C of E clergy threaten to defy gay marriage ban; Archbishop of Canterbury urges commitment to free speech; NSPCC – abuse is not just in the past
C of E clergy threaten to defy gay marriage ban
Telegraph – Vicars are threatening to bypass the ban on same-sex weddings in the Church of England by blessing homosexual marriages performed in other churches.
Leading Anglican campaigners have warned that Government plans to exempt the Church from the new legislation will lead to hundreds of homosexual clergy and worshippers marrying in Quaker and Unitarian services and then returning to the Church.
In a letter to The Sunday Telegraph, dozens of clergy, including Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford, today urge homosexual Anglicans to follow this course of action.
“Until the Church of England allows us to solemnise same-sex marriages in our churches, as a matter of pastoral expediency we will counsel lesbian and gay members of our congregations to marry in those churches willing to celebrate faithful same-sex relationships,” the letter, which is also signed by scores of lay members of the Church, states.
The 150 signatories warn: “If the bill is enacted in its present form, in 2014 married lesbian and gay Anglicans, lay and ordained, will be worshipping and ministering in parishes of the Church of England.”
The presence of married homosexual couples, including clergy, in the Church will force its leaders to confront the growing debate over sexuality, the letter suggests. More at:
Archbishop of Canterbury urges commitment to free speech
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, tspoke about the importance of free speech at a Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate 80 Years of the BBC World Service.
“We in the UK are in the middle of a lively argument about free speech and the regulation of the media. It’s easy to get bogged down in the pros and cons of press regulation and the exact degree of legal backing it needs. But we risk forgetting the all-important issue of why free speech really matters. Which is why this particular celebration today is so timely and so significant.”
During his sermon at the service at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, London, he described the BBC World Service as ‘one of the modern age’s great symbols of freedom of speech in the sense that it has fought back, quietly and persistently, against so many attempts to silence unwelcome truths’, before going on to describe the components of ‘morally important and politically essential’ freedom of speech as the ‘freedom to stand back from any particular loyalty in the name of loyalty to the truth, and freedom to speak truths that the powerful want hidden or ignored’.
“It is about sharing the reality of painful and difficult human experience so that others may know it for what it is and so that they may have no excuse for ignoring it.”
However, the Archbishop warned that freedom of speech “ is not simply a matter of the liberty to spread random or trivial information, certainly not the liberty of expressing abusive or demeaning opinions. And no-one can be complacent about the levels of hurt and distress experienced by those who have been at the receiving end of intrusive and insensitive investigation in the name of this debased version of liberty.”
Illustrating its record of broadcasting ‘voices that are being silenced by violence or injustice’, the Archbishop highlighted one of the BBC World service’s greatest achievements as its ‘commitment to searching out the voices that would otherwise not be heard. There could be no better way of asserting the dignity that belongs to every citizen, every human being.’
In concluding his sermon, Dr Rowan Williams urged the congregation to continue in the commitment to ‘the freedom of speech that matters’:
“As we celebrate the World Service’s witness to liberating truthfulness and independent vision – and so to honour and justice – we are invited to renew our own commitment, here in this congregation but also for the whole of our society. May God help us to honour and preserve the freedom of speech that matters – the freedom to step aside from tribal and local partisanship for the sake of a wider human sympathy, the freedom to listen patiently and passionately for the voices that are being silenced by violence or injustice, the freedom to speak to and for the dignity of all.”
NSPCC – abuse is not just in the past
The NSPCC has launched a campaign to remind people that child abuse is not just a problem of the past, amid the publicity over the Jimmy Savile case.
NSPCC adverts will encourage people to report current abuse to its helpline.
The charity said it was important to act even if people had only suspicions that abuse was happening.
Meanwhile, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) said there had been a 30% rise in reports of abuse, fuelled by the “Savile effect”.
Ceop said it had received 1,578 reports of abuse in November 2012, up from 1,214 in November 2011.
Other organisations have also previously reported rises in calls since the scandal surrounding former TV presenter Savile first broke. More at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20716300