This page will be updated during the day
General Synod has started its debate on the latest proposals to allow women to be bishops on Wednesday. I linked to all the papers here.
Order paper for the morning’s business
Sam Jones has previewed the debate for The Guardian Women bishops debate resumes at Church of England synod.
Speech by the Bishop of Rochester introducing the debate: Bishop of Rochester introduces Women Bishops debate
At the end of the debate Synod passed the motion before it:
That this Synod, welcoming the package of proposals in GS 1924 and the statement of principles endorsed by the House of Bishops at paragraph 12 of GS 1886, invite the House of Bishops to bring to the Synod for consultation in February a draft declaration and proposals for a mandatory disputes resolution procedure which build on the agreement reached by the Steering Committee as a result of its facilitated discussions.
There were 378 votes in favour and 8 against. 25 members recorded an abstention.
Official summary of the morning’s business: General Synod – Wednesday AM
After lunch Synod voted to revise the draft measure and canon in full Synod, rather than in a revision committee.
The CofE issued this press release: Synod votes to approve next steps for women bishops.
The Archbishop of Canterbury issued this statement: Female bishops: Archbishop Justin’s statement
Official summary of the afternoon’s business: General Synod – Wednesday PM
Press reports and comment on the morning debate
Sam Jones The Guardian Church of England approves female bishops plan
John Bingham The Telegraph Church of England votes overwhelmingly for women bishops
Liz Dodds The Tablet Revitalised CofE Synod clears major hurdle in passing women bishops legislation
BBC News Church of England synod vote ‘paves way’ for female bishops
Madeleine Davies and Gavin Drake Church Times Synod endorses new women-bishops package
Adam Withnall The Independent Breakthrough? Church of England moves step closer to women bishops as General Synod backs new proposals
Andrew Brown The Guardian Synod’s vote for female bishops allows resistance to flourish another day
Jemima Thackray The Telegraph Women bishops: Today I’m proud to be a member of the Church of England
There is also this in The Telegraph by John Bingham Church’s General Synod – what is it for?
——————
Church Society issued this press release on Tuesday: Church Society prays for a mutually respectful way forward on women bishops. This is copied below the fold. We have previously published comments from Affirming Catholicism, Forward in Faith, and Catholic Group, FiF and WATCH
11 CommentsThis page will be updated during the day
Overnight news and comment
Editorial in The Guardian Church of England: Mission impossible
Graeme Paton Telegraph Anglican schools ‘not dominated by middle-class pupils’
John McManus BBC News Church and Stonewall to target homophobic bullying
Nick Baines Approach to Synod
Order paper for Tuesday
Official summary of Tuesday morning’s business: General Synod – Tuesday AM
The contingency business (not in the order paper) was taken before lunch, and this motion was passed.
That this Synod call on the Archbishops’ Council to introduce legislation to enable dioceses of the Church of England to be named by reference either to a city or substantial town or to a geographical area
After lunch the Archbishop of York gave his presidential address.
This was followed by a debate on church schools. This was opened by the Bishop of Oxford with this speech.
Press release on this debate: Synod affirms CofE’s crucial involvement with schools
The final item of business was a motion from the diocese of London calling for a review of the workings of synod: Review on workings of synod rejected.
Official summary of the afternoon’s business: General Synod – Tuesday PM
Nick Baines comments on today’s business: Prophetic imagination.
There are these two report of the Archbishop of York’s address:
Sam Jones The Guardian Church of England must end internal arguments, says archbishop of York
Gavin Drake Church Times Take action to help the ‘new poor’, says Sentamu
Audio recordings of the sessions are available here.
9 CommentsArchbishop Justin’s presentation to the General Synod
Press Release: Archbishops address Synod on first day of November sitting
After a debate on Intentional Evangelism this motion was passed.
