All is now set for the commissioning and dedication of a new massive church building adjudged as the biggest Anglican Church in Lagos.

The new building, St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Kirikiri Industrial Estate Lagos which was begun in July 2005, has cost over N400 million upon completion. It will be dedicated on Sunday, June 23, this year.

Archdeacon of cum Vicar of the church, the Venerable Levi Opara, who disclosed this in a statement made available to Sunday Mirror yesterday, said commendation must be given to the untiring efforts of the Bishop of Lagos and Dean Emeritus of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. (Dr) Ephraim Ademowo, for stirring up contributions from well-meaning Nigerians and church members.

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92% of lone parent families are headed by the mother. Even at birth, 20% of children live with only 1 parent, by the time they are teenagers this is nearly 50%. For up to 3 million children tomorrow will be Absent Fathers Day, and here are some of the the consequences:
Children who experience family breakdown are more likely to

–experience behavioural problems;
–perform less well in school;
–need more medical treatment;
–leave school and home earlier;
–become sexually active, pregnant or a parent at an early age;
and report more depressive symptoms and higher levels of smoking, drinking and other drug use during adolescence and adulthood.

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The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev. Michael Langrish, represented the Anglican Communion last month at a gathering of faith leaders in Brussels. Bishop Langrish along with 19 representatives from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths were invited to voice their ideas about the future of Europe, about the European values, social issues and questions of solidarity with leaders of the EU.

On 30 May 2013 they joined José Manuel Barroso, President of the EC, Herman van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and László Surján, Vice-President of the EP to discuss the theme “Putting citizens at the heart of the European project in times of change”.

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Barely twenty years ago, serious commentators, like Francis Fukuyama in his book The End of History, were able to argue that liberal democracy and market economics may constitute the term of mankind’s ideological evolution and the final form of human government, and thus the end-point of history. History, however, has moved on in the intervening years, not least in the new prominence of religious convictions and institutions.

In these circumstances, it has proved harder to craft a political rhetoric and a convincing narrative pointing to a better material future, which many citizens have begun to suspect actually lies behind us. Hope is on the wing while some of the strongest political passions seem to be engaged, not by a vision of a better future but by a rather narrow nationalism which exalts our tribe against the others.

Is a renewed Christian vision in these circumstances possible? It may be, but I wonder whether the Christian community is ready for it?

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Summer broke into a damp and cloudy June evening on Tuesday at a gala opening for Winchester Cathedral’s “Symphony of Flowers”.

Standing under an arcade of miniature daisies that led down the nave to a breathtaking wildflower meadow, rippling in a cool breeze that replicated the weather outside, the actress Patricia Routledge congratulated the design team for enabling such humble flowers to shine amid a display of traditional and contemporary floral exhibits.

Elsewhere, 52 large-scale exhibits, created in two days by 300 flower arrangers from the Wessex and Jersey area of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS), interpret musical genres or hymns, each in relation to their cathedral surroundings.

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Baby boomers are a “fortunate generation” who have enjoyed dramatic improvements in living standards but are now “absorbing” more than their fair share of taxpayers’ money, one of the Church of England’s most senior clerics has suggested.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, who is 65, said there were “severe questions” about the share of government spending that goes on his own generation.
He said the world was in the midst of a transformation that had left many believing that our best days could be “behind us”.

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There’s been a lot of nonsense written about what the statement from the Bishop of Leicester following the Second Reading in the Lords of the Same-Sex Marriage Bill actually means, chiefly down to the spin that the Telegraph put on it. However, if you read the statement carefully you can see that the Church of England has not surrendered on the Bill and in fact may very well continue to oppose it in Committee stage and at a Third Reading.

Let’s read what the Bishop actually wrote, not what others are implying he wrote.

Both Houses of Parliament have now expressed a clear view by large majorities on the principle that there should be legislation to enable same-sex marriages to take place in England and Wales.

It is now the duty and responsibility of the Bishops who sit in the House of Lords to recognise the implications of this decision and to join with other Members in the task of considering how this legislation can “.

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The Queen could be asked to dissolve the ruling body of the Church of England if members fail to agree on how to ordain women bishops next month.

Positions have become more entrenched since last November, when a handful of members of the General Synod’s house of laity plunged the Church into crisis by voting against the move. This came after the houses of bishops and clergy had backed women bishops. Overall, more than seven in ten synod members voted in favour.It had been hoped that a similar schism would be avoided this summer when the synod meets to vote….

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Less than half of the Anglican Church’s 30 Canadian dioceses bless same-sex marriages and not one performs same-sex marriages. The Saskatoon diocese does not bless same sex marriages.

[The Rev. Emily} Carr was married in a United church, not an Anglican Church.

“Getting married was a priority for me. It was something that I wanted to do. If it were to happen that I would lose my job – that was a possibility – I had to understand that was the decision I was making,” she said. “Fortunately for me, that didn’t happen.”

She believes the Anglican Church still has a long way to go in terms GLBT rights.

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I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Sharp differences are already emerging in the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland barely six months after the Supreme Court ruling declared the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa as the rightful custodians of the diocese’s properties.

