Helen King sharedconversations Waiting for bishops
Chrissie Chevasutt ViaMedia.News Don’t Preach. Just Don’t.
Marcus Green Inclusive Evangelicals Friendly fire ….
Kate Mossman The New Statesman Justin Welby: “It’s better to be woke than asleep”
“He has denounced migration policy yet resists calls for gay marriage. Can the Archbishop of Canterbury unite a fraying Church?”
Andrew Goddard The Living Church Prayers of love and faith, (Arch-)Episcopal power and Anglican identity
and in response
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Disturbing the Foundations: LLF, the Sexual Revolution and General Synod
The (American) Episcopal Church has released its Parochial Report Results from 2022. Here are some news items and comments on these statistics.
Neil Elliot NumbersMatters Is TEC bouncing back?
Rebecca Paveley Church Times US Episcopalian Sunday figures nearly halved over past decade
Jeff Walton Anglican.ink Episcopal Withering on the Vine
Kirk Petersen The Living Church Episcopal Attendance Bounces Back 19% from Pandemic Low
63 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love Why is it so difficult to talk honestly about the humanity of Jesus?
Neil Elliot NumbersMatters F’book, YouTube, Zoom, and Bums on Pews
Neil Elliot is the Statistics and Research officer for the Anglican Church of Canada.
Augustine Tanner-Ihm ViaMedia.News A Plentiful Harvest: Growth in Inclusive Churches
61 CommentsThe Church of England’s General Synod will meet in London from 13 to 15 November 2023. The Outline of Business has been published and is copied below the fold.
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Colin Coward Unadulterated Love A conversation about Christianity today in the Church of England
Martine Oborne ViaMedia.News Why Only 1 Diocesan Bishop in the Last 10 Appointments in the Church of England has been a Woman
103 CommentsThe Diocese of Liverpoool has published an independent review into its Transforming Wigan project. There was a brief summary (copied below) in its latest weekly email bulletin. The full story, with links to the review, is here.
We publish the Independent Review into the Transforming Wigan project
Today [22 September 2023] the Diocese of Liverpool publishes an independent evaluation of Transforming Wigan the first large scale change management project funded through the Church Commissioners Strategic Development Fund (SDF).
The report, from Kate Hudson of Intergras Consulting, provides a thorough appraisal of the project assessing its strengths and weaknesses. It shows that the project, which has now evolved into Church Wigan, highlighted that it hadn’t been able to solve the deep financial challenges it inherited. However, it has achieved great progress in creating local teams and helping mission across the town.The report concluded that Transforming Wigan was ambitious, particularly in its aim to turn round the finances of the deanery. It recognises the ongoing financial burden of old buildings is being tackled through the Right Buildings review and commented the new structures through establishing the charitable Wigan Deanery Trust have made Church Wigan financially more efficient. They have greater autonomy on how funds are spent and ability to apply for grant funding.
Diocesan Secretary Mike Eastwood commented: “We always knew that the Transforming Wigan project would be a major challenge, even without the disruption of Covid. Being the first to embark on a missional journey such as this takes courage and it has been a challenge for all involved, and we didn’t get everything right. We also knew that Transforming Wigan would produce a great amount of learning that we, and the national church could benefit from. We are determined to do that. However, we can increasingly see the missional energy and dedication to facing the challenges that lie ahead with increasing confidence and excitement”.
You can read the full story and access the executive summary and full report here
Madeleine Davies has written a substantial article for the Church Times: Wigan transformation fails to hit its targets.
49 CommentsThe College of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church has today announced the death of the Right Reverend Keith Riglin, Bishop of Argyll & The Isles.
Bishop Keith Riglin RIP (1957-2023)
3 CommentsCharlie Bell ViaMedia.News Trust is a Hard Thing to Come by Right Now…
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Neanderthal Christianity – what does it mean to be human?
Chrissie Chevasutt ViaMedia.News Keeping Students Safe: the Oxford LGBT Students Safe Churches Project
47 CommentsPress release from the Church of England
The College of Bishops: September 18 to 21
21/09/2023
The College of Bishops has been meeting in Oxford over the last four days.
The meeting, which welcomed eight new or incoming bishops, began with an afternoon of retreat for prayer and study.
