Rowan Williams: "Mainly Monk"

(Ed: The author of this piece, Theo Hobson, is a regular Guardian Comment is Free contributor.)

The main thing that struck me, as I read Rupert Shortt's biography of Rowan Williams, was how amazingly sheltered the Archbishop of Canterbury's life has been. I don't mean economically privileged (most of us are pretty much on a level in this respect), or emotionally easy (whose is?) – I mean ideologically and institutionally fixed.

He decided as a boy that he would be a priest and theologian, and never had any trouble getting there. (His career plan met as many obstacles as that of Martin Amis, who is one year older, which feels a bit wrong.) He never had a period of adulthood, or even adolescence, in which he wondered what to do with his life, in which he dipped even a toe into another form of life. He has always belonged to the subculture of Church, and since undergraduate days it was obvious that he would have a successful career in it, and the universities joined to it. Contemporaries rightly saw him as a donnish prelate-in-waiting.

So his life has been sheltered by the institutions of Church and Oxbridge, to a remarkable degree. He has never had to seek employment, or existential meaning, outside this world. He has almost always been housed by either Church or university, thus being spared a major form of worldly responsibility and angst. He happens never to have driven a car, another reprieve from dirty worldliness. I bet that his computer has never malfunctioned without some institutional employee on hand to fix it. He has never quite lived in the difficult modern world.

This is of central relevance to his thought. Read more
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Falling numbers close Romford church

AN 82-YEAR-OLD church which has struggled to attract a big enough congregation is facing closure.

St John the Divine Church, in Mawney Road, Romford, which survived attacks from the Luftwaffe in the Second World War, could shut in less than eight weeks.

It's Parochial Church Council, the body elected to represent the congregation, opted to close it because of its continued low attendance - an average of 27 people - to its Sunday services.

St John the Divine's PCC voted in favour of closure by eight votes to nil with two abstentions at a meeting in January.

The decision is now awaiting approval from other committees. Read more
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Primary school receptionist 'facing sack' after daughter talks about Jesus to classmate

A primary school receptionist, Jennie Cain, whose five-year-old daughter was told off for talking about Jesus in class is now facing the sack for seeking support from her church.

Mrs Cain sent a private email to close friends to ask for prayers for her daughter after she was called into the school where she worked in Crediton, Devon, to be reprimanded.

Her daughter Jasmine had been overheard by a teacher discussing heaven and God with a friend and had been pulled to one side and told off.

Mrs Cain contacted 10 close friends from her church by email but the message fell into the hands of Gary Read, the headmaster of Landscore Primary School where she works.

The 38-year-old mother of two is now being investigated for professional misconduct for allegedly making claims against the school and its staff. Read more
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An Essex 'Fresh Expression' of Church

What this site is all about

From 2006-2008, the Church on the Common, an aging evangelical anglican congregation in the village of G---, Essex, UK, tried to turn itself into a child-friendly church.  It failed.

In September 2009 it plans to launch a fresh expression of church, particularly targeted at infant and junior aged children (ie 4s-11s)  and their families.

At the same time, Church on the Common is a vibrant, wise and gospel-centred place.   It is still aiming to grow, and is exploring ways to live up to its considerable potential.

This site is being launched in February 2009.  It aims to analyse what went wrong  with the earlier project, and give you a real-time description of our efforts to get ready for the launch of the new one while continuing to support and be excited by the ongoing life of the Church on the Common.

We hope it will be useful for pioneers and leaders of similar churches, and interesting to all those involved.  We would love people to interact with us.

On this site, all names are shortened to their initial and final letter, but all facts given are (to the best of the authors' knowledge) entirely true.  

Read the blog to keep up to date - the earliest posts are at the bottom of the page, so you might want to scroll down to the beginning to start.

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Orthodox Anglicans Don't Expect Unity for Long

Days after Anglican leaders came out of a global meeting pleased with the respect and graciousness that were exchanged despite ongoing internal conflicts, one prominent conservative bishop demanded that the "bitter truth" be acknowledged – that their differences are irreconcilable.

In an open letter addressed to Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, who is considered the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, Nigerian Archbishop Peter J. Akinola expressed his discontentment with the churches in North America and their continued pro-gay actions.

"It now seems increasingly clear that without a radical change of behavior on the part of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada the only possible outcome of such a process is acknowledgment of a bitter truth that the differences in the words of Archbishop Idris Jones are 'irreconcilable,'" Akinola wrote in the letter, released Tuesday.

