For me, and many other ‘orthodox’ Anglicans in the chamber, one of the most heartening things about the debate was the quality of the contributions from those upholding the current doctrine. I append two at the end of this article. I do think there was a significant contrast with the speeches in support of the motion and rejecting the amendments. A large number of them focussed on the feelings of those affected, especially gay clergy who cannot express their emotional and sexual love as they would wish according to current doctrine. There is no doubt that these feelings need to be attended to—but the question is whether this forms the basis for the Church to determine its understanding of the teaching of Jesus. Other speeches lifted proof texts from Scripture in some bizarre ways—claiming that Jesus’ offer of ‘fulness of life’ must mean that no-one should be denied a sexual relationship, or that Paul’s acceptance of diverse approaches to food meant we could have the same approach to sex and marriage, even though Paul himself did not—or that Gal 3.28 implies that sex differences no longer exist. It is hard to see how any of these arguments could form a part of the bishops’ theological rationale for the Prayers.

One theme mentioned several times was the idea that not being able to marry would consign a person to a lifetime of loneliness. It was rather odd hearing those who reject the doctrine of the Church elevating marriage to such a pinnacle, as if it was the solution to all our problems—and very good to hear several single people saying that this was not true.

Where does this all leave the process and what lies ahead for the House of Bishops? It seems to me that there is more work to do than ever before—and both Synod Questions and the debate has exposed this more starkly than ever. The challenges include:

1. How has the relation of sex and marriage been understood in previous statements?
2. On what grounds could these consistent statements be changed or rejected?
3. How does the Church of England engage with ecumenical statements, especially from the Roman Catholic Church?
4. What are the implications for the Communion?
5. What impact will the perception of what is being proposed have on the Church itself—on mission, church planting, plans for growth, clergy deployment and morale, and our work with young people?
6. If these prayers are commended for use in a church service, in what sense is that not liturgical provision? So how can we avoid needing a two-thirds majority in Synod for their approval?
7. Where did the claimed distinction between marriage and Holy Matrimony come from? How can that be sustained in the light of contrary evidence from all previous statements?
8. Why were the proposals brought under Canon B5 (local use and decision) rather than Canon B2 (national approval), against the obvious legal conclusion, when these are being offered national and commended by the House of Bishops?
9. How could the Pastoral Guidelines allow clergy to enter same-sex marriages, if the doctrine of the Church remains unchanged and ordination vows commit clergy to belief, uphold, teach, and pattern this doctrine in their own lives? How can their be any room for manoeuvre here?
10. In addition, what comments and feedback were given by members of Synod in their reflections, and what difference will that make?
11. In what context will the prayers be offered, with what rubric and introduction?
12. How can all this be squared with the consistent teaching of Scripture? This cannot be lightly set aside, since Canon A5 delineates our doctrine as being ‘rooted in the Scriptures’, and Article XX of the XXXIX Articles states that ‘it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written.’

If this is any kind of ‘victory’ for those who wanted to moved forward, it looks very much like a Pyrrhic victory. ‘If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined’ (Plutarch’s account of Pyrrhus of Epirus).

The motion was passed, with a significant addition which explicitly limits the scope for manoeuvre, so the work will continue. But I think the cost has been immense damage to the reputation and standing of Justin Welby, the final nail in the coffin of the Anglican Communion, damage to ecumenical relations, a further loss of confidence in the leadership of bishops within the Church, and the first signs of fracture at local and diocesans levels. And for what gain?

Read it all.

(Via email–KSH).

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings in the Name of God our Father and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ!

Blessings to you as you behold the beauty of the Lord and his immense truth and grace on display through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul so eloquently writes,‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”’ (Rom 1:16-17).

The decision taken today by the General Synod of the Church of England and the explanations given are clear indications that the Church England is moving a step at a time to fully accept the practice of homosexuality as part of the life and practice of the English Church. To some of us who have been hoping that the Church would remain true to her distinctive identity from those who don’t believe the teaching of Scripture, this hope is diminishing.

We have lived through this with other Western Anglican Provinces that continually wavered on the ‘faith once delivered’ (Jude 3) and now outright deny the doctrine of biblical anthropology regarding gender identity and moral behavior. Those in the secular press and culture will argue that these are matters of justice, but God’s justice can never contradict God’s righteousness, and we know these changes attack the very core of biblical authority. Have the Scriptures been clear on human sexuality through the centuries? Yes, they have. The majority of Anglicans around the world have concluded the same. And yet, now, the Church of England has authorized the blessing of sin and declared that sin is no longer sin.

From the Lambeth Conference 1998 (and its overwhelming endorsement of Resolution 1:10) to Kuala Lumpur in 1999, to Dar Es Salaam in 2007, to the Jerusalem Declaration at GAFCON 2008, to the Nairobi Communique at GAFCON II 2013, and the Letter to the Churches at GAFCON III 2018, we have remained resolute in speaking both the truth of Christian witness on matters of practice and ethics, and calling the Anglican Communion Establishment to repent and return to the teaching of the Scriptures and the historical teaching of the Church.

