Inclusive Church has today issued this Open letter to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States.
13 CommentsInclusive Church
St John’s Vicarage
Secker St
London SE1 8UF
www.inclusivechurch2.netAn open letter to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States
815 Second Avenue
New York
NY 1001709 June 2010
Dear Bishop Katharine,
We rejoice that in your Pentecost Letter the Episcopal Church has reaffirmed its strong affirmation of gay and lesbian people as part of God’s good creation and your continued commitment to recognising, led by the Spirit, that God is calling and fitting gay and lesbian people to be ordained leaders of the Church.
We regret that the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested in his letter to the Anglican Communion that The Episcopal Church should not be a participant in Ecumenical Dialogue on behalf of the Communion and should serve only as consultants on IASCUFO. The Archbishop may experience ecumenical partners saying they “need to know who it is they are talking to” but our experience is of ecumenical partners saying we are carrying forward this difficult discernment process for the whole church, that they have similar or more contentious issues to deal with themselves, and that they are appreciative of the open way we are facing this issue.
We do not support the Archbishop’s position that only those in agreement with the majority view can be participants as Anglicans in ecumenical dialogue or for that matter any other representative body of the Anglican Communion. Indeed, the Episcopal Church’s diligence in undertaking “deep and dispassionate study of the question of homosexuality, which would take seriously both the teaching of Scripture and the results of scientific and medical research” with gay and lesbian people, as resolved at the 1978 Lambeth Conference, and in upholding their human rights, as emphasised at the 1988 Lambeth Conference, has been in marked contrast to the position of other provinces whose status as representative participants is unchallenged. We ask you to have the courage, commitment and humility to “remain at the table” not just until you are asked to leave but indeed until the table is removed from you. We recognise this is asking you to be in an uncomfortable place but the self-denial being asked of you is not for a gracious withdrawal but a silencing of voices that need to be heard.
The 1979 Anglican Consultative Council Resolution on Human Rights specifically called on member churches “to rigorously assess their own structures, attitudes and modes of working to ensure the promotion of human rights within them, and to seek to make the church truly an image of God’s just Kingdom and witness in today’s world”. In 1990 the ACC resolution on Christian Spirituality urged “every Diocese in our Communion to consider how through its structures it may encourage its members to see that a true Christian spirituality involves a concern for God’s justice in the world, particularly in its own community”. We recognise that developments in the life of the Episcopal Church have been in line with and, in part, a response to this call.
In 2005 The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada were asked to withdraw from the Anglican Consultative Council. Inclusive Church appealed to you not to accede to this request. We argued that The Anglican Consultative Council, consisting of Bishops, Clergy and Laity is currently the most representative body in the Anglican Communion; were you to withdraw your participation it would no longer be a fully representative body. It is our belief that your actions, taken in response to the pastoral needs of gay and lesbian people and the justice of their claim to full participation in the life of the church, do not justify the breaking of “the bonds of communion” or any moves to exclude you from the conciliar life of the Communion. On the contrary it means you bring to the Anglican Consultative Council experience and counsel that would otherwise be absent and without which the Anglican Communion can not progress to a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding sexuality or ever achieve reconciliation.
We hold to that view still today and ask that you resist this process of excluding those Provinces of the Communion most committed to the visible inclusion of all Anglicans in the life of the Church. This process and the proposed Anglican Covenant are not building unity, they are turning disagreement into institutionalised disunity – even inventing mechanisms of exclusion to facilitate the process.
To agree to a voluntary self exclusion would not be to agree to a self- denying ordinance for the good of the whole. Gay Anglicans are part of the Anglican Communion in every province. Some are facing persecution by their own churches because of their courageous witness. By remaining at the table, the Episcopal Church has the opportunity to remind those who serve on representative bodies of their existence and to raise their voice. We ask that you resist this misguided process that is formally excluding those who speak for people the Communion should urgently be seeking to include.
