31 March 2013: ABC warns against trusting fallible leaders
The Guardian (London) reported on the first Easter sermon of the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he warned 'of the dangers of investing too much faith in frail and fallible human leaders, be they politicians or priests'. We prefer the more positive headline from the ACNS: "Jesus is 'always making us new'".

31 March 2013: Farm God's way, reduce food insecurity
Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) reported an agriculturist in the the Anglicn Church of Kenya (ACK) has encouraged farmers in Africa to adopt a biblically-based version of conservation agriculture known as "Farming God's Way", to successfully curb food insecurity on the continent. The system, originally developed in Zimbabwe, uses scientifically sound, no-till agricultural techniques combined with strong biblical teachings to 'radically transform farming practices and bring hope to farmers'.

27 March 2013: Pollesel election Uruguay ratified
The Anglican Journal (Canada) reported the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone has reconsidered the diocese of Uruguay's appeal and has voted to ratify the election of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel as co-adjutor bishop.

27 March 2013: St Cecilia as Dame Kiri
The Otago Daily Times (New Zealand) reported on Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's visit to St Paul's Cathedral in Dunedin to view her likeness in a recently commissioned stained-glass window. Accompanied by the Rt Revd Dr Kelvin Wright, Bishop of Dunedin, the pair viewed the four-panelled artwork in which they are each captured. Dame Kiri's face is portrayed as St Cecilia and the bishop is portrayed as St Paul.

26 March 2013: Zimbabwe update
News Day (Harare) reported a spokesman for the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) has said their inventory indicated that Kunonga had not returned numerous properties as instructed by the Supreme Court in its ruling last year.

26 March 2013: Nine crypts discovered in Coventry
When Coventry's bombed cathedral was replaced after the second world war, the shell of the old St Michael's church was preserved beside the new structure. The Mail Online reports that, while doing restoration work on the 14th century building, workers discovered nine crypts, some containing human bones, that had previously been unknown. Dr Jonathan Foyle, who is overseeing the work, told the BBC that it was like finding a subterranean wonderland.

23 March 2013: Maori Bible is given new life
Anglican Taonga (Province of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia) reported on the launch of the new edition of the Te Paipera Tapu (The Holy Bible in Maori).

23 March 2013: Archbishop chosen in New Zealand
Anglican Taonga (Aotearoa New Zealand) reports that 'New Zealand's Anglican community has chosen the Rt Rev Philip Richardson, Bishop of Taranaki, as its new Archbishop.'

21 March 2013: Archbishop enthorned at Canterbury
The Most Revd Justin Welby was enthroned today as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury. Massive press coverage worldwide includes the Church Times (London), The Hindu (Chennai), The Washington Post (USA), The Australian, Al Jazeera (Qatar), Prensa Latina (Havana), the China Post (Taiwan), Der Spiegel (Hamburg), and many more. We are intrigued at some of the newspapers that did not report on the enthronement, such as the South China Morning Post and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Here is the sermon preached by the new Archbishop at his enthronement (enthornment?).

18 March 2013: Nigerian tycoon donates €9 million to Anglican church
Forbes (New York) reports that 'Arthur Eze, a Nigerian oilman and politician, has reportedly donated $12 million (1.8 billion Nairas) to fund the construction of an Anglican church-affiliated Youth Development Center in Nigeria.' An editorial in The Nation (Lagos) explains that this donation had many critics in that country.

17 March 2013: News of new Pope dominates world media
Hundreds of religious leaders around the world stopped what they were doing to welcome Pope Francis. The Anglican Communion News Service published this roundup of Anglican welcomes and also wrote that 'The new Pope has reportedly said the Church universal needs Anglicans and that the Ordinariate is "quite unnecessary".' Meanwhile, the UK continues to grapple with the idea marriage of same-sex couples and the Church of England continues to grapple with the idea of women bishops.

14 March 2013: Election slates announced in Newcastle and New Jersey
The dioceses of Newcastle (Australia) and New Jersey (USA) have announced the slates for upcoming bishop elections.

10 March 2013: The day the ABC took a marketing call at gunpoint
The Telegraph (London) is publishing extracts of the upcoming new biography of Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury. The Telegraph's religion correspondent noted that this week's extract tells of the time that Mr Welby had been stopped at gunpoint by soldiers manning a roadblock when his mobile rang with a sales call from Warwick Glass offering to fit a new double-glazed window.

