Why? A believer myself, I’ve spent weeks talking to my fellow faithful and to clergy at all levels, trying to find the answer. St Paul distilled Christianity down to three things: faith, hope and love. In my many discussions, I found plenty of the first, although little agreement about what it was placed in; not much of the second; and the third, well, it was in short supply.

I came away thinking that, for the CofE, this really might be the end of days. The first horseman of this coming apocalypse is the ugliest: the church’s hideous record of abuse.

We’re talking about the case of John Smyth, an evangelical Christian whose sadistic sexual beatings brutalised more than 100 young men over four decades. It was the Makin report into the case that forced Welby to resign when it revealed that he had known Smyth for decades and had failed to report the case to police when he was made aware of allegations in 2013.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Scandals, schism and decay: is the Church of England doomed?

Justin Welby and others have left in disgrace and the gaps between factions are widening. Stephen Bleach meets vicars across the country to see if the institution can be saved https://t.co/jjTE0Fuk5s

— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) December 22, 2024

THE Bishop’s Council of the diocese of Truro has written an open letter calling for “real change” to safeguarding.

In a letter sent to churches and schools in the diocese, and published online on Wednesday, the council — which includes the Acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson — endorse the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, describing her recent action as “prophetic”.

“Over the last three weeks the safeguarding failures of the Church of England have been laid bare yet again. We are hearing clearly from survivors and victims of abuse in this diocese and beyond that the national church response is causing intense pain,” the letter begins.

The signatories, which along with Bishop Nelson comprise the Archdeacons of Bodmin and Cornwall, the Dean of Truro, and the chairs of the diocesan board of finance, House of Laity, and House of Clergy — say that it they “join our voice to Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley’s prophetic call for us to be a different sort of church.

Read it all.

Diocese of Truro calls for ‘real change’ to safeguarding https://t.co/hGdCpo6Sa3

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 20, 2024

Diocesan bishops are facing fresh demands for the abolition of their seats in the House of Lords. Parliament is considering new legislation to end the centuries-old presence of hereditary peers, and is questioning the presence of the Lords Spiritual (News, 1 November).

In the Second Reading of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, debated over two sessions last week, Baroness Smith of Basildon, the Leader of the House, said: “The intention is crystal clear: to end the hereditary element of the second Chamber before embarking on further changes.”

On behalf of the Government, she explained how the proposed legislation had been part of the Labour election manifesto this year, and described the proposals to remove the 92 hereditary peers who currently sit as “a reasonable and well-trailed piece of legislation”.

Read it all.

Diocesan bishops are facing fresh demands for the abolition of their seats in the House of Lords. Parliament is considering new legislation to end the centuries-old presence of hereditary peers, and is questioning the presence of the Lords Spiritual https://t.co/RfyHB0jAHO pic.twitter.com/Aa5WU00tEE

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 19, 2024

Lord Evans of Weardale, a former director-general of MI5 and a cross-bencher in the House of Lords, is to chair the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) that will choose the next Archbishop of Canterbury, it was announced on Monday.

He is an “active and communicant member of his local parish church”, Downing Street says.

The vacancy-in-see committee for Canterbury met for the first time last week. It will consider what type of person is needed for the position, and elect three diocesan representatives to the CNC.

In parallel, a public consultation, overseen by Church House and Downing Street, will gauge general opinion about the offce of Archbishop and the qualities required. This is expected to begin in the new year.

Read it all.

Lord Evans to chair Crown Nominations Commission that will choose next Archbishop of Canterbury https://t.co/c5i9luPULL

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 17, 2024

“I know there are other bishops who felt the Archbishop of Canterbury should resign because I spoke to them in the days before,” [Bishop Helen-Ann] Hartley, 51, says. “So when I made the initial call, I fully expected one or two colleagues to come out and say, ‘we agree with the Bishop of Newcastle’. When, instead, there was this wall of silence, I was pretty exposed and did feel frozen out.

“I had a few private contacts, ‘hope you’re OK’, ‘just let me know if you want a cup of tea’, ‘thoughts and prayers’ but I really wanted colleagues — some colleagues at least — to speak out publicly to support my interventions.”

