Ben Bradshaw’s bill to “enable clergy of the Church of England to conduct same sex marriages on Church of England premises in certain circumstances; and for connected purposes” was given a first reading in the House of Commons yesterday under the Ten Minute Rule. The bill was opposed by the Second Church Estates Commissioner (Andrew Selous), although he did not force a division of the House. As with most ten minute rule bills this one has no chance of becoming law.
The Hansard verbatim record of the debate is here, and there is this report in the Church Times.
36 CommentsJustin Welby was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury ten years ago this week.
Giles Fraser UnHerd Justin Welby can’t read the room
Matthieu Lasserre La Croix International The man who’s trying to halt the Church of England’s decline
Tim Wyatt Religion Media Centre Gentle Justin, the archbishop who has steered the CofE through a troubled decade
Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News The Unholy Alliance
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love “I have come that you may have life, life in all its fulness”
Rachel Mann The Christian Century Twisting words
“What does it mean to protect women and girls?”
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church A New Dean – a New Beginning for Christ Church?
24 CommentsAndrew Goddard has gathered the detailed voting data from February’s General Synod debate on Living in Love and Faith into a convenient Airtable database format and has written a Narrative Account & Analysis* of these votes. The latter includes at the end advice on how to use the database for your own analysis.
He has also published this series of three articles on Fulcrum taking stock of where we are now in the LLF process.
LLF: Recent Past, Present & Future – Part One – Looking back – The Bishops’ Response to LLF and Synod’s Response to the Bishops
LLF: Recent Past, Present & Future – Part Two – Looking at the issues
LLF: Recent Past, Present & Future – Part Three – Looking ahead – where do we go from here?
* Note: the tables in the The House of Laity section on pages 13 and 14 of the Account & Analysis incorrectly refer to clergy instead of laity.
26 CommentsFr Ron Smith, who contributed more than 5000 comments to Thinking Anglicans, died on 10 March 2023, aged 93. He was a priest in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Bosco Peters, a fellow New Zealander, has written this appreciation: Fr Ron Smith RIP.
‘Sioux Grey Wolf’ Psephizo Pandemic Pandemonium And The Purple Powers
34 CommentsUpdate
Press release from Christ Church Appointment of first female Dean of Christ Church the Rev Canon Professor Sarah Foot
Press release from the Diocese of Oxford Appointment of first female Dean of Christ Church
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office
Appointment of the Dean of Christ Church: 16 March 2023
The King has approved that The Reverend Canon Sarah Foot be appointed Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1st July 2023.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 16 March 2023
The King has approved that The Reverend Canon Sarah Foot, Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Oxford, be appointed Dean of Christ Church, Oxford from 1st July 2023 in succession to the Very Reverend Martyn Percy.
Background
Canon Professor Foot has been the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford since 2007. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge (BA; MA; PhD), served as a Lay Canon at Christ Church from 2007-2017, and as a Residentiary Canon since her ordination in 2017.
Previously, Professor Foot was a Research Fellow then Fellow and Tutor at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1989-93, then successively Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Sheffield 1993-2007, where she was Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts 2005-7.
She served as Chair of the Board of Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University 2011-14. She writes on women in religion, medieval monasticism, and the early history of the Church in England, and is currently working on a study of the life and work of the Venerable Bede.
45 CommentsCharles Read ViaMedia.News What is The Church of England Evangelical Council Up To? Some Autobiographical Reflections
Ed Watson Earth and Altar Who is Rowan Williams?
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church What is going on at the Top Level of the CofE over Safeguarding?
The Living Church Remembrances of Frank Griswold, 25th Presiding Bishop
0 CommentsPress release from the Church of England
LLF Next Steps Group meeting on 3 March 2023
14/03/2023
The meeting appraised and reviewed the outcomes of the Living in Love and Faith debate and motion passed at General Synod in February and considered the scope of work required between now and the next General Synod in July 2023.
The Next Steps Group then considered and refined the agenda of the forthcoming College of Bishops meeting at the end of March. They noted that it will be important for the bishops to listen to the feedback from General Synod, the response of the wider church to the decisions made, as well as to each other’s reflections before moving on to the consider how the work of drafting the Pastoral Guidance, providing pastoral reassurance, refining the Prayers of Love and Faith and establishing the Pastoral Consultative Group will be taken forward.
With the remit of the Next Steps group now having reached its conclusion, the bishops went on to discuss the necessary phases of work after the March College of Bishops and the composition of the working groups that will take forward the work that will need to be done for the July Synod.
The meeting ended in prayer.
1 CommentThe King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Matthew Porter to the Suffragan See of Bolton, in the Diocese of Manchester.
Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office. There is more detail on the diocesan website.
Suffragan Bishop of Bolton: 15 March 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr. Matthew Porter to the Suffragan See of Bolton, in the Diocese of Manchester.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 15 March 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr. Matthew Porter, Vicar of St Michael le Belfrey, in the Diocese of York to the Suffragan See of Bolton, in the Diocese of Manchester, in succession to The Right Reverend Mark Ashcroft following his retirement.
