The Scottish Episcopal Church is holding the annual meeting of its General Synod from Thursday to Saturday this week (12 to 14 June) in Edinburgh.
There are several items on the Church’s website about the meeting.
Agenda and Papers
General Information
Preview
For an overview of the synod’s activities see here.
On Thursday afternoon the synod will debate these three motions on the proposed Anglican Covenant.
Motion 3: That this Synod affirm an ‘in principle’ commitment to the Covenant process at this time (without committing itself to the details of any text).
Motion 4: That this Synod ask the Faith and Order Board to respond to the ‘three questions’ in the letter from the Joint Standing Committee, incorporating this Synod’s response to Question 1.
Motion 5: That this Synod:
a) note the St Andrew’s draft Covenant, and ask dioceses to discuss it and submit comments to the Faith and Order Board by 31 December 2008;
b) ask the Faith and Order Board to prepare a response to the Anglican Communion on the draft Covenant, taking due cognisance of the views of this Synod and of dioceses.
The three questions referred to in motion 4 are:
1. Is the Province able to give an “in principle” commitment to the Covenant process at this time (without committing itself to the details of any text)?
2. Is it possible to give some indication of any synodical process which would have to be undertaken in order to adopt the Covenant in the fullness of time?
3. In considering the St Andrew’s Draft for an Anglican Covenant, are there any elements which would need extensive change in order to make the process of synodical adoption viable?
For links to the St Andrew’s draft and related documents see here.
7 CommentsUpdated Monday 16 June and Monday 23 June
Papers for next month’s meeting of General Synod are starting to appear online. Links will be added to the list below as they become available.
Agenda
Friday 4 July
Saturday 5 July
Sunday 6 July
Monday 7 July
Tuesday 8 July
Special Agenda I – Legislative Business
Notice Paper 1
Notice Paper 2
Notice Paper 4
Synod Papers
The scheduled day for debate is appended. Starred items will only be debated if a member requests a debate.
GS 1637B Draft Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure [Saturday]
GS 1637Z report by the Steering Committee
GS 1682A Draft Church of England Pensions (Amendment) Measure [Saturday]
GS 1683A Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure [Saturday]
GS 1683Y report by the Revision Committee
GS 1685 Women Bishops: Report Of The Women Bishops Legislative Drafting Group [Saturday and Monday]
GS 1685A Report From The House Of Bishops [Monday]
GS 1685B Note from the Secretary General and revised Annex G
GS 1686 Appointment Of Chair Of The Church Of England Pensions Board [Sunday]
GS 1688 Report by the Business Committee [Friday]
GS 1689 Reader Ministry: Report From The Ministry Division Of The Archbishops’ Council [Saturday]
GS 1690 Annual Report Of The Audit Committee [Sunday]
GS 1691 Anglican/Methodist Covenant [Monday]
GS 1692 Draft Vacancies in Suffragan Sees and Other Ecclesiastical Offices Measure [Saturday]
GS 1692X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1693 Draft Crown Benefices (Parish Representatives) Measure [Saturday]
GS 1693X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1694 Vacancy in See Committees (Amendment) Regulation 2008 [Saturday]
GS 1694X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1695 Payments to the Churches Conservation Trust Order 2008 [Sunday]
GS 1695X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1696 Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 2008 [Monday *]
GS 1697 Ecclesiastical Judges, Legal Officers and Others (Fees) Order 2008 [Monday *]
GS 1696-7X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1698 Parochial Fees Order 2008 [Monday *]
GS 1698X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1699 Forty-Third Report Of The Standing Orders Committee [Monday]
GS 1700 Archbishops’ Council’s Draft Budget For 2009 [Tuesday]
GS 1701 Annual Report Of The Archbishops’ Council [Sunday *]
GS 1703 Supplementary Report From The Deployment, Remuneration And Conditions Of Service Committee to GS Misc 877 Parochial Fees: Four Funerals and a Wedding
