Austen Ivereigh

Anglican drama moves this week to the northern English campus of York University where the five-day Synod is deliberating on the traditionally divisive issue of women bishops There is no question that the Church of England will shortly have them the issue this week is whether traditionalist Angli

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has responded to the new traditionalist Anglican network set up by bishops meeting last week in Jerusalem at the so-called Global Anglican Future conference or GAFCON He urges the GAFCON bishops to stop and think about what they are doing A

So there we have it a new Bible-based evangelical network of Anglican Churches mostly in the developing South has been formed at a conference of 280 bishops in Jerusalem as a counter-weight within the Anglican Communion This is not a split or schism But it can be likened to a Reformation w

The British press has been reaching for sacred metaphors to describe Nelson Mandela whose 90th birthday was celebrated with a celebrity-festooned Hyde Park concert in London last Friday night The icon of freedom has acquired Christ-like status in our time On stage he was a beatific presenc

The news from Jerusalem where 280 orthodox Anglican bishops are meeting before the Lambeth Conference is something of a non-story There are no plans after all for a split or schism Given that the Global Anglican Future conference Gafcon started with just such a prospect on the horizon

Shortly before the opening of what is set to be for Anglicans a wearingly divisive Lambeth Conference comes the fuss over a gay wedding of two clergymen officiated by the rector of a well-known City of London church Martin Dudley rector of St Barts as St Bartholomew s is affection

From Britain comes a dilemma capable of exercising grey matter in an ethics classroom one faced by 13 Catholic adoption agencies many of which go back to the eighteenth century From January 2009 when a new Equality Act comes into force they must either close down sever their links with

In Britain we usually begrudge American superiority and prefer not to admit it But a grand exception has been made for Barack Obama Even right-wing media here have heaped praise on the Democratic nominee s oratory presence and power to uplift with his vision of hope and unity This week s e