The Diocese of Fort Worth has published documentation for its annual convention to consider:
“Today the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth announced its decision to sponsor five proposed amendments to the Diocesan Constitution and Canons for consideration at the diocese’s 25th Annual Convention on November 16 and 17, 2007. [PDF document below]
If adopted, the Diocese would take the first step needed to dissociate itself from the General Convention of The Episcopal Church and to begin the process of affiliating with another Province of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Since constitutional changes do not go into effect until they are approved by two successive diocesan conventions, the second, ratifying vote would come at the annual meeting in 2008. Under the proposals, the Diocese would reaffirm its position as “a constituent member of the Anglican Communion, a Fellowship of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, consisting of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces and regional churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, upholding and propagating the historic Faith and Order as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer.”
Read the full announcement here.
See also the full report of the Committee on Constitution and Canons as a PDF file here.
Read the Episcopal News Service story: FORT WORTH: Standing Committee proposes severing Episcopal Church ties.
And the Living Church story Fort Worth Will Vote on Affiliations at Convention.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported it as Panel advises splitting from U.S. Episcopal Church.
The Dallas Morning News had Fort Worth Episcopal Diocese proposes break from church.
35 CommentsNew York Times Neela Banerjee Panel Says Episcopalians Have Met Anglican Directive
Los Angeles Times Rebecca Trounson Anglican leaders urge unity
Associated Press Rachel Zoll Anglican Panel Praises Episcopalians
Religious Intelligence Ed Beavan Primates give green light to Episcopal Church
Living Church Joint Standing Committee: Bishops ‘Clarified All Questions’. Also, George Conger Primates Asked to Critique Bishops’ Response.
The Times Ruth Gledhill Church needs to get ‘closure’ on gay row, says report to Archbishop of Canterbury
Episcopal News Service Matthew Davies House of Bishops provides necessary clarifications, Joint Standing Committee report finds
40 CommentsThe PDF file that contains the report of the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates of the Anglican Communion on The Episcopal Church House of Bishops of Meeting in New Orleans has been amended. It now includes as an addendum the text of the submission of Bishop Mouneer Anis, Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East.
The report has this statement:
6 CommentsThe present text was developed from the remarks of JSC members in New Orleans and in consultation with them.
In electronic correspondence, the following members of the Joint Standing Committee have signified their assent to this text:
- Phillip Aspinall, Primate of Australia, Primates’ Standing Committee
- Barry Morgan, Primate of Wales, Primates’ Standing Committee
- Katharine Jefferts Schori, Primate of The Episcopal Church, Primates’ Standing Committee
- John Paterson, Chairman of the Anglican Consultative Council and of the ACC Standing Committee
- George Koshy, Vice-Chair, ACC and Standing Committee
- Robert Fordham, ACC Standing Committee
- Kumara Illangasinghe, ACC Standing Committee
- Elizabeth Paver, ACC Standing Committee **
- Nomfundo Walaza, ACC Standing Committee
The following members have signified dissent:
- Mouneer Anis, Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Primates’ Standing Committee . (The text of Bishop Mouneer’s submission is attached as an addendum.)
Responses have not yet been received from:
- Philippa Amable, ACC Standing Committee
- Jolly Babirukamu, ACC Standing Committee
** Following communication from Canon Paver her name has been moved to those who assented to the document.
Revised. Thursday, 4th October, 2007
Religious Intelligence has reported that there is a New crisis for Anglican college as council member resigns by Ed Beavan.
A COUNCIL member of the under-fire Oxford theological college Wycliffe Hall has resigned because of her concerns over failures by the body to ‘respond to allegations of bullying, intimidation of Council members and a lack of transparency in its decision making’.
Clare MacInnes announced her resignation in a letter to the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, who is chair of the Council of Wycliffe Hall, which she also sent to The Church of England Newspaper.
Mrs MacInnes said she had decided to put the letter in the public domain because of the ‘importance of the issues for the ongoing welfare and governance of the Hall and the wider church’.
In the letter she says that that the Council had ‘failed to observe due process’in the areas of terminating staff employment, staff recruitment, the Listening Process, records of Council discussions, and Council membership…
The story is also reported in the Guardian by Stephen Bates under the headline College council member quits over ‘bullying’.
