This Day a Nigerian newspaper has ‘It’s No Sin Being Gay’, an interview with Davis Mac-Iyalla and Out from the Shadows, a further report on him. Both are by journalist Laurence Ani.
2 CommentsThe Church of Sweden last December approved a Service of blessing for registered partnership.
You can read the English translation of this text, by going to Kelvin Holdsworth’s blog. (It’s a small PDF file.)
Here’s the news report from last December: Church of Sweden gives gay couples church blessing.
26 CommentsUpdated
The Telegraph reported their publication, Labour faces fresh battle over gay rights
The Daily Mail had Law to put gay rights ahead of religion
According to both these reports, the Church of England spokesperson said:
“As Ruth Kelly’s statement acknowledges, these regulations raise ‘complex issues about how to reconcile competing rights and freedoms’. The Government has gone some way to recognising the particular needs of churches and other religious organisations to act in accordance with their own convictions.
“We shall, however, want to study the regulations closely before commenting in more detail. It is a matter of regret that the decision to create new law in this way without going through the normal procedure for Parliamentary Bills means that the regulations will not have the full scrutiny that sensitive matters of this kind require.”
Faithworks welcomed them in this press release: Faithworks welcomes the publication of draft Sexual Orientation Regulations. An extract:
Faithworks welcomes the publication of the draft Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) as an attempt to ensure that goods and services are delivered inclusively and in non-discriminatory ways.
We stand by the statements we have previously made on the SORs (www.faithworks.info) and are confident that they do not pose a threat to Christians.
It is right that any organisation receiving public funds should deliver services to genuine public benefit. A commitment to diversity does not mean losing one’s distinctive faith identity: it actually presents an opportunity to develop a dialogue and demonstrate Christian love and service.
There is still a great deal of misinterpretation of the SORs, which is leading to fear and opposition. However, the draft legislation includes clear exemptions for faith-based organisations relating to doctrine, and government ministers have also publicly answered questions of concern over the scope of the proposed SORs.
We acknowledge the different contributions and views of the whole Christian church to the issue of human sexuality. The Faithworks membership is drawn from across the spectrum of the church. Our approach to the SORs and to Equality & Diversity legislation allows for Christian views of sexuality whilst encouraging unconditional love and service. This is the Jesus model: defending a person’s human rights does not involve endorsing their lifestyle choices.
Lawyers Christian Fellowship (LCF), the Evangelical Alliance, Care and the Christian Institute did not do so, New gay rules attacked from Religious Intelligence/CEN
The Evangelical Alliance issued Response to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007
The Christian Institute said New ‘gay rights’ regulations put religious freedom in jeopardy and also a briefing note in a very smart PDF format.
CARE’s response is in a Word document here.
The Lawyers Christian Fellowship has a press release titled GOVERNMENT PUBLISH LANDMARK INTOLERANT LEGISLATION SETTING GROUND FOR CLASH OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS
Giles Fraser writing for Ekklesia commented on these attitudes: Giving fundamentalism a secular boost
The National Secular Society has Government Stands Up For Equality, Forcing Religious to Back Down
84 CommentsThe Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Archbishop Bernard Malango, Archbishop of Central Africa, held a meeting on 7 March with Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, Anglican Bishop of Harare. The meeting took place in South Africa.
As Pat Ashworth reports in the Church Times this week (not yet on the web):
Bishop Kunonga has been widely criticised as a Mugabe apologist. A case against him involving a set of serious charges is still pending. His superior, Archbishop Malango, has in turn been criticised for the lack of progress in the case, and for not reprimanding Bishop Kunonga. In the mean time, Anglican leadership in Zimbabwe during the country’s economic and political upheaval has been widely seen as compromised.
Here (or here) is the official joint statement issued about this event:
“We are grateful for the chance to meet face to face and discuss the role of the church in Zimbabwe and the wider region in working towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.
“We shared our deep concerns with the Bishop of Harare about the situation in Zimbabwe, affirming those places where Anglican ministries are bearing fruit and the church is growing, but also expressing the widespread concerns in the global church and in the international community about the deteriorating economic life of Zimbabwe and issues of human rights and peaceful non-partisan protest.
“We encouraged the development of an independent voice for the church in response to these challenges. All ministers of the gospel must be free to serve and to speak for the needs of those most deprived and disadvantaged.
“We want to find new channels of communication and to facilitate regional conversations about issues of development and justice, including the impact of sanctions, so that Anglicans may work together more effectively with and for the poor whom they serve in Christ’s name.”
