In a Communiqué issued at the end of the 11th CAPA Council meeting in Burundi, the regional body stated that: "We are convinced that working together in mutual trust and love strengthens our capacity to bring in a transformative energy that will unlock our potential from which hope and new possibilities will emerge.

"We explored various mechanisms for mutual strengthening and collaboration in intra-continental partnerships in pursuit of our calling in Christ under the theme, ‘Harnessing our unity to unlock our potential and secure our future.’"

It went on: "In fulfilling the objectives of our strategic plan namely the promotion of compassionate and accountable leadership; community health, HIV and AIDS; healing, forgiveness and renewal for just and peaceful societies; stewardship of resources, advancing critical theological reflection and action; and advocacy, we recognise the vast untapped resources within the continent. We challenge ourselves to explore mechanisms for optimally harnessing these various categories of resources for mission at different levels."…….

15. We elected the Most Rev Bernard Ntahoturi as the new Chairman, the Most Rev Albert Chama as the Vice, and Ms Grace Wambua as Treasurer.

Read here http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2012/2/8/ACNS5030

The Church of England has been urged by senior bishops to make "every effort" to resist "secularist" calls for chaplains to be excluded from the NHS.

The Rt Rev Mike Hill, Bishop of Bristol, said hospitals would be "poorer" places without chaplains and patients would be denied comprehensive care if their services were removed.

"Their services are offered not only to patients, but also to their relatives and to other healthcare staff, enhancing greatly the healing environment," he told the General Synod of the Church of England.

"As with much in life, the true value of our chaplains might only be appreciated if they were no longer present.

"Every effort ought to be made, and is being made, to resist secularist calls for chaplains to be excluded from the NHS."

The Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, said chaplains provided support and counselling at "crucial" moments in people's lives.

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The General Synod today voted as follows on a motion that gives the Bishops some space to modify the measure on women bishops.    They voted as follows:

That this Synod,

(a) noting the significant support the draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure has received in the Houses of Bishops, Clergy and Laity of diocesan synods, and

(b) desiring that the draft Measure be returned to the Synod for consideration on the Final Approval Stage substantially unamended so that it can be seen if the proposals embodied in it in the form in which it has been referred to the dioceses can attain the level of support required to achieve Final Approval,

request the House of Bishops in the exercise of its power under Standing Order 60(b) not to amend the draft Measure substantially.

The voting was as follows by houses

Bishops   For 26   Against  16   Abstentions  5
Clergy      For 128  Against 64   Abstentions  0
Laity         For  111   Against 85   Abstentions 1

Totals (For interest only) For 265  Against 165   Abstentions  6

In no house was there over a two thirds majority in favour of this motion.  The vote enables the House of Bishops to look at the Measure as it currently stands with a little room for manoeuvre, perhaps along the lines that the Archbishop of Canterbury set out drawing his distinction below between the derivation of authority and the delegation of authority.  The vote still shows unease remains within a substantial number of synod members with the measure as currently drafted.

The Archbishop of Canterbury expressed a possibly way of understanding the distinction between derivation and delegation:

When a person is ordained, they receive authority.  That’s the language we use in our Ordinal. They receive the Church’s authority to preach and to teach and to minister the sacraments.  That’s now part of who they are within the Church.  Its part of how the Church recognises their calling to a specific ministry.  But the Church exists in ordered form—legally and canonically ordered form—and somebody who has received authority in that general sense through ordination, then has (to use a rather crude metaphor) to be ‘plugged in’ to the legal and canonical system.  They have to receive a licence to exercise that ordained authority legally and canonically here, here, or here.  And that’s the cornerstone of the distinction between derivation and delegation.  Any ordained person receives—‘derives’—the authority for preaching, teaching and ministering the sacraments in general as part of who they are before God by the Church’s act in ordination.  Ordained persons also receive in various ways licence to perform those functions in a specific context.  And that’s where delegation comes in.  Because if the context is a diocese where there is a legally, canonically constituted diocesan bishop then that’s the legal authority which lets a deacon or a priest, or another bishop, perform acts within that area.  It doesn’t in any sense qualify the authority they receive from the Church at large.  It gives them intelligible place, a defensible and legitimate place, within the workings of a Christian family within a diocese.  It’s the diocesan bishop in effect saying, ‘Here is my licence to do what I would otherwise do’, and that’s why we say ‘delegation’.

