31 December 2007: ABC posts message on YouTube
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has posted a New Year's message on YouTube. The Guardian calls it a 'green new year message' and notes that it 'criticised what he described as a culture of "vast material waste and emotional short-termism"'. At our press time (06:00 GMT Monday) we are unable to find the video on YouTube, and the Guardian does not have a link to it. The Independent filed the same report, also without a link to the video. It's not yet mentioned on the Anglican Communion News Service. But the trusty Episcopal News Service (USA) reported the story and provided a link to the 10-minute video. Yay for the ENS.

29 December 2007: Global Anglican Future conference
Thinking Anglicans reports on GAFCON and has gathered various responses and reactions to it.

29 December 2007: Power struggles continue in California's central valley
The Modesto Bee reports that the breakaway Bishop of San Joaquin has removed Father Fred Risard, vicar of St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Atwater, California, from his post. A seminary student who was present filed this report. Fr Terry Martin, who publishes a popular blog under the name 'Father Jake', has gathered this set of responses and opinions.

29 December 2007: Power struggles continue in Zimbabwe's central valley
The Herald (Harare, Zimbabwe) reports that the conflict got physical and police needed to be called when supporters of the two men who both claim to be Bishop of Harare started fighting with one another. Voice of America filed this report.

26 December 2007: ABY named 'Anglican of the Year' in England
The Times (London) reports that the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has been named 'Anglican of the Year' by readers of a conservative UK church-oriented newspaper.

22 December 2007: Immigrants changing worship in south Florida
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that formerly European traditions at a local Episcopal Church are now 'spiced with Caribbean and Latin American flavor'.

22 December 2007: Immigrants changing worship in North Hampton
The Press Association (UK) reports that for the first time since the Reformation, Roman Catholic churchgoers outnumber Anglican churchgoers in the United Kingdom. Since it would take a huge number of beheadings to repair this problem, and the very tradition of beheading for religious reasons has rather faded away, we suspect that it will stand. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is reported to be one of the new Roman Catholics, which, the BBC reports, is very pleasing to the Pope. My, how things have changed since the 16th century.

22 December 2007: Archbishop of Sydney addresses new issues in Christmas message
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that 'Sydney's Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen has used his annual Christmas message to address issues including climate change and child abuse in Indigenous communities.'

21 December 2007: Anglican priests take their bishop to court in Botswana
The Reporter (Gaborone, Botswana) reports that seven suspended priests have sought the intervention of the High Court after they could not reach a compromise deal with the church authorities. They have also asked the court for the suspension of their bishop.

21 December 2007: Sharp cut in UK funding available for theological study
The Church Times reports that 'The upturn in young ordinands coming forward for training in the Church of England could be checked, after a government move to redistribute £100 million to finance more first degrees.'

21 December 2007: US Episcopal Church publishes newspaper advertisement in California
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that the US Episcopal Church has taken out an advertisement (warning: 1MB PDF file) in two major newspapers in central and southern California.

20 December 2007: Authority in the US Episcopal Church
Thinking Anglicans has noted and annotated two important essays about authority in the US Episcopal Church. The recent violation of church law by the Bishop of San Joaquin brings such issues to the fore.

20 December 2007: Virginia breakaway group told not to ordain women
The Falls Church News-Press reports that the Virginia group that defected from the US Episcopal Church to join the Nigerian Communion has been instructed by its Nigerian superiors to avoid women as clergy.

19 December 2007: Plans announced for Anglican Council
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that 'A self-selecting group of clergy and lay people announced late on December 18 that they had "created the structure necessary for building a federation of orthodox Anglicans in North America."'

14 December 2007: Protocol for Those Desiring to Disaffiliate From The Episcopal Church
The Diocese of Central Florida has published an official protocol "for those desiring to disaffiliate".

15 December 2007: World press reports on ABC's Advent letter
The Episcopal Café has gathered press coverage of the Advent letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Thinking Anglicans has surveyed a larger group of responses. Although we fervently believe that this sort of information is not news, it does seem to be very popular gossip and we thus include it here.

14 December 2007: Christmas message to the Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion News Service has released the annual Christmas message from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the entire Anglican Communion.

14 December 2007: Advent letter from Archbishop of Canterbury
The Anglican Communion News Service has released the text of an Advent letter sent from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the various Primates of the Anglican Communion. There is a great deal of discussion in the World of Blogs about what these two letters are actually saying. You can find that discussion with any search engine. The New York Times summarized it thus, while The Guardian (London) made this interpretation though for some reason incomprehensible to us referred to Dr Williams as 'the Very Rev Rowan Williams'. (Perhaps the good Archbishop is the dean of some cathedral in Second Life?).

