Edward Stourton: the press release from Lambeth Palace says ”˜his [that is your] focus will be on supporting creative ways of renewing conversations in relationships around deeply held differences within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion’

Canon David Porter: Well I think we recognise that if the church is going to make any constructive contribution to the conflicts that are going on in our world then we need to look to ourselves and we need to be a people who are on a journey of Reconciliation who are modelling, not necessarily that we agree because it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are all going to agree, but that we hold our differences in a very Christian and constructive way

ES: Well, doesn’t this put a huge burden on your shoulders because the truth is that these tensions within the Anglican Communion and the Church of England have as you have just reflected in a way, have arisen because of very deeply held theological doctrinal disputes about questions like women bishops, like homosexuality, and it is difficult to see how one man by focussing on ”˜process’ can overcome those.

Porter: Well in one sense it isn’t my job to overcome those issues ”“ there are plenty of more intelligent more creative people who have lived and journeyed with these issues for quite a number of years. My job is actually to look at ”˜process’ ”“ it is to look at how we create the space for conversations to take place where people will still differ and they still will disagree but they will do so in a way that is able to say ”˜look this is how Christians disagree, this is how we hold tensions and differences together’

ES: Except that on some of these issues people will believe that the disagreements go to the very heart of what it means to be a Christian

Porter: that is true

ES: so how can, how can a better ”˜process’ overcome that?

Porter: well, in my background in Northern Ireland I used to say to people that if you are a fundamentalist protestant who believes that the catholic church are not Christian or if you are a strong catholic who believes there is no salvation outside the church and you’re in that conversation, the reality is that Jesus still tells you to love the people that you perceive as your enemies and that shows that you are holding what you hold on to in a Christian way and are able to disagree within that commitment of Jesus teling us how we disagree”
Listen to it all here on the Sunday Program starting at 26 mins in for 4 minutes and an unofficial transcript is below
____________________________________
Edward Stourton: The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has made his first appointment. Canon David Porter from Coventry Cathedral will be the first Director of Reconciliation at Lambeth Palace. Good morning.

Canon David Porter: Good morning Ed

ES: and as I understand it your first target will be the home team ”“ your own church?

Porter: Well yes, the role is to help the Archbishop fulfil his commitment to making Reconciliation one of the key hallmarks of his service as Archbishop and he has invited Coventry Cathedral to take the lead in this. Of course he spent some time in Coventry Cathedral being on the Reconciliation team here so it is close to his heart and we are really privileged to be asked to do this.

ES: But so I am clear returning to my question, the press release from Lambeth Palace says ”˜his [that is your] focus will be on supporting creative ways of renewing conversations in relationships around deeply held differences within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion’

Porter: Well I think we recognise that if the church is going to make any constructive contribution to the conflicts that are going on in our world then we need to look to ourselves and we need to be a people who are on a journey of Reconciliation who are modelling, not necessarily that we agree because it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are all going to agree, but that we hold our differences in a very Christian and constructive way

ES: Well, doesn’t this put a huge burden on your shoulders because the truth is that these tensions within the Anglican Communion and the Church of England have as you have just reflected in a way, have arisen because of very deeply held theological doctrinal disputes about questions like women bishops, like homosexuality, and it is difficult to see how one man by focussing on ”˜process’ can overcome those.

Porter: Well in one sense it isn’t my job to overcome those issues ”“ there are plenty of more intelligent more creative people who have lived and journeyed with these issues for quite a number of years. My job is actually to look at ”˜process’ ”“ it is to look at how we create the space for conversations to take place where people will still differ and they still will disagree but they will do so in a way that is able to say ”˜look this is how Christians disagree, this is how we hold tensions and differences together’

ES: Except that on some of these issues people will believe that the disagreements go to the very heart of what it means to be a Christian

Porter: that is true

ES: so how can, how can a better ”˜process’ overcome that?

Porter: well, in my background in Northern Ireland I used to say to people that if you are a fundamentalist protestant who believes that the catholic church are not Christian or if you are a strong catholic who believes there is no salvation outside the church and you’re in that conversation, the reality is that Jesus still tells you to love the people that you perceive as your enemies and that shows that you are holding what you hold on to in a Christian way and are able to disagree within that commitment of Jesus teling us how we disagree

ES: Do you think that some senior members of the Anglican Communion have forgotten that basic fact in the way that they have conducted themselves in these debates?