9 March 2013: Largest Anglican church in Winnipeg transformed into 'affordable housing'
The Winnipeg Free Press reports on the progress of converting St Matthew's Anglican Church into WestEnd Commons, which will include housing for 26 families but leave some worship space that will be shared by six congregations. Even North Americans tend not to know very much about Winnipeg; you can learn what it is from its Wikipedia page or its city website. Winnipeg is the see city of the Diocese of Rupert's Land, about which you also are likely not to know very much.

9 March 2013: New bishop for Southwestern Virginia
The Very Reverend Mark Bourlakas was elected on the third ballot.

8 March 2013: Bishop suspends dean for failure to comply with abuse safeguard procedures
The Diocese of Winchester has announced the withdrawal of the commission of the Dean of Jersey (which amounts to suspending him) for failure to comply with safeguarding procedures in dealing with complaints of abusive behaviour by a churchwarden. Should you wish to know the myriad details, this 51-page report (PDF) is quite comprehensive.

8 March 2013: More Muslims than Anglicans back C of E status quo
The Church Times (London) reporting on the results of a new poll, notes that more Muslims than Anglicans approve of the Church of England's current policies towards women. There are so many ways to spin these results that the mind reels, so we shan't even try.

8 March 2013: New ABC starts a blog
Thinking Anglicans' Peter Owen points out that the Archbishop of Canterbury has started a blog. This may end up being a bad idea; we shall have to wait and see.

6 March 2013: US Federal lawsuit seeks to recognize affiliated bishop for South Carolina
The US Episcopal News Service reports 'Lawsuit seeks to recognize vonRosenberg as bishop of South Carolina' and then goes on to explain the nature and purpose of that lawsuit. A lawsuit in the USA is normally introduced in a State court; Federal courts will accept lawsuits that affect national or interstate matters.

3 March 2013: Bishop of Hereford to retire
The Diocese of Hereford has announced the retirement of its bishop in September.

3 March 2013: New archbishop for Tanzania
The Anglican Communion News Service has announced the election of the Rt Revd Jacob Chimeledya, Bishop of Mpwapwa, as Archbishop of Tanzania.

2 March 2013: Voting results on unification of West Yorkshire dioceses
The Church of England has announced the results of votes taken in the 3 dioceses that are being considered for unification into a single diocese. Summary: 2 for, 1 against.

1 March 2013: New bishop for Blackburn
The Prime Minister of the UK has announced that the Queen has approved the nomination of the Ven Julian Henderson as the next Bishop of Blackburn.

1 March 2013: Archbishop of Canterbury confesses to nodding off in services
Justin Welby has recalled that once when he was leading evensong at Coventry Cathedral, he nodded off during the singing of the Magnificat, and fell over sideways, and when he was dean of Liverpool Cathedral, he collapsed into a fit of giggles after stumbling over an obscure passage in the Old Testament forbidding the eating of rock badgers. When he became bishop of Durham, he was presented with a crozier with the face of a rock badger, which resembles a prairie dog, carved into it as a reminder of the day he lost his composure. The Telegraph has a photograph of the archbishop with his crozier.

27 February 2013: Another legal victory against another breakaway bishop in Zimbabwe
The Anglican Communion News Service reports that the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has ruled in favour of the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa in a legal case involving the breakaway former bishop of the Diocese of Manicaland, Elson Jakazi. Nolbert Kunonga in Harare got all of the press coverage, presumably because he had access to government thugs to defend his seizure of church property, but Elson Jakazi did nearly the same thing in the Diocese of Manicaland.

24 February 2013: Priests' plagiarism sees exodus from church
The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) reported some 17 families have left the Anglican diocese after St John's Cathedral confirms claim that priests are still using sermons from the internet and preaching them as if they were their own.

22 February 2013: ABC plans provincial pilgrimage
The Church Times (UK) reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury is inviting 'as many people as possible' to join him on a pilgrimage around the province of Canterbury in the days leading up to his enthronement in Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March. The 'Journey in Prayer' begins in Norwich on 14 March. 'Those who join the Archbishop in prayer will be able to pray in ways that reflect the broad traditions of Anglican spirituality, and which welcome all ages.'