That this Synod in the light of the priority of evangelism and making new disciples:
(a) support the formation of an Archbishops’ Task Group on Evangelism with the terms of reference and timetable as set
out in GS 1917 and urge that its membership include:
(i) staff of Anglican home mission agencies with expertise in helping local churches engage in effective evangelism and disciple-making, and
(ii) those with a proven record in those disciplines at local level;
(b) call upon the Task Group to make its first priority a new call to prayer;
(c) commend to the Task Group an initial programme for its work around the seven disciplines of evangelisation as set
out in the same paper;
(d) call upon every diocesan and deanery synod and every PCC to spend the bulk of one meeting annually and some
part of every meeting focusing on sharing experiences and initiatives for making new disciples; and
(e) urge every local church in 2014 prayerfully to try at least one new way, appropriate to their local context, of seeking to make new disciples of Jesus Christ.
Press release on the debate on this motion: Synod approves motion to support an Archbishops’ Task Group on Evangelism
Text of presentation: Women in the Episcopate Bishop of Rochester, James Langstaff
Official summary of the day’s business: General Synod- Monday PM
For official twitter coverage of General Synod follow @CofEGenSyn.
All Synod papers are linked here.
4 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury has announced that the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Revd James Langstaff, is to be the next Bishop to Her Majesty’s Prisons, the senior church advocate for Christian values in the criminal justice system in England and Wales
3 CommentsBishop of Rochester to be next Bishop to Prisons
Monday 18th November 2013The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Revd James Langstaff, is to be the next Bishop to Her Majesty’s Prisons, the senior church advocate for Christian values in the criminal justice system in England and Wales. He will succeed the Rt Revd James Jones, who retired as Bishop of Liverpool in August.
The church makes a major contribution to public debate on criminal justice and the Bishop to Prisons speaks on criminal justice issues in the House of Lords.
As Bishop to Prisons, Bishop James will support the practical work of the Chaplain- General to the Prison Service, Canon Michael Kavanagh and the network of 300 Prison Service Chaplains who share in the front-line care of prisoners. The Bishop to Prisons also develops church links with other agencies concerned with the reform and improvement of prisons. In addition the churches provide the largest single pool of voluntary support and assistance to the criminal justice system.
Updated Monday morning
The press has been looking ahead to this week’s General Synod.
Madeleine Davies Church Times FiF backs women-bishops deal
John Bingham Telegraph Church of England discusses overhaul of ‘rude and unchristian’ Synod
Edward Malnick Telegraph Church of England on brink of women bishops resolution
Sam Jones The Guardian Female bishops could become reality as Church of England synod meets
The BBC Radio4 Sunday programme starts with an interview with Pat Storey, soon to become the first women bishop in the Church of Ireland. About 18 minutes in Anne Stevens of WATCH is interviewed; an opponent of women bishops was due to appear but “he got lost”.
There are also some blog posts.
YES 2 Women Bishops has published The new proposals explained and Looking ahead to the November General Synod session.
Pete Broadbent has blogged Twenty quick hits to change the CofE.
David Keen blogs The Church of England, the Gospel, and the Future: my prayer for General Synod.
And the CofE has published these Prayers for November General Synod.
Update
BBC Church of England synod due to debate women bishops
2 CommentsGiles Fraser explains in The Guardian Why the writing could be on the wall for the Church of England in the inner city.
Ian Paul writes on his blog about adverts for leaders in church organizations: Searching for Superman.
Paul Vallely asks in the Church Times: Is tweeting in church bad manners?
Richard Chartres writes for the Anglican Communion News Service that In the beginning was communication.
7 CommentsUpdate Church Times and Guardian articles added (Thursday afternoon)
The Times today carries, behind its paywall, an interview that the Archbishop of Canterbury gave to Ruth Gledhill. She has written about this on her blog, and included a transcript of the interview.
The Archbishop’s comments on the admissions polices of church schools have attracted a lot of attention, and I copy them below from Gledhill’s blog.