Porter: I think all of us when we get caught up in conflicts that are deep to who we are and to the values that we hold on to ”“ we do forget that bigger voice from God that calls us to a different way of engaging with difference

Porter: and I am slightly pointing out something to you that you have already recognised but as you say unless you get this sorted out it is very difficult to see how the church can offer a model for reconciliation to other people isn’t it?

DP: There is truth in that, but equally the church is also – we are fallible human beings, and the fact is that wherever you find conflict, there are times that you get it right and there are times that you get it wrong, and I think what is needed actually is honesty on behalf of the church, not over pretending that we can always get it right but being honest where we are actually failing to live up to what Christ calls us to

“there is nothing in what Welby has written before being appointed to the chair of Canterbury, there is nothing that at least that I have read that Canon Porter has written that would indicate that for them that Reconciliation means anything more than learning to live with very difficult differences and maintain institutional unity despite that: Reconciliation means living with utter differences and finding ways to cooperate on various things that we can cooperate on.
……..
And to that, to that idea, how can any Christian who knows his or her Bible well, not say ”˜NO’? No, we can’t engage in common mission and walk across the rainbow bridge to share a common Gospel because we don’t share a common Gospel. The behaviours that men like Bishop [Shannon] Johnston are promoting, St Paul says will keep people out of the Kingdom of God, if they engage in them ”“ will keep people out of the Kingdom of God!
………
How can we join hands and go along in a common Christian mission if the things taught and promoted by one man, by the people we are holding hands with can and do lead people to the Pit? There is a different gospel at play here, a different understanding of Scripture, a different understanding of its authority, of its meaning ”“ a different jesus altogether. So the jesus that Bishop Johnston walks across the bridge to proclaim is not going to be the Jesus of the New Testament. It’s going to be a different jesus who cannot save. So we cannot engage in common mission, we cannot proclaim the same gospel, we can’t even ”“ we can’t do anything that will legitimise in the eyes of any onlooker, be it with a person within the church or a person outside of the church ”“ we can’t do anything to legitimise in any way a false teacher’s office or teaching.

And by holding hands, maintaining institutional unity, doing what we can to “reconcile” with those people, short of repentance, then what we are doing is we are saying ”˜this person is a Christian brother, this person is a leader and the issue over which we disagree is a small, inconsequential issue that is worth debating, and is worth disagreeing over, but is not worth dividing over, because we all share the same gospel. In other words, you reduce the issue of homosexual behaviour in the church to ”˜a diaphora’, a non-essential issue. And that, my friends, is a betrayal of the Gospel ”“ that’s a betrayal of the Gospel.
……..
if he means what he says, if reconciliation means what he has said reconciliation means, then it is not true reconciliation, it is surrender, it is compromise, it is collaboration, it is something that we cannot go along with.

Listen to it all with thanks to Stand Firm where there is more and an unofficial transcript is below:
____________________________________________

Fr. Matt Kennedy: Summing up the ++Justin Welby Debate

After the many debates on facebook and elsewhere regarding Justin Welby, his appointment of a Director of Reconciliation, and my friendly response to Kevin Kallsen and Fr. George Conger’s glowing review of his first few days, I thought I’d sum up my thoughts on Justin Welby:

I thought I would take a few minutes and talk about the Justin Welby situation. I know there has been a lot of discussion online, on my facebook page, on Stand Firm about his recent appointment of a Reconciliation Director, a Director of Reconciliation, I don’t know exactly how that title was said, but I do know that there is a lot of hope out there. A lot of people are hoping that Archbishop Welby will be our saviour, that he will deliver the Communion, that because he is an evangelical, he had a conversion experience at Nicky Gumbel’s church that he is therefore the one to look to to rescue the Communion. In fact I wrote an article this morning because I heard on Anglican TV a discussion of Welby, and my good friend Kevin, and my good friend George both gave him ”“ well George gave him an A for effort in his first few days, and Kevin gave him an A+ I think it was, based on the reasoning that, well, Archbishop Welby is an Evangelical, he had his conversion experience so when he appoints a Director of Reconciliation, then he must mean by that, that he is going to engage in a Reconciliation Process that is conducted in a manner that is consistent with the Evangelical understanding of reconciliation ”“ which would mean therefore that there is going to be a call for repentance, a call to Biblical faithfulness, and then on that basis we all agree to reconcile.

