House of Bishops statement on defeat of women bishops legislation
The House of Bishops of the Church of England met yesterday and today at Lambeth Palace and considered the implications of the General Synod's recent rejection of legislation to enable women to become bishops. The House had the benefit of participation in its discussion of the Very Rev Viv Faull, the Venerable Christine Hardman, Dr Paula Gooder, and Mrs Margaret Swinson, who had all previously served on the Steering Committee or Revision Committee for the legislation.
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Oh come all ye Tweeters!!
Oh Come All Ye Tweeters
Archbishop of Canterbury to Tweet on #ChristmasStartsWithChrist
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu (@johnsentamu) and Archbishop Designate Justin Welby (@bishopofdurham) will all be tweeting their Christmas Day sermons for the first time ever this year. They will be joined by congregations and clergy from across the Church of England (@c_of_e) in a Christmas Tweet campaign on #ChristmasStartsWithChrist.
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Sing Christmas
Christmas starts with Christ! Sing Christmas: Get involved
Book your venue now, and register on the Sing Christmas website. Joining the BBC's Church Challenge, where every church takes part, inviting people to a venue which is not the church building! Sometimes we may feel as if lots of doors are shut to the church today, or at best can take quite a bit of energy to open! Sing Christmas is a wide open door to your church to engage with people where they are with the message of hope and life offered through Jesus this Christmas.
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Bishop defends NHS Chaplains
The Bishop of Carlisle, James Newcome, has defended NHS chaplains following claims by the National Secular Society that the NHS should not have to pay for chaplains. Bishop James’s response comes in the spring issue of The Way. In the article, he says: 'The cost of chaplains is a tiny fraction of the annual NHS budget – and the contribution chaplains make to the work of healing is out of all proportion to that cost'.
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New exhibition to show rare Bible Fragments
A new exhibition, entitled 'Verbum Domini' will give visitors in Rome a chance to see artefacts and Bibles - many of which are 'found nowhere else in the world'. The free exhibition, at the Braccio di Carlo Magno Museum in St Peter’s Square, features more than 150 manuscripts and artefacts from the Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and Orthodox traditions. The exhibition's director, Steve Carroll, said: 'They tell the story of how we got the Bible from an interfaith perspective.' Among the items included are some the earliest fragments of the Book of Genesis.
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Christianity Gets Less Sensitive Treatment
Than Other Religions Admits BBC Chief
BBC director-general Mark Thompson has claimed Christianity is treated with far less sensitivity than other religions because it is ‘pretty broad shouldered’.
He suggested other faiths have a ‘very close identity with ethnic minorities’, and were therefore covered in a far more careful way by broadcasters.
But he also revealed that producers had to consider the possibilities of ‘violent threats’ instead of polite complaints if they pushed ahead with certain types of satire.
Mr Thompson said: ‘Without question, “I complain in the strongest possible terms”, is different from, “I complain in the strongest possible terms and I am loading my AK47 as I write”. This definitely raises the stakes.’
But he said that Christianity was ‘an established part of our cultural-built landscape’ which meant it was ‘a pretty broad- shouldered religion’.
He conceded that the broadcaster would never have aired a similar show about Mohammed because it could have had the same impact as a piece of ‘grotesque child pornography’. He added: ‘The point is that for a Muslim, a depiction, particularly a comic or demeaning depiction, of the Prophet Mohammed might have the emotional force of a piece of grotesque child pornography.
‘One of the mistakes secularists make is not to understand the character of what blasphemy feels like to someone who is a realist in their religious belief.’
When asked by his interviewer, the historian Timothy Garton Ash, if it was the case that the BBC wouldn’t dream of airing something ‘comparably satirical’ as Jerry Springer: The Opera about Mohammed, he said: ‘Essentially the answer to that question is yes.’
He added: ‘The idea you might want to think quite carefully about whether something done, in quotes, in the name of freedom of expression, might to the Jew, or the Sikh, or the Hindu, or the Muslim, who receives it, feel threatening, isolating and so forth, I think those are meaningful considerations.’
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Squeezing Out Of Christianity
Christians in the UK are not being persecuted for their faith – but Christianity is increasingly being squeezed out of public life and there are serious problems regarding the impact of equality legislation on religious belief. Furthermore, Christian campaigners against perceived discrimination have sometimes done more harm than good.
These are some of the conclusions reached by a high-level inquiry by Christians In Parliament, an official All-Party Parliamentary Group comprising MPs and peers from the three major parties and all Christian traditions.
The Clearing the Ground inquiry was set up in the wake of a series of cases in which Christians faced disciplinary or legal action over questions of conscience, for instance in the area of sexual ethics, prayer at work or Sunday trading.
The report’s key finding was that “Christians in the UK face problems in living out their faith and these problems have been mostly caused and exacerbated by social, cultural and legal changes over the past decade”.
Rachel Lampard of the Methodist Church’s Connexional Team praised the report as “a serious reflection on the freedoms of Christians in the UK”.
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