Updated
From the Worcester diocesan website
Court of Appeal upholds clergy freedom
30 Apr 2015 By Sam Setchell
The Court of Appeal has upheld the freedom of clergy to be office holders rather than employees with its judgement in the case regarding former Worcestershire vicar, Mark Sharpe.
The court has agreed with the initial judgement of the Employment Tribunal, which ruled that Mr Sharpe was not an employee of the Bishop, the Diocese or anyone else.
The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Revd Dr John Inge said: “We are delighted that the Court of Appeal has taken this view of the matter. There has been considerable consultation with the clergy on this issue as well as discussions at General Synod, and clergy have consistently said that they don’t wish to change their status as office holders. To become employees, clergy would lose the freedoms which are at the heart of the Church’s ministry and this is not something that they want to give up.
It is regrettable that UNITE fails to understand the context in which parish clergy exercise their ministry whilst the Church seeks to uphold the freedoms enjoyed by its clergy.”
Bishop John continued: “Mr. Sharpe’s claims of the various incidents which despoiled his ministry in Teme Valley South are disheartening to read. However I am encouraged to note that the clergy who have ministered in these churches both before and since Mr Sharpe’s appointment have all spoken very warmly of the people there and their experience doesn’t reflect any of the negativity that Mr Sharpe claims to have faced.”
BBC News has this brief report: Worcester vicar loses unfair dismissal appeal.
Updates
The full judgment of the Court of Appeal is here.
Frank Cranmer Law & Religion UK Church of England freehold incumbents not “employees”: Sharpe v Bishop of Worcester
Steven Morris The Guardian Vicar who claimed he was victim of four-year hate campaign loses court battle
Gavin Drake Church Times Clergy are office-holders, not employees, appeal court rules
9 CommentsThe Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales announced yesterday that it is to get another suffragan bishop in addition to the four it already has.
New Suffragan Bishop for the Diocese
In a move designed to add necessary capacity to the diocese’s leadership, the See of Richmond (which has been dormant since 1921) is to be revived to enable the appointment of a Suffragan Bishop for the diocese. The Bishop will mainly cover the Bishop of Leeds’ work in the Leeds Episcopal Area, working with clergy and parishes, and will occasionally deputise for Bishop Nick, who will remain Area Bishop of Leeds.
Bishop Nick says, “The need for this post is both urgent and pragmatic. After nine months it’s become apparent that it is not possible for one person to do the three jobs that my current role entails, ie., Diocesan Bishop of a very large diocese, Area Bishop of Leeds as well as the strategic leadership of the setting up of a brand new diocese (to say nothing of the national and international responsibilities carried by a diocesan bishop). This will free me up to attend to the macro work of the diocese (and help speed up the process of transition) as well as giving the Leeds Area the full attention it needs.
“We argued from the beginning that, at least for the first few years of this new diocese, the Diocesan Bishop would not have the capacity to also be the Area Bishop of Leeds. I’m glad that the validity of that argument has now been recognised.
“Because of the urgency, we need someone who can begin quickly, who knows the structures and complexity of the diocese and is someone whom I can trust, so the process for this appointment will be expedited, with a view to the person appointed starting in the summer or autumn.”
The reviving of the See of Richmond has received the full support of the Bishop’s Council and has been agreed by the Archbishop of York, the Dioceses Commission and the Church Commissioners. The post will be paid for by the Church Commissioners; the only cost to the diocese will be housing.
The appointment will be made under Common Tenure (ie. it won’t be time limited), but when the post is eventually vacated, the Diocesan Bishop would need to petition the Dioceses Commission to refill it, if appropriate.
15 CommentsWe reported Joe Cassidy’s untimely death here. His funeral took place last week. St Chad’s College website has this brief report.
Dr Cassidy RIP
The funeral of our much loved Principal, Joe Cassidy, took place on Friday 17th April in Durham Cathedral. It was a wonderful tribute to the man and this college, which he has done so much to shape. The order of service, Bishop David Stancliffe’s sermon and the beautiful eulogy by his daughter, Emmeline, may be seen HERE.
I’ve copied those links below.
The Order of Service
+David Stancliffe’s Sermon
Emmeline Skinner Cassidy’s Tribute
Lisette Thooft interviews Linda Woodhead for Volg Nieuw W!J: “Liberal Religion is Hardline Religion”.
