Leave aside for the moment the question of how one can be “too” quintessentially anything – for “quintessence” is what it says it is: the very quick and soul of a thing. But, as the modern services demonstrate only too clearly, our church authorities are not too familiar with the English language, what will go into it and what won’t.

The whole point of the Church of England is that it was always meant to be quintessentially English. It is, after all, the national church. Read the divines who were most eminent in its creation, such as Richard Hooker and William Law: “Every man of England a member of the Church of England” and “The whole realm shall have one use.”

It is as if Martyn Snow does not even satisfy himself with his coinage “too quintessentially English,” for he blathers on a bit further and adds that the new bishop for minorities is deemed necessary because the country, and particularly the Leicester area, has experienced “cultural changes.” We must respond to these cultural changes, says Bishop Snow, “by enabling greater representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Christians.”

In what ways are BAME Christians not “enabled” presently? Does the Bishop of Leicester mean to suggest that a white English priest cannot or should not minister to black or Asian Christians?

On that score, would he say that a black or Asian priest cannot or should not minister to white English Christians?

The very notion of a bishop for minorities is at best patronising. Actually, it is blatantly racist. If you really wish to marginalise someone, assign him to a special group..

We know from forty years experience that the hierarchy and synod always follows secular fashions, only, like some prince consort, one dutiful step behind. The secular fad being followed here is the disastrous policy of encouraging multiculturalism which separates people into “communities” on racial grounds and creates undesirable ghettos.

When this was practised in South Africa, it was rightly condemned as Apartheid. When it is practised here, it is lauded by all the same “liberals” and “progressives” who took to the streets to protest about the segregation that was the rule in South Africa.

The notion of “communities” is fatal to the establishing of an integrated society. There is one community to which we all belong: one church, one realm, one England. This was the Elizabethan Settlement which has given us a decent set of political liberties for 400 years. This settlement has been adjusted and refined over the centuries by, for instance the accommodation of dissenters through the repeal of the Test and Corporation Act (1828) and the Catholic Emancipation Act (1829)

It should not be beyond the wit even of our contemporary senior ecclesiastics to allow similar adjustments to be made to extend membership of the one English community to those of other faiths

Dump the patronising attitude towards so called BAME Christians. And ditch the implicit racism.

The living symbol of our national integrity is the Monarch who is both head of state and supreme governor of the Church of England.

You might say the genius of this settlement is precisely in that it is quintessentially English.

In a new book, The Religious Lives of Older Laywomen, the sociologist Dr Abby Day of Goldsmiths at the University of London outlines how the financial and social structures of the Church of England are kept afloat by a shrinking band of committed women who are now entering their eighties and nineties.

Dr Day, who worked closely with laywomen in Britain while researching her book, identifies the dying generation as 'Generation A': the parents of the baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s, and were the last generation whose values are centred on nation, family and God.

Devotion to organisations like the Church has in subsequent generations been replaced by other forms of identification and activism, leaving a void of new recruits to form an active laity.

'The prognosis for the Church of England is grave,' said Dr. Day. 'While elderly laywomen have never been given a formal voice or fully acknowledged by the Church, they are the heart, soul and driving organisational force in parishes everywhere. Their loss will be catastrophic.

'Irrespective of one's religious viewpoint, it's impossible to deny the role the Church of England has played in providing informal social care, and a unique unconditional space for those who often have nowhere else to go.

'As the church itself vanishes through lack of organisational support, it's inevitable that addicted, homeless, bereaved or socially isolated people will lose out.'

The Religious Lives of Older Laywomen: The Last Active Anglican Generation is out now, published by Oxford University Press.

He lauds Keynes for trashing thrift and savings. Why? Because since Keynes ‘it has been recognised that, rather than spending, the very wealthy choose to save more (what Keynes called ‘hoarding’) and preserve their wealth.’ Tell that to my father and his generation of low-income pensioners—who built their lives on the financial prudence of thrift. Welby has praised Keynes in his Bible Reading Notes. In an interview with the Guardian, he quotes a letter from Keynes to Virginia Woolf. In another piece, he pits Keynes against Friedman. While Keynes ‘took the view of abundance and grace as his world view,’ Friedman’s ‘exchange and equivalence ideas now dominates all of our thinking.’

Welby is careful not to unveil the anti-Christian aspects of Keynes’s worldview. In an autobiographical essay, Keynes admitted, ‘We repudiated entirely customary morals, conventions and traditional wisdom. We were, that is to say, in the strict sense of the term, immoralists. The consequences of being found out had, of course, to be considered for what they were worth. But we recognised no moral obligation on us, no inner sanction, to conform or to obey. Before heaven we claimed to be our judge in our own case.’ Keynes ends the passage with the sentence, ‘I remain, and will always remain, an immoralist.’ So why is Welby enthroning Keynes as the Christ who is the saviour of our economy?

Does the Archbishop regard him as a prophet? Keynes’ earlier prediction under Chancellor Winston Churchill in 1925, warning that deflation would force Britain to reduce real wages and retard economic growth, was fulfilled. However, his 1926 prophecy ‘We will not have any more crashes in our time,’ was followed by the Great Depression of 1929. Keynes invested his money heavily in stocks and commodities. The 1929 crash almost entirely wiped out his portfolio and he suffered enormous commodity losses.

Keynes’ disillusionment with capitalism led him to adopt the Freudian thesis that moneymaking was a neurosis. What Welby labels “Mammon,” Keynes called a ‘somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of the semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a shudder to specialists in mental disease.’ Welby shares the Keynesian pessimistic view of the market, which he claims ‘is not as rational or informed as it appears. Rather, it is the emotional conclusion of a particular view of supply and demand over a specific period.’ He acknowledges that even though ‘often the result is fair’ the market ‘can also cause human suffering on an unacceptable, but often invisible, scale.’ Keynes, who rejected the classical notion that the capitalist system is self-adjusting over the long run,’ would have cheered Welby’s laying the blame on ‘a banking system that was both out of control and uncontrollable.’

Given the emphasis of the book of Proverbs and other wisdom literature of the Bible on savings—it is astonishing that Welby would support an economist who called savings ‘absurd’ and asserted that if ‘you save five shillings, you put a man out of work for a day.’ Keynes even called on British housewives to go on a spending spree and government to go on a building binge.

Welby begins his book by talking about the Kingdom of God—the vision of God’s final rule; but proceeds to peddle the vision of a utopian millennialist who dreamed of a world where ‘by progressively expanding credit to promote full employment, the universal economic problem of scarcity would finally be overcome. Interest rates would fall to zero and mankind would re-enter the Garden of Eden,’ as Mark Skousen observes in his study of Keynes. But did Keynes have a long-term vision for the common good? If so, we are not sure what he meant when he famously said, ‘In the long run we are all dead.’ Surely that is not a Christian vision of the future?

The problem with a Christian vision of the present is inequality, according to Welby, which is caused by the wealthy stashing their loot. Welby is an Equality Evangelist who has a problem with inequality.

‘Inequality has grown more and more sharply in the Western world, in almost every society, and particularly over the past thirty years.’ In a previous article “Does Inequality Really Matter?” he asks, ‘is it possible where there is gross inequality, for equality in worship and fellowship to be maintained?’

But if everyone in a worshipping community has enough to supply their needs—why should I envy someone who has a Bentley? Economic equality is not a biblical virtue. Justice is. And justice is not qualified as “social justice.” It is simply justice. Welby’s category mistake is comparing a mercantile or peasant economy with a capitalist economy. Sadly, it is a mistake made by many preachers who use the Bible to bolster their attacks on capitalism.

I wonder what Welby would make of Jesus’s parable of the minas (pounds) where a nobleman calls ten of his servants and giving them one mina each (about three months’ wages) telling them, ‘Engage in business until I come (Luke 19:13). The servant who earns 1,000 per cent profit is rewarded the most.

