Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Who stands to gain most from credit crunch?

We've been hearing so much about the losers in the present crisis, I thought it would be fun to focus for a few minutes on the winners. Feel free to add your own suggestions.

1. Gordon Brown. He suddenly looks electable. The Tories, having only yesterday offered prosperity, are now warning of tough times ahead. Coming from capitalists, this feels quite scary. Do we really want proponents of the free market running the country after what the free market has done to us? A canny, wiley, Presbyterian Scot with a reputation for fiscal prudence bordering on meanness today seems quite a deal more attractive than he did even a week ago. It is after all partly if not mostly thanks to him that we are bearing up better than the Americans. I keep thinking of his recent visit to the US, and the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. I think some in my business  might have been a bit to hasty in writing this old tortoise off.

Give us new province, say orthodox

Last week Colin Bazley, former primate of the Southern Cone and now an assistant bishop in the Chester diocese, wrote an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury calling for the suspension of The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion and the creation of a new province for the conservatives. This was in response to the deposition of  Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, pictured here, and which we covered last week. This is not going to go away. Even though Dr Rowan Williams is not planning to comment and has instead headed of to Lourdes with several busloads of Anglican pilgrims, hoping no doubt for a miraculous healing for his church, six of his bishops have today put out their own statement of support for Bishop Duncan. And as we report, one of those bishops, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, has in an interview with me today repeated the call for a new province first made by the Gafcon leaders at their conference this summer. I've always held out the hope in my own heart that the split would not come this side of the Atlantic. But I've recently spent a little time with some extremely senior laypeople in the conservative moment. They are not 'names' familiar to the blogosphere. But it seems there can be little doubt. What has happened there will happen here. Expect property battles and more in years to come. Read on for Bishop Michael's interview, and the response from Anglican Mainstream.

Bishop of Rochester and the three 'C's

The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, has delivered a strong address to the Prayer Book Society at its annual general meeting that you can  listen to here. He warned that the Anglican Church was too ready to adapt to modern culture. He called for the Church to reaffirm its traditional identity as a confessing, conciliar and consistory church. He was also critical of councils that 'make no decisions', a veiled attack on the recent Lambeth Conference. I've reproduced some edited highlights below. Also, please join in prayers for the family of the regular contributor to this blog, the Rev Tom Allen of Big Bulky Anglican, who has died suddenly.

Is Wales ready for a gay bishop?

The possibility of Dr Jeffrey John becoming Britain's first openly-gay bishop is back on the agenda after word leaked that there are plans afoot to nominate him as the next Bishop of Bangor. We have a report and commentary in the paper today. The story first emerged on the Religious Intelligence website in an article by George Conger. Bishop David Anderson, President of the American Anglican Council, had sent a letter out about the possibility, posted by David Virtue. Wales Online had just before Lambeth reported Welsh Archbishop Barry Morgan's liberal views on the issue of consecrating an openly-gay bishop. Those following the story today, Tuesday, include Richard Evans on Radio Wales, Anglican Mainstream, BabyBlue, Episcopal Cafe's Andrew Gerns, Pluralist and Tom Jackson. Many more links at Thinking Anglicans. Worth reading this also from Anglicans Down Under, supporting my own view that Wales could in fact get away with this, if it had the courage to do it.

Back in 2003, during the Reading dispute, I did an exclusive interview with Jeffrey John that was the cover of our feature section, T2. As that article does not seem to be easily available online, I've reproduced it below for the interest of readers with a few minutes to spare to read on.

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.

Lambeth Diary: 'When did you last beat your wife, Bishop?'

Context counts for so much. New York suffragan bishop is pictured here, speaking at the daily Episcopal Church briefing. The subject was domestic violence. Our resulting story is here. We also report today on Cardinal Kasper's address yesterday to the bishops, in which he said any hope of Rome recognising Anglican orders was 'finally at an end.' A translation of the speech in full can now be read here.

