Kiwianglo's Blog

Truth – about the Church of Scotland’s Double-Speak on Gays

kiwianglo — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:13:55 +0000

Where does the Church of Scotland stand?

Posted: 21 May 2013 04:03 AM PDT

It has been a pretty confusing 24 hours for the Church of Scotland. My prediction yesterday morning that the news would be reported inaccurately was bang on. There have been very many reports in the media about the Church of Scotland that have been inaccurate. And you know what? The media are not the ones to blame.

Yesterday afternoon after a very long debate the Church of Scotland thanked the Special Theological Commission that it had set up to examine whether blessings of gay couples could be permitted and issues around the ordination of gay clergy in relationships. Rather than accepting either of the proposals from that Commission, they adopted a hastily cobbled together deliverance which I think seemed to the Commissioners to be a compromise.

Then the press got hold of the wrong end of the stick, led by the BBC which reported the news entirely inaccurately. Robert Piggott was on the TV all last night saying that the Church of Scotland had changed its policy on gay ministers but that some congregations could opt not to have them. In fact it was the reverse – they accepted a proposal to bring plans to a subsequent 2 Assemblies to maintain the view that the Church of Scotland does not accept gay relationships but that individual Kirk Sessions (ie the elders in a congregation) could have a minister in a gay relationship anyway if they really wanted one.

I think it is one of the greatest attempts at Doublethink since the Church of England allowed women to be ordained but allowed some people in the Church to think they hadn’t been ordained.

This kind of thing does the churches no good. When decisions like this are made it seems like a compromise, which appeals to people who don’t want to hurt or upset anyone and who think that the fundamental thing that needs to be done is to keep the church together.

Yesterday the Church of Scotland decided to follow a path towards crucifying its own internal integrity. You can’t expect to flourish if you say that something is doctrinally wrong but that you’ll turn a blind eye to congregations doing it anyway. It means you’ve lost sight of what truth is. And that isn’t really suppose to be an option for God’s people.

As an Anglican, I obviously don’t say that from a position of any superiority. Indeed, we tolerate things in the Anglican Churches which are just as bad and worse.

The question was asked yesterday as to what happens if a congregation want a minister who happens to be gay but a presbytery doesn’t want a person who happens to be gay. The answer came from the top table that the presbytery could not overule a kirk session. I find it almost impossible to understand how this will work in practise. A friend gave me the example that currently a presbytery cannot refuse to ordain a woman – being female is not grounds for refusing to ordain or induct according to the highest court of that church so therefore such an ordination cannot be presented. I simply don’t see how a General Assembly can affirm a “traditionalist” anti-gay position and then insist that a presbytery has to ordain someone because a local kirk session demands it.

It is certainly the case that yesterday the Church of Scotland accepted that some people are gay. However, it didn’t really deal with it. It accepted that some people affirm gay people but still affirmed a position which condemns that affirmation.

The Moderator of the General Assembly, Lorna Hood is being quoted as saying “This is a massive vote for the peace and unity of the Church.”

It seems to this outsider looking in on the General Assembly that its own moderator hasn’t understood what it was she was presiding over yesterday. This is a decision that will be challenged next year, challenged at every presbytery through the subsequent year and challenged and fought over at the following Assembly. Then, even if it succeeds, it will be challenged inevitably through cases brought to further Assemblies. This isn’t peace, it is a vote to enshrine the war in the life of the church for the forseeable future.

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Fr. Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St. Mary‘s Episcopal (Anglican) Cathedral, Glasgow, gives here his up-dated version of the debacle that has ensued after recent debates on Sexuality in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland (S.P.C.). The outcome is puzzling, to say the least. While delivering the statement that the theology of the Scottish Presbyterian Church remains - that Marriage is only for one man to one woman – there may be an opportunity for liberal congregations to elect a gay minister in a same-sex relationship.

This is the same sort of ‘double-think’ employed by the Church of England, when it treated the ordination of women perhaps the opposite way around – theologically accommodating the ordination of women as clergy, but allowing congregations to opt out and providing them with P.E.V.s -Provisional Episcopal Oversight by Bishops who did/do not ‘believe in Women’s Ordination.

If anything, the C.of E.’s departure from what might be called ‘catholic order’ – allowing for structured departure from canonical, ecclesial, theology and order on the collegiality of its bishops, could be considered a more serious departure from tradition than the fact that the Church now allowed for the ordination of women. No longer were/are the Bishops in the Church of England united in theology and praxis on this important issue.

That be as it may, The Presbyterians in Scotland appear to be set in the same twin-track – maintaining a particular theology of Marriage, while yet allowing for a departure from that stance on the issue of Gay clergy. It is in such dichotomies that Christians are open to the accusation of ‘double-standards’, something that fits ill with cohesive polity in the Church. What is really needed is an up-to-date cohesive understanding on the moral authenticity of monogamous same-sex relationships – not least in the ministry of the Church.

Both the Church of Scotland and the Church of England seem to be be moving towards what once was called ‘Congregationalism’ – as opposed to being centrally governed. This seems particularly odd, when considering the initial push of the Church of England towards the imposition of the once touted ’Covenant’ Relationship. Seemingly, what needs to be unified within the Church is its inclusive application of the Gospel to ALL.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

Same-Sex Marriage Bill Moves on the the House of Lords

kiwianglo — Wed, 22 May 2013 01:00:23 +0000

Gay marriage: Commons passes Cameron’s plan

The bill was passed in the Commons by 366 votes to 161

The House of Commons has voted to allow gay marriage in England and Wales, despite 161 MPs opposing the government’s plans.

Several Tory MPs spoke against the proposals, which have caused tensions in the party, but the Labour and Lib Dem leaderships backed them.

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill now goes before the House of Lords.

David Cameron hopes it will become law soon, with the first ceremonies taking place by next summer.

The bill, if passed, will allow same-sex couples, who can currently hold civil ceremonies, to marry.

Religious organisations would have to “opt in” to offering weddings, with the Church of England and Church in Wales being banned in law from doing so.

Welsh Secretary David Jones and Environment Secretary Owen Paterson voted against the government’s bill at its third reading. They were joined by 10 junior ministers.

‘Celebrate’

Altogether 133 Tories opposed the bill, along with 15 Labour MPs, four Lib Dems, eight Democratic Unionists and an independent.

It goes to the House of Lords on Wednesday, where it is expected to generate further heated discussion.

Tensions between Downing Street and grassroots Conservatives, which have focused on the issue of Europe in recent weeks, have been exacerbated by the same-sex marriage proposals.

But Culture Secretary Maria Miler said it was an issue of equality, to which MPs had to show their “commitment”.

For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Let’s celebrate, not discriminate. Let’s put aside the anger and hear it for the joy.”

Demonstrators against the plans held a vigil opposite the Palace of Westminster as the debate took place. A woman was detained by police after trying to drive a car through the gates of the Palace of Westminster as the vote took place.

