Category : CoE Bishops

Telegraph: The 50 most influential figures in the Anglican Church

These are the 50 names who will play a key role in this historic period in the life of the Anglican communion, many of whom will feature prominently at this summer’s conference, which happens only once every 10 years and has never been so eagerly anticipated.

The panel [who selected the 50 names] includes: the Rt Rev Nicholas Baines, Bishop of Croydon; Giles Fraser, vicar of Putney; Rachel Boulding, deputy editor, Church Times; Jim Naughton, communications officer for the Diocese of Washington; the Rev Canon Dr Jane Shaw, Fellow and Dean of Divinity of New College, Oxford; Andrew Carey, columnist, Church of England Newspaper.

Check out the list and see what you make of itl.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Anglican Provinces, Archbishop of Canterbury, Blogging & the Internet, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Episcopal Church (TEC), Presiding Bishop, TEC Bishops

Four Important Audio Segments from BBC Radio Four's Sunday Programme Yesterday

The first starts about 45 second in and is on the recent vote of General Synod, it includes comments from David Banting and David Holding.

The second starts just past 29 minutes in and has Trevor Barnes having a conversation with women bishops Victoria Matthews, Kate Waynick, Geralyn Wolf, and Sue Moxley.

The third starts about 34 1/2 minutes in and is a conversation with Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales.

The fourth starts a little past 38 1/2 minutes in and is a conversation with the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham

Start listening by clicking here.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Religion News & Commentary, - Anglican: Latest News, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), Church of Wales, CoE Bishops, Other Churches, Roman Catholic, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

Message from the Bishop of Richborough to congregations following the General Synod Vote

You will know the results of the debate and vote on the admission of women to the episcopate which took place at the General Synod meeting in York last Monday. Those who are, for theological reasons, opposed to the ordination of women as priests and bishops have consistently asked for the creation of a structure in the Church within which we could worship with integrity and our parishes would be able to flourish. Despite strong support from both the Archbishops of Canterbury and York this has been resolutely denied. The Synod voted to move forward with legislation to allow women to be consecrated to the episcopate with a ”˜Code of Practice’ to deal with those who cannot accept this break with 2000 years of tradition. We have always said that such a code would not provide us with what we need. It could not provide a framework for any long term future where congregations could gather round a bishop whose orders were assured nor one within which we could encourage men to hear God’s call to priestly ministry. It would simply allow us to avail ourselves of a male bishop when he was needed for a liturgical celebration and would be little more than a form of pastoral care until our understanding of Holy Orders had died out or been forced out of the Church. The present Act of Synod will be rescinded together with the opportunity of passing resolutions A and B. In short it would no longer be legitimate to hold the view that women cannot be priests and bishops in the Church of England. Strangely it will continue to be a Church where you can dissent from articles of the Creed. I could not serve as a bishop in such a Church with any integrity.

Read it all

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

The Bishop of Durham's Ad Clerum on General Synod

The same goes, of course, for Lambeth. As I write, the bishops we are hosting in this diocese are arriving and being welcomed. I do hope that all who can do so will give them a great sense of how special they are and how privileged we are to meet them. They come from vastly different places ”“ imagine the contrasts between the Yukon and Lesotho, between Texas and Tanzania, between Australia and Chile! ”“ but are all leaders and shepherds of God’s people in challenging times. Please pray for and with them and let them know that you will be continuing to pray in the next three weeks.

We none of us know ”˜how Lambeth will work out’. There are huge issues on the table, as we all know. The unity of God’s people is massively important in the New Testament, far more so than the western church has often realised. But it is never ”˜unity at any price’. The ideal of Anglican comprehensiveness has meant seriously different things at different times and places; I hope we won’t be bombarded with people suggesting that Richard Hooker and the Elizabethan church believed that ”˜anything goes’. Why would they have taken so much trouble over the Articles and the Prayer Book? It isn’t enough to say, with any new proposal on any topic, ”˜we Anglicans are called to live with difference’. The question is, as I have said a thousand times, how do we tell the difference between the differences we can live with and the differences we can’t live with? The quest for an authentically biblical and Anglican comprehensiveness that will take us forward into this new century in worship, mission and ministry is what the Windsor Report and the Covenant Proposals are all about, and those are the markers that Archbishop Rowan has said, several times, must pave the way ahead.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

Florida Catholic: Traditional Anglicans may join Catholic Church

Bishop Burnham predicted there would be defections among Anglo”“Catholic clergy and laity because of the July 7 ruling by the General Synod of the Church of England, the mother church of the Anglican Communion, to move ahead with plans to allow the ordination of women bishops. Anglo”“Catholics are those whose customs and practices within Anglicanism emphasize continuity with Catholic tradition.

The bishop recently traveled to Rome to discuss the reception of large numbers of dissenting Anglican traditionalists with Cardinal William J. Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

He was joined by Anglican Bishop Keith Newton of Richborough, England, also a flying bishop of the Canterbury Archdiocese.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Religion News & Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Other Churches, Roman Catholic

Bishop Andrew Burnham: ”˜Anglo-Catholics must now decide’

…the decision of the Church of England to proceed to the ordination of women bishops without providing adequately for traditionalists renders the claims of the Church of England to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church shaky or simply untenable.

Codes of practice are shifting sands. The sacramental life of the Church must be built on rock.

How could we trust a code of practice to deliver a workable ecclesiology if every suggestion we have made for our inclusion has been turned down flat?

How could we trust a code of practice when those who are offering it include those who have done most to undermine and seek to revoke the code of practice in force for these last 14 years?

