England on Sunday

The headlines from the year just gone...

England

SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2012

Unwanted Christmas presents = Hope for the Homeless

On Sunday

The Archbishop’s New Year Message Quite a lot of the images we’re likely to remember from the footage of the riots in the summer will be of young people out of control in the streets, walking off with looted property from shops, noisily confronting police and so on. It all feeds into the national habit of being suspicious and hostile when we see groups of youngsters on street corners or outside shops and bus shelters. We walk a bit more quickly and hope we can pass without some sort of confrontation.

The events of the summer were certainly horrific. They showed us a face of our society we don’t like to think about – angry, destructive, lawless.

But it’s crucial to remember that what we saw on the streets in August was just one facet of a bigger and much more heartbreaking problem. The youngsters out on the streets may have looked like a big crowd, but they are a minority of their generation – the minority whose way of dealing with their frustrations was by way of random destructiveness and irritability. Most people of their own age strongly shared the general feeling of dismay at this behaviour.

I’ve come to visit the charity Kids’ Company in London where today a lot of young people are joining together to

pack food parcels for needy families in the neighbourhood. When you have a chance of talking to young people like this you really get a sense of how they feel about the society they’re in and the challenges they face.

We have to ask, what kind of society is it that lets down so many of its young people?

That doesn’t provide enough good role models and drives youngsters further into unhappiness and anxiety by only showing them suspicion and negativity. When you see the gifts they can offer, the energy that can be released when they feel safe and loved, you see what a tragedy we so often allow to happen.

Look at the work done by

groups like the Children’s Society or by the astonishing network of Kids’ Company here in London, and you see what can be done to wake up that energy and let it flourish for everyone’s good.

One of the unique things in the Christian faith, one of its great contributions to our moral vision, is the way it has spoken about children and young people. Whether it’s Jesus blessing children, or St Paul encouraging a young church leader, saying, ‘Don’t let people look down on you because you’re young’, or St Benedict in his rule for monks saying that you need to pay attention to the youngest as well as the oldest – Christian faith has under-

lined the essential importance of giving young people the respect they deserve.

Of course they’re not infallible; of course they have a lot to learn. So do we all. But being grown-up doesn’t mean forgetting about the young.

And a good New Year’s Resolution might be to think what you can do locally to support facilities for young people, to support opportunities for counselling and learning and enjoyment in a safe environment. And above all, perhaps we should just be asking how we make friends with our younger fellow citizens – for the sake of our happiness as well as theirs. A very happy and blessed New Year to you all.

A dress you never wanted, flowered cutlery that spoils your appetite, the twentieth pair of socks...

If you got Christmas presents you really don’t need this year – don’t throw them away! Donate them to homeless charity Anchor House instead and help people in need.

Sadly, this year 35,680 households in the UK were deemed homeless – without food, shelter and support. By selling your unwanted Christmas presents on eBay, Anchor House will raise money to sponsor rooms for these people. Alternatively, you can also sell your own items and choose Anchor House to receive a donation from the proceeds.

However, if you are perfectly happy with all your presents, you can simply donate some money to the London-based charity, which provides accommodation for up to 180 single homeless people each year, as well as accredited vocational training courses in construction, electrical, plumbing and distance learning for both residents and the local community. http://anchorhouseuk.org/ 81 Barking Road, Canning Town, London, E16 4HB Tel: 020 7476 6062

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January 8, 2012

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Andrew Carey: Lambeth Notes

Resolutions for 2012 When families emerge from the highs and lows of the festive season into the bleak and wild January weather they will not all be content and replete.

Many families will be indebted, others depressed and let us not forget that January is the month where the highest number of couples begin divorce proceedings.

There is much to depress us as a nation in the coming months of winter. Yet the upbeat prospect of the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, as well as hope for sunnier days, lie ahead.

It is here that the tradition of New Year’s resolutions come into play. The impulse to resolve to be different each year has a useful purpose even though a diet and fitness regime may last only a few weeks.

I have only two resolutions. After what

seems like years of struggling to overcome my addiction to cigarettes I have a newfound confidence that 2012 is the year I will finally succeed in becoming a non-smoker. So far my resolve hasn’t wavered.

My second resolution is to ignore all headlines of doom and gloom about the economic climate. The bad news versus good news debate in journalism is an old one but the truth is that the media in general tends to be taken in by every scare and panic. We only need to look back to the turn of the millennium and all those scare stories about the millennium bug affecting computer technology to appreciate how ridiculous journalists can be. We were told that planes could fall out of the sky and that our vital services could be disrupted. Millions of pounds were spent resolving this non-existent problem.

Another narrative of pessimism is building around the imminent breakup of the Euro and the collapse of the European Community. It would be so easy to give in to the panic of politicians and pundits who seem to suggest that wars, riots and social breakdown lie ahead of us should the Eurozone break-up.

There’s an alternative scenario, that the break-up of the Eurozone may actually bring recovery. You only need a little historical knowledge to see how growth came to countries which in the Great Depression abandoned the Gold

Standard, and even more recently how the UK recovered quickly from recession when we came out of the ERM. Is it better for the people of Greece, Spain, Ireland to face the severe imposition of an austerity programme from Brussels, Berlin and Paris, or to decide their own fate?

The refusal to submit to the general air of anxiety and depression is a resolution that should be adopted by all Christians in our various ways. I am not suggesting that we become unrealistic ‘Pollyannas’ but merely people of hope in keeping with our faith.

Some predictions for 2012 Since it’s the season for New Year predictions I’ll hazard my hand at a few, without any great confidence they’ll come true. Like all journalists, I’ll remind readers that I got it right if my predictions come true but quietly forget the ones that didn’t make the grade.

