The laughter and standing ovation that the Archbishop of Cantebrury received in the Royal Albert Hall on Monday suggested that, despite his saying that the "deepest wounds" he had suffered had been at the hands of his fellow Christians, he does not lack support.

The Archbishop was the first speaker at the leadership conference organised by Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB), the Evangelical church in London. The event drew 5500 people from 86 different countries, all "united around Jesus", the Vicar of Holy Trinity, the Revd Nicky Gumbel, declared.

Archbishop Welby's appearance took the form of an interview, conducted by Mr Gumbel, which perhaps vindicated the headline in The Daily Telegraph that greeted his appointment ( "HTB lands its first Archbishop").

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has added its voice to the call for peace in Korea. In a message read to the Second Worldwide Anglican Peace Conference held in Okinawa from 16 – 22 April 2013 Archbishop Welby lauded the work of the Korean and Japanese churches to foster peace in Northeast Asia.

“Your gathering has come at the most needful time,” Archbishop Welby wrote, in a statement read by his representative to the conference Bishop John Holbrook of Brixworth in the diocese of Peterborough.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Korea • North Korea

Goddard had fewer than four months to research and write the book and acknowledges that his conclusions and judgments are “initial [and] tentative” (p. 8). Each chapter provides a summary of Williams’s speeches, interviews, and sermons relevant to the topic at hand, along with commentary from Goddard and a handful of other individuals whom he interviewed. At times, the chapters feel like little more than lengthy quotations from Williams’s own writing. This is no bad thing, however. To read Williams’s original words in the context in which they were first delivered is refreshing. In any event, their complexity and depth defy easy summation. (At least two other books on Williams, Rupert Shortt’s Rowan’s Rule and Mike Higton’s Difficult Gospel, similarly rely on lengthy quotations.)

Goddard’s tight writing schedule presents other problems, as it causes him occasionally to pass over significant moments too briefly. For instance, he mentions Williams’s “historic meeting with [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe” (p. 144) but provides no additional information on what made it historic or why it was significant to Williams’s ministry. These are judgments that a tight publishing deadline likely cannot accommodate.

A larger disappointment is that the people Goddard interviewed to inform his judgments seem a limited lot. They are overwhelmingly male and from the Euro-Atlantic world.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Commentary • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • * Culture-Watch • Books

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

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

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

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

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

It is about time the Church became serious about politics. The debacle over its opposition to the Government's welfare reform programme offers the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, a God-given opportunity to totally reshape the role of bishops in the House of Lords.

A week before the House of Lords voted on key aspects of the Government's welfare cuts [in March], 43 bishops issued a statement to the effect that this was the most vicious attack on children since Herod slaughtered the innocent. The welfare cuts are serious in the impact they will have on the living standards of some families, but let's leave aside the judgment as to whether the cuts were almost of a criminal nature. What did the bishops do?

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The Archbishop of Canterbury will address thousands of international Christian leaders in London on Monday next week.

Archbishop Justin will speak on the opening morning of the annual HTB leadership conference, which returns to the Royal Albert Hall for the second year running.

The two-day event, which will be live streamed, will bring together 5,500 Christian leaders from 89 countries.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

Religion should be incorporated into “reality” television shows in order to increase understanding of other faiths, the Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, who was enthroned in March, warned of “dangerous” consequences if religion disappeared from television schedules. Broadcasters who force religion to the margins are helping to “cultivate ignorance”, the Archbishop said.

He praised the ITV documentary series, Strictly Kosher, which featured an internet-dating Rabbi and a flamboyant fashion boutique owner based in Manchester’s orthodox Jewish community, for “stitching” religion into everyday life.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has urged evangelical congregations within the Church of Scotland not to “walk away” over the ordination of [noncelibate] gay ministers.

Speaking on the eve of a visit to Scotland as the new chairman of Christian Aid, Williams said he understood some congregations might threaten to break away if the Kirk’s ­General Assembly votes to allow the ordination of gay ministers later this month, but warned against such a divisive move.

“The impulse to walk away, while deeply understandable, is not a very constructive one,” he said. “The things which bind Christians together are almost always more profound and significant for themselves and the world than the things that divide them. When you do walk away from other Christians you are in effect saying well, either I can do without you or I’ve got nothing to learn from you. That can’t be good for us. You may disagree, you may think somebody else is tacitly perverse, but you might want to hang in there with them.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Culture-Watch • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • --Scotland • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Presbyterian • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Theology: Scripture

The final report for the enquiry into the operation of the diocesan child protection policies in the Diocese of Chichester has today been published.

The report was written by Bishop John Gladwin and Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC who were appointed in 2011 as the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s commissaries to carry out the enquiry.

In responding to the final report, Archbishop Justin has made the following statement:

“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to not only the Commissaries for their care and concern in the course of carrying out this Visitation, but also to the survivors of abuse who have been able to share their experiences. The hurt and damage that has been done to them is something the Church can never ignore and I can only repeat what I have said before - that they should never have been let down by the people who ought to have been a source of trust and comfort and I want to apologise on behalf of the Church for pain and hurt they have suffered. I remain deeply grateful for their cooperation in the work of the Visitation....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Children

It is a wearyingly obvious observation, but the Church of England remains crippled by the gay crisis. It is locked in disastrous self-opposition, alienated from its largely liberal nature. Maybe the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has a secret plan that will break the deadlock: there is no sign of it yet. The advent of gay marriage has made the situation look even more hopeless. It entrenches the church in its official conservatism, and it further radicalises the liberals. A few weeks ago the church issued a report clarifying its opposition to gay marriage, in which it ruled out the blessing of gay partnerships. This was not a hopeful move: it ought to be keeping these issues separate.

The ending of the turbulent Williams era is an opportunity to take stock, rethink, take a step back. What we see is that, for more than 20 years, the church has tried and failed to reform its line on homosexuality; and this failure has been amazingly costly. The church used to be good at gradual reform. Why did it fail so dismally this time?

I blame the liberals....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Analysis • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • --Rowan Williams • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops • 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 • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Theology: Scripture

Justin Welby, the new leader of nearly 80m Anglicans around the world, has won a respectful hearing for his ideas on banking and the British economy. Even if they disagree with the details, people have generally not reacted by saying "this man hasn't a clue what he is talking about" or "he should go back to singing hymns."

On April 21st, the archbishop of Canterbury suggested that big, unhealthy banks should be broken up into regional ones, as part of a "revolution in the aims" of banks designed to make sure that they served society as well as their own narrow interests. That sounded very like the proposal made last month by Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, for local lenders modelled on the German system. It comes at a time when the government faces hard decisions about the future of the Royal Bank of Scotland after its rescue by the tax-payer. Given the immediacy of the issue, some people will accuse the archbishop (who lists his hobbies as French culture, sailing and politics) of making narrow political points rather than broad moral ones.

But he also had some longer-term ideas on the financial sector. Drawing on his experience as a member of a parliamentary Banking Standards Commission, he said senior positions in banking ought to form a regulated profession which required qualifications.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Stock Market • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Speaking on Radio 4... [on Saturday], the Archbishop of Canterbury stressed the implications of Christian ethics for the City of London

The Christian Gopsel has "always had strong social implications" and been concerned with "the common good", the Archbishop of Canterbury said....

In an interview for Radio 4's Week in Westminster, Archbishop Justin said his main mission wasn't to inject morality back into British business. But he said that how the City of London - which “is so important and so full of very gifted people” – behaves in relation to the common good is a major concern not just for the Church but for society generally.

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Dr Rowan Williams has stepped down from his role as Archbishop of Canterbury - but don't go thinking this means that he has slowed down. As well as being the Master of Magdalene College Cambridge, Dr Williams is a member of the House of Lords and continues to work with churches and other faith groups all around the world.

Listen to it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, laughs when it is suggested that he has a mission to raise moral standards in the City. “My key mission is to lead the Church in worshipping Jesus Christ,” he says.

He points out, however, that Christian teaching concerns the “common good”, and he is concerned about “how the City of London, which is so important and so full of very gifted people”, relates to this concept.

Dr Welby is in a unique position to do something about it. Outside the cathedral he enjoys two political pulpits from which to shape the debate: in the House of Lords and on the cross-party parliamentary banking commission.

Read it all (another link ).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Stock Market • The Banking System/Sector • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The City of London has been affected by a "culture of entitlement" at variance with what others think reasonable, the new Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

But the Most Reverend Justin Welby told the BBC business morality was in many ways much better than in the past.

He also defended his description of the UK's economic situation as a depression rather than a recession.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Stock Market • The Banking System/Sector • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Since the very first days of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, we have prayed as we watched in horror and sorrow the escalating violence that has rent this country apart. We have grieved with all Syrians - with the families of each and every human life lost and with all communities whose neighbourhoods and livelihoods have suffered from escalating and pervasive violence.

And today, our prayers also go with the ancient communities of our Christian brothers and sisters in Syria. The kidnapping this week of two Metropolitan bishops of Aleppo, Mar Gregorios Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Paul Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the killing of their driver while they were carrying out a humanitarian mission, is another telling sign of the terrible circumstances that continue to engulf all Syrians.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Syria • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

The daughter of the Archbishop of Canterbury has called on the church to do more to eradicate the stigma of mental illness, revealing that she sometimes suffers from “unbearable” depression.

