C of E ministry playing vital role in every community, show latest stats; Church of Scotland invites more parents to consider baptism; Bankers must focus on morals, says Archbishop of Canterbury
C of E ministry playing vital role in every community, show latest stats
Ministry Statistics for 2012, published today by the Research and Statistics Division of the Archbishops’ Council, show a change in patterns of ministry over the past 10 years with numbers remaining largely constant.
The overall number of diocesan licensed clergy declined by 1% in the decade between 2002 and 2012. The number of full-time stipendiary clergy was 7,798 in 2012, a fall of 2% since 2011. They now represent 69% of all licensed clergy compared to 80% in 2002. Over the same period the number of self-supporting ministers increased by 50% from 2,091 in 2002 to 3,148.
The 2012 statistics show a continuing trend of increase in the proportion of female clergy in all categories. Whereas in 2012 there were 6,017 male full-time stipendiary clergy compared with 7,920 in 2002, a fall of 24%, in the same period their female counterparts have increased by 41% from 1,262 to 1,781. Women now account for 21% or one in five incumbents or those of incumbent status. Amongst senior clergy the percentage has increased from 4% to 11%.
The number of ordinations has remained broadly stable since 2002. In 2012 22% of recommended candidates were under the age of 30, compared to 15% in both 2002 and 2007. This reflects a focus in the dioceses on encouraging vocations among younger people.
Ven Julian Hubbard, the Church of England’s director of ministry said: “These statistics reflect changing patterns of ministry, to meet the changing demands of 21st Century life, with an increasing reliance on self-supporting ministers and the spread of ministry teams.
The continued commitment to ministry in the Church if England shows the importance of the Church as a Christian presence in every community.”
Church of Scotland invites more parents to consider baptism
Prince George has just been welcomed into the church and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland is inviting other parents to consider baptism for their own children.
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Reverend Lorna Hood, spoke about the “delights” of baptism for both the young and the old.
She said: “For me as a Church of Scotland minister and a school chaplain one of the greatest delights is to baptise children of those I have baptised. It is such a joyful occasion and it isn’t just for new babies either.
“I’ve lost count of how many babies and infants I have baptised but one of my loveliest memories is of baptising a mother and her five children, aged twelve to twelve weeks’ all the same time.”
The Church of Scotland examined baptism in a report its General Assembly in 2003 and 2004. The report discussed how baptism requirements and services have changed since the 16th century and the Church no longer expects at least one parent or other close family member to be a member of the Church.
Today someone who is not a parent but still significant for the child could bring the child for baptism, though with the written consent of the parents.
Mrs Hood added: “As the young royal couple take these vows, we hope that more young people would consider bringing their little ones, to learn of our faith and the values that Christianity stands for, values so needed in our world today.”
Bankers must focus on morals, says Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, warns that bankers should consider whether their practices are morally right
Daily Telegraph – Bankers are ignoring what is morally right because they are focusing solely on whether practices are within the law, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.
The Most Rev Justin Welby dismissed the idea that in order to be “good”, businesses simply needed to abide by rules, suggesting such an approach had been “utterly disproved” by scandals in the financial sector.
In a speech to business leaders on Thursday he said banks had confined their profits to the City and failed to “care” for people outside of London.
The Archbishop, who sat on the parliamentary inquiry into banking standards, said City investors had become focused on a “number on a screen” instead of considering the impact of their decisions on workers.
The Archbishop, a former oil executive, criticised the principle of Milton Friedman, the free market economist who inspired Margaret Thatcher’s economic reforms, that a company’s sole focus should be maximising profit.
Is being good in business merely about keeping the rules?” he said. “If you keep the rules you’re OK — that’s pure Friedman. I think that’s been utterly disproved.
“One of the things we saw on the Parliamentary banking standards commission most clearly was people were constantly asking what was legal and never asking what was right.”
Addressing an audience of business leaders at the Blueprint for Better Business conference on business ethics, organised by the Catholic Church, the Archbishop said Britain’s financial sector “today has the largest sum of money it has ever had” but was failing to share its profits.
“Any society that wants to call itself ethical in its finances has to find a way in which it values human beings and cares for them right across the board in every part of the society and not just within the M25,” he said.
The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, who organised the conference, also warned of a view in the business sector that “we are each on our own” and fulfilment “only incidentally depends on others”.
Archbishop Welby, who was previously bishop of Durham, said there were a “huge” number of potential entrepreneurs in the north of England being denied support because of the risk that they could fail.
Archbishop Welby said on Thursday night that the Daily Mail had been “out of order” in its recent coverage of Ralph Miliband, the late father of Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, in which it claimed that he had “hated Britain”.
In an interview with Channel 4 News, he said those in a position to “preach from a pulpit” should be “very cautious about the use of that responsibility.”