Education
Church schools of the future – stats on faith schools are to be released at General Synod on Monday.“It’s a hugely important document –
What you are seeing in the Church schools is a deeper and deeper commitment to the common good. There’s a steady move away from faith-based entry tests. They are not selective in terms of education. And they are focusing, particularly the new church academies – and you can see that in diocese after diocese – are focusing on the areas of highest deprivation where the Church school adds the most enormous value.
(in actual Church Urban Fund speech he said: ‘It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the Church is part of the solution for building community blessing at local level – although I suspect that it might be questioned by some. But the Church has been an integral part of delivering education in this country since before the state ever agreed to get involved.’)
Interview cont.
“So in Durham where we created new academies we deliberately targeted the really difficult areas. All our five children went through the local state schools all their way through education. So we have a really long personal experience of what it is to educate children in the state system wherever you happen to be and some of the areas weren’t the most flourishing. So our experience is that – it is a very complex problem what we do about education. What is absolutely clear is home and family is essential. Really good school leadership is absolutely critical. It is not necessary to select to get a really good school. There are unbelievably brilliant schools that are entirely open to all applicants without selection criteria apart from residence, where you live, and which produce staggeringly good results. It’s a question of – and you can point to them all over the place – it’s a question of outstanding leadership.”Said he did not agree that abolition of grammar schools had broken down social mobility. “I think you can get there by other routes which are much more effective.” However he agreed that “certainly measured social mobility has decreased according to the sociologists. We have seen that as far as I can see over the last few years.”
Lambeth Palace issued this press statement late last night.
Church school statement from Lambeth Palace
13 November 2013In the course of a wide ranging interview for The Times on the subject of tackling poverty, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was asked about the role of schools. He praised the work of church schools especially in areas of highest deprivation, and stressed the importance of home, family and excellent school leadership.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued the following statement regarding selection criteria for church schools:-
“I fully support the current policy for schools to set their own admissions criteria, including the criterion of faith. Nothing in my wider comments to The Times on this subject should be seen as “revealing” any changes nor dissenting from current policy.”
Arun Arora, the CofE’s Director of Communications, published Church Schools Fact and Fiction this morning.
The (erroneous) story in today’s Times Newspaper claiming that the Church of England ‘moving away’ from selecting school pupils based on religion was a creative piece of writing. So creative in fact that the Lambeth Palace issued a statement correcting the story which reads: “In the course of a wide ranging interview for The Times today on the subject of tackling poverty, the Archbishop of Canterbury was asked about the role of schools. He praised the work of church schools especially in areas of highest deprivation, and stressed the importance of home, family and excellent school leadership.” The Archbishop himself douses the story in the Times with cold water by saying:
“I fully support the current policy for schools to set their own admissions criteria, including the criterion of faith. Nothing in my wider comments to The Times on this subject should be seen as “revealing” any changes nor dissenting from current policy.’
So in the midst of this contested space it’s worth stating some of the facts on Church of England Schools…
He continues with an explanation of the difference between voluntary controlled schools (whose admission policies are set by the local authority) and voluntary aided schools (which are their own admissions authority, but are bound by the Schools Admission Code produced by the Department of Education).
Alice Philipson published this on The Telegraph website this morning: Church ‘moving away’ from selecting school pupils based on religion
Online comment includes:
The Accord Coalition Praise for inclusivity at Church of England schools by the Archbishop of Canterbury must now be followed with clear leadership
Andrew Copson Archbishop of Canterbury in 24 hour recantation
Fair Admissions Campaign response to Justin Welby’s comments on admissions
General Synod will be debating GS 1920 – The Church School of the Future on Tuesday of next week.
Update
Tim Wyatt in the Church Times Welby denies change in policy on church school admissions
Fiona Millar in The Guardian Justin Welby is right – faith should not affect a child’s education
7 CommentsEilis O’Hanlon writes in the [Irish] Sunday Independent about Switchers’ schism a divine Irish mystery.
Peter Ormerod writes for The Guardian that Leftwing Christians need to have a louder voice.
