Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

#ECGC Danger of 'spiritual earwax' at Anaheim

Three years ago, when much of our new media environment was in its infancy, I blogged GenCon from my living room in Surrey. This time, given the advances that have been made, it seemed inappropriate to do that. Had it not clashed with General Synod in York this weekend, I would have tried to attend. I must ask Rowan Williams how to bilocate when I see him at York on Sunday. Lacking such saintly attributes in my own person, I've asked one of those attending, Sue Carter, to file a report. She has sent this, below. Sue is Professor of Journalism at the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, a former broadcast reporter, and newly ordained in The Episcopal Church, serving as a priest associate at St Michael’s in Lansing, Michigan.

The spiritual battle for the soul of Anglicanism

Update: Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir-Ali a 'Jeremiah' whose message serves neither church  nor nation, says leader in The Times.

Greg Venables, primate of the Southern Cone, has just spelled out the issues at stake in the launch at Central Hall of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans. See our report on Monday  and the latest today, Tuesday. 'In North America and here, true orthodoxy is being outlawed' warned Bishop Greg who has taken many congregations and even a diocese or two fleeing liberal episcopalianism under his conservative wing. 'We must remember we are not fighting flesh and blood. This is about principalities and powers.'

Anglicans in the US: a new Church is born.

Please welcome guest blogger Chris Sugden of Anglican Mainstream, reporting live from Texas on the first assembly of the Anglican Church in North America. For any readers baffled, bewildered or simply bored by Anglicans, Reuters have very helpfully published a Q&A on where we are and how we got here. For Chris, a member of the General Synod which meets in York soon, where traditionalists in England will continue their battle over women bishops, this group is the 39th province of the Anglican Communion. Although formal recognition awaits, new Archbishop Bob Duncan is in regular contact with the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Read about his 'I am' statement on VirtueOnline.

To donate or venerate: blood and religious faith

 

Guest blog  by Anna-Marie Julyan 

Blood has symbolic meaning in many faiths, whether represented by wine as part of the Eucharist or avoided in food, while others regard it as sacred. The pressing need for blood donors was highlighted by World Blood Donor Day on Sunday, but how does it equate with religious belief?

International humanitarian organisation United Sikhs launched a campaign to get “the Sikh community to pledge their share of blood” in the UK, Canada and the USA.

Money, Sex and the Anglican Communion

An interesting investigation into the Indaba process has just appeared on the conservative-led American Anglican Council website. I am awaiting comment from the Anglican Communion Office but in the meantime, here are some of the highlights, which appear under the headline: 'Money, sex, indaba: corrupting the Anglican Communion Listening Process.'

Bishops' expenses in the Lords: First prize goes to Sentamu!

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu has one of the longest trips to make, all the way from North Yorkshire, and is among the most active in the House of Lords attending ten days over a 12-month period. But he gets the first prize for bishops' allowances in the Lords from The Times because his expenses were - absolutely null and utterly zero! A bottle of Times champagne is on its way to Bishopthorpe - if I can get it on exes.

Second prize goes to Bill Ind, former Bishop of Truro, who must have had furthest to go and managed the trip five times before he retired in 2007, yet somehow managed to do it all on just £86. The Times religious desk reckons he must have used his free bus pass, which is no doubt how we'll be expecting all our bishops to travel everywhere before too long.

And third prize goes to the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, who attended an impressive 38 days and whose travel costs included £1,751 in air fares, making him the only true 'flying' bishop in the Lords.

Consolation prizes also to the Bishop of Ely Dr Anthony Russell, who claimed £3 worth of stamps, and the Bishop of Southwark Dr Tom Butler, who managed an impressive 83 days in the Lords, notching up a total of £6,743 in subsistence. For an interesting analysis of this, see The Church Mouse.

(|Update: Times house champers on its way now to Bishopthorpe and another also to Lambeth Palace, in equivalent recognition of the Archbishop of Canterbury's frugality.)

Michael Nazir-Ali: Anglicans must 'look to Pope for unity'

As the Covenant process seemed to sustain something of a blow in Jamaica I was enjoying a the kindly light of  Oxford's Newman Society at the Catholic Chaplaincy, where Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester who recently announced he is to retire to work with persecuted Christians, was speaking about the future of the Anglican Communion. The bishop was interviewed before he spoke by Michael Webb. Read on for some of my notes on his speech. 