1. Legislation to allow women bishops will pass with the narrowest possible majority. Attempts by the House of Bishops to amend the legislation to provide stronger safeguards for traditionalists will fail. The British Ordinariate will be strengthened by this outcome.

2. The Anglican Covenant will be passed by General Synod by a small majority, but will meet with further rejections in other Anglican provinces making it into a dead duck as far as strengthening the Anglican Communion.

3. The Archbishop of Canterbury will retire towards the end of the year.

4. The consultation on same-sex marriages will result predictably in proposals to legalise same-sex marriages.

5. Further rows between the coalition government and church leaders over ‘cuts’ will continue throughout the year.

Congratulations to New Directions

News from St Paul’s Cathedral

New Directions, the magazine that prides itself on provoking the fury of bishops and other pillars of the establishment, has celebrated its 200th issue. It began as a supplement to CEN but went on to become an independent monthly published by Forward in Faith.

One figure at the heart of the establishment who has enjoyed reading the magazine is Rowan Williams. Recognising that it is impossible to predict the future of the Catholic witness in the Church of England, the Archbishop contributes some thoughts on why it is important to preserve Catholic theology in Anglicanism. The Archbishop writes with friendly warmth as well as his customary penetration and sends birthday greetings to readers, contributors and editors.

As the 300th edition of New Directions arrived in the CEN office news broke in the US of the establishment of an American branch of the Ordinariate. The ordinary is former Bishop of the Rio Grande, Fr Jeffrey Steenson, now a Catholic priest and lecturer in theology and a person who, while he remained in the Episcopal Church, tried to make just the kind of contribution as a Catholic theologian that Dr Williams values. Fr Steenson studied for a DPhil at Oxford in the 1980s under Rowan Williams, then Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity.

Bishop Richard Chartres has displayed an amazing ability to hunt with the hounds and run with the hares where such issues as the ordination of women are concerned. When it comes to holding together a diocese as large and diverse as London such an approach has its benefits but the bishop is not winning many friends by adopting a facing-both-ways approach when it comes to Occupy London.

On Christmas Day Chartres sallied forth from the Cathedral to offer the protesters a present in the shape of a large box of chocolates. City financiers and young fogeys on the Telegraph were dismayed by the proposal, backed by Chartres, to allow a tent to remain permanently in St Paul’s. The protesters, for their part, were not taken in. They know that the Cathedral (and Chartres) want them to move on even if they are afraid to say so. The Registrar has written in support of the City Corporation’s attempt to remove the camp. The judge has announced he will rule on this after 11 January. Meanwhile an opinion poll by Premier Christian Radio shows Christians in general distinctly unimpressed by the Church of England’s response to the protest with 66 per cent of those questioned saying they thought the Church had mishandled its response.

King Charles

Cultural Anglican?

. .. y r e l l a G g n i r e p s i h The W

One of the steps the Bishop of London has taken that he hopes will appease Occupy London is to ask City banker and President of Alpha International, Ken Costa, to look at ethical standards for the financial services industry. The protesters may be more interested in Costa’s son who is making waves in the world of music. ‘King Charles’, 26, the ‘glam folk musician’ is the first Brit to win Nashville’s Songwriting Competition. He is a colourful character who claims to have once saved a giraffe from the jaws of a jackal. He almost died in a skiing accident in 2008.

Since he dropped out of Durham University, King Charles’ career has never looked back. Describing his appearance, one music critic wrote ‘Think Vampire Weekend’s Afro beat; Prince’s dandy stylings, and fierce guitar licks with a big dollop of pop sensibility’. The same critic went on to say ‘for this recent newspaper talk of us living in ‘boring times’, he’s certainly set to liven things up’.

King Charles’ father was also lively in his youth. As a student in South Africa, Ken Costa was a leader in the anti-apartheid cause. But his musical tastes are different from those of his son. Costa senior serves on the advisory council of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Richard Dawkins’ interview with Christopher Hitchens in the Christmas issue of the New Statesman received a good deal of attention but most of it focussed on what Hitchens had to say. Few noticed that Dawkins owned up to being a ‘cultural Anglican’ who is happy to read the lesson in church as long as it is from the King James Bible.

This should have caused few surprises. The National Secular Society complained about Michael Gove’s plan to send a copy of the KJB to every school in the country but Dawkins is on record as saying that religious people should not be allowed to ‘hijack’ the great cultural resource of the Bible. ‘Not to know the KJB is in someway to be a barbarian,’ he has said. When Richard Harries was Bishop of Oxford, Dawkins frequently exempted ‘his local bishop’ from his attacks on religious leaders. A recent issue of The Freethinker quotes Dawkins as saying that there is a difference between faith schools that are truly dangerous and those that ‘just vaguely have some kind of Church of England Assembly’. Someone in the National Secular Society needs to have a word with Dawkins. Whether Anglicans should appreciate being thought too vague to be dangerous is an interesting question.

January, 8, 2012

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Martin Beckford View from Fleet Street

Never-ending news It was the year that the news never stopped.

From Egypt and Libya to the Eurozone, AlQaida’s headquarters to Fleet Street, longestablished orders were unsettled while cities around the world were shaken by protests, riots or natural disasters.

But for religion, and by extension religious affairs correspondents, 2011 was the year the news barely started.

Two of London’s great churches formed the backdrop to two of the biggest events in the city — the royal wedding and the Occupy camp — but these stories were not really infused with religious meaning.

Even the much-feared takeover of the Arab Spring by Islamists failed to transpire.

The contrast with 2010, when we had a series of abuse scandals and cover-ups in the Roman Catholic Church, the setting up of the Ordinariate and the Pope’s visit to Britain, makes the past 12 months seem even more quiet.

