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The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have added their voices to the chorus denouncing Zimbabwe’s decent into anarchy as Robert Mugabe seeks to maintain his hold on power.

On April 24, Dr. Rowan Williams and Dr. John Sentamu released a joint statement warning that unless the international community takes action, the “continuing political violence and drift could unleash spiraling communal violence.”

Nobel laureate and former Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu warned “Zimbabwe is staring into the abyss. Violence is growing and the people are suffering greatly as a result. It is now vital that we all do what we can to calm the situation.”

He backed the call of the present Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe. “It is obvious that supplying large quantities of arms at this stage would risk escalating the violence, perhaps resulting in the large-scale loss of life,” he said on April 24.

The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane joined his Roman Catholic counterpart Archbishop Philip Wilson and other church leaders in releasing a statement of “deep concern over the deteriorating political, security, economic and human rights situation in Zimbabwe.” If “nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe from their predicament, we shall soon be witnessing atrocities similar to that experienced in Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi,” they warned.

Drs Williams and Sentamu also voiced concern over the state sanctioned violence unleashed against the people of Zimbabwe. “Faithful men, women and young people who seek better governance in either political or church affairs continue to be beaten, intimidated or oppressed,” they said.

“Churches across England have been praying for Zimbabwe before, during and after the polls,” the English archbishops said. They urged all Christians to pray for the peace of Zimbabwe, adding “we must work to build a civil society movement that both creates political will and gives voice to those who demand an end to the mayhem that grows out of injustice, poverty, exclusion and violence.”

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper

Religion must play its part in combating climate change, EU political leaders told a gathering of European religious leaders on May 5. However, Russian delegates used the one-day conference in Brussels to urge the EU to direct its political energies towards supporting oppressed Christians around the world.

Twenty Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders—including the Bishop of Hulme, the Rt. Rev. Steven Lowe met with the Presidents of the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament in the fourth annual meeting of EU officials and religions leaders.

European Council President Janez Janša, the Prime Minister of Slovenia, told the delegates the environment was “not only natural but also a sacred place.”

“Community and loyalty between man, nature and the Creator is a basic principle of Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike,” he said. “Climate change requires us to rethink how we channel imagination, ingenuity and entrepreneurship into creating a world, free of dependence on fossil fuels, and yet prosperous and connected as never before.”

EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso added that climate change “obliges all of us to take urgent action,” and that “thanks to their outreach and role in our societies, religions and communities of belief are well placed to make a valuable contribution in mobilizing” against climate change.

Noting that 2008 was the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering asked faith leaders to take the lead in “building bridges between people and to safeguarding peace based on mutual respect.”

“Intercultural dialogue” he argued, was an “important contribution” to a common EU foreign policy “in particular in the Mediterranean region”.

However the Russian Orthodox delegate, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria said the EU’s notions of intercultural dialogue placed Christians at a disadvantage.

“Tolerance should not cause detriment to Christians, who still make up the majority of the European population. Phobia and discrimination of Christians should be condemned officially,” he said.

Bishop Hilarion called upon the EU to protect Europe’s Christian heritage, citing Muslim predations against Orthodox Christians in Kosovo and Cyprus. Turkey should not become part of Europe, he argued while it continues to “disregard the needs of its Christian population.”

The Russian Orthodox Church called upon the EU to “do more for the protection of Christians outside Europe, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and many other Islamic countries,” Bishop Hilarion said, according to a statement released through the Interfax news agency.

The European Parliament has denounced Burma’s May 10 constitutional referendum as a farce designed to cement the military junta’s hold on the country.

On April 24 MEPs adopted the non-binding resolution calling for increased sanctions against the country’s military junta. The resolution will be forwarded to the April 28-29 meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg for action. Burma’s “constitutional referendum process is devoid of any democratic legitimacy, as Burmese citizens lack all basic democratic rights that would allow them to hold an open debate on the constitutional text, amend it and subsequently freely express themselves through a referendum,” the MEPs said.

Speaking to the Southern Daily Echo upon his return from Burma following the February installation of the new Anglican Archbishop of Rangoon, the Bishop of Winchester the Rt. Rev Michael Scott-Joynt said the “situation is just as we have read it to be in our newspapers. Burma is a place where the regime is very much in control.”

“There are a lot of people who are very poor and for whom it is a real struggle to get the necessities of life. It is really not a place where any opposition to the regime can flourish,” he observed.

“I have talked to some clergy and it is a very demanding place for everybody and quite a frightening place,” Bishop Scott-Joynt said.

Copies of the 194-page draft constitution were also released for the first time on April 24. Under its proposed terms, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the formal name of the military junta led by General Than Shwe, will retain power through the set aside for the army of 25 percent of the seats in both houses of Parliament and in state assemblies. Any change to the constitution will requires a greater than 75 percent supermajority-giving the army veto power over the any changes.

The proposed constitution will also ban Nobel laureate and democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi from holding political office as “a person who is entitled to the rights and privileges of a foreign government, or a citizen of a foreign country” may not serve in the government. Suu Kyi’s late husband, Michael Aris, was British.

The leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi has been repeatedly place under house arrest since she won the 1990 general elections. The NLD has called for a “no” vote on May 10, but foreign monitors and correspondents have been banned from observing the election, and wide spread fraud is expected.

On March 19, the All Burma Monks Alliance—organizers of last year’s pro-democracy protests in Rangoon—called for a boycott of the referendum, saying religion could not prosper under a military regime that “kills and arrests monks and desecrates religious buildings.”

The military junta “continues to subject the people of Burma to appalling human rights abuses, such as forced labour, persecution of dissidents, conscription of child soldiers and forced relocation,” the European Parliament said last week. It urged the EU foreign ministers to “renew its targeted sanctions, and to broaden them, focusing on restrictions on access to international banking services” and to “campaign actively for a worldwide embargo on arms exports to Burma.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has welcomed the Good Childhood Inquiry panel to Lambeth Palace, participating in its investigation of good childhood practices for Britain.

The work of the panel, set up by the Children’s Society, comes amidst concerns over a growing breakdown in family life. On April 14, a cross party parliamentary inquiry led by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith reported that the breakdown of family life was creating a permanent “under class” in Britain.

In some areas of Britain, sixty percent of families were without fathers. The lack of social and parental interaction was leading to a generation of children doomed to dysfunction, Mr. Duncan Smith said.