12 December 2007: Australian Primate condemns Israeli occupation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that 'The leader of Australia's Anglican church has spoken out against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.'

11 December 2007: Reconstituting the Diocese of San Joaquin
The Episcopal News Service (USA)reports on the process by which the Diocese of San Joaquin will reconstitute itself.

10 December 2007: ABC did not endorse Southern Cone invitation
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams 'had not endorsed an invitation by Southern Cone Primate Gregory Venables to offer oversight to dioceses outside that province'.

10 December 2007: New Anglican representative to Rome
The Anglican Communion News Service reports that 'The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the governors of the Anglican Centre in Rome are delighted to announce the appointment of the Very Revd David Richardson as the Archbishop’s Representative to the Holy See and Director of the Centre.'

10 December 2007: Archbishop cuts up his collar
The Times (London) reports that 'In one of the most dramatic political interventions by an Anglican cleric in modern times, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, cut up his clerical collar on TV yesterday and vowed not to put it back on until President Mugabe was thrown out of office.' Robert Mugabe is the president of Zimbabwe.

10 December 2007: New Zealand legislation will protect Anglican Church in the Solomon Islands
The New Zealand Herald reports that a church trust is getting legislation ushered through New Zealand's Parliament to ensure it never pays tax on its $212 million endowment, which funds almost all operations of the Church of Melanesia.

9 December 2007: Shootout in California farmland
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that 'Delegates attending the 48th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin on Saturday, December 8, overwhelmingly voted to leave the Episcopal Church and to align with the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone.' Most major world publications have reported this story, including the BBC, the New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, and Radio New Zealand. The President of the House of Deputies of the US Episcopal Church issued this statement. The local newspaper in Stockton (the former see city of the Diocese of San Joaquin) published this editorial. The members of the Diocese of San Joaquin are leaving the US Episcopal Church to become a diocese in the Iglesia Anglicana del Cono Sur de America, which currently has 7 dioceses and 22,500 members. The Diocese of San Joaquin has about 8800 members, but no one has yet taken a poll to find out how many will join the new province and how many will stay with the US Episcopal Church. The net result could be a 20% increase in the membership of the receiving province. The Living Church reports that the US Episcopal Church will move quickly to install a new bishop in place of the one who has left.

'San Joaquin' is pronounced in English as 'san wah-KEEN'.

2 December 2007: English bishop criticizes those who would boycott Lambeth
The Rt Revd John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, has criticized those who are threatening to withdraw from next year’s Lambeth Conference on issues of principle as “misguided and missing the point”, saying that the purpose of the ten yearly gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world has always been to discuss divisions and differences since it was begun by his predecessor, 140 years ago.

2 December 2007: Almost no Christians left in Iraq
CBS News (USA) reports that on a recent television programme, Canon Andrew White of Baghdad said that more than 90% of Iraq's Christians have fled the country or been murdered. Before the US invasion of Iraq that country is reported to have had a million Christians, but Muslim militants have almost succeeded in exterminating them.

2 December 2007: Secession 'sends churches into unknown territory'
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has printed an essay on the process and consequences of churches seceding from their denominations. We find it to be worth reading.

1 December 2007: Scholarship on secession
Thinking Anglicans has gathered two recent essays and various responses to them, on the current state of the Anglican Communion and its conflicts.

30 November 2007: Canada's primate strikes back at breakaway groups
The Star (Toronto) reports that 'In a statement to be read out in Anglican churches across the country on Sunday, Primate Fred Hiltz condemns the actions of breakaway members as "inappropriate, unwelcome and invalid" and "deplores" efforts by a South American archbishop to extend his influence into Canada.' An opinion piece in Canada's National Post said that Archbishop Hiltz is 'suffering from "functional amnesia" and is in "denial"'. That piece was probably based on this interview with Archbishop Gregory Venables.

30 November 2007: Some Welsh worried that their protection from women bishops will end
The Church Times (London) reports that 101 people in the Church in Wales have written a Letter to the Editor expressing their “concern and dismay” at the wording of the Bill to allow women to join the episcopate.

