Charities partly to blame for financial crisis, says CofE investment expert; Looking back on 20 years of OLM – ordained local ministry; Ed Miliband: Let churches stage same-sex weddings; Dioceses Commission announces draft scheme; Welsh churches come together to preserve heritage
Charities partly to blame for financial crisis, says CofE investment expert
The Guardian – The Church of England, which has £8bn of assets, recently sold the £1.9m share capital it held in NewsCorp over concerns that the media company had not learned lessons from the phone hacking scandal. In 2010, it withdrew its investment from mining company Vedanta. However, the Church kept its money in BP after the company’s US oil spill crisis in 2010, believing the company had changed. The church says it has screened 6000 companies for potential investment purposes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/sep/27/church-england-charities-financial-crisis
Looking back on 20 years of OLM – ordained local ministry
Church Times – Very clearly, this book states that its aim is a calm assessment of available evidence on the Church of England’s experiment, lasting more than two decades, in ordained local ministry (OLM). The contributors to this report represent the key perspectives of the diocese, the parish, Academia, and the episcopate, and claim a high measure of agreement among themselves on the issues.
This particular and limited topic is rightly set on the wider canvas of questions about the nature of the Church and the history of the local-ministry movement. This is complemented by exploring the context-specific narratives of local-ministry development in the Scottish Episcopal Church, and in the diocese of Northern Michigan. There are also discussions of local collaborative ministry as practised in Gloucester, Lichfield, and Lincoln dioceses, seasoned pioneers. Chapters on empirical research and ministry formation are followed by an episcopal perspective and, lastly, a brief, prophetic look to the future.
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2012/28-september/reviews/book-reviews/looking-back-on-20-years-of-olm
Ed Miliband: Let churches stage same-sex weddings
BBC News – Plans to allow same sex marriages in England and Wales should be extended to religious institutions, Labour leader Ed Miliband has said.
He said faith groups who “want to provide that opportunity for gay couples… should be able to do so”.
Ministers are consulting on allowing civil marriages for same-sex couples.
Leading Churches oppose calling gay partnership ceremonies marriages, saying they could undermine the status of marriage.
In a video for the Out4Marriage campaign Mr Miliband said: “I think, whether you are gay or straight, you should be able to signify your commitment, your love with the term marriage.
“We will be pushing the government to get on with the process for legislating for equal marriage, and we’ll also be saying to them, where faith groups want to provide that opportunity for gay couples as well as straight couples, they should be able to do so.
“We’ve come a long way on gay and lesbian rights in the last two decades – civil partnerships, age of consent, a range of other things – but I know there’s further to go.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19743629
Dioceses Commission announces draft scheme
The Dioceses Commission announced yesterday that it is to proceed with its plans to amalgamate the dioceses of Bradford, Ripon & Leeds and Wakefield –
At its meeting on 26 September the Commission was able to complete its consideration of all the submissions made to it on the draft Reorganisation Scheme for the dioceses of Bradford, Ripon & Leeds and Wakefield. It carefully considered the representations made to it, both at this stage and earlier, and has unanimously decided to proceed with a draft scheme bringing all three dioceses together.
The Commission firmly believes that the scheme represents a once-in-a generation opportunity for reinvigorating mission which should be grasped. It intends to issue a revised scheme embracing all three dioceses by the end of October, together with a fresh report which will both address concerns that have been put to the Commission, and set out the benefits to mission that it believes will come from a new single diocese.
The current diocesan map in the region owes more to history than the way these communities are now shaped. The Commission received overwhelming evidence that the Church’s structures no longer reflect current social, economic and demographic realities on the ground, and that the Church needs a single diocese to engage effectively in mission with the people and communities of West Yorkshire and the Dales.
The Commission believes that the benefits to the Church’s mission and ministry in West Yorkshire and the Dales will only be fully realised by a scheme embracing all three dioceses. They each have their own distinctive contribution to make, and have a part to play in creating something new, rather than recreating an older model.
Chair of the Commission, Professor Michael Clarke, said: “On behalf of the Commission I would like personally to thank everyone who has made representations to us. A revised scheme will be published next month, and all three dioceses will then have a chance to decide whether they share our vision, which has been drawn from our discussions in Yorkshire over the past two years, that the proposals will better enable them to advance their mission to the communities which they serve. The Commission is clear that this represents a remarkable and unique opportunity for the Church of England.”
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/09/dioceses-commission-announces-draft-scheme.aspx
Welsh churches come together to preserve heritage
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/3/welsh.churches.come.together.to.preserve.heritage/30711.htm