So what happened? Was it that the many interesting things taking place in churches were simply overshadowed by all the momentous events going on elsewhere in the world, or had England’s notoriously media-averse clergy finally sealed a pact to do everything in their power to stay out of the headlines?

Actually that last suggestion couldn’t be right, given the lack of PR nous shown by St Paul’s Cathedral when trying to politely get rid of the crusties on their steps.

The Archbishop of Canterbury also managed to generate a few headlines, but only by making forays into politics rather than his chosen specialist subject of faith.

Maybe the lack of religious news in 2011 was just one of those vagaries of the news cycle, The Bishop of Bristol, the Rt Rev Mike Hill, blogged: “I enjoyed the Queen’s speech yesterday and thought that Her Majesty was refreshingly unequivocal about the place she sees for the Christian faith in helping people through difficult times. I also enjoyed the Archbishop’s sermon, at least what I read of it. As ever he made some thought provoking comments set in the clear context of the Christmas story. What intrigued me was the Press coverage of both contributions. In relation to the Queen’s broadcast, no mention was made of her strong connection with the Christian faith, and all the Archbishop could draw was criticism for saying some of the things that are on a lot of people’s minds as we face another tough year(s) in terms of our economic challenges… Interesting!”

The Bishop of Huntingdon, the Rt Rev David Thomson, writes: “Speaking in his annual BBC New Year message, the Archbishop of Canterbury reflects on the importance that Christianity bestows on young people and challenges us to actively support our local youth facilities and opportunities which, he argues, play a crucial part in a healthy society.

“In reflecting on the events of the summer which showed us ‘a face of our society we don’t like to think about – angry, destructive, lawless’, Dr Williams urges us to recognise that this destruction was the work of a minority and that most of the young people of their generation ‘strongly shared the general feeling of dismay at this behaviour’.”

At the Telegraph, the Rev Dr Peter Mullen gives a

and like a field left fallow by a farmer it will prove much more fertile in 2012.

There’s certainly plenty of potential. The General Synod vote on women bishops is already in circled in every religion hack’s calendar, so you can expect plenty of apocalyptic predictions in the run-up.

But apart from what happens in the C of E, it will be fascinating to see how the Catholic Church handles a new wave of immigration across the Tiber.

Last month I interviewed Keith Newton, the head of the Ordinariate, and got the distinct impression that they just don’t have the money to cope with a large influx of disaffected Anglican clergy, who need to be found jobs as well as bigger homes than their celibate colleagues.

Although it has barely troubled the headline writers recently, the Anglican Covenant may also find new interest particularly if it is rejected at Synod.

If as expected Rowan Williams steps down later this year, it would mean him leaving without having secured his much longed-for goal of holding the Communion together - landing his successor with a headache as well as affecting how his reign will be seen by posterity.

Of course the question of who exactly will take over from Rowan will be much pondered by us hacks. Looking at some of the candidates being touted by bookies, the first thing to ask is: who are these people?

The Archbishop of York is the understandable favourite at the moment, not least because he is pretty much the only one punters are likely to have heard of.

He is followed by the Bishop of London, who has been trying his best to win over the Occupy lot but who must always represent the

establishment figure. The prospect of him reaching the top of the Church and his close friend the Prince of Wales taking over the monarchy is an intriguing one.

As I have written before, the coming year is also going to be very interesting as we see how the Church reacts to the Government’s plan to legalise gay marriage.

Having quietly but firmly insisted on a church-wide opt-in for civil partnership ceremonies in places of worship, the C of E is now faced with losing control of what the very concept of matrimony means.

Yet when this most liberal of proposals is coming from a Conservative Prime Minister, and only a few low-ranking Tories are raising doubts, will any bishops dare speak up? The complete failure of a recent House of Lords attempt to axe the religious civil partnership move suggests not.

And then of course we’ve got more wrangling over the future of the Lords Spiritual to look forward to. Despite it going on until about 8pm on a Monday evening, I actually really enjoyed watching Rowan’s rather bad-tempered tussle with the members of the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform last month, particularly when he took the opportunity to be rude about the state of politics in Britain.

His unexpected offer to “fast-track” the first women bishops into the Lords was a bit of a blatant attempt to show them that the Church can be progressive when it wants to be, but also illustrated yet again that Rowan is far from being the otherworldly academic of popular caricature.

However there are some things whose arrival in my inbox I am dreading this year, and chief among them is yet another article by a cleric claiming that Jesus would have camped outside St Paul’s with the Occupy mob or that last summer’s rioters were all nice kids really whose only crime is to have lived under an evil Tory government.

Still, at least they’ve stopped banging on about the environment - another topic that fell off the agenda in 2011’s torrent of news.

What the Blogs Say

more sarcastic reaction: “As the Archbishop so rightly says, we must understand that these looters and arsonists are really the socially-excluded victims of society’s rage. And we must make them feel ‘safe and loved’. We must give the poor, sad, underprivileged and misunderstood ‘youngsters’ who were left with no alternative but to burn the shops as many ‘role models’ as they want. Not that they seemed to be asking for role models, by the way, being content enough to avail themselves of basketsful of iPods, mobile phones and designer shirts and trainers. We must compel them to have role models.

“My only complaint is that the Archbishop did not go further and insist that we extend our understanding to all criminals. So let me take over where the Archbishop left the job only half done. Let me urge you, next time you come across a shoal of arsonists setting fire to some great public building, don’t regard them with ‘suspicion and negativity’. You could instead help them in so many small ways: give them a box of matches or one of those little lighters which many of us find so useful. Teach them the basic skills without which none of them can properly achieve their goals. I mean, show them how to make an effective Molotov cocktail.”