30 November 2007: Dethroned bishop in Zimbabwe caught in a forgery
The Church Times (London) reports that 'The disgraced former Bishop of Harare, the Rt Revd Nolbert Kunonga, reportedly resorted to forgery last week, in an attempt to block the appointment of Dr Sebastian Bakare as the diocese’s interim Bishop, and to blacken his name.' This report in Zim Daily, written for a Zimbabwean audience, is interesting. (Zim Daily is not an official government publication). In neighbouring Botswana, The Reporter (Gaborone) reports that 'A former Zimbabwean Anglican bishop is said to be wreaking havoc by spreading false information about the church as well as Bishop Trevor Mwamba of the Diocese of Botswana.'

29 November 2007: US Episcopal Church issues Interim report on 'State of the Church'
The Episcopal News Service reports that an interim report issued by the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church says the Episcopal Church needs "a plan for action" to address concerns related to its identity, mission and organization. The report itself is only in PDF format.

29 November 2007: Canada responds to draft Covenant
The Anglican Journal (Canada) reports that the Council of General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada has issued a response to the draft Anglican Communion Covenant. The report includes the text of the response.

29 November 2007: Lesbian and Gay Clergy Consultation in UK attracts attention
Thinking Anglicans has gathered reports on a service organized by the Lesbian and Gay Clergy Consultation at which the Archbishop of Canterbury preached.

28 November 2007: Church of Ireland responds by offering revised phrasing of draft Covenant
The Irish Angle reports that the Church of Ireland has responded to the Anglican Draft Covenant by producing its own draft covenant. In our attempts to research the ownership of Irish Angle we discovered that it is registered anonymously, and we have not succeeded in finding the name of any person or registered organization associated with it, so we suggest that you take its contents with a grain of sea salt. The official Church of Ireland website offers this document only as a PDF.

26 November 2007: Inclusive Church issues wrapup statement on 'Drenched in Grace'
Inclusive Church has issued a final wrapup press release and statement about its well-attended 'Drenched in Grace' conference.

25 November 2007: New Australian PM is member of Anglican parish in Brisbane
The Herald Sun (Australia) reports that Prime-Minister-elect Kevin Rudd regularly attends St John the Baptist Anglican Church in Bulimba in the Diocese of Brisbane. The parish's website has been overwhelmed by people having a look at it to see what Mr Rudd's parish is like. Sooner or later the crowds will die down and you'll be able to see it. We've seen the website, and to us it says that the parish spends its resources on mission and outreach and not on technology.

23 November 2007: ABC in the news
The British 'Muslim lifestyle' magazine Emel has published an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Sunday Times reported on that interview somewhat emotionally, but also published the full text of the interview so that you can read it and form your own conclusions about what he said.

23 November 2007: Church of England Catholic Group supports breakaway Bishop of Fort Worth
The Church Times (London) reports that the Catholic Group on the General Synod of the Church of England has initiated a letter of support for the Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt Revd Jack Iker. The Diocese of Fort Worth has published the full text of the letter they received.

22 November 207: Anglican Communion Office releases statement about primates' response to JSC
The US House of Bishops met in New Orleans in September and issued a statement, about which the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council released a statement. Recently the Archbishop of Canterbury asked all of the primates what they thought of the JSC's response, ahd the Anglican Communion Office has released an analysis of the replies.

21 November 2007: Inclusive Church conference 'Drenched in Grace'
Inclusive Church held their first national conference in Derbyshire, England. It opened with an address by Dr Jenny Plane Te Paa in which she 'condemned the "reach of enmity" among Anglicans' (press release here). Thinking Anglicans reported on the second and third days of the conference. The addresses at that conference (which you can find from the links above) are very much worth your time to listen.

18 November 2007: Tutu chides Anglican communion for its stance on gays
The BBC reports that South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticized the Anglican Church and its leadership for its attitudes towards homosexuality and was obsessed with gay priests. Albus Dumbledore was not available for comment. Agence France Presse (AFP) filed this report on the BBC's interview. A few days later, the Church Times filed this report on Bishop Tutu's speech.

17 November 2007: Canadian bishop jumps to Southern Cone
The Council of General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada issued this statement on the resignation of Bishop Donald Harvey, who plans to be received into the Province of the Southern Cone. The Anglican Journal (Canada) reported on this event. Bishop Harvey's hairstyle makes us wonder why he didn't leave for North Korea instead of South America.

17 November 2007: Fort Worth and San Joaquin members move towards Southern Cone
The Episcopal News Service reports on actions taken by leaders of the Diocese of Fort Worth and the Diocese of San Joaquin towards moving its people out of the US Episcopal Church.

16 November 2007: Three milestones for the Church of England
The Church Times reports that 'Three milestones were recorded in Church of England statistics, released on Tuesday. Average weekly giving rose above £5 a week in 2005; average Sunday attendance fell below one million in the same year; and more women than men were ordained in 2006.'