You would think from this picture that anyone who took on British Catherine would be brave or foolish. But you would be wrong. Scroll on down.

Lambeth Diary: 'Photodram'

Apologies for not posting a blog for an entire day. The weather was too hot and sultry and I was too tired, although I did manage to write a story for the paper which I'll try to do something on shortly. Thank you Herb Gunn, campaigner on behalf of African women and who did the interview with Bp Roskam that we write about two blogs hence, for this picture. There was a barrier erected to prevent journalists or other observers from getting this picture at the official conference photograph, but I snuck under it for a few seconds. Scroll down to see what happened next.

(Update: Just before you do that, a story is unfolding here of one bishop who wasn't registered but turned up anyway, assumed the name of a friend who was registered but wasn't here, and has attended the entire conference under his friend's name! Can anyone tell me who this imposter bishop is?)

Lambeth Diary: Rowan begs, 'Choose Life'

Incredibly powerful address from Rowan Williams to bishops at Lambeth tonight. 'At the moment, we seem often to be threatening death to each other, not offering life,' he says.'What some see as confused or reckless innovation in some provinces is felt as a body-blow to the integrity of mission and a matter of literal physical risk to Christians.  The reaction to this is in turn felt as an annihilating judgement on a whole local church, undermining its legitimacy and pouring scorn on its witness.  We need to speak life to each other; and that means change.  I’ve made no secret of what I think that change should be — a Covenant that recognizes the need to grow towards each other (and also recognizes that not all may choose that way).  I find it hard at present to see another way forward that would avoid further disintegration.  But whatever your views on this, at least ask the question :  ‘Having heard the other person, the other group, as fully and fairly as I can, what generous initiative can I take to break through into a new and transformed relation of communion in Christ?’ Read it all below. Our brief report on it is here. Picture Scott Gunn.

Lambeth Diary: Storm clouds gather

Did any readers of this blog learn as a child the 'whether the weather' poem? Here's a reminder:

'Whether the weather be mild or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.'

It was perhaps precipitate of me to suggest on Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence, linked to by Kendall Harmon, that there has been a defining change of mood at the conference. When the sun came out last week, everything began looking sunny, bishops started smiling at each other and us, and a sunny outcome seemed on the cards. This picture shows a bishop under a shady tree talking on his mobile telephone. Climate change has been one of the main debates here, as Mary Schjonberg reports for Episcopal Life.

Lambeth Diary: Nigerian gay Christian activist granted asylum

Davis Mac-Iyalla, the Nigerian gay Christian activist, has been granted asylum by the UK government. He is living here with Nigerian friends in north London. His application was fast-tracked after he fled here from death threats and physical assault in Nigeria. He was held in detention for a week before his case was heard, and he fully expected more time in detention and was amazed to be set free. He learned on Friday that he had been granted asylum. This is extremely rare here and a clear indication of how seriously the British Government is taking the attacks and threats made against him in Nigeria. It will also surely send a signal to bishops meeting here about this whole issue, to be on the agenda of indaba groups this week. I am indebted to Integrity USA's monthly newsletter, published yesterday, for this news. The picture, taken at the Primates' Meeting at Dar es Salaam, shows Davis with the Primate of The Episcopal Church, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and Canadian Primate Archbishop Andrew Hutchison. See our story Monday on the views of people in the pews on the gay issue. For the full survey go to ComRes. Update: This is what Stephen Bates thinks about some of the comments on this blog...

Lambeth Diary: The 'Fifth Instrument'

Lambeth Diary: Colbert reports

Lambeth Diary: Walk and Witness

Joanna Clegg, the Oxford theology student working with The Times on work experience throughout the Lambeth Conference, shot this video for us on Thursday's march. Regular readers will know that during the Lambeth Conference, she is keeping us sane in Times house in Harbledown with daily Bible studies round the pool at 8am. I hear from conference insiders that there is real and deep unhappiness with the standard of the Bible study texts the bishops are being forced to study. I'll try and get some written examples of the unbelieveable banalities that have reached my ears here. Meanwhile, unlike the 650 Anglican bishops imprisoned on this campus, apparently designed by prison architects with the prevention of student riots in mind, Times readers can enjoy the real thing, below, courtesy of Joanna, a pupil of the excellent Alister McGrath.

