Outlook for giving to churches and Christian charities

A survey by Barclays Wealth shows that philanthropy is not suffering greatly in the recession, but that the outlook for churches and Christian charities is not so good.

The survey involved a poll of 500 high net worth investors in the UK and US. It showed that 75% of respondents have not reduced their charitable giving, whilst 26% have increased it in the past 18 months. When broken down for the UK, this trend is even more marked, with 30% having increased giving in the past 18 months.

However, the eagle eyes of FaithWorld spotted a comment buried further in the full version saying, "The future is less certain for the traditional recipients of charitable donations, such as the arts and religious organisations. On balance, high net worth donors stated that these causes had become less important to them over the past ten years, and that this trend would accelerate over the next decade if the causes in question failed to engage in a meaningful way with the next generation of givers.”

When asked which causes will become more important in the next ten years, the respondents put religion bottom of the list at -16%. The cause of this, according to the report, is that religious charities are becoming 'less relevant'. In a world increasingly dominated by religious tensions, this does seem odd. Mouse suspects this actually means that religion is becoming less relevant to those specific respondents personally, as it is certainly becoming more important on a global level.

This also ties in with anecdotal evidence Mouse has heard, of significant reductions in giving for a number of large Christian charities. This report is an important warning. The question is what to do about it.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week:

1. Tim Montgomerie is shocked to have no mention of God or Jesus on a tour of Salisbury Cathedral

2. Ruth Gledhill compares Christian and Atheist summer camps

3. Catherine Beyer asks if John Travolta is losing his faith in Scientology

4. Tom Wright provides the most thoughtful analysis of Rowan Williams' reflections on TEC General Convention so far

5. Bishop Nick Baines with a fascinating recollection of his last trip to Zimbabwe

6. 2 church mice on how not to go to church

7. Damian Thompson calls for the men in white coats for whoever thought Balckburn Cathedral should offer a choice of wafer consecrated by either a man or a woman

8. David Keen on the wedding project

9. FaithWorld on philanthropy

10. Tikhtak reckons you should be allowed to deface the bible (and may have a point)

Update on the Atheist Summer Camp

Mark Meynell over on his Quarentia blog has an update on the atheist summer camp. It seems the 24 poor kids who's parents have insisted they go on this camp are having a great time camping canoeing and learning about critical philosophical thinking.

Mark draws attention to this activity at the camp:

"search for two invisible unicorns. The unicorns cannot be seen or heard, tasted, smelt or touched, they cannot escape from the camp and they eat nothing. The only proof of their existence is contained in an ancient book handed down over “countless generations”. A prize – a £10 note signed by Professor Richard Dawkins – is offered to any child who can disprove the existence of the unicorns."

The implication is that the invisible unicorn is clearly absurd, yet has as much evidence going for it as religion. Its this approach that has the new breed of atheists - they think anyone who believes in God is a total idiot. Surely the only idiots here are the people who think their kids want to go on a summer camp to learn critical thinking skills.

Cathedral offers choice of bread consecrated by male or female clergy

Sometimes all you can say is "Aaaaaaaaaaarrrggggghhhh".

Blackburn Cathedral is offering worshippers a choice of wafer with their communion wine. One wafer has been consecrated by Dr Sue Penfold, and another consecrated by on of the Cathedral's male clergy.

Canon Andrew Hindley from the cathedral said, "It was agreed by all the clergy and cathedral chapter that this was the best way to handle what we call a mixed economy".

What a ridiculous situation. Mouse uses the word ridiculous in the true sense of 'inviting ridicule'. Mouse's view is that if you don't want to accept a communion wafer consecrated by a woman, don't go to a cathedral with women clergy. For the cathedral to try to attract such people is utter madness. Whether this is born out of some confused political correctness or simple desperation in search of more worshipers. Whatever the reason it is grossly misguided.

More anti-Christian madness in public services

Mouse has pretty much stopped reporting on individual cases of anti-Christian insanities in public services (too frequent now), but this one was so outrageous that he thought it merited special mention.

A Sunday School teacher went to her local library and asked if she could put up a poster inviting children of any faith to a craft, singing and drama day at her church. Staff at the Jubilee Library in Brighton refused to allow the poster on the basis that it promotes religion.

What's really offensive is that the library is selling 'The Messiah Mints' which feature a picture of Jesus and the slogan "Here's that Jesus fella again - and this time he's spreading minty freshness into the mouths of the masses."

So inviting people of any faith to a fun day out is not allowed because it happens to be in a church, but ridiculing Jesus Christ is fine.

"Brighton and Hove Council said: “In the interests of fairness, we have very clear and strict guidelines for displaying information in the library and we do not accept any material promoting a particular religious view point.

“No material that has any political, philosophical or religious view point is displayed.”

“With regards to the mints, these are one of a series of tinned mints sold in the shop. The labelling is not meant to offend.”

This is straightforward stupidity, and exactly the kind of thing that Harriet Harman described as 'daft' in explaining why a debate was not needed in Parliament about anti-Christian bias in public services.

It really is time that someone in government took these issues seriously.

Update: Here is the poster in question, along with the mints. Some seem to think it makes a difference that it also offers to teach about "Jesus and the Christian way of life". Mouse does not. The library should have allowed the poster to go up.

Rowan's reflection as a Wordle

A rather minor contribution to the debate, but interesting nonetheless. For those who haven't seen Wordle before, it is a service which allows you to easily create a word cloud from a body of text or a website. Words used most frequently are largest. This is Rowan's reflection on TEC.

Telegraph reporting rumour that Bishop John Broadhurst is in talks with Rome

Surely this is baseless? Or maybe not?

Damian Thompson is reporting in the Telegraph that a rumour is doing the rounds from 'a well-connected Rome source' that Forward in Faith, the umbrella group for conservative Anglo-Catholics in the good old CofE, is in talks with the Vatican about a union. Forward in Faith is chaired by John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham, who is said to be talking with Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna at the request of the Pope.

This is a variant on an old story, the complexities of which are not worth going into. It has more recent impetus through Bishop John's comments at the launch of the FCA that the devil resides at Church House.

Mouse will monitor the situation closely and keep his readers posted. Mouse's guess is that Thompson's source is unreliable. In the run up to Vincent Nichol's appointment as Archbishop of Westminster Thompson tipped virtually every priest in the country to get the post after receiving information from various dubious sources. Still, its not completely inconceivable.

Buddhist Bishop's election fails to gain consent

Mouse readers may remember the story of Kevin Thew Forrester, Episcopal Priest who was elected Bishop of North Michigan. The election of a Bishop in The Episcopal Church requires the consent of the other Diocese within the Church for his position be to taken up. This consent was not given, and yesterday the Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, notified the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Northern Michigan that his election was 'null and void'.

Mouse has nothing against Forrester, however, he does believe that his belief in Zen Buddhist meditation is incompatible with Christianity, so this is the right result.

Forrester made a statement in which he said, "I have been extraordinarily blessed and honored to walk with my friends from the Diocese of Northern Michigan over these past months as their bishop-elect. I treasure the support they have extended me and my family, as well as that I have received from Hong Kong to Holland and from Great Britain to New Zealand, and indeed from so many throughout The Episcopal Church. As we live and move and have our being in Christ, there is truly a Holy Wisdom in all that is unfolding, and as St. John of the Cross affirms, a grace in 'all that happens'"

Everybody Welcome

The headline sounds great. "Kicking off a team effort to grow churches: Training launched to extend warm welcome to people intrigued by church". Mouse is an advocate of developing more a more professional approach to church growth, so was interested.