The bill’s third reading was backed by 366 MPs, giving it a majority of 205. There was a ripple of applause in the chamber after the result was announced.

The result is a marginal improvement for Mr Cameron on the vote at Monday’s second reading, when 175 MPs opposed the plans.

They passed after ministers reached agreement with Labour’s leadership.

‘Growing gap’

Conservative critics had tabled a proposal to allow heterosexual couples enter into civil partnerships, if gay couples were allowed to get married.

But this was defeated, with MPs instead backing a Labour plan to consult on changing civil partnerships.

Many Tories are angry about comments reportedly made by Conservative co-chairman Lord Feldman.

He has denied calling activists “mad, swivel-eyed loons” and Mr Cameron has sent an email to party members, insisting they still shared a “deep and lasting friendship” with him.

Tory MP Brian Binley, who has led calls for an investigation into Lord Feldman’s alleged comments, said there was a “growing gap” between the prime minister and the party.

And Robert Woollard, chairman of the Conservative Grass Roots organisation, suggested Mr Cameron needed to rein in some of his colleagues in No 10 who were “wet behind the ears” and “needed to get out more”.

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One can only wonder, now that the House of Commons has passed this controversial Bill that will allow Same-Sex Couples to enter the legal commitment of Marriage, just how their ‘peers’ in the House of Lords will treat their part of the legislation. Granted that there are a number of Church of England Bishops with seats in the House of Lords. Anglicans will be acutely interested in how they will cast their votes.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

C.of E. House of Bishops statement on Women in the Episcopate

kiwianglo — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:43:16 +0000

Statement on Women in the Episcopate from the House of Bishops of the Church of England

21 May 2013

At its meeting in York the House of Bishops of the Church of England has committed itself to publishing new ways forward to enable women to become bishops.

In its discussion on the issue of women in the episcopate, the House received and approved for publication the report from the Working Group on Women in the Episcopate which was set up on 11 December to prepare new legislative proposals following the General Synod’s rejection of the last legislation on 20 November 2012.

The report of the Working Group presented four new options as a way forward and proposed that the General Synod should consider those options at its meeting in July. The Working Group also proposed a timetable which would involve the legislation starting its formal stages in the Synod in November and receiving Final Approval in 2015.

The House of Bishops has agreed that the report of the Working Group should be published with a separate report from the Archbishops on behalf of the House setting out the House’s recommendations to the General Synod. The House has also asked the Business Committee of the General Synod to arrange for a substantial amount of time to be available at the General Synod in July for facilitated conversations in small groups before the Synod comes to a decision on the way forward.

The House also approved the necessary changes in its standing orders to ensure the attendance of senior women clergy at its meetings. These changes were proposed following the House’s decision at its meeting in December to ensure the participation of senior female clergy in its meetings until such time as there are six female members of the house, following the admission of women to the episcopate.

Posted by Simon Sarmiento – ‘Thinking Anglicans‘ – on Tuesday, 21 May 2013

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Perhaps the most important indicator of the seriousness with which the Mother Church of England’s House of Bishops have now considered the issue of forthcoming legislation that will provide for Women Bishops in the Church, is their decision to allow ‘senior women clergy’ to attend House of Bishops’ Meetings, prior to passage of the legislation - until ‘such time as there are six female members of the house, following the admission of women to the episcopate’.

This phrase, occurring in the final paragraph of this article, seems more than hopeful of the legislation being passed by the November Synod, which would enable Women Bishops to join their male counterparts in the House of Bishops in 2015. When this finally happens, the Church of England will nearly have caught up with some of its fellow Provinces in the world-wide Anglican Communion on issues of gender and sexuality.

The only outstanding worry, for some members of the Church is whether or not there will be provision made for continuing discrimination against women’s ministry in the Church of England by finagling the legislation to accommodate dissenters.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

Same-Sex Marriage Bill Clears Major Hurdle in UK Parliament

kiwianglo — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:25:48 +0000

David Cameron offers civil partnership review and seeks to smooth relations with angry activists as gay marriage Bill clears major hurdle

Consultation could be completed before 2015 general election as ‘wrecking’ amendment tabled by Conservative opponents of same-sex marriage defeated by 375 to 70 votes

ANDREW GRICE , NIGEL MORRIS

TUESDAY 21 MAY 2013

Moves to legalise gay marriage cleared a crucial parliamentary hurdle as it emerged that civil partnerships could be abolished as the price for getting David Cameron’s plans on to the statute book.

A wrecking amendment tabled by Conservative opponents of same-sex marriage was defeated by 375 to 70 votes after the Tory front bench was supported by the vast majority of Labour and Liberal Democrats.

As the Commons debated the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, Labour threw Mr Cameron a lifeline in his latest battle with Tory right-wingers. He faced the prospect of losing the vote on the wrecking amendment, which could have delayed the introduction of gay marriage until after the election.

A threatened Conservative rebellion faded away with fewer than 50 backbench MPs voting against their leadership line. The outcome – just five days after 116 of his MPs defied Mr Cameron in a Commons vote on Europe – will come as a relief to the Prime Minister.

After a bruising series of clashes with the party grassroots, he wrote to Tory members, insisting he enjoyed a “deep and lasting friendship” with them.

Ahead of the vote, the Government agreed to review the future of civil partnerships as it tried to head off the amendment. The Tory rebels proposed extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. Labour and the Liberal Democrats agreed to support the wholesale review as they joined forces with Mr Cameron.

A senior Conservative source said the review would be launched shortly, with a view to completing it by the time of the 2015 general election and would look at all options, including scrapping the ceremonies altogether. The source told The Independent: “How civil partnerships work and whether they continue to exist, the whole thing would be up for grabs.”

More than 53,000 civil partnership ceremonies have been conducted since they became legal in December 2005. People already in such unions would not see them annulled or lose their existing rights, but abolition would mean gay couples would not be able to enter them in future. A decision would depend on the result of a public consultation exercise, but abolition would be politically risky and could run into opposition.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay equality group Stonewall, said: “There are people who were required to have civil partnerships and want to keep them. If over time, they wither on the vine, so be it. That is unlikely to happen in the lifetime of this parliament.”

With large numbers of Tory MPs opposed to gay marriage, Mr Cameron had to rely on the votes of Labour and Lib Dem MPs to defeat a series of earlier amendments tabled by Tory opponents. They included a move to protect registrars who do not wish to conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies. It was thrown out by 340 to 150 votes, with rebels against the leadership line including Cabinet ministers Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson.

In a heated Commons debate, traditionalists accused their party leadership of ignoring widespread backbench opposition to speed the contentious measure into law. Sir Gerald Howarth, an ex-minister and former aide to Margaret Thatcher, said there was no Conservative majority in favour of gay marriage and said the policy was not contained in any party’s manifesto.

