Ordinariate to discourage married clergy, Vatican says: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 7. April 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Ordinariate, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Married clergy will be a temporary aberration within the Anglican Ordinariate, the Vatican’s Secretary of State declared, according to extracts published this week from his forthcoming book, “A Great Heart: Homage to John Paul II.”
Extracts published on April 24 by the L’Osservatore Romano from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone’s book addressed a cross section of issues from the Ordinariate to Castro’s Cuba.
Cardinal Bertone reported the Cuban strongman Fidel Castro admired the late Pope John Paul II. Although the Cuban communist regime has persecuted Christians since taking power in 1959, “Fidel Castro showed a sincere affection for the pope,” Cardinal Bertone reported.
In preparation for the Pope’s 1998 visit to the island, the Cuban leader studied the pope’s writings and poetry, the cardinal said, adding, “John Paul II told me that perhaps no other head of state had prepared for his visit in such a precise manner.”
In the book, a compilation of interviews, Cardinal Bertone said there was a continuity of affection between John Paul II and Benedict XVI in “welcoming into the Catholic Church former married Anglican pastors, allowing them to live in matrimony.”
The Cardinal added this “welcome that still continues today and that the recent Apostolic Constitution extends to entire groups of people and parishes, albeit standing firm on the issue of celibacy for priests, asking that in the future married priests should not become the norm in these Orders.”
Canada blocks Cameron’s call to reform the Act of Settlement: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011 p 7. April 29, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Politics.comments closed
King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover by George Dawes
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The coalition government’s plans to reform the 1701 Act of Settlement, ending the ban on a Roman Catholic monarch in Britain, does not have the support of the Canadian government.
On April 20, Prime Minister David Cameron said Roman Catholics should be able to become King or Queen, or marry the heir to the throne. However, he noted that this reform was not in the government’s power, but required the agreement of those Commonwealth nations where the monarch is the head of state.
“I think that it’s right to discuss both sets of changes but I think we have to recognise that the Queen is not only the Queen of the United Kingdom but also many other jurisdictions as well,” he told BBC 4’s the Today programme.
“So discussions have to take place between the UK Government and other governments around the world and also with the Palace in order to bring this about.”
The government is also seeking to reform the law of precedence, which gives preference to male heirs to the throne—a move being pushed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The prime minister added: “In principle I think both changes should be made, in principle I’m of that view. But it will take time because it’s not just our decision, it’s the decision of others as well.”
However, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has effectively blocked any reform of the Act of Settlement, which would permit a Roman Catholic to become the head of the Church of England.
In a campaign stop in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Harper said Canadians were not prepared debate on the Act of Settlement.
In response to constituent’s question about the royal marriage and the succession, Mr. Harper said on April 20 “the successor to the throne is a man. The next successor to the throne is a man.”
“I don’t think Canadians want to open a debate on the monarchy or constitutional matters at this time,” he noted, adding, “that’s our position, and I just don’t see that as a priority for Canadians right now, at all.”
Without Canada’s support, the Act of Settlement cannot be amended without restricting the monarchy. The issue is not without precedent, however, and saw the division of the throne following the ascent of Queen Victoria.
Different laws of succession governed the thrones of Hanover and England, though the title of Prince-Elector of Hanover and King of Great Britain and Ireland were held jointly from the time of George I in 1714. When Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837, she was prevented by the Salic law, which excludes females from the inheritance of to throne, from succeeding as King of Hanover. Victoria’s uncle Prince Ernest, the Duke of Cumberland, was next in line to the Hanover throne and became King Ernest Augustus I in 1837.
Were the coalition government to change the Act of Settlement without the approval of the Commonwealth nations where the Queen is monarch, the situation would eventually arise whereby different members of the Windsor family would be King of England and King of Canada.
‘Gay Love Gov’ rejected for ordination: The Church of England Newspaper, April 29, 2011. p 7. April 28, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Newark, Politics.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Christmas has come early for New York’s tabloids as former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey has returned to the public eye after the Diocese of Newark declined to ordain the “Gay Love Gov” to the priesthood.
In 2004 McGreevey resigned after a newspaper reported the twice married governor was having homosexual trysts with an aide. In a nationally televised address the Democrat politician announced he was a “gay American,” and resigned amidst accusations of graft and corruption and was accused of having “led a governorship of personal sleaze” by University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato.
The governor’s bid for public rehabilitation was not helped by television commercials broadcast by the state tourist board that featured McGreevey holding his wife and daughter while standing on the beach exclaiming, “COME OUT–and see what’s new in New Jersey.”
The McGreevey sage took an unexpected twist in 2007 when the New York Post reported the “Gay Love Gov” had left the Roman Catholic Church and enrolled at New York’s General Theological Seminary to train for the Episcopal ministry. In 2010 the former governor received a theological degree and began work at Integrity House, a mental-health and drug-addiction treatment center in Newark.
On April 25 the Post reported the Diocese of Newark had turned down the governor’s request for ordination. It quoted an unnamed source in the diocese as saying McGreevey was turned away for multiple reasons. “It was not being gay but for being a jackass — [McGreevey] didn’t come out of the whole divorce looking good.”
McGreevey “was sort of looking for every angle to make a complete redo of his professional life,” another unnamed source told the tabloid. “He ran to the church for some kind of cover, which isn’t fully appropriate. Even if he’s a good guy, he should wait five to 10 years to get over his issues.”
Earthquake damage report from the NSKK: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 8. April 27, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief, Nippon Sei Ko Kai.comments closed
The interior of St Stephen's Church in Mito in the Diocese of Kita Kanto, Japan, following the March 11 earthquake. The church has since been declared unsafe and has been demolished
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The churches of the Dioceses of Tohoku and Kita Kanto escaped relatively unscathed from last month’s earthquake and tsunami, reports Shinya Yawata, the NSKK’s international secretary. However, the human cost of the March 11 earthquake of Japan’s northeast coast has been catastrophic.
There are 13,200 confirmed dead and 14,300 missing, Mr. Yawata said on April 15, while 167,000 people have been forced from their homes.
“Most damage has been caused by the tsunami rather than earthquake itself,” he said, with the government estimating almost 53,000 homes were destroyed.
“In addition we are facing the potential impact of nuclear radiation caused by malfunction of the nuclear power plant” at Fukushima, and “we are experiencing many aftershocks with some of them causing more damage to already weakened structures.”
In Sendai, Christ Church was badly damaged by the earthquake but not touched by the tsunami which leveled many buildings along the coast, Mr. Yawata said, and none of the diocese’s other churches were touched by the waters as they are inland or on high ground.
However, most Tohoku churches have “suffered varying levels of earthquake damage, including cracked or fallen walls and windows, damaged ceilings, broken furniture,” while in the neighboring diocese of Kita Kanto diocese two church buildings were badly damaged, and one had to be torn down.
Support from the other dioceses of the NSKK has begun to pour into the affected areas, Mr. Yawata said, with the “major area of relief work” coming in the provision of “food and necessary goods for daily life, such as cooking fuel, clean towels, clothing.”
The NSKK is continuing to assess the needs of its congregations and the wider community, Mr. Yawata said, with the Provincial Office “providing care where and when it is required.”
“Please continue to keeps us in your prayers,” the church’s international secretary said, as the work of reconstruction will be long and arduous.
Solomon Islands flooded by Japan tsunami: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 7. April 26, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Melanesia, Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief.comments closed
Bishop Naramana addressing his 2009 dicoesan synod
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Ripples from the powerful March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated North East Japan were felt over 3700 miles south in the Solomon Islands, the Church of the Province of Melanesia reports.
Bishop Richard Naramana of the Diocese of Ysabel reports that at approximately 2:00 am local time on March 12, tsunami waves generated by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit the Isabel, Malaita, Choiseul and Central Island provinces of the Solomon Islands, seven hours after the quake rocked Japan.
The Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reported that a tribal elder Chief Johnson Leamana said the sea level rose three metres on Isabel and swept inland. In a letter to his companion Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Bishop Naramana said “it was a fearful experience having to be awaken at night in panic, carrying children, shouting to each other ‘ are you alright?’ to each other in the dark; being swept away by the high wave.”
The bishop reported that the cost of the damages to the diocesan offices was approximately £23,000. “I am praying as to how we will recover the damages done to the Diocese by the recent Tsunami. On the next day as I walked around the diocesan area, I shed tears as how I will rebuild the Diocese from the damages.”
“Here is but just a brief story of the tsunami that has affected the diocesan area,” the bishop wrote.
“There are homes which were completely destroyed and there are families in Buala, Maglau, Nareabu and around the diocese where they have lost everything. Their houses were completely destroyed by the waves.”
“The effect of the recent Tsunami was great,” he said, but thanked God that “nobody lost their lives” in the Solomon Islands from the tragedy.
Canterbury a strong voice for the oppressed, Parliament told: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 7. April 25, 2011
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Tony Baldry MP
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is a forthright defender of persecuted Christians across the world, the Second Estates Commission told Parliament this month.
Speaking in response to questions submitted by the member for South Swindon and the member for South West Bedfordshire, on “What representations the Church of England” had made “on the death of Shahbaz Bhatti in Pakistan”, on April 5 Tony Baldry MP noted there had been “widespread expressions of sadness and concern across the Church of England and throughout Parliament following the news of the assassination of Federal Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, in Pakistan.”
The Second Church Estates Commissioner noted a service of remembrance had been held at St Margaret’s Westminster on March 17, and that Dr. Rowan Williams had met with the Bishop of Lahore “to discuss the unfolding situation and the position of Christians in Pakistan. The archbishop has reaffirmed the Church of England’s full support for the work of the Church in Pakistan and solidarity with Christians facing persecution there and elsewhere”
Robert Buckland, South Swindon (Cons.) then rose to ask Mr. Baldry whether it was “likely that Mr Bhatti, who was a Christian himself, was murdered because he had suggested reforms to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws?”
Was it “not now a time for us to remember that article 18 of the universal declaration of human rights, which enshrines the right to freedom of religion and belief, should be truly of universal application?” asked Mr. Buckland, the chairman of the Conservative party’s human rights commission.
Mr. Baldry stated the member had made “an important point. Freedom of religion and belief is a fundamental human right, as set out in article 18 of the universal declaration of human rights. As Amnesty International has noted, “the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion is a fundamental component of the universal and indivisible human rights framework that applies to all people everywhere, as laid out in international law.”
Andrew Selous, South West Bedfordshire (Cons.) rose and commended Dr. Williams for having spoken out “so strongly following the murder of Shahbaz Bhatti”
However, he asked whether Dr. Williams would also “speak out” on the persecution of Christians elsewhere, “not least in Iran, where 282 Christians in 34 different cities have been arrested since June last year, and where 300 Bibles were burned in February?”
Mr. Baldry responsed that it was “right to remind the House of the persecution of Christians elsewhere in the world,” and also reminded “the House of two comments” made by Dr. Williams on the persecution of Christians.
Dr. Williams had said “the protection of minorities of any and every kind is one acid test of moral legitimacy for a government,” Mr Baldry noted, adding that this “applies to Iran, Iraq, Egypt and other countries where Christians are facing difficulties.”
“The Archbishop of Canterbury has also observed that ‘Most Muslim thinkers are embarrassed by supposedly ‘Islamic’ laws in various contexts that conceal murderous oppression and bullying…they need to be heard more clearly’,” the Second Church Estates Commissioner said.
West Jerusalem parish reborn: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 8. April 24, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East.comments closed
St Paul's, West Jerusalem
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An Anglican church cut off from its diocese by the 1948 Israeli War of Independence has been re-consecrated by the Bishop in Jerusalem.
On March 2, Bishop Suheil Dawani was joined by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III and Bishop Mounib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Holy Land, in reopening St Paul’s Anglican Church in West Jerusalem.
Built in 1873 by the CMS as the first Arab-Anglican church, St. Paul’s was an active congregation of the Diocese of Jerusalem until the 1948 war. When the fighting ended, the Arab congregation found their church was now on the wrong side of the “green line” dividing East and West Jerusalem.