The scheme in question is 'Everybody Welcome', however, it is rather more limited than the headline implies. The brainchild of Ven Bob Jackson (Archdeacon of Walsall and a Growth Officer in the Diocese of Lichfield) and George Fisher (Director of Parish Mission for the Diocese of Lichfield), who have put together some resources to help churches become more welcoming to newcomers. The course bills itself as "the complete course to transform your church by improving your approach to newcomers", however, Mouse suspects that the transformation of a church takes rather more than this.

This initiative is a good one, and does what it is intended to do well. However, it is very limited in its scope. Mouse urges the good old CofE to get its act together and to put together some real resources to help churches grow. Some Diocese already do this well, others don't. Those who don't need to pick up their game.

Opinion on Archbishop's reflections on TEC General Convention

Read the Archbishop's own words in the Guardian

Ruth Gledhill - Archbishop Rowan and TEC: Two-track commuion the way forward

Ruth Gledhill - Archbishop of Canterbury attempts to paper over Church schism

Christianity Today - Just shy of schism, Anglicans may sub-divide

Riazat Butt - Archbishop of Canterbury warns ordination of gay clergy would lead to two-tier communion

Bishop Graham Kings (via Fulcrum forum) - On first reading, the Archbishop of Canterbury's response to General Convention is very clear, wise and helpful

Bishop David Thomson - Archbishop's reflections on TEC

The Ugley Vicar - Reflecting on Rowan's reflections on General Convention

As for the Mouse's own view - he thinks Graham Kings has offered the most sensible comment so far. The Archbishop's words have clearly been thought through, and it would be unfair to judge them too quickly. His approach is clearly to see whether he can keep everyone in the Anglican Communion somehow, even if the form of this communion is altered. Mouse admires his attempt.

Update: Peter Ould has another interesting piece

Rowan Williams responds on TEC convention

Thankfully Rowan has ended the round robin of open letters that have been circulating the Anglican Communion since the TEC convention voted to resume the ordination of gay bishops and to develop liturgy for same sex blessings in church.

Rowan has responded with his 'reflections'. Mouse hasn't had time to read it yet, so you'll have to check it out for yourself. Ruth Gledhill has hurridly posted some initial thoughts. Mouse will blog later when he has a little more time.

Publicly funded Bible desecration

The Churches in Britain don't really do outrage. If they did, surely a publicly funded exhibit where visitors are invited to deface a Bible would be a target.

The 'Made in God's Image' exhibition at Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art contains an exhibit which was initially proposed by the Metropolitan Community Church. The initial idea was to try to reclaim the Bible as a sacred text and inviting visitors to write themselves into the Bible.

Unfortunately many visitors decided that instead they would daub it with profanities and blasphemies.

Many have been quick to condemn this terrible use of public money. The Church of Scotland as 'expressed concern', whilst the Roman Catholic Church has called the exhibit 'infantile'. However, the real story seems to Mouse to be the rather tragic proof that the concept behind the initial idea is very much needed. The Bible is no longer considered a holy book. It is not the organisers of the exhibition who should be condemned, nor the Council who have funded it. Blame should be shared by those individuals who have so little respect for the Christian faith and by those of us who have failed to demonstrate that the Bible is the living word of God.

As for the Church's reaction, it should certainly call for the removal of this exhibit before further offence is caused on the Christian population. It should also express great regret that the opportunity for inclusive engagement has been spurned, and make a commitment to redouble efforts to engage with non-Christians.

Government's chief environmental advisor slams Brown on climate change

Mouse read Jonathon Porritt's interview in Saturday's Independent rather stunned. Porritt, the government's chief environmental advisor, says that Brown had no interest in climate change when he was Chancellor, regarding the issue as 'middle class stuff', and that the issue is 'no more important to him' since he has become PM.

This is absolutely devastating stuff. It blasts an enormous hole in Brown's claims to be leading the global debate on climate change. Those of us who want 'real help now' on climate change, we must take this as a huge warning that politicians need the carrot and stick of public opinion to drive them forward on climate change.

Jonathon Porritt is Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, which is the government's main environmental advisory group. However, he has spoken more freely in advance of his resignation today. He paints a fascinating picture of Blair roaming the world stage as Prime Minister, talking big on climate change, but with no handle on policy details. Meanwhile, Brown was in the Treasury bunker blocking policies to deal with climate change in Britain.

Porritt does give Brown credit for having realised the seriousness of the issue now, and gives Ed Milliband big credit (as has the Mouse) for the 'huge injection of energy' behind the debate in the past few months. However, Porritt describes Brown's decision over the third runway at Heathrow as irrational, with Brown unable to comprehend the economic or environmental issues around it.

Mouse would still like to see the good old CofE picking up its game on climate change, and this interview shows just how important it is for everyone, including Christians, to stand up and show our politicians that we think climate change must be stopped.

Tony Blair speaks to Nicky Gumbel at HTB

Holy Trinity Brompton confirmed its status as a church by luring Tony Blair to speak in an interview with vicar Nicky Gumbel.

Members of the Church were invited to an event with a 'prestigious speaker' last Tuesday, with virtually no publicity, presumably for security reasons. Sill around 1,200 people were present to hear Blair's words of wisdom.

Mouse was not present, and there seem to be few details available of what was said, with only a few quotes available on the HTB site and on the website of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

It seems he was given a pretty easy ride by Gumbel, which is not surprising since Gumbel has supported Blair's faith foundation and has worked with them. From the snippets quoted online, we don't learn much. Blair repeats his claim that he was unable to speak about his faith whilst in office because "it was very hard to get a sensible hearing on it". He said that when things were "looking really grim" during his time in office he would draw comfort from the story of Jesus calming the storm. So perhaps we have a piece of advice for Gordon Brown in there somewhere.

The most baffling quote released is this one:

"Tradition is a good thing to have but it mustn't be a dead hand. What we actually need to do is to be in a position where you can enthuse and get young people interested in it - talk to them in the right way and explain to them how we feel and so on. And the interesting thing is that when you do that it works."

Answers on a postcard as to what this might mean (if anything). Mouse's view is that he has yet to hear anything meaningful from Blair on his own faith. He produces platitudes like this one from last week, "If you have religious faith, it is in the end the most important thing in your life, so it is not an adjunct. It is at the core. So prayer and re-reading the bible I find really important. Every single time I learn something new..."

However, these almost always have generalities in there, like the way he starts with 'if you ...' rather than simply saying, "I have a strong faith in Jesus, which is not an adjunct ..." and he seems unable to put that into something meaningful about what practical difference it makes to him.

Mouse also thinks that if Blair is to have any credibility in the religious world he needs to face up to the elephant in the room, an talk openly and honestly about the decisions he made around the invasion of Iraq. Unless we hear something convincing on how he squares his behaviour then with his Christian faith it will seem as though his faith has not penetrated his heart as deeply as it needs to.

Humanist thinks minorities should not be consulted

The only single defining characteristic of modern humanists is that they don't believe in God. Beyond that, they're pretty much running on empty.

In Devon, they have been attacking a council funded body called 'Devon Faiths Forum', which is used to consult on religious and belief issues.

The line of attack is utterly bizarre. Keith Denby from the Devon Humanists said, "The county council funds a body called Devon Faiths Forum and tries to use it to consult about religion and belief issues. Unfortunately, by its very name, it excludes all those in Devon who have no religious faith. Three quarters of British people are not members of a religious group or faith, but the local authority appears to be directing its efforts and council tax payers' money into consulting the religious minority, so ignoring the views of most people".

Now besides the John Prescott style speech patterns, the point he makes is deeply flawed. Firstly he seems to be under the impression that the council only consults with one body. Humanist organisations have been given money by governments and European bodies to promote their world views, and Mouse is sure that Devon County Council executes its consultations through a variety of means, not just through this one body. As such, they are not ignoring anyone.

