Synod – Day One

In an update on the progress of women bishops in the Church of England, exasperated Synod members groaned when it was revealed that there would be no discussion of a paper delivered by the Bishop of Manchester, The Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch on the subject of women bishops.

The announcement was greeted by public "no's" from some 400 Synod members. The bishop proceeded with his speech emphasizing that the Revisions Committee had met thirteen times, had received nearly 300 submissions, including 114 from Synod members.

McCulloch opined that while women bishops is likely a done deal those who had "conscientious difficulties" about women's ordination will be afforded another bishop, but such a bishop will be chosen by a delegation from the diocesan bishops including women bishops, thus leaving the situation still untenable to orthodox Anglicans.

The Rev. Canon Simon Bessant (Sheffield) rose to say that there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support the view that the gender balance in Church of England congregations is getting seriously out of line.

In his report he said there are significant missiological issues emerging when a church experiences a testosterone deficit. He asked for "hard evidence" on the matter and said there were profound theological issues which characterize a church with a gender imbalance.

In a reply to Bessant, the Bishop of Bristol, the Rt. Rev. Michael Hill said the Revision Committee was moving beyond anecdotal evidence and building mission policies on something more substantial.

"The social analysis here is complex and there are no quick fixes in terms of mission practice. I believe every bishop is concerned to build a well-balanced church, and mission amongst men and younger people is on everyone's agenda."

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Your curate put this question to the UK Independence Party's regional organiser for the North East of England, Gordon Parkin: under a UKIP administration, would the right of Christian faith schools to teach biblical morality be upheld?

Mr Parkin answered as follows:

Yes. Christian faith schools must be allowed to teach Christian faith and morals. They must be allowed to do what it says on the tin. The agenda of political correctness should not be shoved down their throats.

In his interview with the gay magazine Attitude, Conservative leader David Cameron was asked: 'Do you think that the right of gay children to have a safe education trumps the right of faith schools to teach that homosexuality is a sin?'

He answered:

Basically yes – that's the short answer to that, without getting into a long religious exegesis. I mean, I think, yes. I think….. [long pause] ….. I don't want to get into an enormous row with the Archbishop here. But I think the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through – sorting this issue out and recognising that full equality is a bottom line full essential.

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The Archbishop of Canterbury will fight threats of disintegration in the Church of England with what is expected to be a forceful intervention at the General Synod today.

Dr Rowan Williams is determined to challenge the increasingly bitter infighting sparked by disagreements over women bishops in England and gay ordinations in the US.

In one of the most important presidential addresses of his seven-year archiepiscopacy, described by one insider as a “brilliant piece of work”, the Archbishop is expected to salvage hope from the despair felt by many Anglicans over pressure brought by the liberal, evangelical and Catholic wings of the established Church.

Anglican leaders are increasingly concerned at the way that the Church’s tussles over women and gays is hindering its mission to proclaim the gospel to the nation. The synod was told yesterday that the Church of England was suffering a “testosterone deficit” caused by a “seriously out-of- line” gender balance. The synod heard anecdotal evidence suggesting that women are playing an increasingly important role in the Church, and when it comes to attendance bishops should be actively pursuing missions directed at men.

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Voters are deeply pessimistic about the state of Britain today, believing that society is broken and heading in the wrong direction, a Populus poll for The Times has found.

Nearly three fifths of voters say that they hardly recognise the country they are living in, while 42 per cent say they would emigrate if they could.

But worries over the pace of social change and dislocation are balanced by the belief that life will get better, according to the survey undertaken at the weekend.

It suggests that 70 per cent believe that society is now broken, echoing a Conservative campaign theme of the past two years, while 68 per cent say people who play by the rules get a raw deal and 82 per cent think it is time for a change.

The snapshot of Britain also confirms, however, that the battle between the parties has tightened with Labour two points up at 30 per cent.

Women, working-class people and Tory voters were more likely to say that they hardly recognise their own country.

