Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

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.

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: 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: 'Why women must be bishops'

'Bad behavior in electoral synods is not the only thing that has distressed me here and made me VERY thoughtful. We need a process of re-education throughout the Communion, I think (as Rowan has said) and particularly in ‘liberal’ areas like this. The wide-spread ignorance of the basics of Anglicanism, how it came to be and therefore why it enshrines what it enshrines - the Anglican contribution to the coming great church - astounds me. However, there it is and one must soldier on.'

This is just one of the comments sent me by Christina Rees of Watch from the petition for women bishops launched earlier this week at Westminster Abbey. As we report today, there is a danger the legislation will fall completely on Monday. In 29 study groups today, Saturday, before the arguing starts in earnest, synod members are discussing 'to what extent should the Church of England seek to continue to accommodate the present diversity of views within its life on the issue of women's ordination' and 'what are the implications of that for any possible special arrangements for those who on grounds of theological conviction have difficulties over the ordination of women.' The groups have also been asked to consider whether, in the light of the pros and cons of the various options, synod members are clear about the choices they have to make.

All the comments are below. (I'll finish tidying them up later.) Some of them, you will surely agree, are quite moving. At the top is a Roman Catholic priest. It would be interesting if, were all the traditionalist Anglicans to go over to Rome, the debate went over with them. I've published the entire lot below.

Trads threaten walk-out over women

As we report exclusively today, more than 1,300 clergy and bishops in the Church of England, 60 per cent of whom are still serving, have written an open letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York threatening to leave the Church if women are consecrated bishops with no legal provisions for opponents. You can download here the full letter and list of signatories. The 11 bishops are the three flyers, Ebbsfleet, Richborough and Beverley, plus the flyer-without-wings Fulham, and then the suffragans and assistants Burnley, Horsham, Plymouth, Edmonton, Newcastle, Whitby and Pontefract. Two of them, Simon Morris of London and Philip Corbett of Southwell, both in their twenties, were only ordained last Sunday.

Update: from The Times leader today, 3 July: 'The more immediate challenge this weekend, however, comes not from Foca but from clergy unreconciled to women bishops. They want permanent, binding safeguards for traditionalists which Dr Williams and others are unwilling to concede for fear of enshrining discrimination. He must therefore address their defiance in York as vigorously as he has replied to the Gafcon rebels. On his performance hangs not only the unity of the Church of England but the prospects for the fractious Lambeth conference. Rarely has a challenge been as daunting.' Also in the same paper, George Walden says Dr Williams is a closet liberal, and that he must come out of the closet and campaign for full equality for homosexuals in the church, or resign.

Give trads their own diocese says Guildford bishop

If he was in a grave now, John Gladwin would be turning in it. At the least he must be spluttering into his coffee or tea or port or whatever it is bishops in Chelmsford prefer these days. His successor at Guildford, dear Christopher Hill, one of the goodest and truest of catholic men in England today, has posted a pastoral letter on his diocesan website making the case of structural provision for the opponents of women priests. In other words, an extra-geographical diocese as outlined in the Manchester report. He seems to think General Synod next month might even go for something like this, and warns a code of practice will not work, that it will in effect mean 'goodbye'. An interesting development I think, given what is happening in Jerusalem, where I am filing this from. Although it will be fiercely resisted by some, really it's not such a big deal. There are already two dioceses in Europe, one Episcopal, the other Anglican, overlapping each other completely. This perhaps could be a possible form for the church within a church model, for the ecclesial renewal that the Roffen has just spoken of here in Jerusalem, as recorded on my previous post.

