The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has begun a “rapid evidence assessment” as part of its investigation into the Anglican Churches in England and Wales, the Inquiry’s Counsel, Ben Emmerson QC, said this week.

Mr Emmerson made his com­ments on Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, Lon­don, where Justice Lowell Goddard was holding a series of preliminary hearings into the Inquiry’s different strands.

He revealed that the Inquiry’s research team was sifting through information and evidence from 114 different sources. Among them was the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, which had sup­plied over 7000 items of evidence relating to the diocese of Chichester and the case of Bishop Peter Ball, which are being used as case studies by the Inquiry.

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“We welcome todays update on the investigation into the Anglican Church in England and Wales and the acknowledgment from the Inquiry that the material already submitted is relevant and useful. We note that the Inquiry has received a substantial amount of material from us and other core participants and the analysis of this is now underway as is the process of identifying possible witnesses….

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The Venerable Robert Springett (aged 53), studied at Nottingham University for his BTh, and then at London University for his MA. He trained for the ministry at Lincoln Theological College. He served first as curate at Colchester in Chelmsford diocese from 1989 to 1992 before moving to be curate at Basildon from 1992 to 1994. From 1994 to 2001 he was Priest in Charge at Belhus Park and South Ockendon. He was Rural Dean at Thurrock from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2010 he was Rector at Wanstead in Chelmsford diocese and was Area Dean of Redbridge from 2008 to 2010 and Honorary Canon at Chelmsford Cathedral. Since 2010 he has been Archdeacon of Cheltenham.

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The Right Reverend Robert Paterson, 67, has served the Diocese of Sodor and Man since 2008, as well as holding a seat on the island’s Legislative Council.

He told Manx Radio his decision to retire on 11 November was motivated “purely by age”.

Sodor and Man is the smallest diocese in the Church of England, overseeing 45 churches and 27 parishes.

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Ahead of Monday’s Commons vote on Trident renewal, church leaders from a range of denominations have signalled their opposition to nuclear deterrents.

Speaking in the House of Lords, the Bishop of Chester said it was “not unreasonable at this time to contribute to our ongoing reflection upon why we have a nuclear deterrent at all’.

The Rt Rev Peter Forster went on: “In 1983 there was a report, The Church and the Bomb, in which it toyed with the hope that the UK might in fact unilaterally renounce its nuclear deterrent, but the Church rowed back from that and has never adopted that position, recognising that it was not equipped to reach such a conclusion in such a complex, political set of circumstances as surrounds this debate.

“Clearly today the UK is set upon ordering a new generation of submarines equipped with nuclear missiles, which will renew this country’s nuclear deterrent until 2060 or beyond. I simply express the hope that, during that period, ever greater efforts will be made to reduce the threat to our world from nuclear bombs and that we will continue to keep under review why we are making such significant decisions, which will have an impact into such a far-distant future””a future that will change in ways we cannot anticipate today.”

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The retirement of the Bishop of London, who has declined to ordain female priests, will open the door for the first woman to be appointed to one of the Church of England’s highest offices.

The Right Rev Richard Chartres, 69, announced yesterday that he would retire in February after more than 20 years, a tenure during which he delivered the sermon at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and led the state funeral for Margaret Thatcher.

In 2002 he said that he was very much in favour of women priests but that in the interests of unity he did not personally ordain men or women. He said yesterday: “It has been a privilege and a delight to serve in the Diocese of London as priest and bishop for well over thirty years. I have seen confidence return and church life revive.”

The bishopric of London is the most senior role to become vacant since the church voted to permit the appointment of women as bishops in 2014.

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For my part, I have tried to follow the example of St Augustine who said, “For you I am a bishop but with you I am a Christian”, and in this spirit I hope you will forgive my many shortcomings in office.

After consultation with the Archbishop I am writing to let you know about the timetable for my retirement. It is business as usual until Christmas, after which I shall hope to clear my desk of more than twenty years’ worth of accumulated debris. The intention is that my last public engagement as Bishop of London will be in the Cathedral at Candlemas, February 2nd 2017, the day when Simeon was granted a vision of Christ in the Temple and prayed “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” My formal resignation will be dated from the end of the month on Shrove Tuesday.

Her Majesty the Queen has graciously indicated that I should remain as Dean of HM Chapels Royal until the appointment of the 133rd Bishop of London.

I have received so many signs in prayer and in the life of the Diocese that my period as Bishop of London is drawing to a close. I have every confidence in the Diocesan Team, and in the leadership of our Archbishop in the challenge of renewing and reforming the Church as a servant of reconciliation in these turbulent times.