During a Feb. 1-5 meeting in Alexandria, Egypt, Anglican leaders agreed to maintain a moratorium on the ordination of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions as they try to move forward to mend their rifts and re-establish mutual trust.

Some Anglicans in North America, however, have taken steps to start blessing same-sex unions, Akinola noted. The Diocese of Virginia adopted an amendment, days before the Anglican meeting, affirming "the inherent integrity and blessedness of committed Christian relationships between two adult persons."

Also, the Diocese of Toronto put forward a proposal last week to allow some parishes to offer blessings – although not the nuptial blessing – to same-sex couples. Read more
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US Church calls for six-year delay on Anglican Covenant vote

The Executive Council of the US Episcopal Church has recommended a six-year delay before voting on the Anglican Covenant.

At the close of its three-day winter meeting on Jan 31 in Stockton, California, the Executive Council endorsed a report from a task force that recommended the delay on adopting the Covenant, and voiced strong criticism of the most recent draft of the document.

The Anglican Covenant will be presented to the Communion at the May meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Kingston, Jamaica. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori last year urged the church not to take up the Covenant at the July meeting of General Convention saying more time was needed.

However conservative critics said the delay was politically motivated, noting that when the issue of affirming the election of a partnered gay priest was brought before Convention in 2003, a similar timeframe was not found to be objectionable by the church’s liberal hierarchy.

Waiting until the 2015 General Convention “would provide a fruitful opportunity for [the Episcopal Church] to hear the voices of other members of the Anglican Communion as they discuss future drafts.” Read more
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Banned from Britain, Dutch campaigner against Islam

A far-right Dutch MP whose film linking Islamic texts with the terror attacks on New York sparked protests around the Muslim world was last night banned from entering Britain.

Geert Wilders, who leads the small Dutch Freedom Party, was due to show his controversial 17-minute film at an event in the House of Lords tomorrow, but was informed yesterday by British officials that he would not be allowed to enter the country. The decision sparked an immediate diplomatic row after the Dutch Government pressed Britain to reverse the ban. Read more
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An Open Letter from Archbishop Akinola to Archbishop Williams

Dear Rowan:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am writing in regard to the recently concluded Primates Meeting in Alexandria, Egypt. Thank you for all of your contributions. I admire how you bear graciously the divergent views and enormous pain they impose. As I indicated at the time I was grateful that we were able to discuss core theological convictions and achieve considerable clarity about our differences. That we were able to do so in an atmosphere of respect and without rancour is not only an answered prayer but it is also a testimony and credit to your role in this outcome and something for which I am most appreciative.

In preparation for the meeting I asked The American Anglican Council to prepare the attached report on the continuing situation of The Episcopal Church to enable people in the wider Communion to have a fuller perspective of the circumstances in North America. I shared it with my colleagues in the Global South but did not release it more widely in the hope that we would receive assurances from the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada that they were willing to exercise genuine restraint towards those Anglicans in North America unwilling to embrace their several innovations.

Sadly that did not prove to be the case. Instead we were treated to presentations that sought to trivialize the situation and the consequences for those whose only offence is their determination to hold on doggedly and truthfully to the faith once delivered to the saints. In addition I have learned that even as we met together in Alexandria actions were taken that were in direct contradiction to the season of deeper communion and gracious restraint to which we all expressed agreement. For example, in the days leading up to our meeting, the Diocese of Virginia declared the “inherent integrity and blessedness” of same sex unions and initiated a process to provide for their “blessing”. While we were meeting, The Diocese of Toronto also announced that it will start same sex blessings within a year and The Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Virginia filed further costly legal action appealing the court’s decision in twenty cases favouring nine Virginia congregations. These and many further actions are documented within the report.

In our meeting we recommended that you initiate a “professionally mediated conversation which engages all parties at the earliest opportunity.” It now seems increasingly clear that without a radical change of behaviour on the part of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada the only possible outcome of such a process is acknowledgement of a bitter truth that the differences in the words of Archbishop Idris Jones are “irreconcilable”. I know that you are grieved by the continuing brokenness of our Communion but I believe that healing will only come when we face into the true reality of our situation. That is what I am endeavouring to do by releasing this report and a similar document describing the situation in Canada. I assure you of my prayers and determination that we do nothing that will compromise the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ that is our only hope.