The synodical process for traditional Anglo-Catholics is over. Some will try to draw new lines in the sand. But what the General Synod of the Church of England demonstrated on 7/7 (2008) is that, as on 11/11 (1992), it has decided that it is unilaterally competent to alter Holy Order. At one stage in the late 1990s it even had a go at changing the Creed. Here at work is a democratic Magisterium which at York this week showed that it values the advice of archbishops and bishops’ prolocutors less than it does the outcome of a show of hands.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

A Pastoral Letter from the Bishop of London in regard to recent and coming Events

You will be aware by now that the General Synod has voted for the legislative process to begin which will open the way to the consecration of women bishops, possibly as early as 2012. The majorities for this change were substantial in all three houses of bishops, clergy and laity. For many this will be a cause for rejoicing. As Paul says in Romans XII: 15, we are to “rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep”. The question remains of how to honour the promises made when women were ordained to the priesthood that those who could not accept the decision of General Synod as one authorised by scripture and tradition would continue to have a secure and honoured place in the life of our church. It was clear from the debate on Monday that there are profound doubts about whether a national code of practice could provide such a “secure and honoured place”.

I believe that the London Plan has provided a secure framework within which we have not only been able to live together in one church for more than ten years but we have been able in unity to address the agenda which God has put before us as a Christian community called to serve him at the beginning of the 21st century.

Read the whole thing.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

Jane Hedges: Women bishops shouldn't scare the Synod

“Church in crisis over women priests.” This is the kind of headline that was appearing in the press 30 years ago when the general synod of the Church of England began to debate the ordination of women.

I was at that time training at theological college, along with a small number of other women. Like most of them I was a theology graduate studying an identical course to the male ordinands.

However, at the end of the training I knew I would be a deaconess, unable like the male deacons to progress to the priesthood. I would have to live with the frustration which lay ahead, because, unable to preside at the eucharist or pronounce absolution, my options in terms of appointments would be very limited.

How things have changed.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

Damian Thompson: Bishops plan conversion to Rome

I’m glad that Jonathan Wynne-Jones has respected the anonymity of the bishops in question. We at the Catholic Herald have known for some time about these historic negotiations. I pray that they succeed.

What one of the bishops has made clear to us is that they are worried that the liberal English Catholic hierarchy will throw a spanner in the works. Yet I infer from Jonathan’s report that the most liberal of all the bishops, Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, is apparently prepared to countenance Anglican converts retaining some elements of their tradition. Has he had his arm twisted?

The attitude of Pope Benedict is crucial. He is very well aware that, in the years 1992 to 1994, the Bishops of England and Wales put pressure on Cardinal Hume to resist any concessions to Anglicans wishing to convert en masse.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Religion News & Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Other Churches, Roman Catholic

London Times: Church of England faces ruin over women bishops

The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, who chaired the group that drew up the proposals for women bishops, warned of the “dangers” of further delay. He said: “The moment for making choices has come.”

He said the Church should be clear about the consequences of going ahead, which he admitted “would represent a very significant new direction and the withdrawal of assurances offered 15 years ago.”

He also admitted the Church’s tendency to muddle through. “We remain perplexed over how to distinguish between good muddle and bad muddle. When does principled pragmatism and a generosity of spirit topple over into theological incoherence and the loss of any clear guiding principles?”

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

An Open Letter on Women in the Episcopate from the Bishop of Guilford

My dilemma, as your diocesan bishop – as one who has worked with this question ecumenically and within the Anglican Communion and the Church of England since 1975 ”“ is that if the answer to the two questions posed by the Manchester Group (should we have diversity of theological view on women’s ordination and should there consequently be special arrangements for those who dissent) is ”˜yes,. I do not believe that just a Code of Practice would enable this to happen. In which case, the question arises as to why we should be offering a discriminatory Code of Practice when it is known, in advance, with some certainty, that this will not provide a distinct enough space for those who cannot accept this development within the Church of England. I do not think that the circle can be squared ”“ or certainly not in this way, and I have worked as Vice Chairman of the Rochester Commission for a number of years and then with the Guildford Group and then with the Bishop of Gloucester on precisely trying to see whether there is an acceptable way forward. My own conviction (at least prior to the General Synod Debate) is that if we do not wish to say ”˜goodbye, it really is time for you to go’ to those who are against, some sort of structural provision will need to be provided in a way which least damages the nature of the Church and least impinges on the general recognition of women’s ministry, including Episcopal ministry.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

Southwark Bishop lashes Fellow Anglicans

Dr Butler, head of the Anglican community in the boroughs of Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich, said: “Those attending the GAFCon make claims concerning the Anglican Communion which are frankly not supportable.

“It would seem that some of the authors of the statement from the conference and the founders of the new organisation are coming to Britain to recruit from amongst our parishes and clergy.

“I will be very surprised if many from Southwark Diocese rush to join them as it was only a couple of years ago that some of our good, hardworking, thoughtful evangelical clergy asked me to take action against other, more militant, evangelicals who were planting congregations in their parishes.

“What is proposed goes against the spirit of Anglicanism and Archbishop Dr Williams is right to challenge them to think carefully before going on down this path.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates

A BBC Northern Ireland Sunday Sequence Audio Interview with Bishop Wallace Benn

Topics covered included both the GAFCON gathering and the Lambeth Conference–listen to it all (about 8 and 1/2 minutes).

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates, Lambeth 2008

The Bishop of Durham responds to GAFCON

What’s more, it is enormously exciting to live at a time when new leadership is arising from places completely outside the north Atlantic axis. Africa was one of the great cradles of early Christianity, producing such towering minds as Tertullian and Augustine. Most of us have long ago moved away from any idea that Christianity, or even Anglicanism, somehow ”˜belongs’ to England or northern Europe. In my own diocese we love our link with Lesotho, and always find that visits from our friends there bring new energy and joy to our parishes and schools. Just as you don’t have to go to Jerusalem to meet Jesus ”“ he is alive and present to heal and save in every place! ”“ so it’s obvious that you don’t have to go to Canterbury to be part of the Anglican family. However, as I know, going to Jerusalem can help. Pilgrimage can add a new dimension to our awareness of who Jesus was and is; it has done that for me, as it clearly has done for those attending GAFCON. Likewise, the historic link with Canterbury is not to be dismissed. Cutting your links with the past can be like cutting off the roots of a tree. Reconnecting with our roots ”“ and, where necessary, refreshing and cleaning them ”“ is always better than pretending we don’t need them. But what matters is of course the fruit. Here in my diocese, as in so many in England, we are refreshing our roots and seeing real fruit; but we don’t imagine we are self-sufficient. On the contrary, we know we have a great deal to learn from brothers and sisters in many other parts of the world, Africa included. I would have hoped, actually, that all this would now go without saying: that we have long moved beyond the sterile stand-off between ”˜colonialism’ and ”˜post-colonialism’. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s what matters.