Here is some press coverage of the event:
And a comprehensive backfile on Nolbert Kunonga can be found at Magic Statistics, see Rowan Williams “shares concerns” with renegade Zimbabwean bishop.
Also, see African church leaders urged to take action by Trevor Grundy.
29 CommentsUpdated Tuesday morning
Still at 55 and Holding is the headline from Kendall Harmon.
The Bakersfield Californian has a report Local pastor hoping to take role of bishop.
The next few days see the conclusion of the current South Carolina election process, as the deadline for Standing Committee consents is passed. The diocesan website is being updated frequently with the latest count: 52 as I write this but for approval 56 are required. If these are not received, a new election has to be held. Scroll down for the full text of the letter from Mark Lawrence dated 7 March, or read it more conveniently here.
Press reports:
Charleston Post and Courier Adam Parker Episcopal bishop-elect confirms loyalty
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steve Levin Episcopal nominee at center of storm
The State (Columbia SC) Carolyn Click Bishop-elect debate mirrors larger struggle
ENS had SOUTH CAROLINA: Bishop-elect again clarifies his stance on Episcopal Church membership last Thursday.
The Living Church had South Carolina Nears Necessary Consents for Consecration of its Next Bishop on 3 March.
A mid-February ENS report was SOUTH CAROLINA: Standing Committee asks other dioceses to reconsider withholding consent to Lawrence.
There is strong campaigning going on, see for example Sarah Hey’s Open Threads here and here at Stand Firm or on the other side from Lionel Deimel: A New Urgency.
38 CommentsThe official Summary of February 2007 Group of Sessions can now be found, in two versions, both RTF format, at this confusingly titled page (not at the one titled Reports of Proceedings).
0 CommentsChristopher Ohlson writes the Face to Faith column in the Guardian on the subject of sidelining old hymns.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph’s Sacred Mysteries column about horse-biers in Welsh churches.
Roderick Strange writes in The Times that It’s time to repent our failure to love and seek forgiveness.
Two articles from the Christian Century (hat tip AKMA):
Taking the plunge by James Alison
Pastors writing badly by Lillian Daniel
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times: What am I blind to now?
7 CommentsAnother pastoral letter to the members of Anglican Communion Network from Moderator Bishop Robert Duncan has been issued for reading in NACDAP parishes this Sunday, and for publication to the world on Monday.
However, you can read it now, at Telling Secrets the aptly-named blog of Elizabeth Kaeton. See Moderator Bob’s Pastoral Letter.
Another copy of it is here, which may be easier to read.
The last paragraph quotes some statistics:
The Anglican Communion Network is comprised of over 900 parishes and over 2200 clergy.
However, as the letter itself explains by no means all of these are members of the Episcopal Church USA.
33 CommentsThis week’s Church Times completes its coverage of last week’s General Synod:
Both sides move on from Synod’s debates on gays by Pat Ashworth
Synod detailed coverage:
Mentally ill prisoners ‘a cause of outrage’
In good heart about church schools
0 CommentsUpdated Wednesday 14 March
See here for links to the text of The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.
The government has also published:
For the original consultation document see here.
5 CommentsUpdated Saturday morning
Some months ago, Time called Archbishop Akinola one of the 100 most influential people in the world. See this piece by Rick Warren.
More recently, there was an opinion article At the Center of a Schism.
In another opinion piece yesterday David Van Biema Crunch Time on Gays for Anglican Archbishop now says this:
Awkward as it may be for an outsider to intrude in the doings of a country or a church that is not his own, I nonetheless believe that the Most Rev. Archbishop Peter Akinola has some explaining to do. The Anglican Primate of Nigeria, one of the most powerful churchmen in Africa, needs to clarify his stance on a Nigerian anti-homosexuality bill he initially supported, which assigns a five-year prison term not only for practicing gays, but also for those who support them. Akinola either needs to publicly renounce, in strong terms, his early support of the bill’s punitive clauses and to amplify the rather tepid concern he later expressed about them, or else he needs to explain why he’s not doing so to the dozen or so churches in Virginia whose congregants were largely ignorant of the legislation when they voted to join Akinola’s archdiocese in December.
As Jim Naughton points out, Time’s reasoning on this topic does sound odd.