“The evidence shows if a child is born into a home where they are nurtured, where conversation takes place, where they are read to, even at an age where they can’t understand, what happens is that the child’s brain develops.”

“If they don’t have any of that, if they are not challenged, if they’re sat in front of a TV for hours and hours on end, if there’s anger and shouting, if they witness their mother being abused or some boyfriend takes a dislike to them, then studies show that child will arrive at nursery school often not able to speak properly,” Mr. Duncan Smith said.

These neglected children fall behind their peers, and are “likely to end up involved in crime or drugs,” he said.

To stem the societal dysfunction identified by Mr. Duncan Smith’s inquiry the Children’s Society’s Good Childhood Inquiry seeks to initiate a debate on what makes for a good childhood and to shape future government policy. Dr. Williams said he was “grateful” for the opportunity of hearing “how their work has been progressing” and looked forward to the publication of their report on April 24. “This is a timely and significant Inquiry, which will be of great value and resource to those looking to shape future policy for children and young people,” he said.

The chief executive of the Children’s Society, Bob Reitemeier, reported the Inquiry had heard from 15,000 people, including 10,000 children. “Rethinking childhood is one of the most important issues facing the UK. We’re extremely grateful for the Archbishop’s insights on childhood and his participation in the Inquiry which has helped us shape the debate around childhood,” he said on April 7.

The Diocese of Bath and Wells has been awarded almost £1 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop the Bishop’s Palace and Gardens in Wells as a tourism site.

The project will increase public access to the gardens and restore the existing 19th century gardens to their original state. The Palace undercroft will be restored as an exhibition space and the stable yard buildings will be converted into classrooms and exhibition space.

On April 10 the diocese announced the Lottery had awarded £114,500 to support the development plans that will enable parts of the gardens to be opened up to the public for the first time, while a further £877,500 has been allocated for 2009.

The Lottery grant has been matched by a contribution of £1.1 million from the Church Commissioners, owners of the site.

The Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Rt. Rev. Peter Price said this was “an exciting time for the Palace. The Palace has always played a central role in the community not only of Wells but of the whole diocese and this project will ensure it continues. We are delighted to have received the grant.”

The MP for Wells, David Heathcote-Amory said he was “delighted that this award will conserve this nationally important garden and open it up to the public for the enjoyment of local people and visitors alike.”

Davis Mac Ayalla of Changing Attitude Nigeria

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned threats of violence made against leaders of Changing Attitude UK and Nigeria.

In late March unknown assailants attacked the head of Changing Attitude Nigeria and sent death threats via a text message from Nigeria to the head of Changing Attitude UK. The death threats followed the beating of the Bishop of Kano by a mob, which left the Rt. Rev. Zaka Nyam near death.

On April 9, Dr. Rowan Williams said the “The threats recently made against the leaders of Changing Attitudes are disgraceful.”

He noted the Anglican Communion, through resolutions passed by the Lambeth Conference and in statements made by the Primates’ Meetings, had “unequivocally condemned violence and the threat of violence against gay and lesbian people. I hope that this latest round of unchristian bullying will likewise be universally condemned.”

On April 8 Changing Attitude released a statement saying that on March 24 “gay leaders of Changing Attitude Nigeria were seriously assaulted. They, and the Director of Changing Attitude England, were also threatened with death because ‘they are polluting Nigeria with abomination and immorality’.”
Changing Attitude also released a letter signed by twenty Anglican bishops and church leaders inferring that attacks on the gay leaders was driven by conservative opposition to the normalization of homosexuality within the life of the Church.

The Rev. Colin Coward said some “highly judgemental and often abusive comments and pronouncements about LGBT Anglicans” had “lead some members of Anglican Communion churches to believe that threats and violence against those who are LGBT (or those who support a more open stance towards LGBT people) are not only justified but are authentic expressions of Christianity.”

However, critics of the Changing Attitude statement note that the group had produced no evidence to substantiate its claim that conservative Anglicans were behind the threats.

The culprits behind the beating of the Bishop of Kano have been identified and are the subjects of a police investigation. On March 3 a gang of young men affiliated with the Evangelical Church of West Africa in Kano attacked Bishop Nyam as he was leaving the church, dragging him from his car and beating him into unconsciousness.

The Bishop was pulled to safety by members of the congregation, who had been meeting with the Bishop to discuss plans to rebuild the church, which had been damaged during last years’ Muslim-Christian riots.

The motive for the attack, Church of Nigeria officials tell The Church of England Newspaper arose from a false story circulated by Muslim government officials that state assistance to rebuild the church had been embezzled by Bishop Nyam, the chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Bishop Nyam survived the assault but was hospitalized and is expected to recover. When queried by CEN, Lambeth Palace stated they were unaware of the attack.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Yale University appointment arose from his foreign policy triumphs and commitment to the transforming role of faith in world affairs, the dean of Yale Divinity School said last week.

The comments by Dean Harold Attridge followed Mr. Blair’s April 3 speech at Westminster Cathedral on “Faith and Globalization,” where the former prime minister argued religious faith continued to have relevance in the affairs of state.

The former prime minister will seek to develop his thinking while serving as the Howland lecturer at Yale University and in September he will begin teaching a class to Anglican and Congregationalist seminarians and students from the university’s business school.

The Divinity School contacted Mr. Blair in late 2006, inviting him to lecture, Dean Attridge said on April 4. And “unbeknownst to us, at the same time [Yale President] Rick Levin had also sent a letter exploring the possibility of coming as a visitor of some sort after he stepped down from his public office.”

The prime minister’s office declined both offers at the time, but “he contacted us through his staff after he had stepped down from the prime minister’s job and indicated that he was interested in pursuing some initiatives having to do with religion and globalization in his retirement,” the dean said.

The choice of Yale was prompted by his son’s enrollment at the University, Dean Attridge said, as “Tony had a knowledge of the place and some sense of its resources and scope.”

The role of religion in public life “is very timely,” he noted, and the former prime minister said he was “very much interested in exploring both the ways religion has been misused and has caused harm to human beings and the way in which it can be used as a very positive element of contemporary life.”

Yale lauded Mr. Blair’s work as prime minister saying he was instrumental “in bringing peace to Northern Ireland,” had “played a role in the Balkans, in the dislocation caused, in part at least, by the cultural and religious traditions there,” and was presently “involved in the Middle East peace initiative.”