The congregation moved first to Christ Church, Jaffa Gate and in 1953 the congregation merged with the Arab-language congregation at St. George’s Cathedral in East Jerusalem.
During the service, Bishop Dawani re-consecrated the baptismal font, altar and pulpit which had been stored at other churches in the diocese since 1948.
A spokesman for the diocese told The Church of England Newspaper that the Rev. Hosam Naoum, Canon Pastor for the Arabic Congregation at St. George’s was “holding regular services there on Wednesdays.”
“He then also gives tours to Jewish groups who are interested as it is in a Jewish neighborhood and he speaks Hebrew, as well as Arabic and English,” the spokesman said, noting that a Finnish Lutheran congregation was meeting at St. Paul’s and the “the church is and will also be open for ecumenical groups.”
Church and State debate Malaysia’s ‘Bible ban’: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 6. April 23, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of South East Asia, Persecution, Politics.comments closed
Prime Minister Najib Tun Ramzak and Bishop Bolly Lapok during a lighter moment at the ACS meeting. Photo courtesy of the Malaysian prime minister's office
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Talks to relax the remaining restrictions on Malaysia’s Bible ban are underway, church leaders tell The Church of England Newspaper. On April 13, the leaders of the Association of Churches Sarawak (ACS) told Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak that they endorsed the call for patience and for study of the government’s “10-point solution” to the al-Kitab controversy.
Last month the government demanded that 5100 copies of the al-Kitab, the Malay-language Christian Bible, imported by the Bible Society of Malaysia be stamped with a government warning that the Bible was “for the use of Christians only.”
The Bibles were also to be sequentially numbered and registered with the government and the cover of each book was to bear the seal of the Home Ministry. Church leaders denounced the government’s actions, and shortly before local elections in Sarawak and Sabah, on April 2, the government announced it would allow the al-Kitab to be imported and printed in Borneo without any restrictions.
However, in West Malaya, the al-Kitab would be allowed to be distributed and imported freely, but with restrictions.
Government minister Idris Jala told a press conference, “the Bible issue is very unfortunate” and that in the “spirit of Lent” the government sought “reconciliation and forgiveness.”
“And for all our shortcomings in handling the Bible issue, I hope the Christians will find it in their hearts to forgive us,” Mr. Jala said.
The Anglican Bishop of Kuching and chairman of the ACS, the Rt. Rev. Bolly Lapok told reporters after the meeting with the prime minister “as a body that brings together a wide cross-section of the Christian community in Malaysia, we know about the sinfulness of man and have experienced the forgiveness of God.”
“As such, we receive these expressions with all the sincerity with which they are offered,” Bishop Lapok said, calling for “patience and perseverance, and continued prayer and quiet reflection, as we allow God the Holy Spirit to guide us in our deliberations.”
Bishop Lapok told CEN “in Sarawak and Sabah, the ban on the import and printing of vernacular bible has been lifted, thanks to the recent election in Sarawak.”
He added that across the China Sea in West Malaysia “the ban remains, albeit it has been slightly adjusted.”
Christians are allowed to “use their Malay bible provided that on the cover the words ‘Christian Publication’ and a cross are inscribed,” he said. The reason the government has given for this condition is “so not to confuse the majority Malay Muslim population because of the Bible use of the word ‘Allah’ for God. The Muslims insist that Allah is theirs exclusively.”
He added the government also believes the “condition on the al-Kitab is for sake of national security.”
The “Church is still engaging with the government to remove these restrictions,” Bishop Lapok told CEN.
Covenant anti-democratic and un-Anglican, Los Angeles says: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 8. April 22, 2011
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Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno with his suffragans, Diane Bruce and Mary Glasspool following their election to the episcopate in 2009
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Los Angeles has written to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, urging rejection of the Anglican Covenant.
In a letter released on April 14 endorsed by Bishop J. Jon Bruno and diocesan representatives, Los Angeles voiced theological and ecclesiological objections to what it saw as the anti-democratic centralisation of authority in the current draft of the Anglican Covenant.
“We cannot endorse a covenant that, for the first time in the history of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion, will pave the way toward emphasizing perceived negative differences instead of our continuing positive and abundant commonality,” the letter stated.
Los Angeles stated it had written the letter in response to a request by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the national church’s Executive Council of views on the proposed covenant, which is expected to come before the 2012 meeting of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention.
While recommending the “conversation” continue with the wider Anglican Communion over the recent innovations of doctrine and discipline, including Los Angeles’ consecration of the Episcopal Church’s second ‘gay’ bishop, the Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool, the diocese asked the Episcopal Church “not endorse the final draft of the Anglican Covenant.”
Difficulties with sections 3 and 4 of the Covenant drove this decision, it said. “We are concerned about the omission of the laity from Section 3,” it noted, stating the diocese believed there were “four orders of ministry in the Church – bishops, priests, deacons and lay people.”
For Los Angeles to accept an Anglican Covenant, this understanding of the place of the laity as equal partners in the councils of the church must be included. “A Covenant to which we could subscribe would need to re-imagine the Instruments of Communion to provide a stronger representation from all the orders of ministry,” it said.
The penal articles of Section 4 of the covenant were “of greatest concern. It creates a punitive, bureaucratic, juridical process within the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion, elevating its authority over the member churches despite previous affirmations of member church autonomy.”
As currently written, the Section 4 “contains no clear process for dispute resolution, no checks and balances, no right of appeal,” while the “concept of mediation,” mentioned in Section 3, is absent in Section 4.
The present document’s “focus on ‘maintenance, dispute and withdrawal’ bodes of an immobilized church mission instead of one that is flexible and prophetic. For these reasons, we cannot agree to Section 4,” Los Angeles wrote.
The Episcopal Church was “founded in democracy and has enjoyed a polity which is free and democratic since 1789. This long-standing course cannot be reversed,” the diocese said, urging rejection of the Anglican Covenant.
Blasphemy arrest in Pakistan: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011 p 8. April 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Peshawar writes that a Christian man in Pakistan has been arrested by police, and accused of blasphemy. Friends and family members of Arif Masih (40) report he is being falsely accused by a Muslim neighbor who covets the man’s property and is using the blasphemy law for personal gain.
According to a statement from the National Commission for Justice & Peace (NCJP) Arif Masih of the Chak Jhumra district of Faisalabad was arrested on April 5 for having desecrated the Koran.
Shahid Yousaf, a Muslim neighbor of Masih, filed a complaint with the Sahiyanwala police station saying he found pages ripped from the Koran in the street, accompanied by a letter in English calling for the conversion of Muslims. A complaint was subsequently registered under Pakistan’s Blasphemy Code against person’s unknown.
Police then arrested Masih, based upon Yousaf’s complaint, although no evidence was presented of his guilt nor was his name appended to the warrant. The NCJP notes that Masih’s family recently prevailed in a lawsuit over a disputed piece of land with a member of Yousaf’s family.
According to the diocesan report Ejaz Masih, brother of the accused, charged the case had been fabricated by Yousaf “in order to grab a house adjacent to his house which Arif had purchased.”
The NCJP reports Masih is currently in police custody and has been moved to another station for his protection.
Approximately 964 people have been indicted for desecrating the Koran or insulting Mohammad since 1986, the NCJP said. Of these 479 were Muslims, 119 Christians, 340 Ahmadi Muslims, 14 Hindus and 10 from other religions. The NCJP said that since the law’s inception it “has been used as a pretext for attacks, personal vendettas and extra-judicial murders.”
Since 1986, 80 per cent of the blasphemy complaints have come from the central Punjab and there have been 43 extra judicial killings of those awaiting trial, the Masihi Foundation said.
Turkey’s Gülen movement under criminal investigation in the US: The Church of England Newspaper, April 21, 2011 p 7. April 21, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Terrorism, Turkey, Washington.comments closed
Fethullah Gülen
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has commenced an investigation into the activities of Turkish Muslim leader Fethullah Gülen and his educational and charitable network.
Called the “world’s top public intellectual” in 2008 by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines, Gülen is a controversial figure. Considered an inspirational religious leader by millions of Turks and Muslim followers around the world, he has also been called the “world’s most dangerous Islamist” by US investigative journalist Paul Williams.
In 1998 Gülen left Turkey after the government sought to arrest him for seeking to overthrow the government. He fled to the United States and currently lives in a 45-acre compound in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Over the past decade Gülen has built a network of schools across the world that allegedly call for the creation of a global caliphate.
In the United States, the Gülen movement has opened 125 schools that receive government assistance under the “charter school” system. The federal investigation, according to the March 21 Philadelphia Inquirer report, is not linked to terrorism but to allegations that Gülen school employees, granted visas to enter the United States to teach at the schools, are forced to kick back 60 per cent of their salaries to the Hizmet, or Service, movement Gülen founded. Prosecutors have declined to comment, however, as the investigation is on-going.
A spokesman for Gülen told the Inquirer the reclusive imam has no relationship to the schools, though he might have inspired the people who founded them.
Since his arrival in the United States, Gülen has cultivated media, religious and political leaders. At a Jan 20, 2011 meeting hosted by the Rumi Forum, a Turkish think tank in Washington, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the Rt. Rev. John B. Chane praised Gülen as a “magnificent man.”
“In the 50 books he has written he has probably been one of our greatest voices. He is a scholar and communicator who has really addressed — not only the role of religion — but the place of religion as an antidote to violence throughout the world, stressing the importance of the need to come to the table for dialogue and conversation,” the bishop said.
The bishop added to his postprandial encomium saying “I really want to make a point in recognizing him and honoring him for the work he continues to do for global peace among all of God’s children.”
However, diplomatic cables obtained by Wikileaks and published in the Turkish newspaper Taraf on March 17 show US government officials in Washington and Ankara were concerned with the growing influence of the Gülen movement.
One 2005 cable said the Gülen community seems to espouse “moderate Islam,” but as it had a global mission of fostering Islamism, it was an open question how the movement would act once it consolidated its hold on power. “It is not possible to confirm the Turkish police are under the control of the Gülen community members, but we have not met anybody who denies it,” one cable said.
Turkish analysts in the West have also questioned the motives and methods of the Gülen movement. On Dec 3, 2010, Dr. Sebastian Gorka of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies linked the Gülen movement to the “soft jihad” campaign waged by Islamists who seek to use Western institutions and liberties to bring about the mastery of the world by Islam in an interview with WABC’s John Batchelor Show.
Bishop Chane told The Church of England Newspaper he was “troubled by references that have been made about Gülen being a soft jihadist. Clearly the use of the word jihad demonstrates a significant lack of understanding of the term and a baffling use of the word soft.”
“If in fact there is an investigation underway that links Gülen to radical, religiously motivated terrorists then let the facts of the investigation be known,” the bishop said.
Church Commissioners report £500 million gain for 2010: The Church of England Newspaper, April 20, 2011 April 20, 2011
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First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Church Commissioners have reported a 15.2 per cent return on their investments during 2010, with asset values rising over £500 million over the course of last year from £4.8 billion to £5.3 billion.
In a statement released on April 15, First Church Estates Commissioner, Andreas Whittam Smith said the “results are good news for the Church and its vital role in the life of the nation. Our mission is to support the Church’s ministry, particularly in areas of need and opportunity – we meet that by ensuring our investments achieve sustainable long-term growth.”
Andrew Brown, Secretary to the Church Commissioners, credited the higher than average returns to the funds “diversified portfolio. We plan to continue to diversify the fund into other attractive and appropriate asset classes to reduce further the fund’s overall volatility.”
“In addition, our Assets Committee has adopted a deliberate policy of being more active in terms of the fund’s overall asset allocation, adjusting the level of risk depending on the market opportunity,” he said.
Investments, including fixed interest, UK and overseas equities rose from £3.167 billion to £3.486 billion at year’s end. The value of real estate investments rose from £1.308 billion to £1.493 billion, while other net assets rose slightly from £339.6 to £340.8 million.
The Commissioners’ overall 15.2 per cent return bested the average British pension fund as compared to the WM All Funds Universe index, which showed a 12.7 per cent return for 2010. The Church Commissioners investment returns have outperformed the pension index over the past fifteen years.
