Bishop Greg Thompson could return to the Hunter next year to become the new leader of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle.
The Newcastle Synod will consider the sole candidate for the Bishop of Newcastle when it meets on Saturday, September 14.
Bishop Thompson is the current Bishop of the Northern Territory and was raised at Muswellbrook.
The number of worshippers at Church of England cathedrals increased in 2012, continuing the growing trend seen since the Millennium. Total weekly attendance at the 43* cathedrals grew to 35,800, according to Cathedral Statistics 2012, an increase of 35% since 2002.
Along with occasional and special services, the regular worshipping life of cathedrals has proved more popular than ever over the past decade with cathedrals pointing to stronger community links attracting more people….
Easter 2012 saw the highest attendance in the last decade, at 54,700. Attendance at midweek services has grown most, from 8,900 in 2002 to 16,800, while Sunday attendance has grown from 17,500 to 19,100.
During a trip which will also include visits to Guatemala and Mexico, he praised the Anglican church in the West Indies for its “imaginative” contributions to the “unity and well-being” of the Anglican Communion.
Archbishop Justin and his wife, Caroline, arrived yesterday in Bardados for a two-day visit at the invitation of the Most Revd Dr John Holder, Archbishop of the Church of the Province of the West Indies and Bishop of Barbados.
The trip is part of a series of visits to Anglican Primates which the Archbishop is making during his first eighteen months in post.
The acoustics of the new Anglican cardboard cathedral have so far pleased experts and audiences.
“I’m absolutely thrilled and amazed at how good it is,” said Brian Law, cathedral director of music.
“I’m literally surprised.”
Davies dislikes factions, closed-door dealings and secrecy. He wants, he told me, “a diocese that is motivated by love and not by fear. Transparency is my word. And loving communication. I won’t be drawn by nitpicking and infighting and savaging each other. We have seen a wonderfully unified synod in this election process that is the work of God’s grace”. As Andrew Katay told me, Davies is “his own man with fresh ideas”.
Much like Pope Francis has found, I suspect Davies will be noticed first of all for a difference in tone. He speaks about needing to recognise the dignity of asylum seekers, and allow them to work instead of sticking them behind barbed wire with “looks of desperation”.
Davies is a true conservative, but is kindly, more tolerant of female preaching than his predecessor and, crucially, of dissent. People will not be blacklisted for airing different views. This could be the greatest sign of what promises to be a fascinating sea change in the Sydney Diocese.
Dr Davies faced a range of newspaper and television reporters only 24 hours after he was elected, fielding questions ranging from refugees and asylum seekers to the role of the Anglican Church in contemporary Australia.
While some reports concentrated on his views on current debates, the Archbishop-elect was forthright in his comments on the challenge of mission in Sydney.
He told reporters he sought to “lead and galvanise the diocese in a unified concern to bring the love of God to the people of Sydney, the Illawarra, the Northern Beaches and the Blue mountains, so that God’s word might be preeminent and people understand the challenge that God’s word brings.”
A consortium backed by the Church of England to bid for 315 Royal Bank of Scotland branches has lined up the ex-United Utilities boss Philip Green to front its bid.
Green is to replace John Tiner, the former Financial Services Authority chief executive who stepped down as chairman in the wake of the controversy caused by the parliamentary commission on banking standards investigation into HBOS.
Green is to chair the bid vehicle ”“ one of three that have submitted bids for the RBS branches this week ”“ working alongside former Lloyds Banking Group banker John Maltby who has been lined up as chief executive.
Sydney’s first new Anglican Archbishop in more than a decade says he will use the role to lobby the Federal Government to treat asylum seekers with more dignity and humanity.
Bishop Glenn Davies was elected as the Anglican Church’s 12th Archbishop of Sydney last night by the church’s synod, or governing body.
The synod is make up of 800 members from 280 churches around the diocese.
The Anglican Church of Canada has asked clergy for its support in a plea to Ontario pension fund regulators to give it a three year extension of time to address a cash crunch in the church’s pension plan.
In a July 2013 letter to the 1,600 active members and 2,600 retirees covered by the church pension programme the plan administrators told the clergy their approval was needed before the government would grant the plea for more time. “With funding relief, we will have three years to try to improve our plan’s funding level,” they wrote. “At the end of three years, we will do another valuation of the plan. If there is still a solvency funding shortfall, we will likely have no choice but to cut benefits.”
The average age of plan participants is 52.5….
The Anglican Communion on Sunday 4th August 2013 finally completed the processes of “Ordaining and Consecrating a new Episcopal Bishop in the person of His Grace the Rt. Rev. Thomas Arnold Ikunika Wilson as the 3rd Bishop of the Diocese of Freetown, (which also includes the North and interestingly, Bonthe) as successor to His Grace the Rt. Rev. Julius O P Lynch, whose 17 years Episcopacy ended on 24th July sharp, upon his attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70 years.