This decision by the Church of England raises questions regarding the relationship of Anglican Provinces around the world with the Church of England and the continued role of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Gafcon provinces and other Global South provinces are already in impaired Communion with The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church of Brazil, The Scottish Episcopal Church, The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia, and the Church in Wales. We shall now have to make a decision about the Church of England.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has abrogated his fiduciary responsibility and violated his consecration vows to “banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God’s Word” with his advocating this change in the Church of England. He is shredding the last remaining fragile fabric of the Anglican Communion. It is time for the Primate of All England to step down from his role as “first among equals” in leading the Anglican Communion. It is now time for the Primates of the Anglican Communion to choose for themselves their “first among equals” rather than having a secular government of only one of our represented nations appoint our leader. We are no longer colonies of Great Britain.

In 2017 the GAFCON Primates (representing more than 60 Million active Anglicans worldwide) authorized the creation of a new mission into England because unbiblical practices had already been occurring in many dioceses in the Church of England. Many faithful Anglicans could no longer serve under bishops who had departed from the teaching of the Scriptures. We consecrated the Rev. Andy Lines to be its first Missionary Bishop and have since constituted the Anglican Network in Europe. Last year the GAFCON Primates consecrated the Rev. Lee McMunn, the Rev. Tim Davies, and the Rev. Ian Ferguson to assist in the growing work in the United Kingdom. The Rev. Stuart Bell will be consecrated in March. We believe the Lord is raising up a biblical alternative for the Christian faithful in Great Britain.

Many in the Church of England have made faithful and courageous speeches upholding the biblical teaching this week. We thank God for them and acknowledge their faithfulness to the Gospel, and our ongoing fellowship with and support for them. For those who are feeling alone and vulnerable during this time, please be assured of the fervent prayers of your brothers and sisters around the world. You are not alone. And you do not have to endure this alone. The Lord will guide you as you honor him and seek to follow His will.

In April Gafcon will be hosting over 1,100 participants in GAFCON IV in Kigali, Rwanda. In collaboration with the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans (GSFA), we shall have more to say and do about these matters at that time. Please come, and we’ll make room at the table for you.

On behalf of the Gafcon Primates, I am

Yours in Christ,

The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach
Chair of the Gafcon Primates Council

"It is time for the Primate of All England to step down from his role as “first among equals” in leading the Anglican Communion." – Archbishop Foley Beach, Chair of the Gafcon Primates Council. Read more of Gafcon’s response to the Church of England here https://t.co/bO0Tcz0NTP pic.twitter.com/x7OavMbtYO

— ACNA (@The_ACNA) February 9, 2023

The General Synod has agreed to welcome the Bishops’ proposals to provide prayers to bless same-sex unions in church — but with a last-minute clarification that their use would not contradict the Church’s current teaching on marriage.

The debate on the proposals (News, 20 January), which began after lunch on Wednesday, overran by several hours, concluding at lunchtime on Thursday with a vote by houses.

The result was: Bishops, 36 in favour, four against, with two abstensions; Clergy, 111 in favour, 85 against, with three abstensions; Laity, 103 in favour, 92 against, with five abstensions.

The size of the vote against the blessings — after eight hours of debate and six years of discussion about sexuality and identity through the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) project — was a clear indication that the chief concern here was not to mollify those who had wanted to be able to marry same-sex couples in church rather than just bless them, as some had thought.

Instead it was to keep conservative Evangelicals in a Church which, as many of them see it, was proposing to endorse extra-marital sex.

Read it all.

The General Synod has agreed to welcome the Bishops’ proposals to provide prayers to bless same-sex unions in church — but with a last-minute clarification that their use would not contradict the Church’s current teaching on marriage https://t.co/RtCgT2iMYb

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 9, 2023

Busola Sodeinde, London, a church commissioner spoke about the impact on the global church and the diaspora here in England, strongly connected with its roots: “There is an arrogance which I recognise, maybe unintended of, one time colonialism which insists that western culture is progressive while dissenting voices in Africa and everywhere else is silenced…I want to address the impending racial injustice, disunity and racial segregation in the church if we were to introduce same sex blessings without further consultation… I am worried that there may be an exodus of diverse communities from our parish churches and of having a profound impact on racial diversity which until now we have tried so hard to encourage.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury replied: “I’m generally torn by this… This isn’t something I take lightly. It’s the most painful thing I’ve ever known…. This isn’t just about listening to the rest of the world. It’s caring. Let’s just be clear on that. It’s about people who’ll die; women who’ll be raped; children who’ll be tortured. So, when we vote, we need to think of that”, then adding at the end: “We must also do right here as part of the church Catholic”.