Now, I suspect that if we get that distinction right we might avoid some of the confusion that is around which sometimes seems to assume that delegation must mean you derive your authority as an ordained person from the person who ‘lets you do it’.  And just to reinforce that point, you’ll notice that in the draft Measure and in the draft Code it’s quite clear that a diocesan bishop inviting another diocesan bishop to act in his or her diocese, does it by way of delegation.  There’s no suggestion that the other diocesan bishop somehow becomes a ‘subordinate’ (in terms of theological order) to the bishop making the request and issuing the permission.  Likewise it’s the case that in some circumstances the ordinary authority of a diocesan is exercised by someone who isn’t a bishop.  For example in a vacancy-in-see, or in a period between a bishop being confirmed as bishop-elect and being ordained as a bishop.

Read here
 

"That this Synod, gravely concerned at the desparate plight of Christian communities in parts of Nigeria, as described in GS 1861, request the Briitsh Government to do all it can to support those in NIgeria seeking to protect religious minorities of all faiths and enable them to practice their religion without fear."

The Archbishop of York said: "Anyone who touches you touches us. Our arm is long."

The Archbishop of Canterbury noted that synod's concern was not simply about the well being of Christian communities but the well being of the entire community.

The Archbishop of Jos in Northern Nigeria was also cited as noting that there is no city or town in the middle belt and southern Nigeria where Muslims are denied a place of worship with large mosques and the guarantee of security and freedom to worship. But there is no reciprocation of this gesture, especially in the North of Nigeria. 

Attention was drawn to the current issue of Newsweek in which Ayaan Hirsi Ali notes that the violent oppression of  Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania.  She notes a regrettable media reticence and indeed a conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance. 

Keith Malcouronne urged that the Nigerian church was hurt that the English church was invaded by materialism, consumerism and sexual infidelity. The church was seen to have lost its first love. Solidarity should be shown by action and self-discipline for the sake of those who are witnessing to the gospel that we hold dear. The Church of England should not do anything to undermine their witness.

• Devices temporarily prevent pregnancy by releasing hormones into the blood
• In 2011, 1,700 girls aged 13/14 were fitted with implants
• Under 'patient confidentiality' rules, school staff are banned from seeking permission of parents beforehand

Girls as young as 13 are being given contraceptive implants at school without their parents’ knowledge.

Nurses insert devices into their arms which temporarily prevent pregnancy by releasing hormones into the blood.

Last year 1,700 girls aged 13 and 14 were fitted with implants, while 800 had injections which have the same effect.

The 2010/11 NHS figures also show that 3,200 15-year-old girls were fitted with implants, and 1,700 had injections.

But under strict ‘patient confidentiality’ rules, staff are banned from seeking the permission of parents beforehand – or even informing them afterwards.

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The argument deployed by the London clergy calling on the Church of England to allow civil partnership ceremonies shows why the current ban is such an easy door for the vandals of political correctness to kick in.

The signatories to last week's letter to The Times seized upon the decision by the General Synod in 2002 to allow clergy to conduct marriage services for divorced persons:

We, the undersigned, believe that on the issue of holding civil partnership ceremonies in Church of England churches incumbents/priests in charge should be accorded the same rights as they enjoy at present in the matter of officiating at the marriage of divorced couples in church. Namely, that this should be a matter for the individual conscience of the incumbent/priest in charge.

One glaring name on the list of signatories is Dr Martin Dudley, rector of St Bartholomew The Great, Smithfield. He was the clergyman who conducted a pseudo-marriage service for two homosexual clergy in 2008.

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"That this Synod, gravely concerned at the desparate plight of Christian communities in parts of Nigeria, as described in GS 1861, request the Briitsh Government to do all it can to support those in NIgeria seeking to protect religious minorities of all faiths and enable them to practice their religion without fear."

The Anglican Mainstream /Anglican International Development "fringe" lunch takes place at synod today (Tuesday) where Rev Robert de Berry, the chair of Barnabas Fund wiil be reporting on his visit to Northern Nigeria in November 2011 where he saw some of the results of the violence of 2011, and also John Inglis-Jones, the executive officer of Anglican International Development will report on the Mannamicrofinance programme in Southern Sudan.

