"Canterbury Cathedral, the seat of the Church of England, installed its first female archdeacon in its 1,400-year history yesterday," reports Agence France-Presse.

Before a congregation of 500, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams led the service of installation for the Venerable Sheila Watson, 53, the first woman to join Archbishop Williams' senior staff.

The former archdeacon of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford, who succeeds the retired Patrick Evans, can now enthrone new diocesan bishops in 27 of England's 43 dioceses under Archbishop Williams' guidance.

The move comes as the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, takes the first steps toward the creation of female bishops. The Church of England ordained its first female priests in 1994.

In The Episcopal Church women's ordination to the priesthood and consecration as bishops was approved by General Convention in 1976. Barbara Harris became a bishop in 1989. Female clergy are now over 30 percent of all clergy although in some dioceses the percentage is small or zero.

"Births, deaths and marriages. They're the only events that get most people in the UK through church doors these days and even that is too often for some. But this doesn't stop the majority of us calling ourselves Christian. More than half of British people say they believe in God despite only one in seven actually attending a Christian church service each month, says a new study." So reported BBC News Magazine back on April 3.

More:

It seems that while people find the church thing a little bit difficult, they are willing to recognise God. There's even a cute catchphrase for this absent majority - believing without belonging.

The church says the results challenge the UK's secular image, proving not everyone has embraced consumerism as their modern-day god.

It's not often that it has much to shout about. Congregations have been declining for years, according to figures published by the Christian Research. While some churches are growing and the rate of decline in congregations has slowed, overall numbers are still dropping. It is not alone in suffering this "curse of apathy".

Local organisations have seen a slump in membership, according to a new YouGov poll, which found 70% of people have no links to community groups like the Women's Institute, Guides and Scouts.

Read it all here.

Some economists argue there is empirical evidence that believing promotes economic growth, but belonging has no independent effect. Belonging is an input to believing: more belonging with no more believing has no effect on gross national product, conventionally measured. See this Harvard study.

Ecclesia reports:

The Archbishop of York, has placed an advert in his local newspaper urging voters to come out against the BNP in Thursday's local elections.

In the advert, the Church of England's most senior black cleric Dr John Sentamu warns that if people fail to vote they will be sleepwalking into "a wall of hate".

The advert comes after criticism that he and other bishops in the church may be playing into the hands of extremist parties, by urging the defence of Britain's 'Christian culture'.

Groups such as the religious thinktank Ekklesia have warned that the BNP has recently stepped up its religious rhetoric. In recent local elections, the party's literature included copies of the controversial Mohammed cartoons
...
In the advert, which appears in York newspaper The Press, today, the Archbishop, says voters should beware of political parties which promise much but have policies that promote hate and division.

"Jesus warned us to be wary of wolves who come in sheep’s clothing," the Archbishop says in the quarter-page advert. "They come with honeycombed words, promising a New England, and a land of milk and honey. In reality they offer us a diet of bile and discord, a desert of hopelessness and policies which stoke the ashes of Clifford’s Tower."

Clifford's Tower was Britain's worst anti-Semitic attack, when 150 Jews were killed in York on March 16, 1190.

Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent for the Guardian writes:

The discontent at Wycliffe Hall, an evangelical Anglican college which is part of Oxford University, has seen several resignations among its small academic staff and claims that one of its most prominent members, the regular Thought for the Day contributor Elaine Storkey, was threatened with disciplinary action.

The college has been accused of becoming more theologically conservative, more hostile to women's ordination and more homophobic since the appointment of its principal, Richard Turnbull, a vicar from Basingstoke and a former accountant without senior academic managerial experience, two years ago.

Last night, the governing council announced it had launched an internal review and pledged support for Dr Turnbull.
...
It counts two current diocesan bishops, Tom Wright of Durham and James Jones of Liverpool, who now chairs the governing council, among alumni as well as the Rev Nicky Gumbel, vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton and founder of the Alpha Course.

According to its website, the college aims to be "an international centre of evangelical theology....

Back in December the Church of England Evangelical Council (website) met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and presented him with a "Convenent for the Church of England."