GS 1704 Appointment Of Archbishops’ Council’s Auditors [Sunday]
GS 1705 Climate Change And Human Security: Challenging An Environment Of Injustice: A Report By The Mission And Public Affairs Council [Sunday]
GS 1706 The Church Of The Triune God: The Cyprus Agreed Statement Of The International Commission For Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue Briefing Paper From Faith And Order Advisory Group [Friday]
GS Misc 887 A and B and Annex B Private Member’s Motion: Church Tourism [Sunday]
GS Misc 890 A and B Diocesan Synod Motion: Faith, Work And Economic Life [Monday]
GS Misc 891 A and B Diocesan Synod Motion: Anglican Governance [Tuesday]
GS Misc 898 Diocesan Synod Motion: Voice of the Church in Public Life [contingency business]
Other Papers circulated to synod members
GS Misc 888 Apportionment Limited Review and Annexes 5a, 5b, 6 & 7
GS Misc 889 Crown Appointments
GS Misc 892 Mission Development Funding
GS Misc 893 Annual Report of the Clergy Discipline Commission
GS Misc 894 Into the New Quinquennium: 2nd Progress Report
GS Misc 895 A note from the Secretary General on Moral, But No Compass
GS Misc 896 Activities of the Archbishops’ Council
GS Misc 897 Presence and Engagement: An Update
The agenda for the July group of sessions of the General Synod is now available; an outline version follows.
July Group of Sessions 2008
Outline Agenda
Usual sitting hours: 9.30 am to 1 pm; 2.30 pm to 6.15 pm; 8.30 pm to 10 pm
Friday 4 July
[2.30-3.30 pm Provision for meetings of the Convocations and House of Laity if required]
4.00 pm Welcomes, introductions, message on behalf of ecumenical guests
Business Committee report
Address by Metropolitan John Zizioulas
Anglican/Orthodox relations, The Church of the Triune God
8.20 pm Introduction to group work by the Bishop of Manchester
Questions
Saturday 5 July
[9.30 am Group work]
11.00 am Women Bishops: take-note debate
2.30 pm Presidential Address by the Archbishop of York
Legislative Business:
– Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure: Final Drafting and Final Approval
– Church of England (Pensions) Amendment) Measure: Revision Stage, Final Drafting and Final Approval
Crown Appointments Legislation:
– Vacancies in Suffragan Sees and Other Ecclesiastical Offices Measure: First Consideration
– Crown Benefices (Parish Representatives) Measure: First Consideration
– Vacancy in See Committees (Amendment) Regulation
– Miscellaneous Provisions Measure:Revision Stage
8.30 pm Reader Ministry
Sunday 6 July
2.30 pm Church Tourism: Private Members’ Motion: Roy Thompson
Legislative Business: Payments to the Churches Conservation Trust
Climate Change and Human Security
Appointment of the Chairman of the Pensions Board
Audit Committee report
Appointment of auditors
Archbishops’ Council Annual Report: deemed approval
8.30 pm Fees: Four Funerals and a Wedding
Monday 7 July
9.30 am Prayers
Anglican/Methodist Covenant
Legislative Business
– Unfinished business from Saturday
– Fees Orders [deemed]
Standing Orders Committee Report
2.30 pm Women Bishops: debate on motion from House of Bishops
8.30 pm Faith, Work and Economic Life:St Albans Diocesan Synod Motion
Tuesday 8 July
9.30 am Prayers
Anglican Governance: Guildford Diocesan Synod Motion
Budget
Church Commissioners Annual Report: presentation and Questions & Answers session
Farewells
Prorogation
Contingency business: Chester Diocesan Synod Motion: Voice of the Church in Public Life
4 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has today sent an open letter to the bishops of the Anglican Communion, in advance of the Lambeth Conference.
The full text of the letter is online and can also be found below:
The Feast of Pentecost is a time when we give thanks that God, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, makes us able to speak to each other and to the whole world of the wonderful things done in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a good moment to look forward prayerfully to the Lambeth Conference, asking God to pour out the Spirit on all of us as we make ready for this time together, so that we shall indeed be given grace to speak boldly in his Name.