I and my colleagues in this diocese, like so many others, share exactly in the sense that we are a fellowship ”˜confessing the faith of Christ crucified, standing firm for the gospel in the global and Anglican context’, sharing too the goal ”˜to reform, heal and revitalise the Anglican Communion and expand its mission to the world’ and ”˜to give clear and certain witness to Jesus Christ’. For this reason, I know that the GAFCON leaders can’t have intended to imply (as a ”˜suspicious’ reading of their text might suggest) that they are the only ones who really believe all this, that they and they alone care about such things. The rest of us, no doubt ”“ including several of us who were not invited to GAFCON ”“ are eager to share in any fresh movements of the Spirit that are going ahead. And as we do so I know that the GAFCON leaders would want us to express the various questions that naturally come to mind as we contemplate what they have said to us. Just as they wouldn’t want anyone to swallow uncritically the latest pronouncement from Canterbury or New York, so clearly they wouldn’t want us merely to glance at their document, see that it’s ”˜all about the gospel’, and then conclude that we must sign up without thinking through what’s being said and why. It is in that spirit that I raise certain questions which seem to me important precisely because of our shared goals (the advancement of the gospel), our shared context (the enormous challenges of contemporary society and of a church often muddled in theology and ethics and lacking the structures to cope), and our shared heritage (the Anglican tradition with its Articles, Prayer Books and historic roots).

Central to these questions is the puzzle about the new proposed structure. I am sure the GAFCON organisers are as horrified as I am to see today’s headlines about ”˜a new church’. That doesn’t seem to be what they intended.

Read it carefully and read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates

Cranmer Blog: GAFCON, Lambeth, and the Bishop of Rochester

If Windsor stands as the last agreed position within the Communion, then the attendance of those to whom these calming appeals were directed would seem to represent a deliberate and provocative rejection of that wisdom. Their invitation, participation and warm welcome are indeed significant.

The setting aside of the Windsor approach which is implicit in the silence of the Archbishop of Canterbury is equally telling. Doing nothing about the attendance of those who have placed, and continue to place, the Communion in this difficult position is not a neutral stance. The Communion needed time and space and Windsor offered that opportunity. The American and Canadian churches could have adopted a self-denying Ordinance. But their rejection of the temperate is an embrace of the contentious, and they damage the Church in the process.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali may be forgiven if he worries about the ability of the Communion to hold fast to its historic texts when it cannot sustain adherence to one of its own documents for a few short years.

His isolation is shameful, and his voice must not be lost to the Communion.

Read it all (but please note that it is possible (probable?) that other Church of England Bishops besides the bishop of Rochester will not be present at Lambeth 2008.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates

The full Transcript of Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's GAFCON Talk

(Please note that this was produced by the voluntary hard work of blog reader zana who blogs here. We are incredibly grateful to her for her efforts since not everyone has been able to listen to the full audio posted earlier–KSH).

Thank you very much this is a very fine welcome and I haven’t even said anything yet! It’s amazing what impact you can make without saying anything. I’ve been on the front pages of the press in Britain without having said anything so we’ll see what happens as a result of saying something.

Well, it is a great privilege to me to be part of this miracle of GAFCON. It really is a miracle ”“ how many people have tried to prevent it but it has not been prevented because it is part of God’s purposes for our Church. And it is about those purposes that I wish to speak this afternoon – the nature and the future of the Anglican Communion. And indeed the one belongs to the other. The future of the AC is to be found in its authentic nature, not recently invented innovations and explanations but what actually belongs to the Church as we have always known it. So let us first think about the Church and the churches. The NT speaks of the church as you know in many different ways. There is the church of the household of Prisca and Aquilla, Nypha, and Lydia, how many women there have you noticed? Of the church at Troaz – the church of the household – and of course we know that the household in NT times was not the nuclear family of the west. It was rather like the family that many of us know ”“ of extended servants and employees and all sorts of other hangers on. The church of the household. And that is very important in the NT. It is the church of those who are in some way like one another. It has to do with likeness. But then of course there is another way in which the New Testament speaks of church and that is of the church in a particular city or town – Ephesus, or Corinth or Rome, Or Antioch or Jerusalem. This is where people who are different from one another, unlike one another, come together. So if you read the instruction about the supper of the Lord in 1 Corinthians 11, or indeed about the Christian assembly in James 2, it is about the rich and the poor, the old and the young. In Galatians 3 it is men and women, Jew and Gentile, all having to come together and to get on with one another in the service of the Lord. The church of the household, the church in a particular city or town, the church in an area. How much of the New Testamant is addressed to the church in a particular area? Whether it’s Galatia, or Asia or the churches in Judea or Macedonia, wherever it may be. And then, brothers and sisters, there’s the worldwide church of God which is described by St. Paul in the letter to the Galatians as “Jerusalem our mother that is above”. The worldwide church from which, of course, all our churches derive and to which we have to remain faithful and, of course, all our churches also make up that worldwide church of God throughout the ages and everywhere in the world.

