Please scroll down to read items. Comments, please, to Peter Crumpler, Director of Communications on peter.crumpler@c-of-e.org.uk.

This month’s contents:

Key debates on women bishops, Faithful Cities report, further education, and major legislative proposals on agenda for General Synod

Archbishop – ‘Challenge and hope’ for the Anglican Communion following Episcopal
Church General Convention
Church launches ‘Shrinking The Footprint’ campaign
Too few minority ethnic clergy but more in training
Ethical Investment – A challenging year
Church opposes on-air appeals to fund TV
Call on Government to strengthen religion mandate in BBC Charter
Archbishop’s interview on Fatherhood for BBC One
Archbishop’s sermon for Queen’s 80th birthday - ‘keeping power human’
Church puts its money where its mouth is to connect with youth
Call for greater Government commitment to collective worship in schools
Response to consultation on sexual orientation discrimination
Churches urged to spring clean their vestry cupboards
Cardinal Kasper addresses Bishops' Meeting
Challenging Poverty
Communities love their churches - now it’s time to listen to their needs, says Church researcher

Key debates on women bishops, Faithful Cities report, further education, and major legislative proposals on agenda for General Synod

The agenda for the Synod, which next meets between 7-11 July in York, also looks at environment (CO2 emissions), married couples’ tax allowance, work of the Church Commissioners, pensions, clergy terms of service, and the recent World Council of Churches Assembly.

There will be two debates on the subject of women bishops. Synod will firstly be explicitly invited to reach a view on whether admitting women to the episcopate in the Church of England would be theologically justified. If that motion is carried, the House of Bishops will invite the Synod to agree that a legislative drafting group be established, with a view to preparing a range of specific options that the group would submit for consideration by the House of Bishops, and then to the Synod, in advance of first consideration of the Measure.

Read more about the agenda: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6306.html
View the motions and background papers being considered: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/gensynod/
agendas/july2006.html

Regular updates on business done, along with audio archives of the debates, will also be available as Synod progresses at: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/gensynod/
agendas/july2006.html

Archbishop – ‘Challenge and hope’ for the Anglican Communion following Episcopal Church General Convention

The Archbishop of Canterbury has set out his thinking on the future of the Anglican Communion in the wake of the deliberations on the Windsor Report and the Anglican Communion at the 75th General Convention of The Episcopal Church (USA). ‘The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today, A Reflection for the Bishops, Clergy and Faithful of the Anglican Communion’ has been sent to Primates with a covering letter, published more widely and made available as audio on the internet.

In the text, which acknowledges the diversity of opinion within the Communion on how decision making can best take place, the Archbishop says that the strength of the Anglican tradition has been in maintaining a balance between the absolute priority of the Bible, a catholic loyalty to the sacraments and a habit of cultural sensitivity and intellectual flexibility. Within this theological framework, he favours the exploration of a formal Covenant agreement between the Provinces of the Anglican Communion as providing a possible way forward. Under such a scheme, member provinces that chose to would make a formal but voluntary commitment to each other.

Read the text of the detailed reflection and covering letter: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/releases/
060627%20Archbishop%20-%20challenge%20and%20hope.htm

Listen to the Archbishop read his reflections: http://db.astream.com/cofe/060627%20Archbishop's
%20reflection%20on%20communion.mp3

Read the Archbishop’s greeting to the Convention here: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/releases/
060613%20gc%20greeting.htm

The Archbishop’s response to the new Presiding Bishop elect is at: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/releases/
060619%20New%20Presiding%20Bishop.htm
The Archbishop’s immediate reaction at the conclusion of deliberations is available at: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/releases/
060621%20Gen%20Con.htm

Church launches ‘Shrinking The Footprint’ campaign

The Church of England marked World Environment Day by taking a further step forward in the campaign to ‘green’ the Church. All parish churches are being invited to carry out an audit of current energy uses so that a benchmark can be established. Once the size of the current ‘carbon footprint’ of the Church has been assessed, the campaign will roll out initiatives to shrink that footprint.

In 2005, General Synod debated Sharing God’s Planet (Report from the Church’s Mission and Public Affairs Council) and, among other things, asked for a report on a measured reduction in energy consumption of the Church of England in 2008. The Synod called upon the whole Church to engage with the issues of climate change and energy use at every level in the Church.