Lambeth Diary: Anglican 'Holy Office'

The Anglican Communion is on the rack and the torture continues. It surely cannot be stretched much longer before it is torn apart. This is the pic accompanying our online story at The Times.

'Fancy some same sex marriage? Better watch out then.... ' (Caption put on pic by someone at Times Online.)

The second observations document of the Windsor Continuation Group has just dropped. (Update: Anglican Mainstream now has the text online.) It gives more detail of the Principles of Canon Law Project, which we wrote about earlier and which is being talked of by primates as the 'Fifth Instrument of Communion'. I am told it will not be so much a Catholic-style 'Code of Canon Law' as a 'blueprint' of Canon Law. However, comparisons with the Roman Church will become even more inevitable because of another plan, to set up a new Faith and Order Commission.

Lambeth diary: Rival strategies unveiled

The bishops of The Episcopal Church have come to the Lambeth Conference well- briefed on how to present their arguments cogently and persuasively in the indaba groups. Dr Philip Turner, former Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, has written analysis of this for the Anglican Communion Institute, of which he is VP. The full briefing document is here . Common Cause Partnership, Bishop Bob Duncan's group, is petitioning Gafcon for province status, giving Gafcon virtual ecclesial authority. And I understand that when the next report of the Windsor Continuation Group is published next week, it will contain a 'bombshell' that will be pleasing to the conservative evangelial side but not so perhaps to the liberals. There is also news from the Anglican Mainstream fringe meeting at the conference last night. Conservative evangelical bishops, who we were asked not to name, were told: 'In indaba group after indaba group, find out how many people support resolution 1.10. [The one ten years ago that enforced a traditional, Biblical stance on gay sex.] I am putting my hand up in my indaba group, I invite my brothers and sisters to do the same when they get the opportunity.' So it appears, you can take indaba out of Africa, but you can't take good old democratic infighting out of the West. It's business as usual at Lambeth, and one way or another, these 650 bishops are determined to have a vote and make it count.

Picture from the Lambeth Conference Market Place by Richard Pohle.

The Lambeth Walk: Cantuar speaks

After marching against poverty, about 650 Anglican bishops and their wives enjoyed tea at Buckingham Palace. Read our news report and watch video of the march here. Afterwards, they had lunch in a large marquee at Lambeth Palace. There menu was cold lemon and thyme scented breast of chicken with fresh asparagus and porcini mushroom relish,
summer bean and coriander, tomato, basil and mozzarella served with hot minted new potatoes. Pudding was dark chocolate and raspberry tart with raspberry ripple ice cream, topped off with coffee and white chocolate raspberries. To wash it down they drank Pino Grigio or Chiraz or cranberry and elderflower fruit punch. The cream marquee was decorated with a dozen chandeliers down the middle. Bishops were apparently amazed and thyy know their hospitality. There were orange roses and fans at the side but it was still steaming. Bishops fanned themelves with menus. There were long queues for the plush portable loos with solid wooden flooring, designer handwash and handcream.

Note: the Lambeth Conference is suffering a financial shortfall of between £1 million and £2 million, which is of course nothing to the debt owed by many of the countries represented by the bishops at the lunch.

Cantuar slays 'dragon' of Gafcon

Watch our video.

Shot in the Market Place at Lambeth Conference, Canterbury.

See also our round-up of the views of different bishops at Lambeth.

Lambeth Diary:church suffering 'spiritual Alzheimers' says Rome

Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Evangelisation, has just addressed the Lambeth Conference bishops. This cardinal is understood to be one of those favouring a positive reception for disaffected Anglicans. This is what he told the 650 bishops: 'Much is spoken today of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. By analogy, their symptoms can, at times, be found even in our own Christian communities. For example, when we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer's. And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson's.'