Confident, engaging and thoughtful, with a ready smile, Hartley confesses to feeling “a degree of vulnerability” after recent events. So much so that, in London this week to attend the House of Lords, she has been avoiding the Bishops’ robing room.

“I don’t feel able to go into the Bishops’ robing room at the moment on my own. You might say that’s an overreaction but I don’t feel confident enough to go into that room with colleagues present. So I’ve asked for my robes to be moved. And I’m really sad that’s the case but I have to look after myself in this too. I hope it’s temporary.”

Read it all (registration or subscription).

“The next archbishop has to … deal with the systemic issues of dysfunction both in the institution & its central capacity, but also in the House of Bishops in terms of cultures around power, privilege & entitlement that persist”https://t.co/9KKWui8SAe

— HouseofSurvivors (@HseofSurvivors) December 13, 2024

The Church of England is facing “one of the biggest existential crises . . . since the Reformation”, in the wake of the Makin Review into abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Jonathan Gibbs, said on Tuesday.

Speaking after voting in favour of a diocesan synod motion that expressed no confidence in the Archbishops’ Council’s oversight of safeguarding (News, 10 December), he suggested that the lack of a national, pastoral response to the strength of emotion elicited by the report had been a “significant omission”.

“In many people’s views, and I think I would share it, this is one of the biggest existential crises that the Church of England has faced since the Reformation,” he said. “For that reason, I think there is a real need for what I would call a pastoral response, acknowledging that hurt and pain, particularly of victims and survivors, but that so many people are feeling.”

This was happening at a diocesan and local level, he said, but required a national response, too. “I think we are going through a period of collective trauma over this, above all for victims and survivors but also for the whole Church, and I think it’s a shame that there hasn’t been that broader response from the Archbishops’ Council.”

Read it all.

The Church of England is facing “one of the biggest existential crises . . . since the Reformation”, in the wake of the Makin Review into abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Jonathan Gibbs, said on Tuesday https://t.co/NEXbzaYMoz

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 11, 2024

Ordained in 1989, David began his ministry as a curate in Ecclesall, Sheffield Diocese. He was a priest in Dore before being appointed Rural Dean of Ecclesall in 1997. In 2002 he became the vicar of Christ Church in Winchester and was made an honorary canon of Winchester Cathedral in 2012.

On his appointment, David said: “I can’t tell you how excited I am to be coming to the Diocese of Truro. It’s been an astonishing journey, enriched by so many people I’ve met on the way, people who clearly have been praying; people who’ve been seeking wisdom for the future of the church in Cornwall.

“What a remarkable place this is! I’ve worked in and visited Cornwall many times over the last 30 years and each time have come back feeling refreshed and renewed – both spiritually and physically.

Read it all.

"I am, at heart, a parish priest. I want to continue working for the flourishing of local churches. The local church is vital to a local community."

Rt Rev David Williams has been announced as the 17th Bishop of Truro.

Read more at https://t.co/OInxVZN8xO.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) December 11, 2024

Fr Luke is currently the Archdeacon of Chichester.  He trained for ministry at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield.  He served his title at Abertillery with Cwmtillery and Six Bells, Monmouth and, in 2000, was ordained Priest. In 2001 Luke was appointed Minor Canon at St Woolos Cathedral, Newport. From 2003 he served as Rector of St Dunstan with Holy Angels, Cranford, in the Diocese of London and, in 2008, was appointed Vicar of St Gabriel, Pimlico. From 2013 Luke served as Priest-in-Charge and then Rector of Christ Church, St Mary Magdalen and St Peter & St Paul, St Leonards on Sea in the Diocese of Chichester, serving in addition as Priest-in-Charge of St Clement and All Saints, Hastings. In 2019 he took up his current role as Archdeacon of Chichester.

Read it all.

“I am deeply humbled to have been called to serve as the next Bishop of Richborough."

Chichester Archdeacon Luke Irvine-Capel will be the new Suffragan Bishop of Richborough, succeeding Bishop Norman Banks.

Read more at https://t.co/Xm4nAne2SV.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) December 10, 2024

The “atmosphere of blame and guilt” that has followed publication of the Makin Review is creating a culture of fear that encourages cover-up, the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, warned this week.