The BBC World Service programme More or Less asks “Have 100,000 Christians died [per year for the last decade] as martyrs?” Listen online or download a podcast.
Craig A Satterlee asks Why Do You Sit Where You Do? at Alban.
Andrew Brown writes in The Guardian that Judges can sidestep religion, but they can’t avoid morality.
Gillan Scott of God & Politics in the UK asks Is a muscular defence of our national Judaeo-Christian heritage needed?
Jonathan Clatworthy gave this talk at St Bride’s in Liverpool this week: Honest to God: 50 years on, has the Church still got its head in the sand? He has also written briefly for Modern Church.
5 CommentsReaders may find this useful: A prayer before connecting to the internet by Fr John Zuhlsdorf. Translations into about 40 languages are provided.
Gavin Ashenden has written on his blog about Hate, homophobia and holiness.
In response Colin Coward has written The Christian neurosis.
Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, gave this speech this week: Law, Morality and Religion in the Family Courts.
Sir James’s speech, and the reaction to it, has prompted Frank Cranmer of Law & Religion UK to write: The President of the Family Division on family law, morality and religion.
Madeleine Davies writes for the Church Times: Women-bishops proposals: ombudsman in new package.
The Church Times also has this leader: No light task.
Andrew Grey writes for On Religion: Women Bishops in Wales: Just Conforming to Culture?
Miranda Threlfall-Holmes blogs: Women Bishops: Take Two…
Will Adam writes for Law & Religion UK Women bishops – what you see and what you don’t.
28 CommentsThe Church of England has announced that the Revd Libby Lane, Dean of Women in Ministry in the Chester Diocese has been elected by the NW region as their female representative in the House of Bishops.
This completes these elections. The full list of representatives is:
Ven Annette Cooper, Archdeacon of Colchester (East Anglia)
Very Revd Vivienne Faull, Dean of York (North East)
Ven Joanne Grenfell, Archdeacon of Portsdown (South and Central)
Revd Libby Lane, Dean of Women in Ministry, Chester Diocese (North West)
Ven Nicola Sullivan, Archdeacon of Wells (South West)
Revd Preb Dr Jane Tillier, Preb of Lichfield Cathedral (West Midlands)
Ven Rachel Treweek, Archdeacon of Hackney (South East)
Ven Christine Wilson, Archdeacon of Chesterfield (East Midlands)
The representatives will take up their roles on 1st December.
11 CommentsBaptism has been in the news this week, prompting these opinions.
Bosco Peters writes about CofE baptism inconsistency.
Creede Hinshaw writes for the Albany Herald that Coverage misses the mark on baptism.
Joanna Moorhead writes for The Guardian that Prince George is being baptised – if only more children were.
Edward Green offers these Top 10 facts about Christenings.
Rachel Held Evans asks Will the real complementarian please stand up?
This has prompted Richard Beck to write this series of articles.
Let’s Stop Calling It Complementarianism
Hierarchical Complementarianism Implies Ontological Ineptitude
Some Contrasts Regarding Gender Roles in Evangelicalism and Catholicism
Andrew Brown writes for The Guardian about The archbishop, the duchess and the politics of poverty.
Miroslav Volf asks What’s in a name? Christians, Muslims and the worship of the One God at ABC Religion and Ethics.
4 CommentsUpdated Saturday
Madeleine Davies Church Times ‘Trust but verify’ summarises new women-bishops package, says Fittall
Sam Jones The Guardian Church of England could have female bishops by 2014, says committee
Edward Malnick The Telegraph Ombudsman could rule on Church of England disputes
Thomas Penny Bloomberg Church of England May Back Women Bishops as Soon as Next Year
Update
The Bishop of Rochester, James Langstaff, chair of the Steering Committee was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme this morning. You can listen to the programme here; the interview starts at 01:47:54.