Lambeth Diary: 'Gene must resign, US church must go'

Lambeth Diary: Into the 'Miry Pit' of Chaos.

It's about a hundred degrees and getting hotter in the Big Top at Lambeth but the £1 million black hole in the budget at the Lambeth Conference means they can't afford air conditioning. Expect fainting bishops to be ferried out by ambulances any moment now, if they don't start shooting each other first. The press conference this morning was a farce. Communications officers who are generally being extremely helpful declined to comment on who is here for reasons of 'security' but declined to say what the 'security' issues were. Apparently there are some Nigerian bishops at the conference but we are not allowed to know who they are. Even the totally harmless and innocuous Church Press here are  being denied access to the evening Eucharists. As for me, I was told yesterday that it was worth applying to attend the afternoon indaba groups. Today there is one called 'Never say No to Media',  led by Rev Dr Joshva Raha, tutor at the Centre for Mission Studies at Queen's, Birmingham. I applied and they said no.

The conference is falling apart and it is only day two of official business. The Sudanese bishops, who were, astonishingly, stationed as Salisbury with the US Presiding Bishop and her team before the conference, have almost derailed the whole thing by virtually calling for Gene Robinson's resignation. One of their two statements today is here.

Lambeth Diary: faith people 'moderate' on gays

This video is a brief report from the conference yesterday.

Also online today is the latest news report emerging from Anglican goings on.

Lambeth Diary: Gay Africans tell their stories

For today's story inThe Times go here. More detail below.

Lambeth Diary: Ecumenicals condemn 'with love'

The Archbishop of Canterbury is shown here at last night's ecumenical service chatting to Russia's Archbishop Hilarion and the Greek representative. Cardinal's Kasper and Diaz from Rome are not here yet. As we touch on at the end of our Sunday Times story today, the messages to Dr Rowan Williams from the guests were light incarnate, but this merely to sweeten the bitter pills within. Will the Anglican Communion take their medecine? I doubt it. The letters were helpfully printed at the end of the order of service, some extracts are below. See also Riazat Butt's excellent and fuller report in The Observer.

(Photo by George Conger. See his report in Christianity Today on the 'crack-up' of the Communion. Many thanks to Peter Crumpler and staff for finding a way at the final hour to get the grateful press into the service in the Big Top.)

Lambeth Diary: Invited bishop told: 'Go home!'

Ed Salmon, the former bishop of South Carolina who is either retired or on sabbatical, depending on which bit of the Church is doing the talking, was invited to the Lambeth Conference. He is 75 and he says he is retired. Nevertheless, he was delighted to be asked to come to Lambeth. The invites were sent out before he retired and he assumed this was because of the grey area surrounding his precise status at present. He booked his flights, hotels and so on. Just one week before he was due to come, he was told he wasn't invited after all. So he came anyway and I met him in the little flat in Canterbury where Anglican Mainstream has its hq. He and Gene Robinson, both uninvited bishops at the conference, are both here still, preaching God's word on the fringes.

Lambeth Diary: Boycotting primates hit back

Gafcon statement on Rowan Williams just in: 'Many are contending for and proclaiming the orthodox faith throughout the Anglican Communion. Their efforts are, however, undermined by those who are clearly pursuing a false gospel. We are not claiming to be a sinless church. Our concern is with false teaching which justifies sin in the name of Christianity. These are not merely matters of different perspectives and emphases. They have led to unbiblical practice in faith and morals, resulting in impaired and broken communion.  We long for all orthodox Anglicans to join in resisting this development.' See our story today on how the Archbishop of Canterbury is doing better than many imagine. The story is being updated for later editions to include reference to the Gafcon statement, produced in full below, along with the seven Primates' damning critique of the Covenant process. Akinola is leading the charge.