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Bishop Robert has been telling radio listeners in Britain about how the church in Nice has been responding to the aftermath of Friday’s terror attacks when a lorry careered into the crowds celebrating Bastille Day.

The Bishop had already planned to be in Nice for a meeting with clergy on Saturday (16 July 2016) and he was able to share in the special service of commemoration and see for himself the effects of the incident and the ministry of Holy Trinity Church just off the Promenade des Anglais.

Read and listen to it all (a little over 4 1/2 minutes).

New from Bishop Michael Nazir Ali
Faith, Freedom & the Future

With unique insight and wisdom, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali surveys the current challenges facing today’s church and provides a compelling hope-filled vision of what a living Christian faith, and its comprehensive outworking, can offer society today. Bishop Michael boldly tackles a range of pressing and controversial issues with astute scholarship and understanding ”” including: the challenge of Islam, freedom and conscience, the ”˜modern family’, bioethics and the uncertain future of the worldwide Anglican Communion and, by implication, other mainline denominations.

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‘St Swithun’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain;
St Swithun’s day if thou be fair
For forty days ’twill rain na mair.’

Thanks to this little bit of weather-lore, St Swithun, who died in c.863, is one of the few Anglo-Saxon saints most people have heard of. This is a bit odd when you consider how many fascinating Anglo-Saxon saints actually did important and interesting things and get no attention at all, while what we know about Swithun’s life could be summarised very quickly:

1) he was Bishop of Winchester
2) he did the usual things Anglo-Saxon bishops did, repairing churches, witnessing charters, etc.
3) he died in c.863.

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The Church is an evangelistic movement. In verse 41 they gladly heard the word and in verse 46 with gladness they went about their business and in verse 47 they praised God. Here was an evangelistic movement which had about it the breath of God’s joy; Christianity in those early days was caught even more than it was taught. Already the Church of God had recognized itself as the agency through which God means to reach and challenge and capture the world for the Cross. We too have to recognize that the whole Church is a joyful army on the march, reaching out constantly to new triumphs of the Cross.

Read it all from the Churchman.

He landed with an RN beach commando on D-Day, with responsibility for the care and evacuation of the wounded. Memorably, he transported a portable harmonium on to a French beach just after D-Day and claimed to have held the first Anglican service on French soil after the landings.

In July 1944 he joined 48 (RM) Commando, participating in the landing at Walcheren, when he swam ashore and accompanied the unit as far as the Rhine. He was awarded the DSC.

In early 1945 he went to the Far East and Hong Kong as senior chaplain of the Commando Brigade. He maintained his connection with the Royal Marines to the end of his life.

On leaving the Navy in 1947 Wood became rector of St Ebbe’s, Oxford, and exercised an influential ministry among the first generation of postwar students, most of them ex-servicemen like himself.

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The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992 protects those alleging non-statutory offences as well as statutory offences and also protects against “jigsaw identification” where members of the public can piece together clues about a complainant’s identity.

[Paul] Butler says: “As you will understand, extreme caution is required, particularly in view of the information already in the public domain. It worth stressing that although Carol has shared some details publicly, she has not waived confidentiality in those she has not shared.”

Butler says he is “mystified” how the group can believe the Church can disclose documents provided by Carol’s solicitor. “On a wider point, it is singularly unattractive to suggest that because there might be no legal consequences to breaching Carol’s confidence, the Church should simply provide sensitive material to a group of individuals with a keen interest in but no connection with the case.”

Carol has already expressed herself hurt by the campaign to “clear his name” as it implies that she has not been believed, Butler says.

Read it all from Christian Today.

Church leaders failed to give police incriminating evidence about disgraced former Bishop Peter Ball in 1993, according to Sussex police documents.

Ball, 84, was jailed last year for sex assaults on 18 teenagers and young men in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Files obtained by the BBC indicate Lambeth Palace received six letters detailing indecency allegations shortly after an arrest in 1992.

Ball was cautioned but worked in churches and schools for 15 more years.

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From page 23 of the Archbishops’ Council Budget 2016 [document created June 16th, 2015]
Mission & Public Affairs (MPA) Division

Mission & Public Affairs (MPA) Division
Chair (of MPA Council) Philip Fletcher
Director Revd Dr Malcolm Brown
Staff (FTE) 16.8
2016 Net Expenditure 1,316,370
Funded via:
Archbishops’ Council Restricted Funds 46,010
Vote 2 1,270,360

….
57. The Division delivers public advocacy and apologetics in public life where the Church’s national voice must be articulated. MPA gives direct support the work of dioceses and parishes in mission. MPA staff bring expertise across a wide range of issues including …. marriage, family and sexuality issues..