One contributor writes that Mullen’s blog “serves no purpose other than to re-ignite hatred.”

Another writes: “These comments are from a priest not in good standing. In the past the diocese of London has denounced his views as ‘highly offensive and in no way representative of the Diocese’.”

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January 8, 2012

Churches of the Communion

By George Conger Chief Correspondent

T

he passions and partisan divisions that inflamed the Anglican Communion over the past decade burned low in 2011, with most Churches turning their attention to domestic affairs. Civil unrest, economic collapse, natural disasters and the culture wars pushed the Communion’s fight over doctrine and discipline to one side.

No grand agreements were made nor understandings reached on the issue of autonomy and the role of Scripture in guiding the life of the church. Rather an ecclesiastical ennui, an exhaustion of battles without end, led most Churches to concentrate upon local issues.

This displacement did not arise from a meeting of minds or suspension of judgment arising from the Listening Process sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) or other Church-backed dialogues, but out of a sense of futility felt by traditionalists and alienation felt by the progressive wing of the Church over the management of the debates.

The decision to avoid conflict in hope of gaining time to allow passions to die away adopted at Lambeth 2008, drove global Anglican relations throughout 2011.

The year opened on January 1 with the establishment of an Ordinariate in England and Wales led by a former Church of England bishop and closed with the establishment of its sister jurisdiction in America led by a former Episcopal bishop – the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter led by the former Bishop of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey Steenson. While neither jurisdiction for disaffected Anglicans who sought corporate reunion with Rome appears to have attracted significant numbers of Anglo-Catholics, it did demonstrate the dire state of Anglican-Roman ecumenical relations.

The ARCIC talks continued in a new guise in 2011, but from the outset they were enveloped in controversy.

The restrictions on participation in ecumenical dialogues placed by Dr Williams on the participation of members of those provinces who had breached the moratorium on gay bishops, blessings and cross-border violations was effectively ignored by the ACC. American

Bishop Chad Gandiya

Stanley Hotay

clergy continued to serve on these committees but with the fig leaf of now being called consultants to, rather than participants in, the meetings.

After the 2008 neutering of the Lambeth Conference as an effective instrument of communion, the Primates’ Meeting suffered the same fate in 2011. Only 23 of the Communion’s 38 provinces were represented at the January 25-31 meeting in Dublin, and a majority of those present were not present at the 2009 meeting in Alexandria and appeared to have no memory of the undertakings made by their predecessors.

On 9 September, the Global South primates stated they had no confidence in Dr Williams’ leadership and the instruments of communion: the Lambeth Conference, the Primates’ Meeting, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, “have become dysfunctional and no longer have the ecclesial and moral authority to hold the Communion together.”

The Global South group said the ACC and various Communion-wide bodies “no longer reflect the common mind of the Churches” and their delegates would henceforth boycott their gatherings – a threat made good in subsequent meeting in November of the InterAnglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order (IASCUFO) in Seoul.

The enthusiasm for the Anglican Covenant, which Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies in 2009 called the “only game in town” for the continued survival of the Communion, also waned in 2011. Three New Zealand dioceses along with the Maori Tikanga rejected the Covenant, as did the dioceses of Sydney and Newcastle in Australia, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, the Philippine House of Bishops and a number of American dioceses and the primates of the Global South coalition. Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Myanmar, the Southern Cone approved the Covenant, as did South East Asia – but with a proviso as to its understanding of the document, while the Church of Ireland subscribed to the agreement.

Political and military conflicts were more immediate concerns for many provinces. On 23 November the Anglican Church of Korea backed an inter-church call to appease North Korea after Communist troops shelled Yeonpyeong Island, located seven miles south of the Demilitarized Zone and 50 miles from the city of Inchon. The 17 December death of North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-il has since placed the country on high alert as regime change takes place in the North.

The Anglican Church of Myanmar benefited from the

military regime’s slight relaxation of martial law, and welcomed Lord Carey – acting on behalf of Dr Williams – in December. The end of civil war in Sri Lanka brought the benefits of peace to the Church on the divided island – but the spectre of a return to civil war haunted the Church in Burundi. On 5 July Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi pleaded with Parliament in London not to make the East African nation an “aid orphan”.

The East African drought, rising Islamist militancy and corruption were pressing concerns for the Churches of Uganda and Kenya. The Archbishop of Tanzania found himself in legal difficulties in June when he consecrated Stanley Hotay as bishop in violation of a court order. An arrest warrant was issued, but subsequently quashed. To avoid further legal difficulties, the Province appointed Bishop Hotay vicargeneral but not bishop of the Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The Episcopal Church of the Sudan celebrated the independence of South Sudan from the National Islamic Front government of President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum. But peace has not come to South Sudan as tribal fighting in the west, the depredations of the Lord’s Resistance Army in the south, and a campaign of ethnic and religious cleansing mounted by the Khartoum government against Nuba Christians in South Kordufan province continues to bedevil the country.

Persecution continues as a fact of life for most Christians in Pakistan as the war in Afghanistan spills across the border and radicalises Islamists in that country. While India and Bangladesh have not reported widespread persecution, the Churches report that militant Hindus continue their depredations in Orissa and other parts of India.

Nigeria too has witnessed a sharp increase in sectarian divisions, with the Boko Haram militant Islamist group bombing churches and police stations in the north of the country. Fears the country could fall into civil war if the violence does not cease have been raised by church leaders, who are also concerned by the collapse of the country’s economic infrastructure.

Political unrest and persecution at the hands of a corrupt government were the focus of attention for the Church of the Province of Central Africa. Zambia saw a peaceful transition of power following national elections, while Malawi saw an outburst of unrest as the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika sought to consolidate power.