However, more damningly Keith Denby seems to be arguing that it is wrong to consult with minorities. His argument is that you should listen to the majority, and ignore the views of the minority religious organisation. Mouse suspects that Mr Denby will find himself in the minority with that school of thought, so by his own logic he should be ignored.

Excited about the 2012 Olympics? Churches in London should be

Last week 300 Christian leaders from across denominations met at a conference in Wembley Stadium to discuss the task of initiating Christian outreach during the 2012 Olympics.

Lord Mawhinney, Chairman of the Football League and 'More than Gold', the organisation leading plans for outreach during the Olympics, opened the conference. He told the delegates "we are restricted only by our imagination and willingness".

Quite. The Olympics has been cited as the catalyst for a lot of things - a sporting legacy, urban regeneration, renewal of London's transport links and a whole lot more. More than Gold is now attempting to be a catalyst for evangelical outreach during the event. The organisation has lead evangelistic efforts during the Olympics since Atlanta 1996 and is supported by Rowan Williams and Vincent Nichols.

So, over to all you Londoners.

L of a typo

Rev David Keen, on his fantastic 'St. Aidan to Abbey Manor' blog considers the liturgy for combining the wedding and baptism services. His eagle eye was drawn to page three of the full paper from the good old CofE which reads, "In the Church of England, Baptism is normally administered on Sundays at the best-attended act of pubic worship, so that the congregation may witness the newly-baptized being received into the Church (see Canon B 21)."

He quite rightly wonders what an act of 'pubic' worship is.

Mouse was surprised by the fuss that this story has created. Ruth Gledhill brings us back down to earth a little, pointing out that most regular churchgoers grumble when another batch of unknown locals take over the service for their children's baptisms, but seems to quite enjoy the experience. She also summarises some of the other opinions expressed on the subject.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week:

1. Ed West from the Telegraph thinks the National Secular Society are atheist bigots

2. Cranmer doesn't like Bishop Pete Broadbent's advice to the voters of Norwich North

3. Ruth Gledhill entertains on baptisms and weddings

4. Bishop Alan Wilson fights against principalities, powers and Twitter spam

5. Bishop Tim Ellis says farewell to Henry Allingham, and ponders Thought For Today

6. Christianity Today on the planning for Olympic outreach

7. Catherine Beyer on the rules for doing religion at work

8. Mark Brown on his thoughts from the Christianity in the Digital Space Symposium

9. Rev David Keen has never held an act of 'pubic' worship

10. Dave Walker wonders what happens to disused churches

Two for one - wedding and baptism all in one service now available

The good old CofE have made available liturgy for a two in one 'hatch and match' wedding and baptism service. This allows a couple to get married and baptise their children in the same service.

The thinking is that 44% of children are now born outside marriage, so those couples could now get married in the church whilst also baptising their children.

Conservatives were quick to condemn the arrangement, on the basis that it undermines the church's teaching on sex and marriage. The Church's spokesman on marriage, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt (Bishop of Winchester) said, "I suspect a lot of clergy have done services like this already. This will help clergy who might not otherwise feel competent when asked to do this."

Mouse's view is that rather than undermine the church's teaching, this provides an opportunity for those who have had children outside marriage to bring their family into line with traditional Christian teaching by marrying and being baptised. The church would not refuse them either of those two things in isolation, so is should not be frowned upon to do them together.

+++ Official CofE advice: stop sharing the chalice +++

Just appeared on the Archbishop of York's website and on the CofE news page:

Guidance on communion during swine flu pandemic
Thursday 23 July 2009

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written to Bishops in the Church of England recommending the suspension of the sharing of the chalice at communion.

The Archbishops' letter follows advice from the Department of Health not to share "common vessels" for food or drink.

For those who wish still to offer both bread and wine, the Archbishops have recommended use of "personal intinction by the presiding minister" allowing the priest to dip communion wafers in the chalice before handing them out to communicants.

The full text of the letter follows:

The Feast of St Mary Magdalene

22nd July 2009

Dear Colleague,

It now seems right to offer guidance at a national level about how the Church of England's worship might best take into account the interests of public health during the current phase of the swine flu pandemic.

The Department of Health have recently advised us that "in a pandemic it makes good sense to take precautions to limit the spread of disease by not sharing common vessels for food and drink". In the light of this advice, we recommend those presiding at Holy Communion suspend the administration of the chalice during this wave of pandemic flu. [1] For those who still wish to offer in both kinds, we recommend the practice whereby the presiding minister, whose hands should have been washed with the appropriate alcohol based rub before handling the elements and the vessels, personally intincts all wafers before placing them in the hands of communicants. This is a practice widely observed in Anglican churches throughout Africa. Communicants receiving in this way need to be confident that the clergy and all assistant ministers follow the relevant guidance on hygiene.

The Bishop of Ripon & Leeds circulated substantial guidance, including a summary of the government's advice[2], with his letter of 23 June[3]. Many of you have already issued local guidance based upon its content. We regard it as important that those presiding at Holy Communion are aware of this advice[4] and of that contained in this letter. They should offer guidance to the congregation about appropriate precautions in receiving communion and exchanging the peace.

We shall keep this advice under review and will ensure that the detailed guidance provided on the Church of England website[5] is kept up-to-date. In the meantime, wish to express our gratitude to you and those who share your ministry for the pastoral care and service offered at this time of national concern.

+Rowan Cantuar: +Sentamu Ebor:

Silvio Berlusconi may go on pilgrimage to 'atone' for orgies

Thanks to Bess Twiston-Davies from the Times for picking this utterly amazing story up.

Berlusconi has perpetually shocked the Mouse over a period of years. Just to re-cap, the man who owns vast swathes of the Italian media, which now churns out good news about its owner, has got himself into a long series of scandals.

Ones which bothered the Mouse most include the various criminal trials (his Wikipedia page lists 12) which he has managed to dodge either by sitting out the statute of limitations, winning the case due to lack of evidence, or more recently by simply granting himself immunity from prosecution. Recently, the former husband of Tessa Jowell, David Mills, was successfully prosecuted for accepting a bribe to withhold evidence from a court case where Mr Berlusconi was the defendant. This didn't seem to dent the premier's own reputation. It rather defies logic, however, that Mr Mills can be found guilty of accepting a bribe, but Silvio is not guilty of giving one. It is, in fact, thought to be the first case in Italian legal history where someone is found guilty of accepting a bribe where the giver of the bribe is not identified.

The scandals that have led to more public outrage in Italy, however, have been of a more basic nature. Silvio got himself a new face, courtesy of some surgery, and was increasingly seen in the presence of beautiful women. Some of these were brought into his government. Others were merely social acquaintances. After his wife left him for attending the birthday party of an 18 year old girl and allegedly giving her a £6,000 birthday present. The allegations increased in frequency.

In the past few weeks accusations of orgies, prostitutes and worse have been made, and Berlusconi's teflon skin is losing its ability to deflect scandal. So he has responded by planning a pilgrimage to atone for his sins. The Times reports:

The EarthTimes reports on a story inla Repubblica that Silvio Berlusconi, shamed by the revelation of orgies at his private villa is thought to be planning a pilgrimage of atonement after the Summer holiday. He is also said to be planning to sell Villa Certosa, scene of his wild exploits, and then in what the cynical might view as a desperate bid to recoup hisshattered reputation, embarking on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Padre Pio, one of Italy’s best-loved saints. St Padre Pio, a Franciscan mystic who died in 1968, is famous for having suffered the stigmata, or physical wounds of Christ. He claimed to have had a vision at the end of the First World War in which Jesus appeared to him and pierced his side, and is also said to have had the gift of bi-locating. St Pio is associated with radical spiritual conversions.