Bible Study: 'Shining a light in the darkness.'

Joanna  Clegg is studying theology at Oxford under the tutelage of Alister McGrath. She is with The Times on work experience for the duration of the Lambeth Conference. I wanted her with us to keep us spiritually centred during what will inevitably be a stressful three weeks, and to help avoid a repetition of Lambeth 1998. Her first study this morning was radically helpful, looking at the Word, truth, darkness and light. We thought we would do St John's Gospel, to be in parallel with what the bishops are doing. Jo will also be taking videos and photographs for us at the conference. Do come and say hello at the media centre in Darwin.

Lambeth Diary: Nigerian bishop flees

The only Nigerian bishop to register for Lambeth, Cyril Okorocha, Bishop of Owerri, has fled Britain and gone back home for fear of 'reprisals', a source has told The Times. It appears he never even made it to Canterbury. He attended his son's graduation in Manchester, the ostensible reason for his being in the country in the first place, and a few local events in the parish of Oxshott in Surrey which was hosting him. A source tells me that his departure was prompted by an "element" of concern for his wife back home, and of what the Archbishop of Nigeria Peter Akinola's response might be to his being here. The Nation reported that Dr Akinola was threatening sanctions against any bishop that attended Lambeth.

Lambeth Diary: Anglicans in Recovery

This book has been out for a couple of months. It is of interest now though because it has been given to all 650 bishops at the Lambeth Conference as a reader in preparation for the discussion on human sexuality a week Thursday, 31st July. The book, published by SPCK , claims to represent all views across the communion on sexuality, although a friend tells me the 'only conservative' among the authors is Michael Poon, considered a bit of a loose canon by many in the Global South. None of the authors was present at Gafcon. From the comments below, you'll see that many of the authors consider themselves to be conservatives however. Some extracts from the book are below. The Lambeth Reader can also now be downloaded here

Lambeth Diary: Inside the wire

A colleague here was braver than me today and crept behind the wire. This is what he found. Canon Jim Rosenthal, the man responsible for the press operation, in full flight on his scooter, but still finding time to waggle his finger. Things are getting better. I By the end of the conference, I feel, we won't even notice the fences are there. Had inspiring exchange with Rhode Island's Geralyn Wolf. (Married to a Mr Thomas Bair.) It's going to be a good Lambeth. Am just off to mingle with the WAGs at a party to launch Jane Williams' new book, Marriage, Mitres and Being Myself.  Photo by George Conger.

Lambeth Diary: the 'Clean and the Unclean'

My suspicions have been alerted by the helpful comment from 'anon' on the previous post. At Lambeth, the journos have been divided into the 'clean' and 'unclean'. You can guess which mob I'm corralled in with, and some of you probably think I deserve it. See my latest here. But pause to think for a moment. After dealing with a thankfully long-gone staff member at Lambeth Palace, a former senior editor at The Times told me, his voice shaking with stunned incredulity: 'They're just like the Communist Party.' He meant the Communist Party before the wall came down. Read and believe if you like the official stuff trickling in a tghtly-controlled way out of Jim Rosenthal's entirely independent press operation operating from a place I've yet to track down somewhere on the university campus. This is where the 'on side' 'journalists', many of whom seem by coincidence to wear episcopal clerical collars, are permitted to hang out. I am sure the citizens of the former USSR were similarly enlightened by what Pravda produced on a daily basis. The real operation, the concrete prison where proper journalists do their work, is being run by the staff from Church House. Peter Crumpler and his minions, themselves shut away in an even more terrible bleak hole of a broom cupboard than our own, are brilliant. (Update: Incredibly, TEC might be coming to our rescue. A series of unofficial bishop briefings is to be organised, beginning this evening. I've been asked to make clear that these are nothing at all to do with the official Lambeth press operation.)

Lambeth Diary: Welcome to the Circus.