The nobleman gives him authority over ten cities. The servant who makes five more minas receives authority over five cities. The servant who makes no profit is rebuked. ‘Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ the nobleman tells him. The parable abounds with themes of profit, saving, interest, and above all there is equality of opportunity but inequality of outcome! I bet it’s not the archbishop’s favourite parable.

As we begin Holy Week, it might be of some spiritual benefit for the Archbishop of Canterbury to dethrone John Maynard Keynes from his cathedra and to read other economists who have a more Christian view of poverty and wealth. Perhaps, the black economist Thomas Sowell’s Controversial Essays might do for Welby’s Easter reading.

Sowell elegantly frames the issue: ‘What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done, on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow, and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.’ Today is Palm Sunday, Your Grace! Don’t confuse the donkey with the Messiah in the procession to Jerusalem! Here endeth the lesson.

END

John, dean of St Albans Cathedral, was put forward for the post of Bishop of Sodor and Man in February, but failed to make it on to the shortlist despite positive feedback. The rejection came shortly before he was passed over for appointment as Bishop of Llandaff after objections to his sexuality allegedly were raised.

In the Diocese of Sodor and Man, which covers the Isle of Man and surrounding islets, John’s name was considered by the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), an appointment body of 14 people chaired by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, and including representatives of the General Synod and from the Ddiocese of Sodor and Man. An open vote confirmed that the panel had no objection to John’s sexuality and long-term civil partnership with Anglican priest Grant Holmes.

But in subsequent secret ballots, John’s name failed to win enough support to ensure a place on a shortlist for interview. Although some members of the CNC were believed to be unhappy with the shortlisting process, an appointment has been made and is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

John’s exclusion broadly follows a pattern that has seen him fail to win appointments seven times in the past seven years. Since Reading, the English dioceses of Southwark, Exeter, and St Edmundsbury and Ipswich have considered him as a candidate for bishop. In Wales, as well as the recent Llandaff process, he was left off slates in Bangor and St Asaph after members of electoral colleges were reminded of a moratorium on consecrating bishops in civil partnerships placed on provinces by the Anglican communion.

Many senior figures in the CofE maintain John has the attributes and track record necessary to be a bishop, and many believe that his repeated rejection can only be explained by opposition to or concerns about his open sexuality and civil partnership.

In 2003, John was appointed as Bishop of Reading, but was later pressured by Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury, to stand aside after some traditionalists in the CofE and the Anglican Communion threatened a split if his consecration went ahead. At the time, he was given assurances that he could expect to become a bishop within a few years.

In 2010, John was shortlisted for Southwark. In an account of the selection process published after his death, Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark Cathedral and panel member, wrote: “The meeting was not a fair consideration at all.”

Slee claimed that the archbishops of Canterbury and York were “intent on wrecking” the candidacies of John and Nick Holtam, who was married to a divorcee, “despite the fact that their CVs were startlingly in an entirely different and better league than the other two candidates, and probably every one of the new bishops I can recall in the past 15 years”.

In 2013, John was interviewed for Exeter, and in 2014 for St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. A week after the latter interview, former CNC member Tim Allen told the synod: “[Gay clergy] who are honest and frank enough to live openly in a civil partnership, while behaving in the chaste way required by church law, are, it seems from all the evidence, de facto excluded from the House of Bishops, even when they are eminently qualified to be a bishop … Such prejudice and discrimination is wrong.”

Last month, John – who was born in Wales and speaks Welsh – was excluded from the appointments process for the bishopric of Llandaff after the electoral college failed to reach a two-thirds majority in favour of any candidate. John reportedly received more than half the votes, including the unanimous support of electors from the Llandaff diocese.

In a letter to John Davies, the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, currently the most senior bishop in Wales, John said he had been told that “a number of homophobic remarks were made and were left unchecked and unreprimanded by the chair”.

He had been told by a member of the electoral college that the only arguments made against his appointment “were directly related to my homosexuality and/or civil partnership – namely that my appointment would bring unwelcome and unsettling publicity to the diocese, and that it might create difficulties for the future archbishop [of Wales] in relation to the Anglican Communion”.

Despite appeals to the Church in Wales to reconsider the process – including a letter from nine Labour MPs in Wales – the church rejected allegations of homophobia and said it was satisfied that the process had been carried out “properly and fairly”.

One CofE bishop, Nicholas Chamberlain of Grantham, has publicly declared that he is gay and in a long-term celibate relationship. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was aware of Chamberlain’s sexuality and relationship when he consecrated him in November 2016. When the bishop went public, Welby said Chamberlain’s sexuality was “completely irrelevant to his office”.

A spokesperson for the CofE said: “We do not comment on Crown Nominations Commission business. We would resist strongly any suggestion that selections for senior appointments are influenced by the sexuality of candidates.”

Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckinghamshire, said: “There is a pattern here, and I’m amazed that after all these years there is still so much mendacious obfuscation about appointing Jeffrey John as a bishop. It calls into question the sincerity of all the church’s hand-wringing apologies to gay and lesbian people.”

The CofE allows clergy to be in same-sex relationships and civil partnerships as long as they are celibate. It does not permit clergy to marry same-sex partners and does not conduct same-sex church weddings.

FOOTNOTEIt has been suggested by some that this constant rejection might have something to do with the Lord not allowing it despite efforts to strangulate Scripture into accepting him. Ultimately it is supposed to be the LORD and not man who give His final approval of a candidate. It's called discernment. Discernment doesn't always mean saying "yes" it also means saying "No!" . Indeed

WATCH Justin Welby talk about Spring Harvest this year and how Christians can live together when they have 'profound disagreements'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YbGPApg1mA

'Jesus prayed that we would be united. Our witness depends upon us being united,' he said. 'How we experience the love of Christ is transformed by unity.' Christians disagree on many important things. 'But we love one another... and we are going to love the world and heal, above all, its separation from God.'

The event in the coastal Somerset town of Minehead kicked off last night with a 'celebration' led by the popular worship leader Lou Fellingham.

Thousands of delegates sang along to worship songs including a version of 'How Great Thou Art' and 'The Lord is my Shepherd' as well as 'This I believe (the creed)' by Hillsong.

A show of hands indicated that around a third of delegates were attending Spring Harvest for the first time, while two-thirds had come before.

'A lot of people from my church were coming and I always wanted to come to a major Christian festival,' said Jean Allen, who was attending for the first time. Another first-time delegate, Claire Mottershead, 43, who had come with her three children said that she had come because 'I worry that the children don't get a chance to learn about God'.

The event was fronted by Abby Guinness, the head of Spring Harvest, Gavin Calver, the director of mission at the Evangelical Alliance, and the author and Baptist pastor Malcolm Duncan.

Duncan, who is head of planning at Spring Harvest, preached on the theme of this year's gathering, which is 'one for all' - Christian unity – and lamented the divisions within the Church today. 'We are stronger when we stand together,' Duncan said, adding that there has been 'too much fighting, dissent, disagreement' in the Church.

He went on: 'We split over unimportant things...in ways that are so unattractive to the world.' But, he said, 'There is more that unites us than divides us...Don't let your denomination define you. If only we would learn to be one family [despite] differing views over the role of women [and] sexuality'.

Duncan then helped launch an unprecedented display of evangelical unity across the UK in an initiative called '17:21'.

The initiative, which will roll into subsequent Christian festivals until October, is named after the prayer of Jesus in John 17:21: 'May they all be one that the world might believe'.

Unveiling a 'scroll' with a statement of unity read by the audience in unison, Duncan then invited attendees, especially the disabled, to mark the scroll with their thumb-prints.

A video played to the audience showed how £300,000 raised by Spring Harvest 2016 went towards the plight of refugees. Russell Rook, the head of the Good Faith partnership which helps house refugees in the UK, thanked Spring Harvest attendees for their support, while Eddie Lyles of Open Doors described how 'Christians have been in the cross-hairs of the conflict with ISIS' in the Middle East.