So sharp are the difference that some disgruntled members have since written a petition to the Archbishop of Central Africa and Bishop of Northern Zambia, the Most Reverend Albert Chama, tabling a number of issues, among them that the bishop of the Diocese, Bishop Julius Makoni is a “visiting bishop” who spends most of his time in London and does not know the diocese. The petition, which this paper has in possession is dated May 14, 2013.

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The Church of England has admonished one of its priests for calling the Archbishop of Canterbury a “w****r” on Facebook in a row over gay marriage. The Rev Marcus Ramshaw, who like Justin Welby trained for the priesthood at Cranmer Hall, Durham, also described him as a “massive mistake”.

After the Archbishop spoke against gay marriage in the House of Lords, Mr Ramshaw called for a petition to be set up urging him to resign….

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Fourteen diocesan bishops were present at the vote on a wrecking amendment to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on Tuesday night, the largest number to attend a vote in recent times.

Of the 14, nine voted for Lord Dear’s wrecking amendment to deny the Bill a second reading. Five abstained. The nine were: the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Bristol, Birmingham, Chester, Coventry, Exeter, Hereford, London, and Winchester. The Bishops of Derby, Guildford, Leicester, Norwich, and St Edmundsbury & Ipswich abstained.

The amendment was rejected in the House of Lords by 390 votes to 148. Several Christian Peers spoke in favour of the Bill. Lord Black of Brentwood, a Christian in a civil partnership, said: “I support it because I am a Christian and I believe we are all equal in the eyes of God, and should be so under man’s laws.”

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The Bishop of Leicester, who leads the bishops in the House of Lords, said they would now concentrate their efforts on “improving” rather than halting an historic redefinition of marriage.

It represents a dramatic change of tack in the year since the Church insisted that gay marriage posed one of the biggest threats of disestablishment of the Church of England since the reign of Henry VIII.

And it comes despite a warning from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, that the redefinition of marriage would undermine the “cornerstone” of society.

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Both Houses of Parliament have now expressed a clear view by large majorities on the principle that there should be legislation to enable same-sex marriages to take place in England and Wales. It is now the duty and responsibility of the Bishops who sit in the House of Lords to recognise the implications of this decision and to join with other Members in the task of considering how this legislation can be put into better shape.

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Watch it all, from a speech hosted by Christian Solidarity International (CSI).

The newly-installed Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will visit Pope Francis on 14 June, the Vatican has confirmed.

It will mark the first meeting between Pope Francis and the new head of the Church of England and spiritual head of the global Anglican Church.

The brief courtesy visit is expected to be “informal” but “important” according to a representative of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, whose president Cardinal Kurt Koch will meet and pray with Welby. The Archbishop of Canterbury is also expected to visit the tomb of Blessed John Paul II.

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The Auckland Council has approved funding of $3 million to help renovate New Zealand’s oldest and biggest Anglican church.

At a council meeting, the Holy Trinity Cathedral asked for help with the project which has a total cost of $12 million. It includes finishing a chapel, joining the neighbouring St Mary’s Church to the cathedral, and repairing two pipe organs.

Despite some strong opposition during a two-hour debate on Thursday, councillors decided to support it in a 10 to 6 vote.

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The leader of Kenya’s Anglican Church has reprimanded the country’s parliamentarians for demanding a pay increase 100 times the minimum wage.

In a statement, Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya and Bishop of All Saints Cathedral Diocese the Most Revd Dr Eliud Wabukala expressed his disappointment over the MPs’ demands. He said, “We are aggrieved that MPs on both sides of the house found common ground to overwhelmingly vote for the salary increment, yet positions on national priorities like security, health, education and poverty alleviation are not assured of such prompt response.

“The MPs’ move to determine their pay is unconstitutional and is a direct conflict of interest,” said the Archbishop. “We urge [them] to pursue dialogue with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission as opposed to [engaging in such] rebellious acts as attempting to repeal acts of parliament to work in their favour.”

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We do not know what was prayed. Her Majesty knelt at the beginning of a path of demanding devotion and utter self-sacrifice, a path she did not choose, yet to which she was called by God. Today we celebrate sixty years since that moment, sixty years of commitment.

There was a trumpet fanfare as today as the Queen arrived with her supporters, but let us resist the splendour of the spectacle for a moment, and focus on what was meant: “Not my will, Lord, but yours be done.”

And following her giving of allegiance to God, others – especially, with such equal and dedicated commitment, the Duke of Edinburgh – pledged their allegiance to her.

And here, in the grace and providence of God, is the model of liberty and authority which our country enjoys. Liberty is only real when it exists under authority. Liberty under authority begins, as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, with our duty to God, “whose service is perfect freedom”.

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Colin Hart, Campaign Director for the Coalition for Marriage, said that although the Government had won the vote today, the debate had revealed the strength of opposition to the bill.

He remained optimistic that better safeguards for those with a traditional understanding of marriage would be introduced to the bill.

He said: “We will continue to campaign to save traditional marriage and today’s vote and the concerns expressed by many peers mean we will be able to introduce safeguards that will protect teachers, registrars, chaplains and anyone who works in the public sector. And if the Government refuse to accept these changes, they risk losing the legislation at third reading.”