He spoke of “real fear in the local church” among clergy and parish safeguarding officers (PSOs), who needed reassurance about their practice, and of the importance of creating a “no-blame atmosphere, where we are asking not who but why, where we are all looking to improve in an atmosphere where we won’t be hung out to dry.

“I regret this atmosphere of blame and guilt that has followed Makin and is being stirred up by all sorts of people including some of my colleagues, because it creates a culture of fear, and and a culture of fear encourages cover-up,” he said on Tuesday. “Whereas, for good safeguarding, you need a no-blame culture.

Read it all.

Clergy are scared of a culture of guilt and blame, says Bishop of Blackburn https://t.co/hKcPNAe9Dg

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 7, 2024

We write after watching Archbishop Justin’s farewell speech in the House of Lords yesterday.  We have heard from several of you about the distress and anger that this has caused you.

Both in content and delivery, the speech was utterly insensitive, lacked any focus on victims and survivors of abuse, especially those affected by John Smyth, and made light of the events surrounding the Archbishop’s resignation. It was mistaken and wrong. We acknowledge and deeply regret that this has caused further harm to you in an already distressing situation.

We know that the Church of England has seriously failed over many years at many levels in relation to safeguarding, and we are so sorry that yesterday’s speech was the antithesis of all that we are now trying to work towards in terms of culture change and redress with all of you.…

Read it all.

Extraordinary that the lead bishops for safeguarding in the @churchofengland should issue this message to abuse survivors following #justinwelby’s speech. But entirely necessary. Relieved they acted so swiftly. pic.twitter.com/ck4TFdy2ha

— Michael Sadgrove (@MichaelSadgrove) December 6, 2024

The Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested that he may not have been personally responsible for the Church of England’s mishandling of a child sexual abuse scandal.

In his final House of Lords speech as Archbishop, the Most Rev Justin Welby implied that the institution’s failure to stop serial predator John Smyth would have warranted his resignation regardless of his own personal culpability.

He said that a “head” had to “roll”, and that this would have been the case “whether one is personally responsible or not”.

“The reality is that there comes a time, if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility, where the shame of what has gone wrong, whether one is personally responsible or not, must require a head to roll,” he said.

“And there is only, in this case, one head that rolls well enough.”

Read it all.

Archbishop of Canterbury implies he is not responsible over sex abuse scandalhttps://t.co/DtcUXG4mEU

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 5, 2024

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s former chaplain has become the first serving bishop to step back from her role after a report into the Church’s handling of a child sexual abuse scandal.

The Bishop for Episcopal Ministry in the Anglican Communion, the Right Rev Dr Jo Bailey Wells, was asked to step away from ministry after the publication of a review into the Anglican clergy’s failure to stop the serial child abuser John Smyth.

On Tuesday morning, the Diocese of London confirmed that Bishop Dr Bailey Wells had been asked to temporarily pause her ministry pending a “safeguarding risk assessment”.

Read it all.

This article says it is “pending a safeguarding risk assessment”. But no one suggests JBW is a current risk. Victims call for those who knew in 2013 to be held to account for HISTORIC failings. This is what the NST seems incapable of @JanetEastham https://t.co/dP3tC8rwjb

— Graham (@Graham1munro) December 3, 2024

After the publication of the Makin review, “and in view of the process now being undertaken by the National Safeguarding Team”, Bishop Snow had “requested that John steps back from ministry whilst this work is conducted, which John [Woolmer] has voluntarily agreed to do”. His PTO would be reviewed again, “once the National Safeguarding Team and the Diocesan Safeguarding Team have concluded their work”.

Writing on social media last week, one Smyth survivor, Graham, wrote: “I cannot speak for all victims, but John Woolmer is one of the good guys. He wrote to victims in 2017, a heart-rending mea culpa. We forgave him immediately. . . Victims do not want ‘revenge’, we want full disclosure, and honest, credible, apology. Woolmer is a good man.”