And if that is the case, oh and I hope it is [don’t get me wrong!], if that is the case, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, that’s wonderful. But ”“ there is nothing in what Welby has written before being appointed to the chair of Canterbury, there is nothing that at least that I have read that Canon Porter has written that would indicate that for them that Reconciliation means anything more than learning to live with very difficult differences and maintain institutional unity despite that: Reconciliation means living with utter differences and finding ways to cooperate on various things that we can cooperate on. So if you happen to read then Bishop Welby’s article that he wrote for the Centre Aisle, for the diocese of Virginia, he indicated very clearly in that article that one way to accomplish a form of reconciliation between people who promote same-sex blessings and want to ordain people who are living in same-sex relationships to the priesthood and to the episcopate ”“ one way reconciliation can be accomplished between those people and orthodox Christian leaders is by engaging together in common Christian mission because we can all walk together across the bridge to other peoples and give the Gospel.

And to that, to that idea, how can any Christian who knows his or her Bible well, not say ”˜NO’? No, we can’t engage in common mission and walk across the rainbow bridge to share a common Gospel because we don’t share a common Gospel. The behaviours that men like Bishop [Shannon] Johnston are promoting, St Paul says will keep people out of the Kingdom of God, if they engage in them ”“ will keep people out of the Kingdom of God!

How can we join hands and go along in a common Christian mission if the things taught and promoted by one man, by the people we are holding hands with can and do lead people to the Pit? There is a different gospel at play here, a different understanding of Scripture, a different understanding of its authority, of its meaning ”“ a different jesus altogether. So the jesus that Bishop Johnston walks across the bridge to proclaim is not going to be the Jesus of the New Testament. It’s going to be a different jesus who cannot save. So we cannot engage in common mission, we cannot proclaim the same gospel, we can’t even ”“ we can’t do anything that will legitimise in the eyes of any onlooker, be it with a person within the church or a person outside of the church ”“ we can’t do anything to legitimise in any way a false teacher’s office or teaching.

And by holding hands, maintaining institutional unity, doing what we can to “reconcile” with those people, short of repentance, then what we are doing is we are saying ”˜this person is a Christian brother, this person is a leader and the issue over which we disagree is a small, inconsequential issue that is worth debating, and is worth disagreeing over, but is not worth dividing over, because we all share the same gospel. In other words, you reduce the issue of homosexual behaviour in the church to ”˜a diaphora’, a non-essential issue. And that, my friends, is a betrayal of the Gospel ”“ that’s a betrayal of the Gospel.

So, if Bishop Welby means by reconciliation what he has written that he means by reconciliation, what he has said many times, not just in that article from the Centre Aisle, but you can read a sermon that he wrote, that we posted on Stand Firm, you can read his address before the Episcopal Church House of Bishops, if he means what he says, if reconciliation means what he has said reconciliation means, then it is not true reconciliation, it is surrender, it is compromise, it is collaboration, it is something that we cannot go along with.

So I just wanted to put this out there, today so that you can all hear it, and let me know what you think in the comments.

Here’s a link to the facebook discussion/debate that ultimately involved Kevin Kallsen and Peter Ould

And here’s a link to some of the documents I reference in the audio above:
Center Aisle article
Pentecost Sermon
Address to the TEC HOB
Article Quoting Canon Porter

“David Porter is an ”˜Evangelical’…and just as Justin Welby is an ”˜Evangelical’. When they talk about reconciliation it’s a multi-part process and the first part of that sort of reconciliation is not between man and man, but between man and God, and once you are reconciled with God, once you are basically looking at things through the prism of holiness and godliness, you then move on to reconciliation with the people around you.

… we need to come back to what is the first significant staff appointment the Archbishop of Canterbury has made, it’s this guy, David Porter, to work on the Godly reconciliation of warring factions within the Communion. That is the agenda that Justin Welby is setting down as his priority at Lambeth Palace. And to me ”“ if it works, that’s wonderful ”“ if it doesn’t work it may be very well because that’s God’s will for the church at this time. But in any event that’s the focus, not mosquito nets, not carbon fasts, not global warming, reconciliation under Christ ”“ that’s a wonderful thing.”

