We welcome the protection of the core hours of local broadcasting, namely the breakfast and mid-morning shows along with the drive time programmes, some sport and the Sunday morning faith programming. But what we hear back from the dioceses in their local consultations is a deep concern that these programmes themselves will not be maintained with their current quality (requiring voices from the whole area which the local radio station serves) with significantly fewer staff.

We ask the BBC Trust to recognise local radio as one of the ‘Crown Jewels’ of the BBC. We do not argue that there should be no cuts in budget at all but we believe that the total protection from cuts given to BBC1, Radio 4 and the Proms is disproportionate in relation to what is proposed for BBC local radio.

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In a time of austerity it is salutary once more to ask: what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? This is not to argue for a “Bible-says-it-all politics”, which has been out of fashion since our disastrous flirtation with it in the English Civil War of the 17th century. It is simply to recognise that all politics rest on assumptions; myths properly understood, not as fairytales but as archetypal stories about the human condition.

Both our economic activity and our political life must have ground beneath them. Human beings are not just blind globs of idling protoplasm but creatures with a name who live in a world of symbols and of dreams, not merely of matter.

If we are not only to survive this period of austerity, but even to learn to flourish in it, then we shall have to relearn a more adequate story of what is precious about human life. The story of the birth of the infant king in a poor family is a good starting place.

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Anglican Churches in Northamptonshire have for the first time joined together to fund a series of radio advertisements on Heart FM, and a poster campaign linked to them, to encourage people in the area to attend a Christmas service in a local church.

The ads and posters have been produced, and are being used, nationally. They place the nativity in a modern context.

At the same time the Peterborough Diocese, which links Anglican churches across Northants, Rutland and Peterborough, has just launched a new corporate logo and colour scheme for its public “face” to replace the former crest.

Read it all and see what you may of the linked websites.

…the principle I have just tried to set out for you, of giving ourselves to and for others, is not just about religion. There’s been a lot of talk about building the Big Society this year, and unfortunately the very phrase has become something of a political football, and been prejudiced too by the need to make such cuts. The fact remains, though, that 2012 has to be the year when we start to work together for the common good, or stay stuck in the gloom. Anything that is going to happen for good is likely to be bottom-up not top-down.

If we are going to do that we are going to need to engage together, and in three ways. To make them easy to remember, all three things begin with P. We are going to need to get our hands dirty and share in growing new provision for our communities. Christ came into the same regular world that you and I live in, and got stuck in. Whether it is care for the isolated and vulnerable, places for young people to hang out safely, transport for rural places, lunch clubs or language classes, there are a whole raft of practical bits of provision that we need to hang onto and if necessary recreate together. We have a great tradition of community action together ”“ and the churches have by and large played their part well ”“ but did you know that nationally 60% of men born in 1946 were members of local organisations when they were in their 30s, but by 1970 that figure had dropped to just 8%? 2012 is surely the year to reverse that trend….Together we can get things done.

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All of us know what it is to wait: we wait for our football team to achieve the success we know they’re capable of; for the birth of a longed for child; for a much anticipated wedding day. We know what it’s like to wait with anxiety as well: results of medical tests; news of a job; our family finances. We are used to waiting.

Waiting for Christmas is also part of our faith journey. Advent points to two great truths. First it reminds us that we are waiting for the return of Jesus in glory at the end of time when He will come to gather up all things.

Read it all (p. 13 of pdf).

There’s a beautifully groomed Mary in a blue party dress, a fashionable Joseph gazing adoringly at the baby, and wise men carrying a Faberge egg, a crystal bottle of perfume and a decorated skull.

With only twelve days to go until Christmas, a church group unveiled a poster Thursday to remind people of the religious aspect of the holiday ”” while making a statement about modern-day extravagance.

The poster, deliberately designed to look like a fashion photograph, has the words: “However you dress it up, Christmas starts with Christ.”

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Christians are using the social-media site Twitter to re-tell the Christmas story in novel ways this year.

In Germany, a Twitter-user called Joseph von Nazareth is journalling the nativity story from the perspec­tive of Joseph. Describing himself as a “35-year-old third-generation car­penter from Nazareth”, he regularly updates the site with short descrip­tions from the Christmas story.

Read it all and check out the winning tweets in the Bishop of Bradford’s competition.

