Thinking Anglicans

Ten years of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant

Updated

The Church of England issued this press release: Church of England and the Methodist Church moving closer to unity

* 10 years since signing of historic Covenant

The Joint Implementation Commission (JIC) of the Church of England and Methodist Church in Britain has called for “Church leaders and decision-making bodies to make the Covenant a priority in order to bring our Churches closer together in mission and holiness.”

In a major Report published this week the JIC calls on both Churches to consider the impact that the 10-year-old Anglican Methodist Covenant has made on their relationship; to rejoice in the progress that has been made; and to face together the challenges of mission.

The Report, entitled “The Challenge of the Covenant: Uniting in Mission and Holiness”, provides numerous examples of where the Churches have worked well together over the past 10 years, including areas of education, ethical investment, mission, theological education, safeguarding and Fresh Expressions. There are now 533 local ecumenical partnerships between Anglicans and Methodists across the country. However, the Report also identifies a number of continuing challenges, such as the need for further collaboration, consultation and decision making at both national and local levels…

…The JIC Report: “The Challenge of the Covenant: Uniting in Mission and Holiness” , the Quick Guide and a Draft Report to the Methodist Conference and the General Synod in 2014 will be available for download from 6th September at: http://www.anglican-methodist.org.uk/

The Methodist Church has this page about the Anglican Methodist Covenant.

…Full information about Covenant, including its Affirmations and Commitments, and how it is worked out locally can be found at www.anglican-methodist.org.uk. Please note this website is now rather dated and there are plans to create a new website for the Anglican Methodist Covenant.

The second quinquennial JIC report ‘The Challenge of the Covenant’ will be available here on September 6 2013…

Updates

The Quick Guide is now available here. For the full report go to this page, and scroll down. The report to go to General Synod can be downloaded here.

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Texas Supreme Court rules on church property cases

The Supreme Court of Texas today handed down its decisions in two cases relating to the property of The Episcopal Church. In both cases the ruling was against a diocese of The Episcopal Church.

The actual texts of the decisions are here:

Statements were issued by the two Fort Worth diocesan organisations:

Pastoral Letter from Bishop High

Pastoral Letter from Bishop Iker

A S Haley writes:

Today the Texas Supreme Court handed down decisions in the two ECUSA cases pending before it: No. 11-0265, Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, et al. v. The Episcopal Church, et al.; and No. 11-0332, Masterson v. Diocese of Northwest Texas. In the first case, the Court sided with Bishop Iker’s Diocese by a closely split vote of 5-4, reversed the summary judgment of Circuit Judge John Chupp which had awarded all of the property and assets of Bishop Iker’s Diocese to the Episcopal Church and its rump diocese, and sent the case back to the trial court. The majority held that the trial court had improperly failed to apply a “neutral principles of law” analysis to the issues. The four dissenters did not disagree with that result, but instead believed that the Court lacked jurisdiction to hear a direct appeal from the trial court’s judgment in the case.

In the second case, the Court by a vote of 7-2 reversed the Court of Appeals’ decision requiring the Church of the Good Shepherd in San Angelo to turn over its building and all other assets to the Diocese of Northwest Texas. The Court definitively ruled that all Texas courts must follow “neutral principles of law” (rather than deferring to an ecclesiastical hierarchy), and that based on such an analysis, the Dennis Canon was not effective under Texas law (or that if it were effective to create a trust, the trust was not expressly irrevocable, and so could be revoked by the parish in question)…

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Archbishop of Canterbury speaks about Syria

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, delivered the following speech in the House of Lords on the situation in Syria:

My Lords, I very much welcome the opportunity to have been able to speak later in this debate because of the extraordinary quality of many of the contributions that have been made, and how much one can learn by listening to them. Like many noble Lords I have some experience in the region, partly from this role that I have and recent visits and contacts with many faith leaders of all three Abrahamic faiths, and also through 10 years of, from time to time, working on reconciliation projects.

I don’t intend to repeat the powerful points that have been made on international law which is itself based on the Christian theory of Just War, and that has been said very eloquently. But I want to pick up a couple of points – first is, it has been said, quite rightly, that there is as much risk in inaction as there is in action. But as in a conflict in another part of the world, a civil conflict in which I was mediating some years ago, a general said to me “we have to learn that there are intermediate steps between being in barracks and opening fire”. And the reality is that until we are sure that all those intermediate steps have been pursued, Just War theory says that the step of opening fire is one that must only be taken when there is no possible alternative whatsoever, under any circumstances. Because, as the noble Lord Lord Alli just said very clearly and very eloquently, the consequences are totally out of our hands once it has started. And some consequences we can predict – we’ve heard already about the Lebanon and about Iran, particularly the effect that an intervention would cause on the new government in Iran as it is humiliated by such an intervention.