Now what, you say, has this to do with Anglicans?
Well at the Anglican reformation the church was expressed in two main ways. There was the parish church which had a responsibility for everyone in the community. So the church was incarnate in every community, in every community, and then there was the idea of a national church. At that time Western Europe was coming to a sense of people being in nation states and so it was natural that the life of the church should also be expressed as a national church. What about the church of the household? Well, perhaps it survived in the family: family prayers, being Christian in the family. And Helen Brown has rightly said, I think, that the demise of Christianity as a public religion in Britain dates from the time when it ceased to be passed on in the family, from the parents. Don’t blame anyone else. Of course, the national church reflects to some extent a provincial idea already found in germ in the New Testament in the churches addressed to a particular region but so much promoted by the churches of Africa by Cyprian himself in his relationship with Rome and with other churches. The universal idea of the church as being a universal reality certainly suffered at the reformation. We have to be frank about this and we have to admit it. But it survived in three main ways, firstly in the appeal to scripture. That is to say for every church to derive its authenticity needs to appeal to scripture as the final authority. Secondly, it survived in the universal appeal to antiquity. The Church of England was not doing anything new but was simply continuing with the ancient church of the fathers and the councils. And thirdly, of course, it survived in the hope of a general council which might gather together to settle differences among Christians.

We are faced with a changing situation where people want to be churched with those who are like them. We find this in Africa, with people wanting to be churched in the context of their own tribes. We find it in Asia, and now we find it with the affinity model churches, the network churches for instance or the virtual churches in the north. And that will no doubt spread to the south as well. I used to be quite hostile to people wanting to be churched with others who are like them. Because it could encourage caste based churches it could encourage people from one religious background to become Christian who want to stick with one another. But having looked at the church of the household and the idea that it is possible for people who are like one another to be churched has led me to modify my views a little. And I now feel that it is permissible for people to be churches in this sort of way, networked in terms of their profession of their leisure or where they live or whatever else you can think of.

But there is one condition, and that is that it is not the only way to be churched. If you want to be churched with those who are like you then you also have to be churched with those who are unlike you. You have to maintain that tension which is found in the New Testament. The emergence under God of the Anglican Communion as a fellowship of churches has been raised again for us now, in a very sharp way, the question of universality. How do we make the universal church an effective fellowship of believers and of churches? And as you know historically the various instruments have developed to do this: the Lambeth Conference, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primates meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council. But in the crisis that is facing us at this time we have found these not to be enough because they were based on good manners. And we have found that in our world, English good manners are simply not enough. So we have to find another way while, of course, respecting the need for good manners. I will come back to that in a moment. So we have the church and the churches if you would like to keep that in your mind, and then secondly, communication and culture. We have here among us professor Lamingsani – I could see him for a moment but now he’s disappeared from view – who is the greatest authority on the relationship between the communication of the gospel and culture in our generation, I think. And his work on the translatability of the gospel, work that he did first, on reflecting the translation of the bible in African languages and the impact that translation had on African society, an impact which those that actually did the translation could not have foreseen. But he has pointed out that the question about translatability is not just about the translation of the bible into different languages, valuable as that is, but it has to do with the nature of the Christian faith itself. That is to say that the good news of Jesus Christ is intrinsically translatable from one culture to another. And he points out that even the fact that the New Testament was first written in Greek and not in the Aramaic or the Hebrew of Jesus’ time is itself a fact of translation. You begin with translation. And as you know it was not for another 100 years or so that the New Testament was translated back into Syria or Aramaic. This is in contrast, of course, compared with another worldwide religion like Islam. Islam is also universal, of course, you’ll find it in many different parts of the world. But wherever you go, and whatever the local manifestations there is a certain Arabic-ness about the Koran, about the prayer and about the call to prayer, which cannot be translated. But the gospel can be and has been throughout the ages.

Pope Benedict in his very important address at Regensburg which of course drew attention because of what he had said about the relationship between Christians and Muslims also in this lecture he addressed the question of the relationship between gospel and culture, perhaps a more important aspect of the lecture. In this lecture Pope Benedict tells us that there was a providential encounter between the gospel and Hellenistic culture which provided the church the vocabulary to engage with the Hellenistic world. And he refers to the vision that St. Paul received of people calling him to Macedonia, of the vocation to Europe therefore as one aspect of this providential encounter. I doubt personally whether Acts 16 would bear the sort of weight that he puts on it. But we can agree that the encounter was providential. But at the same time there were many other encounters going on.

I have for long been interested in the story of the church in the Persian Empire, the other great superpower to Rome at that time. It’s a very similar history brothers and sisters. Armenia was the first country, the first nation to call itself Christian. Ethiopia became a huge Christian empire about the time of the rise of Islam. And no one can accuse the Ethiopian church of Hellenism. So there have been all these providential encounters and we thank God for them and we have to ask what lessons we can learn from them for ourselves today. When we consider the Anglican situation, the translation of the bible by William Tyndale into English is a landmark not only in the story of the English church but in the English nation and of the English language. It is impossible to think of a Shakespeare or a Milton or a Donne without a Tyndale. And the translation, the rendering into the vernacular of the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, of worship in a language that is understood by the people is all part of the process of translation. This is wealth that we cannot easily give up. And translation belongs to the very nature of Anglicanism.