In 2021, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: “I have made it clear that the National Safeguarding Team will investigate every clergy person or others within their scope of whom they have been informed who knew and failed to disclose the abuse” (News, 21 May 2021). This commitment was also made to survivors, with the Archbishop saying that a list held up by one survivor would act as the basis for investigations.

The Makin review records that “this is not what then happened,” and that victims felt that a promise had been broken. “The investigations being undertaken were in order to establish whether an ordained person was presenting a current safeguarding risk.”

Read it all.

A former Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, is among the clergy who have been asked to “step back” from ministry while safeguarding reviews prompted by the Makin review are conducted, it was confirmed this week https://t.co/EVtJUfLlns

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 28, 2024

Bishop Mullally, who is the C of E’s lead bishop for health care and a former Chief Nursing Officer for England, said: “The Church of England believes that the compassionate response at the end of life lies in the provision of high quality palliative care services to all who need them.

“Today’s vote still leaves the question of how this could be implemented in an overstretched and under-funded NHS, social care, and legal system. Safeguarding the most vulnerable must be at the heart of the coming parliamentary process; today’s vote is not the end of the debate.”

The Archbishop of York was reported in the Guardian as saying: “I regret this decision. It changes the relationship between the state and its citizens, between doctors and their patients, and within families between children and their terminally ill relatives. Once begun it will be hard to undo and control.”

Read it all.

Church figures have expressed concern after the first steps towards making assisted dying legal in England and Wales were taken on Friday. https://t.co/O4jCF3HaEI

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 2, 2024

The NST is following a four-stage process. Stage one is an initial assessment of risk, examining if anyone criticised in the review is an immediate safeguarding risk of harm to others or not. This work is being undertaken by DSOs, CSOs and the NST. It is important to note that if someone is considered not to be an immediate risk that this does not exclude them from consideration under stages two, three or four of the process.

It is also important to note that the NST’s initial responsibility is to examine safeguarding risk. Their work may then lead to other processes including capability or disciplinary, which hold people to account for failures of safeguarding, conduct, or other aspects of leadership responsibility, or for actions which have caused reputational harm. It is for each diocese to come to a decision using disciplinary, capability, or other appropriate processes.

Stage two of the NST process is a more in-depth assessment to be completed by Regional Safeguarding Leads, after which recommendations will be made. 

Read it all.

This really is unacceptable. https://t.co/Wd3vRhpohX Survivors have been waiting for years for a proper response and some action. So what do the Archbishops' Council do? Devise a process to kick the can down the road. Is there anyone in the National Church willing to say enough!

— Pete Broadbent @petespurs.bsky.social (@petespurs) December 3, 2024

Andrew has previously worked and lived in the Diocese in Europe. Prior to ordination he worked in Malta in a banknote-printing factory. His curacy was at St Michael’s Paris. Andrew remembers his time at St Michael’s very fondly and is looking forward to returning to explore more of the Diocese in Europe.  

Andrew was ordained priest in 1996. Following his curacy in Paris he became Associate Vicar at Christ Church, Clifton in the Diocese of Bristol. He worked with Archbishop Rowan Williams as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for International, Ecumenical and Anglican Communion Affairs. He was then Principal of Ridley Hall theological college from 2008 to 2016 before moving to the newly-formed Diocese of Leeds. He is author of ‘A Church Observed: being Anglican as times change’. Andrew is married to Amanda, who works for the Leprosy Mission and is a Licensed Lay Minister. They have two adult daughters.  

Andrew said: 

‘I’m delighted to be returning to the diocese where I served my curacy. Being Suffragan Bishop in this vast and fascinating diocese is an exciting as well as a daunting prospect. In partnership with other churches in Europe, there’s wonderful potential for nurturing Christian faith and witness. I’m really looking forward to coming alongside our chaplaincies in all their glorious diversity, so we can rise together to the challenges and opportunities ahead, in faith-filled and imaginative ways.’ 

Bishop Robert said:  

“I am very excited about Andrew’s appointment. Andrew has a great variety of experience and gifts in theology, ecumenical work and strategic development that are highly relevant to our diocese. I’m sure he will be a wise senior colleague and an encouraging pastor to our clergy and congregations. I am very much looking forward to working with him. Please do join me in praying for Andrew and Amanda as they face this major time of transition.” 