From their earnings the Church Commissioners were able to distribute over £200 million to the Church of England, providing 17 per cent of the total income towards the costs of the Church’s mission.
The principle areas of expenditure in 2010, the Church Commissioners reported, were £114.0 million for clergy pensions based on service before 1998; £46.8 million for parish mission and ministry; £27.5 million towards the support of the episcopate; £7.7 million for stipends of cathedral clergy and grants to cathedrals; and £4.5 million for other charitable expenditure including support for other Church bodies, church buildings and support costs for pastoral reorganization, the April15 report stated.
The Commissioners’ fund is a closed fund, taking in no new money, which seeks to generate a 5 per cent return on assets above inflation to support the mission and ministry of the Church of England.
82 year old priest guilty of child abuse: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011 p 7. April 20, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Church of England Newspaper, Montana.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An 82 year old Episcopal priest pled guilty last week to two counts of child abuse.
On April 8, the Rev. Donald Belcher pled guilty in the Cecil County Maryland Court to molesting in 2006 a 15-year old girl and molesting an 8-year old girl in 2010. In return for his guilty plea prosecutors dropped other pending sex crime charges against the retired clergyman.
In November a grand jury indicted the retired priest on sex crime charges and he was extradited to Maryland from his home in Montana for trial. From 2001 to 2007 Mr. Belcher served as an associate for pastoral care at St. Mary’s Church in Abingdon, Maryland and also served as vicar of the Church of the Holy Cross in Street, Maryland.
Ordained in 1997, the second career priest, who came to the ministry after working as a wine broker, tavern owner and pharmaceutical company executive, in 2006 Mr. Belcher and his wife, purchased the Dirty Shame Saloon in Yaak, Montana.
In an interview with their local newspaper, the couple said that though they were teetotalers, they purchased the bar located in the Kootenai National Forest to preserve the frontier heritage of the region. “We want to keep the history, the reputation. We like people, we love the Yaak and want to make sure it’s here for the next 100 years,” Mrs. Belcher said.
In a statement released following his arraignment in January, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland said it took “very seriously our church’s commitment to maintaining a safe environment for all who come to us seeking pastoral care and God’s sacraments.”
The Rev. Canon Scott Slater said the diocese was “saddened and dismayed even when allegations are first made. So we pray for all concerned and will continue to work diligently to make sure we have safe churches for all who come seeking God.”
Mr. Belcher faces up to 25 years in prison for each count. A sentencing date has not yet been set by the court.
Kunonga closes cemeteries to Harare’s Anglicans: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011 p 7. April 19, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The property dispute in the Diocese of Harare has passed from churches to cemeteries, with supporters of former bishop Dr. Nolbert Kunonga blocking the burial of Anglicans loyal to Bishop Chad Gandiya.
Sources in Zimbabwe tell The Church of England Newspaper the latest skirmish between the Kunonga faction, which through the backing of the security services has seized control of all church property in Harare, and the supporters of Bishop Gandiya occurred on April 10 at a cemetery outside Harare. However, the incident at St Mary’s Cemetery in Chitungwiza was one of several confrontations between government supporters and the security services against Christians in the Central African nation.
Last month the MDC accused President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party of infiltrating the country’s churches, coercing its leadership and “further inflicting harm on religious practices by constantly interfering with the operations of the house of God.”
On April 8, Mr. Edward Rinashe (70) a life-long Anglican died at home of natural causes. On Sunday his family brought his body for burial at St Mary’s Cemetery in the Harare suburb of Chitungwiza.
However, supporters of Dr. Kunonga refused to allow the coffin into the cemetery for burial as Mr. Rinashe had been a supporter of Dr. Gandiya. The body was returned the funeral home and the family was forced to make other arrangements.
A spokesman for Dr. Kunonga, Bishop Alfred Munyanyi told the Voice of America the bishop would not relent and would continue to forbid access to churches and cemeteries to those who did not recognize his authority. Bishop Munyanyi also accused Dr. Gandiya of being a British stooge who was not sufficiently loyal to the regime.
The graveyard scuffle came the day after riot police raided the Church of the Nazarene in Glen Norah, tossing gas grenades into a packed ecumenical memorial service. With guns drawn and welding sjamboks the police emptied the building of worshippers, who had gathered to pray for the peace of Zimbabwe.
“Police just stormed the church and began to throw tear gas, wantonly dismissing people. They simply ordered people to get out and get home,” Bishop Ancelimo Magaya told Metro Zimbabwe.
The assault came shortly before Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, was scheduled to arrive. The MDC also reported that its Harare province vice chairman, Shakespeare Mukoyi, was kidnapped by ZANU-PF thugs during the turmoil.
Call for prayer following Rio school shootings: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011 p 7. April 18, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Rio de Janeiro have expressed their deep sadness in the wake of last week’s school shooting that left 12 children dead.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta said he “deplored what happened. I am praying and uniting my sorrow with all those who were killed, and with their parents, families and friends.”
The primate of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, Archbishop Mauricio de Andrade commented that “in this tragedy, people close and people far away are sorry and are united in pain with the parents of the 12 murdered children. We too, from the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, are sorry and praying to God that He may comfort these families, wipe their tears and renew their hope in the resurrection.”
City spokesman Evandro Bezerra said Wellington Menezes de Oliveira (23) arrived at the Tasso da Silveira elementary school, where he had studied as a child, and was “well dressed and carrying a backpack” on the morning of April 7.
De Oliveira told school officials he had been invited to speak with students for a conference, but once inside the school he climbed to the third floor of building and began shooting.
Two students were able to escape from the building and alerted two policemen nearby. They exchanged gunfire with de Oliveira, hitting him in the leg. The gunmen then turned his pistol on himself and took his life. Twelve students were killed, and twelve others wounded in the rampage.
Mr. Bezerra said de Oliveira “came to the school prepared to do what he did. The letter that was found on him is something that no normal person would write. It is an incomprehensible letter written by an eccentric person, by someone who has no love for life.”
“The moment is of pain,” Archbishop de Andrade said
“Pain for the parents of Larissa, Bianca, Géssica, Karine, Marissa, Samira, Ana Carolina, Luiza Paula, Laryssa, Milena and Rafael,” he said.
“Our prayer today is that ‘God, in all his kindness and mercy, comfort all these families in their pain, hold them together in His love so that they may be strengthen by his Grace. That they trust in His mercy and face the future days with courage and confidence in God’s Grace’,” the archbishop said.
Zambia rejects new constitution: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011. April 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Central Africa, Politics.comments closed
Bishop William Mchombo of Eastern Zambia
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Church leaders in Zambia have welcomed Parliament’s rejection of a draft constitution, saying its defeat will allow consideration of a new constitution that reflects the will of the people.
On March 29 supporters of the constitution bill were unable to muster two-thirds support from the Zambian parliament. Support broke along party lines. MPs from the ruling MMD (Movement for Multi-Party Democracy) party endorsed the document, while MPs from the PF (Patriotic Front) and the smaller UPND (United Party for National Development) abstained or voting ‘no’.
The “people” were the “ultimate losers in this game,” a spokesman for President Rupiah Banda, Dickson Jere, told reporters after the vote.
However, church and civil society leaders, including the first chairman of the constitutional review commission, Willa Mung’omba, welcomed the outcome. “It’s a positive thing and an opportunity for everybody to stand back and say ‘what do people want?’,” Mr. Mung’omba said.
In 2003 Mr. Mung’omba was named chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) which prepared a draft constitution in 2007 after a national consultative campaign.
President Levy Mwanawasa appointed a National Constitution Conference (NCC) to review the Mung’omba draft. However, the president’s appointments to the NCC drew protests. The PF, Zambia’s churches the Law Society and many of the country’s NGOs refused to participate in the constitutional process, charging the president with stacking the NCC with MMD men.
While the NCC draft contained a number of well received elements, including laws that codified women’s rights to own and inherit property, it dropped key elements of the Mung’omba draft including an economic and social Bill of Rights and the requirement that the president be elected by 50 percent plus one of votes cast.
The Anglican Bishop of Eastern Zambia, the Rt. Rev. William Mchombo told the Zambia Post the failure of the constitutional reform process was a national embarrassment, but also an opportunity for the country to get things right.
“The failure of the constitution draft bill to go through in Parliament is not what we as a nation can be proud of. It is very sad and unfortunate. It sends wrong signals to the outside world that we are not capable of managing our affairs when the opposite is very true seeing the collective intelligence that we have as a nation,” Bishop Mchombo said.
He noted the Anglican Church’s opposition to the NCC bill had been vindicated, “and as much as the Church has been vindicated, it is really sad that colossal sums of taxpayers’ money were spent to receive submissions countrywide followed by the sitting of the NCC only to reach a dead end.”
However, the rejection of the NCC Draft was “an opportune time for our leaders to retreat and reflect on the need to deliver a truly people-driven constitution,” the bishop said.
Bishop denies ‘sweetheart deal’ to defraud diocese: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011 p 8. April 16, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Lawrence on the way to inauguration of the 4B St Werbugh CSI Hospital in Nandyal
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Nandyal in the Church of South India has denied accusations of misconduct put forward by an anti-corruption watchdog group. The claims put forward by the Christ Centered Campaign (CCC) that he was defrauding the diocese by “gifting” a church owned hospital to a private company were untrue, Bishop PJ Lawrence tells The Church of England Newspaper.
On March 31, the CCC, a lay led advocacy group that has led the charge against corruption in the Church of South India, released a statement accusing Bishop Lawrence of having “virtually gifted away the CSI-owned St. Werburgh’s “ Hospital “in the heart of Nandyal” to a foreign controlled “private limited company.”
On March 8, 2011 the bishop granted 4B Healthcare a 30 year lease to operate and manage St Werburgh’s Hospital. Built in 1931 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to serve the city’s poor, the CCC said the hospital’s land, clinics and rental properties have a market value of £8.5 million.
In return for the lease, the Diocese of Nandyal is to receive “15 per cent of net surplus” from the operations or a minimum of Rs 25,000 (£350). The CCC claims that “no payments to the CSI are likely to materialize” as 4B Healthcare is given “sole control over accounting” in the contract, and has the right to deduct from its payments “any outstanding liabilities” for the hospital at the time of the takeover.
The CCC notes the contract gives 4B Healthcare the right to “develop the entire property by modifying, demolishing or putting up new buildings, equipment and facilities” and at the end of the lease “should the CSI want to get back the property it will have to first pay 4B for all the developments done on it.”
The anti-corruption watchdog also questioned the credentials of the buyer, noting that it had been formed in January 2010 by an American entrepreneur, who “a mere three days after the deal between 4B and the Nandyal Diocese was inked,” sold a 99 per cent interest in the company to Opportunity International Australia (OIA).
The CCC urged the CSI to “consider legally challenging the transfer of the Nandyal Hospital to a private company on terms that virtually ensure the hospital and its vast land bank are lost to CSI members forever.”
“This deal sets a very unhealthy precedent as it can be used to justify similar ‘virtual sales’ of valuable CSI property elsewhere,” the CCC said, adding that “for the many corrupt bishops who dominate the CSI this novel model shown by 4B could just be the answer they are seeking to circumvent the challenges a vigilant laity is throwing at them” to stop the stripping of the church’s assets.
Asked about the allegations, Bishop Lawrence told CEN he wished the CCC had “checked with me the fact before circulating such information” as “there is no truth in what they are saying.”
The 4B Healthcare deal was “done with the approval of the executive committee of our diocese for the good of the hospital,” the bishop said, and it was unfortunate that “a hand full of disgruntled people” were raising objections.
Bishop Lawrence added that the “so-called CCC is focusing on dissidents in every diocese to malign the bishops.”
The bishop stated that “anyone, including the CCC is welcome” to visit Nandyal “and get the facts.”
Pittsburgh petitions Pennsylvania Supreme Court: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011. April 15, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Pittsburgh, Property Litigation.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh has appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking it to overturn a lower court ruling that gives almost £12 million in endowment funds and control of 22 parishes to the faction aligned with the national Episcopal Church.
