The first female Dean of Llandaff has resigned two months after being installed, which the Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan accepted with ‘enormous sadness’.
The Very Rev Janet Henderson, 55, became the second female to assume such a role in Wales when she became dean in March, but has now stood down.
No official explanations have been cited for the resignation, but it was initially thought an argument over the choir’s performance on Songs of Praise was to blame.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales

Three Welsh bishops are taking up a tough Lent challenge which will see them give 40 talks over five weeks at eight different venues.

The Archbishop of Wales, the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff and the Bishop of Monmouth will be out and about in churches across South Wales almost every weekday night in the weeks leading up to Easter giving talks about the Bible. And they’re inviting people to make it their Lent resolution to join them for discussion.

The Bishops hope to build on the success of similar talks last year which attracted more than 1,000 people a week.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Lent

Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, was unhappy with the decision, calling it a “step too far”. He said that, though the Church in Wales was not currently contemplating offering same-sex marriages, the law had "curtailed" the church's freedom; “It should be left for us to opt in or opt out."

To be fair to the government, it appears to have acted on this church’s official consultation response in June 2012, stating that “The Church in Wales is in an almost identical position to the Church of England with regard to the solemnisation of marriages” and “would seek assurances that the Government would specifically include the Church in Wales in any provisions for the Church of England under the proposed legislation.”

Given the Church of England’s influence and power, including seats in the House of Lords, the government was willing to go to considerable lengths to reduce the risk that the legislation as a whole would be blocked. Church of England official responses to proposals for marriage equality have tended to be highly negative, and to avoid recognising the diversity of views and reviews taking place of its position on civil partnerships and sexuality in general.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales

A scientist who gave up his job in alternative technology to train as a vicar stars in a new TV series starting next week.

Marcus Zipperlen from Penparcau, Aberystwyth, is one of a number of trainee priests who were followed around for a year by the cameras at St Michael’s College, Cardiff. His journey will be featured in Vicar Academy on BBC1 Wales starting on Monday 15 October.

Made by an independent company, Presentable, Vicar Academy shadowed several full-time students, (“ordinands”) from St Michael’s College – Wales’ only theological college – who came from all corners of the country.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

A radical new vision for the future of the Church in Wales is set out in a report launched today.

Supersize parishes run by teams of vicars and lay people, creative ideas for ensuring churches stay at the heart of their communities and investing further in ministry to young people are among the report’s recommendations following an independent root and branch review.

The Church in Wales commissioned the review a year ago to address some of its challenges and to ensure it was fit for purpose as it faced its centenary in 2020. Three experienced people in ministry and church management examined its structures and ministry and heard evidence from public meetings across Wales attended by more than 1,000 people.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

We regret that the consultation focuses only on the practice of registering and recognising same-sex marriage, and does not invite comment on the principle. The question of why, and whether or not it is desirable to introduce the concept of marriage for same-sex couples should also be open to public consultation and debate.

In a consultation on legislation which potentially affects everyone, it is anomalous that the questions set in the consultation document are very restrictive. Eleven of the 16 questions are presented with a multiple-choice answer consisting of ‘Yes’, ‘No,’ or ‘Don’t know’/‘Doesn’t apply to me’. Only one of them allows a more detailed explanation (number 1), and where questions invite free comment (in only 4 of the 16) this is restricted to around 200 words. Six questions are exclusively aimed at people who either are or could be in a same-sex relationship (including transsexuals and their spouses). This suggests a strangely isolated approach to the institution of marriage, which is above all an institution in society, rather than a private arrangement between individuals.

The consultation document refers throughout to an alleged ‘ban’ on same-sex couples contracting marriages. In normal parlance, for something to be banned, it must be possible but disallowed –such as the ban on smoking in public buildings, or the ban on carrying liquids on to an aeroplane, or the ban on alcohol or gambling on many religious premises. (It could be argued that there is a ‘ban’ on the inclusion of religious content in civil marriage or partnership ceremonies.) This legislation does not lift a ban; it proposes the creation of a new state, ie marriage between persons of the same sex. A more accurate description would be, as in para 1.9(iii), that a same-sex relationship constitutes a ‘bar’ to marriage: it is a situation in which marriage cannot at present take place. It would be correct to acknowledge that the proposed legislation aims to bring into being a state which did not exist before.