Watch it all – With thanks to Kevin and Fr George at Anglican TV here who talk about Archbishop Welby and Reconciliation from 10 mins 40 seconds in to 21 mins in – and there is an unofficial transcript of the section below
___________________________________-

ANGLICAN UNSCRIPTED EPISODE 65

Can Canterbury be relevant again:

Kevin: We’re going to talk about the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Last week was his first week in office and he arrived at Lambeth Palace probably in a chariot, I don’t know how the first week works ”“ they open up the doors and the staff welcomes him, it’s probably right out of Downton Abbey. And he comes in and they show him around ”“ he probably knows what it looks like but they show him around anyway, it’s his first day and he gets to sit at his desk for the first time and they show him his nice leather chair and the little lamp on the desk he can turn on and off and he hears off in the background a squeak, squeak, squeak, as a dolly comes in bringing an appointment book. We call it a calendar, they call it over there a diary and they put it on his desk and they open up the book and dust comes off and they open up to the first page and there’s thirty-five items for his first day in office. George ”“ what does our new Archbishop say?

George: ”˜No ”“ I’m not going to be house-broken’. This could have been straight out of the TV show, ”˜Yes Minister’ where Jim Hacker comes in and brand new cabinet minister – and Sir Humphrey the head of the civil service in that department gives him his appointments diary, and for the next six months Jim Hacker is kept busy doing busy work, so that he is out of the hair, out of the power and authority that should be exercised by the staff. Well that’s what Lambeth Palace, the Church House tried to do to Justin Welby. They tried to neuter him, tried to house-train him so that he would be kept busy while they did the important stuff. Justin Welby would be allowed to choose what color wallpaper he had in his office, but he really wouldn’t be allowed to decide what the priorities of his job would be – and Justin Welby said no.

Kevin: And that’s the interesting reality here is a busy minion staff can keep their boss busy enough so nothing changes. And basically nothing has changed since Carey and Rowan Williams because the staff has kept the boss so busy. There’s been no classical change in Anglicanism since Lambeth 1:10 because the minions at Church House says ”˜we don’t need any more of those decision-making things from our Primates or from Lambeth. We just need to keep things going at an even flow, no conflict like there’s nothing happening here ”“ walk away ”“ those flames are nothing.’ Justin Welby has from his first day stopped that.

He’s also done something brand new. Yesterday he appointed a new Reconciliation Minister called Canon David Porter, who is from Ireland. Now a quick backdrop of Ireland ”“ Northern Ireland used to live in great conflict in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and there was basically a war in north Ireland between the IRA and the Ulster Union, and some would say it’s been between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. Whatever it was between, it was a mess of people who were so involved in hating each other they forgot why they hated each other. And it ended up in shootings, bombings, assassinations, grenades thrown into school yards, grenades thrown at funerals. Here, watching in America you just couldn’t understand what was really going on, to the point where the people in Ireland really didn’t know what was going on.

People like David Porter, and who was that famous Anglican that was over there?

George Conger: Robert Eames

Kevin: helped these people draw to a peace. Now the peace wasn’t between Christians ”“ the peace was a man-level peace: I will not annihilate you if you don’t annihilate me ”“ that is how man agrees at peace. We’ve done that with Russia and China and other places ”“ the natural ”˜we won’t self-destruct assurance. That isn’t God level reconciliation. We’ve brought this man, David Porter in to Lambeth Palace to help deal with what we call the war of the Anglicans. The Anglican Communion is currently shattered and scattered because of heresy within the church. David Porter is going to be brought in to be a Minister of Reconciliation. Can he do that job George?

George: Well in many ways the situation is just as bad verbally as it was in Northern Ireland. Last month Katherine Jefferts Schori went to Charleston and called Mark Lawrence and the conservatives in that diocese terrorists and murderers, authoritarian thugs who had taken over the church unlawfully. And you and I get emails and see comments all the time by conservatives calling Katherine Jefferts Schori a witch and a heretic. That level of vitriol seems next to impossible to reconcile and the way that the Anglican Communion has been trying to do it through the Indaba process, through a psychological approach with small groups and what not, it’s basically a waste of time; that’s what it’s shown to be ”“ the Panel of Reference, the Indaba, all these different groups have produced absolutely nothing.