"As the text underlines, being head of this state is not a secular office but a Christian one, for which the Sovereign is anointed with oil and consecrated.  It is a Christian vocation, which Her Majesty freely accepted and exercised as such. 

In the Book of Common Prayer we pray for Her Majesty ‘that she (knowing whose minister she is) may above all things seek thy honour and glory’.  That prayer God has answered, in ways of which the Loyal Address speaks.  First and foremost, it mentions her ‘witness to the Christian Faith’.  At the forefront of our minds here are the Christmas broadcasts in which Her Majesty has spoken of her own faith in the importance of Jesus Christ for the world"


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The leaders of Holyrood’s opposition parties have committed themselves to “campaign” for the redefinition of marriage, despite widespread opposition to any change.

The leaders of the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green parties signed a pledge calling for the change at an event at Holyrood yesterday.

But John Deighan, of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said: “It is disappointing that party leaders have been so cavalier in joining the bandwagon for redefining marriage.

“We deserve a more reflective approach from those in a position of political leadership.

“Marriage is essentially linked with recognising and supporting the roles of mother and father.”

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A LEADING gay rights campaigner who attended a controversial Christian conference on homosexuality in Belfast at the weekend says there was a significant difference between how the event was initially perceived compared to the actual reality of its content.

The title of the conference, “The Lepers Among Us: Homosexuality and the Life of the Church”, caused heated debate last week across the Province, with some gay rights activists saying they found it hugely offensive.

However, chairman of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association, PA MagLochlainn, attended the conference to find out first hand what it was about.

The event was organised by Northern Ireland group, Core Issues, and took place at Orangefield Presbyterian Church.

Mr MagLochlainn said there was a huge difference between “the perception and reality” of the conference message. Its title came from a book by the keynote speaker, the Rev Jim Reynolds, a pastor and lawyer from Texas.

Mr MagLochlainn said: “Rev Reynolds was arguing that churches must offer a much more welcoming approach to gay people. The conference had a panel on Friday with a representative of the gay perspective sitting on it, which was most welcome to see.”

Referring to Rev Reynolds, Mr MagLochlainn said: “I really liked the guy.

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The dispute in the Church of England over welfare reform intensified last night as the former Archbishop of Canterbury was dismissed as a “Thatcherite yesterday’s man” by a prominent cleric.

Dr Giles Fraser, who resigned from St Paul’s Cathedral after its governing body tried to evict the Occupy protesters camped on its steps, said Lord Carey is now a “one-man band” who should “take up golf” rather than intervening in important debates, as he did last week.

He added that the former Archbishop was only ever appointed because Margaret Thatcher disliked the “Marxist propaganda” put out by much of the Church in the 1980s.

His comments came after five bishops who sit in the House of Lords led a defeat of the Government’s plans to cap benefits at £26,000 a year, by insisting that Child Benefit be excluded from calculations in order to protect children from poverty.

After last Monday’s vote, Lord Carey said that the prelates could not claim the “moral high ground” as the current welfare system rewarded “fecklessness and irresponsibility”.

In response, the Rt Rev Tim Stevens, Convenor of the Lords Spiritual, said he was “disappointed” that the former Archbishop had made his comments in a newspaper article rather than attending the Parliamentary debate.

The Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, formerly the Bishop for Urban Life, wrote on Twitter that he was “ashamed” of Lord Carey for having “disgracefully bought Tory dogma about undeserving unemployed poor”.

Now, in an article for the New Statesman, Dr Fraser has continued the assault on the man who was the most senior cleric in the Church between 1991 and 2002.

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Just months after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, there is a full-on battle for marriage raging within our nation’s armed forces.

Urge your congressman to co-sponsor the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act today!

Last April, the Navy issued new “sensitivity training” guidelines that required Navy chaplains to perform same-sex marriages. Thanks to leadership from Congressmen Tim Huelskamp and Todd Akin, the Navy backed down and rescinded the guidelines.

In September, the Department of Defense issued two more memos, requiring all military facilities to be available for same-sex weddings and allowing chaplains to participate in same-sex ceremonies.

Recognizing this growing threat to the religious liberty of our armed forces, Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas introduced the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act (H.R. 3828) to protect chaplains from being forced to participate in same-sex marriages and any servicemen or women from being discriminated against because of their views on marriage.

Please use the form below to send a message to your congressman, urging him or her to support HR 3828 today!

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