Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

General Synod: Laity asked to pay for loss of power

With delegates gathering in York for this weekend's General Synod, expect a stormy debate on Sunday as laity and some clergy fight off an attempt to abolish the boards of education and mission and the entire structure of finance, minority, disability and other councils and committees. If passed, these proposals would represent an unprecedented handing-over of power back to the bishops and archbishops, as we report in The Times. In these recession-hit times, I'm all in favour of cost-cutting where possible. But at the same time as the laity are being asked to disenfranchise themselves in every area where their vote truly matters, they are being asked to stump up hundreds of thousands more pounds to pay for the clergy pension deficit. Better perhaps to do what Bradford is suggesting and cut the bishops back to size. If you aren't up in York, follow the debates on the live feed via the Church of England synod page. For a taste of what is to come, read on for the full paper presented by Oxford's Dr Philip Giddings, vice-chair of the House of Laity, at the Evangelical Group meeting in York this afternoon.

#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.

One in seven Brits are Creationists

Earlier this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams hosted a seminar on science and religion at Lambeth Palace. There was a fascinating discussion which I had to leave early, because at the same time in Central Hall over the river, the British Council was launching its research into belief in Creationism in Britain and other countries worldwide at the World Conference of Science Journalists. You can read the report in The Times here. The research showed that one in seven people in Britain held creationist beliefs, and even more in London, but this was a figure that was lower than previous surveys suggested. Dr Rowan Williams described Creationism as representing a 'hard' and unhelpful reading of the Bible. A full note of the Archbishop of Canterbury's introductory comments at the seminar is below.

Archbishops plead: 'Don't vote BNP'

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have today urged voters not to show their anger with MPs at the coming European elections by voting 'in favour of any political party whose core ideology is about sowing division in our communities and hostility on grounds of race, creed or colour.' Robert Piggott this morning did a good report on the BBC.

Archbishop of Canterbury: 'Stop humiliating our MPs.'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a stern warning against the 'continuing systematic humiliation of politicians.'

It takes true courage to call for an end to a witch hunt when the dogs are in full cry. Christian Courage is one quality Dr Rowan Williams possesses in full. See our news story with Times video where Danny Finkelstein of Comment Central and I have our say as well. Matthew Parris has also had a go.

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.

Cormac: 'When I became Archbishop of Canterbury....'

It seems His Holiness isn't the only one experiencing occasional moments of confusion. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has today been taking part in the consecration of the new Roman Catholic bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, Seamus Cunningham pictured here. Making an informal speech at the end of what my source tells me was a joyful and harmonious celebration, he began, 'When I became Archbishop of Canterbury...' When everybody laughed, he quickly and embarrassedly corrected himself, apologising to any sundry Anglican bishop he could find in the congregation for fear he had caused offence. Far from offended,  Rowan Williams would have been delighted if another had been chosen to shoulder the cross of Cantuar, my source tells me, especially if that 'other' had been Father Cormac. The source, incidentally, was along with everyone else watching the Cardinal avidly - his smiles, his eyebrows, his hands -  for any hint of the succession. But nobody was saying anything, even though all the big names were there. Patrick Kelly of Liverpool took the service, Vincent Nichols led the prayers. 'All very friendly but no hints,' I am told.

Don't blame greedy bankers - blame your own pride, Rowan tells Government

Any student of human failings understands that the deadliest of the seven deadly sins is not greed, but pride. It has taken the Archbishop of Canterbury to point this out to the Government in a thunderously excellent speech tonight in a public lecture in Cardiff. See our story here and the full transcript also.

Archbishop of Canterbury: 'A tempest of extremism beckons'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned, as we report, that the present economic climate could lead to a resurgence in the fortunes of the British National Party and herald a 'tempest of extremism'.

Archbishop of Canterbury to go to GenCon

As The Lead and others have indicated he might, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is definitely to attend The Episcopal Church's General Convention this summer, The Times has learned. He will fly out on 7 July and return on 9 July in time for General Synod at York that weekend, Lambeth Palace told me today. What a turnaround from the last GenCon when all was in uproar over Gene Robinson, when a woman, Katherine Jefferts Schori, was confirmed as the first female head of an Anglican province, and when schism seemed inevitable. The rain for the last few summers seemed undending, a pathetic fallacy of the state of affairs in world Anglicanism. Today, the 'sun' is out. Remember the wonderful button badge slogans everyone wore last time? My suggestion this year, when I hope to persuade my newsdesk to let me attend for the first time in 20 years in this job, is: 'Let it shine, let it shine.'

Ash Wednesday: Say a Prayer for Zim

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York today launch an appeal for Zimbabwe. You can make donations through the Christian mission agency USPG. I've reported this in today's Times and you can read Dr Rowan Williams and Dr Sentamu's exclusive article for The Times here.

