March 20, 2008
'Believers are happier than atheists'
People who believe in God are happier than agnostics or atheists, researchers claimed yesterday.
'Believers are happier than atheists'
By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:38am GMT 18/03/2008
The Telegraph
People who believe in God are happier than agnostics or atheists, researchers claimed yesterday.
A report found that religious people were better able to cope with disappointments such as unemployment or divorce than non-believers.
Moreover, they become even happier the more they pray and go to church, claims the study by Prof Andrew Clark and Dr Orsolya Lelkes.
The research, presented at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference, echoes academic studies that have found religion can improve people's sense of wellbeing.
Using data from Britain and Europe, the study found believers enjoyed higher levels of satisfaction and suffered less psychological damage from unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner.
However, it also found that religious people across Europe tended to be more socially conservative and opposed to Government intervention in areas such as employment.
Believers, for example, were less likely to look for a new job if they were out of work.
Countries with a more religious electorate had lower unemployment benefits.
The study, Deliver Us From Evil: Religion as Insurance, found that less than a sixth of churchgoers in Britain believe it is better to divorce than stay in an unhappy marriage.
The authors of the study said: "Religion tempers the impact of adverse life events."
Posted by latimer at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2008
Chch's controversial new bishop
A controversial Canadian woman has been elected Christchurch's next Anglican bishop.
A Canadian Bishop who is part of a high-level advisory group to the worldwide Anglican Communion has been elected Bishop of Christchurch.
The Rt Revd Victoria Matthews is currently bishop-in-residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto. She was Bishop of Edmonton for 10 years from 1997 to late last year, and Suffragan (Assistant) Bishop of Toronto from 1994-97.
She narrowly missed being elected Primate of Canada last year.
Announcing the appointment today, the Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia, Archbishop Brown Turei, said he looked forward to welcoming Bishop Matthews into the church of these islands.
"I'm sure that, with all her experience, she will make a good contribution to our life and witness," he said.
Bishop Matthews, 54 and unmarried, is only the second woman to become a diocesan bishop in New Zealand. The first was the Rt Revd Dr Penny Jamieson, Bishop of Dunedin from 1989-2004.
Bishop Matthews chairs the Canadian Primate's Theological Commission, and has just been appointed to the Windsor Continuation Group, which will look at crucial questions about the shape of Anglican common life around the world.
She is in high demand as a retreat leader and guest lecturer, enjoys leading youth pilgrimages to holy places such as Iona and Taize, and has served as a trustee of Yale University in the USA.
In 2004 Bishop Matthews underwent major surgery for breast cancer. She walked the 800km pilgrimage trail to Santiago De Compostela in northern Spain last year to celebrate a clean bill of health.
In her spare time she enjoys hiking and walking her Anatolian shepherd dog Jethro, swimming, and reading history and theology.
Her installation as the eighth Bishop of Christchurch will take place in ChristChurch Cathedral on August 30. The present Bishop, the Rt Revd Dr David Coles, takes up the position of Vicar of Wakatipu in Queenstown on April 12.
'To visit and to listen'
Bishop Matthews is no stranger to Christchurch. She hiked through New Zealand in the 1980s and was smitten. "Your country is so beautiful,"
she said from her home in Toronto this week.
"I've long admired your (Anglican) prayer book, your commitment to the stewardship of creation, and the leadership of Maori in the church. I'm excited about the move and look forward to forming relationships and making Christchurch my home."
Bishop Matthews' personal priorities on arrival here are "to visit and to listen." And then? "My priority for the diocese would be to call the people of God to excellence in all that they do," she says. "I hate mediocrity, and I despair of sloppiness."
She describes herself as "catholic evangelical" and is widely respected for her quiet authority and her ability to sit comfortably with all theological mindsets. However, she worries that in recent years the churches have moved away from "waiting on God," and believes that a call to prayer is "essential at all levels of our church."
She was educated at Bishop Strachan School in Toronto and has a Master of Divinity degree from Yale. She says she is a great fan of church schools, "especially if they are not only for the wealthy. I wish Canada had more of them."
Although only 44 at the time, Bishop Matthews was invited on to the communications committee for the 1998 Lambeth Conference of Bishops in England. She is involved again in the planning of the Lambeth Conference this July, and will attend as Christchurch's Bishop-elect.
Despite media speculation, Bishop Matthews is careful and moderate on controversial issues such as the blessing of same-sex relationships.
Indeed, she is known internationally for her theological orthodoxy and her resolve to maintain unity.
