The End Times Are Upon Us

The Church of England faces being wiped out as a significant national force without an "urgent" campaign to recruit more believers, a report warns. In the last 40 years the number of adult churchgoers has fallen by half while the number of children regularly worshipping in public declined by 80 per cent, the study says.

The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, will present findings to the Church's national assembly, the General Synod, in York on Saturday. Synod members will be urged to vote for a new national drive to recruit more members.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has acknowledged that the Church must devote more energy to increasing the number of regular worshippers over the next five years.

In other news :

"Church of England report calls for affirmative action on race"

"Affirmative action" = the practice formerly known as "racial discrimination".

"The Church of England is to give the go-ahead for the appointment of openly homosexual bishops."

It's one of those strange historical oddities, like Britain being invaded and conquered every thousand years, that the Church of England was born of the adulterous desires of one prince, and on its sick bed condoned the adultery of another.

But the (IMHO terminal) sickness of the Church of England is no cause for rejoicing. It was great once, a noble Church of a kind that we should not dare to raise our voice against. It is fallen, and its cure is beyond us; but I would that it lived, in the hope that it may find one.


UPDATE - the great and good Rev. Peter Mullen :

"Frankly, much of the Church has been mad for decades."

Another frothing racist

" a determined Islamic attack"

"That is the type of evangelism they are doing: mass-production, so if you have four wives, four children, sixteen children, very soon you will be a village"

"surrounded by Islamic domination"

Who is this spittle-flecked, swivel-eyed chap ? Quite obviously one of those embittered types who's not cool with diversity and thinks that (parental advisory - the writer thinks that swearing is grown-up) "a significant portion of the babies being born are, apparently, the wrong sort of babies – babies from ethnic minorities, babies with immigrant parents and lone parents, black babies, poor babies".




Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, 56, was elected Primate of Nigeria last week.




Like his predecessor, the great Peter Akinola, the Archbishop seems to have the CoE hierarchy pretty well taped.

“Who is the leader in the Christian world? There is no leader”

That's you, Rasputin, that is.



While we're on the subject of the Church of England, here's another canary in the coalmine.

Lewis Bullock, an IT and business consultant in Dubai, was only 14 years old when he took the bold step of changing his faith from Christianity to Islam while growing up in the UK.

"I only had brief knowledge of Islam from our world religions class; in fact, we had the image that it's a religion for Indians and Pakistanis," Bullock said, who comes from a religious Christian background with his father and grandfather (a priest) belonging to the Church of England.

Obviously another one driven away by "the wishy-washy standards of contemporary Christianity".

"I have developed a new lifestyle different to the accustomed one in the UK and I tried to make my family understand this change by pointing to the irregularities in the lifestyle and high divorce rates as compared to arranged marriages," he said, adding that his marriage to an Arab UAE national has helped to strengthen his faith in Islam.

He's right of course. In fact, I've noticed recently a new trend on left blogs in the comments. When hideous righties talk about defending Western culture, the response is "what culture ? Binge drinking, high crime, family breakup ?" - all things which the left have been in the forefront of promoting - and things which once only hideous righties used to complain about.


Obviously no problems with the Bullocks' family life.

Bullock is a fluent Arabic speaker of the colloquial Emirati accent and enjoys his career and family life with his wife and five boys.

"being a Muslim has made her a better Christian"

Even the US Episcopal Church has its limits.

The decision was made by Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Episcopal diocese of Rhode Island. Redding was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1984 and lives in Washington State, but had kept her canonical ties in the state of Rhode Island.

Redding has said that being a Muslim has made her a better Christian. "Some people don't need glasses, some people need single lenses. I need bifocals," she told CNN in a television interview.

The statement issued by the Rhode Island diocese said that Bishop Wolf found Redding "to be a woman of utmost integrity and their conversations over the past two years have been open, honest and respectful". "However," the statement concluded, "Bishop Wolf believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim." As a result, Wolf imposed what is officially called "a sentence of deposition", in accordance with the canonical laws of the Episcopal Church.

