BBC Director General tells head of religion not to discuss his faith

An interesting snippet has emerged from a talk by Aaqil Ahmed, the BBC Head of Religion and Ethics, at the Church and Media Network Conference.

Ahmed is reported to have said, "Mark Thompson said to me, 'you must stop talking about this Muslim thing', I said: 'You may have noticed, Mark, I've never raised it; everybody else raises it. I've never mentioned I'm a Muslim … nobody ever asked me. I'm a professional who's been working in television for 19 years. I should be judged on my professional background and what I've done."

This is interesting for a number of reasons, but the one that most interests Mouse is that it seems both men consider it a topic that should be avoided.  Thompson clearly doesn't like it, but Ahmed's response indicates that he would rather not talk about his faith either, as he states that he has 'never mentioned' that he is a muslim.

And if 'everyone else raises it' Mouse can only conclude that Thompson and Ahmed are the only two people who don't want to talk about it.

Mouse an understand that they would seek to avoid the rather low brow discussion that took place about whether a muslim was a good choice for the role, however, Mouse would love to hear about Ahmed's religious beliefs.  It is always interesting to hear prominent people's views on religious matters, and someone with a role which involves fulfilling the BBC's statutory duty to produce religious programming as part of their public service obligations.

What a shame that they are so fearful of being criticised that we don't get to hear more.

Speaker John Bercow Vs the Church of England?

Over the weekend a story emerged in the Telegraph and Mail about a fascinating row at Westminster.

According to the reports, John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, has clashed with Church of England authorities over the role of Chaplain to the House of Commons.  This job has historically involved being installed as subdean of Westminster Abbey, and candidates have been effectively selected for the job by the Dean of Westminster Abbey.  This time round, The current Dean of Westminster Abbey, the Very Rev Dr John Hall, selected Rev Andrew Tremlett for the job.

However, reports state that John Bercow objected to the job going to a middle-aged white man and instead appointed Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, a Jamacan born vicar, who's parish is in a deprived area of East London.  John Hall refused to accept this, and as a result the job is now effectively being split in two, with Andrew Tremlett being made a Canon at Westminster Abbey, and Rose Hudson-Wilkin retaining her parish responsibilities.

The press reports also indicate that Speaker Bercow has effectively severed links with Westminster Abbey, amid a souring of relations.

From Mouse's perspective there is an awful lot not in the press reports, so he suspects we don't yet have anything like the full story.  For example, why was John Hall so implacably opposed to the idea?  We have also not yet heard from any of the protagonists first hand, but are reliant on 'sources close to ...'.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of obvious points to make.  First it is deeply ironic that a white, middle-aged man would object so strongly to the appointment on the basis that the candidate was white, middle-class and male.  Secondly, John Bercow is not a Christian, so it is strange that he is in a position to be so adamant as to who the best candidate for the job is.

Mouse's initial reaction to this story was that it was a ridiculous piece of political nonsense, involving the selection of a candidate for a job on the basis of race, class and gender on a level which at first sight appears contrary to anti-discrimination law.  But on reflection that just seems to be the Daily Mail angle on the story.  Mouse is prepared to offer a little more credit to everyone involved.

Bercow is Speaker of the House of Commons, and he is selecting the Chaplain to his own institution.  In that regard, he can chose whoever he wants.  It is much more likely that he favoured Rose Hudson-Wilkin because she is dynamic and engaging, rather than because she is black and female.  Mouse is sure that Rose Hudson-Wilkin will be great in the role.

Mouse also thinks it is a good idea to separate the Abbey from the House of Commons.  Mouse would like to see a greater separation of Church and State to help the good old CofE focus on what really matters, and not get caught up in the pomp, circumstance and politics of Westminster when it should be focused on its mission.

Don't be afraid to ask for money - new report on Christian giving

A new report on Christian giving, sponsored by the Evangelical Alliance, tells church leaders not to be afraid to ask for money.

Clearly the authors of the report are not so shy, as they are asking £40 for a copy of the report.  As a result, Mouse is reliant on press reports of the content, rather than the original source, which is not Mouse's usual modus operandi.

Still, there are some interesting things in "Why Christians Give", as a result of studying the attitudes of 2000 members of the Evangelical Alliance.  The first thing is something which was rather buried in the detail of some of the reports.  That is that evangelical Christians are incredibly generous.  The average amount donated by them last year was 11.5% of their household income, with 6.5% given to the local church and 5% to other charities.  That's pretty incredible.

However, it is the message to church leaders that is most attention grabbing.  The author of the report, Redina Kolaneci, said "Most Christian leaders seem to believe that they are called to 'do mission' but do not consider that raising the money for this work is part of their remit.  They tend to sweep money issues under the carpet and fail to preach inspiring sermons on the subject of generosity."

Mouse suspects there would be some marked differences if the study had been conducted purely within the good old CofE.

The financial pressures on the Church of England are pretty sharply felt in many places, whilst the CofE's position as the established church and provider of many quality schools, means that there are a large number of church members who are still finding their faith (if we are being kind), who cannot be expected to be as generous as those who have already given themselves wholeheartedly to Christ.  If we were being less understanding, we could say that people who turn up occasionally out of a sense of guilt or duty or just to get their kids into the local church school will never go for a Biblical tithe.

Nevertheless, there are important lessons to be learned from this study.  Its just that it'll cost you £40 to learn then.

Sunday reflection

With kind permission from Devotions Chop Chop.


The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. Proverbs 10:3

I suspect that this will be the first of a number of troublesome verses. Why troublesome? Look at the nation of Sudan. Are there Believers there? Do they go hungry? If this verse is true, then there should be no hunger or thirsting in nations like Sudan. So, how do we reconcile it?

As I’ve stated elsewhere, the Book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom, and it is a book of principles to live by. In other words, in general if you do X, then Y will happen.

Having said that, let’s look at the second half of the verse. What specifically is it that the wicked are craving? Good food? Or something else? We’re not sure. Often it’s wealth or greed or fame.

When I was in school, a philosophy teacher made a comment that has stayed with me. “If you’ve been longing for a Porsche, and I gave you one, you’d be tired of it in a year. A year.” Often what we crave is significantly more important than the actual thing we crave. It’s like that for “the wicked” as well. They are never satisfied. And sometimes “we” can be the they if we’re not careful.

Dawkins wants to set up a school (sort of)

It has been widely reported that Richard Dawkins would like to set up an atheist school under the the new government's 'free schools' plan, based on the Telegraph report of his interview with mumsnet.  Mouse simply points out, that it actually reads like he has no intention of doing any such thing.  Here's what he actually said - you decide.

Thank you for suggesting that I should start an atheist free school. I like the idea very much, although I would prefer to call it a free-thinking free school.

I would never want to indoctrinate children in atheism, any more than in religion. Instead, children should be taught to ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded.

If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists.

I would also teach comparative religion, and teach it properly without any bias towards particular religions, and including historically important but dead religions, such as those of ancient Greece and the Norse gods, if only because these, like the Abrahamic scriptures, are important for understanding English literature and European history.

Of course, this merely repeats the failure in Dawkins' argument that you could demand evidence, be sceptical, critical and open-minded and still conclude that there is a God.

Impact of the budget - progressive Vs regressive

There has been some comment from Christian blogs on the impact of the recent UK emergency budget on the poor.  The concern has largely been that the budget would hurt the poorest hardest, as a result of the VAT increase, which has a proportionately greater impact on those with lower income, and the cuts to other benefits.