58. MPA’s priorities for 2016 include:
…Continue to support the process of Facilitated Conversations and begin work on the next steps toward securing “good disagreement”.

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A memo sent round to some members of the Church’s governing synod listed “reasons not to participate” in conversations, which aim to reconcile opposing factions. The note, seen by Christian Today, offers a damning assessment of the secret talks, known as “shared conversations”.

A “dark cloud” also hung over the debate as questions were raised over how the £360,000 conversations were funded. A number of conservatives claimed the conversations were compromised because the liberal wing of the Anglican Church in the USA, which supports gay marriage, had allegedly paid for the talks in part.

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From the Bishop of Blackburn
It is with reluctance and yet conviction that I sense the need to enter the current debate about human sexuality in a more public way, but from a personal point of view, rather than with a diocesan or Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) mandate. The recent publication, Journeys in Grace and Truth, written in preparation for General Synod, gives an account of evangelicals who have come to view the Scriptures differently from the traditional understanding. This requires a response from those in the evangelical constituency who hold to the traditional view..

Read it all and there are more links on Anglican Mainstream here

..the Reformation Church of England did not view basic issues of Christian morality as among those issues which could be considered adiaphora. We can see this in Article VII. The second half of this Article states:

Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.

What this statement shows is that in line with the teaching of the New Testament, the 16th century Church of England held that on moral matters (including matters of sexual morality) the teaching of the Old Testament, summarised in the Ten Commandments and the twin command to love God and neighbour was still in force.13 Consequently such matters could not be seen as adiaphora.

Furthermore, even in regard to matters which were adiaphora the Reformation Church of England did not hold that individual Christians were simply free to do whatever they saw fit. This can be seen in Article XXXIV. This reads as follows:

It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one or utterly alike; for at all times they have been diverse, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s word.

Whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly that other may fear to do the like, as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the magistrate, and woundeth the conscience of the weak brethren

…..
Conclusion
What we have seen in this paper is that it does make sense to talk about things that are adiaphora.

However, matters on which there are binding commands or prohibitions contained in Scripture (including in the area of sexual morality) do not come under the category of adiaphora.

Furthermore, even with regard to those matters which do come into this category we are not free to do whatever we want. Our exercise of Christian freedom either as individuals or as churches always has to be qualified by an awareness of the implications of our choices, and in particular what impact they will have on the welfare of our neighbours, our obedience to church order and state law and the well-being of the Church as a whole.

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The uncertainty generated has left a series of questions that serves no-one well, least of all the alleged victim.

For that reason, we welcome an announcement this week that the Church of England has launched an independent review into the processes regarding the settlement.

The review is a matter of standard procedure and is not intended to undermine the original decision, but we trust its remit will go beyond mere process without adding further to the distress of the woman involved.

Bell was too important a figure to have his reputation trashed without full transparency and disclosure in the public domain.

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Dr Martin Davie is a leading Anglican theologian who served until recently as theological adviser to the Church of England’s House of Bishops. He is disturbed by the way this new myth is becoming increasingly influential amongst Anglicans in the British Isles and his recent blog article ”˜Why The Arguments For A Third Way Do Not Work’, which can be read here, is a compelling exposure of a dangerous deception.

He demonstrates that the ”˜Third Way’ is based on a very superficial reading of both the Bible and Church history..
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This article should be of interest to the whole of the Anglican Communion, not just those in England. The ”˜Third Way’ encourages a false sense of ”˜business as usual’ while TEC continues to provide substantial funding for the work of the London based Anglican Communion office’s attempts to orchestrate the life of the Communion around this myth.

The actions of the Archbishop of Canterbury strongly suggest that he himself has embraced the ”˜Third Way’. There was some hope after the Canterbury 2016 Primates Meeting of an effective restraint on TEC and other revisionist provinces, even though Archbishop Welby refused to use the term ”˜discipline’. These hopes were dashed by the active engagement of TEC in the April meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Lusaka and it became clear that for all intents and purposes the Archbishop sees TEC’s controversial teaching on sexuality, even to the extent of removing any reference to gender from its marriage canon, as a matter on which Anglicans are free to have different beliefs.

If this myth is not persistently challenged and exposed, the consequences for the Anglican Communion will be tragic..

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An independent review of the processes used in the George Bell case has been announced today in accordance with the House of Bishops guidance on all complex cases.