General Synod Feb 09: Day Two

Vasantha's motion outlawing BNP membership for Church of England clergy and laity passed by massive majority, 322 in favour, 13 against, 20 abstentions. Sometimes I allow myself to be a little bit proud of the Church of England. Read her opening speech here.

4.10

Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin speaking: 'Why do you think there are so few people of minority ethnic background sitting in this chamber? It is not particularly because we have nothing to say. It is because of the racist undertone. They do not believe in our parishes and dioceses that minority ethnic people have something to contribute to the life of the Church. We are all being nice and friendly and happy with each other but the undertone of that is from a racist background. My hair is going from the amount of times we have spoken about this in the Synod and elsewhere.'

3.52

Archbishop of York speaking hurrah! Supports the motion, raising the ante quite a lot. On being ordained he became a member of 'the tribe of Jesus Christ' and there was no need to join another tribe, he said. He  quoted the Gospel: 'In Jesus there is no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free, no male nor female.'

3.50

Archbishop Presidential Address now online.

Pic by Chris Harris.

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.

Archbishop of Canterbury: 'Churches must not be too busy.'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised churches that have too many events on their noticeboards, as we report in the paper and online today. Churches should concentrate less on activities and more on 'praying' he said at a church service in Alexandria, where is is chairing the meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion. While he was speaking, he laid particular emphasis also on a passage where he criticised people who back-stab and undermine each other - a reference perhaps to the internecine Anglican wars which seem to be drawing to a surprisingly peaceful close in this heartland of the Christian Creed. Changing Attitude's Colin Coward has the best blog from the Primates' Meeting, where he pointedly names people, conservative lobbyists, who he believes were actually asked not to attend. There is no text of the sermon, just an MP3 which you can listen to on the Anglican Communion site, from where this photograph of Dr Rowan Williams with the Very Rev Samy Shehata, Dean of the new St Mark's pro-cathedral he was dedicating, is also taken. For those without time to listen, I've done a full transcript, below. Read also Paul Feheley's report.

I've also written three preview pieces.

Archbishop of Canterbury: 'Love is at heart of a child's needs.'

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams says in today's Times in an extract from his afterword in the new 'Childhood' report from the Children's Society. It is extremely ironic that this report is published on a day when thousands of children in London, including my own son, are deliriously happy because the unusually heavy snow has caused closure of their schools. Schools closed in London because of snow? Who'd have thought it. Whatever happened to global warming!

The Archbishop writes: 'To be concerned about protecting children is entirely right. The last decade has alerted all of us to some of the ways in which we have betrayed children by not securing them against assault and abuse in various contexts, and no one can be complacent in this area. Likewise, it is right to feel with some urgency that a youth subculture in which extreme reactive violence is normal is a terrible thing and needs to be confronted.' You can read here our news report on the study.

Stand up to Hatred: Holocaust Memorial Day

As we report today, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have denounced the newly incommunicated Holocaust denying bishop Richard Williamson. Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a message for Holocaust Memorial Day along with the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and Dr Tony Bayfield of the Reform moveme They are discussing their recent trip to Auschwitz, which I attended also. You can also see my own report and video of that event. Below is a guest post from our regular contributor Irene Lancaster addressing these and related issues, some of which we reported on yesterday in The Times.

Irene Lancaster writes:

Archbishops attack BBC over Gaza appeal

  The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have both urged the BBC to reconsider its refusal to broadcast an appeal on behalf of the victims of the conflict in Gaza. Dr Rowan Williams said: 'My feeling is that the BBC should broadcast an appeal.'

Dr John Sentamu was also among the hundreds of politicians, religious leaders and members of the public urging the BBC to reconsider. Dr Sentamu said: 'In the end, it's not a question of impartiality, it's a question of those who have been made destitute, those who need food, those who need medicine, those who need help.'

Sky News has also joined the BBC in refusing to run the appeal.

Stop the War coalition meanwhile is urging the mass return of tv licences. Even the Charity Commission has joined the debate, professing itself 'very disappointed' by Sky and the BBC. 'The need for charitable humanitarian aid in Gaza is desperate,' said Dame Suzi Leather.

(Ah, how I look forward to the day when I can return my tv licence and watch just non-BBC digital channels and iPlayer without fear of prosecution. Over the last few weeks, I've been fending off letter after letter to our home, with threats of prosecution against people or addresses similar to mine, but not mine, that simply don't exist. One person appears to have obtained all my personal details and bought a television in his name but with my address. Maybe I'll do a 'persecution index' blog soon on the BBC and its approach to licence payers. It does sometimes feel like an organisation from another era, especially when listening to the smug tones of some presenters.)