Read it all (my emphasis).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The Most Revd Dr Barry Morgan, Primate of The Church in Wales, has been elected to serve on the Crown Nominations Commission for Canterbury, the body that will nominate the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

Herewith the BBC description of this section:

The Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, meeting in London, say they'll offer alternative spiritual leadership to dissaffected members of the Church of England. They also want an alternative to the Archbishop of Canterbury as chairman of the Anglican primates meeting. Is this a way of keeping the Anglican communion together or splitting it asunder?

It consists of a report by Gavin Drake in which the following people are quoted: John Ellison, retired bishop of Paraguay, Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester, Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham, the Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, and Gregory Cameron, bishop of St. Asaph. Listen to it all (starts about 4:25 in and last about 6 minutes).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • Church of Wales • Global South Churches & Primates • FCA Meeting in London April 2012

The Archbishop of Wales has lent his support to gay marriage today, saying: “All life-long committed relationships deserved the welcome, pastoral care and support of the Church."

In his presidential address to members of the Church in Wales’ Governing Body in Llandudno, Dr Barry Morgan said Christians "need to show how the Gospel of Jesus is good news for gay people".

He said the church had to ask itself whether it would "protect and support pastorally, faithful, stable, lifelong relationships of whatever kind in order to encourage human values such as love and fidelity and recognise the need in Christian people for some public religious support for these".

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales

Lambeth 1998, as I said, accepted homosexual orientation – what some have regarded as "a natural attribute for some people," that is, a natural predisposition toward people of the same sex –which has only been fully understood fairly recently. Even so, the Lambeth answer was to separate orientation from practice and commend celibacy.

But can celibacy be imposed? Shouldn't it be freely undertaken as a personal vocation by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike? As Rowan Williams once put it, "anyone who knows the complexities of the true celibate vocation, would be the last to have any sympathy with the extraordinary idea that sexual orientation is an automatic pointer to a celibate life: almost as if celibacy before God is less costly, even less risky to the homosexual than the heterosexual." And is not separating mind and body or feelings or orientation from practice a kind of dualism which the church has condemned in the past since human beings are a unified whole and cannot be compartmentalised in such a way. If that is true of humanity in general, why should we expect people of a homosexual disposition to be singled out in this way?

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Instruments of Unity • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships

Witches have been breaking into churches and graveyards to perform black magic rituals, a leading Church in Wales cleric has revealed.

Bishop of Monmouth Dominic Walker said the incidents coincided with a resurgence in witchcraft in recent years, with the number of occult groups performing both wicca – or white magic – and black magic on the rise.

And while not a frequent occurrence, Bishop Walker said he had been called on several occasions during his nine-year ministry to help people escape these “satanic groups”.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • * Theology • Pastoral Theology

...the religious leaders of Jesus’ day regarded God....[chiefly in terms of His holiness] – [they viewed him as]...a God set apart from His world and separate from everything that might be unclean and messy and unworthy.

So the emphasis is on the importance of dignified worship, carried out in church buildings with due reverence, awe and majesty which nothing must interrupt or disturb – the world kept at a respectable distance so that it doesn’t sully what is going on inside the sacred space. The holy must not be contaminated with the unholy, or the spiritual with the material or political.

But it is precisely this view of God’s holiness that Jesus shattered. He spent most of His ministry out of doors, not in synagogues or temple but preaching to ordinary people, attempting to relate ordinary everyday events to God. He saw everything within that world as having a connection to God such as treasure in a field, a lost coin, a lost sheep, a lost son. And He was born in a cowshed amidst the mess and smell of animals. God, in the midst of the warp and woof of real human existence; the link between holy and unholy, inextricably joined.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • Preaching / Homiletics

“I want to thank the Muslim Council of Wales and Saleem Kidwai, its Secretary General, in particular, for all he has done to foster good interfaith relationships in Wales over the last decade. Because of his commitment to our common Faith journey and because the fostering of good interfaith relationships has been high on the agenda of our own Welsh Government, I also want to thank the First Minister for continuing the sterling work of his predecessor Rhodri Morgan for this. Wales has not seen some of the problems encountered in other parts of the United Kingdom.