The persecution of Anglicans loyal to the Province

January 8, 2012

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turn to more domestic matters

The Christchurch earthquake

and Bishop Chad Gandiya in Harare and Bishop Julius Makoni in Manicaland continued in Zimbabwe – as did the country’s economic and social collapse under the regime of President Robert Mugabe. In October the Archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied by the Archbishops of Central Africa, Southern Africa and Tanzania, met with President Mugabe, giving the Zimbabwe strongman a dossier outlining the persecution suffered by the Church.

Civil unrest and crime continue to plague Papua New Guinea, with one bishop robbed of the gifts given to him at his consecration by bandits. Crime was also a topic of major concern for the Provinces of the West Indies and Mexico, with its leaders calling for an end to a gang culture that fostered materialism, violence and social decay.

The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East was caught up in the Arab Spring with revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria and civil war in Libya. The turn towards radical Islam last year has led to an increase in persecution and the flight of Christians from Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

Natural disasters challenged the churches of Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand and Melanesia. An 11 March earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast spawned a tsunami. Approximately 13,200 people were confirmed dead and 14,300 missing, while 167,000 people were forced from their homes by the floods and the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant. While Japan suffered catastrophic damage from the tsunami, its effects also reached the Solomon Islands and northern New Guinea, bringing flooding and devastation.

Christchurch, New Zealand, was wrecked by a 22 February earthquake that devastated the city and eventually led to the demolition of much of the city’s Anglican cathedral.

Divisions over doctrine and discipline surrounding homosexuality were not absent, however, from the Communion in 2011. On 5 October the Bishops of the Church of Ireland called for a moratorium on clergy

entering into same-sex civil partnerships. The threat of schism hung over the Church in the wake of revelations that Bishop Michael Burrows permitted the Dean of Leighlin, the Very Rev Tom Gordon, to register a samesex civil union.

The Irish bishops also asked critics of clergy civil unions to moderate their language while they debate the issue. “We urge people of all shades of opinion within the Church of Ireland to refrain from any actions or the use of emotive or careless language which may further exacerbate the situation within the Church.

Such restraint will greatly facilitate the work ahead,” the bishops said, and promised a grand debate over the issue at a special meeting of synod in 2012.

In September the bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa reaffirmed their stance on human sexuality writing that they remained “committed to upholding the moratoria of the Anglican Communion on the ordination of persons living in a same gender union to the episcopate; the blessing of same-sex unions; and cross-border incursions by bishops.

Similarly, our Church has affirmed that partnership between two persons of the same sex cannot be regarded as a marriage in the eyes of God. Accordingly, our clergy are not permitted to conduct or bless such unions; nor are they permitted to enter into such unions while they remain in licensed ministry.”

However, the Church has not been able to move forward on plans to publish pastoral guidelines for clergy ministering to same-sex couples due to sharp divides within the House of Bishops and among the dioceses.

The Scottish Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Australia rejected proposals raised by their governments to legalize gay marriage – with both Churches saying that their understanding of marriage would not allow them to accede to civil or religious same-sex marriages.

The Anglican Church of Canada saw more dioceses adopt pastoral guidelines for allowing gay blessings, while the Episcopal Church in the United States began

work on preparing liturgies and a theology for gay blessings.

Both North American Churches were involved in lawsuits over the control of parish properties with the breakaway Anglican Church of North America (ACNA).

The courts in the US and Canada have so far favoured the national Churches and dioceses in litigation with departing congregations, however, the disputes between the dioceses that quit the Episcopal Church have yet to be resolved.

The split between the Province of Rwanda and nine of the bishops of its Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) in December did not arise from disputes over doctrine, but in discipline and the exercise of authority and autonomy by the Bishop Chuck Murphy and his assistant bishops in America on behalf of Rwanda.

Formed in 2000, the AMiA was the precursor to the ACNA and the first cross-border boundary-breaking in the modern era for the Communion. As of year’s end, its status and relation to the wider Church remains unsure.

On the surface Dr Williams’ strategy of delay in that the passage of time while reveal the transitoriness of all things and particularly of all passions appears to have succeeded. “Political passions,” Proust writes in The Captive, “are like all the rest, they do not last. New generations arise which no longer understand them; even the generation that experienced them changes, experiences new political passions which, not being modelled exactly upon their predecessors, rehabilitate some of the excluded, the reason for exclusion having altered.”

New leaders among the primates, exhaustion among the combatants and disappointment with the rules of the game appears to have sapped the passion of the players from Anglicanism’s great game and proven Proust’s dictum.

Whether this will hold true in 2012 remains to be seen – but the fires have not been extinguished, merely banked low, and will likely burn bright if a change of leadership takes place this year at Lambeth.

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January 6, 2012

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A year of movie diversity on the silver screen 2

011 seemed a year with no stupendous runaway blockbuster, no “one to beat” – until you remember that apart from earlier film festivals, The King’s Speech was released last January. So that’s an easy choice for film of the year.

It was a decent year for drama, for documentaries, and for dramadocs. The best of the latter were probably Oranges and Sunshine, about the not that long ago practice of exporting “in care” children from the UK to the colonies, and Conviction, about a fight for justice in the face of the death penalty.

Black Swan was a flawed but intriguing psychological thriller, while The Adjustment Bureau played free will against destiny in a way that would grace any philosophy of religion course. Source Code ran it close for mind-bending possibilities of a machine that can recreate snippets of time.

