Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

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: '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: 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: Rowan accused of 'betrayal'

In a comment piece in tomorrow's Times, the Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, will accuse the Arcbishop of Canterbury of a betrayal at the very deepest level. He will argue that even the Pope is elected by his peers, but Dr Williams in his office is little better than a remnant of colonialism. 'The spiritual leadership of a global communion of independent and autonomous Provinces should not be reduced to one man appointed by a secular government,' he says. Nor is the absence of Uganda, Nigeria and other Global South churches a sign that they want to leave the Communion. Far from it. It is a sign of how much they care that it endures. Read it all from when it goes online at 2100 BST and in the paper tomorrow, it is strong stuff!

(Update: AB Orombi's article is now available here, and see also our news story from the conference for that day.)

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.

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: 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.

Summer of Schism: Rowan on the 'waterless pit of division'

Sitting here in the magnificence of York Minster, I am hearing the most incredible sermon from the Archbishop of Canterbury. I am going to blog it live, right away. Maybe this is overstating it, but it feels from my seat in the north transept, with my fellow 'sinners' of the press close by, as though he's just saved the Church of England. A few people here are close to tears. The Archbishop always comes over better in the presence than on paper, and never more so than this morning. He has completely justified what the Archbishop of York said in his defence yesterday, as we report in The Sunday Times.

He took as his text the Hebrew Bible story of Joseph thrown into the waterless pit by his brothers. And he asked the General Synod members, facing the crucial debate tomorrow on women bishops and with Lambeth and debates over homosexuality casting their shadows,'What would Jesus do? Where would Jesus be?'

West 'held hostage' by Islam says Rome

As Richard Owen reports, the Vatican is today warning that interfaith dialogue in the West must not allow itself to be held hostage by Islam. Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue pictured here, has this week discussed new guidelines for interfaith dialogue and he said the Church 'has to have regard for all religions,' not just one. 'What was interesting about our discussions was that we did not concentrate on Islam because in a way we are being held hostage by Islam a little bit,' he told the Catholic website Terrasanta.net. 'Islam is very important, but there are also other great Asiatic religious traditions. Islam is one religion.' The Catholics are organising a Christian-Muslim summit in Rome in October, it being their response to the Common Word document published to mark the anniversary of the Regensberg address. The document was addressed to the Catholics and 'the other churches' too, and on their behalf the Archbishop of Canterbury earlier this month hosted a gathering of Christian leaders to discuss  present relations with Islam. (Read Tauran's London lecture on this on the Jesuit site ThinkingFaith.)

Christopher Morgan: a tribute

Heartbroken to learn today of the death of Christopher Morgan. You can read our obituary, which is now online. There will be an inquest. As his friends knew, Chris had been troubled for a little while but we all thought he was on the mend. The former Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Sunday Times, he had recently had a couple of stories in the paper. One clergyman who was in regular touch with Chris spoke to him as recently as last Wednesday, when Chris seemed full of plans. But sadly, Chris took his own life last Friday. His close friend the Arcbishop of Canterbury said: 'This is a devastating loss. Christopher was a skilled professional who had a rare grasp of how religious institutions work but also had a profound personal spirituality.' Like all his close friends, the Archbishop is understood to be in deep shock at his death and grieving for his family. The funeral will be a Requiem Mass at 7.30pm at Llandaff on Friday 20 June. The Arcbishop of Wales will preside and the Archbishop of Canterbury preach. There will be a private committal for the family the following day.

Bishop Gene 'banned'

Episcopal Cafe has a good story in its 'lead', that Bishop Gene Robinson has been denied permission by the Archbishop of Canterbury to preach while in this country during Lambeth. I've been following this for some time, as there was a story going round that Sir Ian McKellen, the gay actor, would take part in a service and 'preach' the sermon for Bishop Gene while he stood silently beside the pulpit. Sir Ian is understood to have expressed his sympathies for Bishop Gene in writing. Also, when my own husband interviewed him a while back for The Times Magazine, although these quotes didn't make it into the finished article because they weren't relevant, Sir Ian was clear in his outrage at the Anglican goings-on. When I spoke to Sir Ian about it a few days ago he was adamant that he wished to make no comment. And Sir Ian's office tells me he has no plans to do anything for Bishop Gene at present. In any case, whether he did or not would depend on Bishop Gene being banned from preaching in the first place. So has he or hasn't the bishop been banned? Will Bishop Gene and Sir Ian put on a 'double act' at St Mary's Putney, an event that would be a massive publicity coup for Inclusive Church and Bishop Gene's supporters? (Update: see Peter Carey's follow-up to this story.)