Chrissy Sykes Thoughts from a baby Christian
6 CommentsAndrew Brown The Guardian Faith no more: how the British are losing their religion
Michael Sadgrove On Reaching a Certain Age
David Benady PR Week Spreading the word
Ian Duffield Signs of the Times The 2015 proposals to re-brand the Church of England
5 CommentsJulian Coman The Observer Should the church be a radical voice in politics?
Diarmaid MacCulloch talks to Ralph Jones for New Humanist The Church rejected me because I’m gay.
Giles Fraser The Guardian Arguments over Greek debt echo ancient disputes about Easter
Some Easter Day sermons
Archbishop of Canterbury
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
Bishop of Chelmsford
Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Ely
Bishop of Exeter
Bishop of Guildford
Assistant Bishop of Newcastle
Bishop of Norwich
Bishop of Stockport
Bishop of Taunton
Bishop of Argyll & The Isles
Bishop of Brechin
Bishop of Edinburgh
Bishop of Moray, Ross & Caithness
The Guardian Palm Sunday celebrated wordwide – in pictures
Penitents during Holy Week around the world – in pictures
Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool Huffington Post All Welcome to the Table This Easter
Chrism Mass sermons
Bishop of Southwark
Bishop of Liverpool
Andrew Brown The Guardian Michael Gove is right – Christianity has become a laughing stock
Editorial in The Guardian The Guardian view on Easter: David Cameron’s wonky cross
Giles Fraser The Guardian Christianity, when properly understood, is a religion of losers
Christian Piatt sojourners Fifty Shades of God: Does Easter Week Affirm Our Violent Desires?
0 CommentsLaurence Cawley BBC News The Jedi and the Bishop: two men from Essex, two religious outlooks
John Pavlovitz 6 Reasons Stone-Throwing Christians May Need To Retire “Go And Sin No More”
Andrew Lightbown Secular utilitarianism 1 – Agape 0; the problems with Baber’s scheme
Christopher Howse The Telegraph Mozarabic chant in deepest Suffolk
2 CommentsThe Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 received the Royal Assent today.
The Church of England issued a press release welcoming the Royal Assent which includes this:
12 CommentsUnder the terms of the Act, the Venerable Rachel Treweek, Archdeacon of Hackney, who is announced today as the next Bishop of Gloucester will become the first female diocesan bishop to join the Bishops’ Benches in the House of Lords.
Archdeacon Rachel will take the place vacated by the Bishop of Leicester, Tim Stevens, who retires on July 11. She will be introduced into the House of Lords after the summer recess.
The Archbishop of York has tweeted “Wonderful news that HM The Queen has appointed the Revd Canon Alison White as the Bishop Suffragan of the See of Hull”.
And here is the announcement from Number 10 (complete with misprint – Hull is in the diocese of York).
Suffragan Bishop of Hull: Reverend Canon Alison Mary White
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
First published: 25 March 2015
Part of: Arts and culture and Community and societyThe Queen has approved the nomination of Reverend Canon Alison Mary White, for election as Bishop of Hull in the Diocese of Newcastle.
The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Canon Alison Mary White, MA, Priest-in-Charge of St James’ Church, Riding Mill in the diocese of Newcastle and Diocesan Adviser for Spirituality and Spiritual Direction in the Diocese of Newcastle, in succession to the Right Reverend Richard Michael Cokayne Frith, MA, on his translation to the See of Hereford on the 22 November 2014.
Notes for editors
The Reverend Canon Alison White aged 58, studied first at St Aidan’s College, Durham and then at Leeds University. She trained for the ministry at Cranmer Hall, Durham. She served her curacy as an NSM at Chester-le-Street in the Diocese of Durham from 1986 to 1989.
From 1989 to 1993 she was Diocesan Advisor in Local Mission and also Honorary Parish Deacon at Birtley. From 1993 to 1998 she was Director of Mission and Pastoral Studies at Cranmer Hall, Durham. From 1998 to 2000 she was Director of Ordinands in the Diocese of Durham. From 2000 to 2004 she was a Springboard Missioner. From 2005 to 2010 she was an Adult Education Officer in Peterborough Diocese where from 2009 to 2010 she was also Honorary Canon at Peterborough Cathedral.
Since 2010 she has been Honorary Canon Theologian at Sheffield Cathedral. In 2011 she was appointed as Priest-in-Charge of St James’, Riding Mill in Newcastle Diocese and Diocesan Adviser for Spirituality and Spiritual Direction.