Announcing the launch of 17:21 in February, Duncan said: 'The 17:21 initiative calls all of us who stand under the shadow of the Cross to link arms in the great responsibility that God has given us – presenting a living Saviour to a dying world. I have been humbled and thrilled to be part of this call to the festivals, conventions and Bible weeks in the United Kingdom to declare that we are united by far more than what divides us. May God take us beyond structural and mechanistic unity and give us the boldness and courage to stand together for Christ.

END

Builders renovating the Garden Museum, housed at the deconsecrated church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, found a hidden crypt containing 30 lead coffins.

Site manager Karl Patten said: "We discovered numerous coffins - and one of them had a gold crown on top of it".

The remains date back to the 1660s.

Mr Patten, from the building contractors Rooff, said his team were exposing the ground, lifting the flagstones in the church, when they uncovered an entry to what looked like a tomb.

They used a mobile phone camera on the end of a stick to search the void.

Among the remains are those of Richard Bancroft, the "chief overseer" of the King James Bible

The museum's director Christopher Woodward worked with builder Karl Patten, who made the discovery

Garden Museum Director Christopher Woodward said he received a call from the builders and immediately assumed something had gone wrong with the project.

"But wow, it was the crown - it's the mitre of an archbishop, glowing in the dark," he said.

The red and gold mitre was resting on top of one of the coffins - which were stacked on top of each other in a brick-lined vault.

The Sunday Telegraph's Harry Mount, the first outsider to be granted access, said: "It is a spine-tingling view".

The coffins have been left undisturbed, though builders have installed a glass panel in the chancel floor above them for visitors to catch a glimpse.

Two of the coffins had nameplates - one for Richard Bancroft (in office from 1604 to 1610) and one for John Moore (1783 to 1805) whose wife, Catherine Moore, also had a coffin plate.

Bancroft was the chief overseer of the publication of a new English translation of the Bible - the King James Bible - which began in 1604 and was published in 1611.

According to Mr Mount, St Mary-at-Lambeth's records have since revealed that a further three archbishops were probably buried in the vault: Frederick Cornwallis (in office 1768 to 1783), Matthew Hutton (1757 to 1758) and Thomas Tenison (1695 to 1715).

The church was originally built in the 11th Century during Edward the Confessor's reign.

A sixth, Thomas Secker (1758 to 1768) had his internal organs buried in a canister in the churchyard.

Also identified from coffin plates was the Dean of Arches John Bettesworth (who lived from 1677 to 1751) - the judge who sits at the ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Beyond that, Mr Woodward said: "We still don't know who else is down there".

However, further clues may lie in the history of the church.

One of the most sacred and precious sites in London, St Mary's was built in the 11th Century along London's Embankment, opposite Westminster Abbey, by St Edward the Confessor's sister.

Mr Woodward said: "This church had two lives: it was the parish church of Lambeth, this little village by the river...but it was also a kind of annex to Lambeth Palace itself.

"And over the centuries a significant number of the archbishops' families and archbishops themselves chose to worship here, and chose to be buried here."

The church was due to be demolished before becoming the Garden Museum in the 1970s

Though the church is steeped in history, Mr Woodward and his team did not expect to make such an exciting discovery.

He said: "We thought there was no crypt because it's so close to the Thames that it would have been flooded.

"The Victorians cleared hundreds, if not thousands, of coffins out [of the grounds] to make this new building - nobody told us to expect to find anything."

Wesley Kerr, chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund from 2007 to 2014, said: "This is really astonishing - this is one of the most incredible things I've seen... To know that possibly the person that commissioned the King James Bible is buried here is the most incredible discovery and greatly adds to the texture of this project."

Deconsecrated in 1972, St Mary's was due to be demolished before becoming the Garden Museum.

In October 2015, the museum closed for 18 months to undergo a £7.5m redevelopment project and is due to reopen next month.

END

It would be quite wrong to impugn the Christian sincerity of Dr Croft's desire to serve God's Church. His sermon was most edifying, biblically faithful and Christ-honouring. Lord willing, he will do a lot of good in Oxford Diocese.

But the difficulty for a Reformed Anglican church such as St Ebbe's surely comes in their Bishop's apparently intentional commitment to theological diversity within the Church of England. He went further than saying that he wished to serve the churches of the Diocese in their various traditions; he declared that he wished to respect and honour all traditions within the Diocese.

Is it his expectation that St Ebbe's should do the same within the theologically very diverse Diocese of Oxford?

St Ebbe's, in the 'What we believe' section of its website, is unequivocal in its commitment to Reformed Anglicanism. It says: 'We stand in the tradition of the Anglican Reformers of the 16th Century, affirming with them the great truths which were rediscovered at the time of the Reformation, such as the sovereignty of God in salvation, justification by faith alone, and salvation in Christ alone'.

St Ebbe's then directs readers of its website to the Church of England's 39 Articles of Religion.

A selection of quotations from these shows clearly that a church like St Ebbe's is by conviction opposed to some theological traditions that are presently active within the Church of England:

'It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another' (Article XX -- Of the authority of the Church).

Surely that is precisely the approach to the Bible adopted by Anglican revisionists who want the Church to bless active sexual relationships outside heterosexual marriage? So how is a church like St Ebbe's going to be even in 'good disagreement' with such people, let alone honour their tradition?

'The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up or worshipped' (Article XXVIII -- Of the Lord's Supper).

So, where such practices have developed in some churches, how can this tradition be honoured and respected by a church like St Ebbe's, committed as it is to the 39 Articles?

'The Offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the world, both original and actual' (Article XXX1 -- Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross). So, how can a church like St Ebbe's honour and respect Anglican expressions that deny penal substitutionary atonement?

Lord willing, Reformed Anglican churches in Oxford like St Ebbe's will enjoy a positive relationship with their new Bishop. But is not the relational dilemma facing these churches the fact that they would not want this desirable thing to come at the expense of the great body of biblical truth their Anglican Reformers died for?

Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire, UK - http://www.oughtibridgechurch.org.uk/our_prayers.html

England might be a major producer of asparagus, and the Vale of Evesham might be hosting the world famous Asparagus Festival, but where exactly does this stop? Would the Church of England permit a man dressed up as a baked bean to process behind a Heinz tin of the things, and sanctify the mummery with a facade of thanksgiving? And why only adoration of asparagus? Where's the sprout liturgy, or equality for mushrooms? Would the Dean really permit a walking fungus to participate in an act of divine worship?

And no, before you leap to defend this farce, it is not akin to the Harvest Festival: 'We plough the fields and scatter' is about rejoicing in industry and the serious stuff of life: it is never, ever turned into a Telletubby-fest with a guest appearance by Worzel Gummidge prancing behind the vicar. Surely Worcester Cathedral could have found a way of thanking God for asparagus without bringing the Church of England into disrepute. If this doesn't make 'Have I Got News For You', they'll have missed the religious frolic of the week.

Gus the Asparagusman (for it is he) has no place at all in a worshipful act of reverence: he doesn't direct our minds to heaven or toward God, but points us to Dipsy and Tinky Winky somewhere in La La Land. Sanctity should be free from all uncleanness, and that includes buffoonery, mumbo jumbo and capers (both sorts).

Honestly, if the Church of England can bless increasingly bent sticks of asparagus, it can surely offer a ceremonial rite for anything -- literally, anything. And that, of course, is exactly where we're heading.

Dorgu joins Ugandan John Sentamu, currently the archbishop of York, who is the only other black bishop. He is the second most powerful leader of the church and was consecrated as bishop of Stephney 20 years ago.

He is much involved in the life of the Church Primary School in the parish where he has been Chair of Governors and supports staff and pupils. He is married to Mosun who is a Consultant Child Psychiatrist.

The trained medical doctor was born in Africa's most populous country but was ordained in the UK. The church in a press release disclosed that Dorgu will be consecrated in the Southwark Cathedral in March 2017.

Woolwich where he is to superintend over has a huge Nigerian population but the Guardian reports that most of them worship in black-majority Pentecostal churches rather than with the Church of England.

The church described him as a person who ''has a deep concern for mission and regularly leads open-air evangelism in his parish and has seen his church grow remarkably.