Katharine Welby, the 26-year old daughter of Archbishop Justin Welby who took up his new post last month, says she sometimes feels “very low”, with a “black veil of nothing hanging in front of me”....

Read it all (requires subscription) and please take the time to read Katharine Welby's blog post also.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Psychology • Mental Illness • Women • Young Adults • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Culture change in financial services will not be achieved by "light touch" or "heavy touch" regulation, Archbishop Justin said at a Westminster discussion organised by the Bible Society.

Instead the banking sector must adopt "an aim of service to society and not mere rent-seeking, and a culture of virtue based in the realities of daily life and not a fantasy nirvana," he said.

Describing what this change of culture might look like, the Archbishop said it would require "a ruthless honesty and a deep willingness to be made very uncomfortable indeed through listening to things one does not want to hear".

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Euro • European Central Bank • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • Stock Market • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Speaking at a Parliamentary event on "finding long-term solutions to the financial crisis", Archbishop Welby said there needs to be a "revolution in the aims" of banks to ensure they serve society rather than "self-regarding interest" or even just shareholders.

“What we’re in at the moment isn’t a recession but some kind of depression,” he said. “It needs something very, very major to get us out of it, in the same way it took something very major to get into it.”

The Archbishop, who sat on the recent Banking Standards Commission but said his ideas were not those of the Commission, also called for professional banking standards to be introduced as a way of transforming ethical standards in banking.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has signalled that he will back moves to change the law to allow straight couples to have civil partnerships.

He offered his support for a parliamentary amendment to the gay marriage bill during a landmark meeting with the veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell at Lambeth Palace.

It is thought to be the first time the head of a major world church has invited a prominent gay rights leader to a meeting. The Archbishop, who is from the evangelical wing of the Church which supports a traditional interpretation of the Bible on issues such as homosexuality, said he wanted to open a “dialogue” with gay and lesbian groups.

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

Speaking at a makeshift news conference in the rain across the road from Lambeth Palace's imposing red brick gatehouse with its big oak doors, Tatchell said their meeting was a breakthrough.

"Rowan Williams never invited me to Lambeth Palace but Justin Welby did," Thatchell said. "He strikes me as someone who genuinely wants to listen and to have a dialogue."

Welby faces the challenge of uniting the Anglican church, which during his predecessor's decade in office risked tearing itself apart over same-sex marriages and the ordination of [partnered] gay priests.

Read it all and a press release from Mr. Tatchell is there.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Archbishop Justin said damage caused by the financial crisis in 2008, which has severely undermined trust in society, may take "a generation" to repair.

This negativity has crept into the church, he said, citing last year's synod debate on women bishops as an example. We have a culture where it is assumed that "if one person is in favour of something they must be bitterly against everything else,” he said.

“If we start with mistrust, our capacity to cope with events becomes crippled, inadequate, impossible.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

But so often the critics ignore the many instances where aid truly works – especially in vulnerable conflict and post-conflict situations. Certainly that was what I saw during more than a decade of working in Africa.

When money is put in the hands of faith-based and civil society networks, it can be utterly transformative. Because these organisations are highly accountable, very little money is lost to corruption. Local clergy know exactly what their communities need and how to spend funds wisely.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

PRESENTER: Should Bonhoeffer be regarded as a Protestant Saint?

ARCHBISHOP: What makes it an interesting question is that he himself says in one of his very last letters to survive, that he doesn't want to be a saint; he wants to be a believer. In other words he doesn't want to be some kind of, as he might put it, detached holy person. He wants to show what faith means in every day life. So I think in the wider sense, yes he's a saint; he's a person who seeks to lead an integrated life, loyal to God, showing God's life in the world. A saint in the conventional sense? Well, he wouldn't have wanted to be seen in that way.

--Archbishop Rowan Williams on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, speaking in 2006

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Germany

We have to know God as well as human beings, or we are left with cynical despair. The disciples also had a wrong view of God. They did not understand that Jesus must die and must rise from the dead. Human disaster thus became ultimate disaster.

The accounts of the resurrection are brutally honest about the pervasive ignorance of the disciples. Key phrases are about not knowing, not understanding, believing without insight. Even Mary, the apostle to the apostles, the first witness, is able to say no more than “I have seen the Lord”, and what He said.

The reading from Acts shows the consequence of the Easter revolution. Peter has an open mind to the biggest change that could be imagined, the recognition that God has no favourites and that the Gentiles can be part of the church. He is spending his life in a state of joyful expectation because God is the one who raised Jesus from the dead. He is exploring the love and mercy of God in reaching to a lost and sinful humanity with a saving love for all.

That brings us back to our own day. Isaiah was speaking to a people in despair, and his treatment is celebration. “Be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating”. A right view of God sees Him as overflowing with such creative force that all our expectations of the future are radically altered and our joy leaps. Alleluia, Christ is risen.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Easter

[Pollesel] credited last January’s visit and subsequent report by the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, Anglican Communion general secretary, as having allowed the diocese and the province to “find a way out of being stuck.” Zavala decided to invite a small delegation from the diocese to attend part of the Southern Cone’s House of Bishops meeting, a recommendation in the Kearon report.

“At the face-to-face meeting I believe we were able to bring down some defensive walls that had been built and also build some bridges of understanding and reconciliation™,” said Pollesel. “We’re not there yet. But we’re certainly moving in a good direction.”
....
Pollesel resigned as general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada in 2011 and later became interim priest-in-charge at Toronto’s St. Nicholas Church, Birch Cliff.

Read it all and there is background here

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Thursday 21st March 2013

Archbishop Justin Welby

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ.

We greet you on this day of celebration and assure you and your family of our prayers for your future ministry.

We are grateful for this opportunity to worship in Canterbury Cathedral and be reminded of our historic faith that is grounded in the revealed Word of God.

We encourage you to stay true to the 'faith once delivered to the saints' and as you do we will stand with you for the sake of Christ.

We do look forward to a future opportunity to meet and discuss how we can work together.

To Him be all the glory..

The Most Revd Dr. Eliud Wabukala Anglican Church of Kenya
The Most Revd Nicholas Okoh Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Most Revd Stanley Ntagali Church of the Province of Uganda
The Most Revd Onesphore Rwaje Province de l’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda
The Most Revd Daniel Deng Bul The Episcopal Church of the Sudan
The Most Revd Hector Zavala Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

With ever-increasing pressure from the society, the church needs not to be politically correct at the expense of the truth. The church resisted this from the early centuries and preferred to be faithful to the Gospel, even if this led to persecution and martyrdom. We are called to be“salt” and “light.” In other words, we are called to be distinctive. The modern societies of the “West” or “North” are pushing many issues, including same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. Should the church yield to the pressure of these societies and compromise the truth? I personally think that these issues are superficial symptoms of a much deeper illness which attempts to shake the foundation of our faith. This illness puts into question the essentials of faith like the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the doctrine of salvation. It ignores the primacy of Scripture and 2,000 years of church tradition. It is a spirit of individualism and cultural pride that ignores the fact that the whole truth is revealed to the whole church.

In both the theological and numerical differences, we need to affirm our interdependence as Anglican churches. What affects all should be decided by all. There is a great need to recover the conciliar nature of the Anglican Communion that is practiced through the Lambeth Conferences and the Primates Meetings. Losing our conciliar ethos will lead to disunity as churches take uncoordinated, independent and unilateral decisions.

Read it all thanks to Anglican Ink and there is a larger version here

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Read it all

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Two Recent Reports on Archbishop Welby's views and a Radio Interview:

1. Telegraph March 8th - 'Archbishop of Canterbury opposed gay sex and adoption':

The Archbishop of Canterbury voiced opposition to same-sex couples adopting children and insisted that the Bible is “clear” that gay couples should not have sex, previously unpublished writings show.

2. Bishop Nick Baines March 8th - 'Growing up '

Now, I know anyone in public life is not allowed to have been a child or to have grown or changed. I realise that my own archive of parish magazine articles, etc. might be found to contain expressions that might embarrass me now. This is what happens to human beings as they grow up.

The bizarre thing is that anyone thinks this is anything other than story-creation. The Archbishop might or might not hold to views held or expressed in the past. I have no idea, and he can speak for himself. But, the notion that he should now be entirely consistent with what he said or thought or wrote twenty, ten or five years ago is utter nonsense. It simply suggests that he should never have grown up.

What matters is what he thinks now. The journey there might also be interesting. But, the fact that he might have said things or thought things in the past matters little… except, of course, to those looking for contradictions

3. Iain Dale March 12th - 'Archbishop Softens Line on Gay Marriage'

Iain Dale: You said once that you’re always averse to the language of exclusion and what we’re called to do is love in the same way as Jesus Christ loves us, how do you reconcile that with the church’s attitude on gay marriage?

Justin Welby: I think that the problem with the gay marriage proposals is that they don’t actually include people equally, it’s called equal marriage, but the proposals in the Bill don’t do that. I think that where there is… I mean I know plenty of gay couples whose relationships are an example to plenty of other people and that’s something that’s very important, I’m not saying that gay relationships are in some way… you know that the love that there is is less than the love there is between straight couples, that would be a completely absurd thing to say. And civil partnership is a pretty… I understand why people want that to be strengthened and made more dignified, somehow more honourable in a good way. It’s not the same as marriage…

Iain Dale: But if it could be made to work in a way that’s acceptable to the church you would be open to discussions on that?