Women priests say 'no' to women bishops at any price

Women in Britain can become Prime Minister but not bishops. Canon Lucy Winkett, pictured here, Precentor at St Paul's, is among the 700-plus women who've sent an open letter today to the Church of England's bishops stating that they want  women bishops, and the time is right to have them now. But they do not want them at any price. And legislation to introduce 'safeguards' to 'protect' traditionalists is a price they are not prepared to pay. Read the full letter below. Women and their supporters in Wales took a similar stance, and the result was the defeat of their own bill to consecrate women bishops. A similar outcome is looking rather likely for the Church of England, it seems. The photo was taken at a service last year to mark the anniversary of the start of the Falklands War, the conflict that prompted the extraordinary clash between Church and State, in the persons of Margaret Thatcher and the late Robert Runcie.

Long-awaited Manchester report on women bishops

The long-awaited report from the Bishop of Manchester's legislative drafting group on women bishops in the Church of England is now out. You can read it here. Early responses,such as this from Forward in Faith, indicate that the group's proposals will received a positive 'reception'. You can read my two news stories, one for online and the other in the paper. Also see this intelligent comment by Peter Kirk in his blog Gentle Wisdom.

FiF say: 'We are pleased to note that the Report appears to have addressed most, if not all, of the issues which we raised with the Group and that it seems, among the several possible ways forward described, to include proposals which those unable to receive the ordination of women as bishops could in good conscience embrace.  However, we shall naturally need time fully to digest and reflect upon the Report before commenting further.' More links at Thinking Anglicans.

Women bishops fail in Wales

The Church in Wales has a few minutes ago voted not to consecrate women bishops. The motion, proposed by Archbishop Dr Barry Morgan, fell by three votes. In the laity it was 52-19, in the clergy 27-18. It fell after the amendments that would have offered alternative oversight for the clergy opponents also failed. Canon Mary Stallard, chaplain to the bishop of St Asaph and pictured on the far right of this picture, said: 'The moment will come back. We are very disappointed. It is not totally unexpected. But we are looking forward to bringing it back. This issue will not be ignored.' See Margaret Duggan's full report of the debate in the Church Times, ht Thinking Anglicans.

Amendments to Bill on women bishops in Wales could sanction schism

The Church in Wales could face an effective schism over a proposal to allow women bishops, writes Joanna Sugden.

The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, is urging his clergy and laity to vote in favour of women bishops at the Governing Body next week but there is a significant conservative wing of the church opposed to the move.

Six bishops have put forward the Bill to introduce women bishops but opponents are pushing for an amendment providing a "flying bishop" for those who cannot in conscience submit to a woman leader. Such a revision would create a "church within a church" and effectively lead to a schism.

Dr Barry Morgan, said that after the ordination of women priests he did not see how the church could "logically exclude women" from the episcopate. "That is why I and my fellow bishops will be asking members of the Governing body to vote in favour of the Bill,”  he said.

His spokeswoman told Times Online that any amendment providing an alternative bishop would sanction
a schism. The Archbishop would urge people to vote against an amended Bill to preserve the integrity of the church, she said.

Father Alan Rabjohns, who is leading a group of 100 clerics against the Bill, told Times Online that the Church in Wales had no authority to change the "Catholic order of ministry" to allow women bishops. He said that if the Bill was rejected because of amendments it would be a partial "victory" but a temporary one because the issue would return.  Fr Rabjohns denied amendments would cause a schism. "The Bill as it stands doesn't spell out how we would be cared for. We have to look at this and see if we can't put something more specific to continue as loyal members of the Church in Wales. It isn't a schism", he said.

Members of the Church in Wales legislative body will vote on the Bill proposed by six bishops on Wednesday and if they pass it the ordination of women bishops in Wales will immediately become canon law.

It will have to be passed by a two-thirds majority in each of the three sections of the Governing Body – the House of Clergy, the House of Laity and the House of Bishops.

Women bishops are permitted in the Anglican churches of Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

Elaine Storkey: 'Don't shoot the heretics.'