Not Thought Of It Like That ...

When I heard that Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was booed in London by ex-pats when he urged them to return and rebuild their shattered nation, I'd assumed they were people who, not surprisingly, didn't trust Mugabe one inch. IMHO Tsvangirai is responding not only up to the call of duty in his speeches, but perhaps beyond it. This is a man whose wife was killed in a probable assassination attempt only a few months ago - and now he's saying that things are on the mend. Maybe he's right - but one can't but be wary.

But he's in a difficult position - as Prime Minister, he can hardly go around calling his country a hell-hole - even if it still is.

Not so, according to CoE Bishop Tom 'It's What I Do' Butler, on this morning's BBC Thought For The Day (I paraphrase):

"No wonder the audience booed. Morgan Tsvangirai's appeal to them to return, and his implication that things were getting better, had the potential to seriously impact their asylum claims."

What's German For "Schadenfreude" Again ?

Rowan Williams complaining about people not liking Britain is like Schopenhauer moaning about pessimists.

The Archbishop of Canterbury told shoppers yesterday that Britain was a country that was “unhappy” and “didn’t seem to like itself”.

Speaking in a city centre pub in Cardiff, Dr Rowan Williams told his informal congregation after a presentation on social problems that the nation seemed ill at ease with itself and was in urgent need of some help.

“What we saw was a picture of a country and society that doesn’t seem to like itself very much,” he said. “We are not very happy, we look around for people to blame . . . When society is that unhappy then society has a problem.

I can't understand it. After all, apart from a few surviving traces of sexism, racism and homophobia, Roy Jenkins' "Civilised Society" is pretty much with us today. That bad old Britain of the 1950s, when innocent murderers were hung, innocent criminals and innocent homosexuals were sent to prison, and the streets ran red with the blood of the victims of domestic violence and back street abortion (the victims of the latter being the mothers, of course, not the babies), classrooms rang to the screams of the victims of corporal punishment - and worst of all to the Archbish, the Church of England was a strong supporting pillar of such evil - is now history.

Only a few elderly bigots cling to the hideous morality of our wicked past - and they'll soon be dealt with.

Bombay - the Christian-Lite Perspective

Ekklesia :

The carnage in Bombay (officially known as Mumbai), in which gunmen have killed over a hundred people, injured many more and taken hostages, has shocked the world. It has thrown a spotlight on religious extremism of various kinds.

Platitude of the Day

He may be a (inter alia) a man without religion, but Platitude of the Day - an ongoing review of BBC's Thought For The Day in which each contribution is ranked for - platitudinousness ? platitudinity ? - is really rather neat. A little heavy on sky fairies, invisible friends and the other rosary beads of the militant unbeliever - but still worth a visit, if only to occasionally be the yeast in the dough, or the grains of sand in the KY (the comments are mostly people agreeing with each other. Nothing wrong with that, mind).

Mind you, that's the sort of thing that got me banned from Sinking Anglicans. None so intolerant as the tolerant.

Repent And Be Saved !

Back at you, babe ! We've become used to what seems like the annual disruption of Christian meetings by homosexual campaigners. Here the Guardian readers at prayer in Giles Fraser's Putney parish get a bit of extempore preaching. I'd better make it plain that I disapprove of disrupting religious services, even when they're full of Guardianistas who are going to hell (we are all sinners at risk of that). One should stand outside, leaflet and engage. But of course, as Mr Peter Tatchell would no doubt point out, you don't make the news that way.

Minister Ben Bradshaw was there. I must say I had no idea he was a Christian. I see his dad was a vicar. And his brother is Jonathan, the comfortably off poverty specialist.

More Historic Feasts of the Church

Remember Refugee Sunday ?


"Shrive me now, Lord Bishop, I must away to Mass. Wit ye not 'tis Refugee Sunday ?"


via (where else ?) Ekklesia.

