Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Oddly Enough: US marine allegedly mistakes Orthodox priest for terrorist

A new category of blog post at Articles of Faith is birthed today. Oddly Enough shamelessly plagiarises the title of Reuters Oddly Enough news items which are my favourite reading on my Blackberry on the District Line home each night. However stressful the day has been, these weird and wonderful stories lighten it. Luckily there's no copyright in titles, and I expect many of the stories here will come from Reuters in any case. Not today's, though. We've the New York Times to thank for this gem, which AP ran first.

Atheist David Miliband to work closely with Pope for Arms Trade Treaty

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, on course perhaps to become Britain's first openly atheist  Prime Minister, has today, Armistice Day, published an article in the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano pledging to work with the Roman Catholic Church to secure an Arms Trade Treaty.

'My brother Archbishop? To Archbishop Rowan.'

Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols yesterday gave me this video interview about the new Apostolic Constitution setting out the norms for the Anglican Ordinariate which I blogged on yesterday.

Pope: Married Bishops in all but Name

Tremendous day. The Apostolic Constitution has been published. It is all that Catholic Anglicans hoped for and more.While it officially keeps the door closed on any relaxation of the norms on celibacy - former Catholic priests who became Anglicans, married or no, will not be permitted to join the new Ordinariates -  it is clear from Article 11 that former Anglican bishops can become Catholic bishops in all but name, even where they are married. They will officially retain the status of presbyter, but will be allowed to be the Ordinary or head of the Ordinariate, will be allowed to be a member of the local Bishops' Conference with the status of retired bishop and, significantly, will be allowed to ask permission from Rome to use the insignia of episcopal office. This leaves the path clear for Bishop of Fulham Father John Broadhurst, married father of four, to head the new Ordinariate in Britain. Heady stuff indeed - and I mean that theologically and metaphorically.

Muslim gunman shouts 'Allahu Akbar' before 13 shot dead

Reports coming out of America suggest that soldiers who witnessed Major Nidal Malik Hasan gun down fellow soldiers in his crazed rampage at Fort Hood heard the him shout 'Allahu Akbar!', Arabic for God is great, before opening fire.

David Cameron 'does God' in fuzzy, sort-of-Anglican way

We all suspected that when Alastair Campbell told journalists that Tony Blair did not 'do God', this was because of the uncomfortable truth that the then British Prime Minister did God rather too well for comfort. Best to ignore his faith altogether than have to face questions about praying with President Bush about going to war or deny reports of pending conversion to Rome that everyone knew would turn out to be true. Denialism is after all a heresy not listed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church - yet.

It is a relief for those of us who have to fish facts from this slippery net with our pens to discover that will be no need for any comparable Christian coyness from David Cameron's advisers. How reassuring to discover that  Cameron's version of doing God is so very Church of English.

This revelation comes in an interview with Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig, published today.

Chief Rabbi: fundamentalism heading our way 'with force of hurricane'

At Theos this week, the Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks of Aldgate, took on the neo-Darwinists in a typically challenging and amusing lecture with many points for debate and interest. The lecture is now available as a podcast at TimesOnline.

The final question, on which my story in the paper was based, was asked by the BBC's Christopher Landau. He has a knack for asking good questions. Long-time readers here will remember that it was Christopher Landau who asked the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams about the introduction of Sharia into Britain on BBC Radio 4's World at One, and we all know what happened then!

Scandal as US nun helps out at abortion clinic

A US nun is facing excommunication and possible dismissal from her Dominican order after an investigation by the order found she was indeed acting as a volunteer at a Chicago abortion clinic. LifeSiteNews has the latest, after breaking the original story. It comes as the US Catholic bishops launch a massive anti-abortion campaign in the light of health care reforms going through  Congress. Quite a few religious and non-religious have been asking recently why the Holy See has launched a groundbreaking investigation into US nuns. Maybe this story gives us one possible answer.