However, Mouse commented elsewhere that he was reserving judgement until some more thorough analysis was done, as much of the comment so far has been rather piecemeal, looking at individual budget changes in isolation and not the total package.

Paul Mason's Newsnight blog highlighted the chart below.

This chart was published by the Treasury, and is the government's attempt to show the impact of all the budget measures.  It is subject to all the weaknesses of other financial models, as it is trying to show a number of things that are difficult to put on a simple format.  It is pretty obvious that basing analysis on income is OK as far as it goes, but is not necessarily a consistent basis for comparison.  For example, students have very low income, but tend to finance this from loans, savings and parental contributions so have higher expenditure than income.  The question of whether to model the impact on income or expenditure is particularly important for this budget, as the VAT increase is a tax on expenditure.  It is also pretty obvious that some budget changes will vary depending on other household circumstances, such as the number of children in the household.

Nevertheless, its the best that the Treasury could do.

What it shows is that the bottom 10% don't do too well, and the top 10% do worst of all, but everyone else is pretty much evenly hit - all within a few tenths of a percentage point of each other, although there is a slight worseing of impact the higher up the income scale you go.

The reason the bottom 10% is hit harder is because they don't work, so don't benefit from the cut in income tax.

The IFS repeat the Treasury's analysis, but add a chart showing the impact of all changes since the economic crisis began.  That shows largely the same picture, except that the richest 10% are impacts much greater than everyone else.

However, the IFS add a couple of interesting details.  You'll notice that their chart shows a split in the elements of yesterday's analysis which were already announced by the previous Labour government and those which were new announcements.  Its pretty clear that the new elements were regressive, shown in the pink portions.  However, its not necessarily fair to take these elements out, as the government would argue that they consciously maintained those elements which the previous government had announced, and designed the new announcements to fit in with them.

The IFS also point out that neither the Treasury nor the IFS include the impact of a number of changes, including benefits cuts after 2012/13, which will hit the poorest harder, and a number of other cuts such as housing benefit cuts and disability living allowance cuts which are likely to have a greater impact on the poor.  These are likely to have a greater impact than the increase in capital gains tax, which hits the rich harder than the poor.  As such, they conclude that the overall impact of the budget is 'probably regressive'.

Mouse's verdict is that it is a pretty marginal call.

The other aspect of the budget that this doesn't show is the impact on the world's poorest.  By this Mouse refers to the maintenance of the international aid budget.  For this, Christian Aid are quite right to thank the Chancellor.

Religion on the telly (but not on ITV or C5)

Religion on the TV is often hotly debated between Christians who argue that religion is not adequately covered and atheists who argue that it is covered too much.

Naturally the reality is somewhere in between.  Its pretty hard to define 'religious programming' for starters.  Mouse wonders whether the new BBC2 comedy Rev will count.   Broadcast output is also now pretty diverse, so hours of coverage can include coverage on digital radio channels or obscure cable channels as well as traditional terrestrial channels.

So when one side finds some numbers on religious broadcasting output its pretty hard to get under the skin of them to work out what they mean.

These numbers are pretty simple, however.  ITV plans to show one hour of religious output this year.  Channel Five plans none.  BBC1 and BBC2 plan 110 hours, however, which sounds much better, if only we knew what was included.

These numbers were uncovered by Bishop Nigel McCulloch after writing to the major broadcasters.  The response from ITV is particularly interesting.  They state that the average audience share for their religious programs in 2009 was poor - so they don't want to do it any more.

It seems to Mouse that demanding more religious output from people who don't want to make it doesn't make much sense.  The reason they don't want to make it is because viewing figures are so poor.  It is this that should be mourned.

Friday round up

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

1. David Keen on the new BBC sit com Rev

2. Bishop Alan Wilson on hats (its a Mitregate reference)

3. Maggi Dawn on the archbishops, evangelism and the status of women

4. Tall Skinny Kiwi on whether the emerging church is in retreat

5. Toby Young on Dawkins' school plan

6. BRIN on the life expectancy of Methodists

7. FaithWorld on the discovery of the oldest images of the Apostles

8. Dave Bish on the brilliant question of how could there be day and night before the sun was made

9. John Baxter-Brown on Sharing the Gospel of Salvation

10. Church Times blog on Lambeth Palace's Mitre policy

CofE based sitcom to start on BBC2 next week

Last year Mouse reported that a new sitcom had been commissioned by the BBC to be based around a CofE vicar in an inner city parish.  This had almost entirely slipped Mouse's mind until he read in the Church Times blog that it is to start next week.

The BBC website describes the program below.  From Mouse's perspective this all sounds rather close to the bone, and not entirely funny.  Still Mouse said before that more people have been influenced in their views of the Church of England by the Vicar of Dibley than by anything actually done by the Church itself in the past ten years, so this new sit com may turn out to be important.

Anybody can and does come into St Saviour’s – and into Adam’s life. From scheming MPs trying to educate their children on the cheap to Colin, a heavy drinking, unemployable lost soul who is Adam’s most devoted parishioner. Then there’s Mick, the local crackhead in need of £20 to visit his ‘dying mother’ in Southend… She’s died three times in the last 12 months.

Every day throws up a moral conflict for our vicar. Adam’s door must always be open to urban sophisticates with ulterior motives, the chronically lonely, the lost, the homeless, the poor and the insane. All are welcome at St Saviour’s and Adam can’t turn any of them away. Even if they’re clearly lying, mad or just very annoying.

In addition to caring for his flock Adam has to worry about the financial burden of running a huge, decaying building – with a smashed stained glass window – and a dwindling congregation. He has to contend with hopeless volunteers, ambitious church rivals, the sinister attentions of the Archdeacon and the romantic attentions of Adoha, a renowned ‘cassock-chaser’ and church regular. Even his supposedly supportive Lay Reader Nigel is a pedantic careerist who thinks he should be running the place himself.

Church of England's call to evangelism

Yes, you read that correctly.  The good old CofE has issued a report calling us all to witness to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  OK its in general synod speak, its a 47 page document with no contents page and it is written like an academic paper, but don't be fooled.  This is a call to evangelism from the bishops.

The paper, Sharing the Gospel of Salvation, comes in response to a private members motion at General Synod which was widely reported endorsing the uniqueness of Christ in a multi-cultural world.  It sets out the cultural context for evangelism, the history of evangelism the Biblical imperative for evangelism and the urgent need for evangelism.

If only someone could translate it into a more user-friendly document ...

Daily religious slot on C4

Channel 4 have announced a new five minute religious slot which will be broadcast immediately after the Channel 4 News, under the name 4thought.tv.  The slot will be a straight to camera monologue from a broad range of contributors.  The first five in the series will be reflections on the 7 July bomb attacks.  The Guardian report:

Channel 4's head of specialist factual, Ralph Lee, said contributors to the slot will be "as diverse as the views expressed". They will include members of minority religions including Bahá'í and Zoroastrianism.

Lee added: "These films will give voice to a plethora of beliefs and opinions... Crucially, it will provide a space for views about religions and ethics that receive virtually no coverage on any other channel."

A website, 4thought.tv will also be launched. The strand will be made by independent producer Wadell Media.

The British Humanist Association were quick to criticise the slot. Naomi Phillips, BHA Head of Public Affairs, said, ‘We already have hundreds of hours of time across the main broadcasting channels dedicated to religion, with nothing comparable for non-religious people in the population, including not a single programme for humanists ever broadcast by the BBC. Another prime-time slot dedicated to religion is unnecessary. It may even be as unpopular with non-religious viewers as Thought for the Day, which actively excludes non-religious contributors, and about which thousands of our own supporters have complained and many more just switch off when it is aired. If Channel 4 really want this slot to be “diverse”, they must reflect the fact that a large and growing proportion of the population is non-religious, in addition to including voices of minority religions and beliefs in the country.’