Now you can call the Mouse an old sceptic if you want, but can anyone honestly look at this and say it is anything but a basic, straightforward, cynical piece of spin. The Italian people really should look at this man and think very hard about whether he is fit to hold office.

Church of England biased against poor

This one is a bit of an old chestnut, that has emerged again at the General Synod in York.

The Rt Rev Stephen Lowe told the Synod that "The selection process is often biased against people coming out of the poorest communities." The critique has been made before that the selection criteria may give those from poor backgrounds a disadvantage. The new twist this time was analysis of those who are prepared to exercise their ministry in the inner cities. The Rt Rev David Walker, Bishop of Dudley, said, "Increasingly the people who are prepared to go and work in the inner city are people who have come from the inner city. The very diversity of our culture makes it very difficult for people who have not had experience, who have not grown up in that background, to feel comfortable there. Nonetheless, it seems the case that much of our process of identifying candidates for the ministry still seems to come up disproportionately with people from middle-class suburban backgrounds.

It strikes the Mouse that there are plenty of people prepared to exercise their ministries in these places, its just that they are not doing this within the confines of ordained ministry in the Church of England. The good old CofE should think very hard before changing its approach to the selection of ordinands to make sure that criteria are not relaxed in any way. However, there is much more that can be done to encourage ministries in inner cities outside ordained ministry.

Pope sends best wishes to the Tour de France

The Pope's PR has gone through the roof recently. First we heard that he insisted on waiting his turn in the casualty department when he broke his wrist. Now we hear that he has sent his best wishes to the Tour de France as the cyclists pass by the Italian town of Introd near where Pope Benedict is on holiday.

Not so long ago the Holy Father was a walking media disaster. He's really picked up his game lately, and this one is a lovely touch. Here's the statement in full.

"For the occasion of the passage of the Tour de France in the Valle d'Aosta, the Holy Father (who is spending some days at Les Combes near Introd) addresses his cordial greetings to all the athletes and to the organisers of the race, at the same time extending his thoughts to all sports men and women currently involved in various activities and competitions. His hope is that involvement in sport may contribute to the integral development of the person, and that it may never be separated from respect for moral and educational values".

Rowan Williams: my desperate concern for troops in Afghanistan

Roway Williams has spoken of his concern for British troops in Helmand province, but has said they should be supported in their mission.

"My first feelings are of desperate concern for the welfare of the servicemen and women over there - and of course for their families. Like so many people I have friends and contacts in the country - and I have friends whose sons are serving in the forces. My thoughts and prayers are with all of them. But at the same time we have got to go on trying our best to support a representative government there - that's the hard core of it."

Mouse was proud of the church when it stood up to be counted in opposing the gulf war. Not because he is always, in principle, against war, but because in that situation it was the right thing to do. It is now time to tell the government that it is wrong to leave our troops in Afghanistan without a clear mission and without the equipment needed to do that job as safely as possible.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's intervention was a good start, but he should go further. Concern is one thing, but its now time to get angry that lives are being lost to avoid political embarrassment at home.

Charities public good test is a waste of time

The Charities Act 2006 introduced a requirement for existing charities to demonstrate that they are providing public good. The definition of public good is, of course, down to the judgement of a quango - the Charity Commission.

Last week the Charity Commission published the results of the first 12 lucky charities to go through this process. The outcome was 9-3 in favour of the charities. Unfortunately this is rather problematic for the three who stumbled this new invisible hurdle, as they now risk losing the benefit of their charity status. United Christian Broadcasters, London Sri Murugan Temple, Tara Mahayana Buddhist Centre, Church Mission Society, Cornwall Old People's Housing Society, The Manchester Grammar School, Manor House School Trust, which runs Moyles Court School and Pangbourne College all passed the test, whilst St Anselm's School Trust, Highfield Priory School and Penylan House Jewish Retirement and Nursing Home flunked it.

For the church this is a rather important, and unwanted, development. Four of the charities picked for this test were religious organisations. In good PC fashion there were two Christian charities, one Buddhist and one Sikh. The good news is that all of the religious charities passed the test. The bad news is that they had to go through the process at all.

The target of this legislation appears to be a small number of private schools who are deemed to be businesses disguised as charities. This, in itself, is rather judgemental, as some would argue that merely educating children at someone other than the taxpayer's expense is a public good in its own right - it is reducing everyone else's tax.

This week's ruling has clearly said that this is not the case. To be considered to be providing public good, schools must also make a particular level of bursaries to open up places to those who would not otherwise be able to afford them, and make their facilities available to other local schools. The level of bursaries required is not stated (the Charity Commission says, "it depends"), so private schools must now jump over an invisible hurdle.

When it comes to other charities, the definition of public good is even less clear. CMS exists to win souls for Jesus. It is a mission agency. Is that a public good? It seems so, as they passed the test. United Christian Broadcasting is an evangelistic organisation spreading the good news through various media outlets. This apparently is also a public good.

This development is the latest is a very long line of unwelcome changes to the law which have made life more difficult for charities, and puts the power to remove charitable status into the hands of the Charity Commission on the basis of a highly subjective test. It is unwanted, unnecessary and should be removed as soon as possible.

Comoonion - Aldrin took bread and wine on the moon 40 years ago

Surely Mouse is not the first to use that pun? He just couldn't resist.

Beliefnet, amongst others, have posted about Buzz Aldrin taking communion on the moon when he became the first man to set foot on it 40 years ago. The story goes as follows:

Forty years ago, in the first moments of July 20, 1969, after Aldrin had piloted the Eagle lunar module into the dust of the moon with only seconds of fuel to spare, he asked NASA for a radio blackout. He suggested that people around the world take the opportunity to "contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way.

"Then, during the radio silence, Aldrin opened a packet of bread and a vial of wine that had been blessed a few weeks earlier at his home church near Houston, Webster Presbyterian. Aldrin unfolded a paper on which he'd copied Jesus' words from John 15: "I am the vine, you are the branches ..."

"In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup," Aldrin wrote in a story published in 1970 in Guideposts magazine. "I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility."

This is the first time Mouse has heard that Aldrin had done this, although it was clearly not a secret. Mouse finds it rather touching, and is glad that the story is out there.

Pope insists on 'waiting his turn' for treatment

In another great example of a blogger picking up the story where the mainstream media miss the point, Archbishop Cranmer picks up an interesting story about the Pope's broken wrist.

The Pontiff's fall and the broken wrist have been widely documented, however, it has been mentioned only in passing that when he arrived at the local hospital he insisted on waiting his turn and being treated like any other patient.

Cranmer asks how many world leaders would take the same approach - quite. Mouse has criticised the Pope where he felt that it was merited, but in this case, he commends the Pope's exemplary Christian witness.

It also just goes to show how hard it is to get the message across in the media some times. The story was there for everyone to read, yet they were far more interested in the simple headline than in examining the Pope's behaviour and understanding what that really means.

Learning from media coverage of the Alpha Course

Media coverage of the Alpha Course has not always been supportive. There has been the predictable range of comment on the course since its inception. Mouse feels, however, that when it is covered by sensible mainstream journalists the comments can be helpful to Alpha leaders, whether it is supportive or not.

Mouse has noticed that interest in the course from the media seems to have picked up recently. Back in December 2008 there was a major feature in the Independent in which Deborah Orr interviewed Nicky Gumbel, Alpha Course pioneer) and told of her experiences attending an Alpha Course. Earlier this year, a documentary on Channel 4 (Revelations: How to Find God) followed an Alpha Course at St Aldate's, Oxford. Now we can follow Adam Rutherford attending the Alpha Course, in his Guardian blog.

