Anglican Mainstream has now published the full texts of the two exchanges between FCA and Buckingham Palace.
Correspondence between Her Majesty the Queen and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans
18 CommentsThe previous report on this matter is at RC adoption agency loses appeal.
The latest development is that the Charity Tribunal has given approval for an appeal to the High Court against some of its recent findings.
The full text of its decision on the appeal is here: Ruling on Catholic Care’s request for Permission to Appeal (6 July 2009)
Charity Finance explains:
Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) has been granted leave to appeal to the High Court against certain parts, but not all, of the Charity Tribunal’s recent decision not to allow it to discriminate against gay people.
As the case is believed to have been the first in which a court or tribunal was asked to consider the correct interpretation of regulation 18 of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, the Tribunal said the case “raises a point of law of public importance which it would be appropriate for the High Court to consider on appeal”.
…But now it has said that Catholic Care can take the case to the High Court to argue seven of its 14 grounds for appeal. The seven that are allowed collectively raise the same point of law, namely that the Tribunal erred in its interpretation of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 and its interpretation of regulation 18 in particular.
However, it will not allow the charity to appeal against the other seven points raised, concluding that these were “misconceived”.
Third Sector also has a report.
Any appeal will presumably also be of great interest to the Scottish Charity Regulator, which appears to have allowed a Scottish RC agency to make similar changes to its trust deed.
1 CommentMartin Beckford reports in the Telegraph House of Lords votes against allowing Britons to help terminally ill die at ‘suicide clinics’.
Controversial plans that were feared to “give the green light” to the state sanctioning assisted suicide have been thrown out by peers….
Two bishops spoke in this debate:
Other news reports:
The Times Amendment to relax law on assisted dying is thrown out by peers
Guardian Disabled peer pleads against legalising assisted suicide
Updated Wednesday noon
George Pitcher at the Telegraph has written Anti-gay Anglicans take Queen’s name in vain.
…“Sources close to the Palace”, as they say, have coughed lightly and raised an eyebrow to one another. That’s a courtier’s equivalent of being incandescent with rage.
Because Her Majesty said no such thing. A secretary wrote in reply to representations that Her Majesty (as Supreme Governor of the Church of England) “understands the commitment to the Anglican Church that prompted you and your brethren to write as you did”. And that was a year ago, in reply to a letter to her from what was then called Gafcon, when the traditionalists met in Jerusalem. She then sent her “good wishes to all concerned” last week in response to a separate approach from Foca. Even Foca’s trumpet-bearers at the Anglican Mainstream website carry these passages…
BBC Radio 4 tonight: The Moral Maze:
…While Conservative and Labour politicians are trading insults with each other in a bid to win over the ‘gay vote’, the Bishop of Rochester has taken a different tack. With the rainbow bunting from London’s Pride festival hardly yet packed away, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said homosexuals should change and repent their sin.
The Church of England has been embroiled in a doctrinal battle over sexuality since the ordination of the first openly homosexual bishop in 2003. The Bishop of Rochester was speaking just before the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a conservative group in the Church of England. ‘We want to hold on to the traditional teachings of the Church. We don’t want to be rolled over by culture and trends in the Church.’ Well, despite Michael Nazir-Ali’s attempts to clarify his position, saying that we all need to repent for straying from God’s purpose for us, it hasn’t stopped the accusations of homophobia…
Dave Walker at the Church Times blog has a selection of blog posts titled Anglo Catholics unimpressed by the FCA launch meeting.
Update
Dave has now added a comprehensive roundup of links to bloggers who have commented on the FCA meeting. See Bloggers on the FCA launch.
Updated – make that three items…
Colin Coward has written Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali condemned by The Times.
…Changing Attitude took to task the group of bishops supporting yesterday’s launch back in September 2008 when Blackburn, Chester, Chichester, Exeter, Rochester and Winchester wrote in support of Bishop Bob Duncan in the USA…
…Today’s Times leader says that Michael Nazir-Ali is willing to provoke splits and risk schism within the Anglican Communion and has now signalled insubordination to the authority of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Bishops of Exeter and Winchester emailed me in anger last September, Exeter saying there was absolutely no reason to assume that any of them were contemplating or would desire the kind of action about which I speculated. Yet at the time, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said a new Province was needed in England and all six bishops either attended or send messages of support yesterday.
The Bishop of Rochester thinks homosexuals should “repent and be changed.” The Times says he has “inflamed an issue on which social attitudes have changed radically for the better within a generation.”