My first sight of Elaine was at Greenbelt many years ago, at the old venue in Northants up the M1. Relatively new in this job, I was struggling with many aspects of the faith I'd been born into. Seeing this compelling, charismatic and striking young woman preach during the eucharist was a vital affirmation of the possibility of faith. It seemed scarcely possible back then that this visibly free spirit, laughing and dancing on the stage before a crowd of thousands breaking bread, could be an 'evangelical'. And now a judge is to decide, in effect, whether she can be. After her victory on Monday over Wycliffe, with unfair dismissal payment now pending of £20,000, another case in June is to look at whether she was the victim of religious discrimination. The judge has assigned a whole day for the tribunal to read papers on what constitutes a 'conservative evangelical' and what an 'open evangelical'. Once they've succeeded in doing in a day what no bishop has managed to do in two millennia, they will then decide whether it is possible for the 'conservatives' to discriminate against the 'opens' under the new religious discrimination regulations. Then they will decide whether this is indeed what happened to Elaine,  forcing her out of her two-day-a-week job after four years at  Oxford's top theological college. And all this in the middle of Gafcon and just before Lambeth.

Benazir: 'I am not afraid of death'

'I am not afraid of death,' Benazir Bhutto told me when I interviewed her for the Daily Mail in November 1985. She was just 31 at the time. 'My religion teaches that I will rejoin my father and my brother when I die. It is the living who have to suffer the grief and the pain,' she said. In an attempt to pay tribute, although nothing I can say will ever be enough, I've reproduced the full interview below.

Opponents of women bishops could be 'conscientious objectors'

One option being considered by the Church of England to meet the needs of opponents of women bishops is 'conscientious objector' status similar to that granted to pacifists during war time. The Group for Rescinding the Act of Synod has submitted proposals to the General Synod's legislative drafting group outlining how this might work. I've reproduced the full paper below so you can read their arguments for yourselves.

Life as a mum

Thank you to Sue Huyton in the book blog for drawing my attention to this. It accurately describes my life as a mum and stepmum at the moment. I reckon kids are kids until they're about 30 these days. The pressure! Anyway, see for yourselves. Above all, it is fun having kids, but it is not always fun these days being a kid, as our report today illustrates. The Archbishop of Canterbury was talking to Kids' Company.

The TEC woman priest who is also a practising Muslim

I just want to take a brief break from writing about Synod to introduce you to a woman TEC priest who has become a practising Muslim and seems to believe there is no contradiction involved. See the profile of the Rev Dr Ann Holmes Redding on page nine of this newsletter.

Hundreds queue for 'Erotic Church Service'

Yes, this really is a picture from a recent liturgy celebrated at a Protestant church in Cologne, as reported here. Thanks to Chris Gillibrand for his translation, which I've shamelessly lifted from his CathCon blog. I think this is a first for the Protestant Church anywhere. What a relief that it should have happened in Germany, and not the US or the UK. Is this Church of Carthusians part of one of the numerous Protestant assemblies worldwide that are 'in bed with' with the CofE or TEC, so to speak? Preliminary enquiries with the CofE in London suggest they think not, because they're not part of the EKD. However, Chris's own clarification, that I've put at the end, indicates otherwise. Meanwhile, read on for Chris's translation or the original in Kölner Stadt-Anzeigerbelow. (Update: CofE insists are definitely neither 'in bed with' nor 'in communion with' this lot. See end for their statement.)

Saudi woman gets 90 lashes for being raped

Happy International Women's Day everyone. To mark this wonderful occasion, I thought I would bring to your attention the story of one woman in Saudi Arabia. The woman was kidnapped at knifepoint and gang raped. She was then beaten by her brother and sentenced to 90 lashes. Her crime? Meeting a man who was not a relative. Tom Gross is among the commentators who are angry about this case. Others are also angry at the minimal coverage it has received. The theme for this year's International Women's Day, backed by the United Nations, is 'Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women and Girls.' To complete your celebrations, do find time to read this chat with a doctor who carries out female circumcisions in Saudi. But make sure your stomach is properly emptied first. Still, some women are finding love in Saudi. Read Memri's pick up from a Saudi daily of the steps being taken by police to stamp out lesbianism.