It was all pomp and pageantry complimented by four and half hours of High Mass at the Cathedral of St George in Freetown, second in perfection perhaps just perhaps ”“ to an Episcopal Ordination at the West Minister Abbey, whence the tradition originated. It was a well attended service that saw worshippers overflowing into nearby streets as far as blocks away from the Church premises, thus belying the previously discomforting perception that our Anglican Communion was dying.
One of the last of a clutch of deans to be nominated directly by the Crown Appointments’ Office in Downing Street (before Gordon Brown’s reforms rendered such positions subject to a dogmatic “human resources” process), Jukes’s preferment to Ripon was widely hailed as an inspired choice. For he had established a reputation as a troubleshooter during a ministry in Cannock and Selby, and the situation he inherited at Ripon was in need of urgent attention.
His predecessor, the Very Rev John Methuen, had resigned in 2005 rather than face 21 charges of “conduct unbecoming in the office of a clerk in holy orders”. The Cathedral community was divided and the finances and fabric were in a parlous state, running up annual deficits in the region of £300,000.
For some years, the Chapter had remained solvent only by selling properties and when Jukes, prior to taking up the post, asked to inspect the deanery, he was told that it was uninhabitable with the exception of a well-appointed wine cellar. He and his family therefore took up temporary accommodation in what was little more than a cottage with no office and little or no administrative support….
Dr Davies will be installed as Sydney’s 12th Anglican Archbishop in St Andrew’s Cathedral on 23 August. Archbishop Aspinall will attend the service.
“I’ve known Glenn for many years,” Archbishop Aspinall said. “I am sure I join the leaders of Australia’s other Anglican dioceses in welcoming Glenn, in praying for his leadership and in offering any practical help we can as he assumes these new responsibilities.
“Glenn is a well known and regarded contributor to the life of the national Church, having served on both the General Synod Standing Committee and the national Doctrine Commission for many years. He has demonstrated a commitment to listen, discuss and reflect upon issues that are sometimes painful and difficult, and to do so in a conciliatory way while holding on to his personal convictions. I see that as a hopeful sign for the future.
Bishop Glenn Davies has been elected as the new Archbishop of Sydney.
Dr Davies was elected on Tuesday afternoon by the church’s synod, the governing body comprised of 800 members from 280 churches around Sydney.
The church described Dr Davies’ election victory as “overwhelming”. But it was only reached after problems with vote tallying forced a recount.
The survey stopped short of singling out the UK government for giving a lack of clarity, saying that it was a Europewide and worldwide problem. But Ms Pfeifer conceded that “mixed messages are not helpful,” when asked about the current UK government’s record.
Some 69 per cent of fund managers surveyed said they were only appointing executives with a strong focus on climate change, a significant rise on a year ago. Meanwhile, 53 per cent of asset managers said they had either sold, or decided not to invest in, at least one company in the past year because of concerns about climate change, both moral and economic.
The survey included the views of 84 investment firms in 10 countries, including The Church Commissioners for England, BNP Paribas and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.
Anglicans and Catholics alike, said Pope Francis, should give “a voice to the cry of the poor, so that they are not abandoned to the laws of an economy that seems at times to treat people as mere consumers.”
This well-intentioned statement could have also come from his counterpart, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, since March the head of the Church of England and supreme spiritual leader of about 80 million Anglicans worldwide. Welby, 57, has addressed issues of justice in capitalism ever since he was a theology student, and he rewrote his doctoral thesis into a treatise that poses the question: “Can Companies Sin?”
Of course they can. Unlike his predecessors, Welby can draw on his own experience to answer such questions. Before beginning his church career, Welby worked for 11 years as a financial manager in the oil industry: five years at Elf Aquitaine in France, followed by six years in London and, most recently, with Enterprise Oil, a production company that is now part of the Shell conglomerate.
Read it all and enjoy the picture.
A synod of more than 800 members has overwhelmingly elected Bishop Glenn Davies as the 12th Archbishop of Sydney.
Dr Davies replaced Dr Peter Jensen who held the post for 12 years. For much of Archbishop Jensen’s tenure, Dr Davies served with him as the Bishop of North Sydney.
Read it all and there is a biography here and the statement of Canon Rick Smith is here
While we contend with the election of the next federal government and Prime Minister of Australia, there’s another kind of political battle afoot in Sydney.
With the retirement of Peter Jensen last month, competition has been hotting up for who will be the next Anglican Archbishop of Sydney
ABC Religion & Ethics editor Scott Stephens outlined why the election is important and quirks of the Sydney Anglican community.
Listen to it all (a little under 16 minutes).
Following legislation that permits same-sex “marriage” in the U.K. yet prohibits the Church of England from performing the ceremony, two men are planning to sue to be able to marry in their church.
“We are happy for gay marriage to be recognized ”” in that sense, it is a big step. But it is actually a small step because it is something we still cannot actually do,” Barrie Drewitt-Barlow told the Essex Chronicle Aug. 1.
“We need to convince the church that it is the right thing for our community for them to recognize as practicing Christians.”