In Christ,

+ Peter Abuja

A PDF copy of the letter above is available here.

The American Anglican Council’s report on The Episcopal Church that was prepared for the Primates is available here.

An additional report prepared by the Anglican Network in Canada on the Anglican Church of Canada is available here.

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Biblical debt jubilee may be the only answer

[...] The Fed has cut rates to zero. It is buying mortgage securities on the open market, and eying Treasury debt next. Fellow central banks are exploring their own ways to print money.

The $3 trillion (£2 trillion) fiscal blitz by the US, China, Japan and Europe plugs an emergency gap. With luck, it will keep the world economy on life-support just long enough to stop recession and banking crises from feeding on each other with lethal effect, as they did in 1931.

The latest plans to "ring-fence" bad debts in sceptic tanks puts in place the fourth pillar. The UK Treasury's version involves a state insurance scheme, letting banks shuffle off their crippling loads and escape mark-to-market torture.

The US version is a "bad bank" for mortgage debt. It is more or less the old "TARP" passed by Congress, before the funds were diverted into bank recapitalisations. This method worked after the Savings & Loan crisis in the 1980s. The market found a floor. The Treasury even made a profit.

German finance minister Peer Steinbrück said he "could not imagine" a bad bank in his country. Time will tell. Der Spiegel reports that Germany's top 20 banks have €300bn (£270bn) of bad debt, booked at "illusory" prices. They have written down just a quarter of their losses.

Taken together, the rescues may make the difference between global recession and a deeper slump that causes mass unemployment and social turmoil, perhaps destroying the open global order we take for granted. We can only guess.

There is no guarantee that the measures will succeed. The vast scale of government borrowing may exhaust the stock of global capital. Markets are already beginning to question the credit-worthiness of sovereign states. The Fed may find it harder than it thinks to disengage from colossal intervention in the bond markets.

In the end, the only way out of all this global debt may prove to be a Biblical debt Jubilee.

Creditors are not going to like that.


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New sites for GAFCON and Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans

A new website for the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans has been launched at  www.fca.net   The GAFCON site has also been redesigned and relaunched, at  www.gafcon.org 

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Christians are becoming social pariahs in Britain, claims Jeremy Vine

Jeremy Vine, the BBC presenter, has claimed that it is becoming "socially unacceptable" to be a Christian in Britain.

The Radio 2 host said that he feels unable to talk about his faith on his show because he fears how people would react.

He argues that society has become increasingly intolerant of the freedom to express religious views.

"You can't express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago," he said.

"Arguably, the parameters of what you might call 'right thinking' are probably closing.

"Sadly, along with that has come the fact that it's almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God."

His comments follow the claim from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, that Britain is an "unfriendly" place for religious people to live.

Mr Vine, 43, is a practising Anglican, but says he would be compromised by being more open about his faith on air.

"Just blurting it out would be destructive," he said. Read more


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New Chairman of CEEC announced

The new chairman of the Church of England Evangelical Council is the Venerable Michael Lawson, the Archdeacon of Hampstead. He replaces the Revd Dr Richard Turnbull, who resigned at the end of 2008. Michael will serve until the end of 2010.

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Pro-gay vicar of Putney made an African canon

It's unusual for an English cleric to be made a canon of a cathedral in the diocese of Sefwi-Wiawso in Ghana.

But even more unlikely when the vicar happens to be a militant pro-gay campaigner, whose views are anathema to the majority of African churches.

This is the vicar that invited the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson to preach in his church on the eve of the Lambeth conference.

Archbishop Akinola has described gays as lower than dogs.

The archbishop, and all clergy in his province, boycotted the Lambeth Conference in protest at the presence of American bishops involved in the consecration of Bishop Robinson.

Therefore it's safe to assume that he won't be running down the streets of Abuja overjoyed at the thought of the arch-liberal Fraser being honoured by a neighbouring country's Church.

His feelings towards whoever his Nigerian priests were at the ceremony in Ghana will be no warmer.

However, Bishop Abraham Kobina Ackah of Sefwi-Wiawso is to be congratulated.

