News for Week Ending 1/27/2014

CoE bishops consider Pilling Report

The College of Bishops of the Church of England has issued a statement on the Pilling Report following discussion of the report on January 27, 2014. (The membership of the College of Bishops is larger than that of the House of Bishops. An explanation can be read here.) The statement represents an endorsement of the report. It explains that a small group will be formed to design the “facilitated conversations” on sexuality called for in the report. The design is to be approved by the House of Bishops in May. Ominously, the statement declares that the facilitated conversations should address sexual issues “ecumenically, across the Anglican Communion and at national and diocesan level.” This paragraph is also interesting:

No change to the Church of England’s teaching on marriage is proposed or envisaged. The House of Bishops will be meeting next month to consider its approach when same sex marriage becomes lawful in England in March.

Thinking Anglicans has published a number of posts linking to commentary on the Pilling Report and on related commentary on homosexuality. They can be found here, here, here, and here. Particularly interesting among the sources cited is an analysis of the Pilling Report from Changing Attitude.

PB nominating committee offers update

On January 21, 2014, the co-chairs of The Episcopal Church Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop issued a brief update on the committee’s work. That update can be found here.

Bishop Curry offers crazy Christian course on-line

Michael Curry, Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, is offering a free on-line course, “The Big Class: How to be a Crazy Christian with Bishop Michael Curry.” Curry energized General Convention in 2012 with his sermon about being what he called “crazy Christians.” Church Publishing has published his book Crazy Christians. The course includes on-line discussion January 27–31. Details can be found here.