Week Ending 01/17/22

 Proposal Would Change Selection of Archbishop of Canterbury

A commission is proposing that the selection commission which recommends a candidate to the crown for the position of Archbishop of Canterbury be changed to include five members drawn from outside of the Church of England.  The group that is putting forward argues that the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury is more world wide and thus should have more voice from the rest of the Anglican Communion. The proposal may be intended to head off the efforts of conservatives to form an competing communion through GAFCON, but because it also appears to be a step towards a tighter control over members and increases the sense of a hierarchy, by enhancing the role of the Archbishop, it is meeting a lot of criticism.  Some point out that because the Church of England is a state church, and the Archbishop has duties as a cleric in the Church of England, it may be hard to have someone selected who is not a member of the Church of England.  Thinking Anglicans has links to the full proposal, and a long set of comments to that post which are worth reading.

Climate Activists Convince Jury

Two clergy (the Revs. Sue Parfitt and  Martin Newell) and retired university lecturer Philip Kingston were able to convince a jury that when they climbed on top of a train during rush hour at Shadwell Station in East London in 2019, they were exercising a legitimate act of protest  under the Human Rights Act. The three, members of Christian Climate Action, claimed they had exhausted all other forms of protest and that their concern about climate change is too urgent to ignore. Christian Today has a succinct story, the BBC covered it in much greater detail.

Continuing Stories

Presiding Bishop Continues Commenting on Religion and Politics

Following the Presiding Bishop's comments in several forums last week on the events of January 6, 2021, and the Christian celebration of Epiphany, the Presiding Bishop held a recorded forum/conversation with the Pulitzer Prize winning canon historian of the Washington Cathedral, Jon Meacham.  Meacham has several books on leading political figures from the past and present and a recent book on faith.  Religion News interviewed the two just before the start of the forum.  That interview is found here, and was reprinted by the Episcopal News Service (ENS).  The two Episcopalians were hosted by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy and Vanderbilt Divinity School.Both stressed that Christians need to reclaim faith from those who have used church symbols in ways that do not reflect Christ's message of love.  The whole forum is available on video.  ENS has a link to the video.