Political dramas seemed to favour times past, with FrenchAlgerian writer-director Rachid Bouchareb addressing head-on the Algerian war for independence and its spin-off into “café wars” in Paris, in Outside the Law. The Devil’s Double, starring Dominic Cooper as both Uday Hussein, Saddam’s crazy son, and the unfortunate army officer

deputed to double for him was often over the top, but no one seemed to think it exaggerated Uday’s notoriety.

Literary ventures, not counting the final episode of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, included new versions of Jane Eyre (a traditional take by Cary Fukunaga) and Wuthering Heights (so gritty you could taste the millstones in Andrea Arnold’s atmospheric piece). Hit adaptation of the year was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, starring Gary Oldman as Smiley, but the complexity of the plot and the time allotted clashed, and many who enjoyed it admitted to not understanding what was going on.

That was not a problem in Drive, one of the most violent but strikingly different films of the year, and Ryan Gosling’s stunt driver/getaway driver character should be good for many a film studies course. Paddy Considine’s directing debut Tyrannosaur provided three such studies – Peter Mullan as Joseph, often lapsing into violent behaviour, Olivia Colman (Rev’s wife) as the Christian charity shop worker who cares about him, and Eddie Marsan (about to make his own debut as a director) as her husband whose violence to her offends Joseph.

Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In offered a more bizarre view of violence, with plastic surgeon Antonio Banderas meting out his own brand of justice. That will be in the list of likely award win-

and Puss in Boots went down well, but Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams with Super 8 and Martin Scorsese with Hugo latched their own love of cinema onto children’s adventures. For oldies, My Week With Marilyn struck a few chords, not least for its fond recreation of Pinewood Studios in the 1950s.

Of course quality and what sells may not always coincide, but sleeper of the year was Gnomeo and Juliet, released in Febru-

ners for films in languages other than English, but the leading contender will be the Iranian film A Separation about a divorcing couple where it seems not all is at it seems.

My personal foreign favourite was the virtually wordless Le Quattro Volte, an essay on the circle of life in rural Italy. We Have a Pope had specialist interest, but was still a funny look at vocation and responsibility.

Good comedies were thin on the ground, with the Golden Globe nominations including as a comedy Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen’s frothy love story in and for Paris, and – with greater justification – The Guard, a marvellously un-PC

culture clash between American narcotics agent Don Cheadle and Galway gard Brendan Gleeson. French farce Potiche also tickled my fancy, with Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve as the unlikely romantic pair.

For children, apart from Harry Potter, animations Rango, Cars 2

The Nativity (Red Planet / 2Entertain) Commissioned as a highlight of last year’s BBC Christmas output, The Nativity is a well-informed and superbly judged account of the events leading up to the birth of Christ.

It centres on the palpable tension between Mary and Joseph as he struggles to deal with the shame that her pregnancy has brought upon those who know her.

Life on Mars and EastEnders writer Tony Jordan reveals an adroit hand that draws typical scenes of life from the time: the shepherd who is running out of patience with God in the face of Roman rule; the paranoid King

ary but still doing Saturday matinees in the autumn to reach 16th at the box office. It’s too depressing to list some of those above it, but at least we can look forward to some delights this year – just don’t confuse The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, with The Lady, starring Michelle Yeoh as Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Thanks to the Cornerhouse in Manchester for their hospitality, and the arthouse ‘network’ for screening the films that other cinemas will not touch.

Steve Parish

Herod clinging on to power; a gentle humour in the way that marriages were arranged, and the persevering wisdom of the Magi in seeking out the God-King.

I was particularly impressed with his use of the latest information about the astronomical possibilities of the star, as he shows close-up views of Jupiter mechanically rumbling into alignment with Saturn and Regulus.

With remarkably few clunky lines, given the nature of the story, Jordan’s seamless thread draws the viewer and the protagonists ever-closer to the birth itself.

There are some beautifully executed setpiece landscape shots and equally impressive acting in a mini-series that is deservedly winning awards. It’s also far better in one sitting than split into last year’s half-hour slots.

Derek Walker

January 8, 2012

www.englandonsunday.com

Questions of belief and faith Predicament of Belief, Philip Clayton and Steven Knapp OUP, hb, £16.99 As the authors recognise, some readers of this book will be disappointed by how much of traditional Christian belief they are ready to jettison while others will be concerned at how much they are prepared to retain. They describe their position as ‘Christian minimalism’, which they interpret in two different senses.

In the first place, they argue, such a position can mean believing fewer things than are generally accepted as part of the tradition. In their case they do not believe in a physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead although they do believe the disciples found themselves participating in a new relationship with Ultimate Reality after the death of Jesus, a belief they label as the ‘participatory theory of the resurrection’.

In the second place they argue that minimalism involves holding orthodox beliefs with varying degrees of uncertainty. In a very useful chapter they provide a typology of the different ways in which people justify their beliefs, outlining six basic positions which range from one implying a good deal of certainty to one which sees a particular belief as a useful metaphor.

What is useful about this approach is that it probably reflects the way most ordinary believers operate even if they cannot articulate their approach as clearly as Clayton and Knapp manage to do. The authors explore some of the implications of this for pastoral work and the Church’s mission in the final chapter.

Practical commitment, they claim, often exceeds the strength of our beliefs.

An important point to note is that minimalism as outlined here differs from the radical, revisionist accounts of Christianity offered by such people as Bishop Spong or Marcus Borg. The radicals are not minimalist in what they believe. They are passionately committed to the version of Christianity they outline. This also goes for the members of the Jesus Seminar.

Clayton and Knapp are offering a gospel for people who are suspicious of certainty and have learnt not to see the world in black and white terms. Many will find this refreshing. Also refreshing is the clarity with which the authors outline their position, perhaps because one of them (Knapp) is a professor of English.

