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The Church of England faces serious issues: membership and attendance have continued to drop with no end in sight, theologically conservative bishops threaten a massive boycott of the upcoming 2020 Lambeth Conference, and the Brexit question continues to divide British society. Amidst this, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was interviewed before the attendees of Greenbelt, a liberal Christian conference and festival held annually since 1974. While the festival offers music and art, the conference elements focus upon the role of the church in modern society. During this interview the Archbishop fielded questions from presenters and from an audience. Welby was...

The Archbishop of Canterbury today welcomed a group of Shia theologians to Lambeth Palace at the culmination of three days of dialogue with Christian theologians, hosted by Harris Manchester College, Oxford and the British Council. Expressing his appreciation for this dialogue, Archbishop Justin Welby said: “At a time of increasing fear and division in the world, it is ever more important that people of faith, Christians and Muslims, come together to work towards the common good for the betterment of all. "As Anglicanism has its roots in the United Kingdom, and Shi’ism in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the...

Prior to April 27’s canonization-doubleheader, I taped a lengthy interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, discussing both John XXIII and John Paul II. The ABC was kind enough to send transcripts of the programs it did on these giants of modern Catholicism, so I was able to read what others had to say about the Church’s two newest saints. Much of it was interesting, but some comments verged on the bizarre. Dr. Lavinia Byrne (for those unfamiliar with the higher echelons of the British Catholic commentariat) is a former nun whose refusal to concede that the question of ordaining women...

A man reported to be a serving soldier is dead and two people have been shot in Woolwich, south east London, after what Sky sources understand is being treated as a terrorist attack. Downing Street has called a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee after the incident in John Wilson Street, which David Cameron described as "truly shocking". Sky sources understand that senior police officers believe the killing was likely to be a politically-motivated Islamist terrorist attack. Dozens of weapons - including a number of knives - and pools of blood could be seen on the ground, where a...

The year 2018 will mark the 50th, or Golden, anniversary of Humanae Vitae (HV), in which Paul VI restated what had been, until 1930, an unbroken and universal Christian teaching. Today, on HVÂ’s 44th anniversary, the Bellarmine Forum is launching The Campaign for Humanae Vitae. Our goal is to gather a million signatures on our petition conveying to the Holy Father and our bishops our prayerful gratitude, encouragement, and support for their efforts to preach and to defend this vital teaching of the Magisterium.Why now? Consider this: my colleague on the Notre Dame faculty, Professor Gary Gutting, has proclaimed in...

It is a reckless analyst who risks reopening sixteenth-century disputes between Roman Catholics and the Protestant Reformers. I do so in the interest of a greater good, but my purpose is not to say who was right or who was wrong. I would simply like to explore why the Protestant churches maintained unity with the Catholic Church on the contraception question for four centuries, only to abandon this unity during the first half of the twentieth century. I write as a historian, not an advocate. (I am a “cradle Lutheran.”) Orders & Disorders To understand the change in Protestant thought...

Until the Anglican Lambeth Conference of 1930 no Christian denomination had ever said that contraception could ever be objectively right. The Washington Post, in an editorial on March 22, 1931, said of the Federal Council of Churches' endorsement of Lambeth: “It is impossible to reconcile the doctrine of the divine institution of marriage with any modernistic plan for the mechanical regulation of or suppression of human life. The Church must either reject the plain teachings of the Bible or reject schemes for the ‘ scientific’ production of human souls. Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee’s report, if carried into...

Little Lost LambethBy Steven Kellmeyer Photography By Robert NeaseWhat do a 2000 year old Christian Tradition, the Anglican Lambeth Conference and English author Aldous Huxley have in common?... In 1930, the Anglican Church made a decision that proved tragic for the entire world. About the only two voices that realized the problem were, of course, the Catholic Church, and surprisingly, an agnostic. ...The agnostic was Aldous Huxley; his book, Brave New World, would constitute not only an incredibly prophetic description of the contracepting society, but also a deft parody of the Christian church which first legalized the idea. Prior to...

[London/Rome] A few days from the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Scotland and England, the "Number two" in the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Direcoter of the "Foreign Office" of the Moscow Patriarchate, will make his visit to Great Britain. On the 9th of September he will meet [has already met] in Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the Primate of the Anglican Communion. In a certain way "he makes straight the way of the Pope", as the Pope's meeting on the 17th of September is described by Vaticanist Sandro Magister in the Weekly...

“What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way…” (Philippians 1:18) Lambeth 2008 is finished. We have only the packing of our bags, some time to try to digest what is happening and then the flight back to Charleston on Tuesday. I am eager to return. This morning while saying Morning Prayer in my dorm room and having my meditation time before the final day’s session, I begin to write down a few impressions forming in my mind. Before the day was out I had read them before my Indaba Group and was later dragged reluctantly...

