Concerning our mourning of the passing of Pope John Paul II, I've been stuck by the response of the media and of many members of the public. The figure of a Universal Primate comes to mind, but in the ARCIC documents, what was envisioned was very different from the present papacy.

Below are links to two perceptive articles by Clifford Longley in The Guardian (2 April 2005) and in The Independent (4 April 2005).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1450710,00.html#article_continue

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=626121

There is now an official version of the controversial comments of Archbishop Andrew Hutchinson, the Canadian Primate, on 16 March 2005 at St James Cathedral, Toronto.

http://www.toronto.anglican.ca/index.asp?navid=78&fid3=368&layid=18&fid2=-888

Below is an extract:

'At the last Canadian General Synod, the Primates Theological Commission was asked to determine whether same-sex blessings are a pastoral or doctrinal issue. In response to a question, the Primate said that if the issue is pastoral, there will be no delay in moving forward with the blessings. Justice must be done in our time, in our place, in our way, he said to loud applause. Freedom to act in conscience is what autonomy is about.'

So much for the 'autonomy-in-communion' of the Windsor Report!

In our London Maundy Thursday service this morning at St Paul's Cathedral, I was struck by Bishop Richard Chartres' comment concerning current secular prophets:

'In [God] we know that the deadliest heresy of our time proclaimed by the prophets of darkness is this I do not need you to be myself.

For the whole text see:

http://www.london.anglican.org/NewsShow_4429

Thanks, Paul. Yes, I think it may well be good for such issues as representation to be discussed at our Fulcrum conference in Islington on 29 April. How the Holy Spirit incites insights on current issues is important. There will be group discussions and plenary panels.

The letter to The Times, coming so soon after the Primates' Meeting, may have been ill timed, as indicated by recent precipitously provocative developments in the Anglican Church of Canada. However, the knee jerk reaction in some Chelmsford parishes seems to me to be unnecessary. The Windsor Report and the Primates Communique have given support to those who oppose the consecration of bishops living in sexual relationships outside of marriage: this is the 'established' central position. I hope very much that some evangelicals will not spoil this momentum by sniping from the sidelines.

There is also a fine new Church Times article by Pat Ashworth on the CT web page below, which describes the press conference and reaction.

http://churchtimes.co.uk/80256FA1003E05C1/httpPublicPages/349632E9319CD24F80256FB3007E5AC2?opendocument

There are photos of the final eucharist (yes there was one) etc of the Primates' Meeting  on

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/50/acns3950.cfm

There is an updated editorial from the Church Times on

http://churchtimes.co.uk/80256fa1003e05c1/httppublicpages/7c52b52e14f745cf80256fb2003d7fb9?opendocument

Any comments?  Graham Kings

There was a fascinating article on John Stott and evangelicalism recently in The New York Times, which contrasted Stott with Jerry Falwell: 'Who is John Stott' by David Brooks, Nov 30th 2004. Unfortunately, you have to fill in some details before getting the free access to the online version: if you don't mind that, it is worth it.

www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/opinion/30brooks.html

For fulcrumesque thoughtful apologetics, and encouragement after the media hype linking evangelicalism and anti-evolutionists, see

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/more_reviews.asp?ref=140512539X&site=1

for reviews of Alister McGrath's recent Blackwell's book 'Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes and the Meaning of Life'

Let's start a new discussion topic... The Rochester Report on women bishops is due to be published on Tuesday. See the following two links for comments by Carrie Pemberton v Forward in Faith and David Stancliffe v Forward in Faith.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1340342,00.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1337004,00.html

Marilyn McCord Adams, Regius Prof of Divinity at Oxford, in an article in the Church Times today, assumes that the Anglican Communion is already a loose federation: 'we should stick with the loose federation that has enabled us to work together...' She attacks the Windsor report strongly: 'So far from a way forward, this proposal is pernicious.'

With Jack Spong in The Times, some hard line liberals can see that the Windsor Report has teeth - and others, after a first response spin of 'we can live with this', are also beginning to see the point.

Peter Jensen, also in the Church Times today, wants to move to looser ties and asks 'why not accept that we are a federation of autonomous Churches?'

Federation to extreme right and left: renewing the evangelical centre means  holding to Communion...

http://www.eclecticsconference.org.uk/

http://www.pwm-web.org.uk/features/latest.shtml