The campaign has already attracted interest from a range of supporters, and looks set to be replicated in other Church organisations, including those abroad.

Find out more about the campaign: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5606.html
Visit the campaign’s dedicated website: http://www.shrinkingthefootprint.cofe.anglican.org/

Too few minority ethnic clergy but more in training

The minority ethnic population is under-represented among the clergy of the Church of England, a survey has revealed, but efforts to attract more people from minority ethnic backgrounds to train for the priesthood and other vocations are bearing fruit. Only 2.2 per cent of clergy were from minority ethnic backgrounds in 2005, compared with 7.9 per cent of the working population in the 2001 census and 3.2 per cent of electoral roll members in 2002. In 2005, 4.7 per cent of all those recommended for ordination training were minority ethnic canditates.

Find out more about the steps being taken to redress the balance: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6506.html

Ethical Investment – A challenging year

The annual report of the Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group has been published, setting out a challenging year for the body, which carries out research on behalf of the Church of England’s three main investment and trustee bodies, the Church Commissioners for England, the CBF Church of England Funds, and the Church of England Pensions Board.

The Group reports that the call on the Church to disinvest from Caterpillar, the US manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, was the dominant ethical investment issue of the last twelve months. Major reviews of the ethical aspects of investment in gambling and in newspapers also formed key parts of the past year’s work.

Read more: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6606.html
View the report: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/ethical/annualreports/

Church opposes on-air appeals to fund TV

The Church of England has opposed any relaxation of the rules against on-air appeals to fund television programmes in its submission to an Ofcom consultation on lifting the ban. The submission, made by The Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester, senior spokesman for the Church of England on communications policy, explains that there remains "some discomfort within the Church" over a change which it sees as potentially detrimental to broadcasting in the UK.

Television appeals using emotive or misleading language and images have a clear potential for exploiting viewers' sensitivities, the submission argues. It also advocates proven alternative fundraising methods, such as raising money through subscription, websites or literature. These, it contends, are less likely to exploit viewers or damage editorial independence.

Read more, including the full submission: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6406.html

Call on Government to strengthen religion mandate in BBC Charter

The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church called for a stronger mandate for religion in the BBC Charter and Agreement in a joint letter to Tessa Jowell MP, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, ahead of a debate in Parliament last month. The letter states: “The religious dimension of life is right at the heart of how people see themselves and what motivates their actions. It is unthinkable that this is not fully and properly reflected in the BBC’s output.”

Read the full text of the letter: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5906.html

Archbishop’s interview on Fatherhood for BBC One

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s appreciation of the fact that David Cameron and David Beckham are regularly portrayed fulfilling their role as fathers was the main headline from an extended interview the Archbishop gave on to the BBC’s Heaven and Earth show: “We don’t have very much patience with the idea that to be a human being you’ve got some growing to do and that needs patience, that needs a stable background, it just needs time. Now, we’re not very much in favour, as a culture, of taking time over things, are we? So I think that also makes it harder.”

Read a full transcript of the interview: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/
060616%20Heaven%20and%20earth.htm

Archbishop’s sermon for Queen’s 80th birthday - ‘keeping power human’

Described by the Times as ‘stonking’, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon at the 80th Birthday service for HM Queen has drawn widespread praise. A widely-quoted extract: “…the British monarch is not an absolute ruler demanding mindless loyalty, but the one who guarantees space for the rest of society to argue and negotiate and change, as mature citizen-societies must, who ‘defends our laws’ as the National Anthem puts it.”

Read the full sermon at: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/
060615%20Queen%27s%20birthday%20sermon.htm

Church puts its money where its mouth is to connect with youth

The Church of England has launched a £1 million national initiative to connect young people with the Christian message, with the support of a number of charitable trusts.

Following a successful pilot last year, the Archbishops’ Council has given the go-ahead for the Church of England’s Youth Evangelism Fund, a key part of its Youth Strategy. The Chair of the Fund’s steering group, the Rt Revd David James, Bishop of Bradford, has announced that eight dioceses (Durham, Bradford, Newcastle, Sheffield, Wakefield, Southwell and Nottingham, York and Birmingham) will be covered by the first year of the initiative, each receiving around £25,000.