Last week, the Archbishop met around a dozen MPs in Parliament and it was reported that he said he would rather see the Church of England lose its privileged status as the established church of the country than risk the global church fracturing over disagreements on the issue. Lambeth Palace said the conversation was “more nuanced and complex”.

Read it all.

The Church cannot ‘bless’ in God’s name the union of same sex partnered individuals, much less sexual relationships between same-sex persons which in God’s Word He declares to be sinful.

The role of the Archbishop of Canterbury in leading the House of Bishops to make the recommendations that undergird the Motion, together with his statements, alongside the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of London leading up to the General Synod, cause the GSFA to question his fitness to lead what is still a largely orthodox world-wide Communion.

In view of these developments, the GSFA will be taking decisive steps towards re-setting the Anglican Communion (as outlined in our ‘Communique’ following the 2022 Lambeth Conference). Orthodox Provinces in GSFA are not leaving the Anglican Communion, but with great sadness must recognise that the Church of England has now joined those Provinces with which communion is impaired. The historical Church which spawned the global Communion, and which for centuries was accorded ‘first among equals’ status, has now triggered a widespread loss of confidence in her leadership of the Communion.

Next Monday the Global South Primates shall meet to consider more fully the decision by the General Synod and shall release a more detailed response in due course.

Read it all.

Approval of the motion allows same-sex couples to go to Anglican churches after a legal marriage ceremony for services including prayers of dedication, thanksgiving and God’s blessing.

The motion had been brought by the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, and was the result of six years of work on questions of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage known as Living In Love And Faith.

The final motion was passed across the synod’s three ‘houses’. The House of Bishops voted 36 in favour, four against with two abstentions. The House of Clergy voted 111 in favour, 85 against and 3 abstentions. The House of Laity voted 103 in favour, 92 against, and 5 abstentions.

The bishops will now finalise the wording of the new prayers and also issue new guidance on whether gay clergy must remain celibate before the synod meets again in July.

Read it all.

"No-one has to offer these services and no one will be disadvantaged if they don't"

When Sunday Trading was legalised there were firm assurances that no shop-workers would be compelled to work on Sundays if they had a conscientious objection to doing so.https://t.co/MBbJ45bilo

— thoughtfully catholic (@stevhep) February 9, 2023

From there:

• Cost of living motion brought forward that champions the work of the church in meeting the needs of the crisis and calls on the government for further action. There were also amendments to remove reference to the Ukraine war and to commit the church to take more action for parishes.
• Item 530 relates to the Misc Measure and gives Parishes the ultimate say on land sales during times of vacancy. A win for Save the Parish. A number of other clauses were considered and passed.
• There was discussion about the Parochial Fees Order. Reductions in fees for weddings and funerals passed in light of the cost of living crisis.
• LLF debate got underway. Was very well humoured considering the nature of the topic. A number of amendments tabled and all failed to pass.

A round up of the day's events https://t.co/tDjmparaZu #synod #generalsynod

— General Synod News (@synodnews) February 8, 2023

Some while ago, I picked up a book in a second hand bookshop. It was an old, slightly faded paperback with what looked like an intriguing title: The God I Want. Published in the late 1960s, it was a collection of essays by various public figures explaining the kind of God they could cope with, the God they could bring themselves to believe in.

None of them said they wanted a crucified God. The cross of Jesus simply bars the way to that approach by confronting us with something that so offends common sense that it makes us start back at square one. It directs us, at the start of our search for God to a scene which tells of the absence of God, the strange and counter-intuitive wisdom of God.

It tells us that if we are to find the true God, we need to give up our ideas of what God should be like and sit and listen for a while. It tells us that the journey to find God starts, not with human wisdom, human chattering and speculation on what kind of God we might like, what kind of God we can get our heads around, what kind of God we cm bring ourselves to believe in, but instead, we should stop talking, just for once. The journey to God begins in silence, not speculation.

–Graham Tomlin, Looking Through the Cross: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2014 (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), pp.27-28

No 10 has announced that the Revd Dr Graham Tomlin will be the next Bishop of Kensington http://t.co/UJNJQklZ0a pic.twitter.com/oNMhYLgKhX

— London Diocese (@dioceseoflondon) July 2, 2015

During his recent visit to Charleston for the Mere Anglicanism conference, Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) Archbishop Foley Beach preached at the invitation of the St. John’s congregation.

The decision of Archbishop Beach – who presumably would be welcome in the pulpit of any of the three dozen Charleston-area ACNA parishes – to preach at St. John’s Parish Church signaled care for and support of those who had lost properties.

“It was an incredible encouragement to have the Archbishop with us. We are humbled he chose to be with us,” St. John’s Rector Jeremy Shelton shared with me in an interview this week. “It’s been six months for us now and it has been an incredible blessing. It is difficult, for sure. But God is faithful and our congregation is growing in size, faithfulness, and unity. The Gospel speaks much louder than anything else.”

