Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Anglican schism: Is this it?

These two bishops are among many commenting on the Anglican 'train crash' in the US. Read George Conger's latest story in The Washington Times and also my own for The Times, and see more video from George at Anglican TV on Facebook. Albert Mohler pretty well sums up the mood among US conservatives, both in and outside the Church.

Princely Bishop of Durham rides to the rescue

There's nothing quite like a good Church of England bishop in full purple wrath mode. The Bishop of Durham Dr Tom Wright, in his op-ed comment for today's Times, gives marvellous rhetorical shape to the grand old tradition of the Durham prince bishops. I knew he was writing it, because I asked him to. But even so, on reading it over coffee and croissants in Kew this morning, I was a bit stunned. I half expected a little army of purple-shirted crozier-waving mounted bishops to charge out of the newsprint and start doing battle with the fluffy kittens under my feet.

#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.

Jews, gays, greens attack SSPX

This video from Gloria TV shows the recent SSPX ordinations, controversial because it was illicit ordinations that got them excommunicated in the first place by Rome, a penalty now lifted amid controversy over the Holocaust-denying views of one of the bishops, England's Richard Williamson. But as Chris Gillibrand reports at Cathcon, these issues are not going to go away. As Reuters reported, the ordinations went ahead, even though the Holy See criticised them as illegitimate.

Church 'out of touch' on gays, says Times poll

This photograph shows a gay rights rally in New York in 1969. The Times has commissioned a Populus poll  to mark the Stonewall riots in Greenwich , were sparked when police raided a gay bar. The results show a Church woefully out of touch on the issue, writes social affairs correspondent Rosemary Bennett. Nearly seven out of ten members of the public favour 'full equal rights' for gay men and women, suggesting that 'the Church, the final bastion of formal discrimination, is out of touch with public opinion,' writes Rosie.

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.

Kirk stands by gay minister

The unity of the Church of Scotland could be at stake tonight as the General Assembly has upheld the appointment of the openly-gay Scott Rennie election to Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen. Pink News reports that Rennie has the backing of ten 'evangelical' groups. Stewart Cutler has precise details. Looks like Thurible was among the first with the news.

Presbyterian minister in anti-gay Nazi sermon rant

Presbyterian minister Rev Ian Watson has preached a long sermon against the 'Nazi' style-tendencies of the liberals in the Christian churches, a perversion of the truth that gays were, like Jewish people,  among the main victims of the Nazis. He was speaking as a member of Scotland's evangelical grouping Forward Together. Read Mike Wade's report from Scotland. Target of his attack was the Rev Scott Rennie, of Queen's Cross parish in Aberdeen, a divorced minister who lives openly in the manse with his male partner. This is a controversy that's been ongoing for a while. It's due to be debated at the upcoming General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. More than 10,000 people have now signed a petition to the assembly against Mr Rennie's appointment to Queen's Cross.

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.

Tony Blair: Pope must rethink 'entrenched' views on gays

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has made the case for a rethink on conservative religious attitudes to homosexuals. Read our story in The Times today. In an interview with the gay magazine Attitude, Tony Blair says he wants to urge religious figures everywhere, including the Pope, to reinterpret their  religious texts to see them as metaphorical, not literal. He predicts that in time this will make all religious groups accept gay people as equals. He also believes there is a change of heart taking place in evangelicalism, with many younger evangeliclas becoming pro-gay, that the issue with evangelicals and Catholics is 'generational'. We already knew the Blair family did not abide by the Church's teaching on contraception and it seems Blair's conversion has not changed this. Interesting that many converts become more conservative than those born to a faith or denomination, but Tony Blair has stuck by his liberal principles.

Read on for some extracts:

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.

Poorvoo mais pas pour vous

The Church of England along with the three other Anglican churches of these isles is in full communion with the Church of Sweden, which is about to debate and probably approve a proposed rite of same-sex marriage. And there is no Anglican-English-style fudge here, over 'when is a blessing a wedding and when is it just a blessing'. This comes as the Lutheran Church in Britain prepares to consecrate this country's first woman bishop. The church said: 'The Lutheran Church in Great Britain will consecrate its first woman bishop, the Right Rev Jana Jeruma-Grinberga, on Saturday 17th January 2009, in the historic Wren church of St Anne & St Agnes on Gresham Street, in the City of London. Her predecessor, the Right Rev Walter Jagucki, will preside at the service, and bishops and other clergy from Nordic and European Lutheran churches will participate in the consecration.'

'Hug neither tree nor man,' Pope tells men.

All journalists around the world will today be joining me in sending heavenwards a Cohenic 'Hallelujah!' to the Pope for his wonderful Christmas gift of a great news story. My story in today's Times is also the splash in the San Francisco Sentinel.

But really it is quite sad, and as I say in a commentary for TimesOnline, Christmas was never meant to be about the churches' recurrent obsession with homosexuality. You can vote on this in our poll on Times Online. A full English translation is posted below.