I have yet to hear any of the other five bishops publicly disown the stance taken by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, either in his comment about needing a new Province or in his attitude to lesbian and gay people which is doing so much damage to ability of the Church of England to evangelise in England…
Jonathan Bartley has written for Cif belief Evangelicals are betraying their heritage.
On Monday a new coalition of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes launched within the Church of England, claiming to uphold the “traditional biblical view” on homosexuality.
But such a coalition was unlikely to be contemplated by evangelicals at many times gone by. For the original evangelical spirit with its reforming zeal and progressive outlook was more often at odds with traditionalists, than aligned with them. The idea of an alliance with those of a conservative disposition would have been an anathema…
Simon Rundell wrote FoCA – the beginning of the end.
11 Comments…The (few) members of the House of Bishops supporting this schism should be ashamed. If they aren’t ashamed, then they should have the integrity to resign from this Church. This would, of course, leave Chichester without Episcopal oversight, but hey, at least all those gay priests in Chichester would know where they stood. Likewise, I note with sadness the support of the PEVs – they who have in their care a disproportionately high number of gay priests, most not even safely in the closet, but many who have active partners – I went to Mirfield, and that is how I know this to be the case. I wonder how cheated they feel at present. As MadPriest asked yesterday, is it worth the sacrifice of their integrity and their self-worth just simply to keep the girls out? We ordain women because we baptise girls…
Updated again Tuesday afternoon
Religious Intelligence FCA threatens Church run by “Satan” by Toby Cohen
Reuters Orthodox Anglicans won’t leave Church of England by Harpreet Bhal
Cif belief Anglican schism? Bring it on by Theo Hobson
The Times The spiritual battle for the soul of Anglicanism by Ruth Gledhill on Articles of Faith.
BBC Church group ‘not planning split’
The full text of Archbishop Peter Jensen’s presentation is here.
And the presentation on behalf of Archbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of Nigeria and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council delivered by Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Bendel, Nigeria, is here.
Updates
The Times
Ruth Gledhill Britain in battle for its soul, says Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen
and
Leading Article: Bishop’s wrong move
…Bishop Nazir-Ali is a longstanding critic of modern mores and church accommodation with them. He has become increasingly outspoken as his early retirement from Rochester approaches. But his willingness to provoke splits and risk schism within the Anglican Communion serves neither Church nor nation. He commented before yesterday’s gathering that homosexuals should “repent and be changed”. He thereby inflamed an issue on which social attitudes have changed radically for the better within a generation, and signalled insubordination to the authority of Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. To adapt the words of Clement Attlee to an obstreperous Labour critic: a period of silence on his part would be welcome…
Telegraph Martin Beckford Bishop of Lewes: Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans formed to counter ‘heartache’
And an earlier report that I missed, Religious Intelligence Bishop attacks ‘lurid’ headlines
The Bishop, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, had given an interview to the Sunday Telegraph ahead of today’s launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in London.
In the interview he was reported as calling for gay people to repent and change, and his comments provoked a strong backlash from gay groups, liberal Christians and from the media…
Two items from Changing Attitude:
Davis Mac-Iyalla reports on Archbishop Okoh’s visit to Christ Church Beckenham
Schismatic bishops obsessed with gays
Greetings to Be Faithful from Her Majesty the Queen, Archbishops and others
Her Majesty the Queen:
After the Jerusalem conference we wrote to her Majesty the Queen expressing our concerns for the Anglican Communion, our loyalty to her as the Supreme Governor of the CofE, and the pressing need for the Anglican Church to remain faithful to the biblical gospel. She replied that she ‘understands the commitment to the Anglican Church that prompted you and your brethren to write as you did’. She sent us another message last week, expressing her encouragement for our meeting today, and her (quote) ‘good wishes to all concerned for a successful and memorable event’.
The Most Reverend Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury:
‘I shall be glad to hold all of you in my prayers for the occasion’.
Updated Monday morning
The Independent has three items:
News article: Condemnation for bishop who called for gay people to ‘repent’ by Lewis Smith
Opinion column: Forget about a ‘cure’ for homosexuality by Philip Hensher
Leading article: The bishop is embracing a lost cause
George Pitcher at the Telegraph has There’s no pride in bashing gays, Bishop:
3 Comments…But his comments in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, which he is expected to repeat today, that homosexuals should “repent and be changed” cannot pass unchallenged. Or rather, they should not go challenged only by homosexual rights campaigners, such as Peter Tatchell, who you would expect to be somewhat antipathetic to the expressed view.