Dioceses will be better placed to meet financial challenges in 2012 after the Archbishops’ Council cut its request for funding next year by £0.5 million. The Council has decided to request the same overall level of funding for its work in 2012 as in 2011, rather than the 1.8 per cent increase approved by the General Synod in July.

Although dioceses have already set their 2012 budgets, the resulting saving of £0.5 million will help dioceses meet other financial challenges whilst enabling the Council to meet all the commitments made when its budget was approved by General Synod in July….

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The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and a Conservative MP have exchanged sharp words over a letter criticizing the government’s welfare reforms.

The member for Skipton and Ripon, Julian Smith, told the Ripon Gazette that Bishop John Packer was ignorant of economic reality and out of touch with ordinary people. Bishops should stay out of politics, Mr Smith said, and focus on topics with which they were familiar.

On 20 November 2011 the Observer printed a letter signed by Bishop Packer and 17 other bishops calling for amendments to the welfare reform bill before Parliament that would cut aid to families with children….

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The Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, initiated a debate in the House of Lords on Friday ( 9 December) on the situation of Christians in the Middle East.

The Archbishop was joined by around 80 peers, who stayed to listen to the whole debate with around 30 members discussing the situation facing the Christian population in the Middle East. The opening and closing remarks from the Archbishop can be found below along with contributions made by the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford, and the Rt Revd John Hind, Bishop of Chichester.

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Advent, the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas, is a shot-silk season. There is the purple of penitence and preparation. There are the great themes of the Last Things ”” death and judgment, Hell and Heaven; the ultimate choices and sharp reminders of the frailty of our human life. There is hope and longing for a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the coming of God’s kingdom of justice, righteousness and peace. As one Advent hymn puts it: “When comes the promised time, when war shall be no more, Oppression, lust and crime, shall flee thy face before?” We remember that the ancient confession of Christian faith, the Nicene Creed, ends with the words “we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” The word translated “look for” is not a casual glancing up, but is much more urgent ”” “we wait with longer expectation for”, scanning the horizon of history for God’s new and eternal life, and the new and just ordering of human society.

–The Right Rev. Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, in a recent [London] Times piece

The Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Revd Stephen Platten, today called on the international community to chart a new course of action in Afghanistan.

Bishop Stephen said:” It has taken us ten years to learn there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, but we appear no nearer to knowing what a just political settlement might look like, let alone how to achieve it. Next week’s international conference in Bonn offers an important opportunity, maybe our last opportunity before the withdrawal of troops in 2014, to chart a new course of action for Afghanistan and the region that is capable of securing a just and lasting peace. I’m encouraged that there is growing international acceptance, not least by our own Government, that this can only be done by including all those with a role in the conflict and representatives of all those with a legitimate interest in securing peace and reconciliation. Securing a sustainable political settlement in Afghanistan is important both for the well being of the Afghan people and for Britain’s long term security.”

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The Church of England is a parochial church. Whatever some ecclesiologists may say the heart of the Church of England, both legally and I believe effectively, lies in its parishes. The law is based far more on Churchwardens and PCCs than on diocesan boards or indeed bishops. Incumbents have very specific legal rights meant to ensure their independence of bishops, patrons and PCCs. This rightly preserves the duty of the incumbent to follow his or her conscience within the parameters of Canon Law and the Measures which spring from that. I know that Common Tenure is sometimes seen as challenging that, and most of us want to be paid, so there is a necessary relationship with the Diocesan Board of Finance, but both parish and incumbent retain their own rights and duties which are not subject to episcopal, diocesan or even archidiaconal behest.

So I believe that a diocese is the servant of parochial mission. The parish is responsible to and for its local community, so that there is a duty to take up the Christian care of everyone, and the proclaiming of the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone.

Nevertheless the diocese is more than a group of parishes who have got together for mutual support or defence.

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One thing above all stood out from Rowan Williams’s evidence yesterday evening to the Parliamentary committee looking at proposals to reform the House of Lords, and that is that the Church of England is very keen to maintain its peculiar historic privilege of having bishops in the legislature. Indeed, he and the church he leads see it as a vital part of their wider role in British society.

The present situation might be seen as anomalous, he conceded (albeit “a constructive anomaly”). There were no ecclesiastical representatives deputed from Scotland (where the Presbyterian church also has official status) or from Wales or Northern Ireland, where there are no established churches. In a multi-faith society the absence of automatic representation for other religions might also be seen as problematic. Williams wouldn’t object were some mechanism found for incorporating Jewish, Muslim or Hindu leaders, though he foresaw problems in identifying such leaders. But he didn’t seem to think of this as much as a priority, in any case, since the religious voice was so well represented already by himself and by his fellow Anglican prelates.

