Inclusive Church is deeply disturbed by the recent announcement of the Revision Committee. It has moved away from the expressed will of General Synod in July 2008 – that there should be legislation to consecrate women as bishops on the same terms as men with an additional code of practice containing arrangements for those who do not accept the authority of bishops who are women.

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SUPPORTERS of women bishops have expressed shock at a decision by the revision committee for the draft legislation not to go further down the route of a statutory code of practice. Traditionalists say that the change of direction proposed does not go far enough.

The General Synod voted in July 2008 for “special arrangements”, embodied in a statutory code of practice, to be drawn up by the legis­lative drafting group.

The Bishops supported the motion by 28 to 12; the Clergy by 124 to 44; and the Laity by 111 to 68 (News, 11 July 2008). The full Synod had its first consideration of the draft legislation last February, and voted to commit it to a revision com­mittee of the Synod.

The committee, chaired by the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, said in a statement last week that it had received nearly 300 submissions, including 100 from Synod members.

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Plans to consecrate women bishops in the Church of England have been delayed by at least four years in an attempt to avoid mass defections by opponents of women’s ordination.

Church legislators have backtracked on a decision made by the General Synod, the Church’s governing body, last year to consecrate women bishops with minimal concessions to opponents.

The Church will now be asked again to approve the plans for “super bishops”, which were rejected in July last year and which will create a new class of bishop, operating in traditionalist zones “untainted” by the spectre of women bishops.

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The unity of the Church of England is under threat once more after a key committee agreed to automatically remove certain powers from female bishops and give them to their male colleagues.

According to the amended law, this move would allow the male bishop to perform certain functions, such as communion and confirmation, in order to accommodate parishioners and clergy hostile to female bishops.

It follows heavy lobbying from those opposed to the concept of women bishops who have demanded special care in the event of their ordination, an event unlikely to occur before 2014.

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The Church of England has risked starting another damaging row over women bishops.

Leaders have promised revised Church laws to ensure that traditionalists will never have to be led by a woman if they do not want to be.

Last night’s announcement is seen as a move to appease those worshippers who will not accept female clerics.

But it is certain to anger liberals who believe it will mean women bishops being denied equal status with male prelates.

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The Church of England could restrict the powers of some women bishops under a plan designed to end a rift between traditionalists who want to keep the all-male senior clergy, and liberals demanding equality.

The proposal has reignited the long-running debate over a supposed ecclesiastical “stained-glass ceiling” that stops women from attaining the most senior roles in the church.

Along with homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages, the ordination of women is among the most divisive issues facing the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide.

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From here:

Forward in Faith regrets that a majority of the Revision Committee has not supported the proposal for new dioceses put forward by the Catholic Group in General Synod to make provision for those conscientiously opposed to the consecration of women as bishops. We continue to believe that new dioceses would be both a better and a fairer way forward for all in the Church of England.

Nevertheless, we believe that the Revision Committee’s proposal to make provision for the statutory transfer of jurisdiction to complementary bishops could be the basis for a way forward. However, we will need to evaluate the full details of the proposals carefully when they become available in order to assess them properly.

The Revision Committee established by the General Synod to consider the draft legislation on enabling women to become bishops in the Church of England today completed the first phase of its work. The Committee has further meetings planned between now and December and is aiming to complete its task by Christmas so that its report can be debated in full Synod in February and the draft legislation begin its Revision Stage in full Synod.

The Committee received nearly 300 submissions, including more than 100 from members of General Synod. Many of these offered alternatives to the proposal in the draft legislation to make provision by way of statutory code of practice for those unable on grounds of theological conviction to receive the episcopal and/or priestly ministry of women.

In the seven meetings that it has held so far, the Committee has considered each of these alternatives: additional dioceses; the vesting by statute of certain functions in bishops with a special responsibility for those with conscientious difficulties; the creation of a recognised society for those with conscientious difficulties; and the adoption of the simplest possible legislation without a statutory code of practice.

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An English diocesan bishop has publicly revealed an occasion when he railed against God and angrily asked him: “What do you think you’re doing?”