“The purpose of an evening such as this is for both Christians and Muslims to set out as cogently as they can, the kernel of what they believe so that we can understand one another better. What I have deeply valued over the last ten years in our relationship is the willingness to be totally open and honest with one another. We have not attempted to gloss over our differences and pretended that there aren’t any. Although our two faiths have much in common there are crucial differences as well and it honours no-one to pretend that that is not the case.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths • Islam • Muslim-Christian relations

The Welsh Government intends to bring forward legislation soon, where instead of opting in to be an organ donor and therefore signing a card, it will be assumed that everyone is willing to donate their organs after death unless they have opted out. The trouble at the moment is that whereas 90% of the population say that they would be willing to be organ donors, only a third have signed the national register or carry a donor card. So the Government in Wales (but in no other part of the UK) proposes to bring in a law where it will be presumed that you are willing to donate your organs after death unless you have specifically opted not to do so.

One can understand the thinking behind all this. Most European States have more donors per head of population than Britain. In the UK as a whole, there are around 10,000 people waiting at any one time for a new heart, kidney or liver and three people a day die because there is no suitable organ ready for them. The waiting list for a kidney patient is three years whilst heart and liver patients wait on average six months. Organ transplants have a phenomenal degree of success these days and 90% of transplanted organs function really well a year after surgery and patients who have received them can often live for a decade or two.

The Welsh Government, sensitive to the fact that this is quite a radical departure, also proposes what it calls the “soft opt-out option” – relatives will be able to have the right of veto on organ donation. Yet, although all this is admirable in its intention, I feel a bit uneasy, not about organ donations or transplants because there are strict guidelines governing these and gifting organs is a laudable practice, but about presumed consent.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales

The Church in Wales will next week consider taking a further step towards equality for gay clerics by providing improved pension rights for their civil partners.

But progressive elements in the Church remain uneasy that while there is an acceptance that priests can have a monogamous sexual relationship, the same tolerance does not extend to Bishops.

During a two-day meeting starting on Wednesday of the Church’s Governing Body, it will be recommended that surviving civil partners of retired clerics should receive a pension based on the priest’s entire working life. Until now, the rate of pension has only been calculated from 2005, when civil partnerships were first allowed.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance • Pensions

The Church in Wales is struggling to recruit new priests, with nearly one in three of clergy expected to go in the next five years.

A total of 166 clergy are due to retire within the half-decade, leaving the Anglican church with the challenge of finding a new generation of leaders at a time of shrinking congregations.

Next week the church will stage a “ministry and calling Sunday” to urge people to consider ordination. It will also encourage people to recommend a life in the church to others they feel have the skills to serve Welsh congregations.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained

You may also recall, that at September’s Governing Body, the bishops and the Standing Committee were asked by you to respond to the situation described in the Membership and Finance Report of 2008/09 which drew our attention in particular to the fact that:

Average attendance had continued to fall by 2% in line with the longer term trend.
Average attendance among young people had fallen particularly sharply.
The level of total direct giving fell for the first time since the statistics began to be collected in this format in 1990.
For the first time since 1993, total parish income was less than expenditure.
The proportion of parish expenditure spent on buildings had increased from 28% to 31%.
These figures present challenges to us as a Church but also an opportunity to tackle them.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

The Archbishop of Wales is urging officials to be open to "significant change" ahead of a large-scale review.

Dr Barry Morgan said the Church in Wales must adapt to cope with the decline in clergy, waning investments and falling congregations.

Three independent experts are to assess its use of buildings and financial resources.

The church's organisational structure could also change, he warned.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales

Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan has given his support to a growing move to give royal daughters equal rights to succeed to the throne as their brothers.

Dr Morgan is the latest senior UK figure to call for the rule, which stops the eldest daughter of a monarch from inheriting the British throne if she has a younger brother, to be scrapped.

The Anglican leader considers it absurd the present Queen would never have been crowned if she had a brother.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Wales

Wales is running out of space to bury its dead and needs a co-ordinated policy to tackle the issue seriously.

That’s one of the stark facts the Church in Wales is highlighting in a series of briefing notes about its work to candidates standing for the Welsh Assembly election.

It estimates that two-thirds of the Church’s 1,000 burial grounds will be full in 10 years’ time and calls for a Government Commission to look into provision across Wales.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant David to be a faithful and wise steward of thy mysteries for the people of Wales: Mercifully grant that, following his purity of life and zeal for the gospel of Christ, we may with him receive the crown of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Spirituality/Prayer

People who are unable to work need to be cared for properly and not be accused of being work-shy, the Archbishop of Wales said last night.

Dr Barry Morgan said the mark of a civilised society was the way it cared for its worst off members.