Saturday Updates
Voice of America has Nigerian Activist Slams Anti-Gay Bill
Ruth Gledhill has Akinola must speak out to save gays
The Bishop of Western Louisiana, Bruce MacPherson was one of those asked by Rowan Williams to make a presentation to the primates at Dar es Salaam on 15 February.
The text of what he said has been published in full here.
His diocese published a press release last October headed The Diocese of Western Louisiana becomes a “Windsor-compliant” diocese.
I have written twice previously about who are the Windsor bishops? and more on the Windsor statistics.
In his presentation Bishop MacPherson says:
…to speak on behalf of about twenty-four other diocesan bishops who share a common support and commitment to the process in which the Windsor Reports invites the Church to share in a journey leading to the development of a “common Anglican Covenant.” [WR117.p48]…
Later he says:
8 Comments… we do not represent a small minority, but rather, we represent about twenty-five percent of the dioceses of The Episcopal Church, and a growing number of people beyond these borders..
In Denying Rights in Nigeria the New York Times today expresses its editorial opinion, starting this way :
A poisonous piece of legislation is quickly making its way through the Nigerian National Assembly. Billed as an anti-gay-marriage act, it is a far-reaching assault on basic rights of association, assembly and expression. Chillingly, the legislation — proposed last year by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo — has the full and enthusiastic support of the leader of Nigeria’s powerful Anglican church. Unless the international community speaks out quickly and forcefully against the bill, it is almost certain to become law…
Update
Matt Thompson reports Passage still imminent.
The UK government today published the draft text of The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.
The government press release is here: New protections for lesbian, gay and bi-sexual people come into force in April. Part of the press release says:
The regulations and consultation response published today reconfirms the Government’s position set out on 29 January on faith based adoption and fostering agencies. As the Prime Minister said, the Government believes there is no place in society for discrimination but that in the interests of vulnerable children, the regulations will provide for a transition period for faith based adoption and fostering agencies until the end of 2008.
The Regulations will be applicable to a wide range of activities. For instance it would be unlawful to:
- Refuse a same sex couple a double room in a hotel because this might cause offence to other customers;
- Refuse to provide a gift registration service for couples planning a civil partnership where such a service was offered to couples planning a wedding;
- Refuse admission to a bar because someone was not gay;
- Refuse a child’s admission to a school on the grounds of either their or their parents’ sexual orientation;
- Refuse membership of a sports club to an individual on the grounds of their sexual orientation.
The Regulations will now go before both Houses for debate and, subject to Parliamentary approval, come into force on 30 April 2007 the same time as Part 2 of the Equality Act.
Part 2 provides parallel protection against discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of people’s religion or belief.
The wording of Regulation 14 which provides the principal exemptions relating to religious organisations is reproduced in full below the fold. I will provide a further analysis of the religious exemption aspects of this draft soon. The text of the regulation is © Crown Copyright 2007.
39 CommentsSome items about the recent primates meeting.
Changing Attitude Scotland has issued this statement.
The Living Church had a lengthy report some time ago (but General Synod distracted me) from George Conger which is titled News Analysis: Behind the Scenes in Dar es Salaam. This contains a lot of background information about what went on. Well worth a read.
Andrew Brown, writing in the Church Times last week, criticised Rowan Williams for the “trick of selective quotation” in the article he had written for the Telegraph
…Something like that is present in Dr Williams’s article in The Daily Telegraph on Saturday. “One of the hardest things in all this has been to keep insisting on the absolute moral imperative of combating bigotry and violence against gay people, and the need to secure appropriate civic and legal protection for couples who have chosen to share their lives.”
Who is he trying to fool with this? Is he really describing the policy of the Nigerian Church? Or the Rwandan? There is a great deal that is subtle and illuminating in his article, but none of that portion describes the way that things are actually done, or discussed among the Primates, if we are to judge from the reports of others present at these meetings.
In a similar way, his article says that: “The suggestion of a structure in America to care for the minority tries to remove any need for external intervention.” This could only appear true if you knew nothing of the politics surrounding it.
But there is this uneasy nagging fear that, like a journalist, Dr Williams believes this stuff while he is writing it. I can’t honestly see what other motive he might have for saying it. Obviously, he knows as well as anyone else that Dr Jefferts Schori cannot satisfy her enemies within and outside the United States, and that every test she passes will be replaced by one that is harder.
The New York Times published this op-ed article, A Divorce the Church Should Smile Upon by Jack Miles.