Yours sincerely,
Canon Giles Goddard
Chair, Inclusive Church
www.inclusivechurch2.net
Anglican Journal reports
Revised resolution stands Formula for determining diocesan membership in General Synod approved
The Green Team General Synod to set up database of eco-friendly parishes
Does the church need to ‘regroup?’ Discussions about church structure will continue until 2013
Talk to the hand ‘I don’t think it helps dialogue to remove some people from the conversation’ says U.S. Presiding Bishop
Hope springs Deeper dialogue guides discussions about same-sex blessings
Talking about sex Reports from discernment circles on sexuality get good reviews
Roots among the rocks Compelling play touches hearts of GS delegates
Good cop, bad cop Early results from a 2010 readership survey show that love it or hate it, readers of the Anglican Journal are paying attention
Giving peace a chance It’s ‘my duty,’ to empower the women of Jerusalem, says Shafeeqa Dawani
We noted earlier this “official” resolution on the Anglican Covenant from the Faith Worship and Ministry Committee, to be debated later this week at the Canadian General Synod.
A137: Anglican Communion Covenant
Moved by: The Right Reverend George Bruce, Diocese of Ontario
Seconded by: The Right Reverend Greg Kerr-Wilson, Diocese of Qu’Appelle
Be it resolved that this General Synod:
1. receive the final text of The Covenant for the Anglican Communion;
2. request that materials be prepared under the auspices of the Anglican Communion Working Group, for parishes and dioceses in order that study and consultation be undertaken on The Covenant for the Anglican Communion;
3. direct the Council of General Synod, after this period of consultation and study, to bring a recommendation regarding adoption of the Covenant for the Anglican Communion to the General Synod of 2013.
Two individual members of synod have now put forward their own resolution.
C004: Decision to adopt Anglican Covenant
Moved by: The Rev. Canon Alan T. Perry, diocese of Montreal
Seconded by: The Ven. Ronald Harrison, diocese of New Westminster
Be it resolved that this General Synod:
19 Comments1. Affirm the commitment of the Anglican Church of Canada to full participation in the life and mission of the Anglican Communion; and
2. Will consider a formal decision to adopt the proposed Anglican Covenant after the Church of England has formally adopted it.
Update Tuesday afternoon
Anglican Journal reports
Facing the consequences Anglican Communion takes action against The Episcopal Church
Welcome home Parishes step up to sponsor 50 new refugee families
Springtime Silent Night Sequel to Amazing Grace video project to raise funds for military chaplaincy
A breath of fresh air Fresh Expressions not an either/or proposition, says Canadian team leader
Historic St. Paul’s is full of life Service on June 6 will feature an exciting mix of old and new
Resolutions, resolutions and more resolutions Indigenous people become full voting members of CoGS
Primacy ‘through the lens of mission’ Changes to Canon III expand role of the Primate
Bridge over troubled water Bishop of Jerusalem urges friendship with both Palestine and Israel
The ACoC wesbite has its own Silent Night report: Out of Amazing Grace, a Silent Night.
It also has a report of Sunday afternoon’s service A Journey Just Begun and the full text of the sermon preached by Archbishop Fred Hiltz.
Update
The ACoC wesbite now has its own article on Canon Kearon’s address: Canadian Anglicans commended for contribution to Anglican Communion
updated Monday morning
Sunday was a short day as the Synod only met in the morning. Members attended this in the afternoon and then had the evening off.
Anglican Journal reports of the morning sessions.
Budget blowout Big cuts to national programs, Church House staff planned for 2011
[scroll down to read the text below the video]
Lose the attitude Sporadic commitment to youth ministry damaging, says Steers
Update
More reports on Sunday’s proceedings from Anglican Journal
Constant comment Vision 2019 getting lots of feedback from GS delegates
Birds and Bees Faith, worship and ministry committee conducts a new kind of sex education
No more winners and losers New style of respectful listening and dialogue presented in same-sex blessings debate
And a report of the afternoon celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island: ‘A beautiful, beautiful sight’ Celebration of diocese’s 300th anniversary draws thousands to Exhibition Park
5 CommentsUpdated Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon to update the links (which the SEC website has changed more than once)
Looking ahead to this week’s General Synod, the Scottish Episcopal Church has published two interviews.
The first is with the Primus, the Most Rev David Chillingworth, who speaks about the Anglican Covenant, the Whole Church Mission and Ministry Policy and the Gender Audit.