He was speaking at a service to mark the 100th anniversary of the Tonypandy Riots.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market

Women should be represented at all levels of the church, the most powerful Anglican in the US has said during a visit to Wales.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, has been a personal guest of Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan, whose conviction that church leadership should not be a male-only preserve she shares.

The US church’s support for bishops in homosexual relationships has sparked conflict with traditionalists and the communion, which has adherents in more than 160 countries, is threatened with schism.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Vicars in parts of rural Wales face being forced to cover more than a dozen parishes because of a recruitment crisis.

The Diocese of St Davids, which covers much of West Wales, currently has just three vicars to cover 27 parish churches.

But when the Reverend John Powell of St Mary’s in Cardigan retires in August, it will mean just two vicars to cover all the parishes.

The diocese is not alone in facing a recruitment crisis – according to Church in Wales figures a quarter of current serving clergy are due to retire within the next decade and less than 10% of Wales’ vicars are under 40.

Read the whole thing.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained

The Church in Wales is urgently looking for new clergy as figures reveal a continuing drop in their numbers.

The number of full-time clergy has been falling in recent years with a net loss of more than 100 between 2004 and 2009.

The Church in Wales governing body will discuss the issue when it meets in Lampeter, Ceredigion, on Wednesday.

A motion seeks backing for the "urgent need" to "seek out and nurture" new clergy, while welcoming a five-year vocations strategy.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

Mgr Andrew Faley [director of ecumenism for the Bishops Conference of England and Wales]: 'Well, I think there is an answer to it and I can understand why Bishop Gregory should say what he has said. However, I can’t really believe that the Archbishop of Canterbury, over the past several years, has not been aware of the disaffection and the unease of several groups of Anglicans within the Anglican Communion concerning particular issues within that Church which have caused them to be increasingly nervous about what it means to be in unity with that church.

'Now, the Pope is not an ill-mannered man, as far as I’m aware, it’s not so much about ecumenical bad manners as the Pope’s concern for the unity of the church.

'As Bishop Christopher Hill said in the joint press conference announcing this particular initiative between – or sorry, not initiative, response – between himself and the Archbishop of Canterbury and also Archbishop Nichols of Westminster, and Archbishop McDonald of Southwark, were present, the four of them - he said, look the last thing we want is more churches.

'This move of the Pope is directly concerned with the unity of the church. That it’s not so much about wanting just to stand back, therefore, and see the Anglican Communion disintegrate into more and more churches. That’s exactly what Gregory doesn’t want. That’s exactly what I don’t want.'

Read it all or better yet listen to the whole podcast from which it is quoting.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Church of Wales • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI • * Theology • Pastoral Theology

The Archbishop of Wales, Barry Morgan, yesterday made a strong defence of religion in the public space against attacks from “nervous public officials” and “aggressive secularists”.

Speaking before the Governing Body of the Church in Wales in Lampeter, he urged Christians to “keep their nerve”, stating: “Some of the letters I receive assume that religion is dead, irrational and full of superstition and has no place in public life at all, nor that Christians have any right to voice their concerns about any issue.”

He continued: “We live in a country that is clamouring for values. People do turn to the church to look for meaning in life...

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

There is no need for a “Flying Bishop” for Welsh traditionalists, the Archbishop of Wales told members of the church’s Governing Body last week, as the pastoral care offered by the current bishop’s bench is sufficient to meet the needs of all Welsh Anglicans.

Responding to a question from a member of the Governing Body during is April 22 session in Llandudno, Dr. Barry Morgan said the bishops were offering “pastoral and sacramental care to every member of the Church in Wales, without exception.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

(ACNS) More than 30 bishops from around the Anglican Communion joined the Archbishop of Wales and the Archbishop of Canterbury to consecrate two new Welsh bishops at Llandaff Cathedral on Saturday afternoon (April 4).

Gregory Cameron, 49, was consecrated 76th Bishop of St Asaph. He follows Bishop John Davies who retired at the end of last year. He was previously Deputy Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office and prior to that was chaplain to Dr Rowan Williams when he was Archbishop of Wales.

David Wilbourne, 53, was consecrated Assistant Bishop of Llandaff.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

They have raised more than £1,000 for a mobile dental clinic delivering frontline medical aid around the bombed out streets of Gaza. The clinic, which has been funded totally by the Church in Wales since 2000, is part of the work of family health centres in Gaza run by the Near East Council of Churches.