He added: “I fear that the playing field has not been levelled. I believe that the pendulum is now swinging so far the other way and there are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who see this as but a stepping stone to something even further.”

Senior Tories closed ranks to reject a demand for an inquiry into claims the party’s co-chairman, Lord Feldman, ridiculed activists as “swivel-eyed loons”.

The Conservative Party Board threw out a call to examine the allegations which are strongly denied by Lord Feldman, a close friend of Mr Cameron.

Mr Cameron told activists: “I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise.”

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As Anti-Gay objectors to the passage of the Same-Sex Marriage Bill gathered their cohorts in Parliament to scuttle the Bill – by proposing the opening up Civil Partnerships to hetero-sexual couples as a ‘quid pro quo’ (which they knew would either sink the Bill or, at least, slow down its passage through parliament) – the Prime Minister, David Cameron, made the promise to ‘open up’ the prospect of Civil Partnership for heterosexual couples later on.

This has effectively cleared the way for the Same-Sex Marriage Bill to further progress through parliament – without being hindered by the prospect of a lengthy ‘quid pro quo’ bid by its detractors to encumber the Bill with the need to consider the extension of C.P.s for heterosexual couples. Paradoxically, what this attempt to block Gay couples from accessing the legal process of marriage may do, is to reinforce the arguments that Civil Partnerships may no longer be necessary – as legal marriage may now be open to everyone; which has been the sole purpose of the promoters of the Bill in the first place.

Another paradox, of course, as far the the Church of England is concerned, is that if the Church had only been more encouraging of the prospect of Civil Partnership for Same-Sex Couples, the issue of Marriage as the preferred option may never have arisen.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

Tanzania’s New Archbishop’s Enthronement – 3000 congregation

kiwianglo — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:37:34 +0000

Three thousand attend enthronement of Tanzania’s new Primate

Posted On : May 20, 2013 11:22 AM | Posted By : Admin ACO

ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2013/5/20/ACNS5393

Related Categories: Tanzania

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby honoured at his fellow Primate’s installation

By Bella Zulu, ACNS

Around 3,000 people from Tanzania, other parts of Africa and beyond gathered at Dodoma’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Saturday (18 May) for the installation of the Anglican Church of Tanzania’s new Primate.

The enthronement of the Bishop of Mpwapwa Dr Jacob Erasto Chimeledya was described by one church worker as “like a dream” because of the number of dignitaries in attendance. These included the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion Archbishop Justin Welby and his wife Caroline.

Other notable guests at the service included the Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya the Most Revd Eliud Wabukala and representatives from other Anglican Provinces including Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. As Dodoma is the country’s political capital, the service was also attended by many government leaders including the President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete.

Archbishop Chimeledya did not waste this opportunity to speak to the country’s political leaders. He urged the government to take action against those guilty of “hate speech” especially the traditional media and those who publish comments online. With particular reference to the relationship between Muslims and Christians he asked Tanzanians to not just tolerate one another, but respect each other. “We only tolerate an enemy, not our fellow citizens,” he said.

The Archbishop also announced a plan by the Anglican Church of Tanzania to begin a new micro-finance bank that will support small business enterprises in the country, and he appealed to the government to support the Church in its efforts to address people’s needs. During the service President Kikwete did commit his support to the Church’s many programmes throughout its dioceses.

This co-operation between Church and State was welcomed by Bishop of the Diocese of the Rift Valley the Rt Revd John Lupaa, as was Archbishop Welby’s presence in Tanzania—his first official Anglican Communion engagement as Archbishop of Canterbury.

“It’s a great honour to have the Archbishop of Canterbury visit Tanzania,” said Bishop Lupaa. “His visit will definitely raise the profile of the Church in Africa as a whole.”

While there was only room for around 400 people in the cathedral, other guests were able to watch the two-hour service on screens under tents outside. Thousands looked on as Archbishop Justin was made a senior elder in the cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika, and they listened as he spoke about the risk of fear, especially to church leaders. He stressed that while fear is a part of life, it can be overcome through the Holy Spirit.

Other Anglican groups present at the enthronement included Tanzania’s Mothers’ Union. Members, along with their new President Mwezwa Chimeledya, met with Caroline Welby during her visit to Dodoma to discuss their work.

CMS is an Anglican agency with significant historical links to the new Primate’s diocese. Mpwapwa is a place where much of the planning and execution of missionary work to the rest of Tanzania took place in the early years of the church there.

Speaking to ACNS, Executive Director of CMS-Africa, the Revd Dennis Tongoi congratulated the Archbishop Chimeledya and wished him all the best in his new role. He also acknowledged the importance that CMS attaches to leadership development and investment as a way of growing the Church in Africa.

“Finally our investment is bearing fruit. Africa now has a contingent of well-equipped leaders ready to support the growth of the Church,” he said. “The new Archbishop needs to shepherd the flock. Africa is a youthful continent therefore investment in [Tanzanian] youths should also be his top priority.”

The Anglican Church of Tanzania is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion www.anglicancommunion.org/tour
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As the Anglican Communion enters a new phase of its existence as a part of the Christian witness in and to the world, those parts of the Church that reside in the African Continent are undoubtedly the fastest-growing sector of our world-wide denomination. Tanzania has long been the beneficiary of Anglican Mission, and is now bearing the fruits of that propagation of the Gospel. It was good that the newly-elected Archbishop of Canterbury should be present – representing the ‘Mother Church’ of England.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

Mark Vernon Tells the story of ‘Honest to God’

kiwianglo — Sun, 19 May 2013 01:11:38 +0000

Viewpoint: When did people stop thinking God lives on a cloud? – ‘BBC News’

God The Father by Giovanni Battista Cima (Cortauld Gallery, London)

People rarely queue around the block to buy a book. And when was the last time a prime minister had to ask the publisher for a copy as none was otherwise available?

Philosopher, writer and former priest Mark Vernon tells the story of Honest To God.

It happened 50 years ago, in the spring of 1963. A book called Honest to God appeared on the shelves and caused a storm.

Before long, a million copies were sold in 17 languages. The author was a Church of England clergyman, John Robinson, the bishop of Woolwich in south London.

A couple of years previously, he had described sex as “an act of holy communion” in the trial that tried to ban Lady Chatterley’s Lover. That caused a stir and his book was read partly because it called for a revolution in ethics, particularly on divorce.

But there were deeper shifts in the collective consciousness that found voice in its pages.

The Observer newspaper‘s memorable headline caught it well: “Our Image of God Must Go”.

Continue reading the main story PDF downloadSee the Observer’s 1963 article_[352KB]Copyright Guardian News and Media Ltd

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People found that thought a liberation.

Sarah Coakley, now a professor at Cambridge University, ended up making theology her career. “[Robinson] was a brilliant educator,” she says. “He kept asking us students: ‘Why is this important? What matters now?’”

