Free Republic

Conflict in the Church of England between traditionalists and revisionists is about to get hotter and soon. For now that the new UK Civil Partnership law has come into effect, there will be CofE clergy who will, um, “marry” their gay partners. One Darlington vicar has announced his intention to do just that this week. How Christmasy. Such public actions present the powers that be in the Church of England with an unhappy choice: force such marrying kinds among gay clergy (And I’m referring to those who have no intention to practice celibacy.) to stand down and make the revisionists...

When the former foreign secretary Robin Cook died, he was given a service in St Giles Cathedral, in his native Edinburgh, one of the historic worshipping places of the Church of Scotland. The former Episcopalian Primate of Scotland and Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, took the service. He smiled broadly as he described it - “Here was I, an agnostic Anglican, taking the service in a Presbyterian church, for a dead atheist politician. And I thought that was just marvellous.” He added: “Of course, he was a Presbyterian atheist, which means he distrusted authority - even that of atheism” (one...

You may remember that when I visited Canterbury Cathedral, I was repelled by the liturgy there – Advent collects omitted, the Lord’s Prayer so tampered with I couldn’t recite it even while looking at the words in front of me, and more. Well, as noted over on titusonenine, I’m not the only one appalled by the state of the liturgy in England. I unfortunately missed it while I was there, but the Telegraph ran a column denouncing the Church of England’s wholesale tossing of the Book of Common Prayer. May I remind the reader that the 1662 BCP is still...

Dear Friends Warm greetings to you all on a chilly December day. I have been sparing with the Ad Clerum genre over the last two years, but I think it's time to start making amends. And there is a pressing matter about which you need to know how things are shaping up. Last week the Civil Partnerships Act came into force, and couples of the same sex are now able to apply to register as Partners, with various tax and inheritance benefits very similar to those applying to married couples. After a short waiting period, registrations will take place, beginning...

The Roman Catholic Church has issued a scathing critique of Church of England plans to admit women bishops, warning that the reform would "radically" impair their relations. In an official paper, the Catholic bishops said that consecrating women was "a tremendous and intolerable risk" that could cause "irreparable damage", both within and outside the Anglican Church. It said that while the Church of England was free to do as it wanted, such a step was at odds with the "texts and spirit" of recent statements on unity drawn up between the two Churches. While the Catholic Church's opposition to women...

The Department of Dialogue and Unityof the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales Said this in its response to the Rochester Report"There is much to be said for the conclusion that the ‘theological logic that made it right for women to be ordained as priests also makes it right for them to be ordained as bishops’ (4.3.10). If the Church of England had made an irrevocable decision to ordain women as priests, there is an inescapable logic about the eventual ordination of women as bishops. The Church of England, however, talks of an ‘open process of reception’ for considering...

THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has revealed how his first encounter with God was not at an Anglican or even a Roman Catholic service but at a Mass of the Russian Orthodox Church. Dr Williams was only 14 when his local Anglican curate took him along to an Orthodox Mass in Swansea celebrated by a visiting Russian priest. Although his long journey of faith began at his “mother’s knee”, Dr Williams said the Russian Orthodox Mass was one of only two moments in his teenage years when he met the “living God”. Dr Williams’s encounter with Orthodoxy came...

The first openly gay Anglican bishop, Gene Robinson, has called for the Roman Catholic church's attitude to homosexuals to be confronted. The Bishop of New Hampshire said the Vatican's ban on ordaining gay men was "vile", in a speech in London. He received a standing ovation after his speech, in which he spoke of how he had faced prejudice in his role. Some Anglican conservatives had called for the St-Martin-in-the-Fields church venue to be changed to a secular one. Battle for soul of church Bishop Robinson said: "We are seeing so many Roman Catholics joining the church. "Pope Ratzinger may...

Bishops want to apologise for Iraq war By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent BISHOPS of the Church of England want all Britain’s Christian leaders to get together in public to say sorry for the war in Iraq and its aftermath. The bishops say that the Government is not likely to show remorse so the churches should. They want to organise a major gathering with senior figures from the Muslim community to make a “public act of repentance”. The bishops admit that their suggestion is provocative and bound to attract massive criticism, but insist it is not “a cheap gesture”. Their renewed...

ON THE eve of a critical vote on the creation of women bishops in the Church of England, a senior figure has warned he and hundreds of priests will quit if the move is approved. Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, this weekend becomes the first leading churchman to state that he would be likely to defect to the Roman Catholic Church. The General Synod will tomorrow be asked to vote on the first stage of the process for “removing the legal obstacles to the ordination of women to the episcopate”. A vote in favour will set in train church legislation...