Justin Welby: We are always open to discussions, we’ve been open to discussion, we’re discussing at the moment. The historic teaching of the church around the world, and this is where I remember that I’ve got 80 million people round the world who are Anglicans, not just the one million in this country, has been that marriage in the traditional sense is between a man and woman for life. And it’s such a radical change to change that I think we need to find ways of affirming the value of the love that is in other relationships without taking away from the value of marriage as an institution.
[Audio by subscription here March 11th]

Confused?

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

There is every possible reason for optimism about the future of Christian faith in our world and in this country. Optimism does not come from us, but because to us and to all people Jesus comes and says “Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid”. We are called to step out of the comfort of our own traditions and places, and go into the waves, reaching for the hand of Christ. Let us provoke each other to heed the call of Christ, to be clear in our declaration of Christ, committed in prayer to Christ, and we will see a world transformed.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Heaney was ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland in 2002, and has been active in Anglican parishes in Ireland, England, and Tanzania. He is married to Dr. Sharon Heaney and they have one son, Sam.

As director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies, Heaney will ensure the Center’s continued support of theological education; the engagement of Anglican leaders and scholars in study, research and conversation; and interreligious dynamics across the Communion.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Worldwide Live Streaming:

[1] Watch here on BBC News

[2] or according to ACNS, the BBC will be livestreaming the ceremony here [www.bbc.com] at 10:30 am Eastern Daylight Time 2.30 pm London Time [GMT] Time Converter.

BBC Radio 4 Longwave here [may be available worldwide]

In the UK BBC2 TV here [UK Only]

Order of Service here

Twitter: #ABC105

Let us know of other links you find below please.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Listen to it all here on the Sunday Program starting at 26 mins in for 4 minutes and an unofficial transcript is below

____________________________________
Edward Stourton: The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby has made his first appointment. Canon David Porter from Coventry Cathedral will be the first Director of Reconciliation at Lambeth Palace. Good morning.

Canon David Porter: Good morning Ed

ES: and as I understand it your first target will be the home team – your own church?

Porter: Well yes, the role is to help the Archbishop fulfil his commitment to making Reconciliation one of the key hallmarks of his service as Archbishop and he has invited Coventry Cathedral to take the lead in this. Of course he spent some time in Coventry Cathedral being on the Reconciliation team here so it is close to his heart and we are really privileged to be asked to do this.

ES: But so I am clear returning to my question, the press release from Lambeth Palace says ‘his [that is your] focus will be on supporting creative ways of renewing conversations in relationships around deeply held differences within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion’

Porter: Well I think we recognise that if the church is going to make any constructive contribution to the conflicts that are going on in our world then we need to look to ourselves and we need to be a people who are on a journey of Reconciliation who are modelling, not necessarily that we agree because it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are all going to agree, but that we hold our differences in a very Christian and constructive way

ES: Well, doesn’t this put a huge burden on your shoulders because the truth is that these tensions within the Anglican Communion and the Church of England have as you have just reflected in a way, have arisen because of very deeply held theological doctrinal disputes about questions like women bishops, like homosexuality, and it is difficult to see how one man by focussing on ‘process’ can overcome those.

Porter: Well in one sense it isn’t my job to overcome those issues – there are plenty of more intelligent more creative people who have lived and journeyed with these issues for quite a number of years. My job is actually to look at ‘process’ – it is to look at how we create the space for conversations to take place where people will still differ and they still will disagree but they will do so in a way that is able to say ‘look this is how Christians disagree, this is how we hold tensions and differences together’

ES: Except that on some of these issues people will believe that the disagreements go to the very heart of what it means to be a Christian

Porter: that is true

ES: so how can, how can a better ‘process’ overcome that?

Porter: well, in my background in Northern Ireland I used to say to people that if you are a fundamentalist protestant who believes that the catholic church are not Christian or if you are a strong catholic who believes there is no salvation outside the church and you’re in that conversation, the reality is that Jesus still tells you to love the people that you perceive as your enemies and that shows that you are holding what you hold on to in a Christian way and are able to disagree within that commitment of Jesus teling us how we disagree

ES: Do you think that some senior members of the Anglican Communion have forgotten that basic fact in the way that they have conducted themselves in these debates?

Porter: I think all of us when we get caught up in conflicts that are deep to who we are and to the values that we hold on to – we do forget that bigger voice from God that calls us to a different way of engaging with difference

Porter: and I am slightly pointing out something to you that you have already recognised but as you say unless you get this sorted out it is very difficult to see how the church can offer a model for reconciliation to other people isn’t it?

DP: There is truth in that, but equally the church is also - we are fallible human beings, and the fact is that wherever you find conflict, there are times that you get it right and there are times that you get it wrong, and I think what is needed actually is honesty on behalf of the church, not over pretending that we can always get it right but being honest where we are actually failing to live up to what Christ calls us to

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Listen to it all with thanks to Stand Firm where there is more and an unofficial transcript is below:

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Fr. Matt Kennedy: Summing up the ++Justin Welby Debate

After the many debates on facebook and elsewhere regarding Justin Welby, his appointment of a Director of Reconciliation, and my friendly response to Kevin Kallsen and Fr. George Conger’s glowing review of his first few days, I thought I’d sum up my thoughts on Justin Welby:

I thought I would take a few minutes and talk about the Justin Welby situation. I know there has been a lot of discussion online, on my facebook page, on Stand Firm about his recent appointment of a Reconciliation Director, a Director of Reconciliation, I don’t know exactly how that title was said, but I do know that there is a lot of hope out there. A lot of people are hoping that Archbishop Welby will be our saviour, that he will deliver the Communion, that because he is an evangelical, he had a conversion experience at Nicky Gumbel’s church that he is therefore the one to look to to rescue the Communion. In fact I wrote an article this morning because I heard on Anglican TV a discussion of Welby, and my good friend Kevin, and my good friend George both gave him – well George gave him an A for effort in his first few days, and Kevin gave him an A+ I think it was, based on the reasoning that, well, Archbishop Welby is an Evangelical, he had his conversion experience so when he appoints a Director of Reconciliation, then he must mean by that, that he is going to engage in a Reconciliation Process that is conducted in a manner that is consistent with the Evangelical understanding of reconciliation – which would mean therefore that there is going to be a call for repentance, a call to Biblical faithfulness, and then on that basis we all agree to reconcile.

And if that is the case, oh and I hope it is [don’t get me wrong!], if that is the case, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, that’s wonderful. But – there is nothing in what Welby has written before being appointed to the chair of Canterbury, there is nothing that at least that I have read that Canon Porter has written that would indicate that for them that Reconciliation means anything more than learning to live with very difficult differences and maintain institutional unity despite that: Reconciliation means living with utter differences and finding ways to cooperate on various things that we can cooperate on. So if you happen to read then Bishop Welby’s article that he wrote for the Centre Aisle, for the diocese of Virginia, he indicated very clearly in that article that one way to accomplish a form of reconciliation between people who promote same-sex blessings and want to ordain people who are living in same-sex relationships to the priesthood and to the episcopate – one way reconciliation can be accomplished between those people and orthodox Christian leaders is by engaging together in common Christian mission because we can all walk together across the bridge to other peoples and give the Gospel.

And to that, to that idea, how can any Christian who knows his or her Bible well, not say ‘NO’? No, we can’t engage in common mission and walk across the rainbow bridge to share a common Gospel because we don’t share a common Gospel. The behaviours that men like Bishop [Shannon] Johnston are promoting, St Paul says will keep people out of the Kingdom of God, if they engage in them – will keep people out of the Kingdom of God!

How can we join hands and go along in a common Christian mission if the things taught and promoted by one man, by the people we are holding hands with can and do lead people to the Pit? There is a different gospel at play here, a different understanding of Scripture, a different understanding of its authority, of its meaning – a different jesus altogether. So the jesus that Bishop Johnston walks across the bridge to proclaim is not going to be the Jesus of the New Testament. It’s going to be a different jesus who cannot save. So we cannot engage in common mission, we cannot proclaim the same gospel, we can’t even – we can’t do anything that will legitimise in the eyes of any onlooker, be it with a person within the church or a person outside of the church – we can’t do anything to legitimise in any way a false teacher’s office or teaching.

And by holding hands, maintaining institutional unity, doing what we can to “reconcile” with those people, short of repentance, then what we are doing is we are saying ‘this person is a Christian brother, this person is a leader and the issue over which we disagree is a small, inconsequential issue that is worth debating, and is worth disagreeing over, but is not worth dividing over, because we all share the same gospel. In other words, you reduce the issue of homosexual behaviour in the church to ‘a diaphora’, a non-essential issue. And that, my friends, is a betrayal of the Gospel – that’s a betrayal of the Gospel.

So, if Bishop Welby means by reconciliation what he has written that he means by reconciliation, what he has said many times, not just in that article from the Centre Aisle, but you can read a sermon that he wrote, that we posted on Stand Firm, you can read his address before the Episcopal Church House of Bishops, if he means what he says, if reconciliation means what he has said reconciliation means, then it is not true reconciliation, it is surrender, it is compromise, it is collaboration, it is something that we cannot go along with.

So I just wanted to put this out there, today so that you can all hear it, and let me know what you think in the comments.

