Dave Walker has this view of the Synod at his Church Times blog.
The Seminal has this Saturday Art article: William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Emma John asks in The Guardian Should women ever be bishops? It’s an issue which could result in schism and put the future of the church in jeopardy. Four women who would be in line for the top job, reveal why it’s time for Christians to put their differences behind them.
Ellen Painter Dollar writes on the her.meneutics blog: Confessions of a Church-Skipping Mom. Is it better to attend church burnt out and stressed, or occasionally stay home but miss corporate worship?
Theo Hobson writes in The Guardian about A new model Christianity. The “emerging church” movement may offer something more than new manners and styles if it breaks free of establishment.
Albert Radcliffe argues in The Guardian that The Bible is an open book. The Bible does not end moral debates on gay rights and the role of women. Its pronouncements are there to open discussion.
Jack Valero writes in The Guardian about The sad demise of celibate love. It is symptomatic of modern values that we conclude Cardinal Newman’s intense love for a man meant he was a homosexual.
Philip Ritchie writes on his blog about Gossip: cancer of the community.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that Turkish scars need healing
Graham Kings asks at Fulcrum Should Christians share Christ with People of other Faiths?
I think again Ritchie is off the mark here; one has to ask oneself – when is gossip, rumour etc. most virulent and pervasive? The more control, the more gossip. I witnessed this in the Soviet Union, where the wildest rumours would emerge and spread. Where there is openness and justice, rumour has about as much chance as a snowball in hell. When is the CoE going to wake up! Every Sunday I hear prayers for our leaders: well, the leaders have been chosen, and their mandate is equality before the law. As another poster has said – under no… Read more »
“It’s creating two different types of bishop based on gender” says Rev Lucy Winkett, Canon Precentor of St. Paul’s Cathedral (London, UK), “which in any other area of public life would be called discrimination. We would be enshrining in our very fabric a sinse that women are not as much of a bishop as men are.” – article by Emma John, ‘Guardian’ – Canon Lucy in only saying what many of us outside of the Church of England (in the Provinces) think about the possibility of following up on the amendments threatened to passage of the Motion for the Ordination… Read more »
I, too, found Ritchie’s comment somewhat off. Writing from thepoint of view of TEC, which has a much moretransparent process, I do think that excessive secrecy only breeds speculation and innuendo. There is a difference between confidentitality, which is meant to protect, and secrecy, which is meant to hide. As for the attacks on ++Rowan, I have been guilty of name-calling in the past, which I regret. I will not, however, refrain from calling a spade a spade. I’m sure his family does hurt. My now retired Bishop Peter James Lee endured far more vitriolic public commentary, to his face… Read more »
I asked,idly I suppose, when was the last time the ABC had convened an open meeting to explain himself and answer questions from members of the C of E and/or the general public, I was being silly, I know. But does he ever have press conferences when he invites questions? Our +Katharine does do press interviews, usually one of one, but she also meets with smallish groups to answer questions. She does this fairly routinely when she visits dioceses and when she is overseas. And of course since she is not the head of an established religion, there is likely… Read more »
“Should Christians Share Christ with People of Other Faiths?”
We did. It was called The Crusades. (Later, “Colonialism.”)
I find Jack Valero’s piece “The sad demise of celibate love” misguided, if not outright distasteful and prejudicial. The “-sexual” in homosexual refers to *same-gender* of a relationship (or persons in it), NOT to erotic attractions or acts! If Newman was in a loving life-commitment w/ another of his same gender, then he WAS *homosexual*, Full Stop. It’s nobody’s business whether his life w/ Ambrose St. John included erotic acts or not (Well, OK: the business of their RC bishop, having taken a Vow of Celibacy—in contradistinction, I might add, to CofE clergy in civil partnerships today!) I recently read… Read more »
My response would be: “Share Christ? Certainly. Force him upon others? Never.”
“We did. It was called The Crusades. (Later, “Colonialism.”)”
Unfair, and (I think) also untrue; surely the Crusades weren’t an evangelization strategy, but had as its religious excuse the protection of Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. It was also many other things – a way to occupy surplus young men and an excuse for rape, pillage and murder, among them. But to associate evangelization with it won’t fly.
I agree with JCF about the homophobic Valero article. There used to be a portrait of JHN’s beloved Richard Hurrell Froude in the “monastery” in Littlemore – a stunningly beautiful Dorian Gray. This has now mysteriously disappeared, in what I suspect is part of the conservative Catholic move to erase all traces of JHN’s homosexual disposition. There is no evidence that JHN had strong or passionate feelings about any women, other than a sister who died young. JHN had a mischievous and wily side, as is seen in the way he outwitted the grave-robbers by specifying that his coffin was… Read more »
I urge allcomers, and please will they urge their friends and their friends friends, … , to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest (my fellow parishioner) Albert Radcliffe’s article on CIF Belief. According to one comment over there, “This article should be on the National Curriculum.”
Bill Dilworth writes “surely the Crusades weren’t an evangelization strategy” — ironically reflecting my point that Christians in the past have tended to attack, suppress, or supplant other faiths rather than to share with them. But evangelizing is probably what the Fulcrum piece was about — I just reacted to the headline, which seemed oblivious to history.