Members of the Young Muslim Community Organisation in Newport, South Wales, held a bazaar to raise money following an appeal by the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, for urgent aid for the work of the NECC clinics. The appeal was intensified after a direct missile attack destroyed one of the family centres in Shij’ia last month.

Ifthir Ahmed, chair of the YMCO, said the group was pleased to support a Welsh appeal for humanitarian aid.

He said, “We read about the destruction of the family clinic and the invaluable service the mobile dental clinic provides for so many people in the strip. We felt that some of the money we raised had to go to this very noble cause.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • War in Gaza December 2008-- • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths • Islam

The Rev Canon Gregory Cameron, 49, who is Deputy Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office in London, was chosen by members of the Electoral College of the Church in Wales meeting at St Asaph Cathedral.

The announcement was made by the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, at the west door of the cathedral on the first day of the meeting.

Canon Gregory Cameron will be the 76th Bishop of St Asaph, an area covering the north-east corner of Wales – the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd, Denbighshire and part of northern Powys. His election follows the retirement in December of the Rt Rev John Davies who served as Bishop of the diocese from 1999.

A Welshman who was ordained in the Diocese of Monmouth, Mr Cameron has been involved in the ecumenical relations of the Anglican Communion at global level for the past five years. Previously, he served as Chaplain to the Archbishop of Wales, then Dr Rowan Williams.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

The Archdeacon of Cardigan, the Venerable Andrew John, is the Bishop Elect of the Diocese of Bangor.

The announcement was made this afternoon by the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, at the west door of Bangor Cathedral on the third and final day of the meeting of the Electoral College.

The election follows the death of the Rt Rev Anthony Crockett in June, who served as bishop of the diocese from 2004. The new bishop will be the 81st Bishop of Bangor, serving an area stretching across north-west Wales from Holyhead to Llanidloes.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

The Church in Wales will not appoint a new “flying bishop” for traditionalists, Archbishop Barry Morgan said on Sept 17, saying the position was no longer necessary nor was such a post consistent with Anglican ecclesiology. Those opposed to the ordination of women still had a place with the Church in Wales, he said and asked traditionalists to trust the bishops to look after their interests.

The decision comes as a repudiation of the work of Dr Rowan Williams, traditionalists charged, as the former Bishop of Monmouth was instrumental in creating the post of “flying bishop” 12 years ago, and marks a hardening of positions in the Welsh Church.

Traditionalist leaders took little comfort from the bishops’ assurances of continued support. The Rev Alan Rabjohns, Chairman of Credo Cymru, Forward in Faith Wales said “this is a disappointing and sad statement.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

While we have always have our historic formularies and creeds, the Church has needed from time to time to restate again her position on issues affecting our common life. In the 1998 Lambeth, one of the issues was our Church position on the family. And if Lambeth 2008 is anything to go by, that mind remains.

If so, why can’t we submit ourselves to this discipline and mutual accountability as minimally expressed through the Windsor-proposed Covenant process (as a solution to the crisis and help the Communion to deal with future similar ones)? If being part of the wider (global and by far, much larger in some parts) Communion is to mean anything, why can’t each Province choose to stand together on this? And we have not even begin to mention our relationships with our ecumenical partners and what these recent innovations will do to our long held ‘Via Media’ role.

We have come thus far in affirming the Windsor Report (and the ‘process,’ which in the opinion of some, weakens the report). Whether quick or otherwise, the crisis needs fixing.

We pray that the Covenant Design Group and various Communion bodies will not blink.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Global South Churches & Primates • Windsor Report / Process

Some of us who attended the 1998 Lambeth Conference were not looking forward very much, if I am honest, to the one in 2008. The 1998 Conference, although it produced a lot of useful documents on mission, unity and human rights and a whole range of other subjects, fell apart on the issue of human sexuality towards the end of the Conference. The plenary dealing with Human Sexuality was the only one that refused to accept a report from a group that had been discussing the issue for three weeks and insisted on altering it, thus losing the balance of that carefully crafted document. The result was a bad tempered debate that soured everything. In reality, the issue of human sexuality had simmered under the surface of the 1998 Conference from the outset and that shows that it isn’t just the consecration of Gene Robinson or public rites of same sex blessings in Canada that are wholly responsible for the present crisis in the Communion. Throughout the ’98 Conference groups met in secret on and off campus, pursuing their own particular views on human sexuality and briefing against each other, so that when it actually came to the Resolutions, there was bound to be a conflagration and indeed, there was.

