Conservative-run Anglican parishes want a divorce from the Church of England over gay members, gay marriage and gay clergy. They’re preparing for what could be the beginning of a formal split from the church established nearly 500-years ago. These evangelicals are considering the creation of a new “shadow synod,” that would uphold traditional teaching.
The plan could come together in a more formal way later this week, when representatives of almost a dozen congregations gather in a church hall in Kent, for what The Telegraph reported would be the first session of a potential alternative Anglican church in England.
A “church within a church,” is how conservative leaders are positioning it in the news media. The Rev Dr Peter Sanlon, Vicar of St Mark’s Church in Tunbridge Wells is hosting this week’s gathering.
“If senior leaders of the Church of England water down the teaching of the Church of England on key issues like homosexuality, then this synod could easily evolve into a new Anglican jurisdiction in England.
“The Archbishop of Canterbury has signalled that he is aware of the possibility that a significant proportion of the church will not accept a change in the church’s teaching.
“This could be the beginning of that playing out.”
The new movement does not yet have a name, but its focus is clearly and specifically against the full inclusion of LGBT Christians by the Church of England. Those differences over sexuality are blamed for the schism within the 80 million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion.
These founders have not ruled out making the split permanent and forming their own church if the Church of England starts to offer blessing-style services for same-sex couples. That is expected to be considered by bishops before the end of the year..
The churches in the U.S. and Canada split from the Anglican Church in Great Britain after their ordination of openly gay bishops.
Glynn County Sheriff’s Office booking photo of Ken Adkins
Ken Adkins was arrested Friday morning and charged with one count of aggravated child molestation and one count of child molestation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported.
Adkins, 56, who is pastor of the Greater Dimensions Christian Fellowship, turned himself in at 9 a.m. at the Glynn County jail.
A GBI agent told News4Jax that several incidents of molestation were alleged to have occurred at the church, in a vehicle and at the victim’s residence. The Brunswick Judicial Circuit asked the Brunswick police to assist in the investigation, which began Aug. 12 and is ongoing.
Adkins’ attorney, Kevin Gough, said the charges are over an alleged incident that happened six years ago and felt that the investigation and charges were rushed.
“He will ultimately be cleared of any wrongdoing,” Adkin’s wife and co-pastor, Charlotte Adkins, said. “I share my husband’s concern for the alleged victim,” who she said was a young man who was part of the church’s teen ministry.
Gough said he was filing motions for bail, a preliminary hearing, to demand a speedy trial and to see the evidence.
“Mr. Adkins and I have conferred and he is innocent and he looks forward to being cleared of the charges against him,” Gough said. “He looks forward to his day in court.”
Ken Adkins has spoken publicly on Jacksonville political issues, including the city’s proposed human rights ordinance, transgender bathrooms and the city’s crime rate.
According to criminal records, Adkins was arrested in 2003 for obtaining property in return for a worthless check, petty theft in 2002, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury in 2001 and multiple grand theft and fraud charges.
This article will be updated throughout the day as more information becomes available.
Survivors of child sexual abuse have accused the Church of England of “acting like Pontius Pilate” as a previously unseen document revealed that bishops were explicitly instructed only to give partial apologies – if at all – to victims to avoid being sued.
Legal advice marked “strictly confidential” and circulated among the most senior bishops, told them to “express regret” only using wording approved by lawyers, PR advisers and insurers.
The guidance – written in 2007 and finally replaced just last year – also warns bishops to be wary of meeting victims face to face and only ever to do so after legal advice.
It speaks of the “unintended effect of accepting legal liability” for sexual abuse within their diocese and warns them to avoid “inadvertently” conceding guilt.
The paper, seen by The Telegraph and confirmed as genuine, advises bishops to use “careful drafting” to “effectively apologise” without enabling victims to get compensation.
Joe tried to contact the Archbishop of Canterbury
Survivors said it showed there was a culture of denial, dishonesty and “blanking” victims in ways which had heightened their pain and ultimately failed to tackle the roots of the abuse crisis.
It highlighted how the teenager – known as “Joe” – revealed his ordeal to a string of leading clerics, three of them later ordained as bishops, who then claimed not to remember anything.
The report singled out the way in which the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, the Church’s then head of safeguarding, cut all contact with Joe, following advice from insurers, after he began legal action. The review condemned this as “reckless”.