Archbishop Greg: 'Why I'll be at Lambeth'

In an interview with me while he was in Canada and before heading to Fort Worth, Archbishop Gregory Venables explained why he will be attending both the Global Anglican Future Conference next month in Jordan and Israel, and the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, Kent in July.

Lambeth: Bishop Gene and Bishop Greg

In the last few days I've interviewed both Bishop Gene Robinson and Bishop Greg Venables. Below is my little bit of nonsense verse to commemorate this 'double' in light of coming events. It is a double, because I've learned that both are coming to Lambeth, even Bishop Greg, who is confounding some expectations thus. Here are my videos of Bishop Gene.

Archbishop: Lambeth 'for bishops not laity'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has put that 'Lambeth letter' that Bishop Wright talked about up as a video on YouTube! You can read our online news report here.

Someone's put a spin on me!

In his interesting analysis of my last post, Pluralist has put a good 'spin' on this pic that I quite liked. So I just thought it worth updating with this email that Bishop Wright felt moved to send me from a hotel at Heathrow last night, having read that last post himself.

'Hi Ruth, Tom Wright here from hotel in Heathrow,' he wrote.'I had understood that the letters were going out at the weekend. That seems to have been delayed a day or two. No skullduggery involved either at Lambeth or with me -- just a lot of people trying to do their best.'

It is probably quickest to reply here. Dear Bp Tom, I never suspected you for an instant of 'skullduggery'. But what puzzles me, if that is the case, is why couldn't Lambeth simply say so themselves? Yrs Ruth

See Thinking Anglicans for a comprehensive set of links and for some good comments on the latest in the 'letters' saga.

Our absenting-minded Archbishop

While I was schussing down the slopes of Serre Chevalier, a world away from the unending bad dream of contemporary Anglican polity, one of my absolute top favourite blogs, BabyBlueOnline, picked up Bishop Tom Wright's speech to Fulcrum where he said that the Archbishop of Canterbury had written to non-Windsor bishops suggesting they might wish to 'absent themselves' from Lambeth. These letters had been written with 'apostolic pain and heart-searching but also with apostolic necessity,' said Dr Wright. 'This is what he promised he would do, and he is doing it,' said the good Bishop of Durham. Well guess what. According to Lambeth Palace, he hasn't written any such letters. He might have 'promised' to do it but he hasn't done it. Yet.

Anglicanism's hectic summer

This is a copy of my latest CEN column, reproduced also by Lisa Nolland on Anglican Mainstream. Thank you Lisa.

When Gafcon (the Global Anglican Future Conference) was first announced, I was utterly dismayed.

Never mind the theology. How on earth were we going to cover it? For religion correspondents the Olympics are coming four years early. Our task is Herculean. The events we must race between, holding high our flaming batons of "truth" and "justice", include Lambeth, General Synod, Methodist Conference, the usual Roman Catholic conferences that happen around this time, along with various wars around the globe involving Islam and other religions.

Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

In the latest New Directions, Father Geoffrey Kirk writes about Rowan Williams' recent lecture on Islam and the law. 'A friend of mine attended one of Rowan's lectures in Cambridge which ended up as his book, The Resurrection of Jesus,' he says.

'Well, was it all right?' the lecturer asked, as the two walked together out of the building. 'Marvellous,' my friend replied, 'but answer me one thing. Did he really rise from the dead?'

Archbishop's Q & A on Sharia

I've obtained a transcript of the Q&A the Archbishop of Canterbury did after last Thursday's lecture. The text throws a little more light on what precisely he was trying to get at. One thing leaped out at me. Although he emphasised again was not talking about 'parallel jurisdictions', he did say he wanted  'to look for parallel situations'.  And he did also advocate 'supplementary jurisdiction' to the law of the state. As Melanie Phillips said on last night's Question Time, there really is not that great a distinction between a parallel and a supplementary jurisdiction. I draw your attention once again to Mary Ann Sieghart's article, which gets to the heart of why so many have been so offended by Dr Rowan Williams' remarks. Lapido Media in its blog believes the Archbishop has done the world a favour by 'dropping a bomb' on multiculturalism.

Bishop of Durham on law and faith

The Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright, gave me a brief interview before he went off to the London School of Economics last night to deliver a lecture on law and faith titled: 'God in public? Reflections on Faith and Society.' His reflections on Rowan Williams are worth listening to, and have been picked up already by Covenant Communion among others.

Archbishop of Canterbury Tale

As one commentator said on composer Iowahawk's blog, 'utterly brilliant'. The perfect antidote to the past few days. Here is the start, enjoy the rest on his blog and let's hope he succeeds in his efforts to find a print publisher for the tale.

