Bishop Gene Robinson will preach at St. Mary’s, Putney in London on Sunday July 13 at 6 p.m. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has prohibited Robinson from presiding at the Eucharist, but does not have the canonical authority to prohibit him from preaching, although he attempted to dissuade him from doing so. The invitation was made by the Rev. Giles Fraser.
We long to see the consecration of women bishops in the Church of England, and believe it is right both in principle and in timing. But because we love the Church, we are not willing to assent to a further fracture in our communion and threat to our unity. If it is to be episcopacy for women qualified by legal arrangements to “protect” others from our oversight, then our answer, respectfully, is thank you, but no.
The number of young people under 16 who attend church dropped 20 percent over the period 2000-2006, so some in the Church of England are turning to the time-traveling Dr. Who for help.
Two things that the church gets right, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins over at Comment Is Free, are architecture and unofficial welfare. Describing the apparently magnificent restoration of St. Martin-in-the-Fields at Trafalgar Square, Jenkins provides a singular portrait of the architectural anomaly of steeple-upon-portico that became, in the 18th century, the template for many an Anglican church to come. But more than that, he adds, are the features that are at once just as permanent and, as individuals, totally transient.
The Rev George Pitcher, Curate of St Bride’s, Fleet Street, London in an op-ed in The Telegraph: It looks as if Dr Williams will continue
Citing fears of creating a controversy, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury has refused to grant Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the right to preach or preside at the eucharist in England. Robinson received the news in an email yesterday morning.
The Legislative Drafting Group of the House of Bishops has put forward proposals to allow for women bishops in the Church of England.
Last week the Very Rev Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark, banned Jerusalem from a private memorial service in Southwark Cathedral. He has subsequently taken himself off to Brazil (presumably not in a chariot of fire) and is unavailable for comment. But a spokesman for the Diocese of Southwark confirmed that the dean “does not believe that Jerusalem is to the glory of God”.
The Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. John Sentamu, will take off in and then abandon a perfectly good airplane for a good cause later
Displaying a level of intolerance that might make Archbishop Akinola blush, a lay member of the General Synod of the Church England has said “There