Rob Bell, the American evangelical leader whose congregation is counted in the thousands, feels similarly. “I can’t even tell you how much that book affected me,” he remarks. He too believes that we need new images of God – ones that enable us to speak of the mystery of everyday experience.

For Robinson, the problem was the belief that we are “down here” and God is “up there”, as if sitting on a cloud. Science destroys that worldview. Instead, he sought God in life.

Bishop John Robinson talking in 1963 about changes in theology

Similarly, Jesus is an alluring figure not because he saves you from your sins and a wrathful deity, or offers immortality, but because he displays the transforming potential of love.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

[Robinson] kept asking us: ‘Why is this important? What matters now?’”

Sarah Coakley

The bishop was part of the demythologisation movement, an attempt to re-describe Christianity in terms that made sense to the non-religious mind.

Robinson drew on the philosophy of existentialism and especially the writings of the German-American, Paul Tillich. Tillich described God as the “ground of being”, the power that sustains the cosmos in the face of the alternative, nothing. He argued that to be human is to have “ultimate concerns”, namely something for which you would not only live, but die.

Robinson and his generation were in thrall to science and felt that religion must change. The same imperative is felt to this day when atheists compare religion to fairytales and believers pen apologetics in response. But I wonder whether this knockabout has actually been a distraction because, on the whole, it seems that people do not live in a demythologised world. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Regular church attendance has declined, yes. But since the 1960s, belief in a “spirit or life force” has doubled, according to British Religion in Numbers - 41% of British people now believe in angels, 53% in an afterlife, and 70% in a soul.

For more evidence, wander into your local bookshop and find the Mind, Body, Spirit section. First, there will be one. Second, it is likely to be larger than history, psychology or biography.

Places of pilgrimage continue to thrive in the modern world

Or note the interest in spiritual practices such as mindfulness meditation, which you can now get on the NHS, or think of the recent BBC TV programme, Pagans and Pilgrims. It visited Britain’s holiest places and found that they are thriving.

To the convinced non-spiritual person this is likely to be bemusing, even offensive. There should not be “holy places” because a piece of land is just a piece of land. If individuals believe in angels or an afterlife then they must be stupid, sad or deluded.

And yet, look more closely and you will see that science itself promotes the re-enchantment of things. In books and on TV, physicists tell of vast cycles of cosmic death and rebirth. It is wonderful to be part of this majestic universe, they declare.

Praying to heaven: Robinson suggested God might be found closer to earth

They are right – although according to science alone, the cosmos does not die because it has never lived. Scientifically, the story is neither wonderful nor majestic – it just is.

Continue reading the main story

About the author

Mark Vernon is a former Church of England priest and is now a philosopher and writer. His most recent book is Love: All That Matters (Hodder)

There has been a spontaneous rediscovery of the spiritual dimension, if actually it ever died. The tragedy for the church, 50 years after Honest to God, is that many people no longer feel that Sunday worship and the images of God on offer there has much to do with it.

This is a problem because religious practices and theological traditions hold a wealth of insights that are needed if the questing is to deepen and grow. They help ground the speculations of New Age thought and offer means of discernment.

There is something crucial going on in this welter of spiritual experimentation and exploration. We humans are the creatures for whom our own existence is too small. We yearn for more, for connection, for meaning. And moreover, we find it. All the scepticism in the world cannot put it down.

You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook

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Having had the pleasure of meeting Bishop John Robinson, of ‘Honest to God’ fame, when he visited Saint John’s Theological College in Auckland in 1979, I can appreciate this review of Mark Vernon’s book and its assessment of the value of Bishop Robinson’s openness to a new perspective on Christian theology – not only for the Church of England, but alsoas a valued resource in the academic world of systematic and moral theology.

We, who were fortunate enough to have been students at St. John’s at the time of J.R.’s visit, were treated to a veritable feast of theological speculation that is not always available to theological students during their formal training for the ministry of the Church. Being at the time a part-time student-chaplain at Mount Eden Prison, I was approached by Bishop John to see if I would be happy to have him accompany me on a routine Sunday visit to administer Holy Communion to the prisoners. I asked him if he would kindly deliver a short homily to the prisoners. The effect on them – recounted to me later – was amazing. He spoke in a way that made these outcasts of society feel that they were valuable to God.

If only that were seen to be at the very heart of Christian ministry today – as it was at the time of Jesus – then perhaps the churches would be full of people – mostly sinners longing for redemption. Sadly, we in the Church sometimes come across to ordinary people as ‘Keepers of The Law’, holy and unapproachable – rather than messengers of the love and salvation of God in Jesus Christ.

On this Pentecost Sunday (today), worshippers at Saint Michael and All Angels, here in the City of Christchurch, new Zealand, were invited to approach the altar to receive a physical anointing on their hands – a sign of the Holy Spirit’s blessing – to bring reconciliation and healing to the world in which we live. One of the parayers of the Church at this time is this:

“Come Holy Spirit; fill the hearts of your faithful; re-kindle within us the fire of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” This simple ceremony of anointing for ministry, together with reception of the Eucharist, prepared us for whatever we may meet on the journey of life – knowing that Christ is with us.

Veni Creator Spiritus !

A New Pentecost ? The English R.C. Renewal

kiwianglo — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:37:14 +0000

Feature Article

Feel the Spirit : Pentecost special report

Kristina Cooper - 18 May 2013 – ‘The Tablet’

The number of Catholics drawn to Charismatic Renewal is being given a huge boost by thousands of migrants. They are now taking their worship into parishes

Around 3,000 Catholics are meeting every month for catechesis and prayer at a vast Pentecostal convention centre at West Bromwich, near Birmingham. The gatherings were started by migrants from southern India, and initially the services were in Malayalam, the local language of Kerala. But in the last two months they have been conducted in English, as interest has spread among English-speaking Catholics.

The meetings are a visible sign of how very devout Catholics are bringing new life and energy to parishes in the UK. Many of the newcomers feel a deep sense of calling to help restore the Christian faith in their adopted land. Until now, their influence has often remained beneath the radar as their activities have been within their own culture and language group, but things are changing as these groups grow in confidence.

Their charism flows directly from the worldwide ecclesial movement known as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), which appeared in the Church following Vatican II in the late 1960s. Statistician David Barrett has estimated that more than 100 million Roman Catholics worldwide had been baptised by the year 2000, and there have been many more since. Like the first disciples at Pentecost, charismatics use biblical charisms – such as tongues, prophecy and healing – as part of their normal Christian life. In England, the CCR has always been small, but in places like India and Latin America the concept has been accepted and encouraged by the clergy and episcopacy, and so has flourished.

In Kerala, one of the key vehicles of Charismatic Renewal has been the many charismatic retreat centres that have sprung up in the last couple of decades. These are nothing like the gentrified affairs that take place in England, but retreats for the masses with miracles and radical conversions. At the Divine Retreat Centre at Muringoor, on the banks of the Chalakudy River, people simply show for the week without booking. Beds are in dormitories. On one occasion, 45,000 people arrived and as there were only enough beds for half that number, the visitors arranged a “hot bed” system, with men sleeping during the day and women sleeping at night. There was preaching and meals were served 24 hours a day, so everyone could follow the retreat.