Autism Sunday

Churches of all denominations across Britain and Ireland are being urged to mark Autism Sunday and the International Day of Prayer for Autism and Asperger's Syndrome on Sunday 10 February 2008.


Education Sunday

Back To Church Sunday

Peace Sunday

Evolution Sunday

Not For Sale Sunday

National Youth Sunday

Politics Sunday

Animal Welfare Sunday

Homelessness Sunday and Poverty Action Sunday

Prisoners' Sunday

Racial Justice Sunday

Quote Of The Day

I don't know if it's original, but I'd not heard it before - James at WhatsThatSmell? on Rasputin :

"At the very least, he's so open-minded, his brain's fallen out"

Rasputin Consolidates New Fan Base

In the UK and US they think he's mad as a fish, but Rasputin's views on Sharia law have made him a host of friends in the Muslim north of Nigeria.

Mauled by the media for suggesting aspects of Sharia Law should be incorporated into the British legal system, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has become something of a hero -- even a Christian legend -- in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria.

Speaking at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London on March 6, the leader of the multi-million strong Qadiriyyah wing of the Islamic faith, Nigerian Sheikh Qaribullahi Nasiru Kabara, told academics and diplomats that he felt "very good" when he heard what Williams had to say at a February lecture.

"I felt very good," the sheikh said. "The people of northern Nigeria are very happy. It shows the recent upward rating of the British and the way they see Islam...That call from the Archbishop of Canterbury caused a serious round of celebrations because people feel, 'These people are now listening to us. Let us look at them and talk to them properly.'"

Of course, happy or not, some of the people of northern Nigeria have killed thousands of Anglican Christians in the last few years.

Over 10,000 people have died in religious violence since 1999 when several northern states decided to implement the Shariíah penal code in defiance of the countryís secular constitution. The Wase area of southern Plateau State has experienced intermittent violence since the summer of 2002 when attacks by armed Muslims on the predominantly Christian Taroh tribe left at least 5,000 people dead, 100,000 displaced and over 80 villages destroyed.

There was a lull in the violence during 2003 when the State Governor, Joshua Dariye, convened local peace talks. However, tensions mounted once again on January 3 2004 after it emerged the Muslim Emir of Wase, deeply implicated in the violence of 2002, had brought more than 500 Muslim families to the area to settle in towns and villages abandoned by displaced Christians.

I somehow doubt that Nigerian Christians are quite as chuffed with the Mad Monk.

Hmm ...

Ekklesia, the Christian-lite Guardian-at-prayer outfit, note Trevor Phillips' co-option of the Rev Joel Edwards, head of the Evangelical Alliance, onto the board of his super-equality quango, calling it "a historic opportunity for evangelicals to shift toward full acceptance of the equalities agenda."

I'd hope it was "a historic opportunity for soi-disant 'equality' campaigners to shift toward full acceptance of the evangelical agenda", myself. But there you go.

What's more worrying is if it's an attempt to get the good Reverend on board the Boat of Sin for a trip down the Tunnel of Debauchery, with optional excursions to yodel down the Valley of Love. Dr Edwards is a chap who talks an inordinate amount of good sense.

"Politicians are happy to embrace the pragmatic benefits of Britain’s faith communities who now have a seat at every conceivable table of policy making in Britain. But this is happening precisely at a time when the volume of legislation is going against the values of religious communities on a whole range of moral issues from abortion and human sexuality to family life and education. Public servants want our goods but not necessarily our gods."


Are they attempting to "stop his mouth with (taxpayer) gold", in the style which has been so effective with ex-firebrand Lee Jasper, once never off the radio as representative of this or that two-men-and-a-fax anti-racist organisation, now grown fat and somnolent on a rich diet of taxpayer dosh courtesy of Ken Livingstone ?

Will the Reverend stick to his guns or be bought off ? We shall see. Pray for him.