Overall, 64 per cent think that Britain is going in the wrong direction and just 31 per cent believe it is on the right track.

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On Wednesday, there wil be an important vote in London on whether the Brits will side with a nascent would-be 39th North American Anglican province that has split with the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Opponents of women priests must finally make up their minds which church they belong to. Neither much wants them

The majority of the Church of England has lost patience with the opponents of women priests. Such priests may stay in the church after it has women bishops, but they will be unable to pretend that they don't exist. The opponents must apply to women bishops, or their supporters, for permission to have services taken by bishops more to their own taste. They had wanted a legal guarantee, sent through parliament, that they were entitled to this. But a speech leaked to the Times (gnashing of teeth gnoise here), makes it clear they have lost.

Rowan Williams was prepared to give them a legal guarantee, but the synod voted him down last summer. Then he tried to get it in by the back door, in the synod's revision committee. That might have succeeded had it not been for Pope Benedict XVI. The revision committee did announce in the autumn it would agree to legal safeguards. Then the pope made his announcement that the opponents of women might be able to convert as a body, and keep their own bishops. "We have got everything we wanted" said one of their leaders; and though no one actually said so in as many words, the message from the rest of the church was "Well, go and collect it, then."

The revision committee then found that while it had agreed in principle to legal safeguards, there was no possible particular safeguard which all parties would accept. So, back to the voluntary code of practice. This means Anglo-Catholic opponents have had their bluff called. They can be proper Anglicans, with consideration for their views, but without any special legal status, or they can be Roman Catholics with a special legal status if they will admit they were never priests at all. But in neither church are they really welcome on their own terms.

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If Lorna Ashworth’s Private Member’s Motion ‘That this Synod express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America’  is passed by the Church of England’s General Synod tomorrow,  she will have done  a great service to English Anglicans as well as the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) because it is as much about the English Church as the Church in North America.

She poses precisely the sort of question that the Church of England’s leadership wants to avoid because the ACNA represents a choice which must be made between two incompatible forms of religion – historic biblical Anglicanism and that pseudo- Anglicanism being promoted by TEC and its allies which derives its energy from the spirit of the age rather than the Spirit of Christ.

Unsurprisingly, the English House of Bishops has proposed an amendment, to be put by the Bishop of Bristol, the Rt Rev Mike Hill, which will dilute and delay the original motion by asking Synod to recognise and affirm the desire of ACNA to remain in the Communion with the Archbishops being invited to report back to the Synod in 2011. While such prevarication is no doubt not his intention, according to the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt   the Bishop of Bristol’s amendment  is simply a recognition of the church constitutional reality that ‘it is not in fact the role of the Church of England to make these kind of decisions, nor is it for Synod to make these kind of decisions’.

But in that case something pretty odd is happening – the Church of England through its Synod has considered itself perfectly competent to change fundamentally the Church’s historic orders by assenting to the ordination of women to the presbyterate in 1992 and then proposing not only their consecration to the episcopate in 2007, but also attempting to force conscience by making no legal provision for those who cannot as a matter of principle accept the validity of female orders. Now the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, as chair of the legislative Steering Committee, has confirmed to Synod that any such provision has been ruled out. And yet it is held that a Synod which can introduce such drastic changes is not competent to express a view on what should be the much less controversial  question of recognising unquestionably orthodox Anglicans in North America who are being systematically harassed by official Anglican Churches with a increasingly implausible  claim to orthodoxy.

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Humorous Super Bowl commercial shines light on pro-abortion groups that objected to its airing.

The much-anticipated and maligned Focus on the Family ad featuring Tim and Pam Tebow aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday.

It already has the British government jumping to its tune and a pliant media dutifully broadcasting its propaganda but still that's not enough for this dangerous organisation. Now it's demanding a supine judiciary which will do its bidding as well. Clearly there are no limits to its insane ambitions.

