Riazat Butt reports on Sunday’s events in the Guardian Church crisis: Simmering dissent, pleas for unity and grass skirts in the aisles as Anglicans meet
Ruth Gledhill reports them in The Times Archbishop of Canterbury says: ‘Now we must work out what is really important’ and Joanna Sugden wrote The shindig begins with nerves and half-naked dancers
George Pitcher in the Telegraph has Bishops boycotting Lambeth Conference ‘are weakening church’s efforts to resolve crisis’
For the BBC Nick Higham asks Will the conference bring communion?
And the Radio 4 breakfast programme Today had Theo Hobson and Nick Baines discussing the conference, go here for the 6 minute segment at 0840.
James Macintyre in the Independent has Bishops back plea for ‘inclusive communion’
I’m a liberal American who continues to be not impressed with Riazat Butt. There is certainly more going on here than she reports.. I thought the Guardian was liberal? Apparantly not?
R. Butt (Guardian): “The Right Rev Bob Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, could be deposed because he is unhappy with the progressive agenda pursued by the US Episcopal Church.” Come now, Ms. Butt: you’re swallowing Duncan’s Kool-aid. There are a significant number of TEC bishops who are (in your terms) “unhappy with the progressive agenda pursued by the US Episcopal Church”. They, unlike Duncan, are NOT facing deposition. No, Duncan may well be deposed, ***because he was found to have abandoned communion*** w/ TEC, and its House of Bishops (to whom he has made oaths, at his consecration). He has… Read more »
Apart from her guess that the bishop of Colombo was a “liberal” – I have to say the report from Ruth in the Times is very good.
Riazat Butt’s piece in the Guardian is surprisingly poor. The headlines scream ‘Crisis!’, and at every point she (and the headline and caption writers) contrive to slant the story in the direction of TROUBLE. The photograph below the headline shows several bishops, including (I think) Mary Gray-Reeves nearest the camera, leaving the Cathedral or chatting together outside the doors. The caption reads, “A female bishop leaves the Cathedral after the Lambeth Conference service.” As though the sight of a female bishop were so bizarre as to render her colleagues invisible or not worthy of mention. Emphasis is laid on the… Read more »
Yes, Mary Clara good thoughtful reflections on Ms Butts work. I hesitated myself having slagged off her last piece – quite “off the wall” misleading in its inaccuracies. In trying to find a voice distinct from Mr Bates she seems to have abandoned good sense and careful judgment for a basin of bitch, stodge, and shallow opinions.
Other religious correspondents do this line with much greater panache than she – they have years of experience – her early promise as a fresh independent voice seems to have faded.
How many times do I have to remind you that reporters have no control over headlines, and in this case over picture captions?
It turns out by the way, that the words chanted to the Buddhist music were in fact Christian, Trinitarian words. One needs to be cautious when criticising something sung in a foreign language.