Unrepentant

Remember the anti-Christian Gay Police advert ?

It stated: "In the last 12 months, the GPA has recorded a 74% increase in homophobic incidents, where the sole or primary motivating factor was the religious belief of the perpetrator."



It was slapped down by the Advertising Standards Authority as breaching their guidelines on decency, truthfulness and substantiation (i.e. the "evidence" mysteriously failed to materialise when the ASA (presumably) asked for it).

You'd think this would be an unsavoury episode the GPA would want to forget all about.

Not so.

Gay Christians have been presented with an award for their work in combating homophobia.

The award was given to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) following their support for a controversial advert which appeared in the Independent newspaper, challenging faith-based homophobia ...

He went on to praise Richard Kirker for the support that he and members of the LGCM had offered the GPA in response to the campaign organised by some Evangelical and Fundamentalist groups who had opposed the contents of the GPA advertisement. Rev Kirker at the time had described the advertisement as “courageous and wholly justifiable in exposing the scourge of religiously motivated homophobia”. He had also made contact with the Home Office, the Metropolitan Police and the Advertising Standards Agency, defending the actions of the GPA. As a result of the response to the GPA advertisement, in February 2007 LGCM hosted the very first national conference on Faith, Homophobia and Human Rights which was supported by 50 other organisations.

In fairness, Ekklesia (the Guardian at prayer) may be putting their own special emphasis on the advert. There are other reasons for the award.

Introducing the award Kevin Boyle a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Gay Police Association (GPA) said that Richard Kirker, chief executive of the LGCM, had first come to his attention in June 2000 when he was involved in a police investigation into homophobic attacks against the Rev Follett, the Vicar of Knightsbridge.

At the time the investigation attracted huge media interest. Kevin stated that whilst many in the church had condemned the victim because of his sexual orientation, Richard Kirker had gone on record to urge the Bishop of London not to tolerate the homophobic witch-hunt. Richard Kirker had also supported the police investigation and had supported the Rev Follett throughout the protracted enquiry.

I know nowt about l'affaire Follett, but a quick Google gave me this BBC report.

Father Neil Follett, vicar of St Paul's, Knightsbridge, is in hiding on police advice after finding himself the victim of a hate campaign.

Police are investigating allegations of blackmail and intimidation after Fr Follett told the parochial church council he was gay.

Blackmail and intimidation, eh ? In hiding on police advice ? The Register had more.

The Reverend Neil Follett, 50, struck up a friendship with a German academic over the Internet. This resulted in the German visiting him at his Victorian vicarage in London's exclusive Knightsbridge district. But the relationship soured, according to today's Times newspaper, after the two bickered over an alleged credit-card bill. The academic decided to play his trump card, and threatened to reveal the Rev's sexuality secret to the tabloids.

Follet, who has three kids and is separated from his wife, revealed details of the blackmail to churchwardens and members of the parochial church council and told them he was gay, before doing a bunk on police advice. The scandal came just days after churchwarden Captain Ian Powe - who commanded HMS Yarmouth during the 'Cod War' - was arrested for alleged anti-gay harassment against Follet. Captain Powe, who has denied any wrongdoing, is out on bail.

Captain Powe was at the time 67 years old, chair of the Standards Committee of his local council and chair of the British Gas Consumers council. Also arrested was Maggie Quaile, a 63 year old member of the congregation.

The human heart is a difficult thing to fathom. But do these sound like the kind of people who'd put you in fear of your life ? The police obviously thought so.

As so often, it was difficult to find out what became of the police investigation. This hard to read text feed was the only information I could find.