This should alarm anyone who believes in any kind of liberty at all. The National "Secular" Society is not a secularist organisation in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an anti-religious one with a strong streak of authoritarianism as this story demonstrates. It works to restrict the democratic rights of religious believers and routinely foments hatred against its targets in the most bigoted of terms.

One thing it won't do, however, is reveal its membership figures, which could be as pathetically low as 7000.

Well it should be required to. And then sent packing back into the 18th Century novel it crawled out of.

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Conservative clergy have warned of a mass exodus from the Church of England and a sharp drop in its income unless divisive plans for the introduction of women bishops are changed.

On the first day of the gathering of the Church’s governing body, the General Synod, Anglo-Catholics claimed that “large numbers” would leave for Rome if their demands for concessions are not met.

Meanwhile 50 serving priests belonging to Reform, the evangelical group, signed an open letter saying that the situation could force them to cut off funding for dioceses and spend their money on training new vicars outside the Church instead.

The established church, which introduced women to the priesthood in 1994, is committed to ordaining female bishops as well but the process has been held up by the entrenched positions of both supporters and opponents of the historic move.

Liberals argue that women should be introduced to the episcopate on the same basis and with the same powers as men, otherwise an unfair two-tier system will develop.

However conservatives claim they were assured back when women priests were introduced that provisions would be made for them, similar to the “flying bishops” that currently cater for parishes that cannot accept the oversight of female vicars, when the next step was taken.

They want either an entirely new “men-only” province that could cover the whole of England, or extra junior bishops in dioceses who had not ordained women bishops and who would be answerable only to an Archbishop.

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Palestinian academic Azzam Tamimi, who has said he would be happy to be a suicide bomber, will address Cambridge University students tonight, despite calls from the Union of Jewish Students to revoke the invitation.

The Cambridge Islamic Society has invited Dr Tamimi, director of Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, to address students this evening.

A UJS spokeswoman criticised the Islamic Society for allowing the talk to go ahead when the same group “demanded” that the university’s Israel Society cancel a speech by top Israeli historian, Benny Morris last week, after claiming he was an “Islamophobic hate speaker”.

In 2004, Dr Tamimi told BBC’s Hard Talk: “Sacrificing myself for Palestine is a noble cause… I would do it if I had the opportunity."

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On the day that John Terry is due to learn his fate from England coach Fabio Capello, the decline of faithfulness in modern society has been lamented by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

The Archbishop said it was a matter of regret that society had lost the sacred concept of faithfulness on staying true to one another during marriage.

Dr Williams showed his disappointment when he said many people don’t see a problem in the controversial case of England captain John Terry who’s in the spotlight after newspaper claims of him having an extramarital affair with model Vanessa Perroncel, the former partner of Terry’s England team-mate.

“Clearly, a lot of people think there’s no problem there and that’s a pity because adultery is adultery,” said Dr Williams in exclusive interview with Religious Intelligence.

Dr Williams was speaking after he and a panel of religious scholars hosted the Faith in the World Conference at Church House Conference Centre, in London’s Dean Yard. More than 400 students — representing 65 Anglican schools from all over Britain — attended the event and had a chance to question the panel at the end of the programme.

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Ordaining women as bishops would be "a mistake", a group of 50 clergy has warned in a letter to the Church of England General Synod.

The clergy, linked to the evangelical group Reform, say adequate safeguards for objectors to the plan are needed.

If not, the Church could see a drastic cut in the number of men training for the priesthood and a multi-million pound drop in funding, they warn.

The General Synod begins its week-long meeting on Monday.

In the letter, the group demands special bishops are created to minister to parishes and clergy who object to women bishops with powers to ordain and approve the training of priests.

'Simple integrity'

Chairman of Reform, the Reverend Rod Thomas, of St Matthew's Church, Elburton, Plymouth heads the list of signatories.