Mouse's view of the pieces is that Deborah Orr's was intelligent and thoughtful, Revelations was highly disappointing and spent its time trying to build tension (who will be converted - can you guess?) of looking for controversy. Its probably too early to tell on Adam Rutherford's series, as he's only on week two of ten.

However, the main thing is that these are all reactions we can expect from people attending the course. Having an outsider attend and say what they think in this way holds a mirror up to the course. Even if we don't agree with what they say, we can learn from their comments.

Environment Minister pledges action on 'Rain Tax'

Mouse has commented before that the Government had been making encouraging noises about the surface water drainage charges. This is the change in the way water companies charge non-residential customers that takes into account the amount of surface water that drains off their property. This has meant that some churches have faced huge hikes in their bills.

This week Huw Irranca-Davies, speaking at the Water '09 Conference, said, "We all agree that something is clearly wrong if Scout groups, churches and community organisations face huge hikes in their water bills. Companies have been charging people in a way that is not fair.

He has asked United Utilities to come forward with proposals for tackling the problem 'very soon'.

A comical response to the pagan police issue

One of the real tragedies of the modern age is that people feel the need to set up societies and associations for their personal pet subjects, and delude themselves into thinking that the product of their toil in doing so is a public good that should be applauded.

Before you start, Mouse is not talking about the newly formed Pagan Police Association. That was set up for purely personal reasons - since the only member identified so far is PC Andy Pardy, we can only assume that his main objective has now been achieved. The Police Federation have recognised his Association, and will now let him swap his holidays round so that he can take Halloween and the summer solstice off as religious holidays.

This is of passing interest only to the Mouse, who wonders whether PC Pardy has just won a bet. If he wants to swap his holidays - let him.

What made the Mouse laugh out loud, was the response from the National Secular Society. Here's the section that tickled the Mouse:

"Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “We have nothing against pagans, or anyone else, observing their religion, but it should have no place in policing. We now have a police force that encourages members to identify themselves in religious terms and that cannot be good for community cohesion. The police are there to serve the whole community, not bits of it, and when people put their religious identity before their identity as police officers, suspicions can arise that they will not treat everyone in the same way."

Is Terry Sanderson really suggesting that there will be suspicion amongst the general public that PC Pardy, the pagan policeman, will now go round letting off pagans he finds breaking the law, who would otherwise be cuffed and taken to the cells? How on earth would he do this? Look for pentangles in their pockets during his stop and search?

This is utter madness. And worse, it is self important pompous madness. Sill, it made the Mouse laugh, so for that, and for that only, I thank Terry Sanderson.

Exclusive: Guest post from Andy Jackson, editor of surefish.co.uk, on Christianity in the Digital Space

When Mouse first heard about the Christians in the Digital Space symposium he thought it sounded right up his street. As you'd expect from a high tech conference, however, you could follow proceedings through a live stream, blog and through a huge amount of twittering (search for #digisymp).

To fill his readers in on the event, Mouse recruited Andy Jackson to put a guest post together. Andy is the editor of surefish.co.uk, Christian Aid's community website. Andy was at the symposium, and sums it all up for us.

Christianity in the Digital Space

From July 13 - 15 in a college within the grounds of Durham Cathedral, a group of 50 professionals involved with Christianity online met face-to-face to discuss the present and future of Christianity in the Digital Space.

The conference, sponsored by the Bible Society and organised by Churches' Media Council and CODEC, the Centre of Communication in the Digital Environment, a research initiative based at St John's College, Durham, enjoyed the Rev Mark Brown, CEO of the Bible Society in New
Zealand, as keynote speaker.

Known to many through his involvement in Second Life, Mark began the first full day of the conference with a report about the Bible in Digital Space: "I am on record for stating that the appallingly low Bible engagement rates amongst western Christians is a crisis facing the
church.

"Research conducted by Bible Society New Zealand showed that only 11% of Christians read their Bible daily with 24% reading it at least once in a month... This is echoed in the UK with very recent research conducted by Rev Brian Brown on behalf of CODEC which shows that 18% of the general population have read their Bible in the last week and only 31% said that
the Bible was significant in their lives now."

Mark went onto to make three predictions about the future of the Bible: the first was that instant Bible translations: "We may see a day in the not to distant future when translation, whether written or spoken, is a near instantaneous process. So rather than 20 years for a full Bible translation, it takes 20 minutes."

The second involved personalised translation when selective verses and books could be produced for individuals after mapping technology became more widely used: "With the emphasis on the individual, we may see the day when we are able to translate a Bible specifically just for you." He went onto to offer an example of some who felt more relaxed when thinking about the ocean could have bible verses about the ocean displayed alongside oceanic art and photography.

Mark's third prediction was a Semantic Bible. The web works through linking pages but the next generation of the web will see data within the pages linked rather than the individual pages themselves. This concept was created by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. Mark said: "An online semantic Bible where every word, every phrase, every passage, every book is a piece of data connected to all other bits of data around the web. This would give us a treasure chest of resources in which to explore and understand the Bible."http://brownblog.info/?p=899

Four conversation stands took place about Digital Space: Mission and Evangelism; Community; the Bible and Spirituality. You can see notes from those conversations in the GoogleDoc section of the conference blog: http://digitalsymp.blogspot.com/. Further conversations took place in the afternoon about digital identity, a possible new monastic
community and online preaching.

It was interesting to join with St Pixels and the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life for evenings services. If you've never been to one, it's well worth a try. It's a strange feeling knowing that you are seeing the movements and listening to voices from around the world, but I have to
be convinced that a hymn sandwich online is just another way of delivering what most churches do each Sunday. Saying that, you don't get as many dragons in the local abbey!

The Biblical Literacy Survey was presented by the Rev Brian Brown, who is best known for his Storykeepers stories. He presented a grim set of research that showed that Christians were pretty bad at relating Bible stories to their secular counterparts. For example, 18% of Christians couldn't name the story relating to hot Cross buns (which everyone knows
is Jonah and the Whale :-) - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/8146460.stm)

When talking about next steps, there was not a huge movement to combine forces, which I thought was quite sad, especially with some projects talking about a lack of funding. However, one day there will be an enforced joining of some projects to ensure that their good work continues.

We heard from the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, about his use of digital space. Without seeing what we had talked about he revealed a lot of common ground with the issues raised at the conference, and described beautifully his awe of the net and inadequacy of his skills using it use by saying his use of his laptop was like sitting next to the great organ in Durham Cathedral and only being able to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

We finished with a Dragons' Den type of panel dissecting ideas and projects from the floor. The best one was from Ship of Fools which wanted to develop an virtual purgatory. However, due to a typing error, it was presented top us an as virtual pregnancy!

Andy Jackson, Editor, www.surefish.co.uk
Christian Aid's community website for ethically-minded Christians

An artful distortion from the BHA

Mouse was concerned when he read the headline from the BHA's website, "New report finds faith schools 'automatically a source of division which have to be overcome'".

Gosh, that sounds bad for faith schools.

The report is question is from the Institute of Community Cohesion (sounds official), and it is about community cohesion in Blackburn and Darwen, and the BHA post makes it sound like a slam dunk for faith schools. To be fair, the BHA weren't the only ones to pick up on it. Well known opponents of selection on the basis of faith in schools Ekklesia reported on the report, saying that the IoCC's conclusions were that 'faith schools are one source of segregation'.

Well you can read the Summary and Recommendations from the report yourself. If you do, you won't recognise either the BHA or Ekklesia's version.