I indicated in earlier letters that the shape of the Conference will be different from what many have been used to. We have listened carefully to those who have expressed their difficulties with Western and parliamentary styles of meeting, and the Design Group has tried to find a new style – a style more reflective of that Pentecost moment when all received the gift of speaking freely about Christ.
At the heart of this will be the indaba groups. Indaba is a Zulu word describing a meeting for purposeful discussion among equals. Its aim is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God’s way forward. It is a method with parallels in many cultures, and it is close to what Benedictine monks and Quaker Meetings seek to achieve as they listen quietly together to God, in a community where all are committed to a fellowship of love and attention to each other and to the word of God.
Each day’s work in this context will go forward with careful facilitation and preparation, to ensure that all voices are heard (and many languages also!). The hope is that over the two weeks we spend together, these groups will build a level of trust that will help us break down the walls we have so often built against each other in the Communion. And in combination with the intensive prayer and fellowship of the smaller Bible study groups, all this will result, by God’s grace, in clearer vision and discernment of what needs to be done.
As I noted when I wrote to you in Advent, this makes it all the more essential that those who come to Lambeth will arrive genuinely willing to engage fully in that growth towards closer unity that the Windsor Report and the Covenant Process envisage. We hope that people will not come so wedded to their own agenda and their local priorities that they cannot listen to those from other cultural backgrounds. As you may have gathered, in circumstances where there has been divisive or controversial action, I have been discussing privately with some bishops the need to be wholeheartedly part of a shared vision and process in our time together.
Of course, as baptised Christians and pastors of Christ’s flock, we are not just seeking some low-level consensus, or a simple agreement to disagree politely. We are asking for the fire of the Spirit to come upon us and deepen our sense that we are answerable to and for each other and answerable to God for the faithful proclamation of his grace uniquely offered in Jesus. That deepening may be painful in all kinds of ways. The Spirit does not show us a way to by-pass the Cross. But only in this way shall we truly appear in the world as Christ’s Body as a sign of God’s Kingdom which challenges a world scarred by poverty, violence and injustice.
The potential of our Conference is great. The focus of all we do is meant to be strengthening our Communion and equipping all bishops to engage more effectively in mission; only God the Holy Spirit can bind us together in lasting and Christ-centred way, and only God the Holy Spirit can give us the words we need to make Christ truly known in our world. So we must go on praying hard with our people that the Spirit will bring these possibilities to fruition as only he can. Those who have planned the Conference have felt truly touched by that Spirit as they have worked together, and I know that their only wish is that what they have outlined for us will enable others to experience the same renewal and delight in our fellowship.
This is an ambitious event – ambitious for God and God’s Kingdom, which is wholly appropriate for a Lambeth Conference. And our ambition is nothing less than renewal and revival for us all in the Name of Jesus and the power of his Spirit.
May that Spirit be with you daily in your preparation for our meeting. As Our Lord says, ‘You know him, for he lives with and will be in you’ (Jn 14.17).
+ Rowan Cantuar
16 CommentsThree articles by Giles Fraser this weekend.
In the Guardian he writes in Intimations of mortality that we have lost the art of plain speaking when it comes to death – and that is not healthy for children.
Also in the Guardian he previews the BBC’s Passion (to be broadcast in Holy Week) in Thou shalt not offend anyone: BBC’s Jesus is nice but dull.
And in the Church Times he asks Is Fairtrade the same as fair?.
In the Guardian’s Face to faith column David Bryant writes that the perspective shift urged by the philosopher Martin Buber has the power to heal our world.
In The Times Jonathan Sacks writes Lose faith in God we will lose faith in humanity.
Also in The Times Libby Purves asks whether Oxford scholars should be forced to say grace in Oxford scholars’ grace protest: principled or petulant?
4 CommentsThe detailed Church Times reports of this month’s debates at General Synod are now available online. They are spread over two issues and are linked from these pages.
Reports in Issue 7561
Reports in Issue 7562
Or you can go directly to the individual articles.