Kevin Rawlinson The Guardian Church of England ombudsman could resolve disputes over women bishops
BBC Synod to consider women bishops ‘ombudsman’
5 CommentsUpdated Friday 1 November
General Synod meets next month from 18 to 20 November, and the papers are starting to appear online. Most became available today and others will appear on 1 November.
There is a zip file of all the papers issued today (25 October).
There is now a zip file of the papers issued on 1 November, and a zip file of all the papers.
This list is in numerical order, with links to the individual papers and a note of the day on which debate is scheduled. It will be updated as more papers become available.
GS 1866B – Draft Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure [Monday]
GS 1877B – Draft Amending Canon No 31 [Monday]
GS 1866Z-1877Z – Report by the Steering Committee
GS 1906 – The work of the Elections Review Group: Second Report from the Business Committee [Wednesday]
GS 1914A and GS 1914B – Diocesan Synod Motion: A Review of the workings of the General Synod [Tuesday]
GS 1915 – Agenda November 2013
GS 1916 – Report by the Business Committee [Monday]
GS 1917 – Intentional Evangelism [Monday]
GS 1918 – Draft Diocese of Leeds Resolution [Monday]
GS 1919 – Draft Care of Churches and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (Amendment) Measure [Tuesday]
GS 1919x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1920 – The Church School of the Future [Tuesday]
GS 1921 – Draft Church of England (Ecclesiastical Property) Measure [Tuesday]
GS 1921x – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1922 – Draft Vacancy in See Committees (Amendment) Regulation 2013 [Tuesday]
GS 1922X – Explanatory Memorandum
GS 1923 – Forty Eighth Report of the Standing Orders Committee [Tuesday]
GS 1924 – Report of the Steering Committee for the Draft Legislation on Women in the Episcopate [Wednesday]
GS 1925 – Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure [Wednesday]
GS 1926 – Draft Amending Canon No.33 [Wednesday]
GS 1925-6x – Explanatory Memorandum [Wednesday]
GS 1927A and GS 1927B – Diocesan Synod Motion: Name of Dioceses [contingency business]
GS 1928A and GS 1928B – Diocesan Synod Motion: Nature and Structure of the Church of England – National Debate
Synod members have also been sent these other papers.
GS Misc 1061 – Women in the Episcopate: Guide to the papers
GS Misc 1062 – Activities of the Archbishops’ Council
GS Misc 1063 – Credit Unions, The Financial Sector and the Church
1st Notice Paper
2nd Notice Paper
3rd Notice Paper
Church Care Impact Review 2013
13 CommentsThe agenda for next month’s meeting of General Synod was released this morning. It was accompanied by this press release.
1 CommentNEWS from the Church of England
PR 157.13
25/10/2013
For Immediate ReleaseAgenda for November 2013 General Synod
The General Synod of the Church of England meets in London in November for a three day meeting from 1.45 pm on Monday 18th November until 5.30 pm on Wednesday 20th November.
The agenda for the meeting is published today with the progression of legislation for enabling Women to become Bishops predominating. During its meeting Synod will consider the package of proposals drawn up by the Steering Committee for the draft legislation on women in the episcopate. There will also be debates on Evangelism and Church Schools.
Synod’s first debate on Monday will be on Intentional Evangelism, with the Archbishop of York proposing a motion reflecting the Church’s priority of evangelism and making of new disciples. The motion seeks to establish a new Task group on Evangelism with its first priority being a new call to prayer in June 2014.
On Monday evening the Bishop of Rochester will give a presentation of its proposals to admit women to the episcopate to aid discussion in small groups on the morning of Tuesday 19th November. This group work follows on from the generally well-received group work which took place at the July 2013 General Synod. There will then be two debates on Women in the Episcopate on Wednesday 20th November. In the morning there will be a debate on the Steering Committee’s Report which describes the package of proposals that the Committee has prepared in accordance with the mandate set by the Synod in July and includes the first draft of a House of Bishops declaration and a disputes resolution procedure. The Synod will be invited to welcome the proposals and the five guiding principles, already agreed by the House of Bishops, which underpin them.