''He is much involved in the life of the Church Primary School in the parish where he has been Chair of Governors and supports staff and pupils. He is married to Mosun who is a Consultant Child Psychiatrist,'' they added.

Speaking on his appointment, Dorgu said his predecessor and himself have been happy to work as part of the ''dynamic Diocese of clergy and laity working hard for the Gospel of salvation for all through Jesus Christ.

''We are greatly honoured to be invited to share and contribute to this dynamic ministry of bringing God's love to the people of Woolwich and the Diocese. I look forward to getting to know the clergy, people and churches of the Area in the coming months,'' he added.

He said that parents are using a "dubious interpretation of human right legislation" to pull students out of the classes, warning that such actions create a "dangerous" precedent.

Mr Holloway, who taught at comprehensive schools in Essex and Wiltshire before taking up his current post in the C of E's education office, said that the right to withdraw children from RE lessons risks being hijacked by those who want to "incite religious hatred".

Youngsters must learn about other religions and world views so that they know how to get along with people from different backgrounds and beliefs, Mr Holloway said.

RE lessons, along with other school subjects, can help efforts to combat extremism and foster better community relations, he added.

Writing in a blog on the Church of England's Facebook page, he said: "Sadly, and dangerously, the right of withdrawal from RE is now being exploited by a range of 'interest groups' often using a dubious interpretation of human rights legislation.

"The right of withdrawal form RE now gives comfort to those who are breaking the law and seeking to incite religious hatred".

The Church believes the right for parents to withdraw children from RE should be repealed and a national statement of a child's entitlement to RE lessons should drawn up.

Mr Holloway said that the right to withdraw students from RE lessons "perpetuates the myth" that the classes are in some way linked to collective worship, when in fact they contribute to a "broad and balanced curriculum" by teaching children about a range of faiths and beliefs.

"Through RE teacher social media forums and feedback from our RE advisers, I am aware that some parents have sought to exploit the right to withdraw children from RE lessons," Mr Holloway told the Press Association.

"This is seemingly because they do not want their children exposed to other faiths and world views, in particular Islam.

"We are concerned that this is denying those pupils the opportunity to develop the skills they need to 'live well together' as adults."

This also puts schools in an "impossible position" as they have to show Ofsted inspectors they are preparing pupils for life in modern Britain, Mr Holloway warned.

"Anecdotally, there have also been some cases in different parts of the country of parents with fundamentalist religious beliefs also taking a similar course," he said.

"This is not confined to any one particular religion or area of the country. "

The Church of England is far from alone in this view and we support the broad consensus across the sector - both from teachers and RE advisers - that the right of withdrawal from RE is being exploited by a minority and should now be reviewed."

Mr Holloway added that the Church does not want to see parents' rights to withdraw pupils from assemblies reviewed or scrapped.

He said he felt under constant pressure being a gay man working in the Church.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live's Stephen Nolan, he said: "The people of the Church of England, the worshipping congregations up and down the country are amazing people who worship and serve their local communities and do tremendous amounts of good in lots of places and for the most part they are welcoming and accepting of the LGBTI community.

"The problem is with the leadership of the Church which maintains and promotes policies and practices which are discriminatory against LGBTI people."

He added: "There's this constant pressure of being a gay man working for the Church of England, in an institution which is institutionally homophobic and has policies and attitudes towards the LGBT community which are harmful."

Father Foreshew-Cain has been a vicar for 27 years and is the vicar of St Mary with All Souls, Kilburn, and St James in West Hampstead.

He has told his congregation he plans to leave in July as his husband is now working 200 miles away.

He said after he married in 2014, he received a letter from his bishop saying he would not be allowed to work in another job within the Church.

"That's discrimination and in any other part of the world that would be illegal," he said.

A spokesperson for the diocese of London said: "Andrew Foreshew-Cain is currently a member of the clergy in the Diocese of London.

"We understand that he has plans to move to Manchester for personal reasons but the diocese has not received his resignation at this time."

END

I spent ten days doing an advanced course on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism at Yad Vashem. We had some of the world's best academics lecturing us in Hebrew, French and English. There was one lesson they were constantly trying to drill into our thick heads: Don't compare anti-Semitism to other forms of racism.

But that's just what Welby has done. He takes a priceless Faberge egg, places it on a heap of hen, duck and ostrich eggs. Then he turns to the media and proclaims: "Faberge eggs are at the root of all other eggs!" I can't think of an Archbishop of Canterbury in living memory who knows so little but talks such a lot. Welby has a whole squadron of spin doctors. Why can't he appoint one good research assistant? Why does he not check his facts before uttering his inanities?

Jews are not a race! Hasn't Welby read his Old Testament? 'Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite' (Ezekiel 16: 3). Ruth, one of Judaism's most revered women, is a Moabite! Israel's origins lie in the Exodus, and this great movement in the history of freedom is comprised of 'a mixed multitude' who 'went up with them' (Exodus 12: 38). Using sociological theories, scholars like Norman Gottwald explain how local Canaanites banded together with the Hebrews and rebelled against the 'statist' regime of Canaan in favour of a more 'egalitarian' people that would become the nation of Israel and, after the exile, the Jewish people.

I spent another ten days as a volunteer with the Israeli Defence Forces at the Kerem Shalom army base on the Israeli-Gaza-Egypt border. I've yet to find such a dazzling array of Jewish race, language, or skin colour. I was able to chat in Marathi (my wife's mother-tongue) with female Jewish soldiers whose parents had made aliyah from Mumbai! Of course, they also spoke fluent Hebrew. The officer with me in my task--building a fence on the Egyptian border--was a fun-loving, dark-skinned Ethiopian Jew--just as the Bible might describe him!

I was warned that the food at Kerem Shalom was 'basic army food' and that I should escape and seek out a good Irish pub in Tel Aviv on Shabbat! Guess what? The food was a multicultural feast gone mad--with eye-watering spices from Yemen waltzing alongside Ashkenazi Bublitchki to pacify the palate of Russian and Ukrainian Jews in the camp. What unites Jews is a common religion and common loyalty to the land of Israel--not a single race. Welby's fantasy about Jews being a race probably comes from watching Fiddler on the Roof five hundred times!

Welby's speech does grave injustice to campaigners against anti-Semitism. It damages the Faberge egg. I'm not saying other eggs are not valuable. I'm saying you can't break a Faberge egg and hen, duck and ostrich eggs and tell the world you're going to make a Faberge omelette. Anti-Semitism, European, Leftist or Islamic, is Sui generis.

'Until that (anti-Semitism) is expelled from our culture there will be a root, a tap root, for all racism, all discrimination, all cruelty, because of the nature of the human being in our culture', pontificates Welby. Please, not more left wing drivel, Your Grace! You can eliminate all racism, discrimination, cruelty from a culture, but still hate Jews. European and American leftists are stoutly against racism, discrimination and cruelty. Yet, leftism remains diabolically anti-Semitic. Islam is racially inclusive. Islam, although dominated by Arabs, is not a race-based religion but welcomes people of all races. Sadly this has not restrained Islam from its ferocious anti-Semitism--somewhat debunking the Archbishop of Canterbury's confused contention that anti-Semitism is the root of racism. In fact, the Koran say that Allah turned Jews into apes and swine! These were most likely Arab Jews who opposed Muhammad when he went to Medina. They were not Ashkenazi Jews!

Oh, and by the way, can Welby offer empirical evidence for his claim that anti-Semitism is the root of all racism? Indians can often be horribly racist. African students at Indian universities complain of appalling racism--because they are black. The matrimonial columns in Indian newspapers are full of ads soliciting brides of 'fair complexion.' But India was one of the few countries to welcome Jews when Europe was hounding them out. Israeli-Jewish soldiers who have completed national service flock to India for their gap-year and are very well treated! You can be racist and philo-Semitic or anti-racist and anti-Semitic. Or you can be both.