42 Comments…In her letter of resignation this week, council member Clare MacInnes told the Rt Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, who is chairman of governors: “I am disturbed by the council’s failure to respond to allegations of bullying, intimidation of council members and a lack of transparency in its decision-making … I regret I have no confidence in the chair, the principal or the council as a whole to address these serious matters of governance, employment practice and simple human relationships.” Her letter suggests that a decision to pay Dr Turnbull a salary thousands of pounds above national pay scales was not properly appraised by the council when he was appointed two years ago.
The Anglican Communion News Service reports today as follows.
House of Bishops Meeting in New Orleans
The Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates of the Anglican Communion have now submitted their Report on The Episcopal Church House of Bishops of Meeting in New Orleans. The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent the Report to all the Primates and to all members of the Anglican Consultative Council and asked them to consult in their Provinces on the Report, and respond to him by the end of October.
A PDF of the Report can be found here. It’s quite long (19 pages).
122 CommentsThe BBC Radio Ulster programme Sunday Sequence carried an interview with Dr Eeva John this last weekend. The programme ended with a statement from the principal of Wycliffe Hall (Dr Richard Turnbull) and the chair of the hall council (the Bishop of Liverpool).
Listen (11m 39s)
We linked to an earlier interview with Dr John on BBC Radio 4 here.
Update
Clare MacInnes, a member of the hall council, has resigned “because of her concerns over failures by the body to ‘respond to allegations of bullying, intimidation of Council members and a lack of transparency in its decision making’.”
Details here.
[hat-tip to badman]
The Most Revd Dr Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway spoke at an Inclusive Church seminar in Manchester Cathedral on 29 September. His subject was Communion and Canterbury. Here is a brief extract.
Actually I can suggest the wording of a Covenant like this – “As sisters and brothers in Christ we pledge ourselves to remain together in spite of any differences that arise.” We really do not need anything more structured in order to facilitate what began and remains in essence a relational experience.
The Most Revd Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland has issued a statement in response to the 25 September 2007 Statement of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. He concludes:
79 CommentsI hope that member churches of the Anglican Communion will now calmly and fairly reflect upon the New Orleans Statement and conclude that TEC Bishops have gone a considerable way to meeting the reasonable demands of their critics.
According to Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Sunday Telegraph:
Conservative Christians will throw down the gauntlet to the Archbishop of Canterbury this week by demanding that he openly disowns the American church over gay bishops.
A letter to be sent to Dr Rowan Williams tomorrow by Reform, an evangelical group representing 1,000 parishes, urges him to make it clear that he opposes the American position
The group warns that his failure to do so would split the Church of England from “top to bottom” and lead to a further demand that the US church is barred from the Lambeth Council, the annual gathering of bishops…
Read the whole article, Ultimatum on Anglican church gays.
Read a statement from Reform at Anglican Mainstream Response from Reform to New Orleans Statement by TEC Bishops.
138 CommentsThe New York Times has Groups Plan New Branch to Represent Anglicanism by Neela Banerjee.
Associated Press had Breakaway Episcopalians Form Partnership.
Reuters had Conservative Episcopalians plot separate church.
The Washington Times has Episcopalians plan to leave denomination by Julia Duin.
21 CommentsTwo opinions on New Orleans:
The Tablet has a leader: Fragile compromise:
…Some evangelical bishops in Africa in particular seem keen to impose something akin to provincial uniformity on the American Church, where no deviation from their own hard line regarding homosexuality is permitted and those who ever thought differently are required to repent. But such intransigence is not the Anglican way, and if they push much harder it is they who will be in schism. Dr Williams will have to be as firm with these African bishops recklessly fishing in troubled Episcopalian waters as he has been with the Episcopalian leadership itself.
In the longer term, however, the New Orleans compromise itself looks unstable. The majority of American Anglicans still see discrimination against gay men and women as incompatible with the Gospel, and that includes discrimination against candidates for the priesthood or episcopacy. And they no longer accept the distinction that has helped the Catholic Church handle these tricky issues, between celibate and sexually active homosexuals. So, although a dam has been built, the rising waters may burst through again.