“He’s wrestled for some time with issues of religion and its role on the contemporary scene and has given it a lot of thought and wants to continue that in a setting where the resources of a great university would be a part of the conversation,” Dean Attridge said.

The former prime minister’s course will be a seminar for theological and business students “team-taught” with members of the Yale faculty. “Blair will be here on site for about five or six sessions of the course, and he’ll be in town for, oh, probably two days, at each of those sessions, and he’ll also be involved in some public events connected in some way or other to the course,” he noted.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey’s Secretary for Anglican Communion Affairs has been suspended by the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham from his priestly ministry after admitting to “inappropriate conduct”.

The Rev. Canon Andrew Deuchar was priest in charge of the Nottingham city parishes of All Saints, St Mary’s and St. Peter’s, and was instrumental in bringing the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council to Nottingham. In a statement released last week, Bishop George Cassidy said Canon Deuchar had “agreed to resign” his cure “following a disciplinary procedure as a result of having admitted inappropriate conduct towards a woman.”

“He has also agreed to two years prohibition, that is two years away from active ordained ministry in the Church of England.”

The suspension took effect on Good Friday following a three month investigation under the Clergy Disciplinary Measure.

A former diplomat, Canon Deuchar was Lord Carey’s Secretary for Anglican Communion Affairs from 1994-2000 and played a major role in the inner workings of the Anglican Communion.

A Chaplain to the Queen, Canon Deuchar has also resigned that post in the wake of his suspension, according to a report published by The Times.

The Rt Hon. Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for Justice & Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain

THE GOVERNMENT of Prime Minister Gordon Brown is ready to review the terms of the Act of Settlement and end the ban on Roman Catholics ascending the throne.

While a repeal of the 1701 Act’s ban on a Catholic monarch was not part of the white paper on constitutional reform, in response to a question Justice Minister Jack Straw said the government was ready to examine this “antiquated” law.

Passed by Parliament in 1701 to govern the succession of the monarch, the Act required the sovereign to “join in communion with the Church of England” and settled the throne on the Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover — a granddaughter of Charles I, and to exclude the Roman Catholic Stuarts from the throne.

The Act states that all who “shall or may take or inherit the said Crown” may not be “reconciled to, or shall hold communion with, the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the popish religion, or shall marry a papist.”

In 2001 former Prime Minister Tony Blair raised the issue of repealing the Act of Settlement but did not take the matter forward.

In the Commons debate on the government’s white paper, the member for Livingston, Jim Devine, one of 13 Scottish Labour members who are Roman Catholics, welcomed the statement, “particularly his comment that this is not the final blueprint. I ask him to include provision for the abolition of the Act of Settlement, because it discriminates directly against Roman Catholics. That is legalised sectarianism, which has no role to play in the 21st century.”

Mr Straw responded that “I speak on behalf of the Prime Minister. Because of the position that Her Majesty occupies as head of the Anglican Church, this is a rather more complicated matter than might be anticipated.”

However, “we are certainly ready to consider it, and I fully understand that my hon Friend, many on both sides of the House and thousands outside it, see that provision as antiquated,” Mr Straw said.

Other proposals raised in the government’s white paper include a diminution in the Prime Minister’s powers to appoint bishops and ending the Prime Minister’s authority to dispatch troops to war without parliamentary approval.

Mr Straw said the latest measures were not a “final blueprint”, but part of a much wider programme of building a “new constitutional settlement.”

Published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Rt. Rev. John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford 

The Bishop of Oxford told a community meeting that he had received a death threat for backing a proposal to allow the Muslim muezzin’s call, the Adhan, to be broadcast five times a day at the Oxford Central Mosque.

The Rt. Rev. John Pritchard told the meeting organized by the Anglo Asian Association in East Oxford on March 8, the virulence of some of the letters he received was “extraordinary.”

“One said, on a piece of A4, ‘resign’ six times in large font. One called on me to be beheaded and one said ‘I wish I was closer so I could spit on you’.”

” The dark underbelly of British society was coming out,” Bishop Pritchard told the meeting, according to an account printed by the Oxford Mail.

A diocesan spokesman said the threatening letters had not been reported to the police.

Bishop Pritchard, a Muslim speaker, a representative from the mosque, and city councilor Craig Simmons addressed the meeting, which was called to discuss concerns over the muezzin’s call in East Oxford.

Mr. Simmons said the controversy was premature. One of the conditions Oxford had made to allow construction of the mosque was a ban on amplified calls to prayer. “Planning permission would be needed to overturn this, which would involve a full consultation” he said, adding that the mosque had not yet submitted a request for permission to broadcast the muezzin’s call.

A representative from the mosque conceded the its interim committee had mishandled the affair. “It was basically a romantic idea from pure hearts. It was something that people wanted to share without any intentions of asserting a theology or culture on anyone,” Mr. Altaf Hussein said.

In January, Bishop Pritchard sparked controversy by telling the Oxford Mail he supported allowing the mosque to broadcast the muezzin’s call. “I would say to anyone who has concerns about the call to prayer to relax and enjoy our community diversity and be as respectful to others as you would hope they would be respectful to you,” he said.

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Bishop of Leicester has questioned the utility of holding ceremonies for school-leavers to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen and country.

Writing in the Leicester Mercury on March 15, Bishop Tim Stevens said “the swearing of oaths of allegiance do have a place in our society but the important thing is they are symbolic acts and don’t get in the way of valuing our children.”

The March 11 report commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on British citizenship recommended the creation of a British national day, citizenship ceremonies for young people, reforming the treason laws, and loans to immigrants to help pay the cost of English language classes.

The report’s author, the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith said holding an allegiance ceremony would help young people strengthen their sense of Britishness.

“Certainly there isn’t a crisis of national identity, but the research does tend to show there’s been a diminution in national pride, in this sense of belonging,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“The citizenship ceremonies, which are just one of the many things I have suggested, are a way of marking that passage of being a student of citizenship to a citizen in practice, Lord Goldsmith said.

“It does make sense to promote a sense of shared belonging, a sense that you are part of a community with a common venture, to integrate better newcomers to our society and be clearer about what the rights and responsibilities are,” the former attorney general explained.

While he applauded the Lord Goldsmith’s motives, his conclusions were misplaced, Bishop Stevens said, as a ceremony would do little to foster national pride.