But there is a further point, talking to a very senior Christian leader in the region yesterday, he said “intervention from abroad will declare open season on the Christian communities”. They have already been devastated, 2 million Christians in Iraq 12 years ago, less than half a million today. These are churches that don’t just go back to St Paul but, in the case of Damascus and Antioch, predate him. They will surely suffer terribly (as they already are) if action goes ahead. And that consequence has to be weighed against the consequences of inaction. In civil wars, those who are internal to the civil conflict fight for their lives, necessarily. Those who are external have a responsibility, if they get involved at all, to fight for the outcome, and that outcome must be one which improves the chances of long term peace and reconciliation. If we take action that diminishes the chance of peace and reconciliation, when inevitably a political solution has to be found, whether it’s near term or in the long term future, then we will have contributed to more killing and this war will be deeply unjust.

In consequence my Lords, I feel that any intervention must be effective in terms of preventing any further use of chemical weapons. I’ve not yet heard that that has been adequately demonstrated as likely. That it must effectively deal with those who are promoting the use of chemical weapons. And it must have a third aim which is: somewhere in the strategy, there must be more chance of a Syria and a Middle East in which there are not millions of refugees and these haunting pictures are not the stuff of our evening viewing.

The context in which this speech was delivered can be seen in the Hansard record of the day’s debate. Full list of speakers starts here.

The debate on Syria in the House of Commons resulted in an unexpected defeat for the government, 285 votes to 272 – a majority of 13.

The Church Times has this report by Madeleine Davies Western air strikes not the answer, say Syrian clerics.

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follow-ups to the Archbishop's sermon in Mexico

We reported some time ago that the Archbishop of Canterbury visited Mexico (along with Guatemala and Barbados) and that he preached this sermon in Monterrey. It includes this passage:

…It is a dangerous place, a narrow path we walk as Anglicans at present. On one side is the steep fall into an absence of any core beliefs, a chasm where we lose touch with God, and thus we rely only on ourselves and our own message. On the other side there is a vast fall into a ravine of intolerance and cruel exclusion. It is for those who claim all truth, and exclude any who question. When we fall into this place, we lose touch with human beings and create a small church, or rather many small churches – divided, ineffective in serving the poor, the hungry and the suffering, incapable of living with each other, and incomprehensible to those outside the church…

This passage is directly referenced in a statement issued today by the American group Communion Partners which continues:

..It is our vocation as Communion Partners to navigate this narrow path between two dangerous extremes as we pursue the mission of the Church “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” To that end, six Communion Partner bishops (Greg Brewer, Paul Lambert, Ed Little, Dan Martins, Ed Salmon and Michael Smith) made a visit to Archbishop Justin Welby at his residence in Canterbury, England last week.

There we prayed together and discussed a range of issues concerning the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church. Also present was the Archbishop’s Director of Reconciliation, Canon David Porter. We believe the opportunity to build relationships and discuss the ministry of reconciliation we share will bear fruit in this season of our common life. We are encouraged by our experience of the Archbishop as a man of faith and prayer, committed to the reevangelization of increasingly secularized Western cultures. Please keep Archbishop Justin in your prayers and remember us before God “who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

It’s also the subject of criticism in this article by Kelvin Holdsworth: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mexico Sermon.

..It is deeply unhelpful of the Archbishop to use language which appears to suggest that the risk that those who wish to affirm gay people present is one of a lack or loss of core beliefs. That just isn’t true and is a nasty slur against fellow Anglicans. The US and Canadian churches are not places where God is absent and if the Archbishop needs to find that out, he needs to go there and meet them, something that his predecessor seemed to find impossible to do.

People will read the sermon in the US and Canadian churches and take immediate offence. (I find it offensive here in Scotland, but there it will appear to be a judgement on their national churches). Those who wish to affirm the place of LGBT people do so because of their core beliefs as Christians and as Anglicans, not because of any lack of belief or loss of God…

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more commentary about fracking

See this earlier article for background.

Some interesting material has been published by the joint public issues team of the Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed Churches:

… with the exception of a discussion on fuel poverty, the Church of England’s statement does not reveal its own perspective on “balancing considerations” which it claims are not being taken into account by others.

