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More than 1100 licensed priests in the Church of England have indicated that they are willing to conduct same-sex marriages if they become legal. The survey was conducted by the Campaign for Equal Marriage in the Church of England over the course of the last month. In a statement announcing the results, the chairman of the organisation, the Revd Nigel Pietroni, said: “It is clear from the feedback after Living in Love and Faith that the majority want the current situation to change.” The list of signatories is being kept private, but the names were cross-checked against clergy databases, and...

Anglican “Bishops”: To be Trans is to Enter a Sacred Journey of Becoming Whole Pope Francis meets Ms. Ozanne, a practicing lesbian and evangelical AnglicanThe former Anglican Archlayperson of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, recently stated the following:To be trans is to enter a sacred journey of becoming whole: precious, honoured and loved, by yourself, by others and by God[i]If ever there was ever a warning of how deeply a religious body can go mad when they reject the Tradition of the Church, the Anglicans are it. The differences in the so called Church of England and the true Church of...

The Anglican Church of Canada will run out of members by the year 2040 if its current rate of decline continues, according to a recently released report. The Rev. Canon Neil Elliot gave a presentation last Saturday at the ACC Council of General Synod on the statistics for the members of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The statistics were compiled last year and reflected membership numbers in 2017. It was the first report on church statistics since 2001. According to Elliot’s report, in 2017, the ACC had approximately 357,000 members, representing 1 percent of the overall national population. This was a...

Archbishop of Canterbury Hosts Muslim Gabfest as Peers Push Abortion on Northern Ireland Truant archbishop marks World Emoji Day as babies are slaughtered LONDON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The archbishop of Canterbury and his fellow bishops in the Church of England are being slammed for skipping the critical House of Lords vote that resulted in the imposition of abortion on Northern Ireland. None of the 26 bishops who serve as voting members of Parliament were present or voted during the debate on July 17 and 18

Church of England: If one spouse ‘transitions,’ we’ll recognize it as same-sex ‘marriage’ NGLAND, July 8, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Controversy has erupted over the Church of England announcing that it will recognize same-sex “marriages” in limited circumstances, specifically when one member of a natural marriage claims to have “transitioned” to the same sex as his spouse. On Friday, the church published answers to more than 100 questions ahead of its General Synod to decide the church’s position on various doctrinal and theological subjects, Christian Today reports.  “Given that the Church of England’s teaching about marriage is that it is a...

LGBT charities and campaigners have welcomed the Church of England’s new guidance for schools urging them to refrain from making pupils conform to gender stereotypes. The updated guidance for the church’s 4,700 schools, titled Valuing All God’s Children, and timed to coincide with anti-bullying week, followed advice issued three years ago that covered homophobic bullying. It has now been expanded to include transphobic and biphobic bullying. The guidance met with outrage in some quarters, drawing sceptical newspaper headlines and furious commentary from some conservatives. But the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the guidance was “big progress for a church...

The Church of Scotland is preparing to take a significant step towards same-sex marriage. The Kirk's General Assembly - gathering in Edinburgh - will be asked to approve more work on how such weddings could take place in church. Equal marriage remains a divisive issue within the church. Since 2014, Scotland has allowed same-sex couples to marry but individual church traditions can each decide whether to participate. A report on the issue prepared for the General Assembly invited the church to take stock of its history of discrimination against gay people and to apologise "individually and corporately". Moderator Designate the...

A new $5 million Anglican Centre is to be built in Spain in Santiago de Compostela, the end of the world-famous Catholic pilgrimage route the Way of St James. The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain, which is part of the Anglican Community under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is to begin fundraising with the help of Trinity Church, Wall Street in the United States. The new Anglican centre in Spain will have instant and enormous appeal to Christians from through the Anglican Communion worldwide. Santiago de Compostela is believed to be the burial site of the disciple James,...

A day after the Anglican Church of Canada narrowly voted not to authorize gay unions, questions about the integrity of the voting process emerged Tuesday, leading to a reversal of the result with the church approving the measure.More than 200 delegates attending the six-day General Synod 2016 narrowly rejected the resolution Monday night after hearing from more than 60 speakers, most of them in favor of gay marriage. However, on Tuesday — the last day of the triennial conference — some members stood up to say their ballot had not been recorded during voting late Monday, when the resolution failed...

