On Wednesday 11th November at 3.30pm in Westminster Hall, Robert Key, MP for Salisbury, has arranged for a debate to take place on:
“The Application of the Sex Discrimination Legislation to Religious Organisations”.
WATCH has more information here.
More information about Westminster Hall debates is available here. Debates are open to the public.
8 CommentsIn a statement given to PinkNews.co.uk, a spokeswoman from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said:
2 Comments“We are concerned by the introduction of a private member’s bill on anti homosexuality in Uganda.
“Adoption of the bill could do serious damage to efforts to tackle HIV and its criminalisation of organisations that support homosexuality could, in theory, encompass most donor agencies and international NGOs.
“The UK, alongside our EU partners, has raised our concerns about the draft bill and LGBT rights more broadly with the government of Uganda, including with the prime minister and several other ministers, the Ugandan Human Rights Commission, and senior officials from the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We will continue to track the passage of the bill and to lobby against its introduction.”
For Immediate Release
6th November 2009
Contact: Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye, Provincial Secretary
+256 772 455 129
The Church of Uganda and the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill”
The Church of Uganda is studying the proposed “Anti-homosexuality bill” and, therefore, does not yet have an official position on the bill. In the meantime, we can restate our position on a number of related issues.
1. Our deepest conviction as the Church of Uganda is that, in Christ, people and their sexual desires are redeemed, and restored to God’s original intent. Repentance and obedience to Scripture are the gateway to the redemption of marriage and family and the transformation of society. (Position Paper on Scripture, Authority, and Human Sexuality, May 2005)
2. The House of Bishops resolved in August 2008 that “The Church of Uganda is committed at all levels to offer counseling, healing and prayer for people with homosexual disorientation, especially in our schools and other institutions of learning. The Church is a safe place for individuals, who are confused about their sexuality or struggling with sexual brokenness, to seek help and healing.”
3. The Church of Uganda upholds the sanctity of life and cannot support the death penalty.
4. In April 2009, Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi said, “I am appalled to learn that the rumours we have heard for a long time about homosexual recruiting in our schools and amongst our youth are true. I am even more concerned that the practice is more widespread than we originally thought. It is the duty of the church and the government to be watchmen on the wall and to warn and protect our people from harmful and deceitful agendas.”
5. “Homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture.” (Resolution of the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops.) Homosexual behaviour is immoral and should not be promoted, supported, or condoned in any way as an “alternative lifestyle.” This position has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the House of Bishops and the Provincial Assembly of the Church of Uganda.
6. We cannot support the blessing of same-sex unions or the ordination of homosexuals (Resolution of the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops), and we will oppose efforts to import such practices into Uganda. Again, this position has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the House of Bishops and the Provincial Assembly of the Church of Uganda.
Rev. Canon Aaron Mwesigye
Provincial Secretary
Church of Uganda
P.O. Box 14123
KAMPALA
+256 772 455 129
Updated Monday
This coming Sunday, the Church of Sweden will consecrate two new bishops at Uppsala Cathedral.
The candidates are:
There has been speculation on various websites about the non-attendance of Anglican representatives at this service.
The English language Swedish site The Local published Anglicans snub Swedish lesbian bishop. But initially, as Episcopal Café reports, the story was written differently:
Five bishops from various levels within the Anglican Church, including Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, have decided not to attend the November 8th ceremony, the Dagen newspaper reports.
“The Anglican Church has a moratorium right now concerning the ordination of bishops who live together with someone of the same sex,” Alan Harper, a bishop from Armagh in Northern Ireland, told the newspaper.
Now the report says that:
Swedish Archbishop Anders Wejryd, who will conduct the ordination of Brunne and Koivunen Bylund, disputed the claim that the Church of England was somehow boycotting the ceremony.
“That’s not true at all,” he told the Kyrkans Tidning newspaper.
“We send invitations to those with the highest rank. That’s why the Archbishop of Canterbury received an invitation, but no one expected him to say yes.”
He added that the Church of England would be represented by the Reverend Karen Schmidt, who serves as the Bishop’s Chaplain for the Portsmouth Diocese, with which the Stockholm Diocese has a twinning relationship whereby church leaders from both diocese conduct reciprocal visits with one another.
The Church of Ireland Gazette has a report, which (with the editor’s permission) is reproduced in full below the fold.
Updates
The Living Church published Anglicans Respond Coolly to Swedish Consecration which contains further discussion of who did or did not attend, and why.
Pictures of the actual event can be found in Swedish reports, here, and also here.
41 CommentsUpdated Friday noon
Ekklesia has published Anti-gay bill tests core Christian witness by Savi Hensman.
Religion Dispatches has published Rick Warren Won’t Denounce Proposed Ugandan Anti-Gay Law by Sarah Posner.
Colin Coward has Excerpts from a hearing on the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 with religious leaders and also Some Ugandans categorically oppose Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
The blog article mentioned in the above, by Okello Lucima, is at Buturo, Bahati more dangerous to Uganda than gays and lesbians.
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) has condemned the proposed legislation, see IBAHRI Condemns Introduction of Death Penalty for ‘Aggravated Homosexuality’. via AllAfrica.com.
There is an editorial in the Uganda Observer Anti-gay Bill is not helpful.
Update
The Church Times has a report by Pat Ashworth World’s Anglicans urged to condemn Ugandan Bill.
See in the Comments for initial responses from Reform and Anglican Mainstream.
10 CommentsHere is the announcement from Downing Street:
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Venerable Donald Spargo Allister MA, Archdeacon of Chester, for election as Bishop of Peterborough in succession to the late Right Reverend Ian Patrick Martyn Cundy, MA.