Meanwhile Lambeth Palace brushed off around 17 requests for a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, without any “meaningful” reply, it shows.
Joe said the newly revealed document “made total sense” in light of his own experience.
“This finally exposes the culture that has been followed,” he said
“The approach to survivors is often a corporate model and this document supports that – it shows a church led by lawyers and insurers, you get the impression that these people are really their masters.
“A diocese is deferential to their bishop and the bishop is deferential to a bunch of lawyers.
“The Church will say ‘our hands are tied’ but they are paying the people who are tying their hands.
“They should say we need to stop this nonsense but they wash their hands like Pontius Pilate.
“Every part of this nexus [the bishops, the lawyers and insurers owners] washes its hands of every other part of it but the nexus is joined at the hip.”
The advice, by the Church’s top legal advisor, Stephen Slack, explains how bishops could find themselves being sued over the actions – or inaction – of their predecessors.
While accepting that they might “understandably want to express their regret”, it adds: “Because of the possibility that statements of regret might have the unintended effect of accepting legal liability for the abuse it is important that they are approved in advance by lawyers, as well as by diocesan communications officers (and, if relevant, insurers).
“With careful drafting it should be possible to express them in terms which effectively apologise for what has happened whilst at the same time avoiding any concession of legal liability for it.”
On the possibility of bishops meeting victims, it adds: “This may be the right course in some circumstances but great care will be needed to ensure that nothing is said which inadvertently concedes legal liability.”
One of Britain’s leading child abuse lawyers, David Greenwood of Switalskis, who represented Joe, said: “With Church organisations you expect a higher standard than just a legalistic approach.
“This is a naïve document, it is legalistic and doesn’t take into account the needs of survivors of child sexual abuse.
“I think this is more naivety than nastiness – but the effect definitely can be nasty.”
Richard Scorer, another leading lawyer representing more than 50 victims in the ongoing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, said: “This confirms what we have long suspected which is that when they would offer apologies they were deliberately constructed in a way to avoid any meaningful responsibility.
“I’m sure they will be embarrassed at the language here but it reflects a reality that we have come across time and again with the churches that they will take an apologetic tone but that is combined with an unwillingness to admit responsibility.”
New guidelines produced by the Church of England in June last year effectively repudiate the earlier advice, insisting that the “pastoral response” to victims should be the top priority and must be separated from legal and insurance responses.
But it goes on to add that apologies should be discussed with insurers, communications officer and ecclesiastical lawyers.
Bishop Sarah Mullally met with Joe and apologised for the Church’s handling of the case
A Church of England spokesman said: “The Church of England published new guidance in 2015 emphasising that: ‘The pastoral response to alleged victims and survivors is of top priority, and needs to be separated as far as possible from the management processes for the situation, and from legal and insurance responses.’
“That superseded all previous advice and ensures that the pastoral needs of survivors must never be neglected and pastoral contact can continue whatever legal issues exist.”
He added: “Bishop Sarah Mullally is working closely with the National Safeguarding Team to implement the recommendations of the Elliott Review which have been fully endorsed by the House of Bishops.
“When Bishop Sarah received the review on behalf of the Church of England, as requested by the survivor, she offered an unreserved apology for the failings of the Church towards the survivor.
“Following the publication Bishop Sarah met with him and two members of MACSAS [Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors].
“This was an opportunity to apologise in person for the failings of the Church towards him and the horrific abuse he suffered.”
The province is scheduled to vote on gay clergy and blessing civil unions.
Archbishop of the Anglican Church Thabo Makgoba (right) with former South African presidents Kgalema Motlanthe and Thabo Mbeki in 2013.
When the global Anglican Communion censored the Episcopal Church in the United States for redefining marriage eight months ago, it warned that similar actions would be applied to other provinces “when any unilateral decisions on matters of doctrine and polity are taken that threaten our unity.”
Next month, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) may toe up against that line.
The ACSA—which includes South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Angola—won’t allow clergy to marry same-sex couples like the Episcopal Church did, but it announced this week that when its provincial synod meets next month, the province will consider blessing same-sex civil unions and allowing clergy in legal same-sex civil unions.
“The motion … proposes that any bishop of the church who wishes to do so may make provision for her or his clergy to provide pastoral care to those who identify as LGBTI,” stated Thabo Makgoba, archbishop of Cape Town and primate of Southern Africa.