Presidential Address: Sorry if I was clumsy — Dr Williams’s address in full
Hope
Bibles: ‘Place Bibles in every church’
Code of practice
Mary Tanner
Casinos: Synod urges fight on gambling
Ecclesiastical fees: Synod holds up fees decision
Terms of service: Synod votes down moving parsonages to dioceses
Detention of terror suspects: Case is ‘flimsy’ for extending detention
Farewell
The Dioceses
Mental health: ‘Prisons are the new asylums’
Communion in LEPs: Dispensing with a C of E Easter eucharist
Children’s liturgy: Eucharistic prayers sought for children
Anglican Covenant: New Covenant draft welcomed more warmly
Crown appointments: Synod feels its way towards a greater self-determination
Relations with Rome: Spirit of gloom descends on Rome discussions
General Synod now uses electronic voting for some of its votes. This saves time at Synod but also means that voting lists can be made available. Those for this month’s group of sessions are now available and are linked from the agendas and papers page.
Unfortunately the lists come as pdf files containing only graphics of the voting lists, so, for example, it is not possible to search them electronically to see how a particular member voted. I have extracted the graphic files from one and fed them through my OCR program so that I could generate this html file. This is the voting list for the motion to take note of the report on the Anglican Covenant that was debated on Wednesday 13 February.
2 CommentsUpdated Thursday evening and Friday morning
Official Reports: General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Thursday 14th February 2008 AM
General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Thursday 14th February 2008 PM
These include links to audio recordings of all the items.
Alastair Cutting (a member blogging from the floor of synod)
Synod
Church Times
Day four: Thursday
Episcopal Life Online
Synod calls for Guantanamo Bay’s closure, debates detention without charge by Matthew Davies
BBC
Church against terror limit moves
The Guardian
Synod warns of terror fears eroding liberty
Church Society
Synod Report Thursday 14th
In the morning Synod debated Crown appointments and agreed to the proposals in paragraph 58 of GS1680 by 290 votes to 16 with 16 recorded abstentions. Synod then debated a following motion calling for the chair of the Crown Nominations Commission, when it is considering the choice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to be chosen by the Church’s appointments committee instead of by the Prime Minister as at present. This was defeated by 142 votes to 107 with 20 recorded abstentions.
Synod debated GS1673 Growing Together in Unity and Mission and passed the following motion by 258 votes to 10 with 5 recorded abstentions.
That this Synod, welcoming the work that has been done towards the Agreed Statement of the International Anglican – Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission and endorsing its stated aim of closer collaboration in unity and mission between our two communions:
(a) note the assessment of the Agreed Statement in GS 1673 as a contribution to the further development of the text and endorse the concerns of the Faith and Order Advisory Group set out in section 4 of GS 1673;
(b) affirm the further growing together in unity and mission will depend on common witness and the exchange of spiritual gifts, as well as clarity between areas where doctrinal agreement has been achieved and areas that require further work; and
(c) encourage Anglicans to implement, with Roman Catholics, the practical initiatives for bishops and people in Part 2 of the Statement;
(d) request that debates take place in Synod on all the documents listed in Appendix 2, Second Phase in Growing Together in Unity and Mission as the next stage in the process.
After lunch Synod debated GS1681 Detention without Charge and passed the following motion by 235 votes to 2 with 7 recorded abstentions.
That this Synod, mindful both of the Christian teaching that enforcement of law should be just in process and outcome, and of the challenge that the advent of suicide attacks poses for the general public and for those who bear responsibility for protecting the public from terrorism:
(a) emphasise the importance of society maintaining a careful balance between the liberty of the individual and the needs of national security;
(b) express grave concern that an extension to the current 28-day maximum period for detention without charge of terrorist suspects would, in the absence of the most compelling arguments, disturb that balance unacceptably;
(c) while welcoming the release of most UK prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, deplore the continued holding of prisoners there without charge or due process and encourage Her Majesty’s Government to continue to use all available means to press the United States administration to close the Guantanamo Bay facility and restore the full application of the rule of law; and
(d) affirm the desirability of an early review by the Government of the restrictions and other obligations that may be imposed on individuals under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and the use of undisclosed material in control order proceedings.’
The amendment below was proposed to the above motion but it was defeated on a show of hands.