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MOST REVD. KALLISTOS WARE, ARCHBISHOP OF GREAT BRITAIN FOR THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MOST REVD. METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS WARE OF DIOKLEIA, TITULAR METROPOLITAN OF THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCATE IN GREAT BRITAIN. METROPOLITAN WARE IS ONE OF THE ECUMENICAL OBSERVERS AT THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE By Fr. George Westhaver GW - Bishop Kallistos, may I ask you how you understand the role of the ecumenical observers here at the Conference? KW - Well, most obviously it signifies that we are conscious that we are all members of one Body in Christ. There are visible divisions separating Christians,...

The simplest way of describing the cracks running down the middle of the 80m-strong Anglican family is to say that the traditionalists, reflecting the conservative social mores of Africa, are at odds with liberals from the rich world, especially over the issue of homosexuality. To explain the Africans’ conservatism, many point out that they are on the front line of a contest with Islam; and that missionary work in Africa was carried out by evangelicals who reflect a rather fundamentalist strain of British Christianity. All that is correct up to a point, and it explains why bishops from Kenya, Nigeria,...

It's not about gays. Episcopalians keep insisting it's not. But, as American Episcopal bishops return home from an international religious conference this week, it's clear that the "gay issue" is one that continues to split the Episcopal church. Since the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, Anglicans have been divided over their approach to gay priests, gay marriage and who holds ultimate authority in the communion of 77 million followers around the world. The once-a-decade Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, which ends today, showed no ability to suture those wounds. Although the conference was not...

<p>New York (AP) -- The spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans is urging an extended ban on consecrating another gay bishop until their troubled fellowship can be healed.</p> <p>Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams made the plea Sunday, the final day of the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade Anglican meeting in Canterbury, England.</p>

Bishops meeting in Canterbury say confidence is being damaged as the Anglican Communion is ridiculed as 'the Gay Church' The Anglican Communion is ridiculed as “the Gay Church” and is losing members over homosexuality, say bishops meeting in Canterbury. Mission is being damaged and confidence in the validity of the Anglican Communion is being hurt, they say. The bishops’ comments appear in a draft of the final Reflections document of the Lambeth Conference. About 670 bishops from 38 provinces worldwide have contributed to the document after meeting in African-style indaba, or discussion, groups during the 2½ week conference at Kent...

Homosexuality is a disordered behaviour that must be condemned, a Vatican official said yesterday.Walter Cardinal Kasper made the remarks during an address at the Lambeth conference, the once-a-decade gathering of the world's Anglican bishops in Canterbury.Kasper, who is president of the pontifical council for promoting christian unity, reminded delegates of the catechism of the Roman Catholic church on homosexuality: "This teaching is founded in the Old and New Testament and the fidelity to scripture and to Apostolic tradition is absolute."Quoting from a key document on Anglican and Catholic relations he said: "Homosexuality is a disordered behaviour. The activity must be...

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has challenged an American woman bishop to produce evidence to back up her claim that bishops beat their wives. Other bishops also criticised the US Episcopal Church's Bishop Catherine Roskam after she said at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury that men beat women "because they can". She said: "We have 700 men here. Do you think any of them beat their wives? Chances are they do. The most devout Christians beat their wives... many of our bishops come from places where it is culturally accepted to beat your wife." About 670 bishops, nearly...

CANTERBURY, England, JULY 28, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of Westminster says he is not skeptical about the ecumenical dialogue going on between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor affirmed this Friday when he addressed the Lambeth Conference -- the Anglican once-a-decade meeting under way through Aug. 4. The cardinal looked at the history of the dialogue between the two groups, focusing on the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission. He acknowledged that the initial progress made by that commission brought greater expectations than successive steps have elicited. "The initial hope had been that some concrete...

For several years reports have been floating around the Internet about an independent group – The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) – seeking full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Some within the Roman Catholic Church as well as other Anglican groups quickly dismissed the seriousness with which the Holy See would be viewing this. The TAC recently released a letter they received from Cardinal Levada of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the office responsible for such relationships. The communiqué made it very clear, without going into specific, that the request from the TAC is being seriously scrutinized....

CANTERBURY, England -- Gene Robinson's bodyguard didn't have to worry this time. The 40-year-old man who rushed over to Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the worldwide Anglican church, just wanted to shake his hand. "Thank you for bringing the church into the 21st century, for moving things forward," said Martin MacCiarrain, a government employee. The bodyguard, a retired policeman who trails the American bishop because of death threats, eased back. On Sunday during a sermon Robinson delivered in London, a long-haired man had suddenly leapt up screaming at the American bishop: "Repent! Repent!" Since Robinson, 61, was consecrated...