Now what is different about this time around? Well, I am excited, I am encouraged because, it’s a dirty word Kevin for some people, but I am about to say it, so you may need to bleep this out, but David Porter is an ”˜Evangelical’

Kevin: Oh, my ears, George

George: and just as Justin Welby is an ”˜Evangelical’. When they talk about reconciliation it’s a multi-part process and the first part of that sort of reconciliation is not between man and man, but between man and God, and once you are reconciled with God, once you are basically looking at things through the prism of holiness and godliness, you then move on to reconciliation with the people around you. And that is what has been able to effect change in Northern Ireland. So in that way Martin McGuiness and Jerry Adams is part of the same government as Ian Paisley, and it’s working and they are happy, those are IRA leaders and the Ulster Unionist leaders. Is it possible that Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bob Duncan could be brought to the same table and work in peace and harmony like the IRA and the Democratic Ulster Unionist Party. If it worked in Northern Ireland it could very well work in South Carolina ”“ I don’t know.

Kevin Kallsen: It’s different. This isn’t Indaba ”“ this is taking a direct charge of a situation and putting a man in charge of ”“ this isn’t the Panel of Reference, this isn’t all the things that were tried before, this is something new. Now the destination may be the same, we may still have a fractured Communion at the end because they cannot reconcile, and this may reveal that there is no reconciliation possible, but we have a person who can help in identifying whether or not there is a possibility of reconciliation. If, you know, ten years from now the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada are no longer part of the Communion well this is something to help get us there

George: and Kevin when – we need to come back to what is the first significant staff appointment the Archbishop of Canterbury has made, it’s this guy, David Porter, to work on the Godly reconciliation of warring factions within the Communion. That is the agenda that Justin Welby is setting down as his priority at Lambeth Palace. And to me ”“ if it works, that’s wonderful ”“ if it doesn’t work it may be very well because that’s God’s will for the church at this time. But in any event that’s the focus, not mosquito nets, not carbon fasts, not global warming, reconciliation under Christ ”“ that’s a wonderful thing.

Kevin: Another thing an Archbishop usually does in first week in office is sit down with the BBC or ITV or somebody for his interview ”“ but they don’t sit down with Christian press, we don’t see that from archbishops of Canterbury very often

George: Not with the last one, the one before we did, Rowan Williams never

Kevin: And for whatever reason I didn’t get to interview him. You got to interview him once, right?

George: 2005 ”“ and never again after that

Kevin: ”˜they ask hard questions ”“ we are not going to have that’
Well this British interviewer for ITV sat down with Justin Welby. He thought he had the perfect candidate: a European liberal, business background, hates banks and financial institutions, obviously this was going to be a great conversation that will play forever in interviewdom and he sits down and says Justin Welby ”“ I am being ”“ this isn’t quite verbatim but ”“ sits down and says Archbishop Welby, you’re the new Archbishop of Canterbury and there has been conflict in the Communion over same-sex marriages and gay bishops and women clergy. Can you as the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, in Britain, help save us from those evil Anglicans around the world and let them know that, you know, that this is OK stuff? George, what does Justin say?

George: ”˜No, no, first off it’s not OK ”“ the Church of England, I Justin Welby do not agree with the government’s position on gay marriage and the changes it is making. ”˜And secondly’ you have to remember, Justin Welby said, ”˜that I am Primate of All England and Archbishop of Canterbury as Archbishop and Primus Inter Pares, first among equals, and I will not subordinate the Anglican Communion to British Politics. I’m not going to force everybody to be English’ ”“ which was what the Welshman, Rowan Williams wanted to do. This is a tremendous change. He is reasserting the independence of the Church, he is reasserting the authority of the Archbishop’s office as an archbishop for the Communion as opposed to a local chairman of the board.

Kevin: so for the first week in office, I’m going to give you know, Archbishop Justin Welby a Ten, you know, he did very well for the first week. I look forward to nothing but good things in the second week. The reality is we don’t know what it is going to look like when he finally resigns a decade down the line, whether he has had a real effect on the Anglican Communion or not. However based on what I’ve observed from the first week, I can’t complain. George, how about you?

George: A for effort

Kevin: A for effort

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night

By Canon Chris Sugden
Welby himself reflected on lessons from treasury management for conflict resolution: synthesise a lot of information quickly and under pressure; flexibility in attitude, analytical models, planning and execution; and steely determination towards key goals.