Well, lets see what its like, eh.

Women bishops - Archbishops have a new approach, and they'll tell us what it is later

The Archbishops of York and Canterbury have made a dramatic (well as far as legislation in the CofE gets dramatic) intervention on the issue of admitting women to the episcopate.  Mouse will try to explain in simple words what has been announced today.

The problem at hand is that supporters of women bishops don't want their authority compromised when compared to their male colleagues.  That means they must be admitted to the episcopate an a completely equal footing.  However, this is a problem for those who cannot accept women as bishops, as they could find themselves unable to avoid the authority of a woman bishop under this arrangement.  They are looking for something which allows them alternative oversight from a male bishop.

This circle has not been squared in decades of debate.  The Revision Committee struggled with the concepts, and could not find a way of meeting these two competing demands.  General Synod debated it two years ago and rejected a plan which provided alternative oversight.  And so the debate has raged.

Until now.

Rowan and John, after consultation with the House of Bishops, seem to have a new idea.  Except they won't tell us any of the detail.  Their plan is to allow women bishops on an equal footing, but where parishes request alternative oversight, some kind of voluntary scheme will be set up to allow for a male bishop to exercise authority in that diocese.

Since the likelihood that they have genuinely come up with something new is rather slim, this announcement has not really been met with any enthusiasm by either supporters or opponents of women bishops.  Women And The Church (WATCH) have said that they have already compromised in supporting the legislation as published, so imply they are unlikely to be in the mood to compromise further.  Forward in Faith have indicated that they are sceptical about this announcement, but their official statement 'warmly welcomes' the announcement whilst waiting for the final text, as they were resolutely opposed to the legislation as published.

So where does that leave us?  Waiting for more information on what this proposal really is.  And anxious about the marathon 24 hours of debate on this subject scheduled for the next session of General Synod in July.

As you may tell, Mouse is not entirely convinced this is anything different from the old 'code of conduct' arrangement, but with a different name.  There seem to be no guarantees for those who cannot accept women bishops, albeit a broader framework is set out to allow a voluntary arrangement.

Vuvuzelas for the Papal visit?

How strange.  From what we hear in the papers (well mainly Damian Thompson), the Papal visit is in some trouble.  The cost appears to be rising, and there is a fair bit of organisational confusion over whether venues have yet been booked, with the Government stepping in to make sure it is not a total disaster.  On top of this, there is a concerted movement to organise protests throughout the visit.

So with that back-drop Archbishop Vincent Nichols is worried that people will hoot their vuvuzelas at the Pope?

The concern seems to be that England's football fans will have got used to blowing their vuvuzelas in South Africa whilst watching the world cup, and will dust them off in September when Pope Benedict arrives.  Some would consider this wild optimism.  Seems rather a long shot to Mouse, and not the biggest thing Mouse would be worrying about.

Sunday reflection

This week's Sunday reflection, courtesy of Devotions Chop Chop.


Wisdom’s Reward
"If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer." Proverbs 9:12

I like the contrasts in this verse because we’ve done them both at times (and the latter more often than we care to remember). It’s telling us that wisdom is a reward in itself. The opposite in this case, mockery, also rewards the mocker. I know for me, it’s often my dry sarcasm or the thoughtless cynicism that gets me into trouble. I think it’s especially important to be on our guard when we’ve just been dealt a tough blow or a serious setback. It’s all too easy to do, and of course the Holy Spirit will later (or even at the time) will remind you what you just said.

But the fantastic news is that as we grow wiser and wiser, we will be rewarded for it.

Bishop Nick writes new world cup prayer for England

Mouse mentioned that the CofE had released some prayers for the world cup, written by Bishop Nick Baines.  Well following England's performance against Algeria, he has written another world cup prayer - this time for England.

Sometimes Bishop Nick is able to find the precise head of a nail and give it a good whack.

The first is simple and honest:

Oh God…

The second offers a little more:

God, who played the cosmos into being, please help England rediscover their legs, their eyes and their hunger: that they might run more clearly, pass more nearly and enjoy the game more dearly. Amen.

How to make your church look stupid #74: argue over a hat

Oh dear oh dear.  The rifts in the Anglican Communion have plumbed new depths this week.  Some of the most senior people in the world-wide Anglican Communion, with over 80m members, were debating the merits of US Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori's hat this week.

For those lucky enough to miss this row, the news emerged that Lambeth Palace (interestingly we don't have any named individuals responsible) requested that Katharine Jefferts Schori not wear her mitre (the pointy Bishop's hat) when she presided at a service at Southwark Cathedral.  In the event she carried her mitre.

Reaction from The Episcopal Church in the US was that this was a ridiculous insult, although some conservatives have accused Jefferts Schori of insulting Canterbury by having the mitre visible at all.  Astonishing.

Ahead of the visit some had argued that the Presiding Bishop should not come at all, and others questioned what status the Presiding Bishop would have.  However, Mouse did not hear a single person argue that the Church of England should allow her to preside on condition that they could regulate her headwear.

Ruth Gledhill provides further evidence of the madness of this whole episode by pointing out that other American women bishops have worn their mitres in England, including in Southwark Cathedral.

Mouse is struggling to find anyone who hasn't reacted with anything other than total bemusement at this episode.  And on this one, Mouse is with the crowd.

Guest post: Pete Phillips from CODEC on Mouse's comments on #CMN10 and other CODEC news

Mouse is pleased that a lively debate has been taking place on yesterday's post on the Churches Media Network conference.  One of the things which came out was some reference to CODEC, a research project based at Durham University.  Pete Phillips, CODEC Director of Research, Centre for Biblical Literacy and Communication, got in touch to offer his views, as well as some other news from CODEC.

Pete writes:

Mouse’s comments on the Churches Media Network 2010 Conference #cmn10 included  an endorsement of CODEC’s Digital Symposium in 2009 and a call for CODEC to be involved in next year’s Network Conference #cmn11.  I was grateful to Mouse for the endorsement of CODEC’s work. 

Mouse’s basic critique of #cmn10 was that it didn’t match the advertising – it offered new media (at least suggesting some discussion of the implications of ‘cloud’ computing and its impacts – which are not just crowd sourcing a verse of a song!) but tended to deliver some excellent reflection on old media.  The comments suggest however that there was a good smattering of new media present throughout the conference with a twitterfall being set up during the event and a number of twitterers encouraging more and more use of new media – although a thunderstorm in the middle cut out all internet connection across the venue for a period.  There was a mix of old and new, it seems but there was a lot about ‘old’ media perhaps because of the make up and history of the conference.  It was clear that people really appreciated the BBC discussions and the opportunity to listen to ‘screenwriting’ royalty and I’m looking forward to seeing some of the intern presentations and listening to the audiocasts now available from the CMN temporary website.

But I wasn’t there and nor was Mouse.  I have to say that I was able to pick up a new media vibe from the Conference through receiving lots of tweets about what was happening (several saying that CODEC seemed to get a good few mentions during the Conference).  If you’re interested, Bex Lewis kept a record of the tweets made with the #cmn10 hashtag here: http://export.twapperkeeper.com/cmn10-4c1365ca31c75.tar.  Don’t you just love the name ‘twapperkeeper’?