Minimalism does not prevent the authors from ascribing a fair degree of certainty to some of their beliefs. They set out important reasons for doubt about Christian truth claims -- the support given to naturalism by the scientific method, evil, pluralism, contested historical evidence, doubts about the resurrection — before attempting a response.

The authors deny they are writing a book of apologetics but this does not stop them making a good case for belief in what they term ‘Ultimate Reality’. They accept that science can explain the way physical and biological processes operate in the world but argue science cannot decide the metaphysical question of why the most fundamental processes should exist in the first place.

Even if we accept the multi-universe theory, they argue, that does not get us out of facing the metaphysical question. In fact, in some ways it makes the issue more acute. If there are multiple universes, there must be laws operating across the universes that do not depend on or be derived from any single universe. Where do such laws ‘reside’ if not in a single universe? They appear to be like concepts residing in a mind.

Where many more traditional Christian believers will part company with this book is in its analysis of divine action in the world. Anxious to uphold the regularity and lawfulness of the universe the authors restrict such action to divine influence on mental events and fail to examine the case made by theologians such as John Polkinghorne for divine action in the physical world. If there is to be a revelation and Ultimate Reality is to enter into a relationship with human beings, miracles, or what Austin Farrer called events in which ‘God bends the physical to express the spiritual’, could play an important role.

Paul Richardson

E7

An Open Letter on the Covenant Dear Andrew Thank you for your article on the Anglican Communion Covenant in the CEN of 23/30 December, 2011.

Like you I am committed to a proper debate of the issues so that colleagues can make their own judgements in light of all the facts.

Amongst the facts that it is important to remember are the following: 1. You write that the Covenant has been “consistently supported by the Global South Leadership.”. Yet on 24 November 2010, seven primates [Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, West Africa, and the Southern Cone of Latin America] representing 40 million Anglicans released a statement that in their view “the Covenant was fatally flawed and so support for this initiative is no longer appropriate”. Moreover, the Province of South East Asia itself, led at that time by Archbishop Chew, could only commend the Covenant subject to the acceptance of a detailed preamble.

2. You also write that “the Covenant has been consistently supported by the Church of England”. That support has, however, often been qualified. For example, in the General Synod debate of 24 November 2010, Dr Philip Giddings, now chair of the House of Laity, spoke for many when he said that he reluctantly supported the Covenant because its key part was only quarter of a loaf and half-baked at that.

3. Your basic argument is that the Covenant is the “only show in town” which can preserve the unity of the Anglican Communion. This looks like: “Something must be done; this is something; therefore, this is what must be done”.

4. You will agree that it is important to consider what would happen if the Covenant as it stands were to be adopted. Any disputes would finally be referred to the Standing Committee. This body can only make recommendations to provinces and other instruments of the Communion, which will all need to accept them for the process to work. How is this different from the situation the Communion thought it was in before the current difficulties arose from 2003? What does the Covenant do to address what has happened since then? It is important to recall (although you do not mention this in your article) that the consecration of bishops in same-sex relationships has gone ahead in TEC and that orthodox clergy and congregations are being deprived of their churches and their positions.

You make no mention that people such as Dr James Packer have been deprived of their licences and that congregations they are associated with, for example St John’s, Shaughnessy, in Vancouver have been deprived of their buildings. How will adopting the Covenant help to reverse these injustices? Will the Covenant make it more likely that a province such as the Sudan (which has just disinvited the Presiding Bishop of TEC) will be able to reach agreement with TEC, or the Primates’ Meeting would agree with the Anglican Consultative Council?

4. You write that “the Covenant provides a clear agreed framework for debate, diversity and development through shared discernment within agreed affirmations and commitments.” This assumes that the disagreements within the Communion are not about fundamentals but have arisen through problems in communication and understanding, and can therefore be addressed just by ‘listening’. But what if some think the doctrinal and theological matters in dispute are fundamental, matters of right and wrong, truth and error and therefore should be addressed by appropriate reproof and correction?

5. You argue that the Covenant “cultivates practices and provides processes for addressing” innovations, such as lay presidency, that might arise when some Anglicans may feel called to act in a way that others do not recognize as faithful developments. Who decides whether this is to apply? Would it, for example, apply to those in England who hold that the consecration of women bishops without legal provision for those who see that as an unfaithful development? As you know, the draft legislation before the General Synod specifically excludes such legal provision. Can the Church of England legitimately both approve the Covenant and move in exactly the opposite direction with its legislation for women bishops?

I am sure you will agree that the most important question is how Anglican churches can continue faithfully to express the Gospel of Jesus Christ and demonstrate it in our fellowship, and our common life, and above all in our witness to the world Christ came to save. I hope we can continue to search for the best way of doing that, taking all the facts into account.

Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Member of General Synod

Ed

Janya8md, . 01.

www2englanounsynoam2r uc

Fretting about clothes

Catherine Fox

A novel view of the week

Thinking of Judgement Day! Welcome to 2012. Enjoy it while you can: it may be our last. The world is scheduled to end on December 21st of this year, according to ancient Mayan calendars. This might make you want to re-think those New Year’s resolutions. Not much point dieting, is there, if the world’s about to end? Unless you believe you will cope better with the whole end-time scenario if you know you’re looking your best — a sort of eschatological version of wearing clean underwear in case you’re run over.

Thinking about Judgment Day reminded me to save this document in case of a power failure.

This meant that I had to type the date for the first time this year. 2012, 2012. By August I will have got the hang of it I expect, just in time for the first Christmas decorations to make a stealthy reappearance in the shops. They come early every year. That’s global warming for you.