From the outset, the 2008 Conference – the 14th Lambeth Conference to be held, did not appear to have a dangerous under-current simmering beneath the surface. Everyone knew of GAFCON’s meeting, i.e. the meeting of around 200 bishops who had refused the Archbishop’s invitation to Lambeth and who met in Jerusalem beforehand. Everyone knew that Gene Robinson had not been invited; everyone knew that there were different views on sexuality, and everyone knew about the events that had taken place since ’98, yet there seemed to be a genuine desire on the part of everyone to engage constructively with those holding different views. Admittedly 200 Bishops were absent mainly from Africa, one or two from England and Australia but that too needs to be seen in perspective. Uganda was the only Province not to be represented by a bishop and some of the African Bishops had come under intense pressure from their Primates not to come, even though some of them wanted to. (This tells you something about the power of Primates in some Provinces of the Communion and why some of them fail to understand why the whole Communion does not fall into line when they speak).

It helped to know, of course, that nothing would be decided at this Conference – no Resolutions would be passed as has happened at most Lambeth Conferences. It was a return to the intention of the first Lambeth Conference called in 1867 by Archbishop Longley for brotherly counselling and conferring in response to a crisis caused by the Bishop of Natal who believed in a non literal interpretation of the Scriptures....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Lambeth 2008

FORMER archaeologist John Wyn Evans has been flung into the frontline of the Anglican Communion as the new Bishop of St Davids.

The 61-year-old was shocked at his elevation, which followed the resignation of Carl Cooper after intense speculation about his personal life.

He takes the helm of the ancient diocese at a time when the future of Anglicanism is shrouded in uncertainty.

Disputes over scriptural authority and sexuality have sparked fierce confrontations between traditionalists and liberals.

The Governing Body of the Church in Wales meets today in Lampeter. Every member knows the Church in Wales has the potential to trigger an earthquake in the Communion next month if high-profile celibate gay Dean of St Albans Jeffrey John is named as the next Bishop of Bangor.

But while the crises in Angli-canism have made headlines, churches face the deeper challenge of connecting with an increasingly secular society.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

(ACNS) The man in charge of one of the country's best loved landmarks and the cradle of Christianity in Wales was elected as the new Bishop of St Davids.

The Dean of St Davids Cathedral, the Very Reverend John Wyn Evans, was elected as the 128th bishop of the diocese by the Electoral College of the Church in Wales, at a "lock in " meeting at the cathedral.

The election took place following the resignation of the former bishop, Rt Rev Carl Cooper, in May, who was bishop from 2002.

The Very Rev John Wyn Evans (known as Wyn), 61, has served as Dean for the past 14 years, during which time he was the driving force behind the £5.5m Cathedral restoration project, which included the acclaimed rebuilding and expansion of the historic cloisters area, and has secured the future of the building for generations to come.

He said he was stunned but honoured to have been elected bishop of the diocese in which he has served since his ordination. He said, "We are fortunate that Bishop Carl gave the diocese a sense of purpose and direction which I look forward to continuing."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

THE new Bishop of St David’s has this evening been named as the Very Rev Wyn Evans, the current Dean of St David’s.

After less than a day locked inside St David’s Cathedral, 46 members of the Church in Wales named Rev Evans as their choice.

There was said to be “strong support” for the decision.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

Members of the Church in Wales may be anxious not to exacerbate existing tensions over the issue. A senior source close to the election told The Times: “One member of the college is going to put Jeffrey John’s name forward. It will be a very close thing.”

Another Church in Wales insider said: “He has a good pastoral record. He might well be considered.”

The Rev Giles Fraser, Vicar of St Mary’s Putney, a friend of Dr John and founder of the Inclusive Church lobby that champions the gay cause, said: “Jeffrey John would make an absolutely splendid bishop. This is not before time. This is a man who does not contravene the guidelines on human sexuality at all.”

But in a joint statement, Canon Chris Sugden and Philip Giddings, of Anglican Mainstream, the conservative lobby set up in response to Dr John’s appointment to Reading, said: “If he is being nominated to a Welsh episcopate, the obstacles remain the same as to his previous candidacies for senior appointments.”