In his annual Christmas message to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI has referred to the world's growing obsession with protecting the environment and demanded equal priority be given his own obsession with protecting the created, heterosexual order. He seems to have failed to mention the economic crisis at all. Read his remarks in Italian or the summary on Zenit, reproduced below. John Allen has produced a summary translation, the official one won't be on the Vatican website until the new year. Catholic News Service also has a story. In brief, Pope Benedict XVI warned against gender manipulation. "What is often expressed and understood by the term 'gender,' is definitively resolved in the self-emancipation of the human being from creation and the Creator," he said. "Man wants to create himself, and to decide always and exclusively on his own about what concerns him." The Pope said:  "The rain forests certainly deserve our protection, but man as creature indeed deserves no less."

Ad attacking gays an 'abomination'

Sandown Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast is upset with the Advertising Standards Authority for ruling against its recent advertisement condemning 'sodomy' as an 'abomination' on the grounds that it breached the section of the code that governs 'decency'.  The church claims that the ad should have been allowed because it merely quoted what is in the Bible, Leviticus 18:22 to be precise: 'Thou Shalt not lie down with mankind, as with womankind; it is an abomination.' Our news story is here. You can download the document here with the text of the original advertisement.

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.

Dudley pulls it off!

As we report, the Rector of St Bartholomew the Great, the Rev Dr Martin Dudley, is to escape any form of discipline or reprimand for the Prayer Book-style 'wedding' service he conducted for two gay priests, the Rev Peter Cowell and the Rev David Lord. Mr Dudley has reached an agreement with the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres that the matter shall now be laid to rest after the errant cleric sent a 'letter of regret' in which he pledges not to do it again and admits he was wrong. It would be pushing it too far to call it an apology, and Stonewall, which has him as one of its Hero of the Year nominees for its awards dinner next month, doesn't see it as a climbdown either. Another Hero of the Year, incidentally, is Bishop Gene Robinson, who is flying over specially for the ceremony at the V&A where Dud the Stud will be an honoured guest. Incidentally, I am honoured to bring you these beautiful, evocative photographs of the service in May, the first officially released, taken by the talented Polly Alexandre of Alexandre Weddings. Not just a real wedding, it seems, but a real Mass as well. What is the Church of England coming to!

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.

Peter Mullen should have his bottom spanked!

We've been friends for a long time, but as he wouldn't talk to me at all - 'not even you Ruth' he said - I've no choice but to bloggy him without the enlightenment that might have been gained from understanding. The Rev Peter Mullen, former member of the Prayer Book Society and staunch traditionalists, has had to take his website down after rather unwisely writing this bit of doggerell, a poem on the recent St Bartholomew's blessing service for two gay priests, celebrated by the Rev Martin Dudley. You can read our story on it at The Times website.

Mullen wrote:

The Bishop of London is in a high huff,

Because Dr Dudley has married a puff;

And not just one puff - he's married another:

Two priests, two puffs and either to other.'

He also said gay men should have cigarette-style warnings tattoed on their backsides, along the lines of 'sodomy can seriously damage your health' and 'fellatio kills'.

(Update: for more on the gay issue, specifically the ex-gay movement, read Lucy Bannerman's undercover investigation in today's T2, for which I wrote a short accompanying commentary.)

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.

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.

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

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

Lambeth Diary: Boycotting primates hit back

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

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

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

Lambeth Diary: Nigerian bishop flees

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

Lambeth Diary: Anglicans in Recovery

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

Lambeth Diary: 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.)

Gene protester pinned

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

Anglican tradition is to ordain women says theologian

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

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

This one made me chuckle, and I apologise if that seems irreverent. Australia's Bishop of Ballarat, the Right Rev Michael Hough, is a puzzled huff because some of his clergy have told him: 'Go to Lambeth and don't come back.' They've told him to 'get a job over there.' Or as we say in England, 'On yer bike, bishop!'

It makes a change, I suppose, from Australian bishops being urged by dioceses not to go at all. But do we really want him here?  Bishop David Silk, who was his predecessor at Ballarat and is now retired back in the UK, tells me Bishop Hough is here on sabbatical, studying at St Stephen's House. He is a great friend of Bishop Hough and from what he says, it seems he might be quite an asset to the CofE. Neither he nor Bishop Hough can quite understand why he's been attacked in this way. You can read more about it on the bishop's own blog.

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?'

Summer of Schism: Archbishop calls for rethink on gays

Archbishop Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and primate of All-Ireland, has perhaps not received the attention he has deserved since taking over from the high-profile Robin Eames, lead author of the Windsor Report. My mission today is to change that. He has this morning delivered a powerful and, I have to say, rather convincing address making the intellectual case for a new look at St Paul's texts on homosexuality. What is clever is that he has done this, not in the usual irritatingly woolly way we have come to expect from Anglican liberal bishops, but in a rigorous, faithful fashion, drawing directly on Richard Hooker's Lawes on Ecclesiastical Polity. This was of course the exact same text cited with such power by Uganda's primate Archbishop Henry Orombi at Gafcon. You can download the full address here and our story on this is now online. He was speaking at the USPG annual conference at Swanwick. Local clergy have condemned him as a 'false teacher', as the BBC's William Crawley reports on his blog.