The Metropolitan police could face a £30,000 legal bill over the "distressing" treatment of two church wardens by a gay officer investigating threats against a gay vicar. Captain Ian Powe,67, and Maggie Quaile,63, of St Paul's parish in Knightsbridge have received an apology from the police. Powe and Quaile were arrested by Detective Sergean Paul Cahill, who has since been promoted to inspector, in June last year when the vicar, the Rev Neill Follett, claimed he was being blackmailed by his former gay lover. After a "vindictive and homophobic" fax was received by one of Rev Follett's friends, Powe and Quaile were arrested and held at Belgravia police station for six hours. They were released without charge. The case has never been resolved. DS Cahill is chairman of the Lesbian and Gay Police Association. His decision, however, to arrest the church wardens who were happy to help with police enquiries, is now in question. A letter from Detective Chief Superintendent Shaun Swyer, Commander of Professional Standards Internal Investigations to Capt Powe reads: 'It is my view that your arrest was disproportionate and heavy-handed. I wish to apologise for your distress'. Capt Power is now attempting to recoup his £30,000 legal bill. Cahill told the Mail on Sunday that he "treated this investigation with no bias". Rev Neill Follett has since retired.

Captain Powe wasn't too chuffed by his arrest.

"I used to have an expression that worse things happen at sea," Powe said earlier this week. "I'm not using it any more." At St Paul's, Powe is seen as the second victim in the case. "I don't think he'll be saying much at the moment," said one parish insider. "Not after what he has been through."

This unfortunate episode may have upset the good Captain, but it hasn't done DS Cahill any harm. He was promoted to Inspector and made MBE in 2003.

There's a danger that relationship between the LGCM and the police may come to be seen as appearing to consist of the LGCM encouraging police harrassment of the "wrong sort" of Christians - then applauding it whan it occurs. Here's another snippet of Mr Kirker's gracious acceptance speech.

He went on to say that it was in this context that the work that Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) Mike Cunningham of Lancashire Police was doing on behalf of ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) was so important. He said that, “Your recommendation that religious views should be expressed “in an appropriate fashion” and “does not confer a right to express those beliefs … in a manner that amounts to discrimination against others” will, I hope help bring to an end the acceptability of religiously expressed homophobia across the whole police service.

Ah yes - Lancashire Police.

A Christian couple from Lancashire have been awarded £10,000 in an out-of-court settlement after they were questioned by police about their moral beliefs. Helen and Joe Roberts, from Fleetwood, complained about taxpayers' money being used for leaflets about gay rights and called homosexuality "immoral".

Wyre Borough Council informed Lancashire Constabulary. Officers then quizzed the couple for over an hour. The council and police said they had now apologised to the Roberts. They also said policies had been revised to protect all parties.

(We all pay for the GPA through our taxes, as we pay for similar organisations representing black and female officers. Alas, representatives of the Straight Police Association could not be contacted.)


UPDATE - Me no understand. The disgusting murder of David Morley got the full "homophobia" treatment, including Rasputin blaming Christians. Fortunately the murderers turned out not to be "homophobes", just a bunch of young Londoners out for a good evening.
Yet there's been nothing about the murder of Anthony Hoare.

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself ..

The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians, Islamic scholars told the Pope today.

In a letter addressed directly to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, 138 prominent Muslim scholars said that finding common ground between the world's biggest two religions was not "simply a matter for polite ecumenical dialogue".

The letter, which is entitled A Common Word between Us and You, says: "Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world's population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world. The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians."

Rasputin will be well up for it, I'm sure. He might even agree that no mullahs in same-sex relationships be appointed to British mosques for a year or two.

"With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants. Thus our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake," the letter says.

It adds that the Qur'an entreats Muslims to treat Christians and Jews with particular friendship, though it also warns against aggression from Christians.

"We say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes," the letter says.

"With Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before", eh ? But there are quite a lot of places where Muslims and Christians aren't intertwined - we can start with Saudi Arabia, followed by a host of countries where Muslims and Christians used to be intertwined - until the Christians were driven out. Palestine for starters.