The whole document makes just two references to faith schools. The first reads:

A particular issue in Blackburn with Darwen is the number of faith schools: half the borough’s schools are at least partly segregated on religious grounds. However, faith schools can work to reduce segregation. Some primary faith schools have an open door policy and a very mixed intake. Indeed faith schools are generally well regarded and sought after by Asian parents. The Anglican diocese has a mission to serve the needs of the community and will admit children other than Anglicans though these have priority. St Wilfred’s is the sole Anglican secondary school and has opened its admissions to be more welcoming to the local community of whatever faith, even though it is oversubscribed.

The second is:

"We therefore recommend that the Council should adopt a bolder, higher profile approach to promoting community cohesion which specifically recognises the challenges of separation and engage with partners and the community in seeking ways to reduce it. The starting point would be to develop a shared and positive vision of a mixed community, which is widely owned by the community. Specific interventions could then be developed in terms of promoting and facilitating mixed housing developments such as: undertaking a proactive campaign with parents and communities to promote the positive benefits of diverse schools and perhaps challenging faith schools to reconsider their admissions policies in the light of the impact on cohesion; developing role models to help employers to combat stereotypical trends and asking employers to review recruitment policies to encourage more mixed workforces."

When it comes to making recommendations, the only one relating to faith schools is a repeat of the second of these to references to challenge faith schools to reconsider their admission policies in light of the impact on cohesion.

That's it folks. That is the slam dunk from this report that the BHA and Ekklesia were trumpeting.

On Mouse's reading the first reference to faith schools was actually positive about their potential to improve community cohesion. There is only one Anglican secondary school, and this has an open admissions policy.

The summary runs to ten pages, and makes dozens of recommendations for how to improve community cohesion, but it barely mentions faith schools.

Mouse has said a number of times before, that the way to stop faith schools reserving places for people of a particular faith is to remove the need for them to do so, by allowing them to expand to take everyone who wants to attend.

By the way, if you're looking for the quote from the BHA's headline that "faith schools 'automatically a source of division'" you won't find it in the report. That is something one of the report authors apparently said. So the headline 'New report finds ...' is rather misleading, isn't it.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week:

1. Cranmer is not happy about the BBC's settlement with the MCB

2. Ruth Gledhill whips up the swine flu panic in churches

3. Bishop Alan Wilson figures out what's really going on out there

4. Heresy Corner on the pagan policeman (and the Daily Mail)

5. Ekklesia blog on the scout oath

6. Dave Walker at the Church Times blog sums up the Anglican Mainstream - Greenbelt - CMS fuss

7. Jonathan Wynne-Jones in the Telegraph reckons the Anglican Communion has already split

8. 42 on Jimmy Carter quitting the Southern Baptist Convention

9. Faithworld on the Jewish Olympics

10. Bishop David Chillingworth pokes his nose over the hedge from North of the border, and thinks about the number of Bishops in the CofE

Thought for the day

Mouse has always been baffled about why there is such a fuss over the "Thought for the day" slot on Radio 4's Today Program.

Now don't get me wrong. Mouse recognises the golden opportunity that this slot represents the holder to get a message out to a huge number of people in a prime media slot. But lets just get in perspective the fact that it is a two minute radio slot.

The recent news is that the BBC is considering opening up the slot to non-religious views. Some Christians have reacted with dismay, taking it as another sign of either BBC bias against religion / Christianity, or a further sign of the threat to distinctive religious voices in public life. Reactions to the news have been given by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the Evangelical Alliance and may others.

Mouse's reaction to the news is that he is not remotely surprised. The response, however, should be a renewed energy and commitment to evangelism and church growth. We should not attack the BBC for their increasing trend to treat the non-religious on a par with the religious, or be afraid of the 'competition'. The secular lobby is quite right that the religious do not have a monopoly on ethics or morality.

Christians do, however, have a monopoly on speaking the prophetic word of God into modern society. Christians should not jostle for space in a line-up of all religious views and secular moral views. It should be to find a distinctive space for a distinctive message.

£92 per head is a price worth paying to stop climate change

In 1833 William Wilberforce heard that his life-long campaign to abolish slavery had succeeded. Parliament had passed a bill to abolish slavery and set aside £20m to compensate slave owners. Wilberforce said from his death bed, "Thank God that I have lived to witness the day in which England is willing to give £20 million for the abolishment of slavery."

Today, the challenge of stopping climate change is just as great, if not greater, than the challenge of abolishing slavery was in the 18th and 19th century. If we fail, the lives if millions will be affected, with the poor hit hardest. The economic effect would be devastating, the human effects unimaginable.

Yesterday, the government published their plans to reduce UK carbon emissions by a third. The cost is estimated at £92 per head to individual consumers, which represents an extra 8% on energy bills, and a further 17% rise in energy bills for commercial users.

Now Mouse is not yet jumping for joy at this announcement - this does not equate to the moment when the abolition bill was passed. We must remember that this is a white paper being launched by a government that expects to lose an election within the year. We must also remember that Britain is low down in the carbon emissions league table (just 2.5% of global emissions), and it is only co-ordinated international action which will fix the problem.

However, Mouse is prepared to say that £92 per head is a price worth paying. If you think its not, you simply don't understand the cost of not stopping climate change - that price is too great to contemplate.

The next question is whether we should take this step before others follow. The same argument was made against Britain abolishing slavery. Opponents of abolition argued that it would give an advantage to France and others. This was not true then, and is not true today. Being a leader in developing a sustainable low carbon national economy will be an advantage, not the reverse.

Mouse applauds the government's approach (not something he does often), although we could debate the extent to which wind energy is being proposed compared with nuclear and other forms. But the point is there is now a costed plan. If only they'd done this ten years ago ....

Purity ring iPhone app

On the basis that you can get an iPhone app for pretty much everything, the purity ring app should come as no surprise.

The application allows iPhone users to make a purity pledge on their device for just 59p. Once the pledge is confirmed, a ring will appear in a perpetual spin on the screen as a 'permanent' reminder of the commitment to wait until marriage before having sex.

It seems rather unlikely to the Mouse that the application will change the ways of young people, but its great to have this kind of initiative in the mainstream. The government's attempts to cut teenage pregnancies seem to have failed completely, so it is important that the Christian community pick up the issue.

The CMS media machine kicks in

There was a lot of comment on the article in Anglican Mainstream attacking Greenbelt for being 'radically pro-gay', and pulling CMS into the attack as a key supporter of the event.

Mouse commented on the rather unsightly scrap, but his attention was drawn to the response from CMS. Mouse thought that it was rather unnecessary for them to respond at all, but two versions of their response were posted by Anglican Mainstream. The first came on 13 July, and was headed, "John Martin, CMS Director of Communications has written:". Mouse is guessing that he wrote an email to Anglican Mainstream, which they copied into the post. The second, article was a copy of a statement, again from John Martin, published on the CMS web-site on 14 July.

The two versions were very similar, except for one key paragraph:

"While we understand the reasons why Greenbelt has invited Gene Robinson, we are unhappy about it, particularly at this time in the life of the Anglican Communion. CMS supports the Lambeth Conference resolution 1.10 (see our Ethos Statement)"

What an intriguing addition to the response. Mouse wonders what happened in the 24 hours between the first statement and the second that led to this amendment.

Exclusive guest blog post: From the Synod floor

Mouse was unable to attend the General Synod in York, so invited lay General Synod member Justin Brett to guest post his thoughts. Justin is always thoughtful and well informed - a good place to start a discussion.

Justin is a Latin teacher and a Lay Member of General Synod for the Diocese of Oxford. You can find more posts by him on the General Synod Blog and also on his own blog The Dodgy Liberal. The title of the latter might tell you something about his church-related views.

The views below are Justin's own views, and may not represent the views of the Mouse.


Many thanks to the Church Mouse for inviting me to write this post. Hopefully, he won't be bored from his whiskers to his tail by the time he has finished reading it!