Archbishop of Canterbury 'Chaos and division' in all around we see

 

This beautiful image of the opening communion at the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica sadly belies what has followed. We've had the Archbishop of Uganda writing a pleading letter about his excluded clerical representative. And now the Archbishop of Canterbury himself has warned of the 'chaos and division' within the Anglican Communion threatening to derail the Covenant process, according to reports coming out of Jamaica this evening. Below you can read for the first time online the full text of the Windsor Continuation Group report to this meeting, and also the draft resolution of the Windsor Consultation Group to the council, a model of restraint and charity but with some potentially sharp disciplinary teeth lurking beneath the inevitable acronyms and jargon.

Covenant: Is this an instrument to castrate Gafcon?

As the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams leads discussions about Anglican unity in Jamaica, heavyweight theologians are battling it out over the internet. Is the Anglican Covenant an instrument to castrate conservatives, or a stick to beat liberals? As Jim Naughton's The Lead reports, already the meeting is dissolving into acrimony as the Anglican Consultative Council refuses to let a Ugandan Church clergyman take a seat at the table because he happens to be one of the US conservatives who has 'realigned' with the African province. And Drexel Gomez, West Indies primate who was one of the architects of the covenant in the first place, this morning gave a presentation to the council where he warned the communion is at 'breaking point'. Read today's news story in The Times.

Sorry bishops, but a diocese is not a church.

Years ago I went on Graham Kings' camel walk. Now the Bishop of Salisbury has made him Bishop of Sherborne in Dorset. I've a funny feeling that camel walks will be with me for the rest of my professional life. Not that I've got the hump or anything. Because in fact this is a fascinating appointment with far-reaching implications. Dr Kings, currently Vicar of St Mary's Islington and the founder of  Fulcrum, is the closest thing we've got in England to an Anglican Communion Institute. And these are the dear folk who've been trying to persuade themselves that their episcopal dioceses are 'proper churches' after all.

Episcopal email conspiracy unwrapped

Mark Harris, a US episcopal priest in Delaware, has obtained details of an apparent plot by conservatives to subvert the authority of the US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the only woman Primate among the 39 at the top table.

The idea seems to be that diocesan bishops can take unilateral action to sign up to the new covenant currently going through the long process of approval by the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury's recent remarks on the shift that is needed in the Anglican understanding of communion and autonomy appear to have given grounds for these hopes.

The covenant, by virtue of a quasi disciplinary process, is likely create a multi-layered communion, with the 'conservative' provinces in the inner circle, with full voting rights at all the communion bodies, and the pro-gay liberals on the outer circle and presumably some rights removed, if they insist on consecrating more gay bishops or sanctioning gay marriage and refuse to sign up to the convenant in all its biblical orthodoxy.

Bishop of Rochester steps down early

Bishop Michael of Rochester has announced that he is to step down as Bishop of Rochester. The inevitable question now is, will his plan 'to work in education and mission overseas' see him emerge as a new 'bishop' of an emerging Global South? His outspoken views on Muslims are thought to have cost him Canterbury,  but it is in this area that he wants now to focus his attention. He is an Islamic scholar and has good relations with Christians in Islamic areas in Pakistan and the Middle East, and it is to this mission field and churches in the developing world that he wishes to devote his remaining years in service. In February last year he had to be given police protection after he and his family received death threats. He had claimed that parts of Britain had become no-go areas for non-Muslims.

'It's not easy, being a boy called Vicky Gene,' says Bishop

Gene Robinson has given one of the clearest explanations I've ever seen on how he came to be baptised with a girl's name, Vicky Gene. It comes in a remarkably frank interview in the latest issue of Third Way Magazine. He also describes how he battled against his homosexuality, and finally concluded that his orientation was immutable.

Anglicans braced for - unity

General Synod begins on Monday and the Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir-Ali will be leading the debate on the Covenant. This week I spoke to him and to Gregory Cameron who was with the Primates in Alexandria. He is about to become Bishop of St Asaph and is widely known to be the architect of the covenant. It'll be unity, perhaps, but not unity as we've known it. Read it all here. What has surprised me most are the strong signals I'm receiving that the new Anglican Church in North America is likely to be given some kind of recognition, perhaps as an extra-provincial entity. There are a number of precedents. Of the 44 churches of the Anglican Communion, just 38 are provinces. The rest are churches such as from India and China. And because of their large emigrant communities they operate parallel jurisdictions in Cyprus and the Gulf, for example. Then there are the two parallel dioceses of TEC and the CoE in Europe.