Lets take apart that concept a bit more. Where Christian and Moslem are intertwined with a Christian minority, where's any conflict coming from ? Are the Copts rioting or letting off bombs in Egypt ? No, they're being attacked and stabbed. Turkey, where the Christian minority is tiny after the events of 1917. Are they rioting or setting off bombs ? No, they're being shot and stabbed.

Where Christian and Moslem are intertwined with a Moslem minority, say in Britain or France, where's any conflict coming from ?

To ask the question is to answer it.

You can't help feeling that what's being presented to Christian leaders is a not very cryptic warning, accompanied by an invitation to surrender.

Rasputin's signature in the railway carriage is pretty much a foregone conclusion, although Bishops Sentamu and Nazir-Ali may not be so keen. But what of our Pope, Benedict ? He's tough enough with the CoE on doctrine, but whatever faults they may have (and they are many), they're not likely to react with violence. What will he say to this invitation ? Please pray for him.



(btw, the Armenian massacres of the Ottoman Empire are much in the news at present. Although Johnny Turk was a reasonably fair fighter against uniformed opponents, he didn't seem to behave very well when confronted with popular resistance. If the much-maligned Black and Tans had behaved like the Turks in Bulgaria, there'd have been a lot of abandoned villages in Cork and Limerick)

Swirling About In A Cess-Pool Of His Own Making

Don't ask me what this is all about. A secret communion service that's all over the media ? I suppose they're interpreting the word 'secret' in the light of recent scholarship and much prayerful reflection, or something. Maybe they're listening with open hearts to the experiences of those who think it means 'reported in the Times'.

It looks as if once again Rasputin is managing brilliantly to offend everyone. It's what he does, in the immortal words of Tom Butler.

Get Religion has an entertaining take on the whole sorry saga.

I don’t think the Third World traditionalists are going to compromise. And I don’t think the American left is going to compromise now on issues of the sexual revolution. They are not going to be willing to offend the New York Times editorial board and other sources of doctrinal power and authority. So at some point, England is going to have to figure out which way it wants to go. And the Church of England is just as divided as the American church on these issues.

(Mitre-tip - Sam Tarran)

"A looser interpretation of Scripture"

More American priests opt for spiritual oversight from Africa rather than their own nation. How long before African missionaries are preaching the Word to the heathens of the UK ?

A meeting of primates in Tanzania this year agreed to draw up a “covenant” that would commit Churches to procedures for resolving disputes within the Communion, but the flow of American renegades to Africa has continued. More than 30 congregations have joined the Kenyan Church. Others have found sanctuary with Nigerian, Ugandan and Rwandan bishops. More than 200 of the 7,000 Episcopal congregations in the US have opted out of the covenant.

200 out of 7,000 is about three percent. Not a flood, but still a perceptible number.

Peter Akinola Interview

Times :

“The missionaries brought the word of God here and showed us the way of life. We have seen the way of life and we rejoice in it. Now you are telling me this way of life is not right. I have to do something else. Keep it for yourself. I do not want it.”

No Nigerian bishop needs to go to Canterbury to learn how to be a bishop, he says. “No Nigerian Anglican needs to go to Lambeth Palace to learn how to become a Christian. It is all available here. We rejoice in our fellowship, we rejoice in our heritage as Anglicans. We celebrate it. But our unity will never be at the expense of truth, of the historic faith.”

In spite of what Western church leaders fear, he has no ambitions to lead a breakaway church. “That has never been on my mind. This is the media thing. You see we have scripture. We have our traditions. We have not broken the law. It is your churches that are breaking the law. You are the ones breaking the rules. You are the ones doing what should not be done with impunity. We are saying you cannot sweep it under the carpet. Maybe in the past you could get away with it, but not any more. We have aged. So we are not breaking away from anybody. We remain Anglicans. We are Anglican Church. We will die Anglicans. We are going nowhere.”

Rasputin's not been a very good shepherd. The ageing, barren American and English sheep in one part of his pasture are given over to practices offensive to the healthier, more vigorous Nigerian flock. One side of the field bleateath not to the other. All very sad.