22 February 2013: Drone reveals further damage to Christchurch Cathedral
Anglican Taonga reported engineers sent a drone-mounted camera into the cathedral. New Zealand's TV3 Breakfast programme broadcast video footage of the interior of the stricken ChristChurch Cathedral shows further deterioration from exposure to the weather, continued aftershocks, and birds. The Episcopal News Service (ENS) has posted a feature (with video) on the construction progress of the transitional 'Cardboard Cathedral' which served as a backdrop to the ecumenical civic memorial service on the second anniversary of the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake in 2011.

21 February 2013: British Columbia bishop to retire
The Diocese of British Columbia (Canada) has posted a press release announcing the Rt Revd James Cowan has presented his resignation from the office of Bishop of British Columbia to the Metropolitan and House of Bishops of the Province of British Columbia and Yukon, effective August 31, 2013.

18 February 2013: Lambeth announces appointment of Director of Reconciliation
The first appointment made by the new ABC, the Most Revd and Rt Hon Justin Welby, is David Porter as Director of Reconciliation at Lambeth Palace. The official news release is here. David Porter's reflections on his appointment can be found on his blog, Shouting at the Devil.

14 February 2013: Medieval secrets revealed in Norwich
Members of the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey have been staggered by the number and quality of graffiti discovered in a recent survey in Norfolk Cathedral, depicting ships, animals, prayers and musical notes. The project director describes what they found on the Past Horizons archaeology website with photographs of some examples.

13 February 2013: Scottish bishop preaches unity in South Carolina
The Episcopal News Service (ENS) reports on the visit of the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, the Rt Revd Robert Gillies, to Grace Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Feb. 10 for its "Kirkin' o' the Tartan" services. It is well worth reading the bishop's official report to his diocese and College of Bishops on his trip. An excerpt: 'I have come away from a truly awesome experience in Charleston with appreciation for having met some truly remarkable people doing some remarkable things. I have also come away having encountered at first hand the awfulness of a modern day schism in the church. Nothing in what I saw and heard of in the decision taken by the Diocese of South Carolina to split from The Episcopal Church (of the USA) convinced me that the will of God was being heard or listened to.' The sermons referenced in the bishop's report can be found on the diocesan website here.

14 February 2013: Threatened hedgehogs could be at home in a churchyard
The Church of England posted a press release encouraging churches to participate in the Hedgehog Hibernation Survey as part of the Church's 'Shrinking Our Footprint' environmental campaign. The survey is being conducted by two charities: the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species. The survey may be found here.

7 February 2013: Remarkable Viking finds below York Minster
There had been a gap in York's known history, between the departure of the Romans in the fifth century and the arrival of the Normans in 1066. The York Press reports that recent finds have shed new light on the city's Viking-age history. Human bones were discovered, as well as a silver coin made for Archbishop Eanbald. The fine condition of the coin suggests that there was a mint very nearby.

10 February 2013: New bishop consecrated in Bathurst
The Western Advocate (New South Wales) reports on the installation of the Venerable Ian Palmer as the 10th Bishop of Bathurst.

9 February 2013: Budget woes for New Zealand's Cardboard Cathedral
The Brisbane Times (Australia) reports on Christchurch's feud over use of insurance money and how it is slowing the construction of the Cardboard Cathedral. We tried to make a donation via this web page, but its software didn't seem to know how to deal with donations from our continent made with the Safari browser.

4 February 2013: Justin Welby becomes ABC
The BBC reports that the legal process of making Justin Welby into the Archbishop of Canterbury was accomplished in a recent ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral. The program from that ceremony can be found here on the St Paul's website, and a two-minute BBC television clip about it is here on YouTube. Note that he will not be enthroned for another six weeks. But today you may refer to him as the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby.

4 February 2013: Ferran Glenfield elected Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh
The Church of Ireland announced the election of the Revd Ferran Glenfield, Rector of Hillsborough Parish (Down), as the new Bishop of the United Dioceses of Kilmore, Elphin, and Ardagh.

4 February 2013: Onward Christian Soldiers to be auctioned at Bonham's
Inspire Magazine reports that a manuscript of Onward Christian Soldiers, in its author's handwriting, will soon be auctioned by Bonhams. If you consider bidding on it, remember that auction houses such as Bonhams add huge additional charges beyond the actual cost of the item.

26 January 2013: Anglican Church of Malawi finally agrees to accept fertilizer from the government
The Nation (Blantyre, Malawi) reports that several weeks after its initial refusal to accept bags of fertilizer from government officials the Anglican Church in Malawi has 'swallowed its pride and received the State House fertiliser it rejected three weeks ago'.