The Covenant is available in full here (rtf). Some extracts:

At this time in the life of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, faced with a faulty view of revelation, false teaching and indiscipline, we believe that it is necessary to set out where we as orthodox Anglicans stand, and to invite others to join us.
...
“Existing ecclesiastical legal boundaries should be seen as permeable”. This means there cannot be any no-go areas for gospel growth and church planting. .... We will support mission-shaped expressions of church through prayer, finance and personnel, even when official permission is unreasonably withheld.
...
We can no longer be constrained by an over-centralised and increasingly ineffective control that is stifling the natural development of ministry. If the local Bishop unreasonably withholds authorisation, we will pay for, train and commission the ministers that are needed, and seek official Anglican recognition for them.
...
Our congregations will seek actively to become self-sustaining when and where we can, to donate a reasonable yet modest amount to support the administrative centre, to be part of mutually accountable financial partnerships, and to give generously to gospel ministries, at home and abroad, that share the same values.
...
We are aware of those who justifiably consider that their communion with their bishops is impaired, and will support and help them to find alternative oversight.

We recognise that the fault-line running down through the Anglican Communion is also running through the Church of England.
...
The Church of England in its central decision-making structures is largely in the hands of a liberal leadership.
...
If Communion is finally broken by some with The Episcopal Church, there will be those in the Church of England who will continue publicly to express their strong support for TEC. This will put many parishes and clergy who are in their charge in impossible situations.
...
In the current position world-wide we are already in a situation of unregulated indiscipline. Our aim is to help prevent the situation getting worse. However, extraordinary times call for out-of-the-ordinary actions to deal with them.
...
Innovative, experimental, and even irregular [cross-boundary church plants], do not necessarily mean illegal.

Yesterday we reported on goings-on at Trinity Seminary in Pittsburgh, complaints that even Network bishops are biased against sending postulants to the conservative Episcopal seminary.

Today there is more on Wycliffe Hall, a Church of England seminary located at Oxford University. Thinking Anglicans reports:

First, wannabepriest has drawn attention to how the situation there has changed by linking to this:

Does the organisation Reform have a place within the evangelical firmament of the Church of England, not to mention the wider Anglican Communion? The question is prompted by the recent decision of the council of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to ban meetings of the local student branch of the movement until a policy can be formulated on the ‘issue’…

Second, Giles Fraser has written a comment article Not faith, but fanaticism in today’s Guardian which concludes like this:

…Of course, what should really happen is that the bishops of the Church of England stop using colleges like this to train its priests. Places such as Wycliffe are turning Anglicanism into a cult. But it’s a symptom of how bad things are in the C of E, and how frightened its bishops have become of the financial muscle of conservative evangelicals, that they won’t find the gumption to cut Wycliffe adrift.

Forward in Faith UK has made its submission to the Women Bishops Legislative Drafting Group of the Church of England General Synod. For some reason, FiF abbreviates the name of the group to the Legislative Drafting Group. The charge to the group is "(i) preparing the draft measure and amending canon necessary to remove the legal obstacles to the consecration of women to the office of bishop; (ii) preparing a draft of possible additional legal provision consistent with Canon A4 to establish arrangements that would seek to maintain the highest possible degree of communion with those conscientiously unable to receive the ministry of women bishops; (iii) submitting the results of its work to the House of Bishops for consideration and submission to Synod;

Some selections from FiF's submission:

Forward in Faith was founded in November, 1992, in the wake of the decision that month by the General Synod to proceed to the ordination of women to the priesthood. Our opposition to the ordination of women as priests or bishops remains as firmly and utterly rooted in theology today as it was in 1992, as we have set out in detail on numerous occasions....
...
Our proposals for a new province were designed to permit all in the Church of England to flourish, and represent the only solution thus far suggested which would enable women bishops to exercise their ministry without hindrance in their own dioceses, thus fulfilling the aspiration lying behind Canon Jane Sinclair’s amendment to the motion passed by General Synod on 10 July, 2006.
...
In particular, we would ask the Group to note the following key features of the solution which we proposed [in 2004]:
• a province which would be an integral part of the Church of England
• a province which would provide a stable and secure solution to the problem
• a province the bishops of which would have ordinary jurisdiction
• a province the boundaries of which would be entirely permeable
• a province in which only male priests and bishops would minister sacramentally
• a province in which orders would derive from the historic episcopate as traditionally understood
• a province which would thus provide the necessary sacramental assurance
• a province which would enable renewal in mission and evangelism
• a province which would bring peace to the Church of England

In their submission (pdf) the group Women and the Church notes, "We would draw to the Group’s attention that never before in the history of our Church has a diversity of views on any subject been responded to by the creation of an alternative episcopal structure."