I wonder what, if anything, people out in the real world (who weren't in York from Friday until yesterday) have heard about General Synod this week. The two things most associated with Synod - namely the issues of who ought to go to bed with whom and whether you need a Y chromosome to be a bishop - have been strangely absent, despite some effort to get them on the agenda. Instead, the main news seems to have been about Synod wanting to cut the number of bishops. Or at least, before the debate on the motion from the Diocese of Bradford, that was the main news. Then in the debate itself many interesting things were said about episcopal numbers - in particular the fact that perhaps we ought to have more bishops not less, but that they should be pastors and evangelists rather than managers at the head of a bureaucracy - and all of a sudden the headline became all about the Church of England wanting more bishops, not fewer.

Actually, if this Synod is going to fix itself in my mind in any way, I think it will be as the 'stroppy synod'. A few things have happened to make the ordinary members of synod more than a little unhappy. There has been a fair amount posted elsewhere about the various constitutional stuff that happened - or failed to happen - during this session. From my own viewpoint, however, I think that the stroppiness is a symptom of tensions that are not peculiar to Synod. The reality of Synod's place within the structure of the C. of E. is that despite its notional authority - it is the only body that can change the way the Church is governed - much of the business of the Church happens around it and even on occasion despite it.You could try to involve Synod more, but the more 'democratic' you try to make the Church's institutions, the more unwieldy you make them - it is much more efficient to have a smaller number of people making the decisions. The alternatives to concentrate executive power into a few hands and then have your elected body as a sort of watchdog. This is the model that Local Government now follows, and it is the model that people feared was being offered to Synod. One problem with it is that it is almost entirely reactive - you can't use it to initiate policy.

There is a second problem with it too, which is that most decisions come to a scrutiny body as more or less a done deal, and it is very difficult to undo them, even supposing that you are properly briefed as to how and why those decisions have been reached. This is what went wrong in the debate about appointments to Archbishops' Council. Some of the Church bureaucracy were convinced that they faced a sort of Peasants' Revolt, but it wasn't really that - it was frustration. The executive and scrutiny model that we have to some extent already with Archbishops' Council can throw up some peculiar situations - especially, and ironically, if you put in structures to make it accountable. So it was that Synod were invited to confirm the appointments of two people to Archbishops' Council whom nobody knew, on the basis of virtually no information. Because they were in a bad mood already, a variety of people got up to point out how silly this was - either Synod ought to be able to do the scrutiny properly, or there was no point in doing it at all.

I don't think we have heard the last of this. There is pressure to change the way the Church does much of its business, and few people would deny that it is currently slow and bureaucratic. The question really is what to do to make the system work efficiently for the Church, while at the same time ensuring accountability and - just as importantly - input from those who are not insiders, but elected by the two or three people we have left in the pews...

Finally, there has of course been rather a large elephant in the room throughout the proceedings, namely the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans - the group that launched itself in Methodist Central Hall just before the start of General Synod. There was quite a lot of conversation around York about what the reactions would be to those bishops who attended, but in the end nothing happened at all. The views of Michael Nazir-Ali and John Hind that led them to attend the FCA meeting are well known, and John Broadhurst, the Bishop who managed to make a complete ass of himself from the platform, is not a member of Synod. Of more interest, however, is the Private Member's Motion from Lorna Ashworth, one of the lay members from Chichester, which requests that the Church of England declares itself in communion with the FCA. I left York on Monday morning, but by that time it looked as though it may well have reached the 100 signatures required for the Business Committee to consider it for inclusion on the agenda. [Mouse: the motion received 126 signatures, and will now be considered by the business committee] Given that there are at least two motions ahead of it, this probably will not happen in February, but it is a real possibility for next July. On the present timetable, that means we will probably have Women Bishops back in February, and then Sexuality back next June, possibly with more Women Bishops. I can't wait, can you?

Justin Brett
Lay Member of General Synod for Oxford Diocese
http://gensyn.blogspot.com and http://dodgyliberal.blogspot.com

Pope becomes Harry Potter fan?

Mouse found it hard to believe too, but the latest Harry Potter film has had a positive review in the Vatian newspaper. According to Richard Owen in the Times, "L’Osservatore Romano said yesterday that even though the Potter saga lacked what it called “a reference to the transcendent”, the latest film drew “a clear line of demarcation between good and evil, making clear that good is right, and that in some cases this involves hard work and sacrifices”."

Well, this is quite a U-turn. When Harry Potter first appeared it was widely condemned by many Christian groups, including the Catholic Church. In 2003 Joseph Ratzinger, then Cardinal in charge of doctrine at the Vatican said described the Potter books as, "a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly."

Mouse is pleased with the new line, although he does recognise concerns that introducing the occult to children is not a good idea. However, the new line marks a more sensible approach to engaging with modern culture. The knee jerk reaction to condemn everything that doesn't come from the Church is one which simply alienates everyone outside it.

Iraqi Christians tremble (while the Anglican Communion bickers)

The past few days have seen an extremely introspective debate within the Anglican Communion over issues of sexuality. The Episcopal Church in the US have voted to allow the ordination of gay Bishops, in defiance of earlier promises to abide by a moratorium on such ordinations. The Church of England's general synod debated how to react to the establishment of the break-away Anglican Church in North America, and the newly established Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in the UK have focused attention on the divisions between conservatives and liberals in the UK.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, Christians are under real pressure. In Iraq, seven Christian churches have been bombed in a co-ordinated attack within 48 hours. A moving account emerged by email from Canon Andrew White, Anglican Vicar of Baghdad. He writes:

Dear Friends,

I am afraid it has been a bad Sunday for Christians in Baghdad. Seven churches have been bombed in Palestine Street, Kerada and Dora. Fourteen people have been killed, including six of David's friends and two close friends of mine. Several others have been injured.

Our church, St. George's, was not attacked, but we have had to increase our security, and a curfew has been imposed.

We would value your prayers at this difficult time, as we comfort those who mourn, tend to those who were injured, and stand up for peace in this beautiful but troubled land.

Blessings,
Andrew

The calm understatement from the heart of a community which must be living in even greater fear than it has done through years of terror is something which it truly inspirational. Mouse will indeed pray for Christians in Iraq, and he hopes that these stories will help to turn our attention away from issues of sexuality within the Anglican Communion.

How Calvinist are you? Take the test and find out

There has been much talk of Calvin lately on the event of his 500th birthday. The best bit Mouse has found so far is a link from Faith Central in the Times to the C-Factor test, to see how Calvinist you are.

This test was developed by Trouw newspaper for a recent survey on Calvinism it organised with Radio Netherlands Worldwide. It asks 25 questions about your attitudes and values, and gives you information on each one on the Calvinist approach to each (after you've answered, of course, to avoid prejudicing your responses).

Faith Central scored 47% on the test. Mouse is surprised to find that he is 64% Calvinist, although he thinks that's probably a good thing.

A rather unslightly scrap

Mouse has watched with open mouth as Anglican Mainstream (your source of gay interest news) has lined up Greenbelt and CMS in their sights. The accusation made is that Greenbelt is taking part in the 'gayification of the church' by inviting gay Christians to participate in this year's arts festival, and that CMS are implicated in this as event sponsors. They then called on readers to write to CMS to complain about the situation.

When Mouse first read this, he was baffled by CMS had been singled out as the 'sponsor' to get complaints, as Greenbelt is supported by literally dozens of organisations. And why not complain directly to Greenbelt, if that's where the problem lies? Greenbelt itself seemed an odd point of attack, as it is an arts festival, and is not affiliated to any particular church denomination or theological positions.