The Archbishop of Canterbury warned the 650 Lambeth Conference bishops tonight that the problems of the Anglican Communion are not going to be resolved in the next three weeks at Kent. The Lambeth Reader which we write about today, Thurs, gives some idea why in its essay on the role of bishops. Dr Rowan Williams was speaking at the reception for bishops in the big blue tent on campus at the university, on the outskirts of Canterbury, as news emerged from the US of plans to extend the Anglican Use scheme in the to allow ecclesial entities to go over to Rome. Cardinal Walter Kasper of the Vatican's Council for Christian Unity is at the Lambeth Conference, and senior sources at the conference denied the story was accurate. Clearly they had not read Newark Archbishop John J Myers' speech. It was delivered at the US Anglican Use conference last Friday. My earlier story highlighted some of the divisions that exist in the Vatican over how to respond to the Anglican crisis. Cardinal Kasper is speaking here on Saturday. Kasper doesn't want defectors encouraged because he doesn't want to exacerbate Anglican schism. Others in the Vatican believe the Anglican Communion is irrevocably ruptured and want to give the red carpet and even the red hat treatment to Anglican trads. Hence the imminent beatification of Newman that we wrote about this week. Cardinal Ivan Dias, who heads the Congregation for Evangelisaton, is here at Lambeth as an 'observer'. There are some suggesting that it's not the Anglicans he's observing so much as Cardinal Kasper.

Gene protester pinned

Could this be the same long-haired motorcycling protester as the heckler filmed by the BBC at the Gene Robinson service at Giles Fraser's St Mary's Putney? My last 'seeking Graham Maxwell' post produced an insant response from one Father Simon, who reckons it might be.  I got the name slightly wrong, it is Max Maxwell not Graham. If you follow this link to Father Simon Rundell SCP, he's now blogged it himself as well, having been prompted by my enquiry to make the connection. He tells me that his church, St Thomas the Apostle in Gosport, Hants, is an ordinary, Anglo-Catholic parish that likes taking groups of children to Walsingham every now and again. The parish just happens to have nothing against gays. This was what first attracted Maxwell's attention. He pops up regularly on Fr Simon's blog, citing chunks of the King James Bible, most of which Father Simon removes. But one example still remains. I like the photo though, don't you? Good looking guy. Have sent him an email, awaiting a response. Will of course let all of you know what he says, when and if one ever comes! Or perhaps it is foolish to court trouble by inviting this person of extreme views onto this blog. I am relying on all my regulars to go to battle on behalf of reason, sanity and inclusivity, if and when he appears here.

Lambeth hosting: send in your photos!

Lambeth begins, but most of the 650 bishops and archbishops from around the Communion now meeting at Canterbury have already been here for a few days already, enjoying the hospitality of dioceses around the UK. I'm hoping to post as many pictures as possible of the British Church doing its Benedectine duty with such grace, so if you have some to send me, please don't hesitate. I'll be updating this blog as the photos come in. A contributor on Thinking Anglicans has already noticed one Kenyan bishop, who joins the Nigerian we wrote about in breaking the Global South boycott.  Enjoy the names, some of them are wonderful. I've loved writing this blog. Sometimes it is good to be an Anglican. This photo shows bishops and their spouses from Ghana and the USA outside Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, where they were being hosted by the Portsmouth diocese.

Anglican tradition is to ordain women says theologian

I like the fact that the only truly 'flying bishop' in the Anglican Communion is a woman. TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is in England at the moment, ready for the Lambeth Conference. Tomorrow, Sunday, she is preaching at Salisbury if you can get along, although she has some stiff competition with Gene Robinson preaching at St Mary's Putney, also tomorrow. This morning, on Today, US theologian Professor Gary Macy was explaining his theory that the Church ordained women up until the 12th century and that women had episcopal authority until much later. Earlier this week he sent me his entire paper on the subject. I've also put a couple of extracts below.

Summer of Schism: 'Go to Lambeth, don't come back.'

This one made me chuckle, and I apologise if that seems irreverent. Australia's Bishop of