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Category : Anglican Provinces

(Church Times) ‘Levelling up’ funding not enough, says Bishop Wilcox of Sheffield

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Funding set aside to regenerate 20 towns and cities outlined in the Government White Paper Levelling Up, “barely begins to address the chronic under-investment of recent decades”, the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, has warned.

The White Paper, published on Wednesday, consists of 12 “national missions” to be achieved by 2030, including missions to close gaps in wealth, employment, education, training, 5G broadband, homeownership, and life expectancy in the UK — particularly between the north and south of England. It also pledges to reduce homicide and serious violence in the worst-affected areas, and offer a “London-style” devolution deal to every part of England which requests one, supported by the £2.6-billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which is to be decentralised to local leaders.

One of the central proposals is to “restore local pride” in 20 towns and cities, beginning with Wolverhampton and Sheffield, with “King’s Cross-style” regeneration projects. To fund this, from April, £1.5 billion of the £1.8 million announced in the October Budget to bring 1500 hectares of brownfield land into use will be redirected towards the north and the Midlands.

In November, Wolverhampton and Sheffield were respectively promised £20 million and £37 million towards the scheme; a further £28 million was allocated to the West Midlands Combined Authority, and £13 million for the South Yorkshire Combined Authority on Sunday.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Economy, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Politics in General, Religion & Culture

A Prayer to Begin the Day from the Church of England

Posted on February 4, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Spirituality/Prayer

(BBC) Suffolk churchwarden thought to be youngest in England

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

A teenager has become what is thought to be England’s youngest churchwarden.

Ben Jenkins was appointed during a recent service at St Nicolas in Stanningfield, Suffolk.

The 19-year-old said he wanted to “make a difference” to his local church and community.

The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Right Reverend Martin Seeley, said it was “wonderful” to see younger people coming forward to serve their churches.

Mr Jenkins was elected to the office of churchwarden at the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich’s annual parochial church meeting in December.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Ministry of the Laity, Parish Ministry, Young Adults

How a plot of unused church land helped families priced out of the housing market

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

St John’s Church in Keswick in the Lake District made half a hectare of land next to its graveyard that was too stony and waterlogged for burials available to the town’s then newly-formed Community Housing Trust.

The land now has 11 three-bedroomed houses and the trust has gone on to build a further 30 homes in the town on other plots. The latest four – three, three-bedroomed houses and one two-bedroom house – were built on land provided by the Methodist Church on the site of a demolished church hall.

Around half the homes built by the trust are for shared ownership and the other half are let out at rents that are truly affordable in perpetuity – measured in relation to local earnings, not market rents.

Bill Bewley, the Chair of Keswick Community Housing Trust, believes that up to 200 people have been housed as a result of the trust’s work so far with further potential plots of land for housing being explored.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Housing/Real Estate Market, Parish Ministry, Stewardship

(Pzephizo) Andrew Goddard–Can the C of E ever bridge its differences on sexuality?

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

We could, like the Methodist Church has recently done, simply extend our current practical incoherence into our teaching. We could move to a position where, as a church, we state that we uphold and support contradictory teachings. This would also fail to address either problem and appears to ignore Jesus’ stark warning later in Matthew (and also in Mark and Luke) that “if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand”.

We could, and should, through the LLF discernment process, make one more attempt to see whether we really can find some agreement as to what would be the rock on which we should be building, whether something that has not previously been recognised by the church as rock might nevertheless be a solid foundation we can all recognise as faithful to Jesus.

It may though be that, lamenting our lack of common mind, and renewing our commitment to keep seeking such a common mind, we have to begin to consider seriously what changes our collective double-mindedness renders necessary in how we structure our common life. How can we create sufficient space or distance to enable each view to find expression in an episcopal structure which has some form of agreed teaching that in turn authorises consistent practice and so has intellectual and moral integrity without generating the level of conflict now sadly so common? How can we allow each group of Anglicans to build on what they believe to be the rock and to avoid building on what they believe to be sand?

Because we are here dealing with competing and contradictory visions of faithfulness to Christ, of the holiness to which we are called in Christ, of our created human nature, and of the ground on which we are to build communities of disciples, this is a much greater challenge than that we have faced and struggled with in relation to women priests and bishops. And because our received ecclesial structures are those of episcopacy within a geographically ordered national church and a global Communion this is a much greater challenge than the ecclesial questions faced by the URC and Baptists and others with a different church structure. The sad history of Anglican provinces and the Anglican Communion over the last 20 years confirms how great a challenge it is. But it is a challenge which we must perhaps now face and, as far as possible, face and seek to resolve together, across our differences.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, - Anglican: Analysis, Anthropology, Church of England (CoE), Ethics / Moral Theology, Marriage & Family, Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion), Theology, Theology: Scripture

Parish Evensong congregation grows from just one to more than 70 – with the help of church choir and a home cooked meal

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

St Paul’s Without the Walls has seen its evening service of choral music and traditional liturgy grow in popularity after introducing a home cooked meal.