Alison White is married to Frank, Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Newcastle. They have family in England and South Africa. Alison has an interest in literature and the arts, enjoys the theatre and is an avid reader. She likes to travel and be in the company of good friends. She enjoys the outdoors, walks and gardening. She is a school governor.
The York diocesan website has this news item: New Bishop of Hull [also available on the Archbishop of York’s website].
The Newcastle diocesan website has this: Alison White appointed Bishop of Hull.
21 CommentsThe names of the suffragan sees of Knaresborough and Pontefract in the diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales were officially changed to Ripon and Wakefield respectively by Order in Council on 19 March 2015. The two area bishops, James Bell and Tony Robinson, can now officially be called the Bishop of Ripon and the Bishop of Wakefield respectively.
6 CommentsHelen De Cruz has interviewed H E [Harriet] Baber as part of a series on Philosophers and their religious practices: The SCP is my Church.
The Guardian Homes in old churches – in pictures
Madeleine Davies Why journalists can’t afford to ignore religion
Helen Pidd of The Guardian has been talking to the Bishop of Stockport: Libby Lane: ‘Whatever the Church’s failings, I really think this is where God has put me’.
20 CommentsIan Paul Is ‘discipleship’ Anglican?
John Armstrong Episcopal News Service Canon David Porter shares lessons learned about reconciliation
Christopher Howse The Telegraph The trouble with swearing an oath on a holy book
9 CommentsThe Lords Spiritual (Women) Bill completed its passage through the House of Lords yesterday when it received its third reading. As there were no Lords amendments to the bill it does not need to return to the Commons. It now awaits the Royal Assent and will come into force “on the day Parliament first meets following the first parliamentary general election after this Act is passed”.
David Pocklington of Law & Religion UK writes about this and precisely when Parliament “first meets”.
1 CommentUpdated Sunday evening
Brian Castle, the suffragan Bishop of Tonbridge in the diocese of Rochester, recently announced that he will retire in the autumn.
I missed the announcement, which I am told was made a couple of weeks ago. This might be because, although it is online at the bishop’s personal website, it has yet to appear on the diocesan website or, so far as I know, anywhere else.
Update
A comment on another entry advises that Ian Brackley, the suffragan Bishop of Dorking in the diocese of Guildford, also announced his retirement last month; he will leave on 30 September 2015. Again this has not yet appeared on the diocesan website, although I have found a brief mention at the end of this item in a local paper.
16 CommentsAndrew Stephens-Rennie An open letter to parishes hiring youth workers
Ana Marie Cox The Daily Beast Why I’m Coming Out as a Christian
Anna Tims has been talking to Tim Pike for The Guardian’s Work & Careers page: How do I become … a priest.
Theo Hobson New Statesman The problem with church schools? They run counter to Christian values
Nigel Genders (Church of England Chief Education Officer) Church schools: No problem
The detailed results of the four electronic votes at last month’s meeting of General Synod are now available for download. The files include the text of the motion being voted on.
Tuesday 10 February
Item 504 – Draft Naming of Dioceses Measure
At present a diocese must be named after the see city. This draft measure would have allowed a diocese to be named after a geographical area or the see city, and in the former case the diocesan bishop’s title could also be the area. This vote on clause 1 of the measure was in effect a vote on the whole measure, and a no vote was a vote against the measure.
Item 501 – Draft Amending Canon No. 35
Wednesday 11 February
Item 13 – Church Commissioners’ Funds and Inter-generational Equity
Thursday 12 February
0 CommentsThe Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, the Bishop of Lichfield, announced today that he will retire in September 2015.
Announcement on the Lichfield diocesan website: “40 years seem a good stint”
5 CommentsCole Moreton Five ways for the Church of England to stop making a complete and utter fool of itself over money
Kelvin Holdsworth The Archbishop, the gays and their sins
Charlotte Gale Ten things I have learned about General Synod
20 CommentsThe Sun newspaper (in an article behind its paywall) reported this morning that some cathedrals and churches are hiring staff on salaries below the living wage. This is despite last week’s pastoral letter from the House of Bishops calling on employers to pay at least this amount.
Tim Wyatt reports the story for the Church Times: Investigation into church salaries leads to Living Wage row.
So too does BBC News: Church of England pays some workers below living wage.
There is a press release from the Church of England, and comments from the Archbishop of Canterbury.
19 Comments