The House of Bishops practice guidance states that once all matters relating to any serious safeguarding situation have been completed, the Core Group should meet again to review the process and to consider what lessons can be learned for the handling of future serious safeguarding situations. A review has always been carried out in any case involving allegations against a bishop.

The review will be commissioned by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team, on the recommendation of the Bishop of Chichester, to see what lessons can be learnt from how the case was handled. The case involves the settlement in 2015 of a legal civil claim regarding sexual abuse against George Bell, who was Bishop of Chichester from 1929-1958.

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Those who voted to stay within the EU need to acknowledge the overwhelming majority of Leave voters who are not part of the racist fringe that disfigures our society. Men and women who believe with integrity that their vote will help us get something of our identity and even our country back. We need to engage with those who have seen little by way of economic benefit from EU membership, as their towns and villages have suffered decline, and who hope that a more independent Britain offers a chance for change. Understanding and working with these, our fellow citizens for the future of our country, is both essential and urgent, not least so that the future we forge together remains outward looking and closely connected to our continental neighbours. Sadly, too much of what I have read by way of comment from the Remain constituency in these last few days feels engulfed in and paralysed by a bereavement that most UK voters do not share, and for whom even the present turmoil in our political parties and the financial markets may be a sign that for once they have stood up and been counted.

The challenge for Leave voters is perhaps even more urgent, to join in with and even lead immediate moves to isolate those who are trying to use the referendum decision as a building block for a resurgence of racist aggression.

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The Referendum debate has been a divisive, brutal, dehumanising, victimising, bitter experience, and at times not even a debate; but now that the campaign is over, the UK must learn from its mistakes, and move towards reconciliation and healing within communities, church voices across the UK have said.

Primates, bishops, archdeacons, chaplains, and academics made their views clear this week on how the country ”” its people and Government ”” had conducted themselves throughout the campaign, and on what the next step should be both for the Church and communities across the UK.

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The outcome of the EU referendum is now clear.
Within our parishes and across our country, people will be reflecting on the result in different ways. Those who voted Leave will be happy that their voice was heard, and hopeful for our country’s future outside the EU. For those who voted Remain, this will be a day of profound regret and even sorrow. The close final result will only have strengthened these feelings all round.
There will also be those who have felt disengaged from the long political campaign, and who still feel dismayed at the bitterness with which it was often conducted. It will be vital for us all, as we accept the result and deal with what it means, to understand and respect those who take different views of the same event.
In the debates that will come, we will be most effective if we now seek to heal the divisions of the past campaign. However, those divisions were about such deep issues of national identity and indeed self-identity that doing so will be a difficult and costly task. In the Church, it will be achieved through a renewed focus on what is unchanged, and on what is unchangeable.

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..It seems likely that in the months to come there will be strong pressure on Evangelicals in the Church of England who are not willing to go all the way in accepting same-sex relationships to at least adopt this kind of third way approach and so in this post I want to explain why I think the three arguments for this this approach noted above are mistaken.

The reason that the first argument is mistaken is because it does not do justice to what St. John is saying in John 1:14.

For advocates of the third way approach grace is understood to mean unconditional love and acceptance and so living a life of ”˜grace and truth’ means showing unconditional love and acceptance to those with whom we disagree even while upholding the truth of our own position. In terms of the current debate about sexuality this means that Evangelicals who hold a conservative approach to sexual ethics should be willing to love and accept those who take a more liberal position.

The problem with this argument is that it fails to read John 1:14 against the background of the Old Testament. As a number of commentators have pointed out, the pairing of ”˜grace’ and truth’ in John 1:14 is a deliberate echo of the regular pairing of ”˜steadfast love’ and ”˜faithfulness’ as a description of God in Old Testament passages such as Genesis 24:27, Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 25:10. [1] God’s ”˜grace’ is his steadfast and merciful love to his oppressed and disobedient people and God’s ”˜truth’ is his faithfulness to his promises to be merciful. Both of these are manifested in Jesus, the person in whom the God of the Old Testament is incarnate, because through his death and resurrection he delivers God’s people from sin and death and thus shows God’s faithfulness to his promises and hence his truthfulness.

The relevance of this to the debate about sexuality is that sexual sin, including the sin of same-sex sexual activity, is part of the life of sin and death from which God in Christ has delivered his people (see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Romans 1-8 throughout) with the corollary that such sin should no longer form part of their lives. As St. Paul puts it in Romans 6:12-14, because the grace of God means that we have died and risen with Christ:

”˜Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.’