“We shall recover confidence in our national identity if we learn to be proud of our young people and recognise the contributions they are making. That will do more to make them feel British than any act of allegiance,” he said.

The Royal Navy’s “Galloping Padre”, the Rev. Simon Beveridge made history last week at the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown race course in Surrey.

The first Royal Navy chaplain to ride in the amateur racing event’s 167 year history on March 8,  Mr. Beveridge was astride “Feeling Better” a 100-1 shot and was leading the field going into the last circuit when he was thrown.  Two rider-less horses cut across his path, taking him down.

Last December, the “Galloping Padre” made racing history by being the first racing vicar in the modern era to win a Point-to-Point.  Riding a 50-1 shot to victory at Wadebridge, Cornwall, in December.

Mr. Beveridge took up horseracing four years ago while serving with the Royal Marines at Lympstone, earning the nickname the “Galloping Padre” from his men.   Since becoming Chaplain at Yeovilton RNAS the Galloping Padre has been out early every Thursday at trainer John Ryall’s Farm at nearby Rimpton and has attended the British Racing School for both the Amateur National Hunt Course, and his Category ‘A’ Licence Assessment.

Mr. Beveridge has competed in nine point-to-point races this season, placing first, second, third and fourth.

While the Galloping Padre may be unique in being the Royal Navy’s only riding chaplain, sporting clergy were more common up through the war years.  The most famous riding parson was the Rev. Jack Russell (1795-1883), vicar of Swimbridge, Devon, noted dog breeder and sportsman.

(Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Hamilton, Bermuda)

A Bermudan government minister has called upon the Church of England to pay reparations in atonement for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The Minister for Culture and Social Rehabilitation Mr. Dale Butler MP released a statement on March 1 “inviting the Church to do more to show the religious community and the people of Bermuda that it is committed to help heal the wounds of racial divide in Bermuda.”

Butler’s Progressive Labour Party (PLP) won a third term in the Dec 18 general elections against the conservative United Bermuda Party (UBP). The racially charged campaign was marked by accusations of corruption and calls for group solidarity.

The UBP-which had governed the British dependency since self-rule was granted in 1968—was ousted from power in 1998 by the PLP which promised a “new Bermuda.” The PLP promised to empower blacks who comprise about 60 percent of Bermuda’s 62,000 people saying they continued to face discrimination and enacted laws mandating racial preferences in the workplace.

Following the Church of England’s 2006 apology for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Premier Ewart Brown called upon the Diocese of Bermuda to issue its own apology. Whilst he applauded the diocese’s subsequent statement of remorse, Butler-a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church—called upon the Church of England to back up its words with cash and endow a scholarship programme for black Bermudians.

“The Minister believes, that while investment in the future of Black youth in Bermuda could never adequately compensate for the injustices done to past victims of the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Bermuda, a strengthened and long-lasting gesture on the part of the Anglican Church would contribute to healing a race that remains scarred by injustices that have not found acceptable resolution in Bermuda,” a statement released by Butler’s office said.

“The legacy of a scholarship could help heal this country that continues to be divided by race,” the PLP minister said.

The Bishop of Bermuda, the Rt. Rev. Ewan Rattray declined to comment, saying he was studying the request.

The Bishop of Monmouth has criticized the Welsh Assembly for placing politics above good medicine. Bishop Dominic Walker told the Welsh Affairs committee in Parliament last week that the Assembly’s policy of providing all services to Welsh patients in Wales ran “counter to its policy of putting patients first”.

The problems arise with border issues when the ideologies seem to get in the way of the practicalities,” he said.

Joined by the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Priddis, on March 4 Bishop Walker urged the government to rethink the planned rationalization of health services.

In a statement to the committee Bishop Priddis said, “While reconfiguration of hospital services has been mooted in North Wales, it is hard to see how that could ever be achieved given the rural geography and population distribution served by Wrexham District General Hospital along with the other hospitals along the border.”

Under plans currently under review by the NHS neurosurgery patients in Liverpool would now have to travel to Swansea for care, while Welsh patients in England would find problems with their prescriptions.

“There is currently no prescription charge in Wales,” Bishop Priddis said, “but if someone living in Wales receives a prescription written by a doctor or dentist working in England, then they do have to pay at a Welsh or English pharmacy.

“The situation can result in Welsh patients who are seen in the emergency department of an English hospital decline a prescription that is then written for them because they want it written by their own Welsh GP, so as to avoid a prescription charge. This adds to everyone’s time and other costs,” he noted.

Both bishops urged the government to review the disparities in health care coverage on either side of the border, arguing it was unnecessary and ill-advised to foster incompatible health care systems between the regions.

The Bishop of Hereford, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Priddis

The former Bishop of Oxford has condemned the government’s inaction in the face of on-going human rights violations by the Indonesian government in West Papua.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Feb 26, Lord Harries said the government’s “bland disingenuousness” over West Papua had been discreditable. The Indonesian government was guilty of torture, “systematic brutality” and “genocide” against the indigenous people of Papua he said.

Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown conceded “the claim that there are major human rights abuses,” but noted the British government sought to work with the Indonesian government to “see it improve the conditions in Papua and to respect its special autonomy legislation.”

Lord Harries opened his remarks by saying that when he went shopping, he carried a bag displaying the West Papua “morning star” flag.  “If I shopped in West Papua with that bag, I would immediately be labelled a separatist and treated with brutality” and imprisoned, he said.

The government responded that Indonesia was making provisions for Papuans to be permitted to fly flag.  Lord Malloch-Brown called for “some understanding” for Indonesia as “flags are provocative things even in democracies that put an absolute premium on freedom of speech.”

“The Confederate flag in the United States continues to cause eruptions in every presidential campaign that I can recall,” the minister said.

Liberal Democratic peer Lord Avebury responded that “you do not go to prison for 20 years for flying the Confederate flag in the United States.”

“West Papua is a small country a long way away,” Lord Harries said, while “Indonesia is a big player with which we have major trade deals.”

“There are those who think that if only they stall long enough the problem will go away,” he said.  However, Lord Harries assured the government and the West Papuan people that their friends in the West would not abandon their cause in the face of economic self-interest or realpolitik, and asked the government to pursue this issue “with very great seriousness, conviction and urgency.”

Published in The Church of England Newspaper.

A UN report on religious freedom in Britain has urged the government to protect the rights of Asian women and Muslim converts to Christianity, and not privilege ethnic and religious communities over individual rights.

