Archbishop of Canterbury speaks to Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops; Compass Rose Society honours Williams with musical premiere; Harvest festivals focus on foodbanks; Fertilisation and embryology services at risk: CofE responds to Department of Health consultation; BBC to rethink its coverage of EU, migration and Christianity after accusations programmes were unbalanced
Archbishop of Canterbury speaks to Roman Catholic Synod of Bishops
In the first address by an Archbishop of Canterbury to the Synod of Bishops in Rome, Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke about the profound connection between contemplation and the task of evangelisation, saying it “must be rooted in a profound confidence that we have a distinctive human destiny to show and share with the world”.
A contemplative approach is what helps us grow and become fully human by allowing us to open our hearts to God’s wishes:
“… contemplation is very far from being just one kind of thing that Christians do: it is the key to prayer, liturgy, art and ethics, the key to the essence of a renewed humanity that is capable of seeing the world and other subjects in the world with freedom – freedom from self-oriented, acquisitive habits and the distorted understanding that comes from them. To put it boldly, contemplation is the only ultimate answer to the unreal and insane world that our financial systems and our advertising culture and our chaotic and unexamined emotions encourage us to inhabit. To learn contemplative practice is to learn what we need so as to live truthfully and honestly and lovingly. It is a deeply revolutionary matter.”
The Archbishop is in Rome not only for the Synod, but also to take part in celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the opening sessions of the Second Vatican Council, including a Mass on Thursday at St Peter’s.
In the course of his address to the bishops, chaired by Pope Benedict XVI, he said of the Council:
“today especially we cannot forget that great gathering that was the Second Vatican Council, which did so much for the health of the Church and helped the Church to recover so much of the energy needed to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ effectively in our age. For so many of my own generation, even beyond the boundaries of the Roman Catholic Church, that Council was a sign of great promise, a sign that the Church was strong enough to ask itself some demanding questions about whether its culture and structures were adequate to the task of sharing the Gospel with the complex, often rebellious, always restless mind of the modern world. … It is not surprising that we are still, fifty years later, struggling with many of the same questions and with the implications of the Council.”
The full text of his remarks can be found here –
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/2645/archbishops-address-to-the-synod-of-bishops-in-rome
Compass Rose Society honours Williams with musical premiere
The Compass Rose Society honored outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams at its annual meeting last week, with the premiere performance of “Advent Calendar” an anthem based on a poem by Dr. Williams composed by renowned composer Peter Hallock.
The poem, published in Williams first poetry collection, ‘After Silent Centuries’ (Oxford, 1994), is quite beautiful:
He will come like last fall’s leaf fall. One night when the November wind has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth wakes choking on the mould, the soft shroud’s folding.
He will come like frost. One morning when the shrinking earth opens on mist, to find itself arrested in the net of alien, sword-set beauty.
He will come like dark. One evening when the bursting red December sun draws up the sheet and penny-masks its eye to yield the star-snowed fields of sky.
He will come, will come, will come like crying in the night, like blood, like breaking, as the earth writhes to toss him free. He will come like child.
The piece was presented at an Evensong Service at Canterbury Cathedral. Anglican Communion News services notes that “Peter Hallock is an important influence in modern Anglican church music. During 40 years at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, he produced numerous compositions, including motets and large-scale anthems with instrumental accompaniment. His three-year cycle of psalm settings for choir with congregational antiphons is the most popular Psalter in common use in both the Episcopal and Lutheran denominations in the United States. The popularity of the Compline services he introduced at St. Mark’s spawned a revival of interest in this service, now included in the prayer books of Lutheran and Episcopal denominations worldwide.”
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/anglican_communion/compass_rose_society_honors_wi.html
Harvest festivals focus on foodbanks
Churches across the country are supporting vital foodbanks for their local communities as part of their traditional harvest festival.
Bees on the roof of St Pancras Church on Euston Road have produced their first combs of honey in time for Sunday’s harvest festival (14 Oct) when the church celebrates becoming a collection point for the Camden Food Bank. This central London initiative is part of the national network maintained by the Trussel Trust which supports people referred for emergency food.
“We need foodbanks,” said churchwarden Dorothea Hackman, “so families feeling the bite of the recession and reduced benefits this winter will not have to send their children hungry to school.”
In the past year the North Liverpool Foodbank has fed 3000 people (just under half being children) raising 27 tonnes of food mainly from local churches and schools.
Vicar of St Andrew’s Clubmoor, Canon Steve McGanity said “Harvest is a time to remember God’s abundant generosity yet in 21st century Britain we are faced with the shocking reality of starving families being unable to provide for themselves. Our Foodbank in Liverpool struggles to meet the increasing demand from local families in need. Our Harvest services give our church communities the opportunity to be involved in providing for the needs of the poorest families in the most deprived communities in Liverpool.”
In Leicester many churches are donating their harvest gifts to the Welcome Project, a diocesan voluntary group offering emergency food, supplies and advice to asylum seekers.
The project focuses on helping those who arrive in the area with little or nothing to live on and are unable to work to support themselves.
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/10/harvest-festivals-focus-on-foodbanks.aspx
Fertilisation and embryology services at risk: CofE responds to Department of Health consultation
Proposals to absorb the services of two specialist health watchdogs into the Care Quality Commission to save half a million pounds per year have been criticised by the Mission and Public Affairs (MPA) Council.
In its response to a Department of Health Consultation, the MPA Council warns that “there are operational risks involved in transferring the functions” from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) as “theses functions require both considerable executive expertise and detailed non-executive scrutiny”.
The Mission & Public Affairs Council of the Church of England is the body
responsible for overseeing research and comment on social and political issues on
behalf of the Church. The Council comprises a representative group of bishops,
clergy and lay people with interest and expertise in the relevant areas, and reports to
the General Synod through the Archbishops’ Council.
The Mission and public Affairs Council presents a Christian ethos, drawing on the
witness of the Christian Scriptures and reflecting on Christian tradition and
contemporary thought. Belief in God as Creator and Redeemer, in human beings’
intrinsic value as creatures made in the Image of God and in the imperatives of love
and justice, underpins the Council’s approach. The Council believes that the ethical
and social principles that are developed from this foundation may be embraced by
people of other faiths or of none.
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/10/fertilisation-and-embryology-services-at-risk-cofe-responds-to-department-of-health-consultation.aspx
BBC to rethink its coverage of EU, migration and Christianity after accusations programmes were unbalanced
Mail – A BBC review of ‘the breadth of opinion’ reflected in its coverage of immigration, religion and the EU was triggered by complaints of liberal bias, Lord Patten has admitted.
The BBC Trust chairman said the investigation had been ‘prompted’ by accusations that elements of the broadcaster’s news, current affairs and factual programming had been unbalanced.
The move could signal a greater range of voices and experts being included.
In a speech to the Broadcasting Press Guild, Lord Patten said: ‘It’s an acceptance that these are areas where people are particularly concerned that we should get it right.
http://http//www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215924/BBC-rethink-coverage-EU-migration-accusations-programmes-unbalanced.html#ixzz28xmbZ6GX