The idea came to parishioner Michael Keeler-Walker following suggestions the service would be stopped.

He said: “We had Choral Evensong once a month, but often it was irregular and sometimes just dropped.

“Despite a choir of 18, often the only congregant would be the person doing the reading.
“So, we decided to go back to basics. It became regular, each month, focussing on good food, good fellowship, good preaching, and good music.”

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Liturgy, Music, Worship, Parish Ministry

(Prospect) Alice Goodman–Clerical life: Curing clergy burnout

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The model and justification of most holidays taken by clergy is Jesus’s custom of going to a deserted place to pray. “He did it: you should too.” From the earliest centuries, Christianity had its contemplative side; these stories are its foundation.

Before that, though, there’s the account of the flight of the Prophet Elijah from the vengeance of Jezebel in the 19th chapter of the first book of Kings. This is the model of clergy burnout. An angel gives him a hot cake baked on a stone, and lets him sleep. Then, when he wakes, he is offered another cake, and sleeps again. Only after that does he go up to the mountain of God where the Lord speaks to him, not in the sound of gale or earthquake, but in sheer silence, the echoing silence when the wind and the earthquake have passed. In that silence, God tells Elijah that there will be a new king, and also that there will be a new prophet, because more people have been faithful than Elijah is willing to credit.

That’s a favourite story of mine, as is the one told by the reclusive 19th-century Hasidic sage Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk, better known as the Kotzker Rebbe. It concerns the sacred goat whose horns reached up to the heavens. As he walked through the world, the goat heard a poor old man crying. “Why do you weep?” asked the goat. “Because I have lost my snuffbox.” “Cut a bit from one of my horns,” said the goat, “Take what you need to make a new one.” You can guess what happened next. There are more poor folk in the world who have lost their snuff boxes than you can count.

Read it all.

Posted in Anthropology, Church of England (CoE), Ethics / Moral Theology, Health & Medicine, Ministry of the Ordained, Parish Ministry, Pastoral Theology, Psychology, Stress, Theology

(BBC) Truro Cathedral to switch off floodlights to reduce its carbon footprint

Posted on February 1, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Truro Cathedral’s floodlights will be switched off to help the environment, it has been announced.

Canon Elly Sheard said in a blog the decision was “a worthwhile start on the cathedral’s journey towards reducing its carbon footprint to zero”.

She added the move from the end of January was not based on costs, but welcomed the financial saving.

Cannon Sheard said they were looking to “phase out energy use in whatever ways we can” at the cathedral.

“Although the system has not worked fully for some time, the decision to cease floodlighting the cathedral has been taken more on environmental grounds than on the grounds of the costs of either repairs or continued use,” she said.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Climate Change, Weather, Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Stewardship

(Telegraph) Problem gambling higher in serving RAF personnel

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Serving RAF personnel are four times more likely to be problem gamblers than the rest of the population, according to a study that also found high rates of excessive drinking and depression.

The research by the RAF Benevolent Fund, the first of its kind, found one in 50 airmen and women were problem gamblers, a condition defined as undermining people’s ability to do their jobs and maintain good family relations.

This compared with one in 200 of the general population with researchers linking the greater prevalence among RAF crews to the amount of unsupervised downtime they had, deployments away from family, their disposable incomes and a greater propensity to risk taking.

Alison Wyman, associate director of the Fund, said gambling was a “hidden” problem because of the ease with which staff could conceal it. This placed a greater onus on both betting firms and the RAF to be alert to the danger signs.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Gambling, Military / Armed Forces, Religion & Culture, Young Adults

A Prayer to Begin the Day from The Church of England

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

God our creator,
who in the beginning
commanded the light to shine out of darkness:
we pray that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief,
shine into the hearts of all your people,
and reveal the knowledge of your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Epiphany, Spirituality/Prayer

(Church Times) Pensions Board puts pressure on mining companies to adopt global safety standards

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

On the third anniversary of the mining disaster that killed 270 people in Brumadinho, in Brazil, the Church of England Pensions Board has stepped up the pressure on companies to adopt new global safety standards.

