A New Therapy on Faith and Sexual Identity

The men who seek help from evangelical counselor Warren Throckmorton often are deeply distressed. They have prayed, read Scripture, even married, but they haven't been able to shake sexual attractions to other men -- impulses they believe to be immoral.

Dr. Throckmorton is a psychology professor at a Christian college in Pennsylvania and past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association. He specializes in working with clients conflicted about their sexual identity.

The first thing he tells them is this: Your attractions aren't a sign of mental illness or a punishment for insufficient faith. He tells them that he cannot turn them straight.

But he also tells them they don't have to be gay.

For many years, Dr. Throckmorton felt he was breaking a professional taboo by telling his clients they could construct satisfying lives by, in effect, shunting their sexuality to the side, even if that meant living celibately. That ran against the trend in counseling toward "gay affirming" therapy -- encouraging clients to embrace their sexuality.

But in a striking departure, the American Psychological Association said Wednesday that it is ethical -- and can be beneficial -- for counselors to help some clients reject gay or lesbian attractions.

The APA is the largest association of psychologists world-wide, with 150,000 members. The association plans to promote the new approach to sexuality with YouTube videos, speeches to schools and churches, and presentations to Christian counselors.

According to new APA guidelines, the therapist must make clear that homosexuality doesn't signal a mental or emotional disorder. The counselor must advise clients that gay men and women can lead happy and healthy lives, and emphasize that there is no evidence therapy can change sexual orientation.

But if the client still believes that affirming his same-sex attractions would be sinful or destructive to his faith, psychologists can help him construct an identity that rejects the power of those attractions, the APA says. That might require living celibately, learning to deflect sexual impulses or framing a life of struggle as an opportunity to grow closer to God.

"We're not trying to encourage people to become 'ex-gay,'" said Judith Glassgold, who chaired the APA's task force on the issue. "But we have to acknowledge that, for some people, religious identity is such an important part of their lives, it may transcend everything else." Read more

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Psychologists repudiate gay-to-straight therapy

The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.

Instead, the APA urged therapists to consider multiple options - that could range from celibacy to switching churches - for helping clients whose sexual orientation and religious faith conflict.

In a resolution adopted on a 125-to-4 vote by the APA's governing council, and in a comprehensive report based on two years of research, the 150,000-member association put itself firmly on record in opposition of so-called "reparative therapy" which seeks to change sexual orientation.

No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the report, and some research suggests that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies.

The APA had criticized reparative therapy in the past, but a six-member task force added weight to this position by examining 83 studies on sexual orientation change conducted since 1960. Its comprehensive report was endorsed by the APA's governing council in Toronto, where the association's annual meeting is being held this weekend.

The report breaks new ground in its detailed and nuanced assessment of how therapists should deal with gay clients struggling to remain loyal to a religious faith that disapproves of homosexuality.

Judith Glassgold, a Highland Park, N.J., psychologist who chaired the task force, said she hoped the document could help calm the polarized debate between religious conservatives who believe in the possibility of changing sexual orientation and the many mental health professionals who reject that option.

"Both sides have to educate themselves better," Glassgold said in an interview. "The religious psychotherapists have to open up their eyes to the potential positive aspects of being gay or lesbian. Secular therapists have to recognize that some people will choose their faith over their sexuality."

In dealing with gay clients from conservative faiths, says the report, therapists should be "very cautious" about suggesting treatments aimed at altering their same-sex attractions.

"Practitioners can assist clients through therapies that do not attempt to change sexual orientation, but rather involve acceptance, support and identity exploration and development without imposing a specific identity outcome," the report says.

"We have to challenge people to be creative," said Glassgold. Read more

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Six Christians burned alive in Pakistan riots

Six Christians were burned alive in Pakistan yesterday when hundreds of Muslims attacked and looted their homes, sparked by rumours that pages from the Qur'an had been desecrated.

The dead, including four women and a child, were killed when Christian homes were torched by hundreds of supporters of a banned Muslim organisation in the Punjabi village of Gojra, in eastern Pakistan.

Tensions have been running high between the two communities over allegations that Christians had defiled pages from the Muslim holy book, despite authorities insisting that the rumours were unfounded.

Television footage from the area showed houses burning and streets strewn with debris and blackened furniture as mobs ran at each other. There were reports in the local media of exchanges of gunfire between Christian and Muslim communities and that rioters had blocked a railway line. Read more
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'Dumbing down' row over value of degrees

Universities were yesterday embroiled in a furious row over dumbing down after a parliamentary inquiry revealed the number of first-class degrees had almost doubled in a decade. Amid the war of words, senior Tories vowed to publish data that they claimed would reveal the true value of degrees.

Different universities demand "different levels of effort" from students to get similar degrees, according to the report from the commons select committee on innovation, universities and skills, suggesting that top grades from some colleges were not worth the same as others.

It calls for the watchdog overseeing standards in universities to be radically overhauled or scrapped and new guides set for degree marking, noting that while 53% of students achieved a first or 2:1 in 1997, that had risen by last year to 61%.