On Feb 2 the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court let stand a lower court ruling that awarded property held by the diocese to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh rather than the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, which withdrew from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2008.
The Anglican diocese led by Archbishop Robert Duncan on April 6 asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to review the trial court’s decision which interpreted an October 2005 stipulation between the Diocese and Calvary Episcopal Church to settle outstanding litigation.
The lower court interpreted the language of the first paragraph of the stipulation, which required the diocese to continue holding its assets for the benefit of all the parishes of the diocese regardless of how many sought to quit the Episcopal Church, to mean that if the diocese left the Episcopal Church it would turn over all of its property to the national church—a contention disputed by the diocese.
The underlying issue of whether a diocese may leave the Episcopal Church has yet to be litigated in Pittsburgh. However, on Feb 17 Bishop Kenneth Price of the Episcopal diocese sent a letter to the 42 congregations of the Anglican diocese offering to enter into negotiations over their property. However those congregations which did not respond by a March deadline would be considered to be in violation of the Episcopal Church’s canons and their vestries and clergy would be replaced.
A spokesman for the Anglican diocese told The Church of England Newspaper the congregations responded that they accepted the invitation to discuss the question of property, but did not accept Bishop Price’s contention that they were part of the Episcopal Church and subject to its canons.
Two congregations of the Anglican diocese have so far entered into settlement agreements with the Episcopal diocese. One, which had already given up its property agreed to return an assortment of Eucharistic vessels and prayer books, while a second purchased their building from the diocese and agreed not to affiliate with the Anglican diocese for a period of five years.
At this point “we are in a holding pattern,” diocesan spokesman David Trautman explained. “Some congregations may walk away from their buildings” believing their real estate is “not essential to their mission.
“Some may try to negotiate,” he added, while those parishes where title is held by the congregation and not the diocese, are likely to take no action unless the Episcopal diocese attempts a “hostile takeover”, he noted.
While the Episcopal Church’s legal strategy had left some “scared and worried,” Mr. Trautman said the overwhelming majority of the Anglican diocese’s clergy and lay leaders were committed to the fight. Bishop Price’s February letter and the two settlements had served to “unite the clergy and lay leaders,” he said, to a degree he had not seen before.
Some “good has come out of the litigation,” Mr. Trautman noted. “What has happened is that when people are put in a position where they are threatened” it “makes them start thinking about their mission, about what is important,” he said.
One canon lawyer familiar with the case told CEN the factions need to think through carefully their next steps. If the Episcopal diocese pushes too hard it may find itself with a number of empty buildings which it must maintain. If it moves against those congregations that own their own properties, which are among the largest and wealthiest of the Anglican diocese, it will have to litigate the issue of whether a diocese may withdraw from the Episcopal Church—an issue currently before the courts in Fort Worth and Central California.
The Anglican diocese must weigh the costs of pursuing the case to the state’s Supreme Court, against making an offer for the 22 congregations the Episcopal diocese now controls, he added.
Canon lawyer Allan Haley observed the current ruling is “unpublished” by the courts, and will not “set any precedent for other cases in Pennsylvania” or elsewhere.
The Pittsburgh “result once again bears out the haphazard nature of litigation — you can devote hundreds and hundreds of hours, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars, to it, but it all comes down in the end to what, in this case, three justices—who might spend at most four or five hours on the case—think,” Mr. Haley said.
American decadence a sign of the end times, archbishop warns: The Church of England Newspaper, April 15, 2011 p 8. April 15, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Nigeria, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Archbishop Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The creeping acceptance of homosexual conduct as a moral good may be a sign that the end times are near, the Primate of the Church of Nigeria has warned.
In an interview published by the Church of Nigeria News, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh said the cultural hostility towards Christian morality in the West and the celebration of lust as godliness was a sign that “we are getting deeper and deeper into the age that was spoken of by Timothy when people will love themselves more than God, when the pleasure and comfort will determine many things.”
“We are in the end time and in this end time there are boundless opportunities of evil,” the archbishop said on April 7 drawing upon 2 Tim. 3:2, but added “but the joy of it all is that evil will not win in the end.”
While the former primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, had led the coalition of churches opposed to the innovations of doctrine and discipline over homosexuality introduced by the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada over the past ten years, Archbishop Okoh has so far taken a lower profile on the international Anglican stage, focusing his efforts on the Nigerian scene.
However the political vacuum created by the collapse of the Lambeth Conference, the primates meeting, and the Anglican Consultative Council, along with the opprobrium in which the ACC’s staff is held by many African churches appears to have pushed the head of the communion’s largest province out in front once again.
While no formal break with the London-based instruments of the communion is likely to be announced, structures for a communion within the communion are quietly being put in place.
In a speech to the Church of Nigeria’s standing committee on March 3, Archbishop Okoh announced that a second Gafcon conference would be held in 2012, a Gafcon leaders meeting would be convened this year, and a delegation of conservative Anglican primates would make a formal visit to the Chinese church in September.
In his interview, the archbishop reiterated the Church of Nigeria’s belief that homosexual conduct was “unbiblical, ungodly, unnatural, unacceptable.”
He was fully cognizant of the charges that those who held this view were “ignorant,” and that the new understandings of same-gender relationships were foreign to the Biblical writers. “They think we are living the old past time, [the] ancient days,” he said, noting his critics see this as a “post modern day.”
A consequence of this new age is “that they can rewrite the Bible to suit their culture the way they want it,” Archbishop Okoh said.
Special pleading by Western churches to accept their local cultural values concerning homosexuality were unconvincing, he said as the Gospel of Jesus Christ was neither time bound, geographically restricted nor culturally circumscribed. When the Gospel came to Nigeria, the scriptures “identified areas where we were not living well and the Gospel corrected us, the Gospel transformed our lives. For instance we were killing twins here and when it was exposed to us that we were wrong, we dropped it.”
The “irony of the situation” was that Britain had brought the Bible to Nigeria, but now Britain was saying the practices condemned by the Bible “are right. Thank God we are not very confused, we are not confused at all,” he said.
For the African churches along with “some parts of Australia, some part of America, some parts of United Kingdom” the Scriptural condemnation of homosexuality was reinforced by the lessons of natural law. Nor was a plea to sentiment persuasive to the Nigerian Church.
Some argue the moral standard should be that “two people love themselves,” however, this is a “very selfish perspective.”
“The issue at stake is not just a case of if it will make two people happy if they love themselves. I think that the rejection of absolute truth, absolute right and wrong had turned everything to the doctrine of relativism,” the archbishop said.
“We are in a kind of free moral fall and we do not know when it is going to stop,” he said.
However, the archbishop urged patience and perseverance in the face of the moral rot coming from the West. “This is God’s own world and according to Daniel 4;17, the Lord rules the affairs of men and the whole book of Revelation is telling us that no matter the strength of evil God has the victory at last,” Archbishop Okoh said.
Bishop calls for decriminalisation of homosexuality: The Church of England Newspaper, April 14, 2011 April 14, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda, Human Sexuality --- The gay issue.comments closed
Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A former Ugandan bishop has urged a UN panel in New York to press for the decriminalization of homosexuality to help fight the HIV/AIDs epidemic.
On April 8, Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo told the panel the “criminalisation of homosexuality remains the most significant barrier” to halting the spread of the disease. “We need to ask if our laws or beliefs help or prevent the spread of HIV and hinder or support families caring for loved ones,” the bishop said according to press accounts of the gathering.
The one-time Church of Uganda bishop is not the sole African Anglican voice urging moderation of the continent’s sodomy laws, with bishops in Central, South, East and West African urging a rethink. In March, Bishop Brighton Malasa of Upper Shire, Malawi urged caution over government calls to criminalize lesbian behavior, while the Church of Uganda and the Church of Burundi last year quietly lobbied their governments against introducing harsher regulations governing homosexual conduct.
A controversial figure within the African Church, Bishop Ssenyonjo has been a public advocate for reforming Uganda’s sodomy laws, and changing the Church of Uganda’s teachings on homosexuality.
Supporters of Bishop Ssenyonjo, who retired as the second Bishop of West Buganda in 1999, have often brought him to the US and UK to campaign for gay rights causes. In 2010 the bishop participated in the consecration of the suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles, the Rt. Rev. Mary Glasspool—the Episcopal Church’s second ‘gay’ bishop.
However, reports on the bishop’s background provided by his partisans have misstated his status, the Church of Uganda tells The Church of England Newspaper. Claims the bishop was deposed in 2007 for his support for the gay community or his association with gay pressure groups are false, the church notes.
Bishop Ssenyonjo was deposed on Jan 17, 2007 by the Church of Uganda after he took part in the consecration as bishop of a former Anglican priest for the independent Charismatic Church of Uganda, the Ugandan provincial secretary told CEN.
“One of the co-consecrators was another deposed Uganda Bishop, the former bishop of North Mbale. He had been deposed because he took a second wife. So, Ssenyonjo was not deposed because of his association” with gay advocacy groups, the spokesman said, but for having conferred episcopal orders upon a priest in a church not in communion with the Church of Uganda.
Tohoku ‘annihilated’ archbishop reports: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 7. April 13, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Disaster Relief, Nippon Sei Ko Kai.comments closed
Bishop John Kato of Tohoku at the 2008 Lambeth Conference
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK), the Anglican Church in Japan, writes that two weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck northeast Japan, the number of dead and missing has risen to over 30,000.
“Villages and towns along the coastline of Tohoku region were almost all annihilated,” Archbishop Nathaniel Uematsu said in a March 30 report to the Anglican Communion.
“In addition, because of the fear of the radiation leak as a result of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, people who live in the 30km radius of the reactor were told to evacuate. They are having a difficult life in evacuation centres in places far away from their homes. In fact, the fear of nuclear contamination is felt not only by those people who live within the 30km radius, but also by people in Tokyo, which is more than 100km away. Many people are living with uncertainty,” the Archbishop said.
On March 26 the Archbishop travelled to Sendai City, the largest city in the Tohoku region and site of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Tohoku. “Parts of the walls had fallen down, the walls were cracked. It looked to me as the whole building was lopsided,” Archbishop Uematsu said, adding that because of the risk of aftershocks, the congregation was worshipping in the neighbouring church hall.
Accompanied by the Bishop of Tohoku, the Rt Rev John Hiromichi Kato, the Archbishop visited the “devastated area along the coastline of Sendai City. The devastation caused by the tsunami was simply beyond our imagination. The tsunami reached the fourth floor of buildings destroying everything. The wreckage of houses and the huge number of cars are simply still lying there. Police and members of the Japan Defence Regiment were still looking for corpses. There was no sign of life there. Standing in that area surrounded by nothing but wreckage, all we could do was silently look at the scene in front of us and pray.”
The troubles at the Fukushima nuclear reactor have compounded the misery of Tohoku, the Archbishop reported as fears of “radiation contamination” have left people “wary” of delivering relief supplies. “As a result, the evacuees are in real dire straits because they are not receiving enough food,” the Archbishop said.
However, “Japan is a wealthy country and I imagine that once the transport infrastructure is restored and fuel is once again available that local supplies will reach the affected areas,” he said.
What the church in Japan “really would like” is for Christians “across the world to do is support us by praying. The Japanese Church is a small church, but knowing that brothers and sisters in the worldwide Communion are praying for victims and the Church’s relief activities, that gives them strength. I would also be very grateful if they would support us financially now and in the future so that we can help restore people’s lives and our church communities,” the Archbishop said.
Dorset dog walker saves church from fire: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 3. April 13, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Firemen inspecting the roof of St Mary's Maiden Newtown after the March 30 blaze
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An early morning stroll saved a 12th century Dorset church from destruction last week, when a dog-walker saw smoke rising from St Mary’s Church in Maiden Newton and called for help.
While out walking his spaniel, Alex Adair-Charlton (39) of Maiden Newton saw a cloud of smoke or mist hovering above the village’s medieval church. His curiosity turned to alarm, however, when he saw flames rising from the church’s roof, and he telephoned the fire services from his mobile phone.