Last year, during the Canadian General Synod, she was reported as saying that same-sex blessings did not conflict with core doctrines of the Canadian church.
Her comment arose from a Canadian study called the St Michael Report, which identified core doctrines as those relating to the person and work of God.
"Speaking personally, I think a number of things stand in the way of blessing same-gender marriages or unions," Bishop Matthews says.
"First and very importantly, the church needs to decide whether same-gender marriage is a faithful development of the Christian doctrine of marriage. This work is well under way in Canada and, I hope, other provinces of the Anglican Communion.
"Secondly, our church needs to find a way forward whenever the cause of church unity meets the cry of personal and corporate conscience head-on.
Who and how will we decide? The Anglican Covenant Design Group is addressing this."
Bishop Matthews says it is essential, albeit difficult, for churches of the first world to be patient and to listen carefully to churches of the two-thirds world.
"We (in the first world) have been dominant and bossy and arrogant for far too long and the time is right for patience and humility.
"Secondly, by taking the time to do the theology thoroughly and well, we will ease the acceptance of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. To be impatient is to risk even further hate and violence against those we have ignored for too long."
Ends
ACNS - Anglican Communion News Service, London
Chch's controversial new bishop
Sunday, 16 March 2008
A controversial Canadian woman has been elected Christchurch's next Anglican bishop.
The Right Reverend Victoria Matthews, who is bishop-in-residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto, will become the eighth Bishop of Christchurch at a ceremony on August 30.
Bishop Matthews, a former bishop of Edmonton, Canada, has signalled support for blessing gay marriages, but is not expected to break with tradition.
She has twice been in the running to be Primate of the Anglican Church in Canada, the highest post in the country.
In 2004, Bishop Matthews chaired the Task Force on Alternate Episcopal Oversight which looked at the issue of same sex-marriage in Canada.
At the 2007 General Synod of the Canadian church Bishop Matthews voted in favour of a resolution stating "the blessing of same-sex unions is not in conflict with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church" but voted against permitting those blessings.
Christchurch MP Tim Barnett told The Press newspaper earlier this month he understood the appointment was "a very exciting choice".
Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia, Archbishop Brown Turei said he looked forward to welcoming Bishop Matthews into the church in New Zealand.
"I'm sure that, with all her experience, she will make a good contribution to our life and witness."
Bishop Matthews, 54 and unmarried, is only the second woman to become a diocesan bishop in New Zealand.
The first was the Rt Rev'd Dr Penny Jamieson, Bishop of Dunedin from 1989-2004.
Bishop Matthews chairs the Canadian Primate's Theological Commission, and has just been appointed to the Windsor Continuation Group, which will look at crucial questions about the shape of Anglican common life around the world.
In 2004 Bishop Matthews underwent major surgery for breast cancer.
She walked the 800km pilgrimage trail to Santiago De Compostela in northern Spain last year to celebrate a clean bill of health.
In her spare time she enjoys hiking and walking her Anatolian shepherd dog Jethro, swimming, and reading history and theology.
The present Bishop, the Rt Rev'd Dr David Coles, takes up the position of Vicar of Wakatipu in Queenstown on April 12.
- NZPA
Posted by latimer at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2008
Bishop ponders in his heart about some liturgical trends in America
... These highlight the fact that the divisions we are experiencing in the Anglican Communion are not simply to do with sexuality ... there really is the beginning of a new kind of religion in parts of The Episcopal Church - a religion which not only re-interprets the traditional central tenets of the Christian faith, but which in fact has the potential to jettison many of them altogether.
Bishop ponders in his heart about some liturgical trends in America
Friday 14 September 2007
The United Diocese of Down & Dromore
The following article by Bishop Harold Miller was published in The church of Ireland Gazette on Friday 7 September 2007:
Pondering in my heart: Reflections on personal experiences of ECUSA, six years ago.
I should probably have said all of this six years ago, when I had just returned from being in the United States on Sabbatical, but it all seemed very subjective. What I noticed then were several trends in the Episcopal Church in the USA which have probably become more pronounced over the intervening years. Some, if not all, of these first-hand but subjective observations bring into focus key issues which are at the heart of the new ways of understanding the faith in The Episcopal Church today. These highlight the fact that the divisions we are experiencing in the Anglican Communion are not simply to do with sexuality. I write about these because it is important to note that there really is the beginning of a new kind of religion in parts of The Episcopal Church - a religion which not only re-interprets the traditional central tenets of the Christian faith, but which in fact has the potential to jettison many of them altogether.