16 November 2007: High-tech protection for English church roofs
Many church and cathedral roofs in England are made of lead, and that lead is now so valuable that thieves are becoming much more aggressive about stealing it. The Church Times reports on a plan by a UK insurance company to put tracer chemicals on lead roofs so that if the thief tries to re-sell the lead, they can be caught.

16 November 2007: Church of England asked 'why not elect bishops?'
The Times (London) published an opinion piece by Andrew Linzey in which he proposes that the English elect their bishops instead of having them be appointed by the government.

13 November 2007: Online Q & A in the C of E
The Church of England issued a press release in which it described a process for answering what it called 'virtual questions'. The questions don't look at all virtual to us; they look entirely real. The Church of England released the information in Rich Text Format and by Royal Mail, which is ridiculous bordering on incompetent. Thinking Anglicans has converted the mess into a web-readable format, which you can find here.

10 November 2007: Melbourne approves women bishops
The Age (Melbourne) reports that at the Melbourne Synod this week, the last technical/procedural barrier to the election of a woman as bishop was removed by an 'overwhelming vote'. Another article in that newspaper notes that there are no vacancies into which a woman could be elected.

9 November 2007: Four English bishops support dissident Pittsburgh bishop
The Church Times reports that four bishops in the Church of England have issued a statement in support of the Bishop of Pittsburgh who is busily leading the members of his diocese out of the US Episcopal Church. Anyone who has been following church politics in the last year will be able to guess the names of all four of them.

9 November 2007: Australia proposes 'gap year' plan for retiring Anglicans
The Age (Melbourne) reports that local Anglicans will be encouraged to take a 'gap year' to serve the community as they move from work to retirement.

8 November 2007: Southern Cone province beckons to US diocese members
The Living Church reports that dioceses whose members wish to secede from the US Episcopal Church will be welcome in the Province of the Southern Cone. The Times (London) filed this report, the Church Times filed this report, and The Telegraph this one.

4 November 2007: US Episcopal Church said not divisible
Episcopal Café carries an interesting treatise on a 1959 PhD dissertation about the founding canons of the US Episcopal Church, whose conclusion is, very approximately, that it is indivisible.

4 November 2007: Obituary: the Revd Martin Israel
The Telegraph (London) ran this obituary of Martin Israel, priest, mystic, and spiritual guide.

4 November 2007: Nigerian primate explains why he might not attend Lambeth
The Nigerian Tribune (Abuja) reports on a recent interview with Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Abuja and Primate of the Church of Nigeria. A few days later, the Church of Nigeria issued this letter to other primates.

4 November 2007: St Barnabas to rebuild in ultramodern style
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that St Barnabas Broadway, a large Anglican church in Sydney that burned down in May 2006, is to be rebuilt 'as a modern structure with a wave-shaped roof and a towering luminous cross built into its southern face'. Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney is a former senior minister at St Barnabas, and Sydney's famous 'Eternity' graffitist was a member of that congregation.

3 November 2007: Pittsburgh diocesan members vote to leave the Episcopal Church
The New York Times reports that members of the Diocese of Pittsburgh voted in favour of separating from the national church. The Episcopal News Service (the official news arm of the aforementioned national church) published this report, which includes links to the letters exchanged by the Bishop of Pittsburgh and the Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church and to other supporting materials.

2 November 2007: Former Manicaland bishop to assume interim duties for neighbouring Harare diocese
The Church Times reports that Dr Sebastian Bakare, retired Bishop of Manicaland, is to be the acting Bishop of Harare for a year, until a new Bishop is elected. The previous bishop in Harare has quit the Anglican Church to form his own, which he will almost certainly call the Anglican Church. The Herald (Harare) reports that most diocesan clergy are following Kunonga into his new province.

2 November 2007: SPCK bookshops in Britain to be renamed by new owners
The Church Times reports that 'SPCK bookshops will no longer trade under the name SPCK: they have been retitled “Saint Stephen the Great”.' This is a bigger deal than it sounds, as you can learn by actually reading the report. The best coverage of this whole SPCK situation is by Dave Walker (of 'Cartoon Church' fame).

31 October 2007: ABC meets with Israel's Chief Rabbis
The Anglican Communion News Service reports that 'The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, ... held talks in Jerusalem with Israel's Chief Rabbis.' The Jerusalem Post was expressed unhappiness with some of what he said.