The candid disclosure comes from the Bishop of Bradford, the Rt Rev David James, in the October issue of the Bradford diocesan monthly.

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The Church of England could restrict the powers of some women bishops under a plan designed to end a rift between traditionalists who want to keep the all-male senior clergy, and liberals demanding equality.

The proposal has reignited the long-running debate over the “stained glass ceiling” that stops women from taking the most senior roles in the church.

Along with homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages, the ordination of women is among the most divisive issues facing the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide.

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Basing full membership of the Anglican Communion on compliance with the text of a covenant may send unintended messages about exclusion, Dr Peter Selby, the former Bishop of Worcester, said this week.

Speaking at the Inclusive Church conference, Dr Selby offered a detailed critique of Communion, Covenant, and our Anglican Future, the statement issued by Dr Rowan Williams after the recent General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States. (News, 31 July,)

Dr Selby said that both of the main arguments made in the Archbishop’s paper had a two-edged character. The requirement that, in order to be recognisable, Anglicans needed patterns and convictions such as those proposed in the Anglican Covenant, raised the fundamental biblical question “recognisable to whom?” Being recognisable to “the least of the brothers and sisters” (Matthew 25) mattered at least as much as being recognisable to other provinces, Dr Selby contended.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury introduced the new Bishop of Dover at Chalkpit Farm in Bekesborne, where Bishop Trevor outlined ways that the church and rural communities can successfully work together.

Commenting on Bishop Trevor’s appointment, Archbishop Rowan said: “I am very pleased indeed to welcome Bishop Trevor to the Diocese. He is an experienced pastor, with a powerful vision for the Church in contemporary society, and also a wise and reflective person who will bring great depth to our conversations and plans in Canterbury. I hope he and Margaret will be very happy here, and greatly look forward to our work together.”

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According to informants quoted in The Catholic Herald, the Queen has “grown increasingly sympathetic” to the Catholic Church over the years while being “appalled”, along with the Prince of Wales, at developments in the Church of England.

The usually well-informed newspaper adds that the Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the C of E, is “also said to have an affinity with the Holy Father, who is of her generation”.

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Apologies have been extended to people in the Anglican Diocese of Chelmsford in England who felt they were not consulted in process to choose the next bishop.

The acting diocesan bishop, the Bishop of Bradwell, Dr Laurie Green, sent out a letter saying: “We are really sorry that some people feel they have not had sufficient and time and warning to offer their submissions in the Vacancy in Sea process within our Diocese.”

The Rev John Richardson hosted a discussion on his blog about who the diocese should look for to follow the Rt Rev John Gladwin who retired at the end of August, after he became aware of a groundswell of dissatisfaction amongst members of the diocese who felt left consultation process.

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As Christians we are called to love God, follow the path of Christ and love our neighbour as ourselves. From these aspects of Christian vocation and witness we derive an ethic and practice of care for God’s creation and action for justice and peace in safeguarding the environment on which all depend, which belongs to God, and which is in our care as faithful stewards and servants of God.

As a Church we recognise the gravity of the ecological problems facing our world and the need to deal with them in ways that offer justice, hope and sustainable livelihood to the poor of the earth. We are committed in the spirit of the Christian faith to work with others, especially those of other faiths, for sustainable development ”“ development that brings justice and decent living standards to the poor and marginalised, that uses wisely the resources of the earth, that safeguards the richness of God’s good Earth for future generations.

With less than four months to go before the UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, in December 2009, this year’s Time for Creation provides an obvious occasion for the Church to join with others across Europe in prayerful reflection on those political decisions that need to be taken by governments to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation.

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The initial meeting between Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves of the Diocese of El Camino Real and Bishop Michael Perham of Gloucester, England, at the 2008 Lambeth Conference was an auspicious one. When a protester jumped up and called Bishop Gray-Reeves “a whore of the church,” Bishop Perham stepped in to help his new American acquaintance around the protesters and on to safety.