The disaster happened when a mine-waste facility, a tailings dam, collapsed. The new Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management was developed in response by a coalition of investors led by the Pensions Board and the Council on Ethics of the Swedish AP Funds…. Now, they have published the names of the companies that have committed themselves to the new measures.

Seventy-nine mining companies — one third of those employing tailings dams — have either made a commitment to the new Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management or are still assessing their compliance. The list includes several of the largest companies, including BHP, Anglo, Glencore, Rio Tinto, and Vale.

The Brumadinho disaster of 2019 is not an isolated incident. Another 12 such collapses have been reported in the past three years. In three instances — two of which took place in Myanmar and one in Peru — workers were killed. The collapses also cause significant environmental damage.

Read it all.

Posted in Anthropology, Brazil, Church of England (CoE), Corporations/Corporate Life, Ethics / Moral Theology, Globalization, Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market, Myanmar/Burma, Pensions, Stock Market

(India Times) India-born priest becomes youngest consecrated Bishop in C of E

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

An India-born priest has been ordained as a bishop in the Church of England at a ceremony held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on Tuesday.
Aged 43, Saju is now the youngest bishop in the Church of England but not the first of Indian-origin as the current Bishop of Bradwell, Bishop John Perumbalath, was also born in Kerala.

The Rt Revd Malayil Lukose Varghese Muthalaly, known as Saju, hitherto vicar of St Mark’s Gillingham, Kent, was born in Kerala and grew up in a leprosy hospital in Bengaluru. He was consecrated by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby as the next Bishop of Loughborough, in the diocese of Leicester.

Family, friends, colleagues and supporters hailing from India, Dubai and Britain gathered at the service where two others were ordained as bishops and two of Saju’s children — Zipp and Abraham — said prayers.

Welby congratulated Saju in Hindi on Twitter afterwards. In English he tweeted: “A wonderful, exciting, beautiful day for the @churchofengland — a diverse, global church brought together in the joy of Jesus Christ.”

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, India

(Northern Echo) St Nicholas Church Durham offers practical help to North East people

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

A City centre church is to offer practical support for local people suffering financial hardships.

St Nicholas Church, in the Market Place, Durham, has announced it will be able to raise money for those in need to purchase a specific needed item, such as replacing a broken cooker for a family struggling financially or equipping someone with interview clothes to help get a job.

This potential support is made possible through a new partnership with Acts 435, a national online charity that gives donors the opportunity to connect with people who need help.

Acts 435 enables St Nicholas, or St Nics, as it is known locally, plus other participating churches and local charities, to post requests for specific needs onto their website.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Parish Ministry, Pastoral Care, Poverty, Stewardship, Urban/City Life and Issues

(Church Times) Wymondham vicar and churchwardens defy Bishop of Norwich as being ‘unethical’

Posted on January 27, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The Vicar and churchwardens of Wymondham Abbey have complained of “unrelenting” pressure exerted by the diocese of Norwich, accusing the diocese of “unremitting criticism of a church community doing its best in very difficult times”.

Their statement, published on the Abbey’s website on Monday of last week, is a defiant response to directions issued to them by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, after a visitation of the benefice of Wymondham with Silfield and Spooner Row (News, 19 November 2021).

Bishop Usher ordered Ms Relf-Pennington to apologise without reservation to those who had brought complaints against her, after the report spoke of multiple problems in the benefice, including her “authoritarian style”, the termination of a longstanding choral tradition, and the non-payment of parish share.

In their response, Ms Relf-Pennington and the churchwardens write: “We have been harassed. For three years the pressure here has been unrelenting. We believe the intention has been to break the vicar, break the PCC people and to break the worshipping community: all this for the preferences of Bishop Graham Usher and Bishop Alan Winton to the detriment of the whole of the parish and indeed to the whole of the town.” The behaviour of the Bishops was “unethical, immoral and self-serving”, they write.

Read it all (registration).

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Ethics / Moral Theology, Parish Ministry, Pastoral Theology

(The Tablet) Anglican orders and the Catholic Church – analysis

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The Tablet understands that the issue has been raised directly with the Pope in recent months, who in turn asked for the question to be considered by Vatican officials. While there is no sign that Apostolicae Curae will be overturned, for several decades Rome has been moving away from the language used by Leo XIII and towards a recognition of the fruits of Anglican ministry. It is already a very different approach to the one found in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 1998 document, Professio Fidei, which claimed the teaching on Anglican orders was one of the “truths connected to revelation” and was to be held definitively.