Although CODEC wasn’t officially there, Andrew Graystone, CMN Chair, is a good friend of CODEC and is on our Steering Group.  Andrew is working with us next week on our Media training event for clergy and Christian professionals (Medialit).  And the indefatiguable Bex Lewis (a polymath, no less) was there and fielding some questions about CODEC and the work we are doing – more on Bex below. 

Having said all that, certainly, we’d be more than happy to talk with CMN about #cmn11 and increase our involvement in this important conference.  It is important to push into new areas of thinking (and yes, I think there is a difference between traditional media and new media) – cloud networking, the implications of new technology and the age of distraction, the instantaneous nature of contemporary news media, and the democratization of reporting are key factors of how the media engages with the contemporary world.  I heard of the West Cumbria shootings on Twitter long before the BBC had picked it up.

And talking of the news, Mouse says I can plug some of what CODEC are doing at the moment – so briefly…

Bex Lewis and the Big Read

While I’m posting, Bex Lewis is starting work with us from July 1^st for 2.5 days a week based at Premier Christian Media in Pimlico, London.  Bex is going to working with a number of agencies (Premier, SPCK, Biblefresh, Methodist Church, and others) to develop a national version of The Big Read – an initiative launched by Bishop Tom Wright in the NE of England last year.  Watch this space for lots more in preparation for Lent 2011.

A Theological Refraction on the Internet, 16 October 2010, at #cnm10

Put Saturday 16^th October 2010 into your diaries and book your train journies to London NOW (or as soon as you can!).  Last year, Mouse won an award at the Christian New Media Awards.  These are being held this year on Friday 15^th October (and, according to her twitter stream, one of the judges is blogger Maggi Dawn). 

On the Saturday, Premier and CODEC are joining forces to put on the first Christian New Media Conference at the CASS Business School.  This will be a conference with three streams – one for church leaders, one for technicians, and one for theologians. CODEC are running this third stream which is likely to be called “A Theological Refraction on the Internet” – a gathering of academic, professional and amateur theologians (I think I might be all three!) to look at some of the theological implications of new technology and the internet and glimpse into the future of what is coming and what the internet may yet offer. 

We’re planning for the whole event (#cnm10) to be twitter friendly (twitterfalls, interaction, questions), streamed live and also available by podcast and videocast after the event.  We’re currently putting together the website and booking arrangements for the event and should launch all the details at the beginning of July – look out for more details.

Prayer/Funding

Finally, a prayer request!  We’ve put in a bid (for £30,000 over 3 years) to one of the major churches to help us set up a major Biblical Literacy Project in rural North Yorkshire.  The bid is going through the processes at the moment and it will be so encouraging to get some good news.  If you’re a funder and you want to partner CODEC or you need to talk about commissioning some research from CODEC – my email is below.

Thanks and if you’d like to receive emails about CODEC’s work, send your email to me p.m.phillips@durham.ac.uk or visit the CODEC website: www.durham.ac.uk/codec

Rooney's religion

Wayne Rooney is a Catholic - and he appears to believe in it too.

The Independent is carrying a report on a hilarious Alastair Campbell moment for Wayne Rooney.  Campbell is famous for interjecting in an interview with Tony Blair with the line "We don't do God".  Well yesterday, Wayne Rooney was asked about the cross he weares during training.  He initially answered "its my religion".  He also pointed out that he has worn a cross in training for years, but the journalists never turn up to see him train and only see him in matches where he cannot wear a cross for obvious reasons.  However, at that point FA head of media relations, Mark Whittle, interrupted with "we don't do religion.".

Why on earth not?

The paper also reports that Wayne's wife Coleen's family are devout Catholics and that Rooney himself was brought up in the Church.  Doesn't seem that odd - why would the FA be worried about it?

Friday round up

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

1. Ruth Gledhill on mitre-gate (first episcopal row over a hat for some time)

2. Cranmer's Curate reckons Christopher Hitchens is right about religion

3. Tall Skinny Kiwi on how to survive a Christian bookstore

4. Bishop Alan Wilson on lions, unicorns, mods and rockers

5. Bishop David Hamid offers Rowan Williams a birthday prayer

6. The Jubilee Centre blog on the BP disaster

7. David Keen on Tesco's baptism merchandise

8. The Benedictine Nuns of East Hendred on online community

9. Maggi Dawn is not impressed with the idea of delaying the decision on women bishops

10. Significant Truths on justice and forgiveness

A messy justice in Northern Ireland

The release this week of the final report of the epic 12 year Saville enquiry into the dreadful events on Bloody Sunday brings with it questions that Christians will find difficult to engage with.  The report brings into sharp focus how the simple call for justice can be terribly complicated in the real world, yet it shows the pressing need for that call to ring out ever louder.

On one level the report is very straightforward.  The shooting dead of 13 unarmed protesters was "unjustified and unjustifiable".  David Cameron did not mince his words either, describing its conclusions as 'unequivocal'. 

And yet the context is far from simple.  There are many killers in Northern Ireland who are now walking free under prisoner release schemes, agreed to through gritted teeth as part of the difficult process of convincing all sides to put their weapons down.  Indeed the Saville report concludes that Martin McGuinness, now Deputy First Minister in the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly, was 'probably' in the area armed with a sub-machine gun, and that he 'possibly' fired it.

Anne McElvoy writes an excellent piece in the Evening Standard setting out some of the political context of this report.  She points to the fact that David Cameron can now afford to be a little more equivocal than previous Prime Ministers and Conservative politicians as the passage of time has meant that the Conservative Prime Minister in 1972, Ted Heath, is now dead, for example.  She also points to the irony of a released IRA prisoner lecturing the British government on its wrongs, with the remark "up to a point, Madam".

But it is Anne McElvoy's question about justice that stuck Mouse most.  Where is the justice in all this?  Should we now seek to pursue the British Army, or individuals within it, for these 'unjustifiable' killings?  If so, how do we square that with the release of convicted terrorist killers?

It is too glib for the Christian to simply say that justice is in Christ, although this is the truth.  Sometimes Christians must get their hands dirty in these messy situations.  Mouse is full of admiration for Canon Andrew White, who provides an extraordinary example of this working with religious leaders in Iraq.  He commented in a speech Mouse heard recently that when the US issued its notorious deck of cards featuring the 52 most wanted men in Iraq, he had  met 26 of them in the previous month.  Andrew shows how justice can be found in peace and hope, even in the most difficult circumstances.  Andrew often says that you can't bring peace without dealing with the people who are perpetrating the violence.  Sometimes justice is not at all simple.

The Church & Media Network annual conference

Mouse did not make it to the Church and Media Network 2010 conference (mainly due to inclination), but had hoped to get some views on what went on.

The blurb for the three day conference was terribly cutting edge, with the conference subtitled "voices from the cloud" (for those not in the know, the cloud is computer speak - suggest you try wikipedia).  The pre-conference blurb said:

We live in a cloud of digital information. This year's Church and Media Conference will be listening for voices from the cloud.

In the new media climate billions of us are continually connected. Every second of the day a million new stories are added to the cloud. This year's conference explores the human dimensions of life in the digital environment. How is the changing climate affecting content producers and consumers? What is the forecast for people who work in traditional media? And in maelstrom of stories how can voices of faith and integrity be heard?

The Church and Media Conference 2010 provides a unique opportunity for media professionals and faith leaders to engage in a lively debate about the impact of the media on society.

Information on the latest developments in media and telecommunications
Vision from industry leaders
Wisdom and challenge from key religious thinkers

So with this high tech new media blurb what was on the agenda?  A keynote address from Roger Bolton.  The BBC's Aaqil Ahmed from the BBC on its religious output. A debate between Andrew Copson of the BHA and Andrew Graystone, presenter of Radio 4's Daily Service and Sunday Worship on religion in the public space.