The Guilford Group report of January 2006 listed disadvantages of a free province including:

• It could represent a major schism within the Church of England, with less possibility of the two sides growing together, potentially allowing for the possibility of the new Province declaring itself out of communion with the Provinces of Canterbury and York;
• It would to all intents and purposes amount to a competing provincial jurisdiction which has so far run counter to Lambeth Conference Resolutions;
• It would be fundamentally unhealthy to establish a province solely on the grounds of opposition to women bishops;
• There would be a risk of it becoming another ‘continuing Anglican Church’.

The General Synod next meets July 6-10.

Hearts were aflutter in the Anglican blogscape on Sunday when The Telegraph ran a story headlined "Church to impose ‘rule book’ of beliefs." Here at The Lead the newsteam consulted and concluded the breathlessly told story just didn't add up so we held off passing it on.

Thinking Anglicans did too, but now has something concrete to say:

Here’s what is actually happening, based closely on the so-called “bishops’ paper” to which the Sunday Telegraph refers.

The House of Bishops met at Market Bosworth in May. At that meeting they were asked to agree to a process for the Church of England to respond to the request made for all provinces of the Anglican Communion to comment by the end of 2007 on The Proposal for an Anglican Covenant.

This is only the first stage in quite a protracted process, involving the 2008 Lambeth Conference, the subsequent meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council and the subsequent submission of a final Covenant text to all Anglican provinces for synodical approval.

The UK papers seem to have a penchant for jumping the gun. The Times has pulled a story it just posted today underline byline of (drumroll) Ruth Gledhill.

"The Church of England’s breakaway congregation in the Algarve is contemplating joining the Anglican Mission in America [AMiA].

In an announcement posted on its parish website, All Saints Algarve in Almancil, Portugal stated that the executive officer of the AMiA, Canon Ellis Brust would be visiting the congregation June 16-17.

The parish reported that Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini ‘has agreed to send his personal emissary’ to the parish ‘to visit with us and talk to us about All Saints becoming part of the growing family of AMiA churches.’"

Thinking Anglicans reports on the agenda for the General Synod of the Church of England in Anglican Covenant Proposal

The General Synod of the Church of England will debate the Anglican Covenant Proposal on Sunday 8 July in a session timed to run from 2.30 pm to 6.15 pm, and intended also to cover a separate debate on the Anglican-Methodist Covenant.

The Agenda item reads as follows:

THE ANGLICAN COVENANT PROPOSAL (GS 1661)

17. At the invitation of the Presidents, the Most Revd Drexel Gomez (chair of the Anglican Covenant Design Group) will address the Synod.

A member of the House of Bishops to move:

18. ‘That this Synod:

a) affirm its willingness to engage positively with the unanimous recommendation of the Primates in February 2007 for a process designed to produce a covenant for the Anglican Communion;

b) note that such a process will only be concluded when any definitive text has been duly considered through the synodical processes of the provinces of the Communion; and

c) invite the Presidents, having consulted the House of Bishops and the Archbishops' Council, to agree the terms of a considered response to the draft from the Covenant Design Group for submission to the Anglican Communion Office by the end of the year.'

In the Forward to The Anglican Covenant Proposal, Archbishops Williams and Sentamu write:

Whether or not a Covenant is adopted, the question of handling conflict will not go away. In the age of instant global communication, this question is likely to be sharper than ever. If we do not have a Covenant in the Communion, we shall not be absolved from the imperative to manage our conflicts and tensions better than we have been doing. Unless we can do better, the future of the Communion is going to be more and more fragile and uncertain, and we can’t just appeal to some imagined traditional Anglican way of handling things without fuss. That is why many of those who have been engaged in dealing with the fallout from recent conflicts – in particular the Primates of the Communion and the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council – have concluded that something like a Covenant is a constructive path for the future, and why the hope has been expressed that the bishops attending the Lambeth Conference will be ready to work with the concept and with the proposals already outlined. We hope the Synod will consider their arguments with sympathy.