What will Andrew Sullivan say to this? That sound you just heard on the other side of the Atlantic was the million or so people who still sit in pews in the postmodern Church of England picking up a copy of the Sunday Times and shouting, in unison, “Say WHAT!?!?!” This will be followed by a louder response to the same headline at altars in the more traditional Anglican Third World. The headline on reporter Christopher Morgan’s exclusive says it all: “Church to let gay clergy ‘marry’ but they must stay celibate.” And here is the opening of this amazing...

Thanks for your support, leader of the Church of England.When I learned this morning of the horrific bombing of London by terrorists, I grieved and prayed for the country and the victims, and then I thought to myself, "I wonder what ridiculous crap the Archbishop of Canterbury is going to spout about this?" He didn't disappoint me. “As it happens I have spent this morning with Muslim colleagues and friends in West Yorkshire; and we were all as one in our condemnation of this evil and in our shared sense of care and compassion for those affected in whatever way....

Nearly 300 Church of England clergy are unsure of the existence of God, according to a report released today. The study refers to "very fragile fault-lines along which the Church of England could be torn apart." 97 percent of committed Anglicans are clean about the existence of God and have no hesitation in verifying His existence. However, one out of every 33 clergy members doubt God’s existence. This means that nearly 300 clergy among 9,000 from the Church of England could doubt the existence of God. Compared to the liberal clergy, the congregations are more conservative. Eight out of ten...

Clergy and laity show signs of schism over homosexuality, miracles and the Almighty HUNDREDS of Church of England clergy doubt the existence of God and fewer than two thirds believe in miracles, a study out today says. The report, published on the eve of the General Synod, refers to “very fragile faultlines along which the Church of England could be torn apart”. Congregations are much more conservative than most of the comparatively liberal clergy preaching to them. The report says that if committed Anglicans are clear about one thing it is the existence of God: 97 per cent have no...

HOMOSEXUAL priests in the Church of England will be allowed to “marry” their boyfriends under a proposal drawn up by senior bishops, led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register relationships under the new “civil partnerships” law — giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples — will not lose their licences to be priests. They will, however, have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. The bishops are trying to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding...

LONDON (May 12, 2005)-- Anyone would think that with the demise of the Pope has come another death, that of our national church. Read Ruth Gledhill's comments and send us your views - using the e-mail form at the bottom of this page In case you hadn't noticed, with the demise of the Pope has come another death, that of Protestant England. * Oh, so you hadn't realised? Your church is still standing, your services continuing on their weekly round, your vicar still paid his or her stipend. Well, maybe we shouldn't inquire too closely into that last one. But...

The Church of England on Wednesday gave permission for archeologists to dig under a church floor and remove DNA from 400-year-old skeletal remains to determine if the Jamestown settlement's founder was buried just outside the 17th century fort. The Church of England said archaeologists can dig under the floor of a church in Suffolk, England, to reach the skeleton of Elizabeth Tilney. She was the sister of Bartholomew Gosnold, a leader of the English expedition that founded Jamestown in 1607. To tell if a skeleton recovered from the site of the original Jamestown fort is Gosnold's, scientists need DNA from...

The Queen has let it be known that the reason she will not be attending the wedding of the Prince of Wales is because she is putting her duties as the head of the Church of England before family feelings. Heads together: the Queen takes her religious role very seriously She has told a friend that she feels it incompatible with her role as Supreme Governor of the Church to attend a civil marriage ceremony, particularly one involving the heir to the throne. She does not want to set a precedent that could damage the Church of England. "I am...

Abortion was propelled to the centre of the British election campaign yesterday as the Church of England threw its weight behind demands for a thorough review of legislation. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who declared that there was a “groundswell of distaste” at the way the current law works, was backed by senior Anglican clergy who not only questioned the current 24-week time limit, but the whole of the 38-year-old Abortion Act. All the main Churches across Britain have drawn up guidelines on how churchgoers can challenge candidates at election meetings organised by local Christians. Christians, especially Roman...

When Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams gives a blessing to Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles at the Guildhall, Windsor, there will, no doubt, be smiles all round. But this royal marriage is both a potential powder keg for the Anglican Communion and a reminder of anti-Catholic legislation.Prince Charles’s announcement that he is to marry his lover Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony on April 8 brought relief to those struggling with the prospect of a future Supreme Governor of the Church of England and monarch in an unmarried relationship with a divorcée.Williams, who has been consistently opposed to...