He's taken a brave stand in making the vicar of Putney a canon of his cathedral and in doing so is refusing to allow the issue of homosexuality to continue to be a source of division. Read more

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Porvoo Church may be about to approve same-sex marriages

The Church of England along with the three other Anglican churches of these isles is in full communion with the Church of Sweden, which is about to debate and probably approve a proposed rite of same-sex marriage. And there is no Anglican-English-style fudge here, over 'when is a blessing a wedding and when is it just a blessing'. This comes as the Lutheran Church in Britain prepares to consecrate this country's first woman bishop. The church said: 'The Lutheran Church in Great Britain will consecrate its first woman bishop, the Right Rev Jana Jeruma-Grinberga, on Saturday 17th January 2009, in the historic Wren church of St Anne & St Agnes on Gresham Street, in the City of London. Her predecessor, the Right Rev Walter Jagucki, will preside at the service, and bishops and other clergy from Nordic and European Lutheran churches will participate in the consecration.' Read more
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Anglo-Catholics prepare for a parting of the ways. About time, too.

There are signs that proper Anglo-Catholics - the Forward in Faith crowd, not the Vichyite Affirming "Catholics" - realise that the game is up. In the February issue of the newsletter of the Diocese of Ebbsfleet, David Smart, vice chairman of its lay council, predicts a parting of ways. The big question, he says, is whether Anglo-Catholics part as friends.

The newsletter doesn't, alas, tell us what progress the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham, has made with plans to lead some of his people into full communion with Rome. My guess is that he still doesn't know how things will play out. A lot depends on the identity of the next Archbishop of Westminster. Perhaps the next one will possess a spark of theological imagination; perhaps not. I can understand why many Anglo-Catholics feel queasy at the thought of joining a Church run by the Magic Circle. An Anglican priest friend told me the other day that the RC representatives at the General Synod tend to side with the liberal Anglicans against the Anglo-Catholics. How predictable.

But, in the end, Anglo-Catholics should remember that, if they become Roman Catholics, they will be joining a Church led by Pope Benedict XVI, not some grey-shirted placeman from Eccleston Square. True, the Pope is now well into his 80s - but the liberals are making a big mistake if they assume that the next pontiff will undo the Benedictine reforms. Not only the up-and-coming cardinals but also the new generation of priests are liturgically conservative. Read more
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Archbishop of York claims fall of Empire and rise of multiculturalism has destroyed Britain's 'big idea'

Dr John Sentamu claimed the country has lost its way and become self-absorbed in recent decades, following the pioneering reforms that led to the creation of the National Health Service.
He agreed that Labour has repeatedly put forward new ideas to generate "social cohesion" but they had yet to be made real because ministers do not want to hand over power to residents, and instead rely on "over-hasty" laws.

However the Archbishop, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, also claimed the current economic crisis provides an opportunity for people to look again at their priorities and admit they had been worshipping "false gods" in the financial world rather than working to improve society.

His comments in a lecture delivered to the Smith Institute, a Labour-supporting think tank, come after a series of bishops accused the Government of squandering its chance to transform Britain for the better and of pursuing policies just to win votes.

In his speech Dr Sentamu, the first black Archbishop in the Church of England who fled Uganda in 1974, described how in the first decades of the 20th century, calls for action on poverty had led to the welfare state being set up.

But he went on to say that this shared "big vision" has now been lost and that Britain has become "a society which is ill at ease with itself".

Dr Sentamu said: "I believe that one of the key factors which has contributed to our loss of the big vision for our country, has been the loss of the Empire. I am aware that this is a controversial view. But whilst Britain had an Empire, a large merchant navy, a large manufacturing industry and commerce, and significant numbers engaged in armed forces, and an expatriate Civil Service in the colonies, it encouraged an outward-looking perspective.

"As the vision for Britain became more introspective, I believe we became more self-absorbed." Read more
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Kenyan appointment of English Canon 'honours the gospel'

It has just been confirmed by Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi that the Rev’d Tim Davies, 44, who leads Christ Church Central in Sheffield, England, has been made an honorary Canon of All Saints Cathedral Diocese, Nairobi. At first sight, this may not appear unusual, but Christ Church is not a normal Church of England congregation. In fact, it is not in the Church of England at all.

Its origins go back to the attempt by Christ Church, Fulwood, one of the largest Anglican Evangelical parish churches in England, to plant a new congregation to reach inner city Sheffield under Tim Davies’ leadership. The local incumbent refused to co-operate and, because of the Church of England’s legal status as the established church, the only way to proceed was to form an independent Anglican congregation.