+ Rowan Cantuar: + Sentamu Ebor:

Follow the General Synod here

The Independent reporters Jonathan Owen and Sadie Gray discuss the publication by the Church of England of a new magazine for 11 to 16 year old girls.

At first glance it looks like any other teen magazine, in a glossy colour cover and in a handbag size - aimed at "girls with spirit". But don't expect to find any tips on snogging techniques. Grace, to be launched next month, is anattempt by the church to appeal to a fresh audience as attendance figures fall.

Grace is the brainchild of Paul Handley, the editor of the Church Times, who said: "It is for girls who have got a spirit as well as a body and who think there is more to life than shopping."

One big difference, he says, is that the magazine will not contain articles about sex. "It's for 11- to 16-year-old girls, so the assumption is that they are not having sex. We say that the best place for sex is in a marriage, not in a magazine... The message of the magazine is that life at that age is about other things."

An independent focus group of 13-year-old girls from London took a look at Grace last Friday and was, broadly, in favour. Almost oblivious to the religious elements, they welcomed it as an antidote to existing fare aimed at their age group, which they felt is too sexually explicit and promotes super-thin bodies.

Tayra Fuentes, 13, said: "Other magazines make you feel like you're growing up too quickly - you've got to get a boy, got to wear lots of make-up. This one shows there are other things to worry about, like school and friends and sports."

Read the article here

Click here for more on Grace and to download a free copy in pdf.

HT to Dave Walker

From Gordon Brown's speech before Parliament today, his first as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

The Church of England is, and should remain, the established church in England. Establishment does not, however, justify the Prime Minister influencing senior church appointments, including bishops.

The Prime Minister and executive should surrender or limit their powers - the exclusive exercise of which by the Government should have no place in a modern democracy.

These are:
-the power of the executive to declare war;
-the power to request the dissolution of Parliament;
-the power over recall of Parliament;
-the power of the executive to ratify international treaties without decision by Parliament;
-the power to make key public appointments without effective scrutiny;
-the power to restrict Parliamentary oversight of the intelligence services;
-power to choose bishops;
-power in the appointment of judges;
-power to direct prosecutors in individual criminal cases;
-power over the civil service itself;
-and the executive powers to determine the rules governing entitlement to passports and the granting of pardons.

What the Green Paper from the Ministry of Justice says about the Church is here from Thinking Anglicans.

The Bishop of York welcomes the change to method of appointment.

“I welcome the prospect of the Church being the ‘decisive voice in the appointment of bishops’ which the General Synod called for 33 years ago (in 1974).

“I am grateful for the Prime Minister’s thoughtfulness and for his overt support for the role of the Queen and the establishment by law of the Church of England which have been strongly reiterated in the Green Paper.

“The challenge we face as the Church of England is to use the sacred trust, enshrined in law, for the common good of all the people of England...."

Read the York web site here

Liberal readers will not be surprised that The Telegraph resists changes in the relationship between the Church of England and the state. In an article titled "Biggest change since Henry VIII and the Pope" Jonathan Petre writes

The decision by Gordon Brown to allow the Church of England to choose its own bishops for the first time since Henry VIII was broadly welcomed by Church leaders yesterday.

But the reform - one of the biggest changes in the relationship between Church and state since the Tudor king fell out with the Pope - will reopen the fraught issue of disestablishment.

It will also dismay many Anglicans that such a major reform could have been announced with so little consultation or public debate.
...
The row will surface next week when the General Synod meets in York as a debate on senior ecclesiastical appointments is already on the agenda.
...
Welcoming the proposals, Dr Sentamu said in his statement that Mr Brown had consulted both him and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, about his intentions.

He said he was "grateful" for the Prime Minister's backing of the continuing role of the Queen and the "establishment by law of the Church of England."

But some clerics said that the removal of Downing Street from the process of choosing bishops and deans could further concentrate power in the hands of a few senior prelates.

Canon David Holding, a Synod member, said: "This goes to the heart of the Church/state relationship. It has huge implications.

"It will threaten the diversity of senior appointments, and could well lead to the old boy network running riot."

If a governance role by an democratically elected government did ensure against the concentration of power in the hands of a few in the church, then what does that say about the polity of provinces in the Anglican Communion? If the church is not established, for instance, should the polity be one where the laity and clergy have a large voice in the election of bishops and the provincial bishop as in the American model?