This frightening encounter brought together two parts of what has become a trio of bishops ”” the third is Bishop Gerard Mpango of the Western Tanganyika Diocese in Tanzania ”” who have linked up as companion dioceses. The combination of American, British and African dioceses is intentional. The three locations encompass three regions of discontent in the Anglican Communion. By meeting, talking and working together, the three bishops hope to show that people of different cultures, and these three cultures in particular, can maintain civil relations and look for answers to divisive issues.

“We want to hold together when the Communion is threatened,” Bishop Perham said.

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Yes, bishops have to learn to watch what they say (although preferably not all the time), and not shoot their mouths off publicly at every oppor­tunity. But there is a difference between being carefully prepared and believing that everything you say is going to be of earth-shattering importance.

“Bishop-itis” can get out of hand, and resemble what Clement Attlee once condemned in leaders as “the continual beating of the breast and airing of agonies in public”. This is what a fellow-bishop once described to me as “the high apophatic angst”, a dynamic that can ensure that discussions go round in circles, just in case a decision might be reached.

Bishops perhaps need to take themselves ”” and the Church ”” less seriously than they often do, because, in the end, it is God’s Church, not ours, and he is the one continually re-shaping it. Perhaps that is why bishoping is such a huge privilege, especially when assisted by good colleagues, as I have been.

For all the tight corners I have known in 14 years in post, I can still leave it profoundly thankful.

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The Anglican Bishop of Stafford has taken a bold swipe at ”˜little-England’ mentality and the far-right British National Party. In parish magazines, published across the diocese of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Gordon Mursell asked ”˜what does it mean to be British?’ He wrote: “Britain will never be great again if all we have to offer is xenophobia and dreams of a lost empire.”

He went on to say: “But it can indeed be great again if it signs up to the values of Jesus’ kingdom – a place where people are judged by where they’re going, not where they come from; a place where what matters is not borders but compassion and courage and commitment and dedication.”

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‘That’s it folks ”“ until the next Bishop.’

Those were the parting words from the retiring Bishop of Portsmouth as he said goodbye to a 300-strong congregation of worshippers.

The Rt Rev Dr Kenneth Stevenson’s final service at Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral was tinged with sadness, yet full of jubilant song and celebration.

The 59-year-old has called time after 14 years in the job following a four-year battle with leukaemia, which has seen him undergo two bone marrow transplants.

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The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali said that the rejection of Christian values is having a damaging effect on the country.

Speaking at his farewell service, he expressed particular concern at the breakdown of the family and at growing calls for the legalisation of assisted suicide.

Although he is stepping down as bishop, he vowed to continue to speak out on important issues and to fight for a return to Christian principles.

“I believe that the Christian faith is necessary for the life of our country,” he said.

“We need to get away from the constant making of moral decisions by opinion poll.

“We are facing a crisis about affirming the dignity of human purpose.

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Lord Carey paid this tribute during the service ( not verbatim):

“I want to express my thanks to Bishop Michael for his magnificent ministry as a Diocesan Bishop. But I want to focus on his national and international roles. Ask the average informed person in England which bishops they can name, and they will probably name two who come from outside these islands ”“ Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Rochester.

They have both touched a nerve with the British public. They ask questions from a much more critical perspective ”“ they are outspoken, brave and controversial. Michael speaks out of conviction and is not afraid to speak his mind. This has led him to receive his share of opprobrium and even death threats. He has also been outspoken in the House of Bishops. His clear mind undergirded by scholarship has also been a great resource to the General Synod. In the debates on Liturgy I asked Michael to guide us through the complex theological issues. Who can forget the magisterial debate he had with Professor Anthony Thiselton on the translation of the preposition ”˜ek. He was the first to identify problems and with him there was no pulling of punches.

His views on the damage done by The Episcopal Church in consecrating Gene Robinson as a bishop were applauded by many, including me. Though ignored by urban elites, he earned the right to be a critical friend of Islam. His contribution after 9/11 was invaluable when he put forward a number of ideas to open up dialogue with Muslim scholars. In 1988 ( for which Michael was study secretary) the Anglican Communion began to take dialogue with Islam seriously ”“ and in his new post following Lambeth as General Secretary of Church Mission Society he was best placed to do that. In his new post he reminded us that dialogue was not an end in itself ”“ and called for reciprocity and the freedom to change beliefs that are denied to so many Christians.