This came with a price tag for Tim and his growing family. It involved him having to renounce his licence, losing most of what comes with employment as a Church of England clergyman including his guaranteed stipend, the entitlement to a generous family home and, of course, saying goodbye to any possibility of future preferment. He was not deterred and in October 2003 Christ Church Central was formed with a core group of about 75 from Fulwood and prospered. By Autumn 2005 the congregation had outgrown its church building, and began holding services in a bar across the road. Now Christ Church has in turn planted another congregation and the two churches have a total Sunday attendance of some 220.

By African standards, this may not seem out of the ordinary, but in the English context of widespread cynicism fuelled by increasingly aggressive secularism and, moreover, in an inner city area where the Church of England has never been strong, it is remarkable. Read more
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Review: Rowan's Rule, by Rupert Shortt

On the cover of this biography of Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury's hand frames a face with a slight smile, the eyes looking with candour straight at the reader. What should we deduce from such an image? That it signals a book where the man behind the mitre might be exposed to our gaze?

Rupert Shortt's account is certainly revealing, a comprehensive study that attempts to get to grips with both the character and theology of the man who has been the Church of England's leading cleric for the past six years. Shortt, a former pupil of Williams, has had considerable access and, while this is not an authorised biography, there was a certain co-operation between subject and writer. That has enabled Williams's people to distance him from some of the more tawdry revelations about past girlfriends. Although somewhat embarrassing, they hardly merited the Daily Mail's moniker "babe magnet" to describe the Archbishop.

Rowan's Rule, to a Catholic like me, suggests something monastic. Indeed, there are several instances where Williams, despite being married and the leading Anglican primate, does seem monk-like, with his devotion to a structured prayer life, a love of study and simplicity. But both the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion have been extremely unruly during his time at the top. Read more
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Having no faith is no excuse for rewriting history, says Theodore Dalrymple

[...] When I once published a small article in which I stated that by far the best and nicest people I had ever known were religious, I received a torrent of unpleasant letters that equalled in nastiness of tone the theocratic Islamic websites (that are easily found) that assert, without qualification or awareness that some might find the point of view morally repugnant, that the penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. I was not in any way endorsing the religious beliefs themselves, merely saying that, in these cases, they seem to have had beneficial consequences.

It goes without saying that I do not want to live in a theocracy, but I don’t want to live in a militantly atheist state either: and to call religious education child abuse seems to me virtually to be a demand for a militantly atheist state. Indeed, most militantly atheists states (with the exception of Albania) did not forbid people to be religious, only to teach religion – precisely the policy that those who call religious education a form of child abuse might be expected to endorse. Not coincidentally, these militantly atheist states were among the nastiest in human history.

The role of rationality in human life is a lot more complex and less unequivocal than we sometimes like to think; this applies as much to disbelievers as to believers. Militancy is usually a sign of impatience, as well as of a lack of prudence, justice and temperance: and, as I am sure that I do not need to tell you, prudence, justice and temperance are three of the four cardinal virtues. Read more
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SPREAD: If we didn’t leave, what did we accomplish at GAFCON?

Introduction

It is important, when considering what was accomplished at GAFCON, to keep in mind its singular focus. That focus was to identify the Anglican grasp of the apostolic faith, to claim that identity for the whole Anglican Communion and to provide a firm oversight and standing from which to confess the apostolic faith as we Anglicans have received it. This singular focus meant that many very important matters were not directly addressed at GAFCON, in the Statement or in the Jerusalem Declaration. This by no means relegates matters such as the status of 5th, 6th and 7th Councils, the ordination of women, the form of the Anglican Communion, abortion, the nature of and conflict with militant Islam, our relation to the persecuted Church etc. to secondary issues. There are serious issues and differences among the fellowship of confessing Anglicans that must and will be faced. It will not be easy, nor will solutions be sudden, nor can we be absolutely certain that some will not, in the end, decide they must walk apart. The difference is that they will be faced in the context of the authority of Holy Scriptures and the apostolic faith as Anglicans have historically received it. The Conference said, echoing Canon A5 of the Church of England: “The doctrine of the Church is grounded in the Holy Scriptures and in such teaching of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal. We intend to remain faithful to this standard and we call on others in the Communion to reaffirm and return to it.”

With that in mind, let me state I believe to be the most important things that we did accomplish Read more
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