Shelton, who became St. John’s Rector at the time of the property handover, explained that the invitation for Beach to preach came about after a parish staff member suggested it. The Archbishop’s office circled back within a month, suggesting the weekend of January 29.

Johns Island is a formerly rural community that has quickly become a Charleston suburb. The fourth largest island on the United States’ East Coast, it now has a population nearing 30,000, a growth rate of 114 percent since 2000. Named for Saint John Parish in Barbados by the first English colonial settlers, there is a long history of Anglican worship on the island, with St. Johns Parish Church founded in 1734.

“Our neighbors are from Minnesota, New York, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania,” Shelton, who hails from Kentucky but has lived in South Carolina for nearly 20 years, tells me of his own residential subdivision on the island. “They are coming from everywhere.”

Read it all.

Of the eight @anglican_sc parishes ruled by the South Carolina State Supreme Court to lose control of their properties to the Episcopal Church, several are now in new homes and are thriving. #anglican https://t.co/XSzx7N61tJ

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) February 8, 2023

I know there is fear of a slippery slope, of what may or may not happen at some point in the future, but let us not give in to the fear of a future which we can neither predict nor control. Fear leads us to do the wrong things – trying to secure the future for God tomorrow, rather than trusting the Holy Spirit today.

I have just been in Westminster Hall hearing President Zelensky, who knows well what it means for the world to change overnight. And who knows here what will come to us over the next few years, not least from there.

Each of us will answer to God at the judgement for our decisions on this matter. We are personally responsible. I am supporting these resources, not I think because I am controlled by culture but because of scripture, tradition and reason evidenced in the vast work done over the last six years so ably by so many.

I may be wrong, of course I may, but I cannot duck the issue any more than anyone else here. I ask each member of Synod to vote with their Spirit-inspired consciences, scripturally and spiritually guided, and not because groups or lobbies or outsiders have told you to. I have heard them over the last two weeks in Parliament, and been told exactly what to do. I am not doing any of it.

Read it all.

I’m supporting the Prayers of Love and Faith, not because I am controlled by culture, but because of scripture, tradition and reason evidenced in the vast work done over the last six years so ably by so many. #Synodhttps://t.co/DMHSFntJ3D

— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) February 8, 2023

We are called as Christians to be gathered in the Spirit and to show in the life of the Church of England a passionate love for every person, a profound commitment to the proclamation of Christ, a powerful symbol that culture war and crisis is not the way the world must go: God shows a better, a saving way.

Just as God has spoken in His word, God speaks to us today, in a language that our hurting hearts understand. It’s a language that gives us a new identity, made in the image of God. God gathers out of a physically and ideologically scattered people a church which acts in unity for those who are different, and does it with unquestioning love.

A common identity, those who are saved, a common tongue, speaking Christian, together offer a common community. To those driven into doubt, or disbelief by the raucous hammering at each other in all our churches around the world – not just Anglican, I know what it feels like to have some raucous hammering – which seems to reject people for their sexual identity or their ethnicity, or their gender, or their youth, or their age or their character or their past or their potential future – we must say; “God himself has come for you. God himself cannot bear to be apart from you, he binds himself to you. He invites you to participate in his divine life and he sets you in his church where all, all have a cherished and essential place.”

That is the good news we carry. Whoever we meet, they are loved by God freely and completely. We may say it, we must live it and how we do that is one of the great tests of these times of societal, national and international division. For we live today in a time of war physical, and war cultural. We too easily import culture wars and lapse into their language. It is the sea we swim in. We do not need to drink it.

Read it all.

The Bishops in the Church of England wrote and issued a paper whereby they intend to introduce same-sex blessings services. They are not proposing same-sex weddings (at this stage), but wantng same sex blessing ceremonies. In other words, this change amounts to formally recognising same-sex relationships as a moral and God accepted good and that churches ought to offer services of prayer and blessing for these couples. Not every bishop agrees with the document, but clearly, there is sufficient consensus for its publication and presentation to General Synod for serious consideration.

In what can only be described as a dishonest riff, some Anglican leaders are insisting that the church’s doctrine on marriage isn’t changing…quite literally as they call for changes to the church’s understanding of sex and marriage. The same hypocrisy is being offered up by The Australian Law Reform Commission, albeit a legal entourage rather than a church one. Their recent submission to the Federal Government calls for religious schools to lose their freedom to practice traditional views of sexuality. For example, they are recommending legislation that allows Christian schools to teach a Christian view of sex and marriage, but they may also be required to teach alternate views. They will lose the right to employ staff on the basis of religious convictions. In other words, we’ll tolerate your religion so long as you tell and permit today’s sexology. That’s not compromise, it’s forced capitulation. That’s not co-existing with two unbridgeable views, that’s crossing over and demanding change.