Archbishop plans 'mediated talks' with conservatives

Fascinating communique from the Primates in Alexandria.  I am told it was unanimous. The Primates ask Dr Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury to begin a 'professionally mediated conversation' with the seven members of the Common Cause Partnership. They say: 'We commit ourselves to support these processes and to participate as appropriate.  We earnestly desire reconciliation with these dear sisters and brothers for whom we understand membership of the Anglican Communion is profoundly important.  We recognise that these processes cannot be rushed, but neither should they be postponed.' Integrity meanwhile is not impressed with the renewed commitment to the moratoria.

Kevin Kallsen has been Alexandria with his Anglican TV and has done an interview with two of the conservative primates, Archbishops Orombi and Venables of Uganda and the Southern Cone. See more video coverage of the week-long meeting that ends today at the Anglican TV website.

'Mugabe must go' say Anglican archbishops

A strong statement from the Anglican Primates at their meeting in Alexandria today, calling for Robert Mugabe to stand down. Read our story here. Nothing yet matches the live television protest by Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York and one of the Primates in Alexandria, which I am posting here to remind us all of why Mugabe must go and why Sentamu is such a saint. The Church of England is the only province to have two Primates at the table, incidentally, which is I guess what is meant by the rather Orwellian phrase 'first among equals'. What I used to wonder about Iraq was, if the Americans can bomb thousands of civilians to smithereens, why couldn't one clever spy just get in and assassinate one dictator? I think rather the same about Mugabe. Surely it would be worth it. Tom Cruise might even make a film about it. I suppose there are diplomatic arguments against it, as there were in Hitler's time, but think how many lives it would save.

Traditional Anglicans to get 'Opus Dei' type prelature in Rome

Traditional Anglicans could be on the verge of being admitted to Rome via 'personal prelature' similar to that enjoyed by Opus Dei, according to Australia's The Record. Damian Thomson also has a lot of detail on Holy Smoke.

As Per Christum says, 'They have sought some sort of greater communion with the Catholic Church, and the rumor-mill has been very active speculating what exactly the Vatican will do. If they are indeed offered the status of personal prelature, this will be a major, major, decision.

'Some are speculating that thousands of of alienated Anglo-Catholic Anglicans in England may become Catholic under such a system. I am reluctant to get too excited over this (and I am also excited about the liturgical possibilities of having an Anglican-like prelature in the Church!), because rumors are flying both directions about the future of the TAC in the Catholic Church, but this is rather interesting.'

Canterbury summit: nothing happened

Well I suppose that headline is not quite accurate. The mother church of the Anglican Communion, Canterbury Cathedral, today welcomed into her stable the five Gafcon primates from the South and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who they had travelled from afar to see. They bore gifts of frank discussion, gold-standard Christianity and little in the way of mirth. They were there to mark a new birth in the North, a province. Question marks hang like shepherds' crooks over its legitimacy, and probably will continue to do so for another 2,000 years or so, if it is not forgotten by then. But stranger things have happened.

Lambeth Palace on new province as Gafcon primates fly in for summit

As we report, conservatives from The Episcopal Church 'have voted to form their own branch of Anglicanism in the United States. TitusOneNine has more details. Today Lambeth Palace, although not the Archbishop of Canterbury in person, has at last made a comment on this, and the comment at first glance seems to make it clear that this new province will not receive formal recognition any time soon. In fact it appears pretty brutal in its dismissal of the Common Cause initiative. Hong Kong, don't forget, was recognised extremely fast once its three dioceses decided to seek independence.

Lambeth Palace says: 'There are clear guidelines set out in the Anglican Consultative Council Reports, notably ACC 10 in 1996 (resolution 12), detailing the steps necessary for the amendments of existing provincial constitutions and the creation of new provinces.

'Once begun, any of these processes will take years to complete. In relation to the recent announcement from the meeting of the Common Cause Partnership in Chicago, no such process has begun.'

Nevertheless, it should be nopted that this resolution is just a guideline, and has never been formally incorporated into the Anglican Consultative Council constitution.