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The environmental film entitled ”˜Our Hope for God’s Creation’ shows how churches across Yorkshire and the North East are responding to environmental challenges and global warming. The film is to be viewed in northern parishes ahead of World Environment Day on 5th June 2013.

”˜Our Hope for God’s Creation’, produced by the Church of England in Yorkshire and the North East, illustrates how very different parishes are responding to the threats posed by climate change as we are called to steward God’s creation. It features the solar panels on Bradford Cathedral’s roof, and churches of various traditions in Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Wakefield and York, as well as featuring a vicarage in Durham diocese with air-source heat pumps.

Read it all and see what you think of the film.

Those of us who were married according to the Book of Common Prayer will recall the preface to the wedding service:

“And therefore is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly or wantonly”.

Although addressed to the couple, the words can bear the broader meaning that nobody should take marriage lightly or indifferently. It is the view of many people that, sadly, this has happened and is happening. The noble Lord, Lord Dear, in his brave speech, gave voice to that. We are treating it all too lightly.

The Conservative Party knows that if the intention to widen marriage to include same-sex couples had been put in its manifesto, it would not have been in a position to form a coalition. Discussion of this fundamental building block of society””we have all described it as that””has been thwarted at every turn. There has not been a proper debate, and the consultative process has been a shambles because, right from the outset, the Government have made it clear that the consultation has never been about whether same sex couples should marry, but how it might be achieved.

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The second day of Synod… [in 1994] I turned towards the issue that would in many ways define the life and ministry of the diocese, as well as my own, for the next decade. These were some of my remarks on that Saturday…:

We are living in a time when issues of human sexuality have acquired a new urgency in our culture. We did not choose this, and many of us would like it to go away again. But sex is here before us, and we must accept the fact that we are the generation in the church that has to wrestle anew with this old, old question. What is human sexuality for? What has sexuality to do with God, and how can we understand it in the light of our creation by God and our redemption by Jesus Christ?

Little did we know back then al that would lie before us in our attempts to answer these questions faithfully and with compassion. In those days we had never heard of Lambeth Resolution 1:10; no one could have anticipated the Windsor Report; I had never been trained in seminary to spend two days on a witness stand in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

And yet now, twenty years later, many things have changed….

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Prayers are underway at Namugongo as thousands of Christians commemorate the day the Uganda Martyrs were killed some 127 years ago.

The martyrs who refused to reject their faith in Jesus Christ were killed on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga in 1886.

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O God, by whose providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: Grant that we who remember before thee the blessed martyrs of Uganda, may, like them, be steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ, to whom they gave obedience even unto death, and by their sacrifice brought forth a plentiful harvest; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Rt Revd Alastair Redfern, Bishop of Derby, has welcomed the post-2015 development agenda report of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel, co-chaired by David Cameron. The report, A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development, builds on the successes of the Millennium Development Goals experiment and calls for an end to absolute poverty by 2030.

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Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane joined the Eldorado community in its battle against drugs.

“We will defeat this demon,” she told members of the Anglican church in a prayer march in Eldorado Park on Sunday.

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Four days before Coventry Cathedral was destroyed in Germany’s 1940 bombing of the city, its Provost, Dick Howard, prophetically prayed at its Remembrance service that after the war, British and Germans would be “united in the bonds of Christian love and work together as friends.” Six weeks later, his broadcast from its ruins urged “a more Christ-Child sort of world” post-war.

His sublime vision of the Cathedral as beacon of reconciliation for a broken world, simply yet profoundly expressed in ”˜Father, forgive’ on its memorial altar, remarkably became core mission of the new cathedral consecrated in 1962, its dramatic architecture symbolic of Crucifixion and Resurrection, destruction and peace. Landmark tourist attraction and show-piece of mid-20th century religious art, Coventry Cathedral became Britain’s most celebrated centre of post-war Christian renewal through experimental engagement with secular worlds ”“ industry, education, community relations, the arts ”“ and courageous dedication to British-German reconciliation and subsequent global reconciliation ministry.

As someone much involved in 1960s-early 1970s with the cathedral’s student and global ministries, and the city’s trans-European ”˜twinning’ links ”” for Dresden very complementary ”” I welcome two publications on the achievement and challenge of Coventry’s reconciliation mission.

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“A catalyst for change” across the Communion is how Archbishop Albert Chama of Central Africa describes the Alliance, as he takes on the position of Chair of the new Board of Trustees.

The Primate will be leading the Anglican Alliance into a new stage of its life as a charity with a global board, bringing forward a new programme for its development, relief and advocacy across the Anglican Communion.

“The Anglican Alliance can be a catalyst for change, bringing people together across the Communion in our shared mission to build a world free of poverty and injustice,” he said.

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The House of Bishops will bring a motion to the General Synod on Monday 8 July, at its sessions in York, requesting the drafting of new legislation to enable women to be consecrated to the episcopate. If it is passed, this will allow time for further debate in November, and the process could be concluded in 2015.

The Bishops envisage the legislation as “a measure and amending canon that made it lawful for women to become bishops”, and “the repeal of the statutory rights to pass Resolutions A and B under the 1993 Measure”

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