Interview with the Primus (15 minutes)
The second interview is with the Standing Committee Convener, Professor Patricia Peattie, She highlights the ways the Church is dealing with the financial challenges it faces and reflects on the work of the Standing Committee over the past five years.
Interview with Professor Peattie (13 Minutes)
Anglican Journal reports
Chillin’ with Fred ‘Claim your place on the floor of synod,’ primate tells youth
Falby gets another kick at the can as Prolocutor Election of Deputy Prolocutor to take place later this week
PWRDF gives thanks for 50 years of support ‘Money isn’t half the story,’ says interim director [Note: PWRDF = Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund]
Peace and reconciliation Bishop Suheil Dawani reveals the roots of his ministry in the diocese of Jerusalem
‘We are a people of hope’ Bishop from diocese of Jerusalem tells Synod delegation to keep up the good work
The ACoC website is carrying a daily report: “This unofficial summary of the previous day’s General Synod proceedings is posted daily for members and the general public (in PDF format).”
Daily Report
There are photos on the General Synod Flickr pages.
Some press reports
Alison Auld in Metro News Anglicans hope to avoid rancour in latest discussion of sensitive same-sex issue
Charmaine Noronha of Associated Press Anglican Canadians discuss same-sex blessings
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times that This is a Matthew 25 moment.
Ephraim Radner writes for Fulcrum on Ten Years and a new Anglican Congregationalism.
Guy Dammann asks in The Guardian Celibacy: whose bright idea was that? Christianity’s greatest tragedy is turning a religion founded on a genuine philosophy of love into an excuse for repression.
Sara Maitland writes in The Guardian about A very un-Anglican affair. The Walsingham pilgrimage refreshes the parts that other Anglican practices do not reach.
Peter Townley writes a Credo column in the Times: The Exile is an inspiration that can renew the Church. Will the Church of England survive? We do not know and in a way it is not important.
Christopher Howse writes a Sacred Mysteries column in the Telegraph: Under the spire of Grantham. It’s a joy to learn the language of medieval tracery.
This week’s The Question in The Guardian’s Comment is free belief is What’s wrong with missionaries? Is there a distinction between religious missionaries and people who work to spread human rights on secular grounds?
Here are the responses.
Monday: David Griffiths The free exchange of ideas. If it is done respectfully, the spreading of ideas, values and faith is good and creative
Wednesday: Ophelia Benson The limits of free preach. There is a difference between spreading beliefs and values, and forcing them on people.
Friday: Joel Edwards Missionaries are a force for good. Far from being latter-day colonialists, many missionaries today come from the global south and aren’t obsessed with conversion.
Saturday: Barbara O’Brien A self-defeating zeal. In the words of Ashoka, whoever praises his own religion and condemns others only harms his cause.
Friday’s reports from Anglican Journal
Primate delivers Presidential Address to General Synod delegates
full text of the Presidential Address
Live together with difference, urges Hiltz
Canadian Church allies with Episcopal Church Archbishop Hiltz echoes objections to proposed sanctions
How do we determine CoGS representation? Resolution ‘not perfect but a lot better than what we have now,’ says Archbishop
General Synod sets goal of zero budget deficit by 2012 No more than 10% of funds should come from bequests
Why adopt Vision 2019? Task Force presents top 10 reasons
‘Train is on the track’ for Vision 2019, says Dean Elliot
The laws of attraction Freshly-baked bannock lures many
Anglican Church of Canada website report
Vision 2019 – Living out the Marks of Mission
Press reports
Alison Auld in the Toronto Star Anglicans try again to find same-sex blessings consensus
5 CommentsThe Canadian General Synod held its opening service on Thursday evening. The Anglican Journal reports on the service: Colour and joy mark opening service
There is also a report on the Anglican Church of Canada’s website: Opening Worship Sets Tone for General Synod; Delegates Called to Feel the Winds of God and Chart a New Course, and the text of the sermon preached by Bishop Miguel Tamayo of Cuba and Uruguay.
Some papers have previewed the synod in recent days.