His reconciliation ministry developed six “Rs” for work in conflict situations: Researching ”“ carefully listening to all sides and also identifying ”˜spoilers’ with a vested interest in continuation of the conflict and planning to deal with them; Relating ”“ to people not to an office and not because they are good but because they are there; Relieving ”“ alleviating the socio-economic roots of conflict; Risking ”“ and trusting the sovereignty of God; Reconciling ”“ to enable warring communities to continue to disagree without violence or mutual destruction, a process that cannot be contained simply within the Church; and Resourcing ”“ enabling communities to address their own conflicts without outside assistance. Christ’s shed blood was ”˜the fountain of reconciliation with God , from which all other reconciliation flows’.

From his study of Thiselton’s commentary on 1 Corinthians Welby noticed that although the Corinthians were in error on several major theological issues, the Apostle Paul continued to treat them “as fellow members of the family of God”.

In moving to Liverpool as Dean and then Durham as bishop he focused on risk-taking in decisive leadership interwoven with collegiality and consensus.

Read it all

Archbishop Welby agrees there are many strengths of the Anglican parish system, but ‘we fish badly’: ‘The church is good at contact and presence but too often poor at bringing people to faith in Jesus. … We are excellent at building bridges into the community and into society and rather less good at getting the gospel across the bridge, and bringing people back. Or to put it another way our net holds many but we land few.’ His evangelistic passion is best encapsulated by a recent address to an Alpha Vision Day in Sheffield, attended by over 700 church leaders from across the north of Britain: ‘We are facing in this country the greatest opportunity that God has given us since the Second World War. … It is a moment of unique opportunity and the challenge that the Spirit is saying to the Church today is, “Will you take this moment and reverse the decline that we have seen for the last 70 or 80 years?”‘ With buoyant confidence in the grace and power of God, the new Archbishop believes that great things are possible in our generation. The task of the church, he insists, is ‘to go out and … to reconvert our land, to transform its society and all that goes with it.’

Read it all

The Cathedral can hold only 2,000 people for the Service and there have been many discussions about whom to invite. Bishops and Archbishops from the world wide Anglican Communion will attend as will the leaders of many churches in Britain and representatives of Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Sikhs, Jain and Buddhist faiths, along with a senior member of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and leading politicians. In addition, ballots have been held, so that members of the regular congregation, volunteers, and staff have a chance to attend the big day.

Read it all

According to leaked documents seen by The Mail on Sunday, at least three senior African archbishops have privately urged conservative colleagues to shun the gathering.

In the documents, the Primate of Kenya, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, said he recommended that ”˜we show our commitment to the Anglican Communion by being present for the service at Canterbury Cathedral”‰.”‰.”‰. but do not participate in the “collegial time” being proposed by Archbishop Welby’.

He said the new Archbishop of Canterbury had ”˜given us no clear indication of the matters for discussion’ and that primates ”˜who have led the way in promoting false teaching’ will be welcomed by Dr Welby.

Read it all remembering the source.

I am thinking there may be much confusion between what we mean when we say forgiveness and reconciliation. In order for any of us to be reconciled to God and to one another there must be repentance.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Our reconciliation to God is through the cross of Christ and what we bring is our repentance. No repentance, no reconciliation.

Forgiveness is another matter. We begin with the forgiveness God has for us, again through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We are forgiven not on our own merit, but in the merits of the Son of God who gave His life that we might have life. He has paid the debt we could not pay….

Read it all

Read it all and there is also a Prayer for the New Pope

Lambeth Palace has a new incumbent, who will be formally enthroned on March 21st as head of the Church of England, and hence of the global Anglican Communion. Anglicanism has replaced a scholar and theologian with a more practical, hands-on type, as the Roman Catholic church would be well advised to do. But on the face of things, Justin Welby’s first foray into politics seemed to mark him out as yet another cleric of the centre-left…

Read it all

Dear Archbishop Justin,

It is an immense privilege to write to you about the future of our Church. As an evangelist and a pastor, you will know that we need to connect with the deepest longings of our people for significance and meaning in the course of a hard life, for love that proves elusive and for justice, often denied.

The good news of Jesus Christ has to be shown to meet their deepest needs….

Read it all and you can listen to the sequence on the Sunday Program here starting 10 minutes 40 seconds in for about 3 minutes

All are welcome to join Archbishop Justin on this Journey in Prayer in the days before his enthronement in Canterbury Cathedral.