Then before lunch Synod will move on to give first consideration to the draft Measure and draft Amending Canon prepared by the Committee. The Chair of the Steering Committee will move that the legislation should be committed for revision in full Synod without a prior Revision Committee Stage. The expectation is that the Revision Stage would be held in February.
On Monday afternoon, there will be a debate on Intentional Evangelism. The motion being debated supports the formation of an Archbishops’ Task Group on Evangelism. The debate is co-sponsored by the House of Bishops and the Archbishops’ Council.
On Tuesday afternoon there will be a Presidential Address by the Archbishop of York. This will be followed by a debate on a report from the Board of Education on the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the 2012 Chadwick Report on ‘The Church School of the Future’. The Bishop of Oxford, as Chair of the National Society and the Board of Education will present the progress report and invite Synod to endorse the next phase of the implementation process.
Other items of business on the synod’s agenda include the system for elections to the House of Laity and a debate on a Diocesan Synod Motion from London Diocese on the Review of the Workings of the General Synod which will look at the frequency and length of groups of sessions, the ways in which debate takes place and decisions are made and ‘whether…the current synodical framework and representative structures are still fit for purpose.’
Contingency business takes the form of two related Diocesan Synod Motions from Bradford and Wakefield. The Bradford Diocesan Synod calls on the Archbishops’ council ‘to introduce legislation to enable dioceses of the Church of England to be named by reference either to a city or substantial town or to a geographical area.’ The Wakefield Diocesan Synod Motion on The Nature and Structure of the Church of England asks the House of Bishops to facilitate a debate about the organisational shape of the Church.
Finally, the Synod will be considering several other pieces of legislation in addition to that relating to women in the episcopate, including a draft Measure intended to take further the reform of the faculty jurisdiction which was begun in July.
ENDS
The full agenda can be viewed online here.
The new proposals to allow women to be consecrated as bishops in the Church of England were published this morning. They will be debated at General Synod on Wednesday 20 November, and comprise these four papers:
GS 1924 – Report of the Steering Committee for the Draft Legislation on Women in the Episcopate
GS 1925 – Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure
GS 1926 – Draft Amending Canon No.33
GS 1925-6x – Explanatory Memorandum
A guide to these papers [GS Misc 1061] has also been published and is copied below.
GS Misc 1061
GENERAL SYNOD
Women in the episcopate- guide to the papers1. In view of the significance of the material that it has produced and the fact that it is distributed across several documents the Steering Committee thought that Synod members might find it helpful to have a very short note on how they fit together.
2. The Steering Committee’s report is at GS 1924 and is the natural place to start. It gives an overview of the Committee’s work and of the package of proposals that it is recommending. It also explains the motion that the Steering Committee is bringing to the Synod in November and what the process would be thereafter.
3. Drafts of two elements of the package – the House of Bishops’ Declaration and the Regulations establishing a disputes resolution procedure – are set out at Annexes A and B of the report. In addition there is some background material on the disputes resolution procedure at Annex C. The drafts of the Declaration and the Regulations are, at this stage, proposals to the House of Bishops, which will consider them in more detail in December and then bring them, together with a motion for debate, to the Synod in February.
4. The other two elements of the package are the draft Measure and Amending Canon. These can be found at GS 1925 and 1926 respectively, together with an Explanatory Memorandum from the Legal Office at GS 1925-6X.
5. These two items of legislation are being brought for first consideration in November. The Steering Committee, with the consent of the Business Committee, is proposing that they be committed for revision in full Synod. This would enable all four elements of the package to be considered at the same group of sessions in February.
William Fittall 23 October 2013
Secretary General
There is also Women in the Episcopate: A Statement from the Archbishops which is copied below the fold.