The Church of England takes on the protestors by stating that blanket opposition to fracking “fails to take into account those who suffer most.” But this link to fuel poverty begs some critical examination…

This analysis references two earlier documents:

a report and study guide to help individuals and local groups:

– understand the position of The Baptist Union, The Methodist Church and The United Reformed Church on climate change

– become aware of a vital connections between climate change and the Christian faith

– transform lifestyles through studying, praying and acting on the issues

– inspire others in the community to live in harmony with the whole of creation

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New approach to Christmas advertising campaign

The Anglican Communion News Service reports: Christmas campaign does something new for 2013.

A marketing initiative established to remind Brits about the true meaning of Christmas is trying something different this year.

Concerned by the statistic that 51% of people say Jesus’s birth is irrelevant to their Christmas, the founders of ChurchAds.net are focusing on a slogan rather than an eye-catching image…

The campaign website is at http://www.christmasstartswithchrist.com/

It might be hard to believe, but knowledge of the Christmas story is fading.

Just 12 per cent of adults know the nativity story, and more than one-third of children don’t know whose birthday it is.

Some 51 per cent of people now say that the birth of Jesus is irrelevant to their Christmas. Christmas is being lost to secularism and the trend is for this to get worse.

Together we can reverse the trend

A movement made up of some of the nation’s leading Christian groups, including the Church of England, the Evangelical Alliance and the Children’s Society, is coming together because we believe Christmas is worth saving.

Christmas Starts with Christ is a campaign aimed at helping churches to make Christ and the amazing story of his birth the focus of the nation’s favourite time of year…

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Blackburn Diocese asks questions about fracking

Updated again Tuesday

There have been numerous press reports about a leaflet that the Diocese of Blackburn produced which deals with the moral issues related to shale gas drilling techniques. The first such drilling attempts were made in that diocese.

The leaflet that these stories refer to is here. And there is more detailed material on the Blackburn website.

David Pocklington has written a helpful article: Fracking, the Facts and the Church. In this he criticises the leaflet:

…Viewed in its pastoral context, the leaflet provides a good overview of this emerging technology. However, its portrayal of some of the alleged environmental concerns does not stand close scrutiny, and the use of emotive terms such as “toxic cocktail” (in relation to water usage and contamination) strays from its desired impartiality…

More recently, the Telegraph has published a rather misleading story: Church of England in ‘fracking land-grab’ (note the use of scare quotes)

The Church Commissioners website contains a detailed explanation of the Mineral registration programme.

Updates

The Church Commissioners issued this: Clarification on suggested links with hydraulic fracturing or ” fracking”

It is factually incorrect to link the Mineral Registration Programme with fracking. The Church Commissioners are registering their mineral interests in line with the Land Registry requirements, as any responsible landowner is doing before the end of October deadline. This work started in 2004. This does not create any new interests or rights and is confined to properly registering what the Commissioners have in most cases owned for many years, and in some cases for centuries. There is absolutely no link with fracking.

We would make clear that this is just a registration and protection exercise to protect existing rights and interests made vulnerable by the change in the law. There are no particular plans to mine under any property. The focus is registration and protection

The Archbishop’s Council has issued this press release.

Statement from the Church of England on ‘Fracking’

The Chair of the Church of England’s group on Mission and Public Affairs Philip Fletcher has today (16th August 2013) issued the following statement placing recent media reports in context:

“The Church of England has no official policy either for or against hydraulic fracturing (known as ‘fracking’). However there is a danger of viewing fracking through a single issue lens and ignoring the wider considerations.

“There are a number of balancing considerations which need to be taken into account when coming to a view. Fuel poverty is an increasingly urgent issue for many in society – the impact on energy bills is felt most by the least well off. Blanket opposition to further exploration for new sources of fuel fails to take into account those who suffer most when resources are scarce.

“I would want to emphasise along with all those that care for the environment the importance of proper controls in relation to any form of fracking – we do not want cowboys and cavaliers digging up the land in a free for all exploitation. However as the Royal Academy of Engineering concluded recently in a review on fracking, this is a procedure which “can be managed effectively in the UK as long as operational best practices are implemented and robustly enforced through regulation”.

“There are issues and risks. The answer to those is to treat them seriously and to minimise them. There are examples of how this can be done in other areas. The oil well operating at Furzey Island, adjacent to Brownsea Island, demonstrates that oil production in a deeply sensitive area can continue for decades without endangering the environment.

“Clearly all carbon based fuels contribute to global warming and are less than ideal in terms of climate change. However, it should also be recognised that gas is less damaging than coal and to preclude properly managed technical development is to risk denying ourselves more important, less polluting and less costly options than the energy sources on which we currently rely.

“Fuel poverty, the creation of jobs, energy self-sufficiency and the development of technology that may reduce the impact of more polluting fuels are just some of the factors which need to be taken into account in any debate alongside the concern we all have about the impact of fossil fuels upon climate change.”

There are notes to the press release below the fold.

(more…)

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Evangelical Alliance publishes guidance on new Marriage law

Under the title Marriage FAQs, the Evangelical Alliance has published a guidance document:

Earlier this month, the new Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act was introduced. As this legislation has now been passed by parliament, it is important to face the reality that the state’s definition of marriage will now be different from the historical definition. The Alliance has published the following guidance for Christians and churches, answering some of the most frequently-asked questions about the implications of the Act.

The document can be downloaded as a PDF.

The Introduction is copied in full below the fold.

(more…)

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Archbishop of Uganda holds a press conference

The Archbishop of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali held a press conference recently. Here are some reports from it:

From the GAFCON website: Ugandan primate calls for GAFCON support

The primate of the Church of Uganda, the Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali has likened GAFCON/FCA (Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans) to the East African Revival and called for believers to back the Nairobi conference to be held in October.

In a major statement in Kampala, Archbishop Ntagali referred to the fact that exactly ten years ago an active homosexual, who was a divorced father of two children, was elected a Bishop in the Episcopal Church in America. “This unbiblical decision on the part of a church threw the entire global Anglican Communion into chaos” he said.

The chaos, the Archbishop said, shows no sign of improving.

“We have a new Archbishop of Canterbury who is born again and has a testimony. I have personally met him and I like him very much. But, the problems in the Communion are still there, and they don’t change just because there is a new global leader. In fact, ten years later, the crisis has deepened.”

From the Daily Monitor:

Homosexuality is tearing fabric of Anglican union, says Ntagali

Gay clergy don’t belong in Anglican church, archbishop says

…The archbishop said the Anglican Church is built on the doctrines of Biblical teaching which only recognize hetero-sexual relationships.

The Ugandan Anglican community takes exception of the decision by the England House of Bishops to allow gay bishops as part of the Anglican clergy, he said, and thus will have a Global Anglican Future Conference in Nairobi, Kenya this October to resolve the issues.

The Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) will be the second of its kind that brings together Archbishops around the world who oppose gay bishops. In 2008, the anti-gay Anglican Church leaders gathered in Jerusalem, Israel to reflect on the future of the church.

Archbishop Ntagali, with these remarks, is picking off from where his predecessor left off: Henry Luke Orombi was one of the main organizers of Gafcon 2008, and also made several pastoral trips to several countries to preach against gay clergy and gay marriage.

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Archbishop of Canterbury visits Barbados, Guatemala and Mexico

The Archbishop of Canterbury is engaged in a week-long trip to locations in three Anglican provinces.

Lambeth Palace has issued a series of press releases:

Archbishop Justin visits Anglicans in Barbados

‘Building communities of hope’: Archbishop preaches in Bardados

Archbishop Justin visits Guatemala

Reconciliation is our ‘gift to the world’: Archbishop preaches in Guatemala

Archbishop Justin praises Mexican Anglicans for helping ‘those most marginalised’ by poverty

‘Walk in the light with each other’: Archbishop Justin’s sermon in Mexico

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progress on Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales

The Diocese of Bradford has announced: ‘Roadmap’ for New Diocese

The Archbishop of York has produced a timetable of key dates for the new diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales, in which he has announced that the ‘Appointed Day’ will be Easter 2014. The timetable is available here.

The Appointed Day is when the three Dioceses cease to exist and the new Diocese comes into being, and when the three Diocesan Bishops depart. While arrangements will be put in place to allow us to operate consistently during the transitional period, the Appointed Day itself will not bring any instant changes; these will be gradual over a period of about a year.

Bishop Nick says, “It is good to have a clear road map for all that has to happen between now and the creation of the new diocese. I am confident that this gives the existing dioceses time to prepare properly, but also that there is a clear process for setting up this new and exciting venture. We will need to be both diligent and patient as we now proceed in the months ahead.”

It’s expected that the name of the new Diocesan Bishop will be announced in February and there will be an Acting Bishop between the Appointed Day and the new Bishop taking up his post – probably in the summer.

The Crown Appointments Commission has announced meeting dates for this appointment, 12 November and 9/10 January, and more details of the process can be seen in the roadmap linked above.

See also the Update on New Diocese from the Programme Manager.

There is similar information on the websites of Wakefield diocese and Ripon & Leeds diocese.

Wakefield also has this letter from the Archbishop’s office about the administrative arrangements.