A team from the village fire service arrived within four minutes of the 6:20 am alarm, and by the end of the day approximately 30 firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze. An aerial platform was brought in to fight the blaze, so as not to damage the church’s wooden doors, believed to be among the oldest in England.
In a letter to his congregation, the Team Rector of Melbury, the Rev. Graham Perryman stated it was “almost certain” the fire had been “caused by an electrical fault.”
The “obvious damage sustained consists of a hole in the roof about a metre square, damage to the roof felting under a larger area of the roof, fire damage to some of the roof timbers, the destruction of the electrical cabling and meters in the chancel, blistering and damage to the lime render/skim on the walls of the chancel, and some minor water damage,” he said..
However, the “most significant damage has been caused by smoke,” Mr. Perryman said, adding “Truly, ‘the smoke filled the temple’,” a reference to Isaiah 6.4.
“Everything will have to be cleaned, or discarded and replaced, from hymnbooks to monuments,” he noted with an “estimate of the cost to put things right is about £250,000.”
The church was “saddened and shocked, but in good spirit, and looking forward,” Mr. Perryman said.
“We are blessed with fully committed churchwardens, a dedicated and gifted DCC, and a flexible and enthusiastic congregation. We are convinced that ‘All things work together for good’ (Rom 8.28). We give thanks to God for the swiftness of the response to the fire, for the efficiency and care of Ecclesiastical Insurances, who have been superb, for the prompt attention and attendance of the Bishop, Archdeacon and architect, and the overwhelming offers of support and sympathy from the community and other churches,” the vicar said.
St Mary’s Maiden Newton is no stranger to misfortune. In 2009 a burglar stole the church’s Elizabethan altar plate, making off with silver chalices, servers and a flagon.
Mr. Perryman told The Church of England Newspaper only one item has been recovered so far, a silver plated flagon. The stolen flagon was “discovered by a dog in a rabbit hole near Chard about 9 months ago. The theft was covered by insurance , and we bought the flagon back from [EIG], as it had the name of the church engraved on it.”
No plans to update House of Lords prayers, govt says: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 4. April 12, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, House of Lords.comments closed
Bishop John Packer addressing the House of Lords
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The government has no plans to alter or end the practice of reciting prayers before the start of business in the House of Lords.
The March 31 statement came in response to a question from Lib Dem peer, Lord Roberts of Llandudno, who asked whether it was now time for prayers to reflect the “different faiths and different denominations we have, not only in the House but in the United Kingdom”.
While Labour peer Lord Hughes of Woodside, the honorary vice president of the British Humanist Association, stated that his “personal preference is that we should not have prayers at all,” the sentiment in the Lords was against altering the current practice.
Lord Roberts, a one-time Methodist minister, suggested adding a “minute of silence or reflection” in addition to the prayer offered by bishops of the Church of England at to the start of business.
Lord Anderson of Swansea state that while he was a Welsh non-conformist, the Labour peer said he was “wholly satisfied with the timeless sentiments and superlative prose of the present prayers.” He added that it was his hope the House of Lords would emulate the House of Commons “all repeat the grace” at the close of prayers “as is done in the other house.”
Conservative peer Lord Cormack noted there were “many in this House who are not of the Christian faith, such as my noble friend who sits beside me and is a Hindu,” referring to Lord Popat, who nonetheless welcomed the “sentiment contained within the prayers and the majesty of the language with which they are uttered.”
The Chairman of Committees, Lord Brabazon of Tara, stated at attendance at prayers was voluntary, and noted that bishops sat as Lords spiritual “by being representatives of the established church and the prayers reflect that”.
The current practice of reciting prayers began in 1558, he noted, and reached its current form during the reign of Charles II, with slight modifications in 1970 and 1979 to allow for a range of Psalms. “It might be a little premature to consider changing them” at this time, Lord Brabazon added.
The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt. Rev. John Packer, told the House that Lord Roberts “makes an important point about how the House is to demonstrate its inclusivity while retaining what is good and worthwhile in its living heritage. In this year of celebration of the King James Bible, and its continuing inspiration 400 years on, will the Chairman of Committees comment on whether our Prayers, which date from the same era, also embody virtues which are simple, eternal and unifying?”
Lord Brabazon responded he was sure the “right reverend Prelate is right. If there are further recommendations for changes to the Prayers used, I would be happy to look at them.”
Harare Mothers’ Union ordered to sign pro-Mugabe petition: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 8. April 12, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Mission Societies/Religious Orders, Zimbabwe.comments closed
Mothers Union members in Zimbabwe
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Mothering Sunday took on political overtones this week in Central Africa, with church leaders marking the 4th Sunday of Lent with spirited addresses to diocesan chapters of the Mothers’ Union.
On March 26, Agatha Kunonga, wife of Dr. Nolbert Kunonga—the breakaway Bishop of Harare—instructed members of the Mothers’ Union loyal to her husband to sign a petition prepared by Robert Mugabe’s ZANU(PF) party protesting sanctions imposed by the international community against the Zimbabwe strongman.
But across the Zambezi, the Bishop of Lusaka marked April 3, Mothering Sunday, with a call for all Zambians to register and vote in this year’s general elections.
In an address to the Zambian Mothers’ Union at St Peter’s Church in Lusaka, Bishop David Njovu urged all Zambians to exercise their right to vote, and to do so in a peaceful and orderly fashion.
The bishop said the Anglican Church would not take sides nor endorse candidates in this year’s election, which will pit incumbent President Rubiah Banda of the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) against his 2008 challenger, Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF) party.
Bishop Njovu urged partisans of both parties to be careful in their language, and urged those who will be disappointed by the outcome of the vote not to resort to violence.
An implicit threat of violence for those who opposed President Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU(PF) party in Zimbabwe was given in an address to the Mothers Union at St Mary’s Cathedral in Harare the prior Sunday.
In Harare two groups claim the mantle of Mothers Union: a faction led by Mrs. Kunonga and the larger group recognized by the worldwide Mothers Union and is led by Mrs. Faith Gandiya–wife of Bishop Chad Gandiya. In an address to her faction, Mrs. Agatha Kunonga marked the annual Zuva raAmai Maria ( Lady Day) ceremony at the cathedral with a fierce denunciation of Britain and the West for its sanctions against President Mugabe and his allies.
“The sanctions have affected every Zimbabwean regardless of political affiliation. They have also hit hard on all sectors of the economy, ranging from agriculture, industry, tourism and even sport; so this calls for collective denouncement of the sanctions,” Mrs. Kunonga said, according to a report broadcast by the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.
Mrs. Kunonga, whose husband is among those banned from entering the EU or US, and whose assets in the West have been frozen due to his complicity in the crimes of the Mugabe regime, led the blue and white clad members of the Mothers Union in hymn singing and ZANU(PF) party songs.
Each member of the Mothers Union in Harare was directed to sign the anti-sanctions petition launched on March 2 by President Mugabe. The government is seeking to gathering over 2 million signatures, and has allegedly arrested political opponents who have bowed out of the campaign.
On March 29 The Zimbabwean reported that an MDC activist was arrested by the secret police for refusing to sign the petition. Opposition leaders have rejected the national petition campaign, claiming it is an attempt by the government to shift the blame for its failed economic policies which have rendered Zimbabwe destitute.
Octavia Hill estates sold: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 7. April 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
Octavia Hill, by John Singer Sargent
The Octavia Hill estate has turned out to be a financial loser for the partnership that purchased the 1500 residential housing units in Walworth, Vauxhall and Waterloo in 2006 from the Church Commissioners for almost £200 million.
On March 21 Genesis Housing Group announced it had sold its fifty per cent stake in the Grainger Geninvest LLP venture to property giant Grainer PLC for £15 million.
In a March 23 statement, the companies said the sale followed a “strategic review:” by Genesis which will focus “on its core portfolio to allow reinvestment in other parts of the Genesis business such as building more affordable homes as well as continuing to invest in refurbishment and maintenance of existing properties.”
The companies’ 2010 annual reports offered conflicting assessments of the properties’ prospects. Genesis stated that as a result of ongoing operating losses due to interest charges continuing to exceed rental income, “the value of the group’s investment in these portfolios has been reduced below cost.”
However, Grainger’s 2010 annual report noted the “residential values in Grainger Geninvest increased by 5 per cent in the year to the end of September.”
In 2005 property giant Grainger and Genesis Housing Association formed the 50/50 joint venture to acquire a £70m portfolio of 461 residential units from the Church Commissioners. The partnership acquired a further 1,138 units for £196m between March and June 2006.
The 2006 sale generated sharp protests from the tenants and political pressure to cancel the deal. On Feb 6, 2006 Labour minister Harriet Harman, former minister Kate Hoey, and Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes urged General Synod to intervene and cancel the “deplorable” deal.
“We understand that the Church Commissioners have received at least two reasonable offers from social housing associations and urge you to ensure that these bids are recognised as having far greater value than any private bid. These London properties are centrally positioned and we are concerned that residents will be priced out of their homes if a private bid is successful,” they said in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Octavia Hill housing estates, named after the social reformer and co-founder of the National Trust–Octavia Hill, were built in the 19th century to provide affordable homes for working tenants. Tenants protested the 2006 sale of 1138 units as Grainger Geninvest LLP had imposed above-inflation rent rises on the residents of the 461 units it purchased from the Church Commissioners in 2005.
Lambeth Palace chief of staff Chris Smith assured the MPs Dr. Williams was aware of their concerns. “The archbishop held an urgent meeting to ensure that those responsible for the decision were fully aware of your and other’s concerns. It has been important that the assets committee is advised about the whole range of issues surrounding these proposed sales.”
Apart from his assurances of concern, Dr. Williams took no other action in the affair. However, the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Butler told the House of Lords “many of us in the church would be greatly disturbed if the Octavia Hill houses were not sold to a social landlord.”
The government said it would not intervene. Local government minister Lady Andrews told the peers the Church Commissioners were “a private landlord, and their statutory obligation is to manage their investments in the wider interests of the Church community.”
Complaints over the consortium’s management of the properties have ensued since the purchase. In September, Inside Housing reported a dispute had arisen between the tenants association and the partnership. The Church Commissioner’s tenants’ handbook stated that a tenancy could be handed on to a spouse/partner, or to a family member if they had lived in the unit for more than two years.
A spokesman for the consortium said it would not be bound by the Church Commissioner’s handbook as the “legal right to a succession” was “defined in law rather than in a handbook produced by the previous owners.”
Bishop backs call for govt to implement the UK Bribery Act: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 6. April 11, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Corruption, House of Lords.comments closed
Bishop Michael Langrish addressing the House of Lords
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Exeter has joined with other public figures in endorsing a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron calling upon the government to bring the UK Bribery Act into force.
However, Treasury minister Lord Sassoon on March 17 said the government was committed to bringing the Bribery Act into force in “a way that tackles corruption while not imposing unnecessary cost and uncertainty on legitimate business and trade”.
The open letter endorsed by the bishop and seven other religious leaders and prepared by Christian Aid, Tearfund and Cafod called upon the government to implement the law, which was adopted with cross-party support in April 2010. “The Act will help to reduce the bribery that has such a damaging effect on poor communities worldwide and fulfil Britain’s international obligations – notably the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention,” the statement said.
Concerns over the mechanics of enforcement and implementation raised by industry caused the government to delay its implementation from October to April 2011, with the director general of the Confederation of British Industry, John Cridland, describing it as “not fit for purpose”.
In February the government said the implementation of the act had now been delayed indefinitely.
The delay has angered anti-corruption activists. “Bribery is neither the victimless crime nor the necessary evil that some UK companies may suggest,” said George Boden of Global Witness.
“It cripples development and it’s bad for our long-term business interests. British companies should back their superior technical capacity with high ethical standards, not compete in a race to the bottom to see who can pay the largest bribes – which we would likely lose anyway,” he said.
“’Bribery is already illegal, but companies are operating under laws which are chronically outdated,” argued Mr. Boden.
Opening a debate on the UK’s record on bribery and money laundering legislation, Lib Dem peer Baroness Williams of Crosby, who was a Labour cabinet minister in the 1970s, said Britain needed to “stand up and be counted” among countries which find “corruption and bribery utterly unacceptable”.