When care for the environment is a religion

It sounds like good news for religion and the environment. Tim Nicholson has won the right to sue his employers on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his environmentalism. The judge ruled that 'environmentalism’ has the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs. Nicholson claims he was sacked by property company Grainger for his strong views on climate change. So why are so many people, including the Christian Legal Centre, unhappy?

Mohammed the Movie without Mohammed

As IMD reports, a $150 million movie about the Prophet Mohammed is underway. But because some influential parts of Islam forbid figurative representation, especially of the Prophet, the movie will not actually show the Prophet. Behind the project is Barrie Osborne who made one of my favourite movies of all time, The Matrix.

The 'crossing' at Oxford Circus

Of course any religious symbolism that can be read into the new pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus is entirely coincidental but even so, in today's pc world - a world where I was gently chided the other day for using the phrase 'Brownie points' in a lecture - it is good that this has been allowed. Having been stuck for nearly 20 minutes at Oxford Circus the other day, squeezed between hordes of frantic shoppers, none of us able to move an inch, I pray obeisance to the wisdom that inspired Boris Johnson to let this through. Even if accidental, there is now a strangely Christian symbol at the very centre of  the capital of British consumerism.

Rowan's bishop friend condemns Pope 'bad manners'

A friend and former chaplain of the Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised the Pope's 'ecumenical bad manners' and accused him of fomenting division. In a debate on BBC Radio Wales to be broadcast tomorrow morning, on the All Things Considered programme, the Bishop of St Asaph Gregory Cameron challenges the Pope's move to welcome disaffected Anglican Catholics. It's 'not the way we do things,' he says, focusing in particular on the failure to consult with the leadership of the Anglican Communion. The transcript of some of Father Gregory's comments is below, along with the response of Mgr Andrew Faley of the Bishops' Conference.  Vatican Radio today has issued a clarification on some of the speculation around the delay of the written Apostolic Constitution with a statement that suggests a slight shift on the traditional Roman insistence celibate seminarians.

BNP 'irredeemably evil' says Carey

Lord Carey of Clifton in tomorrow's News of the World: 'What a pity that none of the other panelists challenged Griffin's deceitful attempt to align his despicable policies with Christianity. This squalid racist must not be allowed to hijack one of the world's great religions.

'All of us who believe in tolerance and decency must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in rejection of Griffin's notion that "Christianity" has any place in his bigotry. I tend to agree that the BBC was mistaken to give the BNP such prominence. To use Margaret Thatcher's phrase, it was the "oxygen of publicity" that propelled the insignificant and undeserving party into the Big Time. The BBC's Director General errs in arguing that in a democracy all views should be heard. The views of the BNP are not simply false, they are dangerous, indeed irredeemably evil.'

If I were Cormac I'd throw a sickie

The title of the former Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's lecture at Worth Abbey next week:

'ARCIC: Dead in the water or money in the bank?'

The blurb says: 'Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor will be coming to Worth Abbey, West Sussex on Thursday October 29th 2009 to give a lecture reflecting on his many years involvement in ecumenism and especially with regard to ARCIC, The Anglican - Roman Catholic International Commission. This Commission was appointed by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey in 1970 to study the issues that divide the two Churches. The Cardinal was for many years the Catholic Co-Chairman of ARCIC.'

What on earth is he going to say?

Papua New Guinea: 'We don't want to go to Rome!'

This picture shows the spouses of the bishops of Papua New Guinea in traditional dress at the 2008 Lambeth Conference. Their details are at the end of this post. There is increasing speculation that Papua New Guinea might go to Rome as an entire province into the new Anglican ordinariates unveiled by Rome this week. You can read the latest Times report here, Libby Purves' analysis and the tale of two priests who might go with their congregations. 

Pope challenges bankers to adopt Catholic ethics

The Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols today organised a private seminar for top City financiers and bankers. The Pope sent a personal message to the meeting, which I have also posted below, and seems a further sign of the growing confidence and vitality of Catholicism in Britain today.

Will Michael Nazir-Ali go to Rome?

A number of people have been asking whether Dr Michael Nazir-Ali might be among those who take the road to Rome under the arrangements announced yesterday. If married bishops are to be permitted, which admittedly seems unlikely, he could conceivably emerge as the ideal ordinary for Anglicans under the new Apostolic Constitution.