The shift draws on the teaching of Vatican II, which recognised the “significant elements” that build up the Church outside of the “visible boundaries” of the Catholic Church, and on the many agreed statements on doctrine that have emerged from the formal dialogues between Anglican and Catholic theologians since the council.

“This issue causes hurt, and the Anglicans are diffident about raising it,” one Church source told The Tablet. “It’s a wound in the relations between the Churches and it would be great if a small step could be taken to healing the wound particularly as Pope Francis in practice recognises Anglican bishops through his joint initiatives with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Ecumenical Relations, Ministry of the Ordained, Roman Catholic

Your sacrifices have saved lives: London Bishop thanks parishes and public as Covid-19 measures lift

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Bishop Sarah, who chairs the Church of England’s Covid Recovery Group, was speaking as new advice was published by the Church of England ahead of Thursday’s change of national rules.

She said: “When the first measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 were introduced in March 2020, few would have imagined that we would still be making adaptations to the way we live our lives – including our worship – almost two years on.

“It has been a very challenging time.

“People have made huge sacrifices to protect one another – not only those they know and love but strangers they might never meet. We’ve learnt again as society something of what it means to love our neighbour, as Jesus taught.

“And it has certainly not been without cost.

“The loneliness and isolation many have experienced; the impact on people’s mental health; the lost jobs and failed businesses and strained relationships must not be overlooked.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Health & Medicine, Religion & Culture

(LL) Lincoln Cathedral to become scaffolding-free for the first time in 36 years

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Work is well underway for Lincoln Cathedral to become scaffolding-free for the first time in 36 years.

The structure is being removed and a spokesman for the venue said it will be complete by Friday, February 4.

It will mark the first time in five years of restoration work on the West Front that the Cathedral will be free of its scaffolding.

On its Facebook, visitors are advised to enter the Cathedral via a separate location for the next two weeks while the scaffold is removed.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Parish Ministry

(Church Times) House of Bishops announces move to increase ethnic diversity at meetings

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

At least ten clergy of UK minority-ethnic / global-majority heritage (UKME / GMH) will be present at meetings of the House of Bishops within months, after its Standing Committee agreed a plan to address its lack of ethnic diversity.

Of the 53 places in the House of Bishops, only four are currently occupied by UKME/GMH bishops. Under plans agreed by the Standing Committee of the House on Thursday it will “ensure that at least 10 can be present, either as members as of right; as suffragan bishops appointed as participant observers, or as priests elected as participant observers”, a statement from Church House said.

“In addition to the four existing UKME/GMH members of the House, the plan will involve three further suffragans (two of whom were recently nominated as bishops) being invited to join the House as participant observers. There would also be three priests elected by serving UKME/GMH clergy.”

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Ethics / Moral Theology, Pastoral Theology

The Church of England restricts investment in climate laggards

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The Church of England’s National Investing Bodies (NIBs) are delivering on their 2018 commitment to General Synod to engage with and disinvest from high carbon emitting companies that are not making progress to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement by 2023.

Twenty companies have made climate-related changes to stay off the Church’s restricted list since 2020.
Following extensive engagement efforts by the NIBs, nine companies made changes to meet the 2021 hurdles. As a result they stayed off the restricted list for a further year, while 28 companies that did not meet the latest climate hurdles were restricted.

These actions are part of the NIBs’ commitment to transitioning their portfolios away from companies that are unwilling to act and align their businesses with the Goals of the Paris Agreement. The climate hurdles were set by the NIBs using Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) data. Additional exacting hurdles will come into force in 2022 and 2023.

The NIBs are founding members of TPI and are investor engagement leads in the Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) global engagement initiative. As long-term investors, the NIBs will continue to engage with companies to meet their climate objectives and build alliances with like-minded investors to engage with company boards and executives.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Corporations/Corporate Life, Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, Ethics / Moral Theology, Religion & Culture, Stewardship, Stock Market

A nifty London Times profile on Diocesan Registrar for Chester and Blackburn, Lisa Moncur

Posted on January 21, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

On Boxing Day Lisa Moncur received a call from a vicar asking for help to arrange a special marriage licence for someone who was terminally ill. She has also been called on to deal with a badger whose industrious digging had uncovered human remains in a churchyard.

It was all part of her varied work as the Church of England’s diocesan registrar for both Chester and Blackburn. Registrars are personally appointed by the diocesan bishop and must be a qualified solicitor and a communicant in the Church of England.

