Category Archives: Church of England

The Church of England to have women bishops

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Career minded lady clergy-persons are rejoicing:

Yippee

The Diocese of New Westminster’s Melissa Skelton, in a convenient vision of beatific liberal-fundamentalism, sees “the movement of the Holy Spirit in this decision”, while others see yet more conforming to contemporary culture.

I’m inclined to the latter view. The question is, will this component of the church’s ceaseless quest for relevance make any difference? Does anyone, other than lady vicars wanting more power and money, much care?

To answer that question, one has but to consult the oracle of societal trends, Facebook.

The Church of England’s Facebook announcement about its eagerness to embrace that most hideous invention of the 20th and 21st Centuries, equality, has, since yesterday, garnered 81 comments.

Coincidentally, while the Church of England was soberly pondering women bishops, Marvel Comics was plotting to turn Thor into a woman. The announcement was made today on Facebook and already has provoked 1120 comments; Thor even has her own Twitter hashtag, #thor.

Since depicting a hitherto male fictitious comic book character as a woman is generating more interest than making a real woman an Anglican bishop, you would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the church should concentrate on competing on its own turf, not the world’s. But that would hardly be relevant.

Anglican vicar marries an atheist

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Normally you would think that 2 Corinthians 6:14 (do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers) might be a consideration for a Christian (yes, I know he’s a vicar, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt) getting hitched but, in this case, Rev Andrew Cain is marrying another man, so 2 Corinthians 6:14 is the least of his worries.

priest_2837639bFrom here:

Vicar marries atheist in same-sex wedding

Rev Andrew Cain has defied Church of England rules banning its clergy from marrying same-sex partners.

He is one of only two vicars to have had a same-sex wedding since the law allowing gay men and lesbians to marry came into force in England and Wales in March this year.

Rev Cain told Jeremy Vine that he found the service “surprisingly moving” and the day was “very special”.

UK: Christian school assembly should be scrapped says bishop

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I remember attending school assembly every morning with studied ennui, inspired by the masters seated on the stage whose yawns and nose picking delivered the strong message that they had little interest in what was going on.

By the time I had reached the fifth form, I had decided I was an atheist and persuaded my long-suffering parents to write to the headmaster to excuse me from the tedium of morning assembly. Nothing came of it, though since, as the head patiently explained to me, he had a legal requirement to compel my attendance.

In spite of myself, I still enjoyed singing the hymns.

You might think that being forced to participate in something in which I didn’t believe would put me off it for good. As it turns out, it didn’t. In spite of stout resistance, parts of the Christian message – the Lord’s Prayer, for example – infiltrated my psyche, a clandestine fifth column of ideas whose enduring presence I was profoundly grateful for once I had seen through the irrationality of atheism.

Now, an Anglican bishop, in a characterise manoeuvre to undermine what he is paid to uphold, is proposing that Christian Assembly should be replaced by that most vacuous of activities: spiritual reflection.

bishFrom here:

The 70-year-old legal requirement for schools to include an act of collective worship in assembly should be dropped because of the decline of Christianity in Britain, the Church of England’s head of education has said.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, said schools should still have to make time for “spiritual reflection” containing elements of Christianity and the other major religions.

But he said compulsory participation in collective “worship” was more suited to the 1940s, could actively put people off religion and is meaningless to people who do not believe.

Under the 1944 Education Act schools are legally obliged to stage acts of collective worship “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”. There are separate arrangements for Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh faith schools.

Church of England bans clergy from BNP and National Front

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Short of doing something both heinous and illegal, it is almost impossible for a Church of England vicar to be defrocked; until now. Vicars who join either the BNP or National Front political party will be sacked. There is little doubt that both parties are a blot on the landscape of British politics – but, then, so is the atheistic Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and there is nothing preventing a vicar joining that party; in fact, Rowan Williams would probably have approved.

The reason given for the prohibition is that the parties are “incompatible with the teaching of the Church of England”, as if all the others are compatible. Come to think of it, a male vicar marrying another man is incompatible with church teaching, too, but the vicar in question is still employed.

Once again, the church of tolerance and diversity demonstrates that it is no more tolerant that the most fundamentalist Biblical literalist it takes such delight in despising.

From here:

Church of England clergy face being defrocked if they are found to be members of the BNP or National Front after bishops ruled that their views are un-Christian and promote the “sin of racism”.

It is the first time Anglican priests have formally been banned from membership of any political party.

Bishops declared the two groups to be “incompatible with the teaching of the Church of England” because of their respective stances on “equality of persons or groups of different races”.

Vicar who disagrees with same-sex marriage sacked for having affair with a parishioner

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From here:

Rev Howard, who is his 40s, publicly defended the sanctity of marriage last year after he displayed a poster at his church condemning gay marriage.

The fluorescent green sign, posted outside the St Mary’s Church in Ferndown, Dorset, stated: ‘Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman’.