The Anglican Communion has often been a powerful force for good in the world and the cause of Christianity itself would be damaged if it broke up, not least because of the bitterness that would result. Catholics in particular can appreciate the belated realisation in the American Church that unity carries a price that can sometimes be irksome, and a Communion in which every part is entirely free to do whatever it thinks best is not worthy of the name. That acknowledgement now needs to be hammered home and made a central tenet of Anglican identity, not treated as a temporary local compromise to overcome a particular difficulty.
Fr Tony Clavier has a view: A Minor Miracle:
58 Comments..The bishops go to Lambeth first of all as individuals, individually invited, and only secondly as provincial affiliates. This is a fact both they and the rest of us should stress and take in deadly earnest. They are given the opportunity to seek to shed for a space of time, jurisdictional and ethnic pride and to live into the baptismal promise the American Church constantly trumpets. Each bishop will go to Kent primarily as a baptized Christian, called to exercise episcopacy in a context. That context is both universal and local. As the late Eric Mascall suggested, they are Apostolically incorporated into the College of the Apostles, a rather more important concept than mere “succession.” They are locally appointed to an area in which they serve as proclaimers of the faith and unity of the church…
The official announcement about the tribunal decision is here:
Appellate Tribunal determination on Women Bishops:
The Anglican Church’s highest legal authority, the Appellate Tribunal, has cleared the way for the consecration of women as diocesan bishops across Australia.
In a majority decision the Tribunal has ruled that there is nothing in the Church’s Constitution that would prevent the consecration of a woman priest as a diocesan bishop in a diocese which by ordinance has adopted the Law of the Church of England Clarification Canon 1992. Not every diocese has done so.
The ruling impacts only on diocesan bishops and not assistant bishops most of whom are elected and confirmed under provisions of the Assistant Bishops’ Canon 1966 which seems to retain the requirement for candidates to be male.
One of the central issues in the ruling allowing women to become diocesan bishops concerned the definition of ‘canonical fitness’. In the Church’s Constitution, adopted in 1962 it was clear at that time canonical fitness included a requirement for ‘maleness.’
The ‘maleness’ requirement was removed in a process that began in 1989 when a canon (church law) was passed that amended the Constitution to redefine ‘canonical fitness.’ The canon came into effect in 1995 after 75% of dioceses, including all metropolitan dioceses, adopted it…
The full text of the decision can be read as a PDF file here.
20 CommentsPeter Selby writes in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column and reflects on how wars have challenged the modern church.
Jonathan Romain writes in The Times that Jews don’t have to believe – if they do what He says.
Christopher Howse writes in the Daily Telegraph about A (Muslim) duty to prevent wrongdoing.
Bill Countryman writes in the Church Times about A weakness in the US Constitution.
Giles Fraser spoke on the radio yesterday about the Levellers and Burma.
5 CommentsFulcrum has responses to what the American bishops said.
Fulcrum Response to the Statement from the House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church
Fulcrum Comparative Study of Statements From Dar es Salaam and New Orleans
Andrew Goddard ‘Half Empty, Half Full, Too Little, Too Late?’
26 CommentsThe Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDAP) announces Anglican Bishops Take First Steps to New Structure.
Anglican bishops from ten jurisdictions and organizations pledged to take the first steps toward a “new ecclesiastical structure” in North America. The meeting of the first ever Common Cause Council of Bishops was held in Pittsburgh September 25–28.
The bishops present lead more than 600 Anglican congregations. They formally organized themselves as a college of bishops which will meet every six months. They also laid out a timeline for the path ahead, committed to working together at local and regional levels, agreed to deploy clergy interchangeably and announced their intention to, in consultation “with those Primates and Provinces of the Anglican Communion offering recognition under the timeline adopted,” call a “founding constitutional convention for an Anglican union,” at the earliest possible date agreeable to all of the partners…
Read on for the full text of “The Articles of The Common Cause Partnership”.
Episcopal News Service reports Common Cause bishops pledge to seek Anglican recognition and lists the bishops of the Episcopal Church, USA who took part in this:
Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan convened the meeting in his role as moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDP), also known as the Anglican Communion Network.