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Update: Peter Ould has important thoughts on this here.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Latest News • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Church of Wales • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

Here is one:

Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales: "I think people have realised that there are not going to be any resolutions and some feel frustrated and wanted some kind of definitive statements to take home with them. Part of what this process is about is listening to different viewpoints. The drafters of the covenant will revise the covenant in the light of these. It's the only sensible way. It may seem a long drawn-out process but it will go to the Anglican Consultative Council and then come back to the provinces who will then decide if it is acceptable to them or not. There is no point in submitting it to churches now, who will tear it apart. The Windsor Continuation group has involved listening to the reactions to the proposals and it will go away and these further suggestions will be brought to the Anglican Consultative Council and then go to the provinces."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • Lambeth 2008

The first starts about 45 second in and is on the recent vote of General Synod, it includes comments from David Banting and David Holding.

The second starts just past 29 minutes in and has Trevor Barnes having a conversation with women bishops Victoria Matthews, Kate Waynick, Geralyn Wolf, and Sue Moxley.

The third starts about 34 1/2 minutes in and is a conversation with Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales.

The fourth starts a little past 38 1/2 minutes in and is a conversation with the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Andrew Burnham

Start listening by clicking here.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Latest News • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • Church of Wales • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

Canon Andrew Knight of Swansea and Canon Tudor Griffiths of Deeside were among five clergy who said in a statement yesterday the appointment of a bishop in a gay relationship could be “church-breaking”.

They said: “The innovation of the American and Canadian Anglicans in the area of teaching on sexuality has already caused enormous damage to their churches. If the Church in Wales were to follow the line indicated by the Archbishop, the same disastrous results could be expected here.

“It is a question of whether the church will or will not remain faithful to the whole teaching of scripture and Christian tradition. The ordination of persons in same-sex relations is, therefore, an issue of church-breaking significance.”

Canon Knight said: “While I am sure the Archbishop is entitled to his own opinions, it does raise the question about how far he represents us all and provides a focus for our unity... I’m not sure what the Archbishop of Wales thinks he’s doing – whether he’s simply wrong about where he feels the community is on that issue, or whether he’s trying to start something.”

The Rev Lorraine Cavanagh, Anglican chaplain to Cardiff University, stressed that Dr Morgan’s comments should not be taken out of context.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

Dr [Barry] Morgan said the consecration of a gay bishop would no problem to him, although it might be for his church, and he would "alert" fellow leaders.

He said: "If I thought that a person who had been nominated was an excellent candidate in every other way and that he was in a faithful relationship - for me personally that would not present a problem.

"But of course it might present a problem for my church and I would have to alert the electoral college to that," Dr Morgan added.

Bishop Robinson has been excluded from the Lambeth Conference, held every 10 years, but will be in Canterbury at the same time.

He is due to speak at St Mary's Church in Putney, west London, on Sunday.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings

The Archbishop of Wales has denounced the pace of the devolution of law-making authority from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly as “tortuous and convoluted,” telling the BBC it would be “immoral” for the Assembly not to be granted further legal powers soon.

Archbishop Barry Morgan’s comments to the Good Evening Wales programme followed a ceremony at Windsor Castle where the Queen approved the transfer of new powers to the Welsh Assembly. The authority to enact laws assisting those with special learning needs was approved on April 9 and is the first of 10 orders ranging from mental health services to fire safety slated for devolution under the 2006 Government of Wales Act.

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the ceremony marked “a little bit of Welsh history” as for “the first time in 500 years the people of Wales are now able to create laws to help improve their day-to-day lives.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

WELSH vicars today called for couples to be able to get married in the Anglican church of their choice in Wales.

Yesterday it was announced that a Parliamentary committee is expected to give the go-ahead for engaged couples to get married anywhere in England, where they have lived for six months, or where their parents or grandparents were married.

But because the Church in Wales is disestablished, the marriage rules will not be relaxed in Wales.

As a result, couples in Wales are denied the same degree of matrimonial choice as those living a few miles over the border.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Culture-Watch • Marriage & Family

THE question of women bishops will inevitably come back, the Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said, after the prospect of women bishops in the Church in Wales received an indefinite setback on Wednesday of last week.

The House of Clergy in the Governing Body lacked a two-thirds majority in their favour. The House of Bishops was unanimously in favour of the Bill to enable women to be ordained as bishops, and the Laity voted for it 52-19, but in the House of Clergy the voting was 27 for and 18 against, which was just 60 per cent in favour.

The Bill had been published in July 2007, and a select committee had been established to consider amendments from the dioceses, of which 12 had been included in their report to the Governing Body meeting in Lampeter last week. At the start of the debate, however, all but the select committee’s own two amendments had been withdrawn.