25 January 2013: North Carolina elects Anne Hodges-Copple as bishop suffrgan
The US Episcopal News Service tells us the Diocese of North Carolina has elected the Revd Anne Hodges-Copple as bishop suffragan. She is currently rector of St Luke in Durham, North Carolina. A former bishop of that diocese returned to St Luke as Rector Emeritus when he retired as diocesan bishop, so there would be precedent for her returning someday.

24 January 2013: South Carolina court temporarily restrains use of diocesan names
The US Episcopal News Service reports that a South Carolina judge has issued a temporary order granting the breakaway group exclusive use of the names 'Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina' and 'The Diocese of South Carolina'. Further evidence that the US Episcopal Church's notion of referring to itself as 'TEC' is short-sighted and silly. The diocese of South Carolina that is actually part of the US Episcopal Church will have to call itself something else. If this were arbited in the same manner as similar feuds in Hollywood we can imagine the diocese that will be allowed to send delegates to the next General Convention calling itself 'The Real Diocese of South Carolina'. Clever use of the words 'in' and 'of' can usually solve this problem. The Church of England has a 'Diocese in Europe' but not a 'Diocese of Europe', and the Anglican Bishop whose office is in Jerusalem is the 'Bishop in Jerusalem' and not the 'Bishop of Jerusalem'. The non-leavers elected themselves a provisional bishop, whose title appears to be 'Bishop Provisional of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina'.

21 January 2013: Walk-out on election at St Augustine Episcopal Church
Members of St Augustine's Episcopal Church in Monrovia walked out of a parish election asserting that the election was conducted incorrectly by the priest-in-charge and violated the parish election rules of The Episcopal Church. The particular 'The Episcopal Church' involved here is The Episcopal Church of Liberia. The full story is in this article in The News.

20 January 2013: Southern Africa chooses female bishop
Margaret Vertue has been consecrated by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba as the new bishop of False Bay, at a service at the University of Stellenbosch. She is the second woman in the province to become a bishop, and the first in South Africa. She was ordained in 1992, one of the first two women ordained in South Africa, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Reported by the Independent Online (South Africa).

20 January 2013: Cathedral politics in New Zealand
The Press (New Zealand) reports on the latest skirmish in the ongoing feud in Christchurch about how best to replace the stone cathedral destroyed by an earthquake in 2011. One camp believes that the city needs a Victorian-style stone building; the other camp believes that the city needs a top-quality worship space. We are solid supporters of the Transitional Cathedral, better known as the Cardboard Cathedral.

20 January 2013: Church building politics in Australia
The Newcastle Herald (Australia) reports on the unsurprising reaction of some parishioners to the bishop's proposal to sell more than half of the church buildings in the city. After all, the essence of Christianity is to keep things the way they have always been, right? The diocesan staff have published this note about the decisionmaking process.

18 January 2013: Governance politics in Church of England
The BBC reports that the House of Laity of the general synod has defeated a motion of no confidence in its chairman. That chairman, Dr Philip Giddings, was instrumental in the defeat of the women bishops measure in the November synod meeting, which defeat has subjected the Church of England to worldwide ridicule. Most observers believe that while Dr Giddings might represent the majority opinion in the general synod's House of Laity, he does not represent the majority of the laity of the Church of England.

15 January 2013: Pennsylvania convention affirms bishop provisional
Episcopal News Service (ENS) reports the Diocese of Pennsylvania (US) held a special convention on 12 January and elected the Rt Revd Clifton Daniel as bishop provisional by unanimous consent.

15 January 2013: Massachusetts calls for election of coadjutor
The Diocese of Massachusetts (US) announced the Rt Revd Thomas Shaw has called for the election of a bishop coadjutor to succeed him upon retirement. The proposed date for the electing convention is April 2014.

15 January 2013: Episcopal priest to deliver benediction at Obama inauguration
The Huffington Post tells us the US that the Presidential Inaugural Committee has selected the Revd. Luis Leon, an Episcopal priest, to deliver the benediction at President Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony, replacing the Revd Louie Giglio, who bowed out after controversy erupted over an anti-gay sermon he gave in the mid-1990s.

10 January 2013: New archbishops in Nigeria
The Guardian (Lagos) reports on the latest elections in the Church of Nigeria. The new archbishops were to be presented on 12 January at the Cathedral of St Peter, Asaba, Delta State.