Leave out paragraph (b) and insert:
“(b) urge Her Majesty’s Government to adopt a more purposive approach to the problem of balancing the need for sufficient investigative time against the need to maintain the liberty of the individual through a process of holding suspects on a weekly basis under the review of a senior High Court Judge;”
This completed Synod’s business for this group of sessions.
1 Commentupdate Thursday morning and afternoon
The Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Revd Graham Dow, spoke at the launch today of God, Gays and the Church. He may regret what he said.
Ruth Gledhill in her Times blog Graham Dow: UK Government a ‘Revelation 13’ Govt
Ruth Gledhill in the Times Bishop sees demons in Downing Street
Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph Brown Government ‘like a demonic beast’
BBC
Government like ‘demonic beast’
Updated Wednesday night, Thursday morning and Friday morning
Official Reports: General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Wednesday 13th February 2008 AM
General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Wednesday 13th February 2008 PM
These include links to audio recordings of all the items.
Archbishop of Canterbury
contribution to the debate on a Covenant for the Anglican Communion
Church Times
Day three: Wednesday
Synod expresses its grave concern about gambling
Episcopal Life Online
ENGLAND: Synod discusses Anglican covenant; debate draws mixed reactions
Christian Today
Anglican Covenant will unite, not divide – Sentamu by Maria Mackay
Church Society
General Synod Report 13 February 2008
In the afternoon Synod debated eucharistic prayers for children and mental health issues and passed these two motions.
That this Synod request the House of Bishops to commission the expeditious preparation of Eucharistic Prayers suitable for use on occasions when a significant number of children are present or when it is otherwise pastorally appropriate to meet the needs of children present.
That this Synod:
a) affirm the vital necessity of improving services, in hospitals and in the community, for the support, care and treatment of people with mental health problems;
b) welcome the acceptance by Her Majesty’s Government during the passage of the Mental Health Act 2007 of amendments to protect the liberty and interests of those subject to compulsory detention and treatment for mental disorder, and express the hope that the operation of the Act will be carefully monitored;
c) note with concern the rising incidence of mental distress among young people;
d) call attention to the acute needs of people with mental disorders in the criminal justice system and request effective measures to divert them, where appropriate, from prison; and
e) welcome the recognition within mental health services of the significance of spirituality for assessment and treatment, and encourage parishes to ensure that the support and care of people with mental health problems, their carers and NHS staff is a key priority for the Church’s ministry.
The day ended with a general debate on the Anglican Communion Covenant and a vote on the motion ‘That the Synod do take note of this report.’ [where ‘this report’ was this]. The take note motion was carried by 266 votes to 20 with 19 recorded abstentions.
2 Commentsupdated Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and afternoon and Friday morning
Official reports: General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Tuesday 12th February 2008 AM.
General Synod – Summary of Business Conducted on Tuesday 12th February 2008 PM
These include links to audio recordings of most of the items.
Church Times
Day two: Tuesday
Terms of service: Synod votes down moving parsonages to dioceses
The Times
Church ‘land grab’ thrown out by synod by Ruth Gledhill
Synod rejects proposals for £4bn vicarage ‘land grab’ by Ruth Gledhill (basically same story as the one above)
Clean up your ‘human pollution’, Archbishop of Canterbury tells gambling trade by Ruth Gledhill
Guardian
Synod calls on minister to scrap planned casinos by Riazat Butt
Telegraph
Church vows to tackle Bible shortage by Jonathan Petre
BBC
Synod rejects vicarage owner plan
Daily Mail
Church tells Brown to ditch plans for Las Vegas style super-casinos
Christian Today
Archbishop of Canterbury slams casinos in Synod debate by Maria Mackay
Church Society
General Synod Report 12 February 2008
Tuesday’s main business was consideration of the clergy terms of service legislation which came back from the revision committee. This is the legislation to introduce common tenure, a uniform set of conditions for all clergy. Synod appeared to have little problem with the general principle, but the proposal to transfer ownership of much clergy housing to new diocesan parsonage boards was strongly opposed and was effectively killed by one amendment. This was carried in each of the three houses of synod by the following votes.
|
for
|
against
|
abstained*
|
|
| bishops |
14
|
9
|
5
|
| clergy |
100
|
57
|
4
|
| laity |
84
|
79
|
4
|
Following this vote the committee responsible for steering the legislation through synod withdrew all the clauses about the ownership of clergy housing and as a result there will be no changes to the current arrangements.