Britain has a high degree or religious freedom and tolerance, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief reported. However, government anti-terrorism policies were viewed as discriminatory by Muslim groups, while the continuation of the Blasphemy Offence under law was an anachronism that should be repealed or reformed.

Prepared for the UN’s Human Rights Council by Pakistani human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir (pictured) the 23-page Feb 7 report finds Britain has an “overall respect for human rights and their values” and that religious persecution is rare.

However, problem areas exist in Northern Ireland, among the Muslim community, and with recent government legislation that religious groups believed denigrates traditional morals.

Ms. Jahangir visited Britain for 11 days last June, meeting with a cross section of political, religious and social leaders ranging from the prime minister to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement to Scientologists to the Muslim Council of Britain.

The UN’s rapporteur noted that Britain’s 2001 census divided the population along religious lines as: 71.8 per cent Christian, 2.8 per cent Muslim, 1 per cent Hindu, 0.6 per cent Sikh, 0.5 per cent Jewish and 0.3 per cent Buddhist, 15.1 per cent no religion and 7.8 per cent of people chose not to state their religion, the actual rates of religious observance were much lower than the rates of affiliation.

However, the rate of churchgoing was much lower. “In 2007, approximately two-thirds of the British either did not claim membership of a religion or said that they never attended a religious service, compared with 26 per cent in 1964,” the report said.

In her interviews with religious and secular leaders, Ms Jahangir found localized dissatisfaction with some aspects of religious freedom in Britain. Jewish groups complained of increased anti-Semitism in the wake of the government’s war on terror, Hindus objected to government education curriculum favoring Urdu over Hindu, while Sikhs called for proportional representation by religion in parliament.

Muslim respondents complained of “the application of counter‑terrorism legislation and the adverse influence on the situation of British Muslims” and of the inflammatory consequences of the media’s reporting of Islamist terrorism.

Northern Ireland reported problems with sectarian violence, while “Christian Students’ Unions at several universities were reported to face pressures with regard to their adherence to university equal opportunities policies.”

“The Government’s Sexual Orientations Regulations were perceived by some Christians as hampering the work of Christian adoption agencies and establishing a hierarchy of rights with religion having a rather low priority,” the report said.

Secularists and some religious minority groups, however, complained of the “particular role and privileges of the Church of England.”

The UN report recommended the government continue the drive toward reducing sectarian tensions in Ulster, and recommended “affirmative actions strategies” to bring Catholics into government employment.

The Special Rapporteur commended Britain for the “balanced approaches” in “tackling” religious based terrorism. However she urged the government to review its counter-terrorism tactics as police “profiling techniques based on physical appearance seem to cause anger among many young Muslims and may lead to a lack of trust between the police and communities.”

“Several provisions in counter-terrorism legislation seem to be overly broad and vaguely worded,” she noted, urging the government to make sure that “criminal liability is limited to clear and precise provisions in the law.”

Ms Jahangir urged education authorities to “pay specific attention to the contents of syllabuses in publicly funded schools,” and not privilege one local or particular faith group. She further noted the “continued existence of the blasphemy offence” under English law was at odds with European Human Rights Law and favored the Christian faith over others. Blasphemy should be either broadened or removed from the statute books, she said.

While there were no state policies that discriminated against women and religious converts, the UN’s Special Rapporteur found that “many women are in a vulnerable situation within their own communities” as were “converts who face problems with the community of their former religion.”

The UN paper concluded that “equality must be all-encompassing and the argument by some religious leaders that traditions should override the rights of women is unacceptable.”

Last week’s vote by the Turkish parliament to permit Christian and Jewish foundations to reclaim property seized by the state will not impact the Anglican Churches in Turkey, the vicar of Istanbul tells The Church of England Newspaper.

Turkey’s Anglican churches “remain on land understood to be given to the use of HM Government so long as they are used for their original ecclesiastical purposes,” Canon Ian Sherwood reports.  “As such, they seem to remain free of the complexities under Turkish law.”

It was important to “hold on to church buildings in Turkey for future generations,” he noted, as Turkish law makes building a church “nigh on impossible.”

On Feb 20 the Turkish parliament passed a law permitting Christian and Jewish organizations to redeem portions of the £75 billion in church property expropriated by the Turkish government following the 1974 rule of the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals (the Yargitay) that held religious foundations could not acquire property by purchase or donation, if it were not already registered with the government in 1936.

Last year the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) held the Turkish court ruling violated the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered Turkey to return the seized properties or pay compensation.

Turkey’s bid to join the EU would likely be blocked if it did not “ensure the return or indemnification of the seized assets of non-Muslim foundations,” the Istanbul think-tank the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation reported.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn (pictured) applauded the move saying “the adoption of the new law on foundations is a welcome step forward.”

“This is an important issue for Turkey, and one that all EU institutions have regularly highlighted as important to ensure fundamental rights and freedoms for all Turkish citizens,” he said.

However, Rehn said, “It is implementation that will be the test of Turkey’s progress in ensuring rights and freedoms.”

The Bishop of Carlisle has defended his remarks to a fringe group meeting at Synod comparing the government to the beast of the Revelation of St John.

On Feb 13 the Rt Rev Graham Dow accused the government of “imposing its morality” on the nation.  “I happen to believe that our government is moving into the realm of imposing its morality and it is therefore becoming a Revelation 13 government rather than a Romans 13 government,” he said.

Rev 13:16 speaks of the mark of the beast being placed upon the right hand or forehead of mankind and “that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

In a statement clarifying his position, Bishop Dow noted the government had “certainly been ‘God’s instrument for good’ (Romans 13),” in the promotion of social and economic equality.

“However in the last year or two it has been imposing its own moral agenda in a way that is contrary to longstanding Christian morality and the significant voice of Christian churches,” he said, citing the recent House of Lords debate on the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Bill and its rules permitting same-sex couples to adopt children.
“The underlying point is that I and many others are critical of the government’s promotion of legislation about the structure of society and about lifestyles which has as its moral basis only that choice and complete licence are good,” Bishop Dow said.

“Many religious people and many others would feel that there are better alternative moral foundations,” than that proposed by the Labour government.  “When the government speaks and acts as if the only possible moral basis is that which it promotes, it is acting as if it is god,” Bishop Dow said.