In the preface to the Book of Common Prayer, in the Articles of Religion, every church has the responsibility to render the Good News in terms of its culture. There is, of course, a downside to this and that is that it is possible for the gospel to become so identified with a particular culture that it becomes captive to it. And Anglicanism has been exposed to this danger, capitulation to culture, from the very beginning. And wherever we are, in whatever culture we find ourselves we must be aware of this danger of captivity and capitulation. The other thing, of course, to note is our founding documents may speak of relating the gospel to culture when in fact we have often failed to do so. And so Anglican Christian churches have not been able to look African or Asian or South American as often as they should. But that brings me then to the question of constancy and change. What is it in this situation of flux that must remain constant? It is to my mind the passing on and the receiving and the passing on again of the apostolic teaching. That is how the church lives and that is how the church derives its strength; that is how the church grows. Now of course in every culture, in every age, people notice things in that apostolic teaching which others have not noticed or which we have forgotten, or neglected, and so that aspect of that apostolic teaching can be recovered. It is also true, and Archbishop Orombi was kind to point out that I had worked with worked with the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, and I sense the truth of this very much at that time. It is also true that the church is faced with new knowledge, and how do you relate the unchanging apostolic teaching to new knowledge? We now know far more about the early embryo, for instance, than people did even 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago, and so we must have a healthy view of relating this apostolic view to change; there must be the possibility of development in terms of our doctrine. However, what I would want to say is that this development has to be principled. As John Henry Neumann pointed out in his thinking on this issue any development of this kind must have a conservative action on the past. It must conserve the vigor of the gospel, it must represent a continuity of principles, it must provide a basis for change that is not simply laxity and giving in. When any question arises as to whether something is an authentic experience of the apostolic teaching or not in such changing circumstances then you have to test it against the Bible. Because the Bible is the norm by which we appreciate what is authentic apostolic teaching. That is the reason for the Bible being the ultimate final authority for us in our faith and our lives and this is, of course, the reason Anglicans have taken the study of the Bible so seriously.

We study something because we regard it as important, not because we regard it as unimportant. In the study again there are a number of aspects to it, to which I want to draw your attention. The first is the study of what lies behind the text. Why was a particular text put together? What were the purposes of those who were writing it? What were the oral traditions that lay behind it? We are all used to studying the bible in that way. What is behind the text, what is in the text, a careful study of the grammar, of the literal value of the bible, and then of course what is in front of the text. How we relate the bible to our circumstances our culture, our context, our situation. This process of enculturation must go on of course but there are two important things to be said about it. First of all there are limits to this process. They can’t just take place anyhow. And the limits have to do first of all with the nature of the gospel itself. Whatever the process of enculturation does or does not do, it cannot compromise how God has revealed his purposes to us, how Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, what he has done, who he is, all of that cannot be obscured by the process of enculturation. Second of all, the process cannot in any way impair the fellowship that there is between Christians. So my enculturation cannot be such that you fail to recognize the authentic gospel in my church, and vice versa. We can talk about enculturation also in terms of rendering the mind of Christ or the mind of the scriptures in terms of a particular culture or people, to make something intelligible to people, inspiring for them, authority for them, so that they may live their lives by it.

And so we come to the question of how fellowship is maintained and how it is advanced and not impaired, and to the question of community and conflict. Unity is a very precious thing indeed. What a good and joyful thing it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity. And we must seek to maintain that unity and that peace which builds unity. And there must be unity in diversity. We are not all the same. We are not all the same. We are not all the same. We are all different. You remember the story about Selvi Kaler, the great Archbishop of Cape Town, who was a single man and very shy, who was asked to address the mothers union. So then he got up to speak – I think there are some people here know the joke already – so he got up to speak. He wanted to put the mothers union at ease and also himself. He said, “Ladies I would like you to know that beneath this cassock you and I are exactly the same.”

But it’s not like that, is it? We are all different and this unity is a unity in diversity. But it has to be – it has to be – and this is something that is a matter of discussion it has to be legitimate diversity not just any kind of diversity. I asked John Stott once, I said to him, you told us many years ago to stay in the Anglican Communion because it is comprehensive. What do you think now? And he said “I’ve always believed in principled comprehensiveness.” And that is another good phrase, principled comprehensiveness. William Reed Huntingdon, the American Episcopalian theologian – and yes there were some and I hope there are some still – distinguished between what he called the Anglican principle and what he called the Anglican system. Well, the Anglican system we’re all aware of, spires and fluttering surplices and choirs singing and archdeacons – there are some archdeacons here ”“ or you might say bishops. If that’s the system what’s the principle? He said it was the responsibility and the privilege of the local church to be and become the catholic church in that place – every local church. But Huntingdon was a good enough humanist in his day in the 19th century to know that the local church would not be the catholic church in its place without being in relationship with all the other local churches. He anticipated the New Delhi Statement by about 100 years. How then is the local church to be the catholic church in relationship with all other local churches so they can also be the catholic church in that place? That is the question. Huntingdon of course attempted to answer this by developing what has come to be called the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral. That is to say there were at least four things that were necessary for us to recognize the church in one another. The supreme authority of scripture, the catholic creeds, the sacraments instituted by Christ himself, and the historic ministry of the church. And that Quadrilateral has been hugely important in Anglican discussion with other Christians. Many of the plans for church union, not least in India, Pakistan, and Ceylon, as it was then could not have been conceived without the Quadrilateral playing a major part in this.

But apart of it being significant ecumenically, it was also good shorthand for Anglican identity. Anglicans have tended to say it when people ask what are you about and that’s quite often a justifiable question. They’ve said this is what we’re about – the Quadrilateral. But again the Quadrilateral has not proved enough in our circumstances. I have spoken already about the instruments of communion, of the necessity of why they arose and of their inadequacy now. So what else do we need to do to make sure we continue to live in communion and do not perpetuate conflict that is unnecessary in the church? I do believe there are some things that do need attention: the first is that we have to be clear we are a confessional church. Some people have the mistaken idea that Anglicans can believe anything. Or sometimes even that Anglicans believe nothing. I don’t know sometimes which is more serious. We have to be clear that we are a confessing church articulating the gospel in terms of our own tradition. Secondly, to be a confessing church effectively we need to be a conciliar church. That is to say we need to have councils at every level, including worldwide, that are authoritative. That can make decisions that stick. In the last few years I’ve been frustrated by decision after decision after decision that has not stuck, and we cannot have this for the future of a healthy church. And then thirdly, we need to be in our councils consistorial. That is to say the councils themselves or though their representatives need to exercise the authority of a teaching office. In particular circumstances, not every day, not promiscuously, but in particular circumstances, the faith has to be articulated clearly for the sake of people’s spiritual health and for the sake of mission. Now there is both, of course, the need for continuity and the need to recognize context rather than s–.