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“By plotting a graph of the expansion of the monasteries throughout the Middle Ages we might easily have concluded that nine-tenths of the British people were celibates today.” John V Taylor’s wisdom, in his prophetic, ecological gem Enough is Enough, is worth remembering concerning any future predictions, not least the growth of Islam in the west. None of us knows what is round the corner.

Another shrewd attitude towards the past and the future is that taken by Zhou Enlai, the Chinese prime minister who died in 1975. When asked how he assessed the French Revolution, replied, “It’s a little too early to judge.”

Are Anglican conservatives in the Anglican communion turning their attention away from issues of sexuality to the threat of Islam? From reading articles and comments and taking part in various private discussions, this seems to me too simplistic an analysis. Perceptions on both these subjects may interweave and are likely to feature in future comment and campaign.

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I believe firmly that the future health of any diocese lies in the vitality and imagination of the local parish or arena of ministry. Top-down strategies are sometimes helpful (Developing Servant Leadership, Academies) but are often self-defeating because energy resides at local level, and there is plenty of evidence in our diocese of prayerful planning of local mission. What senior leadership can offer, however, is a dynamic framework, not to control but to guide, release and encourage. Bishops can offer direction and undergirding values, and they can try to align resources to those strategic directions.

—The Rt Revd John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford

Only a Christ of the killing fields where the love of God was engraved in a like suffering can both judge and transform these appalling realities.

The Gospel accounts of the terrible torture of the Crucifixion of Jesus have at their heart, words spoken from the heart of that agony, a prayer for forgiveness for those who nailed Him to the rough wood; a longing thirst, both physical and spiritual; a commendation of His mother to his beloved Disciple; a promise of paradise to the penitent thief; a cry of dereliction ”” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and a commending of His spirit to His Father. “Therefore he who shows us God, helpless hangs upon the tree, and the very nails and spear, tell of what God’s love must be.”

In the Christ of that killing field we find a love reaching out to us that will never let us down and will never let us go.

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:: On upheaval in the Church

The Anglican Communion has grown a great deal in many parts of the world, such as Nigeria, Uganda, Singapore but obviously we’ve had negative developments.

I’ve always been a believer in principled comprehensiveness. The Anglican Communion and the Church of England are comprehensive ”“ they embrace people of different ideas like evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics and the principled bit is important.

There was a basic belief in doctrine and worship but the difficulty has been that that consensus has been overturned.

We now have people in the US for example, but not only there, who believe things about God, about salvation, about marriage and about human sexuality that seem to be another religion.

In a way it would be better to recognise it as something quite different because then we could relate to it in a more positive and constructive way.

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But …[Bishop Nazir-Ali] also said that the Church of England, which is used to working with society, should speak up more often to defend the country’s customs and institutions, most of which are based on Christian teaching.

“I think it will need to be more visible and take more of a stand on moral and spiritual issues,” the bishop said.

“What’s our basis for thinking that people are equal? It’s the Judeo-Christian tradition that has provided us with these resources and we will continue to need it.”

He said that the Church should defend the traditional two-parent family and Christian festivals, which are opposed not by followers of other faiths but by atheists who want to remove religion from the public square.

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Williams and Wright both acknowledge that progress is not being made in the controversy over homosexuality, but blame TEC for this failure. Williams writes: ‘a realistic assessment of what Convention has resolved does not suggest that it will repair the broken bridges into the life of other Anglican provinces… The repeated request for moratoria on the election of partnered gay clergy as bishops and on liturgical recognition of same-sex partnerships has clearly not found universal favour.’

Wright puts his case more bluntly and reveals his impatience: ‘the Communion is indeed already broken… the breach has already occurred. We are not, then, looking now at TEC choosing for the first time to “walk apart”, but at the recognition that they did so some time ago and have done nothing to indicate a willingness to rejoin the larger Communion’ (3).