Update Both Ripon & Leeds and Bradford have announced the appointment of John Tuckett as Acting Diocesan Secretary in addition to his existing role as Programme Manager.

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New Archbishop of Sydney elected

Updated again Saturday

The diocesan website has this announcement: Sydney Anglicans have a new Archbishop.

A synod of more than 800 members has overwhelmingly elected Bishop Glenn Davies as the 12th Archbishop of Sydney.

Dr Davies replaced Dr Peter Jensen who held the post for 12 years. For much of Archbishop Jensen’s tenure, Dr Davies served with him as the Bishop of North Sydney.

The other nominee for the post was Canon Rick Smith, the rector of Naremburn/Cammeray, a large church on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.

The final vote came after a complicated process of elimination ballots involving both houses of Synod – clergy and laity (lay people).

During an earlier elimination stage, a mix-up in vote counting made it seem as though Canon Smith had progressed through to the second round of voting. Between the sessions, there was an exhaustive recount which showed he had failed to gain the required majority in both houses.

The election then moved to the final stage and Dr Davies was elected…

A biography of Dr Davies is here.

The Primate of Australia congratulated Bishop Davies, and the Archbishop of Melbourne commented here.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported the election this way: New Anglican Archbishop of Sydney chosen

Bishop Glenn Davies has been elected as the new Archbishop of Sydney.

Dr Davies was elected on Tuesday afternoon by the church’s synod, the governing body comprised of 800 members from 280 churches around Sydney.

The church described Dr Davies’ election victory as “overwhelming”. But it was only reached after problems with vote tallying forced a recount…

Muriel Porter writes for ABC Religion and Ethics The end of the Jensen ascendancy? What the election of Sydney’s new Archbishop means

…It would be fair to say that more moderate Sydney Anglicans approached the Synod on Monday with trepidation, if not foreboding. Particularly those from the dwindling number of traditional Anglican and Anglo-Catholic Sydney parishes feared the worst. They believed they could trust Davies to treat them with respect, but they had no idea how they might fare under Smith.

But when it came to it, the unthinkable happened. Smith did not get enough votes even to become a formal candidate in the first round of Synod voting. Both clergy and laity supported Davies’s candidature, but neither group gave Smith a majority. So last night, it was all over very quickly, with Davies, the only candidate, elected Archbishop with overwhelming support in the 800-strong Synod.

Davies has a maximum term as Archbishop of seven years. By then, Phillip Jensen and many of Smith’s key backers will no longer be Synod members, having reached retirement age. So suggestions that Rick Smith will now be groomed in readiness for another tilt at the top job seem fanciful. This was his backers’ last chance.

Commentators have been suggesting for a while that the ascendancy of the two Jensen brothers and their cohort had passed its peak, which might explain why they banked so much on such a young and relatively inexperienced candidate. A win for Smith would have tied the diocese to a Jensen-style leadership for a couple of decades, giving time for the next wave of hardliners to cement their influence. That will not now happen.

Make no mistake – Davies will not suddenly support the ordination of women priests or the acceptance of same-sex marriage. He will keep allowing deacons to preside at Holy Communion, even though it flies in the face of the rest of the Anglican Church and a decision of the Church’s highest court. The Sydney Diocese will remain deeply conservative.

But hopefully, the diocese’s relationships with the rest of the Anglican Church of Australia – increasingly strained in recent times – will mirror once more the same level of friendship and respect Davies has built across the country. That is perhaps the most important and far-reaching result from this extraordinary election.

Muriel Porter also writes for the Church Times Sydney elects new Archbishop which contains more detail of the election process.

Julia Baird writes for the Sydney Morning Herald The spirit of unity brings peace to a fractured flock

…Three astonishing things happened.

First, kindness and decency punctured old-style bullying and politicking.
Second, openness and transparency trumped harmful innuendo.
Third, young men pushed powerful old men off their perch; and they did so with forcefully gentle arguments. The old way of doing politics in Sydney – at least that which has ruled for the past 20 years – of number crunching, backroom deals and character assassination – was stomped on by rhetoric and reason.

Those who have long defined the diocese as hardline, insular and in opposition to the world, suddenly found they no longer controlled a majority of the synod; not even their old, reliable clergy voting bloc. The long-dominant factional leader Phillip Jensen had made two unfounded attempts late last week to deride Davies as mediocre and theologically suspect on his blog, but this backfired. He is now widely perceived to have lost his influence.

Stephen Judd , veteran synod member and author of Sydney Anglicans, described it as a “changing of the guard”. Others called it a turning point for the entire diocese…

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Challenges to the quadruple locks?