31 October 2007: US bishop inhibited by Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that the US Presiding Bishop inhibited Charles Bennison, Bishop of Pennsylvania, from all ordained ministry pending a judgment of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop.

30 October 2007: Canadian bishops write to their flock
The Anglican Church of Canada has published a letter to its members from its House of Bishops.

29 October 2007: South Carolina bishop-re-elect receives necessary consents
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that the Very Revd Mark Lawrence has received the consents needed for him to become the next bishop of South Carolina. He had been elected to that post previously but did not get enough consent votes before the time limit expired.

29 October 2007: Australia's Primate says he is happy with recent General Synod
The Anglican Church of Australia released a statement from its Primate, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall. That statement is not linkable on the Anglican Church of Australia's own website, but you can read a copy of it here at the Anglican Communion News Service.

28 October 2007: Response from Executive Council of US Episcopal Church to Draft Covenant
The Episcopal News Service (USA) has published the formal response to the Draft Covenant by the Executive Council of the US Episcopal Church. The Episcopal News Service has also published this report on that response. The Executive Council also released comments on the House of Bishops' statement.

27 October 2007: Australian support group for opponents of women bishops
The Age (Melbourne) reports that 'More than a quarter of the 247 delegates to the Anglican general synod in Canberra held a hastily organised late-night meeting and set up a group to represent opponents of women bishops.' We suspect that the headline writer didn't actually read the article before writing the headline, and we suspect that that's not unusual.

26 October 2007: Three US dioceses making progress towards a split
The Church Times reports on the progress being made by the US bishops of Fort Worth, Quincy, and San Joaquin towards leaving the US Episcopal Church and joining an overseas province. Though not mentioned, we presume that the US Episcopal Church has plans to find replacement bishops for those dioceses.

26 October 2007: Retired English deans question increased power for bishops
The Church Times reports that three former cathedral deans went on record (with a letter to the editor of The Times) in opposition to Church of England plans that would give more power to diocesan bishops. This report makes us remember with a smile a sign we saw in an office years ago while touring a cathedral: 'It might be your diocese, but it's my cathedral'.

25 October 2007: Australian bishop criticizes Cardinal Pell
The Australian reports that George Browning, Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn, said in a speech to the general synod that Cardinal Pell was out of touch with the rest of his church and out of touch with current environmental issues. The Sydney Morning Herald described the episode somewhat differently. The Age (Melbourne) seems to us to have the most even-handed report. A day later, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Bishop Browning challenged Cardinal Pell to a public debate.

23 October 2007: Australia to publish 'shame list' of clergy infidelity
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that clergy and church workers accused of cheating on their spouses are set to be included on Australia's first national church register of child and sex offences. The Age (Melbourne) reported it this way, and included an amusing cartoon by Cathy Wilcox.

23 October 2007: Epistle from Archbishop Rowan to the Floridians
There has been a great deal of gossip churning over an exchange of letters between the Bishop of Central Florida and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopal News Service's Jan Nunley has done a very good job of summarizing and reporting the whole episode; see here.

22 October 2007: South Africa archbishop condemns Anglican covenant as 'a mechanism for exclusion'
The Episcopal News Service published a report from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa that Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane has described a draft covenant designed to deal with disagreements within the Anglican Communion as 'a mechanism for exclusion.'

22 October 2007: Official statement from Central Africa about withdrawal by two of its bishops
The Anglican Communion News Service has released this statement from the Dean of the Province of Central Africa on the announced withdrawal by two rogue bishops (see mention on 19 October).

21 October 2007: Anglicanism said to be growing again
The Age (Melbourne) reports that Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, told its reporter that the Anglican Church is now growing again, after a generation of steep decline. A report in The Australian suggests that the medium of this message was a speech he delivered to Australia's General Synod.

21 October 2007: Bishop Mom
Ruth and Tanya Moxley point out in Anglican Church of Canada News that 'We are ... the only two people in Canada whose mom is a bishop in office. Our mom is Sue Moxley, as of today diocesan Bishop-elect of Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island. She was elected this morning in one ballot.'

20 October 2007: Montréal votes for same-sex blessings
The Diocese of Montréal reports that 'At its annual synod or general meeting, held 19 October 2007, the Anglican clergy and laity of the Diocese of Montreal voted in favour of a motion requesting "that the Bishop grant permission for clergy, whose conscience permits, to bless ... marriages between same-sex couples, ... and that the Bishop authorize an appropriate rite and make regulations for its use in supportive parishes."'