As the Bill was defeated in only one House, it could come back at any time, Dr Morgan said, “but there is no point in bringing it back to the Governing Body in two or three years just for it to be defeated again; so we need to take stock.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

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

Read it all and Archbishop Barry Morgan's piece in the Guardian is here also.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

In his sermon at Llandaff Cathedral on Easter Sunday, Dr Barry Morgan says, “There isn’t one story of Jesus in the New Testament but four, since each evangelist uses the events of Jesus’ life to make his own particular point. Nor do we have just one story of the appearance of Jesus after his resurrection, but many different stories. The Gospel writers emphasise different aspects of the significance of Jesus, so that the question to ask, is not did the events in these stories happen exactly in this way but what truths are they trying to convey?” Another important perspective we need in order to grasp the meaning of the stories is the historical one, he says.

“The New Testament has layers and layers of meaning – it tries to convey truth through stories that are subtle, deep and many layered. Very often to understand them, you need to know something about the Jewish background against which they were written and also about the Old Testament.”

Dr Morgan takes St John’s story of Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus outside the tomb in the garden on the first day of the week after his resurrection to illustrate his point. It’s a story, he says, which can be read as a straight historical account – Mary meets the risen Jesus. But its true significance is that God through Jesus reverses the fall of Adam and Eve in the Book of Genesis.

“Here in St John, Jesus is the new Adam. Here is a new creation. Here through the person of Jesus, men and women can be recreated, transformed, redeemed. In the person of the risen Jesus, God becomes close and familiar once more as he calls Mary by name. Whereas through the fall, humanity had become estranged from God, now in Jesus, God has drawn close. This story is also about the reversal of death. Jesus has burst through death to God’s new life. Mary mistakes him for the gardener and of course he is the gardener, but not in the sense Mary means it, but because He is the Creator of the garden – referred to in Genesis.”Finally, he concludes, the stories need to be seen from the perspective of faith as well as reason.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Holy Week

To have a coherent and rational debate about the tenets of the Christianity is perfectly natural. To have a virulent, almost irrational attack upon it claiming that what is being said is self evidently true is dangerous, not just because it refuses to allow any contrary viewpoint but also because it affects the public perception of religion. It leads, for example, to local authorities calling Christmas ‘Winterval’, to hospitals removing all Christian symbols from hospital chapels, or to schools refusing to put on nativity plays, or allowing children to send Christmas cards with a Christian message, or airlines refusing staff the freedom to wear a cross round their necks.

All of this is what I would call the new ‘fundamentalism’ of our age and any kind of fundamentalism, be it Biblical, atheistic or Islamic, is dangerous, because it allows no room for disagreement, for doubt, for debate, for discussion. It leads to the language of expulsion and exclusivity, of extremism and polarisation, and the claim that because God is on our side, He is not on yours.

Contrast all that with the message of the angel to the shepherds in the nativity story in St Luke’s Gospel, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people”. It is a message of joy and good news for everyone
– no one is excluded, everyone is embraced, from the shepherds, who would have been seen as nobodies by respectable Jewish society, to the magi - Gentiles, who would have been strangers in the land.

The Gospel writers make the point that Jesus is the focus of all God’s promises and purposes from the beginning of creation. God is not exclusive, he is on the side of the whole of humanity with all its variety.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas

An interesting read.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Covenant • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales

Alwyn Rice Jones’s time as Archbishop of Wales involved big changes in the Church. Having once failed to get the ordination of women as priests through the governing body, he brought it back in 1996 when it was approved and, unlike in England, no clergy left the Church in Wales. He also steered through the legislation for the remarriage of divorcees in church.

A theological liberal, Jones was a committed ecumenist. While a priest at Porthmadog he developed close relations with the Roman Catholic Church and was secretary of the Gwynedd Ecumenical Forum. From 1985 to 1987 he was the chairman of the Commission of Covenanting Churches in Wales. He steered a Bill through the governing body for the creation of local ecumenical projects and became chairman of the religious advisory committee for the Welsh-language TV channel.

He was committed to social justice and was not afraid of political issues. He condemned the bombing of Kos-ovo and was a strong supporter of devolution and the creation of the National Assembly of Wales. A year after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, he wrote to his clergy saying that he thought too much was being made of her status. He left it to the discretion of his clergy as to whether prayers should be said on the anniversary of her death.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Wales