“To try to escape the bribery convention would be deeply damaging to British business, because it would suggest our business and our trade depends upon special deals often with very dodgy regimes indeed,” Lady Williams said.
Labour peer Lord Davies of Oldham noted his party was “anxious about the degree of delay not least because we look a lot weaker in this area than the US. We look a lot weaker than Hong Kong. We look a lot weaker than our direct international competitors.”
Treasury minister Lord Sassoon responded that the government did not consider bribery an “acceptable way to do business, it distorts markets and causes immense damage in developing and emerging economies,” he added.
The minister said guidance on the Act would be published “shortly” and the Act would come into force three months after that date.
Norwegian primate appointed: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 8. April 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Norway.comments closed
Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Bishop of Borg, the Rt. Rev. Helga Haugland Byfuglien, has been appointed by the Minister for Church Affairs to be the Church of Norway’s presiding bishop. Bishop Byfuglien becomes the first permanent primate of the Church of Norway and also its first female leader.
Since the Reformation, the presiding bishop of the Church of Norway has been a one year post that passed among the church’s 11 bishops. However, the office of primate and presiding bishop without territorial jurisdiction was created last year “to strengthen the president function” of the office.
The membership of the Bishops’ Conference of the Church of Norway will now rise to 12 members, and the new primate will be officially based in the National Offices in Oslo but with a seat in the ancient cathedral of Nidaros (Trondheim).
Born in 1950, Bishop Byfuglien has led the Diocese of Borg since 2005 and is vice president of the Lutheran World Federation. Before her consecration she also served as General Secretary of the Norwegian YWCA-YMCA from 2001 – 2005. Bishop Byfuglien was the only candidate for the post, and was nominated by the church’s bishops for the position.
Considered a progressive among Norwegian church circles, the new presiding bishop has sought to open the church’s doors to non-traditional forms of spirituality and healing. “The Church needs to be open for the multitude of people who have some kind of New Age background,” Bishop Byfuglien said, according to a March 28 report in the Norwegian Christian Daily, Dagen Magazinet.
“The Established Church must listen and be open for this kind of experience. We must give space for other forms of worship, like silence and meditation.” the presiding bishop said.
1000 dead in Ivory Coast church massacre: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 7. April 9, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of West Africa.comments closed
President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Over a 1000 Christians have been killed by Muslim soldiers at a mission station in Duékoué in the Ivory Coast, the aid agency Caritas has reported.
Details of the massacre remain unclear, with conflicting reports on the number of dead. However, wire service reports and news bulletins released by the Salesian Info Agency (ANS) report the killings began on March 29 and are tied to the civil war between President Laurent Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara.
Anglican leaders in West Africa have lamented the growing unrest, and have called upon Christians to turn to the Scriptures and reflect on the paradox of a region endowed by God with tremendous material resources that is also home to tremendous poverty, sickness and political instability.
On March 31, ANS reported that approximately 10,000 refugees had taken shelter at the Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duékoué some 300 miles west of the capital of Abidjan near the border with Liberia. “The flow of refugees is extraordinary. The arrival of those from the Carrefour district together with those from other parts of the city means that the courtyard of the parish has quickly become totally occupied,” Roman Catholic news service said.
Over the past two weeks Ouattara’s “Republican Forces” have moved south from their bases in the predominantly Muslim northern region of the Ivory Coast and have taken the capital Yamoussoukro and the major port of San Pedro. The Republican Forces, with Western backing, have now encircled President Gbagbo’s forces in the commercial capital of Abidjan.
The killings began when the Republican Forces, whom international observers declared the winner of the December 2010 election against President Gbagbo, moved into the region—which voted heavily for President Gbagbo. The attackers were described by The Herald Scotland as “soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.”
According to the International Committee for the Red Cross, the victims were mainly men who had been shot and left for dead. The UN has reported that “hundreds” of bodies have been found around the mission, but Caritas estimated that over 1000 were killed.
On April 4, ANS reported “at present there are only two Salesians there who have to try to respond to the appeals for help from about 20,000 people. UNO is helping to provide some provisions for the mission but distribution is not easy and the quantity is not sufficient to satisfy all the needs.”
The violence in the Ivory Coast was a sign of the failure of the region’s political and social institutions, church leaders said.
At the close of the March 21-25 Synod of the Church of the Province of West Africa held in Conakry in neighboring Guinea, Anglican leaders gave thanks to “God for the abundant grace of natural and mineral resources” of West Africa, but noted they “also had reason to be pained by and to be penitent for the numerous and seemingly incessant hardships and misfortunes made manifest in political instability, wanton destruction of human life and property, displaced and in-between peoples.”
“We are struck by the irony that the region so well endured by God has become almost synonymous with disease” and “poverty,” the synod said, and urged a turn to Scripture for the “discernment of the will of God” for the future of West Africa.
“We urge all Christians to be pro-active as well in joining others to create structures that will approximate to the vision of the Kingdom of God” and affirmed the propriety of Christian “engagement with socio-economic-political issues as a means of realizing of God’s kingdom on earth and reaching out to the world outside the Church.”
Episcopal Church aging and out of touch survey finds: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 8. April 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, The Episcopal Church.comments closed
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori protesting US immigration policies on the Arizona border in 2010.
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The leadership of the Episcopal Church is out of touch and unrepresentative of its membership, a report published by the national church’s statistics office reveals.
A paper released last month by the church’s department for Congregational and Diocesan Ministries finds the membership of the national church is evenly divided along theological grounds, and also offers a snapshot of the denomination’s health.
Based upon responses received from 837 Episcopal parishes the findings paint a picture of an aging and divided church.
Over half, 52.4 per cent, of the congregations are small, with an average worship attendance of less than 70 people with the median parish having 66 persons at Sunday worship in 2009, a decline of 15 per cent since the fight over the consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
The median Episcopal congregation had 160 members in 2009, down from 182 in 2003. Sixty per cent of these members are female, 86.7 per cent are of European (white) descent, and 69 per cent of all congregations report more than half of their members are over 50 years of age.
Episcopalians are older than their neighbors, with 30 per cent aged 65 or older, compared to a national average of 13 per cent. Children and young people are found in Episcopal congregations at less than half their rate in the general population, the survey found.
Some 89 per cent of Episcopal congregations reported having conflicts or disagreements in the last five years, with “ordination of gay priests or bishops” cited as the “most frequently mentioned source of conflict.” This rate of conflict within the church is down somewhat from the rate of 93 per cent in 2005 and 90 per cent in 2008. However, of congregations that had serious conflict: 93 per cent saw members leave the church, 50 per cent saw members withhold funds, and 26 per cent saw staff turnover.
The proportion of parishes in financial difficulty rose sharply over the past decade. Only 28 per cent of congregations reported being in “excellent” or “good” financial shape in the survey, compared to 56 per cent in 2000.
While the national church’s leadership as reflected in the Presiding Bishop, Executive Council, the elected Deputies to the General Convention and its bishops have swung sharply to the left over the past decade, this trend has not been repeated among people in the pews. These findings have also been reflected in the disconnect between the pronouncements of the House of Bishops on social issues, most always from a left wing perspective, and surveys of membership on issues such as immigration and economics, which find the church’s members more closely aligned with national secular survey samples.
The survey found the church evenly divided along theological grounds.
5 per cent call themselves “very liberal or progressive”; 24 per cent call themselves “somewhat liberal or progressive”; 41 per cent call themselves “moderate”; 23 per cent call themselves “somewhat conservative”; 7 per cent call themselves “conservative”.
The report also found that conservative congregations were “much more likely to have experienced serious conflict during the last five years regarding the ordination of gay clergy than more liberal congregations,” the report found.
Fort Worth cases halted pending appellate review: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 7. April 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Fort Worth, Property Litigation.comments closed
Fort Worth Bishop Jack Iker
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Texas trial court has suspended proceedings in the Fort Worth property disputes, until the state’s appeals court rules on issue of whether a diocese may secede from the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.
On April 5 Tarrant County Judge John Chupp granted the motion brought by Bishop Jack Iker and Diocese of Fort Worth to sever and stay all further proceedings in the main lawsuit “pending a final determination of the severed claims through the appellate process.”
The order follows the judge’s January 21 ruling in favor of the national church, which directed the diocese to turn over all of its property within 60 days. The diocese subsequently asked Judge Chupp to stay his ruling requiring the diocese’s assets be turned over to the national church. The diocese argued its 6000 active members, parochial school students and the participants in its social service programmes would be irreparably harmed by turning over the properties to the national church while the issues remained outstanding.
On March 31, the day of the hearing, attorneys for the national church and its supporters in Fort Worth filed an additional 2000 page pleading, asking the court to rule on their “seventh amended original petition and new motion for partial summary judgment before he addressed Fort Worth’s request for a stay. The judge responded six days later by moving the entire case to the appeals court for review.
In his January decision, Judge Chupp stated the Episcopal Church was a hierarchical church, and as such, the diocese’s property could be claimed by the national church. At the March 31 hearing the Judge said it would now be up to the appellate court to decide whether the Episcopal Church is a “hierarchical church or not.”
However the legal issue in question lawyers for Fort Worth have argued, is not the theological question of hierarchy, but how the “neutral principles of law” approach adopted by the Texas and US courts should decide the issue.
In a statement released after the January decision Bishop Iker said, “We are obviously disappointed by Judge Chupp’s ruling and see it as fundamentally flawed. We are confident that the Court of Appeals will carefully consider our appeal and will rule in accordance with neutral principles of law as practiced in the State of Texas.”
No bishop for Tuam: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 7. April 8, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Ireland.comments closed
Bishop Richard Henderson of Tuam
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The March 30 meeting of the Church of Ireland Episcopal Electoral College for the United Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, meeting at Church House in Armagh was unable to appoint a new bishop for the small rural diocese.
Under the constitution of the Church of Ireland, the appointment of a new bishop rests with the House of Bishops. However, the appointment of a successor for Dr Richard Henderson, who stepped down as bishop last year to take up a parochial cure in Cumbria is uncertain.
On March 5 a special meeting of the Irish General Synod in Dublin rejected a bill put forward by the House of Bishops to postpone appointing a new bishop for the diocese of 2000 active members gathered in nine parishes, or unions of congregations in County Mayo and portions of Counties Sligo and Galway in the far west of Ireland.
While the bill was defeated by a ten to one margin in the lay order and a five to one margin in the clergy order, questions were raised about the feasibility of the current diocesan structures.
In a statement released after Bishop Henderson announced his resignation, Reform Ireland asked whether Ireland could “afford so many bishops?”
It noted the number of bishops had remained unchanged for over a century, while the numbers of active members had declined as had the church’s “ability to finance itself. Just recently, the Church of Ireland was one of the biggest losers in Ireland’s banking fiasco, losing €17million euro in its share values,” Reform Ireland noted.
While “no-one wants to see Church of Ireland people not episcopally catered for” Reform Ireland asked if the church needed its current structure of 12 diocesan bishops to oversee approximately 500 clergy. “The Church of Ireland has faced difficult days before and these are similar times when some tough decisions about the number of bishops need to be taken,” the conservative evangelical group said.
The Anglican Church in the West of Ireland has been undergoing consolidation since the early Nineteenth Century. In 1834 parliament amalgamated the diocese of Killala and Achonry with the Archdiocese of Tuam. Following the death of Archbishop Power Trench in 1839 the province of Tuam was united to the Province of Armagh and its episcopal officeholder changed from an archbishop to bishop.
Malaysia ends Bible ban: The Church of England Newspaper, April 8, 2011 p 8. April 7, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of South East Asia, Persecution, Politics.comments closed
Bishop Bolly Lapok of Kuching
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Malaysian government has lifted its Bible ban. On April 2, cabinet minister Idris Jala announced that Malaysians would be free to import and print the al-Kitab, the Malay-language Bible.
However, several conditions were attached to the “10 point solution” proposed by the government in response to the unprecedented protest campaign waged by Church leaders.