My first observation six years ago was the gradual replacement of the word ‘Lord’ in reference to Jesus Christ. There was a perceptible change as I travelled across from the east coast to the west, from the traditional: ‘The Lord be with you’ in the liturgy, to the revised version, ‘God be with you’, and eventually, on the west coast ‘God is in you….and also in you’! The reason for the change is relatively obvious: ‘Lord’ is not only male, it is also perceived as authoritarian. But there is a great seriousness about a simplistic removal of the word, which would eventually preclude rather than necessitating the basic early Christian declaration of faith ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’ – the very declaration which all will make when every knee bows and every tongue confesses him.
Secondly, and aligned to the last point, is the removal or weakening of the title ‘Father’ in relation to the first person of the Trinity. This has led to an uncomfortableness for some with the basic baptismal formula: ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ and to replacement ‘blessings’ such as ‘The blessing of God - Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer’ where God is described by function rather than in personal names. Last year at the General Convention a series of prayers were introduced for every situation from a child coming out of nappies to a person passing a driving test, and including, of course, a ‘coming out’ prayer. When I asked myself why it was necessary to provide liturgical prayers for such occasions, the answer immediately stared me in the face: All the prayers were devoid of the words, ‘Father’, ‘Son’ and ‘Lord’, and clearly were enabling people to pray in this new way! But the removal of ‘Father’ (a revealed name of God) would be a disastrous move, since it is the name by which Jesus taught us to address God in the Lord’s Prayer, and it is also central to the first tenet of the Apostles’ Creed: ‘I believe in God, the Father Almighty…’.
My third observation was an emerging new theology of baptism. This was clarified for me when I was taken with members of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation to a radical Episcopal church in San Francisco. When we entered into the liturgical space, I could see the table, which was unbounded by rails and clearly open to all. But I could not see the place of baptism. When I asked where it was, I was taken out the back, and told that it had been placed there so that baptism would not be a stumbling-block to newcomers. In other words, the idea goes, all people are welcome to the table no matter what their belief or lifestyle, as Jesus had table-fellowship with prostitutes and sinners. Baptism can be looked into later when there is time to think things through. This is, of course, a reversal of the biblical model, where baptism was the sacrament freely and always available for all who come to repentance and faith, and communion, the table fellowship of the baptized for which self-examination was necessary.
Aligned to that, I have also observed, and have seen particularly in the West Coast, an uncomfortableness with repentance and confession of sin. The theory, as I understand it goes something like this: The archetypal Eucharistic rite is focussed around the gathering, the word, the intercessions, the table and the going out. Confession is an optional extra. This was almost encouraged by the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation document on the eucharist, and by the pattern where the confession in the middle section was displaced when there was, for example a baptism, marriage, or an ordination. There has been a reclaiming of penitence in some of these rites recently, especially in the Church of England, by placing the penitential section at the beginning of the service. It is one thing to omit penitence in a church which has the expectation of personal auricular confession, but quite another to omit it in a church of the Reformation which enjoins General Confession. There is, in my view, behind this, a serious underplaying of personal sin and personal salvation.
The next element of the liturgy to be ‘downplayed’ was historic Creeds. Again, we are told that the Eucharistic prayer is creedal (a part-truth), or that Creeds are not a necessary part of worship (another part-truth), but the eventual reality which I observed was the omitting of the historic creeds altogether in the main Sunday liturgy. I was sensitized to expect something of this sort several years ago when I met a very radical Presbyterian minister from Albuquerque. I asked him did they have the historic creeds in the worship of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. His answer was this: ‘Yes. We have fourteen declarations of faith at the back of the book and they all interplay with each other’! There is a real reaction to and distancing from propositional statements of faith, even the historic ecumenical creeds - and in some cases from their central tenets and beliefs.
Sixth, and following on from the last point, there is an inclination to try to find ways of holding all faiths together as believing in a common god. This is seen, for example in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, where there is an interfaith labyrinth and an interfaith chapel, in which the symbols of all the major world faiths are displayed. This makes its way into the liturgy, where, when the Eucharistic bread is broken, I heard words similar to the following used: ‘We break this bread for our ancestors in the Jewish faith, our brothers and sisters in Islam, our friends who are Buddhists etc……’ – and this at a key Christocentic part of the liturgy.