Tobi Cohen in the Montreal Gazette Anglicans aim to defuse gay-marriage issue
Mirko Petricevic in the Record Anglican Synod could be a cool affair
Marites N Sison
in the Anglican Journal Archbishop calls for more courageous engagement
Ian Fairclough in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald Anglicans to debate same-sex marriage
On the Sunday afternoon (6 June) of Synod, members will be attending a diocesan service celebrating 300 years of continuous Anglican worship in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
Monica Graham previews this in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald: Celebrating 300 years of worship
The triennial meeting of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada will take place from 3 to 11 June. Links to all the official information can be found here.
The agenda includes discussion of the Anglican Covenant on Thursday 10 June, and there is this resolution to be debated.
Resolution Number A137
Be it resolved that this General Synod:
1. receive the final text of The Covenant for the Anglican Communion;
2. request that materials be prepared under the auspices of the Anglican Communion Working Group, for parishes and dioceses in order that study and consultation be undertaken on The Covenant for the Anglican Communion;
3. direct the Council of General Synod, after this period of consultation and study, to bring a recommendation regarding adoption of the Covenant for the Anglican Communion to the General Synod of 2013.
This is accompanied by an explanatory note/background information, copied below the fold.
15 CommentsThe Scottish Episcopal Church will be holding its annual General Synod in Edinburgh at the end of next week (10 to 12 June). There are several items on the Church’s website about the meeting.
Agenda and Papers
General Information
One item on the agenda is this motion, to be debated on the afternoon of Thursday 10 June.
Motion 3: That this Synod, recognising the publication of the Anglican Covenant and the need to address the Covenant in a manner which is careful and prayerful, request the Faith and Order Board to advise General Synod 2011 on what process or processes might be appropriate to be followed by this Synod to enable due consideration of the final version of the Covenant by the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Synod members have been supplied with the text of the covenant, but no other papers for this debate.
1 CommentKelvin Holdsworth, the provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, preached this Sermon for Affirmation Scotland at Pentecost.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times Consider the bees, not the wasps.
Ian Bradley writes in a Face to faith column in The Guardian that Liberals must stand together. Liberals across all faiths should create a coalition to turn the fundamentalist tide.
Francisco J. Ayala writes in The Guardian that Religion has nothing to do with science – and vice versa
Maggi Dawn writes about the acceptance of gay clergy in the inside view.
This week’s The Question at The Guardian’s Comment is free Belief is What is theology? Is it all just pointless talk about a non-existent being?
Here are the responses.
Monday: Tina Beattie A bulwark against ignorance. To do theology well is to empower people to resist religion’s co-option by the powers of fanaticism and violence.
Tuesday: Terry Sanderson Theology – truly a naked emperor. In the words of Robert A Heinlein, ‘Theology … is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there.’
Thursday: Nick Spencer Theology illuminates reality. Theology would be worth studying even if God did not exist for then it would tell us about our deepest selves.
Friday: Michael McGhee A critical eye on theology. Whatever else they do, the scriptures, like any other literature, reveal the unconscious ambivalences of their writers.
Terry Sanderson’s article above has prompted this from Andrew Brown: Making sense of Rowan Williams. Theology isn’t trying to produce scientific knowledge. We can all agree on that. But what other sorts of knowledge are there?
11 CommentsWe linked to the announcement on 28 April of the Church Commissioners’ results for 2009 here. Their full Annual Report and Accounts for 2009 have now been published, and summarised in an official press release, copied below.
Helping parishes and dioceses across the Church of England: Church Commissioners publish 2009 Report & Accounts
25 May 2010
The Church Commissioners today publish their full Annual Report and Accounts for 2009.
It follows publication of their 2009 annual results on 28 April, when they announced that they had achieved a 15.6 per cent return on their investments during 2009. The fund outperformed its comparator group over the last year as well as over the past five, 10 and 20 years.*
The results mean that the Commissioners’ current level of support to the Church – including increased pensions costs – can be maintained, in cash terms, for a further three-year period, from 2011 to 2013.
The Commissioners’ asset value has grown to £4.8 billion (from £4.4 billion at 31 December 2008), and the fund has been able to distribute £31 million more each year to the Church than if the investments had performed only at the industry average over the last ten years. The 15.6 per cent return was achieved against a comparator performance of 15.1 per cent for 2009.