Here’s a link to the facebook discussion/debate that ultimately involved Kevin Kallsen and Peter Ould

And here’s a link to some of the documents I reference in the audio above:
Center Aisle article
Pentecost Sermon
Address to the TEC HOB
Article Quoting Canon Porter

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Watch it all - With thanks to Kevin and Fr George at Anglican TV here who talk about Archbishop Welby and Reconciliation from 10 mins 40 seconds in to 21 mins in - and there is an unofficial transcript of the section below

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ANGLICAN UNSCRIPTED EPISODE 65

Can Canterbury be relevant again:

Kevin: We’re going to talk about the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. Last week was his first week in office and he arrived at Lambeth Palace probably in a chariot, I don’t know how the first week works – they open up the doors and the staff welcomes him, it’s probably right out of Downton Abbey. And he comes in and they show him around – he probably knows what it looks like but they show him around anyway, it’s his first day and he gets to sit at his desk for the first time and they show him his nice leather chair and the little lamp on the desk he can turn on and off and he hears off in the background a squeak, squeak, squeak, as a dolly comes in bringing an appointment book. We call it a calendar, they call it over there a diary and they put it on his desk and they open up the book and dust comes off and they open up to the first page and there’s thirty-five items for his first day in office. George – what does our new Archbishop say?

George: ‘No – I’m not going to be house-broken’. This could have been straight out of the TV show, ‘Yes Minister’ where Jim Hacker comes in and brand new cabinet minister - and Sir Humphrey the head of the civil service in that department gives him his appointments diary, and for the next six months Jim Hacker is kept busy doing busy work, so that he is out of the hair, out of the power and authority that should be exercised by the staff. Well that’s what Lambeth Palace, the Church House tried to do to Justin Welby. They tried to neuter him, tried to house-train him so that he would be kept busy while they did the important stuff. Justin Welby would be allowed to choose what color wallpaper he had in his office, but he really wouldn’t be allowed to decide what the priorities of his job would be - and Justin Welby said no.

Kevin: And that’s the interesting reality here is a busy minion staff can keep their boss busy enough so nothing changes. And basically nothing has changed since Carey and Rowan Williams because the staff has kept the boss so busy. There’s been no classical change in Anglicanism since Lambeth 1:10 because the minions at Church House says ‘we don’t need any more of those decision-making things from our Primates or from Lambeth. We just need to keep things going at an even flow, no conflict like there’s nothing happening here – walk away – those flames are nothing.’ Justin Welby has from his first day stopped that.

He’s also done something brand new. Yesterday he appointed a new Reconciliation Minister called Canon David Porter, who is from Ireland. Now a quick backdrop of Ireland – Northern Ireland used to live in great conflict in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and there was basically a war in north Ireland between the IRA and the Ulster Union, and some would say it’s been between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. Whatever it was between, it was a mess of people who were so involved in hating each other they forgot why they hated each other. And it ended up in shootings, bombings, assassinations, grenades thrown into school yards, grenades thrown at funerals. Here, watching in America you just couldn’t understand what was really going on, to the point where the people in Ireland really didn’t know what was going on.

People like David Porter, and who was that famous Anglican that was over there?

George Conger: Robert Eames

Kevin: helped these people draw to a peace. Now the peace wasn’t between Christians – the peace was a man-level peace: I will not annihilate you if you don’t annihilate me – that is how man agrees at peace. We’ve done that with Russia and China and other places – the natural ‘we won’t self-destruct assurance. That isn’t God level reconciliation. We’ve brought this man, David Porter in to Lambeth Palace to help deal with what we call the war of the Anglicans. The Anglican Communion is currently shattered and scattered because of heresy within the church. David Porter is going to be brought in to be a Minister of Reconciliation. Can he do that job George?

George: Well in many ways the situation is just as bad verbally as it was in Northern Ireland. Last month Katherine Jefferts Schori went to Charleston and called Mark Lawrence and the conservatives in that diocese terrorists and murderers, authoritarian thugs who had taken over the church unlawfully. And you and I get emails and see comments all the time by conservatives calling Katherine Jefferts Schori a witch and a heretic. That level of vitriol seems next to impossible to reconcile and the way that the Anglican Communion has been trying to do it through the Indaba process, through a psychological approach with small groups and what not, it’s basically a waste of time; that’s what it’s shown to be – the Panel of Reference, the Indaba, all these different groups have produced absolutely nothing.

Now what is different about this time around? Well, I am excited, I am encouraged because, it’s a dirty word Kevin for some people, but I am about to say it, so you may need to bleep this out, but David Porter is an ‘Evangelical’

Kevin: Oh, my ears, George

George: and just as Justin Welby is an ‘Evangelical’. When they talk about reconciliation it’s a multi-part process and the first part of that sort of reconciliation is not between man and man, but between man and God, and once you are reconciled with God, once you are basically looking at things through the prism of holiness and godliness, you then move on to reconciliation with the people around you. And that is what has been able to effect change in Northern Ireland. So in that way Martin McGuiness and Jerry Adams is part of the same government as Ian Paisley, and it’s working and they are happy, those are IRA leaders and the Ulster Unionist leaders. Is it possible that Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bob Duncan could be brought to the same table and work in peace and harmony like the IRA and the Democratic Ulster Unionist Party. If it worked in Northern Ireland it could very well work in South Carolina – I don’t know.

Kevin Kallsen: It’s different. This isn’t Indaba – this is taking a direct charge of a situation and putting a man in charge of – this isn’t the Panel of Reference, this isn’t all the things that were tried before, this is something new. Now the destination may be the same, we may still have a fractured Communion at the end because they cannot reconcile, and this may reveal that there is no reconciliation possible, but we have a person who can help in identifying whether or not there is a possibility of reconciliation. If, you know, ten years from now the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church in Canada are no longer part of the Communion well this is something to help get us there

George: and Kevin when - we need to come back to what is the first significant staff appointment the Archbishop of Canterbury has made, it’s this guy, David Porter, to work on the Godly reconciliation of warring factions within the Communion. That is the agenda that Justin Welby is setting down as his priority at Lambeth Palace. And to me – if it works, that’s wonderful – if it doesn’t work it may be very well because that’s God’s will for the church at this time. But in any event that’s the focus, not mosquito nets, not carbon fasts, not global warming, reconciliation under Christ – that’s a wonderful thing.

Kevin: Another thing an Archbishop usually does in first week in office is sit down with the BBC or ITV or somebody for his interview – but they don’t sit down with Christian press, we don’t see that from archbishops of Canterbury very often

George: Not with the last one, the one before we did, Rowan Williams never

Kevin: And for whatever reason I didn’t get to interview him. You got to interview him once, right?

George: 2005 – and never again after that

Kevin: ‘they ask hard questions – we are not going to have that’
Well this British interviewer for ITV sat down with Justin Welby. He thought he had the perfect candidate: a European liberal, business background, hates banks and financial institutions, obviously this was going to be a great conversation that will play forever in interviewdom and he sits down and says Justin Welby – I am being – this isn’t quite verbatim but – sits down and says Archbishop Welby, you’re the new Archbishop of Canterbury and there has been conflict in the Communion over same-sex marriages and gay bishops and women clergy. Can you as the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, in Britain, help save us from those evil Anglicans around the world and let them know that, you know, that this is OK stuff? George, what does Justin say?

George: ‘No, no, first off it’s not OK – the Church of England, I Justin Welby do not agree with the government’s position on gay marriage and the changes it is making. ‘And secondly’ you have to remember, Justin Welby said, ‘that I am Primate of All England and Archbishop of Canterbury as Archbishop and Primus Inter Pares, first among equals, and I will not subordinate the Anglican Communion to British Politics. I’m not going to force everybody to be English’ – which was what the Welshman, Rowan Williams wanted to do. This is a tremendous change. He is reasserting the independence of the Church, he is reasserting the authority of the Archbishop’s office as an archbishop for the Communion as opposed to a local chairman of the board.

Kevin: so for the first week in office, I’m going to give you know, Archbishop Justin Welby a Ten, you know, he did very well for the first week. I look forward to nothing but good things in the second week. The reality is we don’t know what it is going to look like when he finally resigns a decade down the line, whether he has had a real effect on the Anglican Communion or not. However based on what I’ve observed from the first week, I can’t complain. George, how about you?

George: A for effort

Kevin: A for effort

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

In the end, repentance, not love, has come to symbolise Cranmer himself, his life's work being interpreted by his last days. In the eyes of his critics, Cranmer's recantations prove that at best he was weak and vacillating. In the hearts of his admirers, however, Cranmer's last-minute renunciation of his recantations proved his true commitment to the Protestant faith. But what of Cranmer himself, how did he interpret his last days and the meaning they gave to his life? According to a contemporary account, having previously been distraught, Cranmer came to the stake with a cheerful countenance and willing mind.

Fire being now put to him, he stretched out his right Hand, and thrust it into the Flame, and held it there a good space, before the Fire came to any other Part of his Body; where his Hand was seen of every Man sensibly burning, crying with a loud Voice, This Hand hath offended. As soon as the Fire got up, he was very soon Dead, never stirring or crying all the while.