2 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury sent a video message to GAFCON 2013 and this is now available online: Archbishop’s message to GAFCON 2013: seek holiness and unity. The link also includes a transcript of the archbishop’s message and this summary:
1 CommentArchbishop Justin sent a video greeting to the Second Global Anglican Future (GAFCON) Conference, which is taking place in Nairobi this week. He told them that it was his prayer that they would ‘meet Jesus afresh with elation and joy’.
The Archbishop was unable to attend the GAFCON meeting because of previous commitments, including the baptism of Prince George on Wednesday.
In his message, Archbishop Justin affirms the recent call by the Archbishop of Kenya, Dr Eliud Wabukala, who chairs the GAFCON Primates Council, for the Church to proclaim the gospel confidently.
To do this, Archbishop Justin says, ‘we need to be a Church that is holy’. That is a ‘massive challenge’ to churches in different contexts around the world, but is ‘absolutely critical to our proclamation of the gospel’.
To proclaim the gospel effectively, the Church must also be ‘in unity’, the Archbishop says. ‘It doesn’t mean being unanimous, all saying exactly the same thing in exactly the same way. It means that, as Jesus prays in John 17, that we demonstrate by our love for one another that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore people are drawn to believe in him. We’ve got to find ways of doing that and I don’t underestimate the challenge that is to all of us.’
Updated Wednesday evening
On Wednesday 23 October 2013 the Archbishop of Canterbury will baptize His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge in a private ceremony at The Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace.
The archbishop has recorded a five-about minute video in which he talks about this event and the broader significance of baptism.
Here are just a few of the many articles in press.
The Guardian has this editorial today: In praise of … a right royal dunking.
The Telegraph
Prince George’s christening ‘hugely important’, says Archbishop of Canterbury
Gordon Rayner Prince George christening: tough times ahead for Duke and Duchess, says Archbishop
BBC
Archbishop hopes Prince George baptism will inspire
Update
The archbishop published this after the service: Prince George’s christening: read highlights from the Archbishop’s address.
6 CommentsGlenn Davies, the new Archbishop of Sydney, gave his first presidential address to his diocesan synod this week. ABC Religion and Ethics has published this slightly abbreviated version: Challenges for the gospel: Christian witness and the future of Anglicanism in Sydney.
Andrew Brown writes in The Guardian that To ask whether religions are rational is like asking whether they are pale green.
Shirley Pearce asks in the Church Times: Contentment or terror?
14 CommentsThe Church of England has published its Statistics for Mission 2012: Ministry today. You can download them here.
There is this accompanying press release.
1 CommentCofE ministry playing vital role in every community, show latest stats
18 October 2013Ministry Statistics for 2012, published today by the Research and Statistics Division of the Archbishops’ Council, show a change in patterns of ministry over the past 10 years with numbers remaining largely constant.
The overall number of diocesan licensed clergy declined by 1% in the decade between 2002 and 2012. The number of full-time stipendiary clergy was 7,798 in 2012, a fall of 2% since 2011. They now represent 69% of all licensed clergy compared to 80% in 2002. Over the same period the number of self-supporting ministers increased by 50% from 2,091 in 2002 to 3,148.
The 2012 statistics show a continuing trend of increase in the proportion of female clergy in all categories. Whereas in 2012 there were 6,017 male full-time stipendiary clergy compared with 7,920 in 2002, a fall of 24%, in the same period their female counterparts have increased by 41% from 1,262 to 1,781. Women now account for 21% or one in five incumbents or those of incumbent status. Amongst senior clergy the percentage has increased from 4% to 11%.
The number of ordinations has remained broadly stable since 2002. In 2012 22% of recommended candidates were under the age of 30, compared to 15% in both 2002 and 2007. This reflects a focus in the dioceses on encouraging vocations among younger people.
Ven Julian Hubbard, the Church of England’s director of ministry said: “These statistics reflect changing patterns of ministry, to meet the changing demands of 21st Century life, with an increasing reliance on self-supporting ministers and the spread of ministry teams. The continued commitment to ministry in the Church if England shows the importance of the Church as a Christian presence in every community.”