Later Synod debated gambling and casinos and passed the following motion by 258 votes to 4 with 9 recorded abstentions.
That this Synod, gravely concerned that the total national spend on gaming has risen in each year over the past four years from £4 to £40 billion:
a) endorse the public opposition expressed by church leaders to the introduction of regional and large casinos, and encourage local churches to participate in local authority consultations on plans for new casino applications;
b) declare its support for programmes of education, research and treatment undertaken with the aim of checking the growth in problem gambling, and request the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to invoke the powers granted by the Gambling Act 2005 to introduce a statutory levy on the gambling industry to fund such programmes;
c) call upon Her Majesty’s Government to monitor the addictive effects of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals and to seek an international framework for a code of conduct on internet gambling; and
d) call upon the Mission and Public Affairs Council to report back to Synod by February 2009 on measures being taken by the churches to combat the detrimental effects of gambling in various forms.
The final item of business was a debate on the availability of bibles in churches at the end of which the following motion was carried overwhelmingly.
That this Synod, believing in the importance of Scripture, desire that anyone entering a church building or attending a church service should have easy and unfettered access one of the versions of the Bible referred to in the note by the House of Bishops on Versions of Scripture dated 9th October 2002 or one of the versions of the Bible that may be used by virtue of the Prayer Book Versions of the Bible Measure, and would request all dioceses to take steps to give effect to this desire in their churches.
* Synod has introduced electronic voting and this allows members to record an abstention as well as a vote in favour or against.
14 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has announced the formation of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG), as proposed in his Advent Letter. The WCG will address outstanding questions arising from the Windsor Report and the various formal responses from provinces and instruments of the Anglican Communion.
Details on the Anglican Communion News Service.
8 CommentsMost papers for next month’s General Synod are now online and are listed below. We will update the list as the remainder become available.
Updated 29 January to link to remaining papers
Agenda
Monday 11 February
Tuesday 12 February
Wednesday 13 February
Thursday 14 February
Special Agenda I (Legislative Business)
Papers for debate
The day set for debate is shown in brackets. Deemed business will only be debated if there is a request from members for this to happen.
GS 1598D Amending Canon No 27 (Tuesday)
GS 1599C Vacancy in See Committees Regulation 1993 (Tuesday)
GS 1637A Draft Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Measure (Tuesday)
GS 1638A Draft Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations (Tuesday)
GS 1639A Draft Amending Canon No 29 (Tuesday)
GS 1637-9Y Report by the Revision Committee
GS Misc 874 Background Note to Illustrative Material
GS 1642A Draft Amending Canon No 28 (Wednesday)
GS 1642Y Report by the Revision Committee
GS 1672 Draft Ecclesiastical Fees (Amendment) Measure (Wednesday)
GS 1672X Explanatory Memorandum
GS Misc 877 Four Funerals and a Wedding
GS 1673 Growing Together in Unity and Mission (Thursday)
GS 1675 Report by the Business Committee (Monday)
GS 1677 Forty-Second Report of the Standing Orders Committee (deemed business)
First Notice Paper
GS 1678 Mental Health Issues (Wednesday)
GS 1679 Anglican Communion Covenant (Wednesday)
Annex 1 and Annex 2
GS 1680 Crown Appointments (Thursday)
Annex
GS 1681 Detention without Charge (Thursday)
GS 1682 Draft Church of England Pensions (Amendment) Measure (Tuesday)
GS 1682X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1683 Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure (deemed business)
GS 1683X Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1684 Code of Practice under Part V of the Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure 2007 (Tuesday)
GS Misc 875A and GS Misc 875B Casinos (private member’s motion – Tuesday)
GS Misc 876A and GS Misc 876B Eucharistic Prayer for Children (Diocesan Synod motion – Wednesday)
GS Misc 878A and GS Misc 878B Bible Availability (private member’s motion – Thursday)
Other papers circulated to members of the General Synod
GS Misc 873 Review of Extended Communion: Analysis of Diocesan Responses
GS Misc 881 Zimbabwe
The Church of England General Synod will meet in London from Monday 11 February to Thursday 14 February. The official press release is here and starts:
Major debates on detention without charge, mental health issues and casinos will be on the agenda of the General Synod when it meets at Church House, Westminster, from Monday, February 11, to Thursday, February 14, 2008. There is a large programme of legislative business, the most substantial item being the Revision Stage of the Clergy Terms of Service legislation. Synod will have further opportunity to debate the Anglican Communion Covenant and Senior Church (Crown) Appointments, following earlier debates in July 2007, and there will also be a focus on Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue.