A former Catholic, he was received into the Anglican church into his country of birth, Pakistan, at the age of 20. He is married with two children and has just retired as Bishop of Rochester in order to work with the persecuted church.

He does not describe himself as Catholic or evangelical, but as 'orthodox'. He bridges both ends of the Church of England. He spoke at Gafcon in Jerusalem last year and this weekend will speak at the Forward in Faith conference in London.

Rome parks tanks on Rowan's lawn

Read our news story now online on the dramatic development today in Anglican-Roman Catholic relations. The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams discovered just two weeks ago that the Holy See was preparing to set up an Apostolic Constitution to provide Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans and former Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Thank you to the Acts of the Apostasy for this wonderful picture.

This podcast is of Archbishop Vincent Nichols talking at the press conference. 

This is the question and answer session on podcast.

Another RC diocese seeks bankruptcy as salvation from sex abuse claims

A sex abuse case against Delaware’s Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and a former priest will be delayed after the diocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection on the eve of trial, AP reports. The bankruptcy filing on Sunday delays a lawsuit that had been due to start today in Kent County Superior Court, the first of eight consecutive abuse trials scheduled in Delaware. In a separate development, the Catholic hierarchy, religious, priests and laity in Ireland are braced for the publication of a report on Friday into sex abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese. The Government report is the result of an investigation into how allegations of child sex abuse involving a sample of 46 priests were handled by State and church authorities between January 1975 and April 2004, when Cardinal Desmond Connell retired as Archbishop of Dublin. The present Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin, has repeatedly warned that the detail of this report 'will shock us all'.

'Popped in the oven with no hope of resurrection': It's your funeral, Vicar!

A vicar in Tunbridge Wells is disgusted with 'crumbling clerics', secularists and others taking funerals. Father Ed Tomlinson, of St Barnabas, a Forward in Faith parish, complains on his blog about the 'death of death'. He says that he hardly ever gets invited to the crematorium to take a funeral any more, and when he is he doesn't like what he finds: people being 'popped in the oven with no hope of resurrection'. See our news story in The Times today and Canon Michael Saward's commentary. The only request Michael turned down in nearly 500 funerals was for Siegfried's Funeral March.

Gays and flat-earthers: Jack Spong attacks Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury et al

Remember Episcopal Church bishop Jack Spong and his Twelve Theses? Did you think he'd gone away? Well he hasn't. He's coming here soon, to promote his new book. And as a little curtain-raiser he's launched a new 'creed and manifesto', the basic theme of which is: 'I will not listen.' Some extracts are below.

Crucified ape unveiled in London

Off to see this work of art by Paul Fryer about to open to public view at Holy Trinity Church, One Marylebone. Fryer's website warns before you enter it, 'Prepare for annihilation.'

Archbishop of Canterbury on a mission to save the planet

Our story today on Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' suggestion we cut down on imported vegetables and start growing our own to save the planet has become a talking point around the world. His  message, which takes in the 'sacred mystery' of the heating system at Lambeth Palace, was slightly at odds with that of the authors of SuperFreakonomics, who seem to be suggesting that, on the one hand, man-made climate change is a myth while proposing on the other to shoot gallons of coolant into the atmosphere to freeze us even colder than we already are. They also offer the rather depressing thought that anything we do as individuals will make such minimal impact it is hardly worth doing at all.

St Thérèse takes no prisoners

I wrote about the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux when they arrived in Portsmouth. This week they've been in Westminster, and Archbishop Vincent Nichols has recorded a video about them. Ann Treneman links the saint with the sinners over at the Westminster Parliament. And Sophie Deboick has written a fascinating analysis of the politics and motives behind the original cult of St Thérèse (HT Luke Coppen.) But in a barely noticed excursion, the thigh and foot bones of St Thérèse also called in at Wormwood Scrubs, from where Martha Linden of the Press Association filed the report, below, that is such a nice read it seemed worthy of inclusion here. At one point, the relics were censed so vigorously it set off the prison's smoke alarms.