His Catholic executioners surely thought Cranmer was making satisfaction to his Protestant God. Yet his doctrine of repentance would have taught him otherwise, for the God he served saved the unworthy.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Theology • Anthropology • Pastoral Theology • Soteriology

Merciful God, who through the work of Thomas Cranmer didst renew the worship of thy Church by restoring the language of the people, and through whose death didst reveal thy power in human weakness: Grant that by thy grace we may always worship thee in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Watch it all

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Welby himself reflected on lessons from treasury management for conflict resolution: synthesise a lot of information quickly and under pressure; flexibility in attitude, analytical models, planning and execution; and steely determination towards key goals.

His reconciliation ministry developed six “Rs” for work in conflict situations: Researching – carefully listening to all sides and also identifying ‘spoilers’ with a vested interest in continuation of the conflict and planning to deal with them; Relating – to people not to an office and not because they are good but because they are there; Relieving – alleviating the socio-economic roots of conflict; Risking – and trusting the sovereignty of God; Reconciling – to enable warring communities to continue to disagree without violence or mutual destruction, a process that cannot be contained simply within the Church; and Resourcing – enabling communities to address their own conflicts without outside assistance. Christ’s shed blood was ‘the fountain of reconciliation with God , from which all other reconciliation flows’.

From his study of Thiselton’s commentary on 1 Corinthians Welby noticed that although the Corinthians were in error on several major theological issues, the Apostle Paul continued to treat them “as fellow members of the family of God”.

In moving to Liverpool as Dean and then Durham as bishop he focused on risk-taking in decisive leadership interwoven with collegiality and consensus.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Archbishop Welby agrees there are many strengths of the Anglican parish system, but 'we fish badly': 'The church is good at contact and presence but too often poor at bringing people to faith in Jesus. ... We are excellent at building bridges into the community and into society and rather less good at getting the gospel across the bridge, and bringing people back. Or to put it another way our net holds many but we land few.' His evangelistic passion is best encapsulated by a recent address to an Alpha Vision Day in Sheffield, attended by over 700 church leaders from across the north of Britain: 'We are facing in this country the greatest opportunity that God has given us since the Second World War. ... It is a moment of unique opportunity and the challenge that the Spirit is saying to the Church today is, "Will you take this moment and reverse the decline that we have seen for the last 70 or 80 years?"' With buoyant confidence in the grace and power of God, the new Archbishop believes that great things are possible in our generation. The task of the church, he insists, is 'to go out and ... to reconvert our land, to transform its society and all that goes with it.'

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

The Cathedral can hold only 2,000 people for the Service and there have been many discussions about whom to invite. Bishops and Archbishops from the world wide Anglican Communion will attend as will the leaders of many churches in Britain and representatives of Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Sikhs, Jain and Buddhist faiths, along with a senior member of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and leading politicians. In addition, ballots have been held, so that members of the regular congregation, volunteers, and staff have a chance to attend the big day.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

According to leaked documents seen by The Mail on Sunday, at least three senior African archbishops have privately urged conservative colleagues to shun the gathering.

In the documents, the Primate of Kenya, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, said he recommended that ‘we show our commitment to the Anglican Communion by being present for the service at Canterbury Cathedral . . . but do not participate in the “collegial time” being proposed by Archbishop Welby’.

He said the new Archbishop of Canterbury had ‘given us no clear indication of the matters for discussion’ and that primates ‘who have led the way in promoting false teaching’ will be welcomed by Dr Welby.

Read it all remembering the source.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

I am thinking there may be much confusion between what we mean when we say forgiveness and reconciliation. In order for any of us to be reconciled to God and to one another there must be repentance.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me."

Our reconciliation to God is through the cross of Christ and what we bring is our repentance. No repentance, no reconciliation.

Forgiveness is another matter. We begin with the forgiveness God has for us, again through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. We are forgiven not on our own merit, but in the merits of the Son of God who gave His life that we might have life. He has paid the debt we could not pay....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Read it all and there is also a Prayer for the New Pope

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Lambeth Palace has a new incumbent, who will be formally enthroned on March 21st as head of the Church of England, and hence of the global Anglican Communion. Anglicanism has replaced a scholar and theologian with a more practical, hands-on type, as the Roman Catholic church would be well advised to do. But on the face of things, Justin Welby's first foray into politics seemed to mark him out as yet another cleric of the centre-left...

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Dear Archbishop Justin,

It is an immense privilege to write to you about the future of our Church. As an evangelist and a pastor, you will know that we need to connect with the deepest longings of our people for significance and meaning in the course of a hard life, for love that proves elusive and for justice, often denied.

The good news of Jesus Christ has to be shown to meet their deepest needs....

Read it all and you can listen to the sequence on the Sunday Program here starting 10 minutes 40 seconds in for about 3 minutes

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

All are welcome to join Archbishop Justin on this Journey in Prayer in the days before his enthronement in Canterbury Cathedral.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Listen to the Audio here and there is a transcript here and a pdf here

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

"His initial focus will be on supporting creative ways for renewing conversations and relationships around deeply held differences within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

... the sheer number of those who rang in to express warm thanks to a man who was widely perceived as thoughtful and decent was striking. These were not the commentariat or academics - who have been swift to criticise - but those whom I suspect Williams would have seen as his real constituency.

How will things be different, both for the church and for the wider culture, with the new Archbishop, Justin Welby? On first glance, there is less theological depth...

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

It was with a heavy heart but complete understanding that we learned this morning of Pope Benedict’s declaration of his decision to lay down the burden of ministry as Bishop of Rome, an office which he has held with great dignity, insight and courage. As I prepare to take up office I speak not only for myself, and my predecessors as Archbishop, but for Anglicans around the world, in giving thanks to God for a priestly life utterly dedicated, in word and deed, in prayer and in costly service, to following Christ. He has laid before us something of the meaning of the Petrine ministry of building up the people of God to full maturity....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has taken control of his work diary after Lambeth Palace officials presented him with a “monster” list of engagements for his first few months in office.

The scaling back of commitments by Justin Welby is in marked contrast to his predecessor Dr Rowan Williams, who ran a packed schedule.

Dr Williams diary for March last year contained 15 events, sometimes two in the same day...

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Check it out and see what you think.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • * Culture-Watch • Books

In the first major test of his leadership of the worldwide Anglican Communion the Most Rev Justin Welby will be warned that the Church’s move risks alienating millions of traditionalist Anglicans in Africa and Asia.

Leaders of churches around the world are flying to Britain for Archbishop Welby’s formal installation at Canterbury cathedral next month, when some of them will meet the Archbishop for the first time.

Many want the new spiritual head of the 80-million strong Communion to call for an end to “divisive” moves away from traditional church teaching on sexuality, such as the ordination of [non-celibate] gay clergy as bishops.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • CoE Bishops

[Justin] Welby immediately inherits a nationwide controversy over legitimizing gay marriage, which was approved by the British Parliament on Tuesday. The government has already agreed that, whether or not it passes the House of Lords, the Anglican Church will not be required to preside over the marriage of same-sex couples.

The new archbishop has repeatedly declared his support for the Church’s traditional prohibition of same-sex marriage.

Nevertheless, he will face lingering controversies within the church over ordaining women bishops and accepting clergy in active same-sex relationships.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

Above all at the start of Justin’s new ministry I hope that we shall all be open to the constant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, renewing us in faith, in hope, and in love. Anyone becoming an Archbishop is conscious both of the heritage of faithful witness in which we stand, and of today’s challenges and opportunities to make Christ known afresh in this generation. It is a privilege and responsibility we all share as followers of Christ in this land, as we are charged, along with Archbishop Justin, with the message of the all-embracing love of God in Jesus Christ, who rose gloriously from death to life on the first Easter day. It is to this ministry that Bishop Justin has been called.

Like any Bishop in the Church of England the Archbishop of Canterbury has a role in looking out for the needs of all sections of the community, whatever their religious tradition or belief, with special attention to the most vulnerable members of our society. The Archbishop does not carry this great responsibility alone, but in his public role he rightly represents the many hours of commitment and service put in by volunteers up and down the country who strive together in their local communities for the common good.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • Archbishop of York John Sentamu

...you spoke, Lord Mayor, of the hope of co-operation in the future of the extraordinary community that is the City of London. The years from the re-opening of the Euromarkets in the early 60s, led by the late and great Sir Sigmund Warburg, to 2008 were as much a golden age of the City as anything in its past, but should be outshone by its future. To this day, the largest proportion of legal work, accounting, banking, international finance, insurance, and much of commodity trading, shipping, happens in the City.

That is a good thing. Let me also say that I am not throwing stones at the City, when all is going well, markets are rising, profits look good, it is virtually impossible to stand against the tide: I wonder if I would have done, and few managed it.

The danger is the same as every good trader recognises, that of looking back to where the market was, not looking forward to where it should be. The City of the future should be highly profitable, but from serving the communities of the UK and overseas. It should grow a culture that takes the best of the past, the intelligence, the drive, the innovation and entrepreneurial skills, and puts those talents to the benefit of the common good. The challenge that we all face is the creation of an architecture for a 21st century financial services industry and banking sector, one which is ethical and profitable, innovative and safe.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

In this way leadership is a myth, a story we tell ourselves over and over again in an attempt to make sense of the world around us. We look for leadership, because we expect leadership, because we look for leadership....

This is the plot of Shane, Triumph of the Will, Saving Private Ryan and practically every western every made. It is the founding myth of our politics and our society. It tells us that violence works, and that leadership only comes from the imposition of a superman's will upon the masses, and preferably those masses "out there", not us. Williams recognised this: "When people say, 'We want you to give a lead', what they mean is, 'We want you to tell them, not us. We don't want to be led.'" In the end, leadership means doing beastly things, to other people.