Read it all.

Former Ridley Principal Canon Andrew Norman to be Europe suffragan https://t.co/LALxvfX2ax

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 29, 2024

Some time ago, I found myself sitting at a dinner opposite a Labour peer. We chatted over various things as the evening proceeded. Just before we were getting up to leave a new topic came up. “I am a convinced campaigner for assisted dying,” she said. “As a bishop, I suspect you’re not. Why don’t you think we should do it?” Put on the spot, struggling to know what to say, and knowing I probably had one line to deliver as we stood up to leave, I said something like this: “Life is a gift from God. It’s not up to us to decide when it ends.” She looked across at me with a pitying look and walked away, clearly unconvinced.

I’ve often wondered what I should have said. Lord Falconer suggests that only secular people like him are ‘objective’ and religious people like me or Shabana Mahmood are biased and therefore our views are to be discounted. The idea that his secular perspective is not colouring his views, but that our religious ones are, or that he is not imposing his beliefs on others whereas we are, is of course, as Isabel Hardman has argued, philosophical nonsense.

Our religious beliefs shape our views, as his secular views shape his. The question is which perspective gives us a better, healthier and more coherent way of living together. I spoke recently to a key figure in the Church of England’s response to Assisted Dying who told me in no uncertain terms that religious arguments simply don’t wash in this debate. We have to use pragmatic and political ones that appeal to a wide audience. And so, the main arguments we have heard from church leaders and others against assisted suicide refer to the slippery slope argument: that legislation will inevitably in time become looser to include more candidates; care for the vulnerable, such as the elderly or the disabled who will feel pressurised into taking their own life, or, as the Health Secretary Wes Streeting has argued, the fact that palliative care is not yet robust enough in our health system to enable a proper choice.

Read it all.

My thoughts on why religion matters in the assisted dying debate https://t.co/SJBK4fUI3B

— Graham Tomlin (@gtomlin) November 27, 2024

Two new area bishops in the diocese of Oxford are to be Canons Dave Bull and Mary Gregory, it was announced on Wednesday morning.

Canon Bull, Team Rector in the Marlow Area Team Ministry, and Area Dean of Wycombe, will be the next Area Bishop of Buckingham.

Canon Gregory, who is a residentiary canon of Coventry Cathedral with responsibility for arts and reconciliation, will be the Area Bishop of Reading.

The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, said that he was delighted with the two appointments. Of Canon Gregory, he said: “She brings great warmth, humanity, and a profound understanding of the healing power of reconciliation in God’s world.

Read it all.

Big great news, Mary Gregory bishop designate Reading and Dave Bull Buckingham @oxforddiocese pic.twitter.com/JNeQJ914JP

— Paul Cowan (@PaulHCowan) November 27, 2024

More Church of England leaders were aware of the John Smyth scandal and should follow the Archbishop of Canterbury’s decision to resign, according to the head of the official inquiry into child abuse.

Professor Alexis Jay said that abuse continued in the church and the cover-up of Smyth’s decades of wrongdoing could not be “down to one person”.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, 68, will stand down in January and pass his duties to the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, who will act in a “caretaker” role.

Alexis Jay, who conducted the inquiry into child sex abuse, says more people must have known about John Smyth and that abuse is continuing in Church of Englandhttps://t.co/fgX70ALtCG

— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 25, 2024

Personal ambition may have motivated some bishops to keep quiet before the Archbishop of Canterbury announced his resignation last week, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, has suggested.

Dr Hartley was the only bishop in the Church of England to call publicly on Archbishop Welby to resign before it was announced (News, 15 November).

On Sunday, she told Sky News that she was disappointed that other colleagues had not joined her call, and that she knew of some who “privately were discerning that it was probably the right thing for the Archbishop to resign”.

She suggested that there was “a culture of silence and fear among the Bishops”, and that some might have chosen not to speak out because of a fear of being “reprimanded or rebuked”.

Read it all.