And last, though in fact there are many other observations I could also make, there is, in my personal subjective view, a dawning realization that the heart of the central act of worship (the bread and wine of communion) is the doctrine of the atonement – a doctrine increasingly disliked in the new religion. I noticed an increasing emphasis on the eucharist as ‘community meal’, a reduced emphasis on the sacrificial death of Christ in some newer eucharistic prayers, and the preference in some places to distribute the elements with words such as ‘the bread’ and ‘the cup’ rather than ‘the body’ and ‘the blood’. Alongside this, the issue has been raised as to whether the Words of Institution (‘this is my body’… ‘this is my blood’) are required for a eucharistic prayer. Whatever disagreements on eucharistic doctrine there may have been between ‘catholics’ and ‘evangelicals’ in the past, there was always an agreement that the heart of the matter was the sacrificial, atoning death of Christ.
I write all this because we need to be aware that change is incremental. It is only noticed after a period of time. I do not say this to ‘damn’ the Episcopal Church. Indeed, my own diocese is in a very happy link relationship with a diocese of the Episcopal Church. But changes are happening, and changes which are not peripheral, but central to our identity as Anglicans and indeed as Christians. The issue which we face, as has so often been pointed out, is not essentially one of sexuality but one of authority and doctrine. In so many ways, parts of the Episcopal Church have been losing deep aspects of their identity. If God is not Father, Jesus is not Lord, the Son is not unique, baptism is not necessary, the creeds are optional, repentance and sin are dated concepts and the atonement is marginalized or even rejected, where do we go from here? The faith remaining will be a very different faith from the Christian faith once delivered to the saints – and I, for one, am not going there!
Harold Miller
August 2007
Posted by latimer at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Communiqué from GAFCON leadership meeting - 12 March 2008
We met in England as the leadership team of the Global Anglican Future Conference and Jerusalem Pilgrimage from March 10-12, 2008 and were encouraged by the support and enthusiasm of bishops, clergy and lay leaders around the Anglican Communion who have welcomed GAFCON and expressed their desire to attend.
Communiqué from GAFCON leadership meeting - 12 March 2008
Global South Anglican
We met in England as the leadership team of the Global Anglican Future Conference and Jerusalem Pilgrimage from March 10-12, 2008 and were encouraged by the support and enthusiasm of bishops, clergy and lay leaders around the Anglican Communion who have welcomed GAFCON and expressed their desire to attend.
We affirmed that the goals of GAFCON are to:
1. Provide an opportunity for fellowship to continue to experience and proclaim the transforming love of Christ.
2. Develop a renewed understanding of our identity as Anglican Christians within our current context.
3. Prepare for an Anglican future in which the Gospel is uncompromised and Christ-centered mission a top priority.
We received reports from our various task forces involved in logistics support and program development and are grateful for the remarkable progress already made. We are confident that our time together in the Holy Land will be one of great blessing for the wider Christian community, a positive witness of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and anticipation of our future as Anglican Christians.
Archbishop Peter J. Akinola
On behalf of the Leadership Team.
12th March, 2008
Posted by latimer at 11:57 AM | Comments (0)
Gay bishop declines official conference invitation
The gay bishop, Gene Robinson, whose consecration threatened to destabilise the Anglican church has declined an official invitation to a once-a-decade gathering of the world's bishops and accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of cutting him "out of the herd".
Gay bishop declines official conference invitation
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent
Wednesday March 12 2008
The gay bishop whose consecration threatened to destabilise the Anglican church has declined an official invitation to a once-a-decade gathering of the world's bishops and accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of cutting him "out of the herd".
Gene Robinson, of New Hampshire, said he would not be attending the Lambeth conference in a formal capacity because he felt he would be unable to play a meaningful or substantial role. Although he will still be present, he said the organisers had limited his participation so severely that their invitation constituted a "non-offer".
He told a spring gathering of the US Episcopal Church House of Bishops: "In my most difficult moments it feels as if, instead of leaving the 99 sheep in search of the one, my chief pastor and shepherd, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has cut me out of the herd."
Conservatives and liberals have accused Dr Rowan Williams of being indecisive on the issue of homosexuality and the church. He has also been under fire, from both sides, over the extent of Robinson's participation at Lambeth. Robinson acknowledged the predicament, saying he had "respect and sympathy" for Williams. He said that his attempt to attend Lambeth had started almost a year ago when the organisers rang him days before official invitations were sent out. Episcopal officials also pressed Chris Smith, chief of staff at Lambeth Palace, and Canon Kenneth Kearon, from the Communion office, to allow Robinson to take part in worship and study groups.
The London team rejected their proposals, however, responding with a counter-offer confining him to the Marketplace, a public area that will host fringe groups and commercial stalls, and one high profile event.
Posted by latimer at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)