The Report shows that annual spending on the Church of England’s mission and ministry is just over £1.2 billion. Around three quarters of this sum comes from dioceses and parishes, mostly through the giving of Church members.
In 2009 the Commissioners contributed £193 million – around 16 pence in every pound – of these costs. The Commissioners’ spending for parish-level work reflects their long-standing commitment to supporting the Church’s ministry where there are needs and opportunities. This support breaks down into two key funding streams – clergy pensions; and a wide range of support for different aspects of the serving ministry.
“The Church Commissioners have had a satisfactory first decade of the twenty-first century”, writes the First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith, in his introduction to the Report. “The bottom line is that the Commissioners’ assets grew at an annual rate of 5.1 per cent, two percentage points better than the average fund and 2.4 per cent faster than inflation or, in other words, by 2.4 per cent per annum in real terms.”
The Commissioners have distributed £31 million more each year to the Church for the past 10 years than if their investments had performed only at the industry average. They operate a distributions policy that smoothes fluctuations in the financial markets, with the aim of providing stable support to their beneficiaries.
The Church Commissioners manage an investment portfolio of £4.8 billion derived from the Church’s historic resources. They play a vital role in supporting the Church of England as a Christian presence in every community by looking after this as a long-term resource, balancing the needs of both current and future generations.
The First Commissioner added: “Don’t let it be thought that the Assets Committee and the staff who carry out the day-to-day work of managing our general fund are at all complacent about the Commissioners’ performance. As well as managing the general fund so as to produce increasing returns without undue risk and in line with ethical considerations, the Commissioners also have to decide how best to meet the needs of their beneficiaries.
“The first step is to declare how much may be distributed during successive three-year periods on the footing that the value of the fund in real terms is maintained through time. This leads to a second question: how best to smooth these distributions so that beneficiaries are not subjected to unsettling volatility in their support from the Commissioners.”
The Commissioners’ total charitable expenditure in 2009 was £190.8 million (£189.1 million in 2008). Total non-pensions expenditure, including support for ministry within dioceses and for the ministry of bishops and cathedrals, totalled £81.6 million in 2009 (£84.8 million), following a reduction in bishops’ and other administrative costs of £3.5 million. Governance costs and other resources expended were £1.8 million in 2009 (£3.6 million).
Dioceses have welcomed the mission development funding for giving them flexibility outside their normal budgetary commitments. It has given them headroom for risk-taking and creativity to enable churches to experiment with different forms of engagement with their communities. Examples include the appointment of a sports ambassador in Southwell and Nottingham diocese, and of a pioneer minister attached to Gloucester cathedral, who has helped build a new church community of 60 starting from none.
“Our task is to develop proposals on how best the Commissioners’ funds should be used to advance the Church’s mission”, Mr Whittam Smith concluded. “We don’t start with a clean sheet. Some distributions are determined by legislation. Other long established distributions are quite properly relied upon by recipients. Substantial sums are made available to poorer dioceses. Yet alongside these existing dispositions, new funding for mission is already bearing fruit.”
Continued below the fold
0 CommentsWe linked earlier to the report of the revision committee on the legislation to enable women to be bishops, and the accompanying draft measure and canon. These papers have now been reissued in standard synod form.
GS 1708-09Y Revision Committee Report Women in the Episcopate
GS 1708A draft Women in the Episcopate measure
GS 1709A Amending Canon No 30
GS 1708AX Explanatory Memorandum to the draft Measure as revised in committee
The last of these is new. It has been prepared by the Legal Office and explains the effect of each clause of the draft measure in understandable, lay language.
There is also a paper from the Business Committee explaining how the draft legislation will be handled at the July meeting of General Synod (and subsequently) and an outline agenda for July.
GS Misc 952 This July’s Synod
Outline Agenda July 2010
Theo Hobson in The Guardian writes about A new recipe for Christianity. Pete Rollins, frustrated with institutional Christianity, has used poetry, song and performance art to rethink religion.