Spotted any new media yet?  Anything 'from the cloud'?

In fact, there was just one session in the entire three days that could even remotely be described as 'new media' - a one hour session on social media with Carrie Longton, from Mumsnet, and Simon Cohen of Global Tolerance.

After seeing very little of substance, a handy summary of the key events appeared on the Guardian's CiF site by Karen Burke from the Methodist Church, which seems to confirm that it was very much an old media conference.

Mouse was not there, so wouldn't want to criticise what he has no doubt was a great conference.  However, it seems to Mouse to be rather old media.  Mouse suggests that next year they team up with the guys from CODEC who put together this years conference on Christianity in the Digital Space.  Not only was that focused on the digital space, but it was also a bit more new media in its comms approach.  It had a blog, a live feed on U-stream and much tweeting.  All this meant that you could engage with it even if you weren't there.

All you need to know about the Papal visit to the UK (sort of)

The Catholic Church has released a booklet on the Papal visit to the UK.  They've gone for the baffling title 'heart speaks unto heart' for the booklet which covers such topics as 'Why is the Pope meeting the Queen', 'Why is Pope Benedict meeting leaders of other churches' and 'What about child protection'.

Damian Thompson from the Telegraph has already described the booklet as an 'embarrassment' and Mouse has to admit that its rather light on detail.  Then again, that's what the website is for.

The humility of Bill Gates?

Mouse heard Bill Gates being interviewed on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning by Evan Davis.  Davis's final question was whether Bill wanted to be remembered for his work with his charitable foundation, which is currently working hard to eliminate polio, or his work with Microsoft.  Mouse was fully expecting him to say he would rather be remembered for the Foundation, and how important that was to him.  But Mouse was wrong.  His answer was that he wasn't sure he would be remembered at all.

Was this genuine humility?  It sounded like it to Mouse, and he was rather struck by it.  His answer sounded like he genuinely wasn't sure that he had done anything remarkable or lasting.  Listen for yourself and you decide.

It reminded me of a quote from Bill Hewlett who co-founded of Hewlett Packard in his garage and turned it into one of the biggest technology companies in the world.  He was asked what the secret to his success had been.  He answered that he had been lucky - "we happened to be sitting on the nose cone of a rocket when it took off" he said.

Government to put vetting and barring scheme on hold pending a review

Mouse has previously covered the previous government's increased child protection measures, known as vetting and barring.  The first incarnation of the rules were due to cover around a quarter of the adult population in a new mass registration and checking process.  These proposals were later watered down slightly, but the result was due to be an onerous increase in child protection procedures.

Today the coalition government have announced that they will suspend implementation of the scheme, pending a review.  Judging by the tone of the announcement, there is no chance that the review will be favourable on the scheme.

When Mouse has commented on this before, he has been accused of not caring about child welfare, or being ignorant of the threats - which could not be further from the truth.  In fact, Mouse objected to the scheme on the basis that it looked like an extremely expensive and bureaucratic process which would not achieve the stated objective.  In other words, there are better ways of protecting children.  One of the ironies of this scheme, for example, is that it was brought in following the Ian Huntley case, but experts were quick to point out that the system would have cleared Huntley to work with children and would not have prevented him taking up his role at a school.

This will have a major impact on churches, who would have faced a major bureaucratic operation to navigate through the proposed enhanced vetting and barring scheme.

So Mouse is pleased to hear that a second look will be taken.

What Katharine Jefferts Schori did on her trip to the UK

There was a little gnashing of teeth when it was announced that the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church in America was to visit the UK.  Archbishop Schori has been at the target of quite a bit of venom from conservatives who do not agree with the direction that TEC is heading in under her.

While KJS was here, she had three major public engagements, all of which have now taken place.

You can listen to her address to the Scottish Episcopal Church General Synod at Raspberry Rabbit, you can read her sermon at Southwark Cathedral at the Episcopal News Service and you can read about her talk at the USPG Annual Conference on their website.

Now, since there quite quite a bit of fuss over this visit, particularly amongst those in England who didn't like the sound of KJS at Southwark Cathedral, Mouse finds the blogosphere rather quiet on the subject.  The reason: absolutely nothing controversial was said.  Now is that a surprise?

Sunday reflection

One of the things that was a bit of a theme from the Church Mouse readers survey was the desire for some devotional content. Now Mouse is one for sticking to his core competence, so was reluctant to branch out too far, however Mouse is a reader of the Devotions Chop Chop blog. This blog provides short inspirational devotions direct to your RSS reader, or wherever you usually read blogs.

So Mouse got in touch with Dave Miller, and asked him if he could act as the Mouse's personal Chaplain, and cross post some of his content to this site.  Here's a trial.  Let me know what you think.


Increasing Wisdom
Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. Proverbs 9:6

Do people not walk in the way of understanding intentionally? Apparently we do, otherwise the verse would have no value. One of the ways to become wiser is to “hang” with those who are wise. What could you do differently this week to be with those who are wiser than we are? Perhaps you can take some time to read through the Book of Proverbs in one sitting.

Make it a habit of doing one thing daily to increase your wisdom. It could be praying for wisdom or being with the wise or reading just a little more in the Bible. But don’t discount the notion of seeking out those who are wise in your line of work even if they don’t have the same belief system as you do. You will be sharpened in your business skills and learn a bit more about how the “world” thinks. In this way we can be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16).

Jesus really was a baby, and there's nothing controversial in saying so

Mouse's headline is sparked by the stirred up controversy over the latest Christmas adverts from churchads.net, about which Mouse is pretty much the last Christian blogger to cover.

It strikes Mouse as something that is not at all controversial.  Whilst the Guardian headline writers might like to say it is, the only hint of controversy they could actually find in the article was a half critical comment from the ever quotable Terry Sanderson from the National Secular Society.

Even this is only a semi-criticism.  Mr Sanderson fears that it may be politically driven as part of a subliminal anti-abortion campaign, but couches that with the caveat that it might not be.

As a parent Mouse knows that there is absolutely nothing remotely controversial about this image.  Mouse has the scan for his daughter on a shelf in the living room next to the scan for the baby Mrs Mouse is expecting later in the summer.  This image speaks to the reality of Christ's birth, and the grounded normality of that extraordinary event.  It is stunning.

Perhaps that is why Mr Sanderson doesn't like it.

Guest post John Baxter-Brown from the World Council of Churches on Edinburgh 2010

John Baxter-Brown (or JBB as he is usually known) in Consultant for Evangelism at the World Council of Churches. He comes from the UK but now lives in Switzerland. Throughout his working life he has been invovled in youth work and evangelism and believes that inviting other people to engage their own stories with the story of Jesus is the ultimate privilege any Christian has. He is married with two daughters and one dog.

When John got back from the Edinburgh 2010 global mission conference, he dropped Mouse a line with his thoughts on the event.  John's own Evangelism blog can be found on the WCC website.

John writes:

The law of unintended consequences at an event in 1910 in Edinburgh is responsible for the modern missionary and ecumenical movements. This was the Edinburgh 1910 Missionary Conference, the first attempt at a genuinely international and global missions conference. Edinburgh 1910 actually failed in this – for example, there was no-one there from Latin America, and only 2 representatives from Africa (one of whom was actually included in the Asian delegation). But there were significant outcomes which have shaped the global church and world mission since then.

