Bosco Peters Liturgy Who Distributes Communion?
Anon ViaMedia.News Mini-MBA Talent Pipeline Group, Module Seven: Managing Synods
3 CommentsPress release from the Church of England
Survey for initial response to Jay report
21/03/2024
A survey has been published today for anyone who wishes to make an initial response to the recommendations made by Professor Jay in her report on the Future of Church Safeguarding. The report from Professor Alexis Jay, former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, IICSA, makes recommendations for a new independent safeguarding and scrutiny body for the Church of England. Professor Jay was commissioned by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to carry out this work in July 2023 and her report was published in February 2024.
Survey findings will be presented to the Wilkinson/Jay Response Group (see revised Terms of Reference) and will be available on the Church of England website. All survey responses are anonymous and no names or identifying details will be requested or produced. The survey closes on April 18.
Further information on safeguarding in the Church and independence
9 CommentsPress release from the Prime Minister’s office
For further information see the Blackburn diocesan website.
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Joseph Kennedy for appointment as Bishop of Burnley.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 22 March 2024
The King has approved the nomination of The Reverend Dr Joseph Kennedy, Vicar of Oxton St Saviour in the Diocese of Chester, for appointment to the Suffragan See of Burnley in the Diocese of Blackburn in succession to the Right Reverend Philip North, following his translation to the See of Blackburn.
Joe was educated at Edinburgh University and at St Hugh’s College and Keble College, Oxford, and trained for ministry at St Stephen’s House, Oxford. He served as a Curate in the Diocese of Oxford, at Stratfield Mortimer (St Mary) and Mortimer West End with Padworth, and at Abingdon, and was ordained Priest in 2003.
In 2005, Joe was appointed Dean of Chapel, Chaplain and Fellow at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and additionally served as Chaplain and Senior Member at Newnham College. In 2008, Joe took up the role of Principal, College of the Resurrection, Mirfield.
In 2011, Joe was appointed to his current role as Vicar of Oxton St Saviour, in the Diocese of Chester, additionally serving as a Lecturer and Tutor at St Mellitus College from 2015 until 2020, and as Rural Dean of Birkenhead since 2021.
20 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love The Zone of Interest – ways of thinking about God
Jonathan Chaplin ViaMedia.News The Bishops must be Bolder and Braver on Gaza
149 CommentsAndrew Brown Church Times Press: Telegraph sketches Jekyll-and-Hyde C of E
Madeleine Davies Church Times No churchwardens and vacant PCC posts: an investigation into the church volunteering crisis
[Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.]
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Living in Love and Faith and Together for the Church of England
Neil Elliot NumbersMatters Dioceses of the ACC – by numbers
79 CommentsThe Church of England has recently published its Parish Finance Statistics 2022. These provide the latest financial information, including:
Tables showing parish finances aggregated to diocese level are available as an excel file. Finance statistics for previous years, and other publications of the Research and Statistics Unit can be found on the resources, publications, and data page.
40 CommentsColin Coward Unadulterated Love Life in all its fullness
Zac Koons The Living Church A Bronze Serpent Processional Cross
152 CommentsUpdated
This advertisement has appeared on Guardian Jobs, originated by Charisma Recruitment.
The full text is copied below the fold.
Co-Chair
Updated Tuesday
The Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice describes itself this way:
A seed for growth and change
In 2023, the Church Commissioners for England published a report into its historic links to African chattel enslavement. In penitence and hope, the Church Commissioners proposed a fund to address a legacy of racialised inequality that scars the lives of billions to this day.
The Church Commissioners appointed an independent Oversight Group to make their recommendations on how the fund should be used. This group is acutely aware that the crimes against humanity rooted in enslavement have caused damage so vast it will require patient effort spanning generations to address. They believe this fund represents a start to breaking the chains of discrimination.
The Oversight Group has a bold vision for the £100m Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice which they would like to see grow to £1bn and act as a catalyst for real change.
Other recent documents about this:
Church Times: Church Commissioners look for partners to boost reparatory-justice fund to £1 billion
Updates
Guardian Harriet Sherwood ‘It’s not a lot when you consider the harm’: Why bishop is calling for £1bn in C of E reparations for slavery (Interview with the Bishop of Croydon)
Archbishop of York We need a conversation about justice (Article in the Sunday Times)
90 CommentsNew programme board to help steer LLF next steps
08/03/2024Lead Bishop gives update to Synod members
Following discussion at the February meeting of General Synod, further details of plans for a new Programme Board to oversee the ongoing work of Living in Love and Faith (LLF) have been shared with General Synod members.
The Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, the lead bishop for LLF, has written to Synod members to outline plans for a new oversight board and the re-formation of three working groups: the Pastoral Guidance Working Group, the Pastoral Reassurance Working Group and the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) Working Group.
Synod members have been invited to express their interest in joining the groups which will be formed of bishops, other clergy and laity.
In addition to these working groups, meetings with stakeholders will be organised to help enable progress ahead of a meeting of The House of Bishops’ meeting May.
Two formal groups will also be formed, as agreed following the commendation of the PLF:
- A Pastoral Consultative Group – to aid bishops, diocesan staff and others with answers to the broad questions that arise from the implementation of PLF and other LLF work. This group will comprise a small number of bishops, supported by consultants.
- An Independent Review Panel – to consider concerns about the implementation of the PLF and application of the Pastoral Guidance, and make recommendations for addressing justifiable concerns.
A timeline is being finalised to allow these groups to make progress ahead of the House of Bishops’ meeting later in May, which will feed into the General Synod sessions in July.
Read the full letter to Synod members from the Bishop of Leicester.
Church Times report on this: Synod members invited to apply to join LLF working groups
16 CommentsAnon ViaMedia.News The Unbearable Lightness of Being General Synod
David Goodhew The Living Church The Church of England After COVID: Quo Vadis?
also online at Psephizo
Marcus Walker The Critic Dumbing down the priesthood
“Unless the Church reinstates rigorous college-based training for clerics, it will wither away”
Updated 7 March to add item 13 and 14
The electronic voting results from this month’s General Synod are now available online and are linked below, with links to the order papers containing the relevant texts.
Electronic voting results
Archbishops’ Commission of Families and Households (Order Paper IV)
Safeguarding Independence (Order Paper II)
Living in Love and Faith (Order Paper VI)
24 CommentsNews from the The Scottish Episcopal Church
5 CommentsThe Right Rev Kevin Pearson has announced today that he will retire as Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway on 31 August this year.
Bishop Kevin became the 15th Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in July 2020 upon his translation from the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles…
Alex Frost ViaMedia.News Estates Evangelism: Justice on the Margins
Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News Finding a Way Through: February 2024
Tim Sumpter Church Times How Covid changed one vicar
Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.
Jeremy Pemberton From The Quire Inching Forwards?
Helen King sharedconversations Next business, anyone? LLF, Synod, February 2024
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love
140 CommentsHelen King sharedconversations Questions of fornication
Lisa Oakley University of Chester Response from Professor Lisa Oakley to the ‘Future of Church Safeguarding’ report recommendation 10 the removal of spiritual abuse
175 CommentsThis post will be updated as the meeting proceeds.
The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting this weekend. The timetable is here, the agenda is here and the papers are here.
House of Laity meeting
In addition the House of Laity will meet on Sunday evening.
Live video etc
All sessions are streamed live on YouTube and remain available to view afterwards. Links have been provided in advance.
There is an official Twitter account.
Order papers
Business done
Official press releases
Press reports and comment
Church Times
The Guardian
32 CommentsUpdated Friday to add a second Church Times article
Gavin Drake Church Abuse
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Future of Church Safeguarding – A look at the Jay Report
also online at Modern Church
Ruth Peacock Religion Media Centre Celebration but concern at proposed new CofE independent safeguarding
Francis Martin Church Times Jay calls for root-and-branch reform of church safeguarding
Simon Walsh Church Times Varied responses to Jay report on Church of England safeguarding
1 CommentThe Questions (and answers) for this weekend’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod were issued today. They can be found online here: Questions Notice Paper February 2024.
Questions will be taken in two groups; on Friday from 5.30pm to 7.00pm, and for about an hour on Saturday morning. There are 225 questions.
Update
There is a correction to the answer to Question 62 in Notice Paper 7.
22 CommentsUnadulterated Love ‘Valuing all God’s children – including trans people!
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Freeing the Church of England from Mental Slavery
Helen King ViaMedia.News Slouching Towards Synod
3 Comments