First of all, there appeared to have been questions raised in the Sikh community. The Telegraph carried a report Religion told to halt weddings over gay rights which included this:

Sikh temples have been advised to halt all civil marriage ceremonies on their premises to protect them from possible legal challenges for refusing to conduct same-sex weddings…

The warning comes in a letter to Sikh places of worship, known as gurdwaras, from Sikhs In England, a specialist advisory body. It urges them to consider deregistering as a venue for civil weddings — which would leave gurdwaras performing wedding rites with no legal force.

Couples would have to attend a separate ceremony in a register office or other venue recognised by their local council. Although the advice is not binding, it is understood that it is being taken seriously.

But Law & Religion UK reports in Sikh Council caution on ending civil marriage ceremonies that The Sikh Council UK (SCUK) – the largest representative body of Sikhs in the UK – has issued a Press Release which is supported by advice and guidance for Gurdwaras, and other material including a letter from Helen Grant, Minister for Women and Equalities, and an email from Melanie Field, Deputy Director, Equal Marriage Team.

All of this material is excellently summarised by David Pocklington.

Second, there have been widespread media reports of a legal challenge to be made by a couple in Essex, see the original news report Gay dads set to sue over church same-sex marriage opt-out.

However, there are no details of how they think they can do this. David Pocklington writes (scroll down):

We note that a same-sex couple Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow have indicated that they are “planning a legal challenge against the Church of England’s refusal to conduct same-sex weddings”: presumably, an application for judicial review of the statutory ban on the Church of England conducting same-sex marriages that was included in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 :see especially s 4(1). Barrie Drewitt-Barlow was reported as saying “‘I am a Christian – a practising Christian. My children have all been brought up as Christians and are part of the local parish church in Danbury”.

It is perhaps useful that such a challenge has come so close to the Royal Assent to the Act; and the courts will have an opportunity to give judicial consideration to the strength of the so-called “quadruple lock”. The Government’s willingness to put its money where its mouth is will be a good indication of whether the approach of Sikhs In England or of the Sikh Council UK is the more prudent.

A challenge was bound to happen, whatever the Government may have thought when the policy was first being formulated. The suspicion must be that if the case ends up in Strasbourg the ECtHR would regard the legislation as within the margin of appreciation of states parties; and the recent decision in Sindicatul Păstorul cel Bun v Romania [2013] ECHR 646 seems to suggest that the Court is reluctant to interfere in the internal affairs of religious organisations. But who knows? – With man it is impossible, but with Strasbourg all things are possible.

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New Bishop of Ebbsfleet is announced

10 Downing Street has announced:

The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Canon Jonathan Michael Goodall, BMus, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Personal Chaplain and Ecumenical Secretary at Lambeth Palace, to the Suffragan See of Ebbsfleet in the Diocese of Canterbury, in succession to the Right Reverend Jonathan Mark Richard Baker, BA, MPhil, on his translation to the Suffragan See of Fulham on 13 June 2013…

Lambeth Palace has New Bishop of Ebbsfleet announced.

Forward in Faith has this welcome:

Forward in Faith welcomes the appointment of Canon Jonathan Goodall SSC as Bishop of Ebbsfleet.

In addition to his gifts as a priest and pastor, Fr Jonathan brings with him significant diocesan and national experience. As a former bishop’s chaplain, as a staff member at Lambeth Palace, and as a key participant in ecumenical relationships and dialogue nationally and internationally, he is well equipped for his new role as bishop, counsellor, spokesman and advocate. His expertise will complement that of the other Provincial Episcopal Visitors, the Bishop of Fulham, and the other bishops of the Society, with whom he will work closely.

We wish to express our gratitude to the Archbishop of Canterbury. In making this appointment, he has given a clear signal about the continuance of appropriate episcopal care for our parishes and people.

We look forward to welcoming Fr Jonathan to membership of Forward in Faith and of its Council and National Assembly.

And there is this: Society Bishops welcome appointment of Jonathan Goodall as Bishop of Ebbsfleet.

The Ebbsfleet website has: We have a bishop! (scroll down for a message from the new bishop).

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London Church Census

British Religion in Numbers reported back in June on this:

…Church attendance in Greater London grew by 16% between 2005 and 2012, from 620,000 to 720,000, representing 9% of the capital’s population at the latter date, and thereby bucking the downward trend in most national religious indicators. The number of places of worship in London also rose during these seven years, by 17% from 4,100 to 4,800. Growth was especially to be found among black majority and immigrant churches, which together accounted for 27% of all Christian places of worship in London in 2012 and 24% of churchgoers. Black people were far more likely to attend services than whites (19% against 8%), and in Inner London 48% of worshippers were black.