CMS have now responded to the articles by affirming their commitment to Biblical orthodoxy, but pointing out that their call to missions means they must be 'out there'. They also point out that they are not sponsors but 'associates', although its not clear what the difference is.

This little scrap leaves no-one with any credit, and shows just how deep the divide is becoming in the church over issues of sexuality. Mouse thinks it was wrong of Anglican Mainstream to publish this article in the first place, and unnecessary for CMS to respond. Mouse advises Chris Sugden, secretary to Anglican Mainstream, to think hard about the editorial policy for the site, or he will soon find his website will be ignored by all but a small number of hard core conservative Anglicans.

Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi, gets a peerage

The Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, has been given a peerage. In joining the cross benches of the Lords' Sacks follows in the footsteps of his predecessor as Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits.

Significantly, however, the Chief Rabbi's Office emphasised that the appointment was made by Lords Appointment Commission, an advisory body set up by the Prime Minister to make recommendations for non-party-political peerages, rather than by Gordon Brown himself, to whom the Chief Rabbi is, apparently, particularly close.

Mouse is intrigued by this, as Brown has been pretty overt in appealing to the Catholic vote recently, most notably by dangling the prospect of a peerage for Cardinal O'Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster. At the same time, reform of the Lords is being proposed by Brown, which will almost certainly challenge the existing position of Church of England Bishops in the Lords.

Overall, Mouse is pleased that religious leaders are still being proposed for the Lords, but would be concerned if they were being treated as 'minority groups', with aim of ticking boxes by having a certain number of each religious group in the Lords. The whole point of the Lords is not to represent people - that's what the Commons if for, and why it has primacy over the Lords. The Lords is distinct in having experience and wisdom on the benches to challenge the government and refine legislation.

Sacks has both wisdom and experience, so is a good choice.

NHS: "An orgasm a day keeps the doctor away"

NHS Sheffield have put out a leaflet to parents, teachers and youth workers intended to update sex education. The Times reported yesterday its rather shocking contents.

The leaflet says that school pupils have a 'right' to an enjoyable sex life, advises sex and masturbation to increase cardiovascular health, and uses the slogan 'an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away'.

The logic behind the leaflet is that it is trying to break away from the failed sex education advice of the past, and give young people the ability to make fully informed decisions about sex free of peer pressure. Steve Slack, director of the Centre for HIV and Sexual Health at NHS Sheffield and one of the authors of the leaflet, argues that the information encourages young people to delay losing their virginity until they are sure they will enjoy the experience.

Mouse thinks this is rather misjudged, to put it mildly. It is not for the NHS to act as social worker, parent or youth worker. Mouse does not know Mr Slack, but suspects he doesn't have a clue about young people's attitudes to sex. Britain has a sexual health epidemic, and promoting sex amongst young people in this way is not a sensible way of tackling the issue.

Tearfund disappointed by G8 outcome on climate change

Once again, a major global summit results in lots of talk of ambitious targets for carbon reduction. Hooray!

Only, without the financial backing to make the commitments real, it is nothing more than words. This is the accusation being made by Tearfund. The Christian aid agency have said that G8 leaders have 'squandered' the opportunity to agree funding to help poor countries respond.

Tearfund's Director of Advocacy, Paul Cook, said, "Ambitious goals for 2020 emissions targets have sunk without trace and the financial bone of contention still remains."

He continued, "Unfortunately, what we have seen this week is a shocking abdication of leadership at a time when the G8, in the midst of a global economic crisis, were desperately needed to put their own interests aside and focus more on those who have never known anything else other than financial lack."

Still, we have the G20 to look forward to in September, so lets not give up hope. It really does show the importance of people keeping the pressure on these leaders. Mouse has said before that the only reason a politician will act on an issue is if they believe there is political capital to be gained from doing so. In other words, if they think action on climate change will make them popular, they'll do it.

Top 10 twittering bishops and clergy

Congratulations to Bishop Alan Wilson for reclaiming top spot.

Last time Mouse published his top 10 twittering Bishops and Clergy list, he had some queries about how the ranking was compiled.

This time, he has used Twitter Grader for an independent third party view. This takes all your twitter statistics into account to give an overall grade of your strength. There are one or two odd things in there as a result of this system.

Since there was a six way tie in the rankings, the top 10 has become a top 12.

1. Bishop Alan Wilson (alantlwilson) - 99

2. Archbishop John Sentamu (johnsentamu) - 98.2

3. Rev Frances Wookey (countryvicar) - 95.2

4. Bishop Pete Broadbent (pete173) - 95.2

5. Rev Michele Barzey (Afrobehn) - 95

6. Bishop Nick Baines (nickbaines) - 95

7. Rev Alastair McCullom (revdal) - 94

8. Rev David Meldrum (vicardave) - 94

9. Rev James Ogley (riggwelter) - 94

10. Rev Kathryn (goodinparts) - 94

11. Rev Peter Ould (pould) - 94

12. Rev Simon Rundell (frsimon) - 94

If you're interested, Mouse's grade is 98.2.

Did Pam Rhodes endorse Mouse at Surefish awards?

Mouse has to admit that he missed this quote on the day itself, but Christian Today is quoting surefish web awards host Pam Rhodes as having said, "We're getting information on everything now from the computer. We reach for the mouse and not the directory". Now you may have missed it, but Mouse suspects this was a subtle endorsement of The Church Mouse. See what she did? "we reach for the mouse and not the directory".

Christian Today seem to have got their grammar slightly wrong as 'the mouse' should have been 'The Mouse', but otherwise, it seems a pretty clear endorsement to me.

Thanks Pam, and keep reading.

General Synod ... an they're off!

The General Synod of the Church of England is underway in York.

Mouse will maintain his policy from last Synod of only reporting on it when something interesting happens.

If you want to a blow-by-blow account of proceedings, Mouse recommends Thinking Anglicans or Justin Brett's General Synod blog.

The most interesting comment so far has come from Ruth Gledhill, who looks at the agenda and sees a concerted move to take power away from the laity and give it to the Bishops.

Ireland's new blasphemy laws

Back in May, Mouse told his readers about proposals in Ireland for new blasphemy laws. Ireland have never had a law on blasphemy before, despite it technically being a requirement of the constitution. For this reason, Dermot Ahern, the Justice Minister, has filled the 'void' and created a new law of blasphemy.

It is a strange development, as there seems to be virtually no demand for this law, and it has been ushered in under the cover of 'defamation law reform'.

Mouse's view is that blasphemy laws reinforce many of the worst aspects of religious dialogue. The offence created by blasphemy laws is one of causing offence. This is precisely the direction of travel in the UK, albeit in a more secular setting, where authorities of all kind, including the police, are increasingly seeing 'causing offence' as an offence.

The rather obvious problem with this approach is that it creates an incentive to be outraged, whilst doing nothing to protect religious liberty. In fact, in Britain the experience has been quite the reverse, with various groups claiming offence at Christians, just for being Christians.

Friday round up

Here's my round up from the blogosphere. Ten of the best from the blogs this week:

1. Dave Walker in the Church Times blog sums up some of the coverage from the blogs on the FCA launch

2. Ruth Gledhill on the Papal Encyclical (if you need to ask, you don't want to know), and Riazat Butt's punchy summary

3. Peter Ould has a league table of Anglican Blogs

4. Bishop Alan Wilson muses on 'why ordination, why today?'

5. Bishop David Thomson looks at the oldest Bible online (and goes to the exhibition)

6. The Jubilee Centre Blog on youth development

7. The Urban Pastor on becoming a missional family

8. Bishop David Chillingworth on reform

9. Heresy Corner on Our Lady of the Tree Stump (and a bit on Ireland's blasphemy laws)

10. Mark Brown on Twitter fundraising