Successive Lambeth Conferences have said that the Anglican Church is willing to disappear in the cause of the greater unity of Christ’s church, to make that sacrifice. And of course we should continue to affirm that. If it is necessary for the Anglican Church to die so the gospel may live then so be it. But before we jump to too many conclusions about this we have also to acknowledge there are things in the Anglican tradition we can offer as a service and as a gift to the worldwide church: the vernacular liturgy and its beauty, the way in which we think theologically, the way in which people are formed, the musical traditions of the church the way in which catholic order has been expressed particularly in an Anglican form. We would not like to lose these things, but to offer them to the wider church as indeed we have done ecumenically for the last 100 years or more.

But there is also the context. And while we value the continuity we also have to be clear that the church and its life needs to be expressed effectively in a plural world, in a globalized world, where private deals cannot carry credibility indefinitely and where we have to be clear with our neighbors what gospel it is that we have. Because a gospel that is not the gospel of Jesus Christ people quickly wonder what we are trying to do, if we’re trying to deceive people with something that is not the gospel of Christ. So continuity and and changing context have to be held together.

And then, finally, there is commission and the coming days. If we are about anything we should be about commission – the Great Commission and its continuing validity for the church. Jonah Litx rang me up the other day and he said, “Bishop do you believe in witnessing to people of other faiths?” I said, “Of course I do”. He said, “Does that include Muslims?” And I said, “Of course it does!” And the headline the next day was “Bishop wants to convert Muslims”. Well, fair enough, that’s not the only thing I want to do with Muslims, but I have an obligation. I have an obligation to witness to all that God has done in Jesus Christ for me, for you, for the world, even for Muslims – praise the Lord – and I am not apologetic about it. But the Great Commission has to be carried out and perhaps the greatest challenge we have is that of a militant secularism which is creating a double jeopardy for western cultures. That the west is losing the Christian discourse at the very time it needs it most. Well, let us pray that we are able to recover the Christian nerve in the west and to make sure that the gospel is not lost. So that all that is of value, of positive value, in western culture which largely depends on its Judeo-Christian heritage will serve as a way that is enhancing, and as a way of prospering them, and a way of renewing them once again.

But in every context mission remains important as we seek to serve people, as we are present with them, as we identify them, as we challenge them, as we have dialogue with them, and as we seek to serve them. But this commission has to take place within movements of renewal. One of the things that we really need to be aware of is over-institutionalizing the church. That is what has lead to the present crisis. People fell in love with the institution and structures of the church rather than with the Lord himself. There have been great moments of Christian history when there have been movements of renewal. In the monastic movement when the church had become lax and corrupt and rich the monks went out into the deserts of Egypt and Syria and Mesopotamia to purify and to renew the church. What a great renewal that was! Pope Benedict said at Regensburg that important things in Christian history had happened in Europe except he said for some important developments in the east. Well one of them was monasticism. Which Athanasius when he came to exile in the west brought it with him – a significant development indeed – the great missionary societies. When the Church Missionary Society, of which I was of the general secretary, was formed 200 years ago, it took the Archbishop of Canterbury two years even to reply to their letter asking for permission to be set up. But that did not prevent God’s work, brothers and sisters. It did not prevent God’s work. And CMS under God’s providence was responsible for so many who are here, and for your churches. Today also we seek such movements of renewal for the sake of mission and if you are anything gathered here together, you are the beginnings – the miraculous beginnings – an ecclesial movement for the sake of the gospel and for the renewal of Christ Church. That is my prayer for you and that should be your prayer for yourself. Thank you very much indeed.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates

Church times–Dr Nazir-Ali: ”˜Inculturation has limits’

THE most liberal-sounding speaker at GAFCON by the end of Tuesday was the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali.

Dr Nazir-Ali surprised participants on Tuesday by speaking up for inculturation, change, and diversity. But each of these had its limits, he said. The gospel had to be adapted to different cultures, but “capitulation to culture” must be avoided; change and development must be principled; diversity had to be legitimate.

He made few explicit references to existing Anglican polity, beyond saying that the things that bound it together ”” the Lambeth Quadrilateral, the Instruments of Communion, and “English good manners” ”” had not proved strong enough to hold it together.

His desire was for a conciliar Church. “We have to have councils that are authoritative, that can make decisions that stick. In the last few years, I’ve been frustrated by decision after decision after decision that have not stuck, and we cannot have this in the future for a healthy Church.”

He also wanted the Church to be clear “that we are a confessing Church. Some people have the mistaken idea that Anglicans can believe anything.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates

One C of E bishop will defect to Rome after Lambeth

At least one Church of England bishop will defect to Rome soon after the Lambeth Conference, I gather from Anglo-Catholic sources. And there could be more to follow.

I can’t tell you much more than that at the moment, because the negotiations with Rome are so sensitive – and the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, who distrust Anglican traditionalists, are quite capable of throwing a spanner in the works.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Religion News & Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Lambeth 2008, Other Churches, Roman Catholic

Telegraph: Liberals are tearing apart church says Bishop Wallace Benn

He said: “The reason I don’t feel I can go [to Lambeth] is because I don’t think I can pretend to have fellowship with those with whom there is a broken fellowship.

“How am I meant to set down at a table with people who are persecuting my friends?

“I don’t believe I can pretend that the facts on the ground of the tearing of the fabric of the Communion doesn’t exist.

“It is of great regret to me that the invite list includes almost all those who have torn the fabric of the Communion.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates, Lambeth 2008

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali on authentic Anglicanism

No church, said Bishop Nazir-Ali, can have any other basis of authority than scripture. “The Bible is the norm by which we appreciate what is authentically apostolic. That is the reason for the Bible being the ultimate and final authority for us in our faith and our lives and this is the reason why Anglicans have taken our study of the Bible so seriously.”