Belief in Michael Nazir-Ali

Astonishing story around today about how a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's staff referred to the Bishop of Rochester Dr Michael Nazir-Ali as an 'a***hole' in a private memo concerning appointments sent to all 43 diocesan bishops and to Downing Street. The perpetrator, who has not been named, has been sacked.  Anglican Mainstream has the details. Besides all the obvious things I could say about this crude, incredible and outrageous insult to one of the truest bishops on the bench, what really strikes me most is the depressingly low-grade nature of the abuse. It really is the kind of thing an illiterate oaf with an IQ of 60 might say in a Tesco queue. From someone employed at Lambeth Palace, a more sophisticated forms of bullying might have been expected. Coincidentally, Dr Nazir-Ali is showing the Christian stuff of which he is made in a broadcast tonight on BBC Radio 3's latest Belief series, presented by Joan Bakewell. I am honoured to be able to give you the transcript, below. I wonder if the person who wrote this has ever had to bury a baby in a fruit crate because the parents could not afford a coffin? Truly, the  Bishop of Rochester is a prophet for our times and a mark of this is that he is disdained.

NB One interesting footnote. Whatever Bishop Nazir-Ali said that was so upsetting to this particular aide was said before Lambeth 2008. Rumours were rife at Lambeth about the existence of a document with this very word in it being applied to this same bishop, but everyone we asked about it denied it adamantly.

Archbishop of Canterbury: Not 'end of world' if Church disestablished

The Archbishop of Canterbury has given a series of interviews to James Macintyre of the New Statesman. It is in the Christmas edition, out today, Wednesday. His sympathies seem to lie with disestablishment although he pulls back from endorsing it wholly, he clearly feels vindicated over his controviersial Sharia comments by subsequent developments in the UK and by the way Islamic finance systems have an inbuilt resistance to the credit crunch, and he feels the Anglican Communion post-Lambeth has passed a 'watershed.'

'Ro' on why our society needs help.

Update: Jon Ungoed-Thomas has done a report in The Sunday Times on Rowan Williams' visit to the pub church Solace in Cardiff.

He writes: 'The Archbishop of Canterbury told shoppers yesterday that Britain was a country that was “unhappy” and “didn’t seem to like itself”.

'Speaking in a city centre pub in Cardiff, Dr Rowan Williams told his informal congregation after a presentation on social problems that the nation seemed ill at ease with itself and was in urgent need of some help.

“What we saw was a picture of a country and society that doesn’t seem to like itself very much,” he said. “We are not very happy, we look around for people to blame . . . When society is that unhappy then society has a problem.

“If you listen to any individual talking day after day, saying ‘I’m rubbish, I’m not worth it, there’s nothing really in the bank’, sooner or later you would say to them, ‘I think you need help.’ This is a society that needs help.”

Read it all here.

How many Archbishops does it take to change an exploded lightbulb?

As we report, Dr Rowan Williams joined the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden and the Presiding Bishop of German's Evangelical Church in a letter to President of France Nicholas Sarkozy, current EU president, in which they urged him to stand firm on the environment. But as the credit crisis worsens, I can't help but wonder how many people will continue to buy organic food, long-life light bulbs and all the other environmentally-friendly paraphernalia that goes with middle-class eco-living. The problem that many people are struggling to come to terms with is, living the environmentally-correct lifestyle is just so expensive.

Portrait of an Archbishop

I thought readers might like to see this as yet publicly unveiled portrait of the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. By Victoria Russell, it was commissioned by Church House. For some reason the Church of England seems reluctant to publicise it, even though it was delivered to Lambeth Palace in June. Nor is it hanging alongside the Archbishop's illustrious predecessors in the Guard Room or along the corridors. Instead, it has been hidden away in the dining room while staff work out the 'copyright' implications of publicising it. I obtained this image of it from Victoria's own website. What's not to like?

Whenever previous Archbishops of Canterbury, York or the RC Archbishops over at Westminster have had their portraits done in the past, there have been fantastic photo ops, interviews with the artist and the works, all leading to wonderful 'good news' stories across the British national press. This is the kind of thing I was referring to in my previous post, when commenting on those who seem to want to hide this Archbishop's formidable light under an enormous bushel.

Rowan Williams: 'Haunted by Suicide'

Today in The Times we carry a news story about and an extract from Rupert Shortt's new biography of the Archbishop, due to be published this week and already at number one in the Amazon religious best-seller list. I've written a review of the book to accompany Bess Twiston-Davies list of bestselling religious books, which is to become a regular feature of the online faith page.

Karl Marx 'right' to condemn capitalism, says Rowan

See our news story on Rowan Williams and Karl Marx. The Archbishop of Canterbury has today delivered a video message on the Millennium Development Goals.'We feel very deeply that the witness and generosity of one church can inspire and change us all,' he says. More Rowan videos at his channel, LambethPress. Tomorrow, Thursday 25 September, the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu is joining Bill Clinton and Gordon Brown on the platform at an emergency session at the United Nations to discuss the MDGs.

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.

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?'