This General Synod is happening on the other side of the world and in a Christian denomination that is different to my own, so why take interest in this debate? This particular case is important for several reasons: 1. I have many friends who pastor or who are members of churches in the Church of England. 2. The very public stature of this denomination (part through age and part through connections to the State) will garner significant media and public attention. 3. The Church of England is part of the worldwide Anglican communion which accounts for 10s million of believers, including Australia. 4. The same revisionist agenda playing out in the Church of England is present here in Australia, including among Baptists.

The flavour of the month is self-expression. In every sphere of life we are told that autonomy and self determination is an absolute, and questioning this ‘reality’ is the gravest of sins. From TikTok to the Bishop of York, the sermon proclaims that an individual’s sexual preferences and gender identity is the most fundamental aspect of reality…with a dash of God apparently giving approval. While this religious message will arouse a clap from the culture’s elites, notice how it doesn’t bring people to the cross or persuade them to follow Jesus and join a local church. What’s the point of Christianity if it does little more than mirror the culture’s messaging?

Read it all.

The real point of all this is that the Church of England is now to bless same-sex unions in clear defiance of both the Bible and the tradition of the Christian church. It will do so even as many of the more conservative churches in the Anglican Communion threaten to break from Canterbury. It will do so even as those identified as LGBTQIA+ in the bishops’ statement are outraged that the church is so tepid. It will do so even after evangelicals rightly call the move outright rebellion against the Word of God.

Anglicans pride themselves on their traditional via media, or way between. They were born in an effort, at least by some, to find a third way between Protestantism and Catholicism. They are proud of their supposed openness to both believers who hold to historic Christian doctrines and heretics who deny them. Now that the sexual revolutionaries are in control of the society and ready to bare their teeth against any who resist, the bishops of the Church of England reveal themselves to be toothless tigers who hold to an imaginary third way between biblical Christianity and the ideologues of the sexual and gender revolutions.

In the Book of Common Prayer’s rite for the consecration of a bishop, the candidate is required to pledge fidelity to the Bible. Then they are asked this: “Will you then faithfully exercise yourself in the same Holy Scriptures, and call upon God by prayer, for the true understanding of the same; so as ye may be able by them to teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine, and to withstand and convince the gainsayers?”

Now, the bishops of the Church of England are the gainsayers. If you bless same-sex unions, you are buying the entire package demanded by the moral revolutionaries. This isn’t a third way. This is just old-fashioned surrender. You bless same-sex unions, dear bishops, and you just bought them.

Read it all.

We do, of course, not live in an heroic age, an age of burning faith, martyrdom and devotion. Rather we live in the great era of spiritual apathy and indifference, interspliced with mad bursts of quasi-religious progressive fanaticism; of mechanism, materialism and utilitarianism; within the church, of the meticulous, supine management of a decay and decline that is seen as inevitable. Given that, it should probably come as no surprise that the sort of bishops we produce are not quite of the nature of Athanasius, Chrysostom or Becket, and are rather more likely to remind us of the deputy regional manager of a chain of supermarkets. Perhaps in some respects that is a good thing: such formidable men were the products of ages more violent, more turbulent and a good deal less comfortable and ‘safe’ than our own. Personally, they were probably incredibly difficult and alarming individuals. If Chrysostom were transplanted to the 21st century, one struggles to see him being offered a column in the Church Times or becoming a regular on ‘Thought for the Day’. He might make us all a bit too uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, it is surely the case that in this kind of shuffling, pusillanimous era we need uncompromising messengers of Gospel truth and orthodoxy, heroic conveyors of inconvenient moral verities, and fiery prophetic voices of doom crying in the wilderness more than ever. Surrender to the secular languages of ‘change management’ and MBA-style jargon, attempting to adapt the spirit of Taylorism and human resource departments to produce spiritual time-and-motion studies, will not make the Church more ‘effective’ or ‘productive’ (whatever that would mean) – it simply reduces its extraordinary, transcendental, urgent message to the level of the quotidian, the utilitarian, the banal. Not only that, but the grasping, instrumentalising spirit of technocracy and managerialism is actively contrary to the spirit of the gospel, which rejects every easy commercial assumption, every sophistical calculation of profit-and-loss, every piece of instrumental rationalisation. We should sell everything we own to possess one pearl and one pearl alone, that of Heaven.

What we need, therefore, are some bishops who defy this spirit, who refuse to conform to the Weberian spirit of the new church bureaucrats, who rattle against the iron cage that Welbyism is creating. The Bishops only emerge from their bureaucratic fortresses nowadays to issue vague, theologically undernourished moral pronouncements on subjects where they know their viewpoint will find approval from their liberal masters. This is not good enough.

Read it all.

