Displaying items by tag: Church of England

There are an estimated 11,700+ people trapped in forms of modern slavery in the UK. These are just the people who have been noticed: many would say that the figure is vastly greater. Slavery is largely unreported because of the difficulty and expense of regulating small businesses using casual staff. On 11 June a free-to-use smartphone app, commissioned by the Church of England, will help shed light on the true extent of forced labour across the UK by ‘noticing the unnoticed’ among people and businesses in the parish, starting with car washes. The app will ask users to complete a short questionnaire on local car washes to ensure that the business is legitimate and meets employment regulations. If the car wash appears to indicate signs of forced-labour exploitation, the user will be prompted to report the business to the Modern Slavery Helpline (08000 121 700).

A lawyer representing survivors of clerical sex abuse in the CofE said at a public hearing, ‘The Church of England is an inappropriate organisation to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults, and would have been closed if it were a school.’ The inquiry used the diocese of Chichester as a case study to investigate the CofE’s failure to protect children from sex abusers. Another lawyer said, ‘Over the past three weeks I have been struck by how inappropriate the Church as an organisation is to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults. Personally, I would not want my son to spend a moment in the company of a member of this organisation.’ The lawyers were struck by the ‘impotence’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold bishops to account, calling it a deep-seated cultural and structural problem.

On 22 March the gay clergyman Canon Jeremy Pemberton lost his appeal against the Church of England after he claimed its attitude to same-sex marriage breached equality laws. The Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling that he was not discriminated against when he was barred from becoming a hospital chaplain after marrying his partner. The CofE has now established that it can continue to discriminate legally against some LGBT people in relation to their employment, even when that employment is not within the boundaries of the Church's jurisdiction.

An inquiry heard that ‘toothless’ monitoring of convicted paedophile priests meant they were able to continue leading Anglican church services even after being banned from doing so. The inquiry into child sexual abuse was told that Rev Roy Cotton was restricted from public ministry to avoid contact with children, but it was ‘difficult’ to enforce. Fiona Scolding QC, the lead lawyer for the Anglican strand of the inquiry, is examining how the CofE handled allegations of sexual misconduct stretching back to the 1950s, first focusing on the Diocese of Chichester. But the issue is not confined to just one diocese. There have been published reports of systemic problems, a lack of safeguarding, and dysfunctionality.

Conservative Anglican church group GAFCON has said some Primates may walk out of the Anglican Communion Primates' meeting, over the issue of same-sex marriage. The Scottish Episcopal Church will be asked to repent for its decision to let clergy conduct same-sex weddings last June. The Archbishops of Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda refused to attend a recent Anglican Primates' meeting over what they deem to be a weak stance in the Church on the issue of sexuality. Meanwhile on 5 October Justin Welby said that a ban on Scottish Anglicans taking part in some votes and holding certain offices ‘will be followed through’, after a meeting where anger and disappointment were expressed. The ban would involve exclusion from debate on doctrine and from chairing Anglican Communion committees. Archbishop Welby said that no vote was taken against the Scottish Anglicans by the Primates, but there was a ‘consensus’.

A six-year-old boy’s parents removed him from a church school, in a row over another boy wearing a dress. Their son was confused as to why the boy dressed as both a boy and a girl. The couple were told that under the school's bullying policy their son faced being disciplined for misidentifying the gender of the other pupil. The diocese responsible for the school said it is required to ‘respect diversity of all kinds’, and its policy regarding boys wearing dresses is, ‘if a child wants to do that then we just have to accept it’. The couple are suing the school for ‘overriding their religious beliefs’. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust handle ‘under-18 gender issues’. Since 2015 the number of referrals to them of children under the age of ten has risen from 87 to 216 (32 aged five or under). See also

The Prayer Book Society gives free copies of the 17th-century Book of Common Prayer to first-year students in theological colleges. This year they will also be given a key to some of the BCP’s more old-fashioned words and phrases. Tim Stanley, the Society's press officer, conceived the scheme because although the language of the prayer book is very beautiful, it is also very ancient, and modern readers might find some words difficult to understand or interpret. The glossary will be given in a bookmark form, and is also available on the Society's website. See:

In October, the Church of England will launch a three-year project aimed at helping people in dioceses across the country to tackle modern slavery. It is the latest in a series of moves the CofE has made to help the government address this phenomenon. Over 200 years since Britain abolished slavery, there are still an estimated 11,700 potential slave victims in the UK. A new report from the National Crime Agency says that modern slavery is now 'prevalent' in every large town and city in the country. The Church of England, with a presence in every parish, is uniquely placed to be the eyes and ears of communities, and will be able to spread a message of awareness further afield. Churches are already running English classes for survivors. See also article 3 in this week’s World section.

Members of the Church of England's ruling body have voted not to ‘take note’ of a controversial report on homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The report by the House of Bishops (see Prayer Alert 05-2017, dated 3 February) called for a ‘culture of welcome and support’ for gay Christians, but maintained that marriage in church should be only between a man and a woman, and services should not be held to bless same-sex relationships. Following hours of debate, the House of Bishops voted overwhelmingly (43 to 1) in favour of the report, and the House of Laity backed it by 106 votes to 83. But the report had to win backing in all three houses, and the Clergy rejected it by 100 votes to 93, with two abstentions. Bishops will now have to produce a new report on the issue. The decision was welcomed by LGBT rights campaigners, some of whom had staged a protest ahead of the debate. Lucy Gorman, an activist and Synod member from York, said: ‘Thank you Synod. With that vote we've sent a message to the outside world.’ The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, concluded the debate with a call for ‘a radical new Christian inclusion’.

A new report by the House of Bishops has said that the Church of England should adopt a ‘fresh tone and culture of welcome and support’ for gay people, but that there was little support for changing the Church's teaching that marriage was between one man and one woman. The report said the Church needed to repent of homophobic attitudes. It also said all potential clergy - straight and gay - will be asked about their sexual conduct and lifestyle., The Bishop of Norwich, Graham Jones, felt that present arrangements for asking ordinands and clergy about their relationships and lifestyle are not really working very well. He said, ‘All clergy are asked at their ordination whether they will fashion their lives after the way of Christ. We believe we should revisit how this is explored beforehand, so the same questions are addressed to everyone without distinction.’ But Andrew Foreshaw-Cain, a parish priest in north London who is in a same-sex marriage, told the BBC that the report was ‘a failure of leadership’. He added: ‘The LGBT community is going to be extremely hurt by this. We were asked to trust our leaders. Many of us made ourselves vulnerable during the shared conversations, and none of that has been heard. The bishops have gone ahead and talked as if we didn't take part in it and as if we are not there.’