Moncur was appointed to the diocese in Chester in 2016, and in Blackburn last year, after 20 years working as a commercial property solicitor. In that previous role, Moncur says, “I got up and knew what each day would look like” — but as a diocesan registrar she never knows what to expect and “there is never a dull day”.

Her job is to provide advice and support on ordinations, consecrations, confirmations, baptisms, marriages and burials as well as general legal advice to clergy and parishes, maintaining diocesan and parochial records, and advising on parish trusts.

Read it all (requires subscription).

Posted in Church of England (CoE), England / UK, Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture

(Premier) The Bishop of Ripon speaks up against government plans to abolish BBC licence fee

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

A bishop from the Church of England has spoken out about government plans to abolish the BBC licence fee.

Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Ripon has praised the Corporation’s role in developing greater understanding of religion.

Dr Hartley is a Chair of the Sandford St Martin Trust that promotes ‘excellence in broadcasting about religion ethics and spirituality.’

She has expressed deep concern about Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries statement about possibly abolishing the licence fee after 2027.

Dr Hartley, issued a statement on the Sandford St Martin Trust website, she said: “It is with concern that we at the Trust have read reports that the BBC is to be hit by a funding freeze and that the culture secretary Nadine Dorries is anticipating the abolition of the licence fee after 2027.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Media, Movies & Television, Politics in General, Religion & Culture

(Church Times) ‘Eco dioceses’ all round in race to reach 2030 goal

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

All 42 dioceses in the Church of England have signed up to become “eco dioceses” as part of their commitment to reaching carbon net zero by 2030.

Under the Eco Dioceses scheme, developed by the charity A Rocha UK, churches and dioceses are awarded bronze, silver, or gold status, depending on actions taken to improve their environmental footprint.

The development was welcomed by the Bishop of Norwich and lead bishop on the environment, the Rt Revd Graham Usher. He said: “Having every diocese sign up is a statement of intent from all of us as we take seriously the need to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss today.

“A Rocha UK’s Eco Church and Diocese scheme is a great tool, which enables local churches at every level of their climate justice journey to engage with environmental issues. We know that climate change and biodiversity loss impact us all — especially the world’s poorest countries….

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, England / UK, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Stewardship

(BBC) The Bishop of Plymouth, Nicholas McKinnel, to retire in August

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The Bishop of Plymouth has announced that he is to retire in August.

The Right Reverend Nicholas McKinnel, said “after 42 years of ordained ministry, now seems a good time to hand over my responsibilities and to have more time for the family and other interests”.

Rev McKinnel, who is married and has four children and nine grandchildren, has been Bishop of Plymouth since 2015.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

(Guardian) Winchester college society was cult-like, finds report into child abuse

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

A cult-like evangelical Christian society at a leading private school allowed a powerful and charismatic barrister to groom and sadistically abuse boys with impunity, an investigation has found.

Members of the Christian Forum at Winchester college “showed signs of what would today be described as radicalisation”, said a 197-page review commissioned by the elite school into abuse carried out by John Smyth QC.

The school’s then headteacher, John Thorn, was informed of the abuse in 1982 but did not report it to police. Smyth moved to Zimbabwe, where he abused “as many as 90 boys, possibly resulting in the death of one”, the report said.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), Education, Ethics / Moral Theology, History, Pastoral Theology, Sexuality, Teens / Youth, Violence

(Church Times) The Anglican Communion is asked: Do you want to help choose the next Archbishop of Canterbury?

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

An international consultation has begun to ask whether Anglicans from around the world should have a greater say in the choice of the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

The consultation, set up by the Archbishops’ Council on Friday, takes up a diocesan synod motion from Canterbury diocese asking it to consider reducing the diocese’s representation on the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC). The Archbishops’ Council proposes reducing the diocese’s quota from six voting CNC members to three.

At the same time, it has put forward the more radical suggestion of increasing the voting members from the Anglican Communion from one to five.

The new-look CNC would thus comprise: a chair appointed by the Prime Minister; two bishops, including the Archbishop of York if he or she is not a candidate; six central members elected by the General Synod (three clergy and three lay); three representatives from the Canterbury diocese; and five representatives from the Anglican Communion. The total number of voting members will increase from 16 to 17. In addition, there are the two non-voting appointments secretaries (the Archbishops’ and the Prime Minister’s); also the secretary-general of the Anglican Communion is a non-voting member.

The CNC’s task is to choose two candidates in order of preference. Voting is by secret ballot and successful candidates must gain at least two-thirds of the votes.

Read it all.