'It is also clear that anti-Semitism is not ethnic or racial prejudice, though it obviously shares certain features with them. Anti-Semites persecuted Jews for the same reasons Romans persecuted Christians, Nazis tortured members of the Resistance, and Soviets imprison dissidents. In each instance, the group is persecuted because its different beliefs represent a threat to the persecuting group. This hatred must be understood as being very different from a prejudice.'

Anti-Semites hate Jews because Jews are Jewish. Antisemitism is an inevitable consequence of Jewishness.

The quote above is from one of the best analyses of anti-Semitism in a book called Why the Jews: The Reason for Antisemitism by Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin (the latter is an Orthodox rabbi). Please, Justin. Do give your spin doctors a day off, grab a bottle and a pipe, curl up in your hammock and read this book before you write your next speech on anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, try cooking a yummy Anglican omelette minus the Faberge egg.

The Rev'd Dr Jules Gomes is pastor of St Augustine's Church, Douglas, on the Isle of Man.

It called on Christians to set aside "apathy and cynicism" and draw new inspiration from the ancient Christian virtues of "love, trust and hope".

It also asked believers to pray for political leaders and for those who will be elected.

But it was the use of the word "stability" which raised concern from dozens of clergy and other Christians.

In an open letter to the Archbishops, penned by Rev Al Barrett, the clergy say it's term which has become synonymous with the Conservative leader Theresa May.

"It is impossible to eescape the fact that the leader of one of the major political parties competing in this General Election has used the phrase 'strong and stable' almost as a mantra throughout the election campaign thus far.

"For your pastoral letter to focus so positively on such a politically freighted word seems to us, at best, as a case of desperate political naivety, and at worst, an implicit endorsement of one party in this election."

END

Highlighting the level of concern over the CofE's teaching on homosexuality, Bishop Martin Morrison of the conservative breakaway Anglican Church in South Africa that oversaw the consecration of Jesmond's senior minister as a bishop, accused the archbishops of an ancient Christian heresy called Arianism.

'It is quite obvious that the establishment of the Church of England is at the very least heretical,' the conference of church leaders was told. 'They are wolves, they are false teachers, they are hired hands. We get pretty much common agreement on that.'

Describing the Church's debate around transgender people as a 'tidal wave which will engulf us', Morrison went on to advocate 'different ways of opposing the establishment'.

In the February 28 lecture he went on: 'The stakes cannot be higher.'

He added: 'In my opinion the Archbishops of York and Canterbury can no longer be trusted.'

He said the best way would be to consecrate 'irregular bishops' to work in England without the permission of the official Church of England.

'We are not looking for the authority of Canterbury or York. In my opinion you don't ask the wolf if you can look after the sheep,' he said.

Pitting conservative evangelicals as on the right side of a 2,000 year old theological controversy, he said 'ordaining ministers and consecrating bishops without the permission of the local diocesan bishops' was 'a great model' to follow.

Morrison argued the CofE was guilty of the ancient heresy which teaches that Jesus was not fully God because, he said, they thought Jesus was 'wrong' when he quoted Genesis 1:27, which says God created humans as 'male and female'.

'As I understand it here in England there is just no way the system will allow you to depose of evil ministers.

'I think one of the key alternatives is therefore to consecrate valid, legal Anglican bishops. They will be irregular but both legal and valid,' he said.

'I cannot see any other way than consecrating bishops who are orthodox without the authority of the diocesan bishops or [the Archbishops of] York or Canterbury because they cannot be trusted.'

It comes after a document seen by Christian Today reveals extensive plans by conservative evangelicals to form a rival Anglican structure to the Church of England in the UK.

The proposals, born out of concerns about teachings on homosexuality, include suggestions for a new synod, new liturgy, an appointments system for new bishops, new church canons and new statements of belief.

Bishops Without Borders? Why not? Doctors Without Borders have been around for a bit, and they've been saving lives. So what's wrong with a new model of Évêques sans Frontières along the lines of Medecins Sans Frontières? Bishops need balls and brains, not borders. And the new species of bishops in the Church of England have lost both. Évêques sans couilles et sans cervelle!

So what's the problem? The bishops of the Church of England love the idea of Europe without borders and a world without borders. They detest national borders. They demonise the Donald for his Mexican border wall. They cry foul against the Israeli wall, deeming it a symbol of apartheid. They call down fire and brimstone on immigration policies that defend borders and keep out illegal immigrants.

'Roots down, walls down. We are European; we have nothing to fear or to lose if we remain so,' tweets Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool. 'Praise the #LambofGod who cannot be out-tweeted by #Trump, limited by #Brexit or alienated by globalisation. He has no borders: He is Lord,' tweets Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely. Across the pond, 60 Episcopal bishops gather at the Mexican border carrying white crosses. Joined by another 60 fellow bishops in Phoenix, they urge a US policy of open borders.

Bishops hate borders. Well, the House of Bishops ought to be tossing their mitres in the air like students at a university graduation and twirling their crosiers like the drum major at an army parade.

Why? Because, this week, a bishop without borders has been ordained as a missionary bishop to plant churches and ordain priests in the British Isles. Hip, hip, hurray! This means we will have a church without borders. Isn't that what Jesus intended? Isn't that what being church is all about?

Good heavens, no, non, nein! Bishops without borders? You can't be serious! Where will it all end? When it comes to the Church of England, bishops love borders. Controlling borders, patrolling borders and managing borders is the raison d'être of the House of Bishops.

The episcopal ordination of the Rev Jonathan Pryke, Senior Minister at Jesmond Parish Church in the Diocese of Newcastle, has just blown ecclesiastical and parochial borders to bits. It has left Justin Welby and John Sentamu, Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and Christine Hardman, Bishop of Newcastle, caught purple-faced with pants down and cassocks up. Not in the same room, of course, which might have been a tad more embarrassing.

Jonathan Pryke, who has been serving at the conservative evangelical Jesmond Parish Church since 1988, has just been consecrated as a "bishop in the Church of God" by the Presiding Bishop of the Church of England in South Africa (CESA) at a service in Newcastle upon Tyne on 2 May. It's put the CofE between a rock and a hard place. For while the Church of England recognises CESA's orders of bishop, priest and deacon, it is not in 'full communion' with it.

That honour it has given to the liberal Anglican Church of South Africa which, you've guessed it, welcomes clergy in same-sex civil partnerships, an issue that Jesmond Parish Church and Pryke takes a firm (an uncompromising) stand on. Pryke and his church have been at war with the former Bishop of Newcastle Martin Wharton and even a former Archbishop of York David Hope over the issue of homosexuality.

Pryke has never pulled his punches. He and his church have castigated the present regime of liberal bishops in the Church of England calling them 'ecclesiastically unhealthy.' He has blamed 'inept episcopal leadership' for buying into 'Liberal Protestantism's God, the "God without wrath" who "brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross."' These bishops have 'trouble saying "No!" to anything except the racism, sexism, and other isms denounced by progressives.' Jesmond Parish Church, who reject women's ordination, now have a woman bishop on their doorstep.

The entire episode piles irony upon irony. Welby has been on a 12-day jolly to the Holy Land, walking the tightrope between the Israelis and Palestinians, saying that he will send Sarah Snyder his "impressive head of reconciliation" in July to continue the 'unfinished business' of peace-making. Alighting from his plane in London, "Wobbly" Welby has just fallen off the tightrope. He can't make peace between the liberals and conservatives in his own backyard.

Archbishop John Sent-to-moo has been struck dumb like the priest Zechariah in Luke's gospel after he saw a vision in the temple. He can't say moo to the new bishop in Newcastle. Newcastle isn't his backyard; it is his front yard. Poor Sentamu can't even cut up his dog collar on national television threatening not to don it until he is rid of the new turbulent bishop because he already cut up his collar on the Andrew Marr show in 2007 saying he wouldn't replace it until Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was kicked out.

Both Welby and Sentamu have issued a pre-election manifesto calling for 'cohesion, courage and stability' in the new government. In a delicious irony, they now find their own church imploding with division, cowardice and chaos.