Not surprisingly, after 25 years, this activity has led to a surge in vocations. There are prayer groups in seminaries; and charismatic initiation courses, like the “Life in the Spirit” seminars, are part of the formation programme at such seminaries as St Thomas’ in the Diocese of Palakkad, where the local bishop, Jacob Manathodath, takes his priests on charismatic retreats for spiritual refreshment.

One of the most established and best organised of the Indian charismatic groups now in the UK is Jesus Youth. This is a Catholic youth missionary movement that originated in Kerala 25 years ago, but which has now spread all over the world, mainly through economic migration. Many of those who have come to the UK are well-educated IT specialists and hospital workers who have made their faith a priority in their lives. Their strategy has been to gather existing members of Jesus Youth together, then reach out to Indian Catholics – and on to the second generation born in the UK – before finally approaching the indigenous population.

The group is now at the cusp of this difficult final stage, as it has to deal with not just the Gospel but cultural issues and the secular British mindset. During Easter week, several people from the leadership team and their families attended Celebrate, the Catholic Charismatic family week that takes place in Ilfracombe, Devon, to experience English culture and the late-night fringe in the bar, as well as talks and workshops.

Through perseverance and prayer, Jesus Youth UK is making friends, and last October it was given a disused presbytery in Sheffield by the cathedral dean, Fr Chris Posluszny, to serve as its official HQ. The inner city parish of St Charles Borromeo was at risk of closure because of falling numbers but Jesus Youth has started 24-hour adoration sessions from Friday 9 p.m. to Saturday 9 p.m. supported by members of Jesus Youth from all over the country, who come on a rota basis, often remaining to attend Sunday Mass.

Abhy Thomas, one of the Jesus Youth leaders, whose wife is a parish youth worker in Buckinghamshire, explained: “The parish are loving it. They see so many youngsters here, leading the choir and attending Mass. We have whole families come from Bristol and Brighton, often with three or four children. The parishioners are amazed that people will come and sit for 24 hours’ adoration to pray for them and the area. Everyone has got hope now.” Another successful venture Jesus Youth has been running in the UK for three years is “Awakening”, a 24/7 time of intercession for 100 days between Ash Wednesday and Pentecost. The venture was originally based in a single parish, but now encompasses 35 parishes, each taking a time slot on a rota system to pray for the movement and revival in the UK generally.

Another group with roots in Kerala is the network associated with the Sehion Retreat Centre at Attappady. This is headed up by Fr Soji Olikkal, a young priest from the Diocese of Palakkad, who was appointed chaplain to the Syro Malabar Catholics in the UK in 2010. For him, coming to England was a major culture shock. As he explained: “I found that the spirit of atheism was very strong in the schools and I was concerned about the effect that this was having on the children of our families, so I prayed to the Lord, saying ‘What is your plan for these children?’”

As a result, Fr Soji began what have become known as the Second Saturday Conventions. These began in his parish, Blessed Robert Grissold in Coventry, with about 60 people and a few children. “We didn’t just babysit the children,” he recalled. “We really preached the Word of God to them in ways that were appropriate to their age, with action songs, skits and memorisation of Bible verses.” The word got out among the Kerala community and numbers grew so much, with coaches coming from across the country, that they now regularly fill the 3,000 places at the Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich. Fr Soji and his team have also run five-day residential evangelisation schools for 10- to 16-year-olds in Warrington, Southampton, Brighton, Bristol and Northampton, each attended by 60 teenagers, all keen to become full-time evangelists.

Fr Soji credits the huge expansion of the ministry to the signs and wonders and healings that happen at the gatherings. “The Lord did some miracles among the children – healing them of things like eczema,” he said. “That’s why the children brought their friends.” Charismatic groups in other parts of Britain have also become involved. Damian Stayne, founder of the Cor et Lumen Christi community, in Chertsey, Surrey, was recently invited to lead a miracle service and will return in June to run his charism school, during which he teaches participants to use the biblical charisms of healing and prophecy.

Among the growing number of those from a non-Indian background attending the Second Saturdays are Deacon David Palmer and his wife June, from the same deanery as Fr Soji. “My wife and I were blown away by what we saw at Second Saturdays,” said Palmer. “Some of the teenagers’ testimonies about their efforts at evangelising fellow school pupils and the testimonies of healing were amazing. Their exuberance and willingness to evangelise is just what we need in the Church in the UK today.”

* Kristina Cooper is editor of Good News, the magazine published by Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

____________________________________________________________

This pentecostal excitement in evidence in the Roman Catholic Church in England reminds me of the initial Renewal Movement in the R.C. Church which flowered in the wake of Vatican II under the guidance and provenance of Good Pope John XXIII, in the early 1960s..

Alas, that excitement in Rome soon vanished after the death of this charismatic Pope. Under the influence of his successors on the throne of Peter in the Vatican, the curial rulers of the Church were disposed to put a dampener on anything that threatened their direct control of theological and spiritual affairs within the world-wide Church.The real prospect of opening up the Church to significant lay ministries – women servers in the sanctuary, and maybe even the priestly ministry of women – as well as reform within the Vatican Curia, with the possibility of a more dispersed authority within the Church, were too much for those ensconced in positions of power in the headquarters of the Church..

The 1960s renewal movement – arguably instigated by Vatican 2, when Pope John prayed that the Holy Spirit would fall upon the Church as it had at the First Pentecost in Jerusalem – sparked a similar ‘movement of the Spirit’ in other Churches; including that of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. I remember well, the incident when Father Ken Prebble, the current Vicar of St. Paul’s, Symonds St., in the City of Auckland told his Anglo-Catholic congregation of his personal experience of ‘speaking in tongues’ after having hands laid upon him by a charismatic Baptist clergyman. This led to some controversy in the Auckland diocese.

After recovering from the shock of their Vicar’s revelation, the main congregation at St. Paul’s began a ministry and mission of healing and reconciliation that drew many clergy and people from other churches – including the local Roman Catholic Church – to witness, and take part in, a series of Bible-studies and common worship and the rediscovery the dynamic place of the Holy Spirit in and the lives of the first N.T. believers in Jesus Christ, as Son of God and redeemer of ALL.

The amazing witness to physical and emotional healings, changed lives, and spiritual regeneration among the congregation and others who were led to join in the lively worship and study events at Saint Paul’s, resulted in the painstaking discovery of vocations among the laity to exercise the ‘gifts of the Holy Spirit’ that were an amazing feature of Luke’s writing in the Acts of the Apostles.