Thus Wright declares with characteristic bluntness that authoritarianism which Williams shares but prefers not to advertise. Both insist there is an Anglican consensus that homosexuality is immoral, and on that basis blame the Americans for acting contrary to it. Outside the higher echelons of church bureaucracies this seems a bizarre claim: in normal English usage ‘consensus’ means ‘general agreement (of opinion, testimony, etc.)’ (Concise Oxford Dictionary) or ‘general or widespread agreement among all the members of a group’ (Encarta Dictionary). The current controversy is precisely about whether homosexuality is indeed immoral, and as long as debate continues nothing could be clearer than the fact that there is no consensus.

What Williams and Wright mean by ‘consensus’ is not in fact consensus at all; they make no attempt to appeal to a general agreement. They appeal instead to a few central authorities, chiefly Lambeth 1998, primates’ meetings and the Windsor Report, plus what they claim the church has always taught. Far from being consensus this is better described as ‘a principle, tenet or system’, or perhaps ‘a belief or set of beliefs that a religion holds to be true’. The word being defined here (Concise Oxford Dictionary and Encarta respectively) is ‘dogma’.

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Let me first say that one of my closest friends lost two of his closest friends in the Pan Am jet and I remember vividly the anguished phone calls as he dashed up to Lockerbie to help identify bodies and property. I am not about to minimize the horror and appalling criminality of the bombing.

I haven’t fully made up my mind about the release of the man convicted but I sense that the reaction in America may not fully understand how many people here see things.

What people in America may not realize is this.

1. There is a widespread opinion in the UK that the man in question was put up as a fall guy for various reasons and actually had nothing to do with the Pan Am flight. This opinion is not based on hearsay or guesswork but on the continued strong representations which have been made from various quarters about evidence that wasn’t presented, and about various factors which led up to the finger being pointed at Libya rather than, say, Syria or other sources of terrorism. I know the decision to send the man home wasn’t based on a retrial or the consideration of such evidence, but we have had that put forward by serious reporters over quite a long time, creating a climate in which many, perhaps the majority in the UK, really do believe that the conviction was, at best, not proven. There was quite a shrewd article in our of our papers today saying that the real shame about his sending back is that there should have been a retrial with the new evidence and he might have been cleared.

2. Many people in the UK see the reaction in the U.S. as being typical U.S. anti-Arab and particularly anti-Libya reaction. Because we are conditioned to be a bit worried about U.S. knee-jerk pro-Israel attitudes we tend to distance ourselves from that kind of position….

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Terry Mattingly, for years an acute observer of the Anglican scene as founder of the popular religion blog Getreligion.org, and a religion columnist for Scripps Howard says, “I expect some of the old-school Anglo-Catholics to pack up and go to Rome, period.” But if Benedict were to sweeten the pot by allowing an Anglican Rite Church in England, “that’s gotta be huge.” And when Mattingly says “huge,” he doesn’t just mean for the Anglo-Catholics. Rather, he believes that an exodus of that size could affect the worldwide Communion after all, by giving other dissidents, with entirely different grievances, a model with which to unravel the fabric of Anglicanism.

Mattingly points out that more so than in other religious groupings, one of the things that holds the Anglican Communion together is the simple belief that the Anglican Communion must hold together. The case can be made that a dutiful sense of global unity, represented by four “instruments” ”” including the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams ”” is stronger than any Anglican doctrinal agreement. Mattingly suggests that the departure of 1,300 priests and bishops from the English mother church could act as a kind of spell-breaking moment, the first time during the Communion’s current round of troubles when a significant number of Anglicans “are saying, ‘I’m no longer in communion with Canterbury.'”

Such a defection, as it played out in terms of theology, finances and British law, would be a kind of seminar for all possible schismatics on how to break with the Communion, without the world ending. Other dissidents might then feel freer to go their own way.

