Archbishop of Canterbury faces final divide in Anglican Communion over gay clergy

Dr Rowan Williams flew to California last week to urge leaders of the Episcopal Church not to take any decisions that would create any more tension in the 80 million-strong global church over sexuality, by going against scripture and tradition.

But his personal plea was ignored as delegates at the General Convention of the national church in America effectively overturned a ban on the ordination of homosexual priests, which had been imposed in 2006. It was the Episcopal Church's ordination of the Rt Rev Gene Robinson as the first openly homosexual bishop in 2003 that triggered the ongoing battle between liberals and conservatives in the church.

Clergy, bishops and lay members of the Episcopal Church approved resolution D025, which "acknowledges that God has called and may call any individual in the church to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church".

On Wednesday, bishops in the church also voted in favour of a rite for same-sex partnerships being drafted. This goes against traditional Anglican teaching that only the marriage of a man and a woman can be blessed in church. Read more
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The day live music died

A new layer of government bureaucracy is threatening to pull the plug on pub rock. Andy McSmith reports

You are in a pub, having a good time, and someone walks in with a guitar, drink flows, and the crowd starts singing some old number like, say, "I Fought the Law (And the Law Won)". Before the evening is out, the poor publican could be fighting the law, and the law will win again.

Live music is fast disappearing from pubs, clubs, wine bars, restaurants and other small venues, musicians claim, because of a law passed in 2003, when the Government was trying to eliminate teenage violence that they associated with badly organised music events.

Hopes were raised recently when the Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport ended a lengthy investigation into the 2003 Licensing Act by recommending that venues with a capacity of fewer than 200 people should be exempt.

But this week, the Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, gave the Government's reply: it does not matter how small a venue is, it can still attract trouble. Mr Burnham has agreed to revisit the issue, but not for "at least a year", by which time there could be a different government. Read more
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CMS and schools are first charities to face benefit test

EVANGELISM and conversion to Christianity can be of public benefit, the Charity Commission found in a public-benefit assessment report on the Church Mission Society (CMS).

Last October, the Charity Com­mis­sion started a public-benefit assessment of the CMS to see whether it could show that it had met the public-benefit requirements now legally necessary for any charity if it is to retain charitable status. The CMS, now based in Oxford, operates in more than 50 countries. It has as­sets of £25.6 million and an income of nearly £8 million.

In its report, published on Tues­day, the Charity Commission con­cludes that the CMS “is operating for the public benefit”. Read more
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Fulcrum Response to TEC General Convention 2009 Resolution C056

[...] As outlined above, the rest of the Communion has – in faithfulness to Christ’s call to seek reconciliation - walked patiently with our brothers and sisters in TEC for many years, constantly inviting them to turn around in freedom and relocate themselves within the story of God that we collectively tell as a Communion, a story in which mutual subjection out of reverence for Christ, synodality, and mutual interdependence play key roles. At every stage attempts have been made to interpret TEC responses to requests as generously as possible. Now, however, TEC has spoken resoundingly and clearly through its supreme governing body of General Convention and addressed the question it avoided addressing in 2006. Sadly, through C056, we hear their firm and unequivocal answer to the Windsor Report and to the pattern of life set out in the affirmations and commitments agreed by ACC in the Covenant. An answer already made evident in the passing of D025: “No! We choose autonomy over mutual interdependence. We will now, in freedom, believing ourselves to be led by the Spirit, continue our prophetic witness and walk apart”. Read more
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Sarah Kennedy in hot water for praising Enoch Powell

Mandrake can disclose that the Radio 2 presenter was "spoken to" by executives at the corporation for praising the late Enoch Powell.

During her show on Wednesday, Kennedy described Powell, who was sacked from the shadow cabinet by Ted Heath in 1968 for his "Rivers of Blood" speech about the dangers of mass immigration, as "the best prime minister this country never had".

A spokesman for the BBC informs me that it has received 25 complaints. "It was inappropriate for Sarah to offer an off-the-cuff political opinion and we have spoken to her and made that clear," he said.

This is the second time in two years that Kennedy, 59, has been "spoken to". Read more
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Sarah Kennedy in hot water for praising Enoch Powell

Mandrake can disclose that the Radio 2 presenter was "spoken to" by executives at the corporation for praising the late Enoch Powell.

During her show on Wednesday, Kennedy described Powell, who was sacked from the shadow cabinet by Ted Heath in 1968 for his "Rivers of Blood" speech about the dangers of mass immigration, as "the best prime minister this country never had".

A spokesman for the BBC informs me that it has received 25 complaints. "It was inappropriate for Sarah to offer an off-the-cuff political opinion and we have spoken to her and made that clear," he said.

This is the second time in two years that Kennedy, 59, has been "spoken to". Read more
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Episcopal bishops OK prayer for gay couples

Episcopal bishops authorized the church Wednesday to start drafting an official prayer for same-sex couples, another step toward acceptance of gay relationships that will deepen the rift between the denomination and its fellow Anglicans overseas.

The bishops voted 104-30 at the Episcopal General Convention to "collect and develop theological resources and liturgies" for blessing same-gender relationships, which would be considered at the next national meeting in 2012.

The resolution notes the growing number of states that allow gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships, and gave bishops in those regions discretion to provide a "generous pastoral response" to couples in local parishes.

Many Episcopal dioceses already allow clergy to bless same-sex couples but there is no official liturgy for the ceremonies in the denomination's Book of Prayer. The measure still needs the approval of the lay people and priest delegates at the assembly, which ends Friday.

"We certainly feel a deep need to be able to proclaim the love of God in the midst of a changing reality," said Suffragan Bishop James Curry of the Diocese of Connecticut, one of six states that are legalizing same-gender marriage. Read more
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The consecration of homosexual bishops is a matter of justice

[...] It is possible to maintain that the Episcopal Church has been impolitic in its vote, but still maintain that it is right. A united Anglican witness to the nation and to the world is a valuable civic as well as religious resource. Those member Churches, including many in Africa, who conscientiously cannot accept homosexual bishops, should not have appointments forced upon them. But the issue is not one of denominational preference alone. It is also a matter of justice. Read more
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Anglican schism means Archbishop Rowan must act

So the Anglican Communion has finally split. Having written countless times that the Church was “teetering on the brink of schism last night”, I can now say that the American Church has gone over the edge. No more hanging around, it’s jumped.

When I saw Rowan Williams on Saturday, he said that he was hopeful that they would continue to hold the line agreed by the Communion that practising homosexuals should not be consecrated as bishops. He had been out to the General Convention, which is being held in Anaheim, California, and had come back reasonably optimistic.

In deciding to ignore the pleas for this policy to be upheld, the Americans have clearly shaken him warmly by the hand before stabbing him in the front. They have delivered a fatal blow to his hopes for unity and now there can be no more fudging the issue.

The Archbishop must act, and act decisively, but he will be well aware that the Americans have essentially thrown down a challenge to him and the rest of the Communion.

“Are you with us or against us?” That’s their call to the Archbishop and liberals in the west, who sympathise with their campaign to secure equal rights for practising gays in the Anglican Church. They don’t believe that the African churches and evangelicals will ever change their stance on the issue and are fed up with being out of step with the culture around them.

They want other churches, including the Church of England, to come clean about the fact that they are just as liberal in their support of gays, but are just not as open about it. Read more
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Authors boycott schools over sex-offence register

Ed: Churches note the statement from the Home Office at the end: "The new scheme means every individual working in a field that requires more than a tiny amount of contact with children and/or vulnerable adults will have to be vetted." That will include clergy visiting the elderly, etc. if our current diocesan 'push' on the Protection of Vulnerable Adults is anything to go by.

A group of respected British children's authors and illustrators will stop visiting schools from the start of the next academic year, in protest at a new government scheme that requires them to register on a database in case they pose a danger to children.

Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake all told The Independent that they object to having their names on the database – which is intended to protect children from paedophiles – and would not be visiting any schools as a consequence. Read more
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Princely Bishop of Durham rides to the rescue

There's nothing quite like a good Church of England bishop in full purple wrath mode. The Bishop of Durham Dr Tom Wright, in his op-ed comment for today's Times, gives marvellous rhetorical shape to the grand old tradition of the Durham prince bishops. I knew he was writing it, because I asked him to. But even so, on reading it over coffee and croissants in Kew this morning, I was a bit stunned. I half expected a little army of purple-shirted crozier-waving mounted bishops to charge out of the newsprint and start doing battle with the fluffy kittens under my feet.

Like many Anglicans, perhaps, I've always in my heart greeted talk of schism with an inner response of 'yeah yeah'. Steve Bates, of The Guardian, was always confident it was inevitable. I was equally confident it would never happen, however much it was threatened. Even with Gafcon, ACNA, FCA and all the other acronyms of new life springing forth from the primordial chaos of the Anglican alphabet soup, it still seemed safe to assume the Church would somehow muddle through as usual. But it hasn't. What is so significant about the Bishop of Durham's intervention, and especially I would argue in a paper such as The Times, is that he has come to be associated with the 'open' or moderate evangelical group Fulcrum, the stayers not the splitters, the ones who we all secretly suspect are liberal at heart. Read more
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Fulcrum: Formal distancing from Episcopal Church now needed

(Fulcrum, the Open Evangelical group whose leadership has opposed the setting up of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, is now calling for sanctions against The Episcopal Church following its recent decisions at General Convention. The following is from a Press Statement on the decision by the House of Bishops of TEC to pass D025.)

The decision, by a 2-to-1 majority, of the House of Bishops of TEC to pass D025 represents a further determined walking apart by the American Church and must have significant consequences for the relationship of TEC to the Church of England and the Anglican Communion.

Their decision to support, with a minor amendment, the resolution previously passed by the House of Deputies:

* Ignored the repeated requests by all the Instruments of Communion, most recently the Anglican Consultative Council, to uphold the Windsor moratoria

* Disregarded the explicit request of the Archbishop of Canterbury during his visit to General Convention when he stated “Along with many in the Communion, I hope and pray that there won't be decisions in the coming days that will push us further apart”.

* Failed to heed the Archbishop of Canterbury's warning at General Synod that “it remains to be seen I think whether the vote of the House of Deputies will be endorsed by the House of Bishops. If the House of Bishops chooses to block then the moratorium remains. I regret the fact that there is not the will to observe the moratorium in such a significant part of the Church in North America but I can’t say more about that as I have no details”.

* Overturned the recommendation of the bishops serving on the World Mission committee who asked the House not to support the resolution, explicitly citing such reasons as that passing the resolution amounted to a rejection of the process commended by Windsor and jeopardizes the covenant, would not reflect hearing the concerns of the Communion and disregards Lambeth I.10

* Withdrew the assurances given by the House of Bishops to the wider Communion in September 2007 in response to the Dar Primates' Meeting.1

It is important to recognise the multiple levels at which the resolution disregards the mind of the Communion both in relation to human sexuality and the nature of life together in Communion as expressed in the Windsor Report and the Anglican Covenant. It:

1. selectively quotes from Lambeth I.10 and affirms only the Listening Process but not the teaching and practice of the Communion consistently reaffirmed by the Instruments since 1998 which is the framework within which the Listening Process should occur.
2. contradicts the teaching of Scripture and the Communion by reaffirming that same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect and careful, honest communication display “holy love”.
3. recognizes that “gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst” despite the clear statement of Lambeth I.10 rejecting ordination of those in same-sex unions.
4. reaffirms they were right to consent to the election of Gene Robinson and proceed to his consecration by affirming “that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church” despite Windsor's request for a statement of regret for that action.
5. asserts their right autonomously to determine the suitability of candidates for ordination “through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church” without reference to the discernment of the wider church or the requested moratorium.

In relation to the Anglican Communion and the Windsor and Covenant Processes, the Windsor Continuation Group stated that “A deliberate decision to act in a way which damages Communion of necessity carries consequences. This is quite distinct from the language of sanction or punishment, but acknowledges that the expression and experience of our Communion in Christ cannot be sustained so fully in such circumstances. A formal expression of the distance experienced would therefore seem to be appropriate” (Para 45). General Convention's actions clearly reject the Windsor Process and are incompatible with the affirmations and commitments agreed by ACC in the proposed covenant. A formal expression of distance, with consequent limiting of involvement in Communion counsels, must now follow if the Windsor and covenant processes are to retain credibility in the wider Communion. Read more

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Bishop of Durham: The Americans know this will end in schism

In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States has voted decisively to allow in principle the appointment, to all orders of ministry, of persons in active same-sex relationships. This marks a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion.

Both the bishops and deputies (lay and clergy) of TEC knew exactly what they were doing. They were telling the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other “instruments of communion” that they were ignoring their plea for a moratorium on consecrating practising homosexuals as bishops. They were rejecting the two things the Archbishop of Canterbury has named as the pathway to the future — the Windsor Report (2004) and the proposed Covenant (whose aim is to provide a modus operandi for the Anglican Communion). They were formalising the schism they initiated six years ago when they consecrated as bishop a divorced man in an active same-sex relationship, against the Primates’ unanimous statement that this would “tear the fabric of the Communion at its deepest level”. In Windsor’s language, they have chosen to “walk apart”. Read more
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