There have been other ‘movements of The Spirit’ in the Church. Let’s hope that the fruits of this new revival are securely in accord with the Apostle Paul’s description of the signs of authenticity in Galatians 5:22:

‘Love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control’

“Come, Holy Spirit, renew the face of the earth, and fill your people with the fire of God’s Love; through the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Amen !

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

Fruits of Schism in GAFCON-linked Church in the U.K.

kiwianglo — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:29:19 +0000

FIRST BAPTISM AT GAFCON-BACKED SHEFFIELD CHURCH PLANT

The ordination of its minister in the Anglican Church in Kenya in February may have been controversial, but the first baptism atChrist Church Walkley in Sheffield was a great gospel occasion.

The man baptised on Sunday May 12th in the Walkley library, the venue for the new conservative evangelical church planted byChrist Church Central in October last year, gave an honest and moving account of how he came to Christian faith.

The minister, Pete Jackson, preached very clearly and edifyingly on 1 Timothy 6v2b-10. The songs were theologically good, supported by high quality musicianship. Mr Jackson appears to be a calm and godly pastor, who enjoys the confidence of his leadership team.

Unfortunately, the prayers of intercession were somewhat inward-looking – they often are in new church plants. Political leaders were not prayed for at Walkley and they should be.

The Walkley plant has not yet cut the apron strings from Christ Church Central – it does not have its own trustees and independent charitable status – but hopefully that will happen in time. Like other UK church plants rooted in Reformed Anglican spirituality, it could form a partnership with Anglican evangelical mission agency, Crosslinks, giving it greater connection with the wider church.

There is already the relationship through GAFCON with the Anglican Church in Kenya, which should be taken seriously by way of accountability, because one of its bishops, the Rt Revd Josephat Mule, ordained Mr Jackson as deacon in Kitui cathedral. The new church has been pro-actively supported by the Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Revd Eliud Wabukala, chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council.

According to the media statement Christ Church Central put out at the time of Mr Jackson’s ordination, the father of its senior minister, Tim Davies, was Provost of Nairobi cathedral in the 1970s and Mr Davies himself is an honorary canon of All Saints’ Cathedral, Nairobi. It is very important for the new church that the link with Kenya is based on a shared spiritual commitment to Anglican orthodoxy, rather than being dynastic in nature.

Conversations with members of the church family evidenced humility and realism in the face of the challenge of reaching the community of Walkley for the Lord Jesus Christ. Though there were some older people present, the congregation is mainly in their 20s and 30s.

The church looks like it will soon, God willing, outgrow Walkley library, necessitating new premises. With imaginative outreach to its local community as well as within its demographic network, this new church family could by God’s grace be a real force for the gospel in a tough region for Christian ministry.

An adult male baptised in the name of God the Holy Trinity is certainly a positive sign of a social trend being bucked.

POSTED BY JULIAN MANN

________________________________________________________________________________

One should perhaps expect someone hosting a web-site under the pretentious title of ‘Cranmer’s Curate’ to be promoting the cause of Anglican Orthodoxy. However the site, hosted by Julian Mann, is obviously set up to proclaim the rather more pretentious claim to Anglican Orthodoxy currently employed by the GAFCON Primates, one of whose number recently ordained the pastor of this new congregation in England, in order to combat what GAFCON sees as the unorthodoxy of the Church of England.

Here is an instance of the thinking of Mr. Mann on the so-called ‘orthodoxy’ of this new church plant and its ministry – sponsored by the Anglican Church in Kenya – without reference to the Church of England:

”There is already the relationship through GAFCON with the Anglican Church in Kenya, which should be taken seriously by way of accountability, because one of its bishops, the Rt Revd Josephat Mule, ordained Mr Jackson as deacon in Kitui cathedral. The new church has been pro-actively supported by the Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Revd Eliud Wabukala, chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council.

One cannot help but wonder whether this is not the thin end of the wedge of an assault by the Primates of the GAFCON churches to set up their own rival Church in England, in direct opposition with the traditional Church of England. Already there are other GAFCON links with rival congregations in England, under the title of AMiE, the Anglican Mission in England; with a title similar to another GAFCON-sponsiored group in the USA and Canada, which calls itself ACNA, the Anglican Church in North America.

The new Archbishop of Canterbury will surely need to watch out for the underground activities of rival church groups in the U.K. – especially when they profess to be defending the traditional ‘orthodoxy’ of the Church of England, while yet standing apart from it on the local scene. Such ‘Mission Churches’ do, of course, have a right to exist, but not, one would assume, under the pretence of upholding ‘orthodoxy’ as Anglicans in places where the Anglican Church already has its own mission and ministry.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

The ABC discusses High Finance, avoiding Delicate Questions.

kiwianglo — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:48:11 +0000

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/eab099ce-b729-11e2-a249-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2TG4a3zgQ

Lunch with the FT: Justin Welby

By Lucy Kellaway

The Archbishop of Canterbury talks to Lucy Kellaway about baiting bankers, trusting God over Google and having pizza delivered to Lambeth Palace

©James Ferguson

The last time I met the Archbishop of Canterbury was on a bumpy helicopter ride over the North Sea. He was wearing a bright red jumpsuit. I can’t remember anything else about him – partly because I was concentrating on not being sick but also because, back then, he wasn’t an archbishop at all but arandom oil executive. As group treasurer of Enterprise Oil, Justin Welbywas taking a party of journalists to visit an oilfield.

That was in 1987 and he was two years away from quitting Mammon and starting on what was going to be a dazzling career with God, that would propel him from being a humble curate in Nuneaton to spiritual leader of 77m Anglicans worldwide.

The 57-year-old who now enters the crypt of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London is in work uniform of a different sort: round his neck is a cardboard dog collar and a plain crucifix. None of the handful of diners who have swapped the glorious sunshine outside for the gloom of a church basement takes any notice of the slight, bespectacled figure as he moves across the stone floor to meet me.

“So sorry to have kept you waiting,” Welby says, glancing at his cheap watch to see that it is three minutes past one.

ON THIS TOPIC

LUNCH WITH THE FT

Lunch with the FT Xavier Niel
Dinner with the FT Martin Schulz
Lunch with the FT Kim Dotcom
Lunch with the FT Nick Candy

It’s been a bit of a struggle getting him out at all. He wanted to have me over for a sandwich at Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s official London residence, into which he, his wife Caroline, his two youngest children and a puppy moved three months ago.

Lunch, he says, isn’t really his thing. “If I’m in a hurry, it’s two pieces of toast and a stick of celery.” Cooking bores him, and when I say it bores me, too, he gives a broad, toothy smile and exclaims, “Oh good!” as if this modest meeting of minds had really made his day.

We start to reminisce about that oil trip and he tells me how much he used to enjoy taking out parties of bankers, plying them with booze and early the next morning piling them into a helicopter. His eyes shine at the memory of all the puking.

“It was pure sadism,” he says.