World Magazine published Showdown in Africa by Edward Plowman:
23 CommentsThe primates discussed a number of topics but spent almost the entire final day on matters related to TEC. The global south kept hammering away for stronger, more specific language in the communiqué, and defending their interventions on TEC soil in America on behalf of parishes seeking refuge from TEC.
The primates finally adjourned as midnight approached. Akinola was the last to sign the document.
“It was the most intense meeting I have ever attended,” Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda said afterward. “Even until the last night of our meeting, we were in a deadlock. But, the Lord has prevailed. Biblical authority is being restored, and from that, we are hopeful that biblical mission will be the result.”
“We came very close to separation over this,” said the global south’s Archbishop Gregory Venables, primate of the Southern Cone in South America.
Separation indeed. In Akinola’s briefcase was a signed statement by global south primates, ready to be released as a minority report with the communiqué if it had not been strengthened, according to several sources. It also would have signaled a breakup of the communion, they added.
There are several press releases from the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) telling us about the twenty new bishops all consecrated in one service last Sunday, and the further election of another six.
See: Challenges of missionary dioceses:, and Buildup to unprecedented consecration service: and Six more bishops elected: and last but by no means least, House of Bishop’s statement on CANA, Primates’ meeting:.
This last includes the following:
We also heard a report from the Bishop of CANA, the Rt. Rev’d Martyn Minns, on the growth of the ministry in the USA and pledged our enthusiastic support for this vital mission initiative of our Church. We welcomed the news that the Rt. Rev’d David Bena, recently retired Suffragen Bishop of Albany, has now transferred to the Church of Nigeria to assist with the work of CANA.
In light of the report from the recent meeting of Primates in Dar es Salaam we agreed to defer the request for additional Episcopal elections for CANA until our meeting in September 2007.
The House of Bishops expressed profound gratitude to Archbishop Peter J. Akinola and his colleagues in the Global South for the strong stand taken at the meeting, together with the gracious leadership of Archbishop Rowan Williams, and continue to pray that the Anglican Communion can move forward in truth and unity.
There is more detail about this from the Diocese of Albany (h/t BB).
Sarah Dylan Breuer has commented on this timescale for returning to the issue of more bishops for CANA.
2 CommentsThe website Religious Intelligence has republished from the Church of England Newspaper a column with this title written by Stephen Bates.
So there we were, sitting round the hotel swimming pool in Tanzania, doorstepping the Primates’ Meeting, as one does, and waiting for the regular appearance of Archbishop Akinola, inconspicuously dressed in full Nigerian costume on one of his discreet forays to consult with Bishop Martyn Minns in an upper chamber, when the conversation turned to the question of primatial vicars…
You gotta read it all.
12 CommentsThe full text of a Pastoral Letter sent to the Primates of the Anglican Communion can be found in a press release from Lambeth Palace titled Archbishop – Communion challenges require ‘generosity and patience’.
49 CommentsUpdated again Monday afternoon
Voice of America has this: US, Nigerian Anglicans Seek New Solutions for Same Sex Unions and Gay Ordination.
It includes an interview with Kendall Harmon (audio just under 5 minutes).
…As for this week’s indications that Nigerian legislators plan to criminalize same sex relationships and all promotion of a homosexual lifestyle, Canon Harmon says he hopes the Nigerian diocese and its leaders will strike a balance that respects the region’s cultural history and the personal rights and freedoms of Nigerian citizens.
“Nigeria is closely divided between Islam and Christianity. So you have Sharia law in the minds of a lot of legislatures. From an American perspective, it looks very, very punitive relative to American legislation. So I think the hard part is the degree to which the Church can push back in a compassionate way and still try to uphold the teaching of the Church in a society where Islam and Christianity are competing strongly,” he said…
Matt Thompson has responded with Canon Harmon drops the “Shar’iya” bomb and Kendall Harmon has written Matt Thompson Criticizes Kendall Harmon about an Interview.
Update
Matt Thompson has posted further: Clarification on the “Shar’iya” bomb and also republished the text of the draft legislation.
Monday morning
Matt Thompson has published a further item Apologies. See also in the Comments below.
Monday afternoon
Matt Thompson has posted From the comments: Ephraim Radner and highlighted what Ephraim Radner wrote only last night.
The Archbishop of Wales delivered a lecture in Cork. There was a news report about this.
Read the original press release, and the full text of the lecture as a PDF file at “Scripture and Sexuality – our commitment to listening and learning”.
14 Comments