It’s at times like these that you realise the centrality of its legal establishment to the Church of England’s sense of itself.

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[The] Revd John Pritchard is far from your average man of the church. Whilst guiding his flock back here in Oxford, he’s caused national controversy with his calls for church reform, in the process becoming the ultimate bogey-man for CofE traditionalists. Yet to some he is a leading progressive voice in a church plagued with doubt about its place in the world, an institution which in the eyes of many is fast descending into irrelevance. So who is this robed reformer?Despite hailing from Salford in Manchester, under the shadow of the Manchester Utd spotlights, Bishop John was educated right here in Oxford. Rather then reading Theology at some obscure Private Hall, the younger Pritchard was in fact a somewhat run-of-the-mill lawyer at St Peter’s. Of course this was before he received his ”˜calling’. “While I was putting all my ideas in the melting pot” the Bishop recounted “I encountered a Christian faith that was intellectually credible and emotionally satisfying”. From then on it was a matter of taking the relevant qualifications, at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, eventually being ordained in 1972. Having successfully ascended the Anglican equivalent of the greasy pole, in 2007 he found himself returning to where it all began.

Bishop John sent shockwaves throughout the Anglican community when, in April 2011, he called for church schools to “serve the wider community”, arguing that they should reserve only one in ten places for church-going Christians….

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A move by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to soften the women-bishops legislation, rejected by the General Synod in July last year, might return to the Synod next February.

The Catholic Group in Synod said on Tuesday that it was likely that the Synod would be invited to debate in February a motion “calling on the House of Bishops to exercise its powers to amend the Measure in the manner of the amendment jointly proposed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York”.

The Archbishops’ amendment had sought to establish bishops accept­able to traditionalists whose auth­ority was derived from the legisla-tion ”” not delegated from the diocesan bishop, who might be a woman, as is proposed in the main Measure. Al­though it was defeated narrowly in the House of Clergy, it nevertheless achieved an overall majority.

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The Bishop of Sheffield has spoken out against an economic system “shaped by the ethics of greed and everyone for themselves”.

As the ”˜Occupy Sheffield’ protest continued on the forecourt of the Cathedral, the Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft said: “We may want to agree with the questions which are being raised whilst disagreeing with the methods of the protesters in raising them.”

Addressing the Sheffield Anglican Synod last Saturday, the Bishop said the Church’s voice needed to be heard as the economic crisis continues and deepens.

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The Bishop seems to be putting clear blue water between us Catholics and his own flock, perhaps more clearly than he intends. It is clearly wrong for Anglican clergy to use the Roman Missal, from both an Anglican point of view and from our point of view. But I would add this: the Roman Missal, especially in the new translation, reflects a very clear belief in the doctrine of transubstantiation which Anglicans do not hold. Therefore they should not use the Missal. Or if they do hold to the doctrine of transubstantiation, they should come into the Ordinariate.

“Three priests in the Diocese have taken this step. They have followed their consciences,” remarks the Bishop speaking of the Ordinariate. Is there a third way? It would seem not. Dr Chartres, while mentioning canon law and its obligations, nevertheless makes no threats: “There will be no persecution and no creation of ritual martyrs,” he says. But the appeal to conscience and indeed logic is clear in this powerfully argued letter. You cannot be an Anglican and use the Roman Missal. It is one or the other. On that all should agree.

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The Pope has recently issued an invitation to Anglicans to move into full communion with the See of Rome in the Ordinariate where it is possible to enjoy the “Anglican patrimony” as full members of the Roman Catholic Church. Three priests in the Diocese have taken this step. They have followed their consciences.

For those who remain there can be no logic in the claim to be offering the Eucharist in communion with the Roman Church which the adoption of the new rites would imply. In these rites there is not only a prayer for the Pope but the expression of a communion with him; a communion Pope Benedict XVI would certainly repudiate.

At the same time rather than building on the hard won convergence of liturgical texts, the new Roman rite varies considerably from its predecessor and thus from Common Worship as well. The rationale for the changes is that the revised texts represent a more faithful translation of the Latin originals and are a return to more traditional language.