Last month the government demanded that as a condition of their release, the 5100 copies of the al-Kitab imported by the Bible Society of Malaysia be stamped with a government warning that read: ““Reminder: This ‘al-Kitab Berita Baik’ is for the use of Christians only. By order of the Home Minister.”
The Bibles were also to be sequentially numbered and registered with the government and the cover of each book was to bear the seal of the Home Ministry. A second shipment of 30,000 Malay Bibles imported by the The Gideons, but held in customs in Kuching, would also have been subjected to the government warning label and stamps.
Church leaders denounced the government’s actions. The Anglican Bishop of Kuching, the Rt. Rev. Bolly Lapok said the demand was “ridiculous because it is illegal constitutionally,” while the Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia, the Rt. Rev. Ng Moon Hing, speaking on behalf of the Christian Federation of Malaysia, rejected “the government’s contention that the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia is prejudicial to the national interest and security of Malaysia.”
On April 2, Mr. Jala said the government’s “10 point solution” to the dispute would permit unfettered access of imported copies of the al-Kitab into Sarawak and Sabah. Local publishers would also be allowed to print the al-Kitab as well as offer editions of the Bible in local languages.
However, in West Malaya, the al-Kitab would be allowed to be distributed and imported freely, but the cover of each book must bear a cross and the words “Christian publication.”
“I hope this 10-point solution will be received positively by the Christian groups as being fair and reasonable. I think the Bible issue is very unfortunate and, in the spirit of Lent, it is time for sacrifice, reconciliation and forgiveness,” Mr. Idris said.
“And for all our shortcomings in handling the Bible issue, I hope the Christians will find it in their hearts to forgive us,” the minister said.
Church leaders have offered mixed responses to the government’s offer. Bishop Lapok said he was pleasantly surprised by the “generosity and sensitivity” of the decision.
While the government’s actions were but “an ointment for a symptom,” Bishop Lapok was nonetheless heartened by the “government’s commitment to work with the churches to address inter-religious issues.”
However the Roman Catholic Bishop of Malacca & Johor Paul Tan called the two sets of rules “evil”.
“If the policy is one for Sabah and Sarawak and another for Peninsula Malaysia, this is tantamount to using the insidious tactic of ‘divide and rule.’ I adamantly condemn and reject such means,” the bishop told the Malaysiakini website.
Kenyan call to combat the “vice” of corruption: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 8. April 6, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Kenya, Church of England Newspaper, Corruption.comments closed
Standing Committee members meeting in Nairobi
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
New dioceses, a new university and concerns over government corruption and political wrangling topped the bill of the Anglican Church of Kenya’s standing committee meeting last month in Nairobi.
Meeting from March 2-3 at All Saints Cathedral, the standing committee began work on a ten year plan for the church taking as its slogan, ‘Together for Christ’. In 2011 the church will focus its energies on Kenya’s “education debate; our commitment to developing the Anglican University and engaging intentionally in programs that will address peace building and conflict management.”
Church leaders discussed the proposal to create a new diocese from the Marsabit Area Mission—some 350 miles north of Nairobi near the border with Ethiopia. The standing committee also approved the creation of the Kenya Anglican University Trust to oversee the construction and operation of the new school which is to be built at Kanyuambora in the Diocese of Mbeere.
Sunday March 27 was designated “Provincial Education Day” by the standing committee, and a goal of raising 300 million Kenyan Shillings was set to begin the first stage of construction.
Every Kenyan Anglican was asked to contribute to the school: “at least 100 Shillings for adults, 50 for youth and 20 for children;” (20 Shillings equals 15 pence.)
The church leaders also urged government leaders to stamp out corruption and implement responsibly the constitution adopted last year, and “commit themselves to working towards ensuring an equitable distribution of resources and the strengthening of institutions that will ensure good governance and put a stop to the relentless pursuit for power.”
“We urge all our national leaders to focus on keeping Kenya united especially as we move towards 2012 general elections by desisting from dividing people along ethnic lines or running into ethnic enclaves for support in political contests,” the standing committee said, urging President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga “to rise above personal interests and focus on national issues by ensuring continuous and meaningful consultations” with the people.
The Church “notes with a lot of concern that some of our political leaders have been misleading the nation with their careless utterances,” the said, reminding politicians that they must comport themselves in a “dignified manner as they discharge their official duties in and out of Parliament and respect the codes of conduct that govern various institutions.”
Corruption was not solely a government problem, they said, and “winning the war against corruption will not be just confined to the top leaders.”
“We encourage all Kenyans to once again take the fight against corruption seriously and personally. In order to achieve this, every Kenyan must support the institutions and structures that have been put in place to fight this vice,” the said.
Army families counselling offered by the MU: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 7. April 6, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Mission Societies/Religious Orders.comments closed
Lord & Lady Dannatt with the Lord Lieutenant of Kent at Canterbury Cathedral
The Mothers’ Union (MU) in the Diocese of Winchester in conjunction with the Armed Forces Christian Union has launched a pilot programme to provide family counseling services to active duty members of the armed forces.
Using a group of qualified therapists, the MU will fund up to six sessions with a counselor for couples where at least one spouse is currently serving in the military. “At present, we are only able to make the offer to couples with some connection with the Winchester Diocesan area (covering parts of Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire),” the MU reported, but the “connection can be that of birth, residence, posting or family residing within the Diocese.”
The need for support services for military families “came about through the awareness of members in this Diocese of the number of military bases in our region, and contact with some forces families” through MU projects, the organization said.
One member, supported by the Mothers’ Union Trustees of this diocese, has worked closely with the Armed Forces Christian Union and senior chaplaincy staff, with the support of the former chief of the general staff and his wife, Lord and Lady Dannett.
General Lord Dannatt and Lady Dannatt have expressed their “absolute delight at the launch of this pilot scheme” to provide funding for relationship counselling to armed forces personnel, and “wish it every success,” the MU said.
Lady Dannatt’s own experiences as a counsellor and army wife have encouraged her to draw attention to the difficulties facing the families of soldiers and the lack of support currently available to them. Making available professional relationship counselling is one of the ways in which the MU and Armed Forces Christian Union can help those in need, she said.
‘Life sentence’ for abuse for US priest: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 7. April 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Abuse, Central New York, Church of England Newspaper.comments closed
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
An 84 year old former Episcopal priest has been imprisoned by a Pennsylvania court following a March 24 conviction for raping two boys.
Ralph Johnson, who served as a parish priest in Pennsylvania and New York for over 30 years, was sentenced to a 4-1/2 to 18 year term of imprisonment by the Susquehanna County Court, following his November guilty plea. At the sentencing hearing last week, Mr. Johnson’s attorney, John Petorak, asked the court for mercy. He asked that his client be given “some hope of coming out” of prison “while he’s still alive.”
“He is probably going to serve out the remainder of his life in prison,” said the defense attorney.
However, a statement read to the court by one of Johnson’s victims said the former priest’s “use of religion as a means to harvest young men is more blasphemous than those who are not true believers.”
The victim, who was between the ages of 11 and 15 when he was abused by Mr. Johnson and is now in his 30s, urged the court to be firm, just “as he gave his victims no leniency.”
The second victim, who was 14 at the time of the assault is now in his 20’s and is mentally disabled.
While Johnson was convicted for crimes committed in Pennsylvania, allegations of misconduct have also been raised in neighboring New York. In 2002, the Rev. David Bollinger, a successor of Johnson’s as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Owego, told Central New York Bishop Gladstone Adams of reports of misconduct by Johnson shared with him by parishioners.
The bishop initially declined to act as the Owego victims did not come forward. However, on Jan 12, 2005, one victim executed an affidavit, witnessed by Fr. Bollinger and a second Central New York priest, accusing Johnson of having assaulted him 20 years earlier on a church camping trip. In May 2006, Johnson renounced his priestly orders without admitting his guilt.
Fr. Bollinger told The Church of England Newspaper the “courage and persistence of the victims should be praised given the resistance of the church to face the truth” of the abuse.
“Justice has finally come to the victims,” he said.
Contempt citation handed down by court in Indian church corruption trial: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 8. April 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of South India, Corruption.comments closed
Bishop Vasanthakumar
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Karnataka high court has issued a contempt notice to the Bangalore police after they failed to carry out a judge’s order to investigate fraud and corruption charges leveled against the Moderator of the Church of South India (CSI).
On Dec 9, Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar asked the police to complete their investigations “as soon as possible, but not later than the outer limit of two months” into a criminal compaling filed against the CSI Moderator, Bishop Suputhrappa Vasanthakumar, his wife Nirmala, daughter Aparna, and personal secretary Patricia Job.
On April 30, 2010 Mr. I Sounder Raj, a member of St. Peter’s parish in Kolar Gold Fields filed a complaint in the Bangalore magistrate’s court alleging the bishop and his wife had embezzled diocesan funds. The thefts had been on-going since April 2002, Mr. Raj said, and involved theft, forgery, fraud, and the sale of admissions to church schools.
Prosecutors told the court last year that the police had investigated similar accusations lodged against Bishop Vasanthakumar and had filed a ‘B’ report—a police form that states a case could not be made against the accused.
The Raj complaint, however, was brought after the B report was filed, attorneys told the court. Judge Shantanagoudar ordered the police to complete their review of the case and report their findings by the end of February. The police have so far declined to act on the judge’s order, prompting the contempt notice from the court.
London memorial services for slain Pakistani leader: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 7. April 5, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of Pakistan.comments closed
Shahbaz Bhatti
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Memorial services for slain Pakistani government minister Shahbaz Bhatti were held last week in London.
On March 16, the Pakistan High Commission hosted a memorial service for the slain Minorities Minister, who was murdered on March 2 after calling for the reform of the country’s blasphemy laws.
Mr. Bhatti, a 42 year old Roman Catholic, was leaving his home when a gunman sprayed his car with 20 bullets. He died while being transported to the Shifa Hospital in Islamabad. The government minister was usually accompanied by security guards, but he had told them that day not to accompany him. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the murder.
At the March 16 memorial service, the High Commissioner of Pakistan in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, told mourners he hoped his country would recover the vision of its founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and fight for a non-discriminatory Pakistan.
The former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir Ali, who led the Christian prayers for the service said Pakistan’s blasphemy laws had been abused and misused. While Pakistan needed laws to prevent incitement to religious hatred that lead to violence or discrimination, the punishment for such a law should be commensurate with the seriousness of the crime, Bishop Nazir Ali said.
The murder of Mr. Bhatti, the chairman of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, underscored the need for interfaith dialogue on how Christians and Muslim could live in justice and harmony in Pakistan, Bishop Nazir Ali said.
On March 17, St Margaret’s, Westminster held a memorial service attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Alexander Malik of Lahore, and the former Bishop of Peshawar Mano Ramulshah.
“Shahbaz knew the meaning of the cross which he followed all the way, to his last breath. But he also knew that the cross is not the end. He knew the power of Christ’s resurrection,” Bishop Tony Robinson of Pontefract told the congregation.
During the service, a recording made by the late government minister was played to the congregation. “When I’m leading this campaign against the Shariah laws and for the abolishment of the blasphemy law and speaking for the oppressed and for the persecuted Christians and other minorities, these Taliban threaten me,” he said.
“I’m ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community and suffering people and I will die to defend their rights. So these threats and these warnings cannot change my opinion and principles. I will prefer to die for my principles and for the justice of my community rather to compromise,” Mr. Bhatti said.
“Our tribute to Shahbaz will be to follow his love of truth and justice,” Bishop Robinson said, and not be “limited by fear in the face of adversity and persecution.”
Plans for an Anglican University for Eastern Uganda unveiled: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 8. April 4, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda.comments closed
Mrs. Margaret Sentamu
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The dioceses of eastern Uganda have begun talks with local government officials to build a church-affiliated university in the Mbale region.
However, Ugandan press reports that Mrs. Margaret Sentamu had been named chancellor of the new university were premature. A spokesman for the Archbishop of York told The Church of England Newspaper that Mrs. Sentamu had not yet been approached by the university’s founders about the post.