“We’re now in a period of transition and reflection. One of those reflections will be what sort of person we’re looking for to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, and what our expectations are of that person.” https://t.co/2Gsu6rCeez

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 21, 2024

Although the procedure for formally choosing and appointing a new Archbishop of Canterbury is thus clear, what is much less clear is how it will prove possible for the CNC to choose a candidate who is acceptable across the breadth of both the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

The deep divisions within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion over the issue of human sexuality which have opened up since 2003 and which have become even more pronounced during the tenure of Archbishop Welby, mean that it will become very difficult, if not impossible, to find someone who the Church of England as a whole and the Anglican Communion as a whole will be able to agree upon. If a candidate takes a conservative view on human sexuality this will make them unacceptable to the liberals in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion and vice versa.

The question that therefore arises is whether it might not be sensible to hold off from appointing a new archbishop until there is the sort of reconfiguration of the Anglican Communion suggested by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches and the sort of reconfiguration of the Church of England suggested by the Church of England Evangelical Council and the Alliance.

This would solve the problem because a liberal Archbishop of Canterbury could be appointed who would be acceptable to liberals in the Church of England and across the Communion, but conservatives in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion would no longer come under his archepiscopal authority.

Read it all.

Why the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury may prove challenging https://t.co/fzDRacSfnt

— Christian Today (@ChristianToday) November 19, 2024

The Archbishop of York is under pressure to step down over his handling of child abuse cases in the Church of England.

The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell faced calls to resign on Sunday from a survivor who said he is perpetuating a Church “cover-up” and a former abuse inquiry leader whose work was prematurely disbanded by the Archbishops’ Council last year.

Rev Matthew Ineson, 56, a retired vicar who was abused at 16 by a Bradford priest, said the Archbishop of York failed to hold clergy accountable for mishandling his case.

He said: “Until there is a complete clean sweep at the top, nothing is going to change.”

The demands follow the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, last week, who was forced to quit over his failure to act on concerns over child abuse committed by evangelical Christian John Smyth.

Read it all.

The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell is perpetuating Church ‘cover-up’, claims sexual abuse survivor https://t.co/TkaI22T3ck

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 18, 2024

One of the survivors of Smyth’s abuse, Mark Stibbe, said in an interview with Channel 4 News on Tuesday evening that “If there are senior clergy who have broken the law then they need to be called to account.”

Later, in a briefing hosted by the Religion Media Centre, Mr Stibbe said that the “quality of leadership” among bishops needed to be a priority, as changes to safeguarding processes were developed.

“I feel that the top echelon of leadership in the Church of England has this disconnect from reality,” he said.

Speaking to the Church Times on Wednesday morning, the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, said that, when reading the Makin report, she had been “shocked and saddened” by the “extent of the abuse that the survivors suffered”.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Survivors of John Smyth’s campaign of abuse have called for further resignations, after the Archbishop of Canterbury’s announcement that he would take “personal and institutional responsibility” and resign.https://t.co/gHiKy247qc

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 15, 2024

Archbishop Welby has “decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury”; but he remains in office, for now, and it is not yet clear when exactly he will leave.

He said in his resignation statement: “It is my duty to honour my Constitutional and church responsibilities, so exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.”

When contacted for more details, Lambeth Palace referred back to the Archbishop’s statement, and reiterated that the precise timings of his departure would be made in due course.

The selection of the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury is by the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC). There will be 17 voting members: three representatives from the Canterbury diocese; six members of the General Synod; the Archbishop of York; another bishop elected by the House of Bishops; and, in a change since 2012, five representatives of the global Anglican Communion. The final voting member is the CNC chair, often a public figure, who must be a communicant C of E member, and is appointed by the Prime Minister.

Read it all.

Archbishop of Canterbury resignation: what happens next? https://t.co/PD2G1WTunK

— Av Aleksandr (@abbaleksandr) November 14, 2024

One finding concerns the impact of setting targets in the first place. A recurrent theme of the evaluations is a feeling that many targets were unrealistic, or not “owned” at a grass-roots level. The finding in Salisbury was that such programmes “risk being an extra pressure point for already over-stretched people, contributing to a crisis-like situation for those managing it”.