Collins…married Diana Kimpton, an actress, in 1955. They had met at a London rally held by the American evangelist Billy Graham. She would put on drama productions in church, as Collins moved away from traditional pulpit preaching, and also train Collins’s curates in public speaking. She died in 2013. He is survived by their children, Dominic and Richenda.
From 1971 Collins served at the semi-rural parish of Canford Magna in Dorset, but led regular missions to London, including the “Leap Step Forward” campaign at HTB, which planted the seeds of its rebirth as a Charismatic evangelical church.

Collins invented what he called the “evangelistic supper party” at which members of his community were encouraged to overcome their qualms, invite friends to dinner and hold discussions about the meaning of life over a glass of wine. It became a highly effective method of evangelising to the chattering classes of Kensington and its affluent surrounds. The suppers were a vital part of the introduction to Christianity course, Alpha, which had been launched at HTB in 1977 and would grow into a global phenomenon.

When he was due to leave HTB in 1985, he made the unusual step for a senior clergyman of staying on for five years as an assistant curate to ensure continuity of mission, while graciously ceding authority to the new vicar, Sandy Miller. At the same time he served as area dean of Chelsea and Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral. After Collins’s retirement in 1990, his work would be continued by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel.

He continued to study the Bible in Greek. Aptly, his favourite verse remained “Rejoice in the Lord Always” (Philippians, iv, 4). Ironically, for a man some deemed responsible for tambourines in church, Collins was an accomplished classical organist who played every day until the end of his life.

Read it all (subscription).

The Rev John Collins obituaryhttps://t.co/gZ31j5v9OV

— Nicky Gumbel (@nickygumbel) February 4, 2023

Listen to it all (download option is there as well).

In the Gospel, Jesus is talking to us: “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” Each one of us is called to be “salt” and “light.” pic.twitter.com/9Zeb6Cwq3x

— Abp. José H. Gomez (@ArchbishopGomez) February 5, 2023

There has never been a visit like it and it has been years in the planning.

The first people to greet Pope Francis when he arrived in the South Sudanese capital were Archbishop Justin Welby and Moderator Rev Iain Greenshields, who both boarded the papal plane moments after it landed.

All three religious leaders were greeted with fanfare at Juba’s airport before travelling through singing, cheering and ululating crowds to the Presidential Palace.

“It is a circuitous journey, yet one that can no longer be postponed,” said Pope Francis, referring to delays in the trip caused by Covid, security concerns and the pontiff’s own health problems.

“I have come with two brothers, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Together, stretching out our hands, we present ourselves to you and to this people in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace,” the Pope said.

But this trip comes at a time when long-term peace and stability in South Sudan seem a distant prospect. It’s people are suffering crushing poverty and have little hope in their political leaders.

Read it all.

Will the historic visit, by Pope Francis and other religious leaders, be a catalyst for change in South Sudan?https://t.co/EONAYWLLMI

— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) February 3, 2023

The Next Steps Group of bishops met on Wednesday 01 February 2023.

The Next Steps Group of bishops are looking forward to listening and attending to Synod members’ reflections on LLF at General Synod next week. They noted that Synod members’ feedback about the draft Prayers of Love and Faith and the proposed new Pastoral Guidance will be instrumental in shaping the way that these two strands of work are taken forward and brought back to Synod in July 2023.

The group reiterated that the Prayers and the Guidance belong together. In particular, the Prayers will not be commended before the Pastoral Guidance has set out clear reassurances for clergy and laity in relation to being able to either offer or not offer the prayers. The Next Steps bishops welcome Synod’s participation in setting out what such reassurance might look like in practice and what approaches would be helpful to enable church communities to engage with one another well in relation to the opportunity these prayers offer.

Read it all.

(Via email) Issued by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches
STATEMENT – FEBRUARY 2, 2023

By the Primate of South Sudan & Chairman of Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches on the upcoming ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’

HE Primate of South Sudan, the Most Rev Justin Badi, who is also the Chairman of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), joyfully participates in the ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’ this coming weekend, in which the Government of his country has invited The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, to come together and to pray for peace.

However, the Primate says his warm participation does not in any way diminish his biblical views on marriage or sexuality….

South Sudan is currently going through a civil war, persistent floods have destroyed homes and livelihoods, food shortages are widespread, and millions of South Sudanese people are displaced. Archbishop Badi said: “We appreciate these Christian world leaders for their prayers, and their tireless efforts under the most challenging circumstances, to engage the world in the immense need to stand with the South Sudanese people. We pray their visit will remind us as South Sudanese people to repent of our own spirit of violence and mistrust, and to recommit ourselves to true reconciliation, justice and peaceful co-existence.”

During the weekend, the four religious leaders shall be present for a major prayer event at which a congregation of around 60,000 is expected. They will be praying for peace in the land and the well-being of her people.