From the Living Church, an interesting sidebar to the question of how bishops get appointed—this time, from Great Britain. The Church of England does not have a full say in who gets to be bishop in each diocese. The involvement of the British government, however, may be reduced significantly as a result of a proposed constitutional change in which the Prime Minister will no longer be given a choice between two bishop candidates, of which only one could be formally nominated by the Queen.

The British government is set to give up its role in appointing bishops to the Church of England in one of a number of sweeping constitutional changes being proposed by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The constitutional green paper titled “The Governance of Britain,” was presented to Parliament July 3. Among changes proposed in the paper are that the prime minister should no longer use the royal prerogative “to exercise choice in recommending appointments of senior ecclesiastical posts, including diocesan bishops, to the Queen.”

The proposal will be debated at the Church of England’s General Synod, which begins July 6.

The whole thing is here.

The Church Times has a good overview of some of the various views held by parties in the Church of England toward the question of whether an Anglican Covenant, as proposed by the Windsor Report, is warranted much less what it should address.

"Two amendments have already been tabled to the General Synod motion on the Anglican Covenant, both reflecting concern that the Church of England will have no further say in the Covenant process until it is presented next year with a text for its approval (News, 22 June). The Covenant is to be debated on Sunday, as part of the sessions that begin today.

The motion as it stands asks the Synod to:
(a) affirm its willingness to engage positively with the unanimous recommendation of the Primates in February 2007 for a process designed to produce a covenant for the Anglican Communion;

(b) note that such a process will only be concluded when any definitive text has been duly considered through the synodical processes of the provinces of the Communion; and

(c) invite the Presidents, having consulted the House of Bishops and the Archbishops’ Council, to agree the terms of a considered response to the draft from the Covenant Design Group for submission to the Anglican Communion Office by the end of the year."

The full article can be found here.

Thinking Anglicans has been collecting various web resources and background articles about the upcoming synod as well.

Jonathan Petre, writing in the Telegraph, has more news about the maneuvering happening in the Church of England prior to the beginning of General Synod:

"Senior Church of England conservatives are plotting a new coalition to mount their biggest offensive yet against their liberal opponents over issues such as gay priests.

According to insiders, they are planning talks at this week's General Synod aimed at uniting a broad spectrum of evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics to act together during crucial debates.

Supporters of the new movement believe that it could gain the backing of up to half of the Synod, the Church''s 'parliament', frustrating the efforts of liberals to promote their agenda. Its leaders are expected to include prominent clergy and lay people within the Synod and the Archbishops' Council, the Church's managing body.

...

One Synod member said that many conservatives were dismayed by the failure of the bishops to enforce their own guidelines against clergy who are openly in active gay relationships, in defiance of Church policy. 'The bishops are totally pathetic. They are abject cowards. The Archbishop of Canterbury does nothing but sit on the fence,' she said.

But liberals dismissed the latest initiative, predicting that the new coalition would fall apart because of internal squabbling."

Read the rest here.

Dean Colin Slee of Southwark says the church's General Synod is being asked to give the Archbishops of Canterbury and York a "blank check" to remake the church in negotiations with other primates. He doesn't think that is a very good idea. Father Jake provides an overview.

The General Synod of the Church of England, approved, without amendment, a resolution that approves engaging the rest of the Anglican Communion to adopt an Anglican Covenant. The full resolution was as follows:

That this Synod:

(a) affirm its willingness to engage positively with the unanimous recommendation of the Primates in February 2007 for a process designed to produce a covenant for the Anglican Communion;

(b) note that such a process will only be concluded when any definitive text has been duly considered through the synodical processes of the provinces of the Communion; and

(c) invite the Presidents, having consulted the House of Bishops and the Archbishops’ Council, to agree the terms of a considered response to the draft from the Covenant Design Group for submission to the Anglican Communion Office by the end of the year.

An audio of the debate can be found here.

Father Jake has good analysis here.

Thinking Anglicans has details on the debate here.

In his address to the General Synod of the Church of England, The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York challenged the church to act out of faith and not fear. Some quotes from his speech:

"There is a commanding invitation which echoes throughout the Bible. It’s a message given at various times to patriarchs and prophets, to nations and to shepherds, to Zechariah and to Mary, to disciples and to fledgling congregations in the church’s earliest days. 'Fear not, do not be afraid.'"