Swine flu: complacency or inoculation

 

This rather wonderful picture from The Association of British Hujjaj shows Lord Ahmed of Rotherham being inoculated by a Dr Hussain, with government minister Lord Hunt looking on. I am tempted to run a caption competition. But the message is serious. Because of swine flu, they are urging Hajj pilgrims to take health precautions before leaving for Mecca. 

Archbishop of York: Prostitution 'morally reprehensible'

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is backing attempts to reintroduce the question of morality into the debate over prostitution, and to criminalise those who use prostitutes. Last week he tabled a question in Parliament about the measures the government is taking. In today's Sunday Times he writes:

'The Policing and Crime Bill is making its way through the House of Lords and it is important that everyone, regardless of political allegiance or background, unites to ensure the bill is passed so we can send a strong message that funding sex slavery, and the systematic abuse of women, is not acceptable in this country. That is why I feel the time is right to speak out.

'What seems to have been absent from the proceedings to date is an acknowledgment about how damaging prostitution can be. There has been much discussion of “civil liberties”, but little mention of how destructive sex for cash can be.'

Barack Obama wins Strictly Come Dancing

Ok, so he hasn't entered it yet, and the latest contest isn't even over, but that shouldn't stop him winning first prize. And it would neatly solve the race row currently engulfing the programme.

Yes I agree it is a ridiculous headline, but is it any more ridiculous than his winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which has left him as surprised as anyone? Jen Sorensen has uncovered the real reason he won the Nobel.

Robert Runcie's 1982 Falklands sermon in full

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has been receiving praise and criticism in roughly equal measure from Times readers for his sermon at St Paul's today. When writing it up, I was of course reminded of Robert Runcie's 1982 sermon at the Falklands thanksgiving service, also at St Paul's, which provoked Margaret Thatcher to wrathful fury because he dared to preach reconciliation and call for prayers for the relatives of the Argentine dead as well as our own. I was unable to find this sermon online anywhere, so am indebted to Anna James, assistant librarian at Lambeth Palace, who found a copy in an old book of sermons and, for the small fee of £1.75, photocopied it and sent it over. I now have the privilege of reproducing it online, below, for the first time ever, meaning that if you are interested, you can compare and contrast it with that preached by his successor at Lambeth today.

Archbishop of Canterbury condemns wickedness of army 'short cuts'.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned the 'short cuts' to justice being inflicted on Britain's armed missions abroad, in particular in Iraq. See our news story at Times Online. At today's remembrance service for Iraq at St Paul's in London, he implied that military failures born of attempting to present a good public face have behind them the 'invisible enemy'. In evangelical Christian parlance, this means the devil and his forces of evil, the infamous 'principalities and powers' of St Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Dr Williams' sermon was typically nuanced and his condemnation not direct. But he could not have found a sharper spiritual blade to wield before the eyes of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, both seated in the congregation before him.

David Cameron invokes Bible and Martin Luther King

David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference was full of Biblical allusion, according to Paul Woolley of the think tank Theos. His reasoning is below. Archbishop Cranmer considers it 'mildly theological'. The Rev Rob Marshall, one of his clergy in Kensington, has also analysed David Cameron's social theology for Articles of Faith. Conservative Home live blogged the speech, announcing: 'Compassionate conservatism is for real.'

Lessons in Faith part two: Gandhi and the other 9/11

A guest blog for Articles of Faith by Simon Cohen of Global Tolerance.

The world celebrated Mohandas Gandhi’s 140th birthday last week.

Among the special spectacles to mark the landmark day on 2 October, were the weird-but-wonderful mini Gandhi’s in Bhopal, India, and a special Google doodle in honour of The Great Soul.

Tony Blair, change-maker

'Each was made to feel an outsider. Each stood out against the conventional teaching of the time. Each believed in the universal appeal of God to humanity. Each was a change-maker.'

Who is Tony Blair talking about here?

Answer below.