Thirteen active or former diocesan Episcopal Church bishops attended the meeting, including Keith Ackerman (Quincy), James Adams (Western Kansas), Fitz Allison (formerly of South Carolina), Peter Beckwith (Springfield), David Bena (formerly of Albany), Alex Dickson (formerly of West Tennessee), Andrew Fairfield (formerly of North Dakota), John Howe (Central Florida), Jack Iker (Fort Worth), William Love (Albany), Donald Parsons (formerly of Quincy), Henry Scriven (assistant, Pittsburgh) and William Wantland (formerly of Eau Claire).
Duncan and others compared the steps taken during the meeting to those of the Reformation, the American Revolution, the U.S. Civil War and martyrdom.
Scroll down for a complete list of participant bishops and other leaders from all jurisdictions.
The “Common Cause College of Bishops Statement” also appears on the website of the Diocese of Pittsburgh: Anglican Bishops Take First Steps to New Structure.
A list of participating bishops now appears on the Network website.
42 CommentsThe following letter to the editor was published today in full in the Church of England Newspaper and in a shorter form in the Church Times.
from Eeva John, the Revd Geoff Maughan, and the Revd Dr David Wenham
Sir,
Recent revelations concerning the removal of Dr Elaine Storkey and of the Revd Dr Andrew Goddard and the Revd Lis Goddard from their posts at Wycliffe Hall have ensured that this Oxford Evangelical theological college continues to attract media attention. Over the past six months, rumours have abounded regarding a shift towards conservative evangelicalism, homophobia, misogyny on the one hand, and heavy-handed management involving bullying and intimidation on the other. Until now, out of loyalty to the college and concern for its students, staff at the college have been reluctant to comment, even though the situation has been repeatedly misrepresented in the press by other stakeholders. But now the serious and distressing injustice of the forcible removal of three fellow staff members compels us to set the record straight and to let the facts of the past two years speak for themselves.
Wycliffe Hall was in a strong and healthy position, when the Revd Professor Alister McGrath stepped down as Principal in 2004. But the appointment of a new Principal in April 2005 heralded a new era and the time for various changes, especially in administrative and managerial areas of college life. Staff were open to change, and wanted to work with the new Principal in this.
Distress soon set in, however, as strategic decisions, policies, and appointments were made without due regard for the views of colleagues. Despite intense behind-the-scenes discussions, these acute management difficulties culminated in the first of many resignations: David Wenham resigned as Vice-Principal, and Geoff Maughan, Director of Ministry, left the Hall to take up a parish post.
Tensions continued and reached a new climax at a meeting of staff and student representatives, at which the Principal responded unsatisfactorily to questions from students about various issues, including future staff appointments.
Dr Elaine Storkey, the Hall’s Senior Research Fellow, spoke out forthrightly at the meeting in support of those students and staff who had questions. This led directly to the Principal’s initiating formal disciplinary proceedings against Dr Storkey, and in due course to her responding reluctantly with grievance proceedings.
The heavy-handed disciplinary action, following all that led up to it, resulted in an appeal to the Hall Council from nine mostly senior staff (not including Dr Storkey), asking for their help in resolving the difficulties within the staff team and in bringing reconciliation. This was followed in subsequent months by a series of letters to the Council (six from groups of staff and many others from individual staff members) asking the Council to help.
The repeated pleas for face-to-face meetings with the Council and eventually for independent mediation were consistently rejected by the Council; substantive issues raised by staff were not addressed.
Eventually, the Council initiated a listening process, giving individual staff members access to two designated Council members. The outcome was a brief 140-word statement to the Hall community which reiterated the Council’s unanimous support for the Principal, and emphasised the need for all staff “to follow proper processes, to support the Principal, and to work to the highest Christian standards”.
In the mean time, resignations continued unabated. By the end of the academic year, eight staff members had resigned, two annual contracts had not been renewed, and one senior staff member had stepped down from his management responsibilities in protest.
Not all these resignations were as a direct consequence of the difficulties at the Hall, but many were. Three were staff who had been appointed by the current Principal and had been in post only two years. They could hardly be described as dead wood. Finally, the recent dismissals without grounds of Dr Storkey and the Goddards, none of whom had plans or desires to leave their posts at the Hall this year, has taken the toll of staff departures in one academic year to a total of 13. This represents more than 40 per cent of all support and academic staff.