Heere Bigynneth the Tale of the Asse-Hatte.
An Archbishop of Canterbury Tale

With apologies to Geoffrey Chaucer

1  Whan in Februar, withe hise global warmynge

2  Midst unseasonabyl rain and stormynge

3  Gaia in hyr heat encourages

4  Englande folke to goon pilgrimages.

5  Frome everiches farme and shire

6  Frome London Towne and Lancanshire

7  The pilgryms toward Canterbury wended

8  Wyth fyve weke holiday leave extended

Some more stick for the 'big chief'

The Archbishop of York, speaking in Synod on the Covenant today, handed the Archbishop of Canterbury a four-foot ebony 'chief stick'. This was a symbolic gesture of respect for his authority and leadership, and a potent one given the turmoil of the past few days. Dr Sentamu had brought it back from Kenya, where he had returned from an emergency humanitarian visit, part of the Church's ongoing attempts to alleviate the crisis there. I spoke last week to Archbishop Drexel Gomez, who heads the covenant design group. We reported him at the time but here is some more of what he said.

Sharia show shuts down? No it doesn't. Bad luck Rowan.

Despite the best efforts of the LamPal staff and the General Synod to pretend Rowan didn't say what they knew perfectly well he had, this story has legs again. According to The Telegraph, which we followed up for later editions, the Queen is anxious now about the Archbishop of Canterbury. She is worried about the "fall-out" from the row. I imagine she fears the authority of his office has been undermined. Which of course it has. And no doubt she's been deluged with emails from bishops in the many Commonwealth countries with large Muslim populations. I did a video vox-pop yesterday of General Synod members about Rowan Williams. The comment of Willesden's Pete Broadbent, first up, might not surprise some of you...

Tom Butler tells clergy: say no to sharia

The Bishop of Southwark, Dr Tom Butler, has written to his clergy, telling them he does not believe sharia is an option for the UK. Here is his letter:

Message from Bishop Tom to the parishes of Southwark Diocese

'The Archbishop of Canterbury in a lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice, on Thursday raised the question of making available to members of minorities some aspects of religious law to supplement the civil law. He suggested, for example, that members of the Muslim community might be permitted to follow rulings of the Shari'a applying to areas of family law. The Archbishop made it clear that he was not calling for Shari'a to be applicable to non-Muslims, nor was he advocating the introduction of its punitive sanctions.

PTL! Someone agrees with Rowan

At last, in the interests of balance, I can report that someone agrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the introduction of parts of sharia law into Britain. Support for the beleagured Archbishop has come in from Hizb ut-Tahrir . But the overwhelming response has been negative, as our news story today makes clear.

Has the Archbishop gone bonkers?

Forgive the stark clarity of my headline, but sometimes when writing about the Archbishop of Canterbury, clarity is what is needed. I ask this of readers here, because this is the question put to me time after time this afternoon by incredulous commentators of every variety, stunned into blunt expression by the Archbishop of Canterbury's uncharacteristically clear comments on Sharia in Britain. The Archbishop believes adopting aspects of sharia law into British law would help maintain social cohesion. But who exactly is asking for this? No Muslim organisation in Britain has requested it, I could not find any who even wanted it. Instead, Muslims I spoke to this afternoon seem fearful of the effects the Archbishop's latest remarks will have on those already prejudiced against their community. As well they might be. His speech was delivered this evening at the Royal Courts of Justice in Strand, London. (Update: do read this interesting analaysis from Propaganda Box.)

My, my, my, Melitius

Engaged in a bit of religious skullduggery the other day, I was not too surprised when a monkish cleric whispered mischeviously in my ear: 'Ruth, remember the Melitian schism.'  Which one, I wondered? There were two, both in the fourth century. But I assume he meant the first. The world's leading expert on Melitius and his co-conservative, Arius (both pictured here) is of course none other than our own Father Rowan Williams. This is relevant today because of the debates sparked at StandFirm and Thinking Anglicans by the publication of the St Andrew's draft of the Anglican Covenant.

Archbishop warns on 24-hour drinking

When I first began blogging, I wrote about the dangers of the new 24-hour drinking law. Linking it to George Bush was the idea of my colleague Sam Coates, who now has his own top blog, Red Box. Some scoffed, as they are wont. Today, lo! We have the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warning of the dangers of 24-hour drinking. And behold! Reuters is reporting that George Bush has been speaking movingly at an Episcopal care centre of his own battles with alcohol.

I'll resist it.

No, I can't.

'I told you so!!'