Discussions then included sessions on public affairs – including proposals raised by the Archbishops’ Commissions on families and households, social care, housing and racial justice; the importance of making missionary disciples; generous ecclesiology and episcopal well-being.
The bishops devoted the remaining time to discussing the work to take forward the introduction of Prayers of Love and Faith for same-sex couples, the associated Pastoral Guidance and Pastoral Reassurance.
The College’s reflections will be taken forward to the House of Bishops meetings in October ahead of the meeting of General Synod in November.
32 CommentsThe Church of England has published its response to the Government’s consultation on mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.
The Church Times writes about the response here: We don’t know, but consider religious freedom, says C of E response on exceptions to mandatory reporting.
On the Seal of the Confessional the response has this to say.
Like many other historic churches, the Church of England includes in its practices the ministry of Confession and Reconciliation. In this ministry, someone can come to a priest and disclose anything they feel they may have done wrong. It is the practice of the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches to guarantee absolute confidentiality of what has been disclosed. This is often known as ‘the Seal of the Confessional’. The Seal is referred to in Canon Law, although the interpretation of the relevant legal provisions is contested.
46 CommentsJane Chevous Premier Christianity The silence from Christian leaders on Mike Pilavachi is hurting victims
Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley The Church Decline Rag
Richard Scorer Surviving Church Mandatory Reporting versus the Seal of the Confessional
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Mired in Love and Faith
Steve Schlossberg The Living Church
Theo Hobson The Spectator In praise of Justin Welby’s ‘less bossy’ Church of England
Helen King sharedconversations Two meetings down, one to go: Living with Difference
47 CommentsMark Clavier The Living Church A House-Going Parson Makes a Church-Going People
Sorrel Christian ViaMedia.News Young Christianity Today
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Is Christianity losing its sense of morality or finding new vision?
a member of the Anglican Survivors Group ViaMedia.News Are Churches Safe?
67 CommentsDiarmaid MacCulloch ViaMedia.News Love Came Down at Christmas – For Some
Theos Is the UK a Christian Country?
“We asked a range of experts and thinkers how they would answer the question: Is the UK a Christian country?”
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love A Brief Evolutionary Context for today’s Global and Christian Crises
38 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love What is the Christian story today?
Helen King sharedconversations Being back in the room
14 CommentsBishop David Hamid, suffragan bishop of the Diocese in Europe and one of the longest serving bishops in the Church of England, has announced his plans to retire in February 2024. Details are on the diocesan website.
5 CommentsTheo Hobson The Spectator The time is ripe for a liberal revival of the Church of England
Giles Fraser UnHerd Has the Church stopped working?
Kelvin Holdsworth What’s in Kelvin’s Head The Friends of St Eucalyptus
152 CommentsPaul Roberts Inclusive Evangelicals Can you be Evangelical and not agree with the CEEC?
Mark Michael The Living Church When Rights Conflict: Sex Abuse Reporting & the Confessional
136 CommentsPress release from the Prime Minister’s Office. There is more on the Bristol diocesan website. He will be consecrated on 30 November 2023.
Appointment of Suffragan Bishop of Swindon: 24 August 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Neil Warwick for appointment to the Suffragan See of Swindon, in the Diocese of Bristol.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 24 August 2023
The King has approved the nomination of The Venerable Neil Warwick, Archdeacon of Bristol, for appointment to the Suffragan See of Swindon, in the Diocese of Bristol, in succession to The Right Reverend Dr Lee Rayfield, following his retirement.
Neil was educated at Nottingham University and trained for ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He served his title at St Lawrence, Towcester, in the Diocese of Peterborough, and was ordained Priest in 2006. Neil was appointed Vicar of Earley St Nicolas, in the Diocese of Oxford, in 2009.
In 2019, Neil took up his current role as Archdeacon of Bristol, in the Diocese of Bristol.
77 CommentsHelen King sharedconversations The autumn of Living in Love and Faith
Karen O’Donnell ViaMedia.News Bodies at Prayer
David Newman Inclusive Evangelicals Evangelical unity and diversity
David Runcorn Inclusive Evangelicals How contraception has changed marriage
80 Comments