Universities claimed that standards must be high because colleges remained popular with overseas students, but the committee said it was "absurd and disreputable" to justify academic prowess in that way. Phil Willis, chair of the committee, said it was "extremely concerned that inconsistency in standards is rife". Read more
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Gunman kills three in Tel Aviv gay nighclub

A black-clad gunman has killed three people and wounded several others in an attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Israeli police said the gunman entered Cafe Noir, a youth club for gay teenagers in central Tel Aviv, and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.

Yaniv Weisman, who witnessed the incident, said: "This was a hate crime, a premeditated attack. Those hurt were very young."

A police spokesman confirmed the deaths at the gay club, describing the incident as "criminal, rather than nationalistic". Read more
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'Whip me if you dare' says Lubna Hussein, Sudan's defiant trouser woman

Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman who is daring Islamic judges to have her whipped for the "crime" of wearing trousers, has given a defiant interview to the Telegraph.

As the morality police crowded around her table in a Khartoum restaurant, leering at her to see what she was wearing, Lubna Hussein had no idea she was about to become the best-known woman in Sudan.

She had arrived at the Kawkab Elsharq Hall on a Friday night to book a cousin's wedding party, and while she waited she watched an Egyptian singer and sipped a coke.

She left less than an hour later under arrest as a "trouser girl" - humiliated in front of hundreds of people, then beaten around the head in a police van before being hauled before a court to face a likely sentence of 40 lashes for the "sin" of not wearing traditional Islamic dress. Read more
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Home Secretary: I can't stop Garry McKinnon's extradition

The judgment handed down by the High Court on Friday on the Gary McKinnon case was clear. It upheld the decision of the Home Office — that extraditing McKinnon did not constitute a breach of his human rights as defined by the European convention. It emphasises the fact that it would be unlawful for the home secretary to intervene to prevent his extradition.

The court was equally clear that he should be tried in the United States because the crimes he is accused of committing — although they were conducted from a computer in his bedroom in the UK — did not remotely affect people in this country. They affected critical government security systems in America.

This case has provoked strong feelings — and it is understandable why many are sympathetic to the cause of someone who appears simply to be a misguided, vulnerable young man who has Asperger’s syndrome. I can make no pronouncement of McKinnon’s guilt or innocence. But the crimes he is accused of are far from trivial and he should be tried fairly for them in a court of law and in the country where the impact of those crimes was felt. As the High Court judgment makes clear, McKinnon will not, if convicted, serve any of his sentence in a “supermax” prison. Read more
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Harriet Harman: you can’t trust men in power

HARRIET HARMAN has demanded that one of Labour’s two top posts should always be held by a woman — because she believes men cannot be trusted to run organisations on their own.

Labour’s deputy leader secretly tried to change party rules two years ago to ensure that it could never again be led by an all-male team, but she was foiled.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Harman reiterates her belief in the principle and says her role as Gordon Brown’s second-in-command has changed for ever the way the party will be run.

“I don’t agree with all-male leaderships,” she said. “Men cannot be left to run things on their own. I think it’s a thoroughly bad thing to have a men-only leadership.” Read more
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New welcome strategy aims to increase attendance

Friendliness advice is now on offer for parishes, as a new resource pack is released to help churches encourage visitors to become regular worshippers.
New welcome strategy aims to increase attendance

The Everybody Welcome package includes a leader’s manual, booklets for members, and a DVD of interviews and footage demonstrating the effects of a good welcome. The course gives tips such as: train a dedicated ‘Welcome Team’ to look out for newcomers, analyse whether the service is sufficiently engaging, and check the quality of post-service refreshments.

The course has been designed by the Archdeacon of Walsall, the Ven Bob Jackson, and Lichfield’s director of Parish Mission, George Fisher. Archdeacon Jackson said: “The first hurdle for visitors is are we going to find friendliness when we turn up? And I think in most churches, and certainly the better ones, they do. The big problem is how to get in. Anyone can attend a service, but how do you start belonging to a church community?”

The course gives advice on how to make a variety of people feel comfortable, including the bald, overweight and alcoholic. It also offers education on basic social skills, such as the importance of making eye contact, smiling and finding out people’s names. Read more
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Vatican Backs Archbishop Williams’ Response to Convention Actions

The Roman Catholic Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said it shares the concerns of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams that the Anglican Communion’s unity be maintained through common faith and practice based on scripture and tradition.
The July 29 statement from the Vatican office came two days after Archbishop Williams issued his reflection on actions taken at this month’s General Convention. The statement said the Vatican “supports the archbishop in his desire to strengthen these bonds of communion, and to articulate more fully the relationship between the local and the universal within the church.

“It is our prayer that the Anglican Communion, even in this difficult situation, may find a way to maintain its unity and its witness to Christ as a worldwide communion,” the statement concluded. Read more
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Why men are to blame for the crunch

But then who was the first person to explain the Credit Crunch to me and say why it was all going to go wrong? Yup, a man (and a financier to boot). And what is the Women and Work commission's motivation for getting women into 'top jobs'? Yep, so they can get paid as much as men.

I routinely characterise the credit crunch as "men behaving badly" - because it's almost impossible to find a woman to blame.

The reckless chief executives of banks who went on a borrowing and lending binge: all men.

SuitedThe financial engineers who packaged up poisonous subprime debt and mis-sold it as AAA solid gold: they were long of Y chromosomes.