"As a church, we need to learn once again to become risk-takers, people who take risks for the Gospel, who take risks for Christ, who take risks in the service of God and one another. We have to take risks, in order to make the journey. We discover courage by doing courageous, God-like actions. 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.' An act at a particular time and place. It is the sin of the world that Christ takes away. Action!"

"So what are we afraid of? And what are the consequences of our fearfulness? The result of fear can be dangerous, fear itself can create its own risk. Because often when we’re reacting out of fear we don’t behave with courage and determination and grace, we become defensive, we behave badly."

"In the same way we Christians must beware of taking the holiness of God to imply that his wrath and judgement are out to destroy sinners instead of redeeming them, loving them and forgiving them. For those who follow the man of Galilee who was crucified, self-righteousness must die at his Cross. It’s from the Cross that the light of God shines forth upon the world in its fullest splendour. And as David Bosch has said (in Transforming Mission) 'The Church is an inseparable union of the divine and the dusty.'"

Read it all here

From This Week in History over at Episcopalian Life Online:

On this day in 1533, Pope Clement VII excommunicates England's King Henry VIII for remarrying after his divorce.

A chronology of the English Reformation is available here.

The Church Times has a lead article that gives a sort of meta-view of the most recent General Synod in York and its functioning. Many of their observations are true of both our American General Convention and, to be honest, any church-wide meeting these days:

"Any governing body may fall under the condemnation, at some time or another, that it is little more than a talking shop. The charge is most likely to stick to the Synod when it seeks to express the Church’s mind on moral aspects of current affairs. The complaint comes most often from those who wish the C of E to keep its nose out of politics. But there is also, of course, a grain of truth in Giles Fraser’s suggestion in his column this week that there is something ridiculous about addressing the world when it is not listening. Our staff occasionally hear speakers warn that a Synod pronouncement is likely to get such-and-such a sensational headline in the daily papers, knowing that they are the only press reporters left in the gallery to hear it.

The Synod’s precursor, the Church Assembly, was once, and probably more than once, described as full of ‘elderly bores’. The age profile of the Synod — and there is indeed difficulty in getting busy younger people to stand for election — is not necessarily relevant to the quality of the debate. Sometimes a debate can be dominated by one or two members who would be told in a less gracious forum to ‘get a life’. But routine topics can take an unexpected turn; and speakers take heroic pains to make bread-and-butter business endurable. This group of sessions offered few thrills. There was, for example, a long clause-by-clause revision of draft legislation. But it concerned marriage in church, which is an aspect of pastoral work and outreach about which there are strong feelings. Not all will like the result; and few will be impressed to know that the matter had been under consideration since 1999. But there would also be complaints if new rules were imposed without a proper legislative process."

Read the rest here: Church Times - Sins of the Synod

Giles Fraser's article offers a warning to the Church of England that should resonate with Episcopalians as well. Two paragraphs worth special attention:

Reading Alastair Campbell’s diaries on the train back from another depressing General Synod made me wake up to the similarity between old Labour and the leadership of the Church of England: both are more concerned to please their own activists than to reach out to the country as a whole.

The reality is that millions of people couldn’t care less what we say or think. They don’t care about covenants or gay vicars: they want the Church to speak about life and death, about love and grace, about justice and hope. And because we are not speaking about it, they will go elsewhere.

The Church of Ireland Gazette reports:

Following the debate on the Anglican covenant process at the meeting of the Church of England General Synod earlier this month in York, the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, told the Gazette that if the bishops of The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the United States do not meet the demands of the Dar es Salaam Primates’ Meeting required by next September’s deadline, and if the bishops of the Global South decline to attend next year’s Lambeth Conference, as many as six in ten Church of England bishops could be considering their own positions about attending the ten-yearly episcopal gathering.

However, Bishop Scott-Joynt added that such bishops would feel "constrained" by their loyalty to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who personally invites the bishops.

Here's a much earlier forecast by the conservative bishop, equating Windsor-compliant bishops to bishops seeking alternative oversight.

Read the Gazette's story here.