Because Dr Nazir-Ali is wrong in the eyes of a broad swath of kind and tolerant people of differing sexualities, social mores and of the Christian faith, other faiths and no faith at all. Badly, badly wrong…
The Times Ruth Gledhill Bishop of Sherborne Graham Kings says new group could split Church
…Dr Graham Kings, consecrated last month as Bishop of Sherborne and founder of the moderate evangelical grouping Fulcrum, said the new fellowship represented a structure that would allow its founders to “split” from the Church of England.
Dr Kings said: “I do not see a problem with a voluntary agency.”
But he said there was evidence that the fellowship would have no more than formal links with the Church of England, and he feared that these could easily be broken.
“I think there should be deep, invigorating moral links between the new fellowship and the Church of England,” Dr Kings said.
“There should not be a split, but one of their frontline clergymen has already split from the Church of England. Another one is seeking alternative episcopal oversight, which is not encouraging. It would be disastrous if the new fellowship moves from being a voluntary agency to becoming a Church within a Church, which is what happened in America.”
…The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans is opposed to the ordination of gay clergy, blessings for gay marriage or civil partnership, and the consecration of women bishops.
The new fellowship will today publish letters from the Queen, supreme governor of the Church of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, acknowledging its launch.
Buckingham Palace said that it did not comment on private correspondence. However, sources told The Times that the letters from the Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury were standard acknowledgements and should not be interpreted as endorsements of the fellowship…
Guardian Riazat Butt Dissident Anglicans launch protest movement against CofE liberalism
…One of the English churchmen supporting the FCA is Michael Nazir-Ali, bishop of Rochester, who continues to draw criticism for his views on homosexuality.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, and then today from the pulpit of the Church of St Peter in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, he said homosexuality was a threat to the Christian way of life and that it had divided the Anglican communion.
In his sermon he said: “When we ignore what the Bible tells us we do so at our peril, as we continually discover.
“If we continue in God’s way then we will flourish as persons. Marriage will be strong, family will be strong and society will be strong. It’s not rocket science.”
The other danger to Christians and the Church of England was “syncretism” ‑ the attempted reconciliation of opposing principles or beliefs, he said. “It happens daily when we capitulate to the forces around us,” he warned. “The values of culture are not necessarily values of the Christian faith…”
Telegraph Martin Beckford and Jonathan Wynne-Jones Queen sends ‘supportive’ letters to leaders of church movement that has angered gay campaigners
4 Comments…Leading figures in the FCA wrote to the Queen to assure her of their loyalty to the Church of England following last year’s upheavals, and a reply sent on her behalf said she understood their concerns about the future of the Communion.
The clerics wrote again recently, telling the monarch about their plans for tomorrow’s gathering, which will be attended by the bishops of Exeter and Chichester and Rochester as well as conservative archbishops from around the world.
Courtiers wrote back saying that the Queen hoped the event would be successful and memorable.
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on private correspondence. Royal sources said the Queen was not endorsing the FCA and pointed out that she corresponds with a great number of organisations.
Updated Sunday morning
Jonathan Wynne-Jones reports that:
…In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Dr Nazir-Ali said: “We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made.
“People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
“The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
“We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.”
Read the whole report at Change and repent, bishop tells gays.
…Derek Munn, the director of public affairs for Stonewall, the homosexual campaign group, criticised Dr Nazir-Ali’s comments.
“It is unfortunate that in 2009, a church leader should continue to promote inequality and intolerance,” he said.
“Stonewall knows that most people of faith are accepting of lesbian and gay people. We also know that many lesbian and gay people who are themselves religious believers are not well served by some of those who claim to speak on their behalf.”
The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, the president of the Inclusive Church, a liberal grouping in the Church of England, said: “Homosexuality is not a sin. It is the way many people love each other and is a gift from God. Ordinary people in the pews know this. And they are a lot more theologically aware than the handful of narrow- minded bishops who want to play politics with the Anglican Communion.”
This story has been commented on by Damian Thompson of the Telegraph with the headline ‘Repent!’ Rochester tells gays as Synod starts. ‘No, you repent’, snap other bishops. ‘You’re spoiling everything!’ .
The BBC has Gay row ‘may cause Church split’.