Clearly neither Elaine Storkey nor the Goddards were alone in their unhappiness with the leadership and management of the Hall: they simply outstayed their welcome as far as the Principal and the Council were concerned.
The rough and tumble of heavy-handed and abrasive management may be the harsh reality of life in some businesses and organisations, but it is unacceptable and damaging in an institution that is first and foremost a Christian community in which future leaders are trained and mentored to imbibe the counter-cultural values of servant and team leadership. Furthermore the severance of the contracts of three members without any justification other than elimination of dissent is unjust. This is particularly the case when so many pleas for help in working towards reconciliation and understanding have been ignored.
Purported theological dimensions to the crisis at the Hall have been eagerly grasped by the press, and expressed variously as an attempt to capture the college for a narrow evangelicalism that is hostile to women’s ordination and homophobic. We are deeply distressed by, and wish to distance ourselves from such attempts to to polarize the Christian community caricature theological viewpoints. However, some of the Principal’s recent appointments, public statements, and changes to the curriculum do, however, suggest a more narrowly conservative emphasis (not to mention his signing of the “Covenant for the Church of England” without consulting colleagues). On the other hand, the appointment of two women academics can be seen as representing a broader approach.
As for the outgoing staff, any suggestion that they were uncommitted to the Evangelical heritage and emphasis of the Hall is untrue: we all held highly the Hall’s long-standing commitment to biblical doctrine, preaching and practice in a spirit of generous theological orthodoxy.
Finally, Wycliffe’s status as a Permanent Private Hall within Oxford University has been under the spotlight as a result of the recent review of all PPHs by the University. An important dimension of the Hall’s vision is to foster the pursuit of evangelical biblical scholarship within a context in which views are respectfully exchanged and heard. The Hall’s association with Oxford University is vital to this vision. We are naturally concerned that the recent events may have weakened this important relationship, but hope that the Council will support the Principal in ensuring that any damage is swiftly and unequivocally repaired.
The events we have described have caused intense pain and perplexity to many people. Although we readily acknowledge that the failures of judgement and charity have not all been on one side, we believe it is important for the wider Church, to which Wycliffe Hall is ultimately accountable, to be exposed to the voices that heretofore have been silent.
As staff who have left the Hall, we deeply regret what has happened, and the divisions that have arisen within the college and among its friends. We continue to have great affection for the Hall and for colleagues and students who have meant so much to us, and we hope and pray, still, for reconciliation, for healing of relationships, and for the rebuilding of the Wycliffe community.
Eeva John (Wycliffe Hall 2004-07); Geoff Maughan (Wycliffe Hall 1998-2007); David Wenham (Wycliffe Hall 1983-2007)
23 CommentsLast week’s Church Times contained a comment article written by me and titled Discrimination: a lost opportunity.
For previous Church Times coverage of the Archbishops’ Council response, see here. For the original response to the Discrimination Law Review, go here.
4 CommentsThe Hereford Times has reported: Diocese will not appeal.
42 CommentsTHE Diocese of Hereford will not appeal against a tribunal’s ruling that the bishop, the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis, discriminated against a gay job applicant.
An appeal is not being planned due to the high cost and length of time it would be expected to take, the diocese confirmed this week.
Diocesan spokesperson Anni Holden said: “We have taken legal advice and decided against appealing.
“Appeals can take several years and cost a lot of money. We are looking to the remedy hearing in December.”
During the remedy hearing it will be decided how much compensation youth worker John Reaney will receive…
Today’s Church Times has two news reports on the American House of Bishops meeting, and editorial comment.
Pat Ashworth
US Bishops reach agreement over gays and blessings
House wrestles for two days to find right words
Leader: Walking together and walking apart
And also:
Conservative groups meet in Pittsburgh
Giles Fraser: The real covenant of baptism is what matters
16 CommentsThe Economist has The turbulence of priests.
The Christian Science Monitor has Episcopal bishops move to ease clash over gays.
0 CommentsThe Oxford University Gazette has published the full report: Review of the Permanent Private Halls associated with the University of Oxford.
It is available as a PDF file, from here.
The whole report should be read to get the sense of it, but in response to anticipated interest Annexe E on Wycliffe Hall can be read as an html page here. (There is a similar annexe describing each of the individual halls.)
15 Comments