It is only five minutes in and I’m having to pinch myself to remember that this is the same man I recently saw on telly blessing Margaret Thatcher’s coffin, a mitre on his head and on his face a mask of solemnity and holiness.

Did he join them in drinking too much? “I was pretty well-behaved. Moderate.” He thinks for a bit. “No, I was no worse behaved than I am now. I am not particularly well-behaved.”

This is a little confusing but there’s no time to sort it out as the waiter wants to know what we’d like to eat. Welby orders fish pie and I a fish salad. I suggest minor bad behaviour with a glass of wine each. “Oh, go on,” he agrees. As the archbishop seems to have no views on wine, I order two glasses of house white.

Baiting bankers is something Welby has carried over into his new role. A week before our meeting, he had been on the front page of the FT complaining about their sense of entitlement. “Welby is junked out on publicity, like some drug-crazed rock star,” one reader commented on the FT website. “He should forget his grandstanding over banks and get on with his day job.”

“Charming!” Welby says when I repeat it to him.

But do they have a point? Ought archbishops tell bankers how to bank?

He says he was speaking more as a member of the Banking Standards Commission, on which he’s served for the past year. “I happen to know a bit about banking. I’ve spent 35 years looking at them.”

. . .

With dispiriting haste the food arrives: a large, slightly anaemic pile of fish pie is set in front of the archbishop. “That’s very nice” he says, making brief eye contact with the waiter and then returning his gaze to me. “I was sitting on the bus on the way here,” he begins.

Bus? Doesn’t the leader of the Anglican church have a driver? He does but he prefers the bus. Don’t people recognise him?

“Increasingly, they do. They’ve started to say, ‘Are you that archbishop chap?’ ”

“So on the bus,” he goes on, “I thought, OK, what’s the message I want to get across today?’ ” He pauses and then whispers: “I couldn’t think of one. So I thought, ‘Hey, we’ll just go with the flow, see how it goes.’ Very amateur.”

It might be amateur but the effect in discouraging difficult questions is better than anything a professional could have produced.

He starts to tell me that being Archbishop of Canterbury is a bit like running an oil company. This, I think, sounds most implausible but he explains: “Supposing I was chief executive of Shell. Replacing their reserves every year, that’s quite an intractable problem. Operating in whatever it is, 180 countries with an enormous range of cultures. The church operates in 164. That’s quite complicated.”

The main difference is power: the head of Shell can make things happen.

“But I have almost no power. Influence, but not power.”

Another thing, he says, is that he won’t get slung out by the board after a few months if the figures are bad.

Maybe so, but I point out he is being judged day by day with people asking, is he any better than the last one?

“The answer to that is no,” Welby says emphatically. “Rowan [Williams] was brilliant. To meet him was always a privilege. A spiritual giant. A poet. Wonderful with words. He was a very good archbishop indeed.”

This wasn’t the general view in the press. Williams was seen more as a lefty windbag who brought the church to the verge of destruction over its failure to admit women bishops. By contrast, the media love Welby, marvelling at how he manages to appeal both to Church liberals and to the fearsomely conservative African bishops. So far the view is that if anyone can win on women bishops, he can.

Williams said the job required “the hide of a rhinoceros and the constitution of an ox” but Welby, a chronic asthma sufferer, doesn’t look to me as if he has either.

“I don’t know about an ox,” he says. “Just, sort of, I get by. I love the job.”

One problem he faces is that God isn’t really very popular. According to one recent survey, God is less trusted than Google.

“I saw that. I was very grumpy about it. Google always gives me the wrong answer. They’re actually out to make money out of us. I’m not.”

Welby is trying to build trust in a way that has fallen out of fashion in the Church of England: through his own belief in God. When I ask point blank if he really and truly thinks that Mary was a virgin and that Christ actually rose from the dead, he puts down his fork and replies simply: “Yes.”

I must be looking doubtful as he goes on: “Is that clear? I can say the Creed without crossing my fingers.”

His faith has been much tested. There was his first child, who died, aged seven months, in a car crash in France in 1983. Now Katharine, his oldest daughter (who wittily tweeted when her dad was made AB of C, “So this makes me the ABCD? Right? I always wanted a title”) has been blogging about her severe depression.

He says what a rough time she’s had but then adds: “We’ve had serious illness or death with five of our six children.”

God! I say, sympathy leading straight to blasphemy. With such endless suffering, how does he go on believing?

“Turning God into some kind of celestial insurance policy is just mental. Of course, sometimes you go through a bad patch and you think, ‘God, where are you? Do you not think we’ve just about had enough of this?’ And, at other times, you’re just very conscious of His presence and of His love. Life is complicated. Don’t fuss.”

Our plates are cleared and I notice the archbishop has eaten all the pie but not touched the green beans.

. . .

I have almost no power. Influence, but not power

Apropos of nothing much, he tells me he has just been to a reunion at Eton, his first visit to his old school in nearly 40 years. “They do a lot of prime ministers,” he says with a little smile, “but they haven’t had an archbishop since 1828.”

But what did he make of it: a wonderful institution or an anachronistic place full of sickening privilege?

“Neither”, he says carefully. “I saw a place that is full of very gifted people, with a huge sense of … ”

Entitlement?

“I was deliberately avoiding that word. I don’t want more headlines.”

He says his old classmates would never have guessed “in a million years” that the teenage Justin was future AB of C material. “I was very mediocre,” he insists.

This endless self-deprecation is very Etonian. So far he’s told me that he is useless compared with his predecessor, that he has a second-class mind, that he gets hopelessly nervous before big speeches, that he’s not holy and that he’s probably boring me rigid.

But, actually, I don’t think he fits the Etonian model at all. That comes from superiority, while his, I’m fairly sure, is something rarer: genuine humility.

He goes on to say how badly he did in his A levels (“I got a C in history, a D in English and an E in French”) but just when I’m bracing myself to be told he’s thick he says it was due to family problems.

Welby had what sounds like a trying childhood. His parents divorced when he was three and he spent much of his youth looking after his alcoholic father, a former bootlegger of uncertain origin who once dated Vanessa Redgrave.

The thought occurs to me that having a father drinking himself to death might have been the reason he turned to God as a more reliable paternal figure when he was at Cambridge.

“I don’t know,” he says. “But I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, a lot of people reject the idea of God as Father if they’ve had a competitive relationship with their own father. So it works both ways.”

. . .

Sometimes you go through a bad patch and you think, ‘God, where are you? Do you not think we’ve just about had enough of this?’

His father’s story was already colourful enough but, when Welby’s appointment as Archbishop was announced, the Telegraph took it upon itself to do some digging and found his dad wasn’t born Gavin Welby but Bernard Weiler, descended from Jewish traders in ostrich feathers.

Instead of expressing outrage at such intrusion, Welby shrugs, says he was a fair target and that he was “quite pleased” to find himself partly Jewish. “I mean, it’s interesting. Unusual. I knew on my mother’s side I was partly Huguenot, so I’m a sort of mongrel.”

