Updated Wednesday and Thursday
Official summary of the day’s business: General Synod Feb 15: Tuesday afternoon
Today’s Questions and Answers (but not the supplementaries) are online.
Press reports
John Bingham The Telegraph Personal chauffeurs and episcopal mansions – life for Church of England’s good shepherds
Church of England: Rural churches could disappear within ten years
Press Association (in The Guardian) Church of England questioned over ‘lavish’ spending on bishops’ homes
General synod cartoon by Dave Walker
Update
Carey Lodge Christian Today Archbishop Justin Welby: Evangelism is vital to the Church
Jack Sommers Huffington Post Church Of England Warned It Could Disappear From Parts Of Britain Within A Decade
Love Dave Walker’s cartoon. And recycling from 2010, no need to rush into something new!
I’m surprised that only 11 out of 42 Diocesan Bishops have chauffeurs – I had imagined that they all had one, who are the lucky 11? Next you’ll be telling me that Episcopal Butlers have been given the push but that I can’t believe, for who will open the palace door when ordinands come a knocking?
Pam – I’m here at Synod and so far as I can see Dave Walker’s cartoon is as relevant today as it was five years ago.
@Father David: I’m reminded of the story of a priest friend who joined the Ordinariate a couple of years ago. It is reported that the first words he ever spoke to the local RC Bishop were “bloody hell, you answer your own door!”…
Perhaps the most famous CofE Butler was Ernest Alexander who served no fewer than four Bishops of Durham at Auckland Castle. Indeed the saintly Evangelical bishop Handley Moule died in his arms. He then went on to assist Hensley Henson, Alwyn Williams and Michael Ramsey. When Michael and Joan Ramsey arrived at Auckland Alexander discreetly asked them for their silverware only to be told that they had none!
I still can’t stop laughing! “Mrs Anneliese Barrell (Exeter) to ask the Chair of the House of Bishops: Q40 What is ‘the Wash House’… and to whom is it responsible?” I think there are a lot of us wanting an answer to this question – and not the obfuscation provided by the Bishop of Ely either.
Jo Spreadbury for President! If you listen to the audio feed of Tuesday’s Q&As, the supplementary Jo asked to Q15 was extremely revealing. It drew a tacit admission (albeit grudging, defensive and threatening) from the Archbishop of Canterbury that what we have suspected all along is true: that at the St Edmundsbury and Exeter CNCs, the members were instructed by the Archbishop to black-ball Jeffrey John. Jo asked if the Archbishop intended to maintain this unconstitutional behaviour, and was met with assurances that he, John Sentamu and Caroline Boddington would root out future breaches of confidentiality. Papal authority is alive… Read more »
Jo Spreadbury is very brave and deserves our grateful thanks for asking what no-one else has dared to (least of all other bishops)! I found the exchange not so much papal as positively Putinesque.
Heartiest thanks to Michael Chancellor for alerting us to this item. I absolutely agree that this woman priest showed exemplary integrity and even courage in posing this question. I am sure Father David, while he may doubt her orders, will applaud her conduct. As for our Archbishop of Canterbury, MC’s description is again completely just – and deeply, deeply disturbing.
I find Michael Chancellor’s Comment to be the most disturbing revelation that I have ever read on the TA Blog. I do hope that this disclosure is not true in its assertion that Lambeth and Bishopthorpe have issued some sort of secret decree preventing Jeffrey John from becoming a Diocesan Bishop. Jo Spreadbury has shewn much courage in publicly raising this deeply disturbing allegation.
Well done, Father David. I knew your heart was true in this matter.
Well done also the people of St Alban’s for supporting their great Dean.
How come our fine religious correspondents in the national press have not picked the Jo / Justin exchange up?
You can hear the exchange here https://soundcloud.com/the-church-of-england/questions-tuesday-10th-february?in=the-church-of-england/sets/general-synod-tuesday-10th It comes at 22.00 If no-one else has already done so, I am happy to send an email to Caroline Wyatt (she is a great Welby fan, though) and Ruth Gledhill. But I assume they both read this? In the meantime, I hope Jo Spreadbury is being well supported. I am left wondering why ‘certain’ bishops (they know who they are!) have not got together and challenged the Archbishops over this wholly unacceptable discrimination. It makes Sentamu, especially, look decidedly dodgy when he has worked so tirelessly for justice for ethnic minorities, women… Read more »
Well, what can one do? I have written directly to several bishops, deans, and Anglican theologians, challenging them in person. The former include the bishop of Sheffield, whom hitherto I have regarded as honourable. We shall see.
If ever there was a case for greater openness and wider scrutiny in the appointment of bishops it was surely given in Archbishop Welby’s vacuous response to Jo Spreadbury’s question. If “a close eye” is to be kept on any breach of confidentiality in the CNC an even closer eye needs to be kept on what is a gross injustice in vetoing a highly gifted man of singular scholastic and pastoral talents from preferment to a diocesan bishopric.