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Read also:  Independent Report

The Church of England’s present plans for legislation on women bishops show that “nothing is being done to head off the huge practical problems” that will result said Reform Chairman, the Rev Rod Thomas, today. Speaking on the day that the Bishop of Manchester was reporting on the issue to the General Synod, Mr Thomas said that the biggest problem would be a “drastic cut” in the Church of England’s future intake of young ordinands.

The Reform Chairman was commenting on an open letter issued to Synod members today by 50 Church of England ministers who have links with Reform. Drawn from churches of varying sizes across England, they say that in the last ten years they have sent over 180 men into ordained ministry, of whom more than 50% were under the age of 30. They have also contributed more than £20 million to the Church of England’s finances.

The ministers say that if future legislation fails to provide adequately for them, then they would have to encourage new potential ordinands to consider training for ministry outside the Church of England and to help them financially to do that. Churches would also need to consider establishing charitable trusts to finance their own ministries in the longer term. These costs would inevitably put a “severe strain” on their continuing ability to contribute to the Church of England.

The signatories represent just some of those who are concerned over the current lack of provision for opponents of women bishops. The letter points out that their opposition is based on the pattern the Bible gives both for relationships in the home and the church. They say that they cannot see how, as Bible teachers, they can do other than put into practice what they believe the Bible to be teaching.

Rod Thomas said: “The current absence of any proposal from the General Synod’s Revision Committee to guarantee a future place for our views within the Church of England is causing great concern.”

Reform has more than 1,300 members, of whom more than 350 are ordained clergy. Many others are known to be sympathetic to its concerns.

A copy of the letter with list of signatories follows.

A briefing paper from Reform on the different roles of men and women in ministry can be found here

Dear Bishops and Synod members,

As 50 incumbents of Church of England churches we are writing to say why, in our view, the consecration of women bishops would be a mistake and would raise for us great difficulties of conscience and practice, as well as being wrong for our Church as a whole.

Our concern is derived from Scripture. It seems to us that the Apostolic teaching on male headship in church and family (as in 1 Corinthians 11-14, Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3) is clear enough in its principles: overall leadership in the church is to be exercised by men. The fierce debates that have surrounded the gender issue over the last twenty years or so have stimulated much careful analysis of these texts, and have only served to show that mainstream translations such as NRSV, NIV, REB and ESV are correct in their translation and may (and should) be taken as they stand.

It is, of course, right to say that these passages in Paul and Peter have a particular cultural setting; but to make them prisoners of that culture and thus unable to challenge our culture, seems to us implicitly to deny the authority of Scripture. It is surely the genius of the New Testament that what was spoken in a particular context is at one and the same time also God’s word to us. Far from being a prisoner of his culture, Paul is not afraid to challenge it, warning his readers “not to live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking” (Eph 4:17). Why, then, is it assumed he will uncritically reflect their values on this issue of gender?

Therefore we think the historic, reasoned reflection of Christians down the ages (including the historic position of the Church of England) has been correct; we fear that the current pressure to overturn it comes not for biblical reasons but because we are losing our nerve in the face of pressure from society.

In saying all this, we emphasise again that we are NOT for a moment saying women are less valuable than men, and nor does the Scripture. This, in our experience, is the point which we find hardest to communicate, since the world about us equates value with power. Just by making this point we are thought to be “anti-women”. On the contrary, it is both possible and right to affirm that we are “all one in Christ Jesus”, while at the same time affirming different roles. For the Bible separates roles and worth: our Lord Jesus himself submitted to the Father, but is, of course, no less God than he is.

There are, of course, questions about how precisely to honour this teaching in some details of the life of our churches today, but few would doubt, surely, that the office of bishop is indeed very much a leadership function!

