Thinking Anglicans

Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich to retire

The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Rt Revd Martin Seeley, will retire on 28 February 2025. He will be 70 on 29 May 2024, but has given an extension by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The CNC meetings to choose a successor will be held on 4 March 2025 and 28-29 April 2025.

So far as I am aware this has not been publshed anywhere online, although I understand that diocesan clergy were advised of the date in an ad clerum some time ago.

8 Comments

Opinion – 4 May 2024

Hatty Calbus Surviving Church HTB: Extraordinary Influence

Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News Time to be Civil about Marriage

Stephen Andrews The Living Church Thoughts on Church Scandal

Yin-An Chen ViaMedia.News The Majority or the Minority? A Rhetorical Question

106 Comments

Bishop of Worcester announces his retirement

The Rt Revd John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester since 2008, has announced that he will retire on 9 October 2024. Details are on the diocesan website.

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Opinion – 27 April 2024

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Transformational Christian Life

Judith Maltby ViaMedia.News Safeguarding & Living in Love and Faith: Learning for the Church of England from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse & Lessons Learned Reviews
[This is the paper referred to in the comments to last Saturday’s Opinion piece.]

Justin Humphreys/Ian Paul Psephizo Can safeguarding be integral to Christian mission?

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Dean of Lincoln

Press release from the Prime Minister’s Office

Appointment of Dean of Lincoln: 23 April 2024

The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Dr Simon Jones, Chaplain and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, to be appointed as Dean of Lincoln.

From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street and The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
Published 23 April 2024

The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Canon Dr Simon Jones, Chaplain and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, to be appointed as Dean of Lincoln, in succession to The Very Reverend Christine Wilson following her resignation.

Simon was educated at the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham and also at Selwyn College, Cambridge.

He trained for ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge and served his title at Tewkesbury (St Mary the Virgin) with Walton Cardiff and Twyning, in the Diocese of Gloucester. He was ordained priest in 2000.

In 2002, Simon was appointed Chaplain and Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was installed as an Honorary Canon of Christ Church, Oxford in 2015, and as a Wiccamical Prebendary of Chichester Cathedral in 2016. He is a consultant to the Church of England Liturgical Commission and chairs the steering committee of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation. He served as Interim Dean of Lincoln for nine months in 2023.

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Opinion – 20 April 2024

Helen King sharedconversations Jesus is coming, look busy: onwards with Living in Love and Faith?

Neil Elliot NumbersMatters Is yours an Easter or a Christmas Church?

Harriet Symonds The House Scrolls of Doom: Why Gen Z is shunning the church

Christopher Landau Psephizo What is the place of charismatic theology after Mike Pilavachi?

Christopher Landau Church Times Landing zone needed for LLF
“‘Compassionate orthodoxy’, not a divisive settlement, is required”

155 Comments

Opinion – 13 April 2024

Helen King sharedconversations

Lee Coley Church Times State support is needed to keep churches open
“The Government is unlikely to release funds unless parishes show how vital buildings are to communities”

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Independent reviewer and the appointment process for Bishop of Blackburn

A report by the Independent Reviewer, Canon Maggie Swinson, on the process leading to the nomination of the Bishop of Blackburn, Philip North, was published yesterday. The report is here.

For two rather different views of the report read

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Bishop of Aston

The Bishop of Aston, the Rt Revd Anne Hollinghurst, is to become the new Principal of the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham. Aston is a suffragan see in the Diocese of Birmingham.

Details are on the websites of the Diocese of Birmingham and the Queen’s Foundation.

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Bishop of Wakefield to retire

The Rt Revd Tony Robinson, Bishop of Wakefield, has announced that he will retire on 31 August 2024. He is one of five Area Bishops in the Anglican Diocese of Leeds.

31 Comments

Opinion – 3 April 2024

Laudable Practice The Critic This vision glorious
“Let us allow the glory of Easter to touch our daily lives”

Anglican Communion News Service Primates from across the Anglican Communion share their Easter Messages for 2024

Ruth Harley ViaMedia.News Posing a Problem: Not Equal Yet

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Easter Day 2024 – Freud and Christianity

80 Comments

Opinion – 30 March 2024

Tim Wyatt The Fence In the Shadow of St Paul’s
“Deceit, fraud and suicide in the Church of England”

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Good Friday 2024 – the erosion of spiritual energy in the CofE

70 Comments

Opinion – 27 March 2024

Simon Cross Modern Church Looking for what is Becoming

Fergus Butler-Gallie Church Times Give us a quiche, and other church offerings
“Hospitality should be central to churches’ theology — even the dreaded bring-and-share lunch”

Andrew Graystone Prospect The Marshall Plan
“Hedge fund manager Paul Marshall is on a God-driven mission to transform the religious fabric of the nation-and he has the money to do it”

111 Comments

Opinion – 23 March 2024

Bosco Peters Liturgy Who Distributes Communion?

Anon ViaMedia.News Mini-MBA Talent Pipeline Group, Module Seven: Managing Synods

3 Comments

Survey for initial response to Jay report

Press release from the Church of England

Survey for initial response to Jay report
21/03/2024

A survey has been published today for anyone who wishes to make an initial response to the recommendations made by Professor Jay in her report on the Future of Church Safeguarding. The report from Professor Alexis Jay, former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, IICSA, makes recommendations for a new independent safeguarding and scrutiny body for the Church of England. Professor Jay was commissioned by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to carry out this work in July 2023 and her report was published in February 2024.

Survey findings will be presented to the Wilkinson/Jay Response Group (see revised Terms of Reference) and will be available on the Church of England website. All survey responses are anonymous and no names or identifying details will be requested or produced. The survey closes on April 18.

Further information on safeguarding in the Church and independence

9 Comments

Opinion – 20 March 2024

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love The Zone of Interest – ways of thinking about God

Jonathan Chaplin ViaMedia.News The Bishops must be Bolder and Braver on Gaza

149 Comments

Opinion – 16 March 2024

Andrew Brown Church Times Press: Telegraph sketches Jekyll-and-Hyde C of E

Madeleine Davies Church Times No churchwardens and vacant PCC posts: an investigation into the church volunteering crisis

[Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.]

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Living in Love and Faith and Together for the Church of England

Neil Elliot NumbersMatters Dioceses of the ACC – by numbers

79 Comments

Parish Finance Statistics 2022

The Church of England has recently published its Parish Finance Statistics 2022. These provide the latest financial information, including:

  • Income
  • Expenditure
  • Giving

Tables showing parish finances aggregated to diocese level are available as an excel file. Finance statistics for previous years, and other publications of the Research and Statistics Unit can be found on the resources, publications, and data page.

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Opinion – 13 March 2024

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Life in all its fullness

Zac Koons The Living Church A Bronze Serpent Processional Cross

152 Comments

Opinion – 6 March 2024

Anon ViaMedia.News The Unbearable Lightness of Being General Synod

David Goodhew The Living Church The Church of England After COVID: Quo Vadis?
also online at Psephizo

Marcus Walker The Critic Dumbing down the priesthood
“Unless the Church reinstates rigorous college-based training for clerics, it will wither away”

136 Comments