For someone who is in love and recently married, a wedge of “very odd pain” is lodged in Mpho Tutu van Furth’s heart. It is caused by the South African Anglican church’s refusal to allow the daughter of one of the world’s best known Christian leaders to continue to work as a priest after she married the person with whom she has pledged to share the rest of her life: a woman. “It was hard for me to give up my [priest’s] licence, it felt incredibly sad,” Tutu van Furth – whose father, Desmond Tutu, won the Nobel peace prize...

After nearly 50 years of discourse between the Catholic and Anglican communions, the official dialogue body wants to fine-tune how it studies the differences and similarities between two churches which both call themselves Catholic. “ARCIC III hasn’t proved itself yet,” Sir David Moxon, Anglican co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, told The Catholic Register following an ecumenical evensong on Pentecost Sunday. This third stage of the dialogue has been meeting since 2011, but has yet to publish a major document. It is currently studying how the Church arrives at moral teaching. The official dialogue sponsored by the Vatican and...

A schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexual rights and women clerics would be a failure but not a disaster, the spiritual head of Anglicans said on Monday at the start of a high-stakes meeting between conservative and liberal primates. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will host the heads of the communion's 37 other provinces around the globe for a week of talks to try and work out if and how they can stick together after more than a decade of bitter disagreements. "Certainly I want reconciliation, but reconciliation doesn't always mean agreement. In fact, it very seldom does....

The Church of England is set to signal to members that speaking openly about their faith could do more harm than good when it comes to spreading Christianity. Stark new research findings being presented to members of the Church's ruling General Synod suggest that practicing Christians who talk to friends and colleagues about their beliefs are three times as likely to put them off God as to attract them. The study, commissioned privately by the Church of England and a coalition of other Christian groups, also found that four in ten British adults did not even think that Jesus was...

LONDON — Britain is no longer a Christian country and should stop acting as if it is, a top-level inquiry into the place of religion in society has concluded, provoking a backlash from politicians and the Church of England. A two-year commission, chaired by the former senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss and involving leading religious leaders of all faiths, calls for public life to be systematically de-Christianized. It says the decline of church-going and the rise of Islam and other beliefs mean a “new settlement” is needed for religion in the U.K., giving more official influence to non-religious voices and those...

The first woman bishop in the Church of England could be in the Gloucester diocese, a senior clergyman has said. The archdeacon of Cheltenham's comments came during an open meeting where some 70 people shared their views on what qualities the new bishop should have. The Venerable Robert Springett said he felt the likelihood was "really pretty high" as the diocese could now pick the best person regardless of gender. The Right Reverend Michael Perham, stepped back as bishop in August. He had been due to retire in November. He was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police investigating two allegations of...

Justin Welby admits he sometimes doubts the existence of God, but he is certain about Jesus. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last weekend gave a powerful statement about his recent doubts over the existence of God. Welby disclosed that recently, while he was jogging with his dog near his London home, he asked why God does not intervene to stop injustice in the world. Welby’s statement appeared in a personal interview he gave in front of hundreds of people at Bristol Cathedral last weekend, The Guardian reports. When the interviewer, BBC Bristol’s Lucy Tegg, asked Welby “Do you ever...

The Archbishop of Canterbury has written to the other Christian leaders, saying that he hopes ecumenical progress can continue after the decision of the Church of England ordain women as bishops. Dr. Justin Welby acknowledges that some “ecumenical partners may find this a further difficulty on the journey towards full communion.” But he observes that a shared Christian faith provides “much that unites us,” and argues that there is “so much troubling our world today that our common witness to the Gospel is of more importance than ever.” In his letter the Anglican primate explains the drive to approve the...

The Church of England is set to vote on whether women should be allowed to enter its top ranks as bishops. […] Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby told the BBC that he hopes the vote will go through, saying “the votes, I think, are there.” …

The Church of England (CofE) has called for an inquiry into assisted dying. It follows a U-turn by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, who said he would back legislation to allow the terminally ill in England and Wales get help to end their lives. The current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says the Assisted Dying Bill is "mistaken and dangerous". But the Church said an inquiry would include expert opinion and carefully assess the arguments. Speaking on behalf of the CofE, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, said a Royal Commission would allow the "important issue"...

Like many divorces, this one began with small tiffs that escalated. After years of arguing over theology and administrative control, disputes among Episcopalians boiled over in 2012 when the local bishop and a majority of parishes left the national church. The aftermath flows Tuesday into the courtroom of a circuit judge in St. George who will decide the future of more than $500 million in church property - although her ruling is likely to be appealed. As the much-anticipated trial begins, two men will be in court, each in Anglican bishop purple, each claiming to be the rightful leader of...