Background
Matthew holds degrees from the universities of Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield and Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, USA and trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He served his title at Christ Church, Dore, in the Diocese of Sheffield, and was ordained priest in 1997. Matthew was appointed Vicar at St Chad’s, Woodseats in 2000 and additionally served as Director of Curate Training for the Diocese of Sheffield from 2005.
In 2009 Matthew was appointed Associate Minister at St Michael le Belfrey, in the Diocese of York, and has served as Vicar there since 2010. Additionally, Matthew has served on the boards of Cranmer Hall, Durham and St Hild College, Leeds, is an author, and was appointed as Honorary Chaplain to the Queen and then King in 2022.
10 CommentsIan Paul Psephizo Five good reasons for not giving
Martine Oborne ViaMedia.News Blackburn: What We Still Don’t Know
Drew Nathaniel Keane The Living Church
Sunday Liturgy without a Priest: Part One (Communion by Extension)
Sunday Liturgy Without A Priest: Part Two (Morning Prayer and Antecommunion)
Phil Hooper Earth & Altar Who is Athanasius of Alexandria?
50 CommentsThe Right Reverend Peter Eagles, the Bishop of Sodor and Man, has announced that he is to retire from the role on 28 October 2023.
45 CommentsBosco Peters Liturgy Deconstruction Part 1
Philip Zoutendam Earth & Altar Who is Thomas Cranmer?
One of my fellow editors at Thinking Anglicans has written this.
Simon Kershaw Thinking Allowed The Coronation Liturgy
Jasvinder Sanghera, Survivor Advocate Independent Safeguarding Board Response to SCIE report on safeguarding practices into Lambeth Palace
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Trying to be heard. How Lambeth Palace has let down the Abused in their search for Justice
See also links in the comments to our article Lambeth Palace safeguarding audit published.
The Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, has announced that he will retire at the end of August 2023.
56 CommentsApril Alexander ViaMedia.News Learning from history: LLF and the ordination of women
Helen King ViaMedia.News Born-Again Virginity?
Pierre Whalon God does not exist
Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Review Time
Martyn Percy Prospect Magazine Why Charles’s coronation could be a spiritual flop
Pete Broadbent Ecclesiastical Law Journal Reflections on the Workings of General Synod
[no longer behind a paywall]
The Rt Revd Dr Lee Rayfield, the Bishop of Swindon, has announced that he will retire on Sunday 30 April 2023.
8 CommentsAlice Goodman Prospect Clerical life: Will the Church of England survive?
“According to the census less than half the population is now Christian. But in my parish, I still see parents passing their faith down to their children”
A new Resources Guide is now available from the Lambeth Conference team.
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Agents of contamination and decomposition – transcript of the vlog: Unadulterated Love episode 3
8 CommentsThe electronic voting results from this month’s General Synod are now available online and are linked below.
LLF voting
The proposed amendments and the original motion from the LLF debate are in Order Paper V.
Final motion (as amended by 67) Item 11
Amendments to Item 11
Item 44
Item 45
Item 51
Item 52
Item 53
Item 54
Item 55
Item 56
Item 57
Item 58
Item 59
Item 60
Item 61
Item 62
Item 64
Item 65
Item 67
Item 68
Other electronic votes
Item 10 (motion on Cost of Living)
Item 69 (amendment to motion on Governance Review)
Item 502 (final approval of Amending Canon No. 42)
Item 506 (final approval of the Diocesan Stipends Funds (Amendment) Measure)
Item 514 (amendment to the Draft Diocesan Stipends Funds (Amendment) Measure)
Item 521 (amendment to the Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure)
Item 523 (That clause 2 stand part of the Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure)
Item 530 (amendment to the Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure)
Christopher Cocksworth (Bishop of Coventry) The Living Church Living in Love and Faith: Where do things stand? Where do we go from here?
Andrew Rumsey Down in The Effra Cold Snap
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love GSFA and CEEC persecute LGBTQIA+ people who contaminate the Church
131 CommentsNew safeguarding data from a three-year period has been published by the Church of England today. The data is for new concerns and allegations reported to the Church in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and relates to all its work, not just to Church Officers. The reports range from concerns about possible risk to direct allegations of abuse. There is more detail in the press release.
6 CommentsThe Rt Revd Rob Wickham, the Bishop of Edmonton, has today been appointed the new Group Chief Executive of Church Urban Fund (CUF). He will take up the role of CEO on 10 July 2023.
There are announcements on the London diocesan website and the CUF website.
4 CommentsA Monument of Fame (Lambeth Palace Library blog) Back to the future: the Church Commissioners’ first computer
Martin Sewell Surviving Church Independent Safeguarding in the CofE. ‘When you give, let go’.
Simon Richiardi Surviving Church I kissed dating goodbye. Surviving a Church that practised ‘Biblical Marriage.’
K-Anonymous Surviving Church Innocent until proved guilty, except in the Church of England
Maggi Dawn Church Times God has many names: a solution to the inclusive-language dilemma
Andrew Nunn Looking back [at eighteen years on the General Synod]
Savitri Hensman ViaMedia.News Being Invisible While Anglicans Debate Marrying Same-Sex Couples
20 Comments