Such evaluations are relatively scarce in the public domain, and this fact coincides with the identification by reviews of a crisis of trust in the Church, for which Sir Robert Chote observed that the SDF programme had served as a “lightning rod”. Anxiety about the reaction to a transparent account of projects, including missed targets, is hardly misplaced: those involved may find it hard not to take criticism personally. Nuances may be missed amid the broader angst about the distribution of resources.

Stacey’s public reckoning with results included the suggestion that it might be the underlying approach (resources = output) that deserved attention. It finds a contemporary echo in Dr Stefan Paas’s diagnosis of the dearth of anthropology in church-growth literature, in which “most if not all attention is directed towards the strategic action of the Church.” Is this the real failure at hand?

Read it all.

O God of light and love, who illumined thy Church through the witness of thy servant William Temple: Inspire us, we pray, by his teaching and example, that we may rejoice with courage, confidence and faith in the Word made flesh, and may be led to establish that city which has justice for its foundation and love for its law; through Jesus Christ, the light of the world, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Church of England celebrates today the lesser festival of the great Archbishop William Temple, one of my great heroes in the faith.
A timely reminder today of all days. pic.twitter.com/qHSQbOlZZG

— Tim Howles (@AimeTim) November 6, 2024

Frank Weston had been Bishop of Zanzibar since 1908 when he died unexpectedly on 2 November 1924, aged 53. He was a remarkable figure. He had excommunicated the Bishop of Hereford and had charged the Bishops of Mombasa and Uganda with heresy and schism. Vilified as the “Zanzibarbarian” by his critics, he had been mentioned in dispatches and appointed OBE for his military service in the First World War. In 1964, he was declared a saint by the diocese of Zanzibar. His grave at the Holy Cross, Magila, in Tanzania, remains a place of pilgrimage.

Although Weston had an Evangelical upbringing, he was increasingly attracted to Anglo-Catholicism. Studying theology at Trinity College, Oxford, in the early 1890s, he was drawn to Christian Socialism, but found the Christian Social Union too moderate, and joined Stewart Headlam’s more radical Guild of St Matthew. During Weston’s studies, Bishop Smythies of Zanzibar visited Oxford and, in a sermon at St Barnabas’s, Jericho, appealed for volunteers to bring Christ to Africa. Weston signed up, but subsequently failed the medical.

In 1893, Weston took a first in theology. Despite encouragement from William Sanday to pursue an academic career, his heart was set on the Church. After leaving Oxford, he lived at the Trinity College Mission, Stratford, in east London. In 1894, he was ordained deacon, and, in 1895, priest by the Bishop of St Albans. Weston’s Anglo-Catholicism and socialism seem to have alarmed the leaders of the mission, and he resigned in 1896. There followed a curacy at St. Matthew’s, Westminster (1896-98), where a monument now stands in memory of his time at St Matthew’s and his subsequent African ministry.

Read it all.

Frank Weston, who died a century ago, was an Anglo-Catholic bishop who strove for racial justice in Africa — while challenging perceived threats from Protestantism and ‘modernism’, writes David R. Lawhttps://t.co/ednDM6LiK7

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 7, 2024

The Suffragan Bishop of Doncaster since 2020, the Rt Revd Sophie Jelley, is to be the next Bishop of Coventry, Downing Street announced on Monday.

She will be the Church of England’s tenth woman diocesan bishop. Her diocesan, the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, commented: “It was only ever a matter of time until such an appointment was made.”

Bishop Jelley grew up in Brighton, and studied theology and religious studies at the University of Leeds. After training at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, she was ordained deacon in 1997, and priest in 1998, to a title at St Peter’s, Shipley, in the diocese of Bradford, before becoming a mission partner with the Church Mission Society in Uganda for three years.

On her return to England in 2003, she became Resident Minister of Churt and Hindhead, in the diocese of Guildford. In 2010, she moved to be Vicar of St Andrew’s, Burgess Hill. In 2015, she moved to Durham diocese, to be Canon Missioner and Diocesan Director of Mission, Discipleship, and Ministry.

Read it all.

“The story of @CovCathedral, offering a message of forgiveness rather than revenge, has so much to offer our fractured world at this time. This gives me great hope for the future.”@revsophiejelley is set to be the new Bishop of Coventry.