“What I would like is for the Christian point of view to be taken more seriously, not as imposing Christianity on those who are not Christian, but because it is the best way for humans to live together,” he said.

The Rt. Rev. Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark in Porto Allegre, Brazil. Photo taken on Feb 13, 2006.

The Bishop of Southwark has urged the government to rally the international community to take action on Zimbabwe.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Feb 6, the Rt. Rev. Tom Butler said that it was “incomprehensible” that the government had been unable to achieve an international consensus in the face of the “suffering” and “total collapse of the economy” facing Zimbabwe.

Bishop Butler said that while President Mugabe’s popularity among African leaders rested on his “apparent ability to act decisively on land reform,” the Zimbabwe strongman’s “short cuts” by means of “violent farm seizures” had been “disastrous” for the people.

Land confiscated from white farmers had been turned over to cronies of the regime resulting in the “devastation of Zimbabwe’s agriculture.”  The “bread basket of Africa” had been turned “into an unproductive wasteland” through government malfeasance, he said.

Dr. Butler urged the government to be clear in its commitment to help a “legitimate Zimbabwean Government” enact “land reform that is equitable for all Zimbabwean citizens.”

However, change was in the air, he said, pointing to the Feb 3 consecration of Bishop Sebastian Bakare in place of the Mugabe-loyalist Dr. Nolbert Kunonga.  “The good news is that this demonstrates how the brave people of Zimbabwe, given the opportunity, are more than ready to take responsibility for governance,” he said.

“What can happen at the heart of the church can happen at the heart of Government. Please, God, may it do so before too long,” he said.

Dr. Butler’s call for international pressure is being mirrored in acts of small civil disobedience within the country.  On Feb 8, 69 members of the Mothers’ Union of St. Andrew’s, Glen View in Harare were arrested by the police after they attempted to forcibly evict a Kunonga loyalist from the parish rectory.

The Mothers’ Union demanded the Rev. Martin Zifoti vacate the rectory and broke several windows, a French door, and knocked over a fence in their zeal.  Sixty-one members were released by the police, but eight were bound over by a magistrate to face charges of malicious mischief.

On Feb 11, the eight were arraigned before the Mbare Magistrates Court and released on bail.  Press reports of the proceedings stated that the court room was packed to capacity with members of the Mothers’ Union, dressed in blue skirts and white blouses, offering a public display of solidarity for their jailed sisters.

The Archbishop of York has paid flying visit to Nairobi as a sign of support for the Kenyan people.”

During their time of trouble, I have decided to come and stand in solidarity and prayer with the suffering in this land,” Dr. John Sentamu said on Feb 10 following services at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi.

Following a telephone conversation with the Primate of Kenya, Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi, Dr. Sentamu flew out to Kenya on Thursday. He toured three refugee camps on the first day of his visit and on Saturday met with government ministers and the leader of the opposition, Raila Odinga.

On Feb 11 Dr. Sentamu met with President Mwai Kibaki at State House, and discussed the church’s on-going role in ending the post-election violence. More than 1000 people have been killed and over 300,000 driven from their homes in sectarian violence following Kenya’s disputed Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Dr. Sentamu urged Kenyans to “forget what is behind this and face forward. This country is capable of rising above the nonsense that has gone on.”

Following Sunday services, Dr. Sentamu told the press that a healthy democracy required a strong opposition party. “Kenyans should ensure that a strong opposition party thrives to check against possible excesses of the executive,” he said, adding that he hoped the country would not return to “one-party” rule.

Dr. Günter von Hagens

The Bishop of Manchester has denounced an exhibition of preserved human body parts set to open next week at the city’s Museum of Science and Industry, calling Body Worlds 4 a “little shop of horrors.”

In a Feb 1 letter the Rt. Rev. Nigel McCulloch urged the Museum’s director to reconsider hosting the exhibition of preserved human corpses. It was irresponsible for the Museum to advertise free admissions for under 5’s to the show, he wrote, noting he had “great concern for the spiritual welfare” of young people attending the exhibition.

Advertised as “an unprecedented encounter with the human body in its post mortal state” that is “ideal for all ages” and “ideal for families,” the show will feature 200 partially dissected body parts and 20 corpses arrayed in stylized athletic poses by German anatomist Günter von Hagens. The body parts are preserved in plastic resins at a factory in China by Dr. von Hagens in a process he calls ‘plastination.’

In his letter to the Museum and at a Feb 5 press conference at the Cathedral, Bishop McCullough said the exhibition was a modern version of the “Victorian freak shows.”

The bishop also objected to Dr. von Hagens solicitation of corpses for plastination and display after death, calling it a “modern twist on body-snatching.”

Bishop McCullough asked “Is this little shop of horrors that has entered Manchester really a family day out? I do hope the science museum will at least put a warning on its website for parents to protect the young, review the under-five ‘free entry’ marketing policy and, just like a horror at the cinema, raise the entry age to 18.”

“I also have concern for museum staff,” he asked. “Do you have a mechanism for giving staff an opt-out from working in the exhibition area? This might be on the grounds of religious faith, or because they have suffered bereavement, or because they believe working with such exhibits for the next four months may damage them psychologically,” the bishop asked.

In a statement issued on Feb 6 Body Worlds 4 disputed the Bishop’s charge the show was unethical and prurient, saying the Roman Catholic Church in Germany “has followed the work of Dr. von Hagens for more than two decades. In 1983, church leaders there asked Dr. von Hagens to plastinate and preserve the heel bone of St. Hildegard of Bingen, a 10th century beatified mystic revered in Germany.

The assertion that Body Worlds was a freak show was “disingenuous” organizers said, adding that “anatomical exhibitions originated in churches during the Renaissance, when the visionaries of that period believed that man’s life was worthy of study and contemplation, and church leaders viewed anatomy and dissection as a window into God’s work.”

Buckingham Palace has announced that the Church of Ireland will host this year’s Royal Maundy Thursday service.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will travel to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh for the March 20 Office of Royal Maundy where 82 men and 82 women will be presented with “Maundy money.”

The recipients of the silver coins are local pensioners who have made a “significant contribution” to Church or civic life. They will be chosen by the leaders of Ulster’s four main churches: the Church of Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church.

The distribution of alms on Maundy Thursday has its origin in our Jesus washing of the disciples’ feet. The tradition of the Sovereign giving money to the poor dates from the 13th century. Gifts of food and clothing were also distributed by the monarch while James II was the last King to wash the recipient’s feet.

The number of recipients is by tradition set by the age of the monarch-who is 82 years of age. The Queen will be accompanied by the Choir of the Royal Chapel who along with the St Patrick’s Choir, will lead worship.

The Dean of Armagh, the Very Rev Patrick Rooke stated the selection of his cathedral was a “great honour for us in Armagh. We are excited and certain that this will be a memorable and special service for all those involved.”

This year’s service will mark the first time the service has been held in Northern Ireland, and only the second time it has been held outside of England. In 1982 the service was held at the Church in Wales’ St. David’s Cathedral in Dyfed.

The word “Maundy” is derived from the first antiphon traditionally sung at the ceremony: “Mandatum novum do vobis”: A new commandment give I unto you. John 13.34.

The Bishop of Rochester’s warning about the creation of “no-go zones” for non-Muslims in Britain has touched a cord with Germany’s largest newspaper, which last week argued that Europe’s failure to integrate Muslim immigrants posed a threat to the foundations of democratic western society.

On Jan 15 the publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) warned that the “mix of youth criminality and Muslim fundamentalism” could be correctly called the “closest thing to the deadly ideology of the 20th century.”

In an article printed in the Sunday Telegraph on Jan 11, Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali wrote, “there has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism. One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into ‘no-go’ areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.”

Writing in the wake of the murder of a German pensioner in the underground at the hands of Muslim youths, FAZ publisher Frank Schirrmacher (pictured) warned the conflation of Islamist ideology with crime posed a challenge to German society.

“Germans have been called Schweinefresser [pig-eaters] during unfounded attacks,” by members of Muslim youth gangs, “which already moves the conflict into the sphere of a cultural war. You can’t take such comments lightly because they are developing as an evolutionary stage in the parallel worlds of our society,” he said.

The second and third generation of “disenfranchised” Muslim immigrants has “turned parts of Berlin into ungovernable zones, according to their mayors,” Schirrmacher wrote.

The multi-cultural policies of the government had failed to integrate immigrants into British society Bishop Nazir Ali wrote in the Telegraph, creating instead a “multifaith ‘mish mash’, which lacked “the underpinning of a moral and spiritual vision.”

The problem in Germany was just as great the FAZ said. Hopes that radical Islam would be subsumed into the mass of German society, “misjudged the demographic crisis of an aging society.”

“The failure to integrate immigrants, which is our own fault, is now making itself felt among those born here: the majority is falling apart, through the selective slaughter of a few” by Muslim criminal gangs, Schirrmacher said.

The Church of England has appointed its first representative to the European Union. The Rev Dr Gary Wilton, the current head of the postgraduate programme in Theology and Religious Studies at York St John University will take up the Brussels-based post in April.

Dr. Wilton will report to the House of Bishops’ Europe Panel and will promote the Church of England’s interests in European social, political and environmental issues among the EU institutions. He will also serve as a staffer with the Conference of European Churches (CEC)’s Church and Society Commission and has been appointed a canon of the pro-cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity in Brussels.

Since 2005 Dr. Wilton has been a member of the Theology Department at York St John University. Ordained deacon in 1988 and priest in 1989 in the Diocese of Bath and Wells, he served as Diocesan Director of Studies and then Associate Principal at the Church Army’s Wilson Carlile College from 1998-2005.

“The creation of this new post marks a significant development in the Church of England’s relationship with the European Union,” Dr. Wilton said. The Church of England has “important things to say about how we should develop community, how we should relate to the wider world and how we should care for the planet,” he added.

The chairman of the House of Bishops’ Europe Panel, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Herbert of St. Albans welcomed the appointment, and noted that the Church of England “must continue to increase its role in Europe in partnership with other churches so that together we can play our part in helping to shape the Europe of the future.”

The Bishop of Southwark has challenged the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) to take an activist stance towards recruiting young people for careers in science and technology, warning the current shortage of trained engineers will hamper efforts to tackle the problem of climate change.

In a speech to the RAE’s annual President’s Reception on Jan 14, Bishop Tom Butler said the engineering profession was failing to attract sufficient numbers of students into the physical sciences and technology. The former chaplain and lecturer at the University of Kent noted that a recent study by the RAE found that two-thirds of young people knew little about engineering while three-quarters did not know what engineers actually do.

Bishop Butler, who earned a PhD in electronics and trained as an engineer as an undergraduate, said young people were concerned about climate change and the future of world energy supplies, and it was in these fields that engineers were desperately needed.

The RAE reported that a recent survey of 400 engineering companies found the industry was having difficult in recruiting graduate engineers, and anticipated even more shortages in the future with the 2012 Olympics construction and the proposed new generation of nuclear power stations.

A Somerset priest has agreed to resign his licence to officiate at Church services as a Church of England priest after a meeting with his bishop, after it was revealed he was training to qualify as a witch, third class.

The Rev. Chris Horseman relinquished his licence on Jan 16 after a meeting with the Bishop of Bath & Wells, the Rt. Rev. Peter Price. “Mr. Horseman, who lives in Claverham near Bristol, agreed his activities as a ceremonialist were incompatible with his Anglican Orders,” a statement released by diocesan spokesman Preb. John Andrews said.

“He offered his resignation which the Bishop is minded to accept though the Bishop has offered him a period of grace to consider the matter.”

In December the Bristol Evening Post reported the 53-year old non-stipendiary priest was enrolled in an online course offered by the College of Sacred Mists in California. The course offers classes in the history of religions, herbalism and spell-making. Upon completion of his studies he will be qualified to lead a coven and cast spells, the college prospectus states.

Mr. Horseman conceded his interests had raised some concern with the Church. “After I enrolled on the Wiccan course, I was called in to see the rural Dean, who asked some very sensible questions, but then wanted to know if I’d ever been involved in any satanic rituals?” he said, adding that his interests were in white magic.

The former Bishop of Oxford has tabled a series of questions in Parliament, asking the government to press Indonesia to improve its human rights record in Western New Guinea.

In July the NGO, Human Rights Watch, accused the Indonesia of mounting a campaign of repression including extrajudicial executions, torture and rape against Papuan separatists. A November report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture also recorded instances of police misconduct.

“Conditions in Papua’s Central Highlands are an important test of how Indonesia’s security forces perform when political tensions are high and regions are closed to outside observers,” said Joseph Saunders, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch. “The police are failing that test badly.”

“No one is being prosecuted for the crimes we documented,” Mr. Saunders said. “The police are acting as a law unto themselves.”

The Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua are closed to the press and outside aid agencies. It has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by guerrillas of the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or OPM). The guerrillas have mounted a series of hit and run raids in recent years on the Indonesian security forces, who have responded by conducting anti-terrorist sweeps through remote jungle villages suspected of providing sanctuary to the OPM.

The former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries asked the government what measures it had taken to “promote peaceful dialogue between West Papuan leaders and the Government of Indonesia;” what it had done in response to published reports by the UN and Human Rights NGO’s “on the use of torture by Indonesian security personnel in West Papua;” and whether it would press Jakarta to “freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly” and allow the West Papuans to fly their flag in public.

Speaking on behalf of the government, the Foreign Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN Lord Malloch-Brown responded on Jan 8 that the British government endorsed the call for dialogue and had queried Indonesian government leaders about the “situation in Papua, including human rights.”

The government also welcomed the UN’s November 2007 report on West Papua and looked forward to the final report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Manfred Novak. However, the UN’s initial findings were that “notwithstanding the very real concerns about treatment of detainees,” Indonesia had “come a long way in recent years and is trying to make positive progress on human rights,” Lord Malloch-Brown said.

Britain “supports the territorial integrity of Indonesia and therefore does not support independence for Papua,” Lord Malloch-Brown said, and would not press Jakarta on the question of flying the Papuan flag.

The Bishop of Lewes was cautioned by a bouncer that he would be ejected from the Uckfield Civic Centre if he spoke at a public NHS meeting before Christmas.

Bishop Wallace Benn was one of 50 people in the audience at a meeting called by the NHS to discuss closing maternity services at the Eastbourne District General Hospital

Bishop Benn, who opposes closing the maternity ward, stood to speak at the meeting, but was ignored by the East Sussex Downs and Weald Primary Care Trust chairman Charles Everett.

“I twice asked politely if I could speak to the chairman, who did not look up at me,” Bishop Benn told the Worthing Herald. As he rose to speak, the meeting’s steward stepped in front of Bishop Benn, and ordered him to be seated.

“Never in 35 years of being in ordained ministry have I ever had a bouncer stand in front of me preventing me from speaking,” he said.

In March the NHS announced it would close the maternity wards of the Eastbourne Hospital or that of the Conquest Hospital in Hastings as part of the government’s “Fit for the Future” programme.

It pledged it would hold 15 weeks of consultations, soliciting public opinion and the views of the medical community, before any decision was reached.

However, Bishop Benn said the NHS review process was a “sham” and the “whole process has been pre-determined” by NHS bureaucrats ignorant of local conditions.

Local Conservative MP Charles Hendry was also blocked from speaking. “This has been a completely undemocratic process and to find out at the end that the Bishop of Lewes was threatened by a bouncer because he wanted to say something is appalling,” he said. “What sort of society is that?”

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

The former principal of the Church of England’s first theological institute focused on Black Anglican concerns, the Rt. Rev. Sehon Goodridge, has died in a Barbados Hospital on Dec 28 at the age of 70.

Bishop Goodridge was the first principal of Simon the Cyrene Theological Institute in Wandsworth, a pre-theological training institute for ordinands and lay workers specially designed to serve Black Anglicans in the UK.

Inaugurated by Archbishop Robert Runcie at a memorial service at St. Anne’s Church in Wandsworth in April 1990, the institute provided placements and pastoral studies units for white and black ordinands and was an initiative of the Black Clergy Association.

Dr. Goodridge, who had served as principal of Codrington College—the Church of the Province of the West Indies primary clergy training college, led the school from 1990 until his election as Bishop of the Windward Islands in 1994.

He was also a warden and a counselor of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. Bishop Goodridge is survived by his wife and three children.

The leaders of the traditionalist pressure group Anglican Mainstream have pressed the Archbishop of Canterbury to clarify his Advent Letter to the Primates, saying his prescriptions for the healing of the Anglican Communion do not take into account the causes of the disease.

In a Jan 8 letter given to The Church of England Newspaper, the Rev Canon Chris Sugden and Mr. Philip Giddings applauded Dr. Williams’ commitment to resolve the Anglican crisis, and for exercising strong leadership in a difficult time. However, they questioned a number of Dr. Williams’ suppositions that underlay the call for dialogue.

There appeared to be no consequences for the repeated bad actions of the Episcopal Church. The invitation to invite to the Lambeth Conference those bishops who consecrated Gene Robinson contradicts the “clear assertion of the Windsor Report” in paragraph 144 which asked that they “withdraw from representative functions” in the Communion.

Dr. Williams had also preordained the outcome of any dialogue by stating the Episcopal Church “should remain part of the Anglican Communion fellowship.”

Because the Episcopal Church is not a “monochrome body” on the issue of gay bishops and blessings, “external interventions are not justified” because of the continuing “presence within it of those who actually are ‘Windsor-compliant’,” Dr. Williams said.

Such an argument is not intelligible, Canon Sugden and Mr. Giddings argue, as it suggests the American church’s continued place within the Communion is conditioned upon the survival of its persecuted minority.

The problem of child poverty in Britain was a function of broken families and absent parents, the Bishop of Southwell & Nottingham said in Parliament last week.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Dec 18 during the second reading of the government’s Child Maintenance Bill, Bishop George Cassidy applauded the government’s commitment to “ending child poverty by 2020.” However, putting the government to work at tackling the problem of broken families would have a more immediate and lasting effect, he argued.

A significant factor in the rate of child poverty was the failure of absent father’s to provide for their children. Only “one in three” one-parent families “receives any support from the non-resident parent, Bishop Cassidy said.
“If we are going to achieve the Government’s targets on child poverty, it is vitally important that this issue of maintenance is sorted out properly, particularly for the most vulnerable in our communities. Children are a gift, but creating a child also creates positive responsibilities towards that child. I sincerely hope that the Bill creates a commission that will play its part in helping parents to live up to their responsibilities, with enforcement as a last resort.”

He also supported the government decision to increase the “maintenance disregard for those on benefits” and for having understood that the child welfare agency’s “main purpose is to promote the welfare of the child rather than to claw back benefits. That should directly affect child poverty,” he said.

The Foreign Office Minister for Africa has commended the Archbishop of York for his support of d