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Their letter to the Observer begins this way:

The introduction of a cap on benefits, as suggested in the Welfare Reform Bill, could push some of the most vulnerable children in the country into severe poverty. While 70,000 adults are likely to be affected by the cap, the Children’s Society has found that it is going to cut support for an estimated 210,000 children, leaving as many as 80,000 homeless. The Church of England has a commitment and moral obligation to speak up for those who have no voice. As such, we feel compelled to speak for children who might be faced with severe poverty and potentially homelessness, as a result of the choices or circumstances of their parents. Such an impact is profoundly unjust.

Read the rest.

THE diocesan synods of Liverpool, Newcastle, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southwark, and York debated the draft legislation on women bishops on Saturday, and all six backed it in all three houses.

But York diocesan synod went on to carry a following motion: “This Synod calls upon the House of Bishops, in exercise of its powers under Standing Order 60(b), to amend the draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure in the manner proposed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York at the Revision Stage for the draft Measure.” This was carried by 62 to 24, with six abstentions.

In total, 42 out of the 44 dioceses have voted in favour of the legisla­tion. London and Chichester voted against…

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Diocesan Visiting Bishop for Anglican Communion Relationships, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali will be speaking in the Diocese[of South Carolina] on several occasions in the next few weeks.

He is preaching at Prince George Winyah, Georgetown on November 13….

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The Anglican Bishop of Chelmsford has set out his strategy for how the Essex diocese should look by 2025.

Bishop Stephen Cottrell unveiled his ‘Transforming Presence’ paper at a meeting of the diocesan synod.

He said the church had to face the prospect of fewer paid clergy, and parishioners needed be more evangelical and more open about their faith.

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Is there anything the Church can learn from the umma, the worldwide community of Muslims?
Yes. I mean, this is one of the reasons for dialogue. For instance, when I am talking to Muslims I am remind-ed very strongly of the biblical doctrine of the unity of God. Christians sometimes talk of the Trinity in a kind of trigger-happy fashion but, whatever else we may say about God, our starting-point must be that God is one.

Is there anything Christians can do to help the umma to rid itself of religious extremism?
Well, in a way it’s up to Muslims themselves, but yes, I think we can, for instance, in the context of dialogue, urge Muslims to say something about freedom of be­l­ief: freedom to express one’s beliefs, freedom to change one’s beliefs. In my dialogue with [the ancient Islamic university] al-Azhar al-Sharif, which I led for the An­glican Communion for many years, freedom was al­ways on the agenda. Just before he died, I did a joint lecture in Cairo with the sheikh of al-Azhar, Sheikh [Muh­am­mad] Tantawi, and he said that people are free in Egypt to believe whatever they like – it is not the business of the state and it’s not the business of religion. I think that is a very significant ad­vance. Similarly, the Grand Mufti of Egypt has issued a very progressive fatwa declaring that apostasy from Islam is not punishable in this life.

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The Church of England’s Diocese of Derby, which includes South Derbyshire, commissioned the 10-minute footage featuring ex-servicemen, Royal British Legion officials, parish clergy and the Bishop of Derby, the Right Reverend Dr Alastair Redfern.

In the video, now available to watch on www.derby.anglican.org, the bishop says: “As we approach Remembrance Sunday it’s very moving and exciting to see so many young people involved in the poppy collections and making an effort to remember.

“Derbyshire is strong in its uniformed organisations for young people and it’s very hopeful for our country that they are involved in this remembrance moment.

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On the day that the world reckoned the seven billionth person was born I was visiting the slums of Kibera, a large sprawling so called ”˜informal settlement’ close to the centre of Nairobi. Seeing the church’s presence in this place was humbling and inspiring. Meanwhile across Europe politicians gathered to throw the dice again, and try and find a way out of the spiralling economic whirlpool that is dragging the whole continent down, and is being measured by growing unemployment, disillusion and a vast and growing gulf between rich and poor.