Archbishop Badi affirms and values the ‘Pilgrimage of Peace’ and shall offer generous Christian hospitality to the invited world and national religious leaders. However, he says his involvement as the Provincial Anglican leader in the country does not, in any way, diminish his views on marriage or sexuality as outlined, in full, in the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches’ Communique, published at the conclusion of the Lambeth Conference in England in the summer of 2022.

Archbishop Badi, and the leaders of the GSFA will be earnestly praying for the outcome of the Motion on Living in Love and Faith before the General Synod of the Church of England this coming week, 6-9 Feb 2023. The views of the GSFA on the recommendations of the House of Bishops have been expressed in the GSFA Press Release of 24 Jan 2023. The GSFA is poised to follow through on the implications of the critical Synod vote, and seeks a good outcome both for the Church of England, and the world-wide Anglican Communion.

Latest #News: GSFA challenges Welby's role as "Instrument of Unity." @AnglicanCouncilhttps://t.co/HMNtDezORL

— The Living Church (@Livng_Church) January 26, 2023

Lambeth Palace has expressed dismay at reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury told MPs that he would rather see the Church of England disestablished than split the Anglican Communion over the issue of same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Welby made the remarks in a private meeting with parliamentarians on Monday. The Church Times understands that it was put to Archbishop Welby that the Church of England’s current position on same-sex marriage was incompatible with its established status, and that the Archbishop replied that he would rather that the Church lost that status than exclude conservative groups in the Anglican Communion. The remarks reportedly were met with some surprise.

A spokesman for Lambeth Palace did not deny that the Archbishop had made a comment of this nature, but said: “We do not recognise the account of the private discussion as it has been leaked, which was much more nuanced and complex than how it has been described.

“The Archbishop agreed to meet for a private conversation with MPs, and it’s disappointing that some parliamentarians have chosen not to honour the terms of the meeting.”

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Lambeth Palace has expressed dismay at reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury told MPs that he would rather see the Church of England disestablished than split the Anglican Communion over the issue of same-sex marriage https://t.co/D1oa7l9GWr

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 2, 2023

I have been fully involved with the Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith process since it began. As an Anglican ethicist, I was invited to be a member of the theology and ethics working group, one of several groups set up to resource and inform the project. After the LLF resources were produced, I became a member of the Bristol diocese LLF reference group, and led an LLF course at Trinity College Bristol, where I am the principal.

I have participated in good faith in the process, trusting that this was an opportunity for people across the Church to work together to try to find a way forward that was “founded in scripture, in reason, in tradition, in theology and the Christian faith as the Church of England has received it”, as the Archbishop of Canterbury put it when launching the project in 2017.

But this is not just an academic matter for me. I also write as one of the minority of LGBT people who believe that the current teaching of the Church is true and good for us and should not change. (You can find out more about my story here).

Following the LLF process, the bishops of the Church of England have now published proposals for prayers for couples in committed relationships, including same-sex couples. The Church of England’s General Synod will soon be voting on whether or not to welcome the bishops’ proposals.

As a member of that Synod, I am not able to welcome them as they currently stand, and I want to share my concerns about the proposals. I do this in a spirit of genuine dialogue. There may be things I have misunderstood or overlooked, and I hope I can be corrected where I am wrong.

My concerns are as follows….

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8 reasons why Sean Doherty, a same-sex attracted Christian, believes the CofE’s same-sex proposals won’t work:https://t.co/EKhHUAowIW

— Premier Christianity (@Christianitymag) January 31, 2023

“Threats to Religious Freedom in the U.S.” with
Dr. Paul Marshall, February 14

Dr. Paul Marshall, Wilson Distinguished Professor of Religious Freedom at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University will be offering  a public lecture at St. Philip’s Church, Charleston on “The Biblical & Theological Roots of Religious Freedom” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, February 14. All are invited to attend, and to have the opportunity to meet the cohort of participants in the 10th  Anglican Leadership Institute. Learn more.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury will be visiting South Sudan with Pope Francis and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland from 3rd to 5th February.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has urged people to pray for the people of South Sudan ahead of his historic joint visit to the country with the Pope and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Archbishop said the church leaders are making their Pilgrimage of Peace to South Sudan “as servants” to “amplify the cries of the South Sudanese people” who continue to suffer from conflict, flooding and famine.

The Archbishop will be visiting South Sudan with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and the Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields from 3rd to 5th February. The unprecedented Ecumenical Pilgrimage of Peace is part of the Pope’s Apostolic Journey to the DRC and South Sudan which begins on Tuesday 31st January.

During the South Sudan visit the three church leaders will meet the country’s political leaders, hold an open-air ecumenical prayer vigil for peace and meet with people displaced by the conflict.

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Please pray for the people of #SouthSudan as @Pontifex, @churchmoderator and I prepare to make our historic Pilgrimage of Peace on Friday.