Speaking to the Sunday Monitor of Kampala, the building committee chairman Mr. Charles Walimbwa Pekke, said “the university will be set up as a multi- disciplinary campus and will be located in various dioceses of eastern Uganda. Building will start soon.”
The first phase of construction will be centered at the church’s Bishop Usher Wilson Theological College in Buwalasi, he said.
Education remains a high priority for Anglicans in the developing world, with church affiliated universities and colleges under construction in Tanzania, Ghana and other African nations. From Feb 17-24 the steering committee of TEAC, Theological Education in the Anglican Communion, met in Harare at the invitation of committee member, Bishop Chad Gandiya.
The TEAC steering committee, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Colin Johnson of Toronto discussed plans for the May 2011 meeting of Anglican theological college principals in Canterbury, and also offered two days of theological education to approximately 80 Zimbabwe clergy.
In a statement released by TEAC last week, the steering committee noted the on-going harassment of Anglicans in Harare. “Almost all the churches of the Diocese are not currently accessible to the priests and people, so congregations meet in a variety of locations, halls, schools, even a racing club.”
“But the harassment and persecution that has been experienced over recent years has, if anything, made the Church even stronger, with worship locations being packed out and over-spilling, and worship itself marked both with great dignity and great joy,” the TEAC report said.
Kampala cathedral foundation stone laid: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 9. April 4, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Church of the Province of Uganda.comments closed
An artist's rendition of the new All Saints Cathedral in Kampala
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The Archbishop of Uganda has laid the foundation stone for a new Anglican cathedral at a groundbreaking ceremony on Jan 27 in Kampala.
The first phase of the All Saints Cathedral £6.6 million construction project is scheduled to be completed by Christmas 2012, in time for the cathedral’s centenary. On Feb 27 Mr. Shem Byakagaba, the building project committee chairman said the entire project would be completed within three to five years.
The design includes a two level underground parking garage, two galleries, two chapels, offices, two boardrooms and a 45-metre bell tower.
In his address to the congregation, the Archbishop Henry Orombi said God had “appointed this generation to build for him a house of worship because the spirit of construction of houses is ripe in this country.”
The 4000-seat cathedral will be funded by Ugandans for Ugandans, the archbishop said. “People have money” to give towards the building, he said, and most of the materials will come from Uganda. “If we want tiles, we shall get them, if we want cement, we shall get it, if we want iron sheets, we shall get them,” the archbishop said.
Not all of the funds are in hand, however, to complete construction £127,000 must be raised each month until the project is completed.
Founded in 1912 as a chaplaincy to the city’s colonial hospital, All Saints catered to Kampala’s European population for its first 50 years. Following independence in 1962 All Saints was incorporated as a parish church and its members changed from being exclusively European to include people of African and Asian origin. In 1972, the church was elevated to a Pro-Cathedral and later to a Cathedral for the newly created Kampala Diocese.
The present church building was constructed around 1938 and has been enlarged over the years. The present congregation of some 10,000 members, however, overflows the current 800 seat church. For the past seven years, the cathedral has used tents to accommodate the crowds, holding three services each Sunday that each draws in excess of 1200 people.
Death threats may be linked to chaplain’s murder: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 8. April 2, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
Bishop Jo Seoka of Pretoria
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Death threats made against the Bishop of Pretoria, the Rt. Rev. Jo Seoka, may be linked to the unsolved January murder of the bishop’s chaplain.
On March 15, the South African Council of Churches reported that “five men armed with guns arrived at Bishop Seoka’s Pretoria home, declaring their intention to kill the bishop and his wife.”
“The Bishop and his wife were not at home at the time, but the intruders returned later in the day looking for them,” the SACC said. The following day “two different people telephoned the Bishop’s home enquiring from those present about the Bishop’s whereabouts. The callers reiterated their threats against the Bishop and left a message that he should pack and leave the house.”
The SACC speculated the death threats may have been politically motivated. It noted that Bishop Seoka, who is president of the SACC, “has long been an outspoken advocate for social and economic justice and a courageous opponent of corruption and unethical business practices in his capacity as a leader of the ecumenical movement.”
However, the Pretoria News reports the death threats may be linked to the murder of the bishop’s lay chaplain, Ntombekaya September.
On Jan 7 the body of Ms September (45), a prominent property developer who recently became the first lay chaplain to the Bishop of Pretoria, was discovered in her home by Bishop Soeka and her maid.
The police have withheld details of the murder, but police are seeking a Congolese man who worked for a security company and was known to the dead woman. Following her death, a number of people close to the murdered woman began receiving spam emails from her email address—it is unknown if the emails are related to her murder.
The bishop discovered the body of Ms. September, after he was contacted by her servant, who was unable to enter her home. The bishop and the servant searched the home and found Ms. September, lying face down on her bed, fully clothed.
Bishop Seoka said “we have tried to identify who our enemy might be but we cannot come up with anybody.”
“People are also saying these threats might be related to the murder but I do not want to believe that,” the bishop said.
Pre-election manifesto published by Scottish churches: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 6. April 2, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England Newspaper, Politics, Scottish Episcopal Church.comments closed
Scottish church leaders unveil the 'Churches Vote' initiative in Edinburgh on March 22
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
Jobs, social justice, and support for ‘life’ are the center piece of the Scottish churches pre-election manifesto launched last week in Edinburgh.
On Mar 22, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop David Chillingworth, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland the Rt. Rev. John Christie, and other church leaders launched the “Churches Vote” initiative at a meeting held at the Holyrood Hotel. The manifesto calls for Scottish Christians to vote according to the dictates of their faith when they go to the polls on May 5 to elect a new Scottish parliament, church leaders declared.
“A fair and just society must place the value of every human life at the centre of its thinking,” they said. “This is only possible in a society which respects human life at every stage and supports the family in which life is born and nurtured.”
Elections are “community events” that allow individuals “to express the needs of the whole community” through the ballot box. “Let us look beyond the selfish and fearful parts of ourselves and aspire to build a society where everyone has equal access to opportunities and can live with dignity,” they said.
The churches’ manifesto called for a “fair and just society” that respected human life “at every stage”, provided economic security and the opportunities “for sufficient material wellbeing to flourish” and jobs.
“For generations” Christians have “served society and been at the heart of civil and political life,” they said. This was a “tradition we are committed to continuing. Motivated by faith, Christians are particularly aware of the need, found at the heart of the Gospel message, for a just social order where the government and economy function properly in contributing to social harmony.”
“Electing a government that is capable of doing this in a way compatible with the dignity of each human person is therefore a task of utmost importance,” the churches’ manifesto said.
A website: http://www.churchesvote.org created by the Scottish Elections 2011 Working Group, a collaboration between the Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office, the Catholic Parliamentary Office, ACTS, CARE, the Evangelical Alliance and others, to educate voters about politicians, party policies and political issues, they said.
Signatories to the Churches Vote initiative include: the Baptist Union of Scotland, CARE for Scotland, Christians Count, the Church of Scotland, the Congregational Federation, Destiny Church Network, the Evangelical Alliance, the Free Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church in Scotland, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), the Roman Catholic Church, The Salvation Army, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the United Free Church of Scotland, and the United Reformed Church.
Govt backs Jerusalem bishop in residency row: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 9. April 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in British Foreign Policy, Church of England Newspaper, Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & the Middle East, Israel.comments closed
Bishop Riah Abu al-Abbas
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
The government has given its backing to the Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, in his dispute with the Government of Israel over the bishop’s right to visit Jerusalem. However, the intervention by the Foreign Office appears not to have shifted the Israeli government’s views, which may be driven more by factional battles within the diocese, than the Arab-Israeli dispute.
In a written statement released on March 28 in response to a query from the former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries, Foreign Office minister Lord Howell stated the government was “very concerned” by the revocation of Bishop Dawani’s residency permit.
The Foreign Secretary, William Hague had “raised this with the Prime Minister of Israel last November. Our embassy in Tel Aviv continues to press regularly,” Lord Howell said.
On March 3, the Diocese of Jerusalem released a statement saying that “all Anglican bishops” in Jerusalem, who had not held Israeli passports, historically had been “granted residency permits to allow them to live in Jerusalem where the Bishop’s residence, diocesan offices and cathedral are located.”
The bishop and his family had renewed their permits in 2008 and 2009, but when they attempted to renew their permits last year, the bishop was told by the Ministry of the Interior that his documents would not be renewed. The government said “Bishop Suheil acted with the Palestinian Authority in transferring lands owned by Jewish people to the Palestinians and also helped to register lands of Jewish people in the name of the Church.”
“There were further allegations that documents were forged by the Bishop. The letter also stated that Bishop Dawani and his family should leave the country immediately,” the diocese reported.
Bishop Suheil Dawani
Bishop Dawani responded that the allegations leveled against him were false,. His letters protesting his innocence of the charges have so far gone unanswered nor have his accusers been publicly identified. On advice of legal counsel last month the bishop filed suit in a Jerusalem court seeking legal redress.
The diocese stated that private representations had been made on the bishop’s behalf by the UK and US governments, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi of Israel and other Anglican leaders with the Prime Minister’s office, but so far had no effect on the dispute.
The bishop’s residency dispute appears to have begun at the same time as the long-drawn out legal dispute between Bishop Dawani and his predecessor, Bishop Riah Abu al-Assal, came to a close.
Last year, an Israeli court banned Bishop Riah, an Arab Israeli, from trespassing on diocesan property and has rejected his claims of ownership of a church school in Nazareth. Over the course of the three year battle, charges and counter charges of fraud, forgery and violence were leveled against the bishops by their partisan opponents.
The Jerusalem bishops’ battle centered round a dispute over Christ Church School in Nazareth. Shortly before his retirement in March 2007, Bishop Riah established a charitable trust staffed by members of his family and sought to transfer the assets and administration of the diocese’s Christ Church School over to the “Bishop Riah Educational Campus.”
The diocese said Bishop Riah had collected tuition fees from the students while the school’s expenses, including staff salaries, were being paid by the diocese. In his court filings Bishop Riah countered that he had provided the funds for building the school, which employed his son as headmaster, and that he had raised funds for the school in his personal rather than episcopal capacity.
Following attempts at mediation, the diocese brought suit against Bishop Riah and his family trust for possession of the school and the tuition fees, and on Jan 22, 2008 a magistrate court granted the diocese control of the assets pending final adjudication. In April 2010 a final decision was handed down by the Israeli courts on the real estate. It denied Bishop Riah all rights and access “without express written permission of the diocesan Bishop Suheil Dawani,” or involvement “at all in any matter, without exception, in the matters of church and the school.”
Bishop Dawani’s troubles with the Ministry of the Interior began shortly after the court handed down its decision in the Christ Church Nazareth school case.
Copper thieves cause gas leak at Darlington church: The Church of England Newspaper, April 1, 2011 p 6. April 1, 2011
Posted by geoconger in Church of England, Church of England Newspaper, Crime.comments closed
Holy Trinity, Darlington
First published in The Church of England Newspaper.
A Darlington church almost became a deathtrap for its churchwardens, after thieves stole copper gas pipes from Holy Trinity Church—causing a gas leak.
When churchwardens entered the building on the morning of March 23 to prepare for a funeral, they were met with the strong smell of gas. The building required a full airing before the service could go forward later that day.
The priest in charge of Holy Trinity, the Ven. Nick Barker, the Archdeacon of Auckland in the Diocese of Durham, told his local newspaper that while some regarded metal theft as a “victimless crime”, but “it’s the wardens who have to spend two days mopping up the mess, and the little old ladies who keep the church running who suffer.”
“There is a real threat on the capacity of the church as a whole to sustain the present level of theft that is going on,” he said.
On March 31, Archdeacon Barker and other church leaders will meet with representatives from the Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland police forces, English Heritage and the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) in Bournmoor, County Durham to discuss strategies to fight metal thefts.
Many northern churches have been victims of theft, Archdeacon Barker said, some “several times.”
“The insurance cover has had to be limited and any repair is vexatious, time consuming, morale sapping and costly,” he said, adding that “repeated attacks threaten the long-term future of some churches and church communities.”