Read it all

Bill Marsh interviews the Revd Tory Baucum and Bishop Shannon Johnston at the Coventry Cathedral ‘Faith in Conflict’ Conference
Listen to the Audio here and there is a transcript here and a pdf here

“His initial focus will be on supporting creative ways for renewing conversations and relationships around deeply held differences within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.”

Read it all

… the sheer number of those who rang in to express warm thanks to a man who was widely perceived as thoughtful and decent was striking. These were not the commentariat or academics – who have been swift to criticise – but those whom I suspect Williams would have seen as his real constituency.

How will things be different, both for the church and for the wider culture, with the new Archbishop, Justin Welby? On first glance, there is less theological depth…

Read it all

It was with a heavy heart but complete understanding that we learned this morning of Pope Benedict’s declaration of his decision to lay down the burden of ministry as Bishop of Rome, an office which he has held with great dignity, insight and courage. As I prepare to take up office I speak not only for myself, and my predecessors as Archbishop, but for Anglicans around the world, in giving thanks to God for a priestly life utterly dedicated, in word and deed, in prayer and in costly service, to following Christ. He has laid before us something of the meaning of the Petrine ministry of building up the people of God to full maturity….

Read it all.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has taken control of his work diary after Lambeth Palace officials presented him with a “monster” list of engagements for his first few months in office.

The scaling back of commitments by Justin Welby is in marked contrast to his predecessor Dr Rowan Williams, who ran a packed schedule.

Dr Williams diary for March last year contained 15 events, sometimes two in the same day…

Read it all (requires subscription).

In the first major test of his leadership of the worldwide Anglican Communion the Most Rev Justin Welby will be warned that the Church’s move risks alienating millions of traditionalist Anglicans in Africa and Asia.

Leaders of churches around the world are flying to Britain for Archbishop Welby’s formal installation at Canterbury cathedral next month, when some of them will meet the Archbishop for the first time.

Many want the new spiritual head of the 80-million strong Communion to call for an end to “divisive” moves away from traditional church teaching on sexuality, such as the ordination of [non-celibate] gay clergy as bishops.

Read it all.

[Justin] Welby immediately inherits a nationwide controversy over legitimizing gay marriage, which was approved by the British Parliament on Tuesday. The government has already agreed that, whether or not it passes the House of Lords, the Anglican Church will not be required to preside over the marriage of same-sex couples.

The new archbishop has repeatedly declared his support for the Church’s traditional prohibition of same-sex marriage.

Nevertheless, he will face lingering controversies within the church over ordaining women bishops and accepting clergy in active same-sex relationships.

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Above all at the start of Justin’s new ministry I hope that we shall all be open to the constant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, renewing us in faith, in hope, and in love. Anyone becoming an Archbishop is conscious both of the heritage of faithful witness in which we stand, and of today’s challenges and opportunities to make Christ known afresh in this generation. It is a privilege and responsibility we all share as followers of Christ in this land, as we are charged, along with Archbishop Justin, with the message of the all-embracing love of God in Jesus Christ, who rose gloriously from death to life on the first Easter day. It is to this ministry that Bishop Justin has been called.

Like any Bishop in the Church of England the Archbishop of Canterbury has a role in looking out for the needs of all sections of the community, whatever their religious tradition or belief, with special attention to the most vulnerable members of our society. The Archbishop does not carry this great responsibility alone, but in his public role he rightly represents the many hours of commitment and service put in by volunteers up and down the country who strive together in their local communities for the common good.

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…you spoke, Lord Mayor, of the hope of co-operation in the future of the extraordinary community that is the City of London. The years from the re-opening of the Euromarkets in the early 60s, led by the late and great Sir Sigmund Warburg, to 2008 were as much a golden age of the City as anything in its past, but should be outshone by its future. To this day, the largest proportion of legal work, accounting, banking, international finance, insurance, and much of commodity trading, shipping, happens in the City.

That is a good thing. Let me also say that I am not throwing stones at the City, when all is going well, markets are rising, profits look good, it is virtually impossible to stand against the tide: I wonder if I would have done, and few managed it.

The danger is the same as every good trader recognises, that of looking back to where the market was, not looking forward to where it should be. The City of the future should be highly profitable, but from serving the communities of the UK and overseas. It should grow a culture that takes the best of the past, the intelligence, the drive, the innovation and entrepreneurial skills, and puts those talents to the benefit of the common good. The challenge that we all face is the creation of an architecture for a 21st century financial services industry and banking sector, one which is ethical and profitable, innovative and safe.