Our 2011 decorations are still up, as I’m writing this on the Tenth Day of Christmas. I’m rather hoping my truelove hasn’t booked 10 Lords to come and leap around my house. It’s been bad enough with Two Sons a-nerf gunning, to be honest.

Like me, you may always have assumed that The Twelve Days of Christmas is not a pious

work. It is apparently riddled with religious symbolism, however. The three French hens are an allusion to the theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity; the six geese a-laying are, of course, the six Days of Creation. I read it on a website. Unfortunately it offered no insight into the theological symbolism of figgy pudding.

‘And we won’t go until we’ve got some, so bring some out here!’ Catchy worship songs, perhaps?

Well, let’s get back to the end of the world.

Just because it hasn’t happened yet is no guarantee that it will never happen. You haven’t died yet, either, but I guarantee you will. And 2012 could be the year. That might inspire an excellent resolution: to bear in mind this might be our last year. There’s an old cliché that nobody ever said on their deathbed, ‘I wish I’d spent more time in the office’. Here’s what I think: nobody ever said ‘I wish I’d spent more time worrying.’ If I knew I were facing death, I’d be worried about that. But it would put into perspective all those other Lilliputian worries which tether me down. There would be nothing left to do but cast myself on the grace of God — which might be what it means to live each day as though it were your last.

PRIZE CROSSWORD No. 779

17 19 20 22 23

One of Christ’s specific prohibitions was a ban on worrying about what we are going to wear. That’s a thought we might like to weigh alongside our wrestlings with the gay issue. We are unambiguously forbidden by our Lord to fret about clothes. ‘Your heavenly father knows you have need of these things.’ A moment’s reflection should tell us that this means our heavenly father knows we need to cover up and stay warm; not that we need a new Nordic pullover with a pretty snowflake pattern on it.

When middle class people worry about clothes we tend to worry in an affluent way. Does it suit me? Can I walk in them? Does this make me look fat? Can I justify those? Are they dry clean only? Will it go with my trousers? Is this too young for me? This is one type of worry I will be ashamed of on my deathbed. All the time frittered away on sartorial trivia. I’ve decided to address this by my New Year’s resolution not to buy myself any new clothes at all in 2012. I’m aware that this will only remove one aspect of clothes-related fretting: the purchasing of new stuff. I may find I have more to worry about than ever as the year goes by and my jeans fall apart, and a posh function looms and I catch myself thinking But I have nothing to wear…

I know I have masses to wear. Drawers full, rails groaning. Don’t most of us? And don’t we have fridges full and cupboards groaning with food as well? I once bought a nice black velvet jacket in a charity shop.

Bargain! When I got home I hung it up next to a near-identical black velvet jacket I’d forgotten I had. I also forget what food I’ve bought and end up throwing stuff away. This worries me, but again, that’s not what Jesus meant when he told his followers not to worry about food.

So what am I hoping to achieve? I’m not really sure, to be honest. I will be saving money, so I will be able to make charitable donations of various kinds. I suppose it’s an exercise in proving to myself that I don’t need new clothes in order to be happy. I am more than a mindless consumer of Nordic sweaters. You can follow my progress on my blog. http://catherine-fox.blogspot.com/

Close Encounters — New Clerical Clothes

If I were ordained I dare say I could manage much more easily not to buy new clothes. I could simply put on a black cassock over my pyjamas and I’d be all set for the day. Oh come on, you’ve all done it. Or at the very least, you’ve put your cassock over your shorts and hoped the white T-shirt looks like a dog collar. Here in Lichfield cathedral there has been a bit of a splurge on vestments. And very lovely the clergy look too in their matching kit. Before it was rather as if they’d raced to the dressing-up box and the last one there got the pink cope. The good thing about vestments is that they last for decades and don’t go out of fashion. Though those Peruvian stoles are beginning to look a bit last century, mind you.

tice (Jas 3.16) (8) Period of fasting preceding Easter (4) She had weak eyes, says Genesis ch. 29 (4) To whom the beer is bitter in Isaiah ch. 24 (8) ..______ yourselves with humility (1 Pet 5.5) (6) Turmoil in Acts ch. 20, after which Paul said good-bye (6)

Down 1 2

Description of the enchanter in Isaiah ch. 3 (6) ..it is only a ____ from the boil (Lev 13.23)

3 4 5 6 12 14 16 18 20 21

(4) Schooled, like Moses in Acts ch. 7 (8) Increases (4) Leading dignitary of the RC Church (8) Stinging insect in Joshua ch. 24 (6) Seers, none of whom are left according to Psalm 74 (8) They will be shown mercy, says Matthew ch. 5 (8) Criteria (6) Ordinary (6) Isaiah ch. 35 predicts the lame leaping like this animal (4) Scottish church (4)

Solutions to last week's crossword Across 1 Manse 3 Escaped 6 Righteous 8 Bolster 9 Excel 10 Esther 12 Daniel 15 Seven 16 Unclean 18 Sacrifice 19 Dressed 20 Fiery Down 1 Movable 2 Eight 3 Entire 4 Cholera 5 Devil 6 Relatives 7 Sacrilege 11 Eunuchs 13 Lengthy 14 Buried 15 Sound 17 Cliff

The first correct entr y drawn will win a book of the Editor’s choice.

Send your entr y to Crossword Number 779, The Church of England Newspaper, 14 Great College Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3RX by next Friday

Name Across 7 8 9

10 Tranquil (6) Seven-headed beast in Revelation ch. 12 (6) Exaggerates (8)

11 13 15

Excrement burnt in 1 Kings ch.

14 (4) ..a ____ lies in his path (Job 18.10) (4) eg Eliphaz in Job ch. 4 (8) ..________ and every evil prac-

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