International

(Staff)  WHEN the Church of England passed a motion in early February to allow prayers of blessing for same-sex couples, it sent shock waves around the globe and set in motion calls from other Primates that the Archbishop of Canterbury no longer be recognized as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion and that the Communion itself be reconfigured or “reset.”

(RNS) – NEARLY 400 Orthodox Christian theologians from 44 countries convened in the largest international conference of its kind in Volos, Greece on Jan. 12 to discuss huge questions facing the Eastern Orthodox Church amid war and bitter division.

THE INVESTMENT body for the Church of England has disclosed evidence of slave trading in its history, and has pledged £100 million (almost $164 million CAD) to a program of “impact investment, research and engagement.”

(Staff)  CHURCH OF ENGLAND bishops have refused to back a change in teaching to allow priests to marry same-sex couples.

They met on Jan. 17 to finalise their recommendations after five years of consultation. Their proposal will be debated with clergy and laity at the Church’s General Synod in February. 

A NIGERIAN-BORN BISHOP who spent almost a decade as an Anglican priest in Canada before becoming a bishop in the United States has reversed his decision of three years ago and changed his diocese’s affiliation from the Church of Nigeria to the Anglican Church in North America.

(Staff) PRIMATES belonging to the Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) have condemned the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby for “refusing to prevent” the Oct. 11 appointment of the Very Rev’d David Monteith as Dean of Canterbury Cathedral. Lambeth Palace has responded by saying that the statement is inaccurate.

“SHE is past-mistress of nothingness… a conveniently empty vessel into which Helen Mirren can imagine any amount of knowingness and intelligence.” So Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee once described the Queen. If only we “put an end…