So this June Edinburgh 2010 was held, celebrating the centenary of 1910. E2010 was a very different conference. It was much smaller but with a much greater breadth of representation: the closing service was full of vibrancy and colour, including an African choir drawn up from churches in Edinburgh and an Indian dance group from the UK, along with the Archbishop of York preaching. There were proportionally many more women delegates.

Edinburgh 2010 was not only an event. The main work was actually a study process over several years based around 9 main themes with sub-themes (called transversals). Transversals included such issues as youth and women. The study process included academic work, and was strengthened by continental-wide and other events over the past two years. All of this material was published before the conference and explored during the few days in Edinburgh.

The outcome of E 2010 is a short document, the Common Call. It summarises some of the main themes that emerged from the Conference, such as the importance of children in the mission of God, the call to evangelism and witness, and the importance of working for justice. The document is published on the E2010 website, but I have put it up on my own blog here.

And yet, Edinburgh 2010 was also disappointing in many ways – there were still too many male talking heads, too many church leaders being self-indulgent (Dr. Sentamu was a splendid exception!) and not enough practitioners. That is, not enough people who are actually engaged in the grassroots work of evangelism and mission in the four corners of the world. And there wasn’t enough about evangelism – that wonderful ministry that invites other people to engage their own stories with the story of Jesus.

New CofE ethical investment policy - OK to invest in arms companies (as long as they don't make much money)

OK, can someone explain this.

The good old CofE has set out a new ethical investment policy on investment in arms companies.  Now Mouse knows what you're thinking.  This one is a 'no brainer', as they say in the city.  The policy must be that they won't invest in anyone who makes or sells arms, right?

Well no.

The policy is a complete ban on investing in companies involved in the production of 'indiscriminate weapons' - i.e. landmines, cluster munitions, nuclear weapons etc.  So far, so good.

As for other weaponry, however, things get a bit more complicated.

The policy is that there is a "threshold for turnover from strategic military sales which, once exceeded, should make a company an inappropriate investment for the Church national investing bodies.  This threshold, which has been accepted by the investing bodies, is 10% of turnover.".

In other words, the good old CofE will happily invest in companies which make and sell weapons so long as that makes up no more than 10% of their revenue.

Rather tellingly, the actual policy is a simple one pager, followed by six pages of explanation and justification.

Mouse still doesn't get it.

Church Mouse readers survey - your views

The second and final installment of the results of Mouse's reader survey.

How you read the Church Mouse blog


Of those who filled in the survey 9% were occasional readers, 33% were weekly readers, 51% daily readers, and 7% of you read the Mouse more than once per day.

25% of you read the blog via the website, 32% via an RSS reader, 7% via email, 7% via facebook and a stunning 29% follow on Twitter and click through if it looks interesting.

Having said that, many of you added that you follow via multiple methods (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and an RSS reader).

What you would like more or less of

Mouse was delighted that the most popular answer for everything on the menu was that you think Mouse has the balance of content about right.

44% of you wanted more opinions on news stories, and 37% of you wanted more breaking news coverage.

26% wanted more on surveys and statistics (although 13% wanted less).  22% wanted more lists, whilst 22% wanted less.  Similarly 30% of you wanted more news for the Twurch of England, whilst 23% wanted less.  Mouse didn't realise so many readers were also Twitterers, so that explains that.

46% of you wanted more funny news stories, whilst a more sober 4% wanted less of that silliness.  38% also wanted more guest blog posts.  Duly noted.

Amongst the other helpful suggestions for things there were lots of suggestions for coverage of affairs in Scotland, Wales and outside the Church of England.

There were a few requests for some devotional content (watch this space), more about Mouse and one request for better grammar (unlikely).

Other blogs you read


You listed hundreds of blogs that you read other than the ones Mouse provided as options, so thanks for that.  Mouse will have to spend some time reading through those suggestions.

Of the ones on the list your favourite is Ruth Gledhill (soon to be behind a paywall), followed by the Church Times blog then Bishop Alan Wilson.  Bishop Nick Baines is your next favourite followed by Dave Walker's other blog, the Cartoon Church blog.


Other comments


Mouse was rather touched by your comments in the final box for other comments.  The vast majority of you simply said that you liked the blog - thank you.

Those who offered constructive criticism said that Mouse was a bit too Tory during the election, that he doesn't understand Anglo-Catholics and one of you deplores anonymous blogging.  Fortunately this was rather outweighed by the many comments from those who love the Mouse.

One of you wanted to be able to comment anonymously - sorry this is a necessary spam prevention mechanism.

A mysterious JBB asked if we have ever met - well Mouse needs more to go on than that.

One of you feels uncomfortable with the way Mouse uses the term "good old CofE", which is as it should be.

Friday round up

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

1. Cranmer's Curate calls for a fresh influx of old ladies into the church (and he has a point)

2. Bishop Mike Hill on inconsistencies

3. The Benedictine Nuns of East Hendred on web enabled nuns

4. Bishop Nick Baines on the baby scan Jesus poster (and David Keen, Phil Ritchie and Deiknuo)

5. Revd Lesley on the Church's image problem

6. David Keen has some iPhone worship

7. BRIN on pagan soldiers

8. Tall Skinny Kiwi on Edinburgh 2010

9. The Ugley Vicar reckons Rowan's Pentecost Letter has caused chaos

10. George Pitcher on Rowan Williams' sermon to the new Parliament

Guest post: Call for tea ladies from Traidcraft's Rose and Maureen

After Mouse introduced Traidcraft tea ladies Maureen and Rose, they got in touch to see if Mouse could help with their hunt for the nation's tea ladies.  Mouse is delighted to help.


Hi Church Mouse readers

We're Rose and Maureen, Traidcraft's tealadies in Gateshead. We provide sustenance and refreshment to Traidcraft's hard-working employees. Have a look at our Facebook page (Rose Maureen Tealadies).

We would love to hear from all you tealadies out there. Tell us where you serve tea, what are your favourite teas and any tea stories you may have. We would love to put your photographs on our Facebook page too.

We look forward to hearing from you, and thanks to the Mouse for letting us into his blog.

Rose & Maureen

++ Breaking: Cherie Blair cleared of misconduct in religious sentencing case ++

The Office for Judicial Complaints has just issued this press release clearing Cherie Blair of any misconduct in relation to her comments in the trial of Shamso Miah.  You may remember this was prompted by a complaint by the National Secular Society, and it seems others, based on press reports that Mrs Blair had taken into account Mr Miah's religious beliefs in his sentencing.  Mouse predicted this outcome.



OFFICE FOR JUDICIAL COMPLAINTS PRESS STATEMENT

10 June 2010

For Immediate Release

OJC 10/10

STATEMENT FROM THE OFFICE FOR JUDICIAL COMPLAINTS

-

RECORDER BOOTH QC


A spokesperson for the Office for Judicial Complaints said:

"After receiving a number of complaints about comments reportedly made by Cherie Booth QC in her capacity as a Recorder, in connection with the trial of Shamso Miah, the Office for Judicial Complaints investigated the matter in accordance with the Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) Regulations 2006 (as amended). That investigation has concluded and found that Recorder Booth's observations did not constitute judicial misconduct.

"The Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice have considered the conclusions of the investigation and agree that no disciplinary action is necessary."

ENDS

Most pointless religious news story in the papers

News in this week's Telegraph reports that Rev Jim Ryan has taken measures to reinforce marriage in his parish of St Mary the Virgin in West Winch, Norfolk.  The story was picked up in the Mail, under the headline "Vicar forced to advertise his services as number of people marrying falls".