A church, therefore, that is willing to accept same-sex sexual activity (or any other form of sexual sin) is a church that has ceased to truly believe in the grace and truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ…

Members of the Church’s decision making General Synod have been issued with a manual setting out how to discuss the fraught subject of sexuality without offending each other too much.

It comes ahead of a special series of “shared conversations” on the issue set to take place behind closed doors when the Synod meets in York next month.

“Facilitators” trained in conducting negotiations in warzones have been called in to help Anglicans resolve their differences over issues such as same-sex marriage after a similar tactic helped break the deadlock over women bishops.

Press and the public are to be banned from the three-day session in which bishops, priests and lay members with differing views and backgrounds will be asked to join in small-group discussions to speak frankly away from the glare of publicity.

The 14-page booklet, entitled “Grace and Dialogue”, amounts to an etiquette guide for the talks, advising members on everything from where to sit to body language and even facial expressions.
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The special sessions are being organised by Canon David Porter, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chief of staff, who helped lay the foundations for the Northern Ireland peace process through talks with paramilitaries in the 1990s.

He said that while they might not ultimately avert a split in the church over sexuality, they might at least make it less acrimonious.

“I’ve never said that the shared conversations process should be measured on its ability to stop fracture,” he explained.

“I’ve always said that it should be measured on its ability as to even how you fracture.

“Because the reality is that throughout Christian history there have been deep issues about which we have differed at various points and it has not always been possible to maintain the unity of the church in those contexts.

“That is the history of the church, that is the reality.

“What these conversations are about is to show ”¦ that even when we disagree deeply we disagree well.”

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At next month’s General Synod, the Church of England will try a new approach to avoiding a disastrous formal schism over homosexuality. After two days of discussing legislative matters in open session and once all outsiders have left, the 550 representatives from around the world will break into groups of 20 for three days of intensive and personal discussions about sexuality.

The idea is not to reach agreement ”“ 30 years of wrangling have established that this is quite impossible ”“ but to try to bring people on both sides of the debate to see their opponents as fellow Christians. Conservative evangelicals have denounced the scheme as an attempt to manipulate opinion, which of course it is. The question is whether it will work.

What’s new about this approach is that the manipulation that Justin Welby’s strategists have in mind is not to be carried out from the top down. It is hoped that the process of facilitated conversations will allow the church’s activists gathered in the synod to take note of the social changes that are happening in their own congregations and their own families, where acceptance of gay people is becoming much more common.

This week a book of evangelical reflections on sexuality was published in which the bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, announced he had been “profoundly changed” by encounters with lesbian and gay Christians in his own family…

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A new congregation to provide an opportunity for worship, mutual support and encouragement for Christians in the LGBTI community is being launched this summer.

“There has been a need for something like this for some while” says Revd Monica Arnold. “While debate rages on, passionately, at the highest levels of the Church of England, LGBT people continue to live with the realities of their daily life and the mixed reception many receive in parishes. An opportunity to worship and enjoy fellowship without hiding or denying a fundamental aspect of their identity is so important to all aspects of healthy life.
…..
The Bishop of Wolverhampton, Rt Revd Clive Gregory warmly welcomed the initiative:

“Enabling this congregation to meet is important and I am delighted to hear of St Matthew’s offer of hospitality. I understand why LGBTI Christians feel the need for a place to meet and worship where they can feel secure and supported in their God-given sexual identity.

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..The process of appointing a new diocesan bishop is long and complex, and one of the last hurdles has now been passed in the appointment of [the] Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave as the 99th Bishop of Lichfield..

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Mark is married to Sally and they have three adult children. They met in Kenya while volunteers with the Church Mission Society and have a lifelong commitment to mission.

Mark trained for ordination at Ridley Hall Cambridge after working in the catering industry in Edinburgh. Sensing a call to serve in urban areas, Mark was ordained in Manchester Diocese in 1982 and served as a curate in Burnage. Mark and Sally then went to Kenya with the Church Mission Society where Mark taught in a Theological college, later becoming the Principal. Returning to UK, Mark was appointed Rector of Christ Church Harpurhey where he served from 1996 to 2009. He was then appointed Archdeacon of Manchester. Mark’s role as Archdeacon of Manchester included being a Residentiary Canon at the Cathedral and significant involvement in Greater Manchester Churches together.

Mark said, “I am honoured and thrilled to have been appointed the next Bishop of Bolton. Greater Manchester is a fantastic place to live and serve, and I am looking forward to getting to know and love the communities and churches of Rossendale, Salford, Bury, Bolton and parts of Wigan for which I will have particular responsibility as Bishop of Bolton.

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