Notes for Editors
Donald Allister (aged 57) was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He trained for the ministry at Trinity College, Bristol. He served his curacy in the Diocese of Chester at Hyde St George, Chester from 1976 to 1979, and at Sevenoaks St Nicholas, in the diocese of Rochester from 1979 to 1983. From 1983 to 1989 he was Vicar at Birkenhead Christ Church, in the diocese of Chester. From 1989 to 2002 he was Rector at Cheadle in the Diocese of Chester, and from 1999 to 2002 he was Rural Dean of Cheadle. Since 2002 he has been Archdeacon of Chester. Sidabrinės apyrankės internetu https://www.silvera.lt/apyrankes
He is married to Janice and they have three grown-up children and one grandchild. His interests include hill walking, science fiction and medical ethics.
The much longer press release from the diocese is here. Do read it all.
The Church of England website has this press release.
Here is the new bishop’s Press Conference Statement.
17 CommentsWarren Throckmorton had an opinion column published in the Uganda Independent, see Guest Blog: Put down the stones.
AFP reports US slams Uganda’s new anti-gay bill.
And also, via an Australian newspaper, AFP has France slams Uganda’s anti-gay draft law.
And this report, via iAfrica.com expands on the response of Ugandan government politicians, see ‘We won’t sell our souls’.
See also MPs FORUM: Homosexuality is not a human right by David Bahati and Ndorwa West.
Box Turtle Bulletin reviews the latest developments at Uganda Parliament, Religious Leaders Weigh Death Penalty for LGBT People.
And the Uganda Monitor has an article Why anti-gay Bill should worry us by Sylvia Tamale who is is a Makerere University Law don.
Meanwhile, Colin Coward has written further about why Changing Attitude is pressing for action by Anglicans, see The Anglican Communion is committed to the inclusion and pastoral care of LGBT people.
The discussion at Fulcrum continues, and is worth following.
Andrew Goddard has published a paper which can be found at Fulcrum Briefing on ‘The Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ in Uganda.
15 CommentsAffirming Catholicism issued the following letter on 30th October to individual members of the General Synod Revision Committee on Women Bishops:
To the Members of the Revision Committee
Dear
Affirming Catholicism has noted with dismay the Press Release from the Revision Committee indicating the Committee’s decision to review General Synod’s support for the adoption of the simplest form of legislation enabling the admission of women into the episcopate in the Church of England coupled with a statutory code of practice, as expressed in July 2008.
We believe that the suggestion that certain functions should be vested in bishops by statute rather than by delegation from the diocesan bishop under a statutory code of practice runs counter to the principle that the diocese is the fundamental unit of the Church. In practice, this means that the Diocesan Bishop is and must be recognised to be Ordinary in his / her Diocese. Consequently, as we have argued consistently in our submissions to the Bishops of Guildford and Gloucester and to the Legislative Drafting Group, any designated special Bishops who exercise a ministry in a Diocese where the Ordinary is a woman must share in the ministry of the Ordinary in order that the unity of the diocese – and with it the Church of England – be preserved.
The original motion as passed by the General Synod includes a reminder “that those who dissent from, as well as those who assent to the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate are both loyal Anglicans”, and asks that “additional legal provision consistent with Canon A4” be prepared in order “to establish arrangements that would seek to maintain the highest possible degree of communion with those conscientiously unable to receive the ministry of women bishops.” Despite the questions raised about the interpretation of Canon A4, this clause constitutes a requirement that provision for those who feel themselves in conscience unable to accept the ministry of a bishop who is a woman may not call her orders into question. We believe that the removal of certain functions by statute from women who are consecrated bishops can carry no other inference than that it is legitimate to deny that they are truly ordained. We are therefore of the opinion that the vesting of certain functions in another bishop by statute in the case where the diocesan bishop is a woman would be contrary to the motion passed by Synod in July 2006, as well as discounting the recommendation made by General Synod in July 2008.
We therefore ask that the Revision Committee reconsider its decision.
The Revd Jonathan Clark
For The Board of Affirming Catholicism
84 CommentsUpdated
Colin Coward has posted a progress report, Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill challenges all in the Communion and also Fulcrum and a gay Ugandan journalist comment.
The Anglican Communion and its leaders have reached a critical moment of judgement in its attitude to homosexuality. It is now 19 days since the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 was tabled by David Bahati, the MP for Ndorwa West in Uganda but the leaders of the Communion have remained silent. The only Anglican groups to have responded are those working for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people…
And he has published the text of the letter which he has proposed sending as a joint statement, see the text of the proposed open letter sent by Changing Attitude and Inclusive Church to Anglican Mainstream, Fulcrum, the Church Society and Reform.
…Anglican bishops in this country have long-standing relationships with the Bishops of the Church of Uganda. They have participated in Lambeth Conferences where the bishops committed themselves to speak out against capital punishment (Lambeth 1988 33:3b), and to condemn the irrational fear of homosexuals (Lambeth 1998 1:10d).
While it is well known that, as organisations, we stand on opposing sides over the controversies about homosexuality and the Church, on this occasion we set aside our differences and call on the Church of Uganda to make her voice heard in protest at this draconian legislation and in defence of the civil liberties and dignity of an oppressed minority of the population of Uganda. We further call on our Primates and the English bishops of the three dioceses linked with the Church of Uganda to use their friendship with the Primate and bishops to urge them to publicly oppose the bill.
There is also the statement from the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law which you can read here.
Warren Throckmorton has a number of posts on his blog about this. He also has a Facebook group (h/t PO).
29 Comments