The waiter is hovering and Welby orders a double espresso and I ask for a mint tea.

I have been saving till last one of his least favourite subjects: homosexuality. He is against gay marriage (though he has already done something wise and invited the gay activist Peter Tatchell over to Lambeth Palace for a chat) and presides over the curious church policy that homosexuals in civil partnership can be bishops but they must be celibate. This strikes me as not only unfair but unclear. What does celibate mean? Is holding hands celibate? Is kissing?

“Oh for goodness sake!”

For the first time in our lunch he is put out.

“I’m not going to go into all the sort of intricacies of what it might or might not mean specifically, not least because we’ve just had lunch and it’s a bad post-lunchtime conversation. I’m not going there.”

So I switch to a subject he might find less unsuitable for conversation on a full stomach and ask how he can support the church’s teaching on sex in general. How can he say it’s wrong to have sex outside marriage when no one takes any notice?

“Have they ever? You’re a believer in this great golden age in the past where nobody thought about sex until their wedding day? To abandon the ideal simply because it’s difficult to achieve is ridiculous.”

We then get into a discussion on how much sex they had in Chaucer’s day, adultery, sin and forgiveness.

I notice something strange. Now he’s not telling me he’s a dunce or an amateur. He is utterly focused and lucid.

I find I enjoy my private sermon, which included various biblical stories, and will think about it later, but for now need some light relief.

Welby is the first tweeting AB of C, and likes to tell his followers (of whom he has a surprisingly small number – 29,000 to Pope Francis’s 2.5m) about the love of Christ but also about how he’s just been shoe shopping. Alas, today he isn’t in the new shoes I’d read about; when he lifts his foot to show me I see his old black brogues have holes in the soles.

Mostly, he says, he gets his clothes at Oxfam. I suggest eBay as an even cheaper alternative though warn that sellers might be surprised to find themselves posting their old clothes to Lambeth Palace. He laughs and says he’ll get his wife on to it. He then tells me about the difficulties he’s had getting takeaways delivered.

“So they ring up and say, ‘This Lambeth Palace, where is it?’ And I say, ‘Where are you?’ ‘I’m by Lambeth Bridge.’ ‘OK. Can you see a 60ft tall red brick gatehouse?’ ‘No.’ ”

And so the archbishop has to go outside and collect his pizza himself.

Welby is about to get the bus back there but, before he goes, I ask him if he can stop being self-deprecating for one minute and tell me honestly how he’s risen to the top of this ancient institution.

He shakes his head.

“I genuinely don’t know. I’m not doing myself down, this is an absolutely straight answer.”

We part in the restaurant as he is heading off to the loo. I cycle away with my head full of the problems of humility and Christ and celibacy. But then I realise I have a problem of a more worldly sort: I managed to walk out without paying. I hurry back but too late. The Archbishop of Canterbury has had to foot the bill.

Lucy Kellaway is a management columnist for the FT

________________________________________________________________

The Financial Times is probably the one newspaper the new Archbishop of Canterbury feels ‘at home’ with. After all, before become an Anglican clergy-person, his whole life was centred around the world of high finance – especially in his role as an executive in the oil industry. His grasp on the difficulties of the gender and sexuality issues presently threatening to divide the world-wide Anglican Communion, however, will require all of his diplomatic skills – if Archbishop Justin is going to dampen down the excitement of the GAFCON Primates – in their forthcoming African meeting in October of this year.

He will need our prayers for the unenviable task he has in front of him at future Lambeth Conferences, which GAFCON Primates are already shaping up to ignore.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand

An Evangelical Warns Against Church Empire-Building

kiwianglo — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:37:51 +0000

CHURCH EMPIRE-BUILDING: SERIOUS ALLEGATION

Surely the charge of empire-building against a church leader is as serious as an allegation of sexual impropriety.But for obvious reasons, the former charge is levelled far more lightly than the latter. Cranmer’s Curate once heard a senior evangelical describing a younger colleague as an ‘empire-builder’.

The allegation is terribly serious because using God’s church for an ego-trip is idolatry. It is in the worst sense a form of self-worship. It is an appalling abuse of the Body of Christ.

In 2 Timothy 3, the Apostle Paul describes the spiritual and moral state of non-Christian people in the ‘last days’, i.e. in the period between the Lord Jesus‘ ascension and his second coming. So this is talking about our time. Paul’s description aptly describes the Christ-rejecting human race in general but then Paul narrows the focus down to the false teachers whom Timothy was up against in 1st century Ephesus, demonstrating that they are no better than non-Christians:

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people (2 Timothy 3v1-5 – NIV).

So, to describe a fellow evangelical as effectively a lover of self in the way he approaches his pastoral leadership is to describe him as on a spiritual par with a non-Christian and, by association, with a false teacher. If the allegation is untrue, then the person making it is of course included in Paul’s description of humanity in the last days, because that person is ‘slanderous’.

The charge of empire-building to describe the motivation of a fellow church leader is so serious that surely we should quake in our boots before even thinking it.

POSTED BY JULIAN MANN AT 05:17

_______________________________________________________________________________

I think that Julian Mann here has a legitimate warning against any person – clerical, or lay – who entertains the prospect of ‘Empire Building’ by the Church.

This should cause grave concern to those Church bodies which are presuming to gather together like-minded people who are currently rebelling against the legitimate right of certain provincial churches to bring about reform in attitudes and legislation that will improve their relationship to those in their communities who have long been shunned and overlooked on matters of justice and equity connected with issues of gender and sexuality.

In the situation where justice issues that are being tackled by certain Provinces of the world-wide Anglican Communion, there are those functionaries in other Provinces who are doing their level best to build up their own interests by alienating for their own purposes the dissenters of the more liberal Churches, and discipling them into what may be considered to be a rival conservative Church organisation. This could be called ’empire-building’

Such empire builders may be numbered, perhaps, among those foreign prelates who, in North America, have raised up their own schismatic bodies – drawn from dis-satisfied conservatives in TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada – with the direct intention of forming disparate branches of pseudo-Anglicanism, with a view to replacement of the local traditional Anglican Churches in the USA and Canada. The fruit of these acts of piracy by the GAFCON Provinces, could well be serious division within the Anglican Communion – amounting to the practise of ‘Empire-Building’ that is being questioned here by Julian Mann.

Any attempt by any part of the Church to build its own separate ecclesial identity, by withdrawing from the Communion Fellowship, is surely the very problem about which Julian Mann is rightly concerned. With the upcoming, 2nd GAFCON Meeting in October, 2013, there will in all likelihood be yet another proclamation made by the participating provincial primates of the GAFCON, indicating their takeover bid for the soul of traditional Anglicanism, on the specific grounds of a self-elected ‘orthodoxy’ – an activity that is clearly an attempt at Empire Building, which is a malignant process so abhorrent to the originator of this article.

Father Ron Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand