Conger

The Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney has backed the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, saying hybrid-embryo research was a medical last hope for those suffering from a number of “wickedly crippling diseases.”

Writing in The Scotsman, Bishop Robert Gillies argued that as “much as I may not like the thought of hybrid embryo research, God has enabled us to have so much insight into the workings of His creation then perhaps that is the way we must go to help those most in need of a Christian loving response.”

“It seems that if health and wellbeing is to come to sufferers, then the best option for them will come through stem-cell, including hybrid-embryo, research, given the current absence of any alternative,” the Scottish Episcopal bishop argued.

He took exception to the comments made by Cardinal Keith O’Brien last month that the creation of animal-human embryos was “monstrous” and of “Frankenstein proportion.” While acknowledging the Cardinal’s belief that such research was immoral, “his view is not the only view that can be legitimately given from within a Christian perspective,” Bishop Gillies said.

“If health and well-being is to come” to those suffering from debilitating diseases such as Huntington’s Chorea or Muscular Dystrophy “then the best option for them will come through stem cell, including hybrid embryo, research given the current absence of any alternative,” the bishop wrote on April 9.

However, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley, Msg. Philip Tartaglia disputed Bishop Gillies argument of medical necessity, writing to Members of Parliament on April 10 that “the scientific community already knows that, contrary to what the Prime Minister has asserted, research on human embryos is not required to have access to human stem cells as the basis of therapy for serious medical conditions.”

We “do not need this embryo-destructive research either from an ethical or a scientific-medical point of view,” the Catholic prelate said.

The Churches of Scotland have issued their first joint Christmas pastoral letter.

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop Idris Jones of Glasgow and Galloway, joined the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Sheilagh Kesting, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and other Christian leaders to encourage the people of Scotland to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

“We’re often told that Christmas is stressful for some and lonely for others and too much of a spending frenzy for the majority. It needn’t be,” they wrote on the first Sunday of Advent.

The Church leaders urged Scotland to “look beyond ourselves” and turn their hearts towards “all who are in need in our world.”

“Christmas is a time for looking beyond these to see goodness and beauty in those around us; to look at tragedy and see the stories of kindness and compassion that carry with them the hope of life beyond the darkness; to look at the violence and see the efforts made to change these patterns and see in them signals of hope for a safer world; to look at our environment and see the beauty that is there and to hear the call for green alternatives as signals of hope for our planet.”

“When we accept the invitation to look beyond the surface, we become open to signals of hope for ourselves, our families and our world. This is part of God’s gift that is celebrated at Christmas but which does not stop there. God invites us to look beyond,” they said.

The Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt. Rev. Brian Smith has joined the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and the moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Sheilagh Kesting, at a public ceremony at the Scottish Parliament last week endorsing a “Peace Covenant for Scotland.”

The Peace Covenant declares, “We desire that Scotland should be known for its international contribution to peace and justice rather than for waging war.”

Part of a larger campaign led by Scotland for Peace, the Covenant is part of a larger campaign that seeks to block the replacement of the Trident nuclear missile programme, as well as establish a “Scottish Peace Day” and a “Scottish Centre for Peace and Justice.”

The campaign also seeks the creation of a government agency to retrain defence workers and place them in “peaceful” professions. The Nov 1 ceremony kicks off a national petition campaign that seeks to “articulate the popular opposition to aggressive war and promote Scotland as a force for peace.

Front row … left to right.

The Most Rev Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church
The Most Rev Alan Harper, Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh
The Rt Rev Ragnar Persenius, Bishop of Uppsala
The Most Rev John Neill, Primate of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin
The Rt Rev Martin Wharton, Bishop of Newcastle
The Most Rev Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales
The Most Rev Jukka Paarma, Archbishop of Turku (Finland)

Second row:

The Most Rev Anders Wejryd, Archbishop of Uppsala
The Most Rev Janis Vanags, Archbishop of Riga
The Most Rev Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
The Rt Rev Mindaugas Sabutis, Bishop of Lithuania
The Most Rev Olav Skjevesland, Bishop of Agder and Telemark, (Norway)
The Most Rev Karl Sigurbjornsson, Bishop of Iceland
The Rt Rev Erik Norman Svendsen, Bishop of Copenhagen
The Most Revd Andres Poder, Archbishop of Estonia
The Rt Revd Carlos Lopez Lozano, Bishop of Spain

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams met in Dublin last week with the leaders of the Porvoo Communion of Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches for private talks.  However Dr. Williams’ Irish excursion did not bring him a change of scene as the vexing issue of gay clergy followed him to Dublin.

While a spokesman for the Church of Ireland told The Church of England Newspaper there would be no formal statement of the gathering of Anglican and Lutheran bishops, sources familiar with the deliberations, held every two years, tell CEN that issues of common national and ecclesial concern were raised at the gathering.

The Lutheran Churches of the Porvoo Group: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are sharply divided over the Swedish church’s decision to authorize rites for the blessing of same-sex unions.  The Swedish move has opened a split within the Lutheran World Federation akin the divide in Anglicanism, with the Lutheran Churches of the Global South threatening to break with their Northern counterparts over the issue of gay blessings and clergy.

The controversy intensified last week when on Oct 2 by a vote of six to five, the Church of Norway’s Bishops’ Conference voted to recommend to the church’s general synod that non-celibate homosexuals be permitted to serve as bishops, priests and deacons.

The moderator of the Norwegian Bishop’s Conference, Bishop Olav Skjevesland of Agder and Telemark, who attended the Dublin meeting, voted to reject the licensing of gay clergy. 

The Church of Norway has three openly gay ministers serving in parochial ministry under the license of their bishops.  The issue will now go before the Church’s Nov 12-17 meeting of General Synod for resolution.

In 1995 and 1997 the Norwegian Synod stated that people in registered same-sex partnerships could hold lay positions in the Church, but could not be ordained as clergy.

On Sept 13 the Church’s National Council stated that it believed the consensus within the church over gay clergy had shifted in the past ten years.  It recommended that Synod revise the church’s canons, allowing bishops the local option of whether or not to ordain and license gay clergy.

The National Council encouraged dialogue saying that “many members of the church are touched directly by this issue and that there are many who feel that their place in the church is at stake.”

“Church leaders should work continuously on attitudes and forms of communication, so that fellowship in the church is felt to be open, clear and inclusive,” it said

The Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway and the Glasgow Circuit of the Methodist Church have signed an ecumenical covenant to provide common worship in Dumfries.

The rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dumfries will be licensed as an Associate Methodist Minister and the parish will be listed in both the Methodist and Scottish Episcopal Church directories.  St. John’s will “provide a place of worship for those seeking not only to witness in the Episcopal but also in the Methodist tradition.”

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Bishop Idris Jones of Glasgow stated that it was “good to be part of this development with the Methodist Church. Taking a small step here will encourage us to explore partnership wherever Christians are neighbours”;

The Covenant pledges the Diocese and the Methodist Church to “widen our Ecumenical Partnership to invite and include all other Churches in Dumfries, wherever possible, so that our working together may be as wide as possible and our diversity not hindered by ongoing dis-union and rivalry.”

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church has backed away from an expected plea for the full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life the Church, calling instead for a Communion that welcomes diversity.

Speaking to approximately 50 people at a conference entitled “Celebrating Anglican Diversity” organized by the gay church pressure group Inclusive Church, Bishop Idris Jones of Glasgow & Galloway said the church should allow for a marketplace of opinions on issues such as human sexuality, women priests and Biblical interpretation.

Dean Rogers Govender of Manchester Cathedral told the Glasgow Herald that while Bishop Jones and Mexican Archbishop Carlos Touche-Porter were well received by the audience, they did not make any explicit statement endorsing a change in the church’s teachings.

“The conference was about issues of Anglican diversity and what they said, and others said in the course of the day, is that the Anglican church is historically diverse and makes room for people of different persuasions.

“At this critical time we need to reclaim that ground and make sure we put in our views on retaining that ethos which is essentially Anglican, rather than having extreme views on either side of the debate” Dean Govender said.

In a statement released on the Scottish Episcopal Church’s website before the meeting, Bishop Jones said it was “very obvious at the recent meeting of Anglican Primates that the vast majority wish to stay with an Anglican church that is open and welcoming and prepared to live with difference. This is Anglican mainstream and we have to make it clear that it represents majority opinion among church leaders. Attempts to try to turn the Communion into something that is controlled from the centre, with expulsion the result of disagreement, will fail.”

While the Scottish Episcopal Church has not authorized rites for the blessing of same-sex unions, it has permitted its clergy to offer gay blessings as a pastoral measure. On Sept 23 the Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow conducted a “gay blessing” service.

Provost Kelvin Holdsworth defended his conduct saying the church had authorized its clergy two years ago to give appropriate pastoral care to gays and lesbians who desired the ministrations of the Church. Such care included gay blessings.

However, the Primates Dar es Salaam communiqué, endorsed by Bishop Jones, called for an immediate end to all gay blessings by the American church, including those labeled as pastoral measures. The Episcopal Church was asked to “make an unequivocal common covenant that the bishops will not authorise any Rite of Blessing for same-sex unions in their dioceses or through General Convention,” the primates said.

The Scottish Episcopal Church has joined the Archbishop of York and other church leaders in applauding Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s call for greater international efforts to combat global poverty.

The Church in Society Committee of the SEC applauded the Prime Minister’s July 31 speech to the UN in an Aug 3 statement.

“As a Christian community, we are committed to a Gospel message of care and support for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters,” the committee said.

“We believe that the quality of a society can be measured by the respect shown to its weakest members. As members of a global society, we have an obligation to do whatever is in our power to ensure that significant progress is made towards meeting the MDG’s at least by 2015, and earlier if at all possible.”

“The Anglican Communion has made achievement of the goals a priority,” the SEC said, pledging that it would do “its part in this important work.”

While on a tour of Western Australia, Dr. Sentamu commended the Prime Minister’s UN speech as a “sign of hope” that action on global poverty was “imminent.”

Mr. Brown told the UN the Millennium Development Goals were a century away from being achieved. This was a “global emergency,” he argued that called for a “coalition of conscience” and a “coalition of justice” which would lead to globalization becoming “a force for justice on a global scale.”

The Most Rev Idris Jones, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and Bishop of Glasgow. This photo appeared in the June 15 issue of The Church of England Newspaper. It was taken Feb 13, 2007 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Dr. Idris Jones told the opening session of the Church’s General Synod the Anglican Communion must adopt an inclusive posture toward the world, engaging in a witness of social activism.

The SEC’s three day synod, held June 7-9 at Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh, focused on becoming a more “inclusive” church. Synod adopted a resolution authorizing its Faith and Order Board to finalize a response to the Anglican Covenant, and organized pre-Lambeth meetings for its bishops to hear the concerns of church members going into the July-August conference of Anglican bishops next year.

The Christian faith is continuously unfolding revelation, Dr. Jones told Synod in his charge, one that is gradually revealed to the believer over time. “The bench mark is the life and teaching of Jesus, but my reading of St. Paul is of someone who began a journey on the road to Damascus but whose journey in faith went on throughout his life - his theology worked out on the hoof so to speak, and we can see evidence of that in his letters.”

“We join in that journey and honesty forbids that we say of our own lives that we feel we have completed the journey and certainly not that we feel that our church does not have some way to go in obedience to that faithful remembering of the call of Christ. God is working his purpose out, and we strain to get nearer to seeing it all the time knowing that there remains much work to be done - on earth as in heaven,” he said.

The call to the Anglican Communion at this time, he said was to turn aside from our “internal squabbles” and focus on inclusive “human rights” such as the eradication of “extreme hunger”, “universal primary education”, the “empowerment of women”, and combating “epidemic diseases”.

The church’s call to “inclusion then is to see how we can make accessible to all people the knowledge of salvation and the love of God. To do this, we have to be aware of how our normal church practices can change to include those who are excluded by them,” he argued.

The SEC’s deliberations on the Anglican Covenant would be grounded in this model, ensuring that it is “something that invites into relationship rather than repels from it.”

The Diocese of Moray, Ross & Caithness has elected a new bishop. The Rev. Canon Mark Strange was elected by the diocesan electoral synod in Inverness on June 2.

Rector of Holy Trinity in Elgin, and priest in charge of Margaret’s, Lossiemouth, St Michael’s, Dufftown and St Margaret’s, Aberlour, Canon Strange is Clerk of the Diocesan Synod and Canon of St Andrew’s Cathedral in Inverness.

The chairman of the electoral synod, Scottish Primus Bishop Idris Jones released a statement welcoming Canon Strange to the Scottish House of Bishops. “The election of Mark will bring a sense of excitement throughout the Diocese and the Province. There now rests upon Mark a great expectation, and he will need the prayers and support of his people as he leads the Diocese forward. I welcome him to the College of Bishops.”

Canon Strange will be consecrated and installed as Bishop in October at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Inverness.