And from the USA, where there is another Bishop of Rochester, comes TWO BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER OFFER DIFFERENT MESSAGES TO THE CHURCH.
Religious Intelligence has Bishop warns of liberal threat to faith.
16 CommentsJane Shaw writes in the Guardian about feeding in church.
Roderick Strange writes in The Times about the virgin birth.
Giles Fraser asks in the Church Times Is secular France so fragile?
Over at Cif belief, Giles answers the question Is religion the opium of the people? in a column titled Radical faith.
Civitas published a report on sharia law. You can find the report itself as a PDF file, here. By far the most interesting column published in consequence of this report is Sharia law and me at Cif belief.
Madeleine Bunting reported on a seminar at Lambeth Palace, see Science, religion and our shared future.
17 CommentsUpdated Tuesday
This week’s edition of The Tablet has a news report, unfortunately subscriber-only until next Friday, that the Attorney-General, Baroness Scotland “has pledged to help the Church gain amendments to parts of the proposed Equality Bill.”
The essence of this report is however contained in the article published by the National Secular Society and titled Catholic Attorney General seeks to water down protections under Equality Bill.
There is some confused reporting here. It’s not clear whether the confusion is due to the reporter, or to what Mr Kornicki said.
The clause that deals with exemptions on the basis of Religion as the “protected characteristic” is Schedule 9, Clause 3.
This is entirely separate from Clause 2, which deals with exemptions on various other bases not including Religion, and which incorporates the new explicit definition of “the purposes of an organised religion”. The government contends that this definition is not a narrowing of the existing law, but the churches appear not to accept that view.
But in any case, that definition has no bearing on Clause 3, which reads as follows:
Other requirements relating to religion or belief
3 A person (A) with an ethos based on religion or belief does not contravene a provision mentioned in paragraph 1(2) by applying in relation to work a requirement to be of a particular religion or belief if A shows that, having regard to that ethos and to the nature or context of the work—
(a) it is an occupational requirement,
(b) the application of the requirement is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, and
(c) the person to whom A applies the requirement does not meet it (or A has reasonable grounds for not being satisfied that the person meets it).
Note that this exemption is available to any organisation “with an ethos based on religion or belief” and is not limited to “organised religion” at all.
So it is unlikely, I think, that what Baroness Scotland, Richard Kornicki, and Stephen Pound are concerned about is in fact to do with discrimination “against those who don’t share their faith”. It’s much more likely that they are concerned with discrimination on one or more of the grounds listed in Clause 2.
Tuesday update
I have now heard back from the offices of both the Attorney-General and the Catholic Bishops Conference, and can confirm that:
– it is only Clause 2 which is the subject of concern
– Baroness Scotland does not intend to submit any amendment to the bill.
Updated Saturday evening
According to Anglican Mainstream:
15 CommentsWe are encouraged by the number of Church of England Bishops who have indicated their attendance.
These include:
Bishop Michael Langrish, Exeter
Bishop David Urquhart, Birmingham
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, Rochester
Bishop John Hind, Chichester
Bishop Wallace Benn, Lewes
Bishop Colin Fletcher, Dorchester
Bishop Keith Sinclair, Birkenhead
Bishop John Broadhurst, Fulham
Bishop Andrew Burnham, Ebbsfleet
Bishop Keith Newton, Richborough
Bishop John Ball (Retd – Assistant in Chelmsford)
Bishop Colin Bazley (Retd – Assistant in Chester)
Bishop John Ellison (Retd – Assistant in Winchester)
Bishop Maurice Sinclair (Retd – Assistant in Birmingham)Bishop Peter Forster of Chester, the Bishop-elect [sic] of Southwell and Nottingham, Paul Butler, and Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt of Winchester have sent public messages of support.
Updated Friday evening
Pat Ashworth in the Church Times has a comprehensive report of events leading up to Monday’s UK launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), including new shenanigans in the Diocese of Southwark.
Read Fellowship leaders take flak in run-up to London launch.
Some related items:
Friday evening update
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth has been interviewed by Mad Priest, who describes him as “quite intelligent for a bishop”.
Judge for yourself by reading the interview in full here.
Bishop David’s own blog is here.
4 CommentsDave Walker has collected some weird items in a posting at the Church Times blog titled The Church Society on ‘strange vestments and ceremonies’.
And something even weirder crops up in an article for the Washington Times by Julia Duin titled New Anglicans split on women.