Authentic Anglicanism is also a confessing church, said bishop Nazir-Ali. From the very beginning, being Anglican has meant confessing the faith that Christians have held always, everywhere and by all. “We have to be clear that we are a confessing church. Some people have the mistaken idea that Anglicans can believe anything, or that Anglicans can believe nothing. I don’t know which one is more serious,” said Bishop Nazir-Ali.

In a news conference that followed his lecture, Bishop Nazir-Ali, who has been a student of Islam for 30 years, clarified his comment related to the Christian’s right to witness to all, including to Muslims. “Just as Muslims have a right to invite others to join Islam [referred to as Da’wa], Christians have a right to invite others to Jesus,” he said. He added that he supported Christians serving Muslims in such practical ways as in schools and hospitals.

Church councils with the authority to teach and to make decisions are necessary for authentic Anglicanism. “We need to be a conciliar church. In the last few years I have been frustrated by decision after decision after decision that has not stuck. We cannot have this for a healthy church,” said Bishop Nazir-Ali.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * International News & Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates, Israel, Middle East

The Bishop of Durham Responds to some Blog Readers on his Colbert Show appearance

(Note: the original thread to which this responds is here. For purposes of clarity I am going to request that any further comments on this thread and that one be made THERE. Anyone wishing to contact Bishop Wright directly please email me off blog and I will forward it to him–KSH).

I confess I had not heard of Colbert and his remarkable show until Harper managed to get me on to it. Since I have always believed in General Booth’s principle that ‘if I could win one more soul to the Lord by playing the tambourine with my toes, I’d do it’, I figured that if I could tell a million youngish people that because of Jesus’ resurrection God will make a new world and that this begins even now… that would be a really good thing to do… Plus, I’ve always enjoyed a challenge of this sort and it seems to me that it doesn’t hurt for the church to be seen to be engaging with popular culture…

So I was surprised at the wonderful puritanism of Chris Hathaway, to be honest. Colbert isn’t deceiving; he spoke to me before the show and told me (what I’d already been told by others) how his ‘role’ works. Perhaps Chris doesn’t like Colbert’s political stance? Certainly it has been said often enough (by Americans) that America is a land with an irony deficiency, and Colbert is doing his best to put that right. There CAN be honest dialogue, as I think I demonstrated. Albeit briefly. The fact that Chris H hates Candid Camera and finds Sasha Baron Cohen as ‘vile’ speaks for itself. To each their own: I wouldn’t watch those myself, but that’s because I don’t see a whole lot of TV at all.

To The Gordian (it would be so nice to know who you really are!): my poor, crowded diocese sees a great deal of me but they know that Bishops of Durham are supposed to be ‘out there’ taking every opportunity to get the word out. And actually I don’t think I’m thin-skinned; I take a huge amount of heat from a large number of people on several fronts all the time, and only VERY rarely do I respond (as now, more from amusement than anything). Thus, I wasn’t going to bother responding to John Piper’s critique of me in his recent book until I saw that some people were saying ‘there, Wright is wrong, Piper says so, that settles it’. Piper says some interesting things but he hasn’t understood what I’m saying so his critique misses the mark. Ditto with the First Things piece: Neuhaus is very influential and his piece was just flat wrong on several counts, and the only way to get the point across was to nail it fairly thoroughly. Of course, the tactic ‘You shouldn’t be defending yourself — you’re too thin-skinned’ is what every bully that ever lived has said. But The Gordian, I’m sure, isn’t a bully, since he also accuses me of not engaging with my critics sufficiently. Hmmm. I have to engage with them but not defend myself. Tricky. I wonder how much scholarly encounter The Gordian has actually witnessed. Try taking on Ed Sanders, for instance.
And as for a personal or political agenda, ‘wanting to be the standard bearer for evangelical scholarship and the ecclesiastical leader of evangelical Anglicans’: little do you know. My aim is to expound the New Testament and get its message into the bloodstream of the church and out in the mission of the kingdom. And as far as I’m concerned if the church wants me to do a job (like my present one) I’ll give it my best shot, but I’m getting on in years and looking forward to retirement . . .
Actually, I’m not sure how careful a reader The Gordian is (what a pity (s)he doesn’t say who (s)he is!) because (s)he says that in writing against ‘Pierced for Our Transgressions’ (which, by the way, IVP USA refused to publish for more or less the same reasons as I gave in my critique; go figure) I completely ignored the fact that I had commended Steve Chalke’s book — whereas I wrote a whole section on Chalke and all that. It’s interesting, in short, that The Gordian seems to have a catalogue of NTW’s errors which come tumbling out all because I appeared on the Colbert Report . . . Hey, Gordian, why don’t you write me some time, say it all straight out and sign your own name? I’m a human being too, often wrong, sometimes right, always enjoy a good conversation

To Driver8 let me say, If you can find one single place where I have referred to America, even in jest, as ‘the great Satan’, I will pay $250 to a charity of your choice. If you can’t, how about you return the compliment? It isn’t language I use, or have used, so far as I know. Of course, I might have said ‘Some militant Muslims think of America as “the great Satan”,’ but that obviously wouldn’t count. OK?

Warm greetings to one and all. I VERY SELDOM even LOOK at blog sites let alone respond but once in a while it can be fun. I love America! Please pray both for GAFCON and for Lambeth and for all that is swirling around us all just now…

(The Rt. Rev. Dr.) N. T. [“Tom”] Wright is Bishop of Durham

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, * International News & Commentary, America/U.S.A., Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, England / UK, Movies & Television, Religion & Culture

Telegraph: The conservative Church's desperation to stop the liberal tide could be damaging

Which to many makes it all the more baffling to understand why Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester has decided to boycott the Lambeth conference. He has become a champion of traditional Christianity in Britain, yet his action – along with that of the other 250 bishops – will be seen as a direct challenge to the authority of Dr Williams; as fermenting division rather than bringing healing. Rather than promoting a Church that has a message of hope and love, they seem to be reinforcing views that it has now come to stand for intolerance and bitter recrimination.