Find out more about this exciting initiative: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6206.html

Call for greater Government commitment to collective worship in schools

The country’s main Churches have urged the Government to recognise the importance and support the place of daily collective worship in schools, stressing that school worship helps promote tolerance and understanding and prepares students for adult life by giving them an opportunity to express their spiritual nature.

Leaders of each of the main Churches in England – including the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church – have signed a joint letter addressed to the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson MP, calling for a greater investment in training and resources for school staff charged with organising collective worship. The Churches’ position paper accompanying the letter also calls on other groups, from any faith backgrounds or none, to support the call for action by the Government.

Read more, including the full text of the letter to the Secretary of State: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6106.html

Response to consultation on sexual orientation discrimination

The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England has published a response to the Department of Trade and Industry’s Consultation on Proposals to Outlaw Sexual Orientation Discrimination in the Provision of Goods and Services. The introduction to the submission says: “Church leaders have welcomed the steps taken over recent years to combat all prejudice, to repudiate homophobic violence and to create new legal safeguards. The proposed extension of the Equality Act through these regulations is an important part of that process.”

Acknowledging that there is a range of views on the underlying moral issues, the submission goes on to point out that the Church of England, along with other churches and faith groups, continues to draw a distinction between sexual orientation and behaviour, a distinction not generally recognised in legislation. As a result, the new regulations could, unless carefully drafted, cut across the right of churches and other faith communities and their members “to manifest their own doctrines and convictions in this area without fear of legal sanction. That means that the regulations need to strike a careful balance, as in other anti-discrimination legislation, between potentially competing rights.”

See the text of the submission at: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6006.html

Churches urged to spring clean their vestry cupboards

A guide to help parish churches sort out bulging cupboards of dusty records or memory-strained computer systems has been published. Keep or Bin?…The Care of Your Parish Records is designed to help clergy and parish officers to understand which records need to be kept by the church, which should be sent to the local archive centre, and which can be disposed of or recycled.

The advice, originally published in 1995, has been overhauled to include new guidance on the implementation of the Data Protection Act alongside other legislative changes, as well as to reflect the shift toward electronic storage of information.

Read more about this useful guide: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5706.html
The guide is available for download free of charge at: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/librariesandarchives/
keeporbin/

Cardinal Kasper addresses Bishops' Meeting

The Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed an address given by Cardinal Walter Kasper as a ‘clear and helpful contribution’ to the debate on women in the episcopate. The address was given to the Church of England Bishops’ Meeting, 5 June 2006.

Cardinal Kasper had been invited by the Archbishop to address the annual meeting of all serving Church of England bishops, at which senior women clergy and those involved in the ministry of women were also present.

Read the full text of the Cardinal’s address and the Archbishop’s response: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6006b.html

Challenging Poverty

‘Challenging Poverty’, a new campaign to tackle poverty in Britain, has been launched. An initiative of the Church Urban Fund (CUF), the campaign will raise awareness of the plight of the 11.4 million people living below the poverty line in this country and encourage action in local communities.

The ‘Challenging Poverty’ campaign will enable CUF to continue its pioneering work with the top 10 per cent of the poorest communities in England. CUF is one of the few national organisations that invest in grass-roots projects which work to eradicate the negative effects of poverty but find it hard to get funding to continue or start projects that transform people’s lives.

Read more about the campaign: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr6006a.html
Visit the campaign’s dedicated website: http://www.challengingpoverty.org/

Communities love their churches - now it’s time to listen to their needs, says Church researcher

Roadside shrines, bouquets and teddies and the widening appeal of prayer stations, labyrinths and beads are all indications that images are the new words for people today, says the Church of England's chief statistician and researcher.

In Christian Roots, Contemporary Spirituality, a book published by Church House Publishing, the Revd Lynda Barley, Head of Research and Statistics for the Archbishops’ Council, says people have 'almost journeyed full circle' from the days when stained glass windows told the Christian story to the non-literate congregation. And churches are responding by making way for symbols again, such as providing prayer bracelets and commissioning new religious art.

The book’s publication marks one of the few times that such a wide range of research on the subject of Christian belief in Britain has been collected in one place. The book surveys the nature of religious belief in practice today and not only points to the continuing search for ‘spiritual nutrition’ but also ways that the Church is feeding that hunger.

Read more about this stimualting book: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5506.html
Order the book direct from Church House Publishing: http://www.chpublishing.co.uk/product.asp?id=2390841