We come as brothers in Christ to amplify the cries of the South Sudanese people and to pray for justice and peace. https://t.co/qBQQOEp7n4

— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) January 29, 2023

Today's art: The Prophet Micah – Jan van Eyck https://t.co/Lc6MpvSEfh pic.twitter.com/XhmAwhup34

— Art and the Bible (@artbible) March 19, 2021

You may read more all about it there.

Peter Kreeft presenting this morning at Mere Anglicanism on C.S. Lewis as prophet. He lists Lewis’ Abolition of Man as one of the greatest books of the 20th Century, appealing to moral choice. #anglican pic.twitter.com/rR5MuiYzRy

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) January 27, 2023

Any genuine reform of the Church involves a threefold cord: renewal of faith and mission; reform of doctrine, discipline, and worship; and reordering of church polity at the local, regional and international levels. This pattern was true in ancient Israel, in the early church, and at the Protestant Reformation in Europe and England. The challenge for contemporary Anglicanism is to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches in the context of Global Anglicanism.

This proposal is offered to and for Gafcon members as they assemble in Kigali in April 2023 and reflects my own focus on the “movement in the Spirit” that took place in Jerusalem in 2008. It is offered as well to the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), which will meet in 2024. The GSFA is a sister movement with Gafcon, with overlapping memberships and visions. Gafcon has contributed the movement’s best formulary in the Jerusalem Declaration; the Global South Fellowship has approved a Covenant, which can serve as a first step in constituting a new Communion.

A revived, reformed, and reordered Anglican Communion will have no historic see. The choice of Jerusalem for the first Global Anglican Future Conference and subsequent decennial meetings there is a powerful reminder that Jerusalem marks the spot where the Gospel begins – on Calvary – and from where its mission spread from the Day of Pentecost to the ends of the earth. It also reminds us of our eternal destiny, the Jerusalem that is above. The suggestion of a Jerusalem Communion of Global Anglicans is just that, a suggestion (others might suggest Alexandria), but it is a reminder that Anglicanism today is not an English export but a global mission proclaiming an eternal Gospel and an eternal destiny with God.

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A look bk to 2019–Stephen Noll–When Is “good Disagreement” Not Good? When It Contradicts God’s Word https://t.co/cSMiOKqYRZ 'The drumbeat for “good disagreement” fills the #Anglican air –+will no doubt become more frenetic as the partial Lambeth 2022 gathering approaches..' TK pic.twitter.com/lCiXIsFVjg

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 23, 2022

IF the General Synod of the Church of England affirms the House of Bishops’ recommendations to ‘Bless’ Same Sex Marriage, or Civil Partnerships, the Church of England will be inviolation of the “clear and canonical teaching of the Bible”, and it will lead to “impaired communion with many provinces of the Anglican Communion”.

The role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as a “moral leader, and a figure of unity within the Communion” will also be “severely jeopardised”. So says the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) which covers around 75% of Anglicans across the globe, ahead of the Synod’s London meetings, February 6-9.

The House of Bishops’ Response to the six-year Living in Love and Faith ‘listening’ process says lawyers have advised them that the official Doctrine of Marriage would remain, despite the Church, from now on “joyfully welcoming and recognising permanent, stable same sex relationships” through services and prayers of blessing.

The Most Reverend Justin Badi, Primate of South Sudan, and Chairman of the GSFA responded, saying: “What the English bishops are recommending constitutes unfaithfulness to the God who has spoken through His written word. Their Response belies the loss of confidence by the bishops in the authority and clarity of the Bible as we have received it. They are re-writing God’s law for His creation; laws that are re-affirmed by Christ in the Gospel accounts.”

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The Archbishop of Canterbury risks breaking up the Anglican Communion over same-sex marriage blessings which “rewrite God’s law”, conservative bishops from around the world have warned https://t.co/m7IWLigABA

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 24, 2023

“If we go any further [than blessings], it’s three years of legislative fighting, and quite possibly a defeat at the end of it. . . The Bishops together want to do something that avoids that — and the discussion continues.”

About 50 people attended the candlelit vigil, which was organised by Jayne Ozanne, an LGBTQ+ campaigner and member of the General Synod. It was timed to coincide with the arrival of about 90 parliamentarians for a Candlemas service in the chapel at Lambeth Palace.

Protesters sang hymns and prayed together, and held posters and placards calling for same-sex marriage to be permitted within the Church of England. “We just want to know that we’re the same as everybody else,” Ms Ozanne told Archbishop Welby.

The Labour MP for Exeter, Ben Bradshaw, joined the protest before going to the service, and was among several who challenged the Archbishop to show leadership on the issue.

“I have been very instrumental carrying it as far as I could, to get things to where we are today. I don’t have the votes to go further,” Archbishop Welby replied.

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“Let’s do what we can now, and see what happens. To get something through for equal marriage would require legislation. And legislation has to carry by two-thirds in each house of Synod.” https://t.co/QxLHXmsoZq

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 24, 2023