9 January 2013: Kunonga faces possible arrest over land scam
The Zimbabwean reported on the latest twists in the post-Kunonga Zimbabwe Anglican Church. The Rt Revd Dr Chad Nicholas Gandiya told the paper that, under Kunonga, in addition to church buildings being vandalised, some church properties were subdivided and 'unlawfully' sold as residential stands to unsuspecting persons. Also, interestingly enough, the Harare City Council has turned off the water at the Cathedral over a large unpaid water bill for charges accrued during the period when Kunonga was in control of the property.

6 January 2013: Going out with a bang in Hervey Bay
The Fraser Coast Chronicle (Queensland) reported on the farewell celebration for the Revd Robert Perry at his last services at St John's in Hervey Bay - unmarred by a truck which allegedly plowed through a sign, a fence and the front windows.

3 February 2013: Durban priest to be knighted
Canon Rod van Zuylen, a retired priest in Durban, will be knighted for his work with the poor. The Independent Online notes that the ceremony will be conducted in South Africa, since he cannot afford the plane ticket to England.

3 February 2013: Appointing Welby would be absurd, according to Welby
The Church Times (UK) reported on the Archbishop-elect's comments during an interview on the appointment process. He had been invited, along with other diocesan bishops, to write a statement outlining what he would do if he was appointed Archbishop. "And the final paragraph said: 'I've enjoyed writing this. I hope you've enjoyed reading it. But frankly it's a joke, because it is self-evident that it is perfectly absurd to consider appointing someone to Canterbury who's been a bishop for seven months. I shall be praying for you to make the right choice.'"

2 February 2013: Nicholas Dill elected Bishop of Bermuda
The Royal Gazette reports Nicholas Dill has been elected as Bishop of Bermuda. According to the parish of Pembroke website, Mr Dill practiced law in Bermuda for four years, before undertaking theological training at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. He was recently in the news when he joined with other clergy in the neighbourhood to reassure people after a fatal shooting there.

2 February 2013: Obit: The Revd Canon John Huston
The Seattle Times (US) published an obituary for the Revd Canon John Huston, considered 'the social conscience of St. Mark's Cathedral,' died Jan. 27 at 89.

1 February 2013: Cambridge debate features Dawkins vs Williams
The Independent (UK) reported on the Cambridge Union debating society match-up between Professor Richard Dawkins ('prominent atheist professor') and Dr Rowan Williams ('former Archbishop of Canterbury', aka 'Lord Williams'). Proposition: 'religion has no place in the 21st Century'. The audience of about 800 soundly rejected the proposition after the debate. The video of the debate can be found here.

27 January 2013: Village church recording of silence opens out.
The Mail (UK) reported the CD recording of silence from inside an 800 year old church has sold out. The 30-minute recording was originally created to help raise some extra funds for repairs to St Peter's Church in Seaford, East Sussex. Church members believed the atmosphere in their small 12th century church was so unique that its peacefulness would appeal to a wider audience.

5 January 2013: Church and State and fertilizer in Malawi
Malawi Today (Lilongwe) reports on a squabble between the President of Malawi and that country's Anglican Church over the President's desire to donate bags of fertilizer to the church. Malawi Today is not actually a newspaper, it is an aggregator of news stories from other Malawi publications. For some reason this story, published originally in Malawi's The Nation, did not make it onto that newspaper's website.

4 January 2013: Work resumes on cardboard cathedral in New Zealand
3 News (Christchurch, New Zealand) reports that construction work has resumed on the 'Transitional Cathedral' whose main structural elements are cardboard tubes. The stone cathedral, more than a century old, collapsed in an earthquake in 2010. The transitional cathedral is intended to be used until the stone cathedral can be rebuilt, which could take as long as a decade.

3 January 2013: Obituary: Retired archbishop Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye of Nigeria
The Sun and The Nation (both of Lagos) carry obituaries of retired archbishop Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye, former Primate of the Church of Nigeria. You should read at least one of them. The obituary in The Nation is longer and more personal; the obituary in The Sun seems to us to provide a clearer window into Nigerian thinking about him.

1 January 2013: Hyderabad Anglican church back in the pink
The Hindu (Chennai) reports on the successful restoration of the exterior of All Saints Church near Hyderabad, India.