In our own churches we are glad to teach these passages of Scripture as they stand, and include a ‘complementary’ view of gender roles in our teaching on marriage, family life and church. Gently ordering our shared life this way is, in our view, vital to our witness to a Christian understanding of family life. Our churches contain many members – and very many women as well as men – who are glad of this teaching, which is all the more important in a world which is so confused about gender roles and sexuality in general. In such a context, the oversight of a woman bishop would be enormously hard to explain, however great her merits in other regards. Again and again, in our youth groups, at marriage preparation and whenever covering the relevant passages in homegroups and from the pulpit, we would find ourselves having to answer people’s question, “Why does the Church of England go against this?” This would fester on for as long as people have Bibles in their hands.

In the end, this is an issue about our view of Holy Scripture, and this is why it matters to us so much, as ministers of the Word.

As matters stand, it seems likely that General Synod will be invited to vote on legislative proposals that threaten our ministries. An illustration of the practical problems we will face should a Measure fail to provide adequate safeguards, can be seen with future ordinands. At the moment we are encouraging young men into the ordained ministry in the knowledge that they cannot be discriminated against if they hold convictions about male headship. While this remains the case, we have encouraged them to believe that there is a worthwhile future for their ministries in the Church of England. However, we will be unable to do this if inadequately protective legislation is passed. The issue that will then arise is how to encourage these men to develop their ministries if they cannot do so within the formal structures of the Church of England. The answer must be to encourage them to undertake training for ministries outside those formal structures, although hopefully still within an Anglican tradition. We will, of course, have to help them with the financing of their training.

Our congregations will inevitably start asking questions about their own place within the Church of England if they see us encouraging people into training for alternative ministries. This will come into sharp focus when the issue of succession to an incumbency arises. Since we cannot take an oath of canonical obedience to a female bishop, we are unlikely to be appointed to future incumbencies. We see nothing but difficulty facing us. In these circumstances we will have to discuss with our congregations how to foster and protect the ministry they wish to receive. This is likely to generate a need for the creation of new independent charitable trusts whose purpose will be to finance our future ministries, when the need arises.

These twin developments will need to be financed from current congregational giving. This will inevitably put a severe strain on our ability to continue to contribute financially to Diocesan funds. Where we are unable to contribute as before some will see this as a form of retaliation. However, that could not be further from the truth. We long to contribute to the well being of the Church of England. Over the last ten years we have encouraged more than 180 young men into the ordained ministry, over 50% of whom were under the age of 30. We have together contributed a gross figure of more than £22million to Diocesan funds.

Finally, for those of us ordained since 1992, our understanding, in good faith, was that proper legal provision would be made for those who did not agree that women should have the overall leadership of a church (Resolution B, etc). It seems to us a matter of simple integrity that Synod should now keep its word to us in this and not force us down a road none of us wish to tread.

Yours in Christ,

Rev’d Rod Thomas St Matthew’s Elburton, Exeter
(Chairman of Reform)

Rev'd Rod Thomas, St. Matthew's Elburton, Exeter (Chairman of Reform) and 49 other signatories, which follow