22 CommentsI queried retired Eau Claire, Wis., Bishop William Wantland, an old friend and an ardent opponent of ordaining women. He reminded me that 22 of the ACNA’s 28 dioceses do not allow female priests. It’s a system known as “dual integrity,” dioceses that differ on a question where Scripture can be read both ways agree to respect and live with each other’s views.
I asked him if he wanted the ACNA to eventually outlaw ordaining women entirely.
“Of course. That’s our mission,” he said. “Christ is the bridegroom and the church is the bride. The priest at the altar is an icon of Christ. What image is that if the person at the altar is a woman? It’s a lesbian relationship.”
ENS has this report:
Private meeting with Williams at convention will address sexuality, ministry
10 CommentsEight members of the Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies are scheduled meet privately with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at General Convention in a session that is intended in part to address lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues in the church.
General Convention meets July 8-17 in Anaheim, California, and Williams will be present July 7-9.
The session is not an official convention meeting and thus there has been no announcement of the plans. However, when contacted by Episcopal News Service, the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of the Diocese of California confirmed the details.
Barlowe said that he and the other deputies understood the meeting was to be brief and private, but that it was not a secret…
Lisa Fox has published all but two of the names of the group studying same-sex relationships. For background here is the early June report.
See The Formerly Secret Panel (go to original source for live links)
So here are eight of the ten theologians serving on the panel to study same-sex relationships.
Co-facilitators:
* The Rt. Rev. Joe G. Burnett, Bishop of Nebraska (webpage here)
* Ellen Charry, Princeton Theological Seminary (webpage here)Members:
* Deirdre J. Good, General Theological Seminary (webpage here)
* Willis Jenkins, Yale Divinity School (webpage here)
* The Rev. Grant LeMarquand, Trinity School for Ministry (webpage here)
* Eugene Rogers, University of North Carolina, Greensboro (webpage here)
* The Rev. George Sumner, Wycliffe College, Toronto (webpage here)
* The Rev. Daniel A. Westberg of Nashotah House (webpage here; see page 3 of the newsletter)
The Chicago Consultation has issued this press release:
6 CommentsCHICAGO, July 1, 2009—Ruth Meyers, Hodges Haynes Professor of Liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, General Convention deputy from the Diocese of Chicago, and co-convener of the Chicago Consultation, responded to the news that the names of most members of the House of Bishops Theology Committee panel on same-sex blessings have been made public:
“Continued scholarly work, done with particular attention to the work of the Holy Spirit in committed, life-long, monogamous unions of faithful gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Episcopalians, can liberate the church to discern more fully the work of the Spirit in all life-long unions of fidelity and mutual love. We wish this panel well, and we call upon General Convention to enrich its theological work by establishing a common rite for the blessing of unions across the Episcopal Church.”
“We commit to praying for each of these theologians and their co-chairs by name, and we hope that the remaining two members of the panel will choose to come forward publicly so that we may begin General Convention next week with the spirit of openness and transparency that characterizes our polity and our common life…”
The Church of England has published a press release Update published on Clergy Pensions Scheme.
The Church of England has today published a second and more detailed report on the impact of the credit crunch and recession on the financial position of the Funded Clergy Pension Scheme. The report puts forward various options relating to the future of the scheme.
The last actuarial valuation of the scheme, carried out as at 31 December 2006, revealed a deficit of £141m. This is currently being eliminated by way of extra contributions paid by the ‘employers’ participating in the scheme, in addition to the contributions required to pay for future benefits. Some modifications were also made to the scheme in 2007 to help contain costs…
…The conclusion reached is that further changes to the scheme will be necessary to return it to affordability, and the report sets out a number of proposals for achieving this which include limiting the annual increase in the pensionable stipend, moving for future service the accrual period for a full pension from 40 to 43 years, changing the pension age from 65 to 68 and contracting back into the Second State Pension. The report also sets out options for the future structure of the scheme including retaining the existing defined benefit arrangement, moving onto a defined contribution basis and introducing a hybrid arrangement…
The 23-page detailed report is published as a .doc file.
There will be a presentation about this report at the July General Synod, but not a formal debate. The press release explains:
The report has been issued to all the organisations participating in the scheme, including the 44 diocesan boards of finance, and responses are due by the end of October. The Task Group will then make its final recommendations to the Archbishops’ Council which will decide what proposals should be put to the General Synod which must ultimately approve any changes to the scheme rules.
The 2 page Summary section of the report is reproduced below the fold.
7 Comments