20 October 2007: Australian General Synod begins in Canberra
The Anglican Church of Australia began its triennial (every 3 years) General Synod today. The Age (Melbourne) used the headline 'Australian way could help heal Anglicans' global rift over gays' to describe the opening speech given by Primate Philip Aspinall.

19 October 2007: Big bureaucratic war in Central Africa
The Episcopal News Service (USA) reports that the dean of the Anglican Province of Central Africa has declared the dioceses of Harare and Manicaland (both in Zimbabwe) vacant after receiving letters from the bishops of those dioceses announcing their withdrawal from the province. The Church Times used the headline 'Harare Anglicans are urged to stand up to Kunonga' in writing about this issue.

19 October 2007: Melanesian Brothers' Great Conference begins in Solomon Islands
The Church of the Province of Melanesia reports that 'The 11th Great Conference of the Melanesian Brotherhood and Companions is currently underway at the Melanesian Brothers Headquarters at Tabalia on west Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands.'

18 October 2007: First revision of Japanese hymnal in half a century
Nippon Sei Ko Kai has announced the publication of a new hymnal, the first since 1959.

18 October 2007: Church of England parishes announce plan to bypass their own bishops
The BBC reports that 'A traditionalist Church of England group has said it is prepared to bring in bishops from overseas to ordain priests rejected by their own dioceses.'

16 October 2007: US Presiding Bishop speaks to her flock
The Episcopal News Service reports on a recent national webcast speech given by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, whose purpose was to provide information to US Episcopalians. The webcast, co-sponsored by Trinity Church Wall Street and Episcopal Life Media, is available for on-demand viewing here.

15 October 2007: Archbishop of Sydney explains why he is opposed to women bishops
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has published a transcript of its recent interview by Monica Attard with Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney.

13 October 2007: Ottawa votes for same-sex blessings
The Anglican Journal (Canada) reports that the synod of the Diocese of Ottawa has voted to ask its bishop to permit same-sex blessings under some circumstances. The CanWest news service filed this report on the vote and the Toronto Star had this to say.

12 October 2007: ABC tells UK PM that Middle East war would be 'murderous folly'
The Church Times reports that Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, announced that it would be “murderous folly" to attack Syria or Iran. He said the Western powers should instead concentrate on repairing the human damage their war in Iraq had caused.

12 October 2007: CAPA meeting resisted sexuality debates
The Church Times reports that the 'Mauritius meeting of CAPA rightly focused on the challenges facing the continent: poverty, war, injustice, debt, natural disaster' rather than on North American sex. The Episcopal News Service (USA) filed this report on both the CAPA Communiqué and the related CAAP meeting.

8 October 2007: Bishop of Rochester makes news by suggesting he might not attend Lambeth
The Telegraph (London) reports that 'The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said he would find it difficult to attend a Church council alongside those who consecrated or approved the appointment of Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop.'

5 October 2007: Stealth clergy in the UK?
The Church Times reports that a national programme to protect clergy from violent crime is recommending that they not identify themselves in public as clergy, and not have signs on their homes saying 'Vicarage' or 'Rectory'.

5 October 2007: World reactions to the Joint Standing Committee statement
All of the players in this drama have reacted just the way you would expect. Those who are opposed to the US Episcopal Church remain unhappy, and those who support it have not become unhappy. A diligent reader of the News Centre has sent us a report, which, after reflection, we decided to include here. If we receive permission, we'll lift the cloak of anonymity from it, but we know who the writer is. The Church Times notes 'Official support for US Bishops, while others doubt'.

4 October 2007: Wycliffe council member quits over 'bullying'
The Guardian (London) reports that the 'management of the Oxford theological college Wycliffe Hall received new criticism yesterday as one of its governing council resigned, citing management failures, a refusal to listen to staff complaints and bullying'. Religious Intelligence had this to say about the resignation.

4 October 2007 Back to basics?
Reuters reports that 'African Anglican archbishops ducked homosexuality, the issue dividing the worldwide Communion, on Thursday and instead drew attention to the poorest continent's problems.' One excerpt that caught our eye was 'This is Africa, and we would rather focus on those important things that affect us Africans.'

3 October 2007: US House of Bishops report officially accepted
The Episcopal News Service reports that 'A report from the Joint Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates of the Anglican Communion has found that the Episcopal Church has "clarified all outstanding questions" relating to its response to the requests of the Windsor Report, and questions on which the Primates sought clarifications by September 30.' This report is very thorough and contains links to all necessary background information; instead of us trying to write an explanation, we recommend that you read theirs. The official document from the Joint Standing Committee is in this PDF file.