This reliance upon ethnicity and migration also explains other facts revealed by the census, such as that 14% of all churches use a language other than English or that 52% of attenders are in evangelical churches (reflecting the evangelical proclivities of black Christians). By contrast, many traditional, smaller places of worship (with congregations under 200) are still contracting; they represent 50% of churches but just 22% of churchgoers. Overall, Anglicans are declining and Catholics only just growing. Moreover, the net increase of 100,000 worshippers from 2005 to 2012 disproportionately comprised women (82%), although the female majority in congregations as a whole was much lower (56%). The mean age of attenders was 41 years, ranging from 33 in the Pentecostal and New Churches to 56 for the Methodist and United Reformed Churches…

More recently Crossing London reported:

…The first findings from The London Church Census, commissioned by London City Mission and undertaken by the Brierley Consultancy in October 2012, indicate that 720,000 people in London attend church, nearly 100,000 more than the last time churchgoing was counted seven years ago. That’s an increase of 16% between 2005 and 2012.
“We are very encouraged to see from this census that many hundreds of thousands of people still consider ‘churchgoing’ as an important part of their lives,” said Andy Frost, Mission Director of Crossing London…

…A summary of the findings of the 2012 London Church Census can be found at http://www.brierleyconsultancy.com/images/londonchurches.pdf

There are several interesting charts and tables in that last document.

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Brazilian court rules against Recife breakaway diocese

The News Service of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil reports:

Court Orders Return of Churches to the Anglican Diocese of Recife / Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil”

After a long judicial battle that lasted for a decade, a Brazilian judge has this month finally decided that the actions taken by Bishop Robinson Cavalcanti in creating of the Diocese of Recife – DR, flagrantly violated Brazilian law as well as Canon law, the Doctrine & Discipline of the Episcopal Anglican Church in Brazil (IEAB), resulting in the suspension/demotion, and eventual dismissal of Bishop Robinson from his episcopal authority & legal legitimacy for such actions.

With the sentence, it was decreed that all the actions taken by Bishop Robinson were nullified, and all would be returned to the Anglican Diocese of Recife (DAR), including property, administration & all goods and rights which were illegally usurped, including amongst them five churches with all of their belongings. From now on, all of these parishes are under the direction and supervision of Diocesan Bishop Sebastião Armando…

For some background to this, a Thinking Anglicans report from 2005 may be helpful: Recife: a clarification.

Many of the links from that report are now broken, but the article from the Living Church is still available from the web archive Southern Cone Primate Annexes Brazilian Diocese.

There is also this 2005 report from the Church Times Venables takes Brazilian diocese under his wing. The current issue also has a news report, but this is only available to subscribers.

Anglican Ink has this report by George Conger: Recife loses court battle over church property to the IEAB.

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Marriage Bill gets Royal Assent: some reactions

Updated

As noted in the Comments below, the text of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 is now available online here.

The Roman Catholic Bishops of England & Wales issued this statement: Statement on on the passing of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act

…The new Act breaks the existing legal links between the institution of marriage and sexual complementarity. With this new legislation, marriage has now become an institution in which openness to children, and with it the responsibility on fathers and mothers to remain together to care for children born into their family unit, are no longer central. That is why we were opposed to this legislation on principle.

Along with others, we have expressed real concern about the deficiencies in the process by which this legislation came to Parliament, and the speed with which it has been rushed through. We are grateful particularly therefore to those Parliamentarians in both Houses who have sought to improve the Bill during its passage, so that it enshrines more effective protection for religious freedom.

A particular concern for us has also been the lack of effective protection for Churches which decide not to opt-in to conducting same sex marriages. Amendments made in the House of Lords though have significantly strengthened the legal protections in the Act for the Churches. We also welcome the Government’s amendment to the Public Order Act which makes it clear beyond doubt that “discussion or criticism of marriage which concerns the sex of the parties to the marriage shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred”. Individuals are therefore protected from criminal sanction under the Public Order Act when discussing or expressing disagreement with same sex marriage.