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The four gospels stand magisterially at the head of the canon and the centre of early Christianity. They are remarkable documents. If they had been lost for centuries, and then dug up last year in the sands of Egypt, they would be hailed as among the most extraordinary writings from antiquity. Despite the occasional efforts to push them out of their central position and substitute other documents, whether actually existing (such as the wrongly named Gospel of Thomas) or reconstructed (such as the hypothetical document ”˜Q’), the majority of scholars still believe, rightly in my view, that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John deserve their place. The fact that they are well known should not blind us to their remarkable blend of page-turning narrative, vivid portraiture (especially of their central figure), historical verisimilitude and sophisticated theology.
And yet. Reversing what St Paul says about himself, the gospels, though well known at one level, are unknown at another. An oversimplification, of course; but I refer to the overall drift of gospel studies, and to the perception of the gospels in the church community to which biblical studies remains tangentially, and sometimes uncomfortably, related. Huge strides have been made, not least by my predecessor but one, Professor Richard Bauckham, both in his work on the wide intended readership of the gospels and in his award-winning book on the gospels and the eyewitnesses. If he is even half right ­”“ and I think he is at least that ”“ then all kinds of assumptions, including some of those blessed things they used to call ”˜the assured results of criticism’, will need to be torn up. But we need to go further still. Despite generations now of redaction criticism and narrative criticism, I am not convinced that the main message of the gospels has been grasped, let alone reflected in the methods employed for further study. And since I shall contend in this lecture that the four gospels stand at the centre of the missionary and hence theological life of the early church, a failure to understand their central thrust is most likely an index of a failure to grasp several other things as well about the life and work of the first Christians.

I am not being alarmist. Fine work in many directions has been done on the gospels, a generation ago by another predecessor, Matthew Black of blessed memory. And of course Robin Wilson, of more recent memory, contributed much to our understanding of the early Christian hinterland within which the gospels and their early reception must be understood. But there comes a time in every discipline to take a deep breath, stand back, and say, ”˜Well and good; but perhaps we’re still missing something.’ That’s when we need, not simply more attention to detail, vital and central though that remains, but precisely imagination: a willingness to think beyond the fence, to ask questions hitherto screened out. And, to complete the list of recent predecessors, Markus Bockmuehl in his short stay here published a remarkable book, Seeing the Word, offering an eloquent and wide-ranging plea for just such an imaginative leap, a reassessment of the tasks and methods of the whole discipline. That is the kind of exercise which I want to share with you this afternoon, with due gratitude both for the invitation to occupy this chair and for the warm welcome I have received in St Mary’s College and in the wider University community.

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Bishop Richard [Chartres], for his part, made clear that he was not about to issue detailed policy prescriptions for the world of finance: “The church doesn’t and shouldn’t claim ordination gives you a tremendously privileged insight into how to solve the euro-zone problems.” Asked whether that implied a difference between himself and his boss, Bishop Richard replied teasingly that he would study the Financial Times article with great respect, given its author’s credentials as a prominent European intellectual. As a proof of the two men’s continuing personal closeness, he cited their common interest in Russian Orthodox theology and culture””a topic on which the number of potential conversation partners is limited.

But despite the chaotic image it presented this week, the Church of England looks more likely to trundle on eccentrically than to break into establishment and anti-capitalist camps. Buildings like St Paul’s are part of the reason. No matter how compelling the demands of the poor and angry, which faction would ever agree to abandon the cathedrals?

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The structures of the Anglican Communion have continued to deteriorate since the 2008 Lambeth Conference. That same year, the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) took place in Jerusalem, which gave birth to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a global movement committed to the renewal and reformation of the Anglican Communion around a common confession (The Jerusalem Declaration). GAFCON was not just a moment; it is a movement. The purpose of the 2012 leadership conference will be to gather existing and emerging FCA leaders ”“ laity, clergy, theologians, youth, bishops, women and men ”“ to promote the ongoing renewal and reformation of the Anglican Communion. These leaders will truly represent this global movement of Anglicans all over the world. We hope and pray this will set the stage for a larger “GAFCON II” meeting to be held in 2013.

The American Anglican Council will be helping the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans develop this conference. We are committed to supporting this global movement of biblical Anglicans and to the renewal and reformation of the Anglican Communion around a common confession. Be sure to monitor our website and emails for more news on these exciting events.

Last night, there was a reception for supporters and those interested in the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Chairmen of the FCA, Eliud Wabukala, was present, along with the Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, Peter Jensen, the retired Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, as well as the former Bishop of Rochester, England, Michael Nazir-Ali.

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St Paul’s appeared today to try to wash its hands of responsibility for the enforcement action to evict the economic protesters camped outside the cathedral.

A spokesman for St Paul’s said that the cathedral was not taking joint action with the Corporation of London, which is expected to serve notices on the protesters today.

“The Chapter have not yet sought an injunction, nor are they serving notices on the protesters today,” the spokesman said.

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