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In this way leadership is a myth, a story we tell ourselves over and over again in an attempt to make sense of the world around us. We look for leadership, because we expect leadership, because we look for leadership….

This is the plot of Shane, Triumph of the Will, Saving Private Ryan and practically every western every made. It is the founding myth of our politics and our society. It tells us that violence works, and that leadership only comes from the imposition of a superman’s will upon the masses, and preferably those masses “out there”, not us. Williams recognised this: “When people say, ‘We want you to give a lead’, what they mean is, ‘We want you to tell them, not us. We don’t want to be led.'” In the end, leadership means doing beastly things, to other people.

The need for “leadership'” in our society is fatally flawed by its roots. Instead, the Christian faith has a better word for the ministry to which he, and every Christian, is called: disciple. It doesn’t matter how many hyphens we tack on to the front of it (“servant-leadership”, “compassionate-leadership”, “collaborative-leadership”), it is still leadership, and therefore antithetical to the model, ministry and challenge of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. I don’t want Justin Welby to be a leader. I’d hope that the new archbishop could be a disciple, and one who can help others to become disciples as well.

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[Justin] Welby listened intently to the rituals, his poker face a picture of both concentration and concern. “Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools,” came advice from the Bible ”” not unlike Williams’ parting advice last year that his successor would need “the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros.”

Stepping out of a medieval court inside the cathedral and into the bright sunshine of the London cold, Welby was asked by reporters about his and the church’s position regarding a contentious bill in Parliament to allow same-sex marriage.

While sticking to the church’s position that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman, he told a BBC reporter: “The government wants it. We think there are issues around the way it’s going forward. But it’s not a collision course. … We’ve made our views clear and I’m very much with the House of Bishops on this. They have made their views clear.”

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It’s official: We can now call Justin Portal Welby the Archbishop of Canterbury. On Monday St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was the scene of a confirmation ritual begun in the fourth century. Welby is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.

When George L. Carey was confirmed in office in 1991 the venue was the crypt of St. Mary le Bow in Eastcheap in the City of London. Apart from members of the church court comprising a handful of bishops, the Dean of Canterbury plus lawyers, attending were immediate family and a handful of observers.

In 2002 Rowan Williams rang changes. He moved the event to St. Paul’s where the court was located at the high altar. To see the action clearly people sitting under the famous St. Paul’s dome would have needed opera glasses. To improve viewing this time round the proceedings were located further forward around the nave altar.

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Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, told the Most Rev Justin Welby, that he would lead the Church of England amid an age of seemingly unprecedented selfishness ”“ in a society obsessed with individualism and rights.

The New Archbishop was also formally charged with the task of providing “a voice for faith” in the face of attempts to marginalise religion.

The 57-year-old former oil executive’s election as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury was confirmed in a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

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In his first official day as leader of the Church of England, the Rt Rev Justin Welby is expected to say that marriage should remain “between a man and a woman”.

As MPs prepare for the vote on gay marriage tomorrow, Bishop Welby will give his first interviews after being officially confirmed in the post at a ceremony in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

“He will say that marriage is between a man and a woman, and always has been,” a source close to Bishop Welby said last night, adding that the Archbishop was expecting to be asked for his views and had prepared his response.

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The Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby, will officially become the Archbishop of Canterbury at a ceremony, known as the ”˜Confirmation of Election’, which will take place in the context of an act of worship in St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday 4th February.

The ceremony forms part of the legal process by which the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury is put into effect. It will be presided over by the Archbishop of York with the assistance of the Bishops of London, Winchester, Salisbury, Worcester, Rochester, Lincoln, Leicester and Norwich. All have been commissioned for this purpose by Her Majesty The Queen ”“ who is the ”˜Supreme Governor’ of the Church of England.

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Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, said the financial crisis and a series of scandals had “toppled the idols” on which British society had been based for decades but could open up the way for a wider return to Christianity.

He said the current mood in the country offered the Church its “greatest moment of opportunity since the Second World War”.

His comments, days before he formally takes over as Archbishop, herald a shift in the direction of the Church of England, with a more explicit drive to win converts rather than being perceived as simply managing decline.

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