Gafcon: 'There will be no split'.

Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, primate of Kenya and leader of that country's four million Anglicans, confirmed last night that there will be no split at Gafcon. See our news report. This is significant because he is heading the committee that is drawing up the final communique that will be issued on Sunday night. It also confirms the word here that the agenda is now reform from within, as we reported earlier. The figure that is crucial in all this is not based in Africa at all, although he is in the Global South. The formidable Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, pictured here at Gafcon, has become the key player on the Anglican conservative wing, shifting the emphasis from the US conservatives to the South. Significantly, Pittsburgh bishop Bob Duncan, who heads Common Cause, isn't even here, although he was in Jordan and looked after the Pakistani and Sudanese bishops who weren't allowed into Israel after the others left to be with Archbishop Akinola. Bishop Duncan's address in Jordan has been emailed out widely.

The only gay at Gafcon

In the early 1990s, when he was in his 20s, Iain Baxter spoke passionately at the Methodist Conference in the UK arguing the case for chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it. His speech helped sway the conference and that became its official policy, although in practice the Methodists are more liberal. Iain became a Christian at 14, at about the same time he was starting to understand that he was gay. Pictured here in the Garden of Gethsemane, he knew all the words to the evangelical songs the 1,242 Gafcon attendees sang this morning in the very spot where Jesus wept at the top of the Mount of Olives. He has been welcomed by the organisers at Gafcon as the official representative of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. (Update: Iain has also been invited to be one of the speakers at Jerusalem Pride which coincides with Gafcon, taking place in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon, and I've posted the text of his speech below.)

Gafcon: 'The Banned'

The eight men and women pictured here are on the official list of those to be denied entry to Gafcon should they try to show up. 'Not allowed in' it says at the top of the page, given to security officials at the conference. 'The Gafcon 8' as they have been christened, they are Colorado Bishop Robert O'Neill, Nigerian gay activist Davis MacIyalla being embraced by the Church of England's Rev Colin Coward, Louie Crew, Susan Russell, Scott Gunn and Deborah and Robert Edmunds. Bishop O'Neill is staying with Jerusalem primate, Bishop Suheil Dawani, who never wanted the conference here in the first place. Father Edmunds is Bishop Suheil's new chaplain, meaning, as Jim Naughton comments on Thinking Anglicans, that an Anglican meeting is banning entry of the bishop's chaplain in the bishop's own diocese.

Archbishop Akinola on error and apostasy

This is Dr Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, addressing Gafcon this evening. 'A sizeable part of the Communion is in error and not a few are apostate,' he said, questioning whether the Communion could be rescued from within or without. It was an important rallying call that will set the tone for the rest of the conference. I wrote a story published in the paper, but here are some extracts from the address.

'A conference of this magnitude would normally require several years of extensive planning, consultations and fund raising. We had barely five months to put this conference together. The Lord raised men and women who gladly and willingly offered their time, skill and money to make it happen.'' The figures he gave were £2.5 million for the total cost of Gafcon, with $1.3 million raised in three weeks in Nigeria alone, of which $900,000 was given to him in a cheque from one person. Nigeria has even managed to pay for its bishops from the US to attend.

Earlier, Bishop Suheil Dawani, who had pleaded with the organisers not to hold the conference in his diocese, preached at the Anglican Cathedral of St George's on the importance of Lambeth, and how pilgrims were always welcome in the Holy Land. For more on that, see Gafcon's own site. (This pic by Matthew Davies, the rest by me.)

Conservative Catholics open sanctuary to conservative Anglicans

The Catholic Knight reflects the thinking of a number of Catholics watching Anglican events closely from Rome. The problem is, just as they complain we don't understand them - Basil Hume used to tell me, 'We just don't do things like that' - it is clear they don't understand us either. My own understanding, after talking to a lot of senior Gafconites last night, is that a formal split is not underway and that means is to be sought of reforming the church from within. Read the Archbishop of Sydney's little bro on why you 'can't split a marshmallow'. The conveniently renamed 'instruments of communion'  might be put to one side for a while, but significantly, communion will be retained with Canterbury, equally significantly renamed the 'focus of unity'. Although it was pointed out to me that in some cases, this will be with the 'office' of the Archbishop, and not necessarily the present incumbent.

Bishop of Durham sees the funny side

There's not much light relief around in Anglican affairs at the moment. Returning from Chris Morgan's requiem in Llandaff, a sad event, and heading off to Gafcon in a few hours, I was immensely cheered to see that one of my favourite bishops, Dr Tom Wright, has been persuaded onto the Colbert Show during his US tour for his new book. I must say, I never knew that theology could be so amusing. Watch, and see for yourself.

Gafcon versus Gay Pride

Have just found out that Gafcon clashes with next Thursday's Jerusalem Pride, the seventh Gay Pride march in the city. Is this an extraordinary coincidence or God's strange sense of humour? I always suspected He had one. If they need some moral support, Rabbis against Gay Pride won't have to go far this year. This photo by Noa Raz is from last year's march.