Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Three Questions for Christ Church and the Diocese of Oxford
Sophie Grace Chappell ViaMedia.News Arguing with a Madman? Cranks, Trolls, Consistency, and ‘Come off it’
Jonathan Chaplin Law & Religion UK Should the Church of England be disestablished?
Nineveh Safeguarding in Nineveh
A Critique of the proposals of the Independent Safeguarding Board
A few observations about Jonathan Chaplin’s piece. There was some commentary about the status of the queen as a ‘defender of faith’ over the weekend (such as here https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/religion-still-has-a-profound-role-to-play-in-the-monarchy-93kmk7j2h or here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/06/04/nation-gives-thanks-queen/), and this has been doing the rounds since 1994. Whether other faiths would welcome this de haut en bas ‘protection’ is another matter. If little was said about establishment it is perhaps a signifier that the status of the Church is now so marginal that it is not something that arouses much contention beyond the NSS, or those frequent BTL comments in the newspapers which want an end… Read more »
‘If it were put to a referendum, I doubt the Church would command the support of much more than 10-20% of voters’ I think that’s a dangerous way of thinking – the potential for Establishment to be weaponised by the harder of thinking is enormous it seems to me. You could campaign against disestablishment quite easily amongst the Spitfires, bulldogs, Leave, etc constituency purely on sentiment. More dangerously, as a badge of ‘us’ rather than ‘them’ – though I doubt many would be crass enough to say that out loud. Even, perhaps *especially* amongst the great majority who’ve not been… Read more »
The ‘Refutation’ document in response to the recent Christ Church website statement deserves to be read by all CofE clergy and Synod members. If the claims made there are accurate, then big questions need answers from Oxford Diocese, its bishop and cathedral canons. https://t.co/Vx6ZobQ0ck Only a judge or QC-led review can examine the scope of this and has sufficient power to summon evidence from all involved, including the lawyers and laundries who helped weaponize Church of England processes across five years. A judicial figure is required with no connection to WSLaw or Nobody’s Friends. A tweet on this was liked… Read more »
https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/opinion-8-june-2022/#comment-447725
This observation from Sophie Grace Chappell’s article is interesting,”In the academy today, partly because of the bureaucratic pressure to mark research territory, we hear plenty about inconsistency, but rather less about ‘Come off it’.” One of the things I do to keep up with new developments in my field is read journal articles. I discovered a long time ago that it is not only my colleagues and the bureaucrats of ‘churchland’ who are largely disinterested in new research. Most articles are read only by a small handful of researchers as well. See below, Prof, no one is reading you. Citing… Read more »
And how many Non-Disclosure Agreements [aka ‘muzzles’] have been issued regarding ‘Percygate’ – forcing some to write under pseudonyms?
Apologies – this is my reply to ‘Gilo’
Thanks for the clarification. -Rod
Richard, I’m assuming this reply is not intended for me or my comment above?
Three more questions for the Christ Church trustees. (1) How many millions of the charitable funds entrusted to you did you spend on legal fees, PR agencies, detectives and so forth in pursuit of your disputes with Martyn Percy? (2) Were you aware that those funds had been given to you in trust for quite different purposes? (3) What justification do you give to the people from whom you solicited those funds for the way in which you spent them?
I welcome the Nineveh web site. My personal hope is that it develops in its challenge – speaking the truth and challenging many of the Bishops of the Church of England.
The format of asking questions is clear, sharp and focussed.
Further questions for Oxford Diocese.
Apparently they sent Diocesan Synod members a link to the Christ Church statement
https://t.co/Aa4kC43FOr
on ‘Percygate’ …
but not a copy of the ‘Refutations’ which can be found here:
https://t.co/3np0iCw5m0
What is the Diocese so keen to hide that they align themselves with Christ Church in this way?
To be fair, the Christ Church statement is produced and published by one of the parties to the dispute; the Refutations document is of unknown authorship but is not ostensibly by one of the parties. The two documents have quite different provenances. Based on your personal knowledge you may believe that the Refutations document is accurate but without a firm provenance connecting it to facts, it is reasonable for the Diocese not to promote it.
A valid point, Kate. However the church is not good at presenting balanced debate on such issues. The additional Refutations document would assist debate. The diocese could have sent out the Christ Church document and the Refutations, saying about the latter, that it presents a different view – although its provenance is not clear.