Ruth Gledhill of The Times reports on the Gazette story in rather sensationalized terms under the headline "Bishops threaten to boycott Lambeth Conference". Gledhill, of course, should admonish the headline writer. There is a difference between "bishops threatening to boycott" and "one bishop making a forecast on the number that might be thinking about not attending were it not for their loyalty to the Archbishop of Canterbury". But she writes the following, which you will not find in the Gazette:

Bishop Scott-Joynt says in the Gazette that for a boycott not to take place, the bishops of The Episcopal Church must meet the demands of the recent Primates’ Meeting in Dar es Salaam.

The Church of Ireland Gazette article also observes:

The debate [over an Anglican covenant] was preceded by a special address to the General Synod by the Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, who is the Chair of the Covenant Design Group, of which the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, is a member.

Referring to the current inter-Anglican crisis, Archbishop Gomez said that "scaremongering is commonplace". He said that there was a need "to identify the fundamentals that we share in common, and to state the common basis on which our mutual trust can be rebuilt".

The Archbishop of Ireland recently stated in a sermon:

In breaking with me you will have cut yourself off from any gift of God that I might otherwise have had the chance to share with you. It is not then the case that unity is maintained at the expense of truth, but rather that disunity guarantees that access to a fuller knowledge of the truth is consciously inhibited.

Ruth Gledhill has published the transcript of an extensive interview given by Bishop Gene Robinson to Andrew Collier a Scottish journalist.

Gledhill writes of the interview:

"This is the bit I liked best: 'I think the thing that is the most mystifying to me and the most troubling about the Church of England is its refusal to be honest about just how many gay clergy it has – many of them partnered and many of them living in rectories. I have met so many gay partnered clergy here and it is so troubling to hear them tell me that their bishop comes to their house for dinner, knows fully about their relationship, is wonderfully supportive but has also said if this ever becomes public then I’m your worst enemy. It’s a terrible way to live your life and I think it’s a terrible way to be a church. I think integrity is so important. What does it mean for a clergy person to be in a pulpit calling the parishioners to a life of integrity when they can’t even live a life of integrity with their own bishop and their own church? So I would feel better about the Church of England’s stance, its reluctance to support the Episcopal Church in what it has done if it would at least admit that this not an American problem and just an American challenge. If all the gay people stayed away from church on a given Sunday the Church of England would be close to shut down between its organists, its clergy, its wardens.....it just seems less than humble not to admit that.'"

Update: Ruth's version of the article for the Times is found here.

It's Labor Day Monday in America, one of those comparatively rare holidays relative to number mandated in European countries. In the UK today, they're not on holiday. Indeed many are returning to work after the traditional summer holiday period in August.

To help with the Monday blues the Church of England has provided prayers for everyday life. Perhaps after the flurry of consecrations in the communion in recent days the Archbishop of Canterbury is saying this one today

Breathe in, breathe out, for the sake of my sanity.

Clearly the Church is concerned about the big global issues but we believe that God is concerned about our everyday lives just as much.

England has its own "Onion" called The Daily Shame. Here is a recent article:

A group of Anglican extremists have attacked Cackwater shopping centre in Gutborough. There are no casualties, although several people are reported to be “quite confused”.

The attack took place at midday outside the local branch of TK Maxx. A bomb, made from cake mixture and “hundreds and thousands” was left in front of the store and exploded, leaving two men splattered and one man needing counselling. Shoppers ran for cover, fearing that the cake-bomb was the first of many, but were disappointed.

Shortly after the attack, a video appeared on the Anglican fundamentalist website extremistvicars.co.uk claiming that “all those who do not worship the Lord shall lead a rather average life” and that “if you do not follow the path of Jesus Christ, then I shall wag my finger at you”.

Read it all.

A security consultant for the Church of England has recommended that clergy in that church change some long cherished ways of doing business, including giving up wearing the clerical collar, in the interest of safety.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Jonathan Wynne-Jones says that the recommendations came after the murder last March of the Rev. Paul Bennett, vicar of St Fagan's Church in Trecynon. This was the fifth murder of a cleric in a decade.

A new report warns clergy that the collars make them an "easy target" and says they should adopt more casual clothing in a bid to give them greater safety....

Other safety measures proposed include disguising the whereabouts of the vicarage by taking down signs and ensuring that the front doors of their homes do not have a letter box that people can look through.

The recommendation to dispense with the clerical collar has met with resistance.