We will be linking to the full agenda and online papers as these become available. There is an outline agenda which you can download here or read online here.
4 CommentsThe Church of England has published the office and working costs of its bishops for 2006. Here is the press release.
The 2006 office and working costs of bishops in the Church of England are published today. Figures for individual bishops were first published, for the year 2000, in December 2001. Bishops’ office and working costs were previously published as a total figure.
In 2006, the Church Commissioners funded the ministry of Church of England bishops by some £15.9 million, figures from the House of Bishops show. Of that sum, £4.6m related to stipends, National Insurance and pension contributions for the 44 diocesan and 69 suffragan/full-time assistant bishops. The remaining £11.3m related to bishops’ office and working costs, most of which pays for the salaries and pensions of office staff, as set out in this report.
Copies of Bishops’ office and working costs for the year ended 31 December 2006 are available from Bishoprics and Cathedrals Dept, The Church Commissioners, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ, tel 020 7898 1058.
The booklet includes a full description of the important role played by bishops locally, regionally and nationally.
The booklet for 2006, and for previous years back to 2000, can be downloaded from here.
16 CommentsThe Archbishop of York writes in the Observer I ripped up my dog collar to help topple this brutal tyrant.
Mark Vernon at Comment is free asks “Is philosophy just tinkering around the edges of science, or can a meeting of the disciplines give us deeper insghts into the universe?” in God and the multiverse.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed argues in the Guardian’s Face to faith column that Spiritual journeys like the hajj must challenge body and soul.
Christopher Howse in the Telegraph writes on Judging when you must fight a war
Also in the Telegraph Sarah Todd hears how one Christmas congregation found room at the inn in Fathers, sons and holy spirits.
Joanna Moorhead in the Times writes that in deepest Surrey, families are flocking to watch a cast of real people in a most extraordinary nativity play O little town of Wintershall.
Also in the Times Ruth Gledhill writes about a study that argues Plagues of Egypt ‘caused by nature, not God’.
In the Church Times Giles Fraser writes about US suburbs: the home of segregation.
12 CommentsToday’s Guardian has an article by Stephen Bates Williams condemns breakaway bishops in gay rights row. That is an edited version and Stephen has kindly sent us his original full article which follows below.
Archbishop slams the splitters
Stephen BatesDr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican communion, yesterday condemned attempts by conservative church leaders to undermine the US Episcopal Church for its support for gay rights and effectively refused calls to disinvite American bishops from next year’s Lambeth Conference of all the church’s bishops.
In a long-anticipated Advent message to the 38 primates of the communion at which the archbishop had promised to respond to the crisis, Dr Williams criticised African and other church leaders who have consecrated their own American bishops and offered to look after the small number of dioceses whose conservative American bishops have said they wish to separate from the US church and seek oversight from foreign provinces. The first American diocese, San Joaquin in California, formally announced its secession at its synod last weekend and its intention to align itself to the tiny Anglican archdiocese of the Southern Cone, which covers most of South America.
In words which directly rebuke conservatives who claim theirs is the true and only voice of authentic Anglican identity, Dr Williams stated: “Not everyone carrying the name of Anglican can claim to speak authentically for the identity we share as a global fellowship….A great deal of the language that is around in the communion at present seems to presuppose that any change from our current deadlock is impossible, that division is unavoidable and that such division represents so radical a difference in fundamental faith that no recognition and future co-operation can be imagined. I cannot accept these assumptions and I do not believe as Christians we should see them as beyond challenge.”