According to both papers Rev Jim Ryan has launched an advertising campaign headed "Planning a wedding? Why not get married in a church? ..."

The story goes on to explain the decline in church weddings in Britain.

But if you read the article closely, you'll notice that the advert was placed ... wait for it now ... in the parish magazine.

That's right folks.  Two of our our nations most read national newspapers have reported a story about a vicar who has advertised in the parish magazine.  Considering how hard it is to get religious news covered sometimes, this really is stunning stuff.

The World Cup Bible

The World Cup is just one day away.  Mouse will be enthusiastically supporting England throughout this World Cup.  He has said Bishop Nick's World Cup prayers (and added one for England to win), and thought it worth pointing out all the places where football features in the Bible.

1. The invention of route 1 football, and an instruction to play a very direct style:
Philippians 3:14  "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me..."

2. Commentary on the first recorded game, featuring some of the prophets.  The result was predictable.
2 Kings 13:17 "Shoot!" Elisha said, and he shot."

3. The away side never quite get their share of penalties. Daniel finds this during his time in Babylon:
Daniel 2:9 "... there is just one penalty for you."

4. After the fall, players got tired during the game, so the Lord provided fresh legs and blessed them:
Leviticus 27:10 "... both it and the substitute become holy"

5. The Lord reminds his people that they should pray before shooting:
Galatians 3:3  "Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?"

6. Even in the early days, management was a tough place to be:
Luke 16:2  "So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'"

Church Mouse readers survey - your demographics

First up, the demographics of Church Mouse readers.  Of course, Mouse is well aware that those of you who chose to fill in the survey are a pretty self selecting group, so everything said here is in that context.

248 of you were kind enough to spare a couple of minutes to fill in Mouse's survey, and Mouse is hugely grateful.

So some stats - during the time the survey was open Google Analytics recorded 3,270 visits to the blog from 1,795 absolute unique visitors.  In addition, Feedburner records around 430 subscribers to the feed.  There are 2,012 people who follow Mouse on Twitter, 395 fans of the Facebook page and 72 followers on the Blogger follow function (which Mouse doesn't really understand).  Many people fit into more than one category here, but Mouse offers those stats to give some more context to the number of people who filled in the survey.

Your religious affiliations

Two thirds of you are Anglicans, and the rest of you are Christians of other denominations.  Four of you were 'Not Sure', two are agnostics and one atheist.  Many of you didn't like being pigeon holed by Mouse's categories and came up with your own such as "agnostic anglican", "lapsed Anglican sliding towards atheism", "Anglican Evangelical" and "Anglican and Catholic".

Gender

This was the most surprising question on the whole survey for Mouse.  Two thirds of you are male.  Any ideas why more ladies are not reading the blog will be gratefully received.

Church Attendance


You are a holy bunch, with 89% of you going to church almost every week.  4% are once a month church goers, and 6% occasional church goers.  Just 3 of you said you never go to church.

Stephen Hawking - Science 'will win' over religion

A truly fascinating interview with Stephen Hawking by Diane Sawyer of US's ABC News has uncovered some gems.

Hawking was asked what the greatest mystery is that he would like to solve.  His answer was, "I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing."

Gosh, there's a starter for ten.

The quote that is grabbing headlines is Hawking's views on science and religion.  He said that, "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."

Professor Hawking goes on to speculate about the likelihood of alien life on other planets, and that a visit from them might be disastrous to planet earth in the way Columbus' visit was catastrophic for indigenous people in America. It is his wider observation on humanity in this context that is interesting, however. He pointed out, "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

Clearly Mouse doesn't agree on the science Vs religion argument here.  If observation and reason were the only things that 'work' then it religion would not be flourishing as it is across the world right now.  It would have been dead and buried a long time ago.  However, there is much food for thought.  That Stephen Hawking is still grasping at the great mysteries of life, despite being someone who knows more about the origins of the universe than almost anyone else is telling.

Heaven forbid that the CEEC would be "discourteous" to Rowan Williams

The Church of England Evangelical Council has issued a press release criticising the presence of the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church in a Church of England Cathedral, calling it "provocative" and "discourteous" to Rowan Williams in light of the current tensions in the Anglican Communion.

Heaven forbid that anyone at CEEC would be discourteous to Rowan.  They would never accuse him of lacking the leadership required of an Archbishop, for example.  Ven Michael Lawson, Chair of CEEC would never say this:

“Rowan’s theological method is reflective and in a sense poetic. It’s a valuable contribution to the discussion. But there is a distinction to be drawn between even the best kind of speculative theology and the leadership required of an Archbishop.”

President of CEEC, Bishop Wallace Benn, would never wish to be associated with round robin letters threatening that parishes would withdraw funds from diocese if the CofE didn't do what he wanted on Women bishops, would he.

And of course no-one at CEEC (like Council members Paul Perkin or Chris Sugden) was involved in anything 'provocative' or 'discourteous' like the establishment of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans in the UK.

Of course not.  Rowan would be far more offended by a visit by the Presiding Bishop of a member church of the Anglican Communion to a communion service than by insults, threats and factions from clergy within his own Church.

Mouse isn't sure whether Rowan Williams will laugh or cry when he reads this statement.

70% of Brits call themselves selfish - top selfish acts revealed

A survey has been commissioned by Cadet150 to mark National Volunteers Week.  4,000 people were surveyed, and the results are rather shocking.  70% admitted to being selfish, with 60% admitting such acts of selfishness as bad-mouthing a friend of colleague to make themselves look better.  Half of those surveyed dodge charity collectors and 40% don't bother to stay in touch with relatives.

The piece which is relevant to the purpose of the survey is that one in six said they had never even considered volunteering or offering their time to help worthy causes.

From Mouse's perspective this looks rather loaded.  Mouse can't find the detail of this survey, so it sounds like the questions rather encouraged people to sound rather selfish.  If they had asked how many people have given money to Comic Relief, the Poppy Appeal or similar mass participation events, Mouse suspects the results would look rather different.  Similarly if they had asked whether people cared about others, Mouse is confident that a brighter side would be revealed.

Still, for your entertainment here are the top acts of selfishness (according to the Daily Mail write up)

• bad-mouthing someone to look better
• avoiding donating to charity
• failing to let another driver in or give way
• not contacting relatives
• forgetting a birthday
• being unsympathetic
• making what you want for dinner without consulting
• making only your own cup of tea in the office
• giving a smaller portion
• failing to open doors
• not clearing up your mess
• picking a DVD without thinking about a partner
• borrowing something and not returning it
• not buying a round
• blaming someone else
• not helping out colleagues
• not handing back money when someone drops it
• pushing into a queue
• not offering a lift

H/T Faith Central

Divorced bishops - the argument we forgot to have?

The Telegraph is reporting that the Church of England is about to announce a change which will allowed divorced clergy to become bishops.  The article seems to be trying to talk up the division on the church over the issue, even reporting a division between Archbishops Williams and Sentamu on the issue, but Mouse has not heard a squeak about it.

Perhaps the blogs will liven up once the weekend is over, but so far there has been no clamour of outrage.

Geoffrey Kirk, secretary of Forward in Faith, provides a sufficiently hostile quote, indicating that he considers this change to be worse than allowing homosexual bishops.  Quite how he has graded these alleged heresies is not clear.

Mouse, however, would like to hear a little more about how this will work.  Whilst details are pretty sketchy at the moment of what actually has been decided, it seems that the change is simply to look at each instance on a case-by-case basis, and that this has been made after receiving 'legal advice'.