Sentamu must be catatonic. He's notched up more cock-ups to his credit in the last couple of years than the commanding officer leading the charge of the Light Brigade. When the bells of York Minster fell silent under the 'elf and safety' spell cast by Dean "Vicious Viv" Faull, he stepped in and put his foot right into the Doberman droppings in the bell tower.

Bishopette Christine Hardman (shouldn't it be Hardwoman or Hardperson?) is flooding her Twitter feed with superlatives, hopelessly trying to sweep the rebellion under her magic carpet. While conservative Anglican bishops from the Church of England in South Africa were laying their hands on Pryke, Hardman was tooting her tuba and announcing a 'great service' at Newcastle Cathedral with '4 fantastic new canons.' If you take a look at photographs of the service, you will see a geriatric gathering of around fewer than 50 worshippers.

This compounds the crisis of the new bishop without a border. He's got the most thriving congregation in Newcastle. It is bursting with children and young people and international students. It's got pots and pots of dosh and doesn't have to go to the Heritage Lottery Fund begging for a large tip (Newcastle Cathedral has just been given a handout, which is currently near the top of Bishop Hardwoman's Twitter feed). The vicar, David Holloway, was born in 1939, the year World War 2 began, and so Ms Hardman can't sack him for fomenting the rebellion since he has a freehold which he hasn't given up like many other clergy, poor suckers!

And if she files a Clergy Discipline Measure against Pryke on grounds of 'conduct that is unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of the clergy,' he can flip his Bible and point her to Paul's first letter to Timothy, 'If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.' She can expect a nuclear fallout if she sues him under the obsolete Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 since Pryke's vicar, the Holloway, has threatened 'reciprocal heresy trials' if legal action is taken against his curate.

A Church of England spokesman has released a typically anodyne statement stating its legal position. 'No overseas bishop may exercise episcopal functions within the Church of England without the express permission of the Archbishop of the province and a commission from the Bishop of the diocese in which they wish to minister.' Hmm... bishops who don't respect borders are worse than child molesters or serial killers!

But the Church of England already has flying bishops, crawling bishops and amphibious bishops. So what's wrong with Celtic missionary bishops? Moreover, under Welby, the Church of England has spawned a plethora of neologisms like messy church, radical new inclusion, mixed economy, mutual flourishing and good disagreement. Welby's buzz-phrases have come back to bite him on the episcopal rump. He's now got a really 'messy church,' and he needs to practise 'radically including' the new conservative bishop in a 'mixed economy' to ensure 'mutual flourishing' by observing 'good disagreement!'

In the 500th year of the Reformation, for which Welby and Sentamu offered hand-wringing apologies, Anglicanism in the British Isles is on the cusp of a new reformation, as former Queen's Chaplain Dr Gavin Ashenden points out. Bishop Pryke is spearheading a rebellion and a reformation and will soon be joined by a flotilla of rebel bishops armed with balls, brains and most importantly, the Bible!

Meanwhile, what Susan Howatch's character quips in her novel Absolute Truths might well be repeated by the new 'bishops without borders' about the current Church of England bishops: 'My predecessor as bishop, I regret to say, had reputedly died of inertia.'

The action was taken without the knowledge of the diocese of Newcastle or its Bishop. In a statement, a Church of England spokesman said that the Bishop, the Rt Revd Christine Hardman, was now aware of the consecration and had informed the Archbishop of York.

"No overseas bishop may exercise episcopal functions within the Church of England without the express permission of the Archbishop of the province and a commission from the Bishop of the diocese in which they wish to minister," the spokesman also said. "In this case neither has been sought.

"It is the clearly established law of the land that no one can exercise ministry in the Church of England without either holding office or having the permission of the diocesan bishop."

The service consecrating Bishop Pryke did not take place at Jesmond Parish Church or any other Church of England place of worship, the church's initial statement said. Bishop Pryke took an oath of obedience not to the REACH-SA bishops who consecrated him, but to "bishops and other chief ministers" with whom he works in the UK.

He will continue as a senior minister on the church's staff, spending 80 per cent of his time with Jesmond, while also ordaining men for the ministry and helping to establish new conservative Evangelical churches under the auspices of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE).

Mr Holloway responded to the diocesan statement on Tuesday afternoon with the comment that it was "quite wrong", owing to the diocese's failure, in his view, to study the Overseas and Other Clergy (Ministry and Ordination) Measure 1967 properly.

He also stated that the Clergy Discipline Measure did not apply, since "matters involving doctrine, ritual or ceremonial" were not covered by it, and the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 had been declared by a C of E working party not to command "the necessary confidence of the Church".

If it were to be used, he said, it would "be utter folly and invite a range of reciprocal heresy trials".

Nevertheless, it is likely that lawyers for the Church of England will be looking closely at Section 8 of the Clergy Discipline Measure, to see whether being episcopally ordained by a Church with whom the C of E is not in communion, or whether any exercise of those functions, constitutes "conduct unbecoming or inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders".

The news of the consecration appears to have surprised GAFCON UK and AMiE -- who agreed last week to appoint their own missionary bishop for conservative Evangelical parishes in Britain (News, 5 May) -- even though the new bishop is a member of AMiE's executive committee.

In a statement put out on Monday, AMiE said: "We can confirm that the consecration of the Revd Jonathan Pryke was a gospel decision taken independently of AMiE. His consecration was never discussed at our Executive meetings.

"Jonathan is a valued member of the AMiE Exec and we are thankful to God for his abundant gifts and wisdom. We will be praying for him in this new season of his ministry.

"The AMiE Executive Committee recently requested that the GAFCON Primates support the consecration of a Missionary Bishop. We were overjoyed when they agreed to do this for the sake of gospel growth."

GAFCON UK's own statement said that Jesmond Parish Church and REACH-SA had been working together in England for some time.

"GAFCON UK are aware that Jesmond Parish Church have for some years been in a form of impaired communion with the Bishop of Newcastle, and have developed a special relationship with REACH-SA.

"Over the past few years, several clergy have been ordained by REACH Bishops to serve in the Jesmond church network and in one other part of England.

"Gafcon UK have been informed of the latest developments but cannot comment further at this stage."

But Jesmond Parish Church insisted the consecration of Bishop Pryke only took place after discussion with the secretary of GAFCON and at least one other English GAFCON bishop.

REACH-SA, formerly known as the Church of England in South Africa, split from the Anglican Church of the Province of Southern Africa soon after its founding, in opposition to the Anglo-Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town.

Bishop Pryke, as well as continuing to work under Mr Holloway, will also be responsible pastorally to an un-named REACH-SA bishop.

This bishop "does not want to see bishops 'parachuted in' to form a new 'orthodox Church' or 'province'," the statement said. "He sees the role of REACH-SA simply as helping English people have the courage to take responsibility for reforming the Church of England to be in line with Canon A5, to evangelize and to see growth."

In 2008, Jesmond Parish Church was listed as in impaired communion or seeking alternative episcopal oversight, by the Revd Rod Thomas, the then chairman of the conservative Evangelical network Reform, who is now the Bishop of Maidstone (News, 5 May 2015).

Bishop Thomas said that he was awaiting clarification of what exactly had happened in Jesmond, but also praised the church's "great record of effective gospel ministry, not least because of the clarity of their biblical teaching".

"They also have a long record of being in impaired communion with successive Bishops of Newcastle over their views on same-sex relationships -- an issue which has the potential to cause great disunity throughout the Church of England," Bishop Thomas also said.

The "impaired communion" was in fact first declared by the church in 1997 just before the Rt Revd Martin Wharton became Bishop of Newcastle, because of disagreements over homosexuality. Jesmond Parish Church was also accused of breaking canon law in 1998 when it appointed an unlicensed assistant priest to its staff.

The GAFCON UK statement also links Bishop Pryke's consecration to a document formulated at a conference held by conservative Evangelicals in Jesmond earlier this year.