The need for "leadership'" in our society is fatally flawed by its roots. Instead, the Christian faith has a better word for the ministry to which he, and every Christian, is called: disciple. It doesn't matter how many hyphens we tack on to the front of it ("servant-leadership", "compassionate-leadership", "collaborative-leadership"), it is still leadership, and therefore antithetical to the model, ministry and challenge of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. I don't want Justin Welby to be a leader. I'd hope that the new archbishop could be a disciple, and one who can help others to become disciples as well.

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[Justin] Welby listened intently to the rituals, his poker face a picture of both concentration and concern. “Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools,” came advice from the Bible — not unlike Williams’ parting advice last year that his successor would need “the constitution of an ox and the skin of a rhinoceros.”

Stepping out of a medieval court inside the cathedral and into the bright sunshine of the London cold, Welby was asked by reporters about his and the church’s position regarding a contentious bill in Parliament to allow same-sex marriage.

While sticking to the church’s position that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman, he told a BBC reporter: “The government wants it. We think there are issues around the way it’s going forward. But it’s not a collision course. ... We’ve made our views clear and I’m very much with the House of Bishops on this. They have made their views clear.”

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It’s official: We can now call Justin Portal Welby the Archbishop of Canterbury. On Monday St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was the scene of a confirmation ritual begun in the fourth century. Welby is the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.

When George L. Carey was confirmed in office in 1991 the venue was the crypt of St. Mary le Bow in Eastcheap in the City of London. Apart from members of the church court comprising a handful of bishops, the Dean of Canterbury plus lawyers, attending were immediate family and a handful of observers.

In 2002 Rowan Williams rang changes. He moved the event to St. Paul’s where the court was located at the high altar. To see the action clearly people sitting under the famous St. Paul’s dome would have needed opera glasses. To improve viewing this time round the proceedings were located further forward around the nave altar.

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Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, told the Most Rev Justin Welby, that he would lead the Church of England amid an age of seemingly unprecedented selfishness – in a society obsessed with individualism and rights.

The New Archbishop was also formally charged with the task of providing “a voice for faith” in the face of attempts to marginalise religion.

The 57-year-old former oil executive’s election as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury was confirmed in a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

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In his first official day as leader of the Church of England, the Rt Rev Justin Welby is expected to say that marriage should remain "between a man and a woman".

As MPs prepare for the vote on gay marriage tomorrow, Bishop Welby will give his first interviews after being officially confirmed in the post at a ceremony in St Paul's Cathedral in London.

"He will say that marriage is between a man and a woman, and always has been," a source close to Bishop Welby said last night, adding that the Archbishop was expecting to be asked for his views and had prepared his response.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

The Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Justin Welby, will officially become the Archbishop of Canterbury at a ceremony, known as the ‘Confirmation of Election’, which will take place in the context of an act of worship in St Paul's Cathedral on Monday 4th February.

The ceremony forms part of the legal process by which the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury is put into effect. It will be presided over by the Archbishop of York with the assistance of the Bishops of London, Winchester, Salisbury, Worcester, Rochester, Lincoln, Leicester and Norwich. All have been commissioned for this purpose by Her Majesty The Queen – who is the ‘Supreme Governor’ of the Church of England.

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It was billed as the moral equivalent of an Ali v Foreman title fight. The world’s best known atheist arguing with the man who until a few weeks ago was the Archbishop of Canterbury. Last night, Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, took on Rowan Williams, the new master of Magdalene College, in a debate on religion at the Cambridge Union. And Williams emerged triumphant.

The motion for debate was big enough to attract the very best speakers to the Cambridge Union: Religion has no place in the 21st century.

But the key factor in persuading Professor Richard Dawkins to agree to take part in last night’s setpiece was something else – an admiration for his principal opponent.

“I normally turn down formal debates,” he said. “But the charming Rowan Williams was too good to miss.”

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • * Culture-Watch • Education • Philosophy • Religion & Culture • Young Adults • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Atheism • * Theology • Apologetics

As [Arif] Ahmed recited figures on Anglicanism’s decline Rowan Williams grew restless, causing Ahmed to ask the master of Magdalene pointedly: “Do you want a point of information?” The room broke out in laughter as Williams responded by motioning for Ahmed to ‘bring it on’.

The Spectator columnist Douglas Murray, arguing for the relevance of religion in the 21st century despite the “awkward position” of being an atheist, finished the debate by declaring that “no rational person could agree with this motion". Religion, alongside humanism and secularism, has “a contribution to make”, Murray argued, telling students that without religion you may end up “with something like a perpetual version of The Only Way is Essex”.

Priyanka Kulkarni, Pembroke first year, said: “Tonight's debate was highly anticipated, the queue spanning for what seemed to be miles was an indicator that this was going to be a highlight of the union this term.”

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You may find the preliminary video here (it lasts a little over 1 1/2 hours).

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Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, said the financial crisis and a series of scandals had “toppled the idols” on which British society had been based for decades but could open up the way for a wider return to Christianity.

He said the current mood in the country offered the Church its “greatest moment of opportunity since the Second World War”.

His comments, days before he formally takes over as Archbishop, herald a shift in the direction of the Church of England, with a more explicit drive to win converts rather than being perceived as simply managing decline.

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Rowan Williams and Richard Dawkins are to go head to head again in debate. Last year the two debated religion and science in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, now they are to debate the place of reli- gion in the modern world at the Cambridge Union.

About 1,000 students are expect- ed to attend a debate in which Tariq Ramadan, Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association, and Douglas Murray, founder of the Centre for Social Cohesion, will also take part.

The debate will be filmed and be available on the Union website soon after it has taken place.

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Watch and listen to it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has revealed that he regarded his application for the job as a “joke”. He described how he was ordered by the Church of England to apply after just seven months as Bishop of Durham even though he thought it ridiculous.

Speaking in an interview at Trent Vineyard, an evangelical church near Nottingham, Justin Welby said that he had been “told”, as one of the top five diocesan bishops, to apply. But he did not take the prospect seriously.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby

But you don’t believe the dear Lord created it anyway, do you? Hasn’t that got you into trouble with the people who don’t believe in evolution? Not in this country. You get letters but it’s a very easy thing to answer. Someone says: ‘I believe a God of infinite mercy created every single species and the Lord looks after us and all the animals.’ Well, what about that little African boy, five years old, sitting on the banks of a river, and he’s got a worm in his eye that’s going to turn him blind in three years? Did this God that you talk about actually design this worm and say: ‘I’ll put it in this boy’s eye?’ To suggest that God specifically created a worm to torture small African children is blasphemy as far as I can see. The Archbishop of Canterbury doesn’t believe that.

He’s supposed to believe it, though, isn’t he? Absolutely not! If you said to the Archbishop of Canterbury: ‘Are you really telling me that God got some mud, blew in it and made a man and when that man said: “I haven’t got a friend”, he took out one of his ribs, rubbed it in his hands and went “boom, boom”?’ [Rowan] Williams [the last Archbishop of Canterbury] is a highly civilised, educated man. He wouldn’t for a microsecond be so silly as to believe that. But it does put him in an intolerable position.

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The Right Revd Justin Welby, Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of Canterbury Elect, tonight (Monday January 28) bade farewell to the Durham Diocese with a message of hope for the people he is leaving behind.

Bishop Justin attended a service of farewell, thanks and celebration at Durham Cathedral in what was his last public appearance in the diocese before he receives his legal title as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bishop Justin will cease to be Bishop of Durham and have the legal title bestowed on him as Archbishop of Canterbury at 12 noon on the 4th February at a formal service in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. His public ministry will be inaugurated at an enthronement service at Canterbury Cathedral on 21st March.

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On the evening of 4 January, as the BBC News led with a new “civil part- nered bishops” row, Rowan Williams must have powerfully experi enced how different life had become after stepping down as Archbishop of Canter- bury at the end of 2012. For over 10 years such stories were almost always tied to him and his views on sexuality and his leader- ship of the Church. Not any longer. Yet the story illustrates how much “unfinished business” remained as he left office and how fragile Anglican unity is. It therefore raises the question as to his legacy.

For the last six months I’ve attempted to look back over his primacy to offer an ini- tial tentative assessment of his tenure and legacy in Rowan Williams: His Legacy (Lion, 2013). It has been a fascinating and challenging task. I thought I had a fairly good idea of his ministry but quickly realised how little I knew and how wide it has been.

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"On one occasion I was travelling with the late lamented Bishop Weeks, then a simple minister. I went with him on a visit to a friend in the country. While I was in the railway carriage with him, a gentleman attacked him, knowing that he was a friend of missions. The gentleman said, 'What are the missionaries doing abroad? We don't know anything about their movements. We pay them well, but we don't hear anything about them. I suppose they are sitting down quietly and making themselves comfortable.' Mr. Weeks did not say anything in reply, I having made a sign to him not to do so. After the gentleman had exhausted what he had to say, I said to him, 'Well, sir, I beg to present myself to you as a result of the labours of the missionaries which you have just been depreciating;' and I pointed to Mr. Weeks as the means of my having become a Christian, and having been brought to this country as a Christian minister. The gentleman was so startled that he had nothing more to say in the way of objection, and the subsequent conversation between him and Mr. Weeks turned upon missionary topics. On the banks of the Niger, where we have not been privileged to be ushered in by European missionaries, native teachers have maintained their footing among their own people. Their countrymen look upon them as very much superior to themselves in knowledge and in every other respect, and listen to them with very great attention when they preach to them the Gospel of our salvation."