Southern Cone heading south

Looks like action is about to be taken against Greg Venables and the Southern Cone for sheltering no fewer than four TEC conservative bishops and their flocks, the latest being Jack Iker and Forth Worth. See our news report summing up the latest. I understand that the Joint Standing Committee meeting in London this week, from which significantly Egypt's Mouneer Anis and Uganda's Henry Orombi are absent, is to discuss suspending Southern Cone's voting rights from the upcoming Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica next May. As long-standing readers will recall, this is what happened to TEC, then Ecusa, at the last ACC meeting in Nottingham in 2005. This is not so much a 'booting out' but should be regarded as a punishment, I am told. Meanwhile, it seems highly probable that TEC and Canada are to be rewarded for their restraint by being given a full seat back at the table again in May.

Obama and the Gay Bishop: 'Three Private Meetings'

Read on to find out why Barack Obama sought out gay Bishop Gene Robinson not once but three times on the campaign trail for private talks.

Sydney: first step to lay presidency

Sydney diocese has voted to allow deacons to celebrate Mass, a move that will inevitably take the storm-torn Anglican Communion closer to the rocks of permanent schism. At Gafcon I asked Peter Jensen about lay presidency, a controversial issue that would see non-ordained men and women celebrating eucharist. His reply was non-committal but certainly indicated that this was not something that anyone should worry too much about. But it does appear that his diocese is moving in that direction. Deacons are ordained but there are not that many of them in England. However, in Sydney women can be deacons but not priests, so this does open up the full range of presbyteral ministry to women, without making them priests. Clever Dr Jensen. I've always thought he should not be underestimated. Just as making women deacons was a first step to the priesthood, everywhere except Sydney that is, surely making deacons celebrants can only be a step to lay presidency in full, especially in Sydney. This issue is as contentious as the 'other' issue that has split The Episcopal Church and is threatening to split the communion. Just like that issue, though, I wonder sometimes how many people in the wider and increasingly agnostic wider world understand the implications, for better or worse, or even care. Read on for the full details of the debate and vote at Sydney, kindly sent to me by regular contributor here Robert Williams. For more on this issue, I recommend the book pictured here, the New Puritans by Muriel Porter.

Conflict resolution proposed for Anglicans

Warring Anglican bishops could be forced to confront each other in divorce-style "mediation" or conflict resolution, under proposals published today.The Covenant Design Group, responsible for drawing up the drafts for the covenant which is intended to unite the Communion, proposes in a document that different forms of conflict resolution be examined to see if any might be suitable for use by Anglican bishops. You can read our report on it, now online.

Bob Duncan: Over-stressed, over here and over ?

This is Bob Duncan talking to the media at the recent press conference at All Souls.

Financial crisis looms for Anglicans

Just back from Lambeth Palace, where the Archbishop of Canterbury blamed human greed for the financial crisis, word has reached me of a meeting this morning about the finances of the Anglican Communion, specifically the Anglican Communion Office in north-west London. This office is quite heavily dependent on income from the US. While none of the trust capital is affected, being secure in property in some of the 'best' areas of the US, investment income has apparently gone through the floor. This means that projects currently funded by such organisations have to be assessed and prioritised. One insider in the US tells me: 'I think ACO has been in a bad way even before the current situation. I am in the minority of TECers who would like to see us spend the money we give them on something more meaningful. Additionally, there are ethical issues involved in supporting a group of people so eager to throw gays and lesbians under the bus.'

England's 'Pittsburgh' unfolds as parishes seek new bishop

As we report, evangelicals from Reform are at present meeting in London at their annual conference. I'll be popping in for a coffee tomorrow morning, before going on to Lambeth Palace for a briefing on the important Common Word conferencethat has been taking place at Cambridge. But I've just received chairman Rod Thomas' address to the conference, which makes it clear that an 'English' version is being worked out of the solution to the present Anglican crisis, an English version of the 'solution' adopted so dramatically in Pittsburgh a few days ago. Rod, pictured here in Jerusalem during Gafcon, indicated that English parishes who have a bishop embracing 'unbiblical teaching' will seek alternative oversight. And they will go ahead with this, even if the Church, through its General Synod, cannot find a way to 'accommodate' it, he warned.

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.)