In other respects, however, the amendments we suggested have not been accepted. We were concerned to provide legislative clarity for schools with a religious character. This was in order to ensure that these schools will be able to continue to teach in accordance with their religious tenets. Given the potential risk that future guidance given by a Secretary of State for education regarding sex and relationships education could now conflict with Church teaching on marriage, we were disappointed that an amendment to provide this clarity was not accepted. The Minister made clear in the House of Lords, however, that in “having regard” to such guidance now or in the future schools with a religious character can “take into account other matters, including in particular relevant religious tenets”, and that “having regard to a provision does not mean that it must be followed assiduously should there be good reason for not doing so”. These assurances go some way to meeting the concerns we and others expressed…

Christian Concern has issued this: Challenge issued to Archbishop over Lords vote on same sex marriage

…Mrs Minichiello Williams said in her letter: “I am surprised that the Church of England appears to be vacating the public square when it comes to the issue of marriage. Given the rich teaching of Scripture and strong tradition of marriage, this is something that the CofE should be able to comment on clearly, intelligently and winsomely.
“Marriage is something to be celebrated, promoted and, at this time, preserved. At a time when the nation needs to hear a prophetic voice on marriage, the CofE’s message is sadly mixed and, as a result, unclear.”

Second Reading vote

A Church of England official replied on behalf of the Archbishop, in which he argued that the vote on the Bill at Second Reading had a detrimental effect on the chances of securing subsequent amendments to the Bill.

Lord Dear introduced a ‘wrecking amendment’ at Second Reading which, had it been successful, would have derailed the Bill.

The Church official said in his letter that this move went against House of Lords tradition and protocol and therefore was a serious misjudgement.

Precedent

But in her reply, Mrs Minichiello Williams referred to the clear precedent for voting at Second Reading as a means of voting on the principle of a Bill. She said: “It was very disappointing that the Archbishop himself said in the Second Reading debate that he was against the vote on Second Reading. In the event, of course, the Archbishop himself voted against the Bill, but his statement could well have dissuaded peers from voting with Lord Dear…

Media reports:

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Reactions to the passage of the Marriage Bill by the House of Lords

The Quakers have issued this press release: Quakers greet Lords’ support for equal marriage.

The Unitarians issued Unitarians welcome further step forward for Same Sex Marriage.

The Evangelical Alliance published Christians must model real marriage to society

The Christian Institute sent this email to its mailing list: Deeply disappointed, but utterly resolved to keep proclaiming the truth. And later it published Wrecking marriage will ‘come back to bite’ PM.

The Campaign For Marriage issued this: Party machines push Bill through.

Christian Concern has issued this: Peers approve same sex marriage bill.

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House of Commons considers Marriage bill amendments

The House of Commons will shortly consider the amendments made to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by the House of Lords.

Several documents have been published:

A list of all the amendments made by the Lords.

David Burrowes MP has proposed an amendment to one of those made in the Lords.

The House of Commons Library has published an analysis of the Lords amendments which can be found linked from this page.

The amendments have been marshalled for the Commons debate in this manner.

Two hours have been allowed for the debate which will start around 7.45 pm or so.

Update
The House of Commons voted to accept all the amendments, by voice vote.

The Hansard record starts here.

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Nigerian Anglican Primate supports capital punishment

As background to the following news reports, here is an Opinion article from the Nigerian website Leadership entitled Much Ado About The Return Of Death Penalty.

The return of death penalty in the country after a seven-year moratorium has been on the front burner of public discussion, while the trend has been heavily criticised by organisations in defence of human rights, many people believe it is a step in the right direction. Uche Uduma samples the opinions of Nigerians on the issue.

In a bid to tackle the problem of prison congestion in the country, President Goodluck Jonathan recently called on the 36 state governors to sign death warrants to facilitate the immediate execution of the over 900 death row inmates in prisons spread across the country.

Following the directive by the President, the Edo state Governor Adams Oshomole, signed the death warrants of four convicted prisoners in the state prison. The recent execution of four convicts in Benin put an end to a seven-year moratorium on death penalty in the country. The execution of a fifth condemned inmate, who was to be executed by firing squad was not carried out because the prison where the convict was incarcerated does not have facilities to carry out such execution.

Since 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted four resolutions calling on States to establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view to abolishing it. In line with this, about 150 of the UN’s 193 Member States have either abolished the death penalty or no longer practice it. The return of death penalty in Nigeria has obviously put a strain on the campaign by United Nations to eliminate death penalty as a form of punishment. However, other states in Nigeria are making steps to hand down more death penalties.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, at the official opening of the 5th World Conference against the death penalty last week implored political leaders in countries that still have such laws in their justice systems across the world to abolish it. He pointed that the campaign to eliminate the death penalty as a form of punishment has mainly faced resistance from political leaders…

Now here are several reports about the Anglican Primate’s contribution to this debate.

(more…)

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