Andrew Brown in The Guardian asks Is Henry VIII in hell? Rowan Williams wonders whether Henry VIII is in hell now, and talks about the Christian reaction to the triumphs of tyranny.
Christopher Howse asks a similar question in the Telegraph: Has Rowan Williams damned Henry VIII to hell? King Henry VIII might be in hell, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested the other day in a sermon.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church times about Teasing out the morality of coalition.
Diarmaid MacCulloch writes in The Guardian Vatican II: Benedict rewrites history. At a speech in Portugal Pope Benedict gave us a rare insight into his feelings about the second Vatican council.
Graham Kings has written this Pentecost article for the Times: Picturing the Spirit. [also online at Fulcrum]
Rebecca Paveley writes in the Times that The bishops won’t go quietly in the struggle over Lords’ reform. The campaign for a fully elected Upper House would mean an end to their presence. So is Parliament still accountable to God or have clergymen in politics become an anachronism?
This week’s The Question at The Guardian’s Comment is free Belief is Who can claim Newman? Cardinal Newman was the greatest English Catholic of the Victorian age. But whose side would he be on today?
Here are the responses.
Monday: Hugh O’Shaughnessy An example for reform. Newman said ‘To live is to change’. A timely reminder to those churchmen who love power and the status quo.
Tuesday: Luke Coppen Newman’s universal message. Gandhi’s love of Newman’s hymn ‘Lead, kindly Light’ proves that the cardinal is not just for Catholics.
Thursday: Martin Pendergast Newman’s democratic church. Newman’s legacy is an inclusive, diverse church, with a theology rooted in the practices of the community.
Friday: Francis Davis A distracting debate. Catholics often fight their present battles using scripts from the past. But this pretence is a waste of time.
The House of Bishops of the Church of England has issued this statement this afternoon.
30 CommentsWomen in the episcopate – House of Bishops’ statement
At its meeting in York on 17/18 May, the House of Bishops discussed the Revision Committee’s report on the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops.
The House noted that the forthcoming meeting of the General Synod in July would be a key moment in the legislative process when all 470 members of Synod would have the opportunity to debate the report and proceed to a clause by clause consideration of the draft Measure and Amending Canon. The House believed that the Synod would be helped in its task by the clarity and thoroughness of the Committee’s analysis.
As previous debates have shown, a majority of the members of the House strongly support the admission of women to the episcopate. At the same time there remains a strong commitment on the part of the House to preserve an honoured place within the Church of England for those unable to receive this development. There continues to be a variety of views within the House over the best way of achieving that, while enabling women fully to exercise their new ministry.
The July Synod has the potential to be one of the most demanding meetings of the Synod for many years. It will, in the view of the House, be an occasion when all concerned will need to listen with particular care to those with views that differ from their own and to acknowledge the passion and sincerity with which those views are held.
The House is aware that there are those who believe that the present legislative process does not have the potential to lead to a satisfactory conclusion and that a better outcome is more likely to be achieved in some years’ time. Most members of the House consider, however, that it is crucial to keep faith with the present process. They see no grounds for believing that the issues with which the Church is grappling will become significantly easier to resolve with the passage of time.
The July debates will provide the chance for the full Synod to decide whether it wishes to make significant changes to the draft legislation, including whether to retain an approach based on a statutory code of practice or to support amendments giving effect to some other approach. What happens thereafter will depend on what Synod decides. On any basis it will be at least another two years before the mind of the Church of England can be determined at the final approval stage.
The House accepted the recommendation of the Revision Committee that, if the proposal for a statutory code of practice is retained in July, work to develop a fresh draft of the code should start soon thereafter. The House will, in those circumstances, establish a group, constituted consistently with the Committee’s recommendation.
Note
The report of the Revision Committee was published on 8 May.
Updated again Saturday
Michael Perham, the bishop of Gloucester, gave an address about the Anglican Communion to his clergy on 6 May 2010. Here is an extract.