Yet this would be to misunderstand Bishop Nazir-Ali. Well-respected and valued in the Church, he is a man of deep conviction, but his decision is borne out of desperate frustration that the liberals have been able to advance their agenda – from electing a gay bishop to carrying out homosexual blessings – without any real attempt made to keep them in check. The fact is that the conservatives feel powerless to stop the liberal tide, and their statements betray this desperation.

There is in effect little that they can do, and also little that Dr Williams can do because of the autonomous nature of the various churches in the worldwide Communion. But their boycott of this summer’s conference and their attacks on the pro-gay moves in the Church have pushed them to the fringes of the communion and damaged their image in the eyes of wider society.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, GAFCON I 2008, Global South Churches & Primates

Bishop of Liverpool in call to resign after tribunal ruling

UK: THE Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, has been called on to resign by his former communications officer who has been awarded over £14,500 at an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal by the diocese.

The Rev David Johnston exposed the Bishop as a liar and revealed his chagrin at not being appointed Archbishop of York and his subsequent dislike for Liverpool.

Mr Johnston was initially suspended after the Sunday People wrote in November 2006 that he was having an affair with his assistant Diane Pendleton despite still being married to his wife Margaret. The lawyers for the diocese admitted that it “may or may not have been written by the Bishop”. In fact, the Johnstons’ marriage had irretrievably broken down sometime before the relationship with Ms Pendleton began, and Mr Johnston had kept his employers informed.

The Sunday People withdrew the story and apologized for it, but by then Mr Johnston was being threatened by the Bishop, who maintained a façade of support in the media.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

Telegraph: Some Leading C of E bishops not to attend Lambeth Conference over gay clergy

In a move that marks a significant split in the established Church, at least three bishops, including the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, will decline an invitation from Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, to attend the Lambeth Conference.

Up to six more bishops are understood to be considering similar action because of Dr Williams’s decision to allow controversial figures to be at the gathering of worldwide Anglican bishops, which meets only once in 10 years.

The boycott will intensify the row over gay clergy, which was reignited when The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last week that two gay priests had exchanged vows in a version of the marriage service.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Lambeth 2008

Bishop N.T. Wright of Durham, author of Surprised by Hope, on American Television

Guess which program before you click.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Movies & Television

The Bishop of Winchester expresses concern over first church gay marriage

The Bishop of Winchester has today voiced his concerns over the first gay “marriage” to be held in an Anglican church.

Rt Reverend Michael Scott-Joynt was speaking after it was revealed that Reverend Peter Cowell and the Rev Dr David Lord exchanged vows at St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London.

He said: “Strictly speaking it is not a marriage, but he marriage is clearly modelled on the marriage service and the occasion is modelled on the marriage service. This clearly flouts Church guidelines and will exacerbate divisions within the Anglican Communion.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, --Civil Unions & Partnerships, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Marriage & Family, Parish Ministry, Sexuality

A BBC Radio Four Today Programme Audio Report on the C of E struggle this week

The Church of England is facing a turbulent General Synod after two gay priests were married at the weekend. The issue of the ordination of women bishops will also cause dispute. Paul Eddy, a lay member of the General Synod explains the disputes.

The audio link is here and the segment is 2 hours and 42 minutes in.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, --Civil Unions & Partnerships, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Marriage & Family, Parish Ministry, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

(London) Times: Anglican church in meltdown over gays and women

The Church of England has been plunged into fresh turmoil by the “marriage” of two gay clergymen and threats of an exodus of priests opposed to the consecration of women bishops.

The Times has learnt that up to 500 Anglo-Catholic priests are ready to resign after failing to secure the concessions that they had sought over women bishops.

Church of England bishops have rejected plans for legal safeguards for those who had hoped for the introduction of extra-geographical dioceses as havens for traditionalists. Instead, plans to consecrate women bishops will be put to a vote at the General Synod in York next month, with the safeguards for opponents enshrined in a voluntary code.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Christian Life / Church Life, * Culture-Watch, --Civil Unions & Partnerships, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Marriage & Family, Parish Ministry, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

AP: London bishop to investigate gay church ceremony

The bishop of London said Sunday he would order an investigation into whether two gay priests exchanged rings and vows in a church ceremony, violating Anglican guidelines.

The priests walked down the aisle in a May 31 service at one of London’s oldest churches marked by a fanfare of trumpets and capped by a shower of confetti, Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reported.

The bishop, the Right Rev. Richard Chartres, said such services are not authorized in the Church of England. He said he would ask the archdeacon of London to investigate.

A call placed with the archdeacon was not immediately returned.

Britain officially recognizes civil partnerships but the Church of England’s guidelines say clergy should not bless such unions.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, --Civil Unions & Partnerships, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Marriage & Family, Same-sex blessings, Sexuality, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

Bishop Tom Butler: It's often atheist writers who touch on some of the most profound questions

A few weeks ago I found myself on a TV Sunday morning programme where Richard Dawkins was a fellow panel member. He probably won’t thank me for saying so, but I found myself more often agreeing with his responses than with some of the wilder Christian members of the audience, not least over the casting out of supposed demons from children. I was reminded of the new King William of Orange’s answer to the person asking for the traditional sovereign’s healing on Maundy Thursday, “May God give you better health and more sense.”

But the strange fact is, that it’s often writers like Dawkins and Philip Pullman who would regard themselves as atheist who touch on some of the most profound and basic religious questions. In Dawkins’s case the necessity or otherwise of a divine creator of a wondrous and awesome universe; in Pullman’s case the tension between human free-will and social control or the interface of parallel universes.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, * Culture-Watch, * International News & Commentary, Anglican Provinces, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, England / UK, Religion & Culture