Read more at https://t.co/ELxwTpNHF2.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) November 4, 2024

A Churchgoer and former employee of Lichfield diocese who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 incurable bowel cancer has run 60 miles, between chemotherapy treatments, to fund-raise for the charity Refugee Action.

The runner, Pete Bate, 50, from Burntwood, near Lichfield, said this week that he had been feeling more stable since his cancer treatments were paused in May, and so he decided to take part in Refugee Action’s Race for Refugees challenge in September. He has raised more than £1200.

“I’m off treatment at the moment, and wanted to do something positive, to show there is life beyond and outside of cancer,” he said. “I’ve been a keen runner for years, but am gradually rebuilding my fitness due to the draining effects of chemo.”

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Pete set himself the challenge of running 50 miles for Race for Refugees, during a pause in treatment for Stage 4 bowel cancer. We’re thrilled to share that he reached his goal five days early! #RaceforRefugees pic.twitter.com/OF7ubvygKt

— Refugee Action (@RefugeeAction) November 1, 2024

“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3)

We, the Gafcon Primates, meeting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to celebrate the investiture of Archbishop Steve Wood as the third Primate of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and to welcome him as a Primate of the Anglican Communion, send greetings to the faithful.

We wish we could write to you about our great joy for mission, evangelism, and church planting, but recent statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury require us to yet again address an urgent matter surrounding biblical ethics confronting our beloved Anglican church.

The recent actions of the General Synod of the Church of England, where Archbishop Justin Welby has championed the introduction of same-sex blessings into the life of the Church of England, has galvanised the Gafcon movement in the ongoing reset of the Anglican Communion. However, Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine in his interview on Britain’s podcast, ‘The Rest is Politics,’ has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.

In this interview, he publicly states that:

“all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether it’s straight or gay. In other words, we’re not giving up on the idea that sex is within marriage or civil partnership. We’ve put forward a proposal that where people have been through a civil partnership or a same-sex marriage, equal marriage under the 2014 Act, they should be able to come along to their local, to a church, and have a service of prayer and blessing for them in their lives together.”

While he may claim not to have changed the doctrine of marriage, the Archbishop of Canterbury has demonstrably changed the doctrine of sin, by promoting the sanctification of sin by means of a divine blessing.

This is in clear breach of Holy Scripture, which unequivocally teaches that the only proper context for sexual intimacy is in the relationship of a man and woman who have been joined together in marriage. All forms of sexual intimacy outside of this context are condemned as immorality and are behaviors from which the people of God are regularly called to repent (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

It is also in clear breach of Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which rejected, “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture,” and which the Archbishop as recently as 2022 declared to be the teaching of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England.

We are guided by Jesus’ solemn words of warning to the Church of Thyatira, because, “they tolerate the teaching of Jezebel,” which endorses sexual immorality. Only judgment awaits Jezebel and all who follow her, unless they repent (Revelation 2:21-22; 22:15). Any toleration, let alone endorsement, of immorality is liable to God’s judgment.

For this reason, in response to his public comments, we solemnly repeat our call for Archbishop Justin Welby to personally and publicly repent of this denial of his ordination and consecration vows, where he promised to, “teach the doctrine of Christ as the Church of England has received it.”

Gafcon supports all faithful Anglicans, both those who have chosen to leave established provinces where the authority of Scripture has been compromised, as well as those who choose to remain as they seek to reform their province from within.

Therefore, we continue to champion The Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE) as Gafcon’s authentically-Anglican structural provision for those who cannot by conscience remain within the historic, revisionist structures.

Additionally, we express our support for The Alliance as they seek to stand firm in defense of biblical marriage within the Church of England, and we stand ready to defend, authenticate, and support them.

Finally, we declare afresh to all those in England who, “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to all the saints,” that you are not alone.

Gafcon Primates’ Council.
Reformation Day,
31 October 2024.

Gafcon rebukes Archbishop Welby and affirms orthodox Anglicans in England: “Archbishop Welby’s recent explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine … has brought us to repeat our serious call for his personal repentance.” #anglican https://t.co/jdxcicstUL

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) November 1, 2024