Lessons in Faith Part One: Holocaust Education

One of the most profound impacts of my school days was made by the Holocaust education we were given. In retrospect, it was probably exceptional that we were taught this in the 1970s, at our cosy Midlands backwater grammar-turned-comprehensive with almost no ethnic minorities and a school population consisting largely of farmers' sons and their future wives. I wish I knew which teacher was responsible, to thank them. For several weeks, we were shown grainy black-and-white newsreel footage of the camps and scenes of their liberation. We were told why and how this had happened. As a vicar's daughter, familiar with the Good Friday liturgy and the language of the Gospels, the shock was profound, its effects long-lasting. The anger, shame and sense of communal responsibility has never left me. Today the Holocaust Educational Trust from which the picture above is borrowed tries to reach out to all children, teaching 'never again'. But exactly how effective is Holocaust education in schools today? Lauren Davidson, a 20-year-old student of theology at Cambridge and winner of the university’s ‘Perceval Maitland Laurence’ classics essay competition, writes the first of three guest blogs for Articles of Faith, with the overall theme of addressing particular issues of faith in our global village today. Watch out for parts two and three, tomorrow and Friday.

Raise a glass to the Beaker Folk

The Beaker Folk, as Wikipedia tells us, were Neolithic to Bronze Age humans named after the pottery mugs they drank from. They were thought to be extinct, although relics of their druidic superstition survives at places such as Stonehenge. However, they appear to have resurfaced in a small village in Bedfordshire, Husborne Crawley.

Thousands left stranded after televangelist Benny Hinn unable to enter Britain

This video shows US televangelist Benny Hinn doing his 'let the bodies hit the floor' routine. There are regular reports of miraculous healings from his missions around the world, including Britain. Benny Hinn was meant to be evangelising the UK as I write, with three days booked from last night until 3 October at Excel in London's Docklands. But his attempt to enter the country at Stansted Airport was unsuccessful. According to sources he took his private jet to Paris and then tried a second time, at Luton Airport. That attempt failed too, and tonight, Friday, he is on his way back to France.

Towards a Pauline education that is free

This afternoon I am attending the John Colet Day service at St Paul's. It is a special service, marking the 500th anniversary of the foundation of St Paul's School for Boys, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is preaching. Yesterday, the Bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, came into our Wapping headquarters to address the News International Christian Fellowship. When I told him that Dr Martin Stephen had 24 hours earlier criticised faith schools as divisive, founded on fear and as failing to teach respect for other faiths, Bishop Chartres, who incidentally inhabits Colet's lovely Old Deanery at the cathedral, condemned these comments as 'astonishing' and 'dangerous'. Read our news story here.

(Pictures by Chris Harris of The Times and Hans Holbein.)

Pope visit could be marred by sex abuse row

Tomorrow the Holy See will name Bishop Bernard Longley as the new Archbishop of Birmingham. One of the favourites for Westminster, and already an auxiliary there, he will bring true class, wit and style to what will be a key appointment with the Newman beatification and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI pending next year. But he will need also to be a canny operator. Because the issues around sex abuse by priests and male and female religious, of adults and teenagers as well as children, have not gone away. If anything, the signs are that they are about to return with more force than before. For more background on this issue, see Catholica.

Make the Pope pay for Christmas

The Times broke the story that the Pope has accepted the invitation to come here next year on a state visit. News just in from Paddy Power is that the Irish bookmakers are offering odds of 3-1 on the Pope staying in Britain for three to four days, and 6-4 on the visit taking place in September. The odds are 1-10 on David Cameron being PM, and 5-1 on Gordon Brown. Not good news for Gordon then, as a commenter states below.

Pope to visit Britain next year

The Times disclosed back in February that a Papal visit was under serious consideration for next year and repeated this only last week in our story about Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols urging daily prayer to stay healthy. Now it's official. As Francis Elliott and I report this evening, he'll come next September, and what a fantastic Papal party it's going to be.

New primate warns of Muslim 'mass production' in Africa

The new primate of Nigeria Archbishop Nicholas Okoh has warned that Muslims are mass-producing children to take over Africa and are set on domination of the continent. 