More controversially, the motion also proposes that clergy who identify as LGBTI and are in legal same-sex civil unions should be licensed to minister in our parishes. It also suggests that “prayers of blessing” should be able to be offered for those in same-sex civil unions. However, it specifically rules out the possibility of marriage under church law.
The proposal comes with a caveat. “Any cleric unwilling to take part in providing pastoral care to people who identify as LGBTI shall not be obliged to do so,” Makgoba stated.
The Episcopal Church’s 2015 decision on same-sex marriage resulted in the church being barred from Anglican committees and other decision-making for three years.
South Africa legalized same-sex marriage early—in 2006, the second country outside of Europe to do so. It’s the only African country so far to allow it.
Anglicans have remained behind. In 2004, Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a sermon that “to discriminate against our sisters and brothers who are lesbian or gay on grounds of their sexual orientation for me is as totally unacceptable and unjust as apartheid ever was.”
Severalclergy have come out as gay to their congregations.
And when Tutu’s daughter, Mpho Tutu van Furth, lost her license as an Anglican priest this summer after she married her same-sex partner in late 2015, her bishop toldThe Telegraph he hoped it would be short-lived.
“When I married my wife prejudice slammed a door of opportunity in my face,” she wrote in an email to News24. “With this proposal we are ‘rattling the hinges.’”
But the ACSA covers more than South Africa, and Anglicans in neighboring countries are outspokenly opposed to same-sex marriage. Several African church leaders threatened to leave January’s Anglican Communion meeting if Canadian and American provinces weren’t disciplined for their acceptance of same-sex marriage. (The Canadians weren’t disciplined, since they had not yet officially accepted same-sex marriage. This summer, after a voting count scandal, they did.)
One African primate, Stanley Ntagali of Uganda, did walk out, signaling his unhappiness with the length of time it was taking to sanction the American church. Other African bishops were vocal in their support for its suspension.
In other global denominations, African contingents have also resisted same-sex marriage. The United Methodist Church’s decision to skip a vote on whether to allow gay marriage during this summer’s annual convention was strongly influenced by conservative African delegates.
The ACSA motion is bolder than one agreed upon back in February, which aimed to preserve church unity. In it, bishops agreed to accept same-sex congregants as full members but not bless same-sex unions or permit clergy to enter them.
The bishops then “were not of one mind” regarding blessing unions or allowing same-sex clergy, Makgoba wrote in an open letter to the church.
But Makgoba said he was “absolutely determined” that the church in southern Africa “should build on our history of refusing to allow our differences to separate us, and that we should continue to work patiently through them together. We overcame deep differences over the imposition of sanctions against apartheid and over the ordination of women, and we can do the same over human sexuality.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called for a “new way of being in communion” as he works to balance the tension between African conservatives and the liberal-leaning church in Europe and America.
The Rev. Karen Oliveto, right, is the first openly gay bishop in the United Methodist Church.
The Western district of the United Methodist Church elected its first openly gay bishop Friday night, bucking the denomination’s ban on same-sex relationships.
Eliel Cruz-Lopez, executive director of Faith in America, told LGBTQ Nation that Oliveto’s election is “historic” and has implications beyond the United Methodist Church:
The United Methodist Church is the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Last night, they became the largest Protestant denomination with an openly gay Bishop. In electing Rev. Karen Oliveto, the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church performed civil disobedience against the world church. This is historic. It’s also an act of spiritual protest against a homophobic policy that denies openly LGBT clergy from ministry. This election shows the UMC is changing and that the Holy Spirit is moving the church towards justice.
The election of Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, CA breaks through anti-LGBTQ law in The UMC and carries queer people to the highest levels of church leadership. Officially barred from so many churches and positions of spiritual leadership, queer persons may now see themselves as leaders of the body of Christ in the largest mainline protestant denomination in the United States.
Officially, the church explicitly forbids gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from being church leaders. It’s laws say:
The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.
A 40 year movement to end codified discrimination against LGBTQ persons is reaching a tipping point that hardly any rational-minded observer can deny. Since LGBTQ people have long been denied access to public spaces, homes, and churches, today’s news represents the breaking down of a long-standing barrier that has prevented queer people access to the fullness of Christian vocation on the grounds that they are “incompatible with Christian teaching.” It seems that unjust policy is finally subject to the winds of the Spirit.
Due to the church’s clear policies, it’s likely Oliveto’s election could face challenge or reprimand.