Convened after the General Synod had declined to take note of the report on sexuality by the House of Bishops, the conference's statement quotes Bishop Pryke describing the report as a "a fudge that effectively advocated an official policy of institutional hypocrisy by proposing maintaining the biblical doctrine of marriage in public, but giving even greater affirmation to same sex relationships in private".

The conference resolutions called for all "sexual immorality" by clergy to be met with appropriate church discipline, and suggested all ordinands be made to sign up to a 1987 General Synod resolution which took a hard line on sexual ethics.

In addition to the C of E's own "confusions" on sexuality, Europe was decried as being on a "suicide mission" thanks to low fertility rates; and the rate of growth of Islam around the world was noted as being higher than that of Christianity.

Another resolution from the Jesmond conference argued that there needed to be a revival of "Celtic evangelism", based not on the parish system but recalling the way Christianity was introduced to the British Isles by missionary bishops operating out of minsters.

This model was already being rolled out by Holy Trinity, Brompton, the document suggested.

*****

The full statement from Jesmond Parish Church

On St Athanasius' Day, 2 May 2017, Jonathan Pryke, the senior minister, under its vicar, of Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, was consecrated a "bishop in the Church of God". This was by the Presiding Bishop of REACH SA (the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa), formerly known as CESA (the Church of England in South Africa) and whose orders of bishop, priest/presbyter and deacon are recognized by the Church of England. But like the new ACNA (the Anglican Church in North America) whose orders are also recognized, it is not in communion with the Church of England. Officially the Church of England is in Communion with the heterodox ACSA (the Anglican Church of South Africa), and with the heterodox TEC (The Episcopal Church [of America]). But, in practice, many orthodox English and Global Anglicans are in communion with both REACH SA and ACNA.

The service took place neither in a Church of England "place of worship" nor an unconsecrated place of worship designated under s.43 of the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011. It did not take place in Jesmond Parish Church. The ceremony was according to the REACH SA consecration Holy Communion service with only REACH SA bishops taking part. The declaration, however, was to the Church of England's Canon A5 which says:

"The doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the Holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the 39 Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer and the Ordinal."

The oath was of "all due reverence and obedience" not to the Presiding Bishop of REACH SA but to "bishops and other chief ministers" under whom Jonathan is set. So he has a dispersed responsibility and duty: in things temporal to the Bishop of Newcastle, with whom, sadly, in things spiritual, Jesmond Parish Church along with other churches in the diocese are in impaired communion; in terms of Jesmond Parish Church, to the vicar of Jesmond and where there is united agreement, to the Jesmond PCC; and, pastorally, to one of the participating REACH SA bishops. This bishop particularly understands the English situation and does not want to see bishops "parachuted in" to form a new "orthodox church" or "province". He sees the role of REACH SA simply as helping English people have the courage to take responsibility for reforming the Church of England to be in line with Canon A5, to evangelize and to see growth. This consecration took place after considerable discussion and encouragement from leaders in the Church of England, and with the Presiding Bishop of REACH SA convinced it right to proceed after discussion with the Secretary of GAFCON.

END

We have for example, been presented with decades of egalitarian gender theory. Slowly but surely, the mystical gender theology of St Paul has been downgraded, ignored and now disowned, even by evangelical Christians, who used to self-define by their admiration of the principle of the authority of Scripture.

'Equality' is a rough and uncompromising political too masquerading as a theological proposition. In the form we use it in our culture, It is not found in Scripture. It ought to come as no surprise that if we use this secular, political idea as a lens through which we refract revelation, we will end up with a distortion of the Gospel, Christian anthropology and the Church itself.

The 'equality of genders' was always going to lead on to 'equal' or homosexual marriage. And so, the whole weight of Scriptural narrative which was intended to foster and forge purity in everything from social to sexual relations is being sidelined by the C of E as it adopts this new culture as normal.

Once the office was opened to them on political rather than theological grounds, it should have been obvious that the first generation of women bishops would bring with them as their politico-theological baggage, a passionate belief in the virtues of homosexual relations and marriage. After all, if this political idea of equality has served to get them to where they wanted to be, then it must be honoured and practiced in its other manifestations.

Feminism led inevitably to gay marriage. And gay marriage leads immediately on the exploration and celebration of the 'Trans Experiment' . In stark opposition to "male and female He made them" the trans community reject the anthropology that Genesis and Jesus bear witness to. The mental distress and confusion of the of the trans community becomes an emblem of secular experiment and gender incoherence that the equality advocates committed to progressive values, within and beyond the episcopate, support and promote. This tragic and tiny group of people whose mental maps had become unstuck from their biology, represent the pain and sadness of the greater journey leading beyond the scope of the purposes of God for us.

In a way, the Trans experience stands for what has happened to the Church of England. A politicised self-referential existentialism that cannot handle the difference between conflicted and imaginative self-reference, and a deeper external reality whose authority is rooted in what God has given us not only in our biology, but through revelation.

So what should the faithful do when the episcopate propagates the political and the progressive at the expense of orthodox, apostolic Christianity?

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

The Church of England is an episcopal Church. Episcopacy is not just one form of Church structure or Government over another. It has claims to be rooted in faithfulness to the patterns the Apostles laid down, and the teaching the Apostles bequeathed.

It was until a very short time ago, male, heterosexual and faithful. Feminism and equality have changed it to promote and include female, homosexual and faithless.

This is more than a shift of culture. It is the surrendering of Scripture and the diminishment of the authority of the Holy Spirit to the claims of the Zeitgeist, and a wholly different spirit; an opposing spirit in fact.

This is not then a structural deficit only. It is an abandonment, and an apostasy.

In his article, Dr Gatiss is underwhelmed by the witness of those who fled in large numbers to the sanctuary of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches in one direction, and the House Churches in the other.

He is a little dismissive of the numbers he finds in Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion and the small but faithful Free Church of England. But if he were to consider that there are now more Orthodox believers at the Eucharist in England than there are Anglicans; and that there are twice as many Catholics as mass than Anglicans; and that the House Churches having grown to contain about a third of the number of worshipers the C of E has, the picture develops a fresh significance. Large numbers of Anglicans have fled into these Churches in protest against the flight from faithfulness of the C of E. But what do we offer those who stay?

IN IT TO WIN?

Slogans may rally the troops momentarily, but they can't afford to be to disconnected with reality. In the struggle for influence in the Church of England, Anglo-Catholics have been given temporary sanctuary in the "Society', and conservative evangelicals have been restricted to one and only one suffragan, the bishop of Maidstone. It is widely known and Dr Gatiss acknowledges it himself, that an ordinand or curate holding views that were honoured and normal in every generation up until 30 years ago, have become the new 'untouchables' in Anglican ministry.

THE EPISCOPAL SOLUTION

For those who can't, shouldn't, or won't leave the Church of England, what can they be offered? The fellowship and support that the Church Society and other organisations in the 'structure' of the C of E will be of some encouragement.

But heterodox bishops in an episcopal Church are of no more use to the faithful Christian than corrupt police officers are to citizens suffering from civil disorder. They are both a contradiction in terms.

What is needed for both clergy and laity is an alternative source of episcopal oversight offered by bishops who represent, hold and minister authentic Christianity.

Since this kind of bishop has been largely excluded from the genetic modification of the Church of England's episcopate, such oversight will need to come from people who are Anglican, but outside the C of E.

Obvious sources are beginning to emerge. The Free Church England, which ought to be admired for its devotion to Scripture rather than be decried because it is not mega-church is one obvious source. Instead of being judged by its numbers, perhaps it can be appreciated as a prophetic gift from God, discreetly waiting as a foundation to be built on by a freshly reformed Anglicanism? Cooperative ministries will be found in the bishop-to-be who presides over AMiE, and the new Bishop from Jesmond, the Rt Rev'd Jonathan Pryke.

Leaving aside whether we know enough about Celtic Christianity to claim it as an inspiration for a new way of doing episcopacy, we certainly need a 'fresh expression' of episcopal oversight, comprising of a Council or College of missionary bishops.

