Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

TTFND

Or 'ta ta for now ducks', as the local farmers used to say to 'you's vicarage kiddies' after Mass in my father's parish in Staffordshire. I leave you with the final Lambeth Bible study from Oxford theology undergraduate Joanna Cleggs. I'll be keeping a desultory eye on things over August so do keep commenting if you like, but I won't be posting again until the start of September. pic taken by me on my Blackberry in Jerusalem during Gafcon. rg

Jo writes: In our final Bible Study we looked at Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter, John chapter 21 verses 15-25, in which Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, a reminder of Peter’s thrice-denial in chapter 18.  The scene is set by the burning charcoal fire which appears in both chapters, but whereas in the earlier passage (18 v.18) it is used for warmth on a chilled evening that has been further marred by absence and betrayal, in the last chapter it marks a great comeback, the return of the King.

Archbishop Rowan: gay sex comparable to 'marriage'

As we report in The Times tonight, a correspondence between Dr Rowan Williams and evangelical churchgoer Dr Deborah Pitt when he was Archbishop of Wales gives a fascinating insight into his theological journey regarding homosexuality. He tells her how he started out firmly on the traditionalist wing, and was persuaded in the 1980s to adopt a liberal view. Then he describes how he holds this in tandem with his role as a church leader, a figure of unity. We'll post pdfs of the correspondence online shortly.  Below is the full text of Dr Williams' letters and also extracts from the second of Dr Pitt's original letters to the Archbishop. See also pdf files of the Archbishop's letters at Times Online. Mary Ann Sieghart, whose columns were influential in his being chosen for Canterbury in the first place, has done a good comment. See also our Times leader on the letters and what they mean for the Archbishop and the Church. I've also written an extra piece inside the paper giving some of the history of this complex debate. Pictures taken by Paul Rogers on the last day at Lambeth.

Lambeth Diary: 'My Lambeth Heaven'

From a personal point of view, Lambeth 2008 was a huge success. There was a fantastic atmosphere in the press room, there was no shortage of stories, the communications team did their best to help us in quite difficult conditions and the sun shone nearly the whole time. My juggling of work and family also came off better than it ever has before. I wrote about it for the Church of England Newspaper, where I was a temporary stand-in for regular columnist Catherine Fox who was on holiday, and have reproduced it below. Pictures by Rebecca Musgrave, our temporary nanny for Lambeth, pictured here with Arthur. Rebecca is about to go off on her gap year before uni. We also had invaluable help in the first few days from our Spanish au pair Rebecca Higueras, who's back in Spain for the summer but will be returning in September. Thank you both Rebecca's for your wonderful input. Without you both, the last three weeks just would not have been possible.

Lambeth Diary: 'Whispers of Discontent'

Praise the Lord the End is Nigh. A few hours more and I'm outta here. This is me pictured ten minutes ago by BabyBlue on the lawn outside Darwin College where we've all been happily imprisoned for two-and-a-half weeks. We're still here but now we're contemplating The End, if not of the Anglican Communion at least of the Lambeth Conference. These are my latest offerings for the paper. The Archbishop of Canterbury facing a rebellion from some of his bishops, and a commentary on the conference so far, themed on the Harold Wilson-style 'Whispers of Discontent' starting to circulate around Dr Williams.

Lambeth Diary: Some Reflections

The fourth draft of the  Lambeth reflections document has now been published. You can read it all here and I've posted some of extracts below. Susan Russell of Integrity has commented on it. In this video, made for Times Online by Joanna Clegg, some leading conservatives comment on polygamy and other matters that have come up at Lambeth.

Lambeth Diary: Bishops back Rowan

The Archbishop of Canterbury has the overwhelming support of bishops at the Lambeth Conference, according to a survey for The Times. Few bishops support the idea of solving the church's differences by changing the Communion to a looser federation. Three-quarters of those at the conference are happy with Dr  Rowan Williams' leadership. See our story on this and the ENI interview with Rowan,now online.

Religious Intelligence surveyed 100 of the 670 bishops at the conference for The Times. Full results are reproduced below. Our own leader this morning backs Dr Williams, and our report shows the strong concern that remains among the bishops over sexuality. Bess Twiston-Davies has also been compiling panels of bishops' comments for The Times, here and here.

This and all other pics in this post by Tim Stubbings of Panoptica.