And it could happen a good deal sooner than almost any other version of schism, primarily because it would take the key decision out of the hands of the Anglicans, who, as Mattingly puts it, “have a special knack for not making decisions.” Rome, he notes, “doesn’t usually act fast, either. But Rome ”” and especially, it seems to me, Benedict ”” has a knack for acting with clarity more than Anglicanism.”

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One interpretation of the global economic crisis is that it marks an important moment in the shift of power from the US to China. In his new book When China Rules the World (Penguin, £30.00) Martin Jacques argues that the fact that China is such a huge creditor and the US such a colossal debtor ”˜reflects a deep shift in the economic balance of power between the two countries’. He sees China seeking to establish a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar and pushing to create an alternative to the IMF, a body in which China participates but which it has criticised in the past.

Jacques makes a case for seeing the rise of China as making a major break in world history. China, he claims, is not so much a nation as a civilisation. We must stop fooling ourselves that as China grows in wealth and military strength it will become more like us. Instead it will offer the world an alternative to the hitherto dominant Western culture. Confucian values and a Chinese model of capitalism will become increasingly important as countries in Asia and Africa turn their backs on the US and Europe. Jacques is not alone in predicting China’s rise in economic and military might. Goldman Sachs has suggested China is set to equal the US economy by 2027. But Jacques goes beyond many other commentators in stressing that China will be different. It will not join the existing club and play by the rules: it will insist that some of the rules be changed.

There are grounds for caution. Even China’s high rate of savings and American indebtedness are not as straightforward as they seen. People in China save because they cannot depend upon social security to care for them in sickness or old age. Because they save such a large proportion of their incomes, domestic consumption cannot support Chinese industries which depend on international markets in the US and elsewhere to sell their products. China is worried about the size of its dollar holding but it will not be easy to reduce this without triggering a fall in the dollar’s value. One thing can be said for certain. The transfer of funds from China overseas helped to precipitate a disastrous expansion of credit in the US and Europe that triggered the economic crisis. In that sense, we are all paying the price of China’s rise.

Long-term a number of factors could slow China’s economic growth. Its population is set to increase only slightly over the next 20 years and then start to decline because of the one-child policy. At the same time America’s population will grow because of its birth rate and immigration. One Harvard economist has predicted that by 2030 America’s share of the world economy will have declined only slightly from 28 per cent to 26 per cent while China’s share will have risen from 5 per cent to 14 per cent. As long as China continues to impose censorship and restrict internet use, it is hard to see genuine creativity of the kind that stimulates economic advance flourishing. China’s universities are expanding but they are less impressive than they seem. Large numbers of engineers graduate every year but a McKinsey survey of resource managers in international companies found that only 10 per cent of Chinese engineering graduates were considered employable.

The absence of democratic controls and a free press makes it harder for China to combat corruption. It also means that people are forced to protest to make their voices heard. Low-level protests are taking place all the time across China and any one could easily escalate into a mass movement that would destabilise the regime. The Han Chinese may consider themselves heir to a great civilisation but this pride is not shared by China’s large population of ethnic minorities, most of whom would like to see genuine autonomy for their regions rather than the sham offered at present. It is not only Tibet that is seething with discontent. Xinjiang comprises about 20 per cent of China’s land mass. It was only incorporated into the country in the 18th century and the Muslim Uighurs make up 45 per cent of the population. Long-term discontent flared up in riots in July in which nearly 200 people died.

The breakdown of stability in China would be harmful to all of us. The best hope for China is that is continues to build on its past traditions by introducing democratic reforms and by offering a greater degree of autonomy to disaffected minority groups. One of the most alarming aspects of the Chinese as described by Martin Jacques and other observers is their sense of superiority to everyone else, an attitude with a strong racist component. It will not help in their relations with Africa and the rest of the world.

The same attitude was present in the old European colonial powers but it was tempered by Christian teaching. Christianity is spreading rapidly in China. It remains to be seen how much influence this is going to have on the course of development. It is one of a number of factors that render China’s future unclear.

–(The Rt. Rev.) Paul Richardson is the assistant Bishop of Newcastle. This article appears in the Church of England Newspaper, August 21, 2009 edition, on page 16