(An aside - perhaps the first violent jihadist attack in the UK was the 1995 murder of Nigerian Christian Ayotunde Obanubi, stabbed to death at Newham College in east London by mates of Ed Husein and totally off the radar of liberal England. One of those charged (the charges were dropped) with the murder was banged up for nine years not long back.

A Briton who allegedly tried to buy missiles to shoot down airliners has been jailed, it has emerged following the Old Bailey fertiliser bomb trial. Reporting restrictions covering the conviction of Kazi Nurur Rahman have been lifted. Rahman, 29, was arrested in November 2005 after trying to buy three Uzi sub-machine guns in a police sting. He pleaded guilty and was jailed for nine years but details were kept secret because of his links to the defendants.

"Last bid to stop Anglican split"

I seem to read this headline about five times a year. I wish they'd get on with it.

"A move to censure the liberal wing would dismay many followers in Europe and lead to charges of hypocrisy. According to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM), some 100 bishops worldwide are homosexual, though many are not active."

If they're not active, it's not a problem. It's acts, not desires. We all desire to do things which are contrary to the Commandments. I know I do.

Rasputin - May Contain Traces of Christianity

"I don't believe inclusion is a value in itself. Welcome is. We don't say 'Come in and we ask no questions'. I do believe conversion means conversion of habits, behaviours, ideas, emotions," he told a Dutch journalist.

"Ethics is not a matter of a set of abstract rules, it is a matter of living the mind of Christ. That applies to sexual ethics."

The archbishop said that he was determined to preserve the unity of the church from being destroyed by the warring factions in the gay crisis. He said he has backed a resolution which says that homosexual practice is incompatible with the Bible.

The Rev Giles Goddard, the chairman of Inclusive Church, a liberal group, said the archbishop's comments revealed an "astonishing" change in his position. He added: "The implication is that there is no justification in scripture for the welcome of lesbian and gay people. It appears that he has moved into the conservative camp."

Chris Bryant, a homosexual Labour MP, said that many people would feel betrayed by the archbishop's comments. "The Church of England wouldn't survive without gay clergy in inner cities.

"People will feel this is a huge betrayal. Rowan has refashioned the Church of England into a narrow-minded, conservative sect."

I think he just doesn't want to go down in history as the bish who split the Anglican Communion. Still wouldn't trust him an inch. The good news is that now, neither will anyone else.

Rasputin - May Contain More Traces of Christianity

Imagine my surprise when the BBC Sunday programme (Realaudio) told me this morning how the Archbishop of Canterbury was in Pakistan, raising with political and religious leaders his concerns about the oppression of Christians in that country.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has said that Christian minorities in Pakistan and other Muslim countries were often not provided justice and it was a matter of concern.

Well strike a light, thought I. I'll not forget the good he does, any more than I'll forget the bad. I'll do a little post on this.


I might have known that wouldn't be all.

The Crusades were a serious betrayal of Christian beliefs, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said yesterday.

Speaking 900 years after Christian warriors sacked Jerusalem, the Archbishop said that any attempt to revive the crusading ideal today would not garner much support among Christians.

His comments, made in Pakistan, appeared to be an attempt to reassure Muslims that the Churches are anxious to avert confrontation between the West and Islamic states.

In the past he has warned western leaders, particularly President Bush, against using sensitive religious language such as the term "crusade" to justify the war against Iraq.

That's right, Rasputin. The Muslim conquest by fire and sword of the historic Christian regions of Anatolia and North Africa ? Let's not talk abou that, shall we ? An attempt to partially reverse those conquests ? God, aren't we awful !

Meanwhile in Wales ....

In a sermon to mark International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women, Dr Barry Morgan said Christians had "often used the Bible" against women.

It's certainly heavy enough - but it would be blasphemous so to use the good book. An erring wife or child should be lovingly chastised with this weighty tome.