There is something endearingly audacious about Justin Welby’s expressed desire to compete the titans of Britain’s payday loan industry out of existence. But the Archbishop of Canterbury’s remarks raise two connected questions. Can he do it, and should he want to?
The first point is easier to deal with….
There are better ways for the archbishop to help the poor than for the church to dish Wonga. Those on the margins of society will always need occasional access to loans to help tide them over unscheduled expenses or interruptions in income. That these should be appropriately priced goes without saying.
The real challenge, however, is not simply to shave the interest rate by a few points, but to ensure that those who take out loans do so in the full knowledge of the risks and with a realistic plan for managing them. This means two things: first, offering genuine advice to potential borrowers; and second, real assistance should things go wrong….
Read it all (or if necessary another link is there).
The Anglican Church in Egypt has continued to invest heavily in the health care sector to provide primary and preventative services to meet the country’s family, women, occupational and emergency health services.
The Church runs the Harpur Memorial Hospitals found in Egyptian cities of Menouf and Sadat, both of which are reputed for outstanding care and for seeking to show the “love of God through the services provided”.
“These doctors are very professional and I completely trust their treatment,” said one patient from a small village near Sadat City. “All of the staff have loyalty in their work, show respect to patients and are kind. They have high morals, and this is how medicine should be.”
Anglican Church bishops from Western Kenya have asked Kenyans to maintain peace. The bishops arrived from Rwanda last Saturday. They had been invited by bishops in the Anglican Church of Rwanda for a one week session on peace.
The Church should be a “movement of prayer” which creates “collateral blessing”, the Archbishop of Canterbury (above) said on Monday night. He was speaking at New Wine, a Charismatic Evangelical festival in Somerset, which he and his family attended for 12 years when he was a parish priest.
“The US Army gave us the expression ‘collateral damage’, which means killing people you did not mean to target,” he said. “People seeking Christ create collateral blessing. That means changing the world for the better, in ways you could not have predicted.”
Archbishop Welby continued: “There has never been a renewal of the Church in Western Europe without a renewal of prayer and the life of religious communities. Never. And if we want to see things changed, it starts with prayer.”
Christians in these circumstances are facing a dangerous backlash, Church leaders having supported the ousting of Mr Morsi. Pope Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church ”“ at whose enthronement last November in Cairo the Archbishop of Dublin acted as a representative of the former Archbishop of Canterbury ”“ was critical of Mr Morsi’s pro-Islamist approach and attended the ceremony at which the army’s commander, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, announced the suspension of the country’s constitution. The killing of a Coptic priest and attacks on Christians’ homes have shown very clearly how vulnerable the approximately 10 per cent minority is in the situation.
The Church must heed the call of Bishop Anis and pray at this time for healing in a very troubled nation, and for all Christians in Egypt who are suffering real personal dangers.
The Anglican ordinariates have been given permission by Pope Francis to evangelize lapsed Catholics. On 31 May 2013 the pope amended Article 5 of the ordinariates governing Norms, widening its base for evangelization from ex-Anglicans to include those Catholics who had fallen away from the church before being confirmed.
The new Article 5 §2 of the ordinariate’s Norms states:
A person who has been baptised in the Catholic Church but who has not completed the Sacraments of Initiation, and subsequently returns to the faith and practice of the Church as a result of the evangelising mission of the Ordinariate, may be admitted to membership in the Ordinariate and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation or the Sacrament of the Eucharist or both.
Read it all (requires subscription).
A credit unions expert has praised the Church of England for its plan to out-compete payday lending company Wonga.
Dr Peter Davis, of the University of Leicester’s School of Management, has worked as a consultant on credit unions and other forms of co-operative around the world – including for the United Nations Anti-Poverty Unit.
He welcomed the Archbishop of Canterbury Rev Justin Welby’s plan to build up credit unions as an alternative to payday loans that charge astronomical interest rates.
More than 130 years after it was founded opposite St Peter’s Cathedral, St Barnabas’ Theological College is coming home to North ÂAdelaide.
The college is planning a $1.3 million building behind the Anglican Archbishop’s historic home, Bishop’s Court, in Palmer Place.
Construction will start in October ahead of an opening next July.
The Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Archbishop Nicholas Okoh has paid a solidarity visit to residents of Borno State.
He said the Anglican Church was worried over the inability to communicate with the people of the state, hence, it had to raise a team to visit the state.
The spiritual head of the Anglican Church, who was accompanied to the troubled state by 14 other Bishops, revealed during a courtesy call on Borno State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Zanna Umar Mustapha, on Monday, that they were in the state to sympathize and share difficulties with the people and pray for peace to return.
It was not the ideal start to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s grand initiative to bring a new morality to Britain’s banking sector….
But despite the stumble out of the gate, Welby appears committed to taking on payday loans ”“ small, high-interest, short-term loans to those who can’t get credit elsewhere ”“ as a means of “speaking for the poor.” And his plan raises questions about just how much clout the Church of England wields through its portfolio of investments and through the influence the church has over its flock ”“ how it ought to wield it.