For Mouse this will be a really interesting issue.  For many 'traditionalists' the issues of women bishops and homosexuality are totemic in their significance to the way people see the church and the Bible.  If Geoffrey Kirk is serious that he thinks this issue is more serious than the other two mentioned, Mouse expects that he would devote even more time and effort to opposing them.  Whether he will or not will be very interesting.  Perhaps some heresies will turn out to be easier to live with than others.

OFSTED say RE in schools is in a poor state

The latest OFSTED report on RE in schools will concern many Christians.  The overall conclusion of the report includes this paragraph:

The quality of RE in the sample of primary schools was broadly the same as that reported in 2007 and not enough was of good quality. In schools where achievement was satisfactory, several key weaknesses were common which inhibited pupils’ learning. Most notably, the pattern of curriculum delivery of the subject often limited the opportunities for sustained learning in RE. Schools visited took the subject seriously but, in too many cases, teachers lacked the knowledge and confidence to plan and teach high quality RE lessons.

Here are a few of their key findings which are particularly worrying:

- There were a number of specific weaknesses in the teaching about Christianity. Many primary and secondary schools visited did not pay sufficient attention to the progressive and systematic investigation of the core beliefs of Christianity.

- Most of the secondary schools in the survey with sixth forms did not fully meet the statutory requirement to provide core RE for all students beyond the age of 16.

- Students’ achievement in RE in the secondary schools visited showed a very mixed picture. It was good or outstanding in 40 of the 89 schools visited but was inadequate in 14 schools.

The picture painted is one where little improvement has been made since their report in the subject in 2007.  The central charges are that there is little support for RE from local authorities.  This is particularly important as the curriculum for RE is decided locally, in order to provide a curriculum relevant to the make-up of the communities.  The report also argues that teachers are not sufficiently equipped to teach the subject effectively.

What is most worrying for Mouse is that it seems that Christianity is the topic which is worst taught.  How baffling that this should be the case in a country where between 50% and 70% of the population claim to be Christian.

Wikio religious blog rankings

The latest Wikio blog rankings are up, and Mouse is delighted to offer up those religious blogs (wholly or in part) who feature in the top 250 or so. This month the election bounce for political blogs is over, and many of them have dropped back, but the craft blogs have continued their seemingly unstoppable rise.

Mouse is slightly puzzled why the religious blogs would all be falling back this month, but Mouse can't argue with the algorithm.  Mouse's blog traffic and subscriber numbers were much higher last month than the month before, so something else must be going on here.  The only risers on the list, are Heresy Corner, which is rather broader in scope than purely religion, and Bartholomew's Notes, which Mouse noticed has upped its output significantly in the past month.

Numbers in brackets show last month's rankings.

46. (30) Archbishop Cranmer
78. (85) Heresy Corner
165. (154) The Church Mouse blog
167. (149) St. Aidan to Abbey Manor
168. (199) Bartholomew's Notes on Religion
188. (175) The Hermeneutic of Continuity
189. (169) What Does The Prayer Really Say
196. (190) Thinking Anglicans
214. (176) John Smeaton, SPUC Director
220. (179) Islam in Europe
222. (206) Of course, I could be wrong...
229. (182) Clayboy
236. (266) An Exercise in the Fundamentals of Orthodoxy

NSS attacks on Papal visit in disarray

The National Secular Society has consistently argued its case that the Pope is entitled to visit the UK, but that his visit is pastoral in nature, and as such it should not be funded by the taxpayer.  This week they have followed up on the commentary from the Telegraph which reveals that the cost to the Catholic Church has doubled from an estimated £7m to £14m.

The NSS were quick to write to the government demanding that the taxpayer should not step in to support this additional cost - something which no-one seems to be asking for.

But hold on a minute - if they accept that the Church is paying for the religious aspects of the visit, then their entire criticism of the visit disappears, as they have accepted that the taxpayer is not funding a pastoral visit under the guise of a state visit.

Mouse had noted before that there were a number of petitions in protest at the visit.  The one the NSS like to trumpet is their online petition which gathered over 28,000 signatures.  Unfortunately there was no validation of whether these were UK citizens or even real people, and the numbers seemed to jump when it featured on a well known US sceptic website.  So heavy pinch of salt required there.

The next petition is the Peter Tatchell backed Protest the Pope, which has now managed to unite the NSS and British Humanist Association (not easily done).  Despite this celebrity endorsement and the backing of the BHA this petition is rather more stringent on who can sign, as it uses the official No.10 petition website, and has only attracted a little over 12,300 signatures at the time of writing.

Before this got going the BHA started a Facebook group.  It looks like they've given up on that now, however, and is has just 2,380 members.

Bible news - Mouse ahead of the ABC

It seems Mouse was ahead of the game this week, then he drew attention to the Bible in the Life of the Church initiative.  He managed to pre-empt the launch announcement from the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Rowan has taken a break from reading endless open letters to him from grumpy Bishops from round the world to make this YouTube video to explain the initiative.

Mouse commented earlier in the week that there wasn't much information on how the initiative would work.  Well there's a bit more now.

The Church Times blog summarises the launch coverage.

Tatchell and Dawkins to present documentary on the Pope and faith schools

Mouse thought that he had read this in the comedy news section, but it seems to be real.  Channel 4 have decided that an an appropriate documentary to show in September to coincide with the Papal visit to the UK would be one presented by Peter Tatchell, founder of Protest the Pope which opposes the visit.   Naturally there has been a pretty hostile response from Catholics.  Catholic writer and journalist Christina Odone explained her confusion saying "Peter himself would be the first to admit that he is no authority on the subject.  And perhaps it would be good, rather than have some polemical, knee-jerk reaction to the Pope if Channel 4 would be interested in actually shedding light on a figure who is so important, and so often misinterpreted and misunderstood - and of whom more needs to be known.  I don't think the founding father of Outrage! is the right person for this.".

Mouse suspects that Channel 4 will be showing other perspectives on the Pope, although he can't find a response from them directly.  Some will argue that as part of balanced coverage, this programme is not unreasonable.  Mouse has some sympathy for this view, provided that there really is some balanced coverage.

Interesting then, that this coincides with the announcement that Richard Dawkins will be presenting a programme on faith schools.  Again, this is fine in the context of balanced coverage.  Channel 4's recent 'The Bible: A History' was quite interesting, and whilst it wasn't quite Mouse's cup of tea it wasn't coming from a hostile perspective.  Mouse found Gerry Adams' contribution rather stomach turning, but it cannot be said that it was not thought provoking.  This is not the first time Dawkins has had his moment on TV to set out his stall, and it won't be the last.

If Christians react with horror every time someone hostile presents their views on TV we really are in trouble.

Introducing Rose and Maureen - Traidcraft's tea ladies

Mouse loves a bit of creative marketing, so thought Traidcraft's introduction of Rose and Maureen their tea ladies on Facebook was a lovely touch.  Hopefully they'll be updating us with what's going on at Traidcraft whilst also entertaining us with their tea lady charm.

Nice to meet you ladies.

Friday round up

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

1. Quaerentia on the tabernacle in rural Norfolk

2. Bishop Nick Baines on resignations

3. Tall Skinny Kiwi on being booted out of Britain

4. Cranmer on the religious make up of the House of Commons

5. Damian Thompson reckons its chaos behind the scenes of the Papal visit

6. FaithWorld on Rowan's Pentecost letter and its reception

7. David Keen on the high street good Samaritan

8. BRIN on the Dalai Lama and how popular he is

9. Bishop David Hamid on Finland's first woman bishop

10. Jonny Baker on the Edinburgh 2010 mission conference