I think there are some things here we need to explore sensitively together. In doing so I want to acknowledge the honesty and courage of my friend, James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, who has publicly told his own story of moving his position on the issue of homosexuality over recent years and urged the Church not to allow this issue to divide us in a way that breaks communion. And I also need to acknowledge that I have long been in a different place and so have not had to travel as difficult a path as he has to be in the place where I now am. My own understanding has long been that the Church of England’s current stance is not tenable long term, but that, while we engage, struggle, with these issues, it must be task of the bishop to uphold our agreed policy, with all its weaknesses, and to try to hold the Church together while we tackle the things that divide us. I don’t believe I can move away from that position, though I need to share with you some of my discomfort.
It is difficult to know where to begin, but I think the best place is with the categorising of first and second order issues. I am quite clear that the issues on which the creeds make a firm statement – God as trinity, the divinity of Christ, the death and the resurrection of the Lord, the role of the Spirit and more – are first order issues on which there can be no change in what the Church teaches. They are fundamental to the Christian faith. I am equally clear that there are second order issues, which are important, and where interpretation of the tradition needs to be careful and prayerful, but where nevertheless individual churches and provinces need to be free to define doctrine in the way that seems to them to be in accordance with the mind of Christ.
The full address is a 40kB Word document and can be downloaded here: Bishop Michael’s address on the Anglican Communion. Read the whole address for Bishop Michael’s views on first and second order issues, the Episcopal Church, his own diocesan triangular partnership with Western Tanganyika and El Camino Real, the Anglican covenant, and the status in England of clergy ordained abroad by a woman bishop.
Updates
An html copy of this address can now be found here on this website, and over at this website.
For Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves’ comments on this, see below the fold.
29 Commentsupdated again Monday morning
Diane Jardine Bruce and Mary Douglas Glasspool were consecrated bishops suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles yesterday.
Pat McCaughan reports this for Episcopal Life Online: Diane Bruce, Mary Glasspool consecrated bishops in joyous celebration in Los Angeles diocese.
Here are other reports, some reporting on the service and others previewing it.
Mitchell Landsberg in the Los Angeles Times L.A. region’s first two female Episcopal bishops are ordained
Arthur Hirsch in The Baltimore Sun Beyond the label
Gay Episcopal bishop-elect prepares for historic move to Los Angeles
Reuters U.S. Episcopal Church consecrates lesbian bishop
CNN Episcopal Church consecrates first openly lesbian bishop
Associated Press Episcopal church ordains its 2nd openly gay bishop
BBC US Church ordains lesbian bishop Mary Glasspool
Martin Beckford in the Telegraph First lesbian bishop to be consecrated by Anglican church in America
Jonathan Wynne-Jones comments in the Telegraph that Lesbian bishop proves that liberals have won the battle over gay clergy.
Updates
Giles Whittell and Ruth Gledhill in the Times Anglican rift deepens over Episcopalian ordination of lesbian bishop
Ruth Gledhill also has a Commentary article, For the sake of God, Anglican Church must put aside its differences.
13 CommentsGRAS (the Group for the Rescinding of the Act of Synod) have issued this press release.
GRAS For women as bishops, against discrimination
GRAS welcomes the May 2010 report of the Revision Committee mandated by the General Synod to set out the draft legislation to enable women to become bishops in the Church of England.
The vast majority of Anglo-Catholic priests and lay people in the Church of England (as well as the rest of the Church) support women becoming bishops with the many gifts they will bring. However as a general rule there is no future in trying to keep people in an organisation which they are threatening to leave, so GRAS hopes that the eventual principal Code of Practice will follow a vision of a Church which is fair to all who have decided to remain in it, whatever their views, making provision for conscience where necessary, but preventing any discrimination. A two-tier episcopacy would be totally unacceptable.
While GRAS, at first reading of the report from the Revision Committee, is content with the proposals, it is hoped that Bishops will not dilute the principal Code of Practice to include in their diocesan Codes of Practice anything which has been previously turned down by the synod, or rejected by the Revision Committee. It is very important that women are appointed as bishops on exactly the same terms as men with no impediment to their episcopal role.
Furthermore any rights given should be reciprocal – available equally to those who ask for women’s ministry in areas where this is not being offered as much as to those who oppose the ordination of women
GRAS believes that to give credibility to the proposed Code of Practice it is vital that the committee or group appointed to prepare the guidelines should draw at least one third of its members from among senior women in the Church.
2 Comments