On St. Peter's Day, 1864, perhaps the most important event of his life took place, when in Canterbury Cathedral Samuel Crowther was consecrated as the first Bishop of the Niger. The scene was a memorable one, and is not likely to be forgotten by those who stood in the vast crowd which filled every aisle of the grand cathedral that day. The license of Her Majesty had been duly promulgated in these terms:--

"We do by this our license under our royal signet and sign manual authorise and empower you the said Reverend Samuel Adjai Crowther to be Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in the said countries in Western Africa beyond the limits of our dominions."

When the service began it was an impressive sight to see the Archbishop of Canterbury, attended by live other Bishops, enter the choir; and following them the three Bishops to receive the solemn rite of consecration, viz: the new Bishop of Peterborough, the new Bishop of Tasmania, and the new Bishop of the Niger. Remembering, as doubtless many did, the touching history of his childhood and early struggles as a slave, not a, few in that vast building were moved to tears as [118/119] the African clergyman humbly knelt in God's glorious house to receive the seals of the high office of Shepherd in His earthly fold. Most of all must one heart have been affected, that of Airs. Weeks, the missionary's wife, at whose knee he received his first lessons in the way of the Lord.

No one could fail to see how God had called forth this native from the degradation of a boyhood of slavery, to become a chosen vessel in His service. He had proved himself as a true-hearted standard-bearer of the Cross in much toil and patient endurance, and it was meet that to him should be committed the spiritual interests of the district in which he had spent hitherto nearly the whole of his life since he became a Christian.

On his immediate return to the Niger, the work began afresh with renewed energy. Special attention was given to the Delta, for King Pepple, having been on a visit to England, made an application to the Bishop of London to send missionaries to his dominions. A more degraded district was not to be found in Africa. Although its trade was very flourishing, being one of the chief markets for palm oil, the people were sunk in the lowest vices and superstitions. At the time of which we speak, when Bishop Crowther was forming the Christian Church there, the shocking practice of cannibalism was not yet wholly given up, and the people were entirely under the power of the priests of the Juju or fetish worship. As in Dahomey, no regard for human life seems to have existed; men were sacrificed at every high festival, and at the burial of any of their chief men a number of poor creatures would be slaughtered. The ghastly spectacle of their temple, paved and elaborately decorated with human bones, showed the ferocity of their religion.

In the midst of this awful darkness came Bishop Crowther and his fellow-helpers, bearing the light of the Gospel, and in due time many believed and were saved. It was as in the early Church of the first centuries, the adherents of the new religion were mostly slaves, and to escape their persecutors had to meet for worship and counsel in retired places.

--Jesse Page, Samuel Crowther: The Slave Boy Who Became Bishop of the Niger (London, 1892), Chapter Ten (emphasis mine)

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Responding to the debate, Dr Giddings said that he had "no choice" about when he spoke in the women-bishops debate. His words had not been intended to undermine or personally criticise Bishop Welby, but, in any case, he had offered "an apology for any offence my words may have caused him".

Bishop Welby's reply was quoted to the Synod, with permission: "It never crossed my mind that you were in the slightest being offensive, discourteous, impolite, [or disrespectful]. . . I did think you were wrong! You thought I was, but we really need to be able to disagree, as I am sure you do agree."

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Before being enthroned in Canterbury Cathedral in two months' time, the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Justin Welby, has agreed to occupy another chair: that of the editor of The Northern Echo.

Bishop Welby was invited to guest-edit the newspaper last Friday, to mark the first anniversary of the Darlington Foundation for Jobs, a joint initiative to tackle youth unemployment, led by The Northern Echo and Darlington Borough Council. He is patron of the scheme.

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Late one night 20 years ago, when I was an oil executive rather than an Anglican bishop, I had run out of steam and patience toward the end of a complex multinational acquisition. We came to yet another bit of box ticking and I suggested we skip it, because we knew the material was accurate.

“Justin,” our wise investment-bank director said quietly, “you know that’s not how we do it.”

Under pressure, everyone is prone to make bad decisions and that story remains in my mind as I sit on the U.K.’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, listening to people talk about banks, bankers and their failures.

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The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, must be hoping that his tenure will not be dogged and disrupted by rows about homosexuals and women bishops.

His forerunner, Rowan Williams, was almost completely derailed by such quarrels. Much of the rest of what he had to say was drowned by the din of factional infighting, baffling to the uncommitted.

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A medieval ceremony has begun the process of the Rt Revd Justin Welby becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The College of Canons of Canterbury Cathedral has unanimously elected Bishop Justin Welby as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.

The 35-strong College of Canons, made up of senior clergy and lay people from the Diocese of Canterbury, met at Canterbury Cathedral's 14th-century Chapter House to take part in the formality, which dates back more than 1000 years.

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On 10th January 2013, the College of Canons will meet in the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral to elect Bishop Justin as the new Archbishop, having received the Congé d’Élire and Letter Missive from the Crown authorising the Election to take place.

A further legal ceremony, the Confirmation of Election, will take place on 4th February 2013 at St Paul's Cathedral. The Dean of Canterbury will report to a commission of senior diocesan bishops chaired by the Archbishop of York that Bishop Justin has been elected according to statute, and the Archbishop of York, on behalf of his fellow bishops and the wider Church, will confer on him the ‘spiritualities’ of the diocese of Canterbury.

At this point, he becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury - until then he remains Bishop of Durham.

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In the [BBC2 Goodbye to Canterbury] programme, Dr Williams also spoke of his opposition to the Iraq war in 2003. Once war had broken out, and troops were on the ground, Dr Williams decided not to "sound off from a distance". He had tried to focus the debate on what an exit to the war would look like, "what would justice after the war look like", which left him "satisfying nobody. . . People who think you ought to be swinging behind the Government are disappointed; people who think you ought always to be making loud and clear noises about global ethics will be disappointed.

"But I still think it's a path worth treading, because the important thing about Archbishops speaking in public is, I believe, they shouldn't ever be speaking in ways that have no cost, when other people are paying a price."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams

....everyone who visited the Olympic site or watched the broadcasts will have been made aware of the army of volunteers who cheerfully gave up their free time and worked away, without complaint, all hours of the day and night to make these great events happen. They were the key people who translated the Olympic vision into reality for the rest of us.

It ought to make us think a bit harder about all the other folk who quietly, often invisibly, turn vision into reality and just make things happen – especially volunteers. Here at the Robes project, over twenty local churches are combining to offer food and shelter to homeless people in London. Religion here isn’t a social problem or an old-fashioned embarrassment, it’s a wellspring of energy and a source of life-giving vision for how people should be regarded and treated. So let’s recognise this steady current of generosity that underlies so much of our life together in this country and indeed worldwide.

It’s all based on one vision – to make our society, our whole world, work for everyone, not just the comfortable and well off. And it’s a vision that sometimes seems to need Olympic levels of patient hard work and dedication.

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Perhaps we should not be so pessimistic. After all, history builds nodal points into the affairs of humankind which offer the prospect of change. Within a few short months, we will have a new governor of the Bank of England, a new director-general of the BBC, a new Archbishop of Canterbury. Maybe between them they can usher in simultaneous economic, cultural and spiritual renewal.

"Unhappy is the land that needs a hero," Brecht had his Galileo idealistically say. But this disconsolate country could do with more than one. We should not have unrealistic hopes. But Mark Carney, the new man at the helm of monetary policy and financial regulation, has a good track record as head of Canada's admittedly smaller central bank. Tony Hall comes to the BBC with not just a solid journalistic reputation but having now sorted out the financial, artistic and political mess at the Royal Opera House. And Justin Welby, a former oil executive turned priest, will arrive as the new Cantuar with useful experience of managing complex processes and organisations which should come in handy in a bitterly divided church which has lost much moral authority in speaking to the rest of society.

The challenges they each face are formidable....

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The decline of the Anglican Church as the country’s main religious voice is confirmed by findings from the Henry Jackson Society.
The study, which monitored statements by religious groups and media coverage of religion over the past decade, also found that the Roman Catholic Church had a more prominent role in public debate about religious issues than the Church of England.
Catholics focused heavily on pro-life issues and personal morality. Statements made by the C of E, in contrast, were more likely to be about overseas aid, foreign policy and poverty.

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Rowan Williams has attended his last service as the archbishop of Canterbury at the city's cathedral, before he leaves office as leader of the Church of England and spiritual head of the 77 million-strong Anglican communion.

More than 700 people turned out to bid farewell to 62-year-old Williams before he officially departs as the 104th archbishop of Canterbury on Monday, following a 10-year tenure.

He will go on to take up the posts of master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and chairman of the board of trustees of Christian Aid, the international development agency.

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New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson says he chafed for several years at being branded the first openly gay bishop of the Anglican Church until he realized that he was wasting a pulpit from which he could advocate for equality.

“I’d been given this really remarkable opportunity and it would be selfish of me not to be the best steward of that opportunity,” he recently told The Associated Press in an interview as he prepares to retire in January. “We went from my consecration, which set off this international controversy, to nine years later seeing gay, lesbian and transgender congregants welcome at all levels of the church, including bishop.”