At the time, he said: ‘The Government has no mandate to change the definition of marriage, and civil partnerships already give equal rights to same-sex couples.

‘Changing the law would leave clergy like me open to charges of discrimination if I refused on principle to take a same sex wedding. Is that really the tolerant society we want to create?

‘In displaying our poster, we hope marriage as we have received it will be maintained.’

And in the face of criticism from equal rights groups, he preached that ‘society is much stronger when marriage is promoted, honoured and protected’.

But he was exposed as a hypocrite after the church found out about his affair with a married woman.

He was handed a five-year ban by the Diocese of Salisbury, the seventh largest Church of England area covering Dorset and most of Wiltshire.

It’s interesting to note that, while Rev Howard is not allowed to minister for five years because of his affair, other vicars who are in active same-sex civil partnerships – some of whom will soon marry – are allowed to continue their ministry unimpeded even though they, too, are breaking the rules of the Church of England.

I’m not arguing that Rev Howard should not be suspended but it would be at least consistent if we saw the same enthusiasm for disciplining same-sex transgressors as has been demonstrated in the Howard case.

As most will be delighted to point out, Rev Howard is a hypocrite. The difference between his succumbing to the call of his lower nature and the Anglican gay lobby who do likewise is that he doesn’t seem to be trying to justify his fallenness by asking the church to bless it.

Church of England House of Bishops makes a statement on human sexuality

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From here:

The House also discussed the next steps in the process for conversations around Human Sexuality. In its discussion the House noted that the process of shared conversations needed to demonstrate primarily how the Church of England could model living together with issues of tension, where members took opposing views whilst remaining committed to one another as disciples of Jesus Christ – members of one church in both unity and diversity. The House agreed to a proposed process and timescale for the conversations with regional discussions taking place over the next two years. The House also authorised its Standing Committee to sign off the final arrangements and materials.

Canadian Anglicans should have a feeling of déjà vu reading this; the mindless repeating of empty clichés while “living together with issues of tension” doesn’t work. Conversations about same-sex blessings will lead to many dioceses performing them as a generous pastoral response. Then, after the initial strenuous assertions that this is all about blessings and not marriage have been largely forgotten, further conversations will begin about altering the marriage canon to include same-sex couples.

The liberal juggernaut is in motion and conversations are not going to stop it.

Church of England decline halted

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And that is the reason the CofE is considering blessing same-sex unions and allowing clergy in a same sex relationship to marry: to get it going again.

From here:

Official statistics issued recently suggest that attendance at C of E churches may have levelled out after decades of decline.

A report by the Archbishops’ Council, Statistics for Mission 2012, released on Friday 21 March suggests that, on an average Sunday in 2012 (the latest year with available data) about 859,000 people attended a C of E church. This compares with 901,000 in 2003.

Average Sunday attendance in the Church of England

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From here:

The Church of England attracts fewer than 800,000 worshippers to its churches on a typical Sunday, according to new estimates yesterday.

Numbers in the pews have fallen to less than half the levels of the 1960s, the count showed.

The signs of continuing decline in support for the CofE follow census evidence of a widespread fall in allegiance to Christianity, with numbers calling themselves Christian dropping by more than four million in a decade.

The Church’s figure for ‘usual Sunday attendance’, the method used since the 1930s to measure congregations, found CofE churches had 795,800 worshippers on Sundays in 2012. The numbers were 9,000 down on the previous year.

They indicate that repeated efforts by the Church to modernise its services and its image – through a series of modern language rewrites of its prayer book, attempts by its leaders to appeal to supposed public concern with poverty, and efforts to make its government more efficient – have not succeeded in drawing young people.

The statistics upon which this article is based can be found here. Here is the graph of “usual Sunday attendance”:

CofE ASA

I must admit, the decline is not as precipitous as I had expected; not nearly as severe as in North American Anglicanism. The Anglican Church of Canada, presumably to save itself the embarrassment, has not published detailed attendance figures since 2001.

Church of England bats sacrifice to Sterculius

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From here:

CANTERBURY, England — Bats are making life unbearable for congregations by defecating on worshippers from roofs as well as bell towers, according to a report to the Church Buildings Council of the Church of England.

It’s a shame the CofE doesn’t accept this as an expression of diversity; it’s just as well Canada has the solution.

A London Anglican Church is now accepting bitcoins

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stmartinschurchSt Martin’s Anglican Church in the UK has started accepting bitcoins, the peer to peer Internet currency favoured by money launderers, organised crime and drug dealers.

Apparently, the church wants to be “in touch with what’s going on around us” and, in a way, I suppose it has succeeded. Anything to be relevant.

From here:

A London church has become the first in the country to accept internet currency Bitcoins in its collection plate.

The Rev Chris Brice of St Martin’s Anglican Parish Church in Gospel Oak said the innovation showed that “we are people in touch with what’s going on around us”.