The central bankers and regulators who slept while the dangerous financial party was in full swing: blokes.

The finance ministers who didn't want to recognise that the surge in house prices was perilous, for fear of alienating voters: yup, it's my gender again. Read more
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Why FCAUK will not be ‘Good News’ in Southwark Diocese

On Monday 6th July The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans United Kingdom (FCAUK) was launched in Westminster Central Hall. The addresses given during the morning focused upon the specifics of what has been happening in the Episcopal Church in America together with more general warnings of a similar ‘drift’ towards liberalism here in the United Kingdom and what might be needed in response to this.

It was the latter theme that dominated the afternoon with a series of films and interviews providing examples of UK dioceses ‘cooperating’ with ‘orthodox’ churches alongside examples where the opposite was seen to be the case. Whilst the film clips largely concentrated on the more positive examples, the interviews then conducted by William Taylor (Rector of St Helen’s Bishopsgate) and Christine Perkin (wife of the Vicar of St Mark’s, Battersea Rise and a member of its leadership team) focused on examples where conservative evangelicals felt oppressed and mistreated by their diocesan structures. The overall message of the afternoon, therefore, was that enough was enough: through the formation of FCAUK and action in regard to clergy selection and appointment, authorising church plants and the withholding of finance, those responsible for misgovernment, heresy and oppression in the Church of England would no longer be able to get away with it.

As one present at the conference to witness all this, what particularly alarmed me was the entirely uncritical nature of the ‘interviews’ conducted by Mr Taylor and Mrs Perkin. Candidates for ordination required to gain experience of the wider church shared their angst at this without the slightest searching question being put to them and a similar approach was then taken to frustrated church planters.

Included within the latter and most alarming to me personally was the last of these interviews, seemingly designed to form the climax of the afternoon, with the Reverend Richard Coekin, leader of the Co-Mission network of churches in South West London. During his interview Mr Coekin explained he was now looking to FCA to supply him with Episcopal oversight to replace that of his ‘liberal bishop’ Tom Butler. Read more
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Credit card crisis to grip Britain, IMF warns

Britain’s credit card debt crisis will get significantly worse in the coming months with a wave of consumer payment defaults, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The organisation expects £1.5bn of consumer debt across Europe will not be repaid, much of it in Britain which has the highest number of credit card borrowers on the continent.

Analysts say failure to pay credit card bills is likely to increase as unemployment rises and the number of personal insolvencies, which reached 29,774 in the first quarter of the year, continues to rise.

The IMF said the crisis would echo the problems already felt in the United States, where it expects 14 per cent of the country’s £1.16bn credit card debt to go unpaid this year, the Financial Times reported. Read more
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How the forces finally learnt to take pride

In the genteel atmosphere of the Coldstream Guards' officers' mess, Lieutenant Mark Wakeling was known as "thug". Amongst his fellow guardsmen, he prided himself on being the toughest, the fittest and the most aggressive.

He not only laughed at homophobic jokes – he was the "straightest of the straight" amongst the young officers. When one of his platoon admitted to being gay, he immediately started the discharge process.

Nobody realised that behind the excessively macho behaviour was a young man who lived in fear that his own homosexuality would be discovered. Eventually, the pressure became too much and he cut short his military career and resigned his commission. "I scurried away like a frightened rat," he explained yesterday, bitter regret still evident in his expression more than a decade later.

This month, for the first time in its history, the cover of the British Army's official publication Soldier magazine shows Trooper James Wharton – openly gay – clad in his dress uniform, complete with Iraq medal, next to the headline "Pride". It is the most obvious sign that almost a decade after the military lifted the ban on homosexuality it is finally comfortable with its new clothes.

British servicemen and women now march at Gay Pride in uniform, all three services have become Stonewall diversity champions and a few months ago the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt made history when he became the first army chief to address a Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender conference. "Respect for others is not an optional extra," he said. Read more
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Minister: flu panic is danger to NHS

Ed: Told you so (and here).

Ministers moved to quell swine flu hysteria last night, as concerns grew that the National Health Service might be overwhelmed by hordes of "unnecessarily anxious" people who could make a full recovery at home.

Amid rising government worry about how NHS staff will cope as the virus spreads, health secretary Andy Burnham warned that panic itself could push services to breaking point. Health Department officials said there was a danger of a "panic pandemic" that could hinder the treatment of more serious cases.

Calling for calm, Burnham said that although swine flu presented a huge challenge for the country, it was not a life-threatening condition for the vast majority of people.

He told the Observer that it was vital not to over-react and claimed the government had the situation under control. "It is very important for everybody to keep a sense of perspective," he said. "It has been a mild virus in the vast majority of cases, with relatively mild symptoms from which people recover fully fairly quickly. Read more
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US shock jock Savage targeted 'to balance least wanted list'

Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has suffered a major setback in her legal battle with American 'shock jock' Michael Savage after her officials were accused of banning him from the country on racial grounds.

Emails written by Home Office officials privately acknowledged the ban on Mr Savage would provide 'balance' to a list dominated by Muslims - and linked the decision to Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

The officials admitted their action could look 'duplicitous' and cited his 'homophobia' as a reason the move would receive public support.

Read more
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Samuel and Sugden: Reflections on the decisions of the Anaheim General Convention

An analysis of the noes ( those who said no to DO25 and CO56) shows that those who did it out of a confessional doctrinal basis are only a small number – no more than 10 people. This is very clear when some of them who have said no are on record as saying that this is not the right time or the right strategy. Some of those who have voted yes to the motions (see Thinking Anglicans 21 July) have also signed the Anaheim statement. The motives of the people seem to be as broad as the The Episcopal Church (TEC) itself. The desire of the orthodox to witness leads them to work with fellow travelers, but being fellow travelers does not mean that they are fellow orthodox. The view that there are a substantial number of orthodox is seriously flawed.

The Anaheim statement also makes clear that they no longer define themselves as members of TEC. The first draft commited them to the canons and constitution of the TEC. That is now dropped. But what kind of a communion is this of which they want to be a part. Is the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) part of the communion of which they want to be a part? Is the communion to be defined by the Ridley Covenant? If that is so, then that has not been adopted yet and is unlikely to be for some time. What is in common is their fellowship with the Archbishop of Canterbury. That is a personal identity of an office of bishop which is constitutionally in communion with Canterbury, What about a local church? Can it be in communion with Canterbury? How low do you drive this – to dioceses or parishes? Will dioceses be able to sign up to the Ridley Covenant? These are questions which the whole thing leaves unsatisfactorily vague.

It is also interesting to see the justification given by TEC that this is nothing new – the "no" does not mean what it says. This has been the double-speak that TEC has often engaged in. Does it mean there are no moratoria? What It is saying is that the original resolution was only advisory and that dioceses had to make their own judgement. The advisory has been taken away so that dioceses can make their own decision. If this is the case then does the church not have a position? The church does have a position. Look at the position of the hierarchy – look at the vast number who have decided for CO56. The direction is set and the hierarchy is pushing in that direction. So TEC has deliberately walked away. It gave the impression, by the earlier decision of the 2006 Convention to abide by the moratoria, that it had stopped walking away. Now it is moving – but in which direction? It has not remained the same. All the current dissimulation, that the decisions of the Anaheim Convention have not changed anything, is entirely false. Read more
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Non-Muslims turning to Sharia courts to resolve civil disputes

Increasing numbers of non-Muslims are turning to Sharia courts to resolve commercial disputes and other civil matters, The Times has learnt.

The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) said that 5 per cent of its cases involved non-Muslims who were using the courts because they were less cumbersome and more informal than the English legal system.

Freed Chedie, a spokesman for Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siqqiqi, a barrister who set up the tribunal, said: “We put weight on oral agreements, whereas the British courts do not.”

In a case last month a non-Muslim Briton took his Muslim business partner to the tribunal to sort out a dispute over the profits in their car fleet company. “The non-Muslim claimed that there had been an oral agreement between the pair,” said Mr Chedie. “The tribunal found that because of certain things the Muslim man did, that agreement had existed. The non-Muslim was awarded £48,000.”

He said that the tribunal had adjudicated on at least 20 cases involving non-Muslims so far this year. The rulings of the tribunal are legally binding, provided that both parties agree to that condition at the beginning of any hearing.

Anti-Sharia campaigners, who claim that the Islamic system is radical and biased against women, expressed alarm at the news. Denis MacEoin, who wrote a recent report for the think-tank Civitas examining the spread of Sharia in Britain, said that MAT’s claims about non-Muslim clients “raises all sorts of questions”. Read more
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Fiscal ruin of the Western world beckons

Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap.

A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year.

Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.

Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments must be cut 5pc, child benefit by 20pc. The Garda (police), already smarting from a 7pc pay cut, may have to buy their own uniforms. Hospital visits could cost £107 a day, etc, etc. Read more
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Rowan Williams and Revelation Wrapped Up

Last Sunday, 25th January, the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered a sermon at Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge, England as the Diocese of Ely launched its 900th anniversary celebrations. Although barely noticed by the press, it was an event which brought a lamentable truth into sharp focus - that despite centuries of Christian heritage, what now passes for Anglicanism in England has drifted far apart from the faith which GAFCON reaffirmed last year in the Jerusalem Declaration.

While it is the part the Archbishop has played in the advocacy of homosexual lifestyles over the past twenty years which has attracted the most controversy, the heart of the problem is his understanding of the doctrine of revelation. It is sometimes said that the Dr Williams is orthodox on the issues which became so controversial in the Church of England during the 1980’s, such as the incarnation and the resurrection, but orthodoxy cannot be just a matter of ticking certain boxes based on theological speculation.

Even in England, where institutional loyalty tends to be very strong, some leaders are beginning to articulate their concerns. The Ven. Michael Lawson, Archdeacon of Hampstead and newly elected Chairman of the Church of England Evangelical Council, told The Church of England Newspaper last week: “Rowan’s theological method is reflective and in a sense poetic. It’s a valuable contribution to the discussion. But there is a distinction to be drawn between even the best kind of speculative theology and the leadership required of an Archbishop.” Read more
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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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Greenbelt, ‘gay evangelicalism’ and CMS: Summer 2009

Ed: Some of us are also old enough to remember when Greenbelt brought on the bikini-clad girl dancers of the Sheffield Nine O'Clock service, whose leader, Chris Brain, was later discovered to be involved in what have been described as "abusive relationships" with a number of people. Greenbelt also brought us the fringe meeting addressed by a White Witch. As one of the early Greenbelt attendees, I always valued its willingness to be experimental, but it lost the plot when it ceased to apply evangelical principles to what it wanted to teach people, often very young Christians, attending the festival, and what it wanted to celebrate as the gospel.

According to its website, ‘Greenbelt is an independent Christian charity working to express love, creativity and justice in the arts and contemporary culture in the light of the Christian gospel.’ It is the largest Christian festival in the UK, almost 20,000 strong, with a fascinating line-up of speakers, subjects, genres and modalities. It also appears strongly pro-gay. Gene Robinson, gay bishop poster boy (although oddly, that was not mentioned) and Giles Fraser, head of Inclusive Church (that was also not included) are on the rostrum, along with gay rights advocates Robert Beckford and Paula Gooder. Gay worship groups, OuterSpace and Journey, will be leading in worship while gay bands, Athlete and Royksopp, will be entertaining the crowds. Read here and here, also here

This is rather worrying: it is called the gayification of the church. Almost more insidious is that it exists, cheek by jowl, with other worthwhile, important and solidly orthodox aspects, lulling those who might otherwise get upset into a false complacency that ‘things are not really that bad!’ I guess it all depends on what ‘bad’ means. That the Gay Pride flag was flown over London’s historic St Martin-in-the-Fields to celebrate Gay Pride days ago and that the Archbishop of Canterbury just met with a leading US LGBT group, although, oddly, there was no time to meet with the orthodox hounded out of their churches (which they have paid for and maintained) or those from ex/post-gay groups — two of the most recent examples — should speak volumes!

At some point we as a church will have to face the music. We have tacitly, incrementally forfeited an agreed-upon Christian sexual ethic (no sex outside heterosexual marriage) which had held for the past millennia. Now, in effect, we accept and some promote the ethic that as long as sexual ‘relationships’ are ‘loving’, ‘committed’ and ‘faithful’, they are blessed by God and if those in them wish to marry, they should be allowed to do so. Is this not so? Acclimatization moves on to acceptance. Acceptance moves on to normalization. Read more

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Reform to hand Archbishop of Canterbury huge power

Dr Rowan Williams is on course to become one of the most powerful Archbishops of Canterbury since the Reformation, under a programme of centralisation planned for the Church of England.

Under the plans, to be debated at the General Synod tomorrow, the Church bodies responsible for education, mission and finance will be abolished. The powers of the Church’s main boards and councils will instead pass to the archbishops of Canterbury and York.

However, The Times has learnt that some of the senior clergy and laity in the Church of England are planning to revolt against the shift of power from the democratically elected General Synod. The rebels will warn the synod in York that the centralising changes would turn the established Church into a medieval style of government more akin to a “Muslim-style theocracy”.

The radical plans have been drawn up as part of a series of measures designed to create a leaner Church better fitted to cope with falling attendances, a pensions black hole and plummeting asset values.

The synod is also to debate cutting the number of bishops at a time when the future of the dioceses of Wakefield, Bradford, Ripon and Leeds, Sheffield, Ely and Peterborough are being reviewed. It is possible that at least one diocese will disappear. The post of one bishop, the suffragan in Hulme, Manchester, has already been axed. Read more
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YouTube video shows church 'exorcism' of gay teenager

An American church has been condemned over a video showing a 16-year-old boy apparently being exorcised by church leaders trying to cast a "homosexual demon" from his body.

The 20-minute video posted on YouTube shows the teenager lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church shout "Rip it from his throat!" and "Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!"

Later, the teenager is seen coughing and apparently vomiting into a bag before lying on the ground, limp and covered in a white sheet.

Gay and youth advocates claim the film depicts abuse and are demanding an investigation. But a spokeswoman from Manifested Glory Ministries, which posted the video on YouTube, this week denied any wrongdoing.

"We believe a man should be with a woman and a woman should be with a man," the Rev Patricia McKinney told the Associated Press. "We have nothing against homosexuals. I just don't agree with their lifestyle." Read more
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Canterbury is sufficiently gay, council inspectors rule

A government watchdog decided that Canterbury in Kent does enough to promote homosexual culture, rejecting a complaint by local activists.

The Local Government Ombudsman – who asked for the city's council to provide evidence of how it supported the gay community – said it was satisfied the pink pound was being catered for.

As part of the investigation, the council had to prove its inclusiveness by giving details of "touring plays and musicals, for example, which would be of interest to the LGBT community".

And it had to show that it had "put forward suggestions for small events that it might help fund, as well as proposals for other events such as exhibitions".

Rob Davies, spokesman for the council, said: "Obviously we're delighted with the outcome of the investigation.

"We feel we do a great deal for the gay community in Canterbury and we have always tried to support various gay events and promotions."

"But at the same time it is not the duty of any council to set up a gay bar – that's not what councils do."

The two-month investigation began at the end of April after a letter was sent from two representatives of Pride in Canterbury. Read more
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New US Province is formed

The Anglican Communion’s 39th Province-in-waiting was formed this week, as the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) held its founding convocation at St Vincent’s Cathedral in Bedford, Texas.

God, history, and provinces representing the overwhelming majority of the members of the Anglican Communion were on the side of the ACNA, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan told the 234 delegates drawn from the ACNA’s 28 founding jurisdictions including four former dioceses of the Episcopal Church, representing some 700 congregations and 100,000 Anglicans in the US and Canada.

The break with the Episcopal Church was now complete, Bishop Duncan said. “There is no one here who will go back.”

Delegates attending the June 22-25 convocation formally adopted the ACNA’s Constitution and Canons and were also addressed by Bishop Duncan --- who was elected archbishop on June 21 by a meeting of the ACNA’s House of Bishops --- and California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, and Metropolitan Jonah, the head of the Orthodox Church in America. Read more
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Bishops face cull demand at General Synod

The posts of dozens of bishops, archdeacons and cathedral deans could disappear under proposals for cuts in the Church of England to be debated next month.

The General Synod, the Church’s parliament, will be asked to consider cutting the number of senior clergy in the established Church to bring them into line with falling clergy numbers.

The call appears to stand a good chance of winning backing from clergy and laity amid a feeling that a reduction by nearly a third in the number of stipendiary clergy over just two decades has left the Church top heavy.

Maintaining the episcopal apparatus in just one diocese, if a bishop’s house and support staff are taken into account, costs an average of £500,000.
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Added up across dioceses, these are fast becoming costs the Church can ill afford as parishioners are asked to find more cash for clergy pensions and historic assets of the Church fall in value because of the recession.

The Rev John Hartley will, on behalf of the Bradford diocesan synod, ask the General Synod at its meeting at York University in mid-July to “formulate proposals for reductions in the numbers of episcopal and senior clergy posts”. Read more
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Gang rape: Is it a race issue?

[...] Gang rape, while constituting only a tiny percentage of all rapes in the UK, is a horrible reality in this country. The nature of the crime is so appalling that much more research needs to be carried out into its causes. But what seems evident from my investigation is that the key to preventing it will be changing the way young men view women and the kind of group sexual activity they are engaging in at such a young age.

Sheldon Thomas, a youth worker in Brixton, said: "We've got a generation that looks at sex as if it's nothing, and treats disrespecting women as if it's nothing. These guys are like 13, 14 and 15, and their actual attitudes towards young girls – towards sex – is mind-blowing. It's actually leaving you asking: where are their morals, where are their values?" Read more
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Money, Sex, Indaba: Corrupting the Anglican Communion Listening Process

The next stage of the Anglican Communion's attempt to resolve its differences over theology, sexuality and the authority of scripture will involve more "listening processes," but this time those processes will be paid for by a retired Episcopal priest who advocates same-sex blessings. The money given by the Episcopal priest will be monitored by a group of sex "experts" who advocate a vision of sexual freedom and "justice" that bears little resemblance to mainstream Christian doctrine or tradition, and at least one of these "experts" believes that pornography, bestiality, and multiple sex partners are not inherently harmful or wrong. Working quietly in the background is a foundation advocating sexual and reproductive health "rights" and charting a strategy to increase the voice and influence of progressive religious groups in the public sphere.

The Listening Process, also known as the "Continuing Indaba Project," was announced last month at the Kingston, Jamaica meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council after a briefing by the Archbishop of Canterbury's Anglican Communion Office (ACO). The staff of the ACO, under the direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, announced that a $1.5 million gift was given to fund this project-a gift 2-3 times the size of any previous gift received by the Anglican Communion Office for its work, and at a time when financial reports concede diminishing giving and reserves for the troubled Communion. The delegates to the Anglican Consultative Council were told that the money was coming from a grant through the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.

After subsequent questioning at press conferences, it turns out that the Satcher Institute is not the source of the $1.5 million dollars.

So where did the money come from? The Rev. Marta Weeks, a retired Episcopal priest from the diocese of Southeast Florida, has donated $1.5 million to fund the entire project through 2011. Weeks and her late husband have supported a wide variety of causes and educational institutions. As noteworthy as her gifts are, her beliefs on the issues the Anglican Communion is dealing with are even more significant. In January of 2000, she signed the Religious Declaration on Sexuality, Morality, Justice, and Healing which calls for a "sexual ethic focused on personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual acts. All persons have the right and responsibility to lead sexual lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent, and pleasure." This sexual ethic "applies to all persons, without regard to sex, gender, color, age, bodily condition, marital status, or sexual orientation." It calls for "full inclusion of women and sexual minorities in congregational life, including their ordination and the blessing of same sex unions" as well as "a faith-based commitment to sexual and reproductive rights, including access to voluntary contraception, abortion, and HIV/STD prevention and treatment." [emphasis added] Read more

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Is fascism on the march again?

We should be wary about the rise of the far right but not panicky. Even though I write commentary pieces for the Daily Mail, I am not given to hysteria. I don't like all these stupid historical analogies - this is not a re-run of the 1930s. In some ways, history can box you in and limit your options. We live in a very different world, and these parties organise themselves in a very different way. Hitler didn't Twitter.

Conditions in Europe are very different now from those that prevailed in the 1930s. We haven't had a catastrophic European war, with resentments about how that ended. We should also be cautious about saying that an economic recession inevitably leads to the rise of the far right. The fascists came to power in Italy long before the Depression. There is no automatic link. In Germany, most of the unemployed voted for the communists.

It is too early to say whether the rightwing parties that did well in the European election will have any historical significance, or whether they will offer a Europe-wide threat to mainstream politics. Although I suspect they may be better co-ordinated than leftwing parties, they are all subtly different. We should also be aware that rightwing parties can evolve. It is odd that the evolution of communist parties into Eurocommunist parties was recognised, but these rightwing parties are seen as mysteriously static and rooted in the 1930s. You just have to look at the BNP to see how it is trying to adapt its approach to changed circumstances, ramping up its hostility to the EU while playing down other aspects of its policy. Read more
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BNP poll win brings cash and staff – and legal challenges over racism

The BNP will inevitably face a series of legal challenges on issues ranging from discrimination and employment law to possible criminal offences, lawyers say, following two candidates' election to the European parliament.

The party's constitution, which says membership is "strictly defined within the terms of … 'indigenous Caucasian' and defined ethnic groups emanating from that Race" is a breach of the law against discriminating in membership organisations, according to legal experts.

"An unincorporated association like the BNP which has genuine screening for membership cannot unlawfully discriminate," said Gavin Millar QC, who specialises in election and discrimination law. "There will inevitably now be legal challenges to this.

"It was presumed before that the BNP were so unimportant that it wasn't worth trying, but now this is a live issue, and the BNP's constitution must be challenged." Read more
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Women! You have no concept of the depth of male simplicity. And until you do, our world is doomed

Women - why aren't you running the world yet? Frankly I'm disappointed in you. Men are still far too dominant for their own good, and consequently we've made a testosterone-sodden pig's ear of just about everything: politics, the economy, religion, the environment ... you name it, it's in a gigantic man-wrought mess. The world's been one big dick-swinging contest, and we've caught our collective glans in a nearby desk fan. By rights we should be squealing for your help, but we're not, because we're too damn stupid and too damn proud. We swagger convincingly, and that's about it. And swaggering's fine for scraping by in primitive times, but the world we've built is altogether more complex now. We've got stock exchanges and nuclear warheads. It's too easy to swagger your way into big trouble without even realising. Well, we've had our turn. It's time for the Rise of the Ladies.

We don't need a few women in conspicuous positions of power scattered here and there - we need a 10-year prohibition on all forms of male power. Seriously: a decade in which men don't get to control anything, from the remote control upwards. Imagine the consequences. For one thing, there would be an instant and massive reduction in armed conflict around the globe. Sure, nations would routinely bitch about each other in secret (and with a new, hair-curling viciousness), but there'd be fewer intercontinental punch-ups and a far smaller bodycount. Read more
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US: State moves to restrict Catholics in politics

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport in Connecticut has filed a federal lawsuit following assertions by a state official that rallying church members at the Capitol in Hartford constitutes a violation of lobbying law.

Six weeks after 4,000 Catholics in Connecticut rallied in opposition to a proposed state law known as Bill 1098, which dictated local parishes reorganize their governing structures to substitute lay leaders for priests in oversight of finances , the Diocese of Bridgeport received a letter from Connecticut's Office of State Ethics informing it that an investigation was underway to ascertain if the diocese had violated state law by failing to register as a lobbyist organization.

"Following the surprise introduction of Bill 1098," said Diocese Bishop William E. Lori in a statement, "a proposal that singled out Catholic parishes and would have forced them to reorganize contrary to church law and the First Amendment, our diocese responded in the most natural, spontaneous, and frankly, American, of ways: we alerted our membership – in person and through our website; we encouraged them to exercise their free speech by contacting their elected representatives; and we organized a rally at the State Capitol. How can this possibly be called lobbying?"

Nonetheless, the lawsuit states, in a meeting with church representatives one month following the investigation letter, the ethics enforcement officer of the state OSE, Thomas K. Jones, told church representatives that the rally in Hartford and statements on the diocese website constituted a sufficient basis to file a complaint. Read more
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A Wicked Deed in Wichita -- A Test for the Pro-Life Movement

"Murder is murder. The law rightly affirms that the killing of Dr. George Tiller is murder. In this we must agree. We cannot rest until the law also recognizes the killing of the unborn as murder. The killing of Dr. George Tiller makes that challenge all the more difficult."

The cold-blooded murder of Dr. George Tiller on Sunday morning presents the pro-life movement in America with a crucial moral test -- will we condemn this murder in unqualified terms?

For many years, Dr. George Tiller has represented the horrific reality of the abortion industry in this nation. Infamously known to the pro-life movement in America, Tiller was known as "Tiller the Killer" because of his well-known willingness to perform late-term abortions almost no other doctor in the nation would perform. Because of Dr. George Tiller, Wichita became the destination of choice for women seeking abortions in the late third trimester.

In 1993 Tiller was shot in both arms by an assailant. His clinic was regularly protested and was once bombed. Tiller had many brushes with the law, and just weeks ago he was acquitted of charges that he had colluded with another physician to illegally justify late-term abortions.

George Tiller was shot to death Sunday morning as he was serving as an usher at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. Witnesses said that a lone assailant entered the church, shot Dr. Tiller with a single shot, threatened two others, and then fled the scene. A suspect was arrested hours later. Wichita police said that the unnamed suspect would likely face multiple charges as early as Monday.

Violence in response to the horror of abortion is rare, but not new. According to some news reports, Dr. Tiller was the fifth physician to be murdered by abortion opponents. In other cases, abortion clinics have been bombed and workers have been hurt or killed.

Proponents of abortion rights often charge that the rhetoric of the pro-life movement leads to violence. After all, we describe abortion as murder and point to the business of abortion as the murder of the unborn. We make clear that abortion is the taking of innocent human life and that what goes on in abortion clinics is the business of death.

We make these arguments because we know they are true. Abortion is murder. What goes on in those clinics is institutionalized homicide, often for financial profit. Abortion is a moral scandal and a national tragedy and a blight upon the American conscience.

But violence in the name of protesting abortion is immoral, unjustified, and horribly harmful to the pro-life cause. Read more
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Bishop of Rochester: women's ordination "provisional"

Ed: Is this, one wonders, linked to his 'retirement' decision? Virtue OnLine is carrying correspondence between William Tighe and Dr Michael Nazir Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, on the subject of women's ordination. In his reply to Tighe, the Bishop says,

Naturally, when and if a new ecclesial situation is created by Anglican and Roman Catholics receiving papal primacy as set out in [the ARCIC report] Gift, everything else will have to be re-evaluated in the light of such a development. The Church of England has said that the ordination of women must be open to reception by the Universal Church and is, in this sense, provisional. You may know that I chaired the commission which produced the so-called Rochester Report on women bishops. This report rehearsed many of the difficulties which are involved. We were also conscious of the response of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference which said, interalia, that Anglican Bishops could not, at the same time, claim to belong to a world-wide college of bishops and to change its nature unilaterally. I referred to this response in the General Synod itself.

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US abortion doctor is shot dead

Prominent abortion doctor George Tiller has been shot dead at his church in Wichita, Kansas, city officials say.

The 67-year-old doctor was killed just after 1000 local time (1500 GMT) on Sunday morning at the Reformation Lutheran Church.

Dr Tiller one of the few US doctors who perform late-term abortions, had been demonised by some abortion opponents. Read more

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Christians risk rejection and discrimination for their faith, a study claims

The first poll of Britain's churchgoers, carried out for The Sunday Telegraph, found that thousands of them believe they are being turned down for promotion because of their faith.

One in five said that they had faced opposition at work because of their beliefs.

More than half of them revealed that they had suffered some form of persecution for being a Christian.

The findings suggest a growing hostility towards religion in this country, which has been highlighted by a series of clashes between churchgoers and their employers.

Church leaders, including the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, have urged Christians to "wake up" and defend their beliefs after the suspension of Caroline Petrie, a community nurse, for offering to pray for a patient.

Churchgoers are likely to be further concerned by new guidelines that warn that employees face dismissal if they share their faith with colleagues at work.

Employers have been given new advice in a campaign, funded by the Government's equality watchdog, that says people who evangelise in the workplace are "highly likely" to be accused of harassment. Read more
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Young clergy face life on the dole after Church of England loses £1.3billion

The Church of England is turning away trainee clergy for the first time in history after £1.3billion of its investments were wiped out in the financial crisis.

Up to a dozen graduates of theological colleges will miss out on their ordination next month and may end up on the dole as there are no parish jobs for them.

The Church has previously given all graduates placements in parishes as curates, which they need before they can become ordained as priests.

But now, to the anger of senior clerics, a spending squeeze means the number of junior clergy posts has been reduced and some trainees may quit the Church.

The unprecedented situation comes after the Church Commissioners, who manage the Church’s £5.7billion assets, announced it lost £1.3billion last year as share and property holdings plunged.

One college principal, the Rev Richard Turnbull, of Oxford’s Wycliffe Hall, called the jobs crisis a ‘tragedy and a travesty’ and said he and colleagues would protest strongly to bishops.

He said: ‘The Church of England agrees these individuals are called to the priesthood.

'It agrees that they have been fully and successfully trained. It says they are ready for ordination as priests. Then it just walks away.’ Read more
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Mother ‘too stupid’ to keep child

A MOTHER is taking her fight to the European Court of Human Rights after she was forbidden from seeing her three-year-old daughter because she is not “clever enough” to look after her.

The woman, who for legal reasons can be identified only by her first name, Rachel, has been told by a family court that her daughter will be placed with adoptive parents within the next three months, and she will then be barred from further contact.

The adoption is going ahead despite the declaration by a psychiatrist that Rachel, 24, has no learning difficulties and “good literacy and numeracy and [that] her general intellectual abilities appear to be within the normal range”.

Her daughter, K, was born prematurely and officials felt Rachel lacked the intelligence to cope with her complex medical needs Baby K was released from hospital into care and is currently with a foster family. Her health has now improved to the point where she needs little or no day-to-day medical care.

Rachel said last night: “I have been totally let down by the system. All I want is to care for my daughter but the council and the court are determined not to let me. Read more
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