What is called for is a new reformation that expresses itself no so much in an ecclesial version of civil disobedience, but a creative semi-detachment from the C of E.

When Dr Gatiss offers us advice from J.C. Ryle, "Then let us stand firm and fight on", he may recollect that although Ryles' personal ministry was and remains an inspiration, his strategy for influencing the Church of England ended in sorry misjudged failure. He watched his own son sell out to establishment liberalism. We owe our spiritual and personal children better judgement and better prospects than Ryle was able to provide his. His advice was no more helpful then than it is today. More radical measures are called for.

Jesmond has set the new pattern with its consecration of its missionary bishop, the Rt Rev'd Jonathan Pryke.

It's most unlikely that the Provincial authorities will stand by while he ministers and flourishes in two worlds -- one as a senior curate and the other in a missionary bishop. Jesmond is well prepared for a war of attrition that the C of E is likely to launch against them. It has acquired with a newly re-furbished Catholic Church and now has its own bishop, to ordain and confirm, and consecrate others.

What is needed now in England is a new Christian Scaffolding -- an association of different orthodox ministries cooperating to form the Anglican Church IN England -- ACiE. It would draw together bishops across the range of Anglican orthodoxy from Jesmond and AMiE at one end, embracing the Free Church of England at the centre, and gathering together other churches to include the Traditional Anglican Church in England and the Anglican Catholic Church in England. Slowly there will emerge other orthodox Anglican bishops. They may spring from parishes of a similar size and outlook to Jesmond.

This will follow the same pattern as the evolved in American with ACNA standing in rebuke and contrast to the secularised and sub Christian TEC.

This is about much more than Dr Gatiss envisaged. It is not an either or for faithful Anglicans. It is the shift of allegiance, identity and resources, including money, from the Church of England to the Anglican Church in England.

The Church of England has become exactly that. A church whose values and theology have been defined by a secular and destructively progressive culture. The Anglican Church in England will keep the faith, honour Scripture, and transform the culture it is set in rather than be seduced and distorted by it. Something more than singing hymns in a sinking ship is called for.

The faithful in Jesmond may yet prove an inspiration to the Church Society as they live and act out the priorities the Church Society was created to enshrine.

END

"I strongly support equal marriage, and I know that these debates will continue, but it will have to be for the church as a whole to decide if it wants to make a change to its canon law."

Under canon law, the Church of England can exercise self-determination when it comes to the issue of whether or not it performs gay marriages.

Mr May added: "We were very clear when we introduced the equal marriage legislation that it was not about forcing the Church of England to conduct marriage ceremonies, but removing a legal injustice."

In the PinkNews interview, Theresa May also refused to commit the UK to remaining in the European Convention on Human Rights but insisted that LGBT rights would be protected "regardless of any changes to the legal framework".

The Church Commissioners, the group that oversees the fund, described the returns as "stellar." The overall value of the fund rose by nearly £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to £7.9 billion ($10.3 billion).

Here's how it beat the market. More than a third of the endowment is invested in stocks, while another 30% is in real estate. The church keeps 10% of its portfolio in cash and similarly liquid assets.

The banner year was fueled by strong returns from emerging markets, smaller U.S. companies, private equity, timberland and forestry.

Endowments are often used by churches, universities and other nonprofit organizations to generate income to support their work.

Last year's performance by the Church of England fund has left much bigger endowments -- including those belonging to Ivy League institutions such as Harvard University and Yale University -- in the shade.

Harvard's $36 billion endowment posted a 2% loss in the fiscal year ending June 2016. The Harvard Management Company, which invests in more than 13,000 funds on behalf of the university, pinned the blame on market volatility, low interest rates and poor execution.

The story was similar at Yale, which grew its $25 billion endowment by only 3.4% in 2016.

8% a year for a decade

Over a longer period, the gap between the three institutions is narrower. The Church of England endowment produced annual returns of 8.3% over the past decade, while Harvard posted 5.7% and Yale earned 8.1%.

All three are constrained by ethical investing guidelines. The Church of England, for example, does not invest in weaponry, pornography, tobacco, gambling, high interest rate lending, embryonic cloning, coal extraction or oil sands extraction. It also limits investments in alcohol.

The fund paid out a total of £230 million ($300 million) in 2016 to help fund church activities, pension payments for clergy and other operating expenses.

So would a weaker performance be a major problem for the church?

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the church's most senior vicar, last year published a book on the dangers of an unbridled pursuit of money.

"It seems that in many eyes, and often in mine, personal finances that are in good shape, or a national or global economy doing well, are not merely a means to improve people's lives, but are seen as the goal in pursuit of a good life," the former oil executive wrote. "That approach is incompatible with serving Christ."

The payments brought charges of hypocrisy from City critics who say the CofE has opened a gap between what it tells other people to do and what it does itself.

The annual report of the CofE's financial wing, the Church Commissioners, showed that bonuses, which were first paid to managers in 2013, topped the £1 million level for the first time in 2016.

The Church of England handed more than £1million in bonuses to fund managers last year despite Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, pictured, criticising banks for their 'excessive pay' to employees

The biggest bonus went to investment chief Tom Joy, who was given a 'long term incentive payment' of £202,000 on top of his salary of £259,000, taking his full earnings for the year to £461,000.

Mr Joy's bonuses from 2013 to 2016 have now totalled £661,000.

Last year's bonuses came to £1,048,000 for all 10 managers who received them, in a year in which the Commissioners earned a market-beating 17.1 per cent on the CofE's historic investments.

The success took the value of the Church's holdings to almost £8 billion, and allowed the Commissioners to pump more than £230 million into the Church to pay its costs and clergy stipends.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, said: 'In a year which saw considerable political turbulence, the Church Commissioners continued to provide effective stewardship of investments matched by ethical and responsible investment.'

However the Archbishop's praise contrasted with his condemnation of the bonus culture in 2013, when he was a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which was investigating City practices.

Then Archbishop Welby told HSBC executives that their bonus payments were unnecessary.

'I am increasingly baffled at the discussion we are having,' the Archbishop said. 'What is it essentially about bankers that means they need skin in the game? We don't give skin in the game to civil servants, to surgeons, to teachers.

'There's a whole range of people who don't have that. It seems to me that you are putting huge effort into a values-based organisation and yet at the end of the day, particularly for your most senior staff who are most important as regards setting values and culture, you seem to be saying the only way you can motivate them to any significant extent is with cash.'

Archbishop Welby and the number two in the CofE hierarchy, Archbishop of York the Most Reverend John Sentamu, repeated their warning about selfishness in the finance system earlier this month in their letter of advice to parishes on the general election.

'Our economic and financial systems at home and abroad should aim to be engines of innovation, not simply traders for their own account,' the Archbishops said.

Yesterday's report said that last year the Commissioners voted more than 100 times in shareholder meetings of companies in which it invests to reject pay structures recommended by their directors.

Advice from the Church to private companies says that if they operate long term incentive payment schemes, bonuses should reward work over five or seven-year timescales 'and should normally be paid in shares held for the long term in order to reward permanent value creation.'

Bonuses for Commissioners' staff are paid in cash.

A CofE spokesman said yesterday that the incentive payments made by the Commissioners cover work done over five-year periods.

However Mr Joy's first bonus was paid in 2013, less than five years after he joined the Commissioners in October 2009.

Anglican churchgoer Ruth Lea, economist for the Arbuthnot Banking Group, said: 'The Church needs to rethink the consistency of its messages.

'There seems to be some inconsistency here which some people might see as hypocrisy.

'At the very least there should be consistency between what they say and what they do. People expect the Church to say what it means and mean what it says.'

The payment of bonuses follows earlier differences between the Commissioners and the Archbishop of Canterbury over payday lending.

The Commissioners maintained an investment in payday lender Wonga long after the Archbishop had criticised it.

At the other end of the income scale, in 2015 the Church was forced to admit paying workers in its care homes less than the living wage which its Archbishops had been urging other employers to pay.

END