The Rev David Houlding, a prebendary at St Paul's cathedral, attacked the recommendation as a "silly, fashionable idea".

"I feel much safer wearing my dog collar when I'm walking through the streets at night. There is still an air of respect to it," he said. "Most of the time I wear it every day. It's my uniform. We'd lose our presence in the community and our witness."

He argued that he is well aware of the risks of being a cleric, but that he has already made sensible changes, such as refusing to see people on their own at the vicarage.

The report was submitted to an adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, according the Telegraph, will then send it to dioceses ahead of a meeting next year at which the Church will decide whether to endorse the proposals.

Read: Vicars urged to drop 'risky' dog collars in the Telegraph. The Church Times also has an article on the subject.

The York Press

"Roads were packed, tents were pitched, and crowds wearing their Sunday best were out in droves, as thousands of people gathered in Jamaica to hear the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, speak to mark the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
...
God rejoices in the fact that he created each one of you. That is the greatest message of the sermon this morning, be yourself and don't try and be somebody else," he said. Quoting a sermon from the Archbishop of Zanzibar, he asked the people to reach out and work at the grassroots: "Go out to the highways and byways look for the people who have lost hope and those who are struggling to make good. "Have Jesus on your lips and the world in your heart, you have been called to freedom to work with justice and to embrace responsibility."

Dr John Sentamu took a break from the day job to provide the lyrics for a track on Christian band Psalm Drummers' latest album. He recites a passage from chapter 3 of Ephesians, against a jazz-style backing, with cymbal and piano.

The Anglican Scotist analyzes the Campaign to Frighten Rowan (CaFRow) currently being conducted by the Anglican right. Bishop Michael Nazir Ali is the latest campaigner to issue a most likely empty threat to "boycott" the Lambeth Conference. The campaign is foundering, however. Primates of the Council of Anglican Provinces in African rebuffed Archbishop Peter Akinola's attempt to organize a continent-wide boycott at their recent meeting, and some bishops from Akinola's own province, the Church of Nigeria, have already accepted their invitations.

The Scotist's prediction:

[W]hether they leave soon for a new communion of their own devising, or waffle and wrangle some more--and it seems to me this type of pressure will continue as long as it can be ginned up by the usual suspects--this is the high-water mark. The big bombs yet to fall--Fort Worth and others trying to leave--will not yield the hoped for results, separation and replacement, because there isn't sufficient support in the [Church of England], as that would require being willing to split the CoE: the quitters becoming disestablished. The big bombs will fall in all likelihood, and there will be a big crash, but that will not qualitatively shift the situation.

Four British bishops have written in support of Bishop Duncan of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and have taken the American Presiding Bishop to task for the tone of her recent letter to him. Thinking Anglicans has the summary and a link to the article in the Church Times.

"THE BISHOPS of Chester, Chichester, Exeter, and Rochester issued a statement on Tuesday in support of the Rt Revd Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, after the warning letter sent to him by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Dr Katharine Jefferts Schori…

…The English bishops’ statement, which was instigated by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, read: ‘We deeply regret the increase in the atmosphere of litigiousness revealed by the Presiding Bishop’s letter to Bishop Duncan. At this time, we stand with him and with all who respond positively to the Primates’ Dar es Salaam requests. We hope the Archbishop’s response to Bishop John Howe of Central Florida will also apply to Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh.’

The Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, said on Tuesday that the statement gave personal support to Bishop Duncan. He described the Presiding Bishop’s letter as ‘aggressive, inappropriate, and unfortunate’. ‘They are acting as if it is the OK Corral. This is the North American culture: it is a managerial rather than a pastoral approach.’

Dr Forster emphasised that issuing the statement did not imply support for decisions taken at the Pittsburgh diocesan convention."

Read the rest here.

The Church of England ordained more women than men during 2006, the first year this has happened. This and other statistics are provided in statistics released today by the church.

But there's more to be told when you look at stipendiary ministry only:

The Church ordained 478 new clergy in 2006, a drop on the 505 ordained in 2005, the highest number since 2002.... Overall, more women (244) than men (234) were ordained in 2006, though the majority of these were ordained to non-stipendiary ministry. Of those ordained to full-time, stipendiary ministry, 128 were men and 95 were women.

"Total income rose. "Average giving to the church is around three per cent of average incomes."

Read it here.