Posted in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England (CoE), Globalization

Stephen Lake, Dean of Gloucester, nominated for election as new Bishop of Salisbury

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Stephen trained for ministry at Chichester Theological College and is returning to his roots with this appointment. He grew up in Poole, held his curacy at Sherborne Abbey with Castleton and Lillington and was ordained Priest in 1989.

He became Vicar of St Aldhelm’s, Branksome, Poole from 1992 and was additionally appointed Rural Dean of Poole in 2000. In 2001, Stephen was appointed Sub Dean of St Albans, and took up his current role as Dean of Gloucester in 2011.

Stephen is a Church Commissioner and Lead Dean for Safeguarding.

He is married to Carol, and they have three adult children.

Acting Bishop of Salisbury and Bishop of Sherborne, the Rt Rev Karen Gorham, said:

‘I am delighted that Stephen has accepted the invitation to be the 79th Bishop of Salisbury. Stephen brings significant creative gifts of leadership to the diocese at an important time in our life as we continue to encourage the local church to be the best that it can be, bringing hope to our local communities in sharing the love of Jesus Christ. Stephen knows the diocese from the past and understands the challenges and opportunities for both our urban and our rural contexts. Bishop Andrew and I are very much looking forward to working with Stephen and welcoming him and Carol into the diocese later in the year.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops

(Telegraph) Children risk being targeted by ‘aggressive gambling adverts on social media’

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The Church of England has warned that a social media advertising “loophole” could leave children exposed to “aggressive” gambling adverts.

Rt Revd Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans, said a ruling this week by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), set a concerning “precedent” for promotions on social media.

The watchdog’s ruling dismissed complaints about poker adverts on a popular YouTube channel, as the owner supplied analytics from the site showing that most of his audience were over 18.

However, the Bishop warned that the analytics were an “incredibly dubious metric” as YouTube, which has a minimum age of 13, does not have any age verification and many viewers watch it without signing into an account.’

Read it all.

Posted in Children, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Gambling, Politics in General, Religion & Culture

(Guardian) Provide social care on par with NHS or education, says Archbishop Justin Welby

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

The archbishop of Canterbury has called for a new “covenant” on social care between the state and the people, similar to the provision of the NHS and education, which makes “absolute value and dignity” the top priority.

Justin Welby, the leader of the Church of England, said that focusing on managing the cost of social care, a priority in the latest government reforms, is “the wrong way round” because it fails to consider what people who need care want.

“You start with the value of the human being,” Welby said. “Then you say, ‘what is the consequence of that? [in terms of the care system]’. We did that for the health service. We haven’t done that for social care.”

Read it all.

Posted in --Justin Welby, Anthropology, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England (CoE), Health & Medicine, Psychology, Theology

(C of E) New ‘cathedral’ of digital worshippers emerges from online broadcasts

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

Members of a new “cathedral” of online worshippers formed since the first lockdown are to play a key role in the Church of England’s 100th national online service to be broadcast this weekend.

Prayers will be read by people who joined a regular digital worshipping community that grew through YouTube and Facebook broadcasts of national online services.

The first national online service was broadcast from the crypt chapel at Lambeth Palace on Mothering Sunday 2020 as the nation went into lockdown. Since then a service has been broadcast every Sunday – with additional services broadcast over Easter, Advent and Christmas.

The broadcast on Sunday, marking the milestone of the 100th service, will led by the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields Dr Sam Wells, with a sermon from Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley, who oversees the Church of England’s national online services.

Dr Hamley, who took part in the first online service broadcast in March 2020 from the Crypt chapel of Lambeth Palace, will pay tribute to the work of both the national and local churches in providing online services during the pandemic.

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Posted in Blogging & the Internet, Church of England (CoE), England / UK, Health & Medicine, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Science & Technology

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s New Year Message 2022

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Kendall Harmon

When it comes to climate change, it is tempting to despair, but there are real reasons to hope.

Last year, faith leaders representing three-quarters of the world’s population stood together at the Vatican and called for definitive action on climate change.

People of every background are campaigning and working for justice.

Important steps were taken at the COP26 summit. World leaders recognise the problem. Now they must agree and implement a fair solution for everyone.

When we plant a seed, we don’t see the fruit immediately. But under the surface, God is working with what we have planted.

In the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I see that God turns all endings into new beginnings, and death into life. God invites us to be part of this story – to be people who bring hope, healing and renewal to our world.

This year, let’s keep planting those seeds – let’s keep moving forward in hope.

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Posted in --Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England (CoE), Ecology, Energy, Natural Resources, Globalization, Science & Technology
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