Editor of The Times meets Richard Dawkins

This video shows James Harding, editor of The Times, in conversation with the atheist Richard Dawkins at the Institute of Education. Mark Henderson has blogged it at Science Central. 

A Times journalist writes: The transformative power of St Thérèse

 

Yesterday I went to Porsmouth to have an early look at the relics of Thérèse of Lisieux at the start of their tour around Britain to 28 churches and other venues, mainly Catholic but also including York Minster.

Archbishop of Canterbury on Sin and the City

Repent, or be doomed, is the Jeremiah-style message of the Archbishop of Canterbury over our financial excesses. I can think of no person better suited to deliver it.

See the news story at Times Online. We were 'intimidated by expertise', Dr Rowan Williams said when asked by Jeremy Paxman why the Church of England had not spoken out earlier on how finance appeared to be operating, and what it seemed to be generating in terms of wealth rather than community.

Watch the full interview here.

Tony Blair: diversity's saviour

Last night Tony Blair was speaking at the GG2 diversity awards, known as the 'ethnic Oscars'.  Read our news story at Times Online here. It was profoundly moving to see how grateful to him the people at the awards dinner were. Time and again, we heard how life for minorities had been transformed in Britain over the last 15 years.

St Francis poster banned for religious content

St Francis is a saint normally associated with peaceful, eremetic living and an overwhelming empathy for the animal kingdom. He is invoked in matters to do with stewardship, climate change and all things green. But an innocuous St Francis weekend organised by a London Catholic church has turned into an interfaith battle over what is and is not deemed to be politically correct.

To eat or not to eat during Ramadan

Ramadan can be a time of great spiritual renewal for Muslims. Non-Muslims can also have a 'taste' of fasting if they follow the recommendation of London mayor Boris Johnson, as I did last Friday, for this report. But pity the poor souls in Egypt, arrested last week for allegedly eating, drinking or smoking. In London last Friday it was pretty warm and whereas not eating was fine, not drinking for a whole day was pretty grim. Imagine what it must be like in Egypt where temperatures at this time of year top 40. 

Archbishop of Canterbury laments loss of Christian knowledge

The Archbishop of Canterbury has blamed education and pluralism for Britain's loss of Christian culture. He said the Church does still have its foot in the door but the foot is being 'squashed very painfully'. Writers in the past such as PG Wodehouse could assume knowledge in the reader of the Bible and Hymns Ancient & Modern. No longer. 'It's all gone, gone because of shifting patterns of education not just religious education, it's gone because of a much more anxious awareness of a plural society and not wanting to privilege one religious tradition over another. What to do about it? I'm not sure I have a quick answer. The good side of it is that if not everybody knows it the story isn't necessarily boringly familiar.'

Only the Gospel is true, says Archbishop Nichols

Only the Gospel can bring a person to fulfilment, said Archbishop Vincent Nichols in London this evening.

Speaking at the reincarnation of the Pontifical Mission Society as Missio, he said: 'Only in the Gospel is the full truth of our humanity told; only in the Gospel, which is Christ, does our humanity come to its true source and fulfilment, the mystery of God and God’s unequivocal love.'

Has anyone told Tony Blair, his predecessor's most famous convert, I wonder, who earlier this week said people of faith should respect those of other faiths as their 'equal'. Like Archbishop Cranmer, I am tempted sometimes wonder precisely why Tony Blair left the Church of England when it seems to accord so much better with his beliefs. Church Mouse has also done a 'wordle' on it - read his conclusions for yourself.

Malay Muslims in cow's head protest face trial

This video shows a group of Muslim protesters threatening bloodshed and parading a severed cow's head through the streets unless the state government of Malaysia stops the construction of a Hindu Temple.

Archbishop of York launches new youth trust

The Archbishop of York is in fighting form, going onward like the proverbial good Christian soldier as this photograph of him illustrates. He blessed and dedicated a stained glass window at St Wilfred’s Garrison Church before heading to a garden party in the reconnaissance tank. His latest project is the launch of his new Archbishop of York Youth Trust.