Rev'd Michael Andreyev St Peter's Stapenhill, Derby

Rev'd Nigel Atkinson St John's Knutsford, Chester

Rev'd Simon Austen St John's and St Peter's, Carlisle

Rev'd Martin Bailey All Saints Riseley, Peterborough

Rev'd Iain Baker St Thomas Kidsgrove, Lichfield

Rev'd Hugh Balfour Christ Church Peckham, Southwark

Rev'd David Banting St Peter's Harold Wood, Chelmsford

Rev'd Neil Barber St Giles Normanton, Derby

Rev'd Robert Bashford St James Westgate,Canterbury

Rev'd John Birchall Christ Church Surbiton Hill, Southwark

Rev'd Iain Broomfield Christ Church Bromley, Rochester

Rev'd Mark Burkill Christ Church Leytonstone, Chelmsford

Rev'd John Cheeseman Holy Trinity Eastbourne, Chichester

Rev'd CJ Davis St NicholasTooting, Southwark

Rev'd Steve Donald St John the Evangelist, Carlisle

Rev'd Richard Espin-Bradley St Luke's Wolverhampton, Birmingham

Rev'd Jonathan Fletcher Emmanuel Church Wimbledon,Southwark

Rev'd Simon Gales St John s Lindow, Chester

Rev'd David Gibb St Andrews Leyland, Blackburn

Rev'd David Harris St Leonards, Exeter

Rev'd Clive Hawkins St Mary's Eastrop, Winchester

Rev'd Chris Hobbs St Stephen's Selly Park, Birmingham

Rev'd Christopher Hobbs St Thomas Oakwood, London

Rev'd Jonathan Juckes St Andrew's Kirk Ella, York

Rev'd Jeremy Leffler St Ambrose Widnes, Liverpool

Rev'd James Leggett St James, Ryde, Portsmouth

Rev'd Ian Lewis St Bartholomews, Bath

Rev'd Angus MacLeay St Nicholas Sevenoaks, Rochester

Rev'd Julian Mann Oughtibridge Parish Church, Sheffield

Rev'd Ed Moll St George's Wembdon, Bath

Rev'd Darren Moore St Catherine's Tranmere, Chester

Rev'd Ken Moulder St Oswalds, Newcastle

Rev'd Robert Munro Cheadle Parish Church, Chester

Rev'd Alasdair Paine Christ Church Westbourne, Winchester

Rev'd Andrew Raynes Christ Church, Blackburn

Rev'd Mike Reith Dagenham Parish Church, Chelmsford

Rev'd Vaughan Roberts St Ebbe's, Oxford

Rev'd Simon Scott All Saints Little Shelford, Cambridge

Rev'd John Simmons Christ Church Chadderton, Manchester

Rev'd Simon Smallwood St George's Dagenahm, Chelmsford

Rev'd Will Stileman St Mary's Maidenhead, Oxford

Rev'd William Taylor St Helen's Bishopsgate, London

Rev'd Melvin Tinker St John's Newlands, York

Rev'd Alistair Tresidder St Luke's Hampstead, London

Rev'd Philip Venables St Andrew's Bebington,Chester

Rev'd Stephen Walton St Michaels's Marbury, Chester

Rev'd Tim Ward Holy Trinity Hinkley, Leicester

Rev'd Mike Warren St Peters Tunbridge Wells, Rochester

Rev'd Gordon Warren St Anne's Limehouse, London

(The Bishop of Lewes, the Rt Rev'd Wallace Benn, also wishes to be associated with this letter)

We at AM are often warning of the whitewashed accounts given of this lifestyle. Perhaps our readers would like to hear from gay organizations themselves on the psychological and physiological impact of the gay lifestyle on its practioners.

1. HIV/AIDS, Safe Sex

That men who have sex with men are at an increased risk of HIV infection is well known, but the effectiveness of safe sex in reducing the rate of HIV infection is one of the gay community’s great success stories. However, the last few years have seen the return of many unsafe sex practices. While effective HIV treatments may be on the horizon, there is no substitute for preventing infection. Safe sex is proven to reduce the risk of receiving or transmitting HIV. All health care professionals should be aware of how to counsel and support maintenance of safe sex practices.

Read here (pdf)

The BBC is currently taking an in-depth look at how its services reflect the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people as part of both its wider Diversity Strategy and its responsibilities under the Charter to reflect the diversity of the nation.

We are conducting audience research to gain a deeper understanding of how all audiences view how we portray lesbian, gay and bisexual people across our services.

We also want to hear from people directly about how well you think we are portraying lesbian, gay and bisexual people's lives.

Your views will inform a Working Group of programme makers, commissioners and executives from across the BBC who will make recommendations to the BBC's Diversity Board, chaired by Mark Thompson, on future editorial policy and practice in this area.

Thank you for your contribution. The closing date for this consultation is 2 April. We will report back in the summer.

Tim Davie
Director of Audio and Music
Chair, BBC Working Group on Portrayal and Inclusion of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Audiences

Click here to take part.