In a passage which will be particularly galling to conservative evangelicals, especially those who regard the archbishop as Biblically unsound, Dr Williams cited St Paul, the sole author in the New Testament to explicitly condemn homosexuality and so regarded as a definitive spokesman for orthodoxy, saying: “The gospels and the epistles of Paul alike warn us against a hasty final judgement on the spiritual state of our neighbours….The challenge is not best addressed by a series of ad-hoc arrangements with individual provinces elsewhere…this is not doing anything to advance or assist local solutions that will have some theological and canonical solidity.”
Dr Williams’s lengthy and detailed statement, which went through numerous revisions by his staff at Lambeth Palace, is likely to infuriate conservative Anglican pressure groups who have been demanding that the church should discipline or expel the Americans for electing the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. The archbishop met all the US bishops in New Orleans in September when they formulated a statement agreeing not to endorse any further gay bishops or to authorise formal blessings services for same sex couples.
His silence since that meeting has created a vacuum which has exasperated both liberals and conservatives anxious for him to give a lead. The statement now directly contradicts the assertion of the Most. Rev. Gregory Venables, the English Evangelical presiding bishop of the Southern Cone, who has made no secret of wishing to recruit disaffected American dioceses and who let it be known, following a meeting in London with Dr Williams in September that he believed the Archbishop thought the plan was “a sensible way forward”.
Lambeth Palace did not publicly criticise Bishop Venables until this week. One senior insider at the Palace told the Guardian that the idea that Dr Williams supported the move was complete nonsense.There are signs of divisions between senior members of the archbishop’s staff and frustration over his perceived dithering.
As the message makes clear that Bishop Robinson will not be invited to next year’s conference either, the official said it contained “something to annoy everyone.”
Dr Williams put forward two proposals to keep the American Church inside the Anglican communion: “professionally facilitated conversations” between US leaders and their American and outside critics to see if they can achieve better mutual understanding, reduce tensions and clarify options and the setting up of a group of primates to produce proposals to put to next year’s Lambeth Conference on the issues that the gay crisis has thrown up. Neither last night seemed likely to satisfy the church’s conservatives who have maintained for several years that the time for listening is past.
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Other press reports
Ruth Gledhill in The Times Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warns American church leaders to curb their pro-gay agenda
Jonathan Petre in the Telegraph Williams warns bishops in gay rights row
The Archbishop of Canterbury has released an Advent Letter to the Primates of the Anglican Communion & Moderators of the United Churches.
It starts:
123 CommentsGreetings in the name of the One ‘who is and was and is to come, the Almighty’, as we prepare in this Advent season to celebrate once more his first coming and pray for the grace to greet him when he comes in glory. You will by now, I hope, have received my earlier letter summarising the responses from Primates to the Joint Standing Committee’s analysis of the New Orleans statement from the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church. In that letter, I promised to write with some further reflections and proposals, and this is the purpose of the present communication…
The Archbishop of Canterbury has released a Christmas Message to the Anglican Communion.
The Christmas Message is also available for the first time as a podcast.
One of the strangest yet most moving expressions in the New Testament is a verse in the Letter to the Hebrews (11.16): God ‘is not ashamed to be called their God’. The writer is talking about the history of God’s people. When they have been faithful to God, faithful in keeping on moving onwards in faith rather than settling down in self-satisfaction, when they are true pilgrims, then God is content to be known as their God…
Full text below the fold.
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Three teenagers from Oi! magazine recently interviewed the Archbishop of Canterbury at home in Canterbury and the text is online: Tea and Toast with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Update: This is now available on the Archbishop’s own website here.
A pdf file of the interview as it will appear in the print version of Oi! can be downloaded from here.
If the comments we receive are anything to go by TA readers may be most interested in what the Archbishop said about gay clergy but do read all of the interview.
Ruth Gledhill reproduces most of the interview in today’s Times: Family and God keep me going – even if they all think I’m an idiot.
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