Robinson’s election in 2003 as the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church created an international uproar and led conservative Episcopalians to break away from the main church in the United States.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • Instruments of Unity • Lambeth 2008 • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion)

The truth of God is the most comforting and joyful presence we can imagine; and also the most disorienting and demanding. There’s a famous Old Testament story (2 Kings 5) about the great military leader of ancient Israel’s fiercest enemy, who comes to the prophet Elisha to be healed of his leprosy; and the prophet tells him simply to wash in the river. He is indignant: surely there must be something more difficult and glamorous and heroic to do? No; it’s perfectly simple. Go and wash, go and join all those ordinary humble folk who are sluicing themselves in the river after a long day’s work, or beating their laundry against the stones. Go and join the rest of the human race and acknowledge who you are. That’s the truest heroism and the hardest.

It’s a foreshadowing of the New Testament invitation: repent and believe and be baptised. Turn round and look where you’ve never looked before, trust the one who is calling you and drop under the water of his overflowing compassion. Be with him. Join the new human race, re-created in the Spirit of mutual love and delight and service.

If Jesus is strange and threatening, isn’t that (the New Testament certainly suggests) a sign of how far we’ve wandered from real humanity, real honesty about our weaknesses and limits?

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At the end of 2012 Dr Rowan Williams steps down after almost a decade as Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

He is the 104th Archbishop and has been in office at a time when the church faces internal problems and society comes to terms with global terrorism and recession....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams

It's a slightly strange way to start a Gospel you might think. We expect something a bit more like the beginning of the other Gospels: the story of Jesus's birth perhaps or his ancestry, or the story of Jesus's arrival on the public scene. But at the beginning of St John's Gospel what St John does is to frame his whole story against an eternal background. And what he's saying there is this: as you read this Gospel, as you read the stories about what Jesus does, be aware that whatever he does in the stories you're about to read is something that's going on eternally, not just something that happens to be going on in Palestine at a particular date. So when Jesus brings an overflow of joy at a wedding, when Jesus reaches out to a foreign woman to speak words of forgiveness and reconciliation to her, when Jesus opens the eyes of a blind man or raises the dead, all of this is part of something that is going on forever. The welcome of God, the joy of God, the light of God, the life of God - all of this is eternal. What Jesus is showing on Earth is somehow mysteriously part of what is always true about God....

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Rowan Williams • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Christmas • * Theology • Christology • Theology: Scripture

...there is one thing often said by defenders of the American gun laws that ought to make us think about wider questions. ‘It’s not guns that kill, it’s people.’ Well, yes, in a sense. But it makes a difference to people what weapons are at hand for them to use – and, even more, what happens to people in a climate where fear is rampant and the default response to frightening or unsettling situations or personal tensions is violence and the threat of violence. If all you have is a hammer, it’s sometimes said, everything looks like a nail. If all you have is a gun, everything looks like a target.

People use guns. But in a sense guns use people, too. When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action.

Perhaps that’s why, in a passage often heard in church around this time of year, the Bible imagines a world where swords are beaten into ploughshares.

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Spiritually, we must prepare ourselves for the journey, stripping away the trivial and comfortable habits that all of us develop in our practice of faith, and renewing our commitment to follow the Word Incarnate. And then we must work this out in action – in our own willingness to be alongside the displaced, to work devotedly with all who defend the rights and dignities of those without land or livelihood, and to speak for them and serve them in whatever way we can. Our churches should not be places where we retreat into the relief and safety of being with people who are just like ourselves. They should be places where we meet the ‘divine exile’ who invites us to follow him in bringing hope to the displaced and disinherited – where we learn something of his own liberty to be at the service of all in need and pain.

May God lead us out beyond the gates of our comfort to be with Jesus; and may he keep us always awake to see the realities of disorder and suffering around us.

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The interests of God and Mammon were reconciled in a seasonal spirit this week to accommodate the diary commitments of the parliamentary banking commission’s most intriguing member – the future archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

It is understood that Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the commission looking at the future shape of the City, delayed his report for a day to allow the current bishop of Durham to attend a carol service.

Such is Bishop Welby’s importance to the work of the commission that Mr Tyrie was said to have been insistent that he be there for the finalising of the report into the culture and behaviour of the banks.

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The leader of the Anglican Church of Canada has emerged from his Dec. 6 meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury-elect, Justin Welby, feeling “very optimistic about his leadership....”

During his meeting with Welby, Hiltz said he mentioned ongoing concern about efforts by the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to be recognized by the Church of England. Composed of Anglicans who have left the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church in the U.S., ACNA describes itself as “an emerging Province in the global Anglican Communion.”

Hiltz said he requested that if bodies of the Church of England are to meet with representatives of ACNA, “in fairness, they should also meet with us to get a better picture.” Welby was “very appreciative” of the place of the Anglican Church of Canada in the Communion and the contributions it has been able to make, added Hiltz.

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Everyone seems to be amazed that the Pope is tweeting – and there was a news story the other day about bishops in England using Twitter for their Christmas messages. The surprise reminds me of the way people pretend to be astonished when clergy admit to having heard the occasional rude word (never mind clergy actually using them…) or having watched a soap. It’s taken for granted that we’re far too unworldly for all this.

Even speaking as someone who struggles with any kind of technology, I don’t think it should be assumed that all my fellow clergy are or ought to be as dim as I am in this area. And I don’t buy into the panic that sometimes gets stirred up about social media and electronic communication. OK, we all know it can be poisonous and destructive at times. But there’s another side to it.

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In other words, real freedom of speech, the kind that is morally important and politically essential, involves two things – freedom to stand back from any particular loyalty in the name of loyalty to the truth, and freedom to speak truths that the powerful want hidden or ignored. It is not simply a matter of the liberty to spread random or trivial information, certainly not the liberty of expressing abusive or demeaning opinions. And no-one can be complacent about the levels of hurt and distress experienced by those who have been at the receiving end of intrusive and insensitive investigation in the name of this debased version of liberty. It is about sharing the reality of painful and difficult human experience so that others may know it for what it is and so that they may have no excuse for ignoring it. This kind of truthtelling is always radical because it demands that we identify with the situations of those very unlike us and recognise that they share the same world and the same human challenges. Truth is not likely to be found where people are told never to ask questions or where those who are backed by force have the right to dictate what counts as news, so that the human reality and human cost of injustice or disaster can be swept out of sight and mind.

Our readings today reinforce this strongly. St Paul’s words in his letter to the Philippians take it for granted that what is true is bound up with justice and honour among human beings: to think about what is true is to be committed to pursuing justice and honour, trust, fairness, all that is positive and in tune with people’s deepest longings and feelings.

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Canterbury Cathedral is a huge, unmistakeable physical fact: it simply stands there, quietly letting us know how deeply these issues mattered to people not so unlike us. It reminds us that there were some who thought them a matter of life and death – like Thomas Becket, who died as a result of protesting against the king’s absolute claims. Less dramatically, it reminds us of those generations of monks who fervently believed that the best thing they could do for the world was to hold it steadily in prayer, in a daily rhythm of simple living and concentrated quietness.

You can’t fail to recognise that at the very least it’s a great open space for us to come into and discover new things about our human life and possibilities. And Christmas itself is about the arrival of a person whose words and actions and sufferings make that sort of space for us all. It isn’t about the arrival of a new philosophy – or even just a new religion. The compassion that is shown by Jesus is something that takes us as we are and gives us freedom to ask the hardest questions; freedom to grow up, confident that at every stage of our lives we are welcomed and understood and affirmed. Freedom to face our shadows and betrayals as well, because we know that love can always make a fresh start with us.

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In a spooky, dare I say, godly coincidence, two of the world's important religions obtained new leaders in the past fortnight. What makes the coincidence seem so like divine providence is that both leaders started their vocational life not fired by the sacred but as industrialists.

The Coptic Church is now led by Pope Tawadros (Theodore) II, who ran a pharmaceutical factory until he saw the light. Former oil industry executive Justin Welby, meanwhile, was selected to be enthroned in March as the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Communion.

Both had late onset religious conversions....


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/godless-gross/a-tale-of-two-leaders-20121203-2apyg.html#ixzz2EbKcRdl9

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The Pontifical Council for the Promoting Christian Unity has welcomed the appointment of a new director for the Anglican Centre in Rome and representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Vatican. Archbishop David Moxon of Waikato, the senior Anglican bishop in New Zealand, will take up his new post after Easter 2013, following the retirement of the current director, Canon David Richardson.

Following the announcement from Lambeth Palace on Tuesday, the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity issued a note saying “It is felt that Archbishop Moxon’s considerable experience and gifts will suit him well for this important position which has such a significant role in relations between the Holy See and Canterbury, confirming the bonds of affection between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, and assisting our mutual understanding and work. As co-chairman of ARCIC (Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission) the appointment will lend even greater prominence to the progress of this long-standing dialogue.”
Since taking on the task of Anglican co-chair of ARCIC III, Archbishop Moxon has been working closely with the Pontifical Council and other Catholic experts in the ecumenical world. During a recent visit to Rome, he told Vatican Radio's Philippa Hitchen that he's optimistic about the amount of progress already made between Anglicans and Catholics....

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