kill him or that he fears for his life over his campaign against the practice. This followed reports that the bishop had told Christians at Kitunga in Ntungamo district that he feared for his life over his anti-gay stance. Orombi noted that gays were not only in the church, but were a big movement and some of them were drug addicts, who could kill anybody.
The Daily Monitor reports Archbishop Orombi re-affirms anti-gay stand by Paul Aruho
Bushenyi
The Archbishop of Uganda has rallied Christians to stand by him in his fight against homosexuality in the Anglican Church. He said his life was under threat from the gay community.
“The team of homosexuals is very rich, Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi said, “They have money and will do whatever it takes to make sure that this vice penetrates Africa. We have to stand out and say no to them.”
Archbishop Orombi, on a week-long tour of the western region said the advocates of homosexuality, a crime under the Uganda code act, are taking advantage of the abject poverty in Africa to lure people into their club.“As a Church, we want to worship the living God; we want to obey God and we have to submit ourselves to God so you pray for us; we shall remain faithful to God,” Archbishop Orombi said.
Homosexuality has been a sticky issue in the Anglican Church lately, with the climax happening last week when the Church of Uganda and other Anglican provinces in Africa, South America and Australia formed a new movement which is not under the authority of Canterbury at the Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem, Israel.
The conference criticised the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, for failing to discipline the errant Episcopal Church of the US and the Anglican Church of Canada, which promote same-sex marriages. The two churches supported the consecration of a homosexual, Gene Robinson, as bishop in 2003.
Meanwhile, New Vision also reports this: Bishop Ssenyonjo invited to Lambeth but see comment below which contradicts this.
17 CommentsThe full reports of General Synod debates in this week’s newspaper are subscriber-only until next week.
The following news reports by Bill Bowder are available:
Will Catholics stay? The answer is in code
And, there is a leader column: Not the time for hasty reactions:
2 CommentsTHERE ARE, of course, no women bishops in the Church of England; nor will there be for several years. This means that there is a long time in which to reflect on the outcome of Monday’s vote in the General Synod. It is clear that the mind of the majority in Synod was against introducing a legally separate body for those unable to accept the ministry of women bishops, and who is to say that this does not reflect the mind of the Church at large? Apart from the wish to represent generally the view of those in the pews, it is probable that last week’s talks of splits relating to the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) made the Synod even warier than it might formerly have been of anything that looked as if it encouraged formal division. At issue now is whether the manner in which women bishops will be introduced will lead to just such a division in any case…